Friday News Bucket

Posted by CabinGirl | Apr 20, 2007 | 26 |

Lives based on having are less free than lives based on either being or doing.
~William James

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CabinGirl

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CabinGirl on April 20, 2007 at 8:25 am

LA Times

A U.S. military brigade is constructing a 3-mile-long concrete wall to cut off one of the capital’s most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq’s most populous and violent city.

U.S. commanders in northern Baghdad said the 12-foot-high barrier would make it more difficult for suicide bombers to strike and for death squads and militia fighters from sectarian factions to attack one another and then slip back to their home turf. Construction began April 10 and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

Although Baghdad is replete with blast walls, checkpoints and other temporary barriers, including a massive wall around the Green Zone, the barrier being constructed in Adhamiya would be the first to be based in essence on sectarian considerations.

Reminds me of this and this.
- idredit on April 20, 2007 at 9:45 am
  
  Walls are in. When all else fails, construct a wall. Ever heard of tunnels?
CabinGirl on April 20, 2007 at 8:33 am

Sure seems possible after this performance in Ohio yesterday: AP/Yahoo

Strange things sometimes come out of
President Bush’s mouth. “Polls just go poof.” “Remember the rug?”

When Bush went to Ohio on Thursday to talk about terrorism, he ended up musing about marriage and chicken-plucking plants, the agony of death and his Oval Office rug, which resembles a sunburst.

Some highlights:

_”Politics comes and goes, but your principles don’t. And everybody wants to be loved — not everybody. … You never heard anybody say, `I want to be despised, I’m running for office.'”

_”The best thing about my family is my wife. She is a great first lady. I know that sounds not very objective, but that’s how I feel. And she’s also patient. Putting up with me requires a lot of patience.”

_”There are jobs Americans aren’t doing. … If you’ve got a chicken factory, a chicken-plucking factory, or whatever you call them, you know what I’m talking about.”

_”There are some similarities, of course” between
Iraq and Vietnam. “Death is terrible.”

_”I’ve been in politics long enough to know that polls just go poof at times.”

As he has before, Bush told the story about how his first presidential decision was to pick a rug for the Oval Office, a task he quickly cast to his wife. He told her to make sure the rug reflected optimism “because you can’t make decisions unless you’re optimistic that the decisions you make will lead to a better tomorrow.”

Later, when he talked about his hope for succeeding in Iraq, Bush said, “Remember the rug?”

Dood, the rug?
Oui on April 20, 2007 at 8:34 am

.

Ice traps Canadian seal hunters

More than 100 ships carrying commercial seal hunters for Canada’s annual harvest have been trapped for days by crushing ice off the coast of Newfoundland province.

Newfoundland: 100 vessels trapped by crushing ice and a harp seal pup in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence. (AFP/IFAW)

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
CabinGirl on April 20, 2007 at 8:44 am
and friends are loving the SCOTUS ruling: LA Times

Here’s what they have planned for us:
“We’re moving beyond putting roadblocks in front of abortions to actually prohibiting them,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, a national antiabortion group based in Wichita, Kan. “This swings the door wide open.”

He and other strategists said they hoped to introduce legislation in a number of states that would:

Ban all abortions of viable fetuses, unless the mother’s life is endangered.
Ban mid- and late-term abortion for fetal abnormality, such as Down syndrome or a malformed brain.
Require doctors to tell patients in explicit detail what the abortion will involve, show them ultrasound images of the fetus and warn them that they may become suicidal after the procedure.
Lengthen waiting periods so that women must reflect on such counseling for several days before obtaining the abortion.

It is far from certain that the Supreme Court would uphold all those proposals. But antiabortion activists clearly think momentum is on their side.

In particular, they are pleased that the court upheld an outright ban, with no exceptions, on a surgical procedure performed in the second trimester, when the fetus is too large to be evacuated through a suction tube.

For more than 30 years, the Supreme Court has required every major restriction on abortion to include an exception waiving the law if a woman’s physical or emotional health is at stake.
There’s more at the link…read it and weep, then get angry and sign the PP petition here.
- tampopo on April 20, 2007 at 9:47 am
  Though efforts to counter such legislation are very important, I also think that attached to any proposed bans, particularly, “Ban mid- and late-term abortion for fetal abnormality, such as Down syndrome or a malformed brain,” should be legislation that:
  
  birth parents or adoptive parents will receive parental leave from employment for a minimum of one year with no loss of employment status or benefits and financial support from the government at a “livable” rate; at any and all times that the parents must attend to their child’s health and medical needs, income will be supplemented and there will be no employment penalties
  all those born with fetal abnormalities will receive lifetime health benefits, including coverage of all medical needs: surgeries, medications, equipment, and therapies, as well as, lifetime care and services
  supplemental care will be provided in the home as needed
  public schools will expand facilities and services so these children are not left behind
  for those who survive to adulthood, facilities will be created to continue services, so that each may live as independently as possible
  all of the above will be made retroactive for any child identified as developmentally challenged, either physically or mentally
  - CabinGirl on April 20, 2007 at 10:01 am
    
    Amen. I keep thinking about how many of those birth defects are more common when the parents are older…and who is going to care for all these “viable” children when the parents are gone? It make me ill.
    
