To see these articles with clickable links, go to:
http://needtoknownews.cherylsealreports.com THIS WEEK’S COMMENTARIES:
EXXONMOBIL-FUNDED GLOBAL WARMING DEBUNKERS INFILTRATING PEER-REVIEWED SCIENCE JOURNALS
My once ample respect for “Geophysical Research Letters”, a weekly journal filled with the latest research articles from the physical sciences (climate, geology, space, etc.) has plummeted! Once the bastion of truly hard-core scientific papers by folks from the world’s leading universities and science facilities, like the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), GRL’s editors have gone to the dark side. Not only did they accept a “paper” by one of the worst of the corporate-funded climate skeptics – Patrick J. Michaels – but the journal also failed to note anywhere (as required by a growing number of science journals) that the “researcher” a conflict of interest (ie., was presenting findings that promoted a point of view from which the researcher is likely to benefit financially). Worse yet, guess who Michael’s “co-author” is? Paul C. Knappenberger of the “New Hope Environmental Services,” which is presided over by Michaels. This is a company, which calls itself a “science consulting” and “advocacy” group, but receives its support from ExxonMobil and Western Fuel association, “laundered” through the corporate front sites “Greening Earth Society” and “World Climate Report,” which Michaels also edits. Here’s a fact sheet on Michaels – and trust me, it’s just the tip of Michael’s corporate iceberg: What’s next? Climate change “research articles” direct from the ExxonMobil PR department? READ THE REST:
http://cherylsealreports.com/corporatescience.html OBSCENITY BEYOND WORDS:
FATE OF EARTH LEFT IN HANDS OF "BUSH'S COURT"
This is totally, utterly obscene: The fate of Earth, upon which all of us must live and breathe, is, in essence, being left up to a handful of Bush's most dedicated henchmen - the five rightwing judges on the Supreme Court who are so deep in Bush's pocket you can't tell them from the lint.
The stark, stomach-turning reality is that Bush has used his presidency to turn the US government into a corporate dictatorship. A rabidly anti-environmental dictatorship. And it has been a calculated and methodical process from the start. ….READ THE REST
http://cherylsealreports.com/bushcourtearthsfate.html THIS WEEK’S NEWS OF NOTE
June 28
VETERANS, COMPUTER EXPERTS SAY "RETURNED LAPTOP" STORY FISHY AT BEST
Salem-News.com: "A fishy story at best according to many veterans, government sources say the employee who facilitated the alleged thefts by taking the millions of documents home, did not lose his job over it....The stolen laptop computer that held personal data on more than 26.5 million veterans and active-duty, National Guard and reserve members has been found, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson announced Thursday.
"The computer was recovered Wednesday, and is now undergoing three to five weeks of forensic tests by the FBI to determine whether information has been copied or compromised in any way. Nicholson, speaking at the opening of a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing, confirmed that the hard drive had been recovered.
"Nicholson said law enforcement officials told him there was reason to be optimistic that the data had not been compromised This is a positive note in this very sad saga he said.Computer experts scoff at the claims, questioning why anyone would bother stealing sensitive documents and not copy them onto another computer.
"Veterans should not take comfort in the relocation of the laptop, as the theft of the documents is only the lastest lapse of security that has happened under the watch of the Bush administration. There is a second case of veterans records disappearing, all around the time of the revelation that the federal government has been tapping the phones of private citizens.No further details were immediately available.
"The laptop was stolen in early May in what appears to have been a routine burglary from a Department of Veterans Affairs employee who had taken the computer home to work on the databases it contained
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PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY RAILROADING PRETEENS INTO HPV VACCINE
Here we go again! Yet another "miracle" vaccine that ya just gotta get...even if your age and behavior doesn't suggest it is necessary...even if the long term effects aren't yet know...even if the effect on children has only been vaguely study...even if the approval for use on kids as young as 9 is being given by the Bush FDA, which is even as we speak being condemned as the most useless and corrupt FDA in US history. What a killing for Merck - just when they really need a killing, facing the loss of billions of dollars due to their last "absolutely safe" drug, Vioxx (which by the way, they now fear may screw up your heart permanently even after a short term of use). (MORE)
So let's sit back and see just how gullible US moms really are.
