More Strange Weather - And Cows In The Yard Again
The weather has continued its strange, unusual pattern. Right now, it is wind. And boy, has it been windy! The latest spate of strange weather began at about two o'clock this morning, when I was awakened by extremely loud thunder - loud enough to rattle the windows and roof sheets. And it was just one burst of lightning, but it was evidently close enough to be a hazard, so I got up and got the computer shut down and disconnected - the first time ever I have had to do that in the middle of the night. But that lightning strike was the only one, too - not until late in the morning was there any more thunder. And the temperatures have continued to do strange things. The warmest it got all day was 75, and it began to cool slowly from that, dropping to 73 by ten in the evening, as I write this - the low for the day. The meteorological institute says this weird weather will continue through the weekend, and may lead to local flooding in Limon province and possibly down in the Osa peninsula area.
The principal feature of the weather during the day was wind. And extremely windy it has been, with the strongest winds I have ever seen in this country - strong enough to rip roof sheets off of my neighbor's new addition, and blow over several banana plants in my yard. Usually, strong winds here are associated with thunderstorms, but not in this storm. It has been incredibly strong trade winds, which have persisted all day. When the gardener arrived today, he suggested that the lawn needed mowing, so that he did, and after doing so, tried to put the garden back together a bit from all the wind, picking up broken tree limbs and replanting the bananas that have been pushed over by the wind. Several more plants came down after he left, and will need to be replanted when I can get out into the garden to do it.
The only damage to my place was to my ham radio antenna. It didn't bring the antenna down, but it certainly played havoc with the feedline cable. It was broken not in one place or even two, but three separate places. It took me the better part of an hour out in the rain to find and repair all the breaks induced by the wind.
I went to town, as usual for Fridays, and got my weekly chores in town done, along with getting a haircut, which I badly needed. I took off early, because the power was off and I couldn't cook breakfast, and I needed to get to the bank before the lines formed. When I returned, the gardener had most of the lawn cut and was taking a break. He pointed out that there had been a cow through the yard, which had left behind a line of tracks in the muddy soil of the lawn. After the gardener left, I went out to have a look and found the hole in the fence, which turned out to be in the fence with my eastern neighbor's property. I found the broken strands and tied them together until I can get the fence line fixed, and that should at least keep the cows out. But permanent repairs will have to wait until I can get a peone hired to do some much needed fence work around these parts.
More Reasons Why I Am Glad I Am Out Of The States: Stating that American law outweighs an international treaty, the Supreme Court said Wednesday that foreign criminals held in state prisons did not have a right to reopen their cases if their rights under the Vienna Convention had been violated. The 6-3 ruling spares state prison officials a major headache. If the high court had ruled the other way, thousands of state inmates who were not U.S. citizens could have sought to have their convictions reversed. The international treaty, drafted in 1963, seeks to protect foreigners, including Americans traveling or living abroad. It requires that officials notify the home-country consulate when a foreigner is arrested or held for "pending trial." Despite its clear terms, police and prosecutors in the United States have failed to notify foreign criminal suspects that they have a right to the help of their nation's consulate. Two years ago, the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, took up an appeal from the governments of Mexico and Germany. The court, based in The Hague, ruled that the treaty gave individuals a right to reopen their cases if they did not get the proper notification.
Smirkey has refused to rule out military tribunals for inmates at Guantanamo Bay detention center. His administration was dealt a blow on Thursday when the Supreme Court ruled it had overstepped its authority in setting up the tribunals. But Republican senators immediately began planning how to win congressional approval for new tribunals. The ruling came in response to a case brought by Osama Bin Laden's ex-driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan. He is one of 10 Guantanamo inmates facing a military tribunal, but demanding to be tried by a civilian tribunal or court martial, where proceedings would be more open and defendants would have greater access to the evidence against them.
The US military has opened a criminal investigation into the alleged killing of another Iraqi family by US soldiers. Little official detail has been given, but unnamed officials say the inquiry includes the alleged rape of one of the victims before she was killed. The investigation began on Saturday and follows an initial military inquiry. The probe is the latest in a series of inquiries into alleged abuse of Iraqis by US troops. The US Army's Criminal Investigation Command was asked to look into the incident after a preliminary military inquiry found reason to open a criminal probe, the military said in a statement in Baghdad. The criminal investigation was ordered a day after two soldiers said they had heard about the incident in the area of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, on 12 March, the statement said.
Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered an immediate halt to all attacks - including those on American troops - if the United States agrees to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in two years, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Withdrawal is the centerpiece of a set of demands from the groups, which operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces are increasingly violent and attacks there have crippled oil and commerce routes. The groups who've made contact have largely shunned attacks on Iraqi civilians, focusing instead on the U.S.-led coalition forces. Their offer coincides with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's decision to reach out to the Sunni insurgency with a reconciliation plan that includes an amnesty for fighters. The Islamic Army in Iraq, Muhammad Army and the Mujahedeen Shura Council - the umbrella group that covers eight militant groups including al-Qaida in Iraq - were not party to any offers to the government.
The Right Wing has gone hog-ass wild over the New York Times’ "shocking" report that the Bush Administration is actually tracking terrorists' money transfers. Oh my! The fruitcakes are in flames! "Stand them in front of a firing squad or put them in prison for the rest of their lives," says one pinhead on Fox TV. Yes, let's talk treason. How about this: Before the 9/11 attack, George Bush’s intelligence chieftains BLOCKED the CIA’s investigation of the funding of al-Qaeda and terror. Who was exempt from investigation? That was on page 2 of the 199-I document, leaked from the CIA to the BBC. The FBI was hunting in Falls Church, Virginia, for "ABL," Abdullah bin Laden, nephew of Osama. They were also seeking another relative, Omar bin Laden (or "Binladden" in the alternative translation of the Arabic name). But by September 13, when the restrictions on agents were removed, the bin Ladens were gone. Why did buildings have to fall before the FBI could question the bin Ladens? Because, frustrated agents noted, the "suspected terrorist organization" was funded directly by the Saudi Royal family. So I'm tempted to say that, Yes, the New York Times has committed treason - not by reporting on what Bush's spies are doing, but on failing to report on what Bush’s spies did not do: a deadly failure to follow the money before September 11 because the House of Bush chose to protect the House of Saud.
The United States rejected on Friday Iranian calls for more time to study an offer of incentives to curb its nuclear fuel program, insisting Tehran must respond by a G8 deadline next week. The Group of Eight industrialized nations told Iran on Thursday they wanted a "clear and substantive response" on July 5 to an offer of incentives to stop enriching uranium. But two Iranian officials immediately declared more time was needed. A Western diplomat familiar with the issue said the Islamic Republic was unlikely to give a firm answer but that if one did not arrive by July 12, when major power foreign ministers next meet, U.N. Security Council action would loom. UnderSecretary of State Nicholas Burns insisted the offer was "very straightforward" and Iran's chief negotiator Ali Larijani should respond as requested at a slated July 5 meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "There will be a meeting here in this city next week, where we expect and hope that Larijani will give us an answer ... This is not a complicated offer," Burns said in Brussels.
The former top US weapons inspector testified at a House hearing on Thursday that close to 500 degraded chemical munitions found in Iraq, and revealed last week, constitute weapons of mass destruction, although they haven't "killed a single American or Iraqi," and that his report didn't note them because his team wasn't concentrating on pre-1991 weapons. Dr. David Kay, formerly First Director of the CIA Iraq Survey Group from 2003 to 2004, was testifying before the House Armed Services Committee which is investigating the results of the search for Iraq's WMD. But Kay also acknowledged that many alleged WMD in Iraq had not been found, when grilled by a Democratic Congressman at the hearing. "It really should not be a surprise to anyone that chemical munitions produced in Iraq between 1980 and roughly 1991 have been found there during the course of Iraq -- Operation Iraqi Freedom," said Kay. "Such rounds continue to be found throughout the period that the UN was in Iraq from 1991 until it was kicked out in 1998; they were even found during Dr. Blix's brief period of return prior to the onslaught of Operation Iraqi Freedom." "Iraq has a great deal of weapons scattered throughout it," Kay said.
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday unanimously approved an international treaty that would ban states from abducting perceived enemies and hiding them in secret prisons or killing them. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance would require states to keep registers of detainees and tell their families the truth about their disappearance, as well as paying compensation. It still has to be adopted in the U.N. General Assembly, and then individual governments would need to approve it. Rights experts say the United States, in the spotlight over allegations it has been transferring terrorism suspects to secret jails in other countries, is not expected to ratify the pact. The Human Rights Council, a new 47-member state forum, agreed by consensus in its first major decision to send the pact to the General Assembly for final adoption. Some 535 new "disappearances" were reported to the U.N. last year, many of them in Chechnya, Colombia, and Nepal. The treaty has been under negotiation since 1992, inspired by disappearances and killings of government opponents during Latin American military dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s.
The United States is losing its fight against terrorism and the Iraq war is the biggest reason why, more than eight of 10 American terrorism and national security experts concluded in a poll released Wednesday. One participant in the survey, a former CIA official who described himself as a conservative Republican, said the war in Iraq has provided global terrorist groups with a recruiting bonanza, a valuable training ground and a strategic beachhead at the crossroads of the oil-rich Persian Gulf and Turkey, the traditional land bridge linking the Middle East to Europe. "The war in Iraq broke our back in the war on terror," said the former official, Michael Scheuer, the author of "Imperial Hubris," a popular book highly critical of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism efforts. "It has made everything more difficult and the threat more existential." Scheuer, a former counterterrorism expert with the CIA, is one of more than 100 national security and terrorism analysts who were surveyed this spring for the poll by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for American Progress.
A week after the GOP-led Senate rejected an increase to the minimum wage, Senate Democrats on Tuesday vowed to block pay raises for members of Congress until the minimum wage is increased. "We're going to do anything it takes to stop the congressional pay raise this year, and we're not going to settle for this year alone," Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said at a Capitol news conference. "They can play all the games the want," Reid said derisively of the Republicans who control the chamber. "They can deal with gay marriage, estate tax, flag burning, all these issues and avoid issues like the prices of gasoline, sending your kid to college. But we're going to do everything to stop the congressional pay raise." The minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. Democrats want to raise it to $7.25. During the past nine years, as Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to increase the minimum wage, members of Congress have voted to give themselves pay raises -- technically "cost of living increases" -- totaling $31,600, or more than $15 an hour for a 40-hour week, 52 weeks a year, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Two Senate Democrats on Wednesday criticized a White House plan to cut money intended for food stamps, student loans and farmers to pay for credit monitoring for veterans whose personal and financial data was stolen last month. "The Bush-Cheney administration has no qualms about coming up here and twisting our arms for funding for Iraq, but when it comes to needs here at home for veterans and other ordinary Americans, it's rob Peter to pay Paul," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont. Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said, "It's outrageous to first expose millions of Americans to credit fraud and identity theft, and then try to cut food stamps, student loans and youth programs to pay for it." "This is about taking responsibility when you mess up," Ms. Murray added. "That's something even little kids understand."
