Asia Quake and Tsunami Victims

Just a quick link to Senator Barbara Boxer's Aid Information page to send donations to victims. There's also a phone number if you're trying to locate American citizens in the area:

http://boxer.senate.gov/quake.cfm

But how many households were originally Deaniacs?

As of 2003, 54.6% of all households had internet access.

Those states with the highest percentage of households with internet access include:
AK (68%), NH (65%), CO (63%), CT (63%), UT (63%), MN (62%), WA (62%), NJ (61%), OR (61%) and VA (60%).

Of these 10 states surpassing 60%, Kerry carried 6 of the states to Bush's 4.

Of the five states with the lowest percentage of internet households (MS, AR, LA, NM and SC), Bush carried all five.

- U.S. Census Bureau

The Buck Stops Over There

"If I thought a change at the top of the Pentagon would change the policy of this administration, I'd be all for it. I was opposed to going to war unilaterally. I voted against that because I thought it was a mistake...

"So I've had a lot of differences with Secretary Rumsfeld. I'm a critic of much of his rhetoric. I think he does try to pass the buck, but that pass-the-buck philosophy starts right at the top in the White House. That's where the buck should stop. That's where the policies are made. And as far as I'm concerned, unless those policies change, which is a presidential decision, it's not going to help just simply to change the leadership in the Pentagon."

- U.S. Senator Carl Levin, "Meet the Press", 12/19/2004

Senator Levin is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

You Run A Jail With The Army You Have

According to internal Department of Defense documents obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act, more incidents of prisoner abuse in Iraq were committed in 2003, months before the Abu Ghraib photos surfaced. Documented abuses include:

- mock executions of juvenile prisoners
- torture by electric shock
- burning detainees' hands with alcohol-based cleansers

"Abuse of detainees was not aberrational," ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer stated. "The Defense Department adopted extreme interrogation techniques as a matter of policy."

"Each of these acts referred to by the ACLU resulted in courts-martial convictions," said Marine spokesperson Maj. Nat Fahy. "This clearly demonstrates our commitment to thoroughly investigate all allegations of detainee abuse and hold those people accountable. Any behavior that does not constitute humane treatment of detainees is simply not tolerated."

The list of abuses involves members of various units within the 1st Marine Division. Two Marines pleaded guilty to connecting electrical transformers to a detainee and forcing him to "dance". One received a one-year confinement, and the other eight months.

There were 10 substantiated incidents of Marines abusing prisoners. Those involved 24 members of the Corps, and resulted in 11 court-martial convictions and three lesser punishments. Charges were dismissed against six other Marines, and four cases are pending.

ACLU Executive Director stated, "This kind of widespread abuse could not have taken place without a leadership failure on the highest order."

The incidents happened as early as May 2003.

Freedom's just another word for 'nothing left to lose'

Today, George W. Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former CIA Director George Tenet:

Former CIA Director who assured the White House that proving there were WMDs in Iraq was a "slam dunk", and that coalition forces would be greeted in Iraq as peacekeepers rather than an occupying force. None of his operatives had yet to penetrate any Islamic terrorist groups when he resigned his directorship earlier this year. Maybe he should've asked John Walker Lindh (the American Taliban) for tips?

Oh yeah, and we still don't know where Osama bin Laden is.

Bush or Chimp?

An acrylic portrait of President Bush led to the closure of a New York art exhibit. Chris Savido's "Bush Monkeys" was part of a 60-piece show at the Chelsea Market. Scheduled to stay up for the month of December, the market's managers shut it down.

From far away, the $3,500 painting "offers a likeness of Bush, but when you get closer you see the image is made up of chimpanzees or monkeys swimming in a marsh." The 23-year-old artist said, "This is much deeper than art. This is fundamental American rights, freedom of speech."

"We had tons of people, like more than 2,000 people show up for the opening on Thursday night. Then this manager saw the piece and the guy just kind of flipped out. 'The show is over. Get this work down or I'm gonna arrest you,' he said. It's been kind of wild," said show organizer Bucky Turco.

Red State Diaries, Part II

When the ballots of the 15 members of the North Carolina Elector College were tallied in the Old House Chamber of the Capitol, there were 16 votes for Bush. NC Electoral College Chair, Robert Rector, immediately verbally polled the 15 electors. This time the vote came out right, and the ballots were "signed, seal and shipped" to Washington to be opened on January 2, 2005.

- Raleigh News Observer, 12/14/2004.

You Go To Jail With the Army You Have

COLUMBUS, Ohio - At a time when some U.S. troops in Iraq are complaining they have to scrounge for equipment, six Ohio-based reservists were court-martialed for taking Army vehicles abandoned in Kuwait by other units so they could carry out their own unit's mission to Iraq...

The soldiers say they needed the vehicles, and parts stripped from one, to deliver fuel to Iraq, but their former battalion commander said Sunday the troops should at least have returned the vehicles to their original units.

Members of the 656th Transportation Company based in Springfield, west of Columbus, said they needed the equipment to deliver fuel that was needed by U.S. forces in Iraq for everything from helicopters to tanks.

The reservists took two tractor-trailers and stripped parts from a five-ton truck that had been abandoned in Kuwait by other units that had already moved into Iraq, one of the reservists, Darrell Birt of Columbus, told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Birt, a former chief warrant officer, and the others were charged with theft, destruction of Army property and conspiracy to cover up their crimes. Birt said he and two others pleaded guilty and the other three were convicted. All received six-month sentences.

