Amarillo Globe News from January 6th.
Anti-litter campaign gets a flashy new look
TxDOT using star power to get message across to young people
By Michael Smith
michael.smith@amarillo.com
A Texas Department of Transportation pickup rests in an emply lot littered with trash on Thursday near Gem Lake Road and Amarillo Boulevard. On the truck's rear quarter panel is Texas' 20-year-old anti-litter slogan "Don't Mess With Texas."
Michael Lemmons / michael.lemmons@amarillo.com
"[Dalhart Cheese Factory] Not a good move. Population in Dalhart is around 7,500. How will that equate to return on investment from sales taxes? Money could be better invested by giving tax breaks on energy for the 160,000+ in Amarillo." - From dblwing1
[Join this discussion]
Star Power: Celebrities such as Lance Armstrong appear in ads for TxDOT's anti-litter campaign, aimed at the state's youngest generation.
Courtesy Photo
Texas Department of Transportation officials wrote the curriculum for statewide litter prevention 20 years ago and now think the state's youngest generation could use a refresher course.
TxDOT is reinforcing its "Don't Mess With Texas" anti-litter push with the "Real Texans Don't Litter" campaign it launched during the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day.
Returning to its original use of star power mixed with catchy television ads and jingles, TxDOT is targeting Texans under 25 - who are twice as likely to litter than their grandparents' generation, department studies show.
Keep Amarillo Beautiful coordinator Dusty McGuire said now is the right time for a renewed push. Children aren't taught about littering in public schools like they once were, McGuire said.
"I don't like Amarillo to be littered, it bothers me," she said. "I think it's going to be fabulous."
Aided by stars such as Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jerry Jeff Walker when it began in 1986, the phrase "Don't Mess With Texas" was an instant hit, program spokeswoman Brenda Flores-Dollar said.
"People just loved the idea," Flores-Dollar said. "Not only because it means don't litter, but it's a Texas pride thing."
Other states have since copied the idea.
The newest campaign features a list of Texas celebrities including singers Erykah Badu, Los Lonely Boys and Lee Ann Womack, and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.
Dallas Cowboys running back Julius Jones has also joined the campaign.
On the Net:
www.dot.state.tx.us/
The lineup is more identifiable for younger Texans, which was the magic that helped the initial campaign with adults, McGuire said.
"I'm thrilled, and I'm hoping the people in Amarillo will pay attention and stop littering here because we've become real sloppy," she said.
The department's other litter campaign, the Adopt-a-Highway program, began 21 years ago.
In the 17-county Panhandle area, 159 groups are active in the program and responsible for 347 miles of state roads, said Brenda Lowe, TxDOT Amarillo Adopt-A-Highway coordinator.
Groups, families and individuals sign two-year contracts with the department promising four trash pickups per year. The program remains popular, and works as a soft deterrent, Lowe said.
"When somebody sees it clean, they want to keep it clean - hopefully," Lowe said.
A cleaner Amarillo is in the community's best interest, McGuire said.
"A clean town, you need to have pride about it," McGuire said. "People pay attention when they're passing through or coming to move here."
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/010606/new_3655183.shtml
Six new fires break out in Texas
One home destroyed
The Associated Press
Flames Return: Members of the Bulverde Volunteer Fire Department work a brush fire Thursday near San Antonio. Residents of the Fossil Ridge subdivision, south of the fire, were asked to evacuate.
AP Photo
"[Dalhart Cheese Factory] Not a good move. Population in Dalhart is around 7,500. How will that equate to return on investment from sales taxes? Money could be better invested by giving tax breaks on energy for the 160,000+ in Amarillo." - From dblwing1 [Join this discussion]
Firefighters were battling six new blazes that flared Thursday throughout Texas, destroying one home and threatening dozens of houses and buildings.
One home was lost when a fire in Hunt County scorched about 300 acres and continued growing. And a fire burning 8 miles west of Springtown, in Parker County, threatened up to 20 homes and burned 40 acres. Another blaze in Bexar County consumed some 150 acres and caused the evacuation of 30 homes, according to the Texas Forest Service.
Swirling winds of up to 20 mph spread the fire across grass and scrub land in northern Bexar County. Late Thursday afternoon, the blaze was about a mile from the nearest subdivision, said Randy Jenkins, spokesman for the San Antonio Fire Department.
Military helicopters rigged with large water buckets were dispatched to help fight the fire, which was moving southeast toward San Antonio city limits, Jenkins said.
Crews were able to control a 250-acre blaze about two miles south of Killeen in Bell County that had threatened 12 structures, said Bill Sweet, a Texas Forest Service spokesman.
Firefighters were also working small fires in Clay County and another blaze in Hale County, Sweet said.
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/010606/new_3655540.shtml
Seewald: New Orleans needs to know where it stands
By William H. Seewald
Opinion
"They put new lights in downtown. All well and good, but they screwed up the timing on one. Where you used to drive straight through, now you have to stop and wait at 8th street on Fillmore. Then, once it releases you, you catch the yellow at the next light, if you are quick..." - From James [Join this discussion]
NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans remains a city in suspended animation even though more people have filtered back into town.
As of year's end, electricity, gas and water have been largely restored to the parts of the city without significant flooding. Phones are another matter. Responding for months that they had no idea when they'd restore service, the phone company's lately taken to tentative promises of March.
The school system has just two schools open. The state has taken over most of New Orleans' dysfunctional schools. Except for the knockout punch to school buildings already reduced to little more than tenements by years of neglect and corruption, Katrina's kindest blow may have been tolling a death knell for the city's failed schools.
There's plenty of blame to go around for the inadequate, tentative and often non-existent effort to restore New Orleans to reasonable function as a city. But New Orleanians must accept primary responsibility for the abject failure of their schools.
If New Orleans is to regain its footing, the daunting list of tasks is overwhelming. But other than levees that will protect the city, there isn't much to top the need for schools if families are going to be able to return to make their homes there.
Boosterish notions of New Orleans' great opportunity to reinvent itself are surfacing. And while those of us who love it no doubt prefer it largely as it was, unquestionably the city now has an opportunity that it simply can't afford to flub. There has to be aid to repair school buildings. But New Orleans must find the political will and the leadership to make that investment yield education instead of incompetence and corruption.
Blooming here and there are hopeful tidings. A committee of the mayor's rebuilding commission appears poised to recommend significant changes in the way the city is governed, streamlining bloated, bureaucratic fiefdoms in parish government and merging the duplicative civil and criminal court systems.
Most of the city's universities will reopen this month. There's a promised contract to remove the more than 30,000 abandoned vehicles that litter medians and the shadows of freeways. They, like the ubiquitous piles of debris, are grim reminders of the devastation, with their grimy water rings encircling and demarcating the various stages of their submersion and ruination. The same striations on the sides of homes and businesses throughout the city will not be so readily dispatched.
The New Orleans Levee Board unanimously endorsed a constitutional amendment that would create a new regional levee district. With the legislature's failure to pass the consolidation legislation, and given the governor's somewhat lukewarm support for the idea, local business leaders and citizens demanded reform, gathering nearly 50,000 signatures in a month.
But there's still no commitment to levees that will protect the city from storms worse than Katrina, now estimated to actually have been a Category 3 when it hit the city. Significant rebuilding or repopulation almost certainly will stagnate until people and businesses know the levees will be adequate. Neither your insurance company nor your dry cleaner can be expected to commit to the city in the absence of protection from the Gulf, which was visited by more Category 5 storms this season than all the rest of the previous hundred years combined.
The horrendous damage should've produced a reallocation of national priorities sufficient to pay for a sensible reconstruction plan. There's no plan. Without leadership, the dispiriting attitude of people all over the country is that somehow the problems and solutions are all up to the city.
President Bush's reconstruction czar, one-time Amarillo banker Don Powell, was shoved in front of the cameras last month. Sounding every bit the used-car salesman, Powell proclaimed the levees will be "bigger and better" than ever before, delivering few specifics, much less plans for a redesigned levee system that actually would protect the city. He offered only strengthening of the existing levees and a pittance for wetland restoration, the critical first line of defense against approaching storms.
After four months, only about a third of Congress' original Katrina appropriation has been spent. But then the people of Iraq can offer firsthand testimony about the distance between the Bush administration's rhetoric about reconstruction and the benefits that actually trickle down from the vice president's corporate cronies like Halliburton.
The list of uncompleted tasks is immense - from piles of debris that won't disappear for three years at current rates, to the tens of thousands of families huddled in motels and facing eviction.
Longer-term recovery will depend on actual progress, as well as people's perception of what's happening. There must be confidence that the recovery is being well managed and the levees will be re-engineered. Neither the reality nor the perception is too heartening right now.
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/010606/opi_3649262.shtml
11 U.S. troops killed on same day in recent barrage of violence that has swept Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military said Friday that six more American troops died in the recent surge of violence in Iraq, bringing to 11 the number of U.S. troops slain on the same day.
Thousands of Shiites, meanwhile, rallied in Baghdad to protest the bloodshed and denounce what they said was American coddling of some Sunnis who support the insurgency in order to mollify them and bring them into a broad-based government.
In new violence Friday, a suicide car bomber struck a police patrol in Baghdad, killing one officer, Col. Noori Ashur said.
Elsewhere, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw held talks in southern Iraq with local officials on forming a broad-based coalition government.
A U.S. Marine and soldier died in Thursday's attack by a suicide bomber who infiltrated a line of police recruits in Ramadi, killing at least 58 and wounding dozens. Two soldiers were also killed in the Baghdad area when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, the military said Friday.
http://ap.amarillonet.com/pstories/20060106/3541102.shtml
Doctor to speak about Medicare Part D
Amarillo Globe-News
Medicare Part D has some senior citizens confused and concerned, but they can find answers at the next Texas Cooperative Extension Senior Seminar.
"Medicare Part D - Is it Right for You?" will begin at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 12 in the Amarillo Senior Citizens Association Meeting Room 115.
Dr. Ted Nicklaus, medical director for Ware Memorial Care Center, Heritage Convalescent Center and Jan Werner Adult Day Care Center, and Serena Cowart, benefits counselor with Area Agency on Aging of the Panhandle, will address questions such as: "Why is Medicare Part D so confusing?" "Should I join?" and "If so, what plan should I join?"
In advance of the seminar, seniors or their caretakers are encouraged to get a packet by calling Area Agency on Aging at 331-2227.
