Paulson defends open trade, investment as keys to US economic growth UPDATE
08.07.07, 4:03 PM ET
(Updates to recast, add details and quotes)
BILLINGS, Mont. (Thomson Financial) - US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today defended his 'good cop' approach to China on trade and foreign exchange policy and said the anti-China currency bills now being considered in Congress would only hurt US economic prospects in the coming years.
Paulson was appearing with Montana's Democratic Senator Max Baucus -- who chairs one of two Senate committees that have just approved separate bills that could lead to a range of sanctions against China, including increased tariffs against imports unless China revalues its currency.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/08/07/afx3995891.html



Around the Markets: China's reserves become subject of political debate
By Christina Soon Bloomberg News
Published: August 9, 2007
BEIJING: The idea that Beijing might use its $1.33 trillion currency reserves as a bargaining chip in trade talks with Washington is unsettling markets. While no decision maker has raised that possibility, a top government researcher said in an interview Thursday that China should consider the move after some U.S. senators threatened trade sanctions on Chinese imports.
"Using them as a bargaining chip isn't something that can't be considered in response to some silly U.S. senators," Xia Bin, director of financial research at the State Council Development Research Center said. He noted that he was only giving his own opinions and that they did not represent the views of the State Council, China's cabinet.
President George W. Bush said Wednesday that China would be foolhardy to dump its U.S. Treasury holdings. Beijing is the second-largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, with $407 billion worth. Sales of dollar holdings would erode the value of China's reserves and accelerate gains in the yuan, which has climbed 9.4 percent since a fixed exchange rate ended in July 2005.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/09/bloomberg/sxasia.php



Paulson defends open trade, investment as keys to US economic growth
08.07.07, 2:45 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today defended an open US trade and investment regime, and said protectionist measures like those being considered in Congress against China would only hurt US economic prospects in the coming years.
In remarks before a forum on community jobs in Billings, Montana, Paulson reiterated the administration position that increasing trade protectionism is a 'worrisome trend' that threatens to reduce jobs and income in Montana and other states.

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/08/07/afx3995566.html



China's Trade Surplus Is Second-Highest on Record (Update4)
By Nipa Piboontanasawat
Henry Paulson, U.S. treasury secretary, in Beijing
Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- China's trade surplus surged 67 percent in July to the second-highest on record, bolstering U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's case for a faster appreciation of the yuan.
The gap widened to $24.4 billion from $14.6 billion a year earlier, the General Administration of Customs said today on its Web site. That was more than the $23.1 billion median estimate of 18 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
A stronger currency would ease tensions with the U.S. and curb the flood of export cash that may stoke inflation and asset bubbles. Paulson told Chinese leaders in Beijing last week to raise the currency's value without delay and the Senate Finance Committee has approved legislation to press for faster gains.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMsLiMIptz04&refer=home



Workers beat back Waste Management's challenge
by Marilyn Bechtel via PWW
Friday Aug 10th, 2007 7:19 AM
OAKLAND, Calif. — Residents and businesses here and in neighboring cities heaved a collective sigh of relief this week as garbage workers returned to work July 30 at Waste Management of Alameda County, proud that with support from other unions and the community they had turned back a corporate giant’s all-out union-busting drive.
Within the first couple of days, neighborhoods where “replacement workers” had left garbage rotting for weeks were suddenly trash-free again.
Nearly four weeks after the company locked out 481 drivers represented by Teamsters Local 70, the drivers overwhelmingly approved a new five-year contract, 363-3. The new pact preserves health care benefits the company had challenged. New safety regulations preserve workers’ right to appeal alleged violations, a right the company also challenged. A no-strike, no-lockout clause in the contract upholds the union’s right to honor other unions’ picket lines. The pact also provides for yearly raises.
Union and management both expressed appreciation for the persistent work of Oakland Mayor Ronald Dellums, who spent countless hours helping to mediate the talks.
“The best thing to emerge from the situation is being able to defeat Waste Management’s effort to drive its anti-union agenda,” Chuck Mack, Local 70 secretary-treasurer, said in a telephone interview. “They put a great deal of money and effort into trying to bully their way through, and they didn’t succeed.”