AP (A.MERICAN P.ROPAGANDA) HELPS OIL BARONS PLAY THE BOGUS SYMPATHY CARD TO FORCE OVERTURN OF BAN ON NEAR-SHORE DRILLING
Listen to this sales pitch! Straight out of an oil-gas industry infomercial and straight into the newspapers, care of AP.:" Oil and gas drilling could resume in most coastal waters after a 25-year freeze under a bill that would generate (b) billions of dollars for four Gulf states that already welcome offshore rigs.
"The House measure also would benefit energy companies that operate miles from the U.S. shore by easing environmental rules for coal and hardrock mining and production of geothermal energy. In addition, the bill would direct nearly six (b) billion dollars over ten years for a range of programs such as rural schools, engineering scholarships, job training and research into renewable energy sources."
And if you believe this I've got some Enron stock you might be interested in, too!!
June 27
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? BUSH PARADES AMPUTEE VETERAN FOR PHOTO OP
This entire "episode" was so obviously staged and scripted that only the truly brain dead could have failed to see it!! Here's the LA Times version - with my annotations in brackets: "One year and 14 surgeries after Army Staff Sgt. Christian Bagge lost both legs during a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq. He is out of a wheelchair and back on his feet - and jogging at the White House. [Yep, he just happened to be jogging around the White House when who do ya think he just happened to run into? ]
'He ran the president into the ground,' President Bush told reporters Tuesday afternoon as the two men took a break from a turn around the nearly quarter-mile track on the South Lawn. ["See, losing both your legs for oil ain't so bad! All You amputees out there, you'll be up and jogging at the White House in no time!!"] They first met in January at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas....[during one of Bush's photo ops at a real live hospital! ] Bagge was bedridden. [As soon as the Bush PR people found out Bagge was a registered Republican whose folks knew George H and Barbara, they lined him right up for special treatment - like good therapy and good artificial limbs.] 'He said, 'I want to run with you,' ' Bush said [ reading from cue cards help up by Karen Hughes just off camera....] 'I looked at him, like, you know, there's an optimistic person. But I could tell in his eyes that he meant it. 'It's an amazing sight for me to be running with a guy who, last time I saw him I was wondering whether or not he'd ever get out of bed,' the president said. 'There was no doubt in his mind that he would.' [Especially since he got what most of our disabled soldiers aren't getting back home: the best possible treatment. But then, when it comes to Bush photo ops, many are called but few are chosen.] MORE
On a serious note - the reaction I have heard from veterans on this truly tasteless photo op moment can be thusly summed up: "Sickening!"
MEXICO'S FOX DROPS BEHIND LEFT-WING CHRISTIAN CANDIDATE
Expect to hear the rightwing Christian hypocrites in the US condemn Andrés Manuel López Obrador as "a dangerous fanatic" as his bid for Mexico's presidency heats up. Obrador is now the frontrunner in the race. Obrador made this comment to "NY Times' " Enrique Krauzxe: "The life and work of Jesus fill me with passion. He, too, was persecuted in his time, spied on by the powerful of his era, and he was crucified." Krauze observes that many (the righwing Christians, naturally!) :"thought his comment was a cynical appeal to win the hearts of the religious Mexican people. Others, including myself, believe, however, that his words were a sincere reflection of the way he sees himself." The reason the rightwingers are suspicious is because they themselves cynically use Jesus to gain political brownie points - while adhereing to NONE of Jesus's teachings, such as compassion for the poor, the aged, children, and the sick. MORE
RUSSIA WARNS THAT AFGHANISTAN IS TEETERING ON BRINK OF BECOMING A "DRUG STATE"
So is this what "freedom" looks like? An occupied police state superimposed over a drug lord domain?
Radio Free Europe: "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today that Afghanistan is still on the verge of turning into a drug state.Speaking at an international conference in Moscow on combating Afghan drug smuggling, Lavrov called for more funds to be provided to the UN's drug and crime agency. He said Moscow is considering raising its financial contribution. Russia is one of the main destinations and a major transit route for drugs smuggled out of Afghanistan."
