Some news and open thread.

1. The Los Angeles Times reports U.S. drops 40,000 pounds of bombs outside of Baghdad. “U.S. bombers and fighter jets continued an aggressive attack on the southern outskirts of Baghdad this morning, unleashing 38 bombs in 10 minutes on suspected havens of the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq. In all, they dropped 40,000 pounds of bombs on Arab Jabour, in an area of mostly farmland, the U.S. military said in a statement… A booby-trapped home exploded Wednesday, killing six American soldiers and an interpreter and injuring nine others. The U.S. military also reported that three service members were killed by small-arms fire the day before. The two-day toll makes the latest effort to flush out Al Qaeda in Iraq the deadliest operation in months.”

   Other news from Iraq comes from The New York Times, which reports 2005 use of gas by Blackwater leaves questions. In May 2005, a Blackwater helicopter “dropped CS gas, a riot-control substance the American military in Iraq can use only under the strictest conditions and with the approval of top military commanders. An armored vehicle on the ground also released the gas, temporarily blinding drivers, passers-by and at least 10 American soldiers operating the checkpoint.”

   “This was decidedly uncool and very, very dangerous,” Capt. Kincy Clark of the Army, the senior officer at the scene, wrote later that day. “It’s not a good thing to cause soldiers who are standing guard against car bombs, snipers and suicide bombers to cover their faces, choke, cough and otherwise degrade our awareness.”

2. According to the Washington Post, Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA official that ordered the CIA torture tapes to be destroyed, is refusing to testify before the House intelligence committee “unless he is granted immunity from prosecution for his statements”. Also, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. wrote “in a three-page ruling that a group of inmates held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ‘offer nothing to support their assertion that a judicial inquiry’ is necessary into the tape destruction. He said neither of the detainees whose interrogations were taped and later destroyed has an apparent connection to the prisoners who were demanding the review. Kennedy also wrote that he expects the Justice Department ‘will follow the facts wherever they may lead and live up to the assurances it made to this court.'”

3. The Guardian reports Bush calls on Israel to end occupation of Palestinian land. “George Bush today called on Israel to end its 41-year occupation of Palestinian land and predicted a peace treaty would be signed by the time he leaves office. Speaking after a meeting with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Bush said: ‘There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. An agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people.'” Brilliant! Now why didn’t any of Bush’s predecessors think of this cunning stratagem that will surely bring peace in our time?

4. The Los Angles Times reports on The question that almost wasn’t asked.

   It was such a girlie question, Marianne Pernold Young wasn’t sure she should ask it.

   There she was, within touching distance of a very smart Hillary Rodham Clinton at a little New Hampshire coffee shop where a handful of other very smart women had spent an hour asking very smart questions about immigration and national security — and the only thing she could think to ask, the only thing she really wanted to know: How do you do it?

   The microphone came her way once, and Pernold Young handed it off. Too bush league, she thought. But then something inside the 64-year-old freelance photographer and three-year breast cancer survivor said “what the heck.”

   Truth be told, all the policy talk was getting boring. So when the mike came around one last time, she asked the question that helped to steady the listing campaign of the first woman with a real shot at the White House:

   “As a woman, I know it’s hard to get out of the house and get ready. My question is very personal. How do you do it?”

1. The victims of Hurricane Katrina are thinking big — really big. According to the Associated Press, Katrina’s Victims sue for $3 quadrillion. “A whopping $3,014,170,389,176,410 is the dollar figure so far sought from some of the largest claims filed against the federal government over damage from the failure of levees and flood walls following the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane… For the sake of perspective: A mere $1 quadrillion would dwarf the U.S. gross domestic product… was $13.2 trillion in 2007.” Our national debt is now over $9.2 trillion.

