|
Morning headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Top StoryHow Congress Forgot Its Own Strength (by Mario M. Cuomo)
SENATORS Jim Webb of Virginia and Hillary Clinton of New York are right to demand that the president go before Congress to ask for a “declaration of war” before proceeding with an attack against Iran or any other nation. But there is no need for this demand to be put into law… Article I, Section 8 (of the Constitution) already provides that only Congress has the power to declare war. (A)sking for more legislation now would imply that the Constitution doesn’t mean what it already says… (T)he Democratic leadership in Congress should assert its strength by simply announcing it will allow no “resolutions” or “authorizations” purporting to delegate to the president Congress’s constitutional power to declare war against any other nation. Nor will there be any new war without Congress’s solemn deliberation and declaration of war. The Democrats should go still further and announce that no money will be appropriated for any military action against another nation without a proper declaration of war. And this should be the position of the Democratic presidential candidates as well.
PLEASE get back into politics, Governor Cuomo!—Caro My Left Wing
The WorldReport says war on terror is fuelling al Qaeda
Six years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the "war on terror" is failing and instead fuelling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements, a British think-tank said on Monday. A report by the Oxford Research Group (ORG) said a "fundamental re-think is required" if the global terrorist network is to be rendered ineffective.
Blackwater Shootings ‘Murder,’ Iraq Says
The Iraqi prime minister’s office said Sunday that an inquiry found that Blackwater guards who shot Iraqi civilians three weeks ago were unprovoked.
Rival Shiite leaders bury the hatchet in peace deal
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two rival Shiite leaders signed an agreement Saturday to end months of rancor and fighting between the two powerful movements they command, a representative of one of the men said… The deal has three main points: stopping the fighting between Iraqis, urging print and electronic media to engender a spirit of friendship and forgiveness, and establishing commissions in each of Iraq's 18 provinces to oversee the peace initiative.
Accounts Differ Sharply on U.S. Attack in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Oct. 5 — American troops backed by aircraft attacked a Shiite town north of Baghdad at dawn on Friday, killing at least 25 Iraqis the military described as criminals who were involved in the transport of weapons. But Iraqis at the scene said the dead were civilians, though some were armed.
Iran has 43 cholera cases mainly near Iraq-report
TEHRAN, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday it had 43 cholera cases, four times more than previously announced, and added they were mostly near Iraq where there has been an outbreak of the disease, an Iranian news agency reported.
Violence erupts in northern Sinai
EL-ARISH, Egypt - Egyptian police fired tear gas Saturday to disperse several thousand protesters who burned tires and blocked roads in anger over an attack by Bedouins in the Sinai peninsula, officials said.
6 years later, US expands Afghan base
Six years after the first U.S. bombs began falling on Afghanistan's Taliban government and its al-Qaida guests, America is planning for a long stay. Originally envisioned as a temporary home for invading U.S. forces, the sprawling American base at Bagram, a former Soviet outpost in the shadow of the towering Hindu Kush mountains, is growing in size by nearly a third.
U.S. Renews Bid to Destroy Opium Poppies in Afghanistan
American officials have found some supporters within President Hamid Karzai’s administration of their push to spray herbicide on opium poppies, officials said.
Pakistan Supreme Court weighs election
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Gen. Pervez Musharraf won an overwhemingly majority in a presidential election boycotted by nearly the entire opposition Saturday, and attention shifted to Supreme Court deliberations on whether he can claim victory.
The suspense is killing me.—Caro
Junta: Weapons Seized From Monasteries
Myanmar's military leaders stepped up pressure on monks who spearheaded pro-democracy rallies, saying that weapons had been seized from Buddhist monasteries and threatening to punish all violators of the law. More than 1,000 people are imprisoned.
Weapons. In monasteries. Uh huh.—Caro The NationFort Hunt's Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII (via The Mahablog)
When about two dozen (World War II) veterans got together (Thursday) for the first time since the 1940s, many of the proud men lamented the chasm between the way they conducted interrogations during the war and the harsh measures used today in questioning terrorism suspects… Several of the veterans, all men in their 80s and 90s, denounced the controversial techniques.
