07 December 2007

Digby: Wonder Working BS

I wrote about Mitt's JFK speech dilemma the other day:
Kennedy successfully tempered a long standing anti-catholic bias held by a rather large number in this country by appealing to the fundamental American belief in a separation of church and state and by reassuring them that he would make decisions based on what his conscience tells him is in the national interest "and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates." Romney will be trying to temper an anti-Mormon bias among a sub-set of the Religious Right by assuring them (through coded conservative Christian language) that he is just as biased against other religions and non-believers as they are and will definitely bow to outside pressures or dictates --- from them.

Digby: From The Wrong About Everything File

I know that I'm just a dirty hippie partisan whore who has no clue about anything, but it does seem my ill-informed intuition may have been correct when I wrote the other day that the neocons would be out in force doing what they always do. And it appears that the mainstream media may be listening.

The Man Behind the Torture

By David Cole

The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration
by Jack Goldsmith

Norton, 256 pp., $25.95

Perhaps the most powerful lawyer in the Bush administration is also the most reclusive. David Addington, who was Vice President Dick Cheney's counsel from 2001 to 2005, and since then his chief of staff, does not talk to the press. His voice, however, has been enormously influential behind closed doors, where, with Cheney's backing, he has helped shape the administration's strategy in the war on terror, and in particular its aggressively expansive conception of executive power. Sometimes called "Cheney's Cheney," Addington has twenty years of experience in national security matters—he has been a lawyer for the CIA, the secretary of defense, and two congressional committees concerned with intelligence and foreign affairs. He is a prodigious worker, and by all accounts a brilliant inside political player. Richard Shiffrin, deputy general counsel for intelligence at the Defense Department until 2003, called him "an unopposable force."[1] Yet most of the American public has never heard him speak.

Addington's combination of public silence and private power makes him an apt symbol for the Bush administration's general approach to national security. Many of the administration's most controversial policies have been adopted in secret, under Addington's direction, often without much input from other parts of the executive branch, much less other branches of government, and without public accountability. Among the measures we know about are disappearances of detainees into secret CIA prisons, the use of torture to gather evidence, rendition of suspects to countries known for torture, and warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

Report: U.S. Teen Births Rise

December 5, 2007

ATLANTA (AP) -- The nation's teen birth rate has risen for the first time in 14 years, according to a new government report.

The birth rate had been dropping since 1991. The decline had slowed in recent years, but government statisticians said Wednesday it jumped 3 percent from 2005 to 2006.

Wolfowitz on the rebound

Despite being forced to resign in disgrace as president of the World Bank and helping lead America into the biggest foreign policy disaster in history, Wolfie is still useful to the Bush administration

Last summer, when Paul Wolfowitz was forced to resign as president of the World Bank because he obtained a high-paying promotion for his female companion, Shaha Riza, a Middle East expert at the bank, he was welcomed back with open arms by his old comrades at the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute. Wolfowitz's retreat to the conservative philanthropy sponsored think tank that has placed dozens of its staffers within the Bush administration gave him the opportunity to await an opening to rejoin his comrades in government.

Contraception, Anyone?

A lot of niceties are currently in dispute among Democratic candidates, for example on the question of whether health insurance should be mandated. In the meantime, Republicans are off the hook on matters that are surely of interest to voters. One example: the disappeared issue of contraception.

Consider this: "I fought to define life as beginning at conception rather than at the time of implantation." Thus Mitt Romney on a subject so banal and so revealing, so stunningly revealing, as to have eluded the attention of all the blowhard superintendents of debate at all the Republican encounters so far.

Wary of Risk, Bankers Sold Shaky Mortgage Debt

As the subprime loan crisis deepens, Wall Street firms are increasingly coming under scrutiny for their role in selling risky mortgage-related securities to investors.

Many of the home loans tied to these investments quickly defaulted, resulting in billions of dollars of losses for investors. At the same time, many of the companies that sold these securities, concerned about a looming meltdown in the housing market, protected themselves from losses.

What's Really Wrong With the MSM?

by Eric Alterman

Of course, far more is wrong with the mainstream media than can be described, or even enumerated, in one column. But let's give it a shot, using only items that have come up since my last column, all of which speak to the issue of why its members have forfeited our collective trust.

'Millions missing' from Iraq fund

A $5.2bn (£2.6bn) fund used to train and equip Iraqi security forces cannot be shown to have been used properly, US military auditors say in a new report.

Sloppy accounting by the US army command meant there was no paper trail for much of the spending, they say.

The report, based on a visit from March to May this year, said high levels of violence made it hard to oversee management of the fund.

