Glenn Greenwald: The NYT's Michael Cooper demonstrates what real reporting is

Giuliani's claims are not merely reported, but subjected to scrutiny and determined to be factually false.

Glenn Greenwald

Nov. 30, 2007 | (updated below - Update II - Update III)

In an online chat yesterday, The Washington Post's Lois Romano defended her newspaper's neutral stenographic coverage of the factually false right-wing smear campaign against Barack Obama, a whispering campaign alleging that Obama "is a Muslim, 'a 'Muslim plant' in a conspiracy against America, and that, if elected president, he would take the oath of office using a Koran". Romano's defense:

We are getting many questions of our story on Obama today. I'll try to address this as best I can. These are always very difficult decisions -- how to address something that people are talking about, that has clearly become a factor in the race, without taking a position. Part of our job is to acknowledge that there is a discussion going on and to fact check and lay out the facts. The Internet has complicated this responsibility because there is so much garbage and falsehoods out there.

Tritium hazard rating 'should be doubled'

Tritium hazard rating 'should be doubled'

17:47 29 November 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Rob Edwards

Radioactive tritium, commonly discharged in large amounts by civil and military nuclear plants around the world, may be more dangerous than previously thought.

The cancer risk for people exposed to tritium could be twice as high as previously assumed, an expert report for the UK government's Health Protection Agency (HPA) concludes.

Dodd's spent lifetime in politics, thinks he's due to step up

David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: November 24, 2007 12:12:41 AM

WASHINGTON — Christopher Dodd, then a rookie U.S. senator, eagerly opposed Dr. C. Everett Koop's nomination to be surgeon general in 1981, arguing that "his personal beliefs would keep him from impartial judgments."

Koop, whom the news media described as "a noted anti-abortionist" at the time, won confirmation easily and turned out to be a popular, articulate health-care spokesman. A few months later, a chastened Dodd sent him a note, apologizing.

"I voted against him, and I regret it," Dodd would say, "because he turned out to be one fine surgeon general."

New study shows low-income families face 3 barriers to health care

PORTLAND, Ore. - There are so many problems in our health care delivery system and its financing structure that even families who have health insurance are having problems getting care as well as paying for it, according to a recent study by an Oregon Health & Science University family physician. The study, "Insurance Plus Access Does Not Equal Health Care: Typology of Barriers to Health Care Access for Low Income Families," recently was published in the journal Annals of Family Medicine.

"Incremental health insurance reforms alone are not going to solve these problems. A more comprehensive approach is desperately needed," said Jennifer DeVoe, M.D., D.Phil., research assistant professor of family medicine, OHSU School of Medicine.

Recipe for a storm: The ingredients for more powerful Atlantic hurricanes

MADISON - As the world warms, the interaction between the Atlantic Ocean and atmosphere may be the recipe for stronger, more frequent hurricanes.

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have found that the Atlantic organizes the ingredients for a powerful hurricane season to create a situation where either everything is conducive to hurricane activity or nothing is-potentially making the Atlantic more vulnerable to climate change than the world's other hurricane hot spots.

World economy heading for 'perfect storm'

Alex Brummer, Daily Mail
29 November 2007, 8:16am

One of the world's leading financial experts has warned that a 'perfect storm' could be about to hit Western economies.

There is rising concern that the US economy will slip into recession next year dragging many economies - including Britain - down with it as the global credit crisis worsens.

Paul Krugman: Mandates and Mudslinging

From the beginning, advocates of universal health care were troubled by the incompleteness of Barack Obama’s plan, which unlike those of his Democratic rivals wouldn’t cover everyone. But they were willing to cut Mr. Obama slack on the issue, assuming that in the end he would do the right thing.

Now, however, Mr. Obama is claiming that his plan’s weakness is actually a strength. What’s more, he’s doing the same thing in the health care debate he did when claiming that Social Security faces a “crisis” — attacking his rivals by echoing right-wing talking points.

Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, Why Bush Won't Leave Iraq

Whoa, let's hold those surging horses in check a moment. Violence has lessened in Iraq. That seems to be a fact of the last two months -- and, for the Iraqis, a positive one, obviously. What to make of the "good news" from Iraq is another matter entirely, one made harder to assess by the chorus of self-congratulation from war supporters and Bush administration officials and allies, as well as by the heavy spin being put on events -- and reported in the media, relatively uncritically.

Study: One-quarter of U.S. bird species at risk

By Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAY

Almost all of Hawaii's non-migratory native birds are on a new watch list of the USA's most imperiled bird species.

The list, released Wednesday by the National Audubon Society and American Bird Conservancy, includes about one-quarter of the more than 700 species that breed in the USA.

The Portland blog that might know why Trent Lott really resigned.

