The Rooster
Friday, November 10, 2006
A Clean Sweep. I am proud of the young voters, they represented themselves well. Click on for Mike's exclusive
Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment? (click on)
* 340158 responses
Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial.
87%
No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors."
4.4%
No, the man has done absolutely nothing wrong. Impeachment would just be a political lynching.
6.8%
I don't know.
1.9%
Youth turnout in election biggest in 20 years
By Jason Szep / Reuters
BOSTON - Young Americans voted in the largest numbers in at least 20 years in congressional elections, energized by the Iraq war and giving a boost to Democrats, pollsters said on Wednesday.
About 24 percent of Americans under the age of 30, or at least 10 million young voters, cast ballots in Tuesday's elections that saw Democrats make big gains in Congress. That was up 4 percentage points from the last mid-term elections in 2002.
"This looks like the highest in 20 years," said Mark Lopez, research director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which compiled the data based on exit polls. "Unfortunately, we can't say if it's a record because don't have good comparable data before 1986."
Rock the Vote, a youth-and-civics group, said young voters favored Democrats by a 22-point margin, nearly three times the margin Democrats earned among other age groups and dealing a potentially decisive blow to Republicans in tight races.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=520
Morning Papers - It's Origins ( Still off line. Will return next week.)
Our World's Environment
Brown Plans to Build Team, Enforce Global Warming Law
By STEVEN CISCHKE, Staff Writer
California Attorney General-Elect Jerry Brown said yesterday he is looking forward to working with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to create regulations for the enforcement of California’s new Global Warming legislation.
Brown, who defeated state Sen. Chuck Poochigian, R-Fresno, by a decisive margin in Tuesday’s election, told the MetNews he wants regulations that are “practical, defendable and effective.”
Noting that the California Department of Justice—which the attorney general heads—has sent six officers to Oakland to help with its crime problem Brown said he is also looking forward to expanding the program to help other cities in need. Poochigian focused on Oakland crime rates in the campaign, blaming Brown, who has been the city’s mayor for eight years.
He said he has not chosen a chief deputy attorney general yet, and will meet with current members of the department before making any staff decisions. “Building a team is my number one priority,” he added.
When asked to explain his large victory margin—he won by more than 18 percentage points—Brown responded:
“People believed me, and didn’t believe him.”
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2006/brow110906.htm
Mercury limits for power plants
N.C. tops federal rules in restricting release of toxic substance from new, existing coal-fired facilities
BRUCE HENDERSON
bhenderson@charlotteobserver.com
North Carolina set its first limits Thursday on the amount of mercury that coal-fired power plants may release, joining several states that have set tougher standards than the Bush administration's for the widespread contaminant.
Mercury, which occurs naturally in coal, takes especially hazardous form when it spews from smokestacks and falls into water. Pregnant women who eat contaminated fish risk giving birth to babies with lower intelligence and learning problems.
In March, state health authorities broadened their warnings about eating mercury-contaminated fish. In addition to four freshwater species caught in Eastern North Carolina, the list now includes largemouth bass caught anywhere in the state.
The state Environmental Management Commission, which held packed mercury hearings in Charlotte and other cities last spring, struck a compromise Thursday that utilities and environmentalists praised.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/15975990.htm
Strong storms expected today
Ryan Slight © 2006, Springfield News-Leader Strong to severe thunderstorms with walnut-size hail may move across the Springfield area today, the National Weather Service reported.A cold front is shifting east across the Missouri Ozarks, creating storms capable of damaging wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour, the service said.The NWS said spotter assistance may be needed for areas northwest of Interstate 44 this morning, and the entire region in the late morning and afternoon.The high temperature is expected to drop to 48 degrees tomorrow, but no hazardous weather is anticipated.
Liberia: Oil Deal, in Whose Interest?
The NEWS (Monrovia)
November 9, 2006Posted to the web November 9, 2006
In whose interest was the oil deal negotiated is the question that has been raised by three human rights groups who are demanding documents from the Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC).
Mr. Harry Greaves who negotiated the oil deal on behalf of the Liberian government with the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been requested by the three human rights organizations to provide or make available detailed information of major and sub-contractual agreements surrounding the oil deal to them.
The human rights organizations said they want the LPRC boss to also provide copies of the Act establishing the LPRC and all regulations and administrative decisions promulgated under the authority of the Act with reference to import, sale and distribution of petroleum products as well as regulations that provide for monitoring and regulation of the sale and distribution, transport, storage and safe handling of petroleum products.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611090389.html
Oil majors at crossroads in Venezuela's tar oil patch
By Peter Millard
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
CARACAS (MarketWatch) -- Six hundred former employees from the likes of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) and Repsol YPF SA (REP) were chanting pro-government slogans on Tuesday, offering a preview of what the corporate atmosphere at four multi-billion-dollar Venezuelan tar oil projects will look like in a year's time.
Six western oil majors must forfeit operational control or face the wrath of an administration steeped in oil nationalism at the peak of a domestic electoral cycle.
On Tuesday, the workers picked up identification cards from their new boss, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PVZ.YY) President Rafael Ramirez, who has spearheaded a nationalist drive to convert 32 privately-run oil fields into state-dominated joint ventures.
With that process nearly completed, PdVSA is now pressuring its six partners in the Orinoco belt, the world's largest oil deposit, to ink similar contract overhauls that would put day-to-day operations under the control of PdVSA, one of the country's most politicized public institutions.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?siteid=mktw&guid={5511F833-78E8-453A-B756-B71871A00EDA}
Wesleyan Spotlights Global Warming
November 10, 2006 By DAVID FUNKHOUSER, Courant Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN -- As the political winds shift in Washington, the global warming debate may change as well, from a focus on dire warnings of melting ice sheets and flooded coastlines to a pragmatic discussion over what can be done about it.Prominent scientists will gather at Wesleyan University Saturday morning to discuss how climate change might affect everything from hurricanes and human health to the international political landscape.
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctwarmingup1110.artnov10,0,2833256.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
Storm shuts Rainier park for first time in 26 years
YAKIMA, Washington (AP) -- Heavy rain has caused so much damage at Mount Rainier National Park that officials have closed the attraction for the first time in 26 years.
Nearly 18 inches of rain in 36 hours swamped roads and bridges and cut power and sewer lines.
Initial cleanup will take weeks. Park officials say they hope to return to normal operations by Christmas. In some places, they won't know the extent of the damage until after the snow melts in the spring.
"Some places get that much rain in a year, and we had it in 36 hours," said park spokeswoman Lee Taylor, noting the 17.9 inches of rain that fell Sunday and Monday. "When we were finally able to get out and start assessing the damage, it was a very sobering day."
The Pineapple Express storm, named for its origin in warm Pacific waters, wreaked havoc across the region. It damaged hundreds of homes, washed out a major highway near Oregon's Mount Hood, closed part of the North Cascades Highway in Washington, and was blamed for at least three deaths in the two states.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/11/10/rainier.ap/index.html
US crude oil prices climb higher
November 10, 2006 - 7:49AM
US crude oil prices were sharply higher on Thursday, up 1.8 per cent on government data showing domestic natural gas supplies fell last week.
A supply report from the US Energy Information Administration Thursday morning pegged domestic natural gas storage down seven billion cubic feet last week.
At 1408 EST on the New York Mercantile Exchange, December crude was up $US1.07 at $US60.90 a barrel.
It had traded from $US59.90 to $US61.26.
In London, ICE December Brent crude rose $US1.37 to $US60.96, having traded $US59.76 to $US61.43.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/US-crude-oil-prices-climb-higher/2006/11/10/1162661861134.html
I like to know what is happening with weather in Australia. Antarctica is getting hot so quick it’s good to know how the folks in Australia are fairing.
Queenslanders in for severe storms
FORECASTERS yesterday warned Queenslanders to brace themselves for an onslaught of steamy summer weather from next week.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the severe storms that swept across southeast Queensland on Wednesday night had moved off the coast, and scattered showers would ease over the next few days.
A northwesterly change over the weekend will bring fine weather and temperatures in the low to mid-30s.
“By Monday, everyone will definitely know that summer has arrived,” Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Bryan Rolstone said.
The dry change spells bad news for the state’s water crisis, but relief for the hundreds of residents between the Sunshine and Gold coasts who are still mopping up after Wed-nesday night’s storms.
More than 100 SES members worked through the night, repairing roofs damaged by strong winds.
Seven properties in Esk, including the local police station, were damaged, while one home in Caboolture, north of Brisbane, lost its roof.
A Gold Coast Catholic school, Aquinas College, is set to remain closed today after the storm tore the roof from its music room and damaged many other classrooms.
Spokesman for NRMA Frank Alder said insurance claims already were starting to pour in.
The Bureau of Meteorology says that patchy showers will push north into central Queensland today.
http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/bm/national/517491.html
Unseen rivers are the answer
By RICCARDA BURLEY
THE answer to the Border’s water shortages is right under our feet, according to a Tallangatta water diviner.
Alec Turnbull says there are thousands of streams, some as large as the Murray River, running underground that can be tapped for homes or livestock.
A water diviner since the 1982 drought, Mr Turnbull first experimented on the family farm, Fairyknowe, at Tallangatta South.
“The son ran out of water so I took a piece of willow stick and took a walk around,” he said.
“I found a stream about 20m from the shed and we had a fellow come in and put a bore down.
“He went about 80 feet and hit rock and he wasn’t too keen but I said ‘keep going’.
“At 120 feet we hit water and it gushed into the air about 40 feet and showered us with water and sand — it was beautiful water and they still use it.”
Mr Turnbull believes about 96 per cent of fresh water is underground.
“I use willow stick because it’s strong but flexible because the pull on it towards the ground is incredibly strong,” he said.
“It screws the skin up on my hands and if I do it too long it knocks me up.
“I can’t explain what it is, it’s just something in your body — I can feel the force in the stick about 30 to 40 yards away from the stream.”
Mr Turnbull also mineral divines and found a gold seam for a miner at Tennant Creek and will do some work for the Maude and Yellow Girl mine at Glen Wills in March.
“What I’d really like to do is travel from Albury up to Swan Hill on the NSW side and back again on the Victorian side, mapping all the major underground streams,” he said.
Ghana: Climate Change Will Affect Future Food Availability – FAO
November 8, 2006Posted to the web November 8, 2006
GNA
Climate change will directly affect future food availability and compound the difficulties of feeding the world's rapidly growing population, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said at the opening of a UN climate change conference in Nairobi on Monday.
In an address to the conference's scientific and technical body, Mr Castro Paulino Camarada, FAO Representative in Kenya, stressed that greater attention must be given to the impact of climate change on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and on mitigation and adaptation measures.
According to a statement received in Accra yesterday, Mr Camarada said there were a number of areas where FAO's expertise could contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change.
"There is likely to be a significant transition toward biofuels during the next 50 years, with agriculture and forestry among the leading sources for both liquid and solid fuels," he said
. http://allafrica.com/stories/200611080417.html
America's anti-environmentalist streak
By KENNETH ROGOFF
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- As an American, I am appalled, ashamed and embarrassed by my country's lack of leadership in dealing with global warming. Scientific evidence on the risks mounts by the day, as most recently documented in England's magisterial Stern Report. Yet, despite the fact that the United States accounts for roughly 25 percent of all man-made global carbon emissions, Americans show little will or inclination to temper their manic consumption.
The first Bush administration was probably right to refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol, albeit for the wrong reasons. Among other problems, the Kyoto Protocol does not go far enough toward redistributing carbon emission rights toward developing countries. But why can't the United States bring itself to raise taxes on gasoline and other sources of carbon emission like coal-burning power plants?
Many people seem to think that the Bush administration is the problem. Put a Texas oilman and his buddies in charge and what do you expect, conservation? Unfortunately, that is a facile excuse.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20061109a2.html
Ski for Global Warming
Good for ski resorts all around the US. This season, many resorts are running their facilities with "Green Power". Yeah! At least 45 resorts in 14 states are chosing to use clean energy, and 16 resorts are going to 100% of their power sources from clean energy. They will be using sources which include, wind, solar, hydroelectric, bio-mass, and geothermal.
The resorts do admit, they went green not only to help the enviornment, but to keep skiing around as long as they can. I'm sure you all have heard of Global Warming. Well, if it continues to happen, we wouldn't have all the nice fluffy white stuff-snow, to play in. This is a great thing, in my opinion, because the resorts are going to be a big billboard for saving our enviornment. It will educate people about what they can do to help, as well as show people that something does need to be done about this matter.
Aspen is going to have upcoming ads in outdoor magazines and this will also help spread the news that green is good! I am very happy and proud of the people involved in making this happen. The change to better the earth was not easy nor inexpensive. Good for them for taking a step in the right direction. As for me, I am just one person, but I have pledged to switch to energystar lightbulbs through out my house. As of now, I only have 3 more regular lightbulbs to go before my house is lit by all energystar bulbs. You wanna know something-it lowers my electric bill too- I promise. Now, I am trying to get my parents into the mix and have them switch out too.
For more cool ideas, go to www.energystar.gov
http://www.progressiveu.org/123435-ski-for-global-warming
Your view: Work against global warming
By MARSHALL DAHLIN La Crosse
The war in Iraq, the epidemic of terrorism and hurricane Katrina all have something in common: global warming.Does anyone think we’d be “spreading democracy” in Iraq, if we didn’t need Middle East oil? Would we have been meddling in the Middle East for the past 60 years and stirring up hatred of the United States if not for oil? If we had not been dependent on fossil fuels would the oceans be warming, creating monster storms like Katrina and Rita?Fossil fuels deserve our gratitude for having given us the modern technological world we now inhabit. But now the gift has turned to curse, and we have to chart a new future based on renewable energy. Failure to meet this challenge will cause our descendents to curse us.What can we do? I don’t think we can wait for the people now occupying the White House to save us. We can vote for candidates who accept scientific evidence. We can support national movements fighting global warming. We can march. We can do all the practical things to minimize our individual carbon footprints such as using fluorescent light bulbs, driving economical cars, etc.But maybe what we need in addition to the above is to come together here in La Crosse County to support each other in our efforts to make a difference. The challenge is so big that it is easy to despair and we must resist if we are to meet this crisis. As Joan Rivers used to say, “Can we talk?”
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2006/11/09/opinion/letters/02letter09.txt
Boxer pledges shift on global warming policy with new Senate role
SAMANTHA YOUNG
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Sen. Barbara Boxer on Thursday promised major policy shifts on global warming, air quality and toxic-waste cleanup as she prepares to head the U.S. Senate's environmental committee.
"Time is running out, and we need to move forward on this," Boxer said of global warming during a conference call with reporters. "The states are beginning to take steps, and we need to take steps as well."
Boxer's elevation to chairwoman of the Senate Environmental Public Works Committee comes as the Democrats return to power in the Senate. It also marks a dramatic shift in ideology for the panel.
The California Democrat is one of the Senate's most liberal members and replaces one of the most conservative senators, Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Inhofe had blocked bills seeking to cut the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, calling the issue "the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people."
Environmentalists were overjoyed at the change.
"That's like a tsunami hit the committee," said Karen Steuer, who heads government affairs at the National Environmental Trust, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. "You can't find two members or people more ideologically different.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/15973523.htm
Gore Keynotes S.F. Global Warming Summit
Leaders Tackling Air Quality Problems
By Amy Hollyfield
Nov. 10 - KGO - Former Vice President Al Gore and Bay Area leaders are putting their heads together at a summit to fight global warming in San Francisco today.
It's the first-ever summit of its kind in San Francisco. It's organized by the Bay Area Air Quality Management and they managed to attract a big name for their keynote speaker -- Al Gore. He agreed to speak -- but journalists and cameras were not allowed in.
Five hundred people from various businesses, government agencies and even schools are at the summit to share and steal ideas on how to improve air quality.
Here's just one example they'll hear of how one business can make a difference.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=4750094
Global Warming Action Cuts Cost
Two sets of headlines on global warming converged early last week, one dealing with the future and one with the past, and the upshot was especially discouraging.
In London, a former World Bank president issued a 700-page report suggesting that the price of averting catastrophe might be 1 percent of the globe's gross domestic product for the next half-century - and that was the good news.
The cost of failing to throttle back on greenhouse gases, Sir Nicholas Stern calculated, would fall somewhere between 5 percent and 20 percent, enough to create a worldwide equivalent of the Great Depression.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that federal spending on energy research has fallen to about half the levels of 1980, after adjustments for inflation.
This is not just an American problem; among the world's other industrial powers, only Japan keeps raising its spending on research into future energy technologies.
One percent of global gross domestic product may sound like a lot, and in fact it is in the neighborhood of a half-trillion bucks.
But there's a matter of perspective; overall, military spending worldwide consumes 2.5 percent (here the United States is well above average at 3.7 percent).
And, as the Stern report underlines with elegant simplicity, it really is just a question of whether we pay a lot now or a lot more later - and of what we get for the money.
For the 1 percent investment, we get nonpolluting, perpetually renewing power from the sun and wind in place of our smoggy infrastructures powered by burning coal, oil and, in stunningly large parts of the developing world, wood. For the larger investments, we get the costs of coping with refugees in the hundreds of millions in flight from coastal flooding, droughts, famines and pandemic disease.
For the 1 percent investment, the world's industrialized nations might also divvy up an annual savings in energy costs of well over $2 trillion a year. Poorer nations would measure their share of the payback in lives not lost and lands not abandoned.
For all the imprecision of their figures, Sir Nicholas and his colleagues have solidly countered the Bush administration's key arguments on global warming - that joining Britain, Canada and other industrial leaders in sharply cutting carbon emissions would bring economic ruin, and that there's plenty of time to figure out the best responses.
The truth is exactly opposite. The problem has grown only more urgent since President Bush took office and immediately reversed his promise to throttle back U.S. carbon emissions, and the costs of inaction are growing larger still.
With each passing year, the cost of each unspent dollar shifts toward the $20 end of the spectrum.
Still, the Stern report is optimistic about the potential of urgent and concerted worldwide action, in part because of technological progress on capturing carbon and making clean electricity. That requires U.S. leadership in two forms: making a serious cut in our 25 percent share of the world's emissions, and demonstrating a concern that extends beyond our short-term economic pain.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/news/opinion/15976810.htm
Michael Moore Today
Democrats Take Senate; Concession in Virginia Completes Midterm Sweep
By John M. Broder / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 — Democrats gained control of the Senate on Thursday, giving them a majority in both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994 and increased influence over President Bush’s policies at home and abroad, starting with the war in Iraq.
The Democrats picked up the seat they needed to capture the Senate when the Republican incumbent in Virginia, George Allen, conceded to Jim Webb, his Democratic challenger, completing a broad realignment of power in Washington. Including two independents who align themselves with the Democrats, Democrats will have a 51-to-49 advantage in the new Senate.
