Tuesday News Bucket

15 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on November 6, 2007 at 7:59 am

   about MSNBC NYT

   Riding a ratings wave from “Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” a program that takes strong issue with the Bush administration, MSNBC is increasingly seeking to showcase its nighttime lineup as a welcome haven for viewers of a similar mind…

   …The one early-evening program on MSNBC that is often most sympathetic to the administration, “Tucker” with Tucker Carlson at 6 p.m., is in real danger of being canceled, said one NBC executive, who, like those who spoke of Ms. O’Donnell, would do so only on condition of anonymity.

   The bad news about MSNBC:

   Having a prime-time lineup that tilts ever more demonstrably to the left could be risky for General Electric, MSNBC’s parent company, which is subject to legislation and regulation far afield of the cable landscape. Officials at MSNBC emphasize that they never set out to create a liberal version of Fox News.

   (h/t to Susie)

   • 

     boran2 on November 6, 2007 at 8:17 am

     …Officials at MSNBC emphasize that they never set out to create a liberal version of Fox News.

     Umm, the fact that Fox fabricates “news” to suuport its political leanings and MSNBC merely reports news items is apparently lost upon GE.

     • 

       CabinGirl on November 6, 2007 at 8:22 am

       Nobody ever claimed they were interested in the truth…

       Be good to see Carlson off the air, though I’m sure Fox would welcome him with open arms.

2. 

   CabinGirl on November 6, 2007 at 8:04 am

   in Iraq: NYT

   More than a year after the Parsons Corporation, the American contracting giant, promised Congress that it would fix the disastrous plumbing and shoddy construction in barracks the company built at the Baghdad police academy, the ceilings are still stained with excrement, parts of the structures are crumbling and sections of the buildings are unusable because the toilets are filthy and nonfunctioning.

   The project, where United States inspectors found giant cracks snaking through newly built walls and human waste dripping from ceilings, became one of the most visible examples of a $45 billion American reconstruction program that is widely seen as a failure.

   $45 billion for that, and we “can’t afford” the SCHIP program here at home.  Love that compassionate conservatism:  apparently the compassion is reserved for rip-off artist defense contractors.

   • 

     stormkite on November 6, 2007 at 2:28 pm

     Defense contractors make campaign contributions.

     Poor and middle-class children, not so much.  And it’s not likely they’ll grow up to do so (assuming arguendo that they live to grow up at all…)

     QED.

3. 

   idredit on November 6, 2007 at 9:22 am

   As the Senate Judiciary Committee votes this morning on Mukasey to the AG post, a last plea to DiFi and Chuck Schumer from Nat Hentoff at The Washington Times,

   Mukasey’s America

   [T]rying to further the education of our prospective chief law enforcement officer, Mr. Lederman suggests he ask FBI Director Robert Mueller to show him the e-mails sent to him by FBI agents in the field “complaining that the CIA-run interrogation program amounted to torture.” Mr. Lederman quotes a senior federal law enforcement official in the FBI messages: “‘Those guys were using techniques that we didn’t even want to be in the room for.'” A series of these appalled FBI complaints are in a newly published book that Mr. Mukasey, members of Congress and Americans concerned with the degrading of our rule of law should read: “Administration of Torture” by American Civil Liberties Union attorneys Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh (Columbia University Press).

   [..]

   Louis Brandeis said: “Courage is the secret of liberty.” The Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation of Michael Mukasey would not be an act of courage. And will any candidate for the presidency read carefully “The Administration of Torture?” It’s also important to remember that Mr. Mukasey testified that in these circumstances, the president can use his constitutional authority to act outside of laws Congress has passed and he has signed.

   (emphasis added)

   when the WT’s editorial pleads for rejection of Bush’s nominee – Gawd, we’ve dropped to swimming in the sewers.

4. 

   dada on November 6, 2007 at 10:29 am

   1

   big media strikes another blow at those pesky indy’s:

   Postal Service Says Killing Small Periodicals Is a “Win-Win”

   Washington Dispatch: Defying the founding fathers, Bush appointees at the USPS have decided to strangle the free press.
   .
   .
   Since the 1970s, all classes of mail have been required to cover the costs associated with their delivery, what’s called attributable cost. But periodicals, as a class, get favorable treatment: They don’t pay overhead, meaning that they don’t foot the bill for the Postal Service’s infrastructure, employees, and so on.

   That’s a tradition that goes back to the origins of the nation. The founding fathers saw the press as the lifeblood of democracy–only informed voters could compose a true democracy, they believed–and thus created a postal system that gave favorable rates to small periodicals. (George Washington actually supported mailing newspapers for free.) For 200 years, small periodicals and journals of opinion were given special treatment.

