Saturday, February 07, 2004

 

Here's tonight's headlines from the Brahma News Service, a division of the Tibetan Broadcast company:

 

Bid to Outlaw Hemp Food Fails in Court

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the U.S. government overstepped its boundaries when it banned the sale of food made with hemp, a plant related to marijuana.

 

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that although the Drug Enforcement Administration has regulatory authority over marijuana, the agency did not follow the law in asserting authority over all hemp food products as well.

 

But last April, DEA attorney Daniel Dormont told the court that "there's no way of knowing" whether some food made with hemp could get people high. 

 

~*  Well-l-l-l-l.... you could try eating it.....!  Bwa-ha-ha-haaaaa

 

O.K.....now we have GOOD news....and we have BAD news.  First, the good:

 

AP Poll Notes Decline in Support for Bush  

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's public support dropped sharply over the past month, especially among older voters, political independents and people in the Midwest, an Associated Press poll found.

~*  This is a good demographic analysis for change.  The older voters are more likely to actually vote than the young'ens, the independents are the segment of society that swing the election....and the midwest is a Democratic party weakness.

Bush's approval rating stood at 47 percent in the AP-Ipsos poll taken in early February, down from 56 percent approval just a month ago. Half, or 50 percent, said they disapproved in the latest poll.

Bush's 47 percent approval rating is the same as his father's at this stage in his presidency 12 years ago before he lost to Bill Clinton.

~* That last sentence is the most comforting of all.  Especially since George the Elder also had a  90% approval rating after invading Iraq.  I'm a-hoping and a-praying that Junior exaccerbates the situation on Meet the Press this Sunday.  What Ann Richards declared about Bush the 1st holds true for Junior...."He was born with a silver foot in his mouth"

Now for the bad news....which for some reason was discovered on page 7 of our local paper's 12 page world news section:

Pakistan pardons nuclear scientist
Government refuses outside investigation of his technology transfers to 3 nations

Rawalpindi, Pakistan -- President Pervez Musharraf granted a full pardon on Thursday to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, a day after Khan appeared on television and confessed to sharing nuclear technology with Iran, North Korea and Libya. 

As a result, Khan will not face prison, a fine or any other punishment. 

~*  This douchbag confessed..!!!  To perhaps one of the most dastardly acts ever..!!!  Only time will tell.  And hold on to your popcorn folks....because the news actually gets worse!

....Musharraf said Pakistan will not hand over all documents from its investigation to international nuclear monitors. He said his government will not order an independent investigation into the Pakistani army's role in the proliferation, calling the idea "rubbish." And he said he will never allow U.N. supervision of Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

"Negative to all three," Musharraf said, raising his voice. "It is an independent nation. Nobody comes inside and checks our things. We check them ourselves."

~*  Yeah....we can see you're doing a REALLY GREAT JOB of it too, A-hole.

The White House praised Musharraf for breaking up the network linked to Khan, which appears to have been one of the largest ever discovered, but made little mention of the pardon and declined to say whether it will insist that Pakistan sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Having satisfied on Wednesday international demands for an investigation, Musharraf switched to a defiant tone on Thursday, reaching out to a domestic audience and asserting that -- unlike Libya, which has agreed under pressure to give up its nuclear program -- Pakistan will stand firm. 

~*  "Satisfied international demands for an investigation"...????  You've GOT to be kidding me with THAT one....

Explaining his decision to pardon the scientist, Musharraf said that Khan "is still my hero, he is still high in the sky for me." He said the scientist's role in helping Pakistan develop nuclear bombs to counter those of its longtime rival India was grounds for leniency.

U.S. officials have said Pakistani nuclear aid flowed to Libya as late as last fall, four years into Musharraf's rule. Opposition political parties and Pakistani military experts have said it is nearly impossible that Pakistan's army did not at least tacitly approve of the smuggling.

~* To flash back to my comments concerning the lack of planning involved in failing to cut off Osama's escape route..... Those Paki scumbags are no friends of ours...!!!  This Musharraf punk sounds every bit as dangerous as Saddam was to us!  And he has an extremly large and vocal crowd demanding these very actions too!

A coalition of hard-line Islamic parties has called for a national strike today to protest Musharraf's treatment of Khan, whose reputation appears not to have been greatly tarnished by the allegation. In local press reports, many Pakistanis said that Khan had been forced to make a false confession under U.S. pressure.

~* How is THIS behavior acceptable to the U.S.?  Do you all understand the ramifications of their actions?  They have admitted to spreading nuclear capabilities to what Bush reffered to as "The Axis of Evil"!  We have invaded Iraq for less!  I'd really like to request an explanation.....how about you...?  Will we get real answers on Meet The Press?  Or will he be allowed to give the standard evasive responses he's been giving since before the LAST Presidential election?  He used to be fond of reffering to other people's "fuzzy math", or "fuzzy logic".  He needs to be held accountable for EVERYTHING that makes up our present reality.

Musharraf clearly played to a domestic audience during his news conference, which was later broadcast on national television. He spoke in Urdu, Pakistan's primary language, and wore his commando uniform. When the general is addressing a Western audience, he wears a business suit and speaks in English. 

