"Cock-A-Doodle-Do"
"Okeydoke"
Friday, January 27, 2006
January 25, 2006.
Richmond, Virginia and the railway in.
Photographer states :: Just so many different locations to shoot the skyline of Richmond, Virginia. This shot was taken from Hollywood Cemetery the resting place of 3 United States Presidents, James Monroe and John Tyler, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Morning Papers - It's Origins
The Moscow Times
Storm Downs Power Lines in Georgia
TBILISI, Georgia -- Strong winds and heavy snows downed power lines in western Georgia early Thursday, cutting power to millions of Georgians already suffering a heating outage due to a natural gas shortage.
Snow was falling in the capital, Tbilisi, as residents stood in long lines to fill kerosene canisters for portable heaters. Some brought jewelry and other valuables to pawn shops to scrape together enough money to buy heaters and fuel.
Deputy Energy Minister Alexander Khetaguri said fierce weather in western Georgia ruptured power lines leading from the Inguri hydroelectric station to eastern regions, leaving about 3 million people in the dark.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/045.html
Pipeline May Trump Ecology, Experts Say
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer
State ecological experts in charge of evaluating the proposed route of the Far East pipeline warned Thursday about the dangers it posed to Lake Baikal but expressed concern that their opinion would not be heeded and could be overturned.
Some 80 percent of the 50-member commission of ecological experts created to investigate the project voted earlier this week against the Transneft-proposed route because it ran too close to the world's largest freshwater lake and hence endangered it, Gennady Chegasov, a member of the commission, said at a news conference Thursday.
Chegasov, along with environmentalists in Russia and abroad, argues that the construction of the pipeline in the highly seismic area of Baikal's basin risks an ecological disaster of unprecedented magnitude. Under the proposed route, one stretch of the pipeline would run just 800 meters away from the shoreline of Baikal, a unique reservoir containing some 20 percent of the planet's surface fresh water and accommodating some 3,000 endemic species.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/043.html
Investors Find Only Gref at Davos
By Lynn Berry
Staff Writer
DAVOS, Switzerland — Jim O'Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who created the BRIC acronym standing for Brazil, Russia, India and China, had some good news about the four countries to present to business leaders attending the World Economic Forum this week: By 2050, the four BRIC economies would be among the seven largest in the world.
He also had a confession to make: Of the four countries, Russia was the one that worried him the most, in large part because he found the government's behavior difficult to understand.
"The motives for the decisions coming out of the Kremlin are difficult for us to understand, although they are not always sinister," O'Neill, head of Goldman's global economic research, said after presenting his latest report Wednesday.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/001.html
Europe Heeds Its Gazprom 'Wake-Up Call'
By Catherine Belton
Staff Writer
World leaders increased calls for reducing Europe's dependency on gas supplies from Russia on Thursday as freezing temperatures forced cutbacks from Gazprom for the eighth day running and Russia continued to snipe at Ukraine, a vital transit country.
As political and business leaders gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forum, Poland's prime minister and U.S. billionaire George Soros said the recent disruptions in gas supply meant Europe should find alternate sources.
Soros called Russia's recent standoffs with Ukraine and Georgia over prices "a wake-up call for Europe" as Russia used its might to gain leverage over its neighbors, while Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said his country wanted to diversify supplies.
"Trust is measured on practice and the practice we have seen in January of this year was not promising," Marcinkiewicz told reporters in Davos, Reuters reported. He said his country was now considering building a liquefied natural gas, or LNG, plant.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/003.html
Telenor Ups Stakes by Going to Court
By Maria Levitov
Staff Writer
Norway's Telenor announced three lawsuits against No. 2 mobile phone operator VimpelCom on Thursday and said it might pursue litigation in the United States.
The legal action significantly raises tensions between the Norwegian telecoms giant and Alfa Group, both of which own blocking stakes in VimpelCom. The fight threatens to spook investors.
Telenor executives on Thursday accused VimpelCom of convening an illegal extraordinary shareholders meeting and providing misleading information to shareholders regarding VimpelCom's purchase of Ukrainian RadioSystems for $231.3 million in November.
"We cannot accept that VimpelCom and Alfa Group are now operating with a complete lack of respect for law, transparency, corporate governance and financial controls," Jan Edvard Thygesen, head of Telenor in Eastern and Central Europe, said at a Moscow news conference.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/002.html
Rosbank to Sell Off 15% in IPO This Year
Reuters
Rosbank, a top-10 Russian bank, said on Thursday it would issue new shares equivalent to 15 percent of its equity to sell to investors when it launches an initial public offering towards mid-year.
"The decision by the board of directors to place 100 million new shares via open subscription is linked to
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/046.html
Basement Operation
It's the only drama troupe willing to resist fear and censorship in Belarus. Now, the underground Free Theater of Minsk is emerging into the spotlight.
By Alexander Osipovich
Published: January 27, 2006
It is not easy to catch a performance by the Free Theater of Minsk. The Belarussian newspapers do not announce when or where it will put on its next show. To get into a play, prospective audience members must leave a phone message with the theater's administrator, then wait for further instructions. Those who make it through the cloak-and-dagger procedure will find themselves in a dark, crowded space -- perhaps a bar, perhaps a private apartment -- watching cutting-edge drama in the country that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has famously called "the last dictatorship in Europe."
The Free Theater is less than one year old. It has no permanent home and only three plays in its repertoire. Yet it has already won support from international figures such as British playwright Tom Stoppard and former Czech President (and absurdist playwright) Vaclav Havel. Moreover, its profile is likely to grow in 2006, as the theater plans a series of performances at drama festivals throughout Europe. The roadshow starts in Moscow on Friday and Saturday, when the theater performs for local audiences at the Meyerhold Center.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/101.html
Don't Miss a Chance to Put an End to TB
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other world leaders will call on the Group of Eight to join forces to control tuberculosis in our lifetimes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday. The forum is the venue for the launch of the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015, a blueprint developed by the Stop TB Partnership, a global network of state and nonstate organizations (including the World Health Organization) allied to fight the tuberculosis pandemic.
Why Davos? Why now?
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/006.html
A Man-Made Eden
Cursed land or untouched paradise? Two decades after the Chernobyl disaster transformed dozens of communities into ghost towns, a book by Mary Mycio assesses the damage.
By David R. Marples
Published: January 27, 2006
The appearance last fall of "Wormwood Forest," Mary Mycio's absorbing book about Chernobyl, coincided with the release of a controversial report by several agencies of the United Nations and the governments of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus on the environmental and health effects of the 1986 nuclear disaster. Together, the two studies offer an antidote to more pessimistic analyses -- an indication that the effects of the accident might be less bleak than initially predicted, and that a reassessment is warranted of the evacuated areas and of medical casualties, both now and in the future.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/105.html
The Ice Woman Cometh
By Michele A. Berdy
Лёд тронулся: the log jam has broken, literally "the ice moved"
I can't imagine why I've got ice on my mind these days. Maybe it's because the heat went out in my apartment building one night and I woke up to a winter wonderland right inside my very own home. Добро пожаловать в Ледниковый период! (Welcome to the Ice Age!)
This seems as good a time as any to hone one's ice vocabulary. Лёд (ice) is a simple enough word, but unfortunately it has one of those nasty "mobile" vowels -- vowels that just can't sit still. When declined, the "ё" zips out of sight, leaving us poor foreigners to struggle with difficult consonant clusters. Мой подоконник покрыт коркой льда. (My window sill is covered with a crust of ice.) Pronunciation also gets tricky when speaking of the ice in drinks, properly called кубики льда (ice cubes), but most commonly plain old лёд. Минеральная вода со льдом при комнатной температуре 12 градусов? Спятил, что ли? (Ice in my mineral water when the room temperature is 12 degrees? Are you nuts?)
Then there's сосулька (icicle), a thing of beauty when glimpsed from afar glistening in the sunlight, a life-threatening weapon when hanging over your doorway. Достань из кладовки, пожалуйста, стремянку и сбей сосульки с потолка. (Could you get the stepladder out of the closet and clear the icicles from the ceiling?)
Let us not forget the tiny леденец, which can either mean a hard candy or a throat lozenge. Горло болит. У нас есть леденцы в аптечке? (My throat hurts. Do we have any lozenges in the medicine cabinet?) Not to mention the enormous ледник (glacier), which gave us Ледниковый период -- literally "the period of glaciers" -- what we call the Ice Age. This may also be used in reference to Moscow in January 2006.
You might find it handy to know the verb леденеть, which means to ice up, literally or figuratively. Посмотрев на термометр, я оледенела от ужаса. (When I looked at the thermometer my blood ran cold; literally "I turned to ice from horror.")
Another nice icy expression is a bit of a false friend. In Russian разбить лёд (to break the ice) has more of the sense of overcoming enmity or hostility than the American sense of making a bit of chit-chat to smooth over moments of social awkwardness. На переговорах одна сторона смогла разбить лёд недоверия и вражды. (At the negotiations one side was able to break through the distrust and hostility.)
If you are from more southern climes, it may be hard to grasp the image in the expression лёд тронулся (literally, "the ice moved"). When a river begins to thaw, it emits eerie deep whoops and howls and then finally cracks. That seems to take forever, but as soon as one crack appears, the ice will start to break up quickly. Hence the headline "Газовая война -- лёд тронулся" means that there has been a breakthrough in the gas war and we can now expect progress in negotiations.
The most slippery ice words are the paronymous pair ледовый and ледяной. Paronymous words have the same root but slightly different meanings. Here both are adjectives for ice. Ледовый is used when something is made of ice by nature (ледовое поле; ice field); when referring to something on the ice (like ледовая дорога -- the ice road -- over Lake Ladoga during World War II); when referring to action connected with ice (ледовое плавание -- Arctic navigation); or when referring to some instrument or machine that deals with ice (ледовый топор; ice axe).
Ледяной is the word more commonly used in everyday speech. It refers to things made of ice by man, like ледяной дом (ice house), ледяное царство (ice kingdom) or even ледяной Биг-Бен (Big Ben ice sculpture). It is also used for things covered in ice (ледяная крыша; ice-covered roof) and anything that is icy cold.
Like, for example, my very own ледяные руки (ice-cold hands).
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/007.html
Global Eye
Fever Dream
By Chris Floyd
Published: January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 17, 2006 -- Heralding a "bold new era of unity and reform" in Washington, President George W. Bush quelled a series of controversies over the limits of executive power today by signing a sweeping new measure, the Extending the Boundaries of Legality Act (EBOLA), in a gala ceremony at the White House.
The measure, passed overwhelmingly by Congress last week, acknowledges "the inherent authority of the commander in chief to take all necessary measures to preserve the security of the United States without fear of penalty or undue constraint by existing statutes, judicial rulings, foreign jurisdictions or international treaties." This immunized authority is to be exercised "at the discretion of the president" and can be "devolved upon any and all designated agents, public and private, of the executive." The act also relieves the president of the "onerous and inefficient bureaucratic requirement" of informing Congress of his actions.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/120.html
The San Francisco Chronicle
Flocking into fowl territory
Avian life brings out bird watchers
Clear skies, absent winds and low tide blended in a fine formula for a bird-watching walk on a recent Sunday morning.
Fifteen people, bundled against the cold, met volunteer guides Laurie Graham and Jeff Fairclough from San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO) at a trailhead near the mouth of Colma Creek, north of San Francisco International Airport.
They trooped to a footbridge, one link in the San Francisco Bay Trail, and came to a swift halt.
An endangered clapper rail had been spied. Its striped back and russet breast were sporadically revealed as the foot-tall bird slunk about its business through the reeds.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/SPGEUGSVVU1.DTL
Former basketball star Isaiah 'J.R.' Rider accused of kidnapping
Former professional basketball star Isaiah "J.R." Rider, known as much for getting into trouble as his brilliant scoring points, was arrested by Marin County sheriff's deputies early Thursday morning for allegedly kidnapping a female aquaintance in Marin County, authorities said.
Rider, 34, of Alameda, was scheduled to be arraigned today in Marin County Superior Court on charges of kidnapping and battery. Rider, who also faces an outstanding warrant for resisting arrest in Alameda County, was being held at the Marin County Jail on $2 million bail Thursday night.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/MNGT0GUGHG9.DTL
SAN FRANCISCO
Feds visit stores again, seeking Versace fakes
Federal agents returned Wednesday to some of the same San Francisco antique and art stores they searched three weeks ago -- but this time they were looking for bogus Versace furniture and housewares.
On Jan. 5, agents raided 11 Union Square and Fisherman's Wharf stores that specialize in selling showy objets d'art to tourists. Then, officials were looking for undocumented workers, illegal importation of ivory, money laundering and mail fraud.
Investigators arrested 28 people for immigration violations, but to date have charged no one with other crimes. As agents searched the shops' records, they came across signs that some of the stores might also be selling designer knockoffs, an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said Wednesday.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/BAG0NGT6QV1.DTL
Two Tons of Pot Found in Border Tunnel
By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer
Friday, January 27, 2006
With tougher drug enforcement above ground, authorities say traffickers along the U.S.-Mexican border were forced to dig deep below ground instead.
Inside a five-foot-wide tunnel, with just enough room for an adult to stand, authorities say they discovered two tons of marijuana this week, and what they believe was a passageway for drug trade.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/26/national/a174108S16.DTL
CALIFORNIA
Secondhand smoke toxic air contaminant
State Air Resources Board vote paves way for possible new limits on tobacco use
California regulators became the first in the nation Thursday to designate secondhand tobacco smoke as a "toxic air contaminant,'' a move that could lead to new city and state laws and educational campaigns directed at smoking parents.
The state Air Resources Board voted to target environmental tobacco smoke on the basis of studies that link other people's smoke to increased cases of breast cancer, heart disease, asthma and reproductive problems among nonsmokers.
The designation, adopted 6-0, places secondhand smoke in the same category as the poisons arsenic and benzene. About 200 chemicals are on state and federal lists.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/27/SMOKE.TMP
Study Finds Rich-Poor Income Gap Growing
The disparity between rich and poor is growing in America as the federal minimum wage has remained flat for years, union membership has declined and industries have faced global competition, according to a study released Thursday.
The report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, both liberal-leaning think tanks, found the incomes of the poorest 20 percent of families nationally grew by an average of $2,660, or 19 percent, over the past 20 years. Meanwhile, the incomes of the richest fifth of families grew by $45,100, or nearly 59 percent, the study by the Washington-based groups said.
Families in the middle fifth saw their incomes rise 28 percent, or $10,218.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/26/national/a172428S12.DTL
Congressional Panel Expects $337B Deficit
The budget deficit will rise to at least $337 billion this year and may well approach or exceed $400 billion because of tax cuts and new spending for hurricane relief and the war in Iraq, congressional budget analysts said Thursday.
The latest Congressional Budget Office data also suggest President Bush is unlikely to be able to keep his promise to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his term.
Even assuming a phasing down of the war in Iraq and the costs of hurricane relief, implementing tax cuts sought by Bush and Congress would produce deficits exceeding $300 billion through the end of the decade, the nonpartisan CBO says.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/26/national/w134709S01.DTL
CALIFORNIA
Bullet train likely chugging to derailment
$9.95 billion bond could be taken off of November ballot
Sacramento -- While nations from Mexico to China are investing heavily in high-speed rail, California's dream to shoot 220 mph bullet trains from San Francisco to Los Angeles is beginning to fade.
Detractors in the Legislature and outside it say it's better for the state to attack existing congestion than gamble finite dollars on the possibility of whisking commuters from Northern to Southern California in less than three hours.
Supporters warn that without high-speed rail, California would need to build 3,000 new miles of highway lanes, 60 new airline gates and five more runways to meet the transportation needs created by the state population growing from 35 million to 48 million over the next 25 years.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/BAGHRGT0GH1.DTL
If California and Oregon get their acts toghether on this they could link it to have a west coal high speed rail service. Then with 'Acela' on the DC to Boston corridor the possibilities are intereesting. A Chicago hub would be good. But, the central switching stations are already clear for developement without disturbing land owners. It's all there. We just need for a political leader to put it all together in an incentive package that makes it work similar to the intersate highway system.
Should California give up on high-speed rail?
Yes, it's an unaffordable boondoggle
10%
No, it's fuel-efficient way around congestion
87%
Keep it barely alive, someday the money will be there
3%
SAN LEANDRO
Tensions ease over gay posters
Conflict resolved by faculty meetings, principal says
Two days after San Leandro High School teachers were ordered to hang posters in their rooms promoting tolerance toward gay students, many faculty and students said the move was long overdue.
"It shouldn't even be a debate. Kids need to feel comfortable in class, and the adults need to make sure that happens," said senior Je'Nea Woods. "The school environment's supposed to be about students. Everyone should feel safe whether they're homosexual or not."
The school board-mandated posters sparked a controversy Monday when a handful of the school's 120 teachers said the posters -- which feature pink triangles, a rainbow banner and the words "safe space" -- contradicted their religious beliefs.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/BAGHRGT0GD1.DTL
Political opposites aligned against Bush wiretaps
Larry Diamond, a Democrat and a Hoover Institution senior fellow, went to Baghdad in 2004 as a consultant for the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority, believing strongly in the Bush administration's goal of building a democracy there. While critical of many aspects of the Iraq war, he has, he says, wholeheartedly supported President Bush's aggressive approach to the war on terror.
Grover Norquist is one of the most influential conservative Republicans in Washington. His weekly "Wednesday Meeting" at his L Street office is a must for conservative strategists, and he has been called the "managing director of the hard-core right" by the liberal Nation magazine. Perhaps the country's leading anti-tax enthusiast, he is, like Diamond, a hawk in the war on terror.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/26/MNG24GTB8O1.DTL
iRepress
http://www.sfgate.com/comics/fiore/
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Kerry will try Alito filibuster
From Ed Henry / CNN
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Kerry will attempt a filibuster to block the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, CNN has learned.
Kerry, in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum, was marshaling support in phone calls during the day, he told CNN.
Kerry said he told a group of Democratic senators Wednesday, and urged that they join him. Kerry said he has the support of fellow Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Some senior Democrats told CNN they are worried that the move could backfire.
Republicans would need 60 votes to overturn a filibuster -- a procedural move that extends Senate debate indefinitely, effectively blocking a vote. Senior White House officials said the move would make the Democrats look bad, and that Republicans believe they have enough votes to overcome any filibuster attempt.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5656
Dems Threaten Filibuster, GOP Tries To Force Vote
(AP) WASHINGTON Die-hard Democratic critics of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito threatened on Thursday to block a vote on his confirmation, and Republicans countered with a move designed to force his approval by early next week.
"It is time to establish an end point" in the debate over President Bush's selection to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said he and other Democrats had refused to agree to a timetable for ending debate. "There's some division in our caucus," he conceded.
Democratic Leader Harry Reid signaled as much in remarks on the Senate floor. He offered no support for Kennedy, John Kerry and others whose filibuster represents a last stand against Alito's confirmation.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5657
Wyden to support filibuster of Alito nomination
By kgw.com, CNN and AP Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told KGW Thursday that he would support an effort by fellow Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy, both D-Mass., to filibuster the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Republicans, meanwhile, countered with a move designed to ensure Alito's approval by early next week.
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is sworn in during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill.
"Judge Alito's confirmation would be an ideological coup on the Supreme Court," Kerry said in a written statement explaining his support for a filibuster. "We can't afford to see the court's swing vote, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, replaced with a far-right ideologue like Samuel Alito."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5660
John Kerry's Statement
Yesterday, Senator Ted Kennedy and I told our colleagues that we supported a filibuster of Judge Alito’s nomination for the Supreme Court. And we weren’t alone. But the bottom line is that it takes more than two or three people to filibuster successfully. It’s not “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” If you want to stop Judge Alito from becoming Justice Alito, use your own email list and organize. We can’t just preach to our own choir. We need to prove to everyone – from our friends and neighbors to our fellow Senators – that the American people know Judge Alito will take our country in the wrong direction, and they expect something to be done about it.
http://www.johnkerry.com/
Ted Kennedy
KENNEDY SUPPORTS FILIBUSTER ON NOMINATION OF JUDGE ALITO
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Laura Capps/Melissa Wagoner (202) 224-2633
Other than voting to send our men and women to war, there is no more important vote in the Senate than our vote on a Supreme Court nominee. This is a vote of a generation and a test of conscience. Judge Alito does not share the values of equality and justice that make this country strong. He does not deserve a place on the highest court of the land.
We owe it to future generations of Americans to oppose this nomination. If Judge Alito is confirmed, he will serve on the court long after President Bush leaves office, and the progress of half a century on the basic rights of all Americans is likely to be rolled back. He's the wrong Justice for justice and the rule of law in America.
http://kennedy.senate.gov/%7Ekennedy/statements/06/01/2006126B51.html
Have your Senator join them.
The link on Mike's site has been made ineffective.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Try this one.
http://www.senate.gov/
People for the American Way
http://www.savethecourt.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=mwK0JbNTJrF&b=1387741&action=5400&template=x.ascx
Abramoff Prosecutor Among Bush Nominees
By Donna De La Cruz / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Wednesday nominated one of the Justice Department's lead prosecutors in the Jack Abramoff corruption probe to a U.S. District Court seat.
Noel Hillman, chief of the department's public integrity section, was nominated for the federal judgeship in New Jersey, where he served in the U.S. Attorney's office under Michael Chertoff, now secretary of Homeland Security.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5648
Prosecutor Will Step Down From Lobbyist Case
By Philip Shenon and Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — The investigation of Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a surprising new turn on Thursday when the Justice Department said the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush.