Within moments of Mr. Allen’s announcement, Democrats rallied outside the Capitol to celebrate their victory, cheering and chanting, while their leaders began planning how to proceed after a dozen years in which their only taste of power in Congress was when they controlled the Senate for a period in 2001 and 2002.
“The election’s over,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who will be the new majority leader. “It’s time for a change.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=530
MichaelMoore.com's photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmflint/
Youth turnout in election biggest in 20 years
By Jason Szep / Reuters
BOSTON - Young Americans voted in the largest numbers in at least 20 years in congressional elections, energized by the Iraq war and giving a boost to Democrats, pollsters said on Wednesday.
About 24 percent of Americans under the age of 30, or at least 10 million young voters, cast ballots in Tuesday's elections that saw Democrats make big gains in Congress. That was up 4 percentage points from the last mid-term elections in 2002.
"This looks like the highest in 20 years," said Mark Lopez, research director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which compiled the data based on exit polls. "Unfortunately, we can't say if it's a record because don't have good comparable data before 1986."
Rock the Vote, a youth-and-civics group, said young voters favored Democrats by a 22-point margin, nearly three times the margin Democrats earned among other age groups and dealing a potentially decisive blow to Republicans in tight races.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=520
Youth turnout biggest in 20 yearsAMERICA HAS SPOKEN:END THIS WAR
Exclusive: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse
A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo
By Adam Zagorin / Time Magazine
Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8322
Borat Home Page
http://www.borat.tv/
'Humble Suggestions for Reid and Pelosi'
...by Adam McKay
Huffington Post
I'm out of practice dealing with good political news. It's been a bit of an overload these past two days. It's kind of like getting a letter from my doctor informing me that I can now suddenly windmill dunk a basketball. I almost hesitate to bring up the House and Senate victories to people for threat they might inform me I feel asleep near some model glue with CNN on and the whole thing's a Testor's-induced hallucination. We.... won the House.... and the Senate? And Rumsfeld resigned?! And Bush said he's meeting with Democrats?!!! It's so wonderful I'm a tad suspicious.
Okay, here's what I think Bush and Rove cooked up. I think they figured that we were all in shock from winning the House and, at the time, likely the Senate, and they thought "Hey, this pony ain't used to the sugar. Let's put him into toxic shock." And so they had Rumsfeld resign. It was an attempt to overload us with goodness so we'd all faint from joy and injure ourselves. I'm telling you... And they had no idea how close they were. I almost wrecked my car driving west on the 10 from whooping when I heard Bush announce Rumsfeld's resignation. If Bush had then gone right to Cheney announcing that he was coming out of the closet my head would have exploded and Bush would have won. Brilliant I tell you.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=765
LANDSLIDE! ...a big thanks from Michael Moore
November 8th, 2006
Friends,
You did it! We did it! The impossible has happened: A majority of Americans have soundly and forcefully removed Bush's party from control of the House of Representatives and the Republicans have also, miraculously, been tossed out of running our United States Senate. This was done because the American people wanted to make two things crystal clear: End this war, and stop Mr. Bush from doing any more damage to this country we love. That is what this election was about. Nothing else. Just that. And it's a message that has sent shock waves throughout Washington -- and a note of hope around this troubled world.
Now the real work begins. Unless we stay on top of these Democrats to do the right thing, they will do what they've always done: Screw it up. Big Time. They helped Bush start this war, and now they should make amends.
But let's take a day to rejoice and revel in a rare victory for our side -- the side that doesn't believe in unprovoked invasions of other countries. This is your day, my friends. You have worked hard for it. I can't tell you how proud I am to count all of you as part of the greater American mainstream we now occupy. Thank you for all the time you gave this week to get out the vote. Some of you have been at this since the large demonstrations of February 2003 when we tried to stop the war before it started. Only 10-20% of the country agreed with us at that time. Remember how lonely that was? Some people were even booed! Now, 60% of the country agrees with our position. They are us and we are them. What a nice, strange, hopeful feeling.
A woman, for the first time in our history, will be Speaker of the House. The attempt to ban all abortion in the conservative state of South Dakota was defeated. Laws to raise the minimum wage were passed. Democrats were elected to fill Tom DeLay's and Mark Foley's seats. Detroit's John Conyers, Jr. is going to be the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The Democratic governor of Michigan beat the CEO from Amway. The little township next to where I live in Michigan voted Democratic for the first time since... ever. And on and on and on. The good news will continue throughout today. Let's enjoy it. Savor it. And use it to get Congress to finally listen to the majority.
If you want to do one thing today, send an email or a letter to both of your senators and your member of Congress and tell them, in no uncertain terms, what this election means: End the war -- and don't let George W. Bush get away with any more of his bright ideas.
Congratulations, again! Now let's go find a spine for the Dems to do the job we've sent them there to do.
Yours in victory (for once!),
Michael Mooremmflint@aol.comwww.michaelmoore.com
P.S. Thanks for all those photos you sent me of you with your brooms at your polling places. They're still coming in and we're posting them here throughout the day. And for those of you who asked how "Sicko" is coming along, the answer is: better than we ever expected! We're hard at work in the edit room and it will be in theaters in June. Thanks again, everyone, for your support.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=200
The Cheney-Gates Cabal
Ray McGovern
November 09, 2006
Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Full disclosure: he is indebted to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld for TV notoriety on May 4, when McGovern’s impromptu questioning after a Rumsfeld speech in Atlanta elicited denials later shown to be false after fact-checks by the TV networks. McGovern’s acquaintance with Robert Gates, whom the president has picked to succeed Rumsfeld, goes back 36 years to when Gates was a journeyman analyst in the CIA’s Soviet
Foreign Policy branch led by McGovern.
As the Iraq war goes from bad to worse, President George W. Bush jettisoned “stay the course” in favor of “necessary adjustments.” Yesterday he showed how quickly he can adjust to the mid-term election results, when he jettisoned Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, barely a week after telling reporters Rumsfeld was doing a “fantastic job” and that he wanted him to stay on for the next two years.
It had been clear for weeks that the election would be a referendum on the war in Iraq and that Republican losses would be substantial. And Rumsfeld and Bush had every intention of avoiding the embarrassment likely to come of the grilling of Rumsfeld by congressional committees chaired by Democrats. Besides, who better to try to blame for the “long, hard slog” in Iraq than the fellow who coined the expression, and then implemented it with dubious distinction?
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/11/09/the_cheneygates_cabal.php
Waxman set to probe areas of Bush gov't
By Erica Werner / Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - The Democratic congressman who will investigate the Bush administration's running of the government says there are so many areas of possible wrongdoing, his biggest problem will be deciding which ones to pursue.
There's the response to Hurricane Katrina, government contracting in Iraq and on homeland security, political interference in regulatory decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, and allegations of war profiteering, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
"I'm going to have an interesting time because the Government Reform Committee has jurisdiction over everything," Waxman said Friday, three days after his party's capture of Congress put him in line to chair the panel. "The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8326
British official: No shift in Iraq plan
By Beth Gardiner / Associated Press
LONDON - Iraq is at a critical juncture and faces a real risk that violence will escalate even further, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Thursday, warning against a precipitous withdrawal by the U.S.-led coalition. Beckett said the electoral wins by Democrats and the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would prompt a reassessment of strategy in Iraq, but were unlikely to lead to a major shift in policy.
The recommendations of an independent U.S. commission led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton would be key to determining America and Britain's next moves, she said.
"What is really important is the development of the Baker-Hamilton report, the discussions, the conversations that are taking place on that," Beckett said. "I am not myself anticipating some major upheaval in policy. What I do think we will see is a reassessment ... of how the international community can best move forward."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8318
Bush says open to suggestions on Iraq
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, signaling a more conciliatory approach after suffering electoral losses this week, said on Thursday he was "open to any idea or suggestion" on the Iraq war.
The incoming Democratic-controlled Congress is expected to exert more pressure on Bush for a course correction in Iraq amid rising U.S. casualties and violence.
"I'm open to any idea or suggestion that will help us achieve our goals of defeating the terrorists and ensuring that Iraq's democratic government succeeds," Bush said in a Rose Garden appearance with members of his Cabinet.
But Bush said the United States has a responsibility to give support to the 152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq -- an indirect challenge to those Democrats who have talked about cutting off funding for the Iraq mission.
"Whatever party you come from, we all have a responsibility to ensure that these troops have the resources and support they need to prevail," Bush said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8320
Mubarak warns against hanging Saddam
By Nadia Abou El-Magd / Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt - Egypt's president came out strongly against hanging Saddam Hussein, saying in remarks published Thursday that it could make Iraq explode into more violence. But Iraq's prime minister said the execution could take place by the end of the year.
The statement from President Hosni Mubarak of Eygpt broke an uneasy silence among Arab leaders over Sunday's verdict by an Iraqi court, which convicted Saddam for the killings of some 150 Shiite Muslims after an assassination attempt against him in 1982.
Mubarak, a regional heavyweight and a top U.S. ally, appeared to speak for many in the region who are uneasy about seeing a former Arab president tried and sentenced — no matter how much they disliked Saddam's regime. Analysts suggested Arab leaders are worried about the precedent an execution would set, and said Arab publics often identify with their leaders.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8317
Rangel's itching to evict Cheney
By Austin Fenner / Mew York Daily News
Harlem's newly powerful Rep. Charles Rangel wants to stick it to his White House nemesis Vice President Cheney - by taking over his spacious House office.
At the same time, the veteran congressman offered a limp olive branch to the vice president yesterday, saying he regretted publicly calling him an SOB last week.
"I take back saying that publicly. I should have reserved that for him when we were together privately," said Rangel. "Believe me, he would have understood."
Rangel (D-Harlem), poised to become the next chairman of the important House Ways and Means Committee, spoke of the need for bipartisanship with the Republicans, even as he continued his feud with Cheney.
"Mr. Cheney enjoys an office on the second floor on the House of Representatives that historically has been designated as the Ways and Means chairman," Rangel mused. "And, I've talked with [future Speaker of the House] Nancy Pelosi ... and I'm trying to find some way to be gentle as I restore the dignity of that office to the chair."
The White House declined to comment.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=531
Cross-country trek to be anti-war action
By Michael Stetz / Union-Tribune
It will be a grueling, tiring walk. But it's been a grueling, tiring war.
Bill McDannell is going to walk across the country – through desert, mountains, plains, towns, cities – and ask people to sign a petition to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He hates those two wars. He hates the one in Iraq, in particular. But until now, what has he done about it?
Grumbled.
Talked back at the TV set.
Attended a few anti-war rallies.
It's time, he said. Time to do something – anything – to try to put an end to it.
So Nov. 4 he will start walking from Lindo Lake Park near his home in Lakeside to Washington, D.C.
“I'm extremely bothered by what's happening, but I have felt powerless,” said McDannell, 57, a former Methodist minister. “There are a lot of voiceless and powerless people out there right now.”
McDannell has no idea what kind of reaction his near 3,000-mile walk will bring. He hopes to inspire people to walk with him for a time. He'd like to raise the kind of curiosity and interest that San Diegan Steve Vaught got when he trekked across country to lose weight. Dubbed “Fat Man Walking,” Vaught was on TV, in newspapers and the subject of a documentary.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8233
The Jordan Times
Holding his daughter Toleen, who was injured in a suicide bombing in the Amman Radisson Hotel last year, Samir Karim talks on Thursday to King Abdullah at the Royal Court. The King and Queen Rania yesterday hosted a lunch for the families of the Amman triple bombings’ victims, on the first anniversary of the terror attacks
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/index.htm
Iraq puts civilian toll at 150,000
BAGHDAD (AP) — A stunning new death count emerged Thursday, as Iraq's health minister estimated at least 150,000 civilians had been killed in the war — about three times previously accepted estimates.
Moderate Sunni Muslims, meanwhile, threatened to walk away from politics and pick up guns, while the Shiite-dominated government renewed pressure on the United States to unleash the Iraqi army — claiming it could crush violence in six months.
After Democrats swept to majorities in both Houses of the US Congress and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld resigned, Iraqis appeared unsettled and seemed to sense the potential for an even bloodier conflict because of uncertainty of future American policy. As a result, positions hardened on both sides of the country's deepening sectarian divide.
Previous estimates of Iraq deaths held that about 50,000 had been killed in the nearly 44-month-old conflict, according to partial figures from Iraqi institutions and media reports.
No official count has ever been available and Health Minister Ali Shemari did not detail how he arrived at the new estimate of 150,000, provided to reporters during a visit to the Austrian capital.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news1.htm
Amman attacks strengthened Jordan will to fight terror — King
AMMAN (Petra) — King Abdullah on Thursday reiterated Jordan’s pride in citizens’ unity and solidarity against the terror attacks that hit Amman on November 9 last year.
Jordanians are “great people, who, in their courageous stand, demonstrated coherence and utter keenness on the country’s security and stability”, the King said in remarks to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, on the first anniversary of suicide bombings at three Amman hotels.
The terror attacks killed 68 Jordanians and 22 foreigners, according to the Public Security Department.
The Monarch said the bombings “strengthened Jordanian solidarity and will to fight all forms of terror”.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews1.htm
King, Queen mark 1st anniversary of hotel bombings with victims’ families
AMMAN (JT) — Her Majesty Queen Rania met with some of the victims of last year’s tragic hotel bombings as well as their families at Civil Defence Department headquarters on Thursday.
During a very emotional meeting, the Queen reiterated her support for everyone affected by the tragedy.
“The more we stand together, the stronger we stand,” she said. “Nothing can fill the void of your loss, but we stand by you to help you deal with it.”
The gathering observed a moment of silence and prayer for the 90 men, women and children who lost their lives in last year’s attacks.
A few of the injured and several of the victims’ family members recounted the emotional experiences of the past year. All the families at Thursday’s meeting had received psychological counselling, as well as medical and financial assistance to help ease the burden of the trauma from the Jordanian Society for the Prevention of Family Violence’s (JSPFV) National Compassion and Support Centre.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews2.htm
Sudan says ready for talks with Darfur rebels
CAIRO (Reuters) — The Sudanese government is willing to start unconditional talks with the National Redemption Front rebel group to stop the violence in Darfur but sees no need for a new peace deal, a senior presidential adviser said.
Nafie Ali Nafie, addressing reporters in Egypt, South Africa, France, and Britain through a satellite link from Khartoum late on Wednesday, also said Sudan would not accept the presence of UN troops in the war-ravaged area, even in return for the United States lifting economic sanctions.
"We accept dialogue without imposing any condition on them and without accepting any condition. If we agree then we will thank God, and if we don't we will continue our dialogue," he said.
There was no comment on Thursday from the NRF, an alliance of rebel groups that rejected as inadequate a May peace accord signed in the Nigerian capital Abuja. The group has said it is ready to negotiate with Khartoum but wants a new agreement.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news4.htm
Iraqis split over US pullout
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — An expected phased reduction in US troops in Iraq after the resignation of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld left Iraqis split on Thursday whether a withdrawal would be in their best interest.
While a majority of Iraqis want to see the departure of Washington's 150,000 troops, according to a recent poll, many fear an early pullout would worsen an already bleak situation as rival groups may vie for control and violence escalates.
Abu Abdullah, a member of the Sunni minority from the northern city of Mosul, said his sect, fighting in an anti-US rebellion, needs US protection from Shiite factions.
"I prefer them to stay in Iraq because we Sunnis are very weak at the current time," said 38-year-old Abu Abdullah.
"If they withdraw, then the militias will become bolder and the fighting will increase," he added.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news5.htm
Iran’s once active campuses falling silent
TEHRAN (Reuters) — Iran's university campuses are falling silent. Student activists, once at the vanguard of a movement seeking political and social change in the Islamic Republic, say they are increasingly afraid to speak out.
"I used to take part in so many protests. I was arrested twice, once in 2001 and once in 2003," said student Mehdi Aminzadeh, describing his role in rallies during the tenure of pro-reform former President Mohammad Khatami.
"The situation has changed a lot since that time. The pressures have pushed us to be more cautious," said the 29-year old, who says he has been barred from registering for a masters in political science.
Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power in August last year vowing a return to Islamic revolutionary principles, activists say 181 students have been summoned to university disciplinary boards and 105 of them were suspended.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news6.htm
Egyptian president warns against hanging Saddam
CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned against carrying out the death sentence on Saddam Hussein, saying that hanging the former leader would lead to more sectarian strife in Iraq.
"Carrying out this verdict will explode violence like waterfalls in Iraq," Mubarak was quoted Thursday as saying to editors of state-run Egyptian dailies.
The verdict "will transform [Iraq] into blood pools and lead to a deepening of the sectarian and ethnic conflicts," the Egyptian president said in what appeared to be the most high profile Arab comment yet on Saddam's condemnation.
On Sunday, an Iraqi court sentenced Saddam to hang for the deaths of about 150 Shiite Muslims following an assassination attempt against him in 1982 in the town of Dujail.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news7.htm
Hope for a change of course
The Democratic sweep of Tuesday’s elections in the US just may be a prelude to 2008. If the Democrats quickly get to work on all the ills that befell their country under the Republicans’ watch and keep their slate clean of scandals, they may be on the road to ending a very controversial era in US history.
That California Democrat Nancy Pelosi, tipped to become the first female speaker of the US House of Representatives, immediately pledged after her victory to spend the first 100 hours up on Capitol Hill advocating the Democrat’s “Six for ‘06” programme must be a genuine relief to the American citizens.
It cuts to the chase by calling for raising the minimum wage, revoking subsidies for oil companies and incentives for firms to outsource jobs abroad, slashing interest rates on student loans, empowering the government to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry to reduce the price of prescription drugs and expand opportunities for embryonic stem cell research.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion1.htm
continued …
Brown Plans to Build Team, Enforce Global Warming Law
By STEVEN CISCHKE, Staff Writer
California Attorney General-Elect Jerry Brown said yesterday he is looking forward to working with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to create regulations for the enforcement of California’s new Global Warming legislation.
Brown, who defeated state Sen. Chuck Poochigian, R-Fresno, by a decisive margin in Tuesday’s election, told the MetNews he wants regulations that are “practical, defendable and effective.”
Noting that the California Department of Justice—which the attorney general heads—has sent six officers to Oakland to help with its crime problem Brown said he is also looking forward to expanding the program to help other cities in need. Poochigian focused on Oakland crime rates in the campaign, blaming Brown, who has been the city’s mayor for eight years.
He said he has not chosen a chief deputy attorney general yet, and will meet with current members of the department before making any staff decisions. “Building a team is my number one priority,” he added.
When asked to explain his large victory margin—he won by more than 18 percentage points—Brown responded:
“People believed me, and didn’t believe him.”
