skippy the bush kangaroo

president bush's persistence in describing the abuse of foreign prisoners as an isolated problem at one iraqi prison is blatantly at odds with the facts seeping out from his administration. these include mounting reports of crimes at detention facilities across iraq and afghanistan and evidence that detention policies the president approved helped set the stage for torture and homicide. yes, homicide: the most glaring omission from the president's account is that at least 37 people have died in u.s. custody in iraq and afghanistan -- and that at least 10 of these cases are suspected criminal killings of detainees by u.s. interrogators or soldiers.

the deaths reveal much about the true nature of the still-emerging prisoner scandal. first, only a minority of them occurred at abu ghraib prison outside baghdad; nine of the 10 homicides acknowledged by the pentagon occurred elsewhere. second, the administration has done its best to cover up the killings: they have been reported only after news of them leaked to the media, and details about most of them are still undisclosed.

take the case of maj. gen. abed hamed mowhoush, the former chief of iraqi air defenses, who died nov. 26 at a detention facility at al qaim, northwest of baghdad. after his death the pentagon released a statement reporting that "it appeared mowhoush died of natural causes." that was a lie. in fact, according to an autopsy report, gen. mowhoush died of "asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression." according to documents first obtained by the denver post, two soldiers slid a sleeping bag over him and rolled him repeatedly from his back to his stomach; one then sat on his chest and covered his mouth. only after the denver post's report last week did the pentagon acknowledge the truth and say that a homicide investigation was underway.

or take the case of two afghan detainees who died at bagram airbase in december 2002. in march 2003 the new york times reported that their deaths had been ruled homicides; only then did the pentagon say that an investigation was underway. but no further information became available about the case until this month, when the times learned that the prisoners died while being interrogated by personnel from the same intelligence unit that later served at abu ghraib. after 17 months, no one has been charged or otherwise held responsible for the deaths, nor are pentagon officials able to plausibly explain why there has been no conclusion to the investigation.

researchers harvey ginsburg and maria czyzewska, of the department of psychology at texas state, said 53 college students were asked to watch several of the commercials and give detailed descriptions of the thoughts the ads generated.

three of every four students reported the ads sparked thoughts that ran counter to the ads' message, the study showed.

"for example, in response to ads linking drug use to the war on terror, the most frequent unanticipated thoughts were that marijuana should be legalized, the war on drugs has been ineffective, and that marijuana users should grow their own," said czyzewska.

the results did not surprise her: "there were already hints and indications that the ads were eliciting an unfavorable response," she said. "that not only were they not improving anti-drug attitudes, but are actually making young people have a more favorable attitude toward drugs."

so much of the federal investigation into possible links between brandon mayfield and the deadly madrid terror bombings was cloaked in secrecy.

you name it: secret search warrants. sealed court documents. and, of course, the gag order that kept the beaverton attorney from uttering a word about his captivity until the case was dismissed monday morning.

but amazingly, the fact that he was being watched by the fbi starting in march was never much of a secret to mayfield. in fact, to hear him tell it, government agents all but left their business cards after snooping around his aloha home…

the mayfields would arrive home to find window blinds adjusted much higher than any one could reach. footprints left in the living room's plush white carpet were larger than any of those belonging to mayfield, his wife, mona, and his two sons…

once, a deadbolt that the mayfields never used was found locked. another time, the family came home and discovered digital clocks and the vcr blinking, as if someone had tripped the breaker.

…a federal court cleared mayfield of any connection to the march 11 terrorist attack on four commuter trains in spain, which killed 191 people. the judge cited a fingerprint-identification error by the fbi.

mayfield called the whole ordeal, from the home searches to his two weeks behind bars, "humiliating."

sounding weary, he added: "you can't trade your freedom for security. because if you do, you're going to lose both."

but it's the freaky, animated video that's really off the chain: barbed wire entangles the world and a bunch of winged hitlers flutter past a jesus saves sign. and maybe the mustachioed maniac begins to look a little like president bush. or not. if they wanted to stir the controversy pot, this video should do that, especially with a hook that screams, "you're no jesus, you're no f*#king elvis."

us soldiers are firing so many bullets in iraq and elsewhere that the army's main supplier cannot keep up with the huge demand, us military officials say.

they say the army needs two billion bullets a year, but its government-owned supplier, alliant techsystems, can only make 1.2 billion.

to fill the gap, a us firm and israel's state-owned bullet-maker were awarded contracts for 70 million rounds each.

but they will still be some 300 million rounds short, army officials say.

while some in the news industry praised the paper for coming clean, others said the note fell far short of full disclosure, that it was long overdue, and that its message was obtuse at best.

"the times' exercise would leave any less-than-knowledgeable reader wondering what the hell they were talking about," says former newsweek chief osborn elliot.

others blasted the paper for not singling out and sanctioning times reporter judith miller, whose reports — which often used unnamed sources, frequently chalabi — have been widely challenged.

"unlike blair's deceptions, miller's lies provided the pretext for war. her lies cost lives. if only the times had done the same kind of investigation of miller's reports as it had with blair," says amy goodman, author of the exception to the rulers, which takes miller to task for her stories. "it's outrageous to have a simple editor's note buried on page a10, while their repetition of the administrations' lies was consistently given top billing on the front pages of the paper."

miller could not be reached. times' public editor daniel okrent says he plans to write about the note in his sunday column, but would not discuss its content.

the number of people filing for first-time claims last week was 344,000, down from the revised 347,000 reading on initial filings the previous week. economists surveyed by briefing.com forecast that 335,000 filed for initial benefits last week.

mr. limbaugh, whose program is broadcast for one hour per day to u.s. troops overseas, has spent the past four weeks condoning and trivializing the abuse, torture, rape and possible murder of iraqi prisoners by u.s. guards at the abu ghraib prison-gross misconduct that you have described as "fundamentally un-american.”…

as recently as may 21, referring to photographs emerging from abu ghraib, mr. limbaugh said: "the media ought to start making some money off these pictures and videos, not just publishing them free. we need some prison torture, you know, bubble gum cards...you know, like i say, we got baseball cards and bubble gum. now let's have terror cards -- only let's show our prison abuse photos instead of the terrorists and who they are and what they do. we could go coins. we could go medallions."

as you know, mr. limbaugh's commentary is broadcast on american forces radio to nearly 1 million u.s. troops, stationed in more than 1,000 outlets, in more than 175 countries and u.s territories, including iraq. according to a may 26 article on salon.com, the radio network was established "to improve troop morale by giving service members a 'touch of home' with american programs overseas." it is abhorrent that the american taxpayer is paying to broadcast what is in effect pro-torture propaganda to american troops. i ask you to consider removing mr. limbaugh from the radio network to protect our troops from these reckless and dangerous messages.

q: florida and conservative activists everywhere argue that heterosexuals make better parents than gay men or lesbians. is there anything in the body of social science research that supports this claim?

a: no, nothing at all. significant, reliable social scientific evidence indicates that lesbian and gay parents are as fit, effective and successful as heterosexual parents. the research also shows that children of same-sex couples are as emotionally healthy and socially adjusted and at least as educationally and socially successful as children raised by heterosexual parents. no credible social science evidence supports florida's claim.

biblarz and stacey examined 21 studies of "lesbigay" couples' children compared with heterosexual parents' children. while all of the researchers had claimed to find "no difference" in outcomes between the two groups, biblarz and stacey disagree. there are statistically significant differences in gender identity, sexual experimentation and promiscuity. the authors are quick to add that these observed differences do not alarm them. they are happy to embrace a variety of family forms. and if gay parenting means more gay offspring, the authors are not alarmed by this.

as biblarz and stacey observe, the majority of children raised in gay families turn out to be heterosexual in adulthood (bearing in mind the limitations of the research).

biblarz and stacey deserve credit for their honesty. but their breezy embrace of gay parenting is highly reminiscent of the cheerful accounts offered in the 1970s for divorce and single parent households. in those days, we were told that whatever made for a happier parent also made for a happier child. we are sadder and wiser now. the children are much sadder.

the research further shows that daughters raised by lesbians tend to have a larger number of sexual partners from puberty to adulthood than children in ordinary homes. it also, quite interestingly, shows that boys raised by lesbians have fewer sexual encounters than boys raised by heterosexual parents.

there is not a single, respectable social scientist conducting and publishing research in this area today who claims that gay and lesbian parents harm children. the dubious studies you mention were produced primarily by people who have been discredited and even expelled from the american psychological association (apa) and the american sociological association (asa). when people claim that studies show gay parents harm children, they often cite people like paul cameron. paul cameron is the primary disreputable and discredited figure in this literature. he was expelled from the apa and censored by the asa for unethical scholarly practices, such as selective, misleading representations of research and making claims that could not be substantiated.

casualties. as of wednesday, we've lost 800 service people in iraq (666 of them from hostile fire), and more than 4,500 have been wounded (of whom 1,769 returned to duty within 72 hours). at least 200,000 soldiers and marines have served in iraq — including many who have since left — so that amounts to a total casualty rate of about 2.5%. if you add air force, navy and logistics personnel supporting operation iraqi freedom (at least 150,000), the casualty rate drops to 1.5%.

bowing to pressure, john kerry decided wednesday to accept the nomination at the democratic presidential convention in july, scuttling a plan to delay the formality so he could narrow president bush's public money advantage.

"boston is the place where america's freedom began, and it's where i want the journey to the democratic nomination to be completed," kerry said in a statement released by his campaign. "on thursday, july 29, with great pride, i will accept my party's nomination for president in the city of boston. from there we will begin our journey to a new america”…

several kerry advisers had wanted him to forgo the nomination at the democratic convention in late july and wait five weeks until bush accepts the republican nod. that would give both candidates the same time to spend $75 million in public money set aside for the general election.

but the plan leaked weeks before kerry had intended, causing an uproar in his home town of boston site of the july 26-29 convention and among democrats who feared that voters would view the tactic as too political.

if sen. john kerry isn’t going to pick sen. john edwards to be his running mate, he’s sure putting him through his paces. at the kerry campaign’s request, the north carolinian is doing four major events in june, three in battleground states. the headliner is the mid-month jefferson-jackson weekend in florida. if edwards is a hit there, he could be on his way to the vice presidential nomination in boston in july…

meanwhile, his aides are studying public and private polls, several of which show that edwards—short of an astounding switch by sen. john mccain—would be perhaps the most complementary running mate available given his appeal (as shown in some of the primaries) to “soft” republicans and independents in the suburbs. edwards also is running well, usually ahead, in national polls of democrats as to whom they would prefer as no. 2—especially when (as is justified) sen. hillary rodham clinton is left out of the equation. edwards’ other qualification: he’s a client of kerry’s top media strategist and adviser, washingtonian robert shrum.

there are polls that show edwards would do more for the ticket in florida than either of the two sitting senators from there, though it’s hard to dismiss the galvanizing effect on florida democrats that the selection of sen. bob graham—a beloved figure—might have. that’s why it’ll be interesting to see how edwards does at the florida “jj” in hollywood later this month. graham, who has been carefully vetted by the campaign, is busy writing a book—a project he takes seriously but that also gives him a dignified “out.” if edwards is a hit in hollywood, graham may need one.

in a little-noticed development amid iraq's prison abuse scandal, the u.s. military is holding dozens of iraqis as bargaining chips to put pressure on their wanted relatives to surrender, according to human rights groups. these detainees are not accused of any crimes, and experts say their detention violates the geneva conventions and other international laws. the practice also risks associating the united states with the tactics of countries that it has long criticized for arbitrary arrests.

