Canada pushes back, Venezuela pushes back, Iran pushes back, Russia pushes back, etc.

[“Moral depravity” is a phrase that doesn’t get enough use I think.]
Animal rights activists are disgusted by a new candy from Kraft Foods Inc.that's shaped like critters run over by cars - complete with tire treads.
 
The fruity-flavored Trolli Road Kill Gummi Candy in shapes of partly flattened snakes, chickens and squirrels fosters cruelty toward animals, according to the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
http://www.rense.com/general63/rad.htm

Former energy minister Gonen Segev admitted Sunday morning to charges of attempting to smuggle some 32,000 ecstasy pills from the Netherlands and forging his diplomatic passport.
 
Segev, who had long refuted the accusations, admitted to the charges as part of a plea bargain under which he will get five years imprisonment and a $27,500 fine which will be transferred to the Israel Anti-Drug Authority.
http://www.rense.com/general63/smsug.htm

"This is our airspace, we're a sovereign nation and you don't intrude on a sovereign nation's airspace without seeking permission," Martin said.
 
He was responding to comments by departing U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci, who warned on Thursday that by not signing on to the continental missile shield, Canada was in effect giving up its sovereignty and would be "outside the room" when the United States faced shooting down an incoming missile.
http://www.rense.com/general63/can.htm

A Community Land Trust (CLT) is a form of common land ownership with a charter based on the principles of sustainable and ecologically-sound stewardship and use. The land in a CLT is held in trust by a democratically-governed group, while individuals own the buildings and the improvements created by their own labor and investment. Through an inheritable and renewable 99-year lease, the trust removes land from the speculative market and facilitates multiple uses such as affordable housing, agriculture, and open space preservation.
http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/frameset_land.html

During the past year Jenning's producers interviewed me a number of times, and because I sensed what they had in mind, I made, as a preemptive strike, a number of careful, highly specific observations about the UFO abduction phenomenon.
 
All of these crucial points - recorded by ABC on videotape - were designed to underline the physical reality of UFO abductions and to demonstrate the implausibility of current skeptical explanations. To its shame, ABC suppressed ALL of these observations.
http://www.rense.com/general63/bfd.htm

When George W. Bush confronted Vladimir Putin last week about the freedom of the press in Russia, Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe reports, Putin shot back with an attack of his own: "We didn't criticize you when you fired those reporters at CBS." Details of the meeting, which included just the two presidents and their translators inside the historic castle that overlooks the Slovak capital of Bratislava, are reported in the March 7 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 28).
http://www.rense.com/general63/putt.htm

[I guess this is good, but shouldn’t someone have checked to se if the Canadians were onboard a few billion dollars ago?]
A US navy missile over the Pacific intercepted a target missile, which the military on Thursday said was the fifth successful test of a system to shield North America.

The navy said the Standard Missile 3 interceptor is designed to destroy medium- to long-range missiles on the fly.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-05j.html

[Laser clear communications with Mars.]
Don Boroson of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory will present an overview of the Mars Laser Communications Demonstration, designed to be the first laser-based interplanetary communications link.

Slated to transmit information at up to 30 million bits per second (much faster than a cable modem; in fact, as fast as some optical-fiber connections), the system is designed to be almost ten times quicker than the speeds of the fastest interplanetary radio links in existence.

The $300 million NASA experiment will be launched on the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO), scheduled for liftoff in 2009. Once the requisite equipment goes into orbit at the Red Planet, transmissions between Earth and the laser communications terminal on the MTO will undergo about a year of testing.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/internet-05t.html

Moreover, Mars is not the only place where spacecraft have found evidence for liquid water. The Galileo probe - which orbited the Jovian system for eight years before plunging into Jupiter's cloudtops in 2003 - collected data indicating three of the planet's largest moons - Callisto, Ganymede and especially Europa - appear to harbor a deep subterranean ocean.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-05i.html

Iridium Satellite LLC, the global supplier of mobile satellite communication services, today said that it had more than 114,000 subscribers as of December 31, 2004, a 22.5% increase over its total number of subscribers at the end of 2003.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iridium-05b.html

The commission said it has asked Microsofts rivals to give their views on Microsoft's proposed ways of implementing the court ruling -- notably including what the stripped down version of Windows would be called.

