Cautious optimism after Iraqi political deal
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A new political accord between Iraq’s main Sunni Arab, Shi’ite and Kurdish leaders will not be enough to lure boycotting Sunni Arabs back into the government, a spokesman for the biggest Sunni Arab bloc said on Monday.

Shiite gunmen clash in Karbala
BAGHDAD – Sporadic gunfire echoed through the center of Karbala early Wednesday after daylong clashes between rival Shiite militias claimed up to 51 lives and forced officials to abort a Shiite religious festival that had drawn up to 1 million pilgrims from around the world.

U.S. troops release detained Iranians
BAGHDAD – A group of eight Iranians, including two diplomats, were released by U.S. forces Wednesday after being detained because unauthorized weapons were found in their cars, the U.S. military said.

Iran ready to fill any vacuum in Iraq
TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boldly declared Tuesday that U.S. political influence in Iraq is “collapsing rapidly” and said his government is ready to help fill any power vacuum.

Iraqi insurgents taking cut of U.S. rebuilding money
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s deadly insurgent groups have financed their war against U.S. troops in part with hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. rebuilding funds that they’ve extorted from Iraqi contractors in Anbar province. The payments, in return for the insurgents’ allowing supplies to move and construction work to begin, have taken place since the earliest projects in 2003, Iraqi contractors, politicians and interpreters involved with reconstruction efforts said.

More Iraqis flee as figure tops four million: UNHCR
More than four million Iraqis have fled their homes because of sectarian violence, the largest population movement in the Middle East since Palestinians left the new state of Israel, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.

Israel moves troops from Syria border
JERUSALEM – The Israeli army has decided that war with Syria is unlikely and is rotating forces out of the contested Golan Heights after months of cross-border tension, security officials say.

Taliban free 3 South Korean hostages
QALA-E-QAZI, Afghanistan – Taliban militants released three South Korean hostages on Wednesday, the first of 19 captives scheduled to be freed under a deal struck between the insurgents and the South Korean government.

China defends food safety standards to WHO
China has sent a notice to the World Health Organisation defending its food safety standards and sentenced another food and drug watchdog official for bribery, its latest moves to assure the world its exports are up to par. A series of scandals involving sub-standard Chinese exports ranging from pet food and toothpaste to toys has put increasing pressure on Beijing to clean up its manufacturing sector.

Japan may develop fighters after U.S. rebuff: report
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Defence Ministry is seeking a budget to develop its own fighter jets, a report said on Wednesday, after the U.S. blocked foreign sales of Washington’s most advanced stealth fighter for security reasons.

Sea border hot issue at Koreas summit
SEOUL, South Korea – Half a dozen South Korean sailors died in a gunbattle with North Korea five years ago defending what Seoul’s top minister on relations with Pyongyang now suggests could be changed: the sea border between the Koreas.

Drought catastrophe stalks Australia’s food bowl
MOULAMEIN, Australia (Reuters) – A thin winter green carpets Australia’s southeast hills and plains, camouflaging the onset of a drought catastrophe in the nation’s food bowl.

Noriega ordered to face charges in France
A U.S. magistrate judge issued a court order Tuesday to extradite former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to France instead of Panama. France sought Noriega on money-laundering charges related to his drug-racketeering conviction in Miami. Noreiga is due to be released next month from federal prison in Miami.

Chilean ex-general imprisoned for ordering ’87 massacre
SANTIAGO, Chile — A former Army general who headed Chile’s secret police in the late 1980s was sent to prison for life Tuesday for ordering the executions of 12 leftist guerrillas during the waning years of the Pinochet military dictatorship.

Sarkozy calls for troop exit from Iraq
PARIS (AFP) – President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday said Iraq’s road to recovery begins with a clear timetable for the pullout of foreign troops as he outlined an assertive role for France in world hotspots.

Sudan rejects Darfur fighting accusations
KHARTOUM (AFP) – Sudan has rejected allegations that it is still involved in fighting in Darfur after it was accused of violating a UN arms embargo in the war-ravaged western region.

U.N. conflict prevention efforts faulted
UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations spent $18 billion on peacekeeping missions around the globe in the past five years — mainly in Africa — but not enough on preventing conflicts from erupting in the first place.

8-nation poll says limit troops abroad
WASHINGTON – People in the U.S., Britain and six other countries showed little taste for stepping up the role their nations’ troops play in overseas crises, but seemed more open to other types of involvement abroad, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

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Anger, sadness mark Katrina anniversary
NEW ORLEANS – On the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, anger over the stalled rebuilding was palpable throughout a city where the mourning for the dead and feeling of loss for flooded homes, schools, snowball stands, old-time hairstylists and hardware stores doesn’t seem to subside.