"it's clearly an abuse of the powers of arrest, to arrest one person and say that you're going to hold him until he gives information about somebody else, especially a close relative," said john quigley, an international law professor at ohio state university. "arrests are supposed to be based on suspicion that the person has committed some offense."

u.s. officials deny that there is a systematic practice of detaining relatives to pressure iraqi fugitives into surrendering. "the coalition does not take hostages," said a senior military official who asked not to be named. "relatives who might have information about wanted persons are sometimes detained for questioning, and then they are released. there is no policy of holding people as bargaining chips."

but iraqi human rights groups say they have documented dozens of cases similar to moayad's, in which family members who are not accused of any crimes have been detained for weeks or even months and told that they would be released only when a wanted relative surrenders to u.s. forces.

according to the practitioners of the fruit loop, 19 arabs took over the 4 planes by subduing the passengers and crew through the use of guns,knives,box cutters and gas, and then used electronic guidance systems which they had smuggled on board to fly the planes to their targets.

the suspension of disbelief required for this outrageous concoction is only for the hard core conspiracy theorist. for a start, they conveniently skip over the awkward fact that there weren't any arabs on the planes. if there were, one must speculate that they somehow got on board without being filmed by any of the security cameras and without being registered on the passenger lists. but the curly question of how they are supposed to have got on board is all too mundane for the exciting world of the conspiracy theorist. with vague mumblings that they must have been using false id ( but never specifying which ids they are alleged to have used, or how these were traced to their real identities), they quickly bypass this problem, to relate exciting and sinister tales about how some of the fictitious fiends were actually searched before boarding because they looked suspicious. however, as inevitably happens with any web of lies, this simply paints them into an even more difficult corner. how are they supposed to have got on board with all that stuff if they were searched ? and if they used gas in a confined space, they would have been affected themselves unless they also had masks in their luggage.

"excuse me sir, why do you have a boxcutter, a gun, a container of gas, a gas mask and an electronic guidance unit in your luggage?"

"a present for your grandmother? very well sir, on you get."

"very strange", thinks the security officer. "that's the fourth arabic man without an arabic name who just got on board with a knife, gun or boxcutter and gas mask. and why does that security camera keep flicking off every time one these characters shows up? must be one of those days i guess..."

the president is fond of declaring that no matter what happens, the united states will stay as long as necessary to ensure a happy outcome in iraq. in a speech last week, he said, "the world watches for weakness in our resolve. they will see no weakness. we will answer any challenge."

but everything the administration has done from the start suggests that what it wants most is an early exit. the defense department kept the invasion force small because it didn't expect any resistance once saddam hussein and his army were defeated. the plan was to get in fast and get out fast.

before the war, pentagon officials said the occupation would last anywhere from 30 to 90 days. that plan barely outlasted the invasion. when violence surged last summer, the administration was forced to revise its timetable, but until recently, it insisted we'd cut our troop strength this spring. instead, the administration has had to boost our presence, while giving the impression that things will look better once we transfer sovereignty june 30.

if the president is planning to pay any price and bear any burden in iraq, he hasn't communicated that to the american people, possibly because they may not share that intention. certainly no one at the white house is saying what an army officer who served there told the washington post recently - that we'll be in iraq for another five years, at least, "taking casualties" the entire time.

ralph nadir, the independent candidate for president, condemned president george w. bush yesterday as a "messianic militarist" who should be impeached for pushing the nation into a war in iraq "based on false pretenses."

mr. bush's actions "rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors," mr. nader said in a speech to the council on foreign relations in manhattan. he said mr. bush had exceeded his authority in the face of widespread opposition at home and abroad.

but executives at those companies, many of whom signed confidentiality agreements over the film, acknowledged privately that negotiations had been stalled because it is unclear who has the rights to it.

"the deal hasn't been struck, with us or anyone else," said one leading executive at a distributor. "i think it's because of all the complications with disney. miramax is more consumed with dotting the i's and crossing the t's on the disney equation."

a disney spokeswoman, zenia mucha, said there was no delay in transferring the film rights to the miramax co-chairmen, bob and harvey weinstein, who will make a deal with another distributor as private individuals.

"we have been working diligently to do anything humanly possible to transfer the interests to harvey and bob," ms. mucha, said adding that the transfer might be imminent. still, executives at miramax confirmed that disney had not yet worked out a deal for the weinstein brothers to acquire the film privately, though they refused to discuss the issue in more detail.

the description is almost biblical. the narrative—"this war on terror"—is a moral test arranged by higher powers. postwar iraq, like 9/11, madrid, and bali, is "the world as we find it," not as we made it. "history," not bush, has placed the demands of occupation on our country. "events," not bush's mistakes and their consequences, have come quickly. we must focus on the "duty" defined by our situation, not on how we got here.

bush's ignorance of his part in the tragedy infects everything he says. "the swift removal of saddam hussein's regime last spring had an unintended effect," he observed tonight. "instead of being killed or captured on the battlefield, some of saddam's elite guards shed their uniforms and melted into the civilian population. [they] have reorganized, rearmed and adopted sophisticated terrorist tactics." note the passive construction. the mistake isn't that bush failed to prepare for guerrilla tactics commonly adopted against occupiers. it isn't even a mistake; it's an "unintended effect." the cause of that effect is saddam's "swift removal," not bush or anyone in his administration who engineered the removal.

"i believe we are absolutely on the brink of failure," retired marine gen. joseph p. hoar, a former commander of u.s. forces in the middle east, told the senate foreign relations committee. "we are looking into the abyss. we cannot start soon enough to begin the turnaround."

"if the current situation persists, we will continue fighting one form of iraqi insurgency after another — with too little legitimacy, too little will and too few resources," warned larry diamond, a former advisor to the u.s. occupation authority in baghdad. "there is only one word for a situation in which you cannot win and you cannot withdraw: quagmire."

hoar and diamond's assessments were grimmer than most. but the two men were far from alone.

maj. gen. charles h. swannack jr., commander of the army's 82nd airborne division, which returned from iraq in april, has given reporters an equally blunt view. "we are winning tactically, but have made a few tactical blunders … [which] created strategic consequences in world opinion," swannack said in an e-mail message. "we are losing public support regionally, internationally and within america — thus, currently, we are losing strategically."

he added: "i believe operation iraqi freedom is a just cause, america needs to stay the course and we must regain the moral high ground."

another active-duty officer who recently returned from iraq — and spoke on condition he not be identified — was crisper. "we could not have screwed up more if we had set out to do it deliberately," he said. "we gave ourselves all the disadvantages of occupation, but none of the advantages."

even sen. richard g. lugar (r.-ind.), the cautious chairman of the foreign relations committee, warned that the u.s. might be headed for a dead end unless the administration outlined a clearer strategy.

"a detailed plan is necessary to prove to our allies and to iraqis that we have a strategy, and that we are committed to making it work," lugar told administration officials at a hearing. "if we cannot provide this clarity, we risk the loss of support of the american people, loss of potential contributions from our allies and the disillusionment of iraqis."

leslie h. gelb, a former president of the private council on foreign relations — and a top pentagon strategist during the vietnam war — said he had never seen confidence sink as quickly in washington as it has in recent weeks.

"i've never heard the kind of dark defeatism i'm hearing now, both in and out of government, including the worst days of the vietnam war," said gelb, a democrat. "support for this war is plummeting. in vietnam, that happened much more slowly, and only after much higher casualties."

abc, cbs and nbc decided not to offer live coverage of president bush's speech about iraq monday, although the cable news networks planned to pre-empt their regular programming for the address…

the broadcast networks took an unusual amount of time to tell viewers their plans for bush's speech – abc didn't decide until monday afternoon – because the bush administration did not formally request the time.

nbc had two editions of "fear factor" scheduled on monday. cbs had season finales of its popular monday-night comedies and abc was showing the theatrical release "a beautiful mind."

fact is, the dlc is losing relevance while ndn is on the rise. it's not just a question between "moderate" and "conservative" and "progressive" democrats. those days are, at least for the moment, over. the gospel of abb is on the rise within the party coalition, leaving little room for from's brand of self-destructive and fundamentalist ideological purity.

but aside from that, ndn has also realized that winning requires more than "centrist" positions. we are too diverse a party to win by enforcing any ideological litmus tests. and thus ndn has worked to build bridges to those constituencies that can mean the difference between victory and defeat in a close election. for example, ndn's campaign targeting latinos is nothing short of genius and has already made serious inroads with latino voters (a post on this topic will be forthcoming).

sixty-one percent of americans now disapprove of the way mr. bush is handling the situation in iraq, while just 34 percent approve.

as concern about the situation in iraq grows, 65 percent now say the country is on the wrong track — matching the highest number ever recorded in cbs news polls, which began asking this question in the mid-1980's. only 30 percent currently say things in this country are headed in the right direction. one year ago, in april 2003, 56 percent of americans said the country was headed in the right direction…

just 37 percent — the lowest number in his presidency — now approve of mr. bush's handling of foreign policy, while 56 percent disapprove. mr. bush's ratings on the economy are similar: 36 percent approve of his handling of it and 57 percent disapprove…

sixty-one percent of americans now disapprove of the way mr. bush is handling the situation in iraq, while just 34 percent approve.

as concern about the situation in iraq grows, 65 percent now say the country is on the wrong track — matching the highest number ever recorded in cbs news polls, which began asking this question in the mid-1980's. only 30 percent currently say things in this country are headed in the right direction. one year ago, in april 2003, 56 percent of americans said the country was headed in the right direction.

the last time the percentage that said the country was on the wrong track was as high as it is now was back in november 1994. then, republicans swept into control of both houses of congress for the first time in decades.

majorities disapprove of the way mr. bush is handling foreign policy and the economy. terrorism remains the only positive area for the president — a majority of 51 percent approve of the way he is handling the campaign against terrorism. but that number matches his lowest rating ever on terrorism.

just 37 percent — the lowest number in his presidency — now approve of mr. bush's handling of foreign policy, while 56 percent disapprove. mr. bush's ratings on the economy are similar: 36 percent approve of his handling of it and 57 percent disapprove.

gen. jane karpinski, the military officer in charge of prisons in iraq, is pointing the finger squarely at the top boss gen. ricardo sanchez as far as knowledge of the abuse scandal at abu ghraib. the nytimes tells us:

the top american general in iraq, lt. gen. ricardo s. sanchez, rejected a recommendation in january that the military make a public arabic-language radio or television address to the iraqi people to confront accusations of abuse at abu ghraib prison, the former head of the military police at the prison said in an interview on sunday.

the officer, brig. gen. janis karpinski, also said general sanchez visited a military intelligence unit at abu ghraib at least three times in october, when the first of the worst abuses were taking place. and while general sanchez has said he did not learn of the abuses until jan. 14, general karpinski said his top deputy, maj. gen. walter wojdakowski, was present at a meeting in late november at which there was extensive discussion of a red cross report that cited specific cases of abuse

a videotape obtained sunday by associated press television news captures a wedding party that survivors say was later attacked by u.s. planes early wednesday, killing up to 45 people. the dead included the cameraman, yasser shawkat abdullah, hired to record the festivities, which ended tuesday night before the planes struck…

"there was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration," brig. gen. mark kimmitt said saturday. "there may have been some kind of celebration. bad people have celebrations, too."

but video that aptn shot a day after the attack shows fragments of musical instruments, pots and pans and brightly colored beddings used for celebrations, scattered around the bombed out tent.

the announcement, made by jury president quentin tarantino, met with enthusiastic cheers from the audience in the grand théâtre lumière, where mr. moore's film had received what many thought was the longest standing ovation ever at cannes when it was screened here last monday. "what have you done?" mr. moore asked mr. tarantino as he accepted the prize, looking both overwhelmed and amused. "you just did this to mess with me, didn't you?"…

but mr. moore's victory outdid all of them. for one thing, cannes is notoriously indifferent to documentaries. "fahrenheit 9/11" was one of only three nonfiction films allowed in competition in nearly 50 years.

the meaning of mr. moore's palme, however, extends far beyond the cozy, glamorous world of cannes. "last time i was on an awards stage in hollywood, all hell broke loose," mr. moore said in his acceptance speech, referring to his antiwar remarks at the oscars last year. his new film, which does not yet have an american distributor, has already begun to stir passions in the united states, as the election approaches and the debate over the conduct of the war in iraq grows more intense.

a military lawyer for a soldier charged in the abu ghraib abuse case stated that a captain at the prison said the highest-ranking u.s. military officer in iraq was present during some "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse," according to a recording of a military hearing obtained by the washington post.

the lawyer, capt. robert shuck, said he was told that army lt. gen. ricardo s. sanchez and other senior military officers were aware of what was taking place on tier 1a of abu ghraib. shuck is assigned to defend staff sgt. ivan l. "chip" frederick ii of the 372nd military police company. during an april 2 hearing that was open to the public, shuck said the company commander, capt. donald j. reese, was prepared to testify in exchange for immunity. the military prosecutor questioned shuck about what reese would say under oath.

