[Fwd: Senate Panel Votes Against Bush on Iraq 24 Jan 2007]
Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government 24 January 2007
http://www.legitgov.org/
All links to articles as summarized below are available here:
http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Senate Panel Votes Against Bush on Iraq 24 Jan 2007 The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed President [sic] Bush's plans to increase troops strength in Iraq on Wednesday as "not in the national interest," an unusual wartime repudiation of the commander-in-chief [thief].
'There is no strategy.' Senators start rebuke of Iraq strategy 24 Jan 2007 Democrats took the first step toward a wartime repudiation of President [sic] George W. Bush today, convening a Senate committee to endorse legislation declaring that the deployment of additional troops to Iraq is "not in the national interest." Sen. Chuck Hagel, of Nebraska, is the only Republican on the committee to announce support for the measure. "There is no strategy," said Hagel of the Bush regime's war management. "This is a Ping-Pong game with American lives... And we better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder."
Senate panel debates rejection of troop increase 24 Jan 2007 Brushing aside President [sic] George W. Bush's plea to give his new war strategy a chance, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate moved ahead on Wednesday with a resolution opposing his plan to send more troops to Iraq.
4 Americans in Iraq Crash Shot in Head 24 Jan 2007 Four of the five Americans [mercenaries] killed when a Blackwater USA helicopter crashed in a Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad were shot execution style in the back the head, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday. The helicopter was shot down after responding to assist a U.S. Embassy ground convoy that came under fire, said a U.S. diplomatic official in Washington. A second helicopter also was struck, but there were no casualties among its crew, said the diplomatic official...
Iraq Channel 4 News exclusive By Jon Snow 24 Jan 2007 Not only does our footage show the active ethnic cleansing of both Sunnis and Shi'as daubing paint on doors to identify people who need to be driven out but it also shows fire-fights between ethnic groups and worse. We also see a joint patrol of US and Iraqi troops in Baghdad, where our camera captures the pretty brutal treatment meted out by the newly trained Iraqi soldiers to three suspected insurgents caught in a car, all to the accompaniment of laughter, whoops and egging on from the US soldiers who watch from their Humvee. We now know that the incident is regarded as sufficiently serious for the US sergeant who was present to be suspended pending further investigation.
Scant evidence found of Iran-Iraq arms link --U.S. warnings of advanced weaponry crossing the border are overstated, critics say. 23 Jan 2007 For all its aggressive rhetoric regarding Iranian networks providing "advanced weaponry and training to our enemies," however, the Bush administration has provided scant evidence to support these claims. Nor have reporters traveling with U.S. troops seen extensive signs of Iranian involvement... British officials have similarly accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi affairs, but say they have not found Iranian-made weapons in areas they patrol.
Russia completes Iran missile deliveries: Tass 23 Jan 2007 Russia has completed a contract to deliver its TOR-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran, Itar-Tass news agency quoted Sergei Chemezov, head of state arms exporter Rosoboronexport as saying on Tuesday.
President [sic] Bush's State of the Disunion Address 23 Jan 2007 Tonight I ask the Congress to authorize an increase in the size of our active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in the next five years. A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps [Waffen-SS]. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them.
Give war a chance: Bush 24 Jan 2007 US President [sic] George Bush today urged a rebellious Congress to give his new Iraq war plan a chance, insisting it was not too late to shape the outcome. Facing defiant lawmakers and the weakest approval ratings of his six years in office, Mr Bush said the best chance for success was to send 21,500 additional US troops to Iraq.
Off the Rails: Big Oil, Big Brother Win Big in the State of the Union By Greg Palast 24 Jan 2007 Instead of unleashing the Reserve and busting Big Oil's price gouging [George W.] Bush will double the Reserve, which will require buying three-quarters of a billion barrels of oil. This is a nice $40 billion pay-out to Big Oil from the US Treasury... But the $40 billion in loot the oilmen will get from us taxpayers for doubling the Reserve is nothing compared to the boost in the worldwide price of crude caused by this massive, mad purchase... Clearly, the state of the Saudi-Bush union is still pretty good.
