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[Caro]

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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Top Story

Reid Pledges Amendments On Iraq Timeline, Readiness Standards, Feingold Bill
The Senate is expected to take up the 2008 defense authorization bill in a matter of weeks. (Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)) said yesterday that the legislation will have amendments covering a timeline as well as readiness standards for U.S. soldiers sent into combat. He also promised another vote on the Reid-Feingold legislation that removes virtually all U.S. forces from Iraq by April 1, 2008.

Internet Weekly Report

The World

Big Boost In Iraqi Forces Is Urged
A senior U.S. military commander said yesterday that Iraq's army must expand its rolls by at least 20,000 more soldiers than Washington had anticipated, to help free U.S. troops from conducting daily patrols, checkpoints and other critical yet dangerous missions. Even then, Iraq will remain incapable of taking full responsibility for its security for many years…

Minarets of Iraqi Shiite shrine blown up
Two minarets of a revered Shiite shrine in the northern town of Samarra collapsed on Wednesday after being blown up within minutes of each other, witnesses and a top Shiite official said.

Palestinian battles engulf more of Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Fierce battles over key security positions spread to central Gaza Wednesday, with Hamas fighters wresting control of the coastal strip's north-south road — and putting themselves in position to cut off reinforcements to beleaguered Fatah forces.

Incoming UK PM criticizes Blair's politicizing of intelligence
In a clear break from Blair policy, Gordon Brown is setting himself apart, informing the public that the days of manipulating facts for political gain are over. With the brewing BAE-Saudi Arabia arms deal in the spotlight and a follow up arms deal in the bidding process, Brown will have a prime opportunity to prove his disgust for political cover-ups and manipulation right away.

Sudan accepts AU-UN force in Darfur
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Sudan accepted Tuesday the deployment of a joint African Union-United Nations force for Darfur, in a move to end violence and bring humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged western Sudanese region.

US preparing air-strikes against Al-Qaeda in Somalia: official
US warplanes are overflying the northern Somali region of Puntland in preparation for air-strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda fugitives, more than a week after US warships shelled the area, officials said Tuesday.

The Nation

Improvised Explosive Defeat?
The United States is losing the war in Iraq because it cannot combat these makeshift weapons (IEDs). An army with unimaginable firepower is being driven out by guerrillas armed with a crude arsenal of explosives and blasting caps, triggered by cellphones and garage-door openers. This is Gulliver's torment, circa 2007. We have thrown our money and technology at the problem, with limited effect.
Just like Vietnam. Our leaders could never understand how with our superior technology and tons of money we couldn’t beat those little guys wearing black pajamas. —Caro

11,000 troops go Awol since Iraq war
Almost 1,000 soldiers are absent without leave (Awol), according to figures from the Ministry of Defence. More than 11,000 cases of soldiers going on the run have been logged since the Iraq conflict began in 2003. The MoD claims that the rates of desertion have more to do with domestic problems than the war.

Bush pleads for GOP immigration support
WASHINGTON - His party divided and his polls sagging, President Bush prodded rebellious Senate Republicans Tuesday to help resurrect legislation that could provide eventual citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.

FBI plans huge anti-terror data-mining
The FBI wants to compile a massive computer database and analyze it for clues to unmask terrorist sleeper cells. Two congressmen are worried about whether the bureau will protect the privacy of U.S. citizens.

Prosecutor wants Libby imprisoned now
WASHINGTON - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald urged a federal judge Tuesday not to delay former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 2 1/2-year prison sentence in the CIA leak case.

Specter: Gonzales vote will make Bush more stubborn
Hard to imagine that George Bush could get more stubborn and ornery. But that's what Arlen Specter predicted after the debate on no confidence in Alberto Gonzales yesterday:… “the vote ‘is going to be a boomerang.’” So, Gonzales lost seven Republican votes. Specter claims Republican Senators don't even support him, really. But, they're stuck with Gonzales because Bush acts like a child in these situations. This explains so much.

Poll: Rural Vote No Longer a Lock for Republicans
Morning Edition, June 11, 2007 • A new national poll indicates rural Americans are no longer reliably Republican, and the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq seems mainly to blame.

