Inflation lull may be sign of trouble ahead

Housing, auto slump may augur recession

By William Sluis, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune news services contributed to this report
Published December 16, 2006

Just in time for the holidays, inflation seems to be vanishing.

That's great news for people who put off their shopping. But it remains to be seen whether it will be good news for the economy in 2007.

A drop in housing prices and a loss of production in the auto industry are among signposts that suggest a lack of inflation may be a precursor of recession. At the very least, a cloud hangs over the outlook for coming months.

AP Probe: 'Dangerous' Former Gitmo Inmates Set Free Abroad

Published: December 16, 2006 12:15 PM ET

WASHINGTON The Pentagon called them "among the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the Earth," sweeping them up after Sept. 11 and hauling them in chains to a U.S. military prison in southeastern Cuba.

Since then, hundreds of the men have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to other countries, many of them for "continued detention."

And then set free.

Think Progress: John McCain’s War On Blogs

John McCain has made clear that he doesn’t like the blogosphere.

Now he has introduced legislation that would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles. Some highlights of the legislation:

– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”

– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs.

Democrats say they're inheriting a financial mess

By James Rosen

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Democrats, who will shape fiscal policies in the new Congress, issued a scathing report Wednesday on the "financial mess" they'll inherit from their Republican counterparts next month.

The Democrats called the budget "the fiscal disaster the Republican Congress is leaving behind," and Republicans sharply rejected their claims - signals that post-election pledges of bipartisan cooperation by leaders of both parties might have been hollow talk.

OPEC set to lower oil production in Feb.

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Dec 14, 6:36 PM ET

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Thursday it will take a half million barrels a day off the market beginning in February, cementing its apparent intention to do or say what it takes to keep oil prices around $60 a barrel.

The cartel, which pumps a third of the world's crude-oil, helped stabilize falling oil prices back in October when it announced a cut of 1.2 million barrels a day. But expectations of slower economic growth and a non-OPEC supply surge in 2007 meant the market was still vulnerable to a price collapse.

Bush has created a comprehensive catastrophe across the Middle East

In every vital area, from Afghanistan to Egypt, his policies have made the situation worse than it was before

Timothy Garton Ash
Thursday December 14, 2006
The Guardian

What an amazing bloody catastrophe. The Bush administration's policy towards the Middle East over the five years since 9/11 is culminating in a multiple train crash. Never in the field of human conflict was so little achieved by so great a country at such vast expense. In every vital area of the wider Middle East, American policy over the last five years has taken a bad situation and made it worse.

If the consequences were not so serious, one would have to laugh at a failure of such heroic proportions - rather in the spirit of Zorba the Greek who, contemplating the splintered ruins of his great project, memorably exclaimed: "Did you ever see a more splendiferous crash?" But the reckless incompetence of Zorba the Bush has resulted in the death, maiming, uprooting or impoverishment of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children - mainly Muslim Arabs but also Christian Lebanese, Israelis and American and British soldiers. By contributing to a broader alienation of Muslims it has also helped to make a world in which, as we walk the streets of London, Madrid, Jerusalem, New York or Sydney, we are all, each and every one of us, less safe. Laugh if you dare.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce: The Right Wing's Right Hand in D.C.

By Matt Stoller, AlterNet. Posted December 14, 2006.

The Chamber of Commerce, run by corrupt lobbyist Tom Donahue, has turned into a pay-to-play vehicle for right-wing causes and corporate dishonesty.

It's hard to precisely define the political establishment, the fixed group of financiers, political operatives, journalists, and politicians who make up the swirl of right-wing power in Washington D.C. But if it's not always simple to define in its totality, one man stands out as an innovative and particularly venal power broker: Thomas Donahue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In a lot of ways, the new challenge after the 2006 elections for the progressive movement boils down to finding the unethical and unaccountable purveyors of systemic corruption and rooting them out. It is these forces that put Bush in the White House and reelected him. It is these forces that corrupt both parties. It is these forces that are going to fight tooth and nail to defeat the Democratic majority, while attempting to also corrupt it from within.

Why Withdrawal Is Unmentionable

By Michael Schwartz, Tomdispatch.com. Posted December 14, 2006.

Pulling out of Iraq would be an imperially momentous decision. It would mean the abandonment of more than two decades of American foreign policy in the Middle East.

The report of James A. Baker's Iraq Study Group has already become a benchmark for Iraq policy, dominating the print and electronic media for several days after its release, and generating excited commentary by all manner of leadership types from Washington to London to Baghdad. Even if most of the commentary continues to be negative, we can nevertheless look forward to highly publicized policy changes in the near future that rely for their justification on this report, or on one of the several others recently released, or on those currently being prepared by the Pentagon, the White House, and the National Security Council.

This is not, however, good news for those of us who want the U.S. to end its war of conquest in Iraq. Quite the contrary: The ISG report is not an "exit strategy;" it is a new plan for achieving the Bush administration's imperial goals in the Middle East.

Suburbia: Running on Empty?

By James Howard Kunstler, Salgamundi. Posted December 14, 2006.

Robert Bruegmann argues in his new book that urban sprawl will continue because people like it, but reviewer James Howard Kunstler counters that the petro-dependent suburban era is just about finished.

Reviewed: Sprawl: A Compact History by Robert Bruegmann (University of Chicago Press, 2005).

There is a species of fatuous thinking these days in America which states, in so many words, that suburbia is fine and dandy because so many people like it. Variations on this theme range from the idea that suburbia is the highest expression of free markets, to the notion that it is the natural outcome of our democracy, to the belief that God has ordained it. This has been the reasoning of some public intellectuals such as New York Times columnist David Brooks, Joel Kotkin, of the New America Foundation, and the preposterous Peter Huber of Forbes Magazine and the Manhattan Institute. Now Robert Bruegmann, professor of art history, architecture, and urban planning at the University of Illinois, Chicago, weighs in from academia with essentially the same argument floated on barges of statistical analysis.

New research from National Violent Death Reporting System lauded

Research findings on violent death can help identify prevention strategies, a coalition of health and welfare, violence and suicide prevention, and law enforcement advocates said today. The groups hailed studies published in the journal Injury Prevention, which draw on data from the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) to identify patterns of violent death in America.

Digby: Why Can't They All Get Along?

Last night I wrote a snarky (and controversial) post about Sandra Day O'Connor getting something wrong and I was soundly chastised for ignoring the basis of the original Kevin Drum link which was an embarrassing interview in Congressional Quarterly with the new Democratic chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Silvestre Reyes. The truth is that I just didn't have the time last night --- I'm not at home --- and didn't get a chance to fully appreciate how embarrassing that interview is. It's a cringer.

