Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday September 15 2007 - (813)

Saturday September 15 2007 edition
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U.S. Dollar's Retreat Raises Fears Of Collapse 2007-09-15 02:22:16 Finance ministers and central bankers have long fretted that at some point, the rest of the world would lose its willingness to finance the United States' proclivity to consume far more than it produces - and that a potentially disastrous free-fall in the dollar's value would result. But for longer than most economists would have been willing to predict a decade ago, the world has been a willing partner in American excess - until a new and home-grown financial crisis this summer rattled confidence in the country, the world's largest economy. On Thursday, the dollar briefly fell to another low against the euro of $1.3927, as a slow decline that has been under way for months picked up steam this past week. "This is all pointing to a greatly increased risk of a fast unwinding of the U.S. current account deficit and a serious decline of the dollar," said Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and an expert on exchange rates. "We could finally see the big kahuna hit." Read The Full Story Commentary: The Promotion Of Failure In The Bush Administration 2007-09-15 02:21:38 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Keith Olbermann, anchor of MSNBC's Countdown program, and was posted on AlterNet.org's website on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007. Transcript from Crooks and Liars. To this day, millions of Americans believe we invaded Iraq because of 9/11. Thirty-three percent still believe there was some interconnection between Saddam Hussein and the nightmares here (New York City) and in Washington and in Pennsylvania. Iraq, of course, had nothing to do with 9/11. Then. Six years later, that has changed. Iraq has distracted us from punishing those responsible for 9/11. If another 9/11 comes, our focus on Iraq will surely have been central to that nightmare. How did we get here? What consequences have been paid by those who brought us here? In our number one story tonight, no one person is to blame. And only some of those who are, recognize it. As we reported yesterday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell tells G-Q magazine he is "sorry" he gave the world wrong information when he told the U-N of the threat Iraq supposedly posed. He was not fired for doing so. Read The Full Story Almost Home, But Facing More Delays At Walter Reed 2007-09-15 02:19:27 Soldier is told paperwork errors will slow retirement. After nearly three years as an outpatient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon had begun the wrenching process of turning himself into a civilian. He no longer wore the uniform he loved so much. He sported a short beard and traded his black beret for a baseball cap. Granted a 30-day leave to prepare for retirement as his disability case finally made it through the system, he moved his family to Suffolk, Virginia, and began to babysit his two kids, clean the house and grow vegetables. Given what had happened to him in Iraq - the traumatic brain injury from an AK-47 round that shattered one eye and half his skull - and the chronic post-traumatic stress disorder that followed, that was about all he could handle. Last week, Shannon, 43, was back at Walter Reed, but not to say goodbye. The doctors' signatures on two time-sensitive forms in his disability file had expired. He would have to be reexamined by his doctors, he was told, and his medical summaries would have to be written all over again. Unfortunately, the sergeant in charge of his disability paperwork had not stayed on top of his case. "There was a failure of paying attention to the currency of his paperwork," a Walter Reed spokesman, Charles Dasey, said Friday night. Read The Full Story World Health Organization: Cholera Cases In Iraq Keep Rising 2007-09-15 02:17:56 The number of suspected cholera cases in northern Iraq continues to rise, with 16,000 people now showing symptoms, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday. As of Sept. 10, 6,000 have been reported with symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting in the province of Sulaimaniyah, another 7,000 in Tamim province, and 3,000 in Irbil province, the WHO said in a statement. To date 10 people have died and 844 cases of the disease have been confirmed, said the WHO. Earlier in the week, regional authorities reported 11,000 people with symptoms, 700 confirmed cases and 10 deaths. Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease that is typically spread by drinking contaminated water and can cause severe diarrhea that in extreme cases can lead to fatal dehydration. It broke out in mid-August and has so far been limited to northern Iraq. Read The Full Story Between A Rock And A Hard Place - British Savers Besiege Bank 2007-09-14 20:38:28 Northern Rock shared drop 30% after Bank of England rescue. British bank websites down as customers panic. Branches of the Britain's Northern Rock bank were besieged by worried savers Friday as fears grew in the City that the Bank of England rescue package for Britain's fifth-biggest mortgage lender could herald a slide in house prices and further financial collapses. Amid news that property prices were already falling sharply before the Bank's first use of its lender-of-last-resort facility in more than 30 years, the Newcastle-based Northern Rock was forced to keep branches open late to allow savers to access their money. Customers ignored reassurances from the chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, the British Bankers Association and Northern Rock that their funds were safe. In the first real test of internet banking, websites crashed at many banks as worried savers tried to gain access to their accounts. Read The Full Story Japan Launches Biggest Moon Mission Since Apollo Landings 2007-09-14 20:37:42 Japan moved a step closer Friday to sending someone to the moon by successfully launching the biggest lunar mission since the U.S. Apollo flights. The Selenological and Engineering Explorer probe left its launchpad on Tanegashima island, 600 miles southwest of Tokyo, aboard an H-2A solid-fuel rocket. A live internet broadcast showed the rocket as it headed out over the Pacific before separating from the lunar explorer over Chile about 45 minutes later. Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency [JAXA] said the probe's engines and navigation equipment appeared to be working normally. The craft... nicknamed Kaguya after the moon princess in a fairytale, is scheduled to orbit Earth twice before traveling 237,500 miles to the moon, a journey expected to take about three weeks. Kaguya, which comprises one three-ton main orbiter and two 50 kilogram (110 lbs.) satellites, will begin its 10-month observation mission in December after checks. Read The Full Story U.K. Props Up Mortgage Lender Northern Rock 2007-09-14 13:44:04 U.S. stock market down on retail sales report. A major British bank said today it had to arrange emergency funding from the Bank of England to ensure it had enough cash to keep operating, an announcement that forced European stock exchanges lower and reverberated on Wall Street as well. The announcement that England's central bank had moved to bail out one of the country's largest mortgage lenders combined with a tepid report on August retail sales to initially deflate U.S. markets. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 80 points in its opening minutes but had erased those losses after the first hour-and-a-half of trading. Although the amount of the emergency funding was not disclosed, the agreement between Northern Rock and the Bank of England was being described as the biggest British bank bailout in more than a quarter of a century. As word of the arrangement spread, lines formed outside of some Northern Rock branches as customers withdrew deposits, wire services reported. Northern Rock, the fifth largest British mortgage lender and its eighth largest bank, said that global credit markets have been so tight it has been unable to raise the money it needs to make new home loans and repay debts that are coming due. Read The Full Story Frightened Indonesians Suffer New Sumatra Earthquakes 2007-09-14 13:43:27 Frightened residents on Indonesia's Sumatra island huddled in tents outside their damaged homes on Friday, traumatized by the latest of more than 40 aftershocks since a huge earthquake struck two days ago. Indonesia's meteorology agency issued on Friday the latest in a series of tsunami warnings after another strong quake in Sumatra, although it was lifted about an hour later. Officials said food and other aid had reached some of the areas hit by the quake, but added many more tents were needed as people were still sleeping in the open, either because their houses had been destroyed or because they were too scared to return home in case of further quakes. "We have received aid from neighboring provinces, government agencies, and international organizations, and we are delivering it to those in need," said Muhammad Syamlan, vice governor of Bengkulu province, which was close to the quake's epicenter. "What people need most are tents because they are staying in the open." Read The Full Story Google Launches Global Privacy Campaign 2007-09-14 13:41:46 Drawing upon its clout as the Internet's most powerful company, Google Inc. is calling on businesses and regulators throughout the world to adopt international standards for protecting consumer privacy online and offline. The request, to be unveiled Friday in France, comes as the online search