"are you saying that captain reese is going to testify that general sanchez was there and saw this going on?" asked capt. john mccabe, the military prosecutor.

"that's what he told me," shuck said. "i am an officer of the court, sir, and i would not lie. i have got two children at home. i'm not going to risk my career.”

"i believe we are absolutely on the brink of failure. we are looking into the abyss," general joseph hoar, a former commander in chief of us central command, told the senate foreign relations committee.

fearful that conservatives might turn off the colored lights for good, a trade organization for adult nightclubs is asking owners to register customers and employees and then encourage them to cast their ballots against the president. micheal ocello, president of the association of club executives, said the group believes the president's brand of conservatism is bad for business.

"we must do everything within our power to help ensure that bush and his ultra-conservative administration are removed from the white house," ocello wrote in a letter to nearly 4,000 club owners. "if we are to survive, we must act now”…

in southern wisconsin, more than 200 people have registered in the last month at the bar diamond jim's and the strip club isabella queen, both located between janesville and beloit. they are the first of wisconsin's 80 strip clubs to provide voter registration services.

according to ted hufstader and julia vanausdall--two of the kalamazoo seven--here's what happened. last week, the students heard that bush would be appearing at kalamazoo during a bus tour through the swing states of ohio and michigan. hufstader maintains that this group of friends, which was made up mostly of bush detractors (some of whom have engaged in protests in the past), only wanted the chance to see and hear the president. they were, he says, not interested in waging any anti-bush action. "we wanted to get a better idea of what he's like," hufstader notes. "all we get are little soundbites on the news." and he points to the fact that one of the seven was an international student as evidence of their sincerity: "we would not have done anything to jeopardize this student's standing in the country"…

when the gang arrived at wings stadium--home of the kalamazoo wings, a minor league hockey team--they had to pass through a series of checkpoints. hufstader maintains they were each dressed conservatively--"you know, khakis and sweaters"--and sported no political buttons or any other accouterments of dissent. at one of the checkpoints, they were spotted by a member of the college republicans. he was familiar with the political predilections of several of these students and asked how they had received tickets. "we stood in line," hufstader says he replied. at another checkpoint, hufstader and his friends saw several college republicans talking to the volunteers working security. the security people then told hufstader, dallacqua, vanausdall and the others (laura lonneman, leah busch, shanna barkume, and the international student whose identity hufstader and the others are currently protecting) that they could not enter. "they told us," hufstader says, "that we failed a background check, that we had been identified by volunteers as a potential threat, and that if we didn't leave we would be arrested."

this week, cornell belcher, a black pollster based in washington, d.c., who works for several progressive organizations, shared some startling numbers with me. he has been doing monthly polling in six key battleground states -- ohio, pennsylvania, missouri, florida, michigan and nevada. even as white voters nationwide have been moving toward negative feelings about the war, black voters have taken those feelings and supersized them.

seventy-three percent of african americans in those states disagree that the war in iraq is worth the u.s. casualties there because the country is safer. sixty-three percent agree that america should cut its losses and pull out of iraq right now.

and here's the real kicker. on the question of whether bush intentionally misled the country, 77 percent agree at least somewhat.

the service sector of the u.s. economy grew for the 13th straight month in april, the nation's purchasing managers reported wednesday, expanding quite a bit faster than economists had expected.

the institute for supply management said its index of non-manufacturing activity jumped to 68.4 in april from 65.8 in march.

economists expected the reading to come in at 65, according to briefing.com, and any reading above 50 indicates growth in the sector, which makes up about 78 percent of gross domestic product. the service sector comprises industries such as health care, financial services and transportation.

the labor department report showed weekly jobless claims increased by 12,000 to 345,000 last week, the second straight gain. economists had expected the number of claims to fall to 328,000 from the 331,000 initially reported, according to the median forecast of 42 analysts in a bloomberg news survey.

a report from the new york-based conference board showed its index of leading u.s. economic indicators rose 0.1 percent in april, compared with 0.8 percent in march. at 12 p.m. new york time, the philadelphia fed may say its manufacturing index showed expansion for a 12th consecutive month, according to the median estimate of 52 economists surveyed by bloomberg news.

for the bush administration, with close ties to the saudis and a president and vice president both from the texas oil and energy world, the dangers are obvious. the white house and both chambers of congress sit in republican hands, making it difficult to assign blame to democrats…

but democrats, seeing bush struggle in iraq, smell opportunity for november - and are happy to tie together iraq and gas prices. at a campaign appearance in portland, ore., earlier this week, kerry declared: "no young american in uniform should ever be held hostage to america's dependence on oil in the middle east."

and in california, spiraling gas prices may be killing a bush campaign dream that the popularity of republican gov. arnold schwarzenegger could make the state competitive for the president

the economy grew at a 4.2 percent pace in the first three months of this year. economists believe economic growth in the april-june period will be between 4.5 percent to 5 percent.

the united states circulated a draft security council resolution to give us peacekeeping troops another one-year exemption from prosecution by the world court at the hague.

the measure is likely to face misgivings after revelations that us troops abused prisoners in iraq and human rights watch told afp it would issue a strong statement about the proposal thursday.

washington at first signed the treaty establishing the court but later backed out, saying it feared the tribunal would be politicised and that its troops abroad could be charged for war crimes.

the united states has since persuaded more than 60 countries to agree to bilateral immunity deals, lobbying hard and threatening to cut military assistance to those that do not sign an accord.

the general accounting office concluded that the department of health and human services illegally spent federal money on what amounted to covert propaganda by producing videos about the medicare changes that were made to look like news reports. portions of the videos, which have been aired by 40 television stations around the country, do not make it clear that the announcers were paid by hhs and were not real reporters.

the general accounting office said that a specific part of the videos, a made-for-television "story package," violated the prohibition on using taxpayer money for propaganda.

people seeing the videos in a newscast would "believe that the information came from a nongovernment source or neutral party," it said.

william a. pierce, a spokesman for the department of health and human services, who helped develop the videos, said: "we disagree. it's not covert. tv stations knew the videos came from us and could have identified the government as the source if they had wanted to"...

the accounting office dismissed that argument. the intended audience, it said, was not news directors, but viewers, and "the video news releases did not alert viewers that the centers for medicare and medicaid services was the source."

moreover, it said, "some news organizations indicated that they misread the label or they mistook the story package as an independent journalist news story."

two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, "in washington, i'm karen ryan reporting." a third video is narrated, in spanish, by a man who identifies himself as "alberto garcia reporting." the scripts were prepared by the bush administration at the centers for medicare and medicaid services, a unit of the department of health and human services.

the accounting office said the videos were "not strictly factual news stories" and were flawed by "notable omissions and weaknesses" in their explanation of the medicare law. but the main problem, it said, is that they were "misleading as to source."

the irreducible truth is that the invasion of iraq was the worst blunder, the most staggering miscarriage of judgment, the most fateful, egregious, deceitful abuse of power in the history of american foreign policy. if you don't believe it yet, just keep watching. apologists strain to dismiss parallels with vietnam, but the similarities are stunning. in every action our soldiers kill innocent civilians, and in every other action apparent innocents kill our soldiers--and there's never any way to sort them out. and now these acts of subhuman sadism, these little my lais.

since the defining moment of the bush presidency, the preposterous flight-suit, fox news-produced photo-op on the abraham lincoln in front of the banner that read "mission accomplished," the shaming truth is that everything has gone wrong. just as it was bound to go wrong, as many of us predicted it would go wrong--if anything more hopelessly wrong than any of us would have dared to prophesy. iraq is an epic train wreck, and there's not a single american citizen who's going to walk away unscathed.

the shame of this truth, of such a failure and so much deceit exposed, would have brought on mass resignations or votes of no confidence in any free country in the world. in japan not long ago, there would have been ritual suicides, shamed officials disemboweling themselves with samurai swords. yet up to this point--at least to the point where we see grinning soldiers taking pictures of each other over piles of naked iraqis--neither the president, the vice president nor any of the individuals who urged and designed this debacle have resigned or been terminated--or even apologized. they have betrayed no familiarity with the concept of shame.

thousands of young americans are dead, maimed or mutilated, 100 billion has been wasted and all we've gained is a billion new enemies and a mouthful of dust--of sand. chaos reigns, but in the midst of it we have this presidential election. george bush has defined himself as a war president, and it's fitting that he should die by the sword--in fact fall on it, and quick.

u.s. military officials in washington and iraq disputed iraqi claims that that u.s. aircraft had attacked a wedding party wednesday morning, killing dozens of people in the remote iraqi desert near the syrian border.

news services, quoting iraqi officials and witnesses, reported that more than 40 people, including women and children, were killed in an early morning attack by some kind of u.s. aircraft, either an airplane or a helicopter.

but army brig. gen. mark kimmitt, the u.s. military's deputy director of operations in baghdad, told reporters that the fighting involved foreign insurgents, not a wedding party.

"we took ground fire and we returned fire," kimmitt said, according to the reuters news service.

video gathered in the western town of ramadi by associated press television news showed bloody bodies piled into a truck. the bodies included children, one of whom was decapitated, ap reported. iraqi witnesses interviewed in the video said revelers at a wedding had been celebrating by shooting guns in the air before they came under fire.

army spc. jeremy c. sivits today pleaded guilty to charges of abusing iraqi prisoners at the abu ghraib prison and was sentenced to one year in prison, stripped of his rank and he will be given a bad conduct discharge.

sivits was given the maximum sentence in the first military court martial stemming from the prisoner abuse scandal at abu ghraib, where u.s. military personnel allegedly abused and humiliated prisoners. the 24-year-old solider, who photographed the humiliation of nude iraqi prisoners, pleaded guilty to four charges, including mistreating detainees and dereliction of duty.

a recent informal, unscientific survey of historians conducted at my suggestion by george mason university’s history news network found that eight in ten historians responding rate the current presidency an overall failure.

of 415 historians who expressed a view of president bush’s administration to this point as a success or failure, 338 classified it as a failure and 77 as a success. (moreover, it seems likely that at least eight of those who said it is a success were being sarcastic, since seven said bush’s presidency is only the best since clinton’s and one named millard fillmore.) twelve percent of all the historians who responded rate the current presidency the worst in all of american history, not too far behind the 19 percent who see it at this point as an overall success.

among the cautions that must be raised about the survey is just what “success” means. some of the historians rightly pointed out that it would be hard to argue that the bush presidency has not so far been a political success—or, for that matter that president bush has not been remarkably successful in achieving his objectives in congress. but those meanings of success are by no means incompatible with the assessment that the bush presidency is a disaster. “his presidency has been remarkably successful,” one historian declared, “in its pursuit of disastrous policies.” “i think the bush administration has been quite successful in achieving its political objectives,” another commented, “which makes it a disaster for us.”

even worse for rumsfeld and his coterie of neo-conservative true believers who have run the pentagon for the past 3½ years, three major institutions in the washington power structure have decided that after almost a full presidential term of being treated with contempt and abuse by them, it's payback time.

those three institutions are: the united states army, the central intelligence agency and the old, relatively moderate but highly experienced republican leadership in the united states senate.

none of those groups is chopped liver: taken together they comprise a devastating grand slam.

dozens of soldiers — other than the seven military police reservists who have been charged — were involved in the abuse at iraq's abu ghraib prison, and there is an effort under way in the army to hide it, a key witness in the investigation told abcnews.