Study: Withdrawal possible over a year
WASHINGTON – Most U.S. troops can be withdrawn safely from Iraq in roughly one year and the Bush administration should begin planning the pullout immediately, according to a study released Wednesday.

Bush to request $50 billion more for Iraq war: report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush is preparing to ask Congress for as much as $50 billion in additional funding for the war in Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a White House official.

Baird ‘verbally flogged’ over pro-escalation stance.
For three hours during a townhall meeting last night, Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) “was verbally flogged by hundreds of his constituents for no longer supporting the quick withdrawal of troops from Iraq.” “There is only one way to end an illegal and immoral war, and that’s to end it,” said Zamme Joi. “You have screwed up, my friend. You have screwed up and you have to change course,” another constituent said. “We don’t care what your convictions are,” said Jan Lustig of Vancouver, “you are here to represent us.”
This is one of the ways we can make a difference, friends.  Click through to watch the video.

Petraeus ‘Softened’ Intelligence Community’s Judgments About State Of Iraq Violence
The Washington Post reports that Gen. David Petraeus, after reviewing an early draft of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, succeeded in altering the document’s judgments about the violence in Iraq: “… Presented with a draft of the conclusions, Petraeus succeeded in having the security judgments softened to reflect improvements in recent months, the official said.”

Iraq Weapons Are a Focus of Criminal Investigations
BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 — Several federal agencies are investigating a widening network of criminal cases involving the purchase and delivery of billions of dollars of weapons, supplies and other matériel to Iraqi and American forces, according to American officials… One of the investigations involves a senior American officer who worked closely with Gen. David H. Petraeus in setting up the logistics operation to supply the Iraqi forces when General Petraeus was in charge of training and equipping those forces in 2004 and 2005, American officials said Monday. [Emphasis added.]

CREW Files Ethics Complaint against Craig
The D.C. watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a complaint … with the Senate ethics committee against Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) for his lewd conduct / restroom-signaling conviction. The Senate ethics manual warns against “improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate,” and CREW argues in their complaint that Sen. Craig clearly crossed the line.

Craig: Bill Clinton “Bad”, “Naughty” and “Nasty Boy”
Back in the Impeachment days in 1999, Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) wouldn’t stand for a censure of President Clinton. The People of Idaho, Craig told Meet the Press, would only settle for impeachment of such a “nasty boy.”
Click through to watch the video.

Craig and GOP await voters’ judgment
BOISE, Idaho – Sen. Larry Craig has apologized to Idaho and now waits — along with officials of both political parties — to see if voters are in any mood to forgive and forget the scandal tied to his arrest in a men’s bathroom.

Ailing S.D. senator vows to run again
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – In his first public appearance since a life-threatening brain hemorrhage eight months ago, Sen. Tim Johnson told supporters his will to keep fighting for them “has never been stronger.”

Pentagon official is under investigation
Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Paul A. Brinkley, who heads an economic task force in Baghdad, is accused of mismanaging government money and engaging in public drunkenness and sexual harassment, a Defense Department spokesman said last week.

Spitzer threatens to sue federal govt over SCHIP.
Today in the New York Daily News, Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) sharply criticizes the Bush administration’s cuts, which block the state’s plan to expand coverage “to children whose parents earn up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, from 250 percent currently.”

U.S. most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people
The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said… About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.

Fed minutes send Dow, Nasdaq freefalling
NEW YORK – Volatility returned to Wall Street Tuesday, sending stocks plunging as investors grew more uneasy about the economy and whether the Federal Reserve will take the steps needed to prevent credit market problems from spreading further. The Dow Jones industrials fell 280 points.

Widening subprime fallout scares Asian investors
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian financial markets were roiled on Wednesday by the widening damage caused by the U.S. subprime mortgage sector meltdown, with investors fearing more negative surprises will emerge in the region.

Oil prices slip as global equities slide
NEW YORK (AFP) – Oil prices slid on Tuesday as falling world stock markets revived fears that slower economic growth could dampen demand for crude, traders said.

