Friday, November 17, 2006
World Children's Day
How To Participate World Children’s Day
2006 at McDonald’s is a worldwide fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) and other children’s causes that takes place annually in November.
This year in the United States, from November 10-19, customers can show their support by purchasing paper cut-out hands for $1 and personalizing a brick to post in the participating restaurant. Also, from November 17-19 in participating U.S. restaurants, a portion of sales from Happy Meals, Mighty Kids Meals and Extra Value Meals will be donated to RMHC and other vital children’s causes.
World Children’s Day is celebrated and supported in unique ways all across the globe. In Chile, McDía Feliz will benefit the country’s first Family Room. In Japan, a concert with pop stars will support World Children’s Day. In Poland, McDonald’s will sell phone straps with RMHC logos to benefit the charity. In Mexico, fifth-anniversary T-shirts will be sold with profits going to RMHC. And in Switzerland, McDonald’s is selling RMHC stuffed Elk toys to benefit the charity.
http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/values/place/community_giving/wcd/participate.html
THE DUCHESS OF YORK NAMED 2006
GLOBAL AMBASSADOR FOR WORLD CHILDREN'S DAY AT McDONALD'S®Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has been named global ambassador for World Children's Day at McDonald's for a second straight year today. The annual fundraising program, which raises money for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) and other vital children's causes, enters its fifth year in 2006.
More than 100 countries participate in World Children's Day by selecting a day or days in November to host fundraising events with local dignitaries, celebrities and McDonald's executives. McDonald's customers from around the world have raised more than $75 million for children's causes since the program's inception in 2002. As global ambassador in 2006, The Duchess will go on an international tour to help China, Japan and five U.S. cities to celebrate World Children's Day and support local fundraising efforts.
http://www.rmhc.com/rmhc/index/news/events/world_children_s_day.html
All Africa. com
Africa: Curb Harmful Gas Emissions, Annan Urges
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 15, 2006Posted to the web November 15, 2006
Nairobi
The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday urged developed countries to step up efforts to reduce harmful gas emissions that have been blamed for global warming, adding that poor countries were bearing the brunt of climate change.
"Low emissions need not mean low growth, or stifling a country's development aspirations," Annan told more than 6,000 delegates attending the conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
"It is increasingly clear that it will cost far less to cut emissions now than to deal with the consequences later," he said.
Several industrialised countries, notably the Unites States and Australia, have declined to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that sets legally binding targets for developed countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases by 2012. They argue that doing so would entail implementing measures that could harm their economies.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611150007.html
Nigeria: Nation Earns $400 Billion Oil Revenue Daily Trust (Abuja)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 16, 2006
Mohammed ShosanyaLagos
Nigeria earned $400 billion as economic rent from the 27 bil-lion barrels of oil produced in the last 50 years [1956-2006], Austin Avuru, Pres-ident of the Nigerian Asso-ciation of Petroleum Explora-tionists [NAPR] has said.
Avuru disclosed this Tuesday in Abuja in his opening address at the 24th International conference and exhibition of the Association.
He said within the period, out of the 183tcf of gas dis-covered in the country, 13tcf was produced. Eighty tree percent of this he said has been flared.
He however berated the country for not doing well to manage the oil wealth in the last 50 years even as only two percent of adult population take charge of the nation's ninety five percent export earnings.
"We have laboured to share rather than create, and even in sharing we have been found wanting. The parlous state of our economy today only summarizes the fact that we have, so far squandered our riches".
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611160928.html
Sudan: Government 'Accepts' UN Troops in Darfur
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Addis Ababa
The Sudanese government has 'agreed in principle' to the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in the western region of Darfur alongside African Union forces, officials said after a high-level meeting in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
"A hybrid operation is agreed in principle, pending clarification of the size of the force," stated a communiqué released at the end of the meeting. "The peacekeeping force will have a predominantly African character [but] backstopping and command and control structures will be provided by the UN."
The meeting, which discussed the continuing violence in Darfur, was attended by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the AU and representatives from Security Council member countries.
Sudan, however, expressed reservations over the size of the proposed hybrid force, saying the planned 17,000 soldiers and 3,000 police would need to be agreed on later. At the moment the AU has 7,000 troops, but critics say the underfunded force has largely been unable to stem the violence. The Addis Ababa meeting said it was necessary to urgently improve the capacity of the force.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170146.html
Kenya: Review Talks Collapse As Five Parties Walk Out The Nation (Nairobi)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
David MugonyiNairobi
The new talks initiated by the Government to give the country a new constitution collapsed yesterday when the representatives of political parties walked out.
The plan, which had brought together representatives of the Government, political parties and civil society, failed after Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Martha Karua rejected key minimum reforms proposed by a committee formed two months ago.
The five parties represented were Kanu and LDP, which form ODM Kenya, Ford Kenya, National Labour Party and Mazingira Greens Party of Kenya.
Tensions ran high during the meeting of the Multi-Sectoral Review Forum at the KICC, Nairobi, as co-chairman Dalmas Otieno and other representatives stormed out, with an MP vowing to take the war to Parliament.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170259.html
Rwanda: Munyakazi Gets Life Sentence The New Times (Kigali)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Robert MukomboziKigali
The Military Tribunal, presided over by Maj. Gen. Karenzi Karake yesterday sentenced the embattled Maj. Gen. Laurent Munyakazi to life imprisonment after it found him guilty of supervising and coordinating Genocide related crimes.
Convicted along with his co-accused, Fr. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, the prosecution found Munyakazi, the former Second Division Commander, guilty of several counts of murder among other capital offences. Fr. Munyeshyaka, who is a former Parish Priest of St. Famille Church, was convicted in absentia after he failed to answer to court summons. He is currently said to be in France. The convicts, according to the Military Tribunal, have 15 days in which to appeal.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170356.html
Namibia: Way Cleared for German N$160 Million
The Namibian (Windhoek)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Christof Maletsky
A SPECIAL team, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Dr Libertina Amathila, has finalised consultations with Herero, Nama, Damara and San communities to pave the way for the distribution of N$160 million a year over the next 10 years as part of German reparations.
Called the 'special initiative' by Germany, the European country undertook to give 20 million euro each year over 10 years to those communities, effectively to pave the way for reparations to Herero, Nama, Damara and San communities massacred during the colonial era, which lasted from 1884 to 1915.
Amathila, on instructions of President Hifikepunye Pohamba, undertook a consultation mission to Erongo, Hardap, Karas, Kunene, Otjozondjupa and Omaheke regions in February and March.
She submitted a list of projects to Pohamba that will benefit the communities if funded by the German millions.
Cabinet last week agreed to establish a steering committee to oversee the implementation of special initiative.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170352.html
East Africa: Kagame Implores Comesa Leaders On Integration The New Times (Kigali)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Kigali
President Paul Paul Kagame has urged his Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) counterparts, to strengthen peace iniatitives in the region in a bid to attain sustainable integration. The President, who was handing over the Comesa chair to Djibouti President Ismael Omar Guelleh, noted that there was need to assess the progress registered by the Comesa institutions
in regard to the systems and processes of integration. "Now in our twenty second year of building Comesa, it is appropriate to pose questions along the same lines as the theme of this Summit: Is the pace of achieving our vision of becoming a prosperous Customs Union adequate? Are we indeed deepening our regional integration?" Kagame, who was on Wednesday November 15, addressing the 11th Comesa Heads of State and Government in Djibouti, implored.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170351.html
Congo-Kinshasa: Bemba to Challenge Election Result in Court
SouthScan (London)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 16, 2006
Jean-Pierre Bemba's party has filed for a recount of the votes at the Supreme Court after Joseph Kabila was announced the winner of the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Independent Electoral Commission announced on Wednesday that Kabila took 58.05% of the vote in the October 29 run-off, compared to Bemba's 41.9%.
Local observers said the court was unlikely to overturn the decision, but the hearing may take some of the heat out of the IEC's announcement.
By Thursday morning, after a night of celebrations in Kabila strongholds in the east, Bemba's cabinet chief Fidele Babala said: "People were expecting a war plan from us, some troubles. But we're not into that. At the level of the national assembly we have our deputies and we're going to play our role as the opposition."
Earlier Kabila urged Congolese to remain calm and said the police and army remained loyal to him, suggesting security forces would not tolerate further trouble following clashes with Bemba's supporters in August and last weekend, according to a Reuters report.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611160854.html
Congo-Kinshasa: Joseph Kabila Re-Elected
November 15, 2006Posted to the web November 15, 2006
François GouahingaWashington, D.C.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of the Democratic Republic of Congo declared in a statement on Wednesday evening that incumbent Joseph Kabila had won the October 29, 2006 run-off presidential election.
The statement, read on Congolese national television and broadcast live over the Internet by Radio Okapi, said Joseph Kabila had won 9,436,779, or 58.05 percent, of the votes, while challenger Jean Pierre Bemba received 6,819,822, or 41.95 percent.
"Mr. Kabila Kabange Joseph is elected as president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo," the statement said.
Under Congolese law, these results must be certified by the Supreme Court, but the certification is generally considered a formality.
None of the two candidates had issued a statement immediately following the announcement by the IEC.
Congo-Kinshasa: Congolese Urged to Accept Election Results BuaNews (Tshwane)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 16, 2006
Oupa SegalweMidrand
The Pan African Parliament's (PAP) President Gertrude Mongella has appealed to the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to accept the official election results once they were available.
"The thing that we must watch as we go along is that when the results are finally out, we do expect the people of the DRC to accept them.
"Most of the problems in Africa [following elections] have been non-acceptance of the results," Ms Mongella told reporters today after a Parliamentary session on peace and security on the African continent.
President Mongella's comments come after Wednesday's declaration by the DRC's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), that incumbent President Joseph Kabila had won October's run-off Presidential election, capturing 58 per cent of the votes, while opponent and Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba had 42 per cent.
The provisional results mean that President Kabila could be the first democratically elected President in that country in over 40 years.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611160337.html
Zambia's Chiluba unfit for trial
Mr Chiluba led Zambia for 10 years Zambia's ex-President Frederick Chiluba is not medically fit to stand trial on corruption charges, a court has ruled. A medical examination was ordered after his personal doctor told the court that Mr Chiluba needed a heart transplant.
The state has been ordered to release Mr Chiluba's passport immediately so he can seek treatment in South Africa.
The former leader and two businessmen deny charges connected to the alleged disappearance of $488,000 from state funds during his time in office.
Mr Chiluba was elected in 1991 and led Zambia for 10 years.
He was not in court when the ruling was made.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6157990.stm
Zambia: Chiluba Asks Court to Allow Him Travel to South Africa for Treatment
The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
SECOND Republican president, Frederick Chiluba, has applied to the Lusaka magistrate's court to release his passport immediately to enable him to travel to South Africa for specialist treatment.
Dr Chiluba has further attached a certificate of urgency through his lawyer, Robert Simeza, certifying that the application for variation of bail conditions was one of extreme urgency.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170246.html
Nigeria: Foreign Reserves Hit 41 Billion Dollars This Day (Lagos)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Lagos
Central Bank Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, has disclosed that the nation's foreign reserve stands at $41 billion as at the end of October 2006.
Soludo disclosed this at an interactive session with members of the House of Representatives committee on Finance yesterday in Abuja.
He said as at October 31, the balance in the excess crude oil account, stood at $9.4 billion, while the balance of recovered funds during the same period was $18 million and one million pounds sterling.
Defending the proposed borrowing to finance the 2007 budget deficit, Soludo said the decision was to avoid inflation that may be caused by excess liquidity.
To use proceeds from the excess crude account, as advised by the chairman of the committee, Abdullahi Umar, would not be helpful, the CBN boss added.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170180.html
Zimbabwe: Govt to Compensate White Farmers Business in Africa (Johannesburg)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 16, 2006
Harare
The Zimbabwean government has invited over 1000 white farmers to collect compensation for farms that were seized under President Robert Mugabe's directives.
Secretary of lands, Ngoni Masoka, issued a statement in state-run newspaper The Herald calling for dispossessed farmers to contact the lands ministry.
Masoka said: "The former owners or representatives should contact the ministry of lands, land reform and resettlement as a matter of urgency in connection with their compensation."
The spokesman did not indicate whether compensation would be market related or whether machinery and land development costs would be taken into account when reaching a figure.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611160325.html
South Africa: New-Look Aids Plan for Thousands More
Business Day (Johannesburg)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Tamar KahnJohannesburg
GOVERNMENT aims to halve the HIV-infection rate, and provide treatment to 750000 patients within the next five years, according to the latest draft of a new HIV/AIDS-combating strategy.
The plan, a copy of which has been seen by Business Day, comes amid signs of a dramatic rethink in government circles about a comprehensive approach to the pandemic. It also coincides with a new drive led by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at the head of the South African National AIDS Council (Sanac) to reverse negative international perceptions of SA's AIDS-fighting efforts.
SA has one of the world's worst HIV epidemics, with more than 5,5-million people, or 11% of the population, infected with the disease. Although government's treatment programme is the world's biggest, the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society estimates that only about a fifth of the HIV patients in need are getting life-prolonging antiretroviral medicines.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170492.html
Mozambique: Peer Review Funding Document Signed Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Maputo
Mozambique's Minister of Planning and Development, Aiuba Cuereneia, pledged on Friday that the government will take all the actions necessary to ensure peer review of Mozambique, under the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
Mozambique was one of the first countries to sign up for peer review, and the APRM is the means chosen to check on countries' economic and political governance, under the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
Cuereneia was speaking at a ceremony in Maputo, at which he signed the document confirming the funding required to implement peer review in Mozambique. The money involved is about 1.8 million US dollars over 30 months, provided by Norway, Britain and Germany.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170556.html
APEC Summit 2006
https://www.apecceosummit2006.org/default.asp
APEC CEOs work to narrow development gaps Delegates to the APEC CEO Summit 2006 in Ha Noi on Nov. 17 discussed measures to take full advantage of opportunities and overcome difficulties in order to narrow the gap between economies in the Asia-Pacific rim.
Speaking at the summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao reminded participants of profoundly complicated changes in the world, including globalisation, the process that has brought countries closer and enabled them to promote cooperation to a higher level.
However, there still exist development gaps while new challenges already appear to threaten the growth and security of the region, President Hu pointed out.
"I call on you to give more priority to exploring business opportunities and expanding market share in developing countries," President Hu said while affirming businesses are major participants and investors in the market.
Meanwhile, Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNTAD) argued that Asia needs a stimulus otherwise its economies would suffer from deflations.
https://www.apecceosummit2006.org/detail.asp?id=217
The Washington Post
Burma's Refugees
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/panorama/2006/11/16/PA2006111601153.html
Misery Spirals in Burma As Junta Targets Minorities
By Anthony FaiolaWashington Post Foreign ServiceFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A01
CAMP EITUTA, Burma -- In a burgeoning encampment here on Burma's eastern frontier, Hay Nay Tha, a 30-year-old mother of three, awakens in the darkness most nights to the sound of her children's screams.
"They keep having nightmares about our journey here," she said.
VideoNightmare in Eastern BurmaBurmese forces are waging the largest military offensive against its own people in more than a decade, targeting the country's eastern ethnic groups with violence and destruction. Tens of thousands of refugees, mostly Karen minorities, are abandoning villages in search of safety in Thailand.
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DiggGoogledel.icio.usYahoo!RedditFacebook That journey, Hay recalled, began when she was four months pregnant and government soldiers torched her village and forced local farmers off their land. It ended four weeks later, after her husband died of malaria en route to this camp. She and her children arrived here this summer dehydrated and exhausted. Hay soon went into early labor with a stillborn son.
"To be honest," the copper-skinned woman said, shyly gazing down at her hands, "I am having nightmares, too."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601277.html
Five Civilian Contractors Held Hostage in Iraq
By Sudarsan RaghavanWashington Post Foreign ServiceFriday, November 17, 2006; 1:16 PM
BAGHDAD, Nov. 17 -- Five civilian security contractors, including four Americans and one Austrian, were being held hostage Friday morning after gunmen masquerading as policemen stopped their convoy and abducted them in southern Iraq, a U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad said.
The convoy of 43 trucks, carrying supplies, and six private security vehicles, typically heavily-armed SUVS, were stopped by men at "what appeared to be a police checkpoint" near Safwan, a small Iraqi town bordering Kuwait, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111700261.html
Debate Grows Over Beefing Up U.S. Force in Iraq
Military Leaders Oppose McCain's Push for Thousands of Additional Troops
By Josh WhiteWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A17
The debate about how to proceed in Iraq, which in the past few months has focused on withdrawing U.S. troops, now includes serious discussion about adding more forces to the fight.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) repeatedly suggested this week that the United States needs thousands more troops in Iraq, and members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have discussed similar ideas as they prepare a much-anticipated policy recommendation. Members of Congress raised the concept on Wednesday in hearings with the region's top U.S. military commander.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601647.html
In Vietnam, Old Foes Take Aim at War's Toxic Legacy
By Anthony FaiolaWashington Post Foreign ServiceMonday, November 13, 2006; Page A01
DA NANG, Vietnam -- For a stark reminder of the Vietnam War, people living near the airport in this central industrial city can still stroll along the old stone walls that once surrounded a U.S. military base. But Luu Thi Nguyen, a 31-year-old homemaker, needs only to look into the face of her young daughter.
Van, 5, spends her days at home, playing by herself on the concrete floor because local school officials say her appearance frightens other children. She has an oversize head and a severely deformed mouth, and her upper body is covered in a rash so severe her skin appears to have been boiled. According to Vietnamese medical authorities, she is part of a new generation of Agent Orange victims, forever scarred by the U.S.-made herbicide containing dioxin, one of the world's most toxic pollutants.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111201065.html
Bush Praises Vietnam's Rapid Economic Growth
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006; 10:48 AM
HANOI, Nov. 17 -- President Bush arrived in poor but economically vibrant Vietnam Friday on a mission to strengthen business ties that he hopes will help eclipse bitter memories of the unpopular and ultimately unsuccessful war the United States waged here more than three decades ago.
"History has a long march to it," Bush told reporters, when asked how he felt about being hosted by a former U.S. enemy. "Societies change, and relationships can constantly be altered to the good."
VIDEO President Bush has begun what he calls a "poignant" visit to Vietnam -- three decades after the war ended, he says that the conflict's lesson for Iraq is that it takes time for freedom to prevail.
Friday, Nov. 17, at 11 a.m. ETPresident Bush Visits VietnamBen Wilkinson, associate director of the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Vietnam Progran, discusses President Bush's visit to Vietnam.
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Facebook Bush is here to take part in the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, but arrives with a host of issues on the table -- from the recent North Korean nuclear test to the mounting U.S. trade deficit with China and his own political setbacks at home. Earlier this week, Congress shelved a free trade agreement with Vietnam that Bush had hoped to have in hand for his trip here, and Democratic success in last week's congressional elections highlighted voter concern about American jobs lost overseas, among other issues.
Bush is the second U.S. president to visit Vietnam since the end of the war, following President Clinton's visit here near the conclusion of his second term in 2000.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111700224.html
A Chance To Get Into The RoomBlack Entrepreneurs Grapple With Proving Themselves
By Keith L. AlexanderFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A01
They didn't leave work until after 4 a.m. Four hours later, they were back in the office -- frazzled and on edge. Sitting around a conference table, eight employees of Enlightened Inc., a technology consulting firm, were struggling to polish a proposal that could well determine the firm's future. It was not going well.
Chief executive Antwanye Ford was rubbing his forehead in frustration. He was dressed meticulously, as always, in a pressed Donald Trump-brand suit and a French-cuff shirt. Not even a succession of 18-hour days could make this man look rumpled. But on this day, he was oozing tension. Enlightened's bid for a multimillion-dollar contract to update the computer system used by the District's probation and parole officers was simply not good enough, he told his staff. The proposal needed more graphics, more punch. As Ford saw it, this bid was his fledgling black firm's ticket to a new competitive league.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601932.html
Being a Black ManBalancing Blackness with Business
Keith L. Alexander, Antwanye Ford and Andre RogersWashington Post reporter; Founders of Enlightened Inc.Friday, November 17, 2006; 1:00 PM Many black entrepreneurs find themselves struggling with how much of their identity to sacrifice in the quest for business success. In this latest installment of the "Being a Black Man" series Antwanye Ford and Andre Rogers, founders of technology consulting firm Enlightened Inc., struggle with whether or not the company should promote that it is owned and run by two black men.
Washington Post reporter Keith L. Alexander will be online with Ford and Rogers at 1 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 17 to discuss the story and some of the struggles the two entrepreneurs face as they grow their business.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/11/16/DI2006111600598.html
Being a Black Man
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/interactives/blackmen/blackmen.html
Group Will Sort Terrorism Alerts for Local Governments
By Karen DeYoungWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A10
A new plan to improve information-sharing about terrorism, signed by President Bush this week and delivered to Congress yesterday, establishes a Washington-based "threat assessment group" that includes federal, state and local officials. It also aims to reduce more than 100 restrictive and confusing categories of "sensitive" federal information to a half-dozen or fewer so local-level officials can better understand what they are told.
State and local governments and law enforcement officials have long complained of a lack of coordination among the federal agencies that send terrorism-related alerts, analysis and instructions. The new plan allows state and local officials to participate in deciding what players outside the federal government need to know and designates an online channel to distribute the information.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601424.html
A Second Pour of Good News About Substance in Red Wine
By Rob SteinWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A03
A component of red wine recently shown to help lab mice live longer also protects animals from obesity and diabetes and boosts their physical endurance, researchers reported yesterday.
