Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday October 31 2007 - (813)

Wednesday October 31 2007 edition
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Clinton's Rivals Go On The Attack 2007-10-31 03:07:23 With just over two months until the first primary contest, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic rivals aggressively challenged their party's front-runner in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Tuesday night, accusing her of being dishonest and of emboldening President Bush to declare war against Iran.  Former senator John Edwards (North Carolina), lingering in third place in most polls, took the lead in attacking Clinton as Democrats gathered for the fourth of their six official debates. He mocked Clinton for voting to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, and he all but accused her of being corrupt. Voters, Edwards said, "deserve a president of the United States that they know will tell them the truth, and won't say one thing one time and something different at a different time." Sen. Barack Obama (Illinois) - under pressure to take sharp aim at Clinton - criticized her directly for not releasing her correspondence as first lady. But he kept his cool demeanor, describing her tendency toward secrecy as simply "a problem." Read The Full Story Iraq Moves To Repeal Immunity For Security Contractors 2007-10-31 03:06:12 The Iraqi cabinet approved draft legislation Tuesday that would repeal a law granting immunity to foreign security firms working in Iraq.  The draft, which still requires the approval of parliament, is part of the Iraqi government's response to a shooting last month involving guards from Blackwater Worldwide, a North Carolina-based private security firm, that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead and 27 wounded. Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman, said the cabinet unanimously approved the draft. Several important pieces of legislation have been stalled in parliament for months, but Dabbagh said he was certain legislators would approve a tough law on foreign security guards. "There has been a lot of anger because of this Blackwater incident," he said. "There was a bit of a sense of urgency." Read The Full Story Official Government Report Blames Aliens For Mysterious Fires 2007-10-31 03:05:25 An Italian investigation into a series of unexplained fires in fridges, televisions and mobile phone is blaming aliens. It concluded that the responsibility for the fires in Canneto di Caronia on Sicily may lie with "aliens testing secret weapons". The village was the center of world attention three years ago after residents reported everyday household objects mysteriously bursting into flames. Dozens of experts, including scientists, electrical engineers and military experts, arrived in the village to investigate. One scientist reported seeing an unplugged electrical cable burst into flames. Arson was ruled out while locals blamed supernatural forces and the Vatican's chief exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth,  suggested it was Satan's work. Read The Full Story White House Under Fire For Giving Blackwater Immunity 2007-10-30 20:17:50 The Bush administration faced intense criticism Tuesday after it emerged that the State Department had offered immunity to Blackwater security guards allegedly involved in a shooting spree in Baghdad that left 17 dead. The immunity offer was made by state department investigators in return for information about the September 16 killings. The offer does not mean a trial cannot be mounted but it would compromise any prosecution case and practically ensure there would be no convictions. Blackwater, a North Carolina-based company employed by the State Department, was guarding a diplomatic convoy outside the relative safety of Baghdad's green zone when it said it came under fire from insurgents. The Iraqi government says the security guards opened fire without provocation. Read The Full Story With U.S. Help, North Korean Ship Crew Defeats Pirates 2007-10-30 20:17:26 A U.S. Navy destroyer helped sailors who retook control of their vessel Tuesday in a deadly battle with pirates after the North Korean-flagged ship was hijacked in the piracy-plagued waters off Somalia, said the American military. The Navy also confirmed that other American warships sank two pirate skiffs late Sunday after answering a distress call from a hijacked Japanese chemical tanker and said U.S. ships are still monitoring that vessel. In Tuesday's incident, a helicopter flew from the destroyer USS James E. Williams to investigate a phoned-in tip of a hijacked ship and demanded by radio that the pirates give up their weapons, the military said in a statement. The crew of the Dai Hong Dan then overwhelmed the hijackers, leaving two pirates dead, according to preliminary reports, and five captured, said the military. Three seriously injured crew members were taken aboard the Williams, said the statement. The captured pirates remained on the Dai Hong Dan, which the crew is returning to the port of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. Read The Full Story Strengthening Of Consumer Agency Opposed By It's Boss 2007-10-30 13:38:01 The top official for consumer product safety has asked Congress in recent days to reject legislation that would strengthen the agency that polices thousands of consumer goods, from toys to tools. On the eve of an important Senate committee meeting to consider the legislation, Nancy A. Nord, the acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC),has asked lawmakers in two letters not to approve the bulk of legislation that would increase the agency’s authority, double its budget and sharply increase its dwindling staff. Ms. Nord opposes provisions that would increase the maximum penalties for safety violations and make it easier for the government to make public reports of faulty products, protect industry whistleblowers and prosecute executives of companies that willfully violate laws. The measure is an effort to buttress an agency that has been under siege because of a raft of tainted and dangerous products manufactured both domestically and abroad. In the last two months alone, more than 13 million toys have been recalled after tests indicated lead levels of almost 200 times the safety ceiling. Read The Full Story Commentary: Bush's Legacy Of Cynicism 2007-10-30 13:37:37 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Richard Cohen and appears in the Washington Post edition for Tuesday, October 30, 2007. Mr. Cohen is an op-ed columnist for the Post. When George W. Bush surveys his presidency, he will see two wars commenced and none concluded, Osama bin Laden still on the loose, American prestige at record lows throughout the world, a military both broken and abused, and a country that in large part thinks its government is a liar. Guinness World Records will need a chapter for Bush alone. It is, though, that bit about lack of trust in government that may be the most important and intractable. The others are correctable. For Iraq, there is a solution - or at least an ending. For the military, there is the cure of more money and the fading of memories. For bin Laden, there is mortality itself. As for Afghanistan, who knows what will happen, since that country is where Western expectations go to die. But this business about the people's trust in its government is destructive stuff. We see it played out now with the Senate resolution labeling the al-Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. The resolution itself is a pretty straightforward affair, stating a compelling case that the al-Quds Force has interfered in Iraq and caused the deaths of Americans. Whatever you may feel about the war in Iraq, no one gets to kill Americans with impunity. Read The Full Story U.S. Justice Dept. Official Apologizes For Minority Remarks 2007-10-30 13:37:05 Head of the Justice Department's voting section made controversial comments about minorities. The head of the Justice Department's voting section apologized today for saying that racial minorities are more likely to die before becoming elderly and therefore are not hurt as much as whites by voter identification laws. In prepared testimony for an appearance in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee this morning, John K. Tanner said his remarks earlier this month at the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles, California, "do not in any way accurately reflect my career of devotion" to upholding federal voting rights laws. "I want to apologize for the comments," Tanner said in his testimony. " .. I understand that my explanation of the data came across in a hurtful way, which I deeply regret." The apology follows a series of remarks by Tanner this month that have caused a political uproar and led to calls from some Democrats, including presidential hopeful Barack Obama, that Tanner resign or be fired. Read The Full Story FEMA Spokesman Denied Position After Phony 'News Conference' 2007-10-30 13:36:07 Official tied to "fake" news conference was slated for job with Director of National Intelligence. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's director of external communications was denied a post as senior spokesman for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell Monday, becoming the highest-ranking casualty of a fake news conference staged by FEMA last week to publicize its response to California's devastating wildfires. The flap is not the first time FEMA or its parent Department of Homeland Security has been on the wrong end of a public relations move that backfired. Rather, it fits a pattern in which domestic security officials have mismanaged the public presentation of their efforts, whether those efforts are going well or poorly. Public relations is an obsession of senior department leaders, who say that public safety and counterterrorism efforts depend on their credibility. But DHS has repeatedly stumbled, most devastatingly when its leaders' reassuring words clashed with chaotic television images of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Read The Full Story Blackwater Given Immunity For Statements Made To U.S. State Dept. 2007-10-30 03:23:12 FBI cannot use information gleaned from State Department bureau's interviews with guards who were involved in the Sept. 16 civilian shootings. Potential prosecution of Blackwater guards allegedly involved in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians last month may have been compromised because the guards received immunity for statements they made to State Department officials investigating the incident, federal law enforcement officials said Monday. FBI agents called in to take over the State Department's investigation two weeks after the Sept. 16 shootings cannot use any information gleaned during questioning of the guards by the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is charged with supervising security contractors. Some of the Blackwater guards have subsequently refused to be interviewed by the FBI, citing promises of immunity from the State Department, said one law enforcement official. The restrictions on the FBI's use of their initial statements do not preclude prosecution by the Justice Department using other evidence, the official said, but "they make things a lot more complicated and difficult." Read The Full Story U.S. Intelligence Budget Said To Be $50 Billion 2007-10-30 03:22:45 The director of U.S. national intelligence will disclose Tuesday that national intelligence activities amounting to roughly 80 percent of all U.S. intelligence