Ashcroft has proven himself to be an enemy of the Constitution of the United States, and a threat to our security and liberty. Speak out against his continued trampling of our valued civil rights and civil liberties by joining the Center for Constitutional Rights’ People v. Ashcroft campaign. Join thousands of others calling for Ashcroft’s removal from office by signing a popular indictment of Ashcroft and his attempted destruction of our constitution at www.peoplevashcroft.org.
9 / 1 1:
G E T T I N G T O T H E T R U T H
Why is our government lying to us
about what really happened?
Do you know:
- On September 9th the president had a war plan
on his desk to go into Afghanistan?
- The hijackers names were not on the passenger lists?
- There were up to 23 individually recorded warnings
from a total of 11 allies?
- FEMA agents were already in New York on Sept. 10th?
- Government officials were warned not to fly on 9/11?
- The debris at Ground Zero was removed without forensic examination, shipped to China and melted down?
- The Bush and bin Laden families have been
doing business together since the late 70s?
- The Bush administration tried to obstruct
the investigation from the start?
- This just begins to scratch the surface?
Our site: www.ny911truth.org
For further reading on this critical issue, see:
http://physics911.org/net/index.php
www.serendipity.li/wtc.htm
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
- George Orwell
Information is the currency of democracy
- Thomas Jefferson
www.SkyscraperSafety.org
"To the living we owe respect,
but to the dead we owe only the truth." - Voltaire
An amazing analysis of the collapse of the twin towers and the WTC7 is at
http://911research.wtc7.net/index.html.
Vote to Keep Roosevelt on the dime from Change to Ronald Reagan!
Top Stories
Dean Quits Race for U.S. Presidential Nomination,
Will Form Advocacy Group
``I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency,'' Dean said in a televised speech today from his headquarters in Burlington, Vermont. ``We will, however, continue to build a new organization, using our enormous grassroots network, to continue the effort to transform the Democratic Party and to change our country.''
Russia’s Mountain of WMD
The real need here, however, is not money but political will. Serious bureaucratic delays are stalling efforts, preventing allocated money from being spent. The wrangling covers everything from physical access at Russian facilities to liability concerns.
National Debt Tops $7 Trillion
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government's national debt -- the accumulation of past budget shortfalls -- totaled more than $7 trillion for the first time as of Tuesday, according to a Treasury Department report. In its daily financial statement released on Wednesday, the Treasury said the U.S. debt subject to a congressionally set limit totaled $7.015 trillion, up from $6.983 trillion on Friday. The government was closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.
Speaking through 2 sides of his face,
Bush Backs Off Forecast of 2.6M New Jobs
WASHINGTON - President Bush distanced himself Wednesday from White House predictions that the economy will add 2.6 million jobs this year, the second embarrassing economic retreat in a week and new fuel for Democratic criticism.
Then, Better times near, Bush officials tell state areas hurting for jobs
Public opinion tide begins to turn
against G.W. Bush
Medicare reform backfires on Bush
President Bush signed a prescription-drug act two months ago that is actually hurting his popularity instead of boosting support from the elderly as intended.
A Gallup survey found that public disapproval of Mr. Bush's handling of health care has increased 13 percentage points since last year. The Jan. 19-Feb. 1 survey found 57 percent of the 1,001 Americans surveyed disapprove of Mr. Bush's health care policies, compared to 35 percent of voters who approve.
Scientists- Bush Distorts Science
The Bush administration has distorted scientific fact leading to policy decisions on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry, a group of about 60 scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, said in a statement on Wednesday.
George W. Bush, The Early Years -
AWOL while Covert CIA Ops for Daddy? (PDF)
’Chief financier’ in nuclear network had ties with Malaysian leader’s son
Enron's Skilling expected to surrender Thursday
Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron Corp. chief executive who resigned less than four months before the company imploded in scandal, was expected to surrender Thursday on charges related to the company's collapse, sources told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The criminal charges come almost exactly two years after Skilling told Congress he knew nothing about serious problems at the energy trader.