"there's definitely a cover-up," the witness, sgt. samuel provance, said. "people are either telling themselves or being told to be quiet"…

"what i was surprised at was the silence," said provance. "the collective silence by so many people that had to be involved, that had to have seen something or heard something."

he said that while he did not see the actual abuse take place, the interrogators with whom he worked freely admitted they directed the mps' rough treatment of prisoners.

"anything [the mps] were to do legally or otherwise, they were to take those commands from the interrogators," he said.

top military officials have claimed the abuse seen in the photos at abu ghraib was limited to a few mps, but provance says the sexual humiliation of prisoners began as a technique ordered by the interrogators from military intelligence.

"one interrogator told me about how commonly the detainees were stripped naked, and in some occasions, wearing women's underwear," provance said. "if it's your job to strip people naked, yell at them, scream at them, humiliate them, it's not going to be too hard to move from that to another level."

u.s. corporations are sending work overseas faster than previously thought, according to forrester research inc., whose controversial report 18 months ago helped stoke the national controversy over offshoring american jobs.

in its latest study, forrester predicts that by the end of next year, u.s. firms will offshore more than 800,000 service jobs, 40 percent more than the firm estimated previously. forrester's overall estimate remains the same: the firm predicts that about 3.3 million jobs will go overseas by 2015.

the cambridge, mass., researcher said the largest u.s. employers are expanding the types of work they send overseas. where telemarketers and software developers used to bear the brunt of the job loss, bank loan processors, insurance claims adjusters and even legal assistants now share the pain.

critics of offshoring seized on the original forrester report as evidence that shipping jobs overseas would devastate service-sector employment and the middle-class workers who fill those occupations. yet the report itself was criticized by economists, company executives and others who have defended offshoring as a painful but necessary result of a global economy.

enron corp. employees spoke of "stealing" up to $2 million a day from california during the 2000-01 energy crisis and suggested that their market-gaming ploys would be presented to top management, possibly including jeffrey k. skilling and kenneth l. lay, according to documents released monday.

the evidence of apparent scheming — in one recorded conversation, traders brag about taking money from "grandma millie" in california — is in a filing by a utility in snohomish county, wash. the municipal power unit north of seattle wants refunds for alleged overcharges made by enron during the electricity market meltdown...

while it has long been established that enron engaged in market-gaming tactics — two top traders have pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges for manipulating california's energy market and a third awaits trial — the 450 pages of recorded conversations provide another vivid look into the organization's exploitive subculture.

they also suggest that knowledge of alleged wrongdoing may have reached the level of skilling, enron's former chief executive, and lay, the former chairman.

hospital workers could start taking patients' fingerprints under a bill proposed by rep. dana rohrabacher set for a house vote today.

...it would require hospitals that want federal reimbursement for treating illegal immigrants to ask them about their immigration status and then get a photo or fingerprint of those who aren't in the u.s. legally.

hospitals wouldn't be expected to report illegal immigrants, but the data they collect would have to be available to immigration authorities and the department of homeland security, which could use it for security checks and to begin the deportation process...

while some have praised the bill, rohrabacher said, business groups oppose it because it would constrict the flow of cheap immigrant labor.

"it doesn't fit in with what the political and business establishment want, but it is a dream come true for desperate middle-class americans that are frightened to death of losing their country," he said.

nineteen house democratic lawmakers filed a federal lawsuit in los angeles yesterday to force u.s. health and human services secretary tommy thompson to release disputed cost estimates on the medicare prescription-drug bill.

the suit, filed in the u.s. district court for the central district of california, claims thompson — through former medicare administrator thomas scully — violated federal law by ordering the medicare actuary not to provide the estimates to congress.

the suit also alleges that thompson violated congressional rules by refusing requests to provide the information to seven democratic members of the house committee on government reform. those seven democratic committee members and 12 others, led by ranking committee member rep. henry waxman, d-calif., filed the suit.

russert was still puzzled afterward. "a taxpayer-paid employee interrupted an interview," he said. "not in the united states of america, that's not supposed to go on. this is attempted news management gone berserk. secretary powell was really stand-up. he was a general and took charge." powell later called the nbc anchor from his plane to apologize for the glitch.

state department spokeswoman julie reside disputed russert's characterization, saying that nbc "went considerably beyond the agreed end time. other networks were waiting for their interviews and had satellite time booked and we didn't want to keep them waiting."

asked why he simply didn't edit out the awkward interlude from the taped interview, russert said: "it's part of the story."

the era of legalized gay marriage has begun in massachusetts.

same-sex couples around the state are tying the knot today after applying for marriage licenses and receiving waivers from the state's three-day waiting period.

tanya mccloskey and marcia kadish of malden were apparently the first to get married. they were wed at cambridge city hall in a brief ceremony performed by the city clerk.

after exchanging vows, mccloskey and kadish hugged and kissed and raised their clasped hands into the air.

the couple applied for a marriage license early this morning, as cambridge got the jump on the rest of the bay state by opening the doors of city hall at midnight.

for the most part, gay marriage opponents remained quiet as hundreds prepared to tie the knot, but a handful of anti-gay activists turned out on sunday night in cambridge holding signs like "god hates fags."

"if they're going to allow this, then why not incest? why not have people marry animals? why not polygamy?" asked protester ben phelps of topeka, kansas.

against a backdrop of whoops and cheers and a party that spilled onto the streets, gay and lesbian couples here began filling out applications for marriage licenses at 12:01 a.m. today.

the couples were led down a series of wooden staircases at cambridge city hall that were decorated with white bridal organza.

"i feel overwhelmed," said marcia hams, 57, of cambridge, who along with her partner, susan shepherd, was the first to complete the application. "i feel ready to collapse."

ms. shepherd, 52, choked up and said, "there's some kid somewhere that's watching this and it's going to change his whole life."

she added, "this is like winning the world series and the stanley cup on the same day. it's amazing."

massachusetts becomes the nation's first state to marry gay and lesbian couples monday amid a swirl of court challenges, demonstrations, legal questions and celebration.

thousands of same-sex couples were ready to apply for marriage licenses. but the impact will reach well beyond massachusetts' borders. gay activists are expected to use the new marriages to challenge laws in other states that ban same-sex marriages. opponents of gay marriage say they will step up efforts to pass similar laws, including an amendment to the u.s. constitution.

bleep the press: camera moved off powell during russert grilling; aide attempted to cut off interview…

an aide to sec. of state colin powell ordered a halt to a meet the press interview and directed a camera to shoot a palm tree during provocative questioning by host tim russert!

powell was being interview by satellite from jordan.

state department press aide emily miller fumed as tim russert went beyond the 10 minutes allotted for the nbc sunday session.

13 minutes in to the interview, miller attempted to pull the plug.

as russert grilled powell on his presentation at the un of iraq's alleged wmds -- miller moved the single remote camera off powell.

"you're off," miller announced.

"i am not off," powell warned.

"no. they can't use it, they're editing it..." miller said on an open microphone.

"emily, get out of the way. bring the camera back please," the secretary snapped.

russert aired the exchange unedited.

as a former combat infantryman in world war ii, i've always believed we must fully support our troops. reluctantly, i now believe the best way to support troops in iraq is to bring them home, starting with the "hand-over" on june 30.

only a carefully planned withdrawal can clean up the biggest military mess miscreated in the oval office and miscarried by the pentagon in my 80-year lifetime...

maybe bush should take a cue from a fellow texan, former president lyndon baines johnson, who also had some cowboy characteristics.

lbj, after mismanaging the vietnam war that so bitterly divided the nation and the world, decided he owed it to his political party and to his country not to run for re-election. so, he turned tail and rode off into the sunset of his texas ranch.

how do you say déjà vu in cowboyese?

"people need to separate the business stuff from the on-air success," said tom taylor, editor of the industry newsletter inside radio. "i think they're doing a herculean job"...

"air america is far bigger than any other radio network's presence on the internet," said kurt hanson, editor of rain, a radio and internet newsletter. "it is the biggest success story for a u.s. broadcaster to date."

if rep. tom delay is indicted in a politicized texas legal proceeding, he may be replaced temporarily as house majority leader by 80-year-old rep. henry hyde of illinois.

ronnie earle, the democratic district attorney in austin, could bring an indictment against delay for alleged illegal cash payments in pushing congressional redistricting through the texas legislature. in secret discussions, republican leaders discussed naming a seat-warmer to replace delay temporarily rather than a competitor for the leadership.

hyde, a 15-term house member from the chicago suburbs, formerly has been chairman of the house gop policy committee and the house judiciary committee and is currently chairman of the house international relations committee.

travis county attorney david escamilla said friday he will investigate a complaint that the texas republican party may have illegally used corporate donations to influence state elections in 2002.

the criminal complaint was filed by two government watchdog groups, public citizen and common cause of texas, in response to a houston chronicle article, published earlier this week, recounting how the texas gop handled $2.2 million in corporate contributions…

texas law prohibits political parties from spending corporate or labor union funds for any purpose other than running a party primary, paying for a convention or administrative expenses. the law also requires those funds to be spent through a separate, restricted account, which can also include money from other sources.

according to records reviewed by the chronicle, the texas republican party transferred its corporate contributions to a federal committee that the party operates and designated all general election expenses as administrative. in two instances, the gop defined $1.9 million in television advertisements and $453,815 in direct mail as administrative costs.

oil and gasoline prices vaulted into record territory this week, pushing pump prices to the front of the election-year political agenda while raising fears that global demand for oil will have consumers paying $2 a gallon or more for gas for the foreseeable future.

the price of a gallon of regular gasoline yesterday hit an average of $1.95 nationally and $1.92 in the washington area, according to aaa, formerly the american automobile association. in dollar terms, those are the highest levels ever, but adjusted for inflation, they are still well below the $3 reached in march 1981. but now the inflation-adjusted prices have exceeded the levels that had been the second-highest, october 1990, when saddam hussein's army had rolled into kuwait.

to: skippy the bush kangaroo
from: outraged consumer
re: don't buy gas day - may 19

it has been calculated that if everyone in the united states did not purchase a drop of gasoline for one day and all at the same time, the oil companies would choke on their stockpiles.

at the same time it would hit the entire industry with a net loss of over 4.6 billion dollars which affects the bottom lines of the oil companies.


therefore may 19th has been formally declared "stick it to them day" and the people of this nation should not buy a single drop of gasoline that day.

waiting on this administration to step in and control the prices is not going to happen. what happened to the reduction and control in prices that the arab nations promised two weeks ago?

remember one thing, not only is the price of gasoline going up but at the same time airlines are forced to raise their prices, trucking companies are forced to raise their prices which effects prices on everything that is shipped. things like food, clothing, building materials, medical supplies etc. who pays in the end? we do!

we can make a difference. if they don't get the message after one day, we will do it again and again.

so do your part and spread the word. forward this email to everyone you know. mark your calendars and make may 19th a day that the citizens of the united states say "enough is enough"

"after three and a half years of disappointing leadership under george bush, we need to change course in november and elect a president with a real record of supporting police officers and a lifetime of standing with law enforcement," ibpo president david holway said in a statement provided by the kerry campaign.

bush's budget cuts to law enforcement programs made it harder for police to do their jobs, said david holway, president of the organization. ``he's been long on rhetoric and short on performance,'' holway said. a spokesman for bush's campaign said the president has provided ``unprecedented'' support for police…

holway said that kerry, 60, a former prosecutor, ``knows first hand the job that our members do and the havoc that's wreaked when they're not on the street.'' he credited kerry, a four-term massachusetts senator, with helping to increase funding for officers and trying to crack down on assault weapons. the group endorsed former president bill clinton in 1992 and 1996.