- 6 Court-Martialed for Scrounging Equipment, Associated Press, 12/13/2004

Where's my Reynolds Wrap hat?

For two years, Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have voted to block an expensive technical intelligence program believed to be a system of new spy satellites. But the program continues to enjoy financing in hundreds of millions of dollars and the support of the House, the Bush administration, and Congressional appropriations committees.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-V) has called the program "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful."

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) called it "unnecessary, ineffective, over budget and too expensive."

Although actual numbers remain classified by law, much of the program's budget is understood to cover the design, construction and operation of satellites and other platforms used to collect images, signals and other forms of technical intelligence.

Most Congressional and intelligence officials won't comment on the name, purpose, or cost of the program, but former officials who opposed the program said it would duplicate eavesdropping and reconnaissance capabilities already in existence or development.

A former Defense Department official stated, "This is something that does not pass muster and is indicative of the inability of intelligence agencies to prioritize or make decisions. There are billions of dollars of waste in the intelligence budget."

But authorization to continue financing the program was recently approved by the House and Senate's authorizing committees this week. Senators who refused to sign the compromise which led to the programs funding were Senators Carl Levin (D-MI), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Rockefeller, and Sen. Wyden.

Future Moonshiners of America

From the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau KIDS PAGE:

Q. Have you heard about the science fair project or school project where a student:

- Builds a homemade still,
- Lets leftover food scraps ferment and turn into alcohol,
- Burns the alcohol in a lantern, and
- Compares the alcohol to other sources of energy?

Well, under current law and regulations, we cannot allow you to conduct experiments involving distillation of alcohol at your home.

As an alternative, Federal law allows us to issue a permit for an alcohol fuel plant, or AFP. Under this type of permit, experiments with alcohol fuels can be conducted at locations properly qualified with ATF.

Find out how to make it happen at:

http://www.ttb.gov/kids/kids_questions.htm

Osama who?

"Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that the search for Osama bin Laden has gone completely cold, with no recent intelligence indicating where he and his top lieutenants are hiding."

"The United States shares major responsibility, Musharraf suggested, because the U.S.-led coalition does not have enough troops in Afghanistan, which has left "voids."

- Musharraf: Bin Laden's Location Is Unknown, Washington Post, 12/5/2004

Be An Army of One... Hundred Fifty Thousand

"The American military presence in Iraq will grow by nearly 12,000 troops by next month, to 150,000, the highest level since the invasion last year, to provide security for the Iraqi elections in January..."

"The Pentagon is doing this mainly by ordering about 10,400 soldiers and marines in Iraq to extend their tours... extending the tours of some 8,000 soldiers from two brigades..."

"[A]bout 3,500 members of the Second Brigade of the First Cavalry Division,...were ordered to stay an additional 45 days... 4,400 troops from the Second Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, had its departure date in early January delayed 60 days... the departure date of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, with 2,300 marines from Okinawa, Hawaii and California, will be extended to mid-March."

- U.S. to Increase Its Force in Iraq by Nearly 12,000, New York Times, 12/2/2004

Camp Raw Deal

"The eight soldiers come from places scattered across the country, from this small town an hour northwest of Little Rock to cities in Arizona, New Jersey and New York." Each have been "prevented from coming home for good by an Army policy that has barred thousands of soldiers from leaving Iraq this year even though the terms of enlistment they signed up for have run out. And each of these eight soldiers has separately taken the extraordinary step of seeking legal help."

"[L]awyers for the eight men say they will file a lawsuit on Monday in federal court in Washington challenging the Army policy known as stop-loss..."

"Last spring, the Army instituted the policy for all troops headed to Iraq and Afghanistan, called it a way to promote continuity within deployed units and to avoid bringing new soldiers in to fill gaps left in units by those who would otherwise have gone home when their enlistments ran out. If a soldier's unit is still in Iraq or Afghanistan, that soldier cannot leave even when his or her enlistment time runs out."

"These soldiers' public objections are only the latest signs of rising tension within the ranks. In October, members of an Army Reserve unit refused a mission, saying it was too dangerous. And in recent months, some members of the Individual Ready Reserve, many of whom say they thought they had finished their military careers, have objected to being called back to war and requested exemptions."

- Eight Soldiers Plan to Sue Over Army’s Stop-Loss Policy
The New York Times, 12/6/2004

2005 Omnibus Bill Winners and Losers

Agencies with the biggest budget increases over the president's 2005 budget request:

Veterans Affairs +$1.2 billion
Army Corps of Engineers +$585 million
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration +$567 million
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention +$336 million

Agencies with the biggest cuts:

Education/local education -$500 million
Federal Aviation Administration -$335 million
Energy Department's Yucca Mountain project -$303 million
HUD community block grants -$300 million
IRS modernization -$80 million

Senate Committee on Appropriations website
House Committee on Appropriations website

While 97% Disagree on Exactly What Third Base Is

The Bush administration and members of the Republican Congress are supporting several $170 MILLION taxpayer funded abstinence-only program which claim as scientific fact that:

• touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy"
  
• HIV can be spread via sweat and tears
  
• a 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person"
  

Several millions of children ages 9 to 18 have been taught these "facts" in federally funded abstinence programs since 1999.

"Something is seriously wrong when federal tax dollars are being used to mislead kids about basic health facts," said Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), who argues for comprehensive sex education (not lying to children).

"Washington funds false sex lessons", The Guardian, 12/3/2004