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one nation, under surveillance

number 121 09.23.07

interpreting the constitution

crowd control

spread of the red

one nation, under surveillance

fun d' mental

in bed with the red

red state rebate

verbatim

fun d' mental

spread of the red

red state rebate

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verbatim number 23.5

...And I'm going to
continue using my
authority.
Washington DC 01.26.06

"There's going to be -there
will be a constitution-there
will be a legal debate about
whether or not I have the
authority to do this...

...I'm absolutely
convinced I do...

Military personnel per capita
selected countries

n korea israel norway us canada

redstat

sports : asterisks

Steroids Speed Bats, Produce Padded Stats

Tax Breaks Turn Football Fans Into Receivers

NFL's Defensive Strategy on Disability Offensive

source: Viroqua Institute

source: US Department of Energy

Outlandish Cycle Reaches Final Stage

The use of steroids by baseball players to
increase their muscle mass can have a
dramatic impact on home run totals,
according to the results of recently
completed analysis by Tufts University
physicist Roger Tobin. The study found
that an increase of just 10 percent in
muscle mass could raise a hitter’s bat
speed by five percent, which in turn
could increase home run production by
more than 50 percent. Tobin concluded
that pitchers would also see a
“meaningful” increase in their statistics
from additional muscle mass, but not as
much as hitters.

“A change of only a few percent in
the average speed of the batted ball,
which can reasonably be expected
from steroid use, is enough to
increase home run production by at
least 50 percent,” Tobin said in a
statement. Although pitchers could
add four to five miles an hour to
their fastballs, the statistical effects—
a reduction of one half an earned run
per game—would be less discernible.
According to the study, “the unusual
sensitivity of home run production to
bat speed results in much more
dramatic effects." it's all true

The commander of theater
detention facilities in Iraq
announced a new program that
uses religious training as a
component of the military’s re-
education curriculum for
detainees. Major General
Douglas Stone says that “religious
enlightenment programs” are
designed to provide religious
training to Iraqi detainees to help
“bend them back to our will.”

Military interrogators work with
“moderate imams” to present the
Koran in a way that de-
emphasizes themes of struggle
and violence. The general said
that the religious re-education
programs are aimed at “knocking
the edge off” some detainee's
extremist vision of Islam. The
general says that he and his
interrogators are working in “the
battlefield of the mind” of Iraqi
detainees because in Iraq, said
Stone, “religion has been used by
the extremists to control an
illiterate, and to discipline an
illiterate population.”

Stone said that he is “over
encouraged” by the success of the
military’s new religious
enlightenment program.
Although he said that there are
some "irreconcilables", he is
convinced that the program is
succeeding commenting, “We’re
busting them down, were making
moderates.”

About one hundred Iraqi
detainees have passed through
the program. Stone estimated
that there are over 25,000 Iraqis
currently held in detention in
occupied Iraq. it's all true

The Defense Department has asked a
small group of defense contractors to
submit bids on projects related to an
extensive new effort by the military
focusing on drug trafficking. DOD
invited Lockheed Martin, Northrop
Grumman, Raytheon, ARINC and
Blackwater USA to place bids on
technologies and training to support a
new $15 billion five year program to
combat drug trafficking that it is thought
to fund terrorist’s activities. The DOD
bid proposal said that because of the
“rapid adaptability of the counter-
narcoterrorist threat” the Pentagon has
been granted “special federal spending
authorities.”

The Pentagon’s Counter-
Narcoterrorism Technology Program
Office (CNTPO) offered the services
contract in cooperation with the US

Army Space and Missile Defense
Command. CNTPO was created,
according to a Pentagon memorandum,
to “develop and deploy” aids to US
soldiers that assist in stopping the
“people, information, money and
weapons” associated with international
drug trafficking.

The indefinite delivery and indefinite
quantity contract calls for providing
“intelligence, medical, logistics, canine
services, surveillance, counter-
surveillance, aerial over-watch and
security advisory” among other services
to the US military and other federal
agencies including the Drug Enforcement
Administration. Raytheon said that it is
ready to provide “technology and
services to meet the immediate and
emerging needs of combatant
commanders and others” it's all true

verbatim number 23.6

"The use of performance
enhancing drugs like steroids in
baseball, football, and other
sports...sends the wrong
message- that there are
shortcuts to accomplishment,
and that performance is more
important than character."
Washington DC 01.20.04

The Bush administration has stepped up
efforts to expand its legal authority to
monitor American citizens’
communications without obtaining
judicial warrants, pressing Congress to
make permanent the Protect America
Act, which was approved on a temporary
basis last month. Describing domestic
surveillance as vital to national security,
the president and Director of National
Intelligence Mike McConnell have been
lobbying legislators to increase their
powers to tap telephone lines, read e-
mails, and gather private documents
within the United States. The
administration is also seeking blanket
retroactive immunity for
telecommunications companies that may

have assisted in illegal government
surveillance operations.

