Category: News

This is an Open Thread: Open Carefully

Headlines for Tuesday November 27th: Hillary The Organized : GOP Comeback Climb Is Increasingly Steep: Stepped-up Army recruiting enlists many with problems: Iraqi police: US gunfire at bus kills 4

USA

Stepped-up Army recruiting enlists many with problems

WASHINGTON – Two weeks ago, the Pentagon announced the “good news” that the Army had met its recruiting goal for October, the first month in a five-year plan to add 65,000 new soldiers to the ranks by 2012.

But Pentagon statistics show the Army met that goal by accepting a higher percentage of enlistees with criminal records, drug or alcohol problems, or health conditions that would have ordinarily disqualified them from service.

In each fiscal year since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, statisics show, the Army has accepted a growing percentage of recruits who do not meet its own minimum fitness standards. The October statistics show that at least 1 of every 5 recruits required a waiver to join the service, leading military analysts to conclude that the Army is lowering standards more than it has in decades.

Some news and Monday afternoon’s Open Thread.

1. The AP reports Iraqi government may offer US long-rerm presence, business preference in return for security. “Iraq’s government is prepared to offer the U.S. a long-term troop presence in Iraq and preferential treatment for American investments in return for an American guarantee of long-term security including defense against internal coups”. As Spencer Ackerman of TPMmuckraker writes, “So it begins. After years of obfuscation and denial on the length of the U.S.’s stay in Iraq, the White House and the Maliki government have released a joint declaration of ‘principles’ for ‘friendship and cooperation.’ Apparently President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the declaration during a morning teleconference.” Ackerman also reports that “war czar” Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute believes Permanent Iraq bases won’t require Senate ratification.

2. The New York Times reports Short of funds, Republians recruit the rich to run. “Confronting an enormous fund-raising gap with Democrats, Republican Party officials are aggressively recruiting wealthy candidates who can spend large sums of their own money to finance their Congressional races, party officials say. At this point, strategists for the National Republican Congressional Committee have enlisted wealthy candidates to run in at least a dozen competitive Congressional districts nationwide, particularly those where Democrats are finishing their first term and are thus considered most vulnerable. They say more are on the way. These wealthy Republicans have each already invested $100,000 to $1 million of their own money to finance their campaigns”. Even more blatantly the Republicans are the party only of the rich.

3. According to the Washington Post, Class makes cameo as a campaign issue. “Who’s rich? Who’s middle class? … Class, always an awkward topic in the United States, made a rare cameo appearance at a recent candidates debate in Las Vegas.”

   The exchange between Obama and Clinton began when the senator from Illinois said he was open to adjusting the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax. That’s the tax that the government prefers to call a “contribution” to Social Security. Under current law, a worker pays a flat percentage (and employers match it) of wages up to $97,500. Wages beyond that aren’t taxed.

   Clinton responded by saying that lifting the payroll tax would mean a trillion-dollar tax increase, adding that she did not want to “fix the problems of Social Security on the backs of middle-class families and seniors.”

   Obama replied: “Understand that only 6 percent of Americans make more than $97,000 a year. So 6 percent is not the middle class. It is the upper class.”

   Clinton: “It is absolutely the case that there are people who would find that burdensome. I represent firefighters. I represent school supervisors.”

   … As for how people see themselves, location is key. Is Clinton right that firefighters make the kind of money mentioned in Las Vegas? Yes, sometimes, in some places. According to the Web site FactCheck.org, the base pay of a New York City firefighter with five years’ experience is $68,475, but with overtime and holiday work, the same firefighter can make $86,518. A city fire captain can make $140,173 with overtime. Most school superintendents in New York state make more than $100,000.

   Online calculators allow anyone to make an instant city-to-city cost-of-living comparison. One such Web site calculates that someone making $97,500 in Washington could live just as comfortably on $67,846 in Ames, Iowa.

   The story goes on to try to give a definition of who is wealthy. Some of their ideas are degree of ‘financial stress’ and the ability to live off of wealth. Personally, I think it is only fair to remove the Social Security wage cap.

Two more stories below the fold. First proof, the weather is getting worse. Then a story about the time lords of Paris.

