Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Rooster "Crowing"
"Okeydoke"
History
1774 1st Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia
1825 Erie Canal between Hudson River & Lake Erie opened
1868 White terrorists kill several blacks in St Bernard Parish La
1869 1st American steeplechase horserace (Westchester, NY)
1916 Margaret Sanger arrested for obscenity (advocating birth control)
1921 Solomon Porter Hood named minister to Liberia
1941 US savings bonds go on sale
1949 Pres Truman increases minimum wage from 40› to 75›
1955 Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims Vietnam a republic with himself as pres
1956 UN's International Atomic Energy Agency statute approved
1956 Vietnam promulgates its constitution
1957 Vatican Radio begins broadcasting
1960 AL's Washington Senators move to become Minnesota Twins
1962 Beatles tape "Please Please Me" & "Ask Me Why"
1964 Rolling Stones appear on the Ed Sullivan Show
1967 Shah of Iran crowns himself after 26 years on Peacock Throne
1970 "Doonesbury" comic strip debuts in 28 newspapers
1971 UN votes to replace Taiwan with China
1972 Guided tours of Alcatraz (by Park Service) begin
1972 Henry Kissinger declares "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam
1976 Transkei gains independence, not recognized outside of South Africa
1976 Trinidad & Tobago becomes a republic
1977 5th & final test of space shuttle Enterprise
1982 Steve Carlton became 1st pitcher to win 4 Cy Young awards
1984 "Baby Fae" gets baboon heart transplant, lives 21 days
1987 Head of Salvadoran Human Rights Comm assassinated by death squads
1988 Donald Trump bills Mike Tyson $2,000,000 for 4 month advisory service
1988 US-Soviet effort free 2 grey whales from frozen Arctic, Barrow, AK
Missing in Action
1966 MORRISON GLENN RAYMOND JR MASON CITY IA CACCF/CRASH/PILOT/TAY NINH REFNO 0506 VEH # 3167
1967 DANIELS VERLYNE W. REAMSVILLE KS 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1967 MC CAIN JOHN S. NORFOLK VA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98/US SENATOR
1967 RICE CHARLES D. SETAUKET NY 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1969 BYNUM NEIL S. VIAN OK
1969 WARREN GARY D. DES MOINES IA
1971 EVELAND MICKEY E. LOS ANGELES CA "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
1971 FINGER SANFORD I. NEW YORK NY "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
1971 GREEN THOMAS F. RAMONA CA "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
1971 LAUTZENHEISER MICHAEL MUNCIE IN "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
1971 NICKOL ROBERT A. BETHLEHEM PA "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
1971 TRUDEAU ALBERT R. MILWAUKEE WI "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
October 25
1966 GREEN ROBERT B. LAMPASAS TX
1966 LEVAN ALVIN L. CATAWISSA PA
1967 HORINEK RAMON A. ATWOOD KS 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 KROMMENHOEK JEFFREY M. SIOUX CITY IA
1967 SMITH RICHARD EUGENE MARKS MS 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV " ""GENE"" ALIVE AND WELL 98"
1968 THOMPSON BENJAMIN A. SARALAND AL "LOST IN RIVER, PROB DROWNED"
1983 ARMS HERMAN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 BATTISTE JERALD T. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND O3/84
1983 BRACEY SEBE M. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CATES PATRICK B. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CHONG JACOB KIM JOO GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CLIFTON DAVID P. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 CUSICK JAMES F. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CHEN WEI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CHEN XIONG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CHENG SHO GUO GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 DIXON THOMAS J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 FLANAGAN JERALD J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 FURNESS NIGEL GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 FENG SHAO JIEN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 GANZINOTTI EDWARD LEONARD GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 GILMORE LA JUAN A. GLOMAR JAVA SEA NAME ALBERT G. REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 GITTINGS HENRY M. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 GITTINGS JAMES K. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 GREEN TERANCE C. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 GUAN JUN TIAN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 HIGGINS DAVID JR. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 HIGGINS TYRONNE GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 HUANG HONG XI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 HUANG RUI WEN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 HUANG YONG LIANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 JARVIS TIMOTHY GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 JENNINGS JOHN W. JR. GLOMAR JAVA SEA - REMAINS FOUND ON BOAT DECK SR19 MARCH 1984
1983 KOFAHL THOMAS J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 KONG FAN XIANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LAWRENCE JOHN W. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LEE TONG LONG TOMMY GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LIM EDGAR S. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND BOAT DECK SR20 03/84
1983 LOOKE GARY GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LAI GUO ZHEN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LI CHONG CHANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LI XUAN QIU GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LIANG ZHAN JUN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LIN JIE FENG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LIU BING GUANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 MC CURRY ROBERT M. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 MANFRIDA JERRY L. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND BOAT DECK PASSAGEWAY 03/84
1983 MILLER RAYMOND D. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 MYERS KENNETH W. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 MYERS LARRY K. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 MO XUE YI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 MO TIAN XUE GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 OULETT DONALD J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 PIERCE JOHN D. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 POPIEL PETER GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ROBINSON WALTER T. PRESCOTT AZ GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 REED CLARENCE GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 REYNOLDS JEWELL J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 REYNOLDS E.J. RUSSELL GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 ROGERS KENNETH B. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 SALZWEDEL LAWRENCE M. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SCHUG WILLIAM R. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SHOFF RICHARD E. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SLEEMAN CHRISTOPHER J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 SPENCER DELMAR A. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SULLIVAN GEORGE G. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SWANSON GUSTAF F. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SWANSON KEVIN C. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 SUN CHONG JIAN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 THOMAS MICHAEL W. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 TANG GUO DONG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 WANG JIANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 WANG YU FANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 WANG DONG CAI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 WU GUO RONG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 XIA JING SHENG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 XING XING GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 XU HUI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 XU MING RUI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 YUAN HUI GUANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHANG XING ZHEN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHANG YI HUA GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHEN JI CHANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHOU SHU RONG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHOU YAO WU GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHOU JIE FANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHU DA HUIA GLOMAR JAVA SEA
San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO
Schools chief ready to hire replacements
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
San Francisco schools chief Arlene Ackerman said Tuesday she is prepared to hire workers to replace cafeteria workers, secretaries, custodians, guards and other members of the Service Employees Union International 790 who have threatened to strike if their contract demands aren't met.
Union leaders, who represent 1,200 workers in the district, said that such a rapid-fire mass hiring would place students at risk because there would be no time to perform legally required background checks on new, picket-line-crossing employees.
"She's willing to trade away the safety of our children for political leverage at the bargaining table," declared LaWanna Preston, the union's chief negotiator.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/26/BAGGAFE51N1.DTL
Was It Something I Ate?
What to do if you think a restaurant meal has made you sick
Janet Fletcher, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
You slurped the oysters, devoured the pork chop and ate every crumb of the apple pie -- yet another fine dinner at a favorite restaurant. But at 3 a.m., you awake in a sweat, your insides churning and one thought on your mind: "That [expletive] restaurant made me sick."
Not so fast. You're sick all right. But was it the oysters? Or that succulent pork chop? Can you even be sure the culprit was part of your meal?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/26/FDGSJF7RI71.DTL
Son of Black Muslim leader shot dead
Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
(10-26) 10:30 PDT OAKLAND -- The son of a well-known Black Muslim leader was shot and killed last night as he filled his car's tank at a gas station in North Oakland.
Antar Bey, 24, was shot at the Union 76 gas station at 55th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way just after 7:30 p.m. as he gassed up his black BMW 745, Oakland police said. He was gunned down as he stepped away from the car and spoke on his cell phone, police said.
Bey is the son and appointed successor of the late Yusuf Bey, who died of cancer in 2003. Police Lt. Lawrence Green said the slaying was either an attempted carjacking or an assassination-style "hit."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/26/MNGAEFE9KL5.DTL
FEMA Extends Brown's Contract by 30 Days
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
(10-26) 12:59 PDT Tallahassee, Fla. (AP) --
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday defended FEMA's decision to extend former director Michael Brown's post-resignation employment by another 30 days.
"It's important to allow the new people who have the responsibility ... to have access to the information we need to do better," Chertoff told The Associated Press as he flew to view Hurricane Wilma's damage in Florida.
"We don't want to sacrifice the real ability to get a full picture of Mike's experiences; we don't want to sacrifice that ability simply in order to make an image point," Chertoff said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/10/26/national/w113749D14.DTL
Study: Walking As Good As Jogging
By NATALIE GOTT, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
(10-26) 11:13 PDT Raleigh, N.C. (AP) --
There's no need to run. Just going for a brisk walk — in the park, around the block or on a treadmill — may be enough to help keep your heart healthy, a small study suggests.
The study, which indicates roughly two to three hours of mild exercise a week at a moderate intensity can significantly cut the risk of cardiovascular disease, supports earlier research.
The findings may encourage people who are reluctant to exercise, said Brian Duscha, the lead author of the research published in the October issue of the journal Chest.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/10/26/national/a111339D55.DTL&type=health
Iran Leader Calls for Israel's Destruction
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
(10-26) 12:34 PDT TEHRAN, Iran (AP) --
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Wednesday that Israel is a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map" — fiery words that Washington said underscores its concern over Iran's nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad's speech to thousands of students at a "World without Zionism" conference set a hard-line foreign policy course sharply at odds with that of his moderate predecessor, echoing the sentiments of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution.
The United States said Ahmadinejad's remarks show that Washington's fears about Iran's nuclear program are accurate.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/10/26/international/i054029D43.DTL
Google to open online market?
System is seen as possible challenge to eBay, Craigslist
Benjamin Pimentel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Google Inc. is reportedly testing a new Web-based service that would allow users to sell products online, a move some observers see as a challenge to eBay Inc., the dominant Internet auction service.
Plans for the Internet search giant's experimental service, called Google Base, apparently leaked after screen shots of the project appeared on several Web sites, according to published reports.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/26/BUG3CFDSTT1.DTL
OPINION: Conservatives Give Bush An Earful
Cinnamon Stillwell
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Leftist Bush-bashing is certainly nothing new, but recently the president has been getting an earful from his right flank as well. For some time now, a lively debate has been raging among conservatives over a variety of Bush administration policies and decisions.
For conservatives, criticism of the Bush administration centers not so much on style than on substance. Unlike the left's scattershot attacks, the president's appearance, past habits or religious beliefs are unlikely to figure in the equation. Disagreement exists over the war in Iraq, but conservatives are largely united in the belief that the war on terrorism is the preeminent struggle of our lifetime. Instead, contentiousness tends to center on domestic and security issues on which the administration seems inconsistent.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/10/26/cstillwell.DTL
Abortion issue's opponents wary of the fine print
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
The principal debate over Proposition 73 is whether doctors should have to notify a pregnant teen's parents before performing an abortion. But other controversies are lurking in the fine print.
One little-discussed provision of the Nov. 8 ballot measure would create a public scorecard for judges who rule on minors' abortions. Another would define abortion in the state Constitution as the killing of "a child conceived but not yet born.''
Sponsors of Prop. 73 say that both provisions are part of the machinery of the proposed parental-notification system and that neither is momentous. Some opponents say both are potential land mines.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/26/MNG1LFE5671.DTL
Dawn
Call to make UN rights council a real form of dialogue
By Our Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 25: Pakistan on Tuesday stressed that “all civilizations and faiths need to be represented” in the new human rights council so it can be a real forum for dialogue.
“Human rights should not become a source for cultural imperialism. We strongly support adequate representation of all cultures, faiths and continents”, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations declared during an intervention in the UN General Assembly’s consultations on the composition of the new human rights council
Mr Akram asserted “there should be no imposition of the views and perceptions of certain groups on rest of the membership.”
He observed that the current gaps and inadequacies in cultural and civilization representation in the council also need to be addressed. All civilizations and faiths need to be represented in the council so as it can be a real forum for dialogue”.
http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/26/top17.htm
Bomb material found at San Diego airport
WASHINGTON, Oct 25: Baggage screeners found bomb components in a carry-on piece of luggage at San Diego International Airport on Tuesday and cleared the area to investigate, Department of Homeland Security spokesmen said.
A department spokesman said the screeners found “all components of an IED” (improvised explosive device) in a piece of luggage. They then evacuated the commuter terminal of the airport and bomb specialists began to investigate, the spokesman said.
Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nico Melendez said an employee noticed a “suspicious item” in a piece of luggage as it was going through the X-ray machine.—Reuters
http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/26/top18.htm
Pakistani convicted in money transfer case
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
SAN FRANCIASCO, Oct 25: A federal jury in Greenbelt, Maryland, has convicted Mohammad Bajwa, a Pakistani-American, on charges connected to $6 million he helped people transfer to Pakistan and other countries.
Mohammad Bajwa, 39, from Herndon, Virginia, was convicted in the US District Court of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. He was also convicted of wire fraud connected to a refinancing application he filed on a property mortgage.
Bajwa, owner of a construction company, New Superstar Corporation, was ordered to give up his home and $4 million.
He could face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each charge when he is sentenced on Nov 29.
http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/26/top16.htm
Kashmiri leaders want to cross LoC
SRINAGAR, Oct 25: Police on Tuesday detained a Kashmiri leader after he set out to cross LoC to help quake victims in Pakistan. Nayeem Khan and 15 of his supporters were held near Mirgund, 20 kilometres north of Srinagar, while they were heading to the border sector of Uri, police said.
Mr Khan had declared last week that he would breach the Line of Control at Uri and cross over to Azad Kashmir to help the victims of earthquake. He had made it clear his group would not seek permission from the Indian government to cross the LoC.
Other Kashmiri leaders said they too wanted to cross the LoC to help quake victims in Azad Kashmir but they would wait until they got the go-ahead from the authorities. “I and my volunteers are eager to cross over to help our brothers in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir,” said Javed Mir, a former Mujahideen commander.—AFP
http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/26/top9.htm
Quake: Oxfam criticizes rich for slow response
GENEVA, Oct 26: Aid agency Oxfam on Wednesday criticised western governments for giving too little too late to quake-stricken Pakistan as donor countries prepared to meet at the United Nations in Geneva to rally rescue efforts.
Oxfam said many rich countries had donated less than what it called their “fair share” and others nothing at all, while thousands of survivors were stranded in some of world’s most rugged mountains without shelter or food as winter approached.
The comments were issued as officials from some 65 countries including the United States, Britain, France and Japan were gathering in Geneva to take stock of Pakistan relief efforts and see how they can be stepped up.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will address the meeting.
http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/26/top6.htm
Do we actually want people to randomly carry guns in the USA?
Cow slaughter backfires for man
Wed Oct 26, 2005 12:50 PM ET
SYDNEY (Reuters) - A man who twice missed while trying to shoot a friend's cow only to accidentally shoot a passer-by in the leg was fined Wednesday for what an Australian court described as a freak accident.
Rudolf Stadler, 61, agreed in April last year to shoot the troublesome cow which belonged to a friend who owns a hobby farm at Caboolture in tropical Queensland state.
Stadler lured the cow to a shed, and then took aim with his rifle. He missed. He took aim a second time, fired and missed again.
The second shot went through the back of the shed, a fence across a paddock and then through the door of a car being driven along a road behind the farm.
The bullet hit 46-year-old Carrie Tunning in the leg, the Brisbane District Court heard. Tunning, a passenger in the car, made a full recovery but Stadler was so distressed by the incident that he handed in his firearms license.
The court fined Stadler A$1,000 and banned him from obtaining another gun license for five years.
The cow was not so lucky, with Stadler eventually finding his mark.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2005-10-26T165003Z_01_WRI660488_RTRUKOC_0_US-AUSTRALIA-COW.xml
The Times of India
Chaos: Is it time to wind up from Bangalore?
NEW DELHI: Padma works as an international ticketing supervisor in one of Bangalore's top travel and tour operators and she rides a scooty to her office. For the past one week, it has been impossible to commute to her office, leave alone riding through the streets of Bangalore.
Rajeev rides a Bullet and he works in foreign language section of one the top multinational organizations. He is looking for the waters to recede.
So is every Bangalorean. Last Sunday night, it was impossible to reach the Bangalore airport as the rain pounded the city and the waters were rising.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1275976.cms
Bangalore Marooned and Governance Issues"
One feels sad to notice that two days of rain can bring cripple Bangalore day to day life and bring the government to its knees. Government is forced to take strong measures as to call holidays and advice people to stay indoors in order to prevent casualty. Administration is unaware to quantify the magnitude of damage at any given point of time. The government agency responsible for adequate action fail to own responsibility in times of crisis. The administration often lacks face in times of crisis for adequate information dissemination and status tracking. Co-ordination across various departments of the government is lacking. The inability of the government to withstand even the simple rainfall questions the governments capability for future calamities and crisis.
http://o3.indiatimes.com/eccentric
al-Qaeda man on prowl in Delhi
Sachin Parashar
[ Thursday, October 27, 2005 12:00:45 am
TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
NEW DELHI: An al-Qaeda terrorist, Mohammed Majoodi, has sneaked into the country with the intention of targeting US centres in major Indian metros, intelligence sources said.
It was Majoodi’s suspected presence here that had led the US state department to sound a terror alert for American establishments in India on October 10.
While establishments in the Capital like the US embassy, American Centre and United States Educational Foundation in India are high on terrorist hit lists, the alert about Majoodi has also been passed on to Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai by intelligence agencies.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1276411.cms
The Gulf News
Bashar vows to prosecute Syrians linked to Hariri killling
Agencies
Washington: Syrian President Bashar Assad said he will bring to trial any Syrian linked to the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.
In a letter sent to Washington on Sunday, Assad said Syria had nothing to do with the February 14 car bombing that killed Hariri, The Washington Post said on Wednesday.
"I am ready to follow up action to bring to trial any Syrian who could be proved by concrete evidence to have had connection with this crime," Assad said in the letter.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=188845
The stakes are too high for Syria
By George S. Hishmeh, Special to Gulf News
Syria has taken the right step, as reaffirmed by its representative at the UN Security Council session on Tuesday, Fayssal Mekedad, in agreeing to extend the term of the controversial UN mission investigating the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
After all, Hariri is best remembered, particularly in the Arab world, for his amazing generosity and down-to-earth leadership, especially in the facelift he gave to Beirut, the once-again glittering Lebanese capital.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=188853
October 21, 2005
Do you think Syria is involved in the killing of Rafik Hariri?
Yes: 45.1%
No: 43.9%
Unsure: 11.0%
October 17, 2005
If found guilty, should Saddam Hussain be executed?
Yes: 44.9%
No: 49.3%
Unsure: 5.8%
http://www.gulf-news.com/Opinion/Polls/default.asp
The Moscow Times
Terror Victims Unite to Press Putin
By Francesca Mereu
Staff Writer
Igor Tabakov / MT
Nord Ost co-chair Karpova, left, and Beslan mother Ella Kesayeva speaking at a news conference Tuesday.
Survivors and relatives of those who died in Moscow's Dubrovka theater siege teamed up with Beslan mothers and other families affected by terrorist attacks on Tuesday to demand that President Vladimir Putin ensure fair investigations into the attacks.
The families, united under the auspices of the new Nord Ost nongovernmental organization, issued an appeal at a news conference for Putin to revisit "biased" official investigations into terrorist attacks.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/011.html
Bush could write a pardon for everyone indicted except himself and without a report required the Grand Jury could literally expire and the American people will never know the truth and remain at risk for all of the same happening again.
