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Morning headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Top StoryFM: Australia not to be involved in any military action on Iran
CANBERRA, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Tuesday said Australia won't follow the United States to take any possible military action against Iran. Downer's comments came as U.S. President George W Bush is now allegedly focusing on getting support from allies, including Australia. The Illustrated Daily Scribble
The WorldUS troops watch over Iraqi pilgrimage
NAJAF, Iraq - With the wounds still fresh from Shiite battles outside shrines in Karbala, Iraqi security forces aren't taking any chances as worshippers fill another holy city.
Israeli, Palestinian leaders meeting
JERUSALEM - Israeli and Palestinian leaders were meeting in Jerusalem to try to map out a joint program for next month's Mideast peace conference, a day after Israel completed the release of 86 prisoners as a goodwill gesture.
Israel says it bombed Syria, but why remains a mystery
JERUSALEM — Nearly a month after a mysterious Israeli military airstrike in Syria generated political aftershocks from Washington to North Korea, the Israeli government lifted its official veil of secrecy Tuesday. It didn't provide much new information about what took place on Sept. 6, however.
Iran Revolutionary Guards' role growing
TEHRAN, Iran - They own car factories and construction firms, operate newspaper groups and oil fields and increasingly, serve in parliament or become provincial governors. To supporters, the Revolutionary Guards are the cream of Iran's talent.
Soldiers hunt dissidents in Myanmar
YANGON, Myanmar - Soldiers announced that they were hunting pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar's largest city Wednesday and the top U.S. diplomat in the country said military police were pulling people out of their homes during the night.
Koreas summit opens with discord
SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's president said the first summit in seven years with North Korea began Wednesday on some discordant notes, but in a sign of promise for the talks North Korean leader Kim Jong Il suggested the meeting be extended an extra day.
East Timor arrests alleged hit squad leader
DILI (Reuters) - Police in East Timor arrested on Wednesday the suspected head of a hit squad linked with a former interior minister convicted of giving weapons to civilians during a wave of violence last year, the United Nations and police said.
How Tuaregs, Hausas are avoiding another Darfur
Kup-Kup, Niger - On the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert herders and farmers with a bitter history of fighting over dwindling resources are now working together to stop a common enemy: the desert's increasingly rapid advance. The NationPelosi nixes idea of ‘war tax’
All told, the Democratic proposal for an “Iraq tax” lasted about four hours. That’s roughly the amount of time from when House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) gave life to the idea with his endorsement to when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) strangled it.
House backs sale of F-16s to Taiwan
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives on Tuesday urged the Bush administration to proceed with a $4 billion sale of F-16s to Taiwan despite concerns that the deal could antagonize China.
Bill stalls over transgender protections
WASHINGTON - Legislation banning workplace discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals — but not those who have had sex-change surgery or cross-dressers — has stalled in the House after an impassioned outcry against excluding people from the bill.
Bush to veto child health plan
WASHINGTON - President Bush is ready to escalate his battle with Congress over children's health insurance, planning a veto of a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded the program.
Questions raised over terror exercise
WASHINGTON - The nation is preparing for its biggest terrorism exercise ever next week when three fictional "dirty bombs" go off and cripple transportation arteries in two major U.S. cities and Guam, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
Report says FCC talks too much
WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission is doing a swell job communicating with lobbyists, but with the public? Not so good, according to a government report.
Goldsmith muzzled by White House on spy program.
In a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Tuesday), former Bush administration lawyer Jack Goldsmith “said that parts of the President Bush’s controversial eavesdropping program were illegal” and that “the White House has forbidden him from saying anything about the legal analysis underpinning the program.” Goldsmith said that the White House does not want the Terrorist Surveillance Program scrutinized. “There’s no doubt the extreme secrecy not getting feedback from experts, not showing it to experts led to a lot of mistakes,” he said.
Blackwater chairman defends his company
WASHINGTON - Blackwater chairman Erik Prince vigorously rejected charges Tuesday that guards from his private security firm acted like a bunch of cowboys immune to legal prosecution while protecting State Department personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Report: Millions wasted on gov't travel
Federal employees wasted at least $146 million over a one-year period on business- and first-class airline tickets, in some cases simply because they felt entitled to the perk, congressional investigators say.