On Monday, Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) announced his resignation, shocking the political world. After all, he'd just been re-elected last year - and he'd recently regained a leadership post.

Why did Lott resign? Was he bailing out, like so many Republicans, frustrated at their new minority status that doesn't show any sign of changing? Did he resign abruptly because of the impending arrival of new revolving-door regulations that would have delayed a career as a lobbyist?

The Grown-Ups Never Showed Up

Posted on Nov 28, 2007

By Joe Conason

To the Washington establishment, George W. Bush’s arrival in the White House marked the “return of the grown-ups” to the running of American foreign policy. While that judgment upon President Bill Clinton was unfair, the implied endorsement of the first Bush administration was based on real achievement in the management of the Gulf War and the 1991 Madrid peace conference. But the second Bush White House has never come under adult supervision.

The president has rejected advice from the wise old heads who counseled his father and who repeatedly pleaded with this president for seriousness and maturity in dealing with Iraq, Iran, Syria, Israel and Palestine. Instead, as the Annapolis meeting suggests, his approach to those issues has been both ideological and inconsistent, with a vacillating quality that seems unlikely to encourage progress.

Conservative, Or Just Plain Corrupt?

Through their ethics scandals, Republicans in Washington long ago began making the word "conservative" synonymous with the term "corrupt." Surprisingly, though, it is a group of Democrats that is cementing this definitional conversion for good.

In the midst of the housing crisis, a cadre of self-described "conservative" Democrats called the Blue Dog Coalition is demanding congressional leaders delay legislation designed to help people trapped in high-interest loans stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure. The bill, House Resolution 3609, allows judges to ameliorate the terms of abusive "subprime" mortgages. Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., is championing it — a gutsy move for a lawmaker whose state domiciles major lenders.

Digby

Impotence

According to Ari Berman writing here in The Nation the anti-war Democrats in Iowa are unhappy, and for good reason, as the coverage of the "surge" seems to be taking the war off the agenda and the candidates are giving unsatisfactory answers about their plans to end the war.


Debatable Tactics

I watched the debate last night with my usual mixture of shock and awe at the bloodthirsty, inane and irrelevant spew that emits from this cycle's Republican presidential candidates and it did not disappoint. As Gail Collins wrote in her column today: "It was suspenseful, waiting for the next shoe to drop, for the next candidate to go whacky."


Codpiece Redux

Reporters say Baghdad too dangerous despite surge

Nearly 90 percent of U.S. journalists in Iraq say much of Baghdad is still too dangerous to visit, despite a recent drop in violence attributed to the build-up of U.S. forces, a poll released on Wednesday said.

Pssst. Pass It On

It doesn't matter if it's true or not. It's "out there":

Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him

In his speeches and often on the Internet, the part of Sen. Barack Obama's biography that gets the most attention is not his race but his connections to the Muslim world.

Having the climate cake and eating it, too

Is it possible to solve climate change, reduce poverty and save biodiversity at a single stroke" It might seem like a dream, but this is exactly the issue that is being discussed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Bali 3-14 December 2007. The key is to include reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in the Kyoto Protocol so that developing countries can be compensated for saving their forests and woodlands.

Asbestos turns up in toys, children's clay

DIYers who use duct tape, spackle, roof sealer also at risk of exposure

By ANDREW SCHNEIDER
P-I SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

Asbestos has been found in a variety of consumer products, including one of this season's biggest-selling Christmas toys, according to the nation's largest asbestos victims organizations.

The CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit, two brands of children's play clay, powdered cleanser, roof sealers, duct tapes, window glazing, spackling paste and small appliances were among the products in which asbestos was found by at least two of three labs hired by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.

Fresh Nixon Papers

November 28, 2007 4:45 PM

Senior Washington Correspondent John Cochran blogs:

Just when we think we know all there is to know about the Nixon years, another batch of papers or audiotapes emerges with more chewy morsels.

As a reporter who occasionally covered Richard Nixon's presidency, I was fascinated to see the latest "dump" of Nixon documents released Wednesday by the National Archives.

Golden Rule is different in D.C.

Gene Lyons

Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2007

If there were a Golden Rule of Washington politics, it would have to be phrased rather differently from the biblical injunction. The prevailing ethos of our nation’s capital appears to be “Do unto others before they get a chance to do unto you.” Most Americans say they’re sickened by excess partisanship and dirty tricks, but it’s not clear that they really mean it. With respect to political scandals, many appear unwilling or unable to perform the simplest thought experiment: to wit, turn a story inside-out. What would you be saying if the opposite party got caught using the same underhanded tactics?

Global Warming Is Reversible

by BERNIE SANDERS

[posted online on November 27, 2007]

Scientists now tell us that the crisis of global warming is even worse than their earlier projections. Daily front-page headlines of environmental disasters give an inkling of what we can expect in the future, multiplied many times over: droughts, floods, severe weather disturbances, loss of drinking water and farmland and conflicts over declining natural resources.

