A Congress derided as do-nothing has a week to do something, and the prospects are cloudy.

Procrastination, power struggles and partisanship have left Congress with substantial work to finish before breaking for the elections. The fast-approaching recess and the Republican focus on national security legislation make it inevitable that much of the remainder will fall by the wayside.

I can't be the only one that thinks that's good news, can I?

Here's another article on how human rights groups are appalled at the McCain torture/amnesty bill.
While everyone sat back and let the Republicans fight, the end result is a dirty piece of legislation approving torture and excusing Bush's illegal torture escapades. Let's call it what it is.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.- Thomas Jefferson

Another controversial book in the pipeline: Mafia lawyer Sidney Korshak, also known as the fixer, is said to have shared his actress girlfriend Jill St. John with Kissinger.

Was the St. John - Kissinger relationship just for "show"  ???   A friend of Korshak is quoted as saying that.. St John told Kissinger she "wouldn't sleep with him any more" because of the carpet bombing of North Vietnam.  

About that other book: General Musharraf's memoir.  Serialised in The Times, UK more embarrassment for W, if he can be.

'America paid us to hand over al-Qaeda suspects'

PRESIDENT Musharraf of Pakistan says that the CIA has secretly paid his government millions of dollars for handing over hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects to America.
The US government has strict rules banning such reward payments to foreign powers involved in the war on terror. The US Department of Justice said: "We didn't know about this. It should not happen. These bounty payments are for private individuals who help to trace terrorists on the FBI's most wanted list, not foreign governments.

Sure!

due to all the denials, denials on who threatened to take Pakistanis back to stone age...

'The overlooked'
a reposted article from 2004. Pepe Escobar examines who sent the money, who shared breakfast with whom. A juicy eye opener.

Buy the books. Lot's of book writing and promos going on. Tis the season...

Iraq reduced to a punctuation mark: W to CNN's Wolf on the civil war that's been gripping Iraq -

"when the final history on Iraq is written the (killing) will look like just a coma because..." (H/T: Thinkprogress)

So will he be just a coma?

The New Taliban Republic?       Not where you think.

"Civil war is raging through the Iraqi countryside. Sunni insurgents have largely taken control of the province of Diyala, where local leaders believe the insurgents are close to establishing a "Taliban republic".Officials in the strategically important province - composed of a mixture of Sunnis and Shias with a Kurdish minority - have no doubt about what is happening."

Double standard Watch:

West bars Arab bid at IAEA to rap Israel atom "threat"

More secrets revealed:  

Secrets in the mountains of Afghanistan

How the Army keeps the money:  Fake budget entries

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

In recent months, pregnant women have been arrested and jailed in South Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota and New Hampshire, among other states, based on the claim that pregnant women can be considered child abusers even before they have given birth.

Women targeted for these arrests are usually those with untreated drug or alcohol problems.

Other women have also been arrested for endangering the fetus by not getting to the hospital quickly enough on the day of delivery and by not following doctor's advice to get bed rest. One woman who suffered a stillbirth was arrested for murder based on the claim that by exercising her right to medical decision-making and postponing a Caesarean section, she caused the death of her child.

Law enforcement officials often justify the application of criminal laws to pregnant women by claiming that the arrest and imprisonment of pregnant women will protect fetuses and advance children's health.

Protection like this:

Yet three weeks later, because of the judge's ostensible concern for the fetus, Parsons' son was born in conditions that put both his and his mother's health and life at risk.

Parsons gave birth to her son alone in a dirty Maryland jail cell furnished only with a toilet and a bed with no sheets. She had been in labor for several hours and had countless times pleaded for help and medical attention. The requests were denied.

A leading Afghan official working on women's rights has been shot dead in the southern province of Kandahar.

Safia Amajan, head of the province's women's department, was leaving her home for work when a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire, police said.

(...)

In a conservative region where most families keep wives and daughters cloistered indoors, she was able to attract hundreds of women to schools and vocational courses.

Her requests for secure official transport and personal bodyguards had not been granted by the government.

At the time of the attack, she was travelling in a taxi.

As the United States looks to crops as possible future sources of energy, a University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues call for caution, citing the possibility of some biofuel crops becoming invasive species.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has proposed setting up uranium enrichment centers under UN control to end nuclear disputes like the one over Iran, a newspaper reported.

The United Nations is to consider calling for a complete ban on the fishing practice known as bottom trawling, a technique environmentalists say is tantamount to driving a bulldozer over the sea bed. UN experts will begin debating a possible ban this autumn and the move already has the backing of both the organization's Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and the scientific community.

Are you old enough to remember when the tabloids were abuzz with the discovery of "the face on Mars" 30 years ago? If so, you might want to have a look at the most detailed images yet of the cydonia region.  Not surprisingly, nobody's home...

The risk of death due to stroke is associated with exposure to high concentrations of air pollution about 2 hours before death, Japanese investigators report. Because this risk appears to be independent of 24-hour particulate matter levels, they suggest that air quality standards be based on hourly data, as well as 24-hour levels.


"Money ruined Democracy. Washington is lost. We only have the grassroots left." - Bill Moyers

Canada posts $13.2-billion surplus

I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own. ----- George Carlin