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2006/brow110906.htm
Mercury limits for power plants
N.C. tops federal rules in restricting release of toxic substance from new, existing coal-fired facilities
BRUCE HENDERSON
bhenderson@charlotteobserver.com
North Carolina set its first limits Thursday on the amount of mercury that coal-fired power plants may release, joining several states that have set tougher standards than the Bush administration's for the widespread contaminant.
Mercury, which occurs naturally in coal, takes especially hazardous form when it spews from smokestacks and falls into water. Pregnant women who eat contaminated fish risk giving birth to babies with lower intelligence and learning problems.
In March, state health authorities broadened their warnings about eating mercury-contaminated fish. In addition to four freshwater species caught in Eastern North Carolina, the list now includes largemouth bass caught anywhere in the state.
The state Environmental Management Commission, which held packed mercury hearings in Charlotte and other cities last spring, struck a compromise Thursday that utilities and environmentalists praised.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/15975990.htm
Strong storms expected today
Ryan Slight © 2006, Springfield News-Leader Strong to severe thunderstorms with walnut-size hail may move across the Springfield area today, the National Weather Service reported.A cold front is shifting east across the Missouri Ozarks, creating storms capable of damaging wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour, the service said.The NWS said spotter assistance may be needed for areas northwest of Interstate 44 this morning, and the entire region in the late morning and afternoon.The high temperature is expected to drop to 48 degrees tomorrow, but no hazardous weather is anticipated.
Liberia: Oil Deal, in Whose Interest?
The NEWS (Monrovia)
November 9, 2006Posted to the web November 9, 2006
In whose interest was the oil deal negotiated is the question that has been raised by three human rights groups who are demanding documents from the Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC).
Mr. Harry Greaves who negotiated the oil deal on behalf of the Liberian government with the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been requested by the three human rights organizations to provide or make available detailed information of major and sub-contractual agreements surrounding the oil deal to them.
The human rights organizations said they want the LPRC boss to also provide copies of the Act establishing the LPRC and all regulations and administrative decisions promulgated under the authority of the Act with reference to import, sale and distribution of petroleum products as well as regulations that provide for monitoring and regulation of the sale and distribution, transport, storage and safe handling of petroleum products.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611090389.html
Oil majors at crossroads in Venezuela's tar oil patch
By Peter Millard
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
CARACAS (MarketWatch) -- Six hundred former employees from the likes of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) and Repsol YPF SA (REP) were chanting pro-government slogans on Tuesday, offering a preview of what the corporate atmosphere at four multi-billion-dollar Venezuelan tar oil projects will look like in a year's time.
Six western oil majors must forfeit operational control or face the wrath of an administration steeped in oil nationalism at the peak of a domestic electoral cycle.
On Tuesday, the workers picked up identification cards from their new boss, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PVZ.YY) President Rafael Ramirez, who has spearheaded a nationalist drive to convert 32 privately-run oil fields into state-dominated joint ventures.
With that process nearly completed, PdVSA is now pressuring its six partners in the Orinoco belt, the world's largest oil deposit, to ink similar contract overhauls that would put day-to-day operations under the control of PdVSA, one of the country's most politicized public institutions.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?siteid=mktw&guid={5511F833-78E8-453A-B756-B71871A00EDA}
Wesleyan Spotlights Global Warming
November 10, 2006 By DAVID FUNKHOUSER, Courant Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN -- As the political winds shift in Washington, the global warming debate may change as well, from a focus on dire warnings of melting ice sheets and flooded coastlines to a pragmatic discussion over what can be done about it.Prominent scientists will gather at Wesleyan University Saturday morning to discuss how climate change might affect everything from hurricanes and human health to the international political landscape.
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctwarmingup1110.artnov10,0,2833256.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
Storm shuts Rainier park for first time in 26 years
YAKIMA, Washington (AP) -- Heavy rain has caused so much damage at Mount Rainier National Park that officials have closed the attraction for the first time in 26 years.
Nearly 18 inches of rain in 36 hours swamped roads and bridges and cut power and sewer lines.
Initial cleanup will take weeks. Park officials say they hope to return to normal operations by Christmas. In some places, they won't know the extent of the damage until after the snow melts in the spring.
"Some places get that much rain in a year, and we had it in 36 hours," said park spokeswoman Lee Taylor, noting the 17.9 inches of rain that fell Sunday and Monday. "When we were finally able to get out and start assessing the damage, it was a very sobering day."
The Pineapple Express storm, named for its origin in warm Pacific waters, wreaked havoc across the region. It damaged hundreds of homes, washed out a major highway near Oregon's Mount Hood, closed part of the North Cascades Highway in Washington, and was blamed for at least three deaths in the two states.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/11/10/rainier.ap/index.html
US crude oil prices climb higher
November 10, 2006 - 7:49AM
US crude oil prices were sharply higher on Thursday, up 1.8 per cent on government data showing domestic natural gas supplies fell last week.
A supply report from the US Energy Information Administration Thursday morning pegged domestic natural gas storage down seven billion cubic feet last week.
At 1408 EST on the New York Mercantile Exchange, December crude was up $US1.07 at $US60.90 a barrel.
It had traded from $US59.90 to $US61.26.
In London, ICE December Brent crude rose $US1.37 to $US60.96, having traded $US59.76 to $US61.43.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/US-crude-oil-prices-climb-higher/2006/11/10/1162661861134.html
I like to know what is happening with weather in Australia. Antarctica is getting hot so quick it’s good to know how the folks in Australia are fairing.
Queenslanders in for severe storms
FORECASTERS yesterday warned Queenslanders to brace themselves for an onslaught of steamy summer weather from next week.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the severe storms that swept across southeast Queensland on Wednesday night had moved off the coast, and scattered showers would ease over the next few days.
A northwesterly change over the weekend will bring fine weather and temperatures in the low to mid-30s.
“By Monday, everyone will definitely know that summer has arrived,” Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Bryan Rolstone said.
The dry change spells bad news for the state’s water crisis, but relief for the hundreds of residents between the Sunshine and Gold coasts who are still mopping up after Wed-nesday night’s storms.
More than 100 SES members worked through the night, repairing roofs damaged by strong winds.
Seven properties in Esk, including the local police station, were damaged, while one home in Caboolture, north of Brisbane, lost its roof.
A Gold Coast Catholic school, Aquinas College, is set to remain closed today after the storm tore the roof from its music room and damaged many other classrooms.
Spokesman for NRMA Frank Alder said insurance claims already were starting to pour in.
The Bureau of Meteorology says that patchy showers will push north into central Queensland today.
http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/bm/national/517491.html
Unseen rivers are the answer
By RICCARDA BURLEY
THE answer to the Border’s water shortages is right under our feet, according to a Tallangatta water diviner.
Alec Turnbull says there are thousands of streams, some as large as the Murray River, running underground that can be tapped for homes or livestock.
A water diviner since the 1982 drought, Mr Turnbull first experimented on the family farm, Fairyknowe, at Tallangatta South.
“The son ran out of water so I took a piece of willow stick and took a walk around,” he said.
“I found a stream about 20m from the shed and we had a fellow come in and put a bore down.
“He went about 80 feet and hit rock and he wasn’t too keen but I said ‘keep going’.
“At 120 feet we hit water and it gushed into the air about 40 feet and showered us with water and sand — it was beautiful water and they still use it.”
Mr Turnbull believes about 96 per cent of fresh water is underground.
“I use willow stick because it’s strong but flexible because the pull on it towards the ground is incredibly strong,” he said.
“It screws the skin up on my hands and if I do it too long it knocks me up.
“I can’t explain what it is, it’s just something in your body — I can feel the force in the stick about 30 to 40 yards away from the stream.”
Mr Turnbull also mineral divines and found a gold seam for a miner at Tennant Creek and will do some work for the Maude and Yellow Girl mine at Glen Wills in March.
“What I’d really like to do is travel from Albury up to Swan Hill on the NSW side and back again on the Victorian side, mapping all the major underground streams,” he said.
Ghana: Climate Change Will Affect Future Food Availability – FAO
November 8, 2006Posted to the web November 8, 2006
GNA
Climate change will directly affect future food availability and compound the difficulties of feeding the world's rapidly growing population, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said at the opening of a UN climate change conference in Nairobi on Monday.
In an address to the conference's scientific and technical body, Mr Castro Paulino Camarada, FAO Representative in Kenya, stressed that greater attention must be given to the impact of climate change on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and on mitigation and adaptation measures.
According to a statement received in Accra yesterday, Mr Camarada said there were a number of areas where FAO's expertise could contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change.
"There is likely to be a significant transition toward biofuels during the next 50 years, with agriculture and forestry among the leading sources for both liquid and solid fuels," he said
. http://allafrica.com/stories/200611080417.html
America's anti-environmentalist streak
By KENNETH ROGOFF
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- As an American, I am appalled, ashamed and embarrassed by my country's lack of leadership in dealing with global warming. Scientific evidence on the risks mounts by the day, as most recently documented in England's magisterial Stern Report. Yet, despite the fact that the United States accounts for roughly 25 percent of all man-made global carbon emissions, Americans show little will or inclination to temper their manic consumption.
The first Bush administration was probably right to refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol, albeit for the wrong reasons. Among other problems, the Kyoto Protocol does not go far enough toward redistributing carbon emission rights toward developing countries. But why can't the United States bring itself to raise taxes on gasoline and other sources of carbon emission like coal-burning power plants?
Many people seem to think that the Bush administration is the problem. Put a Texas oilman and his buddies in charge and what do you expect, conservation? Unfortunately, that is a facile excuse.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20061109a2.html
Ski for Global Warming
Good for ski resorts all around the US. This season, many resorts are running their facilities with "Green Power". Yeah! At least 45 resorts in 14 states are chosing to use clean energy, and 16 resorts are going to 100% of their power sources from clean energy. They will be using sources which include, wind, solar, hydroelectric, bio-mass, and geothermal.
The resorts do admit, they went green not only to help the enviornment, but to keep skiing around as long as they can. I'm sure you all have heard of Global Warming. Well, if it continues to happen, we wouldn't have all the nice fluffy white stuff-snow, to play in. This is a great thing, in my opinion, because the resorts are going to be a big billboard for saving our enviornment. It will educate people about what they can do to help, as well as show people that something does need to be done about this matter.
Aspen is going to have upcoming ads in outdoor magazines and this will also help spread the news that green is good! I am very happy and proud of the people involved in making this happen. The change to better the earth was not easy nor inexpensive. Good for them for taking a step in the right direction. As for me, I am just one person, but I have pledged to switch to energystar lightbulbs through out my house. As of now, I only have 3 more regular lightbulbs to go before my house is lit by all energystar bulbs. You wanna know something-it lowers my electric bill too- I promise. Now, I am trying to get my parents into the mix and have them switch out too.
For more cool ideas, go to www.energystar.gov
http://www.progressiveu.org/123435-ski-for-global-warming
Your view: Work against global warming
By MARSHALL DAHLIN La Crosse
The war in Iraq, the epidemic of terrorism and hurricane Katrina all have something in common: global warming.Does anyone think we’d be “spreading democracy” in Iraq, if we didn’t need Middle East oil? Would we have been meddling in the Middle East for the past 60 years and stirring up hatred of the United States if not for oil? If we had not been dependent on fossil fuels would the oceans be warming, creating monster storms like Katrina and Rita?Fossil fuels deserve our gratitude for having given us the modern technological world we now inhabit. But now the gift has turned to curse, and we have to chart a new future based on renewable energy. Failure to meet this challenge will cause our descendents to curse us.What can we do? I don’t think we can wait for the people now occupying the White House to save us. We can vote for candidates who accept scientific evidence. We can support national movements fighting global warming. We can march. We can do all the practical things to minimize our individual carbon footprints such as using fluorescent light bulbs, driving economical cars, etc.But maybe what we need in addition to the above is to come together here in La Crosse County to support each other in our efforts to make a difference. The challenge is so big that it is easy to despair and we must resist if we are to meet this crisis. As Joan Rivers used to say, “Can we talk?”
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2006/11/09/opinion/letters/02letter09.txt
Boxer pledges shift on global warming policy with new Senate role
SAMANTHA YOUNG
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Sen. Barbara Boxer on Thursday promised major policy shifts on global warming, air quality and toxic-waste cleanup as she prepares to head the U.S. Senate's environmental committee.
"Time is running out, and we need to move forward on this," Boxer said of global warming during a conference call with reporters. "The states are beginning to take steps, and we need to take steps as well."
Boxer's elevation to chairwoman of the Senate Environmental Public Works Committee comes as the Democrats return to power in the Senate. It also marks a dramatic shift in ideology for the panel.
The California Democrat is one of the Senate's most liberal members and replaces one of the most conservative senators, Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Inhofe had blocked bills seeking to cut the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, calling the issue "the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people."
Environmentalists were overjoyed at the change.
"That's like a tsunami hit the committee," said Karen Steuer, who heads government affairs at the National Environmental Trust, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. "You can't find two members or people more ideologically different.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/15973523.htm
Gore Keynotes S.F. Global Warming Summit
Leaders Tackling Air Quality Problems
By Amy Hollyfield
Nov. 10 - KGO - Former Vice President Al Gore and Bay Area leaders are putting their heads together at a summit to fight global warming in San Francisco today.
It's the first-ever summit of its kind in San Francisco. It's organized by the Bay Area Air Quality Management and they managed to attract a big name for their keynote speaker -- Al Gore. He agreed to speak -- but journalists and cameras were not allowed in.
Five hundred people from various businesses, government agencies and even schools are at the summit to share and steal ideas on how to improve air quality.
Here's just one example they'll hear of how one business can make a difference.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=4750094
Global Warming Action Cuts Cost
Two sets of headlines on global warming converged early last week, one dealing with the future and one with the past, and the upshot was especially discouraging.
In London, a former World Bank president issued a 700-page report suggesting that the price of averting catastrophe might be 1 percent of the globe's gross domestic product for the next half-century - and that was the good news.
The cost of failing to throttle back on greenhouse gases, Sir Nicholas Stern calculated, would fall somewhere between 5 percent and 20 percent, enough to create a worldwide equivalent of the Great Depression.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that federal spending on energy research has fallen to about half the levels of 1980, after adjustments for inflation.
This is not just an American problem; among the world's other industrial powers, only Japan keeps raising its spending on research into future energy technologies.
One percent of global gross domestic product may sound like a lot, and in fact it is in the neighborhood of a half-trillion bucks.
But there's a matter of perspective; overall, military spending worldwide consumes 2.5 percent (here the United States is well above average at 3.7 percent).
And, as the Stern report underlines with elegant simplicity, it really is just a question of whether we pay a lot now or a lot more later - and of what we get for the money.
For the 1 percent investment, we get nonpolluting, perpetually renewing power from the sun and wind in place of our smoggy infrastructures powered by burning coal, oil and, in stunningly large parts of the developing world, wood. For the larger investments, we get the costs of coping with refugees in the hundreds of millions in flight from coastal flooding, droughts, famines and pandemic disease.
For the 1 percent investment, the world's industrialized nations might also divvy up an annual savings in energy costs of well over $2 trillion a year. Poorer nations would measure their share of the payback in lives not lost and lands not abandoned.
For all the imprecision of their figures, Sir Nicholas and his colleagues have solidly countered the Bush administration's key arguments on global warming - that joining Britain, Canada and other industrial leaders in sharply cutting carbon emissions would bring economic ruin, and that there's plenty of time to figure out the best responses.
The truth is exactly opposite. The problem has grown only more urgent since President Bush took office and immediately reversed his promise to throttle back U.S. carbon emissions, and the costs of inaction are growing larger still.
With each passing year, the cost of each unspent dollar shifts toward the $20 end of the spectrum.
Still, the Stern report is optimistic about the potential of urgent and concerted worldwide action, in part because of technological progress on capturing carbon and making clean electricity. That requires U.S. leadership in two forms: making a serious cut in our 25 percent share of the world's emissions, and demonstrating a concern that extends beyond our short-term economic pain.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/news/opinion/15976810.htm
Michael Moore Today
Democrats Take Senate; Concession in Virginia Completes Midterm Sweep
By John M. Broder / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 — Democrats gained control of the Senate on Thursday, giving them a majority in both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994 and increased influence over President Bush’s policies at home and abroad, starting with the war in Iraq.
The Democrats picked up the seat they needed to capture the Senate when the Republican incumbent in Virginia, George Allen, conceded to Jim Webb, his Democratic challenger, completing a broad realignment of power in Washington. Including two independents who align themselves with the Democrats, Democrats will have a 51-to-49 advantage in the new Senate.
Within moments of Mr. Allen’s announcement, Democrats rallied outside the Capitol to celebrate their victory, cheering and chanting, while their leaders began planning how to proceed after a dozen years in which their only taste of power in Congress was when they controlled the Senate for a period in 2001 and 2002.
“The election’s over,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who will be the new majority leader. “It’s time for a change.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=530
MichaelMoore.com's photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmflint/
Youth turnout in election biggest in 20 years
By Jason Szep / Reuters
BOSTON - Young Americans voted in the largest numbers in at least 20 years in congressional elections, energized by the Iraq war and giving a boost to Democrats, pollsters said on Wednesday.
About 24 percent of Americans under the age of 30, or at least 10 million young voters, cast ballots in Tuesday's elections that saw Democrats make big gains in Congress. That was up 4 percentage points from the last mid-term elections in 2002.
"This looks like the highest in 20 years," said Mark Lopez, research director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which compiled the data based on exit polls. "Unfortunately, we can't say if it's a record because don't have good comparable data before 1986."
Rock the Vote, a youth-and-civics group, said young voters favored Democrats by a 22-point margin, nearly three times the margin Democrats earned among other age groups and dealing a potentially decisive blow to Republicans in tight races.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=520
Youth turnout biggest in 20 yearsAMERICA HAS SPOKEN:END THIS WAR
Exclusive: Charges Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse
A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the outgoing Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo
By Adam Zagorin / Time Magazine
Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8322
Borat Home Page
http://www.borat.tv/
'Humble Suggestions for Reid and Pelosi'
...by Adam McKay
Huffington Post
I'm out of practice dealing with good political news. It's been a bit of an overload these past two days. It's kind of like getting a letter from my doctor informing me that I can now suddenly windmill dunk a basketball. I almost hesitate to bring up the House and Senate victories to people for threat they might inform me I feel asleep near some model glue with CNN on and the whole thing's a Testor's-induced hallucination. We.... won the House.... and the Senate? And Rumsfeld resigned?! And Bush said he's meeting with Democrats?!!! It's so wonderful I'm a tad suspicious.