Top Australian Spook Outs Himself as Source
The director of the Defence Intelligence Organisation, Frank Lewincamp, has revealed himself as the source of a newspaper story claiming the Federal Government was told the United States had exaggerated prewar claims on Iraq's illicit weapons.
(Click to Return to Table of Contents)
Presidential Election Talking Points for
All Concerned Americans
(Abbreviated Version, February 18, 2004 )
For the fully-sourced 24-page free version of these Talking Points,
please email uxorpress@usa.com. A public service project initiated by Bob Zimmerman, author of: The American Challenge:
Twenty-One Winning Strategies for the 21st Century
www.TheAmericanChallenge.com, or BobZimmerman@usa.com
Contact for queries is Sondra at 415-383-848, or click here.
The Bush Record Exposed: Nothing but
Lies, Deceptions, and Crimes against Humanity
-
Bush shirked his wartime military obligation. - Source: New York Times editorial, February 12, 2004 and many others.
-
Bush encourages sending (Outsourcing) American jobs overseas:
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The Bush War of Terror is judged “unfocused,” and the Bush decision to invade Iraq is dubbed a disastrous “strategic error.” - Source: U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, December 2003.
-
Bush and Cheney knew: They deliberately and repeatedly lied to us about 9/11; they were told 9/11 was imminent; and, instead of protecting us, they slept at the helm; the record shows they should have prevented 9/11.
-
Bush knew: He deliberately and repeatedly lied to us about Iraqi WMD.
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Bush is intentionally driving middle-America into bankruptcy.
-
Bush tax cuts are nothing but an ugly scam on working families and retirees.
-
Bush, with a smirk on his face, is waging war on America’s children.
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Bush is anti-choice, anti-women’s rights, anti-civil rights, anti-human rights, anti-worker rights; his approach to the environment and gays is disdain.
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Bush is pursuing an ugly policy of economic class warfare.
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Bush has repeatedly looted the U.S. Treasury to enrich his wealthy friends.
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Bush refuses to cooperate with the official 9/11 investigating commission.
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Bush actions upon learning of the 9/11 attack are highly suspect.
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Bush deliberately stonewalls the families of the victims of 9/11.
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Bush and Cheney concern for America’s national security and claims about exporting democracy to Iraq are entirely bogus.
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Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill says Bush is a failed president.
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Bush is obstructing justice in the criminal investigation of the White House.
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Bush and Cheney are neocons with an anti-democratic, fascist agenda.
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Bush policies and programs favor only wealthy special interest groups.
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Bush seeks to fool seniors and to destroy Social Security and Medicare.
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Bush and Cheney seek to place WMD in space and on Mars.
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Bush lied to us and then used our soldiers as re-election propaganda props.
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Bush is contributing to the spread of AIDS amongst our youth.
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Bush has failed to provide promised federal funding to fight global AIDS.
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Bush is deliberately waging war on the environment.
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Bush and Cheney’s foreign policy is deliberately creating global instability.
-
Bush and Cheney deliberately spread hatred, fear, and loathing in America.
-
Bush is deliberately rescinding the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
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Bush and Cheney war talk is nothing but schoolyard bullyboy arrogance.
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Bush has failed to capture Osama bin Laden and defeat al Qaeda.
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Bush and Cheney immediately after 9/11 helped the bin Laden family and about 140 other Saudi financiers of terror flee America.
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Bush deliberately undercuts our soldiers and veterans by slashing veteran’s benefits and by treating our soldiers as slaves.
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Bush is highly antagonistic to working people and their unions.
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Bush elective wars are ungodly and un-Christian.
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Bush is deliberately starving state and local governments.
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Bush favors political fundraising over attending the funerals of the
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soldiers who died fighting his false war in Iraq.
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Bush as lord high executioner and mass-murderer.
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Bush anti-science policies are retarding scientific research.
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Bush stole one election; is he planning to steal another?
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Bush has lost his self-proclaimed global war of terror.
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Bush war spending is counterproductive and bankrupting America.
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Bush will say and do anything to avoid defeat in 2004.
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Bush and Ashcroft seek to crush dissent in America # 1 (USA Patriot Act).
