Morning Papers - continued

Journalism at Risk

First Source of C.I.A. Leak Admits Role, Lawyer Says
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 — Richard L. Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state, has acknowledged that he was the person whose conversation with a columnist in 2003 prompted a long, politically laden criminal investigation in what became known as the C.I.A. leak case, a lawyer involved in the case said on Tuesday.
Mr. Armitage did not return calls for comment. But the lawyer and other associates of Mr. Armitage have said he has confirmed that he was the initial and primary source for the columnist, Robert D. Novak, whose column of July 14, 2003, identified Valerie Wilson as a Central Intelligence Agency officer.
The identification of Mr. Armitage as the original leaker to Mr. Novak ends what has been a tantalizing mystery. In recent months, however, Mr. Armitage’s role had become clear to many, and it was recently reported by Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/30/washington/30armitage.html?hp&ex=1156996800&en=a6e9275f2042ee8c&ei=5094&partner=homepage



Journalist killed after investigating US-backed death squads in Iraq
By James Cogan
1 July 2005
On June 24, Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi special correspondent for the news agency Knight Ridder, was killed by a single bullet to the head as he approached a checkpoint that had been thrown up near his home in western Baghdad by US and Iraqi troops. It is believed that the shot was fired by an American sniper. According to eyewitnesses, no warning shots were fired.
The US military has announced it is conducting an investigation into Salihee’s killing. Knight Ridder has already declared, however, that “there’s no reason to think that the shooting had anything to do with his reporting work”. In fact, his last assignment gives reason to suspect that it was.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jul2005/iraq-j01.shtml



Lebanese journalists offer helping hand to French colleagues
By Audrey Kauffmann
Agence France-Presse
PARIS — Lebanese reporters based in Paris — willing to share their experience of the region's wars and brimming contact books — have set up a one-stop-shop to help foreign colleagues cover the conflict with Israel.
"We thought it would be more useful than organising demos — other people can do that just as well," explained Elie Masboungi, Paris correspondent of the French-language Lebanese daily L'Orient-Le Jour.
Operating out of the corner of the Lebanese tourism office in Paris, around 15 volunteers have been taking turns since Monday to man a crisis cell and information hotline for other media professionals.
Though now based in Paris, all of the journalists involved — of a range of faiths and outlooks — have experienced previous conflicts in Lebanon.
They know that working in certain parts of the country right now entails big risks, and is next-to-impossible "without tips or contacts". "You need guides, trustworthy people who know the area, drivers, taxis... We can organise all of that," said Emilie Hasrouty, a journalist at the Paris-based RMC Moyen-Orient radio.
The aim, she said, was to help French media "show what is happening in Lebanon as much as what is happening in Israel".
Masboungi agreed: "There are not enough pictures from Lebanon. French TV crews on the ground are having trouble working. A lot of money was poured into coverage of the Iraq war, and it seems the funds have dried up for Lebanon." The Lebanese tourism office — based on Paris' glitzy Faubourg Saint-Honore, known for its luxury fashion stores — is normally closed in August but agreed to open its doors to help get the project off the ground.
"Lebanon still exists, but since there is no tourism we might as well put the place to good use," said Masboungi.
In practice the crisis cell, open six days a week from 10:00am to 6:00pm, is a single grey desk, planted next to a window display vaunting Lebanon's top tourist attractions such as the ancient sites at Baalbek, Jbeil and Sidon.
Still to come are a television set, computer and high-speed Internet line — but even with such a basic set-up the volunteers are already fielding more than a dozen calls a day.
"Someone might call looking for a Lebanese family who has taken refuge in France, or trying to set up an interview with a Lebanese minister." "Someone else might want information on the best way to reach Beirut now the main roads have been cut," said Zeina Al Tibi, who writes for La Revue du Liban, a French-language weekly.
Along with the other volunteers, Tibi spent the first two weeks of the conflict pitting Israel against Shiite Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon, "glued" to her television screen, her stomach knotted in anguish. "At RMC Moyen-Orient, there are around 30 Lebanese workers and we all have stomach aches," said Hasrouty, whose entire family is in Lebanon. "We are doing our job. We are journalists first and foremost — before being Lebanese. But at a personal level, it isn't easy," said the young woman. Masboungi, for his part, has not shaved since mid-July, and has vowed to let his beard grow unkempt "until the last Israeli soldier has left Lebanon".
"That could take some time," he sighed.
Thursday, August 10, 2006

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news7.htm



Major Arab news channels tested in war
By Ali Khalil
Agence France-Presse
DUBAI — When Arab news channels raced to cover Israel's retaliation against Hizbollah's capture of two soldiers on July 12, they had little idea that they were in for a long, all-out war.
The widely-watched Doha-based Al Jazeera, which initially adopted the logo "Lebanon under siege" for its coverage, soon replaced it with the more dramatic Arab-Israeli "Sixth War" — reflecting the magnitude of the unfolding conflict.
For Dubai-based Al Arabiya, it was "The Hot Summer," with most of its airtime dedicated to live programmes dubbed "Lebanon under fire" and "Diaries of the war." "All media were taken by surprise," said Jihad Ballout, corporate communications officer of the Saudi-backed Al Arabiya which, along with Qatari-funded Al Jazeera, represents the main pan-Arab 24-hour news channels.
Other Arab channels that have provided extensive coverage include state-owned televisions and Lebanese private counterparts.
The latter have carried wide footage, which has been used by international news networks.
Benefiting from a high satellite television penetration in the Arab world, the two main channels brought the current war into most living rooms in the region.
"The same [surprise] applies to all Arab and international media. But we reacted swiftly ... through relying on our permanent presence in Beirut until we reinforced it with more manpower and logistics," Ballout told AFP.
Despite Lebanon's history of violent conflicts, which includes a 1975-90 civil war and Israeli invasions in 1978 and 1982, this was the first time for the two pan-Arab channels to cover a Lebanon war. Al Jazeera went on air in 1996, while Al Arabiya was launched in 2003. Both had experience in covering the war in Iraq, and Al Jazeera was the only television to cover from Kabul the US-led war on Afghanistan's Taleban in 2001.
Al Arabiya dispatched a number of its Iraq-war veteran correspondents to Lebanon to back up its team of local reporters.
Al Jazeera went further, placing some of its news anchors in Beirut.
From a rooftop in the newly-rebuilt central district of Beirut, Al Jazeera's newscasters lead the channel's main news bulletins with up-to-date reports on fighting and Israeli air strikes. As regional outlets with Arabic-speaking viewers across the world, these channels have outdone international counterparts in allocating air time to war coverage.
Both televisions have also mobilised their teams in Israel and the West Bank to cover Hizbollah's shelling of northern Israel. On several occasions, they appeared being chased by Israeli troops from areas near the Lebanon border.
Al Jazeera correspondents, the first to report the first-ever bombing of the town of Haifa, were later briefly detained by police.
Both channels have also given Israeli spokespersons a platform to put their country's viewpoint across to Arab viewers.
But on the Lebanon side, most reporters were locals seeing their country's villages and towns being reduced to rubble, and their countrymen falling by the hundreds — a big test for their objectivity.
"A journalist cannot be isolated from his roots and feelings. I cannot imagine feelings being impartial ... In this situation it's even more difficult because the casualties are innocents," said Ballout.
"But there are certain measures in practice to preserve objectivity ... As usual, there must be a source for the news and/or witnesses," he added.
Satellite channels are, however, playing a major role in mobilising the angry populace in Arab countries. Images of dead children and women being retrieved from rubble are repeatedly transmitted to people's small screens.
"What we are showing now is only a fraction of the gruesome images which we have decided to withhold," said Al Jazeera's news anchor Jamal Rayan as he commented on fresh images of the aftermath of an Israeli raid which killed 28 farm workers in eastern Lebanon.
He vented his anger grilling an Israeli interviewee who was adamant that the raid had targeted a lorry suspected of transporting rockets to Hizbollah, while images of labourers torn to pieces were being shown.
"I doubt anyone will believe you, but thanks," Rayan told his guest, ending the short telephone interview.
Al Arabiya appears to practice a stricter policy in terms of aired graphics.
Thursday, August 10, 2006

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news8.htm




Wife of kidnapped journalist makes Gaza appeal
By Nidal al-Mughrabi August 16, 2006
GAZA (Reuters) - The wife of a New Zealand cameraman kidnapped by Palestinian gunman along with a U.S. television reporter appealed in Gaza on Wednesday for their release, saying their abduction was pointless.
Cameraman Olaf Wiig and Fox News Channel reporter Steve Centanni, an American, were seized by masked gunmen on Monday in Gaza City. No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
"I will not leave without him. I hope he is released soon," said Wiig's wife Anita McNaught, a journalist who learned of the abduction after she had just completed an assignment covering the war in Lebanon.
"This for me is completely pointless, worse than pointless, it is completely destructive act," she said.
"I cannot see that it helps anyone, taking two professionals like this and kidnapping them," McNaught said. "They are exactly the sort of people the people of Palestine need, the people of Gaza need to tell their story to the world. By taking them hostage they have taken that from the Palestinian people."
On the verge of tears, she said she wanted her husband to know: "We are working very, very hard to get you home and your colleague, too."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh have ordered all security agencies to search for the two hostages and secure their release.
The kidnapping was the first involving foreigners in Gaza since the Hamas-led government was sworn in March.
Several previous kidnappings were resolved bloodlessly. Kidnappers had often been locked in disputes with the Palestinian Authority over jobs or the release of jailed relatives from prisons.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/08/16/wife_of_kidnapped_journalist_makes_gaza_appeal/



Haaretz photographer beaten by IDF officers near border
By Asaf Carmel
Three Israel Defense Forces officers struck Haaretz photographer Yaron Kaminsky yesterday while he was taking pictures of soldiers returning from Lebanon near Moshav Zarit.
The officers also confiscated his equipment, and a photographer from the IDF magazine Bamachaneh erased all pictures Kaminsky had taken prior to the incident.
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"I got there at 6:30 A.M., right when reserve soldiers from the battalion in which I served until a year ago arrived," Kaminsky said. "I was hugging and kissing them; I know most of them well, and I started to take pictures. Suddenly, a major jumped me and said, "Stop taking pictures," and started choking me. Shortly after that, two other officers joined him, a colonel and lieutenant colonel. They all started shoving me, trying to knock me down and take my equipment. They finally managed to do it."
After the equipment was confiscated, Kaminsky was presented with an order stating that the area was a closed military zone. "They flashed it at me; I didn't even get to see what it said," Kaminsky said. Military Police subsequently took him and his companions to the Northern Road, where they met with a representative of information security. "He looked at the pictures that were left in the cameras, and said to the MPs, 'What do you want from them, anyhow'?'" Kaminsky said.
"If the army doesn't want us to take pictures, all they have to do is ask," Kaminsky said. "Do you know how embarrassing it is to stand in front of guys from my battalion and get beaten up by officers?"
The IDF Spokesman said in response: "The IDF views as serious cases in which force is used against the media. The incident in question will be examined and dealt with. Nevertheless, we call on the media and its representatives to respond to, and respect, the IDF's directives regarding areas declared closed military zones.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750949.html



Advocate Capitol reporter Coleman dies at 49
Published August 17 2006
STAMFORD -- Tobin Coleman, a longtime Advocate reporter who has covered the state Capitol for the past five years, died Sunday while running on the track at Foran High School near his home in Milford, police said.
A school security camera showed that Mr. Coleman, 49, collapsed while running. He was found by another runner about an hour later, Milford police said.
Mr. Coleman had no identification on him and did not drive his car to the track, Milford police said, and they had been trying to verify his identity since Sunday. They released a description of Mr. Coleman and his clothing to the media, hoping someone could provide information, police said.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-coleman2aug17,0,1909866.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines



Journalists need a federal shield law
TWO S.F. CHRONICLE REPORTERS SHOULDN'T BE FORCED TO REVEAL CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES
Mercury News Editorial
San Francisco Chronicle writers Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams shouldn't be forced to choose between breaking a promise of confidentiality with a source and facing jail for their silence. Congress must enact the same protections for journalists from harassing prosecutors that California and other states already provide.
Fainaru-Wada's and Williams' articles helped put a national spotlight on performance-enhancing drugs used by professional athletes. And they helped prod Congress to hold hearings and Major League Baseball to crack down on the use of steroids.
Key material for their stories and their book ``Game of Shadows'' came from leaked transcripts of secret federal grand-jury testimony by major leaguers Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and others. Because they won't say who gave them the transcripts, Fainaru-Wada and Williams may eventually do time.
Tuesday, a federal district judge ruled that they must disclose the source of the transcripts. Fainaru-Wada and Williams have already said they won't. The newspaper is appealing the ruling.
In various degrees, in nearly every state, reporters cannot be held in contempt of court for withholding confidential names or material. State legislatures and courts have recognized that coercing journalists to reveal their sources would hinder the reporters' ability to write about matters that government officials want to keep from the public. Californians put one of the nation's strongest protections for journalists, known as a shield law, into the state constitution a quarter-century ago.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White acknowledged that confidential sources are ``often essential'' to inform the public. But, lacking a federal shield law, he said he felt bound by a 1972 Supreme Court decision that journalists cannot keep information from a federal grand jury.
Within the past few years, federal prosecutors and the Department of Justice have turned up pressure on reporters. Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail after she refused to say who revealed a CIA agent's identity. The Bush administration is threatening to find out who told the Washington Post about the existence of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. Last month, a federal judge in San Francisco jailed a freelance journalist for refusing to turn over footage of a protest in which a police car was damaged.
Lawyers for Fainaru-Wada and Williams made compelling arguments that the information they disclosed was valuable to the public and that, unlike the CIA cases, did not harm national security or involve classified material. But White said he didn't have the discretion to consider these factors.
However, courts in other cases have applied a balancing test, weighing the government's case for coerced disclosure against the impact on freedom of the press. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals should, too, when it takes up the appeal.
But the best defense would be a federal shield law.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/15293748.htm



