U.S. home builder woes reach into other industries

Sat Jul 21, 2007 3:51 AM ET

By Ilaina Jonas

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The anemic U.S. housing market has hurt various industries from makers of air conditioners to earth movers, with several manufacturers reporting their top lines have been bruised by the slowdown.

Still, several investors remain positive about the long- term outlook for U.S. home builders, although a rebound may be years away.

Ex-Gonzales no. 2: Make Fitzgerald Attorney General

07/20/2007 @ 2:05 pm

Filed by Michael Roston

The former top deputy to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales suggested that Special Prosecutor and US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald should be Attorney General of the United States, according to a report in Bloomberg News.

"I think he would make a spectacular attorney general," former Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Comey told the news service's Patricia Hurtado and David Voreacos in a Friday article. "He certainly is one of the very best federal prosecutors in America."

Senate tied in knots by filibusters

By Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers

This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that's rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.

The Founding Fathers Wouldn't Have Liked George Bush

Bill Maher, 07.20.2007

Posted July 20, 2007 | 09:54 AM (EST)

---

I'm in Boston today, getting ready for my standup special tomorrow night live on HBO (last shameless plug, I promise), and walking around the city has made me remember: oh yeah, America started here. That's right, America was invented by liberal men in Boston and Philadelphia. Not that I don't love all of America, but rednecks who think they're the real America should read a history book once in a while. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin, Madison -- the whole lot of them were well read, erudite, European thinking children of the enlightenment, and they would have had absolutely nothing in common and less to say to a cowboy simpleton like George Bush.

Court Tells U.S. to Reveal Data on Detainees at Guantánamo

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

Published: July 21, 2007

A federal appeals court ordered the government yesterday to turn over virtually all its information on Guantánamo detainees who are challenging their detention, rejecting an effort by the Justice Department to limit disclosures and setting the stage for new legal battles over the government’s reasons for holding the men indefinitely.

The ruling, which came in one of the main court cases dealing with the fate of the detainees, effectively set the ground rules for scores of cases by detainees challenging the actions of Pentagon tribunals that decide whether terror suspects should be held as enemy combatants.

US to crack down on “terror bankrolls”

By: Nicole Belle on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 9:02 AM - PDT

USA Today:

The Bush administration announced a new tool Tuesday to freeze financial assets of those who want to destabilize Iraq.

President Bush unveiled a new executive order that allows the administration to block bank accounts and any other financial assets that might be found in this country belonging to people, companies or groups that the United States deems are working to threaten stability in Iraq.

The Logic of Impeachment

By Robert Parry
July 21, 2007

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken impeachment “off the table,” in line with Official Washington’s view that trying to oust George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would be an unpleasant waste of time. But there is emerging a compelling logic that an unprecedented dual impeachment might be vital to the future of the United States.

If some historic challenge is not made to the extraordinary assertions of power by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, the United States might lose its status as a democratic Republic based on a Constitution that adheres to the twin principles that no one is above the law and everyone is endowed with inalienable rights.

Over the past six-plus years, Bush has trampled on these traditional concepts of liberty and the rule of law time and again, even as he professes his love of freedom and democracy. Indeed, in Bush’s world, the word “freedom” has come to define almost its classical opposite.

Bush reclaims powers after colonoscopy

1 hour, 7 minutes ago

CAMP DAVID, Md. - Doctors removed five small polyps from President Bush's colon on Saturday after he temporarily transferred the powers of his office for two hours to Vice President Dick Cheney under the rarely invoked 25th Amendment.

Prospects dim for popular health bill

Fri Jul 20, 4:00 AM ET

Washington - A modest attempt to renew a popular program that helps poor children get access to insurance is unexpectedly becoming a proxy for the next big battle over who pays for American healthcare.

TPM Muckraker: Does the NIE Understate the Terror Threat From Pakistan?

By Spencer Ackerman - July 20, 2007, 10:37 AM

All of this comes with the caveat that there's way more in this week's National Intelligence Estimate than we see in the unclassified key judgments. But the description it gives for the presence that al-Qaeda maintains in Pakistan is rather understated.

Al-Qaeda has, the NIE says, "safehaven in the Pakistan Federal Administrative Tribal Areas." That much is no longer controversial among counterterrorism experts. But what the description neglects -- again, at least in the unclassified, introductory section -- is that al-Qaeda has a broader infrastructure inside the parts of Pakistan that General Pervez Musharraf controls as well.

TPM: Bedside Manner

By David Kurtz

Alberto Gonzales went behind closed doors on the Hill yesterday where he was peppered with questions about that notorious visit to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft while he was hospitalized:

In a closed-door session, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes said members were especially interested in the reasons behind Gonzales' controversial 2004 visit to the hospital bedside of John Ashcroft, reportedly to pressure the ailing attorney general to endorse Bush's surveillance program. Ashcroft, said to have been barely conscious at the time, refused.