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Bush and Ashcroft seek to crush dissent in America # 2 (First Amendment).
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Bush sends U.S. reserve units into action without proper equipment.
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Bush has appointed a cabinet of, by, and for the wealthy.
-
Bush spends big for bombs while slashing vital programs for the needy.
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Bush denies access to necessary medical care to millions of Americans.
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Bush is deliberately destroying America’s middle-income families.
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Bush wants full control of what is left of our free press.
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Bush has set out to destroy the separation of church and state.
-
Bush and Cheney may be tried as war criminals.
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Bush and Ashcroft have failed to prosecute most giant corporate crime.
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Bush has an energy bill that only energizes energy company profits.
-
Bush and Rove rigged the California gubernatorial recall election.
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Bush, a rugged individualist, or a military deserter, and a spoiled brat?
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Bush and Cheney prefer rebuilding Iraq to rebuilding America.
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Bush friends stuff their pockets with staggering war profits.
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Bush appoints judges for the sole purpose of furthering neocon interests.
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Bush White House secrecy exceeds all reasonable bounds.
(Click here for Details on each point above)
# # # #
United States POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
General Daily State-by-State
Government News, from Stateline.org
COLUMN- Monday wasn’t Bush’s day
Forty-eight percent of the public thinks the war in Iraq was worth it, meaning that for the first time since the war, more people (50 percent) believe the war in Iraq was not worth fighting. Fifty-one percent disapprove of the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq.
Top U.S. terror prosecutor sues Justice Dept.
FEC Mulls New Limits on Big Donations
Democrats Score Rare House Win in Ky.
Dean’s Campaign Contributions
Wisconsin raises questions about Kerry
Amid Iraq-Bound Guardsmen, Bush Acts to Blunt Foes’ Barbs
(Click to Return to Table of Contents )
Click on the Bush/Tony link and enjoy the show
http://jefffisherforcongress.com
International POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Fear, Panic as Dark New Force Enters Haiti Revolt
Experts- Al Qaeda Maritime Threat Growing
Syria Ready to Resume Talks With Israel
Bush Urges Political Reforms in Tunisia
Two Iran Papers Shut for Reporting Khamenei Letter
Iran Train Blast Kills More Than 200
Runaway train kills 200 in Iran
Iran Fuel Wagon Blast Death Toll Climbs to 295
Bush Admin. May Alter Iraq Self-Rule Plan
Mexico says goodbye to ex-president
U.S. Considers Building Port at Sao Tome
How Beijing May Loosen Up
Aristide rejects U.S. call for elections
Annan Likely to Back U.S. Plan in Iraq
(Click to Return to Table of Contents )
Prospective Homeowners.com
An affordable housing solutions group
BUSINESS, JOBS, TAXES & ECONOMY
Microsoft Offers Free Security CD
Marketer aims to blow lid off conventional java shops
Volkswagen Net Profit Falls 58 Percent
FRANKFURT, Germany - German automaker Volkswagen, struggling with the North American incentive wars and a stronger euro, said its profit dropped by more than half last year.
U.S. Housing Starts Fall, Store Sales Up
WASHINGTON - U.S. housing starts in a snowy January fell a sharper-than-expected 7.9 percent to their lowest since August, but chain store sales and mortgage applications rose last week, reports showed on Wednesday.
The Impact- A $41 Billion Telephone Deal, but What’s in It for Consumers?
Employers Scramble Now That H-1B Quota Is Full
Transcript- Steven Pearlstein on Offshoring
CEOs Bullish on Economy, But Not Hiring
BOCA RATON, Fla. - Leaders of the largest U.S. companies are growing more confident that economic growth will accelerate in 2004, yet less than half have plans to speed up hiring.
Japanese Economy Growing Stronger
Foreign Threats to U.S. Profits
10 Tools of Profitable Revenue Growth
3 European Leaders Agree on Economic Plan
Press Release » Tax Me If You Can
Watch: Thursday, February 19, at 9pm, 60 minutes
It was one of corporate America's biggest hidden profit centers in the past decade--the tax shelter--and it became so lucrative that last year it helped major U.S. companies cut their tax rate to just half of what they had historically paid, leaving individual taxpayers to make up the difference.