Yet the situation is by no means hopeless. Major advances and technological breakthroughs are being made in the United States and throughout the world that are giving us the tools to cut carbon emissions dramatically, break our dependency on fossil fuels and move to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. In fact, the truth rarely uttered in Washington is that with strong governmental leadership the crisis of global warming is not only solvable; it can be done while improving the standard of living of the people of this country and others around the world. And it can be done with the knowledge and technology that we have today; future advances will only make the task easier.

Glenn Greenwald: Bad stenographers

Referring to our establishment press corps as "stenographers" has become somewhat of a cliche, though it still provokes righteous outrage from "journalists." ABC News' Martha Raddatz recently learned this when she used that term to describe what most White House correspondents actually are.

But in light of Time's "correction" to Joe Klein's factually false claims about the House Democrats' FISA bill, how can any rational person object?

WaPo Edit Page Says White House Outreach To Syria Might Work -- After Blasting Pelosi For Same Thing

November 28, 2007 -- 5:27 PM EST // //

This is pretty striking, even by Fred Hiatt's ever plummeting standards.

As you may recall, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last spring, The Washington Post editorial page was the leading institutional editorial voice against it. The paper published a widely discussed editorial, called "Pratfall in Damascus," that helped set the tone for much mainstream criticism.

The editorial blasted Pelosi for thinking that anything good could come of talking to Syria, calling the idea "ludicrous" and opining: "As any diplomat with knowledge of the region could have told Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Assad is a corrupt thug whose overriding priority at the moment is not peace..."

Rudy's Ties to a Terror Sheikh

Giuliani's business contracts tie him to the man who let 9/11's mastermind escape the FBI

by Wayne Barrett

November 27th, 2007 3:39 PM

Three weeks after 9/11, when the roar of fighter jets still haunted the city's skyline, the emir of gas-rich Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah al-Thani, toured Ground Zero. Although a member of the emir's own royal family had harbored the man who would later be identified as the mastermind of the attack—a man named Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, often referred to in intelligence circles by his initials, KSM—al-Thani rushed to New York in its aftermath, offering to make a $3 million donation, principally to the families of its victims. Rudy Giuliani, apparently unaware of what the FBI and CIA had long known about Qatari links to Al Qaeda, appeared on CNN with al-Thani that night and vouched for the emir when Larry King asked the mayor: "You are a friend of his, are you not?"

Washington Post Recycles False Obama Muslim Rumors On Front Page

November 29, 2007 -- 10:10 AM EST // // Updated below.

Digby and BarbinMD have already dealt heavy blows to today's reprehensible Washington Post piece that recycles the rumors that Obama is a Muslim on the paper's front page.

But I wanted to add a couple more points about the story, because it really is a top contender for the title of Worst Hit Piece of Campaign 2008.

Digby

Rudy's Got Secret(s)

Most of you have probably already read about Rudy charging the taxpayers for his booty calls when he was mayor of New York, which should get a lot of play if the kewl kidz can get their noses out of Bill and Hillary's dirty laundry basket.


Don't Call Colin

No, No, No. This is a horrible idea. I assume that Clinton thinks this would signal a return to "The Powell Doctrine" but even if it's decided that's a good idea, Powell himself should never be allowed anywhere near government again.


Today's Tweety Moment

Matthews: Let's go back to women with needs. Women with needs are Hillary's great strength. Women who don't have a college degree, women who don't have a lot of things going for them. May not have a husband, may have kids, have all kinds of needs with day care, education, minimum wage. Will Oprah help with them to move to Barack Obama?

Hide The Bunnies

Radar Online interviewed former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee

Do you know any of the presidential candidates?
I don't know them that well—I know "how do you do." I know Romney—"how do you do." I know Hillary.

What do you think of Hillary?
Well, I'm not as against her as some other people under my roof. Sally [Quinn, his wife]—I find the women are really very, very strongly against her.

You And What Army?

Huckleberry Graham and Saxby Chambliss give fair warning that their surging surge will be respected --- or else:

Two Republican senators said Monday that unless Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki makes more political progress by January, the U.S. should consider pulling political or financial support for his government.

Time After Time

The blogosphere is steaming over Joe Klein's infamous error-filled column this week about the pending FISA legislation. Jane Hamsher took it to Klein's editor at TIME magazine this morning, who said there were no errors and hung up on her.

2 out of 3 middle class American families on shaky financial ground, according to new report

Landmark study based on new 'Middle Class Security Index' developed by Demos and Brandeis University

Waltham, MA—Fewer than one in three middle-class families in America is financially secure, and the remaining majority are either borderline or at high risk of falling out of the middle class altogether, according to a new study published this week by Demos and the Institute for Assets and Social Policy (IASP) at Brandeis University.