   The 2007 rate hikes, which went into effect this summer, changed that. Now, periodicals are still expected to cover attributable costs and pay no overhead, but because the cost of delivering mail has gone up, rates within the class have gone up as well. In advance of the rate hike, the Postal Service submitted a proposal to the Postal Regulatory Commission that would have raised the rates in the class more or less evenly. The PRC rejected the proposal in favor of a rate package put forward by Time Warner that, unsurprisingly, hands small periodicals much steeper rate hikes than their large counterparts.
   .
   .
   motherjones

   compassionate conservatism © at work.

   lTMF’sA

   

   • 

     dada on November 6, 2007 at 10:31 am

     2

     speaking of compassionate conservatives, pat buchanan, of all people says: “The chickens of free trade are coming home to roost.“

     Sinking Currency, Sinking Country

     …The dollar has plummeted in value, more so in Bush’s term than during any comparable period of U.S. history. Indeed, Bush is presiding over a worldwide abandonment of the American dollar.
     .
     .
     A sinking dollar means a poorer nation, and a sinking currency has historically been the mark of a sinking country. And a superpower with a sinking currency is a contradiction in terms.

     yahoo news

     it’s gotten so bad, even super models don’t want it.

     lTMF’sA

     

     • 

       CabinGirl on November 6, 2007 at 10:34 am

       I saw that Gisele article yesterday, and thought it was funny in one way, and horribly depressing at the same time.

       And to think that the downward slide of the US economy has just begun…

   • 

     dada on November 6, 2007 at 10:33 am

     3

     but it’s not all gloom and doom, especially if you’re one of the few american companies who still are able to compete in the international market, or better yet, one of the haves and have mores with a nice stock portfolio:

     …The CBOE Technology index is up 21% this year — more than triple the gain of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index — but still down a hefty 38% from March 2000, when the Internet-driven bubble peaked.

     Fans say tech has several things going its way, including significant overseas sales, reasonable share prices relative to company earnings, and the potential to grow in a slowing economy…
     .
     .
     Tech companies also do a lot of business in booming overseas markets. About 56% of tech revenue comes from international sales, compared with 45% for the S&P 500, Stovall said.

     Indeed, the strongest growth will come from overseas, particularly less developed markets, some expert[s] say.
     .
     .
     International sales accounted for 65% of the Silicon Valley company’s revenue in the third quarter, compared with 54% a year earlier.

     lat

     call your broker today!

     lTMF’sA

     

   • 

     dada on November 6, 2007 at 10:34 am

     4

     and all those compassionate conservatives in HSA’s lmmigration and customs enforcement division, they just want to have fun:

     Julie Myers, head of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, has apologized for “awarding `most original costume’ to a Homeland Security Department employee who dressed in prison stripes, dreadlocks and dark makeup for a Halloween gathering at the agency.”
     .
     .
     …Myers has been sharply criticized for her lack of qualifications to head the division. She is the niece of former Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Richard B. Myers and married to U.S. attorney in Missouri John F. Wood, who was Michael Chertoff’s former top aide.

     think progress

     at the expense of minorities.

     lTMF’sA

     

     • 

       CabinGirl on November 6, 2007 at 10:36 am

       It’s no wonder that we’ve seen the rise in hate crimes and nooses used for “decoration” under this administration.

       • 

         dada on November 6, 2007 at 10:45 am

         that was my first reaction to it as well…the fish rots from the head.

         lTMF’sA

         

   • 

     dada on November 6, 2007 at 10:42 am

     5

     and lastly,

     do you think that since coal is estimated to be responsible for “41% of the world’s man-made carbon dioxide emissions”, and that, just perhaps, it would be logical that minimizing its use would be a giant step forward in the scheme of things?

     well, you’d be mistaken:

     …A ton of U.S. coal is so cheap at about $47 that European utilities will pay $50 to ship it across the Atlantic, according to Galbraith’s Ltd., a 263-year-old London shipbroker. While oil and coal cost the same as recently as 1998, West Texas Intermediate crude is five times more expensive after climbing to a record $96.24 on Nov. 1.

     Peabody Energy Corp., Consol Energy Inc. and Arch Coal Inc., the three biggest U.S. coal companies, forecast the largest increase in exports in 20 years, degrading the call for a moratorium on coal plants by former U.S. Vice President and this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore. Coal use worldwide has grown 27 percent since 2002, three times faster than crude, said BP Plc. U.S. East Coast coal has risen 71 percent, while oil tripled on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

     “Coal is by far the cheapest fuel because there’s no price on how much damage it causes,” said John Holdren, a Harvard University professor of environmental science and director of the Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. “Unless you get policies to put a price on carbon dioxide and other emissions, no other plants can compete.”

     bloombergreport

     but nbc still wants you to believe that the people who believe the world is flat deserve equal time…especially when al gore’s a guest.

     lTMF’sA

     

5. 

   on November 6, 2007 at 5:57 pm

   CIA veteran says 911 inside job.
   http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/09/12_baer.html