Fish extinctions alter critical nutrients in water, study shows

When fish become extinct, the cycling of critical nutrients in ecosystems changes, Cornell study finds

By Krishna Ramanujan

Ecosystems are such intricate webs of connections that few studies have been able to explore exactly what happens when a species dies out.

Now, a Cornell study using computer simulations has teased out how the disappearance of a freshwater fish can affect the availability of certain nutrients that other species rely on.

Algae, at the base of the food chain, for example, rely on fish to cycle back into the water such nutrients as nitrogen and phosphorus, which are otherwise locked up in animal or plant cells. Fish excrete dissolved nutrients back into the water, making them available to algae, which need them to grow.

Newt Gingrich's back door to the White House

American Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances

Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.

Are You There, George? It's Me, Ava.

One crisp, sunny Saturday last fall, I found myself walking through the heart of downtown Montgomery, Alabama, heading toward the state Capitol. It was about a 10-minute walk, but I didn't encounter a single person. I could hear freight trains whizzing by the Alabama River, and did see evidence that a "You Know You're a Redneck When..." theme party was being planned for later that night. But without weekday office workers, there were no pedestrians and very little traffic of any kind. A technicolor replica of the 1950s gmc bus that Rosa Parks rode eerily circled the streets, which were otherwise as still as a diorama.

The Case of the Missing Movie

The government made a secret video of its interrogations of 'enemy combatant' Jose Padilla. But now that he's on trial, the Feds claim they don't know where it went.

By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball

Newsweek

Updated: 7:32 p.m. ET Feb 28, 2007

Feb. 28, 2007 - A federal judge ruled today that suspected Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla is mentally competent, paving the way for his long-delayed case to proceed to trial, at long last, in April. But the ruling by U.S. Judge Marcia Cooke in Miami leaves open what may be more intriguing questions than those surrounding the defendant’s mental health: what happened to a crucial video recording of Padilla being interrogated in a U.S. military brig that has mysteriously disappeared?

Monitoring depleted uranium

Protecting the public against exposure

By Kristine Kubat

Wednesday, February 28, 2007 9:10 AM HST

While weapons made with depleted uranium can penetrate any substance known to man, the issues surrounding the use of this radioactive, heavy metal are having a much harder time sinking in.

Here in Hawai`i, Linda Faye Kroll is a retired nurse who has dedicated her life to educating the public about the dangers of military toxics. When Representative Josh Green introduced H.B. 1452 this legislative session, he created a forum for Kroll and others to voice their concerns.

Democrats send out first round of subpoenas

By Susan Crabtree

A House Judiciary subcommittee approved today the first in what is expected to be an avalanche of subpoenas to Bush administration officials. They will likely explore corruption and mismanagement allegations on everything from pre-war Iraq intelligence to the mishandling of the response to Hurricane Katrina.

The first round of subpoenas concern the recent controversial firings by the Bush administration of seven U.S. attorneys, some of whom were pursuing public corruption cases against Republican members of Congress.

A Growing Chorus On Risky Mortgages

Agencies Seek to Curtail Subprime Home Loans

By Nancy Trejos, Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 3, 2007; Page D01

Federal banking regulators yesterday called on lenders to tighten their standards for issuing nontraditional home loans.

The guidelines, proposed by the Federal Reserve and four other federal regulatory agencies, address loans known as "subprime" mortgages that cater to borrowers with blemished credit histories or low incomes. Such mortgages became popular during the housing boom that began to wane in 2005, allowing people who would otherwise not have qualified for conventional loans to buy homes. However, concern has grown that rising delinquency rates on such mortgages threaten both lenders and borrowers.

Mitch McConnell's Debt

by Anya Kamenetz and David Donnelly

Tonight, President George W. Bush will speak at Louisville's Seelbach Hilton at a $2,000-a-plate fundraiser for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to pay him back for his support for the White House's policies.

The event comes roughly on the second anniversary of the day the U.S. Senate passed a sweeping bankruptcy law overhaul, the Bankruptcy Abuse Protection and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCA). Despite widespread criticism from both consumer organizations and conservative talk show hosts, Sen. McConnell, then Senate Majority Whip, provided the legislative muscle to push through that bill. It was one of the President's priorities.