George Soros has assigned himself a daunting mission. "Changing the attitude and policies of the United States remains my top priority," he writes in the introduction to his latest book, "The Age of Fallibility" (PublicAffairs). The billionaire investor is set on convincing Americans to renounce the idea of a "war on terror" because he believes that an "endless" war against an invisible enemy is counterproductive and dangerous. He argues that since the attacks of September 11, the Bush administration has suffered from a kind of infallibility complex which impedes progress and obscures reality.
The UK mission in Afghanistan is in danger of failing because of "misguided" support for American military and drug-eradication policies, an international think-tank has claimed. Instead of taking part in the reconstruction of the country shattered by decades of war, British forces find themselves "at war" with a resurgent Taliban and alienated from an increasingly hostile population. The study by the Senlis Council, a drug policy think-tank, predicts that the violence in the south will escalate. The Taliban and their allies have been exploiting the anger felt by farmers at the destruction of opium crops and by civilians who have suffered in US-led operations. Lt-Gen David Richards, the British officer who is due to take over all Nato operations in Afghanistan with US troops under his command, warned the crop eradication programme was driving farmers into the hands of the Taliban and the Western forces are creating new enemies.
In a unanimous decision and sweeping decision, the Arkansas Supreme Court today struck down a regulation that banned lesbian and gay people from serving as foster parents. The decision ends a seven-year legal battle between the state and the American Civil Liberties Union. Pointing to the findings of a lower court that overturned the ban, the Court criticized the Child Welfare Agency Review Board’s reasons for enacting the regulation, writing, "These facts demonstrate that there is no correlation between the health, welfare, and safety of foster children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who resides in a household with a homosexual."
More key NASA officials who oversee the agency said they don't believe the shuttle is safe for launch. E-mails sent to NASA's administrator from the agency's inspector general's office obtained by the Orlando Sentinel said they didn't believe shuttle Discovery should launch without more work to prevent foam insulation from breaking off the external fuel tank. NASA already had a "no go" for flight from the agency's top safety official and chief engineer. However, NASA managers went ahead and gave the "go for launch" for Saturday. Meanwhile, NASA declined Thursday to release documents from a critical safety meeting where managers debated whether to go forward with the shuttle launch.
U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris said she is getting support in strange places in her fall bid for the U.S. Senate. Harris, the Republican who represents Florida's 13th District, spoke at a Lincoln Day dinner held by the Putnam County Republican Executive Committee on Saturday night, saying House Democrats have told her they want her to beat incumbent Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson in their race for the U.S. Senate this November. "I've had Democrats in the House of Representatives come to me and say 'You know, we'd really like to take the majority in the U.S. Senate'" these are Florida Democrats in the U.S. Congress - 'but you'll do so much more for us if you're there. We hope you win,'" Harris told a crowd gathered at the Putnam County Shrine Club. Harris said one Florida representative suggested a slogan for her campaign against Nelson. "I had one of the most liberal house members from Florida say to me, 'I've got a great slogan for you for Nelson.' I said 'What is it?' He said, 'All about nothing for far too long.'" Harris said she replied she did not think she could use the slogan. "I said 'Well, it's kind of mean. I don't think I could really use it, but can I quote you?' And he's like 'No, no, no.'"
President Bush sparred with reporters today who wanted him to discuss the Supreme Court ruling that he had exceeded his presidential authority with the Guantanamo tribunals. When first asked if he planned to close down the prison quickly, President Bush noted that he had only had a "drive-by" briefing on the ruling. "Yeah, I - thank you for the question on a, quote, "ruling" that literally came out in the midst of my meeting with the prime minister, and so I haven't had a chance to fully review the findings of the Supreme Court," said Bush. "The American people need to know that this ruling, as I understand it, won't cause killers to be put out on the street," Bush said. "In other words, there's not a - as I - as I was - a drive-by briefing on the way here, I was told that this was not going to be the case." When asked about the ruling by another reporter, Bush again said that he hadn't had the time to "fully review" it.
Raytheon Co. will pay a $12 million fine and two of its former executives will give back part of their bonuses to settle a long-running accounting probe into the defense contractor's aircraft unit, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday. The settlement all but clears the persistent cloud hanging over the Waltham, Massachusetts company, which the SEC charged with misleading accounting between 1997 to 2001. A former Raytheon chief financial officer is still on leave from the company and has not yet settled with the SEC.
Americans are closely divided on whether the economy is in good shape, with 50% saying it is doing well and 47% saying it is doing badly, the poll found. In January, when Bush launched his campaign to spread good news, the national mood was slightly better: In a Times Poll that month, 55% said the economy was doing well. And Bush doesn't get much credit for the economy's relative health, the new survey found. Of respondents, 39% say they approve of the president's handling of the economy and 19% say they think the economy is better because of his policies - numbers that are basically unchanged since the beginning of the year. People questioned in the poll cited several reasons for their gloomy views, but two were mentioned most frequently: fears of higher unemployment, and the high price of gasoline and other fuels.
Some readers of HuffingtonPost.com have initiated a new wave of harassing phone calls to Swift Boat veterans who questioned John Kerry's military record in the 2004 campaign - and the website's proprietors remained ignorant of it for days, despite repeated complaints. Last Saturday morning, HuffPost, Arianna Huffington's year-old online effort, linked to a story regarding the release of Navy personal information. By Saturday afternoon, two registered "trusted" HuffPost commenters posted the names and personal information of more than a dozen Swift Boat veterans. "SatanLivesinUSA" wrote at 2:15 p.m., June 24, "SwiftBoatVets who need some Black Ops done on them. I have some very good ideas I gleaned from 'CIA BOOK of DIRTY TRICKS' Don't get mad, get EVEN." Minutes later, at 2:19 p.m., "YvonneMoorhead" repeatedly pasted SatanLivesinUSA's comments on that page and on another Huffington Post post.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has named Ron Nehring and Jim Kelly, two members of the controversy-plagued Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) board in San Diego county, as co-chairs of the Governor’s education coalition. The move has sparked an angry response from teacher’s union representative Bruce Seaman, president of the Grossmont Education Association. "He’s certainly putting together a coalition of enemies of public education," Seaman told RAW STORY. "Ron Nehring is working for Grover Norquist’s organization, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)." Noting that Norquist has stated he wants to reduce the size of government in order to "drown it in a bathtub," Seaman added, "His second agenda is to eliminate public education and go to vouchers. Certainly Nehring can in no way be looked at as a friend of public education."
The House on Wednesday voted to continue to allow federal prosecution of those who smoke marijuana for medical purposes in states with laws that permit it. A year ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government can prosecute medical marijuana users, even when state laws allow doctor-prescribed use of the drug. By a 259-163 vote, the House again turned down an amendment that would have blocked the Justice Department from prosecuting people in the 11 states with such medical marijuana laws. Advocates say medical marijuana use is the only way that many chronically ill people, such as AIDS and cancer patients, can relieve their symptoms. The vote came as the House debated a $59.8 billion bill covering the departments of Commerce, Justice and State.
The Pentagon no longer deems homosexuality a mental disorder, officials said on Wednesday, although the reversal has no impact on U.S. policy prohibiting openly gay people from serving in the military. After a 1996 Pentagon document placing homosexuality among a list of "certain mental disorders" came to light this month, the American Psychiatric Association and a handful of lawmakers asked the Defense Department to change its view. The Pentagon said in a statement: "Homosexuality should not have been characterized as a mental disorder in an appendix of a procedural instruction. A clarification will be issued over the next few days."
U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris doesn't have overwhelming support among fellow Republicans in her bid to be their nominee for U.S. Senate, according to a poll released Friday, despite her reputation as being a party heroine for her role in the 2000 presidential recount. Harris, of Sarasota, also still lags far behind in a general election matchup with incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Melbourne Democrat who still would beat any Republican in the race, according to the poll by Quinnipiac University. Nelson had 59 percent to 26 percent for Harris, virtually unchanged from a month ago.
The claim was startling. At a Republican dinner in Putnam County, FL last weekend, Rep. Katherine Harris said some very unlikely people were supporting her campaign for U.S. Senate. Harris said several House Democrats from Florida want her to defeat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson this fall. "You'll do so much more for us if you're there," Harris said they told her. "We hope you win." That Florida Democrats would be pulling for any Republican is surprising. That they'd be rooting for Harris - who many Democrats say rigged the 2000 presidential election - would be shocking. But all seven House Democrats from Florida told the Orlando Sentinel they never expressed any support for Harris. Responses from two - Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Alcee Hastings - were typical. "That would be a big 'No,' " Wasserman Schultz said. "Under no circumstances, in any way, shape or form am I supporting Katherine Harris, nor do I know anybody in the delegation who is." "I can assure you, Congressman Hastings is 110 percent committed to the re-election of Bill Nelson," Hastings' spokesman said. "He wishes Katherine Harris well in her life as a private citizen next year." Asked about the Democrats' universal denials, Harris' spokesman Chris Ingram said his boss is sticking by her account. He said she won't identify the mystery Democrats because they offered their support in confidence.
House Republicans intend to hold votes this summer and fall touching on abortion, guns, religion and other priority issues for social conservatives, part of an attempt to improve the party's prospects in the midterm elections. The "American Values Agenda" also includes a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage - which already has failed in the Senate - a prohibition on human cloning and possibly votes on several popular tax cuts. "Radical courts have attempted to gut our religious freedom and redefine the value system on which America was built. We hope to restore some of those basic values through passing this legislative agenda and renewing our country's commitment to faith, freedom and life," Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Tuesday.
An odd thing seems to have happened to mighty right-wing talking head media juggernaut. They are still talking, but fewer people seem to be listening - at least on the Internet. During the past three months, for instance, http://rushlimbaugh.com traffic ranking has declined 18 percent. He still huffs and puffs away daily on radio, but advertisers might want to double check the size of his audience. If the bottom has dropped out on him online, it likely has had a similar trend line with his radio show. Even Fox News, that gold standard of right-wing media, is down 13 percent. Here are the numbers.