The new research helps confirm and extend the possible benefits of the substance, resveratrol, and offers new insight into how it works -- apparently by revving up the metabolism to make muscles burn more energy and work more efficiently. Mice fed large doses could run twice as far as they would normally.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600705.html
Pets & Parenthood
On Tuesday, for inexplicable reasons, our Guest Blog discussion took an unusual turn into the realm of pets vs. children. Quite a fascinating detour. Pet owners argued that pets are as important as kids. Parents (some with both pets and children) argued that if you have children, there is no comparison. I have three kids, three pets, and abiding affection for children and animals; I once supervised a childless employee with two dogs whom I regularly allowed to go home early to care for his pets. I can see passion and merit on both sides of the argument.
So I wanted to continue the discussion by asking a few more questions.
What do American pet-owners and parents have in common? What role do pets play in a balanced life? How are today's Americans different from citizens in other countries or our ancestors in terms of devotion to pets and children? Are Americans somehow better nurturers, superior protectors of the helpless, more loving and affectionate? Do we love our children and our pets so deeply because we don't need to worry as much as our predecessors about daily survival? Or am I just over-thinking this?
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/onbalance/
SAT Monitors Napped, Ignored Rules, Teens Say
By Jay MathewsWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A01
They started the SAT that Saturday morning more than an hour late, not helpful for a college-entrance test many consider an ordeal under the best circumstances. But the situation worsened for eight students with learning disabilities in one second-floor testing room at Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Northwest Washington.
According to three of the students who were there Oct. 14, the proctor and the associate test supervisor in the room let students work on some sections long after time expired and on others ahead of time. They let students make cellphone calls and eat in the room. Lacking a clock, they let students time the examination themselves with a microwave oven timer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601981.html
Heart Valves Grown From Womb Fluid Cells
By LINDSEY TANNERThe Associated PressWednesday, November 15, 2006; 4:33 PM
CHICAGO -- Scientists for the first time have grown human heart valves using stem cells from the fluid that cushions babies in the womb _ offering a revolutionary approach that may be used to repair defective hearts in the future.
The idea is to create these new valves in the lab while the pregnancy progresses and have them ready to implant in a baby with heart defects after it is born.
Dr. Simon Hoerstrup, a University of Zurich scientist, speaks at an American Heart Association conference Tuesday in Chicago. (M. Spencer Green - AP)
Lean Plate Club E-MailBuild healthy living habits for the long haul, with recipes, exercise ideas and the latest dietary guidelines. The Swiss experiment follows recent successes at growing bladders and blood vessels and suggests that people may one day be able to grow their own replacement heart parts _ in some cases, even before they're even born.
It's one of several sci-fi tissue engineering advances that could lead to homegrown heart valves for infants and adults that are more durable and effective than artificial or cadaver valves.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501033.htlm
Elderly Dying From Falls More Often
By MIKE STOBBEThe Associated PressThursday, November 16, 2006; 4:09 PM
ATLANTA -- The death rate from falling has risen dramatically for elderly people since the 1990s, said federal health officials, speculating that it's because people are living longer with chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease.
"Since people are not dying as much from chronic diseases, they're more likely to die from a fall," said Judy Stevens, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600834.html
Europeans OK Anti-Obesity Charter
By MARIA CHENGThe Associated PressThursday, November 16, 2006; 6:56 PM
LONDON -- European health ministers from 53 countries approved the world's first charter to fight obesity on Thursday, vowing greater action against the epidemic of expanding waistlines across the continent.
The charter, approved in Istanbul, Turkey, was drafted by the World Health Organization in consultation with its European member states. It is the first real attempt to compel national authorities to take concrete action to combat obesity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600130.html
Soldier Gets 90 Years in Rape, Killing of Iraqi Girl
By Josh WhiteWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A18
An Army specialist who admitted that he and a group of other U.S. soldiers raped a 14-year-old girl and killed her and her family in an Iraqi village was sentenced to 90 years in prison yesterday, by far the longest sentence for a U.S. soldier in connection with the death of an Iraqi civilian since the war began in 2003.
Spec. James P. Barker, 23, could be eligible for parole in 20 years, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors that spares him the possibility of a death sentence. Barker has indicated he will testify against other soldiers in the case, some of whom face the death penalty.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601685.html
BBC News
Kenya dam 'on brink of bursting'
The floods have already forced thousands away from their homes A dam in the eastern Kenya is close to bursting under the strain of waters swollen by torrential rains, United Nations staff have warned. Unusually heavy seasonal rains have raised the water level in the River Tana, near the town of Garissa.
A spokeswoman for the UN said the dam was "on the brink of bursting", and floodgates had to be opened to stop it from buckling and breaking.
Heavy rain is forecast to continue for weeks in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.
Between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people have already suffered under the heavy rains and severe flooding, the UN says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6158774.stm
Bush in Vietnam for Apec summit
President Bush is keen for world leaders to revive free trade talks US President George W Bush has arrived in Vietnam for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit, expected to focus on trade relations. Mr Bush has called on the 21-nation forum to put stalled world trade talks back on track. North Korea's nuclear activities will also be discussed.
Mr Bush later held talks with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, focused on the situation in Iraq.
And he will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao, also in Vietnam for the summit.
Apec's trade and foreign ministers have agreed to press their leaders to issue a statement on trade in the course of the conference.
World Trade Organization talks on free trade have been stalled since July, after countries failed to reach agreement on subsidies in the so-called Doha round.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6156876.stm
'Two foreigners released' in Iraq
Control of Nasiriya was handed over to Iraqi troops in September Two of five foreigners kidnapped from a convoy of civilians in south Iraq have been freed, Iraqi officials say.
An Austrian and four US security contractors were seized in the attack, which reportedly took place near Basra en route to Nasiriya on Thursday.
Unconfirmed reports say the Austrian has been killed and an American wounded, but details are unclear.
US officials in Baghdad said they could not confirm new releases. Nine civilians also held were already freed.
Reports said British and US forces had been mounting raids in the area to find the hostages.
The Basra provincial governor told the Associated Press: "Police were able to free two of the foreigners kidnapped and they are in good health".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6157082.stm
Rome hosts major anti-mafia forum
More police have recently been deployed in Naples A major anti-mafia conference is due to open in the Italian capital, Rome. The three-day forum's 2,500 participants aim to raise awareness of the importance of the fight against organised crime in the country.
Italy's three main mafias have killed some 2,500 people in the past 10 years, yet politicians have failed to tackle the issue, the forum's organisers say.
A spate of recent mafia-related killings in the city of Naples has led to calls for the army to be deployed.
Last week, Italian police carried out a series of co-ordinated raids across the country, detaining more than 100 alleged mafia members suspected of drug-trafficking.
In a separate development, a Sicilian judge on Wednesday sentenced dozens of associates of jailed mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano for a total of 300 years, Italy's Ansa news agency reported.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6157528.stm
Storm over 'pig-for-name' artist
Hornsleth says the villagers back his campaign A Ugandan minister has condemned a Danish artist as "racist" for persuading villagers to adopt his name in exchange for a pig or a goat. The criticism comes as an exhibition of Kristian Von Hornsleth's photos from the village of Buteyongera opens in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
Hornsleth, however, says he is trying to help the villagers by highlighting the failure of international aid.
The exhibition is called: "We want to help you, but we want to own you."
'Mirror'
"After 50 years of Third World aid, Africa is still poor," Hornsleth told the BBC's World Today programme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6157612.stm
Brazil police in 'shoot-to-kill' claims
By Steve Kingstone BBC News, Sao Paulo
In May 2006 South America's biggest city was terrorised by a wave of brutal attacks by a crime network. The violence claimed the lives of 32 police officers, but police hit back with lethal force of their own. Six months on, evidence is mounting that officers summarily executed dozens of suspects, as Steve Kingstone reports.
The violence convulsed Sao Paulo for several days
Heliopolis is a vast maze of alleyways and winding streets which together form the largest favela - or shantytown - in Sao Paulo. Controlled by drug-traffickers and scarred by gun crime, it remains a no-go area for most of this city's residents.
But the people of Heliopolis say their community has been the scene of flagrant human rights abuses, which have been ignored by the state government. They accuse the police here of murder.
"They shot my husband five times. It was ridiculous, senseless," protests the widow of 24-year-old Rogerio do Carmo Pereira.
He was killed, along with his brother and a third man, on the night of Wednesday 17 May.
Officers had apparently raided the favela after reports that an armed gang was planning to attack a nearby police station.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6157778.stm
US house building at six-year low
Houses are not selling so fast as demand eases The number of new US homes being built fell to a six-year low last month as housing activity slowed significantly, a Commerce Department report has shown. About 1.48 million houses were started in October, 14% down from the previous month and 27.4% lower than a year ago.
At the same time, the number of permits awarded for future housing projects fell to its lowest level since 1997.
Successive interest rate rises since 2005 have dampened the market, as has a slowdown in the economy, analysts said.
'Soft landing'
The October housing numbers were considerably lower than industry experts had been expecting.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6158478.stm
Taco Bell bans trans fats in food
Taco Bell's move comes amid increasing concern over trans fats Taco Bell, America's largest seller of Mexican-style fast food, says it will no longer use cooking oils containing trans-fatty acids. The fats have been linked by doctors to raised cholesterol and a subsequent increased risk of heart disease.
The ban is will cover the chain's 5,000 restaurants across the United States.
Wendy's and Kentucky Fried Chicken have already pledged to switch to zero trans-fat oils and McDonald's has said it is considering the move.
With mounting concern about premature deaths and rising obesity in the US, trans-fat has become a number one target for campaigners.
'Right thing to do'
Taco Bell is owned by Kentucky-based Yum Brand Inc, which is also the parent company of Pizza Hut and KFC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6155386.stm
Rumsfeld faces German legal test
Rumsfeld quit after the US mid-term elections last week A lawyers' group has asked Germany to sue former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over alleged prisoner abuse in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The complaint was filed by the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of a Saudi man held in Cuba and 11 Iraqis held in Baghdad.
German law allows the pursuit of cases originating anywhere in the world.
State prosecutors have yet to decide whether to pursue the case. An earlier request for a case in 2004 was dropped.
Michael Ratner, the centre's president, said he felt the case had a better chance of success now because Mr Rumsfeld was no longer in office and could not exert the same degree of "political pressure".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6146058.stm?ls
Boy detained for Briton's murder
Mr Senitt was an established political activist A 15-year-old boy has been detained for murdering an aspiring British politician in Washington DC. The teenager had pleaded guilty to juvenile charges of murdering Alan Senitt, of Pinner, north-west London.
Mr Senitt, 27, had his throat slashed as he escorted a woman friend home in the city's Georgetown area in July.
The boy, who also admitted to armed robbery and theft charges, was sentenced to juvenile custody until he is 21, at Columbia's Superior Court.
During the sentencing hearing, letters written by Mr Senitt's parents Jack and Karen were read out.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6153520.stm
Uruguay's ex-president arrested
Mr Bordaberry is not covered by a 1985 amnesty Former Uruguayan President Juan Maria Bordaberry has been arrested in connection with four political killings during military rule in the 1970s. The former foreign minister, Juan Carlos Blanco, has also been detained.
The two men are accused of involvement in the killing of two congressmen and two left-wing militants in 1976.
Elected in 1971, Mr Bordaberry went on to govern with military leaders, closing congress and banning parties, before being ousted himself in 1976.
As civilians, Mr Bordaberry and Mr Blanco are not protected by an amnesty passed after the end of military rule in 1985.
Mr Bordaberry presented himself to the authorities at the central prison in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, on Friday, a day after his judge ordered his arrest.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6157418.stm
Bolivia 'risks revolt over land'
Evo Morales intends to redistribute up to a fifth of Bolivia's land Bolivia's President Evo Morales has warned of mass demonstrations if the country's Senate does not approve his plans for land reform. He said the people would rise up and implement the reforms "by force" if they were not passed into law.
He also ruled out any compromise with the big landowners who oppose his plans to redistribute underused land.
Indigenous protesters from the eastern province of Santa Cruz are marching to the capital in support of the measures.
But landowners in the province, one of the country's most fertile, have threatened to withhold agricultural produce from the rest of Bolivia if the plans are approved.
In September, demonstrators - mainly poor indigenous farmers - blocked roads into the city of Santa Cruz, claiming the opposition was trying to stall the government's plans.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6156698.stm
Criminal probe into Foley emails
Mark Foley denies ever having sexual contact with a minor Authorities in Florida have opened a criminal inquiry into former Republican congressman Mark Foley over sexually explicit emails he sent to young men. He resigned in September after it emerged he had sent lurid messages to teenagers on work experience.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has found the basis for a criminal inquiry, a spokeswoman said.
The scandal widened amid claims Republican leaders knew of Mr Foley's emails years ago, but did nothing.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) began investigating shortly after Mr Foley stepped down.
"It was a preliminary inquiry before but we found the basis to open up a criminal investigation, " said FDLE spokeswoman Kristen Perezluha.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6159010.stm
Missing paedophiles named online
The men have failed to comply with the sex offenders' register Some of the UK's most wanted child sex offenders have been identified online. It is believed to be the first time that details of convicted paedophiles have been published nationwide by Britain's law enforcement agencies.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre has set up the new website in an effort to track missing child sex offenders.
Meanwhile, single mothers could be able to check up on new partners to see if they are sex offenders under new plans.
The Home Office is considering proposals that would enable single mothers to ask the police to make the checks, which would have to be supported by reasonable grounds for suspicion.
It is known that predatory paedophiles often befriend single mothers as a way of gaining access to their children.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6156712.stm
continued ...
How To Participate World Children’s Day
2006 at McDonald’s is a worldwide fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) and other children’s causes that takes place annually in November.
This year in the United States, from November 10-19, customers can show their support by purchasing paper cut-out hands for $1 and personalizing a brick to post in the participating restaurant. Also, from November 17-19 in participating U.S. restaurants, a portion of sales from Happy Meals, Mighty Kids Meals and Extra Value Meals will be donated to RMHC and other vital children’s causes.
World Children’s Day is celebrated and supported in unique ways all across the globe. In Chile, McDía Feliz will benefit the country’s first Family Room. In Japan, a concert with pop stars will support World Children’s Day. In Poland, McDonald’s will sell phone straps with RMHC logos to benefit the charity. In Mexico, fifth-anniversary T-shirts will be sold with profits going to RMHC. And in Switzerland, McDonald’s is selling RMHC stuffed Elk toys to benefit the charity.
http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/values/place/community_giving/wcd/participate.html
THE DUCHESS OF YORK NAMED 2006
GLOBAL AMBASSADOR FOR WORLD CHILDREN'S DAY AT McDONALD'S®Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has been named global ambassador for World Children's Day at McDonald's for a second straight year today. The annual fundraising program, which raises money for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) and other vital children's causes, enters its fifth year in 2006.
More than 100 countries participate in World Children's Day by selecting a day or days in November to host fundraising events with local dignitaries, celebrities and McDonald's executives. McDonald's customers from around the world have raised more than $75 million for children's causes since the program's inception in 2002. As global ambassador in 2006, The Duchess will go on an international tour to help China, Japan and five U.S. cities to celebrate World Children's Day and support local fundraising efforts.
http://www.rmhc.com/rmhc/index/news/events/world_children_s_day.html
All Africa. com
Africa: Curb Harmful Gas Emissions, Annan Urges
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 15, 2006Posted to the web November 15, 2006
Nairobi
The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday urged developed countries to step up efforts to reduce harmful gas emissions that have been blamed for global warming, adding that poor countries were bearing the brunt of climate change.
"Low emissions need not mean low growth, or stifling a country's development aspirations," Annan told more than 6,000 delegates attending the conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
"It is increasingly clear that it will cost far less to cut emissions now than to deal with the consequences later," he said.
Several industrialised countries, notably the Unites States and Australia, have declined to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that sets legally binding targets for developed countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases by 2012. They argue that doing so would entail implementing measures that could harm their economies.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611150007.html
Nigeria: Nation Earns $400 Billion Oil Revenue Daily Trust (Abuja)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 16, 2006
Mohammed ShosanyaLagos
Nigeria earned $400 billion as economic rent from the 27 bil-lion barrels of oil produced in the last 50 years [1956-2006], Austin Avuru, Pres-ident of the Nigerian Asso-ciation of Petroleum Explora-tionists [NAPR] has said.
Avuru disclosed this Tuesday in Abuja in his opening address at the 24th International conference and exhibition of the Association.
He said within the period, out of the 183tcf of gas dis-covered in the country, 13tcf was produced. Eighty tree percent of this he said has been flared.
He however berated the country for not doing well to manage the oil wealth in the last 50 years even as only two percent of adult population take charge of the nation's ninety five percent export earnings.
"We have laboured to share rather than create, and even in sharing we have been found wanting. The parlous state of our economy today only summarizes the fact that we have, so far squandered our riches".
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611160928.html
Sudan: Government 'Accepts' UN Troops in Darfur
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Addis Ababa
The Sudanese government has 'agreed in principle' to the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in the western region of Darfur alongside African Union forces, officials said after a high-level meeting in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
"A hybrid operation is agreed in principle, pending clarification of the size of the force," stated a communiqué released at the end of the meeting. "The peacekeeping force will have a predominantly African character [but] backstopping and command and control structures will be provided by the UN."
The meeting, which discussed the continuing violence in Darfur, was attended by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the AU and representatives from Security Council member countries.
Sudan, however, expressed reservations over the size of the proposed hybrid force, saying the planned 17,000 soldiers and 3,000 police would need to be agreed on later. At the moment the AU has 7,000 troops, but critics say the underfunded force has largely been unable to stem the violence. The Addis Ababa meeting said it was necessary to urgently improve the capacity of the force.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170146.html
Kenya: Review Talks Collapse As Five Parties Walk Out The Nation (Nairobi)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
David MugonyiNairobi
The new talks initiated by the Government to give the country a new constitution collapsed yesterday when the representatives of political parties walked out.
The plan, which had brought together representatives of the Government, political parties and civil society, failed after Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Martha Karua rejected key minimum reforms proposed by a committee formed two months ago.
The five parties represented were Kanu and LDP, which form ODM Kenya, Ford Kenya, National Labour Party and Mazingira Greens Party of Kenya.
Tensions ran high during the meeting of the Multi-Sectoral Review Forum at the KICC, Nairobi, as co-chairman Dalmas Otieno and other representatives stormed out, with an MP vowing to take the war to Parliament.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170259.html
Rwanda: Munyakazi Gets Life Sentence The New Times (Kigali)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Robert MukomboziKigali
The Military Tribunal, presided over by Maj. Gen. Karenzi Karake yesterday sentenced the embattled Maj. Gen. Laurent Munyakazi to life imprisonment after it found him guilty of supervising and coordinating Genocide related crimes.
Convicted along with his co-accused, Fr. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, the prosecution found Munyakazi, the former Second Division Commander, guilty of several counts of murder among other capital offences. Fr. Munyeshyaka, who is a former Parish Priest of St. Famille Church, was convicted in absentia after he failed to answer to court summons. He is currently said to be in France. The convicts, according to the Military Tribunal, have 15 days in which to appeal.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170356.html
Namibia: Way Cleared for German N$160 Million
The Namibian (Windhoek)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Christof Maletsky
A SPECIAL team, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Dr Libertina Amathila, has finalised consultations with Herero, Nama, Damara and San communities to pave the way for the distribution of N$160 million a year over the next 10 years as part of German reparations.
Called the 'special initiative' by Germany, the European country undertook to give 20 million euro each year over 10 years to those communities, effectively to pave the way for reparations to Herero, Nama, Damara and San communities massacred during the colonial era, which lasted from 1884 to 1915.
Amathila, on instructions of President Hifikepunye Pohamba, undertook a consultation mission to Erongo, Hardap, Karas, Kunene, Otjozondjupa and Omaheke regions in February and March.
She submitted a list of projects to Pohamba that will benefit the communities if funded by the German millions.
Cabinet last week agreed to establish a steering committee to oversee the implementation of special initiative.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170352.html
East Africa: Kagame Implores Comesa Leaders On Integration The New Times (Kigali)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Kigali
President Paul Paul Kagame has urged his Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) counterparts, to strengthen peace iniatitives in the region in a bid to attain sustainable integration. The President, who was handing over the Comesa chair to Djibouti President Ismael Omar Guelleh, noted that there was need to assess the progress registered by the Comesa institutions
in regard to the systems and processes of integration. "Now in our twenty second year of building Comesa, it is appropriate to pose questions along the same lines as the theme of this Summit: Is the pace of achieving our vision of becoming a prosperous Customs Union adequate? Are we indeed deepening our regional integration?" Kagame, who was on Wednesday November 15, addressing the 11th Comesa Heads of State and Government in Djibouti, implored.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170351.html
Congo-Kinshasa: Bemba to Challenge Election Result in Court
SouthScan (London)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 16, 2006
Jean-Pierre Bemba's party has filed for a recount of the votes at the Supreme Court after Joseph Kabila was announced the winner of the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Independent Electoral Commission announced on Wednesday that Kabila took 58.05% of the vote in the October 29 run-off, compared to Bemba's 41.9%.
Local observers said the court was unlikely to overturn the decision, but the hearing may take some of the heat out of the IEC's announcement.
By Thursday morning, after a night of celebrations in Kabila strongholds in the east, Bemba's cabinet chief Fidele Babala said: "People were expecting a war plan from us, some troubles. But we're not into that. At the level of the national assembly we have our deputies and we're going to play our role as the opposition."
Earlier Kabila urged Congolese to remain calm and said the police and army remained loyal to him, suggesting security forces would not tolerate further trouble following clashes with Bemba's supporters in August and last weekend, according to a Reuters report.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611160854.html
Congo-Kinshasa: Joseph Kabila Re-Elected
November 15, 2006Posted to the web November 15, 2006
François GouahingaWashington, D.C.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of the Democratic Republic of Congo declared in a statement on Wednesday evening that incumbent Joseph Kabila had won the October 29, 2006 run-off presidential election.
