News Scraps
By Brandon Bosworth
Democrats may be in the minority in Congress, but we speak for the majority of Americans."--Senator Ted Kennedy
A Washington Post/ABC News poll finds that 55 percent of Americans expect George W. Bush to do a better job as President in his second term than his first. About 70 percent believe there will be significant progress against terrorism.... The 2004 Presidential election had the highest voter turnout since 1968. More than 122 million, or just over 60 percent, of Americans voted.
The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh told an interviewer on the radio show "Democracy Now!" that the United States has "been taken over basically by a cult, eight or nine neoconservatives have somehow grabbed the government.... It does say something about how fragile our democracy is. You do have to wonder what a democracy is when it comes down to a few men in the Pentagon and a few men in the White House having their way."
The leftist Web site foxblocker.com offers for sale an $8.95 device that will block FOX News from televisions. The product description states: "Simply screw the filter into the back of your TV and never be exposed to right-wing propaganda again (at least through FOX News)."
Canada's immigration minister, Judy Sgro, resigned following allegations that she had helped an illegal immigrant restaurant owner avoid deportation in exchange for free pizza and garlic bread.
Shibley Horaney of California is suing two Las Vegas casinos, claiming that they made it too easy for him to lose $5.5 million gambling since 1995 by offering perks such as free hotel rooms and bottomless credit lines.
A judge in Santiago granted the first legal divorce in Chile's history.
The Times of London reports that the fifth most popular name for newborn boys in England last year was Mohammad.
Ninetenn Russian lawmakers, all members of the State Duma, called for an official investigation of "Jewish extremism." They argued that Jewish groups are purposely "provoking anti-Semitism in Russia."
At age 66, Adriana Iliescu of Romania became the oldest known woman ever to give birth.
The North Korean government began a campaign to encourage men to get frequent haircuts. The campaign, entitled "Let Us Trim Our Hair in Accordance with Socialist Lifestyle," features five approved haircuts. All five are variations on the crew cut.
A survey by the Rand Corporation and Oregon State University found that nearly half of American blacks believe that the AIDS virus is man-made. 15 percent believe AIDS is a form of genocide against blacks, and 12 percent think it is spread by the CIA....At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, French president Jacques Chirac proposed "a global levy to finance the fight against AIDS." His plan would include a tax on international financial transactions, aviation and shipping fuel, and airline tickets in an effort to raise $10 billion per year to fight the disease.
Indiana's Republican governor, Mitch Daniels, has proposed a one-year, 1 percent tax on residents with incomes exceeding $100,000 in an effort to cut the state deficit. Indiana has had a 3.4 percent flat tax since 1987.
Oklahoma state senator Frank Shurden, a Democrat, wants to re-legalize cockfighting, which was banned in the state in 2002. He proposed requiring roosters to wear boxing gloves and small vests configured with electronic sensors to record hits. "It's like the fencing that you see on the Olympics, you know, where they have little balls on the ends of the swords and the fencers wear vests," said Shurden.
The word "blog" is now included in the Oxford English Dictionary.... According to BusinessWeek, more than 60 percent of Americans don't know what a blog (a kind of Internet diary) is.
Speaking at an awards dinner, actor-director Clint Eastwood told audiences, "Michael Moore and I actually have a lot in common--we both appreciate living in a country where there's free expression.... But, Michael, if you ever show up at my front door with a camera--I'll kill you. I mean it."
