NAFTA and Nativism

By Harold Meyerson

Wednesday, February 8, 2006; Page A19

Everybody talks about globalization; nobody ever does anything about it. The world labor market looms over every horizon with its promise of cheaper goods and lower pay. The public is skeptical, rightly, about the benefits of globalization, but the process of harnessing it, of writing enforceable rules that would benefit not just investors but most of our citizens, is hard to even conceive. And so globalization is experienced by many Americans as a loss of control. Manufacturing moves to China, engineering to India; que sera, sera .

Except on our borders. With the number of immigrants illegally in the United States estimated at 11 million, the tensions between Americans and Mexicans -- chiefly, working-class Americans and working-class Mexicans -- are rising. And those are tensions that congressional Republicans, who don't look to have a lot of other issues they can run on this fall, are eager to stoke.

Empty Evidence

By Corine Hegland
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Feb. 3, 2006

"If you think of the people down there, these are people, all of whom were captured on a battlefield. They're terrorists, trainers, bomb makers, recruiters, financiers, [Osama bin Laden's] bodyguards, would-be suicide bombers, probably the 20th 9/11 hijacker."
-- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, June 27, 2005

Some of the men Rumsfeld described -- the terrorists, the trainers, the financiers, and the battlefield captures -- are indeed at Guantanamo. But National Journal's detailed review of government files on 132 prisoners who have asked the courts for help, and a thorough reading of heavily censored transcripts from the Combatant Status Review Tribunals conducted in Guantanamo for 314 prisoners, didn't turn up very many of them. Most of the "enemy combatants" held at Guantanamo -- for four years now -- are simply not the worst of the worst of the terrorist world.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 02/10/06

While President Bush's budget calls for 141 programs to be cut or killed, Newsweek's Allan Sloan discovered that "with no fanfare whatsoever, Bush stuck a big Social Security privatization plan in the federal budget proposal." Plus: Senate Finance Committee chairman accuses the administration of seeking to end "a pittance for widows and widowers."

Although Bush delivered a speech Thursday at the National Guard Building in D.C., he was virtually speechless at what the National Guard delivered.

A nurse working for the Veterans Administration in New Mexico is under investigation for sedition, after writing a letter said to be critical of the war in Iraq, the federal response to Katrina, and "the government which employs you."

As the 'Climate-Change Fight' gets a referee, Michael Klare argues that the only way out of the 'Permanent Energy Crisis' will prove "costly and disruptive."

God's Senator

Who would Jesus vote for? Meet Sam Brownback

Nobody in this little church just off Times Square in Manhattan thinks of themselves as political. They're spiritual -- actors and athletes and pretty young things who believe that every word of the Bible is inerrant dictation from God. They look down from the balcony of the Morning Star, swaying and smiling at the screen that tells them how to sing along. Nail-pierced hands, a wounded side. This is love, this is love! But on this evening in January, politics and all its worldly machinations have entered their church. Sitting in the darkness of the front row is Sam Brownback, the Republican senator from Kansas. And hunched over on the stage in a red leather chair is an old man named Harald Bredesen, who has come to anoint Brownback as the Christian right's next candidate for president.

Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information

By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.

Digby: Civilization vs The Big Babies

I just saw that fatuous gasbag Bill Bennett on CNN talking about the cartoons and was reminded once again of the seemingly limitless hypocricy of the wingnuts. I realize that it is futile to point this out to them since they have completely abandoned all claims to intellectual integrity, but we should document these atrocities anyway if only to keep things straight in our own minds. Luckily, intrepid bloggers are on the case.

Sleight of Hand

Bush buried detailed Social Security privatization proposals in his budget. Can the surprise move jump-start bipartisan reform?

By Allan Sloan
Updated: 12:09 p.m. ET Feb. 8, 2006

Feb. 8, 2006 - If you read enough numbers, you never know what you'll find. Take President Bush and private Social Security accounts.

Last year, even though Bush talked endlessly about the supposed joys of private accounts, he never proposed a specific plan to Congress and never put privatization costs in the budget. But this year, with no fanfare whatsoever, Bush stuck a big Social Security privatization plan in the federal budget proposal, which he sent to Congress on Monday.

US plans massive data sweep

Little-known data-collection system could troll news, blogs, even e-mails. Will it go too far?

By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity.

