Docudharma Times Friday Nov. 2

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USA

Industries Paid for Top Regulators’ Travel

Two Heads of Product Safety Agency Accepted Trips From Manufacturer Groups

By Elizabeth Williamson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, November 2, 2007; Page A01

The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children’s furniture industries and others they regulate, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. Some of the trips were sponsored by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards.

The records document nearly 30 trips since 2002 by the agency’s acting chairman, Nancy Nord, and the previous chairman, Hal Stratton, that were paid for in full or in part by trade associations or manufacturers of products ranging from space heaters to disinfectants. The airfares, hotels and meals totaled nearly $60,000, and the destinations included China, Spain, San Francisco, New Orleans and a golf resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Democrats calculate risk on tax hikes

The growing income gap has many favoring increases for the wealthy that have long been considered political suicide.

By Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

November 2, 2007

WASHINGTON — More than two decades after presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale called for tax increases — and lost the White House in a landslide — the Democratic Party is on the verge of a major political gamble: Some of its leading members are proposing an array of tax hikes on wealthier Americans.

All of the major Democratic presidential candidates would allow President Bush’s tax cuts for wealthier households to lapse. Most support raising the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes. Some want to raise taxes on capital gains and other investment income.

Drought anxiety rises as water levels fall

ATLANTA – The prolonged drought gripping the Southeast, perhaps most acutely in this booming metropolis, is creating anxiety not seen in previous dry spells.

It’s partly those haunting pictures of a slowly dying Lake Lanier, Atlanta’s main water source, seen almost daily on the evening news here. It’s partly the underlying drumbeat of an escalating water war among Georgia, Alabama and Florida. It’s partly the discouraging forecast, which calls for a dry winter, and partly the sneaking suspicion that the Southeast might have grown too much too fast.

For The Shear Stupidity Of The whole Thing

Mukasey and the Democrats

November 2, 2007; Page A12

Democrats welcomed Michael Mukasey as a “consensus choice” for Attorney General only weeks ago, but incredibly his confirmation is now an open question. The judge’s supposed offense is that he has refused to declare “illegal” a single interrogation technique that the CIA has used on rare occasions against mass murderers.

All of the Democratic Presidential candidates have come out against the distinguished judge, and Democrats on the Judiciary Committee appear ready to block his nomination from even reaching the Senate floor. This is remarkable not for what it says about Judge Mukasey but for what it reveals about Democrats and the war on terror. They’d disqualify a man of impeccable judicial temperament and credentials merely because he’s willing to give U.S. interrogators the benefit of the legal doubt before he has top-secret clearance.

Middle East

Gulf states ‘offer Iran uranium’

Gulf states are willing to set up a body to provide enriched uranium to Iran, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister is reported to have said.

Prince Saud al-Faisal told the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) the plan could defuse Tehran’s stand-off with the West over its nuclear programme.

The prince was quoted as saying that Iran was considering the Gulf states’ offer, but the US was not involved.

The BBC’s Paul Reynolds says it is doubtful the plan will go anywhere.

Fatah targets mosques in latest anti-Hamas campaign

West Bank preachers arrested or sacked

Imams ordered to stop spreading dissent

Rory McCarthy in Nablus

Friday November 2, 2007

The Guardian

The Palestinian Fatah-led government has mounted a crackdown on preachers from the rival Hamas movement, arresting or sacking clerics accused of spreading political dissent.

The Fatah campaign, which is being enforced across the West Bank, is a reaction to the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in June and marks a widening divide between the two factions and territories.

THE ROVING EYE

Double-crossing in Kurdistan

By Pepe Escobar

The George W Bush administration would not flinch to betray its allies in Iraqi Kurdistan if that entailed a US “win” in the Iraq quagmire. And it would not flinch to leave its Turkish North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies in the wilderness as well – if that entailed further destabilization of Iran. Way beyond the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) vs Turkey skirmish, one of these

two double-crossing scenarios will inevitably take place. Washington simply cannot have its kebab and eat it too.

Europe

Italian woman’s murder prompts expulsion threat to Romanians

Giovanna Reggiani walked out of a suburban railway station into a horror story.

She had been shopping in central Rome. On the lonely road that leads from the Tor di Quinto station, she fell into the hands of a frenzied attacker. She was robbed, sexually assaulted and then beaten with what a police spokesman called “unparalleled ferocity”.

Resignation calls mount for Met Police chief after De Menezes verdict

LONDON (AFP) – Pressure is mounting Friday on Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair to resign after the force was found guilty of breaching health and safety laws in the fatal 2005 shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

Blair insisted he would not quit, saying officers did their best in a “simply extraordinary situation”.

De Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head at a London Underground train station on July 22, 2005, with the city still reeling from attacks on the public transport system two weeks before which killed 52 people.

Latin America

Noel becomes hurricane; toll at 115

NASSAU, Bahamas – Noel strengthened into a hurricane over the Atlantic after slamming the Caribbean with heavy rains, flooding and mudslides that left at least 115 dead, officials said.

The storm drenched the Bahamas and Cuba on Thursday while rescue workers in the Dominican Republic headed out in boats and helicopters to reach dozens of communities isolated by floods and mudslides

Africa

‘Dual epidemic’ threatens Africa

A rising number of dual infections with HIV and tuberculosis has created a co-epidemic spreading throughout sub-Saharan Africa, researchers say.

Local health systems are unable to contain the co-epidemic, the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research says.

US seeks to remove pirates from ships

NAIROBI, Kenya – The U.S. Navy said Thursday that it intended to remove pirates from a hijacked Japanese tanker monitored by American warships off the coast of Somalia. A crew member’s sister said negotiations were under way for the release of the ship.

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The Navy came to the aid of the chemical tanker this week, at one point opening fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to it.

It also helped a North Korean ship whose crew overpowered pirates in a clash that left several crew members wounded and one hijacker dead. The hijackers were being held aboard the ship until they can be handed over for prosecution at a port. After the clash, Navy personnel boarded the North Korean boat to treat the wounded.

Asia

Senior Tamil Tiger leader killed

A senior leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels has been killed in a government air raid, the rebels say.

SP Thamilselvan was the head of the Tigers’ political wing and held an important position in the rebel hierarchy.

The rebels said he died along with five others in an air strike by the Sri Lankan military.

The Tamil Tigers announced the news on their website, saying Mr Thamilselvan died at 0600 local time on Friday.

This a link to the Tamil Guardian a newspaper associated with the Tamil Tigers.

Musharraf faces up to an emergency

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI – With Admiral William J Fallon, US commander of CENTCOM, due in Pakistan on Thursday to finalize collaboration on pressing issues concerning the “war on terror” in Pakistan and Afghanistan, besides addressing the tension over Iran, top decision-makers in Islamabad are in a quandary. The issue is whether Pakistan can afford to take bold steps in the “war on terror” without taking extraordinary steps to solidify the regime of President General Pervez Musharraf.

The matter is one of extreme urgency. Almost the entire North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Federally Administered Tribal

With the end of day light savings time in America my ability to respond to comments will be limited to a 30 minute time frame beginning with Sunday’s Dacudharma Times.