Okay, here's what I think Bush and Rove cooked up. I think they figured that we were all in shock from winning the House and, at the time, likely the Senate, and they thought "Hey, this pony ain't used to the sugar. Let's put him into toxic shock." And so they had Rumsfeld resign. It was an attempt to overload us with goodness so we'd all faint from joy and injure ourselves. I'm telling you... And they had no idea how close they were. I almost wrecked my car driving west on the 10 from whooping when I heard Bush announce Rumsfeld's resignation. If Bush had then gone right to Cheney announcing that he was coming out of the closet my head would have exploded and Bush would have won. Brilliant I tell you.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=765
LANDSLIDE! ...a big thanks from Michael Moore
November 8th, 2006
Friends,
You did it! We did it! The impossible has happened: A majority of Americans have soundly and forcefully removed Bush's party from control of the House of Representatives and the Republicans have also, miraculously, been tossed out of running our United States Senate. This was done because the American people wanted to make two things crystal clear: End this war, and stop Mr. Bush from doing any more damage to this country we love. That is what this election was about. Nothing else. Just that. And it's a message that has sent shock waves throughout Washington -- and a note of hope around this troubled world.
Now the real work begins. Unless we stay on top of these Democrats to do the right thing, they will do what they've always done: Screw it up. Big Time. They helped Bush start this war, and now they should make amends.
But let's take a day to rejoice and revel in a rare victory for our side -- the side that doesn't believe in unprovoked invasions of other countries. This is your day, my friends. You have worked hard for it. I can't tell you how proud I am to count all of you as part of the greater American mainstream we now occupy. Thank you for all the time you gave this week to get out the vote. Some of you have been at this since the large demonstrations of February 2003 when we tried to stop the war before it started. Only 10-20% of the country agreed with us at that time. Remember how lonely that was? Some people were even booed! Now, 60% of the country agrees with our position. They are us and we are them. What a nice, strange, hopeful feeling.
A woman, for the first time in our history, will be Speaker of the House. The attempt to ban all abortion in the conservative state of South Dakota was defeated. Laws to raise the minimum wage were passed. Democrats were elected to fill Tom DeLay's and Mark Foley's seats. Detroit's John Conyers, Jr. is going to be the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The Democratic governor of Michigan beat the CEO from Amway. The little township next to where I live in Michigan voted Democratic for the first time since... ever. And on and on and on. The good news will continue throughout today. Let's enjoy it. Savor it. And use it to get Congress to finally listen to the majority.
If you want to do one thing today, send an email or a letter to both of your senators and your member of Congress and tell them, in no uncertain terms, what this election means: End the war -- and don't let George W. Bush get away with any more of his bright ideas.
Congratulations, again! Now let's go find a spine for the Dems to do the job we've sent them there to do.
Yours in victory (for once!),
Michael Mooremmflint@aol.comwww.michaelmoore.com
P.S. Thanks for all those photos you sent me of you with your brooms at your polling places. They're still coming in and we're posting them here throughout the day. And for those of you who asked how "Sicko" is coming along, the answer is: better than we ever expected! We're hard at work in the edit room and it will be in theaters in June. Thanks again, everyone, for your support.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=200
The Cheney-Gates Cabal
Ray McGovern
November 09, 2006
Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Full disclosure: he is indebted to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld for TV notoriety on May 4, when McGovern’s impromptu questioning after a Rumsfeld speech in Atlanta elicited denials later shown to be false after fact-checks by the TV networks. McGovern’s acquaintance with Robert Gates, whom the president has picked to succeed Rumsfeld, goes back 36 years to when Gates was a journeyman analyst in the CIA’s Soviet
Foreign Policy branch led by McGovern.
As the Iraq war goes from bad to worse, President George W. Bush jettisoned “stay the course” in favor of “necessary adjustments.” Yesterday he showed how quickly he can adjust to the mid-term election results, when he jettisoned Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, barely a week after telling reporters Rumsfeld was doing a “fantastic job” and that he wanted him to stay on for the next two years.
It had been clear for weeks that the election would be a referendum on the war in Iraq and that Republican losses would be substantial. And Rumsfeld and Bush had every intention of avoiding the embarrassment likely to come of the grilling of Rumsfeld by congressional committees chaired by Democrats. Besides, who better to try to blame for the “long, hard slog” in Iraq than the fellow who coined the expression, and then implemented it with dubious distinction?
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/11/09/the_cheneygates_cabal.php
Waxman set to probe areas of Bush gov't
By Erica Werner / Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - The Democratic congressman who will investigate the Bush administration's running of the government says there are so many areas of possible wrongdoing, his biggest problem will be deciding which ones to pursue.
There's the response to Hurricane Katrina, government contracting in Iraq and on homeland security, political interference in regulatory decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, and allegations of war profiteering, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
"I'm going to have an interesting time because the Government Reform Committee has jurisdiction over everything," Waxman said Friday, three days after his party's capture of Congress put him in line to chair the panel. "The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8326
British official: No shift in Iraq plan
By Beth Gardiner / Associated Press
LONDON - Iraq is at a critical juncture and faces a real risk that violence will escalate even further, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Thursday, warning against a precipitous withdrawal by the U.S.-led coalition. Beckett said the electoral wins by Democrats and the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would prompt a reassessment of strategy in Iraq, but were unlikely to lead to a major shift in policy.
The recommendations of an independent U.S. commission led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton would be key to determining America and Britain's next moves, she said.
"What is really important is the development of the Baker-Hamilton report, the discussions, the conversations that are taking place on that," Beckett said. "I am not myself anticipating some major upheaval in policy. What I do think we will see is a reassessment ... of how the international community can best move forward."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8318
Bush says open to suggestions on Iraq
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, signaling a more conciliatory approach after suffering electoral losses this week, said on Thursday he was "open to any idea or suggestion" on the Iraq war.
The incoming Democratic-controlled Congress is expected to exert more pressure on Bush for a course correction in Iraq amid rising U.S. casualties and violence.
"I'm open to any idea or suggestion that will help us achieve our goals of defeating the terrorists and ensuring that Iraq's democratic government succeeds," Bush said in a Rose Garden appearance with members of his Cabinet.
But Bush said the United States has a responsibility to give support to the 152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq -- an indirect challenge to those Democrats who have talked about cutting off funding for the Iraq mission.
"Whatever party you come from, we all have a responsibility to ensure that these troops have the resources and support they need to prevail," Bush said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8320
Mubarak warns against hanging Saddam
By Nadia Abou El-Magd / Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt - Egypt's president came out strongly against hanging Saddam Hussein, saying in remarks published Thursday that it could make Iraq explode into more violence. But Iraq's prime minister said the execution could take place by the end of the year.
The statement from President Hosni Mubarak of Eygpt broke an uneasy silence among Arab leaders over Sunday's verdict by an Iraqi court, which convicted Saddam for the killings of some 150 Shiite Muslims after an assassination attempt against him in 1982.
Mubarak, a regional heavyweight and a top U.S. ally, appeared to speak for many in the region who are uneasy about seeing a former Arab president tried and sentenced — no matter how much they disliked Saddam's regime. Analysts suggested Arab leaders are worried about the precedent an execution would set, and said Arab publics often identify with their leaders.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8317
Rangel's itching to evict Cheney
By Austin Fenner / Mew York Daily News
Harlem's newly powerful Rep. Charles Rangel wants to stick it to his White House nemesis Vice President Cheney - by taking over his spacious House office.
At the same time, the veteran congressman offered a limp olive branch to the vice president yesterday, saying he regretted publicly calling him an SOB last week.
"I take back saying that publicly. I should have reserved that for him when we were together privately," said Rangel. "Believe me, he would have understood."
Rangel (D-Harlem), poised to become the next chairman of the important House Ways and Means Committee, spoke of the need for bipartisanship with the Republicans, even as he continued his feud with Cheney.
"Mr. Cheney enjoys an office on the second floor on the House of Representatives that historically has been designated as the Ways and Means chairman," Rangel mused. "And, I've talked with [future Speaker of the House] Nancy Pelosi ... and I'm trying to find some way to be gentle as I restore the dignity of that office to the chair."
The White House declined to comment.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=531
Cross-country trek to be anti-war action
By Michael Stetz / Union-Tribune
It will be a grueling, tiring walk. But it's been a grueling, tiring war.
Bill McDannell is going to walk across the country – through desert, mountains, plains, towns, cities – and ask people to sign a petition to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He hates those two wars. He hates the one in Iraq, in particular. But until now, what has he done about it?
Grumbled.
Talked back at the TV set.
Attended a few anti-war rallies.
It's time, he said. Time to do something – anything – to try to put an end to it.
So Nov. 4 he will start walking from Lindo Lake Park near his home in Lakeside to Washington, D.C.
“I'm extremely bothered by what's happening, but I have felt powerless,” said McDannell, 57, a former Methodist minister. “There are a lot of voiceless and powerless people out there right now.”
McDannell has no idea what kind of reaction his near 3,000-mile walk will bring. He hopes to inspire people to walk with him for a time. He'd like to raise the kind of curiosity and interest that San Diegan Steve Vaught got when he trekked across country to lose weight. Dubbed “Fat Man Walking,” Vaught was on TV, in newspapers and the subject of a documentary.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8233
The Jordan Times
Holding his daughter Toleen, who was injured in a suicide bombing in the Amman Radisson Hotel last year, Samir Karim talks on Thursday to King Abdullah at the Royal Court. The King and Queen Rania yesterday hosted a lunch for the families of the Amman triple bombings’ victims, on the first anniversary of the terror attacks
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/index.htm
Iraq puts civilian toll at 150,000
BAGHDAD (AP) — A stunning new death count emerged Thursday, as Iraq's health minister estimated at least 150,000 civilians had been killed in the war — about three times previously accepted estimates.
Moderate Sunni Muslims, meanwhile, threatened to walk away from politics and pick up guns, while the Shiite-dominated government renewed pressure on the United States to unleash the Iraqi army — claiming it could crush violence in six months.
After Democrats swept to majorities in both Houses of the US Congress and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld resigned, Iraqis appeared unsettled and seemed to sense the potential for an even bloodier conflict because of uncertainty of future American policy. As a result, positions hardened on both sides of the country's deepening sectarian divide.
Previous estimates of Iraq deaths held that about 50,000 had been killed in the nearly 44-month-old conflict, according to partial figures from Iraqi institutions and media reports.
No official count has ever been available and Health Minister Ali Shemari did not detail how he arrived at the new estimate of 150,000, provided to reporters during a visit to the Austrian capital.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news1.htm
Amman attacks strengthened Jordan will to fight terror — King
AMMAN (Petra) — King Abdullah on Thursday reiterated Jordan’s pride in citizens’ unity and solidarity against the terror attacks that hit Amman on November 9 last year.
Jordanians are “great people, who, in their courageous stand, demonstrated coherence and utter keenness on the country’s security and stability”, the King said in remarks to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, on the first anniversary of suicide bombings at three Amman hotels.
The terror attacks killed 68 Jordanians and 22 foreigners, according to the Public Security Department.
The Monarch said the bombings “strengthened Jordanian solidarity and will to fight all forms of terror”.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews1.htm
King, Queen mark 1st anniversary of hotel bombings with victims’ families
AMMAN (JT) — Her Majesty Queen Rania met with some of the victims of last year’s tragic hotel bombings as well as their families at Civil Defence Department headquarters on Thursday.
During a very emotional meeting, the Queen reiterated her support for everyone affected by the tragedy.
“The more we stand together, the stronger we stand,” she said. “Nothing can fill the void of your loss, but we stand by you to help you deal with it.”
The gathering observed a moment of silence and prayer for the 90 men, women and children who lost their lives in last year’s attacks.
A few of the injured and several of the victims’ family members recounted the emotional experiences of the past year. All the families at Thursday’s meeting had received psychological counselling, as well as medical and financial assistance to help ease the burden of the trauma from the Jordanian Society for the Prevention of Family Violence’s (JSPFV) National Compassion and Support Centre.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews2.htm
Sudan says ready for talks with Darfur rebels
CAIRO (Reuters) — The Sudanese government is willing to start unconditional talks with the National Redemption Front rebel group to stop the violence in Darfur but sees no need for a new peace deal, a senior presidential adviser said.
Nafie Ali Nafie, addressing reporters in Egypt, South Africa, France, and Britain through a satellite link from Khartoum late on Wednesday, also said Sudan would not accept the presence of UN troops in the war-ravaged area, even in return for the United States lifting economic sanctions.
"We accept dialogue without imposing any condition on them and without accepting any condition. If we agree then we will thank God, and if we don't we will continue our dialogue," he said.
There was no comment on Thursday from the NRF, an alliance of rebel groups that rejected as inadequate a May peace accord signed in the Nigerian capital Abuja. The group has said it is ready to negotiate with Khartoum but wants a new agreement.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news4.htm
Iraqis split over US pullout
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — An expected phased reduction in US troops in Iraq after the resignation of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld left Iraqis split on Thursday whether a withdrawal would be in their best interest.
While a majority of Iraqis want to see the departure of Washington's 150,000 troops, according to a recent poll, many fear an early pullout would worsen an already bleak situation as rival groups may vie for control and violence escalates.
Abu Abdullah, a member of the Sunni minority from the northern city of Mosul, said his sect, fighting in an anti-US rebellion, needs US protection from Shiite factions.
"I prefer them to stay in Iraq because we Sunnis are very weak at the current time," said 38-year-old Abu Abdullah.
"If they withdraw, then the militias will become bolder and the fighting will increase," he added.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news5.htm
Iran’s once active campuses falling silent
TEHRAN (Reuters) — Iran's university campuses are falling silent. Student activists, once at the vanguard of a movement seeking political and social change in the Islamic Republic, say they are increasingly afraid to speak out.
"I used to take part in so many protests. I was arrested twice, once in 2001 and once in 2003," said student Mehdi Aminzadeh, describing his role in rallies during the tenure of pro-reform former President Mohammad Khatami.
"The situation has changed a lot since that time. The pressures have pushed us to be more cautious," said the 29-year old, who says he has been barred from registering for a masters in political science.
Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power in August last year vowing a return to Islamic revolutionary principles, activists say 181 students have been summoned to university disciplinary boards and 105 of them were suspended.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news6.htm
Egyptian president warns against hanging Saddam
CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned against carrying out the death sentence on Saddam Hussein, saying that hanging the former leader would lead to more sectarian strife in Iraq.
"Carrying out this verdict will explode violence like waterfalls in Iraq," Mubarak was quoted Thursday as saying to editors of state-run Egyptian dailies.
The verdict "will transform [Iraq] into blood pools and lead to a deepening of the sectarian and ethnic conflicts," the Egyptian president said in what appeared to be the most high profile Arab comment yet on Saddam's condemnation.
On Sunday, an Iraqi court sentenced Saddam to hang for the deaths of about 150 Shiite Muslims following an assassination attempt against him in 1982 in the town of Dujail.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news7.htm
Hope for a change of course
The Democratic sweep of Tuesday’s elections in the US just may be a prelude to 2008. If the Democrats quickly get to work on all the ills that befell their country under the Republicans’ watch and keep their slate clean of scandals, they may be on the road to ending a very controversial era in US history.
That California Democrat Nancy Pelosi, tipped to become the first female speaker of the US House of Representatives, immediately pledged after her victory to spend the first 100 hours up on Capitol Hill advocating the Democrat’s “Six for ‘06” programme must be a genuine relief to the American citizens.
It cuts to the chase by calling for raising the minimum wage, revoking subsidies for oil companies and incentives for firms to outsource jobs abroad, slashing interest rates on student loans, empowering the government to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry to reduce the price of prescription drugs and expand opportunities for embryonic stem cell research.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion1.htm
continued …
Thursday, November 09, 2006
It all looks pretty serious to me
November 8, 2006
Snohomish River Valley, Washington
Photographer states :: Hydroponic Farming. Water they farming in the Snohomish River Valley these days? This farmer doesn't need to go to the bank to float alone.
Morning Papers - continued
The Boston Globe
A third death reported in Northwest storms
By Associated Press November 9, 2006
PORTLAND, ORE. -- The body of a woman who disappeared on a storm-battered beach was found yesterday, the third death recorded in a wave of stormy weather in the Pacific Northwest that smashed rainfall records and that threatened hundreds of homes, authorities said.
A search continued for the woman's friend, who was not immediately identified.
The storm had abated yesterday after sending rivers over their banks Monday and Tuesday, causing millions of dollars in damage.
The governor of Oregon, Ted Kulongoski, declared an emergency in coastal Tillamook County, where about 100 people were evacuated because of rising water in the area.
The two women were last seen walking on the beach on Tuesday, near Gleneden Beach.
Lieutenant Vicky Ryan of the Depoe Bay Fire District said she saw the women and "cautioned them to not go out on the beach because of the high water."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/09/a_third_death_reported_in_northwest_storms/
2006 general election results
Here are the unofficial results of the general election, held Nov. 7, 2006. Winners declared by the Associated Press are denoted by a check mark
http://www.boston.com/news/special/politics/2006_elections/general_results/
State says it will take control of city voting
Calls shortage of ballots latest in pattern of woes
By Michael Levenson and Matt Viser, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
Secretary of State William F. Galvin declared yesterday that he will seize control of the Boston Election Department because the city has repeatedly demonstrated an inability to conduct fair and smooth elections.
The extraordinary move followed reports that the city ran out of ballots Tuesday at about 30 precincts in Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and East Boston, heavily minority areas where voters turned out in droves to support Deval L. Patrick for governor.
City officials acknowledged they have a policy of distributing only enough ballots for 50 percent of registered voters at each polling place and then delivering more ballots from City Hall as they are needed.
Officials said the longstanding practice saves time and effort. There had been little reason to change it, they said, because ballots have not run out in the past. But the policy apparently resulted in shortages Tuesday night, when Election Department drivers got stuck in traffic and the city was forced to speed surplus ballots to the polls in police cruisers.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/candidates/articles/2006/11/09/state_says_it_will_take_control_of_city_voting/
Patrick says election may lift state's image
Assesses impact on race relations
Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick met yesterday at the State House with Governor Mitt Romney. (Globe Staff Photo / David L. Ryan)
By Scott Helman, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick, who will become the first black governor of Massachusetts when he takes office in January, said yesterday that his election marked a historical moment that could help the state shake its reputation as a hostile environment for people of color.
Patrick, who at times during the campaign was reluctant to talk about race, was asked by reporters yesterday what his election meant for him and for the state, which, largely because of divisive fights over school integration in the 1970s, has a rocky history of black-white relations.