More than six in 10 Americans say the country is on the wrong track, according to a new Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll. More than half disapprove of Bush's handling of the economy, and 36 percent strongly disapprove. Almost half, 48 percent, say his policies have made the economy worse than it was when he became president; 19 percent say it's better. Approval of Bush's performance on the economy breaks along partisan lines, with 73 percent of Republicans giving him a thumbs-up versus 21 percent of Democrats. Only 29 percent of independents say they approve. While almost three-fourths of Republicans say the economy is doing well, most Democrats and independents say it's doing badly. Those who think the economy is doing poorly cite energy prices and difficulty finding a job as the biggest reasons. Six in 10 Americans say rising costs for gasoline, home heating and electricity are forcing them to cut spending in other areas to compensate.
The US government said it could not find the men that Guantánamo detainee Abdullah Mujahid believes could help set him free. The Guardian found them in three days. Two years ago the US military invited Mr Mujahid, a former Afghan police commander accused of plotting against the United States, to prove his innocence before a special military tribunal. As was his right, Mr Mujahid called four witnesses from Afghanistan. But months later the tribunal president returned with bad news: the witnesses could not be found. Mr Mujahid's hopes sank and he was returned to the wire-mesh cell where he remains today. The Guardian searched for Mr Mujahid's witnesses and found them within three days. One was working for President Hamid Karzai. Another was teaching at a leading American college. The third was living in Kabul. The fourth, it turned out, was dead. Each witness said he had never been approached by the Americans to testify in Mr Mujahid's hearing.
The Bush administration has been unable to muster even half of the 2,500 National Guardsmen it planned to have on the Mexican border by the end of June. As of Thursday, the next-to-last day of the month, fewer than 1,000 troops were in place, according to military officials in the four border states of Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona. President Bush's plan called for all 50 states to send troops. But only 10 states - including the four border states - have signed commitments. Some state officials have argued that they cannot free up Guardsmen because of flooding in the East, wildfires in the West or the prospect of hurricanes in the South. On the deadline to have 2,500 troops along the Mexican border, the National Guard said Friday that only 483 were in position and working with the U.S. Border Patrol as the Bush administration had directed.
Why I Am Embarrassed To Present My Passport Pakistan's Foreign Ministry responded angrily to a call by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for democratic elections next year, saying it doesn't need "outside" advice. The comments came in a statement late Wednesday, a day after Rice met with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan's capital. En route to Islamabad, Rice told reporters "there has to be, the world expects there to be, democratic, free and fair elections in Pakistan in 2007." Musharraf, a close U.S. ally in the war on terror, seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999. Although Washington has said it wants free and fair elections in Pakistan, Rice did not raise the issue during her talks with Pakistani officials, the ministry said.
Smirkey's operatives have plans to jigger with the upcoming elections. I'm not talking about the November '06 vote in the USA (though they have plans for that, too). I'm talking about the election this Sunday in Mexico for their Presidency. It begins with an FBI document marked, 'Counterterrorism' and 'Foreign Intelligence Collection' and 'Secret.' Date: "9/17/2001," six days after the attack on the World Trade towers. It's nice to know the feds got right on the ball, if a little late. What does this have to do with jiggering Mexico's election? Hold that thought. Hunting for Terrorists in Latin America... This document is what's called a "guidance" memo for using a private contractor to provide databases on dangerous foreigners. Good idea. We know the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf Emirates. So you'd think the "Intelligence Collection" would be aimed at getting info on the guys in the Gulf. No so. When Greg Palast's organization received the document, they obtained as well its classified appendix. The target nations for "foreign counterterrorism investigation" were nowhere near the Persian Gulf. Every one was in Latin America - Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico and a handful of others.
The southern U.S. state of Texas executed a Mexican immigrant Tuesday night after rejecting expert medical opinions that the condemned man was mentally incompetent, and ignoring appeals from the Mexican government to spare the man's life. "Any execution is a failure of justice, and so was this one. Everything possible was done to prevent it, but the efforts were in vain," Alfonso García, spokesman in Mexico for the human rights watchdog group Amnesty International, said in an interview with IPS. The administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox lodged a series of appeals with the U.S. justice system attempting to prevent the execution, and even convinced the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in Costa Rica, to ask the United States to postpone the execution until all available legal means had been exhausted. But neither these actions, nor a telephone call from Mexican Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez to Texas Governor Rick Perry, pleading for clemency, had any effect. Last week judge William Harmon, of the 178th district criminal court in Houston, Texas, heard the medical evidence. Although four of the five experts were of the opinion that Maturino was insane, the judge ruled that he was "sufficiently competent" and would not be spared the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that convicts who are "mentally incompetent" shall not be executed.
By the beginning of this week, it became clear that a world-class hoax had gone down. Either North Korea had hoodwinked the globe into thinking it was about to launch a missle - or the Times was once again hyping up a national security threat. Today, finally, the Times admitted the obvious. Well, kinda sorta. And on page A9 - not the font page, where the Taepodong "scoop" had been originally published. Defense Tech notes that if Pyongyang really had loaded up all that fuel in the rocket 10 days ago, it would have eaten through the missile’s casings by now.
Liberal-Biased Media Watch: Al Kamen, who writes a column of political gossip for the Washington Post, had unearthed a memo from the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The memo contained 23 points describing conditions in Iraq: Point 2: "Two of our three female employees report stepped up harassment beginning in mid-May. One, a Shia who favors Western clothing, was advised by an unknown woman in her Baghdad neighborhood to wear a veil and not to drive her own car. She said some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative." Point 7 noted that "Temperatures in Baghdad have already reached 115 degrees. Employees all confirm that, by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without." Point 18 referred to an embassy employee who finds himself going to a funeral "every evening." Point 21: "Personal safety depends on good relations with 'neighborhood' governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. People no longer trust most neighbors." Taken as a whole, the memo added up to a complete refutation of the Bush administration's assertions regarding progress in Iraq. I expected to wake up the next morning and see the memo on the front page of every newspaper in America. And then: nothing. Other than a few mentions in editorials, the memo faded from sight. The only meaningful coverage of it was in the British newspapers.
It's bad enough that the Israeli government went and seized as political prisoners, essentially as hostages, 87 Hamas members of the Palestine Authority (PA) parliament yesterday, including eight cabinet ministers. Once again, Israel has demonstrated its contempt for virtually every known code of conduct honored by civilized (and, usually, even by uncivilized) governments around the globe. But what was even more appalling was the response of American media, which didn't think the kidnapping of a third of the government of a supposedly sovereign state authority was all that significant. Consider this headline and subheads from the Washington Post: West Bank Settler Killed / An 18-year-old Israeli settler was found executed today. Israel arrests more than 80 Hamas officials.
Why Moving To Canada Is Not An Option: Three Canadian citizens who visited the Brookestreet Hotel in Ottawa to observe members of the Bilderberg Group earlier this month were kidnapped, detained without charge and suffered the ordeal of a marathon interrogation session and psychological torture - including threats to "cut off the arms" of one of the victims. The nightmare began on June 9th, the second day of the Bilderberg conference. After being warned to leave the previous day, Joe Burd's party of three left the site of the Brookestreet Hotel at 2pm where he and Crystal Slack headed for a local bar, while Burd's friend electrician Don McCormick rested in their rented vehicle which was parked on a downtown street. What happened next should chill the core of anyone who thinks that westerners still live in a free society. Joe Burd picks up the story. "A military-grade task force involving local police, RCMP and members of the "Integrated National Security Enforcement Team" descended around the rental vehicle with weapons pointed at Mr. McCormick. He was abruptly and forcibly taken into custody from his vehicle, thrown to the ground and kicked in head." After approaching the vehicle, Burd and his friend Crystal Slack were also grabbed and kidnapped, taken to a RCMP holding facility, detained without charges, harassed and interrogated for hours about their connections to the "insurgent" and "threat to national security" Alex Jones, who himself had been detained and interrogated for 15 hours at the hands of Canadian immigration the previous day. They were the lucky ones. McCormick was taken to a secret high security facility where he was brutally interrogated without charge and mentally tortured for six hours. He was accused of wanting to blow up the Brookestreet Hotel, as the interrogators threatened to "cut off his arms" warning him that they also "had his friends" in custody. This is the very definition of psychological torture, the threat of physical harm and dismemberment.
Bill Of Rights Death Watch: If you've been following Wired News' coverage of the Electronic Frontier Foundation case against the NSA spying on the Internet, you won't find many new hard revelations in Marcus' analysis - at least, not in the censored version made public. But he connects the dots to draw some interesting conclusions: * The AT&T documents are authentic. That AT&T insists they remain under seal is evidence enough of this, but Marcus points out that the writing style is pure Bell System, with the "meticulous attention to detail that is typical of AT&T operations." * There may be dozens of surveillance rooms in AT&T offices around the country. Among other things, Marcus finds that portions of the documents are written to cover a number of different equipment rack configurations, "consistent with a deployment to 15 to 20" secret rooms. * The internet surveillance program covers domestic traffic, not just international traffic. Marcus notes that the AT&T spy rooms are "in far more locations than would be required to catch the majority of international traffic"; the configuration in the San Francisco office promiscuously sends all data into the secret room; and there's no reliable way an analysis could infer a user's physical location from their IP address. This, of course, directly contradicts President Bush's description of the "Terrorist Surveillance Program." * The system is capable of looking at content, not just addresses. The configuration described in the Klein documents -- presumably the Narus software in particular -- "exists primarily to conduct sophisticated rule-based analysis of content", Marcus concludes.
Republicans Believe In Conservation: A timber sale in an Oregon national forest roadless area has been awarded to a logging contractor, despite efforts by conservation groups and the governor to stop it. The southeastern Oregon timber sale was awarded Tuesday to Silver Creek Logging Co. of Merlin, after a federal judge in Medford decided it could go forward while he hears a lawsuit arguing the U.S. Forest Service should consider new scientific information, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest spokeswoman Patty Burel said. Meanwhile, a federal judge in San Francisco has yet to rule on a motion from Gov. Ted Kulongoski and conservation groups to stop the logging until two other lawsuits challenging the Bush administration's new roadless rule can be heard. One of the lawsuits was filed by Oregon, Washington, California and New Mexico, and the other by a coalition of 20 environmental groups. The governor's office and conservation groups have complained that the Bush administration is pushing through the sale in Mike's Gulch when it had assured them it would keep protections in place until states had worked out with the Forest Service whether to log in roadless areas. Kulongoski has said he wants to keep logging out of roadless areas in Oregon.
Trickle-Down Economics Trickling On You: Most U.S. employers are planning to further scale back health benefits offered to retirees, as companies struggle with the upward march in the cost of medical care and weigh increased contributions from the government's Medicare program, a survey found. Ninety-five percent of the mostly Fortune 500 companies polled expect to further restrict their retiree health plans over the next five years, and 14 percent plan to stop providing coverage entirely, the survey of 163 companies by benefits consultants Watson Wyatt found.