2. While Iran isn’t the most trust-inspiring nation, the Bush administration isn’t well-known for their honesty and ablity to tell the truth either. So, it comes as no surprise that, according to The New York Times, Iran accuses the Bush administration of faking Persian Gulf video. “‘Images released by the U.S. Department of Defense about the navy vessels, the archive, and sounds on it are fabricated,’ an unnamed Revolutionary Guard official said… The video and audio were recorded separately and then matched, Naval and Pentagon officials said Tuesday… The video runs just over four minutes and, according to Pentagon officials, was shot from the bridge of the guided missile destroyer Hopper.”

   Here’s the video… kind of low production values… reminds me of those ‘bin Laden’ videos. What do you think?

3. The Los Angeles Times reports Conservative Supreme Court cool to voter ID challenge. “he U.S. Supreme Court, hearing arguments in a partisan election-law dispute, gave no hint today that it would strike down the nation’s strictest voter identification law. Democrats in Indiana challenged the law as unconstitutional, saying the Republican-backed measure would deter thousands of poor, minority and elderly voters from casting ballots. Registered voters in Indiana without a valid driver’s license or passport would not have their ballots counted. But the justices, with the conservatives leading the way, said the Democrats had failed to prove the measure would have much impact.” Gee… color me surprised!

4. Here’s a fun story… the Washington Post reports In India, gods rule the ‘toon’ universe. For “eight-year-old Tejas Vohra, one of his favorite superheroes is a cool cartoon version of Hanuman, the monkey-headed Hindu god… In ‘The Return of Hanuman,’ the adored deity is reborn as a boy who goes to school in khaki shorts, uses a computer, combats pollution and, most important, smashes the bad guys to pulp… ‘It was awesome to see the gods laughing, singing and flying planes. The fights were really good, and in the end Hanuman sets everything right.’ A number of haloed Hindu gods and goddesses have debuted in the frenetic world of animation over the past five years. Their appearance marks a shift from a decades-long period in which Indian children grew up almost exclusively on American TV and movie characters”.

1. The New York Times reports a Record New Hampshire voter turnout is predicted. “In the Democratic and Republican primaries here, a large group of voters who are not registered in either party hold significant sway over the outcome. Those independent voters, 45 percent of the state electorate, are free to cast ballots in either primary… On a day that felt like springtime, with temperatures expected to reach 60 degrees, voters flooded the polls at a steady pace throughout the morning. The secretary of state, Bill Gardner, predicted that at least a half-million people would vote in the primary.”

2. Spiegel asks Is America slouching towards protectionism? The article begins by describing the US-Mexican border crossing:

   The border crossing, in its coarseness, is reminiscent of the East German side of the former border between the two Germanys, except that the face on wall posters is that of George W. Bush and not of the former East German leader Erich Honecker. It isn’t exactly a welcoming sort of place, this border crossing with its posters cataloging the potentially dire consequences of breaking the rules — including the illegal purchase of parrots (“You’re buying yourself bird flu”) and human trafficking (“Death is only one of the ways of losing your life”).

   While certainly the description is a tad gratuitous, I thought it was too good to pass over. Continuing, the article explains the factory boom in Mexico as manufacturing jobs in the United States has plummeted in the era of free trade.

   Americans, Spiegel explains “were promised a modern service industry, but what they got instead were low-paying, unskilled jobs packaging and delivering products. Even after five years of economic recovery, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics recently wrote in a special report, real wages are now lower than they were in 1999… Many Americans have stopped believing that vigorous international trade promotes the wealth of nations… Only 28 percent of respondents agreed that globalization is a good thing. White-collar workers have now joined their blue-collar counterparts in rejecting the form of international trade in place today. For the first time, a majority in both political camps — 55 percent of Republican and 63 percent of Democratic voters — are convinced that globalization is bad for the country.“

   The article continues to describe what life is like in “America’s poor backyard” — “surreal, hostile and, most of all, filthy” and “plagued by a high crime rate”. Then concludes with the impact on the United States.

   Nowadays America is both the world’s biggest borrower and its biggest importer. Many of the suppliers of days gone by are now competitors in their own right. Big US corporations may be reporting record profits and Wall Street may be awash in bonus payments, but workers — blue-collar and white-collar alike — are suffering.

