December 24, 2007 archive

Some news and afternoon open thread.

1. The Guardian reports Cheney accused of blocking Californian bid to cut car fumes. “The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, was behind a controversial decision to block California’s attempt to impose tough emission limits on car manufacturers, according to insiders at the government Environmental Protection Agency. Staff at the agency, which announced last week that California’s proposed limits were redundant, said the agency’s chief went against their expert advice after car executives met Cheney, and a Chrysler executive delivered a letter to the EPA saying why the state should not be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases.”

2. The Washington Post reports Bush administration ignored warnings about using on mercenaries in Iraq.

   The U.S. government disregarded numerous warnings over the past two years about the risks of using Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms in Iraq, expanding their presence even after a series of shooting incidents showed that the firms were operating with little regulation or oversight, according to government officials, private security firms and documents.

   The warnings were conveyed in letters and memorandums from defense and legal experts and in high-level discussions between U.S. and Iraqi officials. They reflected growing concern about the lack of control over the tens of thousands of private guards in Iraq, the largest private security force ever employed by the United States in wartime.

   Neither the Pentagon nor the State Department took substantive action to regulate private security companies until Blackwater guards opened fire Sept. 16 at a Baghdad traffic circle, killing 17 Iraqi civilians and provoking protests over the role of security contractors in Iraq.

3. According to The Hill, Kean says CIA is parsing words on interrogation tapes. “Former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean (R), a co-chairman of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, criticized the CIA Monday for impeding the panel’s work. Kean said CIA tapes that showed interrogations of suspected terrorists should have been turned over to the panel, adding that they fell under a blanket request for information from the intelligence agency. The CIA has since destroyed the tapes, a move that has caused great controversy and criticism from both parties.”

4. The Associated Press reports Big rise in those behind on credit card bills. “Americans are falling behind on their credit-card payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults surging by double-digit percentages in the past year and prompting warnings of worse to come. Experts say the problem is partly a byproduct of the subprime-mortgage crisis and could spell more trouble ahead for an already sputtering economy… Until recently, credit-card default rates had been running close to record lows… The value of credit-card accounts at least 30 days late jumped 26 percent to $17.3 billion in October from a year earlier…”

A story about the Military-Industrial-Santa-Complex lurks below the fold.

About a month ago, I posted these words:

1. You can post 100 links to DocuD in a day

2. You can raise 20,000 dollars for Winter Rabbit in a week.

3. You can help a family get reunited.

4. You can fund a small community project in your home town.

5. You can tell 100 people about reducing their Carbon output this weekend.

6. You can host an Online Blogger’s Symposium with Guest Speakers.

7. You can decide the Veteran’s deserve another voice right now.

Let’s see how we did below the fold: