Michael Moore Today

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Final plans made for Saddam's execution
By Christopher Torchia and Qassim Abdul-Zahra / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The official witnesses to Saddam Hussein's impending execution gathered Friday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime's atrocities.
With U.S. forces on high alert for a surge in violence, the Iraqi government readied all the necessary documents, including a "red card" — an execution order introduced during Saddam's dictatorship. As his time waned, Saddam received two of his half brothers in his cell Thursday and was said to have given them his personal belongings and a copy of his will.
Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam's legal team in Doha, Qatar, said he too requested a final meeting with the deposed Iraqi leader. "His daughter in Amman was crying, she said, 'Take me with you,'" al-Nueimi said late Friday. But he said their request was rejected.
An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saddam would be executed before 6 a.m. Saturday, or 10 p.m. Friday EST. Saddam and others were convicted of murder in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from an Iraqi town where assassins tried to kill Saddam in 1982.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8800


Presidential Message on Eid al-Adha
I send holiday greetings to all Muslims gathered to celebrate Eid al-Adha.
For Muslims in America and around the world, Eid al-Adha is an important occasion to give thanks for their blessings and to remember Abraham's trust in a loving God. During the four days of this special observance, Muslims honor Abraham's example of sacrifice and devotion to God by celebrating with friends and family, exchanging gifts and greetings, and engaging in worship through sacrifice and charity.
America is a more hopeful Nation because of the talents, generosity, and compassion of our Muslim citizens. This holiday reminds us of the values that so many of our citizens hold in common, including love of family, gratitude to God, the importance of community, and a commitment to respect, diversity, tolerance, and religious freedom.
Laura and I offer our best wishes for a memorable holiday.
GEORGE W. BUSH


3 Marines killed in Iraq, making December deadliest month for U.S. troops in 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Three more Marines were killed in battle in Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday, making December the deadliest month this year for American troops in war-wracked nation with the toll reaching 106.
The Marines, all assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died Thursday of wounds from fighting in western Anbar province, the U.S. military said. Their deaths pushed the toll past the 105 U.S. service members killed in October.
At least 2,993 members of the U.S. military have been killed since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an AP count.
In violence Friday, a suicide bomber killed at least nine people near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, and 32 tortured bodies were found across the country as Iraqis braced for Saddam Hussein's execution.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8803


U.S. death toll in Iraq seen spurring anti-war protests
By Carey Gillam / Reuters
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - In Kansas City, they will light candles and lay out more than 80 pairs of empty combat boots. In Chicago, anti-war activists will hand out black ribbons, each bearing the name of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq.
And in New Haven, Connecticut, opponents of the war plan to read aloud the names of 3,000 dead U.S. soldiers.
In all, organizers say some 140 demonstrations in 37 states are planned to mark the 3,000th U.S. military death in Iraq, a milestone that is likely only days away. By Thursday, some 2,989 U.S. troops had died in Iraq since the start of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the unrelenting violence.
Among those keeping track of the U.S. death toll, including soldiers' families, peace activists, politicians, veterans and others, many say they will commemorate the 3,000 mark as both a way to honor the dead and demand an end to the war.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8791


American Families Service Committee
What is this?
AFSC urges peace supporters to organize events in their hometowns the day after the 3,000th U.S. military death in Iraq is announced.
Together, we'll mourn all the lives lost in this war and call for the troops to come home.

http://www.afsc.org/3000/


Cindy Sheehan arrested outside Bush's ranch
Associated Press
CRAWFORD, Texas – Peace activist Cindy Sheehan and four other protesters were arrested Thursday for blocking a road near President Bush's ranch, authorities said, snagging Vice President Dick Cheney's motorcade in the backup.
Sheehan and the others lay or sat in the road about 20 minutes and didn't heed requests to move, Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. R.T. King said.
"They weren't going unless they were arrested," King told The Associated Press. He said Cheney's motorcade was among the vehicles delayed by the demonstration.
Sheehan told the Waco Tribune-Herald that she and others were conducting a "peace surge" to address concerns that Bush may increase U.S. troop numbers in Iraq. Protesters said they had expected to be arrested.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8794


Ford Disagreed With Bush About Invading Iraq
By Bob Woodward / Washington Post
Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified. "I don't think I would have gone to war," he said a little more than a year after President Bush launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford's own administration.
In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney -- Ford's White House chief of staff -- and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief.
"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8787


Some Christmas Pudding from Michael Moore
Dear friends,
What better way to get the Christmas dinner conversation going than with some fun facts!
This is the first of THREE Christmases left under President George W. Bush. THREE.
Ok, that's not too cheery. Let me try again.
If the daily death toll continues at this rate, sometime on Christmas Day a U.S. soldier will die in Iraq and, with his or her death, more U.S. troops will have been killed in Iraq than all the people lost on 9/11 (2,973).
On second thought, skip the politics for a day and just enjoy the pie.
Merry Christmas to each of you, and peace on earth, wherever we Americans have dropped in.

Yours,Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com

www.michaelmoore.com


Walk for Change


January 3rd and 4th 2007 Washington DCWalk the halls of Congress with Gold Star Families for Peace. Lets let the 110th congress know what is expected of them from Day 1. We will be insisting that an immediate exit strategy from Iraq be implemented. We will insist that all funding for the War stop and the money spent on rebuilding Iraq. We will be insisting that hearings begin immediately into Bushco's crimes against humanity and the lies told to the American people. We will demand IMPEACHMENT.

http://www.gsfp.org/article.php?preview=1&cache=0&id=282


Iraqi violence sparks increase in internal refugees
By Ahmed Rasheed / Reuters
BAGHDAD, Dec 28 - More than 108,000 displaced Iraqis have registered for government help in the last month, government data showed on Thursday, indicating a sharp increase in internal refugees amid soaring sectarian violence.
"The main reason behind the rise in displaced families is the deterioration of the security situation and the death threats that people have received to flee their houses, in addition to the bombing of safe areas," Deputy Migration Minister Hamdiya Ahmad told Reuters.
Since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra sparked a wave of killings between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis 72,000 displaced families, or 432,000 people, have registered for government aid, Ahmad said.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8797


Two U.S. sailors die after falling from submarine
LONDON (Reuters) - Two U.S. sailors were killed after falling overboard from a nuclear-powered submarine as it left the southern English port of Plymouth on Friday, the U.S. Navy said.
Two other sailors who fell overboard from the USS Minneapolis-St. Paul suffered minor injuries but were later released from hospital, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's 6th fleet in Italy said.
The Navy said the cause of the accident was under investigation.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul had spent a week in port at Plymouth and was leaving the Devonport naval base when the accident happened.
Sixth fleet spokesman Lieutenant Chris Servello said the four sailors were rescued by fellow crew members and British authorities after falling overboard and were taken to a local hospital, where two of them were pronounced dead.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8804


Sectarian Ties Weaken Duty’s Call for Iraq Forces
By Marc Santora / New York Times
BAGHDAD, Dec. 27 — The car parked outside was almost certainly a tool of the Sunni insurgency. It was pocked with bullet holes and bore fake license plates. The trunk had cases of unused sniper bullets and a notice to a Shiite family telling them to abandon their home.
“Otherwise, your rotten heads will be cut off,” the note read.
The soldiers who came upon the car in a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad were part of a joint American and Iraqi patrol, and the Americans were ready to take action. The Iraqi commander, however, taking orders by cellphone from the office of a top Sunni politician, said to back off: the car’s owner was known and protected at a high level.
For Maj. William Voorhies, the American commander of the military training unit at the scene, the moment encapsulated his increasingly frustrating task — trying to build up Iraqi security forces who themselves are being used as proxies in a spreading sectarian war. This time, it was a Sunni politician — Vice Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie — but the more powerful Shiites interfered even more often.
“I have come to the conclusion that this is no longer America’s war in Iraq, but the Iraqi civil war where America is fighting,” Major Voorhies said.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8789


Different Drummer Cafe
Our cafe is designed to provide active duty and reserve military personnel and families at Ft. Drum with an inviting, comfortable, and warm place to socialize, listen to music and enjoy other live entertainment. Soldiers will also have access to legal counselling, a bookstore, and a regular program of film showings and discussions on current issues.
Check out all the great upcoming events!

http://www.differentdrummercafe.org/


The Chicago Tribune

Ford took pride in Supreme Court pick
By Bill BarnhartTribune staff reporter
Published December 27, 2006, 6:24 PM CST

President Gerald Ford's pardon of President Richard Nixon will dominate the discussion of his legacy.Considering that the pardon probably ruined Ford's chance of being elected president in his own right, it's not surprising that he chose another milestone for his brief term.

