From Associated Press:
Illegal immigrant rescues boy in desert
By TERRY TANG, Associated Press writer
A 9-year-old boy looking for help after his mother crashed their van in the southern Arizona desert was rescued by a man entering the U.S. illegally, who stayed with him until help arrived the next day, an official said.
The 45-year-old woman, who eventually died while awaiting help, had been driving on a U.S. Forest Service road in a remote area just north of the Mexican border when she lost control of her van on a curve on Thanksgiving, Sheriff Tony Estrada said.
The van vaulted into a canyon and landed 300 feet from the road, he said. The woman, from Rimrock, north of Phoenix, survived the impact but was pinned inside, Estrada said.
Her son, unhurt but disoriented, crawled out to get help and was found about two hours later by Jesus Manuel Cordova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Unable to pull the mother out, he comforted the boy while they waited for help.
The woman died a short time later.
"He stayed with him, told him that everything was going to be all right," Estrada said.
As temperatures dropped, he gave him a jacket, built a bonfire and stayed with him until about 8 a.m. Friday, when hunters passed by and called authorities, Estrada said. The boy was flown to University Medical Center in Tucson as a precaution but appeared unhurt.
Cordova was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents, who were the first to respond to the call for help. He had been trying to walk into the U.S. when he came across the boy.
The boy and his mother were in the area camping, Estrada said. The woman's husband, the boy's father, had died only two months ago. The names of the woman and her son were not being released until relatives were notified.
Cordova likely saved the boy, Estrada said, and his actions should remind people not to quickly characterize illegal immigrants as criminals.
"They do get demonized for a lot of reasons, and they do a lot of good. Obviously this is one example of what an individual can do," he said.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press.
Wrap...
Friday, November 23, 2007
Big mouth Gonzo goes a'speakin'.....
From Information Clearing House:
Alberto Gonzales, The Symptom, Begs for Prosecution
By William Sumner Scott, J.D.
He resigned with the claim that he did nothing wrong. He went out of the limelight. With a low profile he could escape criminal prosecution and investigation by his legal license regulators. But as the act of a fool, he could not remain quiet. He has elected to go on a public speaking tour.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18764.htm
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Alberto Gonzales, The Symptom, Begs for Prosecution
By William Sumner Scott, J.D.
He resigned with the claim that he did nothing wrong. He went out of the limelight. With a low profile he could escape criminal prosecution and investigation by his legal license regulators. But as the act of a fool, he could not remain quiet. He has elected to go on a public speaking tour.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18764.htm
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Peru & the flipping Dems...
From truthout.com :
David Bacon
The Real Cost of the Peru Free Trade Agreement
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112307F.shtml
David Bacon writes for Truthout that "In the 2006 elections, aspiring Democrats attacked the Bush administration's free trade policies, and more than 20 new members of Congress were elected, giving the Democratic Party its new majority in the House of Representatives.
Yet two weeks ago, Democratic Party leaders urged those same members of Congress to vote for a new free trade agreement with Peru. Most rebelled, but enough Democrats voted for the Bush administration proposal, along with every Republican, to push it through the House. The Senate is expected to take up the agreement any day now."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
David Bacon
The Real Cost of the Peru Free Trade Agreement
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112307F.shtml
David Bacon writes for Truthout that "In the 2006 elections, aspiring Democrats attacked the Bush administration's free trade policies, and more than 20 new members of Congress were elected, giving the Democratic Party its new majority in the House of Representatives.
Yet two weeks ago, Democratic Party leaders urged those same members of Congress to vote for a new free trade agreement with Peru. Most rebelled, but enough Democrats voted for the Bush administration proposal, along with every Republican, to push it through the House. The Senate is expected to take up the agreement any day now."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Thursday, November 22, 2007
REAL food?...Going, going, .......
From International Herald Tribune:
WTO gives EU more time on genetically modified foods
By James Kanter
Published: November 22, 2007
PARIS: Adding to the uncertainty over European policies toward genetically modified foods, the World Trade Organization said Thursday that the European Union would be given more time to end blockages on imports of engineered foods like corn.
"The period during which the EU was meant to have worked this out expired, and the parties decided to extend the deadline to Jan. 11," said Keith Rockwell, a spokesman for the WTO.
The EU had been due to end the blockages by Nov. 21.
The agreement came after EU officials held a series of talks with their counterparts in the United States, Argentina and Canada over the past weeks, said Peter Power, a spokesman for the EU trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson.
Argentina, Canada and the United States have sued the European Union at the WTO, which ruled last year that a de facto EU ban on imports of genetically modified foods between 1984 and 2004 was illegal.
Today in Business
Gazprom deal with Eni drives new wedge into hopes for EU energy unityHeathrow expansion proposed, and foughtU.S. subprime losses may hit $300 billion, OECD estimates
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for resolving the case is an ongoing refusal by Austria to allow imports of two genetically modified corn types produced by Bayer of Germany and Monsanto of the United States.
Some officials within the European Commission, the EU's executive body, want to mandate an end to the Austrian ban. But other officials have expressed concerns about genetically modified foodstuffs, pointing to potential dangers of engineered crops as well as to public opinion, which in many countries is skeptical of them.
So far, the EU has been unable to agree on whether to order Austria to lift its ban, and there is little sign of an end to the acrimony between Europeans and Americans over the products.
"For too long, GM foods have been a thorn in the side of trans-Atlantic relations," said Jacqueline Mailly, a senior regulatory affairs advisor with the law firm Hogan & Hartson in Brussels.
Now, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas could be triggering another fight with the United States over genetically modified foods by proposing a European ban on the cultivation of modified corn made by Pioneer Hi-Bred, Dow Agrosciences and Syngenta, on the grounds that the products could harm the environment.
U.S. officials said this week that Dimas's move was unprecedented because it brushed aside findings by EU scientists from 2005 that the corn posed no evident dangers. But Dimas said new evidence had come to light requiring further investigation.
Simon Tilford, of the Center for European Reform, a research institute in London, said the approach taken by Dimas could only worsen trade relations with the United States.
But Barbara Helfferich, a spokeswoman for Dimas, said EU officials could take decisions under the "precautionary principle," even when scientists had found no definitive evidence that products can cause harm.
Helfferich also said the EU had been allowing imports of genetically modified products since July 2004, when it approved imports of modified corn by Monsanto to be used in animal feed.
Wrap...
WTO gives EU more time on genetically modified foods
By James Kanter
Published: November 22, 2007
PARIS: Adding to the uncertainty over European policies toward genetically modified foods, the World Trade Organization said Thursday that the European Union would be given more time to end blockages on imports of engineered foods like corn.
"The period during which the EU was meant to have worked this out expired, and the parties decided to extend the deadline to Jan. 11," said Keith Rockwell, a spokesman for the WTO.
The EU had been due to end the blockages by Nov. 21.
The agreement came after EU officials held a series of talks with their counterparts in the United States, Argentina and Canada over the past weeks, said Peter Power, a spokesman for the EU trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson.
Argentina, Canada and the United States have sued the European Union at the WTO, which ruled last year that a de facto EU ban on imports of genetically modified foods between 1984 and 2004 was illegal.
Today in Business
Gazprom deal with Eni drives new wedge into hopes for EU energy unityHeathrow expansion proposed, and foughtU.S. subprime losses may hit $300 billion, OECD estimates
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for resolving the case is an ongoing refusal by Austria to allow imports of two genetically modified corn types produced by Bayer of Germany and Monsanto of the United States.
Some officials within the European Commission, the EU's executive body, want to mandate an end to the Austrian ban. But other officials have expressed concerns about genetically modified foodstuffs, pointing to potential dangers of engineered crops as well as to public opinion, which in many countries is skeptical of them.
So far, the EU has been unable to agree on whether to order Austria to lift its ban, and there is little sign of an end to the acrimony between Europeans and Americans over the products.
"For too long, GM foods have been a thorn in the side of trans-Atlantic relations," said Jacqueline Mailly, a senior regulatory affairs advisor with the law firm Hogan & Hartson in Brussels.