Talking Points Memo on Fired Attorneys Scandal

(March 03, 2007 -- 12:46 AM EDT)

So there you have it: the White House's side of the canned US Attorney story provided by the Post's John Solomon.

It turns out the whole thing is just one of those unfortunate misunderstandings the Bush White House now and again finds itself in. The ouster of the US attorneys had nothing to do with political payback or stymieing investigations. It's just that the White House wanted to get rid of a hand full of US attorneys who weren't doing a good enough job enforcing administration policy on immigration, guns and other issues.

As Solomon puts it, "Privately, White House officials acknowledged that the administration mishandled the firings by not explaining more clearly to lawmakers that a large group was being terminated at once -- which is unusual -- and that the reason was the policy performance review."

Independent reporting drew Army coverup, secrecy, delays

SHOWCASE | March 02, 2007

Officials in the U.S. military, from the Pentagon on down, tried to thwart reporters for the L.A. Times who uncovered deaths and possible torture of detainees in Afghanistan.

This article will appear in the Spring 2007 issue of Nieman Reports, a quarterly magazine about journalism published by the Nieman Foundation, as part of a collection of articles written by U.S., British, Pakistani and Afghan journalists about their experiences in reporting from Afghanistan. The magazine will be published in late March.

By Craig Pyes
cpyes@cironline.org

Last year, the Los Angeles Times decided to undertake something quite unusual: The newspaper would conduct a parallel investigation to the one being undertaken by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) into how a small U.S. Special Forces detachment in Afghanistan could be tied to two detainee deaths and two apparent cover-ups in less than two weeks.

Going Back to North Korea, Hat in Hand

By Robert Scheer, Truthdig. Posted February 28, 2007.

The Bush administration came to its senses about North Korea five years too late. Now other "rogue nations" know that the best way to make peace with the U.S. is to test their own nuclear weapons.

So now it's North Korea's turn to feed at the trough of U.S. economic aid, as if exploding a nuclear weapon is all that's needed to prove a nation's peaceful intentions. Of course, there is nothing wrong with negotiating with our enemies rather than weakly blustering at cartoon images of them -- I wish we would do the same in our dealings with Iran -- but it would be nice if we would stop shooting ourselves in the foot first.

Five years and an outlaw nuke test after President Bush blew up the peace process with Pyongyang so he could look tougher than his predecessor, he capitulated completely earlier this month in accepting a negotiating framework that tacitly accepts the huge surge in the communist state's estimated nuclear arsenal. Bush blinked big-time. The carrot replaced the stick, and that is a good thing, carrying the hope that through diplomacy North Korea will end its isolation and follow the modernizing path of communist China. But six years of presidential haranguing about rogue regimes derailed previous efforts at arms control, allowing the dangerously unstable North Korea to join the nuclear club.

See Hillary Run (from Her Husband's Past on Iraq)

By Scott Ritter, AlterNet. Posted March 3, 2007.

It's not enough for Hillary Clinton to apologize for her Iraq vote in 2002: She was witness to years of President Bill Clinton's deception and lying about Saddam Husseins's weapons programs to justify attacks on Iraq.

Senator Hillary Clinton wants to become President Hillary Clinton. "I'm in, and I'm in to win," she said, announcing her plans to run for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 Presidential election.

Let there be no doubt that Hillary Clinton is about as slippery a species of politician that exists, one who has demonstrated an ability to morph facts into a nebulous blob which blurs the record and distorts the truth. While she has demonstrated this less than flattering ability on a number of issues, nowhere is it so blatant as when dealing with the issue of the ongoing war in Iraq and Hillary Clinton's vote in favor of this war.

Tuesday's Market Meltdown: Greenspan's “Invisible Hand”

by Mike Whitney
www.dissidentvoice.org
March 1, 2007

Tuesday’s stock market freefall has former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s bloody fingerprints all over it. And, no, I’m not talking about Sir Alan’s crystal ball predictions about the impending recession; that’s just more of his same circuitous blather. The real issue is the Fed’s suicidal policies of low interest rates and currency deregulation that have paved the way for economic Armageddon. Whether the Chinese stock market contagion persists or not is immaterial; the American economy is headed for the dumpster and it’s all because of the wizened former Fed chief, Alan “Great Depression” Greenspan.

