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ARCHIVES NEWS History News History Archives 2006 History Archives 2005 History Archives 2004 History Archives 2003 History Archives 2002 History Archives 2001 History Archives History Archives |
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Barack
Obama
- 
Hillary
Clinton
- 
Iowa
- 
2008
Election - 2004
Election - 
History
- "Obama:
Gore, Kerry Alienated "Half the Country"." ... "In
a speech this afternoon in central Iowa, [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate] Barack Obama seems to have widened his criticism of the politics
of the past to encompass not only [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate] Hillary Clinton but [former Presidential Candidates] John Kerry
and Nobel Laureate Al Gore." ... "Making an argument for his electability,
Obama said, "I don't want to go into the next election starting off with
half the country already not wanting to vote for Democrats -- we've done
that in 2004, 2000," according to a person at the event (rush transcript)."
-By Glenn Thrush -Newsday.com
John
Edwards
- 
Music
- Des-Moines
- Iowa
- Farm
- History
- 
Working
- Poverty
- Race
- 2008
Election - "Edwards
Wins the Mellencamp Primary." ... "So it is that
[singer John] Mellencamp will come to Iowa Wednesday to close the [2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate John] Edwards campaign off with
a "This Is Our Country" rally at the not-exactly-Hollywood Val Air Ballroom
in West Des Moines [Iowa]. (In case anyone is missing the point here, they
will be distributing the tickets from the United Steelworkers Local 310
hall.)" ... "Where [Oprah] Winfrey brought a big name but little in the
way of a track record on the issues that are fundamental to the rural and
small-town Iowans who will play a disproportional role in Thursday's caucuses,
Mellencamp is more than just another celebrity taking a lap around the
policy arena." ... "For a quarter century, the singer has been in the thick
of the fight on behalf of the rural families he immortalized in the video
for "Rain on the Scarecrow," his epic song about the farm crisis that buffeted
Iowa and neighboring states in the 1980s and never really ended." ... "Mellencamp
has not merely sung about withering small towns and farm foreclosures.
As a organizer of Farm Aid, he has brought some of the biggest stars in
the world to benefit concerts in Iowa and surrounding states, and he has
helped to distribute the money raised at those events to organizations
across Iowa." ... "Farm Aid is nonpartisan. It's not endorsing in this
race. But Mellencamp is. The singer, who this year will be inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but whose music remains vital enough to
have earned a 2008 Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, was
lobbied for support by other campaigns, especially Clinton's. But he has
a long relationship with Edwards. He has an even longer relationship with
the issues that Edwards is talking about. Indeed, his credibility is grounded
in the recognition that Mellencamp has repeatedly taken career-risking
anti-war, anti-racist and anti-poverty stances that other celebrities of
his stature tend to avoid." ... "What matters, of course, is the fact of
that credibility -- and the fact that it is so closely tied to the farm
and rural issues that have meaning even in the more urbanized regions of
Iowa. That is why, if there is an endorsement that is going to have meaning
with the people who drive down country roads to attend caucuses on what
looks to be a very cold and unforgiving Thursday night, it is likely to
be that of the guy who proudly sings that, "I was born in a small town...""
-By John Nichols -TheNation.com
Economic
- Construction
- History
- "Sales
of New Homes in U.S. Dropped 9% to 12-Year Low (Update3)."
... "Sales of new homes in the U.S. fell to a 12-year low in November,
pointing to bigger declines in construction that will hobble economic growth
throughout 2008." ... "Purchases dropped 9 percent to an annual pace of
647,000 and October sales were revised down to a 711,000 rate, the Commerce
Department said today in Washington. Last month's sales were weaker than
the lowest forecast in a Bloomberg survey. " ... "A Bloomberg survey of
68 economists forecast sales would fall to an annual pace of 717,000 from
a previously reported 728,000 rate in October, according to the median
estimate. Economists' forecasts ranged from a low of 685,000 to a high
of 750,000." ... "Sales of new homes were down 34 percent from the same
time last year, the biggest 12-month drop since January 1991." ... "The
housing recession has deepened since the August turmoil in subprime mortgages
led to a worldwide credit shortage. Stricter borrowing standards and a
freeze on lending to borrowers with poor credit put mortgages out of reach
for more potential buyers. That's driving home prices lower, weakening
sales as people hold out for even bigger reductions." -By
Bob Willis -Bloomberg
Government
- Corporations
- Employee
- 
Retirees
- 
Health
- 
Law
- 
Politics
- History
- "U.S.
Ruling Backs Benefit Cut at 65 in Retiree Plans."
... "The [Republican President Bush run] Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
said Wednesday that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits
for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare." ... "The
policy, set forth in a new regulation, allows employers to establish two
classes of retirees, with more comprehensive benefits for those under 65
and more limited benefits — or none at all — for those older." ... "More
than 10 million retirees rely on employer-sponsored health plans as a primary
source of coverage or as a supplement to Medicare, and Naomi C. Earp, the
commission’s chairwoman, said, “This rule will help employers continue
to voluntarily provide and maintain these critically important health benefits.”"
... "But AARP and other advocates for older Americans attacked the rule.
“This rule gives employers free rein to use age as a basis for reducing
or eliminating health care benefits for retirees 65 and older,” said Christopher
G. Mackaronis, a lawyer for AARP, which represents millions of people age
50 or above and which had sued in an effort to block issuance of the final
regulation. “Ten million people could be affected — adversely affected
— by the rule.”" ... "The new policy creates an explicit exemption from
age-discrimination laws for employers that scale back benefits of retirees
65 and over. Mr. Mackaronis asserted that the exemption was “in direct
conflict” with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967." ... "Under
the new rule, employers may, if they choose, provide retiree health benefits
“only to those retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare.” Likewise,
the rule says, retiree health benefits can be “altered, reduced or eliminated”
when a retiree becomes eligible for Medicare." ... "Further, employers
will be able to reduce or eliminate health benefits provided to the spouse
or dependents of a retired worker 65 or over, regardless of whether benefits
for the retiree are changed." -By Robert Pear
-NYTimes
US
- 
Iraq
- 
Afghanistan
- 
Worldwide
- 
Military
- Government
- 
Accounting
- 
Terrorism
- Politics
- History
- 
Alaska
- 
Ted
Stevens - "Wars
Cost $15 Billion a Month, GOP Senator Says." ...
"The latest estimate of the growing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
and the worldwide battle against terrorism -- nearly $15 billion a month
-- came last week from one of the Senate's leading proponents of a continued
U.S. [United States] military presence in Iraq." ... ""This cost of this
war is approaching $15 billion a month, with the Army spending $4.2 billion
of that every month," [Alaska GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican Senator] Sen.
Ted Stevens (Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations defense
subcommittee, said in a little-noticed floor speech Dec. [December] 18."
... "While most of the public focus has been on the political fight over
troop levels, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reported this month
that the [Republican President] Bush administration's request for the 2008
fiscal year of $189.3 billion [$189.3/12=$15.775 billion per month] for
Defense Department operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and worldwide counterterrorism
activities was 20 percent higher than for fiscal 2007 and 60 percent higher
than for fiscal 2006." (1, 2)
-By Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost
Pakistan
- Terrorism
- Politics
- 
Police
- Religious
- 
Female
- History
- "Benazir
Bhutto assassinated." ... "Pakistan's former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in the wake of a suicide
bombing that killed at least 14 of her supporters, doctors, a spokesman
for her party and other officials said." ... "Bhutto suffered bullet wounds
in the aftermath of the bomb attack, TV networks were reporting." ... "Police
warned citizens to stay home as they expected rioting to break out in city
streets as a shocked Pakistan absorbed the news of Bhutto's assassination."
... "Bhutto, who led Paksitan from 1988 to 1990 and was the first female
prime minister of any Islamic nation, was participating in the parliamentary
election set for January 8, hoping for a third term." ... "A terror attack
targeting her motorcade in Karachi killed 136 people on the day she returned
to Pakistan after eight years of self-imposed exile." -Contributed
to by Mohsin Naqvi -CNN
Consumer
- Money
- History
- "U.S.
Home Prices Fell 6.1% in October, Index Shows (Update2)."
... "Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in October by the most
in at least six years, a private survey showed today." ... "Property values
fell 6.1 percent from October 2006, more than forecast, after dropping
4.9 percent in September, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price
index. The decrease was the biggest since the group started keeping year-over-year
records in 2001. The index has fallen every month this year." ... "Prices
will probably remain under pressure as the jump in foreclosures puts even
more homes on the market just as stricter lending rules make it harder
for buyers to find financing. Declining values make it harder for owners
to tap home equity for extra cash, posing a risk to consumer spending."
-By Joe Richter and Courtney Schlisserman
-Bloomberg
Mitt
Romney
- Political
- Corporation- Marketing
- History
- Gay-Rights
- Pro-Choice
- Stem
Cell - 
Science
- Health
- Law
- Religious
- Salt
Lake City - 
Utah
- 
Massachusetts
- 
New
Hampshire - US
- Torture
- Prison
- Guantanamo
Bay - 
Cuba
- 2008
Election - "Romney
should not be the next president." ... "[2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt] Romney's main business experience
is as a management consultant, a field in which smart, fast-moving specialists
often advise corporations on how to reinvent themselves. His memoir is
called Turnaround - the story of his successful rescue of the 2002 Winter
Olympics in Salt Lake City [Utah] - but the most stunning turnaround he
has engineered is his own political career." ... "If you followed only
his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, you might imagine Romney as a
pragmatic moderate with liberal positions on numerous social issues and
an ability to work well with Democrats. If you followed only his campaign
for president, you'd swear he was a red-meat conservative, pandering to
the religious right, whatever the cost. Pay attention to both, and you're
left to wonder if there's anything at all at his core." ... "As a candidate
for the U.S. [United States] Senate in 1994, he boasted that he would be
a stronger advocate of gay rights than his opponent, [Massachusetts Democratic
Senator] Ted Kennedy. These days, he makes a point of his opposition to
gay marriage and adoption." ... "There was a time that he said he wanted
to make contraception more available - and a time that he vetoed a bill
to sell it over-the-counter." ... "The old Romney assured voters he was
pro-choice on abortion. "You will not see me wavering on that," he said
in 1994, and he cited the tragedy of a relative's botched illegal abortion
as the reason to keep abortions safe and legal. These days, he describes
himself as pro-life." ... "There was a time that he supported stem-cell
research and cited his own wife's multiple sclerosis in explaining his
thinking; such research, he reasoned, could help families like his. These
days, he largely opposes it. As a candidate for governor, Romney dismissed
an anti-tax pledge as a gimmick. In this race, he was the first to sign."
... "In the 2008 campaign for president, there are numerous issues on which
Romney has no record, and so voters must take him at his word. On these
issues, those words are often chilling. While other candidates of both
parties speak of restoring America's moral leadership in the world, Romney
has said he'd like to "double" the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay [Cuba],
where inmates have been held for years without formal charge or access
to the courts. He dodges the issue of torture - unable to say, simply,
that waterboarding is torture and America won't do it." ... "When New Hampshire
partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary,
we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions
and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves
and the rest of the world, we'll know it." ... "Mitt Romney is such a candidate.
New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no."
-ConcordMonitor.com
Mitt
Romney
- Civil
Rights - Race
- History
- 2008
Election - "Romney
never saw father on King march: Defends figurative
words; evidence contradicts story." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] Mitt Romney acknowledged yesterday that he never saw his father
march with Martin Luther King Jr. as he asserted in a nationally televised
speech this month, and historical evidence shows that Michigan's Governor
George Romney and the civil rights leader never did march together." ...
"Romney said his father had told him he had marched with King and that
he had been using the word "saw" in a "figurative sense."" ... "But historical
evidence, including news accounts at the time, shows that George Romney
never marched with King, though he supported King's agenda." ... "Romney
has repeated the story of his father marching with King in some of his
most prominent presidential campaign appearances, including the "Tonight"
show with Jay Leno in May, his address on faith and politics Dec. 6 in
Texas, and on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday, when he was questioned
about the Mormon Church's ban on full participation by black members. He
said that he had cried in his car in 1978 when he heard the ban had ended,
and added, "My father marched with Martin Luther King."" ... "Mitt Romney
went a step further in a 1978 interview with the Boston Herald. Talking
about the Mormon Church and racial discrimination, he said: "My father
and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit.""
... "Yesterday, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom acknowledged that was
not true. "Mitt Romney did not march with Martin Luther King," he said
in an e-mail statement to the Globe." -By Michael
Levenson -BostonGlobe
Mitt
Romney
- Pro-Choice
- Stem
Cells - Illegal
- Immigrant
- Health
- Crime
- Politics
- History
- Massachusetts
- 
Michigan
- 2008
Election - "King
said George Romney didn't march: But, as usual, the
truth wasn't good enough for Mitt." ... "Running for Senate in Massachusetts,
in 1994, and trying to establish pro-choice credibility that he had done
nothing to earn, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt]
Romney told stories about his mother, Lenore Romney, running on a strong
pro-choice platform in her own unsuccessful bid for public office in 1970.
Those tales were debunked by Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara."
... "Then, as now, Romney tried to buttress his statement with weak documentation
at odds with the precision of the claim: in that case, Romney provided
the Globe with a vaguely-worded campaign document that could be read as
supporting the pre-Roe v Wade status quo, in which abortion was a felony
in Michigan. ''I support and recognize the need for more liberal abortion
rights while reaffirming the legal and medical measures needed to protect
the unborn and pregnant woman [sic]," the document read." ... "Again, at
that time, Romney did not just pass along falsehood as fact. He sold it
as personal truth, speaking of the painful memories of a close relative's
death, from complications of an illegal abortion." ... "Romney was telling
that tale, of course, when it was politically expedient to be pro-choice.
Today, needing to be pro-life, he has a new, highly personal and emotional
tale of personal conversion after a doctor showed him how stem cells are
handled in research — another specific but uncorroborated story, about
which even the doctor involved has expressed skepticism." ... "Romney once
favored gun control; now, needing gun-rights voters, he has falsely claimed
to be a "lifelong hunter" and to have been endorsed in 2002 by the National
Rifle Association – an endorsement the NRA never gave him. Needing to establish
anti-illegal-immigrant credentials, he boasts of an attitude that he never
displayed while governor — when he expressed no concern over several "sanctuary
cities" in the state — until the very end of his term, when he had turned
his attention to the Republican Presidential nomination." ... "This week,
he finds the need to attack [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidat]
Mike Huckabee on crime, and so Romney has re-invented his record there,
falsely claiming, in a new ad, to have cracked down on methamphetamine."
... "It is not just that these are untruths. They are the actions of a
man desperate to cater to the whims of his audience. What they want, he
must appear to be. " -By David S. Bernstein
-ThePhoenix.com
Mitt
Romney
- Civil
Rights - Race
- Politics
- Michigan
- Massachusetts
- 
Texas
- 2008
Election - "Romney
fields questions on King: Campaign says claim not
literal." ... "[2008 Election] Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney
has said he watched his father, the late Michigan Gov. [Governor] George
Romney, in a 1960s civil rights march in Michigan with Martin Luther King
Jr." ... "On Wednesday, Romney's campaign said his recollections of watching
his father, an ardent civil rights supporter, march with King were meant
to be figurative." ... ""He was speaking figuratively, not literally,"
Eric Fehrnstrom, spokesman for the Romney campaign, said of the candidate."
... "The campaign was responding to questions raised by the Free Press
and other media after a Boston [Massachusetts] publication challenged the
accuracy of Mitt Romney's account." ... "In a major speech on faith and
politics earlier this month in Texas, Mitt Romney said: "I saw my father
march with Martin Luther King."" ... "He made a similar statement Sunday
during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." He said, "You can see what
I believed and what my family believed by looking at our lives. My dad
marched with Martin Luther King. My mom was a tireless crusader for civil
rights."" -By Todd Spangler and Alice Pepper
-FreeP.com
Mitt
Romney
- 
Rudy
Giuliani
- 
Mike
Huckabee - 
Tom
Tancredo - Criminal
- Illegal
- Employer
- Immigrants
- Employees
- Language
- Terrorism
- History
- 
Colo
- 
New
York
- 
Arkansas
- US
- 
Mexican
- 
People- Noteworthy
- 2008
Election - "GOP
hopefuls run in a hypocrisy derby." ... "Everybody
knows that [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney
was running - as [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudy
Giuliani put it - a "sanctuary mansion." But not many people know that
he was not the only one." ... "No less an anti-immigrant zealot than [2008
Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Colorado Representative]
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.[Republican-Colorado]), the would-be President
who built a failing campaign on the single issue of persecuting "criminal
aliens" - as he is fond of calling undocumented immigrants - also has a
few skeletons in his closet." ... "Listen to this: Five years ago, when
Tancredo wanted to install a home theater and make other renovations in
his house, he had no qualms hiring a contractor that - gasp! - also employed
undocumented workers." ... "The man who had said, "[The face of illegal
immigration] is the face of murder. It is the face of infiltration into
the country of people who are coming to do us great harm," wasn't at all
troubled by the fact that only two in the crew of five or six laborers
spoke English." ... "[In 1994, then New York Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani
said] "If you come here and you work hard, and you happen to be in an undocumented
status, you're one of the people who we want in this city," he told The
New York Times in 1994." ... "While in Arkansas, he [Arkansas Republican
Governor and 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee]
was instrumental in bringing a Mexican Consulate to Little Rock [Arkansas's
capital]. That consulate issued thousands of identification forms that
now, after he has become a presidential hopeful, Huckabee has begun to
call "illegal immigrant identification cards."" ... "And do not forget
that if he is elected President, he has vowed to expel the nation's estimated
12 million undocumented immigrants within 120 days, which comes to deporting
100,000 people per day." -By Albor Ruiz -NYDailyNews.com
Stephen
Johnson - 
Mary
E Peters
- 
Dick
Cheney
- Government
- Political
- 
Gas
- 
Auto
- Makers
- 
Fuel
- Economy
- Laws
- 
Environmental
- Health
- Safety
- American
- People
- Transportation
- 
California
- History
- Global
- 
Climate
- Clean
Air Act - "EPA
blocks California bid to limit greenhouse gases from cars."
