John R. Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront the head of a global arms-control agency and demand he resign, then orchestrated the firing of the unwilling diplomat in a move a U.N. tribunal has since judged unlawful, according to officials involved.--yahoo
Just two web sites, Google and Yahoo!, now account for more advertising revenues than do the prime time schedules of the three traditional television networks - ABC, CBS, and NBC - combined.--source
The WP notices inside that the government's new counter-terrorism clearinghouse, mandated by legislation to open in two weeks, still doesn't have a director.
i'm sure including a lot of TP today. i can't recommend the site stronger. it's a top-notch site for being able to truly be 'in the know' about what is going on in today's world. i haven't found another site like it, or one that could come close to being as pertinent, interesting, and valuable as Slate's Today's Papers. so to all you over there, a big thank you for North Iowa for being REAL journalism. alllll those reporters for corporate media could take a lesson (or 5) from you folx.
The WSJ says that the Army, in a desperate bid to keep manpower, has made it harder to for unit commanders to dismiss slacker soldiers. An Army memo told commanders that they need to go up the chain of command if they want to bounce GIs who are drug addicts, fat, or just loafers. Slate revealed the memo yesterday and also suggested alternatives for keeping retention rates up.
--source
UNITED NATIONS, June 2 (AP) - Satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq, United Nations weapons inspectors said in a report obtained Thursday.
thanks to TP for the heads up!
so this isn't one of those russian "we can't account for it" instances.
this is one of those "someone stole it" occasions.
and i'll be damned if someone shouldn't be screaming bloody hell about it.
The Wall Street Journal tops its world-wide newsbox with three dozen Iraqis were killed in insurgent attacks; there were three car bombings within an hour in Baghdad. Gunmen also opened fire on shoppers at a market in Baghdad, killing nine. Two GIs were killed in fighting near Ramadi.i wonder if the picture will change this time next month. wanna bet it doesn't?
These campus blogethicists like Carol Darr at IPDI love to pontificate about the harm that bloggers cause their precious profession, even as they fail to understand that bloggers are, in huge part, a response to the failings of their profession. So they pontificate from their ivory towers, oblivious to the excesses and failures of "legitimate" journalists around them.--kos
--attribution"I wish there were somebody of the Deep Throat time in this administration who are aware of what's going on," (Senator George McGovern told Fox News Radio)
"This war in Iraq, in my opinion is worse than anything Nixon did. I think Nixon deserved to be expelled from office in view of the cover-up that he carried on and the laws that he violated.
"But we have an administration in power now that led us to a war that is internationally illegal; it's a war that we are fighting with a country that has no threat to us that has nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks."
One hundred days into his tenure as the high-energy, higher-decibel chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean is in trouble with party moneybags. The former Vermont governor seems to be doing a better job flaying the Republicans than bridging the cash chasm between the parties. Given Dean's 2004 run as a populist crusader, moderates were never wild about his takeover of the Democratic National Committee. So some big donors are sitting on their wallets.--businessweek
Dean wowed the faithful in '04 with his Web-based fund-raising magic. But major business donors still count, and in his new role as party honcho, the feisty doctor seems to be struggling to connect. After achieving money parity with the GOP in 2004, Democrats have fallen far behind. According to the Federal Election Commission, the DNC raised $14.1 million in the first quarter of 2005, vs. the Republican National Committee's $32.3 million. Dean drew about 20,000 new donors, while his rivals picked up 68,200. The bottom line: Republicans have $26.2 million in the bank vs. $7.2 million for the Dems.
oh, but a quick look at actual FEC reports--courtesy of lojasmo
http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00010603
shows that Dean has raised more money in an off year than any DNC Chair in history.
First Quarter of 2005 - $16.7 million
Q1/2004 - $28.7 million (presidential election year)
Q1/2003 - $8.7 million
Q1/2002 - $11.8
And Dean is on pace to break the midyear fundraising of $23.7 in the first six months of 2001. "
Re-igniting the medical malpractice overhaul debate, a new study by Dartmouth College researchers suggests that huge jury awards and financial settlements for injured patients have not caused the explosive increase in doctors' insurance premiums.
