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--- Begin Message ----Caveat Lector- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> <FONT COLOR="#000099">Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! </FONT><A HREF="http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/zgSolB/TM";><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------~->Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com http://www.konformist.com/50reasons/50reasons.htm 50 Reasons Not to Vote for Bush Order at Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932595023/thekonformist Disturbing News Clip of the Month... http://www.usnews.com 5/24/04 Washington Whispers >From the White House, a nightmare scenario White House officials say they've got a "working premise" about terrorism and the presidential election: It's going to happen. "We assume," says a top administration official, "an attack will happen leading up to the election." And, he added, "it will happen here." There are two worst-case scenarios, the official says. The first posits an attack on Washington, possibly the Capitol, which was believed to be the target of the 9/11 jet that crashed in Pennsylvania. Theory 2: smaller but more frequent attacks in Washington and other major cities leading up to the election. To prepare, the administration has been holding secret antiterrorism drills to make sure top officials know what to do. "There was a sense," says one official involved in the drills, "of mass confusion on 9/11. Now we have a sense of order." Unclear is the political impact, though most Bushies think the nation would rally around the president. "I can tell you one thing," adds the official sternly, "we won't be like Spain," which tossed its government days after the Madrid train bombings. ***** StrangeFacts.com Here's our fabulous collection of Strange Laws that can date back very far. Most of these laws remain in the books today, even if rarely enforced. *Laws shown here have been collected from sources believed to be reliable, however, there are no guarantees. We recommend that you conduct further research if you plan on using any of these in a publication! In Texas, it's against the law for anyone to have a pair of pliers in his or her possession. In Philadelphia, you can't put pretzels in bags based on an Act of 1760. Alaska law says that you can't look at a moose from an airplane. In Corpus Christie, Texas, it is illegal to raise alligators in your home. In Miami, it is forbidden to imitate an animal. It is against the law to mispronounce the name of the State of Arkansas in that State. In Illinois, the law is that a car must be driven with the steering wheel. California law prohibits a woman from driving a car while dressed in a housecoat. In Memphis, Tennessee, a woman is not to drive a car unless a man warns approaching motorists or pedestrians by walking in front of the car that is being driven. In Tennessee, it is against the law to drive a car while sleeping. In New York, it is against the law for a blind person to drive an automobile. In West Virginia, only babies can ride in a baby carriage. In Georgia, it is against the law to slap a man on the back or front. A barber is not to advertise prices in the State of Georgia. In Louisiana, a bill was introduced years ago in the State House of Representatives that fixed a ceiling on haircuts for bald men of 25 cents. In Oklahoma, no baseball team can hit the ball over the fence or out of a ballpark. In Rochester, Michigan, the law is that anyone bathing in public must have the bathing suit inspected by a police officer! In Kentucky, it's the law that a person must take a bath once a year. In Utah, birds have the right of way on any public highway. In Ohio, one must have a license to keep a bear. In Tennessee, a law exists which prohibits the sale of bologna (sandwich meat) on Sunday. In Virginia, the Code of 1930 has a statute which prohibits corrupt practices or bribery by any person other than political candidates. In Providence, Rhode Island, it is against the law to jump off a bridge. In the State of Kansas, you're not allowed to drive a buffalo through a street. In Florida, it is against the law to put livestock on a school bus. In New Jersey, cabbage can't be sold on Sunday. In Galveston, Texas, it is illegal to have a camel run loose in the street! In North Carolina, it is against the law for dogs and cats to fight. In Singapore, it is illegal to chew gum. In Cleveland, Ohio, it is unlawful to leave chewing gum in public places. In Virginia, chickens cannot lay eggs before 8:00 a.m., and must be done before 4:00 p.m. In New York, it is against the law for children to pick up or collect cigarette and cigar butts. In Massachusetts, it is against the law to put tomatos in clam chowder. In Washington State, you can't carry a concealed weapon that is over 6 feet in length. In San Francisco, there is an ordinance, which bans the picking up and throwing of used confetti. In Kentucky, it is illegal for a merchant to force a person into his place of business for the purpose of making a sale. It is against the law in Connecticut for a man to write love letters to a girl whose mother or father has forbidden the relationship. In Michigan, married couples must live together or be imprisoned. In the state of Colorado, a pet cat, if loose, must have a tail- light! In Phoenix, Arizona, you can't walk through a hotel lobby with spurs on. In California, a law created in 1925 makes it illegal to