spending for the year cost more than $40 billion, according to sources on Capitol Hill and inside the administration. The disclosure means that when military spending is added, aggregate U.S. intelligence spending for fiscal 2007 exceeded $50 billion, according to these sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the total remains classified. Adm. Mike McConnell will announce that the fiscal 2007 national intelligence program figure, classified up to now, is being made public at the urging of the Sept. 11 commission and the insistence of Congress, which turned the commission's recommendation into law. The commission's plan was to have the president make the figure public each year. While the budget figure released by McConnell excludes intelligence programs for the separate military services, it includes the budgets of the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI's intelligence programs, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the major Defense Department intelligence collection agencies. Read The Full Story	Senior Democrats Want Blackwater Case Details 2007-10-31 03:06:21 The U.S. State Department said Tuesdday that it had provided "limited protections" to Blackwater Worldwide security guards under investigation in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians but insisted that its actions would not preclude successful prosecution of the contractors. Signed statements the guards provided to State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 16 shooting deaths included what law enforcement officials said was a standard disclaimer used in "official administrative inquiries" involving government employees. It said that the statements were being offered with the understanding that nothing in them could be used "in a criminal proceeding." New details about the "protections" given Blackwater contractors allegedly involved in the shootings sparked outrage from congressional Democrats Tuesday, along with a flood of letters to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from committee chairmen demanding more information. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vermont), who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee as well as the appropriations subcommittee overseeing State's budget, called the contractor issue the latest example of the Bush administration's refusal to hold anyone from "their team" accountable for misconduct or incompetence. "If you get caught," Leahy said in a statement, "they will get you immunity. If you get convicted, they will commute your sentence." Read The Full Story Huge Black Holes May Hold Clues To Galaxy Formation 2007-10-31 03:05:46 For years, astronomers speculated that a giant, mysterious force lay at the center of the Milky Way, but it wasn't until four years ago that UCLA astronomer Andrea Ghez definitively showed what it was. Using new techniques for peering into the dusty heart of the galaxy, Ghez's observations proved that scores of stars were rapidly orbiting what could only be a black hole. But it wasn't the kind of garden-variety black hole created when a star explodes and dies; it was hundreds of thousands of times as powerful - a "supermassive" black hole, as they are now known. Her discoveries, along with the work of scientists studying other galaxies, have in a short time led researchers to the surprising conclusion that most, if not all, of the universe's hundreds of billions of galaxies have supermassive black holes at their core. Even more striking, the astronomers have found that the black holes' mass and nature are closely related to the size and makeup of the surrounding galaxies. It also appears that these cosmic monsters - which can "eat" stars whole - are key to understanding how galaxies were formed and are still being formed today. Read The Full Story In Letter To Democrats, Mukasey Refuses To Offer Waterboarding Opinion 2007-10-30 20:18:01 Attorney general nominee calls the interrogation tactic "repugnant," but continues to resist invitations to declare it illegal. Attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey told Senate Democrats today that a kind of simulated drowning known as waterboarding is "repugnant," but he does not know whether the interrogation technique violates U.S. laws against torture. Mukasey, whose nomination to replace Alberto R. Gonzales has become less certain because of his refusal to offer an opinion on waterboarding, also wrote in a letter to Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not know if U.S. interrogators had used waterboarding because he is not cleared to receive classified information. In reiterating earlier promises to the committee, Mukasey pledged to study the issue if confirmed and to reverse any legal opinions by the Justice Department that violate the Constitution or U.S. law. Read The Full Story Tropical Storm Noel Hits Cuba, Headed For Florida 2007-10-30 20:17:36 Tropical Storm Noel brought heavy rain to the western Caribbean Tuesday as it pushed through Cuba and edged closer to Florida. Floods and mudslides across the region have killed at least 22 people. Forecasters projected the storm would emerge over water Wednesday near Cuba's Cayo Coco resort area and head northeast toward the Bahamas. They also said a tropical storm watch might be issued for parts of southeastern Florida Tuesday. The storm cut a destructive path across the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. At least six people died in Haiti, including two women who were washed away by flood waters near the city of Gantier and a child found dead in a slum in the capital, said U.N. officials. Read The Full Story Singer Robert Goulet Dies At 73 2007-10-30 20:17:10 Robert Goulet, the handsome, big-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in "Camelot" launched an award-winning stage and recording career, has died. He was 73. The singer died Tuesday morning in a Los Angeles hospital while awaiting a lung transplant, said Goulet spokesman Norm Johnson. He had been awaiting a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after being found last month to have a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis. Goulet had remained in good spirits even as he waited for the transplant, said Vera Goulet, his wife of 25 years. Read The Full Story News Analysis: Herd's Head Trampled 2007-10-30 13:37:48 Merrill Lynch Boss Stan O'Neal is the biggest casualty of the mortgage crisis - so far. Talk about feast to famine. In July, Merrill Lynch posted a record second-quarter net profit of $2.1 billion, prompting Stan O'Neal, its chief executive, to boast of the “earnings power of our franchise”. Three months later a whopping writedown of the value of mortgage-linked securities tipped the Wall Street giant into a loss of $2.3 billion. Merrill’s shares tanked, its credit rating was cut and a deeply disgruntled board met to hammer out a response to the crisis. On Tuesday October 30th, it reached a decision that for days had seemed inevitable: O'Neal was shown the door of the firm he had run since 2002, though the departure was dressed up as a resignation. He has the dubious honor of being the first Wall Street boss to be forced out over losses stemming from the global credit crunch. He is unlikely to be the last. O'Neal presided over an ill-timed rush into businesses that are now causing no end of trouble. The root of Merrill’s problems are collateralized-debt obligations (CDOs), tranched pools of debt linked to subprime mortgages and other assets. Seen as safe only a few months ago, these are now tumbling in value as mortgage delinquencies rise. Under  O'Neal, Merrill overtook rivals to become the top CDO underwriter, a position cemented by acquisitions of mortgage originators, such as First Franklin. But little thought was given to the pain Merrill might face if boom turned to bust. Read The Full Story Commentary: Fearing Fear Itself 2007-10-30 13:37:23 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Paul Krugman and appeared in the New York Times edition for Monday, October 29, 2007. Mr. Krugman is an op-ed columnist for the Times. In America’s darkest hour, Franklin Delano Roosevelt urged the nation not to succumb to “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.” But that was then. Today, many of the men who hope to be the next president - including all of the candidates with a significant chance of receiving the Republican nomination - have made unreasoning, unjustified terror the centerpiece of their campaigns. Consider, for a moment, the implications of the fact that Rudy Giuliani is taking foreign policy advice from Norman Podhoretz, who wants us to start bombing Iran “as soon as it is logistically possible.” Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary and a founding neoconservative, tells us that Iran is the “main center of the Islamofascist ideology against which we have been fighting since 9/11.” The Islamofascists, he tells us, are well on their way toward creating a world “shaped by their will and tailored to their wishes.” Indeed, “Already, some observers are warning that by the end of the 21st century the whole of Europe will be transformed into a place to which they give the name Eurabia.” Read The Full Story Bush To Nominate Lt. Gen. Peake To Head Veterans Administration 2007-10-30 13:36:32 President Bush Tuesday plans to nominate retired Army Lt. Gen. James B. Peake to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is being forced into wrenching change as it attempts to meet the challenges posed by the large number of wounded troops returning home from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A senior administration official said Bush would announce Peake's appointment this afternoon at the White House. Peake, 63, who spent four years as Army surgeon general, worked for decades in military medicine before retiring in 2004. Peake, currently works as chief medical director and chief operating officer of California-based QTC Management Inc., which calls itself the largest private provider of government-outsourced occupational health and disability examination services in the nation. Peake's nomination comes as the administration and Congress struggle to address the problems facing troops returning home with physical and mental wounds from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office pointed to staff shortages as well as uncertainty in how to tackle some of the complicated issues surrounding veteran care. Read The Full Story Oil And Trade Gains Turn Developing Nations Into Major Investors 2007-10-30 03:23:22 The government of Libya, flush with oil, has amassed $40 billion and is ready to put it in play on Wall Street. China  recently acquired a huge stake in one of the biggest names in U.S. finance. Tiny Qatar is adding $1 billion a week to its investment coffers and is trying to buy the leading grocer in Britain. Developing nations, especially in Asia and the Middle East, are aggressively stockpiling some of the largest concentrations of investment money in history. The cash hoards, called sovereign wealth funds, are controlled not by state-run companies or private investors but by governments. These investment pools are equal to or even bigger than the largest pension and private-equity funds in the United States, and many are highly secretive about their activities. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has an estimated $875 billion to invest, while China's first stab at a sovereign wealth fund, which started last month, has $200 billion. The largest private-equity firm has about $90 billion under management. Read The Full Story Officials Fear Collapse Of Iraq Dam Could Cause Up To 500,000 Iraqi Civilian Deaths 2007-10-30 03:23:00 The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials. Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. "The Mosul dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability," in the dry wording of an Army Corps of Engineers draft report. At the same time, a U.S. reconstruction project to help shore up the dam in northern Iraq has been marred by incompetence and mismanagement, according to Iraqi officials and a report by a U.S. oversight agency to be released Tuesday. The reconstruction project, worth at least $27 million, was not intended to be a permanent solution to the dam's deficiencies. "In terms of internal erosion potential of the foundation, Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world," the Army Corps concluded in September 2006, according to the report to be released Tuesday. "If a small problem [at] Mosul Dam occurs, failure is likely." Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday October 30 2007 - (813)

