The classic rainy season weather continues. Both yesterday and today were met with bright sunshine in the morning, overcast by midday, and heavy downpours in the late afternoon. The weather map shows two low pressure areas, one in the Pacific off Nicaragua, and one in the Caribbean off Panama, that are competing at feeding us moisture. So why we don't have even more rain is a mystery to me. The temperatures have been a bit extreme, however, with an overnight low of 70, and a high this afternoon of 86. That is more temperature differential than we normally see.
I have not gotten much done in the last couple of days, as I just haven't felt up to doing much. Tiredness, associated with the aftermath of the heart attack I think, has taken some of the starch out of me, and so I just moped around the place a bit, not getting a lot done.
I need to get on this security situation, however. I ran into the town metalworker when I was in town on Friday, and talked with him about coming out today and looking over the front door and giving me a bid on building and installing a steel door. He said he would be out today or tomorrow, and he didn't show today, so I hope he makes it out here tomorrow. He said Thursday or Friday he could begin construction. Well, I sure hope so. I would love to get that done, and sooner rather than later. I also need to get with the bricklayer that I normally use and have him come by and look at doing me a strong-room. Between the two, I think they will pretty much solve the security issues around here.
More Reasons Why I Am Glad I Am Out Of The States: U.S. citizens accused of "terrorism ties" might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill. A 32-page draft measure is intended to authorize the Pentagon's tribunal system, established shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks to detain and prosecute detainees captured in the war on terror. The tribunal system was thrown out last month by the Supreme Court. Administration officials, who declined to comment on the draft, said the proposal was still under discussion and no final decisions had been made. Senior officials are expected to discuss a final proposal before the Senate Armed Services Committee next Wednesday. According to the draft, the military would be allowed to detain all "enemy combatants" until hostilities cease. The bill defines enemy combatants as anyone "engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners who has committed an act that violates the law of war and this statute." Legal experts said Friday that such language is dangerously broad and could authorize the military to detain indefinitely U.S. citizens who had only tenuous ties to terror networks like al Qaeda. "That's the big question ... the definition of who can be detained," said Martin Lederman, a law professor at Georgetown University who posted a copy of the bill to a Web blog.
More young people are attending "conservative boot camps," according to an article slated for Monday's edition of The New York Times. "Headed for what she called 'conservative boot camp,' Christina Pajak grabbed the essentials: dress sandals, her Bible and The Politics of Prudence by Russell Kirk, the celebrated writer who a half-century ago gave the conservative movement its name," reports Jason DeParle. "If she had not found Kirk, he would have found her," DeParle writes. "At a monthlong retreat for college conservatives here, he was both required reading and a source of after-hours debate among students excited to hear him called 'one of Ronald Reagan's favorite philosophers.'" Every political movement has its texts. But James W. Ceaser, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, argues that the conservative focus on core thinkers has no exact parallel among liberals. "It doesn't mean they're not interested in ideas," Ceaser said. "It means their approach to politics doesn't rest on theory in the same way."
On Fox this morning, conservative uber-pundit Robert Novak was highly critical of the Bush Administration, and Secretary Rice in particular, on the subject of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. Novak contended that Israel had failed in its military plan to diminish or destroy Hezbollah. He added that the Bush Administration had thus far been "a disaster." HOST: "Is [Rice's next visit to Mideast] the first in a new round in shuttle diplomacy for the United States?" NOVAK: "Well, I think it probably will be. It's been a disaster so far because the United States' position was to let the Israelis have a go at it. They thought it would clean out Hezbollah in about a week. Hezbollah turned out to be much tougher and I would say that Secretary Rice first mission was totally unsuccessful. So, The United States seems very isolated right now and they've got to reestablish their position as an honest broker in trying to reach a peace agreement."
Seven years after leaving Congress, former Speaker of the House and thrice-divorced "Family Values" Republican Newt Gingrich has again become a high-profile figure among conservatives as he considers a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. A recent Gallup Poll placed Mr. Gingrich third in a field of Republicans who are viewed as potential presidential candidates. Although Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani placed first and second in the poll, they are considered too moderate by many of the party's base to secure the nomination. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Virginia Sen. George Allen have been positioning themselves as conservative standard-bearers, but finished fourth and sixth in the poll, respectively.
Why I Am Embarrassed To Present My Passport: A newly published book has revealed that Australia intervened to stop key US military strikes against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, fearing they might constitute a war crime. Major General Maurie McNarn, then a brigadier and commander of Australian forces in Iraq, on several occasions played a "red card" against the American plans, which included hits on individuals. His objections drew anger from some senior US military figures. In one instance, Major General McNarn vetoed a US plan to drop a range of huge non-precision bombs on Baghdad, causing one angry US Air Force general to call the Australian a "pencil dick". However, US military command accepted Major General McNarn's objection and the US plans were scrapped. The revelation of how Australia actively and successfully used its veto power in the 2003 invasion of Iraq is contained in a new book on the US-Australian alliance, The Partnership, by The Weekend Australian's foreign editor, Greg Sheridan.
Construction work has begun near Washington on a vast germ warfare laboratory intended to "help protect" the US against an attack with biological weapon, but critics say the laboratory's work will violate international law and its extreme secrecy will exacerbate a biological arms race. The National Biodefence Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC), due to be completed in 2008, will house heavily guarded and hermetically sealed chambers in which scientists simulate potential terrorist attacks. To do so, the center will have to produce and stockpile the world's most lethal bacteria and viruses, which is forbidden by the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. Three years before that treaty was agreed, President Richard Nixon halted the production of US biological weapons at Fort Detrick in Maryland. The same military base is the site for the new $128m (£70m), 160,000 sq ft laboratory.
Two US aircraft carrying bombs to Israel landed at Prestwick International Airport in Britain last night amid growing protests fuelled by the revelation that Ireland had ruled out allowing Shannon Airport to handle similar flights. Dermot Ahern, the Irish foreign affairs minister, said he would block any attempt by the US to transport arms to Israel through his country. A spokeswoman for Ahern told the Sunday Herald: 'Minister Ahern did say permission would not be granted if there was an application made to transport munitions of war to the Middle East.' Scottish opposition MPs yesterday described the use of Prestwick Airport to re-arm the Israeli offensive in Lebanon as 'completely unacceptable.' The arrival of the flights yesterday came less than a day after George Bush apologised to Tony Blair over a procedural slip in the previous use of Prestwick to refuel two planes carrying bombs to Israel.
What Your Aid-To-Israel Tax Dollars Are Paying For: Israel has rejected mounting pressure for a truce in its 20-day-old war on Hezbollah despite global outrage over a massacre in a village that killed at least 60 Lebanese, 34 of whom were children. Israel had agreed to halt air strikes for 48 hours pending an investigation into Sunday's attack on the village of Qana, but its war planes were back in action near a Lebanese border town where fighting erupted at the weekend, and a Lebanese soldier was killed in a gunboat attack. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew back to Washington Monday after a weekend visit to Israel overshadowed by the carnage in Qana, saying she was convinced that "an urgent ceasefire and a lasting settlement" could be achieved this week. But as Lebanon was plunged into mourning over the biggest single loss of life since Israel unleashed its war machine against its northern neighbor on July 12, the Jewish state warned it would widen its offensive on Hezbollah.
Israel rejected mounting international pressure on Monday to end its 20-day-old war against Hizbollah guerrillas and the United Nations indefinitely postponed a meeting on a new peacekeeping force for Lebanon. A U.N. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meeting scheduled for Monday afternoon had been delayed "until there is more political clarity" on the path ahead in the Middle East conflict. Civilians fled battered villages in southern Lebanon after Israel agreed to partially halt air strikes for 48 hours, and aid convoys headed into the area to deliver supplies. But Israeli air force jets bombed southern Lebanon this morning, despite a 48-hour suspension of air strikes negotiated by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice yesterday after an attack that left more than 60 dead. Rescue workers found 28 bodies buried for days in destroyed buildings in three south Lebanon villages, the Red Cross said. Israel said the war was not over despite an international outcry following the deaths of at least 54 civilians, most of them children, in an Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday.
A leading press freedom group on Thursday demanded an "immediate investigation" into reports that Israel is targeting Arab television crews operating in southern Lebanon, the latest in mounting criticism that Israel is making little distinction between civilian and combatant in its campaign in Lebanon. The call by the Committee to Protect Journalists came in response to allegations from several Arab television stations that Israeli aircraft fired missiles within 75 metres of them on July 22, in an apparent bid to prevent them from covering the effect of Israel's bombardment around the town of Khiam. So far, at least two journalists and media workers have been killed, and another seven wounded since the fighting began on July 12, following the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas, according to media groups. In all, at least 420 Lebanese have been killed since the start of the fighting, most of them civilians, while 52 Israelis have died, including 34 military personnel. The strikes in question were directed at television crews, especially those of the independent satellite channels Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya and the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar channel, said Ghassan Benjeddou, Al-Jazeera's Lebanon bureau chief.
On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution "condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel's exercise of its right to self-defense." After House majority leader John Boehner removed language from the bill urging "all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure," the House version passed by a landslide, 410 to 8. The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee not only lobbied for the resolution; it had written it. "They [Congress] were given a resolution by AIPAC," said former Carter Administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who addressed the House Democratic Caucus on July 19. "They didn't prepare one."
While Israel fights Hezbollah with tanks and aircraft, its supporters are campaigning on the internet. Israel's Government has thrown its weight behind efforts by supporters to counter what it believes to be negative bias and a tide of "pro-Arab propaganda." The Foreign Ministry has ordered trainee diplomats to track websites and chatrooms so that networks of US and European groups with hundreds of thousands of Jewish activists can place supportive messages.
While You Were Glued To Faux News: The UN Security Council has passed a resolution giving Iran a month to suspend uranium enrichment or face possible sanctions. The resolution was passed by 14 votes to one, with Qatar the lone dissenter. The resolution says "appropriate measures" will be taken if Iran does not comply, but does not threaten the immediate imposition of sanctions. The US and other nations accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, but Iran says its motives are peaceful. The draft resolution was negotiated over the past two weeks by the five permanent Council members - the US, UK, China, France, Russia - as well as Germany. It follows a 12 July agreement to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for failing to respond to a package of energy, commercial and technological incentives to suspend enrichment. Iran has said it will respond to this package by 22 August. The US says it does not believe Tehran's assertions and has pushed for tough international action.