In one of his final public statements, Ford last year wrote to the dean of the Fordham University Law School, to discuss how historians evaluate presidents:"Normally, little or no consideration is given to the long-term effects of a president's Supreme Court nominees," he wrote. "Let that not be the case with my presidency. For I am prepared to allow history's judgment of my term in office to rest (if necessary, exclusively) on my nomination 30 years ago of Justice John Paul Stevens to the U.S. Supreme Court."

In the letter, Ford went on the praise Stevens, whom he selected from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to succeed Justice William Douglas in late 1975. Stevens, confirmed unanimously in a few days by the Senate, was Ford's sole Supreme Court appointment.But Ford's legacy in this regard has less to do with Stevens' 31 years on the bench and more to do with Ford's decision in the immediate post-Watergate period to remove the selection of judges from politics.

These days, presidents and candidates for the presidency campaign on their political inclinations in picking federal judges, one of the greatest powers given to presidents under the Constitution. Ford, despite the looming 1976 election, chose a different path."It was essential for me, in filling the Douglas vacancy, to avoid anything that looked like partisan politics," he said in 1999.

"There would be no 'Southern strategy' in my administration" — a reference to Nixon's hard-fought nominations of southerners Clement Haynsworth of South Carolina and G. Harrold Carswell of Florida, who were rejected by the Senate."Neither would there be a litmus test applied to prospective justices," Ford said. "I was not interested in trying to make the court over in my own image."

The high court's ruling in Roe vs. Wade, declaring that women had a constitutional right to an abortion, was less than three years old. The 1976 election would be the first presidential election waged in the post-Roe era, yet the subject did not enter into Ford's choice or Stevens' confirmation.Ford faced pressures from at least three sources. The looming presidential aspirations of California's popular former governor, Ronald Reagan, suggested that Ford should appoint a judicial conservative. Ford's solicitor general and conservative legal scholar Robert Bork was on the initial list of candidates Ford considered.

Douglas was a liberal lion on the court who "held the pivotal fifth vote on issues dealing with civil rights and the rights of the accused," said professor David O'Brien of the University of Virginia, a leading scholar on the Supreme Court. Many Republicans wanted to reverse the court's tilt, but Stevens did not fill the bill. He quickly established himself as a judicial maverick and, after the conservative shift in the court in recent years, is now considered the senior liberal, at age 86.On another plane, Ford's contentious relations with Congress might have been eased if he had followed the wishes of certain members. Powerful Republican Sen. Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania lobbied for Arlin Adams, a federal appeals court judge in Philadelphia. Sen. Robert Griffin, a fellow Michigan Republican, lobbied for himself.

But most of the headlines reflected pressure to appoint a woman. Ford's wife, Betty, openly supported Carla Hills, Ford's secretary of Department of Housing and Urban Development . Others who were recommended included Sandra Day O'Connor, whom President Reagan appointed as the first women justice in 1981, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was appointed to the court by President Bill Clinton in 1993.

Ford, a savvy political veteran, rejected these overtures. Instead, he downplayed a story that might have given him a lift going into the 1976 election. Even in his autobiography, "A Time to Heal," Ford devoted just two paragraphs to his selection of Douglas' successor. This was not an oversight."In that difficult post-Watergate era, the Supreme Court was one of the few public institutions untarnished by popular cynicism or distrust," he recalled later. He listened to his attorney general, Edward Levi, himself a non-political appointee, and picked an unknown judge from Chicago.

Given his place as an unelected president serving in the wake of the Watergate, Nixon's failed court appointments and the pardon, "Ford went, as Eisenhower did, in a bipartisan fashion and placed professionalism above personal friendship and ideology," said O'Brien.After Stevens took his seat in December 1975, none of the reporters at Ford's year-end press briefing asked him about what Stevens might do on the court. Nor did Ford know; the two men had barely met.His only remarks on the subject focused on the speed of the confirmation. "I can't positively say that this nomination and confirmation was a record, but it was pretty close to it," said the former collegiate all-star football player. A vote of 98-0 "is certainly a pretty good batting average by any criteria," he said.

For Stevens' swearing-in, Ford declined to stage a ceremony in the White House, as has since become a custom. Symbolizing the independence of the judiciary, Ford, a lawyer authorized to practice in the Supreme Court, came to the court for the event.In a statement Wednesday, Stevens said: "Decency, intellectual honesty and sound judgment are characteristics possessed by our finest lawyers. Gerald Ford was such a lawyer."


Gerald Ford's Remarks on the Impeachment of Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, April 15, 1970

In this speech, House Minority Leader Ford reviewed the Constitutional background on impeachment, the distinction between impeachment and criminal prosecution, and impeachment standards as they might apply differently to appointed judges and elected officials. See especially page 6 for the full context of his oft-quoted answer to the question "What, then, is an impeachable offense?"

http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/speeches/700415a.htm


Tributes to Ford Begin in California
By JEFF WILSONAssociated Press WriterPublished December 29, 2006, 7:23 PM CST
PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Borne by eight U.S. servicemen in crisp dress uniforms, Gerald R. Ford's flag-draped casket was carried past his widow into their hometown church Friday for a public viewing that marked the start of six days of mourning for the former president. Former first lady Betty Ford, 88, stood atop the broad steps of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church to receive the casket. A Marine Corps band struck up "Hail to the Chief" as the coffin of the Navy veteran of World War II was removed from a hearse, then played the hymn "O God Our Help in Ages Past" as the military pallbearers, moving in lockstep, made the slow climb to the doors of the white-columned church.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-gerald-ford,1,59025.story?coll=chi-news-hed


Bush Sheltered During Tornado Alert
By DEB RIECHMANNAssociated Press Writer
Published December 29, 2006, 7:24 PM CST
CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush and first lady Laura Bush were moved to an armored vehicle on their ranch Friday when a tornado warning was issued in central Texas, the White House said. The vehicle was driven to a tornado shelter on the ranch at 1:30 p.m. CST, and the president, Mrs. Bush and their two Scottish terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley, sat inside until the weather cleared, deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said. They were never moved into the shelter, he said. The shelter is a few hundred yards away from the president's house on the ranch.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-bush-tornado,1,2632241.story?coll=chi-news-hed


Ex-Marine sentenced in charity scam
By Art BarnumTribune staff reporterPublished December 29, 2006, 6:18 PM CST
A Villa Park Marine Corps veteran was sentenced Friday to 4 years of probation and ordered to undergo inpatient drug treatment for running a scam that collected more than $4,000 for a non-existent charity to aid military families.Donald McCarver, 41, pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to gamble, forgery, possession of a controlled substance and obstruction of justice. He faced up to 5 years in prison.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-061229mccarver,1,2448958.story?coll=chi-news-hed


AT&T Closes BellSouth Deal After FCC OK
By DAVID KOENIGAP Business WriterPublished December 29, 2006, 7:09 PM CST
DALLAS -- AT&T Inc. completed its $86 billion buyout of BellSouth Corp., the largest telecommunications takeover in U.S. history, shortly after the Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved the deal on Friday. The FCC action came one day after the company offered new concessions for consumers and competitors. Lawyers for AT&T and the two Democratic commissioners who had opposed the merger hammered out a compromise, the details of which were released Thursday night.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/sns-ap-att-bellsouth,1,5833025.story?coll=chi-news-hed


CBS refuses to be interrupted by Ford's death
Published December 29, 2006
When Lyndon Johnson died in January 1973, Tom Johnson, the former president's spokesman, first informed The Associated Press and United Press International and then the TV networks.The wire services still were processing the information when Walter Cronkite took Johnson's call live on "The CBS Evening News," scoring a beat.There was pride in relaying big stories first, putting one's stamp on them, reminding viewers this was the channel to watch for the latest news. But that was almost 34 years ago.When Gerald Ford died Tuesday, CBS didn't even interrupt a "Late Show With David Letterman" rerun. It just ran the news as a headline across the bottom of the screen. NBC held to tradition with a bulletin during a rerun of "The Tonight Show," and ABC News immediately shifted gears on "Nightline" with a special report.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-0612290134dec29,0,748490.column?coll=chi-business-hed


