At any rate there is a lot happening, mostly amusing, I think.
The New York Times believes Bush is prevailing in calling Russia the worst country on the face of the Earth. The fact of the matter remains that Russia is still more correct than any nation of The West. They were correct about Iraq and voted to stop Bush's illegal invasion at the UN Security Council and they are correct in this instance when the Russian President Putin states the USA is escalating a dangerous arms build up between nations, including the USA and Russia.
Russia has recently authorized something like $193 billion (US) for retooling their military. That to me is serious muscle flexing. The USA under Bush has insulted every nation on Earth and assaulted several with threats of 'Overwhelming Force' while illegally invading at least one. The Russians are correct and you'll hear nothing else from me. When countries dedicate monies to arming themselves there is less and less available for domestic programs. When there is less and less for domestic programs there is absolutely no reason for The West to be pointing fingers at preceived 'quality of life' issues.
Besides, the obvious "Who's afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf" routine by Bush in his rhetoric; muscle flexing and ranting about Russia takes away focus at the G-8 from Bush's environmental atrocities. Russia has never been more correct and let's face it, Russia is Russia. I do believe this is the second time in a century I am grateful for that fact. It was only a couple of years ago that Sergey wrote an Op-Ed in The New York Times touting all the progress The West and Russia was making.
What happened?
Just that simple. What happened to the relationship between the USA and Russia? Answer that and you'll understand more and more why Bush and Cheney need to be impeached. The curious question is why the American media hasn't come to the defense of the USA Constitution by demanding the impeachment of this administration. Couldn't be oppression, now could it? So much for the Russians.
Administration Rebukes Putin on His Policies (click here)
top Russia expert at the State Department described the Kremlin as bullying its neighbors while silencing opponents and suppressing individual rights at home
By THOM SHANKER
Published: June 1, 2007
WASHINGTON, May 31 — A top Russia expert at the State Department issued an unusually sharp public criticism on Thursday of Moscow’s behavior under President Vladimir V. Putin, describing the Kremlin as bullying its neighbors while silencing political opponents and suppressing individual rights at home.
The comments, approved by the White House, are the latest volley of criticism between Washington and Moscow in recent days. Although the White House said this week that President Bush would play host to Mr. Putin on July 1 at the Bush family compound in Maine, the speech is likely to add tension at a time when the broader dialogue between Washington and Moscow is already taking the most caustic tones since the collapse of communism.
“We do no one any favors, least of all the Russian people and even their government, by abstaining from speaking out when necessary,” the Russia expert, David Kramer, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said in a speech Thursday night before the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs.
The speech came a day after Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia accused the United States of fomenting a dangerous new arms race and implicitly threatened to block any effort by the United States and Europe to win broader diplomatic recognition for Kosovo. On Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a scholar of Russian affairs, used a speech in Potsdam, Germany, to describe the American-Russian relationship as one of “cooperation and competition, of friendship and friction.”...
This is a darn shame. There needs to be a rescue effort to preserve newsprint. Period. I find it offensive that a long standing USA newspaper, one of esteem is considering a sale to an Australian. If I were the Bancrofts I would probably insist on a huge 'payoff' for the stock, so much so that is would put NewsCorp direly in 'the red ink' and then turn around and open a new publication devoid of fiscal problems and 'baggage.' That's what I would do in such a hostile business environment as created by the Bush White House and their 'liquidity' brokers. Then I'd sit back and watch my new newspaper grow in popularity and sales while NewsCorp sinks into 'bottom line red ink.'
Dow Jones Says It Will Consider Options for Sale (click here)
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
The family that controls Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, announced yesterday that it would consider selling the company, ending more than a century of family ownership.
The announcement came after the family, the Bancrofts, said that it was willing to meet with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, just weeks after the family rejected a $5 billion takeover offer from Mr. Murdoch.
Mr. Murdoch requested a personal meeting with the Bancrofts weeks ago, saying that he wanted his family and theirs to become acquainted. Until yesterday, there had been no reply to that overture.
