Lets Go Girl

May 18, 2008 by Kingston

Bush feels the heat from Egypt's condemnation of his Knesset speech: President Bush said Saturday that "it breaks my heart" that the Palestinian people have been unable to establish an independent homeland and he vowed anew to try to forge an Israeli-Palestinian agreement by year's end. Bush's remarks from the sidelines of a regional conference here appeared aimed at Palestinians and other Arabs who consider the U.S. administration so staunch a supporter of Israel that it turns a blind eye to the human rights concerns of the Palestinians. Many also doubt Bush's commitment to the tough negotiations ahead if he's to succeed in helping to craft a deal in just seven months. "It breaks my heart to see the vast potential of the Palestinian people, really, wasted," Bush said, appearing alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "They're good, smart, capable people that when given a chance will build a thriving homeland." Bush said he is "absolutely committed" to achieving agreement. "It would be an opportunity to end the suffering that takes place in the Palestinian territories," Bush added. Egypt is one of Bush's most reliable Arab allies, yet even here state-backed media mocked Bush's peace efforts, especially after his cozy visit to Israel on Thursday to celebrate the Jewish state's 60th anniversary - a date the Palestinians call the "day of catastrophe."

Website gives readers uncensored news: The topic may be Tibet, earthquakes or outbreaks of dengue fever. But when people in China want to share news or commentary that government censors would likely squelch, many turn to a U.S.-based Web site run by Watson Meng of Durham, N.C. The site, Boxun.com, relies on a host of bloggers and citizen journalists — mostly in China — to break stories, often faster than state-controlled Chinese media or foreign news services. The site is banned in China, but Chinese people can skirt that Internet censorship through proxy servers hosted in the United States. Posting on Boxun (pronounced "bow shwin") is not without risks. Numerous contributors, including three in the past several weeks, have been jailed in China. "It's really aggravated the [Chinese] government because it takes stuff outside and puts it on display internationally," said Bob Dietz, of the New York nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists. "For us, the site is required reading."

Gitmo trial delay: A military commission judge Friday delayed the scheduled trial of Osama bin Laden's driver until after the U.S. Supreme Court has decided another key detainee case. Navy Capt. Keith Allred said delaying the start of Salim Hamdan's trial until July 21 "avoids the potential embarrassment, waste of resources and prejudice to the accused that would" result were the Bush administration to lose the Supreme Court case. "Moreover, the accused has been in confinement for six years and another month wait will not prejudice any party to the case,'' Allred wrote. The decision also provided a window for Hamdan to undergo a mental health evaluation. Prosecutors had argued against such an evaluation, but Allred ordered it in response to defense lawyers' claims that that Hamdan has descended into a deep depression because of the conditions of his six-year detention. That depression makes it impossible for him to assist in his defense, his lawyers say. A California psychiatrist, who treats U.S. veterans, evaluated the driver for about 100 hours and found he suffers post traumatic stress and is at risk of suicide because of his conditions of confinement.

"Always Think Forfeiture" dropped as a slogan: Federal agents will no longer be carrying pocketknives with a specially engraved training slogan that enraged some gun and property rights activists. U.S. Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, said Friday that his complaints about the slogan — "Always Think Forfeiture" — persuaded the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to end its use on the Leatherman tools handed out to participants in a training program. A spokesman for the federal agency said the slogan actually had been dropped about two months ago, when other members of Congress complained. The spokesman, Robert Browning, said the agency won't use the slogan in any of its training programs and not just on the pocketknives. "Because it has caused concern among the public, we are no longer utilizing that slogan in our training sessions," he said. The phrase was used as part of ATF's training program to teach investigators around the country how to properly seize the assets of the lawbreakers they arrest. The tools were just a reminder for police to "consider seizing a criminal's ill-gotten gains and proceeds," Browning said.

Myanmar's junta holds onto supplies: Myanmar's military rulers have thrown a tightening ring of security around Yangon, blocking aid workers, foreign diplomats and journalists from reaching cyclone-battered regions where millions need food and medicine. New roadblocks staffed by armed police have sprung up around Myanmar's largest city. Authorities at the checkpoints record passport information and license plate numbers and sometimes interrogate drivers and their foreign passengers before ordering them to return to Yangon. "A circle has been drawn around Yangon and expats are confined there. While you are getting aid through, it's like getting it through a 3-inch pipe, not a 30-inch pipe," said Tim Costello, president of the aid agency World Vision-Australia, in Yangon. "Foreigners can't go this way," a policeman told a driver for a foreign journalist Friday at a checkpoint with 10 police and an immigration official dressed in khaki.

