Tag: 4@4

Some news and the afternoon’s open thread.

1. I’m certain this will come as a shock to everyone, but the United States is the world’s worst carbon dioxide polluter and China is not far behind. The Washington Post reports the World’s power plant emissions detailed by the Washington-based think tank Center for Global Development. “China, South Africa and India host the world’s five dirtiest utility companies in terms of global warming pollution, according to the first-ever worldwide database of power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions, while a single Southern Co. plant in Juliette, Ga., emits more annually than Brazil’s entire power sector… While the United States still produces the most carbon dioxide from electricity generation, releasing 2.8 billion tons of CO2 each year, China is close to overtaking it, with its 2.7 billion tons. Moreover, China plans to build or expand 199 coal-fired facilities in the next decade, compared with the United States’ 83. Power plants account for 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and 25 percent of the world’s.

2. The Independent reports that America and the world’s executioners join efforts to block UN moves to end death penalty.

   World public opinion has been so outraged by the continued use of the death penalty in the 25 countries that carried out executions last year, that a petition carrying five million signatures has been presented to the UN, where yesterday a small group of countries were attempting to block the historic vote on a global moratorium that could lead to an all-out ban…

   If last-minute “killer” amendments to a draft UN resolution do not scupper the initiative, the 192-nation UN human rights committee will begin voting on the measure today. If adopted, it will give a powerful moral boost to those campaigning for an end to the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment…

   As of last night, the draft resolution had been sponsored by 85 states, including all 27 European Union nations. The United States, which executed 53 people last year, will vote against. So will China, which put 2,790 people to death last year. In fact 91 per cent of all death sentences carried out happen in six countries: China, the US, Pakistan, Sudan, Iraq and Iran…

3. Just in time for the holiday travel season, the Washington Post reports Bomb parts clear air security in tests. “Undercover investigators carried all the bomb components needed to cause “severe damage” to airliners and passengers through U.S. airport screening checkpoints several times this year, despite security measures adopted in August 2006 to stop such explosive devices, according to a new government report.” Okay, if you can call not being able to take water on an airplane and being asked to take off your shoes ‘security measures’. “‘These findings are mind-boggling,’ said the committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.). ‘In spite of billions of dollars and the six years TSA has had to deploy new technology and procedures, our airlines remain vulnerable. This is unacceptable. The American public deserves better.'” Americans need to stop accepting hokey rituals and restrictions as security.

4. The Los Angeles Times reports Nevada is not feeling Republican campaign love. “When the Nevada Democratic and Republican parties decided to move their caucuses to Jan. 19, they gambled that the major presidential contenders would have to campaign in the West, where voters were believed to be concerned about… regional issues… But it hasn’t worked out that way. Polls show that Nevadans are most concerned about the same problems as the rest of the country — the war in [occupation of] Iraq, healthcare, national security and immigration reform. And even with today’s Democratic debate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas — the third Democratic forum in the state; the [Republican Party] has held none — candidate visits have been few compared with other sanctioned early-voting states… Democratic candidates have been paying more attention to Nevada than the Republicans, including campaigning in the Republican-dominated ‘rurals’ like Nye County.”

So, how’s your Thursday going?

Some news and your afternoon Open Thread.

1. The AP reports of a Major earthquake strikes Chile. “A major earthquake rocked a large area of northern Chile on Wednesday, toppling power lines and closing roads. There were no immediate reports of injuries from the quake, which was felt in the capital as well as neighboring Peru and Bolivia. The earthquake, which struck at 10:40 a.m. EST, measured magnitude 7.7 and was centered 780 miles north of Santiago, or 25 miles east-southeast of Tocopilla, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The USGS said it occurred about 37.3 miles beneath the surface.” Reuters reports people have been injured and buildings have been damaged. “Tocopilla, a city 75 miles north of Antofagasta, was the hardest hit by the quake and Chile’s Interior Ministry said it had preliminary reports of minor injuries. Television images showed cars crushed under the concrete awning of a hotel in Antofagasta, where power was knocked out by the quake. Frightened residents stood in the streets.”

