Chicago Sun Times
The weather in Chicago is "Slog it Out."
Valerie Plame's last day at the CIA
December 9, 2005
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Advertisement
WASHINGTON-- Valerie Plame, the CIA officer whose exposure led to a criminal investigation of the Bush White House, spent her last day at the spy agency Friday.
Neither the agency nor Plame's husband would confirm her departure, but two people who have known Plame for a number of years confirmed she was leaving.
Married to Bush administration critic and former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Plame was working at agency headquarters in Langley, Va., in 2003 when her CIA status was disclosed by conservative columnist Robert Novak. That triggered a probe that led to the recent indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby.
Plame had served for many years at overseas postings for the CIA, and her employment remained classified when she took a headquarters desk job, traveling overseas periodically.
She was an employee in the CIA's Counterproliferation Division.
"Her career was arbitrarily and whimsically destroyed by a mean political trick," said Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of operations for the CIA's Counterterrorism Center.
Plame's CIA connection was disclosed eight days after her husband accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
In the preface to the paperback edition of his book, "The Politics of Truth," Wilson says that he and his wife were the focus of a "Republican smear machine."
Deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, remains under investigation in the Plame probe. Libby, who resigned from the government the day of his indictment, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/plame09.html
CEO: Midway runways safe
December 9, 2005
BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN, FRANK MAIN AND ANDREW HERRMANN STAFF REPORTERS
As officials investigated a jet crash that killed one at Midway Airport, the head of Southwest Airlines today attempted to reassure customers that the facility is safe. Officials turned back questions about whether the neighborhood-locked Midway is big enough to handle jets.
The questions were raised after a jetliner skidded off a snowy runway Thursday evening and onto Central Avenue.
The Southwest jet crashed through a barrier and into traffic, striking cars in an incident that injured a dozen people and killed a 6-year-old boy, Joshua Woods of Leroy, Ind.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/midway09.html
Runway overruns can be prevented
December 9, 2005
BY LESLIE MILLER ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON-- Many older airports squeezed next to dense city neighborhoods, bodies of water or steep drop-offs don't have room to allow the 1,000-foot safety margin at the end of the runway that the federal government considers adequate.
Runway overruns can be extremely dangerous. In June 1999, an American Airlines jetliner slid past the end of the runway in Little Rock, Ark., killing nine passengers and injuring 86. And it was only the remarkable speed of the passengers' evacuation-- less than two minutes-- that prevented serious injury or death when an Air France Airbus skidded off the runway in Toronto and burst into flames in August.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/runways09.html
Cab survey finds most favor old off-on signal
December 9, 2005
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Having a tough time figuring out when a Chicago taxicab is "not for hire." Are you standing on street corners waving frantically at cabs that pass you by?
You're not alone.
Inundated with complaints from riders confused by the existing rooftop light, veteran cabdriver George Kasp conducted a five-month survey.
When passengers got into his cab, Kasp handed them a one-page questionnaire and asked them to choose between two designs:
*The existing sign where the cab number in the middle is lit when the cab is available, and the words "not for hire" on each side are lit when the cab is occupied.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-taxi09.html
Adviser: Money went to ex-gov
December 9, 2005
BY NATASHA KORECKI Federal Courts Reporter
Alone in the bathroom of a downtown restaurant, one George Ryan pal handed another an envelope stuffed with $4,000.
The cash was a thank you from Ronald Swanson to Donald Udstuen after Swanson landed a lucrative lobbying contract.
When Udstuen told him Ryan deserved the credit, Swanson said: "You know I always take care of George," Udstuen testified at Ryan's public corruption trial Thursday.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-ryan09.html
Daley 'mad at myself' over corruption scandal
December 9, 2005
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Mayor Daley acknowledged the obvious Thursday: 2005 has been a "difficult" year dominated by a fast-moving City Hall corruption scandal that has left him "mad at myself" and "depressed."
But, the mayor said the Hired Truck, city hiring and minority contracting scandals -- and the damage they have done to his reputation as a hands-on manager -- have not diminished his "passion" for the job.
"I wish I could be, but I'm not ... on top of everything. I'm not Superman. ... I don't have eyes in the back of my head. ... You delegate responsibility and, when it happens, you correct it. You can't dwell on it. ... It happens in the public sector. It happens in the private sector. When it happens, you try to do the best you can," Daley said.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-daley09.html
Marine's family scoffs at Bermuda Triangle
December 9, 2005
BY ANDREW HERRMANN Staff Reporter
Howell Thompson was a bored 24-year-old Marine when he sat down to write home to Chicago. "We aren't doing any thing now days,'' he began.
