ARCHIVE MAY 22, 2004 TO PRESENT

February 27, 2005

Click.  Iran was offered nuclear parts in 1987.

Click.  Did Blair sign up for Iraq war at Bush's ranch in April 2002?

Click.  Iran and Russia sign nuclear deal.

Click.  Maureen Dowd: 'W.'s stiletto democracy'

Click.  Linda McQuaig: It's now clear how the Bush administration sees things: Canadian sovereignty exists only at its pleasure. If we do what Washington wants, we retain our sovereignty. If we don't, all bets are off.

Click.  Senators Clinton and Kerry submit open voting bill.

Click.  Andrew Sullivan: New York warms to Hillary...next it could be America.

Click.  Music notes: Stardom: VOICES IN YOUR HEAD: New sounds from Portugal.                                                                                         

Guy Rose: San Gabriel Mission. Enlarge.

Click.  Mixed memories of "The Family".  Ex members believe abuse normal. Click
Current sect members react.

Click.  Seniors groups looking beyond Canada for drugs.

Click.  Search resumes for missing 9-year-old Florida Girl.

Click.  Service somber at church where BTK suspect was leader.

Click.  Rare Austrian production of "The Sound of Music" reflects nation's schizophrenic Nazi past.

February 26, 2005

Click.  Helen Thomas: 9 billion goes missing in Iraq.

Click.  Israel blames Syria for suicide bombing.

Click.  Troops hunt insurgents in Iraqi river valley.

Click.  Campaign-like attacks turn up volume on Social Security debate.

Click.  California nurses dog Governor Schwarzenegger's every step.

Click.  California's gang database. Who is in it?

Click.  Kansas police make arrest in BTK killings.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Young Man Walking with Dogs in Fontainebleau Forest Enlarge

Click.  Illinois legislators want to raise burden of proof to "beyond all doubt" in order for jury to sentence murderer to the death penalty.

Click.  FBI cracks down on gangs of El Salvador.

Click.  Operation Northwoods and Other Covert Actions.

Click. Prime Minister Martin: The U.S. must not intrude on Canadian airspace.

Click. New bird flu symptoms reported.

Click. Police eye suspect in Napa double murder case.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Young Man Walking with Dogs in
Fontainebleau Forest
Enlarge

Click.  Music noted: Stardom: STILL COLD: Warming With Music.

Click.  Martha Stewart's big comeback.

Click.  "Man the hunter" theory is debunked in new book that describes human beings' evolution as prey.

February 25, 2005

Click.  Charlie Savage: The high-profile investigation into FBI agents' allegations of detainee abuses at Guantanamo, is not examining the conduct of Army Major General Geoffrey Miller, the man who oversaw the interrogation operation at the time that prisoners were allegedly shackled in painful positions and exposed to extreme temperatures to break their silence.

Click.  Ed O`Loughlin: Pulling strings behind the scenes in Syria.

Click.  Sydney Blumenthal: Lost in Europe.

Click.  Paul Krugman: Kansas on my mind.

Click.  More details about the Bush family's war profiteering.

Click.  Xuan-Trang Ho: China’s burgeoning role in Latin America -- a threat to the US?

Click.  Franz J. T. Lee: Venezuela -- Waterloo or Dien Bien Phu?

Click.  Fred Cederhold: The Euro Dollar rollercoaster ride.

Click.  John Park: China can't use its leverage in the North Korea crisis.

Click.  Lisa Pease: Hey, hey, USA. How many coups did you plan today?

Click.  Steve Outing: In defense of citizen journalism.

Click.  A call for child porn users amnesty in Britain?

February 24, 2005

Click.  Government unsure how may shoulder-fired missiles are missing.

Click.  50-state task force group says Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law is unconstitutional.

Click.  Martin Kelly: The Gonzocons live on.

Click.  PG&E still can't find its missing nuclear fuel rods in Eureka, California.

Click.  (LAT Reg)  Juan Cole: What if the U.S. doesn't like what the voters like in the Mideast and beyond?

Click.  Maureen Dowd: Swifties slime again.

Click.  Cannonfire on Gannon and the Rev. Moon.

Click.  Brian Courtis: Hollywood's dirty little secret.

February 23, 2005

Click.  U.S. intelligence concludes theft of Russian nuclear material “has occurred”.

Click.  The Department of Justice has abandoned its argument that charges made by a fired FBI translator Sibel Edmonds are secret, paving the way for a court case involving charges of incompetence, poor security and possible espionage in the translation unit of the bureau's Washington field office.

Click.  Company's work in Iraq profited Bush's uncle Bucky.

Click.  Wall Street's right-hand man in the middle of Bush's new social security plans.

Click.  Trucks can be stopped dead by a flick of a switch.

Click.  Harmon Leon: My dinner at Applebee's with white supremacists.

Click.  David Lazarus: Wells Fargo Bank frets over security breaches.

Click.  Ron Russell: Marin County DA Ed Berberian switches his office's position, agreeing to Catholic Church demands to withhold sex-abuse documents from the press.