The Good War on Terror

How the Greatest Generation helped pave the road to Baghdad

By Christopher Hayes

On September 11, 2001, George W. Bush wrote the following impression in his diary: “The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today.” He wasn’t alone in this assessment. In the days after the attacks, editorialists, pundits and citizens reached with impressive unanimity for this single historical precedent. The Sept. 12 New York Times alone contained 13 articles mentioning Pearl Harbor.

Five years after 9/11 we are still living with the legacy of this hastily drawn analogy. Whatever the natural similarities between December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001, the association of the two has led us to convert—first in rhetoric, later in fact—a battle against a small band of clever, murderous fundamentalists into a worldwide war of epic scale.

Digby: Wisdom

The incomparable Meteor Blades has a post up over a Kos that will make you cry. Here is just a small piece:

Three thousand dead Americans from the Navy, the Army, the Marines, the Air Force and the National Guard will soon be in the count. Dead, in many cases, as we have seen, because of the incompetent know-it-allness of an Administration still swarming with chickenhawks. But dead, fundamentally, because of lies. Killed, like McMahon and Judge, heroically trying to save the lives of others. Or killed like my friend, Manny, just for being in the wrong place when the shrapnel came tumbling out of the night.

Digby: Secretaries of Deference

Lambert points out something important relating to my post yesterday on The Aristocrats:

When Bush got all snippy with Jim Webb, George Will distorted the quote precisely to highlight Webb’s supposed lack of deference.

All the Beltway 500 code words—Civil, Dignified, Ungracious—for trashing Democrats and preventing them from saying what needs to be said have to do with Republicans reinforcing this fundamental aristocratic value of deference.

Digby: Holding The Line

Firedoglake, Pandagon and many others have been writing about NARAL's inexplicable decision to take a "neutral stance" on one of those move-the-goalpost pieces of legislation which are designed to normalize anti-choice talking points for future consideration:

"...the awkward phrasing of "20 weeks past fertilization" classifies a woman as pregnant even before implantation of the egg in the uterus. That's the type of legalese that could redefine certain types of birth control, like Plan B, as abortifacients."

I do not think NARAL understands its function anymore. It is not a politician from a conservative district who won with only a few percentage points and needs to pander. It is not a political party that needs to gloss over differences to come to consensus. It is an advocacy organization. Its job is to hold the line and then move the debate their way.

Daily Kos: Obituary for The Commons?

by emmasnacker
Wed Dec 13, 2006 at 09:22:04 AM PST

The patient that is our National Environmental Policy Act has been ill of late, and I am distressed to report that It has now been moved into Intensive Care. This is a call to the family to rush to the bedside. Please speak. It may look like the patient cannot hear or see, but it is possible that your energy will help rally the dying, and enable NEPA to live.

Jump the bump for an overview of NEPA's birth, life, and the attempted murder for profit that put NEPA in it's present condition.......

A Way Forward, a Look Back

By Robert Parry
December 13, 2006

The abrupt resignation of the Saudi ambassador to the United States and the postponement of George W. Bush’s new Iraq policy speech mark a troubling new chapter for a U.S. strategy for the Middle East that continues to spiral toward catastrophe.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to Washington and the former chief of Saudi intelligence, informed the State Department on Dec. 11 that he had resigned after only 15 months on the job and flew home.

The unceremonious departure was seen as another signal of Saudi anger over Bush’s regional policies. In that view, Turki’s resignation was akin to the recall of an ambassador between two hostile states, albeit softened by Turki’s insistence that he was leaving to spend more time with his family.

BottleOfBlog: We Still Get To Keep Those $300 Checks, Though, Right?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President Bush will soon seek about $100 billion in additional emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a House report Wednesday…

In a broad report criticizing Republicans' fiscal decisions, Democratic staffers on the House Appropriations Committee and House Budget Committee also noted that Congress has already appropriated about $379 billion for the war in Iraq…

Americablog: READ THIS: Religious right leader, Republican politician Roy Moore, says American Muslims are not fit for US Congress

by John in DC - 12/13/2006 03:33:00 PM

I've often said that George Bush's America increasingly reminds me of Germany circa 1933 or so. Not quite full-blown Nazi era, but not quite all honky-dory either. Well folks, Republican hero Roy Moore just moved the cuckoo clock up a notch to 1934.

(Moore is the guy pushing the "Ten Commandments in every courthouse" campaign. No one could have predicted that he'd be exposed as a raging nutjob.)

According to Moore, Muslims have no place in the US Congress. That kind of talk is the kind of thing a Nazi would say. Or the Taliban would say. Or a good Soviet-style dictator would say. It's not the kind of thing an American would say. And it's the kind of thing that would itself get you banned forever from public life in 21st century America. Until now. How much do you want to be that Moore doesn't suffer a lick for proclaiming one of the most racist, un-American doctrines to hit our country in decades?

Study finds oysters can take heat and heavy metals, but not both

Could low-level heavy metal pollution be combining with warm water temperatures to fatally weaken sea life? A study examining the joint effects of cadmium and temperature on mitochondrial metabolism in oysters finds a combined effect that is potentially lethal and could be a significant contributor to recent oyster declines. The research has broad implications for cold-blooded marine organisms.

U. of Colorado study finds growing up in bad neighborhood not as harmful as expected

There's good news for children growing up in bad neighborhoods in a comprehensive, 8-year study led by University of Colorado at Boulder. The successful development of children in Denver and Chicago from the best neighborhoods was 63 percent, while the success rate for children living in high-poverty, disadvantaged neighborhoods was still relatively high, at 52 percent.

Staying together with kids -- Relationships benefit when new parents get help

The birth of a first child is usually an exciting and eagerly anticipated milestone in any committed relationship, yet research suggests it can also be the beginning of the end for many couples.

According to clinical psychologist Dr Jemima Petch, about half of all couples report a significant decline in satisfaction with their relationship during the transition to parenthood.

Frank Rich: The Sunshine Boys Can't Save Iraq

By Frank Rich
The New York Times

Sunday 10 December 2006

In America we like quick fixes, closure and an uplifting show. Such were the high hopes for the Iraq Study Group, and on one of the three it delivered.

