Category: News

Some news and the afternoon’s open thread.

1. The Washington Post reports Federal judge hears CIA tapes case. “U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy… said he would consider the lawyers’ arguments for an urgent court inquiry into whether the destruction of the CIA tapes may have violated Kennedy’s June 2005 order requiring the government to preserve any evidence related to mistreatment of Guantanamo detainees… At the hour-long hearing, a Justice Department lawyer urged the judge to hold off on any investigation, saying such an inquiry could compromise a Justice Department probe that has recently been launched into the tapes’ destruction. [David Remes, an attorney for several detainees,] questioned why the court should trust the Justice Department, which may have been aware of the destruction of the CIA tapes, to now determine whether other Guantanamo-related evidence is being properly preserved.”

2. Oh no! Asteroid on track for possible Mars hit! According to the Los Angeles Times, “An asteroid similar to the one that flattened forests in Siberia in 1908 could plow into Mars next month… Researchers attached to NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program, who sometimes jokingly call themselves the Solar System Defense Team, have been tracking the asteroid since its discovery in late November. The scientists, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, put the chances that it will hit the Red Planet on Jan. 30 at about 1 in 75… The Tunguska object broke up in midair, but the Martian atmosphere is so thin that an asteroid would probably plummet to the surface, digging a crater half a mile wide”. That’s before Martian primary voters can vote on Super-Tuesday.

3. “The Sleuth” aka Mary Ann Akers of the Washington Post writes Gonzales has rough time tapping young minds for legal defense fund. “Buried by legal bills and hard up for cash, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales hit the college speaking circuit last month hoping to rake in big bucks. Instead, he’s been raked over the coals, heckled or flat out turned down by students whose institutions he charges exorbitant fees to tap his amnesiac mind… Gonzales had become the subject of angry editorials and protests on campuses near and far. At the University of Florida last month, he was viciously heckled to the point that two students wearing black hoods and orange jumpsuits blaring the words “civil liberties”- impersonating prisoners at Abu Ghraib – walked on stage and stood next to the former attorney general as he spoke. (Until they were arrested.) It was a tough way to make $40,000. And it stands to get tougher.” Oh, BOO HOO! Cry me a river… AbuG shows up, mumbles, and makes more money than many of us make in a year. This isn’t work, this is a classic academia scam by politicians.

4. Lastly, this little Iowa caucus vignette from The New York Times.

   “Who is your favorite author?” Aleya Deatsch, 7, of West Des Moines asked Mr. Huckabee in one of those posing-like-a-shopping-mall-Santa moments.

   Mr. Huckabee paused, then said his favorite author was Dr. Seuss.

   In an interview afterward with the news media, Aleya said she was somewhat surprised. She thought the candidate would be reading at a higher level.

   “My favorite author is C. S. Lewis,” she said.

This is an Open Thread: Sorry Were Open/Yes Were Closed

Spending Bills Still Stuffed With Earmarks : Bush remains thorn in Democrats’ side : Scientists Weigh Stem Cells’ Role as Cancer Cause :Torture chamber found in Iraq

USA

Spending Bills Still Stuffed With Earmarks

Democrats Had Vowed To Curtail Pet Projects

By Elizabeth Williamson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, December 21, 2007; Page A01

Twice in the past two years, Alaska lawmakers lost congressional earmarks to build two “bridges to nowhere” costing hundreds of millions of dollars after Congress was embarrassed by public complaints over the pet projects hidden in annual spending bills.

This year, Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens, who are Alaska Republicans, found another way to move cash to their state: Stevens secured more than $20 million for an “expeditionary craft” that will connect Anchorage with the windblown rural peninsula of Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

Now what Alaska has, budget watchdogs contend, is a ferry to nowhere.

Bush remains thorn in Democrats’ side

By Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

7:14 PM PST, December 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — Just more than a year ago, a chastened President Bush acknowledged that his party had taken a “thumping” in the congressional elections, and he greeted the new Democratic majority at the weakest point of his presidency.

But since then, Democrats in Congress have taken a thumping of their own as Bush has curbed their budget demands, blocked a cherished children’s health initiative, stalled the drive to withdraw troops from Iraq and stymied all efforts to raise taxes.

