This is speculation, but we may wish to consider whether the bizarre and violent behavior of the Virginia Tech killer was induced in part by an antidepressant.

From the Mother Jones blog:

The Times reported that Cho Seung-Hui was taking a psychoactive medication. Was it an antidepressant? No doubt antidepressants save many lives, but they also cause side effects. Psychiatrists know that in a percentage of patients, they trigger mania, exacerbate delusional thinking, and agitate suicidal ideation.

Projection:

Tester (D)    168,500   
Burns  (R)    165,100

Meaning Tester would win it by 3,400 votes.

Details below the fold.

Here's a key quote:

Axelrod discovered her missing 2004 vote by review of her voting record on Washoe Registrar's DEMS  (Diebold Election Management System). Accessing the DEMS computer she found her vote had neither been registered nor counted and that she had been issued 3 - rather than one unique Voter ID number.

The whole press release is below.

[T]he U.S. military has created an extensive network of detention centers dedicated to holding hundreds of captured Afghans, mostly suspected Taliban backers. The United Nations is barred from these jails, as are human rights activists, journalists, and even the Afghan government. And in the absence of outside scrutiny, it seems, terrible things are happening to Afghan citizens -- men who've emerged from these jails say they've experienced the sort of horrors now synonymous with Abu Ghraib.

While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new homeland explosives detection technology.

I want to say two things.  First, you people are amazing; keep it up.  This community serves several much-needed functions: news gathering and dissemination, community making, and organization.  And now, I am jubilant  to see, actual journalism.  Protect this community, nurture it, keep it vital, extend it.

Second, and more pointedly, take a moment to critically consider the amount of time you spend here at dkos, and online in general.  Internet addiction is a very real and serious problem.

The lion's share has been paid for by China, which has purchased a staggering amount of dollars to keep their currency cheap and sales brisk.  There is momentary stability here, but it can only last for so long.  Some say 2 decades, others say 2 years.

Will China and the other Asian nations keep financing us?  Will they force us to get fiscal responsiblity?  Or will we go down the path of Mutually Assured Financial Destruction?

The United States and China are playing a dangerous game of prisoner's dilemma: stay on the boat and risk getting screwed by your companion, or jump off now, but risk immediate negative consequences for everyone.        [More, with poll...]

I think there's reason to say you might want to avoid ingesting lots of the stuff, especially if you're pregnant.

Specifically, its approval was done in a very shady and political manner, way back in the Reagan era.  Also, it is claimed that almost all of the research that wasn't funded by industry found indications of health problems.

Whereas we are all human here,

Whereas it seems that too much sniping and anger and personalization is going on,

Whereas this is harmful to our forum and our group,

Whereas it is causing feelings of hurt and animosity,

Whereas it is wasting a lot of time and energy,

Whereas most people who are attacking others are, by in large, acting out of good intentions, but are overcome by emotion and are being hysterical.

Whereas there most probably are some agent provocatuers on this site.

AND

Whereas changing this tone cannot be solved by mandate or screaming, but ultimately only by individual action and efforts,

I hereby resolve to try the following ...

Washington, D.C., 20 October 2004 - The National Security Archive today filed suit against the Central Intelligence Agency ("CIA") seeking the expedited processing and release under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") of the 2004 Iraq National Intelligence Estimate ("NIE). As the New York Times reported on September 16, 2004, the NIE spells out a dark assessment of prospects for Iraq. The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that could lead to civil war.

The Archive is seeking judicial intervention to require the CIA to expedite its processing of a FOIA request for the NIE. "This is a textbook case for expedited processing," said the Archive's General Counsel, Meredith Fuchs. "There is a tremendous public interest in the situation in Iraq and the U.S. commitment to Iraq, the news media have focused significant attention on the NIE, and members of the Senate Intelligence Committee have requested that the NIE be made public to help with the formulation of policy."

On Saturday, theledger.com noted that even though the Federal Debt equals $25,195 for every man, woman, and child, and the annual deficit is at a record breaking $375 billion, Congress was getting ready to give Corporations and Tobacco farmers $145 billion in tax cuts and buy-outs in the next 10 years.

Well, the bill has passed the Senate.  I'm actually trying to tease apart what it means...

DOWNLOAD HERE (243K Word Doc)

I just submitted this letter to the editor to my local rag in Reno.  Send it or one like it to your paper or to your congressperson.

CONT

Also check out http://electroniciraq.net/news/ which has, for example, a recent perspective from the Kurdish north.

MORE: Specific stories of interest below.

The guards subjected the prisoners to demeaning abuse, and the experiment had to be ended early.

This made me realize how easily some people can become sadistic given a starkly unequal power situation and a perception of impunity.  It has made me attentive to the subject of abuse and rape in US prisons (often abetted by or even commited by guards).  And it meant that the Abu Ghraib attrocities were no big surprise to me.

 Abdul-Basat al-Turki, minister of human rights in the Iraqi government, told the Arab satellite-TV station Al Jazeera he had resigned "not only because I believe that the use of violence is a violation of human rights, but also because these methods in the prisons means that the violations are a common act."
    Mr. al-Turki said he had complained in December about human rights violations by Americans to the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer. He did not say what had come of the complaints.

This isn't the only indication that these abuses were widespread... [MORE]

This is exasperating.

From an April 8-15 poll:

-- A 51% to 38% majority continues to believe that "Iraq actually had weapons of mass destruction," virtually unchanged since February.

     -- A 49% to 36% plurality of all adults continues to believe that "clear evidence that Iraq was supporting Al Qaeda has been found." These numbers have scarcely changed since June 2003.

     -- While a 43% plurality believes that the "U.S. government deliberately exaggerated the reports of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to increase support for war," a 50% plurality (also virtually unchanged over the last eight months) continues to believe that the government "tried to present the information accurately."