Spencer Hsu's article on the Postville, Iowa immigration raid is a must-read: Antonio Escobedo ran to get his wife Monday when he saw a helicopter circling overhead and immigration agents approaching the meatpacking plant where they both work. The couple hid for hours inside the plant before obtaining refuge in the pews and hall at St. Bridget's Catholic Church, where hundreds of other Guatemalan and Mexican families gathered, hoping to avoid arrest. "I like my job. I like my work. I like it here in Iowa," said Escobedo, 38, an illegal immigrant from Yescas, Mexico, who has raised his three children for 11 years in Postville. "Are they mad because I'm working?" Monday's raid on the Agriprocessors plant, in which 389 immigrants were arrested and many held at a cattle exhibit hall, was the Bush administration's largest crackdown on illegal workers at a single site. It has upended this tree-lined community, which calls itself "Hometown to the World." Half of the school system's 600 students were absent Tuesday, including 90 percent of Hispanic children, because their parents were arrested or in hiding. Current and former officials of the Department of Homeland Security say its raid on the largest employer in northeast Iowa reflects the administration's decision to put pressure on companies with large numbers of illegal immigrant workers, particularly in the meat industry. But its disruptive impact on the nation's largest supplier of kosher beef and on the surrounding community has provoked renewed criticism that the administration is disproportionately targeting workers instead of employers, and that the resulting turmoil is worse than the underlying crimes.

This time, just more whack-a-mole? Nearly 1,000 people have been detained in a sweep to break al Qaeda in Iraq's sway in Iraq's third largest city, Mosul, but many of the fighters have fled to nearby areas, where troops are hunting for them, Iraqi officials said Saturday. Iraq's leaders presented the crackdown as a success so far in depriving the terror network of what has been its most prominent urban stronghold since it lost hold of cities in Iraq's western Anbar province. But the flight of al Qaeda fighters raises the concern they can regroup elsewhere, as has often happened in the past. Yassin Majid, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said most of the leading insurgents had fled to the outskirts of Mosul or to a neighboring country amid the operations. He did not name the neighboring country. Mosul is about 60 miles from the Syrian and Turkish borders. "Operations will continue and the Iraqi army will not leave Mosul until security and stability have been accomplished," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Some issues about DNA testing: DNA is not a magic bullet - as it's portrayed on television. The weak link: The network of labs charged with collecting and testing DNA is overwhelmed. Three-hundred thousand evidence samples are backlogged on shelves - still waiting to be processed. "People are being victimized, raped and murdered because of that backlog," said DNA expert Chris Asplen, a former federal prosecutor. "Because we are not testing DNA samples, we are not putting profiles in the database. So we are not taking people off the street who are committing those rapes and murders," Asplen said.
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May 17, 2008 by Kingston

Huckabee makes a funny: During a speech before the National Rifle Association convention Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — who has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee John McCain — joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obama looking to avoid a gunman. “That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.” HUCKABEE APOLIGIZES: "During my speech at the NRA a loud noise backstage, that sounded like a chair falling, distracted the crowd and interrupted my speech. I made an offhand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama. I apologize that my comments were offensive, that was never my intention."


McCain's Media Mancrush extends to flip-flopping: A May 15 Associated Press article reported that Sen. John McCain "has worked with Democrats on legislation" such as "redrafting immigration rules and regulations" and that this work with Democrats "has cultivated a maverick image for McCain." But the AP did not note that McCain said on January 30 that he would no longer support his own comprehensive immigration reform bill if it came up for a vote in the Senate. Additionally, McCain has reversed himself on the issue of border security; he now says that "we've got to secure the borders first" -- a position at odds with his prior assertion that border security could not be disaggregated from other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform without being rendered ineffective. McCain has also reversed his position on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, the 2007 version of which would have allowed certain illegal immigrants under age 30 who had entered the country before age 16 to remain in the United States and gain legal status if they attend college or join the military. Twelve Republican senators voted in favor of the 2007 version of the bill, which had two Republican co-sponsors.

In the wake of the MySpace.com suicides, comes this: Responding to the suicide of a Missouri teenager who was teased over the Internet, state lawmakers Friday gave final approval to a bill making cyber harassment illegal. The bill updates state laws against harassment to keep pace with technology by removing the requirement that the communication be written or over the telephone. Supporters say the bill will now cover harassment from computers, text messages and other electronic devices. It was approved 106-23 in the House and 34-0 in the Senate and now goes to the governor. Now, what idiot(s) in Missouri voted against it?

The United States "appeases" another dictator: The United States said Friday it has reached a deal with North Korea to provide more than 500,000 tons of food aid over the coming year to the closed-off communist nation. The Bush administration says the aid is unrelated to its nuclear disarmament deal with Pyongyang, although both have involved an unusual intensity of U.S. diplomacy with a nation President Bush once included as part of an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and Iran. "We don't see any connection," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said of the food aid and disarmament talks. "We're doing this because America is a compassionate nation and the United States and the American people are people who reach out to those in need." The United States last provided food aid to North Korea in 2005. Further deliveries fell apart in a dispute over a U.S. demand for close oversight of how the aid would be distributed. The United States wants assurances the food won't be diverted or used improperly by the government of Kim Jong Il. And we call bullshit--this is what appeasement looks like, as defined by Bush.

Cheaters never prosper: A former Bethlehem woman will serve up to 23 months in prison for having her 7-year-old son dress as a Cub Scout to collect money for a nonexistent cause. Sally Ann Gombocz, 51, told a Northampton County judge she wanted to apologize to anyone she hurt. She previously pleaded guilty to theft by deception and corruption of a minor. Gombocz had her son dress as a scout in 2003 and tell people he was raising money for a camping trip. A prosecutor says the family collected $69. Gombocz was sentenced Friday to six to 23 months in the county jail. She also was fined $2,000, ordered to perform community service, take parenting classes, have psychological counseling and submit to random urine screens. She also must pay restitution.