the golden dome of the shrine of imam ali, one of the most sacred sites for shiite muslims, was hit by what appeared to be four gunshots in fighting friday between u.s. soldiers and militiamen loyal to radical cleric muqtada al-sadr.

four holes, each about 12 inches by 8 inches, were seen on the landmark structure by an associated press reporter.

the holes appeared to have been caused by machine gun fire but it was unclear which side was responsible. three were on one side of the dome and one on another. during their crackdown on al-sadr's militia, u.s. forces have been careful to avoid damage to shrines in najaf and other holy cities for fear of enraging iraq's shiite majority.

q: sir, my unit, the 2nd brigade -- (inaudible) -- cav, we have five out of the six red zones in this country. and with the up- armored humvees, the new -- (off mike) -- humvees they're bringing over with the -- (inaudible) -- those doors are not as good as the ones on the up-armored humvees -- (inaudible). we even lost quite -- we lost some soldiers due to them, and we're trying to make a change -- (inaudible). the question is, are we going to get more up-armored humvees?...

general myers's answer: "we're trying to get them to you as fast as we can." rumsfeld declined to field that one.

sen. jack reed (d-r.i.) asked two senior pentagon officials exactly the right question yesterday about the bush administration's interpretation of the geneva conventions. "if you were shown a video of a united states marine or an american citizen in control of a foreign power, in a cell block, naked with a bag over their head, squatting with their arms uplifted for 45 minutes, would you describe that as a good interrogation technique or a violation of the geneva convention?" the answer is obvious, and marine gen. peter pace, the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and paul d. wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, honestly provided it. "i would describe it as a violation," mr. pace said. "what you've described to me sounds to me like a violation of the geneva convention," mr. wolfowitz said.

case closed -- except that the practices described by mr. reed have been designated by the commanding general of u.s. forces in iraq, lt. gen. ricardo s. sanchez, as available for use on iraqi detainees, and certified by the pentagon as legal under the geneva conventions. according to the international committee of the red cross, they have been systematically applied to prisoners across that country. and earlier this week, the bosses of both mr. pace and mr. wolfowitz, defense secretary donald h. rumsfeld and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, gen. richard b. myers, defended the techniques as appropriate.

even at first glance, internet bloggers were asking on thursday why nick berg was wearing an orange jumpsuit – just like us prisoners wear.

other net surfers point to the unlikely timing of the executioner's dubbed announcement that berg was to die for "iraqi prisoner abuse"…

there are plenty of questions raised concerning the video too. the body is completely motionless even as the knife is brought to bear – not so much as an instinctive wriggle.

more graphically, some claim that cutting the throat's artery would cause a significant amount of blood to gush out. but little emerges and when the head was raised – not a drop of blood is seen to fall.

in a possible explanation, one discussion room member suggested that berg was killed and then beheaded later.

to back its claims that berg was in u.s. custody, the family gave the associated press copies of e-mails from beth a. payne, the u.s. consular officer in iraq.

"i have confirmed that your son, nick, is being detained by the u.s. military in mosul. he is safe. he was picked up approximately one week ago. we will try to obtain additional information regarding his detention and a contact person you can communicate with directly," payne wrote to berg's father, michael, on april 1.

payne repeated that berg was "being detained by the u.s. military" in an e-mail the same day to berg's mother, suzanne.

on april 2, berg's mother again wrote to payne, saying she still hadn't been given a contact person in iraq to talk to about her son.

"our local fbi agent has informed us that the fbi recommended his release, but we have heard nothing," suzanne berg wrote.

“my son died for the sins of george bush and donald rumsfeld. this administration did this," berg said in the interview with radio station kyw-am.

the number of people lodging new claims for us unemployment benefits rose last week, partially reversing a sharp decline the week before, government data showed

the number of new claimants climbed 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 331,000 in the week ended may 8, higher than market expectations, after dropping 20,000 the week before, the labor department said…

the existing pool of claimants -- those lodging claims for two weeks or more -- rose 53,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.97 million in the week ended may 1, the latest date for which those figures are available.

u.s. defense secretary donald rumsfeld, on a surprise trip to iraq to see abu ghraib prison where some u.s. soldiers abused detainees, said he is ``a survivor,'' and that reforms have been implemented to prevent mistreatment of prisoners.

democrats in congress including house minority leader nancy pelosi of california and senator tom harkin of iowa have called for rumsfeld to resign. in baghdad, rumsfeld told troops he'd ``spent the day talking to people and seeing the steps that have been taken to see that those types of abuses to people for whom we have responsibility and custody will not happen again.''

the american air is filled with protestations about the essential goodness of the american resolve to bring freedom (reg us pat off) to the 'darker parts of the world", an unfortunate phrase, which suggests that mr bush may have been thinking of some of the hapless people he spoke of last week. then, apropos of nothing, he blurted some gibberish about his not believing what some people felt - that dark-skinned people are unable to govern themselves…

the aim, of course, is quite simple and humane: to instal us freedom wherever the lesser breeds without the law pullulate in obvious menace to the united states of america and world peace.

mr bush at the moment, is in the grip of his latest and most severe crisis, although in typical fashion, he appears not to understand this fact. speaking about the torture of iraqis by us servicemen he has stated a few elementary truths, which we must accept: "their treatment does not reflect the nature of the american people. that's not the way we do things in america. i didn't like it one bit"…

"this is not america," mr bush told the arabic language audiences, "america is a country of justice and law and freedom and treating people with respect."

unfortunately the arab world and much of the rest of the world, including his own countrymen, don't believe him.

the defense department has adopted a 72-point "matrix" of types of stress to which detainees can be subjected. these include stripping detainees naked, depriving them of sleep, subjecting them to bright lights or blaring noise, hooding them, exposing them to heat and cold, and binding them in uncomfortable positions. the more stressful techniques must be approved by senior commanders, but all are permitted. and nearly all are being used, according to testimony taken by human rights watch from post-sept. 11 detainees released from u.s. custody.

none of these techniques is legal. treaties ratified by the united states, including the geneva conventions and the u.n. convention against torture, prohibit not only torture but also "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." in ratifying the convention against torture, the u.s. government interpreted this provision to prohibit the same practices as those proscribed by the u.s. constitution. the bush administration reiterated that understanding last june.

in other words, just as u.s. courts repeatedly have found it unconstitutional for interrogators in american police stations to use these third-degree methods, it is illegal under international law for u.s. interrogators in iraq, afghanistan, guantanamo bay or elsewhere to employ them. u.s. military manuals ban these "stress and duress" techniques, and federal law condemns them as war crimes. yet the bush administration has authorized them.

it has been argued that because some interrogators will inevitably resort to coercion, torture should be regulated. but by signaling that torture and mistreatment are sometimes justified, regulation ends up encouraging more abu ghraibs.

but confidence in bush relative to kerry has eroded on major issues like iraq and the economy. bush holds a slight 44%-41% edge as the candidate better able to make wise decisions in iraq policy; in late march, he held a 12-point advantage (49%-37%). at the same time, kerry has opened up double-digit leads on both the economy and jobs. kerry's advantage on the key domestic issue of health care is even larger. currently, 51% say kerry would be better able to improve the health care system, while just 29% say that about bush.

the latest national survey of 1,800 americans, conducted may 3-9 by the pew research center, finds that finds that bush retains a sizable advantage over kerry on key personal qualities relating to leadership and judgment in a crisis. yet roughly a quarter (26%) say their overall impression of bush has gotten worse in recent weeks, compared to 16% who say that about kerry. and perceptions of bush as steadfast and determined are proving to be a double-edged sword for the president: by 65%-23%, the public views bush, rather than kerry, as willing to take a stand, even if unpopular. by an even wider margin (68%-12%), americans say the word "stubborn" applies to bush.

berg, who was jewish, spoke to his parents march 24 and told them he would return home on march 30, according to his family in suburban philadelphia.

but berg was detained by iraqi police at a checkpoint in mosul on march 24. he was turned over to u.s. officials and detained for 13 days, the family said.

his father, michael, said his son was not allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer.

coalition spokesman dan senor told reporters that berg was detained by iraqi police in the northern iraqi city of mosul. the iraqis informed the americans, and the fbi questioned him three times about what he was doing in iraq.

senor said that to his knowledge berg ''was at no time under the jurisdiction or detention of coalition forces.''

michael berg told the associated press, however, that u.s. officials were ''playing word games.''

''the iraqi police do not tell the fbi what to do. the fbi tells the iraqi police what to do. who do they think they're kidding?'' the elder berg said.

on april 5, the bergs filed a lawsuit alleging their son was being held illegally by the u.s. military in iraq. the next day, he was released

a longtime believer in flying saucers, journalist jaime maussan, told a news conference tuesday that the objects were real. at one point the shapes appeared to change direction and surround the plane that was chasing them. maussan said the shapes showed up in the infrared footage but could not be seen by the naked eye.

“they were invisible to the eye, but they were there, there is no doubt about it. they had mass, they had energy and they were moving about,” he said, after showing a 15-minute video that he said the defense ministry gave him permission to publicize.

the ministry confirmed to reuters that it had provided the video, filmed by the air force on march 5 over the eastern coastal state of campeche.

“we are not alone! this is so weird,” one of the pilots could be heard yelling, after the plane’s crew switched on an infrared camera to track the objects, first picked up by radar.

sentinel readers are already familiar with the farrelly brothers defense - it was the core argument of kathleen parker's column on our saturday opinion page. according to parker, nobody would have ever had the idea to stack naked prisoners up in a pyramid and take pictures of them if not for the directors of "there's something about mary" and "dumb and dumber."

the farrelly brothers, parker would have us believe, invented scatological humor and raunchy sex jokes.

this would have required them to go back in history before redd foxx, the "canterbury tales" and certain r-rated egyptian hieroglyphics associated with that culture's creation myths, but all peter and bobby farrelly would have had to do to accomplish that was borrow the keys to marty mcfly's delorean…

i'm left wondering exactly who it was parker thinks took inspiration from "dumb and dumber." was it the soldiers who allegedly participated in the abuses? the military officers and civilian contractors who ordered the prisoners be "softened up?" or the top officials who made pronouncements about not being bound by the geneva conventions?

because, quite frankly, i don't picture donald rumsfeld as a big fan of the farrelly oeuvre. then again, he doesn't strike me as someone who learned much from "dr. strangelove," either.

coulter on fox news: "i think the other point ... is just the disproportionate number of women involved, including a girl general ... i mean, this is lesson, you know, one million and 47 on why women shouldn't be in the military... women are more vicious than men."

a "girl general?" what year is this?

coulter's run this meme on several talk shows lately, and i'm disappointed that no one has responded to her in kind:

host: "so 'girl generals' are bad. girl soldiers are bad. what's so great about girl pundits?"

coulter: "huh?"

host: "well, if a woman who trained at west point shouldn't hold a command position because of her gender, that ought to be true of all professions. shouldn't you realize that all that sharp talk about politics may be the reason you're still single at your age? shouldn't you be getting me a martini and making me dinner?"

locked up at guantánamo bay
watching the weeks roll away
locked up at guantánamo bay
wasting time...

in november 1995 delay chided the clinton administration stating, “president clinton still has not gotten the message that the american people have strong reservations about sending our young men and women into an extremely dangerous situation … when our national interests are not directly threatened.”

“it is neither in the president's nor the country's best interests,” he continued, “to forge ahead with a plan to send united states troops to bosnia without the full support of the american people through their representatives"…

in october 2002 the house of representatives was debating the wisdom of granting war-making authority to george w bush. jumping to the defense of bush, delay passionately advocated for granting the authority to bush that he had lobbied to withhold from clinton. he lauded the unilateralism of bush while chiding the pluralism of clinton’s nato led offensive to quash ethnic cleansing in the former yugoslavia.

