The Hill’s Pundits Blog

August 31, 2007

The Bad Judgment of Gen. David Petraeus

Brent Budowsky

Gen. David Petraeus is a good man and a great soldier with a track record of almost complete failure in his previous tours of duty in Iraq…

Fact: After the initial phase of fighting, in the areas under his command, sectarian warfare ultimately escalated and his efforts for political agreements, while worthy, failed.

Fact: In his tour of duty commanding the training of the Iraqi military, his training results were a dismal failure, and all subsequent training programs have been to redo his failed efforts and undo the damage done during that tour of duty.

(more…)

Upbeat Bush hints at more troops for Iraq
THE US President, George Bush, has given his strongest indication yet that he intends to continue with plans to increase troop numbers in Iraq after the September 15 report to Congress, when he delivered an upbeat assessment of military progress and a more positive view of the political outlook. He also warned that pulling out of Iraq would harm US interests in the Middle East for decades and expose America to the threat of increased terrorism and a nuclear arms race in the region by allowing al-Qaeda-backed Sunni extremists to flourish and Shiite extremism in Iran to spread.
OOPS!  He forgot to mention stratospheric gas prices.  He hasn’t gotten the report, but he has made up his mind.  Not that that’s new.

Porter ties U.S. withdrawal from Iraq to $9 gasoline
Rep. Jon Porter…, who returned Tuesday from his fourth trip to Iraq, met with U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Iraqi Deputy President Tariq al-Hashimi and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh. “To a person, they said there would be genocide, gas prices in the U.S. would rise to eight or nine dollars a gallon, al-Qaida would continue its expansion, and Iran would take over that portion of the world if we leave,” Porter said Wednesday in a phone interview from Las Vegas.
And what was the price of gasoline BEFORE we invaded that practically defenseless country?  According to the DOE, regular gas was $1.69 per gallon on 3/24/03, just after the invasion.  On 8/27/07, it was $2.749.

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The Radical Fringe

Suicide bomber hit near Kabul airport
A suicide attacker detonated his vehicle close to the airport in the Afghanistan capital on Friday, killing at least one solider and wounding six other people, officials and witnesses said.

Iraq gov’t asks militias to halt attacks
BAGHDAD – The Iraqi government called on armed groups to follow the lead of the biggest Shiite militia and freeze their operations, while the U.S. military on Friday reported the deaths of two more American service members in fighting against Sunni insurgents.

Iraq protests Iranian attacks in Kurdish region
BAGHDAD — Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari demanded Thursday that Iran stop firing artillery and mortars at Kurdish villages in northern Iraq and warned that more attacks could damage relations between the countries… The demand was a rare public reference to a burgeoning border conflict in northern Iraq that has nothing to do with Iraq’s sectarian warfare or U.S. allegations that Iran providing weapons and training to Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq.

Report on Iran’s Nuclear Activity Exposes Split
The I.A.E.A. report has exposed a new divide between the United Nations inspectors and the United States over how to contain Iran’s atomic program.

Canada says arrested several Afghan bomb makers
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian forces in southern Afghanistan have arrested several bomb makers and militants in a series of raids over the last month, a senior military officer said on Thursday.

Musharraf’s Aides Deny a Deal With Bhutto
Pakistani government officials denied that Gen. Pervez Musharraf had agreed to resign as army chief, saying that no decision had been made.

Bangladesh freezes former PM’s bank account
DHAKA (AFP) – Authorities in emergency-ruled Bangladesh have ordered banks to freeze the accounts of former prime minister Khaleda Zia as part of their major crackdown on corruption, media reports said Friday.

China uncovers “worms, substandard goods” from U.S.
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has found microscopic worms in wooden packaging from the United States and uncovered substandard U.S. vitamin pills and fish oil for children, Chinese media said on Friday in the latest volley of cross-border accusations.
You knew this was going to happen.

Suspected chemical weapons found at U.N. office
U.N. archivists for UNMOVIC, the U.N. chemical weapons agency, unexpectedly turned up samples of material from an Iraqi chemical weapons plant in old files on Friday, U.N. officials said. The samples were in weapons inspectors’ files dating back to the 1990s, but the substance is not believed to pose any immediate danger, the officials said.

UN: Darfur force needs specialized units
UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged U.N. member states on Thursday to provide critically needed aviation, transport and logistics units for the new African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region.

