Soldiers’ divorce rates up sharply
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
Wed Jun 8, 7:03 AM ET

The number of active-duty soldiers getting divorced has been rising sharply with deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

The trend is severest among officers. Last year, 3,325 Army officers’ marriages ended in divorce – up 78% from 2003, the year of the Iraq invasion, and more than 31/2 times the number in 2000, before the Afghan operation, Army figures show. For enlisted personnel, the 7,152 divorces last year were 28% more than in 2003 and up 53% from 2000. During that time, the number of soldiers has changed little.

Read more.

Gallup: Public Confidence in Newspapers, TV News Falls to All-Time Low
By E&P Staff
Published: June 10, 2005 11:00 AM ET

NEW YORK Public trust in newspapers and television news continued to decline in Gallup’s annual survey of “public confidence in major institutions” in the United States, reaching an all-time low this year.

Those having a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers dipped from 30% to 28% in one year, the same total for television. The previous low for newspapers was 29% in 1994. Since 2000, confidence in newspapers has declined from 37% to 28%, and TV from 36% to 28%, according to the poll.

Read more.

From Pat:

LADIES & GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE HIT 400,000 SIGNATURES!!!

YOU HEARD RIGHT, 400,000 SIGNATURES!!!

http://www.moveonpac.org/tellthetruth

“We’ve achieved 80 % of our 500,000 goal (400,220)!”

This is as of Friday, June 10th, 2005 @ 12:41 AM EST

100,000 signatures left, and it will be time to rock and roll!!!

June 7, 2005
Fair-Weather Friends
US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights
By DAVE LINDORFF

Talk about fair-weather friends!

When nine French fighter jets and a weather plane from a French carrier taking part in a joint exercise with Canadian Naval forces in the Atlantic off New Jersey ran perilously low on fuel last Friday because of a freak storm that prevented them from returning to their ship, they figured, no problem. They weren’t too far from the U.S. mainland, and so they could just land at McGuire AF Base in southern New Jersey.

No dice, the Francophobe U.S. military told them. According to a State Department source, quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, they were denied landing rights at the facility.

Read more.

To get the Downing Street Memo on the national radar screen,write to these three officies today. (What follows the addresses is the sample letter, recently revised, by Kitty Overton.)

*** *** *** ***

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/takeaction.html

TARGETS FOR WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 2005

1. National Public Radio, Ombudsman Jeff Dvorkin
email: ombudsman@npr.org
phone: 202-513-2000
fax: 202-513-3329

2. Philadelphia Inquirer, Deputy Managing Editor for News Carl Lavin
email: clavin@phillynews.com
phone: 215-854-4562
OR National News Editor Ned Warwick
email: nwarwick@phillynews.com

3. ABC World News Tonight
email: PeterJennings@abcnews.com
phone: 212-456-4040
fax: 212-456-2795

According to what is being called The Downing Street Memo, in July 2002 the invasion of Iraq was a foregone conclusion, and our President and his staff intended to manipulate intelligence to justify their plans. If the memo is true – and the British have not denied its veracity – during the lead up to the invasion, President Bush lied again and again to Congress and to the American people in order to persuade us not only that war was necessary, but that he was doing all he could to avoid that “option of last resort”.

This is the story that defines this presidency.

A letter written by John Conyers and co-signed by 88 Congressional Representatives asking President Bush to answer questions about the Downing Street Memo was presented to the President on 5/5/05. Incredibly, it was dismissed out of hand as not worthy of response.

As of 6/5/06, more than 145,000 citizens have signed a similar letter written by John Conyers. (For more information about this issue and an up-to-date count of signatures, please go to http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/ )

The country needs answers and the press needs to take up the dialogue. I urge you to begin talking about this crucial matter now.

Thank you,
Kathleen Overton
New York, NY

June 7, 2005
Man With Chain Saw Allowed to Enter U.S.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:28 p.m. ET

BOSTON (AP) — On April 25, Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres.

Then they let him into the United States.

Read more.

The bad news here is obvious enough: We have more theocrats per square mile than any allied nation, including Mexico.

The good news is that, according to this poll, only 40% of us are theocratically inclined; and the national reaction to the Terri Schiavo mess would seem to indicate an even smaller sector of our population.

Religious zeal sets U.S. apart from allies

By RACHEL ZOLL
Monday, June 6, 2005 Updated at 10:43 AM EDT
Associated Press

Religious devotion sets the United States apart from some of its closest allies. Americans profess unquestioning belief in God and are far more willing to mix faith and politics than people in other countries, AP-Ipsos polling found.

In Western Europe, where Pope Benedict XVI complains that growing secularism has left churches unfilled on Sundays, people are the least devout among the 10 countries surveyed for the Associated Press by Ipsos.

Only Mexicans come close to Americans in embracing faith, the poll found. Unlike Americans, however, Mexicans strongly object to clergy lobbying legislators, in line with the nation’s historical opposition to church influence.

Read more.

Hannity’s Soul-Mate of Hate
by MAX BLUMENTHAL
[posted online on June 3, 2005]

This year a man named Hal Turner sat before his computer at his suburban home in North Bergen, New Jersey, posting bomb-making tips on his website, hailing the firebombing of an apartment containing “Savage Negroes” and calling for the murder of immigrants. “When enough illegal aliens get killed they will stop coming to the country!” Turner wrote.

Read more.

From Dr. Bombay:

One photo was taken at a 2004 Dean for President rally sponsored by the American University College Democrats in Washington, D.C. The other photo comes from Republican Bret Schundler’s campaign website.

They’ve removed the photo from the website now…

Can you say — fuckin’ sleazball republicans!!

— originally posted by Dr Bombay to Los Fuzzy Dice at 6/5/2005 07:16:00 PM —

June 03, 2005
Investors take fright at Bush’s choice for SEC chief
From James Doran, Wall Street Correspondent

AMERICA’s biggest investors expressed grave fears over the direction of US corporate governance yesterday after President Bush nominated a Republican congressman with a history of hostility towards the investment community as the new chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Christopher Cox, a Republican congressman on the right of his party who was a key supporter of a Bill that limited the ability of investors to sue their companies, was proposed as the new chairman of the SEC, the Wall Street watchdog, by President Bush.

Read more.