The prosecutor, Noel L. Hillman, is chief of the department's public integrity division, and the move ends his involvement in an inquiry that has reached into the administration as well as the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5661
China, Iran warm to Russia nuclear proposal
By Lindsay Beck and Ben Blanchard / Reuters
BEIJING - China and Iran expressed support on Thursday for a Russian proposal to resolve Tehran's nuclear standoff, and both said they opposed the threat of sanctions from the U.N. Security Council.
Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, on a one-day trip to Beijing seeking China's support, said the Russian proposal -- that uranium be enriched on Russian soil -- needed further discussion.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5650
Bush and China Endorse Russia's Nuclear Plan for Iran
By David E. Sanger and Elaine Sciolino / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — President Bush and the Chinese government both declared their full support on Thursday for a Russian proposal to allow Iran to operate civilian nuclear facilities as long as Russia and international nuclear inspectors are in full control of the fuel.
Mr. Bush's explicit public endorsement puts all of the major powers on record supporting the proposal, even as most acknowledge that it is a significant concession to Iran and runs the risk that the country will drag out the negotiations while continuing to produce nuclear material. Yet officials say they believe it is the best face-saving strategy to pursue a negotiated settlement with Iran.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5662
Political opposites aligned against Bush wiretaps
By James Sterngold / San Francisco Chronicle
Larry Diamond, a Democrat and a Hoover Institution senior fellow, went to Baghdad in 2004 as a consultant for the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority, believing strongly in the Bush administration's goal of building a democracy there. While critical of many aspects of the Iraq war, he has, he says, wholeheartedly supported President Bush's aggressive approach to the war on terror.
Grover Norquist is one of the most influential conservative Republicans in Washington. His weekly "Wednesday Meeting" at his L Street office is a must for conservative strategists, and he has been called the "managing director of the hard-core right" by the liberal Nation magazine. Perhaps the country's leading anti-tax enthusiast, he is, like Diamond, a hawk in the war on terror.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5653
Top U.S. General Says Army 'Stretched'
By Nick Wadhams / Associated Press
DIWANIYAH, Iraq - The top U.S. general in Iraq acknowledged Thursday that American forces are "stretched" but said troop withdrawals will be dictated by war strategy and not the strain faced by the soldiers.
Gen. George Casey's remarks contrasted sharply with statements made on Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who disputed findings of an unreleased study conducted for the Pentagon that said the Army is overextended because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush shrugged off the report Thursday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5655
Top U.S. General Says Army 'Stretched'
By Nick Wadhams / Associated Press
DIWANIYAH, Iraq - The top U.S. general in Iraq acknowledged Thursday that American forces are "stretched" but said troop withdrawals will be dictated by war strategy and not the strain faced by the soldiers.
Gen. George Casey's remarks contrasted sharply with statements made on Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who disputed findings of an unreleased study conducted for the Pentagon that said the Army is overextended because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush shrugged off the report Thursday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=56
Report Finds Future of Army In Danger; Rumsfeld Responds By Blaming Clinton
Yesterday, former Defense Secretary William Perry released a study that found that “the strain of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan is endangering the nation.” A copy of the report is available here. The Perry study came on the heels of an official Pentagon study that came to a similar conclusion. Even the top U.S. commander in Iraq recognizes the military is overstretched.
Everyone seems to acknowledge the problem except Donald Rumsfeld. The Secretary of Defense defiantly claimed: “The force is not broken. … I just can’t imagine someone looking at the United States armed forces today and suggesting that they’re close to breaking. That’s just not the case.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/01/26/perry-report/
Security breached at chemical weapons arsenal
Three enter restricted zone; guards inspecting vehicles leaving facility
Associated Press
WHITE HALL, Ark. - The Army stepped up security at an arsenal where chemical weapons are stored after three people entered a restricted zone, officials said Wednesday.
The security measures were taken as a precaution at the Pine Bluff Arsenal after the intrusion at a forested federal preserve 30 miles south of Little Rock. Officials didn’t know what the three people were doing there, spokeswoman Cheryl Avery said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5645
Open Letter To Chris Matthews
http://openlettertochrismatthews.blogspot.com/
The Boston Globe
Gulf reefs damaged by Rita, warm waters
By Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Writer January 27, 2006
NEW ORLEANS --Hurricane Rita's pounding waves and a hotter-than-usual Gulf of Mexico took a toll on the Gulf of Mexico's only government-protected coral reefs about 100 miles off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
Besides hardcore divers and offshore oil workers, few people see the multicolored reefs, manta rays, lobsters, sharks and fish of all stripes that dart in and out of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
But it is an important feature in the Gulf. Loggerhead sea turtles call it home, for example, and it is one of the few places in the world where hammerhead sharks school.
The reefs, which began to form up to 15,000 years ago, are the northernmost coral reefs in the United States and gained sanctuary status in 1992. Roughly 2,500 divers visit them each year.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/27/gulf_reefs_damaged_by_rita_warm_waters/
Judge rips state on care for mentally ill children
Ruling requires more home-based aid for the poor
By Scott Allen, Globe Staff January 27, 2006
Massachusetts has illegally forced thousands of mentally ill children ''to endure unnecessary confinement in residential facilities" because the state did not provide adequate care for them at home, a federal judge ruled yesterday, handing a major legal victory to advocates for low-income children who rely on the state-run Medicaid program for their healthcare.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/01/27/judge_rips_state_on_care_for_mentally_ill_children/
Youth movement
Provincetown tries to attract younger residents as its year-round population ages, declines
By Cristina Silva, Globe Staff January 27, 2006
PROVINCETOWN-- Its year-round population declining and its economy sagging like a wet beach bag, Provincetown has a new worry: It's getting old.
With its colorful art galleries and Bohemian personalities, Provincetown has long been a mecca for gay travelers. But town officials worry that its population is graying and that it needs younger visitors and their disposable incomes to pump up the local economy.
In the last year, the Provincetown tourism office has begun running flashy ads in gay and lesbian magazines that cater to readers under 40, such as Instinct, Genre, Curve, 411 Magazine, and Out Traveler. It has also advertised in more traditional gay- friendly publications such as the Boston Phoenix.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/01/27/youth_movement/
Hearing draws opposing views on wind power project
January 27, 2006
LONDONDERRY, Vt. --The debate over wind energy in Vermont was up-close and personal for many of those gathered for a public hearing on a proposed wind power project.
The Windham Regional Commission, which hosted Thursday night's session at the Flood Brook Elementary School, announced it had concluded that a proposal for 19, 420-foot wind turbines on Glebe Mountain did not comport with the town plan.
A partnership comprising Catamount Energy and Japan-based Marubeni Power International has estimated that the project, planned for a ridge line extending from Londonderry into neighboring Windham, would generate up to 47.5 megawatts of power.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2006/01/27/hearing_draws_opposing_views_on_wind_power_project/
Yankee over radiation limit
January 27, 2006
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. --A 20 percent increase in the power output of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant could result in the plant violating Vermont's standards for radiation releases by as much as 26 percent, the state Health Department has concluded.
Vermont Yankee officials dispute the state's method for measuring radiation emanating from the plant, and Vermont's health commissioner said Thursday that the state's 30-year-old limit for radiation measured at the plant's fence line may be too low.
The method for measuring existing radiation releases has been in dispute even as the plant gears up to raise its power output from a rated capacity of 540 megawatts to 650 megawatts -- a move that is expected to raise the amount of radiation emitted from the plant.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2006/01/27/state_higher_power_may_put_yankee_over_radiation_limit/
UN body backs $100 laptop for world's kids
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The United Nations has thrown its weight behind a project to place a $100, hand-cranked laptop computer in the hands of millions of schoolchildren around the globe.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will sign a partnership agreement with the head of the project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Nicholas Negroponte, in the Alpine ski resort of Davos on Saturday, officials said.
Davos is hosting the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, a gathering of top politicians, economists and business executives.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/01/26/un_body_backs_100_laptop_for_worlds_kids/
Judge denies father's records request in case of missing daughter
January 27, 2006
HAVERHILL, N.H. --A New Hampshire judge denied a Massachusetts man's request to see police files in the case of his daughter, who disappeared nearly two years ago.
Maura Murray went missing after a minor car accident in Haverhill in February 2004.
Fred Murray, of Hanson, Mass., believes his daughter was a victim of foul play and has hired private detectives to investigate the case.
Murray claims police, the attorney general and the governor violated state and federal public information laws by not releasing the investigative files. He went before a judge last week to ask for access to those files.
The state argued that a missing person investigation has the potential to become a criminal case, so details that could compromise the investigation can't be made public.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/01/27/judge_denies_fathers_records_request_in_case_of_missing_daughter/
50 flavorful, affordable wines
By Stephen Meuse, Globe Correspondent October 19, 2005
Here are all the $10-and-under wines tasted, with notes for the whites and reds that made the tasters' lists and others the group thought interesting. Countries of origin are included in parentheses, followed by the shop the wines came from (check your local store for availability).
http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2005/10/19/50_flavorful_affordable_wines/?p1=MEWell_Pos4
Varsity girls hockey a no-go
January 27, 2006
HOOKSETT, N.H. --New Hampshire high schools won't participate in girls varsity hockey next season. That's the decision from New Hampshire's Interscholastic Athletic Association, which said Thursday that not enough teams had stepped up to warrant recognizing the sport for girls.
The association needs eight teams to make the sport viable at the varsity level. But only six schools have stepped forward with teams. Those were Bishop Geurtin, in Nashua, Hanover High School, Oyster River, in Durham, Saint Thomas, in Dover, and Souhegan High School, in Amherst.
The association says considering the shortage of teams, the soonest girls varsity hockey could begin would be the 2007-2008 season.
In the meantime, girls high school hockey teams will continue to play a club schedule.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2006/01/27/varsity_girls_hockey_a_no_go/
Minor earthquake shakes central Utah
January 27, 2006
SALT LAKE CITY --A minor earthquake shook part of central Utah, officials said. There were no reports of injury or damage.
The quake, which measured magnitude 3.8, happened Thursday at 11:47 p.m. in Castle Valley, said Walter Arabasz, director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations.
A quake of magnitude 4.0 can do moderate damage.
Arabasz said the epicenter was 8 miles east-southeast of Castle Dale and 30 miles south of Price in an unpopulated area of the San Rafael Swell.
The earthquake occurred in the same area as a magnitude 5.3 earthquake in August 1988.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/27/minor_earthquake_shakes_central_utah/
Judge to rule on merit of Christ case
By Marta Falconi, Associated Press Writer January 27, 2006
VITERBO, Italy --An Italian judge heard arguments Friday on whether a small-town parish priest should stand trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed.
The priest's atheist accuser, Luigi Cascioli, says the Roman Catholic Church has been deceiving people for 2,000 years with a fable that Christ existed, and that the Rev. Enrico Righi violated two Italian laws by reasserting the claim.
Lawyers for Righi and Cascioli, old schoolmates, made their arguments in a brief, closed-door hearing before Judge Gaetano Mautone in Viterbo, north of Rome. They said they expected the judge to decide quickly.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/01/27/judge_to_rule_on_merit_of_christ_case/
Class watches '40-year-Old Virgin' movie
January 26, 2006
LEXINGTON, Ky. --Showing the R-rated movie "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" during high school Spanish class this week resulted in suspension for the teacher, who later resigned.
Fernando Del Pino was suspended with pay Tuesday for showing the movie to students at Lexington's Tates Creek High School a day earlier, said Lisa Deffendall, spokeswoman for Fayette County Public Schools. He resigned Thursday.
Del Pino, who was hired in August, said he decided to show the film after a student brought it to class and said it "was very funny," the Lexington Herald-Leader reported Friday.
The movie is about a 40-year-old single man whose friends try to help him gain experience in sex.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2006/01/26/class_watches_40_year_old_virgin_movie/
Adult diaper sales soar in China
January 24, 2006
SHANGHAI, China --Alongside food and fire crackers, Chinese are adding a new item to their lunar New Year shopping: Adult diapers. Sales have soared ahead of the holiday as travelers prepare for long trips home aboard trains so crowded that even the toilets are jammed with people, newspapers said Tuesday.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/01/24/adult_diaper_sales_soar_in_china/
Alaska revives aerial wolf control program
By Jeannette J. Lee, Associated Press Writer January 27, 2006
ANCHORAGE, Alaska --The state reinstated a population control program Thursday that allows shooting wolves from the air -- more than a week after a judge ruled it was illegal.
The program was reinstated after the Board of Game filed new regulations passed in response to Superior Court judge Sharon Gleason's concerns.
"They are effective immediately," said Annette Kreitzer, chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Loren Leman.
Gleason ruled last week that the board violated its own standards for expanding the program, in part because it did not provide justification for it or explain why alternatives such as sterilization or habitat destruction would not work.
The program, intended to boost moose and caribou populations in five areas of the state, got its start in 2003 in an area of Alaska's Interior where residents had long complained predators were killing too many moose, leaving too few for food.
In an emergency meeting Wednesday, the board scrapped its existing regulations and created new ones that list alternatives it considers unfeasible, primarily because they are expensive. The board will seek to make the new rules permanent at a regular public meeting in March.
Animal rights groups fighting to shut down the program may return to court to argue that the process of rewriting the rules was illegal.
"We do not regard it as an emergency when an agency needs to adopt regulations to fix a problem of its own making," said Jim Reeves, the lawyer representing Darien, Conn.-based Friends of Animals and seven Alaska plaintiffs.
About 400 wolves have been killed so far under the program, which permits pilot and gunner teams to shoot the wolves from the air. The state intends to kill another 400 wolves this year.
Alaska is home to the largest remaining population of gray wolves in the country. State biologists estimate about 7,000 to 11,000 wolves roam the state.
------
On the Net:
Alaska Department of Fish and Game: http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfgwolf.main
Friends of Wolves: http://www.wolfsanctum.org/current--events.html
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/01/27/alaska_revives_aerial_wolf_control_program/
This was no surprise to me. The focus of the PA has always been to 'bring Hamas on board. It succeeded. It succeeded so much that they were completely displaced and with militant leaders from Iran demanding to destroy Israel the rhetoric of Hamas only reverted to it's original tone. As a matter of fact, Hamas control has been growing in strenght over the years while Bush has been in office. This really is not a surprise so much as the world finally said, "Oops." As long as I can remember, I have been extremely cautious about welcoming democracy into the Middle East. The Middle East is not conducive to it yet. The change has to come from within and through efforts by people willing to be first peaceful. Democracy develops, it is not hatched. Progression takes a long time. Unfortunately. The Bush ultimatum of democracy or war is hideous, destabilizing and an opportunity for exactly this to happen.
Hamas victory fuels uncertainty
Militant group faces choices
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Hamas's surprising landslide victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections upended Middle East politics yesterday, making the militant group that has long sworn to destroy Israel a principal player in Palestinian governance.
The entire Palestinian Cabinet resigned even before election officials confirmed that Hamas had captured 76 of 132 seats. Fatah, the longtime ruling party founded by Yasser Arafat, won just 43 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council, with the remaining 13 going to smaller parties and independents, according to nearly complete returns.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/01/27/hamas_victory_fuels_uncertainty/
The editorials have some interesting points but is too generous in the potential of peace at any point along the way. If the violent groups of the area is because of oppression then it doesn't really matter as their force and incidiousness is so much a nemesis it blots out any reason for removing the oppression. In addition, there is an inherent error in not realizing some of the 'so called oppression' is really cultural choice and or cultural/religious demands. King Abdullah of Jordan has the right idea in identifying the 'opportunity' to be different by allowing such a broad diversity of 'interpretation' of the Islamic Laws and religious precepts. There is only one Mohammad but yet so many 'authority' voices saying so many different things. Add to that the fact the Middle East has to adapt to demands of growing populations, ridiculous demographics with small elderly populations, it's global attention for control of oil and the fact Earth is less friendly than ever anticipated; then and only then will one realize the genius in Abdullah who has harnessed the cultural turbulence and sought retribution against it seeking a far more peaceful Middle East.
The Hamas test
January 27, 2006
THE STUNNING victory of Hamas in Palestinian legislative elections may be attributed to several causes, among them the corruption of the Fatah movement, the failure of Israel to help validate the peaceful, pragmatic policies of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and the Bush administration's slowness to help Abbas prove to his people that his temperate ways could improve daily life and lead to an end of Israeli occupation.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/01/27/the_hamas_test/
continued ...
Storm Downs Power Lines in Georgia
TBILISI, Georgia -- Strong winds and heavy snows downed power lines in western Georgia early Thursday, cutting power to millions of Georgians already suffering a heating outage due to a natural gas shortage.
Snow was falling in the capital, Tbilisi, as residents stood in long lines to fill kerosene canisters for portable heaters. Some brought jewelry and other valuables to pawn shops to scrape together enough money to buy heaters and fuel.
Deputy Energy Minister Alexander Khetaguri said fierce weather in western Georgia ruptured power lines leading from the Inguri hydroelectric station to eastern regions, leaving about 3 million people in the dark.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/045.html
Pipeline May Trump Ecology, Experts Say
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer
State ecological experts in charge of evaluating the proposed route of the Far East pipeline warned Thursday about the dangers it posed to Lake Baikal but expressed concern that their opinion would not be heeded and could be overturned.
Some 80 percent of the 50-member commission of ecological experts created to investigate the project voted earlier this week against the Transneft-proposed route because it ran too close to the world's largest freshwater lake and hence endangered it, Gennady Chegasov, a member of the commission, said at a news conference Thursday.
Chegasov, along with environmentalists in Russia and abroad, argues that the construction of the pipeline in the highly seismic area of Baikal's basin risks an ecological disaster of unprecedented magnitude. Under the proposed route, one stretch of the pipeline would run just 800 meters away from the shoreline of Baikal, a unique reservoir containing some 20 percent of the planet's surface fresh water and accommodating some 3,000 endemic species.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/043.html
Investors Find Only Gref at Davos
By Lynn Berry
Staff Writer
DAVOS, Switzerland — Jim O'Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who created the BRIC acronym standing for Brazil, Russia, India and China, had some good news about the four countries to present to business leaders attending the World Economic Forum this week: By 2050, the four BRIC economies would be among the seven largest in the world.
He also had a confession to make: Of the four countries, Russia was the one that worried him the most, in large part because he found the government's behavior difficult to understand.
"The motives for the decisions coming out of the Kremlin are difficult for us to understand, although they are not always sinister," O'Neill, head of Goldman's global economic research, said after presenting his latest report Wednesday.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/001.html
Europe Heeds Its Gazprom 'Wake-Up Call'
By Catherine Belton
Staff Writer
World leaders increased calls for reducing Europe's dependency on gas supplies from Russia on Thursday as freezing temperatures forced cutbacks from Gazprom for the eighth day running and Russia continued to snipe at Ukraine, a vital transit country.
As political and business leaders gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forum, Poland's prime minister and U.S. billionaire George Soros said the recent disruptions in gas supply meant Europe should find alternate sources.
Soros called Russia's recent standoffs with Ukraine and Georgia over prices "a wake-up call for Europe" as Russia used its might to gain leverage over its neighbors, while Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz said his country wanted to diversify supplies.
"Trust is measured on practice and the practice we have seen in January of this year was not promising," Marcinkiewicz told reporters in Davos, Reuters reported. He said his country was now considering building a liquefied natural gas, or LNG, plant.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/003.html
Telenor Ups Stakes by Going to Court
By Maria Levitov
Staff Writer
Norway's Telenor announced three lawsuits against No. 2 mobile phone operator VimpelCom on Thursday and said it might pursue litigation in the United States.
The legal action significantly raises tensions between the Norwegian telecoms giant and Alfa Group, both of which own blocking stakes in VimpelCom. The fight threatens to spook investors.
Telenor executives on Thursday accused VimpelCom of convening an illegal extraordinary shareholders meeting and providing misleading information to shareholders regarding VimpelCom's purchase of Ukrainian RadioSystems for $231.3 million in November.
"We cannot accept that VimpelCom and Alfa Group are now operating with a complete lack of respect for law, transparency, corporate governance and financial controls," Jan Edvard Thygesen, head of Telenor in Eastern and Central Europe, said at a Moscow news conference.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/002.html
Rosbank to Sell Off 15% in IPO This Year
Reuters
Rosbank, a top-10 Russian bank, said on Thursday it would issue new shares equivalent to 15 percent of its equity to sell to investors when it launches an initial public offering towards mid-year.
"The decision by the board of directors to place 100 million new shares via open subscription is linked to
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/046.html
Basement Operation
It's the only drama troupe willing to resist fear and censorship in Belarus. Now, the underground Free Theater of Minsk is emerging into the spotlight.
By Alexander Osipovich
Published: January 27, 2006
It is not easy to catch a performance by the Free Theater of Minsk. The Belarussian newspapers do not announce when or where it will put on its next show. To get into a play, prospective audience members must leave a phone message with the theater's administrator, then wait for further instructions. Those who make it through the cloak-and-dagger procedure will find themselves in a dark, crowded space -- perhaps a bar, perhaps a private apartment -- watching cutting-edge drama in the country that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has famously called "the last dictatorship in Europe."
The Free Theater is less than one year old. It has no permanent home and only three plays in its repertoire. Yet it has already won support from international figures such as British playwright Tom Stoppard and former Czech President (and absurdist playwright) Vaclav Havel. Moreover, its profile is likely to grow in 2006, as the theater plans a series of performances at drama festivals throughout Europe. The roadshow starts in Moscow on Friday and Saturday, when the theater performs for local audiences at the Meyerhold Center.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/101.html
Don't Miss a Chance to Put an End to TB
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other world leaders will call on the Group of Eight to join forces to control tuberculosis in our lifetimes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday. The forum is the venue for the launch of the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015, a blueprint developed by the Stop TB Partnership, a global network of state and nonstate organizations (including the World Health Organization) allied to fight the tuberculosis pandemic.