   The American middle class is suddenly finding itself confronted with the conditions of the past, as wages decline and companies increasingly eliminate their contributions to their employees’ health insurance and retirement pensions…

   The gap between rich and poor has grown by leaps and bounds in America, far more so than in countries like Germany. One-fifth of Americans earn more than half of all wages and salaries. Ten percent of the population owns 70 percent of all assets.

   And according to The New York Times, even Bush admits economy faces challenges sucks.

Four at Four continues below the fold with deadly winter tornadoes in the Midwest and more…

Afternoon news and not closed thread.

1. Just in time for the 2008 presidential election, The New York Times triumphantly announces Relations Improve With a Shift in War Coverage For Pentagon and News Media! “The anguished relationship between the military and the news media appears to be on the mend as battlefield successes from the troop increase in Iraq are reflected in more upbeat news coverage… At the start of the Iraq war, decades of open hostilities between the military and news media dating from Vietnam were forgotten, if only for a brief and shining moment. One reason was the embed program for the Iraq invasion that placed hundreds of reporters from across the journalistic spectrum into combat units.” Great… because what American needs is more love between the press and Defense War Department.

   The Independent obviously hasn’t gotten the memo. The newspaper reports Iraq death rate belies US claims of success. “The death rate in Iraq in the past 12 months has been the second highest in any year since the invasion, according to figures that appear to contradict American claims that the troop ‘surge’ has dramatically reduced the level of violence across the country.”

   The Iraq Body Count (IBC) “found that between 22,586 and 24,159 civilian deaths were documented for 2007, with the vast majority of those killed between January and August… John Sloboda, the co-founder of IBC, said the figures “show beyond any doubt that civil security in Iraq remains in a parlous state… For some 24,000 Iraqi civilians, and their families and friends, 2007 was a year of devastating and irreparable tragedy”.

2. Meanwhile, all the cool newspapers are reporting a “confrontation“, as the NY Times puts it, between U.S. and Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The Guardian reports “According to Pentagon officials, US forces were about to fire at the boats, thought to be from the Revolutionary Guard, when the Iranians turned away at the last moment… The Iranian foreign ministry dismissed the confrontation as ‘something normal‘ that was resolved without incident.” The anonymous Pentagon officials, however, described the encounter as “significant” and “the most serious provocation of this sort that we’ve seen yet”. Spin Cheney! Spin!

3. But, then Bush’s handlers have been always about lowering the bar and minimizing expectations. McClatchy Newspapers are reporting that Expectations are low for Bush’s Mideast trip. “President Bush, who once had grand ambitions to transform the Middle East through democratic reform, begins his first extended presidential visit to the region Tuesday with his sights lowered and his ability to influence events fading fast… The official Arab view of Bush was summed up inadvertently by a diplomat from a major Arab state, who indicated disbelief that the president will use the trip to renew his drive for Middle East democracy. ‘Is that still on?‘ the Arab official replied sarcastically. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities.” And just for the curious, The Guardian adds More than 10,000 police will guard Bush during his Israel visit.

4. Finally, news from the road to the White House. The Los Angeles Times reports Supreme Court will hear voter ID case. Their ruling “could affect the outcome in some close contests this year and well into the future. At issue is whether states may require voters to show a driver’s license or a passport at their polling places.

   Republicans say photo IDs are needed to prevent vote fraud by, for example, having ballots cast in the names of the dead or by those who are not legal voters, such as felons, noncitizens or nonresidents…

   Democrats counter that the photo ID rules are a Republican-driven scheme whose real purpose is to deter voting by racial minorities, the poor and the elderly. They say that new voters are checked for eligibility when they register, and that there is no need for a photo ID check at the polling place…

   And a surprisingly large number of legally registered voters could run afoul of a photo ID requirement. About 10% of the nation’s voting-age citizens — more than 20 million people — do not have a driver’s license or passport, according to studies and phone surveys presented to the high court.

