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The death toll from Israel’s attack on Lebanon is approaching four hundred – almost all civilians. More than one thousand have been wounded and an estimated 900,000 have been displaced from their homes. This weekend, ground troops seized the Lebanese town of Marun al-Ras. Israeli officials believe they have approval from the United States to keep attacking Lebanon for at least another week. We go to Lebanon to speak with independent journalist Dahr Jamail
Think Progress
Excerpt:
Congress Fuels South Asian Nuclear Arms Race
As Congress is marching in lock step to approve the administration’s sweetheart deal that would allow India to rapidly ramp up its nuclear bomb production to about 50 new weapons each year, news comes that Pakistan is racing to match the Indian capability.
The Washington Post reports on new satellite photos that reveal construction of a plutonium production reactor that should enable Pakistan to punch out 12; surprise 50 bombs a year.
It is not too late for Congress to stop this developing nuclear arms race in South Asia. All they have to do is approve an amendment that conditions the U.S.-India deal on an Indian agreement not to make any more material for weapons. This was part of the deal originally sought by Bush administration officials, but they caved in to India demands and dropped the idea.
Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) says, The Bush Administration conceded on almost every major point in negotiating this agreement with India. Even worse, the Administration essentially ignored the concerns of its own nonproliferation experts, and kept Congress in the dark until after the agreement was concluded.
He and other legislators are trying to get amendments to the deal that would enable the U.S. to expand cooperation with India without allowing India to go on a nuclear weapons binge. One amendment would require India to halt production of fissile material, the main component needed to make nuclear weapons, in exchange for greater nuclear cooperation with the United States. A second important amendment would prevent India from transferring nuclear enrichment technology to other countries.
The Arms Control Association has more.
Joseph Cirincione
AP
Excerpt:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi soldiers captured six members of an alleged “death squad” in Baghdad on Tuesday, hoping to quell the rampant sectarian violence dividing the capital. Attacks elsewhere in Iraq left at least 34 people dead — including an American soldier. In Washington, President Bush met Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the White House to discuss the deteriorating security situation. He believes and I believe that there needs to be more forces inside Baghdad who are willing to hold people to account,” Bush said during a joint news conference.
Later in the day, gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in Dujail, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, and ambushed a sport utility vehicle belonging to a private security company in north Baghdad, killing eight people.
AP
Excerpt:Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is the nation’s most prominent global warming denier. He famously declared that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.†Now, he’s taken the argument a step further. In an interview with Tulsa World, Inhofe compared people who believed global warming was a problem to Nazis:
In an interview, he heaped criticism on what he saw as the strategy used by those on the other side of the debate and offered a historical comparison.
“It kind of reminds . . . I could use the Third Reich, the big lie,†Inhofe said.
H.L.s Take:Any time anyone doesn’t agree with them, we are something bad, this time its Nazi’s.
Nazis for believing Scientists and not them. GOP rule number 1. always blame the other guy for being what you are, even if he is not. Commandant Inhofe understands that very well
Washington Times
Excerpt:Half of Americans now say Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003 — up from 36 percent last year, a Harris poll finds. Pollsters deemed the increase both “substantial” and “surprising” in light of persistent press reports to the contrary in recent years.
The survey did not speculate on what caused the shift in opinion,
H.L.s Take: They survey did not speculate? Anyone who reads the comments section of this site knows. The right wing spin machine is pumping out the bogus story that WMDs were found. Never mind that they were just a bunch of old shells. The Kool aid drinkers were waiting for any lie they can latch onto. Now they know its bulls**t, but they would rather lie then admit they were wrong. More on this later. I could do a whole story on this subject.
Daily Kos
Excerpt:
The cynic might say that Bill Clinton is going to Connecticut, despite being trashed by Lieberman during the impeachment saga, to protect a fellow member of the elitist establishment’s insider’s club. They may say that the DLC called in the biggest favor it can offer Lieberman (its patron saint) — a visit by a former popular president. They may try to find a tortured explanation of why this helps Hillary.
B. Clinton’s visit may have been arranged by the DLC (didn’t they have some sort of “annual conference” this past weekend? Did anyone care?), but what it tells me is that Bill is a far bigger man than Lieberman ever was or can be.
Despite being on the withering receiving end of Lieberman’s sanctimonious public screeds during the impeachment saga, on the floor of the Senate AND in television studios all over the place, Clinton is willing to come to the senator’s aid. He could’ve held a grudge and none would think less of him.
Instead, he repays Lieberman’s backstabbing with kindness.
So I actually respect Bill for doing this one event for Lieberman. In a funny way it makes Lieberman look even smaller, pettier, and pathetic than he already does.