Why Moving To Europe Is Not The Answer: British children, possibly as young as six, will be subjected to compulsory fingerprinting under European Union rules being drawn up in secret. The prints will be stored on a database which could be shared with countries around the world. The prospect has alarmed civil liberties groups who fear it represents a 'sea change' in the state's relationship with children and one that may lead to juveniles being erroneously accused of crimes. Under laws being drawn up behind closed doors by the European Commission's 'Article Six' committee, which is composed of representatives of the European Union's 25 member states, all children will have to attend a finger-printing centre to obtain an EU passport by June 2009 at the latest. The use of fingerprints and other biometric data is designed to prevent passport fraud and allow European member states to meet US entry visa requirements, but the decision to fingerprint children has disturbed human rights groups. The civil liberties group Statewatch last night accused EU governments of taking decisions in which 'people and parliaments have no say'. It said the committee's decisions were simply based on 'technological possibilities - not on the moral and political questions of whether it is right or desirable.'
Bill Of Rights Death Watch: The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the Chief Privacy Officer of the Department of Homeland Security to investigate a recent news report that federal air marshals are labeling innocent Americans as "suspicious" after being directed to fill a monthly watchlist quotas. The Air Marshals Service responded to earlier complaints by indicating that the complaints came from disgruntled Denver employees. However, Denver's KMGH-TV contacted 17 employees in 4 different states, who confirmed the story. KMGH quotes one Air Marshal as saying, "Our job is to prevent another Sept. 11 from happening. We can't do that. Not under these circumstances, not under these conditions." Another told the station, "We do not want to come before the media. This is the last hope that we have to get these dangerous policies changed." U.S. air marshals based in Las Vegas told KMGH 7-News in Denver that they are required to submit at least one "Surveillance Detection Report," or SDR, a month. According to the account, SDRs are documents intended to identify terrorist surveillance activity, and can lead to a person being listed on national or international watch lists. According to the Marshals, whose identities were masked in the report, the quotas are enforced, and affect raises, bonuses, awards and assignments.
The controversy over the US-run detention center at Guantanamo Bay is to erupt anew with confirmation by the Pentagon that a new, permanent prison will open in the Cuban enclave in the next few weeks. Camp 6, a state-of-the-art maximum-security jail built by a Halliburton subsidiary, will be able to hold 200 prisoners. Commander Robert Durand, a spokesman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said the 30 million dollar, two-story block was due to open at the end of September. He added: "Camp 6 is designed to improve the quality of life for the detainees and provide greater protection for the people working in the facility." This development will refuel the controversy about the jail, which still holds 450 prisoners from President George Bush's "war on terror". Campaigners pointed to Mr Bush's claim earlier this summer that he would "like to close" Guantanamo. Just weeks after he made his comments in June, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration's system for trying prisoners using military tribunals breached United States and international law.
Constitutional law experts and civil rights advocates are slamming the latest legislative proposal from US Senator Arlen Specter to address the government's warrantless wiretapping program. After months of negotiations with other lawmakers and Bush administration officials, Specter announced a "compromise" agreement last Thursday. But critics say the proposal is a "sham" that eliminates congressional oversight over the executive branch and any meaningful legal review of the program. "It’s really basically a sell-out," said Shayana Kadidal, a staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a legal organization that filed a lawsuit on related matters against President Bush and the NSA in January. "It’s basically everything the administration wants in order to be able to continue warrantless spying on Americans."
Presidential adviser Karl Rove said Saturday that journalists often criticize political professionals because they want to draw attention away from the "corrosive role" their own coverage plays in politics and government. "Some decry the professional role of politics. They would like to see it disappear," Rove told graduating students at the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. "Some argue political professionals are ruining American politics -- trapping candidates in daily competition for the news cycle instead of long-term strategic thinking in the best interest of the country."
Liberal-Biased Media Watch: A poll completed by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News was presented to show good news for the Bush administration in today's Wall Street Journal, RAW STORY has found. The report on the poll by the Journal's Senior Contributing Writer John Harwood states that "In the Journal/NBC poll, approval of Mr. Bush's job performance inched up to 39% from 37% last month, but a 56% majority disapproves of the president's job performance. Congress fares even worse, with 25% approval and 60% disapproval." However, the survey results in PDF format show that there is a margin of error in the poll's findings of 3.1% in either direction. When confronted with similar results, a USA Today/Gallup Poll stated that "President George W. Bush's job approval rating holding in the same range" because the margin of error meant that there was no statistically significant change in Bush's approval ratings.
Republican Policies Build A Strong America: The housing industry - which largely carried the American economy through the tribulations of the 2000 stock-market crash, a recession and climbing oil prices - has lost its vigor in recent months and now has begun to bog down the broader economy, which slowed to a modest 2.5 percent growth rate this spring. That was a sharp comedown from the 5.6 percent growth rate of the first quarter, the Commerce Department reported yesterday, caused in part by the third consecutive quarterly decline in spending on houses and apartment buildings, after several years of rapid growth. "It hasn't slowed down a little bit - it has slowed down a lot," said Doug McCraw, a developer who has scrapped his plans for a 205-unit condominium tower in a neighborhood just north of downtown Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "Anybody who did not have a shovel in the dirt has chosen to wait till the market settles."
Millions of American men in the "prime of their lives" are unemployed by choice, according to a front page story set for Monday's edition of The New York Times. "Millions of men in the prime of their lives, between 30 and 55, have dropped out of regular work," report Louis Uchitelle and David Leonhardt for The Times first article in its "New Gender Divide" series. "They are turning down jobs they think are beneath them or are unable to find work for which they are qualified, even as an expanding economy offers opportunities to work," the article continues.
In July, US President George W Bush used his veto for the first time to block funding for stem-cell research. Now, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to promote Britain as an ideal place for stem-cell research when he meets US biotechnology firms later. Mr Blair is on a four-day visit to California to try to boost co-operation between the state and the UK. The UK may benefit from an influx of cash as US stem-cell firms face vocal and politically powerful opposition.
News From Smirkey's Wars: The US administration has quietly reversed its goal from whittling down troop numbers in Iraq before the mid-term congressional elections in November. A Pentagon spokesman on Friday confirmed that US troop levels in Iraq rose to 132,000 during the past week - the highest since late May - from 127,000 at the start of the week. The spokesman said troop numbers often fluctuated and "there might be temporary spikes during periods of troop rotation." President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have agreed to send thousands more troops to tackle sectarian and insurgent violence in Baghdad, where criminal gangs and kidnappers feed off the instability. Maliki has already launched a crackdown but it has failed to ease the communal violence which has raised fears of civil war.
Raging sectarian violence has pushed up the number of refugees in Iraq by 20,000 in the last 10 days alone, the migration ministry said on Monday. It said in a statement the total number of people displaced has reached 182,154. The crisis is likely to be far graver because ministry figures include only those who formally ask for aid within the country, some of them living in tented camps. By excluding thousands fleeing abroad or quietly seeking refuge with relatives, officials accept the data is a gross underestimate. The figure of 182,154, based on the ministry's data of 30,359 families, is the number of those claiming aid since the February 22 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra sparked a new phase of killing by Shi'ites and minority Sunni groups. Some 27,744 people have fled Baghdad alone in the past five months. More and more houses are boarded up in the capital and many shops in once bustling commercial districts have shut after being threatened with violence or attacked.
Many American politicians were surprised by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's criticism of Israel's attacks on Lebanon. They need only look at the stance taken by Iraq's top Shiite spiritual leader to understand why al-Maliki cannot stand with the U.S. in the crisis. On Sunday, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemned the "Israeli aggression" and warned that "Islamic nations will not forgive the entities that hinder a cease-fire" - a clear reference to the United States. His statement came after an Israeli airstrike that killed 56 people, mostly women and children, in the southern Lebanese village of Qana. Al-Maliki's comments came five days earlier, but it was no secret that the grand ayatollah and the rest of the Shiite clerical leadership strongly opposed Israel's offensive - and supported their fellow Shiites in Hezbollah. The Iraqi prime minister angered many Americans - especially Democrats - during a visit to Washington last week when he called for an immediate cease-fire without criticizing Hezbollah for provoking the crisis by capturing two Israeli soldiers and firing missiles into Israel.
Winning Hearts And Minds: "I came over here because I wanted to kill people." Over a mess-tent dinner of turkey cutlets, the bony-faced 21-year-old private from West Texas looked right at me as he talked about killing Iraqis with casual indifference. It was February, and we were at his small patrol base about 20 miles south of Baghdad. "The truth is, it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be. I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience. And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.' " He shrugged. "I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing," he went on. "Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza.' "
Maybe If We Ignore Global Warming Long Enough, It Will Go Away: The European heatwave has forced nuclear power plants to reduce or halt production. The weather, blamed for deaths and disruption across much of the continent, has caused dramatic rises in the temperature of rivers used to cool the reactors, raising fears of mass deaths for fish and other wildlife. Spain shut down the Santa Maria de Garona reactor on the River Ebro, one of the country's eight nuclear plants which generate a fifth of its national electricity. Reactors in Germany are reported to have cut output, and others in Germany and France have been given special permits to dump hot water into rivers to avoid power failures. France, where nuclear power provides more than three quarters of electricity, has also imported power to prevent shortages. The problems have come to light just weeks after Britain declared it will build a new generation of nuclear power stations, prompting opponents to claim the crisis proved nuclear reactors - although they emit no carbon dioxide greenhouse gases - are not the solution to the problem of global warming.
We Conservatives Are More Moral Than You: Ann Coulter repeated on Hardball her insinuation that Bill Clinton is gay, then went on to joke that "may not be gay, but Al Gore: total fag". She also repeated the claim that liberalism stands for "sucking the brains out of little babies." Video here. In concluding the interview, Matthews said of Coulter, "We'd love to have her back."
Picture the TV commercial, a deep voice delivering this ominous message, in a slow, deliberate cadence: "Even al-Jazeera endorsed Democrat Bobby Casey Jr. Whose side is he on, anyway?" It's hard not to think that was partly why Republican blogs and aides to U.S. Sen. Rick "Sanctimonious" Santorum (R., Pa.) sounded giddy last week as they passed around a commentary from a Web site, www.Al-Jazeerah.info. "Don't ask Santorum to 'apologize,' folks. Vote Democratic," stated the commentary, which denounced the senator's July 20 speech describing the United States as fighting a war on Islamic fascism, not terror. Santorum referenced it himself Thursday on Fox's O'Reilly Factor. But there was one little wrinkle. The Web site was not related to the Arabic TV network based in the Middle East - spelled al-Jazeera, no "h." The goal of al-Jazeerah, according to its Web site, is to "promote cross-cultural understanding between people all over the world." It's based in Dalton, Ga., not Qatar. "Rick Santorum has reached a new low in gutter politics by trying to ridiculously link Bob Casey to terrorists," Casey spokesman Larry Smar said. Santorum's spokeswoman, Virginia Davis, said it doesn't make a difference. "We thought we should share these kind of sentiments."