Rather than turn tail for his last two years in the White House, Bush has used every remaining weapon in his depleted arsenal — the veto, executive orders, the loyalty of Republicans in Congress — to keep Democrats from getting their way. He has struck a combative pose, dashing hopes that he would be more accommodating in the wake of his party’s drubbing in the 2006 mid-term voting.

Some news and the afternoon’s open thread.

1. According to the Los Angeles Times, Democrats blame Republicans for making them govern like… Republicans. The Democrats’ “approval of a bill giving Bush funds for a war they oppose helps sum up their 2007 congressional record… Democratic leaders left the Capitol complaining that much of their agenda had been thwarted by congressional Republicans who repeatedly stopped their most cherished initiatives. ‘We could have accomplished so much more,’ said a rueful Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.”

   Not everyone is unhappy with the Capitulation Congress. The Hill reports Bush praises Congress. “Bush on Thursday praised leaders from both parties for passing key bills prior to the end of the congressional session and refused to gloat even though Democratic leaders caved to many of the White House’s demands. Bush said the country can be proud of Congress’s action over the past few days, lauding the legislature for fending off the Alternative Minimum Tax, improving energy security and funding the war in Iraq.”

2. The Washington Post asks Will enough men vote for Hillary Clinton? “In Iowa, Clinton’s support among male Democratic caucus goers lags behind Barack Obama, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. In New Hampshire, she’s doing better among male Democrats, but she faces questions about her candor. Half of men say she’s not willing to say what she really thinks… Nationally, her gender gap among Democrats is smaller, the poll shows, but some analysts suggest that these numbers are not strong enough for a general election, because a majority of male independents view her unfavorably… Women’s rights advocates attribute male skepticism about Clinton to long-ingrained sexism — and a sense that men, no matter what they say, just aren’t ready for a female president… But in several interviews with Democratic men across the country, the stated reasons for their aversion to Clinton seem more complicated, and in many cases, far more visceral than substantive.”

3. I have a ten-year-old car that is really starting to show signs of its age. I am loathe to buy a replacement vehicle because I should drive less as it is, lack of money, and auto companies are truly environmental bad guys. Yesterday, the enviro-terrorist Bush administration’s EPA forbade California from having stricter automobile CO2 emissions standards — a gift to the dying Detroit automakers.

   Meanwhile, the New York Times reports Europe proposes binding limits on auto emissions. “European Union officials told leading automakers… to make deep cuts in tailpipe emissions of the cars they produce or face fines that could reach billions of euros. Companies including Volkswagen and Renault immediately promised a fight to weaken the proposed legislation, saying that compliance would be difficult and that it would hurt their competitiveness around the world… The rules would apply to new cars sold in the 200 billion euro ($288 billion) auto market, including those sold by manufacturers based in the United States, Japan and South Korea… None of the 17 major manufacturers selling cars in Europe, including producers of smaller vehicles like Fiat, currently meet the proposed targets.” The automakers are only profitable because they do not have to pay for the greenhouse gas emissions their products produce. The full cost of automobiles are not being addressed.

4. Can you smell the “democracy” in action? The AP reports New Orleans police go Taser-crazy at City Hall. “Police used chemical spray and stun guns Thursday as dozens of protesters seeking to halt the demolition of 4,500 public housing units tried to force their way through an iron gate at City Hall. One woman was sprayed with chemicals and dragged from the gates. She was taken away on a stretcher by emergency officials. Before that, the woman was seen pouring water from a bottle into her eyes and weeping. Another woman said she was stunned by officers, and still had what appeared to be a Taser wire hanging from her shirt.” WWL-TV reports “SWAT teams and vans with riot gear were sent to City Hall”.

This is an Open Thread: There are no hidden fees

Headlines For Thursday December 20: E.P.A. Says 17 States Can’t Set Emission Rules for Cars: Democrats savor power for a year but end it feeling unfulfilled: The last days of Private Scheuerman: Putin, scourge of the US, named person of the year by Time: A surge of their own: Iraqis take back the streets

USA

E.P.A. Says 17 States Can’t Set Emission Rules for Cars

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday denied California and 16 other states the right to set their own standards for carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles.

The E.P.A. administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said the proposed California rules were pre-empted by federal authority and made moot by the energy bill signed into law by President Bush on Wednesday. Mr. Johnson said California had failed to make a compelling case that it needed authority to write its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks to help curb global warming.