Click.  Ted Rall: Bloggers and the new McCarthyism.

Click.  Rant of the week: Gay facts and fantasies in Propagannon research.

Click.  Homeland Security wants to pay journalists to participate in simulated terror-attack exercises.

Click.  Paul Maidment: Stopping the presses.

Music review:  Click.  STARDOM: It's RAINING Today!

Click.  Hunter S. Thompson on 9/11.

Click.  New Christian manuscripts discovered in Egypt.

February 22, 2005

Click.  David Hackworth: Pentagon is lying its way out of an unwinnable war -- again.

Click.  U.S. aid funneled to Castro's opponents.

Click.  Thomas Oliphant: Greenspan's gyrations.

Click.  Politics, lies and audio tape.

Click.  A hollow appointment to a sham job.

Click.  Cannonfire: Another deep throat note.

Click.  Chirac and Schroeder stir debate: Greater EU clout. Lesser NATO role.

Click.  Al Qaida also wants the bomb.

Click.  The mob's million dollar batter.

Click.  Terror TV.

February 21, 2005

Click.  Scott Ritter says US attack on Iran planned for June.

Click.  Niall Ferguson: Three reasons why the U.S. and Europe won't make up.

Click.  Pat Buchanan: Baiting a trap for Bush?

Click.  German government seeks to curb Neo-Nazi assemblies at historically symbolic places.

Click.  Neo-Nazi group requests use of historic Yorktown battlefield.

Click.  Granma: Cuba signs oil production contract with Chinese enterprise.

Click.  Depriving U.S. and its corporations of oil can be of great benefit to Venezuela.

Click.  New targets for advisers to Swift Vets: AARP and Social Security.

Click.  Fewer scientists are being consulted or funded by the Bush administration.

Click.  Cathy Young: Last of the Confederates.

Click.  HUNTER S. THOMPSON. Original gonzo journalist kills himself at age 67.

Click.  Paul Krassner reflects on the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson.

Click.  Former editor recalls Hunter S. Thompson as newspaper columnist.

RIP: Hunter S. Thompson -  memorable quotations:

A word to the wise is infuriating.

America...just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.

Call on God, but row away from the rocks.

Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.

I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.

I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me.

If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.

It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

Publishers are notoriously slothful about numbers, unless they're attached to dollar signs - unlike journalists, quarterbacks, and felony criminal defendants who tend to be keenly aware of numbers at all times.

That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn't entirely conquer - he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.

The person who doesn't scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs

There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug, especially when its waving a razor sharp hunting knife in your eye.

Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity. Some of my best friends have hated Nixon all their lives. My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together. Nixon laughed when I told him this. 'Don't worry,' he said. 'I, too, am a family man, and we feel the same way about you.'" - Better Than Sex- Confessions of A Political Junkie

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive. . . ." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

My apartment in New York was on Perry Street, a five minute walk from the White Horse. I often drank there, but I was never accepted because I wore a tie. The real people wanted no part of me.- The Rum Diary (Ch. 1)

Cover a war in a place where you can't drink beer or talk to a woman? Hell no!

In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward mobile.

February 20, 2005

Report: U.S. in Secret Talks with Iraqi Insurgents

Marines Launch Bid to Secure Iraq City of Ramadi

Tehran: Guess Who's Trying to Infiltrate Iraq?

Newsweek: Aboard Air CIA

Is Britain part of a worldwide torture plot?

Navy Commissions Super-Spy Submarine

Risk of deadly global epidemic as bid to halt spread of bird flu is foiled

Quite the club....

Cannonfire on Gannon exploding

The U.S. Department of Education insists California must apply tougher standards for school districts, which could label one-third of the state's 1,000 districts as failing.  Currently only 14 are.

Arnold readies strategy

A desperate injection of stem cells and hope

When Does Autism Start?

Dirt: The Next Big Thing in Wine Country

Geoges de La Tour: Saint Joseph Charpentier Click for commentary

February 19, 2005

50 Dead in Eight Iraq Suicide Bombings

Five U.S. Senators Visit Iraq; Clinton Says Insurgency Is Failing as Suicide Bombings, Other Attacks Kill Dozens

A Shi'ite Iraq Emerges: Juan Cole

Bashar Assad: The Syrian sphinx

Watson, Boyes: They're all pals with Bush now -- just don't mention the war

Slain U.S. Nun at Heart of Battle Over Brazil's Amazon

Meek: Torture Acclimation
              
Winslow Homer, Right and Left
Enlarge

Ray McGovern: Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here

Robert Parry: Negroponte's blind spots

Medicaid Battles: Governors Oppose Federal Cuts, Say It's Time for Sweeping Change

Judge hearing challenge to election of Gov. Christine Gregoire (Washington) squelched the Democratic Party's attempt to have him define the proof Republicans must produce to get the election overturned