So, what does the stumbling Chinese stock market have to do with Greenspan?

Paul Krugman: The Big Meltdown

FEB. 27, 2008

The great market meltdown of 2007 began exactly a year ago, with a 9 percent fall in the Shanghai market, followed by a 416-point slide in the Dow. But as in the previous global financial crisis, which began with the devaluation of Thailand’s currency in the summer of 1997, it took many months before people realized how far the damage would spread.

At the start, all sorts of implausible explanations were offered for the drop in U.S. stock prices. It was, some said, the fault of Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, as if his statement of the obvious — that the housing slump could possibly cause a recession — had been news to anyone. One Republican congressman blamed Representative John Murtha, claiming that his efforts to stop the “surge” in Iraq had somehow unnerved the markets.

Glenn Greenwald: Is "Howard Kurtz" a software program?

From Tuesday's post on the moronic Cheney comments "scandal":

It is only a matter of time before Brit Hume and Matt Drudge begin hyping the scandal of how liberal bloggers were expressing dismay that Dick Cheney wasn't killed, and Howard Kurtz will write a drooling profile of the Blogging Warriors who exposed this scandal and join in with stern condemnation over how terrible it is that the Left is so filled with venom and rage.

Howard Kurtz today, in The Washington Post: This is really sick.

I know we're living in a polarized time. I know there are people who absolutely detest George Bush and Dick Cheney. I know they like to vent their spleen online, sometimes in vulgar terms, and hey, that's life in a democracy.

Experts: U.S. unprepared for nuclear terror attack

By Greg Gordon

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Although the Bush administration has warned repeatedly about the threat of a terrorist nuclear attack and spent more than $300 billion to protect the homeland, the government remains ill-prepared to respond to a nuclear catastrophe.

Experts and government documents suggest that, absent a major preparedness push, the U.S. response to a mushroom cloud could be worse than the debacle after Hurricane Katrina, possibly contributing to civil disorder and costing thousands of lives.

Taxpayers continue to fund right-wing meetings to assess presidential candidates

Posted by Sarah Posner at 11:46 AM on February 27, 2007.

Sarah Posner: How does the Council for National Policy continue to operate in secret?

As reported on these pages two years ago, the Council for National Policy is a secretive association of influential ultra-conservatives who get charitable tax breaks for their membership dues and thrice yearly trips to fancy resorts to hobnob with politicians and policymakers. The secrecy surrounding an organization that was the brainchild of end-timers and right-wing financiers is contrary not only to democratic principles generally, but also to the Internal Revenue Code, which requires tax-exempt educational organizations to educate the general public -- in other words, to make its lectures, publications and other materials publicly available.

Libby Trial Exposes Neocon Shadow Government

Day by day, witness by witness, exhibit by exhibit, Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the trial of Dick Cheney’s man, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, is accomplishing what no one else in Washington has been able to: He has impeached the Presidency of George W. Bush.

Of course, it’s an unofficial impeachment, but it will also, through its documentation, be inerasable. The trial record—testimony, exhibits, the lot—will be there, in one place, for investigators, scholars, reporters and Congress to pore over. It goes far beyond the charges against Mr. Libby. It is, instead, a road map to the abuses of power that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney and their shadow government of neoconservatives have committed as the neocons carried out what they had been planning for years: an invasion of Iraq—and other military excursions—for the purpose of expanding American dominion.

The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007

On March 1, 2007, Rep. Henry A. Waxman along with Reps. Platts, Clay, and Burton introduced H.R. 1255, the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, to nullify a 2001 presidential executive order and restore public access to presidential records.

Digby: Crazy-Man

US Vice-President Dick Cheney has raised the possibility of military action to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

He has endorsed Republican senator John McCain's proposition that the only thing worse than a military confrontation with Iran would be a nuclear-armed Iran.