“as a free society, we have to defeat dangers before they ripen,” delay stated. “[bush] is demonstrating the strong, moral leadership to find and defeat threats to the united states before they strike.”

on 24 january, 2004, i was directed by lieutenant general david mckiernan, the commanding general, arcent/cflcc, to conduct an investigation into the allegations of detainee abuse at abu ghraib prison, which is also known as the baghdad central confinement facility...

the purpose of the investigation with specific instructions were as follows: first, inquire into all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the recent allegations of the detainee abuse, specifically allegations of maltreatment at the abu ghraib prison.

second, inquire into detainee escapes and accountability lapses as reported by cjtf-7, specifically allegations concerning these events at the abu ghraib prison.

third, investigate the training, the standards, employment, command policies, internal procedures, and command climate in the 800 m.p. brigade as appropriate.

and finally, make specific findings of facts concerning all aspects of this investigation and make recommendations for corrective action as appropriate…

at the end of the day, a few soldiers and civilians conspired to abuse and conduct egregious acts of violence against detainees and other civilians outside the bounds of international law and the geneva convention.

their incomprehensible acts, caught in their own personal record of photographs and video clips, have seriously maligned and impugned the courageous acts of thousands of u.s. and coalition forces.

by law, the chain of command runs from the president through the secretary of defense to the combatant commanders in the field, in this case gen. john abazaid. a series of investigations is under way to determine what happened and who should be charged with crimes or be given administrative punishments, such as being relieved from command.

regardless of the results of those investigations, this is a colossal command failure for which the secretary of defense has particular responsibility.

that alone should be sufficient reason for rumsfeld to resign. but there are also ample substantive reasons. for example, he bears a heavy responsibility for the now well-known intelligence failures that preceded the war.

he also bears a heavy burden for the woefully inadequate planning for the postwar occupation…

the real question is whether he is prepared to accept responsibility and step aside so there can be some hope of developing and implementing a successful strategy to stabilize the situation in iraq, build a decent iraqi government and get u.s. forces home…

because rumsfeld is so intimately associated with our most aggressive, and failed, policies toward iraq, his departure would open up opportunities to rebuild our credibility, as well as to secure the help of the united nations, a more enthusiastic response by our allies and a more rational response by the iraqis.

finally, as a moral matter, rumsfeld should recognize that he bears a heavy burden of responsibility for the loss of so many precious american lives. he should do the decent and honorable thing. he should apologize to the iraqi people for the conduct of those soldiers and he should resign. immediately.

around the halls of the pentagon, a term of caustic derision has emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the heart of the furor over the abu ghraib prison scandal: the six morons who lost the war. ..

but the folks in the pentagon are talking about the wrong morons…

army commanders in iraq bear responsibility for running a prison where there was no legal adviser to the commander, and no ultimate responsibility taken for the care and treatment of the prisoners.

gen. richard myers, chairman of the joint chiefs, also shares in the shame. myers asked “60 minutes ii” to hold off reporting news of the scandal because it could put u.s. troops at risk. but when the report was aired, a week later, myers still hadn’t read taguba’s report, which had been completed in march. defense secretary donald rumsfeld also failed to read the report until after the scandal broke in the media.

by then, of course, it was too late.

myers, rumsfeld and their staffs failed to recognize the impact the scandal would have not only in the united states, but around the world.

if their staffs failed to alert myers and rumsfeld, shame on them. but shame, too, on the chairman and secretary, who failed to inform even president bush.

on the battlefield, myers’ and rumsfeld’s errors would be called a lack of situational awareness — a failure that amounts to professional negligence.

to date, the army has moved to court-martial the six soldiers suspected of abusing iraqi detainees and has reprimanded six others.

brig. gen. janis karpinski, who commanded the mp brigade that ran abu ghraib, has received a letter of admonishment and also faces possible disciplinary action.

that’s good, but not good enough.

this was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. this was a failure that ran straight to the top. accountability here is essential — even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.

many u.s. newspapers have demanded rumsfeld's resignation, including the new york times, st. louis post-dispatch, seattle post-intelligencer, new york newsday, boston globe, minneapolis star tribune and detroit free press. the wall street journal, the chicago tribune, chicago sun-times and new york daily news published editorials supporting him.

he was a producer of both film and theater (his broadway credits included "the lion in winter" in 1968); he was host of "inside the comedy mind," a series of interviews with other comedians that was a staple on comedy central in that cable channel's early days; he was an executive producer of the toyota comedy festival in new york from 1992 to 2002. a well-known tennis fanatic, he founded a pro tournament, the alan king tennis classic, in las vegas, which he sponsored at caesars palace in the 1970's.

mr. king was an unabashed exemplar of jewish comedy, a through-and-through new yorker whose sensibility, delivery and accent never migrated far from their brooklyn roots. as a boy he worked in the catskills and sang on the radio, and he was schooled in the rimshot wisecrack by milton berle.

mr. king met berle at the new york nightclub leon and eddie's, becoming the older comedian's protégé — and sometimes sharing dinner with him at lindy's — while he was still a teenager. but mr. king was never berlesque in his own work, never the self-mocking goofball. he grew into his own swaggering persona — part impatient executive, part cranky citizen, part bedeviled husband and father — complete with elegant haberdashery, a long cigar and, frequently, an expression that seemed to indicate he had just eaten something disagreeable and was striving to rid his mouth of an unpleasant taste.

his breakthrough came in 1956 when mainstream reviewers caught his act on the same bill with judy garland at the palace theatre in new york. with excellent feedback, he and garland toured europe and performed for royalty, including queen elizabeth ii.

after that show, he had an audience with the queen, who asked, "how do you do, mr. king?"

he replied: "how do you do, mrs. queen?"

over time, he evolved from a traditional joke-telling comedian into an astute addresser of audiences. "why is everybody carrying on about woolworth's?" he asked a black audience at a rally after the first lunch counter sit-ins of the 1960's. "have you ever eaten at the counter at woolworth's? if you wanted to sit in the colony club i could understand." indeed, he became something of a first-person monologuist whose influence can be seen in the work of robert klein, david steinberg and even bill cosby.

a 24-year-old military policeman will be the first u.s. soldier to face a court-martial in connection with the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of detainees at the army's abu ghraib prison, military officials announced sunday.

the trial of spec. jeremy c. sivits, 24, of hyndman, pa., will begin may 19 and be open to the public.

the military took the unusual step of designating the baghdad convention center, rather than a military base, as the site of the court-martial so that journalists would have access.

"she's the bulls-eye in this political catastrophe," said denver-based lawyer giorgio ra'shadd after speaking to the reservist for the first time…

ra'shadd, a former u.s. army attorney, said military intelligence and cia officers replaced england's commanding officer and ordered the degradation.

"[they] told these kids what to do," said ra'shadd…

ra'shadd added, "these were young folks who were told to follow orders. if your government comes to you and tells you that in order to prevent terrorism you have to do these things, what 20-year-old would say 'no' to their country?"

ra'shadd said he will prove in court that military intelligence and cia officials ordered the abuses - but he doesn't think his client will get a fair trial.

so.... right now, about 50 million americans think bush is the good guy. maybe another 100 million brits, germans, poles, australians, italians, kurds, iranians, saudi princes and japanese, hey, maybe even 500 million more have enough financial or political interests to also support bush. i don't think most of those 500 see him as a good guy. they see him as a venal scoundrel who will sell out his country in ways that support their interests.

that leaves about 5.8 billion people on this planet. the world muslim population is close to 1.5 billion. assume 97% of them hate bush. the sane citizens of the rest of the planet have to see bush and his supporters as venal, dangerous predators and leeches, fanatic religious zealot fools or duped fools.

experts contacted by the st. petersburg times say strict adherence to military protocol - and a possible reluctance to delve too far into intelligence operations - have kept fast out of the spotlight even as her boss, defense secretary donald rumsfeld, faces blistering criticism and calls to resign.

that the investigation into prisoner abuse was conducted by a major general may be one reason why fast, an officer of equal rank, apparently has undergone little scrutiny, one expert says.

"the military is very conscious of rank - if you want to investigate a major general you need a lieutenant general," said larry korb, a former navy captain and assistant secretary of defense in the reagan administration...

korb said he was amazed at the murky lines of authority at abu ghraib, which technically was run by military police, but where certain cell bocks were controlled by military intelligence officers, cia officials and civilian contractors.

"i worked in the pentagon, i spent four years in active duty and 20 in the reserves but i've never seen such a command-relations structure where it's so unclear who's reporting to whom," said korb, now a senior fellow at the center for american progress in washington.

the president's aides said mr. bush's trip was developed for maximum publicity in two critical states and was an effort to portray the president, who normally travels on air force one, as in touch with the lives of ordinary voters.

his splashy retinue guaranteed attention. he rode in a customized 45-foot bus with a red-and-white swoosh across the blue body, "bush-cheney '04" and "yes, america can" on its sides. behind him were seven more buses, secret service vehicles and michigan state police cruisers. freeway ramps and side streets were closed briefly by troopers on motorcycles while the mega-motorcade rolled across the countryside.

the military is pressing court-martial charges against private first class lynndie england in the iraqi prisoner abuse case. pictures of the 21-year-old have become symbols of us military abuse of iraqi war prisoners…

according to a release from fort bragg officials, england "engaged in a conspiracy ... to maltreat iraqi detainees." the release says england "assaulted iraqi detainees on multiple occasions...committed acts that were prejudicial to good order and discipline...and committed an indecent act."

shortly before bush administration officials presented republican congressional leaders with a request for $25 billion in iraq funding this week, secretary of state colin powell was telling members of the congressional black caucus that no such request would be forthcoming.

"i'm stunned he didn't know," rep. stephanie tubbs jones, d-ohio, one of the black caucus members who met with powell, said thursday.

powell's associates tried to downplay the mix-up. but it underscores the continuing rift between president bush's departments of state and defense and deepens the impression that the nation's top diplomat is being cut out of the decision-making process. "it's unbelievable that our chief diplomat is not being heard," said rep. barbara lee, d-calif., another black caucus member. "it's tragic and it's dangerous."

limbaugh: the thing though that continually amazes -- here we have these pictures of homoeroticism that look like standard good old american pornography, the britney spears or madonna concerts or whatever, and yet the libs upset about the mistreatment of these prisoners thought nothing of sitting back while mass graves were being filled with three to 500,000 iraqis during the saddam hussein regime.

employers added 288,000 jobs to their payrolls in april as the nation's unemployment rate slipped to 5.6 percent, reinforcing hopes for a sustained turnaround in the jobs market that had lagged for so long.

payrolls have risen now for eight straight months, with 867,000 new jobs created so far this year, the labor department reported friday. the strengthening jobs market comes just in time to aid president bush's re-election efforts, which were in question a few months ago based on his economic record.

bush is on track to be the first president since the great depression to have lost jobs under his watch. but the hiring gains in recent months have shrunk those losses to about 1.5 million.

hiring was widespread last month, with the service sector leading the way. professional and business services employment rose substantially, by 123,000. in that category, gains were in employment services, including temporary help firms, services to buildings and dwellings, management and technical consulting services and architectural and engineering services.

a gulag. it stretches from prisons in afghanistan to iraq, from guantánamo to secret cia prisons around the world. there are perhaps 10,000 people being held in iraq, 1,000 in afghanistan and almost 700 in guantánamo, but no one knows the exact numbers. the law as it applies to them is whatever the executive deems necessary.

there has been nothing like this system since the fall of the soviet union. the us military embraced the geneva conventions after the second world war, because applying them to prisoners of war protects american soldiers. but the bush administration, in an internal fight, trumped its argument by designating those at guantánamo "enemy combatants". rumsfeld extended this system - "a legal black hole", according to human rights watch - to afghanistan and then iraq, openly rejecting the conventions.

the front of the bus bore another label: prevost car, jointly owned by the swedish volvo bus corp. and britain's henly's group plc. prevost's manufacturing facility is in st. claire, quebec.

foreign-made vehicles are a touchy topic in the job-strapped industrial midwest -- states like michigan and ohio, which bush has been touring for two days.