The system - parts of which are operational, parts of which are still under development - is already credited with helping to foil some plots. It is the federal government's latest attempt to use broad data-collection and powerful analysis in the fight against terrorism. But by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy.

FEMA Leaders' Secret History Explains Katrina Events Says New Investigative Report

2/6/2006 6:58:00 AM

To: National Desk

Contact: Real News Project, 212-477-2234 or contact@realnews.org

NEW YORK, Feb. 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A previously undisclosed longtime business relationship between the two former FEMA directors appointed by President Bush (replete with unpaid debts, personal bankruptcies and questionable business ethics) lies at the root of the disastrously failed government response to Hurricane Katrina, according to a new investigative report.

The report, published by the Real News Project, lays out the checkered pasts of Bush's first FEMA director, Joe Allbaugh, a longtime confidante of the president, and Michael Brown, the neophyte unaccountably selected by Allbaugh to replace him when Allbaugh left government to launch a career as a consultant and lobbyist.

The report explains for the first time why Allbaugh chose Brown, a man with virtually no experience in government or management of any type, and no familiarity with disaster response, to follow him to Washington, and then arranged for Brown to replace him in the top slot. Allbaugh then began signing up clients who wanted -- and got -- FEMA's lucrative contracts.

The president, the stripper and the attorney general

The extraordinary legal defence of George Bush's domestic spying reads like a blend of Kafka, Le Carré and Mel Brooks

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday February 9, 2006
The Guardian

In 1996, Governor George W Bush received a summons to serve on a jury, which would have required his admission that 20 years earlier he had been arrested for drunk driving. Already planning his presidential campaign, he did not want this information made public. His lawyer made the novel argument to the judge that Bush should not have to serve because "he would not, as governor, be able to pardon the defendant in the future". (The defendant was a stripper accused of drunk driving.) The judge agreed, and it was not until the closing days of the 2000 campaign that Bush's record surfaced. On Monday, the same lawyer, Alberto Gonzales - now attorney general - appeared before the senate judiciary committee to defend "the client", as he called the president.

NYT Editorial: Censoring Truth

The Bush administration long ago secured a special place in history for the audacity with which it manipulates science to suit its political ends. But it set a new standard of cynicism when it allowed NASA's leading authority on global warming to be mugged by a 24-year-old presidential appointee who, quite apart from having no training on that issue, had inflated his résumé.

In early December, James Hansen, the space agency's top climate specialist, called for accelerated efforts to reduce industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming. After his speech, he told Andrew C. Revkin of The Times, he was threatened with "dire consequences" if he continued to call for aggressive action.

This was not the first time Dr. Hansen had been rebuked by the Bush team, which has spent the better part of five years avoiding the issue of global warming. It was merely one piece of a larger pattern of deception and denial.

Secret Court's Judges Were Warned About NSA Spy Data

Program May Have Led Improperly to Warrants

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 9, 2006; Page A01

Twice in the past four years, a top Justice Department lawyer warned the presiding judge of a secret surveillance court that information overheard in President Bush's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to obtain wiretap warrants in the court, according to two sources with knowledge of those events.

The revelations infuriated U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly -- who, like her predecessor, Royce C. Lamberth, had expressed serious doubts about whether the warrantless monitoring of phone calls and e-mails ordered by Bush was legal. Both judges had insisted that no information obtained this way be used to gain warrants from their court, according to government sources, and both had been assured by administration officials it would never happen.

Bush details 'foiled terror plot'

US President George W Bush has detailed what he said was a foiled al-Qaeda plot to fly a commercial airliner into the tallest building on the US west coast.

Mr Bush said the plotters, detailed in 2002, planned to use shoe bombs to storm the plane cockpit.

The attackers wanted to fly the plane into Library Tower in Los Angeles, California, renamed the US Bank Tower.

Hastert, Frist said to rig bill for drug firms

Frist denies protection was added in secret

By BILL THEOBALD
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert engineered a backroom legislative maneuver to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits, say witnesses to the pre-Christmas power play.

The language was tucked into a Defense Department appropriations bill at the last minute without the approval of members of a House-Senate conference committee, say several witnesses, including a top Republican staff member.

Nonsense From Paul Cameron

Gay Bowel Syndrome? Yeah, Right.

By David Holthouse, Intelligence Report. Posted February 9, 2006.