US consumer spending edged up a fractional 0.1% in May, tempered by increasing oil prices. The data, published by the Commerce Department, showed that US inflation rose by 0.2% last month. Core consumer prices, which are considered the main gauge of inflation and which exclude food and energy, have risen by 2.1% over the past year. The US Federal Reserve increased interest rates to 5.25% on Thursday, in a move to ease inflation. In announcing its latest quarter point rise, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said inflation pressures could well require "some further policy firming". But Mr Bernanke simultaneously indicated that the string of rate rises over the past eighteen months could be coming to a close, which prompted a surge in US stocks.
News From Smirkey's Wars: Baghdad's morgue has run out room to store bodies as more victims of smoldering violence in the Iraqi capital are delivered. More than 100 bodies are being held at room temperature because morgue refrigerators are full, inspector-general of Iraq's health ministry Adil Abdul Muhsin told Al-Mada news. Muhsin said the morgue had received 8,000 bodies so far this year, compared with 10,150 for the whole of last year. A new estimate of Iraqi deaths since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion shows at least 50,000 on the books but the toll is thought to be higher, according to a new Los Angeles Times report. Data was collected from the Iraqi Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue to reach the 50,000 figure, which is already more than 30,000 President Bush estimated last year, the report notes. The U.S. military, however, says the number of Iraqi civilians killed by coalition forces is down sharply so far this year compared with last year.
News From The Talibaptist Jihad: Jerry Falwell on the Iraq war: "President Bush declared war in Iraq to defend innocent people. This is a worthy pursuit. In fact, Proverbs 21:15 tells us: 'It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity." One of the primary purposes of the church is to stop the spread of evil, even at the cost of human lives. If we do not stop the spread of evil, many innocent lives will be lost and the kingdom of God suffers. Finally, some reading this column will surely ask, 'Doesn't the sixth commandment say, 'Thou shalt not kill?' Actually, no; it says: 'Thou shalt not commit murder.' There is a difference between killing and murdering. In fact, many times God commanded capital punishment for those who break the law. We continue to live in violent times. The Bible tells us war will be a reality until Christ returns. And when the time is right, Jesus will indeed come again, ending all wars."
Warren Buffett's new philanthropic alliance with fellow billionaire Bill Gates won widespread praise this week, but anti-abortion activists did not join in, instead assailing the two donors for their longtime support of Planned Parenthood and international birth-control programs. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to which Buffett has pledged the bulk of his $44-billion fortune, devotes the vast majority of its funding to combating disease and poverty in developing countries. Less than 1 percent has gone to Planned Parenthood over the years.
Maybe If We Ignore Global Warming Long Enough, It Will Go Away: When it comes to greenhouse gases, U.S. drivers are getting more of the blame. Americans represent 5 percent of the world's population but contribute 45 percent of the world's emission of carbon dioxide, the main pollutant that causes global warming, according to a report by the nonprofit group Environmental Defense. Americans own 30 percent of the world's vehicles, drive farther each year than the international average and burn more fuel per mile, the report says. Additionally, the sport-utility boom of the past decade put vehicles on the road that could be spewing carbon dioxide for years to come. General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. have long been the targets of environmentalists and other groups concerned with global warming. Vehicles made by GM, the No. 1 U.S. automaker, produced as much carbon dioxide in 2004 as American Electric Power Co., the nation's largest operator of coal-fired power plants, the report says.
Paul Epstein, associate director of Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment, said the Atlantic is warming faster than scientists projected even a decade ago, and he expects such storms as the one seen this week from Virginia to New York to become common. Epstein sees a clear pattern: rain has increased in the United States by 7 percent in three decades; heavy rain events of more than 2 inches a day are up 14 percent and storms dumping more than 4 inches a day rose 20 percent. The floods that forced up to 200,000 evacuees from a historic Pennsylvania coal town on Wednesday followed a year of erratic weather in other parts of the region, including record rainfall in May and June in Massachusetts, a spring-like January in Maine and Vermont's worst autumn foliage in memory.
A giant growth of algae in the waters off Canada's west coast, so huge it can be seen from space, may be linked to climate change, say scientists who hope to collect samples Friday for analysis. The growth, called a bloom, became visible in late June on NASA satellite images, said Jim Gower, a physicist with the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sydney, in British Columbia province. The images show swirls of chalky green in the darker waters off Vancouver Island.
Scandals Du Jour: Roger Stillwell, the desk officer for the Mariana Islands at the U.S. Department of the Interior who dealt closely with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is expected to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of false certification, his attorney confirmed Wednesday. Department of Justice officials charged Stillwell, 65, with filing a financial-disclosure report for fiscal year 2003 that "falsely certified that he did not receive reportable gifts from a prohibited source," according to a document filed June 27 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The charges against Stillwell are the first connected to the Abramoff scandal to touch the Interior Department, and they mark an expansion of the government's ongoing investigation into public corruption involving the convicted lobbyist. So far five people - Abramoff and former associates Michael Scanlon, Tony Rudy, Neil Volz, and Adam Kidan - have pleaded guilty. Earlier this month, David Safavian, the former top procurement officer at the Office of Management and Budget, was convicted on four charges of making false statements and obstructing justice stemming from his dealings with Abramoff.
We Conservatives Are More Moral Than You: Celebrity auctioneer and former Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX), reportedly generated plenty of laughs Tuesday night with a barrage of "beaver"-related double-entendres. At the annual Safari Club dinner, DeLay managed to bring in $1,400 for the sheared--or shaved, some say he called it--beaver fur vest. Excerpts from the Roll Call story follow: "Who wants a beaver?" asked DeLay, whom attendees said looked happier and more relaxed than ever. Hoots and hollers followed. The Hammer continued with lines such as, "Everybody likes beaver, even women" and, as a couple of people in the crowd recall, "The best thing about it, it’s a shaved beaver!" (Though two others, both of them DeLay supporters and protectors, said they think they remember DeLay saying it was "sheared beaver," not "shaved beaver.")
We seem to have arrived at the run-for-the-hills phase of the Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH) probe. Roll Call's John Bresnahan is reporting that three of Ney's key staffers are quitting their jobs with the ensnared congressman. Will Heaton, his Chief of Staff and Brian Walsh, his long-suffering communications director are both leaving. And Chris Otillo, his legislative director, apparently bailed last Friday. For those of you who aren't familiar with the nomenclature of the congressman's staff, that's pretty much it. Not that there aren't more people. But that's the troika. Another good sign is Matt Parker, Ney's District director, just got tagged with a subpoena. Walsh told Bresnahan he thanked Ney "for the chance to work for him, which was great", thus showing that Walsh may have to have a period of post-Ney detox because he can work out of the habit of making comically ridiculous statements.
This morning, I woke up to a thunderstorm. Not just a little rain, this was a full-on, gettin' down ripsnorter. And it didn't just last a couple of minutes, either. It went on for most of the morning, several hours, pouring down rain sufficient to over-run the pond overflow.
Thunderstorms here are usually afternoon affairs, as they are in the States. It usually takes the heat of the day to build them to something that can impress. But not this one. This one grew during the night, and by daybreak, it was something to behold.
That wasn't the worst of it, either. As the day progressed, the temperatures, which started out at 75 at daybreak, just got colder, until by 11:30, it was barely 72. The temperatures didn't recover much in the afternoon, either - it only got up to 76 by the end of the day. I found myself wearing a flannel shirt and long pants for the first time since last winter.
And then there was the wind. Strong trade winds out of the east, which would be normal for January - but not July. Really strange weather. I checked the satellite images for clues, and it appears that there is a very large convection cell centered directly over Costa Rica, with the strongest convection in the Caribbean region occurring right here. Maybe that accounts for it. But I hope whatever it is goes away.
More Reasons Why I Am Glad I Am Out Of The States: Apparently rushing to lock in a long-sought goal before the fall elections, GOP congressional leaders may bring to a vote within weeks on a little-noticed proposal that could literally wipe out any federal program that protects public health or the environment - or for that matter civil rights, poverty programs, auto safety, education, affordable housing, Head Start, workplace safety or any other activity targeted by anti-regulatory forces. With strong support from the Bush White House and the Republican Study Committee, the proposal would create a "sunset commission"--an unelected body with the power to recommend whether a program lives or dies, and then move its recommendations through Congress on a fast-track basis with limited debate and no amendments. Three leading proposals have been introduced and are being winnowed into a final version. They would give the White House some--or total--authority to nominate members to the commission. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has confirmed that his office is coordinating development of a final version for prompt floor action. Sunset commissions have been proposed, and defeated, before. But public interest veterans say the current situation is unlike any in the past, because the House Republican Study Committee, which includes some of the most anti-regulatory members of Congress, has secured guaranteed floor consideration of a sunset bill. If such a bill should become law, the sunset commission could be packed with industry lobbyists and representatives from industry-funded think tanks, and could conduct its business in secrecy. Two of the sunset proposals under consideration would mandate that programs die after they are reviewed, unless Congress takes action to save them.
House Republican leaders are expected to introduce a resolution today condemning The New York Times for publishing a story last week that exposed government monitoring of banking records. The resolution is expected to condemn the leak and publication of classified documents, said one Republican aide with knowledge of the impending legislation. The resolution comes as Republicans from the president on down condemn media organizations for reporting on the secret government program that tracked financial records overseas through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), an international banking cooperative. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.), working independently from his leadership, began circulating a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) during a late series of votes yesterday asking his leaders to revoke the Times’s congressional press credentials. The Standing Committee decides which organizations and reporters can be accredited, according to the rules of both the House and Senate press galleries. Members of that committee are elected by accredited members of those galleries. "Under no circumstances would we revoke anyone’s credentials simply because a government official is unhappy with what that correspondent’s newspaper has written," said Susan Milligan, a reporter for the Boston Globe, which is owned by the Times, who also serves the standing chairwoman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents. "The rules say nothing about the stories a newspaper chooses to pursue, or the reaction those stories provoke. The Times clearly meets our standards for credentials."
Government records show that the administration was encountering unprecedented second-guessing by the secret federal surveillance court when President Bush decided to bypass the panel and order surveillance of U.S.-based terror suspects without the court's approval. A review of Justice Department reports to Congress shows that the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than from the four previous presidential administrations combined. The court's repeated intervention in Bush administration wiretap requests may explain why the president decided to bypass the court nearly four years ago to launch secret National Security Agency spying on hundreds and possibly thousands of Americans and foreigners inside the United States, according to James Bamford, an acknowledged authority on the supersecret NSA, which intercepts telephone calls, e-mails, faxes and Internet communications. "They wanted to expand the number of people they were eavesdropping on, and they didn't think they could get the warrants they needed from the court to monitor those people," said Bamford, author of "Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency" and "The Puzzle Palace: Inside America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization." "The FISA court has shown its displeasure by tinkering with these applications by the Bush administration."