By a Thread: The New Experience of America’s Middle Class is the first comprehensive report to measure economic stability across the American middle class. Based on national government data, By a Thread is the first in a series of reports and briefing papers that will utilize the new “Middle Class Security Index” developed by the non-partisan policy center Demos and IASP/Brandeis.

Democrats' health plans echo Nixon's failed GOP proposal

Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: November 28, 2007 07:34:19 AM

WASHINGTON — Even before Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton unveiled her new health-care plan, Republicans attacked it as socialized medicine. They neglected to mention, however, that her plan bears a striking resemblance to changes that were proposed in 1974 — by the late President Richard M. Nixon.

"It was an extremely extensive plan, as I remember, that would have given universal coverage" for health care, recalled Rudolph Penner, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and economic official in the Ford administration.

Conservatives Can't Count

Submitted by Rick Perlstein on November 26, 2007 - 3:09pm.

Counting is important: anyone who grew up watching Sesame Street knows that. Our friends in the Bush administration must have missed that part of the lesson. They hate to count. Especially when the results might make them look bad.

Some of Paul Krugman's most eye-opening columns in his collection The Great Unraveling—they're in section two, entitled "Fuzzy Math"—concern the way, once Bush became president, the government stopped counting certain things, or changed the methods of tabulation in order to score public relations points.

Psst! What About the Damn Economy?

Submitted by Robert Borosage on November 27, 2007 - 8:39pm.

Do we have to wait for soup lines in Shaker Heights before we have a serious debate on the economy? In the last two Democratic debates, not one question was directed at what to do about the economy. Iraq, health care, the politics of parsing, pearls or diamonds — all got attention. But the economy — growth, jobs, wages, inflation — the basic stuff has been missing in action. Now, with Republicans headed into the YouTube debate on Wednesday night, it's time for the unctuous moderators to cut to the chase.

The candidates haven't done much better than their interrogators. Republicans, for the most part, have been content to praise the Bush economy — "the greatest story never told" in Fred Thompson's favorite mantra. Economic policy is just another ideological litmus test — prove your conservative credentials by promising to defend the Bush tax cuts and sprinkle on a couple more, while pledging to slash domestic spending. But cutting spending (and jobs) as the economy is headed into a recession is akin to using kerosene to douse a fire.

Official probing Rove now under investigation himself

The federal official helming a probe into potentially illegal partisan political activities conducted by Karl Rove and other White House officials is himself the focus of a federal investigation.

Scott Bloch, the Bush-appointed head of the US Office of Special Counsel, is under investigation for the alleged improper deletion of emails on office computers, The Wall Street Journal's John R. Wilke reports.

Mr. Blackwell and The Hammer

Two rejected Republican politicians form new "grassroots" organization aiming to challenge Democrats and regain control of Congress

When he was not out bashing the leadership of the Republican Party, expressing a desire to "bitch-slap" New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, attending David Horowitz's annual Restoration Weekend, promoting his book "No Retreat, No Surrender," or claiming he no longer is interested in holding public office, Tom DeLay made time to meet up with Ken Blackwell and found a new "grassroots" organization aimed at retaking congress in next year's elections.

Brooks Pushes Nonsense on Trade

David Brooks' column is full of nonsense on trade this morning. The point is to propagandize on behalf of current trade policy, which is taking a beating in popular opinion as of late. Brooks includes a wide range of factors which are somehow supposed to imply that the current trade policy is good.

Just to to take a couple of my favorites, Brooks points out from 1991 to 2007 the trade deficit grew to $818 billion from $31 billion. "Yet, .... during that time the U.S. created 28 million jobs and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.6 percent from 6.8 percent."

Gloria R. Lalumia's World Media Watch for November 28, 2007

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 9:58am. Gloria R. Lalumia

WORLD MEDIA WATCH

Summaries are excerpted from the source articles; the featured article follows the summary section.

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong
US WAGES COVERT WAR ON IRAQ-IRAN BORDER

The United States-led war in Iraq has hardly affected the residents of Sidikan, a small Kurdish town nestled in the mountains where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey converge, but the surrounding area has fast become the frontline of another conflict.

[...]

2/Azzaman in English, Iraq
ISLAMIC ARMY SPLITS OVER WITH QAEDA

A split in the ranks of the Islamic Army of Iraq is certain to reverse the successes U.S. occupation troops allege to have made in the country in the past few months.

FACT CHECK: U.S. Health Care Resources Not Burdened By Undocumented Immigrants

A new study by the University of California’s School of Public Health finds that illegal immigrants do not pose as significant a burden on U.S. Health Care resources as is often claimed. Undocumented immigrants are less likely to have insurance, but seek out health care in much lower numbers:

“Low rates of use of health-care services by Mexican immigrants and similar trends among other Latinos do not support public concern about immigrants’ overuse of the health care system,” the researchers wrote.