Now, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas could be triggering another fight with the United States over genetically modified foods by proposing a European ban on the cultivation of modified corn made by Pioneer Hi-Bred, Dow Agrosciences and Syngenta, on the grounds that the products could harm the environment.
U.S. officials said this week that Dimas's move was unprecedented because it brushed aside findings by EU scientists from 2005 that the corn posed no evident dangers. But Dimas said new evidence had come to light requiring further investigation.
Simon Tilford, of the Center for European Reform, a research institute in London, said the approach taken by Dimas could only worsen trade relations with the United States.
But Barbara Helfferich, a spokeswoman for Dimas, said EU officials could take decisions under the "precautionary principle," even when scientists had found no definitive evidence that products can cause harm.
Helfferich also said the EU had been allowing imports of genetically modified products since July 2004, when it approved imports of modified corn by Monsanto to be used in animal feed.
Wrap...
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
From protecting Constitution to Perino's T-Day cookery...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Fearing that President Bush would again use the congressional recess to install executive branch appointees without Senate confirmation, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) gaveled in a 30-second Senate session yesterday. "This is an exercise in protecting the Constitution and our constitutional process," Webb said.
MoveOn.org Civic Action is taking on Facebook for infringing user privacy. "MoveOn is objecting to a new advertising technique that Facebook announced a few weeks ago that posts members' purchases and activities on other websites in their Facebook profiles." Take action here.
"Americans enter the holiday season in a dark mood, with economic worries, security fears and a lack of confidence in government fueling growing pessimism, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday." The number of Americans who believe the country is on the right track fell from 26 percent to 24 percent in the last month, with about two-thirds believing it is headed in the wrong direction.
Two groups of scientists yesterday revealed that they "succeeded in turning human skin cells into cells that are very similar -- but not identical -- to embryonic stem cells." Experts, however, cautioned that it is unclear "whether the new cells will be as effective as conventional embryonic stem cells may prove to be against certain disease."
Salon's Glenn Greenwald sets Joe Klein straight on his factual misrepresentations about FISA reform. Klein writes in Time that Democrats' proposal fix to FISA would require "every foreign-terrorist target's calls to be approved by the FISA court." Greenwald responds, "Everyone -- from Russ Feingold to the ACLU -- agreed that FISA never intended to require warrants for foreign-to-foreign calls that have nothing to do with U.S. citizens."
The Supreme Court has agreed to "review an appeals court decision that struck down a 31-year-old Washington D.C., ban on pistols." "The court's examination of the meaning of the Second Amendment for the first time in nearly 70 years carries broad implications for gun-control measures locally and across the country."
"The conflict in Afghanistan has reached 'crisis proportions,' with the resurgent Taliban present in 54 percent of the country and "closing in on Kabul," according to the Senlis Council, an independent think tank. To "prevent NATO's defeat at the hands of the Taliban, a rejuvenated 'coalition of the willing' is needed," the report said.
$99: Price of crude oil, a new record. "The market is now really looking at $100 a barrel as the next target to hit," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst in Singapore.
And finally: The Washington Examiner asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino "what she likes to make for Thanksgiving." Her response? "Glass of red wine. Directions: 1. Buy bottle of red wine, 2. Un-cork the bottle, 3. Pour wine into glass."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
Fearing that President Bush would again use the congressional recess to install executive branch appointees without Senate confirmation, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) gaveled in a 30-second Senate session yesterday. "This is an exercise in protecting the Constitution and our constitutional process," Webb said.
MoveOn.org Civic Action is taking on Facebook for infringing user privacy. "MoveOn is objecting to a new advertising technique that Facebook announced a few weeks ago that posts members' purchases and activities on other websites in their Facebook profiles." Take action here.
"Americans enter the holiday season in a dark mood, with economic worries, security fears and a lack of confidence in government fueling growing pessimism, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday." The number of Americans who believe the country is on the right track fell from 26 percent to 24 percent in the last month, with about two-thirds believing it is headed in the wrong direction.
Two groups of scientists yesterday revealed that they "succeeded in turning human skin cells into cells that are very similar -- but not identical -- to embryonic stem cells." Experts, however, cautioned that it is unclear "whether the new cells will be as effective as conventional embryonic stem cells may prove to be against certain disease."
Salon's Glenn Greenwald sets Joe Klein straight on his factual misrepresentations about FISA reform. Klein writes in Time that Democrats' proposal fix to FISA would require "every foreign-terrorist target's calls to be approved by the FISA court." Greenwald responds, "Everyone -- from Russ Feingold to the ACLU -- agreed that FISA never intended to require warrants for foreign-to-foreign calls that have nothing to do with U.S. citizens."
The Supreme Court has agreed to "review an appeals court decision that struck down a 31-year-old Washington D.C., ban on pistols." "The court's examination of the meaning of the Second Amendment for the first time in nearly 70 years carries broad implications for gun-control measures locally and across the country."
"The conflict in Afghanistan has reached 'crisis proportions,' with the resurgent Taliban present in 54 percent of the country and "closing in on Kabul," according to the Senlis Council, an independent think tank. To "prevent NATO's defeat at the hands of the Taliban, a rejuvenated 'coalition of the willing' is needed," the report said.
$99: Price of crude oil, a new record. "The market is now really looking at $100 a barrel as the next target to hit," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst in Singapore.
And finally: The Washington Examiner asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino "what she likes to make for Thanksgiving." Her response? "Glass of red wine. Directions: 1. Buy bottle of red wine, 2. Un-cork the bottle, 3. Pour wine into glass."
Wrap...
Good reading coming with these books....
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION/DEBUT:
Amy Greene's BLOODROOT, A multigenerational saga set in the heart of Appalachia that centers on a young girl raised by her grandmother on remote Bloodroot Mountain, and the legacy of place -- and madness -- that her twin children inherit, to Robin Desser at Knopf, by Leigh Feldman at Darhansoff, Verrill, Feldman (NA).
Danielle Evans' BEFORE YOU SUFFOCATE YOUR OWN FOOL SELF, a story collection about young African-American women struggling to transcend their pasts, plus a novel, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, at auction, for publication in 2009, by Ayesha Pande at Collins Literary (NA).
ayesha@collinsliterary.com
Teri Coyne's debut novel SKIN AND BONES, about a young woman who returns home after an absence of more than a decade when her mother commits suicide, leaving her a note that leads her to confront the mysteries of the family's past, to Jane von Mehren and Porscha Burke for Ballantine by Jean V. Naggar at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency (NA).
MYSTERY/CRIME:
Bestselling UK nonfiction author Titania Hardie's debut novel THE ROSE LABYRINTH, which centers on a mystery that begins in 17th century England with Elizabeth I's royal astrologer and unravels to present-day London, where a beautiful, brilliant young woman, still recovering from a heart transplant, embarks on a dangerous adventure in search of the secrets behind the Rose Labyrinth, to Judith Curr at Atria, with Sarah Branham editing, by Robin Straus at Robin Straus Agency, on behalf of Quadrille Publishing and Andrew Nurnberg Associates (NA).
Foreign sales previously, by Andrew Nurnberg Associates, to: Headline in the UK, Heyne in Germany, Uniebock in Holland, Piemme in Italy, Santillana in Spain, Patakis in Greece, Pearl in Thailand, Eksmo in Russia, Noxi in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Nemira in Romania, and Ainari in Serbia and Montenegro.
A second mystery and suspense novel by Titania Hardie, to Atria, by Robin Straus, on behalf of Andrew Nurnberg Associates.
GENERAL/OTHER:
Marley Gibson's series GHOST HUNTRESS, featuring a transplanted Chicago teen who begins to experience a psychic awakening, then forms a ragtag ghost hunting team to research and battle the belligerent ghosts in her historic Southern town, to Julia Richardson at Houghton Mifflin, in a very nice deal, for three books, by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency (NA).