The US Supreme Court is to consider whether to force the government to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from energy producers and cars. A dozen states and environmental groups asked the court to take up the case after a lower court ruled against them. They argue the onus should be on the government's Environmental Protection Agency to limit CO2 emissions. They say CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas causing a warming of the Earth and so should be categorised a pollutant. The US government says that CO2 is not a pollutant under federal laws and that even if it was, it would have discretion over whether or not to regulate it. A federal appeals court recently sided with the government. If the Supreme Court disagrees when it makes its ruling later this year, it could have a profound impact on American life. It could pave the way, for example, for car manufacturers to be forced to improve fuel efficiency as a way of reducing CO2 emissions. That would be opposed by US President George W Bush.
The White House on Tuesday defended President Bush's frequent use of special statements that claim authority to limit the effects of bills he signs, saying the statements help him uphold the Constitution and defend national security. Senators weren't so sure. "It's a challenge to the plain language of the Constitution," said Arlen Specter, a Republican whose Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the issue. "There is a sense that the president has taken signing statements far beyond the customary purview." At the White House, Press Secretary Tony Snow said, "There's this notion that the president is committing acts of civil disobedience, and he's not. It's important for the president at least to express reservations about the constitutionality of certain provisions." The bill-signing statements say Bush reserves a right to revise, interpret or disregard measures on national security and constitutional grounds. Some 110 statements have challenged about 750 statutes passed by Congress, according to numbers combined from White House and the Senate committee. They include documents revising or disregarding parts of legislation to ban torture of detainees and to renew the Patriot Act.
Seven men charged with conspiring to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI building in Miami were entrapped by a federal informant, lawyers for two of the suspects said on Monday. There was "a lot of talking going on by the informant and more listening by the defendant and or the defendants," Levin told Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly. Nathan Clarke, a lawyer for another suspect Rotschild Augustine, agreed. "With respect to my client, from what I can read in the indictment, there's going to be a question of whether there's even sufficient evidence to sustain the burden of proof on conviction," Clarke said. "If by any chance there's a scintilla of that then, of course, there's going to be the entrapment issue," he said. "This thing took place over eight months, according to the indictment and at the end of the indictment, it says that this thing became disorganized and nobody had ever done anything or did anything," Clarke said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its first license for a major commercial nuclear facility in 30 years, allowing an international consortium to build what will be the nation's first private fuel source for commercial nuclear power plants. Construction of the $1.5 billion National Enrichment Facility, under review for the past 2 1/2 years, could begin in August, and the plant could be ready to sell enriched uranium by early 2009, said James Ferland, president of the consortium of nuclear companies, Louisiana Energy Services. The plant, licensed on Friday, will be built near the small southeastern New Mexico community of Eunice, where support for the project is strong. Critics say it will pollute the environment, guzzle scarce water and leave the town with tons of radioactive waste and nowhere to put it.
Federal regulators granted the Navy a permit Tuesday to use sonar in a maritime exercise despite environmentalists' concerns it could disturb or even kill whales and dolphins. It was the first such permit granted to the Navy, and one environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, said it would file a lawsuit Wednesday to prevent the sonar's use. The monthlong exercise, which includes anti-submarine training, involves naval forces from eight nations. It began Monday off the Hawaiian Islands. The sonar part of the exercise begins after July 4 and lasts three weeks. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave the Navy a permit to use mid-frequency active sonar, which can affect marine mammals' behavior. In documents released Tuesday, NOAA determined that the exercise would cause no significant environmental impact.
American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to an audience of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon. Murtha was the guest speaker at a town hall meeting organized by Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, D-Miami, at Florida International University's Biscayne Bay Campus. Meek's mother, former Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Miami, was also on the panel. War veterans, local mayors, university students and faculty were in the Mary Ann Wolfe Theatre to listen to the three panelists discuss the war in Iraq for an hour. A former Marine and a prominent critic of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, Murtha reiterated his views that the war cannot be won militarily and needs political solutions. He said the more than 100,000 troops in Iraq should be pulled out immediately, and deployed to peripheral countries like Kuwait. "We do not want permanent bases in Iraq," Murtha told the audience. "We want as many Americans out of there as possible."
A majority of Americans say Congress should pass a resolution that outlines a plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday. Half of those surveyed would like all U.S. forces out within 12 months. The poll finds support for the ideas behind Democratic proposals that were soundly defeated in the Senate last week. An uptick in optimism toward the war after the killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi earlier this month seems to have evaporated. Richard Eichenberg, a political scientist at Tufts University who studies presidential polling, says views on Iraq are too set to be changed by momentary developments, even positive ones. "The other piece of quote-unquote 'good news' is the unity government in Iraq, but it's not as if we're hearing that they have made great strides in eliminating the militia influence or violence anywhere in Iraq," he says. "There's still a steady drumbeat of bad news." Bush's approval rating is at 37%. After hitting the low point of his presidency at 31% in May, it rose to 38% in mid-June. His standing, which slipped below 40% in February, hasn't rebounded above that level since then.
The United States has confirmed it has been monitoring international financial transactions, including those in and out of Switzerland, for almost five years. The Swiss government has remained quiet on the issue, but data protection experts and lawyers are concerned by Friday's revelations in the New York Times. US Treasury Secretary John Snow defended the secret programme, carried out by the CIA and the Treasury, calling it "government at its best" and a valuable aid for fighting terrorism. Snow confirmed that since just after the attacks on September 11 2001, the Treasury had been tapping into records of the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) for evidence of potential activity by terror groups.
The news media's ability to cover the Vietnam War without censorship was unlike anything that has been seen since, correspondents who covered that conflict for The Associated Press said during a reunion. "We had relationships with officers and generals that are totally foreign to reporters trying to cover Iraq today, absolutely in a fantasy world," said Peter Arnett, who spent 13 years in Vietnam for the news cooperative from 1962 to 1975. "The military was remarkable in Vietnam - they not only didn't try to censor us, they made every accommodation to us," said Richard Pyle, who was AP's bureau chief in Saigon from 1970-1973. "There's never been a situation quite like that anywhere." Arnett and Pyle were joined on the panel by correspondents Seymour Topping, George Esper, Hugh Mulligan, Edith Lederer and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Horst Faas, who took part from Germany. The discussion was part of a lecture series on the AP's history, and was timed to coincide with an exhibit of the archives from the Saigon bureau on display at the company's headquarters. The archive chronicles the AP's coverage of the war, including thousands of stories and battlefield dispatches that were marked up by editors. The journalists recalled that soldiers in the field welcomed reporters, would transport them around the country and respected them for facing the hardships and dangers in battle zones. "In Vietnam, if you had the courage and the stamina, you could go anywhere," said Esper, who spent 10 years in Southeast Asia and wrote more words on the war than any other reporter. He retired from the AP in 2000.
The basic questions the press is NOT asking, but should be: The Financial Spying Program, how many people has it caught? Who are they? Where are they? What has been done about them? Did it catch anyone that could not have been caught another way? What was the cost per catch? Would that expenditure in time, effort and money, been better applied elsewhere? Did it catch anyone that was part of 9/11? Al Qaeda spent a lot of money on 9/11. They spent a lot of money elsewhere. How many of the Al Qaeda's backers has this program found? More than one? Why haven't they been arrested? Who are they? Where are they? The wiretaps without warrants program, how many people did it catch? How many operations did it interrupt? How many arrests or captures did it lead to? What did it cost? What does it continue to cost? Is it cost effective? If all that money - however much it is - had been spent in other ways, would we have caught more terrorists than we have caught to date? Are we doing a really good job and catching a lot of the terrorists - there don't actually seem to be a lot? There was the guy who wanted to take down the Brooklyn Bridge with a blow torch. Now there's the Miami 6/Atlanta 1 (the Urban South 7?), who everyone describes as willing but not able. There was the Lackawanna Six. Were their captures a result of the wiretaps without warrants program? Are they the cream of the terrorist crop?
The seven crew members of the space shuttle Discovery will arrive at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday to take one of the biggest risks of their lives. They have a 1-in-100 chance of dying during their spaceflight next month. Those, at least, are the official odds that NASA has long given. Exactly what the real odds are is a question that looms larger than normal this time. That is because two top officials at NASA took the unusual step of dissenting from the space agency's decision to go ahead with the launch without fixing the potentially catastrophic problem of foam falling off the external fuel tank - the very problem that doomed Columbia 3 1/2 years ago. The agency's safety director and chief engineer wanted to wait and fix the problem. But NASA Administrator Michael Griffin decided a July 1 launch is worth the added risk for a variety of reasons.
Chairman of the House Judiciary Committe F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has broken House rules to adjourn a meeting after losing a vote to Democrats, Democratic sources tell RAW STORY. The vote was on an item from the Republican's "American Values Agenda," which the party says will codify "the American character." Specifically, it aims to bar any court--including the United States Supreme Court--from hearing any legal challenge to the pledge of allegiance. Sensenbrenner, according to sources, hoped to reverse the vote when the committee reconvened later in the afternoon. Democrats on the committee, save ranking member John Conyers (D-MI) refused to attend. With many Republicans also absent, there was no quorum present to hold a vote. Conyers attended, according to sources, only for the sake of raising a point of order, indicating that the previous adjournment had violated rules. Sensenbrenner responded by indicating that he had not heard the objection earlier. However, sources tell RAW STORY that Sensenbrenner actually responded to the earlier statement at the time.
Cecelia Fire Thunder, the first woman elected president of the Oglala Sioux Nation, faces impeachment Thursday because of her plan to open an abortion clinic on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the southwest corner of South Dakota, reported here previously. A year and a half ago, Fire Thunder, a 59-year-old nurse, swept into office, beating famed American Indian Movement leader Russell Means, whose arguments against her included that she is a woman. "I got really angry about a bunch of white guys making decisions about my body," Fire Thunder said in an interview last week with Women's eNews. Yet in the days when the ban seemed imminent, Fire Thunder told a newspaper columnist of her plan to open a clinic on the reservation, which operates under US federal law rather than state law. Yet she didn't anticipate the strength of the anti-abortion sentiment on the reservation. Members of Reservation churches marched against her; others called for her ouster and for an abortion ban as strict as the state's. "She put her presidency in jeopardy because she is so committed to helping Native American women," said Charon Asetoyer, director of the Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center, a nonprofit organization located on Yankton Sioux Reservation. By May 25 the rumblings about Fire Thunder's stand against the ban came to a head. Two hundred tribal members filed into the council meeting to call for Fire Thunder's ouster. A reservation newspaper captured the mood with a headline: "Wilma Mankiller, Cecelia Babykiller." Fire Thunder was absent, she said, because of a medical appointment. The council proceeded without her. First an abortion ban - clearly aimed at the proposed center - was unanimously passed. It contains a provision to banish from the reservation anyone who considers getting an abortion or helps someone else obtain one. Then the council turned to Fire Thunder. In a 14-to-1 vote, the council of 18, mostly men, suspended her, pending an impeachment hearing.