leader battles privacy concerns that threaten its plan to buy Internet ad service DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion. Mountain View-based Google, which already runs the Internet's most lucrative marketing network, is counting on the purchase to boost its profits by helping sell even more ads. New York-based DoubleClick collects information about the Web surfing habits of consumers, an activity that has stirred complaints from privacy watchdogs and prompted antitrust regulators to take a closer look at Google's proposed acquisition. Google already retains information about search requests, which can reveal intimate details about a person's health, finances, sexual preferences and other sensitive topics. Read The Full Story 'A Great Agent' Sues The FBI 2007-09-14 01:28:23 Web of suspicion, an agent's career ruined. The two male agents pictured with Rita Chiang in the FBI poster were smiling, but her stare left no doubt that she was all business. Chiang was a recruiting magnet for the FBI, but it was her skill as an investigator that got her noticed. The photo appeared in magazines and on billboards throughout the country in the 1990s, the picture cropped so tightly that only a sliver of her face could be seen. Anonymity was an asset in her job, where she matched wits with agents from the People's Republic of China in the furtive world of counterintelligence. But on Jan. 14, 2002, Chiang was stripped of her badge and gun and escorted out of the West Los Angeles office. FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III suspected that she was a mole for Chinese intelligence and ordered her suspended with pay while she was investigated. Chiang was later cleared when her boss was identified as the security leak, but she contends that by then her reputation was ruined and her career derailed. She filed a discrimination suit against the agency, but it was tossed out of court. The case is on appeal, but her lawyer concedes it has been all but impossible to overcome the FBI's position that her case - if it went to trial - could jeopardize national security. Read The Full Story	Greenspan Memoir Says Bush And Republicans Abandoned Fiscal Restraint 2007-09-15 02:21:55 Alan Greenspan, who served as Federal Reserve chairman for 18 years and was the leading Republican economist for the past three decades, levels unusually harsh criticism at President Bush and the Republican Party in his new book, arguing that Bush abandoned the central conservative principle of fiscal restraint. While condemning Democrats, too, for rampant federal spending, he offers Bill Clinton an exemption. The former president emerges as the political hero of "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World," Greenspan's 531-page memoir, which is being published Monday. Greenspan, who had an eight-year alliance with Clinton and Democratic Treasury secretaries in the 1990s, praises Clinton's mind and his tough anti-deficit policies, calling the former president's 1993 economic plan "an act of political courage." But he expresses deep disappointment with Bush. "My biggest frustration remained the president's unwillingness to wield his veto against out-of-control spending," Greenspan writes. "Not exercising the veto power became a hallmark of the Bush presidency. ... To my mind, Bush's collaborate-don't-confront approach was a major mistake." Read The Full Story Commentary: Why Is Bush's Kid-Brother Neil Getting Federal Funding? 2007-09-15 02:21:18 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Liliana Segura, a writer and activist living in New York City, N.Y. Her commentary was posted on AlterNet.org's website on Thursday, September 13, 2007. Ms. Segura's commentary follows: So here's a tidy little racket: After being installed president thanks to a voting fracas in a state conveniently governed by your brother, cook up a national educational curriculum and place at its center the standardized test. Give the curriculum a name with a wink and a nudge, like, oh, "No Child Left Behind." Then, funnel taxpayer money to equipping schools with a gimmicky learning device focused on standardized tests and sold by your other brother, the sadly anonymous one, whose only (fading) claim to fame is a role in the Savings and Loan scandal of the late 80s. Despite having no experience in education, Neil Bush is the founder of a Texas-based company called Ignite! Learning, which, since 1999 has peddled strange little devices called "Curriculums on Wheels" (COWs) to schools state and nationwide. Rather than anything bovine, COWs actually resemble bright plastic droids or office chairs gone terribly wrong. Described as "computer/projectors," it's not really clear what they do or how they work, and a cursory look at the company's website ( http://www.ignitelearning.com/) does not help. (Apparently it involves