Tape shows kidnapped NZer [+ video]
UPDATED 10.10am Thursday August 24, 2006
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA - New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig and American journalist Steve Centanni, kidnapped in Gaza last week, said they were in "fairly good health" and appealed for help to secure their freedom in a videotape released overnight.
Peter Rider, an official leading New Zealand's efforts to secure the hostages' release, said he had first heard about the tape from Wiig's wife, television presenter Anita McNaught.
Mr Rider told Newstalk ZB: "She was rushing off to view it. When I talked to her later this evening [local time] she was just so delighted to see Olaf there looking well and reasonably well looked after and able to talk to her and the family."
A previously unknown militant group, the "Holy Jihad Brigades", earlier claimed responsibility for the kidnapping nine days ago in the Palestinian coastal strip and demanded the United States release "Muslim prisoners" within 72 hours.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397798



NZ officer joins efforts to free Gaza hostages
5.25pm Thursday August 24, 2006
A senior police officer left this morning to join the New Zealand team working for the release of Olaf Wiig and Steve Centanni in Gaza, Prime Minister Helen Clark said today.
New Zealand officials in the region were continuing their "intense consultation" with Palestinian authorities and others, Miss Clark said, after being briefed on the kidnap situation.
In her first comment since reports that cameraman Wiig and his Fox News colleague had been shown in a videotape , Miss Clark welcomed the news that they were alive.
"This is the first information we have had about the two men since they were kidnapped 10 days ago," she said in a statement.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10397863




US rights leader to plead for Gaza hostages' release [+ audio]
UPDATED 1.50pm Thursday August 24, 2006
Veteran US civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson wants to lead a delegation to the Middle East in an effort help free NZ cameraman Olaf Wiig and his American colleague Steve Centanni.
Wiig, who is married to television presenter Anita McNaught, and Centanni were abducted by masked gunmen in Gaza City on August 14 as they were working on a story for Fox News. Nothing had been heard of their captors until a videotape was released overnight by a previously unknown group - the Holy Jihad Brigades.
The group demanded the United States release all Muslim prisoners within the next 72-hours.
In an interview with CNN, Reverend Jackson said he wanted to help in problem areas in the Middle East and would do everything in his power to go there to secure the pair's rescue.
"I believe all nations must see the value of releasing prisoners as a means of releasing tensions in the area," Jackson said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10397850



Tribune correspondent charged as spy in Sudan
Paul Salopek, 2-time Pulitzer winner, was on freelance assignment for National Geographic
By Tim Jones
Tribune national correspondent
Published August 26, 2006, 4:54 PM CDT
Paul Salopek, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, was charged with espionage and two other criminal counts in a Sudanese court Saturday, three weeks after he was detained by pro-government forces in the war-torn province of Darfur.
Salopek, 44, who was on a freelance assignment for National Geographic magazine, was arrested with two Chadian nationals, his interpreter and driver. If convicted, they could be imprisoned for years.
Chicago Tribune Editor and Senior Vice President Ann Marie Lipinski called Salopek "one of the most accomplished and admired journalists of our time. He is not a spy.
"Our fervent hope is that the authorities in Sudan will recognize his innocence and quickly allow Paul to return home to his wife, Linda, and to his colleagues," Lipinski said. She added: "We are deeply worried about Paul and his well-being, and appeal to the government of Sudan to return him safely home."
Salopek was on a scheduled leave of absence from the Tribune when he and the two Chadians were detained Aug. 6 and jailed. All three were officially charged Saturday with espionage, passing information illegally and writing "false news," in addition to a violation of Sudan's immigration laws by entering the country without a visa.
A judge in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in western Sudan, granted a defense motion for a continuance, delaying the start of the trial until Sept. 10.
The hearing lasted about 40 minutes before the judge granted the continuance.
In the week since editors at the Tribune and National Geographic learned of the arrest of the three men, they and others have protested and worked through political and diplomatic channels in the U.S. and overseas to secure their release.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060826salopek,1,7104273.story?coll=chi-news-hed



Chris Shays visits with jailed journalist in Sudan
(Khartoum, Sudan-AP, Aug. 27, 2006 4:15 PM) _ Connecticut Congressman Chris Shays was in the Sudan this week, meeting with a jailed Pulitzer-Prize winning foreign correspondent. Chicago Tribune reporter Paul Salopek was still in custody Sunday on charges espionage and other crimes.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says it was deeply troubled over the reporter's arrest.
Shays was in the Sudan last week. He was one of two congressmen to visit Salopek at a police station in El Fasher. He tells the Chicago Tribune that Salopek knows he made a mistake by entering the country without a visa but says it's not in the government's interest to have the situation blown out of proportion.

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=5331741



China Gives Times Researcher 3 Years
By JIM YARDLEY and JOSEPH KAHN
Published: August 25, 2006
BEIJING, Friday, Aug. 25 — A Beijing court on Friday morning unexpectedly dismissed a state secrets charge against a researcher for The New York Times but sentenced him to three years in prison on a lesser, unrelated charge of fraud.
The verdict against the researcher, Zhao Yan, 44, spared him a prison sentence of 10 years or longer and also served as a blunt rebuke to the investigation by state security agents. Agents began detaining Mr. Zhao almost two years ago and accused him of leaking state secrets to The Times. He has consistently stated that he is innocent of both charges.
In another closely watched case, a Chinese court in Shandong Province on Thursday convicted an advocate for peasants rights and sentenced him to more than four years in prison. The advocate, Chen Guangcheng, is a blind man who tried to file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women who were subjected to forced abortions. His case, like that of Mr. Zhao’s, was considered a test of China’s legal system, and his defense team described the conviction as a sham.
In Mr. Zhao’s case, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court rejected the state secrets charge in strong language in a 10-page verdict released Friday morning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/world/asia/25zhaobox.html



A Fixation With Secrecy
Published: August 28, 2006
In 1971, Defense Secretary Melvin Laird punctuated his plea to Congress for more cold war appropriations with a graphic display of information that revealed the nation on guard with 54 Titan and 1,000 Minuteman nuclear missiles, plus 30 strategic bomber squadrons. In making his case, Mr. Laird exemplified the idea that a little transparency is no drawback in a democracy.
Thirty-five years later, the Bush administration, which has consistently demonstrated an extraordinary mania for secrecy, is blacking that public information out of history. That’s right: it has reclassified the number of missiles and bombers from the Nixon era as some fresh national security secret, even though historians and officials in the old Soviet Union long have had it available on their research shelves.
What strange compulsion drives such “silly secrecy,” as it is aptly described by officials of the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research library at George Washington University? The archive published a report on how retroactive the administration has become in its obsession with creating secrets out of interesting information. The blacked-out missile and defense policy information dates to the 1960’s. Soviet numbers are left untouched on the open record, while the old American armada is freshly cloaked. What’s next? Classifying Civil War ironclads and cannons?
The missile blackout is the latest symptom of a deepening government illness. National security has become the excuse for efforts to crack down on whistle-blowers and journalists dealing in such vital disclosures as the illicit eavesdropping on Americans. Last spring the director of the National Archives objected to a reclassifying initiative undertaken by intelligence officials that caused 55,000 decades-old pages to vanish from the public record. The process itself was labeled an official secret.
Public recourse has become more difficult: enforcement of the Freedom of Information Act has become slower and more burdensome. The one thing the administration has made no secret is its antipathy to government transparency. The secrecy fixation is a threat to democracy and an insult to honest history.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/opinion/28mon2.html



Obama presses for press freedom
Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 6:20 a.m. CDT
NAIROBI, Kenya – As he prepared to deliver a public speech today about government corruption here, Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) said a free and aggressive press plays a critical role in holding governments accountable around the world.
Obama visited the offices of The Standard, a daily newspaper here that was ransacked earlier this year after reporting aggressively on corruption in the Kenyan government. He has made corruption a central theme during his visit to Kenya, the home of his late father.
"This is a problem that's worldwide, it's not isolated to Kenya," Obama said. "But it's something that all of us have to continually press on governments around the world that we expect the press to provide transparency and accountability to the people to whom governments are ultimately accountable so people are well-informed."
As he spoke to reporters here about the role of a free press, Obama also drew attention to the case of Paul Salopek, a Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent, who was charged with espionage in Sudan. Obama said the charges underscored the notion that a restricted press was ultimately detrimental to a nation and its people.

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/08/obama_presses_f.html



Journalist is jailed for insulting president
DAMASCUS -- A Syrian military court ruled that a dissident writer must serve six months in prison after convicting him on charges that include insulting the president, a human rights group said yesterday. Mohammad Ghanem, a journalist who edits a website and advocates greater rights for Kurds in Syria, was sentenced to a year in prison Tuesday, but the military court commuted his sentence to six months. (AP)

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2006/06/08/detainee_contradicts_us_account_of_melee/



Egypt and the Press
The Mubarak regime struggles with freedom of the press and the rising Egyptian independent media.
by Abigail Lavin
08/30/2006 12:00:00 AM
ON FEBRUARY 23, 2004, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak phoned Galal Aref, head of the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate, with some very good news: The country's practice of imprisoning journalists for their writings was going to be eliminated. Mubarak's promise of reform was in line with other optimistic proclamations the president has made in the past few years, such as that of Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential elections in 2005, which hinted that Cairo might be turning toward democracy).
But like the presidential elections, Mubarak's overtures toward free speech have also proven to be less than encouraging. Since April, at least seven Cairo-based journalists have been arrested for reporting on allegations of fraud in last year's parliamentary elections. Others were beaten by Egyptian security forces for attempting to cover the related protests. This backlash is a reminder that what the Egyptian government says is often very different from what it does.
THIS SUMMER, Mubarak followed through on his promise for a new press law, but although the government portrayed it as a "reform," it is unclear that the new law improves matters. The 2006 legislation is noteworthy, however, as one of a few instances where Mubarak has yielded to the demands of protestors.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/629hpcoq.asp



Journalists are frequently viewed by governments as dissedents simply because they review them fairly. As a result journalists are arrested and charged with crimes, among them crimes against governments such as treason.


Vietnam dissident needs medical care
By Grant McCool August 29, 2006
HANOI (Reuters) - A jailed Vietnamese cyber-dissident due for release under a government amnesty would need medical care after his expected return home on Tuesday or Wednesday, his wife said.
The Communist Party government announced on Monday that Pham Hong Son, championed as a political "prisoner of concern" by international human rights groups and foreign governments, would be freed after serving more than four years on a conviction of spying.
Supporters of Son, 37, said he was jailed for translating and posting on the Internet an article entitled "What is Democracy?" from a U.S. government web site. The one-party state sentenced him to 13 years in 2003, which was reduced to five on appeal.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/08/29/vietnam_dissident_needs_medical_care/



Iran's Ribbentrop
Since taking over from his predecessor Mohammad Katami and becoming the president of Iran's Islamic republic a year ago, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has put on quiet a show.

Denies that the Holocaust ever happened and calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Claims he was enveloped in a protective shield of light during a speech at the UN and an invisible hand kept the audience frozen in their seats.

Declares: "And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism."

Writes a series of bizarre and rambling letters to the world leaders inviting them to convert to Islam.
Why is Ahmadinejad acting this way? Is he insane or does have his reasons? As important as those questions are we should first decide if his words and actions actually matter.

… Domestically, dozens of newspapers were shut down and journalists were jailed. Dissidents were imprisoned, assassinated and executed. People were executed for offenses that should not even be considered crimes such as adultery, homosexuality, and converting from Islam to other religions. Then there are the catchall offenses such as "Fighting the will of God" or "Spreading corruption on earth" for which one may also be executed. During Khatami's presidency, Iran had one of the worst human rights records according to UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=083006F



Mexico's Drug Wars Heat Up
A government crackdown has cartel violence spreading to cities that have never seen it before
In the once-chic beach resort of Acapulco, the severed heads of two police officers who had been clamping down on drug traffickers were found a few months ago with a note attached: "So that you learn to respect." The grisly method soon caught on. In August alone, four more heads accompanied by threatening notes appeared in the central Mexican state of Michoacán….