"seeing the president drive around in this canadian-made luxury bus is just another reminder of george bush's failed economic policies and underscores that it's time for a change," said phil singer, a spokesman for democrat john kerry's campaign.

bush is "not satisfied" and "not happy" with the way rumsfeld informed him about the investigation into abuses by u.s. soldiers at baghdad's abu ghraib prison or the quantity of information rumsfeld provided, the senior white house official said.

the president was particularly disturbed at having had to learn from news reports this week about the scope of misconduct documented in an army investigative report completed in march, according to the official, who refused to be named so he could speak more candidly.

other u.s. officials said rumsfeld and the pentagon resisted appeals in recent months from the state department and the coalition provisional authority to deal with problems relating to detainees. secretary of state colin l. powell urged action in several white house meetings that included rumsfeld, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

president bush said thursday that defense secretary donald rumsfeld "will stay in my cabinet" despite democratic calls for his departure over abusive treatment of iraqi prisoners by american military guards.

"secretary rumsfeld has served our nation well," bush told reporters in an appearance in the white house rose garden. speaking slowly for emphasis, he added, "secretary rumsfeld has been the secretary during two wars, and he is an important part of my cabinet."

with king abdullah ii of jordan at his side, bush also offered his first outright apology for the mistreatment suffered by iraqis at the hands of their american captors. he said he was "sorry for the humiliation suffered by the iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their families," and said the images had made americans "sick to their stomach."

“rumsfeld not only preferred clarity and order, he insisted on them. that meant personally managing process, knowing all the details, asking the questions, shaping the presidential briefing and the ultimate results...in other words, rumsfeld wanted near-total control.” – bob woodward, plan of attack, pg. 16.

but almost as soon as i asked about the relationship between powell and the neocons, wilkerson crouched forward in his chair and said, "i make no bones about it. i have some reservations about people who have never been in the face of battle, so to speak, who are making cavalier decisions about sending men and women out to die. a person who comes immediately to mind in that regard is richard perle, who, thank god, tendered his resignation and no longer will be even a semiofficial person in this administration. richard perle's cavalier remarks about doing this or doing that with regard to military force always, always troubled me. because it just showed me that he didn't have the appreciation, for example, that colin powell has for what it means."

"i call them utopians," he said. "i don't care whether utopians are vladimir lenin on a sealed train to moscow or paul wolfowitz. utopians, i don't like. you're never going to bring utopia, and you're going to hurt a lot of people in the process of trying to do it."

in 2000, when george w. bush accepted the gop presidential nomination, he told the story of juvenile delinquent johnny demon to highlight the need for "compassionate conservatism." now 21, demon has no job, no permanent home and no idea he was used in bush's speech. reporter robert draper follows up on demon's fate in the latest issue of gq. draper talks with npr's robert siegel.

goin and klinestiver said the family is furious with the comments of president bush, who said he was "disgusted" by the photographs.

"he doesn't know what these guys are going through," klinestiver said. referring to bush's limited national guard service during the vietnam war, he added, "how can you make decisions for our military unless you've served yourself?"

for a country that wants cleaner air and cheaper driving costs, hybrid cars seem like a natch. running mostly on electricity, they burn little gas and make little pollution. a year ago, though, hybrids were a tough sell. now, all of a sudden, there's a long waiting list to buy a hybrid toyota prius. and george w. bush is partly to blame.

before you dismiss that as knee-jerk liberal exhaust fumes, check this out: a major reason for the prius' new popularity is that the 2004 model is bigger --comparable to a family-sized camry instead of an itty-bitty corolla. and who, two years ago, killed a clinton-era federal program to help car-makers develop high-mileage, family-size hybrids? you got it. george w. bush, friend of the oil industry.

the pictures obtained by the post include shots of soldiers simulating sexually explicit acts with one another and shots of a cow being skinned and gutted and soldiers posing with its severed head. there are also dozens of pictures of a cat's severed head.

other photographs show wounded men and corpses. in one, a dead man is lying in the back of a truck, his shirt, face and left arm covered in blood. his right arm is missing. another photograph shows a body, gray and decomposing. a young soldier is leaning over the corpse, smiling broadly and giving the "thumbs-up" sign.

and in another picture a young woman lifts her shirt, exposing her breasts. she is wearing a white band with numbers on her wrist, but it is unclear whether she is a prisoner.

president bush on wednesday chastised his defense secretary, donald h. rumsfeld, for mr. rumsfeld's handling of a scandal over the american abuse of iraqis held at a notorious prison in baghdad, white house officials said.

the disclosures by the white house officials, under authorization from mr. bush, were an extraordinary display of finger-pointing in an administration led by a man who puts a high premium on order and loyalty. the officials said the president had expressed his displeasure to mr. rumsfeld in an oval office meeting because of mr. rumsfeld's failure to tell mr. bush about photographs of the abuse, which have enraged the arab world.

secretary of state colin l. powell, who has often been at odds with mr. rumsfeld, went so far on tuesday night as to talk about the prison abuse scandal in the context of the my lai massacre of hundreds of unarmed vietnamese men, women and children by american troops, a historical reference that was not in the white house talking points that sought to stem the damage from the scandal.

mr. powell, in an interview on cnn's "larry king live," brought up my lai without prompting, saying that he served in vietnam "after my lai happened" and that "in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they're still to be deplored."

around six months later, a soldier in the 11th light infantry brigade--known among the men as "the butcher's brigade"--wrote a letter telling of widespread killing and torturing of vietnamese civilians by entire units of the us military (he did not specifically refer to my lai). the letter was sent to the general in charge of 'nam and trickled down the chain of command to major colin powell, a deputy assistant chief of staff at the americal division, who was charged with investigating the matter and formulating a response.

after a desultory check--which consisted mainly of investigating the soldier who wrote the letter, rather than his allegations--powell reported that everything was hunkey-dory. there may be some "isolated incidents" by individual bad seeds, but there were no widespread atrocities. he wrote: "in direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between americal soldiers and the vietnamese people are excellent." the matter was closed.

to this day, we might not know about the carnage at my lai if it hadn't been for another solider who later wisely sent a letter to his congressman.

it is ironic that president bush went on arab television to apologize for the abuse in iraq prisons, when he continually refused during the 9/11 commission hearings to apologize for his administration's intelligence failures leading up to that day.

mr. bush was conducting interviews with u.s. sponsored al-hurra and al-arabiya television amid mounting controversy over the alleged abuse by u.s. soldiers.

"the people of iraq must understand that i view those practices as abhorrent," mr. bush said. "they must also understand that what took place in that prison does not represent the america that i know."

president bush's assertion that the abuse of iraqi prisoners does not represent america appears to be falling on deaf ears in the arab world.

a 46-year-old lebanese trial lawyer says the scandal merely reaffirms the belief that american policy is hostile to arabs.

he says the americans "raised the banner of spreading democracy" -- but that the pictures showing prisoners being abused "showed how much credibility there is in the democracy they are calling for."

in cairo, an egyptian government employee says, "there is nothing the americans will do that will change our opinion of them." he added, "america is only out for its interests, and only wants to keep us under its wings."

the pentagon has admitted that 25 prisoners have died in us military custody in iraq and afghanistan, at least two of them murders. ten of the deaths are still under investigation, including one involving the cia…

but as the pentagon announced that it had widened its inquiries to include guantanamo bay and its detention centres in afghanistan, a lawyer for one of the military police charged over the abuse told the herald there was evidence that us military intelligence was in part responsible for the abu ghraib mistreatment.

gary myers said an order from the office of general ricardo sanchez, the senior us military commander in iraq, turned control of the jail over to military intelligence last november, just when the abuses were escalating.

"the commander of the 205 mi [military intelligence] brigade assumed responsibility for the baghdad confinement facility made an mi officer rather than a military police officer effectively responsible for the military police units conducting detainee operations at that facility."

mr myers's client, sergeant chip frederick, is heavily implicated in the abuses in the photographs and is facing a series of charges but claims he was assisting military intelligence. mr myers also said that military intelligence officers going to the jail had worn "sterile uniforms" with no indication of name, rank or unit, making it difficult to identify them.

the walt disney company is blocking its miramax division from distributing a new documentary by michael moore that harshly criticizes president bush, executives at both disney and miramax said tuesday.

the film, "fahrenheit 911," links mr. bush and prominent saudis ? including the family of osama bin laden ? and criticizes mr. bush's actions before and after the sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

disney, which bought miramax more than a decade ago, has a contractual agreement with the miramax principals, bob and harvey weinstein, allowing it to prevent the company from distributing films under certain circumstances, like an excessive budget or an nc-17 rating.

executives at miramax, who became principal investors in mr. moore's project last spring, do not believe that this is one of those cases, people involved in the production of the film said. if a compromise is not reached, these people said, the matter could go to mediation, though neither side is said to want to travel that route.

mr. moore's agent, ari emanuel, said michael d. eisner, disney's chief executive, asked him last spring to pull out of the deal with miramax. mr. emanuel said mr. eisner expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in florida, where mr. bush's brother, jeb, is governor.

"michael eisner asked me not to sell this movie to harvey weinstein; that doesn't mean i listened to him," mr. emanuel said. "he definitely indicated there were tax incentives he was getting for the disney corporation and that's why he didn't want me to sell it to miramax. he didn't want a disney company involved."

disney executives deny that accusation, though they said their displeasure over the deal was made clear to miramax and mr. emanuel.

the folks at abc's "nightline" thought friday's telecast with the names of americans killed in iraq would be a ratings loser -- and the opposite turned out to be true.

the broadcast had a 4.4 household rating in the nation's largest media markets, according to nielsen media research.

although numbers for the entire country won't be available until later this week, that preliminary measurement was up 22 percent from the previous friday and was 29 percent more than other "nightline" telecasts last week.

'nightline' ratings down in major cities with death list; loses audience from previous friday with reading of iraq war casualties... developing... abcnews special hits 9 share in nyc [flat from previous week]; 14 share in l.a.; 11 share chicago [down from 15 share previous friday ]; 8 share in philly [off from 11 share]...

the furor over the abuse of iraqi prisoners intensified today as leading lawmakers from both parties demanded answers on the origin and extent of the problem. some legislators said defense secretary donald h. rumsfeld should come to the capitol.

senator tom daschle of south dakota, the senate minority leader, said on the senate floor that mr. rumsfeld should appear "no later than the end of this week" to explain what pentagon officials knew about "this extraordinary disconnect, this unbelievable failure of communication."

several members of the senate armed services committee emerged from a closed briefing by uniformed army officials to express anger over the abuses and dissatisfaction with the bush administration's and the pentagon's response to date.