Why Davos? Why now?
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/006.html
A Man-Made Eden
Cursed land or untouched paradise? Two decades after the Chernobyl disaster transformed dozens of communities into ghost towns, a book by Mary Mycio assesses the damage.
By David R. Marples
Published: January 27, 2006
The appearance last fall of "Wormwood Forest," Mary Mycio's absorbing book about Chernobyl, coincided with the release of a controversial report by several agencies of the United Nations and the governments of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus on the environmental and health effects of the 1986 nuclear disaster. Together, the two studies offer an antidote to more pessimistic analyses -- an indication that the effects of the accident might be less bleak than initially predicted, and that a reassessment is warranted of the evacuated areas and of medical casualties, both now and in the future.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/105.html
The Ice Woman Cometh
By Michele A. Berdy
Лёд тронулся: the log jam has broken, literally "the ice moved"
I can't imagine why I've got ice on my mind these days. Maybe it's because the heat went out in my apartment building one night and I woke up to a winter wonderland right inside my very own home. Добро пожаловать в Ледниковый период! (Welcome to the Ice Age!)
This seems as good a time as any to hone one's ice vocabulary. Лёд (ice) is a simple enough word, but unfortunately it has one of those nasty "mobile" vowels -- vowels that just can't sit still. When declined, the "ё" zips out of sight, leaving us poor foreigners to struggle with difficult consonant clusters. Мой подоконник покрыт коркой льда. (My window sill is covered with a crust of ice.) Pronunciation also gets tricky when speaking of the ice in drinks, properly called кубики льда (ice cubes), but most commonly plain old лёд. Минеральная вода со льдом при комнатной температуре 12 градусов? Спятил, что ли? (Ice in my mineral water when the room temperature is 12 degrees? Are you nuts?)
Then there's сосулька (icicle), a thing of beauty when glimpsed from afar glistening in the sunlight, a life-threatening weapon when hanging over your doorway. Достань из кладовки, пожалуйста, стремянку и сбей сосульки с потолка. (Could you get the stepladder out of the closet and clear the icicles from the ceiling?)
Let us not forget the tiny леденец, which can either mean a hard candy or a throat lozenge. Горло болит. У нас есть леденцы в аптечке? (My throat hurts. Do we have any lozenges in the medicine cabinet?) Not to mention the enormous ледник (glacier), which gave us Ледниковый период -- literally "the period of glaciers" -- what we call the Ice Age. This may also be used in reference to Moscow in January 2006.
You might find it handy to know the verb леденеть, which means to ice up, literally or figuratively. Посмотрев на термометр, я оледенела от ужаса. (When I looked at the thermometer my blood ran cold; literally "I turned to ice from horror.")
Another nice icy expression is a bit of a false friend. In Russian разбить лёд (to break the ice) has more of the sense of overcoming enmity or hostility than the American sense of making a bit of chit-chat to smooth over moments of social awkwardness. На переговорах одна сторона смогла разбить лёд недоверия и вражды. (At the negotiations one side was able to break through the distrust and hostility.)
If you are from more southern climes, it may be hard to grasp the image in the expression лёд тронулся (literally, "the ice moved"). When a river begins to thaw, it emits eerie deep whoops and howls and then finally cracks. That seems to take forever, but as soon as one crack appears, the ice will start to break up quickly. Hence the headline "Газовая война -- лёд тронулся" means that there has been a breakthrough in the gas war and we can now expect progress in negotiations.
The most slippery ice words are the paronymous pair ледовый and ледяной. Paronymous words have the same root but slightly different meanings. Here both are adjectives for ice. Ледовый is used when something is made of ice by nature (ледовое поле; ice field); when referring to something on the ice (like ледовая дорога -- the ice road -- over Lake Ladoga during World War II); when referring to action connected with ice (ледовое плавание -- Arctic navigation); or when referring to some instrument or machine that deals with ice (ледовый топор; ice axe).
Ледяной is the word more commonly used in everyday speech. It refers to things made of ice by man, like ледяной дом (ice house), ледяное царство (ice kingdom) or even ледяной Биг-Бен (Big Ben ice sculpture). It is also used for things covered in ice (ледяная крыша; ice-covered roof) and anything that is icy cold.
Like, for example, my very own ледяные руки (ice-cold hands).
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/007.html
Global Eye
Fever Dream
By Chris Floyd
Published: January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 17, 2006 -- Heralding a "bold new era of unity and reform" in Washington, President George W. Bush quelled a series of controversies over the limits of executive power today by signing a sweeping new measure, the Extending the Boundaries of Legality Act (EBOLA), in a gala ceremony at the White House.
The measure, passed overwhelmingly by Congress last week, acknowledges "the inherent authority of the commander in chief to take all necessary measures to preserve the security of the United States without fear of penalty or undue constraint by existing statutes, judicial rulings, foreign jurisdictions or international treaties." This immunized authority is to be exercised "at the discretion of the president" and can be "devolved upon any and all designated agents, public and private, of the executive." The act also relieves the president of the "onerous and inefficient bureaucratic requirement" of informing Congress of his actions.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/01/27/120.html
The San Francisco Chronicle
Flocking into fowl territory
Avian life brings out bird watchers
Clear skies, absent winds and low tide blended in a fine formula for a bird-watching walk on a recent Sunday morning.
Fifteen people, bundled against the cold, met volunteer guides Laurie Graham and Jeff Fairclough from San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO) at a trailhead near the mouth of Colma Creek, north of San Francisco International Airport.
They trooped to a footbridge, one link in the San Francisco Bay Trail, and came to a swift halt.
An endangered clapper rail had been spied. Its striped back and russet breast were sporadically revealed as the foot-tall bird slunk about its business through the reeds.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/SPGEUGSVVU1.DTL
Former basketball star Isaiah 'J.R.' Rider accused of kidnapping
Former professional basketball star Isaiah "J.R." Rider, known as much for getting into trouble as his brilliant scoring points, was arrested by Marin County sheriff's deputies early Thursday morning for allegedly kidnapping a female aquaintance in Marin County, authorities said.
Rider, 34, of Alameda, was scheduled to be arraigned today in Marin County Superior Court on charges of kidnapping and battery. Rider, who also faces an outstanding warrant for resisting arrest in Alameda County, was being held at the Marin County Jail on $2 million bail Thursday night.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/MNGT0GUGHG9.DTL
SAN FRANCISCO
Feds visit stores again, seeking Versace fakes
Federal agents returned Wednesday to some of the same San Francisco antique and art stores they searched three weeks ago -- but this time they were looking for bogus Versace furniture and housewares.
On Jan. 5, agents raided 11 Union Square and Fisherman's Wharf stores that specialize in selling showy objets d'art to tourists. Then, officials were looking for undocumented workers, illegal importation of ivory, money laundering and mail fraud.
Investigators arrested 28 people for immigration violations, but to date have charged no one with other crimes. As agents searched the shops' records, they came across signs that some of the stores might also be selling designer knockoffs, an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said Wednesday.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/BAG0NGT6QV1.DTL
Two Tons of Pot Found in Border Tunnel
By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer
Friday, January 27, 2006
With tougher drug enforcement above ground, authorities say traffickers along the U.S.-Mexican border were forced to dig deep below ground instead.
Inside a five-foot-wide tunnel, with just enough room for an adult to stand, authorities say they discovered two tons of marijuana this week, and what they believe was a passageway for drug trade.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/26/national/a174108S16.DTL
CALIFORNIA
Secondhand smoke toxic air contaminant
State Air Resources Board vote paves way for possible new limits on tobacco use
California regulators became the first in the nation Thursday to designate secondhand tobacco smoke as a "toxic air contaminant,'' a move that could lead to new city and state laws and educational campaigns directed at smoking parents.
The state Air Resources Board voted to target environmental tobacco smoke on the basis of studies that link other people's smoke to increased cases of breast cancer, heart disease, asthma and reproductive problems among nonsmokers.
The designation, adopted 6-0, places secondhand smoke in the same category as the poisons arsenic and benzene. About 200 chemicals are on state and federal lists.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/27/SMOKE.TMP
Study Finds Rich-Poor Income Gap Growing
The disparity between rich and poor is growing in America as the federal minimum wage has remained flat for years, union membership has declined and industries have faced global competition, according to a study released Thursday.
The report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, both liberal-leaning think tanks, found the incomes of the poorest 20 percent of families nationally grew by an average of $2,660, or 19 percent, over the past 20 years. Meanwhile, the incomes of the richest fifth of families grew by $45,100, or nearly 59 percent, the study by the Washington-based groups said.
Families in the middle fifth saw their incomes rise 28 percent, or $10,218.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/26/national/a172428S12.DTL
Congressional Panel Expects $337B Deficit
The budget deficit will rise to at least $337 billion this year and may well approach or exceed $400 billion because of tax cuts and new spending for hurricane relief and the war in Iraq, congressional budget analysts said Thursday.
The latest Congressional Budget Office data also suggest President Bush is unlikely to be able to keep his promise to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his term.
Even assuming a phasing down of the war in Iraq and the costs of hurricane relief, implementing tax cuts sought by Bush and Congress would produce deficits exceeding $300 billion through the end of the decade, the nonpartisan CBO says.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/26/national/w134709S01.DTL
CALIFORNIA
Bullet train likely chugging to derailment
$9.95 billion bond could be taken off of November ballot
Sacramento -- While nations from Mexico to China are investing heavily in high-speed rail, California's dream to shoot 220 mph bullet trains from San Francisco to Los Angeles is beginning to fade.
Detractors in the Legislature and outside it say it's better for the state to attack existing congestion than gamble finite dollars on the possibility of whisking commuters from Northern to Southern California in less than three hours.
Supporters warn that without high-speed rail, California would need to build 3,000 new miles of highway lanes, 60 new airline gates and five more runways to meet the transportation needs created by the state population growing from 35 million to 48 million over the next 25 years.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/BAGHRGT0GH1.DTL
If California and Oregon get their acts toghether on this they could link it to have a west coal high speed rail service. Then with 'Acela' on the DC to Boston corridor the possibilities are intereesting. A Chicago hub would be good. But, the central switching stations are already clear for developement without disturbing land owners. It's all there. We just need for a political leader to put it all together in an incentive package that makes it work similar to the intersate highway system.
Should California give up on high-speed rail?
Yes, it's an unaffordable boondoggle
10%
No, it's fuel-efficient way around congestion
87%
Keep it barely alive, someday the money will be there
3%
SAN LEANDRO
Tensions ease over gay posters
Conflict resolved by faculty meetings, principal says
Two days after San Leandro High School teachers were ordered to hang posters in their rooms promoting tolerance toward gay students, many faculty and students said the move was long overdue.
"It shouldn't even be a debate. Kids need to feel comfortable in class, and the adults need to make sure that happens," said senior Je'Nea Woods. "The school environment's supposed to be about students. Everyone should feel safe whether they're homosexual or not."
The school board-mandated posters sparked a controversy Monday when a handful of the school's 120 teachers said the posters -- which feature pink triangles, a rainbow banner and the words "safe space" -- contradicted their religious beliefs.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/26/BAGHRGT0GD1.DTL
Political opposites aligned against Bush wiretaps
Larry Diamond, a Democrat and a Hoover Institution senior fellow, went to Baghdad in 2004 as a consultant for the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority, believing strongly in the Bush administration's goal of building a democracy there. While critical of many aspects of the Iraq war, he has, he says, wholeheartedly supported President Bush's aggressive approach to the war on terror.
Grover Norquist is one of the most influential conservative Republicans in Washington. His weekly "Wednesday Meeting" at his L Street office is a must for conservative strategists, and he has been called the "managing director of the hard-core right" by the liberal Nation magazine. Perhaps the country's leading anti-tax enthusiast, he is, like Diamond, a hawk in the war on terror.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/26/MNG24GTB8O1.DTL
iRepress
http://www.sfgate.com/comics/fiore/
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Kerry will try Alito filibuster
From Ed Henry / CNN
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Kerry will attempt a filibuster to block the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, CNN has learned.
Kerry, in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum, was marshaling support in phone calls during the day, he told CNN.
Kerry said he told a group of Democratic senators Wednesday, and urged that they join him. Kerry said he has the support of fellow Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Some senior Democrats told CNN they are worried that the move could backfire.
Republicans would need 60 votes to overturn a filibuster -- a procedural move that extends Senate debate indefinitely, effectively blocking a vote. Senior White House officials said the move would make the Democrats look bad, and that Republicans believe they have enough votes to overcome any filibuster attempt.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5656
Dems Threaten Filibuster, GOP Tries To Force Vote
(AP) WASHINGTON Die-hard Democratic critics of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito threatened on Thursday to block a vote on his confirmation, and Republicans countered with a move designed to force his approval by early next week.
"It is time to establish an end point" in the debate over President Bush's selection to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said he and other Democrats had refused to agree to a timetable for ending debate. "There's some division in our caucus," he conceded.
Democratic Leader Harry Reid signaled as much in remarks on the Senate floor. He offered no support for Kennedy, John Kerry and others whose filibuster represents a last stand against Alito's confirmation.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5657
Wyden to support filibuster of Alito nomination
By kgw.com, CNN and AP Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told KGW Thursday that he would support an effort by fellow Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy, both D-Mass., to filibuster the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Republicans, meanwhile, countered with a move designed to ensure Alito's approval by early next week.
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is sworn in during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill.
"Judge Alito's confirmation would be an ideological coup on the Supreme Court," Kerry said in a written statement explaining his support for a filibuster. "We can't afford to see the court's swing vote, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, replaced with a far-right ideologue like Samuel Alito."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5660
John Kerry's Statement
Yesterday, Senator Ted Kennedy and I told our colleagues that we supported a filibuster of Judge Alito’s nomination for the Supreme Court. And we weren’t alone. But the bottom line is that it takes more than two or three people to filibuster successfully. It’s not “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” If you want to stop Judge Alito from becoming Justice Alito, use your own email list and organize. We can’t just preach to our own choir. We need to prove to everyone – from our friends and neighbors to our fellow Senators – that the American people know Judge Alito will take our country in the wrong direction, and they expect something to be done about it.
http://www.johnkerry.com/
Ted Kennedy
KENNEDY SUPPORTS FILIBUSTER ON NOMINATION OF JUDGE ALITO
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Laura Capps/Melissa Wagoner (202) 224-2633
Other than voting to send our men and women to war, there is no more important vote in the Senate than our vote on a Supreme Court nominee. This is a vote of a generation and a test of conscience. Judge Alito does not share the values of equality and justice that make this country strong. He does not deserve a place on the highest court of the land.
We owe it to future generations of Americans to oppose this nomination. If Judge Alito is confirmed, he will serve on the court long after President Bush leaves office, and the progress of half a century on the basic rights of all Americans is likely to be rolled back. He's the wrong Justice for justice and the rule of law in America.
http://kennedy.senate.gov/%7Ekennedy/statements/06/01/2006126B51.html
Have your Senator join them.
The link on Mike's site has been made ineffective.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Try this one.
http://www.senate.gov/
People for the American Way
http://www.savethecourt.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=mwK0JbNTJrF&b=1387741&action=5400&template=x.ascx
Abramoff Prosecutor Among Bush Nominees
By Donna De La Cruz / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Wednesday nominated one of the Justice Department's lead prosecutors in the Jack Abramoff corruption probe to a U.S. District Court seat.
Noel Hillman, chief of the department's public integrity section, was nominated for the federal judgeship in New Jersey, where he served in the U.S. Attorney's office under Michael Chertoff, now secretary of Homeland Security.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5648
Prosecutor Will Step Down From Lobbyist Case
By Philip Shenon and Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — The investigation of Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a surprising new turn on Thursday when the Justice Department said the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush.
The prosecutor, Noel L. Hillman, is chief of the department's public integrity division, and the move ends his involvement in an inquiry that has reached into the administration as well as the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5661
China, Iran warm to Russia nuclear proposal
By Lindsay Beck and Ben Blanchard / Reuters
BEIJING - China and Iran expressed support on Thursday for a Russian proposal to resolve Tehran's nuclear standoff, and both said they opposed the threat of sanctions from the U.N. Security Council.
Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, on a one-day trip to Beijing seeking China's support, said the Russian proposal -- that uranium be enriched on Russian soil -- needed further discussion.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5650
Bush and China Endorse Russia's Nuclear Plan for Iran
By David E. Sanger and Elaine Sciolino / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — President Bush and the Chinese government both declared their full support on Thursday for a Russian proposal to allow Iran to operate civilian nuclear facilities as long as Russia and international nuclear inspectors are in full control of the fuel.
Mr. Bush's explicit public endorsement puts all of the major powers on record supporting the proposal, even as most acknowledge that it is a significant concession to Iran and runs the risk that the country will drag out the negotiations while continuing to produce nuclear material. Yet officials say they believe it is the best face-saving strategy to pursue a negotiated settlement with Iran.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5662
Political opposites aligned against Bush wiretaps
By James Sterngold / San Francisco Chronicle
Larry Diamond, a Democrat and a Hoover Institution senior fellow, went to Baghdad in 2004 as a consultant for the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority, believing strongly in the Bush administration's goal of building a democracy there. While critical of many aspects of the Iraq war, he has, he says, wholeheartedly supported President Bush's aggressive approach to the war on terror.
Grover Norquist is one of the most influential conservative Republicans in Washington. His weekly "Wednesday Meeting" at his L Street office is a must for conservative strategists, and he has been called the "managing director of the hard-core right" by the liberal Nation magazine. Perhaps the country's leading anti-tax enthusiast, he is, like Diamond, a hawk in the war on terror.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5653
Top U.S. General Says Army 'Stretched'
By Nick Wadhams / Associated Press
DIWANIYAH, Iraq - The top U.S. general in Iraq acknowledged Thursday that American forces are "stretched" but said troop withdrawals will be dictated by war strategy and not the strain faced by the soldiers.
Gen. George Casey's remarks contrasted sharply with statements made on Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who disputed findings of an unreleased study conducted for the Pentagon that said the Army is overextended because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush shrugged off the report Thursday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5655
Top U.S. General Says Army 'Stretched'
By Nick Wadhams / Associated Press
DIWANIYAH, Iraq - The top U.S. general in Iraq acknowledged Thursday that American forces are "stretched" but said troop withdrawals will be dictated by war strategy and not the strain faced by the soldiers.
Gen. George Casey's remarks contrasted sharply with statements made on Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who disputed findings of an unreleased study conducted for the Pentagon that said the Army is overextended because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush shrugged off the report Thursday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=56
Report Finds Future of Army In Danger; Rumsfeld Responds By Blaming Clinton
Yesterday, former Defense Secretary William Perry released a study that found that “the strain of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan is endangering the nation.” A copy of the report is available here. The Perry study came on the heels of an official Pentagon study that came to a similar conclusion. Even the top U.S. commander in Iraq recognizes the military is overstretched.
Everyone seems to acknowledge the problem except Donald Rumsfeld. The Secretary of Defense defiantly claimed: “The force is not broken. … I just can’t imagine someone looking at the United States armed forces today and suggesting that they’re close to breaking. That’s just not the case.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/01/26/perry-report/
Security breached at chemical weapons arsenal
Three enter restricted zone; guards inspecting vehicles leaving facility
Associated Press
WHITE HALL, Ark. - The Army stepped up security at an arsenal where chemical weapons are stored after three people entered a restricted zone, officials said Wednesday.
The security measures were taken as a precaution at the Pine Bluff Arsenal after the intrusion at a forested federal preserve 30 miles south of Little Rock. Officials didn’t know what the three people were doing there, spokeswoman Cheryl Avery said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5645
Open Letter To Chris Matthews
http://openlettertochrismatthews.blogspot.com/
The Boston Globe
Gulf reefs damaged by Rita, warm waters
By Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Writer January 27, 2006
NEW ORLEANS --Hurricane Rita's pounding waves and a hotter-than-usual Gulf of Mexico took a toll on the Gulf of Mexico's only government-protected coral reefs about 100 miles off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
Besides hardcore divers and offshore oil workers, few people see the multicolored reefs, manta rays, lobsters, sharks and fish of all stripes that dart in and out of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
But it is an important feature in the Gulf. Loggerhead sea turtles call it home, for example, and it is one of the few places in the world where hammerhead sharks school.
The reefs, which began to form up to 15,000 years ago, are the northernmost coral reefs in the United States and gained sanctuary status in 1992. Roughly 2,500 divers visit them each year.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/27/gulf_reefs_damaged_by_rita_warm_waters/
Judge rips state on care for mentally ill children
Ruling requires more home-based aid for the poor
By Scott Allen, Globe Staff January 27, 2006
Massachusetts has illegally forced thousands of mentally ill children ''to endure unnecessary confinement in residential facilities" because the state did not provide adequate care for them at home, a federal judge ruled yesterday, handing a major legal victory to advocates for low-income children who rely on the state-run Medicaid program for their healthcare.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/01/27/judge_rips_state_on_care_for_mentally_ill_children/
Youth movement
Provincetown tries to attract younger residents as its year-round population ages, declines
By Cristina Silva, Globe Staff January 27, 2006
PROVINCETOWN-- Its year-round population declining and its economy sagging like a wet beach bag, Provincetown has a new worry: It's getting old.