The Dartmouth economists studied actual payments made to patients between 1991 and 2003, the results of which were published yesterday in the journal Health Affairs. Some previous studies have examined jury awards, which often are reduced after trial to comply with doctors' insurance coverage maximums or because the plaintiff settles for less money to avoid an appeal. Researchers found that payments grew an average of 4 percent annually during the years covered by the study, or 52 percent overall since 1991, but only 1.6 percent a year since 2000. The increases are roughly equivalent to the overall rise in healthcare costs, said Amitabh Chandra, lead author and an assistant professor of economics at the New Hampshire college.
President Bush met yesterday with South African President Thabo Mbeki. The NYT flags the get-together and Bush's reiterating the U.S. stance on Britain's call for the doubling of aid to Africa. "It doesn't fit our budgetary process," Bush said.
the next time bush beats his chest about how much aid he has given africa, remind him of the truth in his own words (surprisingly).
KABUL, Afghanistan, June 1 - A suicide bomber detonated a powerful bomb during a mourning ceremony in a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar on Wednesday, killing 19 people, among them the Kabul police chief, and wounding 52 others, the Interior Ministry said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the three and a half years since the Taliban were removed from power.
The interior minister, Ali Ahmed Jalali, said he believed that the two attacks were linked, and he blamed "enemies of Afghanistan." The bomber was a foreigner, he said, without elaborating.
"We label them as enemies of Islam because they are attacking Islam, attacking Muslims, attacking sacred sites of Islam," he said at a news conference in Kabul, the capital.
[enemies of islam eh? weren't the taliban rigid adherers to the letter of the law of islam?]
A Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, claimed responsibility for the assassination of Mr. Fayaz, saying it was because of his support for the American military presence in Afghanistan and the government of President Hamid Karzai, The Associated Press reported. But the Taliban spokesman denied responsibility for Wednesday's blast.
--nytimes
violence is on the rise in iraq. violence is on the rise in afghanistan.
where is the success again?
Taking life apparently is not always wrong
President Bush defended his probable veto of the passage of the bill on stem-cell research because "I am not going to use American taxpayers' money to destroy life." How can he make such an absurd statement when he is directly responsible for using American taxpayers' money to destroy the lives of tens of thousands of individuals - both military and civilian - in the quagmire that the invasion of Iraq has become? Also, as governor of Texas, he permitted the execution of large numbers of prisoners - some of whom may well have been innocent. Apparently destroying life can have entirely different meanings depending on whose life is being sacrificed.
-Earl G. Rozeboom, M.D.,
West Des Moines.
GOP is the party of social reform
In recent years, the desperation for Medicare/Medicaid reform has clearly taken the forefront. Despite the efforts of President Bush and his party to make actual reform, the Democrats continue to argue against any possible means of change.
But ask yourself: Have the Democrats actually proposed a single way of reform?
It's sad when leaders have to play such partisan games.
The fact is the Democrats could not maintain the image of being the party of social reform if the Republicans' Social Security proposal went into effect.
- Jon Turk, Bondurant
since the media isn't reporting on the democrats' proposals, how is this guy to know about them? hence, he's frustrated that democrats are seen as lazy.
"I spend most of my time worrying about people losing their lives in Iraq, both Americans and Iraqis," Bush told The Associated Press and other broadcasters in an interview.
He suggested he has some concerns about the implications of his high-profile position for his daughters, Jenna and Barbara.
"I worry about letting these little girls get into a situation where something unpleasant could happen to them," Bush said. "We're pretty much over the anger — not anger, the frustrations — of living in a fishbowl."
--sfgate
"The families here today have either adopted or given up for adoption frozen embryos that remained after fertility treatments. /// These lives are not raw material to be exploited",--source
Some of the information that the White House has refused to provide to Congress for its review of the nomination of John Bolton includes the names of American companies mentioned in intelligence reports on commerce with China and other countries covered by export restrictions, say government officials who have been briefed on the documents.--source
A spate of recent national polls show Bush in the doghouse with the American people:
A Quinnipiac University Poll last week found Bush's job approval rating had hit an all-time low. Only 44 percent approve of the job he is doing, and 50 percent disapprove.