Taking the fossil out of fossil fuel

20 July 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Phil Mckenna New York State

In the rolling farm country of central New York state, the cicadas buzz, the barn swallows swoop and the natural gas hisses. Covered from head to toe in a baggy blue safety suit, Jennifer McIntosh, a geochemist from the University of Arizona in Tucson, leans over a rusty wellhead as she extracts a sample. A moment later the hissing stops and a small silver canister, now full of gas, is unfastened and packed away, ready for the lab.

Ex-Justice Department lawyer changes his testimony

Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: July 19, 2007 07:08:27 PM

WASHINGTON — A former senior Justice Department official has backed off sworn Senate testimony that he consulted with senior agency voting-rights lawyers before inaccurately advising Arizona officials they could deny thousands of voters their rights to provisional ballots.

Hans von Spakovsky, who hopes to win confirmation to a full six-year term on the Federal Election Commission, revised his statement in a recent letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee after former senior department voting-rights lawyers challenged his veracity.

Von Spakovsky has served as a presidential recess appointee to the FEC since early last year. His nomination is in jeopardy because of questions about his conduct as voting counsel to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division from 2003 to December 2005.

Bush's Baghdad Mouthpiece

By Dan Froomkin

Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, July 19, 2007; 1:14 PM

The White House's favored talking point when it comes to the war in Iraq is an attempt to link the violence there with al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and 9/11.

Most of the violence is a result of Iraqis fighting each other and the U.S. occupation. Yet on July 4, at an Independence Day celebration in West Virginia, President Bush announced: "Many of the spectacular car bombings and killings you see are as a result of al Qaeda -- the very same folks that attacked us on September the 11th. A major enemy in Iraq is the same enemy that dared attack the United States on that fateful day."

Paul Krugman: All the President’s Enablers

In a coordinated public relations offensive, the White House is using reliably friendly pundits — amazingly, they still exist — to put out the word that President Bush is as upbeat and confident as ever. It might even be true.

What I don’t understand is why we’re supposed to consider Mr. Bush’s continuing confidence a good thing.

Remember, Mr. Bush was confident six years ago when he promised to bring in Osama, dead or alive. He was confident four years ago, when he told the insurgents to bring it on. He was confident two years ago, when he told Brownie that he was doing a heckuva job.

Broader Privilege Claimed In Firings

White House Says Hill Can't Pursue Contempt Cases

By Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein

Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 20, 2007; Page A01

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

The position presents serious legal and political obstacles for congressional Democrats, who have begun laying the groundwork for contempt proceedings against current and former White House officials in order to pry loose information about the dismissals.

Justice at Stake: Ensuring That Prisoners in the U.S. Are Never 'Disappeared'

By Shahid Buttar, AlterNet
Posted on July 20, 2007, Printed on July 20, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/57366/

Critics of the War on Terror have argued since 9/11 that the Bush administration's multifaceted betrayal of human rights and constitutional freedoms poses a greater threat to our society than the threat it means to address. From domestic spying to Guantanamo Bay, torture by U.S. authorities to kangaroo courts, our prevailing practices have undermined the notion that we operate according to the rule of law, leaving the War on Terror looking more like a War of Terror. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) is an especially egregious case in point.

The MCA was ill-considered legislation passed in haste by a right-wing Congress that the American people have since rejected. Its most problematic provisions have drawn worthy criticism, but those provisions should not be repealed piecemeal. Instead, the MCA should be rescinded in its entirety. To the extent it offers any legitimate tools to law enforcement authorities, they should face calm, considered debate in the light of day.

Why Is the White House Pretending That Saudi Insurgents in Iraq Are Iranian?

By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Posted on July 20, 2007, Printed on July 20, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/57391/

The Los Angeles Times is reporting nearly half of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops in Iraq have come from Saudi Arabia – one of Washington's closest allies in the Middle East. U.S. officials have so far refused to publicly criticize Saudi Arabia's role in Iraq, focusing instead on Iran. Democracy Now! spoke with an L.A. Times correspondent in Iraq, Ned Parker, and Toby Jones, a former Persian Gulf analyst with the International Crisis Group and history professor at Rutgers University.

Bush's War on Women Is a War on Science

By Caryl Rivers, AlterNet
Posted on July 20, 2007, Printed on July 20, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/57381/

The veil over the Bush administration's war on women's reproductive health was pulled back recently by the president's own former surgeon general. When Richard H. Carmora told Congress he was muzzled by the administration when he wanted to speak out on issues of sex and science, he highlighted one of the news media's major failures over the past seven years.

The ideological matrix into which the administration has tried to cram science policy should have been one of the biggest stories in the nation. But the press failed its women readers in particular (and their children).

Alternative farming cleans up water

In light of growing concern over agricultural pollution, producers are looking for ways to improve their farming practices without sacrificing crop production. New evidence suggests alternative cropping systems can reduce the impacts of fertilizer runoff.

The Foreclosing of America (4): Vicious And Virtuous Circles

Submitted by Rick Perlstein on July 19, 2007 - 12:38pm.