... "The [Republican President] Bush administration blocked efforts by
California and 16 other states Wednesday to limit greenhouse gas emissions
from cars and trucks, setting up a political and legal fight over whether
states can take a lead role in combatting global warming." ... "[Republican
President Bush's] Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen
Johnson rejected California's request for a waiver from the federal government
to impose its tough tailpipe emissions standards. The other states were
poised to adopt similar rules if California's request was granted." ...
"The states represent nearly half the U.S. [United States] population,
and their laws would effectively require automakers to cut greenhouse gas
emissions nationwide, despite [Republican] President Bush's rejection of
mandatory national standards." ... "Johnson said Congress' passage of an
energy bill this week that raises fuel economy standards for all cars and
trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 made the state laws unnecessary."
... "California officials said they believed Johnson had long ago decided
to oppose the state's waiver, and said he was using the newly passed energy
bill as an excuse. Nothing in the new law prevents states from taking stronger
action, they said." ... ""I find this disgraceful," said [California Democratic
Senator] Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.[Democratic-California], who helped
write the fuel-economy law. "The passage of the energy bill does not give
the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] a green light to shirk its responsibility
to protect the health and safety of the American people from air pollution.""
... "It was the first time the EPA has flat-out denied a waiver request
by California under the Clean Air Act. The law gives California special
authority to set stronger standards because the state has a long history
of smog and other air-quality problems." ... "California officials complained
that EPA's decision-making process for the waiver was tainted months ago
when documents revealed that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters led a
lobbying campaign to urge lawmakers to call the EPA and oppose the waiver
request." ... "Automakers have been meeting regularly at the White House
to discuss the new fuel-economy standards. The Detroit News reported that
[Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney met with the CEOs [Chief Executive
Officers] of Chrysler and Ford this fall to try to influence the policy."
-By Zachary Coile -SFGate.com
Secret
- 
Alberto
R Gonzales - 
David
S Addington - Dick
Cheney
- 
Harriet
E Miers
- Torture
- War
- Crimes
- 
Tapes- Censorship
- Law
- Politics
- Military
- Government
- 
Intelligence
- Terrorism
- History- US
- Iraq
- "Bush
Lawyers Discussed Fate of C.I.A.Tapes." ... "At least
four top [Republican President Bush] White House lawyers took part in discussions
with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether
to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives
from Al Qaeda, according to current and former administration and intelligence
officials." ... "The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House
officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November
2005 was more extensive than [Republican President] Bush administration
officials have acknowledged." ... "Those who took part, the officials said,
included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early
2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to [Republican] Vice President
Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until
January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and
Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel." ...
"It was previously reported that some administration officials had advised
against destroying the tapes, but the emerging picture of White House involvement
is more complex. In interviews, several administration and intelligence
officials provided conflicting accounts as to whether anyone at the White
House expressed support for the idea that the tapes should be destroyed."
... "One former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the
matter said there had been “vigorous sentiment” among some top White House
officials to destroy the tapes. The former official did not specify which
White House officials took this position, but he said that some believed
in 2005 that any disclosure of the tapes could have been particularly damaging
after revelations a year earlier of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq."
... "The current and former officials also provided new details about the
role played in November 2005 by Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the chief of
the agency’s clandestine branch, who ultimately ordered the destruction
of the tapes." ... "The officials said that before he issued a secret cable
directing that the tapes be destroyed, Mr. Rodriguez received legal guidance
from two C.I.A. [Central Intelligence Agency] lawyers, Steven Hermes and
Robert Eatinger. The officials said that those lawyers gave written guidance
to Mr. Rodriguez that he had the authority to destroy the tapes and that
the destruction would violate no laws." ... "Current and former officials
said the two lawyers informed the C.I.A.’s top lawyer, John A. Rizzo, about
the legal advice they had provided." (1, 2)
-By Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane with contributions
by David Johnston -NYTimes
Gordon
Smith - 
Trent
Lott - Racism
- History
- 
South
Carolina - 
Mississippi
- 
Oregon
- "Gordon
Smith Defends Lott's Segregationist Comments." ...
"Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday morning, [Oregon Republican Senator]
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-OR [Republican-Oregon], offered a passionate defense
of the pro-segregationist comments made by his colleague and friend, [Mississippi
Republican Senator] Sen. Trent Lott, more then three years ago." ... ""I
was half way around the world when an event befell Trent Lott that shook
me deeply," Smith said, referencing Lott's 2002 remarks in praise of Dixiecrat
[South Carolina Republican Senator] Strom Thurmond's 1948 run for the White
House. "I was celebrating my re-election and on vacation. I watched over
international news as his words were misconstrued, words which we had heard
him utter many times in his big warm-heartedness trying to make one of
our colleagues, Strom Thurmond, feel good at 100 years old. We knew what
he meant. But the wolfpack of the press circled around him, sensed blood
in the water, and the exigencies of politics caused a great injustice...""
... "In 2002, Lott lost his Senate Republican Leader post after he was
quoted praising the staunch segregationist Strom Thurmond during Thurmond's
100th birthday party. "I want to say this about my state: when Strom Thurmond
ran for President, we voted for him," Lott boasted. "We're proud of it.
And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have
had all these problems over all these years, either."" ... "Lott apologized
repeatedly for his remarks, calling
them "insensitive," "repugnant" and "inexcusable" during an appearance
on a black-oriented cable channel." ... "Lott recently found himself back
among the leadership ranks. His election as minority whip in November 2006
came by a 25 to 24 vote. Sen. Smith
played a key role in the internal party election."
-By
Sam
Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
WATCH
Oregon Republican Gordon Smith defend Mississippi Republican Trent Lott's
celebration of South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond's segregationist
run for President in 1948.
Fed
- Money
- Politics
- Investigate
- Law
- History
- People's
- 
Homes
- Consumer
- California
- New
York
- 
Wyo
- "Fed
Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread." ... "Until the
boom in subprime mortgages turned into a national nightmare this summer,
the few people who tried to warn federal banking officials might as well
have been talking to themselves." ... "Edward M. Gramlich, a Federal Reserve
governor who died in September, warned nearly seven years ago that a fast-growing
new breed of lenders was luring many people into risky mortgages they could
not afford." ... "But when Mr. Gramlich privately urged Fed examiners to
investigate mortgage lenders affiliated with national banks, he was rebuffed
by Alan Greenspan, the Fed chairman." ... "In 2001, a senior Treasury official,
Sheila C. Bair, tried to persuade subprime lenders to adopt a code of “best
practices” and to let outside monitors verify their compliance. None of
the lenders would agree to the monitors, and many rejected the code itself.
Even those who did adopt those practices, Ms. Bair recalled recently, soon
let them slip." ... "And leaders of a housing advocacy group in California,
meeting with Mr. Greenspan in 2004, warned that deception was increasing
and unscrupulous practices were spreading." ... "John C. Gamboa and Robert
L. Gnaizda of the Greenlining Institute implored Mr. Greenspan to use his
bully pulpit and press for a voluntary code of conduct." ... "“He never
gave us a good reason, but he didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Gnaizda said last
week. “He just wasn’t interested.”" ... "“The Federal Reserve could have
stopped this problem dead in its tracks,” said Martin Eakes, chief executive
of the center [Center for Responsible Lending]. “If the Fed had done its
job, we would not have had the abusive lending and we would not have a
[home] foreclosure crisis in virtually every community across America.”"
... "Mr. Greenspan and other Fed officials repeatedly dismissed warnings
about a speculative bubble in housing prices. In December 2004, the New
York Fed issued a report bluntly declaring that “no bubble exists.” Mr.
Greenspan predicted several times — incorrectly, it turned out — that housing
declines would be local but almost certainly not nationwide." ... " “Why
are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers?”
Mr. Gramlich asked in a speech he prepared last August for the Fed’s symposium
in Jackson Hole, Wyo[Wyoming]. “The question answers itself — the least
sophisticated borrowers are probably duped into taking these products.”"
(1, 2,
3)
-By Edmund L. Andrews with contributions by Gretchen
Morgenson -NYTimes
Mitt
Romney
- Abortion-Rights
- Money
- 
Parent
- Mass
- History
- 2008
Election - "Romney
Attended Planned Parenthood Fundraiser in 1994."
... "ABC News' Rick Klein Reports: [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] Mitt Romney attended a fund-raising reception for Planned Parenthood
in 1994 in conjunction with a $150 donation his wife made to the organization
-- notwithstanding Romney's contention that he had "no recollection" of
the circumstances under which his wife gave money to the abortion-rights
group." ... "In the photograph obtained by ABC News, Romney and his wife,
Ann, are shown in a yellow-and-white tent chatting with local political
activists, including Nicki Nichols Gamble, who was then president and CEO
of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts." ... "Nichols Gamble
-- whose back is the camera in the photograph -- told ABC that the event
was a Planned Parenthood fundraising "house party" in Cohasset, Mass.,
in June 1994. At the time, Romney, R-Mass., was locked in a tight Senate
campaign with [Massachusetts Democratic Senator] Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.,
and was touting his support for abortion rights." ... "That event, Nichols
Gamble said, was the occasion where Ann Romney wrote her $150 check --
drafted on a joint checking account she had with her husband -- to Planned
Parenthood of Massachusetts." ... ""They were both there, and I remember
very well chatting with both of them, and talking about his support for
the pro-choice agenda," she said. "We talked about the fact that he was
taking a pro-choice position on the issues, and we were very pleased about
that."" -By Rick Klein -ABCNEWS.com
Ron
Paul
- Mitt
Romney
- Politics
- History
- 
Online
- 2008
Election - 2004
Election - "Ron
Paul Supporters Make History with $6 Million Online Haul -- Updated."
... "[2008 Election] Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul made history
Sunday by raising $6 million in online contributions in 24 hours, breaking
the record for the most money raised by a national candidate in a single
day, and potentially putting Paul on track to surpass the fourth quarter
fund raising of all of his competitors in both parties." ... ""I just think
it's extraordinary," says Anthony J. Corrado, a campaign finance expert
and professor of government at Colby College in Maine. "In my view, I expect
that Ron Paul will raise more money than any other candidate this quarter.
At this point, his main competition will be [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] (Mitt) Romney's checkbook."" ... "The $6 million number beats
the 2004 [Election] record set by Democratic presidential nominee John
Kerry, who raised $5.7 million after he gave his nomination speech." -By
Sarah Lai Stirland -Wired
Mitt
Romney
- Abortion- Gay
- Money
- Law
- History
- Massachusetts
- 2008
Election - "Romney
Defends Charges Of Flip-Flopping: Says He Will Keep
Campaign Promises Despite Changing Views On Abortion, Same-Sex Rights."
... "Republican [2008 Election Presidenticdal Candidate] Mitt Romney sought
Sunday to deflect charges that he is a flip-flopper, insisting he had learned
from experience and could be counted on to keep his campaign promises if
elected president." ... "Romney acknowledged changing his views in 2004
from supporting abortion rights to opposing abortion. He said he did not
entirely betray abortion-rights voters, either, because he did not seek
to change Massachusetts abortion laws." ... "Romney said he promised not
to raise taxes as governor and did not go back on his word by raising fees
by about $240 million to help balance the budget. The fees were on services
such as gun licenses and training to combat domestic violence." ... "Romney
acknowledged that he initially supported federal efforts to ban discrimination
based on sexual orientation, but now only supports such laws at the state
level. In an unsuccessful Senate run in 1994, Romney promised to be "more
effective on gay rights in the Senate than [Massachusetts Democratic Senator]
Ted Kennedy."" -AP
via -CBSNews
John
Edwards
- Online
- Finance
- Law
- Politics
- History
- 
North
Carolina - 2008
Election - "FEC
Rules Against Online Fundraiser ActBlue and John Edwards."
... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and] Former North
Carolina senator John Edwards can't match up the more than $4 million he's
raised from thousands of individuals through an innovative online raising
hub because of an outdated 1971 campaign finance law." ... "The Federal
Election Commission [FEC] on Friday decided that the more than $4.2 million
raised for the Democratic presidential candidate by ActBlue
doesn't conform to what's defined as individual contributions under federal
regulations, and thus can't be eligible for matching funds under the public
financing system that the candidate opted for earlier this year." ... ""A
matchable contribution consists of 'a gift of money made by a written instrument
which identifies the person making the contribution by full name and mailing
address,'" wrote FEC attorneys in an opinion that the commission approved
Friday afternoon. "The Matching Payment Act specifically excludes from
the definition of matchable contribution 'funds received by a political
committee which are transferred to that committee from another committee.'""
... "ActBlue is registered as a political action committee." ... "The problem
is that the money that ActBlue sent along to John Edwards was sent as a
weekly agglomerated check rather than funneled along marked from individuals."
-By Sarah Lai Stirland
-Wired
Mike
Huckabee - Homosexuality
- Science
- Politics
- History
- Federal
- Funding
- Civil
Rights - 2008
Election - Arkansas
- "Huckabee
wanted to isolate AIDS patients." ... "[2008 Election
Repbulican Presidential Candidate] Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating
AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding
in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a dangerous
public health risk."" ... "[Campaigning unsuccessfully to be an Arkansas
Senator] In 1992, Huckabee wrote, "If the federal government is truly serious
about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would
isolate the carriers of this plague."" ... ""It is difficult to understand
the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of
civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated
from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which
there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the
true health crisis it represents."" ... "When Huckabee wrote his answers
in 1992, it was common knowledge that AIDS could not be spread by casual
contact." ... "Also in the wide-ranging AP questionnaire in 1992, Huckabee
said, "I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle,
and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."" -By
Andrew DeMillo -AP
via -Yahoo
Teen
- Women
- Government
- Science
- Money
- 
Education
- Politics
- History
- "First
rise in U.S. teen births since '91." ... "In a troubling
reversal, the nation's teen birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years,
surprising government health officials and reviving the bitter debate about
abstinence-only sex education." ... "The birth rate had been dropping since
its peak in 1991, although the decline had slowed in recent years. On Wednesday,
government statisticians said it rose 3 percent from 2005 to 2006." ...
"The reason for the increase is not clear, and federal health officials
said it might be a one-year statistical blip, not the beginning of a new
upward trend." ... "However, some experts said they have been expecting
a jump. They blamed it on increased federal funding for abstinence-only
health education that doesn't teach teens how to use condoms and other
contraception." ... "The new teen birth numbers are based on the 15-19
age group of women, which accounted for most of the 440,000 births to teens
in 2006. The rate rose to nearly 42 births per 1,000 in that group, up
from 40.5 in 2005. That translates to an extra 20,000 births to teen mothers."
-By Mike Stobbe -AP
via -Yahoo
Mike
Huckabee - Women
- Families
- Law
- Politics
- History
- Arkansas
- Prison
- 
Missouri
- Crime
- 2008
Election - "Mothers
hold Huckabee partially responsible for daughters' murders."
... "[2008 Election Republican] Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said
Tuesday that he is "heartbroken" over the pain suffered by the families
of two women murdered in Kansas City [Missouri] more than six years ago."
... "Authorities say the two victims, Carol Shields and Sara Andrasek,
were killed by the same man —Wayne DuMond, who was released from an Arkansas
prison in 1999, a year before Shields' murder." ... "Their mothers say
Huckabee is responsible, at least in part, for DuMond's release." ... ""What
a fool," said Lois Davidson, Shields' mother. "Thinking he could rule the
country when he couldn't even do a good job as governor of Arkansas.""
... "Janet Williams, Andrasek's mother: "Wayne DuMond should have never
been on the streets in Missouri. ... When politics are involved, people
get hurt, and Sara and Carol Shields paid the ultimate price with their
lives."" ... "A jury sent DuMond to prison in 1985 for the rape of 17-year
old Ashley Stevens, a distant relative of then-[Democratic Governor]Gov.
Bill Clinton. While awaiting trial on the rape charge, DuMond was castrated
— some say by assailants, other say he did the job himself." ... "But his
conviction and imprisonment became a rallying point for Clinton critics
and some Republicans in Arkansas, who said they believed DuMond was in
prison because of the Clinton connection, and that he was actually innocent
of the charges." ... "In 1996, then-[Republican Governor]Gov. Huckabee
joined the discussion, saying he planned to commute DuMond's sentence to
time served, in part because evidence in the case was "questionable.""
... "Some parole board members have since said they made the decision without
pressure from Huckabee; others, though, said he had talked with them about
his desire that DuMond be released." ... ""He made it obvious that he thought
DuMond had gotten a raw deal and wanted us to take another look at it,"
former board member Charles Chastain said in 2001. "Some board members
who were usually very tough about letting people out ... (later) voted
in favor of him, and seemed eager to."" -By Dave Helling
with contributions by DeAnn Smith -McClatchy
Joe
Biden
- US
- 
Iran
- Military
- 
Nuclear
- Intelligence
- History
- 
Delaware
- 2008
Election - "Democrats
incredulous over Bush's account of Iran report."