Cash-rich firms skimp on dividends
Fewer big companies lift payouts in 2006, ending an uptrend. More is spent on buybacks.By Tom PetrunoTimes Staff WriterPublished December 29, 2006
Investors in Mattel Inc., McDonald's Corp. and Home Depot Inc. got hefty cash bonuses this year for being shareholders. All three raised their dividend payments 30% or more.But corporate generosity with dividends overall didn't live up to some analysts' expectations.That is stoking concern about the outlook for payouts in 2007 and beyond — at a time when the growing ranks of retirees may have more need for rising income from their stock investments."We thought companies would do more" with dividends this year, given that corporate earnings surged, said Howard Silverblatt, a senior analyst at data firm Standard & Poor's in New York.Within the blue-chip S&P 500 index, the number of companies raising or initiating dividends totaled 304 this year, down from 317 in 2005. That breaks a strong uptrend in place since 2003, when 267 of the companies in the index lifted or initiated payouts.Dividends had been on the rise in recent years as corporate earnings boomed amid a global economic expansion. Dividend payments typically improve with companies' fortunes.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/la-fi-dividends29dec29,0,7584997.story?coll=chi-business-hed


James Brown Eulogized for Music, Impact
By HARRY R. WEBERAssociated Press WriterPublished December 29, 2006, 6:11 PM CST
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. -- In life and in death, James Brown should be remembered for his impact on music and on the world, not for the many people that surrounded him, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday in a passionate eulogy befitting the godfather of soul. "When he started singing, we were sitting in the back of the bus. When he stopped singing we were flying Lear jets," Sharpton told about 300 mourners during a private funeral service for Brown at Carpentersville Baptist Church.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-ap-james-brown-funeral,1,7593506.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed


'Indiana Jones' to Be Filmed Next Year
By ALICIA CHANGAssociated Press WriterPublished December 29, 2006, 7:02 PM CST
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- George Lucas said Friday that filming of the long-awaited "Indiana Jones" movie will begin next year. Harrison Ford, who appeared in the three earlier flicks, the last one coming in 1989, is set to star again. Lucas said he and Steven Spielberg recently finalized the script for the film. "It's going to be fantastic. It's going to be the best one yet," the 62-year-old filmmaker said during a break from preparing for his duties as grand marshal of Monday's Rose Parade.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-ap-george-lucas-indiana-jones,1,7538276.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed


Trump-O'Donnell War of Words Goes On
By ERIN CARLSONAssociated Press WriterPublished December 29, 2006, 8:22 AM CST
NEW YORK -- The bitter battle of words between Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell isn't over. "Rosie's a loser. She's been a loser always," the real estate mogul and host of NBC's "The Apprentice," said Thursday in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Her show failed, her magazine failed. Barbara Walters gave her new life, but she'll fail at that also because she's inherently a stone-cold loser."It all started after Trump announced last week that Miss USA Tara Conner, whose title had been in jeopardy because of underage drinking, would keep her crown. (Trump is the owner of the Miss Universe Organization, which includes Miss USA and Miss Teen USA.)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-ap-people-trump-odonnell,1,6963420.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed


McCartney, Estranged Wife in Art Spat
By Associated PressPublished December 29, 2006, 3:35 PM CST
LONDON -- Police were called to the country estate of former Beatle Paul McCartney after his estranged wife reported the theft of paintings -- including a Picasso and a Renoir -- from the lodge they once shared, police said Friday. "We checked the premises, and spoke to Heather Mills (McCartney), and as a result it was found to be a civil matter between her and her husband," Sussex Police spokesman Paddy Rea said. "There's been no theft."
Mills called police Thursday night after discovering that paintings valued at an estimated $19.5 million had gone missing, The Sun newspaper reported Friday. The Sun, quoting an unidentified friend of Mills McCartney, said that McCartney had taken the paintings and reprogrammed the estate's alarm codes, and informed her Thursday night by text message.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-ap-people-mccartney,1,6628833.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed


Feel-good business
Published December 29, 2006
What do a group of Rwandan basket weavers have in common with Latin American coffee growers? They're making groundbreaking deals with American retailers that offer a new way to think about the role of business in society.Boosters call it "commerce with a conscience." You can see it in the colorful baskets, hand-woven from sisal, papyrus, banana leaf and bamboo by women who survived Rwanda's 1994 genocide, that Macy's has been offering in the Loop, in its New York and Atlanta stores and online. Sales of the baskets, which the store says have been good, resulted from an innovative joint venture between Macy's and Rwanda Paths to Peace, a non-profit organization dedicated to assuring fair compensation for the women who make the baskets. After a test run of 650 baskets last year, the store ordered 31,000 more this year.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0612290231dec29,1,2034863.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed


The Cheney Observer

Lawyer Ends Up Dead After Taking On Rove
Sometimes a tinfoil hat seems appropriate attire.
It’s fishy as hell.Paul Sanford, a prominent Aptos, California, attorney, who accused Karl Rove of treason in the Plame outing case, took a leap from the Embassy Suites Hotel in Monterey Bay on Christmas Eve. Police describe it as “probable” suicide, even though it appears Sanford was not depressed.

http://spiiderweb.blogspot.com/2006/12/lawyer-ends-up-dead-after-taking-on.html


Free speech lawyer Paul Sanford dies in apparent suicide
By Matt KingSentinel staff writer
Paul Sanford, an attorney who made his mark on Santa Cruz with his defense of homeless and indigent residents and once asked the U.S. Supreme Court to strike the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, died Sunday in an apparent suicide.
Seaside police believe that Sanford intentionally fell from at least nine stories into the courtyard of the Embassy Suites Hotel Monterey Bay about 9:20 a.m. Sunday, to the shock of hotel patrons who were eating breakfast in the hotel atrium.
Police Capt. Steve Cercone said a note had not been found, but there was no evidence of an accident or foul play. Sanford, who lived in Aptos, was not staying at the Embassy Suites and several hotel employees told police they saw a man pacing the halls of one of the top floors of the 12-story building, the tallest in the area.
"There is no indication that it was anything other than a suicide," Cercone said. "We believe it was not an accident based on the fact that someone would have to make a definite effort to climb over the balcony."
Sanford, 50, was raised in Boston and earned a master's degree in political science at Boston College. He moved to Santa Cruz about 20 years ago and in 1996 earned his law degree from Monterey College of Law, where he also taught Constitutional law classes and volunteered with the school's small claims clinic. He worked at the Volunteer Centers of Santa Cruz County for 14 years.
Friends and colleagues remembered him as a brilliant and creative attorney and a tireless advocate for poor people and the principles of the Constitution, a copy of which he always carried in a pocket.
"We lost a gem," attorney Kate Wells said. "He was a champion of the poor and a wonderful asset to the legal community and the community at large."
In 2005, Sanford and Wells represented John Maurer, a homeless man who ran afoul of a Santa Cruz city ordinance banning profane and aggressive panhandling when he wore a small sign slurring the city's police.
When the attorneys fought the citations, City Attorney John Barisone dropped the charges, but Maurer sued the city and a federal court ruled the ordinance was unconstitutional. In May, the city clarified the law to allow profanity that is not directed at someone who refuses to hand over pocket change.
In 2001, Sanford represented a group of people living in Camp Paradise on the banks of the San Lorenzo River. The city tried to shut down the camp, which was eventually flooded out.
"He fought for the underdog. That was the story of his life," criminal defense attorney Enda Brennan. "Paul was always being creative. He was always trying to make the world a little better."
In 2004, Sanford appeared before the Supreme Court with Michael Newdow, an atheist who sued the Elk Grove Unified School District, claiming that the mention of God in the Pledge of Allegiance violated the First Amendment's separation of church and state.
More recently, Sanford was in court on his own behalf, in a breach of contract and defamation lawsuit against Michael Zwerling, the owner of KSCO and KOMY radio stations. According to his attorney and friend Shawn Mills, Sanford alleged that Zwerling broke a 2005 agreement to sell airtime to Sanford and provide him with media credentials. Zwerling declined to comment.
According to media accounts, the disagreement between the men started after Sanford used a KOMY press credential to join the White House press corps and asked then-press secretary Scott McClellan if the administration's leak of Valerie Plame's identity was tantamount to treason. It's unclear what will happen with the case, which was set for trial in February.
"I know it was particularly troubling for him," Brennan said. "He felt he was treated very poorly and it was difficult for him to understand."
Still, his friends said they had no inkling Sanford was contemplating ending his life.
"There was nothing on the horizon that would warrant what happened," said Mills, who was Sanford's friend for 15 years. "There's nothing I can think about that would be so serious that this would be a solution. It's just so unbelievable."
Sanford's friends and colleagues remembered him as an attentive father and husband, a fun-loving practical joker and a passionate Boston Red Sox fan. In 1992, Sanford started a business called Annoyance Communications, which, for a $10 fee, sent out monthly reminders of the historic failures to fans of star-crossed sports franchises.
In 2004 his own sports misery came to an end when the Red Sox won the World Series after an 86-year drought. Sanford traveled to watch the series and attend the victory parade in Boston.
"I think he saw them at six different spots on the parade route," Brennan said. "He called me on his cell phone. He said 'I can't believe this. I'm here with a million people who have been waiting forever for this.'"
Sanford is survived by his wife, Paula, and a son and daughter.