For more information, call 373-0713.
http://amarillo.com/stories/010406/fri_3604881.shtml
Refuge needs items to keep animals warm
Amarillo Globe-News
"[Dalhart Cheese Factory] Not a good move. Population in Dalhart is around 7,500. How will that equate to return on investment from sales taxes? Money could be better invested by giving tax breaks on energy for the 160,000+ in Amarillo." - From dblwing1 [Join this discussion]
Want to help some cold animals?
The Amarillo Wildlife Refuge is looking for blankets, sheets, towels, old clothing or bedding material to help keep the animals warm through the winter.
"It is for the animals here, mostly for the primates," refuge spokeswoman Paula Reams said. "It is for their bedding and they carry them around and wear them."
The refuge also is in need of cleaning supplies, including bleach, mops and brooms.
"We are in desperate need of this," Reams said.
To donate, call 371-0011 or 679-6919 and then drop the materials by the refuge at 4401 Redding Road.
http://www.amarillo.com/stories/010606/new_3655204.shtml
Editorial: Texas not making grade
Texas didn't make the grade in public education according to a study called "Quality Counts," released last week by Education Week.
It should come as no surprise that one of the reasons for the state's below average performance was inadequate funding for school districts determined to be poor and wealthy.
Despite numerous legislative failures and court rulings, Texas still has no definitive plan to pay for public education.
The national study of public education gave grades to states in various categories.
Texas was below average in every category other than measuring standards and accountability, in which it earned a national average grade of B-minus.
Texas' neighbors fared much better.
Oklahoma ranked seventh in the nation for teacher quality and was above average in all categories except for school climate.
New Mexico received an overall B grade and a low grade of C in school climate.
How long can Texas continue to drag its feet on the future of public education before the quality of learning begins to deteriorate?
It is time the Texas Legislature did its homework and crafted a fair and reasonable public education funding plan before substandard grades in a national study are the least of the state's worries.
Sydney Morning Herald
One butt's toll: five homes, 20,000 sheep and firefighter
A fire that destroyed five houses and burnt out massive tracts of farm and bushland in south-western NSW was probably sparked by a discarded cigarette butt, investigators believe.
The blaze erupted west of Junee on New Year's Day and spread quickly, racing through paddocks towards dry bushland to the northeast of the town.
The fire raced across 25,200 hectares of land leaving it charred and killing an estimated 20,000 sheep and other livestock.
Volunteer firefighter John Heffernan, 21, suffered third-degree burns to 60 per cent of his body while battling the flames on his property near Junee.
He remains in a critical condition in Sydney's Concord Hospital.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/one-cigarette-butts-horrendous-toll/2006/01/09/1136771490273.html
Cyclone sparks evacuations
Communities in Western Australia's Pilbara region are braced for the arrival tonight of Cyclone Clare amid warnings of a flooding surge and destructive winds of up to 120kmh.
More than 1,500 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas along the state's north-west coast, with the category three storm intensifying as it heads towards land.
It is expected to hit the coast, possibly as a category four, between Dampier and Karratha tonight and has forced the closure of shipping ports, Karratha airport and some mining operations.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/cyclone-sparks-evacuations/2006/01/09/1136771484417.html
San Francisco Chronicle
Americans saving less than nothing
Spending could outstrip income in 2005, which hasn't happened since the Depression
When the Commerce Department recently tallied up consumer finances for November, it found that Americans shelled out more money than they took in. It was the seventh such month of red ink during 2005.
Kevin Lansing, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco, tracks the personal savings rate -- the Commerce Department's measure of how much consumers have left after spending is subtracted from income. In November the savings rate was a negative 0.2 percent.
Given how much red ink households racked up in the first 11 months of last year, Lansing said the nation's personal savings rate could well be negative for all of 2005.
That, he added, would be "the first such occurrence since the Great Depression."
The term "savings rate" may be a misnomer. Keith Leggett, senior economist with the American Bankers Association, described the measure as a tally of all the income that isn't spent.
"Savings is the absence of consumption,'' he said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/08/BUG7IGJHEK1.DTL
Schwarzenegger receives stitches after LA traffic accident
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger received 15 stitches in his lip Sunday after a traffic accident near his Los Angeles home, his spokeswoman said.
Schwarzenegger was riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle with his son Patrick, 12, when another driver backed into the street shortly after 3 p.m., spokeswoman Margita Thompson said in a statement.
"The governor was unable to avoid the vehicle in his path and collided with it at a low speed," she said.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/08/state/n193905S35.DTL
SPY POWERS
Can the president eavesdrop on private citizens without a judge's ok? The high court said 'no' in 1972 Wiretaps: Ruling requires warrants for spying at home
Thirty-five years ago, President Richard Nixon claimed constitutional authority to wiretap Americans' phone calls to protect national security without asking a judge -- the same assertion that President Bush is making today in the name of fighting terrorism.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Nixon, saying the Constitution granted the powers he was claiming to judges, not presidents. If the current court eventually reconsiders that 1972 ruling, it may affect the fate of Bush's decision to authorize the National Security Agency to wiretap calls between Americans and alleged al Qaeda suspects in foreign countries.
Presidents have approved wiretaps without court orders since the 1940s, but the legality of the practice was thrown into doubt after the Supreme Court ruled in 1967 that electronic eavesdropping was a search, and thus covered by the prohibition on unreasonable searches in the Constitution's Fourth Amendment.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/08/MNGHGGK8OC1.DTL
Belafonte Calls Bush 'Greatest Terrorist'
The American singer and activist Harry Belafonte called President Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world" on Sunday and said millions of Americans support the socialist revolution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
Belafonte led a delegation of Americans including the actor Danny Glover and the Princeton University scholar Cornel West that met the Venezuelan president for more than six hours late Saturday. Some in the group attended Chavez's television and radio broadcast Sunday.
"No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people ... support your revolution," Belafonte told Chavez during the broadcast.
The 78-year-old Belafonte, famous for his calypso-inspired music, including the "Day-O" song, was a close collaborator of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and is now a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. He also has been outspoken in criticizing the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
Chavez said he believes deeply in the struggle for justice by blacks, both in the U.S. and Venezuela.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/08/international/i175901S16.DTL
Mouse Thrown Into Fire Sets Home Ablaze
A mouse got its revenge against a homeowner who tried to dispose of it in a pile of burning leaves. The blazing creature ran back to the man's house and set it on fire.
Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner said he caught the mouse inside his house and wanted to get rid of it.
"I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house," Mares said from a motel room Saturday.
Village Fire Chief Juan Chavez said the burning mouse ran to just beneath a window, and the flames spread up from there and throughout the house.
No was hurt inside, but the home and everything in it was destroyed.
Unseasonably dry and windy conditions have charred more than 53,000 acres and destroyed 10 homes in southeastern New Mexico in recent weeks.
"I've seen numerous house fires," village Fire Department Capt. Jim Lyssy said, "but nothing as unique as this one."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/08/national/a131941S22.DTL
Pope John Paul's Shooter to Be Released
The man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 will be released from prison this week after a court decided he had completed his sentence for the attack on the pontiff and other crimes — a ruling that took the Vatican by surprise.
Mehmet Ali Agca was extradited to Turkey in 2000 after serving almost 20 years in Italy for shooting and wounding the pope in St. Peter's Square in Rome. His motive for shooting John Paul in the abdomen on May 13, 1981, remains unclear.
Agca, 47, was to be released on parole Thursday, his lawyer, Mustafa Demirbag told The Associated Press by telephone.
"He was eligible to be released on parole because he had no disciplinary problems," Demirbag said.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/08/international/i193950S75.DTL
SAN FRANCISCO
Jack London's lens on 1906 quake
Author's photos, never seen by public, get centennial show
It is still magic after all these years: Slowly the black and white image comes to life in the darkroom tray at the headquarters of the California Historical Society in San Francisco. The picture is from another time, but it is sharp and clear -- it is of a huge domed building, all in ruins, as if it had been bombed.
It is the wreckage of San Francisco's City Hall, destroyed in an earthquake a century ago this spring. It is a remarkable picture, but the photographer was even more remarkable. He was Jack London.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/06/BAGN3GI4NU1.DTL
The DNC
Corny? Perhaps. But they are making sure they are delivering on a promise
Delivering The FOIA Requests
Posted by Tim Tagaris on January 5, 2006 at 02:57 PM
Shortly after the New York Times publicized the president's domestic-spying-without-a-warrant program, over 160,000 Americans signed a Freedom of Information Act Request along with Governor Dean in an attempt to determine just why President Bush believed he had the authority to undermine the Constitution. Earlier today Joe Sandler, DNC attorney, delivered each and every one of those FOIA requests to the Department of Justice. Here are some of the photos:
http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/01/delivering_the.php
The New Zealand Herald
Iran prepares to remove nuclear seals
09.01.06 1.00pm
By Daniel Howden
Iran was last night preparing to remove United Nations seals at several nuclear research and development sites, despite warnings from nuclear watchdog Mohamed El Baradei that the international community was running out of patience with Tehran.
It would be the second time in five months that Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, removed seals put in place by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"We will remove the seals and we have announced that we are ready to start research from tomorrow," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said yesterday.
"It depends on the IAEA to announce its readiness as this will take place under the agency's supervision," he added.
However, Mr El Baradei, head of the IAEA, disputed Tehran's assertion that 90 per cent of issues related to the resumption of research had been solved.
"I am running out of patience, the international community is running out patience, the credibility of the verification process is at stake and I'd like come March, which is my next report, to be able to clarify these issues," he told Sky News.
"Everybody would like to see a regime by which the international community is assured that the Iranian programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes and there are still a number of issues we are looking at.
"There is also a consensus that enrichment in Iran right now is a matter of serious concern."
Uranium enrichment is the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle since it can be used to produce bomb-grade material as well as nuclear reactor fuel.
Iran has not publicly disclosed what activities it plans to resume on Monday.
Diplomats and analysts say atomic research and development could involve some laboratory tests of uranium enrichment and the assembly of enrichment centrifuges.
"R&D activities will be under the IAEA's supervision and there is nothing to be worried about," Asefi said.
IAEA officials say an Iranian team failed to show up for talks in Vienna last week to explain what activities Iran planned to resume.
Asked why the Iranian team flew back from Vienna without meeting the IAEA, Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told state television on Saturday: "Holding any meeting has to be based on the attainment of an aim and a result. The cancellation of the meeting in fact took place in this light."
On Thursday a high-ranking Iranian delegation rebuffed El Baradei, reneging on a pledge to provide full details of its plans by not showing up for a scheduled meeting with him.
Russian officials in Iran, meanwhile, continued talks about Moscow's proposal that the two countries conduct uranium enrichment, a process that can produce nuclear fuel for reactors or atomic weapons depending on the degree of enrichment, on Russian territory.
