Tag: Docudharma Times

She seems to be stronger, but what they want her to be is weak

She could play pretend, she could join the game, boy

She could be another clone

Monday’s Headlines: Senate panel critiques prewar claims by White House: Surging costs of groceries hit home: Pope could face protests in Ireland over abuse cases: Climate change may spark conflict with Russia, EU told: Pakistan judges may be reinstated in coalition deal: Thirsty land sucked dry to irrigate Olympics: President Robert Mugabe accused of taking company cash to buy votes: Rare pygmy hippos caught on film: Toddler Returns to Iraq After Life-Saving Surgery: Studies: Iraq costs US $12B per month: New docs detail Colombian rebel ties

Carbon Output Must Near Zero To Avert Danger, New Studies Say

The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades.

Their findings, published in separate journals over the past few weeks, suggest that both industrialized and developing nations must wean themselves off fossil fuels by as early as mid-century in order to prevent warming that could change precipitation patterns and dry up sources of water worldwide.

I can only smile while I’m watching you shout

there’s too many people moving in the

frame they don’t know about

Saturday’s Headlines: Sharp Drop in Jobs Adds to Grim Picture of U.S. Economy: Depopulation Boom: Chavez urges unity after summit: Wal-Mart plants seeds of alliance with Latin farmers :Spain cancels election rallies after murder:  Anxious moments as Europe’s freighter makes maiden flight to space station: Lawyer missing after criticising China’s human rights record: Malaysia voters vow to bring change despite fears of poll fraud: Tearful funeral for slain Israeli religious students in Jerusalem: Arab leaders threaten to boycott Damascus summit: ‘They made me chant Robert Mugabe is always right, while I was being beaten’

A Kurdish Society of Soldiers

In Rugged N. Iraq, Guerrillas Forge a Unity Based on Hardship and Defiance

ZAP VALLEY, Iraq — On the day the Turkish soldiers withdrew from Iraq, 40 Kurdish guerrillas convened to bury five of their dead

The corpses were wrapped in black plastic and camouflage tarp, lashed to stretchers fashioned from branches, and draped in the flag of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. In silence the guerrillas stacked large rocks into five piles, resting the stretchers end-to-end on the cairns. They stood in two rows with machine guns pointed above the mountains that surrounded them and waited for their leader to speak.

Last surviving U.S. World War I vet honored by president

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Frank Woodruff Buckles was just 15 years old when he joined the U.S. Army. Soon, he was deployed to war and headed overseas on the Carpathia — the same ship used in the rescue mission of the Titanic.

He drove ambulances in Britain and France for soldiers wounded during World War I.

A few decades later, Buckles was in the Philippines as a civilian, on December 7, 1941, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He was taken as a prisoner of war for 39 months in Manila, eating his meals out of a single tin cup.

More than 60 years later, he still clings to that cup, the one that sustained his life. Weathered with age, the cup has flecks of white paint chipped off. He keeps it as a reminder of his sacrifice for the country he so loves. He also still has his dog tags.

Sprawling on the fringes of the city

In geometric order

An insulated border

In between the bright lights

And the far unlit unknown

Friday’s Headlines:Democrats Try to End Impasse Over Delegates: Fired U.S. attorney says colleague told him politics was behind his ouster: Attack won’t halt talks – Israel:  :Japan’s concrete ceiling: Karachi left powerless over unpaid electricity bills: Bid to restore Iron Cross divides Germany : Poll puts Zapatero ahead (but don’t tell the Spanish): Colombian Rebels’ Ties to Chávez Come Into Focus: No Quick Fix for What Still Ails Kenya

8 killed in Jerusalem school attack

JERUSALEM: A gunman entered a prominent Jewish seminary in the heart of Jerusalem on Thursday night, killing at least eight students and wounding at least nine others, three of them seriously, the Israeli police said.

In a scene of havoc and confusion while the students prayed, the gunman killed two people at the entrance to the Mercaz Harav yeshiva and then entered the first-floor library, spraying the religious students with gunfire from a Kalashnikov rifle, according to the Israeli police.

