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Edited on Thu Jun-21-07 08:18 AM by Caro
Morning headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Top StoryBush vetoes stem cell bill
Bush and his advisers have chosen to define his remaining year and a half of his presidency as "saying no" to the Democrats, and to the American people. (And in fact, the Republicans on the Hill have done the same - they consistently filibuster everything.) They have no plan for the nation, they have no vision for the future. Rather than figure out a new course for the country, Bush and the GOP will simply say "no" until his time runs out.
This strategy will help the Democrats immensely in next year’s elections. Thanks, Republicans! —Caro Humor Ink
The WorldWorld refugee population certain to rise
GENEVA - The number of people driven from their homes by violence, natural disasters and poverty increased last year for the first time since 2002 and is almost certain to rise further due to deepening conflicts across the world, the U.N. refugee chief said.
Suicide bomber kills 10 in northern Iraq
BAGHDAD - A suicide truck bomber struck a mayor's office in northern Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 40, an Iraqi commander said.
Israel begins Gaza offensive
Israel fired missiles and sent tanks on a foray into Gaza on Wednesday, killing four Palestinians in the deadliest military action since Hamas militants took control of the coastal strip.
Egypt invites Mideast leaders to summit
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Closing ranks against Hamas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has invited the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders to a peace summit next week, Palestinian officials said Thursday.
Pakistan scholars honour Bin Laden in Rushdie row
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - A leading group of Pakistani Islamic scholars awarded its highest honour to Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, saying it was in reaction to Britain's knighthood for Salman Rushdie.
US chief negotiator on surprise NKorea visit
SEOUL (AFP) - US negotiator Christopher Hill flew to North Korea at Pyongyang's invitation Thursday to push for swift progress on nuclear disarmament, the most senior US official to visit in nearly five years. The NationBin Laden may have arranged family's US exit: FBI docs
Osama bin Laden may have chartered a plane that carried his family members and Saudi nationals out of the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks, said FBI documents released Wednesday.
More measures on stem cells expected
WASHINGTON - President Bush hasn't seen the last of legislation to allow federal funding for new embryonic stem cell research.
Good! We’ve been trying to tell you, Democrats, you have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing, to show Americans what you really believe. —Caro
Countdown: Federal Officials Rebelling Against Bush Signing Statements
On Tuesday’s “Countdown”, Jonathan Turley joined Keith Olbermann to discuss (Bush’s) signing statements and what appears to be blowback from federal officials who are refusing to follow Bush’s lead as it may have legal implications for them down the road.
Click through to watch the video. —Caro
House OKs Civil Rights Era Cold Case Bill
The House has passed a bill to establish a new division of federal prosecutors and FBI agents focused strictly on cracking unsolved murders from the Civil Rights Era.
Arkansas senators join call for ‘caging’ investigation.
On Monday, Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) called for the Justice Department to investigate allegations of “caging” surrounding former U.S. attorney Tim Griffin. Today, both Arkansas Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D) and Mark Pryor (D) said that they support the investigation. “If a citizen’s right to vote is being threatened, I think without a doubt it is a very appropriate thing to investigate,” said Lincoln. “There are enough suggestions out there that lend itself to that.”
Griles' Lawyer: He's No Libby
Prosecutors want to send the former #2 at the Department of Interior J. Steven Griles to jail for five months, arguing that Griles' lies to Senate investigators threw investigators off the scent of his ties to Jack Abramoff and he ought to be punished for it. But Griles' lawyer Barry Hartman responded yesterday, saying that while Griles admittedly lied (he pled guilty after all) about the extent of his ties to Abramoff, those lies didn't constitute a cover-up. If investigators had "actually asked a question about a particular subject," Hartman writes, Griles would have fessed up. Too bad investigators didn't know the right questions to ask.
Libby draws conservative appellate panel
Two of the three judges considering whether to delay former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence were Republican appointees.
One of the judges is David B. Sentelle, who helped overturn the convictions of some of the Iran/Contra felons and was part of the cabal that got Kenneth Starr appointed as Bill Clinton’s special persecutor. —Caro
Most Couples OK Giving Embryos To Research
A majority of couples with stored embryos from fertility treatments say they would be willing to donate unused embryos for stem cell research, says a doctor who surveyed patients. MediaPermanent link to MTA daily media news
"Fringe liberal bloggers"
When establishment journalists speak of the liberal blogosphere, it is virtually an article of faith that it represents the "far left," that it is composed of the radical and fringe elements of liberalism… (D)oes opposition to the Iraq War, or Guantanamo and torture, or the abolition of habeas corpus, or the grotesque deceit of the Limbaugh Right make one a "leftist" or fringe liberal, as those terms are used in their pejorative sense. The reality is that the views Digby identifies as the crux of the "progressive blogosphere" are entirely mainstream American views. "Extremism" is marked by those who reject those beliefs, not by those who embrace them.