Salzman, Epstein: The tyranny of eminent domain

John Powers: On--Terminator genes

LA County judge who killed himself feared molestation claims

Marjie Lundstrom: We need a way to house violent sex predators out of prison

R. Scott: Haidl the gang-rape defendant busts up as Jane Doe cries on the stand

Solano County CPS fails again: 4-year old girl is allegedly beaten to death after complaint to CPS

Susan Paynter: Stamper speaks his mind -- again

$95m deal to preserve Hearst coastal area

Despite heart disease risk, few women take heed

Herbal Extract As Effective As Commonly Prescribed Anti-depressant

Kenan Malik: There is nothing outrageous or immoral about human cloning

Timothy Heritage: Google online book plan sparks French war of words

Husband-And-Wife Team Build Startup Into Blogging Trailblazer

The giant tortoise's tale

Jesuits face the challenge of declining numbers

February 18, 2005

Click.  Pepe Escobar: Who benefits from Hariri's murder?

Click.  Dead reckoning. Syria and Lebanon.

Click.  All for the sum of nothing. No one knows how many civilians died in Iraq?

Click.  U.S. troops being treated with "medical ecstasy".

Click.  Uploading the President's electrocardiogram.

Click.  Paul Krugman: Three-card maestro.

Click.  Mark Fitzgerald: Hemisphere's latest press-freedom Worry: The U.S.A.

Click.  Almost half of all Americans take antidepressants.  Discussion with Dr. Alan Schatzberg,
chair of Stanford University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Click.  California school districts under attack.

Click.  Computer vision syndrome appears after four hours of work with PC.

Click.  Neo-Nazi group plans rally on Revolutionary War battlefield.

February 17, 2005

Click.  The CIA and the Defense Department have rejected a call by the independent 9-11 commission to consolidate secret U.S. paramilitary operations within the Pentagon, including those in which the U.S. government wants its hand to remain hidden.

Click.  Critics say war-fund request circumvents budget process.

Click.  Brian Morton: The new thugs.

Click.  (Sacto Bee Reg) Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata on Wednesday said he has refused to describe his past work as a private political consultant that is part of an FBI probe because the details are not "particularly interesting."

Click.  Stardom: PORTUGUESE ELECTION CAMPAIGNS AMERICAN STYLE.

Click.  Ire and praise for "grey" look at Nazis.

Click.  Molly Ivins: Screw the children.

February 16, 2005

Click.  Robert Fisk on the Beirut bombing, U.S. -- Syrian relations and the Iraqi elections.

Click.  U.S. lawmakers push to enforce economic sanctions against Iran.

Click.  U.S. lawmakers press Rice to impose sanctions on Syria.

Click.  Health Secretary Mike Leavitt refused Wednesday to name the states he says are cheating taxpayers out of $40 billion in Medicaid funding, even as senators pressed him.

Click.  Senate voted on Wednesday to allow more time for the declassification of government documents about Nazi war criminals.

Click.  Patrick Buchanan: The Democrats' dilemma.

Click.  Patrick Radden Keefe: Are Al Qaeda terrorists using your personal computer?

Click.  Colin Brown: WMD expert reopens row about "sexed-up" dossier.

Click.  Joanne Mariner: Giving Colombia's paramilitaries what they want.

Click.  Will Bunch: Why are the feds probing long-dead "Scoop" Jackson?

Click.  Blogosphere politics.

Click.  San Francisco dog court. Due process for every canine.

February 15, 2005

Click.  CIA seizes Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson's papers.

Click.  2 million acres of New Mexico grasslands latest battleground over drilling

Click.  Integrating Canada and the United States. Disturbing?

Click.  Dallas County District Attorney and private firm become partners to fight crime.

Click.  Sam Smith: The Bush Clinton nexus.

Click.  New Music Review:  Stardom: They Should Have Been Called THE GRANNYS.

Click.  IRS investigating tax-exempt bond issued by Cabazon Indians.

Click.  Cannonfire on More Rhoemosexuality.

Click.  FBI director: Crypto must be controlled.

Click.  British police conduct high-tech search for new clues to Princess Diana's death.

Click.  FBI reveals details about arrests of NAMBLA Internet child sex ring. More Agent infiltrated NAMBLA.

February 14, 2005

Click.  To head off threat of a Shi'ite clergy-driven religious movement, the US has  resolved to arm small militias backed by US troops and entrenched in the population to "nip the evil in the bud".

Click.   Muqtedar Khan: Have Iraqis voted for a dictatorship?

Click.   Christian Henderson: Who killed Rafiq al-Hariri?

Click.  Lisa M. Kreiger: A Stanford University researcher has gotten a preliminary go-ahead to create a mouse with a significant number of human brain cells -- as long as the creature behaves like a mouse, not a human.

Click.  Repairs to the nation's voting system, already long overdue, are likely to remain uncompleted by the 2006 congressional elections.

Click.  How Bush goes straight to the people: Control the message, stage the event.

Click.  Josh Marshall: Bamboozlepalooza tour makes little progress for Bush.