The spokesman said Brussels was against a proposal for it to be called "Reduced Media Edition," saying Microsoft should "refrain from using terms that would have the effect of making the unbunbled version less attractive."
http://www.spacedaily.com/2005/050225135302.35gfcqii.html

Tan said the plan would develop Singapore's capabilities to protect the country's infrastructure from such threats and respond swiftly to recover after a strike takes place.

It involves raising awareness within government, the private sector and general community about the threats and implementing appropriate security measures, he said.

It also aims to develop a pool of "capable and qualified security professionals" to combat cyber-attacks.
http://www.spacedaily.com/2005/050222104638.7okv2obb.html

For the first time, scientists have regenerated a damaged optic nerve - from the eye to the brain. This achievement, which occurred in laboratory mice and is described in the March 1, 2005 issue of the Journal of Cell Science, holds great promise for victims of diseases that destroy the optic nerve, and for sufferers of central nervous system injuries.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacemedicine-05n.html

"But we do know that there are enough emissions to worry about." In a study to be published in Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Fearnside estimates that in 1990 the greenhouse effect of emissions from the Curua-Una dam in Pará, Brazil, was more than three-and-a-half times what would have been produced by generating the same amount of electricity from oil.

This is because large amounts of carbon tied up in trees and other plants are released when the reservoir is initially flooded and the plants rot. Then after this first pulse of decay, plant matter settling on the reservoir's bottom decomposes without oxygen, resulting in a build-up of dissolved methane.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/energy-tech-05o.html

[Supposedly this broadband over powerlines interferes with shortwave radio communication I think. It might have other issues as well.]
The once-futuristic idea of electricity lines serving as a gateway to the Internet has become a reality, although the technology has yet to demonstrate the kind of breakthrough advantages over telephone and cable television services that will grab the attention of demanding consumers.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/internet-05s.html

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.

This is what U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci clarified last week in his angered response to Paul Martin's announcement that Canada won't join the U.S. missile defence scheme. Cellucci noted that Washington would simply deploy its anti-missile system over Canadian airspace anyway, and expressed puzzlement over Canada's decision to "in effect, give up its sovereignty."

No doubt the Soviets felt similar puzzlement as they rolled into Czechoslovakia in 1968. What's with these crazy Czechs? Don't they get it? All they have to do is co-operate with Moscow and they can retain their "sovereignty."
...
The prospect of the arms race moving into space may thrill Washington strategic planners, but it's long been dreaded by most of the world. In 1967, ninety-seven nations signed the Outer Space Treaty banning weapons from space.

Since then, there's been pressure for a tougher ban. In fact, Canada has played a key role pushing for that tougher line at disarmament talks in Geneva. Virtually all nations now support a proposed new ban.

But the U.S. does not. Instead it wants to take control of space to achieve lasting military dominance. And it wanted Canada — and our good name as a strong arms control proponent — to be linked to the missile defence scheme, softening its aggressive image.

So Canada's gutsy refusal to go along was the right move — and one that, incidentally, will win us higher standing in the world
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1109373907994&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795

[Good luck unloading this guy. They’ll probably have to send him to the uS if they really want to get him back overseas.]
RECALLED Israeli diplomat Amir Laty will be posted to another embassy within weeks after an internal investigation in Jerusalem cleared him of espionage during his time in Australia.

Mr Laty's new posting, barely two months after he was recalled from his consular post in Canberra amid widespread claims he was a spy, is a public demonstration of support for the diplomat by Israeli officials who claim they still do not know why the Australian Government asked him to leave.
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12392125%255E421,00.html

[Notice how thesupposedly independent media outlets all decided to switch from “torture” to “abuse” simultaneously? All those thousands of news outlets, all independently reaching the same conclusion at the same time.