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/10/18439928.php



District forbids flow to Lake O
By ROBERT P. KING
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 10, 2007
Water managers refused Thursday to pump polluted farm runoff into Lake Okeechobee, spurning pleas from growers, who called it an economically crucial remedy for drought.
"For me to vote for this would be indefensible," Charles Dauray, a board member of the South Florida Water Management District from Lee County, said during a sometimes-sniping debate. "I'm not about to vote for sacrificing the quality of water in South Florida to raise the level of Lake Okeechobee 4 inches."
Supporters of pumping - largely board members appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush - accused the new majority of neglecting its duty to spread the pain of the shortage.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/08/10/m1a_LAKE_O_0810.html



Leaders Shouldn't Separate Faith and Politics, Catholic Governor Jeb Bush States
By Elizabeth O'Brien
ATLANTA, Georgia, August 9, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Republican governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, brother of President George Bush, described his "faith journey" to audiences at a Catholic conference this summer, emphasizing that faith and politics should not be separated.
The devout Catholic and pro-life politician received a standing ovation from a crowd of families, children, priests and young people before he even began his speech at the 11th Youth and Family Encounter conference at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. The event was sponsored this July by the international Catholic lay movement Regnum Christi.
He underlined the fact that leaders should not separate their faith from their political careers. "I don't know how one can do that," he said. "As governor I didn't do that. I tried not to."
"I don't think you can separate your personal faith from your public actions, and I don't think you need to. I think transparent, openly expressing your faith is a good thing."
He also stated, "Jesus was my best political advisor."

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07080904.html



Born equal?
Andrew Stephen
Published 09 August 2007
Andrew Stephen on how the US is no longer a land where people of humble origin become film stars and presidents. Plus Marika Mathieu on UK wealth inequality
America, we're always being told on both sides of the Atlantic, is the ultimate classless society: "the richest, freest and happiest country in the world", in the words of that well-known American proletarian Rupert Murdoch. Yet, increasingly, reliable empirical studies - to say nothing of the evidence staring in the face of those of us who live here - show that this is simply untrue. The US is more stratified politically, economically and socially than ever before.
Take politics, for a start. The most powerful and important job in the world, the US presidency, has been in the hands of just two families - the Bushes and the Clintons - for 18 years, and will remain so until 2009. Nor is it by any means inconceivable that these two dynasties could stay entrenched in the White House at least until, say, 2029. Is America developing its own aristocracies, which Thomas Jefferson warned was already happening, even in his day?
Should Hillary Clinton win the presidency in 2008 and then complete two terms - which, as things stand, she is more likely to do than any of the country's other 300 million or so citizens - she will be in office until 2017. The chances are that the nation would then be ready for a Republican in the White House. My prediction? Step forward Jeb Bush, governor of Florida until January and brother, of course, of Dubbya. He would still be just 63 for the 2016 presidential election and is by far the brightest of the four sons of George Bush I, who started the era of America's dynastic rule in 1989.

http://www.newstatesman.com/200708090024




“Colorblindness”: An Impossibility in the United States
Seattle School District Case: Justice Stevens’s Dissent
Posted by alexwdc on August 10th, 2007
Associate Justice John Paul Stevens issued a succinct and well-targeted dissent against the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1.
Justice Stevens essentially noticed that Chief Justice John Roberts was removing the context of the U.S. practice of segregation in education, which was truly practiced against Black students.
There is a cruel irony in The Chief Justice’s reliance on our decision in Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U. S. 294 (1955). The first sentence in the concluding paragraph of his opinion states: “Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin.” This sentence reminds me of Anatole France’s observation: “[T]he majestic equality of the la[w], forbid[s] rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.” The Chief Justice fails to note that it was only black schoolchildren who were so ordered; indeed, the history books do not tell stories of white children struggling to attend black schools. In this and other ways, The Chief Justice rewrites the history of one of this Court’s most important decisions.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote his opinion as if any student would be subject to second-class treatment. In the history of the United States, the treatment of those considered White as second-class citizens has never occurred.

http://alexwdc.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/seattle-school-district-case-justice-stevenss-dissent/


Bush/Cheney ‘Impeach’ Ordinance Ratified
With The ‘Whole World Watching,’ Council Votes 5-2 to Denounce Bush Administration From 1,663 Miles Away
By Douglas McDaniel
Thursday, August 9, 2007 5:25 PM MDT
TELLURIDE, Aug. 9, 4:50 p.m. – As a voice crying out in the wilderness during the past month, the Telluride Town Council had both purposefully and unintentionally found a way to amp up the broadcast calling for Congress to pursue impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
In voting 5-2 during its regular session Tuesday at Rebekah Hall to approve the second reading of an ordinance calling for impeachment proceedings in congress, the council tried to at least regain the volume controls for that purely symbolic broadcast. They never really had much choice about the message itself. As Mayor John Pryor said before the final vote, “This government did not initiate this petition.” It was initiated by local activist Thom Carnevale, who needed only 31 signatures but collected more than 100 to bring it to the council dais. The council had two choices due to the framework of its town charter: To either ratify the action into ordinance, or to send it to the voters instead. To “defeat this,” as public speaker George Harvey pleaded for before the council vote on Tuesday, wasn’t technically an option.

