John Kerry might have a new debate point in his favour as a Clintonian bill banning assault weapons from the streets, known commonly as the Brady Bill, is lapsing and needs reapproval from Congress. George Bush endorsed the bill in 2000, but has since remained quiet on the issue because he wants the support of the NRA in November. It could be a good wedge issue in a campaign that desperately needs to get it together with some offence. This all comes as gun retailers and manufacturers have settled a $2 million lawsuit with the families of the Washington DC area sniper attacks. What the Democrats really need to do though is to stop being pussies about attacking the Republicans. There's no reason why the Republicans can have open access to generalized ad hominems (like Kerry is a flip-flopper, for instance) without once actually talking about what they're going to do, or have Bush's cronies give piles of money to blatant lies like the Swift Boat Veterans and then claim that the Republicans are independent of the mud slinging. If Bush continues to lead in the polls, I say implement a scorched earth policy and drag all of them through the mud (like they so rightly deserve). I'm tired of playing nice if the only thing the opposition is going to do is lower the level of debate through these tactics. Fight fire with fire. On another note though, the blogosphere have recently rediscovered an old Onion article, one that I remember reading in 2000 that almost seems prescient now.
The United States Army has come forth with a statement saying that the CIA hid up to 100 Iraqi detainees in military prisons from the Red Cross and other international organizations, in a possible violation of international law. In other violations of international law, a new investigation by The Guardian found that the Bush administration, specifically Donald Rumsfeld, knew about the prisoner abuses in Guantanamo Bay as far back as 2002, but refused to do anything about it. Presently in Iraq the US is holding off major attacks for the time being though 'surgical strikes' continue, but the military situation continues to worsen as the number of daily attacks on American troops have increased to be the most since President Bush declared 'mission accomplished' and there are now many areas of Iraq where the Army just don't go anymore out of fear of attack.
Al-Qaeda spokesperson Ayman al-Zawahri has issued a statement that the defeat of US forces in both Afghanistan and Iran is only a matter of time. On the less fanatical side of the religion, ongoing terrorist attacks such as the recent occupation of a school in Russia are influencing an internal debate within global Islam on whether clerics should take a much harder stance against Muslims who commit such atrocities, while Deutsche Welle interviews the hereditary imam of Shiite Ismaili Muslims about how Islam and democracy should have no conflict. The New York Times ran a story about, how in Chechnya specifically, chronic and abject poverty are leading women to become terrorists for the separatist cause.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has recently called the situation in Darfur a genocide, yet there is still no real preventative actions underway to halt the abuses. The government of Sudan remains adamant that it is an internal issue that they are solving and should not involve the international community and the United States is looking to make some changes to the draft resolution in front of the UN. Colin Powell continues to be my personal hero though, as he first criticizes the system of Vietnam-era draft avoidance for people with connections that President Bush went through, and then a new book by a BBC broadcaster has him calling the neo-conservative strategists in the White House, you know - the ones that brought you the war in Iraq including Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, "fucking crazies" in a conversation with British Cabinet Minister Jack Straw. At least there's someone in the administration who has a sense of proper international policy, despite the evident lack of tact.
Also:
- Astronomers in Chile might have taken the first visual picture of a planet orbiting another star.
- British scientists have discovered at least one and possibly two new moons orbiting Saturn.
- The $700 million Gravity Probe B project might be upstaged by ground observations of binary pulsars.
- Pioneer 10 and 11 are not proceeding along their anticipated trajectories, leading some scientists to speculate whether they are being effected by dark matter.
- The magnetic field on Earth is slowly fading, down 10% from 150 years ago, and will eventually destabilize and reverse.
- There might be hope for the scientific data on the Genesis probe that crashed into the Earth.
- The discovery of methane on Mars might indicate the presence of organisms.
- An atmospheric scientist takes a swing at why lightning is jagged and not straight.
- A trial in Britain has yielded positive results showing cannibis having a long-term benefit in reducing the symptoms of MS.
- Turmeric might be the source of lower childhood lukemia rates in Asian countries.
- Scientists believe that they have found the part of the brain responsible for dreaming.
- A Canadian study has found what history already knows - that attractive women make men irrational.
- Current extinctions may have a domino effect on other species who were previously dependent on the extinct species.
- The city of Toronto is now using a renewable source of air conditioning known as lake-source cooling.
- Wired has a story about how the recycling program in Nova Scotia actually saves the province money.
- Eleven medical journals have come together to call for more openness in the conduction of drug trials by pharmaceuticals, including a motion for drug companies to register their trials at the beginning to ensure that poor results are not hidden.
- Psychologists are studying how some people flourish in high stress environments.
- Binomial nomenclature, invented by Carl Linnaeus, is being attacked by supporters of rival nomenclature systems.
- A study of indigenous peoples around the world show that even though they receive more media attention, they are still generally mired in poverty and persecution.
- A controversial Bush administration amendment changing the nature of overtime pay has been struck down in the House despite threats of veto on the overall bill.
- The coffee sector is finally getting together to draft a new international code that would provide minimum social, ecological and economic standards in the production of coffee in the developing world.
- It has been one year since the tragic loss of Swedish foreign affairs minister Anna Lindh.
- Apparently the mushroom cloud in North Korea was not a nuclear explosion.
- A right-wing film festival in Texas is screening two anti-Michael Moore films, one (quite uncreatively) called 'Michael Moore Hates America' and the other 'Michael and Me.'
- A book on everything you need to know about running a political campaign with uninformed voters.
- Speaking of uninformed, Dick Cheney is still parroting the discredited line about the direct ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
- And while we're on messed-up regimes, Robert Mugabe has generated more controversy by preventing aid from reaching homeless people.
- Amnesty International has issued a report critisizing racial profiling in the United States.
- Israelis show that they can be just as reactionary as Hamas, as a new political party aimed at driving all Muslims and Christians from Israel and the occupied territories is created.
- Australia had their first prime ministerial debates, which is important for America because if Labour wins, it will be one less country in the 'coalition of the willing.'
- A program of buying back handguns in Brazil has been a terrific success.
- Hong Kong's voter turnout in recent elections is up considerably as pro-democracy candidates make gains.
- Despite the media attention towards crime in general, the actual rate is still close to a 30-year low.
- In an interesting problem arising from multiculturalism, Canada is now deciding on whether certain domestic issues can be tried under Sharia, or Islamic law, if asked for by the people in question.
- A site that parodies the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth site.
- A Republican attack ad drafted if George Bush ever runs against Jesus.
- Certain investors are claiming that the most adequate amount to put in stocks is 0% of your portfolio.
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