US lawmakers’ plane under fire in Iraq
A military cargo plane carrying three senators and a House member was forced to take evasive maneuvers and dispatch flares to avoid ground fire after taking off from Baghdad on Thursday night.
Why are members of Congress putting their lives in danger to see dog and pony shows staged for them by the military brass?

White House Preparing Strategy To ‘Water Down’ Pessimistic Reports From Iraq
According to unnamed officials familiar with the White House’s strategy regarding the GAO report, “the administration is preparing a case to play down the findings, arguing that Congress ordered the GAO to use unfair, ‘all or nothing’ standards when compiling the document.”

Petraeus: WH won’t write my September report.
Recently, the media revealed — and the White House confirmed — that Gen. David Petraeus’s much-anticipated September report on Iraq will “actually be written by the White House.” But this week, Petraeus assured lawmakers that he won’t let the White House interfere with his analysis.

Pentagon won’t make surge recommendation to Bush
WASHINGTON — In a sign that top commanders are divided over what course to pursue in Iraq, the Pentagon said Wednesday that it won’t make a single, unified recommendation to President Bush during next month’s strategy assessment, but instead will allow top commanders to make individual presentations. “Consensus is not the goal of the process,” Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. “If there are differences, the president will hear them.”

U.S. Says Company Bribed Officers for Work in Iraq
An American-owned company paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to U.S. officers in efforts to win more than $11 million in contracts.

Iraq contractors’ problems no impediment to finding new work
KBR is far from the only contractor to repeatedly secure high-dollar procurements in spite of questionable performance records. According to the nonprofit watchdog group, Project on Government Oversight, the top 50 contractors in fiscal 2005 paid fines, penalties, restitution or civil settlements in excess of $12 billion over the previous 10 years.

Behind Allawi’s Bid for Power
No sooner did [former Iraqi prime minister Ayad] Allawi hire [Republican lobbying firm] Barbour Griffith two weeks ago than congressional staffers said they began to be bombarded with e-mails from Allawi (from an Internet domain registered by the lobbying firm) featuring news stories that depict the Maliki government as hopelessly deadlocked and riddled by sectarian militias. “All the e-mails make the Iraqi government look bad,” said one congressional staffer who asked not to be publicly identified talking about the Iraq issues.
Well, isn’t that interesting?  We citizens can’t get the email addresses of congressional staffers.  How come Barbour Griffith can?  Oh, that’s right.  Money is the only thing that counts in Washington.

Justice Dept. Investigating Gonzales’s Testimony
The Justice Department is investigating whether departing Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales gave false or misleading testimony to Congress on a broad range of issues, including the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program and the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year, the lead investigator said today.

All the President’s Lawyers: How to Avoid Another “Torture Opinion” Debacle
Professor [Dawn] Johnsen examines the inadequacy of external checks on presidential powers, particularly as exercised in a time of war or national emergency… [She] argues that the danger is not only whether Congress and the courts are maintaining a check on the executive branch, but whether the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) within the executive branch is acting properly to fulfill its credo of “faithfully executing” the laws to which the President is bound.

Senators in GOP Senate leadership all but call for Craig to resign
WASHINGTON — Republican leaders on Thursday stepped up pressure on Idaho Sen. Larry Craig as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called his conduct “unforgivable” and the chairman of the Senate Republican re-election committee suggested that Craig should resign.

A recovering Johnson remains determined
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Sen. Tim Johnson endured some dark days after his life-threatening brain hemorrhage, but he says he never considered resigning.
Who is paying Tim Johnson’s salary?  Who’s paying his medical bills?  I don’t begrudge him either.  I just want the rest of us to have similar benefits when we have a catastrophic illness.

Wall Street struggles for direction
Wall Street stocks struggled for direction on Thursday, finishing mixed as the market awaited further guidance from the US Federal Reserve.

Bush and Bernanke to launch twin subprime assault
LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush will outline reforms on Friday to help struggling subprime mortgage borrowers and his central bank chief will deliver a speech which will be pored over for hints of a looming rate cut.