... "[2008 Election] Democratic presidential candidate [Delaware Senator]
Sen. Joe Biden on Tuesday said he can't believe [Republican] President
Bush hasn't known for months about a recent intelligence estimate that
downplays the nuclear threat from Iran." ... "On Tuesday the president
acknowledged he had given a speech warning that Iran's nuclear development
risked "World War III" about two months after his intelligence chief told
him a reassessment of Tehran's nuclear ambitions was under way." ... "Bush
told reporters during a White House news conference that he was not told
the details of the new assessment until last week and he said the new report,
which found that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003, will
not change U.S. policy toward Iran." ... "The Democratic presidential candidates
were incredulous that Bush did not know about the assessment's new finding."
... "Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called
that explanation "unbelievable."" ... ""Are you telling me a president
that's briefed every single morning, who's fixated on Iran, is not told
back in August that the tentative conclusion of 16 intelligence agencies
in the U.S. government said they had abandoned their effort for a nuclear
weapon in '03?" Biden asked in a conference call with reporters." ... ""I
refuse to believe that," he added. "If that's true, he has the most incompetent
staff in modern American history, and he's one of the most incompetent
presidents in modern American history."" -CNN
US
- Iran
- Nuclear
- Military
- Intelligence
- Politics
- Secret
- History
- "U.S.
Finds Iran Halted Its Nuclear Arms Effort in 2003."
... "A new assessment by American intelligence agencies released Monday
concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that
the program remains frozen, contradicting a judgment two years ago that
Tehran [Iran's capital] was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear
bomb." ... "The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to reshape
the final year of the [Republican President] Bush administration, which
has made halting Iran’s nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy."
... "The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the
consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely
to keep its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence
agencies “do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”"
... "Iran is continuing to produce enriched uranium, a program that the
Tehran government has said is intended for civilian purposes. The new estimate
says that the enrichment program could still provide Iran with enough raw
material to produce a nuclear weapon sometime by the middle of next decade,
a timetable essentially unchanged from previous estimates." ... "But the
new report essentially disavows a judgment that the intelligence agencies
issued in 2005, which concluded that Iran had an active secret arms program
intended to transform the raw material into a nuclear weapon. The new estimate
declares instead with “high confidence” that the military-run program was
shut in 2003, and it concludes with “moderate confidence” that the program
remains frozen. The report judges that the halt was imposed by Iran “primarily
in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure.”" (1, 2)
-By Mark Mazzetti -NYTimes
United
States - Debt
- Government
- Fiscal
- Politics
- People
- Parents
- Accounting- History- Homeowners
- 
Japan
- 
China
- 
Britain
- 
Saudi
Arabia - Oil
- Countries
- "National
Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute." ... "Like a ticking
time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding
by about $1.4 billion a day -- or nearly $1 million a minute." ... "What's
that mean to you?" ... "It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman,
child and infant in the United States." ... "Even if you've escaped the
recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices,
you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the
country. That's because the government is fast straining resources needed
to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing
$9.13 trillion." ... "And like homeowners who took out adjustable-rate
mortgages, the government faces the prospect of seeing this debt -- now
at relatively low interest rates -- rolling over to higher rates, multiplying
the financial pain." ... "The national debt -- the total accumulation of
annual budget deficits -- is up from $5.7 trillion when [Republican] President
Bush took office in January 2001 and it will top $10 trillion [$10,000,000,000,000.00]
sometime right before or right after he leaves in January 2009." ... "Foreign
governments and investors now hold some $2.23 trillion -- or about 44 percent
-- of all publicly held U.S. debt. That's up 9.5 percent from a year earlier."
... "Japan is first with $586 billion, followed by China ($400 billion)
and Britain ($244 billion). Saudi Arabia and other oil-exporting countries
account for $123 billion, according to the Treasury." ... "Democrats are
blaming the runup in deficit spending on [Republican President] Bush and
his Republican allies who controlled Congress for the first six years of
his presidency." (1, 2,
3)
-By Tom Raum -AP
via -ChicagoTribune
Business
- Government
- Politics
- 2008
Election - Family
- Health
- Safety
- Environment
- Air
- 
Water
- 
Soil
- Labor
- Animal
- Farmers
- Energy
- Transportation- Automakers
- Consumer
- History
- "Business
Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote." ... "Business
lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections,
are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety,
labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals
from the [Republican President] Bush administration than from its successor."
... "Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration,
poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced
by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration
to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and
medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government
to relax pollution-control requirements." ... "The Federal Register typically
grows fat with regulations churned out in the final weeks of any administration.
But the push for such rules has become unusually intense because of the
possibility that Democrats in 2009 may consolidate control of the White
House, the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in
14 years." ... "At the Transportation Department, trucking companies are
trying to get final approval for a rule increasing the maximum number of
hours commercial truck drivers can work. And automakers are trying to persuade
officials to set new standards for the strength of car roofs — standards
far less stringent than what consumer advocates say is needed to protect
riders in a rollover." ... "At the Interior Department, coal companies
are lobbying for a regulation that would allow them to dump rock and dirt
from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys." ...
"Some of the biggest battles now involve rules affecting the quality of
air, water and soil." (1, 2)
-By Robert Pear -NYTimes
Secret
- Rudy
Giuliani
- Accounting
- History
- New
York
- Police
- 2008
Election - "Rudy
Giuliani campaign team backtracks on tryst talk."
... "The uproar grew Thursday over expenses for [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate] Rudy Giuliani's protection during his trysts with
Judith Nathan as his campaign's initial defense - that its accounting methods
were the same as previous mayors' - unraveled." ... "Joe Lhota, a deputy
mayor in Giuliani's City Hall, told the Daily News Wednesday night that
the administration's practice of allocating security expenses to small
city offices that had nothing to do with mayoral protection has "gone on
for years" and "predates Giuliani."" ... "When told budget officials from
the administrations of Ed Koch and David Dinkins said they did no such
thing, Lhota caved Thursday, "I'm going to reverse myself on that. I'm
just going to talk about the Giuliani era," Lhota said. "I should only
talk about what I know about."" ... "The embarrassing backtrack comes as
Giuliani rushed to network airwaves to defend himself against allegations
his administration deliberately attempted to conceal the taxpayer cost
of his NYPD protection while he engaged in secret Hamptons liaisons with
Nathan, his then-mistress and current wife." (1, 2)
-By David Saltonstall and Michael Saul -NYDailyNews.com
Rudolph
W Giuliani
- Crime
- History
- Economy
- Housing
- Transit
- Law- Politics- New
York
- New
Hampshire - 
Illinois
- 2008
Election - "Citing
Statistics, Giuliani Misses Time and Again." ...
"Discussing his crime-fighting success as mayor, Mr. Giuliani [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Mayor of
New York City, New York] told a television interviewer that New York was
“the only city in America that has reduced crime every single year since
1994.” In New Hampshire this week, he told a public forum that when he
became mayor in 1994, New York “had been averaging like 1,800, 1,900 murders
for almost 30 years.” When a recent Republican debate turned to the question
of fiscal responsibility, he boasted that “under me, spending went down
by 7 percent.”" ... "All of these statements are incomplete, exaggerated
or just plain wrong." ... "For instance, another major American city claims
to have reduced crime every year since 1994: Chicago [Illinois]. New York
[City, New York] averaged 1,514 murders a year during the three decades
before Mr. Giuliani took office; it did not record more than 1,800 homicides
until 1980. And Mr. Giuliani’s own memoir states that spending grew an
average of 3.7 percent for most of his tenure; an aide said Mr. Giuliani
had meant to say that he had proposed a 7 percent reduction in per capita
spending during his time as mayor." ... "Last weekend, speaking about his
belief in supply-side economics, Mr. Giuliani said, “I lowered, argued
for lowering, and got the hotel occupancy tax lowered by 33 percent. And
I was collecting $200 million more from the lower tax than the city had
been collecting from before I was mayor from the higher tax.”" ... "In
fact, the increase in revenues from the hotel occupancy tax was just over
a quarter of what Mr. Giuliani asserted — the city’s hotel tax revenues
grew by roughly $58 million during his term, according to the city’s Independent
Budget Office — and a booming economy, as well as the reduction in crime
Mr. Giuliani helped produce, probably played a part." ... "Factcheck.org
has reported that the Giuliani campaign exaggerated when it boasted on
its Web site that “Mayor Giuliani increased the police force from 28,000
to 40,000,” noting that most of that increase came from his merger of the
Transit and Housing Police Departments with the New York Police Department,
a transfer of more than 7,000 existing officers to the department." (1,
2)
-By Michael Cooper -NYTimes
Immigration
- People
- Law
- Politics
- "Immigration
at Record Level, Analysis Finds." ... "Immigration
over the past seven years was the highest for any seven-year period in
American history, bringing 10.3 million new immigrants, more than half
of them without legal status, according to an analysis of census data released
today by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington." ... "One in
eight people living in the United States is an immigrant, the survey found,
for a total of 37.9 million people — the highest level since the 1920s."
... "The survey was conducted by Steven A. Camarota, director of research
at the center, which advocates reduced immigration." -By
Julia Preston -NYTimes
Home
- Building
- Markets
- "Home
prices: Worst drop since '70: New home prices were
down 13% in October, yet sales pace still falls well short of forecasts.
August and September sales reading cut." ... "The biggest plunge in new
home prices in 37 years was not enough to revive October sales, according
to the government's latest reading on the battered housing and home building
markets." ... "Also depressing sales and prices was a record 191,000 completed
new homes on the market that have not yet been sold." ... "The report showed
that the median price of a new home sold in October plunged 13 percent
from year-earlier levels to $217,800. It was most severe year-over-year
drop since September 1970, when the median price was only $22,600, or less
than the cost of a typical new car purchase today." ... "And the price
figure may actually be underestimating how the bottom has fallen out of
prices in recent months." -By Chris Isidore
-CNN
Mike
Huckabee - Mitt
Romney
- Religion
- Polls
- Iowa
- Historic
- 2008
Election - "In
Iowa, Mormon Issue Is Benefiting Huckabee." ... "The
religious divide over [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]
Mitt Romney's Mormon faith that his supporters had long feared would occur
is emerging in Iowa as he is being challenged in state polls by [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate] Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor
who has played up his faith in his bid for the Republican presidential
nomination." ... "Mr. Huckabee s rise in Iowa — some recent polls now put
him in a dead heat with Mr. Romney, who had led surveys for months — has
been fueled by evangelical Christians, who believe Mormonism runs counter
to Christian orthodoxy." ... "The issue is a delicate one for Mr. Huckabee.
He has waffled in recent interviews about whether he considers Mormons
to be Christians. The Southern Baptist Convention, the denomination he
is a part of, does not consider Mormons to be part of historic Christianity."
-By Michael Luo with contributions by Marjorie Connelly
-NYTimes
Trent
Lott - Mississippi
- South
Carolina - Racism
- History
- 2008
Election - 2012
Election - "Trent
Lott announces his resignation." ... "Mississippi
[Republican Senator] Sen. Trent Lott, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, announced
Monday he will retire from the Senate by end of year." ... "Lott's colleagues
elected him as the Senate's Republican whip last year, a redemption for
the Mississippian after his ouster five years ago as the party's Senate
leader over remarks he made at retiring [Republican Senator] Sen. Strom
Thurmond's 100th birthday party. Lott had saluted the South Carolina senator
with comments later interpreted as support for southern segregationist
policies." ... "Mississippi's [Republican Governor] Gov. Haley Barbour,
a Republican, will appoint Lott's temporary replacement, who will serve
until the 2008 elections, when voters will elect someone to serve out the
balance of Lott's term, which runs through 2012." ... "The smooth-spoken
Lott found himself in hot water in December 2002 after Thurmond's party.
Lott said Mississippi voters were proud to have supported Thurmond when
he ran for president on a segregationist platform in 1948, and added: "If
the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all
these problems over all these years either.""
-MSNBC
Hillary
Clinton
- John
Edwards
- Des-Moines
- Iowa
- New
York
- 2008
Election - International
- Trade
- Jobs
- Health
- History
- "Stumping
for wife, Clinton can help, or hurt, anybody." ...
"[Former Democratic President] Bill Clinton will get his chance in the
Iowa caucuses after all." ... "The Democrat who skipped campaigning in
the state during his own bid for the presidential nomination is stepping
up his role as chief advocate for his wife, [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate] Hillary Clinton." ... "Meanwhile, her leading opponents for
the Democrats' nomination subtly but persistently point out the former
president's failures for which they say the New York senator shares responsibility."
... ""Remember in 1993, we had a Democratic president, a Democratic House
and a Democratic Senate," [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate
John] Edwards told an audience in Grinnell [Iowa] last week. "America got
something it didn't need — NAFTA, which cost us millions of American jobs,
and it didn't get something it desperately needed, which is universal health
care."" ... "Edwards uses the Clinton administration's failed health care
effort, which Hillary Clinton led, and the passage of the North American
Free Trade Agreement, which she supported, to paint her as too close to
moneyed interests." ... "But Hillary Clinton holds her White House years
up as an advantage in the campaign, which invites scrutiny, Edwards also
said." ... ""Senator Clinton uses those years as first lady as credentialing
for her readiness to be president," Edwards said in a Des Moines Register
interview. "When she does that, she opens the door. You can't just take
the good; you have to take the whole thing."" ... "Edwards said he does
not give much thought to how to treat President Clinton's tenure, although
he also told a Des Moines [Iowa] audience last week, "I actually think
Bill Clinton was a good president, to be honest with you."" -By
Thomas Beaumont -DesMoinesRegister
United
States - Iraq
-Military
- Politics
-Economic
- History
- "Ex-coalition
leader says Bush failed to have plan: Sanchez: It's
time to withdraw troops, let Iraq take responsibility." ... "Retired Army
[Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who led coalition forces
through the first critical year of Iraq's insurgency, said Saturday in
a nationally broadcast radio address that [Republican] President Bush had
failed to "devise a strategy for victory" and that the time had come to
withdraw U.S. troops." ... "In the Democratic rebuttal to Bush's weekly
radio address, Sanchez offered conditional support to a House war funding
bill that requires combat troops to be out of Iraq by the end of 2008."
... "As the coalition commander, Sanchez said in Saturday's broadcast,
he personally witnessed "the administration's failure to devise a strategy
for victory in Iraq that employed, in a coordinated manner, the political,
economic, diplomatic and military power of the United States. That failure
continues today."" ... "He predicted it would take at least a decade to
reverse the damage done to the Army's ability to fight future wars." ...
"The service, he added, is at its "lowest level"of force readiness since
Vietnam." -By Sig Christenson
-MySanAntonio.com via -Chron
Religious
- School's
- Money
- Family
- History
- 
Oklahoma
- "Oral
Roberts President Resigns Amid Allegations (Update1)."
... "Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, son of the Christian
school's televangelist founder, resigned yesterday following accusations
that he used school funds for personal use." ... "The Tulsa, Oklahoma-
based university's regents will meet starting on Nov. 26 to discuss a replacement
for Roberts, 59." ... "Three university professors filed a lawsuit last
month against Richard Roberts. They allege that he used the school's aircraft
for a $29,411 trip to the Bahamas and spent school money to buy horses
for his children, according to John Swails, one of the plaintiffs." ...
"The university was founded in 1963 by Roberts' father, evangelist Oral
Roberts." -By William McQuillen and Jeff St.Onge
-Bloomberg
Gordon
Smith - Trent
Lott - Racism
- History
- Miss
- South
Carolina - Oregon
- NH
- 
Tennessee
- "Smith
supported Lott's leadership bid." ... "[Oregon Republican
Senator] Sen. Gordon Smith was a key backer of [Mississippi Republican
Senator] Sen. Trent Lott's return to a leadership post." ... "Lott, R-Miss.
[Republican-Mississippi], this week won his bid to become the minority
whip, the second-highest Republican post in the Senate. He defeated [Tennessee
Republican Senator] Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. [Republican-Tennessee],
in a 25-24 vote." ... "During the closed-door election, [New Hampshire
Republican Senator] Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. [Republican-New Hampshire],
nominated Lott, and Smith seconded the nomination, Smith spokesman R.C.
Hammond said. Smith then spoke in support of Lott." ... "Lott had been
the Senate's majority leader - Republicans' top post -- until he stepped
down in four years ago after being criticized for remarks praising [South
Carolina Republican Senator] Strom Thurmond, who ran for president in 1948
on a segregationist platform [separating races]." -By
Jeff Kosseff -Oregonian
Bernard
Kerik
- Rudolph
Giuliani
- 
Media
- TV
- Business
- Politics
- Police
- Government
- New
York
- History
- 2008
Election - "Regan
opens Fox's can of worms: Judith Regan's lawsuit
against Fox sets up the possibility of some very interesting disclosures,
says Richard Aregood." ... "Her most recent fame came from her role as
the paramour of the former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik,
meeting him for assignations in a city apartment intended to provide respite
for 9/11 rescue workers." ... "News Corporation owns, among other properties,
the New York Post, the 20th Century Fox movie studio, DirecTV, the Fox
Network, Fox News and the recently acquired Wall Street Journal." ... "The
Fox News chief, Roger Ailes, is a long-time Republican activist dating
back to the days of the [Republican President] Richard Nixon administration,
and a close associate of former New York mayor and [2008 Eelction] Republican
presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani." ... "Ailes managed Giuliani's
first and unsuccessful race for mayor in 1989, and Giuliani later officiated
at Ailes's wedding. When Fox News was a start-up, then-Mayor Giuliani pushed
so hard to force cable networks such as Time-Warner to carry it that a
federal judge hearing a subsequent lawsuit blocked the mayor's plan to
put Fox on a city-owned channel, calling it "special advocacy" to "reward
a friend and further a political viewpoint". Guiliani was a highly visible
tablemate and guest of Ailes and Fox at the most recent White House Correspondents'
Dinner." ... "Regan's 70-page filing, in spite of its frustrating lack
of elaboration on its most spectacular allegations, paints a picture at
considerable variance from the 24-hour news network's "fair and balanced"
slogan." ... "Her central point, which might seem credible to anyone who
has seen a Sean Hannity-Giuliani televised lovefest, is that Fox's coverage
of the presidential race is determined by its desire to promote Giuliani.