Contact Matt King at mking@santacruzsentinel.com.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/December/28/local/stories/02local.htm


Ford had local ties to state
By Becky Orr
rep6@wyomingnews.com
CHEYENNE - Rob Van Alyne won't forget the September night in 1996 when he met former President Gerald Ford in Cheyenne.Ford came to Cheyenne as the guest of honor at a fundraising dinner for the Boy Scouts.Van Alyne was 19, an Eagle Scout and assistant scout master. Ford spoke individually to him and the other Eagle Scouts gathered there."It was awe-inspiring," Van Alyne said. He now lives in Longmont, Colo., with his wife and 19-month-old son."He had a presence about him," Van Alyne said. "He was a very charismatic individual and very passionate about scouting."Ford was an Eagle Scout and a former Scout leader.He died Tuesday at the age of 93 at his home in California.The 38th president was born in Omaha, Neb., but had many ties in Wyoming. He touched people's lives in the Cowboy State, including Van Alyne's."He really took the time to meet with us who were Eagle Scouts," said Van Alyne. "You got caught up with him, and you wanted to achieve the ideals of scouting even more so."Cheyenne lawyer Greg Dyekman, who organized the event, said it was the most successful local fundraiser ever done here for the Boy Scouts.Ford had been a huge supporter of the Boy Scouts all through his career, Dyekman said."He was very genuine, very friendly and quite accommodating to our event," Dyekman said, making himself available for photographs.He also met individually with Dyekman. "We talked about his early days in Riverton," Dyekman said, as Ford spent some time there as a boy."He was very interested in how Riverton was," Dyekman said, and "fond of those days in Wyoming."Ford was the son of Leslie Lynch King, who was born in Riverton, and Dorothy Ayer Gardner. He was born Leslie King Jr.Ford's grandparents were Mr. and Mrs. C.H. King, who were pioneers in central Wyoming.His mother divorced King shortly after her son's birth and remarried a salesman named Gerald Ford. The future president took his stepfather's name.Ford had fond memories of his time as a seasonal park ranger at Yellowstone National Park.

http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2006/12/28/top_story/01local_12-28-06.txt


9/11, fire, quake on New Orleans recovery director's résumé
By Ann M. Simmons
Los Angeles Times

NEW ORLEANS — When Mayor Ray Nagin named Edward Blakely to be this city's long-awaited recovery czar, Blakely knew instantly the assignment was made for him.
"Whatever the biggest challenge is, that's the one I want," Blakely said during a recent interview in Nagin's office.
The professor of urban affairs is known as a master of post-disaster. Blakely is a former adviser to two Oakland, Calif., mayors who helped develop recovery plans after the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 and the Oakland Hills wildfire two years later.
He was dean of the Milano Graduate School at New School University in New York in September 2001 and coordinated the management of students and the campus after the World Trade Center attacks.
"I'm discovering that New Orleans is so much like the other places ... ," Blakely said. "The big difference here is the scale. Most cities, you're dealing with a part of the city. In this case, no one was untouched."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003498254_blakely28.html


Patrick vows to restore funds axed
by Romney By Curt Brown , Standard-Times staff writer
Gov.-elect Deval Patrick announced yesterday he will restore $383 million in emergency budget cuts made by outgoing Gov. Mitt Romney, including nearly $1 million designated for SouthCoast programs. "After a comprehensive review of the current budget and recent revenue performance, I have decided to restore the '9C cuts' in their entirety when I take office next month," Gov.-elect Patrick said. "Overwhelmingly, these broad-based cuts, especially coming mid-year, have a serious negative impact on thousands of Massachusetts residents who have planned for the relief and relied upon the services these programs provide," he said. The action restores $250,000 for the SouthCoast Development Partnership, a regional agency that attracts business to the area; $100,000 to help with the resurgence of the Zeiterion Theatre; $50,000 for the New Bedford Art Museum; $185,000 for the International Trade Center in Fall River; $300,000 for the redevelopment of the former Elco Dress Factory in New Bedford; and $100,000 for 9/11 and World War II memorials at Battleship Cove in Fall River. Historically, governors have used 9C cuts as a tool of last resort, and only during times of great fiscal crisis.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-06/12-28-06/03local.htm


Romney may balk on lawmakers' raises
Waiting for action on gay marriage
By Andrea Estes and Frank Phillips, Globe Staff December 27, 2006
Governor Mitt Romney may refuse to move ahead on automatic pay raises for lawmakers unless they vote next week on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages, a top administration official said yesterday.
The state's 200 House and Senate members are entitled to a raise on Jan. 1, but it is up to the governor to decide the exact amount and give final approval. Romney could act on the pay raises before he leaves office on Jan. 4, or leave the responsibility to Governor-elect Deval Patrick.
Legislators have scheduled a vote on the same-sex marriage amendment for Jan. 2, but many opponents of gay marriage fear lawmakers will recess without taking action. According to a senior Romney administration official, the governor is seriously considering withholding his approval if the Legislature does not act on the amendment.
Two years ago, the last time lawmakers were due raises, Romney approved the increases in early December.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/12/27/romney_may_balk_on_lawmakers_raises/


Kayla's bill sent back to Romney
By Kelly Fernandes, Enterprise correspondent
CARVER — If Gov. Mitt Romney travels with an automatic external defibrillator and there is one in the Statehouse, why should the general public not be offered the same protection?
That is what Judy Richards wants to know as the governor has a second chance to sign a bill in memory of her daughter, Kayla, that would require fitness centers in Massachusetts to be equipped with an AED.
“It's nice that (Romney) feels comfortable with an AED, but doesn't want to give the same comfort and protection to the citizens of this state,” said Richards, as she described how hard it was spending Christmas without Kayla.
She would have turned 23 in November, but died suddenly last spring after collapsing on a treadmill at Planet Fitness in Plymouth.
Doctors believe Kayla died from a rare heart arrhythmia condition called Long QT syndrome, and an AED may have saved her life.
Since her death, nurses at Jordan Hospital, where Kayla worked; cardiologists; state Sen. Robert O'Leary; the American Heart Association; and the International Health Racquetball and Sports Club Association have been pushing Kayla's bill.

http://enterprise.southofboston.com/articles/2006/12/28/news/news/news04.txt


Q&A: Mitt Romney Discusses Iraq War, Reagan's Influence and Gay Marriage
As he ponders whether to seek the presidency in 2008, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday took a break from his family vacation in Utah to talk exclusively to HUMAN EVENTS about the War on Terror, his conservative beliefs and the role bloggers are playing in politics. He also clarified his views on abortion and gay marriage and addressed concerns about his healthcare plan.Romney’s term as governor ends on January 4, 2007, and he’s expected to announce his future plans shortly thereafter. Recently he’s reached out to conservatives, including National Review Online and talk-show host Hugh Hewitt to discuss his political views.A complete transcript of our interview follows. It is also available to download in .mp3 format or via Windows Media.

