Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday October 28 2006 - (813)

Saturday October 28 2006 edition
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Behind The Lines In Iraq Civil War 2006-10-28 00:30:35 Intellpuke: This article is well worth the read. Husham is standing on a street corner in his Sunni Baghdad neighborhood when his mobile phone rings. "Yes brother ... Two strangers ... Investigate and take measures," he mumbles. He is wearing a striped T-shirt and sandals, and carries a pistol in his right hand. Around him there are a half dozen fellow vigilantes carrying Kalashnikovs or wearing pistols tucked into their belts, eating their Itfar meals (to break the Ramadan fast) or sipping sweet tea. Suddenly, a white car carrying two men appears at the end of the street. Husham's men clutch their weapons but the car passes uneventfully. A few minutes later, the headlights come into view again. The car has turned and is driving back towards the highway. This time, another car appears from a side street almost hitting the first a few meters from Husham. Read The Full Story Democrats Get Late Donations From Business 2006-10-28 00:29:23 Corporate America is already thinking beyond Election Day, increasing its share of last-minute donations to Democratic candidates and quietly devising strategies for how to work with Democrats if they win control of Congress. The shift in political giving, for the first 18 days of October, has not been this pronounced in the final stages of a campaign since 1994, when Republicans swept control of the House for the first time in four decades. Though Democratic control of either chamber of Congress is far from certain, the prospect of a power shift is leading interest groups to begin rethinking well-established relationships, with business lobbyists going as far as finding potential Democratic allies in the freshman class - even if they are still trying to defeat them on the campaign trail - and preparing to extend an olive branch the morning after the election. Read The Full Story Search For Suspected Arsonist Grows With California Fire 2006-10-28 00:27:25 A wildfire that has consumed thousands of acres west of Palm Springs and has killed four U.S. Forest Service firefighters continued to roar Friday, fed by hot, fast and dry Santa Ana winds, while state and local officials boosted the reward to $500,000 to find the suspected arsonist who ignited the blaze. The Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection are investigating the deaths, and on Friday a half-dozen investigators wearing yellow protective suits studied the steep dirt driveway of 15400 Gorgonio View Road. As a fierce wind whipped past the gutted house on a blackened hill above them, an investigator knelt down, then gestured at the canyon wall, from where the flames had come. Five Forest Service firefighters were trying to protect the house from the wildfire Thursday when the inferno suddenly overwhelmed them. Three died at the scene, and a fourth died soon afterward at a hospital. On Friday the fifth remained in grave condition, with more than 95 percent of his body burned. Read The Full Story Figures Reveal Europe Far Short In Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2006-10-28 00:25:35 The European Union, self-styled global champion in the battle against climate change, is falling woefully short of its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and will need to take radical measures to achieve them, new projections have shown. The European commission said that, based on current measures and policies, the emissions of the E.U.'s original 15 members will be just 0.6% below 1990 levels by 2010. The E.U.-15 countries are committed under the Kyoto protocol to an 8% cut on 1990 levels by 2012. The new figures predict that emissions in 2010 will actually be 0.3% higher than they were in 2004. Read The Full Story Substance Reported at Bill Clinton's NY Office 2006-10-27 17:09:07 Police and Secret Service agents Friday were investigating a report of a suspicious substance found at former President Bill Clinton's office in uptown Manhattan.  Clinton was not at the office at the time, officials said. Police and emergency services officers were called to the Harlem office building at about 3:45 p.m., said New York Police Sgt. Reginald Watkins. "There is a search to try to recover some sort of foreign substance," he said, adding that Secret Service agents were also at the building. Clinton's spokesman, Jay Carson, said the building at 55 W. 125th St. had not been evacuated. He had no other immediate comment. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said officials were doing a field test on the substance and were asking people to stay in the area to determine exactly how they were exposed to the substance, or if they had been exposed at all.   Read The Full Story Mexican Leaders Condemn Bush For Signing Fence Law 2006-10-27 14:57:14 Relations between the U.S. and Mexico took a turn for the worse Friday after George Bush signed legislation for a 700-mile border fence to counter illegal immigration into the U.S. The move was universally condemned by Mexican leaders. Vicente Fox, the country's president, told reporters that the fence would not stop millions of Mexicans from heading north in search of jobs. "It is an embarrassment for the United States," said Fox. "It is proof, perhaps, that the United States does not see immigration as a subject that corresponds to both countries." The president-elect, Felipe Calderon - who takes over from Fox in December - was even more blunt. "The decision made by Congress and the U.S. government is deplorable," he said. Read The Full Story Dissent Grows Over Bush Refusal To Talk To Axis Of Evil Nations 2006-10-27 14:56:17 Ever since President Bush first proclaimed there to be an "axis of evil" in 2002, pundits, diplomats and politicians have urged him to talk to its members. But in the last few weeks, with Iraq experiencing a further surge in violence, North Korea testing a nuclear device and Iran continuing to defy a United Nations Security Council demand to stop enriching uranium, the cries for dialogue have grown louder. James A. Baker III,  the Republican former secretary of state, said this month that he believed "in talking to your enemies." After North Korea's nuclear test, former President Jimmy Carter said that "the stupidest thing that a government can do that has a real problem with someone is to refuse to talk to them." U.S. Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, said last weekend that even at the peak of the cold war, "when there were nuclear missiles pointing at every major U.S. city, there was a direct line between the White House and the Kremlin." The question arises: Is any of this cutting ice with the administration? Read The Full Story DOH! Inspector General Says Halliburton Subsidiary Abused The Rules 2006-10-27 13:29:59 The Halliburton subsidiary that provides food, shelter and other logistics to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan exploited federal regulations to hide details on its contract performance, according to a report released Friday. The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root Services routinely marked all information it gave to the government as proprietary, whether it actually was or not. The government promises not to disclose proprietary data so a company's most valuable information is not divulged to its competitors. By marking all information proprietary - including such normally releasable data as labor rates - the company abused federal regulations, the report says. In effect, Kellogg, Brown & Root turned the regulations "into a mechanism to prevent the government from releasing normally transparent information, thus potentially hindering competition and oversight." Read The Full Story Chevron Reports $5 Billion Third-Quarter Profit 2006-10-27 13:28:59 A $5 billion third-quarter profit from Chevron Corp. lifts the cumulative results of the five major oil companies that reported July through September earnings this week to more than $31.5 billion. The industry benefited from oil prices that averaged more than $70 a barrel, as well as its ability to earn more money from gasoline production and sales. Chevron's profits grew the fastest among its peer group, rising a whopping 40 percent from a year ago. Chevron's results, released Friday, marked the third time in the past year that its quarterly results have hit a new high. The third-quarter earnings were also far above analyst estimates, boosting Chevron shares by 75 cents to $68.25 during midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Read The Full Story Suspect In Custody In Florida Family Killings 2006-10-27 13:27:49 Authorities investigating the slaying of a family of four alongside a Florida highway said Friday that the father was probably involved in drug trafficking and that the suspected killer was in custody. The suspect was among three men and a woman who were arrested Wednesday on drug charges and are "persons of interest" in the killings, Sheriff Ken Mascara said. None have been charged with the slayings, he said. Another man is being sought, he said. The couple and their two young sons were found shot to death Oct. 13 off a desolate stretch of Florida's Turnpike near Port St. Lucie, about 50 miles north of their home in the Palm Beach County city of Greenacres. Read The Full Story Sea Change: Gulf Stream Is Weakening 2006-10-27 00:51:31 Scientists have uncovered more evidence for a dramatic weakening in the vast ocean current that gives Britain its relatively balmy climate by dragging warm water northwards from the tropics. The slowdown, which climate modellers have predicted will follow global warming, has been confirmed by the most detailed study yet of ocean