Digby: Zero Tolerance

Not that I advocate operqating like this because it smacks of fascism and makes me sick, but if you want to see how an extremely effective right wing advocacy group works, this is how its done:

'Terrorist' Remark Puts Outdoorsman's Career in Jeopardy

Zumbo's Criticism of Hunters Who Use Assault Rifles Brings Unforgiving Response From U.S. Gun Culture

SEATTLE -- Modern hunters rarely become more famous than Jim Zumbo. A mustachioed, barrel-chested outdoors entrepreneur who lives in a log cabin near Yellowstone National Park, he has spent much of his life writing for prominent outdoors magazines, delivering lectures across the country and starring in cable TV shows about big-game hunting in the West.

Digby: Rube Goldberg Policy Contraption

After you watch a presidential admnistration for a while you begin to see shifts in policy or different phases of the old ones by the way the officials all speak. In the case of the Bush administration, it's remarkably easy because they robotically and fanatically follow talking points. They are, as we've seen many times, more concerned with marketing than subtance and place a very high premium on properly "rolling out their product."

NYT Editorial: American Liberty at the Precipice

Thursday 22 February 2007

In another low moment for American justice, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that detainees held at the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, do not have the right to be heard in court. The ruling relied on a shameful law that President Bush stampeded through Congress last fall that gives dangerously short shrift to the Constitution.

The right of prisoners to challenge their confinement - habeas corpus - is enshrined in the Constitution and is central to American liberty. Congress and the Supreme Court should act quickly and forcefully to undo the grievous damage that last fall's law - and this week's ruling - have done to this basic freedom.

How Now Low Dow?

Don't blame China for the stock market plunge.

By Daniel Gross
Posted Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007, at 3:20 PM ET

Wall Street and the media have mostly blamed yesterday's huge U.S. stock market drop on frenzied, irrational Chinese investors. After a parabolic run up, China's stock market fell nearly 9 percent on Tuesday, triggering drops across Asia and Europe, and ultimately, in the United States. According to the conventional wisdom, sophisticated U.S. investors were taken unawares by unpredictable, irrational overseas behavior. For globalists, the domino effect is yet more proof that the world is flat. For anti-globalists, it's another warning about what happens when we tie our established economy too closely to China's emerging one.

Why Can't We Talk about Peace in Public?

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. Posted February 28, 2007.

Our national love affair with high-tech weaponry is an inevitable consequence of having a military industrial complex that underwrites our economic structure.

"The fellas from 121 started showing up the other day. It's starting to sink in... I'll have to go home, the opportunities to kill these fuckers is rapidly coming to an end. Like a hobby I'll never get to practice again. It's not a great war, but it‚s the only one we've got. God, I do love killing these bastards. ... Morale is high, the Marines can smell the barn. It's hard to keep them focused. I still have 20 days of kill these motherfuckers, so I don't wanna take even one day off. " -- letter home from an unnamed Marine F/A -18 pilot in Iraq.

The above letter arrived in my inbox via an email circular sent by an acquaintance of mine, a defense analyst and former congressional aide named Winslow Wheeler. It came alongside a pained commentary by another former Pentagon analyst named Franklin (Chuck) Spinney, who is probably best known for the famous "Spinney report" of the mid-'80s which exposed the waste and inefficiency of many hi-tech Defense Department projects.

New US home sales show biggest drop in 13 years

Published: Wednesday February 28, 2007

Sales of new US homes plunged 16.6 percent in January, marking the sharpest fall since January 1994, the government said Wednesday.

The Commerce Department said new home sales slumped by more-than-expected in January to an annualized clip of 937,000 homes, defying most economists who had only expected sales to fall to 1.08 million.

Call to Expand Union Rights Could Derail Antiterror Bill

By ERIC LIPTON

Published: February 28, 2007

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 — Democrats in Congress are pushing to extend union protection to 43,000 federal airport security workers, reviving a debate that stalled the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and could now derail broad antiterrorism legislation.

The proposal has provoked opposition from Senate Republicans and the Bush administration. It is the latest in a series of labor-related fights in Washington as Democrats try to use their new majority to push long-delayed proposals that benefit rank-and-file workers, like increasing the minimum wage.