Census Shows a Modest Rise in U.S. Income
The nation’s median household income grew modestly in 2006, the Census Bureau reported yesterday, even as the percentage of people without health insurance hit a high. Experts said the rise in income was mainly a reflection of an increase in the number of family members entering the workplace or working longer hours. Average wages for men and women actually declined for the third consecutive year… Some Republicans seized on the new data as evidence that Bush administration policies had been good for people’s pocketbooks.
George Bush admired a single mother with a disabled child who worked three jobs as “uniquely American” (scroll down).  I’m not sure he realized just how apt his description was.  ONLY in America are individuals stressed to the breaking point. Where are the family values in this kind of treatment?  This woman never sees her family.

Home and not roaming
Employees who work remotely are more satisfied with their jobs and less likely to want to change, new survey finds.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

I will be a guest on Tony Seton’s America Back on Track today at 3:30 PM ET.  Listen to Tony from 3:00 to 4:00 PM ET every weekday on the Quality News Network.

From Apocalypse to Disaster, America Is Obsessed with the Prospect of Bad News
Author of the new book A Culture of Calamity, Ken Rozario explains why we are so fond of a good crisis.

A City Floods And Its Paper Sails
The Times-Picayune went from being an average metropolitan daily to a vital must-read resource in an unlikely post-Katrina success story.

Craig Story Nets ‘Idaho Statesman’ its Best Web Day Ever
The Idaho Statesman of Boise drew its busiest Web traffic ever on Tuesday after posting a lengthy story about an alleged sexual incident involving Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and another man, as well as other alleged improper activities. Today, the paper called on Craig to resign.

Alive in Baghdad: Can Citizen Journalism Done Right Pay the Bills?
Alive in Baghdad is arguably the best-positioned citizen news video outfit in the world.

A Guide to Media Manipulation, Republican Style
[I]n recent years the GOP has turned the technique of making hay from their opponents’ words into a reliable formula for success. Here’s how it works: First, find something your opponent said that might be open to multiple interpretations. Next, take it out of context. After that, distort it beyond all recognition (and don’t worry, the truth-seeking press will offer you no sanction for this deception). Express your consternation, your anger, your amazement that your opponent has revealed him/herself to be such a deplorable reprobate for whom no decent American could consider voting. Finally, repeat the offending statement over and over, from now until election day… [A]ll too often, Democrats give Republicans a helping hand.
Plenty of people know what the problem is.  Very few are willing to work together to solve it.

Matt Drudge rules their world…and falsely accuses them of murder
Here’s how the [death of Richard Jewell, accused by the media of the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympics was] bannered near the top of the Drudge Report, one of the ten most trafficked news sites on the Internet, the news source that former ABC News political director Mark Halperin said “rules our world”: “THE MAN THE MEDIA MURDERED: Richard Jewell dead…”
As YOU know, because you read MakeThemAccountable, Jewell died of natural causes.

Conservative Media Study Finds Bias Where None Exists
Debunking a new Media Research Center study purporting that “since Democrats outnumbered Republicans in campaign segments on the morning shows of ABC, CBS and NBC, the three major networks are ‘actively promoting the Democrats’ liberal agenda.’” While former FAIR intern Volsky knows that “conservatives may tout the report as evidence of the media’s liberal bias” anyway, he finds that “its conclusion falls apart under scrutiny.”
As I suspected.

New Media Meme: White House Is “Confident” It Will Win Iraq Fight Against Dems
As you probably remember, one of the more unsightly aspects of the press’ performance during the 2006 midterm elections was its constant assertion, no matter what the polls said, that the GOP was “confident” and “gleeful” and “on the offensive” against the Dems. A bunch of us stamped our feet for weeks about this, and the big news orgs finally started telling the story right, helping lead to the rout of the Republicans. Now this is starting to happen again. And this time, the new media meme has it that the White House is “confident” that it’s going to “win” the coming showdown with the Dem Congress on Iraq.

Buchanan, Scarborough claimed that a military strike against Iran would be popular, but polls suggest otherwise
On MSNBC, Pat Buchanan claimed that a U.S. attack on Iran is “comin[g]” and went on to assert that a military strike against Iran would be “a very popular initial move.” Joe Scarborough agreed, stating that “a military strike against Iran initially would be extraordinarily popular with the American people.” But polling data show that most Americans say they would oppose an attack on Iran.