In fact, she alleges in court papers that "a senior executive" had advised
Regan to "lie to, and withhold information from, investigators concerning
Kerik"." ... "Indeed", it adds, "another News Corp. executive similarly
advised Regan not to produce clearly relevant documents in connection with
the government's investigation of Kerik"." ... "This "senior executive",
she says, tried to go beyond withholding facts from federal investigators
that might hurt Guiliani or Kerik, his partner in the security consulting
firm Giuliani Partners. "In fact", the suit says, "as is typically done
when Fox News on-air talent and commentators receive their 'talking points',
this executive attempted to influence any information that Regan might
be asked to give regarding Kerik"." -Guardian.co.uk
Michael
Bernard Mukasey
- Alberto
R Gonzales - Water
- Torture
- Politicians
- Human
Rights - Law
- 
Conn
- Calif
- New
York
- 
Ind
- Del
- 
La
- 
Neb
- "Senate
Confirms Mukasey By 53-40: Historically Low Tally
for New Attorney General." ... "The final tally gave [Republican President
Bush's Attorney General nominee Michael Bernard] Mukasey the lowest number
of yes votes for any attorney general since 1952, just weeks after lawmakers
of both parties had predicted his easy confirmation. Mukasey takes the
place of Alberto R. Gonzales, who left under a cloud of scandal in September."
... "He avoided defeat only because a half-dozen Democrats voted in favor
of the appointment along with Republicans and Democrat-turned-independent
Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn. [Connecticut])." ... "Mukasey, 66, had outraged
many lawmakers and human rights groups by repeatedly refusing to classify
waterboarding, a simulated-drowning technique, as torture. His few Democratic
supporters said last night that, although they are troubled by his equivocal
views on waterboarding, they believe Mukasey represents the best possibility
for change at the troubled Justice Department. "This is the only chance
we have," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif. [California])." ... "The
other Democrats in favor of the confirmation were Sens. Charles E. Schumer
(N.Y. [New York]), Evan Bayh (Ind. [Indiana]), Thomas R. Carper (Del. [Delaware]),
Mary Landrieu (La. [Louisiana]) and Ben Nelson (Neb.)." ... "Mukasey garnered
the lowest number of yes votes among confirmed attorneys general since
James P. McGranery, who was approved by a vote of 52 to 18 in 1952 during
the [Democratic President Harry] Truman administration. The only recent
competitor is [Republican President Bush's nominee] John D. Ashcroft, who
attracted 58 yes votes from the GOP-controlled Senate in 2001." (1, 2)
-By Dan Eggen Paul Kane with contributions by Madonna
Lebling -WashingtonPost
Water
- Politics- Legislation
- Construction
- Money
- Children's
- Health- Stem-Cell
- Science
- Iraq
- US
- Military
- "Congress
Overrides Bush for First Time on Water Bill (Update3)."
... "Congress handed [Republican] President George W. Bush the first veto
override of his presidency, voting to revive a $23 billion water-projects
measure he rejected last week on grounds it was too expensive." ... "The
Senate voted 79 to 14 today, a two-thirds majority including dozens of
the chamber's Republicans, to approve plans to fund some 800 projects across
the country. Because the House voted 361 to 54 earlier this week to override
Bush, also a two- thirds majority, the bill now becomes law." ... "Lawmakers
defended the plan as critical to maintaining the nation's dams, sewers,
levees, flood-control projects and erosion prevention efforts." ... "It
was Bush's first defeat in a series of veto fights this year with Democrats.
He rejected Democratic proposals to expand a children's health insurance
program, increase federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research and
legislation placing various conditions on Iraq war funding." -By
Brian Faler -Bloomberg
Russia
- Lawmakers
- Military- History
- US
- "Russian
Lawmakers Vote to Suspend Arms Treaty (Update2)."
... "Russian lawmakers voted to suspend participation in a key Cold War
arms treaty, seeking to raise pressure on the U.S. to compromise on its
plans for a missile shield in Europe." ... "The State Duma, the lower house
of parliament, today unanimously backed suspension of Russia's observance
of the treaty, which limits the size of forces in Europe. The bill now
goes to the upper house, the Federation Council, and then to President
Vladimir Putin, who set the move in motion in July." ... "``Russia is threatening
to withdraw from the treaty in response to the U.S. position on pressing
ahead with the installation'' of the two missile defense bases, Masha Lipman,
an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said by telephone. The U.S. has
tried to reach a compromise on the Treaty for Conventional Armed Forces
in Europe, Lipman said, ``but Russia isn't in the mood to cut deals.''"
... "The treaty, signed in 1990, set limits on tanks, artillery and other
conventional weapons in Europe." -By Patrick Henry
and Henry Meyer -Bloomberg
Ron
Paul
- Money
- 2008
Election - US
- British
- Religious
- Government
- Terrorism
- History-
"Guy
Fawkes Day Helps Raise Millions for Paul." ... "Historians
and British schoolchildren remember Guy
Fawkes as the Roman Catholic, anti-Protestant rebel who on Nov. 5,
1605, tried to assassinate King James I by blowing up the Parliament. Supporters
of the Republican primary campaign of the libertarian Representative Ron
Paul may remember Fawkes as a wildly successful fund-raising gimmick."
... "On Monday, a group of Paul supporters helped raised more than $4.07
million in one day — approaching what the campaign raised in the entire
last quarter — through a Web site called ThisNovember5th.com,
a reference to the day the British commemorate the thwarted bombing." ...
"Many fans of Mr. Paul know of the day primarily through a movie based
on the futuristic graphic novel “V for Vendetta,” by Alan Moore and David
Lloyd, in which a terrorist modeled after Fawkes battles a fascist government
that has taken over Britain." -By David D. Kirkpatrick
-NYTimes
Ron
Paul
- Military
- Law
- History
- MA
- NC
- TX
- 
MD
- 2008
Election - "Ron
Paul co-sponsoring Constitutional War Powers Resolution."
... "At a press conference last Thursday, [Massachusetts Democratic] Congressmen
Bill Delahunt (D-MA) and [North Carolina Republican] Walter Jones (R-NC)
announced the introduction of House Joint Resolution 53, the Constitutional
War Powers Resolution. Joined by co-sponsors [Texas Republican] Ron Paul
(R-TX) and [Maryland Republican] Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), the resolution
attempts to curtail what some believe to be the expanding war powers wielded
by presidents since the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution[.]" ... "H. J. Res.
53 looks to modify the 1973 War Powers Resolution, itself a response to
President's Nixon assertive stance as commander-in-chief, by requiring
Congressional approval for military action that is not a direct result
of attack. It also allows for greater oversight by Congress by providing
avenues for judicial review and by permitting federal funding for action
approved by Congress." ... "Speaking from the House floor on Saturday,
Rep. Jones said "our Constitution states that – while the commander-in-chief
has the power to conduct wars, only Congress has the power to declare war.
Too many times this Congress has not met its constitutional duty of oversight
and has abdicated its constitutional authorities to the executive branch.""
-KCRG.com
Michael
B Mukasey
- Rudolph
W Giuliani
- 
John
McCain
- Prisoner
- Torture
- Law
- Opinion
- Classified
- Government
- Politics
- Intelligence
- History
- New
York
- 
Arizona
- "Mukasey
Unsure About Legality of Waterboarding." ... "In
an effort to quell growing doubts in the Senate about his nomination as
[Republican President Bush's] attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey on Tuesday
declared that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques “seem
over the line or, on a personal basis, repugnant to me” and promised to
review the legality of all such techniques if confirmed." ... "But Mr.
Mukasey told Senate Democrats he could not offer an opinion on whether
waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is illegal torture because he
has not been briefed on the details of the classified technique and does
not want to suggest that Central Intelligence Agency officers who have
used such techniques may be in “personal legal jeopardy.”" ... "Mr. Mukasey
noted that Congress had not explicitly banned the use of waterboarding
by the Central Intelligence Agency, though the method was outlawed for
use by the military in the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005. That left room
for interpretation as to whether waterboarding or any other technique is
prohibited as “cruel, inhuman, or degrading” treatment, he wrote." ...
"All 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to Mr. Mukasey
last week asking that he clarify his position on waterboarding. “Your unwillingness
to state that waterboarding is illegal may place Americans at risk of being
subject to this abusive technique,” the senators wrote." ... "Last week,
after [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudolph W. Giuliani,
the former New York mayor, said he wasn’t sure about waterboarding because
he thought “the liberal media” might not have described it properly, [2008
Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Senator John McCain of Arizona,
who was tortured himself as a prisoner in North Vietnam, shot back." ...
"“All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was
used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is
being used against Buddhist monks today,” Mr. McCain said." -By
Scott Shane -NYTimes
Mitt
Romney
- Religion
- 2008
Election - South
Carolina - Salt
Lake City - Utah
- North
Carolina - 
Virginia
- History
- "Romney
Shouldn't Equate Mormons, Christians, Evangelicals Say."
... "As [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney scours
the South for endorsements from evangelical leaders, he is getting some
unusual advice on how to explain his Mormon faith: Don't try to be one
of us." ... "``I told him, you cannot equate Mormonism with Christianity;
you cannot say, `I am a Christian just like you,''' said [Republican] Representative
Bob Inglis of South Carolina, which is scheduled to hold the first primary
among the Southern states. ``If he does that, every Baptist preacher in
the South is going to have to go to the pulpit on Sunday and explain the
differences.''" ... "This advice, which reflects the views of many Southern
Baptists and other evangelicals, makes Romney's co-religionists bristle.
``The fact that we are Christians is non-negotiable,'' said Kim Farah,
a spokeswoman for the Salt Lake City[Utah]-based Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints." ... "Yet for [evangelical] conference-goers such
as Noah Crowe, a Southern Baptist pastor from Robbinsville, North Carolina,
there's nothing Romney can do to overcome their distrust of Mormonism.
``His faith is not the faith I believe in, teach and preach,'' said Crowe,
who added that he studied Mormonism at his Bible college in a course called
``Cults and False Religions.''" ... "Yet for conference-goers such as Noah
Crowe, a Southern Baptist pastor from Robbinsville, North Carolina, there's
nothing Romney can do to overcome their distrust of Mormonism. ``His faith
is not the faith I believe in, teach and preach,'' said Crowe, who added
that he studied Mormonism at his Bible college in a course called ``Cults
and False Religions.''" ... "For evangelicals, many of whom believe the
Bible is the literal word of God, the Mormons' founding text, the ``Book
of Mormon,'' makes it impossible for them to be considered Christians,
according to Fred Smith, associate professor of Theology at Liberty University
in Lynchburg, Virginia. " -By Hans Nichols and Christopher
Stern -Bloomberg
Australia
- World
- Agriculture
- Business
- Weather
- Water
- History
- "Australia
Cuts Wheat Crop Forecast for Third Time (Update1)."
... "Australia reduced its wheat harvest forecast for the third time this
year as the nation's worst drought on record hurt production, adding pressure
to shrinking world supplies that drove up prices to a record last month."
-By Gemma Daley and Madelene Pearson
-Bloomberg
Government
- Politician
- History
- "Bush
is the biggest spender since LBJ." ... "[Republican
President] George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an
apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending
president since [Democratic President] Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he's
arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ." ... "“He’s a big government
guy,” said Stephen Slivinski, the director of budget studies at Cato Institute,
a libertarian research group." ... "The numbers are clear, credible and
conclusive, added David Keating, the executive director of the Club for
Growth, a budget-watchdog group." ... "“He’s a big spender,” Keating said.
“No question about it.”" ... "Take almost any yardstick and Bush generally
exceeds the spending of his predecessors." ... "When adjusted for inflation,
discretionary spending — or budget items that Congress and the president
can control, including defense and domestic programs, but not entitlements
such as Social Security and Medicare — shot up at an average annual rate
of 5.3 percent during Bush’s first six years, Slivinski calculates." ...
"That tops the 4.6 percent annual rate Johnson logged during his 1963-69
presidency." -By David Lightman
-McClatchyDC.com
California
- 
Wildfires
- Disaster
- San
Diego - Homes
- People
- History
- "Wildfires
Cause More Than $1B In Damage: Thousands Of Homes
In Southern Calif. [California] In Peril; Nearly 1 Million People Evacuated."
... "On the fourth day of a vicious firestorm, exhausted firefighters and
weary residents looked forward Wednesday to a break - an expected slackening
of the fierce wind that has fanned the state's explosive wildland blazes."
... "San Diego County officials say the property damage from this week's
wildfires has reached at least $1 billion countywide." ... "[Republican]
President Bush continued to step up federal engagement in the California
wildfire emergency Wednesday, signing a major disaster declaration that
funnels money to people whose property losses aren't covered by insurance."
... "Bush had already declared a federal emergency on Tuesday for seven
California counties, triggering short-term federal help. On Wednesday,
responding to a late-night request from [Republican Governor] Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Bush went a step further and issued the broader major disaster
declaration." ... "With nearly 1 million people ordered out, it marks one
of the largest evacuations in U.S. history, reports CBS' The Early
Show co-anchor Harry Smith." ... "The fires have burned 410,000
acres, or about 640 square miles." ... "The 16 wind-fed wildfires have
destroyed nearly 1,500 homes. " (1, 2)-AP
via -CBSNews
Noteworthy
- Kids- Environmental
- Safety
- Human
- Industrial
- Science
- Politics
- Consumer
- Manufacturer
- Law
- History
- "Tests
reveal high chemical levels in kids' bodies." ...
"Michelle Hammond and Jeremiah Holland were intrigued when a friend at
the Oakland Tribune asked them and their two young children to take part
in a cutting-edge study to measure the industrial chemicals in their bodies."
... ""In the beginning, I wasn't worried at all; I was fascinated," Hammond,
37, recalled." ... "But that fascination soon changed to fear, as tests
revealed that their children -- Rowan, then 18 months, and Mikaela, then
5 -- had chemical exposure levels up to seven times those of their parents."
... ""[Rowan's] been on this planet for 18 months, and he's loaded with
a chemical I've never heard of," Holland, 37, said. "He had two to three
times the level of flame retardants in his body that's been known to cause
thyroid dysfunction in lab rats."" ... "The technology to test for these
flame retardants -- known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) --
and other industrial chemicals is less than 10 years old." ... "Environmentalists
call it "body burden" testing, an allusion to the chemical "burden," or
legacy of toxins, running through our bloodstream. Scientists refer to
this testing as "biomonitoring."" ... "Most Americans haven't heard of
body burden testing, but it's a hot topic among environmentalists and public
health experts who warn that the industrial chemicals we come into contact
with every day are accumulating in our bodies and endangering our health
in ways we have yet to understand." ... ""We are the humans in a dangerous
and unnatural experiment in the United States, and I think it's unconscionable,"
said Dr. Leo Trasande, assistant director of the Center for Children's
Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York
City." ... "Trasande says that industrial toxins could be leading to more
childhood disease and disorders." ... ""We are in an epidemic of environmentally
mediated disease among American children today," he said. "Rates of asthma,
childhood cancers,
birth defects and developmental disorders have exponentially increased,
and it can't be explained by changes in the human genome. So what has changed?
All the chemicals we're being exposed to."" ... "The Environmental Protection
Agency does not require chemical manufacturers to conduct human toxicity
studies before approving their chemicals for use in the market." -By
Jordana Miller -CNN
Water
- Emergency
- Weather
- Environment
- History
- Farm
- Animals
- 
Food
- 
Georgia
- 
Alabama
- North
Carolina - Tennessee
- 
Kentucky
- "Southeast
drought hits crisis point." ... "Outdoor watering
bans already cover the northern third of Georgia and dozens of cities,
counties and towns in surrounding states. Farmers are selling cattle because
pastures have dried up. Alabama's Elmore County had to bring in floating
pumps and barges to extend its water intake pipe farther out into shrinking
Lake Martin. Georgia might have to do the same at Lake Lanier, Atlanta's
main water source." ... "Although rain is due today across parts of the
region, it will barely dampen the 16-month drought. Through September,
it is the region's driest year in 113 years of record-keeping. In five
of the six worst-hit states, rain totals this year are close to a foot
below normal." ... "It is the driest year on record for North Carolina
and Tennessee, second-driest in Alabama and third-driest in Kentucky. A
tree-ring study this summer of Tennessee's rainfall history shows this
is the third-driest year for the state in at least 350 years, behind only
1839 and 1708." -By Patrick O'Driscoll and Larry Copeland
with contributions by Jordan Schrader, Marty Roney, Leon Alligood, Ron
Barnett, Jessie Halladay, Matt Reed, and Jennie Coughlin
-USATODAY
Georgia
- Alabama
- 
Florida
- History
- "Southeast
withers from 16 months of drought woes." ... "Atlanta
[Georgia] has long relied on 38,000-acre Lake Lanier north of the city
to supply its tap water. But as Georgia became one of the nation's fastest-growing
states, its capital grew to more than 4.5 million people, and the '50s-era
reservoir simply could not keep up." ... ""Atlanta is one of the largest
metropolitan areas on one of the smallest watersheds in the country," says
Jill Johnson of Georgia Conservation Voters. "As we've continued to grow,
our demand has increased. So there are more people using more water than
ever before. But the amount of water available to us in the watershed didn't
change."" ... "Atlanta [Georgia's capital] sought to increase its water
draw from Lake Lanier in 1989. The state unveiled a plan for 12 new reservoirs
on the Chattahoochee River to supply future needs. After years of eyeing
Atlanta's increasing thirst, neighboring Alabama and Florida sued to protect
their own water needs downstream." ... "The "Tri-State Water War" has been
winding through the courts ever since." -By Larry
Copeland and Patrick O'Driscoll with contributions by Jordan Schrader,
Marty Roney, Leon Alligood, Ron Barnett, Jessie Halladay, Matt Reed, Jennie
Coughlin -USATODAY
Oil
- History
- World
- US
- 
EU
- "Crude
Oil Breaches $90 a Barrel on Dollar Drop Against Euro."