2. The New York Times reports F.B.I. says Blackwater mercenaries killed 14 Iraqs without cause in shootout.

   Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case.

   The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department.

   Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter.

3. The Los Angeles Times reports about The agent with a secret past. “An illegal immigrant from Lebanon with relatives linked to the militant Islamic group Hezbollah paid a U.S. citizen to marry her and then lied her way through national security background checks to become an agent for the FBI and the CIA. She used her position to secretly access government computers for information about her relatives and a U.S. investigation into the group, authorities said Tuesday. Nada Nadim Prouty, a 37-year-old Lebanese national, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, unauthorized computer access and naturalization fraud in federal court in Detroit and agreed to cooperate with authorities in an ongoing investigation into the security breaches. Prouty’s case is a major embarrassment for the FBI and the CIA, which supposedly had tightened their personnel screening and monitoring”.

4. The Washington Post reports Republicans seek retraction of report on wars’ ‘Hidden Costs’.

   Senior Republicans on Congress’s Joint Economic Committee called yesterday for the withdrawal of a report by the committee’s Democratic staff that argues that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost more than $1.5 trillion.

   Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Rep. H. James Saxton (R-N.J.) attacked the report on “hidden costs” of the wars, calling its methodology flawed and asserting factual errors. The report, issued yesterday, said the war has cost nearly double the $804 billion in appropriations and requests for war funding thus far.

   In a joint statement, the committee’s Republicans called the report “another thinly veiled exercise in political hyperbole masquerading as academic research.”

   “All wars involve costs, and the war on terror is no exception,” Brownback and Saxton said. “The Democrats’ report would have benefited from more analysis and quality control, and less political content. We call on Senator Schumer and the Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate to withdraw this defective report.” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) chairs the committee.

So, what else is happening?

Some news and your afternoon OPEN THREAD.

1. The Age reports Vital facts ‘deleted’ from UN report on climate change. “A major United Nations report on climate change has been watered down as a result of influence from government officials from countries opposed to taking radical action, conservation group WWF claims… The group fears that the report will play down the need for deep cuts in emissions. The report, which will be released on Saturday, will say that almost a third of the world’s species will face extinction if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. A draft copy of the report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also warns that if temperatures rise by more than two degrees – now expected before 2050 – 20 per cent of the world’s population will face a great risk of drought.”

   AFP has more details in UN panel in ‘difficult’ debate over global warming paper. “UN climate experts wrangled here Tuesday over a landmark document on global warming amid criticism that the draft report was bland and some of its findings out of date.”

   The source said there had been by sharp exchanges over what the document should include and whether it should reflect findings published after a cut-off date for new material…

   The United States, meanwhile, questioned a reference that implied that powerful tropical storms would increase this century. It argued that observational data could be interpreted variously…

   Some delegates, notably those from Britain and India… pointed out that the draft failed to take into account recent evidence of accelerated warming, including the shrinkage of the Arctic ice cap, glacier loss in Greenland, a surge in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and an apparent slowing of Earth’s ability to absorb greenhouse gases.

2. The Washington Post reports the Bush veto sets stage for budget battle. “Bush vetoed a $606 billion spending bill Tuesday that would have funded education, health and labor programs for the current fiscal year, complaining that it was larded with pork and too expensive as he took aim at a top priority of the new Democratic Congress… At the same time, the president signed a $471 billion Defense Department spending bill that funds regular Pentagon operations other than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

   Bush called it a matter of setting priorities in a time of war. “Their majority was elected on a pledge of fiscal responsibility, but so far it is acting like a teenager with a new credit card,” Bush planned to say in a speech here, according to excerpts provided by the White House.