Click.  James Gordon Meek: Military lawyers at the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison tried to stop inhumane interrogations, but were ignored by senior Pentagon officials.

Click.  A federal judge ruled today that Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich can freeze out two reporters from The (Baltimore) Sun by barring all state employees from talking to the journalists.

Click.  Sam Smith: The little Eichmanns of Dresden.

Click.  China's big export is spying.

February 13, 2005

2/15/05 Judge rejects Hamlin gag order + Click.  El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Eddie T. Keller hears D.A.'s motion for gag order covering the Richard Hamlin trial. The Sacramento Bee objects. + Click.  Lawyer Hamlin is facing the case of his life.
 

Click. RICHARD WILLIAM HAMLIN ON TRIAL

THE BEST CONSPIRACY LITIGATION IN CALIFORNIA

by Virginia McCullough

February 13, 2005

Judge Considers Declassifying Sept. 11 Report on the F.B.I.

Anthony Loyd: "I'm more scared of going out with these guys than fighting insurgents."

Breaking the al-Qaeda code

Juan Cole report on Iraq election results

AP Enterprise: American Officials Are Questioning Iraqi Shiite Leaders About Their Level of Ties to Iran

Iran, Iraq Share Complex History

Negotiations on Key Posts at Fever Pitch in Iraq

Fineman, Isikoff: King Karl

Papers Offer New Clues On 9/11 Hijackers' Travel

CIA debacle in Iran cost spies' lives

Pentagon Espionage Unit Loses Its Head

Army recruitment during and part of a church service - eyewitness account and pictures

Lisa Pease: Deep Throat Rumblings

Neo-Nazis March as Dresden Remembers War Dead + White supremacists trying to get message to mainstream audience in U.S.A.

When the ambassador met the heiress

Thomas Oliphant: A lesson in dishonesty

Molly Ivins: On Bush's budget. Look out folks, this one's a doozy

Ellis Henican: When it's personal, the right veers left

Taser aims at home market as safety concerns mount

Hunt for Fugitives Expands to Retirees

Niece says she fears prison for Shanley

Bashir plans to broadcast new film on "Michael Jackson's Secret World"

Kidnap charge against Jonea Rogers reduced to misdemeanor

"Bench Stress"

Gaye LeBaron: Book evokes memories of Santa Rosa's Chinatown

New Tools Ease Collaboration and Publishing Online

Duke's mummified cat to go on show

February 12, 2005

Bush cuts hit Democratic states, analysis finds

Click.  Guantanamo-linked illness damages agent's faith in FBI.

Click.  New HIV strain: Chilled by findings, investigators dreaded the mounting evidence.

Concern grows over drug given to troops with mental side effects

Click.  Ron Paul: HR 418: A national ID bill masquerading as immigration reform.

Robert Parry: Bush and the rise of managed-democracy.

Russians knew West's germ warfare secrets

Kissinger brings Putin "friendship" from Bush

The President in Washington Again? Bush Discovers Potomac Fever

Space war game improves joint warfighting capability

Stardom: CELL SHOCKED

Feds picking California pockets?

With recovery goal reached, northern rockies federal wolf managers reflect on controversy

In Northern Iraq, smugglers cross to Iran despite uneasy relations

Russians protest against benefits reform; Pro-Kremlin forces organize their own rallies

Click.  The top official at a nonprofit agency Shelter Inc. serving the homeless in Contra Costa County says he knowingly assigned a three-time convicted sex offender as the live-in manager of a Concord home for mentally disabled young adults, who now claim they were abused.

Butte County: 6 could face manslaughter charges in hazing death

San Francisco: Arrest in slaying of student, 17. Youth counselor, 21, suspect in strangling, dumping of body

Click.  Sexcapades!  Haidl II defense lawyer is told to sit down and shut up. But his old playbook remains: blame the "filthy, trashy" victim.

Cat agility races

Inventor primes himself for seeing humans achieve immortality

February 11, 2005

Click.  Homeland chief to "waive all laws"? Security provision in REAL ID Act gives feds broad powers at border.

Click.  Paul Krugman: Bush's class-war budget.

Click.  Jon Carroll: Let us consider the rapture index.

Click.  A U.S. resident, wealthy Pakistani businessman being held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison camp for suspected terrorist ties urged al-Qaida operatives to acquire nuclear weapons for use against U.S. troops and said he knew where to get them, according to American investigators. + Click.  Excerpts from transcript of detainee's tribunal.

Click.  A CIA Contractor, charged with beating Afghan prisoner who later died, argues he followed the nation's will in his work for intelligence agency.

Click.  Peter Byrne: Behind Senator Diane Feinstein's war with Indian gambling.

Click.  Steve Conner: A modern guide to making babies.

Click.  Vincent Barnes: Genetic engineering for better suburbia.

Click.  Michael Tremoglie: Who is behind attorney Lynne Stewart?

Click.   CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit over his remarks that several journalists who were killed by coalition forces in Iraq had been targeted.

