Brain Trauma is Most Common Injury to U.S. Troops in Iraq

This Website Features Northern NY State News, World News, Jokes, Inspirational Sayings, Email Forwards and every now and then, we add a little satire to the mix.
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The 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Continental Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKean...
(FULL STORY)
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3/8/2005 - FOCUS: Video Shows U.S. Soldiers in 'Ramadi Madness' Abuse
Washington - U.S. Army soldiers in Iraq filmed themselves kicking a gravely wounded prisoner in the face and making the arm of a corpse appear to wave, then titled the effort "Ramadi Madness" after the city where it was made.

The video, made public on Monday, was shot by Florida National Guard soldiers. They edited and compiled it into a DVD in January 2004, with various sections bearing titles such as "Those Crafty Little Bastards" and "Another Day, Another Mission, Another Scumbag."
(FULL STORY)
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FOCUS - William Rivers Pitt: The Prophecy of Oil
On August 27, 1859, Edwin Drake's oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania struck a gusher, making him the man credited with drilling the first commercially successful oil well in America. In the time between then and now, the world has burned through about 900 billion barrels of Drake's discovery.

Global daily oil consumption today stands at around 82 million barrels, and many experts believe the emerging mega-industrialization of nations like China and India will cause that daily consumption to reach at least 120 million barrels a day by the year 2030. Not to fear, however; ExxonMobil believes there are some 14 trillion barrels still in the ground, including nonconventional resource fields like the tar sands of Canada and petroleum-rich shale in the western United States.
(FULL STORY)
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STOPPING A STRIKE AT THE HEART OF THE SENATE
Remarks by Senator Byrd
Delivered on March 1, 2005
EXCERPT:
Many times in our history we have taken up arms to protect a minority
against the tyrannical majority in other lands. We, unlike Nazi Germany or
Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men.

But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel
and unjust ends. Historian Alan Bullock writes that Hitler's dictatorship
rested on the constitutional foundation of a single law, the Enabling Law.
Hitler needed a two-thirds vote to pass that law, and he cajoled his
opposition in the Reichstag to support it. Bullock writes that "Hitler was
prepared to promise anything to get his bill through, with the appearances
of legality preserved intact." And he succeeded.

"Hitler's originality lay in his realization that effective revolutions, in
modern conditions, are carried out with, and not against, the power of the
State: the correct order of events was first to secure access to that power
and then begin his revolution. Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality;
he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his
side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal."...
http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_speeches/byrd_speeches_2005_march/byrd_speeches_03012005.html
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Top 10 Reasons Why Paul Wolfowitz
Would Make a Good World Bank President
1.) He would follow in the great tradition of World Bank president Robert McNamara, who also helped kill tens of thousands of people in a poor country most Americans couldn’t find on a map before getting the job.

2.) It helps to be a good liar when you run an institution with employees who earn over $100,000 a year to pretend to help billions of people who live on less than $1 a day.

3.) With all his experience helping U.S. companies grab Iraq’s oil profits, he's got just the right experience for doling out lucrative World Bank contracts to U.S. businesses...
(FULL LIST)
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Frank Rich: What's Missing from the News
New York - Two weeks ago Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide. This week Dan Rather commits ritual suicide, leaving the anchor chair at CBS prematurely as penance for his toxic National Guard story. The two journalists shared little but an abiding distaste - make that hatred in Thompson's case - for the Great Satan of 20th-century American politics, Richard Nixon. The best work of both was long behind them. Yet memories of that best work - not to mention the coincidental timing of their departures - only accentuate the vacuum in that cultural category we stubbornly insist on calling News.

What's missing from News in the United States is the news. On ABC, Peter Jennings devotes two hours of prime time to playing peek-a-boo with UFO fanatics, a whorish stunt crafted to deliver ratings, not information. On NBC, Brian Williams is busy as all get-out, as every promo reminds us, "Reporting America's Story." That story just happens to be the relentless branding of Brian Williams as America's anchorman - a guy just too in love with Folks Like Us to waste his time looking closely at, say, anything happening in Washington.
(FULL STORY)
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America is # 1
No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name
"America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:
The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
"The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78)...
http://www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp
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President Bush's Record
This administration, in catering to industries that put America's health and natural heritage at risk, threatens to do more damage to our environmental protections than any other in U.S. history. Here is NRDC's account of what the Bush administration has done and is doing on environmental matters.
http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/
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Ray McGovern | Who Now Will Read to the President in the Morning?
Senate skids have been greased for John Negroponte to be confirmed as the first director of national intelligence. Never mind that he deliberately misled Congress about serious human rights abuses in Honduras where
he was ambassador from 1981 to 1985.