Lou Dobbs Spreads Vile Misinformation about Immigrants

By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate
Posted on December 5, 2007, Printed on December 7, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/69769/

Truth matters. History and context count. "You're entitled to your own opinions. You're not entitled to your own facts," the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously observed.

CNN's Lou Dobbs has migrated to a pre-eminent position in the debate on immigration in the U.S. Since he identifies himself as a journalist, he has a special responsibility to rely on facts and to correct misstatements of fact. CNN, which purports to be a news organization, touting itself as the "Most Trusted Name in News," has an equally strong obligation to its audience to tell the truth.

C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terrorism suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. The tapes were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that video showing harsh interrogation methods could expose agency officials to legal risks, several officials said.

Six Necessary Changes to Our Constitution

By Larry J. Sabato, AlterNet
Posted on December 6, 2007, Printed on December 7, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/66757/

From the separation of powers to the Bill of Rights, the United States Constitution remains brilliant in its overall composition. Since 1787, however, we have seen tremendous growth in our technologies, economy, population and military strength. Our founding document no longer addresses the complicated issues that affect our government and our citizens. If we really want to make progress and achieve greater fairness as a society, it is time for elemental change. And we should start by looking at the Constitution, with the goal of holding a new Constitutional Convention.

Sound radical? If so, then the founders were radicals. They would be amazed and disappointed that after 220 years, the inheritors of their Constitution had not tried to adapt to new developments that the founders could never have anticipated in Philadelphia in 1787.

Military Recruitment Lie: Pentagon's Education Pitch is a Scam

By Aaron Glantz, The Nation
Posted on November 29, 2007, Printed on December 7, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/69200/

"Join the military and go to college." That's what the recruiters say.

But the deal that today's servicemen and servicewomen get is a far cry from what their fathers and grandfathers got. When President Franklin Roosevelt signed the GI Bill into law in the waning days of World War II, he saw it as part of his New Deal program. The law, officially called the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, promised returning veterans that the government would pay the full cost of tuition and books at any public or private college or job-training program. It also provided unemployment insurance and loans to buy homes and start businesses.

Thom Hartmann: How Liberals Can Speak Without Boring Everyone to Tears

By Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet
Posted on December 6, 2007, Printed on December 7, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/69710/

"SCHIP" according to Thom Hartmann, "sounds like something you want to avoid stepping in as you're walking through a cow pasture." Referring to a program to provide healthcare coverage to children nationwide with the hollow acronym SCHIP is just one of many failures of imagination on the part of the Democratic Party. Chart the difference between "SCHIP" and "The Clear Skies Act" and you'll get some sense of the dissonance that has progressives throughout the country scratching their heads in bewilderment.

You may know Hartmann as the host of a progressive radio program on Air America. What you may not know about are his previous gigs in advertising and as the director of a residential treatment center for children. It is this background in advertising and psychology that informs Hartmann's insight into the ability of a politician to connect with Americans. His new book Cracking the Code: The Art and Science of Political Persuasion, is written with the intention of providing progressive Americans with the tools that the advertising industry has mastered: How to tell the story behind your vision in such a way that people can't help but listen.

How Conservatives Manipulate People Into Voting Against Their Best Interests

By Digby , Common Sense
Posted on December 7, 2007, Printed on December 7, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/69927/

American right-wing populism is an interesting phenomenon that's coming to the fore once again in its usual nativist and racist form, but also as smooth misrepresentation of "tax reform"; clever, misleading public relations messaging about fair trade; and some fairly outlandish paranoia about conspiracies to erase the borders. Various permutations of these fairly common right-wing themes abound among conservative politicians and thinkers alike. But conservative populism is an oxymoron.

As Phil Agre wrote in this much discussed article about the definition of conservatism, "Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy ... [it] is incompatible with democracy, prosperity and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world."

Digby: Noble Neocons

Like virtually everyone else on the liberal side of the spectrum I've been greatly intrigued by Naomi Klein's new book "The Shock Doctrine," which posits that economic elites practice "disaster capitalism" around the world by taking advantage of the disorientation caused by crisis. It's a very coherent and compelling thesis that gives many of us, for the first time, a framework from which to understand globalization, preemptive war and massive government failure, among other things.

But one of the things that I've found puzzling is the idea that the human motivation for this elaborate regime is plain old greed.

05 December 2007

Documents Expose Huckabee's Role In Serial Rapist's Release

Little Rock, Ark -- As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.

Confidential Arkansas state government records, including letters from these women, obtained by the Huffington Post and revealed publicly for the first time, directly contradict the version of events now being put forward by Huckabee.

New York subpoenas Wall St on mortgages

Wednesday December 5, 3:20 pm ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state prosecutors have sent subpoenas to Wall Street firms seeking information related to the packaging and selling of debt tied to high-risk mortgages, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The subpoenas, sent by the office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, requested information from a number of Wall Street firms.