One in Ten Americans Went Hungry Last Year

By Abid Aslam, IPS News
Posted on November 28, 2007, Printed on November 28, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/68054/

More than one in 10 people in the United States go hungry, according to new official figures that suggest government food programs are falling short in the world's wealthiest country.

More than 35 million people in a country of some 294 million went hungry last year, 390,000 more than in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's latest Household Food Security report.

Existing Home Sales Fall Again

Wednesday November 28, 6:15 pm ET
By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer Existing Home Sales Fall for Eighth Straight Month in October

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hit by a severe credit crunch, existing home sales fell for the eighth straight month with median home prices dropping by a record amount.

The National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that sales of existing homes dropped by 1.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million units. That represented the slowest sales pace on record going back to 1999 and was 20.7 percent below activity a year ago.

Undoing The Damage Done

By Paul Kiel - November 27, 2007, 5:39PM

Of all the unqualified political hacks that the Bush Administration has placed in government positions, Julie MacDonald, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks at the Interior Department, has always held a special place in my heart.

While in her position, where she was charged with overseeing policy decisions on endangered species and other wildlife, MacDonald did what she could to make industry lobbyists happy.

David Neiwert: Where We Stand

My concluding post in the five-part series at The Big Con, "The Politics of the Personal: Where We Stand," is now up for public consumption. The opening:

How is any kind of normative political discourse possible in the environment created by right-wing eliminationist rhetoric? How is it possible to be civil to people who constantly are placing you under threat of assault, verbal and otherwise? How can there be dialogue when the normative rules of give and take and fair play have not only been flushed down the drain, but chopped into bits and swept out with the tide? Do the advocates of civility place any onus on the nonstop verbal abuse, and absolutely ruthless, win-at-all-costs politics emanating from the conservative quadrant? And do they really expect liberals to refuse to defend themselves, even realizing that doing so gets them accused of further incivility?

Digby: Misdirection

I've been observing discussions here and elsewhere about the immigration debate with increasing anxiety that the Republicans are going to get away with yet another misdirection perfectly designed to derail progressive hopes and dreams by stroking America's lizard brain. The election feels eerily reminiscent of 1992, when so-called reasonable centrists stoked the crazy man Ross Perot's campaign by backing his obsessive concern for "the deficit" which was nothing more than a weird abstraction into which misinformed discontented voters could pour their economic fears.

Digby: Keeping Them Viable

Far be it for me to be suspicious of the Kewl Kidz of Village High, but I have noticed an odd phenomenon in the past week or so that makes me wonder if those clever kids aren't doing a little GOP prep work for the general election.

Isn't it a little bit weird that we are suddenly seeing a bunch of articles about the liberal records of Republican candidates in the mainstream press?

For Obama, a tale of 2 speeches

Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: November 21, 2007 12:12:41 AM

WASHINGTON — In February 1981, at the small, mostly white college he was attending in Los Angeles, 19-year-old Barack Obama tried something that shaped the course of his life.

He gave a speech.

Like many students of that era, the sophomore was drawn to the South African divestment movement, which demanded that college trustees drop institutional investments that supported the racial segregation system known as apartheid. Obama's role at the Occidental College rally that warm winter day was to grab the crowd's attention, then be whisked off by students in paramilitary costumes.

Smarter energy storage for solar and wind power

Development of the first hybrid battery suitable for storing electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind is now a step closer.

26 November 2007

CSIRO and Cleantech Ventures have invested in technology start-up Smart Storage Pty Ltd to develop and commercialise battery-based storage solutions.

Director of the CSIRO Energy Transformed National Research Flagship Dr John Wright said the Smart Storage battery technology aims to deliver a low cost, high performance, high power stationary energy storage solution suitable for grid-connected and remote applications.

Paul Krugman: Fear creeps in

More about the developing liquidity crisis, again from the Financial Times:

Investors fear the financial system is moving into new credit turmoil, which could create further losses for financial institutions – and potentially hurt sentiment in the “real” economy.

Robert Fisk: Darkness falls on the Middle East

In Beirut, people are moving out of their homes, just as they have in Baghdad

Published: 24 November 2007

So where do we go from here? I am talking into blackness because there is no electricity in Beirut. And everyone, of course, is frightened. A president was supposed to be elected today. He was not elected. The corniche outside my home is empty. No one wants to walk beside the sea.

When I went to get my usual breakfast cheese manouche there were no other guests in the café. We are all afraid. My driver, Abed, who has loyally travelled with me across all the war zones of Lebanon, is frightened to drive by night. I was supposed to go to Rome yesterday. I spared him the journey to the airport.