With its colorful art galleries and Bohemian personalities, Provincetown has long been a mecca for gay travelers. But town officials worry that its population is graying and that it needs younger visitors and their disposable incomes to pump up the local economy.
In the last year, the Provincetown tourism office has begun running flashy ads in gay and lesbian magazines that cater to readers under 40, such as Instinct, Genre, Curve, 411 Magazine, and Out Traveler. It has also advertised in more traditional gay- friendly publications such as the Boston Phoenix.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/01/27/youth_movement/
Hearing draws opposing views on wind power project
January 27, 2006
LONDONDERRY, Vt. --The debate over wind energy in Vermont was up-close and personal for many of those gathered for a public hearing on a proposed wind power project.
The Windham Regional Commission, which hosted Thursday night's session at the Flood Brook Elementary School, announced it had concluded that a proposal for 19, 420-foot wind turbines on Glebe Mountain did not comport with the town plan.
A partnership comprising Catamount Energy and Japan-based Marubeni Power International has estimated that the project, planned for a ridge line extending from Londonderry into neighboring Windham, would generate up to 47.5 megawatts of power.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2006/01/27/hearing_draws_opposing_views_on_wind_power_project/
Yankee over radiation limit
January 27, 2006
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. --A 20 percent increase in the power output of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant could result in the plant violating Vermont's standards for radiation releases by as much as 26 percent, the state Health Department has concluded.
Vermont Yankee officials dispute the state's method for measuring radiation emanating from the plant, and Vermont's health commissioner said Thursday that the state's 30-year-old limit for radiation measured at the plant's fence line may be too low.
The method for measuring existing radiation releases has been in dispute even as the plant gears up to raise its power output from a rated capacity of 540 megawatts to 650 megawatts -- a move that is expected to raise the amount of radiation emitted from the plant.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2006/01/27/state_higher_power_may_put_yankee_over_radiation_limit/
UN body backs $100 laptop for world's kids
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The United Nations has thrown its weight behind a project to place a $100, hand-cranked laptop computer in the hands of millions of schoolchildren around the globe.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will sign a partnership agreement with the head of the project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Nicholas Negroponte, in the Alpine ski resort of Davos on Saturday, officials said.
Davos is hosting the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, a gathering of top politicians, economists and business executives.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/01/26/un_body_backs_100_laptop_for_worlds_kids/
Judge denies father's records request in case of missing daughter
January 27, 2006
HAVERHILL, N.H. --A New Hampshire judge denied a Massachusetts man's request to see police files in the case of his daughter, who disappeared nearly two years ago.
Maura Murray went missing after a minor car accident in Haverhill in February 2004.
Fred Murray, of Hanson, Mass., believes his daughter was a victim of foul play and has hired private detectives to investigate the case.
Murray claims police, the attorney general and the governor violated state and federal public information laws by not releasing the investigative files. He went before a judge last week to ask for access to those files.
The state argued that a missing person investigation has the potential to become a criminal case, so details that could compromise the investigation can't be made public.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/01/27/judge_denies_fathers_records_request_in_case_of_missing_daughter/
50 flavorful, affordable wines
By Stephen Meuse, Globe Correspondent October 19, 2005
Here are all the $10-and-under wines tasted, with notes for the whites and reds that made the tasters' lists and others the group thought interesting. Countries of origin are included in parentheses, followed by the shop the wines came from (check your local store for availability).
http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2005/10/19/50_flavorful_affordable_wines/?p1=MEWell_Pos4
Varsity girls hockey a no-go
January 27, 2006
HOOKSETT, N.H. --New Hampshire high schools won't participate in girls varsity hockey next season. That's the decision from New Hampshire's Interscholastic Athletic Association, which said Thursday that not enough teams had stepped up to warrant recognizing the sport for girls.
The association needs eight teams to make the sport viable at the varsity level. But only six schools have stepped forward with teams. Those were Bishop Geurtin, in Nashua, Hanover High School, Oyster River, in Durham, Saint Thomas, in Dover, and Souhegan High School, in Amherst.
The association says considering the shortage of teams, the soonest girls varsity hockey could begin would be the 2007-2008 season.
In the meantime, girls high school hockey teams will continue to play a club schedule.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2006/01/27/varsity_girls_hockey_a_no_go/
Minor earthquake shakes central Utah
January 27, 2006
SALT LAKE CITY --A minor earthquake shook part of central Utah, officials said. There were no reports of injury or damage.
The quake, which measured magnitude 3.8, happened Thursday at 11:47 p.m. in Castle Valley, said Walter Arabasz, director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations.
A quake of magnitude 4.0 can do moderate damage.
Arabasz said the epicenter was 8 miles east-southeast of Castle Dale and 30 miles south of Price in an unpopulated area of the San Rafael Swell.
The earthquake occurred in the same area as a magnitude 5.3 earthquake in August 1988.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/27/minor_earthquake_shakes_central_utah/
Judge to rule on merit of Christ case
By Marta Falconi, Associated Press Writer January 27, 2006
VITERBO, Italy --An Italian judge heard arguments Friday on whether a small-town parish priest should stand trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed.
The priest's atheist accuser, Luigi Cascioli, says the Roman Catholic Church has been deceiving people for 2,000 years with a fable that Christ existed, and that the Rev. Enrico Righi violated two Italian laws by reasserting the claim.
Lawyers for Righi and Cascioli, old schoolmates, made their arguments in a brief, closed-door hearing before Judge Gaetano Mautone in Viterbo, north of Rome. They said they expected the judge to decide quickly.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/01/27/judge_to_rule_on_merit_of_christ_case/
Class watches '40-year-Old Virgin' movie
January 26, 2006
LEXINGTON, Ky. --Showing the R-rated movie "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" during high school Spanish class this week resulted in suspension for the teacher, who later resigned.
Fernando Del Pino was suspended with pay Tuesday for showing the movie to students at Lexington's Tates Creek High School a day earlier, said Lisa Deffendall, spokeswoman for Fayette County Public Schools. He resigned Thursday.
Del Pino, who was hired in August, said he decided to show the film after a student brought it to class and said it "was very funny," the Lexington Herald-Leader reported Friday.
The movie is about a 40-year-old single man whose friends try to help him gain experience in sex.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2006/01/26/class_watches_40_year_old_virgin_movie/
Adult diaper sales soar in China
January 24, 2006
SHANGHAI, China --Alongside food and fire crackers, Chinese are adding a new item to their lunar New Year shopping: Adult diapers. Sales have soared ahead of the holiday as travelers prepare for long trips home aboard trains so crowded that even the toilets are jammed with people, newspapers said Tuesday.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/01/24/adult_diaper_sales_soar_in_china/
Alaska revives aerial wolf control program
By Jeannette J. Lee, Associated Press Writer January 27, 2006
ANCHORAGE, Alaska --The state reinstated a population control program Thursday that allows shooting wolves from the air -- more than a week after a judge ruled it was illegal.
The program was reinstated after the Board of Game filed new regulations passed in response to Superior Court judge Sharon Gleason's concerns.
"They are effective immediately," said Annette Kreitzer, chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Loren Leman.
Gleason ruled last week that the board violated its own standards for expanding the program, in part because it did not provide justification for it or explain why alternatives such as sterilization or habitat destruction would not work.
The program, intended to boost moose and caribou populations in five areas of the state, got its start in 2003 in an area of Alaska's Interior where residents had long complained predators were killing too many moose, leaving too few for food.
In an emergency meeting Wednesday, the board scrapped its existing regulations and created new ones that list alternatives it considers unfeasible, primarily because they are expensive. The board will seek to make the new rules permanent at a regular public meeting in March.
Animal rights groups fighting to shut down the program may return to court to argue that the process of rewriting the rules was illegal.
"We do not regard it as an emergency when an agency needs to adopt regulations to fix a problem of its own making," said Jim Reeves, the lawyer representing Darien, Conn.-based Friends of Animals and seven Alaska plaintiffs.
About 400 wolves have been killed so far under the program, which permits pilot and gunner teams to shoot the wolves from the air. The state intends to kill another 400 wolves this year.
Alaska is home to the largest remaining population of gray wolves in the country. State biologists estimate about 7,000 to 11,000 wolves roam the state.
------
On the Net:
Alaska Department of Fish and Game: http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfgwolf.main
Friends of Wolves: http://www.wolfsanctum.org/current--events.html
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/01/27/alaska_revives_aerial_wolf_control_program/
This was no surprise to me. The focus of the PA has always been to 'bring Hamas on board. It succeeded. It succeeded so much that they were completely displaced and with militant leaders from Iran demanding to destroy Israel the rhetoric of Hamas only reverted to it's original tone. As a matter of fact, Hamas control has been growing in strenght over the years while Bush has been in office. This really is not a surprise so much as the world finally said, "Oops." As long as I can remember, I have been extremely cautious about welcoming democracy into the Middle East. The Middle East is not conducive to it yet. The change has to come from within and through efforts by people willing to be first peaceful. Democracy develops, it is not hatched. Progression takes a long time. Unfortunately. The Bush ultimatum of democracy or war is hideous, destabilizing and an opportunity for exactly this to happen.
Hamas victory fuels uncertainty
Militant group faces choices
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Hamas's surprising landslide victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections upended Middle East politics yesterday, making the militant group that has long sworn to destroy Israel a principal player in Palestinian governance.
The entire Palestinian Cabinet resigned even before election officials confirmed that Hamas had captured 76 of 132 seats. Fatah, the longtime ruling party founded by Yasser Arafat, won just 43 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council, with the remaining 13 going to smaller parties and independents, according to nearly complete returns.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/01/27/hamas_victory_fuels_uncertainty/
The editorials have some interesting points but is too generous in the potential of peace at any point along the way. If the violent groups of the area is because of oppression then it doesn't really matter as their force and incidiousness is so much a nemesis it blots out any reason for removing the oppression. In addition, there is an inherent error in not realizing some of the 'so called oppression' is really cultural choice and or cultural/religious demands. King Abdullah of Jordan has the right idea in identifying the 'opportunity' to be different by allowing such a broad diversity of 'interpretation' of the Islamic Laws and religious precepts. There is only one Mohammad but yet so many 'authority' voices saying so many different things. Add to that the fact the Middle East has to adapt to demands of growing populations, ridiculous demographics with small elderly populations, it's global attention for control of oil and the fact Earth is less friendly than ever anticipated; then and only then will one realize the genius in Abdullah who has harnessed the cultural turbulence and sought retribution against it seeking a far more peaceful Middle East.
The Hamas test
January 27, 2006
THE STUNNING victory of Hamas in Palestinian legislative elections may be attributed to several causes, among them the corruption of the Fatah movement, the failure of Israel to help validate the peaceful, pragmatic policies of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and the Bush administration's slowness to help Abbas prove to his people that his temperate ways could improve daily life and lead to an end of Israeli occupation.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/01/27/the_hamas_test/
continued ...
Morning Papers - continued ...
The Cheney Observer
Life-changing decisions
Court rulings shift euthanasia and abortion battles to the states by Gene Edward Veith
Roe v. Wade opened the floodgates to abortion on demand. Gonzales v. Oregon may have done the same thing for euthanasia.
Abortion and euthanasia are bookends in the culture of death. With abortion, a mother chooses to kill her child. With euthanasia, a child might choose to kill his mother. As Joleen Jackson, a commenter on one of WORLD's blogs put it, euthanasia is "abortion in reverse."
In Gonzales v. Oregon, the Supreme Court under its new chief justice, John Roberts, upheld Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law, which so far has taken some 200 lives. Under its provisions, someone who has been certified as having less than six months to live may ask a doctor to prescribe a poison cocktail.
http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayarticle.cfm?id=11496
Carlyle Group Fraud: USIS & Westhusing Murder
The problems with the 1997 privatization of the Office of Federal Investigations (OFI), which ultimately became U.S. Investigations Services (USIS), now owned by The Carlyle Group, were known to members of Congress, according to a former OFI official.
A number of employees of OFI, which was part of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) before privatization, refused to accept the terms of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
The late Democratic Senator Paul Simon of Illinois was particularly opposed to the privatization of OFI.
After OFI became USIS, the timeliness and quality of the security background checks conducted on Federal employees quickly deteriorated according to former OFI employees.
They saw USIS being turned into a cash laundering operation whereby a few officials at the top became instant millionaires. Insiders also report that USIS "branched" into other operations never before conducted by OFI/OPM.
These other operations were the focus of Col.
Ted Westhusing's investigation when he was "suicided" in Baghdad.
It is also noteworthy that USIS assumed control of a converted limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania.
The mine, built during the Cold War to safeguard files in the event of a nuclear conflict, contains millions of government files, including those held by the federal Employee Service and Records Center.
That means that The Carlyle Group now has access to sensitive personnel files on millions of current and past government employees as well as contractors who have applied for security clearances.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED
http://waynemadsenreport.com/
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=46&contentid=3151&page=2
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=46&contentid=3151
Nominating a judge or interfering with an investigation?
As the Valerie Plame investigation kept hitting closer and closer to home last fall, the internets starting buzzing with rumors and conspiracy theories: Would Bush pull a Nixon and find a way to fire Patrick Fitzgerald before he could indict anyone?
It didn't happen, but the news from the White House this week raises questions about whether the president is interfering in another investigation that might be getting a little too close for comfort. The president hasn't fired Noel Hillman, the chief prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff case, but he has managed to achieve the same result: Bush nominated Hillman for a seat on the federal bench this week, and Hillman immediately resigned from his job as chief of the Justice Department's public integrity division.
The White House says it's all routine, that career prosecutors are working the case and will continue to do so without a hitch. Some Democrats aren't convinced. California Rep. George Miller tells the New York Times that the timing of Hillman's nomination is "startling." "You have one of the chief prosecutors removed from a case that has tentacles throughout the Republican leadership of Congress, throughout the various agencies and into the White House," he said. New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has already called for the appointment of an independent counsel in the Abramoff case, said Hillman's departure "jaundices the whole process."
Adding to Democrats' suspicions: An investigation into Abramoff's activities in Guam ended abruptly in 2002, when Bush replaced the longtime acting U.S. attorney who was running it.
-- Tim Grieve
Those disappearing Abramoff photos
We've said it before and we'll say it again: The existence of photos of George W. Bush with Jack Abramoff really shouldn't be much of an issue for anyone. Abramoff was a major Republican player, Bush is a Republican president, and it doesn't come as much of a surprise that the two would show up in photographs with each other. As the president himself said today, "I've had my picture taken with a lot of people."
And yet ... and yet ... the White House won't release the photographs of Bush with Abramoff, and now there's word that the company that photographs a lot of Republican events -- a company that just happens to be run by a woman who contributed as much as she could to the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004 -- has scrubbed a photo of Bush and Abramoff from its catalog. Josh Marshall tells the story of his search for the photo at Talking Points Memo now. The upshot: The president of Reflections Photography says she made a "business decision" to remove the photo from her company's catalog.
What sort of business decision would that be? The president himself had the answer to that one today. He said the White House won't release photos of him with Abramoff because "we live in a world in which those pictures will be used for pure political purposes, and they're not relevant to the investigation."
-- Tim Grieve
Water Pik announces closure of Loveland facility
Reporter-Herald staff
Water Pik Technologies has announced it will close its Loveland manufacturing site starting in March. All work at the site will be finished by October, company officials said.
In its quarterly report to investors released late Wednesday, executives identified closure of the Loveland plant as a means to increase profits by the end of the year and into 2007.
“For our personal health-care business, we expect an improving sales outlook in the second half of fiscal year 2006 driven by new products and distribution gains at key retail accounts. Over time, the Loveland consolidation will measurably improve the profitability and return on capital,” said Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Hoopis.
On Jan. 6, the company had announced its impending sale to Coast Acquisition Corp., a partnership between The Carlyle Group and Zodiac S.A. That deal should be complete by April.
http://www.lovelandfyi.com/Top-Story.asp?ID=3762
Carlyle pays investors US$7b
2006-01-27 Beijing Time
CARLYLE Group, the manager of the biggest US buyout fund, paid a record US$7 billion to investors last year after selling assets as global stock markets advanced.
"This has been a golden age for our industry but nothing continues to be golden forever," David Rubenstein, co-founder of Washington-based Carlyle, said on Wednesday in an interview. The firm paid US$5.3 billion to investors in 2004 and US$2.3 billion in 2003.
Rising stock markets make it easier for buyout firms to sell businesses in initial public offerings and give publicly traded companies more currency for acquisitions. The Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index climbed 7.6 percent last year on optimism corporate profits would keep rising.
Buyout firms also raised US$134 billion to fund takeovers.
"I wouldn't be surprised if returns came down eventually but I don't know what would be the precipitating factor," Rubenstein said. He still expects returns from buyout firms to beat investments in stocks of publicly traded companies.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/01/27/238218/Carlyle_pays_investors_US_7b.htm
Health Concerns Prompt Call For ‘9/11 Health Czar’
Three Ground Zero-related Deaths Spur NY Representatives To Act
(CBS) NEW YORK The Federal General Accounting Office estimates that between 250,000 and 400,000 people lived, worked or went to school, in the ground zero vicinity at the time of the world trade center attacks.
There were 40,000 to 50,000 rescue workers, firefighters, volunteer firefighters, EMS, police and construction workers who worked on the "pile" for some length of time...of 16,000 rescue workers, not firefighters participating in a Mount Sinai Hospital study about half are sick with World Trade Center related diseases. At least three emergency workers have died.
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_026052342.html
'Warrior princess' to White House?
It has been an amazing transformation. In the first Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice was known as the "warrior princess".
From "warrior princess" to smiling face of US diplomacy
As national security adviser, she was seen as a leading hawk and architect of the Iraq war.
But Ms Rice has now become the smiling face of American diplomacy.
She is the stylish pin-up of the Republican Party and the poster child of African-American success.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4628998.stm
New Canadian PM rebuffs US envoy
Mr Harper criticised opponents for anti-US positions during the election
Canadian Prime Minister-elect Stephen Harper has defended plans to send military ice-breakers to the Arctic in defiance of criticism from Washington.
US ambassador David Wilkins said on Wednesday that Washington opposed the plan and, like most other countries, did not recognise Canada's claims.
Mr Harper said his mandate was from the Canadian people, not Mr Wilkins.
Mr Harper's Conservatives have promised to defend Canada's northern waters from claims by the US, Russia and Denmark.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4652746.stm
Prosecutor Will Step Down From Lobbyist Case
By PHILIP SHENON and ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — The investigation of Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a surprising new turn on Thursday when the Justice Department said the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush.
The prosecutor, Noel L. Hillman, is chief of the department's public integrity division, and the move ends his involvement in an inquiry that has reached into the administration as well as the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill.
The administration said that the appointment was routine and that it would not affect the investigation, but Democrats swiftly questioned the timing of the move and called for a special prosecutor.
The announcement came as Mr. Bush faced a barrage of questions about why he would not make public "grip-and-grin" photographs of him with Mr. Abramoff. The photographs apparently show Mr. Bush and Mr. Abramoff smiling at White House Hanukkah parties and Republican fund-raising receptions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/politics/27judge.html
Defense Lawyers Seek Prosecution Data on Reporters in Leak Case
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan 26 — Lawyers for Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff asked a federal judge on Thursday to order the prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case to turn over all documents in his possession related to what journalists knew from any source about the intelligence officer at the heart of the case.
The lawyers for the former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., said in their motion that the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, had refused to turn over to the defense documents that would shed light on whether any reporter knew about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, before her name was first disclosed in a newspaper column on July 14, 2003.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/politics/27leak.html
The death of blogging (aka ‘The Secret of its Success’)
Raymond de Villiers
26-JAN-06
Every few years a new software tool is released and rapidly gets spoken up by the early adopters. Soon it is introduced into the corporate sector with much fanfare. Shortly, everyone is rolling out the software – often to keep up with the corporate Jones’, more than anything. And then as the grapevine starts to pump out the failure stories we shift our gaze onto the next ‘techno-messiah’ -- and the cycle continues. At the heart of most of this failure is the overlooking of two key facets of success -- understanding the corporate culture and the user community. The Achilles heel of the corporate blogging drive is that it too is overlooking of these factors.
http://www.marketingweb.co.za/marketing/858644.htm
Halliburton swings to $1.1 billion profit
STEVE QUINN
Associated Press
DALLAS - Oilfield services conglomerate Halliburton Co. swung to a profit in its fourth quarter on robust sales and increased rig activity, and called last year the best in its 86-year history.
The income reversed a loss from a year earlier for Houston-based Halliburton, the company once led by Vice President Dick Cheney. Its KBR unit has become known for its support work for troops stationed in the Middle East.
Net income was $1.1 billion, or $2.08 a share, including a gain of $540 million or $1.02 a share, for a future tax allowance. That compared to a net loss of $203 million, or 46 cents a share last year, which included a $384 million loss from discontinued operations.
Fourth quarter revenue rose 12 percent to $5.8 billion, largely from the performance of its energy services group, which saw sales increase 31 percent.
The results, $1.03 per share excluding the gain, widely beat Wall Street's projections of 89 cents a share on revenue of $5.24 billion, according to Thomson Financial.
Like many other companies in oil-related business, Halliburton enjoyed the fruits of boom times, said analyst Jeff Tillery of Pickering Energy Partners.
"They were really helped by the oilfield business being so good and taking advantage of energy being in the upcycle," Tillery said.
Revenue at KBR, Halliburton's engineering and construction division, fell 3 percent to $3 billion, which the company said resulted from reduced military work in Iraq.
"It was less of a decline that we expected, so Iraq was really in line of how we modeled it," Tillery said.