wiggle while dancing. In Utah, daylight must be visible between dancing couples. In Michigan, it is against the law for a lady to lift her skirt more than 6 inches while walking through a mud puddle. In North Carolina, it is against the law for a rabbit to race down the street. In Georgia, it's against the law to spread a false rumor. In West Virginia, one can't cook sauerkraut or cabbage due to the odors and the offence is subject to imprisonment. In Missouri, a man must have a permit to shave. The law states that more than 3000 sheep cannot be herded down Hollywood Blvd. at any one time. In Texas, it is still a "hanging offense" to steal cattle. ***** More Than 1,000 Gay Couples Seek Licenses 5-18-2004 BOSTON - More than 1,000 gay couples sought applications for marriage licenses on the first day Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex couples to legally wed, a survey of the largest cities and towns in the state by The Associated Press showed. Separately, a survey by The Boston Globe found that two-thirds of gays who applied for the licenses Monday were women, and 40 percent of those female couples said they had children in their households, the newspaper reported Tuesday. Half of the couples had been together for at least a decade, according to the Globe survey of 752 couples questioned in 11 cities and towns. The state's high court ruled last year that gay couples' marriage rights are protected under the state constitution, making Massachusetts the first state to allow gays to legally wed. ***** What Are They Smoking At The Labor Department? By John Crudele The New York Post 5-16-4 Don't get too excited about all those new jobs that were supposed to have been created in April. I'm not going to waste a lot of my precious space on this, but the bottom line is that most of the 288,000 jobs that the Labor Department says were created last month may not really exist. They could be figments of statisticians' optimism. Anyone who plodded through my column last Thursday knows I predicted that job growth in April would be better than the 160,000 to 170,000 jobs that the "pros" were anticipating. But I also said, quite emphatically I hope, that the stronger growth would be an illusion - the result of the Labor Department's computers making happy predictions about seasonal job creation that could neither be verified nor justified. I'll explain one aspect. Back in the March employment report, the government added 153,000 positions to its revised total of 337,000 new jobs because it thought (but couldn't prove) loads of new companies were being created in this economy. That estimate comes from the Labor Department's "birth/death model." You can look up these numbers on the Department's Web site. As staggering as the assumption about new companies was in March, the Labor Department got even more brazen in April. Last Friday, it was disclosed that these imaginary jobs had been increased by 117,000 to 270,000 for the latest month - because, I guess, the stat jockeys got a vision from the gods of spring. Without those extra 117,000 make-believe jobs, the total growth for April would have been just 171,000 - sub-par for an economy that's supposed to be growing at more than 4 percent a year, but right on the pros' targets. Take away all 270,000 make-believe jobs and, well, you have the sort of pessimism that the political pollsters are seeing. If I was the suspicious type (and if I thought Washington was smart enough), I'd suspect a nasty motive behind the sudden surge in these mystery jobs. But for now, let's just acknowledge their existence. Also keep in mind that the government doesn't distinguish between good companies being created and, say, a guy doing consulting work out of his basement because he can't find real work. What does this new job announcement mean in the real world? It means there will be more pressure on the financial markets, as we've seen for a while but especially since last Thursday. It also means that the Federal Reserve now has the excuse it needs to raise interest rates in June (as I've said before would happen) and will probably start regretting that move by the end of the summer. And President Bush will probably give in to temptation and start crowing about the economy, going against the mood, as captured by pollsters. This will make him look as out of touch with reality as his father did. * Press reports say they are thinking of removing a 9/11 plaque from the New York Stock Exchange because it's unduly flattering to former Chairman Dick Grasso, but I hear they are also replacing all the round, shiny doorknobs in the building. It seems they remind too many people of the top of Grasso's head. (If you have an "I hate Dick" story, please send it to me.) * Here's some more bad news about Iraq. A source in the intelligence community tells me that the U.N. oil embargo of Saddam Hussein was worthless because Iraqi oil was being shipped all these years to a Caribbean island called St. Eustatius, unloaded into onshore tanks and then reloaded into U.S.