"we need to have a hearing as soon as possible with secretary rumsfeld testifying, and other service secretaries, if necessary, as to how this whole situation evolved, what action is being taken, and what further action needs to be taken to prevent a recurrence of this terrible situation," said senator john mccain of arizona, a leading republican on the committee.

at a midafternoon pentagon news briefing, mr. rumsfeld said he was "deeply disturbed" by the reports.

the story, of course, only got bigger, so rumsfeld subsequently tried a second tack . he couldn't comment, he said through a spokesman, because he had not yet been briefed on a report documenting the abuses by maj. gen. antonio m. taguba. the report, which is discussed extensively by seymour hersh in the may 10 new yorker, is only 53 pages long, and was completed in february. (gen. richard myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, trotted out the same alibi.)

a legal loophole could allow four american civilian contractors allegedly involved in the abuse of iraqi prisoners to escape punishment, us military officials and specialists said yesterday…

but the four civilian workers identified in an internal army report for their involvement in the physical and sexual mistreatment of the prisoners -- including the alleged rape of one detainee -- cannot be punished under military law, and it is unclear whether they will face any charges under either us or iraqi laws…

the allegations of prisoner abuse, ranging from sodomizing a prisoner with a chemical lightstick, to forcing iraqi prisoners to simulate sex acts on film, to connecting wires to the genitals of one prisoner, have also raised new questions on the role of civilian interrogators in iraq and on the heavier military reliance on private contractors who often operate outside the code of military conduct and largely under their own rules.

appearing friday in the rose garden with canada's prime minister, president bush was answering a reporter's question about canada's role in iraq when suddenly he swerved into this extraneous thought:

"there's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. i reject that. i reject that strongly. i believe that people who practice the muslim faith can self-govern. i believe that people whose skins aren't necessarily -- are a different color than white can self-govern."

what does such careless talk say about the mind of this administration? note that the clearly implied antecedent of the pronoun "ours" is "americans." so the president seemed to be saying that white is, and brown is not, the color of americans' skin. he does not mean that. but that is the sort of swamp one wanders into when trying to deflect doubts about policy by caricaturing and discrediting the doubters.

this administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts. thinking is not the reiteration of bromides about how "all people yearn to live in freedom" (mcclellan). and about how it is "cultural condescension" to doubt that some cultures have the requisite aptitudes for democracy (bush). and about how it is a "myth" that "our attachment to freedom is a product of our culture" because "ours are not western values; they are the universal values of the human spirit" (tony blair).

speaking of culture, as neoconservative nation-builders would be well-advised to avoid doing, pat moynihan said: "the central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. the central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself." here we reach the real issue about iraq, as distinct from unpleasant musings about who believes what about skin color.

the issue is the second half of moynihan's formulation -- our ability to wield political power to produce the requisite cultural change in a place such as iraq. time was, this question would have separated conservatives from liberals. nowadays it separates conservatives from neoconservatives.

this administration is the opposite of "the sixth sense."

they don't see any dead people

some iraqis say abu ghraib is something of a sanctuary compared with what happens in other u.s.-run prisons around the country.

abdullah al-dulaimi, who was standing outside abu ghraib trying to get information about two brothers detained there, said he had been held in a detention center near the border with syria for a month in january.

he says he was once put in something called the "coffin," a wooden box too short to stand up in, for two days. he says he was also frequently beaten and had electrical wires attached to his penis.

"we were beaten, deprived of sleep and humiliated," he said.

"if you ever talked to the prisoner next to you, you would have to do push-ups with a soldier standing on your back. they made us stand naked and then a soldier would come beat us with a stick and sometimes sodomize us with the stick," he said.

talking of his brothers inside abu ghraib, he added:

"it's good they are detained here, this palace is the prison of mercy compared to the place i was detained in."

it was not clear how hamill was taken dozens of miles from abu ghraib to the shack near samarra. before leaving for germany, he declined requests for an interview.

the soldiers did say that they asked hamill why he had not escaped earlier.

[one of the soldiers who found hamill, sgt. 1st class mark] forbes said hamill told them he " 'could have escaped a bunch of times, but where am i going to go? one bottle of water, where am i going?' no map, nothing. he stayed there and hoped that somebody would come by. that was his plan."

employees from two companies, caci international and titan, participated in interrogation sessions at the abu ghraib prison as both interrogation specialists and linguists, according to an internal army report completed in late february.

the report called for individuals from both companies to be officially reprimanded, lose security clearances and - in some cases - have contracts terminated, for their alleged role in the abuses, according to a person who has seen it…

j.p. london, caci's chief executive, said: "in the event there is wrongdoing on the part of any caci employee, we will take swift action to correct it immediately, but at this time we have no information from the us government of any violations or wrongful behaviour."

but the prison scandal is sure to inflame debate over the legal aspects of outsourcing. critics have long noted that contractors working on foreign soil are not subject to the same military laws that govern uniformed troops.

in a recent case, several employees from dyncorp, a pentagon contractor, were sent home from bosnia after the army investigated their participation in a prostitution ring, although none were prosecuted. in theory, the same could occur in iraq where the coalition provisional authority has exempted foreign contractors from local laws.

"he was yelling, 'i'm an american, i'm an american pow'," lieutenant joseph merrill, a member of a patrolling army platoon that happened upon the contract worker north of baghdad on sunday morning said. "he said he thought it was the only chance he had, so he made a run for it. he didn't know if the guard was there or not."

mr hamill, who was yesterday reunited with his wife, was captured on 9 april, when gunmen attacked a convoy heading out of baghdad. the former farmer was shot in the arm.

the soldiers from the new york national guard's 2nd battalion, 108th infantry regiment recalled that mr hamill tripped and fell a few times as he ran. soon the soldiers understood he was shouting in english. one guardsman recognised mr hamill from his picture on television and in the military's stars and stripes newspaper.

lt merrill, who spent less than two hours with the former hostage, said he had been disorientated but in good health.

a tiny little deal. (a cookie store in boston's fanueil market.) it's still there. it's still there, exactly as i created it. i could have franchised it across the country... i had this idea about combining it, taking it nationally, putting it into malls and supermarkets. i could have been mr. kerry instead of mrs. fields....

eleven u.s. service members in iraq were killed in four separate attacks by insurgents late saturday evening and sunday, including six who died in a mortar attack, the military reported. meanwhile, the former iraqi general chosen to head a new force here denied there were any foreign fighters in the city, calling into question his commitment to american military objectives, and a top u.s. commander said later the general would not be allowed to lead the armed men he already has assembled.

in tikrit, thomas hamill, a u.s. contractor held hostage since april 9, was recovered yesterday by u.s. troops after apparently escaping from his captors, military officials said. hamill, a truck driver for a halliburton co. subsidiary, approached u.s. soldiers operating near a pipeline in the northern city, where he apparently fled from a building.

in all, according to the official pentagon tally, at least 128 troops fell in april. as many as a dozen other gis died since thursday but have not yet been publicly identified. the month's deaths eclipsed november's ramadan uprising, when 82 american troops died, and the 73 deaths that came last april, the final month of formal combat operations.

in 1996, the company’s outspoken ceo, david d. smith, was arrested by baltimore undercover officers and charged with a misdemeanor sex offense involving a female prostitute.

smith was reportedly driving a company-owned mercedes when he was arrested in an undercover sting at a downtown corner frequented by prostitutes. a 31-year-old woman told an undercover officer that “she had just seen her regular date driving in the area,” according to court documents. police followed the car onto an expressway, where they said they witnessed the woman perform oral sex while smith drove north.

the outcome of the charges against smith, who was 44 and married with children at the time of his arrest, was not reported. sinclair issued a statement at the time saying the incident “is unrelated to our business.” we thought you should know about this. there is no journalistic value here.

arab-americans in four battleground u.s. states would choose democrat john kerry by a wide margin if the presidential election were held now, a shift from their strong support of george w. bush in 2000, a new poll showed on wednesday.

the tracking poll, released by the arab american institute, looked at arab-americans in michigan, florida, ohio and pennsylvania, all expected to be hard-fought contests in this year's campaign.

though there are only about 510,000 likely arab-american voters in the states, the race could be close enough that even relatively small numbers could make a difference, john zogby, who conducted the poll for the institute, said.

"anything that moves hundreds or even thousands of votes in any of these battleground states overall can have a seismic impact on the election," zogby said.

but we do know that the trail leads from the six soldiers charged -- and the army officers threatened with "administrative actions" -- to the mysterious intelligence operatives and private contractors who were either in charge of the interrogation process at abu ghraib or who advised whoever was in charge. the lawyer for one of the six says this:

"mr. myers said the accused men, all from an army reserve military police unit, had been told to soften up the prisoners by more senior american interrogators, some of whom they believe were intelligence officials and outside contractors"...

but why focus on israel? couldn't the anonymous interrogators and advisors be from some other countries -- like chile, el salvador or south africa -- that have trained personnel with recent experience in doing the cia's dirty work for it?

sure they could. but we also have plenty of public hints and evicence that the israeli security services are now the usa's prime subcontractor in the iraq dirty war.

"lawyers for the soldiers argue they are being made scapegoats for a rogue military prison system in which mercenaries give orders without legal accountability.

a military report into the abu ghraib case - parts of which were made available to the guardian - makes it clear that private contractors were supervising interrogations in the prison, which was notorious for torture and executions under saddam hussein.

one civilian contractor was accused of raping a young male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him."

i think some people owe kos an apology.

if the sinclair broadcasting group's track record of political contributions is any indication, executives at the company may have their own "political agenda." according to the center for responsive politics, an organization devoted to tracking political contributions by individuals, pacs and corporations, sinclair executives give overwhelmingly to republican causes and candidates. of the top twenty tv and radio companies to make political contributions in 2004, sinclair broadcasting group is among the most conservative, giving 98 percent of its $65,434 in political contributions to gop candidates.

rebelling against the us authority in iraq is not treachery, nor is it giving "false comfort to terrorists," as george w. bush recently cautioned spain's new prime minister. it is an entirely rational and principled response to policies that have put everyone living and working under us command in grave and unacceptable danger. this is a view shared by fifty-two former british diplomats, who recently sent a letter to prime minister tony blair stating that although they endorsed his attempts to influence us middle east policy, "there is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure."

besides, it's not the living who will expose you. like mark twain said as he reluctantly agreed to withhold publication of his magnificent "war prayer" until his death -- "only dead men can tell the truth in this world."

you can't silence them all -- not even those you refer to as "remains" in their aluminum "transfer tubes" sneaked back in-country in the dead of night with no one to weep for them or to pray over them. did you think you could hide them -- muffle their moans and shrieks -- as they realize the "noble mission" you sent them to die for is nothing but a blood-spattered corporate profit-and-loss sheet?

did you think they would shut up once they saw the glorious new $30 million mortuary at dover air force base that you built after 9-11 with them specifically in mind? what an investment of their parents' tax dollars! you must be proud of the new state-of-the art, 70,000-square-foot facility which, like the pentagon's phoenix project, you whipped up in little more than a year.

mr. president, if a train leaves san francisco at 10 am carrying 1,000 happily gay happily married couples and travels at 85 mph for three hours, while at the very same moment a train departs crawford, texas, loaded with 2,000 vaguely miserable christian fundamentalists and nail-wearing fanatics of "the passion of the christ" and travels in exactly the opposite direction at 65 mph for the same amount of time, at what point will almost every single fundamentalist secretly wish s/he could be the towel boy for the hot-tub parties on the other train?

if you're black, voting in america is a game of chance. first, there's the chance your registration card will simply be thrown out. millions of minority citizens registered to vote using what are called motor-voter forms. and republicans know it. you would not be surprised to learn that the commission on civil rights found widespread failures to add these voters to the registers. my sources report piles of dust-covered applications stacked up in election offices.

second, once registered, there's the chance you'll be named a felon. in florida, besides those fake felons on harris's scrub sheets, some 600,000 residents are legally barred from voting because they have a criminal record in the state. that's one state. in the entire nation 1.4 million black men with sentences served can't vote, 13 percent of the nation's black male population.

at step three, the real gambling begins. the voting rights act of 1965 guaranteed african-americans the right to vote--but it did not guarantee the right to have their ballots counted. and in one in seven cases, they aren't.

it's past time for the bush administration to abandon its reticence and level with the american public about spending for the war. what's its best "guesstimate" of how much the iraq occupation will cost? and how does team bush plan to pay for transforming iraq into a secure democracy?

it won't say. the administration keeps dancing around money questions, saying a firm answer won't be possible until january, a clear political calculation since that's a time frame well past the november presidential election. the white house justifies its reluctance to talk fiscal matters by highlighting wartime imponderables while reciting its mantra that it will give the troops what they need.