Gates Marginalized By White House, Not Informed Of New $50 Billion Iraq Funding Request
On Fox News’ Special Report [Wednesday] night, host Brit Hume revealed that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was unaware of the White House’s plans [to request an additional $50 billion from Congress for the war in Iraq]. “A Pentagon spokesman said Defense Secretary Gates saw the published report this morning and said, quote, ‘this is news to me,’” reported Hume.
Think Progress is reporting this tidbit as being reliable, but I don’t see how we can pick and choose what to believe when it comes from Fox News.  I think we should always assume their reports are made up, unless confirmed by three independent sources.

TNT Won’t Pull Law & Order When Thompson Declares
Now that Law & Order co-star Fred Thompson has signaled his plans to announce his presidential candidacy on Sept. 6, TNT, which airs voluminous repeats of the show, tells B&C in an e-mailed statement that it has “no plans to alter its programming schedule.”

Countering Ann Coulter at Xavier University
Some of the progressive students at Xavier University in Ohio aren’t too happy that the nasty, bigoted homophobe Ann Coulter is appearing on their campus. But, they’ve turned their anger into action at their blog, Counter Ann Coulter. They’re raising money — in $5.00 increments — to bring progressive speakers to campus.
This is absolutely a better way to counter right wingers than shouting them down or throwing pies in their faces.  Click here to contribute, if you can.

CRAIG vs. VITTER….
Lots of conservative bloggers, following Hugh Hewitt’s lead, have called for Larry Craig to resign even though they didn’t call for David Vitter to resign when he was outed for visiting prostitutes last month. Is this because Craig was trolling for gay sex and Vitter was trolling for straight sex? Probably, but before we go too far down that road I think Scott Lemieux is merely stating the obvious with his alternative explanation: “In the specific case of Hewitt, though, there’s probably a more important factor: Louisiana’s governor is a Democrat, and Idaho’s is a Republican. Craig resigning would mean a Republican incumbent going into the 2008 election; Vitter resigning would mean another Democratic Senator.”

CNN’s host Glenn Beck says New Orleans should not be rebuilt
Okay, Jonathan Kaplan and CNN, make up your mind about New Orleans. You sent Anderson Cooper to New Orleans to report live about the struggle to rebuild the city:.. You also had Soledad O’Brien (who never should have left the morning show, p.s.) do an hour long special on called “Children of the Storm.” But then, Mr. Kaplan, you have one of the stars of your network, Glenn Beck, completely trash New Orleans — and say that the city should not be rebuilt.
Since Soledad O’Brien’s departure from CNN’s American Morning, there’s more fluff, more celebrity reporting, stupid animal videos, and lots of sappy interviews by Kiran Chetry with people who once knew somebody who had something happen to them.  Of course, Kiran’s training ground was Fox “News”.

CNN to stop using Reuters news service
The CNN cable television news network said on Thursday it would stop using the Reuters news service, ending a 27-year relationship, to contain costs and invest in its own news gathering operations.
Your own news gathering, CNN?  Like the nonsense dug up by the likes of Kiran Chetry?

GOP no-shows prompt cancellation of debate
Univisión’s Republican presidential debate has been called off after only one contender agreed to participate, though the network hopes to reschedule. The debate for Democrats is still on for Sept. 9.
The Republican debate was scheduled for Sept. 16—much too close to quarterly fundraising reporting.  Republicans will be too busy fundraising to appeal to the Hispanic community.

Look who’s ‘Dancing’
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Is it possible Mark Cuban, Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Wayne Newton can dance? Viewers will find out on the new season of Dancing With the Stars, which has assembled another eclectic field of contestants.
Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and of HDNet, the current home of Dan Rather.

Florida Papers Post Searchable Database on FEMA Aid
After months of legal wrangling, three Gannett newspapers have launched a searchable database of more than 2 million files about FEMA’s response to the 2004 Florida hurricanes. The results stem from a lawsuit filed by The News-Press in Fort Myers, Florida Today in Brevard County, and the Pensacola News Journal.

Conan O’Brien to Stream on NBC.com
NBC Digital Entertainment has begun streaming the show “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” on NBC.com. This is the first broadcast late-night program to stream on any broadcast network website, and will be made available the following day at 12 noon (PST).

NBC to End iTunes Sales of Its Shows
NBC Universal and Apple were unable to come to an agreement on pricing, leading to the a withdrawal that highlights escalating tensions between Apple and media companies.

First Book Written as a Wiki: “We Are Smarter Than Me”
“We Are Smarter than Me” is a collaborative effort to write a book using an online wiki tool. The book will focus on the importance of collaboration within the business community. Initiated by research done at Wharton and MIT, “We Are Smarter than Me” is taking the crowd-wisdom approach to not only discuss how collaboration can be used for a single goal, but to prove in what manner this can be achieved.

