Thursday News Bucket

20 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on March 23, 2006 at 8:04 am

   Rumors that Rove is slipping from favor: NYT

   Although Mr. Card is the focus of much of the criticism about the White House’s performance, much of the talk here has focused on Mr. Rove, who has long been seen as the pre-eminent strategist of his generation and who for more than a year has been deputy chief of staff for policy.

   “He’s losing strategic power,” James A. Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at the School of Public Affairs at American University, said of Mr. Rove. “It’s just decaying, and the decay rate is very fast at this point. Lame-duck presidencies that have people who have been there for many years have many problems.”

   Of course, we’ve already noticed that the GOP message control has been a little off lately, haven’t we?

2. 

   CabinGirl on March 23, 2006 at 8:08 am

   Possible link? via Web MD

   Erectile dysfunction may be more common among men who smoke cigarettes than among nonsmokers.

   An Australian survey of more than 8,300 men aged 16-59 shows that erectile dysfunction was 40% more likely to occur among men who smoked more than 20 daily cigarettes, compared with nonsmokers. Also, erectile dysfunction was 24% more likely to occur among men who smoked up to 20 cigarettes per day, compared with nonsmokers.

   (Yes, I’m working on another PE paper this week.)

3. 

   Second Nature on March 23, 2006 at 8:20 am

   The Raleigh News and Observer found that hired guns in Iraq regularly fire into civilian vehicles with little reason and get away with it.

   About 6,000 non-Iraqi security contractors are operating in Iraq. During nine months in 2004-05, contractors reported firing into 61 civilian vehicles; no one was ever prosecuted. Security analysts say it is likely that such incidents are vastly underreported.
   Security contractors supporting the U.S. effort in Iraq regularly shoot into civilian cars with little accountability, according to a News & Observer analysis of more than 400 reports contractors filed with the government.

   Shoot into a carful of students driving to school…a family making their way home?  Oops, my bad.

   There was no way to tell how many civilians were hurt, or how many were innocent: In most cases, the contractors drove away. No contractors have been prosecuted for a mistaken shooting in Iraq.

   • 

     CabinGirl on March 23, 2006 at 8:31 am

     That is heinous.

   • 

     Nag on March 23, 2006 at 10:50 am

     That makes my stomach turn and my blood boil. I read somewhere in my internet travels that those mercenaries enjoy immunity from Iraqi prosecution. That seems absolutely insane. As difficult as it is to imagine what Iraq is like for our men and women, and how so many of them have PTSD when they come home, how much worse it must be for Iraqis. No wonder so many Iraqis are fleeing the country.

   • 

     cruz del sur on March 23, 2006 at 2:20 pm

     Not surprissed, since many Chileans and Argentine former military have been hired to go there

4. 

   CabinGirl on March 23, 2006 at 8:21 am

   Wednesday’s undercovered news from storiesinamerica.

5. 

   CabinGirl on March 23, 2006 at 8:31 am

   Now they’re arresting people for (gasp!) being drunk at the bar: Reuters

   Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said on Wednesday.

   The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission’s Carolyn Beck.

   Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkenness, Beck said.

   The goal, she said, was to detain drunks before they leave a bar and go do something dangerous like drive a car.

   Okaaaayyy.

6. 

   BooMan on March 23, 2006 at 9:04 am

   Love the Prine quote.  That’s one my favorite songs of his.  

7. 

   Knoxville Progressive on March 23, 2006 at 10:00 am

   Astronomers have discovered a unique brown dwarf located right in the solar system’s neighborhood.  The rare object, with properties between those of a large planet and a small star,  is only 12.7 light years away, circling a primary star that itself was discovered only recently in the southern hemisphere constellation Pavo, the Peacock. Only one other brown dwarf system has been found closer to Earth, and it is only marginally closer.  The primary star is only one-tenth the mass of the Sun. This is the first time astronomers have found a cool brown dwarf companion to such a low-mass star. The brown dwarf is located about four and one-half times farther from its star than the distance from Earth to the Sun. Astronomers estimate the brown dwarf is between nine times and 65 times as massive as Jupiter.

   Composting cow manure significantly reduces harmful greenhouse gases linked to global warming while also cutting back on its foul smell, according to a new Canadian study.