   Nothing like disenfranchising 10 percent of the electorate to rig a close election.

Talking Heads below the fold.

News and open thread.

1. From the Washington Post, a story about one soldier’s death in Iraq in A drunken night in Iraq, a soldier is left behind.

   Pfc. Hannah Gunterman McKinney was 20 years old, the brown-eyed mother of a toddler son, when she was spotted in the headlights of a passing Humvee on a perimeter road at one of the largest U.S. military camps in Iraq.

   Thirteen hours later, in Redlands, Calif., Barbie and Matt Heavrin, who had three children in the military, learned they had lost their elder daughter to ‘injuries suffered when she was struck by a vehicle,’ as the Army first described it…

   Her case would become one in a litany of noncombat deaths in Iraq, which number more than 700, from crashes, suicides, illnesses and accidents that sometimes reveal messy truths about life in the war zone…

   Her parents want her story to be fully told. They cannot reconcile themselves to the idea that, on that terrible day in Taji, their daughter was left behind…

   Barbie Heavrin took McKinney’s son, Todd, not yet 2, to her coffin to bid goodbye.

   “Mama sleep?” the boy asked, patting her forehead.

   Follow the link to the WaPo story above to read about one soldier’s life and death in a war zone. Mr. Bush’s war is destroying our troops.

2. The New York Times reports At Huckabee central, cheers for Evangelical base. “Mr. Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, rode a crest of evangelical Christian support to victory… A poll of people entering the Republican caucuses on Thursday showed more than 8 in 10 of his supporters identified themselves as evangelicals. The same surveys showed extraordinary turnout among evangelicals, who represented some 60 percent of Republican caucusgoers. In years past, Republican Party leaders in Iowa put evangelical turnout at about 40 percent.” Iowa takes America one step closer to becoming the Republic of Gilead.

3. Are we in a recession yet? The Guardian reports US jobless figures up as economy suffers severe downturn. “Unemployment in the US rose to its highest level in more than two years last month as the job-creation machine in the world’s biggest economy virtually ground to a halt… The Labor Department… said the jobless rate rose from 4.7% to 5% in December… Employers added a mere 18,000 jobs last month – the weakest performance by non-farm payrolls since 2003, when the economy was starting to recover from the short-lived recession that followed the collapse of the dotcom bubble.” The news also sent the dollar and share prices down.

4. More news from Rep. Jane “too little, too late” Harman… according to the Washington Post, Harman knew the CIA in 2003 planned destruction of tapes. “Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) released a declassified copy of a letter she secretly wrote to the CIA in February 2003, in which she quoted then-CIA General Counsel Scott W. Muller as telling her a tape of the agency’s interrogation of Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, better known as Abu Zubaida, ‘will be destroyed after the Inspector General finishes his inquiry’… She urged Muller to ‘reconsider’ that plan and predicted that the tapes’ destruction ‘would reflect badly on the agency’… Harman said she never received a direct reply to her advice that destroying the tapes would be a mistake.” And, evidently she didn’t follow-up on her letter, nor did she make her knowledge public until too late. Marcy Winograd, it’s time for another primary in CA-36.

Some news and open thread.

1. The violence going on in Kenya is too horrible for words. After the presidential election, the opposition supporters accused the ruling party of stealing the vote. The Los Angeles Times surmises the Kenyan election thusly:

   President Mwai Kibaki’s electoral victory, seen by the opposition as fraudulent, triggered days of ugly tribal violence from western Kenya to the coast. Mobs of opposition supporters have attacked Kibaki’s fellow Kikuyus, burned houses, looted shops, hacked people’s heads off or slashed them with machetes. Tribal fighting has raged around Eldoret and in some slum areas of Nairobi, the capital.