The decision immediately provoked a heated debate over its scientific basis and whether political pressure was applied by the automobile industry to help it escape the proposed California regulations. Officials from the states and numerous environmental groups vowed to sue to overturn the edict.

Democrats savor power for a year but end it feeling unfulfilled

Their approval of a bill giving Bush funds for a war they oppose helps sum up their 2007 congressional record.

By Richard Simon and Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

December 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats ended their first year in control of Congress in more than a decade Wednesday, approving a $555-billion government spending measure that gave President Bush $70 billion for an Iraq war they had promised to end.

And underscoring the frustrations that have beset the new majority much of the year, Democratic leaders left the Capitol complaining that much of their agenda had been thwarted by congressional Republicans who repeatedly stopped their most cherished initiatives.

“We could have accomplished so much more,” said a rueful Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) at a news conference in the old office of a Reid predecessor, Lyndon Johnson.

Despite the more than five dozen Iraq-related votes throughout the year, Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) were never able to muster the support needed to compel the president to begin withdrawing U.S. forces.

Some news and the afternoon’s open thread.

1. According to The New York Times, Bush lawyers discussed fate of CIA torture tapes. Four White House lawyers discussed whether to destroy videotape evidence of the CIA’s use of torture. “The involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.” The lawyers’s involved in the cover-up and evidence destruction included Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, John Bellinger, and Harriet Miers. “There had been ‘vigorous sentiment’ among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes.”

2. 

   The Washington Post reports Stealth-Republicans now in control of Senate. Last night, the Senate approved a $555 billion in deficit spending bill that included $70 billion in unrestricted funds for George W. Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Democrats had vowed only weeks ago to withhold any Iraq-specific money unless strict timelines for troop withdrawal were established, but they instead chose, on a 70 to 25 vote, to remove what appeared to be the final obstacle to sending the spending bill to the White House, where Bush has indicated he will sign it. Senators then passed the omnibus bill, 76 to 17. The House must still approve the revised spending bill, with the unrestricted war funds, but Democrats there concede the measure is likely to pass behind strong Republican support.” As senators and representatives rush home for the holidays, I hope they remember our soldiers fighting Mr. Bush’s wars cannot do the same.

3. According to the Denver Post, Denver can shut down DNC protesters. “If they wished, Denver officials could lock up reservations at prime city parks and deny requests from protesters or other groups during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. City permitting-rule changes being considered by the City Council would create a structure that gives governments first dibs. The revamped permitting process is meant to resolve disputes with protest groups and the American Civil Liberties Union.”

4. The Oregonian reports Buoy blowout blinds coast forecasts. “The loss of two floating weather stations this winter will leave mariners at risk off the Oregon coast… Two of the government’s three close-in weather buoys along the Oregon coast were knocked out by this month’s powerful storm system, so forecasters were relying on incomplete satellite data and a smattering of reports from ships at sea.” Nothing is planned to be done about the missing buoys until after the end of May 2008.

1 Turkish incursion overshadows Rice visit to Iraq

by Abdel Hamid Zebari, AFP

Tue Dec 18, 3:52 PM ET

Some afternoon news and Open thread.

1. Torture doesn’t work… even the FBI knows this. According to the Washington Post, the FBI and CIA disagree on significance of terror suspect.

   Al-Qaeda captive Abu Zubaida, whose interrogation videotapes were destroyed by the CIA, remains the subject of a dispute between FBI and CIA officials over his significance as a terrorism suspect and whether his most important revelations came from traditional interrogations or from torture.

   While CIA officials have described him as an important insider whose disclosures under intense pressure saved lives, some FBI agents and analysts say he is largely a loudmouthed and mentally troubled hotelier whose credibility dropped as the CIA subjected him to a simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding and to other ‘enhanced interrogation’ measures…

   FBI officials, including agents who questioned him after his capture or reviewed documents seized from his home, have concluded that even though he knew some al-Qaeda players, he provided interrogators with increasingly dubious information as the CIA’s harsh treatment intensified in late 2002…

   A rift nonetheless swiftly developed between FBI agents, who were largely pleased with the progress of the questioning, and CIA officers, who felt Abu Zubaida was holding out on them and providing disinformation. Tensions came to a head after FBI agents witnessed the use of some harsh tactics on Abu Zubaida, including keeping him naked in his cell, subjecting him to extreme cold and bombarding him with loud rock music.