BUSH'S BANK SPYING PROGRAM HAD NO EXCUSE FOR BEING- EXCEPT MAYBE TO STEAL FINANCIAL INFO
The need for Bush's bank transaction spying program gets more and more dubious as the facts come out and are laid out for consideration. Here are the four key points:
1. Terrorists and would-be terrorists knew from 9/11 on that their financial trails would be monitored.
2. FBI info indicates that most terrorists do not use conventional financial networks such as those Bush is spying on- and did not use them even before 9/11. Instead, they sent cash via private "mom and pop" banking operations. Although many have been shut down, others inevitably pop up.
3. Claiming that the millions of transactions monitored were "all Al Qaeda transactions" (as the clueless media has asserted many times this past week) is just plain laughable. First, there are not that many Al Qaeda operatives in the entire world, let alone enough to generate millions of transactions. Second, if they actually HAD traced Al Qaeda transactions conducted on the level suggested, then why didn't we hear about major "Al Qaeda cell" busts? And finally,
4. The CIA and FBI have found that most Al Qaeda operatives do NOT use electronic systems (except of course camcorders to make the latest "Bin Laden video!). They use couriers and other "under the radar" maneuvers. I think it's more likely large amounts of cash would be smuggled into the US through our woefully underprotected ports than over the electronic transom.
So, given all these facts, why was there a need to monitor banking transactions on this scale? The answer is, there WAS no valid reason. As we found out last month, the Bush administration's various agencies are less-than-competent and vulnerable to theft - as in the case of the stolen records of 26.5 million vets and active military. There is also a bigger employee turnover in the Bush government than in any previous one, which adds to the potential risk. So the DANGERS to innocent US citizens and others whose information happens to get caught in the "trawl net" is much more real than the threat of Al Qaeda operatives actually shuffling signficant amounts of money from place to place over a system they very rarely, if ever, use.
In any case, when someone protests as hysterically as Bush and his cronies and henchpeople have done over the exposure of the bank spying scheme, it should raise a great big red flag that reads: WHAT ARE THEY REALLY HIDING?
BUSH SUPPORTERS REVEALED AS ANTI-AMERICAN TERRORISTS
What is the difference beween Al Qaeda wannabes and Bush's hardcore supporters? Very little. Both have declared "war" on US citizens and have made murderous threats against US citizens. Both promote the suppression of a free and open society. In short, there IS no difference: They are all, by definition, terrorists.
The Raw Story presents a chilling portrait of just what sort of people Bush's hard core supporters are. "Posters at the right-wing Free Republic message board today were roused into a fury of indignation by a news story about the New York Times' revelations of the administration's illegal programs of warrantless surveillance.....The thread quickly took on the quality of a lynch mob, with posters attempting to outdo one another in their level of imaginary violence:
"I can only hope I get to see the video of Sulzberger's beheading! :)"
"If the government won't act, perhaps some private citizens will."
"Tar, feathers? You are the very definition of the term 'restraint'. I was thinking more along the lines of the Muslim solution."
"String em up, right next to Murtha's sad carcass."
"They need to hang for this, but it's not PC for me to type this in RESPONSE to their treason."
The inevitable climax of this rhetoric of hatred was a post declaring the Times to be THE ENEMY, followed by additional responses in which they were described as fair game for private vengeance:
"The Slimes [sic] and its puppets in the MSM ARE THE ENEMY. They simply hate America as it is. They want a socialist-homosexual utopia. Thus, they are simply aiding and abetting their faithful followers abroad and here. They are giving intel to their friends of gee-had. They are the enemy. Problem is, many Americans simply do not know or care."
"Any retired snipers out there?"
"They are, without a doubt our enemy. We need to treat them as such."
It is truly frightening what the rightwing hatemongers have done to this country. This Nazi-ish attitude has been promoted - carefully cultivated, in fact, by sites like Free Republic and by MEDIA-SUPPORTED hysterical psychopaths like Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Michael Savage and the rest. These people are making direct physical threats against US citizens. But who does the Bush administration go after? Who do they spy on and monitor and harass? Progressive student groups, Quakers, environmentalists, etc. who make no threats against anyone.... or the DOJ arrests a "gang" who has made threats that are in the exact same vein as those on FreeRepublic: Both declared war on US citizens, both threatened violence. Yet FreeRepublic is, instead, rewarded with donations by Bush’s supporters. Coulter, et al, are rewarded with continuing fat media contracts and five times the promotion and air time as non-terrorist progressives.