Deidre.Knight@knightagency.net
MERCY author Alissa York's Giller-nominated second novel, EFFIGY, about a teenage survivor of Utah's eighteenth-century Mountain Meadows Massacre who becomes a taxidermist and the fourth wife of a Mormon elder, to Kathleen Gilligan at Thomas Dunne Books, for publication in fall 2008, by Denise Bukowski at The Bukowski Agency (US). Rights previously sold in Canada, Holland, France, and Italy.
Elyssa East's DOGTOWN: Island Heart of Darkness, an exploration of a wild, unpopulated, enchanted place with a dark past on Massachusetts' Cape Ann, and a provocative examination of the powerful and often dangerous influence that certain places exert on the psyche, all brought into focus by a brutal murder, to Wylie O'Sullivan at Free Press, for publication in September 2009, by Brettne Bloom at Kneerim & Williams (NA).
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Two-time Pulitzer winner David McCullough's AMERICANS IN PARIS, spanning more than one hundred years to tell the stories of the many gifted, ambitious, young Americans (including James Fenimore Cooper, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Samuel F. B. Morse, Marry Cassatt. John Singer Sargent, Edith Wharton, Stephen Vincent Benet, Langston Hughes, and Josephine Baker) whose time in Paris changed their lives and thus the course of American literature, medicine, art, architecture, music and dance, again to Simon & Schuster, with Michael Korda editing, for publication in 2010, by Mort Janklow at Janklow & Nesbit.
Jonathan Fenby's A HISTORY OF MODERN CHINA: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850-2008, the essential work to understanding modern China and its terrible past, crammed with surprising and interesting stories and a study of the nature of a political power and its abuse, to Dan Halpern at Ecco, for publication in July 2008, by Sarah Hunt Cooke at Penguin UK (US).
Decorated war hero/private military contractor in the Iraq War and other global areas of conflict John Geddes's HIGHWAY TO HELL, the diary of a PMC's activities on the ground there, including a critical discussion of Blackwater and the future of modern warfare, to Charlie Conrad at Broadway, for publication in Fall 2008, by Barbara Zitwer Agency, on behalf of Robert Kirby at United Agents (US).
zitwer@gmail.com
MEMOIR:
Laurie Sandell's THIS IS MOUNT RUSHMORE, a graphic memoir about a celebrity-dazzled magazine writer who discovers her larger-than-life father is in fact a monumental con man, to Judy Clain at Little, Brown, for publication in July 2009, by Amanda Urban at ICM (world).
Perfect From Now On author John Sellers's THE OLD MAN AND THE SWAMP, a chronicle of the outdoor-averse author's travels in the swamps of southern Michigan to catch snakes with his eccentric and recently estranged father, a former Lutheran minister who left the church and his family decades ago to pursue his singular fascination with reptiles, to Brant Rumble at Simon & Schuster, by Jud Laghi at LJK Literary Management (NA).
POP CULTURE:
Music Director for "American Idol" and for the Grammys, Emmys, and Super Bowl Rickey Minor's THERE'S NO TRAFFIC ON THE EXTRA MILE: WINNING ON 'AMERICAN IDOL' OR IN LIFE, imparting career and life lessons drawn from the author's rise from the streets of South Central Los Angeles to success as heir to Quincy Jones and being acknowledged as one of the leading architects of popular music, to Bill Shinker and Erin Moore at Gotham, by Paul Bresnick at Paul Bresnick Agency (world).
SPORTS:
Sports columnist for the Boston Herald and co-author of NYT bestseller BIG PAPI Tony Massarotti's DYNASTY: The Inside Story of How the Red Sox Became a Baseball Powerhouse, an in-depth, behind the scenes look at how the Red Sox became successful, to Marc Resnick at St. Martin's, in a very nice deal, for publication in April 2008, by Scott Waxman at Waxman Literary Agency.
Wrap...
FICTION/DEBUT:
Amy Greene's BLOODROOT, A multigenerational saga set in the heart of Appalachia that centers on a young girl raised by her grandmother on remote Bloodroot Mountain, and the legacy of place -- and madness -- that her twin children inherit, to Robin Desser at Knopf, by Leigh Feldman at Darhansoff, Verrill, Feldman (NA).
Danielle Evans' BEFORE YOU SUFFOCATE YOUR OWN FOOL SELF, a story collection about young African-American women struggling to transcend their pasts, plus a novel, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, at auction, for publication in 2009, by Ayesha Pande at Collins Literary (NA).
ayesha@collinsliterary.com
Teri Coyne's debut novel SKIN AND BONES, about a young woman who returns home after an absence of more than a decade when her mother commits suicide, leaving her a note that leads her to confront the mysteries of the family's past, to Jane von Mehren and Porscha Burke for Ballantine by Jean V. Naggar at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency (NA).
MYSTERY/CRIME:
Bestselling UK nonfiction author Titania Hardie's debut novel THE ROSE LABYRINTH, which centers on a mystery that begins in 17th century England with Elizabeth I's royal astrologer and unravels to present-day London, where a beautiful, brilliant young woman, still recovering from a heart transplant, embarks on a dangerous adventure in search of the secrets behind the Rose Labyrinth, to Judith Curr at Atria, with Sarah Branham editing, by Robin Straus at Robin Straus Agency, on behalf of Quadrille Publishing and Andrew Nurnberg Associates (NA).
Foreign sales previously, by Andrew Nurnberg Associates, to: Headline in the UK, Heyne in Germany, Uniebock in Holland, Piemme in Italy, Santillana in Spain, Patakis in Greece, Pearl in Thailand, Eksmo in Russia, Noxi in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Nemira in Romania, and Ainari in Serbia and Montenegro.
A second mystery and suspense novel by Titania Hardie, to Atria, by Robin Straus, on behalf of Andrew Nurnberg Associates.
GENERAL/OTHER:
Marley Gibson's series GHOST HUNTRESS, featuring a transplanted Chicago teen who begins to experience a psychic awakening, then forms a ragtag ghost hunting team to research and battle the belligerent ghosts in her historic Southern town, to Julia Richardson at Houghton Mifflin, in a very nice deal, for three books, by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency (NA).
Deidre.Knight@knightagency.net
MERCY author Alissa York's Giller-nominated second novel, EFFIGY, about a teenage survivor of Utah's eighteenth-century Mountain Meadows Massacre who becomes a taxidermist and the fourth wife of a Mormon elder, to Kathleen Gilligan at Thomas Dunne Books, for publication in fall 2008, by Denise Bukowski at The Bukowski Agency (US). Rights previously sold in Canada, Holland, France, and Italy.
Elyssa East's DOGTOWN: Island Heart of Darkness, an exploration of a wild, unpopulated, enchanted place with a dark past on Massachusetts' Cape Ann, and a provocative examination of the powerful and often dangerous influence that certain places exert on the psyche, all brought into focus by a brutal murder, to Wylie O'Sullivan at Free Press, for publication in September 2009, by Brettne Bloom at Kneerim & Williams (NA).
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Two-time Pulitzer winner David McCullough's AMERICANS IN PARIS, spanning more than one hundred years to tell the stories of the many gifted, ambitious, young Americans (including James Fenimore Cooper, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Samuel F. B. Morse, Marry Cassatt. John Singer Sargent, Edith Wharton, Stephen Vincent Benet, Langston Hughes, and Josephine Baker) whose time in Paris changed their lives and thus the course of American literature, medicine, art, architecture, music and dance, again to Simon & Schuster, with Michael Korda editing, for publication in 2010, by Mort Janklow at Janklow & Nesbit.
Jonathan Fenby's A HISTORY OF MODERN CHINA: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850-2008, the essential work to understanding modern China and its terrible past, crammed with surprising and interesting stories and a study of the nature of a political power and its abuse, to Dan Halpern at Ecco, for publication in July 2008, by Sarah Hunt Cooke at Penguin UK (US).