Net income for the year 2005 was $2.4 billion, or $4.54 per share, compared to a loss of $1 billion, or $2.22 per share, from 2004. The 2004 loss included a $1.4 billion, or $3.09 per share, loss related to the settlement of asbestos and silica liabilities.
Revenue for 2005 reached nearly $21 billion, a record that also beat analysts expectations of $20.4 billion.
"This demonstrates our customers' willingness to pay a premium for our technological expertise that results in accelerated production rates," Dave Lesar, Halliburton's CEO, said in a statement.
Halliburton announced earnings after the market closed. The company plans to discuss the results Friday morning in a conference call with analysts.
During its earnings call last quarter, the company reiterated plans to either sell or spin off KBR, but said no timeline had been established.
Halliburton has been taking heat since the beginning of the war in Iraq for receiving multibillion-dollar, noncompetitive government contracts.
Congressional Democrats have contended that the Bush administration has long played favorites to Halliburton because of its ties to Cheney.
The latest round of controversy surfaced this week when former Halliburton officials claimed water for a U.S. base was contaminated and that the company failed to notify troops and civilians. Halliburton denied any contamination troubles at Camp Junction City in Ramadi, Iraq.
Shares of Halliburton rose 91 cents to close at $75.15 on the New York Stock Exchange. They added another 1.6 percent, or $1.20, in after-hours trading.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/13720580.htm
Halliburton top Army contractor of 2005
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- The ranking of America's top six defense contractors in 2005 remains unchanged from 2004, with Lockheed Martin on top and Halliburton at number six.
The value of Halliburton's defense contracts dropped considerably between the years, from $8 billion to $5.8 billion. That drop coincided with the U.S. military's attempt to rein in spending under the Logistics Civilian Augmentation Program. LOGCAP is the contract under which Halliburton provides services like dining halls, laundry and cleaning to American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Defense Department has paid Halliburton subsidiary KBR more than $12 billion so far under LOGCAP. Halliburton is the Army's single largest contractor by at least $2 billion.
Lockheed Martin, maker of the F-22 fighter aircraft, had defense contracts worth $19.4 billion, down from $20.7 billion in 2004.
Boeing was second, with $18.3 billion, an increase from $17.1 billion in 2004.
Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon remained at third, fourth and fifth, respectively, all increasing their defense receipts from 2004.
BAe (British Aerospace) jumped from 12th to seventh, more than doubling its defense contracts from $2.2 billion in 2004 to $5.6 billion in 2005.
United Technologies, with $5 billion in defense sales, dropped from seventh to eighth.
L-3 Communications Holdings went from 10th to ninth, more than doubling its business from $2.3 billion in 2004 to $4.7 billion in 2005.
Computer Sciences Corporation dropped from ninth to 10th, but increased its contract from $2.4 billion to $2.8 billion.
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060126-042616-9504r
Study: New Orleans could lose 80 percent of black population
By Michelle R. Smith, Associated Press Writer January 26, 2006
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --The city of New Orleans could lose up to 80 percent of its black population if people displaced by Hurricane Katrina are not able to return to their damaged neighborhoods, according to an analysis released Thursday by a Brown University sociologist.
Blacks and the poor were disproportionately affected by Katrina, according to the study led by Brown Professor John R. Logan. The analysis concludes that the difficulty in moving back to the city could mean a massive loss of population, overwhelmingly among blacks.
New Orleans was more than 65 percent black before Katrina hit in August, but it appears most of the estimated 135,000 residents who have been able to return are white. Mayor Ray Nagin recently apologized for saying New Orleans would remain a "chocolate city" as he tried to allay fears that blacks would not return.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/01/26/study_new_orleans_could_lose_80_percent_of_black_population/
New Orleans Museum Plans Expansion
By Greg Flakus
New Orleans, LA
26 January 2006
Rebuilding the city of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina is posing a number of challenges. Planners are still trying to determine which parts of the city should be rebuilt. But a decision has been made to reopen the city's museums and other public places. In at least one case, that of the National D-Day Museum, not only has the facility re-opened, but there are plans to expand it.
The D-Day Museum in New Orleans first opened its doors on June sixth, 2000, the 56th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy. But since that time the museum has broadened its focus to cover all aspects of World War II.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-26-voa46.cfm
Bhutto Dismisses Interpol Notice as Politically Motivated
Pakistan's former prime minister has rejected the issuance of an Interpol notice against her, calling it a political maneuver by the Pakistani government. Benazir Bhutto spoke at a press conference at the Voice of America in Washington.
Benazir Bhutto
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto dismissed Interpol's so-called red notices as part of a political campaign against her by President Pervez Musharraf.
"My husband and I have faced these scurrilous, baseless, malicious, and politically motivated charges for the past nine years," she said. "And by the grace of God, there's not a single conviction against either my husband or myself for fraud or for corruption."
The government has pledged to arrest Bhutto if she returned to Pakistan. Bhutto Thursday reiterated her statement of last year that she was ready to immediately go back to Pakistan to face any charges.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-26-voa95.cfm
Culture seen as the key to reviving New Orleans
WHILE much of the grieving and arguing about New Orleans has centred on housing, a panel appointed by the mayor, Ray Nagin, contends that any comeback will be driven by a fierce love of the city's distinctive culture - from music to food to folk traditions.
To that end, a report released this week by the cultural committee of Nagin's Bring New Orleans Back Commission proposes that the city regenerate its pool of creative talent by finding jobs and shelter for artists and cultural institutions.
http://smh.com.au/news/world/culture-seen-as-the-key-to-reviving-new-orleans/2006/01/26/1138066921561.html
MEPs want face-to-face with Cheney and Rumsfeld over torture
By David Rennie in Brussels
(Filed: 27/01/2006)
Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, should be called to testify before the European Parliament on allegations of secret CIA prisons and torture of detainees, MEPs said yesterday.
MEPs heading an investigation into the claims vowed to "name and shame" American and European leaders who declined invitations to appear before them.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/27/wrendition27.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/01/27/ixportal.html
Defense Lawyers Seek Prosecution Data on Reporters in Leak Case
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan 26 — Lawyers for Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff asked a federal judge on Thursday to order the prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case to turn over all documents in his possession related to what journalists knew from any source about the intelligence officer at the heart of the case.
The lawyers for the former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., said in their motion that the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, had refused to turn over to the defense documents that would shed light on whether any reporter knew about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, before her name was first disclosed in a newspaper column on July 14, 2003.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/politics/27leak.html
To ‘take back’ Congress, take a page from Karl Rove
It’s all too coincidental. The former vice president of the United States of America draws considerable media coverage when he charges the current president is a threat to the republic and calls for a special, independent investigator to probe spying and other possible crimes against the American people.
Four days later headlines blare that Osama bin Laden has surfaced again. After a year and a half of absence from the public eye, what is purported to be his voice mentions falling public opinion polls for Bush, cites Rep. Murtha’s call to end the occupation as a reason the president is weakened, and throws in mention of a “truce.” Simultaneously, a new terrorist attack strikes Israel — quickly blamed on Syria and Iran, two of the Bush administration’s current foes. The fear coursing through the U.S. public’s mind quickens.
The next day, Karl Rove, that king of political slime and current object of a criminal investigation, comes out with the GOP “road map” to victory for the 2006 congressional elections.
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/8472/1/306
Tom DeLay to be destroyed by forces he set in motion?
By Sheila McNulty in Houston
Published: January 26 2006 22:50 Last updated: January 26 2006 22:50
The re-election campaign headquarters for US Representative Tom DeLay is virtually empty this morning. Five people are stuffing envelopes, the press officer is checking her Blackberry, and the campaign manager and another staffer are sitting in a dark room, blinds drawn, working quietly at their desks.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/982f600a-8ebd-11da-b752-0000779e2340.html
Bush downplays Abramoff photos, again defends NSA eavesdropping
By Finlay Lewis
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
3:05 p.m. January 26, 2006
WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush on Thursday dismissed White House photos with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff as an innocent "grip-and-grin" encounter, as he sought to minimize damage to Republican candidates in the fall congressional elections from a spreading lobbying scandal.
"I don't know him," Bush insisted as the White House continues to try to keep its distance from the scandal.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20060126-1505-cnsbush.html
In D.C., Abramoff scandal cools free lunches
Rules changing in D.C., but few mavericks still go for real deal with Bon Jovi
By Joel Seidman
Producer
NBC News
Updated: 3:45 p.m. ET Jan. 26, 2006
WASHINGTON — The scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has claimed its first victim: The Capitol Hill free lunch.
Lobbyist Jon Doggett, vice president of public policy for the National Corn Growers Association, can't give them away. He offered to take some congressional staffers to lunch last week, but was told they could not accept meals from lobbyists anymore.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11025206/
Democrats Urge Outside Counsel For Abramoff Investigation
Two Senate Democrats are calling for a special counsel to take over the investigation of the corruption scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
http://www.wcsh6.com/home/article.asp?id=30986
If Abramoff is truly frum, I’ll eat my black hat
by eliyahu stern
The New York Times and ABC News just could not understand why Jack Abramoff, a master of public relations, would walk out of a courtroom — where he pleaded guilty earlier this month to three felony counts — wearing a Mafioso-styled black fedora. Whose sympathy exactly was he after?
While the Times could not understand the bizarre spectacle, Jews recognized Abramoff’s headgear all too well as a sign of Orthodox piety.
It is far from ironic that Abramoff would be wearing such a hat to court. From start to finish his lobbyist career and his cover-ups have been cloaked in religious garb. Perhaps the best example of Abramoff’s religious antics comes from a story in the New York Times Magazine in 2005 that reported he was nominated for membership in the Cosmos Club, an exclusive Washington insiders organization.
Abramoff was flattered by the nomination, but knowing all too well just how newly cool he was in Washington circles, he feared the club would realize the emperor had no clothes. He needed some serious moral and intellectual credibility quickly.
So he reportedly called his “rebbe” and longtime supporter Rabbi Daniel Lapin, head of the right-wing organization Toward Tradition, and asked him if he could patch together some award in his honor — “something like Scholar of Talmudic Studies,” Abramoff wrote in an email to Lapin. While Lapin was at it, Abramoff asked him if he could make it appear “that I received these in years past.” Lapin assured him it was no problem.
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/28216/format/html/displaystory.html
Petrolium Profits and Governmental Grandstanding
BY TYLER SUHRE DROWN
Following record oil profits and spikes in gasoline prices, a panel of Senators summoned executives of the petroleum industry to justify their earnings post-Hurricane Katrina. Around the country governors and state legislatures threatened gas stations with emergency provisions that would ban price gouging at the pump. Even Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist – who is not a member of the usual anti-corporate crowd - voiced concerns that it may be time for a federal anti-gouging law. It is heartening, but not surprising, that senators are collaborating for a common cause.
Windfall taxes are a bad idea and, the price of gasoline needed to rise after the hurricanes in a balanced move to curb consumption and prevent a supply shock.
The price of gasoline was a reflection of the uncertainty in the supply chain after Katrina damaged several gulf refineries. Compounding these fears, offshore oil rigs and onshore oil derricks were also at risk. Indeed, Katrina ultimately destroyed 113 oil and gas production platforms.
The good news is that the damage turned out to be less than the doomsayers feared,
http://www.pennindy.com/index.php?id=3,10,0,0,1,0
Royal Oak deputy city attorney runs for Congress
BY ERIC CZARNIK
STAFF WRITER
Vowing not to be a rubber stamp for White House policy, Royal Oak's Deputy City Attorney Jim Marcinkowski has embarked on a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives.
In doing so, he will contend as a Democrat in Michigan's 8th Congressional District against incumbent Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Brighton). The district covers sections of Oakland and Shiawassee counties as well as the entirety of Clinton, Ingham and Livingston counties.
Marcinkowski, 51, of Lake Orion said that he has an economic and national security agenda that promotes America's interests. But the one-time Ronald Reagan supporter is running as a Democrat because he believes that the GOP has shifted too far to the right.
http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060126/NEWS18/601260759/1035
President Receives Phone Call from US Secretary of State
RAMALLAH, January 26, 2006 (WAFA)- President Mahmoud Abbas received Thursday a phone call from US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice.
The Presidency Spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdaina said that Rice appreciated the democratic electoral process and the President's courage in giving the Palestinian people the chance to practice the electoral right.
He also added that Rice asserted that the US Administration will continue its support to President Abbas and his policies.
In the phone call, Abbas briefed Rice about the latest developments and they agreed to keep in contact, Abu Rdaina added.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=5221
McCarthyism at the U
by Bill Willers
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 26, 2006
On January 19, the London Guardian published an article on a right-wing organization at the University of California-Los Angeles and its project to monitor and profile “radical” professors.
The group’s website, www.uclaprofs.com, explains what is required of spies for a $100 payment:
Full, detailed lecture notes, all professor-distributed materials, and full tape recordings of every class session, for one class: $100 (Note: lecture notes must make particular note of audience reactions, comments, and other details that will properly contextualize the professor’s non-pertinent ideological comments. If the class in question is ongoing or upcoming, UCLAProfs.com will provide (if needed) all necessary taping equipment and materials.)
Cruise the website and you find that what targeted faculty have in common is a questioning of the status quo. All “Dirty Thirty” are in the humanities with most in law, history, and women’s and minority studies -- areas most likely to support multiculturalism.
Clearly the Right is out to destroy K-12 public education. Their attacks on public schools and teacher’s unions has become a drumbeat. The goal is a system of schools operated by private companies with absolute control of course content and exams. According to press accounts, Neil Bush, brother to the President, and William Bennett, Reagan’s Education Secretary, both high profile rightists, have geared up in anticipation of the coming world of privatized education by founding their own corporations: K12, Inc. by Bennett and Ignite, Inc. by Bush.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan06/Willers26.htm
Full transcript: the McCain interview
Full transcript of Senator John McCain's interview with The Times:
You are a regular visitor to London, where you recently met with leading conservatives such as George Osborne and others from David Cameron’s team. Is it your impression that something is at last beginning to stir in the British Conservative undergrowth?
Yes. I think it's clear there is a new generation of leadership in the Conservative party. These young men — and women I'm sure (I just met young men) have a very enthusiastic and clear vision of the obstacles they have to overcome to get new Conservative majority. I think they've got something else going for them, which is when parties stay in power for a long period or too long — thank God — democracies mean parties change and that will happen again.
You’ve met Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before. In the future, would you prefer to deal with a Prime Minister Cameron or a Prime Minister Brown?
It's hard for me to make a judgment. I couldn't have predicted that Tony Blair would have been as steadfast on Iraq as he was. Events determine relationships and I’m eternally grateful to PM Blair for the courage — whenever you stand up versus majority of your own party it's an act of courage — in supporting us in Iraq. From what I know of, and have seen of PM Cameron — I mean Mr Cameron — I'm sure he and I are more philosophically aligned about the role of government because I'm more conservative myself. But the good news is that I cannot imagine a government in power in England which does not preserve the unique relationship with the US; I think that will last a long, long time.
Are you going to run for President in 2008?
We will decide in about a year. Why wait? First of all there is no reason not to wait and secondly it's very difficult to know this far out the mood of the country. A year ago when we started out having these obscure hearing into this guy Abramoff I would never have known this would become such a dominating issue. And that was just a year and a half ago. So in a year form now what are the American people's priorities going to be?
How are we doing in the war in Iraq — this year is going to be critical in the future of Iraq — how is the economy going? In short do my list of talents and strengths match up with the priorities of the American people? And this is something which the longer you wait the easier it's going to be to decide.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2011316,00.html
LaTourette wrote letter to GSA for Abramoff lobbying associate
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Sabrina Eaton
Plain Dealer Bureau
Washington - Rep. Steve LaTourette assisted disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2002 by writing a pair of letters to the Bush administration at the request of an Abramoff associate.
LaTourette didn't do anything improper, but he did something that a number of other lawmakers have found embarrassing - writing letters as a favor to someone who winds up mired in controversy.
"There is nothing about the letters that I feel bad about, although who wants to be connected to Jack Abramoff?" the Concord Township Republican said Wednesday.
LaTourette's September 2002 letters pertained to redevelopment of the historic Old Post Office in Washington, D.C. He said he wrote them at the request of Neil Volz, who became a lobbyist for Abramoff after serving as chief of staff for LaTourette's friend, Licking County Republican Rep. Bob Ney.
LaTourette's letters asked the agency that oversees federal buildings, the General Services Administration, to give special priority to economically disadvantaged small businesses that wanted to participate in the redevelopment of the ornate landmark on Pennsylvania Avenue, roughly midway between the White House and the Capitol.
He said that he sent the letters because he agreed with their premise and that Volz got no special attention. When the letters were written, LaTourette headed the subcommittee that oversaw the GSA. He said he received "tons" of correspondence from parties interested in the building. He expressed belief that Volz made the request for one of his lobbying clients, but said he doesn't know who.
"I write letters all the time, and this was handled in the way we normally handle it," said LaTourette. "At the end of the day, we sent the letters because having minority small businesses bid on big federal contracts is a policy I support."
Stephen A. Perry, the former Timken Co. official who headed GSA at that time, sent LaTourette a reply confirming that his agency would make special outreach efforts to disadvantaged small businesses. Perry could not be reached for comment.
The Old Post Office, built in 1899 and distinguished by a 315-foot-tall clock tower, contains federal offices, shops and a food court. A GSA spokesman said the building has not been redeveloped. LaTourette has co-sponsored legislation that would convert part of it into a Women's History Museum.
LaTourette's exchange with the GSA was first publicized Wednesday by the Capitol Hill newspaper "Roll Call," which obtained the correspondence through a public records request. LaTourette faxed the letters to The Plain Dealer, along with Volz's initial July 2002 e-mail query to a staffer.
Federal investigators are probing the role of Ney and Volz in a bribery scheme that Abramoff described when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion charges this month. Neither has been charged. Ney denies wrongdoing. Volz and his attorney didn't respond to phone calls yesterday. Abramoff's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, declined to comment on the letters.
Papers filed in the case against Abramoff say he plied members of Congress, including Ney, with campaign contributions, trips, meals and sports tickets.
Court filings indicate that the GSA was another Abramoff target. He sought leasing information on the Old Post Office from former GSA Chief of Staff David Safavian and a regulation change that might secure minority-owned small-business contracts for Indian tribes he represented.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1138268628217260.xml&coll=2&thispage=2
Libby wants what reporters knew in CIA leak case
Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:10 PM ET
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorneys for a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney sought on Thursday to force federal prosecutors to turn over information about what journalists knew before the leak of a CIA operative's name.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby's lawyers filed a motion asking the federal judge presiding over the case to require that they be given documents on what the reporters knew about CIA operative Valerie Plame before her name was disclosed.
Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of obstructing justice, perjury and lying in the two-year investigation by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald into the leak to the news media of Plame's identity.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-01-27T001012Z_01_N26347352_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-LEAK.xml&archived=False
As the State of the Union Draws Near, Two-Thirds of U.S. Adults Rate Current State of the Country as Poor, According to Latest Harris Poll
Majorities believe the war in Iraq is not going well and is damaging to thepresidentROCHESTER, N.Y., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- As President Bush prepares toaddress the country with the State of the Union, only one-third (32%) of U.S.adults believe the current state of the country is good, while 68 percentbelieve it is poor. Interestingly, men are more likely to have a favorableperspective, with 39 percent of men believing the current state of the countryis good, compared to only 27 percent of women.These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,518 U.S. adultssurveyed online between January 12 and 17, 2006 by Harris Interactive(R).People's general dissatisfaction related to a number of issues may accountfor the current levels of dissatisfaction with the state of the country. Eightin ten (80%) adults believe the efforts to strengthen Social Security, makeprescription drugs affordable (77%) and make taxes fairer (76%) have beenpoor. Majorities also feel the war in Iraq (68%), the war or terrorism (56%)and the efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast (64%) and strengthen the economy(62%) are going poorly.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-26-2006/0004268978&EDATE=
Reliance Ind, Bechtel in engineering JV
REUTERS
Posted online: Thursday, January 26, 2006 at 1606 hours IST
MUMBAI, JANUARY 26: India's biggest private-sector refiner, Reliance Industries Ltd., has formed an equal joint venture with US engineering and construction firm Bechtel, a leading business daily said on Thursday.
The joint venture will handle subsidiary Reliance Petroleum's proposed $6 billion refinery and polypropylene project in Jamnagar, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, and will bid for other projects in India and overseas, the paper said.
No financial details of the joint venture were reported.
A Reliance spokesman declined comment.
But an advertisement on the company's Web site said Reliance "has joined hands with Bechtel to form a joint venture," and called for applications from engineers for the joint venture, which would take on engineering projects in the fields of refinery, oil and gas, pipelines and chemical industries.
The oil and petrochemicals company earlier this week said it plans to raise $1.1-$1.3 billion in an initial public offering by Reliance Petroleum, and that it plans a $750 million foray into retail.
India last July reached a $160 million settlement with Bechtel on the company's claims on the mothballed Dabhol power plant.
http://www.financialexpress.com/latest_full_story.php?content_id=115709
Letter avoids hedge fund concern
Update to investors ignores partner's sanction, sheds light on fund's recent showing
RICK ROTHACKER
rrothacker@charlotteobserver.com
When hedge fund Mangan & McColl Partners sent its regular update to investors this month, the firm left out a significant event: One of the partners had been sanctioned by regulators.
Instead, the Jan. 19 letter stuck to a routine rundown on performance.