State Dept. ignored diplomats’ concerns on Blackwater.
The State Department “overlooked repeated warnings from U.S. diplomats in the field that guards were endangering Iraqi civilians and undermining U.S. efforts to win support from the population.” Diplomats cautioned that the 2004 decision to grant contractors immunity from Iraqi courts was “a bomb that could go off at any time.”
Iraq Embassy Cost Rises $144 Million Amid Project Delays
The massive U.S. embassy under construction in Baghdad could cost $144 million more than projected and will open months behind schedule because of poor planning, shoddy workmanship, internal disputes and last-minute changes sought by State Department officials, according to U.S. officials and a department document provided to Congress.
As campaigns near, GOP lawmakers restless on Iraq
WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers anxious about their 2008 election prospects are growing increasingly frustrated by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's failure to unify his fractured country and reach the political benchmarks set by Congress. Senior Republican lawmakers are pushing for "accountability hearings" to pressure the Iraqi government to make progress toward narrowing sectarian divides among Sunni and Shiite Muslims and Kurds, sharing oil revenues and achieving other U.S. goals.
Hearings, Right. That’ll save our soldiers lives.—Caro
Iraq war objector's retrial delayed
A federal judge will take more time to study double jeopardy in the case of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused to deploy in 2006. A federal judge on Friday granted a delay in the court-martial of Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, whose retrial for refusing deployment to Iraq was scheduled to begin Tuesday at Ft. Lewis.
Judge reverses Guantanamo ruling
A judge Friday reversed his ruling that created new hurdles for some lawyers seeking to visit clients held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.
EPA refused to warn of asbestos dangers
Congressional investigators will hammer the Environmental Protection Agency in a soon-to-be-released report for its flawed examination and cleanup of hundreds of factories that once processed asbestos-contaminated vermiculite into insulation. But public health specialists say the investigation ignores an even greater failure: the EPA's refusal to adequately warn millions of homeowners that they may be exposed to cancer-causing asbestos in that insulation.
EPA approves 1-year use of pesticide
The Environmental Protection Agency gave the go-ahead for one-year use of a new agricultural pesticide Friday, saying its own scientific review overrides health concerns expressed by more than 50 chemists and other scientists.
Medicare Audits Show Problems in Private Plans
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 — Tens of thousands of Medicare recipients have been victims of deceptive sales tactics and had claims improperly denied by private insurers that run the system’s huge new drug benefit program and offer other private insurance options encouraged by the Bush administration, a review of scores of federal audits has found.
Prosecutor in Sex Sting Kills Self
A federal prosecutor accused of flying to Detroit last month to have sex with a 5-year-old girl committed suicide Friday in his cell in a Milan federal prison. MediaPermanent link to MTA daily media news
FCC Accused of Unfairly Aiding Some Firms
If not the most surprising headline in the history of the world, this piece does provide gruesome details of how "congressional investigators have found some companies and trade groups have received special treatment" from the regulatory body that is "supposed to treat every group equally... from giant phone companies to small consumer advocates."
Fineman: Intel Community To Release ‘Three Iran Reports’ To ‘Slow Down’ Bush’s Warmongering
On the Chris Matthews Show today, NBC’s Howard Fineman revealed that the intelligence community will release “three different reports” in upcoming weeks to “slow down” the administration’s current drumbeat for war with Iran.
Click through to watch the video. I hope they can stop the juggernaut. Petraeus is rattling his saber again.—Caro
The Media and the Latest 'Torture' Revelations (by Greg Mitchell)
The latest "torture" revelations from The New York Times this week seemed to shock many in the media, which also says a lot. That the U.S. has been torturing prisoners has been known for years, producing only measured outrage from most editorialists and pundits. Now how will they respond?
'NYT' Reporter Reveals How He Got 'Blackwater' Scoop
"It was a regular old cop story," James Glanz, an eight-year Times veteran told E&P via cell phone from Baghdad, referring to the shooting of Iraqis by the private contractors. "If you forget about official sources and look at it like a shooting at 34th and Broadway, you have the story."
