Monday News Bucket

8 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on October 30, 2006 at 7:51 am

   hurt by fears of investigation for being a donor: NYT

   By the end of Ramadan last year, Najah Bazzy remembers having more than $10,000 in cash donations to distribute to the needy, and a vast auditorium ringed with tables groaning with enough free food for 400 poor families to celebrate the holiday.

   Sayyid Hassan Qazwini, an imam in Dearborn, fears that the government is casting too wide a net.

   This year, Mrs. Bazzy formalized the good works she had been doing for a decade among the tens of thousands of Muslims who live in the Dearborn area by establishing a charity, Zaman International.

   But by the end of the holiday, charitable contributions were meager. She said cash donations amounted to less than $4,000, and for the first time since she began her charity work she bought food to feed about 85 needy families instead of counting on gifts.

   There are similar stories in Muslim communities across the country. Fearful that donations to an Islamic charity could bring unwanted attention from federal agents looking into potential ties to terrorism, many Muslim Americans have become reluctant to donate to Islamic causes, including charities.

   I have to confess, I wouldn’t want to write a check and get on the suspected terrist list either.  What a sorry state of affairs, and why don’t the supporters of folks like Randall Terry and Operation Rescue get on the terrist list?  

   Oh, right, they’re X-tians.

2. 

   CabinGirl on October 30, 2006 at 7:58 am

   GOP and the fundies: AP/Yahoo

   Of the many disturbing trends for Republicans this campaign season, one of the most troubling is the drop in support among white evangelicals.

   The number of conservative Christians with a favorable view of the party has plummeted from 74 percent to 54 percent between 2004 and this year, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Evangelicals comprise more than one-third of GOP voters.

   So what are they going to do about it?…

   There’s a lot of discontentment,” said Marvin Olasky, editor of the Christian newsweekly World and a framer of the “compassionate conservative” language used by Bush. “But unfortunately for most conservative evangelicals, there’s no alternative.”

   That doesn’t mean the GOP can rest easy. Damage over the past two years could cost Republicans on Nov. 7 if disenchanted evangelical voters stay home. And tensions with a core constituency would muddy the run-up to the 2008 presidential race.

   GOP voters staying home would work for me…

3. 

   Knoxville Progressive on October 30, 2006 at 8:58 am

   Feeling Warmer?

   The Stern Review [previewed in science headlines last week] is coming out today; the report says that climate change represents the greatest market failure ever seen. But spending large sums of money now on measures to reduce carbon emissions will bring dividends on a colossal scale, the BBC reports.  Meanwhile, the NY Times reports on the challenges ahead and the odds against us, and AFP’s report includes the political fallout in Britain, where the report was commissioned.  ABC News, among others, is reporting that Al Gore has been asked by the British government to help them formulate a plan to address climate change.

   Be sure to see Londonbear’s diary on the Stern Report for more details.  And Ignorant Bystander posts his first diary here with musings on the part we all play in the problem as well – check it out.

   We all know the horror scenario of no action on climate change.  What might a more hopeful path where we address the problem look like?  Here are a few glimpses into a more hopeful future, for a change:

   The global market in carbon emissions has doubled from 2005 levels to stand at nearly 22 billion dollars so far this year, the World Bank said Thursday. “All the data show that the carbon market is becoming a powerful financial force supporting clean development,” said Karan Capoor, co-author of a new World Bank report on emissions trading.

   Part of the path to addressing global warming will come from unanticipated technological advances, such as this:  MIT researchers are developing a half-sized gasoline engine that performs like its full-sized cousin but offers fuel efficiency approaching that of today’s hybrid engine system–at a far lower cost. The key? Carefully controlled injection of ethanol, an increasingly common biofuel, directly into the engine’s cylinders when there’s a hill to be climbed or a car to be passed.

   Here’s another technological avenue being explored – converting sunlight’s heat into mechanical power for a generator:  Infinia, based in Kennewick, Wash., plans to release a dish – which will look like a large satellite TV receiver – that will use the sun’s heat to generate electricity. The product is slated for final design later this year and commercial release in 2008.   While the great majority of solar companies are racing to squeeze as much electricity as possible out of photovoltaic cells built from silicon or other materials, Infinia’s solar Stirling engine, which concentrates light from the parabolic dish, is a mechanical device, which the company claims can be more cost-effective than traditional solar panels.

   Understanding the global sulfur cycle will also be a part of the solution, as the release of sulfur into the atmosphere is related to cloud formation and the cooling effects that follow.  Along these lines, scientists have discovered a bacterial “switch gene” in two groups of microscopic plankton common in the oceans. The gene helps determine whether certain marine plankton convert a sulfur compound to one that rises into the atmosphere, where it can affect the earth’s temperature, or remain in the sea, where it can be used as a nutrient.

   Population control would also help ease the burden on Mother Earth as well, and here’s some news along those lines:  Men concerned about contraception may soon be able to use the male equivalent of the Pill, without the potential side-effects of a drug based on altering the balance of sex hormones.

   And as an antidote to all that talk about global warming, here’s a cooler item:  The rise of the Appalachian Mountains may have caused a major ice age approximately 450 million years ago, an Ohio State University study has found. The weathering of the mountains pulled carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, causing the opposite of a greenhouse effect — an “icehouse” effect.

4. 

   idredit on October 30, 2006 at 9:19 am

   A Friday Bar-B-Q. With the focus on the mid-term election campaign, Fitz does a bar and grill –

   Will this help or hurt Scooter Libby’s “memory misplaced defense”? Judge Walton seems to think not.