Democratic Response of Senator Jim Webb to the pResident's State of the Disunion Address 23 Jan 2007 The President [sic] took us into this war recklessly... We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable and predicted disarray that has followed... Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt. ['We want either a hammer or a fire, to break the spell or dissolve the ice.' Artisan radical freethinker, George Jacob Holyoake, Reasoner V (1848): 2.]
'Tonight we are calling on this president to take similar action. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.' Sen. Webb: Congress may show way on Iraq 23 Jan 2007 While President [sic] Bush urged opponents of his planned troop increase in Iraq to give it a chance to see if it works, the Democrats turned to an old soldier Tuesday night to hammer away at the president's war strategy. "The president took us into this war recklessly," said Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), the Vietnam War veteran and opponent of the invasion who delivered the party's televised response to Bush's State of the Union speech. "The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military, nor does Congress. We need a new direction."
General: Bigger Army will cost $70 billion 24 Jan 2007 Increasing the size of the Army, strained by America's two ongoing wars, will cost an estimated $70 billion, a top Army general said Tuesday. And if yet another conflict were to develop before the force can be bolstered, it would take longer to fight and cost more American casualties than otherwise might be expected, said Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, a deputy chief of staff.
U.S. Launches New Strikes In Somalia --Air Attacks Earlier This Week Carried Out In Secret 24 Jan 2007 U.S. special forces have once again attacked 'terrorist' targets in Somalia - their second air strike in two weeks, CBS News has learned.
'I was set up by White House to shield aide' 24 Jan 2007 A key aide to Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney was "set up" by the White House over the leaking of a CIA operative's identity as a way of protecting President [sic] George W Bush's chief adviser, a court heard yesterday. The explosive allegation that the White House plotted to shield Karl Rove, Mr Bush's long-time strategist, was made, as the trial opened, by the lawyer defending Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Mr Cheney's former chief of staff.
'You can't learn something startling on Thursday that you are giving out on Monday or Tuesday.' Ex-White House aide 'stole the truth' in CIA leak case: prosecutor 23 Jan 2007 Former top White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby lied "repeatedly" to investigators probing the leak of a CIA agent's name, a prosecutor [Patrick Fitzgerald] said in a politically sensitive trial.
EU committee slams Irish complicity in CIA 'torture flights' 23 Jan 2007 The Irish Government is coming for more severe criticism today over the use of Shannon Airport by planes involved in the Bush regime's rendition [kidnapping] programme. In a report out today, a European Parliament committee investigating the so-called "torture flights" says thousands have crossed through EU airspace and landed at EU airports in recent years. Ireland is named as one of the worst offenders.
Ministers 'knew about rendition flights' 24 Jan 2007 European governments, including Britain, knew about secret CIA flights across the continent, MEPs concluded yesterday, as they lambasted politicians and senior officials for failing to co-operate with an inquiry into secret US renditions.
Gonzales says the Constitution doesn't guarantee habeas corpus --Attorney general's remarks on citizens' right astound the chair of Senate judiciary panel 24 Jan 2007 One of the Bush regime's most far-reaching assertions of government power was revealed quietly last week when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified that habeas corpus -- the right to go to federal court and challenge one's imprisonment -- is not protected by the Constitution. "The Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas,'' Gonzales told Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 17... Specter was incredulous, asking how the Constitution could bar the suspension of a right that didn't exist -- a right, he noted, that was first recognized in medieval England as a shield against the king's power to dispatch troublesome subjects to royal dungeons.
Let's Impeach Alberto Gonzales NOW By Bob Fertik 18 Jan 2007 Impeaching Alberto Gonzales is a no-brainer for Democrats purely on the merits: Gonzales is at the center of Bush's crimes, including authorizing torture and illegal wiretapping (which wasn't restricted at all by Gonzales' announcement that a FISA judge mysteriously approved the illegal program.) Sign Petition to Impeach Alberto Gonzales by democrats.com.
'There is no war on terror' --DPP takes on Blair and Reid over fear-driven legal response to threat 24 Jan 2007 The director of public prosecutions, Sir Ken Macdonald, put himself at odds with the home secretary and Downing Street last night by denying that Britain is caught up in a "war on terror" and calling for a "culture of legislative restraint" in passing laws to deal with terrorism. Sir Ken warned of the pernicious risk that a "fear-driven and inappropriate" response to the threat could lead Britain to abandon respect for fair trials and the due process of law.