Majority of Republicans Doubt Theory of Evolution
PRINCETON, NJ -- The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life… Independents and Democrats are more likely than Republicans to believe in the theory of evolution. But even among non-Republicans there appears to be a significant minority who doubt that evolution adequately explains where humans came from.
Clearly, our educational system is failing to educate. —Caro

Economy & Finance

Mortgage foreclosure filings rise 90 percent in May
U.S. foreclosure filings surged 90 percent in May from a year earlier as more homeowners fell behind on their monthly mortgage payments, RealtyTrac Inc. said… A jump in foreclosures at a time of year that traditionally is the busiest for home sales means the slide in prices probably isn't over, said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

'Pop!' Bubbles are great for America!
Business failures, bankruptcies, lost jobs, recessions are all part of natural law eliminating the dead wood from a prior bubble, clearing the way for a new round of creative innovations, prosperity and another roaring bull. So don't get all teary-eyed and maudlin. Suck-it-up, folks. "Pops" are like Irish wakes, lotsa drinking, laughing, singing "Auld Lang Syne," having a good time saying goodbye to a bubble. Well, at least for Wall Street. But don't tell that to the rest of America's 95 million Main Street investors, the folks who have to suffer through the hellish aftermath of a "pop!" The bear market, the recession, deflation, retirement nest egg wipe-outs ... like those painful memories from the last bust, that horrendous $8 trillion 2000 to 2002 market wipe-out you're blocking.

How to run a budget like an idiot
(Fortune Magazine) -- New Census data show that the top 1 percent of U.S. earners now take home a greater share of national income than at any time since the height of the go-go 1920s. The top 300,000 earners together receive almost as much income as the bottom 150 million. Democrats inhale these facts and breathe out fire. Republicans say, "Hey, this is no time to be complacent. With a little effort we can push this closer to Louis XVI levels of inequality!" At least that's what GOP presidential wannabes are sounding like as they genuflect before the altar of tax reduction, despite that creed's growing fiscal, moral, and mathematical indefensibility.

Baby Boomers Can't Afford to Retire
WASHINGTON (AP)—As the baby boomers begin to ease into their 60s, most expect to delay retirement longer than their parents or grandparents. That's good, because many can't afford to stop working anytime soon… Americans had been retiring at ever-younger ages since the growth of private pensions and Social Security began more than 50 years ago. However, the retirement trend appears to be reversing.

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

I will be a guest today on the Tony Trupiano Show, at 2:00 PM ET. Listen to Tony’s show every day between noon and 3:00 PM ET on listener supported RadioPower.org.

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2007/06/12/internet-cable-fail-to-increase-knowledge-of-current-affairs/">Internet, Cable Fail To Increase Knowledge Of Current Affairs
Americans' knowledge of national and international affairs has changed little in two decades despite the emergence of 24-hour cable news and the Internet as major news sources.

Paris Hilton: The Queen of Cable Television! (by Brent Budowsky)
Within the year there will be a fourth cable news network, or an invasion of one of the Little Three. It will appeal to the tens of millions of more progressive Americans, who, except for Keith Olbermann, are non-persons in the current cable configuration. It will appeal to the women who are not allowed their rightful share of cable hosting even though they are a majority of voters and spenders. It will appeal to African-Americans, who have less representation as hosts than a recently fired host who made trite racist comments. It will appeal to the huge growing demographic of Hispanics… The winds of change are in the air. Remember where you heard it first.

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2007/06/12/reform-groups-urge-the-fcc-to-hold-tv-broadcasters-accountable-for-inadequate-election-and-government-coverage/">Reform Groups Urge The FCC To Hold TV Broadcasters Accountable For Inadequate Election And Government Coverage
The Midwest Democracy Network (MDN), an alliance of civic and political reform groups from five Midwestern states, recently sent a letter to FCC Commissioners to urge them to impose stronger public interest obligations on local television broadcasters.