3. Meanwhile, the Credit-Card-in-Chief runs his wars-of-choice by borrowing. The Associated Press reports Iraq, Afghan War Costs Are $1.6 Trillion. “The economic costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are estimated to total $1.6 trillion – roughly double the amount the White House has requested thus far, according to a new report by Democrats on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee. The report, released Tuesday, attempted to put a price tag on the two conflicts, including ‘hidden’ costs such as interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars, lost investment, the expense of long-term health care for injured veterans and the cost of oil market disruptions. The $1.6 trillion figure, for the period from 2002 to 2008, translates into a cost of $20,900 for a family of four, the report said. The Bush administration has requested $804 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined, the report stated.” The Washington Post notes that the report found “the United States is dangerously increasing its reliance on foreign debt and that Americans will be paying the price for generations.”

4. The Washington Post reports Middle-class dream eludes African American families.

   Nearly half of African Americans born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s plunged into poverty or near-poverty as adults, according to a new study — a perplexing finding that analysts say highlights the fragile nature of middle-class life for many African Americans.

   Overall, family incomes have risen for both blacks and whites over the past three decades. But in a society where the privileges of class and income most often perpetuate themselves from generation to generation, black Americans have had more difficulty than whites in transmitting those benefits to their children.

   Forty-five percent of black children whose parents were solidly middle class in 1968 — a stratum with a median income of $55,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars — grew up to be among the lowest fifth of the nation’s earners, with a median family income of $23,100. Only 16 percent of whites experienced similar downward mobility. At the same time, 48 percent of black children whose parents were in an economic bracket with a median family income of $41,700 sank into the lowest income group.

So, what else is happening?

Some news and your afternoon Open Thread.

1. Reuters reports Top U.N. official warns against inaction on climate. “Addressing the U.N.’s climate panel, joint winners of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the message to world leaders was clear.”

   “Failure to recognize the urgency of this message and to act on it would be nothing less than criminally irresponsible,” said de Boer.

   Bloomberg News reports UN panel’s global warming report may win U.S. support. “American officials are planning to back a new United Nations document that says governments and businesses will have to spend billions of dollars a year to reduce global warming and adapt to its effects… By agreeing with the draft document, …the U.S. is indicating a need for faster action to slow climate change. As the largest emitter of gases blamed for global warming, the U.S. is seen by other nations as critical to the creation of a new worldwide response when the Kyoto agreement expires in 2012. ‘We haven’t seen any problems in the drafts that we’ve seen,’ said John Marburger, director of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy in Washington, in a telephone interview. ‘But it depends what happens at the meetings.’ Criminally irresponsible is the hallmark of the Bush administration though.

2. The Guardian reports Planted question damages Clinton in key primary state. “Hillary Clinton’s reputation for calculated political orchestration has been enhanced after a member of her staff was caught out in the crucial primary battleground of Iowa planting a tame question in the audience… Over the weekend, a second case emerged of an Iowan apparently steered towards a tame question, on this occasion about Iraq at a campaign event in April… Any appearance of crowd manipulation is highly sensitive for Clinton… It is particularly incendiary in Iowa, a state deeply proud of its homely caucus style of elections and suspicious of outside interference.”

3. The Washington Post reports Farmers ask federal court to dissociate hemp and pot. “Hemp, a strait-laced cousin of marijuana, is an ingredient in products from fabric and food to carpet backing and car door panels. Farmers in 30 countries grow it. But it is illegal to cultivate the plant in the United States without federal approval, to the frustration of [Wayne] Hauge and many boosters of North Dakota agriculture. On Wednesday, Hauge and David C. Monson, a fellow aspiring hemp farmer, will ask a federal judge in Bismarck to force the Drug Enforcement Administration to yield to a state law that would license them to become hemp growers… To clear up the popular confusion about the properties of what is sometimes called industrial hemp, the crop’s prospective purveyors explain that hemp and smokable marijuana share a genus and a species but are about as similar as rope and dope.”

