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Cats or Crack?...
 Confessions of a former cat person who now finds that cats, like certain other substances, are something she thinks it's a good idea to steer clear of. – “The notion of living with my favorite female human is very attractive. Nice place, out in the country, peaceful and quiet, and of course, good company. Except for the cats. Would it be possible, I wonder, to coexist with them? It’s definitely worth looking into… Even in the unlikely event that Lynne would exile her cats to the great outdoors, making her house livable would mean getting rid of all the carpets and furniture. And the temporary removal of everything else, to make way for extreme cleaning of every surface. Somehow, I don’t think that’s in the cards. But I’m not ready to give up. Is there any possible way the cats and I could occupy the same segment of time-space continuum?”...
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The Torture Drawings the Pentagon Doesn’t Want You to See...
Sami al-Haj is a journalist, but one unlike any other. For over six years since December 15, 2001 -- when he was seized by Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border while on assignment as a cameraman for the Qatar-based broadcaster al-Jazeera -- he has been in a disturbing but unique position: a trained journalist held as an "enemy combatant" on the frontline of the Bush administration's "War on Terror," first in Afghanistan, and then in Guantánamo… Since January 7, 2007 (the fifth anniversary of his detention without trial by the US), Sami has been on a hunger strike. Although he is strapped into a restraint chair twice a day and force-fed against his will and despite the fact that he is "very thin" and "[h]is memory is disintegrating," according to Stafford Smith, Sami continues to seek ways to publicize the plight of his fellow prisoners. During the most recent visit from his lawyers in February -- with Cori Crider of Reprieve -- he produced a number of morbid, and almost hallucinatory sketches illustrating his take on conditions in Guantánamo, which he described as "Sketches of My Nightmare." Fearing that they would be banned by the military censors, Crider asked him to describe each sketch in detail and when, as anticipated, the pictures were duly banned but the notes cleared, Reprieve asked political cartoonist Lewis Peake to create original works based on Sami's descriptions....
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Five Years After Fall of Baghdad, All-Day Curfew is Imposed...
The pulling down of Saddam's statue in Firdous Square was supposed to have been an expression of popular joy at the downfall of a tyrant. The "impassioned populace", it turned out later, were people bused in from Sadr City, then called Saddam City. Ibrahim Khalil, who was in the crowd that day, said yesterday: "If history can take me back, I will now actually kiss the statue of Saddam. I am sorry that I played a part in pulling it down. I think now that was a black day for Baghdad. We got rid of Saddam, but now we have 50 Saddams. In his days we were safe. I ask Bush, 'where are your promises of making Iraq a better country?'"...
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Petraeus Points to War with Iran...
In early 2007, Nancy Pelosi pulled down a resolution that would have denied Bush the authority to attack Iran without congressional approval. In September, both Houses passed the Kyl-Lieberman resolution designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Courtesy of Congress, Bush thus has a blank check for war on Iran. And the signs are growing that he intends to fill it in and cash it. Israel has been hurling invective at Iran and conducting security drills to prepare its population for rocket barrages worse than those Hezbollah delivered in the Lebanon War… This is Bush's last chance to strike and, when Iran responds, to effect its nuclear castration. Are Bush and Cheney likely to pass up this last chance to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities and effect the election of John McCain? For any attack on Iran's "terrorist bases" would rally the GOP and drive a wedge between Obama and Hillary....
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NEWS |
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Cops and Former Secret Service Agents Ran Black Ops on Green Groups...
A private security company organized and managed by former Secret Service officers spied on Greenpeace and other environmental organizations from the late 1990s through at least 2000, pilfering documents from trash bins, attempting to plant undercover operatives within groups, casing offices, collecting phone records of activists, and penetrating confidential meetings. According to company documents provided to Mother Jones by a former investor in the firm, this security outfit collected confidential internal records—donor lists, detailed financial statements, the Social Security numbers of staff members, strategy memos—from these organizations and produced intelligence reports for public relations firms and major corporations involved in environmental controversies.....
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The School Crotch Inspector ...
Wilson nevertheless instructed a female secretary to strip-search Savana under the school nurse's supervision, without even bothering to contact the girl's mother. The secretary had Savana take off all her clothing except her underwear. Then she told her to "pull her bra out and to the side and shake it, exposing her breasts," and "pull her underwear out at the crotch and shake it, exposing her pelvic area." Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between drug warriors and child molesters… The invasiveness of the search also has to be weighed against the evil it was aimed at preventing. "Remember," the school district's lawyer recently told ABC News by way of justification, "this was prescription-strength ibuprofen." It's a good thing the school took swift action, before anyone got unauthorized relief from menstrual cramps....
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:::
All the News
Young, Gifted and Ignored
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Seattle Battles the Homeless
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100 Million Profit on Passports by Government Agency
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America’s Election Circus
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Fine Art Gallery & Forum
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OPINION |
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Seven Ridiculously Practical Recommendations for Curbing America's Addiction to War
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The Failure to Prevent Vicious Animal Testing
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Will Cheney Ever Sleep on a Concrete Bed?
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Homeschooling and SWAT Teams Don't Mix
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The Sting of Poverty
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Who is Searching for You and Yours Online?
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Debating Prostitution
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Why Truckers Hit the Brakes
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Why Does China Care About Tibet?
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The Death and Life of the American Newspaper
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Protest Against Ex-Con Campus
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Why Not Buy This Small Town?
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What Could be Outsourced Next? - You Perhaps
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In the Pursuit of Justice, Do We Need Trials?
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Foster Kids Bags of Nightmares
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