"It's a profound thing to be witness to, and a central part of, this historical moment," Patrick said in his first post-victory press conference, at the Omni Parker House. "And I think if people around the country are looking at Massachusetts and thinking about Massachusetts differently than they have in the past, then good for us."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/candidates/articles/2006/11/09/patrick_says_election_may_lift_states_image/
Rumsfeld goes at 'critical' time in war
Bush hails Gates's 'fresh perspective'
Donald Rumsfeld’s departure from the Pentagon was cheered by both Democratic and Republican critics of US policy in Iraq. (Brendan Smialowski/ Getty Images)
By Michael Kranish and Farah Stockman, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
WASHINGTON -- President Bush, a day after a Democratic "thumping" in the midterm elections, said he would replace his embattled secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, with his father's former CIA director, Robert M. Gates. But while the president hailed Gates's "fresh perspective," he and Gates provided no indication of how Iraq policy would change.
Just a week earlier, Bush had said Rumsfeld was doing a "fantastic job" and should stay for the remainder of his presidency.
Bush, asked at a White House press conference whether the message of the election was to bring US troops home from Iraq, responded: "I'd like our troops to come home, too, but I want them to come home with victory." He said his goal is to enable a self-sufficient Iraq to defend itself and not become a terrorist haven.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/09/rumsfeld_goes_at_critical_time_in_war/
Israeli shelling in Gaza brings agony and rage
Hamas ends truce after killing of 18
By Anne Barnard and Sa'id Ghazali, Globe Correspondent November 9, 2006
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip -- By yesterday afternoon, when he knew that at least 16 members of his family had died in what Israeli officials suspect was an errant Israeli shelling, Ramez al-Atamna was in shock.
His eyes glazed, his voice drained of emotion, he recited the painful losses: His wife Manal. His brother Samir. Two daughters, 3 years old and 7 months. His father, his stepmother, his grandmother, a sister still in high school. His son Abdullah, 7, lay in a hospital bed beside him, an elastic bandage wrapped around the stump of his amputated left foot.
"My son, he is all I have left of my family," said Ramez, 30, clapping his hands and wiping them against each other in a gesture of finality and resignation.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/11/09/israeli_shelling_in_gaza_brings_agony_and_rage/
For $34m, Citigroup gets naming rights to Wang Center
By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
Looking to become a major player in the Boston market quickly, New York-based Citigroup has purchased the naming rights to the Wang Center for the Performing Arts for about $34 million.
The deal means the Tremont Street arts center, which operates the 3,600-seat Wang Theatre, the 1,600-seat Shubert Theatre, and an arts program for students, could be renamed as soon as next week. Citigroup will pay the Wang over 15 years, a dramatic infusion of money for the once-booming nonprofit arts presenter, which has struggled to balance its budget -- and fill seats -- in recent years.
While officials of the center wouldn't reveal the new name, workers last evening were putting up banners that read Citibank Center for the Performing Arts.
Citigroup's announcement occurs as the company opens its first two Citibank branches in Boston, with plans for 30 more within a year. It hopes to gain a toehold in a market dominated by Bank of America and Citizens Financial.
Rights to rename the Wang Center outpace arrangements at similar arts institutions in Miami, Raleigh, N.C., and Calgary, Alberta.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/11/09/for_34m_citigroup_gets_naming_rights_to_wang_center/
Bush signals a shift toward bipartisanship
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
WASHINGTON -- President Bush strode into the East Room of the White House yesterday a humbled man. The nation, he acknowledged, had serious concerns about his war and his leadership. The trademark Bush cockiness was gone as he offered Democrats a trophy for their congressional victories: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"The timing is right for new leadership at the Pentagon," the president said. "The message yesterday was clear: The American people want their leaders in Washington to set aside partisan differences, conduct ourselves in an ethical manner, and work together to address the challenges facing our nation."
The bombshell was received as a peace offering by wary Democrats in Congress, who had made clear on the campaign trail and in the first 12 hours of their victory that bringing about change at the Defense Department was among their top priorities.
Though Bush said he had decided to oust Rumsfeld before Tuesday's congressional elections, the timing of his announcement left the unmistakable impression that he was willing to accommodate Democrats who have long called for Rumsfeld's head.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/09/bush_signals_a_shift_toward_bipartisanship/
Blind mice see after cell transplant
Study offers clues to eye regeneration
By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
Researchers announced yesterday that they have restored vision in mice by implanting new light-sensing cells in their eyes, a scientific first that offers hope to millions of blind people.
The team, based in London, said it has discovered a way to transplant the cells that provide night vision, known as "rods," from a healthy mouse into blind ones. The cells took root in the retina, and the mice's pupils then dilated when exposed to light.
A similar approach, the scientists said, might be used to replace the cells that provide daytime color vision.
The finding is dramatic because it offers a way around a devastating biological fact: When the eye's light-sensing cells die, as they do in many forms of blindness, new ones do not grow in their place. The new technique, reported in today's issue of the journal Nature, is not ready to be tried in humans, the researchers cautioned.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/09/blind_mice_see_after_cell_transplant/
State of emergency extended in Iraq
Violence brings 66 more deaths
By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press November 9, 2006
BAGHDAD -- Beset by rampant sectarian violence, Iraq's parliament voted yesterday to extend the country's state of emergency for 30 more days, as at least 66 more Iraqis were killed or found dead.
Yesterday's deaths included those of eight soccer players and fans cut down by a pair of mortar rounds that slammed onto a field in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood.
The US military, meanwhile, announced the deaths of a soldier and a Marine, raising the number of American forces killed this month in Iraq to 21 in the first eight days of November.
Lawmakers present for a closed-door meeting attended by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki voted unanimously to extend the emergency measures, said legislators Ammar Touama and Kamal al-Saidi.
The state of emergency has been renewed every month since it was first authorized in November 2004. It allows for a nighttime curfew and gives the government extra powers to make arrests without warrants and launch police and military operations.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/11/09/state_of_emergency_extended_in_iraq/
Winds of rage, winds of change
By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist November 9, 2006
DONALD RUMSFELD just got the Michael Brown treatment.
One moment he was doing a heckuva job. The next minute, he was out as secretary of defense, just as Brown was out as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In Brown's case, it took the disastrous fallout from Hurricane Katrina for President Bush to cut him loose, after first lavishing him with praise. In Rumsfeld's case, hurricane strength rage at Bush and his Iraq war policy swept through the country on Election Day. Angry voters tossed Republicans out of office. This time, the winds of change rattled the White House, too, and Rumsfeld had to go.
Last week, Bush said Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney were doing "fantastic" jobs. At a press conference yesterday, the president explained that statement by saying he did not want to inject "a major military decision" into Tuesday's election. Win or lose on Election Day, Bush insisted, Rumsfeld would be leaving because the situation in Iraq needed "fresh eyes."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/11/09/winds_of_rage_winds_of_change/
Legislators again delay gay marriage vote
By Scott Helman and Andrea Estes, Globe Staff
State lawmakers today again delayed a contentious vote on a proposed gay-marriage ban geared for the 2008 ballot, a move that could kill its chances of ever going to the voters.
The House and Senate, meeting in a special joint session, recessed before taking up a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have limited the legal definition of marriage to the union between one man and one woman. Lawmakers voted to adjourn the session until Jan. 2, the last official day of the legislative session.
The 109-87 vote to recess could deal a crushing blow to opponents of same-sex marriage looking to override the landmark court decision three years ago that put Massachusetts on the vanguard of gay rights.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a 4-3 decision in 2003 that gays and lesbians could legally marry under the state constitution.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2006/11/legislators_aga_1.html
The Guardian Unlimited
Thank you, America
Leader
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Guardian
For six years, latterly with the backing of both houses of a markedly conservative Republican Congress, George Bush has led an American administration that has played an unprecedentedly negative and polarising role in the world's affairs. On Tuesday, in the midterm US congressional elections, American voters rebuffed Mr Bush in spectacular style and with both instant and lasting political consequences. By large numbers and across almost every state of the union, the voters defeated Republican candidates and put the opposition Democrats back in charge of the House of Representatives for the first time in a dozen years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942821,00.html
Chad Says Arab Tribe Kills 128 in Attack
Wednesday November 8, 2006 1:46 AM
NDJAMENA, Chad (AP) - A small clash between ethnic Arab and ethnic African villagers along Chad's border with Darfur escalated into a large-scale attack in which Arabs killed 128 Africans, government officials said Tuesday.
The extent of the Oct. 31 violence had not been clear until a Cabinet delegation reached the remote region Monday to investigate and to call for calm, the officials said.
While the delegation did not link the violence to unrest in Sudan's Darfur, Arab-African clashes there have undermined stability across a region that includes eastern Chad and the northern Central African Republic.
Delegation members said a fight broke out in Amtiman in southeastern Chad on Oct. 31 between two small groups after a member of one group insulted the other. It was not clear which side started the confrontation. Six people were killed in the initial fight. Later the same day, members of the Arab group organized an attack on Africans.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6198662,00.html
The cost of war: Rumsfeld ousted in US poll fallout
Architect of Iraq conflict steps down as Bush faces prospect of double defeat
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday November 9, 2006
George Bush sacrificed his right-hand man in the war in Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld, as his administration scrambled yesterday to find its footing after a bruising defeat in an election which Democrats claimed amounted to a referendum on America's role in the conflict.
With media reports late last night claiming that the Democrats had won both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time since 1994, the president accepted the resignation of the man who had become synonymous with the Iraq war, the broader "war on terror", and the doctrine of pre-emptive attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942974,00.html
Polite smiles, but political realities will test truce
Julian Borger in Washington and Ed Pilkington in Evansville, Indiana
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Guardian
When George Bush and Nancy Pelosi meet for lunch in the White House today they will be an odd couple. They evidently do not like each other and are from different planets ideologically, but they each have a lot to gain by working together.
That is the new reality in Washington. The president is still in search of a legacy, and the Speaker-elect of the House of Representatives will have to prove to the voters that Democrats can achieve concrete results. They are now locked together like sumo wrestlers, each trying to make the other budge while trying not to fall over.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942982,00.html
Republican defeat means the Iraqi insurgency has won
Belligerent, ill-conceived interventionism has come to an end. For level-headed Americans it was a good day
Simon Jenkins
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Guardian
The ugly American mark two is dead. Overnight six years of glib European identification of "American" with rightwing fantasism is over. The gun-toting, pre-Darwinian Bushite, the tomahawk-wielding, Halliburton-loving, Beltway neocon calling abortion murder and torturing Arabs as "Islamofascists" has been laid to rest, and by a decision of the American people. Another McCarthy raised its head over the western horizon and has been slapped down. It is a good day for level-headed Americans.
… American politics is suddenly open and interesting. California's Nancy Pelosi is poised to become the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives and thus third in line to the White House. She has already promised to cooperate with a shattered Republican party to salvage something from Bush's remaining administration. Round her is an array of plausible Democrats with their eye on 2008: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, a reborn Al Gore and a reputed "10% of the Senate" claim to be considering the presidential nomination.
They all have one item of unfinished business. A CNN exit poll of swing issues suggested Iraq, terrorism, the economy and corruption were of equal concern to voters, with the Republicans scoring badly on them all. The politics of fear has lost all its post-9/11 traction. Republicans mouthing dire threats of "Islamicists" under every bed are simply scorned. The most ferocious television ad I saw had a voice incanting that Americans were less popular, terrorism was worse, people were less safe, gasoline was more expensive, soldiers were dying and Osama bin Laden was still free - all because of the Iraq war.
Over 60% of electors want US troops withdrawn from Iraq now or soon. Reports from Baghdad indicate expectation and relief that American policy in that country is about to change. The US army wants to leave. The government ran on a pro-war ticket and suffered a resounding rebuff. At this point the insurgency knows it has won, however long it takes the occupying power to go. Retreat in good order is the best hope. An era of ill-conceived, belligerent interventionism has come to an end - by democratic decision, thank goodness.
simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942895,00.html
From Russia with hate
An extreme nationalist movement is gearing up to march in Moscow in defiance of an official ban, writes Tom Parfitt
Friday November 3, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
He wears a knee-length leather coat, has a fondness for black shirts and greets friends with the forearm-to-forearm Roman handshake favoured by skinheads.
Alexander Belov may not be quite what western governments had in mind when they urged the development of civil society in Russia. But as head of the ultra-right Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), the 30-year-old Muscovite can claim to head one of Russia's fastest growing grassroots organisations.
While many charities and human rights groups say the Kremlin has deliberately stunted their growth, Belov's organisation is flourishing.
With a well organised network of at least 20,000 activists, it has tapped into the rising xenophobia in Russian society, which bubbled closer to the surface after a politically charged spat with neighbouring Georgia last month.
"The rights of Russians are being infringed in their own land, and we intend to stop it," said Belov in an interview with Guardian Unlimited yesterday at a Czech restaurant in central Moscow.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1939144,00.html
The bruiser who became a political liability
Defence secretary angered military by refusing to acknowledge mistakes over Iraq
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday November 9, 2006
Days before the election, George Bush told journalists that there was no way Donald Rumsfeld would leave his job during the president's administration. But, as Mr Rumsfeld famously once observed, "Stuff happens."
What happened was a sudden shift in the terms of trade in American politics; Mr Rumsfeld became too heavy a liability for a president struggling to salvage a legacy. Even while insisting Mr Rumsfeld was doing a "fantastic job", Mr Bush said he had been thinking of replacing him before Tuesday's Democrat victory.
Article continues
That may well be true. Concern about the conduct of the Iraq war and a lack of faith in Mr Rumsfeld were one of few issues uniting Democrats and Republicans in a polarised political scene. A string of Republican candidates made Mr Rumsfeld's dismissal part of their platforms, and it was the first demand out of the lips of the new Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The defence secretary is paying not just the price for a war that is going badly; he alarmed his former supporters in Congress and in the administration by his apparent conviction that it was on the right course.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942951,00.html
Hamas says death of 18 civilians will be avenged
Rory McCarthy in Beit Hanoun
Thursday November 9, 2006
The leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas called on his fighters yesterday to "activate resistance" hours after an Israeli artillery strike killed 18 civilians, mostly women and children, from a single family in Gaza.
Khaled Meshaal, who lives in exile in Damascus, promised retaliation after a wave of artillery shells landed before dawn on a residential street in Beit Hanoun. Several homes were hit, all belonging to one family.
The attack sparked international condemnation and came a day after the Israeli military ended a six-day operation in Beit Hanoun that claimed more than 50 lives. More than 350 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military in the past five months. "Our condemnation will not be in words but in deeds," Mr Meshaal said. "All Palestinian groups are urged to activate resistance ."
Hamas agreed a truce that began 18 months ago, but it expired at the end of last year. Hamas militants have since fired rockets into Israel, but the call to arms risks a return to suicide bombings.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1942963,00.html
Democrats control both houses after Virginia win
Bush congratulates party as Republican senator concedes defeat in crucial seat
Ed Pilkington in New York
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Democrats have sealed the prize that few had dared to hope for - a full sweep of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, taking them out of the political wilderness and into a position of real power for the first time in 12 years.
Their final victory was sealed tonight when the Republican senator of Virginia admitted defeat in Tuesday's midterm elections, handing the Democrats control of the Senate and thus of both Houses of Congress, which they last enjoyed in 1994. The party will now be able to shape key policies from the Iraq war to the budget deficit.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1944291,00.html
President pays the price but this could be Iraq turning point
Simon Tisdall
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Democrats' election successes will greatly intensify pressure on President George Bush to find a quick way through and out of the Iraq morass. But it remains unclear whether he has the skill, the clout and the imagination to do it.
The huge human, economic and diplomatic cost of Mr Bush's ham-fisted attempt at Middle East nation-building was instantly inflated overnight as the political reckoning came in. After voters gave them the benefit of the doubt two years ago, the president and his congressional allies are now paying the price for a lamentable history of false prospectuses, bungled plans and lethal executive incompetence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942813,00.html
George's dragons
Thursday November 9, 2006
There are indeed some distinctive British (or should I say English?) values, notably fair play, respect for the underdog and compassion. So why has there been no statement of condolence from our president in Downing Street to his friend President Bush in the White House (Democrats pile pressure on Bush, November 8)?
Bernard Crick
Edinburgh
With the results of the election and losing control of the House, it is almost comical that only now are the Republicans speaking of the need for "bipartisanship". It is an about-face, as they virtually ignored the wishes of the Democrats in Congress; it was their way or no way.
Claude Gruener
Austin
Texas, USA
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942866,00.html
'Internet rape' paedophile jailed
Staff and agencies
Thursday November 9, 2006
A paedophile who took remote control of teenage girls' computers from his home and terrorised them into sending intimate images of themselves was jailed today for 10 years.
Posing as a teenage boy on internet chatrooms, Adrian Ringland, 36, would first get his victims' email addresses. He would then send them an email containing a virus that allowed him to hack into their computers.
Targeting girls on both sides of the Atlantic, he would visibly take control of their PCs, moving cursors around, switching on printers and, in one case, opening and closing the CD-Rom drawer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1943793,00.html
Grief turns to rage as Beit Hanoun buries its dead
· Militants call for revenge at funeral of 18 victims
· Olmert blames artillery strike on 'technical failure
Rory McCarthy in Beit Hanoun
Thursday November 9, 2006
Thousands of Palestinians crowded the streets of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza today, some firing guns into the air, as they buried 18 members of a single family who died in an Israeli artillery strike.
As ambulances brought the dead from hospital morgues into the town, one distraught man carried in the air the body of a small child wrapped in white cloth. The child’s head hung exposed as he walked through the chanting crowd.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said a “technical failure” was to blame for the strike before dawn yesterday in which several artillery shells hit houses in a residential street in Beit Hanoun.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1943909,00.html
Olmert blames 'mistake' for Beit Hanoun deaths
Staff and agencies
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, today said the barrage of shells that killed 18 civilians in their Gaza Strip homes had been "a mistake".
Mr Olmert called for an immediate meeting with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
His words came after tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun to bury the victims of yesterday's attack.
Stretchers carried the bodies from 18 ambulances that had taken them from hospital morgues through the artillery-damaged apartment buildings where they died.
Chants of "God is greater than Israel and America", punctuated by the firing of gunshots into the air, rang out. A relative of one victim fired a gun into the air, shouting: "I will revenge."
A cemetery under construction in Beit Hanoun was opened to accommodate the victims because no other cemetery had enough land to allow them to be buried together. A Palestinian flag flew over each grave as two Israeli drones buzzed overhead.
Mr Olmert expressed regret over the bloodshed, and said he had personally looked into the cause of the artillery strike.
"I'm very uncomfortable with this event. I'm very distressed," he said. "This particular case ... was a mistake. It was not a planned attack. It was a technical failure of the Israeli artillery. I checked it, and I verified it."
He expressed a desire to meet Mr Abbas, adding: "He will be surprised when he will sit with me of how far we are prepared to go. I can offer him a lot."