Global Eye
Flop Sweat
By Chris Floyd
Published: October 21, 2005
Having railed at the wanton criminality of the Bush faction for so long, this column naturally partakes of the general glee arising from the looming possibility of genuine, grade-A grand jury indictments for some of the gang's top thugs.
Of course, we all know that the fix is in: If anyone in the White House is actually indicted and convicted for the high crime of exposing the identity of an undercover agent -- in wartime, no less -- they will certainly be pardoned when George W. Bush finally limps away from the steaming, stinking, blood-soaked ruin of his presidency. Nobody will do any hard time; in the end, the whole sick crew will simply pass through the golden revolving door into the lifetime gravy train of corporate grease and right-wing lecture-circuit glory.
Still, it is heartening to see the fever-sweat of fear popping out on the brows of these swaggering world-shakers, these third-rate goons and half-wit cranks posing as great statesmen, if only for a little while. Fear has always been their weapon of choice: They've used it to foment aggressive war, to crush political opposition, to manipulate the electorate and to mask their own incompetence, corruption and greed. Now they're getting a taste of it themselves -- and they can't take it.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/21/120.html
Russia Rising as Energy Superpower on U.S. Demand
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer
For MT
Heat exchange equipment on the site of Sakhalin-2 LNG project, which is expected to produce first gas in 2008.
The legendary sea-faring route from the United States across the Atlantic to Russia's northern city of Murmansk, through which vital supplies went to the Soviet Union some 60 years ago to help the country fight in World War II, is looking to get a new breath of life. This time, however, the traffic is going to be reversed, shipping liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from Russia to energy-hungry North America.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/046.html
Yukos Dogs Khristenko's U.S. Visit
By Stephen Boykewich and Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writers
Lawrence Jackson / AP
Viktor Khristenko speaking during an interview in Washington on Monday.
Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, in Washington with top Russian business leaders to rebuild confidence in U.S.-Russia energy ties after the legal onslaught against Yukos, has been caught up in a lawsuit by U.S. shareholders in the shattered oil company.
A spokesman for the plaintiffs said Khristenko was served with the lawsuit just after meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday -- and hours after a speech asserting that Russia was not engaged in renationalizing its oil and gas sector.
Twelve shareholders of Yukos American Depositary Receipts filed suit against the Russian government, four state-owned energy giants and a host of high-ranking government officials on Monday, accusing them of securities fraud in the de facto renationalization of Yukos.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/001.html
Russia Demands Yukos Official's Extradition
The Associated Press
LONDON -- Lawyers for the Russian government opened an extradition case on Tuesday against a former executive of Yukos, claiming he committed fraud and perverted the course of justice.
Lawyer Peter Caldwell told Bow Street Magistrates' Court in central London that Alexander Temerko, a former senior vice president of Yukos Moscow, conspired to defraud the state-owned Rosneft oil company of its shares in a third company, Yeniseineftegaz.
A second count alleges that Temerko conspired to pervert the course of justice by providing false evidence about the allegations.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/048.html
GM Begins Wooing Local Scientists
By Anna Smolchenko
Staff Writer
General Motors is turning to Russian scientists for help in developing its new generation of electric vehicles, the company said Tuesday as it opened its new research center in Moscow.
The move makes GM the first foreign carmaker to set up a research-and-development presence in Russia.
"We are entering an era of increased technological collaboration with Russia," Alan Taub, executive director of Science at GM Research & Development laboratories, said at a news conference in Moscow.
GM declined to say how much money it was channeling into Russia. The company spent more than $5 billion on research and development, or R&D, in 2003, according to a recent report.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/041.html
LUKoil Seeks to Best CNPC's Kazakh Bid
By Dmitry Zhdannikov
Reuters
LUKoil said it was ready to match the $4.2 billion offer by Chinese oil firm CNPC for Toronto-listed Kazakh oil producer PetroKazakhstan.
It said in a statement Tuesday that it would make the offer if a Canadian court ruled this week not to approve the deal between CNPC and PetroKazakhstan because of an earlier suit by LUKoil.
Analysts said they doubted LUKoil wanted all of PetroKazakhstan and said they believed the statement was designed to put pressure on the court to support the Russian company in its long-running dispute over some of PetroKazakhstan's assets.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/042.html
The Scotsman
High oil prices help BP weather storms to report £2.46bn profits
MARTIN FLANAGAN
CITY EDITOR
SURGING oil prices allowed oil major BP to deliver a strong rise in third-quarter profits yesterday, with the performance likely to have been an estimated £440 million better but for the devastating US hurricane season.
BP said its underlying adjusted replacement cost profit, which strips out one-off items and gains or losses from changes in the value of fuel inventories - and is the measure closely watched by the City - rose to $4.4 billion (£2.46bn).
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=2145452005
Financial services tops McConnell agenda
DAVID BLACK
DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR
SCOTLAND'S financial services sector has given an enthusiastic welcome to First Minister Jack McConnell's decision to take a hands-on role in driving the industry forward - providing he actually delivers.
The Scottish Executive confirmed yesterday McConnell is to take over the chairmanship of the Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB).
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=2145232005
Cheney drawn into row on exposure of CIA agent
RHIANNON EDWARD
DICK Cheney, the United States vice-president, yesterday found himself drawn uncomfortably deeper into a web of allegations over how a covert CIA operative came to be unmasked.
Previously undisclosed notes of a conversation between Mr Cheney and his chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on 12 June, 2003, have put the spotlight on the vice-president's possible role in the unmasking of Valerie Plame and appear to run counter to Mr Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he first learned about her from newspaper reporters.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2146292005
Shadow cast over independence of Scottish Financial Enterprise
SCRUTINEER
NICK BEVENS
JACK McConnell's unprecedented decision to take personal control of the Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB) raises searching questions.
Is it a political manoeuvre to highlight his commitment to Scottish business, after being so heavily criticised for doing nothing to endear himself to it in his first term?
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=2145432005
I included this article in skepticism. Not to be inflammatory. I don't understand how the 'eggs' would be considered infectious unless the virus is blood borne. That is not my understanding of this virus. I believe this view is extreme.
EU warns of bird flu danger in chicken and eggs
EBEN HARRELL
Key points
• EU warns against undercooked poultry but admits no evidence link
• EU bans import of live birds to prevent spread of avian flu
• Businesses accuse agency of scaremongering
Key quote
"[Cooking] protects from salmonella and other diseases. Avian flu is an added danger, even though there is no epidemiological data to prove it can be transmitted through food" - European Food Safety Agency official
Story in full FOOD safety advisers are to warn the public to avoid raw eggs and undercooked poultry to prevent the spread of bird flu in Europe.
The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has said it "can't exclude" the possibility that the deadly virus can be transmitted through foods.
Raw eggs are used in various popular recipes including mayonnaise. No details were available last night over whether the advice would apply to partially-cooked foods such as soft-boiled eggs.
Until now, British food safety advisers have ruled out the possibility of humans contracting the disease through consumption of eggs or poultry.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2146272005
Is Scotland earnestly looking at 'bird eggs' as a potential infection source? It occurred to me that eggs could have infection on the shells from contact of the hens that laid them if the hen was infected. Perhaps that is the missing link to it's quickly spreading and undetected record.
What is special about the current outbreaks in poultry?
The current outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, which began in South-east Asia in mid-2003, are the largest and most severe on record. Never before in the history of this disease have so many countries been simultaneously affected, resulting in the loss of so many birds.
The causative agent, the H5N1 virus, has proved to be especially tenacious. Despite the death or destruction of an estimated 150 million birds, the virus is now considered endemic in many parts of Indonesia and Viet Nam and in some parts of Cambodia, China, Thailand, and possibly also the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Control of the disease in poultry is expected to take several years.
The H5N1 virus is also of particular concern for human health, as explained below.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avian_faqs/en/
continued …
"Okeydoke"
History
1774 1st Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia
1825 Erie Canal between Hudson River & Lake Erie opened
1868 White terrorists kill several blacks in St Bernard Parish La
1869 1st American steeplechase horserace (Westchester, NY)
1916 Margaret Sanger arrested for obscenity (advocating birth control)
1921 Solomon Porter Hood named minister to Liberia
1941 US savings bonds go on sale
1949 Pres Truman increases minimum wage from 40› to 75›
1955 Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims Vietnam a republic with himself as pres
1956 UN's International Atomic Energy Agency statute approved
1956 Vietnam promulgates its constitution
1957 Vatican Radio begins broadcasting
1960 AL's Washington Senators move to become Minnesota Twins
1962 Beatles tape "Please Please Me" & "Ask Me Why"
1964 Rolling Stones appear on the Ed Sullivan Show
1967 Shah of Iran crowns himself after 26 years on Peacock Throne
1970 "Doonesbury" comic strip debuts in 28 newspapers
1971 UN votes to replace Taiwan with China
1972 Guided tours of Alcatraz (by Park Service) begin
1972 Henry Kissinger declares "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam
1976 Transkei gains independence, not recognized outside of South Africa
1976 Trinidad & Tobago becomes a republic
1977 5th & final test of space shuttle Enterprise
1982 Steve Carlton became 1st pitcher to win 4 Cy Young awards
1984 "Baby Fae" gets baboon heart transplant, lives 21 days
1987 Head of Salvadoran Human Rights Comm assassinated by death squads
1988 Donald Trump bills Mike Tyson $2,000,000 for 4 month advisory service
1988 US-Soviet effort free 2 grey whales from frozen Arctic, Barrow, AK
Missing in Action
1966 MORRISON GLENN RAYMOND JR MASON CITY IA CACCF/CRASH/PILOT/TAY NINH REFNO 0506 VEH # 3167
1967 DANIELS VERLYNE W. REAMSVILLE KS 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1967 MC CAIN JOHN S. NORFOLK VA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98/US SENATOR
1967 RICE CHARLES D. SETAUKET NY 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1969 BYNUM NEIL S. VIAN OK
1969 WARREN GARY D. DES MOINES IA
1971 EVELAND MICKEY E. LOS ANGELES CA "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
1971 FINGER SANFORD I. NEW YORK NY "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
1971 GREEN THOMAS F. RAMONA CA "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
1971 LAUTZENHEISER MICHAEL MUNCIE IN "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
1971 NICKOL ROBERT A. BETHLEHEM PA "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
1971 TRUDEAU ALBERT R. MILWAUKEE WI "CRASH, 4 REMAINS FOUND, NOT SUBJS"
October 25
1966 GREEN ROBERT B. LAMPASAS TX
1966 LEVAN ALVIN L. CATAWISSA PA
1967 HORINEK RAMON A. ATWOOD KS 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 KROMMENHOEK JEFFREY M. SIOUX CITY IA
1967 SMITH RICHARD EUGENE MARKS MS 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV " ""GENE"" ALIVE AND WELL 98"
1968 THOMPSON BENJAMIN A. SARALAND AL "LOST IN RIVER, PROB DROWNED"
1983 ARMS HERMAN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 BATTISTE JERALD T. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND O3/84
1983 BRACEY SEBE M. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CATES PATRICK B. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CHONG JACOB KIM JOO GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CLIFTON DAVID P. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 CUSICK JAMES F. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CHEN WEI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CHEN XIONG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 CHENG SHO GUO GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 DIXON THOMAS J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 FLANAGAN JERALD J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 FURNESS NIGEL GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 FENG SHAO JIEN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 GANZINOTTI EDWARD LEONARD GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 GILMORE LA JUAN A. GLOMAR JAVA SEA NAME ALBERT G. REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 GITTINGS HENRY M. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 GITTINGS JAMES K. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 GREEN TERANCE C. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 GUAN JUN TIAN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 HIGGINS DAVID JR. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 HIGGINS TYRONNE GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 HUANG HONG XI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 HUANG RUI WEN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 HUANG YONG LIANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 JARVIS TIMOTHY GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 JENNINGS JOHN W. JR. GLOMAR JAVA SEA - REMAINS FOUND ON BOAT DECK SR19 MARCH 1984
1983 KOFAHL THOMAS J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 KONG FAN XIANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LAWRENCE JOHN W. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LEE TONG LONG TOMMY GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LIM EDGAR S. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND BOAT DECK SR20 03/84
1983 LOOKE GARY GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LAI GUO ZHEN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LI CHONG CHANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LI XUAN QIU GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LIANG ZHAN JUN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LIN JIE FENG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 LIU BING GUANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 MC CURRY ROBERT M. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 MANFRIDA JERRY L. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND BOAT DECK PASSAGEWAY 03/84
1983 MILLER RAYMOND D. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 MYERS KENNETH W. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 MYERS LARRY K. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 MO XUE YI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 MO TIAN XUE GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 OULETT DONALD J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 PIERCE JOHN D. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 POPIEL PETER GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ROBINSON WALTER T. PRESCOTT AZ GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 REED CLARENCE GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 REYNOLDS JEWELL J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 REYNOLDS E.J. RUSSELL GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 ROGERS KENNETH B. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 SALZWEDEL LAWRENCE M. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SCHUG WILLIAM R. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SHOFF RICHARD E. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SLEEMAN CHRISTOPHER J. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 SPENCER DELMAR A. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SULLIVAN GEORGE G. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SWANSON GUSTAF F. GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 SWANSON KEVIN C. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 SUN CHONG JIAN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 THOMAS MICHAEL W. GLOMAR JAVA SEA REMAINS FOUND 03/84
1983 TANG GUO DONG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 WANG JIANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 WANG YU FANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 WANG DONG CAI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 WU GUO RONG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 XIA JING SHENG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 XING XING GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 XU HUI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 XU MING RUI GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 YUAN HUI GUANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHANG XING ZHEN GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHANG YI HUA GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHEN JI CHANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHOU SHU RONG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHOU YAO WU GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHOU JIE FANG GLOMAR JAVA SEA
1983 ZHU DA HUIA GLOMAR JAVA SEA
San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO
Schools chief ready to hire replacements
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
San Francisco schools chief Arlene Ackerman said Tuesday she is prepared to hire workers to replace cafeteria workers, secretaries, custodians, guards and other members of the Service Employees Union International 790 who have threatened to strike if their contract demands aren't met.
Union leaders, who represent 1,200 workers in the district, said that such a rapid-fire mass hiring would place students at risk because there would be no time to perform legally required background checks on new, picket-line-crossing employees.
"She's willing to trade away the safety of our children for political leverage at the bargaining table," declared LaWanna Preston, the union's chief negotiator.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/26/BAGGAFE51N1.DTL
Was It Something I Ate?
What to do if you think a restaurant meal has made you sick
Janet Fletcher, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
You slurped the oysters, devoured the pork chop and ate every crumb of the apple pie -- yet another fine dinner at a favorite restaurant. But at 3 a.m., you awake in a sweat, your insides churning and one thought on your mind: "That [expletive] restaurant made me sick."
Not so fast. You're sick all right. But was it the oysters? Or that succulent pork chop? Can you even be sure the culprit was part of your meal?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/26/FDGSJF7RI71.DTL
Son of Black Muslim leader shot dead
Jim Herron Zamora, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
(10-26) 10:30 PDT OAKLAND -- The son of a well-known Black Muslim leader was shot and killed last night as he filled his car's tank at a gas station in North Oakland.
Antar Bey, 24, was shot at the Union 76 gas station at 55th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way just after 7:30 p.m. as he gassed up his black BMW 745, Oakland police said. He was gunned down as he stepped away from the car and spoke on his cell phone, police said.
Bey is the son and appointed successor of the late Yusuf Bey, who died of cancer in 2003. Police Lt. Lawrence Green said the slaying was either an attempted carjacking or an assassination-style "hit."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/26/MNGAEFE9KL5.DTL
FEMA Extends Brown's Contract by 30 Days
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
(10-26) 12:59 PDT Tallahassee, Fla. (AP) --
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday defended FEMA's decision to extend former director Michael Brown's post-resignation employment by another 30 days.
"It's important to allow the new people who have the responsibility ... to have access to the information we need to do better," Chertoff told The Associated Press as he flew to view Hurricane Wilma's damage in Florida.
"We don't want to sacrifice the real ability to get a full picture of Mike's experiences; we don't want to sacrifice that ability simply in order to make an image point," Chertoff said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/10/26/national/w113749D14.DTL
Study: Walking As Good As Jogging
By NATALIE GOTT, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
(10-26) 11:13 PDT Raleigh, N.C. (AP) --
There's no need to run. Just going for a brisk walk — in the park, around the block or on a treadmill — may be enough to help keep your heart healthy, a small study suggests.
The study, which indicates roughly two to three hours of mild exercise a week at a moderate intensity can significantly cut the risk of cardiovascular disease, supports earlier research.
The findings may encourage people who are reluctant to exercise, said Brian Duscha, the lead author of the research published in the October issue of the journal Chest.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/10/26/national/a111339D55.DTL&type=health
Iran Leader Calls for Israel's Destruction
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
(10-26) 12:34 PDT TEHRAN, Iran (AP) --
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Wednesday that Israel is a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map" — fiery words that Washington said underscores its concern over Iran's nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad's speech to thousands of students at a "World without Zionism" conference set a hard-line foreign policy course sharply at odds with that of his moderate predecessor, echoing the sentiments of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution.
The United States said Ahmadinejad's remarks show that Washington's fears about Iran's nuclear program are accurate.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/10/26/international/i054029D43.DTL
Google to open online market?
System is seen as possible challenge to eBay, Craigslist
Benjamin Pimentel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Google Inc. is reportedly testing a new Web-based service that would allow users to sell products online, a move some observers see as a challenge to eBay Inc., the dominant Internet auction service.
Plans for the Internet search giant's experimental service, called Google Base, apparently leaked after screen shots of the project appeared on several Web sites, according to published reports.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/26/BUG3CFDSTT1.DTL
OPINION: Conservatives Give Bush An Earful
Cinnamon Stillwell
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Leftist Bush-bashing is certainly nothing new, but recently the president has been getting an earful from his right flank as well. For some time now, a lively debate has been raging among conservatives over a variety of Bush administration policies and decisions.
For conservatives, criticism of the Bush administration centers not so much on style than on substance. Unlike the left's scattershot attacks, the president's appearance, past habits or religious beliefs are unlikely to figure in the equation. Disagreement exists over the war in Iraq, but conservatives are largely united in the belief that the war on terrorism is the preeminent struggle of our lifetime. Instead, contentiousness tends to center on domestic and security issues on which the administration seems inconsistent.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/10/26/cstillwell.DTL
Abortion issue's opponents wary of the fine print
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
The principal debate over Proposition 73 is whether doctors should have to notify a pregnant teen's parents before performing an abortion. But other controversies are lurking in the fine print.
One little-discussed provision of the Nov. 8 ballot measure would create a public scorecard for judges who rule on minors' abortions. Another would define abortion in the state Constitution as the killing of "a child conceived but not yet born.''
Sponsors of Prop. 73 say that both provisions are part of the machinery of the proposed parental-notification system and that neither is momentous. Some opponents say both are potential land mines.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/26/MNG1LFE5671.DTL
Dawn
Call to make UN rights council a real form of dialogue
By Our Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 25: Pakistan on Tuesday stressed that “all civilizations and faiths need to be represented” in the new human rights council so it can be a real forum for dialogue.