The gunman, who was killed at the scene, was thought to be either a Palestinian or an Israeli Arab living inside Jerusalem. He has not been identified. The dead were thought to be mostly between 20 and 30 years of age.

Relax.

I need some information first.

Just the basic facts:

Thursday’s Headlines: Democrats fear an ugly end to race: Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore: UK fears Iran still working on nuclear weapon: Sanctions causing Gaza to implode, say rights groups: A life or death decision: Public sector strike brings chaos to Germany: Egyptian police hold leading Islamists in crackdown: A Mexican rebel in Ecuador?

National Dragnet Is a Click Away

Authorities to Gain Fast and Expansive Access to Records

Several thousand law enforcement agencies are creating the foundation of a domestic intelligence system through computer networks that analyze vast amounts of police information to fight crime and root out terror plots.

As federal authorities struggled to meet information-sharing mandates after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, police agencies from Alaska and California to the Washington region poured millions of criminal and investigative records into shared digital repositories called data warehouses, giving investigators and analysts new power to discern links among people, patterns of behavior and other hidden clues.

This is an Open Thread:

I can program a computer, choose the perfect time

If you’ve got the inclination, I have got the crime

Tuesday’s Headlines:Obama, Clinton In Key Face-Off: The Cadillac of Mars rovers: Neighbours cut ties with Colombia:  US plotted to overthrow Hamas after election victory: Israel warns it will be back as Gaza incursion is finally ended: China to raise military spending: Indian ‘spy’ is reunited with family after 35 years on death row: Europe vs the super-rich: Russia’s post-Putin era kicks off with demonstrations and a police crackdown

Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics

BAGHDAD – After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.

In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.

“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

This is an Open Thread:

A crowd has gathered in black and white

Arms entwined, the chosen few

The newspaper says, says

Say it’s true, it’s true…

And we can break through

Monday’s Headlines: For Black Superdelegates, Pressure to Back Obama: Oil exploration sought in Calif. national monument: Nato fears over Dutch Islam film: Israeli army pulls back from Gaza: Four kisses, then the band played: the day former foes became friends: Hugo Chavez moves his tanks to border as regional war looms: Gunmen in uniform kill 8 at pool hall: Asian Stocks and Dollar Fall Sharply: North Korea winter threatens food supply: In South Africa, a racist video’s fallout

Vienna Meeting on Arms Data Reignites Iran Nuclear Debate

Last Monday, the chief United Nations nuclear inspector gathered ambassadors and experts from dozens of nations in a boardroom high above the Danube in Vienna and laid out a trove of evidence that he said raised new questions about whether Iran had tried to design an atom bomb.

For more than two hours, representatives to the International Atomic Energy Agency were riveted by documents, sketches and even a video that appeared to have come from Iran’s own military laboratories. The inspector said they showed work “not consistent with any application other than the development of a nuclear weapon,” according to notes taken by diplomats.

This is an Open Thread:

Hey there mighty brontosaurus

Don’t you have a message for us.

You thought your rule would always last

There were no lessons in your past.

Sunday’s Headlines: Clinton battles Obama’s momentum: British island ‘used by US for rendition’ :Iran leader in landmark Iraq trip: Scores killed in raids on Gaza: Medvedev steps out from Putin’s shadow as Russia goes to polls: Planeloads of cash prop up Mugabe: Ghosts of apartheid haunt South Africa: Emperor’s son rebuked over princess visits: China’s subversive art of Manhua comes to Britain: Colombian rebel leader killed in battle

In Search for Peace, a Shrinking White House Role

When Palestinians broke through the barrier dividing the Gaza Strip and Egypt in January and streamed across the border by the tens of thousands, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak faced a moment of crisis. His phone soon rang, but the world leader offering help on the other end was not President Bush — it was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mubarak took the call, resulting in the first such contact between leaders of the two nations since relations were severed nearly three decades ago.