White Backlash and the Right

Recently the New York Times carried a report on the "noose incidents" that have been occurring with rising frequency around the country, inspired seemingly by the protests over the "Jena 6" case.

The report came complete with a graphic showing where the incidents have occurred. Remarkably, it isn't just happening in the South: the incidents are also being reported in places like Minneapolis; Cicero, Ill.; Pittsburgh; Philadelphia; Newark; Baltimore; and New London, Conn.

Debunking Iran's Nuclear Program: Another 'Intelligence Failure' -- On the Part of the Press?

Iraqi WMD redux: The release of the NIE throwing cold water on oft-repeated claims of a rampant Iranian nuclear weapons program has chastened public officials and policymakers who have promoted this line for years. But many in the media have made these same claims, often extravagantly.

By Greg Mitchell

NEW YORK (December 04, 2007) -- Press reports so far have suggested that the belated release of the National Intelligence Estimate yesterday throwing cold water on oft-repeated claims of a rampant Iranian nuclear weapons program has deeply embarrassed, or at least chastened, public officials and policymakers who have promoted this line for years. Gaining little attention so far: Many in the media have made these same claims, often extravagantly, which promoted (deliberately or not) the tubthumping for striking Iran.

Seymour M. Hersh: The Next Act

Is a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more?

by Seymour M. Hersh
November 27, 2006

A month before the November elections, Vice-President Dick Cheney was sitting in on a national-security discussion at the Executive Office Building. The talk took a political turn: what if the Democrats won both the Senate and the House? How would that affect policy toward Iran, which is believed to be on the verge of becoming a nuclear power? At that point, according to someone familiar with the discussion, Cheney began reminiscing about his job as a lineman, in the early nineteen-sixties, for a power company in Wyoming. Copper wire was expensive, and the linemen were instructed to return all unused pieces three feet or longer. No one wanted to deal with the paperwork that resulted, Cheney said, so he and his colleagues found a solution: putting “shorteners” on the wire—that is, cutting it into short pieces and tossing the leftovers at the end of the workday. If the Democrats won on November 7th, the Vice-President said, that victory would not stop the Administration from pursuing a military option with Iran. The White House would put “shorteners” on any legislative restrictions, Cheney said, and thus stop Congress from getting in its way.

04 December 2007

Nuclear Meltdown

We're not going to bomb Iran.

If there was ever a possibility that President George W. Bush would drop bombs on Iran, the chances have now shrunk to nearly zero.

In one of the most dramatic National Intelligence Estimates ever, the 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community concluded today "with high confidence" that Iran "halted its nuclear weapons" four years ago, in the fall of 2003.

Jefferson neuroscientists find early lead exposure impedes recovery from brain injury

(PHILADELPHIA) Exposure to lead can hinder the brain’s ability to recover from injury, a recent study in laboratory animals shows. The results have implications for the effects of environmental lead exposure on brain injuries such as stroke, say researchers at Jefferson Medical College, who led the work.

Lead exposure early in life is known to increase the risk for cancer, renal disease, hypertension and cardiovascular disease later in life, and as a result, also increases the risk for stroke and brain damage. Jay Schneider, Ph.D., professor of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology and Neurology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and postdoctoral fellow Emmanuel Decamp, Ph.D., wanted to know if it was possible that lead might alter the potential for plasticity, the ability of the brain to compensate for an injury. They studied young rats that were fed a diet supplemented with lead and compared them to others on a diet without lead. In earlier work in the lab, they found that even brief exposures to lead affected neurotrophic factors in the brain important for growth and maintenance of neurons and their connections.

On Thrill Rides, Safety Is Optional

No Federal Oversight of Theme Parks

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 4, 2007; A01

In December 2005, 9-year-old Fatima Cervantes and her 8-year-old brother boarded a Sizzler ride at a carnival in Austin, thrilled to climb into one of the candy-colored cars on rotating arms. But shortly after their blue car started whirling, Fatima slipped beneath the lap bar and was thrown onto the platform, where a metal arm crushed her head.

Since 1997, Sizzlers have been involved in at least four other deaths and dozens of injuries in the United States. Noting similarities in several accidents, a group of 25 state inspection chiefs requested in June that the ride's manufacturer, Wisdom Industries, take immediate measures to prevent "an unacceptable level of ejection risk."

Small Step, Big Victory on Energy

A majority in both houses of Congress, reflecting the desires of the American people, wants to shift the direction of our energy policy away from the fossil fuel past and towards a renewable energy future.

To that end, the Senate passed an energy bill in June, the House followed in August.