Hi, Governor, how you doing?I’m doing great. Thank you.Well, thank you for taking the time to call today and do the interview with HUMAN EVENTS. I really appreciate it.You’re certainly welcome.Before Christmas you had said you’d be spending the holidays with your family and contemplating your future plans. And I just wondered, have you made any decisions yet about 2008?I have nothing to announce at this stage, Rob. I’m sorry, but we’ve already begun a series of, if you will, fireside chats with my family—my five daughters-in-law, my five sons, and Ann and I have a spent a lot of time talking about the future of our country.There are sort of two piles of considerations. There are the personal considerations and there are the national considerations. And frankly, it’s the national considerations and the needs of our country and the people of our nation and what I might be able to do to help that have the biggest influence.As you think about these national issues, what are some of the things you think you would offer conservatives if you were to run?The things I’d offer for all Americans would be similar to, I think, other great Republicans in the past and in the present. And yet in my case, I come with a little different background and different perspective, and therefore, what I’d offer would be slightly different I’m sure in some ways than others.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18683


Nudged into nowhere
Officials unsure what to do with radioactive tanks long parked near ORNL
By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com December 28, 2006
OAK RIDGE - The government has invested a fortune in the cleanup of Melton Valley, which - considering its inglorious past as a dumping ground for all things nuclear - might be better named Meltdown Valley.
Workers have plugged wells, capped landfills, drained waste ponds and injected grout in cracks and crevices in an effort to halt the spread of radioactive contamination. They have torn down old buildings, hauled away junk and excavated "hot spots" that couldn't be cleaned or contained.
But there are times when federal contractors don't know what to do.
That's the case with five big tanks underneath a three-sided shed a few miles from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. They've been sitting there for decades, unadorned except for a collection of signs that warn of the radiation hazards.
According to John Owsley, the state's environmental oversight director in Oak Ridge, the tanks - and their radioactive contents - don't fit neatly into any of the normal categories for disposal.
They're stuck in nuclear nowhere.
"It doesn't quite meet the definition of high-level waste, and the activity is too high for it to be disposed of as low-level waste," Owsley said.
Therefore, the tanks will stay where they are, alongside a dusty gravel road, while DOE and its contractors and environmental regulators explore the options.
The tanks were brought to ORNL back in the 1960s from the Atomic Energy Commission's operations in Hanford, Wash. The commission was a predecessor of today's U.S. Department of Energy.
Four of the tanks were used for rail shipments of highly radioactive liquids drained from waste tanks at the Hanford site, and ORNL was extracting the cesium-137 to prepare radioactive sources for medical and industrial uses. At one time, the Oak Ridge lab manufactured about 90 percent of the world's cesium sources.
"These tanks are loaded with ion-exchange resins," said Paul Clay, deputy general manager of Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's environmental cleanup manager in Oak Ridge.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_5240831,00.html


Cuts of Katrina
Sure, the feds had to hire help quickly as they worked to relieve the suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina. But that haste doesn't begin to explain away the layers of contractors that The Washington Post discovered were taking pieces of federal hurricane recovery contracts in Louisiana.
An article carried by The N&O portrays an unmanageable web of contractors called out to clean up after disasters. Besides being expensive, this so-called system has rewarded contractors for doing little to help other than paperwork. What happens is that federal agencies in charge of disaster-related contracts turn first to prime contractors large enough to carry the necessary insurance. The primes are legally free to hire subcontractors, and they do.
One particularly galling example is Landstar Systems Inc., a $2 billion company hired for the bus evacuation of New Orleans. Landstar, a transportation broker, has no buses. And people had already been stranded at the New Orleans Superdome for 48 hours when the Federal Emergency Management Agency called on it.
Landstar then subcontracted with another company, which hired two other outfits to hire charter bus companies. Everybody got a cut. Hundreds of buses eventually made it to New Orleans, earning Landstar $1,200 a bus -- nearly double the charter companies' earnings.

http://www.newsobserver.com/579/story/421235.html


The Gulf Rush
By Cynthia L. Cooper
While President Bush was making a post-Katrina “show” landing in New Orleans on January 12, declaring it a “heck of a place to bring your family,” Tomas Aguilar was trying to absorb the hell of a situation faced by thousands of immigrant workers.
Not far from where the president spoke, Aguilar had seen immigrants working 12-hour days and living in their cars and on bedrolls under bridges. On top of that, they were getting stiffed on pay.
“When I landed at the airport, I overheard two people talking who saw the hurricane as an opportunity. They were disaster entrepreneurs,” says Aguilar. “Then I get to the city, and it’s crazy.”

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2519/


Bechtel PowerJob ID: 14709
Location: Frederick, MDPosition Type: Full TimeDate Posted: 12/27/2006Electrical Technologist - Power
Electrical Technologist - Power Position #: 50290537
Organization: PWR-ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
Business Group: POWER
Location: Frederick, MD UNITED STATES
Bechtel is a global leader in engineering, construction, and project management. With 40 offices worldwide and projects in nearly 50 nations, Bechtel offers challenging careers in power, mining and metals, civil infrastructure, government services, telecommunications, and oil, gas and chemicals. Bechtel has worked on some of the most complex projects in history and has been the top-ranked 1 U.S. contractor for eight straight years. No job is too big or too tough for us and we are looking for skilled individuals who feel the same way.

http://www.gojobs.com/seeker/jobdetail.asp?Jobnum=1278281&CID=40876&BID=29439


Ex-Interior Secretary Norton Is Hired as Counsel for Shell
A Wall Street Journal News Roundup
Word Count: 297 Companies Featured in This Article: Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it hired former U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton to serve as a counsel for the Anglo-Dutch oil company.
The move comes amid rising scrutiny in Washington of the department's dealings with the oil industry.
Ms. Norton, who stepped down as interior secretary March 31, will be based primarily out of Colorado and will serve as ...

http://users2.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?mg=wsj-users2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle_print%2FSB116724922778660799.html


Intimidation Tactics

Science or Politics?
…Karen Boylan, assistant director of regional affairs at the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Service, says her agency was "not directly intimidated by the Administration."
But the Alaska office would have had to be snowblind not to see the website--and the refuge itself--as a provocative target in the sights of the new Interior Department. In her previous stint at the Reagan Interior Department under James Watt, new Secretary Gale Norton had vigorously advocated opening ANWR to oil company exploration.
With a finger to the changing political winds, the Alaska office held a series of meetings and, after circulating drafts of the new text, implemented a strategy of pre-emptive surgery: Amputate the most inflammatory parts of the website before Washington hacked out its heart.
"We made an honest attempt to keep [the website] below the radar screen.... We took down conclusions that were inconsistent with the new Administration," Boylan said, but "left the evidence for people to draw their own conclusions. Conclusions are not part of sound science."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010423/allen20010412


Sentencing Documents Shed Light on Abramoff Ties
By Emma SchwartzLegal TimesDecember 27, 2006
When, in the 1990s, Congress began criticizing the Northern Mariana Islands' labor policies, few people in Washington were as familiar with the politics of the U.S. territory as Roger Stillwell. But Stillwell's 1995 assignment to help then-lobbyist Jack Abramoff get up to speed on the South Pacific islands "would prove to be his undoing," his lawyer wrote in recently disclosed court papers.The documents, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, shed new light on how Stillwell forged a relationship with Abramoff, who in the 1990s helped the Mariana Islands fend off congressional efforts to set minimum wage and immigration laws in the U.S. territory's free-trade manufacturing zone. The details illustrate the fine line between friendship and impropriety that marked many of Abramoff's relationships in Washington.Stillwell, 67, was the Interior Department's Mariana Islands desk officer from 2001 to Aug. 11, 2006, when he pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of falsifying documents about gifts he took from Abramoff. His attorneys have asked Judge Alan Kay to sentence him to no more than six months' probation-a sentence they say the government does not oppose. He is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 9.

http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1167214008937&hub=TopStories


Take a Solar Electricity Workshop in New Orleans and stay for Mardi Gras!
Solar Energy Workshop
Press Release from Solar Energy International
New Orleans, Louisiana
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA- Join Solar Energy International (SEI) for an intensive hands-on Solar Electric Design & Installation workshop at the Green Project Inc. in New Orleans, LA.. Come learn with us in this great city and make a positive change for the future. Make plans to stay an extra week and enjoy the historic Mardi Gras Festival. This workshop is part of SEI's Renewable Energy Education Program. It will take place from February 12th through the 17th culminating with a hands-on photovoltaic installation. New Orleans -based solar business Sustainable Home & Garden is the sponsor of the workshop.
Participants in the Photovoltaic Design & Installation workshop will learn how to use PV technology to produce their own solar electricity. The first portion of the workshop will be spent learning in the classroom, and then participants can actually watch the electrical meter spin backwards after taking part in the hands-on installation.Along with the hands-on installation, SEI's PV Design and Installation workshop covers system sizing, site analysis, hardware specification and component selection with a strong emphasis on NEC code compliant systems. This workshop is for the beginner who wants to use PV on their home or business and for those seeking employment in the solar industry.SEI is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help people incorporate renewableenergy into their lives. Based in Carbondale, Colorado, and actively teaching around theworld, SEI provides information, education and hands-on training to people who want toshape a sustainable future.Please visit www.solarenergy.org for additional information and contact SEI at970.963.8855 for workshop details or to register.
The information on this page was created and posted by the company identified above. RenewableEnergyAccess.com does not endorse, edit, or substantiate this information and assumes no obligation for this content's accuracy.

