Wednesday News Bucket

9 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on January 17, 2007 at 8:23 am

   The NYT tells you:

   For starters, $1.2 trillion would pay for an unprecedented public health campaign — a doubling of cancer research funding, treatment for every American whose diabetes or heart disease is now going unmanaged and a global immunization campaign to save millions of children’s lives.

   Combined, the cost of running those programs for a decade wouldn’t use up even half our money pot. So we could then turn to poverty and education, starting with universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old child across the country. The city of New Orleans could also receive a huge increase in reconstruction funds.

   The final big chunk of the money could go to national security. The recommendations of the 9/11 Commission that have not been put in place — better baggage and cargo screening, stronger measures against nuclear proliferation — could be enacted. Financing for the war in Afghanistan could be increased to beat back the Taliban’s recent gains, and a peacekeeping force could put a stop to the genocide in Darfur.

   And of course, there’s another way to look at it.  From the article:

   …The war in Iraq.

   George W Bush, history will not look kindly on you no matter what you do at this point.  There is no salvaging your “pResidency”.  Time to admit your wrongs, bring the troops home, and resign so someone with a conscience can take over (and no, that wouldn’t be your pals Dick and Condi).  If Bud Dwyer were still alive, I’m sure he’d offer you some sage advice.

2. 

   CabinGirl on January 17, 2007 at 8:28 am

   Surging seems to be in fashion this year…too bad it’s the Taliban who liked the idea so much they used it themselves. AP/Yahoo

   The senior US commander in
   Afghanistan pressed for more troops to confront a major surge in Taliban attacks, notably out of Pakistan, as he briefed visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

   Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry pointed to a doubling in the last month in the number of cross-border incidents along a stretch of border opposite a Pakistani tribal area where the Islamabad government struck a peace agreement with tribal leaders last September.

   To quote Borat: Niiiice.

3. 

   Oui on January 17, 2007 at 8:35 am

   .

   Halutz resignation spurs calls for Olmert, Peretz to quit too

   TEL AVIV (Haaretz) Jan. 17 – As news of Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz‘s resignation emerged, Knesset members from across the political spectrum called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz to step down from their positions as well.

   “Halutz’s step was unavoidable, but he was not the only one responsible for the failures of the war – the government was too,” MK Ophir Pines-Paz, a candidate for leadership of the Labor Party, told Army Radio.

   “The political echelon is not innocent of errors. There were failures, oversights by the political echelon.”

   Lebanon Attack Plan Sanctioned by VP Cheney

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

   • 

     idredit on January 17, 2007 at 9:43 am

     The resignation of Halutz is not the end. There are calls for the Sec. Def Peretz to go and PM Olmert is under criminal investigation.

4. 

   Knoxville Progressive on January 17, 2007 at 8:56 am

   Scientists concerned that Earth is threatened by global warming have a further worry: the US satellites tracking climate change are threatened by poor funding. The orbiting satellites that track shrinkage of arctic glaciers are themselves victims of shrinking federal funds, they warned in a new report that calls for an infusion of 7.5 billion dollars.

   Parasitic worms may have their uses after all. The parasites could alter the course of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study suggests.  This finding is consistent with a study finding a decreased incidence of allergies in children who are infected with parasites compared with uninfected children.  It also sheds further light on the so-called “hygiene-hypothesis” of allergic disease, which proposes that allergies have become more common in recent decades because we are exposed to fewer infections as children:  certain bacteria and parasites – which have lived alongside humans for millennia – have gradually developed ways of dampening down the immune system, enabling them to survive in the body for longer. With modern standards of hygiene these “old friends” are gone, meaning some now-unregulated immune cells go into overdrive, triggering allergies and autoimmune diseases.

   An unusual dwarf planet discovered in the outer Solar System could be en route to becoming the brightest comet ever known.  Due to its fast rotation, it is football-shaped, and along its long axis it has the same diameter as Pluto.  It may be about to have a close encounter with Neptune that would change its orbit – possibly flinging it from the solar system altogether, or possibly sending it in towards the sun.  If the latter happens, it will become a moon-sized comet.  Check back in a couple of million years to see what happened…

   Whoo-Hoo!! We’re Number Two!!  We’re Number Two!!  Yes, word has come from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that when it comes to squandering the earth’s natural resources, residents of that desert land of chilled swimming pools, monster 4x4s, man-made skiing, and air-conditioned malls are on a par with even the ravenous consumption of Americans, according to the World Wildlife Fund.  The average person in the Emirates puts more demand on the global ecosystem than any other, giving the country the world’s largest per-capita “ecological footprint,” WWF data shows. The United States runs second.

   People who were physically or sexually abused as children are twice as likely to have inflammatory proteins in their blood, according to a new study.  The findings could explain why children who are abused show a higher incidence of conditions such as heart disease and diabetes as adults, the researchers say. Until now, it has not been clear exactly how early stress could cause these future health problems.

   Climate change political roundup:  President Bush will outline a policy on global warming next week in his State of the Union speech but has not dropped his opposition to mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions, the White House said on Tuesday.  He is likely to call for a massive increase in how much fuel ethanol that US refiners must mix with gasoline in coming years, sources familiar with White House plans said…  A UN official said on Tuesday he urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take a leading role in helping world governments battle global warming after 2014, when the Kyoto treaty on climate change expires…  And a federal judge has postponed the trial of a lawsuit seeking to block a California law implementing the world’s toughest vehicle-emission standards.  U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii also ordered the California Air Resources Board to delay enforcing tailpipe-emission standards for greenhouse gases. The case had been scheduled to go to trial Jan. 30.  In his order, Ishii said it was best to wait until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on their global warming case, in which auto manufacturers have raised identical issues.