Reporters becoming detectives? That would be a very good thing.—Caro
Mum's The Word (by digby)
When I saw the roundtable line-up this morning on Meet The Press, I was actually interested, for once. Since Monsignor Tim insists on having David Brody, a "journalist" from Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcast "Network" on, I thought at least we could get some inside information on the reported unhappiness among the religious right with the Republican front runner. Russert didn't even bring it up. Neither did Brody. Neither did anyone else… The Religious Right is threatening to bolt the Republican party and the flagship Village (Beltway insiders) gasbag show doesn't even mention it. This is the first show since September 9th that Russert hasn't discussed the Move On ad.
Chris Wallace asks Nancy Pelosi if she “prays for the troops to win in Iraq” (by John Amato)
Nancy Pelosi went on FOX News Sunday today to talk aboout the SCHIP/Bush veto. And here’s example # ___ (fill in the blank) of the ridiculous questions that come from a FNC host…Only on FOX would Chris Wallace actually ask this of a Democratic leader: “Wallace: You said the other day that you pray for President Bush to change his mind about vetoing SCHIP…Ahhh, do you pray for our soldiers to win in Iraq? Pelosi: Of, course I do. Wallace: To win? Pelosi: Of, course. What a question….”
Hateful people attribute their hateful motives to others. That’s why right wingers insist on thinking liberals want to lose the Iraq war and we want our country to fall into a recession. It’s what they would want if the president were a Democrat. And speaking of attributing their motives to others, see below.—Caro
Crime and Punishment: Why Do We Conform to Society?
In (a) new study, (economist Ernst) Fehr and colleagues uncovered activity in two areas of the brain underlying the neural mechanism involved in conforming to society's values. They further determined that subjects with Machiavellian personalities—a strong sense of self-interest, opportunism and manipulation—have heightened activity in one of these regions, which the authors believe is related to assessing the threat of punishment.
Just as I thought. When right wingers follow the law, it’s because of the threat of punishment. So they think that’s true of all of us.—Caro
This Week: George Will Tells Social Conservatives To “Grow Up”
On This Week with George Stephanopolis, the roundtable discussion turned to the recent “threats” by the Religious Right (who apparently renamed themselves Social Conservatives) to run a third-party candidate as a result of their distaste for the all-but-presumed Republican candidacy of Rudy Giuliani… George Will has just one thing to say to them: Grow up.
Hate Week Comes to Campus (by Aaron Hess)
If you wanted to know what Sen. Joe McCarthy would sound like if he came back from the dead, read David Horowitz's explanation for "Islamofascism Awareness Week," an event he is sponsoring on college campuses across the country from October 22-26: The progressive left is the enabler and abettor of the terrorist jihad. It has forged an "unholy alliance" with the most retrograde and reactionary forces in the world today.
Teacher: I was fired, said Bible isn't literal (thanks to Feministe)
"As a taxpayer, I'd like to know if a tax-supported public institution of higher learning has given veto power over what can and cannot be said in its classrooms to a fundamentalist religious group," (Steve Bitterman) said. "If it has ... then the taxpaying public of Iowa has a right to know. What's next? Whales talk French at the bottom of the sea?"
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/novak-wilson-did-not-forcefully-object-to-naming-of-cia-wife-in-column-2007-10-06.html">Novak: Wilson did not forcefully object to naming of CIA wife in column
Columnist Robert Novak said Saturday Ambassador Joe Wilson did not forcefully object to the naming of his CIA operative wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, when Novak spoke to him prior to the publication of a column that sparked a federal investigation and sent White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby to jail.
So it was Wilson’s fault that you helped to out his wife as a CIA agent? Pretty pitiful, Bob.—Caro
Novak: Senate Conservatives Knew About Craig’s ‘Weird Conduct,’ ‘Didn’t Do Anything About It’
On Bloomberg Television (Saturday), right-wing pundit Robert Novak revealed that “sources in the Senate” have told him that Senate conservatives had prior knowledge about Sen. Larry Craig’s (R-ID) “problem” but intentionally kept it “in the closet”.