What stuns me is the total lack of loyalty that newspeople have to each other. When the first independent journalists began to be killed in Iraq in 2003, none of the mainstreamers spoke out. When outspoken, GOOD journalists began to lose their jobs, none of their colleagues protested publicly. When people like Coulter and Malkin make threats against US citizens, does the media draw the line - do editors and news managers drop them? Nope - they continue to promote them.
Now again, as the New York Times staff is under attack, threatened by bodily harm, do mainstream editors and reporters speak out? Nope. Instead, they roll over, show their bellies to the "big boss" (namely Dubya & Co) and report the story just the way the White House wants it to be reported.
BELGIUM DISTURBED BY BUSH'S TRAWLING OF FINANCIAL RECORDS, CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION
Retuers: "Belgium's government said on Monday it was investigating the legality of counter-terrorism searches by U.S. officials of thousands of private records held by Brussels-based international bank cooperative SWIFT....Belgian Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx learned of the searches from the media and asked Belgium's national security services and counter-fraud office to produce reports into the matter before the end of the week."She wants to know if these actions taken by the U.S. and SWIFT are okay under Belgian law," Annaik De Voghel said, adding security officials would discuss the issue later this week.....
"This could be another case of citizens' privacy being invaded. We are already familiar with the illegal role of the CIA in so-called rendition flights," said Jan Marinus Wiersma, vice-president of the parliament's Socialist group.
"It appears that President (George W.) Bush has crossed the red line, abusing his executive powers as president," said Jean-Marie Cavada, a Liberal member of the parliament who is chairman of the civil liberties committee." MORE
CHINA FOLLOWS BUSH'S MODEL: FINES MEDIA FOR REPORTING BAD NEWS
Daily News and Analysis reports: "A draft law on emergency management, now being considered by China’s top legislative body, seeks to impose hefty fines on the media in China if they break news reports on mining disasters, health crises and natural catastrophes without “authorisation”. The move is being seen as an attempt to rein in the “watchdog press”, which has in recent years exposed health crises (like HIV/AIDS, SARS and bird flu) and called mining companies to account with their coverage of recurring mining disasters, despite attempts by provincial-level officials to keep bad news out of the newspapers. "
So China is following Bush's lead! The White House and Pentagon have done the same thing for years now - although instead of imposing fines, they just threaten to withdrawn government preferential treatment of big media or organize an all-out PR assault on an "offending" newspaper or network...
which brings us to:
WHITE HOUSE LAUNCHES ALL-OUT ATTACK ON NY TIMES FOR DARING TO TELL THE TRUTH
When anyone in the Bush cartel, which until recently included not just the White House and its corporate pals, but most of the media, steps out of line, they can expect to be punished severely. So in the past week, an all-out, very organized assault on the New York Times has been launched by the White House and its assorted attack dogs, including everyone from rabid sickos Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin to news editors at NBC, FOX and other news sources. Malkin mounted an attack featuring crude - pathological, in fact - anti-Times posters - an effort that reminds me of work by the vicious and primitive-brained National Alliance (a particularly nasty NeoNazi outfit). Other rightwing hysterios screamed "treason" or called for "investigations." NBC and other networks were of course not so sub-human in its effort - it simply presented a very one-sided account of the "New York Times" exposure of the financial transaction spying story on June 26 - referring repeatedly to the spying as being only on "Al Qaeda transactions," which is not only slanted - it's completely false.
But the outrageousness of the outcry is, I think very telling. It means that the Bush cartel realizes that there is a hole in its formerly exclusive and secure wall of secrecy and that it is in danger of exposure. The response also suggests that what the NY Times exposed is just the tip of a very ugly iceberg.