That dissembling enabled the White House to circumvent the congressional restrictions that would have denied use of Honduras as the primary base for the "Contras"-the counterrevolutionaries organized and armed
by the US to overthrow the government of Nicaragua.

Negroponte's opposite number in Washington during those rogue-elephant, Iran-Contra days, then-Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams, was convicted for lying to Congress but then promptly pardoned by George H. W. Bush, who explained that Abrams was motivated by "patriotism"...
(FULL STORY)
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Will White House Allow New E.P.A. Chief to
Protect Environment and Public Health?
Natural Resources Defense Council
Washington - NRDC Advocacy Director Gregory Wetstone made the following statement in response to President Bush's nomination today of Steve Johnson as the new Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

"We sincerely hope for opportunities to work with Steve Johnson to safeguard America's air,
water and public health from pollution.
"Our experience with his predecessors, however, proved that it's not the man who matters in this job,
so much as the mission set by the White House.
(FULL STORY)
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A psychologist at the University of Alberta, Hurd said that it has been known for more than a century that the length of the index finger relative to the ring finger differs between men and women. More recently, researchers have found a direct correlation between finger lengths and the amount of testosterone that a fetus is exposed to in the womb. The shorter the index finger relative to the ring finger, the higher the amount of prenatal testosterone, and--as Hurd and Bailey have now shown--the more likely he will be physically aggressive throughout his life.

"More than anything, I think the findings reinforce and underline that a large part of our personalities and our traits are determined while we're still in the womb," said Hurd.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/uoa-flp030205.php
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Quotable quote By One Of President Bush's Family Heroes
"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine a policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a Democracy, or a Fascist Dictatorship, or a Parliament, or a Communist Dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked and denounce the Pacifists for lack of Patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
[Hermann Goering] - Hitler's Reich-Marshall
at the Nuremberg Trials after WWII
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Top 16 Biblical Ways to Acquire a Wife
1.) Find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and give her new clothes.
Then she's yours.
-- Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 21:11-13)

2.) Find a prostitute and marry her.
-- Hosea (Hosea 1:1-3)

3.) Find a man with seven daughters, and impress him by watering his flock.
-- Moses (Exodus 2:16-21)

4.) Purchase a piece of property, and get a woman as part of the deal.
-- Boaz (Ruth 4:5-10)

5.) Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one and carry her off to be your wife.
-- Benjaminites (Judges 21:19-25)

6.) Have God create a wife for you while you sleep. Note: this will cost you a rib.
- Adam (Genesis 2:19-24)

7.) Agree to work seven years in exchange for a woman's hand in marriage. Get tricked into marrying the wrong woman. Then work another seven years for the woman you wanted to marry in the first place. That's right.
Fourteen years of toil for a woman.
-- Jacob (Genesis 29:15-30)
For the full list, Click Here
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FYI SPECIAL: Shooting of Italian Journalist Sparks Outrage, Questions
http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/6/114241/5457
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Rule Change Lets C.I.A. Freely Send Suspects Abroad to Jails
WASHINGTON, March 5 - The Bush administration's secret program to transfer suspected terrorists to foreign countries for interrogation has been carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency under broad authority that has allowed it to act without case-by-case approval from the White House or the State or Justice Departments, according to current and former government officials...
(FULL STORY)
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CIA Chief Porter Goss in Over His Head?
"The jobs that I'm being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal... I'm a little amazed at the workload."—Porter Goss

March 14 issue - Bush critics and veteran intel operatives alike were amazed when CIA Director Porter Goss, in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Library last week, apparently said he found his job overwhelming. The embarrassing report only reinforced the belief among some intel professionals that Goss's tenure has been troubled. The controversy erupted after the Associated Press quoted Goss as saying, "The jobs that I'm being asked to do, the five hats that I wear, are too much for this mortal... I'm a little amazed at the workload." Goss also reportedly said there was such "ambiguity" in the intel-reform bill that he didn't know what his official relationship was supposed to be with John Negroponte,
the newly named director of National Intelligence.