In December, firm partner John Mangan Jr. reached a $125,000 settlement with regulators over charges of improper trading of a private securities offering, stemming from actions in 2001 when he was with another firm. He also was barred from the brokerage industry.
The hedge fund, whose other partner is Hugh McColl III, son of the former Bank of America chief, has said the settlement will not limit its business. But it's unclear how investors have reacted to the sanctions.
Hedge funds are loosely regulated investment pools for wealthy investors and institutions, and little information is public about their workings.
In a statement delivered by spokesman Steve Luquire, the firm told the Observer that it keeps "all matters relating to our clients in the strictest confidence and therefore cannot respond to your questions."
"We have kept our clients informed and will continue to do so. We are proud of our firm and our relationship with our loyal customers."
The January letter, first disclosed by the New York Post on Wednesday, sheds some light on the fund's recent performance and its response to the Securities and Exchange Commission's effort to register hedge funds.
The hedge fund's main strategy is to make money based on the performance of stocks that are involved in mergers and acquisitions. Shares can rise or fall depending on whether the company is the buyer or the seller, or whether the deal is ultimately completed.
According to the letter, the fund's performance was down 2.10 percent in 2005, compared to a 4.91 percent increase in the S&P 500 Index and a 5.69 percent increase in the HFR Merger Arbitrage Index.
The down year came after stronger performance in the past. From 1998 through 2005, the fund is up 107.78 percent, compared to 26.29 percent in the S&P 500 and 65.05 percent for the merger arbitrage index.
"The year 2005 was very challenging and we have endeavored to learn from the experience," the letter states.
How investors have reacted to the negative performance is unclear. The firm doesn't disclose total assets, although a securities filing in September said the firm had more than $700 million.
Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that hedge funds suffered their first quarterly withdrawals in more than a decade, as average investment returns in 2005 fell below 10 percent for the second straight year.
Investors withdrew $824 million in the fourth quarter, Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. said in a report Wednesday. Industry assets had more than doubled since 2000 to $1.1 trillion, as investors were lured by returns that averaged 16 percent in the 1990s.
Starting next month, the SEC is asking hedge funds to register unless they meet certain criteria. In the letter, Mangan & McColl says it will not register because it has changed the lockup period for new investments to two years. Many other hedge funds are also expected to decline registration.
Mangan's settlement with the National Association of Securities Dealers in December involved charges of improper trading of a private securities offering when he was with the investment firm Friedman, Billings, Ramsey. Mangan neither admitted nor declined wrongdoing.
The agreement said Mangan's partner was involved in the transactions but does not identify McColl III by name. McColl III was not a registered broker and did not fall under the NASD's supervision.
According to a 2004 securities filing, Mangan and McColl III are the managing members of the firm and each owns a 50 percent equity stake.
The New York Post article Wednesday said the fund has "a close relationship" with Marvin Bush, brother of President George W. Bush and a founder of Virginia-based investment firm Winston Partners. In the story, Bush told the Post he served as a reference for Mangan when he was raising capital for his fund.
Marvin Bush's office said he would not comment for this story.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/13713945.htm
Vets aren't happy about healthcare
January 25, 2006
Albany - More than a quarter million veterans were unable to sign up for health care during this last fiscal year because of cost-cutting moves.
The locked-out vets have no illnesses or injuries as a result of their service and earn more than the average wage in their community.
Local veteran Marvin Mixon says many veterans, "Sort of like they pulled the rug out from under a lot of folks that really need the assistance, and they are told they don't qualify anymore, even though they feel like they followed thru with their end of the contract, but now they are told it won't be there."
The Veterans Affairs Department says that all Iraq Veterans are guaranteed health care, provided they enroll within two years of leaving the military.
Feedback: news@walb.com?subject=VetsHealthcare
http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=4410597&nav=5kZQ
Carlyle Group to reap huge profit from QinetiQ float
· Defence firm expects market valuation of £1.3bn
· Equity group stake bought for £42m may fetch £330m
Mark Milner, industrial editor
Thursday January 26, 2006
QinetiQ, the government's defence and security technology business, will come to the stock market next month with a value of up to £1.33bn, making multi-millionaires of its chairman and chief executive and huge profits for the US private equity group, Carlyle. Shares in the biggest privatisation under the Blair administration will be priced at between 165p and 205p, with the grey market - the City's guesstimate of the final strike price - standing between 190p and 203p.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1695151,00.html
Carlyle Group To Reap Huge Profit From QinetiQ Stock Offering
Posted on Thursday, January 26 2006 00:30:54 PST by Intellpuke
Read 60 times
QinetiQ, the British government's defense and security technology business, will come to the stock market next month with a value of up to £1.33 billion ($2.373 billion), making multi-millionaires of its chairman and chief executive and huge profits for the U.S. private equity group, Carlyle. Shares in the biggest privatization under the Blair administration will be priced at between £165 ($294)and £205 ($365), with the grey market - the City's guesstimate of the final strike price - standing between £190 ($339) and £203 ($362).
If the shares were sold at £205, the top of the price range, the 31% Carlyle stake - bought for £42.4 million ($75.658 million) in 2003 - would be worth £338 million ($603.194 million). QinetiQ chairman Sir John Chisholm's holding would be valued at £26 million ($46.399 million) and chief executive Graham Love's stake would be worth £22 million ($39.272 million). The company's biggest shareholder, the Ministry of Defense, which has been criticized for selling the stake to Carlyle too cheaply, would see its 56% holding worth £623 million ($1.112 billion).
http://freeinternetpress.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5660
De Brauw teams up with NY leader on VNU takeover bid
CC joins pairing on private equity consortium’s bid for Netherlands media giant
Dutch leader De Brauw Blackstone & Westbroek has teamed up with New York powerhouse Simpson Thacher & Bartlett to advise Netherlands-based media giant VNU on a €7.3bn (£5bn) takeover offer by a private equity consortium.
The move comes after a heavyweight consortium of private equity firms, led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, approached VNU on 16 January.
The other members of the consortium are AlpInvest Partners, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Per-mira and Thomas H Lee Partners.
http://www.legalweekglobal.net/ViewItem.asp?id=27325
Bush's War of Terror, the neo-cons (Part Six)
Deanna Spingola
August 10, 2005
Two major events culminated in the United States going into the two major world wars. From the sinking of the British steamship the Lusitania [1] on 7 May 1915 in which 128 American citizens lost their lives to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 which took 2,400 lives. [2] Another 1,100 were wounded. [3] An enemy attack is a justifiable reason to retaliate in kind. However, from reliable sources and witnesses we can conclude that the devised circumstances of both events were known in advance and could have been prevented.
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/spingola/050810
Judith Miller’s Secret Meeting
Scooter Libby and jailed reporter Judy Miller met just two days after Joe Wilson published his column -- and Patrick Fitzgerald is very interested.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has told federal investigators that he met with New York Times reporter Judith Miller on July 8, 2003, and discussed CIA operative Valerie Plame, according to legal sources familiar with Libby's account.
The meeting between Libby and Miller has been a central focus of the investigation by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald as to whether any Bush administration official broke the law by unmasking Plame's identity, or relied on classified information to discredit former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, according to sources close to the case as well as documents filed in federal court by Fitzgerald.
http://www.alternet.org/story/23980/
Hard questions about Halliburton
By REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD
August 9, 2005
Bunnatine Greenhouse asked questions other Americans should be asking: Why did Halliburton receive huge contracts in Iraq without competitive bidding? Do these contracts violate federal law or regulations on fair and open bidding?
One of the great things about being an American is having the freedom to scrutinize the government - unless you're a government employee, it appears. Greenhouse works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for awarding billions of taxpayer dollars to companies hired for reconstruction in Iraq. Asking questions about Halliburton got her demoted.
But she isn't going down without a fight.
"I took an oath of office. I took those words that I was going to protect the interests of my government and my country. So help me God. And nobody. Has the right. To take away my privilege. To serve my government. Nobody," she was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.
Amen.
What is the truth about the performance of Halliburton, where Vice President Dick Cheney was once the CEO? Why was the company awarded two of three multibillion-dollar contracts without bidding for them? Why haven't any results been released from an independent investigation by the Defense Department that was supposed to be under way? Why aren't government workers like Greenhouse protected under whistleblower statutes?
There are lots of questions the American people should be asking. Because apparently those who take an oath to protect the people can't ask those questions. Not and keep their jobs anyway.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050809/OPINION03/508090350/1035/opinion
Halliburton receives Petrobras contract to deliver reservoir monitoring
by: OilOnline
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Halliburton's Energy Services Group was recently awarded a contract to provide its EZ-Gauge(TM) monitoring system technology on projects for Petrobras in Brazil.
"Petrobras selected the EZ-Gauge system technology because it provides a cost-effective, accurate pressure data collection system that is free of downhole electronics," said Cidar Mansilla, operations manager, Latin America South, Halliburton. "The reliability and longevity of the system is significantly greater most other monitoring technologies."
The most commonly used alternative to EZ-Gauge system technology is conventional electronic, permanent downhole gauges. The EZ-Gauge system is designed to reduce cost, improve reliability and improve longevity over conventional electronic systems, particularly in downhole environments exceeding 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
"After performing two direct comparisons with the quartz electronic memory gauges, it became clear that Halliburton's EZ-Gauge system is another good option for addressing the accuracy of data and providing optimum reliability and longevity so imperative to our operations," said Pier Giovanni Cassarà, Well Intervention manager, Northern Asset, Petrobrás.
All gauges have a life expectancy that varies according to the environment in which they are deployed and operate. The EZ-Gauge system is typically run in high temperature environments that require resilient equipment that holds up over time and maintains the integrity of the data reported.
"The EZ-Gauge system has been designed to be very reliable over an extended period of time, particularly in extreme environments," said Mansilla. "A gauge system with downhole electronics in high temperature environments over 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for instance, have historically had a very limited life. However, now with the EZ-Gauge system, operators benefit from long-term, valuable insight into well and reservoir performance."
http://www.oilonline.com/news/headlines/business/20050809.Hallibur.18768.asp
Cheney + Pakistan = Iran
VP Cheney Helped Cover-Up Pakistani Nuclear Proliferation In '89
by Jason Leopold
http://www.opednews.com
When news of Pakistan’s clandestine program showed how the country's top nuclear scientist was secretly selling Iran and North Korea, the so-called “Axis of Evil,” blueprints for building an atomic bomb were uncovered last year, the world’s leaders waited, with baited breath, to see how President Bush would punish Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaff.
Bush has, after all, spent his entire two terms in office talking tough about countries and dictators that conceal weapons of mass destruction and even tougher on individuals who supply rogue nations and terrorists with the means to build WMDs. For all intents and purposes, Pakistan and Musharraf fit that description.
Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and top members of the administration reacted with shock when they found out that Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan ’s top nuclear scientist, spent the past 15 years selling outlaw nations nuclear technology and equipment. So it was sort of a surprise when Bush, upon finding out about Khan’s proliferation of nuclear technology, let Pakistan off with a slap on the wrist. But it was all an act. In fact, it was actually a cover-up designed to shield Cheney because he knew about the proliferation for more than a decade and did nothing to stop it.
Like the terrorist attacks on 9-11, the Bush administration had mountains of evidence on Pakistan’s sales of nuclear technology and equipment to nations vilified by the U.S. —nations that are considered much more of a threat than Iraq —but turned a blind eye to the threat and allowed it to happen.
In 1989, the year Khan first started selling nuclear secrets on the black-market; Richard Barlow, a young intelligence analyst working for the Pentagon prepared a shocking report for Cheney, who was then working as Secretary of Defense under the first President Bush administration: Pakistan built an atomic bomb and was selling its nuclear equipment to countries the U.S. said was sponsoring terrorism.
But Barlow’s findings, as reported in a January 2002 story in the magazine Mother Jones, were “politically inconvenient.”
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jason_le_050809_cheney___pakistan___.htm
Now the Fascists at Fox Are After Mick Jagger
Here we go again. First it was the Dixie Chicks, then Eminem, then Bruce Springsteen, and then...the list goes on and on. Now it's Mick Jagger's turn to be slapped around.
According to Fox's Neil Cavuto, who saw fit to air two segments about this looming crisis today (August 9, 2005), Jagger took a "big jab at the White House" in a "very controversial tune called 'Sweet Neo-Con'" in which "Mick Jagger calls the President a hypocrite and worse. A lot worse."
Cavuto turned to Fox reporter Anita Vogel who said one of the Rolling Stones' "brand new songs seems to take aim at the Bush administration without actually naming any names." She said the Stones' next album will be out in September and, "word is, it will feature a track called 'Sweet Neo-Con,' a song that seems to attack the president."
Fox then showed a graphic with these lyrics:
You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite.
You call yourself a patriot.
Well, I think you are full of s**t!
How come you're so wrong, my sweet neo-con.
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/08/09/now_the_fascists_at_fox_are_after_mick_jagger.php
LULAC upset by DeLay comment, wants talk with congressman
03:47 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 9, 2005
From 11 News Staff Reports
Congressman Tom DeLay upset many Hispanics last week when he suggested the National Guard round up illegal immigrants and house them in tents.
Now LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, has written a letter to DeLay inviting him to sit down with them and talk.
No word from DeLay's office on whether he will accept the invitation.
http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou050809_gj_lulac.59504877.html
How to Create a Children’s Charity, by Tom DeLay
Rep. Tom DeLay, speaking last night about the grand opening of a new foster home paid for by the DeLay Foundation for Kids, on Fox News:
We’re trying to set an example. Government cannot raise children. That’s the biggest problem. Community and people raise children. And that’s what we’re trying to do, is to build a model that, frankly, we can take around the country.
Towards this end, we’ve pin-pointed some of the important strategic moves Tom DeLay has made in building his own successful foundation. Pay attention charity organizers!
Step #1: Reach Out to Warm-Hearted Oil and Energy Executives
DeLay is not required to name his charity’s supporters. But tax and online records reveal that the donors include ExxonMobil, Southern Company, and SBC. … The Delay Foundation has always raised money by soliciting corporations. In its application for nonprofit status from the IRS in 1987, three years after DeLay was elected to Congress, it declared, “The initial fund-raiser will be a gala evening with a buffet, cocktails, dancing, and a short program. . . .The costs of the event are being solicited from corporate contributions by officers and directors.” [Boston Globe, 6/12/05]
Step #2: Have Jack Abramoff Trade Donations for Political Access
Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist being investigated by the Department of Justice for fraud, donated to the foundation and, according to a recent report in the National Journal, persuaded clients to do the same by telling them it was a way to get in the good graces of Tom and Christine DeLay. [Boston Globe]
Step #3: Hire Major Right-Wing Donors As Building Contractors
Since 2002, the foundation’s biggest goal has been to build a prototype residential care facility for foster children on 50 acres it owns in Fort Bend County, Texas, in suburban Houston. … Bob Perry, the Texas contractor who last year provided the seed money for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is building the facility for “cost.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/25/05]
Step #4: Say Next to Nothing About the Kids Your Charity is Helping
Only one sentence in the [Celebrations for Children] foundation’s 13-page brochure mentioned the recipients of the aid. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
Step #5: The More Golf Tournaments With Corporate Execs, The Better:
During the past five years, [the charity] has raised money primarily through golf tournaments where DeLay, 58, and other GOP House leaders have spent hours on the greens with business groups who paid large sums to participate. … There are almost no restrictions on what corporations can give to nonprofits connected to politicians, making nonprofits one of the few avenues by which companies can give vast sums since the passage of a campaign-finance reform law in 2002. [Boston Globe]
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/08/09/charity-delay/
Karl Rove Scandal and the Big Picture
By Stephen Crockett
August 8, 2005
George W. Bush seems to be placing personal loyalties and political loyalties over his Presidential obligations and image. Bush promised the American people publicly repeatedly that he would fire anyone responsible at the White House who was involved in revealing the identity of the CIA operative married to former Ambassador Wilson.
This illegal outing of a secret agent is extremely serious. It demonstrates that some White House operatives found it acceptable to break the law and endanger American national security for political advantage.
Wilson had served as an Ambassador to Iraq. He had faced down Saddam Hussein on behalf of the American government. Wilson understood both the power and limits of Iraq’s threat to peace under Saddam Hussein. He was certainly no friend or supporter of the Iraqi dictator.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=1737
continued...
Life-changing decisions
Court rulings shift euthanasia and abortion battles to the states by Gene Edward Veith
Roe v. Wade opened the floodgates to abortion on demand. Gonzales v. Oregon may have done the same thing for euthanasia.
Abortion and euthanasia are bookends in the culture of death. With abortion, a mother chooses to kill her child. With euthanasia, a child might choose to kill his mother. As Joleen Jackson, a commenter on one of WORLD's blogs put it, euthanasia is "abortion in reverse."
In Gonzales v. Oregon, the Supreme Court under its new chief justice, John Roberts, upheld Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law, which so far has taken some 200 lives. Under its provisions, someone who has been certified as having less than six months to live may ask a doctor to prescribe a poison cocktail.
http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayarticle.cfm?id=11496
Carlyle Group Fraud: USIS & Westhusing Murder
The problems with the 1997 privatization of the Office of Federal Investigations (OFI), which ultimately became U.S. Investigations Services (USIS), now owned by The Carlyle Group, were known to members of Congress, according to a former OFI official.
A number of employees of OFI, which was part of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) before privatization, refused to accept the terms of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
The late Democratic Senator Paul Simon of Illinois was particularly opposed to the privatization of OFI.
After OFI became USIS, the timeliness and quality of the security background checks conducted on Federal employees quickly deteriorated according to former OFI employees.
They saw USIS being turned into a cash laundering operation whereby a few officials at the top became instant millionaires. Insiders also report that USIS "branched" into other operations never before conducted by OFI/OPM.
These other operations were the focus of Col.
Ted Westhusing's investigation when he was "suicided" in Baghdad.
It is also noteworthy that USIS assumed control of a converted limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania.
The mine, built during the Cold War to safeguard files in the event of a nuclear conflict, contains millions of government files, including those held by the federal Employee Service and Records Center.
That means that The Carlyle Group now has access to sensitive personnel files on millions of current and past government employees as well as contractors who have applied for security clearances.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED
http://waynemadsenreport.com/
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=46&contentid=3151&page=2
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=46&contentid=3151
Nominating a judge or interfering with an investigation?
As the Valerie Plame investigation kept hitting closer and closer to home last fall, the internets starting buzzing with rumors and conspiracy theories: Would Bush pull a Nixon and find a way to fire Patrick Fitzgerald before he could indict anyone?
It didn't happen, but the news from the White House this week raises questions about whether the president is interfering in another investigation that might be getting a little too close for comfort. The president hasn't fired Noel Hillman, the chief prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff case, but he has managed to achieve the same result: Bush nominated Hillman for a seat on the federal bench this week, and Hillman immediately resigned from his job as chief of the Justice Department's public integrity division.
The White House says it's all routine, that career prosecutors are working the case and will continue to do so without a hitch. Some Democrats aren't convinced. California Rep. George Miller tells the New York Times that the timing of Hillman's nomination is "startling." "You have one of the chief prosecutors removed from a case that has tentacles throughout the Republican leadership of Congress, throughout the various agencies and into the White House," he said. New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has already called for the appointment of an independent counsel in the Abramoff case, said Hillman's departure "jaundices the whole process."
Adding to Democrats' suspicions: An investigation into Abramoff's activities in Guam ended abruptly in 2002, when Bush replaced the longtime acting U.S. attorney who was running it.
-- Tim Grieve
Those disappearing Abramoff photos
We've said it before and we'll say it again: The existence of photos of George W. Bush with Jack Abramoff really shouldn't be much of an issue for anyone. Abramoff was a major Republican player, Bush is a Republican president, and it doesn't come as much of a surprise that the two would show up in photographs with each other. As the president himself said today, "I've had my picture taken with a lot of people."
And yet ... and yet ... the White House won't release the photographs of Bush with Abramoff, and now there's word that the company that photographs a lot of Republican events -- a company that just happens to be run by a woman who contributed as much as she could to the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004 -- has scrubbed a photo of Bush and Abramoff from its catalog. Josh Marshall tells the story of his search for the photo at Talking Points Memo now. The upshot: The president of Reflections Photography says she made a "business decision" to remove the photo from her company's catalog.
What sort of business decision would that be? The president himself had the answer to that one today. He said the White House won't release photos of him with Abramoff because "we live in a world in which those pictures will be used for pure political purposes, and they're not relevant to the investigation."
-- Tim Grieve
Water Pik announces closure of Loveland facility
Reporter-Herald staff
Water Pik Technologies has announced it will close its Loveland manufacturing site starting in March. All work at the site will be finished by October, company officials said.
In its quarterly report to investors released late Wednesday, executives identified closure of the Loveland plant as a means to increase profits by the end of the year and into 2007.
“For our personal health-care business, we expect an improving sales outlook in the second half of fiscal year 2006 driven by new products and distribution gains at key retail accounts. Over time, the Loveland consolidation will measurably improve the profitability and return on capital,” said Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Hoopis.
On Jan. 6, the company had announced its impending sale to Coast Acquisition Corp., a partnership between The Carlyle Group and Zodiac S.A. That deal should be complete by April.
http://www.lovelandfyi.com/Top-Story.asp?ID=3762
Carlyle pays investors US$7b
2006-01-27 Beijing Time
CARLYLE Group, the manager of the biggest US buyout fund, paid a record US$7 billion to investors last year after selling assets as global stock markets advanced.
"This has been a golden age for our industry but nothing continues to be golden forever," David Rubenstein, co-founder of Washington-based Carlyle, said on Wednesday in an interview. The firm paid US$5.3 billion to investors in 2004 and US$2.3 billion in 2003.