Just like how everyone all of a suddent decided that Saddam Hussein was found in a “spider hole” instead of a “rat hole”. After the media had been using “rat hole” for a while all of a sudden every single media outlet independently and coincidentally decided to switch to “spider hole”, even though no one even knows what a “spider hole” is. It’s like something from Ripley’s Believe it or Not.]
Relatives of Iraqis tortured by British soldiers revealed last night how they were also arrested and brutally beaten simply for asking questions.

The Independent on Sunday can reveal that the Iraqi civilians were punched and kicked after arriving at Camp Breadbasket to find out why friends and relatives had been detained.

The disclosures came as the Attorney General called for reforms of the military justice system, and shortly after three Royal Regiment of Fusiliers soldiers were jailed for abusing detainees.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=615205


[Chew on this statement for a while.]
Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky," said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.
http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=2989614&nav=EQlpWjof

[Good mars photos. They have ice in them.]
http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEMX67D3M5E_index_1.html

[New dictionary ruling: “Arab” and “dyspeptic” now interchangeable.]
Writing in her February 23 column for Universal Press Syndicate, Coulter observed, among other things, that Guckert/Gannon was a better reporter than The New York Times' Maureen Dowd and his "only offense is that he may be gay." Nothing unexpected there, but Coulter also wrote: "Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president."

But when the column got posted by by Universal on its Web site, that line was changed to: "Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that dyspeptic, old Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president."
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000818305

[When this country was founded, our forefathers looked forward to a day when no-account political hacks would sit around in a room and decide who could have guns and who couldn’t and what kind they would have.]
Anti-gun lawmakers are seeking a ban on .50-caliber "sniper rifles," saying they're favored by terrorists and can shoot down aircraft from a range of more than 2,000 yards -- though they don't appear to be tied to any crimes here in the last decade, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows.

A spokesman for the National Rifle Association, which is pushing dozens of its own bills in the General Assembly, vowed to fight the sniper-rifle legislation backed by Representatives Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook) and Beth Coulson (R-Glenview).

"There isn't a single person in the United States that I know of who has been killed by one of these firearms," said Todd Vandermyde, an NRA lobbyist in Springfield.

Vandermyde pointed out that the 1968 federal Gun Control Act allowed civilians to own guns in which the diameter of the barrel's bore -- its caliber -- is up to .50 of an inch. Most .50-caliber weapons in the United States are single-bolt action rifles used for recreational target shooting, he said.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-rifle25.html

[Good point.]
Haaretz reports:

"In a videotape made prior to the Friday suicide bombing that killed four people in Tel Aviv, bomber Abdullah Badran declared that the attack was intended to do harm to the Palestinian Authority, which he said served the interests of the United States.

The Damascus-based leadership of the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack at the entrance to a beachfront nightclub, saying that it was in retaliation for what a Jihad official called Israel's violation of the Israeli-Palestinian truce concluded at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit on February 8.

The aim of the bombing was 'to attack the self-rule Authority, which acts according to American interests,' Badran, 21, said on the tape. Badran was a resident of a Tul Karm-area West Bank village located adjacent to the separation fence."

Makes sense, except for one minor detail. If your goal is to kill yourself in a suicide bombing in order to frame the Palestinian Authority, why would you leave behind a videotape which admits your plan and thus completely undermines the frame-up?
http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2005/02/incriminating-videotape.html
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/545147.html

[I don’t expect the Iranians to be push-overs like the Iraqis were intially. I’d be a bit surprised if they just sat there and let the US drive to the capital before they started fighting.]
Still, Iran could create troubles for Washington and the world if war were to break out.

Iran's intelligence agencies have extensive overseas experience, experts say, and its highly classified Quds forces, which answer directly to Iranian leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are believed to have operations in Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Turkey, the Persian Gulf, Central Asia and North Africa, as well as Europe and North America, according to a December 2004 report prepared by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Within minutes of attack, Iran's air and sea forces could threaten oil shipments in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Iran controls the northern coast of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which oil tankers must navigate to get out of the Persian Gulf, and it could sink ships, mine sea routes or bomb oil platforms to block it.

Iran also could activate Hezbollah militia in Lebanon to launch attacks on Israel. Operatives could attack U.S. interests in Azerbaijan, Central Asia or Turkey.