Supreme Court Allows Warrantless Searches of Welfare Applicants' Homes

By Richard Blair, The All Spin Zone
Posted on November 27, 2007, Printed on November 27, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://allspinzone.com/wp//68989/

This post, written by Richard Blair, originally appeared on The All Spin Zone

With their refusal to hear a San Diego County case yesterday regarding unannounced searching of homes of public assistance applicants, the Supreme Court once again turned noted English jurist William Blackstone on his head. In the view of the Roberts court, it is better that ten truly needy people suffer than one potential fraudster escape.

Back in the mid-1980's, when big companies started requiring employees to submit to random drug and alcohol screenings, it was quite apparent that privacy and fourth amendment constitutional protections were under serious attack. There were two lines of reasoning that courts eventually approved of the screenings -- workplace safety and, hey, if someone didn't want to submit to the testing, they were free to quit the job.

David Neiwert: Who's the nutcase?

It seems Michelle Malkin (along with the New York Post) is all atwitter about the results of polls showing that the American public doesn't believe the same as evidently proper-thinking Americans should.

The most significant evidence? The polls showing that "62% believe the feds ignored specific warnings about 9/11," or as the Post described it:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the federal government had warnings about 9/11 but decided to ignore them, a national survey found.

And that’s not the only conspiracy theory with a huge number of true believers in the United States.

Digby: Deep Thoughts

A couple of months ago I published a memo about the upcoming elections from a friend of mine who is a very sharp, well informed observer and participant in the political scene. I call him Deep Insight.

He's updated his analysis of the presidential election and I thought you might find it interesting:

On some days, it appears George Bush could care less if he drives the GOP over the cliff in 2008. His pursuit of rightwing foreign and domestic policy continues unabated. Iraq will remain a mess for years and millions have already fled the country. Our wonderful ally, the President of Pakistan, declares martial rule while we funnel billions in cash to his military cronies. Meanwhile, the Taliban now controls parts of Northwest Pakistan. Bush’s decision to veto the Children’s health proposal cements a nice brand image for his party as reckless and incompetent on foreign policy and heartless on healthcare for kids.

Secondhand smoke damages lungs, MRIs show

It’s not a smoking gun, but it’s smoking-related, and it’s there in bright medical images: evidence of microscopic structural damage deep in the lungs, caused by secondhand cigarette smoke. For the first time, researchers have identified lung injury to nonsmokers that was long suspected, but not previously detectable with medical imaging tools.

The researchers suggest that their findings may strengthen public health efforts to restrict secondhand smoke.

Don't look now: Here comes the recession

Even with a boost from holiday spending, the U.S. economy looks shaky, thanks to slumping housing prices, Wall Street woes and debt-laden consumers. How bad could it get?

By Colin Barr, senior writer

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The cash registers were ringing on Black Friday, but make no mistake: American consumers are jittery, and seem all but certain to push the U.S. economy into recession.

After years of living happily beyond their means, Americans are finally facing financial reality. A persistent rise in energy prices will mean bigger heating bills this winter and heftier tabs at the gas pump. Job growth is slowing and wage gains have been anemic. House prices are sliding, diminishing the value of the asset that's the biggest factor in Americans' personal wealth. Even the stock market, which has been resilient for so long in the face of eroding consumer sentiment, has begun pulling back amid signs of deep distress in the financial sector.

Dioxin spot in Mich. could be worst ever

Dioxin Contamination Site Downstream From Mich. Chemical Plant Could Be Worst Ever, EPA Says

Staff
AP News

Nov 25, 2007 20:52 EST

A find of dioxin at the bottom of the Saginaw River could be the highest level of such contamination ever discovered in the nation's rivers and lakes, according to a federal scientist involved in cleanup efforts downstream from a Dow Chemical Co. plant.

A crew testing the Saginaw and Tittabawassee rivers discovered the sample, which measured 1.6 million parts of dioxin per trillion of water, The Saginaw News and The Detroit News reported last week. That level is about 20 times higher than any other find recorded in the EPA archives.

Taking Marriage Private

Olympia, Wash.

WHY do people — gay or straight — need the state’s permission to marry? For most of Western history, they didn’t, because marriage was a private contract between two families. The parents’ agreement to the match, not the approval of church or state, was what confirmed its validity.

For 16 centuries, Christianity also defined the validity of a marriage on the basis of a couple’s wishes. If two people claimed they had exchanged marital vows — even out alone by the haystack — the Catholic Church accepted that they were validly married.