flow in the Atlantic. Most alarmingly, the data reveal that a part of the current, which is usually 60 times more powerful than the Amazon river, came to a temporary halt during November 2004. The nightmare scenario of a shutdown in the meridional ocean current which drives the Gulf stream was dramatically portrayed in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". The climate disaster film had Europe and North America plunged into a new ice age practically overnight. Read The Full Story Campaign Tactics Veer Toward Smear 2006-10-27 00:48:45 Campaign Ads Get Surreal Rep. Ron Kind pays fopr sex! Well, that's what the Republican challenger for his Wisconsin congressional seat, Paul R. Nelson, claims in new ads, the ones with "XXX" stamped across Kind's face. It turns out that Kind - along with more than 200 of his fellow hedonists in the House - opposed an unsuccessful effort to stop the National Institutes of Health from pursuing peer-reviewed sex studies. According to Nelson's ads, the Democrat also wants to "let illegal aliens burn the American flag" and "allow convicted child molesters to enter this country". Read The Full Story IRS Told To Go Slow On Katrina Victims Until After Elections 2006-10-27 00:47:27 The commissioner of internal revenue has ordered his agency to delay collecting back taxes from Hurricane Katrina victims until after the Nov. 7 elections and the holiday season, saying he did so in part to avoid negative publicity. The commissioner, Mark W. Everson, who has close ties to the White House, said in an interview that postponing collections until after the midterm elections, along with postponing notices to people who failed to file tax returns, was a routine effort to avoid casting the Internal Revenue Service in a bad light. "We are very sensitive to political perceptions," Everson said Wednesday, adding that he regularly discussed with his senior staff members when to take actions and make announcements in light of whether they would annoy a powerful member of Congress or get lost in the flow of news. Read The Full Story	How The Bush Family Makes A Killing From George W. Bush Presidency 2006-10-28 00:29:57 Intellpuke: The following column is written by Heather Wokusch and was posted on the Common Dreams Web site on Wednesday, Oct. 25. In it, Ms. Wokusch, the author of "The Progressives' Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now", reveals the financial links of the Bush family and how having George W. Bush as president fattens the family's cash cow. Ms. Wokusch's column follows: Halliburton scored almost $1.2 billion in revenue from contracts related to Iraq in the third quarter of 2006, leading one analyst to comment: "Iraq was better than expected ... Overall, there is nothing really to question or be skeptical about. I think the results are very good." Very good indeed. An estimated 655,000 dead Iraqis, over 3,000 dead coalition troops, billions stolen from Iraq's coffers, a country battered by civil war - but Halliburton turned a profit, so the results are very good. Very good certainly for Vice President Dick Cheney, who resigned from Halliburton in 2000 with a $33.7 million retirement package (not bad for roughly four years of work). In a stunning conflict of interest, Cheney still holds more than 400,000 stock options in the company. Why pursue diplomacy when you can rake in a personal fortune from war? Yet Cheney isn't the only one who has benefited from the Bush administration's destructive policies. The Bush family has done quite nicely too. Just a few examples: Read The Full Story Housing Slump Sends Chill Through Economy 2006-10-28 00:28:12 The cooling housing market sent a chill through the economy in the third quarter, helping to slow growth to its weakest pace in more than three years, the government said Friday. The nation's gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, expanded at a sluggish 1.6 percent annual rate in the quarter, down from a moderate 2.6 percent pace in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported. In the first three months of the year, the economy grew at a sizzling 5.6 percent annual rate. With less than two weeks to go before the midterm congressional elections, the report instantly became campaign ammunition. Democrats emphasized the slowdown while Republicans highlighted signs of economic strength. Financial analysts were split on whether the report reflected an economy poised for a rebound or headed into a prolonged slump. The debate turns on differing forecasts of how the housing market will affect consumer spending. Read The Full Story U.N. Vote Paves Way For Arms Treaty 2006-10-28 00:26:09 An overwhelming United Nations vote paving the way to an arms trade treaty controlling the growing international trade in conventional weapons was welcomed enthusiastically Friday by Britain, human rights groups and aid organizations. The U.N. General