4. The San Francisco Chronicle reports Al Gore joins Valley’s Kleiner Perkins to push green business. “Former vice president… Al Gore will become a leading Bay Area venture capitalist. Gore announced today he would join Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, one of Silicon Valley’s oldest and most prestigious venture capital firms, as partner heading up their climate change solutions group. Gore, 59, is hoping to translate his standing as the top evangelist on climate change to push businesses worldwide to increase their investments in renewable energy and other projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He’s also pledged that 100 percent of his Kleiner Perkins salary will be donated to the Alliance for Climate Protection, his Palo-Alto based nonprofit group that advocates for stronger climate change policies.”

A bonus story about slang and the Irish is below the fold…

Some news and your afternoon Open Thread.

1. The Los Angeles Times reports that one of California’s largest Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders. “One of the state’s largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved. Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed.”

2. The Seattle Times reports that a Federal judge ruled druggists may withhold “morning-after” pill. “A federal judge has suspended controversial [Washington] state rules requiring pharmacies to dispense so-called ‘Plan B’ emergency contraceptives, saying the rules appear to unconstitutionally violate pharmacists’ freedom of religion. The rules appear to force pharmacists to choose between their own religious beliefs and their livelihood, Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the U.S. District Court in Tacoma wrote Thursday.” Leighton was nominated by George W. Bush in 2002 and was confirmed by the voice vote in the Senate.

3. The New York Times reports the U.S. releases nine Iranians in Iraq.

   Nine Iranians held on suspicion of aiding insurgents were released from American custody in Baghdad early today, according to the United States military.

   Two of the freed men were among five Iranians arrested in January during a nighttime raid on an Iranian diplomatic office in the northern city of Erbil, an act that further strained the increasingly fraught relations between the United States and Iran. At the time, the military accused the five Iranians of working with anticoalition Shiite extremist groups, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later said that… Bush had authorized that and other raids because the military believed sophisticated bombs were flowing into Iraq from Iran…

   In a news release, the American military said that after careful reviews, the nine men were no longer considered security threats and had no further intelligence value. The men were expected to journey back to Iran late Friday, Mr. Qumi said. Their release came at a time when American forces are freeing increasing numbers of detainees.

4. McClatchy Newspapers report Justice Department returns to enforcing voter laws. “The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is reversing course and has begun taking steps to enforce a 1993 law that’s intended to make it easier for poor minorities to register to vote. The division, which has come under attack for allegedly pursuing policies aimed at suppressing the votes of Democratic-leaning minorities, has demanded that 18 states provide evidence that they’re complying with the National Voter Registration Act. If it is fully pursued, this new action will represent the first significant return to traditional enforcement of voting-rights laws since a scandal erupted earlier this year over the alleged politicization of the Justice Department.”

There’s TWO bonus stories below the fold — one about the Yellowstone Super Volcano another about shortages in wind power. So blow on down below the fold…

Some news and your afternoon Open Thread.

1. The New York Times reports Giuliani’s friend Kerik is to be indicted. “Federal prosecutors will ask a grand jury today to indict Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York police commissioner, on charges that include tax fraud, corruption and conspiracy counts, according to people who have been briefed on the case… Charges could complicate the presidential campaign of Mr. Kerik’s friend, patron and former business partner, Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican, whose mentorship was partly responsible for Mr. Kerik’s sharp ascent into prominence. Mr. Giuliani declined to comment through a spokeswoman yesterday, but has said he is not worried about the impact such charges might have on his campaign.”

2. The coup within a coup continues in Pakistan. The Guardian reports Pakistan’s rulers break law by delaying election. “Pakistan’s ruling party today dashed hopes that the country’s scheduled January elections would go ahead as planned. The country’s state TV quoted the president, General Pervez Musharraf, and Chaudhury Shujaat Hussain, the president of the ruling party PML-Q, as saying the vote would be delayed until mid February.” The Independent reports that “The former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has issued her most defiant statement yet since the imposition of emergency rule, as her supporters were attacked by riot police firing tear gas in the heart of the capital yesterday.” Of course Musharraf has promised to hold elections according to the BBC News, but by that time all the opposition will be in prison.

