Free Internet Press Newsletter - Monday October 29 2007 - (813)

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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