This is an Open Thread: Open Minds Open Thoughts

Headlines For Monday November 26th:Thompson’s plan offers Americans flat tax option : Obama PAC Is Active In Key Election States:Iraqi Shiites denounce draft legislation

USA

Thompson’s plan offers Americans flat tax option

Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson proposed an income tax plan yesterday that would allow Americans to choose a simplified system with only two rates: 10 and 25 percent.

Thompson’s proposal, announced on “Fox News Sunday,” would allow filers to remain under the current tax code or use the flat tax rates. “We’ve known for years any time we have lowered taxes and any time we’ve lowered tax rates, we’ve seen growth in the economy,” the former Tennessee senator said.

I’m sorry for the lack of content in todays Times. There was one finished and ready to be automatically posted to the Front Page but, reasons that shall remain a mystery it was deleted. Thank you for your understanding.  

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Former PM Sharif returns to Pakistan

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 15 minutes ago

This an Open Thread: So open it already

Headlines for Sunday November 25th.: As Democrats See Security Gains in Iraq, Tone Shifts: U.S. Notes Limited Progress in Afghan War: Losing ground in Alaska: U.S. Scales Back Political Goals for Iraqi Unity

USA

As Democrats See Security Gains in Iraq, Tone Shifts

By PATRICK HEALY

Published: November 25, 2007

As violence declines in Baghdad, the leading Democratic presidential candidates are undertaking a new and challenging balancing act on Iraq: acknowledging that success, trying to shift the focus to the lack of political progress there, and highlighting more domestic concerns like health care and the economy.

Advisers to Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama say that the candidates have watched security conditions improve after the troop escalation in Iraq and concluded that it would be folly not to acknowledge those gains.

1 Doom and gloom plays out on Broadway

By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP Drama Writer

Sat Nov 24, 9:02 AM ET

This is an Open Thread: All thoughts are welcome

Headlines For Saturday: New York loses mean streets image as murder rate plunges: In Bush’s Last Year, Modest Domestic Aims: Wal-Mart Extends Its Influence to Washington: Bombers kill up to 35 in Pakistan

PM Howard concedes Australia poll

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has admitted defeat in the country’s general election, and looks set to lose his parliamentary seat.

Mr Howard said he had telephoned Labor leader Kevin Rudd “to congratulate him on an emphatic victory”.

USA

New York loses mean streets image as murder rate plunges

The city of New York, once widely feared for its mean streets scarred by random violence, is on course for its lowest murder rate in four decades with this year’s total expected to be below 500.

Aided by burgeoning affluence and a decade of “zero-tolerance” policing, a steady decline in the Big Apple’s violent crime rate has left the city basking in a new-found glow of safety. Criminologists suggest that killings by strangers have become so rare that the police cannot reasonably be expected to stamp out the problem any further.

Some afternoon news and open thread.

1. The Los Angeles Times reports on Justice Stevens and the tipping point. “Justice John Paul Stevens, 87, last week became the second-oldest justice in the Supreme Court’s history… Although Stevens has given no hint of retiring and shows no sign of slowing down — in the courtroom, he looks and sounds much as he did 20 years ago — the question of his tenure looms over the court and the 2008 presidential campaign. If there is a tipping point in the Supreme Court’s future, it is likely to come with his departure. What kind of justice would replace him — and how strong the court’s slim conservative majority would be — may well depend on who is elected president.”

2. The Guardian reports another person has been killed by police in Canada by Taser. So, Inquiries launched after Canadian stun gun deaths. “Canadian authorities have launched urgent reviews into the safety of Taser stun guns following two recent deaths. Yesterday, a 45-year-old man died while in police custody after being shocked by the 5,000-volt weapon… Canada’s provincial Nova Scotia government today began an inquiry into Thursday’s death. Police said the victim had been taken into custody on assault charges just after midnight on Wednesday, when he became violent. The man then tried to escape from the police station, but one officer used a stun gun to shoot him in the thigh. Emergency services took the victim to hospital where he was assessed, deemed to be healthy, and released back into police custody. The man, whose identity has not yet been released, died 30 hours after being shocked.”

3. The Denver Post reports Polis blogging from Baghdad about the war. “Congressional candidate Jared Polis, in a late-night blogging session from his Baghdad hotel, said Wednesday that all U.S. senators and representatives should see the war firsthand. The Boulder Democrat.. was hit with few confrontational questions during his hour-long blog chat on the political website coloradoconfidential.com. Polis, a multimillionaire Internet entrepreneur, acknowledged he is covering his trip expenses as well as those of the Mile High United Way representative traveling with him.” Polis has also been posting on Daily Kos.