PUTIN REFUSES TO SUPPORT DEAD-END ULTIMATUM TO IRAN DESIGNED TO UNDERMINE UN
AFP: "Russia will not join any ultimatums over the problem of nuclear proliferation, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday in a thinly veiled reference to US-led pressure on Iran. "We do not intend to join any sort of ultimatum, which only pushes the situation into a dead end, striking a blow against the authority of the UN Security Council," Putin told Russian diplomats in Moscow in the presence of journalists."I am convinced that dialogue and not isolation of one or another state is what leads to resolution of crises...In the sphere of non-proliferation we consider it effective to work on the political-diplomatic level and to search for compromises on the basis of international law."
It is gratifying to see that at least ONE world leader sees through Bush!
BUSH COURT GAGS STATES RIGHT TO FIGHT POLITICAL CORRUPTION, RULES THAT MONEY TALKS
"A bold experiment in Vermont that sought to address the often thorny connection between money and politics has come to an end. On Monday, the US Supreme Court as unconstitutional the most controversial aspects of Vermont's campaign-finance law - including restrictions on the amount of money candidates for public office may spend in their campaigns.The court said the restrictions amounted to a form of government censorship of political candidates in violation of the free-speech protections of the First Amendment."
This is sooooooooo typical of the corrupt Bush court. It in essence is a ruling that says money talks and that the "free speech" of money is protected. It is very similar to earlier rulings that state that a corporation has the same "rights" as an individual - more in fact. MORE
FLORIDA DEMS LEAD BIPARTISAN FIGHT AGAINST COAST DRILLING BILL
AP: " A House vote is expected this week on the bill that would end a 25-year ban on drilling off much of the nation's coastline and could bring rigs as close as 50 miles from Florida's beaches." Incredibly enough, this Big Oil-pandering bill cleared the House Resources Committee 29-9 with bipartisan support. Let's get the names of these 29 creeps and put 'em on "The List" (the list of dead wood and porkers who need to be booted to the curb the next time they're up for election).
"Some of the pro-oil boys may well try to bring the House bill directly to the floor of the Senate," [Bill] Nelson [D-FLA] said in a telephone interview. "If that's the case, then we'll have to filibuster the bill."Nelson, D-Fla., Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla, all seven of Florida's House Democrats and at least four of the state's 18 House Republicans have voiced opposition to the measure that Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, negotiated with House Resources Chairman [one of the worst big-oil butt-kissers in America] Richard Pombo, R-Calif. It is expected to draw support from several other Florida Republicans." MORE
PENTAGON ADMITS SPYING ON MANY STUDENT GROUPS, INTERCEPTING EMAILS
I just have one question: WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE STILL IN OFFICE??????
Page One reports: "In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Department of Defense has released documents that show wider surveillance of student organizations than previously reported, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has reported.
"On April 11th PageOneQ reported that the Pentagon had admitted to conducting surveillance of groups protesting the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy for gays and lesbians in the armed forces. "
But now the plot thickens...."The documents released today indicate that e-mails sent by various student groups were intercepted and monitored by the government and that the government collected reports from seemingly undercover agents who attended at least one student protest at Southern Connecticut State University. None of the reports in the documentation, however, indicated any terrorist activity by the students who were monitored." MORE
BLOGGERS: THE WORLD'S COURAGEOUS NEW FREEDOM FIGHTERS UNDER INCREASING ATTACK
WorldPress.org that blogs " have risen in prominence as well as in numbers, with some leading blogs challenging the established order of the mainstream press. Indeed, at times the mainstream media has been put in the unusual position of reacting to news that bloggers generate.....Today, bloggers and citizen journalists increasingly shape the global media agenda." In places like China and Iran, bloggers may provide the only voices speaking truth to power. But even closer to home, the role of blogs has been powerful. For example, WorldPress.org observes, "During the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Baghdad Blogger provided global audiences with a glimpse of what life was like for ordinary Iraqis stuck between an invading army and a brutal dictator. The Asian tsunami of 2004 was a global news story told largely with home video footage."
Alas, speaking truth to power inevitably brings a backlash. "Censorship of the Web is growing and is now done on every continent. Traditional 'predators of press freedom' — Belarus, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Libya, the Maldives, Nepal, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam — all censor the Internet now. In 2003, only China, Vietnam and the Maldives had imprisoned cyber-dissidents. Now more countries do..."
