McCain as Roosevelt (click here) - Who's the Enemy?
Oil's surge hits U.S., lifts Canada
SHAWN MCCARTHY
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
March 11, 2008 at 9:12 PM EDT
OTTAWA — The U.S. economy is showing the increasing strain of the stunning rise in crude oil prices, which topped another record yesterday and is contributing to both growing inflation and slowing growth south of the border.
But the broader Canadian economy appears to be more resilient, thanks to booming energy exports and a strong Canadian dollar.
Fuelled by rising prices, the value of Canadian crude oil exports rose 12 per cent in January, leading to an overall improvement in the country's trade surplus, Statistics Canada said yesterday. For Americans, the spike in oil contributed to an increase in the U.S. trade deficit in January. The contrasting trade figures “are a very good illustration of how the two economies diverge,” said Meny Grauman, a senior economist with CIBC World Markets Inc.
Because of the weaker U.S. dollar, American consumers have had to fully absorb the runup in crude oil, which has touched record highs in the past five days. Mr. Grauman noted that U.S. consumer spending had fallen 7 per cent in the final quarter of last year, and that rising fuel prices were a “big factor” in that slide.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080311.r-oil12/BNStory/energy/?cid=al_gam_nletter_maropen
Condoleezza Rice could help unite Republicans behind McCain
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
BY MARY BETH BROWN
The American Dream is being dealt with and considered on your own merits. In America it doesn't matter where you came from, it matters where you're going." These words summarize Condoleezza Rice's views on the American dream. If Sen. John McCain is to win the difficult race he faces this fall, he should closely consider the merits of this most extraordinary woman as his running mate.
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=403016&Category=14&subCategoryID=
11/03/2008 10:48:24 Õ
It’s still the Occupation, stupid!
By Aijaz Zaka Syed*
In an Op Ed piece for the International Herald Tribune three years ago, I wrote: “If Bush wants to usher in a new era of democracy and peace in the Muslim world, he should be prepared to deal with the (people’s) genuine and legitimate representatives.” (IHT, June 29, 2005).
Commenting on Washington’s refusal to engage the groups like Hamas because it views them as ‘terrorist organizations’, I had pointed out that “terrorists do not take part in elections and political processes,” as Hamas has repeatedly done.
That was three years ago. A friend recently forwarded the article back to me noting how my argument was still relevant.
Indeed, reading it today you are struck by the fact that little has changed in the Middle East and the US’ approach to the Muslim world.
Three years on, the same hypocrisy, the same double standards and the same obstinate refusal to see reason and the big picture prevail in Washington and indeed much of the West.
http://english.alarabonline.org/display.asp?fname=2008%5C03%5C03-11%5Czopinionz%5C960.htm&dismode=x&ts=11/03/2008%2010:48:24%20%C3%95
Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship
CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."
As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.
On last week's Topic A With Tina Brown on CNBC, Brown, the former Talk magazine editor, asked comedian Al Franken, former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke and Amanpour if "we in the media, as much as in the administration, drank the Kool-Aid when it came to the war."
Said Amanpour: "I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2003-09-14-media-mix_x.htm
Audio
http://www.bmivault.org/Multimedia/Audio/2008/2008-03-11-Amanpor-Iraq.mp3
Amanpour Still Faults Media for Iraq War; Defends 'God’s Warriors' Series
By Jeff Poor
March 11, 2008 - 10:24 ET
Long-time CNN foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour still harbors some resentment toward the American media for the Iraq war.
In September 2003, Amanpour spoke out publicly and said CNN was intimidated by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship." Over four years later, Amanpour is still disappointed with the media leading up to the invasion of Iraq.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2008/03/11/amanpour-still-faults-media-iraq-war-defends-god-s-warriors-series
Goldman Sachs to buy 20 pct in India's Shriram Credit for 3 bln rupees - report
03.12.08, 2:47 AM ET
MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - Investment banking major Goldman Sachs is investing 3 bln rupees for a 20 pct stake in India-based Shriram Group's non-banking finance unit Shriram Credit, the Economic Times reported.
'We are in discussions with certain prospective investors for giving a minority stake in Shriram Credit, which will eventually hold both the broking and distribution business,' the report quoted Shriram Financial Services Holdings managing director DV Ravi as saying.
The report added that unnamed sources, however, say the deal has been finalised with Goldman Sachs.
According to the report, Goldman Sachs also has the right to hike the stake to 25 pct.
The investment in Shriram Credit will be done through Goldman Sachs' Mauritius-based subsidiary GS Strategic Investments.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/03/12/afx4761120.html
The Audacity of Wealth. Let's see, who should we buy today? As if they are doing everyone a favor. It usually works out to be disasterous to the working class.
Goldman adds Cardinal Health to Buy list
NEW YORK
Shares of Cardinal Health Inc. rose Tuesday after a Goldman Sachs analyst predicted a strong second half of the year for the health care products and services company.