The report of the 10 Washington elders was rolled out like a heartwarming Hollywood holiday release. There was a feel-good title, "The Way Forward," unfortunately chosen as well by Ford Motor to promote its last-ditch plan to stave off bankruptcy. There was a months-long buildup, with titillating sneak previews to whip up anticipation. There was the gala publicity tour on opening day, starting with a President Bush cameo timed for morning television and building to a "Sunshine Boys" curtain call by James Baker and Lee Hamilton on "Larry King Live."

Dems Plan to Clean up Spending Bills

By Andrew Taylor
The Associated Press

Tuesday 12 December 2006

Washington - Democrats taking power in January have settled on a plan to clean up $463 billion worth of GOP budget leftovers, but they're not happy about it - and neither is the White House.

The plan by the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees would kill thousands of hometown projects, called "earmarks," that lawmakers add to spending bills. Staying within President Bush's thrifty budgets for domestic agencies like the Agriculture and Education departments is part of their proposal.

EPA rule on mercury emissions doesn't go far enough, groups say

BY JAMES ROSEN, McClatchy Newspapers

Environmental groups are upset over a new federal effort to cut mercury emissions at dozens of cement plants around the country, saying it defies a court order to toughen controls on the highly toxic air pollutant.

Judge Settles Fight Over Classified Info

By MATT APUZZO
The Associated Press
Monday, December 11, 2006; 1:06 PM

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge all but resolved the protracted legal fight over classified information in the CIA leak case Monday, helping ensure the dispute would not derail former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's perjury and obstruction trial.

Libby is accused of lying to investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding a CIA operative. He says he had more pressing issues on his mind and wants to discuss classified intelligence about terrorist threats and foreign nuclear programs to bolster that argument.

Presidential Tyranny Untamed by Election Defeat

By Chris Floyd
t r u t h o u t | UK Correspondent

Tuesday 12 December 2006

I. Genetic Modification

Like the two entwining strands of the double helix, law and power form the genetic structure of government. Law is nothing but empty verbiage without power to back it up, enforce it, embody it. And power without law is nothing but a mad ape, baring its teeth, thumping its chest, raping and beating where it pleases, taking what it wants: a bestial thing, born in the muddy swamp of our lowest, blindest, rawest biochemical impulses. Disconnect these strands and things fall apart, as Yeats says; the center literally cannot hold, and the blood-dimmed tide is loosed upon the world.

We have seen the proof of this in our time. When law - understood here as agreed-upon principles of justice and commonweal - is treated as a filthy rag or a "quaint" relic or a cynical sham by those in power, the result is an ever-growing suppuration of greed, lies, brutality and violence. Its starkest form is evident in Iraq, where a lawless invasion based on deceit has created a hell beyond imagining, and beyond control. At home, unfettered power has stripped Americans of their essential liberties and human rights, which are now no longer unalienable and inviolable but are instead the gift of the "unitary executive," to bestow - or withhold - as he sees fit.

Dems plan to cut rates on college loans

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, AP Education Writer
Tue Dec 12, 9:27 PM ET

Democrats say they are putting education reform at the top of their to-do list as they prepare to take control of Congress.

However, they have not spelled out what the math will look like.

Democrats say they will use their new authority in the House and Senate to slash interest rates on need-based college loans in half — from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent.

"That will be done almost immediately, certainly within the first couple of weeks of the new session," California Democratic Rep. George Miller (news, bio, voting record), the incoming chairman of the House education committee, said in an interview.

America Loses Another War

Iraq: a shameful ass-whupping, or just a pathetic trouncing? Ugly disgrace? Choices, choices

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The good news is, we're all back in harmony. All back on the same page. No more divisiveness and no more silly bickering and no more nasty and indignant red state/blue state rock throwing because we're finally all back in cozy let's-hug-it-out agreement: The "war" in Iraq is over. And what's more, we lost. Very, very badly.

An Overdue Visit

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the nation
Friends of Freedom knew it was a special occasion.
Lady Liberty stood taller just off the shore
Her torch shining brighter than a few weeks before

But it wasn't the flame turning her cheeks all rosy
It was thoughts of Snowe, Feingold and Nancy Pelosi
And leaders from every side of the aisle
Who would soon bring the Bill of Rights back into style.

The Amendments had all hurried out of their beds -
Which was no easy task, they were nearly in shreds -
And they rushed to the window on papery feet
As a jolly old man flew right over their street.

Iran's Smackdown on Dubya

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. Posted December 12, 2006.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had a feast this week and his main course was George Bush with an apple in his mouth.

Q: The other sensitive issue that people want to know your position is on, because this has come up often, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rejection that there was a Holocaust. Do you believe that there was a Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed?

A: I am currently thinking about the Iraqi issues.

-- CNN's Wolf Blitzer, interviewing Iraqi Shiite leader Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, who was in the U.S. for a meeting with George W. Bush. Al-Hakim repeatedly declined to answer the Holocaust question.

Biofuels Are an Environmental Dead End

By Tom Philpott, Grist Magazine. Posted December 13, 2006.

Tom Philpott questions biofuels skeptic extraordinaire David Pimentel about why crop-based energy won't work.

Any worthy idea can withstand and even be improved by naysayers; scolds and skeptics play the useful role of pointing out obvious flaws. The biofuels industry has no more persistent, articulate, and scathing critic than David Pimentel, professor emeritus of entomology at Cornell University.

In 1979, with the price of oil surging and a politically connected company called Archer Daniels Midland investing heavily in ethanol production, the U.S. Department of Energy invited Pimentel to chair an advisory committee to look at ethanol as a gasoline alternative. The committee's conclusion: ethanol requires more energy to produce than it delivers.

Coral stress 'like never in history'

Large scale coral die-offs are now occurring more frequently than at any time in the last 11 000 years, according to a new study by Australian-based scientists. Investigations by Associate Professor John Pandolfi, of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies and the University of Queensland, of fossilized reefs in Papua New Guinea show how often the reefs were "wiped out" by disastrous events in past times.

Commercial marketing in schools may discourage healthy nutrition environment for students

Commercial activity permitted in schools, such as soft drink ads; the use of Channel One broadcasts in classrooms; sales incentives from soft drink bottlers; and exclusive beverage contracts may discourage a "nutrition-friendly" environment for students, says researchers.

Dr. Claudia Probart, Penn State associate professor of nutritional sciences who led the study, says, "Schools’ newly created wellness policies as mandated by the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 provide ideal opportunities to examine school environments for advertising that might conflict with their goals for a healthy climate for students."