New Data on Income and Poverty
The employment to population ratio (EPOP) for people over age 65 rose from 23.1 percent in 2000 to 28.1 percent in 2006. This huge rise (more than 20 percent) in EPOPs is a good thing insofar as it is attributable to improved health and employment opportunities for people who want to keep working. It is not so good if it is due to the fact that more older people are finding that they cannot make ends meet without a job.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

How Did News Outlets Miss Senator’s Arrest for Nearly Three Months?
Even Roll Call reporter John McArdle, who broke the story late Monday, admits he only received word of the arrest and subsequent guilty plea via a tip last week. “You would think in the 24-hour news cycle, something like this would slip through,” said McArdle, a four-year veteran of the Capitol Hill daily.

CBS station recreates events before Sen. Craig’s arrest
Just in case viewers didn’t understand the accusations against Sen. Larry Craig, the CBS station in Sacramento has recreated the lewd behavior that is described in a police report filed by an undercover detective at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Thanks to Talking Points Memo, which has a link to the video.

Craig: It’s the Idaho paper’s fault that I pleaded guilty.
Repeatedly claiming, “I am not gay,” Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) blamed the media for his guilty plea of disorderly conduct. I have been “relentlessly and viciously harassed by the Idaho Statesman,” Craig complained. “The Statesman has engaged in this witchhunt. In pleading guilty, I overreacted in Minneapolis because of the stress the Idaho Statesman investigation and the rumors it has fueled all around Idaho.”
Click through to watch the video.

NY Times, networks ignored Sen. Craig’s record on gay and lesbian issues
In reporting on Sen. Larry Craig’s guilty plea on disorderly conduct charges, the nightly network news broadcasts and The New York Times all ignored his positions on legislation concerning gay and lesbian rights.

Hannity Ignores Stories On Gonzales’ Resignation, Sen. Craig’s Arrest
The resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the arrest of Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) dominated yesterday’s news cycle. All three network evening news shows — ABC, CBS, and NBC — covered the stories. Both The New York Times and Washington Post put the Gonzales resignation on the front page, and covered the Craig story. Yet both reports were largely ignored yesterday by Sean Hannity.

Beck: ‘Nobody cares’ about Gonzales resignation.
Yesterday on his CNN Headline News show, Glenn Beck mentioned the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, stating that he was “surprised” the “media jumped all over this story”.
Click through to watch the video.

Money changes everything (by Eric Boehlert)
Was I the only one amazed that the Republican presidential candidates who initially refused to appear at the CNN-sponsored YouTube debate first scheduled for next month actually stated as a reason for ducking the debate that they would rather be attending fundraisers that day instead of appearing at an interactive public event where questions would be posed exclusively by voters?… That … suggested to me that Republicans were (and are) keenly aware that the press will give them a completely free and unfettered ride whenever the issue of money comes up.

Gannon: I’m ‘the most honest’ White House reporter.
Jeff Gannon, the infamous former male escort who for two years gained a White House press pass using a pseudonym, is releasing a book next week, in which he chronicles what he sees as liberal bias in the White House press corps. “In my mind, I was the most honest reporter [in the White House press corps] because I was absolutely transparent with regards to my [conservative] perspective,” Gannon told the Washington Examiner. “My work has never been discredited.”

GMA casts Gonzales scandals as partisan: “For Democrats, it’s another scalp to hang on the wall”
On Good Morning America, correspondent David Wright asserted that “[w]ere it not for the scandals, Bush had hoped to make” outgoing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales “the first Hispanic justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.” Wright also reported that Gonzales’ resignation “is being welcomed on both sides of the aisle” because “[f]or Democrats, it’s another scalp to hang on the wall; and for Republicans, it’s a huge distraction that now goes away.” In fact, several Republicans have joined Democrats in calling for Gonzales to resign.

Climate Change: Get Over Objectivity, Newspapers
The industry still has a lot of power to influence people. How about if newspapers abandon their old way of doing things when it comes to the issue of global warming, and turn their influence to good?

“Mother Jones right now is as good as I’ve ever seen it”
Jon Carroll didn’t think Mother Jones could be an effective magazine with two editors. “Oh boy, was I wrong,” he writes. “I’m not sure what they’re doing right, but they should keep at it.” In the past, too many issues of the magazine bathed in High Seriousness, while “the current version of Mother Jones is almost rollicking.”

Newspaper Stocks Take Drubbing In Market Sell-Off Tuesday
CHICAGO As the Dow sank 280 points Tuesday, newspaper stocks had their own problems, falling across the board on continued worries about ad revenue. Newspaper sector stocks that had been drifting downward for weeks were not helped by a Goldman Sachs investor note on the nearly uniformly poor July ad results.