H.L.s Take:
My sentiments exactly. Lieberman should have felt ashamed of himself for doing what he did to Bill. He is such a morally bankrupt bastard that he stabs his own party in the back and praises the republicans every chance he can get. However the cynic could also say that The Bush’s and the Clinton’s are all in bed. Togther they rule the world. This is why I think that Hilary will win the democratic nomination, and will run against Jeb Bush. If either one of them wins, then gets re-elected in 2012, that would be 36 straight years with either a Bush, or a Clinton in the White House. Of course if Jeb wins, then Bill Clinton was just an 8 year aberration. Its going to be a fun filled next 2 years.
Washington Post
Excerpt:
No modern political party has weathered a midterm election with a president as low in the polls as George W. Bush.
It is a reality of midterm elections that the party holding the White House often suffers big losses even if the president is popular. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s approval rating was at 57 percent in 1958, but Republicans still lost 48 seats in the House.
The best any party has done when its president has dipped below 50 percent was in 1978. That fall, President Jimmy Carter’s approval rating was 49 percent and the Democrats lost 15 House seats — exactly the number Democrats need this year to win back the chamber.
The Austrailian
Excerpt:
NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.
Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.
“I have a very hard time with this word ‘non-violence’, because I don’t believe that I am non-violent,” said Ms Williams, 64.
“Right now, I would love to kill George Bush.” Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.
“I don’t know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see children die the anger in me is just beyond belief. It’s our duty as human beings, whatever age we are, to become the protectors of human life.”
John Stewart talks about Sen. Ted Stevens R-Alaska, views on the Internet, and has a guest on to explain Net Neutrality, Interesting and funny, check it out.
AP
Excerpt:BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bombs killed more than 60 people and wounded more than 200 Sunday in Baghdad and the northern oil center of Kirkuk — a dramatic escalation of violence as U.S. and Iraqi forces crack down on Iraq’s most feared Shiite militia.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki left Sunday for talks in Washington this week with President Bush to discuss sectarian violence, which has risen sharply since Iraq’s national unity government took office two months ago.
A suicide driver detonated a minivan at the entrance to a bustling market in Sadr City, the capital’s biggest Shiite district and stronghold of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.
Times U.K.
Excerpt:
An officer with the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon said that the Israelis had told them they would not hinder cars travelling north on the main roads.
But the evidence yesterday suggested that cars were being attacked regardless of their occupants and direction of travel.
Hezbollah rockets claimed the lives of two people and wounded 20 others in the Israeli city of Haifa. Another 50 people were injured in rocket attacks in at least 10 other towns across northern Israel.
The attacks came as Israeli troops battled to clear a mile-wide strip along the northern border, encountering resistance from Hezbollah forces in bunkers.
The Israeli Army went to the assistance of an Italian UN observer, Captain Roberto Punzo, who was hit by Hezbollah fire during the clashes. He was taken to hospital in Israel with serious injuries.
A Lebanese photographer, Layal Najib, was killed during another clash in the southern village of Qana.
What Really Happened
Excerpt:
It’s easy to look back and realize what a jerk Hitler was. But at the time, Hitler looked pretty good to the German people, with the help of the media. He was TIME Magazine’s Man Of The Year in 1938. The German people assumed they were safe from a tyrant. They lived in a Republic, after all, with strict laws regarding what the government could and more importantly could not do. Their leader was a devoutly religious man, and had even sung with the boy’s choir of a monastery in his youth.
The reality was that the German people, as individuals, had lost their courage. The German government preferred it that way as a fearful people are easier to rule than a courageous one. But the German people didn’t wish to lose their self-image of courage. So, when confronted with a situation demanding individual courage, in the form of a government gone wrong, the German people simply pretended that the situation did not exist. And in that simple self-deception lay the ruin of an entire nation and the coming of the second World War.
When the Reichstag burned down, most Germans simply refused to believe suggestions that the fire had been staged by Hitler himself. They were afraid to. But so trapped were the Germans by their belief in their own bravery that they willed themselves to be blind to the evidence before their eyes, so that they could nod in agreement with Der Fuhrer while still imagining themselves to have courage, even as they avoided the one situation which most required real courage; to stand up to Hitler’s lies and deceptions.
AP
Excerpt:Mood of the nation still favors challenger campaigns
With mid-term elections now less than four months away, a new Harris Poll finds that Democrats have widened their lead over the Republicans in the race for control of Congress. Results show that if the election for Congress were held today, more than two in five (44%) adults would vote for the Democratic candidate, while about one-third (31%) would vote for the Republican candidate, 17 percent would vote for someone else, and just seven percent are undecided.