Anti-gay researcher Paul Cameron's falsehoods are well-known. The incredible thing is the people who still cite them.

Nearly 600 evangelical Christians packed into the gymnasium of the Calvary Christian Academy in Forth Worth, Texas, to witness a ceremony on a Sunday in June. With a flourish of his pen, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed the first bill while the televangelist at his side praised Jesus.

Gov. Perry shared the stage with celebrity Pentecostal faith healer Rob Parsley, whose television program is carried by 1,400 stations nationwide. In the audience were the leaders of two prominent family values action groups: Donald Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association, and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

Al Franken, Purveyor of Truth

By Laura Barcella, AlterNet. Posted February 9, 2006.

The famous funnyman speaks out about his latest book, Air America's future, and his potential run for the Senate in '08.

Al Franken, the Air America radio host and bestselling author of new-ish book "The Truth (With Jokes)" (Dutton; October 2005), may have started his career in standup comedy, but he's evolved into one of America's more astute lefty commentators.

A refreshingly normal guy in the savage world of political spin and smear, Franken is progressive, but not radical enough to alienate moderate, middle-of-the-road folks. He's intelligent and well-informed, but without a whiff of his fellow Al (Gore)'s overeducated snoot. Approachable and friendly, but moody enough to seem, well, human, Al F. emanates a likeable everyman quality. Like his archnemesis, President G.W. Bush, who snared the last two elections partly based on his "good old boy" affability, it's easy to imagine hanging out with Franken: grabbing a pint, yelling at network news, smoking a cigar.

Survey links altruism and romantic love

Want more romance in your life? Date a liberal...and pass by the conservative! -- Dictynna

Empathy, altruistic behavior seen increasing

In the nation's first survey of altruistic love, scholars have found that people who have strong feelings of love for people in general are more likely to have strong romantic relationships.

The survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, found wide support for altruistic love on a number of items and compared altruistic values and behaviors with those in a similar study from 2002, and found those scores rising.

Corn Power Put to the Test

By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: February 7, 2006

AMES, Iowa — The endless fields of corn in the Midwest can be distilled into endless gallons of ethanol, a clean-burning, high-octane fuel that could end any worldwide oil shortage, reduce emissions that cause global warming, and free the United States from dependence on foreign energy.

David Neiwert: Don't mind that barbed wire

I guess it only makes sense, in that Bushworld kinda way, that when the government starts building mass detention centers that Halliburton would get the contract:

A Houston-based construction firm with ties to the White House has been awarded an open-ended contract to build immigration detention centers that could total $385 million, a move some critics called questionable.

The contract calls for KBR, a subsidiary of oil engineering and construction giant Halliburton, to build temporary detention facilities in the event of an "immigration emergency," according to U.S. officials.

Digby: Trust Them

Or else:

The White House has been twisting arms to ensure that no Republican member votes against President Bush in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation of the administration's unauthorized wiretapping.

Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November.

Digby: Spooked

ReddHedd has the full deconstrution of John Dickerson's juicy new memoir of his role in the Plame case today, so I will just give you the link to follow if you haven't already been there. I just want to make a couple of observations.

Digby: Stop Making Sense

That dessicated waste of space Kate O'Beirne is on Hardball right now screeching for the laudenenum because "liberals don't know how to act at funerals!" Oh lawdy, lawdy, lawdy Miss Mellie, I do decleah these Democrats are so ungenteel! Why, they were talkin' politics and singin' and dancin' and actin' all Negro and everything!

I personally find it absolutely outrageous, OUTRAGEOUS! that Republicans are attacking Coretta Scott King and her family this way. Why, she is an American icon! How dare they! Do they really think that African Americans don't know how to behave at a funeral for one of their own? How very white of them.

Bush 2007 budget quietly omits impact of policies on deficit

John Byrne
Published: February 7, 2006

President George W. Bush's fiscal year 2007 budget quietly omits a table included in previous years which lays out the impact of the Administration's proposed policies on the deficit, RAW STORY has learned.

The Brad Blog: Diebold Capitulates in Alaska...Sorta

Waives 'Proprietary Rights' to Public Voting Data Files...Though Reserves the Right to 'Manipulate the Data' Before Release!