Green revolution sweeping the U.S. construction industry

By Frank Greve

McClatchy Newspapers

AURORA, Colo. - Rows of little plastic domes dot the roof of the new Wal-Mart Supercenter here, looking like a marching band of "Star Wars" R2-D2s.

Inside each dome, a trio of computer-aimed mirrors tracks the sun and bounces its light down a reflective shaft and through a milky white lens, illuminating the stockroom below.

Pinochet's Death Spares the Bush Family

By Robert Parry
December 12, 2006

Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s death on Dec. 10 means the Bush Family can breathe a little bit easier, knowing that criminal proceedings against Chile’s notorious dictator can no longer implicate his longtime friend and protector, former President George H.W. Bush.

Although Chilean investigations against other defendants may continue, the cases against Pinochet end with his death of a heart attack at the age of 91. Pinochet’s death from natural causes also marks a victory for world leaders, including George H.W. and George W. Bush, who shielded Pinochet from justice over the past three decades.

The Bush Family’s role in the Pinochet cover-up began in 1976 when then-CIA Director George H.W. Bush diverted investigators away from Pinochet’s guilt in a car bombing in Washington that killed political rival Orlando Letelier and an American, Ronni Moffitt.

Gulf summit opens with warning of regional explosion

by Suleiman Nimr and Wissam Keyrouz
Sat Dec 9, 3:22 PM ET

Saudi King Abdullah opened the annual summit of Gulf leaders with a warning that the Arab world was on the brink of exploding because of conflicts in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Lebanon.

"Our Arab region is besieged by a number of dangers, as if it was a powder keg waiting for a spark to explode," he told the rulers of the oil-rich monarchies gathered in Riyadh for a two-day meeting to the backdrop of mounting sectarian violence in neighboring Iraq.

The Palestinians were reeling from "a hostile and ugly occupation" by Israel while the international community watched their "bloody tragedy like a spectator," Abdullah said.

Just Ask: Kucinich Answers, ‘Yes, I Am’

The New York Times sets out to marginalize Dennis Kucinich in its first article about his presidential campaign--BUZZFLASH

By MARK LEIBOVICH

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 — In the midst of a brief chat in his office last week, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich mentioned that, oh, by the way, he planned to run for president again in 2008.

“Yes, I am,” Mr. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, said in response to a reporter’s question about a possible encore to his bid in 2004.

Mr. Kucinich’s wife, Elizabeth Harper, who was seated next to him, arched her eyebrows in apparent surprise.

U.S. relationship with Britain is strained

War in Iraq is taking its toil on the longstanding "special relationship."

A day after a high-level U.S. commission heavily criticized America's current strategy in Iraq, President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair talked U.S./U.K. involvement in Iraq at the White House. After their meeting, Bush announced that America and Britain will continue standing together to try bringing peace to Iraq. But the past year in Iraq has left many, especially the British, asking how much influence the British government actually has over the Bush administration, if any. It seems like the longstanding historic "special relationship" between the two countries is reaching its end.

Conservatives' Vision of an America Without Cities

By Jeremy Adam Smith, Public Eye. Posted December 12, 2006.

Rural Americans tend to see city culture as a haven for loose morals. Lucky for them, the Electoral College, Senate and federal budget have tilted power toward the heartland.

One Nation, Two Futures?

The formula that emerged from the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections was provocative: The less dense the population, the more likely it was to vote Republican. Republicans appeared to have lost the cities and inner suburbs, positioning themselves as the party of country roads, small towns and traditional values. Though Bush was often mocked for the time he spent on his ranch, sleeves rolled up, gun in hand, the image was widely promoted and became a cornerstone of his identity among Republican voters.

Government Spying Goes Global

By Maureen Webb, AlterNet. Posted December 12, 2006.

The government is tracking your transactions to help find terror suspects -- a move that makes about as much sense as assigning guilt based on Google keyword searches.

The story which broke last week about a traveler risk scoring system called the Automated Targeting System, or "ATS," evokes an image of an Orwellian world in which the State compiles a secret dossier on every individual and sorts the population according to secret criteria, assigning each person a "risk score." The individual has no recourse to challenge his risk rating, and he has no way of correcting any false or incomplete information about him. In fact, he will never know what information is being used against him, or even the criteria on which he has been judged a risk to the State. It is a disturbing image, and the fact that the government has been conducting the ATS program in secret for four years has shocked many people. However, the ATS is hardly a surprise to those who have been keeping track of similar programs.

Shallow fuels bring bad news

Buried deposits of greenhouse gases may be more unstable than thought.

Alexandra Witze

Geologists have discovered underwater deposits of hydrates — icy deposits of frozen methane gas — at far shallower depths under the ocean floor than expected. The finding suggests that, in a globally warmed world, the hydrates could melt suddenly and release their gas into the atmosphere, thus warming the planet even more.

Plant a tree and save the Earth?

LIVERMORE, Calif. — Can planting a tree stop the sea level from rising, the ice caps from melting and hurricanes from intensifying?

A new study says that it depends on where the trees are planted. It cautions that new forests in mid- to high-latitude locations could actually create a net warming. It also confirms the notion that planting more trees in tropical rainforests could help slow global warming worldwide.

Iraq: The War of the Imagination

By Mark Danner

State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III

by Bob Woodward

Simon and Schuster, 560 pp., $30.00

The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11

by Ron Suskind

Simon and Schuster, 367 pp., $27.00

State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration

by James Risen

Free Press, 240 pp., $26.00

Today, if we went into Iraq, like the president would like us to do, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end.
—George F. Kennan,September 26, 2002^[1]

I ask you, sir, what is the American army doing inside Iraq?... Saddam's story has been finished for close to three years.
—President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to Mike Wallace on Sixty Minutes, August 13, 2006-

In the ruined city of Fallujah, its pale tan buildings pulverized by Marine artillery in the two great assaults of this long war (the aborted attack of March 2004 and then the bloody, triumphant al-Fajr (The Dawn) campaign of the following November), behind the lines of giant sandbags and concrete T-walls and barbed wire that surrounded the tiny beleaguered American outpost there, I sat in my body armor and Kevlar helmet and thought of George F. Kennan. Not the grand old man of American diplomacy, the ninety-eight-year-old Father of Containment who, listening to the war drums beat from a Washington nursing home in the fall of 2002, had uttered the prophetic words above. I was thinking of an earlier Kennan, the brilliant and ambitious young diplomat who during the late 1920s and 1930s had gazed out on the crumbling European order from Tallinn and Berlin and Prague and read the signs of the coming world conflict.