-bound tanker ships. The same switcheroo is being done with Iranian oil, I'm told. Oh, and the source says Washington would rather nobody know about this. ***** White House says US won't tap oil reserves 5-18-2004 WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House ruled out tapping the US strategic petroleum reserves in response to soaring gas prices that may pose a political threat to US President George W. Bush's re-election bid. Spokesman Scott McClellan said the stockpile was meant to defuse an emergency, and that lawmakers worried about the high costs at the pump should approve Bush's controversial energy plan. "Our position remains the same," he said. "Because the Strategic Petroleum Reserve being there in the event of National emergencies, in the event we would be attacked or there would be severe disruptions in the supply of oil." "The president is concerned, like all Americans, about rising gas prices. It's important that Congress passes a comprehensive energy plan so we don't have to go through this every year," said McClellan. "We will continue to do what we've been doing that is to stay in close contact with producers around the world to urge them not to take action that would harm our economy or hurt consumers here in America," he said. ***** Coalition's Refusal To Track Civilian Losses 'Monstrous' 'Contrary To The Spirit Of Geneva Convention' By Kim Sengupta and Marie Woolf The Independent - UK 5-17-4 One year and 16 days after President George Bush declared the end to major hostilities in Iraq, the toll of American and British casualties continues to rise. Since the start of the invasion, 566 members of the American military and 211 US civilians have died. The British figures are 59 and 8. But at the same time thousands of others men, women, the elderly and the very young have been killed or maimed with far less fanfare. No one knows how many. They are Iraqi civilians, and the Americans and the British do not bother to keep count of the people they have "liberated" and then killed. This is not usual in modern warfare. In most past conflicts, attempts were made to keep a tally of civilian losses. Legal experts say that, particularly in the case of Iraq, it is the duty of occupying powers to do so under the Geneva Conventions. The Pentagon says it is not helpful to keep a "body count". Yet, there is no hesitation in giving numbers of Iraqi fighters, described as "Saddam loyalists" and "al-Qa'ida elements" who have supposedly been eliminated by the Allies. Unofficial estimates of civilian casualties are available. The pressure group Iraq Body Count presents a daily update. It puts the maximum number of killed Iraqi civilians at 11,005, and the minimum at 9,148. But this does not include about 800 reportedly killed recently in Fallujah and 235 in Baghdad, or about 20 reported to have died in the British-controlled Basra region. As the death toll continued to mount yesterday, Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, ruled out allowing MPs to vote on sending more troops amid reports that the British deployment could double to 15,000. He and other Cabinet ministers played down mounting speculation Tony Blair would step down as Prime Minister. Meanwhile Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, was forced back on the defensive by reports he had authorised the use of extreme interrogation techniques on Iraqi prisoners. Iraq Body Count accepts its figures are inexact. "We only include deaths which have been reported by multiple media sources, and we are also careful in trying to avoid duplication," said Hamit Dardagan, a co-founder of the organisation. "The numbers are likely to be higher, but we do not want to speculate as to how many. But this really should be done by the coalition powers. They owe a responsibility to the people of Iraq." Amnesty International, which published a report last week detailing the British Army's alleged involvement in the deaths of 37 civilians in disputed circumstances, says it is "astonishing" that the US and Britain are not keeping track of civilian casualties. "Unless this takes place it is very difficult to find out what is going on. We do not believe that it is not possible." A spokesman for the US-based Human Rights Watch said: "What is essential is to find out why any civilian death or injury is happening. An investigation is needed into the tactics and weapons causing this." Sir Menzies Campbell, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats and the party's spokesman on foreign affairs, said: "The failure to keep account of civilian casualties is monstrous. It gives the impression that the lives of ordinary Iraqi citizens are worth less than those of soldiers. "It cannot be beyond the wit of the Coalition Provisional Authority to find a way to register Iraqi numbers. Not to do so appears contrary to the spirit of Geneva Convention." Alan Simpson, Labour MP for Nottingham South, said: "Our refusal to count the deaths of Iraqi civilians fuels the belief in the Arab world that the peace is just a hidden war. In not counting Iraqi deaths, their lives appear to count for nothing. In such circumstances you can't blame Iraqis for believing that in our eyes they are still the enemy." ***** Children Of Bush's America Torturers Of Abu Ghraib Were McWorkers Who Ended Up In Iraq Because They Could No Longer Find Decent Jobs At Home By Naomi Klein The Guardian - UK 5-18-4 In 1968, the legendary US labour organiser Cesar Chavez went on a 25- day hunger strike. While depriving himself of food, he condemned abusive conditions suffered by farm workers. The slogan of his historic union drive was: " Si se puede! " Yes, we can! Last week, George Bush went on a four-day bus ride. While stopping for multiple pancake breakfasts, he praised tax cuts and condemned everyone who says American workers need protection in the global economy. His battle cry for laissez-faire economics? "Yes, America can." The