PLUS: CEO Swidarski Works the AP PR Rope Line and Suggests Diebold's Election Division May Be For Sale, While Both AP and 'USA Today' Get the Story Wrong -- Again -- in Their Continuing Efforts on Behalf of America's Electronic Voting Machine Companies...

Good news (perhaps) regarding our previous story on Diebold's refusal to allow the voters of Alaska to look at their own voting data since the Electronic Voting Machine vendor claimed the file format of their GEMS tabulation software was a "company secret" in their contract with the state.

But now, according to a letter from Alaska's Election Officials, published at BlackBoxVoting.org from Alaska's election authorities, "Diebold has agreed to waive its proprietary rights to the GEMS database files."

How many Time reporters knew they were deceiving readers about Rove's role in Plamegate?

Summary: At least three reporters involved in an October 2003 Time magazine article that suggested Karl Rove was no longer under suspicion of outing Valerie Plame, and that contained Scott McClellan's denial that Rove was involved, knew at the time of the article that Rove had, in fact, outed Plame.

On October 13, 2003, Time magazine ran an article that included a quote from White House press secretary Scott McClellan insisting that White House senior adviser Karl Rove had nothing to do with outing undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame. As Media Matters for America has previously noted, at least two Time editorial employees involved in the article knew McClellan's denial was false: correspondent Matthew Cooper and Washington bureau chief Michael Duffy. Cooper knew the denial was false because Rove had outed Plame to him. Duffy knew the denial was false because Cooper had sent him an email relating what Rove had told him.

Medical research must put public interests before commercial decisions, warns pharmaceutical faculty

Doctors employed by pharmaceutical companies must always put the best interests of patients before their medical research, even if it brings them into conflict with their employers, according to new practical advice from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine published in the February issue of IJCP.

The Ethical Issues Committee of the Faculty - part of the UK's Royal Colleges of Physicians - has also endorsed the move towards registering all clinical trials before studies are initiated and called for all results to be reported.

Cutting middle management kills productivity

One on one relationships key to employee commitment

Rick Hackett

Companies that cut middle managers jeopardize their productivity more than save costs, a study from McMaster University suggests.

"Middle managers are the front line communicators with employees," says Rick Hackett, Canada Research Chair in Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. "One-on-one social exchanges between bosses and their workers have a real impact on employee productivity, behaviour and commitment, and when you cut middle-management, often you lose that interaction."

George Bush's Dishonest Budget

Robert L. Borosage
February 07, 2006

Robert L. Borosage is co-director of the Campaign For America's Future, a liberal think tank and advocacy group. CAF is a co-founder of the Apollo Alliance program to promote clean energy and good jobs.

The budget George W. Bush submitted to the Congress yesterday is a lie and a moral disgrace. No surprise. Dead on arrival, it provides little more than carrion for what will be a long, vitriolic partisan food fight that will largely ignore the true challenges facing this country.

The budget is a lie because it shamelessly omits a true accounting of the nation’s financial outlook. To cover the costs of his tax cuts, the White House doesn’t supply projections beyond 2011. Its budget excludes the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan (to say nothing of Iran) after 2007. It omits the cost of fixing the Alternative Minimum Tax—which will total hundreds of billions over the next five years.

What "Ownership Society"?

Bush's major economic idea goes bust.
By Daniel Gross
Posted Monday, Feb. 6, 2006, at 7:12 PM ET

It's never been a better time to own stocks in this country—in theory. With labor weak and management strong, corporations—and hence stockholders—have substantially increased their take of every dollar. Between the first quarter of 2001 and the fourth quarter of 2004, for example, corporate profits rose from 7.8 percent of the gross domestic product to 10.1 percent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In the third quarter of 2005, corporate profits amounted to about 10.3 percent of the GDP. Thanks to changes in the tax code enacted in 2003, stock dividends and capital gains are frequently taxed at lower rates than ordinary income. And all sorts of new vehicles—retirement plans, college savings programs—offer tax breaks for investing.

Defense Budget 101

How many stealth fighters do we really need?
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006, at 12:20 PM ET

The new military budget—released Monday by the White House and the Pentagon—has even more smoke, mirrors, and rabbit-stuffed sleeves than usual.

Let us first dispel the official claim, blithely recited by most news reports, that this budget amounts to $439.3 billion—in itself a staggering sum, but by any proper measure, it really totals $513 billion, and, if looked at from a certain angle, it comes to over $580 billion.

