Tuesday News Bucket

14 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on July 4, 2006 at 9:07 am

   coming up: AP/Yahoo

   The National Zoo is planning a first birthday bash Sunday for Tai Shan, its giant panda cub.

   The scientists, keepers and volunteers who helped in the zoo’s first successful panda birth will talk to visitors during the birthday party, which will feature entertainment and children’s activities.

   The first 1,000 visitors will receive free cupcakes, and guests will also get a chance to explore the crate that brought his parents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, to the United States. The Animal Planet documentary “A Panda Is Born” will be shown continuously throughout the day at the Visitor Center.

   You going, Chris? 🙂

   • 

     Nag on July 4, 2006 at 10:43 am

     Pictures, girl! (Chris has spoiled us) Big cute baby Panda pictures… if you please. 🙂

     • 

       Nag on July 4, 2006 at 11:04 am

       

       Here’s the birthday panda thinking about cake.

       I just HAD to get this up. 😉

       • 

         kansas on July 4, 2006 at 11:13 am

         He really does look like he’s thinking about cake. Puhleeze can I have my cake now?

2. 

   CabinGirl on July 4, 2006 at 9:20 am

   in Iraq: AP/Yahoo

   According to a federal affidavit, Green and three other soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division had talked about raping the young woman, whom they first saw while working at a traffic checkpoint near her home.

   On the day of the attack, the document said, Green and other soldiers drank alcohol and changed out of their uniforms to avoid detection before going to the woman’s house. Green used a brown T-shirt to cover his face.

   Once there, the affidavit said, Green took three members of the family — a man and a woman and a girl estimated to be 5 years old — into a bedroom. Shots were heard. Green allegedly shot the woman in the head after he and another soldier raped her, the affidavit said.

   Hmmm, do you think that the pressure to recruit people for the military, no matter what their pyschological history is, might have played a role in this?  

   Green was honorably discharged from the Army because of a “personality disorder” before the attack came to light, the affidavit said. He is being prosecuted in federal, rather than military court because he is no longer in the Army…

   Yep.

   • 

     Arcturus on July 4, 2006 at 1:02 pm

     You may have seen this already, but if not, Nir Rosen’s The Occupation of Iraqi Hearts and Minds is must-read, devastating stuff.

     In reality both Abu Ghraib and Haditha were merely more extreme versions of the day-to-day workings of the American occupation in Iraq, and what makes them unique is not so much how bad they were, or how embarrassing, but the fact that they made their way to the media and were publicized despite attempts to cover them up. Focusing on Abu Ghraib and Haditha distracts us from the daily, little Abu Ghraibs and small-scale Hadithas that have made up the occupation. The occupation has been one vast extended crime against the Iraqi people, and most of it has occurred unnoticed by the American people and the media.

     Americans, led to believe that their soldiers and Marines would be welcomed as liberators by the Iraqi people, have no idea what the occupation is really like from the perspective of Iraqis who endure it. Although I am American, born and raised in New York City, I came closer to experiencing what it might feel like to be Iraqi than many of my colleagues. I often say that the secret to my success in Iraq as a journalist is my melanin advantage. I inherited my Iranian father’s Middle Eastern features, which allowed me to go unnoticed in Iraq, blend into crowds, march in demonstrations, sit in mosques, walk through Falluja’s worst neighborhoods.

     I also benefited from being able to speak Arabic—in particular its Iraqi dialect, which I hastily learned in Baghdad upon my arrival and continued to develop throughout my time in Iraq.

     My skin color and language skills allowed me to relate to the American occupier in a different way, for he looked at me as if I were just another haji, the “gook” of the war in Iraq. I first realized my advantage in April 2003, when I was sitting with a group of American soldiers and another soldier walked up and wondered what this haji (me) had done to get arrested by them. Later that summer I walked in the direction of an American tank and heard one soldier say about me, “That’s the biggest fuckin’ Iraqi (pronounced eye-raki) I ever saw.” A soldier by the gun said, “I don’t care how big he is, if he doesn’t stop movin’ I’m gonna shoot him.”

     • 

       CabinGirl on July 4, 2006 at 2:00 pm

       Thanks for the link, Arcturus.

       • 

         Arcturus on July 4, 2006 at 3:10 pm

         One of the (few) ways I’m a stereotypical American male is my difficulty to express deep, pained sorrow. It took a good week after my mother died to find the release of tears. This article had my cheeks wet.