The Russian proposal, backed by the European Union and the United States, was designed ease concerns that Iran would use the fuel to build a bomb.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362937
UN peacekeepers chief in Haiti found dead
09.01.06 1.00pm
By Phil Davison
The Brazilian general in charge of United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti has been found dead on the balcony of his hotel suite with a bullet through his head.
He was found wearing only underpants and a white vest with his pistol still in his hand.
The general had been alone in his suite and suicide is presumed, according to UN officials and Haitian police.
But in the land of voodoo spells and zombies, and more recently violent political and gang killings, the death of General Urano Texeira da Matta Bacellar, 58, has rattled the international community.
He was described by colleagues as an extremely religious, happily-married man with two children he adored, and a soldier used, in 39 years of service, to pressure far worse than he had seen in his four months in Haiti.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362928
US House Republicans face leadership battle
09.01.06 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - With US Rep. Tom Delay having bowed out as House of Representatives majority leader under an ethical cloud, a contest quickly emerged among Republicans to replace him in the key post.
Republican Rep. John Boehner of Ohio announced his candidacy for the job, now held on an acting basis by Roy Blunt of Missouri, who has been busy lining up support of his own.
"We must come together and renew our commitment to creating a better America based on freedom, opportunity, fiscal and personal responsibility, empowered citizens, and restored trust," Boehner, 56, said in a statement announcing his candidacy.
While Blunt, 55, has not made a formal announcement, an aide said he began reaching out to fellow Republicans for support on Saturday after DeLay announced his decision not to try to get the leadership job back.
The aide, Jessica Boulanger, said: "He (Blunt) hopes to have the votes" by the time the election is held.
"He is encouraged by the support he has seen so far," she said. "He started making phone calls yesterday after a private discussion with Tom DeLay."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362942
Powerful quake rattles Greece
09.01.06 8.20am
ATHENS - A strong earthquake shook Greece and most of the eastern Mediterranean early today NZT but caused only minor damages and no casualties.
The quake off the southeastern tip of Greece's Peloponnese peninsula measured 6.9 on the open-ended Richter scale, with its epicentre at a depth of 70 km near the island of Kithira, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said.
"We were extremely lucky this was an underwater quake," institute chief Giorgos Stavrakakis told reporters. "If it had happened on land it would be a mess."
Police said there were no reports of casualties after the tremor, which drove people out of their homes in cities across most of the country.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362908
The Big Chill in Delhi
09.01.06 6.20am
Millions of people in the Indian capital woke up to the coldest weather in 70 years, as the death toll from northern India's cold spell rose to 116. The temperature dipped to 0.2C in New Delhi, the lowest recorded in the past 70 years and seven degrees below normal, the Meteorology Department said. The previous lowest temperature was minus 0.6C in 1935.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362909
New toxic spill in China
09.01.06 9.20am
China's third major toxic spill in as many months has threatened the water supplies to millions of residents of two central cities.
A clean-up accident last Wednesday allowed the industrial chemical cadmium, which can cause neurological disorders and cancer, to flood out of a smelter and into the Xiangjiang River in Hunan province.
The river supplies tap water to Changsha, which has about six million people, and Xiangtan city, with 700,000 inhabitants.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362910
Human bird flu cases reach Turkish capital
09.01.06 1.00pm
ANKARA - Three Turks tested positive for a deadly strain of bird flu in the capital Ankara on Sunday, a new stage in the westward sweep of the disease from its east Asian origins towards major economic centres in Turkey and Europe.
The first case of the virus jumping from birds to humans outside China and southeast Asia occurred last week in rural eastern Turkey, where three children from the same family died after contracting the highly potent H5N1 strain.
As doctors confirmed that two children and a 60-year-old man were being treated in Ankara for the virus, Russia raised fears of the disease impacting Turkey's economy by warning its citizens against visiting the popular holiday destination.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362943
Boffin sees future space travel as domain of 'adventurers'
09.01.06 1.00pm
By Steve Connor
He is Britain's top scientist.
The new president of the Royal Society is also Astronomer Royal, master of Trinity College, Cambridge and renowned cosmologist whose deep thoughts frequently turn to deep space, dark matter and the dawn of creation.
Lord Rees of Ludlow, known to the many readers of his science books as Martin Rees, is also something of a thought-provoking populariser.
He believes that a butterfly poses more daunting scientific problems than a star and that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is well worth the effort.
He has advocated the exploration of space by a new generation of adventurers willing to take risks by travelling cheap, and is against the kind of costly manned exploration funded by risk-averse governments.
He favours fleets of miniature robotic probes to explore the planets rather than a manned mission to Mars and thinks the multibillion-dollar International Space Station is a "turkey in the sky".
Lord Rees the cosmologist has proposed our universe may be just one of zillions, each with its own set of physical laws, and that the universe we find ourselves living in may, in fact, be a mere computer simulation built by a race of super-intelligent beings.
He believes there is a 50 per cent chance that human civilisation may not survive in its present form by the end of the 21st century, and has warned that a major environmental collapse within the next hundred years carries the same sort of probability as tossing a coin.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10362938
continued ...
Monday, January 09, 2006
The temperature in Antarctica (Crystal Wind Chime. The two locations so rarely have the same chime.) is:
Scott Base
Clear
2.0°
Updated Monday 09 Jan 3:59PM
The temperature at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
37 °F / 3 °C
Overcast
Windchill:
31 °F / -1 °C
Humidity:
75%
Dew Point:
30 °F / -1 °C
Wind:
9 mph / 15 km/h from the NW
Pressure:
29.14 in / 987 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Overcast 4800 ft / 1463 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Scott Base
Clear
2.0°
Updated Monday 09 Jan 3:59PM
The temperature at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
37 °F / 3 °C
Overcast
Windchill:
31 °F / -1 °C
Humidity:
75%
Dew Point:
30 °F / -1 °C
Wind:
9 mph / 15 km/h from the NW
Pressure:
29.14 in / 987 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Overcast 4800 ft / 1463 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Saturday, January 07, 2006
36N Degrees Latitude
This is the satellite of January 1, 2006.
It also shows the now dissipated Tropical Storm ZETA. That storm is somewhat irrelivant to the prediction I am about to embark on here, except, to realize we now have experienced severe and notable storms in summer, autumn and winter.
There is an odd phenomena in the way the states have organized themselves in the USA. Many of them are in 'blocks' of area.
One might note the states that line up in a straight line at the very northern border. North Dakota. Iowa. Montana. Washington.
There is also another line of states.
Not exactly a straight line but close enough for this illustration. The borders between the states of Virginia and North Carolina. Kentucky and Tennessee. Missouri and Arkansas. Kansas and Okalhoma. Colorado and New Mexico. Utah and Arizona.
The line is just north of 36N degrees latitude.
Now, extrapolate that to extend the entire width of the image. What is north and what is south? Where is the drought and where is it not?
You should be getting a rough idea of moisture distribution of the Arctic Ocean Vortex. There is a still ice in the north polar ocean, by the way.
Where does that moisture come from? Insulting question, isn't it? It comes from the 'climate' of the planet as domianted by the melting of that ocean of ice.
I have long time stated the 'ocean of ice' of the north pole was the thermostat to the ENTIRE planet of Earth. It's true. Over the millennia Earth has waxed and wamed with heat and cold for one reason or another. Each of those reasons have gone into one explanation or another by detractors of Human Induced Global Warming. Volcanoes. Solar Flares. Changing Magnetic Poles.
It is those reasons that make this 'understanding' of passivity dangerous.
Ah, we'll be alright.
No we won't.
Somehow, understanding 'Younger Dryas' is to protect you from it. A natural cycle. A better comprehension of complex earth dynamics, hence, alleviating any anxiety over complete melt down.See, it goes like this. Deaths are expected to occur because the 'carrying capacity' of Earth is reduced during times of stressful heating while the recovery, as realized in Younger Dryas, will allow the Garden of Eden to return, hence, the joyous return NATURALLY of the infamous water planet, Earth.
See.
All is well that ends well. And wealthy even.
Returning now to the satellite and our understanding of 36N. What happens to all that circulating moisture when the north polar ice ocean is completely melted? Where will the drought be and where will it not? Can human beings living today sustain the ravages of Younger Dryas for 300 years before the return of benevolent climate again?
Oh, I don't know. Maybe. To some extent, providing there is a 'temperature' of tolerance to human internal body tempertures. In other words, can anyone GUARANTEE you won't fry?
No.
There is a factor that is ignored with all these scenarios. The fact that when Younger Dryas occurred before there were not 6 billion people on Earth. There was not CONTINUED industrial emissions of carbon dioxide.
I am here to tell you, the return of biotic life on Earth will not return in 300 years. It will return when and only when we stop producing carbon dioxide in a way un-natural to Earth.
In the book, "Silent Spring" the nightmare was the fact the chemicals placed by humans in the ground was now killing us slowly through altered body chemistry resulting in cancers. It wasn't until we cleaned the environment of those cancinogens did our ability to PREVENT cancers begin......
The diminished 'carrying capacity' of Earth will continue until a balance of gases surrounding this planet allows it return to a cooling cycle. That has to start with a conscious decrease of the emission of carbon dioxide by industry. Trading carbon credits is NOT the answer. Eliminating carbon dioxide is as a health related toxic gas is the ONLY way to stop this deadly progression.
There has to be a CONVERSION of civilization to 'conversion fuels' for energy and not 'combustible' fuels. Burning anything for energy is out of the question. It is ancient. It will demise this planet. It will destroy ecosystems. There are those that believe with the damage modern humans are doing to Earth it is destined to be another Venus. I don't know if I'll go that far. But, I will say there is currently an active extinction taking place. I do believe it has the capacity to destroy most of the human, if not all, population on Earth.
Currently, the Kyoto Protocol, is the hope of the world. It is not enough. Every nation on Earth has to be a part of it's future. Eliminating CO2 from emissions is an absolute necessity. Not a luxury. Every country has to 'wean' itself from carbon emissions. Even Tony Blair is looking to other carbon sources rather than taking his scientists statements seriously. Most governments have no interest in capping oil wells. They have no desire to move into a means of energy that will sustain life on Earth.
In the song entitled "Edge of the Earth," the statement "Six billion people just one name..."
Do you get it?
You have to 'get it' to appreciate the beauty in those words.