U.S. Meat Supply at Risk of Mad Cow Disease

February 6, 2006

The U.S. Agriculture Department's Inspector General warns beef inspectors aren't strictly following cattle screening rules, increasing the risk of mad cow disease in the nation's meat supply.

The report said it found cases where rules covering the slaughter of cattle were being ignored.

For example, 29 suspect cows were slaughtered at two of a dozen meatpacking plants reviewed in an audit. The report says the animals were incapable of walking, and at least 20 of them fell into the category of "downer" cows, animals whose condition can't be explained by injury. It is these "downer" cows that are considered to be the highest risk for mad cow disease.

Mayor: New Orleans will seek aid from other nations

By Michael DeppMon Feb 6, 7:24 PM ET

Shortcomings in aid from the U.S. government are making New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin look to other nations for help in rebuilding his hurricane-damaged city.

Nagin, who has hosted a steady stream of foreign dignitaries since Hurricane Katrina hit in late August, says he may seek international assistance because U.S. aid has not been sufficient to get the city back on its feet.

"I know we had a little disappointment earlier with some signals we're getting from Washington but the international community may be able to fill the gap," Nagin said when a delegation of French government and business officials passed through on Friday to explore potential business partnerships.

Will Scooter Libby Graymail the CIA?

David CornMon Feb 6, 2:06 PM ET

The Nation -- Will Scooter Libby, a neocon who helped orchestrate the war in Iraq, end up graymailing the U.S. government?

That seems to be one of the strategies being considered by the lawyers defending Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, who was indicted by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald in the CIA leak case for lying to FBI investigators and grand jurors to cover up his (and possibly Cheney's) participation in the outing of CIA officer Valerie Wilson (nee Plame).

Graymail is a defense gambit not available to most criminal suspects. But years ago defense attorneys representing clients connected to the national security establishment--say, a former CIA employee gone bad--figured out a way to squeeze the government in order to win the case: claim you need access to loads of classified information in order to mount a defense--more than might truly be necessary. Of course, the government is going to put up a fight. It may release some information--but not everything a thorough defense attorney will say is needed. The goal is to get the government to say no to the informant. Then the defense attorney can attempt to convince the judge that without access to this material he or she cannot put up an adequate defense. If the lawyer succeeds, it's case dismissed. In such situations, the defendant is essentially saying, prosecute me and I'll blow whatever government secrets I can. Isn't that the act of a patriot?

Trial of the True Believers

By Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet. Posted February 7, 2006.

The mindset that led Enron to defraud millions of people is the same that created the Bush administration's legal quagmires.

As the trial of Enron's Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay enters its second week, journalists are again pointing to the connections between the Bush family and administration and the former corporate Goliath. It's certainly not difficult to unearth the laundry list of ties between Bush's tight-knit Republican circle and the company that cheated Americans out of over $1 billion in retirement funds and some 4,500 jobs.

Thousands of barges could save Europe from deep freeze

It is ironic that one consequence of global warming is that Europe might plunge into a deep freeze. This possibility stimulated an unusual research project at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Peter Flynn, the Poole Chair in Management for Engineers in the U of A Department of Mechanical Engineering, has studied whether down-welling ocean currents can carry more dissolved carbon into the deep ocean. He learned they can't, but in the course of this research he found some evidence that the ocean currents that bring warm water to the oceans off northern Europe may be weakening.

The results of the research have been published recently in the journal Climatic Change.

Ames Lab Innovation Key To A “Lead-Free” Europe

Lead-free solder licensed worldwide as EU lead-free rules take effect

AMES, IA -- Lead has long been recognized as a highly toxic material that can cause brain damage. Its use in paint was banned in 1978 and it was later removed from gasoline to further protect human health. But a burgeoning source – electronic waste – poses a substantial new threat to the environment as lead and other chemicals leach from computers, cell phones and other electronic devices being buried in landfills.

Beginning July 1, the European Union will strictly limit the amount of lead and other hazardous materials lurking within the circuitry of any electronic appliance sold.1 Given the global nature of the electronics industry, however, the European ban is in essence international in scope. As electronics and appliance manufacturers scramble to meet those tough new restrictions, a lead-free solder developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory is playing a key role.

