Wednesday News Bucket

15 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on March 7, 2007 at 7:21 am

   so have a little schadenfreude with me: NYT

   Deep into his second term, Mr. Bush faces an array of political and policy problems that seem to be growing by the day. His once-powerful standing with the public has been leached away by the war in Iraq. His party, dogged by corruption charges, has lost power on Capitol Hill, leaving him exposed to a Democratic opposition that is now armed with subpoena power and the energy that comes from a good shot at recapturing the White House in 2008. His domestic agenda is stalled, and his foreign policy is constrained.

   The conviction on Tuesday of I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and assistant to the president, came in a week when Mr. Bush was already dealing with Congressional hearings into the administration’s handling of health care for members of the military injured in the war and its removal of federal prosecutors from their jobs under circumstances that Democrats suggest could be politically motivated…

   …The verdict contributed to the sense of a White House under siege, with good news scarce and Mr. Bush struggling to wield the presidential megaphone with the same success he did in his first term. Mr. Bush has just over 22 months left in office to regain his political footing.

   Kenneth M. Duberstein, a former chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan in his second term, said: “This is a day consumed by nine G.I.’s killed in Iraq, 100 Iraqis dying, the continuing Walter Reed investigation into the mistreatment of our returning heroes, and the Libby verdict — four out of five counts guilty. No matter how you spin it, this was a bad, bad, bad news day for this White House.”

   The sad thing is, Bush and his pals just can’t have a bad enough week to make up for the BS he’s perpetrated on this country.

2. 

   CabinGirl on March 7, 2007 at 7:30 am

   gets you suspended these days? Journal News h/t Feministing

   Saying the word “vagina” during a reading at a John Jay High School open mic session has resulted in suspension for three female students and has sparked a debate about censorship throughout the community.

   School administrators had warned the girls it would be inappropriate to say the word while reading a selection from Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” but the students were willing to suffer the consequences.

   Now Ensler, a playwright and feminist who grew up in Scarsdale, has offered to visit the Katonah-Lewisboro school district to discuss the matter.

   Juniors Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson will each serve separate one-day, in-school suspensions this week, Reback said.

   “When I was able to say the word ‘vagina’ and be proud to say it … and it wasn’t crude and it wasn’t inappropriate and it was very real and very pure, it was important to me,” Reback said yesterday. “We were willing and ready to take whatever came.”

   The administrators’ decision to suspend the girls has caused an uproar within the school, with students making T-shirts and posters to protest the punishment. A group opposed to the suspension has been created on Facebook.com, a popular Internet networking site, and had attracted more than 350 members yesterday.

   The move has prompted parents to write to the Board of Education and circulate e-mails calling the suspension a “blatant attempt at censorship.”…

   …The controversy in Cross River centers around the verse: “My short skirt is a liberation flag in the women’s army. I declare these streets, any streets, my vagina’s country.”

   Now, just what word did the administration want them to replace it with?  And since when are anatomical terms verboten?

   And before you assume that this happened in the South or midwest, it didn’t.  It happened in suburban New York.

   • 

     boran2 on March 7, 2007 at 9:35 am

     Disturbing, that school is a couple of miles from my house.  Perhaps they should have used the always popular snatch instead.

     • 

       CabinGirl on March 7, 2007 at 9:51 am

       I was surprised that it happened where it did, and I was wondering how they get around using the word in health class.  

       Then I remembered about abstinence-only programs…

3. 

   boran2 on March 7, 2007 at 9:31 am

   Canada is going green, but it’s not what you think:

   obligatory linky thing

   Canadian Tundra Turning Green

   EDMONTON, Canada, March 6, 2007 (ENS) – Northern Canada’s tundra is disappearing at a rapid rate, with forests of spruce trees and shrubs taking over the once frozen landscape, new research finds. The study offers further evidence of climate change and the authors warn it shows that the shift in the Canadian tundra can happen at a much faster speed than scientists originally thought.

4. 

   CabinGirl on March 7, 2007 at 9:54 am

   Look at who they want to put in as a replacement without confirmation hearings.  

   How much more of a mockery can this administration make of the constitution and the fairness of the judicial system?

   • 

     Connecticut Man1 on March 7, 2007 at 2:21 pm

     Holy shit! Nice catch…

     And here I was just going to drop a little bit of news on the CPAC version of the Jeff Gannon story.

     • 

       CabinGirl on March 7, 2007 at 4:04 pm

       Oh, the hypocrisy of it all…nice catch on your part.

   • 

     vieravisionary on March 7, 2007 at 3:29 pm

     Second on catching this story!

     Griffin himself ducked our cameras, but his RNC team tried to sell us the notion that the caging sheets were, in fact, not illegal voter hit lists, but a roster of donors to the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign. Republican donors at homeless shelters?  Note: Bold is my emphasis.

     WTF?  It is a virus that is slowly infecting our nation.  

     • 

       CabinGirl on March 7, 2007 at 4:06 pm

       Republican donors at homeless shelters?  What were these “donors” going to donate, a bowl of soup?

       Unbelievable.

   • 

     macdust on March 7, 2007 at 5:43 pm

     Domenici has hired Cunningham’s defense attorney.

     • 

       CabinGirl on March 7, 2007 at 6:12 pm

       an incestuous bunch of criminals, aren’t they?

       • 

         macdust on March 7, 2007 at 10:31 pm

         for an attorney who sat across from Carol Lam to now vindicate the mass firings which took her and Igleasias out, Domenici seems to be showing off his ability to knock off any prosecutor who might dare to investigate.

5. 

   rba on March 7, 2007 at 11:27 am

   Reuters: Wired Iraqi man triggers scare at L.A. airport

   LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An Iraqi national wearing wires and concealing a magnet inside his rectum triggered a security scare at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday but officials said he posed no apparent threat. The man, identified by law enforcement officials as Fadhel al-Maliki . .

6. 

   dada on March 7, 2007 at 5:14 pm

   after Soviet era facility id’d as CIA “Black Ops Site from 2002 thru 2006.

   Neo-con foreign affairs….business as usual:

   POLAND — The CIA operated an interrogation and short-term detention facility for suspected terrorists within a Polish intelligence training school with the explicit approval of British and US authorities…

   […]

   CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano would not confirm or deny any allegations about the Polish facility. He maintained the rendition program was legal and conducted “with great care.”

   “The agency’s terrorist interrogation program has been conducted lawfully, with great care and close review, producing vital information that has helped disrupt plots and save lives,” Gimigliano said Monday. “That is also true of renditions, another key, lawful tool in the fight against terror.”

   “The United States does not conduct or condone torture, nor does it transfer anyone to other countries for the purpose of torture,” he added.

   […]
   The official added that many agency staff had strong feelings about the rendition program. “Career people were really opposed to this.”

   […]

   The only member of the Bush Administration given leave to discuss the program with the EU was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said she expected American allies to co-operate and keep quiet about sensitive anti-terrorism operations.“

   […]

   complete article via Raw Story

   march on the pentagon: 3.17.07

   Draft Al Gore: 2008