Paul Krugman: Winter of Our Discontent

“Americans’ Economic Pessimism Reaches Record High.” That’s the headline on a recent Gallup report, which shows a nation deeply unhappy with the state of the economy. Right now, “27% of Americans rate current economic conditions as either ‘excellent’ or ‘good,’ while 44% say they are ‘only fair’ and 28% say they are poor.” Moreover, “an extraordinary 78% of Americans now say the economy is getting worse, while a scant 13% say it is getting better.”

What’s really remarkable about this dismal outlook is that the economy isn’t (yet?) in recession, and consumers haven’t yet felt the full effects of $98 oil (wait until they see this winter’s heating bills) or the plunging dollar, which will raise the prices of imported goods.

Glenn Greenwald: Time magazine's FISA fiasco shows how Beltway reporters mislead the country

On Wednesday, I documented that Joe Klein's column in this week's Time Magazine contained multiple false statements about the new FISA bill -- The RESTORE Act -- passed by House Democrats last week. The most obvious and harmful inaccuracy was his claim that that bill "would require the surveillance of every foreign-terrorist target's calls to be approved by the FISA court" and that it therefore "would give terrorists the same legal protections as Americans." Based on those outright falsehoods, Klein called the House Democrats' bill "well beyond stupid."

That day, Klein responded on his blog to what I wrote without acknowledging that he was doing so and without even telling his readers what the criticisms were. He insisted that everything he wrote was accurate ("as I reported, [the bill] obliquely gives foreign terrorists the same procedures as American citizens, if not the same rights"). He also said that the RESTORE Act was just "a partisan waste of time, fodder for lawyers and civil liberties extremists."

Senate's No. 2 Republican to resign by end of year

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Trent Lott, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, intends to resign by the end of the year, the Mississippi Republican announced Monday.

"Trish and I have decided that it's time to do something else," Lott said, referring to his wife.

"Let me be clear: There are no problems," Lott said.

We Face Worldwide Drought with No Contingency Plan

By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com
Posted on November 25, 2007, Printed on November 26, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/68498/

Georgia's on my mind. Atlanta, Georgia. It's a city in trouble in a state in trouble in a region in trouble. Water trouble. Trouble big enough that the state government's moving fast. Just this week, backed up by a choir singing "Amazing Grace," accompanied by three Protestant ministers, and twenty demonstrators from the Atlanta Freethought Society, Sonny Perdue, Georgia's Baptist governor, led a crowd of hundreds in prayers for rain.

"We've come together here," he said, "simply for one reason and one reason only: To very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm." It seems, however, that the Almighty was otherwise occupied and the regional drought continued to threaten Atlanta, a metropolis of 5 million people (and growing fast), with the possibility that it might run out of water in as little as eighty days or as much as a year, if the rains don't come.

The Bush Family Gets Away with Crimes That Would Land Anyone Else in Jail

By Robert Parry, Consortium News
Posted on November 26, 2007, Printed on November 26, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/68843/

In the history of the American Republic, perhaps no political family has been more protected from scandal than the Bushes.

When the Bushes are involved in dirty deals or even criminal activity, standards of evidence change. Instead of proof "beyond a reasonable doubt" that would lock up an average citizen, the evidence must be perfect.

The Scientists Speak

The world’s scientists have done their job. Now it’s time for world leaders, starting with President Bush, to do theirs. That is the urgent message at the core of the latest — and the most powerful — report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 2,500 scientists who collectively constitute the world’s most authoritative voice on global warming.

Released in Spain over the weekend, the report leaves no doubt that man-made emissions from the burning of fossil fuels (and, to a lesser extent, deforestation) have been responsible for the steady rise in atmospheric temperatures.

Digby: More Warrantless Searches

Republicans really, really hate the fourth amendment. It seems to come up in every controversy these days:

GREENPORT, N.Y.

...As the details of the Sept. 27 raid spread through this village, where about 17 percent of residents are Hispanic, some citizens began to protest the very premise of the operation — and the participation of local officers.

David Nyce, Greenport’s mayor, said, “The whole gang issue is something to keep the white majority scared about the Latino population, and to come in and bust as many people as they want.”

Did McClellan Accuse Bush of Lying to Federal Prosecutors?

Bush press secretary Scott McClellan unleashed a new storm about the Valerie Plame investigation last week. McClellan’s publisher is about to release his new book, What Happened, and he picked what promised to be the juiciest morsel from the work to attract media attention. McClellan noted that he had “unknowingly passed along false information” that designed to throw investigators off the scent of the Preisdent’s senior political counselor, Karl Rove and Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby, who were subsequently revealed by the investigation to have been the leakers of the secret identity of a covert CIA agent. McClellan writes that “five of the highest ranking officials in the administration. . . Rove, Libby, Cheney, [Andrew] Card, and the president himself” had been involved in the conspiracy to out the CIA agent as a petty act of reprisal against her husband for authoring a New York Times op-ed which laid bare the intentional misstatements contained in the president’s State of the Union Address concerning a phony plot by Saddam to secure yellowcake uranium from Niger.