New climate research reveals growing risk of water shortages and flooding in California

LIVERMORE, Calif. — If the world continues to burn greenhouse gases, California may have an increased risk of winter floods and summer water shortages, even within the same year. This scenario may be more severe in future El Niño years.

New research by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists shows that global warming is likely to change river flows in ways that may result in both increased flood risk and water shortages. The predictions assume atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration doubles from preindustrial levels.

Tracking food products from farm to the fork

A prototype system designed to help consumers, farmers and other interested parties trace the geographic origin of food at all stages of production from ‘farm to fork’ - storage, processing and distribution - has been developed by researchers.

In the wake of successive outbreaks of food-borne disease in the past decade (think mad cow disease, E.coli, salmonella, etc) and the current fear over the possible spread of avian flu, public demand for tighter safeguards on the entire food production chain has never been greater.

Ted Rall: Embedded Reporters Endanger Their Ideals and Their Peers

CHICAGO--Anchorman Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt are the latest casualties of a most dangerous trend: journalists playing soldier. The two ABC News staffers, riding along with collaborationist Iraqi troops in a U.S. military convoy, were struck in the head by flying shrapnel from a bomb detonated by the resistance near Taji, about 25 miles northwest of Baghdad.

"The Pentagon takes every opportunity to say, 'If you're worried about security, travel embedded with us,' Ann Cooper, director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told The Washington Post. But embedding isn't just a threat to journalistic objectivity. It's the most foolhardy way to cover a war, and it ought to be prohibited.

GOP senators refuse to put Attorney General under oath on wiretaps

I wonder why...--Dictynna

02/06/2006 @ 11:26 am
Filed by RAW STORY

Republican senators refused to put Attorney General Alberto Gonzales under oath in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about President Bush's clandestine wiretap program, RAW STORY has learned.

Revealed: secret plan to keep UK troops permanently in Iraq

BRIAN BRADY
WESTMINSTER EDITOR

BRITAIN is laying secret plans to maintain a permanent military presence in Iraq.

Ministers and military officials are in negotiations with their American counterparts over the British contribution to the long-term effort to maintain peace and stability in post-Saddam Iraq once the country is handed over to its newly elected government

NYT Editorial: Will Your Money Last?

Published: February 5, 2006

Americans spent more than they made in 2005, sending the personal savings rate into negative territory for the first time since 1933.

Government and business should be alarmed. Many Americans do not seem to believe they are living beyond their means, as long as the value of their houses are rising. But spending freely while the house appreciates is not saving for the future. It is betting that boom-time gains will last indefinitely. They will not.

Mineral Levels in Meat and Milk Plummet Over 60 Years

· Study blames the decline on intensive farming
· Food industry contests comparative methods
by Felicity Lawrence

The mineral content of milk and popular meats has fallen significantly in the past 60 years, according to a new analysis of government records of the chemical composition of everyday food.

The research looked at government tables published in 1940, and again in 2002, in the nutritional bible, The Composition of Foods, to establish levels of important minerals in dairy products and meat before the second world war and today.

The research, which is contested by the food and farming industry, found a marked decline in nutritional value during the period. The analysis is published in this month's Food magazine by the consumer watchdog the Food Commission.

The levels of iron recorded in the average rump steak have dropped by 55%, while magnesium fell by 7%. Looking at 15 different meat items, the analysis found that the iron content had fallen on average by 47%. The iron content of milk had dropped by more than 60%, and by more than 50% for cream and eight different cheeses. Milk appears to have lost 2% of its calcium, and 21% of its magnesium too.

Those tax cuts are a real piece of work

Jonathan Chait

February 5, 2006

'UNFORTUNATELY, just as we are seeing how our tax cuts have created jobs and opportunity, some in Washington want to repeal the tax relief," President Bush says in one of his standard speech lines.

Actually, lots of people outside Washington want to repeal the tax cuts as well. But because I happen to live in Washington and want to repeal the tax cuts, maybe I should explain our thinking to the president.

We're running deficits of more than $300 billion even at the peak of an economic expansion. The Republicans have no plans to cut spending anywhere close to the level we would need to make a dent in that figure. If we can't end tax cuts now, when can we? We couldn't cancel the tax cuts three years ago because the economy was in a recession. Now we can't cancel them because the economy is growing. I'm starting to suspect there's never going to be a good time.