Minnesota investigating neurological illnesses among workers at pork processing plant

State health officials said Monday they were investigating neurological illnesses among 11 workers at a pork processing plant, but that there was no evidence that the public was at risk.

Health Commissioner Dr. Sanne Magnan also said there was no evidence that the food coming out of Quality Pork Processing in Austin has been contaminated.

White House blocking congressional Plame probe, chairman says

President Bush is doing everything possible to delay, obfuscate and obstruct a congressional investigation of his possible role in exposing an undercover CIA agent, a Congressional chairman alleges.

Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the House Oversight Committee, has challenged new Attorney General Michael Mukasey to demonstrate his independence from the White House, just as Clinton-era AG Janet Reno did in handing over documents related to the president and vice president.

Calculating the Risks in Pakistan

U.S. War Games Weigh Options for Securing Nuclear Stockpile

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 2, 2007; A20

A small group of U.S. military experts and intelligence officials convened in Washington for a classified war game last year, exploring strategies for securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal if the country's political institutions and military safeguards began to fall apart.

The secret exercise -- conducted without official sponsorship from any government agency, apparently due to the sensitivity of its subject -- was one of several such games the U.S. government has conducted in recent years examining various options and scenarios for Pakistan's nuclear weapons: How many troops might be required for a military intervention in Pakistan? Could Pakistani nuclear bunkers be isolated by saturating the surrounding areas with tens of thousands of high-powered mines, dropped from the air and packed with anti-tank and anti-personnel munitions? Or might such a move only worsen the security of Pakistan's arsenal?

International trade tribunals seen trumping state laws

By Dave Gram Associated Press Writer / December 2, 2007

MONTPELIER, Vt.—A Canadian company wants to open a new plant in Claremont, N.H., to bottle fresh water from a source in Stockbridge, Vt.

But if Vermont wants to limit how much water the company takes, it may run afoul of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

States around the country are growing increasingly worried about the threats posed to their laws and regulations by the secret tribunals that resolve disputes in international trade. Experts say everything from environmental rules to the licensing of nurses and other professionals could be affected.

A Miracle: Honest Intel on Iran Nukes

With redraft after redraft, it was what the Germans call “eine schwere Geburt”—a difficult birth, ten months in gestation.

I do not know how often Vice President Dick Cheney visited CIA Headquarters during the gestation period, but I am told he voiced his displeasure as soon as he saw the first sonogram/draft very early this year, and is so displeased with what issued that he has refused to be the godfather.

Rove Misled Rose on CIA Leak Case, and the White House Is Still Stonewalling

Did Karl Rove fib to Charlie Rose?

Is the Bush administration preventing Congress from further investigating Rove's role in the Valerie Plame leak case and doing the same regarding the White House?

The answers: Yes, and it seems so.

The Lending Crisis Is Becoming a Poltical Battleground

By Danny Schechter, AlterNet
Posted on December 3, 2007, Printed on December 4, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/69557/

So where is this credit crisis going? How will it end? What's the prognosis?

As the citizen of a country without an attention span, everyone wants some else to play forecaster and tick off what must be done. And they want it quick and simple even though there are no real quickie responses to a complicated problem. Almost any reassuring soundbite will do. The questions are predicable. What should I do to protect my money? Can't they fix this, after all our economy is supposed to be, oh so, "resilient?"

'Giuliani Time': Just When You Thought You Knew How Evil He Is

By Lisa Gray-Garcia, AlterNet
Posted on December 4, 2007, Printed on December 4, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/69409/

"Peddlers, panhandlers and prostitutes, they all need to be cleaned out [of Manhattan]." The first time I heard Rudy Giuliani speak was on a NBC nightly news broadcast. It was 1996. I was living in Oakland, Calif., at the time -- 3,000 miles away from Manhattan, where, as mayor, Giuliani was implementing his "clean-up campaign." But the sting of his speech still scared me.

It was the first time I had heard hygienic metaphors to describe poor people like me who were surviving in an underground street-based economy. Rudy Giuliani had become mayor of New York City on a campaign that constructed a new scapegoat for all of America's crime problems: "the squeegee man" (aka a person who cleans car windows at stop lights).

How to Really Love Your Country: Five Objectives for True Patriots

By Paul Buchheit, AlterNet
Posted on December 4, 2007, Printed on December 4, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/69577/

Throughout history, some of the most respected defenders of liberty felt that patriotism implies thoughtfulness over blind acceptance of the norm. Socrates, Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. all encouraged active efforts to improve one's country by adhering to the highest standards of behavior, by government and by the citizens themselves.

There is certainly room for improvement in America. Here is a Top 5 list of candidates for thoughtfulness over blind acceptance.

