I found my password for this site!
Hard drive crashes are annoying, and I had given up on this site, thinking I lost the password with firefox's cookie file going buh-bye. But I had it in an archive file that was backed up.
Now, to decide if I want to continue with this site...
Even if the victims told the details of their super-sekrit torture, would it get reported? If it did, would the Guantanamo deniers believe it?
But even money says it's not the methods break new ground or are particularly innovative. The sheer outrageousness of what's being done in the secret prisons is what needs to be kept secret.
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.Link
The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release, even to the detainees' own attorneys, "could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage." Terrorists could use the information to train in counter-interrogation techniques, according to documents submitted to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton on Oct. 26.
We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia.
The US defence department has set up a new unit to better promote its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet.Link
The Pentagon said the move would boost its ability to counter "inaccurate" news stories and exploit new media.
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The Bush administration does not believe the true picture of events in Iraq has been made public, the BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says.
The administration is particularly concerned that insurgents in areas such as Iraq have been able to use the web to disseminate their message and give the impression they are more powerful than the US, our correspondent says.
Saw this in a forum I visit:
"It's a good thing the founding fathers created the electoral college to regulate the passions of the masses. Otherwise we might really wind up with some dipshits running the government."
Now, where's the article about the surge in SUV sales? We actually need to keep gas at $3.00/gal. to beat it into peoples' heads that we need more fuel-efficient vehicles on the road.
WASHINGTON - Americans are celebrating plunging gasoline prices by hitting the roads.Link
After barely rising during the summer months, gasoline demand rose swiftly in September, the American Petroleum Institute said Wednesday.
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The U.S. average for a gallon of regular Wednesday was $2.219, down 27 percent from this year's peak of $3.04 a gallon on Aug. 10 and off 52 cents from a year ago. The lowest average price Wednesday was in Missouri, where it was $2.02 a gallon; the highest was in Hawaii, where the average was $2.98.
Having lived in New Mexico, this comes as no surprise. There's a reason that the license plates there say "New Mexico USA."
JUNEAU, Alaska - Alaska's governor wanted to find out what the rest of the nation thinks about their neighbor to the north, so he commissioned a sort of pop quiz.Link
The results of the poll show that Americans love Alaska, but they don't know a whole lot about it.
More than half the nation thinks that most of Alaska is covered in ice and snow year-round. For the record: Just 5 percent of Alaska is covered by glaciers, ice and snow all year.
Another result found that one of every eight Americans believes the Last Frontier is a separate country or else doesn't know that it's a state.
Yep, you better just get used to it!
U.S. Department of Homeland Security opened its third air surveillance base focused on the Canadian border on Monday, eroding claims the shared border is the longest undefended one in the world.Link
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Juan Munoz Torres of Homeland Security said the higher security is a new reality both countries must get used to.
Words fail me. But did the ruling actually change anyone's opinion, or did he just start noticing it?
The president of the Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels says people have been rude to him and his feelings have been hurt since the group was ruled a criminal organization by an Ontario judge last year.Link
In an affidavit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, Rick Ciarnello lists a number of public snubs including a couple in a restaurant who asked to be moved because they didn't want to sit next to him after he walked in wearing Hells Angels colours.
Nothing like changing the law when the courts disagree with you. It's good that we now have "standards" that "protect" the imprisoned. Of course, by "standards" I mean firing squads, and by "protect" I mean execute.
President George W Bush has signed into law a bill that sets standards for the interrogation and prosecution of foreign terror suspects held by the US.Link
The law aims to enshrine defendants' human rights, but still restricts their right to challenge their detention.
It follows a Supreme Court ruling in June that military tribunals set up to prosecute detainees at Guantanamo Bay violated US and international law.
This isn't so much that a fox got into the farmer's henhouse, but the fox doing a hostile takeover of the henhouse. Nice way to steal 40% of your employee's tips, Steve!
The dealers over at Wynn Las Vegas who are none too happy about supervisors taking a share of their tips also are ticked that they can't count their own tip money.Link
At most casinos, dealers appointed by a toke committee count the tips each day. That money is reported to the payroll department, which splits the money among dealers. When Wynn started giving floor supervisors, reclassified as "team leaders," a 40 percent share of the daily tips, he removed the counting duties from dealers and gave it to casino employees who typically count the house's money. Casino security, rather than the dealers themselves, collect the tips and take them to a count room.
I really do think he was doing public service, these people needed scamming. It's a shame that he played for such small stakes. Some of the "victims" look like they could've been taken for thousands. Oh, and by "victims" I mean retarded dipshits with more money than brains.
For a few hundred dollars apiece, Robert Bouconi made people feel like they were in the presence of a rock star.Link
Police say Bouconi targeted victims in bars, posing as a guitarist for REO Speedwagon, a brother to Lynyrd Skynyrd's band members or the son of a prominent Mafioso, wowing them with his aura of celebrity.
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From Scottsdale to Pinal County, police say Bouconi conned several people by claiming to buy them luxury cars and mansions in exchange for $250 to $300 to get the transactions started, before ditching the paperwork he never signs. He is wanted in similar cons in California and New Mexico.
It's a good thing that our new wall will protect our lettuce from those dirty illegals. Congress better hurry up and pubish a five-year plan, so we can be assured that our crops will be rotting the fields.
BAKERSFIELD -- Farmers across the country are facing a growing shortage of people in their fields.Link
Agriculture is a $31 billion dollar a year industry in California with Kern County making up 11% of that amount.
Historically there have always been enough farm laborers to bring in the crops, but for the first time ever California farmer's and labor contractors are facing a growing labor shortage.
Or careers. If you know it's wrong, and do it anyway, for fuck's sake, don't brag about it. The walls have ears.
But, then we know how reliable a government "inquiry" can be.
The US Pentagon has ordered an inquiry into alleged abuses at Guantanamo Bay after reports that camp guards boasted of beating and mistreating detainees.Link
A marine sergeant who visited the camp has said she understood "striking detainees was a common practice".
The sergeant's sworn statement said she had overheard a guard describe slamming a detainee's head into a cell door.
Ah, the sweet sound of the water lapping up on the banks of denial. I wonder when the U.S. will pass a law that makes it treason to call this "genocide?" After all, we can't be like France.
NEW YORK - President Bush says he doesn't believe it. Some experts have a problem with it. But several others say it seems sound.Link
Such was the varied reception for a new study that estimated the Iraq war has led to the deaths of nearly 655,000 Iraqis as of July.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad derived that estimate from a door-to-door survey, conducted by doctors, of 1,849 households in Iraq. Taking the number of deaths reported by household residents, they extrapolated to a nationwide figure. Researchers acknowledged a margin of error that ranged from 426,369 to 793,663 deaths.