We'll be happy to sit down with him: yesterday when Mr. McCain invited non-conservative bloggers to join his regular blogger conference call, just hours after he delivered a major speech previewing his war strategy and other priorities for a first presidential term. It already has started a war among liberal bloggers over how to react to Mr. McCain's overture. In answering the first question on the call, Mr. McCain said his likely Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, lacks the judgment to be commander in chief, which set him up for a bruising from the readers at TalkingPointsMemo.com, a liberal-leaning site that joined in the call. Blogger Greg Sargent said it amounted to "what may be [Mr. McCain's] most direct attack yet on Barack Obama's national security credentials." But commenters were split: Some took aim at Mr. McCain, some said they were thankful for the intelligence on "what the enemy is planning," and others lashed out at Mr. Sargent, saying he should have been harsher in evaluating Mr. McCain's attack.

Bush refusing to talk to the press? No question about it: President Bush hasn't given reporters a chance to ask him anything on this Mideast journey. On foreign trips, Bush often holds mini-news conferences with his hosts, during which two U.S. reporters and two local media representatives get to ask questions. Yet there is not a single such session on his agenda this time as Bush tackles Mideast peace and soaring oil prices in stops through Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. By comparison, Bush held four of these "press availabilities" in five days during a trip to Africa in February. These impromptu back-and-forths are not always announced like news conferences, but are fairly common. Through the first three days of his current five-day trip, he has not had one. White House press secretary Dana Perino said that may change over the last two days of the trip in Egypt. In fact, it would be a big surprise if it didn't.

Buh-bye, Hans: Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department lawyer who became a lightning rod for partisan wrangling over an alleged Bush administration voter suppression campaign, pulled his name from consideration for a seat on the Federal Election Commission Friday. Von Spakovsky's nomination had been stalled for months amid allegations that he interpreted laws in ways that would inhibit voting by poor, elderly and minority voters, who tend to back Democrats. His withdrawal could break an impasse that has all but disabled the FEC from functioning in a year of record presidential campaign fundraising. The commission has operated for months with just two of its six commissioners in place, two votes short of a quorum needed to take enforcement action. In a letter to President Bush, von Spakovsky noted that his nomination has been pending for 2 1/2 years, a process that has been ``extremely hard'' on his family. His two-year presidential recess appointment to the FEC expired last December.

More heartbreak in China as accountability begins In town after town in Sichuan province, shoddily built schools were among the first to tumble during this week’s huge quake, and officials Friday found themselves under tough questioning and vowing to punish anyone found responsible. Public finger-pointing has grown over what one newspaper columnist described as schools that “crumbled like houses of sand” during Monday’s quake, whichnow is expected to leave a death toll of 50,000 people. A senior official promised an investigation and possibly punishment if the schools were poorly built. “We cannot exclude the possibility of bad quality construction of the (school) buildings. We will deal strictly with related problems after investigation,” Jiang Weixin, minister of housing and urban-rural development, told a news briefing after returning from a tour of the quake zone. The state Xinhua news agency said 6,898 school buildings were among the 216,000 structures in Sichuan Province destroyed by the powerful quake.

Never forget that rabies is everywhere: A woman was attacked by a rabid fox in Virginia, being the second attack in under one week. The fox tested positive for rabies, Arlington public health officials confirmed. The fox was captured and killed by animal control officers. The woman was attacked on May 9 in the 5100 block of S. 12th Road in Arlington County. She is getting anti-rabies treatment. Days later, a Fredericksburg woman was mowing her lawn when she was attacked. The fox left behind multiple marks on her hands and several bites on both of her legs. A neighbor saw her laying on the ground and came to help her out. The Arlington County Public Health Division is working with the Arlington Animal Welfare League and local organizations to find out if any other people or animals may have been exposed. Arlington Public Health says rabies is endemic in the area and reminds residents to never approach or handle a wild animal.

How is this possible? Back in the day of chain gangs, Alabama passed a law that gave sheriffs $1.75 a day to feed each prisoner in their jails, and the sheriffs got to pocket anything that was left over. More than 80 years later, most Alabama counties still operate under this system, with the same $1.75-a-day allowance, and some sheriffs are actually making money on top of their salaries. But exactly how much is something of a mystery because state auditors do not have access to sheriffs' private accounts. How could anyone turn a profit feeding men and women for an entire day on less than the price of a Coke and a bag of Fritos? Sheriffs practice Depression-style frugality and rely on such things as day-old bread, cut-rate vegetables and cheap inmate labor. Critics charge that Alabama is, in effect, paying law enforcement to skimp on food and may be rewarding sheriffs for mistreating prisoners. "It's a bad system, and it ought not be that way," said Buddy Sharpless, executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama. A prisoner advocate said he constantly hears complaints about jail food. "Most of it is like powdered food, and the portions are minimal in the county jails," said the Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, who visits Alabama jails to register prisoners to vote.