The statement, read on Congolese national television and broadcast live over the Internet by Radio Okapi, said Joseph Kabila had won 9,436,779, or 58.05 percent, of the votes, while challenger Jean Pierre Bemba received 6,819,822, or 41.95 percent.
"Mr. Kabila Kabange Joseph is elected as president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo," the statement said.
Under Congolese law, these results must be certified by the Supreme Court, but the certification is generally considered a formality.
None of the two candidates had issued a statement immediately following the announcement by the IEC.
Congo-Kinshasa: Congolese Urged to Accept Election Results BuaNews (Tshwane)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 16, 2006
Oupa SegalweMidrand
The Pan African Parliament's (PAP) President Gertrude Mongella has appealed to the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to accept the official election results once they were available.
"The thing that we must watch as we go along is that when the results are finally out, we do expect the people of the DRC to accept them.
"Most of the problems in Africa [following elections] have been non-acceptance of the results," Ms Mongella told reporters today after a Parliamentary session on peace and security on the African continent.
President Mongella's comments come after Wednesday's declaration by the DRC's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), that incumbent President Joseph Kabila had won October's run-off Presidential election, capturing 58 per cent of the votes, while opponent and Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba had 42 per cent.
The provisional results mean that President Kabila could be the first democratically elected President in that country in over 40 years.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611160337.html
Zambia's Chiluba unfit for trial
Mr Chiluba led Zambia for 10 years Zambia's ex-President Frederick Chiluba is not medically fit to stand trial on corruption charges, a court has ruled. A medical examination was ordered after his personal doctor told the court that Mr Chiluba needed a heart transplant.
The state has been ordered to release Mr Chiluba's passport immediately so he can seek treatment in South Africa.
The former leader and two businessmen deny charges connected to the alleged disappearance of $488,000 from state funds during his time in office.
Mr Chiluba was elected in 1991 and led Zambia for 10 years.
He was not in court when the ruling was made.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6157990.stm
Zambia: Chiluba Asks Court to Allow Him Travel to South Africa for Treatment
The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
SECOND Republican president, Frederick Chiluba, has applied to the Lusaka magistrate's court to release his passport immediately to enable him to travel to South Africa for specialist treatment.
Dr Chiluba has further attached a certificate of urgency through his lawyer, Robert Simeza, certifying that the application for variation of bail conditions was one of extreme urgency.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170246.html
Nigeria: Foreign Reserves Hit 41 Billion Dollars This Day (Lagos)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Lagos
Central Bank Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, has disclosed that the nation's foreign reserve stands at $41 billion as at the end of October 2006.
Soludo disclosed this at an interactive session with members of the House of Representatives committee on Finance yesterday in Abuja.
He said as at October 31, the balance in the excess crude oil account, stood at $9.4 billion, while the balance of recovered funds during the same period was $18 million and one million pounds sterling.
Defending the proposed borrowing to finance the 2007 budget deficit, Soludo said the decision was to avoid inflation that may be caused by excess liquidity.
To use proceeds from the excess crude account, as advised by the chairman of the committee, Abdullahi Umar, would not be helpful, the CBN boss added.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170180.html
Zimbabwe: Govt to Compensate White Farmers Business in Africa (Johannesburg)
November 16, 2006Posted to the web November 16, 2006
Harare
The Zimbabwean government has invited over 1000 white farmers to collect compensation for farms that were seized under President Robert Mugabe's directives.
Secretary of lands, Ngoni Masoka, issued a statement in state-run newspaper The Herald calling for dispossessed farmers to contact the lands ministry.
Masoka said: "The former owners or representatives should contact the ministry of lands, land reform and resettlement as a matter of urgency in connection with their compensation."
The spokesman did not indicate whether compensation would be market related or whether machinery and land development costs would be taken into account when reaching a figure.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611160325.html
South Africa: New-Look Aids Plan for Thousands More
Business Day (Johannesburg)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Tamar KahnJohannesburg
GOVERNMENT aims to halve the HIV-infection rate, and provide treatment to 750000 patients within the next five years, according to the latest draft of a new HIV/AIDS-combating strategy.
The plan, a copy of which has been seen by Business Day, comes amid signs of a dramatic rethink in government circles about a comprehensive approach to the pandemic. It also coincides with a new drive led by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at the head of the South African National AIDS Council (Sanac) to reverse negative international perceptions of SA's AIDS-fighting efforts.
SA has one of the world's worst HIV epidemics, with more than 5,5-million people, or 11% of the population, infected with the disease. Although government's treatment programme is the world's biggest, the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society estimates that only about a fifth of the HIV patients in need are getting life-prolonging antiretroviral medicines.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170492.html
Mozambique: Peer Review Funding Document Signed Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
November 17, 2006Posted to the web November 17, 2006
Maputo
Mozambique's Minister of Planning and Development, Aiuba Cuereneia, pledged on Friday that the government will take all the actions necessary to ensure peer review of Mozambique, under the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
Mozambique was one of the first countries to sign up for peer review, and the APRM is the means chosen to check on countries' economic and political governance, under the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
Cuereneia was speaking at a ceremony in Maputo, at which he signed the document confirming the funding required to implement peer review in Mozambique. The money involved is about 1.8 million US dollars over 30 months, provided by Norway, Britain and Germany.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611170556.html
APEC Summit 2006
https://www.apecceosummit2006.org/default.asp
APEC CEOs work to narrow development gaps Delegates to the APEC CEO Summit 2006 in Ha Noi on Nov. 17 discussed measures to take full advantage of opportunities and overcome difficulties in order to narrow the gap between economies in the Asia-Pacific rim.
Speaking at the summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao reminded participants of profoundly complicated changes in the world, including globalisation, the process that has brought countries closer and enabled them to promote cooperation to a higher level.
However, there still exist development gaps while new challenges already appear to threaten the growth and security of the region, President Hu pointed out.
"I call on you to give more priority to exploring business opportunities and expanding market share in developing countries," President Hu said while affirming businesses are major participants and investors in the market.
Meanwhile, Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNTAD) argued that Asia needs a stimulus otherwise its economies would suffer from deflations.
https://www.apecceosummit2006.org/detail.asp?id=217
The Washington Post
Burma's Refugees
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/panorama/2006/11/16/PA2006111601153.html
Misery Spirals in Burma As Junta Targets Minorities
By Anthony FaiolaWashington Post Foreign ServiceFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A01
CAMP EITUTA, Burma -- In a burgeoning encampment here on Burma's eastern frontier, Hay Nay Tha, a 30-year-old mother of three, awakens in the darkness most nights to the sound of her children's screams.
"They keep having nightmares about our journey here," she said.
VideoNightmare in Eastern BurmaBurmese forces are waging the largest military offensive against its own people in more than a decade, targeting the country's eastern ethnic groups with violence and destruction. Tens of thousands of refugees, mostly Karen minorities, are abandoning villages in search of safety in Thailand.
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DiggGoogledel.icio.usYahoo!RedditFacebook That journey, Hay recalled, began when she was four months pregnant and government soldiers torched her village and forced local farmers off their land. It ended four weeks later, after her husband died of malaria en route to this camp. She and her children arrived here this summer dehydrated and exhausted. Hay soon went into early labor with a stillborn son.
"To be honest," the copper-skinned woman said, shyly gazing down at her hands, "I am having nightmares, too."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601277.html
Five Civilian Contractors Held Hostage in Iraq
By Sudarsan RaghavanWashington Post Foreign ServiceFriday, November 17, 2006; 1:16 PM
BAGHDAD, Nov. 17 -- Five civilian security contractors, including four Americans and one Austrian, were being held hostage Friday morning after gunmen masquerading as policemen stopped their convoy and abducted them in southern Iraq, a U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad said.
The convoy of 43 trucks, carrying supplies, and six private security vehicles, typically heavily-armed SUVS, were stopped by men at "what appeared to be a police checkpoint" near Safwan, a small Iraqi town bordering Kuwait, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111700261.html
Debate Grows Over Beefing Up U.S. Force in Iraq
Military Leaders Oppose McCain's Push for Thousands of Additional Troops
By Josh WhiteWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A17
The debate about how to proceed in Iraq, which in the past few months has focused on withdrawing U.S. troops, now includes serious discussion about adding more forces to the fight.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) repeatedly suggested this week that the United States needs thousands more troops in Iraq, and members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have discussed similar ideas as they prepare a much-anticipated policy recommendation. Members of Congress raised the concept on Wednesday in hearings with the region's top U.S. military commander.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601647.html
In Vietnam, Old Foes Take Aim at War's Toxic Legacy
By Anthony FaiolaWashington Post Foreign ServiceMonday, November 13, 2006; Page A01
DA NANG, Vietnam -- For a stark reminder of the Vietnam War, people living near the airport in this central industrial city can still stroll along the old stone walls that once surrounded a U.S. military base. But Luu Thi Nguyen, a 31-year-old homemaker, needs only to look into the face of her young daughter.
Van, 5, spends her days at home, playing by herself on the concrete floor because local school officials say her appearance frightens other children. She has an oversize head and a severely deformed mouth, and her upper body is covered in a rash so severe her skin appears to have been boiled. According to Vietnamese medical authorities, she is part of a new generation of Agent Orange victims, forever scarred by the U.S.-made herbicide containing dioxin, one of the world's most toxic pollutants.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111201065.html
Bush Praises Vietnam's Rapid Economic Growth
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006; 10:48 AM
HANOI, Nov. 17 -- President Bush arrived in poor but economically vibrant Vietnam Friday on a mission to strengthen business ties that he hopes will help eclipse bitter memories of the unpopular and ultimately unsuccessful war the United States waged here more than three decades ago.
"History has a long march to it," Bush told reporters, when asked how he felt about being hosted by a former U.S. enemy. "Societies change, and relationships can constantly be altered to the good."
VIDEO President Bush has begun what he calls a "poignant" visit to Vietnam -- three decades after the war ended, he says that the conflict's lesson for Iraq is that it takes time for freedom to prevail.
Friday, Nov. 17, at 11 a.m. ETPresident Bush Visits VietnamBen Wilkinson, associate director of the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Vietnam Progran, discusses President Bush's visit to Vietnam.
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Facebook Bush is here to take part in the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, but arrives with a host of issues on the table -- from the recent North Korean nuclear test to the mounting U.S. trade deficit with China and his own political setbacks at home. Earlier this week, Congress shelved a free trade agreement with Vietnam that Bush had hoped to have in hand for his trip here, and Democratic success in last week's congressional elections highlighted voter concern about American jobs lost overseas, among other issues.
Bush is the second U.S. president to visit Vietnam since the end of the war, following President Clinton's visit here near the conclusion of his second term in 2000.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/17/AR2006111700224.html
A Chance To Get Into The RoomBlack Entrepreneurs Grapple With Proving Themselves
By Keith L. AlexanderFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A01
They didn't leave work until after 4 a.m. Four hours later, they were back in the office -- frazzled and on edge. Sitting around a conference table, eight employees of Enlightened Inc., a technology consulting firm, were struggling to polish a proposal that could well determine the firm's future. It was not going well.
Chief executive Antwanye Ford was rubbing his forehead in frustration. He was dressed meticulously, as always, in a pressed Donald Trump-brand suit and a French-cuff shirt. Not even a succession of 18-hour days could make this man look rumpled. But on this day, he was oozing tension. Enlightened's bid for a multimillion-dollar contract to update the computer system used by the District's probation and parole officers was simply not good enough, he told his staff. The proposal needed more graphics, more punch. As Ford saw it, this bid was his fledgling black firm's ticket to a new competitive league.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601932.html
Being a Black ManBalancing Blackness with Business
Keith L. Alexander, Antwanye Ford and Andre RogersWashington Post reporter; Founders of Enlightened Inc.Friday, November 17, 2006; 1:00 PM Many black entrepreneurs find themselves struggling with how much of their identity to sacrifice in the quest for business success. In this latest installment of the "Being a Black Man" series Antwanye Ford and Andre Rogers, founders of technology consulting firm Enlightened Inc., struggle with whether or not the company should promote that it is owned and run by two black men.
Washington Post reporter Keith L. Alexander will be online with Ford and Rogers at 1 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 17 to discuss the story and some of the struggles the two entrepreneurs face as they grow their business.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/11/16/DI2006111600598.html
Being a Black Man
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/interactives/blackmen/blackmen.html
Group Will Sort Terrorism Alerts for Local Governments
By Karen DeYoungWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A10
A new plan to improve information-sharing about terrorism, signed by President Bush this week and delivered to Congress yesterday, establishes a Washington-based "threat assessment group" that includes federal, state and local officials. It also aims to reduce more than 100 restrictive and confusing categories of "sensitive" federal information to a half-dozen or fewer so local-level officials can better understand what they are told.
State and local governments and law enforcement officials have long complained of a lack of coordination among the federal agencies that send terrorism-related alerts, analysis and instructions. The new plan allows state and local officials to participate in deciding what players outside the federal government need to know and designates an online channel to distribute the information.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601424.html
A Second Pour of Good News About Substance in Red Wine
By Rob SteinWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A03
A component of red wine recently shown to help lab mice live longer also protects animals from obesity and diabetes and boosts their physical endurance, researchers reported yesterday.
The new research helps confirm and extend the possible benefits of the substance, resveratrol, and offers new insight into how it works -- apparently by revving up the metabolism to make muscles burn more energy and work more efficiently. Mice fed large doses could run twice as far as they would normally.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600705.html
Pets & Parenthood
On Tuesday, for inexplicable reasons, our Guest Blog discussion took an unusual turn into the realm of pets vs. children. Quite a fascinating detour. Pet owners argued that pets are as important as kids. Parents (some with both pets and children) argued that if you have children, there is no comparison. I have three kids, three pets, and abiding affection for children and animals; I once supervised a childless employee with two dogs whom I regularly allowed to go home early to care for his pets. I can see passion and merit on both sides of the argument.
So I wanted to continue the discussion by asking a few more questions.
What do American pet-owners and parents have in common? What role do pets play in a balanced life? How are today's Americans different from citizens in other countries or our ancestors in terms of devotion to pets and children? Are Americans somehow better nurturers, superior protectors of the helpless, more loving and affectionate? Do we love our children and our pets so deeply because we don't need to worry as much as our predecessors about daily survival? Or am I just over-thinking this?
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/onbalance/
SAT Monitors Napped, Ignored Rules, Teens Say
By Jay MathewsWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A01
They started the SAT that Saturday morning more than an hour late, not helpful for a college-entrance test many consider an ordeal under the best circumstances. But the situation worsened for eight students with learning disabilities in one second-floor testing room at Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Northwest Washington.
According to three of the students who were there Oct. 14, the proctor and the associate test supervisor in the room let students work on some sections long after time expired and on others ahead of time. They let students make cellphone calls and eat in the room. Lacking a clock, they let students time the examination themselves with a microwave oven timer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601981.html
Heart Valves Grown From Womb Fluid Cells
By LINDSEY TANNERThe Associated PressWednesday, November 15, 2006; 4:33 PM
CHICAGO -- Scientists for the first time have grown human heart valves using stem cells from the fluid that cushions babies in the womb _ offering a revolutionary approach that may be used to repair defective hearts in the future.
The idea is to create these new valves in the lab while the pregnancy progresses and have them ready to implant in a baby with heart defects after it is born.
Dr. Simon Hoerstrup, a University of Zurich scientist, speaks at an American Heart Association conference Tuesday in Chicago. (M. Spencer Green - AP)
Lean Plate Club E-MailBuild healthy living habits for the long haul, with recipes, exercise ideas and the latest dietary guidelines. The Swiss experiment follows recent successes at growing bladders and blood vessels and suggests that people may one day be able to grow their own replacement heart parts _ in some cases, even before they're even born.
It's one of several sci-fi tissue engineering advances that could lead to homegrown heart valves for infants and adults that are more durable and effective than artificial or cadaver valves.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501033.htlm
Elderly Dying From Falls More Often
By MIKE STOBBEThe Associated PressThursday, November 16, 2006; 4:09 PM
ATLANTA -- The death rate from falling has risen dramatically for elderly people since the 1990s, said federal health officials, speculating that it's because people are living longer with chronic conditions like cancer and heart disease.
"Since people are not dying as much from chronic diseases, they're more likely to die from a fall," said Judy Stevens, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600834.html
Europeans OK Anti-Obesity Charter
By MARIA CHENGThe Associated PressThursday, November 16, 2006; 6:56 PM
LONDON -- European health ministers from 53 countries approved the world's first charter to fight obesity on Thursday, vowing greater action against the epidemic of expanding waistlines across the continent.
The charter, approved in Istanbul, Turkey, was drafted by the World Health Organization in consultation with its European member states. It is the first real attempt to compel national authorities to take concrete action to combat obesity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600130.html
Soldier Gets 90 Years in Rape, Killing of Iraqi Girl
By Josh WhiteWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, November 17, 2006; Page A18
An Army specialist who admitted that he and a group of other U.S. soldiers raped a 14-year-old girl and killed her and her family in an Iraqi village was sentenced to 90 years in prison yesterday, by far the longest sentence for a U.S. soldier in connection with the death of an Iraqi civilian since the war began in 2003.
Spec. James P. Barker, 23, could be eligible for parole in 20 years, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors that spares him the possibility of a death sentence. Barker has indicated he will testify against other soldiers in the case, some of whom face the death penalty.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601685.html
BBC News
Kenya dam 'on brink of bursting'
The floods have already forced thousands away from their homes A dam in the eastern Kenya is close to bursting under the strain of waters swollen by torrential rains, United Nations staff have warned. Unusually heavy seasonal rains have raised the water level in the River Tana, near the town of Garissa.
A spokeswoman for the UN said the dam was "on the brink of bursting", and floodgates had to be opened to stop it from buckling and breaking.
Heavy rain is forecast to continue for weeks in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.
Between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people have already suffered under the heavy rains and severe flooding, the UN says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6158774.stm
Bush in Vietnam for Apec summit
President Bush is keen for world leaders to revive free trade talks US President George W Bush has arrived in Vietnam for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit, expected to focus on trade relations. Mr Bush has called on the 21-nation forum to put stalled world trade talks back on track. North Korea's nuclear activities will also be discussed.
Mr Bush later held talks with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, focused on the situation in Iraq.
And he will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao, also in Vietnam for the summit.
Apec's trade and foreign ministers have agreed to press their leaders to issue a statement on trade in the course of the conference.
World Trade Organization talks on free trade have been stalled since July, after countries failed to reach agreement on subsidies in the so-called Doha round.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6156876.stm
'Two foreigners released' in Iraq
Control of Nasiriya was handed over to Iraqi troops in September Two of five foreigners kidnapped from a convoy of civilians in south Iraq have been freed, Iraqi officials say.
An Austrian and four US security contractors were seized in the attack, which reportedly took place near Basra en route to Nasiriya on Thursday.
Unconfirmed reports say the Austrian has been killed and an American wounded, but details are unclear.
US officials in Baghdad said they could not confirm new releases. Nine civilians also held were already freed.
Reports said British and US forces had been mounting raids in the area to find the hostages.
The Basra provincial governor told the Associated Press: "Police were able to free two of the foreigners kidnapped and they are in good health".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6157082.stm
Rome hosts major anti-mafia forum
More police have recently been deployed in Naples A major anti-mafia conference is due to open in the Italian capital, Rome. The three-day forum's 2,500 participants aim to raise awareness of the importance of the fight against organised crime in the country.
Italy's three main mafias have killed some 2,500 people in the past 10 years, yet politicians have failed to tackle the issue, the forum's organisers say.
A spate of recent mafia-related killings in the city of Naples has led to calls for the army to be deployed.
Last week, Italian police carried out a series of co-ordinated raids across the country, detaining more than 100 alleged mafia members suspected of drug-trafficking.
In a separate development, a Sicilian judge on Wednesday sentenced dozens of associates of jailed mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano for a total of 300 years, Italy's Ansa news agency reported.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6157528.stm
Storm over 'pig-for-name' artist
Hornsleth says the villagers back his campaign A Ugandan minister has condemned a Danish artist as "racist" for persuading villagers to adopt his name in exchange for a pig or a goat. The criticism comes as an exhibition of Kristian Von Hornsleth's photos from the village of Buteyongera opens in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
Hornsleth, however, says he is trying to help the villagers by highlighting the failure of international aid.
The exhibition is called: "We want to help you, but we want to own you."
'Mirror'
"After 50 years of Third World aid, Africa is still poor," Hornsleth told the BBC's World Today programme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6157612.stm
Brazil police in 'shoot-to-kill' claims
By Steve Kingstone BBC News, Sao Paulo
In May 2006 South America's biggest city was terrorised by a wave of brutal attacks by a crime network. The violence claimed the lives of 32 police officers, but police hit back with lethal force of their own. Six months on, evidence is mounting that officers summarily executed dozens of suspects, as Steve Kingstone reports.
The violence convulsed Sao Paulo for several days
Heliopolis is a vast maze of alleyways and winding streets which together form the largest favela - or shantytown - in Sao Paulo. Controlled by drug-traffickers and scarred by gun crime, it remains a no-go area for most of this city's residents.
But the people of Heliopolis say their community has been the scene of flagrant human rights abuses, which have been ignored by the state government. They accuse the police here of murder.
"They shot my husband five times. It was ridiculous, senseless," protests the widow of 24-year-old Rogerio do Carmo Pereira.
He was killed, along with his brother and a third man, on the night of Wednesday 17 May.