~*  Astute readers of my nightly ramblings may remember all the way back to yesterday when I mentioned the 2500% rent increase San Francisco will recieve for the use of the land under the city's water supply.  My (and surely, others) speculation was that it's an attempt to siphon funds that may otherwise find its way to the Democrat's coffers this year. (S.F and area is overwhelmingly Democratic)  Lo and behold, today's paper brings us this related story:

California leads nation in presidential donations  

.....That accounts for $1 of every $10 collected by all presidential candidates through Jan. 31, 2004, and about $1 of every $5 for the leading Democratic contenders. 

~*  Do the math.  Read the election results for the SF Bay Area for the last whole bunch of years.  Arnold's victory, although he ran as an Independent, was considered a huge Republican victory out here, giving them pipedreams of delivering the state to Bush this time around.

And folks.....how dull would life be with out one of our favorite features,

Letters to the Editor....

~*  This first one is related to the last item about the potable rent hike:

Hetch Hetchy's rent

Editor -- I assume that along with raising the rent San Francisco pays for Hetch Hetchy from $30,000 to $8 million, the Bush administration has proposed to raise fees for mining and grazing on public lands to something more closely approximating market value ("Bush budget soaks S.F. for Hetch Hetchy," Feb. 4)? I believe the federal government would stand to gain significantly more than $8 million a year by raising these fees from token levels, income which could be used to defray the considerable environmental costs associated with these highly polluting industries. Oops, silly me -- I don't know what I was thinking.

JESSICA ROTHHAAR

Oakland

 ~*  Not only that Jessica....those industries HEAVILY support Rebublicans!

Here's another look at Janet's breast....so to speak:

Some perspective

EDITOR: One breast pops out for a split second during the Super Bowl halftime show and citizens are up in arms as if Osama bin Laden himself made an appearance. How is it that we've come this far as a society, but somehow a single breast (with a covered nipple) is more objectionable than all the violence or liquor advertising that is commonplace on television? If the worst thing a child sees on television is one of Janet Jackson's breasts, consider it a good day.

Our friends in Western Europe see breasts on TV during shampoo commercials, complete with nipples, and no one is calling for federal investigations over there. All of this wasted time, money and energy would be better spent on looking into Halliburton's overcharging of the government, Dick Cheney's insider dealings with energy tycoons or President Bush's lack of evidence for his grudge-match of a war.

Wake up, America, and get out of the Victorian mindset that is dragging us backward. Don't forget that billions of people have breasts; they're quite ordinary.

BLAINE SULLIVAN

Santa Rosa

~* Here, here Blaine! (Where?Where?) 

Here's a letter that speaks for MANY Americans:

A plausible excuse

EDITOR: I found myself staring at the front page of the Jan. 29 Press Democrat as though I were struggling with a foreign language. The subhead of the lead article quotes David Kay, former chief U.S. weapons inspector. He said, about the absence weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, "It turns out we were all wrong." Yeah? Let's put that on a postcard and mail it to the mothers of sons who died in Baghdad.

Goodness gracious, we all make mistakes, don't we? So, this time we were all wrong. That's funny; I wasn't wrong. The millions who protested the war in San Francisco, London, Paris, Rome weren't wrong. Was it really faulty intelligence that led the administration astray, or was it just looking for a plausible excuse to do what it needed to do to protect "our" oil?

JUDITH BAILEY

Forestville

~*  Something to think about....yes?

But still....there will always be this faction:

Saddam's Capture Justifies War for Some

...."Saddam lived in splendor while the rest of his people had to fend for themselves," Maj. Paul Lehto of Kingston, Mass., said over lunch here.

~*  No disrespect Major, but couldn't the same statement be made of Bush?

A number of them say Saddam's brutality to his own people justified the war.

Lt. Jerry England said it appeared that Bush had "played on the fear" of weapons of mass destruction in arguing the case for war. "It was a harder case to sell without them," said England, from Overland Park, Kan.

~* Here's a scarry thought;

Will Osama rock the vote?
The American Presidential election could be decided by a terrorist attack on U.S. soil

".....If, by the November election, the al Qaeda mastermind is able to mount another large terrorist attack inside the United States, bin Laden will show that Iraq has been a fatal distraction from the more pressing business of ripping apart his network. And George Bush will lose his job."

~*  Jeeez, I hope it doesn't come down to that.  Unfortunatly, it's entirely possible.  What a way to insure a Bush defeat.  Iran affected the 1980 election by holding on to the hostages until the first day of Reagan's regime, insuring Jimmy Carter's defeat.  I don't know what made them think Reagan would be more advantageous for them than Carter.  They must have been relying on the same intelegence sources that Bush did, since Reagan actually helped keep Iran's enemy, Iraq, as a major military force in the region!

A point that's too often overlooked.....is the $40 million gift that Bush gave the Taliban via the DEA for cooperating in reducing the flow of heroin......just FOUR MONTHS prior to Sept.11, 2001.  It's really time for answers, Georgie boy!

Rather than risk losing this message to space restraints, as well as losing your interest, I'll resist commenting on the "independent panel" laughingly chosen by Bush!  But permit me one prediction.....

Any really damning evidence that paints Bush & Co. as what they apparently are (according to daily mounting testimony) will be denied the panel for reasons of national security.  Not only that.....but the panel will not even be able to tell anyone what questions won't be answered due to the same reasoning.  It's all to be done behind closed doors, I'm sure.  Perhaps Cheney will take them duck hunting first.

Time to shut it down for tonight.  I usually think of a few more things after I sign off, but they'll have to wait for another time.  I bid you good night

~Brahma*

posted by ~Brahma 3:17 AM