Decorated war hero/private military contractor in the Iraq War and other global areas of conflict John Geddes's HIGHWAY TO HELL, the diary of a PMC's activities on the ground there, including a critical discussion of Blackwater and the future of modern warfare, to Charlie Conrad at Broadway, for publication in Fall 2008, by Barbara Zitwer Agency, on behalf of Robert Kirby at United Agents (US).
zitwer@gmail.com
MEMOIR:
Laurie Sandell's THIS IS MOUNT RUSHMORE, a graphic memoir about a celebrity-dazzled magazine writer who discovers her larger-than-life father is in fact a monumental con man, to Judy Clain at Little, Brown, for publication in July 2009, by Amanda Urban at ICM (world).
Perfect From Now On author John Sellers's THE OLD MAN AND THE SWAMP, a chronicle of the outdoor-averse author's travels in the swamps of southern Michigan to catch snakes with his eccentric and recently estranged father, a former Lutheran minister who left the church and his family decades ago to pursue his singular fascination with reptiles, to Brant Rumble at Simon & Schuster, by Jud Laghi at LJK Literary Management (NA).
POP CULTURE:
Music Director for "American Idol" and for the Grammys, Emmys, and Super Bowl Rickey Minor's THERE'S NO TRAFFIC ON THE EXTRA MILE: WINNING ON 'AMERICAN IDOL' OR IN LIFE, imparting career and life lessons drawn from the author's rise from the streets of South Central Los Angeles to success as heir to Quincy Jones and being acknowledged as one of the leading architects of popular music, to Bill Shinker and Erin Moore at Gotham, by Paul Bresnick at Paul Bresnick Agency (world).
SPORTS:
Sports columnist for the Boston Herald and co-author of NYT bestseller BIG PAPI Tony Massarotti's DYNASTY: The Inside Story of How the Red Sox Became a Baseball Powerhouse, an in-depth, behind the scenes look at how the Red Sox became successful, to Marc Resnick at St. Martin's, in a very nice deal, for publication in April 2008, by Scott Waxman at Waxman Literary Agency.
Wrap...
Vets outraged...and they should be...
From www.vetvoice.com :
Off To War Again. . .and Again and Again. . . .
by: war-junkie
Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 15:21:15 PM EST
(Note to Bush administration: This is not how you run a war. From the diaries - promoted by Brandon Friedman)
Well here I go. . .again. I am off for my war for my fifth tour in the "War on Terrorism". The average Vietnam vet served 365 days in country. In WWII the average soldier was deployed for two years. For this next deployment to Iraq I will spend 455 days in Iraq. As of now I have 36 months "in country". When (and if) I live through this next deployment I will have 51 months. That means I will have deployed for four years and three months total time deployed.
Can someone tell me what the hell is going on? Why am I spending more time in war than my father and grandfather combined? I am not sure that the government or my country has my soldiers or my best interest's at heart. Not to mention my family who goes through hell every time I deploy.
I have six soldiers who are not only stop-lossed but they are not being paid. That's right--they will be deploying with no pay. The Army has made sure that their orders for stop-loss were issued but somehow forgot to inform the finance department. Now they are fighting to pay bills, put food on their family's tables and buy the items they need for this deployment. I can't help but wonder what it's all about when one of these soldiers has to borrow money to buy diapers. Should all the NCOs' have to pool their money to pay an electric bill for a soldier?
There's More... :: (17 Comments, 298 words in story)
http://www.vetvoice.com/
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Off To War Again. . .and Again and Again. . . .
by: war-junkie
Wed Nov 21, 2007 at 15:21:15 PM EST
(Note to Bush administration: This is not how you run a war. From the diaries - promoted by Brandon Friedman)
Well here I go. . .again. I am off for my war for my fifth tour in the "War on Terrorism". The average Vietnam vet served 365 days in country. In WWII the average soldier was deployed for two years. For this next deployment to Iraq I will spend 455 days in Iraq. As of now I have 36 months "in country". When (and if) I live through this next deployment I will have 51 months. That means I will have deployed for four years and three months total time deployed.
Can someone tell me what the hell is going on? Why am I spending more time in war than my father and grandfather combined? I am not sure that the government or my country has my soldiers or my best interest's at heart. Not to mention my family who goes through hell every time I deploy.
I have six soldiers who are not only stop-lossed but they are not being paid. That's right--they will be deploying with no pay. The Army has made sure that their orders for stop-loss were issued but somehow forgot to inform the finance department. Now they are fighting to pay bills, put food on their family's tables and buy the items they need for this deployment. I can't help but wonder what it's all about when one of these soldiers has to borrow money to buy diapers. Should all the NCOs' have to pool their money to pay an electric bill for a soldier?
There's More... :: (17 Comments, 298 words in story)
http://www.vetvoice.com/
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Prez Debate Moderator...a great idea!!!
From In These Times:
Views > November 20, 2007
Tax and Spend? Hell, Yeah!
By Susan J. Douglas
I have a proposal for the next Democratic debate—hell, the next Democratic and Republican debates: Get rid of the TV personalities and have Paul Krugman moderate the thing.
That way, “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert won’t be asking Rep. Dennis Kucinich if he’s really seen a UFO, or Sen. Barack Obama if he believes in E.T.s. And NBC anchor Brian Williams won’t be asking Obama what he plans to be for Halloween. (And why is that what he asked the black guy?)
All Krugman would have to do is ask questions based on his important new book, The Conscience of a Liberal, which unabashedly calls for a new New Deal and for “expanding the social safety net and reducing inequality.” He argues that the central danger confronting us is the ongoing transfer of wealth to the very rich, which has led to massive economic and political inequality.
This has been the determined and successful agenda of the neocon movement. But with all their “free market” mumbo jumbo, neoconservatives make the rise of the super-rich seem inevitable. If hedge fund managers and Wall Street traders making anywhere from $50 million to $1.5 billion a year is simply the natural order of things, then what can the rest of us do but be fatalistic? Well, Krugman is here to lay out what should be the Democratic platform.
First, tax these bloodsuckers. Why does anyone need $50 million a year? What do you do with it—buy five houses in Aspen like Enron’s Ken Lay did? Krugman provides a historical overview of the role that taxes played in reversing the Gilded Age’s concentration of wealth among the super rich from the 1930s through the ’70s. But the Reagan and Dubya tax cuts “delivered disproportionately large benefits to upper-income households.” Clinton raised taxes on the rich, but the economy—and the rich—did just fine in the ’90s.
Second, boot those tax cuts. Krugman reports that if the Bush tax cuts for the very rich expire in 2010—as they are currently slated to do—there would be an additional $140 billion rolling into the national treasury by 2012. That’s enough to implement universal healthcare.
Third (and how’s this for a winning proposal), eliminate the loophole that allows hedge fund managers to classify their earnings as capital gains, which are taxed at a 15 percent rate instead of the normal 35 percent.
Possibly one reason some American corporations pay their CEOs obscene money and pornographic severance packages is the decline in corporate tax rates. Taxes on their profits have fallen by a quarter over the past 30 years, and additional loopholes let corporations avoid taxes by shifting their recorded profits to branches or operations overseas.
What’s the first thing we should spend this revenue on? Healthcare. That’s because healthcare is one of the principal—and very expensive—areas of inequality in the United States. While Rudy Giuliani brays that we have the best healthcare system in the world, Krugman compares U.S. per capita spending with Canada, France, Germany and Britain. Guess who spends the most? And guess who has the lowest life expectancy? In fact, the World Health Organization ranks the U.S. healthcare system 37th in the world.
Krugman debunks the usual trash one hears neocons spouting about universal healthcare, including the bogus scare tactics about “long waits,” and argues that, in economic terms, single-payer is the way to go. It has low administrative costs and enables bargaining over prices. But he acknowledges the possible political obstacles and offers other options, some of which have been proposed by John Edwards, Obama and even Hillary.
But Krugman’s foundational argument is that we must discredit the neocons’ insistence that government regulation is bad and that the state’s intervention to moderate the excesses of capitalism is unnecessary. He shrewdly notes how movement conservatives have for 40 years twinned this mantra with race-baiting policies and rhetoric that portrays poor people of color—not the rich white fat cats—as the problem.
