What are the Bushies so scared of? Their security “precautions” are beyond paranoid and are approaching that of a police state. Seems to me they are more afraid of the people than of anything real. Of course, now that Dubya is arguably the most hated man on the planet, well, this will only increase their paranoia. 

Washington DC is in a state of lockdown amid unprecedented levels of security. Fences, barriers and roadblocks have been erected across the city and 7,000 law enforcement agents from more than 100 federal, state and local agencies are on patrol. Heavily armed Coast Guard boats will patrol the Potomac River. Snipers have taken up positions on rooftops, bomb-sniffing dogs are on patrol and so-called Patriot anti-missile batteries are stationed near the Capitol.

The entire area around Capitol Hill and the White House has been cordoned off, and more than 100 streets will be off-limits to traffic with the inauguration designated a national special-security event.

Flight restrictions over Washington for private aircraft have been expanded, and pilots are being warned that they risk being shot down if they stray into restricted areas and don’t respond to warnings.

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Anti-Inaugural protests kick off wednesday night outside the “Black Tie and Boots” Inaugural Ball

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Global poll slams Bush leadership

More than half of people surveyed in a BBC World Service poll say the re-election of US President George W Bush has made the world more dangerous.

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Another multinational water privatizer is packing its bags and leaving Bolivia. Last week, neighbourhood organizations in the Bolivian city of El Alto launched an indefinite general strike demanding that Aguas del Illimani — a company whose main shareholder and operator is French water giant Suez — immediately return the city’s water system to public control. Three days later, they marched en masse to the capital to claim their victory and reiterate their full set of demands.

The events in El Alto and La Paz follow the dramatic 2000 Water War in Bolivia’s third largest city, Cochabamba. After five months of intense public revolt, the people of Cochabamba regained control of their water system from U.S. giant Bechtel and its water privatizing partners.

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I wanted to upgrade my cell phone and get the Treo 650, which ATT Wireless was listing on their website as of last month. Cingular listed it too, as they’d recently bought ATT Wireless.

And so the tangled tale begins. That phone has disappeared off both sites, and a newspaper ad yesterday from Cingular offered the older Treo, the 600, at a discount. T’would seem simple enough to just order it, right?

Nope. The merger has been so complex and convoluted that both websites now have serious problems. The Cingular site lists no stores for my zip code even though three are nearby, that kind of thing. But this is minor. The real problem is, as a tech finally sheepishly explained to me, is that you can’t upgrade or buy a phone by calling them or by website. Why? Because things apparently are so discombobulated they no longer have any phones in stock. Neither do the stores.

So, they are running ad for phones you can not purchase. Go figure. But don’t try to call them unless you want voicemail Hell. I had to enter my cell phone number and the last 4 digits of my social twice as I was shuttled around multiple times through various menus until a human actually answered. Then, you got it, she asked me to repeat those same numbers. And couldn’t answer my question.

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Ohio’s GOP Attorney General launches revenge attack on Election Protection legal team

Columbus — In a stunning legal attack, Ohio’s Republican Attorney General has moved for sanctions against the four attorneys who sued George W. Bush et. al. in an attempt to investigate the Buckeye State’s bitterly contested November 2 election.

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US conservatives attack a music video featuring cartoon hero SpongeBob Squarepants for being “pro-gay”.

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