U.S. federal authorities were trying to determine Tuesday if anti-George Bush graffiti on a cargo ship that arrived in California was a terrorist threat. A message scrawled with a marker pen in the cargo hold of the Wild Lotus, a 30,000-ton refrigerated cargo ship carrying bananas from Guatemala, said: "This nitro is for you Mr. George W. Bush and your Jewish cronies." The message was found after the ship docked Monday at Port Hueneme, 65 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and officials ordered the port closed. About 20 people aboard the Panamanian-registered vessel were taken off the ship for questioning, the Caltrade Report said. The port reopened several hours later. A sweep aboard the ship and around it by divers turned up no nitroglycerine or any other dangerous materials.
As much as 11 percent of emergency funds, or $2 billion, paid out to last year's hurricane victims were fraudulent claims, The New York Times reported Tuesday. That's a record, as government officials said in the haste to get aid out, they generally send excessive payments about 1-3 percent of the relief distributed, which they later seek to recover. The newspaper examined government audits, criminal prosecutions and congressional investigations into payments made after hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast last August and September, and said the fraud tally is likely to increase. One of the newest cases to come to light is a woman from Belleville, Ill., who was charged this month with claiming her two daughters died in the flooding in New Orleans. But prosecutors said the children never existed and the woman was living in Illinois at the time of the storm. Elsewhere, records show about 1,100 prison inmates across the Gulf Coast apparently collected more than $10 million in rental and disaster-relief assistance.
Most of the electronic voting machines widely adopted since the disputed 2000 presidential election "pose a real danger to the integrity of national, state and local elections," a report out Tuesday concludes. There are more than 120 security threats to the three most commonly purchased electronic voting systems, the study by the Brennan Center for Justice says. For what it calls the most comprehensive review of its kind, the New York City-based non-partisan think tank convened a task force of election officials, computer scientists and security experts to study e-voting vulnerabilities. The study, which took more than a year to complete, examined optical scanners and touch-screen machines with and without paper trails. Together, the three systems account for 80% of the voting machines that will be used in this November's election. While there have been no documented cases of these voting machines being hacked, Lawrence Norden, who chaired the task force and heads the Brennan Center's voting-technology assessment project, says there have been similar software attacks on computerized gambling slot machines. "It is unrealistic to think this isn't something to worry about" in terms of future elections, he says. The report comes during primary season amid growing concerns about potential errors and tampering. Lawsuits have been filed in at least six states to block the purchase or use of computerized machines. Election officials in California and Pennsylvania recently issued urgent warnings to local polling supervisors about potential software problems in touch-screen voting machines after a test in Utah uncovered vulnerabilities in machines made by Diebold Election Systems. North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold did not return calls for comment. The company, a major manufacturer of e-voting machines, said earlier this month that security flaws cited in its machines were theoretical and would be addressed this year. The new threat analysis does not address specific machines or companies. Instead, it "confirms the suspicions about electronic voting machines that people may have had from individual reports" of problems, Norden says.
The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Arlen Specter, said yesterday that he is "seriously considering" filing legislation to give Congress legal standing to sue President Bush over his use of signing statements to reserve the right to bypass laws. Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, made his comments after a Judiciary Committee hearing on signing statements, which are official documents that Bush has used to challenge the constitutionality of more than 750 laws when signing legislation. Bush has issued more signing statements than all previous presidents combined. But he has never vetoed a bill, depriving Congress of any chance to override his judgment. If Congress had the power to sue Bush, Specter said, the Supreme Court could determine whether the president's objections are valid under the Constitution. "There is a sense that the president has taken the signing statements far beyond the customary purviews," Specter said at the hearing. He added that ``there's a real issue here as to whether the president may, in effect, cherry-pick the provisions he likes, excluding the provisions he doesn't like... The president has the option under the Constitution to veto or not."
While Karl Rove was en route to talk at a campaign fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Mike Whalen of Bettendorf, IA, about three dozen protesters stood with signs showing what they think of President Bush’s deputy chief of staff: "Rove fiddles while working families burn." "Health care is a right, not a privilege." "Karl Rove, congratulations on not getting indicted!" Signed, "Concerned Iowans." Rove’s response a short time later: "What protesters?" "He said, 'You've never seen protesters until you've seen the ones that were outside my house,’" added Hugh Field, a Waterloo lawyer who attended the invitation-only fundraiser. "So he wasn't very impressed." Whalen said 70-to-75 people attended the $250-a-plate luncheon. The event was closed to the public and the news media.
Americans are paying unusually close attention to the congressional elections in November, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. They are more inclined to deliver significant gains to Democrats than in any year since Republicans won control of the House and Senate in 1994. Those surveyed are more concerned about national issues than local ones - a situation that favors Democrats hoping to tap discontent over the Iraq war and gasoline prices - and prefer Democrats over Republicans on handling every major issue except terrorism. President Bush looms as a significant drag: 40% of Americans say they are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports Bush. A fifth say they are more likely. "At this point, it certainly looks like a significant tilt to the Democrats, but it's still early," says James Campbell, a political scientist at the University of Buffalo and author of The Presidential Pulse of Congressional Elections. He says the Democratic advantage could narrow over the next four months if voters see the election more as a choice between two candidates and less as a referendum on the president.
Blogospheric political pressure spiked Tuesday over online allegations that U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, the Republican-endorsed candidate for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, had "scrubbed" his congressional website of references to President Bush. For example, a smiling joint portrait of Kennedy and the president that formerly graced the congressman's web biography page has been replaced by a photo of Kennedy and some schoolchildren. And legislation that once was "signed into law by President Bush" now merely "became law" on Kennedy's website, markkennedy.house.gov, according to the liberal political weblog MN Publius.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has retracted its false report that Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) called the United States the greatest threat to world peace: "Correction: An article in Sunday’s editions misinterpreted a comment from U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., at a town hall meeting in North Miami on Saturday. In his speech, Murtha said U.S. credibility was suffering because of continued U.S. military presence in Iraq ,and the perception that the U.S. is an occupying force. Murtha was citing a recent poll, by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, that indicates a greater percentage of people in 10 of 14 foreign countries consider the U.S. in Iraq a greater danger to world peace than any threats posed by Iran or North Korea." The purported quote was seized upon by right-wing pundits, who claimed that Murtha had put "all Americans in danger" and was "in the thrall" of anti-American activists. Now they need to correct the record and let their viewers know that Murtha was quoted erroneously. Will they do so? Will the Pope join the Mormon church?
Planned Parenthood of Colorado said they will distribute free "morning after" contraceptives at state clinics Friday to protest Gov. Bill Owens' veto of a bill that would have let pharmacists prescribe the pill. Owens rejected the measure in April, saying that spreading prescription power beyond doctors and specialized nurses "strays radically from the accepted norms of medicine." "Every woman should have it in their medicine cabinets, in case of birth control failure, or worse, sexual assault," Vicki Cowart, president of Planned Parenthood of the Rockies, said in a statement. The contraceptive, called Plan B, uses a high dose of the hormones found in birth control pills. It is designed to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman's uterus if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, and not have any effect once the egg is embedded in the uterus wall. It is not the abortion drug RU-486.
Why I Am Embarrassed To Present My Passport: Diplomats at the United Nations have found U.S. Ambassador John Bolton's behavior so inexplicable that a virtual quasi-science has sprung up, aimed at divining his true intentions. The primary school of thought, according to one diplomat, is that Mr. Bolton, who has made plain his disdain for the world body since arriving there 11 months ago, is playing to a domestic audience of U.N. skeptics, possibly with an eye on future political ambitions. A second theory, said another official who works in the U.N., holds that Mr. Bolton is busily storing up anecdotes that will form the basis of a book about his experiences: He did his best to change the organization, but, tragically, the bureaucracy and corruption were too much even for him to overcome. "A lot of us wonder what his real agenda is," a European diplomat told The Observer. "First, we think maybe he wants things to fail because then he can say, 'We cannot reform this place.' The other question is, does he really reflect the position in Washington? That is always the question: Is it Bolton or is it Washington?" The fact that international officials have come to engage in abstract theorizing about Mr. Bolton's motives is a testament both to the genuine shock inspired within the diplomatic ranks by his behavior and to the center-stage role he has assumed since arriving in Turtle Bay. Just last week, Mr. Bolton attacked the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, after she expressed "grave concern" about the reported existence of secret detention centers.
By year's end, the European Union is expected to adopt REACH, a proposal that would "require manufacturers to test industrial chemicals used in the manufacturing process to gather health and safety data." REACH stands for "Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals." The bill "has prompted a U.S.-led coalition of 13 countries to step up lobbying efforts to make the final measure more amenable to industry," reports the Wall Street Journal. "The diplomatic missions of the U.S., Japan, Australia, India and other countries issues a length joint critique of the proposed law this month, saying certain provisions would disrupt international trade without offering clear environmental benefits." C. Boyden Gray, the U.S. ambassador to the EU and former chair of FreedomWorks and Citizens for a Sound Economy, said European policymakers "never did a proper impact assessment to evaluate the risk-versus-benefit status of this legislation."