Carve a Candidate
Just in time for Halloween: The Des Moines Register has free pumpkin-carving templates of the top-tier presidential candidates.
Millionaire families grew by 14 per cent in '06: survey
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The numbers of millionaire households globally grew by 14 percent in 2006 from 2005 and now control a third of the estimated $100 trillion in wealth, a new study by Boston Consulting Group released on Tuesday found.
How deep a housing slump? (by Paul Krugman)
Reading various stories on the latest grim housing news, I notice that almost all of them talk about the decline in sales over the past year – which is, to be sure, pretty grim. For example, August 2007 new home sales were off 21% from a year earlier. But the reality is even grimmer, since the housing bust was already well underway in 2006. .. In other words, this is a big, big bust. MediaPermanent link to MTA daily media news
The "Tyrant on Tour" Coverage Tops the News: Sept. 23 - 28, 2007
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speaking trip to New York proved irresistible for the news media last week. But once you got past the hype, the politics, and the First Amendment debate, how much did we learn about Iran?
Congressmen thank Prince and Blackwater
It was an unusual congressional hearing where the majority party had hoped to score a home run and mop the floor with the owner of the nation's most prolific provider of diplomatic security services. Instead, after nearly four hours of talking and questioning at the October 2 event, even the critics appeared to grovel at the feet of the former Navy SEAL who is credited with saving the lives of all American diplomats in Iraq.
From the “Blackwater ‘Facts’” blog at Blogger.—Caro
Blackwater Hearings Ain't no Superbad (by P.W. Singer, Wired)
The best encapsulation of the entire hearings on this important matter of national security was that offered by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). He led his remarks by saying, "Hopefully, we will get to serious discussion." Then he proceeded to talk about everything from diabetes drugs to Moveon.org -- as opposed to the issues at hand.
Rep. Issa's on the Case
Issa dedicated most of his question time to debunking Democrats' claims that Blackwater is a Republican company… Issa noted that Blackwater employees had actually donated money to the Green Party. The only problem is that this was actually an effort by a clique of GOP activists last year to help Rick Santorum by making a rash of big money contributions to the obscure Green Party candidate in the Pennsylvania senate race last year.
Irony Alert
Actual headline in The Weekly Standard. “Democrats Seize on Limbaugh to Distract from their Iraq Surrender” Not like the Senate resolution condemning MoveOn.org. That was completely different.
Killing The King (by digby)
I just watched Bill Bennett quivering with outrage that Media Matters has "smeared" Rush Limbaugh; according to him… Bennett said today that the Democrats had erred because if they were going to try to kill the king, they'd better succeed, and Rush is the king of talk radio. He's right. And the Democrats should have been working to take him down long ago.
Limbaugh Compares Purple Heart Recipient In Vote Vets Ad To A Suicide Bomber
In a new Vote Vets ad released today, Brian McGough, an Iraq war veteran who received the Purple Heart, challenges Rush Limbaugh: “Until you have the guts to call me a ‘phony soldier‘ to my face, stop telling lies about my service.”… In response, Limbaugh today attacked McGough, comparing him to a suicide bomber and suggesting that someone “pumped him full of these lies about what I said“.
Click through to watch the ad video.—Caro
Clark: Yank Limbaugh off Armed Forces radio.
Gen. Wesley Clark: “It’s time to put real pressure on Rush Limbaugh. His show is broadcast on Armed Forces Radio, and this time we are going to go straight to the lifeblood of Rush’s show — Congress. Congress has the power to remove Rush Limbaugh from Armed Forces Radio, and it won’t be as easy for elected officials to ignore our call.”
Thank you, General Clark. Click through for an action link.—Caro
0:
Number of Republicans who signed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) letter to Clear Channel’s CEO condemning Rush Limbaugh. Forty-one Democrats signed the letter. In contrast, 72 senators voted to condemn MoveOn.org’s New York Times ad.