Rising stock markets make it easier for buyout firms to sell businesses in initial public offerings and give publicly traded companies more currency for acquisitions. The Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index climbed 7.6 percent last year on optimism corporate profits would keep rising.
Buyout firms also raised US$134 billion to fund takeovers.
"I wouldn't be surprised if returns came down eventually but I don't know what would be the precipitating factor," Rubenstein said. He still expects returns from buyout firms to beat investments in stocks of publicly traded companies.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/01/27/238218/Carlyle_pays_investors_US_7b.htm
Health Concerns Prompt Call For ‘9/11 Health Czar’
Three Ground Zero-related Deaths Spur NY Representatives To Act
(CBS) NEW YORK The Federal General Accounting Office estimates that between 250,000 and 400,000 people lived, worked or went to school, in the ground zero vicinity at the time of the world trade center attacks.
There were 40,000 to 50,000 rescue workers, firefighters, volunteer firefighters, EMS, police and construction workers who worked on the "pile" for some length of time...of 16,000 rescue workers, not firefighters participating in a Mount Sinai Hospital study about half are sick with World Trade Center related diseases. At least three emergency workers have died.
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_026052342.html
'Warrior princess' to White House?
It has been an amazing transformation. In the first Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice was known as the "warrior princess".
From "warrior princess" to smiling face of US diplomacy
As national security adviser, she was seen as a leading hawk and architect of the Iraq war.
But Ms Rice has now become the smiling face of American diplomacy.
She is the stylish pin-up of the Republican Party and the poster child of African-American success.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4628998.stm
New Canadian PM rebuffs US envoy
Mr Harper criticised opponents for anti-US positions during the election
Canadian Prime Minister-elect Stephen Harper has defended plans to send military ice-breakers to the Arctic in defiance of criticism from Washington.
US ambassador David Wilkins said on Wednesday that Washington opposed the plan and, like most other countries, did not recognise Canada's claims.
Mr Harper said his mandate was from the Canadian people, not Mr Wilkins.
Mr Harper's Conservatives have promised to defend Canada's northern waters from claims by the US, Russia and Denmark.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4652746.stm
Prosecutor Will Step Down From Lobbyist Case
By PHILIP SHENON and ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — The investigation of Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a surprising new turn on Thursday when the Justice Department said the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush.
The prosecutor, Noel L. Hillman, is chief of the department's public integrity division, and the move ends his involvement in an inquiry that has reached into the administration as well as the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill.
The administration said that the appointment was routine and that it would not affect the investigation, but Democrats swiftly questioned the timing of the move and called for a special prosecutor.
The announcement came as Mr. Bush faced a barrage of questions about why he would not make public "grip-and-grin" photographs of him with Mr. Abramoff. The photographs apparently show Mr. Bush and Mr. Abramoff smiling at White House Hanukkah parties and Republican fund-raising receptions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/politics/27judge.html
Defense Lawyers Seek Prosecution Data on Reporters in Leak Case
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan 26 — Lawyers for Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff asked a federal judge on Thursday to order the prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case to turn over all documents in his possession related to what journalists knew from any source about the intelligence officer at the heart of the case.
The lawyers for the former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., said in their motion that the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, had refused to turn over to the defense documents that would shed light on whether any reporter knew about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, before her name was first disclosed in a newspaper column on July 14, 2003.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/politics/27leak.html
The death of blogging (aka ‘The Secret of its Success’)
Raymond de Villiers
26-JAN-06
Every few years a new software tool is released and rapidly gets spoken up by the early adopters. Soon it is introduced into the corporate sector with much fanfare. Shortly, everyone is rolling out the software – often to keep up with the corporate Jones’, more than anything. And then as the grapevine starts to pump out the failure stories we shift our gaze onto the next ‘techno-messiah’ -- and the cycle continues. At the heart of most of this failure is the overlooking of two key facets of success -- understanding the corporate culture and the user community. The Achilles heel of the corporate blogging drive is that it too is overlooking of these factors.
http://www.marketingweb.co.za/marketing/858644.htm
Halliburton swings to $1.1 billion profit
STEVE QUINN
Associated Press
DALLAS - Oilfield services conglomerate Halliburton Co. swung to a profit in its fourth quarter on robust sales and increased rig activity, and called last year the best in its 86-year history.
The income reversed a loss from a year earlier for Houston-based Halliburton, the company once led by Vice President Dick Cheney. Its KBR unit has become known for its support work for troops stationed in the Middle East.
Net income was $1.1 billion, or $2.08 a share, including a gain of $540 million or $1.02 a share, for a future tax allowance. That compared to a net loss of $203 million, or 46 cents a share last year, which included a $384 million loss from discontinued operations.
Fourth quarter revenue rose 12 percent to $5.8 billion, largely from the performance of its energy services group, which saw sales increase 31 percent.
The results, $1.03 per share excluding the gain, widely beat Wall Street's projections of 89 cents a share on revenue of $5.24 billion, according to Thomson Financial.
Like many other companies in oil-related business, Halliburton enjoyed the fruits of boom times, said analyst Jeff Tillery of Pickering Energy Partners.
"They were really helped by the oilfield business being so good and taking advantage of energy being in the upcycle," Tillery said.
Revenue at KBR, Halliburton's engineering and construction division, fell 3 percent to $3 billion, which the company said resulted from reduced military work in Iraq.
"It was less of a decline that we expected, so Iraq was really in line of how we modeled it," Tillery said.
Net income for the year 2005 was $2.4 billion, or $4.54 per share, compared to a loss of $1 billion, or $2.22 per share, from 2004. The 2004 loss included a $1.4 billion, or $3.09 per share, loss related to the settlement of asbestos and silica liabilities.
Revenue for 2005 reached nearly $21 billion, a record that also beat analysts expectations of $20.4 billion.
"This demonstrates our customers' willingness to pay a premium for our technological expertise that results in accelerated production rates," Dave Lesar, Halliburton's CEO, said in a statement.
Halliburton announced earnings after the market closed. The company plans to discuss the results Friday morning in a conference call with analysts.
During its earnings call last quarter, the company reiterated plans to either sell or spin off KBR, but said no timeline had been established.
Halliburton has been taking heat since the beginning of the war in Iraq for receiving multibillion-dollar, noncompetitive government contracts.
Congressional Democrats have contended that the Bush administration has long played favorites to Halliburton because of its ties to Cheney.
The latest round of controversy surfaced this week when former Halliburton officials claimed water for a U.S. base was contaminated and that the company failed to notify troops and civilians. Halliburton denied any contamination troubles at Camp Junction City in Ramadi, Iraq.
Shares of Halliburton rose 91 cents to close at $75.15 on the New York Stock Exchange. They added another 1.6 percent, or $1.20, in after-hours trading.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/13720580.htm
Halliburton top Army contractor of 2005
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- The ranking of America's top six defense contractors in 2005 remains unchanged from 2004, with Lockheed Martin on top and Halliburton at number six.
The value of Halliburton's defense contracts dropped considerably between the years, from $8 billion to $5.8 billion. That drop coincided with the U.S. military's attempt to rein in spending under the Logistics Civilian Augmentation Program. LOGCAP is the contract under which Halliburton provides services like dining halls, laundry and cleaning to American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Defense Department has paid Halliburton subsidiary KBR more than $12 billion so far under LOGCAP. Halliburton is the Army's single largest contractor by at least $2 billion.
Lockheed Martin, maker of the F-22 fighter aircraft, had defense contracts worth $19.4 billion, down from $20.7 billion in 2004.
Boeing was second, with $18.3 billion, an increase from $17.1 billion in 2004.
Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon remained at third, fourth and fifth, respectively, all increasing their defense receipts from 2004.
BAe (British Aerospace) jumped from 12th to seventh, more than doubling its defense contracts from $2.2 billion in 2004 to $5.6 billion in 2005.
United Technologies, with $5 billion in defense sales, dropped from seventh to eighth.
L-3 Communications Holdings went from 10th to ninth, more than doubling its business from $2.3 billion in 2004 to $4.7 billion in 2005.
Computer Sciences Corporation dropped from ninth to 10th, but increased its contract from $2.4 billion to $2.8 billion.
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060126-042616-9504r
Study: New Orleans could lose 80 percent of black population
By Michelle R. Smith, Associated Press Writer January 26, 2006
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --The city of New Orleans could lose up to 80 percent of its black population if people displaced by Hurricane Katrina are not able to return to their damaged neighborhoods, according to an analysis released Thursday by a Brown University sociologist.
Blacks and the poor were disproportionately affected by Katrina, according to the study led by Brown Professor John R. Logan. The analysis concludes that the difficulty in moving back to the city could mean a massive loss of population, overwhelmingly among blacks.
New Orleans was more than 65 percent black before Katrina hit in August, but it appears most of the estimated 135,000 residents who have been able to return are white. Mayor Ray Nagin recently apologized for saying New Orleans would remain a "chocolate city" as he tried to allay fears that blacks would not return.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/01/26/study_new_orleans_could_lose_80_percent_of_black_population/
New Orleans Museum Plans Expansion
By Greg Flakus
New Orleans, LA
26 January 2006
Rebuilding the city of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina is posing a number of challenges. Planners are still trying to determine which parts of the city should be rebuilt. But a decision has been made to reopen the city's museums and other public places. In at least one case, that of the National D-Day Museum, not only has the facility re-opened, but there are plans to expand it.
The D-Day Museum in New Orleans first opened its doors on June sixth, 2000, the 56th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy. But since that time the museum has broadened its focus to cover all aspects of World War II.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-26-voa46.cfm
Bhutto Dismisses Interpol Notice as Politically Motivated
Pakistan's former prime minister has rejected the issuance of an Interpol notice against her, calling it a political maneuver by the Pakistani government. Benazir Bhutto spoke at a press conference at the Voice of America in Washington.
Benazir Bhutto
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto dismissed Interpol's so-called red notices as part of a political campaign against her by President Pervez Musharraf.
"My husband and I have faced these scurrilous, baseless, malicious, and politically motivated charges for the past nine years," she said. "And by the grace of God, there's not a single conviction against either my husband or myself for fraud or for corruption."
The government has pledged to arrest Bhutto if she returned to Pakistan. Bhutto Thursday reiterated her statement of last year that she was ready to immediately go back to Pakistan to face any charges.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-26-voa95.cfm
Culture seen as the key to reviving New Orleans
WHILE much of the grieving and arguing about New Orleans has centred on housing, a panel appointed by the mayor, Ray Nagin, contends that any comeback will be driven by a fierce love of the city's distinctive culture - from music to food to folk traditions.
To that end, a report released this week by the cultural committee of Nagin's Bring New Orleans Back Commission proposes that the city regenerate its pool of creative talent by finding jobs and shelter for artists and cultural institutions.
http://smh.com.au/news/world/culture-seen-as-the-key-to-reviving-new-orleans/2006/01/26/1138066921561.html
MEPs want face-to-face with Cheney and Rumsfeld over torture
By David Rennie in Brussels
(Filed: 27/01/2006)
Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, should be called to testify before the European Parliament on allegations of secret CIA prisons and torture of detainees, MEPs said yesterday.
MEPs heading an investigation into the claims vowed to "name and shame" American and European leaders who declined invitations to appear before them.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/27/wrendition27.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/01/27/ixportal.html
Defense Lawyers Seek Prosecution Data on Reporters in Leak Case
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan 26 — Lawyers for Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff asked a federal judge on Thursday to order the prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case to turn over all documents in his possession related to what journalists knew from any source about the intelligence officer at the heart of the case.
The lawyers for the former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., said in their motion that the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, had refused to turn over to the defense documents that would shed light on whether any reporter knew about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, before her name was first disclosed in a newspaper column on July 14, 2003.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/politics/27leak.html
To ‘take back’ Congress, take a page from Karl Rove
It’s all too coincidental. The former vice president of the United States of America draws considerable media coverage when he charges the current president is a threat to the republic and calls for a special, independent investigator to probe spying and other possible crimes against the American people.
Four days later headlines blare that Osama bin Laden has surfaced again. After a year and a half of absence from the public eye, what is purported to be his voice mentions falling public opinion polls for Bush, cites Rep. Murtha’s call to end the occupation as a reason the president is weakened, and throws in mention of a “truce.” Simultaneously, a new terrorist attack strikes Israel — quickly blamed on Syria and Iran, two of the Bush administration’s current foes. The fear coursing through the U.S. public’s mind quickens.
The next day, Karl Rove, that king of political slime and current object of a criminal investigation, comes out with the GOP “road map” to victory for the 2006 congressional elections.
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/8472/1/306
Tom DeLay to be destroyed by forces he set in motion?
By Sheila McNulty in Houston
Published: January 26 2006 22:50 Last updated: January 26 2006 22:50
The re-election campaign headquarters for US Representative Tom DeLay is virtually empty this morning. Five people are stuffing envelopes, the press officer is checking her Blackberry, and the campaign manager and another staffer are sitting in a dark room, blinds drawn, working quietly at their desks.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/982f600a-8ebd-11da-b752-0000779e2340.html
Bush downplays Abramoff photos, again defends NSA eavesdropping
By Finlay Lewis
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
3:05 p.m. January 26, 2006
WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush on Thursday dismissed White House photos with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff as an innocent "grip-and-grin" encounter, as he sought to minimize damage to Republican candidates in the fall congressional elections from a spreading lobbying scandal.
"I don't know him," Bush insisted as the White House continues to try to keep its distance from the scandal.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20060126-1505-cnsbush.html
In D.C., Abramoff scandal cools free lunches
Rules changing in D.C., but few mavericks still go for real deal with Bon Jovi
By Joel Seidman
Producer
NBC News
Updated: 3:45 p.m. ET Jan. 26, 2006
WASHINGTON — The scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has claimed its first victim: The Capitol Hill free lunch.
Lobbyist Jon Doggett, vice president of public policy for the National Corn Growers Association, can't give them away. He offered to take some congressional staffers to lunch last week, but was told they could not accept meals from lobbyists anymore.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11025206/
Democrats Urge Outside Counsel For Abramoff Investigation
Two Senate Democrats are calling for a special counsel to take over the investigation of the corruption scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
http://www.wcsh6.com/home/article.asp?id=30986
If Abramoff is truly frum, I’ll eat my black hat
by eliyahu stern
The New York Times and ABC News just could not understand why Jack Abramoff, a master of public relations, would walk out of a courtroom — where he pleaded guilty earlier this month to three felony counts — wearing a Mafioso-styled black fedora. Whose sympathy exactly was he after?
While the Times could not understand the bizarre spectacle, Jews recognized Abramoff’s headgear all too well as a sign of Orthodox piety.
It is far from ironic that Abramoff would be wearing such a hat to court. From start to finish his lobbyist career and his cover-ups have been cloaked in religious garb. Perhaps the best example of Abramoff’s religious antics comes from a story in the New York Times Magazine in 2005 that reported he was nominated for membership in the Cosmos Club, an exclusive Washington insiders organization.
Abramoff was flattered by the nomination, but knowing all too well just how newly cool he was in Washington circles, he feared the club would realize the emperor had no clothes. He needed some serious moral and intellectual credibility quickly.
So he reportedly called his “rebbe” and longtime supporter Rabbi Daniel Lapin, head of the right-wing organization Toward Tradition, and asked him if he could patch together some award in his honor — “something like Scholar of Talmudic Studies,” Abramoff wrote in an email to Lapin. While Lapin was at it, Abramoff asked him if he could make it appear “that I received these in years past.” Lapin assured him it was no problem.
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/28216/format/html/displaystory.html
Petrolium Profits and Governmental Grandstanding
BY TYLER SUHRE DROWN
Following record oil profits and spikes in gasoline prices, a panel of Senators summoned executives of the petroleum industry to justify their earnings post-Hurricane Katrina. Around the country governors and state legislatures threatened gas stations with emergency provisions that would ban price gouging at the pump. Even Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist – who is not a member of the usual anti-corporate crowd - voiced concerns that it may be time for a federal anti-gouging law. It is heartening, but not surprising, that senators are collaborating for a common cause.
Windfall taxes are a bad idea and, the price of gasoline needed to rise after the hurricanes in a balanced move to curb consumption and prevent a supply shock.
The price of gasoline was a reflection of the uncertainty in the supply chain after Katrina damaged several gulf refineries. Compounding these fears, offshore oil rigs and onshore oil derricks were also at risk. Indeed, Katrina ultimately destroyed 113 oil and gas production platforms.
The good news is that the damage turned out to be less than the doomsayers feared,
http://www.pennindy.com/index.php?id=3,10,0,0,1,0
Royal Oak deputy city attorney runs for Congress
BY ERIC CZARNIK
STAFF WRITER
Vowing not to be a rubber stamp for White House policy, Royal Oak's Deputy City Attorney Jim Marcinkowski has embarked on a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives.
In doing so, he will contend as a Democrat in Michigan's 8th Congressional District against incumbent Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Brighton). The district covers sections of Oakland and Shiawassee counties as well as the entirety of Clinton, Ingham and Livingston counties.
Marcinkowski, 51, of Lake Orion said that he has an economic and national security agenda that promotes America's interests. But the one-time Ronald Reagan supporter is running as a Democrat because he believes that the GOP has shifted too far to the right.
http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060126/NEWS18/601260759/1035
President Receives Phone Call from US Secretary of State
RAMALLAH, January 26, 2006 (WAFA)- President Mahmoud Abbas received Thursday a phone call from US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice.
The Presidency Spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdaina said that Rice appreciated the democratic electoral process and the President's courage in giving the Palestinian people the chance to practice the electoral right.
He also added that Rice asserted that the US Administration will continue its support to President Abbas and his policies.
In the phone call, Abbas briefed Rice about the latest developments and they agreed to keep in contact, Abu Rdaina added.
http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?id=5221
McCarthyism at the U
by Bill Willers
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 26, 2006
On January 19, the London Guardian published an article on a right-wing organization at the University of California-Los Angeles and its project to monitor and profile “radical” professors.
The group’s website, www.uclaprofs.com, explains what is required of spies for a $100 payment:
Full, detailed lecture notes, all professor-distributed materials, and full tape recordings of every class session, for one class: $100 (Note: lecture notes must make particular note of audience reactions, comments, and other details that will properly contextualize the professor’s non-pertinent ideological comments. If the class in question is ongoing or upcoming, UCLAProfs.com will provide (if needed) all necessary taping equipment and materials.)
Cruise the website and you find that what targeted faculty have in common is a questioning of the status quo. All “Dirty Thirty” are in the humanities with most in law, history, and women’s and minority studies -- areas most likely to support multiculturalism.
Clearly the Right is out to destroy K-12 public education. Their attacks on public schools and teacher’s unions has become a drumbeat. The goal is a system of schools operated by private companies with absolute control of course content and exams. According to press accounts, Neil Bush, brother to the President, and William Bennett, Reagan’s Education Secretary, both high profile rightists, have geared up in anticipation of the coming world of privatized education by founding their own corporations: K12, Inc. by Bennett and Ignite, Inc. by Bush.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan06/Willers26.htm
Full transcript: the McCain interview
Full transcript of Senator John McCain's interview with The Times:
You are a regular visitor to London, where you recently met with leading conservatives such as George Osborne and others from David Cameron’s team. Is it your impression that something is at last beginning to stir in the British Conservative undergrowth?
Yes. I think it's clear there is a new generation of leadership in the Conservative party. These young men — and women I'm sure (I just met young men) have a very enthusiastic and clear vision of the obstacles they have to overcome to get new Conservative majority. I think they've got something else going for them, which is when parties stay in power for a long period or too long — thank God — democracies mean parties change and that will happen again.
You’ve met Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before. In the future, would you prefer to deal with a Prime Minister Cameron or a Prime Minister Brown?
It's hard for me to make a judgment. I couldn't have predicted that Tony Blair would have been as steadfast on Iraq as he was. Events determine relationships and I’m eternally grateful to PM Blair for the courage — whenever you stand up versus majority of your own party it's an act of courage — in supporting us in Iraq. From what I know of, and have seen of PM Cameron — I mean Mr Cameron — I'm sure he and I are more philosophically aligned about the role of government because I'm more conservative myself. But the good news is that I cannot imagine a government in power in England which does not preserve the unique relationship with the US; I think that will last a long, long time.
Are you going to run for President in 2008?
We will decide in about a year. Why wait? First of all there is no reason not to wait and secondly it's very difficult to know this far out the mood of the country. A year ago when we started out having these obscure hearing into this guy Abramoff I would never have known this would become such a dominating issue. And that was just a year and a half ago. So in a year form now what are the American people's priorities going to be?
How are we doing in the war in Iraq — this year is going to be critical in the future of Iraq — how is the economy going? In short do my list of talents and strengths match up with the priorities of the American people? And this is something which the longer you wait the easier it's going to be to decide.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2011316,00.html
LaTourette wrote letter to GSA for Abramoff lobbying associate
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Sabrina Eaton
Plain Dealer Bureau
Washington - Rep. Steve LaTourette assisted disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2002 by writing a pair of letters to the Bush administration at the request of an Abramoff associate.
LaTourette didn't do anything improper, but he did something that a number of other lawmakers have found embarrassing - writing letters as a favor to someone who winds up mired in controversy.
"There is nothing about the letters that I feel bad about, although who wants to be connected to Jack Abramoff?" the Concord Township Republican said Wednesday.