Officers had apparently raided the favela after reports that an armed gang was planning to attack a nearby police station.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6157778.stm
US house building at six-year low
Houses are not selling so fast as demand eases The number of new US homes being built fell to a six-year low last month as housing activity slowed significantly, a Commerce Department report has shown. About 1.48 million houses were started in October, 14% down from the previous month and 27.4% lower than a year ago.
At the same time, the number of permits awarded for future housing projects fell to its lowest level since 1997.
Successive interest rate rises since 2005 have dampened the market, as has a slowdown in the economy, analysts said.
'Soft landing'
The October housing numbers were considerably lower than industry experts had been expecting.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6158478.stm
Taco Bell bans trans fats in food
Taco Bell's move comes amid increasing concern over trans fats Taco Bell, America's largest seller of Mexican-style fast food, says it will no longer use cooking oils containing trans-fatty acids. The fats have been linked by doctors to raised cholesterol and a subsequent increased risk of heart disease.
The ban is will cover the chain's 5,000 restaurants across the United States.
Wendy's and Kentucky Fried Chicken have already pledged to switch to zero trans-fat oils and McDonald's has said it is considering the move.
With mounting concern about premature deaths and rising obesity in the US, trans-fat has become a number one target for campaigners.
'Right thing to do'
Taco Bell is owned by Kentucky-based Yum Brand Inc, which is also the parent company of Pizza Hut and KFC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6155386.stm
Rumsfeld faces German legal test
Rumsfeld quit after the US mid-term elections last week A lawyers' group has asked Germany to sue former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over alleged prisoner abuse in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The complaint was filed by the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of a Saudi man held in Cuba and 11 Iraqis held in Baghdad.
German law allows the pursuit of cases originating anywhere in the world.
State prosecutors have yet to decide whether to pursue the case. An earlier request for a case in 2004 was dropped.
Michael Ratner, the centre's president, said he felt the case had a better chance of success now because Mr Rumsfeld was no longer in office and could not exert the same degree of "political pressure".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6146058.stm?ls
Boy detained for Briton's murder
Mr Senitt was an established political activist A 15-year-old boy has been detained for murdering an aspiring British politician in Washington DC. The teenager had pleaded guilty to juvenile charges of murdering Alan Senitt, of Pinner, north-west London.
Mr Senitt, 27, had his throat slashed as he escorted a woman friend home in the city's Georgetown area in July.
The boy, who also admitted to armed robbery and theft charges, was sentenced to juvenile custody until he is 21, at Columbia's Superior Court.
During the sentencing hearing, letters written by Mr Senitt's parents Jack and Karen were read out.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6153520.stm
Uruguay's ex-president arrested
Mr Bordaberry is not covered by a 1985 amnesty Former Uruguayan President Juan Maria Bordaberry has been arrested in connection with four political killings during military rule in the 1970s. The former foreign minister, Juan Carlos Blanco, has also been detained.
The two men are accused of involvement in the killing of two congressmen and two left-wing militants in 1976.
Elected in 1971, Mr Bordaberry went on to govern with military leaders, closing congress and banning parties, before being ousted himself in 1976.
As civilians, Mr Bordaberry and Mr Blanco are not protected by an amnesty passed after the end of military rule in 1985.
Mr Bordaberry presented himself to the authorities at the central prison in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, on Friday, a day after his judge ordered his arrest.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6157418.stm
Bolivia 'risks revolt over land'
Evo Morales intends to redistribute up to a fifth of Bolivia's land Bolivia's President Evo Morales has warned of mass demonstrations if the country's Senate does not approve his plans for land reform. He said the people would rise up and implement the reforms "by force" if they were not passed into law.
He also ruled out any compromise with the big landowners who oppose his plans to redistribute underused land.
Indigenous protesters from the eastern province of Santa Cruz are marching to the capital in support of the measures.
But landowners in the province, one of the country's most fertile, have threatened to withhold agricultural produce from the rest of Bolivia if the plans are approved.
In September, demonstrators - mainly poor indigenous farmers - blocked roads into the city of Santa Cruz, claiming the opposition was trying to stall the government's plans.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6156698.stm
Criminal probe into Foley emails
Mark Foley denies ever having sexual contact with a minor Authorities in Florida have opened a criminal inquiry into former Republican congressman Mark Foley over sexually explicit emails he sent to young men. He resigned in September after it emerged he had sent lurid messages to teenagers on work experience.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has found the basis for a criminal inquiry, a spokeswoman said.
The scandal widened amid claims Republican leaders knew of Mr Foley's emails years ago, but did nothing.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) began investigating shortly after Mr Foley stepped down.
"It was a preliminary inquiry before but we found the basis to open up a criminal investigation, " said FDLE spokeswoman Kristen Perezluha.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6159010.stm
Missing paedophiles named online
The men have failed to comply with the sex offenders' register Some of the UK's most wanted child sex offenders have been identified online. It is believed to be the first time that details of convicted paedophiles have been published nationwide by Britain's law enforcement agencies.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre has set up the new website in an effort to track missing child sex offenders.
Meanwhile, single mothers could be able to check up on new partners to see if they are sex offenders under new plans.
The Home Office is considering proposals that would enable single mothers to ask the police to make the checks, which would have to be supported by reasonable grounds for suspicion.
It is known that predatory paedophiles often befriend single mothers as a way of gaining access to their children.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6156712.stm
continued ...
November 15, 2006
Brickell Avenue Bridge, Miami, Florida
Title by Photographer :: Urban Archer
Lots and lots of construction cranes in Miami, Florida, huh? Interesting. I saw an ad recently to benefit the Florida Gulf Coast Islands. It would be nice if some construction efforts and advertising were going into the Louisiana Gulf Coast as well. I don't believe the Ninth Ward has been excavated yet, right?
This type of architectural art is not uncommon to our democracy. If one has the opportunity to visit our nation's capital they will find this type of art all over DC. Even under the Capital Dome. It is 'Greek-Roman' in nature. It is a historical connection to successful, powerful democracies. Those historical democracies did not believe in monotheism so there is no religious connection at all.
As a matter of fact, the archers were one of the most powerful weapons in battle next to the horse and even then sometimes greater than a horse. It is why in Midieval times armor became a metallurgy achievement and draft horses were the greatest weapon a knight could have. Between his armor, chain mail and that of his steed they could be considered indestructable.
November 16, 2006
Isle of Lewis, Scotland
Photographer states :: Atlantic Rage - Nice waves and an angry sky. Taken at Dail Mor today, while taking the dog on his lunch time walk.
Kindly note, yellow ball in foreground. A little bit stormy these days. I am sure the photographer had obedient dogs to protect them from the rough surf.
The Portland Herald - Maine Sunday Telegram
Waterlogged Maine expects more rain
By DAVID HENCH, Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
The powerful storm that spawned deadly tornadoes in the South was expected to drench an already soggy Maine with another inch or two of rain before moving out this morning to make way for a warm day and maybe even some sunshine.Emergency and municipal officials braced for the possibility of scattered flooding during the heaviest rainfall, but predicted southern Maine's rivers should be able to handle the runoff. A flood watch was in effect for most of western and central Maine through this evening.The storm, even before it arrived, wreaked havoc on local flight schedules, canceling some flights from the mid-Atlantic states into Portland International Jetport and delaying others."It's been nasty," said Janice Barter, whose son Trent was delayed on his trip from Portland to visit his brother at Arizona State University. Her son's 3:30 p.m. flight didn't leave until almost 7 p.m. "The attendants were doing their best to reschedule people. There's nothing they can do about the weather, but it's discouraging," Barter said.By Thursday night, airlines were scurrying to re-book passengers, but Portland still could experience delays this morning, airport officials said.The powerful storm pounded Southeastern states Wednesday before starting to move up the East Coast on Thursday.But it began to lose some of its punch as it veered toward Maine. The cool, marine air of the Maine coast was expected to calm it further, reducing the chance of thunderstorms."We're not looking for any severe weather, as far as tornadoes or anything like that," said Art Lester, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Gray.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061117weather.html
Report: Boost college funding
By PAUL CARRIER, Portland Press Herald Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
SOUTH PORTLAND - Maine should invest millions of dollars in its underfunded community-college system because the state has a significant shortage of skilled workers in most industries, yet the colleges are at or near capacity in many programs, according to a task force report released Thursday.Noting that Maine has the smallest community-college system in the nation -- based on the percentage of the adult population served -- the task force says the state should spend an extra $20.3 million a year to boost enrollment initially from 13,000 to 17,000 students. The report also calls for "a major capital improvements bond issue" for building upgrades and, possibly, new construction.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061117colleges.html
City lauded as site of pharmacy school
By JOSIE HUANG, Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
The University of New England announced plans Thursday to house its new College of Pharmacy on its Portland campus, saying proximity to multiple hospitals and biotechnology businesses would secure internships and other opportunities for students.UNE President Danielle Ripich said locating the new school in Maine's largest city also will attract the faculty members it needs to recruit in time for a 2008 launch."I think Portland is a very attractive site," said Ripich, who has fast-tracked the pharmacy school proposal since becoming president in July. "I have already had unsolicited letters of interest from very solid faculty members."The decision to site the pharmacy school at the former Westbrook College campus, which UNE acquired a decade ago, came after months of deliberation. Biddeford, home to UNE's main campus and osteopathic medical school, was the second choice, followed by Camden.The selection of a site brings UNE up to speed with Husson College, which said less than a month ago that it will open a pharmacy school in Bangor in the same time frame.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/061117une.html
A trial to beat Broadway
By Bill Nemitz
Friday, November 17, 2006TO: Jury Clerk, Cumberland County Superior Court.FROM: Prospective Juror No. 1RE: Sign me up.That's right. When they seat the jury for Tom Connolly's guerrilla-theater trial sometime next spring, I'll be first in line.Why? Because I want a good seat, that's why.This, after all, will be the best show to hit the Cumberland County Courthouse since David "The Dogman" Koplow single-handedly beat a "pooper-scooper" rap back in 1984.(Dogman's winning argument against a charge that he was not properly equipped to clean up after his eight dogs: "I can use my hands.")Now, I know there are some who predict Connolly will never go to trial for dressing up like Osama bin Laden, complete with a toy AK-47, and protesting the Taxpayer Bill of Rights along Interstate 295 on Halloween morning.In fact, District Attorney Stephanie Anderson made it clear on Thursday that she hopes this whole mess can be settled before a jury is seated.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/nemitz/061117nemitz.html
INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: FOREIGN LABOR
Friday, November 17, 2006
SUNDAY, SEPT. 24, 2006 Proponents of the foreign labor system say it is vital to the American economy, but critics and government auditors worry that the program's shortcomings could harm U.S. workers and national security.Rubber-stamp bureaucracyThe federal system that allows skilled foreigners to work in the United States may be failing to protect Americans from unfair competition and could even pose national security risks.
Some workers never stepped foot in MaineMany started with companies that used a Maine address to help them pursue green cards.
MONDAY, SEPT. 25, 2006 Dozens of small high-tech staffing companies opened shop in Maine and other rural states in 2004 and 2005, filing immigration papers to get green cards for skilled foreigners that outweighed what local officials felt was actual demand.Gaming the system?State labor specialists expressed concern about high-tech staffing companies but federal officials did little to follow up on those issues.
Holders of visas often picked over U.S. workersAgencies offering high-tech jobs don't want candidates who can grow into a job, some say.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 26, 2006 Government auditors refer to the U.S. Department of Labor's role in the H1B visa system as a "rubber stamp" and suggested taking the department out of the process entirely.Invitation to fraudThe Department of Labor's screening of applicants for U.S. jobs is so flawed that there might as well be no screening at all.
Local company finds foreigners fill a labor needTwo hard-to-find computer specialists trained in India lend their expertise to Wright Express.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/immigration/
Racist fliers spark public outrage
By DAVID HENCH, Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
Neville Knowles came to Maine in 1952 and found acceptance, but he also found bigotry.On Thursday, in a pained voice, the veteran civil rights activist told a gathering at the Deering High School library that the distribution of racist fliers in the surrounding Portland neighborhood shows the problem persists."This is 2006 and we are still grappling with this kind of situation. Why?" he asked. "It's time we get to the root of it and start digging it up."More than two dozen city, civic and student leaders gathered with neighborhood residents Thursday to express their outrage about the fliers, which apparently were downloaded from a neo-Nazi Web site. It's unclear how extensive the distribution was, though several residents reported seeing them on trees or finding them on their car windshields.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/061117meeting.html
Postal reform efforts likely to end at dead letter office
By BART JANSEN, Washington D.C. Correspondent Friday, November 17, 2006
WASHINGTON - Congress appears unlikely to reform the U.S. Postal Service this year or in the foreseeable future, blocking one of Sen. Susan Collins' legislative priorities.The goal of reform proponents such as Collins, R-Maine, is to make the post office more competitive with the Internet and premium shippers such as FedEx by reducing its reliance on rate increases for stamps.But Collins, chairwoman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, said opposition to compromise legislation in September left little hope for action when Congress finishes for the year in December. "I am not optimistic that we are going to be able to resolve this," Collins said. "We had a very good agreement worked out at the end of September that was derailed at the last second."
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061117postalreform.html
Question of the day
By JUSTIN ELLIS, Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
Staff photo by John Patriquin Sadie Cross, left, Caitlin Chasse, Ella LeBlanc and Keegan Beardsley-Dow make Thanksgiving turkeys in Rosalie Mosher's kindergarten class on Wednesday. Three-fourths of incoming Gorham kindergartners' parents favor all-day kindergarten. GORHAM - A half-day of school may become a thing of the past for youngsters here, as the School Committee considers switching to all-day kindergarten.Gorham would join a growing number of schools around Maine and across the country by establishing full-day kindergarten. Educators say the move could boost literacy and other skills in young children and help socialize them for later grades. But some parents worry that a longer schedule could prove overwhelming to young students.The School Committee plans to examine all of those issues before voting on a proposal in the next several months.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/061117kindergarten.html
Michael Moore Today
US plans last big push in Iraq
Strategy document calls for extra 20,000 troops, aid for Iraqi army and regional summit
By Simon Tisdall / Guardian
President George Bush has told senior advisers that the US and its allies must make "a last big push" to win the war in Iraq and that instead of beginning a troop withdrawal next year, he may increase US forces by up to 20,000 soldiers, according to sources familiar with the administration's internal deliberations.
Mr Bush's refusal to give ground, coming in the teeth of growing calls in the US and Britain for a radical rethink or a swift exit, is having a decisive impact on the policy review being conducted by the Iraq Study Group chaired by Bush family loyalist James Baker, the sources said.
Although the panel's work is not complete, its recommendations are expected to be built around a four-point "victory strategy" developed by Pentagon officials advising the group. The strategy, along with other related proposals, is being circulated in draft form and has been discussed in separate closed sessions with Mr Baker and the vice-president Dick Cheney, an Iraq war hawk.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8371
A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives ...by Michael Moore
To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,
I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.
Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.
Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:
Dear Conservatives and Republicans,
I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:
1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.
2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.
3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.
4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.
5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.
6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.
7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.
8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.
9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.
10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.
11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.
12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.
I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.
Signed,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com(Click here to sign the pledge)
www.michaelmoore.com
P.S. Please feel free to pass this on.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=201
"Real Time with Bill Mayer"
Don't miss our Real Time with Bill Maher season finale, Friday at 11 pm – with actor Richard Dreyfuss, activist/musician Tom Morello and correspondent Dana Priest. Plus, via satellite, newsman Dan Rather, and television legend and People for the American Way founder Norman Lear.
http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/
Clean Sweep, Now Bring Our Children Home!
For the first time in a long time I slept through the night. I was proud of America.
Spc. Robert Stillwell & Pfc. Steven Sirko
I was on the phone part of the night with Summer Lipford, a Gold Star Mother. We were watching the results come in and sharing our joy over the phone. We expressed many expletives at the demise of the ones responsible for what happened to our children. It is bittersweet. The vote can not change what has happened to our children, but it is the beginning of an end to this madness. So another mother does not spend her nights sleepless crying for her child. We are grateful for this. We are grateful our children were on your mind as you went to the polls.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=768
Senator calls UN climate meeting "brainwashing"
By Deborah Zabarenko / Reuters
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate's most vocal global warming skeptic, James Inhofe, on Thursday dismissed a U.N. meeting on climate change as "a brainwashing session."
Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who will step down as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee in January, told a news conference, "The idea that the science (on global warming) is settled is altogether wrong."
A majority of scientists, many in the U.S. government, accept that global warming is spurred by human actions and the emission of greenhouse gases. President George W. Bush said as much in July at a summit of industrialized nations.
Inhofe said he acknowledged that the planet is warming but disputed those who attribute it to human activity and the emission of greenhouse gases. Instead, he blamed climate change on natural cycles.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8372
Warm weather wrecks bears' winter slumber
MOSCOW, Nov 15 (Reuters Life!) - Insomniac bears are roaming the forests of southwestern Siberia scaring local people as the weather stays too warm for the animals to fall into their usual winter slumber.
The furry mammals escape harsh winters by going to sleep in October-November for around six months, but in the snowless Kemerovo region where the weather is unseasonably warm, bears have no desire yet to hibernate.
"Due to weather conditions, bears didn't go into the winter sleep in time," said Tatiana Maslova, chief expert at a regional environmental agency in the city of Kemerovo, about 3,500 km (2,190 miles) southeast of Moscow.
"Our teams are making sure there is no damage to farming and to local residents," she told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that every patch of land is watched by a specially assigned inspector.
To survive the prolonged winter rest, bears have to put on extra body fat -- up to 180 kg (396 pounds) -- and so spend the preceding months devouring as much food as they can find.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8376
Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry
By Elizabeth Williamson / Washington Post
The U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry again. But they may experience "very low food security."
Every year, the Agriculture Department issues a report that measures Americans' access to food, and it has consistently used the word "hunger" to describe those who can least afford to put food on the table. But not this year.
Mark Nord, the lead author of the report, said "hungry" is "not a scientifically accurate term for the specific phenomenon being measured in the food security survey." Nord, a USDA sociologist, said, "We don't have a measure of that condition."
The USDA said that 12 percent of Americans -- 35 million people -- could not put food on the table at least part of last year. Eleven million of them reported going hungry at times. Beginning this year, the USDA has determined "very low food security" to be a more scientifically palatable description for that group.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8378
Report: Hunger has more than doubled in low-income areas
By April Simpson, Globe Staff November 15, 2006
Between 2002 and 2005, hunger more than doubled in lowincome communities across Massachusetts because of poverty and the high cost of living, a local advocacy group told state lawmakers yesterday.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts Project Bread said that hunger has risen to 18 percent, from 8 percent three years ago, posing a public health concern because it can lead to obesity and diabetes.
"Hunger in Massachusetts is not caused by a food shortage," said Andrew Schiff , the group's assistant director. "We have plenty of food for everyone. The problem is the combination of poverty and the high cost of living."
Schiff said statewide statistics tend to overlook pockets of poverty. In those 35 cities and towns with higher concentrations of hunger -- including Boston, Lynn, Springfield, and Worcester -- its prevalence is six times greater than the state average and one out of every three children lives in a family that struggles to provide food, the report states.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/11/15/report_hunger_has_more_than_doubled_in_low_income_areas/
Hunger still widespreadThe Times 4.6 hours ago
Oregon’s rising economy hasn’t lifted all citizens from the depths of poverty. Despite the good news this week that Oregon’s unemployment rate is at its lowest level in six years, thousands upon thousands of people in this state are still without adequate supplies of food in their cupboards. Readers of The Times can help their neighbors in need by filling the grocery bags included in today’s newspaper. The food that’s donated will be delivered to the Oregon Food Bank, whose mission it is to make certain that no one in this state goes hungry.
The intractability of hunger has been painfully evident during the most recent economic recovery, and statistics from the food bank may help explain why. The food bank’s 2006 Hunger Factors Survey shows that hunger isn’t declining with the unemployment rate because most of the new jobs being created are at the lower end of the pay scale. In addition, these jobs typically don’t come with full medical benefits, so families are spending a greater portion of their incomes on health care. The high cost of fuel and housing also is consuming a larger percentage of family income.
http://www.tigardtimes.com/opinion/story.php?story_id=116371157720759200
Farmers in Dire Straights
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily / Inter Press Service
BAGHDAD, Nov 16 - Despite the Iraqi prime minister's optimism for the agricultural sector, the farmers who are struggling to survive tell another story.
In an address to Iraqi politicians this week, Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki praised his government's performance in agriculture. Maliki highlighted the new state-supported crop prices, through which farmers would receive subsidies and encouragement to continue growing their crops -- but he did not mention how much the price supports would be.
"The prime minister seems not to be aware of the real problems we are facing here," Haji Jassim, a farmer from the rural Al-Jazeera area near Ramadi, told IPS. Speaking from a relative's home in Baghdad, he added, "What he is talking about would have been good if prices were the only problem, but someone should explain to him the other obstacles we are facing."
Jassim said that one of the main problems is lack of manpower, "since most of our young men who were not killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops are in jail or missing."
The frustrated farmer added that obstacles like lack of electricity, fuel and security in the field and "dozens of others, should be known to the man who claims to be our supporter."
Under the regime of Saddam Hussein, overthrown by U.S.-led forces in 2003, the government purchased crops from farmers in order to encourage them to continue planting. In this way, the government guaranteed that farmers would sell their crops, regardless of how bad the market was under the economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations in 1990.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8379
Soldier describes genesis of rape plan
By Ryan Lenz / Associated Press
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - A soldier who pleaded guilty to conspiring to rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and kill her family described how he was approached by a fellow soldier with the plan to carry out the attack.