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/partner/story?id=46983


When the Levees Broke (2006) on DVD

http://www.amazon.com/When-Levees-Broke-Spike-Lee/dp/B000J10F14/sr=8-1/qid=1167237600/


Natgas company stocks stable despite gas price drop
The Standard & Poor's oil and gas company index <.GSPE> has risen 6.6 percent so far in the fourth quarter and the Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index <.OSX> 8.1 percent -- both below the 11 percent gain in the broader S&P 500 index <.SPX>.
Despite record-high levels of gas in storage for the current week of 3.167 trillion cubic feet, the outlook for prices remains relatively bullish, market experts said, because of fewer expected Canadian imports and sharp drop-offs in output from many of the U.S. gas wells currently in production.
"I suspect that the situation will pretty much clean itself up in the summertime, assuming a normal January-to-March winter," said Houston Energy Partners' John Olson, who runs three hedge funds controlling about $150 million.
But time is growing short for the extra inventories to drain away and sustain prices, and current weather forecasts are calling for mild temperatures for the coming days.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=businessIndustry&storyID=2006-12-27T201437Z_01_N27452679_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPROIND-GAS-SHARES-DC.XML&amp;amp;pageNumber=1&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=BizArt-C1-ArticlePage1


Senate Democrats look ahead to grilling Rice, Gates on Iraq policies
WASHINGTON – Democrats plan to get their first crack at grilling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates next month, when the two are expected to testify on President Bush's plans for Iraq.
Sen. Joe Biden, the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday that he has asked Rice to testify before his panel. Likewise, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who will lead the Armed Services Committee, has said he expects Gates to come to Capitol Hill in January.
The hearings will be the first chance for a Democrat-controlled Congress to ask the Bush administration to detail its Iraq war plan. Rice and Gates will likely testify after the president delivers a major speech on Iraq, expected sometime before his State of the Union address on Jan. 23.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20061227-0026-democrats-iraq.html


Bush’s worst lies of 2006 In the spirit of holding our political leaders accountable, this year-end review will tabulate the worst lies told by Bush and company, along with several stories that were underreported in the media. Much of what was generated got lost in the fog of war, but the long arm of history will retrieve these moments.
As the president said in his news conference this week, if they’re still writing about No. 1—George Washington—there’s plenty of time before the historians can properly evaluate No. 43. Judging by the mess in Iraq, it could be 200 or 300 years—if ever—before Bush is vindicated.
Bush has shifted his rhetoric in deference to the grim and deteriorating reality on the ground in Iraq. Asked by a reporter on Oct. 25 if we are winning the war, Bush said, “Absolutely, we’re winning.” Offered the opportunity at his press conference to defend that statement, Bush has adopted a new formulation. He now says, “We’re not winning, but we’re not losing.” That sounds like the definition of a quagmire.
Exploitation of the war gained Republicans seats in ’02 and got Bush a second term in ’04, but it wasn’t enough in ’06. Karl Rove decided the best way for Republicans to retain control of the House and Senate was to embrace the war in Iraq and run against the Democrats as “Defeatocrats” and “Cut and Runners.”

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=12/25/2006&Cat=2&Num=002


Wilson challenges subpoena in CIA case
WASHINGTON - Former ambassador Joseph Wilson asked a federal judge Wednesday not to force him to testify in the
CIA leak case and accused former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of trying to harass him on the witness stand.
Libby, who faces perjury and obstruction charges, subpoenaed Wilson as a defense witness this month. Libby's attorney, William Jeffress, said in court Tuesday that was a precautionary move and he did not expect to put Wilson on the stand.
Libby is accused of lying to investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding Wilson's wife, outed CIA operative

Valerie Plame. Plame and Wilson have sued Libby and other Bush administration officials, accusing them of plotting to leak Plame's identity as retribution for Wilson's criticism of prewar intelligence on

Iraq.
"Mr. Libby should not be permitted to compel Mr. Wilson's testimony at trial either for the purpose of harassing Mr. Wilson or to gain an advantage in the civil case," Wilson's attorneys wrote.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061220/ap_on_go_ot/cia_leak


Pelosi and Conyers-- Smarter than Impeachment-
by Rob Kall
A lot of people are angry with Nancy Pelosi and John Conyers because they say impeachment is not on the table. I say "thank goodness." You see, I'm in a hurry. I want to see the big cleanup in Washington happen much faster-- including showing Cheney and Bush the door, and maybe, the prison yard. Pelosi and Conyers are doing things exactly right and they have a better chance of my goal-- removal of Bush and Cheney from office-- than if they were going the impeachment route. Pelosi has already stated that it is her constitutional responsibility to investigate. I am certain that within days of the opening of the new congress, Conyers, Waxman and others will begin holding hearings. They will begin investigating some of the most obvious problems and questions and they will happily go where those investigations lead them. They will be using prosecutors on their investigative teams. One of the most effective ways prosecutors work is to interrogate and "nail" smaller, lower level perpetrators who then "roll over" to inform on higher ups. This is what will be happening all over Washington. The sweet thing about congressional hearings is that there are no lawyer-client confidentiality priveleges. Yep. The lawyers have to squeal like stuck pigs or face contempt of congress charges-- which they are not very likely to do. The rolling over will quickly reach the upper echelons of power. The evidence and testimony will build.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_061225_pelosi_and_conyers__.htm


Carlyle Seeks Bigger Buys in Japan Electronics Firms (Update1)
By Mariko Yasu
Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group, manager of the biggest buyout fund dedicated to Japan, wants to acquire larger companies and is targeting the electronics industry in the world's second- largest economy, an executive said.
``We can get bigger deals in Japan than before,'' Tamotsu Adachi, the Washington-based buyout firm's Japan head, said in an interview in Tokyo. ``Some large companies now view selling their units to private equity funds as an option.''
Japan's longest postwar economic expansion is spurring the nation's companies to sell underperforming units and improve competitiveness. Leveraged and management buyouts in Japan more than doubled to $9 billion this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
``Japanese management began to talk about MBOs and LBOs in daily conversation for the first time this year,'' said Taiji Okusu, Credit Suisse Group's head of corporate coverage in Japan. ``Still, many of them are scared of failing and haven't fully acknowledged the merits.''
Buyouts in Japan are still less than half the amount in Australia, an economy a sixth the size, Bloomberg data show.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601014&sid=a8w4aL8UNvvI&refer=funds


U.S., Russia's market access deal is good news for everyone
December 27, 2006
BY DONALD L. EVANS
'Good brotherhood is the best wealth.'' Russia and the United States are on the verge of rewriting that old Russian proverb to read something like: Trade within a set of common rules (economic brotherhood, if you will) is the best way of creating jobs and wealth.
Earlier this month, Russia and the United States signed a bilateral market access deal, paving the way for Russia to join the World Trade Organization, the 149-member framework of rules that governs global trade. The historic announcement -- the culmination of 13 years of tough negotiations -- is of enormous political and economic importance for Russia, the United States and the world. Russia is the largest economy not part of the WTO, and its inclusion will be good news for everyone.
The agreement strengthens economic relations between our two nations in a number of important ways. First, it secures unprecedented access to the Russian market for U.S. farmers and businesses. Russia currently imports about $1 billion in U.S. agricultural products each year and nearly $3 billion in U.S. industrial and consumer goods. Russia has also agreed to expand market access for U.S. service providers across a broad range of important sectors, including finance, construction and telecommunications.
The bilateral agreement also promotes continued economic reform in Russia by strengthening the rule of law and requiring greater transparency. Russia has agreed to bring its intellectual property protections in line with international norms by enacting new laws by specific dates, and passing tougher criminal penalties for piracy and counterfeiting. Russia will also establish a more transparent system for the importation of electronic goods and streamline rules for granting commercial and product licenses.
The agreement also promises substantial gains for Russia's 140 million people, most significantly by setting the stage for the final phase of Russia's protracted effort to join the WTO. The WTO is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which was created in 1947 as part of the world's response to the devastation of World War II. The organizing principle was simple and inspired: to promote global stability and security by expanding economic opportunity and raising living standards around the world.
The results have been phenomenal. Since 1948, the average tariff rate of industrialized countries has been reduced from 40 percent to 4 percent. Over the same period, world economic output has expanded by 700 percent as annual global exports of goods exploded from $50 billion to $9 trillion. In what has been the most dynamic era of economic development in human history, trade has become the basis for a prosperous world economy. By capitalizing on what different countries do best, trade lowers costs, frees up capital and other resources to be used more productively, raises living standards and promotes growth and development. Indeed, since World War II, no nation has prospered without taking advantage of opportunities to trade.
And study after study shows that the WTO's rules-based system promotes transparency, predictability and a level playing field -- leading to increased trade and improved prospects for economic growth in member countries. In addition, by promoting the rule of law, the WTO fosters a better business climate in developing countries, which helps them attract more foreign direct investment, thereby increasing economic growth around the globe.
The wonderful thing about economic growth in our increasingly interconnected world is that it's not a zero-sum game -- when it happens in one place, everyone benefits. And the world is better off for it.
Or in the words of another sage proverb, famously invoked by President John F. Kennedy, ''A rising tide lifts all boats.''
Donald L. Evans is CEO of the Financial Services Forum and former U.S. secretary of commerce.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/186999,CST-EDT-REF27.article