Intel officials initially said the CIA chief's lecture was supposed to be closed to the media and that the emcee who introduced him told the audience that Goss's remarks should be treated accordingly. But Joanne Drake, chief of staff of the Reagan Library Foundation, told NEWSWEEK that while the media were not explicitly invited and recording equipment was banned, the speech was publicly announced. She said anyone, including journalists, who bought a $45 ticket was welcome to attend. Drake and an Intel official acknowledged the emcee never explicitly declared the session off the record.
(FULL STORY)
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Nuclear Waste 'Dumped' on Beaches
Safety breaches at one of Britain's biggest nuclear research stations resulted in hundreds of thousands of radioactive particles escaping into the environment, a former safety officer has revealed. Highly radioactive waste was pumped into the sea and evidence of the pollution was covered up by managers who had a "reckless" disregard for public health, according to Herbie Lyall, a health physics surveyor at the Dounreay plant in Caithness for 30 years...
(FULL STORY)
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Email Forward Of The Week !.
NOT A NEWS STORY... OR IS IT ?
Archangel Michael says, "Complaining is based upon the belief that you're a
victim. Whenever you complain, you emit the energy of victimhood. This
attracts situations in which you will feel even more victimized. Instead of
complaining, put your entire focus into correcting the situation which is
causing you to feel pain. Ask me to assist, and I'll give you the courage to
make necessary changes. In the meantime, surround the situation with love,
which will always bring miracles and healing effects."
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Tired of speeding tickets?
Want to open up spaces between you and the cars around you.
Step 1. Tie these balloons to your car
Step 2. Drive VERY FAST
Step 3. Watch people freak out.
Step 4. Tell the nice officer you thought they were real.

(Origin unknown - I received it in an email forward.)
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Joke Break !
THIS IS A JOKE, IT'S NOT A NEWS STORY !
President Walking Eagle Bush
President Bush was invited to address a major gathering of the American Indian Nation last weekend in Arizona. He spoke for almost an hour on his future plans for increasing every Native American's present standard of living.
He referred to his career as Governor of Texas and how he had signed "YES"
1,237 times for every Indian issue that came to his desk for approval.

Although the President was vague on the details of his plan, he seemed most enthusiastic about his future ideas for helping his "red brothers." At the conclusion of his speech, the Tribes presented the President with a plaque inscribed with his new Indian name--Walking Eagle. The proud President then departed in his motorcade, waving to the crowds.

A news reporter later inquired of the group of chiefs just how they had come to select the new name given to the President. They explained that Walking Eagle is the name given to a bird so full of shit it can no longer fly.
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(For more jokes, please visit our jokes page.)
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Back To The News
William Rivers Pitt: The Third Stage of American Empire - 3/1/2005
There have been three stages of American empire since the creation of this nation. Each has fed the other, and each has been established and fortified by war. More importantly, each has been fortified by the vast profits derived by the few in the making of war. The first two stages did not collapse, so much as they were absorbed by the next iteration, carrying over all circumstances and attendant difficulties. We exist today within the third stage of empire, one that is sick at the core.

The first stage of this American empire began with the Mexican-American war, but began to flourish at the conclusion of the Civil War. All the states east of the Mississippi River had been brought by force back under the rule of the federal government, a national taxation system had been established to provide revenues to that government, and the nascent outlines of what Eisenhower described as 'the military/industrial complex' had been built by the lucrative contracts handed out to arm, clothe and feed the military.

For many years prior, Americans had been pushing into the western lands occupied by native peoples. Under the banner of Manifest Destiny, the military/economic machine created to fight the Confederacy pushed its way to the Pacific Ocean. In the process, the vast majority of Native Americans were erased from the book of history,
a book that is always written by the victors...
(FULL STORY)
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Wounded Journalist: GIs Fired Without Warning
ROME (AP) - The freed Italian hostage wounded by American troops at a checkpoint in Baghdad shortly after her release said in an article Sunday that her Iraqi captors had warned her U.S. forces "might intervene."

Giuliana Sgrena, who writes for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, described how she was wounded and Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed as she was celebrating her freedom on the way to the airport. The shooting Friday has fueled anti-American sentiment in a country where people are deeply opposed to U.S. policy in Iraq.
(FULL STORY)
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ECO FOCUS | Bush Team Readying Backdoor to Drill Arctic Refuge
Having been thwarted repeatedly in its effort to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling for oil, the Bush Administration and its Congressional leadership have come up with a plan for a sneak attack on the issue.