"Iran can escalate the war," said Hadian. "It's not going to be all that hard to target U.S. forces in these countries."

But most analysts agree that the biggest trump card Iranians could play would be to unleash havoc in neighboring Iraq, where Iraqis who spent years in Iran as exiles are about to assume control of the government.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05058/462990.stm

Fresh evidence has come to light suggesting that Tony Blair committed himself to war in Iraq nearly a year before the American and British assault in March 2003.

The news will heighten the pressure on the Prime Minister to reveal how Britain was drawn into the conflict, in a week when a leading QC has called into question the legal advice on which the Government went to war. Such anxiety is felt in official circles that Special Branch detectives had questioned MPs over leaks, it emerged this weekend.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=615232

[According to the Nuremburg Tribunal and the Geneva Conventions, just because the government tells you it’s ok to do something, that doesn’t mean it actually is. So if they have been violating the fundamental rights of human beings and breaking the law too bad for them, they should be prosecuted.]
CIA officers are increasingly concerned they might be prosecuted or punished for their conduct during interrogations and detention of terrorism suspects, the New York Times reported in Sunday editions.

Citing current and former government officials, the newspaper said the spy agency's inspector general was now reviewing at least half a dozen cases in connection with the treatment of prisoners.

This is in addition to at least two other CIA cases being investigated by the Justice Department -- one stemming from a death in Afghanistan in 2003 and the other from Iraq.

"There's a lot more out there than has generally been recognized, and people at the agency are worried," one government official told the Times.

According to the newspaper, the CIA was especially worried that officers using interrogation techniques the government ruled as acceptable after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks might now be punishable.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7748242

Strategically, Venezuela is very important. We believe it has the potential to provide 35 percent of U.S. energy, in oil and natural gas," Moshiri said after Rodriguez's speech, adding, "Venezuela has been treating the private sector very well."

Chavez survived a recall vote in August with 59 percent of the vote, and his treasury receives $30 billion annually in oil revenues.

"The United States hasn't faced anything like Chavez for a very long time, " said Riordan Roett, director of the Western Hemisphere program at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

Roett described the divisions between Washington and Caracas as the Bush administration's "ideological distaste" for Chavez and the Venezuelan's "grandiose ideas" of uniting Latin America under a nationalist, semi- revolutionary banner.

"We thought populist leftist leaders were buried in history," Roett said, "but the United States and the hemisphere are faced with the most truculent and ambitious leader in decades, and he is likely to grow more powerful."

After a visit to Moscow in December, Chavez angered the Bush administration by announcing that he was purchasing guns and warplanes. The White House protested to the Kremlin, and U.S. officials warned that the arms could be sent to the leftist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0226-01.htm

On this 35-degree night, most of Portland's homeless are two miles away in the Oxford Street Shelter, sleeping on rows of mats four inches apart.

    But Partridge prefers a tent he has furnished with plywood, a radio, a battery-operated television and a discarded propane heater. He has a cell phone, too - paid for by panhandling and collecting aluminum cans.

    Partridge, 36, swigs a can of Milwaukee's Best and reminisces about the days when he had a good job at a printing company in Chicago, a nice apartment, a woman he was going to marry.

    But when the relationship soured in the early 1990s, he returned home to Maine and moved in with a friend who was using heroin. Partridge soon became hooked, too.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/022705Y.shtml

[Not only did he get dumped, not only is he homeless, not only does he not get to see his child, on top of all that he is paying child support. I wonder in general how they enforce that on guys who have no address. Do they just go out and drive around looking for them?]
In Milwaukee, he met a woman and fell in love. They had a son. Marsh was heartbroken when she found someone else - and almost overnight, he was homeless.

    He ended up in Scott Place last year, struggling with depression. "But with the psychological help of the VA ... and a lot of time to think, I just worked it out," he says.

    Marsh loves his job but after $300 monthly child support payments, he's left with just $140 a week - not even enough to travel to Milwaukee to see his 13-year-old boy, William Ray.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/022705Y.shtml