Thursday News Bucket

22 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on March 29, 2007 at 7:09 am

   at the WH broadcasters’ dinner, making jokes about about the US attorney scandal: CNN

   Tell us, Mr. President, how have things changed since the last broadcasters’ dinner?

   “A year ago my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my vice president had shot someone,” President Bush said Wednesday night during the annual gathering.

   “Ah,” he said, “those were the good ol’ days.”

   …On the controversy over the Justice Department’s firing of eight federal prosecutors, Bush said: “I have to admit we really blew the way we let those attorneys go. You know you’ve lost it when people sympathize with lawyers.”

   I suppose it’s an improvement over mocking himself looking for WMDs in his filing cabinet, but why do they think anyone thinks it’s funny that our president is an incompetent criminal nitwit?

   • 

     CabinGirl on March 29, 2007 at 7:23 am

     It gets worse when Rove gets in on the fun.

     • 

       idredit on March 29, 2007 at 9:25 am

       Good thing there are lawyers though who shield you by having you plead under the Fifth Amendment found on that “goddamed piece of paper”

       So Monica Goodling doesn’t want to answer questions on Capitol Hill, eh?

       This top official in the Justice Department, who serves as its liaison to the White House, is now refusing to answer any congressional questions about the US attorneys scandal. You know, the one in which George and Dick and Karl and Alberto have been hiring and firing federal prosecutors based on their willingness to politicize the legal system. That scandal (it’s so hard to keep track of them these days).

       Her lawyer says that Goodling doesn’t actually have anything to hide, but rather that – just like the judicial travesty that recently took down Scooter Libby – a “hostile and questionable environment” has surrounded the case. As opposed to the good kind of investigations, you see, where the White House doesn’t bother to answer the friendly questions that Congress and the press don’t bother to ask. You know, like the last six years or so.

       So Goodling’s lawyer has just announced that his client will be invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination – even though, mind you, she didn’t do anything wrong! – rather than testifying to Congress.

       Fifth Amendment? Fifth Amendment? You mean like, the Bill of Rights? That Fifth Amendment?

       Doesn’t she know that the Fifth Amendment has been suspended?

2. 

   CabinGirl on March 29, 2007 at 7:12 am

   but this is so bizarre, I had to post it: Yahoo

   Michael Jackson is in discussions about creating a 50-foot robotic replica of himself to roam the Las Vegas desert, according to reports.

   The pop legend is currently understood to be living in the city, as he considers making a comeback after 2004’s turbulent child sex case.

   It has now been claimed that his plans include an elaborate show in Vegas, which would feature the giant Jacko striding around the desert, firing laser beams.

   Just what Vegas needs, a 50-foot child molester roaming the desert…

3. 

   ask on March 29, 2007 at 7:27 am

   Death and carnage in Somalia as rebels attacked

   MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Helicopters and tanks pounded rebel positions across Mogadishu on Thursday as allied Ethiopian and Somali troops launched a major push to end a bloody insurgency, with at least 11 civilians reported killed.

   With scenes of carnage shocking even by Mogadishu standards, residents said the final death-toll could be much higher.

   “Patients are coming to us by the minute, it is too much,” one harried doctor at Madina hospital told Reuters by telephone.

   Several Ethiopian helicopter gunships fired rockets, Reuters witnesses said, in the first use of aerial power in the capital during the increasingly vicious fighting of recent months.

   Government and Ethiopian forces are pitted against Islamists ousted from Mogadishu over the New Year and disgruntled clan militia who used to run the lawless capital.

   • 

     CabinGirl on March 29, 2007 at 7:39 am

     The government represents the 14th attempt at restoring central rule since the 1991 ouster of a military dictator.

     The African Union (AU) has sent 1,200 Ugandan troops to help pacify Somalia. But they have also been the target of attacks in the lawless Horn of Africa nation that defied a U.N.-U.S. peacekeeping mission in the early 1990s.