Click.   New York City health officials have found one new virulent HIV strain which progresses from infection to full-blown AIDS in two or three months.

February 10, 2005

Click.  For every dollar saved by capping outlays, far more would be spent by the expanding cost of initiatives launched or okayed by the president.

Click.  Nancy A. Youssef: Former Bush administration favorite Ahmad Chalabi is lobbying hard for the post of prime minister in the new Iraqi government that will be formed after election officials finish counting the tally from last week's vote.

Click.  Pepe Escobar: The Shi'ites' Faustian pact.

Click.  Sidney Blumenthal: Domestic gibberish.

Click.  Memo urged Rice to meet on Al-Qaeda before Sept. 11 attacks.

Click.  Helen Kennedy: Bush press pal Gannon quits over gay prostitute link.

Click.  Cannonfire on "Gannon".

Click.  Monterey County Recorder Stephen Vagnini cut off public access to original recorded documents such as deeds, liens., Instead, the county is selling CDs with digital images of recorded documents, which are available the day after they are received by the Recorder's Office.

Click.  On handcuffed and felonious children.

Click.  Disease outbreaks in Iraq.

Click.  IBM: Cars face virus threat.

Click.  Ranchers with carbon-copy bulls are fenced in by the public's distaste for food derived
from such animals and delays in FDA approval.

February 9, 2005

Click.  Kevin McKiernan: Justice in Iraq?

Click.  Midwest towns offer free land to newcomers.

Click.  A 14-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest after Chicago police shot him with a Taser, raising new questions about the weapon.

Click.  Bush's red-ink budget doesn't include costs for war

Click.  Rep. John Conyers, Jr.: Fixing America's broken elections.

Click.  Al Kennedy: A tale of two clans -- Bush and Kennedy.

Click.  Constitution rejected in TSA screening.

Click.  Plant gene transfer technology under a flexible intellectual property license.

Click.  Pravda: Space cooperation with the U.S. will ruin Russia's space industry.

New Music Review: Click. Stardom: SHOCK and ROLL RUSSIAN STYLE.

Click.  Royal Navy release Tsunami images.

Click.  John Hiscock: New life in Sirhan's defense of his role in the Robert F. Kennedy assassination.

Click.  The CIA and Nazi war criminals.

February 8, 2005

Click.  Richard A. Clarke: Democracy won't end terrorism.

Click.  David Kay: Let's not make the same mistakes in Iran.

Click.  Jane Mayer: Outsourcing Torture. The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program.

Click.  Saudi conference abandons attempts to define terrorism.

Click.  George Monbiot: Forget the UN. The US occupation regime helped itself to $8.8 bn of mostly Iraqi money in just 14 months.

Click.  Meg Kissinger: Anti-war generation watches its children go to war.

Click.  Cutting an oil artery.

Click.  Early returns in "Deep Throat" contest. Rehnquist by a landslide!

Click.  John Dean: Deep Throat ill, ID out soon.

Click.  Bible use permitted during jury deliberations. Contra Costa Judge Maximum Mary Ann O'Malley denies Justin Helzer a new trial despite a juror's using a Bible verse during deliberations as a justification to impose the death penalty.

Click.  D.A. snoozes case away. Napa Judge Stephen Kroyer dismisses case against alleged molester on due process grounds after 5 years and 20 continuances of jury trial.

February 7, 2005

Click.  Rod Nordland and Babak Dehghanpisheh:  What Sistani wants.

Click.  Bill Powell, Tim McGirk: How Pakistan's A. Q. Khan outwitted Western intelligence to build a global nuclear-smuggling ring that made the world a more dangerous place.

Click.  The RAF Hercules transport plane that crashed in Iraq was hit by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile that insurgents obtained from Iran.

Click.  Bush's deficit plan is all in the math.

Click.  Edmund L. Andrews: Trim deficit? Only if Bush uses magic.

Click.  U.S. government ratchets up public relations budget.

Click.  West Coast electricity customers are still waiting for justice.

Click.  Saul Cornell: How Bush's Justice Department rewrote history to satisfy the NRA.

Click.  "Podcasting" lets the masses do radio shows.

Click.  Pro sports and war are completely separate things, but how often have you heard players called warriors, the gridiron the battlefield?

Click.  NEW MUSIC REVIEW: Stardom: They Should Have Called it CRAPSTER.

Click.  Pro sports and war are completely separate things, but how often have you heard players called warriors, the gridiron the battlefield?

Click.  Hey, what's in it for you? How will Bush's plan affect your yearly social security benefit.

Click.  Ehsan Ahrari: Sistani begins his true agenda.

Click.  David Kay: Finding WMD will only get harder.

Click.  Vote fraud foe, Shelley, gets shafted in California.

Click. Kristen Lombardi: Activist Elena Sassower annoyed congress, her trial judge, and defenders of free speech—all the way to jail.

February 6, 2005

Click. Isikoff, Hosenball: Outside hacker engaged in "Cyberintrusion" into FBI emails. Officials fear had been tapping into supposedly secure e-mail messages since late last year.