Morning Papers - It's Origins
The Chicago Tribune
Polar Bears Face New Toxic Threat: Flame Retardants
By Marla Cone
Times Staff Writer
Published January 9, 2006
Already imperiled by melting ice and a brew of toxic chemicals, polar bears throughout the Arctic, particularly in remote dens near the North Pole, face an additional threat as flame retardants originating largely in the United States are building up in their bodies, according to an international team of wildlife scientists.
The flame retardants are one of the newest additions to hundreds of industrial compounds and pesticides carried to the Arctic by northbound winds and ocean currents. Accumulating in the fatty tissues of animals, many chemicals grow more concentrated as larger creatures eat smaller ones, turning the Arctic's top predators and native people into some of the most contaminated living organisms on Earth.
In urban areas, particularly in North America, researchers already have shown that levels of flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyls, or PBDEs, are growing at a rapid pace in people and wildlife. Although they have been found in much lower concentrations in the Arctic, scientists say their toxic legacy will persist there for years because they are slow to break down, particularly in cold climates.
In polar bears, the effects are unknown. But in tests on laboratory animals, PBDEs disrupted thyroid and sex hormones and damaged developing brains, impairing motor skills and mental abilities, including memory and learning.
Scientists say that other industrial chemicals with properties similar to PBDEs are already weakening the bears' immune systems, altering their bone structure, skewing their sex hormones and perhaps even causing small numbers of hermaphroditic bears.
What remains uncertain, however, is whether those physiological changes are killing bears or reducing their populations. Some experts suspect that many cubs, which are contaminated by their mother's milk, are not surviving.
An even more immediate threat to the world's 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears is global climate change, which is melting their hunting grounds. Bears in Canada's western Hudson Bay — the most well-researched population — declined from 1,100 in 1995 to fewer than 950 in 2004. In Alaska, wildlife biologists for the first time have documented that polar bears are drowning. Scientists predict that some populations could become extinct by the end of the century as more sea ice melts.
Derek Muir of Canada's National Water Research Institute, who led the new research, said the geographical patterns in contamination suggest that the East Coast of North America and northwestern Europe are the primary sources of the flame retardants.
The most highly contaminated bears are in eastern Greenland and Norway's Svalbard islands, where the chemicals are about 10 times more concentrated than in bears in Alaska and four times more than in Canada, according to new research published in December in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
A major denning area, Svalbard is a national refuge where hunting is prohibited, but scientists at the Norwegian Polar Institute say its bear population is not thriving, and older females aren't producing cubs.
The team of scientists from Canada, Norway, Denmark and Alaska, who tested 139 bears captured in 10 locations, found that some brominated flame retardants magnify from prey to predator at an extraordinary rate. One compound was 71 times more concentrated in polar bears than in ringed seals, their major food source.
Manufacturing industries in the United States use large volumes of PBDEs in furniture, carpet padding, electronics and plastics. The most abundant PBDE in the bears comes from a compound called penta, used primarily in North America to make foam furniture cushions fire-resistant.
The only U.S. manufacturer of penta and another PBDE called octa ended their production in 2004 after the compounds began building up in human breast milk and Europe and California banned their use. Yet stockpiles remain, as well as products that contain penta, octa and other flame retardants, so the chemicals are still hitchhiking to the Arctic on northbound winds.
Michael Ikonomou of Canada's Institute of Ocean Sciences reported some good news last year. Although the flame retardants had been doubling every four to five years in Arctic ringed seals from 1981 to 2000, they have stabilized as the bans on the two compounds go into effect. Muir said he expects "a quick downturn" in the polar bear levels as factories stop using stockpiles. He warned, however, that other industrial chemicals are starting to turn up in Arctic creatures.
The geographical patterns of the flame retardants mirror those of a much older contaminant — PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. Although banned by industrialized nations in the 1970s, PCBs persist in the environment for decades, and remain the most abundant and worrisome contaminant in polar bears, particularly in the Norwegian and Russian Arctic.
Muir, who has been documenting Arctic wildlife contamination for 20 years, said the flame retardants probably are coming from the same areas as PCBs and arriving in the Arctic via the same pathways — primarily northbound winds blowing chemicals across the Atlantic from the United States, Canada and northern Europe.
If the chemicals were originating in Asia, contamination would be higher in the Alaskan bears.
In June in Seattle, 40 wildlife scientists representing all five nations that contain polar bear populations adopted a resolution declaring that the bears are "susceptible to the effects of pollutants," and those effects could be worsened by the stresses of global warming. They agreed that chemicals probably are causing diseases and changes in the tissues, organs and bone density of bears in eastern Greenland. Denmark, which owns the self-governed territory of Greenland, was chosen to coordinate a circumpolar study of the role of pollution in harming bears' vital organs and other bodily systems.
Geir Gabrielsen, the Norwegian Polar Institute's director of research on the environmental impacts of toxic chemicals, said all the industrial compounds and pesticides probably combine to alter the physiology of polar bears as well as Arctic seabirds. Glaucous gulls in Svalbard have shown signs of reproductive, behavioral and developmental stress, perhaps from PCBs and other contaminants that alter their thyroid hormones. Chemical loads are also high in Arctic foxes and whales.
"PCBs, pesticides, brominated and fluorinated compounds are the greatest threat to top predators in the Svalbard area," he said.
Virtually every animal and person tested on Earth contains traces of brominated flame retardants, scientists say. Americans have the highest levels found so far, and many U.S. women carry concentrations in their breast milk that are close to the amounts that altered the brains of newborn mice in lab tests.
Marine mammals in North America's urbanized areas, particularly killer whales and belugas, are 100 times more contaminated with PBDEs than Arctic creatures. Canada's polar bears, however, contain more than the nation's grizzly bears because their diet is almost entirely meat, particularly fatty meat that builds up chemicals. Killer whales have the highest concentrations in the Arctic.
In addition to the brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated compounds used to manufacture Teflon and formerly used in Scotchgard have been detected in polar bears in Greenland, Canada and Alaska, and a PBDE compound called deca, used in large volumes in electronics, is in the blood of Svalbard bears.
The new study also detected another flame retardant used in building materials and household furnishings, called HBCD, or hexabromocyclododecane, in Arctic bears. Chemists had thought it had a low potential to migrate long distances but now believe it is spreading globally.
"It is a chemical that needs to be watched," Muir said, "because it does biomagnify in the aquatic food webs and appears to be a widespread pollutant."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-me-polarbears9jan09,1,3685362.story?coll=chi-homepagenews-utl
1 stolen wallet, $412,000 in hole
Identity thieves cash in on 3 phony mortgages
By David Jackson
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 8, 2006
Second City student improv performer Meghan Ross took all the obvious steps when her wallet was snatched in a crowded bar three years ago.
Grabbing a cell phone, the 22-year-old canceled her credit cards and filed a police report. She woke her mother for advice.
She made follow-up inquiries over the next few days, then figured the ordeal was over, costing her the $40 in cash she lost.
Sixteen months later, in April 2004, a private detective tracked down Ross' parents and handed them a sheaf of court papers. Ross was being sued by giant lending companies based in New Jersey, California and Pennsylvania.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0601080284jan08,1,3690656.story
Church's archives not the only black history records at risk
Published January 9, 2006
In 1993 a national conference of archivists convened at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. One of the topics of discussion was how to persuade African-American church leaders to do a better job documenting their church's history.
Archivists were concerned that historians wanting to chronicle the role of the black church in American society long had been hampered because church records often weren't properly stored or readily accessible.
Among the archivists attending the conference were representatives from some of the country's most esteemed repositories of black history and culture: Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New Orleans' Amistad Research Center and Chicago's Harsh Research Collection at the Woodson Regional Library on the South Side.
Michael Flug, senior archivist at Harsh, said he and his colleagues began telling stories detailing how they had visited churches and found boxes of valuable photographs, programs, souvenir booklets and handwritten sheet music that were in poor condition.
They had found old records that included the minutes of meetings and oral history tapes in varying states of disrepair. Much of it had been shunted into the alcoves of church basements and forgotten.
Church officials often had far
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0601090118jan09,1,3083450.column?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
For those of us missing the hearings on Alito, Mike provides the C-Span link:
"In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge Alito's support for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling."
http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp?Cat=Current_Event&Code=SCourt&ShowVidNum=57&Rot_Cat_CD=SCourt&Rot_HT=&Rot_WD=&ShowVidDays=365&ShowVidDesc=&ArchiveDays=365
Christian conservatives rally for Judge Alito
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Christian conservative leader Rev. Jerry Falwell said on Sunday that confirming Federal Appeals Court judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court would be the biggest victory for his constituency in three decades.
"What we've worked on for 30 years, to mobilize people of faith and value in this country, what we've done through these years is coming to culmination right now," Falwell said at a rally on the eve of Alito's confirmation hearing.
"Now we're looking at what we really started on 30 years ago, reconstruction of a court system gone awry," Falwell said at a rally at a Baptist church in Philadelphia and broadcast on Christian radio and television.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5459
Suicide attack at Interior Ministry kills 29
Deadly four-day period also claims lives of 28 American troops in Iraq
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two suicide bombers wearing police uniforms and holding security passes tried to attack National Police Day celebrations Monday, with police shooting one to death and the other exploding his vest, killing 29 people, authorities said. The U.S. ambassador and Iraq’s interior and defense ministers were in attendance but far from the attacks.
An Internet site known for publishing extremist material from al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi carried a claim of responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for the alleged torture of Sunni prisoners at an Interior Ministry facility. The text of the entire statement was not available.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5463
THE FORGETFUL PRESIDENT
Did George meet Jack?
MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, I said it's possible that they would have met at a holiday reception or some other widely attended gathering. The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him.
Maybe this will refresh his memory...
May 9, 2001: At the meeting, Bush made some general comments about Indian policy but did not discuss Indian gaming. Abramoff was at the meeting—for which he charged the Coushatta Tribe $25,000.
WHO IS LESS CONSCIOUS, GEORGE OR SHARON?
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon showed the first tangible signs of improvement Monday - moving his right hand and right leg in response to pain stimulation, and sporadically breathing on his own - after doctors began reducing the medication that's kept him anesthetized and on a ventilator...
Last week, George didn't sound too hopeful, describing Sharon in past tense as "...a man who cared deeply about the security of the Israeli people and a man who had a vision for peace. May God bless him."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=580
New York Times Journalist Killed in D.C.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Veteran New York Times journalist David E. Rosenbaum, 63, died Sunday evening from injuries suffered in a street robbery while walking near his home two nights earlier, police said.
He had undergone surgery Saturday at Howard University Hospital in an effort to relieve pressure on his brain, said his brother, Marcus Rosenbaum.
Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Gentile said police found Rosenbaum after being called to the scene about 9:20 p.m. Friday and that the victim's wallet was missing.
He said police are investigating a report that two men were seen leaving the area in a dark-colored vehicle.
"He wanted some fresh air and decided to take a walk," Rosenbaum's brother, Marcus Rosenbaum, told The Washington Post. He said his brother was found by a neighbor who called 911 and waited with him until help arrived.
Marcus Rosenbaum said a credit card company had called his brother's home Saturday morning and reported that someone had been trying to use one of his credit cards.
A graduate of Dartmouth College and Columbia University, Rosenbaum grew up in Tampa, Fla., and worked for The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, a chain of suburban newspapers in London and Congressional Quarterly in Washington before joining the Times bureau in Washington in 1968.
Except for a three-year stint as a special projects editor in New York in the early 1980s, Rosenbaum spent the remainder of his career with the Times' Washington bureau in a wide range of reporting and editing positions.
He shared the 1990 George Polk Award for National Reporting with a fellow Times reporter for their coverage of federal budget battles.
Rosenbaum's survivors include his wife, Virginia, and two grown children who also live in the Washington area.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5450
Charge dropped in Marine training death
(Parris Island-AP) January 5, 2006 - A military judge has dropped a charge of failing to obey orders against a Marine swim instructor in the death of a recruit at Parris Island last year.
Staff Sgt. Nadya Lopez still faces a charge of negligent homicide in the death of recruit Jason Tharp last February, said Maj. Guillermo Canedo, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot at Parris Island.
A military judge last month granted a defense motion to dismiss the failure to obey orders charge and to delay the court-martial until February 27th, Canedo said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5458
Arcata City Council calls for Bush impeachment
By Kimberly Wear / Eureka Times-Standard
ARCATA -- A split City Council passed a resolution demanding the impeachment or resignation of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, citing violations of international and constitutional law.
The White House responded that the president “remains focused on the business the American people elected him to conduct.”
The resolution lists a series of allegedly impeachable offenses, including “the crime of misleading the American people and Congress into waging an unnecessary and brutal war in Iraq,” “the criminal failure of the president to respond adequately to the Hurricane Katrina disaster,” “torturing human beings in violation of the Geneva Convention” and “ordering the secret surveillance of American citizens.”
Councilman Dave Meserve and Councilwoman Harmony Groves penned the resolution that passed 3-2 Wednesday, joined by Councilman Paul Pitino, with Mayor Michael Machi and Councilman Mark Wheetley dissenting.
”All elected officials swear to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Meserve said. “This obligates us to act when the president violates the Constitution. We hope that other cities will join us in demanding the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.”
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said Bush understands that there are people who “oppose the president's efforts to win the war on terror.”
”How those opposed to those efforts choose to express that opposition is up to each individual -- in this case a city council,” he said. “This president recognizes he has a responsibility and the constitutional authority to protect our country and that's what he will continue to do.”
The resolution also asks that Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, join with others in Congress to introduce articles of impeachment against Bush. That would make him the third president to face the proceeding.
The first was President Andrew Johnson and the second -- more than 100 years later -- was President Bill Clinton. Both were acquitted. President Richard Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment.
Impeachment is a two-tier process beginning with a formal accusation, or the impeachment, being brought by the House of Representatives with a majority vote. Then, there is a trial by the Senate -- a conviction requires a two-thirds vote.
Copies of the Arcata resolution are being sent to Thompson, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and members of the House Judiciary Committee.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5441
Pentagon: 80% of Marines killed in Iraq from upper body wounds could have lived if they had the right armor
Extra Armor Could Have Saved Many Lives, Study Shows
By Michael Moss / New York Times
A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.
The ceramic plates in vests currently worn by the majority of military personnel in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5429
Murtha Denies Causing Recruitment Woes
By Kimberly Hefling / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Rep. John Murtha says the military is blaming him for a recruitment slump instead of recognizing mistakes that have led to an enlistment shortage.
"They're trying to direct attention away from their problems," said Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated Marine Corps veteran who has become a leading voice in Congress advocating an early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a news conference Thursday that Murtha's remarks about Iraq are damaging to troop morale and to the Army's efforts to bring up recruitment numbers. Pace, the nation's top general, was asked specifically about an ABC News interview this week in which Murtha, 73, said if he were eligible to join the military today he would not join, nor would he expect others to join.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5430
We're leaving because we love your freedom
Zawahri says US defeated in Iraq: Jazeera TV
By Firouz Sedarat / Reuters
DUBAI - Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in a video aired on Friday that U.S. President George W. Bush's plans to withdraw troops from Iraq meant Washington had been defeated by the Muslims.
He also criticized Islamist groups, including Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood, for believing in Western-style democracy and taking part in elections.
"Bush, you must confess that you have been defeated in Iraq and in Afghanistan and you will be in Palestine soon," he said in the video broadcast by Al Jazeera television.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5434
Report Rebuts Bush on Spying
Domestic Action's Legality Challenged
By Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post
A report by Congress's research arm concluded yesterday that the administration's justification for the warrantless eavesdropping authorized by President Bush conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal arguments.
The Congressional Research Service's report rebuts the central assertions made recently by Bush and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales about the president's authority to order secret intercepts of telephone and e-mail exchanges between people inside the United States and their contacts abroad.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5439
Arcata City Council calls for Bush impeachment
By Kimberly Wear / Eureka Times-Standard
ARCATA -- A split City Council passed a resolution demanding the impeachment or resignation of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, citing violations of international and constitutional law.
The White House responded that the president "remains focused on the business the American people elected him to conduct."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5441
DeLay Abandons Bid to Remain House Leader
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) today abandoned his bid to remain House majority leader, bowing to pressure from a growing number of fellow House Republicans who wanted a permanent leadership change because of his indictment on campaign finance charges.
"The job of majority leader and the mandate of the Republican majority are too important to be hamstrung, even for a few months, by personal distractions," DeLay wrote in a letter to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). In a separate letter to House Republicans, DeLay said that during his time in Congress, "I have always acted in an ethical manner within the rules of our body and the laws of our land. I am fully confident time will bear this out."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5435
Officials Focus on a 2nd Firm Tied to DeLay
By Anne E. Kornblut and Glen Justice / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 - Having secured a guilty plea from the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, prosecutors are entering a new phase of the corruption investigation in Washington and are focusing on a lobbying firm that may hold the key to whether Tom DeLay or other lawmakers will face criminal charges in the case.
The firm, Alexander Strategy Group, is of particular interest to investigators because it was founded by Edwin A. Buckham, a close personal friend of Mr. DeLay's and his former chief of staff, and has been a lucrative landing spot for several former members of the DeLay staff, people who are directly involved in the case have said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5440
Chronology: House Majority Leader DeLay
By The Associated PressThe Associated PressSaturday, January 7, 2006; 1:39 PM
-- _1984: Elected to represent the 22nd District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives.
_1994: Elected majority whip.
_July 1997: DeLay is part of a group that tries, but fails, to oust House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
_October 1998: DeLay attacks the Electronics Industries Alliance for hiring former Democratic Rep. Dave McCurdy as its president and later receives a private rebuke from the House ethics committee for "badgering a lobbying organization."
_November 2002: Elected majority leader without opposition.
_September 2004: Grand jurors in Texas indict three DeLay associates _ Jim Ellis, John Colyandro, and Warren RoBold _ in an investigation of alleged illegal corporate contributions to a political action committee DeLay founded. The investigation involved the alleged use of corporate funds to aid Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature in the 2002 elections.
_September-October 2004: DeLay is admonished by the House ethics committee on three issues. The committee chastises DeLay for offering to support the House candidacy of Michigan Republican Rep. Nick Smith's son in return for the lawmaker's vote for a Medicare prescription drug benefit. The panel also says DeLay created the appearance of linking political donations to a legislative favor, and that he had improperly sought the Federal Aviation Administration's intervention in a Texas political dispute.
_January 2005: House Republicans reverse a controversial rule passed in November 2004 that would have allowed DeLay to keep his leadership post if he were indicted.
_March 2005: Media reports spur Democrats to question DeLay's relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under federal investigation. Delay has asked the House ethics committee to review allegations that Abramoff or his clients paid some of DeLay's overseas travel expenses. DeLay has denied knowing that the expenses were paid by Abramoff.
_April 2005: House Republicans scrap controversial new ethics committee rules passed earlier in the year that would have made it harder to proceed with an ethics investigation. Democrats said the rules were meant to protect DeLay.
_September 2005: DeLay is indicted on charges of conspiring to violate Texas political fundraising law and forced to step aside as majority leader. Ellis and Colyandro are indicted on additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in 2002 legislative races.
_October 2005: DeLay, Ellis and Colyandro are indicted by a second grand jury on charges of conspiring to launder money and money laundering. DeLay turns himself in to the Harris County Sheriff's Office in Houston, where he is fingerprinted and photographed. He smiles broadly in his mug shot to thwart its use by political opponents. DeLay's attorneys win removal of a Democratic judge from the case because he has donated to Democratic causes and candidates. The Associated Press reports that DeLay and Rep. Roy Blunt, who succeeded DeLay as majority leader, orchestrated a political money carousel in 2000 that diverted donations secretly collected for presidential convention parties to some of their own causes.
_November 2005: Former DeLay aide Michael Scanlon pleads guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials, a charge that stems from the government investigation of work he and his former partner, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, did for Indian tribes. The investigation continues.
_December 2005: A judge dismisses the conspiracy charge but refuses to throw out the more serious allegations of money laundering, dashing the congressman's immediate hopes of reclaiming his House majority leader post and increasing the likelihood of a criminal trial next year.
_January 2006: Abramoff pleads guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud and agrees to cooperate in an influence-peddling investigation that threatens powerful members of Congress. DeLay abandons his bid to resume his post as House majority leader.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/07/AR2006010700540.html
Bremer says US did not expect insurgency in Iraq
Jan 6, 2006 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Paul Bremer, who led the U.S. civilian occupation authority in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, has admitted the United States did not anticipate the insurgency in the country, NBC Television said on Friday.
Bremer, interviewed by the network in connection with release of his book on Iraq, recounted the decision to disband the Iraqi army quickly after arriving in Baghdad, a move many experts consider a major miscalculation.