Sy Hersh on Defense Secretary Gates

Posted on Dec 7, 2006

Veteran journalist and Bush administration critic Seymour Hersh speaks to Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now” about what to expect from Robert Gates as defense secretary: “The reality is Gates is a fresh face and there’s a lot of people, [Brent] Scowcroft and James Baker among them, who are very worried about what’s going to happen in ’08.”

What would an increase in the federal minimum wage mean?

To those 6.5 million workers earning $5.15 an hour, more than half of whom are adults over 25, it would mean more money to support their families and pay their bills. But financial experts say the increase wouldn't go far and is not a solution to poverty.

By ELLEN SIMON
Associated Press

Two months into her minimum wage job at Target, Tara Dennis, 23, realized she and her three children would be better off if she was unemployed and on food stamps. So she quit.

"As a single mom, minimum wage isn't going to get me ahead. It's not even going to get me caught up," said Dennis, who lives in Missoula, Mont.

Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor

Ghetto Capitalism

Sudhir Venkatesh's new book unravels the mystery of the underground economy.

By Patrick Radden Keefe
Posted Friday, Dec. 8, 2006, at 6:07 AM ET

America's underground economy stubbornly resists reliable study or measurement. Its overall size may be anywhere from 5 percent to 10 percent of America's GDP. Estimates of annual unpaid taxes range from $200 billion to $500 billion. Even the low ballparks are high. So, why do the dynamics remain so mysterious?

Oil producers shun dollar

By Haig Simonian in Zurich and Javier Blas and Carola Hoyos in London

Published: December 10 2006 20:11 | Last updated: December 10 2006 20:11

Oil producing countries have reduced their exposure to the dollar to the lowest level in two years and shifted oil income into euros, yen and sterling, according to new data from the Bank for International Settlements.

The revelation in the latest BIS quarterly review, published on Monday, confirms market speculation about a move out of dollars and could put new pressure on the ailing US currency.

Court Rules Against Oil and Gas Industry

Monday December 11, 12:11 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled against the oil and gas industry Monday in a dispute over how many years into the past the government can reach to collect money for leases on federal land.

In a 7-0 decision, the court refused to limit the number of years the government can reach back to collect unpaid royalties. The ruling applies to administrative proceedings the Interior Department brought against two companies.

Former Reagan Aide Stockman Facing Possible Indictment

December 11, 2006 12:59 PM

Rhonda Schwartz Reports:

A federal grand jury in New York may be asked as soon as next month to indict a top aide in the Reagan White House, David Stockman, on fraud charges, federal officials tell ABC News.

The officials said the investigation of Stockman, a former congressman who ran the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan administration, centers on his role as CEO of a now bankrupt Michigan auto parts company, the Collins and Aikman Corporation.

Swift Boat Vets, related groups to face big fines

Published: Monday December 11, 2006

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and other so-called "527" nonpartisan groups are soon likely to face significant fines from the Federal Election Commission, according to a story in today's edition of Roll Call.

Glaciers adding more to global sea rise than ice sheets, says University of Colorado study

Despite growing public alarm over the shrinking Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, it is small glaciers and ice caps that have been contributing the most to rising sea levels in recent years, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.

Midges send undeniable message -- Planet is warming

Small insects that inhabit some of the most remote parts of the United States are sending a strong message about climate change. New research suggests that changes in midge communities in some of these areas provide additional evidence that the globe is indeed getting warmer. Researchers created a history of changing midge communities for six remote mountain lakes in the western United States.

Mileage from megawatts

A new study finds that "off-peak" electricity production and transmission capacity could fuel 84 percent of the country's 220 million vehicles if they were plug-in hybrid electrics. This is the first review of what the impacts would be of very high market penetrations of PHEVs. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory also evaluated the impact of PHEVs, on foreign oil imports, the environment, electric utilities and the consumer.

Study takes rare look at how materialism develops in the young

As Christmas approaches, many people blame advertising for stoking the desire among teenagers to own the latest and best in computers, clothes, toys, video games, jewelry, sports equipment and cosmetics.

Regional nuclear war could devastate large cities and disrupt the global climate

A small-scale, regional nuclear war could produce as many direct fatalities as all of World War II and disrupt the global climate for a decade or more, impacting nearly everyone on Earth, reports a team of scientists from UCLA, the University of Colorado at Boulder and Rutgers. The new results represent the first comprehensive quantitative assessment of the consequences of a nuclear conflict between small or emerging nuclear states.

Carbon dioxide emissions predicted to reduce density of Earth's outermost atmosphere by 2017

Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels will produce a 3 percent reduction in the density of Earth's outermost atmosphere by 2017, according to a team of scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Pennsylvania State University.

Pacific Legal Foundation is on the wrong side of history

Partially funded by conservative foundations, the legal advocacy group is at the hub of fighting for the re-segregation of America

In early December several hundred pro-affirmative action demonstrators carrying signs reading "Fight for Equality" gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court to stand in witness to an historic occasion. For the first time since the ground breaking 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, when the Supreme Court ruled against separate but equal in America's public schools, the justices were hearing a case that could test that landmark ruling.

Why We Must Refute Dobson's Crackpot Claim of Liberal Moral Relativism.

By Frank Cocozzelli
Sat Dec 09, 2006 at 08:43:08 PM EST

Many of us do not understand how important it is to refute the Religious Right's charge that Liberals are moral relativists. This is no collateral matter. In fact, it goes to the heart of their whole war against progressive religious thought and beyond that, Liberalism.

Silencing the rote charge of moral relativism--the false assertion that Liberals believe that anything goes because life has no meaning--is critical to collapsing the Radical Right's whole house of cards. And into this continuing campaign to twist the Liberal message of tolerance and domestic tranquility, stepped the founder of Focus on the Family

Limiting Free Speech and the Internet: When the Oligarchy Loses Control

A. Alexander, December 10th, 2006

The realization that they are losing control and are no longer able to dominate the debate has led Newt Gingrich, Donald Rumsfeld, and even George W. Bush to begin discussing the need to limit free speech -- usually linking it to nefarious and nonexistent "threats" -- and limiting access to the internet. Corporations are threatened by this new medium because it allows common people to counter moneyed influence and too, levels the information playing field. It is no longer a game of who has more money to spend on public relations, spin, and outright lies; with the internet it is simply a matter of who has the information. These powerful interests are beginning to realize that the internet amplifies the voices -- specifically Progressive voices -- that they had always been able to suppress through corporate media control.

