Tuesday News Bucket

26 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on October 2, 2007 at 8:01 am

   when even the WSJ notices that they’re not the arty of business anymore:

   The Republican Party, known since the late 19th century as the party of business, is losing its lock on that title.

   New evidence suggests a potentially historic shift in the Republican Party’s identity — what strategists call its “brand.” The votes of many disgruntled fiscal conservatives and other lapsed Republicans are now up for grabs, which could alter U.S. politics in the 2008 elections and beyond.

   Some business leaders are drifting away from the party because of the war in Iraq, the growing federal debt and a conservative social agenda they don’t share. In manufacturing sectors such as the auto industry, some Republicans want direct government help with soaring health-care costs, which Republicans in Washington have been reluctant to provide. And some business people want more government action on global warming, arguing that a bolder plan is not only inevitable, but could spur new industries.

   • 

     dada on October 2, 2007 at 1:11 pm

     where the military-industrial complex is concerned it’s been another banner year:

     America cashes in on arms sales

     The United States has consolidated its position as the world’s leading arms dealer to the developing world, followed by Russia and Britain, according to a new congressional report published in Washington yesterday.

     The report, produced by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), found the arms trade cooled slightly in 2006, shrinking from nearly $46bn in 2005 to nearer $40bn. Sales to developing countries accounted for 80% of the market…

     Sales to developing countries accounted for 80% of the market.

     […]

     American weapons sales accounted for 42% of the global market, a total of nearly $17bn in sales, up $3.4bn from the previous year…

     [more than double that of]…

     Russia is the world’s second biggest dealer with sales of $8.7bn in 2006, nearly 22% of the market…

     [and 5 1/2 times that of]…

      Britain is third on list, with $3.1bn in sales.

     […]

     guardian uk

     the british are also proposing an agreement that would limit arms sales to conflict regions and despotic regimes.

     sounds reasonable unless you’re the nra:

     However, the treaty is opposed by the US gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, which argues the treaty threatens the right to gun ownership.

     The US has so far not presented its views on the proposed treaty to the UN.

     how the nra managed that bit of legerdemain is not explained.

     lTMF’sA

     

2. 

   CabinGirl on October 2, 2007 at 8:03 am

   their new clinic in Aurora, IL will be allowed to open: WBBM Newsradio

   A Planned Parenthood clinic that has been shuttered while city officials reviewed how it obtained its building permits will be allowed to open, city officials said Monday.

   Mayor Thomas Weisner said reviews by three different attorneys found no legal basis to deny the clinic an occupancy permit. It was not clear when the clinic would open, but Weisner said the building department could issue a temporary occupancy permit as early as Monday.

   The 22,000-square-foot, $7.5 million building clinic, which was supposed to open last month, has been the target of anti-abortion protesters, who accused Planned Parenthood of deceiving the city into granting building permits.

3. 

   CabinGirl on October 2, 2007 at 8:10 am

   but really, why has the topic of newspaper ads and radio remarks become the primary focus of the Senate?  First they condemn MoveOn, Next the GOP wants a vote to commend Rush Limbaugh, what next?

   A vote on whether bugs bunny was funnier than wile e coyote?  Who is running the Senate, anyway?

   • 

     BooMan on October 2, 2007 at 10:22 am

     bugs bunny was funnier than wile e. coyote.

     Write your congressperson…

   • 

     Isis on October 2, 2007 at 11:29 pm

     Um, Harry Reid.

     Pathetic. Roll Over. Military-Industrial-Pharmaceutical Complex. Is that a DSM-IV diagnosis? It should be. 🙂

4. 

   ask on October 2, 2007 at 8:30 am

   Amazon jungle could be lost in 40 years, say campaigners

   The Amazonian wilderness is at risk of unprecedented damage from an ambitious plan to improve transport, communications and power generation in the region, conservationists warned yesterday.

   Development plans have been drawn up to boost trade links between 10 economic hubs on the continent, but threaten to bring “a perfect storm of environmental destruction” to the world’s oldest rainforest, according to a report from Conservation International.

   Projects to upgrade road and river transport, combined with work to create dams and lay down extensive power and communications cabling, will open up previously inaccessible parts of the rainforest, raising the risk of widespread deforestation that could see the loss of the entire Amazon jungle within 40 years, the environmental group said.

   […]

   Improved transport networks throughout the Amazon will make it easier for inaccessible areas to be logged and burned, disrupting the ecosystems that support native species and indigenous populations, the report concludes.

   • 

     CabinGirl on October 2, 2007 at 9:11 am

     You know, I remember the destruction of the Amazon being a major focus for environmentalists back in the late 80s.  Why do we seem to constantly be fighting the same battles over and over again?

     And why can’t we just leave some wild areas wild?  Time to stop sucking up every single natural resource and wringing it dry.

     • 

       ask on October 2, 2007 at 9:44 am

       Agree.  Just look at the rush for the (coming ice-free) Arctic.

     • 

       Isis on October 2, 2007 at 11:31 pm

       ‘Cause we never one that battle. How do you tel Brazilians not to develop their country like the rest of us have?

   • 

     Oui on October 2, 2007 at 6:09 pm

     .

     Little-known Indian tribe spotted in Peru’s Amazon

     LIMA (Reuters) – Ecologists have photographed a little-known nomadic tribe deep in Peru’s Amazon, a sighting that could intensify debate about the presence of isolated Indians as oil firms line up to explore the jungle.

     Carrying arrows and living in palm-leaf huts on the banks of the Las Piedras river, the tribe was glimpsed last week by researchers flying over the Alto Purus national park near the Brazilian border to look for illegal loggers.