These are results from the latest Harris Poll of 1,002 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone between July 7 and 10, 2006 by Harris Interactive
H.L.s Take:The Democrats are going to have to work hard to overcome these ever increasing leads, if they want to fulfill their aspirations of losing once again, but I feel confident they will find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory once again.
ABC-7 Denver
DENVER — You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they’re reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it.
The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they’re required to submit at least one report a month. If they don’t, there’s no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments.
“Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft … and they did nothing wrong,” said one federal air marshal.
M.Kane Jeeves
Excerpt:
Don’t you love global leadership? Don’t you wish we had some? You know when Dubya is the leader of the free world, we’re dead meat. Actually, fried meat.
According to the U.S. Climatic Data Center’s Jay Lawrimore, the first six months of 2006 were the warmest, on average, since the United States started keeping records in 1895, and global warming is a contributing factor. Go, USA!
July, August and September are forecast to continue the hot trend over most of the United States, including the vast area of the country west of the Mississippi River, as well as New England, Florida and southern Alaska.
Pretty grim, eh? I mean, some experts are saying that polar bears may turn to cannibalism because there’s no food, anymore. Plus, the entire world is forecasted to become hotsie-totsie. So how did the G8 Summit react? Uh, just before diving into their private jets and heading home, the head honchos chose to “stay the course†and ignore what’s going on. You go, guys!
Daily Kos
Excerpt:
With President Clinton’s visit to Connecticut to campaign for Lieberman tomorrow, Joe’s supporters are trying to defuse his September 1998 speech attacking Clinton on the Lewinsky matter. In so doing, they are rewriting history. The LieberDem blog writes:
The Lieberhater crowd has repeatedly said that Lieberman “stabbed Clinton in the back” by daring to make that speech, and have used the speech to argue that Lieberman was a disloyal Democrat who helped push the GOP drive towards impeachment.
Chicago Tribune
Excerpt:Toni Foulkes tells customers there’s a reason the cakes she sells at a South Side Jewel store cost more than cakes at Sam’s Club.
“They don’t put love in ‘em like I do,” she says. “And their employees don’t make what I make.”
She’s on the front lines of a fight to make Chicago the first major city to require retailers like Sam’s Club owner Wal-Mart to pay a “living wage” of at least $10 per hour with $3 in benefits by 2010. For her, the struggle comes down to a simple equation: All workers are threatened unless communities hold big corporations accountable for paying better-than-poverty-level wages.
On the other side is Lisa Cox, a Wal-Mart worker who sees big stores as beacons of opportunity for communities like her West Side neighborhood. “They’re going to run them out of the city instead of bringing in business here” if they single out big stores, she said.
Raw Story
Excerpt:
A newspaper in Georgia has joined the tide of public sentiment against Ann Coulter and dropped her column, RAW STORY has learned.
The Augusta Chronicle of Georgia dropped Coulter’s column from its editorial page last week. A Friday article from its editorial staff claimed that its editorial page “stand[s] for civility,” and noted two reasons to part ways with Coulter. First, it saw “stridency” in her declaration that 9/11 widows were “witches.” Second, it worried that “Coulter herself had become the issue, rather than the topics she was writing about, which is an unhealthy circumstance for a journalist, even a columnist.”
H.L.s Take:
I cannot believe the publicity this b*tch has been getting lately, she is all over the TV, and internet. The MSM Media is desperate to do ANYTHING at this point to try to make it look like Bush isn’t taking this country down the S*it hole in a hurry. Coulter is willing to go on, and they put her on despite her insane kill everyone who doesn’t agree with me wailings. Making the all look more patethic then ever.
Raw Story
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON - The man and woman were pretending to be American business executives on international assignments, so they did what globe-trotting executives do. While traveling abroad they used their frequent-flier cards as often as possible to gain credits toward free flights.
In fact, the two were covert operatives working for the CIA. Thanks to their diligent use of frequent-flier programs, Italian prosecutors have been able to reconstruct much of their itinerary during 2003, including trips to Brussels, Venice, London, Copenhagen, Vienna and Oslo.
The Norway visit has assumed particular importance because it represents the first independent confirmation that CIA operatives were in that country at the same time an Oslo resident named Mullah Krekar was being warned that he was the target of a planned CIA abduction.
Cenk Ungyur
To my dying day, one of the things I will always be most proud of is that I did not stay with my party, right or wrong. I put the interests of my country above those of my political party. I had enough sense to see the country was headed the wrong way and I tried to make a difference.
I am not alone. And to all of us who were right, we ought to be proud.
