Today’s Headlines

Jerusalem lights to go out so Bush can enjoy sunrise
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Lights in the Old City of Jerusalem will be turned off before dawn this week so visiting US President George W. Bush can get a better view of the sun rising over its ancient walls.

Congress causes biggest tax problem
WASHINGTON - End-of-year congressional votes to change the tax code have created havoc for the Internal Revenue Service and top the list of problems bedeviling taxpayers, according to an annual report released Wednesday.

Judge won't inquire into CIA tapes case
A federal judge refused on Wednesday to delve into the destruction of CIA interrogation videos, saying there was no evidence the Bush administration violated a court order and the Justice Department deserved time to conduct its own investigation.

Ex-Official Wants Immunity in Tape Case
Attorneys for Jose Rodriguez told Congress the former CIA official won't testify about the destruction of CIA videotapes without a promise of immunity, two people close to the tapes inquiry said Wednesday. Rodriguez, the former head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, ordered that the tapes, which show harsh CIA interrogation of two al-Qaida suspects, be destroyed in 2005. Rodriguez is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Jan. 16.
I say, give it to him. We need to find out who approved the destruction of the tapes. We can see now that the courts aren’t interested in finding out, and we can’t trust the Justice Department to investigate.—Caro

Blackwater Used CS Gas In Iraq In '05
In May 2005, a Blackwater Worldwide helicopter dropped CS gas, a chemical the American military in Iraq can use only under the strictest conditions and with the approval of top military commanders. An armored vehicle on the ground also released the gas, temporarily blinding drivers, passers-by and at least 10 American soldiers operating the checkpoint.
Come on, all you right wingers who insisted we had to attack Iraq because Saddam Hussein had gassed his own people, where’s your outrage at this?—Caro

Blackwater increases DC lobbying presence. (Think Progress)
Controversial private security firm Blackwater Worldwide “has ramped up its lobbying representation on Capitol Hill” by hiring the law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice to “lobby the government on contracting and other issues.” “Womble Carlyle is the third lobbying firm to be hired by Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater since October.”

Ex-CIA agent Philip Agee dead in Cuba
HAVANA - Renegade former CIA agent Philip Agee, whose naming of agency operatives helped prompt a U.S. law against exposing government spies, has died in Cuba, his wife said Wednesday. He was 72.

Justices seem unswayed by lethal injection foes
"This is an execution, not surgery," Justice Antonin Scalia told the attorney who was representing two Kentucky inmates who say the use of the three-drug compound poses "an unnecessary risk of pain" to the dying man. "Where does that come from, that you must find the method of execution that causes the least pain?" Scalia continued.
Did Scalia forget to read the Constitution Monday morning? It bars “cruel and unusual” punishment, and there’s no exclusion, even for a punishment designed to kill the person.—Caro

Justices Appear Divided Amid Arguments Over Ind. Voter ID Law
The Supreme Court appeared reluctant Wednesday to strike down the nation's strictest requirement that voters show photo identification at the polls. The case involves a challenge to an Indiana voter ID law that opponents say unfairly burdens poor and minority voters.

Michigan Next, G.O.P. Rivals Turn to the Economy
John McCain and Mitt Romney headed toward another showdown, while Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama readied for a nationwide battle.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

BuzzFlash Media Putz of the Week: Robin Givhan
Traditionally we think the fashion editor of a newspaper should stick to the fashion industry and not get involved in politics. But not Robin Givhan, who oversees fashion coverage for The Washington Post… Givhan was nominated for this week's Media Putz by a noted journalist wishing to remain anonymous. The journalist wrote about how far Givhan had strayed from fashion writing into a stiletto cattiness well below the limbo bar of the most basic journalistic standards.
Maybe Givhan is angling for the Queen of Mean position at the Washington Post, to rival the NYT’s version, Maureen Dowd.—Caro

Obama campaign chair questions Hillary's tears, why she didn't cry during Katrina (by John Aravosis (DC) at AMERICAblog)
Jesse Jackson Jr, a co-chair of the Obama campaign, go on TV today and questioned whey Hillary teared up over her campaign hardships but didn't tear up over Hurricane Katrina.
Click through to watch the video.—Caro

Chris Matthews says the only reason Hillary became a Senator is because Bill “messed around” (by John Amato at Crooks and Liars)
(On the Joe Scarborough show:) “Matthews: Well, I don’t know if they read the NY Post. I think the Hillary appeal has always been somewhat about her mix of toughness and sympathy for her. Let’s not forget, and I’ll be brutal, the reason she’s a US Senator, the reason she’s a candidate for President, the reason she may be a front runner, is that her husband messed around.”
Click through to watch the video.—Caro