3. The Guardian reports Aung San Suu Kyi agrees to talks with Burma junta. “The Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, today said she was ready to cooperate with the country’s military government, according to a statement released on her behalf by the UN. The apparent offer of cooperation by Ms Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the past 18 years in detention, came at the end of a six-day visit to Burma by the UN special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari.”

4. Copley News Service reports that California is suing the Bush administration. “Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will team up with Democratic state Attorney General Jerry Brown today to take on… Bush over global warming. Schwarzenegger and Brown plan to file a lawsuit asking a federal court to order the Bush administration to decide whether to approve California’s landmark law requiring automakers to gradually reduce tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.” The Los Angeles Times has an update: California sues EPA over emissions.

So, what else is happening?

Some news and the afternoon open thread.

1. The New York Times reports High-priced oil adds volatility to power scramble. Eight years ago, oil was trading at $16 a barrel. Yesterday, oil hit $96.70 a barrel.

   The prospect of triple-digit oil prices has redrawn the economic and political map of the world, challenging some old notions of power. Oil-rich nations are enjoying historic gains and opportunities, while major importers — including China and India, home to a third of the world’s population — confront rising economic and social costs.

   Managing this new order is fast becoming a central problem of global politics. Countries that need oil are clawing at each other to lock up scarce supplies, and are willing to deal with any government, no matter how unsavory, to do it.

   In many poor nations with oil, the proceeds are being lost to corruption, depriving these countries of their best hope for development. And oil is fueling gargantuan investment funds run by foreign governments, which some in the West see as a new threat.

2. The Houston Chronicle reports Floods spare Mexico’s oil fields, not oil workers. “Although onshore oil fields in and around flood-ravaged Tabasco state escaped major damage, some of the people working at those wells have been left in the lurch. Many oil workers are based in the flooded state capital of Villahermosa and have lost their homes. Meanwhile, flooded streets and washed-out roads make getting to and from the oil fields a logistical nightmare… Onshore production in Tabasco and neighboring Veracruz and Chiapas states amounts to about 471,000 barrels per day, or 16 percent of the country’s daily output.” One Halliburton engineer who was forced from his home has spent the last few days bringing food to other Halliburton employees. As long as the oil starts flowing soon… that’s all most of the U.S. really seems to cares about.

   The Washington Post reports Rains bring Mexico’s poverty to surface. “When the Grijalva River turned vicious over the weekend, when it slipped over its banks and ran wild across the state of Tabasco, its brown waters exposed a socioeconomic divide far deeper than its channel.”

   The rich and middle class of this city live north of the river… By early Friday, the Grijalva, which runs fast and deep through downtown Villahermosa, and other rivers were cascading over their banks and hitting hardest in poor, low-lying areas such as Gaviotas Sur…

   Even as downtown Villahermosa was drying out Tuesday, fast currents of water — pushed by the strength of the nearby river — were sloshing carcasses of chickens and cows through the squalid neighborhoods still drowning in 10 feet of water in Gaviotas Sur. It may be weeks before all the water is gone, local officials say, and years before the region recovers economically.

   And the floods may get worse. Earthtimes reports that today, the Rain returns to flooded Tabasco, Chiapas in Mexico.

3. McClatchy Newspapers report that the U.S. is to release 9 Iranians it seized in Iraq. “The U.S. military soon will release nine Iranians it’s holding in Iraq, including two held since January on suspicion that they’d funneled weapons and financial support to Iraqi Shiite Muslim militias. A military spokesman described the decision to release the nine as routine and cautioned against reading greater meaning into it. He didn’t explain why it took 10 months to decide that the two weren’t terrorists.”