Randall Stanicky placed Cardinal Health shares on the Americas Conviction Buy List, a portfolio of recommended securities. He expects improved results from the company's pharmaceutical distribution business and its clinical and medical products business in the fiscal third quarter.
"Cardinal has outperformed its drug distribution peers, the S&P 500 index, and the healthcare group, as represented by the DJ US Healthcare Index," he wrote in a note to clients. "However, over the last two weeks, shares have given up 11 percent compared to an S&P500 decline of 8 percent, creating an opportunity to get more aggressive on what we consider to be an already attractive valuation."
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8VBHNUO0.htm
'Shell' companies accused of ducking US payroll taxes
Published on Tuesday, March 11, 2008
As a team from the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) takes a look at how the Cayman Islands oversees offshore business, the latest news from the US could hardly have been worse timed.
The Cayman Islands’ reputation as a partner in tax avoidance and fraud has hardly been helped by worldwide media revelations that a major US defence contractor, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), has used Cayman-registered “shell” companies to avoid payment of “hundreds of millions of dollars” in Federal Medicare and Social Security payments.
The scandal broke after workers returning to the US from KBR contracts overseas, mainly in Iraq, found they did not qualify for unemployment assistance.
Reports in the US describe KBR as the nation’s top Iraq war contractor, and which was, until last year, a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp.
http://caymannetnews.com/news-5912--1-1--.html
Romney open to VP invitaiton
Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor March 11, 2008 07:20 PM
Mitt Romney is declaring that he would jump at the chance to be vice president if Republican John McCain offered the No. 2 slot.
"I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included," Romney said in an interview to be aired tonight on Fox News Channel.
In his first interview after leaving the GOP race, the former Massachusetts governor also called Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama "chihuahuas" and McCain the "big dog" on national security. Unlike many other Republicans, Romney said he hopes Obama wins the Democratic nomination because his inexperience makes him an easier target for McCain.
During the primary campaign, Romney tussled with McCain, who at one point compared Romney to a pig. But Romney endorsed the Arizona senator after suspending his campaign last month and said last night there are no hard feelings.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/03/romney_open_to.html
Why not Jeb Bush for Vice President and Georgie for Secretary of State ?
Our Fauntleroy Still Thinks He's Special
By Daniel Ruth, The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 11, 2008
It was a royally annoyed Jeb Bush who showed up in Lakeland the other day, which was sort of odd.
After all, the former governor was about make a very nice chunk of change off a bunch of unsuspecting marks, who had coughed up $300-a-pop to listen to a bunch of twaddle about how wonderful the Bush Junta years were for the state.
Instead, the ex-governor was in a sour mood, as if he had given himself a wedgie, after a bunch of nosy reporters started asking the Diocletian of the Apalachee Parkway why he treated his eight years in office as if his reign was one giant Skull & Bones meeting.
The Infamous Scribblers, as George Washington once referred to journalists, peppered Bush with questions about his hatched-in-secret plan to buy up 61 miles of CSX Transportation track in the Orlando area for $491 million, which would then enable the company to enhance its freight line traffic through a new Polk County hub.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/11/me-our-fauntleroy-still-thinks-hes-special/
McCain Retreats on Terror
Though acclaimed for opposing torture, the Republican presidential nominee votes to keep it
by Nat Hentoff
March 11th, 2008 12:00 AM
On February 13, in a historic vote, the Senate—following the lead of the House—for the first time explicitly prohibited the CIA from using torture in its interrogations. A section of the 2008 Intelligence Authorization Act mandates that the CIA, despite the special powers given it by the president, is bound by the rules of the Army Field Manual, thereby setting a single standard for all interrogations by U.S. forces.
The Army Field Manual bars waterboarding, conducting mock executions, exposing prisoners to extremes of heat or cold, refusing medicine and or mental-health care, beating or using electrodes to shock detainees, and other violations of international treaties and our own laws.
As soon as this proposal had surfaced, the White House's first reaction was: "Dangerous and misguided!" When a majority of Congress disobeyed the commander in chief, Bush vowed to veto the bill.
The Senate measure was brought by Democrats Dianne Feinstein, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Russ Feingold, and Republican Chuck Hagel. Since the vote was 51 to 45, it took four Republicans and one independent—Richard Lugar, Susan Collins, Olympia Snow, Gordon Smith, and Bernie Sanders, respectively—to assure passage by joining the Democrats. (The only other independent in the Senate, Joseph Lieberman, voted for the President and against the anti-torture amendment.)
When the ban on torture passed the House in December, 229 had voted for it. Of the 199 nays, 189 were Republicans. As a December 28 editorial in Vermont's Brattleboro Reformer sardonically noted: "At least the Republicans are honest about their love of torture. . . . Our [Republican] leaders in Washington are . . . complicit in the carrying out of war crimes."
Among the Republicans in the Senate voting to carry out the wishes of Bush, Cheney, and the CIA was presidential nominee John McCain, who had formerly been the leading warrior against our use of torture, famously proclaiming that it's not a matter of "who they [the enemy] are. It's who we are!"