Bill Of Rights Death Watch: In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Department of Defense has released documents that show wider surveillance of student organizations than previously reported, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has reported. On April 11th PageOneQ reported that the Pentagon had admitted to conducting surveillance of groups protesting the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy for gays and lesbians in the armed forces. The new FOIA request yielded information about an undercover investigation by the Pentagon on acitivities into student groups protesting the war at State University of New York at Albany (SUNY Albany), William Paterson University in New Jersey, Southern Connecticut State University and the University of California at Berkeley, reports SLDN. The documents released by the Pentagon on the SUNY Albany protests gave a description of planned activities. "Source received an email from [redacted by DoD] stating a protest was planned against military recruiters at SUNY Albany on 21 April 05. The text of the email is as follows:," said a report filed with the Department of Defense.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld most of the pro-Republican Texas congressional map engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and freed all states to draw new political boundaries as often as they want. The court, however, said that part of the new Texas map failed to protect minority voting rights, a small victory for Democratic and minority groups who accused Republicans of an unconstitutional power grab in drawing boundaries that booted four Democrats from office. The ruling did not make clear whether or not lower courts or the state would have to change congressional district boundaries before the November elections. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for a 5-4 majority, said Hispanics do not have a chance to elect a candidate of their choosing in south and west Texas under the state's plan. The plan's "troubling blend of politics and race - and the resulting vote dilution of a group that was beginning to achieve (the federal law's) goal of overcoming prior electoral discrimination - cannot be sustained," Kennedy wrote. Some 100,000 Hispanics had been shifted out of a district represented by a Republican, and foes of the plan had argued it violated the Voting Rights Act which protects minority voting rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union said that federal authorities have dropped their demand for library patrons' records after a judge lifted an earlier gag order on the librarians who received the request. The Library Connection is a consortium of 26 Connecticut libraries. It looked for help from the ACLU when the FBI demanded patron records through a national security letter last summer as part of an investigation into terrorism or spying. U.S. District Judge Janet Hall ruled last year that the gag order should be lifted. She said it unfairly prevented the librarians from participating in a debate over how the Patriot Act should be rewritten. But it wasn't until April that prosecutors dropped an appeal of that order.
The American Civil Liberties Union today announced that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the primary American security agencies for information relating to the use of "cutting-edge brain-scanning technologies" on suspected terrorists. "There are certain things that have such powerful implications for our society - and for humanity at large - that we have a right to know how they are being used so that we can grapple with them as a democratic society," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project. Equally worrisome to the group is the fact that experts in the field have told the ACLU that the science to back up any reliable use of fMRI as a "lie detector" or "mind reader" simply does not exist. At most, correlations have been observed between certain brain patterns and particular, highly controlled behaviors produced in laboratory experiments. Experts also note that these early experiments on a few American college students are a long way from real-world settings, involving individuals in widely varying situations and with widely varying cultures, intelligence levels and states of mind.
Republicans Fiddling While American Civilization Burns: On the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said there was nothing the Senate could be doing that was more important than banning flag burning. He said: "I was asked this afternoon by a large body of media: Is this the most important thing the Senate could be doing at this time? I can tell you: You’re darned right it is." Watch him here. Is Hatch familar with the Iraq war, terrorism, the energy crisis, the 45 million Americans without health insurance or the 37 million Americans living in poverty? Apparently flag burning is more important to Republicans.
Extraordinary Rendition Watch: European secret services colluded in the detention and secret transfer of terrorist suspects in or across the continent, the author of a key report on the CIA rendition flights has said. Dick Marty, a Swiss parliamentarian who compiled the report for the Council of Europe rights watchdog, said there was no doubt of collaboration. "It has been proved that agents from national intelligence services colluded in the handing over and the transportation of persons suspected of terrorism," he told members of the pan-European body's parliamentary assembly Tuesday. Questioned at a news conference afterward, Marty singled out Bosnia, whose government admitted during the inquiry that it had delivered six suspects of Algerian origin into US hands on January 18, 2002.
Republican Policies Build A Strong America: Some 35,000 workers at troubled US car giant GM have agreed to take voluntary redundancy or early retirement, the company has confirmed. GM has said it needs to radically reduce its workforce and close a host of factories by 2008 if it is to control costs and stay competitive. US sales have fallen sharply amid a drop-off in demand for sports utility vehicles and tough competition. The carmaker said its plan to transform the business was ahead of schedule. GM has been forced to take drastic action in the face of mounting losses, which some experts believe still leave the company vulnerable to potential bankruptcy. The world's largest carmaker lost $10.6bn last year.
Republicans Protect The Health And Safety Of Americans: A 15-month inquiry by a top House Democrat has found that enforcement of the nation's food and drug laws declined sharply during the first five years of the Bush administration. For instance, the investigation found, the number of warning letters that the Food and Drug Administration issued to drug companies, medical device makers and others dropped 54 percent, to 535 in 2005 from 1,154 in 2000. The seizure of mislabeled, defective or dangerous products dipped 44 percent, according to the inquiry, pursued by Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee. The research found no evidence that such declines could be attributed to increased compliance with regulations. Investigators at the FDA continued to uncover about the same number of problems at drug and device companies as before, Mr. Waxman's inquiry found, but top officials of the agency increasingly overruled the investigators' enforcement recommendations. The biggest decline in enforcement actions was found at the agency's device center, where they decreased 65 percent in the five-year period despite a wave of problems with devices including implantable defibrillators and pacemakers. "Americans have relied on FDA to ensure the safety of their food and drugs for 100 years," Mr. Waxman said. "But under the Bush administration, enforcement efforts have plummeted and serious violations are ignored."
Republicans Are Protecting Americans From Natural Disasters: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is slated to release a new set of flood maps in early October that could force California's Central Valley cities to spend millions on repairing local levees to keep every homeowner in town from having to spend roughly $1,200 a year on mandatory flood insurance. On Wednesday, Reps. Dennis Cardoza of Merced, Richard Pombo of Tracy and 16 other California representatives asked FEMA to delay release of those maps, which could send shock waves through their constituencies just weeks before the November election. Not only will all 18 lawmakers be up for re-election, a $4.5 billion levee-repair bond also will be on the ballot. It is unclear what effect the release would have on the electorate. Although the initial maps would not have the force of law, they would put communities such as Lathrop on notice that their levees are not up to snuff. Stockton faced a similar situation in 1995. This round is different, however, because FEMA announced in August it would finally enforce laws already on the books requiring a stricter evaluation of levees that protect homes. Now a levee's internal construction will become more of a factor in evaluating its strength - bad news for Valley levees, many of which are essentially un-engineered mounds of dirt.
Republicans Think You Should Do As They Say, Not As They Do: When scandal-ridden Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher's day is over, he leaves his Capitol office, climbs into a Lincoln Town Car driven by a state trooper and returns to the Governor's Mansion - which is just across the street. Meanwhile, his administration is encouraging Kentuckians to get out and walk more for their health. The Republican governor - a physician by training - makes no apologies for riding back and forth to work. "I think that's been a tradition for a long time," he said. "That's what security likes." But his do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do example irks some politicians. "I just think it's incredible," said Democratic state Sen. Ernesto Scorsone, a marathon runner and frequent critic of Fletcher. "The governor should practice what he's preaching. Otherwise it smacks of being hypocritical."
Maybe If We Ignore Global Warming Long Enough, It Will Go Away: Global warming accounted for around half of the extra hurricane-fueling warmth in the waters of the tropical North Atlantic in 2005, while natural cycles were only a minor factor, according to a new analysis by Kevin Trenberth and Dennis Shea of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The study will appear in the June 27 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, published by the American Geophysical Union. "The global warming influence provides a new background level that increases the risk of future enhancements in hurricane activity," Trenberth says. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, NCAR's primary sponsor. The study contradicts recent claims that natural cycles are responsible for the upturn in Atlantic hurricane activity since 1995. It also adds support to the premise that hurricane seasons will become more active as global temperatures rise. Last year produced a record 28 tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma all reached Category 5 strength.
The oceans are inexorably becoming corrosive. Unknown to the greater public, this process due to the increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will have considerable impact. And well before the end of the century. In barely twenty years, the acidification of vast oceanic regions of the Southern Hemisphere will provoke the disappearance of certain planktonic organisms. This phenomenon is all the more worrying in that the affected flora and fauna constitute the first links in the marine food chain. At issue may be microscopic vegetation, such as calcareous algae (coccolithophorids and foraminifers) or miniscule mollusks, like the pteropods. These organisms construct their exoskeletons from aragonite. That element is very sensitive to ocean waters' acidification. The increase in CO2 emissions has a perfectly quantifiable impact on the oceans, "more finely understood than its effects on climate," specifies James Orr, a researcher at the Sciences Laboratory of Climate and the Environment. "Out of 70 CO2 molecules that we emit, 20 are absorbed by the terrestrial biosphere, 30 remain in the atmosphere, and 20 dissolve in the oceans," details Paul Tréguer, scientific director for EUR-Océans, a European network for the study of oceanic ecosystems. That dissolution modifies the chemical balance by increasing the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+). Since the beginning of the industrial era, that concentration has increased by 25%, a modification of the same order as that of the atmosphere, ever more overburdened with CO2.
News From Smirkey's Wars: Many Afghans and some foreign supporters say they are losing faith in President Hamid Karzai’s government, which is besieged by an escalating insurgency and endemic corruption and is unable to protect or administer large areas of the country. As a sense of insecurity spreads, a rift is growing between the president and some of the foreign civilian and military establishments whose money and firepower have helped rebuild and defend the country for nearly five years. While the U.S. commitment to Karzai appears solid, several European governments are expressing serious concerns about his leadership. "The president had a window of opportunity to lead and make difficult decisions, but that window is closing fast," said one foreign military official in Kabul who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
The annual cost of replacing, repairing and upgrading Army equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to more than triple next year to more than $17 billion, according to Army documents obtained by the Associated Press. From 2002 to 2006, the Army spent an average of $4 billion a year in annual equipment costs. But as the war takes a harder toll on the military, that number is projected to balloon to more than $12 billion for the federal budget year that starts next Oct. 1, the documents show. The $17 billion also includes an additional $5 billion in equipment expenses that the Army requested in previous years but has not yet been provided.
The U.S. military, in the spotlight over murder charges against its troops accused of killing Iraqis, said it had killed a "non-combatant" during a raid in which an al Qaeda militant was detained on Wednesday. A statement said U.S.-led forces killed the civilian near the violence-racked city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, as troops were securing the house of the alleged militant. "While securing the initial target, Coalition forces noticed an individual acting suspiciously at a nearby house. They assessed him as an imminent threat, engaged and killed him. He was later determined to be a non-combatant," it said.
Scandals Du Jour: Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-TX, testified at a hearing today in the federal courthouse in Austin regarding a lawsuit filed by Democrats who argue that DeLay is still legally the GOP congressional candidate for his district, despite his resignation from the House. Delay said at the hearing, presided by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, that he has moved to Virginia and plans to vote and live there, and that he is leasing office space in Washington. According to reporters in the courtroom, Delay said, he has obtained hunting and fishing licenses in Virginia. And that he didn't hire movers because his Virginia condo was already furnished. He said the only belonging he moved to Virginia was a car. Under the state election code there is a crucial difference between a candidate being ruled ineligible or simply withdrawing. In the first situation, the party can replace the candidate on the ballot. In the second situation, it cannot. State Republican Chairwoman Tina Benkiser has ruled DeLay ineligible as a candidate because of his move to Virginia, setting in motion a procedure for party officials to name a successor for the November ballot. According to the Austin Statesman newspaper, Judge Sparks questioned both DeLay and Benkiser about letters that DeLay sent to the chairwoman about his plans. He quizzed both about why a draft of the letter was sent before a final version was delivered days later. Neither could answer why. DeLay testified that he understood before he made his decision the consequences of withdrawing from the race as opposed to being declared ineligible. DeLay resigned from Congress on June 9th. Once DeLay finished testifying, Sparks explained he could either leave or stay for the rest of the proceedings. "My recommendation is to run like a rabbit," Judge Sparks quipped, according to an Austin Statesman newspaper account. Whatever happened to judicial objectivity?
