From Mosaic, a report from Iran TV that Turkey has blocked CIA spying on Iran via Turkey.

Re-elected Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul joined Alex Jones on air last week to discuss the fallout of the midterm elections and what he sees transpiring over the next two years. He ended by ominously warning that if something is not done soon to overturn legislation such as the Military Commissions act, the law officially allows for citizen concentration camp facilities.

Beginning with the positives to come out of the election, Ron Paul stressed that it has provided an important indication to the rest of the world that the people of America are unhappy with the usurpers that have seized control of their government and are trying to initiate change. The Congressman was quick to point out that this may not be carried into policy however:

“Not a whole lot will change because the leadership on the Democratic side, even if they had their way, don’t have a different foreign policy. They have been supportive of an interventionist foreign policy in the middle east, and they are not about to back away from that… They are willing to criticize the policy but only as a means to get power.”

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You think it hasn’t been “mulled” already?

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States or other countries will one day be forced to consider pre-emptive action if Iran and North Korea continue to seek nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. government official said on Tuesday.

The United States and its allies have accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy program and are pushing for United Nations’ sanctions. Tehran denies the accusation.

North Korea conducted an underground test of what was believed to have been a small nuclear weapon last month.

If North Korea refused to renounce its nuclear program and Iran developed a nuclear weapons capability, it would lead other countries in their regions to seek nuclear weapons, said the U.S. official, speaking on condition he was not identified.

More here

Hmmmmmmm……

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 15, 2006; Page A19

The two highest-ranking officials in the U.S. Census Bureau quit yesterday, putting management of the agency in flux as preparations for the next census enter a critical phase.

The departures of Census Bureau chief C. Louis Kincannon, a statistician appointed by President Bush to lead the agency in 2002, and Hermann Habermann, a career statistician who runs the census operation, could complicate a revision of the counting process in 2010 — to produce a detailed picture of the U.S. population every year, rather than once a decade.

The census determines such key issues as congressional representation to highway expenditures, so it draws intense scrutiny from lawmakers.

“This will hurt the agency as it tries to roll out the planning process,” said Columbia University professor Kenneth Prewitt, a former Census Bureau director. “The 2010 census is a very big operation that involves detailed planning spread over a number of years.”

The open positions will likely take at least six months to fill, he said.

Continue reading at the Washington Post

THIS MONTH IN IRAQ: 39 U.S.TROOP FATALITIES, 5 U.K, 2 OTHER AND 701 IRAQI DEATHS.
I hope they get somewhere with this.

Senate Democrats impatient to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq will inject a new political dynamic into the debate over the war beginning today as they question the military’s top Middle East commander for the first time since their party swept into control of Congress this month.

Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, will face questions on the violence in Iraq and what it means for the roughly 145,000 U.S. troops there during scheduled testimony today before the Senate Armed Services Committee, senators from both parties said.

Senior Democrats and Republicans on the committee are deeply divided over basic issues such as troop levels and strategy and whether Iraq is already in a state of civil war. Still, they are united by a concern for American forces. Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.), for example, said he will quiz Abizaid on the risks that U.S. troops could face if embedded with Iraqi units under an Iraqi chain of command.

Read more at the Washington Post

By HIROKO TABUCHI
Associated Press
Posted November 15 2006, 8:10 AM EST

TOKYO — Japan issued a tsunami warning Wednesday and told Pacific coast residents to flee to higher ground after a powerful earthquake hit off sparsely populated islands to the north.

Japan’s meteorological agency initially predicted that a 6-½-foot tsunami would hit the Pacific coast of Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido and main island of Honshu after 9:10 p.m. (7:10 a.m. EST).

A 16-inch wave hit the port of Nemuro on Hokkaido at 9:29 p.m., and live footage from the area showed calm seas.

The agency warned that larger waves could follow.

Source here

Hope he enjoys his stay.

Associated Press
Posted November 15 2006, 7:50 AM EST

CUMBERLAND, Md.– Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, convicted of federal charges after using expensive gifts, campaign donations and exotic trips to win access to the powerful in Washington, reported to prison Wednesday.

Abramoff arrived at about 6:30 a.m. at a relatively secluded prison facility in western Maryland and began to serve a nearly six-year prison sentence for a fraudulent deal to buy fleet of Dania-Beach-based fleet of SunCruz casino ships in 2000.

Abramoff was delivered out of sight of waiting reporters and camera crews and his arrival was announced in a two-paragraph statement by a prison representative.

Read more at the Sun Sentinel