In early trading today, shares of the company were up 14 percent, to nearly $61 a share, indicating that investors are predicting a higher offer than the initial $60-a-share bid. The stock, which traded above $70 in 2000, was trading around $36 in late April, which was after Mr. Murdoch made his bid, but before it became public on May 1. After news of the offer, the share price rose to $58.47. It closed yesterday at $53.31.
The decision represents a remarkable about-face for both the company and Mr. Murdoch’s bid. A successful deal would mean a huge victory for Mr. Murdoch, the Australian media mogul, and new ownership for The Wall Street Journal, the second-largest newspaper in the country by circulation and one of the great names in American journalism....
In regard to the 'priviledged' of the USA, Libby is willing to do some community service. His supporters say, "Don't cry for me Scooter Libby..."
Yes, indeed, 'hard time' for the man that outed a CIA agent while defaming her and her spouse providing 'the pathway' to an illegal war in Iraq. Somehow, Community Service and an ankle braclet just doesn't fit the crime.
Supporters plead for Libby (click here)
Many letters ask that he not be jailed, his lawyers say.
By Matt Apuzzo
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Former White House and State Department officials and military commanders are supporting former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as he asks a federal judge to spare him prison time in the CIA leak case.
Prosecutors want Libby to serve up to three years in prison for lying about his conversations with reporters regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, whose 2003 outing touched off a leak investigation.
A prison term would be unfair, Libby's lawyers said yesterday. Citing numerous letters from former colleagues and friends, they said Libby deserved only probation.
Michael Moore makes 'the big time.' I am sincerely happy for him. Mike has found a subject near and dear to the nation if not the world and is now basking in a spotlight that has momentum and clout.
Oprah?
Oprah and Michael Moore. You go, boy ! But, seriously, Michael. This level of respect has been a long time coming and you deserve every measure of it. Congratulations.
Start the Revolution with Him (click here)
Best-selling author, groundbreaking filmmaker, and America's favorite provocateur Michael Moore likes books that bite, fight, shake up your world, and challenge your mind.
In the early seventies, I joined a book-of-the-month club, and one of the selections I read was The Greening of America, by Charles A. Reich. That book and another called Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler, presented an incredible vision for what our country could be. I believe things have gotten worse since then, but I'm not a cynic. I hope people get that through my work. Even though I'm highly critical of certain aspects of American culture, I believe things are going to get better.
I want Americans to realize that we are the owners of this country, and that one person can make a difference. I don't have a college education. I didn't know a thing about making a movie when I started Roger and Me. I made a lot of mistakes. But these two books and others on this list said to me—and I hope they say this to other people—"You know what? You actually can make a difference. Don't believe the lie you've been told, that you can't fight city hall or that you're not worth something. You're worth more than anything."
I've believed this for a long time. When I speak at schools, I say to the kids, "Keep in mind that you live in a country where the heads of GM or GE have the same number of votes that you do: one. And there are more of us than there are of them." If we operate with that idea, the people—we, the people—will have the kind of country we want.
I am always complaining about the lack of focus of the scientific community regarding the 'enhanced' dangers in Human Induced Global Warming and the KNOWN properties of water, humidity and the capacity of water to retain and distribute heat. Right? If you read thsi blog regularly I am always mentioning the relationship between carbon dioxide and water molecules, the 'hydrology' of Human Induced Global Warming. Well, guess what? Someone caught on.
The thing about this is, that people/public will be confused, because on one hand here is a study that predicts large amounts of rainfall, but, they are experiencing in many cases 'drought.' The issue is not that one 'reality' is different and contradictory from the other so much as a complete picture of the ravages of this new Earth phenomena.
Human Induced Global Warming has never been a part of Earth's past. I have stated repeatedly 'that fact' as well. While many attempt to extract an understanding of these dynamics from Earth's past when it's core was hotter and volcanoes caused extremes in CO2 content, the 'realities' of this phenomena as we are experiencing it now, was never predicted by scientists because it was never predictable. We need to stop and reverse this deadly trend of Earth. Humans caused the phenomena, humans have it within their grasp to reverse it.
