"The Smiths" singer Morrisey reportedly questioned by FBI

United Press
LONDON, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- British rocker Morrissey says agents from the FBI and Britain's Special Branch picked him up for questioning after he labeled President Bush a "terrorist."
"They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government, and similarly in England," Morrissey told Sky News Friday. "But it didn't take them very long to realize that I'm not."
Morrissey said he was surprised at the interest since he does not subscribe to any political group and doesn't "really say anything unless I'm asked directly and I don't even demonstrate in public."
He said his experience proves freedom of speech is an illusion.
"My view is that neither England or America are democratic societies," he said. "You can't really speak your mind and if you do you're investigated."

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Meanwhile Bush is opening up 21 US shipping ports to a UAE State owned shipping company. Not that I really care, but the hypocrisy of this guy ceases to amaze.

The Tragedy of Pat Tillman.

This isn't a new story by any means but I was reminded of it while reading an article at one of my regular reads, Yellow Dog Blog.

In short, Pat Tillman was a professional Grid Iron player in the US. He was young and had a very lucrative future ahead of him, in fact Tillman turned down a $3.6 million contract with the St. Lois Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army . After 911 Pat and his brother enlisted in the US Marines.

From Wikipedia-

The two brothers completed training for the elite Army Ranger school in late 2002 and were assigned to the second battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in
Fort Lewis, Washington. Both Pat and Kevin were deployed to the Middle East as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Pat Tillman was subsequently redeployed to Afghanistan, where, on April 22 2004, he was killed in action by friendly fire while on patrol.
His unit was attacked in an apparent ambush on a road outside of the village of Sperah about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Khost, near the Pakistan border. An Afghan militia soldier was killed and two other Rangers were injured as well.
The U.S. Department of Defense concluded that Pat Tillman's death was due to friendly fire aggravated by the intensity of the firefight.
It was later learned that in fact, no hostile forces were involved in the firefight, and that two allied groups fired on each other in confusion over an exploded mine or remote controlled bomb. U.S. Army Special Operations Command, however, initially claimed there was an exchange with hostile forces.

A later investigation conducted by Brigadier General Jones found that the Army was slow to correct the story of a hostile exchange of fire after learning that it was false.

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Tillman's family requested a report on the death of their son, and it was only then that they found out that he wasn't killed in battle but was in fact shot and killed by friendly fire.

I have to say that I do realise that this type of thing can happen. But, all the lies and secrecy, especially to the family is a disgrace.

"Brig. Gen. Gary M. Jones revealed that in the days immediately following
Tillman's death, US Army investigators were aware that Tillman was killed by friendly fire. Jones reported that senior Army commanders, including Gen. John Abizaid, knew of this fact within days of the shooting, but nevertheless approved the awarding of the Silver Star, Purple Heart, and a posthumous promotion. The citation report accompanying these awards said that Tillman was killed by enemy forces and contained a detailed account of the alleged battle which Army leadership knew had never taken place.

Jones reported that members of Tillman's unit burned his body armour and uniform in an apparent attempt to hide the fact that he was killed by friendly fire. Several soldiers were subsequently punished for their actions by being removed from their Army Rangers unit. Jones believed that Tillman should retain his medals and promotion, since he intended to engage the enemy, and behaved heroically.

Tillman's family was not informed of the finding that he was killed by friendly fire until weeks after his memorial service, although at least some senior Army officers knew of that fact prior to the service"

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Everything about this "War on Terror" is wrong but when they cannot even tell the truth to the parents of the Soldier who died it casts a darker shadow over the morals of the Goverments who started it.
The fact that he was the ultimate team player and it was his own men who killed him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting.

Spider snacks on snake

This is a bit old but I thought it was intersting enough to share...

Bloemfontein - An office receptionist got the shock of her life earlier this week when she found a 14cm long Aurora house snake entangled in the web of a deadly spider.

Tania Robertson, a receptionist at an electrical firm in Bloemfontein, came in to work on Tuesday and spotted the strange sight next to a desk in her office.