    These folks are “pro-life” until immediately after birth, as usual.
CabinGirl on April 20, 2007 at 8:55 am

Total hilarity from Dana Milbank at the WashPo on Gonzo’s testimony yesterday:

Alberto Gonzales’s tenure as attorney general was pronounced dead at 3:02 p.m. yesterday by Tom Coburn, M.D.

The good doctor, who also happens to be a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made this clinical judgment after watching Gonzales suffer through four hours of painful testimony. The Oklahoman listed the cause of death as management failure and other complications of the Justice Department’s firing of eight federal prosecutors…

…Gonzales had weeks to prepare for yesterday’s hearing. But the man who sat at the witness table sounded like the sort of person who forgets where he parked his car.

Explaining his role in the botched firing of federal prosecutors, Gonzales uttered the phrase “I don’t recall” and its variants (“I have no recollection,” “I have no memory”) 64 times. Along the way, his answer became so routine that a Marine in the crowd put down his poster protesting the Iraq war and replaced it with a running “I don’t recall” tally.

Take Gonzales’s tally along with that of his former chief of staff, who uttered the phrase “I don’t remember” 122 times before the same committee three weeks ago, and the Justice Department might want to consider handing out Ginkgo biloba in the employee cafeteria.

Go read the whole thing. It’ll cheer you up.
idredit on April 20, 2007 at 9:31 am

Australia’s situation is grim

Australia has warned that it will have to switch off the water supply to the continent’s food bowl unless heavy rains break an epic drought – heralding what could be the first climate change-driven disaster to strike a developed nation.

The Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia yields 40 per cent of the country’s agricultural produce. But the two rivers that feed the region are so pitifully low that there will soon be only enough water for drinking supplies. Australia is in the grip of its worst drought on record, the victim of changing weather patterns attributed to global warming and a government that is only just starting to wake up to the severity of the position.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, a hardened climate-change sceptic, delivered dire tidings to the nation’s farmers yesterday. Unless there is significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, irrigation will be banned in the principal agricultural area. Crops such as rice, cotton and wine grapes will fail, citrus, olive and almond trees will die, along with livestock.

A ban on irrigation, which would remain in place until May next year, spells possible ruin for thousands of farmers, already debt-laden and in despair after six straight years of drought…[.]

Mr Howard acknowledged that the measures are drastic. He said the prolonged dry spell was “unprecedentedly dangerous” for farmers, and for the economy as a whole. Releasing a new report on the state of the Murray and Darling, Mr Howard said: “It is a grim situation, and there is no point in pretending to Australia otherwise. We must all hope and pray there is rain.” [.]

The causes of the current drought, which began in 2002 but has been felt most acutely over the past six months, are complex. But few scientists dispute the part played by climate change, which is making Australia hotter and drier…[.]

Until a few months ago, Mr Howard and his ministers pooh-poohed the climate-change doomsayers. The Prime Minister refused to meet Al Gore when he visited Australia to promote his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. He was lukewarm about the landmark report by the British economist Sir Nicholas Stern, which warned that large swaths of Australia’s farming land would become unproductive if global temperatures rose by an average of four degrees. [..]

(highlight added)

Global food prices expected to move higher impacting the poor. Undoubtedly, Howard and friend Bush will continue to eat very well.
- idredit on April 20, 2007 at 9:42 am
  
  And related is this leading editorial, The Independent UK
  
  An Axis of Denial – A global warning from the dust bowl of Australia
  
  “[It] is a grim irony that Australia is suffering first. The country is led by a man who has helped to wreck concerted international action to slow climate change. Australia is the only industrialised nation, apart from the US, to refuse to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol. Mr Howard, along with President George Bush in the US, has formed an axis of denial over the seriousness of global warming. Earlier this year he suggested “the jury is out” on the link between climate change and man-made carbon dioxide emissions, despite the consensus among the world’s scientists that such a link is pretty much beyond doubt.
  
  Today, Australia; tomorrow, vast areas of the world’s surface: the imperative for the world’s leaders to take serious action to curb climate change has never been starker.”
  - CabinGirl on April 20, 2007 at 10:05 am
    
    It is very ironic. Too bad Howard won’t be the one suffering from the drought.
    