...When he goes out, Blancornelas rides in a bulletproof vehicle, guarded by a dozen army troops in two chase cars. "Our unfortunate experiences have made other journalists afraid to write about drug trafficking," he says.
Indeed, at least four and possibly as many as 10 Mexican journalists covering crime and drugs have been killed in the past five years, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. That means that even as Mexico's violent drug wars heat up, the country's journalists may deem it too dangerous to delve deeply into one of the biggest threats facing the young democracy's institutions.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2006/db20060829_272510.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index



M&G Oilgate team doubly awarded for reports
Mail & Guardian Online reporter Johannesburg, South Africa
29 August 2006 03:37
Mail & Guardian journalists Stefaans Brümmer and Sam Sole, together with former staffer Wisani wa ka Ngobeni, have been named joint winners of the Media Institute of Southern Africa's (Misa) John Manyarara Investigative Journalism Award for 2006 for their series of reports on the Oilgate scandal, Misa announced on Tuesday.
They share the award with Mabvuto Banda, of The Nation in Blantyre, Malawi, for his report on how a government minister used government funds for his wedding.
The M&G team also won the category for print news at the southern and northern regional Vodacom Journalist of the Year 2006 awards in Johannesburg on Monday. The overall gala awards ceremony -- in which all regional winners are entered -- will be held at Vodaworld in Midrand on October 29.

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=282347&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/



The Practice of Yellow Journalism Is Putting Liberian Democracy at Risk

By: John S. Morlu, MBA, CMA, CIA, CFM, CFE, CMBA
jmorlue@yahoo.com
Atlanta, Georgia
August 29, 2006
“However, it is important to note that every ounce of press freedom comes with an equal measure of responsibility. Some media houses are doing severe damage to the noble profession of journalism by allowing the pages of their newspapers and the content of their broadcasts to be contaminated by messages that have little or no information of redeeming social value. The media must cease to be agents of character assassination and instruments of blackmail. The media has replaced sensationalism with sensitization while in some instances, outright lies and half-truths were preferred to accuracy and truth. Good professional ethics have been supplanted by checkbook journalism and "Kato”—President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
The press has an obligation to expose those who might try to benefit themselves at the expense of the people and “that means, among other things, exposing corruption wherever it might be found. I know the Liberian press is struggling financially, but that is no reason to allow anyone to buy your support. But journalists should be on no one’s payroll except that of the newspaper or radio station they work for”—US Ambassador Donald Booth, Keynote speaker at the 17th anniversary celebration of the NEWS Newspaper.

http://www.theperspective.org/articles/0829200603.html



Journalists give $30,000 to defend jailed vlogger
August 29, 2006 1:54 PM PDT
The Society of Professional Journalists board of directors voted 23-0 at a conference last week to award a record $30,000 grant to jailed independent journalist Josh Wolf's defense fund.
One of the Internet's earliest video bloggers, Wolf, 24, refused to testify before a U.S. grand jury and also refused to hand over unpublished video footage he shot during a clash between San Francisco police and anti-G8 protesters in July 2005. He was found in civil contempt and sent to a federal prison in Dublin, Calif., on Aug. 1. He could remain there until the grand jury term expires next July.
Wolf might normally be protected by California's shield law. But federal prosecutors, who among other things want to see if Wolf's footage shows a San Francisco police car being set on fire at the protest, say they have jurisdiction over the case because the car was paid for in part by federal dollars. (Click here for video. Note: Contains some profanity.)

http://news.com.com/2061-10802_3-6110679.html



TURKMENISTAN: Government condemned over jailing of two journalists and a rights activist
28 Aug 2006 15:47:16 GMT
Source: IRIN
ANKARA, 28 August (IRIN) - Rights groups have condemned Turkmen authorities for the jailing of two journalists and a rights activist.
On Friday a Turkmen court in Ashgabat sentenced Ogulsapar Muradova, a local correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and Annakurban Amanklychev, who worked for the French production company, Galaxie-Presse, to six and seven-year jail terms respectively for illegally possessing ammunition.
Sapardurdy Khajiev, a human rights activist with the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation (THF), was jailed for seven years in a high security prison for the same offence, according to Reporters Without Borders (RWB).

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/1ae8a91a6710e8c8ebd845a5b6b38aab.htm

Trying times for journalists in China
By Kent Ewing
HONG KONG - With the Chinese government promising foreign journalists unprecedented freedom in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games, the trials of Zhao Yan and Ching Cheong serve as a reminder of the reality on the ground.
Zhao, a researcher for The New York Times, was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday. Ching, chief China correspondent for Singapore's The Straits Times, was tried for espionage nearly two weeks ago and is awaiting a verdict.
In addition, a blind activist for peasants' rights, Chen Guangcheng - who, like Zhao and Ching, was tried in secret - has received a four-year jail term for destroying property and organizing a mob to disrupt traffic.
The 35-year-old activist's sentence was handed down last Thursday in a Yinan county court in Shandong province, where his efforts to organize a class-action lawsuit against forced abortions and sterilizations riled local Communist Party authorities. Chen refused to speak during his trial in protest against the detention of his lawyer, Xu Zhiyong, who was picked up and accused of theft the day before the hearing began.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HH29Ad01.html



Two journalists get long jail terms in human rights crackdown
Reporters Without Borders said it was “disgusted” by the “absurd, unjust and disgraceful” six and seven-year prison sentences imposed today on two Turkmen journalists working for foreign media.
It condemned the decision of the court in Ashgabat as orchestrated by “President-for-Life” Separmurad Nyazov as part of a secret prosecution and a trial that lasted only two hours without any independent observers present.
“Nyazov himself decides what prison sentences are to be handed down in a country where press freedom does not exist under a regime that is one of the most brutal in the world towards the media,” it said.
Ogulsapar Muradova, local correpsondent for the US-funded Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, and Annakurban Amanklychev, who works with a French production company, Galaxie-Presse, were given six and seven-year jail sentences for “illegally possessing ammunition,” along with a fellow human rights activist, Sapardurdy Khajiev, who got seven years for the same offence (punishable under article 287-2 of the criminal code). All intend to appeal against the convictions.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18660



This one is just for the fun of it.

Press Freedom Awards Honor Chinese, Brazilian, Uzbek Journalists, Zimbabwean Lawyer
By Barbara Schoetzau
New York
22 November 2005
The recipients of the 2005 Independent Press Freedom awards include a jailed Chinese Internet journalist, an exiled Uzbek correspondent and a pioneering Brazilian editor. And for the first time, the independent Committee to Protect Journalists is also honoring a lawyer with its annual award in New York Tuesday.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, gives its annual awards to journalists who put their lives at risk in order to do their jobs. An increasing number of journalists are doing just that, according to the group's director, Ann Cooper. She says media freedom is deteriorating, partly due to the war on terrorism.
"Increasingly, governments see that they can crack down on the press and use the excuse of fighting terrorism to justify their crackdowns," said Ms. Cooper. "Some of them even occasionally accuse journalists themselves of being terrorists or of aiding and abetting terrorism just because they're reporting on terrorist groups or perhaps doing an interview with a leader who the government doesn't want shown on TV or heard on the radio."
Ms. Cooper says the Philippines tops the group's list of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, followed by Iraq, Bangladesh, Russia and Colombia.
"The cycle of violence against journalists in those countries just continues year after year and we've got to break that, not only to save journalists' lives, but to make all journalists in those countries feel that they can go out and report the news without fear of death threats or violent attack," she said.
Shi Tao
The New York-based group is honoring Chinese freelance journalist Shi Tao, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for posting notes on an overseas Web site from a government directive on how journalists should cover the 15th anniversary of the Tianamen Square crackdown. The government charged him with "leaking state secrets abroad."
Mr. Shi's case has become an international cause celebre because Internet giant Yahoo helped the Chinese government identify him through his e-mail account.
Uzbek journalist Galima Bukharbaeva faces criminal charges because of her reporting on the killing of hundreds of anti-government protesters in May in the northeastern Uzbek city of Andijan. She is accused of conducting "open warfare against the state."
Ann Cooper says Ms. Bukharbaeva typifies the award winners.
"What we are looking at is journalists who are working in extremely difficult conditions," explained Ms. Cooper. "These are people who we have worked to defend -- are defending -- their right to report the news independently, and that's precisely what Galima has done."
Galima Bukharbaeva
Ms. Bukharbaeva now lives in New York, where she is attending Columbia University's School of Journalism. She says the award shows her jailed colleagues that people care about their plight.
"It is not just recognition of my work as a journalist but also it is recognition of the very hard situation, political and economic situation, in Uzbekistan and also a recognition of the conditions in which journalists in Uzbekistan have to work," she commented.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says the third honorere, Brazilian publisher and editor Lucio Flavio Pinto, faces a constant barrage of civil and criminal lawsuits designed to silence his reporting on corruption, drug trafficking and environmental disaster.
This year the CPJ is also honoring a media lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, for her efforts to defend journalists and press freedom in Zimbabwe. Ms. Mtetwa says she was stunned to find herself so honored, but pleased that the award will help keep the Zimbabwe story in the news.
Beatrice Mtetwa at VOA
"There is so much going on in the world now that when you hear nothing from Zimbabwe, because journalists have fled, newspapers have been shut down, people tend to think that things are okay," said Ms. Mtetwa. "But an award like this for me, personally, means that the Zimbabwean story continues to remain at least in the limelight for debate."
CPJ says Beatrice Mtetwa has been arrested, assaulted and threatened as part of a government campaign to intimidate her. Ms. Mtetwa says her motivation is simple.
"I believe very, very strongly that without media freedom it is really impossible to enjoy any of the other fundamental freedoms and that to enjoy those other freedoms people must have a free flow of information," she said. "People should be able to debate issues without restriction."
The press freedom group also honored Peter Jennings, the U.S. television correspondent and anchor who died in August, with a lifetime achievement award. Mr. Jennings was particularly well known for his foreign reporting.

http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-11/2005-11-22-voa58.cfm?CFID=45769858&CFTOKEN=94207061


Report Finds US Broadcasting Board Chairman Misused Government Money
U. S. State Department investigators say the Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors - Kenneth Tomlinson - misused government money as head of the organization which oversees the Voice of America and several other international broadcasting entities.
In a summary released Tuesday, investigators said Tomlinson, a political appointee, used his government office for personal business and improperly awarded a $250,000 contract to a friend. The summary said a criminal probe into the matter is not warranted, but a civil investigation into the awarding of the contract will be pursued.
Tomlinson - in a statement - said he believes the investigation was inspired by as he put it "partisan divisions inside the BBG", the acronym for the broadcasting board. He also said he is proud of what he has accomplished for U.S. international broadcasting.
President Bush has sent Tomlinson's renomination to the senate for another term as broadcasting board chairman. But three Democratic members of Congress who called for the investigation last year sent President Bush a letter Tuesday demanding that Tomlinson be removed from his position.
Tomlinson resigned as a board member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting last year amid similar allegations. The CPB helps fund public television and radio in the United States.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-30-voa7.cfm



Michael Moore Today

http://www.michaelmoore.com/


Vietnam veteran Gerry Fonseca helps get
Camp Casey ready for you.


Won't You Please Come To Camp Casey
By Cindy Sheehan
So your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair,
Won't you please come to Chicago just to sing.
In a land that's known as freedom how can such a thing be fair?
Won't you please come to Chicago for the help that we can bring.
We can change the world rearrange the world.
It's dying---to get better!
Chicago, Graham Nash
This song was written almost 40 years ago when it also seemed that our world was in flames and dying. Thousands of people heeded the call to head to Chicago to demonstrate at the DNC. I can remember, even as an 11 year old, watching the TV in horror as members of the Chicago PD ferociously beat protesters with their night sticks and I was revolted when my friend Genie's mom Maxine yelled, "Hit the goddamn hippies harder!" I can also remember thinking that the people who were there were extremely brave and they must have cared deeply about ending the war in Vietnam. When I travel the country and talk to people in the anti-war movement, many of them say, "If there were only a draft, people would get off of their butts and protest the war like we (they) did during Vietnam."