“Human rights should not become a source for cultural imperialism. We strongly support adequate representation of all cultures, faiths and continents”, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations declared during an intervention in the UN General Assembly’s consultations on the composition of the new human rights council
Mr Akram asserted “there should be no imposition of the views and perceptions of certain groups on rest of the membership.”
He observed that the current gaps and inadequacies in cultural and civilization representation in the council also need to be addressed. All civilizations and faiths need to be represented in the council so as it can be a real forum for dialogue”.
http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/26/top17.htm
Bomb material found at San Diego airport
WASHINGTON, Oct 25: Baggage screeners found bomb components in a carry-on piece of luggage at San Diego International Airport on Tuesday and cleared the area to investigate, Department of Homeland Security spokesmen said.
A department spokesman said the screeners found “all components of an IED” (improvised explosive device) in a piece of luggage. They then evacuated the commuter terminal of the airport and bomb specialists began to investigate, the spokesman said.
Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nico Melendez said an employee noticed a “suspicious item” in a piece of luggage as it was going through the X-ray machine.—Reuters
http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/26/top18.htm
Pakistani convicted in money transfer case
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
SAN FRANCIASCO, Oct 25: A federal jury in Greenbelt, Maryland, has convicted Mohammad Bajwa, a Pakistani-American, on charges connected to $6 million he helped people transfer to Pakistan and other countries.
Mohammad Bajwa, 39, from Herndon, Virginia, was convicted in the US District Court of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. He was also convicted of wire fraud connected to a refinancing application he filed on a property mortgage.
Bajwa, owner of a construction company, New Superstar Corporation, was ordered to give up his home and $4 million.
He could face a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each charge when he is sentenced on Nov 29.
http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/26/top16.htm
Kashmiri leaders want to cross LoC
SRINAGAR, Oct 25: Police on Tuesday detained a Kashmiri leader after he set out to cross LoC to help quake victims in Pakistan. Nayeem Khan and 15 of his supporters were held near Mirgund, 20 kilometres north of Srinagar, while they were heading to the border sector of Uri, police said.
Mr Khan had declared last week that he would breach the Line of Control at Uri and cross over to Azad Kashmir to help the victims of earthquake. He had made it clear his group would not seek permission from the Indian government to cross the LoC.
Other Kashmiri leaders said they too wanted to cross the LoC to help quake victims in Azad Kashmir but they would wait until they got the go-ahead from the authorities. “I and my volunteers are eager to cross over to help our brothers in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir,” said Javed Mir, a former Mujahideen commander.—AFP
http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/26/top9.htm
Quake: Oxfam criticizes rich for slow response
GENEVA, Oct 26: Aid agency Oxfam on Wednesday criticised western governments for giving too little too late to quake-stricken Pakistan as donor countries prepared to meet at the United Nations in Geneva to rally rescue efforts.
Oxfam said many rich countries had donated less than what it called their “fair share” and others nothing at all, while thousands of survivors were stranded in some of world’s most rugged mountains without shelter or food as winter approached.
The comments were issued as officials from some 65 countries including the United States, Britain, France and Japan were gathering in Geneva to take stock of Pakistan relief efforts and see how they can be stepped up.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will address the meeting.
http://www.dawn.com/2005/10/26/top6.htm
Do we actually want people to randomly carry guns in the USA?
Cow slaughter backfires for man
Wed Oct 26, 2005 12:50 PM ET
SYDNEY (Reuters) - A man who twice missed while trying to shoot a friend's cow only to accidentally shoot a passer-by in the leg was fined Wednesday for what an Australian court described as a freak accident.
Rudolf Stadler, 61, agreed in April last year to shoot the troublesome cow which belonged to a friend who owns a hobby farm at Caboolture in tropical Queensland state.
Stadler lured the cow to a shed, and then took aim with his rifle. He missed. He took aim a second time, fired and missed again.
The second shot went through the back of the shed, a fence across a paddock and then through the door of a car being driven along a road behind the farm.
The bullet hit 46-year-old Carrie Tunning in the leg, the Brisbane District Court heard. Tunning, a passenger in the car, made a full recovery but Stadler was so distressed by the incident that he handed in his firearms license.
The court fined Stadler A$1,000 and banned him from obtaining another gun license for five years.
The cow was not so lucky, with Stadler eventually finding his mark.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2005-10-26T165003Z_01_WRI660488_RTRUKOC_0_US-AUSTRALIA-COW.xml
The Times of India
Chaos: Is it time to wind up from Bangalore?
NEW DELHI: Padma works as an international ticketing supervisor in one of Bangalore's top travel and tour operators and she rides a scooty to her office. For the past one week, it has been impossible to commute to her office, leave alone riding through the streets of Bangalore.
Rajeev rides a Bullet and he works in foreign language section of one the top multinational organizations. He is looking for the waters to recede.
So is every Bangalorean. Last Sunday night, it was impossible to reach the Bangalore airport as the rain pounded the city and the waters were rising.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1275976.cms
Bangalore Marooned and Governance Issues"
One feels sad to notice that two days of rain can bring cripple Bangalore day to day life and bring the government to its knees. Government is forced to take strong measures as to call holidays and advice people to stay indoors in order to prevent casualty. Administration is unaware to quantify the magnitude of damage at any given point of time. The government agency responsible for adequate action fail to own responsibility in times of crisis. The administration often lacks face in times of crisis for adequate information dissemination and status tracking. Co-ordination across various departments of the government is lacking. The inability of the government to withstand even the simple rainfall questions the governments capability for future calamities and crisis.
http://o3.indiatimes.com/eccentric
al-Qaeda man on prowl in Delhi
Sachin Parashar
[ Thursday, October 27, 2005 12:00:45 am
TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
NEW DELHI: An al-Qaeda terrorist, Mohammed Majoodi, has sneaked into the country with the intention of targeting US centres in major Indian metros, intelligence sources said.
It was Majoodi’s suspected presence here that had led the US state department to sound a terror alert for American establishments in India on October 10.
While establishments in the Capital like the US embassy, American Centre and United States Educational Foundation in India are high on terrorist hit lists, the alert about Majoodi has also been passed on to Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai by intelligence agencies.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1276411.cms
The Gulf News
Bashar vows to prosecute Syrians linked to Hariri killling
Agencies
Washington: Syrian President Bashar Assad said he will bring to trial any Syrian linked to the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.
In a letter sent to Washington on Sunday, Assad said Syria had nothing to do with the February 14 car bombing that killed Hariri, The Washington Post said on Wednesday.
"I am ready to follow up action to bring to trial any Syrian who could be proved by concrete evidence to have had connection with this crime," Assad said in the letter.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=188845
The stakes are too high for Syria
By George S. Hishmeh, Special to Gulf News
Syria has taken the right step, as reaffirmed by its representative at the UN Security Council session on Tuesday, Fayssal Mekedad, in agreeing to extend the term of the controversial UN mission investigating the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
After all, Hariri is best remembered, particularly in the Arab world, for his amazing generosity and down-to-earth leadership, especially in the facelift he gave to Beirut, the once-again glittering Lebanese capital.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=188853
October 21, 2005
Do you think Syria is involved in the killing of Rafik Hariri?
Yes: 45.1%
No: 43.9%
Unsure: 11.0%
October 17, 2005
If found guilty, should Saddam Hussain be executed?
Yes: 44.9%
No: 49.3%
Unsure: 5.8%
http://www.gulf-news.com/Opinion/Polls/default.asp
The Moscow Times
Terror Victims Unite to Press Putin
By Francesca Mereu
Staff Writer
Igor Tabakov / MT
Nord Ost co-chair Karpova, left, and Beslan mother Ella Kesayeva speaking at a news conference Tuesday.
Survivors and relatives of those who died in Moscow's Dubrovka theater siege teamed up with Beslan mothers and other families affected by terrorist attacks on Tuesday to demand that President Vladimir Putin ensure fair investigations into the attacks.
The families, united under the auspices of the new Nord Ost nongovernmental organization, issued an appeal at a news conference for Putin to revisit "biased" official investigations into terrorist attacks.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/011.html
Bush could write a pardon for everyone indicted except himself and without a report required the Grand Jury could literally expire and the American people will never know the truth and remain at risk for all of the same happening again.
Global Eye
Flop Sweat
By Chris Floyd
Published: October 21, 2005
Having railed at the wanton criminality of the Bush faction for so long, this column naturally partakes of the general glee arising from the looming possibility of genuine, grade-A grand jury indictments for some of the gang's top thugs.
Of course, we all know that the fix is in: If anyone in the White House is actually indicted and convicted for the high crime of exposing the identity of an undercover agent -- in wartime, no less -- they will certainly be pardoned when George W. Bush finally limps away from the steaming, stinking, blood-soaked ruin of his presidency. Nobody will do any hard time; in the end, the whole sick crew will simply pass through the golden revolving door into the lifetime gravy train of corporate grease and right-wing lecture-circuit glory.
Still, it is heartening to see the fever-sweat of fear popping out on the brows of these swaggering world-shakers, these third-rate goons and half-wit cranks posing as great statesmen, if only for a little while. Fear has always been their weapon of choice: They've used it to foment aggressive war, to crush political opposition, to manipulate the electorate and to mask their own incompetence, corruption and greed. Now they're getting a taste of it themselves -- and they can't take it.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/21/120.html
Russia Rising as Energy Superpower on U.S. Demand
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer
For MT
Heat exchange equipment on the site of Sakhalin-2 LNG project, which is expected to produce first gas in 2008.
The legendary sea-faring route from the United States across the Atlantic to Russia's northern city of Murmansk, through which vital supplies went to the Soviet Union some 60 years ago to help the country fight in World War II, is looking to get a new breath of life. This time, however, the traffic is going to be reversed, shipping liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from Russia to energy-hungry North America.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/046.html
Yukos Dogs Khristenko's U.S. Visit
By Stephen Boykewich and Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writers
Lawrence Jackson / AP
Viktor Khristenko speaking during an interview in Washington on Monday.
Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, in Washington with top Russian business leaders to rebuild confidence in U.S.-Russia energy ties after the legal onslaught against Yukos, has been caught up in a lawsuit by U.S. shareholders in the shattered oil company.
A spokesman for the plaintiffs said Khristenko was served with the lawsuit just after meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday -- and hours after a speech asserting that Russia was not engaged in renationalizing its oil and gas sector.
Twelve shareholders of Yukos American Depositary Receipts filed suit against the Russian government, four state-owned energy giants and a host of high-ranking government officials on Monday, accusing them of securities fraud in the de facto renationalization of Yukos.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/001.html
Russia Demands Yukos Official's Extradition
The Associated Press
LONDON -- Lawyers for the Russian government opened an extradition case on Tuesday against a former executive of Yukos, claiming he committed fraud and perverted the course of justice.
Lawyer Peter Caldwell told Bow Street Magistrates' Court in central London that Alexander Temerko, a former senior vice president of Yukos Moscow, conspired to defraud the state-owned Rosneft oil company of its shares in a third company, Yeniseineftegaz.
A second count alleges that Temerko conspired to pervert the course of justice by providing false evidence about the allegations.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/048.html
GM Begins Wooing Local Scientists
By Anna Smolchenko
Staff Writer
General Motors is turning to Russian scientists for help in developing its new generation of electric vehicles, the company said Tuesday as it opened its new research center in Moscow.
The move makes GM the first foreign carmaker to set up a research-and-development presence in Russia.
"We are entering an era of increased technological collaboration with Russia," Alan Taub, executive director of Science at GM Research & Development laboratories, said at a news conference in Moscow.
GM declined to say how much money it was channeling into Russia. The company spent more than $5 billion on research and development, or R&D, in 2003, according to a recent report.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/041.html
LUKoil Seeks to Best CNPC's Kazakh Bid
By Dmitry Zhdannikov
Reuters
LUKoil said it was ready to match the $4.2 billion offer by Chinese oil firm CNPC for Toronto-listed Kazakh oil producer PetroKazakhstan.
It said in a statement Tuesday that it would make the offer if a Canadian court ruled this week not to approve the deal between CNPC and PetroKazakhstan because of an earlier suit by LUKoil.
Analysts said they doubted LUKoil wanted all of PetroKazakhstan and said they believed the statement was designed to put pressure on the court to support the Russian company in its long-running dispute over some of PetroKazakhstan's assets.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/10/26/042.html
The Scotsman
High oil prices help BP weather storms to report £2.46bn profits
MARTIN FLANAGAN
CITY EDITOR
SURGING oil prices allowed oil major BP to deliver a strong rise in third-quarter profits yesterday, with the performance likely to have been an estimated £440 million better but for the devastating US hurricane season.
BP said its underlying adjusted replacement cost profit, which strips out one-off items and gains or losses from changes in the value of fuel inventories - and is the measure closely watched by the City - rose to $4.4 billion (£2.46bn).
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=2145452005
Financial services tops McConnell agenda
DAVID BLACK
DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR
SCOTLAND'S financial services sector has given an enthusiastic welcome to First Minister Jack McConnell's decision to take a hands-on role in driving the industry forward - providing he actually delivers.
The Scottish Executive confirmed yesterday McConnell is to take over the chairmanship of the Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB).
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=2145232005
Cheney drawn into row on exposure of CIA agent
RHIANNON EDWARD
DICK Cheney, the United States vice-president, yesterday found himself drawn uncomfortably deeper into a web of allegations over how a covert CIA operative came to be unmasked.
Previously undisclosed notes of a conversation between Mr Cheney and his chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on 12 June, 2003, have put the spotlight on the vice-president's possible role in the unmasking of Valerie Plame and appear to run counter to Mr Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he first learned about her from newspaper reporters.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2146292005
Shadow cast over independence of Scottish Financial Enterprise
SCRUTINEER
NICK BEVENS
JACK McConnell's unprecedented decision to take personal control of the Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB) raises searching questions.
Is it a political manoeuvre to highlight his commitment to Scottish business, after being so heavily criticised for doing nothing to endear himself to it in his first term?
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=2145432005
I included this article in skepticism. Not to be inflammatory. I don't understand how the 'eggs' would be considered infectious unless the virus is blood borne. That is not my understanding of this virus. I believe this view is extreme.
EU warns of bird flu danger in chicken and eggs
EBEN HARRELL
Key points
• EU warns against undercooked poultry but admits no evidence link
• EU bans import of live birds to prevent spread of avian flu
• Businesses accuse agency of scaremongering
Key quote
"[Cooking] protects from salmonella and other diseases. Avian flu is an added danger, even though there is no epidemiological data to prove it can be transmitted through food" - European Food Safety Agency official
Story in full FOOD safety advisers are to warn the public to avoid raw eggs and undercooked poultry to prevent the spread of bird flu in Europe.
The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has said it "can't exclude" the possibility that the deadly virus can be transmitted through foods.
Raw eggs are used in various popular recipes including mayonnaise. No details were available last night over whether the advice would apply to partially-cooked foods such as soft-boiled eggs.
Until now, British food safety advisers have ruled out the possibility of humans contracting the disease through consumption of eggs or poultry.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2146272005
Is Scotland earnestly looking at 'bird eggs' as a potential infection source? It occurred to me that eggs could have infection on the shells from contact of the hens that laid them if the hen was infected. Perhaps that is the missing link to it's quickly spreading and undetected record.
What is special about the current outbreaks in poultry?
The current outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, which began in South-east Asia in mid-2003, are the largest and most severe on record. Never before in the history of this disease have so many countries been simultaneously affected, resulting in the loss of so many birds.
The causative agent, the H5N1 virus, has proved to be especially tenacious. Despite the death or destruction of an estimated 150 million birds, the virus is now considered endemic in many parts of Indonesia and Viet Nam and in some parts of Cambodia, China, Thailand, and possibly also the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Control of the disease in poultry is expected to take several years.
The H5N1 virus is also of particular concern for human health, as explained below.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avian_faqs/en/
continued …
The "Energy Budget of the System"
This is the 'Wilma' system as recorded on the Tropical Gulf Satellite. The entire 'heat/energy' balance of THE SYSTEM never diminished. As "Wilma" circulated around the Yucatan Peninsula it started to slow down. While it was over land/terra firma it was exchanging heat with the land with the ocean. As the system changed it's dynamics in velocity it changed it's ability to transfer it's heat from the troposphere to the oceans. "Tropical Storm Alpha" manifested because "Wilma" started to diminish in it's strength. As the storms carried out it's 'geophysics' purpose they moved into the Atlantic together and then when over open ocean rejoined into one system.
The Perfect Storm many people 'felt' would occur between these two 'eddies/storms' and the aire masse over North America would never happen because they were not the same system with the same density. The aire masse over the land had a cold front and would not easily 'mix' with the heat driven storms now racing up the Atlantic. There may have been some residual 'moisture' left in the area as "Wilma" blew by that added to the snow storm in the northeast. The purposes of these fronts were completely different and their only similar characteristic was the fact they were aire masses.
It is the flooding origins.
October 23, 2005.
Near Pedemales, Dominican Republic.
Tropical Storm "Alpha"
Pedernales, Dominican Republic - the message with the pictures was unclear. Good for a laugh. It didn't sound right to me either.
October 23, 2005.
Pedemales, Dominican Republic.
Tropical Storm "Alpha"
Tropical Storm "Alpha"
October 23, 2005. 
This is Pedemales, Dominican Republic near the border with Haiti. This was the result of Tropical Storm "Alpha." No little storm.
This is Pedemales, Dominican Republic near the border with Haiti. This was the result of Tropical Storm "Alpha." No little storm.
Morning Papers - continued
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
2,000 Dead. Military: "It is an artificial mark on the wall" NO. But, the Iraqi Constitution IS an artificial mark on the wall. There is no peace in that country. It's a matter of a timeline of progress to enhance Bush's political agenda at home. But, Bush offers no timeline of progress to the 'Exit Strategy' for the USA military.
U.S. Military Deaths Reach 2,000 in Iraq
By Robert H. Reid / Associated Press
The U.S. military death toll reached 2,000 with the death of an Army sergeant who was wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad and died in Texas last weekend.
A Pentagon announcement Tuesday said Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died in San Antonio, Texas. The death raised the Associated Press tally of military fatalities in the Iraq war to 2,000.
Alexander was wounded Oct. 17 in Samarra, a town 60 miles north of the Iraqi capital. He was assigned to the 1st Batallion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4646
War Casualties
Advanced Search
This database has been released by military officials. Information on captured or missing is from the military or directly from families. The database lists casualties from all coalition forces.
The military releases this information only after notification of next-of-kin. As a result, this data may not reflect the current casualty totals.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/external/fmmac2.mm.ap.org/war2/adv_search.php?SITE=CALOS&SECTION=MIDEAST
Two Thousand Faces
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/facesofthefallen.htm
Majority of Americans now feel Iraq war was wrong: poll
WASHINGTON (AFP) -- For the first time, a majority of Americans believe the Iraq war was the "wrong thing to do", according to a poll published in The Wall Street Journal.
Fifty-three percent of those asked in the Harris Interactive survey felt that "taking military action against Iraq was the... wrong thing to do", against 34 percent who thought it was correct, the newspaper said.
The percentage of people opposing the US-led invasion of the country in March 2003 was up from a figure of 49 percent in a parallel poll in September, rising above 50 percent for the first time since the surveys began.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4644
A message from Cindy Sheehan
2000, Why?