CBS, Washington Post in Online News Deal
NEW YORK (AP) – CBS News and The Washington Post have forged an alliance to share news resources for their online outlets – CBSNews.com and WashingtonPost.com – during the 2008 presidential campaign.

How ‘vs.’ thinking drags everyone down
The people who say “That’s not news” are the editorial “vs.” thinkers who stop websites from gathering the great voices from the blogs in their communities. They refuse to let their own reporters blog. They hear the very word “blog” for that matter and think “That’s not news.” They believe it is “journalism vs. the mob.” And in no other business that I know of could you get away with holding your customers in such contempt. OK, maybe the airlines.

Chinese Pollution in Words, Pictures and More
The New York Times makes new strides with multimedia storytelling

Google Could be Sued for Anti-Semitic Clips on YouTube
YouTube is facing some pretty upset people in Germany for racist clips found on the site, promoting anti-Semitic behavior. With clips showing a 1940 anti-Semitic propaganda film “Jud Suess” and a couple of music videos showing WWII Nazi military operations from far-right rock band Landser (which has been outlawed in Germany), activists and individuals are soliciting Google to have the clips removed.

Amazon Sued by Humane Society for Cockfighting Magazines
Amazon is being sued by the Humane Society, which has filed a civil lawsuit in Washington D.C., stating that the online store has violated animal cruelty laws… While cockfighting itself is illegal, the sale of these items and other paraphernalia has not been made illegal across the nation. The point of debate remains whether or not Amazon should be found responsible for advertisers’ content in these particular magazines.

Google Signs Exclusive AdSense Deal with CNN
CNN is the latest to sign an exclusive contract with Google for its AdSense program. The deal means that businesses will now be able to target ads for the CNN crowd, and CNN gets to earn revenue from ads.

Subprime fallout could hit internet firms: report
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Internet companies are bracing for a possible decline in one of their biggest sources of advertising following the turmoil in the subprime mortgage market, the Financial Times reported.

Can GPS End Gridlock In The Air?
Satellite-based GPS systems are seeminly everywhere these days – except in the nation’s air traffic control towers, which still use radar, reports CBS News Correspondent Nancy Cordes. Can a technology overhaul end gridlock in the air?

Chicago scraps plans for Wi-Fi network
CHICAGO – An ambitious plan to blanket the city with wireless broadband Internet will be shelved because it is too costly and too few residents would use it, Chicago officials said Tuesday.

China sending virtual police on cyber-patrols
BEIJING (AFP) – Virtual police officers will soon begin visible patrols on Chinese Internet sites to warn surfers they are being monitored, Beijing authorities said in comments published Wednesday.

Drinking Often Spurs Move to Poorer Neighborhoods
Alcoholism a common trigger for downward social mobility, study confirms

Hypnosis Eases Pain of Breast Cancer Surgery
Other benefits: Less anesthesia, faster recovery, less cost, study finds.

Treating Diabetes During Pregnancy Could Lead to Thinner Kids
Increased chances of being overweight, obese by age 7 were virtually erased, study finds

Intriguing Science Behind the ‘Fat Virus’
Scientists have known for years that certain viruses can make lab animals fat. As with hormonal changes that can lead to weight gain, these viruses change the way the body processes food. Could it be that at least a small percentage of overweight people who eat reasonable diets are infected with some metabolism-changing virus?

Fire With Fire: Virus Could Combat Deadly Human Bacteria
Viruses that are harmless to humans could help kill fatal drug-resistant bacteria lurking in hospitals, research now reveals.

Gay Civil Unions Sanctioned in Medieval Europe
Civil unions between male couples existed around 600 years ago in medieval Europe, a historian now says… If accurate, the results indicate socially sanctioned same-sex unions are nothing new, nor were they taboo in the past.

Pathologist: Doctor killed Beethoven
VIENNA, Austria – Did someone kill Beethoven? A Viennese pathologist claims the composer’s physician did — inadvertently overdosing him with lead in a case of a cure that went wrong.

Oldest Living Thing Found in Ice
The oldest living thing has been discovered in the form of 600,000-year-old bacteria extracted from ice cores, scientists claim. The finding gives hope that if Mars or other frigid worlds ever supported life similar to these ancient bacteria, they might be alive still.

Lunar Eclipse Dazzles Skywatchers
Those who gazed into the darkened skies early Tuesday morning caught a breathtaking view of a blood-red lunar eclipse.
Click through to see some awesome images.