We Conservatives Are More Moral Than You: A political consultant whose company was behind a television ad accusing the Clinton-Gore administration of giving away nuclear technology was convicted of child molestation charges. A jury deliberated almost two days before convicting Carey Lee Cramer, 44, of aggravated sexual assault of a child, two counts of indecency with a child by contact and one count of indecency with a child by exposure. He was cleared of nine other charges Tuesday. The sentencing phase of the trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday. Cramer faces up to 149 years in prison. Cramer, who now lives in Tucson, Ariz., gained national attention during the 2000 presidential election when his company created the ad that accused the administration of giving nuclear technology to China in exchange for campaign contributions. The spot was modeled after the infamous 1964 "Daisy" nuclear scare commercial and was pulled after a barrage of Democratic criticism. Cramer, who had been free on bond since his 2005 arrest, was taken into custody on a $4 million appeal bond after the verdict, The (McAllen) Monitor reported in its Wednesday editions. Two girls accused Cramer of sexual assault, alleging it occurred in the past eight years.
Rush Limbaugh could see a deal with prosecutors in a long-running prescription fraud case collapse after authorities found a bottle of Viagra in his bag at Palm Beach International Airport. The prescription was not in his name. Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at the airport after returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Customs officials found the Viagra in his luggage but his name was not on the prescription, said Paul Miller, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. Miller said the alleged violation could be a second-degree misdemeanor. The sheriff's office was investigating and will soon turn the case over to the state attorney's office, which had no immediate comment Tuesday. Under the deal reached last month with prosecutors, Limbaugh was not to be arrested for any infraction for 18 months in exchange for authorities deferring a charge of "doctor shopping." Prosecutors had alleged the conservative talk-show host illegally deceived multiple physicians to receive overlapping painkiller prescriptions. Limbaugh also must submit to random drug tests and continue treatment for his admitted addiction to painkillers.
Fog and rain. It has been downright marine today, with lots of fog and rain, and the damp has made it seem chilly even though the temperatures have been mild. A high of 78 today and overnight low of 72 has felt uncomfortably cool. Yesterday was pleasant until midday when it began to rain and this whole marine-like regime set in. It is a sure sign that the little dry season we have been having is over, and the rainy season has resumed in earnest.
My friends from the States have gone elsewhere to finish their trip to Costa Rica. It sure was a joy to have them - what a delightful couple they are. They were by yesterday morning to fish a bit more in the pond and enjoy some banana betidos, as I make them, and they enjoyed both. But the pond skunked them once again - all that was caught was one tetra - a small bait fish.
Last night, I enjoyed the first mango off of my trees for this year's crop. It was quite good, though small. As my gardener had promised, it is a good variety, with an excellent flavor, though the fruit don't seem to make it to a particularly large size, at least in this climate. Mangos like a very hot and long dry season, and we don't get that here. So I will have to be content with what we do get. The neighbors like to come by and clean up the windfalls, so even that is not the problem it could be. Just about every day, they come by and ask to pick them up and I am happy to oblige. What the neighbors don't get, the animals do. And the toucans and other birds love them while on the trees. Mangos around here don't last long.
More Reasons Why I Am Glad I Am Out Of The States: Smirkey on Monday sharply condemned the disclosure of a program to secretly monitor the financial transactions of suspected terrorists. "The disclosure of this program is disgraceful," he said. "For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America," Bush said, jabbing his finger for emphasis. He said the disclosure of the program "makes it harder to win this war on terror." The program has been going on since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It was disclosed last week by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. Using broad government subpoenas, the program allows U.S. counterterrorism analysts to obtain financial information from a vast database maintained by an interbank cooperative based in Belgium. It routes about 11 million financial transactions daily among 7,800 banks and other financial institutions in 200 countries.
Vice-President Dick Cheney has condemned as "offensive" US media disclosures of a secret program that probes global financial transactions. The government has covertly tracked thousands of international money transactions for nearly five years as part of its so-called war on terror. Mr Cheney said leaking the program played into the enemy's hands. The New York Times defended its coverage, saying the information was in the public's interest. Civil liberty groups have raised concerns that the program, which began soon after the 9/11 attacks in the US, may infringe individual rights to privacy.
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush administration Sunday to seek criminal charges against The New York Times for reporting on the secret financial-monitoring program. Rep. Peter King blasted the newspaper's decision last week to report that the Treasury Department was working with the CIA to examine messages within a massive international database of money-transfer records. "I am asking the Attorney General to begin an investigation and prosecution of The New York Times -- the reporters, the editors and the publisher," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. "We're at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous." The conservative lawmaker called the paper "pompous, arrogant, and more concerned about a left-wing elitist agenda than it is about the security of the American people."
On a cable news show, David Frum, a conservative journalist and former speechwriter for President Bush, argued that out of the three newspapers that wrote about the secret program to search through thousands of American's bank accounts to find terror ties only the The New York Times should be prosecuted. On CNN's Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz, Times columnist Frank Rich wondered why the administration wasn't going after the Wall Street Journal or the Los Angeles Times. Frum responded that he could tell from the "grammar" used in all three publications that the news originated at the Times, and that if they hadn't published the story the others wouldn't have either.
The disclosure this week of a secret databank operation tracking international financial transactions has caused renewed concerns about civil liberties in the United States. But this program is just the latest in a series of secret surveillance programs, databanks and domestic operations justified as part of the war on terror. Disclosed individually over the course of the last year, they have become almost routine. Yet, when considered collectively, they present a far more troubling picture, and one that should be vaguely familiar. Civil liberty-minded citizens may recall the president's plan to create the Total Information Awareness program, a massive databank with the ability to follow citizens in real time by their check-card purchases, bank transactions, medical bills and other electronic means. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, was assigned this task, but after its work was made public, Congress put a stop to it in September 2003 as a danger to privacy and civil liberties. However, when Congress disbanded the Total Information Awareness program, it did not prohibit further research on such databanks, or even the use of individual databanks.
New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito broke a tie Monday in a ruling that affirmed a state death penalty law and also revealed the court's deep divisions over capital punishment. Justices split 5-4 in the term's oldest case, which was argued in December before Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement. A new argument session was held in April so that Alito could break a deadlock. The justices are in the final week of their term and handling some of the most contentious and important cases. They meet again Wednesday to announce more decisions. The Kansas case was unique. The state law says juries should impose death sentences if aggravating evidence of a crime's brutality and mitigating factors explaining a defendant's actions are equal in weight. Justice David H. Souter, writing for the liberals, said the law was "morally absurd." Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas disputed the claim by critics that the law created "a general presumption in favor of the death penalty in the state of Kansas."
A Republican gubernatorial candidate's call for creation of a forced labor camp for illegal immigrants drew rebukes Friday from two GOP lawmakers, who labeled it a low point in the immigration debate. Don Goldwater, nephew of the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, caused an international stir this week when EFE, a national news agency of Spain, quoted him as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting." The article described Goldwater's plan as a "concentration camp" for migrants. Goldwater, a candidate for governor in Arizona, said in a statement Friday that his comments were taken out of context. He said he was calling for a work program for convicted nonviolent felons, similar to "tried and tested, effective and accepted practices" used by state and local jails.
A U.S. district judge in Baltimore yesterday heard arguments over the validity of Maryland's controversial law requiring large companies - namely Wal-Mart - to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits. At issue was whether the state legislation is preempted by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which sets minimum standards for private companies' voluntary pension and health plans. The state law was enacted earlier this year despite a veto attempt by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. The Maryland law applies to four companies with at least 10,000 employees in Maryland: Northrop Grumman Corp., Giant Food LLC, Johns Hopkins University and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. But all except Wal-Mart were exempted from the law or have already met its provisions, resulting in the nickname "Wal-Mart bill" as the legislature deliberated over it. The Retail Industry Leaders Association, which filed the legal challenge and counts Wal-Mart among its members, said the law unfairly targets the world's largest retailer. The association also argued that the law restricts the way businesses provide health benefits for their employees.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week rejected a request from the Bush administration to send an additional 1,500 National Guard troops to the Mexican border, the governor's office confirmed Friday to the Associated Press after two California National Guard officials leaked the policy decision. The National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon, asked for the troops to help with the border-patrol mission in New Mexico and Arizona, but Schwarzenegger said the request would stretch the California Guard too thin in case of an emergency or natural disaster. Schwarzenegger spokesman Adam Mendelsohn said the governor believed sending more troops would create an inappropriate burden on the state and disrupt the guard's training schedule.
A federal appeals court on Friday declined to force the government to turn over information on the National Security Agency's wiretapping program to a man charged in a terrorism case. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case of Yassin Aref, an imam at an Albany mosque who is accused of laundering money for an FBI informant posing as an arms dealer. Aref wanted the government to say whether any of the evidence against him had been gathered through the warrantless electronic surveillance program, which has been challenged by some civil liberties groups. He asked the court to force the NSA to reveal details of the program, rule it illegal and toss out evidence gathered from it. The New York Civil Liberties Union joined Aref's motion. Much of the legal debate over the request has been conducted under a shroud of secrecy because of the program's classified nature, with key court documents available only to those with security clearance.
The flag-burning amendment, which already passed the House, is apparently just short of the 67 needed in the Senate. With one or two absences, the amendment would be approved. It would then go to the states for ratification, where its chances for approval appear good. On the Republican side, all senators except Robert Bennett of Utah, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky favor the amendment. The rest (including those who should know better, like John McCain and Chuck Hagel) are apparently in favor of trivializing the document they swore to uphold. Banning flag burning, in the words of Justice Antonin Scalia, "dilutes the very freedom that makes this emblem so revered."
They're back. Those opinionated octogenarians who made headlines last fall by trying to enlist in the military to stop the War in Iraq. Now, they're heading to Washington D.C. for the Fourth of July. With wheelchairs, walkers, canes and pictures of their grandchildren on their backs, the Granny Brigade was back in Times Square, the scene of their arrest last fall for blocking the entrance to the Military Recruitment Center to stop the war. This time, they're kicking off a 10-day trek to the nation's capita