Paul Krugman: Outsourcer In Chief

According to U.S. News & World Report, President Bush has told aides that he won’t respond in detail to the Iraq Study Group’s report because he doesn’t want to “outsource” the role of commander in chief.

That’s pretty ironic. You see, outsourcing of the government’s responsibilities — not to panels of supposed wise men, but to private companies with the right connections — has been one of the hallmarks of his administration. And privatization through outsourcing is one reason the administration has failed on so many fronts.

Violence flares after Pinochet's death

By Toby Helm and Matthew Moore

Last Updated: 6:41pm GMT 11/12/2006

Video: Death sparks riots

In pictures: Pinochet's life

Obituary: General Augusto Pinochet

The friend of Britain who ruled his country by fear

Analysis: Why Pinochet still divides Chile

'He broke the chains of communism for us'

Violence erupted on the streets of Santiago last night as Chileans celebrated the passing of their former dictator General Augusto Pinochet, who has died aged 91.

Thousands of people gathered across the capital to wave flags and drink champagne after the news broke yesterday afternoon. They blame Gen Pinochet for human rights abuses that claimed the lives of at least 3,000 people during his 17 year rule.

Dubai firm sells US ports to AIG

Dubai Ports World (DPW) has agreed to sell its US port operations to AIG Global Investment after American anger at the United Arab Emirates ownership.

When DPW took control of the six ports, as part of its purchase of P&O's ports in March, US politicians expressed fear at them being in Middle Eastern hands.

Chief executive Mohammad Sharaf said a cash deal had now been agreed "covering 100% of the US assets".

Iraq Study Group Settles Debate Over 'Negative' War Coverage

By E&P Staff

Published: December 06, 2006 7:10 PM ET

NEW YORK For years now, the debate has raged: Does the press overstate the level of violence in Iraq and ignore the overall positive aspect of the U.S. involvement? The Iraq Study Group report today, in its main claim that the situation in Iraq is now "grave" and "deteriorating" would seem to offer a clue to the answer, but more specific details -- providing a "slam dunk" (if we may use that phrase) on the side of the press -- are found in the Intelligence section of the report near its end, starting on page 93.

The Five Most Powerful Americans...

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 9:08 AM on December 11, 2006.

Robert Reich: Guess who's on top?

The five most powerful people in America over the next eighteen months will be:

1. Dick Cheney, because he runs the executive branch and is the closest thing the Republicans have to an ideological rudder. Forget the Baker Commission. Forget Bush (if you haven’t already). Cheney will have more say over what happens in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, during the next eighteen months than any other single person. He will want to American troops to stay in Iraq until the civil war makes that impossible. He will also seek to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Is Your Lipstick Safe?

By Anuja Mendiratta, Ms. Magazine. Posted December 11, 2006.

Personal care and hygiene products from toothpaste to eyeshadow contain thousands of largely unregulated chemicals that could pose serious damage to your health.

That lipstick or nail polish you may be wearing -- are they a danger to your health? How about your deodorant, toothpaste, body lotion, soap?

Seemingly innocuous personal-care products contain a host of largely unregulated chemicals and toxic ingredients. Some of those chemicals -- phthalates, formaldehyde, petroleum, parabens, benzene and lead -- have been variously linked to breast cancer, endometriosis, reproductive disorders, birth defects and developmental disabilities in children.

Digby: The Aristocrats

Gilliard has posted a rundown of the recent Fall of the House of Bush. You can certainly understand why the patriarch might cry in public. But what's most fascinating is this amazing picture.

It reminded me of this article by Phil Agre from a few years back that I've been meaning to discuss as we watch the edifice of modern conservatism start to crumble. It's an interesting piece, but what's really important is something that is so obvious that we sometimes forget about it with all the Neo-con and Theo-con intellectual babble of recent years:

From the pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the self-regarding thugs of ancient Rome to the glorified warlords of medieval and absolutist Europe, in nearly every urbanized society throughout human history, there have been people who have tried to constitute themselves as an aristocracy. These people and their allies are the conservatives.

Digby: Poodle Talk

Tom Schaller over at TAPPED notes something I've been observing for a while as well: the precipitous loss of Tony Blair's rhetorical skills:

MARKETERS-IN-CHIEF. Regarding the Blair-Bush press conference this morning, is it just me or is Tony Blair becoming less eloquent and coherent the more he stands side-by-side with Bush?

I thought it was just me. It's rubbing off, and not just in Bush's presence.

Digby: Exfoliating The Bushes

I was reading Christy Hardin Smith's piece this morning about my congressman Henry Waxman and how the republicans changed the rules back in the 90's to give the the chairman of the house Government reform Committee unilateral subpoena power. As ye sow, so shall ye reap, my friends.

In her post she points out something that I think everyone should memorize and be prepared to quote every time these Republicans start to whine a cry about the Democratic witchhunt:

The House took 140 hours of sworn testimony to get to the bottom of whether Clinton had misused the White House Christmas-card list for political purposes, but only 12 hours on prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

It would probably be very helpful to have at the ready a handy list comparing all the subpoenas and investigations during the Clinton administration as compared to Bush.

Digby: Wise Men Were Wiser Then

The following is an excerpt from Rick Perlstein's upcoming book Nixonland: The Politics and Culture of the American Berserk, 1965-1972

The President began to look almost demented. At a March 25th speech to AFL-CIO Building Trades Department, as North Vietnamese troops made their deepest penetration into the South so far, he cried:

"Now, the America we are building"--he paused, and hit the words deliberately for emphasis--"would--be--a--threatened--nation if we let freedom and liberty die in Vietnam...

"I sometimes wonder why we Americans enjoy punishing ourselves so much with our own criticism.

"This is a pretty good land. I am not saying you never had it so good. But that is a fact, isn't it?"

He pulled himself close to the podium, and stared into the audience, his eyes as wide as saucers.

Digby: Natural Allies

TPM Cafe's Election central thinks that John Edwards' decision to appear at Pasadena's All Saints Church (which is being investigated by the IRS for an anti-war sermon) is a maneuver to get the anti-war vote.

It may be, but I think it also might be a more general (and savvy) move to curry favor with liberal Christians.

Daily Kos: Note to Dems: Put Voters Ahead of Broders

by davidsirota
Wed Dec 06, 2006 at 09:06:00 AM PST

On February 27, 1968, CBS's Walter Cronkite famously said that "the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate." As Iraq and the hubris that led to the invasion shows, Cronkite's words were never taken to heart by the political system, or even just the majority of Democrats, who supported the war. Instead, what many in Democratic politics really internalized to great folly was President Lyndon Johnson's reaction to Cronkite's declaration. "That's it," LBJ said. "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

In most political circles today, it is assumed that there are three tiers of people that a candidate must satisfy in descending order: 1) Media and financial elites 2) grassroots organizations and 3) the public at large. The key point here is the descending order - very often Democrats have their eyes first and foremost on media and financial elites, to the exclusion of grassroots organizations and the public at large.