The Council on Foreign Relations on the US-Saudi relationship: Seventy-five years ago this month, California’s Standard Oil Company closed a deal with the finance minister of Saudi Arabia, a country the United States had only officially recognized two years earlier. The agreement granted the oil firm an exploration contract and initiated a multifaceted and sometimes thorny bilateral economic relationship. Today, oil still dominates U.S.-Saudi ties, which went on display May 16 when President Bush met Saudi’s King Abdullah. But the fairly straightforward buy-sell dynamic between the world’s leading importer and leading exporter of crude is increasingly complicated by a host of other issues, from security cooperation to currency concerns. Bush’s meetings with Abdullah spotlighted this complexity. The past year has witnessed a historic run-up of oil prices, and some analysts are now projecting a “super-spike” (WSJ) that could bring even greater price increases. With U.S. consumers feeling the pinch, Bush pressed Saudi officials to boost oil production as a way of easing prices. U.S. senators have already threatened to block a major arms deal (AFP) between the countries if oil prices continue their rise. Some analysts say this focus is misguided. Given the way crude oil trades, there is only so much that can be done by Saudi Arabia, which already produces nearly a quarter of the world’s crude. To a certain extent Riyadh already runs interference for Washington within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), where some member states, including Iran and Venezuela, are pushing for production cuts (IHT).

Blogging takes hold inside of the military: Hopefully we’ll hear much more from the Army iron majors with the recent decision by Lieutenant General William Caldwell, IV, Commanding General of the US Army Combined Arms Center, as excerpted from a recent CAC memorandum below: Command and General Staff College faculty and students will begin blogging as part of their curriculum and writing requirements both within the .mil and public environments. In addition CAC subordinate organizations will begin to engage in the blogosphere in an effort to communicate the myriad of activities that CAC is accomplishing and help assist telling the Army’s story to a wide and diverse audience. LTG Caldwell’s memo detailed the purpose of his directive as an essential part of CAC’s responsibilities to provide information to the public and usher in a culture of change within the Army’s officer leadership, development and education community as well as to support military operations - leaders within the Army need to understand the power of the internet and leverage as many communications means as possible to communicate what CAC is doing. You can visit the new CAC Blog here. (They're taking baby steps right now...)

A crisis is brewing with the food stamp program: Poor people whose food stamps don't buy as much as they once did rushing into a store in the dead of night, filling shopping carts with cereal, eggs and milk so their kids can wake up on the first day of the month to a decent meal. "People with incomes below the poverty threshold are in dire straits because not only are food prices increasing but the food stamps they are receiving have not increased," said Dr. John Cook, an associate professor at Boston University's medical school who has studied the food stamp program, particularly how it affects children...Dennis Kladis began opening his family owned One Stop Food & Liquors once a month at midnight nine months ago to give desperate families a chance to buy food as soon as possible. "I'm telling you, by the end of the month they're just dying to get back to the first," said Kladis, who has watched other area stores follow his lead. "Obviously, they are struggling to get through the month." Jean Daniel, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, which runs the food stamp program, said there is only so much the aid can do. "Food stamps were designed to be a supplement to the food budget," she said. They "were never intended to be the entire budget." Well, in Bush's America--guess what? People on foodstamps are suffering. Needlessly. And the local foodbanks are running on empty as well. That is the Republican legacy--hungry children and a government that doesn't care.




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May 16, 2008 by Kingston

Gay Marriage Ban Overturned in California: The California Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage, paving the way for California to become the second state where gay and lesbian residents can marry. The case involved a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter-approved law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The court in a 4-3 ruling issued the long-awaited decision on its Web site, saying that domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, reports CBS affiliate KPIX in San Francisco. The opinion was written by Chief Justice Ron George.

Hezbollah Gains Concessions: Hezbollah will "return things" to normal in Lebanon after the government reversed key decisions that had triggered days of bloody conflict, the militant group's deputy leader said Thursday. The comments by Sheik Naim Kassem came after a meeting between Hezbollah representatives and a high-powered Arab delegation that is in the country trying to find a solution to Lebanon's worst crisis since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. "The Cabinet's reversal of the two decisions is a natural step to return things to the way they were before the two decisions," Kassem said. "We want a political settlement that will lead, in the end, to there being no victor and no vanquished."

Home Foreclosures Continue to Rise: More U.S. homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments last month, driving the number of homes facing foreclosure up 65 percent versus the same month last year and contributing to a deepening slide in home values, a research company said Tuesday. Nationwide, 243,353 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in April, up 65 percent from 147,708 in the same month last year and up 4 percent since March, RealtyTrac Inc. said. Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida were among the hardest hit states, with metropolitan areas in California and Florida accounting for nine of the top 10 areas with the highest rate of foreclosure, the company said.

Oil pipeline disaster in Nigeria: At least 100 people have been killed in an oil pipeline explosion in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, the local Red Cross says. The explosion tore through the Ijegun suburb, engulfing schools and homes after a bulldozer burst the pipeline, reports Reuters news agency.