The conversation signaled a growing rapprochement between Egypt, which receives nearly $2 billion in annual aid from Washington, and Iran, a country that the Bush administration has tried to isolate as a possible threat to U.S. interests in the region.

The Myth of Objectivity

Is the mainstream press unbiased? No, but we aren’t ideological. What we really thrive on is conflict.

She tried to make a joke of it. At the debate in Cleveland last week, Hillary Clinton brought up a “Saturday Night Live” skit about journalists fawning over Barack Obama at a mock debate. “Maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow,” said Clinton. Humor is often a substitute for anger, and if Clinton wasn’t all that funny, maybe it is because she is sore at the press for seeming to go easier on her opponent. She has a point, but the truth about the media and the campaign cannot be caricatured simply as the deification of Obama and the hounding of Clinton.

The pols and the people invest the press with great power. Conspiracies abound. Right-wing talk-show hosts love to go on about the liberal media establishment. Lefty commentators accuse the press of rolling over for George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq.

This is an Open Thread:

so you look into the land and it will tell you a story

story ’bout a journey ended long ago

if you listen to the motion of the wind in the mountains

maybe you can hear them talking like I do

Saturday’s Headlines: Obama Walks a Difficult Path as He Courts Jewish Voters : Airbus, Northrop Grumman win Air Force tanker contract: New Israeli raids on Gaza kill 18 : Turkey urges PKK to end struggle: Kremlin accused of fixing presidential poll: Prince Harry withdrawn from Afghanistan after cover is blown: Double jeopardy for Japanese ‘killer’: In Kenya, U.S. Added Action to Talk of Democracy: A Lawmaker Whose Nation Dislikes Her Friends

White House ties troop levels to Iraqi elections

A senior official says withdrawals must stop this summer to ensure security at the polls. Doubts are also cast on Army plans to shorten combat tours.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration believes a halt in troop reductions in Iraq after July is needed in part to ensure a large enough force is present to provide security for local elections, a senior administration official said Friday.

By tying troop levels to Iraq’s provincial elections, officials in effect established a new milestone to guide U.S. policy during President Bush’s last months in office. And by linking them to the elections, the administration is increasing pressure on the Iraqis to actually hold the balloting.

Iraq’s presidency council, consisting of three top officials, vetoed legislation this week that set plans for the provincial elections, which the U.S. regards as one of the benchmarks of political progress in Iraq.

White House blocks inquiry into construction of $736m embassy in Iraq

The Bush administration is blocking an inquiry into the delay-plagued construction of the $736m US embassy in Baghdad, a senior Democrat in Congress said today.

Henry Waxman, who is chairman of the oversight committee in the House of Representatives, asked US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice today to explain why her department certified the embassy as “substantially completed” in December despite inspections that reveal continued deficiencies in the facility’s water, fire alarm and kitchen systems.

The Baghdad embassy, which stands to become the largest US diplomatic facility in the world, had an original opening date of mid-2007. But the project stalled amid ballooning cost estimates as well as charges of corruption and shoddy work by the private contracting company overseeing the project.

This is an Open Thread:

Together we could break this trap

Well run till we drop, baby well never go back

Friday’s Headlines: For Obama, a Taste of What a Long Battle Holds: New High In U.S. Prison Numbers : Moscow official admits media bias: Prince’s cover in Afghanistan blown by Drudge Report: Killed while they played football, the child victims of Israel’s revenge on Gaza: Iran sanctions expected Saturday: U.S. Embrace of Musharraf Irks Pakistanis: Hope for an end to bloodshed in Kenya as leaders sign surprise power-sharing deal: Colombian hostages freed after six years

Democrats Blaze Trails In February Fundraising

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama continued to rewrite fundraising records this month, with Clinton announcing yesterday that she had rebounded from a disappointing showing in January to raise $35 million in February, by far her biggest one-month total of the campaign.

Obama (Ill.), who raised $36 million in January, has not yet announced a total for February, but aides said it will be “considerably more” than that raised by his rival for the Democratic nomination. Their combined total appeared poised to surpass the $71 million raised by President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) in March 2004, the previous record for fundraising by two candidates for the presidency in a single month.

