the/diseased/republik

"According to a recent poll, nearly four out of every five people believe that oil and gasoline companies have manipulated the supply of gas in order to cause prices to shoot through the roof. Is it still a conspiracy theory if seemingly everyone believes in it?"

An analysis released by a Democratic senator found that Vice President Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock options have risen 3,281 percent in the last year, RAW STORY can reveal. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) asserts that Cheney's options -- worth $241,498 a year ago -- are now valued at more than $8 million. The former CEO of the oil and gas services juggernaut, Cheney has pledged to give proceeds to charity. “Halliburton has already raked in more than $20 billion from the Bush-Cheney Administration for work in Iraq, and they were awarded some of the first Katrina contracts," Lautenberg said in a statement. "It is unseemly for the Vice President to continue to benefit from this company at the same time his Administration funnels billions of dollars to it. The Vice President should sever his financial ties to Halliburton once and for all.” Cheney continues to hold 433,333 Halliburton stock options. The company has been criticized by auditors for its handling of a no-bid

from TSG MAY 18--Prompted by a legal threat by a former contributor, the editor of Page Six has acknowledged taking cash from a New York businessman whose restaurant has been frequently mentioned in the New York Post column, the gossip industry's ground zero. The admission by Richard Johnson came today in a preemptive strike against Jared Paul Stern, the former Page Six freelancer who was bounced last year after being accused of trying to shake down billionaire Ron Burkle (federal investigators have declined to pursue charges against Stern). The admission by Johnson came a week after Stern's lawyer forwarded a Post attorney an affidavit from Ian Spiegelman, a former Page Six contributor, that details an assortment of alleged unethical practices by Johnson and fellow Posties.

"It's not that money buys votes," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the lone vote against the bill. "But you have a culture in which big money has significant influence. Big money gains you access, access gives you the time to influence people." Is this guy dense or what?! The money bought the vote, it mattered not what the person said after the money changed hands. Politicians are bought and sold, period.

• A measure that blocked an effort to allow drug importation passed, 49-40. The 49 senators who voted against drug importation received about $5 million from industry executives and political action committees since 2001 — nearly three quarters of the industry donations to current members of the Senate, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data compiled by two non-partisan groups, Center for Responsive Politics and PoliticalMoneyLine. • Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said he demanded removal of language that would have allowed the FDA to ban advertising of high-risk drugs for two years because it would restrict free speech. Roberts has raised $18,000 from drug interests so far this year, records show, and $66,000 since 2001. His spokeswoman, Sarah Little, said he "takes great pains to keep fundraising and official actions separate." • Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., claimed authorship of a change that reduced the FDA's power to require post-market safety studies. He said he wanted to

Director Michael Moore is being investigated by the Treasury Department for traveling to Cuba in violation of a U.S. trade embargo. In a May 2 letter, the Office of Foreign Assets Control informed Moore that he was the subject of a civil investigation stemming from the filmmaker's March trip to Cuba. Moore reportedly traveled there with 9/11 rescue workers who were seeking medical care. The trip was filmed as part of Moore's documentary "Sicko," which examines the U.S. health care industry (and premieres at the Cannes film festival on May 19). Letter and Full Info (thesmokinggun)

thesmokinggun published the affadavit against the Camden 6. it seems that wanting to produce a DVD expressing their religion (DVD showed 10 young men-"shooting assault weapons at a firing range in a militia-like style while calling for jihad and shouting in Arabic 'Allah Akbar' ('God is Great').") the FBI then inserted two undercover guys and then busted them. as i read the papers i became very interested in the footnote 2 that starts at the bottom of the page. not only is the informants credibility called into question, the implications of the DVD maker informing on his customer are scary. are the Camden 6 that ignorant of the Patriot Act and digital media or is a set up.

if you only watch two videos this year...please make them these two....

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0. Until they ban us all. ....................../´¯/) ....................,/¯../ .................../..../ ............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸ ........../'/.../..../......./¨¯ ........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...') ..........................'...../ ..........''............. _.·´ ..........................( .............................. Digg entries on this HD-DVD decryption flap are being thrown up and taken down left and right... No one reallys knows what's going on, but accusations of high-level Digg censorships have been put out there. Only, I took this moments before this thread was deleted from the front page... Is Kevin Rose earmarking posts for deletion or is Digg being censored even more secretly?

Recent weeks have brought major changes in the music industry and a major victory in our battle against DRM. First Steve Jobs pledged to drop DRM if major labels would let him. We held his feet to the fire with over six thousand people signing an open letter to Jobs asking him to back his pledge! Apple and EMI then announced that the iTunes Music Store would sell EMI tracks without DRM, and this has been followed by similar announcements from other online music stores and retailers. Call these Criminals TODAY and let them kmow how you feel. The Heroes Behind This Campaign. Make a call today! All the folks listed below work in Warner's New York offices. Try to make your calls in the morning on the East Coast. If your on the West Coast, you might want to wait until around 10AM PDT (after lunch for those on the East Coast). * Laird Popkin , Director of Digital Technology * Alex Zubilaga , Executive Vice President for Digital Strategy and Business Development * Edgar Bronf

The Washington Post has a very informative article on the vast number of people under indictment or facing conflict of interest cases in the Bush administration. It reads like a who's who of power-brokers and Bush croneys. A must read and another reason our political parties must be boycotted in the next election.

Bill O'Reilly is the posterboy for all that is wrong and evil in the media and this country. Never wanting to be held responsible for what he does or says. FOX News should have fired him a long time ago... "In a "Factor Fiction" segment Wednesday night, Keith highlighted how Bill O'Reilly attacks MediaMatters for committing the mortal sin of quoting him accurately. It's hysterical how he seeks to discredit everything MM does when all they do is accurately document what he says. It doesn't matter if he actually said the quote in question; what matters is if it was documented by MM. If it was, then it's immediately invalid — even though they always include the entire context and video/audio." from crooksandliars

The Justice Dept is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of Bush's No Child Left Behind law , another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism, people familiar with the matter said yesterday. The disclosure came as a congressional hearing revealed how people implementing the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program made at least $1 million in deals.

Google's rivals are unlikely to get the anti-trust case against the search engine that they want, because the Department of Justice doesn't yet consider online advertising a distinct market, and Mountain View's share of advertising as a whole is less intimidating. But there's one other way to hobble Google, and stymie its acquisition of Doubleclick... read more | digg story