However, he stressed that Israel would continue its military operations in Gaza for as long as Palestinian rocket attacks persisted, warning that more tragedies were possible.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1943541,00.html
The New York Times
Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary After Big Election Gains for Democrats
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON — Faced with the collapse of his Republican majority in Congress, President Bush responded swiftly today by announcing the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and vowing to work with Democrats ‘’to find common ground” on the war in Iraq and domestic issues.
With Democrats having recaptured the House and control of the Senate hinging on the outcome of a single unsettled contest in Virginia, Mr. Bush, sounding alternately testy and conciliatory at a White House news conference, said he was “obviously disappointed.” He portrayed the results as a cumulative “thumpin’ ” of Republicans, and conceded that as head of the party, he bore some responsibility.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/09BUSHCND.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=90b2a0d9c77157ea&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Gates Faces Major Challenges at Helm of Pentagon
By THOM SHANKER and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — If he is confirmed as defense secretary, Robert M. Gates would take control of a military whose ground forces are stretched and strained by a costly and bloody war and whose officers yearn to give unvarnished military advice without fear of reprisal.
Addressing their needs, hearing their views and gaining their trust are widely viewed as crucial first steps toward any change Mr. Gates has in mind for prosecuting the war in Iraq.
“Task No. 1 is to generate the strategy for victory in Iraq,” said one senior officer who served under Donald H. Rumsfeld. “A critical enabler of that, in my view, is getting the right information from the right people. One source — one source — of right information is the senior uniformed military who have to be empowered to speak the truth.”
It may not be easy for Mr. Gates to repair the strained communications with the uniformed military, said another officer, who recalled that sessions with the outgoing defense secretary have been nicknamed “the wire-brush treatment” because of Mr. Rumsfeld’s brusque style of questioning. Like others, this officer spoke on condition of anonymity out of military tradition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/world/middleeast/09militarycnd.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=05e36003827bcc02&ei=5094&partner=homepage
In Virginia, Webb Is Confident
By JOHN BRODER and IAN URBINA
Published: November 8, 2006
RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 8 — Jim Webb, the Democratic Senate candidate in Virginia, claimed victory Wednesday in the final battle for Senate control, but his slim margin over Senator George Allen, the Republican, left both the race and Congress unsettled.
While Mr. Allen refused to concede the race, Mr. Webb expressed confidence that his lead would survive state scrutiny or a legal challenge, aides said.
The party that wins the race will lead the Senate for the next two years. According to the official tally from the Virginia State Board of Elections, with 99.9 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Webb had a lead of about 6,700 votes out of about 2.3 million votes cast.
Virginia officials began canvassing each county before certifying the election, with both sides monitoring the process. Some members of Mr. Allen’s camp suggested that he would challenge the vote count, in which the winning margin amounts to less than one-half of one percent of the votes cast.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/08cnd-virginia.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=25747ed16ef092ae&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Tolerable or Awful: The Roads Left in Iraq
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: November 8, 2006
I had to submit this column before knowing the results of yesterday’s election, but here is one thing I know already: this needs to be our last election about Iraq.
The Iraq war has turned into a sucking chest wound for our country — infecting its unity at home and its standing abroad. No one can predict what Iraq will look like 10 years from now. I wish it well. But in the near term, it is clear, nothing that we’ll feel particularly proud of, nothing that we’ll feel justifies the vast expenditure of lives and treasure, is going to come out of Iraq.
Our only two options left today in Iraq are “tolerable” and “awful.” “Good” is no longer on the menu. When you read stories from Iraq saying that all we need to do is get rid of all the police there, get one-third of the soldiers in the Iraqi Army to actually report to duty regularly, and replace all the ministers who are corrupt, you know why “good” is not on the menu anymore.
It’s time to make a final push for the tolerable, and if that fails, quit Iraq and insulate ourselves and our allies from the awful. This can’t go on.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/opinion/08friedman.html?hp
The Democratic House
There was only one explanation for the crazy-quilt combination of victories around the country that gave the Democrats control of the House of Representatives last night: an angry shout of repudiation of the Bush White House and the abysmal way the Republican majority has run Congress.
It was a satisfying expression of the basic democratic principle of accountability. A government that performs badly is supposed to be punished by the electorate. And this government has performed badly on so many counts.
The Republicans created their defeat by focusing obsessively on the right-wing “base,” ostracizing not only the Democrats but their own party’s more moderate legislators. The conflict between the extremist House and the conservative Senate created a phony center, far to the right of the general public’s idea of where the middle ought to be. Yesterday, moderate Republicans in heavily Democratic states were done in by their party’s excesses. In Rhode Island, more than 60 percent of the voters told pollsters that they liked their Republican senator, Lincoln Chafee. But he was soundly defeated anyway.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/opinion/08wed5.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Rumsfeld’s Departure
Whatever this election accomplished -- and it remains to be seen if it ended the rancor and distrust that define current American politics -- voters made it crystal clear that they want a change in direction in Iraq. Democratic and Republican leaders alike agreed that it had to begin with replacing Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.
President Bush showed that he had heard the second half of that message and finally rid himself of the man whose bad judgments and inept leadership had done so much to create the mess in Iraq. But it still was not clear that he has yet heard the first, and more important part of the message. At his press conference, Mr. Bush was still talking about victory in precisely the same terms he had used before the election, and offered no clear sense that he was prepared to open his mind to a real change in strategy.
The challenge for Mr. Rumsfeld’s chosen successor, Robert Gates, who was a deputy national security adviser to Mr. Bush’s father and then served as Director of Central Intelligence, will be to make Mr. Bush realize how desperate the situation is in Iraq and that the conduct of the war should be dictated by reality and not ideology.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/opinion/08rum-ed.html
Democrat Wins Senate Race in Montana
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: November 8, 2006
The Democratic challenger in Montana, Jon Tester, won his closely contested race for the United States Senate today, leaving only Virginia to face an uncertain outcome in an election that is not expected to be decided for days or weeks.
But the Republican, Senator Conrad Burns, said that there were still some votes to be counted and that “there is no need to rush a conclusion when the votes are this close.”
Mr. Tester’s victory means that the Senate will at the least be tied 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, but effectively the Republicans would remain in control in that case because Vice President Dick Cheney has a tie-breaking vote.
The battle for the Senate drew attention today after the House came out clearly in Democratic hands after Tuesday’s election. But the uncertainty of the race in Virginia — and until earlier today Montana — left open the prospect of vote recounts that were likely to be lengthy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/09senatecnd.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=9cdb9b1d44e4e94e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
House Calls: 11 Seats Still Undecided
By Sarah Wheaton
Democrats have won 228 House seats at this point, Republicans 196. But plenty of the season’s most-watched races are still up in the air as of 4:00 p.m.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=639
Israeli Shelling Kills 18 Gazans; Anger Boils Up
By IAN FISHER and STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: November 9, 2006
BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip, Nov. 8 — Israeli tank shells killed 18 Palestinians, including 8 children and 6 women, at a cluster of houses here on Wednesday, one of the largest single losses of life in Gaza in years.
Some Hamas leaders called for a suicide-bombing retaliation inside Israel and, unusually, for the United States to be taught “hard lessons” as well.
“Nothing happened,” mumbled Isra Athamnah, 5 years old, who was pocked with shrapnel and in shock. The news that her widowed mother, Sanaa, 35, was dead and that she was now an orphan did not sink in.
Others described how a tank shell had hit a home here in northern Gaza, sending members of the extended Athamnah family outside before dawn. The next volleys struck them as they crowded in a narrow alley between the houses. The dead ranged from less than a year old to 70 years old, witnesses said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/world/middleeast/09mideast.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=1e8040a19508cae1&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Justices Hear Arguments on Late-Term Abortion
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: November 9, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — There were moments on Wednesday, during Supreme Court arguments on a federal law that bans a disputed method of abortion, that the proceedings seemed more like a medical school seminar than an appellate argument.
Such familiar constitutional concepts as the right to privacy were not mentioned during the two hours, but the methods doctors use to dilate a pregnant woman’s cervix were discussed in detail, repeatedly.
What exactly was the procedure that the law, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, sought to prohibit, the justices wanted to know. When, if ever, was the procedure necessary? What would be the impact of banning it? What alternatives were available to women seeking second-trimester abortions and to doctors performing them?
Among the justices most interested in the medical details was the one whom both sides consider most likely to be in a position to control the outcome, Anthony M. Kennedy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/washington/09scotus.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=ea245370e1500404&ei=5094&partner=homepage
World Sees Vote as Rejection of Iraq Policy
By ALAN COWELL
Published: November 8, 2006
LONDON, NOV. 8 — As word of the American midterm election results and, later, the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld spread across the globe, criticism of the United States turned less shrill, less gloating, more textured than in the past. But no one seemed to feel that the vote was about anything but Baghdad.
“This was the bill to the White House for their disaster in Iraq,” said Jürgen Trittin, deputy leader of Germany’s Green party.
It was not, of course, a presidential vote — though some thought it should have been. But the tone of criticism seemed more conciliatory than on previous occasions when President Bush has stumbled, in part because his power is now seen as waning irrevocably.
“Before, Bush wasn’t looking to be liked” by the Europeans, Giovanni Sartori, an Italian political analyst, said in a telephone interview. “For Europe, it’s good news, because America will be forced to be less of a solitary aggressor.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/world/09global.html
Democrats See Surge in Power at State Level
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: November 8, 2006
CHICAGO, Nov. 8 — Democratic gains in Congress and among the nation’s governors were matched on Tuesday by a huge surge closer to the grass roots — in the state legislatures, where more than 275 seats and nine legislative chambers from Iowa to Oregon switched overnight from Republican to Democratic hands.
With those legislative victories combined with the six new Democratic governors elected on Tuesday, Democrats are now the one-party government in 15 states — including New Hampshire for the first time since 1874, and Colorado for the first time since 1960. No party has controlled as many as 15 states since the Republicans achieved that exact number after the 1994 election.
But what was equally remarkable, said Tim Storey, a senior fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan group, is that the gains occurred everywhere in the country, even in the South, where Democrats lost ground in every statehouse election since 1982 — until Tuesday. The gains there were tiny, about 20 legislative seats spread across 14 states, but the direction, Mr. Storey said, was the important thing.
“I think it’s very significant; they’d been losing ground and they turned it around,” Mr. Storey said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/09statehousecnd.html
Billionaires Fight to Buy The Los Angeles Times
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT and SHARON WAXMAN
Published: November 9, 2006
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8 — David Geffen spends more time schmoozing an elite cadre of journalists than just about any other mogul in Hollywood.
The billionaire often invites them to his sprawling estate in the heart of Beverly Hills, where De Koonings and Pollocks hang on the walls. In September, his guest was Leo Wolinsky, a managing editor of The Los Angeles Times, and they broached the delicate question of whether Mr. Geffen might try to buy the struggling newspaper.
If Mr. Geffen gets his way, he will be spending a lot more time with journalists.
Lately his name has been prominently linked with a potential purchase of The Times, fueled in part by his recent sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of paintings from his world-class collection.
In addition, his wooing of Mr. Wolinsky, with whom he has a continuing dialogue, has made him a favorite potential owner among many top editors.
But if he wants the nation’s fourth-largest newspaper, he will have to fight for it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/business/media/09paper.html?oref=login
Suicide Bomber Kills 42 Pakistani Soldiers
By CARLOTTA GALL and SALMAN MASOOD
Published: November 9, 2006
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 8 — A suicide bomber detonated explosives on a military training ground in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday morning, killing at least 42 army recruits and wounding about 20 more in the deadliest terrorist attack against the Pakistani military on record, government officials said.
Suspicion immediately fell on Pakistani militants who had vowed vengeance for an airstrike on a madrasa, or religious school, that killed 83 people near the Afghan border in the Bajaur district on Oct. 30.
The Pakistani military claimed responsibility for that attack, which it said was against militants in terrorist training. But residents and opposition politicians contend that the strike was conducted by an American drone aircraft, though the Pakistani government denies it.
The sudden escalation of casualties in Pakistan’s fight against militants is likely to further polarize public opinion, which is already broadly opposed to President Pervez Musharraf’s cooperation with the United States and his military campaign against tribes in border regions. It may also raise questions in the military about the campaign, in which about 600 soldiers have been killed in the past two years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/world/asia/09pakistan.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=bb33caf6ab0e1a47&ei=5094&partner=homepage
U.S. Rejects Referendum for Rebel Georgia Region
By REUTERS
Published: November 8, 2006
Filed at 9:36 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States rejects an independence referendum planned for Sunday in the separatist South Ossetia region of Georgia, the State Department said on Wednesday.
``These actions will only serve to exacerbate tensions and divert attention from the need to peacefully resolve the conflict,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
Georgian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the rebel province are in a tense armed confrontation over the region.
``We call on Tskhinvali and Tbilisi to engage in direct talks to find a peaceful solution that defines the status of South Ossetia within Georgia's internationally recognized borders, while affording South Ossetia significant autonomy within a unified Georgia,'' McCormack said.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-georgia-ossetia-usa.html
In California, Ecologists Retrace a Pioneer’s Footsteps
By AMANDA T. HAWN
Published: November 7, 2006
LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — On Sept. 8, 1923, Joseph Dixon and Leo Wilson hiked with packhorses to an alpine meadow near the base of Lassen Peak in Northern California. The trip was difficult; the two men, researchers from the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, were soon snowed out of their campsite
Eighty-three years later to the day, Jim Patton and John Perrine — also researchers from the museum, which is now part of what has since become the University of California, Berkeley — enjoyed an easier arrival in the same meadow. Parking their cars, the two men stepped out onto a carpet of corn lilies and wild mint to continue what their predecessors had started: one of the largest wildlife-distribution studies ever.
The tidy parallels in time, place and purpose between the scientists of yesteryear and those of today are no accident. They are, rather, part of a major undertaking called the Grinnell Resurvey Project.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/science/earth/07grin.html?ref=science
Polling Places Report Snags, but Not Chaos
By IAN URBINA
Published: November 8, 2006
Touch-screen voting machines would not start, poll workers did not know how to run optical scanners and tempers flared over who was registered, as voters in many states went to the polls on Tuesday only to find that casting their vote this year could be as much a challenge as a responsibility.
With dozens of states enforcing new voter registration laws and a widespread rollout of new electronic voting equipment, voters faced scattered difficulties, especially in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, where some voting machines had faulty software. But the problems did not lead to the voting gridlock some had feared.
Still, in hundreds of precincts in Florida, Indiana and Ohio, machine and poll worker problems led election officials to turn to paper ballots; and lawyers went to court in hopes of extending voting hours in precincts in several states, including Colorado, Indiana and Ohio.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/08voting.html
Elections Bring New Landscape to Capitol
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and PHILIP SHENON
Published: November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — Washington awoke to a vastly reshaped political landscape today, as Republicans grappled with their losses and Democrats, who recaptured the House of Representatives after 12 years and still harbor hopes of taking back the Senate, laid plans to govern.
By early morning, Democrats had picked up at least 28 seats in the House, leaving them firmly in control. The balance of power in the Senate rested on a knife-edge, with one race in Virginia remained too close to call.
The realignment brought an end to the long-held Republican dream of a permanent majority in Washington.
“We’re going to take a two-year hiatus,” Representative Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told reporters at a morning press briefing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/08cnd-elect.html
Despite Court Ruling, Christie’s Pulls Painting From Auction
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: November 8, 2006
Hours before it was to be one of the stars of Christie’s fall auction tonight, a blue-period painting by Picasso was withdrawn from the sale because of a claim that it had been sold under duress in Nazi Germany.
This afternoon, as the 6:30 p.m. auction was approaching, Christie’s in New York announced that it had withdrawn the painting, “Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto,” also known as “The Absinthe Drinker,” from its semi-annual Impressionist and Modern Art sale.
The decision to withdraw the painting came a day after a federal court judge allowed the sale to go ahead since it did not have jurisdiction in the case and as lawyers for Julius H. Schoeps, an heir to the painting’s original owner, went to state Supreme Court in Manhattan to press their claim that Mr. Schoeps was the Picasso’s rightful owner. Mr. Schoeps, a historian, lives in Berlin.
Mr. Schoeps’s complaint seeks at least $60 million in damages or the immediate return of the painting from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation, its current owner.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/arts/09picasso.html
Rumsfeld Resigns; Bush Vows to ‘Find Common Ground’; Focus Is on Virginia
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: November 9, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — Faced with the collapse of his Republican majority in Congress, President Bush responded swiftly on Wednesday by announcing the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and vowing to work with Democrats “to find common ground” on the war in Iraq and domestic issues.
With Democrats having recaptured the House and control of the Senate depending on the outcome of a single unsettled contest in Virginia, Mr. Bush, sounding alternately testy and conciliatory at a White House news conference, said he was “obviously disappointed.” He portrayed the results as a cumulative “thumping” of Republicans and conceded that as head of the party, he bore some responsibility.
In Virginia, though Senator George Allen had not conceded Wednesday night, the Democrat, Jim Webb, was confident enough of victory to begin talking about transition. Mr. Allen’s defeat would mean that the Democrats would control the Senate for the first time since 2002 and would control both houses of Congress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/us/politics/09elect.html?ei=5094&en=eca88a31da08f650&hp=&ex=1163134800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1163065812-jU+csv2DFiAOc6NIU5PPnQ
continued ...
A third death reported in Northwest storms
By Associated Press November 9, 2006
PORTLAND, ORE. -- The body of a woman who disappeared on a storm-battered beach was found yesterday, the third death recorded in a wave of stormy weather in the Pacific Northwest that smashed rainfall records and that threatened hundreds of homes, authorities said.
A search continued for the woman's friend, who was not immediately identified.
The storm had abated yesterday after sending rivers over their banks Monday and Tuesday, causing millions of dollars in damage.
The governor of Oregon, Ted Kulongoski, declared an emergency in coastal Tillamook County, where about 100 people were evacuated because of rising water in the area.
The two women were last seen walking on the beach on Tuesday, near Gleneden Beach.
Lieutenant Vicky Ryan of the Depoe Bay Fire District said she saw the women and "cautioned them to not go out on the beach because of the high water."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/09/a_third_death_reported_in_northwest_storms/
2006 general election results
Here are the unofficial results of the general election, held Nov. 7, 2006. Winners declared by the Associated Press are denoted by a check mark
http://www.boston.com/news/special/politics/2006_elections/general_results/
State says it will take control of city voting
Calls shortage of ballots latest in pattern of woes
By Michael Levenson and Matt Viser, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
Secretary of State William F. Galvin declared yesterday that he will seize control of the Boston Election Department because the city has repeatedly demonstrated an inability to conduct fair and smooth elections.
The extraordinary move followed reports that the city ran out of ballots Tuesday at about 30 precincts in Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and East Boston, heavily minority areas where voters turned out in droves to support Deval L. Patrick for governor.