We shouldn’t be proud because things went poorly, as we feared and suspected. We should be proud that we tried to get people to change direction even when it was most unpopular. We tried to make a difference in even the darkest hour. And for our efforts we received nothing but disdain for so long. But now we’re receiving something else - apologies.
Here’s an apology from a conservative talk show host that was a long time coming:
By Doug McIntyre
Host, McIntyre in the Morning
Talk Radio 790 KABC
I was wrong to have voted for George W. Bush. In historic terms, I believe George W. Bush is the worst two-term President in the history of the country. Worse than Grant. I also believe a case can be made that he’s the worst President, period.
I believed the President when he said we were going to hunt down Bin Laden and all those responsible for the 9-11 murders. I believed President Bush when he said we would go after the terrorists and the nations that harbored them.
I supported the President when he sent our troops into Afghanistan, after all, that’s where the Taliban was, that’s where al-Qaida trained the killers, that’s where Bin Laden was.
And I cheered when we quickly toppled the Taliban government, but winced when we let Bin Laden escape from Tora-Bora.
I was sitting here this morning, checkout out some sites, and I put on my 2 CD set of The Freedom Toast, that Marc Emory sent to me. Freedom Toast is an H.L. Advertiser, and I got to hear some of the funny political songs that they do. Titles like “Blame-o”(Listen) sung to the tune of BINGO. Whatever goes wrong Bill Clinton is the blame-o. Clinton himself called the song priceless. With other great titles like “I’ve Been Working on Vacation” sung by George W. Bush himself, “Stoop Low You Media” and “Bring Back Bill Clinton” you can see that The Freedom Toast is right on the money. You can listen to clips of some of the songs over at their website.
Its good for some laughs. H.L.s sponsors keep us going so check out the songs, and pick up a CD for your friends. Thanks.
Diebold is taking a hold everywhere, The Election fix is already in.
MATTHEWS: Let’s go through the politics of this situation. The neocons are out there complaining that this president isn’t tough enough. I have no idea what they mean. Fifty-thousand dead in Iraq. It was supposed to be a cakewalk. Ken Adleman is out there today saying we should go other places. You got guys like Ledeen who want to blow up every Arab country on the list. What is going on in their complaint and why is the president paying 5 seconds of attention to them?
BUCHANAN: I don’t know why he pays attention to them, Chris. What they want, Chris, is a wider war. Especially in the Middle East. They want The United State to fight Israel’s war against Hezbollah, Syria and especially Iran. And the Israelis want us to fight Iran as well. But it’s not in the interest of The United States. None of those countries, even Hezbollah and Hamas, have no attacked The United States of America. I don’t think the country is listening to the neocons anymore. I think their discredited. The question is, “Is Bush listening to them.” Because he was going for a while, up to his second Inaugural, very much according to a script they wrote.
You Tube
Chicago Tribune
Excerpt:BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. troops raided a neighborhood northeast of Baghdad early Friday, killing five people — including two women and a child — after gunmen fired from the rooftops of buildings, the U.S. military said.
A U.S. statement said troops were looking for “terrorists” associated with the al-Qaida in Iraq network during the raid in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital. Iraqi police said a single man fired warning shots because he believed the soldiers were militiamen.
H.L.s Take:
They were “looking for terrorists?” Why didn’t they check the Whitehouse first???
Common Dreams
Excerpt:The US government has lost track of the cost of the "war on terror" unleashed after the September 11 attacks and which is now taking up tens of billions of dollars a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Congress watchdog warned.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that neither the Defence Department nor Congress had any accurate idea how much the war has cost since the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.
AP
Excerpt:OKLAHOMA CITY - A man was accused Wednesday in an indictment of making threats against former President Clinton.
James L. Williford, 57, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for allegedly making threatening remarks about Clinton at a chiropractic clinic in Edmond on July 12.
Three employees at the Edwards Chiropractic Clinic told investigators they heard Williford threaten to “bust a cap,” or shoot, Clinton, according to an affidavit.
During an interview with Secret Service agents, Williford denied threatening Clinton but said he believed Clinton was “a communist mole for the Red Chinese,” the affidavit said.
Williford, of Oklahoma City, also made violent remarks about celebrity Paris Hilton during the interview, the affidavit said.
H.L.s Take:This is the way idiot con Republicans think, “A mole for the red Chinese Communists” Everyones either a communist, or a terrorist. FEAR, FEAR, FEAR…F**king Cowards. HELP, Theres a red Chinese Communist under my bed. Run from the house screaming. Lock myself in the basement with my gun, and hope the boogeyman don’t show up.