Pasted from <http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=701>


Wednesday, August 9th, 2006
It's All About Who You Sleep With ... a Cautionary Note from Michael Moore
Friends,
Let the resounding defeat of Senator Joe Lieberman send a cold shiver down the spine of every Democrat who supported the invasion of Iraq and who continues to support, in any way, this senseless, immoral, unwinnable war. Make no mistake about it: We, the majority of Americans, want this war ended -- and we will actively work to defeat each and every one of you who does not support an immediate end to this war.
Nearly every Democrat set to run for president in 2008 is responsible for this war. They voted for it or they supported it. That single, stupid decision has cost us 2,592 American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. Lieberman and Company made a colossal mistake -- and we are going to make sure they pay for that mistake. Payback time started last night.
I realize that there are those like Kerry and Edwards who have now changed their position and are strongly anti-war. Perhaps that switch will be enough for some to support them. For others, like me -- while I'm glad they've seen the light -- their massive error in judgment is, sadly, proof that they are not fit for the job. They sided with Bush, and for that, they may never enter the promised land.
To Hillary, our first best hope for a woman to become president, I cannot for the life of me figure out why you continue to support Bush and his war. I'm sure someone has advised you that a woman can't be elected unless she proves she can kick ass just as crazy as any man. I'm here to tell you that you will never make it through the Democratic primaries unless you start now by strongly opposing the war. It is your only hope. You and Joe have been Bush's biggest Democratic supporters of the war. Last night's voter revolt took place just a few miles from your home in Chappaqua. Did you hear the noise? Can you read the writing on the wall?
To every Democratic Senator and Congressman who continues to back Bush's War, allow me to inform you that your days in elective office are now numbered. Myself and tens of millions of citizens are going to work hard to actively remove you from any position of power.
If you don't believe us, give Joe a call.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
P.S. Republicans -- sorry to leave you out of this letter. It's just that our side has a little housecleaning to do. We'll take care of you this November.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=197


Peace activist Cindy Sheehan is greeted by Grant Collins after she arrived at her peace camp near Crawford, Texas, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2006. Sheehan was released from a Waco, Texas, hospital after a two-day stay for treatment of a minor gynecological procedure and treatment for dehydration. (AP Photo/Ron Heflin)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060813/480/0b1d07e1ed4247a9b46860b3447c5844


War protesters hope to increase numbers
By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 22 minutes ago
CRAWFORD, Texas - Anti-war demonstrators said Sunday they hope the end of
President Bush's ranch vacation doesn't hurt attendance at their protest during the rest of the summer.
They urged opponents of the war in
Iraq to come to the five-acre campsite purchased last month by Cindy Sheehan, who resumed her protest a week ago.
Sheehan's first trek to Crawford one year ago during Bush's monthlong vacation turned into a 26-day vigil that drew more than 10,000 people and spurred counter-protests by Bush supporters.
A few hundred war opponents returned at Thanksgiving, when Bush was at his ranch, and again in April, the president's first Easter away from Crawford.
On Sunday, only about 100 protesters were camped on their land near downtown, about seven miles from the ranch.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/peace_mom;_ylt=A86.I1zwxd9E0GgAFiBsaMYA;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--


August 13th, 2006 6:37 pm
"Swift Boat" Veterans Set Sights on Rep. Murtha
The Iraq war looms over another race, as the group that helped defeat John Kerry targets the antiwar lawmaker.
By Noam N. Levey / Los Angeles Times
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Two years after a cadre of veterans helped sink the presidential campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), they have found a new target in the old steel country of southwestern Pennsylvania: Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha.
In a fight that organizers say will feature rallies, TV ads and an aggressive Internet campaign, these activists are promising to make Murtha pay for his criticism of the Iraq war.
"I will do my best to 'Swift boat' John Murtha," retired Navy Capt. Larry Bailey said at a recent news conference here, invoking the 2004 campaign against Kerry that took its name from Vietnam War-era Navy vessels.
Few believe that Murtha, a Vietnam veteran who has represented his district since 1974, is in much danger of being driven from office.
But in the wake of Sen. Joe Lieberman's defeat in Connecticut's Democratic primary last week, Murtha's showdown with an increasingly vocal group of opponents provides more evidence of the prominent role the Iraq war is playing in this year's midterm campaign.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7645


U.S. nukes itself, leaves Iraq war veterans bleeding from mouths, anuses, more...

Sickened Iraq vets cite depleted uranium
By Deborah Hastings / Associated Press
NEW YORK - It takes at least 10 minutes and a large glass of orange juice to wash down all the pills — morphine, methadone, a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant, a stool softener. Viagra for sexual dysfunction. Valium for his nerves.
Four hours later, Herbert Reed will swallow another 15 mg of morphine to cut the pain clenching every part of his body. He will do it twice more before the day is done.
Since he left a bombed-out train depot in Iraq, his gums bleed. There is more blood in his urine, and still more in his stool. Bright light hurts his eyes. A tumor has been removed from his thyroid. Rashes erupt everywhere, itching so badly they seem to live inside his skin. Migraines cleave his skull. His joints ache, grating like door hinges in need of oil.
There is something massively wrong with Herbert Reed, though no one is sure what it is. He believes he knows the cause, but he cannot convince anyone caring for him that the military's new favorite weapon has made him terrifyingly sick.
In the sprawling bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans Affairs, he has many caretakers. An internist, a neurologist, a pain-management specialist, a psychologist, an orthopedic surgeon and a dermatologist. He cannot function without his stupefying arsenal of medications, but they exact a high price.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7644


Army War Objector Returns to Base
Associated Press
Shortly after returning from Iraq last year, Army Sgt. Ricky Clousing gathered a few belongings and sneaked out of Fort Bragg, leaving only a note quoting Martin Luther King.
After six months spent seeing the "daily physical, psychological and emotional harassment of civilians," the 24-year-old said he was confused and disenchanted with the United States' role in the war.
On Friday, he turned himself in to military officials at Fort Lewis around 6:30 p.m., said attorney David Miner, who accompanied Clousing.
"I stand here before you today about to surrender myself, which was always my intention," Clousing told several dozen friends, family members and war veterans who gathered earlier at the University of Washington campus.
If military police find that Clousing is either a deserter or absent without leave, he will be sent back to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the post he walked away from, Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Hitt said.
Officials at Fort Bragg did not return an Associated Press call for comment Friday.
Speaking earlier from a friend's home in Seattle, Clousing said he won't participate in what he considers to be a "war of aggression" that has "no legal basis to be fought."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7641


23 U.S. troops killed in Iraq in past 12 days

Bomb kills 2 U.S. soldiers in Baghdad
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two U.S soldiers were killed Saturday when their foot patrol was hit by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, the military said. The deaths brought to 23 the number of Americans killed in Iraq this month.
At least 2,600 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The names of the soldiers were not released and no further details were given.
Also Saturday, the U.S. military said soldiers had raided a funeral and detained 60 men suspected of ties to al-Qaida car bombings.
It was the first announcement of a major roundup of suspected insurgents since troop reinforcements began arriving for a new crackdown in Baghdad.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7638


3 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan

3 U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan
By Fisnik Abrashi / Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - Three U.S. soldiers were killed and three wounded in a firefight in northeastern Afghanistan after militants attacked an American patrol with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, a military spokesman said Saturday.
U.S. troops used artillery to repel the attack in Nuristan province Friday, and helicopters rushed the wounded soldiers to medical care, said Col. Tom Collins. A civilian was also injured.
U.S. forces in recent weeks have been pushing to their northernmost points along the mountainous Afghan-Pakistan border, including Nuristan, opening military bases in one of the wildest region in the country.
Their mission is to crush militants loyal to the Hezb-e-Islami militant group of renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the toppled Taliban regime and remnants of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7637


Poll: Lieberman Trails For First Time
Challenger Ned Lamont Takes Lead In Connecticut Democratic Primary Race
(AP) Sen. Joe Lieberman, under fire from activists in his own party, has lost ground to his challenger and is narrowly trailing him for the first time in their race for the Democratic nomination, a new poll released Thursday shows.
"This is a surge for Lamont," said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz. "It's rare to see such a big change in a race."
Businessman Ned Lamont had support from 51 percent and Lieberman from 47 percent of likely Democratic voters in the latest Quinnipiac University poll — a slight Lamont lead, given the survey's sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
"He leads, but it's not a statistically significant lead," said Schwartz, adding the race is too close to call. Lieberman "has just as good of a shot right now as Lamont. He shouldn't give up and analysts shouldn't close the door on a Lieberman victory."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=136


No Celebrity, No News?
By Dan DeWalt, author of the Newfane, Vermont impeachment resolution
Its no secret that Americans are fascinated with celebrity. Sometimes those who take a courageous and honorable stand, and who happen to fall into the media spotlight, become celebrities themselves.

Cindy Sheehan, who decided to confront George Bush and his policies that led to the death of her son Casey, has achieved that status. She agreed to come to Vermont July 30 to help us mobilize citizens to take action to end the illegal conduct of our government.

Her celebrity created a buzz that led the organizers to expect 1000 people or more to attend an afternoon rally in Brattleboro, and several hundred the same evening in Montpelier.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=703


Lamont decries Lieberman terror remarks
By Andrew Miga / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Democratic Senate nominee Ned Lamont, the anti-war candidate who toppled Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primary, says he was surprised by Lieberman and Vice President Dick Cheney's claims that his victory could embolden terrorists.
"My God, here we have a terrorist threat against hearth and home and the very first thing that comes out of their mind is how can we turn this to partisan advantage. I find that offensive," Lamont said in an interview Sunday with The Associated Press.
After British officials disclosed they had thwarted a terrorist airline bombing plot on Thursday, Lieberman warned that Lamont's call for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq would be "taken as a tremendous victory" by terrorists.
Cheney suggested Wednesday that Lamont's victory might encourage "the al-Qaida types" who want to "break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=138


Students told `Yale Shmale'
Lakehead unveils edgy PR campaign Takes aim at Bush's Ivy League roots
By Daniel Girard / Toronto Star
Consider it a weapon of mass attraction.
Lakehead University is poking fun at U.S. President George W. Bush and his Ivy League alma mater in an edgy new guerrilla marketing campaign intended to lure students to its Thunder Bay campus.
Dubbed "Yale Shmale," the $100,000 promotion features an image of Bush — Yale University, Class of 1968 — on posters that will be plastered on construction sites and other outdoor locations across the Greater Toronto Area.
"Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn't necessarily mean you're smart," reads the second of two posters set for release, "Choosing Lakehead does."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7733



Applying to the Lakehead University - Orillia Campus is done online through the Ontario Universities' Application Centre website at www.ouac.on.ca

To help ensure you are applying to the correct program, Lakehead University - Orillia Campus program offerings and OUAC program codes are as follows:

http://orillia.lakeheadu.ca/?display=page&pageid=4



List of Ohio casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan
Associated Press
_ Spc. Joshua D. Jones, 24, of Pomeroy, was killed in combat in Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division in Fort Hood, Texas.
_ Marine Staff Sgt. Gordon G. Solomon, 35, of Fairborn, was killed while conducting combat operations in Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Air Force Master Sgt. Brad A. Clemmons, 37, of Chillicothe, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. He was assigned to the 354th Civil Engineer Squadron based at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.
_ Pfc. James P. White Jr., 19, of Huber Heights, was killed in Afghanistan when his platoon was hit with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. He was a member of the First Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, Third Brigade Combat Team, of the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, N.Y.
_ Marine Cpl. Joe Tomci, 21, of Stow, was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb. He was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Regiment, Lima Company.
_ Marine Cpl. Timothy Roos, of Delphi Township in suburban Cincinnati, was killed while conducting combat operations in Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.
_ Army Sgt. Benjamin Laymon, 22, of Mount Vernon, was killed in Iraq when his patrol was hit by small-arms fire and a roadside bomb. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 10th Calvary Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
_ Army National Guard Sgt. Daniel Crabtree, 31, of Cuyahoga Falls, was killed in Iraq when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle. Crabtree was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group.
_ Marine Sgt. Mark Smykowski, 23, of Mentor, was killed in Iraq when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle.
_ Marine Maj. Michael D. Stover, 43, of Mansfield, was killed in Iraq in a non-combat incident.
_ Marine Sgt. David Christoff Jr., 25, of Rossford, was killed in Iraq while on patrol with his unit.
_ Army Master Sgt. Robert H. West, 37, of Elyria, was killed in Iraq when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle. West was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 312th Regiment.
_ Army Sgt. Gregory Rogers, 42, of Cincinnati, was killed in Iraq when a roadside bomb detonated near his Humvee. Rogers was assigned to Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat team.
_ Lance Cpl. Bryan N. Taylor, 20, of Milford, died after being shot by an Iraqi Army soldier on a coalition base near Al Qaim, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Marine Pfc Jacob Spann, 21, of Westerville, died in Iraq when a roadside bomb detonated under his vehicle.
_ Master Sgt. Joseph J. Andres Jr., 34, of Seven Hills, died in Iraq when he was attacked by enemy forces during combat operations. Andres was assigned to Army Special Operations Command based in Fort Bragg, N.C.
_ Staff Sgt. Curtis Mitchell, 28, of McConnellsville, died in a bombing in Baghdad. Mitchell was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division, based in Fort Stewart, Ga.
_ Army Spc. Allen J. Knop, 22, Willowick, Ohio; died in Baghdad from non-combat related injuries; assigned to the Army's 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.
_ Marine Sgt. Jeremy Murray, 28, of Atwater Township in Portage County, was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee in Hadithah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Calif.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. David A. Mendez Ruiz, 20, of Cleveland was killed by a homemade bomb on the western edge of Baghdad. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force out of Twentynine Palms, Calif..
_ Army Sgt. 1st Class Daniel J. Pratt, 48, of Youngstown, died in An Nasiriyah, Iraq, of a cause not related to combat. He was assigned to the Army National Guard's 211th Maintenance Company, based in Newark.
_ Army Pvt. Adam "A.J." Johnson, 22, of Clayton, died after his Humvee went over an improvised bomb in Iraq. He was a member of the 101st Airborne Division assigned to Fort Campbell, Ky.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Robert F. Eckfield Jr., 23, of Cleveland, died from an indirect fire explosion in Saqlawiyah, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Marine Capt. Tyler B. Swisher, 35, of Cincinnati, died along with another Marine when a bomb exploded near their vehicle in Amariyah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Army Spc. Richard Hardy, 24, of Bolivar, died in Ramadi, Iraq, with four other soldiers when a rocket-propelled grenade got inside their tank and exploded. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Benning, Ga.
_ Staff Sgt. Richard T. Pummill, 27, of Cincinnati, was killed when a bomb exploded during combat operations near Nasser Wa Salaam, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Army Spc. Jeremy Hodge, 20, of Ridgeway, was killed in Iraq when a bomb struck his convoy. He was with the Ohio Army National Guard's 612th Engineers Battalion, based in Tiffin.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel McVicker, 20, of Alliance, was killed in Iraq while driving an armored vehicle that was hit by a roadside bomb. He was assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Army Sgt. Bryan W. Large, 31, of Cuyahoga Falls, was killed in Iraq when a bomb exploded near his Humvee. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C.
_ Army Staff Sgt. Jason Benford, 30, a Toledo native, was killed in Iraq when a sniper shot him while he was on patrol. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, based in Fort Benning, Ga.
_ Army Spec. David Ford, 20, of Ironton, died in Baghdad when a bomb exploded near the tank he was riding in. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division based in Fort Stewart, Ga.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Eric J. Bernholtz, 23, of Grove City, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Lima Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Columbus.
_ Marine Sgt. Justin F. Hoffman, 27, of Delaware, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Lima Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Columbus.
_ Marine Cpl. David Kenneth J. Kreuter, 26, of Cincinnati, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Lima Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Columbus.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Michael J. Cifuentes, 25, of Oxford, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Lima Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Columbus.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron H. Reed, 21, of Chillicothe, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Lima Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Columbus.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. William B. Wightman, 22, of Sabina, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Lima Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Columbus.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher Dyer, 19, of Evendale, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Lima Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Columbus.
_ Marine Sgt. Bradley J. Harper, 25, of Dresden, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq. He was assigned to the 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, 4th Marine Division based in Norfolk, Va.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder, 23, of Cleveland, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Lima Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Columbus.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Timothy Michael Bell Jr., 22, of West Chester, died in a roadside bombing in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Lima Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Columbus.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Nathan Deyarmin, 22, of Tallmadge, died in action with his sniper unit in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Headquarters and Service Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Brook Park.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Brian Montgomery, 26, of Willoughby, died in action with his sniper unit in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Headquarters and Service Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Brook Park.
_ Marine Cpl. Jeff Boskovitch, 25, of North Royalton, died in action with his sniper unit in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Headquarters and Service Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Brook Park.
_ Marine Sgt. Nathaniel Rock, 26, of Toronto, died in action with his sniper unit in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Headquarters and Service Company 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Brook Park.
_ Army Pfc. Robert Swaney, 21, of Columbus, died when his Humvee was struck by a roadside bomb southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Armored Calvary Regiment, Thunder Squadron based at Fort Carson, Colo.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher P. Lyons, 24, of Mansfield, died when his company came under attack by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment.
_ Marine Cpl. Andre L. Williams, 23, of Galloway, died when his company came under attack by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in western Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment.
_ Army Pfc. Tim Hines, 21, of Fairfield, died in a Washington hospital of injuries from a bomb detonated while he was in a convoy traveling in Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 720th Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, 64th Military Police Unit.
_ Army Spc. Anthony D. Kinslow, 21, of Westerville, died when his military vehicle came under a grenade attack in Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
_ Army Sgt. Larry R. Kuhns Jr., 24, of Austintown, died when his military vehicle came under a grenade attack in Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas O. Keeling, 23, of Strongsville, died in an explosion in Haqlaniyah, Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Devon P. Seymour, 21, of St. Louisville, died in an explosion in Haqlaniyah, Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.
_ Marine Cpl. Brad D. Squires, 26, Middleburg Heights, died in an explosion in Haqlaniyah, Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.
_ Army 1st Lt. Aaron Seesan, 24, of Massillon, died when a bomb struck his vehicle in Iraq. He was assigned to the 73rd Engineering Company based at Fort Lewis, Wash.
_ Army Sgt. Kurt Schamberg, 26, of Orwell, died from a roadside blast near Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. He was assigned to 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, N.Y.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Nick Erdy, 21, of Owensville, died from an explosion near his vehicle transport in Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division based in Columbus.
_ Marine Pfc. Christopher Dixon, 18, of Obetz, died from an explosion near his vehicle transport in Iraq. He was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division based in Columbus.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Wesley G. Davids, 20, of Dublin, died from an explosion while conducting combat operations in Karabilah, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division based in Columbus.
_ Marine Staff Sgt. Kendall Ivy II, 29, of Galion, died after suffering a severe leg wound when the vehicle he was riding in struck a roadside bomb in Iraq.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Taylor Prazynski, 20, of Fairfield, died after suffering shrapnel wounds in an explosion during combat in Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Army Pfc. Nick Messmer, 20, of Gahanna, and another soldier died in Iraq when a bomb blew up near their Humvee in Khalidiyah. He was assigned to the Army's 506th Infantry Regiment.
_ Marine Cpl. Dustin Derga, 24, of Columbus, died when he was caught in enemy small arms fire during combat near Ubaydi, Iraq. Derga was assigned to the Marine Reserve's 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment, 4th Division in Columbus.
_ Army Sgt. Andy Eckert, 24, of Whitehouse, was killed when an explosive device went off near his convoy in Iraq. He was assigned to the 983rd Engineer Battalion, a reserve unit based in Monclova.
_ Army Spc. Kevin William Prince, 22, of Mount Gilead, was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in Al Haswah, Iraq.
_ Army Pfc. Gavin Colburn, 20, of Frankfort, was killed when an improvised device detonated near his convoy vehicle. He was assigned to the Army Reserve's 542nd Transportation Company from Kingsbury, Ind.
_ Army Spc. Daniel J. Freeman, 20, of Cincinnati, was one of 15 military members who died in a helicopter crash near Ghazni in Afghanistan, 80 miles south of the Afghan capital, Kabul.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Kevin S. Smith, 20, of Springfield, was killed in hostile action in Al Anbar Province. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew W. Nowacki, 24, of South Euclid, was killed by a roadside bomb while serving as a gunner on a Humvee that was protecting a truck convoy south of Baghdad. He was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, based in Erie, Pa.
_ Army Sgt. Zachary Wobler, 24, of Ottawa, died when he was shot by insurgents during a firefight in Mosul. He was assigned to the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
_ Army Pfc. James H. Miller IV, 22, of suburban Cincinnati, died in an explosion while he was guarding a polling place in Ramadi for Iraq's elections.
_ Marine Cpl. Richard Gilbert Jr., 28, of Dayton, died when his helicopter crashed in a desert sandstorm.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Jonathan Edward Etterling, 22, of Wheelersburg, died when his helicopter crashed in a desert sandstorm.
_ Marine Sgt. Michael Finke Jr., 28, of Wadsworth, died when his helicopter crashed in a desert sandstorm.
_ Marine Cpl. Timothy A. Knight, 22, of Brooklyn (Ohio) was killed when his helicopter crashed in a desert sandstorm.
_ Army Pfc. Josh Ramsey, 19, of Defiance, died of non-combat injuries. He was assigned to the 95th Military Police Battalion based at Mannheim, Germany.
_ Army Pfc. Harrison J. Meyer, 20, of Worthington, died when his unit was hit with small arms fire in Ramadi. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team at Camp Howze, Korea.
_ Army Sgt. Michael C. O'Neill, 22, of Mansfield, died of injuries received while preparing at Bagram Air Field for combat operations in Afghanistan. He was assigned to the Army's 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, based at Fort Benning, Ga.
_ Marine Cpl. Nathan R. Anderson, 22, of Howard, died during fighting in the Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Army Sgt. Charles Joseph Webb, 22, of Hamilton, died when he was struck in the face by shrapnel from a bomb. He was assigned to the 82nd Engineering Battalion.
_ Army Staff Sgt. Omer T. Hawkins II, 31, of Cherry Fork, was killed when an improvised bomb exploded near his convoy in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to the 44th Engineer Battalion based at Camp Howze, Korea.
_ Army Capt. Dennis Pintor, 30, who went to high school in Elida, was killed when an explosive device detonated near his patrol vehicle. Pinton was a member of the 20th Engineer Battalion from Fort Hood, Texas
_ National Guard Sgt. Michael Barkey, 22, of Canal Fulton, was killed in a vehicle crash caused by hostile action. Barkey was a member of the 1484th Transportation Company based in Akron.
_ Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Richard L. Morgan, 38, of Maynard, was killed when he drove a Humvee over a land mine. He was a member of the 660th Transportation Company based in Cadiz.
_ Army Reserve Spc. Allen Nolan, 38, of Marietta, died after suffering severe burns in a missile attack. He was a member of the 660th Transportation Company based in Zanesville.
_ Army Staff Sgt. Elvis Bourdon, 36, of Youngstown, died during a patrol when his military vehicle came under attack by enemy forces using small-arms fire and grenades. He was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas.
_ Army Pfc. Jason L. Sparks, 19, of Monroeville, died when his platoon was engaged in direct fire. He was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, Camp Casey, Korea.
_ Army Reserve Pfc. Devin J. Grella, 21, of Medina, was killed when his convoy was struck by a homemade explosive device. He was a member of the 706th Transportation Company in Mansfield.
_ Army Pfc. Ryan Martin, 22, of Mount Vernon, died when a homemade bomb went off near the Humvee he was riding in. He was assigned to the 216th Engineering Battalion of the Ohio National Guard.
_ Army Lt. Charles L. Wilkins III, 38, of Columbus, died when a homemade bomb went off near the Humvee he was riding in. He was assigned to the 216th Engineering Battalion of the Ohio National Guard.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Dustin Fitzgerald, 22, of Huber Heights, died in a noncombat-related vehicle incident. He was assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit out of Camp Lejeune, N.C.
_ Army Sgt. Daniel Michael Shepherd, 23, of Elyria, was killed when his M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle hit a homemade bomb. He was assigned to the Army's 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment.
_ Marine Cpl. Todd J. Godwin, 21, of Zanesville, was killed when a bomb exploded near him during combat. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division.
_ Army Spc. Joseph M. Garmback Jr., 24, of Cleveland, was killed along with four members of his unit during a mortar attack on Iraqi National Guard headquarters in Baghdad. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany.
_ Army Pfc. Samuel Bowen, 38, of Cleveland, with the 216th Engineer Battalion from Brook Park, was killed in Samarra, Iraq, when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded near his vehicle.
_Army Sgt. Charles Kiser, 37, who grew up in Amelia, was killed outside Mosul by a car bomb. Kiser was with the 330th Military Police Division, a reserve unit based in Sheboygan, Wis.
_ Army Pfc. Nicholaus E. Zimmer, 20, of Columbus, died in Kufa when his vehicle was hit by rocket propelled grenades. He had been assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Friedburg Germany.
_ Army Spc. Charles E. Odums II, 22, of Sandusky, with Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. He was killed in Baghdad when a bomb exploded near the patrol.
_ Army Pfc. Jesse Buryj, 21, of Canton, died of injuries he suffered while trying to stop an attack on a checkpoint.
_ Marine Lance Cpl. Michael J. Smith Jr., 21, of Wintersville, died of injuries suffered from enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. The government did not release more details on how he died.
_ Army Spc. Allen "A.J." Vandayburg, 20, of Mansfield, was killed when his 1st Infantry Division convoy was attacked by insurgents.
_ Marine Cpl. Andrew D. Brownfield, 24, of Akron. Brownfield, assigned to the Marine Wing Support Sqaudron 374, Twentynine Palms, Calif., died of injuries suffered in a mortar attack on Al Asad Air Base.
_ Army Staff Sgt. Richard P. Ramey, 27, of Canton. Ramey, assigned to the 703rd Ordnance Company, Fort Knox, Ky., was killed when insurgents attacked Army convoys with explosives in Mahmudiyah.
_ Army Staff Sgt. Roger C. Turner Jr., 37, who grew up in Pomeroy in Meigs County. A vehicle mechanic assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Turner died of injuries suffered in a mortar attack on his base near Balad.
_ Army Staff Sgt. Sean Landrus, 31, of Thompson Township in Geauga County. Assigned to the 1st Engineer Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division, Landrus was killed when a roadside bomb exploded as he was driving a truck near Khalidiyah.
_ Army Staff Sgt. Lester O. Kinney II, 27, of Zanesville. A paratrooper with the 2nd Battalion of the 505th Infantry, Kinney was killed when a roadside bomb exploded west of Baghdad.
_ Army Spc. Todd M. Bates, 20, of Bellaire. He was on a river patrol on the Tigris River south of Baghdad when his squad leader fell overboard. Bates dived into the water and did not surface. Bates' body later was recovered and his status changed to deceased. He was assigned to the 135th Military Police Company, Army National Guard in Brook Park.
_ Army Pfc. Kenneth C. Souslin, 21, of Mansfield. He died of non-combat related injuries at Baghdad International Airport. He was assigned to the 440th Signal Company, 22nd Signal Brigade, V Corps, Darmstadt, Germany.
_ Army National Guardsman Staff Sgt. Aaron Reese, 31, of Reynoldsburg. He died after falling from a patrol boat into the Tigris River. He was the first Ohio Guardsman to die in Iraq.
_ Army Sgt. Steven D. Conover, 21, of Wilmington. He was among 16 Americans killed in a missile attack on a helicopter near Fallujah, Iraq, as it carried troops bound for two weeks' leave.
_ Army Spc. James E. Powell II, 26, of Columbus. He was killed when his Bradley armored vehicle struck a land mine near Beiji, 30 miles north of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.
_ James C. Wright, 27, of Delhi Township in suburban Cincinnati, with the Fourth Infantry. He was killed in an ambush near Tikrit when his vehicle was hit with rocket-propelled grenades.
_ Army Spc. Brett T. Christian of North Royalton, with the 101st Airborne Division. He was killed in Mosul when his convoy came under attack by rocket propelled grenades.
_ Army Pfc. Kevin C. Ott, 27, of Orient, with the 18th Field Artillery Regiment. The bodies of Ott and another soldier were found 20 miles northwest of Baghdad three days after they failed to respond to a radio check.
_ Army Pfc. Gavin L. Neighbor, 20, of Somerset, with the 82nd Airborne Division. He was off work from guard duty in Baghdad and had been resting on a bus when a rocket propelled grenade round was fired from a nearby house.
_ Army Pfc. Branden F. Oberleitner, 20, of Worthington, with the 101st Airborne Division. He was killed in Fallujah, Iraq, after his unit was fired upon by a rifle-propelled grenade.
_ Army Lt. Col. Dominic R. Baragona, 42, of Niles, with 19th Maintenance Battalion. He was killed in a multi-vehicle traffic accident near Safwan, Iraq.
_ Army Chief Warrant Officer Brian K. Van Dusen, of Columbus, with the 571st Air Medical Company. During the rescue of a wounded Iraqi child, his Black Hawk medical helicopter snagged a power wire during takeoff and flipped over into the Tigris River. The child was in another helicopter.
_ Army Pfc. Marlin Rockhold, 23, of Hamilton, with the 3rd Infantry Division. He was shot by a sniper while directing traffic at a bridge in Baghdad.
_ Marine Pfc. Christian Daniel Gurtner, 19, of Ohio City, with the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. He was killed when his gun accidentally went off.
_ Army Pvt. Brandon Sloan, 19, of Bedford Heights, with the 507th Maintenance Company. He was killed after Iraqi forces ambushed a supply convoy near Nasiriyah. Originally listed as missing until eight bodies were found in the rescue of an American POW.
_ Army Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, 38, of Cleveland, with the 507th Maintenance Company. He was killed in the same ambush as Sloan.
Master Sgt. Brad A. Clemmons, 37, of Chillicothe, Ohio, died Aug. 21 when an improvised explosive device struck his vehicle. The vehicle was part of a transportation convoy enroute to Taji, Iraq. Clemmons was assigned to the 354th Civil Engineer Squadron, Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Defense