O’Hanlon Defends His Old Friend Petraeus, ‘Convinced’ Pentagon Is Wrong On Iraq Stats
Yesterday, ( Brookings analyst Michael)O’Hanlon escalated his obsessive defense of (Gen. David) Petraeus, attacking the Pentagon because its statistics differed than those of his grad school buddy. In a Washington Times op-ed, O’Hanlon acknowledged that the Pentagon’s recent report “clouded” Petraeus’ report… O’Hanlon’s argument focuses on making the case for cherry-picking facts, or selecting what he personally thinks should and should not be included in a tally of violence. Technology & ScienceInternet telephony pioneers stumble
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) - In spite of its global popularity, Internet telephony (VoIP), which is almost free for users, has not become a gold mine for its pioneers such as Skype and Vonage.
Driverless Truck Lurches Out of Lab
OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) - Sitting high in the cab of the hulking lime-green TerraMax truck, a driver can be excused for instinctively grabbing the steering wheel. There's no need. TerraMax is a self-driving vehicle, a prototype designed to navigate and obey traffic rules - all while the people inside, if there are any, do anything but drive.
Obesity Driving Rising U.S. Health Costs
Americans outspend Europeans when it comes to chronic disease care, study finds
Low Doses of Red Wine Chemical May Fight Diabetes
Resveratrol has already been shown to offer heart benefits
Glaxo, Astra, Roche back stem cells for drug tests
LONDON (Reuters) - Three of Europe's top drugmakers have backed a new public-private scheme to use stem cells for safety testing of experimental medicines, signaling "big pharma's" growing interest in the controversial field.
No need for dissection as see-through frogs jump in
TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese researchers have succeeded in producing see-through frogs, letting them observe organs, blood vessels and eggs under the skin without performing dissections.
Neanderthals trekked all the way into Siberia
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Neanderthals, the stocky kin of modern humans, were far more widespread geographically than previously thought, with some trekking into southern Siberia before vanishing about 30,000 years ago, scientists said on Monday.
Pluto-sized planet embryos detected
Puffy debris disks around three nearby stars could harbor Pluto-sized planets-to-be, a new computer model suggests. EnvironmentClimate Change Seen Posing Big Risk For Insurers
SYDNEY The global insurance industry faces substantial risks from climate change due to the increased incidence of cyclones, floods, drought and bushfires, a major European reinsurer told the Greenhouse 2007 conference.
Expert says China would follow U.S. lead on climate
NEW YORK (Reuters) - China would soon follow the U.S. lead if Washington agrees to tackle its emissions in the next few years because China's government takes the threat of global warming more seriously than the United States does, a climate expert said on Tuesday.
Schools Embrace Ways to Help Environment
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Jacob Chapman hopes to plant a rooftop garden at Olathe South High School, encourages classmates to recycle plastic bottles and paper, and wants them to reduce their use of disposables in the school cafeteria.
Green Doesn't Mean Sacrificing Lifestyle
MIAMI - Americans do not need to pare back their lifestyles to help protect the global environment but may need to use sugar or orange peel to power their energy-guzzling Hummers and Cigarette boats, Florida's governor said on Tuesday.
New method could advance development of hydrogen-fueled cars
Los Angeles, California - Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a model that could help engineers and scientists speed up the development of hydrogen-fueled vehicles by identifying promising hydrogen-storage materials and predicting favored thermodynamic chemical reactions through which hydrogen can be reversibly stored and extracted.
Researchers find egg-cellent way to power cars
Ohio State University researchers say a breakfast byproduct could play a role in a new way of powering cars.
Japan Looks to Batteries to Clean Up Cars
TOKYO - Achieving a breakthrough in battery technology is the key to tackling pollution caused by cars and sustaining a rapid growth in car ownership worldwide, an official at the Japanese automakers' lobby said.
Blind people: Hybrid cars pose hazard
BALTIMORE - Gas-electric hybrid vehicles, the status symbol for the environmentally conscientious, are coming under attack from a constituency that doesn't drive: the blind. For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com. |
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