Friday News Bucket

12 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on October 12, 2007 at 8:26 am

   rocks the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.

   Way to go!

2. 

   CabinGirl on October 12, 2007 at 8:33 am

   he’s going to be more aggressive towards Hilary: Chicago Tribune

   It may be bye-bye Mr. Nice Guy for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who said Thursday that he is opening the “next phase” of his campaign and plans to more pointedly and aggressively go after frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton.

   “Now is the time where we’re going to be laying a very clear contrast between myself and Senator Clinton,” the Illinois Democrat told CNN. “Not just on the past, not just on Iraq, but on moving forward.”

   Obama’s campaign has focused heavily on his biography, and he has been criticized by some supporters for not more forcefully challenging the New York senator, who has a wide lead in national polls and in some early voting states.

   We’ll see.  I think all of the Dem presidential candidates are pretty anemic, although better than any of the Repugs.

3. 

   CabinGirl on October 12, 2007 at 8:37 am

   apparently, size DOES matter: AP/Yahoo

   As the world’s top condom experts convene this week to update international standards, one American entrepreneur has a simple message: Size matters. It’s shaking up an industry that has generally taken a one-size-fits-all approach.

   Frank Sadlo, founder of TheyFit, which makes what he claims are the world’s first custom-fit condoms, is pushing for updated standards to allow greater variation in condom size.

   It’s not just about well-endowed men in cramped prophylactic quarters, Sadlo told a meeting Thursday of delegates from 21 countries under the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization.

   When given a choice, he said many men prefer condoms smaller than the standard minimum 6.3 inches long, with more than half ordering those less than 5.12 inches.

4. 

   CabinGirl on October 12, 2007 at 8:43 am

   speaks out about the GOP smear campaign against 2 children who benefit from the SCHIP plan.

   There seems to be no lower limit to the viciousness of Michelle Malkin and her ilk.  Attacking a 12-year-old?

5. 

   ask on October 12, 2007 at 9:02 am

   China joins UN censure of Burmese regime

   · Security council demands political prisoners’ release
   · No sanctions yet, but vote marks big shift by Beijing

   China turned against the Burmese government last night and supported a UN security council statement rebuking the military regime for its suppression of peaceful protests, and demanding the release of all political prisoners.

   The security council statement, which also called for “genuine dialogue” with the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, marked the first time that Beijing had agreed to UN criticism of the junta.

   The statement did not threaten sanctions, but the significance of its unanimous support by all 15 members of the security council would not have been lost on Burma’s generals, who had hitherto been able to count on China, a neighbour and key trading partner, to block UN censure.

6. 

   ask on October 12, 2007 at 9:04 am

   15 Iraqi civilians killed as US aircraft target al-Qaida leaders

   At least 15 Iraqi civilians, including nine children, were killed last night in American air strikes against suspected al-Qaida militants north of Baghdad, the US military said yesterday.

   The operations, which inflicted one of the heaviest tolls on Iraqi civilians for months, comes only days after the Iraqi authorities accused private security firms of firing indiscriminately on civilians.

   The US military said last night it regretted the deaths of the civilians – six women and nine children – in the strikes near lake Tharthar, 75 miles north of the capital.

   • 

     ask on October 12, 2007 at 9:08 am

     Some more ‘progress’ in Iraq:

     Sunni insurgents form alliance against US

     · Political umbrella group announced on al-Jazeera
     · Statement pledges to continue resistance

     Six Iraqi insurgent groups took a step towards unifying the factions fighting the US yesterday by announcing the creation of a political umbrella organisation.

     A spokesman for the new alliance, his face blacked out, made the announcement on a video broadcast by al-Jazeera. He described the alliance as “the political council of the Iraqi resistance”.

     The six Sunni groups have been in discussion about the move for months. The aim is to reduce the fragmented nature of the insurgency but also to try to claim a slice of the political agenda after the expected US withdrawal.

     The talks about the alliance were disclosed by the Guardian in July. The groups had been close to making an announcement at that time but delayed because of disagreements over how to respond to the US policy of doing deals with Iraqi tribal leaders.

7. 

   dada on October 12, 2007 at 12:10 pm

   the telecon conspiracy apparently pre-dates 9-11 according to documents in the ongoing nacchio/q-west trial.

   note the time line:

   The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest.

   […]

   The partially redacted documents were filed under seal before, during and after Nacchio’s trial. They were released Wednesday.

   Nacchio planned to demonstrate at trial that he had a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., to discuss a $100 million project. According to the documents, another topic also was discussed at that meeting, one with which Nacchio refused to comply.

   The topic itself is redacted each time it appears in the hundreds of pages of documents, but there is mention of Nacchio believing the request was both inappropriate and illegal, and repeatedly refusing to go along with it.

   The NSA contract was awarded in July 2001 to companies other than Qwest.

   USA Today reported in May 2006 that Qwest, unlike AT&T and Verizon, balked at helping the NSA track phone calling patterns that may have indicated terrorist organizational activities. Nacchio’s attorney, Herbert Stern, confirmed that Nacchio refused to turn over customer telephone records because he didn’t think the NSA program had legal standing.