This was not the first time that Mr. Integrity has retreated on torture. McCain voted for the 2006 Military Commissions Act, which gave Bush the authority to allow the CIA to continue its special brand of "coercive interrogations"—a license that Bush himself validated in an executive order last July.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0811,374048,374048,4.html
Awash in cash, oil patch braces for changes
DAVID EBNER AND NORVAL SCOTT
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
March 10, 2008 at 8:15 PM EDT
CALGARY, EDMONTON — As Alberta's oil sands reach a global scale, they are facing ever tougher environmental scrutiny and now, a new volley of federal legislation.
Ottawa yesterday afternoon unveiled draft rules that would require projects starting operations in 2012 and beyond to reduce greenhouse gases, largely through carbon capture technology.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080310.r-carbon11/BNStory/energy/home
AFL-CIO targets John McCain as 'anti-worker'
by Jill Zuckman
The AFL-CIO is not going to let the lack of a Democratic nominee stand in the way of jumping into general election mode. On Wednesday, the labor organization will announce the launch of a campaign to make sure workers know where the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, stands on trade, jobs, health care and Social Security.
Political director Karen Ackerman will brief reporters today at noon on McCain’s “anti-worker record and his ties to the failed economic policies of President Bush,” according to an advisory from the AFL-CIO.
The campaign will include a new website called “McCain Revealed,” to explain the senator’s economic record and positions. It will also target union households with leafleting, door knocking, direct mail and union meetings as part of a massive grassroots political effort this year.
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/aflcio_targets_john_mccain_as.html
McCain lashes Democrats for criticizing NAFTA
Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:45pm EDT
Sphere
By Steve Holland
ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain criticized his Democratic rivals on Tuesday for pledging to renegotiate a hemispheric trade treaty that Democrats blame for U.S. manufacturing job losses.
At a town-hall meeting in St. Louis, the Arizona senator also called for the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress to approve a free-trade treaty with Colombia that is being stymied on Capitol Hill.
"On trade, I'm a free trader," McCain told employees at Savvis Internet company, a session dominated by questions about the ailing U.S. economy.
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1157111820080311
Ford Loses $82 Million Rollover Verdict Appeal
California woman paralyzed in Explorer rollover accident
Advertisement
By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.Com
March 11, 2008
A paralyzed California woman has won her appeal of a $82.6 million verdict against the Ford Motor Co. because her Ford Explorer rolled over, resulting in her injury.
Ford appealed the award arguing that the jury unfairly punished Ford even though the design of the vehicle met federal safety standards.
The paralyzed woman, Benetta Buell-Wilson of San Diego, was driving her 1997 Explorer on an Interstate highway on January 19, 2002 when she swerved to avoid a metal object in the road. The SUV went out of control.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/03/ford_rollover.html
Cheney may have to testify
By Felisa Cardona
The Denver Post
Vice President Dick Cheney may be ordered to answer questions about a 2006 encounter he had at a Beaver Creek mall with a citizen who told him that he disagreed with the Iraq war.
Steven Howards, who was arrested for allegedly assaulting Cheney after voicing his objections, asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer today to order Cheney to undergo a deposition about the exchange.
Howards, who contends he merely patted Cheney's arm when he made the anti-war statement, is suing the Secret Service agents who arrested him for violating his civil rights.
A criminal charge of harassment against Howards was dropped by Eagle County prosecutors.
Shaffer did not rule on Howards' motion but hinted he was leaning toward allowing Cheney to be deposed because he was a direct witness.
James Gilligan, an attorney for the vice president, argued that deposing Cheney would distract from his official duties and that there were other witnesses who could testify instead.
He also argued that allowing a vice president to be deposed in this case may open the door for other high-ranking government officials to be forced to testify.
http://www.denverpost.com/dnc/ci_8534042
The Bush Tragedy
politics
entries
from: Jacob Weisberg
What Bush Believes
Posted Wednesday, March 12, 2008, at 6:57 AM ET
What are George W. Bush's religious beliefs? The question, which would seem central to understanding his presidency, comes up again and again and never receives a satisfactory answer. When religiously inclined writers try to describe Bush's faith, they invariably end up talking about how Bush uses religion, how he relates to other religious people, and what faith means to him. But they seldom say anything about its content. They described all the things his faith is not—fiery, judgmental, dogmatic, exclusive—but don't discover positions on even the most basic theological issues that divide and define denominations, such as whether the Bible is literally true, whether Christians should evangelize, or whether salvation comes through faith alone. They overlook the curious detail that he seldom goes to church. Often, they end up projecting their own beliefs and assumptions onto his blank screen.
After reading a certain amount of what might be called Godly-President Literature—The Faith of George W. Bush by Stephen Mansfield, God and George W. Bush by Paul Kengor, A Man of Faith by David Aikman—the recognition begins to dawn that Bush's faith has no specific theological content.
http://www.slate.com/id/2186343/entry/0/