Supernovas hold secrets of the universe
Burning more brilliantly than a billion suns, the energy-packed star deaths known as supernovas have lately enabled scientists to discover fundamental properties of the universe.

U.S. study blames hot 2006 on humans
Warming caused by human activity was the biggest factor in the high temperatures recorded in 2006, according to a report by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Houston group, Sierra Club plan presidential forum
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Houston’s oil-based business community has teamed up with the oldest environmental organization to produce a November forum for leading presidential candidates to discuss U.S. energy policy.

Trying to Connect the Dinner Plate to Climate Change
Big animal rights groups do not share the same mission, but they have coalesced around a message that eating meat is worse for the environment than driving.

New roof technology could save you money
From an energy efficiency perspective, roof technology has not progressed substantially in hundreds of years, but that is changing with the use of active thermal mass components, reflective pigments and coatings, subventing, radiant barriers and other novel techniques being tested by a team led by Bill Miller and Jan Kosny of ORNL’s Building Envelopes group.

Hot and cold from underground
Aug. 28 – Holland is a world leader in using underground water sources to heat and cool buildings, drastically cutting energy bills. 

A Better, Cheaper Way To Make Biofuels: Algae
GILBERT, Ariz. – An Arizona company says they’ve developed a better, cheaper way to make biofuels, and more of it, from algae. Diversified Energy Corporation has developed a “breakthrough algae production system”. The system is called “Simgae”, for ‘simple algae’. It utilizes common agriculture and irrigation components to produce algae at a fraction of the cost of competing systems.

Biofuels Must Be Made Sustainably, Says European Commission
European Commission is developing legislation that will require minimum sustainability standards for biofuels development. “It is, of course, essential to ensure that this increase is fulfilled in a sustainable way; we cannot just sit back and assume this will happen automatically,” Piebalgs said.

Green Supply Chains a Growing Goal, Execs Say
OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 29, 2007 — In recognition of the fact that as much as 75 percent of a company’s carbon footprint can come from transportation and logistics, 94 percent of supply chain executives in a recent survey said they’re working on greening their practices.

Low oxygen in coastal waters impairs fish reproduction
Incidents of seasonal low levels of oxygen, known as hypoxia, have increased dramatically in coastal waters throughout the world over the past few decades, largely as a result of increased run-off from human agricultural and industrial activities. Hypoxia’s long-term impact on marine animal populations is unknown.

Capitol Hill Blue

Gonzales’ replacement – there won’t be any nominee.
August 27, 2007 – 4:59pm.

By ROB KEZELIS

… What Bush and Rove managed to do is to “set up” congress yet again. Not only will there never be a confirmation hearing for a new DOJ head, there won’t even be a nominee. Why would Bush need one? His dream candidate is already in place.

Let’s look at [Solicitor General, soon to be Acting Attorney General, Paul] Clement’s dirty laundry: He clerked for two of the biggest neocon judges, Laurence H. Silberman (DC Circ) and Justice Antonin Scalia. He worked for Kirkland and Ellis, the GOP dream firm. In fact, he was hired to work for Ken Starr. He worked for then Senator John Ashcroft, before he was hired to write the supreme court briefs in support of the GOP in Bush v. Gore.

No matter how you slice it, Clement is a clone of the worst aspects of both Ashcroft and Gonzales, except that by all accounts, he is also brilliant and extremely ideological….

Why would Bush risk energizing the left and the center with a worse nominee? Why would Bush remove a dream candidate who will pursue White House political and legal strategies for the next 18 months without the slightest hint of remorse? Why spend the time and energy vetting, questioning and searching, when from Bush’s point of view Clement is the perfect man for the job. Committed, loyal, political, smart, neoconservative, and ideologically tested and found to be true…

US Attorney General Gonzales resigns
WASHINGTON – Alberto Gonzales, the nation’s first Hispanic attorney general, announced his resignation Monday, driven from office after a wrenching standoff with congressional critics over his honesty and competence.

The Heretik

Middle East turmoil could cause world war: U.S. envoy
VIENNA (Reuters) – Upheaval in the Middle East and Islamic civilization could cause another world war, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was quoted as saying in an Austrian newspaper interview published on Monday… “The (Middle East) is going through a very difficult transformation phase. That has strengthened extremism and creates a breeding ground for terrorism,” [Zalmay Khalilzad] said.
You bet it could.  That’s exactly why George Bush should never have stirred up that hornet’s nest in the summer of 2001.