When asked who was to blame for the subsequent Iraqi rebellion, in which thousands of Iraqis and Americans have died, Bremer said "we really didn't see the insurgency coming," the network said in a news release.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5426
Homeland Security opening private mail
Retired professor confused, angered when letter from abroad is opened
By Brock N. Meeks / MSNBC
WASHINGTON - In the 50 years that Grant Goodman has known and corresponded with a colleague in the Philippines he never had any reason to suspect that their friendship was anything but spectacularly ordinary.
But now he believes that the relationship has somehow sparked the interest of the Department of Homeland Security and led the agency to place him under surveillance.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5428
3 GOP senators blast Bush bid to bypass torture ban
Reject assertion he has right to waive rules to protect US security
By Charlie Savage / Boston Globe
WASHINGTON -- Three key Republican senators yesterday condemned President Bush's assertion that his powers as commander in chief give him the authority to bypass a new law restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees.
John W. Warner Jr., a Virginia Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, issued a joint statement rejecting Bush's assertion that he can waive the restrictions on the use of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment against detainees to protect national security.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5421
Zogby Poll: 53% of Americans Support Impeachment; ImpeachPAC Announced!
Submitted by bob fertik on Fri, 2005-11-04 12:43. About ImpeachPAC
For Immediate Release: November 4, 2005
New Zogby Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeachment; ImpeachPAC is Launched to Support Pro-Impeachment Candidates
By a margin of 53% to 42%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new Zogby poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
http://www.impeachpac.org/?q=node/6
cotinued ...
Polar Bears Face New Toxic Threat: Flame Retardants
By Marla Cone
Times Staff Writer
Published January 9, 2006
Already imperiled by melting ice and a brew of toxic chemicals, polar bears throughout the Arctic, particularly in remote dens near the North Pole, face an additional threat as flame retardants originating largely in the United States are building up in their bodies, according to an international team of wildlife scientists.
The flame retardants are one of the newest additions to hundreds of industrial compounds and pesticides carried to the Arctic by northbound winds and ocean currents. Accumulating in the fatty tissues of animals, many chemicals grow more concentrated as larger creatures eat smaller ones, turning the Arctic's top predators and native people into some of the most contaminated living organisms on Earth.
In urban areas, particularly in North America, researchers already have shown that levels of flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyls, or PBDEs, are growing at a rapid pace in people and wildlife. Although they have been found in much lower concentrations in the Arctic, scientists say their toxic legacy will persist there for years because they are slow to break down, particularly in cold climates.
In polar bears, the effects are unknown. But in tests on laboratory animals, PBDEs disrupted thyroid and sex hormones and damaged developing brains, impairing motor skills and mental abilities, including memory and learning.
Scientists say that other industrial chemicals with properties similar to PBDEs are already weakening the bears' immune systems, altering their bone structure, skewing their sex hormones and perhaps even causing small numbers of hermaphroditic bears.
What remains uncertain, however, is whether those physiological changes are killing bears or reducing their populations. Some experts suspect that many cubs, which are contaminated by their mother's milk, are not surviving.
An even more immediate threat to the world's 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears is global climate change, which is melting their hunting grounds. Bears in Canada's western Hudson Bay — the most well-researched population — declined from 1,100 in 1995 to fewer than 950 in 2004. In Alaska, wildlife biologists for the first time have documented that polar bears are drowning. Scientists predict that some populations could become extinct by the end of the century as more sea ice melts.
Derek Muir of Canada's National Water Research Institute, who led the new research, said the geographical patterns in contamination suggest that the East Coast of North America and northwestern Europe are the primary sources of the flame retardants.
The most highly contaminated bears are in eastern Greenland and Norway's Svalbard islands, where the chemicals are about 10 times more concentrated than in bears in Alaska and four times more than in Canada, according to new research published in December in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
A major denning area, Svalbard is a national refuge where hunting is prohibited, but scientists at the Norwegian Polar Institute say its bear population is not thriving, and older females aren't producing cubs.
The team of scientists from Canada, Norway, Denmark and Alaska, who tested 139 bears captured in 10 locations, found that some brominated flame retardants magnify from prey to predator at an extraordinary rate. One compound was 71 times more concentrated in polar bears than in ringed seals, their major food source.
Manufacturing industries in the United States use large volumes of PBDEs in furniture, carpet padding, electronics and plastics. The most abundant PBDE in the bears comes from a compound called penta, used primarily in North America to make foam furniture cushions fire-resistant.
The only U.S. manufacturer of penta and another PBDE called octa ended their production in 2004 after the compounds began building up in human breast milk and Europe and California banned their use. Yet stockpiles remain, as well as products that contain penta, octa and other flame retardants, so the chemicals are still hitchhiking to the Arctic on northbound winds.
Michael Ikonomou of Canada's Institute of Ocean Sciences reported some good news last year. Although the flame retardants had been doubling every four to five years in Arctic ringed seals from 1981 to 2000, they have stabilized as the bans on the two compounds go into effect. Muir said he expects "a quick downturn" in the polar bear levels as factories stop using stockpiles. He warned, however, that other industrial chemicals are starting to turn up in Arctic creatures.
The geographical patterns of the flame retardants mirror those of a much older contaminant — PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls. Although banned by industrialized nations in the 1970s, PCBs persist in the environment for decades, and remain the most abundant and worrisome contaminant in polar bears, particularly in the Norwegian and Russian Arctic.
Muir, who has been documenting Arctic wildlife contamination for 20 years, said the flame retardants probably are coming from the same areas as PCBs and arriving in the Arctic via the same pathways — primarily northbound winds blowing chemicals across the Atlantic from the United States, Canada and northern Europe.
If the chemicals were originating in Asia, contamination would be higher in the Alaskan bears.
In June in Seattle, 40 wildlife scientists representing all five nations that contain polar bear populations adopted a resolution declaring that the bears are "susceptible to the effects of pollutants," and those effects could be worsened by the stresses of global warming. They agreed that chemicals probably are causing diseases and changes in the tissues, organs and bone density of bears in eastern Greenland. Denmark, which owns the self-governed territory of Greenland, was chosen to coordinate a circumpolar study of the role of pollution in harming bears' vital organs and other bodily systems.
Geir Gabrielsen, the Norwegian Polar Institute's director of research on the environmental impacts of toxic chemicals, said all the industrial compounds and pesticides probably combine to alter the physiology of polar bears as well as Arctic seabirds. Glaucous gulls in Svalbard have shown signs of reproductive, behavioral and developmental stress, perhaps from PCBs and other contaminants that alter their thyroid hormones. Chemical loads are also high in Arctic foxes and whales.
"PCBs, pesticides, brominated and fluorinated compounds are the greatest threat to top predators in the Svalbard area," he said.
Virtually every animal and person tested on Earth contains traces of brominated flame retardants, scientists say. Americans have the highest levels found so far, and many U.S. women carry concentrations in their breast milk that are close to the amounts that altered the brains of newborn mice in lab tests.
Marine mammals in North America's urbanized areas, particularly killer whales and belugas, are 100 times more contaminated with PBDEs than Arctic creatures. Canada's polar bears, however, contain more than the nation's grizzly bears because their diet is almost entirely meat, particularly fatty meat that builds up chemicals. Killer whales have the highest concentrations in the Arctic.
In addition to the brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated compounds used to manufacture Teflon and formerly used in Scotchgard have been detected in polar bears in Greenland, Canada and Alaska, and a PBDE compound called deca, used in large volumes in electronics, is in the blood of Svalbard bears.
The new study also detected another flame retardant used in building materials and household furnishings, called HBCD, or hexabromocyclododecane, in Arctic bears. Chemists had thought it had a low potential to migrate long distances but now believe it is spreading globally.
"It is a chemical that needs to be watched," Muir said, "because it does biomagnify in the aquatic food webs and appears to be a widespread pollutant."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-me-polarbears9jan09,1,3685362.story?coll=chi-homepagenews-utl
1 stolen wallet, $412,000 in hole
Identity thieves cash in on 3 phony mortgages
By David Jackson
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 8, 2006
Second City student improv performer Meghan Ross took all the obvious steps when her wallet was snatched in a crowded bar three years ago.
Grabbing a cell phone, the 22-year-old canceled her credit cards and filed a police report. She woke her mother for advice.
She made follow-up inquiries over the next few days, then figured the ordeal was over, costing her the $40 in cash she lost.
Sixteen months later, in April 2004, a private detective tracked down Ross' parents and handed them a sheaf of court papers. Ross was being sued by giant lending companies based in New Jersey, California and Pennsylvania.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0601080284jan08,1,3690656.story
Church's archives not the only black history records at risk
Published January 9, 2006
In 1993 a national conference of archivists convened at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. One of the topics of discussion was how to persuade African-American church leaders to do a better job documenting their church's history.
Archivists were concerned that historians wanting to chronicle the role of the black church in American society long had been hampered because church records often weren't properly stored or readily accessible.
Among the archivists attending the conference were representatives from some of the country's most esteemed repositories of black history and culture: Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New Orleans' Amistad Research Center and Chicago's Harsh Research Collection at the Woodson Regional Library on the South Side.
Michael Flug, senior archivist at Harsh, said he and his colleagues began telling stories detailing how they had visited churches and found boxes of valuable photographs, programs, souvenir booklets and handwritten sheet music that were in poor condition.
They had found old records that included the minutes of meetings and oral history tapes in varying states of disrepair. Much of it had been shunted into the alcoves of church basements and forgotten.
Church officials often had far
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0601090118jan09,1,3083450.column?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
For those of us missing the hearings on Alito, Mike provides the C-Span link:
"In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge Alito's support for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling."
http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp?Cat=Current_Event&Code=SCourt&ShowVidNum=57&Rot_Cat_CD=SCourt&Rot_HT=&Rot_WD=&ShowVidDays=365&ShowVidDesc=&ArchiveDays=365
Christian conservatives rally for Judge Alito
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Christian conservative leader Rev. Jerry Falwell said on Sunday that confirming Federal Appeals Court judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court would be the biggest victory for his constituency in three decades.
"What we've worked on for 30 years, to mobilize people of faith and value in this country, what we've done through these years is coming to culmination right now," Falwell said at a rally on the eve of Alito's confirmation hearing.
"Now we're looking at what we really started on 30 years ago, reconstruction of a court system gone awry," Falwell said at a rally at a Baptist church in Philadelphia and broadcast on Christian radio and television.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5459
Suicide attack at Interior Ministry kills 29
Deadly four-day period also claims lives of 28 American troops in Iraq
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two suicide bombers wearing police uniforms and holding security passes tried to attack National Police Day celebrations Monday, with police shooting one to death and the other exploding his vest, killing 29 people, authorities said. The U.S. ambassador and Iraq’s interior and defense ministers were in attendance but far from the attacks.