Daily Kos: How the Republicans Became the Party of Racial Hatred

by Yosef 52
Sat Nov 24, 2007 at 02:31:29 PM PST

When I was a kid, it was the (conservative) Southern Democrats who stood in ferocious opposition to justice for our country's African-American minority. Northern Republicans (such as Everett Dirksen of Illinois) were foursquare for civil rights legislation and used their legislative influence to help make it law. Among the most hateful of the Southern Democrats who opposed equal rights for blacks was the despicable Strom Thurmond, whose opposition to such measures bordered on the pathological. (He wore a diaper so he could conduct a 24 hour filibuster in the Senate against the 1957 Civil Rights Act!) Yes, the deal with the devil the national Democratic Party had made was truly shameful: tolerate the Southern racists as long as those same racists delivered states for Roosevelt or Stevenson on election day.

Resurrecting the Star Chamber

When the Founding Fathers looked for a model that reflected the abuses they objected to—in short what they intended to forbid by their new Constitution and Bill of Rights—they turned to an English institution, the Court of Star Chamber. It was a state security court with ancient roots which flourished under the Tudor and Stuart monarchs. The Star Chamber court operated in secrecy, was not bothered by the picky evidentiary rules that emerged in other courts, and did not believe that those appearing before it on state security charges had many rights—certainly not the right to counsel, nor even the right to conduct a defense. It relied very heavily on torture to extract the evidence it sought to convict, usually a confession—though rarely, of course, a confession with any validity, since the application of the rack would quickly get the subject to say whatever was desired, truthful or not.

Glenn Greenwald: Good riddance to John Howard

There's a tendency in the U.S. to view the elections in other countries based on the self-centered perspective that the result is always some sort of referendum on the U.S. Hence, all sorts of unwarranted conclusions are typically drawn whenever a pro-Bush foreign leader is defeated or re-elected.

Like most foreign elections, the humiliating defeat of Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, was driven largely by their own domestic concerns, and it had little (though not nothing) to do with the U.S. Still, it is worth celebrating Howard's defeat in light of how pernicious a presence he was, as one of the very few remaining world leaders who loyally supported the worst and most war-loving aspects of the Bush/Cheney foreign policy.

Mortgage Failures Could Create Nightmare

Saturday November 24, 12:02 am ET
By Joe Bel Bruno, AP Business Writer New Wave of Mortgage Failures Could Create a Nightmare Economic Scenario NEW YORK (AP) -- When Domenico Colombo saw that his monthly mortgage payment was about to balloon by 30 percent, he had a clear picture of how bad it could get.

His payment was scheduled to surge by an extra $1,500 in December. With his daughter headed to college next fall and tuition to be paid, he feared ending up like so many neighbors in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., who defaulted on their mortgages and whose homes are now in foreclosure and sporting "For Sale" signs.

Oil, Politics & Bribes

Big Oil, Big Influence

By LINDSAY RENICK MAYER

Lindsay Renick Mayer is the money-in-politics reporter for the Center for Responsive Politics. The nonpartisan Washington-based organization researches money's influence on politics and provided data for this story from its website, OpenSecrets.org.

During his first month in office, President George W. Bush appointed Vice President Dick Cheney to head a task force charged with developing the country's energy policy. The group, which conducted its meetings in secret, relied on the recommendations of Big Oil behemoths Exxon Mobil, Conoco, Shell Oil, BP America and Chevron. It would be the first of many moves to come during the Bush administration that would position oil and gas companies well ahead of other energy interests with billions of dollars in subsidies and tax cuts—payback for an industry with strong ties to the administration and plenty of money to contribute to congressional and presidential campaigns.

During the time that Bush and Cheney, both of whom are former oil executives, have been in the White House, the oil and gas industry has spent $393.2 million on lobbying the federal government. This places the industry among the top nine in lobbying expenditures. The industry has also contributed a substantial $82.1 million to federal candidates, parties and political action committees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. 80 percent of the industry's contributions have gone to Republicans.

U.S. Notes Limited Progress in Afghan War

Strategic Goals Unmet, White House Concludes

By Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 25, 2007; Page A01

A White House assessment of the war in Afghanistan has concluded that wide-ranging strategic goals that the Bush administration set for 2007 have not been met, even as U.S. and NATO forces have scored significant combat successes against resurgent Taliban fighters, according to U.S. officials.

The evaluation this month by the National Security Council followed an in-depth review in late 2006 that laid out a series of projected improvements for this year, including progress in security, governance and the economy. But the latest assessment concluded that only "the kinetic piece" -- individual battles against Taliban fighters -- has shown substantial progress, while improvements in the other areas continue to lag, a senior administration official said.