Bush's approval ratings for handling the economy, Iraq and Social Security hit new lows last week, according to an USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll. Half those polled said they disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president.
And a recent CBS News poll found six in 10 Americans don't think the president shares their priorities for the country; just 34 percent say he does. This is the lowest mark since the eve of his first inauguration.
--source
could it be momma? could it really beeeee? America is wising up??
If looked at objectively, what the Register is really angry about is that George W. Bush went into war while being a Republican. I certainly can recall no outcry over the Clinton war in Bosnia or his call for the removal of Saddam.(from David C. Hammel, Urbandale)
WASHINGTON Vice President Dick Cheney says he's not running for president in 2008. So his wife has a suggestion about who should run.
Lynne Cheney says maybe first lady Laura Bush should seek the nomination. On C-N-N's "Larry King Live" scheduled to air tonight, Mrs. Cheney says, "If we want to have a Bush dynasty, let's get Laura Bush."
-CNN
The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for destroying Enron Corp.-related documents before the energy giant’s collapse.--msnbc
Why would you need to do anything so slick when the Supreme Court is in your back pocket?
This result is contrary to my understanding of the rules of statutory construction as they apply to criminal statutes. The instructions expressly mentioned "intent," which is widely recognized to equal either "knowledge" (or in adverbial form "knowingly") OR purpose ("purposefully). However, this opinion says that the statute's use of the term "knowingly" also impliedly required "dishonesty." Additionally, the court ruled the instructions invalid because they didn't think that "intent" equated to "knowledge," which it most certainly does... Very perplexing.
Upon further reflection, I think the reporter must be mistaken about this point; there's no way the court could reach such an absurd conclusion. They probably ruled that this was a specific intent crime, and therefore certain other defenses inhered, and the wording confused the reporter.
We need to get our ambassador to the United Nations to help start reforming that important organization," Bush told a White House press conference.--source
"The reason I picked Bolton is he's a no-nonsense kind of fellow who can get things done. And we need to get something done in the United Nations.
"This is an organization which is important, it can help a lot in terms of the democracy movement. It can help deal with conflict and civil war. But it's an organization that is beginning to lose the trust of the American people ... and therefore we need to restore that trust."
Also, an Iraqi Air Force plane crashed, with four Americans and one Iraqi on board; no word on survivors.what were so many Americans doing on an IRAQI air force plane?
Saddam Hussein in his underwear shocking? To whom? Certainly not Americans, who can barely watch TV without seeing nudity.
I wonder what some of the people from other countries would think if they spent an evening watching MTV. What about our sick and tasteless advertisements that talk about everything including diarrhea, constipation, birth control, menopause, feminine itch and odor, sticky pads, erectile disfunction and women's lagging sex drive.
-Carolyn K. Petersen,
Des Moines.
In responding to a question on stem-cell research, President Bush said he is "opposed to taking a life in order to save a life." Isn't that what war is all about? The war he launched based on faulty information has cost the lives of more than 1,700 brave Americans so far. Yet he opposes using clumps of a few dozen cells, which are biologically more primitive than a mosquito, to help medical science potentially cure terrible diseases that affect us and our children. What on Earth is our president thinking? Is he thinking?
-Alan L. Light,
Iowa City.
The military said Tillman was killed by enemy fire while barking orders to troops and maneuvering up a hill. The truth: He was killed by "friendly fire," and higher-ups knew it within a week after his death. But they didn't share it. Instead, they seemed intent on preserving the image of a soldier who had become their recruiting poster boy.--source
...
Now the truth is known. An investigation by the Washington Post revealed details about the "friendly fire" incident. Fellow troops mistook Tillman for the enemy. After they shot him, the soldiers burned his uniform and body armor, which destroyed the evidence. Tillman's parents have accused the military of using their son's death to bolster patriotism back home. They are furious about the lies they were told.
...
Those lies hit close to home for Iowan Peg Mullen. Her son, Michael, was also killed by "friendly fire." Not in Afghanistan, in South Vietnam. The year was 1970.
...
Two soldiers. Two deaths. A generation apart. A 1970 military that couldn't be honest. A 2005 military that again wasn't honest.