Not One More
A message from Cindy Sheehan
Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless and corrupt. Mahatma Gandhi
Unfortunately the 2000th American death in Iraq is tragically coming up too soon. In addition to the wasted young lives in Iraq, 246 of our brave men and women have been killed in Afghanistan. Our troops and the war in Afghanistan get even less attention than Iraq, if possible.
I am in Washington, DC now and along with a coalition of peace groups and local activists, we will be holding vigils at the White House for the rest of the week from 12 noon to 8 PM.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=526
Out of Respect for Casey Sheehan, one of the Two thousand. It should never happen again !! Cindy and her supporters are NOT wrong.
Powell "(Saddam) has not developed any significant capacity of WMD....
... He is unable to project any conventional weapons against his neighbors.
Rice for NSA on CNN with John King :: "We are able to keep weapons from him."
Click on the Video
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/powell-no-wmd.htm
THE STORY IN 2001 WAS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
In February 2003, Powell said: "We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more."
But two years earlier, Powell said just the opposite. The occasion was a press conference on 24 February 2001 during Powell's visit to Cairo, Egypt. Answering a question about the US-led sanctions against Iraq, the Secretary of State said:
We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq...
WE DON'T BELONG IN IRAQ.
WE NEVER DID !!!
Parks' quiet courage helped change the world
By Jannell McGrew
Montgomery Advertiser
Related Links
Nation mourns mother of civil rights movement
Rosa Parks, the world's beloved mother of the civil rights movement, is dead but her spirit lives on.
The woman whose quiet strength broke the back of Jim Crow law never will be forgotten. She died of natural causes in her Detroit home October 24, 2005. Young and old have been impacted by her legacy and millions will pause this week to reflect on her contributions.
"The contributions she made to this city, this state and this nation will forever live so that those persons unborn will be able to read about her and realize there was a quiet, passionate, considerate woman who lived in Montgomery and who was determined to enjoy her constitutional rights even though it meant going to jail," said civil rights attorney Fred Gray, who served as Parks' attorney nearly 50 years ago.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051025/NEWS/510250339/1001
Rosa Parks Photo Gallery
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=DS&Date=20051025&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=1025001&Ref=PH&Profile=1001
Montgomery Boycott
http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/
1995 Interview
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0int-1
Arrest Report. Timeline.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG03/dumlao/civilrights/L4.html
Indictments in CIA leak case ‘about to be handed down’
By Caroline Daniel / Financial Times
Indictments in the CIA leak investigation case are expected to be handed down by a grand jury on Wednesday, bringing to a head a criminal inquiry that threatens to disrupt seriously President George W. Bush's second term.
On Tuesday night, news reports, supported by a source close to the lawyers involved in the case, said that target letters to those facing indictment were being issued, with sealed indictments to be filed today and released by the end of the week.
Those in legal jeopardy may include Lewis “Scooter” Libby, vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Karl Rove, Mr Bush's chief political strategist.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4654
Leak Counsel Is Said to Press on Rove's Role
By Richard W. Stevenson and Anne E. Kornblut / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - With the clock running out on his investigation, the special counsel in the leak case continued to seek information on Tuesday about Karl Rove's discussions with reporters in the days before a C.I.A. officer's identity was made public, lawyers and others involved in the investigation said.
Three days before the grand jury in the case expires and with the White House in a state of high anxiety, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, appeared still to be trying to determine whether Mr. Rove had been fully forthcoming about his contacts with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Robert D. Novak, the syndicated columnist, in July 2003, they said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4655
Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Notes Show
By David Johnston, Richard W. Stevenson and Douglas Jehl / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4637
Bushies take aim at probe
By Kenneth R. Bazinet / N.Y. Daily News
WASHINGTON - President Bush's damage-control handlers are plotting a sophisticated war room offensive to fight back against possible indictments in the CIA leak probe.
Trying to change the subject yesterday, Bush announced a new Federal Reserve chairman and convened his cabinet to signal business as usual at his beleaguered White House.
Behind the scenes, however, Team Bush was finalizing its campaign to discredit and undermine special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's conclusions, sources told the Daily News.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4645
CIA Leak Linked to Dispute Over Iraq Policy
As Grand Jury Term Nears End, Officials' Critique of Administration Gains Attention
By Glenn Kessler / Washington Post
The alleged leaking of a CIA operative's name had its roots in a clash over Iraq policy between White House insiders and their rivals in the permanent bureaucracy of Washington, especially in the State Department and the CIA.
As the investigation into the leak reaches its expected climax this week with the expiration of the grand jury's term, the internal disputes have been further amplified by a recent string of speeches and interviews criticizing the administration's handling of Iraq, including by former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and State Department diplomats, and other officials involved in the early efforts to stabilize Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4639
THE HORSE SAYS MOO
The investigation of the White House leak hits a fever pitch as reports suggest the forged Niger documents are getting special attention.
As the White House prepares to smear Fitzgerald as an untrustworthy hack with no authority (For example: "He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things."), the Washington Post reports the special counsel's inquiry has been exhaustive and dignified.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=525
Journalists' Hotel in Baghdad Attacked
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three massive vehicle bombs exploded Monday near the Palestine Hotel, home to many Western journalists, killing at least 20 people. Dramatic TV pictures showed one of the bombers driving a cement truck through the concrete blast walls that guard the hotel, then blowing up his vehicle.
Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said the attack — which appeared well-planned — was a "very clear" effort to take over the hotel and seize journalists as hostages.
One of the car bombs exploded near the police position on the northeast side of Firdous Square, where a statue of
Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003 shortly after the fall of Baghdad, and more than 100 yards east of the hotel. Security officials said a third bomb struck the area around the same time. All three were believed to be suicide attacks.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051024/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_051024135857;_ylt=AiWXJV4DZ_up7EtfonJUpgBX6GMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
A Horse for Rumsfeld, but, Whoa, There's a Snag
By THOM SHANKER
Published: October 23, 2005
ULAN BATOR, Mongolia, Oct. 22 - Mongolia has 131 soldiers in Iraq, and on Saturday it received an official American statement of gratitude from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Mr. Rumsfeld came to Ulan Bator to deliver that message personally, and he was given a horse.
In dazzling sunlight on the grounds of the Mongolian Defense Ministry, Mr. Rumsfeld took the reins of the calm gelding and said, "I am proud to be the owner of that proud animal." He immediately announced that he would name the horse Montana, because the dusty plains and mountains that ring the Mongolian capital reminded him of that Rocky Mountain state.
The entire exchange recalled an ancient era of alliance and conquest, when a warrior's word was law and the long knives were carried in the open.
The horse, a rich latte hue with a mane and tail the color of dark-roast coffee, was described by local officials as a traditional domesticated Mongolian breed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/international/asia/23rumsfeld.html
Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dies at 92
By Bree Fowler / Associated Press
DETROIT -- Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday evening. She was 92.
Mrs. Parks died at her home during the evening of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years.
Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4642
Republicans Testing Ways to Blunt Leak Charges
By Richard W. Stevenson & David Johnston / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 - With a decision expected this week on possible indictments in the C.I.A. leak case, allies of the White House suggested Sunday that they intended to pursue a strategy of attacking any criminal charges as a disagreement over legal technicalities or the product of an overzealous prosecutor.
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case, is expected to announce by the end of the week whether he will seek indictments against White House officials in a decision that is likely to be a defining moment of President Bush's second term. The case has put many in the White House on edge.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4627
WELCOME TO WITHDRAWMIERS.ORG
WithdrawMiers.org has been established to urge the withdrawal of Harriet Miers from consideration as a nominee for Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court.
WithdrawMiers.org will serve as a clearinghouse for information related to the nomination along with tools for leaders, activist groups, and the general public to contact U.S. Senators and the White House to express the shared belief that Ms. Miers’ nomination should be withdrawn.
This website was created by a growing coalition of advocates and other individuals that believe the best interests of the country and the Supreme Court would be served by the withdrawal of Ms. Miers.
http://withdrawmiers.org/
About the campaign
HomeFromIraqNow.org is a national campaign to end the war in Iraq by using binding statewide ballot initiatives around the country to pressure the administration to bring our troops home now.
We are currently in the process of placing a binding initiative on the November 2006 ballot in Massachusetts to allow the voters to decide if the Massachusetts National Guard should be in Iraq. The initiative has two provisions.
The governor is required to prevent any further deployment of Massachusetts National Guard troops to Iraq, and to use all legal means available under state and federal law to fight for the recall of all Massachusetts National Guard troops currently in Iraq.
The governor may not deploy the National Guard to any foreign destination without approval of the state legislature.
(To read the exact language of the ballot initiative, click here.)
http://www.homefromiraqnow.org/about
How you can help
HomeFromIraqNow.org is doing something that no other campaign has done before. We are using the ballot initiative process - direct grassroots democracy - to allow people to vote on the war in Iraq. And we're doing it over the Internet.
Our first step is to get our initiative on the ballot in Massachusetts. To do that, we need to have 100,000 signatures of Massachusetts voters in our hands by November 15, 2005. Here's what you can do to make this happen:
Send us your signature
If you are registered to vote in Massachusetts, send us your signature!
http://www.homefromiraqnow.org/help
Times Picayune
State's cease-fire on evictions ends
Landlords flood courts; hearings to start next week
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By Matt Scallan
East Jefferson bureau
After riffling through a thick stack of papers, Charles Wilson pulled out a sheet, marched briskly up to a house, knocked and yelled "Constable!" Hearing no answer, he taped the summons for an eviction hearing to the front door, retreated through the trash-strewn yard and repeated the sequence at a house across the street -- and again at two homes around the corner and down the block.
After a 59-day eviction moratorium ordered by Gov. Kathleen Blanco in the wake of Hurricane Katrina expired Tuesday, landlords pressed Wilson and other constables across much of the New Orleans area to remove tenants so they can repair storm-damaged rental properties.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030617122200.xml
Levee team runs into wall
It reports no access to key records, staff
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By Mark Schleifstein
Staff writer
A team of engineering experts rushing to complete a preliminary report on the reasons behind levee failures that flooded much of the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina said it has been hampered by the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to provide documents and access to local corps employees.
"This makes me sad," said Robert Bea, who is part of a National Science Foundation team of University of California-Berkeley professors investigating the levee failures. "My first plea to them was to stand tall, come forward, bring out the information.
"When my wife won't talk to me continually, I know something's wrong," he said.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030665022200.xml
Katrina blows away 224,000 local jobs
N.O. area's unemployment rate hits record 14.8% in September
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By Ronette King
Business writer
The unemployment rate in the New Orleans area reached a staggering 14.8 percent in September, a modern record, as the metropolitan area lost 38 percent of its jobs in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore, according to figures released Tuesday by the state Labor Department.
What's more, the unemployment picture has likely worsened since September, some experts said, mainly because employers have laid off workers in more recent weeks.
The hurricane and subsequent flooding ruined a large chunk of the area's housing stock and businesses. In terms of the near-complete dispersal of workers, there has been nothing like Katrina.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030662322200.xml
FEMA drafting trailer park map
Uptown, West Bank sites on initial list
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By James Varney
and Martha Carr
Staff writers
Federal officials released a map Tuesday showing existing and proposed sites for temporary trailer parks in New Orleans, a guide that could spell re-entry to city life for more than 2,000 families, although the plan is subject to major revisions, according to some city officials.
The map, which includes only two sites already under construction, comes more than eight weeks after Hurricane Katrina battered the city and surrounding parishes, and fails to settle questions about the pace of the housing-restoration effort. In the face of a laggardly timeline, officials insist housing within city limits is critical because even roofers need a roof over their heads.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030624922200.xml
Map of Recovered Bodies
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/pdf/102305/1023A14.pdf
Raw audio: Nagin on reconstruction, Saints, Election '06 and more
New Orleans is "limping" in its efforts to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina, hampered by the lack of a clear strategy at all levels of government, Mayor Ray Nagin told an editorial board of The Times-Picayune on Thursday morning.
http://www.nola.com/weblogs/nola/
Free tickets for Voodoo Music Fest today
Producers of this Saturday's Voodoo Music Experience at Riverview Park behind Audubon Zoo are giving away pairs of tickets at the park from noon to 2 p.m. today, while supplies last.
No tickets will be available for purchase; the show is a "tribute" to relief workers, etc. Today's event may be the final general public giveaway.
The two-day music festival, initially scheduled for City Park on Halloween weekend, was moved to Memphis, Tenn., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
But producers decided to schedule Voodoo in both cities: as a free, invitation-only concert for police, firefighters, military and National Guard members, and rescue personnel on Saturday at Riverview Park behind Audubon Zoo, and as a ticketed event on Sunday at AutoZone Park in downtown Memphis.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_10_26.html
The China Daily
US death toll in Iraq rises to 2,001
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 20:56
A U.S. soldier died in a vehicle accident in southern Iraq, the U.S. military announced Wednesday, bringing the American military death toll to 2,001. The soldier died near Camp Bucca, a U.S. detention center, on Tuesday, the same day the U.S. death toll in Iraq reached 2,000.
The 14th of Ramadan Mosque is seen in the background as US soldiers survey the scene of Monday's suicide car bombs attack, in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005. The US death toll has reached 2,000 since the Iraq conflict began in 2003. [AP]
Some Iraqis sympathized with U.S. forces over the somber milestone. But others noted that many more Iraqis had died in the conflict and said they hope the U.S. "occupiers" will soon go home.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488042.htm
Iraqi death toll much higher than US
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 08:59
The number of Iraqis who have died violently since the U.S.-led invasion is many times larger than the U.S. military death toll of 2,000 in Iraq.
In one sign of the enormity of the Iraqi loss, at least 3,870 were killed in the past six months alone, according to an Associated Press count.
One U.S. military spokesman said it is possible the figure for the entire war could be 30,000 Iraqis, which many experts see as a credible estimate. Others suspect the number is far higher, since the chaos in Iraq leaves the potential for many killings to go unreported.
The losses are far larger than most analysts and Pentagon planners expected before the war and mean Iraqi civilians are bearing most of the suffering.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487910.htm
Gitmo hunger striker wants tube removed
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:19
A detainee on a hunger strike at the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay wants a judge to order the removal of his feeding tube so he can be allowed to die, one of his lawyers said Tuesday.
Fawzi al-Odah of Kuwait asked his lawyers during a meeting last week to file court papers seeking the removal of his feeding tube "out of desperation" over his imprisonment without charges, attorney Tom Wilner said.
"He is willing to take a stand if it will bring justice," Wilner said.
The lawyers have not filed the motion because they first want al-Odah to get the approval of his family and to consult with doctors and psychological specialists not affiliated with the U.S. government, Wilner said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487940.htm
US to transfer nuclear reactor tech to China
By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-26 05:44
A senior US official yesterday expressed repeated commitment to transferring nuclear reactor technologies to China. China has drafted ambitious plans to use nuclear power to alleviate growing energy shortages.
Administrator of the US National Nuclear Security Administration, Linton Brooks, told China Daily: "There is no reason why the (reactor) technology should not be transferred to a country like China."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487855.htm
Compulsory test mulled for PVC food wrapper
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:13
China's quality watchdog said Tuesday that it is considering subjecting PVC food wrappers to compulsory import and export testing.
Liu Zhaobin, spokesman for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China, said China will step up efforts in the supervision of the trade and production of the product.
Liu noted that some PVC food wrappers available on the domestic market contain DEHA, a plastic banned from food packing by Chinese law .
DEHA, which was used to add plastic or other materials to make or keep them soft and pliable, can enter human body with food after being heated at a temperature of more than 100 Celsius or encountering fatty food.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487938.htm
Fresh bird flu case in China, India on alert
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-26 15:42
Fears of avian flu spreading deepened on Wednesday after China reported another outbreak in poultry and India said it was testing blood samples from 10 dead migratory birds.
There has been a spate of fresh cases in Asia and on the western edge of Europe ahead of the winter, when experts say the deadly H5N1 strain thrives best.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488021.htm
Bird flu conference defers to WHO for preparedness
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:35
Health ministers and experts from 30 countries gathered to discuss the threat of avian influenza agreed Tuesday a coordinated international effort is needed to stop a possible pandemic, but offered no measures and little help for poorer countries.
At the end of two days of meetings, delegates said in a statement they had taken "important steps towards security long-term, sustained political and institutional engagement to address global pandemic influenza preparedness."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487951.htm
Rosa Parks' lifetime struggling for equality
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-26 05:51
Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern US civil rights movement, has died at age 92.
Rosa Parks, pictured in 1999, the petite black seamstress whose defiance aboard a city bus nearly 50 years ago sparked the US civil rights movement and helped Martin Luther King Junior gain national prominence, died at the age of 92 at her home in Detroit, Michigan.[AFP]
Parks died at her home on Monday evening of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years.
Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of US history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."
At that time, segregation laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodation throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighbourhoods in the North.
The Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, was riding on a city bus on December 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487798.htm
Alibaba aquires entire assets of Yahoo! China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-26 21:26
China's largest e-commerce website Alibaba on Tuesday announced it had successfully acquired the entire assets of Yahoo! China and gained one billion US dollars of investment in the merger.
This is the largest merger-acquisition (M&A) deal in China's Internet business.
According to an agreement signed by Alibaba and Yahoo! China on Aug. 11, all of Yahoo! China's assets go to Alibaba, including its search technology, the website, its communication and advertising business, and 3721.com, a Chinese language search engine.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488045.htm
Google adds to China team
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:52
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google increased its focus on China by hiring a sales veteran to lead the US Internet search powerhouse's marketing strategy in that country, the company announced.
A woman works on her computer as the logo of web search engine Google is seen on the wall.[AFP/File]
Johnny Chou will "establish and lead Google's sales and business development operations in Greater China," the Silicon Valley company said in a written release.
Chou was hired away from UT Starcom, where he was president of that company's China operations for nine years, according to Google.
"The leadership and experience that Johnny Chou brings to Google will be an invaluable asset to Google's plans for developing its business operations in China," said Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of Google's Worldwide Sales and Field Operations.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487965.htm
Travel between mainland, Taiwan facilitated
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-26 21:45
From Tuesday on, Taiwan residents have two more places to go to apply for re-issue of their five-year-term permits to enter and exit the Chinese mainland if the permits are lost or have expired.
The two places newly authorized by China's Ministry of Public Security to handle such affairs are Shanghai and Jiangsu in east China, where there are large numbers of Taiwan businessmen.
Earlier, such permits were issued only by agencies in four places, namely Hong Kong, Macao, Fuzhou and Xiamen.
If the permits are lost or have expired, the holders have to go to the first three cities to apply for re-issue.
The mainland has lately taken a series of measures to simplify the procedure and facilitate travel between the mainland and Taiwan, aiming to boost the affinity of the Chinese people across the Taiwan Straits.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488046.htm
Anniversary of Taiwan's recovery celebrated
By Cao Desheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-26 05:41
China yesterday commemorated the 60th anniversary of the recovery of Taiwan from Japanese colonial rule, with a pledge to firmly oppose any "independence" move on the island.
Historical facts "indisputably" prove that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at a celebratory gathering in Beijing.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487848.htm
Behind Koizumi's Shrine visit
wchao37 (bbs.chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2005-10-19 10:12
The visit was another poisonous dart against her East Asian neighbors.