Viacom: It’s Not Copyright Infringement When We Do it to You
Long story short: Viacom runs a clip on TV without permission. The creator takes his clip from TV to post on YouTube. Viacom issues a cease and desist letter to YouTube claiming that they own the clip.

Thailand’s Ban on YouTube Fully Lifted
The Thai government has finally fully lifted its ban on YouTube after a deal was made between the video-sharing network and local Thai officials. With YouTube in agreement to block any clips that are offensive to Thai people or violate Thai law, the Thai government has fully lifted its ban.

New Web Sites Aim for TV Experience
NEW YORK (AP) – Watching video online in small, fuzzy boxes is heading the way of rabbit ears. Some highly anticipated Web sites are being modeled on making the experience of watching video online more like watching television.

Screenvision Brings Live Events to Movie Houses
Watch the Mets Game on the Big Screen, Catch a Pepsi T-Shirt
Huh?

Two IBM discoveries add promise for nano-computing
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Imagine cramming 30,000 full-length movies into a gadget the size of an iPod.

EarthLink Abandons San Francisco Wi-Fi Project
San Francisco’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, remains committed to a plan to roll out a citywide Wi-Fi network despite EarthLink’s decision to bow out of an agreement to build the system.

Damp, Moldy Homes May Cause Depression
But researchers say more study is needed to prove a link.

Study: Ordinary People Have Good Taste, Too
It doesn’t take years of film appreciation classes to recognize a good movie, new research suggests. The results of the study, to be published in the October issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, revealed that when the influence of marketing isn’t present, both regular folks and experts tended to agree on what movies deserved a thumbs-up or an ill-fated thumbs-down.

The Solvable Problem of Organ Shortages
Although willingness to donate organs has risen in recent years, major hurdles remain.

One Species’ Genome Found Within Another
Movement of genes between unrelated groups may happen more frequently than thought, study says

The mystery of accidental Mexican mummies
People who lived in the mining town of Guanajuato, Mexico, more than a century ago left behind a scientific mother lode: their own accidentally mummified bodies.

Neutron accelerator sets world record
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – The $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source facility, though still powering up, has established a new mark as the world’s most powerful accelerator-based source of neutrons for scientific research.

Study predicts more severe U.S. storms
WASHINGTON – As the world warms, the United States will face more severe thunderstorms with deadly lightning, damaging hail and the potential for tornadoes, a trailblazing study by NASA scientists suggests.

Global Warming Might Spur Earthquakes and Volcanoes
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and landslides are some of the additional catastrophes that climate change and its rising sea levels and melting glaciers could bring, a geologist says.

Industrial Nations Shy away from Stiff 2020 Goals
Industrial nations were shying away from fixing stiff 2020 guidelines for greenhouse gases cuts at U.N. talks on Friday in what environmentalists said would be a vote for “dangerous” climate change. A draft text at the U.N. talks dropped mention of steep cuts in greenhouse gases of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 as a non-binding “guide” for rich nations’ work on a pact to fight global warming beyond 2012, delegates said.

China Says One-Child Policy Helps Protect Climate
China says its one-child policy has helped the fight against global warming by avoiding 300 million births, the equivalent of the population of the United States. But delegates at U.N. climate change talks in Vienna said on Thursday birth control is unlikely to find favour as a major policy theme, partly because of opposition by the Catholic Church and some developing nations trying to increase their population.

Ford to Convert Paint Fumes to Electricity
DANBURY, Conn., Aug. 31, 2007 — Ford Motor Corp. announced Thursday it will install its patented Fumes-to-Fuel system at its Oakville, Ontario, Assembly Plant, which will convert emissions from its paint shop into electricity.

Con Edison Seeks Partners to Reduce N.Y. Electricity Use
NEW YORK, Aug. 31, 2007 — Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc. is soliciting applications from demand side management companies to help it reduce the electricity load in 10 neighborhoods.
Reducing their own business?  That would make sense if they were working on alternative ways of producing electricity, but I don’t know if they are.

Green Africa Conference Seeks to Help Continent Feed Itself
Africa’s drive to feed itself by boosting agricultural production through funding, market access and improved technology must be balanced against the risk of environmental damage and market collapse, delegates at an Oslo conference said Thursday.