4. According to The Christian Science Monitor, On election eve, Australia’s opposition leader says climate change is his no. 1 priority. “Kevin Rudd, a bookish former diplomat who heads the opposition Labor Party, has pledged to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, a move which would leave the US as the only developed nation not to have ratified the treaty. Mr. Rudd, a fluent Chinese speaker, has also promised to withdraw Australia’s small but politically significant contingent of 550 combat troops from Iraq… [Rudd] said he would personally represent Australia at a UN climate change meeting of environment ministers next month in Bali to discuss the next stage of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Ratifying the Kyoto treaty would be a radical departure from Prime Minister John Howard, a climate change skeptic and close friend of US President Bush. ‘Australia needs new leadership on climate change. Mr. Howard remains in a state of denial,’ Rudd said.”

There’s a bonus story below the fold…

This is an Open Thread: Hey don’t pull the string

Friday’s Headlines:Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request: Abortion foes’ strategy advances : D.B. Cooper, where are you?: Returnees Find a Capital Transformed

USA

Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request

Secret Warrants Granted Without Probable Cause:

By Ellen Nakashima

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, November 23, 2007; Page A01

Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.

Some news and Turkey Day open thread.

1. The New York Time reports on Thoughts of family and football amid the Turkey in Afghanistan.

   The soldiers filed into the dining tent in the soft light before evening, carrying heaps of food for a Thanksgiving gathering as polyglot as anywhere.

   At one plywood table there was a Special Forces staff sergeant who was born in Turkey. “No names, please,” he said, as he stepped inside.

   At another there was Capt. Walter P. De La Vega of the Army, who trains and supervises the Afghan security forces in Wardak Province. He was born in Peru and reared in New Jersey. The acoustic guitar player in camouflage, Sgt. Kevin J. Quinones, was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. When he strummed and sang “America the Beautiful” the soldiers set aside their food and stood.

   A cook who prepared the turkey, Specialist Yevgeny Goussev, was born in Moscow and received a work visa to the United States in 2002. He was a reserve artillery lieutenant in the Russian Army, although he said his commission was probably voided when he enlisted in the United States Army last year.

   Specialist Goussev became an American citizen this month. He says he understands what this American holiday means. “Thanksgiving is to share with other people, and not expecting anything in return,” he said.

2. In another episode of the world is mad, the Los Angeles Times reports A green idea for saving lives in Iraq. “When a little-known agency of the U.S. Army asked Joe Amadee III to come up with an idea for saving lives in Iraq, it was probing for some kind of a contraption… he and a crew led by an Oklahoma roofing contractor were at this desert base east of Baghdad spraying foam onto tents. Their plan is to turn all of the Army’s hulking, heat-absorbing tent barracks into rigid shells of 2-inch insulation. The way that would improve soldiers’ lives may be self-evident. What is less obvious is how it also could save their lives. The key is fuel: The more of it a base uses, the more soldiers are exposed to deadly roadside bombs on fuel convoys.” We’d save a lot more energy if we just redeployed and invested our Iraq occupation money on renewable and alternative energy research too.

3. The Guardian reports Howard election campaign hit by dirty tricks scandal. “The election strategy of the Australian prime minister, John Howard, was in turmoil today after members of his Liberal party were caught red-handed in an inept dirty tricks campaign. Bogus flyers from a fake organisation called the Islamic Australia Federation were distributed through the letterboxes of voters in a marginal seat, claiming the Labor opposition sympathised with Islamic terrorists. The leaflets referred to the men imprisoned for the 2002 nightclub bomb attacks in Bali, which left more than 200 people dead. The flyers also claimed Labor support for the building of new mosques in the area.” Hopefully, Bush’s ally John Howard will be voted out by the Australians. You should see the picture on the website of the Australian Liberal MP Jackie Kelly’s husband being caught red-handed distributing the fliers.

4. The AP reports Parade rolls in NYC under balmy skies. “nseasonably balmy weather greeted cheering crowds as the giant balloons in the traditional Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade floated through the streets of Manhattan… The parade, held on a sunny morning with a temperature nearing 60 degrees, offered a mix of new attractions and longtime favorites, solemn tributes and lighthearted spectacle.” Unseasonably warm or the new norm?