Koizumi visited the Yasukuni Shrine on October 16, 2005 -- the day that China's Shenzhou VI safely landed at a designated site in the Inner Mongolian plains bringing a five-day orbital flight to a successful conclusion. The stubborn man with the American Gigolo-Richard Gere hairdo apparently has thoughts other than peace in mind on that date.
The girly man who specializes in the one-envelope-two-letters approach in Sino-Japanese relations is the embodiment of irreconcilable Japanese sentiments today -- petty, selfish, myopic, insolent, seclusive, weird, combative, jealous, and maniacal.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/19/content_486176.htm
Koizumi still hopes for summit with China
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-10-26 07:54
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, amid criticism from China about his visit to a shrine that honors war criminals, expressed a wish Tuesday to hold summit talks with China on the sidelines of upcoming international meetings.
Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni shrine Oct. 17, his fifth since taking office in April 2001, prompted China to cancel some official contacts with Japan, including a scheduled visit by Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura to discuss relations between the two trading partners.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487868.htm
The Cheney Observer
Are Evangelicals EVER a part of the same country the rest of us are? Jeb Bush could have had the same issues as Louisiana and as Mississippi and Alabama did if "Wilma" had dessimated levees that his brother neglected to repair because the Ninth Ward was nothing but Black Poor Folks. You know Jeb the same, the very same people who you disenfranchised in 2000 to insure Georgie's election.
Jeb Bush takes aim at Louisiana's hurricane effort
BY CARLOS SADOVI
Chicago Tribune
NAPLES, Fla. - While applauding state and local efforts to deal with the onslaught of Hurricane Wilma, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush took the opportunity Monday to blast what he said were Louisiana's failed attempts to deal with Katrina.
Bush said that unlike Louisiana, Florida organized local efforts to bring people to shelters and to transport evacuees.
"In Florida, we consider it a high priority and it's a bottom-up system," Bush said Monday at the Collier County emergency response offices. "In Louisiana, it was left for the federal government to fill the void, and you can see the consequences." Bush is the brother of President Bush, whose administration has been criticized for a slow, disorganized response after Katrina struck Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in late August.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/12987281.htm
Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Lawyers Report
By DAVID JOHNSTON, RICHARD W. STEVENSON and DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: October 25, 2005
This article is by David Johnston, Richard W. Stevenson and Douglas Jehl.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/politics/25leak.html?hp&ex=1130212800&en=ba1361e3bd1bec47&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Cheney's Colorado Visit Seen As A Boost For GOP
By Steven K. Paulson, Associated Press Writer
Vice President Dick Cheney came to Denver Monday in a show of support to Republican congressional candidate Rick O'Donnell for a race both Democrats and Republicans see as crucial in next year's election.
Cheney said several important issues have come down to one or two votes, and he wants to keep the seat in Republican hands.
"The president and I need good partners," Cheney told a crowd of about 150 in a room at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium. Campaign officials said the fundraiser brought in about $100,000.
Cheney praised incumbent Bob Beauprez, whose gubernatorial bid has created an opportunity for O'Donnell, as a loyal Republican. He said he was counting on O'Donnell's support.
http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_297231344.html
Frustrated Scowcroft Assails Neo-Cons, Cheney
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (IPS) - One week after a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a blistering attack on foreign policy-making in the George W. Bush administration, Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser under Bush's father, assailed neo-conservatives who persuaded the president to go to war in Iraq.
In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Scowcroft, whose relations with the Bush administration have been badly strained since he publicly warned against invading Iraq seven months before U.S. troops crossed over from Kuwait, argued that the invasion was counter-productive.
"This was said to be part of the war on terror, but Iraq feeds terrorism," Scowcroft told the magazine, adding that the war risked moving public opinion against any new foreign policy commitments for some time, just as the Vietnam War did during the late-1970s and through the 1980s.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30755
Cheney aide passed Plame's name to Libby, Hadley, those close to leak investigation say
Jason Leopold and Larisa Alexandrovn
With the possibility of indictments just days away, sources close to the investigation into who outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson have provided RAW STORY a more detailed account into how and why Plame's name was leaked and what role the Pentagon and the vice president's office played.
Those close to the investigation say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser, then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney on loan from the office of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in June 2003 and told Libby that Plame set up the Wilson trip. He asserted that it was a boondoggle, the sources said.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheney_aide_passed_Plames_name_to_1024.html
New York Times Reports Dick Cheney Leaked CIA Operative Name
The New York Times is reporting that Vice President Dick Cheney was an Executive branch source of the illegal leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's name.
The Times reports in its October 25, 2005 edition, "I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday." The Times also reports that Mr. Cheney received Wilson;s name from CIA Director George Tenet.
http://usliberals.about.com/b/a/2005_10_24.htm
Blogosphere Brims with Cheney Resignation Rumors, Rice to Be New VP
The blogosphere abounds with Cheney-Rice rumors, in the wake of the Valerie Plame Wilson-CIA leak investigation....
From blogger Fred Alan...."Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."
From Paul Bedard of US World & News Report, via RadioBlogger...."Some folks are wondering well, if this is true, and Cheney gets hit, well my gosh, he's going to have to resign.
http://usliberals.about.com/b/a/2005_10_24.htm
KARL ROVE, Lewis Libby Indictments Could "Out" Fake Intelligence
Por Clayton Hallmark - Monday, Oct. 24, 2005 at 7:39 PM
The Washington, DC, grand jury of US Attorney Fitzgerald will obtain indictments in the outing of CIA's Valerie Plame sometime this week, sources say, and one could be George Bush's closest advisor, Karl Rove.....In Alexandria, VA, the grand jury of Paul McNulty, investigating Israeli espionage against the US, has indicted a neocon Pentagon analyst, Larry Franklin and continues its work.....With these and other probable indictments, there will be trials that will EXPOSE FIXED INTELLIGENCE and ISRAELI MANIPULATION that pushed us into war.....Also, Italian officials promise to request in coming weeks the extradition of CIA man Bob Lady, a key figure in the IRAQ BETRAYAL. See how these events are converging.
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/339590.php
Following the capital follies is hard when 'facts' change
By Bill McClellan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/24/2005
Karl Rove is a terrific fellow who is being hounded by a partisan Democratic prosecutor who seems to think that outwitting Democrats ought to be a crime. Wait. That's not Rove. That's Tom DeLay. Or maybe it's Rove, too. Except the partisan prosecutor in the Rove case seems to be a Republican.
It's all so confusing. Happily, the truth generally sorts itself out during the course of a trial, and so with DeLay, at least, we should know something soon. He has already been indicted. I saw him on the news just the other day. He was standing on the courthouse steps. He said he looked forward to the truth coming out and he said he wanted a speedy trial. Of course, that was confusing, too, because if you want a speedy trial, you can ask for one, and DeLay's attorney had just done the opposite. He had asked for a change of judge and a change of venue, and those requests pretty much assured there won't be a speedy trial.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/billmcclellan/story/F4CF6F71CFF01EEA862570A40032A069?OpenDocument
White House leak decision to be handed down this week
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The World Today - Monday, 24 October , 2005 12:33:00
Reporter: Edmond Roy
ELEANOR HALL: To the United States now, where the Bush administration is bracing for a decision which could implicate the Vice President's office in a criminal law suit.
After a 22-month investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA agent to the media, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is expected to announce this week whether he will seek indictments against senior White House adviser Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, Lewis Libby.
The Bush administration is already reeling from the resignation of its former House Majority leader, who's facing corruption charges, but an indictment for two such senior White House staff could have even more serious ramifications, as Edmond Roy reports.
EDMOND ROY: It's a complicated web of who said what to whom and involves the New York Times, the White House staff and the CIA. What began as a minor irritant for George W. Bush's second term in office could well end up becoming a defining moment in his presidency.
At the heart of the case are two of the senior most members of the White House staff, Karl Rove, who arguably was President George W. Bush's trusted adviser; Lewis Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's adviser; Judith Miller, reporter for the New York Times; and Valerie Plame, the CIA agent whose identity was leaked to the media.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1489320.htm
Frist's trusts not completely blind
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist appears to have known more about his stake in his family's hospital company than he previously disclosed, a report says.
Managers of the trusts that the Tennessee Republican once described as "totally blind," regularly informed him when they added new shares of HCA Inc. or other assets to his holdings, documents obtained by The Washington Post show.
Since 2001, the trustees have written to Frist and the Senate 15 times detailing the sale of assets from or the contribution of assets to trusts of Frist and his family, the newspaper said.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051024-20440200-bc-us-frist.xml
Frist memo defends U.S. spending spree
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is circulating a memo that defends sharp increases in government spending, which he attributes to the war on terror.
The memo concedes there has been "unnecessary and wasteful spending" in the past five years by the Republican Congress, but says "In a $2.5 trillion budget how could there not be?"
It cites two main factors for the spending spike -- anti-terror efforts at home and abroad, and Hurricane Katrina, the Washington Times reported.
Costs for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have surpassed $290 billion, while Katrina, "the worst natural disaster in this country's history," has cost $71 billion.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051024-11110400-bc-us-budget.xml
HERE WE GO AGAIN !!!
Bush says military action against Syria "last resort"
Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:24 AM ET
DUBAI (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said military action was a last resort in dealing with Syria and he hoped Damascus would cooperate with a probe into the killing of former Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri.
"A military (option) is always the last choice of a president," he told Al Arabiya television in an interview aired on Tuesday when asked about a U.N. investigation that implicated Syrian officials in the killing of Hariri.
"I am hoping that they will cooperate. It (military action) is the last -- very last option," he said. "But on the other hand, you know -- and I've worked hard for diplomacy and will continue to work the diplomatic angle on this issue."
Reuters obtained a transcript of the Bush interview, conducted in Washington on Monday, from Dubai-based Al Arabiya.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-25T092437Z_01_MOR531158_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-SYRIA.xml
The 10 Ways Bush Screwed New York
A presidential potpourri of cuts, blunders, stonewalls, deceptions, and distractions
by Wayne Barrett, special reporting by Daniel Magliocco
photo: Jake Price
Here's a welcome from New York 9-11 Veterans for Truth, a big hello for Republicans from a city hit by a couple of swift jets 35 months—not 35 years—ago. It's matched by just as friendly an insistence that the convention focus on how Bush-Cheney responded to our riverbank assault, rather than on an ancient Mekong attack, where the first test of courage was being there. With the president scheduled to barely show up here all week, wouldn't it be respectful if the delegates and media actually got around town to see just what he's done to us since the bullhorn bravado of 2001? They could start with NYPD Blue, that All-American army deployed all over midtown. There are actually 5,879 fewer city cops than in 2000, partly due to the nearly 90 percent Bush cuts in Bill Clinton's COPS programs. Even with the post-9-11 invention of homeland security funding, NYC is getting $61 million less in federal public-safety subsidies than it did before our cops became America's front line. Bush's 2005 budget proposes even more cuts. Though most conventioneers would prefer to forget it, George W. Bush has slashed the troop strength that host committee hero Rudy Giuliani put on duty.
http://villagevoice.com/specials/0543,50thbarrett2,69312,31.html
Scandal amid service
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
last updated October 25, 2005 2:15 AM
The man at the center of a massive political scandal that threatens senior members of the Bush administration with criminal charges spoke to a capacity crowd at Kresge Auditorium last night. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose wife’s identity as a covert agent was allegedly leaked to the media by senior Bush officials, spoke to students about the potential indictments of administration members, his thoughts on America’s role in Iraq and his background in public service.
Wilson drew gasps from the crowd when he revealed that today’s New York Times will implicate Vice President Dick Cheney as a source of the smear campaign that he says ruined his wife’s career.
http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=18286&repository=0001_article
As the Buck Screeches to a Halt
Posted by Douglas Anthony Cooper on October 25, 2005 04:21 PM (See all posts by Douglas Anthony Cooper)
Filed under: Politics, Culture/Tech: Sports, Politics: Law, Politics: U.S. - Scroll down to read comments on this story and/or add one of your own.
Douglas Cooper
Book from Hyperion Books
Release date: February, 1998
"He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things."
No, that's not an assessment of George W. Bush. It's the beginning of the smear campaign against the prosecutor: the quotation is from "a White House ally... referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald."
I'm not the first to note the irony that the White House, which is being prosecuted for a smear job, is beginning to resort to just that tactic in response. They have to; they're not much good at anything else. But a smear campaign without Rove is like the Astros sans Clemens -- here you have a talent that comes along maybe once in a generation. Rove is the Great One, the Gretzky of Libel; can you imagine anyone else cooking up that bit about McCain's illegitimate black child? Perhaps he'll continue to orchestrate the slander from his cell, but it won't be easy.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/10/25/162117.php>
W pals bushwhack CIA leak prosecutor
BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK and MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - As the White House and Republicans brace for possible indictments in the CIA leak probe, defenders have launched a not-so-subtle campaign against the prosecutor handling the case.
"He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things," one White House ally said, referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was tapped nearly two years ago to find out whether anyone in the White House broke a federal law by blowing the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame after her husband, Joseph Wilson, debunked administration claims about Saddam Hussein's nuclear activities.
President Bush recently praised Fitzgerald on NBC's "Today" show, saying: "The special prosecutor is conducting a very serious investigation. He's doing it in a very dignified way, by the way, and we'll see what he says."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/358657p-305630c.html
Clinton takes on Cheney
Vote: Hillary in 2008?
Would you vote for Hillary Clinton if she ran for president in 2008?
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (Getty Images Photo)
BY GLENN THRUSH
WASHINGTON BUREAU
October 26, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday blamed Vice President Dick Cheney for bungling U.S. energy policy - and proposed a $20 billion-per-year tax on oil profits to subsidize clean-fuels development.
Tapping growing anger over skyrocketing fuel costs, Clinton (D-N.Y.) criticized oil companies for reaping billions in profits from hurricane-driven price spikes.
She also laid partial responsibility for rising prices on Cheney, the former head of industry giant Halliburton, who chaired a secretive White House energy task force in 2001. "The vice president basically sets energy policy in America," Clinton told a meeting of alternative energy development investors. "And it's not been to the benefit, I think, of our long-term or short-term interests, and I hope that can change."
"Senator Clinton should go ask her husband and his administration why they never passed a comprehensive energy bill," responded Brian Nick, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushill26q4484720oct26,0,2869947.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines
The New York Times
Report From the Polar Ice
Polar scientist David Barber and his team conduct studies on the Hudson Bay ice near Churchill, Manitoba, in this clip from "New York Times Reporting: Arctic Rush." The television program was produced alongside articles in the Times and broadcast on the Discovery Times channel and the CBC.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/2005/10/24/science/highbandwidth/windowsmedia/20051025_ARCTIC_VIDEO.html
No Escape: Thaw Gains Momentum
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: October 25, 2005
In 1969 Roy Koerner, a Canadian government glaciologist, was one of four men (and 36 dogs) who completed the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean, from Alaska through the North Pole to Norway.
Andrew C. Revkin/The New York Times
LOSING GROUND Sea ice near the North Pole. Bright Arctic Ocean ice reflects sunlight, but open dark water absorbs it, warming in the process. As more ice melts, more open water could amplify the warming trend.
Now, he said, such a trek would be impossible: there is just not enough ice. In September, the area covered by sea ice reached a record low. "I look on it as a different world," Dr. Koerner said. "I recently reviewed a proposal by one guy to go across by kayak."
At age 73, Dr. Koerner, known as Fritz, still regularly hikes high on the ancient glaciers abutting the warming ocean to extract cores showing past climate trends. And every one, he said, indicates that the Arctic warming under way over the last century is different from that seen in past warm eras.
Many scientists say it has taken a long time for them to accept that global warming, partly the result of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could shrink the Arctic's summer cloak of ice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/science/earth/25arctic.html
Marathon Victory Puts White Sox on Brink of Title
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: October 26, 2005
HOUSTON, Oct. 25 - As night crept into morning, Paul Konerko could sense what would happen. Even the longest game in World Series history was bound to end eventually, and the winner of Game 3 would have a huge psychological lift.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/sports/baseball/26series.html?hp&ex=1130385600&en=ce1a070c7e2af568&ei=5094&partner=homepage
White House Gamble Pays for a Princeton Professor
By LOUIS UCHITELLE and EDUARDO PORTER
Published: October 25, 2005
Even before President Bush named Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers this spring, Mr. Bernanke decided to gamble. He sold his home in New Jersey last year and told friends that, instead of returning to a tenured professorship at Princeton University, he was taking a chance that President Bush would elevate him from obscurity as a Federal Reserve governor to a top political appointment.
Mike Theiler/European Pressphoto Agency
"If I am confirmed to this position, my first priority will be to maintain consistency and continuity with the policies established during the Greenspan years," Ben S. Bernanke said today.
ASK THE EXPERTS
A panel of economists will answer questions about the nomination of Ben S. Bernanke as Fed chairman and the challenges facing the central bank. Questions can be sent to dispatches@nytimes.com. Answers will be posted at nytimes.com/business.
Doug Mills/ The New York Times
"If I am confirmed to this position, my first priority will be to maintain consistency and continuity with the policies established during the Greenspan years," Ben S. Bernanke said today.
The gamble paid off. If the Senate confirms him, Mr. Bernanke will arguably become the most powerful economic leader in the world. Not since Arthur Burns, the Federal Reserve chairman from 1970 to 1978, has a university professor run the nation's central bank.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/business/25profile.html?hp&ex=1130299200&en=85c199b3d7b04f60&ei=5094&partner=homepage
After Ravaging Florida, Wilma Slows Over Atlantic Ocean
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
and JENNIFER BAYOT
Published: October 25, 2005
NAPLES, Fla., Oct. 25 - Hurricane Wilma weakened as it tracked northeastward into the Atlantic Ocean today, but only after thrashing neighborhoods on both of South Florida's coasts, shattering high-rise windows, pushing seawater over much of the Florida Keys and knocking out power to an estimated 3.4 million homes and businesses.
Alan Diaz/Associated Press
Windows were ripped off the Colonial Bank building in downtown Miami. More Photos >
The National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. advisory that the storm was expected to slow from its current pace of 53 miles an hour and to turn east-northeast over the next 24 hours, a motion that the center said "should keep the center of Wilma well offshore of the northeastern United States."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/national/25cnd-wilma.html?hp
Infinity Outlines Plan to Replace Howard Stern
By LORNE MANLY and JEFF LEEDS
Published: October 25, 2005
A little more than two months before Howard Stern takes his lucrative but polarizing morning show to satellite radio, his current employer, Infinity Broadcasting, announced plans today to replace him with a regional slate of hosts, including the former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth and the comedian Adam Carolla.
Mr. Roth, whose show will be heard on the east coast, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Pittsburgh, is a newcomer to radio. Mr. Carolla, who has television shows on Comedy Central and TLC, has enjoyed success at the co-host of the "Loveline," a nationally syndicated radio show. His new morning show will be broadcast in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Portland and Las Vegas, and his former partner, the late-night talk-show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel, will serve as a creative consultant to the show as well as an adviser to Infinity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/business/media/26cnd-infinity.html?hp&ex=1130299200&en=14c730449d504151&ei=5094&partner=homepage
President of American University Agrees to Resign
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Published: October 25, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - Embroiled in a controversy over accusations of lavish spending, the president of American University, Benjamin Ladner, has agreed to resign in a $3.7 million deal with the university's board of trustees that has angered former board and faculty members and students.