Iraq Study Group Co-Chairman James Baker has Links to Bin Laden Family
FBI has been "remarkably sensitive, tactful and protective" of the [bin Laden] family"
The following article, which appeared in the WSJ in September 2001 (posted on Global Research on October 5, 2001) suggests that James Baker III, who co-chairs the Iraq Study Group (ISG), has over the years established close business ties to the bin Laden Family.
"A U.S. inquiry into bin Laden family business dealings could brush against some big names associated with the U.S. government. Former President Bush said through his chief of staff, Jean Becker, that he recalled only one meeting with the bin Laden family, which took place in November1998. Ms. Becker confirmed that there was a second meeting in January 2000, after being read the ex-president's subsequent thank-you note. "President Bush does not have a relationship with the bin Laden family," says Ms. Becker. "He's met them twice." Mr. Baker visited the bin Laden family in both 1998 and 1999, according to people close to the family. In the second trip, he traveled on a family plane. Mr. Baker declined comment, as did Mr. Carlucci, a past chairman of Nortel Networks Corp., which has partnered with Saudi Bin ladin Group on telecommunications ventures"

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20061222&articleId=4240


Baker case documents saved from shred order
Businessman says they outline sanction-avoiding transactions
JERUSALEM – An Israeli businessman who says he served as a broker in a multimillion-dollar Iraqi collection deal by the law firm of former Secretary of State James Baker now charges in a WND interview Baker's firm tried to cover up the alleged transactions, concerned about exposure after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The deal was structured to bypass U.S. sanctions on Iraq, according to the middleman, Nir Gouaz, president of Caesar Global Securities in Israel.
Gouaz claimed Houston-based Baker Botts made about $30 million collecting funds owed to a South Korean company by the Iraqi government at the peak of American sanctions imposed against Baghdad.
He claimed Baker was directly involved in the deal.
Gouaz told WND today Jeffrey Stonerock, a senior partner at Baker's firm, contacted him in November 2001 inquiring whether he had any documents related to the purported Iraqi deal.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53437


Private Equity's New Club
Private equity keeps moving into the limelight.
Eleven private equity firms linked arms to form the Private Equity Council, a Washington, D.C., lobbying group, on Tuesday. The association, which has been in the works for months, will aim to conduct research and provide information to the public about the private equity industry.
The council's roster is impressive. It includes several firms that have been involved in a number of eye-popping leveraged buyout deals: Apollo Management, Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Silver Lake Partners, Texas Pacific and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
Private equity firms were behind an explosion of LBOs in 2006. Private equity managers raised more than $300 billion globally from institutional investors. The lobbying group estimates that the private equity industry has more than $700 billion in capital to invest.
Private equity firms typically finance a deal using one-third of their money, with the balance coming from bonds and bank loans.
The LBO trend is unlikely to slow down next year in light of all the money that's been raised from institutional investors.
In the U.S. alone, LBOs, on a dollar basis, accounted for 27% of the mergers and acquisitions this year, according to Dealogic. By comparison, private-equity-backed deals accounted for 14% of all domestic M&A in 2005 and just 10% of U.S. deals in 2002.

http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/newsanalysis/wallstreet/10329674.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA


Carlyle Group buying ElkCorp for $827M 2006/12
Mon Dec 18, 5:23 PM ET
DALLAS - The Carlyle Group, a major private equity firm, is buying roofing and building materials maker ElkCorp for about $827 million in cash, plus the assumption of $173 million in debt, ElkCorp said Monday.
The company‘s stock jumped $2.96, or 8.3 percent, to close at $38.81 on the New York Stock Exchange on heavy volume, reaching a new 52-week high.
Separately, Carlyle agreed to a deal with Hood Companies Inc. to merge Hood subsidiary Atlas Roofing Corp. with Dallas-based ElkCorp. The two deals are not contingent upon one another.
The building materials business has suffered a slowdown after hurricane-driven run-ups and years of strong demand for new home construction, said Keith Johnson, an analyst for Morgan, Keegan & Co.
He said the demand from homeowners looking to remodel also is slackening while negative forecasts about home sales continue, he said.
ElkCorp has manufacturing facilities for shingles, composite wood decking and other materials in Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Kansas and Ohio.
Carlyle Group, others form trade group
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - 4:45 PM HAST Wednesday
Nearly a dozen firms, including The Carlyle Group, owner of Hawaiian Telcom, have created a new association to conduct research and advocate on behalf of the growing -- and cash-ready -- private equity industry.
Among the initial members of the Private Equity Council are D.C.-based Carlyle Group, The Blackstone Group, Bain Capital, Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
The 11 firms making up the new D.C.-based trade association have selected Douglas Lowenstein as the group's president and CEO. Lowenstein is currently president of the D.C.-based Entertainment Software Association.
The Private Equity Council plans to launch outreach efforts in research, public affairs and government relations to increase the public awareness of private equity, which has been a popular funding source for mergers and acquisitions in 2006. This year alone, private equity managers worldwide will raise more than $300 billion, according to a statement released Tuesday by the new group.
Washington Business Journal

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2006/12/25/daily17.html?jst=b_ln_hl


Carlyle Group, others form private equity trade association
26.12.2006 19:36 Headlines
Nearly a dozen firms, including The Carlyle Group, have created a new association to conduct research and advocate on behalf of the growing -- and cash-ready -- private equity industry.
Among the initial members of the Private Equity Council are D.C.-based Carlyle Group, The Blackstone Group, Bain Capital, Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
The 11 firms making up the new D.C.-based trade association have selected Douglas Lowenstein as the group's president and CEO. Lowenstein is currently president of the D.C.-based Entertainment Software Association.
The Private Equity Council plans to launch outreach efforts in research, public affairs and government relations to increase the public awareness of private equity, which has been a popular funding source for mergers and acquisitions in 2006. This year alone, private equity managers worldwide will raise more than $300 billion, according to a statement released Tuesday by the new group.


Roads to riches
Paved with bad projections
As Colorado, other states and federal officials increasingly look to toll roads to spur growth or clear clogged highways, a review of 23 new turnpikes nationwide shows that a clear majority are failing to meet revenue projections to justify their costs.
Even with adjustments for the break-in period in the opening years, 86 percent of new toll roads in eight states failed to meet expectations in their first full year.
By year three, 75 percent - 15 of the 20 that have been open that long - remained poor performers.
Despite that history of flawed forecasts, Colorado officials are promoting tolling as a way to build new roads or express lanes in an era in which other funding sources for roads are shrinking.
Three companies nationally do most of the revenue projections relied upon to sell bonds to cover road construction costs. Their representatives offer several possible explanations for consistent overestimates of road popularity.
Two scenarios never mentioned are troubling to securities experts:
Cases where the consultants doing the revenue and traffic forecast either had an interest in seeing the road get built or were later awarded additional work on that road.

http://www.denverpost.com/tollroads/ci_3871773


Toll roads could be in Utah's future
By Nicole WarburtonDeseret Morning News
The East Coast has embraced it. States like Colorado and Texas are studying it. Now Utah lawmakers are looking at tolling as a strategy to fund new state roads. The state is already studying whether the Mountain View Corridor — a proposed western Salt Lake County highway — could be tolled.