Calling Out The Media
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, just once, to able to ask a journalist to explain his story and actually have a dialogue with him/her? Well, Media Bloodhound did just that. After critiquing Michael Powell’s profile of Rudy Giuliani in the NY Times, who should turn up to defend his work than Mr. Powell himself? Not to put too fine a point on it, Powell was a wee bit defensive at first. But to his credit, he did engage with Media Bloodhound and the exchange is an interesting one, with Powell conceding some of MB’s points. I do think that Powell deserves some kudos here… A tip of the hat to Media Bloodhound as well, for keeping the discourse civil…

Bancrofts to give Murdoch revised set of safeguard proposals
Bancroft family reps are planning to send Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. a revised set of proposals for a special board to safeguard the Wall Street Journal's editorial independence, reports Matthew Karnitschnig. It's unclear if the suggested measures -- expected to be sent today -- would bridge key differences over how the rules would be enforced.
Very innaresting. I thought up a similar plot for a television series several years ago. I was told this kind of arrangement was unrealistic. —Caro

Rather Blasts Couric For Dumbing Down, Tarting Up Evening News
As already noted on NewsBusters, former CBS anchor Dan Rather appeared on Monday's edition of "Morning Joe" and lobbied for a "a strategic withdrawal from Iraq." He also found time to twice bash his "Evening News" successor Katie Couric for dumbing down and "tarting up" the news.

Technology & Science

Google's e-mail for universities
Google is expanding its empire into universities - with entire campus e-mail networks switching over to using Google's e-mail service. This will give the internet company a "relationship for life" with students - who can carry on using these e-mail addresses after graduating.

Spam King Gone, Spam Rolls On
(O)n May 30, Federal authorities arrested the man they called the Spam King: 27-year-old Richard Alan Soloway. In a Seattle courtroom he was arraigned on charges of mail fraud, fraud in connection with electronic mail, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. And last week, with Soloway sequestered, the flow of spam rose 8 percent.

Male U.S. Veterans More Likely to Commit Suicide
TUESDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) -- Male U.S. military veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide as men who haven't served in the armed forces, a new study claims. These findings suggest that doctors should look for signs of suicidal intentions among soldiers returning from service in Afghanistan and Iraq, the researchers said.
This is part of the long-term cost of war, both in humanitarian and monetary terms. It’s a big part of the reason why we shouldn’t just rush into wars because of some childish president’s oedipal problems. —Caro

Blacks Less Likely to Get Angioplasty After Heart Attack
TUESDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) -- A new U.S. study finds that black Medicare patients who have a heart attack are less likely than whites to get procedures that open their blood vessels, such as angioplasty, which can leave them more vulnerable to dying within a year.

FDA Steps Up Oversight of Body Parts Companies
TUESDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health officials said Tuesday that they're stepping up inspections of companies that use cadavers to harvest body parts for tissue transplants. The increased vigilance comes after scandal shook the transplant industry last year when it was discovered that funeral homes were harvesting body parts and selling them without consent, including body parts from Alistair Cooke, the 90-year-old former host of PBS' Masterpiece Theater.

Weapon fragment from 1800s found in whale
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A fragment of a weapon used by commercial whalers in the 1800s was found in a massive bowhead whale caught off Alaska last month, suggesting it may be more than a century old, officials said Tuesday.
Will someone please tell me why we’re still killing these wonderful animals?

Environment

Summary Box: Bill to hike fuel standards
BROAD LEGISLATION: An energy bill in the Senate would raise auto fuel economy standards for the first time in nearly 20 years and make oil industry price gouging a federal crime.

Massive animal herd survives in Southern Sudan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A massive herd of animals thought to have been wiped out by decades of civil war in Southern Sudan has survived against the odds and could be one of the largest migrations of large mammals on the planet.
U.N. Seeks to Conserve Genetic Resources
The United Nations is stepping up its campaign to conserve the world's genetic resources so crops and animals can adapt to global warming and other challenges, focusing on fish for the first time since fish are increasingly being bred to meet the world's food needs.

Past Contaminated Water at Lejeune Suspected in Death and Illness
Thousands of Marines and their families went to serve their country at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune. Instead, many wound up fighting it, blaming the government for failing to protect them from an enemy that invaded their lives in a most intimate way: through the water that quenched their thirst, cooked their food and filled their bathtubs every day.

For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com.

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