Spc. James P. Barker, one of four U.S. soldiers accused in the March 12 rape and killings, pleaded guilty Wednesday and agreed to testify against the others. He will avoid the death penalty, said his attorney, David Sheldon.
Barker told military judge Lt. Col. Richard Anderson that 21-year-old former Army private Steve Green approached him with a plan to attack the family as they drank whiskey purchased from Iraqi soldiers.
"He brought it up to me and asked me what I thought about it," Barker said. "By the time we started changing clothes, it was more or less a nonverbal agreement that we were going to go along with what we were discussing."
The plea agreement calls for Barker to serve at least life in prison. Anderson was expected to decide in a hearing Thursday whether Barker should be allowed to seek parole.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8377
Idaho town asks residents to own guns
By Jesse Harlan Alderman / Associated Press
GREENLEAF, Idaho - After seeing the chaos of Hurricane Katrina, a city councilor in this tiny Idaho town founded by pacifist Quakers came up with a novel idea.
Ordinance 208, passed by the City Council on Tuesday, asks Greenleaf's 862 residents who do not object on religious or other grounds to keep a gun at home in case they are overrun by refugees from the Gulf Coast.
"This is not an 'it'll never happen here kind of thing,'" said Steven Jett, the ordinance's sponsor. "We could get refugees."
In this town about 35 miles west of Boise near the Oregon line — where an estimated 80 percent of the adults already own guns — the proposal hardly caused a stir: It went through weeks of public hearings and drew only mild criticism from the pastor of the town's Quaker meeting house.
But in the six weeks since Jett first introduced the ordinance, national media have flocked to the story.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8375
C.I.A. Tells of Bush’s Directive on the Handling of Detainees
By David Johnston / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 — The Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged for the first time the existence of two classified documents, including a directive signed by President Bush, that have guided the agency’s interrogation and detention of terror suspects.
The C.I.A. referred to the documents in a letter sent Friday from the agency’s associate general counsel, John L. McPherson, to lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union.
The contents of the documents were not revealed, but one of them is “a directive signed by President Bush granting the C.I.A. the authority to set up detention facilities outside the United States and outlining interrogation methods that may be used against detainees,” the A.C.L.U. said, based on its review of published accounts.
The second document, according to the group, is a Justice Department legal analysis “specifying interrogation methods that the C.I.A. may use against top Al Qaeda members.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8369
The Cheney Observer
I am not sure how the Jewish nation entered into this except to say, the writer wasn't aware of the munitions that were gotten by Iraqi forces illegally and through the demise of the Iraqi Central Forces through abandonment on a regular basis. AWOL is the way the USA military classifies it.
It's interesting to realize Cooper is former CIA? Really, Anderson? Filming action by government operatives is easy for you then. I was wondering what the love affair was with CNN, now it's obvious, ties to secrets the government has and access besides. That is why it dove head first into 'security issues' - thought they could make a big splash.
I see.
Well, I guess Aaron knew long ago he didn't have ties to the government and the handwriting was on the wall so to speak. You know it's a darn shame the way CNN became part of the government rather than an agency for people who really care about corruption and power. It will be interesting to see if Cooper can dig the dirt on the Democrats now, he certainly didn't do anything to hurt the Republicans.Israeli Snipers Killing U.S. Troops in Iraq?
Anderson Cooper of CNN showed this video
(without the rifle info) of snipers killing U.S. troops in Iraq on his October 18, 2006 show. CNN says it obtained the video from a “representative” of an unnamed “insurgent leader.” Bear in mind that Anderson Cooper used [yea, ‘used to work’ haha]] to work for the CIA.
Richard Wilson’s hypothesis: Israeli soldiers and/or Mossad agents are killing our soldiers in Iraq in order to enrage American troops so that the slaughter continues.
Proof: At the very beginning of this video clip, you see a rifle with a video camera attached to it. This weapon is made by the Rafael company, an Israeli arms manufacturer, that also makes IEDs. If you watch the video all the way through, it explains how this rifle works. CNN stated that the camera used to film these shootings was not a mounted rifle camera. But as you watch the video, you see that with each shot fired, the camera recoils. That would only happen if it were mounted on the rifle. Why is this significant? Because this kind of rifle-camera is extremely sophisticated and not available to your average Iraqi insurgent. I mean, it’s not exactly an easily obtainable Saturday night special! Something this sophisticated points to Mossad.
Mossad is a master at false flag operations, e.g., Oklahoma City, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, the July 7, 2005 London bombings, the 9-11 attacks in New York, the assassination of the Prime Minister in Beirut, the stoking of Muslim riots in France last year, the bombing of the Hassan al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, etc.
http://www.truthring.org/?p=2729
And will the spin ever end. You know these news outfits that like Republicans over Democrats need to realize the nation made a decision to change. If they don't want to go there, they don't have to, but, they won't be received well or with respect. I believe the media and politicians are still treating the electorate as if they are still idiots and can be 'handled.' I don't recall Walter Cronkit every attempting to 'handle' his viewer or readers so much as just informing them with facts. There is always an underlying doctrine of trust and truth that people rely on and look for in news reporting, I would encourage everyone to build on that rather than trying to manipulate it.
Yoest made contradictory statements about public support for marriage bans -- both were wrong
Summary: On CNN, the Family Research Council's Charmaine Yoest falsely claimed that "every single time" a marriage initiative has appeared on the ballot, "it's passed with over 70 percent of the popular vote." The statement is wrong for two reasons. First, a same-sex marriage ban failed in Arizona in the midterm elections. Second, all of those that did pass did not get 70-percent support -- only two did. Yoest also falsely claimed that those that passed did so "resoundingly."
On the November 14 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, Charmaine Yoest, vice president for communications at the Family Research Council, falsely claimed that "every single time there's been a marriage initiative on the ballot across this country, it's passed with over 70 percent of the popular vote." In fact, according to CNN, in 2006 alone, ballot initiatives banning marriage rights for same-sex couples passed by over 70 percent of the popular vote in only two states -- Tennessee (81 percent in favor to 19 percent opposed) and South Carolina (78 percent in favor to 22 percent opposed) -- of the eight in which they were on the ballot. Moreover, it is not true that "every single" initiative passed -- the Arizona initiative failed altogether (51 percent to 49 percent).
Yoest appeared to acknowledge the failure of the marriage initiative in Arizona immediately before making her claim about the level of support "every single" initiative received, saying that "[s]even out of eight of the ballot initiatives on marriage in this last election passed resoundingly." She did not explain or reconcile her reversal. And even that statement -- that those that passed did so "resoundingly" -- was false.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200611150018
A Long Way Down
By Art BuchwaldThursday, November 16, 2006; Page C03
I was walking down K Street three days after the election. I noticed several people leaning out windows.
I asked a fireman standing on the sidewalk what was going on. He said, "They are all Republican lobbyists, and now that the election is over they're jumping out of the windows."
I said, "I thought Republican lobbyists had safety nets."
"Some do and some don't. The lobbyists have been in their offices so long they never thought that someday the Democrats would push them out."
I said, "None of us thought that the lobbyists would take the election so hard."
The fireman replied, "It was their living. Companies paid large fortunes to have one of those guys, who are now jumping out the window, lobby for them."
I said, "Well, if they're jumping, who's taking their places?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600441.html
Lobbyist Abramoff starts jail sentence
JTA
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff has started his six-year jail term. Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to bribery charges, but his sentence was delayed until Wednesday so he could assist federal authorities investigating lawmakers and administration officials alleged to have taken his bribes.
An Orthodox Jew who allegedly diverted fraudulently obtained funds to favored Jewish charities, Abramoff sent his final e-mail to friends before dawn, when he left home to report to the prison.
"I have learned more lessons in the past three years than I have my whole life," he wrote, "and I am hoping that my family and I can see the good in G-d's plan for us during these times, and gain strength from it."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378418000&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Voters Demand End to Abramoff Era
I don't find myself agreeing with Washington, D.C.-based lobbyists on money in politics very often, let alone with the head of their trade association. But Paul Miller, the president of the American League of Lobbyists, hit the nail on the head when he told the Associated Press this weekend, "Let's not place the entire blame on lobbyists, so you can have a press conference, and then call us the next day and ask for campaign contributions."
Well, there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth. Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly argued that they are poised to break the link between lobbyists and lawmaking, but the real issue is breaking the link between lobbyists' money, especially the money they direct from their clients, and lawmaking.
The Democrats have proposed new House rules to get rid of meals and gifts from lobbyists to lawmakers, and some additional oversight on ethics. Don't get me wrong: It's all good. A ban on meals from lobbyists, for example, is a fine first step, and all Americans should see them as positive, though modest, moves.
http://www.alternet.org/story/44353/
US Spy Chief Warns of Long Commitment in Afghanistan
The head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency says it will take many years and billions of dollars to stabilize Afghanistan. And another official, the top U.S. military intelligence officer, adds that while the Taleban has sustained losses, it is still able to mount operations against Afghan and coalition forces.
CIA Director Michael Hayden gestures while testifying on Capitol Hill, Nov. 15, 2006 In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, CIA chief General Michael Hayden said Afghanistan will need sustained international help over an extended period to put the Kabul government on a solid footing to provide for its people.
"If you ask my view, it will take at least a decade and it will cost billions of dollars,” he said. “And I'll add one more time that the Afghan government will not be able to do it alone. The capacity of the government needs to be strengthened to deliver basic services to the population. And, of course, that begins with security."
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-11-15-voa78.cfm
Abramoff in with Dems? Former Colleagues Say No
By Paul Kiel - November 16, 2006, 2:32 PM "Abramoff Reports to Prison; Officials Focus on Reid, Others," was the headline of an ABC story yesterday reporting that Jack Abramoff, the convicted lobbyist, was dishing dirt on a handful of Democratic senators, Harry Reid (D-NV) in particular.
"Abramoff has offered testimony [to investigators] about his contacts with 'six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic senators,'" ABC News reported, citing "sources close to the federal investigation." One "source close to the investigation" told ABC that $30,000 in contributions to Reid from Abramoff's tribal clients "were no accident and were in fact requested by Reid."
The report was surprising, particularly given that in the thousands of pages of Abramoff's emails, billing records and other documents released over the past two years, there's little evidence that the Republican lobbyist or his team worked very hard to persuade Democratic lawmakers to support their clients, legally or illegally.
Curious to learn more, we called a number of Abramoff's former colleagues from his heyday at the Greenberg Traurig lobby firm to see how the story struck them.
"Jack has not met eight Democrats in Washington," one lobbyist told us.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001997.php
Suit Filed In Scholarship Funding for Disabled, Foster Children
ARIZONA- Arizona's two new publicly funded scholarship programs are being defended from legal attack by the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter. The programs are designed to help especially vulnerable students-those with disabilities and those in foster care-secure quality educational opportunities in private schools.
A coalition of special interest groups have filed their legal challenge, skipping the trial court and asking for a resolution of the case by the Arizona Supreme Court.
"This is an unprecedented and unconscionable effort to block educational opportunities for our most vulnerable children," said Tim Keller, executive director of the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter, which will intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of parents who wish to use the new scholarship programs. "We will vigorously defend both programs and work to vindicate the rights of parents to secure a quality education that meets their children's needs."
Never before have scholarship programs benefiting special needs students been challenged in court. Arizona's $2.5 million program follows in the footsteps of successful programs in Florida (now serving more than 16,000 children) and Utah and a scholarship program for children with autism in Ohio. Research and experience show that special needs children in particular benefit from securing individualized educational environments that best suit their needs. Arizona's groundbreaking $2.5 million scholarship program for students who have been in foster care-the first of its kind in the nation-is designed to help students who often fall very far behind in school because of the disruptions to their lives, according to researchers.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/111506ArizonaFunding.html
Glenn Beck (CNN), neo-Stalinist
Want to see your fair, "mainstream" media at work? Wonder what happened to the old, namby-pamby "innocent until proved guilty" shtick?
Go watch this (via Media Matters, h/t Eschaton) at CNN, in which Glenn Beck, speaking to congressman-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), who just happens to be a Muslim, says:
"I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' " Beck added: "I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way." I am sorry, but in the good old days they fought duels over stuff like that. Even though Beck first asked if he could "have five minutes here where we're just politically incorrect", there is no justifcation for this utter crap. Could he have gotten away with something like this, even under the label of political incorrectness?
http://scatablog.blogspot.com/2006/11/glenn-beck-cnn-neo-stalinist.html
CNN's Beck to first-ever Muslim congressman:
"[W]hat I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies' "On the November 14 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Glenn Beck interviewed Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), who became the first Muslim ever elected to Congress on November 7, and asked Ellison if he could "have five minutes here where we're just politically incorrect and I play the cards up on the table." After Ellison agreed, Beck said: "I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' " Beck added: "I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way."
As Media Matters for America has noted, Beck previously warned that if "Muslims and Arabs" don't "act now" by "step[ping] to the plate" to condemn terrorism, they "will be looking through a razor wire fence at the West" and declared that "Muslims who have sat on your frickin' hands the whole time" rather than "lining up to shoot the bad Muslims in the head" will face dire consequences.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200611150004
Halliburton unit K-B-R debuts, rising from IPO price
HOUSTON I-P-O shares in Houston-based K-B-R today rose 22 percent to close at 20 dollars and 75 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.
The company earlier set a price of 17 dollars for the initial public offering.
Analysts say to understand K-B-R's successful debut -- look no further than its prospects for building more energy and petrochemical facilities around the world.
K-B-R netted nearly 445 (M) million dollars -- after fees -- by selling 27-point-eight (M) million shares in the I-P-O.
Houston-based Halliburton retained an 83 percent stake in the company.
http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=5694234
Supply data boosts energy sector to higher close
Halliburton Co. surges ahead of KBR Inc public offeringPrintE-mailDisable live quotesRSSDigg itDel.icio.usRelated Blog Posts & ArticlesBy Jasmina Kelemen, MarketWatchLast Update: 4:51 PM ET Nov 15, 2006
HOUSTON (MarketWatch) -- Oil and gas shares finished higher Wednesday after U.S. government data showed steep declines among gasoline and distillate supplies.The Amex Oil Index (XOI : amex oil index News , chart, profile, moreLast: 1,148.29-29.26-2.48%HAL32.51, -1.04, -3.1%) led the gainers, adding 4.6% to $33.55. Halliburton now expects the initial public offering for its KBR Inc. to be priced Wednesday night after a one-day delay to recirculate its IPO prospectus. This puts the KBR spin-off on track to make its stock market debut on Thursday. Calyon Securities praised the spin-off, shrugging off a disclosure from the company that it could lose a contract to maintain nuclear submarines in the U.K. because of a dispute with the British government over the IPO. "We continue to see significant value at KBR, and believe investors should remain focused on the energy and chemical unit's bright growth prospects in the liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids gas monetization markets," Calyon Securities said. Jasmina Kelemen is a MarketWatch reporter based in Houston.K-B-R is the engineering, services and construction unit of Halliburton,
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?siteid=mktw&guid=%7BD7D84006-90D8-41A1-950A-70F8CB2E85C0%7D
Halliburton outlook positive, was stable-Moody's
NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service on Thursday said it changed its rating outlook for Halliburton Co. (HAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to positive from stable, citing the company's initial public offering of its KBR Inc. (KBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) unit.
Shares of KBR, Halliburton's controversial engineering and military-services contract unit, rose more than 23 percent in their market debut on Thursday. For details, see [ID:nN16322212].
Halliburton holds a 'Baa1' senior long-term debt rating from Moody's, the third lowest investment grade rating.
A positive outlook means Moody's is likely to raise Halliburton's rating over the next 12 to 18 months.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-11-16T164918Z_01_N16406241_RTRIDST_0_ENERGY-HALLIBURTON-MOODYS.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna
KKR, Carlyle, 11 Others Accused of Rigging Buyouts (Update6)
By David Glovin and Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Carlyle Group and most other major U.S. buyout firms were accused in a shareholder lawsuit of illegally conspiring to drive down the prices they paid when taking companies private.
The suit was filed in Manhattan federal court by investors who claim they were shortchanged because the firms violated antitrust laws when they teamed up to make leveraged buyouts such as the $33 billion takeover of hospital chain HCA Inc., the largest LBO ever. The complaint seeks class-action status.
``Investors in the target company are deprived of the full economic value of their holdings and `squeezed out' at artificially low valuations,'' the suit says.
Private-equity firms, which have announced a record $425 billion of LBOs this year, are already the target of a U.S. Justice Department investigation into possible antitrust behavior. They've also come under fire in Europe and the U.S. for burying the companies they buy in debt while recouping their costs with dividends.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abj7g.LNjE9U&refer=home
Holders sue private equity firms over deals
By Anna DriverReutersWednesday, November 15, 2006; 3:28 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shareholders filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday against 13 private equity firms that alleges their investments were hurt when the buyout firms violated antitrust laws by conspiring to fix deal prices.
The lawsuit names big private equity firms, including the Carlyle Group, Texas Pacific Group Ventures Inc., the Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. .
It claims the plaintiffs "were paid less for their equity shares that they sold to the private equity defendants and their co-conspirators than they would have been paid under conditions of free and open competition."
The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, cites news reports of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice "into potential collusion by large buyout firms."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501009.html
CIA PROBLEMS FOR BUSH?
Thursday, November 16, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com
President Bush's questionable policy dealings regarding the CIA are coming under increased scrutiny with a Democratic congress looming. The administration is fighting several lawsuits aimed at shedding more light on these dealings.
Recently, the administration asked a federal judge Tuesday to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Valerie Plame, former CIA operative, against Vice President Cheney and others accused of outing Plame as an agent, according to Reuters. The lawsuit, filed in July, names Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, Dick Cheney, and Richard Armitage. Justice Department lawyers said in their request that Cheney and other high-level officials have immunity because of their official positions. The request cites a Supreme Court decision that ruled officers of the Executive Branch are protected from personal liability in lawsuits that arise as a result of their official positions.
While Plame lawsuit hangs in the balance, the CIA acknowledged the existence Friday of two memos governing aggressive detention and interrogation policies for terrorism suspects, according to The Washington Post. One was sent from the Justice Department and the other from President Bush. The CIA, however, says the documents are so sensitive that no part of either can be released publicly.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit two years ago under the Freedom of Information Act seeking records related to U.S. interrogation and detention policies. The lawsuit has resulted in the release of 100,000 pages of documents. Other records have not been released and the existence of some has only been revealed in media reports. – JS
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=26565
Public to get a look at Libby documents
MSNBC 11-16-06Posted on 11/16/2006 11:04:12 PM PST by STARWISEFor the past few months all the public could know about the goings on during numerous closed-door hearings in Courtroom #16 were from one-line court filings indicating the proceedings were dealing with requests from I Lewis "Scooter" Libby - Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff - to include classified materials in his defense of perjury and obstructions charges in the CIA leak trial.Next month all that will change. Judge Walton will give the public a peek at the issues he has had to rule on concerning the thousands of classified document in question.(snip)...... but both the prosecutors and defense attorneys were mum on exactly what was going on. All the public knew from the filings was that it was a tense courtroom drama that was unfolding inside.The judge, in a ruling, acknowledged that he has been forced by law to keep the public out. He writes, "While this Court has strived to make the proceedings in this action as transparent as possible, because the defendant seeks to introduce at trial evidence that is currently classified, this Court has been required to close to the public may proceedings and seal a substantial number of pleadings."In today’ ruling, Walton ordered the CIA and Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to begin a review of classified court filings and transcripts of closed hearings related to requests by I Libby, who is seeking to introduce certain classified documents at trial.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1740111/posts
U.S. Lawyers: Libby May Have Disclosed Iraq Secrets
By JOSH GERSTEINStaff Reporter of the SunNovember 17, 2006A former White House aide, I. Lewis Libby, may have disclosed conclusions from a highly classified government report on Iraq to journalists before the report was declassified by President Bush, federal prosecutors said in a new court filing.Mr. Libby resigned as chief of staff to Vice President Cheney when he was indicted last year on obstruction of justice and perjury charges in connection with an investigation into the leak of the identity of a CIA official, Valerie Plame.The special prosecutor who oversaw the probe, Patrick Fitzgerald, has not charged Mr. Libby or anyone else for participating in the leak. It emerged recently that the first public account of Ms. Plame's employment, in a 2003 column by Robert Novak, was triggered by comments from a State Department official, Richard Armitage.Attorneys for Mr. Libby have asked that the prosecution be precluded from arguing at trial that Mr. Libby acted improperly or illegally when he discussed a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq with the press. The issue ties into the criminal case because in some of the conversations about the estimate, Mr. Libby is alleged to have mentioned Ms. Plame or answered a question about her.
http://www.nysun.com/article/43724
The Architect's Faulty Specs
Rove believed in his metrics. He miscalculated. How did Bush's guru get the numbers so wrong?Charles Ommanney / Contact for NewsweekChecking the Numbers: Rove thought the GOP would hold onBy Richard WolffeNewsweekNov. 20, 2006 issue - President Bush knew he was in for a rough night. As he settled down in front of the TV in the White House residence to watch the election results, the numbers were already grim. By 8 p.m., long before the polls closed out west, Bush realized it was over. "It looks like this is going to be a rout," he lamented to a handful of aides.Downstairs in the West Wing, Karl Rove wasn't ready to concede anything. The president's political architect believed the GOP could hold on to slender majorities in the House and the Senate. He had history on his side: in 2004 he refused to believe the early exit polls while everyone else was resigned to defeat. This time he was convinced his numbers would come through again. But even Rove's optimism finally cracked when he took a gloomy call from an old friend working for Rep. Clay Shaw in Florida. Shaw won re-election two years ago by a 28-point margin; last week he was heading to a four-point defeat. At 11:01 p.m., Rove made the long walk to the residence. "We're losing the House," he told Bush. The president let out a long sigh and went to bed.How did the man they call Bush's brain get it so wrong?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15675318/site/newsweek/
One Last Thing
Election Day's numbers reveal political landscapeBy Jonathan Lastfor the InquirerElections are clarifying moments when the rhetoric and theory of politics are stripped away and concrete facts, in the form of vote totals, are exposed for all to see. This week's election clarified a number of things. What follows are a few of them, in descending order of importance.Was there a Democratic wave? Yes. Nationally speaking, it wasn't a realigning election. Essentially, the country is still evenly divided. But a wave election is one in which incumbents who would normally win handily are suddenly defeated. As I predicted in September, Indiana's 2d, 8th and 9th districts and Pennsylvania's 6th, 7th and 8th were the bellwethers. Democrats took five of these six reasonably conservative Republican seats. Look around the map, and you find races such as the Iowa 2d, where Democrat Dave Loebsack came from nowhere to defeat 15-term incumbent Rep. Jim Leach. Or the Kansas 2d, where Democrat Nancy Boyda sprinted past Republican incumbent Jim Ryun. How big was the wave? In 2004, Ryun beat Boyda 56 percent to 41 percent.The wave crested in Virginia, too, where George Allen ran 8 points behind the state's Marriage Amendment on his way to defeat. (Welcome to the real America, senator!) The amendment banning gay marriage passed comfortably. Allen supported it; Jim Webb opposed it.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/special_packages/sunday_review/15989189.htm
By Rove's math, loss by GOP adds up to some marginal factors
By PETER BAKER Washington Post11/12/2006
WASHINGTON - For a man still climbing out of the rubble, Karl Rove seemed in his usual unflappable mood. He roamed his windowless West Wing office decorated with four Abraham Lincoln portraits, joking with his staff, stuffing copies of the Iliad and the Odyssey into his bag and signing the last paperwork of the day. The Architect, as President Bush once called him, has a theory for why the building fell down. "Get me the one-pager!" he cried out to an aide, who promptly delivered a single sheet of paper that has been updated almost hourly since the midterm elections with a series of statistics and historical facts explaining that the "thumping" Bush took was not such a thumping after all. The theory is this: The building's infrastructure is actually quite sound. Bad luck and seasonal shifts in the winds - complacent candidates combined with an ill-timed congressional page scandal involving former Rep. Mark A. Foley of Florida - blew out the walls. But the foundation is fine: "The Republican philosophy is alive and well and likely to re-emerge in the majority in 2008." Rove's brand of politics aims to sharpen differences with the opposition, energize the conservative base and micro-target voters to pick off selected parts of the other side's constituency. As he has in past elections, he designed a strategy this year to paint Democrats as weak on national security and terrorism, the "party of cut and run."