Rather than holding a straightforward vote on the Senate floor, where strong public opposition halted drilling in the past few years, House and Senate members are quietly planning instead to attach the drilling measure to upcoming budget legislation, where it would be all but impossible to stop (budget bills are exempt from filibuster or extended debate).

This past Tuesday, SaveOurEnvironment.org, a national coalition for the environment, said the planned maneuver demonstrates that "proponents of drilling know they cannot pass this through the normal legislative process, so they are resorting to a procedural tactic to prohibit open and honest debate."
(FULL STORY)
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Bush and friends are being sued for 7 billion dollars
for planning the 9/11, attacks against America
http://suetheterrorists.net/
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Rumsfeld Sued over Prisoner Torture
When the Abu Ghraib photographs first surfaced, a wave of shock and revulsion rolled across the planet. Subsequent revelations indicated that senior Bush administration officials, including Alberto Gonzales and Donald Rumsfeld, actively pushed for the use of torture against individuals detained in the 'War on Terror,' and further sought to build firewalls between the administration and any legal consequences arising from said torture....

...Two human rights groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on behalf of eight men allegedly tortured by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Rumsfeld bears direct responsibility" because he "personally signed off" on policies guiding prisoner treatment, said American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero.

A number of other lawsuits also are pending against Rumsfeld, military commanders and civilian contractors in the abuse scandal, which broke last spring with the disclosure of photographs showing American military men and women abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison...
(FULL STORY)
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***** In Today's America There Is A More Powerful Act Than Voting Blue...
And That's Buying Blue ! *****
You may have voted blue, but every day you unknowingly help dump millions of dollars into the conservative war chest. By purchasing products and services from companies that donate heavily to conservatives, we have been compromising our own interests as liberals and progressives.

BuyBlue.org is a concerted effort to lift the veil of corporate patronage, so consumers can make informed buying decisions that coincide with their principles.

Currently, we are developing an extensive and interactive website where users will be able to monitor corporate activity in real time. We cannot do this alone; we need an army of Blue buyers to be the eyes and ears of this movement. All we have to do is put our money where our mouth is to make it profitable to be ethical.

Our collective buying power WILL make a difference, and we WILL be heard.
http://www.buyblue.org/
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EDITORS NOTE: We don't support special interest groups and they don't support us. I put countless hours into researching and building this website to help educate the world about news stories that they might not see otherwise. Because of that fact, we welcome all website and news related viewer feedback from all countries. This site is here to help everyone we can to be better informed about what is going on in all parts of the world.

If you have a link or a news story that you would like to see posted on this website, please send it to me in an email for my consideration. This website is one of several websites owned and operated by just one person. However, none of them would be anywhere near as well known and liked around the world without the help of my family, friends and viewers like you.
Email Us
NOTE ABOUT SENT EMAILS: If you send it... I own it and I can do whatever I want to with it !
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Viewer Email
there are people dead and risking there life to protect your life and your right to your opinion in your site. there are police and specail units ready to do the same for you at the risk of there own life and at the risk of there family relations and the same at the wtc allready prooved this. while you and yours stay safe because of them. and president bush is the one with all the weight on his shoulders while people like you say he shouldent have done nuthing... a lot of us would be dead right now if not for the Patriot Act . and as far as i think. if uncle sam watching my and your mooves keeps me alive i have no complaints. grow up

My Reply
Thanks for your input but...
President Bush is being sued for 7 billion dollars for planning the 9/11, attacks, by the family's of 9/11.
Next... The Patriot act is unconstitutional.
Therefore, I guess we must agree to disagree.
I do what I do for the good of our soldiers who are putting their lives on the line everyday. I also do it for soldiers who have died protecting our Constitution for hundreds of years, some of them close family members.
Try to find some inner peace and try to have a nice day.

New York State Facts - kids room

What is a Billion?
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one
advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into
perspective in one of its releases:
A billion seconds ago - it was 1959.
A billion minutes ago - Jesus was alive
A billion hours ago- our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
A billion dollars ago - was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the
rate that the Federal Government in Washington D.C. spends it.
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Despite what President Bush says, the war on Iraq is not over. The cost of this war to the American tax payer is going up every second. Since we can't put a price on human lives, we will just give you the figures in tax dollars that the American tax payers have paid as of right now. These figures were provided by the Costofwar.com website.

Cost of the War in Iraq

$175,674,514,602

To see more details, click here.
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This page was last updated:
01/15/08 04:46 PM

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