Krugman maintains that a majority of Americans are ready to revive the demand that it is government’s responsibility to protect its citizens and to prevent the consolidation of a plutocracy. Economic inequality has further corrupted our politics, but Krugman ends his book on a positive note: Movement conservatism has become “intellectually decrepit” while progressive politics gathers real steam.
For years, Republicans tarred Democrats as “tax and spend liberals.” Just as gays and lesbians reclaimed the word “queer” as a move of empowerment, Democrats should embrace the “tax and spend” moniker. Taxing and spending is what advanced, industrialized countries do. And they do it to promote equitable societies.
Yes, tax the rich and big corporations and spend it on the rest of America: Let’s spend it on healthcare for all, on decent schools for our kids, on environmental protections, on a consumer products safety commission, on universal pre-school, on a cure for AIDS and, most of all, let’s tax and spend to develop paths to peace.
************
Susan J. Douglas is a professor of communications at the University of Michigan and author of The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How it Has Undermined Women.
Wrap...
Views > November 20, 2007
Tax and Spend? Hell, Yeah!
By Susan J. Douglas
I have a proposal for the next Democratic debate—hell, the next Democratic and Republican debates: Get rid of the TV personalities and have Paul Krugman moderate the thing.
That way, “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert won’t be asking Rep. Dennis Kucinich if he’s really seen a UFO, or Sen. Barack Obama if he believes in E.T.s. And NBC anchor Brian Williams won’t be asking Obama what he plans to be for Halloween. (And why is that what he asked the black guy?)
All Krugman would have to do is ask questions based on his important new book, The Conscience of a Liberal, which unabashedly calls for a new New Deal and for “expanding the social safety net and reducing inequality.” He argues that the central danger confronting us is the ongoing transfer of wealth to the very rich, which has led to massive economic and political inequality.
This has been the determined and successful agenda of the neocon movement. But with all their “free market” mumbo jumbo, neoconservatives make the rise of the super-rich seem inevitable. If hedge fund managers and Wall Street traders making anywhere from $50 million to $1.5 billion a year is simply the natural order of things, then what can the rest of us do but be fatalistic? Well, Krugman is here to lay out what should be the Democratic platform.
First, tax these bloodsuckers. Why does anyone need $50 million a year? What do you do with it—buy five houses in Aspen like Enron’s Ken Lay did? Krugman provides a historical overview of the role that taxes played in reversing the Gilded Age’s concentration of wealth among the super rich from the 1930s through the ’70s. But the Reagan and Dubya tax cuts “delivered disproportionately large benefits to upper-income households.” Clinton raised taxes on the rich, but the economy—and the rich—did just fine in the ’90s.
Second, boot those tax cuts. Krugman reports that if the Bush tax cuts for the very rich expire in 2010—as they are currently slated to do—there would be an additional $140 billion rolling into the national treasury by 2012. That’s enough to implement universal healthcare.
Third (and how’s this for a winning proposal), eliminate the loophole that allows hedge fund managers to classify their earnings as capital gains, which are taxed at a 15 percent rate instead of the normal 35 percent.
Possibly one reason some American corporations pay their CEOs obscene money and pornographic severance packages is the decline in corporate tax rates. Taxes on their profits have fallen by a quarter over the past 30 years, and additional loopholes let corporations avoid taxes by shifting their recorded profits to branches or operations overseas.
What’s the first thing we should spend this revenue on? Healthcare. That’s because healthcare is one of the principal—and very expensive—areas of inequality in the United States. While Rudy Giuliani brays that we have the best healthcare system in the world, Krugman compares U.S. per capita spending with Canada, France, Germany and Britain. Guess who spends the most? And guess who has the lowest life expectancy? In fact, the World Health Organization ranks the U.S. healthcare system 37th in the world.
Krugman debunks the usual trash one hears neocons spouting about universal healthcare, including the bogus scare tactics about “long waits,” and argues that, in economic terms, single-payer is the way to go. It has low administrative costs and enables bargaining over prices. But he acknowledges the possible political obstacles and offers other options, some of which have been proposed by John Edwards, Obama and even Hillary.
But Krugman’s foundational argument is that we must discredit the neocons’ insistence that government regulation is bad and that the state’s intervention to moderate the excesses of capitalism is unnecessary. He shrewdly notes how movement conservatives have for 40 years twinned this mantra with race-baiting policies and rhetoric that portrays poor people of color—not the rich white fat cats—as the problem.
Krugman maintains that a majority of Americans are ready to revive the demand that it is government’s responsibility to protect its citizens and to prevent the consolidation of a plutocracy. Economic inequality has further corrupted our politics, but Krugman ends his book on a positive note: Movement conservatism has become “intellectually decrepit” while progressive politics gathers real steam.
For years, Republicans tarred Democrats as “tax and spend liberals.” Just as gays and lesbians reclaimed the word “queer” as a move of empowerment, Democrats should embrace the “tax and spend” moniker. Taxing and spending is what advanced, industrialized countries do. And they do it to promote equitable societies.
Yes, tax the rich and big corporations and spend it on the rest of America: Let’s spend it on healthcare for all, on decent schools for our kids, on environmental protections, on a consumer products safety commission, on universal pre-school, on a cure for AIDS and, most of all, let’s tax and spend to develop paths to peace.
************
Susan J. Douglas is a professor of communications at the University of Michigan and author of The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How it Has Undermined Women.
Wrap...
Maybe justice won't be denied in torture case....
From International Herald Tribune:
Torture and accountability
Published: November 19, 2007
Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was stopped at Kennedy Airport in 2002 while returning from a family vacation. After being held in solitary confinement in a Brooklyn detention center and interrogated without proper access to a lawyer, he was spirited off to Syria. He was tortured there for months before officials decided that their suspicions that he was a member of Al Qaeda were mistaken and let him go.
Arar was a victim of extraordinary rendition, America's notorious program of outsourcing interrogations to governments known to use torture. He has sued the United States for denying him his civil rights. Now, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has to decide whether to compound the mistreatment, by agreeing to throw out Arar's lawsuit, as the Bush administration is asking.
The government won the last round. In February 2006, a lower court judge in Brooklyn, David Trager, blocked Arar's suit entirely, ruling that rendition cases like this one raise foreign policy questions inappropriate for court review. Trager also accepted groundless, and by now familiar, administration claims of secrecy and national security. Among its other defects, the ruling runs counter to a pair of 2004 Supreme Court decisions that made clear that the war on terror does not exempt government actions from court review.
At a court hearing this month, a Justice Department lawyer argued against reinstating Arar's lawsuit. The government contends that he should have appealed his order of removal to Syria, and claims that the Constitution does not apply to noncitizens who suffer injury abroad. This is a nervy tack, given the ample precedent to the contrary and the fact that the administration first denied Arar's access to a lawyer and then sent him to the country where he was tortured.
Canada's response to Arar's nightmare has been very different.
After conducting an extensive investigation, the government offered him millions of dollars and an apology for having told U.S. agents that Arar was suspected, wrongly, of being an extremist.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has conceded that the United States had mishandled the case but refused to apologize.
Arar deserves justice. Much more is at stake than fairness for one individual. By allowing Arar to pursue his claims, and rejecting the administration's attempt to put them beyond the reach of American law, the appeals court can provide a vital measure of justice and accountability for torture.
Wrap...
Torture and accountability
Published: November 19, 2007
Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was stopped at Kennedy Airport in 2002 while returning from a family vacation. After being held in solitary confinement in a Brooklyn detention center and interrogated without proper access to a lawyer, he was spirited off to Syria. He was tortured there for months before officials decided that their suspicions that he was a member of Al Qaeda were mistaken and let him go.
Arar was a victim of extraordinary rendition, America's notorious program of outsourcing interrogations to governments known to use torture. He has sued the United States for denying him his civil rights. Now, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has to decide whether to compound the mistreatment, by agreeing to throw out Arar's lawsuit, as the Bush administration is asking.