Dole Food Takes New Steps to Head Off More E.coli
Dole Food Company, a top U.S. food and fruit producer, has stepped up testing and tracking of produce to prevent outbreaks of E.coli like the one that sickened hundreds last fall, the firm said on Thursday. Eric Schwartz, Dole’s president for worldwide vegetables, told Reuters in an interview the company is testing samples from every acre of spinach and other vegetables that will be marketed under the Dole label.

The Hill’s Pundits Blog

August 30, 2007

When Fox News Republicans Lie, Democrats Should Tell The Truth

Brent Budowsky

Regarding Karen Hanretty’s comments [in a previous post on the Pundits Blog] in which she invoked the name of Barry Goldwater while she lied about me:

I knew Barry Goldwater. Barry Goldwater was an authentic conservative who believed in political discourse of honesty and civility. Hanretty is no Barry Goldwater… The fact that modern Republicanism has gone so far from the principles and ideals of Barry Goldwater is a testament to why they have done such enormous damage to our military; why they have lowered the standards of political discourse in ways that appalled Goldwater long before today; and why they seem to have the indictment or scandal of the week that is making the Republican Party a house of ill repute with catastrophically low moral standards and collapsing support…

When Ms. Hanretty calls me an “über-lefty” she is lying, she knows she is lying, which is the hallmark of someone who knows she has lost the debate and resorts to the same discredited tactics that have done so much damage to our troops in Iraq, our moral credibility in the world, and the Republican Party’s collapsing moral standing and collapsing reputation among Americans…

Strange but true: the distorted vision of media promoted by Fox News lies at the heart of the Republican problem…

(more…)

Bush Ramps Up Iran Rhetoric, Warns of “Nuclear Holocaust”|
For those who may have missed it, in a speech before the American Legion [Tuesday], President Bush continued his rank fear mongering and made clear that he plans on confronting Iran regardless of what the American people or Congress have to say about it.
Click through to watch the video.

The Heretik

Sadr Suspends His Militia’s Military Operations
The surprise declaration was widely taken as a tacit acknowledgment of the damage done to the Mahdi Army’s reputation by two days of Shiite in-fighting.

Maliki: I won’t resign, can’t be forced out
BAGHDAD — Looking tired and pale but speaking firmly, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki told McClatchy Newspapers Tuesday that he has no intention of resigning despite rising U.S. criticism of his government.

Hezbollah denounces watchdog’s report
BEIRUT, Lebanon – A human rights group issued a report Wednesday accusing Hezbollah of firing rockets indiscriminately at civilian areas in Israel during last summer’s war, prompting swift condemnation by the militant group and even its Lebanese opponents.

U.S. official: Expand Abbas forces
JERUSALEM – The U.S. security coordinator in the Palestinian territories wants five new Palestinian battalions deployed across the West Bank in an effort to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Haaretz newspaper reported Thursday.

Musharraf Said to Agree to End His Army Role
Gen. Pervez Musharraf would resign as army chief and serve another term as president and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto would return to Pakistan.

China defense chief tries to soothe Japan’s fears
TOKYO (Reuters) – China tried to ease Tokyo’s worries over its ballooning military spending in a meeting on Thursday at which the Asian rivals’ defense ministers agreed to stage the first-ever visit by a Chinese warship to Japan.

China welcomes US opposition to Taiwan UN bid
BEIJING (Reuters) – China welcomed U.S. pressure on Taiwan to drop its plan for a referendum on membership of the United Nations, saying the island’s attempts to assert nationhood were doomed to failure. China considers Taiwan as part of its territory, part of “one China”, and is recognized by 170 countries across the world as opposed to just a handful of mostly poor nations which recognize Taiwan.

Chinese parents fight forced abortions
QIAN’AN, China – Yang Zhongchen, a small-town businessman, wined and dined three government officials for permission to become a father.

Nearly 10 percent of Australians in poverty: study
SYDNEY (AFP) – Nearly 10 percent of Australians are living in poverty despite a booming economy, a major new study published Thursday said, but its findings were disputed by Prime Minister John Howard.

Chavez tries role as Colombian mediator
BOGOTA, Colombia – Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is taking on a risky role as a mediator in Colombia’s hostage standoff, stepping squarely into his neighbor’s civil conflict and provoking optimism among the families of those long held captive by rebels.