The snake, which had obviously died from the spider's poisonous bite, was off the ground and caught up in the web.

Leon Lotz of the arachnology department at the National Museum immediately identified the spider as a female brown button spider.

The brown button spider, easily identifiable by a red hourglass marking on its stomach, is not quite as deadly as a black widow.

It is believed the snake got caught in the web on Monday night. But it did not take the spider long to bite it.A red mark on the snake's stomach was evidence of where the spider had started eating it.

Throughout Tuesday, the spider checked on her prey, but on Wednesday she rolled it up and started spinning a web around it. She also kept lifting it higher off the ground, while continually snacking on it. Even a fly that accidentally landed on the snake was chased off aggressively.

Iraq Power and Water Still Not Working Properly

New York Times

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 — Virtually every measure of the performance of Iraq's oil, electricity, water and sewerage sectors has fallen below preinvasion values even though $16 billion of American taxpayer money has already been disbursed in the Iraq reconstruction program, several government witnesses said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Of seven measures of public services performance presented at the committee hearing by the inspector general's office, only one was above preinvasion values.

Seriously, how on Earth could anyone with any semblance of common sense or decency vote for a President and Administration with such an undeniable record of failure?

Check at the bottom of this page to see just how much the Iraq war has cost the taxpayers of the US.

Tony Abbott Rejects Abortion Pill

Tony Abbott would like to have the people of Australia believe that this has nothing whatsoever to do with his religion. Yeah sure.

ABC News
The Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott says he will not approve the use of the abortion pill RU-486 in Australia.

Mr Abbott has told PM he's received advice from the Chief Medical Officer that RU-486 has a higher rate of "later adverse events" that could require urgent intervention, than surgical termination.

The Australian Democrats, though, have accused Health Minister Tony Abbott of skewing information about the abortion pill to support his own religious position.

And the Australian Medical Association says that the Health Department advice on RU486 that Tony Abbott released today is plain wrong and ignores international research on the subject.

The AMA also says that the drug will now continued to be denied to Australian women for political reasons.

Is there anything more arrogant than politicians thinking they know better than everyone else? Including Medical professionals on Medical issues.
This is an issue between the Woman and her Doctor not a bloody politician who lets is personal religious beliefs dictate his politics.

Facts About Guantanamo Bay that the White House Don't Want You to Know

I've just finished reading an article about Guantanamo Bay and it leaves me with absolutely no confidence in the US Governments handling of this farcical (fantasy?) "War on Terror".
The US Government, more specifically the Neo-cons and in particular Shrub and his close buddies have no intention whatsoever in "defeating" or ending terrorism, they want it to continue to fuel their economy. The Bush cabal has made a lot of money from War profiteering. In fact George Bush is the 3rd generation to make money out of war.

National Journal

National Journal undertook a detailed review of the unclassified files to develop profiles of the 132 men. NJ separately reviewed transcripts for 314 prisoners who pleaded their cases before Combatant Status Review Tribunals at Guantanamo.
Taken together, the information provides a picture of who, exactly, has been taken prisoner in the war on terror and is being held in an anomalous U.S. military prison on an island belonging to one of America's bitterest enemies.
Reporter Corine Hegland's exhaustively researched cover story in this issue -- studded with probative details and human stories that every serious student of the war against terror should read -- provides powerful evidence confirming what many of us have suspected for years;

That a very high percentage, perhaps the majority, of the 500-odd men now held at Guantanamo were not captured on any battlefield, let alone on "the battlefield in Afghanistan" (as Bush asserted) while "trying to kill American forces" (as McClellan claimed).

Fewer than 20 percent of the Guantanamo detainees, the best available evidence suggests, have ever been Qaeda members.

Many scores, and perhaps hundreds, of the detainees were not even Taliban foot soldiers, let alone Qaeda terrorists. They were innocent, wrongly seized noncombatants with no intention of joining the Qaeda campaign to murder Americans.

