political nonsense

The Supreme Court overturned the Enron conviction of Arthur Andersen for destroying Enron Corp.-related documents because of flawed jury instructions.
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Music playing robots are going to serve the elderly by 2010.

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Two teens in Volusia County beat a homeless man to death with sticks because they were bored and wanted something to do.
local6

Clear Channel faked an independent radio station, Radio Free Ohio, and got caught by a blog. Apparently, they were trying to “get into the mindset” of indyradio, so they can imitate it. “There’s a hole in the market here and we’re going to fill it,” they said.
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In response to allegations made by Amnesty International in which the United States was accused of impeding the efforts to improve human efforts around the world by their treatment of detainees, Bush said the accusations were absurd. Cheney said he was offended.

Homeland Security is planning on installing high-tech missile defense systems on all the nation’s commercial planes, which will cost an estimated $10 billion dollars.
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A marine who shot and killed two unarmed Iraqis at point blank range has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the military. Immediately following the decision, the soldier, Lieutenant Ilario Pantano, said he did not regret killing the men.
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Amid widespread accusations and documentation of US military desecration of the Koran, the Pentagon held a special news conference yesterday to address the allegations. The military says it has identified 13 incidents of alleged mishandling of the Koran by joint task force personnel, five of which it deteremined as “mishandling of a Koran” by U.S. personnel at Guantanamo Bay. Brigadier General Jay Hood refused to specify the nature of the mishandling of the Koran, other than to say it did not involve placing it in a toilet.
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A new report by the World Policy institute, titled “US Weapons at War,” found that in 2003 more than half of the top 25 recipients of U.S. arms transfers in the developing world were defined as undemocratic by the State Department. These countries include Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
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Saudi Arabia decided not to let women drive yet.

A liberal television advertisement portrayed Senator Frist as a wild-eyed, cackling Darth Vader, while a Republican senator compared the Democrats to Nazis.
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Republican George Voinovich choked back tears as he plead with his colleagues not to vote for Bolton.
related

128 members of the House of Representatives voted to withdraw from Iraq.

Iraq decided to build a concrete blockade around Baghdad before deploying 40,000 Iraqi soldiers to fight insurgents.

The US decided to give Pakistan $50 million dollars.

Iran said they won’t make any nuclear weapons if Europe gives them lots of money.

5000 people are protesting in Pakistan against alleged desecration of the Quran by US military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. They said they will not stop until the US apologizes.
Aljazeera
related

An Australian Muslim leader seeking the release of an Australian hostage in Iraq offered to take his place.

U.S. troops and military officials in the embattled province said in recent interviews that they have neither enough combat power nor enough Iraqi military support to mount an effective counterinsurgency against an increasingly sophisticated enemy. “Basically, we’ve got all the toys, but not enough boys,” Maj. Mark Lister, a senior Marine air officer in Al Anbar province said.

The U.S. has essentially ceded much of the Anbar province to the Iraqi resistance. One unnamed military official said “[Commanders] can’t use the word, but we’re withdrawing. Slowly, that’s what we’re doing.”
latimes