Tuesday October 30 2007 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Oil And Trade Gains Turn Developing Nations Into Major Investors 2007-10-30 03:23:22 The government of Libya, flush with oil, has amassed $40 billion and is ready to put it in play on Wall Street. China  recently acquired a huge stake in one of the biggest names in U.S. finance. Tiny Qatar is adding $1 billion a week to its investment coffers and is trying to buy the leading grocer in Britain. Developing nations, especially in Asia and the Middle East, are aggressively stockpiling some of the largest concentrations of investment money in history. The cash hoards, called sovereign wealth funds, are controlled not by state-run companies or private investors but by governments. These investment pools are equal to or even bigger than the largest pension and private-equity funds in the United States, and many are highly secretive about their activities. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has an estimated $875 billion to invest, while China's first stab at a sovereign wealth fund, which started last month, has $200 billion. The largest private-equity firm has about $90 billion under management. Read The Full Story Officials Fear Collapse Of Iraq Dam Could Cause Up To 500,000 Iraqi Civilian Deaths 2007-10-30 03:23:00 The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials. Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. "The Mosul dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability," in the dry wording of an Army Corps of Engineers draft report. At the same time, a U.S. reconstruction project to help shore up the dam in northern Iraq has been marred by incompetence and mismanagement, according to Iraqi officials and a report by a U.S. oversight agency to be released Tuesday. The reconstruction project, worth at least $27 million, was not intended to be a permanent solution to the dam's deficiencies. "In terms of internal erosion potential of the foundation, Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world," the Army Corps concluded in September 2006, according to the report to be released Tuesday. "If a small problem [at] Mosul Dam occurs, failure is likely." Read The Full Story At Least 20 People Dead As Tropical Storm Noel Lashes Dominican Republic 2007-10-29 21:56:38 Tropical Storm Noel lashed the Dominican Republic with heavy rains on Monday, causing flooding and mudslides that killed at least 20 people and left another 20 missing, said officials. Noel was expected to dump up to 20 inches of rain on the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola, as it heads northwest toward the Bahamas. The storm was expected to veer away from the United States, but forecasters said a tropical storm watch, which means that tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 hours, may be issued for southeast Florida later Monday. The spinning tropical storm had been forecast to hit Haiti hardest but veered toward the Dominican Republic, apparently catching residents offguard. Read The Full Story In Peru, Malaria Moves In Behind The Loggers 2007-10-29 21:56:17 Deforestation and climate change are returning the mosquito-borne disease to parts of Peru after 40 years. The afternoon is hot and sticky on the banks of the Napo river, an arm of the Amazon, but Claudio, a logger, is shivering in his creaky wooden bed. "I feel bad, very bad, pain all over my body, fever, high fever, shudders," he says. "I have malaria; this is the 17th time so far. I don't know what to do any more." The mosquito-borne illness has returned to the many villages only accessible by boat in the Peruvian Amazon, inflicting on the inhabitants days of fever, permanent anaemia and - in the worst cases - death. Article continues In Peru, malaria was almost eradicated 40 years ago, but this year 64,000 cases have been registered in the country, half in the Amazon region. It is thought there are many more unregistered cases deep within the massive and humid rainforest, where health authorities find it almost impossible to gain access. Read The Full Story 32 People Killed, 18 Wounded In Suicide Bomb Attack Near Baghdad 2007-10-29 16:12:46 A suicide bomber riding a bicycle killed 32 people and wounded 18 when he detonated his explosives Monday amidst a group of Iraqi police recruits, said officials. The attack took place in volatile Diyala province, just north of Baghdad, during a morning roll call around 8:15 in the training yard of a police battalion, said Col. Ali Ismael Fattah, the unit's commanding officer. Among the wounded were a woman and child near the site of the explosion. Fattah said the casualty reports were preliminary and the death toll might rise. Most of the dead were police recruits, who were undergoing training and scheduled to finish their course soon, said Fattah. Diyala has been a focus of U.S. counterinsurgency efforts, both on the political and military fronts. Over the summer, U.S. forces pushed into Baqubah, the capital of Diyala, in an effort to regain control of the city from al-Qaeda backed militants. An alliance between local sheiks and the U.S. military has been cited as a successful piece of U.S. strategy. Read The Full Story Iowa Democrats Set Earlier Caucus Date 2007-10-29 16:12:08 Iowa Democrats voted Sunday to move their leadoff precinct caucuses to Jan. 3, the same date Republicans picked earlier this month, letting both parties continue the tradition of meeting on the same night. The state's precinct caucuses had been scheduled for Jan. 14, but the parties decided to move them up under pressure from other states rushing to the beginning of the primary calendar. The move, confirmed by party spokesman Chris Allen, means the major remaining question about the calendar is the New Hampshire primary, originally scheduled for Jan. 22. New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner has said only that he would schedule that primary no later than Jan. 8. Read The Full Story China Arrests 774 In Food And Drug Crackdown 2007-10-29 16:11:35 The Chinese government said Monday that it had arrested 774 people over the past two months as part of a nationwide crackdown on the production and sale of tainted food, drugs and agricultural products. Government regulators hailed the arrests as a major step forward for food and drug safety, and said the “criminal suspects” were detained during nationwide inspections of thousands of restaurants, food and drug production facilities and wholesale food markets. Determined to counter accusations that it has been producing and even exporting tainted goods, China vowed earlier this year to revamp its food and drug safety regulations and to close down illegal manufacturers and exporters. Last summer, the government even executed the former head of the nation’s food and drug administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, after he was convicted of accepting bribes and failing to properly supervise food and drug companies, some of which had sold counterfeit drugs. Read The Full Story GAO: Security Upgrades At Several U.S. Nuclear Sites Are Lagging 2007-10-29 03:27:37 More than a year after Congress told the Energy Department to harden the nation’s nuclear bomb factories and laboratories against terrorist raids, at least 5 of the 11 sites are certain to miss their deadlines, some by many years. The Energy Department has put off security improvements at some sites that store plutonium because it plans to consolidate the material at central locations, but the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a Senate briefing that that project was also likely to lag. A copy of the briefing materials was provided to The New York Times by a private group, the Project on Government Oversight, which has long been pushing for better security at the weapons sites. Danielle Brian, the group’s executive director, said that although the deadline set by Congress was tight, if the Energy Department “had taken seriously consolidating and making this an expedited effort, they wouldn’t be having these problems now.” Robert Alvarez, an adviser to the energy secretary in the Clinton administration, said there was wide agreement that centralizing the fuel was a good idea. But Mr. Alvarez added, “There’s a lot of pushback about moving fissile materials from a site, because then you lose a portion of your budget and prestige.” The Energy Department declined requests for an interview, but Michael Kilpatrick, a deputy chief at the department’s Office of Health, Safety and Security, said in a statement that the steps under way were “further enhancements and better protection to some of the most secure facilities in the country.” Read The Full Story Editorial: Trash Talking World War III 2007-10-29 03:25:38 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Monday, October 29, 2007. America’s allies and increasingly the American public are playing a ghoulish guessing game: Will President Bush manage to leave office without starting a war with Iran? Mr. Bush is eagerly feeding those anxieties. This month he raised the threat of “World War III” if Iran even figures out how to make a nuclear weapon. With a different White House, we might dismiss this as posturing - or bank on sanity to carry the day, or the warnings of exhausted generals or a defense secretary more rational than his predecessor. Not this crowd. Four years after his pointless invasion of Iraq, President Bush still confuses bullying with grand strategy. He refuses to do the hard work of diplomacy - or even acknowledge the disastrous costs of his actions. The Republican presidential candidates have apparently decided that the real commander in chief test is to see who can out-trash talk the White House on Iran. The world should not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, but there is no easy fix here, no daring surgical strike. Consider Natanz, the underground site where Iran is defying the Security Council by spinning a few thousand centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel. American bombers could take it out, but what about the even more sophisticated centrifuges the administration accuses Iran of hiding? Beyond the disastrous diplomatic and economic costs, a bombing campaign is unlikely to set back Iran’s efforts for more than a few years. Read The Full Story Commentary: The Wiretap This Time 2007-10-29 03:24:42 Intellpuke: The following commentary is by Chicago columnist and author Studs Terkel and appears in the New York Times edition for Monday, October 29, 2007. Earlier