[Thus concludes our series. Read previous installments here, here, and here.]

I've written about now-dead GOP dreams of creating a nation of conservatives by goosing the percentage of Americans who own their homes - because, as the American Enterprise Institute once fantasized, people who own real estate "have a deeper commitment to their community, a more profound sense of family obligation and personal responsibility, a stronger identification with the national fortunes, and a personal interest in our capitalist economy. (They also have a greater propensity to vote Republican.)"

I've written about the victims, ordinary, cash-strapped Americans who made the mistake of presuming that the people selling them their "NINJA" - No Income, No Job, No Assets - mortgages wouldn't be cutting these deals had they not believed in their' ability to honor the obligations - even in the face of a (anti-) regulatory environment that let mortgage brokers make a killing whether the loans succeeded or not.

$100 U.S.-a-barrel oil foreseen by late 2008

Jul 19, 2007 04:30 AM

A "steady ascent" of crude oil prices toward $100 (U.S.) a barrel continues, but the predicted date when that level will be hit remains a moving target, according to a CIBC World Markets report yesterday.

The investment division of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce predicts "record highs of $80 a barrel this year and reaching as high as $100 a barrel by the end of 2008 as soaring oil demand outpaces growth in global supply."

Tragedy as Farce

By David Kurtz

Sidney Blumenthal previews the next scene of the Iraq debacle:

Gen. Petraeus is promised as the dramatic hero who will stride to triumph in the last act. The author of a recent study of counterinsurgency who has not previously fought such a war, he has been thrust into the spotlight partly because his halo is yet untarnished. Bush's unpopularity disqualifies him from the "Mission Accomplished" moment. So he pushes out his handpicked general and walks behind his chariot, hoping the cheering of the crowd will be also for him. In his July 12 press conference, Bush mentioned Petraeus 11 times, his name flourished as a talisman for "victory." The generals with the greatest experience with the Iraq insurgency, who opposed Bush's surge, such as Gen. John Abizaid, an Arabic speaker, have been discharged or reassigned. The burden on the ambitious general to produce a military solution is unbearable and his breaking inevitable. But for now, Petraeus' tragedy foretold is being cast as the first dawn of a happy ending.

U.S. threatens action in Pakistan

Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: July 19, 2007 06:44:33 AM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An ambush of a military convoy that killed 17 troops near the Afghan border Wednesday pushed the death toll in a series of attacks to at least 101 Pakistanis in the past five days — and brought President Pervez Musharraf, according to a local newspaper headline, to a "Moment of Truth."

The Bush administration, after publicly demanding that Musharraf rein in militants linked to al Qaida, on Wednesday threatened to launch attacks into Pakistani territory if it sees fit.

"We certainly do not rule out options, and we retain the option especially of striking actionable targets," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. "But it is clearly of the utmost importance to go in there and deal with the problem in the tribal areas."

Why Bush Is A Loser

By David Corn

Tuesday, July 17, 2007; 7:45 PM

Who knew Bill Kristol had such a flair for satire?

How else to read his piece for Outlook on Sunday, in which he declared, "George W. Bush's presidency will probably be a successful one"? Surely Kristol, the No. 1 cheerleader for the Iraq war, was mocking himself (and his neoconservative pals) for having been so mistaken about so much. But just in case his article was meant to be a serious stab at commentary, let's review Kristol's record as a prognosticator.

The Power of the Campaign Narrative

All successful presidential candidates have had a coherent, appealing story, while the losers tell bad stories -- or more often, no story at all.

Paul Waldman | July 18, 2007 |

On November 4, 1979, Senator Ted Kennedy, preparing to announce his primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter, sat down for an interview with Roger Mudd of CBS News. Polls showed Kennedy far ahead of the beleaguered incumbent, and many political experts at the time expected the youngest son of America's political royal family to take the mantle from his two slain brothers and charge to the White House. But when Mudd asked him a simple question -- "Senator, why do you want to be president?" -- Kennedy could not offer a simple response. His rambling, muddled answer dealt his campaign a terrible blow.

It may seem strange that someone who had made the decision to run for president couldn't sum up in a few sentences what the purpose of his candidacy was. Kennedy's problem was not that he didn't have a good reason to run -- he had plenty of them. His problem was the way he thought about that run. He thought about issues, he thought about the weaknesses of the president he was trying to supplant, he thought about the programs he wanted to institute. What he didn't construct was a story that explained his candidacy to voters and offered a narrative structure for journalists to use when reporting on him.

Murdoch Nears $5 Billion Purchase of Dow Jones

Rupert Murdoch Close to Adding The Wall Street Journal to His Media Empire

July 18, 2007 —

He'll take The Wall Street Journal for $5 billion, please.

Australian tycoon and media mogul Rupert Murdoch is one step closer to owning the crown jewel of the journalism industry, with a takeover that is raising eyebrows from Dow Jones to the larger media world.

The board of Dow Jones said late Tuesday it was ready to sign off on Murdoch's proposal to buy the company for $5 billion.

