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Shiite Coalition Takes a Big Lead in Early Vote Count in Iraq
[Quote:]
Preliminary election returns released Thursday by Iraqi authorities showed that 72 percent of the 1.6 million votes counted so far from Sunday’s election went to an alliance of Shiite parties dominated by religious groups with strong links to Iran. Only 18 percent went to a group led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who favors strong ties to the United States. Few votes went to Sunni candidates.
Although the early votes were drawn only from Baghdad and from five southern provinces where the Shiite parties were expected to score strongly, and from only 10 percent of the 5,216 polling stations, the scale of the vote for both religious and secular Shiites underscored the probability of a crushing triumph and a historic shift from decades of Sunni minority rule in Iraq.
The religious alliance, an amalgam of political parties and independents forged by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country’s most powerful religious leader, took nearly 1.2 million votes, more than a third of them in Baghdad, against about 295,000 for the coalition led by Dr. Allawi.
Turtle saved
Thai navy seamen on Phuket island rescue a turtle that was swept more than a mile inland by the tsunami.
Tips narrow assault location
A photo released by the Toronto Police Service Sex Crimes Unit shows the location of sex abuse against a 9-year-old girl. The victim was edited out of the photo and police are hoping somebody will recognize the location, in this case what appears to be a hotel room.
[Quote:]
Two telephone tips from people in the GTA have led police to a hotel in the southern U.S. that is at the heart of a large-scale investigation into the sexual abuse of a 9-year-old girl in 2001.
We know now where the crime scene was, Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie of the sex crimes unit said this morning.
The Internet pictures released by police of the hotel room showed a bedspread, a unique decorative fountain and a bench inside a room.
They positively confirmed late last night that it was the hotel, said Gillespie.
Police are now combing the unnamed hotel.
They (investigators) got to the hotel and found out it had been renovated a while ago, said Gillespie this morning. But they were very co-operative.
Police in the U.S. have been at the hotel since late last night, interviewing staff and going over logs from four years ago.
Its a fairly large hotel, Gillespie said. The investigative hurdles are obvious but its a start. We can narrow it down to a certain number of rooms.
Police took the unusual step yesterday of publicly revealing graphic photographs after digitally removing the girl from the pictures.
Iraqi citizens Kill 5 terrorists
[Quote:]
Citizens of Al Mudhiryiah (a small town in the “death triangle”) were subjected to an attack by several militants today who were trying to punish the residents of this small town for voting in the election last Sunday.
The citizens responded and managed to stop the attack, kill 5 of the attackers, wounded 8 and burned their cars.
3 citizens were injured during the fire exchange. The Shiekh of the tribe to whom the 3 wounded citizens belong demanded more efforts from the government to stop who he described as “Salafis”.
U.S. condoned Iraq oil smuggling
[Quote:]
Documents obtained by CNN reveal the United States knew about, and even condoned, embargo-breaking oil sales by Saddam Hussein’s regime, and did so to shore up alliances with Iraq’s neighbors.
The oil trade with countries such as Turkey and Jordan appears to have been an open secret inside the U.S. government and the United Nations for years.
The unclassified State Department documents sent to congressional committees with oversight of U.S. foreign policy divulge that the United States deemed such sales to be in the “national interest,” even though they generated billions of dollars in unmonitored revenue for Saddam’s regime.
Let us suspend all laws!
type in H.R. 418 in the search box to find the REAL ID Act of 2005
[Quote:]
Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:
`(c) Waiver-
`(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary’s sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.
`(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction–
`(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or
`(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.’.
Freedom is on the march!
U.S. Declares Iraqis Can Not Save Their Own Seeds
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As part of sweeping ”economic restructuring” implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save their seeds, which include seeds the Iraqis themselves have developed over hundreds of years. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations. That is because in recent years, transnational corporations have patented and now own many seed varieties originated or developed by indigenous peoples. In a short time, Iraq will be living under the new American credo:
Pay Monsanto, or starve.
Loyalty, Rewarded
To make our economy stronger and more competitive, America must reward, not punish, the efforts and dreams of entrepreneurs. [...] Justice is distorted, and our economy is held back, by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims – and I urge Congress to pass legal reforms this year.
– President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address (Feb. 2nd, 2005)
[Quote:]
More than 100 Northwest families have won a $30 million settlement in an asbestos lawsuit involving a subsidiary of Houston-based Halliburton Co.
The deal was part of a $4.3 billion global settlement encompassing Halliburton’s past, present and future asbestos liabilities, Matthew Bergman, a lawyer who represented the families, said Thursday.
Bergman was one of seven attorneys who served on a committee that negotiated the settlement, which included more than 150 law firms representing more than 200,000 injured workers nationwide.
Many were exposed to asbestos while serving on U.S. Navy vessels contaminated with asbestos. Others were exposed from shipyards, paper mills or industrial plants.
Dresser Industries, a subsidiary of Halliburton acquired when Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman of the company, distributed asbestos products to shipyards, power plants and industrial facilities.
– Associated Press Feb. 3rd, 2005
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Girls fined for giving neighbour cookies
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A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 for the distress a neighbour said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts.
The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbour Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day.
Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small claims court ruling by La Plata County Court Judge Doug Walker, a court clerk said on Friday.
The girls baked cookies as a surprise for several of their rural Colorado neighbours on July 31 and dropped off small batches on their porches, accompanied by red or pink paper hearts and the message: “Have a great night”.
The Denver Post newspaper reported on Friday that the girls had decided to stay home and bake the cookies rather than go to a dance where there might be cursing and drinking.
It reported that six neighbours wrote letters entered as evidence in the case thanking the girls for the cookies.
Deceased woman named in file-sharing suit
[Quote:]
Gertrude Walton of Fayette County hated computers, her daughter said.
That did not stop the recording industry from accusing the now deceased 83-year-old Mount Hope woman of illegally trading music over the Internet.
More than a month after Walton was buried in Beckley, a group of record companies named her as the only defendant in a federal lawsuit. They claimed Walton made more than 700 pop, rock and rap songs available for free on the Internet under the screen name smittenedkitten.
On Thursday, a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America acknowledged that Walton was probably not the smittenedkitten it is searching for.
Our evidence gathering and our subsequent legal actions all were initiated weeks and even months ago, said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy. We will now, of course, obviously dismiss this case.
Waltons daughter, Robin Chianumba, lived with her mother for the last 17 years of her life and said her mother objected to having a computer in the house. Chianumba said she didnt know anything about the record companys claims. And she said she does not know anything about the screen name.
My mother was computer illiterate. She hated a computer, Chianumba said. My mother wouldnt know how to turn on a computer.
Gertrude Walton could not be reached for comment… but it shows you that file swapping is a grave matter.
WMD?! Regime Change?! 9-11?! Assume the murder investigation model and ask, “Who benefits?”. John, you have been kind enough to enumerate some of the beneficiaries of our Iraq policy, and I do not see the American people, or the Iraqi people on that list. If one parses the support base of the administration against the beneficiaries of our Iraq policy (or medicaid “reform”, social security “reform”, energy policy….etc) we have a tidy list of suspects. Can I get a witness?!