Pentagon attaches strings to hike in death gratuity

Bush Proposes $2.5 Trillion Spending Plan That Will Cut Scores of Programs but Cheney Says Not With a 'meat ax'

Click. Stardom: Abu Gharib in FLORIDA.

Click. The terrorist believed to have flown a hijacked airliner into the Pentagon on 9/11, obtained a California driver's license without providing the required Social Security number for identification.

What Bin Laden Sees in Hiroshima

If Bush is now gunning for anyone, it's Syria

"Pre-emptive" study of Iran data started

Bin Laden's film maker sues Michael Moore

FBI Pushes to Expand Domain Into CIA's Intelligence Gathering

Alexander Ivanov: Appearance of Christ before the people. Enlarge.

Wayne Brown: Danse macabre in our time

Meanwhile: On the back 9 at My Lai

Interview: 'My hell in Guantanamo'

Amid Intelligence Turmoil, CIA Director's New Team in Place

Gloria Borger: Scarlet isn't always red

Click. Scott McConnell: Hunger for dictatorship.

More than 300,000 celebrate Bob Marley in Ethiopia reggae fest

Some call him priest, church calls him fake

Spain's health ministry to allow doctors to prescribe pot

Mayo Clinic Researchers Create 'Obedient Virus'; First Step To Use Measles Virus Against Cancer

Rice Genome Approaches Completion

My addicted son

Firm tries to engineer sneezeless kitten for allergic cat fans

FDR's death shows how much we've learned about the heart

Click. Richard Ostling: Three debates show the perennial fascination with ancient materials linked with the Bible.

CALIFORNIA NEWS....

Click.  Los Angeles: Ambulance services have to be diverted to hospitals farther away because of shortage in emergency room capacity. That puts patients in danger.

Click.  Daniel Weintraub: Pat Brown, super pol? New book says not.

Click.  IRS documents show ties between The Family sex cult and a tax-exempt foundation that raises money for projects around world.

Click.  Debra Saunders: Greed, fraud and politics.

Click.  Joan Ryan: Mysterious death of Nuremburg psychiatrist.

Click.  Cabazon tribe's police are unhappy they can't is tap into state and federal law enforcement databases.

Santa Barbara County Facing Big Expenses for Jackson Trial

February 5, 2005

Click.  Steven Thomma: The destruction of Social Security is a long-standing conservative dream.

Click.  Bill Moyers: There is no tomorrow.

Click.  Documents reveal CIA recruited five of Eichmann's associates +  Click.  Eichmann Capture Details Released for Publication.

Juan Cole on Iraq

Pat Buchanan: Richard Nixon’s Revenge

Spiking news that could have made Kerry President

Spanish Judge Sends Two Brothers to Jail, Frees Parents, in Connection With Madrid Terror Bombings

Saudi Arabia Proposes International Anti-Terrorism Center to Stop Attacks

Robert Fisk: History by Laptop

Homeland Security to build Maryland biological defense center

San Francisco: Court ruling protects Marcos' assets. Victims of his reign in Philippines had hoped for damages

Frederic Remington: Indian Scouts in the Moonlight Enlarge

A Decade After a Drug Revolutionizes Stroke Care, Only 3 Percent Get It + Few Recognize Symptoms of a Stroke

Researchers Probe Antarctica's Shifting Ice, 'not Sure What's Going On'

Ancient Beasts Raise Questions About Climate Change

Click. Matthew Duerston: Who’ll Stop the Reign? Taking down the country’s most murderous prison gang, The Aryan Brotherhood.

Secretary of State Shelley quits, says controversies over fund raising, use of federal money and his volatile temper damaged his office's 'ability to function effectively'

Click. Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute cut the ribbon Friday on a $5.8 million biocontainment facility for studying infectious diseases that in the future could include nonvirulent anthrax bacteria

Investors fight over tribal casino take

Governor Schwarzenegger renounces casino-size role

Martinez: Judge delays deciding if sex offender can move. Verse tells crowd at public hearing he's also been abused

Click. Chrisanne Beckner: The Waldorf charter schools tend toward the metaphysical in approach, but is that religious teaching? A federal-court judge will decide.

Click. Josh Indar: The re-licensing of Oroville Dam is this century's first great water fight.

February 4, 2005

Click.  Paul McGeough: The bagman bankrolling the insurgency -- dubbed the "Zarqawi of the Iraqi underworld.

Click.  Lawmakers criticize FBI Director Mueller for continued problems with a costly computer project that was supposed to dramatically improve management of terrorism and other criminal cases.

Click.  Jesselyn Radack: A whistle-blower's inside view of Michael Chertoff.

Click.  Andrew Caffrey: Bush social security plan holds promise for Wall St. Only a few big players would benefit initially, but as accounts grow more firms could gain.

Click.  Canadians fight to keep their medical records out of the hands of the U.S. government.

Click.  Author now suspects "Deep Throat" was George H. W. Bush.