'Surrender to nihilism' CPS chief warns MPs over terror threat to human rights 23 Jan 2007 Politicians who seek to water down human rights protections were sent a strong warning by the director of public prosecutions tonight. Sir Ken Macdonald said the terrorist threat must not tempt democracies into undermining their own values, and suggested that abandoning fair trials in terror cases would be a "surrender to nihilism". The head of the Crown Prosecution Service also renewed his calls for intercept evidence such as telephone tapping to become admissible evidence in court.
Huge majority say civil liberty curbs a 'price worth paying' to fight terror --Research finds most support compulsory ID cards, with phone tapping, curfews and tagging for suspects 24 Jan 2007 An overwhelming majority of people in Britain are willing to surrender civil liberties to help tackle the threat of terrorism, the nation's leading social research institute will disclose today. The survey found seven in every 10 people think compulsory identity cards for all adults would be "a price worth paying" to reduce the threat of terrorism. Eight in 10 say the authorities should be able to tap the phones of people suspected of involvement in terrorism, open their mail and impose electronic tagging or home curfews.
Loss of liberty is price for fighting terrorism 24 Jan 2007 A strong commitment to civil liberties, once considered a defining British characteristic, has weakened dramatically over the past 20 years, a survey found. More people than ever are prepared to see freedoms that used to be taken for granted, such as free speech and the right to protest, dispensed with... Nearly half those questioned thought denying people a jury trial was "a price worth paying" to tackle terrorism, though without explaining how it would.
Anti-terrorism police arrest five men in UK 24 Jan 2007 Police arrested five men in northern England under the country's security laws in two separate operations today. "This is not about bomb-making or planting bombs," a police source said, adding the men were suspected of being involved in logistical work [?!?]. "At this stage, there is no intelligence of any planned terrorist activity in the UK and the arrests are part of an ongoing investigation," Manchester Police said in a statement.
Olmert Calls for Katsav Resignation 24 Jan 2007 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on President Moshe Katsav to resign, as charges of rape and abuse of power loomed Wednesday. Katsav asked parliament to temporarily remove him from office in an effort to blunt growing calls for his resignation.
Israeli President, Facing Rape Charge, Asks for Leave 24 Jan 2007 Israeli President Moshe Katsav asked parliament to relieve him temporarily of his duties to fight a rape charge, dismissing calls for his resignation and attacking the media and police for their handling of the allegations.
Kerry to bow out of '08 presidential race 24 Jan 2007 Senator John F. Kerry plans to announce today that he is bowing out of the 2008 presidential race, and will instead remain in Congress and seek reelection to his Senate seat next year, according to senior Democratic officials.
Senate Republicans block minimum wage hike 24 Jan 2007 Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a Democratic bill to increase the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, demanding it first include small-business tax relief.
300 students turned away by N.O. schools --Buildings, teachers are in short supply 24 Jan 2007 In an exceedingly rare move for a public school system, hundreds of children seeking spots in the city's schools have been turned away -- "wait-listed" -- and told that the campuses have no room, school officials said Tuesday.
White Atlanta suburbs push for secession 23 Jan 2007 A potentially explosive dispute is taking shape over a proposal by Georgia Legislature's Republican [racist] majority to break Fulton County in two and split off Atlanta's predominantly white, affluent suburbs to the north from some of the metropolitan area's poorest, black neighborhoods.
Microsoft in hot water over Wikipedia edits 24 Jan 2007 Microsoft Corp. has landed in the Wikipedia doghouse after it offered to pay a blogger to change technical articles on the community-produced Web encyclopedia site.
U.N.: Bird flu outbreak alert 23 Jan 2007 The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is warning nations, particularly in East Asia and Africa, to be vigilant for outbreaks of bird flu. New cases of the avian flu virus have been 'found' in China, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. http://www.legitgov.org/flu_oddities.html
Quick action! Protect Polar Bears from Global Warming 24 Jan 2007 ...[T]he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to list the polar bear as a threatened species. Polar bears are threatened with extinction as global warming literally melts away their Arctic sea-ice habitat. Please let the Bush administration know that you support the proposal to list the polar bear, and that we must reduce greenhouse gas pollution immediately to slow global warming and save the polar bear from extinction.