Pentagon's number two suggests terror war will end in Oct. 2008

Michael Roston
Published: Wednesday February 28, 2007

The Department of Defense's number two official appears to imply in a memo that the Global War on Terrorism will end just in time for the presidential election in November 2008. The contents of the document are outlined in a column in today's Washington Post.

Al Kamen, who writes the Post's "In The Loop" column, cited a pair of memos written by Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England in today's paper. The first memo was written Dec. 6 and sent to top military and civilian officials. It identifies eight priorities for the coming fiscal year, and the first of them is to "Win the Global War on Terrorism."

Swift Boat financier pressed by Kerry admits 'You're a hero'

What a difference an ambassadorship makes...--Dictynna

02/28/2007 @ 11:37 am
Filed by Michael Roston

A staid confirmation hearing yesterday took an exciting turn when it gave Senator John Kerry the opportunity to confront a major financier of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a political group that maligned the decorated Vietnam Veteran in the 2004 presidential race. When the senator pressed Sam Fox, a businessman and Bush supporter nominated to be America's next ambassador to Belgium, on the issue, the nominee admitted to Kerry "you're a hero" and called for the government to ban all advocacy groups like the Swift Boat Vets.

NYT Editorial: Government by Law, Not Faith

Published: February 28, 2007

The Supreme Court hears arguments today in a case that could have a broad impact on whether the courthouse door remains open to ordinary Americans who believe that the government is undermining the separation of church and state.

The question before the court is whether a group seeking to preserve the separation of church and state can mount a First Amendment challenge to the Bush administration’s “faith based” initiatives. The arguments turn on a technical question of whether taxpayers have standing, or the right to initiate this kind of suit, but the real-world implications are serious. If the court rules that the group does not have standing, it will be much harder to stop government from giving unconstitutional aid to religion.

New evidence that global warming fuels stronger Atlantic hurricanes

Atmospheric scientists have uncovered fresh evidence to support the hotly debated theory that global warming has contributed to the emergence of stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean.

Pelosi and Cunningham Prosecutors Strike Deal on Docs

By Paul Kiel - February 27, 2007, 6:13 PM

House Democrats and federal prosecutors have struck what seems like a historic deal to turn over congressional documents related to the Duke Cunningham investigation.

The prosecutors from California's Southern District have been chasing the documents, from the House Committees on Appropriations, Armed Services and Intelligence, since last May. After originally requesting the documents, prosecutors finally served a subpoena for them in December after negotiations apparently broke down.

Walter Reed patients told to keep quiet

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 28, 2007 10:42:37 EST

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.

“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Risks of tainted food rise as inspections drop

Amid high-profile scares, FDA safety testing has fallen by half since 2003

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:13 p.m. ET Feb 26, 2007

The federal agency that’s been front and center in warning the public about tainted spinach and contaminated peanut butter is conducting just half the food safety inspections it did three years ago.

The cuts by the Food and Drug Administration come despite a barrage of high-profile food recalls.

“We have a food safety crisis on the horizon,” said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia.

American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against Iran

Despite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran

After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.

NYT OP ED: Why Have So Many U.S. Attorneys Been Fired? It Looks a Lot Like Politics

By ADAM COHEN

Published: February 26, 2007

Carol Lam, the former United States attorney for San Diego, is smart and tireless and was very good at her job. Her investigation of Representative Randy Cunningham resulted in a guilty plea for taking more than $2 million in bribes from defense contractors and a sentence of more than eight years. Two weeks ago, she indicted Kyle Dustin Foggo, the former No. 3 official in the C.I.A. The defense-contracting scandal she pursued so vigorously could yet drag in other politicians.

Why Working Women Are Stuck in the 1950s

By Ruth Rosen, The Nation. Posted February 27, 2007.

Though most mothers are in the workforce, Americans remain trapped in a time warp, convinced that women should and will care for children, the elderly, homes and communities. When will policy catch up?

A baby is born. A child develops a high fever. A spouse breaks a leg. A parent suffers a stroke. These are the events that throw a working woman's delicate balance between work and family into chaos.

Although we read endless stories and reports about the problems faced by working women, we possess inadequate language for what most people view as a private rather than a political problem. "That's life," we tell each other, instead of trying to forge common solutions to these dilemmas.