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15392153.htm


Soldiers die, CEOs prosper
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist August 30, 2006
MORE THAN 2,600 US soldiers have died in Iraq. July's toll for Iraqi civilians was 3,500, the deadliest month of the US occupation. Iraq's civil war is on pace to kill 25,000 to 30,000 civilians by year's end. If you add in the tens of thousands of deaths from the 2003 invasion (we do not know the exact number because the Pentagon won't comment), researchers will inevitably say that the body count has crossed 100,000.
All of this madness to stop a madman, Saddam Hussein.
The litany of US mistakes and excessive force has the Pentagon commissioning at least two secret strategy studies in Afghanistan and Iraq. ``This is a struggle for the soul of the Army," said Colonel Peter Mansoor, the head of the Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center.
Just as odorous, a mountain of corporate cash grows next to the piles of bodies. In this bizarre war where Iraqi civilians fear both suicide bombers and the United States, the biggest sacrifice that President Bush asked of American civilians was to get on a plane and show those terrorists a thing or two by going to Disney World.
Defense contractors took that request to a logical extreme. They built their own fantasy land.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/08/30/soldiers_die_ceos_prosper/


Thousands of anti-war protesters demand: "Give us the truth"
By Christopher Smart and Jeremiah Stettler / Salt Lake Tribune
They came bearing banners, singing ballads and barking demands from the U.S. commander in chief.
Some 4,000 protesters streamed into Washington Square surrounding The Salt Lake City/County Building downtown to protest the war in Iraq and President George W. Bush, who was scheduled to arrive this evening for an appearance before the national convention of the American Legion.
A few blocks south, uniformed military veterans and civilians spoke in support of the U.S. troops at a 300-strong Freedom Rally in Liberty Park.
They clasped hands and sang out ''God Bless the U.S.A.'' Yellow ribbons printed with the phrase ''Support our Troops,'' hung from shirt pockets, baseball caps and American flags.
''We must continue to support our troops,'' said Paul Holton, president of Operation Give, which organized the rally. ''We want them to be victorious. We want them to accomplish their mission safely.''

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7743


More than 1,000 people had streamed into Washington Square by 11 a.m. to speak out against the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, while a few blocks south, military veterans and civilians spoke in support of the U.S. troops at a 300-strong gathering in Liberty Park.

http://extras.sltrib.com/tribphoto/galleryPhotos.asp?GID=ANTI_0830&sort=Gallery

A person holds a protest sign during an anti-President Bush rally Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2006, in Salt Lake City. Bush is scheduled to speak before the American Legion national convention on Thursday

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060830/480/dff8b968d2464548be0b95385e2f67d1


Watch Salt Lake City Mayor
Rocky Anderson's Entire Speech (VIDEO)

http://kutv.com/video/?id=18850@kutv.dayport.com

UNCUT Sky2 Video of a peace march in Salt Lake City, Utah. Demonstrators with a plan of action, protected by police to allow a peaceful peace march with placards displaying peace signs and doves, as well as American flags with peace emblems on them. Then there is the occassional American Flag turned upside down in protest. I think that is also a sign of 'emergency.' I suppose needing peace is an emergency, especially when there are police sharp shooters on the roofs of buildings surrounding the demonstrators.

http://www.kutv.com/video/?id=18851@kutv.dayport.com

August 30th Rally
Forums
Users can now post new forum topics and submit comments without moderation. We're going to try this for a while to see how it flies.
New: now you can sign the petition. It was broken yesterday, now it is working!
If you agree with the petition of grievances that
will be delivered to our representatives at the Federal Building
-- read it here -- then you can sign by filling in the web form here.

http://www.utahvoices.org/



Republican Party Launches Ad Campaign Against Rocky Anderson
August 28th, 2006 @ 5:21pm
John Daley Reporting
Republican Party Ad: "Now Rocky Anderson has invited her to Utah. Does he really share her anti-American beliefs?"
The debate over the Iraq War debate heats up with the state Republican Party blasting Salt Lake's mayor and prominent war protester Cindy Sheehan. The debate over public protests against the Iraq War is escalating today.
Two days away from a visit by the President, the GOP is taking aim, essentially raising the question: Are anti-war protesters anti-American? The new ad is running on 20 Utah radio stations. It equates Mayor Anderson and protester Cindy Sheehan with a "cut-and-run strategy," and urges Utahns to call the Mayor's office to complain.
Salt Lake City government has hired three temporary workers and set-up a temporary center to deal with a deluge of calls to the Mayor's office.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=453096


Davidson County briefs: Road closings loom for president’s visit
Motorists traveling through Nashville could face random road closures today and Wednesday to make way for the motorcade of President Bush, Metro police said.
The president will be visiting Nashville to support U.S. Senate candidate Bob Corker. Bush will attend a fundraiser at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel on Wednesday afternoon, according to an invitation sent to supporters by the Corker campaign.
There will be at least partial lane closures on West End Avenue near Loews Vanderbilt Hotel starting at 7 p.m. today and lasting through Wednesday, police said. Several road closures also are expected on Wednesday, before and after rush hour, between Nashville International Airport and West End Avenue.
The exact locations are not being disclosed because of security concerns, police said.
On Wednesday, protesters from the Nashville Peace Coalition have scheduled a demonstration on the sidewalks near Loews from 3:30 to 7 p.m. Representatives say they're protesting Bush's Iraq policies.

http://www.rctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060829/COUNTY0107/608290341/1006/MTCN0301



Dozens killed in Iraq; 8 U.S. troops die
By Elena Becatoros / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bombing and clashes between Shiite militia and Iraqi security forces left at least 50 people dead Monday in a brutal contradiction of the prime minister's claim that bloodshed was decreasing.
The deaths followed bombings and shootings Sunday that killed more than 60 people across the country, from the northern city of Kirkuk to Baghdad and Basra in the south. The dead included eight American soldiers, one of the U.S. military's deadliest weekends in months.
In the city of Diwaniyah, gunbattles between Iraqi forces and militiamen of the Mahdi Army loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr left at least 34 people dead and about 70 wounded, Iraqi officials said.
The fighting broke out late Sunday night when Iraqi soldiers conducted raids in three neighborhoods to flush out the militiamen and seize weapons, said army Capt. Fatik Aied.
He said the fighting continued Monday.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7726


Bush Pledges to Rebuild Gulf Coast, Stay Until `Job Is Done'
By Roger Runningen / Bloomberg
Aug. 26 -- President George W. Bush reinforced his promise to help rebuild roads, schools, homes and business along the U.S. Gulf Coast, which isn't yet healed from the ravages by Hurricane Katrina almost a year ago.
Thousands of people are still homeless or living in government trailers, debris remains piled high in some neighborhoods and services ranging from medical care to education aren't yet at pre-Katrina levels.
``Last year I made a simple pledge: The federal government would learn the lessons of Katrina, we would do what it takes, and we would stay as long as it takes,'' Bush said today in his weekly radio address. ``We will stay until the job is done.''

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7716


The Empty Streets Of New Orleans
By Peter Whoriskey / Washington Post
NEW ORLEANS -- When it was fresh, the epic wreckage of Hurricane Katrina inspired rallying cries of "We will rebuild!" But a year after the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, vast stretches of this city and the Gulf Coast are still largely abandoned, and many here wonder whether the destruction may be more permanent than anyone could at first conceive.
Tallies of electric bills and school enrollment figures show that less than half of New Orleans's pre-storm population of 455,000 has returned. The population of adjacent St. Bernard Parish has shrunk from 65,000 to less than 20,000. In small towns along the Mississippi Coast from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi, fewer than 5 percent of destroyed homes are being rebuilt.
Exactly how long the damaged areas will take to recover -- if they recover -- has been a matter of intense speculation ever since the waters receded. But with each passing day, more of the displaced are buying houses or signing leases in faraway cities, and the weeds in the abandoned yards grow higher.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7719


Gen. Batiste: Rumsfeld ‘Served Up Our Great Military A Huge Bowl of Chicken Feces’
Today on MSNBC, retired General John Batiste — former commander of the First Infantry division in Iraq — said that it was “outrageous” Rumsfeld was still in charge of the Pentagon. Batiste added, “He served up our great military a huge bowl of chicken feces, and ever since then, our military and our country have been trying to turn this bowl into chicken salad.” Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/25/batiste-rumsfeld/



After year in Iraq, soldiers face 18-hour bus ride home
By Lisa Wangsness / Boston Globe
For at least a year, the soldiers had survived one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: driving trucks on the violent roads of Iraq for the US Army. Half the company had been at it nearly two years.
But when the 150 soldiers in the Massachusetts-based 220th Transportation Company, 94th Regional Readiness Command, arrived at Camp Atterbury in Indiana just after midnight Friday for demobilization, they were told they would have to take the bus home -- an 18- to 20-hour ride.
Furious families of the soldiers called the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
``I was absolutely outraged," Kennedy said in a phone interview yesterday. ``These are men and women who have worn our uniform that bears the flag of the United States of America. They deserve a hero's welcome."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7727