LaTourette's September 2002 letters pertained to redevelopment of the historic Old Post Office in Washington, D.C. He said he wrote them at the request of Neil Volz, who became a lobbyist for Abramoff after serving as chief of staff for LaTourette's friend, Licking County Republican Rep. Bob Ney.
LaTourette's letters asked the agency that oversees federal buildings, the General Services Administration, to give special priority to economically disadvantaged small businesses that wanted to participate in the redevelopment of the ornate landmark on Pennsylvania Avenue, roughly midway between the White House and the Capitol.
He said that he sent the letters because he agreed with their premise and that Volz got no special attention. When the letters were written, LaTourette headed the subcommittee that oversaw the GSA. He said he received "tons" of correspondence from parties interested in the building. He expressed belief that Volz made the request for one of his lobbying clients, but said he doesn't know who.
"I write letters all the time, and this was handled in the way we normally handle it," said LaTourette. "At the end of the day, we sent the letters because having minority small businesses bid on big federal contracts is a policy I support."
Stephen A. Perry, the former Timken Co. official who headed GSA at that time, sent LaTourette a reply confirming that his agency would make special outreach efforts to disadvantaged small businesses. Perry could not be reached for comment.
The Old Post Office, built in 1899 and distinguished by a 315-foot-tall clock tower, contains federal offices, shops and a food court. A GSA spokesman said the building has not been redeveloped. LaTourette has co-sponsored legislation that would convert part of it into a Women's History Museum.
LaTourette's exchange with the GSA was first publicized Wednesday by the Capitol Hill newspaper "Roll Call," which obtained the correspondence through a public records request. LaTourette faxed the letters to The Plain Dealer, along with Volz's initial July 2002 e-mail query to a staffer.
Federal investigators are probing the role of Ney and Volz in a bribery scheme that Abramoff described when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion charges this month. Neither has been charged. Ney denies wrongdoing. Volz and his attorney didn't respond to phone calls yesterday. Abramoff's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, declined to comment on the letters.
Papers filed in the case against Abramoff say he plied members of Congress, including Ney, with campaign contributions, trips, meals and sports tickets.
Court filings indicate that the GSA was another Abramoff target. He sought leasing information on the Old Post Office from former GSA Chief of Staff David Safavian and a regulation change that might secure minority-owned small-business contracts for Indian tribes he represented.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1138268628217260.xml&coll=2&thispage=2
Libby wants what reporters knew in CIA leak case
Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:10 PM ET
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorneys for a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney sought on Thursday to force federal prosecutors to turn over information about what journalists knew before the leak of a CIA operative's name.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby's lawyers filed a motion asking the federal judge presiding over the case to require that they be given documents on what the reporters knew about CIA operative Valerie Plame before her name was disclosed.
Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of obstructing justice, perjury and lying in the two-year investigation by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald into the leak to the news media of Plame's identity.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-01-27T001012Z_01_N26347352_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-LEAK.xml&archived=False
As the State of the Union Draws Near, Two-Thirds of U.S. Adults Rate Current State of the Country as Poor, According to Latest Harris Poll
Majorities believe the war in Iraq is not going well and is damaging to thepresidentROCHESTER, N.Y., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- As President Bush prepares toaddress the country with the State of the Union, only one-third (32%) of U.S.adults believe the current state of the country is good, while 68 percentbelieve it is poor. Interestingly, men are more likely to have a favorableperspective, with 39 percent of men believing the current state of the countryis good, compared to only 27 percent of women.These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,518 U.S. adultssurveyed online between January 12 and 17, 2006 by Harris Interactive(R).People's general dissatisfaction related to a number of issues may accountfor the current levels of dissatisfaction with the state of the country. Eightin ten (80%) adults believe the efforts to strengthen Social Security, makeprescription drugs affordable (77%) and make taxes fairer (76%) have beenpoor. Majorities also feel the war in Iraq (68%), the war or terrorism (56%)and the efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast (64%) and strengthen the economy(62%) are going poorly.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-26-2006/0004268978&EDATE=
Reliance Ind, Bechtel in engineering JV
REUTERS
Posted online: Thursday, January 26, 2006 at 1606 hours IST
MUMBAI, JANUARY 26: India's biggest private-sector refiner, Reliance Industries Ltd., has formed an equal joint venture with US engineering and construction firm Bechtel, a leading business daily said on Thursday.
The joint venture will handle subsidiary Reliance Petroleum's proposed $6 billion refinery and polypropylene project in Jamnagar, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, and will bid for other projects in India and overseas, the paper said.
No financial details of the joint venture were reported.
A Reliance spokesman declined comment.
But an advertisement on the company's Web site said Reliance "has joined hands with Bechtel to form a joint venture," and called for applications from engineers for the joint venture, which would take on engineering projects in the fields of refinery, oil and gas, pipelines and chemical industries.
The oil and petrochemicals company earlier this week said it plans to raise $1.1-$1.3 billion in an initial public offering by Reliance Petroleum, and that it plans a $750 million foray into retail.
India last July reached a $160 million settlement with Bechtel on the company's claims on the mothballed Dabhol power plant.
http://www.financialexpress.com/latest_full_story.php?content_id=115709
Letter avoids hedge fund concern
Update to investors ignores partner's sanction, sheds light on fund's recent showing
RICK ROTHACKER
rrothacker@charlotteobserver.com
When hedge fund Mangan & McColl Partners sent its regular update to investors this month, the firm left out a significant event: One of the partners had been sanctioned by regulators.
Instead, the Jan. 19 letter stuck to a routine rundown on performance.
In December, firm partner John Mangan Jr. reached a $125,000 settlement with regulators over charges of improper trading of a private securities offering, stemming from actions in 2001 when he was with another firm. He also was barred from the brokerage industry.
The hedge fund, whose other partner is Hugh McColl III, son of the former Bank of America chief, has said the settlement will not limit its business. But it's unclear how investors have reacted to the sanctions.
Hedge funds are loosely regulated investment pools for wealthy investors and institutions, and little information is public about their workings.
In a statement delivered by spokesman Steve Luquire, the firm told the Observer that it keeps "all matters relating to our clients in the strictest confidence and therefore cannot respond to your questions."
"We have kept our clients informed and will continue to do so. We are proud of our firm and our relationship with our loyal customers."
The January letter, first disclosed by the New York Post on Wednesday, sheds some light on the fund's recent performance and its response to the Securities and Exchange Commission's effort to register hedge funds.
The hedge fund's main strategy is to make money based on the performance of stocks that are involved in mergers and acquisitions. Shares can rise or fall depending on whether the company is the buyer or the seller, or whether the deal is ultimately completed.
According to the letter, the fund's performance was down 2.10 percent in 2005, compared to a 4.91 percent increase in the S&P 500 Index and a 5.69 percent increase in the HFR Merger Arbitrage Index.
The down year came after stronger performance in the past. From 1998 through 2005, the fund is up 107.78 percent, compared to 26.29 percent in the S&P 500 and 65.05 percent for the merger arbitrage index.
"The year 2005 was very challenging and we have endeavored to learn from the experience," the letter states.
How investors have reacted to the negative performance is unclear. The firm doesn't disclose total assets, although a securities filing in September said the firm had more than $700 million.
Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that hedge funds suffered their first quarterly withdrawals in more than a decade, as average investment returns in 2005 fell below 10 percent for the second straight year.
Investors withdrew $824 million in the fourth quarter, Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. said in a report Wednesday. Industry assets had more than doubled since 2000 to $1.1 trillion, as investors were lured by returns that averaged 16 percent in the 1990s.
Starting next month, the SEC is asking hedge funds to register unless they meet certain criteria. In the letter, Mangan & McColl says it will not register because it has changed the lockup period for new investments to two years. Many other hedge funds are also expected to decline registration.
Mangan's settlement with the National Association of Securities Dealers in December involved charges of improper trading of a private securities offering when he was with the investment firm Friedman, Billings, Ramsey. Mangan neither admitted nor declined wrongdoing.
The agreement said Mangan's partner was involved in the transactions but does not identify McColl III by name. McColl III was not a registered broker and did not fall under the NASD's supervision.
According to a 2004 securities filing, Mangan and McColl III are the managing members of the firm and each owns a 50 percent equity stake.
The New York Post article Wednesday said the fund has "a close relationship" with Marvin Bush, brother of President George W. Bush and a founder of Virginia-based investment firm Winston Partners. In the story, Bush told the Post he served as a reference for Mangan when he was raising capital for his fund.
Marvin Bush's office said he would not comment for this story.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/13713945.htm
Vets aren't happy about healthcare
January 25, 2006
Albany - More than a quarter million veterans were unable to sign up for health care during this last fiscal year because of cost-cutting moves.
The locked-out vets have no illnesses or injuries as a result of their service and earn more than the average wage in their community.
Local veteran Marvin Mixon says many veterans, "Sort of like they pulled the rug out from under a lot of folks that really need the assistance, and they are told they don't qualify anymore, even though they feel like they followed thru with their end of the contract, but now they are told it won't be there."
The Veterans Affairs Department says that all Iraq Veterans are guaranteed health care, provided they enroll within two years of leaving the military.
Feedback: news@walb.com?subject=VetsHealthcare
http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=4410597&nav=5kZQ
Carlyle Group to reap huge profit from QinetiQ float
· Defence firm expects market valuation of £1.3bn
· Equity group stake bought for £42m may fetch £330m
Mark Milner, industrial editor
Thursday January 26, 2006
QinetiQ, the government's defence and security technology business, will come to the stock market next month with a value of up to £1.33bn, making multi-millionaires of its chairman and chief executive and huge profits for the US private equity group, Carlyle. Shares in the biggest privatisation under the Blair administration will be priced at between 165p and 205p, with the grey market - the City's guesstimate of the final strike price - standing between 190p and 203p.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1695151,00.html
Carlyle Group To Reap Huge Profit From QinetiQ Stock Offering
Posted on Thursday, January 26 2006 00:30:54 PST by Intellpuke
Read 60 times
QinetiQ, the British government's defense and security technology business, will come to the stock market next month with a value of up to £1.33 billion ($2.373 billion), making multi-millionaires of its chairman and chief executive and huge profits for the U.S. private equity group, Carlyle. Shares in the biggest privatization under the Blair administration will be priced at between £165 ($294)and £205 ($365), with the grey market - the City's guesstimate of the final strike price - standing between £190 ($339) and £203 ($362).
If the shares were sold at £205, the top of the price range, the 31% Carlyle stake - bought for £42.4 million ($75.658 million) in 2003 - would be worth £338 million ($603.194 million). QinetiQ chairman Sir John Chisholm's holding would be valued at £26 million ($46.399 million) and chief executive Graham Love's stake would be worth £22 million ($39.272 million). The company's biggest shareholder, the Ministry of Defense, which has been criticized for selling the stake to Carlyle too cheaply, would see its 56% holding worth £623 million ($1.112 billion).
http://freeinternetpress.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5660
De Brauw teams up with NY leader on VNU takeover bid
CC joins pairing on private equity consortium’s bid for Netherlands media giant
Dutch leader De Brauw Blackstone & Westbroek has teamed up with New York powerhouse Simpson Thacher & Bartlett to advise Netherlands-based media giant VNU on a €7.3bn (£5bn) takeover offer by a private equity consortium.
The move comes after a heavyweight consortium of private equity firms, led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, approached VNU on 16 January.
The other members of the consortium are AlpInvest Partners, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Per-mira and Thomas H Lee Partners.
http://www.legalweekglobal.net/ViewItem.asp?id=27325
Bush's War of Terror, the neo-cons (Part Six)
Deanna Spingola
August 10, 2005
Two major events culminated in the United States going into the two major world wars. From the sinking of the British steamship the Lusitania [1] on 7 May 1915 in which 128 American citizens lost their lives to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 which took 2,400 lives. [2] Another 1,100 were wounded. [3] An enemy attack is a justifiable reason to retaliate in kind. However, from reliable sources and witnesses we can conclude that the devised circumstances of both events were known in advance and could have been prevented.
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/spingola/050810
Judith Miller’s Secret Meeting
Scooter Libby and jailed reporter Judy Miller met just two days after Joe Wilson published his column -- and Patrick Fitzgerald is very interested.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has told federal investigators that he met with New York Times reporter Judith Miller on July 8, 2003, and discussed CIA operative Valerie Plame, according to legal sources familiar with Libby's account.
The meeting between Libby and Miller has been a central focus of the investigation by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald as to whether any Bush administration official broke the law by unmasking Plame's identity, or relied on classified information to discredit former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, according to sources close to the case as well as documents filed in federal court by Fitzgerald.
http://www.alternet.org/story/23980/
Hard questions about Halliburton
By REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD
August 9, 2005
Bunnatine Greenhouse asked questions other Americans should be asking: Why did Halliburton receive huge contracts in Iraq without competitive bidding? Do these contracts violate federal law or regulations on fair and open bidding?
One of the great things about being an American is having the freedom to scrutinize the government - unless you're a government employee, it appears. Greenhouse works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for awarding billions of taxpayer dollars to companies hired for reconstruction in Iraq. Asking questions about Halliburton got her demoted.
But she isn't going down without a fight.
"I took an oath of office. I took those words that I was going to protect the interests of my government and my country. So help me God. And nobody. Has the right. To take away my privilege. To serve my government. Nobody," she was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.
Amen.
What is the truth about the performance of Halliburton, where Vice President Dick Cheney was once the CEO? Why was the company awarded two of three multibillion-dollar contracts without bidding for them? Why haven't any results been released from an independent investigation by the Defense Department that was supposed to be under way? Why aren't government workers like Greenhouse protected under whistleblower statutes?
There are lots of questions the American people should be asking. Because apparently those who take an oath to protect the people can't ask those questions. Not and keep their jobs anyway.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050809/OPINION03/508090350/1035/opinion
Halliburton receives Petrobras contract to deliver reservoir monitoring
by: OilOnline
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Halliburton's Energy Services Group was recently awarded a contract to provide its EZ-Gauge(TM) monitoring system technology on projects for Petrobras in Brazil.
"Petrobras selected the EZ-Gauge system technology because it provides a cost-effective, accurate pressure data collection system that is free of downhole electronics," said Cidar Mansilla, operations manager, Latin America South, Halliburton. "The reliability and longevity of the system is significantly greater most other monitoring technologies."
The most commonly used alternative to EZ-Gauge system technology is conventional electronic, permanent downhole gauges. The EZ-Gauge system is designed to reduce cost, improve reliability and improve longevity over conventional electronic systems, particularly in downhole environments exceeding 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
"After performing two direct comparisons with the quartz electronic memory gauges, it became clear that Halliburton's EZ-Gauge system is another good option for addressing the accuracy of data and providing optimum reliability and longevity so imperative to our operations," said Pier Giovanni Cassarà, Well Intervention manager, Northern Asset, Petrobrás.
All gauges have a life expectancy that varies according to the environment in which they are deployed and operate. The EZ-Gauge system is typically run in high temperature environments that require resilient equipment that holds up over time and maintains the integrity of the data reported.
"The EZ-Gauge system has been designed to be very reliable over an extended period of time, particularly in extreme environments," said Mansilla. "A gauge system with downhole electronics in high temperature environments over 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for instance, have historically had a very limited life. However, now with the EZ-Gauge system, operators benefit from long-term, valuable insight into well and reservoir performance."
http://www.oilonline.com/news/headlines/business/20050809.Hallibur.18768.asp
Cheney + Pakistan = Iran
VP Cheney Helped Cover-Up Pakistani Nuclear Proliferation In '89
by Jason Leopold
http://www.opednews.com
When news of Pakistan’s clandestine program showed how the country's top nuclear scientist was secretly selling Iran and North Korea, the so-called “Axis of Evil,” blueprints for building an atomic bomb were uncovered last year, the world’s leaders waited, with baited breath, to see how President Bush would punish Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaff.
Bush has, after all, spent his entire two terms in office talking tough about countries and dictators that conceal weapons of mass destruction and even tougher on individuals who supply rogue nations and terrorists with the means to build WMDs. For all intents and purposes, Pakistan and Musharraf fit that description.
Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and top members of the administration reacted with shock when they found out that Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan ’s top nuclear scientist, spent the past 15 years selling outlaw nations nuclear technology and equipment. So it was sort of a surprise when Bush, upon finding out about Khan’s proliferation of nuclear technology, let Pakistan off with a slap on the wrist. But it was all an act. In fact, it was actually a cover-up designed to shield Cheney because he knew about the proliferation for more than a decade and did nothing to stop it.
Like the terrorist attacks on 9-11, the Bush administration had mountains of evidence on Pakistan’s sales of nuclear technology and equipment to nations vilified by the U.S. —nations that are considered much more of a threat than Iraq —but turned a blind eye to the threat and allowed it to happen.
In 1989, the year Khan first started selling nuclear secrets on the black-market; Richard Barlow, a young intelligence analyst working for the Pentagon prepared a shocking report for Cheney, who was then working as Secretary of Defense under the first President Bush administration: Pakistan built an atomic bomb and was selling its nuclear equipment to countries the U.S. said was sponsoring terrorism.
But Barlow’s findings, as reported in a January 2002 story in the magazine Mother Jones, were “politically inconvenient.”
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jason_le_050809_cheney___pakistan___.htm
Now the Fascists at Fox Are After Mick Jagger
Here we go again. First it was the Dixie Chicks, then Eminem, then Bruce Springsteen, and then...the list goes on and on. Now it's Mick Jagger's turn to be slapped around.
According to Fox's Neil Cavuto, who saw fit to air two segments about this looming crisis today (August 9, 2005), Jagger took a "big jab at the White House" in a "very controversial tune called 'Sweet Neo-Con'" in which "Mick Jagger calls the President a hypocrite and worse. A lot worse."
Cavuto turned to Fox reporter Anita Vogel who said one of the Rolling Stones' "brand new songs seems to take aim at the Bush administration without actually naming any names." She said the Stones' next album will be out in September and, "word is, it will feature a track called 'Sweet Neo-Con,' a song that seems to attack the president."
Fox then showed a graphic with these lyrics:
You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite.
You call yourself a patriot.
Well, I think you are full of s**t!
How come you're so wrong, my sweet neo-con.
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/08/09/now_the_fascists_at_fox_are_after_mick_jagger.php
LULAC upset by DeLay comment, wants talk with congressman
03:47 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 9, 2005
From 11 News Staff Reports
Congressman Tom DeLay upset many Hispanics last week when he suggested the National Guard round up illegal immigrants and house them in tents.
Now LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, has written a letter to DeLay inviting him to sit down with them and talk.
No word from DeLay's office on whether he will accept the invitation.
http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou050809_gj_lulac.59504877.html
How to Create a Children’s Charity, by Tom DeLay
Rep. Tom DeLay, speaking last night about the grand opening of a new foster home paid for by the DeLay Foundation for Kids, on Fox News:
We’re trying to set an example. Government cannot raise children. That’s the biggest problem. Community and people raise children. And that’s what we’re trying to do, is to build a model that, frankly, we can take around the country.
Towards this end, we’ve pin-pointed some of the important strategic moves Tom DeLay has made in building his own successful foundation. Pay attention charity organizers!
Step #1: Reach Out to Warm-Hearted Oil and Energy Executives
DeLay is not required to name his charity’s supporters. But tax and online records reveal that the donors include ExxonMobil, Southern Company, and SBC. … The Delay Foundation has always raised money by soliciting corporations. In its application for nonprofit status from the IRS in 1987, three years after DeLay was elected to Congress, it declared, “The initial fund-raiser will be a gala evening with a buffet, cocktails, dancing, and a short program. . . .The costs of the event are being solicited from corporate contributions by officers and directors.” [Boston Globe, 6/12/05]
Step #2: Have Jack Abramoff Trade Donations for Political Access
Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist being investigated by the Department of Justice for fraud, donated to the foundation and, according to a recent report in the National Journal, persuaded clients to do the same by telling them it was a way to get in the good graces of Tom and Christine DeLay. [Boston Globe]
Step #3: Hire Major Right-Wing Donors As Building Contractors
Since 2002, the foundation’s biggest goal has been to build a prototype residential care facility for foster children on 50 acres it owns in Fort Bend County, Texas, in suburban Houston. … Bob Perry, the Texas contractor who last year provided the seed money for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is building the facility for “cost.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 4/25/05]
Step #4: Say Next to Nothing About the Kids Your Charity is Helping
Only one sentence in the [Celebrations for Children] foundation’s 13-page brochure mentioned the recipients of the aid. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
Step #5: The More Golf Tournaments With Corporate Execs, The Better:
During the past five years, [the charity] has raised money primarily through golf tournaments where DeLay, 58, and other GOP House leaders have spent hours on the greens with business groups who paid large sums to participate. … There are almost no restrictions on what corporations can give to nonprofits connected to politicians, making nonprofits one of the few avenues by which companies can give vast sums since the passage of a campaign-finance reform law in 2002. [Boston Globe]
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/08/09/charity-delay/
Karl Rove Scandal and the Big Picture
By Stephen Crockett
August 8, 2005
George W. Bush seems to be placing personal loyalties and political loyalties over his Presidential obligations and image. Bush promised the American people publicly repeatedly that he would fire anyone responsible at the White House who was involved in revealing the identity of the CIA operative married to former Ambassador Wilson.
This illegal outing of a secret agent is extremely serious. It demonstrates that some White House operatives found it acceptable to break the law and endanger American national security for political advantage.
Wilson had served as an Ambassador to Iraq. He had faced down Saddam Hussein on behalf of the American government. Wilson understood both the power and limits of Iraq’s threat to peace under Saddam Hussein. He was certainly no friend or supporter of the Iraqi dictator.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=1737
continued...
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