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061112/1008873.asp
Clinton Previews Democrats Agressive New Agenda
November 13, 2006
Following last week's big win for the Democrats, Senator Hillary Clinton previewed an aggressive new national agenda while speaking in Midtown Monday. Clinton says Democrats are calling for new policies on energy, taxes, Medicare, education and Social Security. She also said President Bush missed crucial opportunities to unite the country and had harsh words for his top strategist. "After 9/11, the president could have united our country and been re-elected by 65, 70 percent of the vote. And that was not the road they chose. Karl Rove's theory is you just take your base and you expand your base, and you basically just roll over everybody who gets in your way," she said. "And what happened in this election, again getting back to evidence and performance, is people gave them a report card and the report card was, 'you are not meeting our expectations.' " Clinton also said she still hasn't made a decision about a run for the White House in 2008, but she did say now that Election Day has past, she will think about it.
November 13, 2006
Elephant Autopsy
Filed under: Bush Administration, Karl Rove, Republican Party — maha @ 10:54 pm
Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press reports that Sen.
Mel Martinez of Florida will replace Ken Mehlman as chair of the Republican National Committee.
Martinez started slowly in the Senate where he was embarrassed by a one-page unsigned memo that originated in his office.
Written by a Martinez aide and disavowed by Senate Republicans, the memo laid out the political benefits to getting involved in the fate of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman whose end-of-life battle became a rallying cry for conservatives.“This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue,” said the memo. Its author resigned.A quick cruise around the rightie blogs tells me “the base” is way underwhelmed.
They’re pissed because Martinez, who immigrated from Cuba in 1962, is a moderate on immigration. Allahpundit:Hot Air commenters agree: it’s an awful pick, transparently aimed at appealing to pro-amnesty Hispanic voters. If the GOP goes ahead and puts Boehner and Blunt back in place in the minority leadership, you’re looking at a very dire electoral situation in 2008.
John Aravosis of AMERICAblog:
It’s probably no surprise that the GOP chose someone anti-gay after rumors had swirled for years about the exact sexual orientation of outgoing RNC chair Ken Mehlman
(Mehlman publicly avoided the question for years).
But even more interesting is that a top staffer on Martinez’s Senate campaign, Kirk Fordham, was also the former chief of staff to child sex predator ex-congressman Mark Foley. Foley represented Florida in the House.
Martinez represents Florida in the Senate.I’m just saying…I’m saying the Republicans are flapping around like a headless chicken. And who is in charge these days, anyway? President Bush is still, I assume, the official head of the party, but he’s a head that few seem to be following at the moment. Even the VRWC media machine is abandoning him.
The Bush cult of personality appears to be evaporating rapidly, which is a good thing. But the Republicans have invested everything in Bush for the past six years, and now their investment is deflating like a failed soufflé. What are they going to do?
More post-election commentary — Chuck Todd writes,When a political party gets shellacked, the intra-party feud becomes dominated by the base, not the moderates. The base will swear, in this case, that the party needed more true-blue conservatives running, or that it should have been more conservative in its congressional governance. And then these losses would have been avoided.
http://www.mahablog.com/2006/11/13/elephant-autopsy/
Pissing in the Liberal Punchbowl -- Again: The Democratic Conga Line in the American House of Lords
by Joe Bageant
www.dissidentvoice.org
November 14, 2006 “Saw the talking heads today, speaking the priestly tongue. Saw them nodding seriously, using words like 'gravitas' and a few others that originated in the bosom of Americana. Heard one of the newly elected basically state that things would be business as usual, don't expect a lot of changes. Rather scornfully and testily the idea of impeaching W was dismissed. Well, why the hell not? No answer, just the satisfied, mildly contemptuous smile. Oh, yes, and there'll be a lot of 'bipartisan' things going on.”--
Key Bugle, internet denizen, retired army sergeantDemocrats are dancing around the head of Donald Rumsfeld like a scene from Lord of the Flies, heating up the tar buckets and plucking the goose in eager, nay, wild anticipation. Personally, I love the smell of tar and feathers in the morning and am quite willing to march on the White House as we speak. I like revenge as well as the next guy. But I also consider myself a compassionate man, one perfectly willing to let Bush's cabinet choose whether they wanna play the mommy or the daddy in the Big House, then move on to the real problems, such as the fact that a gallon of Old Grandad is nearly 50 bucks here in Virginia, or the fact that we are still a nation of people, half of whom were happy to elect a bunch of war criminals -- TWICE! -- and still are.Ah, but lo and beshit, the Democrats have rescued us. If you can call running around like chickens with their heads up their asses while the Republicans did what they always do -- get caught stealing the national silverware, while bombing the hell out of some miserable piece of dirt as a distraction, thereby self-destructing in 12 years as usual, but getting obscenely rich in the process.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov06/Bageant14.htm
Gerrymandering Only Good When Your Party Is The One In Power!
Several background news stories coming on the heals of the 2006 midterms point out the significant gains in the number of seats won by democrats within different state governments across the country. The stories point to the advantage that these new gains play in future redistricting of congressional and legislative districts, within a particular state, and how it could work as an advantage for the party at the state level in future elections. The premise, of many of these reports being, that democrats would redistrict or “gerrymander” to strengthen the likelihood of a congressional or legislative district containing more voters favorable to democrat ideas and candidates and reducing the likelihood of the voters, within the new districts, voting for a republican or independent.
http://artistdogboy.blogspot.com/2006/11/gerrymandering-only-good-when-your.html
One NationMassachussetts Liberal.
The Left Coast. Red State, Blue state… Whatever happened to the United States? One of the things I found most confounding about the former Republican majority was the willingness to turn one region against another. While such a divided strategy did wonders for politicans in times past and Republicans in recent history, is there much good or sense to it now? I don’t believe so.
The typical vision people have of Texans is typically false. Texans, by a wide margin, are urban. Eight out of ten, as a matter of fact. The TRMPAC strategy, which got Tom DeLay indicted and replaced by a Democrat, infamously extended different districts out in all directions from cities, quartering liberal Austin, creating a district that extended from Beaumont to Houston, and another nicknamed "The District That Ate Houston", which surrounds the east of Houston and then extends out on another one of the typical 100 mi plus ribbons.
http://www.watchblog.com/democrats/archives/004459.html
Bush hails Senate passage of nuke deal
Friday, November 17, 2006 06:49:47 amThe US Senate debates the US-India civilian nuclear cooperation agreement on Friday (November 17, India time) US President George W. Bush has hailed the Senate passage of a landmark civilian nuclear deal with India, saying it would bring the country into the "non-proliferation mainstream."
"As India's economy continues to grow, this partnership will help India meet its energy needs without increasing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions,” President Bush said.
The US Senate on Thursday (November 16, Washington DC) approved long-stalled legislation that moves toward opening the door to US India nuclear cooperation for the first time in three decades.
The vote was 85 to 12 after the Republican-controlled Senate defeated a handful of amendments, including the Feingold and the Boxer amendments that would have wrecked the deal, forced renegotiation or made the implementation stage quite difficult.
In the marathon debate lasting over 10 hours, the US Senate took up 6 proposed amendments to the Indo-US Nuclear deal. The Senate rejected all but one amendment – the latter proposed by Democratic Senator Barack Obama limiting supplies of nuclear fuel to India as per its requirements.
http://www.timesnow.tv/Sections/World/Bush_hails_Senate_passage_of_nuke_deal/articleshow/461558.cms
VOLPAC Voter Survey: Senator Frist Prioritizes
If you want to influence the agenda of this lame duck Congress and help current Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist choose the issues that he will focus his Presidential 2008 campaign....take a second and let your priorities be known in this survey.
http://trumanstake.blogspot.com/2006/11/volpac-voter-survey-senator-frist.html
Background checks for staff in portsMinister hopes to foil terrorists
Screening too limited: SenatorNov. 17, 2006. 01:00 AMMONTREAL—Background checks of port workers are being phased in across Canada to help prevent terrorist attacks, the federal government announced.Marine workers who have access to restricted areas and who perform "certain duties" will need security clearance, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said yesterday.The background checks will apply also to marine pilots, wharf operators, security personnel and seafarers. They will undergo a criminal check, a CSIS security assessment and a check of the applicant's immigration and citizenship status."What we want ... is to make sure that we do not permit somebody who is a known terrorist, or somebody who has some sort of a known association with a terrorist group, to have that kind of authorization to go into these areas," said Cannon.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1163717412447&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467
UMass set to make good on pay hikes
Thursday, November 16, 2006By FRED CONTRADAf
contrada@repub.com
AMHERST - The University of Massachusetts has vowed to give back what Gov. W. Mitt Romney has taken away by funding $14.6 million in retroactive pay increases for its employees out of its own reserves, if necessary.
The money for the pay increases was supposed to have come from the state but was part of $425 million that Romney cut last week, using his emergency fiscal powers. Romney said his action was necessary to balance the $25.7 billion state budget.
Democrats have called it a political move by the Republican governor to burnish his conservative resume for a possible presidential run.
http://www.masslive.com/metrowest/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1163668769263470.xml&coll=1
Wind farm players read political tea leavesBy Craig Salters/
csalters@cnc.com
Thursday, November 16, 2006 - Updated: 03:46 PM EST
While last week’s election clearly established the state’s next governor - for those readers still thawing out from a cryogenic freeze, the winner was Deval Patrick - it didn’t establish what’s best for Nantucket Sound, according to opponents of a wind farm proposed for the area. "This election was not a referendum on Cape Wind," said Charles Vinick, president and CEO of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a leading critic of Cape Wind Associates’ plan to construct 130 wind turbines in the Sound. Vinick said Patrick, the first gubernatorial candidate to support the wind farm publicly, enjoyed strong support from the entire state and didn’t ride the coattails of just one issue to victory.
http://www2.townonline.com/barnstable/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=617196
continued ...
Waterlogged Maine expects more rain
By DAVID HENCH, Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
The powerful storm that spawned deadly tornadoes in the South was expected to drench an already soggy Maine with another inch or two of rain before moving out this morning to make way for a warm day and maybe even some sunshine.Emergency and municipal officials braced for the possibility of scattered flooding during the heaviest rainfall, but predicted southern Maine's rivers should be able to handle the runoff. A flood watch was in effect for most of western and central Maine through this evening.The storm, even before it arrived, wreaked havoc on local flight schedules, canceling some flights from the mid-Atlantic states into Portland International Jetport and delaying others."It's been nasty," said Janice Barter, whose son Trent was delayed on his trip from Portland to visit his brother at Arizona State University. Her son's 3:30 p.m. flight didn't leave until almost 7 p.m. "The attendants were doing their best to reschedule people. There's nothing they can do about the weather, but it's discouraging," Barter said.By Thursday night, airlines were scurrying to re-book passengers, but Portland still could experience delays this morning, airport officials said.The powerful storm pounded Southeastern states Wednesday before starting to move up the East Coast on Thursday.But it began to lose some of its punch as it veered toward Maine. The cool, marine air of the Maine coast was expected to calm it further, reducing the chance of thunderstorms."We're not looking for any severe weather, as far as tornadoes or anything like that," said Art Lester, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Gray.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061117weather.html
Report: Boost college funding
By PAUL CARRIER, Portland Press Herald Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
SOUTH PORTLAND - Maine should invest millions of dollars in its underfunded community-college system because the state has a significant shortage of skilled workers in most industries, yet the colleges are at or near capacity in many programs, according to a task force report released Thursday.Noting that Maine has the smallest community-college system in the nation -- based on the percentage of the adult population served -- the task force says the state should spend an extra $20.3 million a year to boost enrollment initially from 13,000 to 17,000 students. The report also calls for "a major capital improvements bond issue" for building upgrades and, possibly, new construction.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061117colleges.html
City lauded as site of pharmacy school
By JOSIE HUANG, Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
The University of New England announced plans Thursday to house its new College of Pharmacy on its Portland campus, saying proximity to multiple hospitals and biotechnology businesses would secure internships and other opportunities for students.UNE President Danielle Ripich said locating the new school in Maine's largest city also will attract the faculty members it needs to recruit in time for a 2008 launch."I think Portland is a very attractive site," said Ripich, who has fast-tracked the pharmacy school proposal since becoming president in July. "I have already had unsolicited letters of interest from very solid faculty members."The decision to site the pharmacy school at the former Westbrook College campus, which UNE acquired a decade ago, came after months of deliberation. Biddeford, home to UNE's main campus and osteopathic medical school, was the second choice, followed by Camden.The selection of a site brings UNE up to speed with Husson College, which said less than a month ago that it will open a pharmacy school in Bangor in the same time frame.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/061117une.html
A trial to beat Broadway
By Bill Nemitz
Friday, November 17, 2006TO: Jury Clerk, Cumberland County Superior Court.FROM: Prospective Juror No. 1RE: Sign me up.That's right. When they seat the jury for Tom Connolly's guerrilla-theater trial sometime next spring, I'll be first in line.Why? Because I want a good seat, that's why.This, after all, will be the best show to hit the Cumberland County Courthouse since David "The Dogman" Koplow single-handedly beat a "pooper-scooper" rap back in 1984.(Dogman's winning argument against a charge that he was not properly equipped to clean up after his eight dogs: "I can use my hands.")Now, I know there are some who predict Connolly will never go to trial for dressing up like Osama bin Laden, complete with a toy AK-47, and protesting the Taxpayer Bill of Rights along Interstate 295 on Halloween morning.In fact, District Attorney Stephanie Anderson made it clear on Thursday that she hopes this whole mess can be settled before a jury is seated.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/nemitz/061117nemitz.html
INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: FOREIGN LABOR
Friday, November 17, 2006
SUNDAY, SEPT. 24, 2006 Proponents of the foreign labor system say it is vital to the American economy, but critics and government auditors worry that the program's shortcomings could harm U.S. workers and national security.Rubber-stamp bureaucracyThe federal system that allows skilled foreigners to work in the United States may be failing to protect Americans from unfair competition and could even pose national security risks.
Some workers never stepped foot in MaineMany started with companies that used a Maine address to help them pursue green cards.
MONDAY, SEPT. 25, 2006 Dozens of small high-tech staffing companies opened shop in Maine and other rural states in 2004 and 2005, filing immigration papers to get green cards for skilled foreigners that outweighed what local officials felt was actual demand.Gaming the system?State labor specialists expressed concern about high-tech staffing companies but federal officials did little to follow up on those issues.
Holders of visas often picked over U.S. workersAgencies offering high-tech jobs don't want candidates who can grow into a job, some say.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 26, 2006 Government auditors refer to the U.S. Department of Labor's role in the H1B visa system as a "rubber stamp" and suggested taking the department out of the process entirely.Invitation to fraudThe Department of Labor's screening of applicants for U.S. jobs is so flawed that there might as well be no screening at all.
Local company finds foreigners fill a labor needTwo hard-to-find computer specialists trained in India lend their expertise to Wright Express.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/immigration/
Racist fliers spark public outrage
By DAVID HENCH, Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
Neville Knowles came to Maine in 1952 and found acceptance, but he also found bigotry.On Thursday, in a pained voice, the veteran civil rights activist told a gathering at the Deering High School library that the distribution of racist fliers in the surrounding Portland neighborhood shows the problem persists."This is 2006 and we are still grappling with this kind of situation. Why?" he asked. "It's time we get to the root of it and start digging it up."More than two dozen city, civic and student leaders gathered with neighborhood residents Thursday to express their outrage about the fliers, which apparently were downloaded from a neo-Nazi Web site. It's unclear how extensive the distribution was, though several residents reported seeing them on trees or finding them on their car windshields.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/061117meeting.html
Postal reform efforts likely to end at dead letter office
By BART JANSEN, Washington D.C. Correspondent Friday, November 17, 2006
WASHINGTON - Congress appears unlikely to reform the U.S. Postal Service this year or in the foreseeable future, blocking one of Sen. Susan Collins' legislative priorities.The goal of reform proponents such as Collins, R-Maine, is to make the post office more competitive with the Internet and premium shippers such as FedEx by reducing its reliance on rate increases for stamps.But Collins, chairwoman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, said opposition to compromise legislation in September left little hope for action when Congress finishes for the year in December. "I am not optimistic that we are going to be able to resolve this," Collins said. "We had a very good agreement worked out at the end of September that was derailed at the last second."
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061117postalreform.html
Question of the day
By JUSTIN ELLIS, Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
Staff photo by John Patriquin Sadie Cross, left, Caitlin Chasse, Ella LeBlanc and Keegan Beardsley-Dow make Thanksgiving turkeys in Rosalie Mosher's kindergarten class on Wednesday. Three-fourths of incoming Gorham kindergartners' parents favor all-day kindergarten. GORHAM - A half-day of school may become a thing of the past for youngsters here, as the School Committee considers switching to all-day kindergarten.Gorham would join a growing number of schools around Maine and across the country by establishing full-day kindergarten. Educators say the move could boost literacy and other skills in young children and help socialize them for later grades. But some parents worry that a longer schedule could prove overwhelming to young students.The School Committee plans to examine all of those issues before voting on a proposal in the next several months.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/061117kindergarten.html
Michael Moore Today
US plans last big push in Iraq
Strategy document calls for extra 20,000 troops, aid for Iraqi army and regional summit
By Simon Tisdall / Guardian
President George Bush has told senior advisers that the US and its allies must make "a last big push" to win the war in Iraq and that instead of beginning a troop withdrawal next year, he may increase US forces by up to 20,000 soldiers, according to sources familiar with the administration's internal deliberations.
Mr Bush's refusal to give ground, coming in the teeth of growing calls in the US and Britain for a radical rethink or a swift exit, is having a decisive impact on the policy review being conducted by the Iraq Study Group chaired by Bush family loyalist James Baker, the sources said.
Although the panel's work is not complete, its recommendations are expected to be built around a four-point "victory strategy" developed by Pentagon officials advising the group. The strategy, along with other related proposals, is being circulated in draft form and has been discussed in separate closed sessions with Mr Baker and the vice-president Dick Cheney, an Iraq war hawk.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8371
A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives ...by Michael Moore
To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,
I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.
Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.
Thus, here is our Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives:
Dear Conservatives and Republicans,
I, and my fellow signatories, hereby make these promises to you:
1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.
2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.
3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you.
4. When we soon bring our sons and daughters home from Iraq, we will bring your sons and daughters home, too. They deserve to live. We promise never to send your kids off to war based on either a mistake or a lie.
5. When we make America the last Western democracy to have universal health coverage, and all Americans are able to get help when they fall ill, we promise that you, too, will be able to see a doctor, regardless of your ability to pay. And when stem cell research delivers treatments and cures for diseases that affect you and your loved ones, we'll make sure those advances are available to you and your family, too.
6. Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.
7. Should a mass murderer ever kill 3,000 people on our soil, we will devote every single resource to tracking him down and bringing him to justice. Immediately. We will protect you.
8. We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business. We will continue to count your age from the moment you were born, not the moment you were conceived.