Environmental disaster feared as hundreds of oil-covered seabirds washed up in Devon 24 Jan 2007 Thousands of birds have been covered in black oil leaking from the MSC Napoli, which was beached off the Devon coast.
Experts: Alps glaciers will melt by 2050 22 Jan 2007 Glaciers will all but disappear from the Alps by 2050, scientists warned Monday, basing their bleak outlook on mounting evidence of slow but steady melting of the continental ice sheets.
[23 Jan lead stories:] U.S. warns Iran to back down --2nd U.S. aircraft carrier strike group steaming toward Middle East 23 Jan 2007 A second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the Middle East is Washington's way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts to dominate the region [?!? Hello, Pot? This is Kettle.], a top U.S. diplomat said here Tuesday. Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, ruled out direct negotiations with Iran and said a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran was "not possible" until Iran halts uranium enrichment. [Why doesn't the US stop *its* uranium enrichment?]
Russian Admiral Says U.S. Navy Prepares Missile Strike on Iran 15 Jan 2007 U.S. Navy nuclear submarines maintaining vigil off the coast of Iran indicate that the Pentagon's military plans include not only control over navigation in the Persian Gulf but also strikes against Iranian targets, a former commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Eduard Baltin has told the Interfax news agency.
"They're trying to set me up. They want me to be the sacrificial lamb... I will not be sacrificed so Karl Rove can be protected." Prosecutor: Libby 'wiped out' Cheney memo --Defense in CIA leak trial counters that White House tried to set up Libby 23 Jan 2007 Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald used his opening statement in the CIA leak trial Tuesday to allege that Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney's chief of staff lied about Cheney's early involvement in the disclosure of a spy's identity... In their opening statements, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's attorneys said Bush administration officials tried to blame him for the leak to cover up for presidential adviser Karl Rove's own disclosures.
Please Contribute for January's expenses. Thank you!
Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested. Those who'd like to be added to the Newsletter list can sign up: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg. Please write to: signup@legitgov.org for inquiries.
CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, Manager. Copyright © 2007, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.
http://www.legitgov.org/
All links to articles as summarized below are available here:
http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Senate Panel Votes Against Bush on Iraq 24 Jan 2007 The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed President [sic] Bush's plans to increase troops strength in Iraq on Wednesday as "not in the national interest," an unusual wartime repudiation of the commander-in-chief [thief].
'There is no strategy.' Senators start rebuke of Iraq strategy 24 Jan 2007 Democrats took the first step toward a wartime repudiation of President [sic] George W. Bush today, convening a Senate committee to endorse legislation declaring that the deployment of additional troops to Iraq is "not in the national interest." Sen. Chuck Hagel, of Nebraska, is the only Republican on the committee to announce support for the measure. "There is no strategy," said Hagel of the Bush regime's war management. "This is a Ping-Pong game with American lives... And we better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder."
Senate panel debates rejection of troop increase 24 Jan 2007 Brushing aside President [sic] George W. Bush's plea to give his new war strategy a chance, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate moved ahead on Wednesday with a resolution opposing his plan to send more troops to Iraq.
4 Americans in Iraq Crash Shot in Head 24 Jan 2007 Four of the five Americans [mercenaries] killed when a Blackwater USA helicopter crashed in a Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad were shot execution style in the back the head, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday. The helicopter was shot down after responding to assist a U.S. Embassy ground convoy that came under fire, said a U.S. diplomatic official in Washington. A second helicopter also was struck, but there were no casualties among its crew, said the diplomatic official...
Iraq Channel 4 News exclusive By Jon Snow 24 Jan 2007 Not only does our footage show the active ethnic cleansing of both Sunnis and Shi'as daubing paint on doors to identify people who need to be driven out but it also shows fire-fights between ethnic groups and worse. We also see a joint patrol of US and Iraqi troops in Baghdad, where our camera captures the pretty brutal treatment meted out by the newly trained Iraqi soldiers to three suspected insurgents caught in a car, all to the accompaniment of laughter, whoops and egging on from the US soldiers who watch from their Humvee. We now know that the incident is regarded as sufficiently serious for the US sergeant who was present to be suspended pending further investigation.