Glenn Greenwald: Emulating the enemy

Friday February 23, 2007 07:56 EST

Reuters, today, concerning remarks from Iranian President Ahmadinejad:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday Iran should not show weakness over its nuclear program, a day after Tehran ignored a United Nations deadline to stop nuclear work which the West says could to used for making bombs.

"If we show weakness in front of the enemy the expectations will increase but if we stand against them, because of this resistance, they will retreat," he said in a speech in northern Iran, Iran's ISNA news agency said.

Paul Krugman: Substance Over Image

Six years ago a man unsuited both by intellect and by temperament for high office somehow ended up running the country.

How did that happen? First, he got the Republican nomination by locking up the big money early.

Then, he got within chad-and-butterfly range of the White House because the public, enthusiastically encouraged by many in the news media, treated the presidential election like a high school popularity contest. The successful candidate received kid-gloves treatment — and a free pass on the fuzzy math of his policy proposals — because he seemed like a fun guy to hang out with, while the unsuccessful candidate was subjected to sniggering mockery over his clothing and his mannerisms.

Digby: If We Only Had A Pony

Last night's Shields and Brooks was a rather hallucinogenic experience as David Books told us how great things would be going in Iraq if only it wasn't Iraq. First off, Shields explained why the Brits have been so "successful" in Basra:

MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist: Well, it's symbolically, I think, important, Jim. I mean, the reality behind the move is that, as Tony Cordesman from Strategic and International Studies said, Basra was lost a year ago,and Brits have had to withdraw to the airport. It's now just a Shia stronghold. There is no tension. There's no civil war there, because there's no Sunnis. And it's a little bit like saying that there wasn't any racial tension in Fargo or Moorehead, North Dakota, during the civil rights struggle. There weren't any racial minorities.

Digby: Compassionate Conservatism

The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen.

A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005 census figures, the latest available, found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty. A family of four with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 - half the federal poverty line - was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less than $5,080 a year.

Digby: Xenophobes R Us

There has been very little discussion of this issue, but I predict it's going to rise to the surface in the future and it's not going to be pretty. The other day the new Dem governor of Ohio made some waves by saying that Ohio wouldn't be a welcome place for Iraqi refugees. He changed his mind a couple of days later.

Digby: A President Named George

...has something important to tell us:

The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.

Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur.

Digby: Counting Coup

There has been a lot written in recent days about the religious right and the Democratic party's attempts to gain their votes. I think I'll let all that simmer for a while and examine the real problem with these quixotic crusades to get the most conservative people in the country to vote for the Democrats.

It's not about politics and it's not about religion. It's about tribalism. The Republicanism is an "identity" movement in which member's affiliation with the party is more akin to affiliation with clan or family.

Digby: Pull The Other One

Time has a lovely paean to Holy Joe today in which his blackmail and petulance are celebrated as acts of courage. But I think they may have gone a bit far when they bought this piece of bullspin:

...last month, after Lieberman told Reid he had stopped attending the weekly Democratic lunch because he didn't feel comfortable discussing Iraq there, Reid offered to hold those discussions at another time. Lieberman has started attending again.

Digby: Political Religion

Pastordan sent this Jon Meacham piece along and it's worth sharing today on George Washington's birthday. I've been hard on Meacham in the past, but I think this is good.

...For the wonderful thing about American public religion—or what Lincoln called our "political religion"—is that its creed is liberty and the rule of law, not coercion or forced belief or a link between one's civil and religious lives. George Washington promised that the government would "give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance," a promise that I think is as fundamental to America as the promises of the Declaration of Independence.

Digby: Great Game

I will once again second Duncan's prediction that Bush will not be leaving Iraq before his term ends no matter how many ponies Bob Novak sees galloping around the halls of congress.

Here's Cheney again:

"I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the al-Qaida strategy. The al-Qaida strategy is to break the will of the American people ... try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit."

Why US Shields Japan's WWII Denials

By Jerry Meldon
February 24, 2007

Editor's Note: Over the years, we have written a number of stories about Rev. Sun Myung Moon's influence-buying schemes inside U.S. conservative political circles – and the federal government's odd refusal to aggressively enforce laws when Moon's operation is caught in legally questionable activities. [See, for instance, Moon/Bush 'Ongoing Crime Enterprise'.]