Rather than dismiss him outright and offer nothing, as many people connected with the university had urged, the board awarded Mr. Ladner a severance package that includes a one-time payment of $950,000, relief from repaying about $1 million in premiums on a life insurance policy and the right to collect deferred compensation of $1.75 million, which he would have had to relinquish had the board forced him out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/education/25cnd-college.html?hp&ex=1130299200&en=b8fc3347c61c9e25&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Developing Lands Hit Hardest by 'Brain Drain'
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: October 25, 2005
Poor countries across Africa, Central America and the Caribbean are losing sometimes staggering portions of their college-educated workers to wealthy democracies, according to a World Bank study released yesterday.
The study's findings document a troubling pattern of "brain drain," the flight of skilled middle-class workers who could help lift their countries out of poverty, some analysts say. And while the exact effects are still little understood, there is a growing sense among economists that such migration plays a crucial role in a country's development.
The findings are based on an extensive survey of census and other data from the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes most of the world's richest nations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/international/25brain.html
Top Suspect in Drug Ring Is Extradited to the U.S.
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Published: October 25, 2005
An Afghan identified as one of the world's most wanted drug kingpins, who has been linked to the Taliban and once boasted that selling heroin to Americans was a form of jihad, has been extradited from Afghanistan to face drug smuggling and other charges, federal officials in New York announced yesterday.
The suspect, Baz Mohammad, 47, was accused of leading an organization that smuggled heroin worth $25 million into this country in a 15-year operation that controlled poppy fields in Afghanistan, heroin refining plants there and in Pakistan, and a trafficking network that reached around the world to the streets of New York, Washington, Chicago and other American cities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/nyregion/25heroin.html
Dancing With the Devils in the Dominican Republic
Alex Quesada/Polaris, for The New York Times
On Feb. 27 in La Vega, the Dominican celebrations culminate in a grand parade featuring diabolical costumes. Audio Slide Show
By SETH KUGEL
Published: October 23, 2005
A SMALL, pothole-laden city in the central valley of the Dominican Republic, anchored by a concrete-pillared, irregularly shaped cathedral whose decidedly ugly look takes some time to grow on you, La Vega isn't high on the to-do list of most travelers. There are no beaches, a few tolerable hotels, some unremarkable restaurants and, for 11 months of the year, no real reason to go there.
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/travel/23dominican.html
Envoy in Mideast Peace Effort Says Israel Is Keeping Too Tight a Lid on Palestinians in Gaza
By GREG MYRE
Published: October 25, 2005
JERUSALEM, Oct. 24 - James D. Wolfensohn, the special envoy for nations active in Middle East peacemaking, has criticized Israel for failing to ease restrictions on Palestinian movement into and out of the Gaza Strip, where residents currently face greater difficulties in traveling than before Israel's withdrawal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/international/middleeast/25mideast.html
Five Killed in Bombing at Israeli Market
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 26, 2005
Filed at 11:06 a.m. ET
HADERA, Israel (AP) -- A Palestinian suicide bomber on Wednesday struck a food stand in the central Israeli town of Hadera, killing five people, wounding at least 30 and leaving a path of destruction at an open air market, police and rescuers said.
In a phone call to The Associated Press, the Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility, saying it was to avenge the killing of Luay Saadi, leader of the group's military wing in the West Bank. Saadi was killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers closing in on his hideout in the Tulkarem refugee camp on Monday.
Wednesday also marked the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Islamic Jihad chief Fathi Shekaki outside a Malta hotel in a mission widely attributed to Israel.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Blast.html?hp&ex=1130385600&en=7b92d975b1bb6385&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Millions in Florida Are Still Without Basics
Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times
Miami police officers sought yesterday to control a crowd trying to enter the Orange Bowl in hopes of getting water and 10,000 bags of ice there.
By ABBY GOODNOUGH and JOSEPH B. TREASTER
Published: October 26, 2005
MIAMI, Oct. 25 - South Florida was a coast-to-coast mess on Tuesday as millions of people remained without power, huge lines formed for basic supplies and drivers wove through packed, debris-strewn streets with no traffic signals.
HOW TO HELP A partial list of relief organizations and other information on the Web.
YOUR STORY Share your experiences via e-mail or in this forum.
Despite Gov. Jeb Bush's assurances that recovery from Hurricane Wilma would proceed smoothly after lessons learned from seven previous storms, the government response looked frayed. In Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, people lined up for ice and water only to learn that government deliveries of both were late.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/national/nationalspecial/26wilma.html
Bush Nominee for Pentagon Is Under Attack
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: October 26, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - The senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee vowed Tuesday to defeat President Bush's choice for chief Pentagon spokesman, citing an op-ed article the nominee wrote in April accusing American television networks of aiding Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.
The comments by the senator, Carl Levin of Michigan, during and after a committee hearing to consider the nomination of J. Dorrance Smith to be assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, cast serious doubt on Mr. Smith's chances to win approval by the full Senate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/politics/26pentagon.html
That Haze Over Titan? Scientists Suspect Erupting Geysers or Volcanoes
H.G. Roe/California Institute of Technology
Midlatitude clouds on Saturn's moon Titan over three days in late 2004 as seen by the Keck telescope. A huge storm was seen near its south pole in October.
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: October 25, 2005
By finding the likely solution to one puzzle about Saturn's largest moon, Titan, astronomers think they have come upon an explanation for another: how Titan sustains an atmosphere rich in methane.
New observations by the Cassini spacecraft and ground-based telescopes have focused on trying to understand the peculiar patterns of clouds on Titan. Clouds are rare there, except over the south pole and in the midlatitudes of the southern hemisphere.
The polar clouds are stormy and persistent, with lifetimes of weeks. The other clouds, at a latitude the equivalent of the one that crosses New Zealand and Argentina, appear and rain out methane in a matter of hours or a few days as they stretch out downwind. But why almost exclusively near 40 degrees south latitude?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/science/space/25tita.html
The Arab News
Galloway Throws US Senate a Challenge
Agence France Presse
LONDON, 26 October 2005 — British MP George Galloway challenged the United States yesterday to charge him with perjury after he was accused of lying to a Senate committee over the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.
Galloway, a strident opponent of the Iraq war, said he was “completely bemused” by fresh allegations that he personally solicited and received eight oil vouchers from Saddam Hussein’s regime between 1999 and 2003.
During sworn testimony in May the left-winger told a US Senate subcommittee investigating the oil-for-food scheme that he never benefited from the controversial program.
Speaking on BBC radio yesterday, Galloway said: “I did not lie under oath in front of the Senate committee.” He said he had not seen the latest allegations from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, which he accused of being “cavalier with any idea of process and justice.”
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=72297&d=26&m=10&y=2005
Syria Could Launch Its Own Probe
Dahi Hassan, Arab News
DAMASCUS, 26 October 2005 — Syria yesterday welcomed a suggestion from the head of a UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri that Damascus launch its own probe into the killing.
“We in Syria have no reservations whatsoever regarding the suggestion by Mr. Detlev Mehlis that Syria could launch its own investigation in the killing of Hariri,” Syrian Foreign Ministry legal adviser Riad Al-Doudi said.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=72298&d=26&m=10&y=2005
Bluetooth Clip Shows Teacher Beating Student
Ebtihal Mubarak, Arab News
JEDDAH, 26 October 2005 — A recently made Bluetooth clip being circulated in a number of Internet forums has produced resentment and anger among Saudis. The clip shows a teacher brutally beating an 11-year-old boy with a wire.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=72301&d=26&m=10&y=2005>
Iraqis Approve Charter
Agencies
Iraqi soldiers celebrate the approval of the constitution in Najaf. (AFP)
BAGHDAD, 26 October 2005 — Iraq’s constitution, a post-Saddam Hussein milestone for the nation, has been adopted despite strong opposition from disaffected Sunni Arabs, officials announced yesterday.
“It is an accomplishment for all Iraqis,” said commission spokesman Farid Ayyar in announcing the results 10 days after the landmark referendum on a charter that lays down a democratic future for the violence-wracked country.
Nationwide, 78 percent of Iraqis voted for the constitution, the commission said, while opponents failed to muster a two-thirds majority against in at least three of Iraq’s 18 provinces which would have meant its rejection.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=72296&d=26&m=10&y=2005
Editorial: The Voice of Iraq
26 October 2005
ALL interested parties will try to extract the message that most suits them from the overwhelming endorsement of the new Iraqi Constitution which was announced yesterday by the UN officials supervising the vote. However, regardless of any spin, the plain fact is that first the interim parliamentary elections and now the constitutional referendum have taken place, despite dire predictions that the men of violence would sabotage the process. The stage is now set for final parliamentary elections in early December at which point Iraq will have, on paper at least, completed its rapid transformation from a single-party dictatorship to a pluralist democracy.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=72305&d=26&m=10&y=2005
continued …
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
2,000 Dead. Military: "It is an artificial mark on the wall" NO. But, the Iraqi Constitution IS an artificial mark on the wall. There is no peace in that country. It's a matter of a timeline of progress to enhance Bush's political agenda at home. But, Bush offers no timeline of progress to the 'Exit Strategy' for the USA military.
U.S. Military Deaths Reach 2,000 in Iraq
By Robert H. Reid / Associated Press
The U.S. military death toll reached 2,000 with the death of an Army sergeant who was wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad and died in Texas last weekend.
A Pentagon announcement Tuesday said Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died in San Antonio, Texas. The death raised the Associated Press tally of military fatalities in the Iraq war to 2,000.
Alexander was wounded Oct. 17 in Samarra, a town 60 miles north of the Iraqi capital. He was assigned to the 1st Batallion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4646
War Casualties
Advanced Search
This database has been released by military officials. Information on captured or missing is from the military or directly from families. The database lists casualties from all coalition forces.
The military releases this information only after notification of next-of-kin. As a result, this data may not reflect the current casualty totals.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/external/fmmac2.mm.ap.org/war2/adv_search.php?SITE=CALOS&SECTION=MIDEAST
Two Thousand Faces
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/facesofthefallen.htm
Majority of Americans now feel Iraq war was wrong: poll
WASHINGTON (AFP) -- For the first time, a majority of Americans believe the Iraq war was the "wrong thing to do", according to a poll published in The Wall Street Journal.
Fifty-three percent of those asked in the Harris Interactive survey felt that "taking military action against Iraq was the... wrong thing to do", against 34 percent who thought it was correct, the newspaper said.
The percentage of people opposing the US-led invasion of the country in March 2003 was up from a figure of 49 percent in a parallel poll in September, rising above 50 percent for the first time since the surveys began.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4644
A message from Cindy Sheehan
2000, Why?
Not One More
A message from Cindy Sheehan
Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless and corrupt. Mahatma Gandhi
Unfortunately the 2000th American death in Iraq is tragically coming up too soon. In addition to the wasted young lives in Iraq, 246 of our brave men and women have been killed in Afghanistan. Our troops and the war in Afghanistan get even less attention than Iraq, if possible.
I am in Washington, DC now and along with a coalition of peace groups and local activists, we will be holding vigils at the White House for the rest of the week from 12 noon to 8 PM.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=526
Out of Respect for Casey Sheehan, one of the Two thousand. It should never happen again !! Cindy and her supporters are NOT wrong.
Powell "(Saddam) has not developed any significant capacity of WMD....
... He is unable to project any conventional weapons against his neighbors.
Rice for NSA on CNN with John King :: "We are able to keep weapons from him."
Click on the Video
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/powell-no-wmd.htm
THE STORY IN 2001 WAS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
In February 2003, Powell said: "We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more."
But two years earlier, Powell said just the opposite. The occasion was a press conference on 24 February 2001 during Powell's visit to Cairo, Egypt. Answering a question about the US-led sanctions against Iraq, the Secretary of State said:
We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq...
WE DON'T BELONG IN IRAQ.
WE NEVER DID !!!
Parks' quiet courage helped change the world
By Jannell McGrew
Montgomery Advertiser
Related Links
Nation mourns mother of civil rights movement
Rosa Parks, the world's beloved mother of the civil rights movement, is dead but her spirit lives on.
The woman whose quiet strength broke the back of Jim Crow law never will be forgotten. She died of natural causes in her Detroit home October 24, 2005. Young and old have been impacted by her legacy and millions will pause this week to reflect on her contributions.
"The contributions she made to this city, this state and this nation will forever live so that those persons unborn will be able to read about her and realize there was a quiet, passionate, considerate woman who lived in Montgomery and who was determined to enjoy her constitutional rights even though it meant going to jail," said civil rights attorney Fred Gray, who served as Parks' attorney nearly 50 years ago.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051025/NEWS/510250339/1001
Rosa Parks Photo Gallery
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=DS&Date=20051025&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=1025001&Ref=PH&Profile=1001
Montgomery Boycott
http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/
1995 Interview
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0int-1
Arrest Report. Timeline.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG03/dumlao/civilrights/L4.html
Indictments in CIA leak case ‘about to be handed down’
By Caroline Daniel / Financial Times
Indictments in the CIA leak investigation case are expected to be handed down by a grand jury on Wednesday, bringing to a head a criminal inquiry that threatens to disrupt seriously President George W. Bush's second term.
On Tuesday night, news reports, supported by a source close to the lawyers involved in the case, said that target letters to those facing indictment were being issued, with sealed indictments to be filed today and released by the end of the week.
Those in legal jeopardy may include Lewis “Scooter” Libby, vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Karl Rove, Mr Bush's chief political strategist.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4654
Leak Counsel Is Said to Press on Rove's Role
By Richard W. Stevenson and Anne E. Kornblut / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - With the clock running out on his investigation, the special counsel in the leak case continued to seek information on Tuesday about Karl Rove's discussions with reporters in the days before a C.I.A. officer's identity was made public, lawyers and others involved in the investigation said.
Three days before the grand jury in the case expires and with the White House in a state of high anxiety, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, appeared still to be trying to determine whether Mr. Rove had been fully forthcoming about his contacts with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Robert D. Novak, the syndicated columnist, in July 2003, they said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4655
Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Notes Show
By David Johnston, Richard W. Stevenson and Douglas Jehl / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4637
Bushies take aim at probe
By Kenneth R. Bazinet / N.Y. Daily News
WASHINGTON - President Bush's damage-control handlers are plotting a sophisticated war room offensive to fight back against possible indictments in the CIA leak probe.
Trying to change the subject yesterday, Bush announced a new Federal Reserve chairman and convened his cabinet to signal business as usual at his beleaguered White House.
Behind the scenes, however, Team Bush was finalizing its campaign to discredit and undermine special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's conclusions, sources told the Daily News.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4645
CIA Leak Linked to Dispute Over Iraq Policy
As Grand Jury Term Nears End, Officials' Critique of Administration Gains Attention
By Glenn Kessler / Washington Post
The alleged leaking of a CIA operative's name had its roots in a clash over Iraq policy between White House insiders and their rivals in the permanent bureaucracy of Washington, especially in the State Department and the CIA.
As the investigation into the leak reaches its expected climax this week with the expiration of the grand jury's term, the internal disputes have been further amplified by a recent string of speeches and interviews criticizing the administration's handling of Iraq, including by former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and State Department diplomats, and other officials involved in the early efforts to stabilize Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4639
THE HORSE SAYS MOO
The investigation of the White House leak hits a fever pitch as reports suggest the forged Niger documents are getting special attention.
As the White House prepares to smear Fitzgerald as an untrustworthy hack with no authority (For example: "He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things."), the Washington Post reports the special counsel's inquiry has been exhaustive and dignified.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=525
Journalists' Hotel in Baghdad Attacked
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three massive vehicle bombs exploded Monday near the Palestine Hotel, home to many Western journalists, killing at least 20 people. Dramatic TV pictures showed one of the bombers driving a cement truck through the concrete blast walls that guard the hotel, then blowing up his vehicle.
Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said the attack — which appeared well-planned — was a "very clear" effort to take over the hotel and seize journalists as hostages.
One of the car bombs exploded near the police position on the northeast side of Firdous Square, where a statue of
Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003 shortly after the fall of Baghdad, and more than 100 yards east of the hotel. Security officials said a third bomb struck the area around the same time. All three were believed to be suicide attacks.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051024/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_051024135857;_ylt=AiWXJV4DZ_up7EtfonJUpgBX6GMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
A Horse for Rumsfeld, but, Whoa, There's a Snag
By THOM SHANKER
Published: October 23, 2005
ULAN BATOR, Mongolia, Oct. 22 - Mongolia has 131 soldiers in Iraq, and on Saturday it received an official American statement of gratitude from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Mr. Rumsfeld came to Ulan Bator to deliver that message personally, and he was given a horse.
In dazzling sunlight on the grounds of the Mongolian Defense Ministry, Mr. Rumsfeld took the reins of the calm gelding and said, "I am proud to be the owner of that proud animal." He immediately announced that he would name the horse Montana, because the dusty plains and mountains that ring the Mongolian capital reminded him of that Rocky Mountain state.
The entire exchange recalled an ancient era of alliance and conquest, when a warrior's word was law and the long knives were carried in the open.
The horse, a rich latte hue with a mane and tail the color of dark-roast coffee, was described by local officials as a traditional domesticated Mongolian breed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/international/asia/23rumsfeld.html
Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dies at 92
By Bree Fowler / Associated Press
DETROIT -- Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday evening. She was 92.
Mrs. Parks died at her home during the evening of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years.
Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4642
Republicans Testing Ways to Blunt Leak Charges
By Richard W. Stevenson & David Johnston / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 - With a decision expected this week on possible indictments in the C.I.A. leak case, allies of the White House suggested Sunday that they intended to pursue a strategy of attacking any criminal charges as a disagreement over legal technicalities or the product of an overzealous prosecutor.
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case, is expected to announce by the end of the week whether he will seek indictments against White House officials in a decision that is likely to be a defining moment of President Bush's second term. The case has put many in the White House on edge.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4627
WELCOME TO WITHDRAWMIERS.ORG
WithdrawMiers.org has been established to urge the withdrawal of Harriet Miers from consideration as a nominee for Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court.
WithdrawMiers.org will serve as a clearinghouse for information related to the nomination along with tools for leaders, activist groups, and the general public to contact U.S. Senators and the White House to express the shared belief that Ms. Miers’ nomination should be withdrawn.
This website was created by a growing coalition of advocates and other individuals that believe the best interests of the country and the Supreme Court would be served by the withdrawal of Ms. Miers.
http://withdrawmiers.org/
About the campaign
HomeFromIraqNow.org is a national campaign to end the war in Iraq by using binding statewide ballot initiatives around the country to pressure the administration to bring our troops home now.
We are currently in the process of placing a binding initiative on the November 2006 ballot in Massachusetts to allow the voters to decide if the Massachusetts National Guard should be in Iraq. The initiative has two provisions.
The governor is required to prevent any further deployment of Massachusetts National Guard troops to Iraq, and to use all legal means available under state and federal law to fight for the recall of all Massachusetts National Guard troops currently in Iraq.
The governor may not deploy the National Guard to any foreign destination without approval of the state legislature.
(To read the exact language of the ballot initiative, click here.)
http://www.homefromiraqnow.org/about
How you can help
HomeFromIraqNow.org is doing something that no other campaign has done before. We are using the ballot initiative process - direct grassroots democracy - to allow people to vote on the war in Iraq. And we're doing it over the Internet.