Scant evidence found of Iran-Iraq arms link --U.S. warnings of advanced weaponry crossing the border are overstated, critics say. 23 Jan 2007 For all its aggressive rhetoric regarding Iranian networks providing "advanced weaponry and training to our enemies," however, the Bush administration has provided scant evidence to support these claims. Nor have reporters traveling with U.S. troops seen extensive signs of Iranian involvement... British officials have similarly accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi affairs, but say they have not found Iranian-made weapons in areas they patrol.
Russia completes Iran missile deliveries: Tass 23 Jan 2007 Russia has completed a contract to deliver its TOR-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran, Itar-Tass news agency quoted Sergei Chemezov, head of state arms exporter Rosoboronexport as saying on Tuesday.
President [sic] Bush's State of the Disunion Address 23 Jan 2007 Tonight I ask the Congress to authorize an increase in the size of our active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in the next five years. A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps [Waffen-SS]. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them.
Give war a chance: Bush 24 Jan 2007 US President [sic] George Bush today urged a rebellious Congress to give his new Iraq war plan a chance, insisting it was not too late to shape the outcome. Facing defiant lawmakers and the weakest approval ratings of his six years in office, Mr Bush said the best chance for success was to send 21,500 additional US troops to Iraq.
Off the Rails: Big Oil, Big Brother Win Big in the State of the Union By Greg Palast 24 Jan 2007 Instead of unleashing the Reserve and busting Big Oil's price gouging [George W.] Bush will double the Reserve, which will require buying three-quarters of a billion barrels of oil. This is a nice $40 billion pay-out to Big Oil from the US Treasury... But the $40 billion in loot the oilmen will get from us taxpayers for doubling the Reserve is nothing compared to the boost in the worldwide price of crude caused by this massive, mad purchase... Clearly, the state of the Saudi-Bush union is still pretty good.
Democratic Response of Senator Jim Webb to the pResident's State of the Disunion Address 23 Jan 2007 The President [sic] took us into this war recklessly... We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable and predicted disarray that has followed... Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt. ['We want either a hammer or a fire, to break the spell or dissolve the ice.' Artisan radical freethinker, George Jacob Holyoake, Reasoner V (1848): 2.]
'Tonight we are calling on this president to take similar action. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.' Sen. Webb: Congress may show way on Iraq 23 Jan 2007 While President [sic] Bush urged opponents of his planned troop increase in Iraq to give it a chance to see if it works, the Democrats turned to an old soldier Tuesday night to hammer away at the president's war strategy. "The president took us into this war recklessly," said Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), the Vietnam War veteran and opponent of the invasion who delivered the party's televised response to Bush's State of the Union speech. "The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military, nor does Congress. We need a new direction."
General: Bigger Army will cost $70 billion 24 Jan 2007 Increasing the size of the Army, strained by America's two ongoing wars, will cost an estimated $70 billion, a top Army general said Tuesday. And if yet another conflict were to develop before the force can be bolstered, it would take longer to fight and cost more American casualties than otherwise might be expected, said Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, a deputy chief of staff.
U.S. Launches New Strikes In Somalia --Air Attacks Earlier This Week Carried Out In Secret 24 Jan 2007 U.S. special forces have once again attacked 'terrorist' targets in Somalia - their second air strike in two weeks, CBS News has learned.
'I was set up by White House to shield aide' 24 Jan 2007 A key aide to Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney was "set up" by the White House over the leaking of a CIA operative's identity as a way of protecting President [sic] George W Bush's chief adviser, a court heard yesterday. The explosive allegation that the White House plotted to shield Karl Rove, Mr Bush's long-time strategist, was made, as the trial opened, by the lawyer defending Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Mr Cheney's former chief of staff.
'You can't learn something startling on Thursday that you are giving out on Monday or Tuesday.' Ex-White House aide 'stole the truth' in CIA leak case: prosecutor 23 Jan 2007 Former top White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby lied "repeatedly" to investigators probing the leak of a CIA agent's name, a prosecutor [Patrick Fitzgerald] said in a politically sensitive trial.