There is probable cause to believe that Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Gallagher violated ethics laws by owning stock in two insurance companies while he regulated the industry, the state ethics commission determined Friday. The commission will determine later whether action should be taken against the Republican. Its next meeting isn't scheduled until after Gallagher faces Attorney General Charlie Crist in the Sept. 5 primary election. When Gallagher posted his tax returns on his campaign Web site it was revealed he had traded hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock between 2002 and 2005, including shares of insurers Penn Treaty American Corp. and Conseco Inc. Gallagher served as insurance commissioner until 2003, when he was sworn in as the state's chief financial officer. As CFO, Gallagher sits on the Cabinet which, along with the governor, oversees insurance regulation and several state agencies. The commission's determination came after a closed hearing, but the panel confirmed the findings after Gallagher's campaign disclosed them.
The weather has generally been pretty decent the last couple of days, considering it is the rainy season and all. Bright sunny day most of the day yesterday, with drizzle during the evening, but dry by morning. And this morning, it was the same, until about three this afternoon when it clouded over and the rain began. A good thunderstorm, not a major one, though, and it forced me to pull the power in the house as there was a lot of lightning associated with it. And this evening, there was another one, but neither lasted all that long or were particularly intense. Nice temperatures, though. The sun brought the temperature to 83 yesterday, 82 today, and 72 overnight.
But there was some serious weather a couple of nights ago. During the night, I knew it was blowing hard as some of the roof sheets were being rattled by the wind. But I didn´t know how hard until I looked out the window yesterday morning to discover that the wind had blown down one of the enormous Ficus benjaminica trees growing on the north side of my pond. When the gardener arrived, I went over to have a look, and it turns out that the trunk was rotten inside, and that is why the wind brought it down. It also brought down a guava tree on the north side of my property, which I had expected to come down ever since it was damaged by my neighbor during the construction of his house. Well, it is down, now, and with the big Ficus tree, I now have a lot of work for the chainsaw man. I need to go talk to him Monday about coming over and cutting up those trees, and then get my peon to come by and haul it all away. I have to get him started on the fence project, too. Seems one of the trees along the fence line came down in that same storm, and wrecked part of the fence and came down on the power line across the street, but the ICE crew cut it down for me. I just need to remove the stump.
When the gardener was here yesterday, we tried using his slingshot to get some fishing line up in the trees around here so I could haul up some antennas. Well, that didn't work out, but it turns out that he has a fabulous pitching arm, and was able to do as well with a fast pitch as the slingshot could manage with a small pebble. So he found a green mango on the ground, wrapped some line around it, and threw it clear over the top of my highest mango tree. No problem. I used that line to haul up a piece of electric fence wire, and we did the same with the other three trees near the house that I wanted to have access to.
This morning, since the weather was good, I decided to go ahead and put up one of the antennas, using some electric fence wire brought down for me from the States (thanks, Arlie!). After rather considerable effort at getting the antenna up through all the trees and shrubs around here, I got the cable into the house and hooked it up to the radio.
I was surprised to be able to hear hams in the States on the 40-meter band in the middle of the day. I had never heard that before from here in Costa Rica. Signal levels were rather weak on other bands, indicating poor band conditions today, but signals came up nicely in the evening, indicating that all the effort was worth it. I now have one of the two antennas up that I really need. Talking to other hams around the Caribbean and in the southeastern U.S. will no longer be difficult. And when I get the other antenna up, Central America and the western U.S. will no longer be a problem either. I am finally back on the air with reasonable antennas.
More Reasons Why I Am Glad I Am Out Of The States: Captain Clueless speaks to the nation about the causes of terror: President Bush on Saturday cast the Lebanon war as part of a broader struggle against terrorism and said a strategy to end the violence there must address the threat posed by Hizbollah. Amid mounting concern over civilian casualties in the fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was headed to Israel to discuss the terms of a proposal for a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a negotiated truce. A day after Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced they would try to offer the resolution next week, Bush used his weekly radio broadcast to highlight his goals. "As we work to resolve this current crisis, we must recognize that Lebanon is the latest flashpoint in a broader struggle between freedom and terror that is unfolding across the region," Bush said. Bush and Blair agreed that a multinational force for Lebanon should be formed quickly to help speed delivery of aid to thousands of displaced Lebanese and help stabilize the border.
Iran's foreign ministry on Friday denied allegations that Tehran has provided military support to Hezbollah in its fight against Israel, a day after President Bush sharply criticized Iran's role in the bloody fighting. "Our support has been spiritual. If we had military support, we would announce it... We don't have any hidden business," ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on state-run television. Bush said Thursday that Iran is connected to Hezbollah, and now was the "time for the world to confront this danger." Bush was responding to statements from top Israeli officials that the fighting could continue for several weeks. The Israeli offensive, which began after Hezbollah crossed the border and captured two Israeli soldiers, continued into its 17th day Friday. John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also has alleged that Iranians are Hezbollah's "paymasters, and they're calling the tune."
Tony Blair will press George Bush today to support "as a matter of urgency" a ceasefire in Lebanon as part of a UN security council resolution next week, according to Downing Street sources. At a White House meeting, the prime minister will express his concern that pro-western Arab governments are "getting squeezed" by the crisis and the longer it continues, the more squeezed they will be, giving militants a boost. The private view from No 10 is that the US is "prevaricating" over the resolution and allowing the conflict to run on too long. But diplomatic sources in Washington suggest the US and Israel believe serious damage has been inflicted on Hizbullah, so the White House is ready to back a ceasefire resolution at the UN next week. Today Mr Bush and Mr Blair will discuss a version of the resolution that has been circulating in Washington and London.
Hizbullah wants an immediate ceasefire and is ready to swap the two abducted Israeli soldiers "in six hours" after it comes into force, according to officials from Amal, a Shia party allied to Hizbullah. Hizbullah has entrusted Amal with negotiations for a prisoner deal, realising that it cannot be a direct partner to talks. Nabih Berri, Amal's leader, who is also speaker of the Lebanese parliament, met Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, on Tuesday in a clear sign that Washington sees him as a conduit to Hizbullah. "Mr Berri says he can get the Israeli soldiers sent back in return for Lebanese prisoners in six hours after a ceasefire," Ali Hamdan, the head of Amal's foreign affairs bureau, told the Guardian yesterday. "He wouldn't say that if he didn't have assurances from Hizbullah."
What Your Aid-To-Israel Tax Dollars Are Buying: Israel's U.N. ambassador on Thursday ruled out major U.N. involvement in any potential international force in Lebanon, saying more professional and better-trained troops were needed for such a volatile situation. Dan Gillerman also said Israel would not allow the United Nations to join in an investigation of an Israeli airstrike that demolished a post belonging to the current U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Four U.N. observers were killed in the Tuesday strike. "Israel has never agreed to a joint investigation, and I don't think that if anything happened in this country, or in Britain or in Italy or in France, the government of that country would agree to a joint investigation," Gillerman said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice launched a new round of diplomacy in the Middle East in a bid to end the 18-day-old Lebanon conflict, as Israel flatly rejected UN pleas for a humanitarian truce and unleashed another wave of strikes. Shortly after Rice touched down in Israel for the second time in a week, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to strike cities "in the center" of the country if the Jewish state continued to attack civilians in Lebanon. Israel, backed by the United States, has refused to set a date for ending its war on the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah that has killed more than 450 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and made hundreds of thousands homeless.
An Israeli air strike has closed the main border crossing from Lebanon into Syria, witnesses and officials say. Missiles hit the road between the two states' immigration posts, but on the Lebanese side, the reports said. A separate strike wounded two UN monitors in their observation post, the UN said, days after four were killed. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has returned to the region for fresh talks set to focus on bringing in a larger international peace force. Deployment of the force is expected to be discussed by world leaders at a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday.
The United Nations has decided to remove 50 unarmed observers from posts along the Israeli-Lebanese border and relocate them with lightly armed UN peacekeepers, a spokesman said Friday. Also Friday, Hezbollah announced it had fired a new rocket, called the Khaibar-1, striking near the northern Israeli town of Afula. Israeli authorities reported that five rockets hit fields outside Afula, causing no casualties. Afula is about 30 miles south of the Israeli-Lebanese border, and is farther south than the Israeli port city of Haifa. The strike came two days after Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech that Hezbollah would start a new phase in the battle striking beyond the Israeli city of Haifa, which has been hit several times in lethal rocket fire. The area around Afula has been struck before, but Israeli security officials said Friday's attacks were the southernmost so far. The UN decision came three days after an Israeli airstrike destroyed one of the posts earlier this week, killing four UN observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland.
Israeli troops pulled back from a key Lebanese border town Saturday where it battled Hezbollah for a week, claiming to have finished its mission after the bloodiest ground fight of the 18-day war. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah threatened in a TV broadcast to attack more cities in central Israel, as Israeli warplanes blasted bridges and demolished houses in southern Lebanon, killing seven people, including a woman and her five children. The battle for Bint Jbail has symbolized Israel's difficulty in pushing guerrillas back from the border, whether by air bombardment or ground assault. Hezbollah on Friday escalated its cross-border attacks, firing longer-range missiles deeper into Israel than ever before.
Along Lebanon's sandy beaches and rocky headlands runs a belt of black sludge, 10,000 to 30,000 tonnes of oil that spilled into the Mediterranean Sea after Israel bombed a power plant. Lebanon's Environment Ministry says the oil flooded into the sea when Israeli jets hit storage tanks at the Jiyyeh plant south of Beirut on July 13 and 15, creating an ecological crisis that Lebanon's government has neither the money nor the expertise to deal with. "We have never seen a spill like this in the history of Lebanon. It is a major catastrophe," Environment Minister Yacoub al-Sarraf told Reuters. "The equipment we have is for minor spills. We use it once in a blue moon to clean a small spill of 50 tonnes or so. To clean this whole thing up we would need an armada ... The cost of a full clean-up could run as high as $40-50 million." The spill is especially threatening since fish spawn and sea turtles nest on Lebanon's coast, including the green turtle which is endangered in the Mediterranean, local ecologists say. Carried by a north-easterly wind, the spill has travelled 70-80 km up the coast of Lebanon, which has been bombarded by Israel for 16 days in a war against Hizbollah.
