Thursday News Bucket

15 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on June 7, 2007 at 7:13 am

   apparently hating gays is one of his job qualifications: AP

   President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general, Kentucky cardiologist Dr. James Holsinger, has come under fire from gay rights groups for voting to expel a lesbian pastor from the United Methodist Church and writing in 1991 that gay sex is unnatural and unhealthy.

   Also, Holsinger helped found a Methodist congregation that, according to gay rights activists, believes homosexuality is a matter of choice and can be “cured.”

   “He has a pretty clear bias against gays and lesbians,” said Christina Gilgor, director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, a gay rights group. “This ideology flies in the face of current scientific medical studies. That makes me uneasy that he rejects science and promotes ideology.”

   Reminds me of the appointment of Eric Keroack to oversee family planning funding…

2. 

   CabinGirl on June 7, 2007 at 7:25 am

   from WashPo

   Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told senators yesterday.

   The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get approval for the same program from then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who lay recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to former deputy attorney general James B. Comey.

   Comey’s disclosures, made in response to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicate that Cheney and his aides were more closely involved than previously known in a fierce internal battle over the legality of the warrantless surveillance program. The program allowed the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails between the United States and overseas.

   Comey said that Cheney’s office later blocked the promotion of a senior Justice Department lawyer, Patrick Philbin, because of his role in raising concerns about the surveillance.

   Cheney is an evil bastard.

3. 

   ask on June 7, 2007 at 7:56 am

   No surprise; Bush’s best buddy Prince Bandar knows how to look after himself:
   BAE accused of secretly paying £1bn to Saudi prince

   The arms company BAE secretly paid Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia more than £1bn in connection with Britain’s biggest ever weapons contract, it is alleged today.

   A series of payments from the British firm was allegedly channelled through a US bank in Washington to an account controlled by one of the most colourful members of the Saudi ruling clan, who spent 20 years as their ambassador in the US.

   It is claimed that payments of £30m were paid to Prince Bandar every quarter for at least 10 years.

   …

   An inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into the transactions behind the £43bn Al-Yamamah arms deal, which was signed in 1985, is understood to have uncovered details of the payments to Prince Bandar.

   But the investigation was halted last December by the SFO after a review by the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith.

   He said it was in Britain’s national interest to halt the investigation, and that there was little prospect of achieving convictions.

   Tony Blair said he took “full responsibility” for the decision.

   One billion pounds in ‘commissions’ – that’s almost $2bn!

4. 

   ask on June 7, 2007 at 8:11 am

   Corruption ‘damaging education’

   Bribery and corruption damage universities and schools across the world, according to a report for the UN’s education wing, Unesco.

   The study says education is plagued by rigged tendering processes, academic fraud and bribes over places and posts.

   Academic fraud, such as fake degrees, is more common in the United States than in developing countries, it says.

   The study of more than 60 countries says that in some, illegal use of funds meant for schools can be very high.

   This loss between ministries and schools – or “leakage” as it is called – can be as much as 80% of the non-salary cash for schools.

   UNESCO’s Press Release

5. 

   AndiF on June 7, 2007 at 8:40 am

   Some good news for one teacher and for other folks who work with kids. Full Article

   A Superior Court judge Wednesday granted a new trial for Julie Amero, 40, a Norwich substitute teacher whose faulty computer spewed pornographic images in her seventh grade classroom.

   “I had a great team behind me,” a tearful Amero said. “I feel very confident with the decision today.”

   The new trial ordered by Superior Court Judge Hillary B. Strackbein comes after a campaign on Amero’s behalf by computer security experts around the country, who offered evidence showing that Amero’s computer was taken over by malicious “spyware” that caused a rapid fire sequence of pornographic “pop-up” windows to appear on the screen.

   [snip]

   At Amero’s trial, the state maintained that Amero failed to act to prevent her students from glimpsing at images of the pornography. Assistant State’s Attorney David Smith argued then that the evidence was “clear cut” that Amero was at fault because she caused the pornography to appear on the computer.

