George Soros responsible for Eduard Shevardnadze's overthrow in Georgia

So at first I thougt this was a little scary. Then I got to the last paragraph. You go, George!

No more drug tourism in Holland

I gotta say, I'm not a fan of this harmonization thing. It just seems like those boys in Brussels have run out of useful things to do and are just monkeying about with the law for kicks. Kind of like Washington.

Canada prepares to enforce Sharia
I can't find a more credible source on this, so take it with a grain of salt.. but if it's true, that's pretty scary.

Zero-Tolerance Roundup


Those who write and enforce the rules behind these cases have no place in the education system.

Finger Guns get boys in trouble

Nail clipper keychain warrants expulsion

Suspension for drawing WTC picture

6-year old could be charged as adult for shooting

Congress Expands FBI Spying Power


So the FBI can issue themselves warrants with no judicial oversight to get information from "financial institutions." The institution that turns over the info is put under a gag order prohibiting them from disclosing to anyone that they turned over the information. Now this:

The new provision in the spending bill redefines the meaning of "financial institution" and "financial transaction." The wider definition explicitly includes insurance companies, real estate agents, the U.S. Postal Service, travel agencies, casinos, pawn shops, ISPs, car dealers and any other business whose "cash transactions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax or regulatory matters."

Taliban on the rise in Afghanistan

Not that anybody's surprised.

Can America trust electronic voting?


Good background on the issues with electronic voting for those who haven't been keeping up.

Conservative Christians assail Bush over "same God" remark

Hrm. So the Bible doesn't deal with Islam at all, whereas the Koran explicitly states that Allah and Jehovah are one in the same. George says they both worship the same God and the fundies get all pissed off. Sounds like they need to learn to share.

Compare and contrast.

American Cover	English Cover

Money Charges Eyed Against Limbaugh

Nothing personal against the guy, aside from being a blight on the airwaves, but in the spirit of equality I hope he goes to jail.

Bias taxes brain, research finds
"To the litany of arguments against prejudice, scientists are now adding a new one: Racism can make you stupid."
Weird. I always thought stupidity made racists, not the other way around.

Capitol Hill Blue: Blair Gains Little From Bush Visit: "A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times newspaper .. showed just what poor regard Bush is held in by Britons. He was branded a threat to world peace by 60 percent, while 37 percent said Bush was 'stupid.'"

Bush pulls out of speech to Parliament

So not only can he not handle seeing protestors along his motorcade route, he's afraid of getting "heckled" by the legislators of our closest ally. Fabulous.

USATODAY.com - FBI may collect juveniles' DNA: DNA profiles from hundreds of thousands of juvenile offenders and adults arrested but not convicted of crimes could be added to the FBI's national DNA crime-fighting program under a proposed law moving through Congress.

Ugh. Anyone remember reading about Warwickshire in England? They had an unsolved murder, so they just rounded everybody up and took their DNA? Why don't we quit screwing around and just jump straight to that step.

U.S. takes hard line on Greenpeace


... Despite taking place on a ship, the protest itself was nothing unusual. “It was a classic sit-in in the sense that it was non-violent, overt, and non-threatening,” says George Washington University constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley. As is also typical of this type of protest, says Turley, “the protesters want to be arrested.”

But 15 months after the APL Jade incident, the U.S. Justice Department in Florida’s Southern District dramatically upped the ante. Drawing on an 1872 law, it filed criminal charges against Greenpeace USA for boarding a ship before its arrival in port, and with conspiracy to do so — in a case scheduled to be heard in December.

Critics and some legal experts say the pursuit of an entire organization for this type of civil disobedience by its members is a break with 200 years of American tradition, and appears to be an attempt by the Bush administration to silence a vocal critic. In the words of former Vice President Al Gore, the legal move looks to be “aimed at inhibiting Greenpeace’s First Amendment activities.”

“For two hundred years, the United States government has refrained from prosecuting advocacy groups whose members occasionally engage in peaceful civil disobedience to convey a constitutionally protected message,” they wrote in their brief. “The prosecution of Greenpeace indicates a sea change in that policy.”


I'm not sure who I'll be more glad to see out of office -- Bush or Ashcroft.

"Vanished America" they call it -- huge collection of photographs by Charles Cushman -- just some guy who traveled and took pictures a lot. Beware -- maybe it's just me, but whenever I look, I get sucked in for at least an hour. [images open in new window]

Older, but still funny:
RELIGIOUS MERGER CREATES 900 MILLION HINJEWS
Hinjew leaders today conceded the merger of Hinduism and Judaism has not worked out as planned, as instead of forming a super-religion to fight off the common Islamic enemy, they have instead created a race of 900 million people who, no matter how many times they are reincarnated, can never please their mothers. ...

We're outsourcing your job to the private sector because it's cheaper we just want to, okay?

Love this picture.

You'd think he was visiting Pyongyang, not London.

"Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers travelling to Britain as part of President Bush's entourage this week. ...


The White House initially demanded the closure of all Tube lines under parts of London to be visited during the trip. ...


Ministers are also believed to have dismissed suggestions that a 'sterile zone' around the President should be policed entirely by American special agents and military. ..."

Fast Company on Wal-Mart's domination of retailing.. The same Americans that are pissed off by the migration of manufacturing to overseas plants paying starvation wages are the ones who give Wal-Mart the power to do so everyday -- "Low, Low Prices" indeed.