The government won the last round. In February 2006, a lower court judge in Brooklyn, David Trager, blocked Arar's suit entirely, ruling that rendition cases like this one raise foreign policy questions inappropriate for court review. Trager also accepted groundless, and by now familiar, administration claims of secrecy and national security. Among its other defects, the ruling runs counter to a pair of 2004 Supreme Court decisions that made clear that the war on terror does not exempt government actions from court review.
At a court hearing this month, a Justice Department lawyer argued against reinstating Arar's lawsuit. The government contends that he should have appealed his order of removal to Syria, and claims that the Constitution does not apply to noncitizens who suffer injury abroad. This is a nervy tack, given the ample precedent to the contrary and the fact that the administration first denied Arar's access to a lawyer and then sent him to the country where he was tortured.
Canada's response to Arar's nightmare has been very different.
After conducting an extensive investigation, the government offered him millions of dollars and an apology for having told U.S. agents that Arar was suspected, wrongly, of being an extremist.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has conceded that the United States had mishandled the case but refused to apologize.
Arar deserves justice. Much more is at stake than fairness for one individual. By allowing Arar to pursue his claims, and rejecting the administration's attempt to put them beyond the reach of American law, the appeals court can provide a vital measure of justice and accountability for torture.
Wrap...
Bad things happening...
From Washington Post via truthout.org:
Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann | Losing Afghanistan
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112007H.shtml
From The Washington Post, Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, write: "The road between the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad and the Pakistani border is one of the busiest in the country, congested with gaily painted trucks, battered taxis, buses packed to the rafters and Afghans riding bikes. One morning in early March, a suicide bomber plowed a Toyota packed with explosives into the middle of a U.S. convoy patrolling that road, killing himself and injuring a Marine. That was bad enough, but what may be the key to Afghanistan's future was what happened next."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann | Losing Afghanistan
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112007H.shtml
From The Washington Post, Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, write: "The road between the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad and the Pakistani border is one of the busiest in the country, congested with gaily painted trucks, battered taxis, buses packed to the rafters and Afghans riding bikes. One morning in early March, a suicide bomber plowed a Toyota packed with explosives into the middle of a U.S. convoy patrolling that road, killing himself and injuring a Marine. That was bad enough, but what may be the key to Afghanistan's future was what happened next."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
From No Debates for New Orleans to Novak's chariot...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
"New Orleans lost out in the competition to host one of the 2008 presidential debates Monday after the commission that selects the sites decided that the city has not sufficiently recovered from Hurricane Katrina to handle such a major event."
CQ reports that Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) "is ready to play nice when considering President Bush's latest round of nominees to fill a raft of vacancies in the upper echelons of the Justice Department." After Bush reportedly called him at home, Leahy pledged, "I'm going to try to move as quickly as I can on them."
CBS's "60 Minutes" is gathering information in Alabama about the case of incarcerated former Gov. Don Siegelman. Siegelman's prosecution was opposed by Justice Department prosecutors and was reportedly interfered with by Bush administration political operatives.
While the violence in Baghdad declines, "northern Iraq has become more violent than other regions as al-Qaida and other militants move there to avoid coalition operations elsewhere." "What you're seeing is the enemy shifting," Army Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling told reporters yesterday.
Law professors David Cole of Georgetown University and Jules Lobel of the University of Pittsburgh published a Report Card on the war against terrorist networks in this weekend's Los Angeles Times. The chart combines visual and statistical depictions of the cost of the administration's failing strategy. View it here.
When the House voted on Iraq redeployment legislation last week, three Republicans -- Reps. Chris Shays (CT), Jim Walsh (NY) and Phil English (PA) -- "voted to order withdrawal for the first time," likely influenced by the tough re-election campaigns they face in '08.
"US contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan more than doubled from 2004 to 2006 to over 25 billion dollars but government oversight of the firms involved has slackened," reports the Center for Public Integrity. Former Halliburton subsidiary KBR topped the list with more than $16 billion in U.S. contracts.
"Apparel retailer Gap is canceling half of its orders with a vendor in India and promises to donate $200,000 to improve working conditions there. The move comes after revelations that some of its clothes were made by children as young as 10."
And finally: "Robert Novak is a prince, all right, and every member of royalty needs a chariot befitting his title. That must be why the right-leaning columnist and author of 'Prince of Darkness' was spotted pulling up to the Capitol on Friday in his sleek (and slightly menacing-looking) black Corvette convertible."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
"New Orleans lost out in the competition to host one of the 2008 presidential debates Monday after the commission that selects the sites decided that the city has not sufficiently recovered from Hurricane Katrina to handle such a major event."
CQ reports that Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) "is ready to play nice when considering President Bush's latest round of nominees to fill a raft of vacancies in the upper echelons of the Justice Department." After Bush reportedly called him at home, Leahy pledged, "I'm going to try to move as quickly as I can on them."
CBS's "60 Minutes" is gathering information in Alabama about the case of incarcerated former Gov. Don Siegelman. Siegelman's prosecution was opposed by Justice Department prosecutors and was reportedly interfered with by Bush administration political operatives.
While the violence in Baghdad declines, "northern Iraq has become more violent than other regions as al-Qaida and other militants move there to avoid coalition operations elsewhere." "What you're seeing is the enemy shifting," Army Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling told reporters yesterday.
Law professors David Cole of Georgetown University and Jules Lobel of the University of Pittsburgh published a Report Card on the war against terrorist networks in this weekend's Los Angeles Times. The chart combines visual and statistical depictions of the cost of the administration's failing strategy. View it here.
When the House voted on Iraq redeployment legislation last week, three Republicans -- Reps. Chris Shays (CT), Jim Walsh (NY) and Phil English (PA) -- "voted to order withdrawal for the first time," likely influenced by the tough re-election campaigns they face in '08.
"US contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan more than doubled from 2004 to 2006 to over 25 billion dollars but government oversight of the firms involved has slackened," reports the Center for Public Integrity. Former Halliburton subsidiary KBR topped the list with more than $16 billion in U.S. contracts.
"Apparel retailer Gap is canceling half of its orders with a vendor in India and promises to donate $200,000 to improve working conditions there. The move comes after revelations that some of its clothes were made by children as young as 10."
And finally: "Robert Novak is a prince, all right, and every member of royalty needs a chariot befitting his title. That must be why the right-leaning columnist and author of 'Prince of Darkness' was spotted pulling up to the Capitol on Friday in his sleek (and slightly menacing-looking) black Corvette convertible."
Wrap...
Prosecute 'em to the fullest extent of the law....
From NY Times via truthout.org :
Bob Herbert | A Swarm of Swindlers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112007O.shtml
Bob Herbert writes for The New York Times, "One aspect of the so-called mortgage crisis that hasn't been adequately explored is the extent to which predatory lenders have committed fraud against vulnerable homeowners. They have pushed overpriced loans and outlandish fees on hapless victims who didn't understand - and could not possibly have met - the terms of the contracts they signed.... This is an issue crying out for a thorough federal investigation."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Bob Herbert | A Swarm of Swindlers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112007O.shtml
Bob Herbert writes for The New York Times, "One aspect of the so-called mortgage crisis that hasn't been adequately explored is the extent to which predatory lenders have committed fraud against vulnerable homeowners. They have pushed overpriced loans and outlandish fees on hapless victims who didn't understand - and could not possibly have met - the terms of the contracts they signed.... This is an issue crying out for a thorough federal investigation."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Monday, November 19, 2007
From Read or regret it, to Missing his mouth....
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
"Americans are reading less and their reading proficiency is declining at troubling rates," says a new report by the National Endowment for the Arts. The trend could have "a profound negative effect on the nation's economic and civic future," the report warns.
"Senate Democrats appear ready to omit Iraq withdrawal timelines from a supplemental spending bill in hopes of clearing in December funds for the troops -- but House leaders have no intentions of following suit." Two powerful voices in the Senate -- Carl Levin (D-MI) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) -- both suggested Democrats would strip withdrawal language in December.