2. According to the AP, Judge orders hearing on CIA videos. “A federal judge has ordered a hearing on whether the Bush administration violated a court order by destroying CIA interrogation videos of two al-Qaida suspects. U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy rejected calls from the Justice Department to stay out of the matter. He ordered lawyers to appear before him Friday morning. In June 2005, Kennedy ordered the administration to safeguard ‘all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.’ Five months later, the CIA destroyed the interrogation videos.”

3. The Bush administration is racing against the deadline to reward the corporate ‘news’ organizations that helped them gain and keep power. The Washington Post reports, FCC’s contested cross-ownership rule set for vote. “The Federal Communications Commission is pushing ahead to pass a rule today that would allow more consolidation of local media ownership in the nation’s largest cities, despite the fresh threat of a legislative rebuke and continued protests from advocacy groups. The rule, proposed by Chairman Kevin J. Martin, a Republican, has been assailed by members of his own commission, denounced by a unanimous vote of the Senate Commerce Committee and called harmful to media diversity by a number of groups who say Martin is rushing it through without adequate public comment… Martin’s action is backed by the White House”.

4. This is how our Congress works. Behold! War Pork! The Hill reports Rep. Courtney scores submarine funding win for Connecticut. “Freshman Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) came to Congress this year with one obsession: getting more money for attack submarines, a staple of significant employment in his district… That victory, widely considered a strong boost for the vulnerable Democrat, stemmed in part from a decision of several powerful lawmakers to push Courtney’s cause… Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee; Murtha’s Senate counterpart, Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii); House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.); and Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee.”

A bonus, if you can even call it that, story about Willard Mitt Romney is below the fold.

This is an Open Thread: Always Free Until the End of Time

Headlines For Tuesday December 18: Democrats Delay a Vote on Immunity for Wiretapps : Fed Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread: FBI Probes Virginia Mortgage Scam: Turkish army sends soldiers into Iraq

USA

Democrats Delay a Vote on Immunity for Wiretaps

WASHINGTON – In a setback for the White House, Senate Democrats on Monday put off until at least next month any decision on whether to give legal protection to the phone carriers that helped with the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping program.

The Bush administration had pushed for immediate passage of legislation to grant immunity to the phone companies as part of a broader expansion of the N.S.A.’s wiretapping authorities. But that will not happen now.

After daylong debate in the Senate on the wiretapping issue, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, announced at the end of the day that there would not be time to consider the legislation this week as he had hoped. With a dozen competing amendments on the issue and an omnibus spending bill separately awaiting consideration, Mr. Reid said he believed it would be difficult to give the wiretapping issue the close consideration that it deserved this week before the Senate leaves for its Christmas recess.

Fed Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread

WASHINGTON – Until the boom in subprime mortgages turned into a national nightmare this summer, the few people who tried to warn federal banking officials might as well have been talking to themselves.

Edward M. Gramlich, a Federal Reserve governor who died in September, warned nearly seven years ago that a fast-growing new breed of lenders was luring many people into risky mortgages they could not afford.

But when Mr. Gramlich privately urged Fed examiners to investigate mortgage lenders affiliated with national banks, he was rebuffed by Alan Greenspan, the Fed chairman.

Some news and OpEn ThReAd.

1. The New York Times reports New Jersey abolishes death penalty. “Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law a measure repealing New Jersey’s death penalty on Monday, making the state the first in a generation to abolish capital punishment. Mr. Corzine also issued an order commuting the sentences of the eight men on New Jersey’ death row to life in prison with no possibility of parole, ensuring that they will stay behind bars for the rest of their lives. In an extended and often passionate speech from his office at the state capitol, Mr. Corzine declared an end to what he called ‘state-endorsed killing,’ and said that New Jersey could serve as a model for other states.

2. Ryan Singel of Wired’s “Threat Level” blog writes Senators Debate retroactive Telco immunity. “Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut), who tried to stop the debate by putting a hold on the bill, fierily denounced the amnesty provision:”

   Collusion in warrantless wiretapping is-and the warrant makes all the difference, because it is precisely the court’s blessing that brings presidential power under the rule of law.

   In sum, we know that giving the telecoms their day in court-giving the American people their day in court-would not jeopardize an ounce of our security.