Click.  NEW MUSIC - A REVIEW:  STARDOM: TEGAN and SARA.

February 3, 2005

Click.  Dave Lindorf: How Chertoff hid torture.

Click.  Sidney Blumenthal: Utopian cul-de-sac. 

Click.  Lance Gay: Feds hide snafus under guise of national security.

Click.  A U.S. senator Mike DeWine has demanded that the CIA director release thousands of pages of documents detailing the agency's ties with former Nazis.

Click.  Bill Moyers Interviews Chuck Spinney:  "They don't know where the money's going. Well, guess what the Senate Armed Services and the House Armed Services agree to do in their infinite wisdom? They decided to waive the Pentagon's requirement for these annual audits in their authorization bills."

Click.  Juan Cole: Karl Rove's memo to Bush on the Middle East.

Click.  Larry Chin: The King of the Night's darkest hour. Johnny Carson and the Kennedy assassination.

Click.  Jonna M. Spilbor: When the key witness is a kid. Preparing prospective jurors in the case against Michael Jackson.

Click.  Maine newspaper sues for brain-harvest documents. Click.  Settlement reached in brain harvesting lawsuit, but case not over.

Click.  Organisms found in deepest part of the ocean.

February 2, 2005

Gonzales OK could be seen as OK for torture rules

AP Exclusive: Videos of Riot Squads at Guantanamo Show Prisoners Being Punched and Stripped From the Waist Down

Iraq's $200 billion election

Juan Cole reports

China, Russia Announce Security Consultation Plan

Nurses group punches back at Schwarzenegger in TV ad campaign + 'Simple' budget plan actually quite tricky

Safe harbor for gay bigotry

Click. Theft of SAIC Computers Containing Stockholder Personal Information.

Rise of German Right-Wing Party Evokes Ghosts of Past

How the Camera Became a Weapon

Which Search Engine Is The Best?

The Unicorn in Captivity Enlarge & Commentary

Honeybee parasite threatens crop pollination across the nation

Cancer Pill Proves Effective

Women Still Treated Less for Heart Disease

Software Taming Gene Data Pool

150 years and the lighthouse is still on

February 1, 2005

New book says United States has five secret military bases in Israel

Pepe Escobar: Why the U.S. will not leave Iraq

Judge bans Guantanamo military trials

US military is the big threat now

Two Provincial German Towns Emerging as Unlikely Center of Islamic Extremism

Click. Evelyn Pringle: Jeb, Marvin & Neil - 3 Profiteering Bush Brothers.

Microsoft takes on Google and Yahoo!

Phishing morphs into pharming (hijacking domain names)

Murdered director Theo Van Gogh's film shelved

Birds rise in intellectual pecking order

Stardom: DOCTORS AND HOSPITALS ARE EVIL

Mexico's 'Nectar of the Gods' Dies a Slow Death

The Unicorn in Captivity Enlarge & Commentary

Prosecutors rest case vs. Shanley

For God and company

Copywrongs

January 31, 2005

Click.  Juan Cole:  The Iraq election. First impressions.

Click. Deborah Tannen: Time for talk: Bush's triumph of marketing over dialogue.

Click.  Harry Browne: Why I am obsessed with war.

Click.  Bill Weinberg: Welcome to World War IV.

Click. Justin Raimondo: Sistani's triumph.

Al Jazeera Airs Video of UK Plane Shootdown

Audit: US Lost $9 Billion in Iraq

Kerry blames defeat on Bin Laden

Action Hero or Mere Mortal: Schwarzenegger Sees His Ratings Dip

Critics Pressure Mexican Federal Prosecutor as Third Report on Border Killings Comes Due

NAACP Refuses to Cooperate With IRS Probe Into Allegedly Political Activity

January 30, 2005

Voting Held in Iraq's First Free Election in a Half-Century, Attacks on Polling Stations Kill 44

Bush Calls Iraq Election a Voice of Freedom From Center of Middle East

Military: British Military Plane Crashes North of Baghdad; Blair Confirms Deaths

Click. The peace was lovely but it won't last.

Click. Dyer: U.S. is expelling the last of its 9/11 angst by prodding Iran.

Click. The CIA is refusing to provide hundreds of thousands of pages of documents sought by a government working group under a 1998 law that requires full disclosure of classified records related to Nazi war criminals.

Doctors make eye cells see light

Edouard Manet, The Old Musician Enlarge & Commentary

Greenspan and His Inner Circle Guide Economic Destiny of Millions Behind Ornate Closed Doors

Women are the deciding factor in the Social Security debate

Slower arrival at fires in US is costing lives

See Dick Compute: Teaching Computers to Read No ABC Affair

Click.  Jack Wilson: Beyond stem cells.

Click.  Stem cells become human nerve cells in study.

Click.  Reifman: A Microsoft millionaire wonders if his money can express his values.

Click.  "Coroner to the stars" fashioned his own kind of bully pulpit.