this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the White House agreed to allow the executive branch to conduct dragnet interceptions of the electronic communications of people in the United States. They also agreed to “immunize” American telephone companies from lawsuits charging that after 9/11 some companies collaborated with the government to violate the Constitution and existing federal law. I am a plaintiff in one of those lawsuits, and I hope Congress thinks carefully before denying me, and millions of other Americans, our day in court. During my lifetime, there has been a sea change in the way that politically active Americans view their relationship with government. In 1920, during my youth, I recall the Palmer raids in which more than 10,000 people were rounded up, most because they were members of particular labor unions or belonged to groups that advocated change in American domestic or foreign policy. Unrestrained surveillance was used to further the investigations leading to these detentions, and the Bureau of Investigation - the forerunner to the F.B.I. - eventually created a database on the activities of individuals. This activity continued through the Red Scare of the period. In the 1950s, during the sad period known as the McCarthy era, one’s political beliefs again served as a rationale for government monitoring. Individual corporations and entire industries were coerced by government leaders into informing on individuals and barring their ability to earn a living. Read The Full Story Obama Seeks A Revival Of Faith 2007-10-29 03:24:09 Presidential contender launches a three-city gospel concert series across South Carolina. As a man not only of God but of politics, the Rev. Joe Darby is an outspoken observer of the campaign scene. Reclining in his cluttered office at Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, he witnesses the union between the pulpit and the polls. "Politics does come down to some degree of emotion ... ," says Darby, one of this state's most prominent African American preachers, whose church is a magnet for Democratic presidential hopefuls. "The Democratic Party is just catching up to that. It's been nauseatingly safe in recent years." As if from Darby's mouth to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's ears, the Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois -  hoping his campaign can recapture some of that old-time religious fervor - launched a three-city gospel concert series over the weekend across the state, in North Charleston, Greenwood and Columbia. Although Obama did not attend the "Embrace the Change" series in person (instead campaigning in Iowa), he was here in spirit, appearing by video screen and sending out his surrogates, such as pastor Hezekiah Walker and singer Beverly Crawford. Read The Full Story U.S. Country Singer Porter Wagoner Dies 2007-10-29 03:23:11 U.S. country singer Porter Wagoner, lanky Grand Ole Opry star whose flashy Nudie rhinestone suits dazzled fans when he sang with rising new performer Dolly Parton in the 60s, died on Sunday from lung cancer, said his publicity agent, Darlene Bieber. He was 80. Bieber said the singer died in an Alive Hospice facility in Nashville, Tennessee. He had been hospitalized for several days. Wagoner, an Opry star since 1957 and a Grammy winner, was a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and won three Country Music Association awards for songs with Parton in the Vocal Duo and Vocal Group categories. The two recorded 14 Top 10 hits including "Last Thing on My Mind" and "Please Don't Stop Loving Me." Wagoner's solo hits included "Company's Comin" and the "Green Green Grass of Home" as well as "Carroll County Accident." Read The Full Story	Blackwater Given Immunity For Statements Made To U.S. State Dept. 2007-10-30 03:23:12 FBI cannot use information gleaned from State Department bureau's interviews with guards who were involved in the Sept. 16 civilian shootings. Potential prosecution of Blackwater guards allegedly involved in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians last month may have been compromised because the guards received immunity for statements they made to State Department officials investigating the incident, federal law enforcement officials said Monday. FBI agents called in to take over the State Department's investigation two weeks after the Sept. 16 shootings cannot use any information gleaned during questioning of the guards by the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is charged with supervising security contractors. Some of the Blackwater guards have subsequently refused to be interviewed by the FBI, citing promises of immunity from the State Department, said one law enforcement official. The restrictions on the FBI's use of their initial statements do not preclude prosecution by the Justice Department using other evidence, the official said, but "they make things a lot more complicated and difficult." Read The Full Story U.S. Intelligence Budget Said To Be $50 Billion 2007-10-30 03:22:45 The director of U.S. national intelligence will disclose Tuesday that national intelligence activities amounting to roughly 80 percent of all U.S. intelligence spending for the year cost more than $40 billion, according to sources on Capitol Hill and inside the administration. The disclosure means that when military spending is added, aggregate U.S. intelligence spending for fiscal 2007 exceeded $50 billion, according to these sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the total remains classified. Adm. Mike McConnell will announce that the fiscal 2007 national intelligence program figure, classified up to now, is being made public at the urging of the Sept. 11 commission and the insistence of Congress, which turned the commission's recommendation into law. The commission's plan was to have the president make the figure public each year. While the budget figure released by McConnell excludes intelligence programs for the separate military services, it includes the budgets of the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI's intelligence programs, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the major Defense Department intelligence collection agencies. Read The Full Story Scientist: It's Too Late For Greenhouse Gas Cuts 2007-10-29 21:56:29 Prof. James Lovelock says most scientists have failed to recognize the speed with which global warming will progress. Cutting greenhouse gases and switching to sustainable development are unlikely to prevent disasters caused by climate change, one of the world's most respected environmentalists warned Monday. Professor James Lovelock, the leading independent environmental scientist, claims that even the most pessimistic outcomes predicted by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fail to recognize the speed with which global warming will progress. In a speech at the Royal Society in London, Prof. Lovelock described how he has arrived at an "apocalyptic view" of the future, in which 6 to 8 billion people face diminishing food and water supplies in an increasingly intolerable climate. Read The Full Story Egypt Announces Nuclear Plant Projects 2007-10-29 16:13:19 Egypt's president announced plans Monday to build several nuclear power plants - the latest in a string of ambitious such proposals from moderate Arab countries. The United States immediately welcomed the plan, in a sharp contrast to what it called nuclear "cheating" by Iran.  President Hosni Mubarak said the aim was to diversify Egypt's energy resources and preserve its oil and gas reserves for future generations. In a televised speech, he pledged Egypt would work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency at all times and would not seek a nuclear bomb. Mubarak also made clear there were strategic reasons for the program, calling secure sources of energy "an integral part of Egypt's national security system." In Washington, D.C., State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. would not object to the program as long as Egypt adhered to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines. Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Exxon Valdez Case 2007-10-29 16:12:31 The Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear an appeal by Exxon Mobil Corp. that seeks to overturn $2.5 billion in punitive damages a federal court ordered the company to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska. Stepping into the long-running dispute between the world's largest publicly traded oil company and more than 30,000 class-action plaintiffs, the court separately rejected the plaintiffs' appeal to reinstate the trial jury's original award of $5 billion in punitive damages. The 1994 award ultimately was cut in half during an appeals process that reached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which issued its ruling in December. Exxon Mobil argues that the $2.5 billion punitive award violates federal maritime law, and the Supreme Court agreed to take the case to settle that question. The justices declined to consider an argument that the award was so large that it violates the Constitution. Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., recused himself from the case without explanation. According to his 2006 financial disclosure report, he owned between $100,000 and $250,000 in Exxon Mobil stock as of Dec. 31. Read The Full Story Israel's Olmert Diagnosed With Prostate Cancer 2007-10-29 16:11:54 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israelis on Monday that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, but said the disease was not life-threatening and will not disrupt his work as the country's leader. The disclosure came at a sensitive time in Mideast diplomacy, with Olmert and another one-time prostate cancer patient  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - struggling to bridge gaping differences ahead of a U.S.-brokered peace conference. Speaking calmly before a packed hall of reporters, Olmert said the disease was caught early and that he would have surgery "over the next few months." Vice Premier Haim Ramon said the surgery would be done after the conference. "I will be able to carry out my duties fully before the treatment and within hours afterward," said Olmert. "My doctors ... informed me that there is a full chance of recovery and there is nothing about the tumor that is life-threatening or liable to impair my performance or my ability to carry out the mission which has been bestowed upon me." Read The Full Story Terror Attack Threat Causes U.S., British Embassies To Suspend Operations In Azerbaijan 2007-10-29 16:11:14 The U.S. and British embassies suspended operations Monday in Baku, where the government said it thwarted a radical Islamic group's plot to conduct a "large-scale horrifying terror attack" against diplomatic missions and government buildings. The Azerbaijani National Security Ministry said one suspect was killed and several others were detained in a weekend sweep in a village outside the capital. The ministry said the Islamic group included an army lieutenant who stole 20 hand grenades, a machine gun, four assault rifles and ammunition from his military unit and made them available for the planned attack. The U.S. Embassy sent out an announcement to American citizens saying it had closed its consular office for an indefinite period because of a security threat and said it encouraged Americans to "maintain a high level of vigilance." Police cars were parked outside. The British Embassy closed completely on Monday, according to a receptionist in the Landmark building where the embassy is located. No one answered the phone at the embassy. Read The Full Story Bush Administration Promises On Darfur Don't Match Actions 2007-10-29 03:27:22 Indecision on whether to pressure Sudan or engage with its government, along with turnover of key advisers keeps president from maintaining focus. In April 2006, a small group of Darfur activists - including evangelical Christians, the representative of a Jewish group and a former Sudanese slave - was ushered into the Roosevelt Room at the White House for a private meeting with President Bush. It was the eve of a major rally on the National Mall, and the president spent more than an hour holding forth, displaying a kind of passion that has led some in the White House to dub him the "Sudan desk officer".  