Democracy
Isn't Liberty
Amid raptures of self-congratulation, the Bush administration
and its supporters take credit for the birth of democracy
in Iraq -- ignorant of the fact that democracy and liberty
aren't synonyms. - The New American
|
Some
Barred From Bush's North Dakota Speech
Not everyone was welcome, apparently, at President Bush's
speech in North Dakota yesterday. - Washington Post (Registration
Req.)
|
Al-Queda
Planning to Use Underground Secret Tunnels From Mexico
to America?
According to some published media reports, Mexican federal
agents have found a tunnel in Tijuana, less than a mile
from the nearest official border crossing, through which
undocumented foreigners and illegal narcotics could enter
the San Isidro area near San Diego in southern California,
officials said. The tunnel is an underground concrete
drainage pipe, 80 feet long and five feet across.
|
Government
Keeping More Secrets Iin Name of National Security
Federal agencies are using secrecy rules developed after
the 9/11 attacks to hide embarrassing or controversial
reports and data that the federal government once routinely
made public. - Scripps Howard News Service
|
Borderline
Insanity – Part I
What do screwball libertarians, the laughable left, the
editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and the Bush
administration have in common? They are all wacky on the
topic of immigration – legal and illegal. They dance
on the thin line between reality and delusion. - NewsMax
|
Borderline
Insanity – Part II: People Tsunami
Former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm put the immigration
issue, past and present, in context:
"Of course, immigration ‘has been good for
America,' but we are no longer an empty continent –
we are a crowded country of 290 million people, with
problems of sprawl, pollution, and disappearing open
space. When the Statue of Liberty was erected in 1886,
there were less than 65 million Americans... - NewsMax
|
Chinese
Vice President Meets Leaders of Caribbean Countries
China hopes to further tighten friendship and cooperation
via the China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation
Forum with the Caribbean countries, said Vice President
Zeng Qinghong Wednesday in Kingston. - China Daily
|
N.C.
restaurant smoking ban introduced in House
Rep. Hugh Holliman survived lung cancer. His sister did
not. But he isn't focusing on his family history to push
the General Assembly toward a smoking ban in all restaurants.
- Associated Press
|
Snipers
target border agents
Snipers working as "lookouts" for drug traffickers
and illegal-alien smugglers are targeting U.S. Border
Patrol agents from vantage points across the U.S.-Mexico
border. - Washington Times
|
On
the 'sin' of sending kids to public school
The man who helped push the issue of public education
onto the national agenda of the Southern Baptist Convention
has written a new book that blows the lid off government
schools, showing parents the kind of worldview and values
their children are influenced by 180 days a year - WorldNetDaily.com
|
Judge
rules against Christians who preached to homosexuals
In another blow to the "Philly 5" – the
Philadelphia Christians facing possible 47 year jail terms
for evangelizing at a homosexual event – a federal
judge has refused a request to stop the local prosecution
of the group. - WorldNetDaily.com
|
MSN
to Support Electronic ID Card Technology
Microsoft Corp.'s Belgian subsidiary has launched an electronic
ID card pilot program and is looking to integrate authentication
for e-ID cards into future versions of the MSN Messenger
instant messaging service. - eweek.com
|
Matthews:
White House Staged Slain Marine Mom's Hug
MSNBC's "Hardball" host Chris Matthews suggested
last night that the high point of President Bush's State
of the Union Address - the emotional hug between grateful
Iraqi voter Safia Taleb al-Suhail and Janet Norwood, mother
of a Marine who died liberating her country - was staged
by the White House. - NewsMax
|
Man
Battles State Over Working Sons
A Washington state family is about to lose their home
after the Department of Labor and Industries hit the father
with thousands of dollars in fines for having his underage
sons work alongside him in the family business –
doing things the state believes are dangerous for young
boys. - WorldNetDaily.com
|
Russia
Listed Among Nations Not Free for First Time Since 1991
Russia has restricted rights to such an extent that, for
the first time since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union,
it has joined the countries that are not free, Freedom
House said Monday, marking Moscow's march away from the
Western democracies it has embraced as diplomatic partners.
- Arizona Daily Star
|
NATO
Searching for Missing Afghan Jet
Afghan and NATO forces launched a ground
and air search operation Friday for an Afghan passenger
jet carrying 104 people that disappeared from radar
screens during a snowstorm near the mountain-ringed
capital. Three Americans were thought to have been on
board.
|
15,000
Troops to Withdraw from Iraq; Back To Pre-Election Levels
New phase in war won't bring troop
withdrawal, Pentagon says.
|
China
Denies Offering Loan to Russian Oil Firm
China's foreign ministry has denied
reports that Chinese banks loaned six billion dollars
to a Russian bank to buy the main oil production unit
of the Yukos energy company.
|
Israel
to pull out troops from 5 West Bank cities
Top Israeli ministers approved on Thursday
a pullback from five West Bank cities and the release
of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The gestures were
approved just five days before Tuesday's key summit
between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian
leader Mahmud Abbas in what is set to be the most high-profile
meeting between the two sides in more than four years
Dawn PK
|
War
crime complaint may stop Rumsfeld attending security conference
The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld
says one of the reasons he's decided not to attend a
security conference in Munich is because of a war crimes
complaint against him filed in a German court -ABC News
AU
|
Japan
confirms its first case of human mad cow disease
The Japan's Health Ministry has said
confirmed the country's first case of the human variant
of mad cow disease, Kyodo News reports. The ministry
said in a statement that a Japanese man had died after
contracting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD),a
fatal brain disease -Channel News Asia SG
|
People,
Housing, and Land - Time To Take a Drive
We’ve all asked ourselves these questions
when passing million dollar homes on 5 to 10 acre lots
in the country: “Where do people get the money to build
these kind of houses? What do they do for their livings
to earn this kind of money?” -Nancy Levant/Sierra Times
|
UN
oil-for-food chief took Saddam bribes
The United Nations suffered grave damage
to its international reputation yesterday after it emerged
that the official who headed the oil-for-food programme
for Iraq sought and obtained bribes from Saddam Hussein's
regime -Guardian UK
|
Ridge's
Likely Successor Welcomed
Rather than grill the nominee to see
whether he was up to the job, most senators used Chertoff's
confirmation hearing to say they were glad he was willing
to give up his tenured post as a federal appeals judge
to try to manage an unwieldy department that melded
22 agencies and 180,000 employees -LA Times
|
Twenty-Five
Faithful Conservatives
Time Magazine recently published a
in which they named the twenty-five most influential
evangelicals in America. The list included those people
whom the magazine determined to be the most influential
Christian conservatives within the Bush administration.However,
I would like to offer my own list... -Chuck Baldwin/Gulf
1
|
Gonzales
Wins Confirmation as U.S. Attorney General
White House counsel Alberto Gonzales
won U.S. Senate confirmation on Thursday as the nation's
next attorney general with the second highest number
of "no" votes ever for a successful nominee for the
post
|
Bush's
Social Security Plan Akin to a Loan
Participants would forfeit part of
accounts' profits.
|
Government
Keeping More Secrets In Name Of National Security
Environmental groups, scientific organizations
and animal-rights advocates are complaining about increasing
difficulties in obtaining information on what government
inspectors are finding about worker safety at nuclear
power plants, toxic releases at chemical plants, or
tests on live animals in scientific laboratories.
|
US
Invokes Secrets Privilege in Torture Lawsuit
The Justice Department has again asserted
"state-secrets privilege" in seeking to dismiss a lawsuit
by Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was
detained in the US in 2002 and sent against his will
to Syria, where he says he was tortured until his release
a year later.
|