The Young Republican Chickenhawks Convention

By Guest Blogger
Posted on July 19, 2007, Printed on July 19, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/guest/57328/

This post, written by Max Blumenthal, originally appeared on The Huffington Post

On July 13, 2007, I visited Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where the bodies of American soldiers killed in Iraq were freshly interred. Afterwards, I headed across the street to the Sheraton National Hotel, owned by right-wing Korean cult leader Sun Myung-Moon, to meet some of the war's most fervent supporters at the College Republican National Convention.

After College Ends, So Does Activism

By Adam Doster, In These Times
Posted on July 19, 2007, Printed on July 19, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/55185/

Jaime Nelson could make anyone feel lazy. Over the past four years, Nelson, an undergraduate activist at the University of Michigan, has led writing workshops with Michigan's incarcerated, organized voter registration drives to battle the anti-affirmative action ballot initiative in 2006, and united local immigrant rights and labor organizations through the Restaurant Workplace Project, a coalition that sought to expose the dangerous working conditions faced by undocumented employees of Ann Arbor's dining establishments.

She did this on top of a work schedule -- divorced from her political work -- that would make Horatio Alger squirm. As a supervisor at the university library, Nelson checked out books five nights a week until 2 a.m. Two summers ago, she took a job as one of only two women on a road-paving crew in her native Kalamazoo. When she worked as a full-time unpaid intern for the public defender's office in Washington D.C., she logged an additional 30 hours a week as a hotel attendant.

How Lost the War Is

By Peter Galbraith, The New York Review of Books and TomDispatch. Posted July 19, 2007.

Neither the President nor the war's intellectual architects are prepared to admit this. Nonetheless, the specter of defeat shapes their thinking in telling ways.

This essay appears in the August 16th, 2007 issue of the New York Review of Books and is posted here with the kind permission of the editors of that magazine.]

1.

On May 30, the Coalition held a ceremony in the Kurdistan town of Erbil to mark its handover of security in Iraq's three Kurdish provinces from the Coalition to the Iraqi government. General Benjamin Mixon, the U.S. commander for northern Iraq, praised the Iraqi government for overseeing all aspects of the handover. And he drew attention to the "benchmark" now achieved: with the handover, he said, Iraqis now controlled security in seven of Iraq's eighteen provinces.

In fact, nothing was handed over. The only Coalition force in Kurdistan is the peshmerga, a disciplined army that fought alongside the Americans in the 2003 campaign to oust Saddam Hussein and is loyal to the Kurdistan government in Erbil. The peshmerga provided security in the three Kurdish provinces before the handover and after. The Iraqi army has not been on Kurdistan's territory since 1996 and is effectively prohibited from being there. Nor did the Iraqi flag fly at the ceremony. It is banned in Kurdistan.

Ted Rall: Wrong And White And Read All Over

NEW YORK--On Iraq, the right was wrong. It's a slam dunk. So why do the wrong righties keep raking in big media cash? And why aren't lefties taking a victory lap?

It's a Back to the Future moment: back in 2002, polls found most Americans opposed to war with Iraq at roughly the same two-to-one ration as they do now. What changed Americans' minds between 2002 and 2003, supplemented by Bush Administration lies about fictional WMDs and liberation flowers, were millions of words published in major national magazines and regurgitated on television news programs by serious-looking, soft-spoken men boasting impressive journalistic and academic credentials. Pretend experts wove fantastic tales of wonderful geopolitical benefits that would derive from taking out Saddam. Invading Iraq was going to democratize the Middle East, force the Palestinians to sign a peace deal with Israel, and bring Elvis back to life.

Silent surge in contractor 'armies'

A key support for US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, civilians have little oversight and, back home, little help.

By Brad Knickerbocker | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Petros Giannakouris/AP

There are two coalition armies in Iraq: the official one, which fights the war, and the private one, which supports it.

This latter group of civilians drives dangerous truck convoys, cooks soldiers' meals, and guards facilities and important officials. They rival in size the US military force there, and thousands have become casualties of the conflict. If this experience is any indication, they may change the makeup of US military forces in future wars.

Talking Points Memo: Big Picture

By Josh Marshall

Let me return one more time, at least for today, to this issue of who's al Qaeda and who's not. Obviously, at one level it is simply a semantic question. And it can seem like a lot of ink to spill on a point of words and definitions when so much carnage and controversy are unfolding before our eyes. So it is worth stepping back to see just what the big deal is and how it plays into our predicament in Iraq and how we might get our way out.

Beginning in the months just after 9/11 and ever since the president and his deputies have tried to float their foreign policy on the shock, fear and desire for revenge spawned by the 9/11 attacks. The first signs (though these weren't clear in their details at the time) came in the decision to pull troops away from the hunt for bin Laden himself in late 2001 in order to ready them for the assault on Iraq little more than a year later. There we have the kernel of deception which is like the original sin of the Iraq War and, because of that, keeps coming resurfacing again and again. The claim that attacking Iraq was attacking the people who attacked the United States on 9/11, that the two things were related in anything more than a mental figment.