This is an Open Thread:

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking

And racing around to come up behind you again

Tuesday’s Headlines: Finding Political Strength in the Power of Words: US concert diplomacy in N Korea: The Last Supper – now how about a nice game of chess?: Putin’s legacy is a massacre, say the mothers of Beslan: Gazans form human chain in protest against Israeli blockade: Animal rights outrage over plan to cull South Africa’s elephants: Nigeria election verdict expected: Mexico police detain 4 bomb suspects: Plaza in Peru may be the America’s oldest urban site

US moves to expand its role in Pakistan

Intelligence centers, aid package planned

WASHINGTON – US officials are quietly planning to expand their presence in and around the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan by creating special coordination centers on the Afghan side of the border where US, Afghan, and Pakistani officials can share intelligence about Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, according to State Department and Pentagon officials.

The Bush administration is also seeking to expand its influence in the tribal areas through a new economic support initiative that would initially focus on school and road construction projects. Officials recently asked Congress for $453 million to launch the effort – a higher request for economic support funds than for any country except Afghanistan.

The expansion of US efforts in the tribal areas – made possible, in part, by rising Pakistani anger at a string of suicide attacks by militants from the region – also includes the deployment of about 30 US counterinsurgency trainers to teach an elite Pakistani force to fight Al Qaeda and indigenous extremists.

This is an Open Thread:

I was wrong to think that you were right

But now I´m strong and now I´m ready to fight

Monday’s Headlines: Park Police Face Senior Staffing Shortages: Clinton searches for the best message against Obama: Israel steps up border security: Turks send more tanks into Iraq against PKK: How he was sentenced to die: British director defends Beijing Games film as ‘art’: Unity tops agenda as an easy-going communist takes the helm in Cyprus: Norway’s ‘Doomsday Vault’ holds seeds of survival: Raul Castro succeeds brother as Fidel’s legacy remains untainted: Colombia rebels get foothold in Venezuela: Africa can’t afford cost of conflicts: For Kenya’s Human Rights Chairman, an Environment of Fear

N.Y. Philharmonic arrives in North Korea

American cultural institution makes historic visit to secretive country

PYONGYANG, North Korea – The New York Philharmonic arrived in North Korea on Monday on a historic trip as the most prominent American cultural institution to visit the nuclear-armed country, run by a regime that keeps its impoverished people among the world’s most isolated.

North Korea made unprecedented accommodations for the orchestra, allowing a delegation of nearly 300 people, including musicians, staff and journalists to fly into Pyongyang on a chartered plane for 48 hours.

The Philharmonic’s concert Tuesday will be broadcast live on North Korea’s state-run TV and radio, unheard of in a country where all events are carefully choreographed to bolster the personality cult of leader Kim Jong Il.

This is an Open Thread:

Then I’ll fly

Look to the sun

See me in psychic pollution

Walking on the moon

Sunday’s Headlines: Fear of Insurance Trouble Leads Many to Shun or Hide DNA Tests: Exxon Oil Spill Case May Get Closure: Oil giants are poised to move into Basra: One Japanese suicide every 15 minutes: Pakistan Taliban warn new government to keep clear: In Cuba, Hopes for a New Capitalist Season: Sarkozy Jr in bid to capture his father’s old seat: Putin’s Iron Grip on Russia Suffocates His Opponents: Zimbabwe: Over 1200 in Anti Mugabe Protests At Beitbridge: South Africa’s elite crime fighters endangered

Somber Clinton Soldiers On as the Horizon Darkens

To her longtime friends, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton sounds unusually philosophical on the phone these days. She rarely uses phrases like “when I’m president” anymore. Somber at times, determined at others, she talks to aides and confidants about the importance of focusing on a good day’s work. No drapes are being measured in her mind’s eye, they say.

And Mrs. Clinton has begun thanking some of her major supporters for helping her run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“When this is all over, I’m really looking forward to seeing you,” she told one of those supporters by phone the other day.