Bush insisted there must be consequences for rape and murder, and he called for international troops on the ground to protect innocent Darfuris, according to contemporaneous notes by one of those present. He spoke of "bringing justice" to the Jajaweed, the Arab militias that have participated in atrocities that the president has repeatedly described as nothing less than "genocide." "He had an understanding of the issue that went beyond simply responding to a briefing that had been given," said David Rubenstein, a participant who was then executive director of the Save Darfur Coalition, which has been sharply critical of the administration's response to the crisis. "He knew more facts than I expected him to know, and he had a broader political perspective than I expected him to have." Read The Full Story U.S. Guns Behind Killings By Mexico's Drug Cartel 2007-10-29 03:25:28 As many as 2,000 U.S. guns enter Mexico each day, feeding an expanding drug cartel arms race. Assassins blasted Ricardo Rosas Alvarado, a member of an elite state police force, with a blizzard of bullets pumped out of AK-47 assault rifles. Alvarado crumpled at the wheel of his sedan, yet another victim of the weapons known here as "goat's horns" because of their curved ammunition clips, and which can fire at a rate of 600 rounds per minute. The killing, Mexican authorities said, was a panorama of blood, shattered glass and torn metal that brutally showcased the firepower of Mexico's  drug cartels. But that was just the warm-up. Two hours later, a small army of cartel hit men descended on a federal police office and bunkhouse in this crowded city at one of the world's busiest border crossings. None of the officers, who had recently been sent here to crush the drug gangs terrorizing the city, were killed in the hail of more than 1,200 bullets, authorities said. But police veterans understood the message delivered to the newcomers: "Welcome to Tijuana. Our guns are bigger than your guns." Read The Full Story Gunmen Kidnap 11 Iraqi Tribal Leaders Allied With U.S. 2007-10-29 03:24:27 Eleven tribal leaders who had banded with U.S. troops to fight the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq were kidnapped Sunday morning, the latest in a string of such attacks, fellow tribesmen said. The Shiite and Sunni sheiks, members of the al-Salam Support Council, a group fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq in volatile Diyala province,were taken from their cars by gunmen as they were returning home from a meeting in Baghdad with a government official, said the tribesmen. Hadi al-Anbaki, a spokesman for the mostly Shiite council, said the attack was carried out by the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. "This was an ambush," said Anbaki. The kidnapping highlighted the complex and quickly shifting nature of the bloodshed convulsing Iraq, with Shiite and Sunni groups increasingly targeting members of their own sects who align themselves with U.S. forces. Read The Full Story FCC Set To End Sole Cable Deals For Apartments 2007-10-29 03:23:48 The U.S. Federal Communications Commission, hoping to reduce the rising costs of cable television, is preparing to strike down thousands of contracts this week that gave individual cable companies exclusive rights to provide service to an apartment building, the agency’s chairman says. The new rule could open markets across the country to far-ranging competition. It would also be a huge victory for Veizon Communications and AT&T, which have challenged the cable industry by offering their own video services. The two companies have lobbied aggressively for the provision. They have been supported in their fight by consumer groups, satellite television companies and small rivals to the big cable providers. Commission officials and consumer groups said the new rule could significantly lower cable prices for millions of subscribers who live in apartment buildings and have had no choice in selecting a company for paid television. Government and private studies show that when a second cable company enters a market, prices can drop as much as 30 percent. The change, which is set to be approved Wednesday, is expected to have a particular effect on prices for low-income and minority families. They have seen cable prices rise about three times the rate of inflation over the last decade. A quarter of American households live in apartment buildings housing 50 or more residents, but 40 percent of households headed by Hispanics and African-Americans live in such buildings. Read The Full Story Argentina's First Lady, Critina Kirchner, Becomes Country's First Female President 2007-10-29 03:21:58 Exit polls predict victory without need for run-off. Argentina's first lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, was on course for a landslide victory in Sunday's presidential election, according to exit polls. The lawyer-turned-senator appeared to lead her rivals by a wide enough margin to avoid a run-off and be declared the country's first elected female head of state. If confirmed, her victory will be as much a triumph for her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, as she ran on his record of reviving the economy after Argentina's 2001 financial meltdown. Shortly after ballot stations closed at 7 p.m. in Argentina, several exit polls reported that the first lady had won 46.3% and was far ahead of her nearest rival, Elisa Carrio, who had 23.7%. She needed 40% of the vote and a lead of more than 10% over her nearest rival to win outright. Mrs. Kirchner is expected to maintain leftwing populist economic policies, such as price controls, and to inject glamor and energy into Argentine diplomacy. Her husband, dour and proudly provincial, loathed foreign trips. Read The Full Story
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Monday October 29 2007 edition
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GAO: Security Upgrades At Several U.S. Nuclear Sites Are Lagging 2007-10-29 03:27:37 More than a year after Congress told the Energy Department to harden the nation’s nuclear bomb factories and laboratories against terrorist raids, at least 5 of the 11 sites are certain to miss their deadlines, some by many years. The Energy Department has put off security improvements at some sites that store plutonium because it plans to consolidate the material at central locations, but the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a Senate briefing that that project was also likely to lag. A copy of the briefing materials was provided to The New York Times by a private group, the Project on Government Oversight, which has long been pushing for better security at the weapons sites. Danielle Brian, the group’s executive director, said that although the deadline set by Congress was tight, if the Energy Department “had taken seriously consolidating and making this an expedited effort, they wouldn’t be having these problems now.” Robert Alvarez, an adviser to the energy secretary in the Clinton administration, said there was wide agreement that centralizing the fuel was a good idea. But Mr. Alvarez added, “There’s a lot of pushback about moving fissile materials from a site, because then you lose a portion of your budget and prestige.” The Energy Department declined requests for an interview, but Michael Kilpatrick, a deputy chief at the department’s Office of Health, Safety and Security, said in a statement that the steps under way were “further enhancements and better protection to some of the most secure facilities in the country.” Read The Full Story Editorial: Trash Talking World War III 2007-10-29 03:25:38 Intellpuke: The following editorial appears in the New York Times edition for Monday, October 29, 2007. America’s allies and increasingly the American public are playing a ghoulish guessing game: Will President Bush manage to leave office without starting a war with Iran? Mr. Bush is eagerly feeding those anxieties. This month he raised the threat of “World War III” if Iran even figures out how to make a nuclear weapon. With a different White House, we might dismiss this as posturing - or bank on sanity to carry the day, or the warnings of exhausted generals or a defense secretary more rational than his predecessor. Not this crowd. Four years after his pointless invasion of Iraq, President Bush still confuses bullying with grand strategy. He refuses to do the hard work of diplomacy - or even acknowledge the disastrous costs of his actions. The Republican presidential candidates have apparently decided that the real commander in chief test is to see who can out-trash talk the White House on Iran. The world should not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, but there is no easy fix here, no daring surgical strike. Consider Natanz, the underground site where Iran is defying the Security Council by spinning a few thousand centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel. American bombers could take it out, but what about the even more sophisticated centrifuges the administration accuses Iran of hiding? Beyond the disastrous diplomatic and economic costs, a bombing campaign is unlikely to set back Iran’s efforts for more than a few years. Read The Full Story Commentary: The Wiretap This Time 2007-10-29 03:24:42 Intellpuke: The following commentary is by Chicago columnist and author Studs Terkel and appears in the New York Times edition for Monday, October 29, 2007. Earlier this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the White House agreed to allow the executive branch to conduct dragnet interceptions of the electronic communications of people in the United States. They also agreed to “immunize” American telephone companies from lawsuits charging that after 9/11 some companies collaborated with the government to violate the Constitution and existing federal law. I am a plaintiff in one of those lawsuits, and I hope Congress thinks carefully before denying me, and millions of other Americans, our day in court. During my lifetime, there has been a sea change in the way that politically active Americans view their relationship with government. In 1920, during my youth, I recall the Palmer raids in which more than 10,000 people were rounded up, most because they were members of particular labor unions or belonged to groups that advocated change in American domestic or foreign policy. Unrestrained surveillance was used to further the investigations leading to these detentions, and the Bureau of Investigation - the forerunner to the F.B.I. - eventually created a database on the activities of individuals. This activity continued through the Red Scare of the period. In the 1950s, during the sad period known as the McCarthy era, one’s political beliefs again served as a rationale for government monitoring. Individual corporations and entire industries were coerced by