   Scientists believe they may have discovered a reason why the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus cannot yet jump easily between humans.  Flu viruses which target man tend to attach to cells further up the airway – maximizing their chances of being passed on by coughing or sneezing.  Researchers found the bird flu virus attached itself to cells deep down in the human airways.

   Snails with left-handed shells can have a big advantage in life – predators may find it impossible to eat them.  Then why haven’t they taken over (left-handed snails make up only a few percent of most species, at most)?  Because they may also find it harder to mate with a shell that spirals “the wrong way.”

   Maybe now congress will decide they’re interested in the issue:  Smog is not only bad for the lungs, it is bad for sperm too. A survey of men in Los Angeles has shown that their sperm counts fell as ozone levels in the air increased.  And a British study has found that men who smoke a packet of cigarettes a day are 40 per cent more likely to become impotent than non-smokers, a study has shown.

   Scientists are developing strains of microbes to rid the environment of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), a toxic gasoline additive now classified as a potential human carcinogen, in the ground itself, avoiding the expense of pumping contaminated groundwater to the surface for treatment.  A discussion of the research is here.

   Manipulating the in utero environment by having pregnant mothers eat extra vitamin E and antioxidants may alter the onset of cancers that appear later in the lives of mammals, according to a new University of Toronto study published in the journal Carcinogenesis.

   A report from the National Academy of Sciences concludes there are legitimate health concerns about the current standard for fluoride in drinking water, and recommends lowering it somewhat.  Meanwhile, consumers who drink bottled water could be getting more than they bargained for in the form of a surprising amount of antimony in bottled water, a potentially toxic trace element with chemical properties similar to those of arsenic.

   In a series of ‘edgy’ radio and TV spots, the Ad Council is hoping to spawn a massive shift in social awareness about global warming.  To see the ads, go here.  And the Christian Science Monitor reports that skeptics of global warming among American evangelical Christians have made a 180-degree turn; they now call for immediate action to curb emissions of CO2 gas that drives climate warming.

8. 

   dada on March 23, 2006 at 10:15 am

   The Illustrated Daily Scribble calls it quits.

   
   final cartoon…ADRIFT

   Bummer.

   Peace

9. 

   Nag on March 23, 2006 at 10:45 am

   link

   Putins China Visit Shifts Power

   Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to China has transformed the balance of power across Eurasia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a press conference in Beijing Wednesday that the strategic partnership between the two giant nations was “irreversible.”

   In all, 22 cooperation agreements between the two countries were signed during the two-day state visit, Lavrov said.

   Putin’s visit did not even make the front page of the New York Times or the Washington Post Wednesday. However, it changed the global balance of power, said Ariel Cohen, fellow in Eurasia studies at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.

   “This is yet another shift in the strategic balance of power in Eurasia and it is an enormous strategic breakthrough for Beijing,” Cohen said. “China and Russia as strategic allies are now controlling the Eurasian land mass from the South China Sea to the Baltic Sea.

   China now has a stable Russian energy supply. There were also agreements involving outer space, civil aviation, agriculture, labor services and anti-terrorism cooperation as well as exchanges in defense technology and coordination of military acts.

   How is the Bush administration reacting to this new Eurasian superpower? They’re ignoring it. Maybe we’re better off that way… after all, we know how everything Bush touches ends up in the crapper.

10. 

    Nag on March 23, 2006 at 2:11 pm

    link

    Iraqi Exile Speaks Out Against the Targeting of Gay Iraqis by Shia Death Squads

    As violence continues on a daily basis on Iraq, President Bush is continuing his media offensive this week. A town-style meeting in West Virginia Wednesday was his latest in five straight days of appearances. The president has repeatedly lauded what he calls the birth of freedom and democracy in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime.

    But yet another story out of the country paints a very different picture.

    Shiite death squads in Iraq have been systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution. The attacks follow a death-to-gays fatwa issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani last October. In a question and answer section of his website, Sistani says homosexuality is “forbidden” and calls for the killing of gays in the “worst, most severe way.”

