political nonsense

“I’m sure that the Vice President’s view from the very beginning was: we’ll never solve this through diplomatic means.”
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When Saddam Hussein was overthrown, about 4% of Iraqi children under five were going hungry; now that figure has almost doubled to 8%.
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The whole crisis — the system is unsustainable, disaster thing — is all aside from being, I think, wrong, is also a — it’s a bait and switch operation in terms of this discussion, because the issue on the table, which is whether we’re going to privatize this thing, has nothing to do with solvency.
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After four years of research, 1,360 researchers in 95 nations reported that humans are destroying the planet.
don’t worry about it
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Doctors replaced a man’s penis with one grown on his forearm.
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Insurgent attacks in Iraq continue to average nearly 2,000 a month.
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In Rome, journalist Giuliana Sgrena has been released from a military hospital where she was being treated for a gunshot wound she suffered when US forces shot up the car bringing her to freedom after a month being held hostage in Iraq. The head of Italy’s Foreign Military Intelligence Nicola Calipari was killed in the attack when he shielded Sgrena from the bullets.
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Starbucks opened several kiosks at Guantanamo Bay this month.
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Seventy-six percent of Americans polled believe Jesus was the Son of God and 75 percent believe that Jesus was the Messiah, sent to Earth to absolve mankind of its sins, the latest Newsweek Poll shows. And a 78-percent majority believe in the resurrection, that Jesus rose from the dead after dying on the Cross; 40 percent believe he physically rose from the dead and 32 percent believe it was a spiritual resurrection, the poll shows.
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Guards opened fire on a crowd of several dozen protesting workers outside the headquarters of Iraq’s Ministry of Science and Technology this morning, killing one and injuring three, officials said.

The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to authorize a 10,000-strong peacekeeping force for the south of the country. The official mission of the peacekeepers will be to monitor the agreement signed between the government and southern rebels.
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A group of prominent Iraqi lawyers said at a conference in Baghdad this week that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair should be tried as war criminals for the occupation of Iraq, highlighting the massive assaults on the city of Fallujah. They echoed earlier claims by an official from the US-backed Iraqi Health Ministry who charged that the US had used banned weapons against Fallujah. The lawyers called for establishing a truth commission to investigate US crimes in Iraq and demanded an end to what they called immunity for US occupation forces.

Shareholders signed off Thursday on Kmart Holding Corp.’s $12.3 billion acquisition of Sears, Roebuck and Co., clearing the way for the two struggling rivals to combine into the nation’s third-biggest retailer.

Inmates were hit with water bottles, forced to do exhausting physical exercises until they collapsed, deprived of sleep and subjected to deafening noise, the investigation report found.

One prisoner died in December 2003 after four days of repeatedly having to do physical exercises as a punishment, according to the documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (news – web sites) under the Freedom of Information Act.
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Medicare, the giant health care program for the elderly and disabled, faces insolvency in 2020. Medicare provides health care for 41.7 million seniors and disabled people.

Democrats argue that the real crisis is in Medicare and that the administration is ignoring the health care crisis.
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Lots of people don’t have water
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The United Nations estimated 180,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003.

Dr Les Roberts, who led the study, said: “Making conservative assumptions we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more, have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

iraq
sudan

At least 26 prisoners have died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 in what Army and Navy investigators have concluded or suspect were acts of criminal homicide, according to military officials.

Schiavo’s husband, who wants to let her die, wondered why Congress was expending so much energy on the case. “Why doesn’t Congress worry about people not having health insurance?” he asked. “Or the budget? Let’s talk about all the children who don’t have homes.”
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On Friday the Defense Department issued new versions of its National Military Strategy and National Defense Strategy reports. According to the Los Angeles Times, the new strategy documents mark a clear shift in military planning since the Cold War. During the Cold War the military aimed to contain Eastern Europe. Now the military’s official policy calls for preemptively attacking nations and even terrorist organizations within friendly nations. The new doctrine also appears to move the nation further from reliance on such international coalitions and bodies as NATO and the International Court of Justice.