4. The Washington Post reports a new study has found Being overweight isn’t all bad. “Being overweight boosts the risk of dying from diabetes and kidney disease but not cancer or heart disease, and carrying some extra pounds actually appears to protect against a host of other causes of death, federal researchers reported yesterday. The counterintuitive findings, based on a detailed analysis of decades of government data about more than 39,000 Americans, supports the conclusions of a study the same group did two years ago that suggested the dangers of being overweight may be less dire than experts thought.”

So, what else is happening?

Some news and your afternoon Open Thread.

1. The situation in Pakistan remains fluid. Here’s a brief rundown of what’s going on:

   • Reuters – Benazir Bhutto says no talks with Musharraf. “Bhutto said she was going to Islamabad for a meeting of the opposition Alliance for Restoration of Democracy.”

   • AFP – Ousted Pakistan judge urges anti-Musharraf uprising. “Sacked top judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry called on his countrymen to save the constitution, prompting authorities to sever mobile phone coverage in parts of Islamabad as he addressed a meeting of lawyers by telephone.”

   • CNN – Pakistan’s courts locked down. “Baton-wielding police fought with lawyers outside courthouses in Islamabad and Lahore again Tuesday, arresting dozens more as they enforced… Pervez Musharraf’s crackdown on judicial activism… ‘Don’t be afraid of anything,’ Chaudhry told the lawyers gathered in Islamabad. ‘God will help us and the day will come when you’ll see the constitution supreme and no dictatorship for a long time.'”

   • AP – Opposition leader flees house arrest. “Imran Khan, a former cricket star and now the outspoken leader of a small opposition party in Pakistan, released a statement on Tuesday through his ex-wife, saying he has fled house arrest and gone into hiding.”

   • AP – Pakistan protests UN chief’s statement about imposition of emergency rule. “Pakistan lodged a protest against Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s statement expressing great concern at the imposition of emergency rule and ‘strong dismay’ at the detention of hundreds of human rights and opposition activists, Pakistan’s U.N. Mission said Tuesday.”

   • NYT – Bush Urges Musharraf to reverse course but signals no penalty if he doesn’t. “Mr. Bush also praised General Musharraf as a ‘strong fighter against extremists and radicals.'”

2. In America’s forgotten occupation, The Guardian reports MPs and children killed in Afghan suicide bombing. “A suicide bomber today killed at least 50 people, including five MPs and several children, in northern Afghanistan. The attack took place as a parliamentary delegation was visiting a sugar factory in the town of Baghlan, 95 miles from the capital, Kabul. The bomber was on foot and blew himself up as the delegates entered the factory. The death toll was particularly heavy as large crowds had turned out to greet the MPs, who were on an economic factfinding mission. Many of the dead were schoolchildren. If the number of fatalities is confirmed, the attack would be the deadliest in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion.”

3. Ethnic cleansing is well underway in Iraq. The Los Angeles Times reports 2.3 million Iraqis reported displaced. “Iraq’s displaced population has grown to 2.3 million people, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society said Monday on the heels of a warning by another humanitarian aid group that border tensions are exacerbating the plight of those who fled north to escape sectarian violence. The Red Crescent report says an additional 67,000 families left their homes in September, continuing a pattern that has multiplied the number of displaced people more than fivefold this year. About two-thirds of the total are younger than 12, the Red Crescent said.” And how many of those children will grow up with a deep-seated ‘grudge’ against the occupying nation and their people and soldiers?

4. More bad news for rain-soaked south Mexico. BBC News reports a Landslide buries Mexican village of San Juan Grijalva. “Rescue workers in Mexico are searching for at least 16 people reported missing in the southern state of Chiapas after a landslide buried their village. The village is the latest victim of heavy rains which have flooded 80% of neighbouring Tabasco state, leaving at least 500,000 people homeless. At least 20,000 people are still trapped by floodwaters and many people are still waiting for aid supplies.” As many as 30 people could be missing in the landslide. According to the AP, Mexican officials described the landslide as a “mini-tsunami” and village residents said they “had been awakened by a rumbling roar and the sound of rocks rolling down from surrounding mountaintops” in the middle of the night.