... "Crude oil breached $90 a barrel in New York for the first time as
the dollar traded near a record low against the euro, enhancing the appeal
of commodities as an investment." ... "Investors purchased oil on speculation
the Federal Reserve will cut borrowing costs to bolster the U.S. economy
when policy makers meet on Oct. 31. Interest-rate futures show a 70 percent
likelihood the Fed will lower its target rate for overnight loans a quarter-percentage
point to 4.5 percent. The euro reached a record $1.4310 yesterday. " -By
Bill Murray and Nesa Subrahmaniyan -Bloomberg
Food
- Safety
- Health
- History
- Agriculture
- Company
- Employees
- Florida
- 
New
Jersey - "Food
inspectors overwhelmed: Workload, vacancies undermine
safety, employees claim." ... "As alarm bells sounded for the second-largest
hamburger recall in history, about 250 of the nation's top food safety
officials were in Miami [Florida] setting the "course for the next 100
years of food safety."" ... "That so many U.S. Department of Agriculture
field supervisors were in Florida while New Jersey-based Topps Meat Co.
[company] was scrambling to recall 21.7 million pounds of hamburger has
rankled some USDA inspectors and food safety advocates." ... "Several USDA
inspectors said in interviews that their workloads are doubling or tripling
as they take on the duties of inspectors who have left the department,
not to be replaced." ... ""We've been short the whole time I've been in,"
said one veteran inspector who asked not to be named. "We don't have enough
inspectors, but we have too much management. The inspectors are short all
the time and getting spread thinner and thinner."" ... "The Topps crisis
began last month, when three consumers in New York and Florida fell ill
from E. coli poisoning. Soon after that, at least 32 people were sick.
The Topps recall, though, began 18 days after the USDA's Food Safety and
Inspection Service confirmed E. coli bacteria in a Topps hamburger." (1,
2)
-By Stephen J. Hedges
-ChicagoTribune
US
- Iraq
- Political
- Economic
- History
- "'No
end in sight' in Iraq, retired general says." ...
"Retired Army Lt. Gen. [Lieutenant General] Ricardo S. Sanchez, who led
U.S. forces in Iraq for a year after the March 2003 invasion, accused the
Bush administration Friday of going to war with a "catastrophically flawed"
plan and said the United States is "living a nightmare with no end in sight.""
... "Sanchez described the current troop increase in Iraq as "a desperate
attempt by the administration that has not accepted the political and economic
realities of this war."" ... ""The administration, Congress and the entire
interagency, especially the State Department, must shoulder the responsibility
for this catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable,"
Sanchez told military reporters and editors. "There has been a glaring
unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national
leaders."" -WashingtonPost
via -LAtimes
Worker
- History
- "Income-Inequality
Gap Widens: Boom in Financial Markets Parallels Rise
in Share For Wealthiest Americans." ... "The richest Americans' share of
national income has hit a postwar record, surpassing the highs reached
in the 1990s bull market, and underlining the divergence of economic fortunes
blamed for fueling anxiety among American workers." ... "The wealthiest
1% of Americans earned 21.2% of all income in 2005, according to new data
from the Internal Revenue Service. That is up sharply from 19% in 2004,
and surpasses the previous high of 20.8% set in 2000, at the peak of the
previous bull market in stocks." ... "The bottom 50% earned 12.8% of all
income, down from 13.4% in 2004 and a bit less than their 13% share in
2000." ... "The IRS data, based on a large sample of tax returns, are for
"adjusted gross income," which is income after some deductions, such as
for alimony and contributions to individual retirement accounts. While
dated, many scholars prefer it to timelier data from other agencies because
it provides details of the very richest -- for example, the top 0.1% and
the top 1%, not just the top 10% -- and includes capital gains, an important,
though volatile, source of income for the affluent." ... "The IRS data
go back only to 1986, but academic research suggests the rich last had
this high a share of total income in the 1920s." -By
Greg Ip -WSJ.com
Montana
- Climate
- Ice
- History
- "Warming
climate shrinking Glacier Park's glaciers." ... "This
summer, for the first time in Glacier National Park's 100-year history,
Gem Glacier was entirely snow-free, a glistening sheet of bare ice sweating
dark and blue under a relentless sun." ... "Many miles away, a bubbling
mountain stream turned to a trickle, fading finally, underground. It was
one of many streambeds that dried up this year, and one of many more to
come." ... ""There's still water down there under the cobble," Dan Fagre
said of that stream, "but it's not so good if you're a fish."" ... "Fagre,
a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, has been monitoring
Glacier's glaciers for years, studying the many implications of retreating
ice and snow. This summer's disappearing streams, he said, are but the
latest signs of a rapidly changing climate driving an equally rapidly changing
park system." ... ""We're starting to see this picture pretty clearly,"
Fagre said. "Glaciers have always been the summertime reservoirs, and now
the natural reservoir system is diminishing. That's a concern, because
you have this critically dry time of year, but you have no safety net to
keep feeding water downstream."" -By Michael Jamison
-Missoulian.com via -USATODAY
Alberto
R Gonzales - David
S Addington - Dick
Cheney
- 
John
Yoo - Secret
- Torture
- War
Crimes - Law
- Politics
- Terrorism
- Government
- Intelligence
- Prison
- Psychological
- Health
- Human
Rights - US
- World
- History
- "Secret
U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations." ... "When
the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal
opinion in December 2004, the [Republican President] Bush administration
appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential
authority to order brutal interrogations." ... "But soon after Alberto
R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice
Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different
document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement
of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence
Agency." ... "The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided
explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of
painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated
drowning and frigid temperatures." ... "Mr. Gonzales approved the legal
memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey,
the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes
with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s
overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department
that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it."
... "Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman
and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret
opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials
said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A.
interrogation methods violated that standard." ... "The classified opinions,
never previously disclosed, are a hidden legacy of [Republican] President
Bush’s second term and Mr. Gonzales’s tenure at the Justice Department,
where he moved quickly to align it with the White House after a 2004 rebellion
by staff lawyers that had thrown policies on surveillance and detention
into turmoil." ... "Associates at the Justice Department said Mr. Gonzales
seldom resisted pressure from [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney and
David S. Addington, Mr. Cheney’s counsel, to endorse policies that they
saw as effective in safeguarding Americans, even though the practices brought
the condemnation of other governments, human rights groups and Democrats
in Congress. Critics say Mr. Gonzales turned his agency into an arm of
the Bush White House, undermining the department’s independence." ... "The
interrogation opinions were signed by Steven G. Bradbury, who since 2005
has headed the elite Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department.
He has become a frequent public defender of the National Security Agency’s
domestic surveillance program and detention policies at Congressional hearings
and press briefings, a role that some legal scholars say is at odds with
the office’s tradition of avoiding political advocacy." ... "The Bush administration
had entered uncharted legal territory beginning in 2002, holding prisoners
outside the scrutiny of the International Red Cross and subjecting them
to harrowing pressure tactics. They included slaps to the head; hours held
naked in a frigid cell; days and nights without sleep while battered by
thundering rock music; long periods manacled in stress positions; or the
ultimate, waterboarding." ... "Never in history had the United States authorized
such tactics. While President Bush and C.I.A. officials would later insist
that the harsh measures produced crucial intelligence, many veteran interrogators,
psychologists and other experts say that less coercive methods are equally
or more effective." ... "With virtually no experience in interrogations,
the C.I.A. had constructed its program in a few harried months by consulting
Egyptian and Saudi intelligence officials and copying Soviet interrogation
methods long used in training American servicemen to withstand capture.
The agency officers questioning prisoners constantly sought advice from
lawyers thousands of miles away." ... "“We were getting asked about combinations
— ‘Can we do this and this at the same time?’” recalled Paul C. Kelbaugh,
a veteran intelligence lawyer who was deputy legal counsel at the C.I.A.’s
Counterterrorist Center from 2001 to 2003." ... "Mr. Kelbaugh said the
questions were sometimes close calls that required consultation with the
Justice Department. But in August 2002, the department provided a sweeping
legal justification for even the harshest tactics." ... "That opinion,
which would become infamous as “the torture memo” after it was leaked,
was written largely by John Yoo, a young Berkeley law professor serving
in the Office of Legal Counsel." ... "Mr. Yoo’s memorandum said no interrogation
practices were illegal unless they produced pain equivalent to organ failure
or “even death.”" (1, 2,
3,
4,
5)
-By Scott Shane, David Johnston, and James Risen
-NYTimes
Burma[Myanmar]
- Military
- Police
- Politics
- History
- Religious
- "Nine
dead after troops fire into crowds of democracy protesters:
· Mayhem as crackdown gathers pace on 10th day of protests ·
Civilians take to streets after hundreds of monks arrested." ... "Burmese
troops and riot police battled to put an end to the 10th consecutive day
of protests against the country's military dictatorship that has maintained
an iron grip on power for 45 years, firing automatic weapons into crowds
of pro-democracy demonstrators in Rangoon after they flouted warnings to
clear the streets or face "extreme action"." ... "A Japanese photographer,
Kenji Nagai, 50, was among at least nine people killed in the fierce clashes.
Thousands of protesters played a deadly game of cat and mouse with the
police and troops, continually dispersing as they were attacked and reforming
to taunt the security forces who used teargas, baton charges and live ammunition
against them." ... "Fewer monks were seen on the streets yesterday as up
to 500 had been arrested and many others confined to their quarters by
soldiers who raided six monasteries around the capital from dawn onwards.
Leaders of the National League for Democracy were also rounded up." ...
"Pools of blood remained in monastery dormitories and stairwells where
the troops had smashed in windows and doors, and beat the young novices
as they lay sleeping. In some raids shots were fired and a senior abbot
at Moe Ngway monastery was said to have died later in the afternoon." ...
"The ferocity of the attacks on the monks, the ransacking of monasteries
that saw Buddhist relics vandalised and gold looted, according to diplomatic
sources, shocked ordinary Burmese people, who revere the clergy." -By
Ian MacKinnon -Guardian.co.uk
Pakistan
- Military
- Police
- Politics
- History
- "Chief
justice orders Musharraf to release opposition activists:
· Government ordered to give reason for crackdown · President
awaits key court ruling on re-election bid." ... "Pakistan's chief justice
ordered the release of hundreds of opposition activists yesterday as [Pakistan]
President Pervez Musharraf pushed ahead with controversial plans for re-election
in eight days' time. Muhammad Iftikhar Chaudhry ordered government officials
to free the activists, mostly from Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party, whom the
police had been rounding up since the weekend. The interior minister said
200 people were in custody; the opposition put the figure in the thousands."
... "The judge, who scored a historic court victory over General Musharraf
in July, also demanded an explanation for a security crackdown across the
capital, Islamabad. Hundreds of riot police flooded on to the streets at
dawn and main roads were blocked to prevent expected protests." ... "But
the president may have to cross his greatest hurdle today, when the supreme
court is expected to rule on a major challenge by opposition parties, who
claim that Gen Musharraf's re-election bid is illegal and unconstitutional."
... "Analysts say that if Gen Musharraf loses the court battle he may resort
to emergency rule or impose martial law. He has tried to assuage concerns
by promising to resign from the army - but only if he is re-elected." -By
Declan Walsh -Guardian.co.uk
China
- Made
- Corp
- US
- Children
- Health
- Safety
- Law
- History
- Politics
- Ill
- "600,000
toys join recall list: China-made knights, Thomas
train pieces, jewelry contain lead." ... "In a year already notable for
a record number of lead-based recalls, the Consumer Product Safety Commission
announced seven separate recalls Wednesday of Chinese-manufactured toys
and children's jewelry for containing unlawful levels of lead, including
200,000 more of the Thomas & Friends wooden railway toys sold by a
Chicago-area [Illinois] company." ... "The seven recalls, totaling more
than 600,000 units, bring the total lead-based recalls in 2007 to 50 --
more than double the most recalls in any single previous year in the agency's
history." ... "Oak Brook-based [Illinois] RC2 Corp. said it was recalling
five additional railway toys -- two vehicles and three accessories -- due
to excessive levels of lead in the paint. The company recalled 1.5 million
railway toys in June." ... "Congressional committees have held hearings
in recent weeks on the influx of lead-tainted toys and children's products.
Earlier this month, [Illinois Democratic Senator] Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
said, "More than 25 million Chinese-manufactured toys have been recalled
this summer alone. That is a staggering number and an indictment of our
toy safety system."" -By Maurice Possley
-ChicagoTribune
US
- Iraq
- History
- Blackwater
- Military
- Business
- Politics
- Calif
- "Blackwater
blamed for guard deaths." ... "Blackwater USA triggered
a major battle in the Iraq war in 2004 by sending an unprepared team of
guards into an insurgent stronghold, a move that led to their horrific
deaths and a violent response by U.S. forces, says a congressional investigation
released Thursday." ... "The private security company, one of the largest
working in Iraq and under scrutiny for how it operates, also is faulted
for initially insisting its guards were properly prepared and equipped.
It is also accused of impeding the inquiry by the Democratic staff of the
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee." ... "The results of the
staff inquiry come less than a week before Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL
and Blackwater's founder, is scheduled to testify before the committee,
which is chaired by [California Democratic Representative] Rep. Henry Waxman,
D-Calif., a longtime critic of Blackwater." ... "The March 2004 incident
involving Blackwater was widely viewed as a turning point in the Iraq war
after images of the mutilated bodies of the four guards were seen around
the world. Four days after the Blackwater guards were killed, a major military
offensive, known as the Battle of Fallujah, began." ... "The combat lasted
almost a month in Fallujah, which is 40 miles west of Baghdad [Iraq's capital].
At least 36 U.S. military personnel were killed along with 200 insurgents
and an estimated 600 civilians, the congressional investigation found."
-By Richard Lardner and Mike Baker
-AP via -Yahoo
Myanmar[Burma]
- Military
- Police
- Politics
- History
- Religious
- "Police
Clash With Monks in Myanmar." ... "The government
of Myanmar [Burma] began a violent crackdown today after tolerating more
than a month of ever-larger protests in cities around the country, clubbing
and tear-gassing protesters, firing shots into the air and arresting hundreds
of the monks who are at the heart of the demonstrations." ... "Despite
threats and warnings by the authorities and despite the beginnings of a
violent response, tens of thousands of chanting, cheering protesters flooded
the streets, witnesses reported. Monks were in the lead, “like religious
storm troopers,” as one foreign diplomat described the scene." ... "Though
the crowds were large and energetic, they were smaller than on previous
days, apparently in part because of the deployment of armed soldiers to
prevent monks from leaving some of the main temples." ... "But it appeared
that an attempt by the military to halt the protests through warnings,
troop deployments and initial bursts of violence had not succeeded. Analysts
said that the next steps in the crackdown might be yet more aggressive
and widespread." ... "Tens of thousands of people were reported to be demonstrating
in the streets of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city." ... "The
demonstrations have grown from several hundred people protesting a fuel
price rise in mid-August to as many as 100,000 Sunday, led by tens of thousands
of monks in the largest and most sustained antigovernment protests since
1988." ... "That earlier peaceful uprising was crushed by the military,
which shot into crowds, killing an estimated 3,000 people. It was during
the turmoil a decade ago that the current military junta took power in
Myanmar, and it has maintained its grip by arresting dissidents, quashing
political opposition and using force and intimidation to control the population."
-By Seth Mydans -NYTimes
Nuclear
- Energy
- Construction
- Industry
- Government
- Environmental
- Law
- Language
- Politics
- History
- Land
- Maryland
- New
Jersey - "Nuclear
Utilities Redefine One Word to Bulldoze for New Plants."
... "On tree-lined bluffs overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, where anti-nuclear
activists won a landmark environmental victory 36 years ago, Constellation
Energy Group Inc. is engineering atomic power's comeback." ... "This time,
even if there are protests, bulldozers will roll." ... "That's because
the [Maryland] Baltimore-based utility and its allies have found a way
around a longstanding regulatory policy they say added a year or more to
construction times for nuclear plants." ... "In April, the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission [NRC] agreed to industry demands that it reduce its
oversight of initial work at reactor sites. By narrowing its definition
of the word ``construction'' in agency rules, the NRC put off the required
public hearings and permits that have waylaid past projects." ... "The
untold story of how the energy lobby and the federal government worked
to clear a path for new reactors -- backed by an NRC commissioner [Republican
Jeffrey Merrifield] seeking a job in the [nuclear] industry -- reveals
one way pro-nuclear forces have stolen a march on environmentalists." ...