    I guess we’re (in the US) next due for disastrous climate change effects.
dada on April 20, 2007 at 11:16 am

DoJ gets a victory in spite of abu’s incompetence…

Jury Convicts Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio of 19 of 42 Insider Trading Charges

DENVER (AP) — Joe Nacchio, a former AT&T executive tapped to transform Qwest Communications into a major telecommunications competitor, was convicted Thursday of 19 of 42 insider trading charges after one-time top executives described his relentless drive to meet revenue projections without revealing financial risks.

A federal jury deliberated six days before concluding on 19 counts that the former Qwest chief executive illegally sold $52 million worth of stock in April and May of 2001, when he knew the company faced financial challenges and relied heavily on one-time sales to meet revenue targets. The jury acquitted him on the other 23 counts stemming from sales in January and February.

U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham set a July 27 sentencing date for Nacchio, who is free on $2 million bail. Each count carries a potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Nacchio also could be required to forfeit the $52 million, although the exact amount will be determined by the judge at sentencing.

“‘Convicted felon Joe Nacchio’ has a very nice ring to it,” boasted Troy Eid, the U.S. attorney for Colorado. Prosecutor Cliff Stricklin, who headed the government’s team, said he planned to seek prison time for Nacchio.

[…]

link

of course they’ll appeal…wonder if he has a weak heart?
dada on April 20, 2007 at 11:56 am

it may not be on the table, yet, but it’s on a lot of peoples minds.impeachment heats up…from the bottom up:

the u.s. congress may not get it, but the people are becoming inpatient with the lack of a table setting and have put it on the stove….so to speak:

Vermont Senate: Impeach the president

By ROSS SNEYD, AP

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Vermont senators voted Friday to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, saying their actions have raised “serious questions of constitutionality.”

The non-binding resolution was approved 16-9 without debate — all six Republicans in the chamber at the time and three Democrats voted against it.

The resolution says Bush and Cheney’s actions in the U.S. and abroad, including in Iraq, “raise serious questions of constitutionality, statutory legality, and abuse of the public trust.”

link

and from John Nichols at The Nation

Impeachment Fever Rises

When Nancy Pelosi announced last fall that impeachment was “off the table,” official Washington accepted that the primary avenue for holding lawless Presidents to account had been closed off by the new Speaker of the House. But the Republic’s citizenry has not been so inclined. And now, with the

Administration’s troubles mounting, they’re preparing to tell Pelosi that America and the world cannot wait until January 20, 2009, to put an end to Bush’s reign of error. When Pelosi arrives at the California Democratic Convention in San Diego on April 28–the same day that activists nationwide will rally for presidential accountability–she’ll find on the agenda a resolution that declares that the actions of President Bush and Vice President Cheney “warrant impeachment and trial, and removal from office.” Delegates are expected to endorse the measure.

[…]

even Lee Iacocca’s, yes that Lee Iacocca, had enough…from his latest book Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

Excerpt

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney

I *
*Had Enough?

Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don’t need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?

I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have.

[…]

The Test of a Leader

I’ve never been Commander in Chief, but I’ve been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I’ve figured out nine points–not ten (I don’t want people accusing me of thinking I’m Moses). I call them the “Nine Cs of Leadership.” They’re not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let’s be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It’s up to us to choose wisely.

So, here’s my C list:

[..]

read on

yeppers

ITMF’sA
Man Eegee on April 20, 2007 at 12:22 pm

Looks like the Official Police State is continuing to move forward.

PHOENIX — State senators voted 26-1 Thursday to let prosecutors hold smuggled immigrants for up to a week without bringing criminal charges against them.

But the the sponsor of the measure said the aim is not to punish them. Rep. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, said the purpose is to ensure their help in prosecuting those who helped them enter the country illegally.

Paton said the problem is that it’s virtually impossible to prosecute smugglers without the testimony of their clients.

linkage (emphasis mine)

Right. We’re just gonna keep you locked up with the rest of gen-pop so you can be fully rested when testifying. Sweet dreams!
ask on April 20, 2007 at 1:10 pm

UN Somalia humanitarian chief warns of catastrophe

GENEVA, April 19 (Reuters) – A catastrophe is looming in Somalia, where 100,000 people fleeing fighting in Mogadishu lack food and clean water and a diarrhoea epidemic has killed more than 400, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the country said on Thursday.

Cholera has struck hundreds in the Somali capital in the past month, and the worst fighting in a decade and the detention of aid workers have made it impossible to reach U.N. warehouses or land at the city airport, Eric Laroche told a news briefing.

