Wednesday News Bucket

6 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on August 16, 2006 at 9:19 am

   hah: NYO

   When prosecutors won the right to inspect reporters’ phone records earlier this month–potentially unmasking numerous secret sources–the story barely caused a ripple.

   Such a blatant threat to the freedom of the media might once have stirred national outrage, or at least a spirited debate.

   But if government intrusion into the media’s rights isn’t receiving the attention it deserves, the press has only itself to blame, with leading outlets like The New York Times weighing in on the subject inconsistently and in a way that seems to be motivated more by political ideology than institutional self-interest…

   The NYT, motivated by political ideology?  There’s a shocker…

   Honestly though, how much of an effect could this have on the press compared to the ability to just go ahead and wiretap reporters that are reporting unfavorably on government policies?  At least this is prossecutors like Fitzgerald asking for the records, hopefully after showing good reason to need them.

2. 

   CabinGirl on August 16, 2006 at 9:27 am

   for Iraqis: NYT

   uly appears to have been the deadliest month of the war for Iraqi civilians, according to figures from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue, reinforcing criticism that the Baghdad security plan started in June by the new Iraqi government has failed.

   An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed each day in July, according to the figures. The total number of civilian deaths that month, 3,438, is a 9 percent increase over the tally in June and nearly double the toll in January.

   The rising numbers indicate that sectarian violence is spiraling out of control and seem to bolster an assertion that many senior Iraqi officials and American military analysts have been making in recent months: that the country is already embroiled in a civil war, not just slipping toward one, and that the American-led forces are caught between Sunni Arab guerrillas and Shiite militias.

   Look at that, the NYT admitting that maybe, just maybe, Iraq is already in a state of civil war. Now it’s time for the Dems to speak up and use that in their campaigning this fall.

3. 

   Oui on August 16, 2006 at 9:54 am

   .

   Staff General Dan Halutz Rejects Calls to Resign

   Chief of Staff Dan Halutz has no intention of resigning following the public and political outcry against him after daily Maariv published a story that he had sold stocks several hours after a Hezbollah raid inside Israel on July 12. Halutz has rejected the criticism against him, calling it “malicious.” Senior General Staff officers said Halutz should resign immediately.

   
   Dan Halutz

   According to the report, three hours after Hezbollah attacked an IDF patrol and abducted two soldiers , at 12 P.M., Halutz called his investment adviser at the Bank Leumi branch on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv and ordered him to sell the shares in his investment portfolio, worth NIS 120,000. Over the next two days the value of the stock in the Tel Aviv stock exchange lost 8.3 percent of its value.

   During the hours that the chief of staff was avoiding financial losses, he was also participating in meetings with the General Staff and the defense minister, in which he recommended a heavy air assault against Lebanon, resulting in an escalation and a full scale war between Israel and Hezbollah.

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

   ▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

   • 

     Alice on August 16, 2006 at 10:12 am

     This is great, Oui.  Any way you can discover who was short-selling airline stocks before 9/11?  Somehow that information became unavailable.  

     Life is all about the profit for some people.

4. 

   boran2 on August 16, 2006 at 11:29 am

   And now for the really important news.

   Link (video too)

   Kansas police chase naked suspect

    August 15, 2006 – A burglary suspect wound up in his birthday suit while trying to get away from Kansas police.

   Police say the incident started when they answered a report of an armed home invasion in progress Monday. When they arrived, they say the two men ran away, firing several shots at the officers.

   Police gave chase as the suspects lead them to the Kansas River.

   Cops caught one man who was climbing over a fence. The other took off his clothes and tried to swim away.

   After about 45 minutes police paddled out and apprehended him.

   The two men are now in custody and awaiting charges.

    

5. 

   ask on August 16, 2006 at 1:05 pm

   Public Doesn’t Understand Global Warming
   By Dr. David Suzuki, David Suzuki Foundation

   Recently, my foundation conducted a focus group about global warming to see where people are at in their understanding of this complex and challenging problem. The results? Let’s just say they were disconcerting, to say the least.

   Simply put, most people don’t have a clue. The majority felt that global warming was a pretty important problem and they were concerned about it. But when pressed as to why it was a problem or what caused the problem, all heck broke loose.

   Apparently, according to the average Joe, global warming is happening because we’ve created a hole in the ozone layer, allowing the sun’s rays to enter the atmosphere and heat up the earth — or something like that. The cause of the problem is cars, or airplanes, or aerosol cans. No one really knows for sure.

   This is really quite remarkable. I would have thought that such confused understandings of the issue would have been commonplace five or six years ago, but with global warming being in newspapers on practically a daily basis this spring, on the front cover of magazines, in theatres (An Inconvenient Truth), and a hot political issue as well, surely people would get it by now.