   Yesterday, The Guardian reported that the European Union observers condemned the Kenyan election and called for investigation. “European Union observers issued a damning report on Kenya’s presidential poll yesterday, saying it had ‘fallen short of key international and regional standards for democratic elections’ and calling for a swift, independent investigation of the results. President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the election on Sunday evening, despite trailing opposition leader Raila Odinga in all the opinion polls and early counts after Thursday’s ballot.

   While Kenya is not Rwanda, I believe the ethnically motivated killings are genocide. One of the more horrific accounts of violence comes from the town of Kiambaa. According to The Guardian, over the New Year, 50 children were murdered as they sough sanctuary in a church. The children and their mothers, a total of about 200 Kikuyus, “were sheltering from outbursts of ethnic violence”. Where Kalenjin youths armed with bows and arrows and machetes killed the men and then attacked the women and children. After they fled to the church, “mattresses soaked with paraffin were pushed through the windows and used to block the door. Matches were thrown in.” As the church burned, the Kikuyu women and children fled only to be killed by the waiting Kalenjin youth.

   Today, BBC News reports President Kibaki ‘open to opposition talks’.

   President Mwai Kibaki has broken his silence over the unrest gripping Kenya by making a televised appeal for calm. Mr Kibaki said that once the violence ended he would be prepared to speak to the opposition, who claim he was wrongly credited with election victory.

   Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako has called for an independent investigation into the 27 December poll result.

   More than 300 people have been killed and some 70,000 displaced since Sunday amid claims that the vote was rigged.”

Four at Four continues below the fold with stories about $200/barrel oil, drilling for oil in the last of the polar bears’ range, California suing the EPA, and the undecided Iowa Democratic caucus goers. Please follow the link and comment or something…

N.A.O.T.

1. Awesome news oil users! According to the Canadian Press, Iraq increases oil exports in 2007, expects higher production in 2008. “Iraq’s oil exports shot up in the last quarter of 2007… the exports, about 1.6 million barrels a day… had grossed a total of US$4.94 billion in November, which made up more than 90 per cent of Iraq’s revenues.” The New York Times notes Oil hits $100 a barrel for the first time. “Oil prices reached the symbolic level of $100 a barrel for the first time… Oil prices… have quadrupled since 2003.” Mission Accomplished!

   Meanwhile, the NY Times also reports that 30 people are dead in Baghdad’s worst attack in months. “A suicide bomber strode into a gathering of mourners at a home in eastern Baghdad and detonated an explosives-packed vest… The force of the blast scattered severed arms and legs about the site of the attack, a house where scores of friends and relatives had gathered to pay tribute to a man killed three days earlier by a car bomb in Tayaran Square in central Baghdad.” And another attack is reported on by the NY Times, Female bomber attacks pro-American Iraqis. “For the second time in three days, a woman detonated an explosive vest on Wednesday amid a group of armed Sunni tribesmen… killing at least seven people, including a tribal chief known as Abu Sajad, a leader of the local Awakening Council, and injuring 22 others.”

2. Well at least there’s Iowa. According to the Los Angeles Times, Republican base scatters to rival camps. “The long-standing coalition of social, economic and national security conservatives that elevated the Republican Party to political dominance has become so splintered by the presidential primary campaign that some party leaders fear a protracted nomination fight that could hobble the eventual nominee… That instability has fueled fears that if a winner does not quickly emerge in a primary calendar loaded with contests in January and early February, a prolonged primary fight could delay the GOP’s focus on election day in a campaign in which Democratic voters already have contributed more money and, according to several polls, expressed greater satisfaction with their choice of presidential contenders.” And what could help the Republicans? “Republicans argue that in the end, Clinton may prove the great unifier of the GOP. If she wins the Democratic nomination, they say, Republicans of all stripes will rally in their shared loathing of her.”