swivel action.) Regardless, there are COWs for different subjects: the Math COW, the Science COW ("the ultimate classroom sidekick!") and the Social Studies COW. No sign of a sex-ed COW. Despite glowing testimonials on Ignite!'s website, many teachers are unimpressed, arguing the COWs focus on rote memorization rather than critical thinking skills. (Really, just not what one would expect from a Bush.) Citing the absence of any evidence whatsoever that these devices actually work - they have yet to be peer reviewed - one group has described the COW as "a very expensive device with limited use." Read The Full Story Work On U.S. Sen. Stevens' House Detailed In Testimony 2007-09-15 02:18:42 Former Veco c.e.o. testifies he oversaw project. A former energy company executive testified yesterday that his employees worked on an expansive reconstruction of the house of Sen. Ted Stevens (R), who is under investigation in a federal probe of corruption among Alaska  lawmakers. Bill Allen the former chief executive of Veco Corp., said he personally oversaw the rebuilding of Stevens's house near Anchorage,visiting the home about once a month, and gave the senator furniture. "I gave Ted some old furniture," Allen testified. "I don't think there was a lot of material. There was some labor." Contractors previously told a federal grand jury that Veco executives supervised renovations at Stevens' house and that bills for the work went to Veco for Allen's approval. But Friday was the first time that Allen, who has pleaded guilty to bribing state lawmakers in Anchorage, named Stevens publicly. Allen testified in federal court in Alaska in the trial of a former state legislator whose case is part of a larger corruption investigation that has ensnared Stevens's son, Ben Stevens, a former state senator. Allen said Friday that Ben Stevens accepted $4,000 a month in bribes, disguised as consulting fees, while he was in the state legislature. Read The Full Story Taiwan Criticizes U.S. Lack Of Support 2007-09-15 02:17:32 Taiwan's president criticized the U.S. on Friday for refusing to support a referendum the island is planning to hold on whether to seek U.N. membership under its own name. Speaking via video to an audience in New York, Chen Shui-bian said he believes the U.S. opposes the referendum because of China's opposition, intimidation and threat of military action. "As a leader in the community of democracies, why can't the U.S. say no to China?" he asked. "Why can't the U.S. openly say that you can't hold a gun pointing at the head of the 23 million people of Taiwan and use the other hand to choke Taiwan?" Read The Full Story Analysts: Proxy Wars Could Soon Turn To Direct Conflict In Middle East 2007-09-14 20:38:07 U.S. strikes on Iran predicted as tensions rise over arms smuggling and nuclear fears. The growing U.S. focus on confronting Iran in a proxy war inside Iraq risks triggering a direct conflict in the next few months, regional analysts are warning. U.S.-Iranian tensions have mounted significantly in the past few days, with heightened rhetoric on both sides and the U.S. decision to establish a military base in Iraq less than five miles from the Iranian border to block the smuggling of Iranian arms to Shia militias. The involvement of a few hundred British troops in the anti-smuggling operation also raises the risk of their involvement in a cross-border clash. U.S. officers have alleged that an advanced Iranian-made missile had been fired at an American base from a Shia area, which if confirmed would be a significant escalation in the "proxy war" referred to this week by General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq. "The proxy war that has been going on in Iraq may now cross the border. This is a very dangerous period," said  Patrick Cronin, the director of studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Read The Full Story Scholars Decry Law School's About-Face On New Dean 2007-09-14 13:44:16 Professor wrote a column criticizing the Bush administration. Scholars across the political spectrum protested what they called an assault on academic freedom after the University of California at Irvine withdrew a job offer from a liberal professor who wrote an op-ed column criticizing the Bush administration. Faculty members were furious, and blogs and editorial pages hummed Thursday with news that constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky,54, would not become dean of the University of California's first new law school in 40 years. A highly visible liberal law professor at Duke University, Chemerinsky has represented Valerie Plame and a detainee at Guantanamo Bay. He is a frequent guest on talk shows to represent a liberal point of view and has written op-ed columns for major newspapers, including the Washington Post, on school segregation, abortion and workers' rights. He