Assembly's first committee, responsible for disarmament and international security, voted by 139 votes to one on Thursday in favor of the move. The British government has been at the forefront of those pressing for a treaty with Australia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya and Finland. The move was opposed only by the U.S., and 24 countries, including Russia and China, abstained. Read The Full Story Substance Mailed to Clinton Office - Update 2006-10-27 17:53:29 Police and Secret Service agents Friday investigated a report of a suspicious substance found at former President Clinton's office in Manhattan. Clinton was not at the office at the time, officials said. A woman opened an envelope that contained a white powdery substance and called authorities, according to news reports. Police and emergency crews were called to the Harlem office building at about 3:45 p.m., said New York Police Sgt. Reginald Watkins. "There is a search to try to recover some sort of foreign substance," he said, adding that Secret Service agents were also at the building. Read The Full Story Where To Find Reliable Information On Candidates, Issues 2006-10-27 15:49:33 Intellpuke: With the congressional mid-term elections coming up a week from Tuesday, on Nov. 7, this seemed a good opportunity to provide a short-list of Web sites that provide accurate and reasonably unbiased information on candidates, where they stand on the issues, and - at least on incumbents - how they voted on key issues in the U.S. Congress, which includes both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. When you get to these sites, it is worth taking the time to browse them a bit to see what information they have that is of interest to you. After all, it's your vote that's going to count in these elections ... well, assuming those handling and counting the votes in your, respective, districts do so with honesty and integrity, which may be a big assumption. I've spent quite a bit of time visiting these and other Web sites to try to find the best and least biased of them. The sites I've determined that best do this follow: Project Vote Smart: This is one of the best overall sites for finding good, honest information on candidates, where they stand on the issues, and where their campaign money is coming from, among other related information. You can access Project Vote Smart's mainpage here: http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm Read The Full Story Iran Media Says Country Takes New Uranium Enrichment Step 2006-10-27 14:56:48 Iran has started to feed gas into a second cascade of centrifuges, an Iranian news agency reported today, a step that indicates that the country is moving ahead with its uranium enrichment program despite the threat of United Nations sanctions. The report that Iran had injected gas into a second cascade of centrifuges came from ISNA, a government-affiliated news agency that often carries official statements. The agency quoted an official, who was not identified in the report, as saying that the second cascade was installed two weeks ago and inoculations of gas were made last week. The report drew a reaction from President Bush in Washington, who said that if it is true that Iran has doubled its enrichment capacity, the United States must increase its efforts to work with the international community to persuade Iran to halt the program or face isolation. Read The Full Story Truth Revealed Behind Britain-Saudi Arabia Arms Deal 2006-10-27 14:55:31 The British government was scrambling Thursday to recover secret documents containing evidence suggesting corrupt payments were made in Britain's biggest arms deal. The documents, published in full Friday by the Guardian, detail for the first time how the price of Tornado warplanes was inflated by £600 million in the 1985 Al Yamamah deal with Saudi Arabia. A telegram with the details from the head of the Ministry of Defense's (MoD) sales unit had been placed in the National Archives. Yesterday it was hastily withdrawn by officials who claimed its release had been "a mistake". Sir Colin Chandler's telegram was sent from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was arranging the sale of 72 Tornados and 30 Hawk warplanes on behalf of the British arms firm BAE. It revealed that their cost had been inflated by nearly a third in a deal with Saudi defense minister Prince Sultan. Read The Full Story U.S. Economic Growth Hits Slowest Pace In 3 Years 2006-10-27 13:29:21 The U.S. economy slowed markedly from July to September, as a slump in the housing market and higher interest rates and energy prices cooled economic growth to its lowest pace in three years. New figures released by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis showed the economy grew 1.6 percent on an annual basis for those three months, compared to 2.5 percent in the three months before that and a rapid 5.6 percent for the