City officials acknowledged they have a policy of distributing only enough ballots for 50 percent of registered voters at each polling place and then delivering more ballots from City Hall as they are needed.
Officials said the longstanding practice saves time and effort. There had been little reason to change it, they said, because ballots have not run out in the past. But the policy apparently resulted in shortages Tuesday night, when Election Department drivers got stuck in traffic and the city was forced to speed surplus ballots to the polls in police cruisers.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/candidates/articles/2006/11/09/state_says_it_will_take_control_of_city_voting/
Patrick says election may lift state's image
Assesses impact on race relations
Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick met yesterday at the State House with Governor Mitt Romney. (Globe Staff Photo / David L. Ryan)
By Scott Helman, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
Governor-elect Deval L. Patrick, who will become the first black governor of Massachusetts when he takes office in January, said yesterday that his election marked a historical moment that could help the state shake its reputation as a hostile environment for people of color.
Patrick, who at times during the campaign was reluctant to talk about race, was asked by reporters yesterday what his election meant for him and for the state, which, largely because of divisive fights over school integration in the 1970s, has a rocky history of black-white relations.
"It's a profound thing to be witness to, and a central part of, this historical moment," Patrick said in his first post-victory press conference, at the Omni Parker House. "And I think if people around the country are looking at Massachusetts and thinking about Massachusetts differently than they have in the past, then good for us."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/candidates/articles/2006/11/09/patrick_says_election_may_lift_states_image/
Rumsfeld goes at 'critical' time in war
Bush hails Gates's 'fresh perspective'
Donald Rumsfeld’s departure from the Pentagon was cheered by both Democratic and Republican critics of US policy in Iraq. (Brendan Smialowski/ Getty Images)
By Michael Kranish and Farah Stockman, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
WASHINGTON -- President Bush, a day after a Democratic "thumping" in the midterm elections, said he would replace his embattled secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, with his father's former CIA director, Robert M. Gates. But while the president hailed Gates's "fresh perspective," he and Gates provided no indication of how Iraq policy would change.
Just a week earlier, Bush had said Rumsfeld was doing a "fantastic job" and should stay for the remainder of his presidency.
Bush, asked at a White House press conference whether the message of the election was to bring US troops home from Iraq, responded: "I'd like our troops to come home, too, but I want them to come home with victory." He said his goal is to enable a self-sufficient Iraq to defend itself and not become a terrorist haven.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/09/rumsfeld_goes_at_critical_time_in_war/
Israeli shelling in Gaza brings agony and rage
Hamas ends truce after killing of 18
By Anne Barnard and Sa'id Ghazali, Globe Correspondent November 9, 2006
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip -- By yesterday afternoon, when he knew that at least 16 members of his family had died in what Israeli officials suspect was an errant Israeli shelling, Ramez al-Atamna was in shock.
His eyes glazed, his voice drained of emotion, he recited the painful losses: His wife Manal. His brother Samir. Two daughters, 3 years old and 7 months. His father, his stepmother, his grandmother, a sister still in high school. His son Abdullah, 7, lay in a hospital bed beside him, an elastic bandage wrapped around the stump of his amputated left foot.
"My son, he is all I have left of my family," said Ramez, 30, clapping his hands and wiping them against each other in a gesture of finality and resignation.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/11/09/israeli_shelling_in_gaza_brings_agony_and_rage/
For $34m, Citigroup gets naming rights to Wang Center
By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
Looking to become a major player in the Boston market quickly, New York-based Citigroup has purchased the naming rights to the Wang Center for the Performing Arts for about $34 million.
The deal means the Tremont Street arts center, which operates the 3,600-seat Wang Theatre, the 1,600-seat Shubert Theatre, and an arts program for students, could be renamed as soon as next week. Citigroup will pay the Wang over 15 years, a dramatic infusion of money for the once-booming nonprofit arts presenter, which has struggled to balance its budget -- and fill seats -- in recent years.
While officials of the center wouldn't reveal the new name, workers last evening were putting up banners that read Citibank Center for the Performing Arts.
Citigroup's announcement occurs as the company opens its first two Citibank branches in Boston, with plans for 30 more within a year. It hopes to gain a toehold in a market dominated by Bank of America and Citizens Financial.
Rights to rename the Wang Center outpace arrangements at similar arts institutions in Miami, Raleigh, N.C., and Calgary, Alberta.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/11/09/for_34m_citigroup_gets_naming_rights_to_wang_center/
Bush signals a shift toward bipartisanship
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
WASHINGTON -- President Bush strode into the East Room of the White House yesterday a humbled man. The nation, he acknowledged, had serious concerns about his war and his leadership. The trademark Bush cockiness was gone as he offered Democrats a trophy for their congressional victories: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"The timing is right for new leadership at the Pentagon," the president said. "The message yesterday was clear: The American people want their leaders in Washington to set aside partisan differences, conduct ourselves in an ethical manner, and work together to address the challenges facing our nation."
The bombshell was received as a peace offering by wary Democrats in Congress, who had made clear on the campaign trail and in the first 12 hours of their victory that bringing about change at the Defense Department was among their top priorities.
Though Bush said he had decided to oust Rumsfeld before Tuesday's congressional elections, the timing of his announcement left the unmistakable impression that he was willing to accommodate Democrats who have long called for Rumsfeld's head.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/09/bush_signals_a_shift_toward_bipartisanship/
Blind mice see after cell transplant
Study offers clues to eye regeneration
By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff November 9, 2006
Researchers announced yesterday that they have restored vision in mice by implanting new light-sensing cells in their eyes, a scientific first that offers hope to millions of blind people.
The team, based in London, said it has discovered a way to transplant the cells that provide night vision, known as "rods," from a healthy mouse into blind ones. The cells took root in the retina, and the mice's pupils then dilated when exposed to light.
A similar approach, the scientists said, might be used to replace the cells that provide daytime color vision.
The finding is dramatic because it offers a way around a devastating biological fact: When the eye's light-sensing cells die, as they do in many forms of blindness, new ones do not grow in their place. The new technique, reported in today's issue of the journal Nature, is not ready to be tried in humans, the researchers cautioned.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/09/blind_mice_see_after_cell_transplant/
State of emergency extended in Iraq
Violence brings 66 more deaths
By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press November 9, 2006
BAGHDAD -- Beset by rampant sectarian violence, Iraq's parliament voted yesterday to extend the country's state of emergency for 30 more days, as at least 66 more Iraqis were killed or found dead.
Yesterday's deaths included those of eight soccer players and fans cut down by a pair of mortar rounds that slammed onto a field in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood.
The US military, meanwhile, announced the deaths of a soldier and a Marine, raising the number of American forces killed this month in Iraq to 21 in the first eight days of November.
Lawmakers present for a closed-door meeting attended by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki voted unanimously to extend the emergency measures, said legislators Ammar Touama and Kamal al-Saidi.
The state of emergency has been renewed every month since it was first authorized in November 2004. It allows for a nighttime curfew and gives the government extra powers to make arrests without warrants and launch police and military operations.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/11/09/state_of_emergency_extended_in_iraq/
Winds of rage, winds of change
By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist November 9, 2006
DONALD RUMSFELD just got the Michael Brown treatment.
One moment he was doing a heckuva job. The next minute, he was out as secretary of defense, just as Brown was out as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In Brown's case, it took the disastrous fallout from Hurricane Katrina for President Bush to cut him loose, after first lavishing him with praise. In Rumsfeld's case, hurricane strength rage at Bush and his Iraq war policy swept through the country on Election Day. Angry voters tossed Republicans out of office. This time, the winds of change rattled the White House, too, and Rumsfeld had to go.
Last week, Bush said Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney were doing "fantastic" jobs. At a press conference yesterday, the president explained that statement by saying he did not want to inject "a major military decision" into Tuesday's election. Win or lose on Election Day, Bush insisted, Rumsfeld would be leaving because the situation in Iraq needed "fresh eyes."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/11/09/winds_of_rage_winds_of_change/
Legislators again delay gay marriage vote
By Scott Helman and Andrea Estes, Globe Staff
State lawmakers today again delayed a contentious vote on a proposed gay-marriage ban geared for the 2008 ballot, a move that could kill its chances of ever going to the voters.
The House and Senate, meeting in a special joint session, recessed before taking up a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have limited the legal definition of marriage to the union between one man and one woman. Lawmakers voted to adjourn the session until Jan. 2, the last official day of the legislative session.
The 109-87 vote to recess could deal a crushing blow to opponents of same-sex marriage looking to override the landmark court decision three years ago that put Massachusetts on the vanguard of gay rights.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in a 4-3 decision in 2003 that gays and lesbians could legally marry under the state constitution.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2006/11/legislators_aga_1.html
The Guardian Unlimited
Thank you, America
Leader
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Guardian
For six years, latterly with the backing of both houses of a markedly conservative Republican Congress, George Bush has led an American administration that has played an unprecedentedly negative and polarising role in the world's affairs. On Tuesday, in the midterm US congressional elections, American voters rebuffed Mr Bush in spectacular style and with both instant and lasting political consequences. By large numbers and across almost every state of the union, the voters defeated Republican candidates and put the opposition Democrats back in charge of the House of Representatives for the first time in a dozen years.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942821,00.html
Chad Says Arab Tribe Kills 128 in Attack
Wednesday November 8, 2006 1:46 AM
NDJAMENA, Chad (AP) - A small clash between ethnic Arab and ethnic African villagers along Chad's border with Darfur escalated into a large-scale attack in which Arabs killed 128 Africans, government officials said Tuesday.
The extent of the Oct. 31 violence had not been clear until a Cabinet delegation reached the remote region Monday to investigate and to call for calm, the officials said.
While the delegation did not link the violence to unrest in Sudan's Darfur, Arab-African clashes there have undermined stability across a region that includes eastern Chad and the northern Central African Republic.
Delegation members said a fight broke out in Amtiman in southeastern Chad on Oct. 31 between two small groups after a member of one group insulted the other. It was not clear which side started the confrontation. Six people were killed in the initial fight. Later the same day, members of the Arab group organized an attack on Africans.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6198662,00.html
The cost of war: Rumsfeld ousted in US poll fallout
Architect of Iraq conflict steps down as Bush faces prospect of double defeat
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday November 9, 2006
George Bush sacrificed his right-hand man in the war in Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld, as his administration scrambled yesterday to find its footing after a bruising defeat in an election which Democrats claimed amounted to a referendum on America's role in the conflict.
With media reports late last night claiming that the Democrats had won both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time since 1994, the president accepted the resignation of the man who had become synonymous with the Iraq war, the broader "war on terror", and the doctrine of pre-emptive attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942974,00.html
Polite smiles, but political realities will test truce
Julian Borger in Washington and Ed Pilkington in Evansville, Indiana
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Guardian
When George Bush and Nancy Pelosi meet for lunch in the White House today they will be an odd couple. They evidently do not like each other and are from different planets ideologically, but they each have a lot to gain by working together.
That is the new reality in Washington. The president is still in search of a legacy, and the Speaker-elect of the House of Representatives will have to prove to the voters that Democrats can achieve concrete results. They are now locked together like sumo wrestlers, each trying to make the other budge while trying not to fall over.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942982,00.html
Republican defeat means the Iraqi insurgency has won
Belligerent, ill-conceived interventionism has come to an end. For level-headed Americans it was a good day
Simon Jenkins
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Guardian
The ugly American mark two is dead. Overnight six years of glib European identification of "American" with rightwing fantasism is over. The gun-toting, pre-Darwinian Bushite, the tomahawk-wielding, Halliburton-loving, Beltway neocon calling abortion murder and torturing Arabs as "Islamofascists" has been laid to rest, and by a decision of the American people. Another McCarthy raised its head over the western horizon and has been slapped down. It is a good day for level-headed Americans.
… American politics is suddenly open and interesting. California's Nancy Pelosi is poised to become the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives and thus third in line to the White House. She has already promised to cooperate with a shattered Republican party to salvage something from Bush's remaining administration. Round her is an array of plausible Democrats with their eye on 2008: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, a reborn Al Gore and a reputed "10% of the Senate" claim to be considering the presidential nomination.
They all have one item of unfinished business. A CNN exit poll of swing issues suggested Iraq, terrorism, the economy and corruption were of equal concern to voters, with the Republicans scoring badly on them all. The politics of fear has lost all its post-9/11 traction. Republicans mouthing dire threats of "Islamicists" under every bed are simply scorned. The most ferocious television ad I saw had a voice incanting that Americans were less popular, terrorism was worse, people were less safe, gasoline was more expensive, soldiers were dying and Osama bin Laden was still free - all because of the Iraq war.
Over 60% of electors want US troops withdrawn from Iraq now or soon. Reports from Baghdad indicate expectation and relief that American policy in that country is about to change. The US army wants to leave. The government ran on a pro-war ticket and suffered a resounding rebuff. At this point the insurgency knows it has won, however long it takes the occupying power to go. Retreat in good order is the best hope. An era of ill-conceived, belligerent interventionism has come to an end - by democratic decision, thank goodness.
simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942895,00.html
From Russia with hate
An extreme nationalist movement is gearing up to march in Moscow in defiance of an official ban, writes Tom Parfitt
Friday November 3, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
He wears a knee-length leather coat, has a fondness for black shirts and greets friends with the forearm-to-forearm Roman handshake favoured by skinheads.
Alexander Belov may not be quite what western governments had in mind when they urged the development of civil society in Russia. But as head of the ultra-right Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), the 30-year-old Muscovite can claim to head one of Russia's fastest growing grassroots organisations.
While many charities and human rights groups say the Kremlin has deliberately stunted their growth, Belov's organisation is flourishing.
With a well organised network of at least 20,000 activists, it has tapped into the rising xenophobia in Russian society, which bubbled closer to the surface after a politically charged spat with neighbouring Georgia last month.
"The rights of Russians are being infringed in their own land, and we intend to stop it," said Belov in an interview with Guardian Unlimited yesterday at a Czech restaurant in central Moscow.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1939144,00.html
The bruiser who became a political liability
Defence secretary angered military by refusing to acknowledge mistakes over Iraq
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday November 9, 2006
Days before the election, George Bush told journalists that there was no way Donald Rumsfeld would leave his job during the president's administration. But, as Mr Rumsfeld famously once observed, "Stuff happens."
What happened was a sudden shift in the terms of trade in American politics; Mr Rumsfeld became too heavy a liability for a president struggling to salvage a legacy. Even while insisting Mr Rumsfeld was doing a "fantastic job", Mr Bush said he had been thinking of replacing him before Tuesday's Democrat victory.
Article continues
That may well be true. Concern about the conduct of the Iraq war and a lack of faith in Mr Rumsfeld were one of few issues uniting Democrats and Republicans in a polarised political scene. A string of Republican candidates made Mr Rumsfeld's dismissal part of their platforms, and it was the first demand out of the lips of the new Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The defence secretary is paying not just the price for a war that is going badly; he alarmed his former supporters in Congress and in the administration by his apparent conviction that it was on the right course.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942951,00.html
Hamas says death of 18 civilians will be avenged
Rory McCarthy in Beit Hanoun
Thursday November 9, 2006
The leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas called on his fighters yesterday to "activate resistance" hours after an Israeli artillery strike killed 18 civilians, mostly women and children, from a single family in Gaza.
Khaled Meshaal, who lives in exile in Damascus, promised retaliation after a wave of artillery shells landed before dawn on a residential street in Beit Hanoun. Several homes were hit, all belonging to one family.
The attack sparked international condemnation and came a day after the Israeli military ended a six-day operation in Beit Hanoun that claimed more than 50 lives. More than 350 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military in the past five months. "Our condemnation will not be in words but in deeds," Mr Meshaal said. "All Palestinian groups are urged to activate resistance ."
Hamas agreed a truce that began 18 months ago, but it expired at the end of last year. Hamas militants have since fired rockets into Israel, but the call to arms risks a return to suicide bombings.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1942963,00.html
Democrats control both houses after Virginia win
Bush congratulates party as Republican senator concedes defeat in crucial seat
Ed Pilkington in New York
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Democrats have sealed the prize that few had dared to hope for - a full sweep of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, taking them out of the political wilderness and into a position of real power for the first time in 12 years.
Their final victory was sealed tonight when the Republican senator of Virginia admitted defeat in Tuesday's midterm elections, handing the Democrats control of the Senate and thus of both Houses of Congress, which they last enjoyed in 1994. The party will now be able to shape key policies from the Iraq war to the budget deficit.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1944291,00.html
President pays the price but this could be Iraq turning point
Simon Tisdall
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Democrats' election successes will greatly intensify pressure on President George Bush to find a quick way through and out of the Iraq morass. But it remains unclear whether he has the skill, the clout and the imagination to do it.
The huge human, economic and diplomatic cost of Mr Bush's ham-fisted attempt at Middle East nation-building was instantly inflated overnight as the political reckoning came in. After voters gave them the benefit of the doubt two years ago, the president and his congressional allies are now paying the price for a lamentable history of false prospectuses, bungled plans and lethal executive incompetence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942813,00.html
George's dragons
Thursday November 9, 2006
There are indeed some distinctive British (or should I say English?) values, notably fair play, respect for the underdog and compassion. So why has there been no statement of condolence from our president in Downing Street to his friend President Bush in the White House (Democrats pile pressure on Bush, November 8)?
Bernard Crick
Edinburgh
With the results of the election and losing control of the House, it is almost comical that only now are the Republicans speaking of the need for "bipartisanship". It is an about-face, as they virtually ignored the wishes of the Democrats in Congress; it was their way or no way.
Claude Gruener
Austin
Texas, USA
http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1942866,00.html
'Internet rape' paedophile jailed
Staff and agencies
Thursday November 9, 2006
A paedophile who took remote control of teenage girls' computers from his home and terrorised them into sending intimate images of themselves was jailed today for 10 years.
Posing as a teenage boy on internet chatrooms, Adrian Ringland, 36, would first get his victims' email addresses. He would then send them an email containing a virus that allowed him to hack into their computers.
Targeting girls on both sides of the Atlantic, he would visibly take control of their PCs, moving cursors around, switching on printers and, in one case, opening and closing the CD-Rom drawer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1943793,00.html
Grief turns to rage as Beit Hanoun buries its dead
· Militants call for revenge at funeral of 18 victims
· Olmert blames artillery strike on 'technical failure
Rory McCarthy in Beit Hanoun
Thursday November 9, 2006
Thousands of Palestinians crowded the streets of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza today, some firing guns into the air, as they buried 18 members of a single family who died in an Israeli artillery strike.