government leaders into informing on individuals and barring their ability to earn a living. Read The Full Story Obama Seeks A Revival Of Faith 2007-10-29 03:24:09 Presidential contender launches a three-city gospel concert series across South Carolina. As a man not only of God but of politics, the Rev. Joe Darby is an outspoken observer of the campaign scene. Reclining in his cluttered office at Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, he witnesses the union between the pulpit and the polls. "Politics does come down to some degree of emotion ... ," says Darby, one of this state's most prominent African American preachers, whose church is a magnet for Democratic presidential hopefuls. "The Democratic Party is just catching up to that. It's been nauseatingly safe in recent years." As if from Darby's mouth to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's ears, the Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois -  hoping his campaign can recapture some of that old-time religious fervor - launched a three-city gospel concert series over the weekend across the state, in North Charleston, Greenwood and Columbia. Although Obama did not attend the "Embrace the Change" series in person (instead campaigning in Iowa), he was here in spirit, appearing by video screen and sending out his surrogates, such as pastor Hezekiah Walker and singer Beverly Crawford. Read The Full Story U.S. Country Singer Porter Wagoner Dies 2007-10-29 03:23:11 U.S. country singer Porter Wagoner, lanky Grand Ole Opry star whose flashy Nudie rhinestone suits dazzled fans when he sang with rising new performer Dolly Parton in the 60s, died on Sunday from lung cancer, said his publicity agent, Darlene Bieber. He was 80. Bieber said the singer died in an Alive Hospice facility in Nashville, Tennessee. He had been hospitalized for several days. Wagoner, an Opry star since 1957 and a Grammy winner, was a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and won three Country Music Association awards for songs with Parton in the Vocal Duo and Vocal Group categories. The two recorded 14 Top 10 hits including "Last Thing on My Mind" and "Please Don't Stop Loving Me." Wagoner's solo hits included "Company's Comin" and the "Green Green Grass of Home" as well as "Carroll County Accident." Read The Full Story U.S. Judicial Races Rife With Politics 2007-10-28 04:01:19 Corporate funds are tranforming the elections for many judgeships into big-budget campaigns. It's always packed for Wing Night at Americna Legion Post 117, and in the crowd Seamus McCaffery saw the building blocks of his electoral success. The local sheriff, the union guys, the daughter of a veteran who said, "I like your commercial about being a Marine." And the beefy biker in black leather, with the long gray ponytail and ZZ Top beard. "You think the big politicians are going to ask for his vote?" scoffed McCaffery, himself a biker. "They'd be afraid of him!" McCaffery makes no bones about being a politician: He's got a snazzy Web site, an unrelenting statewide travel schedule and more than $1 million in his campaign treasury. Read The Full Story Commentary: Disasters In The Making 2007-10-28 04:01:00 Intellpuke: The following commenatry was written by Matthew Yglesias and appeared in the Guardian edition for Friday, October 26, 2007. In his commentary, Mr. Yglesias writes that California's wildfire preparedness reflects how America's preparedness system privileges the needs and interests of the rich over those of the poor. Mr. Yglesias is staff writer at the American Prospect and author of an eponymous blog. His writing has also appeared in Foreign Policy, Slate and the New York Times Magazine. His commentary follows: Horrible as the disaster currently unfolding as southern California may be, and as striking the parallel images of huddled masses of refugees finding shelter in a huge stadium, the wildfires have surprisingly little in common with Hurricane Katrina in terms of the efficacy of the disaster response. To some, this merely seems to confirm their initial worst suspicions about the roots of the hurricane fiasco: that George Bush, as Kanye West put it at the time, doesn't care about black people. After all, San Diego County, the main locus of the wildfire disaster, is predominantly white, somewhat below average in its poverty rate, and inhabited by more than its fair share of rich people. New Orleans, by contrast, despite its handful of picturesque neighborhoods, was mostly black and suffered from a sky-high 28% poverty rate. The Washington Post editorial page, always happy to leap to the defense of powers that be, has been quick to shut such talk down,dismissing it as simplistic. Their alternative explanation, however, that "Californians have something that Louisianans, in particular those in New Orleans, didn't have when they needed it most: leadership, in this case from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the San Diego mayor on down." In other words: New Orleans suffered from bad state and local elected officials, whereas San Diego had good ones. Given that San Diego has a Republican mayor and a Republican governor, whereas New Orleans had a Democratic mayor and a Democratic governor, this particular line seems curiously well-designed to serve as a post facto rehabilitation of the GOP's reputation after Katrina did so much to damage - deservedly - the conservative brand. Read The Full Story California Does It Again - Sets Record For Home Foreclosures 2007-10-28 04:00:40 The third-quarter's total surpasses 24,000, which is a record. "It's working its way to the Westside," says a real estate agent. Californians lost their homes to foreclosure in record numbers for a second straight quarter, and the trend is creeping into affluent communities, figures released Friday show. Foreclosures statewide hit a new high of 24,209, besting the previous record by 39%, according to DataQuick Information Systems. Default notices - the first step toward foreclosure - rose to 72,571 for the three months ended Sept. 30, breaking a record set in 1996. Separately, the Census Bureau reported that the nation's homeownership rate fell for a fourth straight quarter, the longest decline since 1981. The agency said foreclosures helped push the number of vacant homes to a record 17.9 million. Read The Full Story Mukasey Supports Warrantless Wiretapping 2007-10-28 04:00:12 President Bush's choice for attorney general told senators Friday the Constitution does not prevent the president from wiretapping suspected terrorists without a court order. Michael Mukasey said the president cannot use his executive power to get around the Constitution and laws prohibiting torture. But wiretapping suspected terrorists' without warrants is not precluded, he said. "Foreign intelligence gathering is a field in which the executive branch is regulated but not pre-empted by Congress," Mukasey wrote in response to questions by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont. Mukasey's letter was made public by Leahy on Friday as part of a larger package of documents in Judiciary Committee members asked the retired U.S. district court judge from New York to elaborate on two days of oral testimony last week. Read The Full Story	Bush Administration Promises On Darfur Don't Match Actions 2007-10-29 03:27:22 Indecision on whether to pressure Sudan or engage with its government, along with turnover of key advisers keeps president from maintaining focus. In April 2006, a small group of Darfur activists - including evangelical Christians, the representative of a Jewish group and a former Sudanese slave - was ushered into the Roosevelt Room at the White House for a private meeting with President Bush. It was the eve of a major rally on the National Mall, and the president spent more than an hour holding forth, displaying a kind of passion that has led some in the White House to dub him the "Sudan desk officer".  Bush insisted there must be consequences for rape and murder, and he called for international troops on the ground to protect innocent Darfuris, according to contemporaneous notes by one of those present. He spoke of "bringing justice" to the Jajaweed, the Arab militias that have participated in atrocities that the president has repeatedly described as nothing less than "genocide." "He had an understanding of the issue that went beyond simply responding to a briefing that had been given," said David Rubenstein, a participant who was then executive director of the Save Darfur Coalition, which has been sharply critical of the administration's response to the crisis. "He knew more facts than I expected him to know, and he had a broader political perspective than I expected him to have." Read The Full Story U.S. Guns Behind Killings By Mexico's Drug Cartel 2007-10-29 03:25:28 As many as 2,000 U.S. guns enter Mexico each day, feeding an expanding drug cartel arms race. Assassins blasted Ricardo Rosas Alvarado, a member of an elite state police force, with a blizzard of bullets pumped out of AK-47 assault rifles. Alvarado crumpled at the wheel of his sedan, yet another victim of the weapons known here as "goat's horns" because of their curved ammunition clips, and which can fire at a rate of 600 rounds per minute. The killing, Mexican authorities said, was a panorama of blood, shattered glass and torn metal that brutally showcased the firepower of Mexico's  drug cartels. But that was just the warm-up. Two hours later, a small army of cartel hit men descended on a federal police office and bunkhouse in this crowded city at one of the world's busiest border crossings. None of the officers, who had recently been sent here to crush the drug gangs terrorizing the city, were killed in the hail of more than 1,200 bullets, authorities said. But police veterans understood the message delivered to the newcomers: "Welcome to Tijuana. Our guns are bigger than your guns." Read The Full Story Gunmen Kidnap 11 Iraqi Tribal Leaders Allied With U.S. 2007-10-29 03:24:27 Eleven tribal leaders who had banded with U.S. troops to fight the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq were kidnapped Sunday morning, the latest in a string of such attacks, fellow tribesmen said. The Shiite and Sunni sheiks, members of the al-Salam Support Council, a group fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq in volatile Diyala province,were taken from their cars by gunmen as they were returning home from a meeting in Baghdad with a government official, said the tribesmen. Hadi al-Anbaki, a spokesman for the mostly Shiite council, said the attack was carried out by the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. "This was an ambush," said Anbaki. The kidnapping highlighted the complex and quickly shifting nature of the bloodshed convulsing Iraq, with Shiite and Sunni groups increasingly targeting members of their own sects who align themselves with U.S. forces. Read The Full Story FCC Set To End Sole Cable Deals For Apartments 2007-10-29 03:23:48 The U.S. Federal Communications Commission, hoping to reduce the rising costs of cable television, is preparing to strike down thousands of contracts this week that gave individual cable companies exclusive rights to provide service to an apartment building, the agency’s chairman says. The new rule could open markets across the country to far-ranging competition. It would also be a huge victory for Veizon Communications and AT&T, which have challenged the cable industry by offering their own video services. The two companies have lobbied aggressively for the provision. They have been supported in their fight by consumer