The General Accounting Office estimates that illegitimate tax shelters cost the government more than $85 billion in recent years.
"Anything that's not being paid that should be paid, that's basically what the honest taxpayer is making up," asserts Charles Rossotti, a Republican businessman who became commissioner of Internal Revenue in 1997 and spent five years battling bogus shelters. Rossotti estimates that because the government is not collecting all that is owed--the biggest piece of which is illegitimate tax shelters--everyone else is paying 15 percent more than they should.
In "Tax Me If You Can," airing Thursday, February 19, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE® correspondent Hedrick Smith investigates the rampant abuse of tax shelters since the late 1990s. Through interviews with government officials, tax experts, and industry insiders, Smith uncovers an avalanche of bogus transactions created by some of America's biggest and most-respected accounting firms, law firms, and investment banks that were then aggressively marketed to big corporations and wealthy individuals.
"These were close to sham transactions--some were clearly sham transactions, [that] had nothing to do with investment," says John "Buck" Chapoton, former treasury department policymaker in the Reagan administration. "They simply were financial mechanisms for creating losses--tax losses, not economic losses."
FRONTLINE's Smith notes, "Chasing bogus tax shelters for the IRS was like a game of cat and mouse. The IRS had a terrible time finding them because they were hidden deep in tax returns. Once the IRS spotted one type of shelter and issued a regulation to block it, the shelter promoters had designed a new one. The IRS was forever playing catch-up."
To overcome this problem, Rossotti asserts that Congress must now enact sweeping legislation to ban any tax shelters that do not have legitimate business purpose, and he warns of the danger of inaction.
"I think this thing is going to rebound in a serious way as the economy improves," Rossotti tells FRONTLINE. "The fundamental drivers of this are still there. It's still a very profitable business for the promoters. The law is still way too weak and too murky."
In "Tax Me If You Can," Smith follows the tax shelter trail to some surprising places. Smith discovers that sewer pipes in the city of Bochum, Germany, for example, have offered a huge tax write-off to the major American bank, Wachovia, of Charlotte, NC.
It was a deal that Bochum city officials couldn't refuse: Through a complex, long-term lease-and-service transaction, the city would lease out its underground sewer pipes to Wachovia for $500 million. The city would then immediately lease the pipes back, thus retaining use of its sewer system, and repay the lease over a period of many years. In return, Bochum was immediately paid a $20 million fee. Wachovia would eventually get its money back--plus a fast, multi-million-dollar tax write-off.
Wachovia declined to be interviewed by FRONTLINE. But working with Wachovia's annual reports, Robert McIntyre, director of the Institute for Taxation and Finance, details the payoff to Wachovia's bottom line from many leasing deals similar to the Bochum transaction.
"Amazingly, in 2002--even though it reported $4 billion in profits--[Wachovia] reported that it didn't pay any taxes," McIntyre tells FRONTLINE. "They worked it by sheltering all of their income. They said they saved $3 billion in taxes over the last three years from leasing--huge write-offs."
"Tax Me If You Can" also reveals how some of America's most respected accounting firms drove the tax shelter wave, generating dozens of shelters that were mass marketed and then found to be illegitimate by the IRS and the courts. In the documentary, Smith speaks with a former tax attorney for KPMG, who describes how the firm's accountants and attorneys were ordered by KPMG tax executives to design--and market aggressively--as many tax shelters as possible, since the firm made a profit based on how much it saved its clients in taxes.
KPMG declined to speak to FRONTLINE. But recently the firm fired and/or retired several of its leading tax partners who had overseen KPMG's tax shelter operation, after they had been called to testify in a congressional investigation.
"Tax Me If You Can" concludes by reporting that while the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate has passed broad tax shelter reform legislation, both the Bush administration and private sector companies, such as accounting and leasing firms, oppose a Senate-backed provision requiring that shelters have economic substance and genuine business purpose to be legal. The House of Representatives has so far declined to pass such legislation, which remains bottled up in the Ways and Means Committee.