     Other African nations are baulking at sending further troops needed to bring the AU force up to its intended total of 8,000.

     The United Nations said on Thursday that 57,000 people had fled Mogadishu since February, including 12,000 in the last week. “They are hungry and face harassment from thugs,” the U.N. refugee agency said in a statement.

     I didn’t realize how long that had been going on, or how many attempts had been made to restore law and order there.  Unreal.

     • 

       Gaianne on March 29, 2007 at 6:31 pm

       The locals don’t seem to think it is order that is being restored.  

       Even the Ethiopians admit that Somalia is NOT part of their country.  So how do they become the “legitimate” government.  

       Could it be a proxy war?  Could the US be interested in control of the oil thought to lie just off the southern Somalian coast?  

       • 

         CabinGirl on March 29, 2007 at 10:46 pm

         Good pointss.  That’s one part of the world I don’t now enough about, I’m afraid…

4. 

   on March 29, 2007 at 7:30 am

   Experiment.
   Keep an ear open and scan for the following.

   Note how often “other” “competitive” news media points to or rather mentions programs of the Faux media network.  The most common one is American Idol but then again there are others like 24.
   Now in a business in which “competition” would drive things like ratings a simple memo to the staff should be all that is needed to stop giving free plugs to the “competition”.

   Hey, this is “America” after all and it’s not what you think it is.

   And in the rest of the sane world outside of the United States most people get to wake up to some semblance of normal.  I got to wake up and watch Donald Trump slapping some wrestling tycoon.

   That and we should all still be in bed for another full hour anyway.

   • 

     CabinGirl on March 29, 2007 at 7:41 am

     I’ll try that.  I usually listen to the today show in the morning while working, just to see what the non-Fox sheeple are hearing.

     Most days, I want to hit the tv.  🙂

     • 

       on April 1, 2007 at 11:00 am

       I saw it this very morning on Boston’s own channel 5.  A “news” report about American Idol, an infomercial in a “news” report.

5. 

   CabinGirl on March 29, 2007 at 7:33 am

   article about the Uraq vote by Dana Milbank: WashPo

   The Christmas-tree aspect of the Iraq bill was symptomatic of a broader lack of gravity that has attended the debate over the funding of the Iraq war. Minutes before the Senate voted Tuesday evening in favor of removing U.S. forces from Iraq — a momentous occasion even if President Bush vetoes the plan — only five senators were on the floor. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) asked for time to speak in the debate’s closing minutes but then didn’t show up.

   On a previous attempt to approve a pullout from Iraq, senators sat at their desks and stood individually to vote in a solemn ceremony. But when the vote was ordered this time, Patty Murray (Wash.), the Democrats’ floor leader for the debate, was spied yawning. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) let out a loud laugh. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) playfully rotated his hand as if unable to decide whether to give a thumbs up or thumbs down.

   Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) hurried into the chamber and voted against the pullout; aides caught him before he reached the door and informed him that he meant to vote the other way. When Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) arrived at the end of the vote, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called out “the lady of the hour!” and pumped his fist.

   Solemnity took another holiday yesterday. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the minority leader, took the floor to urge Republicans to vote for the bill even though they opposed it. “I think the sooner we can get this bill out of the Senate . . . get it down to the president for the veto, we can get serious about passing a bill that will get money to the troops,” he proposed.

   Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader, took umbrage at this suggestion. “We are serious about this legislation,” he protested.

   Does anyone ever remember seeing such a detailed account of the Republicans’ behavior while voting (or the crap they snuck into bills, like giving the attorney general the right to appoint US attorneys without the advise and consent of the senate) when they were in control of the senate?

   Me neither.  The WashPo is a GOP partisan bullshit rag.

6. 

   ask on March 29, 2007 at 7:46 am

   US ‘no longer technology king’

   The US has lost its position as the world’s primary engine of technology innovation, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.