Tolling Mountain View could mean that it's built within years, not decades.

"There is some interest among (lawmakers) to explore this and see if there are opportunities to open doors," said John Njord, UDOT executive director. "If the doors are closed, no one can come in."

On Wednesday, the Utah Department of Transportation released to the Transportation Interim Committee a final report that listed four other state roads with potential for tolling. Nine additional roads were listed with potential for reversible lanes or HOT, "high-occupancy toll" lanes.

UDOT already has legislative permission to convert carpool lanes to HOT lanes along I-15 — something that could happen within the next year.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600141824,00.html


Slush funds, oil sheiks, prostitutes, Swiss banks, kickbacks, blackmail, bagmen, arms deals, war plans, climbdowns, big lies and Dick Cheney - it’s a scandal that has it all, corruption and cowardice at the highest levels, a festering canker at the very heart of world politics, where the War on Terror meets the slaughter in Iraq. Yet chances are you’ve never heard about it - even though it happened just a few days ago.
But here’s how the deal went down. On December 14, the UK attorney general, Lord Goldsmith (Pete Goldsmith as was, before his longtime crony Tony Blair raised him to the peerage), peremptorily shut down a two-year investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into a massive corruption case involving Britain’s biggest military contractor and members of the Saudi royal family. SFO bulldogs had just forced their way into the holy of holies of the great global back room - Swiss bank accounts - when Pete pulled the plug. Continuing with the investigation, said His Lordship, “would not be in the national interest.”
It certainly wasn’t in the interest of BAE Systems, the British arms merchant that has become one of the top 10 US military firms as well, through its voracious acquisitions during the profitable War on Terror - including some juicy hook-ups with the Carlyle Group, the former corporate crib of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and still current home of the family fixer, James Baker. BAE director Phillip Carroll is also quite at home in the White House inner circle: a former chairman of Shell Oil, he was tapped by George II to be the first “Senior Adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Oil” in those heady “Mission Accomplished” days of 2003. BAE has allegedly managed to “disappear” approximately $2 billion in shavings from one of the largest and longest-running arms deals in history - the UK-Saudi warplane program known as “al-Yamanah” (Arabic for “The Dove”). Al-Yamanah has been flying for 18 years now, with periodic augmentations, pumping almost $80 billion into BAE’s coffers, with negotiations for $12 billion in additional planes now nearing completion. SFO investigators had followed the missing money from the deal into a network of Swiss bank accounts and the usual Enronian web of offshore front companies.

http://www.ustvmedia.org/perpetual-war-for-a-piece-of-the-action/2006/12/26/war-profits-trump-the-rule-of-law/


Attorney admonished for statements on Libby
Wilson lawyer predicted jury could find V.P.'s former chief of staff guilty
WASHINGTON - A federal judge strongly admonished an attorney for former ambassador Joseph Wilson for her appearance yesterday on MSNBC's program "Hardball" where she predicted a jury can find I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby guilty of making false statements.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton writes in an opinion today, "the Court would not tolerate this case being tried in the media."
Melanie Sloan, who is representing Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame in a civil suit against Libby, was asked by Chris Matthews if she thought Libby could still found guilty of perjury and obstruction charges - in the upcoming CIA/Leak trial - even though he may not have been the first person to reveal Palme's name.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16313872


Indictment Count One

http://149.101.1.32/usao/iln/osc/documents/libby_indictment_28102005.pdf


Israel and the Neocons, The Libby Affair and the Internal War
By James Petras 12/27/05 "ICH" -- -- The national debate, which the indictment of Irving Lewis Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice has aroused in the mass media, has failed to address the most basic questions concerning the deep structural context, which influenced his felonious behavior. The most superficial explanation was that Libby, by exposing Valerie Plame (a CIA employee), acted out of revenge to punish her husband Wilson for exposing the lies put forth by Bush about Iraq's "importation" of uranium from Niger. Other journalists claim that Libby acted to cover up the fabrications to go to war. The assertion however raises a deeper question -- who were the fabricators of war propaganda, who was Libby protecting? And not only the "fabricators of war", but the strategic planners, speech-makers and architects of war who acted hand in hand with the propagandists and the journalists who disseminated the propaganda? What is the link between all these high- level functionaries, propagandists and journalists? Equally important given the positions of power which this cabal occupied, and the influence they exercised in the mass media as well as in designing strategic policy, what forces were engaged in bringing criminal charges against a key operative of the cabal?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11385.htm


Cheney faces troubled new year
Published: December 29 2006 18:39 Last updated: December 29 2006 18:39
Dick Cheney has forged a reputation as the most powerful but also least visible vice-president in recent history. In the next few weeks, however, he will be forced to fight some of his battles in the open – in the courtroom and on Capitol Hill.
The first test will come in the criminal trial of his former chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, charged with lying to a grand jury during an investigation into how a CIA agent’s name was leaked. The trial, due to begin in two weeks, is likely to set an ignominious precedent when Mr Cheney becomes the first vice-president to testify in a trial.
Mr Cheney’s legal team are also steeling themselves for the launch of legislative investigations by the new Democrat-controlled Congress.
In 2004 the vice-president felt confident enough to dismiss questions from Patrick Leahy, then a powerless Democrat, with a lewd invitation for him to do something sexually impossible. Now, he faces political revenge: Mr Leahy, the incoming chairman of the judiciary committee, has said he will issue subpoenas to secure documents that show whether the Bush administration authorised torture as part of its “war on terror”.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/483be022-9769-11db-a680-0000779e2340.html


The real menace
The public, seeing through the tissue of Bush administration lies told to justify an invasion that never had anything to do with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 or weapons of mass destruction, now has begun a national questioning: Why are we still in Iraq? The answers posted most widely on the Internet by critics of the war suggest its continuation as a naked imperial grab for the world's second largest petroleum source, but that is wrong.
It's not primarily about the oil; it's much more about the military-industrial complex, the label employed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower 45 years ago when he warned of the dangers of "a permanent arms industry of vast proportions."
The Cold War had provided the rational for the first peacetime creation of a militarized economy. While the former general, Eisenhower, was well aware of the military threat posed by the Soviet Union, he chose in his farewell presidential address to the nation to warn that the war profiteers had an agenda of their own, one that was inimical to the survival of American democracy:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/12/27/EDGOULJ6PK1.DTL


Don’t do it David Keene
December 23rd, 2006
SavetheGOP readers have read my criticisms in the past of certain conservative leaders continuing to embrace Tom DeLay following his fall from power in Washington. I’ve been sorely dissapointed that Redstate, one of the country’s top conservative political blogs is now allowing Tom DeLay to post on it. DeLay is a corrupt, establishment republican who doesn’t have a small government bone in his body. This is the man who announced last year that there was “no fat left to cut in the federal budget.”
Now, its getting worse. Word is that the American Conservative Union is working on a deal to hire Delay as their top Washington strategist and lobbyist:
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is about to return to the Washington political scene as a high-profile operative for the American Conservative Union (ACU) if his negotiations with ACU Chairman David Keene are successfully completed.
DeLay, who has moved his residence from Texas to Washington’s Virginia suburbs, would serve as a high-profile strategist and lobbyist for the ACU to promote conservative causes.
Although DeLay is highly regarded among conservatives in the face of his prosecution by a Democratic district attorney in Austin, such support is not universal. At least two ACU board members have threatened to resign if the deal with DeLay is consummated.

http://www.savethegop.com/archives/2006/12/23/dont-do-it-david-keene/


Last appeal in DeLay case to be heard in January
Among other things that the new year will bring is the long-awaited trial in Travis County of Tom DeLay on conspiracy and money laundering charges. Back in September, the Court of Criminal Appeals agreed to hear Travis County DA Ronnie Earle's appeal of the dismissal of one of the conspiracy charges. That hearing will take place in January, though when a ruling will come is anybody's guess. I think, based on what the Third Court of Appeals had said and the fact that the pro-prosecution CCA didn't have to take this appeal, that there's a decent chance they'll reinstate the charge, though I wouldn't necessarily bet my own money on that.
Here's a brief summary of the case. We'll see what happens.

http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/008538.html


Three U.S. Marines killed in western Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three U.S. marines died on Thursday from wounds suffered in combat in Iraq's western Anbar province, the U.S. military said on Friday.
The latest deaths take the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003 to at least 2,994.

continued …