9. We will not take away your hunting guns. If you need an automatic weapon or a handgun to kill a bird or a deer, then you really aren't much of a hunter and you should, perhaps, pick up another sport. We will make our streets and schools as free as we can from these weapons and we will protect your children just as we would protect ours.
10. When we raise the minimum wage, we will pay you -- and your employees -- that new wage, too. When women are finally paid what men make, we will pay conservative women that wage, too.
11. We will respect your religious beliefs, even when you don't put those beliefs into practice. In fact, we will actively seek to promote your most radical religious beliefs ("Blessed are the poor," "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God," and "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."). We will let people in other countries know that God doesn't just bless America, he blesses everyone. We will discourage religious intolerance and fanaticism -- starting with the fanaticism here at home, thus setting a good example for the rest of the world.
12. We will not tolerate politicians who are corrupt and who are bought and paid for by the rich. We will go after any elected leader who puts him or herself ahead of the people. And we promise you we will go after the corrupt politicians on our side FIRST. If we fail to do this, we need you to call us on it. Simply because we are in power does not give us the right to turn our heads the other way when our party goes astray. Please perform this important duty as the loyal opposition.
I promise all of the above to you because this is your country, too. You are every bit as American as we are. We are all in this together. We sink or swim as one. Thank you for your years of service to this country and for giving us the opportunity to see if we can make things a bit better for our 300 million fellow Americans -- and for the rest of the world.
Signed,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com(Click here to sign the pledge)
www.michaelmoore.com
P.S. Please feel free to pass this on.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=201
"Real Time with Bill Mayer"
Don't miss our Real Time with Bill Maher season finale, Friday at 11 pm – with actor Richard Dreyfuss, activist/musician Tom Morello and correspondent Dana Priest. Plus, via satellite, newsman Dan Rather, and television legend and People for the American Way founder Norman Lear.
http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/
Clean Sweep, Now Bring Our Children Home!
For the first time in a long time I slept through the night. I was proud of America.
Spc. Robert Stillwell & Pfc. Steven Sirko
I was on the phone part of the night with Summer Lipford, a Gold Star Mother. We were watching the results come in and sharing our joy over the phone. We expressed many expletives at the demise of the ones responsible for what happened to our children. It is bittersweet. The vote can not change what has happened to our children, but it is the beginning of an end to this madness. So another mother does not spend her nights sleepless crying for her child. We are grateful for this. We are grateful our children were on your mind as you went to the polls.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=768
Senator calls UN climate meeting "brainwashing"
By Deborah Zabarenko / Reuters
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate's most vocal global warming skeptic, James Inhofe, on Thursday dismissed a U.N. meeting on climate change as "a brainwashing session."
Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who will step down as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee in January, told a news conference, "The idea that the science (on global warming) is settled is altogether wrong."
A majority of scientists, many in the U.S. government, accept that global warming is spurred by human actions and the emission of greenhouse gases. President George W. Bush said as much in July at a summit of industrialized nations.
Inhofe said he acknowledged that the planet is warming but disputed those who attribute it to human activity and the emission of greenhouse gases. Instead, he blamed climate change on natural cycles.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8372
Warm weather wrecks bears' winter slumber
MOSCOW, Nov 15 (Reuters Life!) - Insomniac bears are roaming the forests of southwestern Siberia scaring local people as the weather stays too warm for the animals to fall into their usual winter slumber.
The furry mammals escape harsh winters by going to sleep in October-November for around six months, but in the snowless Kemerovo region where the weather is unseasonably warm, bears have no desire yet to hibernate.
"Due to weather conditions, bears didn't go into the winter sleep in time," said Tatiana Maslova, chief expert at a regional environmental agency in the city of Kemerovo, about 3,500 km (2,190 miles) southeast of Moscow.
"Our teams are making sure there is no damage to farming and to local residents," she told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that every patch of land is watched by a specially assigned inspector.
To survive the prolonged winter rest, bears have to put on extra body fat -- up to 180 kg (396 pounds) -- and so spend the preceding months devouring as much food as they can find.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8376
Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry
By Elizabeth Williamson / Washington Post
The U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry again. But they may experience "very low food security."
Every year, the Agriculture Department issues a report that measures Americans' access to food, and it has consistently used the word "hunger" to describe those who can least afford to put food on the table. But not this year.
Mark Nord, the lead author of the report, said "hungry" is "not a scientifically accurate term for the specific phenomenon being measured in the food security survey." Nord, a USDA sociologist, said, "We don't have a measure of that condition."
The USDA said that 12 percent of Americans -- 35 million people -- could not put food on the table at least part of last year. Eleven million of them reported going hungry at times. Beginning this year, the USDA has determined "very low food security" to be a more scientifically palatable description for that group.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8378
Report: Hunger has more than doubled in low-income areas
By April Simpson, Globe Staff November 15, 2006
Between 2002 and 2005, hunger more than doubled in lowincome communities across Massachusetts because of poverty and the high cost of living, a local advocacy group told state lawmakers yesterday.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts Project Bread said that hunger has risen to 18 percent, from 8 percent three years ago, posing a public health concern because it can lead to obesity and diabetes.
"Hunger in Massachusetts is not caused by a food shortage," said Andrew Schiff , the group's assistant director. "We have plenty of food for everyone. The problem is the combination of poverty and the high cost of living."
Schiff said statewide statistics tend to overlook pockets of poverty. In those 35 cities and towns with higher concentrations of hunger -- including Boston, Lynn, Springfield, and Worcester -- its prevalence is six times greater than the state average and one out of every three children lives in a family that struggles to provide food, the report states.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/11/15/report_hunger_has_more_than_doubled_in_low_income_areas/
Hunger still widespreadThe Times 4.6 hours ago
Oregon’s rising economy hasn’t lifted all citizens from the depths of poverty. Despite the good news this week that Oregon’s unemployment rate is at its lowest level in six years, thousands upon thousands of people in this state are still without adequate supplies of food in their cupboards. Readers of The Times can help their neighbors in need by filling the grocery bags included in today’s newspaper. The food that’s donated will be delivered to the Oregon Food Bank, whose mission it is to make certain that no one in this state goes hungry.
The intractability of hunger has been painfully evident during the most recent economic recovery, and statistics from the food bank may help explain why. The food bank’s 2006 Hunger Factors Survey shows that hunger isn’t declining with the unemployment rate because most of the new jobs being created are at the lower end of the pay scale. In addition, these jobs typically don’t come with full medical benefits, so families are spending a greater portion of their incomes on health care. The high cost of fuel and housing also is consuming a larger percentage of family income.
http://www.tigardtimes.com/opinion/story.php?story_id=116371157720759200
Farmers in Dire Straights
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily / Inter Press Service
BAGHDAD, Nov 16 - Despite the Iraqi prime minister's optimism for the agricultural sector, the farmers who are struggling to survive tell another story.
In an address to Iraqi politicians this week, Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki praised his government's performance in agriculture. Maliki highlighted the new state-supported crop prices, through which farmers would receive subsidies and encouragement to continue growing their crops -- but he did not mention how much the price supports would be.
"The prime minister seems not to be aware of the real problems we are facing here," Haji Jassim, a farmer from the rural Al-Jazeera area near Ramadi, told IPS. Speaking from a relative's home in Baghdad, he added, "What he is talking about would have been good if prices were the only problem, but someone should explain to him the other obstacles we are facing."
Jassim said that one of the main problems is lack of manpower, "since most of our young men who were not killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops are in jail or missing."
The frustrated farmer added that obstacles like lack of electricity, fuel and security in the field and "dozens of others, should be known to the man who claims to be our supporter."
Under the regime of Saddam Hussein, overthrown by U.S.-led forces in 2003, the government purchased crops from farmers in order to encourage them to continue planting. In this way, the government guaranteed that farmers would sell their crops, regardless of how bad the market was under the economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations in 1990.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8379
Soldier describes genesis of rape plan
By Ryan Lenz / Associated Press
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - A soldier who pleaded guilty to conspiring to rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and kill her family described how he was approached by a fellow soldier with the plan to carry out the attack.
Spc. James P. Barker, one of four U.S. soldiers accused in the March 12 rape and killings, pleaded guilty Wednesday and agreed to testify against the others. He will avoid the death penalty, said his attorney, David Sheldon.
Barker told military judge Lt. Col. Richard Anderson that 21-year-old former Army private Steve Green approached him with a plan to attack the family as they drank whiskey purchased from Iraqi soldiers.
"He brought it up to me and asked me what I thought about it," Barker said. "By the time we started changing clothes, it was more or less a nonverbal agreement that we were going to go along with what we were discussing."
The plea agreement calls for Barker to serve at least life in prison. Anderson was expected to decide in a hearing Thursday whether Barker should be allowed to seek parole.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8377
Idaho town asks residents to own guns
By Jesse Harlan Alderman / Associated Press
GREENLEAF, Idaho - After seeing the chaos of Hurricane Katrina, a city councilor in this tiny Idaho town founded by pacifist Quakers came up with a novel idea.
Ordinance 208, passed by the City Council on Tuesday, asks Greenleaf's 862 residents who do not object on religious or other grounds to keep a gun at home in case they are overrun by refugees from the Gulf Coast.
"This is not an 'it'll never happen here kind of thing,'" said Steven Jett, the ordinance's sponsor. "We could get refugees."
In this town about 35 miles west of Boise near the Oregon line — where an estimated 80 percent of the adults already own guns — the proposal hardly caused a stir: It went through weeks of public hearings and drew only mild criticism from the pastor of the town's Quaker meeting house.
But in the six weeks since Jett first introduced the ordinance, national media have flocked to the story.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8375
C.I.A. Tells of Bush’s Directive on the Handling of Detainees
By David Johnston / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 — The Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged for the first time the existence of two classified documents, including a directive signed by President Bush, that have guided the agency’s interrogation and detention of terror suspects.
The C.I.A. referred to the documents in a letter sent Friday from the agency’s associate general counsel, John L. McPherson, to lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union.
The contents of the documents were not revealed, but one of them is “a directive signed by President Bush granting the C.I.A. the authority to set up detention facilities outside the United States and outlining interrogation methods that may be used against detainees,” the A.C.L.U. said, based on its review of published accounts.
The second document, according to the group, is a Justice Department legal analysis “specifying interrogation methods that the C.I.A. may use against top Al Qaeda members.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8369
The Cheney Observer
I am not sure how the Jewish nation entered into this except to say, the writer wasn't aware of the munitions that were gotten by Iraqi forces illegally and through the demise of the Iraqi Central Forces through abandonment on a regular basis. AWOL is the way the USA military classifies it.
It's interesting to realize Cooper is former CIA? Really, Anderson? Filming action by government operatives is easy for you then. I was wondering what the love affair was with CNN, now it's obvious, ties to secrets the government has and access besides. That is why it dove head first into 'security issues' - thought they could make a big splash.
I see.
Well, I guess Aaron knew long ago he didn't have ties to the government and the handwriting was on the wall so to speak. You know it's a darn shame the way CNN became part of the government rather than an agency for people who really care about corruption and power. It will be interesting to see if Cooper can dig the dirt on the Democrats now, he certainly didn't do anything to hurt the Republicans.Israeli Snipers Killing U.S. Troops in Iraq?
Anderson Cooper of CNN showed this video
(without the rifle info) of snipers killing U.S. troops in Iraq on his October 18, 2006 show. CNN says it obtained the video from a “representative” of an unnamed “insurgent leader.” Bear in mind that Anderson Cooper used [yea, ‘used to work’ haha]] to work for the CIA.
Richard Wilson’s hypothesis: Israeli soldiers and/or Mossad agents are killing our soldiers in Iraq in order to enrage American troops so that the slaughter continues.
Proof: At the very beginning of this video clip, you see a rifle with a video camera attached to it. This weapon is made by the Rafael company, an Israeli arms manufacturer, that also makes IEDs. If you watch the video all the way through, it explains how this rifle works. CNN stated that the camera used to film these shootings was not a mounted rifle camera. But as you watch the video, you see that with each shot fired, the camera recoils. That would only happen if it were mounted on the rifle. Why is this significant? Because this kind of rifle-camera is extremely sophisticated and not available to your average Iraqi insurgent. I mean, it’s not exactly an easily obtainable Saturday night special! Something this sophisticated points to Mossad.
Mossad is a master at false flag operations, e.g., Oklahoma City, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, the July 7, 2005 London bombings, the 9-11 attacks in New York, the assassination of the Prime Minister in Beirut, the stoking of Muslim riots in France last year, the bombing of the Hassan al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, etc.
http://www.truthring.org/?p=2729
And will the spin ever end. You know these news outfits that like Republicans over Democrats need to realize the nation made a decision to change. If they don't want to go there, they don't have to, but, they won't be received well or with respect. I believe the media and politicians are still treating the electorate as if they are still idiots and can be 'handled.' I don't recall Walter Cronkit every attempting to 'handle' his viewer or readers so much as just informing them with facts. There is always an underlying doctrine of trust and truth that people rely on and look for in news reporting, I would encourage everyone to build on that rather than trying to manipulate it.
Yoest made contradictory statements about public support for marriage bans -- both were wrong
Summary: On CNN, the Family Research Council's Charmaine Yoest falsely claimed that "every single time" a marriage initiative has appeared on the ballot, "it's passed with over 70 percent of the popular vote." The statement is wrong for two reasons. First, a same-sex marriage ban failed in Arizona in the midterm elections. Second, all of those that did pass did not get 70-percent support -- only two did. Yoest also falsely claimed that those that passed did so "resoundingly."
On the November 14 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, Charmaine Yoest, vice president for communications at the Family Research Council, falsely claimed that "every single time there's been a marriage initiative on the ballot across this country, it's passed with over 70 percent of the popular vote." In fact, according to CNN, in 2006 alone, ballot initiatives banning marriage rights for same-sex couples passed by over 70 percent of the popular vote in only two states -- Tennessee (81 percent in favor to 19 percent opposed) and South Carolina (78 percent in favor to 22 percent opposed) -- of the eight in which they were on the ballot. Moreover, it is not true that "every single" initiative passed -- the Arizona initiative failed altogether (51 percent to 49 percent).
Yoest appeared to acknowledge the failure of the marriage initiative in Arizona immediately before making her claim about the level of support "every single" initiative received, saying that "[s]even out of eight of the ballot initiatives on marriage in this last election passed resoundingly." She did not explain or reconcile her reversal. And even that statement -- that those that passed did so "resoundingly" -- was false.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200611150018
A Long Way Down
By Art BuchwaldThursday, November 16, 2006; Page C03
I was walking down K Street three days after the election. I noticed several people leaning out windows.
I asked a fireman standing on the sidewalk what was going on. He said, "They are all Republican lobbyists, and now that the election is over they're jumping out of the windows."
I said, "I thought Republican lobbyists had safety nets."
"Some do and some don't. The lobbyists have been in their offices so long they never thought that someday the Democrats would push them out."
I said, "None of us thought that the lobbyists would take the election so hard."
The fireman replied, "It was their living. Companies paid large fortunes to have one of those guys, who are now jumping out the window, lobby for them."
I said, "Well, if they're jumping, who's taking their places?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600441.html
Lobbyist Abramoff starts jail sentence
JTA
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff has started his six-year jail term. Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to bribery charges, but his sentence was delayed until Wednesday so he could assist federal authorities investigating lawmakers and administration officials alleged to have taken his bribes.
An Orthodox Jew who allegedly diverted fraudulently obtained funds to favored Jewish charities, Abramoff sent his final e-mail to friends before dawn, when he left home to report to the prison.
"I have learned more lessons in the past three years than I have my whole life," he wrote, "and I am hoping that my family and I can see the good in G-d's plan for us during these times, and gain strength from it."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378418000&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Voters Demand End to Abramoff Era
I don't find myself agreeing with Washington, D.C.-based lobbyists on money in politics very often, let alone with the head of their trade association. But Paul Miller, the president of the American League of Lobbyists, hit the nail on the head when he told the Associated Press this weekend, "Let's not place the entire blame on lobbyists, so you can have a press conference, and then call us the next day and ask for campaign contributions."
Well, there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth. Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly argued that they are poised to break the link between lobbyists and lawmaking, but the real issue is breaking the link between lobbyists' money, especially the money they direct from their clients, and lawmaking.
The Democrats have proposed new House rules to get rid of meals and gifts from lobbyists to lawmakers, and some additional oversight on ethics. Don't get me wrong: It's all good. A ban on meals from lobbyists, for example, is a fine first step, and all Americans should see them as positive, though modest, moves.
http://www.alternet.org/story/44353/
US Spy Chief Warns of Long Commitment in Afghanistan
The head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency says it will take many years and billions of dollars to stabilize Afghanistan. And another official, the top U.S. military intelligence officer, adds that while the Taleban has sustained losses, it is still able to mount operations against Afghan and coalition forces.
CIA Director Michael Hayden gestures while testifying on Capitol Hill, Nov. 15, 2006 In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, CIA chief General Michael Hayden said Afghanistan will need sustained international help over an extended period to put the Kabul government on a solid footing to provide for its people.
"If you ask my view, it will take at least a decade and it will cost billions of dollars,” he said. “And I'll add one more time that the Afghan government will not be able to do it alone. The capacity of the government needs to be strengthened to deliver basic services to the population. And, of course, that begins with security."
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-11-15-voa78.cfm
Abramoff in with Dems? Former Colleagues Say No
By Paul Kiel - November 16, 2006, 2:32 PM "Abramoff Reports to Prison; Officials Focus on Reid, Others," was the headline of an ABC story yesterday reporting that Jack Abramoff, the convicted lobbyist, was dishing dirt on a handful of Democratic senators, Harry Reid (D-NV) in particular.
"Abramoff has offered testimony [to investigators] about his contacts with 'six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic senators,'" ABC News reported, citing "sources close to the federal investigation." One "source close to the investigation" told ABC that $30,000 in contributions to Reid from Abramoff's tribal clients "were no accident and were in fact requested by Reid."
The report was surprising, particularly given that in the thousands of pages of Abramoff's emails, billing records and other documents released over the past two years, there's little evidence that the Republican lobbyist or his team worked very hard to persuade Democratic lawmakers to support their clients, legally or illegally.
Curious to learn more, we called a number of Abramoff's former colleagues from his heyday at the Greenberg Traurig lobby firm to see how the story struck them.
"Jack has not met eight Democrats in Washington," one lobbyist told us.
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001997.php
Suit Filed In Scholarship Funding for Disabled, Foster Children
ARIZONA- Arizona's two new publicly funded scholarship programs are being defended from legal attack by the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter. The programs are designed to help especially vulnerable students-those with disabilities and those in foster care-secure quality educational opportunities in private schools.
A coalition of special interest groups have filed their legal challenge, skipping the trial court and asking for a resolution of the case by the Arizona Supreme Court.
"This is an unprecedented and unconscionable effort to block educational opportunities for our most vulnerable children," said Tim Keller, executive director of the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter, which will intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of parents who wish to use the new scholarship programs. "We will vigorously defend both programs and work to vindicate the rights of parents to secure a quality education that meets their children's needs."
Never before have scholarship programs benefiting special needs students been challenged in court. Arizona's $2.5 million program follows in the footsteps of successful programs in Florida (now serving more than 16,000 children) and Utah and a scholarship program for children with autism in Ohio. Research and experience show that special needs children in particular benefit from securing individualized educational environments that best suit their needs. Arizona's groundbreaking $2.5 million scholarship program for students who have been in foster care-the first of its kind in the nation-is designed to help students who often fall very far behind in school because of the disruptions to their lives, according to researchers.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/111506ArizonaFunding.html
Glenn Beck (CNN), neo-Stalinist
Want to see your fair, "mainstream" media at work? Wonder what happened to the old, namby-pamby "innocent until proved guilty" shtick?
Go watch this (via Media Matters, h/t Eschaton) at CNN, in which Glenn Beck, speaking to congressman-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), who just happens to be a Muslim, says:
"I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' " Beck added: "I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way." I am sorry, but in the good old days they fought duels over stuff like that. Even though Beck first asked if he could "have five minutes here where we're just politically incorrect", there is no justifcation for this utter crap. Could he have gotten away with something like this, even under the label of political incorrectness?
http://scatablog.blogspot.com/2006/11/glenn-beck-cnn-neo-stalinist.html
CNN's Beck to first-ever Muslim congressman:
"[W]hat I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies' "On the November 14 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Glenn Beck interviewed Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), who became the first Muslim ever elected to Congress on November 7, and asked Ellison if he could "have five minutes here where we're just politically incorrect and I play the cards up on the table." After Ellison agreed, Beck said: "I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' " Beck added: "I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way."
As Media Matters for America has noted, Beck previously warned that if "Muslims and Arabs" don't "act now" by "step[ping] to the plate" to condemn terrorism, they "will be looking through a razor wire fence at the West" and declared that "Muslims who have sat on your frickin' hands the whole time" rather than "lining up to shoot the bad Muslims in the head" will face dire consequences.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200611150004
Halliburton unit K-B-R debuts, rising from IPO price
HOUSTON I-P-O shares in Houston-based K-B-R today rose 22 percent to close at 20 dollars and 75 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.
The company earlier set a price of 17 dollars for the initial public offering.
Analysts say to understand K-B-R's successful debut -- look no further than its prospects for building more energy and petrochemical facilities around the world.
K-B-R netted nearly 445 (M) million dollars -- after fees -- by selling 27-point-eight (M) million shares in the I-P-O.