Click.  Gaye LeBaron: Fur trade was once big business on North Coast of California.

January 29, 2005

Click. US jets "flying over Iran to spot potential targets".

Iran puzzle: U.S. and Europe on separate tracks

Click. Homeland Security nominee Chertoff vetted the CIA's interrogation methods and advised the agency on the legality of coercion techniques.

Click. Sen. Barbara Boxer, loudspeaker for left, steps into spotlight

Guilty until proven guiltier

Robert Fisk: This Election Will Change the World, But Not as the US Wanted

New PNAC letter

Microsoft's Gates Bets Against the Dollar, Calls Currency's Status `Scary'

Occidental, Other U.S. Companies Win Rights to Explore for Oil in Libya

Click. Quicken disables the software you paid for to force paid upgrades.

Click. Mark Gaffney: NASA searches for a snowball in hell.

Ruth Kelly's faith and politics (Opus Dei) can't be separated

Click. Marjie Lundstrom: Development dispute has deep roots in Rattlesnake Island.

Stanislaus judge need not testify about missing discs

The greatest show on earth - the Jackson trial

$1 million baby? More like £4,000 woman

Childe Hassam: Flower Girl Enlarge

January 28, 2005

Click.  Is the world safer now?

Click.  Fred Kaplan: CIA report says that American global dominance could end in 15 years.

Click.  Russian officers "helped in plot to seize Beslan school".

Click.  Halliburton plans to exit Iran. (Before the bombs fall?)

Click.  U.S. opens security probe of IBM's sale of PC unit.

Click.  North Korea has bought complete nuclear bomb.

Click.  Juan Cole: Feith Resigns Under Pressure of Investigations.

Click.  Amber Frey did what Gary Condit wouldn't.

Click.  Dennis Kyne: At Hunters Point Shipyard, cyclotron smashed atoms where Lennar wants to build homes.

Click.  Amadi Ajamu: Guinea pig kids.

Click.  Janette Sherman, M.D.: A dangerous gamble: Nuclear power, earthquakes and tsunamis.

Click.  New World native genetics.

Click.  The pending first-degree San Mateo murder trial of police killer Marvin Sullivan could be the first test in California of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision setting parameters for forcibly administering medications to defendants.

January  27, 2005

Click.  Richard Sale: USAF playing cat and mouse game over Iran.

Click.  Iran vows 'astonishing' response to any U.S., Israeli attack.

Click.  Syed Saleem Shahzad: U.S. keeps Iran in its sights.

Click.  Senator Robert Byrd: Voting no on the nomination of Dr. Rice.

Click.  Jim Lobe: From Holocaust to hyperpower.

Click.  Kurt Nimmo: Good riddance Douglas Feith.

Click.  Seymour Hersh: "We've Been Taken Over by a Cult

Click.  Peggy Noonan: Further thoughts on the passions of the inaugural.

Click.  Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address: "The Most Un-American Speech I've Ever Heard."

Click.  Widow of former Enron executive Cliff Baxter gets apology from Sugarland, Texas over missing evidence regarding her husband's death.

Click.  Marjie Lundstrom: Want to know if you ate tainted meat? Why California won't tell you.

Click.  The California State Department of Health Services received about $100 million in federal funds to fight bioterrorism, and officials can't account for it.

Click.  George Butters: Your computer may be housing child porn without your knowing it.

Click.  Randy Dotinga: "The intersection between virtual reality and mental health treatment."

January 24, 2005

Click.  Storm clouds gather for Iraq's ill-omened election.

Iran Launches Rapid Deployment Force

India and China to discuss strategic issues

Click.  Many in the Arab world are looking to Russia to help counter America’s hegemonic position on the world stage. Is it a wise choice?

The hermit nuclear kingdom

Codebreaker unlocks the 3,000 secrets of US military vocabulary

Albert Bierstadt: Seal Rock Enlarge.

Mariah Blake: Tin Soldier

Inventing Sherlock Holmes

Tutankhamun: So who was the golden boy?

January 23, 2005

Click.  Barton Gellman: Secret Unit Expands Rumsfeld's Domain and Some Question Background of Unit's Leader.

Click.  Ralph McGehee: CIABASE. CIA Support of Death Squads.

Click.  H.D.S. Greenway. The White Room.

U.S. Soldier Killed in Northern Iraq Flashpoint

AP Exclusive: Nixon-Era Terrorism Task Force Envisioned Today's Threats

Click.  Maureen Dowd: A bunch of krabby patties.

Vasiliy Polenov. They Brought the Children. From "The Life of Christ"
. Enlarge

Soviet Army Veteran Who Helped Liberate Auschwitz Is Going Back to Mark 60th Anniversary of Its Capture

Click.  In the debate over Social Security changes, one word is key.

Click.  Cheney firm's multi-billion pound project to build Britain's biggest ever warships.

Click.  Robert Harris: Rome's lost library. The intellectual inheritance of western civilization is at stake

Click.  Lowell Selvin: On the record. Planetout.