"Utilities and the administration of [Republican] President George W. Bush
say they want new reactors on line by 2015. Power companies are rushing
to take advantage of federal tax credits and loan guarantees in the Energy
Policy Act of 2005, some of which begin to expire next year. The NRC says
it expects to receive as many as 21 applications to build 32 new reactors,
the first of which will be filed today by NRG Energy Inc. of Princeton,
New Jersey." ... "The new construction rule is only the latest such initiative.
In 2004, the NRC limited the public's ability to gather evidence and question
witnesses during hearings." ... "By redefining ``construction'' to exclude
excavation, road building and the erection of some cooling towers, the
NRC could reduce its oversight without violating the 1971 court order."
... "Andrew Kugler, senior environmental project manager in the NRC's New
Reactor Office, protested to the general counsel's office. Kugler said
in an e-mail that the proposed rule would exclude from NRC regulation ``probably
90 percent of the true environmental impacts of construction.''" -By
Elliot Blair Smith -Bloomberg
Weather
- Disaster
- Texas
- Federal
- Money
- Wind
- Land
-
- Florida
- "Humberto
claims 1 in East Texas." ... "Hurricane Humberto
claimed the life of an Orange County man as the storm blasted East Texas
with winds up to to 85 miles an hour this morning." ... "Today, [Texas
Republican Governor] Gov. Rick Perry declared Jefferson, Orange and Galveston
counties disaster areas, clearing the way for federal funds after Humberto
developed from a tropical depression into a Category 1 hurricane in just
more than 12 hours." ... "Humberto didn't exist until late Wednesday afternoon,
and wasn't even a tropical storm until almost midday, strengthening from
a tropical depression with 35-mph winds to a hurricane with 85-mph winds
in just 18 hours, senior hurricane specialist James Franklin said at the
National Hurricane Center in Miami [Florida]." ... ""To put this development
in perspective, no tropical cyclone in the historical record has ever reached
this intensity at a faster rate near landfall. It would be nice to know,
someday, why this happened,'' Franklin said." -By
Kevin Moran and Harvey Rice with contributions by Eric Berger, Carol Christian,
Anne Marie Kilday, and Dale Lezon -AP
-Chron
Oil
- Consumer
- Money
- Alaska
- "Oil
hits record over $80 on tight supply." ... "Crude
oil prices vaulted to a record high $80 a barrel on Wednesday as dealers
focused on tight inventories in top consumer the United States ahead of
peak winter demand." ... "A rash of fires at BP's oil fields in Alaska's
North Slope added to the record run, though BP said the accidents had minimal
impact to production that was already being curtailed by routine maintenance."
... "Adjusted for inflation, prices are still below the $90-a-barrel peaks
of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the start of the Iran-Iraq war the
following year." (1, 2)
-By Richard Valdmanis with contributions by Matthew
Robinson in New York and Jane Merriman -Reuters
US
- Seniors
- History
- International
- Japan
- "U.S.
deaths rise by 50,000 in 2005, a disappointing reversal."
... "he number of deaths in the United States rose in 2005 after a sharp
decline the year earlier, a disappointing reversal that suggests the 2004
numbers were a fluke." ... "But, U.S. life expectancy inched up to 77.9
from the previous record, 77.8, recorded for 2004. The increase was more
dramatic in contrast with 1995, when life expectancy was 75.8, and 1955,
when it was 69.6." ... "The U.S. continues to lag behind at least 40 other
nations. Andorra, a tiny country in the Pyrenees mountains between France
and Spain, has the longest life expectancy, at 83.5 years, according to
the U.S. Census Bureau of 2004 international data. It was followed by Japan,
Macau (which is part of China), San Marino and Singapore."
-AP via -IHT.com
Chuck
Hagel - US
- Iraq
- Military
- History
- Nebraska
- Virginia
- 2008
Election - "Senator
Hagel retiring, not running for president." ... "[Republican
Senator] Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a harsh critic of the Iraq war,
plans to retire and will not seek the Republican [2008 election] presidential
nomination next year, a source said on Saturday." ... "Last week, Republican
U.S. [Republican Senator] Sen. John Warner of Virginia said he would not
run for re-election [in 2008]." ... "Hagel, who earned two Purple Hearts
as a combat soldier during the Vietnam War, has been a harsh critic of
the [Republican President] Bush administration's Iraq strategy. In January,
he denounced President George W. Bush's plan for a U.S. troop buildup in
Iraq as "the worst foreign policy blunder since Vietnam -- if it's carried
out."" ... "Hagel has been among a handful of Senate Republicans supporting
legislation that would set an April 30, 2008, deadline for U.S. troops
in Iraq to begin withdrawing." (1, 2)
-Reuters
John
Edwards
- US
- International
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Police
- New
York
- History
- Financial
- Immigration
- Secret
- Torture- Prisons- 
Spying
- Civil
Liberties - Law
- Safe
- 2008
Election - "Edwards
proposes international anti-terrorism body." ...
"[2008 election] Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards proposed
a new international body to fight terrorism on Friday, rejecting the tactics
of U.S. [Republican] President George W. Bush as an unnecessary assault
on civil liberties." ... "Edwards chose New York City [New York] four days
ahead of the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks to unveil his
anti-terrorism strategy, starting with a Counterterrorism and Intelligence
Treaty Organization, or CITO." ... ""CITO will allow members to voluntarily
share financial, police, customs and immigration intelligence. Together,
nations will be able to track the way terrorists travel, communicate, recruit,
train and finance their operations," Edwards said in a speech at New York's
Pace University." ... "In an interview with Reuters, he also vowed to rescind
many Bush policies, including the use of secret prisons, warrantless domestic
spying and the extraordinary rendition of suspects to third countries,
where critics say they may be tortured." ... ""I wouldn't do any of those
things," Edwards said. "It's not necessary to violate every basis on which
America exists to keep the American people safe. You can protect the rights
of Americans and effectively fight terrorism."" -By
Daniel Trotta -Reuters
Noteworthy- Government
- Debt
- Money
- Accounting
- Politics
- "Brother,
Can You Spare $9 Trillion? Mark Knoller On The Nation's
Historic, And Rising, Debt." ... "Few took notice, but for the first time
in U.S. history last Friday, the national debt hit an all-time high of
$9 trillion." ... "To be exact, the total liabilities of the U.S. Government
hit $9,005,648,561,262.70, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt at
the Treasury Department." ... "But Mr. [Republican President] Bush almost
never mentions the national debt. On the day he took office, the debt stood
at $5.727 trillion. That means it has increased by 57 percent on his watch.
So far." -By Mark Knoller
-CBSNews
US
- Iraq
- Military
- Hurricane
Katrina - Historical
- 
Secrets
- Archive
- 
Electronic
- Messages
- Presidential
Records Act - Government
- 
E-Mail
- Politics
- "White
House sued again over e-mail." ... "The [law]suit
by the National Security Archive, a private group, is the latest effort
to find out whether the [Republican President] Bush administration lost
millions of electronic messages." ... ""The period covers the period beginning
with the Iraq war until the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; it doesn't
get more historically valuable than that," said Tom Blanton, director of
the private organization, which advocates public disclosure of government
secrets." ... "The Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act
require that e-mail be preserved." -By Pete Yost
-AP via -SeattlePI
New
Orleans - Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Storm
- Flood
- Hurricane
Katrina - Disaster
- Rebuilding
- Politics
- Federal
- Money
- "An
Angry New Orleans Remembers Katrina: Upset Over Lack
Of Progress Since Devastating Storm, Protests And Memorials Mark 2nd Anniversary."
... "On the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, anger over the stalled
rebuilding was palpable throughout a city where the mourning for the dead
and feeling of loss for flooded homes, schools, snow cone stands, old-time
hairstylists and hardware stores doesn't seem to subside." ... "Hurricane
Katrina made landfall south of New Orleans at 6:10 a.m. Aug. 29, 2005,
as a strong Category 3 hurricane that flooded 80 percent of the city and
killed more than 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi. It was the
worst natural disaster in the history of the United States." ... "[Republican]
President Bush commemorated Hurricane Katrina's devastating blow Wednesday
with a somber moment of silence. Across town, in a symbol of a federal-city
divide that persists two years after the killer storm, New Orleans Mayor
Ray Nagin marked the levee-breach moment with bell-ringing." ... "The front
page of The Times-Picayune advertised a scathing editorial above the masthead:
"Treat us fairly, Mr. President." It chided the Bush administration for
giving Republican-dominated Mississippi a share of federal money that it
said was disproportionate to the lesser impact the storm had there than
in largely Democratic Louisiana. "We ought to get no less help from our
government than any other victims of this disaster," it said." (1, 2)
-AP -CBSNews
Larry
Craig
- Homosexual
- Law
- Politics
- History
- 
Idaho
- 
Minnesota
- 2008
Election - "Men's
room arrest reopens questions about Sen. Larry Craig:
Idaho senator pleads guilty to disorderly conduct after incident at Minnesota
airport that echoes previous allegation of homosexual conduct." ... "[Idaho
Republican Senator] Sen. Larry Craig, who in May told the Idaho Statesman
he had never engaged in homosexual acts, was arrested less than a month
later by an undercover police officer who said Craig made a sexual advance
toward him in an airport men's room." ... "The arrest at a Minnesota airport
prompted Craig to plead guilty to disorderly conduct earlier this month.
His June 11 encounter with the officer was similar to an incident in a
men's room in a Washington, D.C., rail station described by a Washington-area
man to the Idaho Statesman. In that case, the man said he and Craig had
sexual contact." ... "The Minnesota arrest was first reported Monday by
Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper." ... "In an interview on May 14, Craig
told the Idaho Statesman he'd never engaged in sex with a man or solicited
sex with a man. The Craig interview was the culmination of a Statesman
investigation that began after a blogger accused Craig of homosexual sex
in October. Over five months, the Statesman examined rumors about Craig
dating to his college days and his 1982 pre-emptive denial that he had
sex with underage congressional pages." ... "The most serious finding by
the Statesman was the report by a professional man with close ties to Republican
officials. The 40-year-old man reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington's
Union Station, probably in 2004. The Statesman also spoke with a man who
said Craig made a sexual advance toward him at the University of Idaho
in 1967 and a man who said Craig "cruised" him for sex in 1994 at the REI
store in Boise [Idaho's capital]. The Statesman also explored dozens of
allegations that proved untrue, unclear or unverifiable." ... "Craig, 62,
was elected to Congress in 1980. Should he win re-election in 2008 and
complete his term, he would be the longest-serving Idahoan ever in Congress.
His record includes a series of votes against gay rights and his support
of a 2006 amendment to the Idaho Constitution that bars gay marriage and
civil unions." ... "On Aug. 9, the day after his guilty plea in Minnesota,
Craig told the Statesman he had yet to decide whether he would seek re-election
in 2008." ... "Former Democratic [Representative] Rep. Larry LaRocco announced
in April that he will run for the Senate." -By Dan
Popkey -IdahoStatesman.com
Home
- History
- "Home
prices fall record 3.2% nationally: Values down in
15 of 20 major cities, Case-Shiller finds." ... "U.S. home prices fell
at a faster rate in the second quarter, down 3.2% compared with the same
period in 2006, Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday." ... "It marked
the largest year-over-year decline ever recorded in the 20-year history
of the Case-Shiller home price index." ... "A year ago, home prices were
rising at a 7.5% pace nationally." ... ""The pullback in the U.S. residential
real-estate market is showing no signs of slowing down," said Robert Shiller,
chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC, which computes the price index for
S&P." ... "In an interview with MarketWatch, Shiller noted that the
figures were for activity ending in June -- well before the more recent
blowup in the mortgage markets." ... "Falling prices make it more difficult
for homeowners to tap their home equity or refinance their mortgages."
... "The last time prices fell so much, it took more than eight years for
home prices to return to their peak level." -By Rex
Nutting -MarketWatch
US
- Housing
- Market
- Global
- "US
home resales lowest in nearly 5 years." ... "The
US housing downturn appeared to worsen last month as sales by Americans
of their homes fell to the lowest level in nearly five years amid a crisis
in the subprime mortgage market that has triggered a global credit crunch."
... "Economists fear a vicious circle as rising defaults on high-risk subprime
mortgages trigger a crisis of confidence in credit markets that will weigh
on demand and make it more difficult for distressed homeowners to sell
or refinance their property." -By Eoin Callan
-FT.com
China
- Environmental
- Health
- Politics
- Air
- Land
- Water
- Coal
- Weather
- Science
- Industrial
- History
- International
- 
South
Korea - Japan
- USA
- California
- Los
Angeles - EU
- Sports
- Children
- "As
China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes."
... "No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without
creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big
dollops of public wealth to undo." ... "But just as the speed and scale
of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history,
so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation
is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions,
that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public
but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And
it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut." ...
"Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause
of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed
for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people
lack access to safe drinking water." ... "Chinese cities often seem wrapped
in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city
dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing [China's
capital] is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological
deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics." ... "Environmental
woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace
in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed
or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline
so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer
sustain marine life." ... "China is choking on its own success. The economy
is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates.
But the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from
a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires
colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available,
and dirtiest, source." ... "China’s problem has become the world’s problem.
Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides spewed by China’s coal-fired power plants
fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea [capital], and Tokyo [Japan's capital].
Much of the particulate pollution over Los Angeles [California, USA] originates
in China, according to the Journal of Geophysical Research." (1, 2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
-By Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley
-NYTimes
Consumer
- Housing
- History
- California
- Illinois
- Minnesota
- Texas-
"Drop
Foreseen in Median Price of U.S. Homes." ... "The
median price of American homes is expected to fall this year for the first
time since federal housing agencies began keeping statistics in 1950."
... "Economists say the decline, which could be foreshadowed in a widely
followed government price index to be released this week, will probably
be modest — from 1 percent to 2 percent — but could continue in 2008 and
2009. Rather than being limited to the once-booming Northeast and California,
price declines are also occurring in cities like Chicago [Illinois], Minneapolis
[Minnesota] and Houston [Texas], where the increases of the last decade
were modest by comparison." ... "The reversal is particularly striking
because many government officials and housing-industry executives had said
that a nationwide decline would never happen, even though prices had fallen
in some coastal areas as recently as the early 1990s." ... "While the housing
slump has already rattled financial markets, it has so far had only a modest
effect on consumer spending and economic growth. But forecasters now believe
that its impact will lead to a slowdown over the next year or two." ...
"Unless the real estate downturn is much worse than economists are expecting,
the declines will not come close to erasing the increases of the last decade."
(1, 2)
-By David Leonhardt and Vikas Bajaj
-NYTimes
People
- History
- Gov
- Law
- "Average
Incomes Fell for Most in 2000-5." ... "Americans
earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive
year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of
the last economic expansion, new government data shows." ... "Total income
listed on tax returns grew every year after World War II, with a single
one-year exception, until 2001, making the five-year period of lower average
incomes and four years of lower total incomes a new experience for the
majority of Americans born since 1945." ... "The growth in total incomes
was concentrated among those making more than $1 million. The number of
such taxpayers grew by more than 26 percent, to 303,817 in 2005, from 239,685
in 2000." ... "These individuals, who constitute less than a quarter of
1 percent of all taxpayers, reaped almost 47 percent of the total income
gains in 2005, compared with 2000." ... "People with incomes of more than
a million dollars also received 62 percent of the savings from the reduced
tax rates on long-term capital gains and dividends that [Republican] President
Bush signed into law in 2003, according to a separate analysis by Citizens
for Tax Justice, a group that points out policies that it says favor the
rich." ... "The group’s calculations showed that 28 percent of the investment
tax cut savings went to just 11,433 of the 134 million taxpayers, those
who made $10 million or more, saving them almost $1.9 million each. Over
all, this small number of wealthy Americans saved $21.7 billion in taxes
on their investment income as a result of the tax-cut law." -By
David Cay Johnston -NYTimes
US
- China
- Manufacturer
- Industry
- Children
- Brain
- Safety
- Government
- Police
- Consumer
- Environmental
- Law
- Politics
- History
- "Efforts
to crack down on lead paint thwarted by China, Bush Administration."
... "The [Republican President] Bush administration and China have both
undermined efforts to tighten rules designed to ensure that lead paint
isn't used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products." ... "Both
have fought efforts to better police imported toys from China." ... "Lead
paint is toxic when ingested by children and can cause brain damage or
death. It’s been mostly banned in the United States since the late 1970s,
but is permitted in the coating of toys, providing it amounts to less than
six parts per million." ... "The Bush administration has hindered regulation
on two fronts, consumer advocates say. It stalled efforts to press for
greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the
focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from
aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach."
... "“The overall philosophy is regulations are bad and they are too large
a cost for industry, and the market will take care of it,” said Rick Melberth,
director of regulatory policy at OMBWatch, a government watchdog group
formed in 1983. “That’s been the philosophy of the Bush administration.”"