also played a major role in investigating the Los Angeles Police Department Rampart scandal and in writing the Los Angeles City Charter. On Aug. 16, Chemerinsky was offered the job as dean of the University of California at Irvine law school, scheduled to open in 2009. The same day he got the job offer, the Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed column by Chemerinsky urging California to reject a plan by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales that would, he argued, make it harder for those on death row to have their cases reviewed in federal court. Read The Full Story U.S. Gulf Coast Recovering From Humberto 2007-09-14 13:43:41 Some residents of Texas and Louisiana fired up generators to cut through the darkness after Hurricane Humberto sneaked up on the Gulf Coast, knocking out power to thousands and flooding streets before fizzling into a tropical depression. Humberto, the first hurricane to hit the U.S. in two years, steadily lost its punch Thursday after sloshing ashore in Texas as a stronger storm than initially expected and then dragging across Louisiana. One death was blamed on the storm. Early Friday, the remnants of Humberto took aim at Mississippi, where flood watches were in effect. Flood warnings were issued for portions of the Vermilion River in Louisiana. The National Weather Service reported 14.13 inches of rain fell in East Bay Bayou, Texas, and more than 6.5 inches of rain fell in Galveston and Beaumont City during the storm. More than 5 inches of rain fell in both Lake Arthur and Grand Chenier, Louisiana, and nearly 2.5 inches in New Orleans. Read The Full Story O.J. Simpson Named Suspect In Las Vegas Casino Break-In 2007-09-14 13:42:12 Investigators questioned O.J. Simpson and named him a suspect Friday in a break-in at a casino hotel room involving sports memorabilia. The break-in was reported at the Palace Station casino late Thursday night, said police spokesman Jose Montoya.  He said investigators determined the break-in involved sports collectibles. "When they talked to him, Simpson made the comment that he believed the memorabilia was his," said Montoya. "We're getting conflicting stories from the two sides." Simpson was released after he and several associates were questioned, but he is considered a suspect in the case, said Montoya. He is believed to be in Las Vegas. Read The Full Story Fact Check: After The President's Speech 2007-09-14 01:28:42 President's case for progress in Iraq at times contradicts government reports, and his own words. In his speech Thursday night, President Bush made a case for progress in Iraq by citing facts and statistics that at times contradicted recent government reports or his own words. For instance, Bush asserted that "Iraq's national leaders are getting some things done," such as "sharing oil revenues with the provinces" and allowing "former Baathists to rejoin Iraq's military or receive government pensions." Yet his statement ignored the fact that U.S. officials have been frustrated that none of those actions have been enshrined into law - and that reports from Baghdad this week indicated that a potential deal on sharing oil revenue is collapsing. In a radio address to the nation less than a month ago, the president himself complained that the Iraqi government was failing to address these issues. "Unfortunately, political progress at the national level has not matched the pace of progress at the local level," Bush said on Aug. 18. "The Iraqi government in Baghdad has many important measures left to address, such as reforming the de-Baathification laws, organizing provincial elections and passing a law to formalize the sharing of oil revenues." Read The Full Story New Jersey To Defy Federal Health-Care Rules 2007-09-14 01:27:58 Governor will not obey federal rules that make it harder for middle-income children to get health insurance. Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine informed President Bush this week that New Jersey will not obey federal rules that would make it harder to enroll middle-income kids for a popular government-subsidized health insurance program. His move escalated the growing confrontation between a number of states and the administration over the new rules imposed on the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). They have been criticized as unfair and overreaching by children's advocates and politicians of both parties, but Corzine's declaration marks the first time a governor has openly vowed to defy them. New Jersey's action comes against the background of a larger debate over the $5 billion-a-year program's future. The Senate and the House have passed legislation that would dramatically increase funding and make it possible to sign up millions of children for coverage. Read The Full Story
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