The majority were not captured by U.S. forces but rather handed over by reward-seeking Pakistanis and Afghan warlords and by villagers of highly doubtful reliability.
These locals had strong incentives to tar as terrorists any and all Arabs they could get their hands on as the Arabs fled war-torn Afghanistan in late 2001 and 2002 -- including noncombatant teachers and humanitarian workers. And the Bush administration has apparently made very little effort to corroborate the plausible claims of innocence detailed by many of the men who were handed over.
Only 35 percent of them (more precisely, of the 115 whose court files specify the locus of capture) were seized in Afghanistan; 55 percent were picked up by Pakistanis in Pakistan.

The 314 transcripts released to the Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit give similar results. The 314 men described there included 97 Afghans who were arrested in Afghanistan. But they also included 211 foreigners, 152 of whom -- or more than 70 percent -- were arrested outside of Afghanistan. And 145 of those men were captured in Pakistan.

The administration has also disclosed very little about who the Guantanamo detainees are, excepting 1) redacted transcripts of 314 detainees' hearings before Guantanamo's nonjudicial "Combatant Status Review Tribunals" or CSRTs; and 2) somewhat more-detailed responses to the federal court petitions filed by lawyers for 132 of these 314 men.

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This is after the the American, British and Australian Governments have all peddled Lie after Lie in trying to defend their actions. Everything about Guantanamo Bay is wrong, the fact it tortures prisoners, gets coerced statements and confessions from the Illegally held prisoners (which mean nothing because the prisoners would have written and signed anything at all at the time), no access to the Red Cross or any other Humane Society (normal POW's are allowed this) The illegally held prisoners are not given POW status nor are they given Criminal status therefore denying them every single right and protection normally associated with POW's or prisoners. The illegally held prisoners are not even allowed protection under the Geneva Convention.
If the US Government ever wants to take the high ground in regard to any future or present hostilities then it has lost all credibility. They have no right to treat people in such a manner.

These are people picked up off the battlefield in Afghanistan. They weren't wearing uniforms ... but they were there to kill."
-- President Bush, June 20, 2005
"These detainees are dangerous enemy combatants....They were picked up on the battlefield, fighting American forces, trying to kill American forces."
-- White House press secretary Scott McClellan, June 21, 2005
"The people that are there are people we picked up on the battlefield, primarily in Afghanistan. They're terrorists. They're bomb makers. They're facilitators of terror. They're members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban....We've let go those that we've deemed not to be a continuing threat. But the 520-some that are there now are serious, deadly threats to the United States."
-- Vice President Cheney, June 23, 2005
"These are people, all of whom were captured on a battlefield. They're terrorists, trainers, bomb makers, recruiters, financiers, [Osama bin Laden's] bodyguards, would-be suicide bombers, probably the 20th 9/11 hijacker."
-- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, June 27, 2005

Bush Verses Science

The past few weeks George Deutsch has been mentioned on a few Blogs because of him using his position at NASA to hamper real scientific study and progress involving Climate Change. George Deutsch got his job at NASA by being a loyal young Republican. He was a Presidential Appointee to NASA. Well, not no more he ain't!

From America Blog
George Deutsch, the Bush "war room" campaign staffer, who was on a quest to end science at NASA, has "resigned." Yep, he doesn't work there anymore. Seems young Mr. Deutsch had some discrepancies in his resume:

George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.

NASA Chief Backs Agency Openness (Feb. 4, 2006) Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his resume on file at the agency asserted.

Mr. Deutsch's educational record was first challenged on Monday by Nick Anthis, who graduated from Texas A&M last year with a biochemistry degree and has been writing a Web log on science policy, scientificactivist.blogspot.com.

After Mr. Anthis read about the problems at NASA, he said in an interview: "It seemed like political figures had really overstepped the line. I was just going to write some commentary on this when somebody tipped me off that George Deutsch might not have graduated."

He posted a blog entry asserting this after he checked with the university's association of former students. He reported that the association said Mr. Deutsch received no degree.

Does the phrase "Your doing a heck of a job Brownie" sound familiar?



Washington Post has more.