3. The good people of St. Paul and Minneapolis are already taking to the streets to protest the Republican National Convention, according to the Associated Press. “A few dozen anti-war protesters marched Wednesday from the state Capitol to the Xcel Energy Center, hoping it will guarantee them to chance to hold a demonstration along the same route during the Republican National Convention in September… They contend a St. Paul ordinance allows permits for recurring events to be considered and granted outside the six-month permit window used to assess single demonstrations. But the lead St. Paul police official warned that it’s not so clear cut… St. Paul police authorized the January event, but only conditionally approved the marches through July.”

4. Lastly, a big hello to the NSA and all the other government agencies that could be sniffing this post. The Associated Press reports United States near bottom of global privacy index.

   Individual privacy is under threat around the world as governments continue introducing surveillance and information-gathering measures, according to an international rights group.

   “The general trend is that privacy is being extinguished in country after country,” said Simon Davies, director of London-based Privacy International, which released a study on the issue Saturday. “Even those countries where we expected ongoing strong privacy protection, like Germany and Canada, are sinking into the mire.” …

   Malaysia, Russia and China ranked worst, but Great Britain and the United States also fell into the lowest-performing group of “endemic surveillance societies.” …

   U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration has come under fire for monitoring – without warrants – international phone calls and e-mails involving people suspected of having terrorist links. Davies said little had changed since Democrats took control of Congress a year ago.

   Here is the 2007 International Privacy Ranking. Hat tip Turkana @ The Left Coast… I hope you post that essay more widely.

Some news and open thread.

1. The Guardian reports Past failures are a recipe for success for Hillary, says Bill. “Failure is not usually an attribute used to sell American presidents, but that is how Bill Clinton is pitching his wife to Iowa’s voters in the final days before the state caucuses. Hillary Clinton has a crucial quality for an occupant of the White House, the former president argues: the strength to carry on after getting it wrong. ‘You need to know how a president deals with failure,’ he told a packed fairground hall in this town south-west of Des Moines.” If American wanted a failure, they’d find a way to re-elect Bush.

2. According to the Des Moines Register, Edwards, wife crackle over remark by Obama’s wife. Okay, first off… crackle? “John Edwards gave a long, passionate response Monday to rivals’ claims that if he becomes the Democrats’ presidential nominee, he would be financially handcuffed because he agreed to federal campaign spending limits that will last throughout the primaries. ‘It scares them to death, because what they know is, what this candidate and this campaign stands for is working,’ he said. ‘Can I ask you a question? If they have more money, and money’s what matters, then why are they worrying about me?’ … ‘When you’re resorting to arguments about how much money somebody has, you’re in a bad place,’ he said. “Because you’re not saying, ‘He’s wrong on this issue, or he’s wrong on that issue. And he’s not a good candidate.’ They’re not saying any of that. They’re saying, ‘But we have more money.” Obama aides have been telling reporters that Edwards’ decision to accept spending caps would cripple him if he became the nominee.”

3. The New York Times reports Outside groups spend heavily and visibly to sway ’08 races. “Spurred by a recent Supreme Court decision, independent political groups are using their financial muscle and organizational clout as never before to influence the presidential race, pumping money and troops into early nominating states on behalf of their favored candidates… The groups are prohibited from coordinating their efforts with the campaigns… Unlike national political parties and their candidates, many of these interest groups face no limits on how much they can take in from their contributors and often do not have to disclose their donors’ names until after an election… Senator Barack Obama of Illinois is the only leading Democrat who has not attracted support from any of these groups in Iowa.”

4. The Portland Tribune wonders if Oregon largest city’s three steam locomotives are Running out of steam? “The Brooklyn Roundhouse – is almost completely filled with three huge steam locomotives… Two of the engines have been completely restored and still run – The Southern Pacific 4449 and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700… Perhaps most amazing of all, over the past half-century they have cost city taxpayers practically nothing. All of the work on the locomotives has been done by a small, dedicated group of volunteers that has raised its own funds from private sources. And the Union Pacific Corp., which owns the roundhouse, has been leasing it to the city for $1 a month… Now, however, the locomotives are at a crossroads. The Union Pacific wants the roundhouse property to expand its future freight operations, perhaps within a few months.