While places like Iran and Egypt do it by throwing people in jail, the US government is seeking to do it by allowing the corporate takeover of the Net by financially squeezing out the very bloggers who have the greatest integrity and courage - those who are NOT doing it for money. MORE
June 25
WALL STREET JOURNAL USES FRAUD SCIENTIST ON THE TAKE FROM EXXONMOBIL AND WESTERN FUEL TO REVIEW AL GORE'S MOVIE
Consider facts A and B:
A. Globally, there are now over 2,000 expert climate researchers who can, among them, claim thousands of pages of recent peer-reviewed published studies who could be called upon to make extremely well-educated statements on climate change.
B. There are about six climate change skeptics, who, among them, have almost no recent peer-reviewed published studies to their credit. In fact, only half actually have appropriate degrees and credits to their name. However, all of them are well paid by ExxonMobile, Western Fuel Association, Cato Institute, or the Heritage Foundation to shill as "climate skeptics."
So, guess who the major newspapers have been quoting as their "experts of choice” on climate change for years now? Yup: The corporate! And "Wall Street Journal," that bunch of phonies posing as "class act journalists and editors" is no different. So who does WSJ chose to comment on Al Gore's film on climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth,"? Richard Lindzen, a corporate-front science fraud. (MORE)
Here's a paragraph on Lindzen from ExxonSecrets Fact Sheet:
"Ross Gelbspan reported in 1995 that Lindzen "charges oil and coal interests $2,500 a day for his consulting services; his 1991 trip to testify before a Senate committee was paid for by Western Fuels, and a speech he wrote, entitled 'Global Warming: the Origin and Nature of Alleged Scientific Consensus,' was underwritten by OPEC." ("The Heat is On: The warming of the world's climate sparks a blaze of denial," Harper's magazine, December 1995.) "
Again: "30 September, 2002: Lindzen was the main speaker for a congressional media briefing, sponsored by the Cooler Heads Coalition, entitled "On The Meaning of Global Warming Claims". He argued that scientists who claim that global warming is a problem are exploiting the public's lack of scientific knowledge. " Cooler Heads Coalition, which is allied to the rightwing Competitive Enterprise Institute, receives a good percentage of its funding from ExxonMobil.
BUSH ADMINISTRATION TURNING STOLEN VA INFO CASE INTO PORK BARREL FOR CREDIT CONTRACTORS
This is the most ridiculous, bass-ackward approach to "fixing" the problem of the stolen VA records that the White House could possibly have concocted. But it does what it was intended to do: Make millions for a few off the misery of the many. So the Bush gov. is spending nearly a quarter of a million dollars a day just to do a half-assed followup on the theft - offering limited credit monitoring through credit contractors who will make a huge killing off the deal, and sending out letters telling about the "monitoring" program.
The obvious response to the crisis should have been the immediate issuance of new social security numbers (a special series, which would be sequential and easily done with the right computer program) to the 26.5 million affected vets. The switch could have been done entirely on computer, with a follow up letter of where to pick up the new cards (your local soc. sec. office). This would also have made it easier to catch any identity thieves. The canceled original soc. sec. numbers could be flagged (again, a computer program handling it all) and thus would ONLY show up anywhere if they were being used by thieves.
So now those working on behalf of veterans and soldiers must actually spend even MORE money to try to force the Bush Admin. to NOT screw the info loss victims. MORE
CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT: PRINCE CHARLES REBELS, STANDS UP FOR BRITISH TROOPS IN IRAQ
Kudos and hugs for Bonny Prince Charley! Prince Charles is, fortunately, shaping up to be nothing at all like his claustrophobically conservative and, I fear, over-the-royal-hill mom. The UK Independent reports: "The Prince of Wales will be asked to support demands for British troops to leave Iraq when he meets the parents of soldiers killed in the Gulf war in private this week. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have invited several of the most prominent critics of Tony Blair's policy on Iraq to Highgrove this Thursday, including Reg Keys, who stood against the Prime Minister in his Sedgefield constituency at last year's general election.