... "Today, more than 80 percent of all U.S. toys are now made in China
and few of them get inspected." ... "But as recently as last December,
the Sierra Club sued the Bush administration after the Environmental Protection
Agency rebuffed a petition to require health and safety studies for companies
that use lead in children’s products." -By
Kevin
G. Hall -McClatchyDC.com
Government
- Surveillance
- Intelligence
- Law
- Freedom
- Politics
- History
- "I
Know What You Did Last Summer." ... "I hate to sound
melodramatic about it, but while everyone was at the beach or "The Simpsons
Movie" on the first weekend in August, the U.S. government shredded the
Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, the one requiring court-approved
"probable cause" before Americans can be searched or spied upon. This is
not the feverish imagination of left-wing bloggers and the ACLU. It's the
plain truth of where we've come as a country, at the behest of a president
[Republican President Bush] who has betrayed his oath to defend the Constitution
and with the acquiescence of Democratic congressional leaders who know
better. Historians will likely see this episode as a classic case of fear—both
physical and political—trumping principle amid the ancient tension between
personal freedom and national security." (1, 2)
-By Jonathan Alter -Newsweek
via -MSNBC
Tennessee
- Alabama
- History
- "Summer
Heat Wave Death Toll Reaches 49." ... "Authorities
in Memphis [Tennessee] and Alabama reported more heat-related deaths Saturday,
bringing the toll in the Southeast and Midwest to at least 49 since oppressive
triple-digit temperatures settled over the region last week." ... "Health
officials in Alabama announced Friday that eight people there had died
of heat-related causes this week and last week. The state has had 11 straight
days with triple-digit temperatures, breaking records that dated back to
1881 in some areas." (1, 2)
-By Kristin M. Hall with contributions by Bob Johnson
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
Russia
- Nuclear
- 
Flight
- History
- United
States - Iran
- China
- Global
- Technology
- "Russia
resumes regular flights of strategic bombers: The
missions, which had been discontinued in 1992, are seen as a signal to
the West. The [Republican President Bush] White House downplays the action."
... "Russian President Vladimir V. Putin on Friday announced reinstatement
of the Soviet-era practice of having nuclear bombers routinely make long-distance
flights that bring them within striking distance of the United States and
its allies." ... ""Today just after midnight, 14 strategic missile aircraft,
with support and fuel planes, took off from seven airfields across Russia,"
Putin said in televised remarks. "Combat duty began in which a total of
20 planes are taking part. From today, combat duty of this kind will be
carried out on a regular basis."" ... "Russian strategic bombers can carry
nuclear cruise missiles with ranges of at least 1,800 miles." ... "Russians
have been angered by U.S. plans to install an antimissile system in Eastern
Europe. Washington says it is needed to defend Europe and North America,
citing the possibility of missile attacks by Iran. Moscow [Russia's capital]
has expressed fear that the move would be a step toward a global missile-defense
system aimed at devaluing Russia's and China's nuclear deterrents, and
that the system could be modified for offensive missiles that would be
close to Russia's border." -By David Holley with contributions
by Sergei L. Loiko, Bob Drogin, and Maura Reynolds
-LAtimes
Global
- Climate
- Environment
- Ice
- History
- United
States - Colorado
- "Arctic
sea ice expected to hit record low." ... "The extent
of Arctic sea ice will likely have melted to a record low this September
partially due to man-made greenhouse gas emissions, researchers at the
University of Colorado said on Thursday." ... "There is a 92 percent chance
that Arctic sea ice extent in September will melt to its lowest level at
least since the 1970s, when satellite measuring efforts began, the researchers
said." ... "Such high levels of ice melting could have wide implications
in coming years such as changes in temperature and rain patterns across
much of the United States." ... "The melt itself can act as a feedback
loop and cause ever more melting, because water has a darker surface than
snow." (1, 2)
-By Timothy Gardner -Reuters
US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- 
Korean
- Military
- History
- "Short
of Purple Hearts, Navy tells vet to buy own." ...
"Korean War veteran Nyles Reed, 75, opened an envelope last week to learn
a Purple Heart had been approved for injuries he sustained as a Marine
on June 22, 1952." ... "But there was no medal. Just a certificate and
a form stating that the medal was "out of stock."" ... "The form letter
from the Navy Personnel Command told Reed he could wait 90 days and resubmit
an application, or buy his own medal." ... "After waiting 55 years, however,
Reed decided to pay $42 for his own Purple Heart and accompanying ribbon
— plus state sales taxes — at a military surplus store." ... "The Department
of Defense estimates that 29,098 troops have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan
through Thursday." -By Anne Marie Kilday
-AP via -Chron
Idaho
- Minnesota
- Lawmaker
- Religious
- History
- 2008
Election - "Idaho
lawmaker apologizes to Muslim congressman." ... "Idaho
[Republican Representative] Rep. Bill Sali has apologized to the nation's
first Muslim congressman, whose election Sali deemed in an interview as
"not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers.’’" ... "The Idaho Republican
has exchanged conciliatory e-mails with U.S. [Minnesota Democratic Representative]
Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat who became the first Muslim in
Congress last year. Both Sali and Ellison were elected in 2006." ... "Ellison
took a ceremonial oath of office using a Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
In interviews at the time, he said he chose the Koran from the Library
of Congress because “it showed that a visionary like Jefferson believed
that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources.”" ... "Both the Idaho Democratic
Party and Sali’s 2008 [election] Democratic opponent, Bill Grant, have
capitalized on the hubbub in the blogosphere." ... "“We here in Idaho do
cherish religious freedom, both yours and ours,’’ Grant wrote [Ellison].
"And, we do applaud anyone who stands up for both peace and freedom, as
I know you do.’’" -By Erika
Bolstad -McClatchyDC.com
Iraq
- US
- Military
- Police
- History
- Religious
- "Death
toll passes 250 in Iraq bombings." ... "The death
toll from five synchronized suicide bombings in a remote northern border
area topped 250 today, making the attack on the reclusive Yazidi religious
sect the deadliest single act of terrorism in Iraq since the U.S.-led war
began more than four years ago." ... "Rescuers, police and grieving townspeople
pulled scores of bodies from the rubble of three villages destroyed by
the Tuesday night blasts in Nineveh province, where the poor and oppressed
Yazidis have taken refuge from centuries of abuse from hostile ethnic and
religious neighbors who consider them heretics or devil worshipers" ...
"The blasts injured at least 350 others and pulverized about 400 mud-walled
homes, burying victims and body parts in a gruesome landscape of gore and
charred debris, local officials reported." ... "As the scope of the slaughter
became apparent, Zayan Othman, health minister from the neighboring Kurdistan
region, said the number killed exceeded 250 and could grow higher as the
collapsed houses and shops had probably entombed many inhabitants. The
death toll quickly surpassed the slightly more than 200 killed in November
in suicide bombings in the Sadr City area of Baghdad [Iraq's capital],
the previous high-water mark of horror to afflict the Iraqi people." -By
Carol. J. Williams with contributions by Ruaa al-Zarary, Saif Hameed, and
Wail Alhafith -LAtimes
North
Korea - Food
- Farmland
- Disaster
- History
- 
UN
- Economy
- "North
Korea Suffers Worst Rains Ever: Floods Destroy 11
Percent Of Impoverished Country's Farmland At The Height Of Growing Season."
... "Floods caused by the largest rains ever recorded in parts of North
Korea have destroyed more than one-tenth of the impoverished country's
farmland at the height of the growing season, official media reported Wednesday."
... "The U.N. food agency estimated the damage claimed by the North so
far was about a quarter of the crop losses the country said it suffered
in 1995 floods. That previous disaster, along with mismanagement of the
economy and the loss of [North Koreas's capital] Pyongyang's Soviet benefactor,
led to famine that is believed to have killed as many as 2 million North
Koreans." ... "Precipitation along some areas of the Taedong River were
the "largest ever in the history" of measurements taken by the country's
weather agency, the North's Korean Central News Agency reported."
-AP via -CBSNews
US
- Iran
- Foreign
- Terrorism
- Military
- Government
- Religious
- History
- Nuclear
- "U.S.
Weighing Terrorist Label for Iran Guards." ... "The
[Republican President] Bush administration is preparing to declare that
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps is a foreign terrorist organization, senior
administration officials said Tuesday." ... "If imposed, the declaration
would signal a more confrontational turn in the administration’s approach
to Iran and would be the first time that the United States has added the
armed forces of any sovereign government to its list of terrorist organizations."
... "The Revolutionary Guard is thought to be the largest branch of Iran’s
military. While the United States has long labeled Iran as a state sponsor
of terrorism, a decision to single out the guard would amount to an aggressive
new challenge from an American administration that has recently seemed
conflicted over whether to take a harder line against Tehran [Iran's capital]
over its nuclear program and what American officials have called its destabilizing
role in Iraq." ... "The United States government has not made a public
estimate about the size of the Revolutionary Guard, an organization that
dates to the Islamic revolution of 1979 and whose branches are believed
to extend widely throughout the Iranian military. An estimate by GlobalSecurity.org,
a research group based in Alexandria, Va., puts the total guard forces
at 125,000." (1, 2)
-By Helene Cooper with contributions by Thom Shanker
and David Rohde -NYTimes
J
Dennis Hastert - 
DeLay
- 
Foley
- 
Cunningham
- 
Ney
- Legislation
- History
- Illinois
- Texas
- Ga- La
- Florida
- California
- 
Ohio
- "Hastert
Planning to Retire at End of 2008, GOP Sources Say."
... "After less than a year as a rank-and-file House member, former Speaker
[Illinois Republican Representative] J. Dennis Hastert is expected to call
an end to a political career that made him the longest serving Republican
Speaker in the history of the House of Representatives." ... "Hastert,
65, was first elected to Congress in 1986 after GOP [Illinois Republican
Representative] Rep. John E. Grotberg retired. He quietly worked his way
up the ranks in the House, propelled into the Republican leadership in
1994 by then-Rep. [Texas Republican Representative] Tom DeLay, R-Texas."
... "Hastert ran DeLay’s successful upstart campaign for majority whip
after Republicans captured control of Congress, and DeLay in turn named
Hastert as his chief deputy. Four years later, in 1998, DeLay helped to
elevate Hastert to Speaker after [Georgia Republican Representative] Newt
Gingrich, R-Ga., stepped down following the loss of GOP seats in that year’s
elections and [Louisiana Republican Representative] Robert L. Livingston,
R-La., withdrew abruptly from contention after acknowledging an extramarital
affair." ... "Throughout his time as Speaker, Hastert was personally popular
with rank-and-file Republicans, who never saw him as part of the ethics
problems that plagued DeLay and former [Florida Republican Representative]
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla. (1995-2006), or the criminal misdeeds of former
[California Republican Representative] Reps. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif.
(1991-2005) and [Ohio Republican Representative] Bob Ney, R-Ohio (1995-2006)."
... "He also set a standard for the GOP majority by only allowing legislation
on the floor of the House that was backed by the “majority of the majority,”
[of Republicans] an approach that all but denied Democrats a chance to
help shape legislation." ... "The minority party had little say in conferences
with the Senate during Hastert’s tenure, because conference committees
became an after-the-fact formality that rubber-stamped deals worked out
by a handful of House and Senate Republican members who operated under
the thumb of party leaders." -By Jonathan Allen with
contributions by Alan K. Ota, Martin Kady II, and David Nathe
-CQPolitics.com
Texas
- Crime
- Law
- History
- Politics
- "Man
to Be Executed, Although Prosecutors Say He Didn't Kill:
As Kenneth Foster Waits for Death, He Hopes for Reprieve." ... "Kenneth
Foster Jr. is scheduled to be executed in Texas later this month for the
1997 murder of Michael LaHood, though everybody even prosecutors concede
that Foster was at the scene of the crime, but did not pull the trigger."
... "Mauriceo Brown, who admitted to fatally shooting LaHood, was executed
last year, but barring an unlikely 11th-hour commutation from [Texas Republican
Governor] Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, Foster
will meet the same fate Aug. 30." ... "On the night of Aug. 14, 1997, Foster,
Brown, DeWayne Dillard and Julius Steen were drinking and smoking marijuana.
That night, they used Dillard's gun to commit two armed robberies, with
Foster serving as driver, and ended up behind a car carrying LaHood and
his girlfriend, Mary Patrick, according to testimony in the case." ...
"Brown and LaHood got into an altercation and Brown shot and killed him.
Foster, 19 at the time, became very anxious and started to drive away from
the scene, but Dillard and Steen made him wait for Brown to get back in
the car. They drove off, but were arrested shortly after, Foster's attorney,
Keith Hampton, told ABC News." ... "Rather than being given a separate
trial, Foster was tried alongside Brown. Foster was charged under the Texas
"law of parties" statute that eliminates the distinction between the perpetrator
of a crime and an accomplice, allowing Foster to be put to death, even
though he did not pull the trigger." ... "Texas is the only state in the
country where a person may be executed if a murder he or she did not anticipate
or plan occurs during the course of another crime they committed, Foster's
lawyer said." ... "Since assuming office in December 2000, Perry has presided
over 159 executions thus far, the most of any governor in history, according
to Rick Halperin, the president of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty. That breaks the record of 152 set by [former Texas Republican
Governor and now Republican President] Bush in his approximately six years
in office." (1, 2,
3,
4)
-By William Marra -ABCNEWS.com
Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Psychological
- Torture
- Prison
- Political
- History
- Criminal
- Justice
- Human
- Rights
- War
Crimes - Health
- Science
- New
York
- SC
- "US
Gov't broke Padilla through intense isolation, say experts:
Despite warnings, officials used 43 months of severe isolation to force
Jose Padilla to tell all he knew about Al Qaeda." ... "When suspected Al
Qaeda operative Jose Padilla was whisked from the criminal justice system
to military custody in June 2002, it was done for a key purpose – to break
his will to remain silent." ... "As a US citizen, Mr. Padilla enjoyed a
right against forced self-incrimination. But this constitutional guarantee
vanished the instant [Republican] President Bush declared him an enemy
combatant." ... "For a month, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
had been questioning Padilla in New York City [New York] under the rules
of the criminal justice system. They wanted to know about his alleged involvement
in a plot to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb" in the US. Padilla had
nothing to say. Now, military interrogators were about to turn up the heat."
... "Padilla was delivered to the US Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston,
S.C. [South Carolina], where he was held not only in solitary confinement
but as the sole detainee in a high-security wing of the prison. Fifteen
other cells sat empty around him." ... "The purpose of the extraordinary
privacy, according to experts familiar with the technique, was to eliminate
the possibility of human contact. No voices in the hallway. No conversations
with other prisoners. No tapping out messages on the walls. No ability
to maintain a sense of human connection, a sense of place or time." ...
"In essence, experts say, the US government was trying to break Padilla's
silence by plunging him into a mental twilight zone." ... "Those who haven't
experienced solitary confinement can imagine that life locked in a small
space would be inconvenient and boring. But according to a broad range
of experts who have studied the issue, isolation can be psychologically
devastating. Extreme isolation, in concert with other coercive techniques,
can literally drive a person insane, these experts say. And that makes
it a potential instrument of torture, they add." ... "The new Army Field
Manual bars the use of isolation to achieve psychological disorientation
through sensory deprivation. "Sensory deprivation is defined as an arranged
situation causing significant psychological distress due to a prolonged
absence, or significant reduction, of the usual external stimuli and perceptual
opportunities," the manual states. "Sensory deprivation may result in extreme
anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, depression, and anti-social
behavior. Detainees will not be subject to sensory deprivation."" ... "Despite
the tough words, the field manual offers only a general prohibition. So-called
coercive interrogation methods – including isolation – have been specially
authorized for certain units in the military and the Central Intelligence
Agency." ... "The technique is not new. The Soviets used isolation and
sensory deprivation to identify and discredit political dissidents. US
prisoners of war confessed to nonexistent war crimes in the Korean War
after similar treatment. " (1, 2,
3,
4)
-By Warren Richey -CSMonitor
Karl
Rove
- Election
- Politics
- Colorado
- Illinois
- Texas
- Law
- "Karl
Rove's controversial career." ... "Born in Denver
[Colorado] on Christmas 1950 to parents who were neither political nor
religious, [Republican politician] Karl Christian Rove at a young age showed
a talent for politics." ... "1970: Prank in Chicago [Illinois]" ... "As
a 19-year-old working in Illinois, Rove used an assumed name to gain access
to the headquarters of Democratic state treasurer candidate Alan Dixon.
He made off with campaign stationery, which he used to print 1,000 fliers
promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing" at
Dixon's Chicago [Illinois] office. The fliers were given to homeless people
on Lower Wacker Drive. Years later, Rove expressed regret for the "youthful
prank."" ... "1978: Clements' man" ... "With Rove's support, Bill Clements
became the first Republican elected governor of Texas in more than a century.
Rove served for a time as his chief of staff but left the job to do political
consulting, especially direct-mail appeals, at which Rove was master."