Below the fold is a story about the Navy awaiting a court ruling on its use of cetacean-killing sonar.

News and afternoon open thread.

1. Headline news in Britain, not so much in the U.S.A. The Guardian reports, 2007 is America’s deadliest year in Iraq.

   This year has been the most deadly for American troops in Iraq since the invasion nearly five years ago, US military figures out today show.

   Deaths peaked in May when 126 American soldiers died in coalition assaults on insurgent strongholds… The 899 American troop deaths in 2007 surpassed 2004 when 850 US soldiers were killed.

   The US military deaths are dwarfed by Iraqi civilian casualties… Over the year, 18,610 Iraqis were killed. In 2006, the only other full year an AP count has been made, 13,813 civilians were killed.

2. The Washington Post reports 32 K Street lobbyists are aiding John McCain. “McCain aides bridle at the notion that the senator, who has consistently fought in the Senate against so-called pork-barrel spending from such interests and championed laws to restrict their lobbying and political donations, might favor his big contributors… McCain has more lobbyists raising funds for his presidential bid than do any of his rivals. He has 32 “bundlers” of donations who are lobbyists. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) is the closest to him with 29 lobbyist bundlers, followed by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) with 18. McCain’s campaign has also been guided by lobbyists.” Maverick!

3. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Sub-prime mortgage mess takes a bite out of states and cities. “Dozens of states, counties and cities across the nation will enter the new year facing deep and unexpected budget holes as the widening mortgage crisis cuts sharply into tax revenue… The effects of the housing slowdown are not being felt evenly across the nation… The 10 most affected states, including California, Nevada and Arizona, will lose a combined $6.6 billion in tax revenue next year, according to a report prepared for the U.S. Conference of Mayors… The fallout has been most severe in California, where officials are grappling with a $14-billion gap.”

4. The death of the public library may have been a bit premature. Reuters reports a survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found Generation Y biggest user of U.S. libraries. “More than half of Americans visited a library in the past year with many of them drawn in by the computers rather than the books… Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y… Internet users were more than twice as likely to patronize libraries as non-Internet users, according to the survey.”

Some news and open thread.

1. The Hill reports Bush threatens to veto fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill “because of a provision dealing with Iraqi assets held in the U.S… In a statement, the White House singled out language in the bill that would allow the lawyers for plaintiffs who had sued the former Saddam Hussein regime to freeze Iraqi funds in U.S. banks.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) issued a joint statement: “We understand that the President is bowing to the demands of the Iraqi government, which is threatening to withdraw billions of dollars invested in U.S. banks if this bill is signed… The administration should have raised its objections earlier, when this issue would have been addressed without a veto.”

2. According to The Guardian, Global warming brings busy year for UN disaster teams. “The United Nations office that sends expert teams around the world to help governments deal with natural disasters was busier than ever in Latin America this year, a fact it at least partially blames on climate change. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in a statement that a record nine missions were dispatched to the region during 2007, among 14 sent around the globe, itself a higher than usual number. Of the 14 global missions, 70% were in response to hurricanes and floods, the OCHA statement said, calling this ‘possibly a glimpse of the shape of things to come given the reality of climate change.'”

3. The New York Times reports Military newspaper challenges Defense Department. “Top editors at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes are asking for full disclosure of the paper’s relationship with a Department of Defense publicity program, called America Supports You, after disclosures that money for the program was funneled through the newspaper.” The inspector general of the Defense Department is investigating the America Supports You program. “Perception of objectivity has always been a thorny issue for the editorial staff because the paper is supposed to be free from government censorship – but is owned and partly financed by the government. By statute, the newspaper is guaranteed editorial independence.”

4. The editors at AlterNet have compiled their list of Top Ten Tales of War and Empire for 2007. “2007 was an incredibly frustrating year for opponents of the seemingly endless ‘War on Terror,’ and all that it is used to justify.” Check it out. There are some interesting stories and opinions you may have missed.