AP
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON - National Democratic Party committees closed a fundraising gap with their Republican counterparts in June, raising more money and improving their cash on hand, according to reports filed Thursday.
The data is the latest sign that that neither party would hold a financial edge in this year’s contest for control of Congress.
The Republican National Committee was the only one of the three party groups to best the Democrats, reporting $44.7 million in the bank compared with $10.8 million for the Democratic National Committee
H.L.s Take:
But what good is all that money when the fix is already in, and the Democrats will be losing almost all elections again this November. If you saw the Brad Blog video above, you know that Diebold is stronger then ever now, and The Democrats have no chance. Its already over.
JABBS
Excerpt:
mericans may be surprised to learn that we still have the Homeland Security Advisory System.
Even Americans who don’t know it by name are familiar with the color-coded system (if not, check the graphic at right). When former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced the system in 2002 — before the department itself was created — he stressed the need to provide a “clear” indication of a terror threat to the nation, but “flexible to apply to threats made against a city, a state, a sector, or an industry.”
From the get-go, critics of the Bush Administration suggested that it was using the terror threat system for political gain,
Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK Robert Novak received a lot of criticism and some support when he outed CIA operative Valerie Plame in his column of July 14, 2003. But what do people think about Novak’s actions since then?
That question became especially germane when the Chicago Sun-Times/Creators Syndicate commentator wrote a column last Wednesday designed to explain his behavior during special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation of the Plame case. So E&P asked various columnists what they thought of Novak’s July 12 piece.
“I wonder whether Mr. Novak has an editor,” said National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) President Mike Argento. “In his column, he writes that he decided not to give up his sources and then, a few sentences later, he writes that he gave them up when questioned by Fitzgerald. Which is it? I know he says Fitzgerald knew who his sources were, but still, he named them.
H.L.s Take:This is the way idiot con Republicans think, “A mole for the red Chinese Communists” Everyones either a communist, or a terrorist. FEAR, FEAR, FEAR…F**king Cowards. HELP, Theres a red Chinese Communist under my bed. Run from the house screaming. Lock myself in the basement with my gun, and hope the boogeyman don’t show up.
Common Dreams
Excerpt:
One way to measure the fears of people in power is by the intensity of their quest for certainty and control over knowledge.
By that standard, the members of the Florida Legislature marked themselves as the folks most terrified of history in the United States when last month they took bold action to become the first state to outlaw historical interpretation in public schools. In other words, Florida has officially replaced the study of history with the imposition of dogma and effectively outlawed critical thinking.
Although U.S. students are typically taught a sanitized version of history in which the inherent superiority and benevolence of the United States is rarely challenged, the social and political changes unleashed in the 1960s have opened up some space for a more honest accounting of our past. But even these few small steps taken by some teachers toward collective critical self-reflection are too much for many Americans to bear.
H.L.s Take:
Florida, Trying hard to stay the stupidest state in the nation, and thats not an easy thing to do.
Daily Kos
Excerpt:
Josh Marshall has remained neutral in the Senate primary in Connecticut and doesn’t have a dog in the race, so it’s interesting to see him confirm that yes — the pro-Lieberman camp has come completely unhinged
Unknown News
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department is cutting its tests for mad cow disease by about 90 percent, drawing protests from consumer groups. The current testing level — 1,000 each day — reflects the heightened concern that followed the discovery in December 2003 of mad cow disease in the United States.
Since then, tests have turned up two more cases of the disease, known medically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. The government says there may be a handful of undetected cases.
The Progressive As Seen on The Smirking Chimp
Excerpt:Dale Klyn raises beef cows in Corydon, Iowa.
For the past six years, he has been flying an American flag on his property.
But since May 21, that flag has been upside down.
…… he wants to show solidarity for Terri Jones.
She’s the Iowa mom who has been flying her flag upside down after her son returned from the Iraq War and committed suicide. (Klyn had never met her before.)
“When I got the Des Moines Register and read the article about Terri Jones and how her son didn’t get the medical attention he needed, I decided I’m going to support her and oppose what the judge had done and fly my flag upside down,†he says.
H.L.s Take: Any flag, when flown upside down is an international distress signal. I would say that our country is in distress right now. Now if I could only remember the reason…..
Hey, check out this cool site I stumbled across. Its called Bogus Laws.com Its a site dedicated to all the useless, and destructive laws that are on the books. At Bogus Law you can Discuss laws in your area, Find information pertaining to laws that effect you, Get help from expert attorneys, Start or sign a petition, and Discuss Political events or Politicians actions. If you’ve ever thought that there are too many laws on the books you’ll like this site.
News Item Bush readies veto for stem cell bill today