When the Protect America Act was
hastily approved on the eve of the
Congressional recess, some Democratic
lawmakers had misgivings about the
sweeping nature of its revisions to the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,
vowing to address those concerns when
they returned to Washington. But media
reports indicate that a well-coordinated,
behind the scenes lobbying campaign on
behalf of the telecom giants targeting
key members of the House and Senate
Intelligence and Judiciary Committees
has successfully influenced a number of
Democrats to support expansion of the

Act and, crucially, legal immunity for
the industry. According to
Newsweek magazine, the broad
language being pushed by the White
House was drafted "in close
cooperation" with the companies.

More than 40 lawsuits against various
phone companies have been
consolidated with a case brought in
San Francisco by the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. Government
lawyers have attempted at every
juncture to have the suits dismissed,
but recent signals that the cases may
be allowed to proceed increased
pressure on Congress to act to
protect the industry. it's all true

The US dollar continues to fall to
new lows against a range of
currencies almost daily, with last
week’s rate cuts by the Federal
Reserve placing additional downward
pressure on the value of the
greenback. The dollar recorded a
historic low of 1.40 against the euro
last week, as investors fled the US
securities market for higher yields.
The Canadian dollar reached parity
with the US dollar for the first time
since 1976.

The election of a new Japanese
prime minister this week is expected
to bolster the yen, which has been
trading higher against the weak
dollar. Foreign exchange specialists
have been predicting the decline of
the dollar for some time, citing the
huge US trade deficit and slow
growth of the economy. Recent
reports have also documented a
trend toward diversification into
euros by some of the largest holders
of US debt, including China, Japan,
and South Korea. Uncertainty about
underlying market conditions and the
true extent of the housing and credit
crises has led investors to seek
alternative currencies. it's all true

Members of the Senate
Commerce Committee warned
the NFL and the NFL Players
Association to overhaul their
pension and disability programs or
face Congressional intervention,
after hearing dramatic testimony
that the system in place has failed
former players and their families.
Players Association director Gene
Upshaw and league commissioner
Roger Goodell acknowledged
problems with the retirement
program in their appearances
before the committee, and
pledged to expand medical
coverage for retirees.

The hearings marked the second time
this year that the issue of NFL disability
benefits was investigated in Congress.
Goodell and Upshaw declined to appear
at two House committee hearings in
June, but public pressure has been
building on the league, as the plight of
former players receives increasing media
attention.

Hundreds of NFL retirees suffer from
debilitating joint and neurological damage
from their playing days, particularly
concussions, often undiagnosed. Under
current rules, only 317 former players
receive full disability coverage from the
league’s pension fund. it's all true

Disgraced American cyclist Floyd
Landis was officially stripped of his
2006 Tour de France title last
week, after an American
Arbitration Association panel
upheld the decision of the United
States Anti-Doping Agency, which
found that Landis had used
synthetic testosterone during

the competition. He has been barred
from international cycling for two years.
Landis’ defense centered on allegations
that the laboratories that performed the
drug tests made a series of procedural
errors. The panel agreed that some
mistakes had been made, but found that
none of the errors cast significant doubt
upon the lab's findings. it's all true

A program that authorizes tax breaks for
real estate investors who provide
housing in areas affected by Hurricane
Katrina is assisting buyers of luxury
condos near the University of Alabama’s
football stadium. The condos, which sell
for as much as $1 million, are primarily
used by Crimson Tide supporters for
weekend stays during the football
season. The tax breaks are available
because Tuscaloosa is part of the federal
“GO Zone,” even though the college
town is some 200 miles inland and saw
little hurricane related damage.

The Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005
contains a wide range of incentives for
real estate developers to provide much-
needed housing in hurricane-affected
areas of Mississippi, Louisiana, and

Alabama. The Zone was drafted to
include the university, reportedly at
the behest of Alabama alumni
Senator Richard Shelby, a Tuscaloosa
native. A spokesman for Shelby
denied that the Senator influenced
the boundaries of the disaster area,
but said that the Go Zone and other
federal assistance programs designed
to spur rebuilding after Katrina “have
been extremely successful in
accomplishing their goal.”

The tax breaks have been criticized
by relief workers and community
leaders who say that many disaster
victims have yet to receive promised
government aid. it's all true

State Department Inspector General
Howard J. Krongard has routinely
interfered with or curtailed investigations
by his office that could prove politically
difficult for the Bush administration,
according to seven current and former
members of Krongard’s staff, who
brought their concerns to the House
Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform. They charge that
Krongard, a Bush appointee with little
relevant experience, undermined the
work of all three of the office’s
divisions—audits, inspections, and
investigations—to protect the White
House from embarrassment. Committee
chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote
to Krongard last week detailing the
allegations, and requesting documents
related to the inquiry and testimony at
committee hearings scheduled for
October.

Waxman’s letter outlines a series of
sensational charges against Krongard,
notably that he refused to let his
personnel travel to Iraq and Afghanistan
to pursue credible allegations of fraud
and mismanagement by State
Department contractors; that he
prevented his staff from cooperating
with a Justice Department investigation
of the construction of the US embassy in
Baghdad; and that he personally

intervened to derail a probe of Bush
crony Kenneth Tomlinson, who
eventually resigned under the pressure of
multiple investigations. Krongard is
accused of passing sensitive information
directly to Tomlinson. According to
Waxman, several employees of the
Office of the Inspector General have
sought legal “whistleblower” protections
against official retaliation for their
disclosures.

Krongard is further alleged to have
improperly thwarted an investigation
into a security contractor accused of
illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq.
News reports last week identified the
security company as the embattled
Blackwater, Inc. According to Waxman’s
letter, Krongard also resorted to “highly
irregular” procedures in personally
exonerating a key construction
contractor in Iraq on charges of labor
abuse and safety violations.

Waxman wrote, “One consistent
element in these allegations is that you
believe your foremost mission is to
support the Bush administration,
especially with respect to Iraq and
Afghanistan, rather than act as an
independent and objective check on
waste, fraud and abuse on behalf of US
taxpayers.” it's all true

The State Department has prohibited it’s
employees from cooperating with a
Congressional investigation that is
probing the extent of corruption in the
nascent Iraqi federal government. The
State Department has also told the
controversial mercenary army
Blackwater USA that they are barred
from cooperating with an ongoing
Congressional investigation into a violent
gun battle that resulted in the deaths of
11 Iraqi civilians.

The chairman of the House Oversight
and Reform Committee, Rep. Henry
Waxman, said in a letter to Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice that the scope
of the prohibitions enacted by the State
Department was “breathtaking” and
constituted wrongful interference with
the Congressional investigations.
Waxman also said in the letter that Ms.

Rice had herself refused to appear
before the committee and that the State
Department had re-classified a report
that detailed the level of government
corruption in Iraq that was made public
late last week.

Waxman reported in his correspondence
to Ms. Rice that the State Department
had made an order on the evening
before department officials were to
testify before his committee classifying
any “statements/assessments which judge
or characterize the quality of Iraqi
governance or the ability/determination
of the Iraqi government to deal with
corruption.”

Waxman said that the broad based
prohibition was an “absurd position” to
take and constituted interference with a
congressional investigation.

Waxman’s committee interviewed a
State Department official on
September 25 who said that he was
informed of the new security
restrictions on the morning the
interview was to take place and “had
never heard of them before.”

Waxman said that the secrecy rules
created a situation that only positive
information about the Iraqi
government could be revealed by the
State Department and it’s employees
but, conversely, “any criticism of the
government must be treated as a
national security secret.” Waxman
went on to say in his letter to Rice
that the secrecy policy “would be an
effective way for the Bush
Administration to control the facts
and debate about Iraq, but it has no
place in our democracy.” it's all true

toronto new york new york manchester dallas

maple leafs knicks yankees united cowboys

Most valuable
franchises, by
sport, 2007

1.6

Private Contractors Divide Drug Money

State Department Suspends Diplomatic Relations With US Congress

Fed Rate Cuts
Unkind to Dollar

Crony Quashed Inspections, Caused Defections

Democrats Make the Wrong Call on Telecommunications Immunity

US Military
Enlists Koran

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