03 December 2007

Digby: Complexity In The Pile

Atrios writes about the possibility of Jebbie Bush being involved in Big Shitpile this morning and says:
I too suspect that the last gasp of Big Shitpile involved finding marks in state and local governments.
I've wondered about this myself.

Greenspan Was `Very Bad' Fed Chairman, Says Artus of Natixis

"Greenspan was an arsonist and a fireman combined."--Patrick Artus

By Farah Nayeri

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Alan Greenspan, who led the U.S. Federal Reserve for 18 years and was revered in the financial markets, was a ``very bad'' Fed chairman.

That's the blunt verdict of Patrick Artus, chief economist of Natixis SA and one of France's most listened-to pundits: He is an economic adviser to the French government.

Guantanamo prisoners to ask Supreme Court for basic rights

WASHINGTON — Mustafa Ait Idir is no longer the man he was when Bosnian police set him on the rough road that's now reached to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Algerian native says his bones were broken, his family fractured, his life these past six years stolen away.

Third world warriors fight U.S. wars - for dollars a day

Honduran soldier was among thousands who stood guard over Baghdad embassy, but couldn't legally enter United States.

By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 12/02/2007 04:34:54 PM MST

With U.S. forces stretched thin in Iraq, private security companies have swept in to fill the void. But abuses of third-world security workers abound. And in many cases, those helping to fight our wars can't even cross our borders.

For one year, Mario Urquia guarded the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, protecting American service members and diplomats in one of the most dangerous places in the world.

Paul Krugman: Innovating Our Way to Financial Crisis

The financial crisis that began late last summer, then took a brief vacation in September and October, is back with a vengeance.

How bad is it? Well, I’ve never seen financial insiders this spooked — not even during the Asian crisis of 1997-98, when economic dominoes seemed to be falling all around the world.

This time, market players seem truly horrified — because they’ve suddenly realized that they don’t understand the complex financial system they created.

An Old Face Resurfaces

The Bush administration has offered the former World Bank president a new public service position.

By Michael Isikoff | NEWSWEEK
Dec 10, 2007 Issue

Don't ever say the Bush administration doesn't take care of its own. Nearly three years after Paul Wolfowitz resigned as deputy Defense secretary and six months after his stormy departure as president of the World Bank—amid allegations that he improperly awarded a raise to his girlfriend—he's in line to return to public service. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has offered Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Iraq War, a position as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, a prestigious State Department panel, according to two department sources who declined to be identified discussing personnel matters.

Advisers Say F.D.A.’s Flaws Put Lives at Risk

Published: December 1, 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 — The nation’s food supply is at risk, its drugs are potentially dangerous and its citizens’ lives are at stake because the Food and Drug Administration is desperately short of money and poorly organized, according to an alarming report by agency advisers.

The report, made public on Friday, is the latest and perhaps most far-reaching in a string of outside assessments that have concluded that the F.D.A. is poorly equipped to protect the public health.

Earth's Tropics Belt Expands

Earth's tropical belt seems to have expanded a couple hundred miles over the past quarter century, which could mean more arid weather for some already dry subtropical regions, new climate research shows.

Geographically, the tropical region is a wide swath around Earth's middle stretching from the Tropic of Cancer, just south of Miami, to the Tropic of Capricorn, which cuts Australia almost in half. It's about one-quarter of the globe and generally thought of as hot, steamy and damp, but it also has areas of brutal desert.

National debt grows $1 million a minute

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 46 minutes ago

Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day — or nearly $1 million a minute.

What's that mean to you?

It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States.

Even if you've escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That's because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion.

Tomgram: A Basis for Enduring Relationships in Iraq

Iraq as a Pentagon Construction Site

How the Bush Administration "Endures"
By Tom Engelhardt

The title of the agreement, signed by President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki in a "video conference" last week, and carefully labeled as a "non-binding" set of principles for further negotiations, was a mouthful: a "Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship Between the Republic of Iraq and the United States of America." Whew!

Words matter, of course. They seldom turn up by accident in official documents or statements. Last week, in the first reports on this "declaration," one of those words that matter caught my attention. Actually, it wasn't in the declaration itself, where the key phrase was "long-term relationship" (something in the lives of private individuals that falls just short of a marriage), but in a "fact-sheet" issued by the White House. Here's the relevant line: "Iraq's leaders have asked for an enduring relationship with America, and we seek an enduring relationship with a democratic Iraq." Of course, "enduring" there bears the same relationship to permanency as "long-term relationship" does to marriage.

Local Paper Uncovers Another Mysterious U.S. Death in Iraq

By Greg Mitchell

Published: December 02, 2007 10:15 PM ET
NEW YORK Although the U.S. death toll is down in Iraq, many troops continue to perish in what the military officially announces as "noncombat" or "nonhostile" incidents. An investigation is launched but the press rarely learns the result.