   The US is now ranked seventh in the body’s league table measuring the impact of technology on the development of nations.

   A deterioration of the political and regulatory environment in the US prompted the fall, the report said.

   The top spot went for the first time to Denmark, followed by Sweden.

   • 

     dada on March 29, 2007 at 4:16 pm

     to see that India [-4], and China [-9], fell in the rankings, especially in light of them being the primary recipients/destinations when u.s. high tech jobs are outsourced overseas.

     not what i would have expected…indeed, quite the opposite.

     NETWORKED READINESS INDEX RANKINGS 2006 (2005):

     1. Denmark (3)
     2. Sweden (8)
     3. Singapore (2)
     4. Finland (5)
     5. Switzerland (9)
     6. Netherlands (12)
     7. US (1)
     8. Iceland (4)
     9. UK (10)
     10. Norway (13)

     Source: WEF

     

     • 

       CabinGirl on March 29, 2007 at 4:32 pm

       Yeah, I would have expected to see India rise too, for the same reason.

7. 

   idredit on March 29, 2007 at 9:46 am

   It’s a growing worlwide trend.

   San Francisco bans plastic shopping bags

   “San Francisco has become the first American city to ban plastic bags from large supermarkets and chemists’ shops – attracting the applause of environmentalists but also scepticism from business owners and many heartland Americans who feel that the quintessential “Left Coast” city has once again dived off the deep end.[.]”

   Are GM Crops Killing Bees?

   A mysterious decimation of bee populations has German beekeepers worried, while a similar phenomenon in the United States is gradually assuming catastrophic proportions. The consequences for agriculture and the economy could be enormous.[.]
   The problem, says Haefeker, has a number of causes, one being the varroa mite, introduced from Asia, and another is the widespread practice in agriculture of spraying wildflowers with herbicides and practicing monoculture. Another possible cause, according to Haefeker, is the controversial and growing use of genetic engineering in agriculture.

   As far back as 2005, Haefeker ended an article he contributed to the journal Der Kritischer Agrarbericht (Critical Agricultural Report) with an Albert Einstein quote: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

   Just not content are we?

   Now scientists create a sheep that’s 15% human

   [P]rofessor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep’s foetus.

   He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

   The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor’s bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep’s foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.[.]”

   • 

     CabinGirl on March 29, 2007 at 9:50 am

     It will be interesting to see how that plastic bag ban gets implemented…and since they’re replacing them with another form of plastic bag, just how effective is that going to be?

     Nice to see you this morning, idredit.  🙂

     • 

       idredit on March 29, 2007 at 12:35 pm

       Thanks CG.

8. 

   hens teeth on March 29, 2007 at 12:45 pm

   Humor from the land of no left turns.  Sorry, couldn’t resist.

   • 

     CabinGirl on March 29, 2007 at 12:46 pm

     That’s okay…I couldn’t resist either.  😉

9. 

   idredit on March 29, 2007 at 2:31 pm

   BREAKING via ThinkProgress

   Conservatives shut down Sampson hearing?

   “Moments ago, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) interrupted Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA):

   LEAHY: If the senator would yield, and I apologize. I apologize to Mr. Sampson. We’ve just received word that the Republicans have objected, under the Senate rules, to this meeting continuing. I think that’s unfortunate, but I will follow the rules of the Senate –

   GRASSLEY: Does it apply to a Republican too?

   LEAHY: Uh, the Republicans are the ones who don’t want to have the hearing, so the Republicans have the right under the rules to do that. We will stand — we will not adjourn, we will stay in recess until the Senate recesses. We will come back, and Sen. Grassley, if he wishes to be heard further, will be the first one to be heard.”

   Can’t take the heat?

   • 

     dada on March 29, 2007 at 2:59 pm

     via TPM:

     Whatever the disruption, apparently it was immediately reversed. Republicans are saying that it was based on a misunderstanding. Now we’re back on.

     also there, vid links of earlier testimony.