Speaking to the National Bank of Kuwait yesterday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "Iran is far from acquiring a nuclear weapon" and that he believes it is "unlikely" that the United States will strike the Islamic Republic militarily.
"The number of economists forecasting the U.S. will slip into recession almost doubled over the last two months, according to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics."
The U.S. dollar has fallen to historic lows against both the euro and the yen as worries about the strength of the U.S. economy continue. The drop has been precipitated by the U.S. credit crisis, which has caused foreign investors to "pull some of their investments out of U.S. markets and put them in other countries."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his fourth trip to Iran in two years today, "as the two countries sought to strengthen ties while their leaders exhort the international community to resist U.S. policies." Chavez said the dollar was in free-fall and that its "empire" must end, and proposed trading oil in a basket of currencies excluding the dollar.
Three members of Iraq's national soccer team have left the country and are seeking asylum in Australia. When the team won the prestigious Asian Cup in July, their victory was hailed as an "inspirational triumph for a team whose players straddle bitter and violent ethnic divides."
And finally: Last week during House debate on home-lending legislation, Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) tried to "knock down the idea that risky mortgages are 'innovative' financial products." To illustrate his point, he offered up a metaphor: "Mr. Chairman, this necktie is an innovation. ... Ten years ago, you could not buy a silk necktie that was stain-resistant. And for those folks like me who tend to miss their mouth from time to time, the cost in new neckties in any given year was hundreds of dollars."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
"Americans are reading less and their reading proficiency is declining at troubling rates," says a new report by the National Endowment for the Arts. The trend could have "a profound negative effect on the nation's economic and civic future," the report warns.
"Senate Democrats appear ready to omit Iraq withdrawal timelines from a supplemental spending bill in hopes of clearing in December funds for the troops -- but House leaders have no intentions of following suit." Two powerful voices in the Senate -- Carl Levin (D-MI) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) -- both suggested Democrats would strip withdrawal language in December.
Speaking to the National Bank of Kuwait yesterday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said that "Iran is far from acquiring a nuclear weapon" and that he believes it is "unlikely" that the United States will strike the Islamic Republic militarily.
"The number of economists forecasting the U.S. will slip into recession almost doubled over the last two months, according to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics."
The U.S. dollar has fallen to historic lows against both the euro and the yen as worries about the strength of the U.S. economy continue. The drop has been precipitated by the U.S. credit crisis, which has caused foreign investors to "pull some of their investments out of U.S. markets and put them in other countries."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his fourth trip to Iran in two years today, "as the two countries sought to strengthen ties while their leaders exhort the international community to resist U.S. policies." Chavez said the dollar was in free-fall and that its "empire" must end, and proposed trading oil in a basket of currencies excluding the dollar.
Three members of Iraq's national soccer team have left the country and are seeking asylum in Australia. When the team won the prestigious Asian Cup in July, their victory was hailed as an "inspirational triumph for a team whose players straddle bitter and violent ethnic divides."
And finally: Last week during House debate on home-lending legislation, Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) tried to "knock down the idea that risky mortgages are 'innovative' financial products." To illustrate his point, he offered up a metaphor: "Mr. Chairman, this necktie is an innovation. ... Ten years ago, you could not buy a silk necktie that was stain-resistant. And for those folks like me who tend to miss their mouth from time to time, the cost in new neckties in any given year was hundreds of dollars."
Wrap...
Russia, US agree. Best news in a long time...
From AP via truthout.org:
US, Russia Agree on Plutonium Disposal
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111907S.shtml
According to The Associated Press, "US and Russian officials announced agreement Monday on how to safely dispose of 34 metric tons of Russian weapons-grade plutonium, overcoming a major hurdle in a joint nuclear nonproliferation effort that at times has been close to falling apart."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
US, Russia Agree on Plutonium Disposal
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111907S.shtml
According to The Associated Press, "US and Russian officials announced agreement Monday on how to safely dispose of 34 metric tons of Russian weapons-grade plutonium, overcoming a major hurdle in a joint nuclear nonproliferation effort that at times has been close to falling apart."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Illegal immigration...another look...
From David Sirota:
The Immigration Con Artists
By David Sirota
Creators Syndicate, 11/16/07
I once got suckered by con artists. As I was walking by, they baited
me into betting that I could guess which shell a little ball was
under. Moving the shells at lightning speed, they diverted my
attention and tricked me into taking my eye off the ball. When I lost
the bet, I felt bamboozled, just like we all should feel today
watching the illegal immigration debate. After all, we're witnessing
the same kind of con.
To read the full nationally syndicated newspaper column, go to:
http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota/the-immigration-con-artists.html
{http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota/the-immigration-con-artists.html}
If you have trouble with that link, just go to
http://www.davidsirota.com {http://www.davidsirota.com}
[Use links above to continue reading]
Wrap...
The Immigration Con Artists
By David Sirota
Creators Syndicate, 11/16/07
I once got suckered by con artists. As I was walking by, they baited
me into betting that I could guess which shell a little ball was
under. Moving the shells at lightning speed, they diverted my
attention and tricked me into taking my eye off the ball. When I lost
the bet, I felt bamboozled, just like we all should feel today
watching the illegal immigration debate. After all, we're witnessing
the same kind of con.
To read the full nationally syndicated newspaper column, go to:
http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota/the-immigration-con-artists.html
{http://www.creators.com/opinion/david-sirota/the-immigration-con-artists.html}
If you have trouble with that link, just go to
http://www.davidsirota.com {http://www.davidsirota.com}
[Use links above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Calif. wildfires and earthquakes...
From truthout.org :
Robert T. Nanninga | Observations From the Edge
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111807E.shtml
Writing for Truthout, Robert T. Nanninga says, "California has always lived on the edge. On the edge of the continent, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and on the edge of disaster. Famous for its earthquakes, it is its wildfires that cause the most damage and loss of life and property."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Robert T. Nanninga | Observations From the Edge
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111807E.shtml
Writing for Truthout, Robert T. Nanninga says, "California has always lived on the edge. On the edge of the continent, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and on the edge of disaster. Famous for its earthquakes, it is its wildfires that cause the most damage and loss of life and property."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
No confusion about what's torture and what's not....
From truthout.org :
FOCUS | Elizabeth de la Vega:
Real DOJ Trial Attorneys on Torture
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111807Y.shtml
Former assistant US attorney Elizabeth de la Vega writes for Truthout, "If there is one thing the Bush administration is good at, it's talking points: simple, stupid slogans. And when it comes to torture, the theme du jour is that we are all too simple and too stupid to understand just what is and is not prohibited.... They are, plainly and simply, wrong. It is long past time for them to listen to what the real prosecutors in the Department of Justice have to say."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
FOCUS | Elizabeth de la Vega:
Real DOJ Trial Attorneys on Torture
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111807Y.shtml
Former assistant US attorney Elizabeth de la Vega writes for Truthout, "If there is one thing the Bush administration is good at, it's talking points: simple, stupid slogans. And when it comes to torture, the theme du jour is that we are all too simple and too stupid to understand just what is and is not prohibited.... They are, plainly and simply, wrong. It is long past time for them to listen to what the real prosecutors in the Department of Justice have to say."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Go drink elsewhere....UGH!
From Charleston W VA News:
SPECIAL REPORT
A Nightmare Behind the Kitchen Door
Reported by: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Larry Clark
Web Producer: Patrick McMurtry
November 15, 2007 5:21pm
You've heard about mouse droppings in food bins, spoiled food on buffet tables and roach infestations in our Behind the Kitchen Door series. This time, Patrick Mcmurtry has a special report with what he calls the most disgusting thing he's seen since he's been doing these reports.
Inspectors found a nasty odor in the Aristocrat bar in Huntington. They went back and discovered the disgusting truth, the nasty odor was coming from fluids oozing from the bar owner's legs. Carl Scarberry is the owner of the Aristocrat. The bar remains open despite years of health reports showing the floors were soiled from blood and bodily fluids from leg ulcers.