U.S., Iraqi Forces Kill 33 Insurgents
BAGHDAD (AP) – Hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi forces backed by helicopters and jet fighters attacked and killed 33 Sunni insurgents who were holding back the water supply to the Shiite town of Khalis, the American command said in a statement Tuesday.

Iraqi holy city calm after pilgrim clashes
KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) – Pilgrims gathered peacefully in Iraq’s holy city of Kerbala on Tuesday to mark one of the holiest days of the Shi’ite calendar after clashes between pilgrims and police overnight killed at least six people.

Back to Square One
Digby reminds us: “Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.”
So of course he’s the guy who should replace al Maliki.

Iraq Weapons Are a Focus of Criminal Investigations
An investigation into the purchasing and delivery of billions of dollars of weapons has already led to several indictments of Americans, with more expected.

Iran resolves plutonium issues under atom pact: IAEA
VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has resolved U.N. questions about tests with plutonium, a key fuel for atomic bombs, and the International Atomic Energy Agency considers the matter closed, according to the text of an IAEA-Iran accord released on Monday.

Afghan fights kill 8 coalition soldiers, 29 militants
Fighting between NATO troops and Taliban fighters killed eight soldiers including six Westerners in eastern and southern Afghanistan, where insurgent attacks are running at their highest level since the U.S. invasion, officials said Monday.

Faster, deadlier pilotless plane bound for Afghanistan
The Air Force this fall will deploy a new generation of pilotless airplane with the bombing power of an F-16 to help stop the stubborn Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Second Record Level for Afghan Opium Crop
Opium cultivation in Afghanistan grew by 17 percent in 2007, reaching record levels for the second straight year, according to a United Nations report released Monday.

India May Enforce Duty To Aging Parents
As a rapidly urbanizing India sees its social landscape shift away from traditional family bonds, the government has introduced a bill that would make it a legal obligation for children, heirs, or relatives to provide financial assistance to seniors.

Venezuelan funding to Latin America
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government has pledged more than $8.8 billion in aid, financing and energy funding in Latin America and the Caribbean so far in 2007. Bandes is a Venezuelan state development bank. Below is a list of pledges sorted by type.

Vatican airline takes to the skies
ROME (Reuters) – While some passengers only turn to prayer when jolted by turbulence, the Vatican made it standard on Monday by launching the world’s first airline for Catholic pilgrims.
God is their copilot.

Foreign Firefighters Join Greece Battle
ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Foreign firefighters and aircraft joined the battle Tuesday against blazes in southern Greece, and officials expressed optimism that wildfires burning some of the country’s lushest landscape could be brought under partial control.

Bush touts Iraqi agreement
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – President Bush on Monday said an agreement among leading Iraqi politicians is a promising sign of political progress, but that the pact on some issues that have blocked national reconciliation is not enough.

Flashback: Chertoff’s Incompetence At DHS Prompted Repeated Calls For Resignation
The media are reporting that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is the frontrunner to replace [former Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales. Yet it’s not clear that Chertoff will be any more independent or competent… [I]n the past, Chertoff’s incompetence as DHS head has prompted bipartisan calls for his resignation.
If you think Bush cares what anybody thinks about Chertoff, get ready for Operation Ram It Through.  See below.

Recess Appointment
Judged by the standards of our history, a recess appointment to replace Alberto Gonzales sounds like an incredible proposition. But don’t be so sure. Just as we saw with the ‘pardon scooter’ movement, the word seems already to have gone out to the folks on the right to start preparing the ground for just such a move by the president. I’ve already heard a few just this morning saying it would be the right thing for the president to do. Watch for it.

Outsourcing intelligence
Given the often shocking record of what US intelligence officials have done over the years, why does it matter if such activities are carried out by contractors? The answer patently goes to the question of accountability. Public servants who are bound by oaths to the Constitution and the law understand what the measure of behavior must be, even if they fall short of it… Private parties, bound by contract, operate at remove from such limit and accountability, which may be why borderline activities like interrogation or rendition are increasingly farmed out to them.

Comparing Congresses
An op-ed in the New York Times by Brookings Scholar Thomas Mann compares the legislative workings of the current 110th Congress with the Republican Revolution from 1994 — he finds that the current Democratic-controlled body has gotten a lot more done. This congress has conducted far more oversight than did its 94 counterpart, and has passed more legislation as well. Perhaps most importantly, the 110th Congress has had almost twice as many bills signed into law by the President than did the 94 Congress.