At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight. Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for 15 days, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements. The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah's main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington. An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on Hezbollah while attacking the United States and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for trumpeting American plans for a "new Middle East" that they say has led only to violence and repression. Even Al Qaeda, run by violent Sunni Muslim extremists normally hostile to all Shiites, has gotten into the act, with its deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, releasing a taped message saying that through its fighting in Iraq, his organization was also trying to liberate Palestine.
Something I have been predicting for a long time: Police stepped up security at Seattle synagogues and mosques on Saturday, a day after a Muslim man who said he was angry at Israel shot dead one woman and wounded five others at a Jewish center. Naveed Afzal Haq, 31, burst into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle on Friday afternoon. He surrendered without a struggle and police arrested him on charges of murder and five counts of attempted murder. Amy Wasser-Simpson, the federation's vice president, told the Seattle Times that Haq got past security at the building and shouted, "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel," before he began shooting. Police officers circled Seattle's Seward Park area, the city's traditional Jewish neighborhood and home to three major synagogues. Uniformed guards stood outside the neighborhood's Bikur Cholim-Machzikay Hadath synagogue and the Sephardic Bikur Holim synagogue. "There is high security," said Robin Boehler, chairwoman of the Jewish Federation. "This is the thing we dread the most happening."
On a day of heavy Israeli military casualties and failed international talks to end more than two weeks of fighting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with senior Cabinet ministers Wednesday to assess the course of Israel's offensive in Lebanon in the face of growing domestic doubts about the conduct of the campaign. As televised images of wounded soldiers carried off helicopters raised haunting memories of Israel's 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, critics began to raise questions about the tactics of the offensive and the army's performance in the face of determined resistance by Hezbollah. Putting up a stronger fight than expected, Hezbollah guerrillas inflicted heavy losses on Israeli troops in Wednesday's combat, killing nine soldiers and wounding 25 in the worst single-day toll for the Israelis since the start of the campaign. The casualties in the fighting in the hill town of Bint Jbail in southern Lebanon were also a blow to the army's credibility after some senior officers announced in media interviews Tuesday that resistance in the town had been broken and that it was under the control of Israeli forces.
As Israeli troops sustained considerable casualties in the fighting in south Lebanon, the Israeli military appeared divided over the course of operations. Disagreement broke out between the Mossad intelligence service and military intelligence at a meeting of the inner cabinet for security and political affairs Thursday over the evaluation of Hezbollah's force and capacity to resist a long offensive. The two sides also could not agree on the extent of damage inflicted on Hezbollah's military infrastructure as a result of military operations which have been going on without respite for the past 17 days, Israeli daily Haaretz reported Friday. In addition to differences between the intelligence apparatuses, sharp criticism was voiced within the military institution about the course of military operations in south Lebanon, reflecting confusion over the proceeding of the war conduct. The military correspondent at Israel's Channel One television reported that high-ranking IDF officers are highly critical of the way military operations are being executed in south Lebanon and have accused military intelligence of underestimating Hezbollah's strength and failing to prevent the Shiite group from kidnapping Israeli soldiers despite previous unsuccessful attempts.
While You Were Glued To Faux News: Social networking sites such as MySpace and chat rooms have allowed sexual predators to sneak into homes and solicit kids," said Rep. Ted Poe, a Texas Republican and co-founder of the Congressional Victim's Rights Caucus, will be banned under ab till proposed by Poe. "This bill requires schools and libraries to establish (important) protections" - meaning they're going to be outright banned. Even though politicians apparently meant to restrict access to MySpace, the definition of off-limits Web sites is so broad the bill would probably sweep in thousands of commercial Web sites that allow people to post profiles, include personal information and allow "communication among users." Details will be left up to the Federal Communications Commission. Many schools and libraries already block MySpace and certain other sites. Good. So why should this action be legislated by the federal government? The role of computers in libraries is to provide general access to information, much as the same way books and magazine provide general access to information. Is liberty less important than teenagers annoying you while they sit at a public computer? What is the government to say to a public library who has determined that social networking sites are not a burden or a threat in their facility? Why punish and restrict all users to remove the (perceived) risks of a few?
Republicans muscled the first minimum wage increase in a decade through the House early Saturday after pairing it with a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates. Combining the two issues provoked protests from Democrats and was sure to cause problems in the Senate, where the minimum wage initiative was likely to die at the hands of Democrats opposed to the costly estate tax cuts. The Senate is expected to take up the legislation next week. Still, GOP leaders saw combining the wage and tax issues as their best chance for getting permanent cuts to the estate tax, a top GOP priority fueled by intense lobbying by farmers, small business owners and super-wealthy families such as the Waltons, heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune. "This is the best shot we've got; we're going to take it," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. The unusual packaging also soothed conservatives angry about raising the minimum wage over opposition by GOP business allies. The House passed the bill 230-180 before leaving for a five-week recess.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday directed more than 2,500 U.S. troops who have spent the past year in Iraq to stay up to four months past their scheduled departure date, boosting the size of the U.S. force amid unrelenting violence in Baghdad, officials said. The move, involving elements of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Wainwright in Alaska, was the latest sign that any significant reduction in the size of the 130,000-strong U.S. force in Iraq is unlikely any time soon.
Rats Deserting The U.S.S. Bush: Tony Blair was facing a full-scale cabinet rebellion last night over the Middle East crisis after his former Foreign Secretary warned Israel's actions risked destabilizing the whole of Lebanon. Jack Straw, now Leader of the Commons, said in a statement released after meeting Muslim constituents that while he grieved for innocent Israelis killed he also mourned the '10 times as many innocent Lebanese men, women and children killed by Israeli fire'. Straw added that he agreed with the Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells that it was 'very difficult to understand the kind of military tactics used by Israel', adding: 'One of the many serious worries I have is that a continuation of such tactics by Israel could destabilize the already fragile Lebanese nation.' The Observer can also reveal that at a cabinet meeting before Blair's Middle East summit talks with George Bush, minister after minister pressed him to break with the Americans' position and publicly criticise the Israelis for the scale of death and destruction in Lebanon. No one, according to one senior minister at the meeting, weighed in to support the Prime Minister.
What The GWOT (Global War On Terror) Is Buying: ConocoPhillips, Houston's largest company ranked by revenue, announced yet another record profit on Wednesday. For the second quarter of the year, the company booked net income of $5.2 billion, or $3.09 a share, on revenue of $47.1 billion. That's a 65 percent increase in profit over this time last year when ConocoPhillips booked net income of $3.1 billion, or $2.21 a share, on revenue of $41.8 billion. Even with the spike in profit, ConocoPhillips CEO James Mulva said the company could have done better. Still, it outperformed Wall Street analysts' expectations, and its stock closed up $1.15 at $68.60 per share. On both the refining side and the oil and gas production side of the business, the company's earnings were hampered slightly by downtime at facilities. Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe’s second-largest oil company, said Thursday its second-quarter earnings jumped 40 percent as high oil prices offset production difficulties in Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico. Net profit rose to $7.32 billion from $5.24 billion a year earlier. Sales rose less than 1 percent to $83.1 billion from $82.6 billion. Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday it earned $10.36 billion in the second quarter, the second largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company. The earnings figure was 36 percent above the profit it reported a year ago. High oil prices helped boost the company’s revenue by 12 percent to a level just short of a quarterly record.
Trickle-Down Economics Trickling On You: The US economy, the world's largest, has slowed in the second quarter of the year, on the back of rising interest rates and soaring energy costs. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of 2.5% in the three months to the end of June, compared to a 5.6% annual rate in the previous quarter. Some slowdown had been expected, but its severity comes as a surprise. The US dollar dropped on the news, as analysts questioned their forecasts for annual US economic growth. The Federal Reserve predicts that the US economy will expand by 3.5% this year, compared with a growth rate of 3.2% in 2005.
Bill Of Rights Death Watch: An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts. Senior officials have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment. In light of a recent Supreme Court ruling that the international Conventions apply to the treatment of such detainees, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has spoken privately with Republican lawmakers about the need for such "protections," according to someone who heard his remarks last week. Gonzales told the lawmakers that a shield was needed for actions taken by U.S. personnel under a 2002 presidential order, which the Supreme Court declared illegal, and under Justice Department legal opinions that have been withdrawn under fire, the source said. A spokeswoman for Gonzales, Tasia Scolinos, declined to comment on Gonzales's remarks.
The U.N. Human Rights Committee has issued a strongly worded critique of the U.S. government's rights record at home and abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urges the United States to adopt the committee's recommendations, which reflect a growing international consensus that the U.S. is violating basic human rights norms. The committee called upon the U.S. to immediately abolish all secret detention facilities; ensure that all detainees at Guantanamo Bay are provided a fair opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of their detention; and hold accountable all persons - including contract employees and senior military officers - responsible for abuse and torture in Guantanamo, Afghanistan or Iraq. It also criticized U.S. domestic policies on asylum-seekers and prisoners. "The U.N. committee clearly rejected the Bush administration's claim that it isn't violating the U.N. treaty on civil and political rights when it acts beyond its own borders," said Alison Parker, acting director of the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch. "If U.S. agents deliver detainees to countries where they face torture or keep people in secret prisons, they are violating fundamental human rights." The committee sharply criticized the Bush administration's view that its human rights treaty obligations do not apply to persons detained outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, and that actions taken by CIA and civilian contractors were not proper subjects of inquiry.
Meanwhile, Back At Rancho Iraq: The United States is dropping Bechtel, the American construction giant, from a project to build a high-tech children's hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Basra after the project fell nearly a year behind schedule and exceeded its expected cost by as much as 150 percent. Called the Basra Children's Hospital, the project has been consistently championed by the first lady, Laura Bush, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and was designed to house sophisticated equipment for treating childhood cancer. Now it becomes the latest in a series of American taxpayer-financed health projects in Iraq to face overruns, delays and cancellations. Earlier this year, the Army Corps of Engineers canceled more than $300 million in contracts held by Parsons, another American contractor, to build and refurbish hospitals and clinics across Iraq. American and Iraqi government officials described the move to drop Bechtel in interviews on Thursday, and Ammar al-Saffar, a deputy health minister in Baghdad, allowed a reporter to take notes on briefing papers on the subject he said he had recently been given by the State Department.