   And it could only expose one secret: the extent of our president’s lawbreaking, and the extent of his corporations’ complicity.

   TPM Election Central reports his campaign stated Dodd vows to filibuster “as long as he can”. “Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden have all pledged to support” the filibuster, but reportedly are not in Washington to do so.

3. Adam Nagourney of the NY Times writes about Managing a post-Feb. 5 campaign. “As campaigns try to keep up with this fast-paced, multi-layered campaign, there is growing sense among Republicans that for their contest at least – and perhaps for Democrats – Feb. 5 may not be the end of the line. And at the same time, Democrats are looking at a scenario where only two of their candidates emerge out of [Iowa]”… Even if the candidate doesn’t actually accumulate enough delegates to claim the nomination, the pressure from party leaders to coalesce around a nominee, combined with the obstacles facing other candidates who might want to fight on, would carry the day. Except that it is now entirely possible that no Republican will be moving very quickly going into Feb. 5…. An extended contest seems possible on the Democratic side, but less so, because there are fewer strong candidates to divide the Feb. 5 take.”

4. A couple stories from our changing climate. First, The Oregonian reports Cascade resorts plan for a future with less snow. “Cascade Mountain winters are expected to get warmer. So at Mt. Bachelor — as well as just about every ski resort in the Northwest — resort managers are starting to adjust long-term plans based on the predicted effects of global warming. This fall, Mt. Bachelor’s owners hired a group of scientists to create a long-term climate forecast specific to the 9,065-foot butte west of Bend,” Oregon.

   And the Washington Post reports As temperatures rise, health could decline. “Depending on where you are, this is going to be a hotter, wetter, drier, windier, calmer, dirtier, buggier or hungrier century than [humans have] seen in a while. In some places, it may be deadlier, too. The effects of climate change are diverse and sometimes contradictory. In general, they favor instability and extreme events. On balance, they will tend to harm health rather than promote it.” Dangers include: heat stress, extreme weather, air pollution, waterborne and food-Borne disease, and insect- and animal-borne disease.

This is an Open Thread: No Credit Needed To Enter

Headlines For Monday December 17: A town against the wall: Obama confronts rumor he is a Muslim: Storm buries Northeast, causes 3 deaths: Africa war wounds begin to heal amid progress: Inside the Hajj, with 1m believers

USA

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said this month that he would take landowners to court to seize property if needed, and also pledged that he would not pay more than market price for land.

A town against the wall

Granjeno on the Rio Grande has outlasted the rule of Spain, Mexico and the Republic of Texas. Now the border fence aims for its heart.

By Miguel Bustillo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 17, 2007

GRANJENO, TEXAS — Gloria Garza doesn’t have a whole lot. But what she has, she clings to with pride.

She lives in a simple stucco house with a rustic wooden veranda and a well fashioned from odd stones her husband found around the state. Kittens stretch lazily in the sun beside her porch. Armadillos dart across her backyard.

Her two-acre lot is her heirloom, her link to a legacy that dates to 1767, when Spain’s King Carlos III gave her pioneer ancestors a porcion of property that started at the Rio Grande and stretched inland for miles.

So she is not going to be quiet while some bureaucrat in Washington tries to take it — to build a border fence. She doesn’t want to become an unintended victim in a war against illegal immigration that she sees as misguided and wrong.

1 Turkish planes bomb PKK targets in Iraq

By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 11 minutes ago

This is an Open Thread: The Toll Booth is Closed

Headlines For Sunday December 16: Control sought on military lawyers: Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry: Obama is hitting his stride in Iowa : Balkanized Homecoming

USA

Control sought on military lawyers

Bush wants power over promotions

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration is pushing to take control of the promotions of military lawyers, escalating a conflict over the independence of uniformed attorneys who have repeatedly raised objections to the White House’s policies toward prisoners in the war on terrorism.

The administration has proposed a regulation requiring “coordination” with politically appointed Pentagon lawyers before any member of the Judge Advocate General corps – the military’s 4,000-member uniformed legal force – can be promoted.

A Pentagon spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the reasoning behind the proposed regulations. But the requirement of coordination – which many former JAGs say would give the administration veto power over any JAG promotion or appointment – is consistent with past administration efforts to impose greater control over the military lawyers.