Exclusive: Can the President Order a Killing on U.S. Soil?

Newsweek

Feb. 13, 2006 issue - In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances, the president might have the power to order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States. Steven Bradbury, acting head of the department's Office of Legal Counsel, went to a closed-door Senate intelligence committee meeting last week to defend President George W. Bush's surveillance program. During the briefing, said administration and Capitol Hill officials (who declined to be identified because the session was private), California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Bradbury questions about the extent of presidential powers to fight Al Qaeda; could Bush, for instance, order the killing of a Qaeda suspect known to be on U.S. soil? Bradbury replied that he believed Bush could indeed do this, at least in certain circumstances.

Connecticut Opens MySpace.Com Probe

Murdoch's Gem Under Scrutiny

February 5, 2006
Police in Connecticut say that as many as seven teenage girls may have been sexually assaulted by men they met through MySpace.com. The girls say they were fondled or had sex with men who turned out to be older than they claimed.

Police say one man traveled 1,000 miles to prey on one of the girls he found through the site, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Saying he was "deeply disturbed" by the reports, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he is investigating whether criminal charges can be brought against the site's operators.

The CIA Leak: Plame Was Still Covert

Newsweek

Feb. 13, 2006 issue - Newly released court papers could put holes in the defense of Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, in the Valerie Plame leak case. Lawyers for Libby, and White House allies, have repeatedly questioned whether Plame, the wife of White House critic Joe Wilson, really had covert status when she was outed to the media in July 2003. But special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found that Plame had indeed done "covert work overseas" on counterproliferation matters in the past five years, and the CIA "was making specific efforts to conceal" her identity, according to newly released portions of a judge's opinion.

Bush Budget Plan Strikes Home, Not Deficit

By Joel Havemann, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — President Bush today will propose a $2.7-trillion budget that would take another slice out of domestic spending next year — but still leave a huge $355-billion deficit.

In Bush's budget for fiscal year 2007, which begins Oct. 1, the departments of Defense and Homeland Security would continue to grow at a rate greater than inflation.

A Credibility 'Gap'

By Steve Benen, AlterNet. Posted February 6, 2006.

Bush critics worry that the White House may have deleted Plame-related emails during a 12-hour head start in the CIA leak probe. The delay is worse than they think.

On the evening of Monday, Sept. 29, 2003, then-White House Chief Counsel Alberto Gonzales had a choice. He had just received formal notice from the Department of Justice that the White House was the subject of a criminal investigation as a result of White House officials' leaking the identity of an undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame, as part of an effort to discredit her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

Gonzales did not immediately alert the White House staff to the investigation, explaining the need to safeguard germane documents. Instead, he asked Justice Department lawyers if he could notify the staff in the morning. Because the call came in after 8:00 p.m. on a weekday, and most of the personnel had left the building, the attorneys agreed. Gonzales, before wrapping up his day, called White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to notify him of the start of the probe. Twelve hours later, Gonzales informed his colleagues that they must "preserve all materials" relevant to the investigation.

AmericaBlog: Rummy is setting the stage for us to attack Iran

by John in DC - 2/04/2006 01:28:00 PM

I still say, fine, let him. With what Army? All the soldiers we have in Iraq on the 2nd and 3rd tour? That should be interesting. What Bush is doing is setting the stage for a surgical strike against Iran's nuclear plants - hoping that Iran won't retaliate by invading Iraq. But then what do they think Iran will do? They'll have to do something to respond. Blow up a few embassies in Europe? Some suicide bombers in the US?

We are setting down the exact same course as we did for the invasion of Iraq.

Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

An old story from 2004--Dictynna

• Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
• Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
• Threat to the world is greater than terrorism

Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York
Tuesday February 24, 2004

Observer

Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'

Alaska: Warming is Disturbing Preview of What's to Come, Scientists Say

by Seth Borenstein, Knight Ridder Newspapers
July 31st, 2003

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska is melting.

Glaciers are receding. Permafrost is thawing. Roads are collapsing. Forests are dying. Villages are being forced to move, and animals are being forced to seek new habitats.

What's happening in Alaska is a preview of what people farther south can expect, said Robert Corell, a former top National Science Foundation scientist who heads research for the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment team.

>"If you want to see what will be happening in the rest of the world 25 years from now, just look at what's happening in the Arctic," Corell said.