   In the documents, Nacchio also asserts Qwest was in line to build a $2 billion private government network called GovNet and do other government business, including a network between the U.S. and South America.

   The documents maintain that Nacchio met with top government officials, including President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice in 2000 and early 2001 to discuss how to protect the government’s communications network.

   They portray U.S. government officials, even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, worried about a “Pearl Harbor” type of attack on the Internet. As early as 1997, a three-star general talked to Nacchio about using Qwest’s new fiber-optic network for government purposes, according to the defense.

   […]

   rockymtnnews

   interesting, eh…

   lTMF’sA

   

8. 

   rba on October 12, 2007 at 12:24 pm

   theBulletin:  Global Fissile Material Report 2007: Summary findings (10 Oct ’07)

   This is the second report by the International Panel on Fissile Materials on the global situation with regard to efforts to secure and eliminate fissile materials. Below we summarize briefly some of our key findings and conclusions.

   Highly enriched uranium. As of early 2007, the global stockpiles of HEU totaled between 1,400 and 2,000 metric tons.

   Full report on site.

9. 

   dada on October 12, 2007 at 12:56 pm

   l don’t think this is how it’s supposed to work:

   CIA Director Michael V. Hayden has mounted a highly unusual challenge to the agency’s chief watchdog, ordering an internal investigation of an inspector general who has issued a series of scathing reports sharply critical of top CIA officials, according to government officials familiar with the matter.

   The move has prompted concerns that Hayden is seeking to rein in an inspector general who has used the office to bring harsh scrutiny of CIA figures including former Director George J. Tenet and undercover operatives running secret overseas prison sites.

   The inquiry is focused on the conduct of CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson and his office. Officials said it was aimed in particular at evaluating whether his office was fair and impartial in its scrutiny of the agency’s terrorist detention and interrogation programs. But officials said the probe also spanned other subjects and had expanded since it was launched several months ago.

   U.S. intelligence officials who are concerned about the inquiry said it was unprecedented and could threaten the independence of the inspector general position. The probe “could at least lead to appearances he’s trying to interfere with the IG, or intimidate the IG or get the IG to back off,” said a U.S. official familiar with the probe.

   […]

   lat

   along the same lines, read rosa brooks’ commentary on ‘renditions’, secret prisons, torture, and BushCo™’s obsession with secrecy:

   Too much cloak and swagger
   When the White House plays ‘I’ve Got a Secret,’ who is being protected?

   Score one more for the White House, which may keep its secrets to the bitter end.

   On Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused to take up the case of El-Masri vs. United States. Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen, alleged that he was abducted in Macedonia by CIA agents and illegally “rendered” to Afghanistan, where he was interrogated and tortured for months — until the CIA realized they had accidentally abducted the wrong guy (they were looking for shadowy terrorist Khalid al-Masri, of the Al Qaeda cell that organized the 9/11 attacks, not the unshadowy Khaled El-Masri, used-car salesman and father of five). When they figured out their embarrassing error, they dumped El-Masri unceremoniously on a deserted road in rural Albania.

   After nearly five months of secret detention, El-Masri was understandably ticked off. He went to court to seek redress but was rebuffed by the conservative U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., which accepted the government’s argument that state secrets might be jeopardized if the case were allowed to move forward. And this week, the Supreme Court declined to overrule the lower court.

   This was convenient for an administration obsessed with secrecy, but it lets stand an unfortunate judicial ratification of a very dangerous idea: that government officials can ignore the law with impunity, then stop lawsuits by simply asserting that a court case would jeopardize national security.

   […]

   Congress may beg to differ, but for the White House, the logic of secrecy is circular but clear: We can’t tell you what we’re doing because it’s a secret. But everything we’re doing is legal. Prove it? We’d be happy to, but unfortunately, the proof is also a secret.

   Summing up the White House’s philosophy, blogger and Yale Law professor Jack Balkin puts it best: “I could tell you why what I’m doing is legal, but then I’d have to shoot you.”

   lat

   it’s not overly difficult to see what this means in terms of there ever being any cooperation from the administration…crooked as the proverbial dog’s hind leg.

   lTMF’sA

   

   • 

     dada on October 12, 2007 at 7:12 pm

     more on the cia: hayden v halgerson at TPM

10. 

    Oui on October 12, 2007 at 1:07 pm

    .

    Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ can be shown to schools

    LONDON (Telegraph) Oct. 2 – Al Gore’s climate-change documentary An Inconvenient Truth promotes “partisan political views”, a High Court judge has ruled.

    Normally that would almost certainly make it unlawful for the Oscar-winning film to be shown to schools. But Mr Justice Burton indicated that it can be shown if teachers follow new guidance to prevent the former US vice-president’s views being wrongly “promoted” to children.

    Changes to the old guidance notes were rushed through by the Government after Stewart Dimmock, a father of two, a Kent school governor and a member of political group the New Party, asked the court to ban the film from the classroom.

    ≈ Cross-posted from my diary — AL GORE WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE! ≈

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