But, he wrote from Florida, "Tomorrow, we're supposed to make a three-hour hop . . . navigation, low-level bombing and strafing. This hop will give us enough time to draw flight pay for this month,'' he wrote.
He hoped to be home for Christmas.
Howell Thompson never made it.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-triangle09.html
Chicago area sees jump in road deaths
December 9, 2005
BY MARK J. KONKOL Transportation Reporter
More people have died on Chicago area highways this year, prompting state leaders to call for local police to crack down on drunken drivers and seat-belt scofflaws during the holiday season.
Overall, the number of traffic deaths in the six-county region has jumped nearly 4 percent through November, led by 20 more fatals in Cook County than during the same 11-month period last year.
In 2004, there were almost 100 fewer traffic deaths in Illinois than the previous year.
Through November this year, there were 1,238 deaths statewide, 10 more than during the same time last year.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-fatal09.html
The Arab News
Muslim Leaders Vow to Fight Terror
Siraj Wahab & Galal Fakkar, Arab News
Heads of state of Islamic countries pray after performing tawaf at the Grand Mosque in Makkah. (SPA)
MAKKAH, 9 December 2005 — The two-day extraordinary summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference came to a fitting end here yesterday with OIC leaders, led by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, circumambulating the Holy Kaaba (tawaf) in an unprecedented show of Islamic unity and solidarity.
The Muslim leaders, who came from across the globe, were united in the call to combat terrorism and defend the image of Islam.
“All agree on combating terrorism and extremism and stressing the moderate (nature) of Islam,” Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told reporters.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=74439&d=9&m=12&y=2005
We Can’t Expect Others to Solve Our Problems, Says OIC Chief
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News
MAKKAH, 9 December 2005 — OIC Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged Muslim leaders attending an extraordinary summit here to take quick action to solve the grave problems facing the nearly 1.5 billion people in their countries. “We can no longer neglect these problems or expect others to solve them for us,” he said.
Ihsanoglu warned the leaders of Muslim countries that their disunity and weakness would only increase the ambition of others to rob them of their rights and resources. “The international system — as it is — was not created to give us justice and fairness on a plate of gold. Only our determination and work can give it to us. We must therefore work hard and persevere to earn it.”
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=74434&d=9&m=12&y=2005&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom
Iran President Urges Just Resolution of Issues
Galal Fakkar, Arab News
MAKKAH, 9 December 2005 — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that peace imposed on the Muslim world would not be real unless justice was done to Muslim issues.
During a press conference at the Al-Safa palace in Makkah, the Iranian leader said Muslims should demand justice and equality among the nations of the world. Addressing the nuclear question, Ahmadinajad said that nations with nuclear arsenals cannot speak about peace solely from their own perspectives, but must also take into consideration other nations’ needs for justice.
Phttp://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=74435&d=9&m=12&y=2005&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom
Model Malaysian Plan a Hit
Siraj Wahab, Arab News
MAKKAH, 9 December 2005 — The Malaysian proposal to adopt Islam Hadhari (Civilizational Islam) as a guiding principle for the successful future of Muslims worldwide was well received by delegates at the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s Makkah summit yesterday.
“Islam Hadhari is a working model of renewal, reform and revivalism for the Muslim world,” said Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi during his speech on Tuesday. “It is not a new religion or mazhab (Islamic school of thought). It is not a new ideology. It is a guide for our development.”
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=74440&d=9&m=12&y=2005&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom
It Is Not the Same Old OIC: Musharraf
Siraj Wahab, Arab News
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf touches the Black Stone while performing tawaf at the Grand Mosque in Makkah on Thursday. (AN photo)
MAKKAH, 9 December 2005 — With proposals on the table for a new name and a new charter, the Organization of the Islamic Conference has taken the first step on the path to dynamic change. “It is not the same old OIC,” said Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf at a press conference in the Al-Safa Palace yesterday. “With a new name and a new charter and more resources, it will be a forward-looking, dynamic organization.”
Musharraf praised the inaugural address of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. “It was refreshing and motivating,” said the Pakistani leader. “He recognized the need for changes in the OIC charter and he also recognized the urgent need for a new course of action and direction.”
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=74445&d=9&m=12&y=2005&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom
The Chicago Tribune
Jet skids into street
Plows into cars outside Midway in snowstorm Kills 6-year-old boy and injures 11 others Airplane's nose gear breaks off in crash
By Jon Hilkevitch, David Heinzmann and Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporters
Published December 9, 2005, 8:03 AM CST
UPDATE: The 6-year-old boy killed Thursday night when a car he was riding in was struck by an airliner that skidded off a runway at Midway Airport was identified this morning as Joshua Woods, of the 14200 block of Elkhart Place in Leroy, Ind. He was pronounced dead at 7:45 p.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center, Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Meanwhile, Midway reopened at 6 a.m. and reportedly was operating with minimal delays.