groups, satellite television companies and small rivals to the big cable providers. Commission officials and consumer groups said the new rule could significantly lower cable prices for millions of subscribers who live in apartment buildings and have had no choice in selecting a company for paid television. Government and private studies show that when a second cable company enters a market, prices can drop as much as 30 percent. The change, which is set to be approved Wednesday, is expected to have a particular effect on prices for low-income and minority families. They have seen cable prices rise about three times the rate of inflation over the last decade. A quarter of American households live in apartment buildings housing 50 or more residents, but 40 percent of households headed by Hispanics and African-Americans live in such buildings. Read The Full Story Argentina's First Lady, Critina Kirchner, Becomes Country's First Female President 2007-10-29 03:21:58 Exit polls predict victory without need for run-off. Argentina's first lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, was on course for a landslide victory in Sunday's presidential election, according to exit polls. The lawyer-turned-senator appeared to lead her rivals by a wide enough margin to avoid a run-off and be declared the country's first elected female head of state. If confirmed, her victory will be as much a triumph for her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, as she ran on his record of reviving the economy after Argentina's 2001 financial meltdown. Shortly after ballot stations closed at 7 p.m. in Argentina, several exit polls reported that the first lady had won 46.3% and was far ahead of her nearest rival, Elisa Carrio, who had 23.7%. She needed 40% of the vote and a lead of more than 10% over her nearest rival to win outright. Mrs. Kirchner is expected to maintain leftwing populist economic policies, such as price controls, and to inject glamor and energy into Argentine diplomacy. Her husband, dour and proudly provincial, loathed foreign trips. Read The Full Story Thousands Call For Swift End To Iraq War 2007-10-28 04:01:08 Thousands of people called for a swift end to the war in Iraq as they marched through downtown on Saturday, chanting and carrying signs that read: "Wall Street Gets Rich, Iraqis and G.I.s Die" or "Drop Tuition Not Bombs." The streets were filled with thousands as labor union members, anti-war activists, clergy and others rallied near City Hall before marching to Dolores Park. As part of the demonstration, protesters fell on Market Street as part of a "die in" to commemorate the thousands of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens who have died since the conflict began in March 2003. The protest was the largest in a series of war protests taking place in New York, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, said organizers. No official head count was available. Organizers of the event estimated about 30,000 people participated in San Francisco. It appeared that more than 10,000 people attended the march. Read The Full Story Global Warming Revives Flora And Fauna Of Greenland 2007-10-28 04:00:51 A strange thing is happening at the edge of Poul Bjerge’s forest, a place so minute and unexpected that it brings to mind the teeny plot of land Woody Allen's father carries around in the film “Love and Death.” Its four oldest trees - in fact, the four oldest pine trees in Greenland, named Rosenvinge’s trees after the Dutch botanist who planted them in a mad experiment in 1893 - are waking up. After lapsing into stately, sleepy old age, they are exhibiting new sprinklings of green at their tops, as if someone had glued on fresh needles. “The old ones, they’re having a second youth,” said Bjerge, 78, who has watched the forest, called Qanasiassat, come to life, in fits and starts, since planting most of the trees in it 50 years ago. He beamed like a proud grandson. “They’re growing again.” When using the words “growing” in connection with Greenland in the same sentence, it is important to remember that although Greenland is the size of Europe, it has only nine conifer forests like Bjerge’s, all of them cultivated. It has only 51 farms. (They are all sheep farms, although one man is trying to raise cattle. He has 22 cows.) Except for potatoes, the only vegetables most Greenlanders ever eat - to the extent that they eat vegetables at all - are imported, mostly from Denmark. Read The Full Story Chertoff Rips Phony FEMA 'Press Conference' 2007-10-28 04:00:29 The Homeland Security Dept. chief on Saturday tore into his own employees for staging a phony news conference at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  ''I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government,'' said Michael Chertoff. ''I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment,'' he added. Asked specifically if he planned to fire anyone at FEMA, which is part of his department, Chertoff declined to say, citing personnel rules. ''There will be appropriate discipline,'' he told reporters at a news conference with New York's governor where they announced an agreement on a driver's license plan. Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday October 28 2007 - (813)

Sunday October 28 2007 edition
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Commentary: Disasters In The Making 2007-10-28 04:01:00 Intellpuke: The following commenatry was written by Matthew Yglesias and appeared in the Guardian edition for Friday, October 26, 2007. In his commentary, Mr. Yglesias writes that California's wildfire preparedness reflects how America's preparedness system privileges the needs and interests of the rich over those of the poor. Mr. Yglesias is staff writer at the American Prospect and author of an eponymous blog. His writing has also appeared in Foreign Policy, Slate and the New York Times Magazine. His commentary follows: Horrible as the disaster currently unfolding as southern California may be, and as striking the parallel images of huddled masses of refugees finding shelter in a huge stadium, the wildfires have surprisingly little in common with Hurricane Katrina in terms of the efficacy of the disaster response. To some, this merely seems to confirm their initial worst suspicions about the roots of the hurricane fiasco: that George Bush, as Kanye West put it at the time, doesn't care about black people. After all, San Diego County, the main locus of the wildfire disaster, is predominantly white, somewhat below average in its poverty rate, and inhabited by more than its fair share of rich people. New Orleans, by contrast, despite its handful of picturesque neighborhoods, was mostly black and suffered from a sky-high 28% poverty rate. The Washington Post editorial page, always happy to leap to the defense of powers that be, has been quick to shut such talk down,dismissing it as simplistic. Their alternative explanation, however, that "Californians have something that Louisianans, in particular those in New Orleans, didn't have when they needed it most: leadership, in this case from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the San Diego mayor on down." In other words: New Orleans suffered from bad state and local elected officials, whereas San Diego had good ones. Given that San Diego has a Republican mayor and a Republican governor, whereas New Orleans had a Democratic mayor and a Democratic governor, this particular line seems curiously well-designed to serve as a post facto rehabilitation of the GOP's reputation after Katrina did so much to damage - deservedly - the conservative brand. Read The Full Story California Does It Again - Sets Record For Home Foreclosures 2007-10-28 04:00:40 The third-quarter's total surpasses 24,000, which is a record. "It's working its way to the Westside," says a real estate agent. Californians lost their homes to foreclosure in record numbers for a second straight quarter, and the trend is creeping into affluent communities, figures released Friday show. Foreclosures statewide hit a new high of 24,209, besting the previous record by 39%, according to DataQuick Information Systems. Default notices - the first step toward foreclosure - rose to 72,571 for the three months ended Sept. 30, breaking a record set in 1996. Separately, the Census Bureau reported that the nation's homeownership rate fell for a fourth straight quarter, the longest decline since 1981. The agency said foreclosures helped push the number of vacant homes to a record 17.9 million. Read The Full Story Mukasey Supports Warrantless Wiretapping 2007-10-28 04:00:12 President Bush's choice for attorney general told senators Friday the Constitution does not prevent the president from wiretapping suspected terrorists without a court order. Michael Mukasey said the president cannot use his executive power to get around the Constitution and laws prohibiting torture. But wiretapping suspected terrorists' without warrants is not precluded, he said. "Foreign intelligence gathering is a field in which the executive branch is regulated but not pre-empted by Congress," Mukasey wrote in response to questions by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont. Mukasey's letter was made public by Leahy on Friday as part of a larger package of documents in Judiciary Committee members asked the retired U.S. district court judge from New York to elaborate on two days of oral testimony last week. Read The Full Story Credit Chaos To Force Fresh U.S. Rate Cut 2007-10-27 21:06:41 Housing market still on the slide, falling as much as 6% in six months, as gasoline prices sprial upwards. U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is poised to make a second emergency cut in interest rates this Wednesday, as the chaos from the sub-prime mortgage fiasco ripples through America's economy, exposing hundreds of thousands of families to the threat of losing their homes. Wall Street investors are betting on a quarter-point reduction in borrowing costs at the Fed's two-day meeting this week; but with the news from the collapsing housing market worsening almost by the day, Julian Jessop, of Capital Economics, said Bernanke and his colleagues could even go for a half-point cut. "I wouldn't rule it out: you can see a case for them saying, 'we need to get ahead of the curve'. Two weeks ago, it looked like they'd be able to keep rates on hold until December. Unfortunately, since then, the goalposts have moved." The average price of existing homes has dropped by 6 per cent in six months, but analysts are warning that the worst is still not over for American homeowners. Borrowers with shaky credit records and billions of dollars-worth of loans are due to come off cut-price mortgage deals over the next 12 months, many of them facing a sudden increase in interest rates of up to three percentage points. Read The Full Story Brain-Injured British Soldiers Denied Cash Benefits 2007-10-27 21:06:11 New compensation rules mean "cynically neglected" British troops are missing out on Defense Ministry's aid. British soldiers with serious brain injuries are being deliberately denied tens of thousands of pounds in damages, according to the mother whose son's horrific wounds prompted the government's recent review of compensation for casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Diane Dernie, whose 23-year-old son Lance Bombadier Ben Parkinson, a paratrooper, sustained multiple injuries in an Afghan mine blast, accused the Ministry of Defence of "cynically neglecting" seriously brain-damaged soldiers. Although Parkinson's case forced ministers to announce changes to the much-criticized