Monday News Bucket - Mid-day Edition

“Politics, noun. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.” –Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

8 Comments

ask on June 11, 2007 at 11:40 am

Google ranked ‘worst’ on privacy

Google has the worst privacy policy of popular net firms, says a report.

Rights group Privacy International rated the search giant as “hostile” to privacy in a report ranking web firms by how they handle personal data.

The group said Google was leading a “race to the bottom” among net firms many of whom had policies that did little to substantially protect users.

In response Google said the report was mistaken and that it worked hard to keep user data confidential.

ask on June 11, 2007 at 11:57 am

Study says global military spending hits 610 billion pounds

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Global military spending rose 3.5 percent last year to $1.2 trillion (610 billion pounds) as U.S. costs for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan mounted, a European research body said on Monday in an annual study.

The United States spent $529 billion, slightly less than the entire GDP of the Netherlands, on military operations in 2006, up 5 percent over the previous year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its latest year book.

“Taking both immediate and long-term factors into account, the overall past and future costs until year 2016 to the USA for the war in Iraq have been estimated at $2,267 billion,” it said.

Military spending in China, which is modernising its People’s Liberation Army, climbed to an estimated $49.5 billion last year from $44.3 billion in 2005.

…

The United States and Russia were the largest arms suppliers in 2002 through 2006, each accounting for about 30 percent of global shipments, while deliveries from EU members made up another 20 percent, the institute said.

“Almost 50 percent more conventional weapons, by volume, were transferred internationally in 2006 than in 2002, according to data gathered by SIPRI,” it added.

China and India remained the largest arms importers in the world, while five Middle Eastern countries figured among the top ten importers of arms globally.

ask on June 11, 2007 at 12:20 pm

China accused of Olympics merchandise child labour

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese factories are churning out licensed bags, caps and stationery for the 2008 Beijing Olympics using child labour and paying workers less than half the minimum wage, a report says.

As members of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) gather in London for a progress update on the 2012 Games, the report — “No Medal for the Olympics” — finds evidence of children as young as 12 producing Olympic merchandise.

The Playfair Alliance, represented in Britain by the Trades Union Congress and Labour Behind the Label, researched working conditions at four factories making 2008 Olympic bags, headgear, stationery and other products.

“It also reveals that factory owners are falsifying employment records, and forcing workers to lie about their wages and conditions,” the TUC said in a release.

Researchers also found adults earning half the legal minimum wage in China and employees who were made to work up to 15 hours per day, seven days a week.

boran2 on June 11, 2007 at 1:44 pm

Linkage

WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday he will vote for a no-confidence resolution against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, after long questioning the leadership and independence of President Bush’s longtime friend.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he’s concerned like others in his party that the resolution, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and up for a test vote later in the day, was a Democratic effort to embarrass Bush and prompt Gonzales to resign. But Specter has long said that Gonzales has exercise poor leadership on a host of issues, from the firings of eight federal prosecutors to the department’s handling of wiretapping authority under the Patriot Act.

“If you ask Arlen Specter, do I have confidence in Attorney General Gonzales, the answer is a resounding no,” Specter said during a news conference in Philadelphia. “I’m going to vote that I have no confidence in Attorney General Gonzales.”

And the best part, a classic quote by the unitary decider himself:

“They can have their votes of no-confidence but it’s not going to make the determination about who serves in my government,” Bush said Monday. “This process has been drug out a long time. … It’s political.”

And he should know all about drugging.

chocolate ink on June 11, 2007 at 3:34 pm

‘my government’..and there you have it in a nutshell and out in the open. Megalomaniac wannabe dictator.

stormkite on June 11, 2007 at 2:55 pm

I’m sure that Messrs. Bush and Dick are in apoplexy; another of those damn liberal courts has legislated from the bench again….

June 11, 2007, 1:16PM
Court rules against enemy combatant policy

RICHMOND, Va. — The Bush administration cannot legally detain a U.S. resident it suspects of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent without charging him, a divided federal appeals court ruled today.

“To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, even if the President calls them ‘enemy combatants,’ would have disastrous consequences for the constitution — and the country,” the court panel said.

Read the rest here.

(Someone might want to check and see who appointed these guys as they’re OBVIOUSLY way out of step here…)

Oui on June 11, 2007 at 3:57 pm

Afghanistan: UN says rule of law a top priority

KABUL, 11 June 2007 (IRIN) – The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Afghanistan (SRSG), Tom Koenigs, on Monday called on the government of President Hamid Karzai and the international community to intensify their efforts to end “lawlessness” in the war-ravaged country.

“Ensuring the rule of law should become a top priority for the government of Afghanistan and its international friends – people are fed up,” said Koenigs, who recently briefed members of the UN Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan.

● Canada’s envoy in Afghanistan closely monitors probe into detainees treatment
● Dutch PM Jan Peter Balkenende warns of ‘failed state’ danger for Afghanistan
● Afghan Forces: Rooting Out the Corruption

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