However, local papers often obtain information directly from family members, exposing death by vehicle accident, friendly fire, illness or suicide.

Baking soda could help save planet

By Megan Miller

(PopSci.com) -- In recent months, PopSci has covered various scientists' plans to curb global warming through carbon sequestration, mainly by feeding it to algae to make biofuel, or burying it underground.

Today, a company called Skyonic announced a novel new system, Skymine, which uses the carbon dioxide emitted from smokestacks to make baking soda. According to Skyonic CEO Joe David Jones, the system will be powered by waste heat from factories, and will produce food-grade baking soda.

02 December 2007

Digby

Rudy's Judy Problem

Matthews says today, (paraphrasing) "are we really writing off Rudy because of some billing records? Hillary Clinton's got billing records up to ying yang and we haven't figured that out yet."

He was very depressed about these new revelations about his hero Rudy the manly, mans man. When a guest suggested that Rudy really couldn't take credit for reducing all the crime in New York because his predecessor had successfully persuaded the state to provide money for 5,000 more police before he left office, Chris objected saying that it was true on a "symbolic level" whatever that means.


Panic Artists

I don't get this. According to Media Matters, CNN apologized for allowing General Kerr to ask that question at the Republican debates about "Don't Ask Don't Tell" and expunged it from their re-broadcasts because he is a Clinton supporter.

I could see it if the question itself was rude or shockingly partisan, but there is a GOP "special interest group" called the Log Cabin Republicans who actually sued the government over the same issue.


Dialing Into The Lizard Brain

Frank Luntz invited Joe Klein to a dial-in group and this is what he saw:
I attended Frank Luntz's dial group of 30 undecided--or sort of undecided--Republicans in St. Petersburg, Florida, last night...and it was a fairly astonishing evening.

You Say Plain Wrong, We Say Basically True

So today the NY Times did some good reporting and published a story exposing Rudy Giuliani's pompous, megalomaniacal braggadocio on the stump for what it is:
All of these statements are incomplete, exaggerated or just plain wrong . . . .An examination of many of his statements by The New York Times, other news organizations and independent groups have turned up a variety of misstatements, virtually all of which cast Mr. Giuliani or his arguments in a better light.

Only Time Will Tell

I tend to be a tiny bit of a skeptical sometimes, so I'm always relieved when I see clear evidence that racism plays no part in the immigration debate:
The chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas called Wednesday for state Sen. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, to apologize for e-mail comments attributed to the Senate GOP leader by a television station.

From The WTF Department

Military procurers make a responsible decision:
The Marines plan to buy fewer bomb-resistant vehicles than planned despite pressure from lawmakers who are determined to spend billions of dollars on the vehicles.

Why America's Currency Is the World's Problem

The ailing US economy seems to be driving the exchange rate of the dollar inexorably downward, with serious consequences for the global economy. Politicians and central bankers are looking on helplessly as the economic outlook worsens by the day and European companies rack up huge losses.

It costs about four cents to produce a one-dollar bill -- a pittance, compared to the greenback's influence on the world's economy.

The exchange rate of the dollar can boost the fortunes of companies and entire economies -- or plunge them into crisis. Its rate against the euro fluctuates by a few hundredths of a cent each day. But in the past five years that fluctuation has more often than not taken the US currency on a downward trajectory, causing consternation -- and now despair -- among people around the world.

$50 Billion Middle Class Tax Hike, 38 Million Refunds Delayed

by clammyc
Sun Dec 2nd, 2007 at 12:24:48 PM EST

We’ve seen the following scenario more than a few times before: a proposed massive tax cut is proposed – focusing mainly on the upper 5% or on corporate interest groups. Many Congressional Democrats (rightfully) protest this, and are painted as ones who want to raise the taxes of “people like you and me”. Ultimately, even though this is highly dishonest, at best, some sort of massive tax cut is passed – mainly benefiting those who I mentioned above – with no way to pay for the cuts.

Glenn Greenwald: National Review reporter caught fabricating; where is the "liberal media"?

National Review reporter Thomas Smith has been exposed as a fabulist for plainly fictitious claims he made in two separate NR posts in September regarding Hezbollah's alleged armed threat to the Lebanese Government. The most comprehensive report detailing Smith's fabrications is from Thomas Edsall in The Huffington Post, who examines some of the most factually dubious claims (including Smith's "report" that "between 4,000-5,000 Hezbollah gunmen had 'deployed to the Christian areas of Beirut in an unsettling 'show of force'" and his separate claim that "'some 200-plus heavily armed Hezbollah militiamen' occupied a 'sprawling Hezbollah tent city' near the Lebanese parliament") Smith's war-fueling conclusion: "Hezbollah is rehearsing for something big here."