President Bush and national security adviser Stephen Hadley yesterday for the first time publicly acknowledged the momentous shift in the role for U.S. troops in Iraq, from fighting terrorists to trying to suppress religious violence. This sea change was described in such understated terms that it was eclipsed by news about the crisis in Lebanon. Bush described a change in tactics; Hadley called it a repositioning. But it’s a historic admission: That job one for many American troops in Iraq is no longer fighting al-Qaeda terrorists, or even insurgents. Rather, it is trying to quell an incipient - if not already raging - sectarian civil war, with Baghdad as ground zero.
Maybe If We Ignore Global Warming Long Enough, It Will Go Away: Heat waves and global warming "are very strongly" connected, said Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis branch chief at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The immediate cause of the California heat wave - and other heat waves - is day-to-day weather, he said. A persistent high pressure system in the upper atmosphere prevents cooler jetstream air, from making it into the West, said National Weather Service meteorologist Dennis Feltgen. "You can't tie global warming into one single event," he said. But what global warming has done is make the nights warmer in general and the days drier, which help turn merely uncomfortably hot days into killer heat waves, Trenberth said. Much of global warming science concentrates on average monthly and yearly temperatures, but recent studies in the past five years show that climate change is at its most dangerous during extreme events, such as high temperatures, droughts and flooding, he said.
The heatwave that has been baking California since mid-July is being blamed for more than 130 deaths across the state, the authorities have said. Many of the deaths have been in the Central Valley, where temperatures have reached 46C (115F) in some areas. Among the worst-hit areas is Fresno, where the local mortuary is struggling to deal with dozens of bodies. The heat has also hit the agriculture sector, killing 25,000 cattle and 700,000 poultry, farmers say.
The record-breaking heat wave that plagued California will pass this weekend to the U.S. Midwest and East Coast where high air conditioning use will strain electricity systems and increase the chance of outages, power officials and weather forecasters said. The heat wave is not expected to be as long-lasting in the Midwest, Northeast or Mid-Atlantic as it was in California, where cities inland from the Pacific Ocean were over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for two weeks and more. The death toll in California topped 126 by Friday, state officials said. [nN28119059] The hot spell is over for now for most of the West, forecasters agreed. A string of extremely hot days through next Wednesday will rival those of mid-July when power grids in the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, New England and New York state all set records of electricity consumption. Power grids in all those locations were strained but held without major power outages, similar to what happened during California's heat wave. Heat and humidity will make it feel like 110 F in Eastern cities Philadelphia, New York and Washington by Tuesday, said Chris Hyde, meteorologist with MDA-EarthSat Weather.
More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. An area stretching from south central North Dakota to central South Dakota is the most drought-stricken region in the nation, Svoboda said. "It's the epicenter," he said. "It's just like a wasteland in north central South Dakota." Conditions aren't much better a little farther north.
Just as American wines from the now famous Napa and Sonoma valleys and other enclaves have established their place at the world's top tables, a new report has warned that global warming may destroy the industry. The study forecasts that by the end of this century up to four-fifths of the best vine-growing areas will no longer be able to grow their premium grapes because of the steady rise in very hot days, when temperatures pass 35C. And with California now in a state of emergency because of a two-week heatwave in which temperatures have soared to 49C, and which has been blamed for killing more than 120 people, the wine industry faces an imminent crisis, says Dr Noah Diffenbaugh, one of the study's authors. Such a dramatic change would affect wine drinkers around the world - especially those in Britain, which imports more wine from America than from Chile, South Africa or Spain. 'The climate change we're predicting for the late 21st century is so far above those maximum tolerances [to very hot days], we'd expect to see those changes a lot sooner,' said Diffenbaugh, of Purdue University in Indiana.
Coal-burning utilities are contributing money to one of the few remaining climate scientists openly critical of the broad consensus that fossil fuel emissions are intensifying global warming. The critic, Patrick J. Michaels, is a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute and Virginia's state climatologist. Dr. Michaels told Western business leaders last year that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists' global warming research. So a Colorado utility organized a collection campaign for him last week and has raised at least $150,000 in donations and pledges. The utility, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, based in Sedalia, Colo., has given Dr. Michaels $100,000 of its own, said Stanley R. Lewandowski Jr., its general manager. Mr. Lewandowski said that one company planned to give $50,000 and that a third planned to contribute to Dr. Michaels next year.
New data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirms fears that rain from hurricanes and tropical storms could flood some New Orleans neighborhoods with up to 5 feet of water when new floodgates are closed at the mouths of three major drainage canals. The floodgates are designed to prevent storm surges from Lake Pontchartrain from backing up into the canals, preventing the surge flooding that inundated most of the city during Hurricane Katrina. But the floodgates also would prevent rainfall from draining through canals into the lake. The data released Wednesday shows 9 inches of rain in six hours - which happened during Katrina - could leave some neighborhoods under 1 to 5 feet of water. That's less than the storm surge that topped houses last August, but it could still flood some homes and endanger the city's recovery, said U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who requested the data. When plans to install the floodgates were announced in January, Corps officials acknowledged the possibility of flooding caused by heavy rains, but never said how bad it could be.
We Conservatives Are More Moral Than You: Two months before Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) became chairman of the powerful House Government Reform Committee in January 2003, one of his close friends formed ICG Government, a consulting company for technology firms seeking government contracts. Donald W. Upson had risen with Davis through the burgeoning Northern Virginia technology community, where they worked side by side as executives at a company that sold computer systems to the government. Davis went on to Congress, where he became a leading voice on government contracting and an advocate for his technology industry constituents in Fairfax and Prince William counties. Upson became the top technology official for the Virginia state government before reentering the private sector and starting ICG. From the beginning, Upson worked with Davis and his staff as he built his consulting business, which holds seminars on procurement and advises clients on winning government technology contracts worth billions of dollars. Those contracts often came under the oversight of Davis's committee. One of Upson's first hires was Jeannemarie Devolites, a Virginia politician who later married the congressman.
The Ever Higher Price Of Gasoline
The weather has been very windy, yesterday and today, and although sunny, dry and relatively warm (71 overnight and 79 both days), it has been windy to the point of being rather unpleasant. Last night, the wind blew down a huge tree on the hilltop across the street from the house, and when it came down, it broke a concrete power pole along with it. That brought down the high-tension wire on top of the pole, and took out the power in the barrio. The power was off for a couple of hours while the ICE crew was out putting a temporary extension on the pole, and reinstalling the high tension wire. They were still at it when I went to bed, but the power was back on just before I went to sleep. I am going to miss that tree. It was absolutely enormous, one of the biggest trees in the neighborhood - a hundred feet high and as wide, and was a favorite resting place for traveling flocks of parrots, oropendulas and toucans. Guess they'll have to go somewhere else now.
The price of "super" gasoline is going up again this weekend. It just went to $4.10 per gallon last week, but the word in the paper this morning is that the government-owned RECOPE refining monopoly has asked for yet another price increase, this time to $4.29 per gallon. A gallon of "regular" is going to $4.12 from $3.98. And you thought you had it bad!
So I can expect another rate increase for both taxis and buses. It has already gotten to the point that a taxi ride from my place into town - a distance of about half a mile - now costs 1,000 colones - $1.94. When I first moved here two and a half years ago, it was about 75 cents. Sigh. Taxis used to be dirt cheap in this country, but not any more. Bus rides to anywhere in the country were paid from pocket shrapnel. Those days are gone, too. Diesel powered mo-peds anyone?
I wouldn't mind it quite so much if the fuel quality was decent, but I can tell from how my car engine runs that the 92-octane "super" isn't exactly 92 octane, and the 89-octane "regular" is far from 89. It would be interesting to run samples through a modern testing lab in the States and find out just how they actually measure up. I keep hearing that they're going to build an ethanol plant to make ethanol from Costa Rica's abundant sugar cane resources, and start blending it with the gasoline, but so far that has just been talk. It would be a good way to relieve pressure on the forex reserves.
I drove into town yesterday to drop off a friend, and you would never have guessed at the high price of gasoline - there wasn't a parking spot anywhere in sight, from the highway all the way to beyond the post office, about three blocks, and it wasn't the usual delivery trucks either. It was like every car in town was there, and then some. You would never know that there is a gas price crisis going on. It was just like the old days. I suppose people are getting used to it.
I can understand why the government is purposely keeping fuel prices high - the importation of crude petroleum is by far the single largest foreign exchange bill that the central bank has to pay, and transportation fuel is by far the largest use for it - far more than all the other uses combined. So by keeping the price up, the government accomplishes two things - first, reduce the pressure on forex reserves by keeping demand for petroleum down, and second, increase revenues to the government, which it desperately needs. But there is a limit - if the government raises gasoline prices too far, people will begin driving across the borders to Panama and Nicaragua to fill up on relatively cheaper gasoline there. Not that it is that much cheaper at the moment - when I was in Nicaragua three weeks ago, regular gasoline was $3.77 per gallon there at that time, and is probably higher now. Haven't been to Panama recently, but when I was there a year and a half ago, it was about 10 cents a gallon higher than here on the main highways, and about 30 cents a gallon higher off the beaten tracks.
More Reasons Why I Am Glad I Am Out Of The States: Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, said today that foreign troops could leave his country within months. Later today Mr al-Maliki will talk to Tony Blair in Downing Street about the conditions needed to bring about that withdrawal. The new leader's much-touted security plan has failed to stem the bloodshed in Baghdad and other parts of the country but Mr al-Maliki, who is on an official visit to London, insisted that the handover by British forces of Muthanna province, a sparsely populated desert region, earlier this month was a positive sign. Iraqis were now ready to take charge of security in other areas, he said. Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today program how long it would be before foreign forces could depart, he replied: "Definitely not decades, not even years. I think in this visit we will discuss issues that will allow foreign troops to leave."
Conservative national security allies of President Bush are in revolt against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she is incompetent and has reversed the administration’s national security and foreign policy agenda. The conservatives, who include Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle and leading current and former members of the Pentagon and National Security Council, have urged the president to transfer Miss Rice out of the State Department and to an advisory role. They said Miss Rice, stemming from her lack of understanding of the Middle East, has misled the president on Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict. "The president has yet to understand that people make policy and not the other way around," a senior national security policy analyst said. "Unlike [former Secretary of State Colin] Powell, Condi is loyal to the president. She is just incompetent on most foreign policy issues." The criticism of Miss Rice has been intense and comes from a range of Republican loyalists, including current and former aides in the Defense Department and the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. They have warned that Iran has been exploiting Miss Rice's inexperience and incompetence to accelerate its nuclear weapons program. They expect a collapse of her policy over the next few months.