An Internet site known for publishing extremist material from al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi carried a claim of responsibility for the attack, saying it was in revenge for the alleged torture of Sunni prisoners at an Interior Ministry facility. The text of the entire statement was not available.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5463
THE FORGETFUL PRESIDENT
Did George meet Jack?
MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, I said it's possible that they would have met at a holiday reception or some other widely attended gathering. The President does not know him, nor does the President recall ever meeting him.
Maybe this will refresh his memory...
May 9, 2001: At the meeting, Bush made some general comments about Indian policy but did not discuss Indian gaming. Abramoff was at the meeting—for which he charged the Coushatta Tribe $25,000.
WHO IS LESS CONSCIOUS, GEORGE OR SHARON?
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon showed the first tangible signs of improvement Monday - moving his right hand and right leg in response to pain stimulation, and sporadically breathing on his own - after doctors began reducing the medication that's kept him anesthetized and on a ventilator...
Last week, George didn't sound too hopeful, describing Sharon in past tense as "...a man who cared deeply about the security of the Israeli people and a man who had a vision for peace. May God bless him."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=580
New York Times Journalist Killed in D.C.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Veteran New York Times journalist David E. Rosenbaum, 63, died Sunday evening from injuries suffered in a street robbery while walking near his home two nights earlier, police said.
He had undergone surgery Saturday at Howard University Hospital in an effort to relieve pressure on his brain, said his brother, Marcus Rosenbaum.
Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Gentile said police found Rosenbaum after being called to the scene about 9:20 p.m. Friday and that the victim's wallet was missing.
He said police are investigating a report that two men were seen leaving the area in a dark-colored vehicle.
"He wanted some fresh air and decided to take a walk," Rosenbaum's brother, Marcus Rosenbaum, told The Washington Post. He said his brother was found by a neighbor who called 911 and waited with him until help arrived.
Marcus Rosenbaum said a credit card company had called his brother's home Saturday morning and reported that someone had been trying to use one of his credit cards.
A graduate of Dartmouth College and Columbia University, Rosenbaum grew up in Tampa, Fla., and worked for The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, a chain of suburban newspapers in London and Congressional Quarterly in Washington before joining the Times bureau in Washington in 1968.
Except for a three-year stint as a special projects editor in New York in the early 1980s, Rosenbaum spent the remainder of his career with the Times' Washington bureau in a wide range of reporting and editing positions.
He shared the 1990 George Polk Award for National Reporting with a fellow Times reporter for their coverage of federal budget battles.
Rosenbaum's survivors include his wife, Virginia, and two grown children who also live in the Washington area.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5450
Charge dropped in Marine training death
(Parris Island-AP) January 5, 2006 - A military judge has dropped a charge of failing to obey orders against a Marine swim instructor in the death of a recruit at Parris Island last year.
Staff Sgt. Nadya Lopez still faces a charge of negligent homicide in the death of recruit Jason Tharp last February, said Maj. Guillermo Canedo, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot at Parris Island.
A military judge last month granted a defense motion to dismiss the failure to obey orders charge and to delay the court-martial until February 27th, Canedo said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5458
Arcata City Council calls for Bush impeachment
By Kimberly Wear / Eureka Times-Standard
ARCATA -- A split City Council passed a resolution demanding the impeachment or resignation of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, citing violations of international and constitutional law.
The White House responded that the president “remains focused on the business the American people elected him to conduct.”
The resolution lists a series of allegedly impeachable offenses, including “the crime of misleading the American people and Congress into waging an unnecessary and brutal war in Iraq,” “the criminal failure of the president to respond adequately to the Hurricane Katrina disaster,” “torturing human beings in violation of the Geneva Convention” and “ordering the secret surveillance of American citizens.”
Councilman Dave Meserve and Councilwoman Harmony Groves penned the resolution that passed 3-2 Wednesday, joined by Councilman Paul Pitino, with Mayor Michael Machi and Councilman Mark Wheetley dissenting.
”All elected officials swear to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Meserve said. “This obligates us to act when the president violates the Constitution. We hope that other cities will join us in demanding the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.”
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said Bush understands that there are people who “oppose the president's efforts to win the war on terror.”
”How those opposed to those efforts choose to express that opposition is up to each individual -- in this case a city council,” he said. “This president recognizes he has a responsibility and the constitutional authority to protect our country and that's what he will continue to do.”
The resolution also asks that Congressman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, join with others in Congress to introduce articles of impeachment against Bush. That would make him the third president to face the proceeding.
The first was President Andrew Johnson and the second -- more than 100 years later -- was President Bill Clinton. Both were acquitted. President Richard Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment.
Impeachment is a two-tier process beginning with a formal accusation, or the impeachment, being brought by the House of Representatives with a majority vote. Then, there is a trial by the Senate -- a conviction requires a two-thirds vote.
Copies of the Arcata resolution are being sent to Thompson, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and members of the House Judiciary Committee.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5441
Pentagon: 80% of Marines killed in Iraq from upper body wounds could have lived if they had the right armor
Extra Armor Could Have Saved Many Lives, Study Shows
By Michael Moss / New York Times
A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.
The ceramic plates in vests currently worn by the majority of military personnel in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines' shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5429
Murtha Denies Causing Recruitment Woes
By Kimberly Hefling / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Rep. John Murtha says the military is blaming him for a recruitment slump instead of recognizing mistakes that have led to an enlistment shortage.
"They're trying to direct attention away from their problems," said Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated Marine Corps veteran who has become a leading voice in Congress advocating an early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a news conference Thursday that Murtha's remarks about Iraq are damaging to troop morale and to the Army's efforts to bring up recruitment numbers. Pace, the nation's top general, was asked specifically about an ABC News interview this week in which Murtha, 73, said if he were eligible to join the military today he would not join, nor would he expect others to join.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5430
We're leaving because we love your freedom
Zawahri says US defeated in Iraq: Jazeera TV
By Firouz Sedarat / Reuters
DUBAI - Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in a video aired on Friday that U.S. President George W. Bush's plans to withdraw troops from Iraq meant Washington had been defeated by the Muslims.
He also criticized Islamist groups, including Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood, for believing in Western-style democracy and taking part in elections.
"Bush, you must confess that you have been defeated in Iraq and in Afghanistan and you will be in Palestine soon," he said in the video broadcast by Al Jazeera television.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5434
Report Rebuts Bush on Spying
Domestic Action's Legality Challenged
By Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post
A report by Congress's research arm concluded yesterday that the administration's justification for the warrantless eavesdropping authorized by President Bush conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal arguments.
The Congressional Research Service's report rebuts the central assertions made recently by Bush and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales about the president's authority to order secret intercepts of telephone and e-mail exchanges between people inside the United States and their contacts abroad.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5439
Arcata City Council calls for Bush impeachment
By Kimberly Wear / Eureka Times-Standard
ARCATA -- A split City Council passed a resolution demanding the impeachment or resignation of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, citing violations of international and constitutional law.
The White House responded that the president "remains focused on the business the American people elected him to conduct."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5441
DeLay Abandons Bid to Remain House Leader
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) today abandoned his bid to remain House majority leader, bowing to pressure from a growing number of fellow House Republicans who wanted a permanent leadership change because of his indictment on campaign finance charges.
"The job of majority leader and the mandate of the Republican majority are too important to be hamstrung, even for a few months, by personal distractions," DeLay wrote in a letter to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). In a separate letter to House Republicans, DeLay said that during his time in Congress, "I have always acted in an ethical manner within the rules of our body and the laws of our land. I am fully confident time will bear this out."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5435
Officials Focus on a 2nd Firm Tied to DeLay
By Anne E. Kornblut and Glen Justice / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 - Having secured a guilty plea from the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, prosecutors are entering a new phase of the corruption investigation in Washington and are focusing on a lobbying firm that may hold the key to whether Tom DeLay or other lawmakers will face criminal charges in the case.
The firm, Alexander Strategy Group, is of particular interest to investigators because it was founded by Edwin A. Buckham, a close personal friend of Mr. DeLay's and his former chief of staff, and has been a lucrative landing spot for several former members of the DeLay staff, people who are directly involved in the case have said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5440
Chronology: House Majority Leader DeLay
By The Associated PressThe Associated PressSaturday, January 7, 2006; 1:39 PM
-- _1984: Elected to represent the 22nd District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives.
_1994: Elected majority whip.
_July 1997: DeLay is part of a group that tries, but fails, to oust House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
_October 1998: DeLay attacks the Electronics Industries Alliance for hiring former Democratic Rep. Dave McCurdy as its president and later receives a private rebuke from the House ethics committee for "badgering a lobbying organization."
_November 2002: Elected majority leader without opposition.
_September 2004: Grand jurors in Texas indict three DeLay associates _ Jim Ellis, John Colyandro, and Warren RoBold _ in an investigation of alleged illegal corporate contributions to a political action committee DeLay founded. The investigation involved the alleged use of corporate funds to aid Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature in the 2002 elections.
_September-October 2004: DeLay is admonished by the House ethics committee on three issues. The committee chastises DeLay for offering to support the House candidacy of Michigan Republican Rep. Nick Smith's son in return for the lawmaker's vote for a Medicare prescription drug benefit. The panel also says DeLay created the appearance of linking political donations to a legislative favor, and that he had improperly sought the Federal Aviation Administration's intervention in a Texas political dispute.
_January 2005: House Republicans reverse a controversial rule passed in November 2004 that would have allowed DeLay to keep his leadership post if he were indicted.
_March 2005: Media reports spur Democrats to question DeLay's relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under federal investigation. Delay has asked the House ethics committee to review allegations that Abramoff or his clients paid some of DeLay's overseas travel expenses. DeLay has denied knowing that the expenses were paid by Abramoff.
_April 2005: House Republicans scrap controversial new ethics committee rules passed earlier in the year that would have made it harder to proceed with an ethics investigation. Democrats said the rules were meant to protect DeLay.
_September 2005: DeLay is indicted on charges of conspiring to violate Texas political fundraising law and forced to step aside as majority leader. Ellis and Colyandro are indicted on additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in 2002 legislative races.
_October 2005: DeLay, Ellis and Colyandro are indicted by a second grand jury on charges of conspiring to launder money and money laundering. DeLay turns himself in to the Harris County Sheriff's Office in Houston, where he is fingerprinted and photographed. He smiles broadly in his mug shot to thwart its use by political opponents. DeLay's attorneys win removal of a Democratic judge from the case because he has donated to Democratic causes and candidates. The Associated Press reports that DeLay and Rep. Roy Blunt, who succeeded DeLay as majority leader, orchestrated a political money carousel in 2000 that diverted donations secretly collected for presidential convention parties to some of their own causes.