A Time magazine cover story today shines a spotlight on Bush's relationship of convenience with science. Mark Thompson and Karen Tumulty write that "growing numbers of researchers, both in and out of government, say their findings -- on pollution, climate change, reproductive health, stem-cell research and other areas in which science often finds itself at odds with religious, ideological or corporate interests -- are being discounted, distorted or quashed by Bush Administration appointees.

Something That Was Said During the State of the Union Address.

Why the hell is an Aussie writing about the State of the Union Address? (SOTU) I hear the rowdy rabble roar from the rear. Well, it's because what happens in the U.S. affects what happens in Australia, and in fact, affects much of the world. The Stock market in Australia hardly does a thing until they've heard what is happening in the US. We have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because Terrorists attacked the US. and it goes on.
So, I like to keep abreast of what is happening over there.

Although riddled with fabrications, prevarications, Spin and just blatant Lies. The one paragraph that did catch my attention was when Shrub said that his Government was meeting it's responsibility in providing Health Care for the poor and Elderly. That's just wrong.
Recently in America there has been a huge cock-up with the way the Federal Government is "providing Health Care for the sick and Elderly" in fact the exact opposite would be more accurate.
About 3/4 of the way through the SOTU address he said. -

Our government has a responsibility to help provide health care for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility. For all Americans, we must confront the rising cost of care

Why is that so bad?
Well, just recently Bush introduced one of his policy's for Health Care for people on low income. The introduction to this system was an absolutely disaster. People were supposed to have their names transfered over to an Insurance Company, this didn't happen they were just kicked off instead so something like 6 million Sick, Disabled and Elderly were left with no option than to pay the full price for their medications.
Most, if not all, could not afford to do that. But can you imagine how these people felt when they heard that news?

It may not sound that big a deal but if you can imagine and Old age pensioner, some one in a wheel chair or who is in so much pain that getting to the Chemist or Dr. is a mission in itself and then to have the Pharmacist say "No, sorry, you've been taken off the list" I can't even imagine the panic and despair that some of the people would have felt knowing that from now on they cannot get any of their medications.

But then, in the SOTU address this man with War in his Heart Say's "Our government has a responsibility to help provide health care for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility. For all Americans, we must confront the rising cost of care."

Why do the people of the US take this ? Do they not care (unless it happens to them or someone close to them of course) Do they think someone else will fix the problem? Do they actually believe what their President is saying when he Say's things like that?
We have our problems in Australia but I honestly don't think our PM could ever get away with such blatant prevarications as what the US Government seem to be getting away with.


Here is the full transcript of the speech if you would like to read it.
SOTU Transcript

I'm With Stupid.

This picture has been circulating the internet quite a bit just lately. Kudos to the kids who set it up.

Katrina Investigation is Hampered by the White House.

Surprise surprise, the White House is refusing to handover important documents and is also preventing key officials from co-operating with the congressional Inquiry into the pathetic government response to Hurricane Katrina late year.
In a national address in New Orleans in the days after Katrina, George Dubya made promises that a "thorough" congressional investigation into the relief debacle would be made and that he would fully co-operate with any investigation.


Daily Kos article

White House spokesperson Trent Duffy said that the White House is refusing requests to allow officials like Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff; his deputy, Joe Hagin; Frances Fragos Townsend, the domestic
security adviser; and her deputy, Ken Rapuano to testify on Capitol Hill about their responses to the catastrophe. Moreover, the White House also refused to provide e-mail correspondence and other communications made by Administration officials for examination, all the while claiming to be cooperating with the Congressional committee.

The UK Guardian reports-

The Bush administration has refused to hand over email correspondence about the storm and has prevented officials involved in the government reaction from appearing before the Senate. Those officials include the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, and his deputy, Joe Hagin, Frances Fragos Townsend, the president's adviser on homeland security, and his deputy, Ken Rapuano.

Michael Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the Inquiry on Monday he had been told not to comment on his conversations with top White House officials.

Typical.
Have mentioned how much I hate Liars and Hypocrites today yet?