   But today, Smith said state would take no position on Dow’s motion for a new trial, making it unlikely she will be tried again. Smith also acknowledged that erroneous information about the computer was presented during trial.

   • 

     CabinGirl on June 7, 2007 at 9:23 am

     They should just throw the case out.  How will she ever recover her career after this?

6. 

   ask on June 7, 2007 at 9:02 am

   Another WTF-moment. Imprisoning children to force confessions from detainees.

   Groups list 39 “disappeared” in U.S. war on terror

   NEW YORK (Reuters) – Six human rights groups urged the U.S. government on Thursday to name and explain the whereabouts of 39 people they said were believed to have been held in U.S. custody and “disappeared.”

   The groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said they filed a U.S. federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act seeking information about the 39 people it terms “ghost prisoners” in the U.S. “war on terror.”

   “Since the end of Latin America’s dirty wars, the world has rejected the use of ‘disappearances’ as a fundamental violation of international law,” professor Meg Satterthwaite of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University’s School of Law said in a statement.

   The report said suspects’ relatives, including children as young as seven, had been held in secret detention on occasion.

   …

   Among the cases detailed in the report is the detention in September 2002 of two children, then aged seven and nine, of confessed September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was later detained and is now held at Guantanamo.

   “According to eyewitnesses, the two were held in an adult detention center for at least four months while U.S. agents questioned the children about their father’s whereabouts,” the report said.

   • 

     CabinGirl on June 7, 2007 at 9:25 am

     Disgusting.  Before W, who would have thought the US was a third-world dictatorship masquerading as the great bastion of democracy?

     • 

       Brendan Skwire on June 7, 2007 at 11:08 am

       I probably think that: after all, who toppled Allende?  Who backed United Fruit?  Who funded the contras and the wars in Central America?
       USA! USA!

       We have plenty of experience playing the role of third world dictatorship, but we usually do it by proxy.

       “Somoza” isn’t just a tasty Indian snack.

       • 

         keres on June 7, 2007 at 6:36 pm

         And me.

   • 

     cruz del sur on June 7, 2007 at 1:48 pm

     It is about time they start using the term disappeared. And, these charges never prescribe, and can not be pardoned by a president.

7. 

   northcountry on June 7, 2007 at 10:58 am
8. 

   billjpa on June 7, 2007 at 11:39 am

   News Bucket is apparently another name for Open…..
    OK- in that case- Am listening to C-span radio coverage of hearings on lute appointment and have just had to go and throw up. I will tell anyone who cares to know that if one listenning to this bullshit and personal posturing will immediately understand just why the US is heading right down the crapper. Unbelievable is no longer appropriate. Hysterical is probably a better choice. It makes no difference who is speaking- they are all the same. Not a fucking difference at all.
     Down the tubes folks. In the crapper. Just a mockery of what the founders had planned. I have never been so depressed in my life.

9. 

   dada on June 7, 2007 at 2:17 pm

   was passed by the sen. judiciary committee on an 11 to 8 vote:

   Today the Senate Judiciary Committee passed an important bill to restore habeas corpus, the sacrosanct Constitutional right to challenge government detention in court, by a vote of eleven to eight.

   Habeas corpus was revoked by last year’s Military Commissions Act, which has been assailed as unconstitutional and un-American by leaders across the political spectrum. Today’s habeas bill was backed by the Judiciary Committee’s Democratic Chairman, Patrick Leahy, and its Republican Ranking Member, Arlen Specter.

   […]

   Today’s vote means the habeas bill can now be brought to the Senate floor at any time. One source with knowledge of the legislative plan said Majority Leader Harry Reid has committed to bringing the bill to a vote within the month.

   more at the nation

   other than Dodd, who has a competing bill that would go much farther, it should be interesting to watch the positioning of the other candidates, notably, Obama and Clinton.

   one small step towards restoring the constitution.

   lTMF’sA

   

10. 

    on June 7, 2007 at 3:31 pm

    Once again be prepared for the evening barf when MSM brings you Paris Hilton, live from the mansion.
    The Scooter Libby has a rash jokes are already circulating!