Changes in the Kremlin: There are many familiar faces in the new cabinet of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, yet his appointment of two former Kremlin aides suggests he wants to strengthen his powers at the expense of the new presidency. There has been a generally good reception of the new government from business and diplomatic circles. Igor Sechin was the deputy chief of Vladimir Putin's presidential administration. He was an enforcer, who also chaired Russia's biggest state oil company, Rosneft, at the time when it controversially absorbed the Yukos empire. Yukos was broken up and its billionaire boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky jailed. Mr Sechin has been seen as something of a grey cardinal, opposed to the eventual nomination of Dmitry Medvedev as former President Putin's chosen successor. His new post - deputy prime minister - is a minor demotion. Along with the removal of two of Mr Putin's closest allies - the former justice minister, and the head of the domestic security service - Mr Sechin's move suggests Mr Putin may be starting a process of mutual distancing from the hardest of the hardliners.

The price of tortillas, a staple food in Mexico, are set to rise 18% in the next few weeks, an industry group says. Thousands of people protested against tortilla price rises in Mexico last year and they have become a big political issue. The National Chamber for the Tortilla and Dough Industry told Reuters that prices would rise from 8.5 pesos (est $.82) a kilo now to 10 pesos in June.

West Virginia faculty demands University President resign: The West Virginia University faculty demanded on Wednesday that the president of the university, Mike Garrison, quit over the awarding of a degree to Gov. Joe Manchin III’s daughter, the second call for his resignation in 10 days. The nonbinding resolution, was approved, 565 to 39, at a meeting for all faculty members. Last week, the 114-member Faculty Senate voted overwhelmingly to demand that Mr. Garrison resign. Mr. Garrison has refused, and Mr. Manchin and the university board of governors, appointed by the governor, have continued to support him. “W.V.U. cannot recover from this crisis under the leadership that created it,” Prof. Boyd Edwards said at the University Assembly, which had not met since 1977. In a statement, Mr. Garrison restated his intention to remain, adding, “I am dismayed that it happened under my administration, and I’m committed to making sure nothing of this sort happens here again.” In April, an independent panel found that the university gave Mr. Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch, an executive M.B.A. degree that she had not earned.

A hundred years or 2013, whichever comes first Speaking to an audience in Ohio today, McCain gazed into his crystal ball and waxed poetic about 2013, and the end of his first term and how the troops are home, Iraq is a democracy and violence only happens in occasional, rather than daily, bursts (pardon the pun). Not a peep about how any of this would be achieved, of course, but hey, details, shmetails. I haven't seen anyone else speculate about it, but his choice to back off of his hundred years of war might have had something to do with the state where he was speaking. Ohio, you might remember, was home to the 19 Marine Reservists who died in the first days of August in 2005 - 14 were lost in a single attack, blown up in an amphibious landing craft with a top speed of about 20 miles per hour, and a flat bottom to really get the most out of an explosive impact...I doubt the people of Ohio, who have suffered greatly the folly of the decision made by other people to invade and occupy Iraq, are much interested in hearing about a hundred years of war if those spasms of violence are going to keep killing Ohio's children. Look at it this way - If I remember that horrible August so vividly, do you think that the good people of Ohio have let it slip from memory? With Memorial Day fast approaching? No way in hell.

File this under the fact that blind pigs score the occasional acorn Chris Matthews had roast wingnut for dinner tonight. He called right-wing radio screecher Kevin James out, took him down and wouldn't let him up. It would have been embarrassing, except the dillweed didn't know enough to STFU and kept yelling "he was an appeaser!" to Matthews insistent question "what did Chamberlain do?" After the guy hangs himself, Matthews explains the difference between talking and appeasing. Go, Tweety! I'm not letting you out of the box just yet, but I'll say "good on ya" when it's deserved. So...Good on ya, Tweetster! (Transcript and video at the link.)

Senate Passes Farm Bill with an overwhelming, veto-proof majority. The house earlier passed it with similar margins, and now it goes to the president for his expected, but futile, veto. The bill includes a $10.3 billion increase in spending on nutrition programs, including food stamps, that supporters called “historic,” as well as increases for rural development and land conservation programs.

Waltz with Bashir is going to be the film everyone talks about at Canne. It is an animated feature that brings to the screen the internal struggle of a middle age man who, as a young man participated in the slaughter of Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon in 1982. The film doesn't yet have an American distributor, but look for that to change given the films message and the reaction of those who saw it at Canne.

McCain adviser forced out over conflict of interest republican consultant Craig Shirley was asked to step down from his official role in the campaign on Thursday, following a story in Politico.com asking questions about Shirley's dual role consulting for both the campaign and for an independent "527" group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign also released a new conflict of interest policy barring such arrangements.
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May 15, 2008 by Kingston

The Polar bears are starving: ...the Interior Department HAS RULED that Polar Bears will be added to the Endangered Species List. There are an estimated 20,000 - 25,000 polar bears in the Arctic region, but environmentalists warn that rising temperatures and disappearing sea ice will cause a 30 percent decline in their population over the next 50 years. "We are now beginning to see declines in a number of populations of polar bears, and that's because of global warming," says John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation. "Effectively, the polar bears are starving."