"Memorial Day should be a time of repentance, atonement and apology. Until we get that straight, we're doomed to keep kidding ourselves and covering evidence of our mistakes with flags and shovels of dirt."attribution
-Herb Strentz,
Urbandale.
Hospitals enjoy tax-exempt status as charitable organizations. If you're the doctor earning $2 million, you may think the hospital is pretty charitable. But such eye-popping salaries should raise questions about giving these institutions a free ride on income, property and sales taxes.
"What does it mean to me? I want government to stand up for working people, for the middle class, rather than representing, as is currently the case in the United States, multinational corporations and wealthy people.
"I also believe that as citizens in a democratic society people are entitled to certain inherent rights — and those rights include the right to health care, the right to form a union, the right to breathe good air, the right to send your child to college.
"There is something fundamentally wrong and very dangerous about a society in which so few have so much and so many have so little,"
--8 term Representative of Vermont, Bernie Sanders
"The government that we have today in the White House, the House of Representatives with Tom Delay, the Senate with Bill Frist, is the most right-wing, extremist government, perhaps in the history of the United States," he tells labor activists at a May Day celebration in the century-old Labor Hall.
"Time after time they pass legislation that benefits the rich and the powerful, and they pass legislation that hurts the middle class, working people and low income people."
The crowd roars. They have come to hear this unlikely man who is likely to be the next U.S. senator from the Green Mountain State, and they love what they hear. This is Bernie at his best: one part revivalist preaching, two parts theater, all served up with a biting sarcasm.
--source
At a time when Congress has been torn by partisan battles, 24 ideologically disparate leaders representing the health care industry, corporations and unions, and conservative and liberal groups have been meeting secretly for months to seek a consensus on proposals to provide coverage for the growing number of people with no health insurance.--NYT
For its part, the NYT frets about the lack of campaigning; it suggests that "most crucial decisions have been made in backroom deals."it tells me that the NYT knows that backroom deals are rife in American politics, yet we campaign like hell. so why is the NYT 'fretting'? trying to play like foxnews plays?
The May 8 Opinion section displayed a quotation next to the photograph of Charles Krauthamer, a conservative columnist for the Washington Post. With his typical arrogant smugness, Krauthamer suggested that liberals are "sawing on the branch" that President Bush has so bravely ventured out upon with his Social Security "reform" initiatives, and "as usual, Democrats are offering no alternatives. . . ."
In contrast, directly above this quotation was a column by Richard Cohen extolling an example of exactly what Krauthamer suggests is nonexistent: an alternative! Cohen was advocating a change that has been echoed by many as a viable fix for the supposed crisis faced by Social Security: lifting the income cap so that those who earn more than $90,000 will no longer be exempt from paying Social Security taxes on that income.
I hope readers are discerning enough to recognize that Democrats are indeed offering alternatives, but that the neocons discount any ideas that would not involve the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
-Julie Ryder,
Waukee.
I am disturbed by President Bush's plan to turn National Public Radio into another Pollyanna, cheerleading-type network like Fox "News" by appointing a right-wing ideologue to "reform" it. Bush needs to look up "reform" in the dictionary. It doesn't mean "subvert for propaganda purposes."
-John Christensen,
Storm Lake.
I'm quoting from C.M. Krueger's letter to the editor: "There's only one media network in these perilous times that doesn't slant the news. Anyone in the know knows that only Fox News Network gives the news as its happening."
Sir, I sincerely hope that you were joking. In my opinion, Fox News Network is the most biased network on the air. I myself am not a Republican, nor am I a fan of President Bush, but I have friends who are extremely radical Republicans, and even they have the sense to realize that Fox News Network is extremely biased toward Republicans. Mr. Krueger, if you truly suggest others to "broaden their capacity for news absorption," then you should suggest that they watch more than one network.
Also, you said that you connect with God and that "your God loves those of us who are proud of our president." I've always been taught and truly believe that God is not politically biased. He is not a Republican or a Democrat, nor does he love anyone more or less because of their political preference.
Your inference that God loves Republicans more than people of other political parties is offensive, and if you ask me, I think you owe the public an apology, especially those of us who aren't Republicans. You should also think twice before publically insinuating that God loves Republicans more than anyone else.
--attribution