The witch ain't dead, and Chris Matthews is a ding-dong (by Rebecca Traister, Salon)
Jan. 9, 2008 | "I'm not a Hillary supporter, but ..." has been an oft-heard preamble in the five days since the New York senator's Iowa defeat, usually followed by a description of how aghast the speaker is at the treatment Clinton received from a media anxious to throw a hoedown on her political coffin. To my surprise, it's a phrase I've heard myself uttering…. As it turns out, my sudden, almost primal defensiveness about Hillary Clinton may not have been unique, but part of a larger wave of sentiment that swept her to a surprise victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday night.

The Anti-Chris Matthews Vote: And how it sparked some media soul-searching (though not from Matthews) (by Liz Cox Barrett, Columbia Journalism Review)
“BROKAW: We don’t have to get in the business of making judgments before the polls have closed and trying to stampede, in effect, the process. Look, I’m not just picking on us, it’s part of the culture in which we live these days. I think that the people out there are going to begin to make judgments about us, if they haven’t already, if we don’t begin to temper that temptation to constantly try to get ahead of what the voters are deciding.”

Marist Poll looks back at New Hampshire results (by Lee M. Miringoff and Barbara L. Carvalho, Marist Institute for Public Opinion, Thanks to BuzzFlash)
So, what exactly happened (Tuesday) night in New Hampshire?... (F)or the most part, Obama’s support was not overstated in the polls. But the polls missed the magnitude of the support for Clinton. Although the pollsters in New Hampshire cannot have Monday night back, we plan to re-contact in the next few days the voters we spoke with over the weekend to glean whatever additional insights we can.

Primary Concerns (by Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services)
(W)hatever actually happened in New Hampshire voting booths on Tuesday, our elections are horrifically insecure. For instance, Bev Harris, of the highly respected voting watchdog organization Black Box Voting, recently wrote that the Diebold 1.94w optical scan machines used in some 55 percent of New Hampshire precincts (representing more than 80 percent of the state’s voters) are “the exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County (Florida)” a few years ago. They haven’t been upgraded; the security problems haven’t been fixed. National, or at least media, denial about this situation doesn’t say much for the strength of our democracy.
Get the documentary, Uncounted. —Caro

Hillary's Gender Is a Bigger Deal Than We'd Like to Admit (by Megan Garber at Columbia Journalism Review)
An in-depth look at media coverage of Clinton's emotion.

McCain Calls For ‘Respect’ In Political Dialogue, Ignores Time He Called Fellow Senator An ‘A–hole’ (Think Progress)
Today at a campaign event in Michigan, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised to clean up the political discourse. He argued that he knows how to “reach across the aisle” and treat Democrats with respect.. McCain’s record of dealing with his fellow lawmakers, the press, and members of the public, however, has been considerably less than respectful.
Click through for some examples. I’d also like to remind all of the “reach across the aisle” addicts that George Bush did that when he was governor of Texas. As president, it’s been “my way or the highway”.—Caro

The Post Attack on Social Security Continues (by Dean Baker)
(O)n the Post opinion pages, Social Security is losing in a landslide. Robert Samuelson has yet another diatribe talking about the budget breaking cost of "Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid." As CBO director Peter Orszag has tried to teach those willing to learn, the problem is health care, not aging. Of course cutting health care costs means going after the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the doctors' lobbies, all of whom enjoy great popularity on the Washington Post opinion pages. So, they would rather beat up the elderly and mislead their readers.
We pre-Boomers and Boomers had better be ready to fight for our retirement benefits THAT WE PRE-FUNDED, at least partly. Since 1983, we've been paying in more than was needed to fund current benefit payments. The fact that George Bush has given our FICA contribution surplus away to his campaign contributors doesn't obviate the fact the we have paid for our own retirement. The shots across the bow are clear: right wingers are going to try to use a generational war to try to take our benefits away from us.—Caro

More on Charlie Wilson’s War (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
Here’s a great piece from a dear friend who served with U.S. special operations forces and had a distinguished military career. This is his take. “Larry, OK, I’ve seen the film and the History Channel documentary, and I’ve read the Criles book, and as mentioned earlier I was involved in part of this. As far as the movie goes, I liked it very much. It’s very well done and nicely captured the feeling of that period in time and the politics of the situation. I think there are some time compressions, and some things were deleted, but it’s still worthwhile. I particularly liked Tom Hanks as Charlie Wilson, except he made him smarter, funnier and more sympathetic than he actually was.”