Poland may soon finalize US anti-missile talks
WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland and the United States may be nearing a breakthrough in talks to locate parts of a U.S. anti-missile shield on Polish soil, Poland’s deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Kosovo talks start amid bitter division
VIENNA, Austria – Kosovo’s prime minister vowed Thursday to declare independence unilaterally if internationally brokered talks don’t “open a way for us,” staking out a tough position as the latest round of negotiations on the province’s future began in Vienna.

Ethiopia to kick beggars off street for Millennium
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia will try to remove tens of thousands of beggars from the streets of Addis Ababa to create a more “conducive” atmosphere for coming Millennium celebrations, city officials said on Thursday.

Somali government fails to tame capital
NAIROBI, Kenya – The killings in Mogadishu, Somalia’s bloodstained capital, are not going away. Nearly every day, the city endures street battles, roadside bombs, showers of bullets.

Congress report finds Iraq failing on goals: report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iraq has met only three out of 18 goals set by Washington for political and security progress, according to a draft of a key report being prepared for Congress, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. 

Bush seeks to be portrayed as antagonist-in-chief.
U.S. News reports, “White House insiders don’t want to encourage expectations that President Bush will turn into a born-again accommodator in the final year and a half of his administration.” The insiders express “concern” that there is an expectation that Bush will be more “conciliatory.”

Point, Click … Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates
The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device… [Steven Bellovin, a Columbia University computer science professor and surveillance expert says] the architectural changes to accommodate easy surveillance on phone switches and the internet can introduce new security and privacy holes.

Army Officer Reprimanded Over Abu Ghraib
A military jury reprimanded Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan for disobeying an order to keep silent about an investigation into the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2003. Jordan could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison.
He should be given a medal.

Clarification: National Guard story
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The Associated Press reported on Aug. 25 that Puerto Rico’s governor earned a standing ovation when he called for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq during his speech to a conference of National Guardsmen. The story should have made clear that Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila was given a standing ovation at the end of his speech, which covered various military issues, rather than immediately after his call for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

Gang activity on the rise in the ranks
Recent reports by the FBI and the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command show that gang-related activity in the U.S. military is increasing. The FBI report concludes the increase poses a threat to law enforcement officials and national security. Some experts point to looser recruiting standards, implemented in recent years as the Army struggles to meet recruiting goals, and the increase in waivers given to recruits with criminal records as a factor behind gang presence in the ranks.

Sen. Craig gives up four Senate committee seats; colleagues call for resignation
WASHINGTON — Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s political support eroded by the hour today as fellow Republicans in Congress called for him to resign and party leaders pushed him unceremoniously from senior committee posts.

Quote of the Day
“The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness. You can’t make this stuff up. And the impact this is having on the grass-roots around the country is devastating.” — GOP strategist Scott Reed, quoted in the New York Times, about Republican scandals.

Gallup: Public agrees that it’s wrong to take money from lobbyists
Presidential candidates who refuse to take campaign contributions from lobbyists and say that those lobbyists have too much influence in Washington “are closely in tune with American public opinion,” our friends at The Gallup Poll write today.

Kucinich is right on healthcare
In a CNN poll this spring, 64 percent of respondents said the government should “provide a national insurance program for all Americans, even if this would require higher taxes,”… Such polls allow Kucinich to joke that, far from being in the loony left, “I’m in the center. Everyone else is to the right of me.”… According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the top recipient of campaign contributions so far from the pharmaceutical and health products industry is Republican Mitt Romney ($228,260). But the next two are Democrats Barack Obama ($161,124) and Hillary Clinton ($146,000).

Fine unscrupulous mortgage lenders (By Barack Obama)
If we are serious about stopping this crisis and preventing much larger turmoil in US housing markets, Washington needs to stop acting like an industry advocate and start acting like a public advocate.

Edwards wants law against “Brownies”
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Former Sen. John Edwards said at a Hurricane Katrina conference he would propose what he called “Brownie’s Law” requiring that qualified people, not political hacks, lead key federal agencies.

Biden says Bush wants to delay chaos
DAVENPORT, Iowa – Democrat Joe Biden charged Tuesday that President Bush’s policies in Iraq are designed to confuse voters and ensure that a chaotic end to the war is delayed until after he leaves office.