More signs that the newspaper business is heading for hard times: Veteran Washington Post political columnist David Broder is going to take a buyout from the paper. As of Jan 1, 2009, he will become a contract employee of the Post. Here's a note sent to Broder's column clients this morning, obtained by Politico. The column you have been running will not change at all, and you will continue to receive it from The Washington Post Writers Group. I will continue to write from the same office in the Post newsroom and will continue to travel the country to wherever politics is happening. You will find me at the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer and on the campaign trail this fall, just as I have been this winter and spring. This isn't too surprising, considering the 78-year-old Broder has been at the paper since 1965. And the move comes while there's uncertainty as to whether executive editor Len Downie will remain...

Beer and liquor face off on the issue of what to put on product nutritional labels: The high-stakes lobbying campaign has pitted the liquor industry against beer makers, and each side has roped in a plethora of public health activists and members of Congress, as well as some of K Street’s most powerful hired guns. For the two competing segments of the alcohol industry, the labeling decision could give one side or the other a significant marketing edge. The regulatory duel revolves around a seemingly narrow issue: whether the nutritional labels being prepared for alcoholic beverage containers should list alcohol by serving size — in effect pointing out that one serving of spirits has the same alcohol content as a beer. That initiative, promoted by the liquor industry, has the beer lobby livid. It argues that liquor is normally consumed in amounts much larger than the official serving size of 1.5 ounces. “The products are not the same in the way they are actually consumed,” said Art DeCelle, chief counsel for the Beer Institute. The assumption that consumers will drink only a standard shot “is not real life,” he said. The beer industry wants the alcohol information to be displayed only as a percentage by volume, the way it is currently listed on spirits. Listing alcohol content relative to serving size is misleading, he said.

Much-needed cyber defense hub created: Seven Nato nations have backed a new cyber [defense center] in Estonia, which last year blamed Russia for weeks of attacks on its internet structure. Germany, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy and Spain will staff and fund the hub in the Estonian capital Tallinn. Estonia came under cyber attack in 2007 after its decision to remove the bronze statue of a Red Army soldier from the centre of Tallinn. Moscow denied involvement in the flood of data which crashed computers. "We have seen in Estonia that a cyber attack can swiftly become an issue of national security," Nato spokesman James Appathurai said after a signing ceremony in Brussels.

Farm Bill sent to the Senate: The House on Wednesday emphatically approved a massive five-year farm bill by a veto-proof margin, setting up President Bush for a major political embarrassment. Brushing off Bush's opposition, many Republicans joined a majority of Democrats in approving the farm bill 318-106. This is well over the two-thirds vote needed to override Bush's promised veto. "We've solved a lot of problems in this bill," said Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. "We have a bill that covers all of the interests in the country." The Senate is expected to approve the legislation by a similarly commanding margin as early as Thursday morning. If the farm bill support holds, as lawmakers expect, Congress is on track to hand Bush the second veto override of his presidency. In an election year, even GOP lawmakers stressed Wednesday that they cared more about their rural voters than about Bush's declining clout. "I agree that this farm bill is very far from perfect," said Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, a senior Republican member of the powerful House Rules Committee, "but like many of my colleagues in the House, I must weigh the bill by its impact on my constituents." ...More than two-thirds of the first five years' total spending is devoted to nutrition and food stamps, which the bill renames the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Most political attention, though, has targeted the agricultural payments that are the bill's true foundation.

Italian trial for CIA operatives continues: An Italian judge ruled Wednesday that Premier Silvio Berlusconi will be called to testify in the trial of 26 Americans and several Italians charged with kidnapping a terror suspect during a CIA operation. Judge Oscar Magi approved the defense request as the case resumed. Magi also ruled that former Premier Romano Prodi will be called to testify. Berlusconi, who has just been re-elected to another term, is considered a key witness because he was premier when Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr disappeared in February 2003. Nasr's wife wept Wednesday as she described her husband's alleged torture in an Egyptian jail as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. Heavily veiled and speaking through a translator, Ghali Nabila testified in the trial of 26 Americans charged in Italy with kidnapping in February 2003. "They put him on a cross, they beat him on the ears and all over his body," she told the court, citing a letter from her husband and conversations with him. "They positioned him on a chair, tied up his hands and his feet," she said before breaking into tears. "And they gave him electrical shock all over his body, even his genitals." Nabila, 39, said the torture continued over 14 months.

Medved channels Steve Sailer: PZ Myers - Did someone declare this National Flaming Racist Idiot week, and I just didn't notice until now? You have got to read Michael Medved's latest foray into pseudoscience: he has declared American superiority to be genetic, encoded in our good old American DNA. Because our ancestors were immigrants, who were risk-takers, who were selected for their energy and aggressiveness. Oh, except for those who are descended from slaves. The idea of a distinctive, unifying, risk-taking American DNA might also help to explain our most persistent and painful racial divide - between the progeny of every immigrant nationality that chose to come here, and the one significant group that exercised no choice in making their journey to the U.S. Nothing in the horrific ordeal of African slaves, seized from their homes against their will, reflected a genetic predisposition to risk-taking, or any sort of self-selection based on personality traits. But, he hastens to add, modern African-American genetics have been leavened with the genes of recent, self-selected immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa, so their unfortunate stay-at-home genes have a "less decisive influence". As is usual for Medved, a dullard incapable of any kind of thought beyond the superficial, he doesn't think his thesis through. Wouldn't this imply that Moslem immigrants to Europe, with their risk-taking willingness to move to new environments, are their true hope for the future? That the old blue-bloods of this country are less fit than, say, the Nisei? And if the descendants of African slaves are not successful go-getters because their arrival was coerced, what about the immigrants who were fleeing religious persecution, or all the Americans who are descended from indentured servants?