Bin Laden, Most Wanted For Embassy Bombings?
By Dan Eggen / Washington Post
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is a longtime and prominent member of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list, which notes his role as the suspected mastermind of the deadly U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa on Aug. 7, 1998.
But another more infamous date -- Sept. 11, 2001 -- is nowhere to be found on the same FBI notice.
The curious omission underscores the Justice Department's decision, so far, to not seek formal criminal charges against bin Laden for approving al-Qaeda's most notorious and successful terrorist attack. The notice says bin Laden is "a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world" but does not provide details.
The absence has also provided fodder for conspiracy theorists who think the U.S. government or another power was behind the Sept. 11 hijackings. From this point of view, the lack of a Sept. 11 reference suggests that the connection to al-Qaeda is uncertain.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7725


It's All About Who You Sleep With ... a Cautionary Note from Michael Moore
Friends,
Let the resounding defeat of Senator Joe Lieberman send a cold shiver down the spine of every Democrat who supported the invasion of Iraq and who continues to support, in any way, this senseless, immoral, unwinnable war. Make no mistake about it: We, the majority of Americans, want this war ended -- and we will actively work to defeat each and every one of you who does not support an immediate end to this war.
Nearly every Democrat set to run for president in 2008 is responsible for this war. They voted for it or they supported it. That single, stupid decision has cost us 2,592 American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives. Lieberman and Company made a colossal mistake -- and we are going to make sure they pay for that mistake. Payback time started last night.
I realize that there are those like Kerry and Edwards who have now changed their position and are strongly anti-war. Perhaps that switch will be enough for some to support them. For others, like me -- while I'm glad they've seen the light -- their massive error in judgment is, sadly, proof that they are not fit for the job. They sided with Bush, and for that, they may never enter the promised land.
To Hillary, our first best hope for a woman to become president, I cannot for the life of me figure out why you continue to support Bush and his war. I'm sure someone has advised you that a woman can't be elected unless she proves she can kick ass just as crazy as any man. I'm here to tell you that you will never make it through the Democratic primaries unless you start now by strongly opposing the war. It is your only hope. You and Joe have been Bush's biggest Democratic supporters of the war. Last night's voter revolt took place just a few miles from your home in Chappaqua. Did you hear the noise? Can you read the writing on the wall?
To every Democratic Senator and Congressman who continues to back Bush's War, allow me to inform you that your days in elective office are now numbered. Myself and tens of millions of citizens are going to work hard to actively remove you from any position of power.
If you don't believe us, give Joe a call.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=197


Be It Resolved: You Can Impeach the President

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=622


Rumsfeld: Terrorists manipulating media
By Robert Burns / Associated Press
FALLON NAVAL AIR STATION, Nev. - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday he is deeply troubled by the success of terrorist groups in "manipulating the media" to influence Westerners.
"That's the thing that keeps me up at night," he said during a question-and-answer session with about 200 naval aviators and other Navy personnel at this flight training base for Navy and Marine pilots.
Rumsfeld was asked whether the criticism he draws as Pentagon chief and a leading advocate of the war in Iraq is an impediment to performing his job. He said it was not and he knows from history that wars are normally unpopular with many Americans. "I expect that," he said. "I understand that."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7732


Rumsfeld Assails Critics of War Policy
By Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned yesterday that "moral and intellectual confusion" over the Iraq war and the broader anti-terrorism effort could sap American willpower and divide the country, and he urged renewed resolve to confront extremists waging "a new type of fascism."
Drawing parallels to efforts by some nations to appease Adolf Hitler before World War II, Rumsfeld said it would be "folly" for the United States to ignore the rising dangers posed by a new enemy that he called "serious, lethal and relentless."
In a pointed attack on the news media and critics of President Bush's war and national security policies, Rumsfeld declared: "Any kind of moral and intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong can severely weaken the ability of free societies to persevere."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7739


Iraqi Hospitals Are War's New 'Killing Fields'
Medical Sites Targeted By Shiite Militiamen
By Amit R. Paley / Washington Post
BAGHDAD -- In a city with few real refuges from sectarian violence -- not government offices, not military bases, not even mosques -- one place always emerged as a safe haven: hospitals.
So Mounthir Abbas Saud, whose right arm and jaw were ripped off when a car bomb exploded six months ago, must have thought the worst was over when he arrived at Ibn al-Nafis Hospital, a major medical center here.
Instead, it had just begun. A few days into his recovery at the facility, armed Shiite Muslim militiamen dragged the 43-year-old Sunni mason down the hallway floor, snapping intravenous needles and a breathing tube out of his body, and later riddled his body with bullets, family members said.
Authorities say it was not an isolated incident. In Baghdad these days, not even the hospitals are safe. In growing numbers, sick and wounded Sunnis have been abducted from public hospitals operated by Iraq's Shiite-run Health Ministry and later killed, according to patients, families of victims, doctors and government officials.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7740


Beginning September 5th, we will launch a non-partisan camp for peace, democracy, and the restoration of the rule of law. Camp Casey will move from Crawford, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to create a larger camp focused not only on ending the war but also on righting injustices here at home and on holding accountable the Bush Administration and Congress. Here's the schedule of what's happening each day from September 5th to 21st. Here are free rooms and rides. If you can send a bus and need help paying for it, ask us. If you need help filling it, post it on the board.

http://www.campdemocracy.org/



The Boston Globe


Calif. to cap greenhouse gas emissions
By Samantha Young, Associated Press Writer August 30, 2006
SACRAMENTO --California would become the first state to impose a limit on all greenhouse gas emissions, including those from industrial plants, under a landmark deal reached Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrats.
The agreement marks a clear break with the Bush administration and puts California on a path to reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by an estimated 25 percent by 2020.
The bill still needs lawmakers' approval, but that appears likely, given that Democrats control the Legislature.
It gives Schwarzenegger a key environmental victory as he seeks re-election this fall.
"We can now move forward with developing a market-based system that makes California a world leader in the effort to reduce carbon emissions," the governor said in a statement.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/08/30/calif_to_cap_greenhouse_gas_emissions/


State stumbles on climate
August 30, 2006
FIVE YEARS after Massachusetts joined other New England states and the eastern Canadian provinces in committing to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, this state is getting mediocre grades in living up to that plan. A state that was once a leader on this issue is now stumbling. This year's gubernatorial election offers a chance for climate change to get the priority -- and the new impetus -- that it deserves.
A coalition of environmental organizations has gven the state a C-minus for its efforts to curb global warming in accord with the 2001 agreement. Such report cards by advocacy groups can be an inexact way to measure performance. But the 2001 plan is detailed enough to make this a useful measure.
A spokesman for the Romney administration says the state ``continues to make serious and meaningful advances" on global warming.
After a good start under Governor Jane Swift, the state's efforts got a further push from her successor, Mitt Romney, when he adopted smart growth principles to curb suburban sprawl and the gas-guzzling long commutes that go with it. But the momentum stopped when Romney opposed Cape Wind's wind-power project in Nantucket Sound and pulled Massachusetts out of a separate agreement by Northeastern states to go beyond the goals of the 2001 accord and actually cap greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The Legislature failed to push the state back into the regional agreement by statute.
Though the 2001 plan specifically recommends better mass transit , Romney's record on transportation is mixed. He has pushed ahead with the Greenbush commuter-rail line, and he also deserves credit for tying Massachusetts to the California Clean Car rules, which require major reductions in the carbon dioxide emissions of new vehicles. But he has set a slow timetable for most public transit projects required as mitigation for the Big Dig. And when high gasoline prices and the closure this summer of the I-90 connector portion of the Big Dig sent more commuters to the trains, commuter rail responded badly, missing a chance to win new customers.
RELATED STORY: Environmentalists: State failing in race to fight global warming
At this point, there is some doubt that the state will meet the carbon dioxide reduction goals set five years ago, including bringing emissions down to 1990 levels by 2010. Whether it will meet that plan's longer-term goal of reducing emissions by 75 to 85 percent will depend in part on whether voters make this a priority for the candidates.
In September 1988, Robert B. Kennedy of Lowell won the primary for Governor's Council against Herbert Connolly of Newton by one vote. It was a compelling argument for every-vote-counts even before the red-faced Connolly admitted he forgot to vote for himself.
Today is the deadline to register to vote in the Sept. 19 statewide primary. City and town halls will be open until 8 p.m. to accommodate the crowds. If, like the absent-minded Connolly, you miss today's deadline, the last day to register for the Nov. 7 election will be Oct. 18.
For further information, check the secretary of state's website: www/sec.state.ma.us/ele.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/08/30/state_stumbles_on_climate/


Philippine oil cleanup goes low-tech

Workers fill bags with oil contaminated debris in Nueva Valencia, Guimaras island, central Philippines, Wendesday Aug. 30, 2006. Faced with its worst-ever oil spill and scant funds, the Philippines plans to use cast-off clippings of human hair from salon owners and other volunteers to help mop up oil, after a tanker sank and began leaking bunker oil three weeks ago off Guimares island, which had been using a nascent eco-tourism industry to get off a list of the country's 20 poorest provinces. (AP Photo/Ariel Catubig)

By Teresa Cerojano, Associated Press Writer August 30, 2006
MANILA, Philippines --Volunteers in the Philippines are getting shorn to save the shore. The cast-off clippings of human hair are going to be used to help mop up oil from a disastrous spill that has fouled beaches, coral reefs and mangrove swamps.
Faced with its worst-ever oil spill and scant funds, the Philippines turned to the low-tech campaign after a tanker sank and began leaking bunker oil three weeks ago off Guimaras Island. The province is known for its beach resorts and pristine marine reserves.
The Southeast Asian nation plans to put cast-off clippings of human hair from salon owners and other volunteers in permeable sacks for use as improvised booms to contain the oil.
Even President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has joined in, ordering a government task force to set up collection centers for hair and chicken feathers, which also are being used, along with straw and other natural materials.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/08/30/philippine_oil_cleanup_goes_low_tech/


Mass. researchers say new stem cell rules may thwart scientists
By Brooke Donald, Associated Press Writer August 30, 2006
BOSTON --Academic and medical researchers are concerned that rules adopted by state health regulators may inhibit scientists from participating in stem cell research that will be conducted in other states and could criminalize certain types of scientific activity.
The rules passed this week by the Public Health Council included language that critics said goes against the intent of a stem cell law passed last year whose goal was to create a more hospitable environment in Massachusetts for research on human embryonic stem cells.
"Clearly the thrust of the legislation was to encourage biotech research," said state Sen. Cynthia Creem, D-Newton, one of the chief sponsors of the bill. "Why then did they take this law and interpret it to make it potentially harder to do research here and potentially criminal?"

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/08/30/mass_researchers_say_new_stem_cell_rules_may_thwart_scientists/


9/11 ads ask where you heard the news

This photo released by the ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day, showing an empty locker room with the words "Where were you when it happened?", is part of a national ad campaign to raise money for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation to build the Sept. 11 memorial. A national ad campaign launching on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2006, features the Sept. 11 stories of people around the world who still remember every detail of how they first heard of the 2001 terrorist attacks. (AP Photo/TBWA/Chiat/Day)

By Amy Westfeldt, Associated Press Writer August 30, 2006
NEW YORK --Where were you when you heard about Sept. 11?
Kiara Bradley was driving a bus. Gary Robertson was on his farm in California. Fire Department Lt. Mickey Kross was at New York's Engine Company 16, before he went to the burning World Trade Center and survived the north tower's collapse.
A national ad campaign being launched on Thursday features the stories of people who remember where they were when they heard of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
"I was in the shower. ... I was in a dentist's office in Bulgaria. ... I was on the Q train," says a radio spot for the campaign, which seeks donations for the Sept. 11 memorial at the trade center site.
A historian says the event will be remembered for life by the people who experienced it, in the same way that people recall the assassinations of President Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
"It's that expression of a connection between the historical and personal. You need to locate a personal relationship to that history," said Michael Frisch, a University of Buffalo history professor.
The ads were conceived for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation by Gerry Graf, executive creative director of the TBWA/Chiat/Day ad agency, who was in a Los Angeles hotel room when his wife called to tell him a plane had hit the trade center.
"The first thing I thought was this was our Pearl Harbor," Graf said.
The foundation has raised $132.8 million privately, and needs to raise a total of $300 million to complete the memorial, which is under construction and set to open in 2009.
The foundation has compiled about 250 "where were you" oral histories.
Separately, a Web site formed by college students -- http://wherewereyou.org -- collected more than 2,500 stories in the first year after the attacks.
"It is important to remember how time stopped," said Marie Pelkey, who was an 18 when she co-founded WhereWereYou. "No matter what we were doing, being in class, driving to work, arguing with family, alone overseas, at the airport ... it was in essence a human event that connected us all."
------
On the Net:
Memorial Foundation: http://www.buildthememorial.org

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/08/30/911_ads_ask_where_you_heard_the_news/


Afghanistan ignored
By Barney Frank August 30, 2006
A WAR is missing. Sadly, it is not missing from the physical location in which it is taking place, and people continue to die as it is waged. But it has largely disappeared from our national debate, and that debate has been sorely distorted as a consequence.
The war in question is in Afghanistan, and it isn't missing because it's no longer of consequence -- in fact, conditions there appear to be deteriorating -- but because of a conscious, unfortunately successful effort by the Bush administration and its conservative allies to ignore it. That's because acknowledging the war there would invalidate their charge that their political opponents are unwilling to take a forceful stand against terrorism.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/08/30/afghanistan_ignored/