Our first step is to get our initiative on the ballot in Massachusetts. To do that, we need to have 100,000 signatures of Massachusetts voters in our hands by November 15, 2005. Here's what you can do to make this happen:
Send us your signature
If you are registered to vote in Massachusetts, send us your signature!
http://www.homefromiraqnow.org/help
Times Picayune
State's cease-fire on evictions ends
Landlords flood courts; hearings to start next week
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By Matt Scallan
East Jefferson bureau
After riffling through a thick stack of papers, Charles Wilson pulled out a sheet, marched briskly up to a house, knocked and yelled "Constable!" Hearing no answer, he taped the summons for an eviction hearing to the front door, retreated through the trash-strewn yard and repeated the sequence at a house across the street -- and again at two homes around the corner and down the block.
After a 59-day eviction moratorium ordered by Gov. Kathleen Blanco in the wake of Hurricane Katrina expired Tuesday, landlords pressed Wilson and other constables across much of the New Orleans area to remove tenants so they can repair storm-damaged rental properties.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030617122200.xml
Levee team runs into wall
It reports no access to key records, staff
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By Mark Schleifstein
Staff writer
A team of engineering experts rushing to complete a preliminary report on the reasons behind levee failures that flooded much of the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina said it has been hampered by the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to provide documents and access to local corps employees.
"This makes me sad," said Robert Bea, who is part of a National Science Foundation team of University of California-Berkeley professors investigating the levee failures. "My first plea to them was to stand tall, come forward, bring out the information.
"When my wife won't talk to me continually, I know something's wrong," he said.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030665022200.xml
Katrina blows away 224,000 local jobs
N.O. area's unemployment rate hits record 14.8% in September
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By Ronette King
Business writer
The unemployment rate in the New Orleans area reached a staggering 14.8 percent in September, a modern record, as the metropolitan area lost 38 percent of its jobs in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore, according to figures released Tuesday by the state Labor Department.
What's more, the unemployment picture has likely worsened since September, some experts said, mainly because employers have laid off workers in more recent weeks.
The hurricane and subsequent flooding ruined a large chunk of the area's housing stock and businesses. In terms of the near-complete dispersal of workers, there has been nothing like Katrina.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030662322200.xml
FEMA drafting trailer park map
Uptown, West Bank sites on initial list
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By James Varney
and Martha Carr
Staff writers
Federal officials released a map Tuesday showing existing and proposed sites for temporary trailer parks in New Orleans, a guide that could spell re-entry to city life for more than 2,000 families, although the plan is subject to major revisions, according to some city officials.
The map, which includes only two sites already under construction, comes more than eight weeks after Hurricane Katrina battered the city and surrounding parishes, and fails to settle questions about the pace of the housing-restoration effort. In the face of a laggardly timeline, officials insist housing within city limits is critical because even roofers need a roof over their heads.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030624922200.xml
Map of Recovered Bodies
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/pdf/102305/1023A14.pdf
Raw audio: Nagin on reconstruction, Saints, Election '06 and more
New Orleans is "limping" in its efforts to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina, hampered by the lack of a clear strategy at all levels of government, Mayor Ray Nagin told an editorial board of The Times-Picayune on Thursday morning.
http://www.nola.com/weblogs/nola/
Free tickets for Voodoo Music Fest today
Producers of this Saturday's Voodoo Music Experience at Riverview Park behind Audubon Zoo are giving away pairs of tickets at the park from noon to 2 p.m. today, while supplies last.
No tickets will be available for purchase; the show is a "tribute" to relief workers, etc. Today's event may be the final general public giveaway.
The two-day music festival, initially scheduled for City Park on Halloween weekend, was moved to Memphis, Tenn., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
But producers decided to schedule Voodoo in both cities: as a free, invitation-only concert for police, firefighters, military and National Guard members, and rescue personnel on Saturday at Riverview Park behind Audubon Zoo, and as a ticketed event on Sunday at AutoZone Park in downtown Memphis.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_10_26.html
The China Daily
US death toll in Iraq rises to 2,001
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 20:56
A U.S. soldier died in a vehicle accident in southern Iraq, the U.S. military announced Wednesday, bringing the American military death toll to 2,001. The soldier died near Camp Bucca, a U.S. detention center, on Tuesday, the same day the U.S. death toll in Iraq reached 2,000.
The 14th of Ramadan Mosque is seen in the background as US soldiers survey the scene of Monday's suicide car bombs attack, in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005. The US death toll has reached 2,000 since the Iraq conflict began in 2003. [AP]
Some Iraqis sympathized with U.S. forces over the somber milestone. But others noted that many more Iraqis had died in the conflict and said they hope the U.S. "occupiers" will soon go home.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488042.htm
Iraqi death toll much higher than US
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 08:59
The number of Iraqis who have died violently since the U.S.-led invasion is many times larger than the U.S. military death toll of 2,000 in Iraq.
In one sign of the enormity of the Iraqi loss, at least 3,870 were killed in the past six months alone, according to an Associated Press count.
One U.S. military spokesman said it is possible the figure for the entire war could be 30,000 Iraqis, which many experts see as a credible estimate. Others suspect the number is far higher, since the chaos in Iraq leaves the potential for many killings to go unreported.
The losses are far larger than most analysts and Pentagon planners expected before the war and mean Iraqi civilians are bearing most of the suffering.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487910.htm
Gitmo hunger striker wants tube removed
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:19
A detainee on a hunger strike at the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay wants a judge to order the removal of his feeding tube so he can be allowed to die, one of his lawyers said Tuesday.
Fawzi al-Odah of Kuwait asked his lawyers during a meeting last week to file court papers seeking the removal of his feeding tube "out of desperation" over his imprisonment without charges, attorney Tom Wilner said.
"He is willing to take a stand if it will bring justice," Wilner said.
The lawyers have not filed the motion because they first want al-Odah to get the approval of his family and to consult with doctors and psychological specialists not affiliated with the U.S. government, Wilner said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487940.htm
US to transfer nuclear reactor tech to China
By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-26 05:44
A senior US official yesterday expressed repeated commitment to transferring nuclear reactor technologies to China. China has drafted ambitious plans to use nuclear power to alleviate growing energy shortages.
Administrator of the US National Nuclear Security Administration, Linton Brooks, told China Daily: "There is no reason why the (reactor) technology should not be transferred to a country like China."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487855.htm
Compulsory test mulled for PVC food wrapper
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:13
China's quality watchdog said Tuesday that it is considering subjecting PVC food wrappers to compulsory import and export testing.
Liu Zhaobin, spokesman for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China, said China will step up efforts in the supervision of the trade and production of the product.
Liu noted that some PVC food wrappers available on the domestic market contain DEHA, a plastic banned from food packing by Chinese law .
DEHA, which was used to add plastic or other materials to make or keep them soft and pliable, can enter human body with food after being heated at a temperature of more than 100 Celsius or encountering fatty food.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487938.htm
Fresh bird flu case in China, India on alert
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-26 15:42
Fears of avian flu spreading deepened on Wednesday after China reported another outbreak in poultry and India said it was testing blood samples from 10 dead migratory birds.
There has been a spate of fresh cases in Asia and on the western edge of Europe ahead of the winter, when experts say the deadly H5N1 strain thrives best.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488021.htm
Bird flu conference defers to WHO for preparedness
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:35
Health ministers and experts from 30 countries gathered to discuss the threat of avian influenza agreed Tuesday a coordinated international effort is needed to stop a possible pandemic, but offered no measures and little help for poorer countries.
At the end of two days of meetings, delegates said in a statement they had taken "important steps towards security long-term, sustained political and institutional engagement to address global pandemic influenza preparedness."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487951.htm
Rosa Parks' lifetime struggling for equality
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-26 05:51
Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern US civil rights movement, has died at age 92.
Rosa Parks, pictured in 1999, the petite black seamstress whose defiance aboard a city bus nearly 50 years ago sparked the US civil rights movement and helped Martin Luther King Junior gain national prominence, died at the age of 92 at her home in Detroit, Michigan.[AFP]
Parks died at her home on Monday evening of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years.
Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of US history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."
At that time, segregation laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodation throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighbourhoods in the North.
The Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, was riding on a city bus on December 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487798.htm
Alibaba aquires entire assets of Yahoo! China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-26 21:26
China's largest e-commerce website Alibaba on Tuesday announced it had successfully acquired the entire assets of Yahoo! China and gained one billion US dollars of investment in the merger.
This is the largest merger-acquisition (M&A) deal in China's Internet business.
According to an agreement signed by Alibaba and Yahoo! China on Aug. 11, all of Yahoo! China's assets go to Alibaba, including its search technology, the website, its communication and advertising business, and 3721.com, a Chinese language search engine.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488045.htm
Google adds to China team
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:52
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google increased its focus on China by hiring a sales veteran to lead the US Internet search powerhouse's marketing strategy in that country, the company announced.
A woman works on her computer as the logo of web search engine Google is seen on the wall.[AFP/File]
Johnny Chou will "establish and lead Google's sales and business development operations in Greater China," the Silicon Valley company said in a written release.
Chou was hired away from UT Starcom, where he was president of that company's China operations for nine years, according to Google.
"The leadership and experience that Johnny Chou brings to Google will be an invaluable asset to Google's plans for developing its business operations in China," said Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of Google's Worldwide Sales and Field Operations.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487965.htm
Travel between mainland, Taiwan facilitated
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-26 21:45
From Tuesday on, Taiwan residents have two more places to go to apply for re-issue of their five-year-term permits to enter and exit the Chinese mainland if the permits are lost or have expired.
The two places newly authorized by China's Ministry of Public Security to handle such affairs are Shanghai and Jiangsu in east China, where there are large numbers of Taiwan businessmen.
Earlier, such permits were issued only by agencies in four places, namely Hong Kong, Macao, Fuzhou and Xiamen.
If the permits are lost or have expired, the holders have to go to the first three cities to apply for re-issue.
The mainland has lately taken a series of measures to simplify the procedure and facilitate travel between the mainland and Taiwan, aiming to boost the affinity of the Chinese people across the Taiwan Straits.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488046.htm
Anniversary of Taiwan's recovery celebrated
By Cao Desheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-26 05:41
China yesterday commemorated the 60th anniversary of the recovery of Taiwan from Japanese colonial rule, with a pledge to firmly oppose any "independence" move on the island.
Historical facts "indisputably" prove that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at a celebratory gathering in Beijing.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487848.htm
Behind Koizumi's Shrine visit
wchao37 (bbs.chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2005-10-19 10:12
The visit was another poisonous dart against her East Asian neighbors.
Koizumi visited the Yasukuni Shrine on October 16, 2005 -- the day that China's Shenzhou VI safely landed at a designated site in the Inner Mongolian plains bringing a five-day orbital flight to a successful conclusion. The stubborn man with the American Gigolo-Richard Gere hairdo apparently has thoughts other than peace in mind on that date.
The girly man who specializes in the one-envelope-two-letters approach in Sino-Japanese relations is the embodiment of irreconcilable Japanese sentiments today -- petty, selfish, myopic, insolent, seclusive, weird, combative, jealous, and maniacal.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/19/content_486176.htm
Koizumi still hopes for summit with China
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-10-26 07:54
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, amid criticism from China about his visit to a shrine that honors war criminals, expressed a wish Tuesday to hold summit talks with China on the sidelines of upcoming international meetings.
Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni shrine Oct. 17, his fifth since taking office in April 2001, prompted China to cancel some official contacts with Japan, including a scheduled visit by Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura to discuss relations between the two trading partners.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487868.htm
The Cheney Observer
Are Evangelicals EVER a part of the same country the rest of us are? Jeb Bush could have had the same issues as Louisiana and as Mississippi and Alabama did if "Wilma" had dessimated levees that his brother neglected to repair because the Ninth Ward was nothing but Black Poor Folks. You know Jeb the same, the very same people who you disenfranchised in 2000 to insure Georgie's election.
Jeb Bush takes aim at Louisiana's hurricane effort
BY CARLOS SADOVI
Chicago Tribune
NAPLES, Fla. - While applauding state and local efforts to deal with the onslaught of Hurricane Wilma, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush took the opportunity Monday to blast what he said were Louisiana's failed attempts to deal with Katrina.
Bush said that unlike Louisiana, Florida organized local efforts to bring people to shelters and to transport evacuees.
"In Florida, we consider it a high priority and it's a bottom-up system," Bush said Monday at the Collier County emergency response offices. "In Louisiana, it was left for the federal government to fill the void, and you can see the consequences." Bush is the brother of President Bush, whose administration has been criticized for a slow, disorganized response after Katrina struck Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in late August.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/12987281.htm
Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Lawyers Report
By DAVID JOHNSTON, RICHARD W. STEVENSON and DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: October 25, 2005
This article is by David Johnston, Richard W. Stevenson and Douglas Jehl.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/politics/25leak.html?hp&ex=1130212800&en=ba1361e3bd1bec47&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Cheney's Colorado Visit Seen As A Boost For GOP
By Steven K. Paulson, Associated Press Writer
Vice President Dick Cheney came to Denver Monday in a show of support to Republican congressional candidate Rick O'Donnell for a race both Democrats and Republicans see as crucial in next year's election.
Cheney said several important issues have come down to one or two votes, and he wants to keep the seat in Republican hands.
"The president and I need good partners," Cheney told a crowd of about 150 in a room at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium. Campaign officials said the fundraiser brought in about $100,000.
Cheney praised incumbent Bob Beauprez, whose gubernatorial bid has created an opportunity for O'Donnell, as a loyal Republican. He said he was counting on O'Donnell's support.
http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_297231344.html
Frustrated Scowcroft Assails Neo-Cons, Cheney
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (IPS) - One week after a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a blistering attack on foreign policy-making in the George W. Bush administration, Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser under Bush's father, assailed neo-conservatives who persuaded the president to go to war in Iraq.
In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Scowcroft, whose relations with the Bush administration have been badly strained since he publicly warned against invading Iraq seven months before U.S. troops crossed over from Kuwait, argued that the invasion was counter-productive.
"This was said to be part of the war on terror, but Iraq feeds terrorism," Scowcroft told the magazine, adding that the war risked moving public opinion against any new foreign policy commitments for some time, just as the Vietnam War did during the late-1970s and through the 1980s.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30755
Cheney aide passed Plame's name to Libby, Hadley, those close to leak investigation say
Jason Leopold and Larisa Alexandrovn
With the possibility of indictments just days away, sources close to the investigation into who outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson have provided RAW STORY a more detailed account into how and why Plame's name was leaked and what role the Pentagon and the vice president's office played.
Those close to the investigation say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser, then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney on loan from the office of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in June 2003 and told Libby that Plame set up the Wilson trip. He asserted that it was a boondoggle, the sources said.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheney_aide_passed_Plames_name_to_1024.html
New York Times Reports Dick Cheney Leaked CIA Operative Name
The New York Times is reporting that Vice President Dick Cheney was an Executive branch source of the illegal leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's name.
The Times reports in its October 25, 2005 edition, "I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday." The Times also reports that Mr. Cheney received Wilson;s name from CIA Director George Tenet.
http://usliberals.about.com/b/a/2005_10_24.htm
Blogosphere Brims with Cheney Resignation Rumors, Rice to Be New VP
The blogosphere abounds with Cheney-Rice rumors, in the wake of the Valerie Plame Wilson-CIA leak investigation....
From blogger Fred Alan...."Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."
From Paul Bedard of US World & News Report, via RadioBlogger...."Some folks are wondering well, if this is true, and Cheney gets hit, well my gosh, he's going to have to resign.
http://usliberals.about.com/b/a/2005_10_24.htm
KARL ROVE, Lewis Libby Indictments Could "Out" Fake Intelligence
Por Clayton Hallmark - Monday, Oct. 24, 2005 at 7:39 PM
The Washington, DC, grand jury of US Attorney Fitzgerald will obtain indictments in the outing of CIA's Valerie Plame sometime this week, sources say, and one could be George Bush's closest advisor, Karl Rove.....In Alexandria, VA, the grand jury of Paul McNulty, investigating Israeli espionage against the US, has indicted a neocon Pentagon analyst, Larry Franklin and continues its work.....With these and other probable indictments, there will be trials that will EXPOSE FIXED INTELLIGENCE and ISRAELI MANIPULATION that pushed us into war.....Also, Italian officials promise to request in coming weeks the extradition of CIA man Bob Lady, a key figure in the IRAQ BETRAYAL. See how these events are converging.
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/339590.php
Following the capital follies is hard when 'facts' change
By Bill McClellan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/24/2005
Karl Rove is a terrific fellow who is being hounded by a partisan Democratic prosecutor who seems to think that outwitting Democrats ought to be a crime. Wait. That's not Rove. That's Tom DeLay. Or maybe it's Rove, too. Except the partisan prosecutor in the Rove case seems to be a Republican.
It's all so confusing. Happily, the truth generally sorts itself out during the course of a trial, and so with DeLay, at least, we should know something soon. He has already been indicted. I saw him on the news just the other day. He was standing on the courthouse steps. He said he looked forward to the truth coming out and he said he wanted a speedy trial. Of course, that was confusing, too, because if you want a speedy trial, you can ask for one, and DeLay's attorney had just done the opposite. He had asked for a change of judge and a change of venue, and those requests pretty much assured there won't be a speedy trial.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/billmcclellan/story/F4CF6F71CFF01EEA862570A40032A069?OpenDocument
White House leak decision to be handed down this week
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The World Today - Monday, 24 October , 2005 12:33:00
Reporter: Edmond Roy
ELEANOR HALL: To the United States now, where the Bush administration is bracing for a decision which could implicate the Vice President's office in a criminal law suit.
After a 22-month investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA agent to the media, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is expected to announce this week whether he will seek indictments against senior White House adviser Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, Lewis Libby.
The Bush administration is already reeling from the resignation of its former House Majority leader, who's facing corruption charges, but an indictment for two such senior White House staff could have even more serious ramifications, as Edmond Roy reports.
EDMOND ROY: It's a complicated web of who said what to whom and involves the New York Times, the White House staff and the CIA. What began as a minor irritant for George W. Bush's second term in office could well end up becoming a defining moment in his presidency.
At the heart of the case are two of the senior most members of the White House staff, Karl Rove, who arguably was President George W. Bush's trusted adviser; Lewis Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's adviser; Judith Miller, reporter for the New York Times; and Valerie Plame, the CIA agent whose identity was leaked to the media.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1489320.htm
Frist's trusts not completely blind
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist appears to have known more about his stake in his family's hospital company than he previously disclosed, a report says.
Managers of the trusts that the Tennessee Republican once described as "totally blind," regularly informed him when they added new shares of HCA Inc. or other assets to his holdings, documents obtained by The Washington Post show.
Since 2001, the trustees have written to Frist and the Senate 15 times detailing the sale of assets from or the contribution of assets to trusts of Frist and his family, the newspaper said.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051024-20440200-bc-us-frist.xml
Frist memo defends U.S. spending spree
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is circulating a memo that defends sharp increases in government spending, which he attributes to the war on terror.
The memo concedes there has been "unnecessary and wasteful spending" in the past five years by the Republican Congress, but says "In a $2.5 trillion budget how could there not be?"