"Palace officials insist his meeting is non-political and based on his honorary position as a senior commander of the armed forces, but Mr Keys and other campaigning relatives, including Rose Gentle, believe he is privately sympathetic to their complaints.
"The event takes place the day after more than a dozen prominent celebrities, including the actor Simon Callow, the designer Vivienne Westwood and director Ken Loach, host a fund-raising event for the Iraq "refusenik" Fl-Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith in London." MORE
BUSH USING MISSILE SCARE AS PRETEXT TO DEPLOY US WEAPONS TO JAPAN
Well, now we know why Bush sent his old baseball team co-owner/drinkin' buddy Thomas Schieffer off to Japan as ambassador in April 2005. He's the salesman on site, ready to lie and manipulate at the drop of a phony cowboy hat for Dubya. So now, after two weeks of hyping the No. Korean "imminent missile launch" scare (including the dissemination of false information, like the TD-2 missile's range), the other White House shoe finally hits the floor. Bush's scheme all along has been to start deploying some US "big guns" like the Patriot missile to Japan, so the US can then (whaddya wanna bet?) expand its "war on terror" into yet more poor nations harboring lots of gas, oil, copper and other goodies. Indonesia and Malaysia come to mind. To sell the "need" for missiles on Japanese soil, the White House concocted the whole "imminent threat" from a Td-2 missile scam.
Here's a bit from Schieffer's biography: "In 1989, Ambassador Schieffer was an investor in the partnership led by George W. Bush and Edward W. (Rusty) Rose that bought the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. He was designated as Partner-in-Charge of Ballpark Development in 1990. In January 1991, he was named President of the Club reporting directly to general partners Bush and Rose. He was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the club as well as the building of The Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. When Bush was elected Governor of Texas in 1994, Ambassador Schieffer assumed Bush's duties as General Partner. "
MORE
June 24
BUSH AXES FUNDS FOR MOST IMPORTANT CHILD HEALTH STUDY IN US HISTORY
In his truly evil 2007 budget, Bush not only withdrew all funding for the landmark National Children’s Study, he even ordered the National Institutes of Health to stop spending any money on it. Why? The most benign explanation, according to some administration observers, is because children’s health is just not of interest to Bush, based on his funding track record. The more evil explanation and thus probably the correct one, is that the NCS would have brought out vital truths about children’s health that would have been harmful to many corporate interests. Peggy Shepard of West Harlem Environmental Action isn’t surprised and says the axing of NCS is just one more proof of Bush’s determination to protect and enhance corporate profits at the expense of all else (as reported in Environmental Science & Technology May 1 Issue).
The NCS – which was approved by US Congress in 2000 – would have represented possibly the most important study of children’s health ever conducted. The NCS was monitoring the health of 100,000 children from before birth to age 21 in order to determine how environmental factors such as pesticides, flame retardants and other modern compounds now ubiquitous in the environment are contributing to the downturn in child health. The study was initiated in response to an alarming and highly disturbing trend: Asthma, diabetes, autism, allergies and obesity are now at epidemic proportions among US children. In fact, pediatric researchers now say the current generation of children is the first in American history to be less healthy than its parents at the same ages. The NCS study, a type known as a long-term epidemiological study, was designed to get to the bottom of this health crisis in the making and help identify ways to turn it around.
A study involving a sample as large as 100,000 over a prolonged period is required to obtain the most conclusive data possible covering the widest range of conditions. A similar long-term study of tens of thousands of nurses in the UK has yielded invaluable information on a wide variety of health issues. The information that the NCS could yield could not only save thousands of children’s lives, it could insure that the quality of life for future generations is improved.
But, to preserve the big fat bank accounts of a few corporate execs whose products might be found to be contributors to childhood asthma or diabetes, Bush pulled the plug on the NCS – and on millions of American children now and in the future.
Btw – don’t expect to hear about the NCS or its axing by Bush in the mainstream media – afterall, some of their biggest sponsors may be the same corporations that are helping make our children the “least healthy generation.”
Here’s a 2004 story on the launch of the NCS and statements from doctors involved.
In short, Bush is not just stupid, incompetent, greedy, or self-serving. This man is DOWNRIGHT EVIL.