Click through to watch the video.—Caro Technology & ScienceStem cell team wins 2007 Nobel for medicine
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Stem cell researchers Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies won the 2007 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology for their work on gene changes in mice using embryonic cells, Sweden's Karolinska Institute said on Monday.
Reconstructing The Family Tree
The new field of genetic genealogy uses DNA to trace ancestry back hundreds of years, sometimes surprising customers with unlikely relatives.
When Your Most Significant Other is a Computer
In a survey earlier this year, 64 percent of Americans say they spend more time with their computer than with their significant other. Meanwhile, 84 percent said they were more dependent on their computer than they were three years ago.
New Prototype Phone Gives Fitness Check
CHIBA, Japan (AP) - It can take your pulse, check your body fat, time your jogs and tell you if you have bad breath. It even assesses stress levels and inspires you with a pep talk. Meet your new personal trainer: your cell phone.
As Sunlight Fades, Look Out for SAD
Seasonal affective disorder sets in in the fall, experts say.
Study Rates Heart Health of Popular Diet Plans
Ornish beat Atkins, but any weight loss is good for the heart, researchers say
Study Reveals 10 Most Terrible Office Behaviors
A coworker who takes credit for someone else's work or rattles off obnoxious jokes is engaging in one of the top 10 most offensive workplace no-no's, according to survey results released this week.
De Waal Traces Human Behavior to Apes
Humans may have more in common with monkeys, chimpanzees and other non-human primates than they think, according to Frans de Waal, C.H. Candler professor of primate behavior… Describing social reciprocity, de Waal explained that the way humans elect their political leaders mirrors the way an alpha male gains power. Chimpanzee dominance is not determined by strength or size. Rather, a highly organized coalition of animals must support, or elect, their leader.
De Waal’s findings would be featured in my book, if I could ever find a publisher.—Caro
Follow in 385,000 yr-old human footsteps
NAPLES (Reuters) - Want to walk in the footsteps of the early humans? Tourists in Italy can do almost just that starting this weekend, after footpaths believed to have been left up to 385,000 years ago were opened to the public.
Tiny Galaxy Spotted Halfway Across the Universe
Astronomers have spotted and weighed a tiny galaxy located 6 billion light-years away, or nearly halfway across the universe… The galactic lightweight was found using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. It was made visible by a phenomenon called gravity lensing, whereby light from a distant source is warped by the gravitational field of another massive object located directly in front of it. EnvironmentWorld moves into the ecological red
LONDON (Reuters) - The world moved into "ecological overdraft" on Saturday, the point at which human consumption exceeds the ability of the earth to sustain it in any year and goes into the red, the New Economics Foundation think-tank said.
World's ''greenest'' skyscraper (video)
Oct. 5 - The new Bank of America tower is under construction in New York City.
Transportation is Moving -- Slowly -- Toward Sustainability
The transportation sector is a powerhouse when it comes to the amount of fuel and energy it consumes. Although progress may be limited in curbing fuel and energy consumption by the commercial aviation sector, the automotive industry is poised to take great strides in the coming years.
Bird deaths stir oversight for U.S. wind power
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The growing U.S. wind power industry is drawing increased scrutiny from states and the federal government over the problem of spinning wind turbines killing birds. The California Energy Commission last week adopted voluntary guidelines to reduce wind energy effects on wildlife, and Washington state, Montana and Texas among other states are reviewing measures.
Saving the World One Handbag at a Time
Los Angeles - With concern for the environment reaching a fever pitch worldwide, celebrities who are at the forefront of the green living movement are moving beyond endorsing hybrid cars to embracing eco-fashion. New York’s recent Fashion Week featured “green” fabrics as well as vintage and recycled clothing, and it’s no surprised that Hollywood celebrities are now toting environmentally friendly handbags.
GE Restructuring Operations to Phase Out Low-Efficiency Incandescents
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Oct. 8, 2007 -- GE Consumer & Industrial will lay off 1,400 workers and close seven incandescent light bulb plants in response to demand from consumers seeking more energy-efficient lighting. For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com. |
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