http://www.telluridewatch.com/articles/2007/08/09/news/doc46bb9a5292328465793548.txt



Cheney Urges Strike on Iran: McClatchy
Bush threatens al-Maliki then Backs Off
Bombing in Taji Kills 7
Warren P. Strobel, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef of McClatchy report that VP Dick Cheney has been urging a military strike on Iran, but that Bush has decided for the moment to hit Shiite allies of Iran inside Iraq. (Since the majority of Iraqi Shiites are allies of Iran, he will have a lot of targets).

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/10/18439954.php



Cheney's Stand on Musharraf Reversed?
by John Carey Page 1 of 2 page(s)
Almost any way you slice it, Vice President Cheney has lost influence and prestige since September 11, 2001.
The Vice President shot a guy in the face. The Vice President stood up for his boss and the policies of the Bush Administration even when almost everyone disagreed with the administration. And Mr. Cheney was out front in talking to people like NBCs Tim Russert of “Meet the Press.”

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_john_car_070806_cheney_s_stand_on_mu.htm



Impeach Bush, Cheney
Hank Curtis
Our founders long ago laid out a "cure for the royals," to borrow a phrase from the journalist John Nichols. Dealing with their own King George, our forefathers made sure the people's right to impeach was baked into our Constitution. Explained within the Federalist Papers and other writings, their three most often cited reasons for impeachment make the same case for President Bush and Vice President Cheney:
Strike 1: "Unleashing the dogs of war" by distorting the case for war. The undisputed Downing Street Memo had it right long ago, Cheney and Bush "rigged" the case for attacking a sovereign country that posed no threat to the U.S.
Strike 2: Violating our right to privacy. Even Ashcroft tried to stand up to Bush's draconian warrantless spying program that would make the KGB proud.
Strike 3: Unlawful imprisonment of U.S citizens and foreign visitors. It would break the hearts of our Founders to see people routinely tortured and held in prisons indefinitely without due process of law. Until now, the last time our country used water-boarding techniques was the Salem "witch trials" of the 17th century.
Don't count on the Democrats finding their long-lost courage to do what's right and impeach these American dictators. But with a meddlesome foreign policy creating more enemies than we can kill, thousands of wounded and dead GIs, an estimated $2 trillion price tag and 250,000 bullets spent for every dead insurgent, I'm not sure we can afford another year of Bush and Cheney in office.
Hank Curtis,
Fort Collins

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070810/OPINION03/708100313



Jackson Hole Rally For Peace or Cheney Protest?
Friday, August 10, 2007
By Sam Petri
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Organizers of the Jackson Peace Rally that will take place at 1 p.m on Saturday, August 11 in Stilson Ranch Park have added attorney Kent Spence and state representative Pete Jorgensen, D-Jackson to the list of speakers who will briefly address the crowd. Beginning on public land west of the Stilson lot bus stop just off Hwy 22 in Jackson Hole, the rally which calls to stop the war in Iraq will include a 1.4 mile march down Teton Village road that will end at Teton Pines Resort and Country Club, where Vice President Dick Cheney owns a residence.

http://www.planetjh.com/news/A_101758.aspx



Hinchey, Feingold Introduce Bills to Censure Bush, Cheney, Gonzales
By Jonathan Springston, Senior Staff Writer, The Atlanta Progressive News (August 10, 2007)
(APN) ATLANTA – As promised, US Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI) and US Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) have introduced matching censure resolutions this week in the Senate and House, respectively, concerning misconduct leading up to and during the US invasion of Iraq, as well as disregard for the rule of law.
The Democratic lawmakers introduced the resolutions in order to hold the Administration "accountable for its blatant misconduct regarding Iraq and its attack on the rule of law," they said in a press release obtained by Atlanta Progressive News.
"These censure resolutions will let future generations know Congress stood up to the destructive policies of this administration that have weakened our national security, cost more than 3,600 American lives, and undermined the principles on which our country was founded," Feingold said.