A Southwest Airlines plane landing in a snowstorm Thursday night at Midway Airport skidded off a runway, broke through a steel barrier and smashed into cars on Central Avenue, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring at least 11 people, officials said.
All 90 flight passengers were evacuated safely, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0512090224dec09,1,7233959.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Midway crash inquiry begins
By Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune transportation reporter
Published December 9, 2005, 12:53 PM CST
As an airliner that skidded off a runway during a snowstorm Thursday night at Midway Airport remained today in the middle of a Southwest Side street, its fuselage resting atop the crumpled wreckage of a family's car, federal investigators took charge of the accident inquiry.
A 6-year-old boy riding in the car was killed. At least 10 other people—eight on the ground and two on the plane—were injured.
The Cook County medical examiner's office has identified the fatality as Joshua Woods, of the 14200 block of Elkhart Place in Leroy, Ind. He was pronounced dead at 7:45 p.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center, Oak Lawn, according to a medical examiner's spokeswoman.
Gary Kelly, chief executive of Southwest Airlines, told a news conference in Dallas today that this was the first fatal accident involving a Southwest flight in the carrier's 35-year history.
"It is a sad day for Southwest, and we are going to focus all our efforts on taking care of our passengers and their families and supporting the NTSB investigation," Kelly said before boarding his own plane to Chicago.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-051209flight1248,1,875972.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Airplane's nose gear breaks off in crash
By Jon Hilkevitch, David Heinzmann and Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporters
Published December 9, 2005, 12:39 AM CST
A Southwest Airlines plane landing in a snowstorm Thursday night at Midway Airport skidded off a runway, broke through a steel barrier and smashed into cars on Central Avenue, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring at least 11 people, officials said.
All 90 flight passengers were evacuated safely, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.
Two cars were struck by the plane, a Boeing 737, when it plowed onto Central just south of 55th Street.
The boy who was killed was in a car carrying three children and two adults, said Deborah Song, a spokeswoman for Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The children ranged in age from several months to 6 years old, she said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-051208midway,1,2244053.story?coll=chi-classifiedjobs-hed
City digs out from winter storm
Tribune staff reports
Published December 9, 2005, 2:26 PM CST
The Chicago area this morning was digging out of its first major snowstorm of the season, an event that saw a spate of accidents involving just about every mode of modern transportation.
The most serious incident involved a Southwest Airlines jet that skidded off a runway while landing at Midway Airport. The plane struck a car on Central Avenue, killing a 6-year-old child in the vehicle. At least 10 other people were injured.
The heaviest snowfall of the night, 10.2 inches, was reported at Midway, according to the WGN-Ch. 9 Weather Center. A total of 10 inches of white stuff was reported in Romeoville, 9.5 inches in West Chicago, 8.6 inches in Barrington and 6.7 inches at O'Hare International Airport.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-051209weather,1,3499789.story?coll=chi-news-hed
When the going gets rough, it must be snowing
By Jason George and Andrew L. Wang
Tribune staff reporters
Published December 9, 2005
Thursday afternoon's snow blast turned Chicagoland highways and byways into parking lots, canceled more than 75 flights at area airports and pushed some evening commutes past the four-hour mark.
"Travel times were awful," said Matt Smith, the spokesman for Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation. "Other cities would shut down, but we did what we could do."
`Efforts included the deployment by 2:15 p.m. of the city's full fleet of 269 snow-fighting trucks and the salting of streets even before flakes fell, Smith said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0512090202dec09,1,5530019.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Snow a big factor for most pilots
By John Schmeltzer and Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune staff reporters
Published December 9, 2005
Landing at Midway under snowy conditions is a challenge even for veteran pilots.
Pilots say that under severe snow conditions, the goal is to hit the runway hard, and immediately engage the thrust reversers to slow the aircraft.
"I can assure you when you are flying into Midway or LaGuardia [in New York] on the famous dark and stormy night, it gets your attention and it is difficult," said retired Capt. Wright B. George in the wake of a Southwest Airlines jetliner running off the end of a runway onto 55th Street in the height of a blinding snowstorm.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0512090209dec09,1,282545.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Snow Brings Some Headaches to Northeast
By J.J. THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
Published December 9, 2005, 2:33 PM CST
A storm spread a blanket of snow almost a foot thick across much of the Northeast on Friday, snarling commutes and closing schools as the flakes fell too fast in some places for cleanup crews to keep pace.