So, what else is happening?

Some news and your Wednesday afternoon open thread.

1. The Burlington Hawk Eye reports a Collapsed corn bin spills bushels on Hillsboro, Iowa house. A family was “rescued after a grain bin full of corn collapsed near their home in Hillsboro in Henry County. Rescue workers labored into the night Tuesday to free a father and son from the rubble of their home after the corn bin collapsed, spilling corn over a wide area.” Today, the Family sifts through remains of their home. “Wading through corn and scrambling over the crushed remains of a one-story house Tuesday, friends and relatives helped a Hillsboro family salvage small pieces of their lives. A full 519,000 bushel grain bin owned by Chem Gro of Houghton — only 20 feet from the house at 205 E. Main St. — burst Monday shortly after 8 p.m., according to neighbors. Jennifer and Jesse Kellett and their two children Jordan Walter, 11, and Sheyanne Walter, 9, were at home when the bin collapsed. Corn swept the house 30 feet off its foundation, trapping the family under rubble and grain.”

2. The Washington Post reports Huckabee gaining ground in Iowa. “Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, buoyed by strong support from Christian conservatives, has surged past three of his better-known presidential rivals and is now challenging former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for the lead in the Iowa Republican caucuses, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News Poll. Huckabee has tripled his support in Iowa since late July… His support in Iowa appears stronger and more enthusiastic than that of his rivals… Romney outperforms Huckabee and other Republicans on key attributes, with two notable exceptions — perceptions of which candidate best understands people’s problems and which candidate is the most honest and trustworthy. On both, Romney and Huckabee are tied.” 1960 campaign was the last time a senator went on to win presidential election. The Democrats did it then with John F. Kennedy. Huckabee may have enough faux-populist hogwash to convince America.

3. The New York Times has a piece about the Kerry-Edwards campaign of 2004 called For Edwards, a relationship that never quite fit. “To the end of their disappointing run, the two men were unable to agree on the script, whether for slogans or more substantive matters. And like so many political marriages, the one between Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards – Senate colleagues who became rivals then running mates but never really friends – ended in recrimination and regrets…. Kerry supporters say Mr. Edwards refused to play the traditional vice-presidential role of attack dog even going up against a purebred, Dick Cheney… To Mr. Edwards, Mr. Kerry seemed unable to get out of his own way. He ignored Mr. Edwards’s warning not to go windsurfing, one aide recalled, which led to the infamous ‘whichever way the wind blows’ advertisement mocking Mr. Kerry’s statements on the war. And in the end, Mr. Edwards concluded that Mr. Kerry lacked fight for not filing a legal challenge to the election results… Once the sunny centrist who did not want to criticize his rivals by name, Mr. Edwards has become the most confrontational candidate in the race. And he has courted his party’s left wing by renouncing his vote on the war, something he counseled Mr. Kerry not to do… On Election Day, the running mates spent much of the day believing exit polls that showed them winning. The next morning, with Ohio still up in the air, Mr. Edwards pressed to send lawyers to Columbus to challenge the way the state counted provisional ballots. But Mr. Kerry finally concluded that even winning all those ballots would not make him president.”

4. The Los Angeles Times reports Early caucuses put student pro-Obama vote in play. “The Iowa caucuses are being held Jan. 3, the middle of winter break. With college students home for the holidays, campuses across the state will be empty. But the early caucus date could shift voter dynamics, adding young voices at their hometown caucuses across the state while diminishing the turnout at college precincts. Or, it could mean even fewer college students will take part in the electoral process. Either outcome will affect the tally for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois… The Obama campaign is banking on young voters, and the timing of this year’s caucuses could work to his advantage… Although students tend to register as voters on campus in Iowa, it’s easy to switch their registration on caucus night and vote at precincts in their hometowns… Of the Democratic candidates, the Illinois senator has the greatest support among young people and the least among senior citizens… If fewer college students vote, that would hamper Obama’s efforts and help former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who has weaker support among young people and higher support among baby boomers, [according to Iowa State University political science professor Dianne Bystrom]. Clinton’s candidacy is unlikely to be affected because she has broad support across age groups.”

There’s a bonus story about an enormous, new national park in Canada below the fold.

The Morning News is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Former aide blames Bush for leak deceit

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

19 minutes ago