"You're talking about powerful accounting firms, powerful legal firms, powerful investment bankers in a conspiracy to promote these tax shelters," declares Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who sponsored the Senate bill. "They also have a fourth arm. They hire some of the most powerful lobbyists in town to work against this legislation."
"Tax Me If You Can" is a FRONTLINE co-production with Hedrick Smith Productions. Hedrick Smith is senior producer and correspondent. Rick Young is producer and director.
In conjunction with the television broadcast, FRONTLINE and Marketplace will produce a two-part series based upon Hedrick Smith's investigation. The public radio series airs Wednesday and Thursday, February 18 and 19, on Marketplace. The series is produced by Rick Young for FRONTLINE and by Marketplace's Stephen Henn for American RadioWorks.
(If you want to support Bush's Campaign, Buy Dell Computer
whose CEO was GW's Campaign Manager in 2000)
(Click to Return to Table of Contents )
Santa Barbara Social Enterprise
helping youth learn job skills
HEALTH, FAMILY, CONSUMERS, SOCIETY & ENVIRONMENT
Editor's Statement: "The Gay Marriage issue at election time is a diversionary tactic, promulgated by the Right Wing, to divert attention from GW Bush's criminal administration".
Rep. Frank Opposes Gay Marriage Effort
SAN FRANCISCO - Rep. Barney Frank said San Francisco's decision to challenge state law and grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples could damage efforts by gay rights advocates to defend the Massachusetts court decision legalizing gay marriage.
To Hell With Barney Frank & Laura Bush
Gay Marriage is between two persons and neither the State nor the public should interfere - It's about time to shove people's faces in it, if they can't mind their own goddam business - editor
Laura Bush Says Gay Marriage ’Shocking’
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Laura Bush says gay marriages are "a very, very shocking issue" for some people, a subject that should be debated by Americans rather than settled by a Massachusetts court or the mayor of San Francisco.
Bush ’troubled’ by gay unions
Gay marriage amendment stirs Capitol
S.F. Gay Marriages Get Court Reprieve (RA)
Seniors Said More Likely to Be in Crashes
Panel Urges Bush to Finance Climate-Change Research
Kraft’s Search for a High-Energy Diet
Disease-fighters In Our Mouths Provide Clues To Enhancing The Immune System
Care2 Make a Difference: The #1 Environmental Network for a Healthy Living & a Healthy Planet
(Click to Return to Table of Contents )
CORRUPTION, LAW, CRIME,
COURTS & PUNISHMENT, ETHICS
INVESTIGATIONS & COVER-UPS
S.F. Judge Won’t Halt Marriages
SAN FRANCISCO — As the number of same-sex marriages climbed to more than 2,600 here Tuesday, a San Francisco Superior Court judge refused to order an immediate stop to the unions, instead allowing city officials until March 29 to return to court to argue the merits of their case...after a three-hour hearing packed with media and couples who had tied the knot in recent days, Warren ruled that there was not enough evidence of harm to the plaintiffs to justify immediate action. Instead, he issued an order to the city to either "cease and desist … solemnizing the same-sex marriages" or return to court to lay out the reasons why they should be allowed to continue.
FCC Logs 10,000 Telemarketing Complaints
Jury Finds Bishop Guilty in a Fatal Hit-and-Run Accident
Ethics probe into finances of Sen. Perata
Judge- Dean Can’t Seal Papers
Head of Nebraska lottery resigns amid probe
Court upholds removal of Ten Commandments monument
Bill may aid display of commandments
Attorneys file appeal for jailed ex-Louisiana governor
(Click to Return to Table of Contents )
ABOUT EDUCATION
Sunnyside teaching parents to prepare their kids for college
Wired schools help keep parents in the know
Textbook companies defend cost
The Orfalea College of Business challenges highly motivated students to become tomorrow's socially responsible business leaders through a learn-by-doing, technology-oriented education.
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INTERESTING, SCIENCE, CULTURAL & ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
MGM Revenue Declines 13 Percent
Scientists watch as black hole rips star apart
Growing popularity for buttocks implants
Blind Can Plot Course With GPS
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Progressive Business Office Support Services
