Category: News

I just have to share this:

The 50 Most Loathsome People of 2007

Here’s a little sample:

10. Alberto Gonzales

Crimes: The most truckling, amoral flunky to ever serve as Attorney General. A jurisprudent organelle, he manifests no concept of the law independent of its expediency to the president. Would smilingly accuse himself of providing material support to al Qaeda at President Bush’s request, hurriedly plead guilty, sign his own death warrant and flip the switch himself. His testimony before congressional committees is to public service what cholera is to the small intestine. As first Hispanic Attorney General, Gonzo typifies the self-betrayal and ethical compromise necessary for minorities to become successful Republicans. Been felching sweet approval from Bush’s lily-white ass since Texas. A conscienceless, memo-drafting, loophole-crafting liar for hire, pushing for all the worst administration policies, including nixing habeas corpus, denying and then defending rendition, torture, political firings, and a ton of other evil stuff. He even visited a seriously ill and disoriented John Ashcroft at the hospital, attempting to coax him into reauthorizing a clearly illegal wiretapping program. The only Attorney General who ever could have made John Ashcroft a sympathetic character by contrast.

Exhibit A: “The fact that the Constitution — again, there is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution. There is a prohibition against taking it away.”

Sentence: Death by dull guillotine, head bent by Beckham.

Nobody gets off the hook here.  If you’re a Hillary Clinton supporter, you might want to skip this one:

This is an Open Thread: Come as you are As you were

Headlines For Monday December 31: Obama Tries New Tactics To Get Out Vote in Iowa: Iran’s inner and outer circles of influence and power: Scores dead in Kenya poll clashes: Moscow loses sweet slice of history

USA

After a Son’s Death, a Shared Mission in Politics

In an instant, a world in which everything seemed right suddenly seemed all wrong. John and Elizabeth Edwards’s 16-year-old son, Wade, their first-born, was dead, with nothing to blame but the gust of wind that had flipped his car off a wide-open road.

As the couple walked down the aisle of the church for his funeral, they braced each other, friends recalled, as if they could not stand alone.

In the bleak months that followed, the Edwardses looked for ways to keep Wade’s name alive, taking comfort even in seeing it printed on credit-card offers that arrived in the mail. Determined to honor their son publicly and fill their life with meaning, they created a learning center named after him. They chose to have more children. And they decided Mr. Edwards would enter politics, a path that took him first to the United States Senate and now to his second run for the presidency.

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

Why would I kid?

1 R.I.P. to Court TV, hello to truTV

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

1 hour, 1 minute ago

Cynical?  Moi?  I welcome our new insect overlords.

You might think the news below the fold is more tru.

Heh.

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

1 Weak end to 2007 expected for carmakers

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Auto Writer

Sat Dec 29, 10:57 AM ET

The Morning News is an Open Thread

1 Delaware River current halts crossing

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

Some news and the afternoon’s open thread.

1. Merry Christmas from George W. Bush.

   According to the AP, Bush makes holiday calls to troops. “Bush made Christmas Eve calls to 10 U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other spots around the world, thanking them for their sacrifice and wishing them a happy holiday even though they’ll be far away from their families and friends. The president made his calls Monday from the Camp David presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains, where he is spending Christmas. He spoke with members of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard, including seven serving in Iraq… Among those joining the president at the wooded compound in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains are Mrs. Bush’s mother, Jenna Welch; and the first couple’s twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna; the president’s sister, Doro Bush Koch and her family; and the president’s brother, Marvin, and his family.”

2. Merry Christmas from Iraq.

   The AP reports Suicide attacks in Iraq kill at least 34. “Two separate suicide attacks, including one apparently targeting workers in a northern oil hub, killed at least 34 people on Tuesday… A suicide truck bomb exploded outside a residential complex belonging to a state-run oil company in Beiji, home to Iraq’s largest refinery, killing 25 people and wounding 80… Most of the dead were civilians, and at least four were children… In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, 10 people were killed and five people were wounded in a suicide bombing… Local officials said a bomber wearing an explosives vest targeted a funeral procession for two members of an Awakening Council group – fighters who have turned against al-Qaida in Iraq – who were accidentally killed by U.S. troops during a dawn raid.”