   • 

     idredit on January 17, 2007 at 9:40 am

     ‘Climate change roundup: President Bush will outline a policy on global warming next week in his State of the Union speech’

     Maybe someone brought this to his attention, given that nuclear is his hot button.

     The Doomsday Clock: Nuclear threat to world ‘rising’

     This time it’s thanks to global warming!

     For 60 years, it has depicted how close the world is to nuclear disaster. Today, scientists will move its hands forward to show we are facing the gravest threat in at least 20 years

     Now climate change and oil insecurity is driving countries to seek nuclear power, bringing with it new dangers of proliferation in volatile parts of the globe.[.]

     At the start of 2007, not only is the picture darker on both those scores. The nuclear threat has also acquired an added and unquantifiable dimension, thanks to global warming – prompting the Bulletin to warn of a “Second Nuclear Age”. The existing dangers could not be more obvious: the problem is where to start. What about Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, and the thinly veiled warnings from the undeclared but assumed nuclear power Israel that it will strike first to remove what it sees as an existentialist threat comparable to the Holocaust?[.]

     Global warming, argues the Bulletin, indirectly increases this risk. Civil nuclear power, which produces no greenhouse gases, is back in fashion and hundreds of nuclear reactors will be built. Yet enriched uranium, to power them, and plutonium are also the vital raw materials for nuclear weapons.

     (emphasis added)

5. 

   idredit on January 17, 2007 at 10:15 am

   Mutiny, Sound the alarm This in from McClatchy
   Troops marched to Congress – delivered a petition.

   Troops add their voices to chorus calling for reversal of Iraq policy

   “Pressure on Congress intensified Tuesday to stop President Bush’s plan to increase troops in Iraq, as some 1,000 active-duty soldiers and Marines urged lawmakers to support a quick withdrawal and anti-war groups planned to rally state legislatures.

   We’ve heard Bush’s new strategy for Iraq but William Arkin isn’t buying:

   “But the surge, I’m afraid, isn’t anywhere near so impressive. Not only won’t there be one single and immediate deployment, but many of the supposed 20,000 are soldiers who are merely being extended in Iraq: it is like a corporate RIF where the numbers are attained through retirements and attrition. Others, moreover, are merely a surge on paper; the number of actual immediate fighters in Baghdad is only about half what the President suggests.[.]

   Six months from now, with Congressional acquiescence – expect no less – people will again ask ‘what ever happened to the effect of the surge?’ The answer then is already obvious now: It is just too little, too late.[.]

   Go read the rest for “Here are the details of the actual U.S. deployments:”

   And in a related article, Gates to consider more troops for Afghanistan

   “BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday he would consider sending more troops to Afghanistan where U.S. commanders say they expect the Taliban to step up attacks from Pakistani sanctuaries.

   Gates, in Afghanistan to ensure commanders have the resources to counter an expected Taliban offensive in the spring, said it was very important the United States and its allies did not let the success achieved in Afghanistan slip away.”

   [Idredit: I need to ask from where; these extra troops? Gates must be thinking he’ll use flat daddies and mommies.]

6. 

   CabinGirl on January 17, 2007 at 10:19 am

   to live in Virginia? St Louis Post-Dispatch

   A (VA) state legislator said black people “should get over” slavery and questioned whether Jews should apologize “for killing Christ,” drawing denunciations Tuesday from stunned colleagues.

   Delegate Frank D. Hargrove, who is white and Christian, made his remarks in opposition to a measure that would apologize on the state’s behalf to the descendants of slaves.

   WWJsay?

7. 

   Oui on January 17, 2007 at 10:47 am

   .

   Top Iraqi condemns US over Iran

   BAGHDAD (BBC News) Jan. 17 – One of Iraq’s most powerful Shia politicians has condemned the arrest of Iranians by US forces in Iraq as an attack on the country’s sovereignty.

   The comments by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, made in a BBC interview, are seen as the strongest expression yet of Iraq’s concern about the US approach to Iran. The remarks are interesting as Mr Hakim is seen as close to President Bush, says the BBC’s Andrew North in Baghdad.

   
   President George W. Bush welcomes Sayyed Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, Leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, to the White House Monday, Dec. 4, 2006.

   Late last year, US troops descended on Mr Hakim’s residential compound in Baghdad and detained two Iranian officials. They were later released.

   But last week, five more were detained at the Iranian liaison office in Irbil. They are still being held. US officials say they are linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard which they allege trains and arms Iraqi insurgents.

   Iran, which has demanded their immediate release, says they are diplomats engaged in legitimate work.

   “Regardless of the Iranian position we consider these actions as incorrect,” Mr Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, told the BBC.

   “They represent a kind of attack on Iraq’s sovereignty and we hope such things are not repeated.”

   Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that Iraq needed a constructive relationship with Iran. “We can’t change the geographical reality that Iran is our neighbour. This is a delicate balance and we are treading a very thin line.” We fully respect the views, policies and strategy of the United States, which is the strongest ally to Iraq, but the Iraqi government has national interests of its own,” Mr Zebari said.

   ≈ Cross-posted from my diary —
   Russia Delivers Anti-aircraft Missile Systems to Iran ≈

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