At least three fatal crashes were blamed on the storm, including a New Jersey couple who died when a sport utility vehicle crashed through their bedroom.
Along the Massachusetts-New Hampshire line, the snow fell at a rate of two inches per hour. It also fell quickly throughout Connecticut, lowering visibility on highways and secondary roads.
"You shovel it and it comes right back," said Joe Parise, who was clearing the steps of the federal courthouse in New Haven. "You can't stay ahead of it. You shovel, you come back in an hour, you shovel again, that's all you can do."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-snow-cold,1,5174248.story?coll=chi-news-hed
No, seriously, these products actually exist
By Dave Barry
Knight Ridder/Tribune news
Published December 6, 2005
Hark ... Do you hear that sound? It's the radio, playing "Frosty the Snowman!" For the eighth or ninth time today! And that thud in the yard? Why, that's dad, falling off the ladder while attempting to hang fake icicles from the roof. And if you listen really hard, you can hear, softly in the distance, the sounds of shoppers trading punches over parking spots at the mall.
No doubt about it: The holidays are here!
This is not your ordinary gift guide, the kind that features gifts that somebody might actually want or use. The gifts in this guide were selected because they meet a very strict criterion, which is that when we saw the item advertised, we said to ourselves: "Are they serious?"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0512050205dec06,1,3952511.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Holidays to have extra cops on road
By Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune transportation reporter
Published December 9, 2005
State and local police will launch a holiday season crackdown Friday focusing on drunken driving, speeding and seat-belt violations to stem an increase in traffic deaths statewide in the second half of 2005.
Last year, Illinois recorded the fewest traffic fatalities in more than 60 years, and the downward trend continued the first six months of this year, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. There were 597 deaths from January through June this year, down from 638 deaths during the same period in 2004, according to preliminary statistics.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0512090260dec09,1,7496103.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Bank customers get help
Probe of lost savings focuses on ex-worker
By Lisa Black and Josh Noel
Tribune staff reporters
Published December 9, 2005
U.S. Bank has dispatched a team of bankers to its Highwood branch to help dozens of customers, most of them Mexican immigrants, who say their accounts disappeared or were depleted, officials said Thursday.
As bank customers streamed into the Highwood Police Department to say they feared they had lost thousands of dollars, Chief Dave Wentz said the case is focusing on a single former bank employee who is cooperating with investigators. Bank officials said the woman at the center of the investigation is no longer an employee.
More than 50 people may be affected, Wentz said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0512090272dec09,1,7149996.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Witnesses heard no talk of bomb
Some passengers dispute the account of a Maitland man's airport shooting.
Mark Schlueb
Sentinel Staff Writer
Published December 9, 2005
Rigoberto Alpizar may have just been scared.
As more details emerged about Wednesday's anxious moments aboard American Airlines Flight 924, it became increasingly apparent that the Maitland man killed by federal air marshals may have been fleeing in panic as he suffered the symptoms of bipolar disorder.
To grieving relatives, two air marshals acted rashly and an innocent man died -- one whom at least seven passengers said they never heard say anything about a bomb.
"With all the advances that the U.S. has supposedly made in their war against terrorism, I can't conceive that the marshals wouldn't be able to overpower an unarmed, single man, especially knowing he had already cleared every security check," Carlos Alpizar said Thursday of his brother's death, in a telephone interview from Costa Rica.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/orl-planefolo0905dec09,1,7809431.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Furry `evacuees' seek homes after hurricane
The Buddy Foundation of Arlington Heights aids pets separated from Gulf Coast owners
By Robert Channick
Special to the Tribune
Published December 9, 2005
After serving on the front lines of Hurricane Katrina animal rescue operations, Danielle Pennett came away with more than a sense of satisfaction: The Des Plaines pet groomer also brought back four dogs and five kittens orphaned by the storm.
"You can't go down there and not bring somebody home," said Pennett, 26, a foster parent for the Buddy Foundation, an Arlington Heights organization that saves stray and abandoned pets.
Pennett was among hundreds of animal rescuers who descended on New Orleans after Katrina. Moved by the plight of thousands of displaced dogs and cats in late September, she took a week off from her job at Petco in Mt. Prospect to volunteer.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0512090252dec09,1,7823784.story?coll=chi-news-hed
The New York Times
U.S. Delegation Walks Out of Climate Talks
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: December 9, 2005
MONTREAL, Dec. 9 - Two weeks of treaty talks on global warming neared an end today with the world's current and projected leaders in emissions of greenhouse gases, the United States and China, still refusing to take any mandatory steps to avoid dangerous climate change.