Click through to read the rest of this post. There’s a link to Digby’s speech at the Take Back America conference. —Caro
SiCKO
I got to see an advance copy of Michael Moore’s latest documentary, “SiCKO” tonight, and it’s an utterly extraordinary film… (H)ow did Americans, who boasted just a generation ago of being the freest and strongest people on earth, fall into the clutches of vicious, depraved sociopaths, the moral and emotional cripples who run our insurance companies, our HMOs, the pharmaceutical companies, and our hospitals. How did we let them turn the Congress and White House into puppets, willing to endlessly sell out the American people so outfits like Kaiser Permenante and GlaxoSmithKline could augment already huge profits? Moore doesn’t have a simple answer, but notes that debt is the instrument used to make Americans docile, cowed, and dependent.
I once had a boss who boasted about the fact that when lenders called to ask him how much his employees made, he’d confirm whatever the employee told the lender. He WANTED them to be loaded with debt, and therefore unable to change jobs. He, too, was a sociopath, of course, like so many bosses. —Caro
Forget Jon Stewart -- Dave Barry Running for President!
The author/columnist has been answering questions about his race for the White House over at McClatchy's newly redesigned Web site. Learn why he hopes to pick Keith Richards as his running mate.
Are strings being pulled in the Ravenel case?
Initial reports stated that Giuliani's South Carolina campaign manager, Thomas Ravenel, was indicted for possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine… The media seem to favor the angle that Ravenel intended to distribute cocaine, not crack cocaine… Is the case against Ravenel being spun away from a crack possession charge to a simple powdered coke charge to save the multi-millionaire from a mandatory prison sentence?
Update: It looks as though the initial reports were incorrect. —Caro
The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio (pdf)
As this report will document in detail, conservative talk radio undeniably dominates the format: Our analysis in the spring of 2007 of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners reveals that 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative, and 9 percent is progressive. Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk—10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.
Ambitious WSJ staffers without principles will like Murdoch
They may have a more prosperous future under Rupert Murdoch, says Lord Bernard Donoughue, a former Times of London assistant editor. Bruce Page, another ex-Times newsman, tells Michael Calderone: "My recommendation to the Bancrofts is to tell Murdoch to get lost, if they believe in anything they say about their traditions. They can't make a bad journalist good. When you talk about journalistic independence, it doesn't mean anything to him."
“Ambitious WSJ staffers without principles”? That would be every one of them who writes for Opinion Journal. —Caro Technology & ScienceHomeland Security Flubs Hack Defense
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has problems with virtual borders as well as physical ones. In a hearing this afternoon before a Homeland Security subcommittee in the House of Representatives, DHS CIO Scott Charbo is testifying about more than 800 serious computer security breaches that the department experienced in 2005 and 2006.
Cartoon Seizures: Are They Real?
A marketing logo designed to promote London, England, as host for the 2012 Olympics… was blamed for causing seizures in about two dozen people who watched a short animated promotion clip on the London2012 Web site… The incident was reminiscent of the Pokémon panic in Japan ten years ago, in which up to 12,000 children reported minor illnesses ranging from nausea to seizures after watching an episode of the wildly popular cartoon "Pokémon."… Many aspects of the Pokémon panic suggest this diagnosis.
Estrogen May Lower Younger Women's Heart Risk
WEDNESDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- Women in their 50s who take estrogen therapy have lower levels of dangerous calcium deposits in their arteries, suggesting they're at reduced heart disease risk, researchers say. The study results should reassure younger women who use supplemental estrogen to lessen their menopausal symptoms, but it shouldn't be seen as a license to use hormone-replacement therapy to prevent heart disease, experts said.
Study Tests Blood Stem Cells to Boost Immune System
WEDNESDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- A new method of increasing blood stem cells could one day promote quicker recovery of immune system function in patients who've undergone chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant for leukemia and other cancers, researchers say. Blood stem cells have the capability to develop into assorted types of blood cells.
Prey Forget to Fear Predators
Some animals forget to fear longstanding predators if these enemies do not hunt them constantly, a new study finds. In particular, moose, caribou, bison and elk fear predators only if they encounter them regularly, according to a study
Fluid mirror sharpens focus on moon telescope
Scientists have successfully coated a liquid surface with a thin layer of silver metal, creating a highly reflective mirror that could be used to create mammoth liquid-mirror telescopes on the moon. EnvironmentGlacial lake vanishes in southern Chile
SANTIAGO, Chile - A five-acre glacial lake in Chile's southern Andes has disappeared — and scientists want to know why.
Herpes Virus Killing Coral Reefs
NEW YORK—Corals get cold sores too. Only, for corals, a herpes virus infection isn’t just annoying. It can be lethal, and it and other diseases are possibly a big factor in the deaths of coral reefs that humans are causing throughout the world’s oceans, new research shows.
Fructose biofuel spells sweeter news for shift out of oil
PARIS (AFP) - Chemists in the United States say they have broken new ground in biofuels, transforming plant sugar into a liquid fuel that packs 40-percent more energy than ethanol and appears to have fewer of its drawbacks.
Ontario sets plan for home refits, solar power
TORONTO (Reuters) - The Ontario government said on Wednesday it will spend C$150 million ($142 million) to subsidize household energy retrofits and solar power installations. For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com. |
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