    This is from today’s DemocracyNow! show. Amy Goodman interviewed an Iraqi gay, now living in the UK, about the systematic elimination of gays by the Badr Corp, which is the military wing of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. This is what our men and women are fighting for in Iraq. Gays used to be tolerated under Saddam… now they are hunted down and killed like animals because of a murder fatwa. This is what we’re paying over a trillion dollars for. This is what Bush is defending.

11. 

    Arcturus on March 23, 2006 at 2:23 pm

    Nuke The India Proliferation Deal!:

    Their campaign is starting now. It’s time to let your senators know how you feel about selling nuclear technology to India. It’s far from a done deal; we can stop this!

    Israel Lobby Dictates U.S. Policy, Study Charges:

    “This situation has no equal in American political history,” says the 83-page study, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy”.

    “Why has the United States been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state?” ask authors John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

    The answer, according to the paper, which is already stirring debate in academic circles and fury among pro-Israel groups, is the influence of the pro-Israel lobby. These groups include the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy, and more recently, Christian Zionist organizations.

    A shorter version of the study was published in the London Review of Books on Mar. 10. The authors say their research is so strong that they doubt that any U.S. mainstream publication would dare publish it.

    Based on sources that include Israeli scholars and journalists, international human rights organizations, and testimony from the lobby itself and politicians that support it, the study examines how the pro-Israel lobby built up its influence in Washington and says its intimidation of the press, think tanks and academia has led to a deceptive picture of Israel.   {snip}

    At home, the lobby has worked hard to suppress its critics, something the authors say has not been good for democracy, especially one that now claims to be promoting freedom in the Arab world. “Silencing skeptics by organizing blacklists and boycotts — or by suggesting that critics are anti-Semites — violates the principle of open debate upon which democracy depends,” they say.

    Final Declaration Holds Diluted View of Water as a “Right”:

    The assertion that access to water is a human right was not included in the ministerial declaration adopted at the Fourth World Water Forum, which ended in Mexico on Wednesday, World Water Day.

    Although all of the delegates said they agreed with the principle, some argued that it was not feasible to include it in the final declaration, because it could generate legal problems at the national and international level.

    That stance was criticised by activists, who said the refusal to include the assertion was “a clear indication” that transnational corporations and rich countries do not want to budge an inch in their aim to “commodify” water, to which 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access.

       

    Kirkuk’s Dr. Death:

    “He was called Dr Louay and when the terrorists had failed to kill a policeman or a soldier he would finish them off,” Colonel Yadgar Shukir Abdullah Jaff, a senior Kirkuk police chief, told me. “He gave them a high dosage of a medicine which increased their bleeding so they died from loss of blood.”

    Robert Fisk: “US Authorities Say… All the News That’s Fit to Slant”

    Politicizing Aid: Can progressives in good conscience demand increased foreign aid under the new Director of Foreign Assistance, Randall Tobias?:

    Currently, the Bush administration is overhauling the structures through which the U.S. provides such assistance, and there are reasons to fear that the changes will not be for the better. Under the banner of “transformative diplomacy,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is promising an aid program that is more overtly politicized than ever–one tied less to the ethical imperatives of alleviating poverty than to the White House’s short-term political and military objectives.

    This month, the Senate has worked to confirm Randall Tobias as the new administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Once promoted, Tobias, currently head of the White House’s Office of Global AIDS, will also be the first Director of Foreign Assistance. This position is a deputy-level post at the State Department that will report directly to Secretary Rice.

    Along with the Tobias appointment, the administration is moving USAID inside the State Department. The diverse programs that disperse some $19 billion in foreign assistance each year will be consolidated under the new director’s supervision.   {snip}

    [promoting abstinece AIDs prevention, Tobias opines]: “Statistics show that condoms have really not been very effective.”

    Bush’s Uncle Earned Millions in War Firm Sale

12. 

    cruz del sur on March 23, 2006 at 2:45 pm

     Lestat Claudius de Orleans y Montevideo (original in Spanish)has been accused of placing two bombs in  Bolivia in two low cost hostels killing two back-packers and wounding several people. Also accused of placing a bomb in an ATM machine in Argentina.

    Initially, Evo Morales, (recently elected president there) accused Lestat of  politically motivated terrorism. However it seems that it was religeous motivated. Apparently, Lestat used high explasives (C4 and dinamite).