The Bush administration was sharply criticized by environmental groups for walking out of a round of informal discussions shortly after midnight that were aimed at finding new ways of curbing gases beyond steps taken so far.
Christinne Muschi/Reuters
Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky speaking at a news conference today.
Andrew C. Revkin reports from the climate talks in Montreal, Dec. 5 - Dec 9, 2005.
E-mail Andrew C. Revkin at revkin@nytimes.com
"This shows just how willing the U.S. administration is to walk away from a healthy planet and its responsibilities to its own people," said Jennifer Morgan of the World Wildlife Fund.
The talks have left the world's major sources of the emissions - the United States, big developing countries, and a bloc led by Europe and Japan - divided over how to proceed under both a 1992 treaty with no binding gas restrictions and the Kyoto Protocol, an addendum that took effect this year.
The Kyoto pact sets binding restrictions on gases, but they only apply to about three dozen industrialized countries. The United States and Australia have rejected it.
American officials declined to comment Thursday afternoon on their actions. They released a printed statement, but it referred only to the hastily arranged presence of former President Bill Clinton.
Early in the afternoon, Mr. Clinton gave a sweeping speech to the thousands of delegates in which he sketched a route around the impasse that included gentle rebukes of those seeking concrete targets and also of the Bush administration.
Mr. Clinton said countries should pay less attention to establishing global targets for emissions and more to discrete initiatives to advance and disseminate technologies that could greatly reduce emissions in both rich and poor countries.
In a comment clearly directed at the Bush administration, he noted that the United States had adopted a precautionary approach to fighting terrorism. "There is no more important place in the world to apply the principal of precaution than the area of climate change," he said, generating waves of applause.
"I think it's crazy for us to play games with our children's future," Mr. Clinton said. "We know what's happening to the climate, we have a highly predictable set of consequences if we continue to pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and we know we have an alternative that will lead us to greater prosperity."
In a statement, Paula Dobriansky, the head of the American delegation, said public events like Mr. Clinton's presentation were "useful opportunities to hear a wide range of views on global climate change."
The meeting is the latest in a 17-year string of sessions aimed at moving both industrial powers and fast-growing developing countries toward cutting emissions of the greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide, which are an unavoidable byproduct of burning coal, oil and forests.
They have produced two agreements. The first, the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, was accepted by nearly all the world's countries, including the United States, but includes no binding targets and never defines an unacceptably dangerous concentration of greenhouse gases.
The Kyoto Protocol, an addendum to the first treaty, took effect in February but only requires about three dozen industrial countries to make cuts in the gases. It was rejected in 2001 by President Bush.
At the Montreal meeting on Friday, countries bound by the Kyoto pact were close to agreeing on a plan to negotiate a new set of targets and timetables for cutting emissions after its terms expire in 2012.
But under pressure from some countries that were already having trouble meeting Kyoto targets, the language included no specific year for completing talks on next steps, instead indicating that parties would "aim to complete" work "as soon as possible."
In a news conference, environmental groups tried to cast that decision as a successful signal to emerging markets in credits earned by cutting greenhouse gases.
But even if those talks generate new targets, some scientists said today that they would be insufficient to stem harmful warming without much broader actions by the biggest and fastest-growing polluters.
In a statement from London, Lord Martin Rees, the new president of Britain's Royal Society, an independent national scientific academy, said that ongoing disputes among wealthy nations over how to cut the gas emissions were distracting them from actually carrying out steps to make the cuts.
Environmental campaigners insisted that the Kyoto process would eventually force other countries, particularly the United States, to act by building a market for credits achieved by making deep cuts in carbon dioxide and the other gases.
"As Kyoto deepens and broadens, U.S. business and industry will mount irresistible pressure on United States leadership to re-engage in the process rather than be shut out of markets of the future," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private group that supports binding cuts in heat-trapping gases.
But lobbyists and groups associated with businesses that oppose such restrictions scoffed at the prospect of a meaningful carbon market.
The National Center for Public Policy Research, one such group, worked the halls, distributing mock emissions credits.
These are the chits created under a "cap and trade" system for controlling pollution that allow those businesses that make cuts beyond requirements to sell the extra tons to others.
In this case, the mock credits were printed in five languages on rolls of toilet paper.
But environmental groups did not sit by.
The National Environmental Trust distributed custom-printed noise-making rubber whoopee cushions printed with a caricature of President Bush and the words "Emissions Accomplished."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/international/americas/09cnd-climate.html
continued...