echo was probably intentional. Bush is so desperate for the Hispanic vote that he has taken to shouting " Vamos a ganar! We're going to win!" during stump speeches in Ohio. But the main purpose of the "Yes, American can" bus tour, of course, was to shift the attention of US voters away from the Iraq prison scandal towards the recovering job market. According to a US labour department report, 288,000 jobs were created in April. Bush's campaign has seized on these numbers to further cast John Kerry as the dour New England pessimist, always droning on with bad news. Bush, on the other hand, is the bouncy Texan optimist, always flashing an easy smile and a thumbs-up. "The president has to make sure that we're optimistic and confident in order for jobs to be created," he told a crowd in Dubuque, Iowa. Some jobs, however, are more responsive than others to the power of positive presidential thinking. More than 82% of the jobs created in April were in service industries, including restaurants and retail. The biggest new employers were temp agencies. Over the past year, 272,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost. No wonder the president's economic report in February floated the idea of reclassifying fast- food restaurants as factories. "When a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, for example, is it providing a 'service' or is it combining inputs to 'manufacture' a product?" the report asks. But not all of the job growth in the US has come from burger-flipping and temping. With more than 2 million Americans behind bars, the number of prison guards has exploded - from 270,317 in 2000 to 476,000 in 2002. Watching Bush give the thumbs up in the face of so much economic misery put me in mind of a certain widely circulated photograph taken in Iraq. There are Specialist Charles Graner and Private Lynndie England, the happy couple, standing above a pile of tortured Iraqi inmates, grinning and giving the double thumbs up. Everything is fine, their eyes seem to be saying, just don't look down. There's something else connecting the sorry state of the US job market and the images coming out of Abu Ghraib. The young soldiers taking the fall for the prison abuse scandal are the McWorkers, prison guards and laid-off factory workers of Bush's so-called economic recovery. The resum�s of the soldiers facing abuse charges come straight out of the April US labour department report. There's spc Sabrina Harman, of Lorton, Virginia, assistant manager of her local Papa John's Pizza. There's spc Graner, a prison guard back home in Pennsylvania. There's Sergeant Ivan Frederick, another prison guard, this time from rural Virginia. Before he joined what Van Jones, a prisoners' rights lawyer, calls "America's gulag economy", Frederick had a decent job at the Bausch and Lomb factory in Mountain Lake, Maryland. But according to the New York Times, that factory shut down and moved to Mexico - one of the nearly 900,000 jobs that the Economic Policy Institute estimates have been lost since the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force in 1994, the vast majority in manufacturing. Free trade has turned the US labour market into an hourglass: plenty of jobs at the bottom, a fair bit at the top, but very little in the middle. At the same time, getting from the bottom to the top has become increasingly difficult, with tuition fees at state colleges up by more than 50% since 1990. And that's where the US military comes in: the army has positioned itself as the bridge across America's growing class chasm: money for tuition in exchange for military service. Call it the Nafta draft. It worked for Lynndie England, the most infamous of the Abu Ghraib accused. She joined the military police to pay for college. Her colleague Sabrina Harman joined up for the same reason. Of course, the poverty of the soldiers involved in prison torture makes them neither more guilty, nor less. But the more we learn about them, the clearer it becomes that the lack of good jobs and social equality in the US is precisely what brought them to Iraq in the first place. Despite his attempts to use the economy to distract attention from Iraq, and his efforts to isolate the soldiers as un- American deviants, these are the children George Bush left behind, fleeing dead-end McJobs, abusive prisons, unaffordable education and closed factories. And they are his children in another way too: it's in the ubiquitous thumbs-up sign that they flash, seemingly oblivious to the disaster at their feet. This is the quintessential George Bush pose. Convinced that US voters want a positive president, the Bush team has learned to use optimism as an offensive weapon: no matter how devastating the crisis, no matter how many lives have been destroyed, they have insistently given the world the thumbs up. Donald Rumsfeld? "Doing a superb job," according to the optimist-in- chief. The mission in Iraq? "We're making progress, you bet," Bush told reporters one year after his disastrous "mission accomplished" speech. And the US job market, which has driven so many into poverty? "Yes, America can!" We don't yet know who taught these young soldiers how to torture their prisoners. But we do know who taught them how to stay happy-go- lucky in the face of tremendous suffering. That lesson came straight from the top. 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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
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