3. 

   ask on July 4, 2006 at 10:33 am

   How a tobacco farm in Kent could provide a life-saving drug for millions

   In the perfectly controlled atmosphere of a brick-proof, hermetically sealed greenhouse deep in the Kent countryside, a fresh crop of tobacco plants is beginning to flourish.

   There is nothing unusual about the plants’ appearance, but they are nonetheless extraordinary. A genetic tweak ensures that every cell of every plant churns out tiny quantities of an experimental drug. When harvested, they could bring cheap medicine to millions.

4. 

   Nag on July 4, 2006 at 11:00 am

   Link

   Murray Waas has the incredible scoop about what the Leaker/Liar in Chief admitted to the Grand Jury. Good stuff.

   Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic

   President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president’s statement.

   Bush also told federal prosecutors during his June 24, 2004, interview in the Oval Office that he had directed Cheney, as part of that broader effort, to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson, the sources said.

   But Bush told investigators that he was unaware that Cheney had directed I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff, to covertly leak the classified information to the media instead of releasing it to the public after undergoing the formal governmental declassification processes.

   Bush also said during his interview with prosecutors that he had never directed anyone to disclose the identity of then-covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, Wilson’s wife. Bush said he had no information that Cheney had disclosed Plame’s identity or directed anyone else to do so.

   If you have time, go read the article.

5. 

   Nag on July 4, 2006 at 11:13 am

   Link

   CIA: Osama Helped Bush in ’04

   On Oct. 29, 2004, just four days before the U.S. presidential election, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin-Laden released a videotape denouncing George W. Bush. Some Bush supporters quickly spun the diatribe as “Osama’s endorsement of John Kerry.” But behind the walls of the CIA, analysts had concluded the opposite: that bin-Laden was trying to help Bush gain a second term.

   And here’s another story on Bin Laden:

   C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

   WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

   The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

   The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice “dead or alive.”
   [snip]

   Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was.

   This comes as Bin Laden is releasing propaganda tape against us almost daily. When did the CIA get this dumb?

   • 

     Shalimar on July 4, 2006 at 2:19 pm

     the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was.

     Who gives a damn what kind of threat he is in the future, he’s already responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans.  I’m not generally a revenge or punishment-oriented person and even I am outraged by this.  

     I don’t want to even guess at how angry conservatives will be at Bush once they find out.  Rush and his fellow propagandists are going to be spinning like mad this week trying to calm down their followers.

6. 

   ask on July 4, 2006 at 12:41 pm

   Makes sense, though travel will get more expensive.

   Euro MPs push for air fuel taxes

   The European parliament has called for airlines to pay tax on aviation fuel, and to be brought into the EU’s carbon emissions trading scheme.

   MEPs approved the proposals in a 439-74 vote intended to encourage the European Commission as it drafts laws designed to cut greenhouse gases from aviation.

   Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gases, but the fuel is not subject to VAT at present.

   The sector is not covered by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

7. 

   Arcturus on July 4, 2006 at 12:45 pm

   U.S. Judge Blocks Navy Use of Sonar in RIMPAC War Games

   A federal judge in Los Angeles today issued a temporary restraining order blocking the use of high-intensity, mid-frequency sonar by the U.S. Navy during international RIMPAC war games now taking place in waters around Hawaii.

   This type of sonar has been associated with mass strandings and deaths of whales, dolphins, and other marine species in U.S. waters and around the world.

   The order by U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper in response to a lawsuit by conservation groups comes three days after the Pentagon declared the Navy exempt from the U.S. law requiring actions to avoid harm to marine mammals.   [snip]

   In her order, Judge Cooper wrote, “Plaintiffs have submitted considerable convincing scientific evidence demonstrating that the Navy’s use of MFA sonar can kill, injure, and disturb many marine species, including marine mammals.”   [snip]

   “We are pleased, but not surprised, by the court’s emergency intervention. This ruling underscores that no one, not even the United States military, is above the law,” said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney with the plaintiff group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and director of its Marine Mammal Protection Project.    [snip]

   During the last RIMPAC exercise in 2004, a group of more than 150 melon-headed whales stranded in Hanalei Bay on the island of Kauai following a Navy sonar exercise. A recent National Marine Fisheries Service report on the incident determined that sonar was a “plausible, if not likely” cause.