_November 2005: Former DeLay aide Michael Scanlon pleads guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials, a charge that stems from the government investigation of work he and his former partner, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, did for Indian tribes. The investigation continues.
_December 2005: A judge dismisses the conspiracy charge but refuses to throw out the more serious allegations of money laundering, dashing the congressman's immediate hopes of reclaiming his House majority leader post and increasing the likelihood of a criminal trial next year.
_January 2006: Abramoff pleads guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud and agrees to cooperate in an influence-peddling investigation that threatens powerful members of Congress. DeLay abandons his bid to resume his post as House majority leader.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/07/AR2006010700540.html
Bremer says US did not expect insurgency in Iraq
Jan 6, 2006 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Paul Bremer, who led the U.S. civilian occupation authority in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, has admitted the United States did not anticipate the insurgency in the country, NBC Television said on Friday.
Bremer, interviewed by the network in connection with release of his book on Iraq, recounted the decision to disband the Iraqi army quickly after arriving in Baghdad, a move many experts consider a major miscalculation.
When asked who was to blame for the subsequent Iraqi rebellion, in which thousands of Iraqis and Americans have died, Bremer said "we really didn't see the insurgency coming," the network said in a news release.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5426
Homeland Security opening private mail
Retired professor confused, angered when letter from abroad is opened
By Brock N. Meeks / MSNBC
WASHINGTON - In the 50 years that Grant Goodman has known and corresponded with a colleague in the Philippines he never had any reason to suspect that their friendship was anything but spectacularly ordinary.
But now he believes that the relationship has somehow sparked the interest of the Department of Homeland Security and led the agency to place him under surveillance.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5428
3 GOP senators blast Bush bid to bypass torture ban
Reject assertion he has right to waive rules to protect US security
By Charlie Savage / Boston Globe
WASHINGTON -- Three key Republican senators yesterday condemned President Bush's assertion that his powers as commander in chief give him the authority to bypass a new law restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees.
John W. Warner Jr., a Virginia Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, issued a joint statement rejecting Bush's assertion that he can waive the restrictions on the use of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment against detainees to protect national security.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5421
Zogby Poll: 53% of Americans Support Impeachment; ImpeachPAC Announced!
Submitted by bob fertik on Fri, 2005-11-04 12:43. About ImpeachPAC
For Immediate Release: November 4, 2005
New Zogby Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeachment; ImpeachPAC is Launched to Support Pro-Impeachment Candidates
By a margin of 53% to 42%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new Zogby poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
http://www.impeachpac.org/?q=node/6
cotinued ...
It took Hilter and World War II to return the value of the Deutschmark, which is now replaced by the Euro
What will it take for nations to finally deal with Global Warming?
The statement about Hilter happens to be true by the way. This is not a lesson in history unless it applies to the deterioration of an entire planet.
World War II’s greatest tragedy was to realize Hitler had risen to an angry and poor demigod equipped with military weapons unlike seen before including the Panzer Tank and missiles that would deliver bombs where normally man piloted planes only had that capacity. Bombs on rockets was a German invention. German scientists were far beyond the expectations of any war capacity otherwise. Maybe it is that which has caused the unfortunate turn away from science and even it’s ridicule at times. I think the statement goes, “We wouldn’t have had the atomic bomb without Einstein.”
It’s true.
Completely.
We also would not have had the Hydrogen Bomb without Edward Teller, who died at the age of 95 on the second anniversary of the World Trade Center attack.
September 11, 2003.
Teller died.
The difference between Einstein and Teller is that actual intent. Teller intended the H Bomb. Einstein was a physicist-theorist. He never intended for an Atomic Bomb. He discovered the potential of an atom. It took scientists with rocket knowledge to put that discovery on the end of a weapon delivery system.
One of the satellites I posted showed clearly the extent to which the current drought stricken areas of the USA would receive rain. Relief so to speak. That satellite shows clearly the dominating factor of the ‘climate’ was more drought with no ‘natural’ relief to extinguish the fires.
So much for a merciful act of God. I am sure the residents affected will clearly state their lives have not been perfect and they somehow deserved it and therefore God’s wrath was delivered to them. That is hogwash. It is also oppression of anger. It is pandering to potential assistance with their plight.
It got news. If pandering is what the American Red States are seeking as a source of mercy by Bush then consider yourselves, ‘flat out of luck.’ It ain’t going to happen. This president and his cronies are DEAD set on finding and exploiting every drop of oil within their reach even if that reach causes the complete demise of the Arctic Ocean returning it to a completely watery state of being.
THAT.
Would be a huge mistake.
I don’t abide by the fact some defeatist scientists are stating the Global Warming we are experiencing is irreversible either. Their view of the world is limited. Grossly limited to their own understanding.
It also gives HUGE permission to continue the abuses of business.
The satellite I referred to will be the focus to the remainder of this entry and will be reviewed above.
The statement about Hilter happens to be true by the way. This is not a lesson in history unless it applies to the deterioration of an entire planet.
World War II’s greatest tragedy was to realize Hitler had risen to an angry and poor demigod equipped with military weapons unlike seen before including the Panzer Tank and missiles that would deliver bombs where normally man piloted planes only had that capacity. Bombs on rockets was a German invention. German scientists were far beyond the expectations of any war capacity otherwise. Maybe it is that which has caused the unfortunate turn away from science and even it’s ridicule at times. I think the statement goes, “We wouldn’t have had the atomic bomb without Einstein.”
It’s true.
Completely.
We also would not have had the Hydrogen Bomb without Edward Teller, who died at the age of 95 on the second anniversary of the World Trade Center attack.
September 11, 2003.
Teller died.
The difference between Einstein and Teller is that actual intent. Teller intended the H Bomb. Einstein was a physicist-theorist. He never intended for an Atomic Bomb. He discovered the potential of an atom. It took scientists with rocket knowledge to put that discovery on the end of a weapon delivery system.
Perhaps you haven’t noticed the weather hasn’t been the best. Perhaps you don’t understand how Human Induced Global Warming leads to Climate Change.
A quick review of definitions.
Weather is what happens daily in the way of temperature, precipitation, dew point; basically do I need my umbrella today or is there a darn good chance I’ll get stuck in the snow on the way to a destination. Weather is what Meteorologists predict everyday.
Climate is a long view of the HISTORY of weather. Climate is studied by climatologists. That knowledge is recorded in journals and referred to by meteorologists as a source of prediction.
Meteorologists at best offer short term outcomes. The only ability they have in terms of delivering information to the public regarding long range insight is through the knowledge of others.
That is a point of confusion with the people of this country.
There is no way the daily weatherperson can tell you whether or not you’ll survive Global Warming. All they can do is record and present a synopsis of daily occurrence as it is related to lives daily.
The Climate Prediction Center of the USA government deals ONLY with related Climate issues of that particular country. It does not have a ‘Global’ approach to anything. It’s focus is dictated by it’s budget and within that budget the focus is the impact on the USA.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/threats/threats.html
It isn’t as though they aren’t valuable, but, the above electronic page still only deals with the short term outcome and not the ULTIMATE outcome of Global Warming.
With that said, realize some short term outcomes as of recent are recorded below. Now ask yourself if these outcomes, if realized before hand, were planned to prevent.
The answer is clearly, no.
Why?
Why, if the Climate Prediction Center has a longer range view of weather is this not planned for or better yet, PREVENTED?
Why is Texas and Oklahoma on fire? Try the word negligence. Then realize the negligence in a longer view of Climate over time in respect to Global Warming.One of the satellites I posted showed clearly the extent to which the current drought stricken areas of the USA would receive rain. Relief so to speak. That satellite shows clearly the dominating factor of the ‘climate’ was more drought with no ‘natural’ relief to extinguish the fires.
So much for a merciful act of God. I am sure the residents affected will clearly state their lives have not been perfect and they somehow deserved it and therefore God’s wrath was delivered to them. That is hogwash. It is also oppression of anger. It is pandering to potential assistance with their plight.
It got news. If pandering is what the American Red States are seeking as a source of mercy by Bush then consider yourselves, ‘flat out of luck.’ It ain’t going to happen. This president and his cronies are DEAD set on finding and exploiting every drop of oil within their reach even if that reach causes the complete demise of the Arctic Ocean returning it to a completely watery state of being.
THAT.
Would be a huge mistake.
I don’t abide by the fact some defeatist scientists are stating the Global Warming we are experiencing is irreversible either. Their view of the world is limited. Grossly limited to their own understanding.
It also gives HUGE permission to continue the abuses of business.
The satellite I referred to will be the focus to the remainder of this entry and will be reviewed above.
"Edge of the Earth" by 30 seconds to Mars
You know enough to know the way
Six billion people just one name (I found)
I found tomorrow in today
Apocalyptic and insane, my dreams will never change
You wanna be the one in control
You wanna be the one who's alive
You wanna be the one who's old
It's not a matter of luck, it's just a matter of time
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Dive into the center of fate
Walk right inside of the gun
Look into the new future's face
I know you know enough to say
I know you know enough to play a game
You wanna be the one in control
You wanna be the one who's alive
You wanna be the one who's old
It's not a matter of luck, it's just a matter of time
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Dive into the center ??
Walk right inside of ??
Look into the still future space
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Dive into the center of fate
Walk right inside of the gun
Look into the new future's face
(Stand out on the edge of the earth)
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Stand out on the edge of the earth
(Look into the new future's face)
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Dive into the center of fate
Walk right inside of the gun
Look into the new future's face
Six billion people just one name (I found)
I found tomorrow in today
Apocalyptic and insane, my dreams will never change
You wanna be the one in control
You wanna be the one who's alive
You wanna be the one who's old
It's not a matter of luck, it's just a matter of time
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Dive into the center of fate
Walk right inside of the gun
Look into the new future's face
I know you know enough to say
I know you know enough to play a game
You wanna be the one in control
You wanna be the one who's alive
You wanna be the one who's old
It's not a matter of luck, it's just a matter of time
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Dive into the center ??
Walk right inside of ??
Look into the still future space
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Dive into the center of fate
Walk right inside of the gun
Look into the new future's face
(Stand out on the edge of the earth)
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Stand out on the edge of the earth
(Look into the new future's face)
Stand out on the edge of the earth
Dive into the center of fate
Walk right inside of the gun
Look into the new future's face
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