Spineless Sages

Top GOP Senators Only Talk Against the War

By Harold Meyerson

Wednesday, July 18, 2007; Page A19

Anyone searching for the highest forms of invertebrate life need look no further than the floor of the U.S. Senate last week and this. These spineless specimens go by various names -- Republican moderates; respected senior Republicans; Dick Lugar, John Warner, Pete Domenici, George Voinovich.

They have seen the folly of our course in Iraq. The mission, they understand, cannot be accomplished. The Iraqi government, they discern, is hopelessly sectarian.

Read It and Weep

Even Bush's intelligence report says the war in Iraq is making us less safe at home.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Tuesday, July 17, 2007, at 6:15 PM ET

The National Intelligence Estimate that was released today—titled "The Terrorist Threat to the Homeland"—amounts to a devastating critique of the Bush administration's policies on Iraq, Iran, and the terrorist threat itself.

Its main point is that the threat—after having greatly receded over the past five years—is back in full force. Al-Qaida has "protected or regenerated key elements" of its ability to attack the United States. It has a "safe haven" in Pakistan. Its "top leadership" and "operational lieutenants" are intact. It is cooperating more with "regional terrorist groups."

Report: Dead zone in Gulf grows

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW ORLEANS -- Researchers predict the recurring "dead zone" off the Louisiana coast will grow this summer to its largest size in at least 22 years, 8,543 square miles.

The forecast, released today by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, is based on a federal estimate of nitrogen from the Mississippi River watershed to the Gulf of Mexico. It discounts the effect large storms or hurricanes might have.

John Edwards bets it all on Iowa

Jim Morrill | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: July 18, 2007 07:23:57 AM

ANAMOSA, Iowa — His sleeves rolled up under a hot afternoon sun, John Edwards stood in front of a giant American flag fielding questions from 150 Iowans in a small-town park. Then, he posed one of his own.

“How many people here plan to participate in the caucuses?” he asked, watching hands shoot up. “That’s about what I was expecting. You have enormous power to decide who the next president of the United States is going to be.”

Iowans also may have the power to make or break Edwards’ bid for the Democratic nomination. In less than six months, they’ll hold the first contest of the 2008 campaign. A win offers big momentum heading into an unprecedented crush of primaries over the following three weeks.

Children and young people show elevated leukaemia rates near nuclear facilities

Review covers 136 countries in US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Japan and Spain

Leukaemia rates in children and young people are elevated near nuclear facilities, but no clear explanation exists to explain the rise, according to a research review published in the July issue of European Journal of Cancer Care.

Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina carried out a sophisticated meta-analysis of 17 research papers covering 136 nuclear sites in the UK, Canada, France, the USA, Germany, Japan and Spain.

They found that death rates for children up to the age of nine were elevated by between five and 24 per cent, depending on their proximity to nuclear facilities, and by two to 18 per cent in children and young people up to the age of 25.

Republicans block vote on troop pullout

Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:20PM EDT

By Richard Cowan and Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush's fellow Republicans in the Senate on Wednesday blocked a Democratic proposal to force him to withdraw American combat troops from Iraq after a rare round-the-clock debate.

The action prompted weary and frustrated Senate Democrats to postpone consideration of other measures to bring the war to an end. But they voiced confidence more Republicans would soon join their efforts.

Cheney's Secret Energy Task Force is Revealed!

By Guest Blogger
Posted on July 18, 2007, Printed on July 18, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/guest/57195/

This post by David Roberts, originally appeared on The Huffington Post

Six years and a protracted legal battle later, the Washington Post has finally gotten its hands on a list of who met with Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force in 2001.

Turns out it's a bunch of oil and gas execs. Shocking.

This is my favorite 'graph from the story:

The task force issued its report on May 16, 2001. Though the report was roundly criticized by environmental groups at the time, some energy experts say that in retrospect it appears better balanced than the administration's actual policy.

Sigh.

Forget the TV Debates, MoveOn's Dem Primary Has All the Action

By Ari Melber, The Nation
Posted on July 18, 2007, Printed on July 18, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/56944/

Long before votes are cast in modern presidential elections, elite donors narrow the race by picking a few acceptable candidates, who are then crowned frontrunners for leading the "money primary." But wait -- wasn't the Internet supposed to change all this? Now thousands of people can pool relatively small donations to boost a candidate into the first tier, while bloggers promote their favorites to audiences rivaling those of major newspapers. Yet a funny thing happened on the way to the revolution. Internet fundraising has made the competition for early money not only fiercer but even more influential in handicapping the race, because donations are revered as proof of electability and grassroots enthusiasm.

If This Is Such a Rich Country, Why Are We Getting Squeezed?

By Heather Boushey and Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on July 18, 2007, Printed on July 18, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/57180/

The commercial media is telling us two perfectly contradictory stories about the American economy. The first is how wonderfully rich we are in the United States. The stock market's booming -- some analysts predict the Dow will break the 15,000 this year -- the economy is expanding at a healthy clip, productivity growth is up and unemployment and inflation are relatively low.