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0209.html



Cheney Antsy to Kill Iranian Toddlers and Grandmothers
Friday August 10th 2007, 10:27 am
If the resistance in Iraq continues to kill U.S. occupation soldiers, the United States will attack Iran, so declared the decider and commander guy during a news conference yesterday. “President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues,” reports McClatchy. “At a news conference Thursday, Bush said Iran had been warned of unspecified consequences if it continued its alleged support for anti-American forces in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had conveyed the warning in meetings with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad, the president said.”

http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=951



"Is Our Children Learning?" Not by Channeling Einstein (and Other Thoughts, Including -- gasp! -- an AWOL Olbermann)
Posted August 10, 2007 11:14 AM (EST)
In the 2007 State of the Union address earlier this year, President Bush honored Julie Aigner-Clark, founder of Baby Einstein (a series of infant educational programs). Yeah, well. The L.A. Times reports this week that those programs don't actually work, and that parents who use them are creating baby Homer Simpsons, according to a pediatrics study from the University of Washington in Seattle. Doh!
Of course, the creator of Baby Einstein educational products was sitting in the House chamber gallery with Laura Bush because the president was touting female entrepreneurs who care about education.
Note to self: Saudi Royal Prince Alwaleed, nephew of King Abdullah, is known as the "Arabian Warren Buffett." He's the 13th richest person in the world according to Forbes, and owns something like 17 percent of EuroDisney. The Disney company, of course, owns Baby Einstein, and thus makes money off every Baby Einstein product sold. Disney didn't respond to questions about this from the Times.
The president's infamous brother Neil ("Neilsie," as mama Bar calls him) has gotten in on this education gravy train, too, and now has a business called "Ignite! Learning," which, even though its website is short on specifics, Neil funded by raising $23 million from documented investors including businessmen from Bush family redoubts United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, crooked Russian billionaire expatriate Boris Berezovsky and Chinese computer executive Winston Wong. Wong's "Grace Semiconductor" also signed Neil to a five-year consulting contract worth $2 million, even though Neil had no background in the field.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jackson-williams/is-our-children-learning_b_59919.html



Neil Young to release anti-war graphic novel
By Canadian Press
TORONTO -- Outspoken musician and political activist Neil Young is putting his anti-war and environmental convictions into a graphic novel.
The book will be an adaptation of Young's 2003 disc "Greendale," a 10-song concept album that was turned into a film of the same name in 2003 and also spawned an art book and multi-media tour.
The legendary artist, renowned for his strong anti-George W. Bush sentiments, has made it clear that the project will be just as biting politically as the rest of his artistic catalogue, said writer and collaborator Joshua Dysart.
Dysart, who describes his own political leanings as "left of Lenin," says the graphic novel's theme is decidedly anti-war and pro-planet. The story is set in the fictional town of Greendale on the eve of the Iraq invasion in 2003.
"It's just sort of a smorgasbord of the political reality of that moment of 2003 when we went into Iraq," Dysart said Thursday in a telephone interview from his home Los Angeles.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/25649



Judge Rules in CIA Favor on Plame
By LARRY NEUMEISTER 08.03.07, 5:30 PM ET
NEW YORK -
The Central Intelligence Agency can force Valerie Plame Wilson, whose CIA career became national news after her once-clandestine position was leaked to the media, to remain silent about the exact length of her tenure with the agency, a federal judge has ruled.
Although the years of her CIA employment have appeared in the Congressional Record and elsewhere, U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones said in ruling for the CIA that there were benefits to the agency and the country in keeping some things classified - even after they are seemingly public.
Wilson's identity was revealed in a syndicated newspaper column in 2003, shortly after her husband, a former ambassador, began criticizing the administration's march to war in Iraq.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/03/ap3986929.html



Alito Reflects on His Role on the High Court
Tony Mauro
August 9, 2007
Eighteen months into his tenure on the Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Alito Jr. on Tuesday said the Court's deliberative process is good and the Court itself is transparent, but he has one small complaint.
During oral argument, Alito said in a talk at Pepperdine University School of Law in California, his colleagues are so inquisitive that "it's extremely difficult to get a question in."