   “It was a roar, like a helicopter was passing overhead,” recounted farmer Domingo Sanchez, 21. “We didn’t know what was happening, and then we went outside, and there were cracks opening the earth,” he said, apparently recounting the initial collapse of a nearby hillside into the river. “We ran up the hill … but soil kept coming down on us.”

   The New York Times reports that As floods ebb in south, Mexico tends to displaced. “In Villahermosa, the state capital of Tabasco, lines up to seven hours long formed at government relief centers as tens of thousands of displaced people waited to pick up water, milk, food and medical supplies… Yet in parts of the city on Monday, life went on as if its inhabitants had not just been through the worst flooding in its history… Those who could — even some in shelters — returned to work. Schools that had not been damaged reopened for classes.”

So, what else is happening?

Some news and your afternoon open thread.

1. The situation in Pakistan is changing hourly. The Los Angeles Times reported this morning that Pakistani police use tear gas and batons against protesting lawyers. “Police with tear gas and batons battled protesting lawyers in major cities today, and the number of political and human rights activists arrested in a police sweep climbed into the thousands.” Bloomberg News is reporting that the Pakistan police have arrested protesting lawyers. “Pakistani police charged with clubs and arrested more than 150 lawyers challenging… Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule”.

   Pakistani uniformed and plainclothes police beating a lawyer during a protest in Lahore today. (Arif Ali/Agence France-Presse)

   The Associated Press reports Thousands face down Pakistani police. “Police fired tear gas and clubbed thousands of lawyers protesting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s decision to impose emergency rule, as Western allies threatened to review aid to the troubled Muslim nation. More than 1,500 people have been arrested in 48 hours, and authorities put a stranglehold on independent media.”

   Ever wonder how the Hell we wound up in this mess? Flash back to eight years ago today when Bush was running for president. CNN reported on November 5, 1999 that Bush fails reporter’s pop quiz on international leaders. Bush was asked by a reporter “to name the leaders of Chechnya, Taiwan, India and Pakistan. Bush was only able to give a partial response to the query on the leader of Taiwan… He could not name the others.”

   “Can you name the general who is in charge of Pakistan?” Hiller asked, inquiring about Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, who seized control of the country October 12.

   “Wait, wait, is this 50 questions?” asked Bush.

   Hiller replied: “No, it’s four questions of four leaders in four hot spots.”

   Bush turned the tables on Hiller, though, asking him if he could name the foreign minister of Mexico. Hiller said he could not, but also added he wasn’t running for president.

   Bush replied: “What I’m suggesting to you is that (because) you can’t name the foreign minister of Mexico, therefore you’re not capable of what you do. But the truth of the matter is you are, whether you can or not.”

   As reported by McClatchy Newspapers on Saturday, Despite warnings, Bush officials couldn’t stop Musharraf. “The imposition of emergency rule on Saturday in nuclear-armed Pakistan underscores how little influence the Bush administration has on events in a country that has become the bulwark in the U.S. fight against terrorism. U.S. officials moved quickly to denounce the order by… Gen. Pervez Musharraf… Washington’s lack of influence… was palpable… Pakistan is a top recipient of U.S. aid. Since 2001, it has received more than $10 billion”. But, I wonder if even he still knows who the finance minister of Mexico is?

2. Matthew Hay Brown of the Baltimore Sun reports Iraqi refugees look to U.S. to fulfill pledge.

   Ban Saadi Abdallatif still has trouble sleeping some nights, remembering her uncle and cousin, shot dead by the militia, or thinking about her brother’s narrow escape from kidnappers. But it’s nothing like the fear she lived with back in Diyala, where law and order broke down after U.S. forces invaded Iraq, and insurgents targeted her mixed Shiite-Sunni family.