But, at the same time, we're also told that we don't have the money to pay for a robust social safety net. When it comes to paying for universal health coverage, affording retirement security for our elderly, investing in programs for the poor or educating our children, we need to pinch pennies. According to this storyline, we face a looming "entitlement crisis" -- we won't be able to afford to keep the Baby Boomers in good health and out of poverty, we're told, unless we slash their benefits and privatize the programs that their elderly parents enjoy today.

Study: Americans Don't Understand Others

Corey Binns
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com
Wed Jul 18, 10:05 AM ET

Rugged American individualism could hinder our ability to understand other peoples' point of view, a new study suggests.

And in contrast, the researchers found that Chinese are more skilled at understanding other people's perspectives, possibly because they live in a more "collectivist" society.

"This cultural difference affects the way we communicate," said study co-author and cognitive psychologist Boaz Keysar of the University of Chicago.

Tomgram: Peter Galbraith, The War Is Lost

The week in Iraq began with a particularly brutal triple bombing in the oil-rich, disputed city of Kirkuk -- a truck bomb took out part of the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, and subsequent car bombs hit a nearby market and a police patrol, with over 80 dead and more than 180 wounded. These were reminders, undoubtedly from Sunni extremists (possibly driven north by President Bush's surge offensive around Baghdad), that the only relatively peaceful, economically prospering region of "Iraq" -- Iraqi Kurdistan -- may not remain that way forever. Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen are already struggling over who is to inherit the oil-spoils of Kirkuk, which many Kurds would like to annex and turn into the capital of what they dream may someday be an independent country. Kirkuk's fate is supposedly to be decided by a referendum at year's end.

How Bush Uses His Generals

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, July 16, 2007; 2:00 PM

President Bush says that he should be trusted on military issues because he listens to his commanders. But he has a tendency to celebrate his generals when they're providing him political cover -- then stick a knife in their backs when they're no longer of any use to him.

Last week, Bush rejected any blame for the chaos that ensued in Iraq after the March 2003 invasion. So whose fault was it? Bush pointed the finger at Gen. Tommy Franks, the Central Command chief at the time. "My primary question to General Franks was, do you have what it takes to succeed? And do you have what it takes to succeed after you succeed in removing Saddam Hussein? And his answer was, yes," Bush said.

Nader, redux

By Steve Benen

Don’t look now, but a certain third party candidate is considering a fourth presidential campaign.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader told the Green Party's national convention that he is considering a 2008 presidential run and accused Democrats of trying to shut smaller parties out of the political process. [...]

Nader said before jumping into the 2008 presidential race he would have to put together an organization of thousands of volunteers and pro bono lawyers to defend him against the "Democratic quadrennial assault."

44 Former State AGs Call For Review Of Siegelman Case

By Laura McGann - July 16, 2007, 12:49 PM

The movement for a review of Gov. Don Siegelman's (D-AL) case is picking up steam. Forty-four former state attorneys general are now calling on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees for an investigation into whether his corruption prosecution was politically motivated.

TPMmuckraker: DoJ Prevents Voting Section Chief from Testifying

By Paul Kiel - July 16, 2007, 5:20 PM

The House Judiciary Committee was set to hold a hearing on the Civil Rights Division's voting rights section tomorrow, but no more. That's because the Justice Department has refused to allow the chief of the section, John Tanner, to testify. The committee has postponed the hearing until the Department allows Tanner to appear.

US renting Pak army for $ 100 million a month

India's take on the US relationship with Pakistan--Dictynna

14 Jul 2007, 0340 hrs IST,CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA,TNN

SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

WASHINGTON: The United States is paying around $ 100 million a month for the deployment of 80,000 Pakistani troops on its border with Afghanistan ostensibly for the war on terrorism, a key US official revealed on Thursday.

The money is meant to be "reimbursements" to Pakistan "for stationing troops and moving them around, and gasoline, and bullets, and training and other costs that they incur as part of the war on terror," US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, told a Congressional panel.

Failure in Afghanistan risks rise in terror, say generals

Military chiefs warn No.10 that defeat could lead to change of regime in Pakistan

Nicholas Watt and Ned Temko
Sunday July 15, 2007
The Observer

Britain's most senior generals have issued a blunt warning to Downing Street that the military campaign in Afghanistan is facing a catastrophic failure, a development that could lead to an Islamist government seizing power in neighbouring Pakistan.

Amid fears that London and Washington are taking their eye off Afghanistan as they grapple with Iraq, the generals have told Number 10 that the collapse of the government in Afghanistan, headed by Hamid Karzai, would present a grave threat to the security of Britain.

Paul Krugman: The Waiting Game

Being without health insurance is no big deal. Just ask President Bush. “I mean, people have access to health care in America,” he said last week. “After all, you just go to an emergency room.”