... "1986: Bugging incident" ... "Clements was defeated in 1982 and then
ran again in 1986, with Rove playing a key role. Before a debate, Rove
announced that an eavesdropping device had been found in Clements' campaign
offices. Amid accusations that Clements' campaign had planted the bug in
its own offices, a federal grand jury considered and rejected charges against
Rove." ... "1992: Alleged leaker" ... "Rove was fired from [former Republican
President] George H.W. Bush's re-election effort over suspicions that he
leaked damaging information about a campaign colleague to Chicago Sun-Times
columnist Robert Novak. Rove and Novak denied the accusation." -Contributed
to by Lou Dubose, Jan Reid and Carl M. Cannon
-ChicagoTribune
US
- Global
- 
Germany
- 
Dutch
- Genetics
- Environmental
- Science
- Children
- Safety
- Politics
- Free-Market
- History
- "America
Loses Its Stature as Tallest Country." ... "Pundits
often opine that America's stature is declining on the global stage. It
turns out that Americans --literally -- are not standing as tall, compared
with the rest of the world, as they used to." ... "U.S. adults lost their
position as the tallest people on Earth to the Dutch [Netherlands], who
average about two inches taller than the typical American. In fact, American
men now rank ninth and women 15th in average height, having fallen short
of many other European nations." ... ""Americans, who have been the tallest
in the world for a very long time, are no longer the tallest," said John
Komlos of the University of Munich [Germany], who has published a series
of papers documenting the trend. "Americans have not kept up with western
European populations."" ... "The idea that many Europeans are looking down
on Americans has led to a flurry of interest in trying to explain the trend,
with debate focusing on whether to blame the lack of universal health care
and other holes in the nation's social safety net, particularly for children."
... ""We conjecture that perhaps the western and northern European welfare
states, with their universal socioeconomic safety nets, are able to provide
a higher biological standard of living to their children and youth than
the more free-market-oriented U.S. economy," Komlos wrote in one of his
latest papers, published in June in the journal Social Science Quarterly."
... "While some researchers agree, others are more cautious, arguing that
height is determined by a complicated amalgam of genetic, environmental,
social and biological influences." -By Rob Stein
-WashingtonPost
US- International
- Seniors
- Babies
- Science
- History
- 
Canada
- EU
- 
Washington
- "U.S.
now trails 41 other nations in life expectancy."
... "Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in
41 other countries." ... "For decades, the United States has been slipping
in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve
health care, nutrition and lifestyles." ... ""Something's wrong here when
one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most
on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries," said Dr.
Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
at the University of Washington." ... "A baby born in the United States
in 2004 will live an average of 77.9 years." ... "That life expectancy
ranks 42nd, down from 11th two decades earlier, according to international
numbers provided by the Census Bureau and domestic numbers from the National
Center for Health Statistics." ... "Researchers said several factors have
contributed to the United States falling behind other industrialized nations."
... "A major one is that 45 million Americans lack health insurance, while
Canada and many European countries have universal health care, they say."
... "Adults in the United States have one of the highest obesity rates
in the world." ... "A relatively high percentage of babies born in the
U.S. die before their first birthday, compared with other industrialized
nations." -APvia
-AZStarNet.com
Americans
- Global
- 
Communications
- Liberty
- Politics
- Law
- Secret
- Government
- Intelligence
- Electronic
- Surveillance
- Tech
- E-Mail- Terrorism
- History
- "How
the Fight for Vast New Spying Powers Was Won." ...
"For three days, Mike McConnell, the [Republican President Bush's] director
of national intelligence, had haggled with congressional leaders over amendments
to a federal surveillance law, but now he was putting his foot down. "This
is the issue," said the plain-spoken retired vice admiral and Vietnam veteran,
"that makes my blood pressure rise."" ... "McConnell viscerally objected
to a Democratic proposal to limit warrantless surveillance of foreigners'
communications with Americans to instances in which one party was a terrorism
suspect. McConnell wanted no such limits. "All foreign intelligence" targets
in touch with Americans on any topic of interest should be fair game for
U.S. spying, he said, according to two participants in the Aug. 2 conversation."
... "McConnell won the fight, extracting a key concession despite the misgivings
of Democratic negotiators. Shortly after that exchange, the [Republican
President] Bush administration leveraged Democratic acquiescence into a
broader victory: congressional approval of a Republican bill that would
expand surveillance powers far beyond what Democratic leaders had initially
been willing to accept." ... "Until September -- and possibly for much
longer -- the new law will enable the high-tech collection of foreign communications
without judicial scrutiny on a vastly larger scale than previously possible,
allowing billions of phone calls and e-mails inside as well as outside
the United States to be routinely screened for possible links to terrorism
and other security threats." ... "What McConnell wanted most from Congress
was to be able to intercept, without a warrant, purely foreign-to-foreign
communications that pass through fiber-optic cables and switching stations
on U.S. soil. That provision was meant to restore a U.S. capability that
existed three decades ago, when a 1978 law allowed warrantless surveillance
of foreign calls that were overwhelmingly relayed wirelessly." ... "Since
then, advances in technology have caused 90 percent of global communications
to pass through wires -- mostly optic fibers capable of carrying 6,000
calls in a strand. That development has been a boon to the National Security
Agency, which has worked hard to monitor the traffic with U.S.-based taps
and concluded it was doing so legally." ... "But in a secret ruling in
March, a judge on a special court empowered to review the government's
electronic snooping challenged for the first time the government's ability
to collect data from such wires even when they came from foreign terrorist
targets. In May, a judge on the same court went further, telling the administration
flatly that the law's wording required the government to get a warrant
whenever a fixed wire is involved." (1, 2,
3)
-By Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus
-WashingtonPost
Gordon
Smith - Dick
Cheney - Environmental
- Science
- Politics
- Federal
- Investigation
- History
- Portland
- Ore
- California
- 
Fish
- Food
- 
Farmers
- Business
- "Smith
backs Cheney on salmon kill controversy." ... "[Oregon
Republican Senator] Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. [Republican-Oregon], is siding
with [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney over a massive fish kill on
the Klamath River in 2002, saying there is no evidence it was caused by
water diversions to farmers." [The Klamath River runs through Oregon and
California] ... "Smith also defended Cheney's role in intervening with
federal officials to help farmers in the Klamath Basin and cast doubt that
the salmon die-off caused sharp commercial costal [coastal] fishing restrictions."
... "The House Natural Resources Committee is investigating whether Cheney
exerted improper political influence to override scientifically based management
of the water resources." ... "Environmentalists, often at odds with Smith,
say his stance contradicts a study by the California Department of Fish
and Game, which found that the water diversions played a key role in the
deaths of some 77,000 salmon." ... "The California Fish and Game report
cited several factors leading to the fish kill, the largest in recorded
West Coast history." ... "There were larger-than-normal salmon returns,
warm water and low river flows that combined to crowd the fish, hastening
the spread of disease." ... "The report concluded that, "River flow and
the volume of water in the fish-kill area were atypically low," and that
the river flow was the only factor controlled by humans." ... ""It's stretching
credibility to claim that the flow management decisions by the [Republican
President] Bush administration in 2002 had nothing to do with the low flows
in the Klamath River," said Steve Pedery of Oregon Wild, a Portland-based
environmental group." -AP
via -kgw.com
US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Military
- Politics- People
- History
- "Iraq
war czar: Consider a draft." ... "Frequent tours
for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer
force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, [Republican]
President Bush's new war adviser said Friday." ... ""I think it makes sense
to certainly consider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview
with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."" ... ""And I can
tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately,
this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security
by one means or another," said Lute, who is sometimes referred to as the
"Iraq war czar." It was his first interview since he was confirmed by the
Senate in June." ... "[Republican] President Nixon abolished the draft
in 1973. Restoring it, Lute said, would be a "major policy shift" and Bush
has made it clear that he doesn't think it's necessary."
-AP via -CNN
Government
- Market
- New
York
- "NY
Fed buys $38 billion in mortgage-backed and other securities to inject
cash in system." ... "Responding to credit crunch
fears in the stock market, the Federal Reserve of New York said Friday
it would buy a total of $38 billion (€27.84 billion) in mortgage-backed,
Treasury and agency assets to inject more cash into the banking system."
... "It was the biggest such injection since the days following the Sept.
11, 2001, terror attacks." ... "On Thursday, the Fed put a larger-than-normal
$24 billion (€17.58 billion) in temporary reserves into the U.S. banking
system, following a huge $130 billion (€95.24 billion) injection by
the European Central Bank into its own system."
-AP via -IHT.com
Afghanistan
- Iran
- Politics
- Power
- Transport
- History
- "Afghan
business thrives on Iran's border: Herat's business
success has become a model of what Afghanistan can become." ... "When Hajji
Zekrullah Ahmadyar drives out of Herat [Afghanistan], he witnesses an urban
tableau that is in many ways atypical of modern Afghanistan." ... "Mr.
Ahmadyar navigates over smooth asphalt as the car passes this city's broad,
clean-swept avenues. He soon reaches some 70 factories fed by 24-hour power.
When he arrives at his own mineral-water bottling company, he strolls to
the new plant he is building. Business is good, he says, so he is expanding
his operations." ... "The city is a window on how Afghan entrepreneurism
can take hold when given the time and security to flourish – and what role
Afghanistan's neighbors can play in helping to create these conditions."
... "Its success is a blend of geography and good business sense, each
intertwined with this city's vaunted history as the Silk Road's gateway
to Central Asia." ... "Where once spices and camels found passage through
this parched desert outpost, now cars and televisions from the Middle East
are taxed in its customs houses, generating the wealth for what one expert
calls the Dubai of Afghanistan." ... "In contrast with Pakistani border
areas, which have been overrun by the Taliban, Herat – just 75 miles from
the Iranian border – has flourished with the help of Iran, one of the Karzai
government's strongest supporters. In Herat, for example, Iran has linked
the city to the Iranian power grid and built a highway to the border."
(1, 2)
-By Mark Sappenfield -CSMonitor
Maine
- Texas
- New
Orleans - Louisiana
- Hurricane
Katrina - History
- "Bush
on track to become the vacation president." ... "On
Thursday, [Republican President] Bush left for a weekend in Kennebunkport,
Maine, and his family's summer compound, Walker's Point. On Monday, he
heads to his Crawford [Texas] retreat, where he has spent all or part of
418 days of his presidency, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS News White
House correspondent and meticulous record-keeper." ... "Bush's August sojourn
will be his 65th trip to Crawford, according to Knoller." ... "The presidential
vacation-time record holder is the late Ronald Reagan, who tallied 436
days in his two terms." ... "Even so, this year's August vacation for Bush
is a contrast to previous years such as 2005, when he dragged out vacation
in Texas to five weeks. That was also the year Bush remained on vacation
immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit." -By Julie
Mason -Chron
US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Military
- Education
- Money
- History
- Virginia
- "Administration
Fights Dem Plan to Boost School Aid for Vets." ...
"The [Republican President] Bush administration opposes a Democratic effort
to restore full educational benefits for returning veterans, according
to an official's comments last week." ... "Senate Democrats, led by Virginia's
[Democratic Senator] Jim Webb, want the government to pay every penny of
veterans' educational costs, from tuition at a public university to books,
housing and a monthly stipend." ... "Such a benefit was a major feature
of the historic 1944 G.I. Bill, which put more than eight million U.S.
soldiers through college and is now credited by historians as fueling the
expansion of America's middle class in the post-war era." ... "Patrick
Campbell of the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) endorsed
Webb's plan." -By Alexandra Bahou and Anna Schecter
-ABCNEWS.com
Minnesota
- I-35W
Bridge Collapse - Disaster
- History
- Transportation
- Construction
- Science
- Politics
- "I-35W
inspectors flagged serious cracks, rusting." ...
"[Minnesota] State bridge inspectors warned for nearly a decade before
its collapse that the Interstate 35W bridge had "severe" and "extensive"
corrosion of its beams and trusses, "widespread cracking" in spans and
missing or broken bolts." ... "Not only was the superstructure in poor
condition, but certain components were "beyond tolerable limits," and one
of the bridge's piers had "tilted to the north," they reported." ... "By
2000, the inspectors wrote that "eventual replacement of the entire structure
would be preferable" to redecking the bridge. They added: "If bridge replacement
is significantly delayed, the bridge should be re-decked."" ... "That recommendation
was repeated in every report afterward, but it never happened." ... "[Minnesota
Republican Governor Tim] Pawlenty defended the decisions made about the
bridge." ... "However, in every report since 2000, inspectors urged the
state to replace bolts in a specific area of the bridge, a job listed each
year under "Immediate Maintenance Recommendations."" ... "And since 2004
the reports repeatedly cited fatigue cracking in two girders as another
problem requiring immediate maintenance, possibly including measures to
relieve stress." ... "More than 11,000 comparable bridges in the nation
have deficiency ratings similar to those of the I-35W bridge." -By
Pat Doyle, Mike Kaszuba, Dan Browning and Laurie Blake
-StarTribune
Sports
- Drug
- Law
- San
Francisco - California-
"Bonds
Sets Baseball's Home Run Record: Giants Slugger Passes
Aaron With No. 756." ... "Seven fifty-five, the most cherished number in
baseball if not all of American sports, lived a good, long, noble life.
Spawned from the powerful bat of an aging slugger named Hank Aaron on July
20, 1976, it grew in stature over the years, surviving the occasional challenge
and ruling over the record book even as other, lesser records fell. But
on a cool Tuesday night near the shores of San Francisco Bay [San Francisco,
California], 755 finally perished at the hands of a relentless, controversial
invader from the west named Barry Lamar Bonds. Seven fifty-five is gone.
Behold, 756." ... "Only three players in the last 86 years have held the
sport's signature mark. Babe Ruth first captured it in 1921, then surrendered
it posthumously to Aaron in 1974. And now, for better or worse, it belongs
to Bonds." ... "Across the land, baseball fans, including many who play
and run the game, are unsure what to make of 756 because of the player
who struck it. Bonds is alleged to have used steroids beginning in the
late 1990s, fueling a late-career explosion in offensive production that
is unparalleled in baseball history. Even as Bonds took aim at Aaron's
record this summer, a grand jury continued to investigate him for possible
perjury and tax evasion charges stemming from his involvement with an alleged
steroids ring." ... ""This record is not tainted," Bonds said in his postgame
news conference. "It's not tainted at all. At all. Period. You guys [in
the media] can say whatever you want."" -By Dave Sheinin
-WashingtonPost
Secret
- United
States - Government
- Foreign
- Intelligence
- Surveillance
- History
- Electronic
- E-Mail
- Telephone
- Law
- Language
- Politics
- Terrorism
- "Bush
Signs Law to Widen Legal Reach for Wiretapping."
... "[Republican] President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation
that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international
telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants."
... "Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law
said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration
officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists.
They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply
alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions
of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States."
... "They also said that the new law for the first time provided a legal
framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was being
conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is supposed to regulate
the way the government can listen to the private communications of American
citizens." ... "“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said
Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington,
who has studied the new legislation." ... "Previously, the government needed
search warrants approved by a special intelligence court to eavesdrop on
telephone conversations, e-mail messages and other electronic communications
between individuals inside the United States and people overseas, if the
government conducted the surveillance inside the United States." -By
James Risen -NYTimes
US
- Saudi
Arabia - Military
- Terrorism
- Oil
- Politics
- Japan
- 
Italy
- Germany- Georgia
- History
- "Gingrich
says war on terror 'phony': Former speaker says energy
independence is key." ... "Former House Speaker [Republican] Newt Gingrich
said Thursday the [Republican President] Bush administration is waging
a "phony war" on terrorism, warning that the country is losing ground against
the kind of Islamic radicals who attacked the country on Sept. 11, 2001."
... "A more effective approach, said Gingrich, would begin with a national
energy strategy aimed at weaning the country from its reliance on imported
oil and some of the regimes that petro-dollars support." ... ""None of
you should believe we are winning this war. There is no evidence that we
are winning this war," the ex-Georgian told a group of about 300 students
attending a conference for collegiate conservatives." ... "He was unstinting
in his criticism of his fellow Republicans, in the White House and on Capitol
Hill." ... ""We were in charge for six years," he said, referring to the
period between 2001 and early 2007, when the GOP controlled the White House
and both houses of Congress. "I don't think you can look and say that was
a great success."" ... "He reserved his most pointed criticism for the
administration's handling of the global campaign against terrorist groups."
... ""We've been engaged in a phony war," said Gingrich. "The only people
who have been taking this seriously are the combat military."" ... ""We
used to be a serious country. When we got attacked at Pearl Harbor, we
took on Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany," he said, referring
to World War II." ... ""We beat all three in less than four years. We're
about to enter the seventh year of this phony war against ... [terrorist
groups], and we're losing."" ... ""First of all, we have to have a national
energy strategy, which basically says to the Saudis, 'We're not going to
rely on you,' " he said." ... "The United States imports about 14 million
barrels of oil a day, making up two-thirds of its total consumption." -By
Bob Deans -AJC
US
- Canada
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- 
Wisconsin
- Lake
- History
- Climate
- Business
- "Lake
Superior changes puzzle scientists." ... "Deep enough
to hold the combined water in all the other Great Lakes and with a surface
area as large as South Carolina, Lake Superior's size has lent it an aura
of invulnerability." ... "But the mighty Superior [bordered by Ontario,
Canada and the US states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin] is losing
water and getting warmer, worrying those who live near its shores, scientists
and companies that rely on the lake for business." ... "The changes to
the lake could be signs of climate change, although scientists aren't sure."
... "Superior's level is at its lowest point in eight decades and will
set a record this fall if, as expected, it dips three more inches. Meanwhile,
the average water temperature has surged 4.5 degrees since 1979, significantly
above the 2.7-degree rise in the region's air temperature during the same
period." ... "That's no small deal for a freshwater sea that was created
from glacial melt as the Ice Age ended and remains chilly in all seasons."
... "A weather buoy on the western side recently recorded an "amazing"
75 degrees, "as warm a surface temperature as we've ever seen in this lake,"
said Jay Austin, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota at
Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory." -AP
via -CNN
Military
- Law
- Computer
-