Houston-based Halliburton retained an 83 percent stake in the company.
http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=5694234
Supply data boosts energy sector to higher close
Halliburton Co. surges ahead of KBR Inc public offeringPrintE-mailDisable live quotesRSSDigg itDel.icio.usRelated Blog Posts & ArticlesBy Jasmina Kelemen, MarketWatchLast Update: 4:51 PM ET Nov 15, 2006
HOUSTON (MarketWatch) -- Oil and gas shares finished higher Wednesday after U.S. government data showed steep declines among gasoline and distillate supplies.The Amex Oil Index (XOI : amex oil index News , chart, profile, moreLast: 1,148.29-29.26-2.48%HAL32.51, -1.04, -3.1%) led the gainers, adding 4.6% to $33.55. Halliburton now expects the initial public offering for its KBR Inc. to be priced Wednesday night after a one-day delay to recirculate its IPO prospectus. This puts the KBR spin-off on track to make its stock market debut on Thursday. Calyon Securities praised the spin-off, shrugging off a disclosure from the company that it could lose a contract to maintain nuclear submarines in the U.K. because of a dispute with the British government over the IPO. "We continue to see significant value at KBR, and believe investors should remain focused on the energy and chemical unit's bright growth prospects in the liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids gas monetization markets," Calyon Securities said. Jasmina Kelemen is a MarketWatch reporter based in Houston.K-B-R is the engineering, services and construction unit of Halliburton,
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?siteid=mktw&guid=%7BD7D84006-90D8-41A1-950A-70F8CB2E85C0%7D
Halliburton outlook positive, was stable-Moody's
NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service on Thursday said it changed its rating outlook for Halliburton Co. (HAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to positive from stable, citing the company's initial public offering of its KBR Inc. (KBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) unit.
Shares of KBR, Halliburton's controversial engineering and military-services contract unit, rose more than 23 percent in their market debut on Thursday. For details, see [ID:nN16322212].
Halliburton holds a 'Baa1' senior long-term debt rating from Moody's, the third lowest investment grade rating.
A positive outlook means Moody's is likely to raise Halliburton's rating over the next 12 to 18 months.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-11-16T164918Z_01_N16406241_RTRIDST_0_ENERGY-HALLIBURTON-MOODYS.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna
KKR, Carlyle, 11 Others Accused of Rigging Buyouts (Update6)
By David Glovin and Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Carlyle Group and most other major U.S. buyout firms were accused in a shareholder lawsuit of illegally conspiring to drive down the prices they paid when taking companies private.
The suit was filed in Manhattan federal court by investors who claim they were shortchanged because the firms violated antitrust laws when they teamed up to make leveraged buyouts such as the $33 billion takeover of hospital chain HCA Inc., the largest LBO ever. The complaint seeks class-action status.
``Investors in the target company are deprived of the full economic value of their holdings and `squeezed out' at artificially low valuations,'' the suit says.
Private-equity firms, which have announced a record $425 billion of LBOs this year, are already the target of a U.S. Justice Department investigation into possible antitrust behavior. They've also come under fire in Europe and the U.S. for burying the companies they buy in debt while recouping their costs with dividends.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abj7g.LNjE9U&refer=home
Holders sue private equity firms over deals
By Anna DriverReutersWednesday, November 15, 2006; 3:28 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shareholders filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday against 13 private equity firms that alleges their investments were hurt when the buyout firms violated antitrust laws by conspiring to fix deal prices.
The lawsuit names big private equity firms, including the Carlyle Group, Texas Pacific Group Ventures Inc.
It claims the plaintiffs "were paid less for their equity shares that they sold to the private equity defendants and their co-conspirators than they would have been paid under conditions of free and open competition."
The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, cites news reports of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice "into potential collusion by large buyout firms."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501009.html
CIA PROBLEMS FOR BUSH?
Thursday, November 16, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com
President Bush's questionable policy dealings regarding the CIA are coming under increased scrutiny with a Democratic congress looming. The administration is fighting several lawsuits aimed at shedding more light on these dealings.
Recently, the administration asked a federal judge Tuesday to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Valerie Plame, former CIA operative, against Vice President Cheney and others accused of outing Plame as an agent, according to Reuters. The lawsuit, filed in July, names Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, Dick Cheney, and Richard Armitage. Justice Department lawyers said in their request that Cheney and other high-level officials have immunity because of their official positions. The request cites a Supreme Court decision that ruled officers of the Executive Branch are protected from personal liability in lawsuits that arise as a result of their official positions.
While Plame lawsuit hangs in the balance, the CIA acknowledged the existence Friday of two memos governing aggressive detention and interrogation policies for terrorism suspects, according to The Washington Post. One was sent from the Justice Department and the other from President Bush. The CIA, however, says the documents are so sensitive that no part of either can be released publicly.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit two years ago under the Freedom of Information Act seeking records related to U.S. interrogation and detention policies. The lawsuit has resulted in the release of 100,000 pages of documents. Other records have not been released and the existence of some has only been revealed in media reports. – JS
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=26565
Public to get a look at Libby documents
MSNBC 11-16-06Posted on 11/16/2006 11:04:12 PM PST by STARWISEFor the past few months all the public could know about the goings on during numerous closed-door hearings in Courtroom #16 were from one-line court filings indicating the proceedings were dealing with requests from I Lewis "Scooter" Libby - Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff - to include classified materials in his defense of perjury and obstructions charges in the CIA leak trial.Next month all that will change. Judge Walton will give the public a peek at the issues he has had to rule on concerning the thousands of classified document in question.(snip)...... but both the prosecutors and defense attorneys were mum on exactly what was going on. All the public knew from the filings was that it was a tense courtroom drama that was unfolding inside.The judge, in a ruling, acknowledged that he has been forced by law to keep the public out. He writes, "While this Court has strived to make the proceedings in this action as transparent as possible, because the defendant seeks to introduce at trial evidence that is currently classified, this Court has been required to close to the public may proceedings and seal a substantial number of pleadings."In today’ ruling, Walton ordered the CIA and Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to begin a review of classified court filings and transcripts of closed hearings related to requests by I Libby, who is seeking to introduce certain classified documents at trial.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1740111/posts
U.S. Lawyers: Libby May Have Disclosed Iraq Secrets
By JOSH GERSTEINStaff Reporter of the SunNovember 17, 2006A former White House aide, I. Lewis Libby, may have disclosed conclusions from a highly classified government report on Iraq to journalists before the report was declassified by President Bush, federal prosecutors said in a new court filing.Mr. Libby resigned as chief of staff to Vice President Cheney when he was indicted last year on obstruction of justice and perjury charges in connection with an investigation into the leak of the identity of a CIA official, Valerie Plame.The special prosecutor who oversaw the probe, Patrick Fitzgerald, has not charged Mr. Libby or anyone else for participating in the leak. It emerged recently that the first public account of Ms. Plame's employment, in a 2003 column by Robert Novak, was triggered by comments from a State Department official, Richard Armitage.Attorneys for Mr. Libby have asked that the prosecution be precluded from arguing at trial that Mr. Libby acted improperly or illegally when he discussed a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq with the press. The issue ties into the criminal case because in some of the conversations about the estimate, Mr. Libby is alleged to have mentioned Ms. Plame or answered a question about her.
http://www.nysun.com/article/43724
The Architect's Faulty Specs
Rove believed in his metrics. He miscalculated. How did Bush's guru get the numbers so wrong?Charles Ommanney / Contact for NewsweekChecking the Numbers: Rove thought the GOP would hold onBy Richard WolffeNewsweekNov. 20, 2006 issue - President Bush knew he was in for a rough night. As he settled down in front of the TV in the White House residence to watch the election results, the numbers were already grim. By 8 p.m., long before the polls closed out west, Bush realized it was over. "It looks like this is going to be a rout," he lamented to a handful of aides.Downstairs in the West Wing, Karl Rove wasn't ready to concede anything. The president's political architect believed the GOP could hold on to slender majorities in the House and the Senate. He had history on his side: in 2004 he refused to believe the early exit polls while everyone else was resigned to defeat. This time he was convinced his numbers would come through again. But even Rove's optimism finally cracked when he took a gloomy call from an old friend working for Rep. Clay Shaw in Florida. Shaw won re-election two years ago by a 28-point margin; last week he was heading to a four-point defeat. At 11:01 p.m., Rove made the long walk to the residence. "We're losing the House," he told Bush. The president let out a long sigh and went to bed.How did the man they call Bush's brain get it so wrong?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15675318/site/newsweek/
One Last Thing
Election Day's numbers reveal political landscapeBy Jonathan Lastfor the InquirerElections are clarifying moments when the rhetoric and theory of politics are stripped away and concrete facts, in the form of vote totals, are exposed for all to see. This week's election clarified a number of things. What follows are a few of them, in descending order of importance.Was there a Democratic wave? Yes. Nationally speaking, it wasn't a realigning election. Essentially, the country is still evenly divided. But a wave election is one in which incumbents who would normally win handily are suddenly defeated. As I predicted in September, Indiana's 2d, 8th and 9th districts and Pennsylvania's 6th, 7th and 8th were the bellwethers. Democrats took five of these six reasonably conservative Republican seats. Look around the map, and you find races such as the Iowa 2d, where Democrat Dave Loebsack came from nowhere to defeat 15-term incumbent Rep. Jim Leach. Or the Kansas 2d, where Democrat Nancy Boyda sprinted past Republican incumbent Jim Ryun. How big was the wave? In 2004, Ryun beat Boyda 56 percent to 41 percent.The wave crested in Virginia, too, where George Allen ran 8 points behind the state's Marriage Amendment on his way to defeat. (Welcome to the real America, senator!) The amendment banning gay marriage passed comfortably. Allen supported it; Jim Webb opposed it.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/special_packages/sunday_review/15989189.htm
By Rove's math, loss by GOP adds up to some marginal factors
By PETER BAKER Washington Post11/12/2006
WASHINGTON - For a man still climbing out of the rubble, Karl Rove seemed in his usual unflappable mood. He roamed his windowless West Wing office decorated with four Abraham Lincoln portraits, joking with his staff, stuffing copies of the Iliad and the Odyssey into his bag and signing the last paperwork of the day. The Architect, as President Bush once called him, has a theory for why the building fell down. "Get me the one-pager!" he cried out to an aide, who promptly delivered a single sheet of paper that has been updated almost hourly since the midterm elections with a series of statistics and historical facts explaining that the "thumping" Bush took was not such a thumping after all. The theory is this: The building's infrastructure is actually quite sound. Bad luck and seasonal shifts in the winds - complacent candidates combined with an ill-timed congressional page scandal involving former Rep. Mark A. Foley of Florida - blew out the walls. But the foundation is fine: "The Republican philosophy is alive and well and likely to re-emerge in the majority in 2008." Rove's brand of politics aims to sharpen differences with the opposition, energize the conservative base and micro-target voters to pick off selected parts of the other side's constituency. As he has in past elections, he designed a strategy this year to paint Democrats as weak on national security and terrorism, the "party of cut and run."
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061112/1008873.asp
Clinton Previews Democrats Agressive New Agenda
November 13, 2006
Following last week's big win for the Democrats, Senator Hillary Clinton previewed an aggressive new national agenda while speaking in Midtown Monday. Clinton says Democrats are calling for new policies on energy, taxes, Medicare, education and Social Security. She also said President Bush missed crucial opportunities to unite the country and had harsh words for his top strategist. "After 9/11, the president could have united our country and been re-elected by 65, 70 percent of the vote. And that was not the road they chose. Karl Rove's theory is you just take your base and you expand your base, and you basically just roll over everybody who gets in your way," she said. "And what happened in this election, again getting back to evidence and performance, is people gave them a report card and the report card was, 'you are not meeting our expectations.' " Clinton also said she still hasn't made a decision about a run for the White House in 2008, but she did say now that Election Day has past, she will think about it.
November 13, 2006
Elephant Autopsy
Filed under: Bush Administration, Karl Rove, Republican Party — maha @ 10:54 pm
Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press reports that Sen.
Mel Martinez of Florida will replace Ken Mehlman as chair of the Republican National Committee.
Martinez started slowly in the Senate where he was embarrassed by a one-page unsigned memo that originated in his office.
Written by a Martinez aide and disavowed by Senate Republicans, the memo laid out the political benefits to getting involved in the fate of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman whose end-of-life battle became a rallying cry for conservatives.“This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue,” said the memo. Its author resigned.A quick cruise around the rightie blogs tells me “the base” is way underwhelmed.
They’re pissed because Martinez, who immigrated from Cuba in 1962, is a moderate on immigration. Allahpundit:Hot Air commenters agree: it’s an awful pick, transparently aimed at appealing to pro-amnesty Hispanic voters. If the GOP goes ahead and puts Boehner and Blunt back in place in the minority leadership, you’re looking at a very dire electoral situation in 2008.
John Aravosis of AMERICAblog:
It’s probably no surprise that the GOP chose someone anti-gay after rumors had swirled for years about the exact sexual orientation of outgoing RNC chair Ken Mehlman
(Mehlman publicly avoided the question for years).
But even more interesting is that a top staffer on Martinez’s Senate campaign, Kirk Fordham, was also the former chief of staff to child sex predator ex-congressman Mark Foley. Foley represented Florida in the House.
Martinez represents Florida in the Senate.I’m just saying…I’m saying the Republicans are flapping around like a headless chicken. And who is in charge these days, anyway? President Bush is still, I assume, the official head of the party, but he’s a head that few seem to be following at the moment. Even the VRWC media machine is abandoning him.
The Bush cult of personality appears to be evaporating rapidly, which is a good thing. But the Republicans have invested everything in Bush for the past six years, and now their investment is deflating like a failed soufflé. What are they going to do?
More post-election commentary — Chuck Todd writes,When a political party gets shellacked, the intra-party feud becomes dominated by the base, not the moderates. The base will swear, in this case, that the party needed more true-blue conservatives running, or that it should have been more conservative in its congressional governance. And then these losses would have been avoided.
http://www.mahablog.com/2006/11/13/elephant-autopsy/
Pissing in the Liberal Punchbowl -- Again: The Democratic Conga Line in the American House of Lords
by Joe Bageant
www.dissidentvoice.org
November 14, 2006 “Saw the talking heads today, speaking the priestly tongue. Saw them nodding seriously, using words like 'gravitas' and a few others that originated in the bosom of Americana. Heard one of the newly elected basically state that things would be business as usual, don't expect a lot of changes. Rather scornfully and testily the idea of impeaching W was dismissed. Well, why the hell not? No answer, just the satisfied, mildly contemptuous smile. Oh, yes, and there'll be a lot of 'bipartisan' things going on.”--
Key Bugle, internet denizen, retired army sergeantDemocrats are dancing around the head of Donald Rumsfeld like a scene from Lord of the Flies, heating up the tar buckets and plucking the goose in eager, nay, wild anticipation. Personally, I love the smell of tar and feathers in the morning and am quite willing to march on the White House as we speak. I like revenge as well as the next guy. But I also consider myself a compassionate man, one perfectly willing to let Bush's cabinet choose whether they wanna play the mommy or the daddy in the Big House, then move on to the real problems, such as the fact that a gallon of Old Grandad is nearly 50 bucks here in Virginia, or the fact that we are still a nation of people, half of whom were happy to elect a bunch of war criminals -- TWICE! -- and still are.Ah, but lo and beshit, the Democrats have rescued us. If you can call running around like chickens with their heads up their asses while the Republicans did what they always do -- get caught stealing the national silverware, while bombing the hell out of some miserable piece of dirt as a distraction, thereby self-destructing in 12 years as usual, but getting obscenely rich in the process.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov06/Bageant14.htm
Gerrymandering Only Good When Your Party Is The One In Power!
Several background news stories coming on the heals of the 2006 midterms point out the significant gains in the number of seats won by democrats within different state governments across the country. The stories point to the advantage that these new gains play in future redistricting of congressional and legislative districts, within a particular state, and how it could work as an advantage for the party at the state level in future elections. The premise, of many of these reports being, that democrats would redistrict or “gerrymander” to strengthen the likelihood of a congressional or legislative district containing more voters favorable to democrat ideas and candidates and reducing the likelihood of the voters, within the new districts, voting for a republican or independent.
http://artistdogboy.blogspot.com/2006/11/gerrymandering-only-good-when-your.html
One NationMassachussetts Liberal.
The Left Coast. Red State, Blue state… Whatever happened to the United States? One of the things I found most confounding about the former Republican majority was the willingness to turn one region against another. While such a divided strategy did wonders for politicans in times past and Republicans in recent history, is there much good or sense to it now? I don’t believe so.
The typical vision people have of Texans is typically false. Texans, by a wide margin, are urban. Eight out of ten, as a matter of fact. The TRMPAC strategy, which got Tom DeLay indicted and replaced by a Democrat, infamously extended different districts out in all directions from cities, quartering liberal Austin, creating a district that extended from Beaumont to Houston, and another nicknamed "The District That Ate Houston", which surrounds the east of Houston and then extends out on another one of the typical 100 mi plus ribbons.
http://www.watchblog.com/democrats/archives/004459.html
Bush hails Senate passage of nuke deal
Friday, November 17, 2006 06:49:47 amThe US Senate debates the US-India civilian nuclear cooperation agreement on Friday (November 17, India time) US President George W. Bush has hailed the Senate passage of a landmark civilian nuclear deal with India, saying it would bring the country into the "non-proliferation mainstream."
"As India's economy continues to grow, this partnership will help India meet its energy needs without increasing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions,” President Bush said.
The US Senate on Thursday (November 16, Washington DC) approved long-stalled legislation that moves toward opening the door to US India nuclear cooperation for the first time in three decades.
The vote was 85 to 12 after the Republican-controlled Senate defeated a handful of amendments, including the Feingold and the Boxer amendments that would have wrecked the deal, forced renegotiation or made the implementation stage quite difficult.
In the marathon debate lasting over 10 hours, the US Senate took up 6 proposed amendments to the Indo-US Nuclear deal. The Senate rejected all but one amendment – the latter proposed by Democratic Senator Barack Obama limiting supplies of nuclear fuel to India as per its requirements.
http://www.timesnow.tv/Sections/World/Bush_hails_Senate_passage_of_nuke_deal/articleshow/461558.cms
VOLPAC Voter Survey: Senator Frist Prioritizes
If you want to influence the agenda of this lame duck Congress and help current Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist choose the issues that he will focus his Presidential 2008 campaign....take a second and let your priorities be known in this survey.
http://trumanstake.blogspot.com/2006/11/volpac-voter-survey-senator-frist.html
Background checks for staff in portsMinister hopes to foil terrorists
Screening too limited: SenatorNov. 17, 2006. 01:00 AMMONTREAL—Background checks of port workers are being phased in across Canada to help prevent terrorist attacks, the federal government announced.Marine workers who have access to restricted areas and who perform "certain duties" will need security clearance, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said yesterday.The background checks will apply also to marine pilots, wharf operators, security personnel and seafarers. They will undergo a criminal check, a CSIS security assessment and a check of the applicant's immigration and citizenship status."What we want ... is to make sure that we do not permit somebody who is a known terrorist, or somebody who has some sort of a known association with a terrorist group, to have that kind of authorization to go into these areas," said Cannon.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1163717412447&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467
UMass set to make good on pay hikes
Thursday, November 16, 2006By FRED CONTRADAf
contrada@repub.com
AMHERST - The University of Massachusetts has vowed to give back what Gov. W. Mitt Romney has taken away by funding $14.6 million in retroactive pay increases for its employees out of its own reserves, if necessary.
The money for the pay increases was supposed to have come from the state but was part of $425 million that Romney cut last week, using his emergency fiscal powers. Romney said his action was necessary to balance the $25.7 billion state budget.
Democrats have called it a political move by the Republican governor to burnish his conservative resume for a possible presidential run.
http://www.masslive.com/metrowest/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1163668769263470.xml&coll=1
Wind farm players read political tea leavesBy Craig Salters/
csalters@cnc.com
Thursday, November 16, 2006 - Updated: 03:46 PM EST
While last week’s election clearly established the state’s next governor - for those readers still thawing out from a cryogenic freeze, the winner was Deval Patrick - it didn’t establish what’s best for Nantucket Sound, according to opponents of a wind farm proposed for the area. "This election was not a referendum on Cape Wind," said Charles Vinick, president and CEO of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, a leading critic of Cape Wind Associates’ plan to construct 130 wind turbines in the Sound. Vinick said Patrick, the first gubernatorial candidate to support the wind farm publicly, enjoyed strong support from the entire state and didn’t ride the coattails of just one issue to victory.
http://www2.townonline.com/barnstable/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=617196
Mitt Romney to attend anti-marriage equality rally
Thursday, November 16, 2006
On his knees for the 2008 fundie vote, outgoing Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will appear at a rally at the State House to demand that the legislature vote on a marriage amendment initiative.
The likely GOP prez candidate is of the mind that civil rights should be determined at the ballot box, and hasn't gotten the memo sent by voters (who just elected a governor, Deval Patrick, who supports marriage equality). Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, said the fight won't be over until the people vote.
"Legislators made a serious miscalculation," he said. "Their action strikes at the very heart of democracy. No matter how you may feel about the marriage issue, people have a right to participate in their own government."
Arline Isaacson of the Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus said Romney is using a rally for a lost cause to boost his prospects with conservatives as he weighs a presidential run.
"We're done, we won, it's over," Isaacson said. "No one wants this to continue except for the zealots on the other side and Romney because it helps his race." Romney can't force the legislature back intp session, so this is another PR stunt. You folks in Massachusetts have to be glad this clown is leaving. Too bad he'll be foisting himself on the rest of us.
Also:* More bad news for Mitt as he sucks up to the fundies
http://www.pamspaulding.com/weblog/2006/11/mitt-romney-to-attend-anti-marriage.html
continued ...
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