Why I Am Embarrassed To Present My Passport: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly disagreed at a grim-faced news conference on whether Iran and Syria should be involved in talks, with Annan saying they should, and Rice denouncing the two nations for their role in the region. After listening to the news conference, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora expressed despair. Saying his country was being "cut to pieces" by Israel, Siniora said: "We really wanted, on the one hand, to really ask the participants to provide humanitarian relief assistance, which is important, and to provide all other assistance. . . . But more, we wanted a cease-fire, an immediate cease-fire." U.S. officials briefing after the meeting played down disagreements. But others did not. Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said that "we agreed upon what we could agree upon, but that does not change the fact that the European Union has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities" while the United States has not.
A cafe called Osama opposite the US embassy in Belgrade has been told to change its name after diplomats complained. The word Osama means "secluded" in Serbo-Croat and cafe owner Milomir Jeftic said he had named his shop after a local shelter for the homeless. But he has been told to change it after an official complaint from the US Embassy, local media reported. Jeftic said: "I had no intention of offending Americans. It is just a word in Serbian. I admit I have heard of Osama Bin Laden, but until now I was not quite sure who he was."
What Your Aid-To-Israel Tax Dollars Are Paying For: About 55 percent of all casualties at the Beirut Government University Hospital are children of 15 years of age or less, hospital records show. "This is worse than during the Lebanese civil war," Bilal Masri, assistant director of the hospital, one of Beirut's largest, told IPS Monday. Not only are most of the patients children, but many of the injured have been brought in serious condition, he said. "Now we have a 30 percent fatality rate here in Beirut. That means that 30 percent of everyone hit by Israeli bombs are dying. It is a catastrophe." The fatality rate was high, he said, "because the Israelis are using new kinds of bombs which can enter shelters. They are bombing the bomb shelters which are full of refugees." Masri told IPS that he believed so many children were becoming casualties because of the "widespread and indiscriminate nature of the bombings" and because "children are least able to run away when the bombings commence." This new 544-bed hospital was forced to open its emergency room six months early due to the current crisis. The hospital has had to handle "scores and scores" of casualties, according to the assistant director. Masri said he had barely slept in the 13 days since the Israeli bombing of Lebanon began. His hospital, he said, was functioning with only 25 percent staff because "most are now unable to get here because so many roads and bridges are bombed. Those who are here are eating, sleeping and living here 24 hours a day because if they leave they fear they may be unable to return."
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan today said he was "shocked" at Israel's "apparently deliberate targeting" of a UN post in Lebanon, in which up to four UN observers were killed. Mr Annan described the strike as a "co-ordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post." He said it took place "despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire." "Furthermore, General Alain Pelligrini, the UN Force Commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular UN position from attack. "I call on the Government of Israel to conduct a full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demand that any further attack on UN positions and personnel must stop. "The names and nationalities of those killed are being withheld pending notification of their families. I extend sincere condolences to the families of our fallen peacekeepers." UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon contacted Israeli troops 10 times before an Israeli bomb killed four of them, an initial UN report says. The UN contacted Israeli forces up to 10 times about the strikes. The UN's deputy general secretary, Mark Malloch Brown, made several calls to the Israelis to protest at the shelling and to call for it to stop, he told the security council yesterday. In response, Israel reportedly promised to halt the firing. An Irish army officer warned the Israelis six times. The post was hit by a precision-guided missile after six hours of shelling, diplomats familiar with the probe say.
Amid intensifying recriminations tonight over the killing of four UN monitors, an Israeli army general tonight said the bombing campaign in Lebanon would continue for many weeks. "I assume it will continue for several more weeks, and in a number of weeks we will be able to [declare] a victory," Major General Udi Adam, the head of Israel's northern command, said at a news conference. Earlier, the United Nations general secretary, Kofi Annan, accused the Israeli military of carrying out a sustained bombing of the UN base on the Lebanon-Israel border that culminated in the killing of four unarmed monitors.
Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip have killed 23 Palestinians, including several children, witnesses and medical sources say. At least 11 militants were among the dead, but many civilians were also killed, and about 70 people were hurt. The raids come amid Israeli efforts to release a soldier captured by Palestinian militants last month. About 140 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel launched its offensive. The attacks on Gaza have been overshadowed by fierce clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israeli air strikes began early on Wednesday and were backed by up to 30 tanks and other ground forces. A military spokesman said the air force had targeted "armed gunmen" east of Gaza City as troops mounted a fresh incursion on the city's borders, the AFP news agency reported.
Two weeks into the fighting, growing unease in Israel itself about a wide range of war-related issues has burst into the open with a series of anxious comments by politicians, former officers and leading experts and pundits. Experts say Israel's much-vaunted intelligence services have underestimated Hizbullah capabilities, especially in not knowing it had an Iranian-made missile capable of hitting an Israeli naval vessel off Beirut. The air force has also come under scrutiny after the loss of three US-built Apache helicopters and an F16 jet, with one helicopter reportedly downed by friendly fire. Five Israeli soldiers have also been killed by friendly fire. Wall-to-wall TV and radio talk shows have wheeled out reserve or former officers highlighting the shortcomings of those running the show, bringing defensive responses from the IDF general staff and even charges of disloyalty in wartime. But Ze'ev Schiff, the highly respected doyen of Israeli military commentators, and author of the definitive history of the 1982 war, put it bluntly: "Israel is far from a decisive victory and its main objectives have not been achieved."
Aid workers have started supply runs into southern Lebanon but some villages remain cut off, the Red Cross said Tuesday, and a U.N. agency warned a food crisis was looming in areas worst hit by Israeli bombardment. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had set up two southern bases, in the port of Tyre and the town of Marjayoun, and was sending medical assistance to border villages needing urgent help after two weeks of war. "Things have not stabilized yet. There are a lot of people stuck in the south," Andreas Wigger, ICRC head of delegation in Lebanon, said. While the United Nations says it is waiting for Israeli guarantees of safe passage before distributing aid to the south, the Red Cross started operations four days ago. It is concentrating on 200 villages in the hills of southern Lebanon, where heavy bombardment has forced tens of thousands to flee and left others stranded. Many remain beyond its reach. "Today we could not go to Rmaish, they are in dire need," he said, referring to a village barely a mile from the border with Israel and close to Bint Jbeil, where Israeli and Hizbollah forces have fought fierce battles.
While You Were Glued To Faux News: Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter introduced legislation on Wednesday to challenge Smirkey's assertion that he can bypass sections of bills that he signs into law. Judiciary Committee Chairman Specter's bill would empower Congress bring to federal court lawsuits to test the constitutionality of Bush's signing statements, which the president has appended to several bills he has signed. In the statements, Bush has reserved the right not to enforce certain provisions of laws if he believes they impinge on his authority or interpretation of the Constitution. Under the Constitution, Congress passes bills and the president may either sign or veto them, and give lawmakers an opportunity to override any veto. But the constitution, and the presidential oath of office also state that the President "shall faithfully execute the laws of the United States."
US citizens will be forced to adopt a de-facto national identification card and have their freedom of mobility defined by behavioral fealty to the government under proposals set to derive from NAFTA superhighway toll road systems and the implementation of the American Union of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Existing toll road systems operational at US borders such as SENTRI/NEXUS and the FAST program already mandate that passing vehicles are enrolled in RFID passive tracking and identification programs linked to central databases. The open plan to merge the US with Mexico and Canada and create a Pan American Union networked by a NAFTA Super Highway has long been a globalist brainchild but its very real and prescient implementation on behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations has recently come under bright spotlight.
The Senate is taking up an election-year bill that would open a large area of the central Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling. The bill would affect an 8.3 million-acre area believed to contain large amounts of natural gas and 1.3 billion barrels of oil. Opponents of the legislation fear it's a first step to lifting a moratorium that for decades has prohibited drilling in 85 percent of the country's coastal waters from New England to Alaska. Senators were expected to vote Wednesday to begin debate on the legislation, a largely procedural move that could set up a final vote later this week or early next. A month ago, the House passed a much broader offshore energy development bill that would lift the ban on oil and gas drilling that has been in effect for 25 years in most waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico. That bill would still bar drilling within 50 miles of the shoreline, but it would open waters beyond that to energy companies unless a state specifically acts to protect waters within 100 miles of shore.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) claims its new rules, announced earlier this month, will promote "flexibility" for ranchers who have access to hundreds of millions of acres of public rangelands. But conservation groups say the Bureau is seeking to enhance its "working relationship" with ranchers by suppressing public stakeholders. John Carter, Utah director of the Western Watersheds Project, a group that opposes cattle-grazing on federal lands, called the rules "another step in the effort by public-lands ranchers to divest the American people of ownership of these lands." Arguing that cattle roaming the Western states form one of the most destructive uses of the country’s natural resources, groups complain that the new rules would make it nearly impossible to fully address livestock damage to local wildlife. They say that additional bureaucratic hurdles would paralyze the enforcement of Clinton-era guidelines intended to balance grazing with other public-land uses like camping and fishing.
A dependence on no-bid contracts and inadequate oversight have contributed to extensive waste and misspending at the Department of Homeland Security, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing a congressional investigation. In the latest report on the agency's spending, U.S. government investigators found problems involving "significant overcharges" or "mismanagement" in 32 DHS contracts worth a total of $34 billion, the Post said. The findings were to be released on Thursday. The Washington Post said it had obtained a copy of the report. According to the newspaper, the bipartisan congressional report says an explosion of no-bid deals and a critical shortage of government contract managers created a system prone to abuse. Among the contracts that raised questions were deals for hiring airport screeners, securing borders and housing Hurricane Katrina evacuees, the newspaper said. Investigators also found a surveillance system for monitoring activity on the borders with Mexico and Canada does not work because the cameras malfunction when exposed to snow, ice or humidity, the report said.
In an effort to combat Al Qaeda’s non-existent fleet of stealth fighter jets, the Air Force, following an endorsement by the taxpayer-funded Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), approved a new three-year, $11 billion contract for the F-22. The F-22 is arguably the Pentagon's most useless weapon system. Not only is it the world's most expensive fighter jet, but it was conceived in 1985 to fight a Soviet fighter jet that was never built. As wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo show, U.S. air superiority is not in doubt. So it is perplexing that the independent Institute for Defense Analyses would recommend that the Pentagon continue purchasing a jet that has been plagued by technical problems and cost overruns. But it turns out that IDA is not so "independent" after all. The Washington Post reported today: "The endorsement came from the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a federally financed research center whose president, Dennis C. Blair, is a member of the board of a subcontractor for the F-22 Raptor fighter program, EDO Corp. EDO developed a missile launcher for the F-22 and has held contracts worth at least $38 million that are part of the program, according to its news releases."
