Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | The leak that revealed Bush's deep obsession with al-Jazeera

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | The leak that revealed Bush's deep obsession with al-Jazeera

The leak that revealed Bush's deep obsession with al-Jazeera

The US president planned to bomb the Qatar-based channel - that was the remarkable claim made in a top-secret memo. Why is the world's most powerful man so worried about a TV station?

Jamie Doward, Antony Barnett, Peter Beaumont, David Rose and Mark Townsend
Sunday November 27, 2005
The Observer

It was an ambush. As Britain woke up yesterday morning to snowstorms and arctic temperatures, the Attorney General was preparing to be questioned on Radio Four's Today programme over government plans to scrap jury trials in complex fraud cases.

Instead, as the interview with John Humphrys ground to an end shortly after 8.30am, the urbane Lord Goldsmith found himself explaining why he had warned national newspapers not to reveal the contents of a top secret memo detailing a lengthy conversation between the Prime Minister and President George Bush over the direction of the war in Iraq...

At least the Chimp had enough brains not to go through with it. Still, he wanted to bomb a TV station that does nothing more than express an opinion he disagrees with. If this doesn't prove that the guy's a nut, nothing will.

KRISTV.COM - Corpus Christi, TX - Katie Wernecke leaves M.D. Anderson with parents

KRISTV.COM - Corpus Christi, TX - Katie Wernecke leaves M.D. Anderson with parents
"HOUSTON - After a bitter court battle that lasted nearly five months, 13-year-old cancer patient Katie Wernecke of Agua Dulce is back with her parents. Katie walked out of M.D. Anderson with her parents and walked away from her conventional cancer treatment."

A happy ending, yes. Still this leaves many troubling questions: Who has the final authority over the treatment of a young person, the family, the state or even the youngster themselves? As we move more and more into the nanny state culture, I believe things like this will happen with greater frequency. Parents will lose their children for refusing to put them on Ritalin at the schools' orders, for refusing to send defiant teens away to bootcamps, etc. All in all, this isn't a good country to raise kids in anymore.

HoustonChronicle.com - Judge orders sick teen returned to parents

HoustonChronicle.com - Judge orders sick teen returned to parents

CORPUS CHRISTI — A 13-year-old girl with cancer who was put into foster care after her parents refused to allow radiation treatment will be reunited with her family, a judge ruled today.
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Faced with her deteriorating health, state district Judge Jack Hunter said Katie Wernecke would be better off with her family in Agua Dolce, near Corpus Christi, than in the custody of the Houston foster parents she was assigned by Child Protective Services...

At long last, a judge with some humanity in his heart. Props to Hunter for making the right decision and a hearty "Fuck you. You lose" to CPS.