White House Hopefuls Love Iowa Ethanol
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Don’t expect to hear much talk about farming from the presidential candidates who regularly tour Iowa, one of the nation’s premier agriculture states. Instead, prepare for three words: I love ethanol.

G.O.P. Plans Early-Primary Penalties
The Republican National Committee plans to penalize at least five states holding early primaries, including New Hampshire and Florida, by refusing to seat at least half of their delegates at the national convention in 2008, a party official said yesterday.

FEC fines America Coming Together $775,000
The Federal Election Commission announced Wednesday that it had imposed a $775,000 fine on America Coming Together (ACT), a Democratic-allied 527 group that played a major role in the 2004 presidential election.
And it wasn’t even very effective.

CEO pay and benefits on the rise: report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top executives at major businesses last year made as much money in one day of work on the job as the average worker made over the entire year, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Number of Americans without health insurance hits new high
WASHINGTON — The continued loss of job-based coverage helped push the number of Americans without health insurance to 47 million last year, the highest total on record and the sixth straight year that the ranks of the uninsured have grown.

On Poverty, Maybe We’re All Wrong (By Steven Pearlstein)
[M]aybe the point at which people are most willing to work hard, save and play by the rules isn’t when they are very poor, or very rich, but in the neighborhoods on either side of the point you might call economic sufficiency… And if that is so, then maybe the best way to break the cycle of poverty is to raise the hopes and expectations of the poor by putting them closer to the goal line… [A]fter a decade of welfare reform, budget cuts and calls for individual responsibility, poverty is still very much with us. Maybe it’s time for liberals to regain the upper hand in the debate by arguing that the vicious cycle that needs to be broken isn’t one of dependence but one of declining expectations.

Segregation in schools is increasing: report
ATLANTA (Reuters) – Public schools in the United States are becoming more racially segregated and the trend is likely to accelerate because of a Supreme Court decision in June, according to report published on Wednesday.

Teamsters to try to block Mexican trucks
WASHINGTON – The Teamsters Union said Wednesday it will ask a federal appeals court to block the Bush administration’s plan to allow Mexican trucks to carry cargo anywhere in the United States.

Natural Disasters More Destructive Than Wars
United Nations head of humanitarian affairs: “Seven times more livelihoods are devastated by natural disasters than by war worldwide, at the moment, and this is going to be much worse, the way the climate is developing.”

What the Dutch Can Teach Us About Weathering the Next Katrina
A 1953 storm that killed 1,835 people forced the Netherlands to change the way disaster protection is done. The same can’t be said of the U.S., where innovation has been stymied by pork-barrel politics.

Still Down in the Bayou: Minorities Bear the Burden of Rebuilding
Campus Progress explores how cultural differences have barred the way toward post-Katrina recovery for many immigrant and minority communities.

Louisiana court curbs hurricane insurance recovery
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A divided Louisiana state appeals court has ruled that people who lost their homes in hurricanes are not necessarily entitled to recover the full amount of their losses if their insurance policies covered only some perils but not others.

Stocks rebound on bargain hunting
NEW YORK – Stocks rebounded sharply Wednesday as investors, growing more optimistic about chances for an interest rate cut, sought bargains after the previous session’s huge tumble. The Dow Jones industrials gained almost 250 points.

How Lower Home Prices Hurt Everything
The continuing decline in housing prices is sure to exacerbate stock market weakness and tighten consumer spending

Impossible to Track Troubled Mortgages
It’s hard to know how scared to be if you don’t know the size of the threat. No, not terrorism, housing. The U.S. mortgage-lending business is a sprawling, varied enterprise that no one regulator oversees, making it impossible to know how many mortgages or lenders whose deposits aren’t insured by the government are in trouble.

Fed not rushing to bail out investors with rate cut: report
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve is not rushing to cut benchmark interest rates because it wants to break investors of the view that the central bank is there to bail them out, an article in the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday.

Carlyle bails out its $20bn Dutch fund
Carlyle, the private equity group, has been forced to double the size of a loan to its Dutch-listed investment vehicle after the struggling fund embarked on a string of asset sales and admitted it had been unable to meet recent margin calls… John Stomber, the chief executive of Carlyle Capital Corporation, … described the current credit crisis as worse than that which forced the bailout of Long Term Capital Management, the hedge fund, in 1998.

Healthy Staff, Healthy Savings
A wellness program can help your company save money on health-care costs