As ambulances brought the dead from hospital morgues into the town, one distraught man carried in the air the body of a small child wrapped in white cloth. The child’s head hung exposed as he walked through the chanting crowd.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said a “technical failure” was to blame for the strike before dawn yesterday in which several artillery shells hit houses in a residential street in Beit Hanoun.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1943909,00.html
Olmert blames 'mistake' for Beit Hanoun deaths
Staff and agencies
Thursday November 9, 2006
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, today said the barrage of shells that killed 18 civilians in their Gaza Strip homes had been "a mistake".
Mr Olmert called for an immediate meeting with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
His words came after tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun to bury the victims of yesterday's attack.
Stretchers carried the bodies from 18 ambulances that had taken them from hospital morgues through the artillery-damaged apartment buildings where they died.
Chants of "God is greater than Israel and America", punctuated by the firing of gunshots into the air, rang out. A relative of one victim fired a gun into the air, shouting: "I will revenge."
A cemetery under construction in Beit Hanoun was opened to accommodate the victims because no other cemetery had enough land to allow them to be buried together. A Palestinian flag flew over each grave as two Israeli drones buzzed overhead.
Mr Olmert expressed regret over the bloodshed, and said he had personally looked into the cause of the artillery strike.
"I'm very uncomfortable with this event. I'm very distressed," he said. "This particular case ... was a mistake. It was not a planned attack. It was a technical failure of the Israeli artillery. I checked it, and I verified it."
He expressed a desire to meet Mr Abbas, adding: "He will be surprised when he will sit with me of how far we are prepared to go. I can offer him a lot."
However, he stressed that Israel would continue its military operations in Gaza for as long as Palestinian rocket attacks persisted, warning that more tragedies were possible.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1943541,00.html
The New York Times
Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary After Big Election Gains for Democrats
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON — Faced with the collapse of his Republican majority in Congress, President Bush responded swiftly today by announcing the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and vowing to work with Democrats ‘’to find common ground” on the war in Iraq and domestic issues.
With Democrats having recaptured the House and control of the Senate hinging on the outcome of a single unsettled contest in Virginia, Mr. Bush, sounding alternately testy and conciliatory at a White House news conference, said he was “obviously disappointed.” He portrayed the results as a cumulative “thumpin’ ” of Republicans, and conceded that as head of the party, he bore some responsibility.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/09BUSHCND.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=90b2a0d9c77157ea&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Gates Faces Major Challenges at Helm of Pentagon
By THOM SHANKER and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — If he is confirmed as defense secretary, Robert M. Gates would take control of a military whose ground forces are stretched and strained by a costly and bloody war and whose officers yearn to give unvarnished military advice without fear of reprisal.
Addressing their needs, hearing their views and gaining their trust are widely viewed as crucial first steps toward any change Mr. Gates has in mind for prosecuting the war in Iraq.
“Task No. 1 is to generate the strategy for victory in Iraq,” said one senior officer who served under Donald H. Rumsfeld. “A critical enabler of that, in my view, is getting the right information from the right people. One source — one source — of right information is the senior uniformed military who have to be empowered to speak the truth.”
It may not be easy for Mr. Gates to repair the strained communications with the uniformed military, said another officer, who recalled that sessions with the outgoing defense secretary have been nicknamed “the wire-brush treatment” because of Mr. Rumsfeld’s brusque style of questioning. Like others, this officer spoke on condition of anonymity out of military tradition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/world/middleeast/09militarycnd.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=05e36003827bcc02&ei=5094&partner=homepage
In Virginia, Webb Is Confident
By JOHN BRODER and IAN URBINA
Published: November 8, 2006
RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 8 — Jim Webb, the Democratic Senate candidate in Virginia, claimed victory Wednesday in the final battle for Senate control, but his slim margin over Senator George Allen, the Republican, left both the race and Congress unsettled.
While Mr. Allen refused to concede the race, Mr. Webb expressed confidence that his lead would survive state scrutiny or a legal challenge, aides said.
The party that wins the race will lead the Senate for the next two years. According to the official tally from the Virginia State Board of Elections, with 99.9 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Webb had a lead of about 6,700 votes out of about 2.3 million votes cast.
Virginia officials began canvassing each county before certifying the election, with both sides monitoring the process. Some members of Mr. Allen’s camp suggested that he would challenge the vote count, in which the winning margin amounts to less than one-half of one percent of the votes cast.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/08cnd-virginia.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=25747ed16ef092ae&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Tolerable or Awful: The Roads Left in Iraq
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: November 8, 2006
I had to submit this column before knowing the results of yesterday’s election, but here is one thing I know already: this needs to be our last election about Iraq.
The Iraq war has turned into a sucking chest wound for our country — infecting its unity at home and its standing abroad. No one can predict what Iraq will look like 10 years from now. I wish it well. But in the near term, it is clear, nothing that we’ll feel particularly proud of, nothing that we’ll feel justifies the vast expenditure of lives and treasure, is going to come out of Iraq.
Our only two options left today in Iraq are “tolerable” and “awful.” “Good” is no longer on the menu. When you read stories from Iraq saying that all we need to do is get rid of all the police there, get one-third of the soldiers in the Iraqi Army to actually report to duty regularly, and replace all the ministers who are corrupt, you know why “good” is not on the menu anymore.
It’s time to make a final push for the tolerable, and if that fails, quit Iraq and insulate ourselves and our allies from the awful. This can’t go on.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/opinion/08friedman.html?hp
The Democratic House
There was only one explanation for the crazy-quilt combination of victories around the country that gave the Democrats control of the House of Representatives last night: an angry shout of repudiation of the Bush White House and the abysmal way the Republican majority has run Congress.
It was a satisfying expression of the basic democratic principle of accountability. A government that performs badly is supposed to be punished by the electorate. And this government has performed badly on so many counts.
The Republicans created their defeat by focusing obsessively on the right-wing “base,” ostracizing not only the Democrats but their own party’s more moderate legislators. The conflict between the extremist House and the conservative Senate created a phony center, far to the right of the general public’s idea of where the middle ought to be. Yesterday, moderate Republicans in heavily Democratic states were done in by their party’s excesses. In Rhode Island, more than 60 percent of the voters told pollsters that they liked their Republican senator, Lincoln Chafee. But he was soundly defeated anyway.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/opinion/08wed5.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Rumsfeld’s Departure
Whatever this election accomplished -- and it remains to be seen if it ended the rancor and distrust that define current American politics -- voters made it crystal clear that they want a change in direction in Iraq. Democratic and Republican leaders alike agreed that it had to begin with replacing Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.
President Bush showed that he had heard the second half of that message and finally rid himself of the man whose bad judgments and inept leadership had done so much to create the mess in Iraq. But it still was not clear that he has yet heard the first, and more important part of the message. At his press conference, Mr. Bush was still talking about victory in precisely the same terms he had used before the election, and offered no clear sense that he was prepared to open his mind to a real change in strategy.
The challenge for Mr. Rumsfeld’s chosen successor, Robert Gates, who was a deputy national security adviser to Mr. Bush’s father and then served as Director of Central Intelligence, will be to make Mr. Bush realize how desperate the situation is in Iraq and that the conduct of the war should be dictated by reality and not ideology.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/opinion/08rum-ed.html
Democrat Wins Senate Race in Montana
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
Published: November 8, 2006
The Democratic challenger in Montana, Jon Tester, won his closely contested race for the United States Senate today, leaving only Virginia to face an uncertain outcome in an election that is not expected to be decided for days or weeks.
But the Republican, Senator Conrad Burns, said that there were still some votes to be counted and that “there is no need to rush a conclusion when the votes are this close.”
Mr. Tester’s victory means that the Senate will at the least be tied 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, but effectively the Republicans would remain in control in that case because Vice President Dick Cheney has a tie-breaking vote.
The battle for the Senate drew attention today after the House came out clearly in Democratic hands after Tuesday’s election. But the uncertainty of the race in Virginia — and until earlier today Montana — left open the prospect of vote recounts that were likely to be lengthy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/09senatecnd.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=9cdb9b1d44e4e94e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
House Calls: 11 Seats Still Undecided
By Sarah Wheaton
Democrats have won 228 House seats at this point, Republicans 196. But plenty of the season’s most-watched races are still up in the air as of 4:00 p.m.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=639
Israeli Shelling Kills 18 Gazans; Anger Boils Up
By IAN FISHER and STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: November 9, 2006
BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip, Nov. 8 — Israeli tank shells killed 18 Palestinians, including 8 children and 6 women, at a cluster of houses here on Wednesday, one of the largest single losses of life in Gaza in years.
Some Hamas leaders called for a suicide-bombing retaliation inside Israel and, unusually, for the United States to be taught “hard lessons” as well.
“Nothing happened,” mumbled Isra Athamnah, 5 years old, who was pocked with shrapnel and in shock. The news that her widowed mother, Sanaa, 35, was dead and that she was now an orphan did not sink in.
Others described how a tank shell had hit a home here in northern Gaza, sending members of the extended Athamnah family outside before dawn. The next volleys struck them as they crowded in a narrow alley between the houses. The dead ranged from less than a year old to 70 years old, witnesses said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/world/middleeast/09mideast.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=1e8040a19508cae1&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Justices Hear Arguments on Late-Term Abortion
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: November 9, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — There were moments on Wednesday, during Supreme Court arguments on a federal law that bans a disputed method of abortion, that the proceedings seemed more like a medical school seminar than an appellate argument.
Such familiar constitutional concepts as the right to privacy were not mentioned during the two hours, but the methods doctors use to dilate a pregnant woman’s cervix were discussed in detail, repeatedly.
What exactly was the procedure that the law, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, sought to prohibit, the justices wanted to know. When, if ever, was the procedure necessary? What would be the impact of banning it? What alternatives were available to women seeking second-trimester abortions and to doctors performing them?
Among the justices most interested in the medical details was the one whom both sides consider most likely to be in a position to control the outcome, Anthony M. Kennedy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/washington/09scotus.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=ea245370e1500404&ei=5094&partner=homepage
World Sees Vote as Rejection of Iraq Policy
By ALAN COWELL
Published: November 8, 2006
LONDON, NOV. 8 — As word of the American midterm election results and, later, the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld spread across the globe, criticism of the United States turned less shrill, less gloating, more textured than in the past. But no one seemed to feel that the vote was about anything but Baghdad.
“This was the bill to the White House for their disaster in Iraq,” said Jürgen Trittin, deputy leader of Germany’s Green party.
It was not, of course, a presidential vote — though some thought it should have been. But the tone of criticism seemed more conciliatory than on previous occasions when President Bush has stumbled, in part because his power is now seen as waning irrevocably.
“Before, Bush wasn’t looking to be liked” by the Europeans, Giovanni Sartori, an Italian political analyst, said in a telephone interview. “For Europe, it’s good news, because America will be forced to be less of a solitary aggressor.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/world/09global.html
Democrats See Surge in Power at State Level
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: November 8, 2006
CHICAGO, Nov. 8 — Democratic gains in Congress and among the nation’s governors were matched on Tuesday by a huge surge closer to the grass roots — in the state legislatures, where more than 275 seats and nine legislative chambers from Iowa to Oregon switched overnight from Republican to Democratic hands.
With those legislative victories combined with the six new Democratic governors elected on Tuesday, Democrats are now the one-party government in 15 states — including New Hampshire for the first time since 1874, and Colorado for the first time since 1960. No party has controlled as many as 15 states since the Republicans achieved that exact number after the 1994 election.
But what was equally remarkable, said Tim Storey, a senior fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan group, is that the gains occurred everywhere in the country, even in the South, where Democrats lost ground in every statehouse election since 1982 — until Tuesday. The gains there were tiny, about 20 legislative seats spread across 14 states, but the direction, Mr. Storey said, was the important thing.
“I think it’s very significant; they’d been losing ground and they turned it around,” Mr. Storey said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/09statehousecnd.html
Billionaires Fight to Buy The Los Angeles Times
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT and SHARON WAXMAN
Published: November 9, 2006
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8 — David Geffen spends more time schmoozing an elite cadre of journalists than just about any other mogul in Hollywood.
The billionaire often invites them to his sprawling estate in the heart of Beverly Hills, where De Koonings and Pollocks hang on the walls. In September, his guest was Leo Wolinsky, a managing editor of The Los Angeles Times, and they broached the delicate question of whether Mr. Geffen might try to buy the struggling newspaper.
If Mr. Geffen gets his way, he will be spending a lot more time with journalists.
Lately his name has been prominently linked with a potential purchase of The Times, fueled in part by his recent sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of paintings from his world-class collection.
In addition, his wooing of Mr. Wolinsky, with whom he has a continuing dialogue, has made him a favorite potential owner among many top editors.
But if he wants the nation’s fourth-largest newspaper, he will have to fight for it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/business/media/09paper.html?oref=login
Suicide Bomber Kills 42 Pakistani Soldiers
By CARLOTTA GALL and SALMAN MASOOD
Published: November 9, 2006
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 8 — A suicide bomber detonated explosives on a military training ground in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday morning, killing at least 42 army recruits and wounding about 20 more in the deadliest terrorist attack against the Pakistani military on record, government officials said.
Suspicion immediately fell on Pakistani militants who had vowed vengeance for an airstrike on a madrasa, or religious school, that killed 83 people near the Afghan border in the Bajaur district on Oct. 30.
The Pakistani military claimed responsibility for that attack, which it said was against militants in terrorist training. But residents and opposition politicians contend that the strike was conducted by an American drone aircraft, though the Pakistani government denies it.
The sudden escalation of casualties in Pakistan’s fight against militants is likely to further polarize public opinion, which is already broadly opposed to President Pervez Musharraf’s cooperation with the United States and his military campaign against tribes in border regions. It may also raise questions in the military about the campaign, in which about 600 soldiers have been killed in the past two years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/world/asia/09pakistan.html?hp&ex=1163048400&en=bb33caf6ab0e1a47&ei=5094&partner=homepage
U.S. Rejects Referendum for Rebel Georgia Region
By REUTERS
Published: November 8, 2006
Filed at 9:36 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States rejects an independence referendum planned for Sunday in the separatist South Ossetia region of Georgia, the State Department said on Wednesday.
``These actions will only serve to exacerbate tensions and divert attention from the need to peacefully resolve the conflict,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
Georgian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the rebel province are in a tense armed confrontation over the region.
``We call on Tskhinvali and Tbilisi to engage in direct talks to find a peaceful solution that defines the status of South Ossetia within Georgia's internationally recognized borders, while affording South Ossetia significant autonomy within a unified Georgia,'' McCormack said.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-georgia-ossetia-usa.html
In California, Ecologists Retrace a Pioneer’s Footsteps
By AMANDA T. HAWN
Published: November 7, 2006
LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — On Sept. 8, 1923, Joseph Dixon and Leo Wilson hiked with packhorses to an alpine meadow near the base of Lassen Peak in Northern California. The trip was difficult; the two men, researchers from the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, were soon snowed out of their campsite
Eighty-three years later to the day, Jim Patton and John Perrine — also researchers from the museum, which is now part of what has since become the University of California, Berkeley — enjoyed an easier arrival in the same meadow. Parking their cars, the two men stepped out onto a carpet of corn lilies and wild mint to continue what their predecessors had started: one of the largest wildlife-distribution studies ever.
The tidy parallels in time, place and purpose between the scientists of yesteryear and those of today are no accident. They are, rather, part of a major undertaking called the Grinnell Resurvey Project.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/science/earth/07grin.html?ref=science
Polling Places Report Snags, but Not Chaos
By IAN URBINA
Published: November 8, 2006
Touch-screen voting machines would not start, poll workers did not know how to run optical scanners and tempers flared over who was registered, as voters in many states went to the polls on Tuesday only to find that casting their vote this year could be as much a challenge as a responsibility.
With dozens of states enforcing new voter registration laws and a widespread rollout of new electronic voting equipment, voters faced scattered difficulties, especially in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, where some voting machines had faulty software. But the problems did not lead to the voting gridlock some had feared.
Still, in hundreds of precincts in Florida, Indiana and Ohio, machine and poll worker problems led election officials to turn to paper ballots; and lawyers went to court in hopes of extending voting hours in precincts in several states, including Colorado, Indiana and Ohio.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/08voting.html
Elections Bring New Landscape to Capitol
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and PHILIP SHENON
Published: November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — Washington awoke to a vastly reshaped political landscape today, as Republicans grappled with their losses and Democrats, who recaptured the House of Representatives after 12 years and still harbor hopes of taking back the Senate, laid plans to govern.
By early morning, Democrats had picked up at least 28 seats in the House, leaving them firmly in control. The balance of power in the Senate rested on a knife-edge, with one race in Virginia remained too close to call.
The realignment brought an end to the long-held Republican dream of a permanent majority in Washington.
“We’re going to take a two-year hiatus,” Representative Tom Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told reporters at a morning press briefing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/08cnd-elect.html
Despite Court Ruling, Christie’s Pulls Painting From Auction
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Published: November 8, 2006
Hours before it was to be one of the stars of Christie’s fall auction tonight, a blue-period painting by Picasso was withdrawn from the sale because of a claim that it had been sold under duress in Nazi Germany.
This afternoon, as the 6:30 p.m. auction was approaching, Christie’s in New York announced that it had withdrawn the painting, “Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto,” also known as “The Absinthe Drinker,” from its semi-annual Impressionist and Modern Art sale.
The decision to withdraw the painting came a day after a federal court judge allowed the sale to go ahead since it did not have jurisdiction in the case and as lawyers for Julius H. Schoeps, an heir to the painting’s original owner, went to state Supreme Court in Manhattan to press their claim that Mr. Schoeps was the Picasso’s rightful owner. Mr. Schoeps, a historian, lives in Berlin.
Mr. Schoeps’s complaint seeks at least $60 million in damages or the immediate return of the painting from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation, its current owner.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/arts/09picasso.html
Rumsfeld Resigns; Bush Vows to ‘Find Common Ground’; Focus Is on Virginia
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: November 9, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — Faced with the collapse of his Republican majority in Congress, President Bush responded swiftly on Wednesday by announcing the departure of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and vowing to work with Democrats “to find common ground” on the war in Iraq and domestic issues.
With Democrats having recaptured the House and control of the Senate depending on the outcome of a single unsettled contest in Virginia, Mr. Bush, sounding alternately testy and conciliatory at a White House news conference, said he was “obviously disappointed.” He portrayed the results as a cumulative “thumping” of Republicans and conceded that as head of the party, he bore some responsibility.
In Virginia, though Senator George Allen had not conceded Wednesday night, the Democrat, Jim Webb, was confident enough of victory to begin talking about transition. Mr. Allen’s defeat would mean that the Democrats would control the Senate for the first time since 2002 and would control both houses of Congress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/us/politics/09elect.html?ei=5094&en=eca88a31da08f650&hp=&ex=1163134800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1163065812-jU+csv2DFiAOc6NIU5PPnQ
continued ...
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