Gonzales departure won’t end probes
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ resignation Monday after months of draining controversy drew expressions of relief from Republicans and a vow from Democrats to pursue their investigation into fired federal prosecutors.
Good, now stick to your guns, Democrats!

Congressmen promise action on China safety scares
BEIJING (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress will act soon to address the issue of Chinese food and product safety, something Beijing should not take as a trumped-up political act, two U.S. lawmakers said on Tuesday.

Break-In Is Reported At Dodd’s Hartford Office
Hartford police are investigating a burglary reported Saturday night at the office of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn… Police would not say what, if anything, was taken. The burglars left something behind, police said.

Sen. Larry Craig Caught With His Pants Down
The Nation — Republican Idaho Senator Larry Craig is the latest Conflicted Conservative in Crisis to be caught with his pants down. According to Roll Call, Craig was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom. He has pleaded guilty to the charge.
He pleaded guilty, but it’s all a misunderstanding.

As states play ‘Me First,’ primaries fall into chaos
As Florida and other states move their primary and caucuses to get the attention lavished on New Hampshire and Iowa, a train wreck of an election calendar has been created as well as a high-stakes political showdown.

Stocks end lower on drop in home sales
NEW YORK – Wall Street pulled back Monday, losing momentum from last week’s gains after news that sales of existing homes slipped in July for a fifth straight month stirred concerns about the strength of the economy.

Business and the Future of New Orleans
Entrepreneurs are finding fertile ground for new ventures they think will help bring the devastated city back to life

In Washington, Aid to Homeowners Debated
Administration officials are reluctant to bail out people who bought homes they could not afford or simply gambled that easy credit and rising real estate prices would lead to quick profits. Democrats, though opposed to a broad bailout, are proposing an array of measures to help lower-income people renegotiate their loans and stay in their homes.

Feds urged to help pay for terrorism claims
WASHINGTON — The U.S. insurance industry, responding to what it says is a growing risk of chemical and biological terrorism, is pressing Congress to dramatically increase its backing of terrorism insurance policies. Industry analysts cite the increased use of chlorine-enhanced bombs and fuel-air explosives in Iraq, which the analysts view as a test laboratory for terrorism.
Insurance companies don’t want to insure.  They want to rake in premiums and never pay out.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

The V-Word Heats Up the Iraq Debate: August 19 – 24, 2007
Two different destructive storms struck the continent and even in the dog days of summer, the presidential race continued to attract significant media interest. But several factors—an intelligence report, a senatorial statement, and a presidential analogy—all combined to re-ignite the debate over U.S. policy in Iraq.

Threats To Journalism Are Also Threats To Society
At least 81 journalists were killed in 2006 in 21 countries, and at least 56 journalists were kidnapped…”I was one of them.”

Sen. Tim Johnson to discuss recovery with Bob Woodruff on ABC’s Nightline
South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson is giving his first TV interview since he nearly died of a brain hemorrhage in December. His interviewer will be Bob Woodruff, who is, as ABC News points out,  recovering from a traumatic brain injury himself.

Russia Says Politkovskaya Murder Ordered From Abroad
Russian prosecutors said they detained 10 suspects in the murder of reporter Anna Politkovskaya, but that the killing was masterminded from abroad by anti-Kremlin forces trying to discredit Russia.

Anna’s Killers? (by Larisa Alexandrovna)
Now this is an interesting development regarding Anna Politkovskaya’s murder: “The group suspected of killing the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was led by an ethnic Chechen organised crime boss, Russian authorities said today.”… [T]he way I read this is that on the orders of the FSB (which does not act alone, take that as you will), their proxy agents in Chechen organized crime were given a contract to take out Anna P and also Paul Klebnikov.  That is called a state sponsored assassination.

There may need to be a PBS ombudsman just for Moyers
Michael Getler says he’d rather not spend so many of his columns on one person, but Bill Moyers (left) keeps on providing material that viewers react to and that the PBS ombudsman hears about. The latest flap: Moyers’ editorial on Karl Rove. “Although there are undoubtedly large numbers of viewers who applaud Moyers’ perspective, all the letters that came to me were uniformly critical (with one exception),” writes Getler.
Sounds like the right wingers are campaigning against Moyers.  We’d better start a counter-campaign, or we’ll lose him.