    I’ve Googled Lestat and came up with this forum

    Also found a google hit that Lestat might be an alias:
     

    Latin women scam sites and users who commit fraud by posting fake …… Banks aunque el siga huyendo… Triston Jay Amero AKA John Scheda & Lestat Claudius De Orleans y Montevideo California and Washington. …
    mylatinrose.com/fraud/fraud.htm – 17k – Supplemental Result – Cached – Similar pages

    When I clicked on it, it took me to a sigle woomen add.

    Honestly dont know wnat to make of all this, but something is wrong here.

    Apparently, Lestat is a so-called stateless person who carries and travels with a World Citizen Passport (you can read it in the forum) who has resigned to the American citizenship.

    H9onestly, I don’t know what to make of it, but I have the feeling that something is not right.

13. 

    ask on March 23, 2006 at 3:06 pm

    Not only in the US:

    ‘Silent war waged against Africa’s women’

    Calls for abortion laws across Africa to be revised have dominated the first days of a meeting in Ethiopia — the Regional Consultation on Unsafe Abortion in Africa.
    (snip)
    Abortion is prohibited in most African countries, except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger — something that may have to be confirmed by more than one doctor. The result is that women who are desperate to end unwanted pregnancies often turn to back street abortionists, some of whom use devices as crude as hangers to get rid of the foetus.
    In the process, women may have their uteruses punctured, sustain heavy bleeding or succumb to infections that can — in turn — lead to death. According to the World Health Organisation, 4,2-million unsafe abortions occur in Africa every year, resulting in about 30 000 deaths.
    “There is a silent war waged against women, mostly in the developing world, and their right to reproductive health — especially to safe abortion. This war is fuelled by … archaic abortion laws,” said Eunice Brookman-Amissah, Ipas vice-president for Africa. “We need to ask ourselves whether we will allow old … laws to kill women. If we have a law that kills people, we need to review it.”
    By contrast, South Africa — one of the few African states to have legalised abortion on request — has drastically reduced the number of deaths related to termination of pregnancy.
    (more)

14. 

    cruz del sur on March 23, 2006 at 3:20 pm

    The title for this should be : American terrorist. for some reason it did not come out

15. 

    idredit on March 23, 2006 at 3:50 pm

    with strings attached.  Thinkprogress picks up a link from TPM

    “All in the Family”

    “Former first lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions that the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil.”

    I’ll say… that worked out very well for Barbara now, hasn’t it? Guess she’ll call it family values.

    Just asking, can they be shamed? Ever?

16. 

    cruz del sur on March 23, 2006 at 4:50 pm

    Now this is big news:

    Uruguay’s Supreme Court aproved the extradition  of three military responsible of the murder of Eugenio Berrios, a chilean agent from Dina (Chilean intelligence service) and chemist who was working on deadly Risin gas under Pinochet’s dictatorship.

    Berrios was going to declare in the murder of chilean former  foreign minister Orlando Letelier and American citizen Ronnie Moffitt, both killer in Washington DC in 1976 when a bomb placed under their car.

    I assume they were going to declare against Contreras (a paid CIA informant).

    The chilean took him to Uruguay in order to hide him so he would not declare. He escaped and went to the police near Montevideo the capital of Uruguay, sauing that he had been kidnapped. the police then returned him to his captors. Several years later he was found on a beach half burried, with two bullets in his head.

    One by one these bastards are discovering that sooner or later justice will come to them!!    

17. 

    DuctapeFatwa on March 23, 2006 at 11:32 pm

    Several unidentified teenagers reportedly vandalized a mosque in Hamtramck, Michigan last week. Many consider this as another racial bias act against Muslims.

    According to a report, local Bangladeshis in Hamtramck alleged that several teenagers threw bricks and shoes at the mosque.

    Abdul Mutallib, an Islamic devotee who goes to the mosque often, said that a group of 15- and 16-year-old teenagers threw their shoes at the mosque, and mocked fellow devotees who visited the mosque….

    Bangladeshi Muslims said that aside from the mocking, some people in the locality also started harassing the devotees of the mosque. A few days before the vandalism incident, a Bangladeshi imam was attacked….

    nerdified link