Daily Kos: National Review: GOP in Deep Doo-Doo

Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:02:50 PM PST

[Promoted by DHinMI: I've recently explored the possibility that the 2008 election could be somewhat like the 1932 election when FDR was elected with a huge majority, which was the start of a Democratic electoral coalition that lasted for decades; I'll revisit the subject on Sunday. Apparently the boys over at the National Review are also thinking we could be on the verge of a big Democratic win next year.]

I actually shelled out hard-earned cash to buy a copy of the National Review today ... seduced by the cover story, The Coming Cataclysm: Why the GOP Faces One and How to Avoid It, written by Ramesh Ponnuru and Richard Lowry. How could I resist? I had to see if their analysis was right, and more to the point, if they thought there really WAS a way to avoid it. I approached with a bit of trepidation, I must admit. I was worried that they might actually HAVE a silver bullet, or some trick up their sleeve, or even some grand new vision that would save things for them.

So what's their solution to avoiding the cataclysm?

The short answer is, with a wing and a prayer. The long answer is ... well, follow me into Conservative Land, if you can bear it. (This trip will not be as bad as you might think ...)

Michael Kinsley: Simple Gifts

The problems with Thompson's and Huckabee's tax plans.

By Michael Kinsley

The American tax code is hideously and needlessly complex. People say they want something simpler. Now two Republican presidential candidates are probably committing political suicide by offering people what they say they want.

The central gimmick of Fred Thompson's recently announced tax plan is to offer people a choice. They can pay taxes under the current rules—with some juicy new breaks added from the big and small businesses wish lists—or they can pay a so-called "flat tax," with lower rates and fewer deductions. So, anyone who wants a simpler tax code could have one. But for some of them (people who get a lot of deductions now), the simpler tax will be a higher tax. How many people, do you suppose, would choose simplicity over complexity, even if simplicity will cost them more? My bet: approximately zero.

Rove against the world

Last week, in one of his more breathtaking lies, Karl Rove told a national television audience that it was Congress, not the Bush White House, that pushed for an Iraq war resolution in advance of the 2002 midterm elections. Rove said the administration was "opposed" to moving "too fast," and that the president and his aides wanted the debate "outside the confines of the election."

Since then, there's been one thing everyone, on both sides of the aisle, can agree on: Rove is lying.

Signing statements make a comeback

Throughout his first six years in office, Bush had a habit of signing congressional legislation into law, but using "signing statements" to explain which parts of the law he didn't feel like following.

Fortunately, the president curtailed the practice this year, sticking with the more traditional sign-or-veto approach embraced by his predecessors. That is, until recently. The Boston Globe's Charlie Savage, whose award-winning coverage of the issue has been a journalistic highlight of the last seven years, has the story.

Facebook's Beacon More Intrusive Than Previously Thought

A Computer Associates security researcher says that Facebook's controversial Beacon online ad system goes much further than expected in tracking people's Web activities.

PC World
Friday, November 30, 2007; 8:19 PM

A Computer Associates security researcher is sounding the alarm that Facebook's controversial Beacon online ad system goes much further than anyone has imagined in tracking people's Web activities outside the popular social networking site.

Beacon will report back to Facebook on members' activities on third-party sites that participate in Beacon even if the users are logged off from Facebook and have declined having their activities broadcast to their Facebook friends.

Millions of Tax Refunds Could Be Delayed

Sunday December 2, 2007 10:16 AM

By JIM ABRAMS

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Silena Davis had counted on an early tax refund to pay for getting her teeth fixed. Now, because Congress has dawdled all year on a tax bill, she and millions of other early filers could have to wait extra weeks for refunds that last year averaged $2,291.

The Internal Revenue Service is looking hard at delaying the start of its filing season, set to kick off on Jan. 14, if Congress fails to pass legislation in the next two weeks. At issue is how to handle what could be a dramatic increase in the number of people facing a higher alternative minimum tax.

Giuliani's terrorist ties

Forget Rudy's trysts. The real scandal crying out for investigation is his firm's business with Qatar, a haven for al-Qaida.

By Joe Conason

Nov. 30, 2007 | The familiar herd instinct of the mainstream media is powerful, unswerving and often plain wrong. While editors and producers are supposed to make judgments based on a combination of news value and public interest, their choices often seem to be based on nothing more elevated than an allergy to complexity or an affinity for smut. And occasionally, as in the case of Rudolph Giuliani during this past week, the sudden appearance of not one but two juicy investigations overwhelms the system's capacity to absorb and regurgitate.