     
     A group of huts made of palm leaves
are seen on the bank of a river in the
jungle of Madre De Dios near Peru's
border with Brazil. (Reuters)  

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

5. 

   ask on October 2, 2007 at 8:34 am

   Cubans treat man who killed Che

   Cuban doctors working in Bolivia have saved the sight of the man who executed revolutionary leader Che Guevara in 1967, Cuban official media report.

   Mario Teran, a Bolivian army sergeant, shot dead Che Guevara after he was captured in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands.

   […]

   Che Guevara, wounded in the fighting, was taken to a schoolhouse in the village of La Higuera on 8 October [1967] where the soldiers debated what to do with him.

   Mario Teran is reported to have drawn the short straw and been ordered to execute the captured guerrilla.

6. 

   BooMan on October 2, 2007 at 10:19 am

   Earl Warren?  I expected it to be Keith Richards.

7. 

   idredit on October 2, 2007 at 12:57 pm

   Easy Money, No Work necessary.  Let’s apply b/c it’s our money.

   Air Force Arranged No-Work Contract

   While waiting to be confirmed by the White House for a top civilian post at the Air Force last year, Charles D. Riechers was out of work and wanted a paycheck. So the Air Force helped arrange a job through an intelligence contractor that required him to do no work for the company, according to documents and interviews.

   For two months, Riechers held the title of senior technical adviser and received about $13,400 a month at Commonwealth Research Institute, or CRI, a nonprofit firm in Johnstown, Pa., according to his resume. But during that time he actually worked for Sue C. Payton, assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, on projects that had nothing to do with CRI, he said.

   Riechers said in an interview that his interactions with Commonwealth Research were limited largely to a Christmas party, where he said he met company officials for the first time.

8. 

   dada on October 2, 2007 at 1:22 pm

   l wonder who these conscientious donors are:

   WASHINGTON — As the national debt heads toward the $10-trillion mark, generous Americans are sending checks to the federal government.

   Donations to the Bureau of the Public Debt have topped $2.5 million so far this year. That’s the highest amount since at least 1996.

   […]

   According to the folks who follow this stuff closely, the national debt has been rising by an average of $1.36 billion per day since September of last year.

   And each citizen now has a share of nearly $30,000…

   link

   or just put it on your credit card, l’m sure they’ll raise your limit…just ask congress for some help.

   lTMF’sA

   

9. 

   dada on October 2, 2007 at 2:12 pm

   the opportunity of a lifetime, you can have a private, nuclear proof weekend getaway…

   Titan Missile Base Central Washington
   Huge Underground Facility on 57 Acres

   make a great B&B for the neoCon/nra/aipac set…l can see the marketing brochure now: dick cheney slept here.

   serious inquiries only.

   lTMF’sA

   

10. 

    Man Eegee on October 2, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    Shocking…

    PHOENIX – Businesses that employ Hispanic workers say they’ve noticed an increase in racial profiling because of Arizona’s new employer-sanctions law.

    Gov. Janet Napolitano signed the measure into law in July, and it goes into effect in January. The law prohibits Arizona’s more than 150,000 employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, and it will require them to verify employee eligibility through a federal database.

    Businesses say they’re already receiving complaints that they’re violating the law and that those complaints are made about employees who are Hispanic or speak Spanish. – linkage

    • 

      chocolate ink on October 2, 2007 at 6:15 pm

      Watch out if you’re bilingual and happen not to look lily white therefore you must be ‘illegal’. 1+1=’s 5 I guess.

      Laws like this are dangerously stupid and a waste of time and money to say nothing of the pandering to the white power mentality. This is going to lead to nothing but more trouble and ugliness.

      • 

        Man Eegee on October 3, 2007 at 12:34 pm

        yep – and any of us who happen to fit that profile have reminders every single day of the prejudice that is everywhere.  That’s why I try to call it out, just hoping that it does some good to make it stop.

    • 

      CabinGirl on October 2, 2007 at 7:38 pm

      State-sponsored racial discrimination.  I just luvs me some ‘Murka…

      • 

        Man Eegee on October 3, 2007 at 12:35 pm

        unfortunately, not the first time and won’t be the last if we continue down this track.

    • 

      dada on October 2, 2007 at 10:15 pm

      manny, what to you make of this?

      Border Cities Block Access To Fence Land:

      Brownsville — Mayors along the Texas-Mexico border have begun a quiet protest of the federal government’s plans to build a fence along the border.

      They have refused access to their land.

      Mayors in Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Del Rio and El Paso have denied access to some parts of their city property to Department of Homeland Security workers.

      l’m at a loss…it appears to be strangely out of character.  

      lTMF’sA

      

      • 

        Man Eegee on October 3, 2007 at 12:36 pm

        ha!  good for them.  the south Texas communities have done way more mobilization than the other states to oppose the Great Wall of America™.  I’m interested to see what happens now…

        thx for the heads up on that.

11. 

    Man Eegee on October 2, 2007 at 6:11 pm

    Thirty years…

    FORT HUACHUCA — For the next three decades the United States will be needed in the Middle East as the war on terrorism continues, one of the most senior Army intelligence officers said.

    And, providing the needed intelligence will be troops and civilians trained at a special Department of Defense facility on the fort, Maj. Gen. John Custer said Monday.  He was speaking about the DoD Human Intelligence Training Joint Center of Excellence, which provides not only training but certification in interrogation, debriefing and military source operations in support of worldwide operations. – linkage

    • 

      chocolate ink on October 2, 2007 at 6:24 pm

      The US will be so broke by then that the military industrial complex won’t be able to afford a sailboat to get to the Mid East.

      This is also a Catch-22…as long as we stay in the Mid East there will be terrorism because our being there is generating over half of it at least. The insane mindset of these people gets more mindboggling all the time.

      • 

        Isis on October 2, 2007 at 11:35 pm

        🙂 🙂 :). Thanks for making my night.