3. Merry Christmas from Afghanistan.

   The Canadian Press reports Christmas in Kandahar not quite the same without snow and family. “It’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas in Kandahar, but without a speck of snow in sight, Canadian troops say it just doesn’t quite feel like it… Carols, festive fare, dance parties, and king can beer rations have even been plentiful this Christmas Eve, but for family men like Capt. Patrick Hannan, it just isn’t the same without his wife and 10-year-old daughter.” Stories in the American press about U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan? Not a one that I could find, but France’s AFP reports on A Christmas far away from home for troops in Afghanistan.

4. Merry Christmas to Pakistan.

   According to The New York Times, American aid may help the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

   Weeks before it is to begin, an ambitious American aid plan to counter militancy in Pakistan’s tribal areas is threatened by important unresolved questions about who will monitor the money and whether it could fall into the wrong hands…

   Weeks before it is to begin, an ambitious American aid plan to counter militancy in Pakistan’s tribal areas is threatened by important unresolved questions about who will monitor the money and whether it could fall into the wrong hands…

   The region remains so dangerous that it is virtually off limits even to American military officials and civilians who would oversee the programs. The Pakistani authorities have ruled out using foreign nonprofit groups, known as NGOs, shorthand for nongovernmental organizations. But neither do they approve the American choice of private contractors. They would like the money to go through them…

   Concerns about corruption are so severe, however, that the first grants will be held to only about $25,000 each, to finance small projects like repairing water wells and small sewage plants…

   Because the United States is viewed with such opprobrium, it will not be identified on any of the aid, preventing any possible flow of good will. The aid will instead be presented as Pakistani. That, said a senior United States Embassy official, would help the Pakistanis feel like owners of the effort. “This is about teaching them how to get smart about how to run the country and win people’s support,” the official said.

May there be peace on Earth.

Let’s Open Our Presents

Headlines For December 25: A School in Georgia as a Laboratory for Getting Along: Alaskans Weigh the Cost of Gold: Court curbs insurers’ ability to rescind medical policies: Italy seeks Condor plot suspects: At Christmas, Iraqi Christians Ask for Forgiveness, and for Peace

USA

A School in Georgia as a Laboratory for Getting Along

DECATUR, Ga. – Parents at an elementary school here gathered last Thursday afternoon with a holiday mission: to prepare boxes of food for needy families fleeing some of the world’s horrific civil wars.

The community effort to help refugees resembled countless others at this time of year, with an exception. The recipients were not many thousands of miles away. They were students in the school and their families.

More than half the 380 students at this unusual school outside Atlanta are refugees from some 40 countries, many torn by war. The other students come from low-income families in Decatur, and from middle- and upper-middle-class families in the area who want to expose their children to other cultures. Together they form an eclectic community of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims, well-off and poor, of established local families and new arrivals who collectively speak about 50 languages.

Alaskans Weigh the Cost of Gold

Mine Could Imperil Salmon, Way of Life

NONDALTON, Alaska — The gold mine proposed for this stunning open country might be the largest in North America. It would involve building the biggest dam in the world at the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery, which it would risk obliterating.

Epic even by Alaskan standards, the planned Pebble Mine has divided a state normally enthusiastic about extracting whatever value can be found in its wide-open spaces. It is an ambivalence that has upended traditional politics, divided families and come to rest at kitchen tables like the one 75-year-old Olga Balluta sat beside one autumn afternoon, listing her favorite foods.

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.

Christmas Eve Open Thread

Warnings Unheeded On Guards In Iraq : When Shielding Money Clashes With the Free Will of the Elderly : Huckabee campaigning for 23% sales tax: Village wins £158m in El Gordo lottery: In one Iraqi village, a taste of what might be

U.S. Officials See Waste in Billions Sent to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped.