Unless the fighting halts and aid agencies get access to those displaced by the conflict, “a humanitarian crisis is going to turn into a catastrophe and very soon,” he said.
ask on April 20, 2007 at 1:14 pm

Norway aims to be carbon neutral by 2050

OSLO, April 19 — Norway wants to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 in the world’s toughest national plan for fighting global warming, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

He said that Norway, the world’s number five oil exporter, wanted other rich nations to set similar “carbon neutral” aims.

“Norway would be the first country in the world to take on such a concrete commitment,” Stoltenberg said in a proposal to his Labour Party that was met by a standing ovation.

(snip)

Stoltenberg said his proposals already had backing from his three-party center-left cabinet, which has a majority in parliament. “I feel sure it will be adopted” by the party, he told reporters. Norway would also unilaterally sharpen its commitments under the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol for fighting climate change to 2012 and cut emissions by 30% by 2020, a tougher goal than set by the European Union.

The EU says it will cut unilaterally by 20% by 2020 and by 30% if others make similar cuts. Among other tough goals, California aims to cut emissions by 80% by 2050, by which time Iceland aims to phase out use of oil.
- ask on April 20, 2007 at 1:21 pm
  
  How?
  Here’s a beginning:
  Aker vows major CO2 cuts
  
  Norwegian industrial firm Aker says that creative use of technology will allow it to capture 16 percent more carbon dioxide at its Kårstø gas plant than the plant produces. One environmental activist says the method can set an example for other plants in Europe.
  
  “Aker’s plan for Kårstø will attract attention in Europe, and this can be one of the EU’s demonstration plants,” said Frederic Hauge of environmental group Bellona.
  
  Hauge is also deputy leader of the board of the EU Commission’s technology platform, and he told newspaper Aftenposten Friday that he’s impressed over Aker’s emissions recapture plan. He thinks it can be applied elsewhere.
  
  “There are 4,900 power plants in the world that can use this technology,” Hauge said. “They account for 40 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.”
ask on April 20, 2007 at 1:28 pm

In lighter news:
Norwegian penis ring can replace Viagra

A thin, battery driven ring which can be drawn onto the penis should be able to produce the same effect as potency stimulating pills. The mechanical, rather than chemical, approach is a Norwegian invention.Electrical engineer Birger Orten invented the simple stimulator. The contraption is comprised of a narrow, thin ring with advanced energy transferral that is placed at the root of the penis.

The machine has no side effects, needs no prescription and works immediately. It can also be mounted inside a condom.

Urology specialist Einar Christiansen has attended tests of the product on 28 men suffering from mild impotence and found that the ring had a markedly positive effect on 60 percent of them.

“The tests were carried out in a laboratory with electrical wires coupled to various apparatus, so I would assume the effect would be greater at home or other circumstances,” Christiansen said.
- Man Eegee on April 20, 2007 at 1:36 pm
  
  Those researchers can keep their electrical currents far, far away, thank you very much! 😉
  - dada on April 20, 2007 at 2:40 pm
    
    first image that popped into my head….
    
    <bzzzzzzzzzzzzzztttttt>
    
    [sorry ask]
- CabinGirl on April 20, 2007 at 1:38 pm
  
  I’m just trying to imagine those experiments…
  - ask on April 20, 2007 at 1:40 pm
    
    I also got some strange visuals.
    And tend to agree with ManEe above, but hey, who knows one day…
    - CabinGirl on April 20, 2007 at 1:42 pm
      
      OT, but the sun is finally shining here today! Has it made an appearance up your way yet?
      - ask on April 20, 2007 at 1:44 pm
        
        Yup – finally!
        Great day and looking good for our weekend trip to the Berkshires – asklets should be here from school in about 1.5 hrs. Then we’ll meet curly and head out of town.
        You and the boys have big plans?
      - CabinGirl on April 20, 2007 at 2:08 pm
        
        Baseball game for CBtY tomorrow…in sunny and warm weather for a change! Not sure what else after that.
        
        It seems like a perfect weekend for the Berkshires.
Man Eegee on April 20, 2007 at 2:58 pm

Glad to see that MSNBC learned their lesson. Not.

According to an April 20 article on Philly.com, the website of The Philadelphia Inquirer, “The Big Talker 1210 AM morning show of Daily News columnist Michael Smerconish is to be simulcast Monday through Wednesday on MSNBC.” The article noted that Smerconish will fill the slot previously held by Imus in the Morning. MSNBC announced on April 11 that it would no longer broadcast Imus in the wake of comments made by host Don Imus on the April 4 edition of that show, during which he referred to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” – linkage to Media Matters rundown of Smerconish’s many instances of idiocy

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