Radiohead's "Rainbows" yields pot of gold
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British rock band Radiohead scored its second No. 1 album on the U.S. pop charts on Wednesday with a release that was initially sold on the Internet under a revolutionary "name-your-own-price" system.

Wave to the PC! It's paying attention
LAS VEGAS - Nintendo Corp.'s Wii game console is a breakout hit in large part because users control the play by waving around a motion-sensing wireless controller. Many new gadgets are taking the idea of such an intuitive interface several steps further. Soon, you may be able to control computers, television sets, even cell phones with hand gestures alone.
What happened to voice activation?—Caro

Report: Feds Probe Girl's Internet Suicide
A federal grand jury has issued a subpoena to MySpace.com in a probe stemming from the suicide of a Missouri teenager who received cruel messages on the networking site that turned out to be a hoax, a newspaper reported.

Exercising Judgment: The Psychology Of Fitness
Rachel Newson, a psychologist at Flinders University in Australia, looked at this question of what motivates and prevents exercise in adults 63 and over. Barriers to exercise in Newson's study included "adverse weather conditions" and "not knowing what you're physically capable of." But the most common reason her participants didn't exercise was because of physical ailments and painful joints.

Why It Pays To Be Choosy: The Co-evolution Of Choosiness And Cooperation
ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2008) — Cooperative behaviour is common in many species, including humans. Given that cooperative individuals can often be exploited, it is not immediately clear why such behaviour has evolved.

Chimpanzees May Build Their 'Cultures' In A Similar Way To Humans
ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2008) — Socially-learned cultural behaviour thought to be unique to humans is also found among chimpanzees colonies, scientists at the University of Liverpool have found.

Rogue Black Holes Might Fill Our Galaxy
AUSTIN, Texas — Our home galaxy could be chockfull of rogue black holes that devour anything that crosses their paths, new computer simulations suggest.

Faraway planets collided, merged into one
An extrasolar planet about one-fourth the heft of Jupiter might have formed from the collision and merger of two planets, astronomers announced today.

Vast Cloud Of Antimatter Traced To Binary Stars
ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2008) — Four years of observations from the European Space Agency’s Integral (INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) … found that the cloud extends farther on the western side of the galactic center than it does on the eastern side. This imbalance matches the distribution of a population of binary star systems that contain black holes or neutron stars, strongly suggesting that these binaries are churning out at least half of the antimatter, and perhaps all of it.

Scientists: Earth Barely Supports Life
AUSTIN, Texas—If Earth had been slightly smaller and less massive, life might never have gained a foothold.
And we’re doing our best to destroy that fragile life support.—Caro

Desert Mystery Has Electrifying Answer
Sweeping sands across the Sahara and other dune expanses are blown by more than just wind, scientists have discovered. Powerful electric fields spring up near the desert floor and propel sand grains into the air. By accounting for this electricity, researchers say they can design better climate change models, and even explain features of the dust on Mars.

Groups to Sue for Polar Bear Protection
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Three conservation groups notified the federal government Wednesday they intend to sue to get polar bears listed as a threatened species due to global warming.

LED Lights may light homes in less than 3 years
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), already used in electrical equipment such as computers and mobile phones, are several times more energy efficient than standard light-bulbs. However, because of their structure and material, much of the light in standard LEDs becomes trapped, reducing the brightness of the light and making them unsuitable as the main lighting source in the home.

'Green' Energy Efficient Mobile Home Designed
But "green" is exactly what Michael Berk, F.L. Crane Endowed Professor of Architecture at Mississippi State, wants mobile homes to be. He hopes to toss traditional thinking about the structures into the recycling bin, salvaging the traditional "mobile home" perception one national award at a time.

Monitoring Tools Help Cut Home Energy Use, Study Finds
Giving people the tools to monitor and adjust their electricity use lowers their bills and could reduce the need to build new power plants, according to a government study.

Swedes to Capture, Recycle Commuter Body Heat
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — A Swedish company plans to harness the body heat generated by thousands of commuters scrambling to catch their trains at Stockholm's main railway station and use it for heating a nearby office building.

Britain opts for nuclear power to plug 'energy gap'
London - The British Labour government Thursday gave the political go-ahead for the construction of a new generation of nuclear power stations which would safeguard energy supplies while meeting the challenges of climate change.