This is what you might call callousness with consequences. The White House has announced that Mr. Bush will veto a bipartisan plan that would extend health insurance, and with it such essentials as regular checkups and preventive medical care, to an estimated 4.1 million currently uninsured children. After all, it’s not as if those kids really need insurance — they can just go to emergency rooms, right?

The state can take your dreams, too

Debra J. Saunders

Sunday, July 15, 2007

JOHN REVELLI vividly remembers the day the U.S. Supreme Court issued its infamous Kelo decision that allowed local governments to condemn private property under eminent domain, not only for public uses such as roads and schools, but also to accommodate private developers. "The Kelo decision," the former owner of Revelli Tires in Oakland noted over the phone, "that came out on June 23 of '05, and the deadline that the city put up against us to move out was July 1." The 5-4 ruling spelled curtains for Revelli Tires.

The U.S. Constitution states, "Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." The big bench wrongly ruled that "public use" could be whatever states want it to be -- including private developments designed to expand the tax base. The ruling allowed the City of New London, Conn., to seize the land under Susette Kelo's "little pink cottage" and hand it over to a private developer for a development featuring high-end waterfront homes.

Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran

· Military solution back in favour as Rice loses out
· President 'not prepared to leave conflict unresolved'

Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Julian Borger
Monday July 16, 2007
The Guardian

The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.

The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo."

In the Lawless Post-Katrina Cleanup, Construction Companies Are Preying on Workers

By Brian Beutler, Media Consortium
Posted on July 16, 2007, Printed on July 16, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/56958/

After Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast in late August 2005, tens of billions of dollars in federal and private contracts, the largest of which went to companies like Bechtel, Halliburton, and its then-subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, and Root, were dispatched to New Orleans. The alleged goal was to fund a clean-up effort President Bush said would require "a sustained federal commitment to our fellow citizens." That, of course, never came to pass.

Thanks to its initial disastrous rescue effort, today, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) receives most of the blame for chaos in New Orleans. But it wasn't just FEMA. The anatomy of the failed reconstruction is complicated, but understanding what went wrong requires examining the Department of Labor (DOL).

The Reality-Based Community: Rationing Health Care

Now that Michael Moore's SICKO has raised again the question why the Canadian health care system functions so much better than ours, supporters of the current mess have gone back to chanting

Hip replacement! Rationing! Hip replacement! Rationing! Markets! Markets! Markets! Markets! Sis, boom bah!

or words to that effect.

The response, of course, is that rationing, including rationing by queuing, is just as much a feature of the U.S. system as it is of competing systems. And while waiting for a hip replacement sounds pretty bad, there are worse things to have to wait for. Take it from me.

Bill Moyers talks with Bruce Fein and John Nichols

BILL MOYERS: One of the fellows you're about to meet wrote the first article of impeachment against President Clinton. Bruce Fein did so because perjury is a legal crime. And Fein believed no one is above the law. A constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein served in the Justice Department during the Reagan administration and as general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission. Bruce Fein has been affiliated with conservative think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation and now writes a weekly column for THE WASHINGTON TIMES and Politico.com.

He's joined by John Nichols, the Washington correspondent for THE NATION and an associate editor of the CAPITOL TIMES. Among his many books is this most recent one, THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT: THE FOUNDERS' CURE FOR ROYALISM. Good to see you both. Bruce, you wrote that article of impeachment against Bill Clinton. Why did you think he should be impeached?

Did Military and Media Mislead Us? Most Outside Insurgents in Iraq Come from Saudi Arabia

By Greg Mitchell

Published: July 15, 2007 8:40 AM ET
NEW YORK For years, polls have shown that very large numbers of Americans continue to falsely believe that some of the 9/11 hijackers came from Iraq. In reality, the overwhelming number hailed from the land of a U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia.

Now it turns out that Saudi Arabia is also home to the largest number of so-called "foreign fighters" in Iraq, despite administration efforts -- aided by many in the media -- to paint Iran and Syria as the main outside culprits there.

TPM: 'A Mute Watchdog'

The President's Intelligence Oversight Board, a panel that has existed for decades, helps police the government's surveillance activities. For several recent presidents, the IOB has been an important watchdog, monitoring potential abuses and legal violations.

Given the Bush gang's record, you'd think the panel would have been working overtime the last several years. We are, after all, talking about a White House that has endorsed secret prisons, rendition policies, torture, and unaccountable domestic wiretapping without warrants. If the IOB exists to investigate intelligence and surveillance abuses, it was tailor made for George W. Bush's presidency.

TPM: Tuning out the boys who cry wolf

The New York Daily News reports today that the possibility of a domestic terrorist attack this summer appears high, but Americans are skeptical about the warnings.

To American who have grown skeptical of terrorism warnings, the professionals in the intelligence community say they understand. They also say this time, it could be for real.

That's because the level of worldwide jihadist activity this year appears disturbingly familiar to those who hunted Al Qaeda even before the 9/11 attacks.