Myanmar update: The Red Cross estimated Wednesday that the cyclone death toll in Myanmar could be as high as 128,000 - a much higher figure than the government tally. The U.N. warned a second wave of deaths will follow unless the military regime lets in more aid quickly. The grim forecast came as heavy rains drenched the devastated Irrawaddy River delta, disrupting aid operations already struggling to reach up to 2.5 million people in urgent need of food, water and shelter. "Another couple of days exposed to those conditions can only lead to worsening health conditions and compound the stress people are living in," said Shantha Bloemen, a spokeswoman for UNICEF. A tropical depression in the Bay of Bengal added new worries, but late in the day forecasters said it was weakening and unlikely to grow into a cyclone. Myanmar's government issued a revised casualty toll Wednesday night, saying 38,491 were known dead and 27,838 were missing.

The McCain Media Mancrush begins to fade as THIS story seems to be everywhere: Cindy McCain, whose husband has been a critic of the violence in Sudan, sold off more than $2 million in mutual funds whose holdings include companies that do business in the African nation. The sale on Wednesday came after The Associated Press questioned the investments in light of calls by John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, for international financial sanctions against the Sudanese leadership. McCain, who was campaigning in Ohio, said neither he nor his wife were aware of the Sudan-related holdings. Last year, at least four presidential candidates divested themselves of similar holdings involving companies doing business in Sudan. According to McCain's personal financial disclosure, Cindy McCain's investments include two mutual funds - American Funds Europacific Growth fund and American Funds Capital World Growth and Income fund - that are listed by the Sudan Divestment Task Force as targets for divestment. BUT, still no word on those tax returns.








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May 14, 2008 by Kingston

Chickens can't compete with gas tanks The price of corn has more than tripled in the last two years as the ethanol craze has swept common sense out the door and off the porch. This is leaving poultry producers crying "fowl!" as subsidized ethanol producers outbid them for the commodity that they need to feed the animals they raise for part of the human food supply. In recent weeks, groups that have been negatively impacted by the food-vs-fuel war that is raging in commodities markets has prompted applications for waivers from the ethanol mandates that were included in last years energy bill.

Hastert aide ratted out Vito's squeeze after a congressional junket where the still-married LtC Fay was the military escort, and neglected her duties in favor of waxing Fosella's flagpole. Hastert's then-chief-of-staff Scott Palmer was so put off by her lack of focus and overall lousy job performance that he reported his concerns about her behavior to her Pentagon superiors. "The person in charge from the military sticks like glue to the chairman or speaker, and she didn't, frankly. She was not always on top of things." (She may well have been on top of some things, but she wasn't on top of the things the American taxpayers were paying her to be on top of.)

Nancy, cast your eyes to Ohio, please and take a look at what some real-live Democrats have done that you should look into emulating. Faced with an unrepentant and recalcitrant screw-up who refused to step down as the states Attorney General, they impeached his ass this morning.

Obese pets are a problem everyone can relate to:Future pet food labels that indicate the number of calories per serving could help obese animals shed the extra pounds, a veterinarians' association recommended to the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday. "Pet owners do not always know how much to feed. They may not realize the high number of calories associated with some of the pet food they are giving their pets," said John Branam, testifying on behalf of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The FDA held the hearing as part of legislation passed last year that requires the administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine to establish pet food labeling standards in two years. According to the AVMA, 54 million pets in the U.S. are obese, an "epidemic" that the association says is growing at an alarming rate.

Miers predicts she will be at odds with Congress for a while: Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers predicted that her constitutional clash with Congress over executive privilege and the separation of powers doctrine may not be settled until after President Bush leaves office next year. Miers, a former U.S. Supreme Court nominee, was sued and cited for contempt by the Democratic-controlled Congress earlier this year for declining to talk about her role in the firings of U.S. attorneys while serving the Bush administration. “It wouldn’t surprise me if it extended beyond this administration,” Miers said following her speech Tuesday at a Tarrant County Bar Association luncheon celebrating Law Day. But it also could be settled at any time “with the agreement of the parties,” she said. “All sides had hoped, I suspect, that it would be resolved by accommodation. That hasn’t happened. Now it’s in the hands of the judiciary, which is the way the system works,” Miers said. “It’s an opportunity to see the Constitution actually function and work.” There is no evidence Miers actually sought accomodation that would have complied with the wishes of Congress, however.

New immigrants in California struggle to get an education, legal or otherwise: California's migrant students are struggling to meet high school graduation requirements for math and English -- if they enroll in high school at all -- and at all ages tend to learn English at a slower rate than other English-language learners, according to a report released Monday by the California Department of Education. The report assesses the progress and needs of the state's migrant student population -- children whose parents work in the fields or in other agriculture-related jobs, and who tend to change school districts as a result of their parents' work. California has the largest such population in the country, with more than 240,000 migrant students enrolled in public schools.