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1186563716757



PETA Secures Victory, As Calves Will no Longer Be in Crates After 2017.
Fresh off their victory in the court of public opinion, PETA has returned to fighting against solitary intensive confinement of farmed animals. They have scored a victory on that front as well, as the days of chaining calves in crates is now due to end in 2017. PETA announced this victory for the rights of farmed animals in a press release that they issued. The American Veal Association had a unanimous vote to phase out the practice of chaining calves in solitary confinement by their necks inside crates by the year 2017. PETA considers this a significant victory according to their press release as this is one of the practices they considered to be symbolic of the worst of animal farming practices.
PETA has had a string of victories in it's campaign to eliminate intensive solitary confinment of animals. The victories started in January when Smithfield Foods agreed to stop using gestation crates for the pigs on its farms. These crates are used to reduce the ability for pregnant pigs that are raised for food to move, and almost eliminate it completely. Soon after Smithfield Foods' annoucement two other pork producing companies joined them in announcing they would no longer use the gestation crates. These companies are Maple Leaf Foods and Cargill Meat Solutions.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/341160/peta_secures_victory_as_calves_will.html



New herd infected with swine fever at US-owned Romanian farms

Bucharest (dpa) - Two pig farms owned by the US meat processing firm Smithfield Foods in western Romania were struck by swine fever, the Romanian news agency Mediafax reported Tuesday.

All pigs at the Igris farm in the district of Timis are to be culled after the discovery of the infection Tuesday. Another farm, Cenei, culled tens of thousands of animals over the weekend after the discovery of an outbreak there.
Smithfield Foods, which claims to be the world's largest firm of its type, owns at least 22 farms in the western Romania, 13 of which do not have veterinary permits, Romanian authorities said.
In addition, the pigs in the Cenei farm had not be immunized against swine fever, the authorities said. As this was not a requirement, the producer only loses the right to government compensation after an outbreak of disease.

http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=12255



Smithfield Foods fever outbreak in Romania contained
By PHILIP WALZER , The Virginian-Pilot
The outbreak of swine fever that killed 20,000 pigs at a Smithfield Foods farm in Romania "appears to be contained," a company spokeswoman said Monday.
Smithfield's farms in Romania "have been quarantined and are being tested," spokeswoman Keira Ullrich said in an e-mail. "We have taken more than 4,000 blood samples, and experts are now screening those samples to determine the health status of the animals at all of our farms."
She stressed that the disease is not transmitted to humans. Romanian authorities have closed farms in the region until inspections are completed.
Smithfield's shares closed Monday at $31.61, up 10 cents from Friday.

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=129817&ran=97004



Smithfield Foods to slaughter more ill pigs
Associated Press - August 7, 2007 2:35 PM ET
TIMISOARA, Romania (AP) - Some 16,000 pigs will be slaughtered at a farm in Romania belonging to Virginia-based Smithfield Foods.
That's after a second outbreak of swine fever at 1 of the company's farms in less than a week.
Romanian veterinary health authorities say the discovery came yesterday at a farm near the Hungarian border. More outbreaks were expected, because some farms don't follow animal and environmental safety rules.
Last week, authorities discovered an outbreak at another pig farm belonging to Smithfield in another, and said that 20,000 pigs there were being slaughtered.
The Virginia company has 25 pig farms in western Romania. There was no immediate reaction from Smithfield.
Swine fever is a viral disease that is fatal to pigs but has no known effect on people.
Authorities shut down other farms in the region Saturday until their pigs could be inspected.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=6898703&nav=S6aK



According to Farhad Manjoo at Salon, this new development fatally undercuts the spell of iPhone-coolness, and no sensible person could disagree. Apple stock-plunge in three…two…one….

http://www.epolitics.com/2007/08/08/disaster-in-appleland-karl-rove-owns-an-iphone/



Circle the Wagons: A Brief Autopsy of Immigration "Reform"
Andrew T. Durham

August 7, 2007

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=34409


Letter: Writer disapproves of Halliburton deal
Staff Writer
Article Launched: 08/07/2007 12:40:27 AM MDT
Editor:
Halliburton's outlandish blackmail of our local community is the obscene act of a bully trying to squeeze out all the tax breaks it can get.
I am a small business owner who has worked and struggled for 13 years. Never have I received a pass on paying the multitude of taxes required by the city, state, county and federal entities. I'm sure that there are hundreds of similar small businesses who feel the same as I do.
Enough is enough. Stop big corporate blackmail!
Halliburton is a perfect picture of corporate greed and all that is wrong in our society today. I understand that Halliburton is in the process of building its main headquarters in Dubai. Perhaps they should stay in America and pay their fair share of taxes to the communities that support them.
Any elected official who votes in Halliburton's favor should be voted out of office next election.
SHARON L. HIGGINS
Farmington

http://www.daily-times.com/ci_6560855?source=most_emailed

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