'Wash Post' Cartoonist Mocks Own Paper Over Obama Story

By Greg Mitchell, with Dave Astor

Published: November 30, 2007 11:05 AM ET
NEW YORK Tom Toles, the Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post, has never been afraid to take on his own paper's coverage in the past (as E&P has documented) and he does it again today, joining a blogosphere chorus of critics of a story about Barack Obama.

Toles told E&P today he had received no negative reaction from Post editors so far. He said this is the latest example of the creative freedom given him by the Post, which often publishes editorial content (on topics such as the Iraq War) more conservative than the cartoonist's views.

Henry Hyde: Mr. Cover-up

Official Washington is remembering the late Rep. Henry Hyde fondly, recalling the Illinois Republican as a well-respected “pro-life” advocate who held President Bill Clinton accountable for lying about a sexual dalliance with Monica Lewinsky.

But there was another side to Hyde, who died Nov. 29 at the age of 83. As a senior member of national security oversight committees, Hyde helped cover up criminal and political wrongdoing by the Reagan-Bush administrations in the 1980s and early 1990s.

In August 1986, for instance, Hyde was one of the ranking members of the House Intelligence Committee who trooped down to the White House to question National Security Council aide Oliver North about press accounts linking him to a secret operation to supply the Nicaraguan contra rebels in defiance of the law.

Eco-Friendly Product Claims Often Misleading

America's store shelves are filled with products claiming to be good for the environment. Everything from shampoos and cleaning agents to granola bars claim to be "natural" and "earth friendly." But some environmentalists think you're being "greenwashed."

One of them is Scot Case, with the environmental marketing firm TerraChoice.

Frank Rich: Who’s Afraid of Barack Obama?

JUST 24 hours after Hillary Clinton mowed down a skeptical Katie Couric with her certitude that she would win the Democratic nomination — “It will be me!” — her husband showed exactly how she could lose it.

By telling an Iowa audience on Tuesday night that he had opposed the Iraq war “from the beginning,” Bill Clinton committed a double pratfall. Not only did he refocus attention on his wife’s most hazardous issue, Iraq, just as it was receding as the nation’s Topic A, but he also revived unhappy memories of the truth-dodging nadirs of the Clinton White House.

Business Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 — Business lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections, are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety, labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals from the Bush administration than from its successor.

Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration, poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government to relax pollution-control requirements.

Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts

Published: December 2, 2007

LILONGWE, Malawi — Malawi hovered for years at the brink of famine. After a disastrous corn harvest in 2005, almost five million of its 13 million people needed emergency food aid.

But this year, a nation that has perennially extended a begging bowl to the world is instead feeding its hungry neighbors. It is selling more corn to the World Food Program of the United Nations than any other country in southern Africa and is exporting hundreds of thousands of tons of corn to Zimbabwe.

Secrecy invoked on Abramoff lawsuits

By PETE YOST
Sat Dec 1, 1:39 PM ET

The Bush administration is laying out a new secrecy defense in an effort to end a court battle about the White House visits of now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The administration agreed last year to produce all responsive records about the visits "without redactions or claims of exemption," according to a court order.

But in a court filing Friday night, administration lawyers said that sometime in the past year the Secret Service identified a category of highly sensitive documents that might contain information sought in a lawsuit about Abramoff's trips to the White House.

50 years on: The Keeling Curve legacy

By Helen Briggs
Science reporter, BBC News

It is a scientific icon, which belongs, some claim, alongside E=mc2 and the double helix.

Its name - the Keeling Curve - may be scarcely known outside scientific circles, but the jagged upward slope showing rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere has become one of the most famous graphs in science, and a potent symbol of our times.

"The End of America": Naomi Wolf and Amy Goodman Discuss America's Descent into Fascism [VIDEO]

Posted by Adam Howard, AlterNet at 4:01 AM on December 1, 2007.

Naomi Wolf outlines what she sees as the ten steps to shut down a democratic society. She argues the Bush administration has already implemented many of these steps.

In her new book, “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot”, Naomi Wolf says the United States is on the road to becoming a fascist society, right under our very noses.

Tom Tancredo Hired Illegal Laborers to Renovate His McMansion

By Max Blumenthal, AlterNet
Posted on December 1, 2007, Printed on December 2, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/69391/

When Republican Representative Tom Tancredo isn’t railing against the “scourge” of illegal immigration on the presidential campaign trail, he relaxes in the 1053 square foot basement recreation room of his Littleton, Colorado McMansion. There, he and his family can rack up a game of billiards on their tournament size pool table, play pinball, or enjoy their favorite movies in the terraced seating area of a home theater system. Tancredo, who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War by producing evidence that he suffered from mentally illnesses, especially likes entertaining his buddies with classic war movies.