I finally caught up with Mr. Scarberry. His legs weren't leaking, but they were swollen, red and yellow. The place smelled horrible and we weren't even allowed to go inside.
The last inspection we found showed there was still a foul odor from the exudate draining from Scarberry's legs.
Mills says there is nothing the Cabell County Health Department can do to shut the aristocrat down permanently.
But that doesn't fly with folks who find it hard to believe this kind of is allowed to go on in the 21st century.
But as it stands now, the
Aristocrat can stay open with the bodily fluids oozing for years to come.
We don't know what exactly Carl Scarberry is suffering from. Cabell County health officials say unless the law is changed, nothing can be done to protect you from places like the Aristocrat bar.
Wrap...
SPECIAL REPORT
A Nightmare Behind the Kitchen Door
Reported by: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Larry Clark
Web Producer: Patrick McMurtry
November 15, 2007 5:21pm
You've heard about mouse droppings in food bins, spoiled food on buffet tables and roach infestations in our Behind the Kitchen Door series. This time, Patrick Mcmurtry has a special report with what he calls the most disgusting thing he's seen since he's been doing these reports.
Inspectors found a nasty odor in the Aristocrat bar in Huntington. They went back and discovered the disgusting truth, the nasty odor was coming from fluids oozing from the bar owner's legs. Carl Scarberry is the owner of the Aristocrat. The bar remains open despite years of health reports showing the floors were soiled from blood and bodily fluids from leg ulcers.
I finally caught up with Mr. Scarberry. His legs weren't leaking, but they were swollen, red and yellow. The place smelled horrible and we weren't even allowed to go inside.
The last inspection we found showed there was still a foul odor from the exudate draining from Scarberry's legs.
Mills says there is nothing the Cabell County Health Department can do to shut the aristocrat down permanently.
But that doesn't fly with folks who find it hard to believe this kind of is allowed to go on in the 21st century.
But as it stands now, the
Aristocrat can stay open with the bodily fluids oozing for years to come.
We don't know what exactly Carl Scarberry is suffering from. Cabell County health officials say unless the law is changed, nothing can be done to protect you from places like the Aristocrat bar.
Wrap...
World ends in the spring...Hoo-boy....
From AP via Times UK:
From The TimesNovember 17, 2007
Doomsday cult in cave stand-off
MOSCOW Followers of a doomsday cult who have barricaded themselves into a cave near the Volga river have threatened to blow themselves up if authorities intervene.
The 29 members of the cult, including four children, have taken food supplies and fuel underground near Nikolskoye, a village in Penza region that is about 650km (400 miles) southeast of Moscow, because they believe that the world will end in the spring, Yevgeny Guseynov, a regional spokesman, said.
Pyotr Kuznetsov, 43, the leader of the cult who has not joined his followers, many of whom are women, has undergone a psychiatric evaluation and been charged with setting up a religious organisation that is associated with violence. Mr Kuznetsov established the True Russian Orthodox Church after leaving the official Church.
Russian Orthodox monks have climbed down the snow-covered gully to try to make contact with the cult, but members have refused to speak to them. They have exchanged letters with their leader and are in contact with doctors who have offered them medical supplies. (AP)
Wrap...
From The TimesNovember 17, 2007
Doomsday cult in cave stand-off
MOSCOW Followers of a doomsday cult who have barricaded themselves into a cave near the Volga river have threatened to blow themselves up if authorities intervene.
The 29 members of the cult, including four children, have taken food supplies and fuel underground near Nikolskoye, a village in Penza region that is about 650km (400 miles) southeast of Moscow, because they believe that the world will end in the spring, Yevgeny Guseynov, a regional spokesman, said.
Pyotr Kuznetsov, 43, the leader of the cult who has not joined his followers, many of whom are women, has undergone a psychiatric evaluation and been charged with setting up a religious organisation that is associated with violence. Mr Kuznetsov established the True Russian Orthodox Church after leaving the official Church.
Russian Orthodox monks have climbed down the snow-covered gully to try to make contact with the cult, but members have refused to speak to them. They have exchanged letters with their leader and are in contact with doctors who have offered them medical supplies. (AP)
Wrap...
Friday, November 16, 2007
From Thanksgiving food cost to Justice Thomas...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
"U.S. consumers will pay 11 percent more for the traditional Thanksgiving meal this year, due in part to higher energy costs, the American Farm Bureau Federation said on Thursday."
Ever since Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency, he has been "the most unpopular figure in the country." But "running a close second" is "his ally: President Bush." "[W]hy isn't the U.S. standing up for Pakistan when we need it most?" asked Islamabad resident Parveen Aslam. "We are calling them Busharraf now. They are the same man."
"A confidential 2003 manual for operating" Guantánamo Bay shows that military officials had a policy of denying detainees access to independent monitors from the International Committee of the Red Cross." The manual allows "some long-term detainees" to have "no contact of any kind with the I.C.R.C."
"Some government scientists" charge "that officials at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History" ordered last-minute changes to an exhibit on the Arctic to add "scientific uncertainty" about climate change because of "global-warming skeptics in the Bush administration."
After Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi "was required by Congress to spend half of its billions in federal grant money to help low-income citizens. ... But so far, the state has spent $1.7 billion in federal money on programs that have mostly benefited relatively affluent residents and big businesses." Just 10 percent of the funds have gone to help poor residents.
Satellite imaging has revealed that "hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest single forestry disaster on record in the nation," killing or severely damaging about 320 million trees in the area. The die-off "will add significantly to the global greenhouse gas buildup," researchers say.
"Working until dawn, negotiators on Friday concluded a policy guide for governments on global warming that declares climate change is here and is getting worse." The report is to be released Saturday by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
And finally: Early in his address at yesterday's Federalist Society 25th anniversary gathering, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas announced, "You know, it's really hard to talk up here when this guy in front of me keeps moving." The Washington Post's Dana Milbank notes that he "was referring to a television screen on the floor in front of him that was showing his own image -- but because nobody but Thomas could see the TV, nobody knew what he was talking about. 'It's me! I see myself moving around!' Thomas explained, then let out a resonant laugh: 'Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!'"
Wrap...
Think Fast...
"U.S. consumers will pay 11 percent more for the traditional Thanksgiving meal this year, due in part to higher energy costs, the American Farm Bureau Federation said on Thursday."
Ever since Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency, he has been "the most unpopular figure in the country." But "running a close second" is "his ally: President Bush." "[W]hy isn't the U.S. standing up for Pakistan when we need it most?" asked Islamabad resident Parveen Aslam. "We are calling them Busharraf now. They are the same man."
"A confidential 2003 manual for operating" Guantánamo Bay shows that military officials had a policy of denying detainees access to independent monitors from the International Committee of the Red Cross." The manual allows "some long-term detainees" to have "no contact of any kind with the I.C.R.C."
"Some government scientists" charge "that officials at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History" ordered last-minute changes to an exhibit on the Arctic to add "scientific uncertainty" about climate change because of "global-warming skeptics in the Bush administration."
After Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi "was required by Congress to spend half of its billions in federal grant money to help low-income citizens. ... But so far, the state has spent $1.7 billion in federal money on programs that have mostly benefited relatively affluent residents and big businesses." Just 10 percent of the funds have gone to help poor residents.
Satellite imaging has revealed that "hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest single forestry disaster on record in the nation," killing or severely damaging about 320 million trees in the area. The die-off "will add significantly to the global greenhouse gas buildup," researchers say.
"Working until dawn, negotiators on Friday concluded a policy guide for governments on global warming that declares climate change is here and is getting worse." The report is to be released Saturday by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
And finally: Early in his address at yesterday's Federalist Society 25th anniversary gathering, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas announced, "You know, it's really hard to talk up here when this guy in front of me keeps moving." The Washington Post's Dana Milbank notes that he "was referring to a television screen on the floor in front of him that was showing his own image -- but because nobody but Thomas could see the TV, nobody knew what he was talking about. 'It's me! I see myself moving around!' Thomas explained, then let out a resonant laugh: 'Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!'"
Wrap...
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