In this guest article, Jerry Meldon examines the mysterious roots of the money that has funded right-wing Asian politics since World War II and that has sometimes spilled over into the United States:

On Feb. 19, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso took exception to a U.S. congressional resolution introduced by Rep. Mike Honda, D-California, calling on Japan to “formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility” for coercing 200,000 Asian women into slavery as “Comfort Women” (wartime prostitutes) for 3.5 million Japanese soldiers. Mr. Aso said he considers the accusation groundless and extremely regrettable.

Frank Rich: Where Were You That Summer of 2001?

--The New York Times, February 24, 2007

“United 93,” Hollywood’s highly praised but indifferently attended 9/11 docudrama, will be only a blip on tonight’s Oscar telecast. The ratings rise of “24” has stalled as audiences defect from the downer of terrorists to the supernatural uplift of “Heroes.” Cable surfers have tuned out Iraq for a war with laughs: the battle over Anna Nicole’s decomposing corpse. Set this cultural backdrop against last week’s terrifying but little-heeded front-page Times account of American “intelligence and counterterrorism officials” leaking urgent warnings about Al Qaeda’s comeback, and ask yourself: Haven’t we been here before?

If so, that would be the summer of 2001, when America pigged out on a 24/7 buffet of Gary Condit and shark attacks. The intelligence and counterterrorism officials back then were privately sounding urgent warnings like those in last week’s Times, culminating in the President’s Daily Brief titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” The system “was blinking red,” as the C.I.A. chief George Tenet would later tell the 9/11 commission. But no one, from the White House on down, wanted to hear it.

Robert Fisk: 27 July 1880. A date Mr Blair should look up

Those sending British troops to Afghanistan should learn the lessons of the Battle of Maiwand

Published: 25 February 2007

O ut of the frying pan, into the historical fire. If only our leaders read history. In 1915, the British swept up from Basra, believing that the Iraqis would reward them with flowers and love, only to find themselves surrounded at Kut al-Amara, cut down by Turkish shellfire and cholera. Now we are reinforcing Nato in that tomb of the British Army, Afghanistan.

Hands up any soldiers who know that another of Britain's great military defeats took place in the very sands in which your colleagues are now fighting the Taliban. Yes, the Battle of Maiwand - on 27 July, 1880 - destroyed an entire British brigade, overrun by thousands of armed Afghan tribesmen, some of whom the official enquiry into the disaster would later describe as "Talibs". The Brits had been trying to secure Helmand province. Sound familiar?

Galloway: Walter Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'

As The Washington Post probe proves, there's more to supporting our troops than making "Support Our Troops" a phrase that every politician feels obliged to utter in every speech, no matter how craven the purpose. How can they look at themselves in the mirror every morning?

By Joseph L. Galloway

(February 21, 2007) -- There’s a great deal more to supporting our troops than sticking a $2 yellow ribbon magnet made in China on your SUV. There’s a great deal more to it than making "Support Our Troops" a phrase that every politician feels obliged to utter in every speech, no matter how banal the topic or craven the purpose.

This week, we were treated to new revelations of just how fraudulent and shallow and meaningless "Support Our Troops" is on the lips of those in charge of spending the half a trillion dollars of taxpayer's money that the Pentagon eats every year.

Galloway Column on Walter Reed Draws Wide Response

By Greg Mitchell

Published: February 24, 2007 11:00 AM ET
NEW YORK A column by regular E&P contributor Joseph L. Galloway looking at The Washington Post's revelations on conditions for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at Walter Reed Army Hospital has drawn one of the strongest email responses in months.

Galloway is the legendary war reporter, recipient of a Bronze Star, recently retired from Knight Ridder but still writing military affairs columns for McClatchy and Tribune Media Services. He co-authored the book "We Were Soldiers Once...and Young."

Seymour Hersh: The Redirection

Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?

Issue of 2007-03-05
Posted 2007-02-25

A STRATEGIC SHIFT

In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.