compensation rules this month, she claimed Whitehall officials had ignored pleas to address the rising number of serious brain injuries suffered by other British troops. Dernie said: "There are other soldiers who have suffered brain injuries from roadside bombs or mortars who get scandalously little compensation and are not covered by the changes." Read The Full Story 'Not Worth Another Soldier's Life' 2007-10-27 03:55:06 U.S. unit returns tired, bitter and skeptical after 14 months in Baghdad district riven by sectarian violence. Their line of tan Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles creeps through another Baghdad afternoon. At this pace, an excruciating slowness, they strain to see everything, hoping the next manhole cover, the next rusted barrel, does not hide another bomb. A few bullets pass overhead, but they don't worry much about those. "I hate this road," someone says over the radio. They stop, look around. The streets of Sadiyah are deserted again. To the right, power lines slump down into the dirt. To the left, what was a soccer field is now a pasture of trash, combusting and smoking in the sun. Packs of skinny wild dogs trot past walls painted with slogans of sectarian hate. A bomb crater blocks one lane, so they cross to the other side, where houses are blackened by fire, shops crumbled into bricks. The remains of a car bomb serve as hideous public art. Sgt. Victor Alarcon's Humvee rolls into a vast pool of knee-high brown sewage water - the soldiers call it Lake Havasu, after the Arizona spring-break party spot - that seeps in the doors of the vehicle and wets his boots. "When we first got here, all the shops were open. There were women and children walking out on the street," Alarcon said this week. "The women were in Western clothing. It was our favorite street to go down because of all the hot chicks." That was 14 long months ago, when the soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division,  arrived in southwestern Baghdad. It was before their partners in the Iraqi National Police became their enemies and before Shiite militiamen, aligned with the police, attempted to exterminate a neighborhood of middle-class Sunni families. Read The Full Story CIA's 'Ghost Prisoners' Fade Into Obscurity 2007-10-27 03:53:08 Since agency emptied overseas secret prisons in Sept. 2006, dozens of inmates have been detained in home countries or vanished without a trace. On Sept. 6, 2006, President Bush announced that the CIA's overseas secret prisons had been temporarily emptied and 14 al-Qaeda leaders taken to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Since then, there has been no official accounting of what happened to about 30 other "ghost prisoners" who spent extended time in the custody of the CIA. Some have been secretly transferred to their home countries, where they remain in detention and out of public view, according to interviews in Pakistan and Europe with government officials, human rights groups and lawyers for the detainees. Others have disappeared without a trace and may or may not still be under CIA control. The bulk of the ghost prisoners were captured in Pakistan, where they scattered after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan  in 2001. Read The Full Story	Global Warming Revives Flora And Fauna Of Greenland 2007-10-28 04:00:51 A strange thing is happening at the edge of Poul Bjerge’s forest, a place so minute and unexpected that it brings to mind the teeny plot of land Woody Allen's father carries around in the film “Love and Death.” Its four oldest trees - in fact, the four oldest pine trees in Greenland, named Rosenvinge’s trees after the Dutch botanist who planted them in a mad experiment in 1893 - are waking up. After lapsing into stately, sleepy old age, they are exhibiting new sprinklings of green at their tops, as if someone had glued on fresh needles. “The old ones, they’re having a second youth,” said Bjerge, 78, who has watched the forest, called Qanasiassat, come to life, in fits and starts, since planting most of the trees in it 50 years ago. He beamed like a proud grandson. “They’re growing again.” When using the words “growing” in connection with Greenland in the same sentence, it is important to remember that although Greenland is the size of Europe, it has only nine conifer forests like Bjerge’s, all of them cultivated. It has only 51 farms. (They are all sheep farms, although one man is trying to raise cattle. He has 22 cows.) Except for potatoes, the only vegetables most Greenlanders ever eat - to the extent that they eat vegetables at all - are imported, mostly from Denmark. Read The Full Story Chertoff Rips Phony FEMA 'Press Conference' 2007-10-28 04:00:29 The Homeland Security Dept. chief on Saturday tore into his own employees for staging a phony news conference at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  ''I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government,'' said Michael Chertoff. ''I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment,'' he added. Asked specifically if he planned to fire anyone at FEMA, which is part of his department, Chertoff declined to say, citing personnel rules. ''There will be appropriate discipline,'' he told reporters at a news conference with New York's governor where they announced an agreement on a driver's license plan. Read The Full Story Indian 'Slave' Children Found Making Low-Cost Clothes Headed For Gap Kids 2007-10-27 21:06:50 Child workers have been found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery. Child workers, some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined for Gap Kids, one of the most successful arms of the high street giant. Speaking to The Observer, the children described long hours of unwaged work, as well as threats and beatings. Gap said it was unaware that clothing intended for the Christmas market had been improperly subcontracted to a sweatshop using child labor. It announced it had withdrawn the garments involved while it investigates breaches of the ethical code imposed by it three years ago. The discovery of the children working in filthy conditions in the Shahpur Jat area of Delhi has renewed concerns about the outsourcing by large retail chains of their garment production to India, recognized by the United Nations as the world's capital for child labor. Read The Full Story Scientists: Eating Red Meat And Drinking Alcohol 'Raise The Risk Of Cancer' 2007-10-27 21:06:30 Eating red meat and drinking alcohol in even small quantities increases the risk of developing cancer, a group of world renowned scientists will warn this week. People should minimize their consumption of both in order to safeguard their health, the biggest inquiry ever undertaken into lifestyle and cancer will recommend. In addition, the millions of people who are now obese are running as great a risk of getting cancer as smokers do, a major global report by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) will also warn. The findings from a panel of 21 experts in diet, nutrition and public health will reopen the controversy about the role that red meat such as beef, pork and lamb and alcoholic drinks play in causing cancer, and how much it is safe to consume. The livestock and drink industries are likely to object fiercely to the report. The experts, who have spent five years producing the document, insist their recommendations are based on the most up-to-date, accurate and credible scientific and medical research evidence available worldwide. "The bad guys in terms of increasing your chances of getting cancer are alcohol, meat consumption and being seriously overweight," said one senior figure behind the report. "There's plenty of evidence showing that clearly meat is linked to cancer. Huge numbers of studies have shown that. Alcohol also increases your risk of cancer. Any alcohol above zero increases your risk of developing breast cancer and other cancers." Read The Full Story 3 States Competing For Water From Dwindling Lake Lanier 2007-10-27 03:55:30 Georgia, Alabama and Florida each petition federal government for larger share of lake's water. No gauges are necessary at Lake Lanier to measure the ravages of the Southeast's drought. Wooden fishing docks tower 10 feet over dried mud that used to be squishy lake bottom. Boat ramps begin at the parking lot and end in sand. New islands emerge from shallows. "If the water drops another foot, I don't know that anyone will be able to get a boat in," said Mike Boyle, 64, a resident who has long trolled the lake for spotted and striped bass. The waters of Lake Lanier, funneled through federal dams along the Chattahoochee River, sustain about 2.8 million people in the Atlanta, Georgia,metropolitan area, a nuclear power plant that lights up much of Alabama, and the marine life in Florida's Apalachicola River and Bay. Now, amid one of the worst droughts on record, all three places feel uncomfortably close to running dry. That has prompted a three-state fight that has simmered for years to erupt into testy exchanges over which one has the right to the lake's dwindling water supply and which one is or is not doing its share to conserve it. Read The Full Story Even U.S. Diplomats Don't Want To Go To Iraq 2007-10-27 03:53:50 State Dept. to order as many as 50 diplomats to Iraq. The State Department will order as many as 50 U.S. diplomats to take posts in Iraq next year because of expected shortfalls in filling openings there, the first such large-scale forced assignment since the Vietnam War. On Monday, 200 to 300 employees will be notified of their selection as "prime candidates" for 50 open positions in Iraq, said Harry K. Thomas, director general of the Foreign Service. Some are expected to respond by volunteering, he said. However, if an insufficient number volunteers by Nov. 12, a department panel will determine which ones will be ordered to report to the Baghdad embassy next summer. "If people say they want to go to Iraq, we will take them," Thomas said in an interview. But "we have to move now, because we can't hold up the process." Those on the list were selected by factors including grade, specialty and language skill, as well as "people who have not had a recent hardship tour," he said. Read The Full Story U.S. Consumer Safety Panel Has Trouble Forcing Recall Of ATVs For Children 2007-10-27 03:52:52 Panel says ATV's are "defective and dangerous" and put childen at risk of injury or death. In June, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued an unusual warning about a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle designed for children, calling it "defective and dangerous." "Children are at risk of injury or death due to multiple safety defects with this off-road vehicle," the agency said in a news release. That vehicle, the Kazuma Meerkat 50, was not recalled, however, which prompted consumer advocates to raise the question: If it was so dangerous, why did the CPSC allow it to remain on the market? Read The Full Story
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press. Any mirrored or quoted materials © their respective authors, publications, or outlets, as shown on their publication, indicated by the link in the news story. Original Free Internet Press materials may be copied and/or republished without modification, provided a link to http://FreeInternetPress.com is given in the story, or proper credit is given. Newsletter options may be changed in your preferences on http://freeinternetpress.com Please email editor@freeinternetpress.com there are any questions. XML/RSS/RDF Newsfeed Syndication: http://freeinternetpress.com/rss.php