Digby: Be Careful What You Ask For

St John's not getting much sleep tonight.

In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the soon-to-be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a stepped up effort to 'dismantle the militias.'

Digby: Space Cookies

Kevin Drum wonders why NASA is all excited about going to the moon.

Valuable minerals? Manufacturing of rocket fuel and "other materials"? Scientific laboratories? Did they crib this stuff out of a science fiction novel from the 50s? The scientific community seems barely able to think up anything useful to do with the International Space Station, and that even has zero gee as a selling point.

Daily Kos: Religious Warfare Stocking Stuffer

by Troutfishing
Sat Dec 09, 2006 at 07:46:53 AM PST

Religious warfare is now on store shelves in time for holiday shopping. Nothing like a video game depicting religious warfare against an existing, modern US city to bring out the true Christmas spirit. Ho ho ho.

Religious groups and individuals from both the left and right have protested the sale of "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" and a growing coalition has called for a consumer boycott of the game, but those are moral objections and, rightly so, have no legal force. So, this video game - that depicts religious warfare in New York City and in which players can command fundamentalist Christian paramilitary forces with the mission of converting to fundamentalist Christianity or else killing the residents of the Big Apple - is on store shelves, waiting to take its place under festive Christmas trees.

Daily Kos: ROI - Return on Investment

by DrForbush
Fri Dec 08, 2006 at 03:29:01 PM PST

There isn’t anything that could be proclaimed the silver bullet to cure all our ills. There are, however, many things that we should not ignore because they are quite important concepts. One of these things is known as "Return on Investment."

People that have capital spend a lot of time thinking about ROI. Some people make ROI the most important thing to consider when they determine what stocks to buy or what efforts they should promote. This is not evil, this is part of the American way. However, ROI is not the only issue that one should consider when they think about investing. For example, a loan shark certainly has a huge ROI when he loans money to an addicted gambler. If the loan shark is also the bookmaker, then he can’t lose. The guy will bet in hopes of paying back his loan. If the sucker loses the loan shark gets the money bet, plus he can hold the debt over the sucker’s head. If the sucker should win he still gets paid back, and he gets the high interest rate to boot. This is known as a low risk high ROI deal. And, it is illegal precisely because of this.

Gary Webb's Death: American Tragedy

By Robert Parry
December 9, 2006

When Americans ask me what happened to the vaunted U.S. press corps over the past three decades – in the decline from its heyday of the Watergate scandal and the Pentagon Papers to its failure to challenge the Iraq WMD lies or to hold George W. Bush accountable – I often recall for them the story of Gary Webb.

Two years ago, on the night of Dec. 9, 2004, investigative reporter Webb – his career shattered and his life in ruins – typed out four suicide notes for his family, laid out a certificate for his cremation, put a note on the door suggesting a call to 911, and removed his father’s handgun from a box.

What Statistics on Home Sales Aren’t Saying

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Published: December 6, 2006

Down in Naples, Fla., a fast-growing city on the Gulf of Mexico, there was an auction of houses about a month ago.

An auction isn’t the usual way to sell a home, but it can make sense for people who don’t want to leave their houses on the market for months at a time and also don’t want to take the first offer to come along. So on a Saturday morning inside the Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club, a few dozen houses went on the block in front of about 500 audience members.

Kevin Drum: Wages Up....Fed is Worried....

Good news! Wages for ordinary workers are finally going up after six years of stagnation:

With energy prices now sharply lower than a few months ago and the improving job market forcing employers to offer higher raises, the buying power of American workers is now rising at the fastest rate since the economic boom of the late 1990s.

The average hourly wage for workers below management level — everyone from school bus drivers to stockbrokers — rose 2.8 percent from October 2005 to October of this year, after being adjusted for inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only a year ago, it was falling by 1.5 percent.

Americablog: Cell phone privacy bill passes congress!

by John in DC - 12/09/2006 10:44:00 AM

The bill passed last night at 11pm. Now it's up to dumbo the president to sign it. Senator Schumer's office updates us:

SENATE PASSES Schumer’S PRETEXTING LEGISLATION – CRIMINALIZING Sale Of Cell Phone Call Logs

Identical Version Of Bill Already Passed The House, Schumer’s Legislation Criminalizing Growing Practice That Puts Individual’s Cell Phone Records in the Hands of Criminals Will Now Go To President for His Signature

EPA Scrubbing Library Web Site to Make Reports Unavailable

From: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

Friday 08 December 2006

Agency sells $40,000 worth of furniture and equipment for $350.

Washington, DC - In defiance of Congressional requests to immediately halt closures of library collections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is purging records from its library websites, making them unavailable to both agency scientists and outside researchers, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of its shuttered libraries, including the hurried auctioning off of expensive bookcases, cabinets, microfiche readers and other equipment for less than a penny on the dollar.

In a letter dated November 30, 2006, four incoming House Democratic committee chairs demanded that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson assure them "that the destruction or disposition of all library holdings immediately ceased upon the Agency's receipt of this letter and that all records of library holdings and dispersed materials are being maintained." On the very next day, December 1st, EPA de-linked thousands of documents from the website for the Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA's Washington D.C. Headquarters.

GAO: The status quo is unsustainable

By: Nicole Belle on Saturday, December 9th, 2006 at 11:20 AM - PST

C-Span's Friday Washington Journal had on David Walker, U.S. Comptroller of the GAO on to discuss two recent reports, one on recommendations for 110th Congress Targets for Oversight and Global War on Terror Costs (both .pdf. You can watch archives of the show here.

Walker was fairly scathing in his assessment of how things are going for the country fiscally. The GAO has produced videos with their assessment that you can download here. It's a lot of information to take in. When they start to toss out estimates in the TRILLIONS, my mind started to reel.

Jane Hamsher: Center of What?

There has been some rather heated discussion of late about that great political unicorn, the so-called "centrist," which is typically provoked by statements like this from Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly:

I hope the liberal blogosphere doesn't get into the habit of automatically trashing centrist positions simply out of pique against some of centrism's more annoying practitioners.

After all, trying to govern solely via populist intuition won't work any better than relying on a bunch of blue ribbon commissions.