   “I feel relief to be in the United States,” said the 31-year-old former teacher, who arrived in Laurel with her 9-year-old son in September. “I will not plan to go back to Iraq.”

   Abdallatif is one of the lucky few. Of the more than 2 million Iraqis who have fled the country since the 2003 invasion, fewer than 3,000 have been allowed to resettle in the United States.

   The Bush administration has acknowledged a “moral obligation” to protect Iraqis displaced by the war but fell far short of the 7,000 admissions that officials pledged by the end of September – sparking criticism from refugee advocates.

Four at Four continus below the fold with stories about Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, the environmental damage of the Israel-Lebanon war of 2006, and a bonus story about bicycle economy in Portland, Oregon is below the fold.

1. Over 1 million people are affected by the worst flooding in the Mexican state of Tabasco in 50 years. A week of heavy rains has left 70% of the region under flood waters. The Grijalva river has risen over six feet (2 meters) over the ‘critical’ level causing it to burst over the banks and gush into the center of Villahermosa, the state capital. An estimated 700,000 people are flooded and fresh drinking water has run out.

   More from The Guardian, which reports Mexican floods leave 300,000 stranded. “Rescuers were today racing against time to evacuate 300,000 people trapped by the… floods… ahead of further predicted rainfall. Military trucks delivered bottled water, food and clothing as health officials warned of the threat of cholera and other waterborne diseases… Rescue workers in boats and helicopters have been plucking desperate residents from their rooftops and have led thousands to shelters, but many remained trapped… The state of Chiapas, which borders Tabasco to the south, also reported serious flooding, with an estimated 100,000 people affected, according to officials.”

2. Remember in August when Puerto Rico’s governor, Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá, Urged the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq that earned him a “standing ovation from a conference of more than 4,000 National Guardsmen.” Well, the Bush administration has been retaliating. The New York Times reports Puerto Rico’s Governor is under DoJ inquiry. “The Democratic governor of Puerto Rico says he has been improperly made a target of Justice Department prosecutors who began by looking into campaign contributions and have since broadened their efforts with a grand jury inquiry including subpoenas of his college transcripts and even questioning about whether he has had a hair transplant. The case is one of several under review by the House Judiciary Committee in which Democrats have complained that federal prosecutors singled them out for selective prosecution, conducting lengthy and sometimes frivolous investigations, while ignoring accusations against Republicans.”

More news below the fold. This is an open thread.

Some news and OPEN THREAD.

1. The Guardian reports Fears grow for 150,000 people as flood chaos hits Mexico. “Tens of thousands of people have fled to shelters in south-eastern Mexico after the worst floods in living memory in the area destroyed their homes and harvests. The authorities say the floods are expected to get worse. Rooftops peeked above the water yesterday in the city of Villahermosa, capital of the state of Tabasco, which has been the worst hit by the catastrophe. Vast swaths of agricultural land throughout the state were under water. Some of the giant nine-metre [30-foot] stone heads carved by America’s first great civilisation, the Olmecs, were only half visible at the La Venta archaeological site.” Villahermosa sits below the banks of the river normally. The city is in a hole.

2. The Washington Post reports State Department diplomats resist forced duty in Iraq. “Uneasy U.S. diplomats yesterday challenged senior State Department officials in unusually blunt terms over a decision to order some of them to serve at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or risk losing their jobs.” Some Foreign Service officers “criticized fundamental aspects of State’s personnel policies in Iraq. They took issue with the size of the embassy — the biggest in U.S. history — and the inadequate training they received before being sent to serve in a war zone.”

   Service in Iraq is “a potential death sentence,” said one man who identified himself as a 46-year Foreign Service veteran. “Any other embassy in the world would be closed by now,” he said to sustained applause.

   Harry K. Thomas Jr., the director general of the Foreign Service, who called the meeting, responded curtly. “Okay, thanks for your comment,” he said, declaring the town hall meeting over.

The rest of today’s Four at Four is below the fold.