Americans generally approve of President Bush's handling of the current Mideast crisis, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll, but six in 10 say the president is not respected by foreign leaders. The poll finds Americans are pessimistic about the prospects for Mideast peace and do not think the United States should involve itself in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. More than 60 percent think the conflict will lead to a larger war in the region, and a similar number doubt Israel and the Arab states will ever be able to live in peace. Just 32 percent said U.S. troops should be sent to the Mideast as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force, although 60 percent favor such a force. By 59 percent to 31 percent, Americans said the United Nations and other countries, rather than the United States, should take the lead in solving international crises.
Brushing aside warnings from Wal-Mart, the City Council approved an ordinance Wednesday that makes Chicago the biggest city in the nation to require big-box retailers to pay a "living wage." "It's trying to get the largest companies in America to pay decent wages," said Alderman Toni Preckwinkle. The ordinance passed 35-14 after three hours of impassioned debate. The measure requires mega-retailers with over $1 billion in annual sales and stores of at least 90,000 square feet to pay workers at least $10 an hour in wages plus $3 in fringe benefits by mid-2010. The current minimum wage in Illinois is $6.50 an hour and the federal minimum is $5.15.
When Tesla, the upstart auto company based in Silicon Valley, unveiled its all-electric Roadster at a swank affair in Santa Monica last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped in for surprise visit. The event - where Tesla was offering its first 100 "signature edition" cars for $100,000 apiece - felt like automotive history. To appreciate the Tesla, it helps to compare it to the much-lamented EV1, GM's purpose-built electric car that was, in the mid-1990s, the most advanced vehicle of its kind. The Tesla Roadster has a range of 250 miles, says the company. The EV1, with the best nickel metal hydride batteries, could go about 150 miles under ideal conditions. A full charge of the EV1 could take eight hours. The Tesla's lithium-ion batteries can be raised from the dead to a full charge in 3 1/2 hours and, unlike the EV1, the Tesla will come with its own portable charging pack so it won't be range-tethered to its home charging station.
Bill Of Rights Death Watch: Citing national security, a federal judge Tuesday threw out a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T Inc. from giving telephone records to the government. "The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government's intelligence activities," U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said. A number of such lawsuits have been filed around the country in the wake of news media reports that AT&T and other phone companies had turned records over to the National Security Administration, which specializes in communications intercepts. Kennelly's ruling was in sharp contrast to last week's decision from U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco, who said media reports of the program were so widespread there was no danger of spilling secrets.
The federal government sued two members of the Missouri Public Service Commission on Tuesday to stop them from seeking information about customer records that telephone companies may have given to the National Security Agency. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, claims disclosure of any information the Missouri regulatory body wants to obtain could cause "exceptionally grave harm to national security." Public Service Commission members Robert Clayton and Steve Gaw issued subpoenas last month to find out whether AT&T Inc. supplied Missouri customer information and calling records to the NSA in violation of Missouri privacy rules. The Missouri subpoenas came after a USA TODAY story reported that AT&T and other phone companies handed over phone records of millions of Americans to the NSA after the Sept. 11 attacks. In its lawsuit, the Justice Department says the federal government has "exclusive control vis-a-vis the states with respect to foreign intelligence gathering, national security, that conduct of foreign affairs and the conduct of military affairs."
U.S. authorities could not track al Qaeda effectively if required to obtain court warrants before eavesdropping on telephone conversations involving U.S. callers, top intelligence officials said on Wednesday. Three administration officials, including CIA Director Michael Hayden, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to press lawmakers to ease warrant requirements for the surveillance of "war on terrorism" suspects. "Why should our laws make it more difficult to target al Qaeda communications that are most important to us - those entering or leaving this country," Hayden said. The four-star Air Force general set up President George W. Bush's warrantless surveillance program in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks while he was director of the National Security Agency.
Despite high-profile legal losses and complaints about failures to consult with lawmakers, the Bush administration is sticking to its core post-9/11 legal argument: that the Constitution and a congressional resolution passed after the terror attacks grant the president almost unlimited power to protect the country. Responding to congressional inquiries, administration lawyers have defended a warrantless surveillance program viewed by some as in doubt after a recent Supreme Court decision barring special military commissions to try enemy combatants. In letters to Congress, administration lawyers wrote that the high court's decision -- which rejected arguments similar to those used to defend the National Security Agency program -- didn't affect its legal analysis. The release of the letters came as Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) announced a bill, drafted in negotiations with the White House, to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law critics say President Bush violated by authorizing the program. While Mr. Specter has said the legislation -- to be considered today by the Senate Judiciary Committee -- wouldn't affect the president's legal footing, many scholars called it an attempt to retroactively validate the administration's position.
Trickle-Down Economics Trickling On You: The US economy has shown signs of slowing since the start of June and inflation has been modest, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book survey. Among the districts reporting a dip in growth were San Francisco, the largest of the 12, and Chicago and Dallas. At the same time, the economic conditions have made it difficult for companies to pass on higher costs to consumers, the Fed explained. The report may strengthen arguments for the Fed to stop raising interest rates.
News From Smirkey's Wars: It has come down to this. "Sectarian Break-Up of Iraq Is Now Inevitable, Admit Officials," read the headline from Monday's UK Independent. "'Iraq as a political project is finished,' a senior government official was quoted as saying," continued the report, "adding: 'The parties have moved to plan B.' He said that the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties were now looking at ways to divide Iraq between them and to decide the future of Baghdad, where there is a mixed population. 'There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into (Shia) east and (Sunni) west,' he said." At a minimum, the predicted Balkanization of Iraq points to nothing more or less than the comprehensive failure of the Bush administration to bring democracy to that nation. The Iraqi parliament is today comprised of Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish elements, the three main groups that comprise the Iraqi population. Yet the fighting within this parliament mirrors the bloodshed taking place on the streets, and this signaled desire to split Iraq into three parts means there isn't any hope left for anything other than an utterly shattered state. It is hard to be surprised by this, considering the nature of the Iraqi government the Bush administration actively assisted in cobbling together. Consider the speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, who said on July 13th, "Some people say 'we saw you beheading, kidnapping and killing. These acts are not the work of Iraqis. I am sure that he who does this is a Jew and the son of a Jew. I can tell you about these Jewish, Israelis and Zionists who are using Iraqi money and oil to frustrate the Islamic movement in Iraq."
News From The Talibaptist Jihad: The US Senate yesterday reinforced parental control over children's reproductive rights by passing legislation to keep young women from traveling across state lines to obtain otherwise legal abortions. Once merged with a similar House bill and signed by President Bush, the Child Custody Protection Act, passed 65-34, would add more teeth to parental-notification and -consent laws enacted in the majority of states. The bill criminalizes adults who help young women circumvent those laws by going out of state to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Anti-abortion-rights groups hailed the vote, saying it would protect parents' "right" to know when their children are considering an abortion. The National Right to Life Committee has argued that interstate enforcement of parental-consent and -notification laws is necessary to prevent older men from forcing their teenage partners to obtain abortions in order to cover up evidence of statutory rape. The group has also said that if parents do not know about their children’s health decisions, they will be unprepared to recognize any physical complications that arise from an abortion. Abortion-rights groups immediately blasted the bill - which they have dubbed the "Teen Endangerment Act" - saying it fails to recognize the complexity of family situations and would threaten teens whose parents are abusive by cutting off their access to adults they do trust.
In recent days, some members of the conservative media have seen signs of the Apocalypse in the escalated conflicts in the Middle East and Asia. Pat Robertson has considered the possibility but has seemed to reject it, while columnist Hal Lindsey has simply asserted: "Now Armageddon looms large before us." But as recent reports on CNN and in USA Today attest, conservatives are not the only media figures to raise the question of whether current events are a sign of the "End Times."
We Conservatives Are More Moral Than You: You can only bash 9/11 widows for so long before your book starts slip-sliding down the charts. Solution: Call Bill Clinton gay. A source from "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" handed us this transcript from tonight's 10 pm ET show, during which Deutsch notes that Coulter was talking about Bill Clinton off the air and goads her into repeating what she said. COULTER: "I think that sort of rampant promiscuity does show some level of latent homosexuality." DEUTSCH: "OK, I think you need to say that again. That Bill Clinton, you think on some level, has - is a latent homosexual, is that what you’re saying?" COULTER: "Yeah." Following on the heels of daily papers in Augusta, Ga., and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a weekly in Greensboro, N.C., has decided to drop Ann Coulter's regular column, distributed by Universal. "Yes! Weekly", which has carried the conservative firebrand since last August, announced the move after polling its readers, among other considerations. She will be replaced by another conservative, William F. Buckley. This follows the pattern at the other papers that had dropped Coulter, where she was replaced by conservatives Michelle Malkin in one case, David Limbaugh in the other. A fourth paper, the Shreveport (La.) Times, has said it is strongly considering dropping Coulter.
His detachment from his own responsibility is breathtaking. The glibness with which Donald Rumsfeld describes the mass slaughter of innocents in a country whose security he is responsible for is astonishing. Check this transcript out: Q: Is the country closer to a civil war? RUMSFELD: Oh, I don't know. You know, I thought about that last night, and just musing over the words, the phrase, and what constitutes it. If you think of our Civil War, this is really very different. If you think of civil wars in other countries, this is really quite different. There is - there is a good deal of violence in Baghdad and two or three other provinces, and yet in 14 other provinces there's very little violence or numbers of incidents. So it's a - it's a highly concentrated thing. It clearly is being stimulated by people who would like to have what could be characterized as a civil war and win it, but I'm not going to be the one to decide if, when or at all.
The weather has been classic rainy season the last couple of days, and the constant gloom has had me rather depressed. But as I write this, the overcast is breaking up and the sun coming out, promising a nice day - though I'll withhold judgment until this afternoon. I can't complain about the temperatures, though, they have been about perfect - 79 yesterday afternoon, 73 overnight, and 75 as I write this at nine in the morning.
