(Warning Photo below fold is a little graphic It may also be a fake can't be to sure these days judge for your self. It may not be suitable for people with weak constitutions)

Photo of a detainee held by the United States, with his face wired, lips sewn, red eyes and torso sacked. According to digital camera metadata the image was taken on Feb 9, 2003 03:49:25. The 6 Aug 2004 is also mentioned in relation to this photo. The facial wiring is clearly non-medical. The location of the detainee is unknown, possibly the US Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Afghanistan. Although there is a resemblance to the US Taliban supporter John Walker Lindh, the connection is superficial

wikileaks

The White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it expected Iran to "miss an opportunity to accept" the incentives package.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Operational Brimstone, starting Monday, July 21, aimed at giving military teeth to the two-week ultimatum the six world powers gave Iran in Geneva Saturday to accept the suspension of uranium enrichment or face harsh sanctions and isolation.

After warning of punitive measures against Iran, Condoleezza Rice met the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council plus Egypt, Jordan and Iraq in Abu Dhabi. First she was briefed by Under Secretary of State William Burns.

DEBKA

Yesterday on his radio show, right wing talker Michael Savage said that autism is "a fraud" and "a racket" and that "in 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out." Savage then asserted that all these "brat[s]" need as a father to tell them to "stop acting like a putz":

That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.

thinkprogress.com

I´ve found this excellent article published on National Geographic and wanted to share it with you. I am sure that you will have a lot to say about it. Now it's not political but who want's to read something like that all the time. It's just an interesting scientific article

An ominous technical signal known as the Hindenburg Omen could be predicting the next stock market crash. Robin Goldwyn Blumenthal from Barron's explains.

cnbc.com
(also has a video on the link can't post it here)

US Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran, today reacted to a report of rising US cigarette exports to the country by saying it may be "a way of killing 'em".

news.com.au

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.

The Independent

So many school districts in the U.S. are wanting to teach creationism, and my friends in the UK, have told me schools have considered it seriously there also. Now I’m not an atheist, I’m a believer in evolution but I think you can believe whatever you wish. However there is a vital flaw in creationism.

Iran has moved ballistic missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant among the possible targets, defence sources said last week.

The movement of Shahab-3B missiles, which have an estimated range of more than 1,250 miles, followed a large-scale exercise earlier this month in which the Israeli air force flew en masse over the Mediterranean in an apparent rehearsal for a threatened attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. Israel believes Iran’s nuclear programme is aimed

timesonline.co.uk

On June 20, 1996, Senator John McCain allegedly assaulted a family member of a Vietnam War prisoner of war (POW) who was missing in action (MIA), as a group of about 15 family members of POW/MIAs watched in astonishment. Within about one month, five ethics complaints had been filed with the Senate Ethics Committee by five eyewitnesses. But the Senate Ethics Committee refused to investigate the matter.

According to eyewitness Carol Hrdlicka, wife of Vietnam War POW/MIA air force pilot Col. David Hrdlicka, the group had been waiting in the hall of the Russell Office Building in Washington, D.C. for McCain to come out of an office in order to hand deliver letters asking him to forego an amendment to the Missing Service Personnel Act (MSPA) of 2005. The MSPA had been signed into law in February 1996 as part of the Defense Authorization Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-106). This law, which updated a 1942 law, had been a major victory for the families of POW/MIAs who worked tirelessly to get it through Congress.

OPED News

Not much to say just read the quote below the fold. How does this make you feel sad, angry or does it just make you want to go to sleep?

I'm only 25 years old, and in the short time between me being a fun loving kid and my current status of pissed off adult, I have noticed exactly how ridiculous America is/has become.

We live in a country where....

In Martin County, Kentucky this week, John McCain added another one his "Forgotten Places" to the growing list of places his campaign would now like to forget. With a straight face, McCain told the residents of the economically devastated region that eBay represents their economic future. And he did so by appropriating the words of Meg Whitman, who just happens to be not only McCain's national campaign co-chair, but the former CEO of eBay.

perrspectives

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report.

BBC

"Just after the completion and signing of the Constitution, in reply to a woman's inquiry as to the type of government the Founders had created, Benjamin Franklin said, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the organisation that fosters cooperation between central banks, has warned that the credit crisis could lead world economies into a crash on a scale not seen since the 1930s.

Banking Times

Silly Central Bankers! Haven't you listened to The Decider? We're just in a "little slowdown"!

And you haven't paid attention to the pie-charts and graphs of our government economical statistics guys! We're not even in a recession! You're supposed to be telling the peons to "keep spending, there's nothing to worry about here" like everyone else! Shame on you!

The long running saga of litigation against The Pirate Bay has been well publicized and discussed depth at DailyTech. The Pirate Bay was slapped with conspiracy charges by the government of Sweden early this year, at the urging of the IFPI, the parent organization of the RIAA.  Under attack by IFPI lawyers and Swedish authorities, the sardonic pirate bay chaps told the IFPI lawyers to "screw themselves" and countersued for compensation for lost traffic.

Now Wikileaks has obtained a leaked copy of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a shadowy bill that has been being discussed in Congress behind closed doors.  The new multi-lateral intellectual property measure is being pushed by Republican U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab, who designed much of it.  The ACTA bill is apparently supported by the U.S., the European Commission (well known for its recent fining of Microsoft), Japan, and Switzerland.

daily tech

The ongoing negotiations between Iraqi leaders and the Bush administration over the future role of the military occupation "have turned into an increasingly acrimonious public debate."
The Bush administration’s demand for 58 permanent bases in Iraq — a near doubling of the current 30 bases — are causing Iraqis to warn that the status of forces agreement would be "more abominable than the occupation." The administration is reportedly holding hostage "some $50bn of Iraq’s money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement."

The reason the White House is so hell-bent on signing a long-term agreement may have less to do with Iraq and more to do with Iran. According to press reports of the ongoing negotiations, the Bush administration is seeking the "power to determine if a hostile act from another country is aggression against Iraq." Ali al Adeeb, a leading member of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa party, confirmed:

Black Listed news