Besides the esteemed National Geographic article below there is this link which demonstrates the widespread concern of this issue.
http://www.inform.kz/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=152151
Global Warming Models Underpredict Increase in Rainfall, Study Says (click here)
Anne Minard
for National Geographic News
May 31, 2007
The world will be getting hotter, according to many climate models. But it might also be getting unexpectedly wetter.
That's the finding of a new study by Frank Wentz and colleagues at the research company Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) in Santa Rosa, California.
Wentz's team analyzed satellite data from the past 20 years to show that as global temperatures have risen, precipitation has kept pace.
The results fly in the face of many of the world's most sophisticated climate models, which predict that worldwide rainfall will increase at a much slower rate than temperatures.
(See a map of predicted effects of global warming.)
The findings also cast doubt on the ability of climate models to accurately predict precipitation on regional scales.
The study appears in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.
Missing the Mark
The researchers compared satellite climate data going back to 1987—when such records were first kept—to data from current computer climate models.
The work marks one of the first tests of the models' accuracy predicting rainfall, the team says.
Computers have done a decent job predicting temperature over the years, but have not done as well predicting moisture.
In general, the authors say, computers tend to underestimate amounts of rain and snowfall....
U.S. military deaths in Iraq (click here)
As of Thursday, at least 3,473 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The latest deaths reported by the military:
* One soldier died Tuesday after a roadside bomb attack northwest of Baghdad.
* Two soldiers were killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Baghdad.
The latest identifications reported by the military:
* Army Pfc. Robert A. Liggett, 23, Urbana, Ill., died Tuesday in Rustamiyah in a non-combat related incident.
* Two soldiers died Tuesday in Ilbu Falris of wounds from an explosive. Killed were Army Staff Sgt. Joseph M. Weiglein, 31, Audubon, N.J., and Army Sgt. Richard V. Correa, 25, Honolulu.
-- The Associated Press
If Turkey starts attacks in northen Iraq, it won't end until Turkey has eliminated the Kurds enough to secure their oil reserves. This is not to be considered a viable solution to current tensions. It escalates the war in Iraq and places all in harm's way in a different way. This most probably will destablize any progress in negotitations with Iran as well. Turkey needs to work with the established Kurdish authorities in Iraq to bring about an understanding.
Turkey Attack in Iraq May Impact Economy (click here)
Friday June 1, 2007 7:16 PM
AP Photo ANK111, ANK114
By SELCAN HACAOGLU
Associated Press Writer
HABUR BORDER CROSSING, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's government is pondering an attack on Kurdish separatists based in northern Iraq, raising fears among people along the frontier that military action will scuttle cross-border trade and wreck the region's rejuvenated economy.
The economic fallout could be huge: The value of goods passing through this border crossing each year is more than $10 billion.
``This border is my only hope,'' said truck driver Suleyman Gidim, who was ferrying gasoline to U.S. troops in Iraq and has a family of seven to feed.
The Turkish military has been massing troops along the porous border, where separatist rebels cross from safe havens in Iraq to stage attacks in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey.
Residents on the Turkish side of the border fear the economic boom set off in the region after the invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led forces four years ago could evaporate if the Turkish army attacks the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is known by its Kurdish initials, PKK.
...and on the Peace Activist front...
National Women’s Group Fights War With the Color Pink (click here)
BY Tamara Bartlett
Daily Cal Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
For most, the color pink may be associated with spring flowers or newborn baby girls.
But for members of the women’s peace organization Code Pink, the color pink stands as a symbol for ending the war in Iraq.
“(We’re) reclaiming pink as a powerful women’s peace color,” said Zanne Joi, a Code Pink organizer and activist in the San Francisco Bay Area chapter.
Code Pink, a grassroots women’s peace organization, was started five years ago after the U.S. government issued the Homeland Security Advisory System, which color-coded threat levels within the U.S.
A group of women created their own color code by developing Code Pink as “a call to women all over the world to step forward, take over and to work for peace,” Joi said.
Among the group’s activities, Code Pink’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter is involved in Pelosi Watch, an event held on the weekends in which participants camp out in front of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Ca) San Francisco residence in an effort to urge Pelosi to take a strong stance against the war....
...until tomorrow...