Today I am going to go visit some friends, one with some construction experience, and solicit their advice on doing some construction work around here. I have concluded that the front door has got to go - neither the lock on the door nor the lock on the security grate is secure enough to suit me, and I am determined to find something more secure, along with a door that I won't have to worry about. In looking over the front door, it appears that the recent burglary attempt included an unsuccessful attempt at pulling the door open by brute force; very minor, almost invisible damage resulted, but I have never been happy about the security of that door. And apparently more was taken than just the flashlight - my old laptop, a drillmotor, my digital camera and a ham rig I wasn't using have all turned up missing. They even took my rodeo assn. souvenir overnight-bag, apparently to carry everything. So I have decided to simply replace the door with a double steel, solid-core door, such as the kind used on communications equipment shelters. I have actually found a local source for them - one of the ferreterias (hardware stores) in town can have them fabricated and installed. I checked on the price, and it was quite reasonable - 90,000 colones - about $173 - fully installed, lock not included. I am still looking for a suitable lock. Most of the ones sold here are cheap six-pin Yale locks which are easy to pick. I have found a source for Wieser residential electronic deadbolt locks, but am concerned about the long-term stability of electronics in this climate, so would prefer a purely mechanical lock. For anyone moving here to a house you intend to buy, I would recommend you bring with you a top-quality deadbolt that you obtain from a knowledgeable locksmith. The locks available here aren't up to all that much, and they really need to be.
I am also considering the construction of a strong room to keep my valuables. That will solve the burglary problem fairly inexpensively, though not completely. But it ensures that my valuables will likely survive all but the most determined break-ins. Since it appears that I may be living in this house for awhile, I am going to have to do something. I'll be talking with my friend about what I should do to make it sufficiently strong and work out a hidden locking mechanism.
More Reasons Why I Am Glad I Am Out Of The States: For those of you confused by and wishing to understand what is going on in Lebanon, I would recommend you read this.
Israeli Defense Forces Northern Command Maj.Gen. Udi Adam acknowledged in a briefing at Northern Command headquarters in Safed on Sunday afternoon that the commander of the IDF's civil administration unit had already begun preparations toward the possibility of instituting a military administration in areas captured by the IDF over the last week. According to Adam, "certain units who will give us breathing space have been called up, including the commander of that unit." The unit's activation, however, would only take place following comprehensive consultations, he said. Adam denied reports that there were plans to set up a large prison camp for captured Hizbullah fighters, saying the measure would not be needed. Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert said Sunday that the current Israeli offensive against Lebanon would "last a very long time," as he addressed a Cabinet meeting Sunday. According to a senior Israeli government official, Olmert said: "The diplomatic process will not come at the expense of destroying infrastructures of terror and this process will take a very long time." Olmert said during the cabinet meeting, "The army has all the time and flexibility to carry out its mission in Lebanon" and added "There is a possibility that the population that cooperates with Hizbullah will get hurt, although they are not on our target list" The IDF has started constructing a temporary detention center designed to hold the Lebanese prisoners that will be captured during army operations in Southern Lebanon, Ynet has learned recently. A truck convoy carrying barbed-wire fences, containers, and mobile showers and toilets started unloading equipment at the Filon military base near Rosh Pina Friday, and construction works at the place are already underway. According to plans, the structure should be able to hold up to hundreds of Hizbullah prisoners at any given time.
According to General Wesley Clark - the Pentagon, by late 2001, was planning to attack Lebanon. "Winning Modern Wars" (page 130) General Clark states the following: "As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan. ...He said it with reproach - with disbelief, almost - at the breadth of the vision. I moved the conversation away, for this was not something I wanted to hear. And it was not something I wanted to see moving forward, either. ...I left the Pentagon that afternoon deeply concerned."
The Administration goes Orwellian: Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday pointed to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah as fresh evidence of the ongoing "battle against terrorism" that underscores the need to keep President Bush's Republican allies in control of Congress. "This conflict is a long way from over," Cheney said at a fundraising appearance for a GOP congressional candidate. "It's going to be a battle that will last for a very long time. It is absolutely essential that we stay the course." Meanwhile, John Kerry has stated that the war "would not be happening" if he were president, and if the policies that led up to it had been rational, he would be right. Shortly after attacking Iraq in March 2003, President Bush told wounded soldiers that "the war in Iraq is really about peace." Now it seems that 'peace' is breaking out in Lebanon too. The Washington Post reports that "Bush sees a step to peace" in the current "Mideast strife." According to White House counselor Dan Bartlett, "a moment of clarity has arrived."
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo and senior Iraqi officials now say the break up of the country is inevitable. "Iraq as a political project is finished," a senior government official was quoted as saying, adding: "The parties have moved to plan B." He said that the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties were now looking at ways to divide Iraq between them and to decide the future of Baghdad, where there is a mixed population. "There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into [Shia] east and [Sunni] west," he said. Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, told The Independent in an interview, before joining Mr Maliki to fly to London and then Washington, that in theory the government should be able to solve the crisis because Shia, Kurd and Sunni were elected members of it. But he painted a picture of a deeply divided administration in which senior Sunni members praised anti-government insurgents as "the heroic resistance". In the past two weeks, at a time when Lebanon has dominated the international news, the sectarian civil war in central Iraq has taken a decisive turn for the worse. There have been regular tit-for-tat massacres and the death toll for July is likely to far exceed the 3,149 civilians killed in June. Mr Maliki, who is said to be increasingly isolated, has failed to prevent the violence. Other Iraqi leaders claim he lacks experience in dealing with security, is personally very isolated without a kitchen cabinet and is highly dependent on 30-40 Americans in unofficial advisory positions around him.
America must need more oil: The Bush administration said on Thursday it approved the sale to Saudi Arabia of 24 UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters, radios, armoured vehicles and other military equipment worth more than $6 billion. Congress has 30 days to block the sales, although such action is rare. The Pentagon's Defence Security Cooperation Agency said the principal contractors for the different sales included Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp., General Electric Co., Harris Corp., ITT Corp., General Dynamics Corp., and Raytheon Corp. The agency said in a mandatory notice to Congress that the arms sales would help strengthen Saudi Arabia's military and its ability to help the United States fight terrorism around the world. The deal comes amid escalating fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Saudi Arabia had asked to buy 24 Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters, spare parts, communications and other equipment valued at $350 million, if all options were exercised, according to the agency, which oversees foreign arms sales.
What Your Aid-To-Israel Tax Dollars Are Buying: Carpenters are running out of wood for coffins. Bodies are stacked three or four high in a truck at the local hospital morgue. The stench is spreading in the rubble. The morbid reality of Israel's bombing campaign of the south of Lebanon is reaching almost every corner of the city of Tyre, not just those occupied by Hezbollah. Just a few miles from the Rest House hotel, where the United Nations was evacuating civilians on Thursday, feral dogs gnawed at the charred remains of a family bombed as they were trying to escape the village of Hosh, officials said. Officials at the Tyre Government Hospital inside a local Palestinian refugee camp said they counted the bodies of 50 children among the 115 in the refrigerated truck in the morgue, though their count could not be independently confirmed. The New York Times states that because of bombed-out roads and bridges, few families have been able to make it to the hospital to claim their dead. Even those relatives who reach the morgue are unable to arrange for proper burials. The city is prepared to begin burying the dead in mass graves, and the Tyre morgue has ordered more than 100 coffins with special handles, so they can more easily be removed from the ground for reburial later. Still other bodies remaining rotting along the roadsides, because the dangers of removing them are too great for emergency workers to risk. At least 380 people are now known to have been killed in Lebanon, according to local officials, though the stench of death emanating from the rubble suggests that many more have been killed but are not accounted for. Thirty-six Israelis have died -- 17 civilians from Hezbollah rockets, and 19 soldiers during fights against militants. The growing conflict has displaced at least 700,000 people in Lebanon, according to an estimate by the UN.
The Israeli military is using chemical weapons during its bombing of Lebanon, a Belgian-Lebanese professor claimed during a press conference in Brussels on Thursday. The press conference was organised by the secretary of the Tripoli archbishop, Monsignor Jean Abboud. The Belgian professor of Lebanese origin, Bachir Cham, is the head of a hospital in Lebanon. "The bodies don't look like they normally do. After an explosion there were no traces of blood loss or subcutaneous haemorrhages [bruises]," Cham said via mobile phone direct from Beirut. "The hair and sometimes the beard and the moustache remained intact. I found no traces of the pressure wave by the explosion. The color of the skin was black like a shoe, but the skin was not carbonised or burnt."
An Egyptian legal committee has warned of the serious consequences of the Israeli use of chemical weapons against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip for more than a week now, and have called for an international investigation of the claim. The committee for citizens' rights in northern Sinai, adjacent to the Gaza Strip, charged that the Israeli warplanes have been releasing chemical materials against the Palestinian populace in the Strip for the past week. It said that the chemical agents cause extraordinary burns that could turn into cancer and added that they could also cause miscarriages and death of patients especially those suffering chest diseases. The committee said its members saw the warplanes releasing those chemicals from the Egyptian-Palestinian borders. Doctors treating Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have called for an international investigation of the types of weapons being used by Israel, as many of the patients have burns that are indicative of possible chemical weapon use by Israel. The organs, particularly the kidney and spleen, of the victims continue to burn even after the person has been declared clinically dead, according to doctors in hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip.
Effectively admitting officially that they are targeting civilian infrastructure (which is a war crime), the Israeli air force is under orders to blast 10 buildings in south Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, for every rocket the Shiite militant group fires at the Israeli port of Haifa, Israeli army radio said Monday. "Army chief of staff Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy 10 multi-storey buildings in the Dahaya district (of Beirut) in response to every rocket fired on Haifa," a senior air force officer told the station. Hezbollah rockets fired from southern Lebanon killed two people on Sunday in the northern city of Haifa, which has been hit by dozens of missiles since the latest conflict started on July 12.
Despite the diplomatic moves, Israeli Brig Gen Alon Friedman told Israel Army Radio the ground operation would probably go on for another 10 days. Correspondents say the US is unlikely to push for an immediate end to the Israeli assault, and one aim of Ms Rice's trip is to assess how much time is needed for Israel to make a significant impact on Hezbollah capability.
Despite increased fighting with Hezbollah, violence did not subside on Israel's southern front, with Gaza, where bombardments killed three and injured 10. Palestinian security sources said heavy gun shells hit a residential tower near Beit Lahya in the north of Gaza Strip, inflicting several casualties among its residents. Initial counts indicated that three had been killed and 10 injured. The sources said the area has been the target of intensive bombardments sinc