EU committee slams Irish complicity in CIA 'torture flights' 23 Jan 2007 The Irish Government is coming for more severe criticism today over the use of Shannon Airport by planes involved in the Bush regime's rendition [kidnapping] programme. In a report out today, a European Parliament committee investigating the so-called "torture flights" says thousands have crossed through EU airspace and landed at EU airports in recent years. Ireland is named as one of the worst offenders.
Ministers 'knew about rendition flights' 24 Jan 2007 European governments, including Britain, knew about secret CIA flights across the continent, MEPs concluded yesterday, as they lambasted politicians and senior officials for failing to co-operate with an inquiry into secret US renditions.
Gonzales says the Constitution doesn't guarantee habeas corpus --Attorney general's remarks on citizens' right astound the chair of Senate judiciary panel 24 Jan 2007 One of the Bush regime's most far-reaching assertions of government power was revealed quietly last week when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified that habeas corpus -- the right to go to federal court and challenge one's imprisonment -- is not protected by the Constitution. "The Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas,'' Gonzales told Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 17... Specter was incredulous, asking how the Constitution could bar the suspension of a right that didn't exist -- a right, he noted, that was first recognized in medieval England as a shield against the king's power to dispatch troublesome subjects to royal dungeons.
Let's Impeach Alberto Gonzales NOW By Bob Fertik 18 Jan 2007 Impeaching Alberto Gonzales is a no-brainer for Democrats purely on the merits: Gonzales is at the center of Bush's crimes, including authorizing torture and illegal wiretapping (which wasn't restricted at all by Gonzales' announcement that a FISA judge mysteriously approved the illegal program.) Sign Petition to Impeach Alberto Gonzales by democrats.com.
'There is no war on terror' --DPP takes on Blair and Reid over fear-driven legal response to threat 24 Jan 2007 The director of public prosecutions, Sir Ken Macdonald, put himself at odds with the home secretary and Downing Street last night by denying that Britain is caught up in a "war on terror" and calling for a "culture of legislative restraint" in passing laws to deal with terrorism. Sir Ken warned of the pernicious risk that a "fear-driven and inappropriate" response to the threat could lead Britain to abandon respect for fair trials and the due process of law.
'Surrender to nihilism' CPS chief warns MPs over terror threat to human rights 23 Jan 2007 Politicians who seek to water down human rights protections were sent a strong warning by the director of public prosecutions tonight. Sir Ken Macdonald said the terrorist threat must not tempt democracies into undermining their own values, and suggested that abandoning fair trials in terror cases would be a "surrender to nihilism". The head of the Crown Prosecution Service also renewed his calls for intercept evidence such as telephone tapping to become admissible evidence in court.
Huge majority say civil liberty curbs a 'price worth paying' to fight terror --Research finds most support compulsory ID cards, with phone tapping, curfews and tagging for suspects 24 Jan 2007 An overwhelming majority of people in Britain are willing to surrender civil liberties to help tackle the threat of terrorism, the nation's leading social research institute will disclose today. The survey found seven in every 10 people think compulsory identity cards for all adults would be "a price worth paying" to reduce the threat of terrorism. Eight in 10 say the authorities should be able to tap the phones of people suspected of involvement in terrorism, open their mail and impose electronic tagging or home curfews.
Loss of liberty is price for fighting terrorism 24 Jan 2007 A strong commitment to civil liberties, once considered a defining British characteristic, has weakened dramatically over the past 20 years, a survey found. More people than ever are prepared to see freedoms that used to be taken for granted, such as free speech and the right to protest, dispensed with... Nearly half those questioned thought denying people a jury trial was "a price worth paying" to tackle terrorism, though without explaining how it would.
Anti-terrorism police arrest five men in UK 24 Jan 2007 Police arrested five men in northern England under the country's security laws in two separate operations today. "This is not about bomb-making or planting bombs," a police source said, adding the men were suspected of being involved in logistical work [?!?]. "At this stage, there is no intelligence of any planned terrorist activity in the UK and the arrests are part of an ongoing investigation," Manchester Police said in a statement.
Olmert Calls for Katsav Resignation 24 Jan 2007 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on President Moshe Katsav to resign, as charges of rape and abuse of power loomed Wednesday. Katsav asked parliament to temporarily remove him from office in an effort to blunt growing calls for his resignation.