In interviews in Islamabad and Washington, Bush administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban, the officials said, adding that the United States has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs.

USA

Warnings Unheeded On Guards In Iraq

Despite Shootings, Security Companies Expanded Presence

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.

When Shielding Money Clashes With the Free Will of the Elderly

Eight years ago, when Robert J. Pyle was 73 years old, he had about $500,000 in the bank and owned a house in Northern California worth about $650,000. He was looking forward to a comfortable retirement.

Today, at 81, he has lost everything. Mr. Pyle, a retired aerospace engineer, now lives in his stepdaughter’s tiny, mountainside home in a room not much larger than his bed.

By his own admission, Mr. Pyle willingly made every decision that led to his financial problems. He gave away large sums to people he thought were friends, and then, in need of money, sold his house at a deep discount to the first person who offered to buy it.

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

1 Turkish aircraft in fresh raid in Iraq, says Kurdish official

AFP

27 minutes ago

This is an Open Thread: Read Then Go Shopping

Republicans opt for new worldview: McCain,Obama gain in N.H. poll: Democrats Make Bush School Act an Election Issue: In a Force for Iraqi Calm, Seeds of Conflict: 10 Years Later, Chiapas Massacre Still Haunts Mexico: Stakes High For U.S. and Argentina in Cash Scandal

USA

Republicans opt for new worldview

The candidates try to distance themselves from the president’s foreign policies but try to not alienate Bush loyalists.

WASHINGTON — Last week, after Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee criticized the Bush administration for an “arrogant bunker mentality” toward the world, rival Mitt Romney rose to George W. Bush’s defense. “Mike Huckabee owes the president an apology,” Romney said.

But Romney too has criticized the Bush administration, saying the occupation of Iraq was “underplanned, understaffed [and] under-managed,” resulting in “a mess.”

Other GOP candidates have also found things to dislike in Bush’s foreign policy: Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has dismissed the president’s campaign for democracy in the Muslim world as naive and opposed his drive to establish a Palestinian state. Sen. John McCain of Arizona thinks Bush hasn’t sent enough troops to Iraq and has been too easy on Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.

McCain closing gap with Romney

In N.H. poll, Obama inches ahead of Clinton

Senator John McCain of Arizona, whose bid for the Republican presidential nomination was all but dead this summer, has made a dramatic recovery in the Granite State 2 1/2 weeks before the 2008 vote, pulling within 3 percentage points of front-runner Mitt Romney, a new Boston Globe poll indicates.

McCain, the darling of New Hampshire voters in the 2000 primary, has the support of 25 percent of likely Republican voters, compared with 28 percent for Romney. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has slid into third place, with 14 percent. A Globe poll of New Hampshire voters last month had Romney at 32 percent, Giuliani at 20 percent, and McCain at 17 percent.

Among Democratic voters, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has opened up a narrow lead over Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, 30 percent to 28 percent. That, too, represents a major shift from last month’s Globe poll, which had Clinton with a 14-point advantage. Former senator John Edwards of North Carolina remained a steady third at 14 percent.

This is an Open Thread: Our Door Is Always Open

9/11 Panel Study Finds That C.I.A. Withheld Tapes: FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics: Romney backpedals on statements – again: Ruthless, shadowy – and a U.S. ally: U.S. convoys struggle to adjust to policy change

USA

9/11 Panel Study Finds That C.I.A. Withheld Tapes

WASHINGTON – A review of classified documents by former members of the Sept. 11 commission shows that the panel made repeated and detailed requests to the Central Intelligence Agency in 2003 and 2004 for documents and other information about the interrogation of operatives of Al Qaeda, and were told by a top C.I.A. official that the agency had “produced or made available for review” everything that had been requested.

The review was conducted earlier this month after the disclosure that in November 2005, the C.I.A. destroyed videotapes documenting the interrogations of two Qaeda operatives.

FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics

$1 Billion Project to Include Images of Irises and Faces

CLARKSBURG, W. Va. — The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world’s largest computer database of peoples’ physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.

Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.