   Scooter’s memory expert, Professor Loftus, with 30 years of expertise, `back-pedalled’ under 3 hrs of cross- examination by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, `acknowledging errors and mis-statements in her research.’

   Worthy of a read, Ya think?
   She too had more than just misplaced her memory. It was `a grilling to remember’                      

   Fitzgerald challenged the validity of memory research. `Citing footnotes in her publications, footnotes and the work of her peers… presenting conflicting statements and questioning her methodology, Fitzgerald got Loftus to acknowledge that a statement in one of her research papers was taken out of context and that a figure in one of her books was incorrect.

   the money graph

   [w]hen “Loftus insisted that she had never met Fitzgerald, he then reminded her that he had cross-examined her before, when she was an expert defense witness during his stint as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in New York.”[.]

   And  of another Special Prosecutor, former, that is:  Ken Starr, has  a nose for colorful waters.

   Whitewater and now  Blackwater USA is Starr’s newest client

   Ask me a SILLY ..? and I tell no lie.

   The USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) in making it tougher for legal immigrants to obtain citizenship will include among the questions on applicant’s past –

    Who is your current wife’s ex-husband?

   Is this the dirtiest election ever?  The election cycle has Lynn Cheney getting testy with Blitzer. Billmon frames him and finding it so ironic that he whines.     Give him an Award. He is good, This is so Hillarious.

   Shame on us. Running from our own: Dems Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi repudiate President Carter’s book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”

   Mystery of Israel’s secret uranium bomb
   Alarm over radioactive legacy left by attack on Lebanon.
   as a tell all report coming?
   The UN investigates and will report.

   Bleak and Bloody.  The BB twins ‘blindfolded, and searching for an Iraq exit.’ With their credibility undermined, There’s none.

   Well they did; the Brits are forced to abandon consulate in Basra after mortar attacks.

5. 

   Man Eegee on October 30, 2006 at 12:32 pm

   Independent journalists and media activists around the world are morning the loss of one their esteemed colleagues. Brad Will fell victim to paramilitary forces of the Mexican government while documenting the current struggle of the people in Oaxaca.  Brad was well known and respected within the Indymedia network.  Candlelight vigils and demonstrations have already begun at Mexican consulates throughout the nation. A press conference is planned here in Los Angeles this Monday, (see:  Oaxaca: Press Conference, Monday in LA)
   Indymedia newswires have been flooded with articles and commentary in response to Brad’s death. Below are a few selected articles from our newswire:

   More at LA Indymedia

6. 

   Man Eegee on October 30, 2006 at 12:46 pm

   The rhetoric of Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, against illegal immigrants, coupled with a racist e-mail he inadvertently forwarded to friends several weeks ago, has rallied at least one group of unwelcome supporters: white supremacists.

   Around the country — on blogs, forums and e-mails — members and supporters of white-supremacist groups have been posting the news articles about Pearce on the Internet and cheering him on.

   “Please offer whatever support you can for Rep. Pearce because he’s standing in the face of an avalanche of brown mud, fighting for the very future of his people, and the multi cultis are biting at his ankles as he tries to stand on both feet,” wrote someone on white-supremacist Web site Stormfront.org. – linkage

   The trolls at the Az Daily Star are calling the article a “hit piece” – I guess they can’t fathom the implication of what it means for them to hold the same views as avowed Klansman.

7. 

   Man Eegee on October 30, 2006 at 4:09 pm

   The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons — almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003, according to a report from the office of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

   The missing weapons will not be tracked easily: The Defense Department registered the serial numbers of only about 10,000 of the 370,251 weapons it provided — less than 3 percent. – linkage

8. 

   Cedwyn on October 30, 2006 at 5:14 pm

   did you say newsbucket?  news like this:

   –AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

   –AZ-01: Rick Renzi

   –AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

   –CA-04: John Doolittle

   –CA-11: Richard Pombo

   –CA-50: Brian Bilbray

   –CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

   –CO-05: Doug Lamborn

   –CO-07: Rick O’Donnell

   –CT-04: Christopher Shays

   –FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

   –FL-16: Joe Negron

   –FL-22: Clay Shaw

   –ID-01: Bill Sali

   –IL-06: Peter Roskam

   –IL-10: Mark Kirk

   –IL-14: Dennis Hastert

   –IN-02: Chris Chocola

   –IN-08: John Hostettler

   –IA-01: Mike Whalen

   –KS-02: Jim Ryun

   –KY-03: Anne Northup

   –KY-04: Geoff Davis

   –MD-Sen: Michael Steele

   –MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

   –MN-06: Michele Bachmann

   –MO-Sen: Jim Talent

   –MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

   –NV-03: Jon Porter

   –NH-02: Charlie Bass

   –NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

   –NM-01: Heather Wilson

   –NY-03: Peter King

   –NY-20: John Sweeney

   –NY-26: Tom Reynolds

   –NY-29: Randy Kuhl

   –NC-08: Robin Hayes

   –NC-11: Charles Taylor

   –OH-01: Steve Chabot

   –OH-02: Jean Schmidt

   –OH-15: Deborah Pryce

   –OH-18: Joy Padgett

   –PA-04: Melissa Hart

   –PA-07: Curt Weldon

   –PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

   –PA-10: Don Sherwood

   –RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

   –TN-Sen: Bob Corker

   –VA-Sen: George Allen

   –VA-10: Frank Wolf

   –WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

   –WA-08: Dave Reichert