Israeli President, Facing Rape Charge, Asks for Leave 24 Jan 2007 Israeli President Moshe Katsav asked parliament to relieve him temporarily of his duties to fight a rape charge, dismissing calls for his resignation and attacking the media and police for their handling of the allegations.
Kerry to bow out of '08 presidential race 24 Jan 2007 Senator John F. Kerry plans to announce today that he is bowing out of the 2008 presidential race, and will instead remain in Congress and seek reelection to his Senate seat next year, according to senior Democratic officials.
Senate Republicans block minimum wage hike 24 Jan 2007 Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a Democratic bill to increase the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, demanding it first include small-business tax relief.
300 students turned away by N.O. schools --Buildings, teachers are in short supply 24 Jan 2007 In an exceedingly rare move for a public school system, hundreds of children seeking spots in the city's schools have been turned away -- "wait-listed" -- and told that the campuses have no room, school officials said Tuesday.
White Atlanta suburbs push for secession 23 Jan 2007 A potentially explosive dispute is taking shape over a proposal by Georgia Legislature's Republican [racist] majority to break Fulton County in two and split off Atlanta's predominantly white, affluent suburbs to the north from some of the metropolitan area's poorest, black neighborhoods.
Microsoft in hot water over Wikipedia edits 24 Jan 2007 Microsoft Corp. has landed in the Wikipedia doghouse after it offered to pay a blogger to change technical articles on the community-produced Web encyclopedia site.
U.N.: Bird flu outbreak alert 23 Jan 2007 The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is warning nations, particularly in East Asia and Africa, to be vigilant for outbreaks of bird flu. New cases of the avian flu virus have been 'found' in China, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. http://www.legitgov.org/flu_oddities.html
Quick action! Protect Polar Bears from Global Warming 24 Jan 2007 ...[T]he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to list the polar bear as a threatened species. Polar bears are threatened with extinction as global warming literally melts away their Arctic sea-ice habitat. Please let the Bush administration know that you support the proposal to list the polar bear, and that we must reduce greenhouse gas pollution immediately to slow global warming and save the polar bear from extinction.
Environmental disaster feared as hundreds of oil-covered seabirds washed up in Devon 24 Jan 2007 Thousands of birds have been covered in black oil leaking from the MSC Napoli, which was beached off the Devon coast.
Experts: Alps glaciers will melt by 2050 22 Jan 2007 Glaciers will all but disappear from the Alps by 2050, scientists warned Monday, basing their bleak outlook on mounting evidence of slow but steady melting of the continental ice sheets.
[23 Jan lead stories:] U.S. warns Iran to back down --2nd U.S. aircraft carrier strike group steaming toward Middle East 23 Jan 2007 A second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the Middle East is Washington's way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts to dominate the region [?!? Hello, Pot? This is Kettle.], a top U.S. diplomat said here Tuesday. Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, ruled out direct negotiations with Iran and said a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran was "not possible" until Iran halts uranium enrichment. [Why doesn't the US stop *its* uranium enrichment?]
Russian Admiral Says U.S. Navy Prepares Missile Strike on Iran 15 Jan 2007 U.S. Navy nuclear submarines maintaining vigil off the coast of Iran indicate that the Pentagon's military plans include not only control over navigation in the Persian Gulf but also strikes against Iranian targets, a former commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Eduard Baltin has told the Interfax news agency.
"They're trying to set me up. They want me to be the sacrificial lamb... I will not be sacrificed so Karl Rove can be protected." Prosecutor: Libby 'wiped out' Cheney memo --Defense in CIA leak trial counters that White House tried to set up Libby 23 Jan 2007 Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald used his opening statement in the CIA leak trial Tuesday to allege that Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney's chief of staff lied about Cheney's early involvement in the disclosure of a spy's identity... In their opening statements, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's attorneys said Bush administration officials tried to blame him for the leak to cover up for presidential adviser Karl Rove's own disclosures.
Please Contribute for January's expenses. Thank you!
Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested. Those who'd like to be added to the Newsletter list can sign up: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg. Please write to: signup@legitgov.org for inquiries.
CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, Manager. Copyright © 2007, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.
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