Romance is in the air today across the land. But in Washington, the buzz continues about The Kiss No, not Gustav Klimt's famous painting. It's the big fat one an exuberant President Bush planted on Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's right cheek as he waded through the Capitol crowd after the State of the Union a couple of weeks ago.
Republicans, the environment, and the Second Coming: The origins of a liberal myth Fear of the religious right: after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back
Claims and counter-claims, but where's the evidence?
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Biological Espionage
With the coming into effect of the Kyoto protocol, the use of nuclear power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has taken greater prominence in debate as world prices are rising
Despite terrorists’ demonstrated preference for conventional explosive devices, the possibility that a weapon of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear [CBRN]) could be acquired and used by terrorist groups is now conceivable. Potential targets might include food sources and water supplies, heavily populated urban centers, and infrastructure critical to government and economic activity. Changing tactics, the potential use of chemical, biological, and radiological weapons, and threats to the infrastructure represent current realities in the fight against Al Qaeda and its adherents.
Soviet sabotage agents planned to leave phials of lethal bacteria at Western military establishments, including an Australian naval base, a former KGB spymaster has revealed.
The scientist, Alexander Kouzminov, said agents prepared sites where the phials would be placed, ready to poison military figures, civilian settlements and political leaders in the event of war against the Soviet Union. Dr Kouzminov said he was required to evaluate the effectiveness of the sites: "I remember one of the operational files given to me for analysis - five pages of typed text with attached diagrams and clandestine photos of places selected for dead drops close to a naval base in Townsville, Australia, which was used by the US Navy."
• Soviet spies planned poison attack on Australia [Grave-side of that Past Thing: Beyond WMD and Beyond Anthrax: The Axis of Research - Svit, Neratovice, Bratislava, Chernobyl, Kiev ...; Google: Pipes, Polls, and Paranoia ]
• · Germany's former spy chief, who was a key figure in a huge slush fund scandal surrounding ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl's conservative party forces was extradited to Germany from France on Thursday Shandy of Schande
• · · Openness and honesty are rare concepts in the debate over public space. Call me naive, but I still hang out for the occasional public truth. But while the rhetoric is all public interest, reality suggests quite another priority-set. A whole new meaning to the word icon ; Cinnamon Stillwell, San Francisco: Those who favor smaller government will likely be familiar with the term "nanny state." A nanny state is defined as "a government which tries to give too much advice or make too many laws about how people should live, especially about eating, smoking or drinking alcohol." Perhaps not coincidentally, nanny states and blue states tend to go hand in hand. San Francisco Is Nanny State USA
• · · · C. Hurt & S. Dinan, Wash Times Frist Has Votes to Change Filibuster Rules ; It took the presidency of a privileged son of a president who spent his time in the White House doing the bidding of well-connected businessmen to first bring together the Democratic Party Democrats, once again, are the party of 'the plain people
• · · · · They have provided a forum for a host of Arab politicians and commentators not just to express their sadness, but also their suspicions over who might have killed him - and fears for what the future might hold. Arab media outrage at Hariri killing ; Google: Rafic al-Hariri (1944-2005); The issue is very complex, but The Australian Federal Police believes Mamdouh Habib trained to be a mercenary for the terrorist group al-Qaeda I'm no terrorist, but I won't say why I was there ; Sorry seems the hardest word
• · · · · · Question Canberra! Er, but not Sydney! When their wait for an appointment becomes too painful to endure, some public patients are resorting to homemade dental remedies such as Superglueing their dentures Glue and pliers for those who can't bear to wait ; A Herald investigation today revealed patients in NSW were waiting up to eight years for attention while the number of children needing hospital treatment had doubled over the past decade. Bizarre Zuby