I like Kevin Drum, and if I called up Central Casting and said "send down a Centrist" he'd be the guy they'd dispatch. Reasonable, dad-like, a thoughtful guy who speaks in measured tones and would not look at all ill-suited riding a lawn mower. But these are largely aesthetic considerations, and by-in-large I think it is on this basis that the moniker "centrist" is handed out. And those who considers themselves thoughtful and reasonable assume that they are in the "center" of all things and that other thoughtful, reasonable people should agree with them and are likewise going to be "centrists."

The neocons have finished what the Vietcong started

Vietnam traumatised the US but left its power intact; Iraq, however, will be far more serious for the superpower

Martin Jacques
Friday December 8, 2006
The Guardian

Just a month after the American electorate delivered a resounding rebuff to the Bush Iraq policy, the great and the good - in the guise of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) - have subjected that policy to a withering critique. The administration has had the political equivalent of a car crash. George Bush is being routinely condemned as one of the worst presidents ever, and his Iraq policy no longer enjoys the support of a large swath of the American establishment. The neoconservatives suddenly find themselves isolated and embattled: Rumsfeld has been sacked, Cheney has gone quiet, the likes of Richard Perle are confined to the sidelines. The president is on his own and it is difficult to see how Bush can avoid moving towards the ISG position. The political map is being redrawn with extraordinary alacrity.

The "Civil War" squabble: Waging combat with words

The 'Apparat' that won't go away

Ever since a throng of ex-communist, socialist, and liberal power seekers swung hard right in the 1970s, the brainwashing of American public opinion has been one of the primary goals of so-called movement conservatism. The turncoat leftists, disillusioned by the festering of Democratic power under Nixon, became the founding cadres of the neoconservative action front. They brought with them a long tradition, stretching from the Kremlin to the Vatican, of captivating the masses with the art of inventive phrase-making, hot-button sloganeering, loaded words, and intemperate labels.

Helping the Troops

How you can send them life-saving Silly String
By ELLIN MARTENS

Last month TIME wrote about soldiers and Marines in Iraq requesting an unusual life-saving item in their care packages sent from home: Silly String. It seems that the neon plastic party streamers sprayed into an open doorway before a building search or across a darkened room can help detect nearly invisible trip wires attached to bombs and boobytraps. The old methods to detect trip wires — sweeping the space with a metal grappling hook or getting close enough for a visual inspection — just aren't as safe, Marines discovered.

The Insurgent

Keith Ellison made news for being the first Muslim ever elected to Congress, but his hard-edged liberalism is just as noteworthy.

By Conrad Wilson
Web Exclusive: 12.08.06

Print Friendly | Email Article

In August, USA Today released a poll of Americans in which 39 percent of respondents reported feeling some negative bias towards Muslims. Twenty-two percent of respondents said they would not want Muslims as neighbors, and about 33 percent agreed that U.S. Muslims are “sympathetic to al-Qaeda.” These aren't negligible numbers -- and they help to underscore the significance of what happened last month in Minnesota's 5th congressional district.

Voters in that Minneapolis area district made history by electing to Congress Democrat Keith Ellison -- the first African-American to represent the state and the first Muslim ever elected to Congress. But there’s much more to Ellison than those attention-getting firsts. (Indeed, Ellison usually downplays his religion, discussing it only when asked.) A fierce liberal, vocally opposed to the war in Iraq and unafraid to speak his mind about President Bush, Ellison is one of the members of the incoming freshman class interested in shaking up the limits of respectable debate in Washington on a range of issues.

Frank Rich Hits Iraq Study Group and Its 'Bogus' Proposals

By E&P Staff

Published: December 10, 2006 9:00 PM ET
NEW YORK Don't count New York Times columnist Frank Rich among those hailing the work of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which produced its long-awaited report this week. Among other problems: Their much-needed policy proposals for Iraq were "bogus," he writes in his Sunday column.

Even so, other pundits have praised the new bi-partisanship and how that could get more things done in D.C. Of this Rich retorts: "Only in Washington could an unelected panel of retirees pass for public-policy Viagra."

Dairy Industry Crushed Innovator Who Bested Price-Control System

By Dan Morgan, Sarah Cohen and Gilbert M. Gaul

Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 10, 2006; Page A01

In the summer of 2003, shoppers in Southern California began getting a break on the price of milk.

A maverick dairyman named Hein Hettinga started bottling his own milk and selling it for as much as 20 cents a gallon less than the competition, exercising his right to work outside the rigid system that has controlled U.S. milk production for almost 70 years. Soon the effects were rippling through the state, helping to hold down retail prices at supermarkets and warehouse stores.

Religion for a Captive Audience, Paid For by Taxes

By DIANA B. HENRIQUES and ANDREW LEHREN

Published: December 10, 2006

Life was different in Unit E at the state prison outside Newton, Iowa.

The toilets and sinks — white porcelain ones, like at home — were in a separate bathroom with partitions for privacy. In many Iowa prisons, metal toilet-and-sink combinations squat beside the bunks, to be used without privacy, a few feet from cellmates.

The cells in Unit E had real wooden doors and doorknobs, with locks. More books and computers were available, and inmates were kept busy with classes, chores, music practice and discussions. There were occasional movies and events with live bands and real-world food, like pizza or sandwiches from Subway. Best of all, there were opportunities to see loved ones in an environment quieter and more intimate than the typical visiting rooms.

It's still about oil in Iraq

A centerpiece of the Iraq Study Group's report is its advocacy for securing foreign companies' long-term access to Iraqi oil fields.

By Antonia Juhasz, ANTONIA JUHASZ is a visiting scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time."

December 8, 2006

WHILE THE Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such reticence.

Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group report lays out Iraq's importance to its region, the U.S. and the world with this reminder: "It has the world's second-largest known oil reserves." The group then proceeds to give very specific and radical recommendations as to what the United States should do to secure those reserves. If the proposals are followed, Iraq's national oil industry will be commercialized and opened to foreign firms.

Black-Market Weapon Prices Surge in Iraq Chaos

By C. J. CHIVERS

Published: December 10, 2006

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, Dec. 8 — The Kurdish security contractor placed the black plastic box on the table. Inside was a new Glock 19, one of the 9-millimeter pistols that the United States issued by the tens of thousands to the Iraqi Army and police.

This pistol was no longer in the custody of the Iraqi Army or police. It had been stolen or sold, and it found its way to an open-air grocery stand that does a lively black-market business in police and infantry arms. The contractor bought it there.