first quarter of the year. The Bush administration quickly sought to downplay the slowdown in economic growth. "Everybody expected this. You have a combination of rising energy prices and also rising interest rates, and now you've seen a reverse on both," said White House press secretary Tony Snow, according to the Associated Press. Read The Full Story Former Bush Aide Sentenced In Abramoff Case 2006-10-27 13:28:21 Former Bush administration official David Safavian was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison Friday for concealing his relationship with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Safavian wept as he asked for leniency in his obstruction of justice case, telling a judge that Abramoff manipulated him and drew him into the scandal. Safavian was convicted in June of lying to investigators about his relationship with the lobbyist while Safavian was chief of staff in the General Services Administration. He helped provided Abramoff with details about GSA projects and offered advice on dealing with the agency. Read The Full Story Kirkuk: A City At A Boiling Point 2006-10-27 00:51:54 The tribal chiefs, in traditional robes and chequered headdresses, emerged from the dust stirred up by their convoy of pick-up trucks and walked towards the big white tent, gesturing welcomes to each other as they sat. Accompanied by about 500 clansmen and a gaggle of local journalists, the 35 Sunni sheikhs - from Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra and Hawija - converged last week on Hindiya, on the scrappy western edges of Kirkuk, to swear their undying opposition to "conspiracies" to partition Iraq and to pledge allegiance to their president, Saddam Hussein. Under banners exalting the man now standing trial in Baghdad for war crimes and genocide, the gathering heard speeches from prominent northern Iraqi sheikhs, Sunni Arab politicians and self-declared leaders of the Ba'ath party calling for the former dictator's release. Read The Full Story 4 Firefighters Killed In California Fire Started By Arsonist 2006-10-27 00:49:33 A wind-whipped wildfire started by an arsonist killed four firefighters Thursday and stranded up to 400 people in an RV park when flames burned to the edge of the only road out, said officials. "Everybody is hunkered down here. They're fighting the fire around us. It's across the street from us," said Charles Van Brunt, a ranger at the station at the entrance to Silent Valley Club, the recreational vehicle park near Palm Springs. The residents were in no immediate danger, he said. Authorities asked people in the RV park to stay put to leave roads clear for firefighters. Hundreds of others in the area were forced from their homes. Fire officials said the blaze was deliberately set around 1 a.m. Fire Chief John Hawkins said the arson "constitutes murder." Read The Full Story Cheney Remarks Fuel Torture Debate 2006-10-27 00:48:13 Vice President Cheney said this week that dunking terrorism suspects in water during questioning was a "no-brainer," prompting complaints from human rights advocates that he was endorsing the use of a controversial technique known as waterboarding on prisoners held by the United States. In an interview Tuesday with Scott Hennen, a conservative radio show host from Fargo, North Dakota, Cheney agreed with Hennen's assertion that "a dunk in water" may yield valuable intelligence from terrorism suspects. He also referred to information gleaned from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the captured architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but stopped short of explicitly saying what techniques were used. "Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?" asked Hennen. "Well, it's a no-brainer for me," said Cheney, "but for a while there, I was criticized as being the vice president for torture. We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in." Read The Full Story Bush Administration Citizenship Changes Draw Objections 2006-10-27 00:46:22 The Bush administration is considering proposals that would make it tougher for legal immigrants to gain U.S. citizenship. The proposals being drafted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, could nearly double application fees, toughen the required English and history exams, and ask probing questions about an applicant's past, such as "Who is your current wife's ex-husband?" In an interview Thursday, a USCIS spokesman said the contemplated changes are necessary to pay increased administrative costs and to standardize an application that is subjective and varies across the country. But immigration rights advocates say the changes would amount to a second wall, a potential barrier against legal immigration that is as formidable as the newly authorized southern border fence is supposed to be against illegal migrants. Read The Full Story
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