Ship of fools: Johann Hari sets sail with America's swashbuckling neocons

The Iraq war has been an amazing success, global warming is just a myth – and as for Guantanamo Bay, it's practically a holiday camp... The annual cruise organised by the 'National Review', mouthpiece of right-wing America, is a parallel universe populated by straight-talking, gun-toting, God-fearing Republicans.

By Johann Hari
Published: 13 July 2007

I am standing waist-deep in the Pacific Ocean, both chilling and burning, indulging in the polite chit-chat beloved by vacationing Americans. A sweet elderly lady from Los Angeles is sitting on the rocks nearby, telling me dreamily about her son. "Is he your only child?" I ask. "Yes," she says. "Do you have a child back in England?" she asks. No, I say. Her face darkens. "You'd better start," she says. "The Muslims are breeding. Soon, they'll have the whole of Europe."

I am getting used to these moments – when gentle holiday geniality bleeds into... what? I lie on the beach with Hillary-Ann, a chatty, scatty 35-year-old Californian designer. As she explains the perils of Republican dating, my mind drifts, watching the gentle tide. When I hear her say, " Of course, we need to execute some of these people," I wake up. Who do we need to execute? She runs her fingers through the sand lazily. "A few of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralise the country," she says. "Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that's what you'll get." She squints at the sun and smiles. " Then things'll change."

Climate change: A guide for the perplexed

Our planet's climate is anything but simple. All kinds of factors influence it, from massive events on the Sun to the growth of microscopic creatures in the oceans, and there are subtle interactions between many of these factors.

Yet despite all the complexities, a firm and ever-growing body of evidence points to a clear picture: the world is warming, this warming is due to human activity increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and if emissions continue unabated the warming will too, with increasingly serious consequences.

Exfoliation produces lighter, cheaper solar cells

An ultra-thin solar cell that could provide a cheaper, lighter alternative to existing devices has been created by researchers in the US.

James Zahler from Aonex Technologies, together with colleagues from the California Institute of Technology and EMCORE PhotoVoltaics made the device by replacing the relatively thick semiconductor substrate normally used in solar cells with a thin "wafer-bonded" substrate. This means the new device is considerable cheaper and lighter than conventional solar cells.

Romney mum on health care fix

Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: July 15, 2007 09:13:10 AM

BOSTON — In one of his many television ads, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney boasts of his can-do management as governor of Massachusetts.

"In the most liberal state in the country," the ads say, "in the toughest place, Mitt Romney's done the toughest things."

In another, Ann Romney says proudly of her husband, "Every place that Mitt has gone, he has solved problems that people said were nearly impossible."

Yet Romney's ads do not mention what is arguably his most impressive accomplishment as governor: pushing through universal health care for state residents.

Kremlin tears up arms pact with Nato

Russia's relations with West hit a new low point

Luke Harding in Moscow
Sunday July 15, 2007
The Observer

President Vladimir Putin yesterday signalled that Russia was on a new and explosive collision course with Nato when he dumped a key arms control treaty limiting the deployment of conventional forces in Europe.

Putin said Moscow was unilaterally withdrawing from the Soviet-era Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty because of 'extraordinary circumstances that affect the security of the Russian Federation', the Kremlin said. These required 'immediate measures'.

Air Force quietly building Iraq presence

By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
Sat Jul 14, 2:25 PM ET

Away from the headlines and debate over the "surge" in U.S. ground troops, the Air Force has quietly built up its hardware inside Iraq, sharply stepped up bombing and laid a foundation for a sustained air campaign in support of American and Iraqi forces.

Squadrons of attack planes have been added to the in-country fleet. The air reconnaissance arm has almost doubled since last year. The powerful B1-B bomber has been recalled to action over Iraq.

The escalation worries some about an increase in "collateral damage," casualties among Iraqi civilians. Air Force generals worry about wear and tear on aging aircraft. But ground commanders clearly like what they see.

Failure in Afghanistan risks rise in terror, say generals

Military chiefs warn No.10 that defeat could lead to change of regime in Pakistan

Nicholas Watt and Ned Temko
Sunday July 15, 2007
The Observer

Britain's most senior generals have issued a blunt warning to Downing Street that the military campaign in Afghanistan is facing a catastrophic failure, a development that could lead to an Islamist government seizing power in neighbouring Pakistan.

Amid fears that London and Washington are taking their eye off Afghanistan as they grapple with Iraq, the generals have told Number 10 that the collapse of the government in Afghanistan, headed by Hamid Karzai, would present a grave threat to the security of Britain.

FRANK RICH: Don’t Laugh at Michael Chertoff

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, President Bush's fallback choice for secretary of Homeland Security after Bernard Kerik, is best remembered for his tragicomic performance during Hurricane Katrina. He gave his underling, the woeful Brownie, a run for the gold.

It was Mr. Chertoff who announced that the Superdome in New Orleans was "secure" even as the other half of the split screen offered graphic evidence otherwise. It was Mr. Chertoff who told NPR that he had "not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who do not have food and water," even after his fellow citizens had been inundated with such reports all day long.