Iranians taste freedoms on own terms
Dissidents shun US assistance
By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff August 30, 2006
TEHRAN -- Emad Baghi is a human rights activist who spent three years in prison for his writings. Shadi Vatanparast is a promoter of underground Iranian rock bands who, in the semi-privacy of her office, throws off her government-mandated headscarf. And Fazel Mehbadi is a mullah who preaches a message that's dangerously dissident in the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran: Religion should be separate from government.
These Iranians, in large ways and small, want more democracy and pluralism in their country, and they have taken risks to change their society. They are the kind of people whom US officials say they want to support. Yet they all agree that the last thing they need is help from the United States.
``The best thing the Americans can do for democracy in Iran is not to support it," Baghi, the activist, said recently in his office, next to a stack of his politically risky published books -- ``The Tragedy of Democracy in Iran," ``Clerics and Power," and a study that criticizes the government on its own terms, using Islamic teachings to indict Iran's justice system and its arbitrary arrests and executions.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/08/30/iranians_taste_freedoms_on_own_terms/



Ugly images in Iran
August 30, 2006
IRANIANS HAVE not been flocking to the museum in Tehran where 204 winning entries in the ``Holocaust International Cartoon Contest" are on exhibit. The Iranian public's indifference may be due to an understanding that the nasty images on display are not meant to improve life in Iran. Rather they belong to a propaganda campaign by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who seeks to divert Iran's neighbors from worrying about the projection of Iranian power through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. He also wants to make them forget that they would be threatened as much as Israel if Iran acquired nuclear weapons.
One of the images in the Tehran exhibition shows a caricature of an orthodox Jew with an egregiously long nose that impales an Arab figure; the nose is labeled ``Holocaust." Another depicts the Statue of Liberty holding a book on the Holocaust in one hand and raising the other hand in a Nazi salute.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/08/30/ugly_images_in_iran/



Analysis: Iran won't back down from U.N.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006. Iran's hard-line president on Tuesday challenged the authority of the U.N. Security Council, saying no one can prevent his country from having a peaceful nuclear program. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
By Lee Keath, Associated Press Writer August 30, 2006
CAIRO, Egypt --Iran isn't blinking in the face of Thursday's U.N. deadline for it to halt uranium enrichment or else finally face the possibility of sanctions the United States has sought for years.
Tehran appears confident it can withstand any punishment -- if it comes at all.
There seems to be no question of Iran's bending to the U.N. demand. It was enriching small amounts of uranium gas at its facility in Natanz as recently as Tuesday, U.N. and European officials in Vienna, Austria, said Wednesday. Iran's nuclear chief spoke over the weekend of expanding the enrichment program.
For many in the West, Iran's behavior is not just defiant but mystifying.
The U.N. deadline could be a crucial moment in the nuclear standoff. But on Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hardly even mentioned it during a 2 1/2-hour news conference and instead changed the subject, challenging President Bush to a debate.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/08/30/analysis_iran_wont_back_down_from_un/



Grenade found in street in commercial district in Boston
August 30, 2006
BOSTON --A police bomb unit, alerted by a pedestrian to something suspicious on the side of the street, found a hand grenade used in military training early Wednesday.
The device was working and had the potential to explode, said Elaine Driscoll, a police spokeswoman.
"It was absolutely a potential threat," she said.
The device was first spotted on the side of a street in a commercial area around 7 a.m. Wednesday. By the time police arrived, someone had placed a plastic cover from a trash barrel over it.
Police and agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives then conducted a sweep of the neighborhood, looking for additional devices, but had not found anything after several hours.
Driscoll said police do not know who left the device there. (I would guess it was someone who wanted people to be scared. That could be nearly anyone including the federal government.)

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/08/30/grenade_found_in_street_in_commercial_district_in_boston/


Cigarettes pack more nicotine
State study finds a 10 percent rise over six years
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff August 30, 2006
Even as measures to discourage smoking grew more stringent in recent years, a new report indicates that the nicotine content of cigarettes rose, making it tougher for smokers to quit.
From 1998 to 2004, the amount of nicotine that could be inhaled from cigarettes increased an average of 10 percent, the study by the state Department of Public Health found. Nicotine is the chemical that causes cigarettes to be addictive, and the study, released yesterday, found higher levels in all classes of cigarettes, including those branded ``light."
During the past decade, aggressive campaigns across the nation have aimed to curb smoking, the leading cause of preventable deaths. Cities and states, including Massachusetts, have banned smoking in public places, and the price of cigarettes has soared. Still, smoking rates among US adults stubbornly persist above 20 percent.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2006/08/30/cigarettes_pack_more_nicotine/


Slipping scores spur debate on altered SAT
Some educators say test is too long
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff August 30, 2006
The SAT scores of the state's college-bound seniors have dipped for the first time in 15 years, sparking debate about whether students faltered because the revamped exam now lasts nearly four hours.
The numbers for the class of 2006, released yesterday, mirrored a national decline in scores. They were the first statewide results reported since the addition of a writing section, the biggest change to the Scholastic Assessment Tests in more than a decade. The new section, in which students write an essay and answer multiple-choice questions about grammar, added 45 minutes to the exam.
Yesterday, college counselors and state Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said the dips in students' scores should prompt the New York-based College Board, which administers the exam, to examine whether students are tiring during the test.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2006/08/30/slipping_scores_spur_debate_on_altered_sat/



States fall short on teacher quality
By Ben Feller, AP Education Writer August 16, 2006
WASHINGTON --Having missed one deadline already, states still face an enormous challenge in putting qualified teachers in all major classes, a federal review says.
Some states are in much better shape than others, the Education Department said Wednesday. Most meet only some criteria in required new plans. Four fail altogether.
Under the No Child Left Behind law, states were supposed to have highly qualified teachers in every core academic class by the end of the last school year. None made it.
So the Education Department demanded new state plans. They were to include details on how states would improve their teaching corps and ensure fairness for poor and minority children.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2006/08/16/states_fall_short_on_teacher_quality/



South Africa panel: 336,000 dead of AIDS
August 29, 2006
CAPE TOWN, South Africa --More than a third of a million South Africans have died of AIDS over the past year, the head of the country's Medical Research Council said Tuesday.
There are now an estimated 5.54 million HIV-positive South Africans, or about 11.6 percent of the country's population, and the highest country total in the world.
"Current data ... estimates that round about the midpoint of 2006, something like 336,000 deaths in the preceding 12 months were AIDS related," council president Prof. Anthony Mbewu told a parliamentary committee.
But he said there was a reluctance among South African doctors -- who certified about 80 percent of deaths in the country -- to write HIV or AIDS on a death certificate because of the stigma associated with disease.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2006/08/29/south_africa_panel_336000_dead_of_aids/



1st woman space tourist readies for trip

Crew member of the next manned mission to the international space station U.S. entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari smiles during a news conference at Russian Space Training Center in Star City outside Moscow, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2006. Ansari, born in Iran, will become the first woman to make a paid voyage to the station, news agencies reported. The launch is scheduled for Sept. 14, but will take place Sept. 18 if the U.S. shuttle Atlantis takes off for the international space station in the Sept. 6-Sept. 8 window, which is now likely, said Nikolai Sevastyanov, head of state-controlled RKK Energiya, Russia's leading space company. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
By Steve Gutterman, Associated Press Writer August 30, 2006
STAR CITY, Russia --Like millions of children, Anousheh Ansari dreamed and wondered about the stars. Next month the Iranian-born U.S. entrepreneur can get a closer look, as she rides a Russian capsule to the international space station and becomes the first female space tourist.
The most exciting moment in her voyage will likely come when she first sees Earth "as a blue, glowing globe against the dark background of the cosmos," Ansari, 39, told a news conference Wednesday at the Russian cosmonaut training center outside Moscow.
Ansari is scheduled to ride to the station aboard a Soyuz TMA-9 capsule, along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and Spanish-born U.S. astronaut Miguel Lopez-Alegria. She will spend 10 days before returning to Earth with its current crew, Pavel Vinogradov and Jeff Williams, who have been on board since April 1.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/08/30/1st_woman_space_tourist_readies_for_trip/



Biologists test for bird flu in Alaska

Chickens are shown in cages at Whiting Farms in Delta, Colo., on Thursday, June 8, 2006. The farm has roughly 85,000 chickens in pens like these to be harvested for feathers that will be used for making fly fishing flies. (AP Photo/John Marshall)
By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press Writer August 29, 2006
BARROW, Alaska --Hundreds of miles above the Arctic Circle, biologists working in the frosty marshes of Alaska's North Slope are keeping a lookout for migratory birds that might bring a deadly avian flu strain to the United States.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, visiting a bird nesting site outside Barrow, reported Tuesday that 13,000 bird samples have been tested. While some less virulent forms of the flu were found, there has been no sign of the deadly H5N1 strain, linked to the death of at least 141 people, mostly in Asia.
"I think it's going very well," Kempthorne told The Associated Press after he helped a volunteer biologist gather a test sample from a young Dunin shorebird at a site on Beaufort Sea, near the northernmost point in the United States.
The fowl offspring's parents likely flew here from Japan or Korea, Audrey Taylor, the volunteer, told Kempthorne.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2006/08/29/biologists_test_for_bird_flu_in_alaska/



Europe's first lunar mission nears end
In this file photo of an artist's rendition, released by the European Space Agency, the European-made SMART-1 solar-powered satellite is seen nearing the Moon on its way to make the first comprehensive inventory of key chemical elements in the lunar surface. Europe's first mission to the moon is due to crash-land in a cloud of dust and rock Sunday, after 3 years of travel. (AP Photo/European Space Agency)
By David McHugh, Associated Press Writer August 30, 2006
BERLIN --Europe's first mission to the moon is due to crash-land in a cloud of dust and rock early Sunday, ending a three-year voyage that gathered data about the lunar surface and tested a new engine intended to propel future spacecraft to Mercury and other planets.
The European Space Agency's SMART-1 should hit its target on a volcanic plain called the Lake of Excellence at 1:41 a.m. EDT, orbiting lower and lower as it makes its final approach at 4,475 mph.
Observatories on Earth will try to capture images of the impact and the resulting debris cloud, and European space officials hope it will provide information about the minerals present at the impact site.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/08/30/europes_1st_lunar_mission_set_to_land/



Woman crashes when teaching dog to drive
August 28, 2006
BEIJING --A woman in Hohhot, the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia region, crashed her car while giving her dog a driving lesson, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday.
No injuries were reported although both vehicles were slightly damaged, it said.
The woman, identified only be her surname, Li, said her dog "was fond of crouching on the steering wheel and often watched her drive," according to Xinhua.
"She thought she would let the dog 'have a try' while she operated the accelerator and brake," the report said. "They did not make it far before crashing into an oncoming car."
Xinhua did not say what kind of dog or vehicles were involved but Li paid for repairs

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/08/28/woman_crashes_when_teaching_dog_to_drive/


Supernova caught in its exploding act
August 30, 2006
LONDON (Reuters) - Teams of international scientists have used observations from NASA's Swift satellite and other telescopes to witness the evolution of a cosmic blast into a stellar explosion or supernova.
The blast is thought to be a milder type of gamma-ray burst (GRB) -- the most powerful type of explosion known to astronomers -- called an X-ray flash.
It is known as GRB060218 after the February 18 date it began in the constellation of Aries about 440 million light years away. A light year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.
"This extends the GRB-supernova connection to X-ray flashes and fainter supernovae, implying a common origin," said Elena Pian of Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics in Trieste and the lead author of one of four research papers about the event in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/08/30/supernova_caught_in_its_exploding_act/



Schilling 14th to reach 3,000 strikeouts
Oakland Athletics' Frank Thomas (35) is welcomed to the dugout by Nick Swisher (33) and others after scoring on a triple by Eric Chavez in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
August 30, 2006
OAKLAND, Calif. --Boston ace Curt Schilling became the 14th pitcher in major league history to reach 3,000 strikeouts Wednesday when he fanned Oakland's Nick Swisher in the first inning.
The 39-year-old Schilling allowed a leadoff double to Jason Kendall before getting Swisher swinging for the milestone strikeout. His accomplishment was announced and Schilling received a lengthy ovation. He stepped off the mound and tipped his hat, his wife Shonda and children watching from nearby in the stands.
Schilling is the first pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts since Greg Maddux fanned San Francisco's Omar Vizquel for No. 3,000 on July 26, 2005.
He gave way to Mike Timlin after Kendall's RBI single in the sixth gave the Athletics a 5-1 lead. The right-hander, facing fellow 14-game winner Barry Zito, struck out four in 5 1-3 innings, allowing 11 hits and six runs and walking one while throwing 108 pitches.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2006/08/30/schilling_14th_to_reach_3000_strikeouts_1156968586/


continued …