Jesse Jackson ridiculed by Secret Service agents: The Secret Service is under fire for racist and sexist e-mails, including one aimed at Chicago's Rev. Jesse Jackson. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports the e-mails were just released by the Secret Service as part of a long-running civil rights suit filed by African American agents. They contain racist and sexist jokes and pictures. The one about the Rev. Jackson has now led to a demand for the release of any other insulting references to members of the Jackson family in Secret Service files. Rev. Jackson's dealings with the Secret Service date back to his two campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1980s. He actually asked for and was assigned protective details before other candidates back then. The Secret Service e-mail, CBS 2 obtained from a court filing in Washington, was titled "The Righteous Reverend," and jokes about the deaths of Jackson and his wife when a missile strikes their plane. The e-mail ends with, it "certainly wouldn't be a great loss and probably wouldn't be an accident either." "This e-mail today tells me I have a lot less confidence in the secret Service than I did before it was exposed," said U.S. Rep Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.)

UPDATE on the Postville Immigration raid in Northeast Iowa: Federal officials say a raid at a northeastern Iowa meat processing plant this week was the largest in U.S. history. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say 390 people have been arrested on immigration charges after Monday's raid at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville. The facility is the world's largest kosher meatpacking plant. The raid was aimed at seeking evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers and people who are in the country illegally. Fifty-six of those arrested have been released on humanitarian grounds; many of them have to take care of children. Others arrested in the raid at are being held in county jails and at a converted fairgrounds.

Housing indicators falling: Median home prices fell in two-thirds of the cities surveyed during the first three months of this year while 46 states reported declining sales, a real estate trade group reported Tuesday. The National Association of Realtors said that median prices for existing single-family homes dropped in 100 of 149 metropolitan areas in the January-March period, while 48 metropolitan areas saw prices increase and one reported no change. The price declines in 67 percent of the areas surveyed was the largest percentage of areas reporting declining prices in the history of the Realtors' survey, which goes back to 1979. Prices had fallen in 34 percent of the cities surveyed in the October-December survey. Nationally, the median home price - the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less - fell to $196,300 in the first quarter, down by 7.7 percent from the same period a year ago, when the median sales price was $212,600.

More headaches for the NRCC: After losing two special elections in conservative-minded districts over the past two months, the GOP is now at risk of losing a seat in the heart of the Deep South - and is pouring all its resources into hanging on to it, including a rare campaign trail appearance by Vice President Cheney on Monday. A third loss in Tuesday's 1st District special election would prompt new predictions of electoral doom in November, hurt the party's already flagging morale and usher in a new round of public finger-pointing among an already fractured GOP leadership. Southern Democrats, turned off for decades by the party's liberal-leaning leaders in Washington, seem to be coming home. This special election comes one week after Rep. Don Cazayoux (D-La.) picked up a House seat in the Baton Rouge area that Republicans had held for three decades. "You offer Southerners a conservative Democrat on the issues and a fiscal conservative, then I think they're understanding it now," said Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.), who campaigned alongside Democratic nominee Travis Childers on Sunday. "They were fooled for about 12 years. What happened in 1994 is going to happen in reverse."

Yes, but who is watching to ensure they're really doing what they're supposed to be doing, without violating the privacy rights of the American people? FBI officials tell CBS News that there are currently more than 1,300 active investigations into mortgage fraud. That number has also been on the rise in recent years as the crisis has grown, with open investigations increasing 47% from 2006, according to a new FBI report on mortgage fraud. Of those active investigations, more than 50% involved losses of more than $1 million. The FBI has put hundreds of agents onto multiple nationwide task forces aimed at finding and prosecuting mortgage fraud and is currently looking at 19 large corporate entities involved in possible wrongdoing over subprime loans. According to the report, foreclosures increased more than 75% in 2007 over the previous year while the subprime share of outstanding loans more than doubled since 2003. There were more than 2.2 million foreclosures on over 1.2 million properties nationally in 2007. And the percentage of outstanding loans that are classified as subprime grew from 5% in 2003 to over 13% last year. For the federal government, the only real way to measure mortgage fraud is the number of suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by homeowners and authorities to the FBI. Last year there were more than 46,700 reports, up 31% over the previous year. FBI officials tell CBS News that the bureau is on pace to pass 65,000 SARs for 2008, which would be a new record. As a reference point, there were only 6,900 such reports in all of 2003. A "SAR" report is what, ultimately, led government investigators to former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer.

This is taking the whole obsession with punishment thing entirely too far There is a man in Butler County, Ohio who is sitting in jail tonight because his daughter has failed to get her GED. The girl is now 18, but as a 16-year-old living with her mother (her father had been granted custody) she skipped a lot of school and was a troubled truant. Her father was ordered to "stay on top of" her education. Because she has failed to get her GED - she has taken the test and failed the math portion - her father was sentenced to six months in jail. This man is married to his second wife, has a stable life and is at risk of losing the job he has held for 15 years. I agree that parents are responsible for their children...up to a point. But this is tyranny from the bench.
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