It cites two main factors for the spending spike -- anti-terror efforts at home and abroad, and Hurricane Katrina, the Washington Times reported.
Costs for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have surpassed $290 billion, while Katrina, "the worst natural disaster in this country's history," has cost $71 billion.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051024-11110400-bc-us-budget.xml
HERE WE GO AGAIN !!!
Bush says military action against Syria "last resort"
Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:24 AM ET
DUBAI (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said military action was a last resort in dealing with Syria and he hoped Damascus would cooperate with a probe into the killing of former Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri.
"A military (option) is always the last choice of a president," he told Al Arabiya television in an interview aired on Tuesday when asked about a U.N. investigation that implicated Syrian officials in the killing of Hariri.
"I am hoping that they will cooperate. It (military action) is the last -- very last option," he said. "But on the other hand, you know -- and I've worked hard for diplomacy and will continue to work the diplomatic angle on this issue."
Reuters obtained a transcript of the Bush interview, conducted in Washington on Monday, from Dubai-based Al Arabiya.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-25T092437Z_01_MOR531158_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-SYRIA.xml
The 10 Ways Bush Screwed New York
A presidential potpourri of cuts, blunders, stonewalls, deceptions, and distractions
by Wayne Barrett, special reporting by Daniel Magliocco
photo: Jake Price
Here's a welcome from New York 9-11 Veterans for Truth, a big hello for Republicans from a city hit by a couple of swift jets 35 months—not 35 years—ago. It's matched by just as friendly an insistence that the convention focus on how Bush-Cheney responded to our riverbank assault, rather than on an ancient Mekong attack, where the first test of courage was being there. With the president scheduled to barely show up here all week, wouldn't it be respectful if the delegates and media actually got around town to see just what he's done to us since the bullhorn bravado of 2001? They could start with NYPD Blue, that All-American army deployed all over midtown. There are actually 5,879 fewer city cops than in 2000, partly due to the nearly 90 percent Bush cuts in Bill Clinton's COPS programs. Even with the post-9-11 invention of homeland security funding, NYC is getting $61 million less in federal public-safety subsidies than it did before our cops became America's front line. Bush's 2005 budget proposes even more cuts. Though most conventioneers would prefer to forget it, George W. Bush has slashed the troop strength that host committee hero Rudy Giuliani put on duty.
http://villagevoice.com/specials/0543,50thbarrett2,69312,31.html
Scandal amid service
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
last updated October 25, 2005 2:15 AM
The man at the center of a massive political scandal that threatens senior members of the Bush administration with criminal charges spoke to a capacity crowd at Kresge Auditorium last night. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose wife’s identity as a covert agent was allegedly leaked to the media by senior Bush officials, spoke to students about the potential indictments of administration members, his thoughts on America’s role in Iraq and his background in public service.
Wilson drew gasps from the crowd when he revealed that today’s New York Times will implicate Vice President Dick Cheney as a source of the smear campaign that he says ruined his wife’s career.
http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=18286&repository=0001_article
As the Buck Screeches to a Halt
Posted by Douglas Anthony Cooper on October 25, 2005 04:21 PM (See all posts by Douglas Anthony Cooper)
Filed under: Politics, Culture/Tech: Sports, Politics: Law, Politics: U.S. - Scroll down to read comments on this story and/or add one of your own.
Douglas Cooper
Book from Hyperion Books
Release date: February, 1998
"He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things."
No, that's not an assessment of George W. Bush. It's the beginning of the smear campaign against the prosecutor: the quotation is from "a White House ally... referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald."
I'm not the first to note the irony that the White House, which is being prosecuted for a smear job, is beginning to resort to just that tactic in response. They have to; they're not much good at anything else. But a smear campaign without Rove is like the Astros sans Clemens -- here you have a talent that comes along maybe once in a generation. Rove is the Great One, the Gretzky of Libel; can you imagine anyone else cooking up that bit about McCain's illegitimate black child? Perhaps he'll continue to orchestrate the slander from his cell, but it won't be easy.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/10/25/162117.php>
W pals bushwhack CIA leak prosecutor
BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK and MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - As the White House and Republicans brace for possible indictments in the CIA leak probe, defenders have launched a not-so-subtle campaign against the prosecutor handling the case.
"He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things," one White House ally said, referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was tapped nearly two years ago to find out whether anyone in the White House broke a federal law by blowing the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame after her husband, Joseph Wilson, debunked administration claims about Saddam Hussein's nuclear activities.
President Bush recently praised Fitzgerald on NBC's "Today" show, saying: "The special prosecutor is conducting a very serious investigation. He's doing it in a very dignified way, by the way, and we'll see what he says."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/358657p-305630c.html
Clinton takes on Cheney
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U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (Getty Images Photo)
BY GLENN THRUSH
WASHINGTON BUREAU
October 26, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday blamed Vice President Dick Cheney for bungling U.S. energy policy - and proposed a $20 billion-per-year tax on oil profits to subsidize clean-fuels development.
Tapping growing anger over skyrocketing fuel costs, Clinton (D-N.Y.) criticized oil companies for reaping billions in profits from hurricane-driven price spikes.
She also laid partial responsibility for rising prices on Cheney, the former head of industry giant Halliburton, who chaired a secretive White House energy task force in 2001. "The vice president basically sets energy policy in America," Clinton told a meeting of alternative energy development investors. "And it's not been to the benefit, I think, of our long-term or short-term interests, and I hope that can change."
"Senator Clinton should go ask her husband and his administration why they never passed a comprehensive energy bill," responded Brian Nick, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushill26q4484720oct26,0,2869947.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines
The New York Times
Report From the Polar Ice
Polar scientist David Barber and his team conduct studies on the Hudson Bay ice near Churchill, Manitoba, in this clip from "New York Times Reporting: Arctic Rush." The television program was produced alongside articles in the Times and broadcast on the Discovery Times channel and the CBC.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/2005/10/24/science/highbandwidth/windowsmedia/20051025_ARCTIC_VIDEO.html
No Escape: Thaw Gains Momentum
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: October 25, 2005
In 1969 Roy Koerner, a Canadian government glaciologist, was one of four men (and 36 dogs) who completed the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean, from Alaska through the North Pole to Norway.
Andrew C. Revkin/The New York Times
LOSING GROUND Sea ice near the North Pole. Bright Arctic Ocean ice reflects sunlight, but open dark water absorbs it, warming in the process. As more ice melts, more open water could amplify the warming trend.
Now, he said, such a trek would be impossible: there is just not enough ice. In September, the area covered by sea ice reached a record low. "I look on it as a different world," Dr. Koerner said. "I recently reviewed a proposal by one guy to go across by kayak."
At age 73, Dr. Koerner, known as Fritz, still regularly hikes high on the ancient glaciers abutting the warming ocean to extract cores showing past climate trends. And every one, he said, indicates that the Arctic warming under way over the last century is different from that seen in past warm eras.
Many scientists say it has taken a long time for them to accept that global warming, partly the result of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could shrink the Arctic's summer cloak of ice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/science/earth/25arctic.html
Marathon Victory Puts White Sox on Brink of Title
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: October 26, 2005
HOUSTON, Oct. 25 - As night crept into morning, Paul Konerko could sense what would happen. Even the longest game in World Series history was bound to end eventually, and the winner of Game 3 would have a huge psychological lift.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/sports/baseball/26series.html?hp&ex=1130385600&en=ce1a070c7e2af568&ei=5094&partner=homepage
White House Gamble Pays for a Princeton Professor
By LOUIS UCHITELLE and EDUARDO PORTER
Published: October 25, 2005
Even before President Bush named Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers this spring, Mr. Bernanke decided to gamble. He sold his home in New Jersey last year and told friends that, instead of returning to a tenured professorship at Princeton University, he was taking a chance that President Bush would elevate him from obscurity as a Federal Reserve governor to a top political appointment.
Mike Theiler/European Pressphoto Agency
"If I am confirmed to this position, my first priority will be to maintain consistency and continuity with the policies established during the Greenspan years," Ben S. Bernanke said today.
ASK THE EXPERTS
A panel of economists will answer questions about the nomination of Ben S. Bernanke as Fed chairman and the challenges facing the central bank. Questions can be sent to dispatches@nytimes.com. Answers will be posted at nytimes.com/business.
Doug Mills/ The New York Times
"If I am confirmed to this position, my first priority will be to maintain consistency and continuity with the policies established during the Greenspan years," Ben S. Bernanke said today.
The gamble paid off. If the Senate confirms him, Mr. Bernanke will arguably become the most powerful economic leader in the world. Not since Arthur Burns, the Federal Reserve chairman from 1970 to 1978, has a university professor run the nation's central bank.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/business/25profile.html?hp&ex=1130299200&en=85c199b3d7b04f60&ei=5094&partner=homepage
After Ravaging Florida, Wilma Slows Over Atlantic Ocean
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
and JENNIFER BAYOT
Published: October 25, 2005
NAPLES, Fla., Oct. 25 - Hurricane Wilma weakened as it tracked northeastward into the Atlantic Ocean today, but only after thrashing neighborhoods on both of South Florida's coasts, shattering high-rise windows, pushing seawater over much of the Florida Keys and knocking out power to an estimated 3.4 million homes and businesses.
Alan Diaz/Associated Press
Windows were ripped off the Colonial Bank building in downtown Miami. More Photos >
The National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. advisory that the storm was expected to slow from its current pace of 53 miles an hour and to turn east-northeast over the next 24 hours, a motion that the center said "should keep the center of Wilma well offshore of the northeastern United States."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/national/25cnd-wilma.html?hp
Infinity Outlines Plan to Replace Howard Stern
By LORNE MANLY and JEFF LEEDS
Published: October 25, 2005
A little more than two months before Howard Stern takes his lucrative but polarizing morning show to satellite radio, his current employer, Infinity Broadcasting, announced plans today to replace him with a regional slate of hosts, including the former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth and the comedian Adam Carolla.
Mr. Roth, whose show will be heard on the east coast, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Pittsburgh, is a newcomer to radio. Mr. Carolla, who has television shows on Comedy Central and TLC, has enjoyed success at the co-host of the "Loveline," a nationally syndicated radio show. His new morning show will be broadcast in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Portland and Las Vegas, and his former partner, the late-night talk-show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel, will serve as a creative consultant to the show as well as an adviser to Infinity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/business/media/26cnd-infinity.html?hp&ex=1130299200&en=14c730449d504151&ei=5094&partner=homepage
President of American University Agrees to Resign
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Published: October 25, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - Embroiled in a controversy over accusations of lavish spending, the president of American University, Benjamin Ladner, has agreed to resign in a $3.7 million deal with the university's board of trustees that has angered former board and faculty members and students.
Rather than dismiss him outright and offer nothing, as many people connected with the university had urged, the board awarded Mr. Ladner a severance package that includes a one-time payment of $950,000, relief from repaying about $1 million in premiums on a life insurance policy and the right to collect deferred compensation of $1.75 million, which he would have had to relinquish had the board forced him out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/education/25cnd-college.html?hp&ex=1130299200&en=b8fc3347c61c9e25&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Developing Lands Hit Hardest by 'Brain Drain'
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: October 25, 2005
Poor countries across Africa, Central America and the Caribbean are losing sometimes staggering portions of their college-educated workers to wealthy democracies, according to a World Bank study released yesterday.
The study's findings document a troubling pattern of "brain drain," the flight of skilled middle-class workers who could help lift their countries out of poverty, some analysts say. And while the exact effects are still little understood, there is a growing sense among economists that such migration plays a crucial role in a country's development.
The findings are based on an extensive survey of census and other data from the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes most of the world's richest nations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/international/25brain.html
Top Suspect in Drug Ring Is Extradited to the U.S.
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Published: October 25, 2005
An Afghan identified as one of the world's most wanted drug kingpins, who has been linked to the Taliban and once boasted that selling heroin to Americans was a form of jihad, has been extradited from Afghanistan to face drug smuggling and other charges, federal officials in New York announced yesterday.
The suspect, Baz Mohammad, 47, was accused of leading an organization that smuggled heroin worth $25 million into this country in a 15-year operation that controlled poppy fields in Afghanistan, heroin refining plants there and in Pakistan, and a trafficking network that reached around the world to the streets of New York, Washington, Chicago and other American cities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/nyregion/25heroin.html
Dancing With the Devils in the Dominican Republic
Alex Quesada/Polaris, for The New York Times
On Feb. 27 in La Vega, the Dominican celebrations culminate in a grand parade featuring diabolical costumes. Audio Slide Show
By SETH KUGEL
Published: October 23, 2005
A SMALL, pothole-laden city in the central valley of the Dominican Republic, anchored by a concrete-pillared, irregularly shaped cathedral whose decidedly ugly look takes some time to grow on you, La Vega isn't high on the to-do list of most travelers. There are no beaches, a few tolerable hotels, some unremarkable restaurants and, for 11 months of the year, no real reason to go there.
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/travel/23dominican.html
Envoy in Mideast Peace Effort Says Israel Is Keeping Too Tight a Lid on Palestinians in Gaza
By GREG MYRE
Published: October 25, 2005
JERUSALEM, Oct. 24 - James D. Wolfensohn, the special envoy for nations active in Middle East peacemaking, has criticized Israel for failing to ease restrictions on Palestinian movement into and out of the Gaza Strip, where residents currently face greater difficulties in traveling than before Israel's withdrawal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/international/middleeast/25mideast.html
Five Killed in Bombing at Israeli Market
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 26, 2005
Filed at 11:06 a.m. ET
HADERA, Israel (AP) -- A Palestinian suicide bomber on Wednesday struck a food stand in the central Israeli town of Hadera, killing five people, wounding at least 30 and leaving a path of destruction at an open air market, police and rescuers said.
In a phone call to The Associated Press, the Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility, saying it was to avenge the killing of Luay Saadi, leader of the group's military wing in the West Bank. Saadi was killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers closing in on his hideout in the Tulkarem refugee camp on Monday.
Wednesday also marked the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Islamic Jihad chief Fathi Shekaki outside a Malta hotel in a mission widely attributed to Israel.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Blast.html?hp&ex=1130385600&en=7b92d975b1bb6385&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Millions in Florida Are Still Without Basics
Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times
Miami police officers sought yesterday to control a crowd trying to enter the Orange Bowl in hopes of getting water and 10,000 bags of ice there.
By ABBY GOODNOUGH and JOSEPH B. TREASTER
Published: October 26, 2005
MIAMI, Oct. 25 - South Florida was a coast-to-coast mess on Tuesday as millions of people remained without power, huge lines formed for basic supplies and drivers wove through packed, debris-strewn streets with no traffic signals.
HOW TO HELP A partial list of relief organizations and other information on the Web.
YOUR STORY Share your experiences via e-mail or in this forum.
Despite Gov. Jeb Bush's assurances that recovery from Hurricane Wilma would proceed smoothly after lessons learned from seven previous storms, the government response looked frayed. In Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, people lined up for ice and water only to learn that government deliveries of both were late.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/national/nationalspecial/26wilma.html
Bush Nominee for Pentagon Is Under Attack
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: October 26, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - The senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee vowed Tuesday to defeat President Bush's choice for chief Pentagon spokesman, citing an op-ed article the nominee wrote in April accusing American television networks of aiding Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.
The comments by the senator, Carl Levin of Michigan, during and after a committee hearing to consider the nomination of J. Dorrance Smith to be assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, cast serious doubt on Mr. Smith's chances to win approval by the full Senate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/politics/26pentagon.html
That Haze Over Titan? Scientists Suspect Erupting Geysers or Volcanoes
H.G. Roe/California Institute of Technology
Midlatitude clouds on Saturn's moon Titan over three days in late 2004 as seen by the Keck telescope. A huge storm was seen near its south pole in October.
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: October 25, 2005
By finding the likely solution to one puzzle about Saturn's largest moon, Titan, astronomers think they have come upon an explanation for another: how Titan sustains an atmosphere rich in methane.
New observations by the Cassini spacecraft and ground-based telescopes have focused on trying to understand the peculiar patterns of clouds on Titan. Clouds are rare there, except over the south pole and in the midlatitudes of the southern hemisphere.
The polar clouds are stormy and persistent, with lifetimes of weeks. The other clouds, at a latitude the equivalent of the one that crosses New Zealand and Argentina, appear and rain out methane in a matter of hours or a few days as they stretch out downwind. But why almost exclusively near 40 degrees south latitude?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/science/space/25tita.html
The Arab News
Galloway Throws US Senate a Challenge
Agence France Presse
LONDON, 26 October 2005 — British MP George Galloway challenged the United States yesterday to charge him with perjury after he was accused of lying to a Senate committee over the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.
Galloway, a strident opponent of the Iraq war, said he was “completely bemused” by fresh allegations that he personally solicited and received eight oil vouchers from Saddam Hussein’s regime between 1999 and 2003.
During sworn testimony in May the left-winger told a US Senate subcommittee investigating the oil-for-food scheme that he never benefited from the controversial program.
Speaking on BBC radio yesterday, Galloway said: “I did not lie under oath in front of the Senate committee.” He said he had not seen the latest allegations from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, which he accused of being “cavalier with any idea of process and justice.”
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=72297&d=26&m=10&y=2005
Syria Could Launch Its Own Probe
Dahi Hassan, Arab News
DAMASCUS, 26 October 2005 — Syria yesterday welcomed a suggestion from the head of a UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri that Damascus launch its own probe into the killing.
“We in Syria have no reservations whatsoever regarding the suggestion by Mr. Detlev Mehlis that Syria could launch its own investigation in the killing of Hariri,” Syrian Foreign Ministry legal adviser Riad Al-Doudi said.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=72298&d=26&m=10&y=2005
Bluetooth Clip Shows Teacher Beating Student
Ebtihal Mubarak, Arab News
JEDDAH, 26 October 2005 — A recently made Bluetooth clip being circulated in a number of Internet forums has produced resentment and anger among Saudis. The clip shows a teacher brutally beating an 11-year-old boy with a wire.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=72301&d=26&m=10&y=2005>
Iraqis Approve Charter
Agencies
Iraqi soldiers celebrate the approval of the constitution in Najaf. (AFP)
BAGHDAD, 26 October 2005 — Iraq’s constitution, a post-Saddam Hussein milestone for the nation, has been adopted despite strong opposition from disaffected Sunni Arabs, officials announced yesterday.
“It is an accomplishment for all Iraqis,” said commission spokesman Farid Ayyar in announcing the results 10 days after the landmark referendum on a charter that lays down a democratic future for the violence-wracked country.
Nationwide, 78 percent of Iraqis voted for the constitution, the commission said, while opponents failed to muster a two-thirds majority against in at least three of Iraq’s 18 provinces which would have meant its rejection.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=72296&d=26&m=10&y=2005
Editorial: The Voice of Iraq
26 October 2005
ALL interested parties will try to extract the message that most suits them from the overwhelming endorsement of the new Iraqi Constitution which was announced yesterday by the UN officials supervising the vote. However, regardless of any spin, the plain fact is that first the interim parliamentary elections and now the constitutional referendum have taken place, despite dire predictions that the men of violence would sabotage the process. The stage is now set for final parliamentary elections in early December at which point Iraq will have, on paper at least, completed its rapid transformation from a single-party dictatorship to a pluralist democracy.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=72305&d=26&m=10&y=2005
continued …
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