A Tale of Two Anchorwomen
Christiane Amanpour, the erudite, cosmopolitan correspondent who used to signify CNN — but who somehow didn’t get a show when Nancy Grace and Glenn Beck did on cable cousin Headline News — ran a well-considered, compelling three-part documentary, “God’s Warriors,” that returned CNN to its reporting and ratings legacy. The first two nights upended the cable news race, beating the usually unbeatable Fox News Channel and the halting MSNBC’s momentum by delivering a .33 and .42 in the demo. True, that’s less than half the rating of “Anchorwoman.” But after this week, at least it’s a start.

A tale of two headlines: AP, “Iran agrees to reveal nuclear info”; Reuters, “Iran resolves plutonium issues under atom pact: IAEA”.

What do the “surge” and the “Anbar Awakening” have in common
Not much

‘Hearts and minds’ campaign insults Afghans.
On Friday, the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan distributed footballs as part of its “hearts and minds” campaign to win over “support from the local population.” But the footballs instead “kicked off a storm of protest” because they were illustrated with the flags of several nations, including bearing “Koranic verses as part of the flag of Saudi Arabia.” Protestors said it was “insulting for texts from the Koran to be put on the ground and kicked.”
Would that be one of Karen Hughes’ campaigns?

Civility
After playing a concert clip of guitarist Ted Nugent profanely urging Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to respectively “suck on” and “ride” his fake machine guns, Fox’s Sean Hannity tellingly describes the video as “friend and frequent guest on the program Ted Nugent expressing his feelings.” When a Democratic guest recalls the outrage of right-wingers like Hannity when the Dixie Chicks’ “said something about George Bush which was mild compared to this,” and asks if Hannity is “prepared to disavow this,” the host flat out refuses, saying “No, I like Ted Nugent, he’s a friend of mine.”

Facing a draft, Nugent bravely wet his pants
That Nugent, he’s a man’s man. He talks the talk and walks the walk, right? Except when it was time to register for the draft during the Vietnam era. By his own admission, Nugent stopped all forms of personal hygiene for a month and showed up for his draft board physical in pants caked with his own urine and feces, winning a deferment.

WSJ Notes Fall in Temporary Employment
The Wall Street Journal noted the weakness in the temporary employment sector in recent months. It is down by 2 percent since the start of the year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics establishment survey… Employment in the temp sector has come to be seen as a harbinger of the future direction of the labor market, since employers will often add temps before they hire full-time employees and also will be more quick to layoff temporary workers than regular employees.

Olbermann’s NBC Ratings
We’ve received the Nielsen fast-national ratings (not the actual national ratings) and have a sense of how last night’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann did in its premiere on NBC. The upshot: in total viewers it beat “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” on Fox. But finished behind “60 Minutes” and “America’s Funniest Videos.” 4,146,000 total viewers watched.
There was much more celebrity “news” than Olbermann usually has, and Mo Rocca was on for much too long.  Mo is cute, but he just isn’t funny.

Vint Cerf, aka the godfather of the net, predicts the end of TV as we know it
Thirty years ago he helped create a technology that has revolutionised millions of lives around the world. But yesterday the man known as the “godfather of the net” laid out his vision of where our online future might be, including a time when we download entire TV series in seconds – and even surf the web from Mars.

Newspapers should take a cue from CNN.com’s packaging
Craig Stoltz credits CNN’s web editors for figuring out that readers want a succinct summary on top of the story, above the fold, that needs no clicking or scrolling to read. “If newspapers took a cue from CNN’s packaging, and topped their full reports with easily skimmable summaries, they’d have the best of both worlds: Important, original news that carries out the vital functions of the Fourth Estate — and reaches the maximum audience.”

Hippy Bloggers of the World Unite
So apparently October 15th is Blog Action Day, a day when bloggers will unite to blog about the environment… Thank goodness the top politicians who have the power to divert resources to this stuff are experts on blogs and the Internet; otherwise this one would be a complete waste of time. It’s also great to see bloggers taking real action, instead of just sitting around blogging all day.

The Promise of Low Power FM
The new knowledge that “expanding low-power radio, even in denser markets, would not disrupt existing stations” begat the Local Community Radio Act of 2007; “nonetheless, the National Association of Broadcasters recently reprised its warnings of ‘inevitable interference,’ while opposing the bill.”

New Shop Promises Results Clients Can Gauge
A new agency, called Engauge, intends to provide marketers with tangible results from campaigns and plans to grow by acquiring other agencies.

Taiwan’s Acer to acquire Gateway
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Acer Inc. plans to acquire U.S. computer maker Gateway Inc. for $710 million in a deal that will push the Taiwanese company past China’s Lenovo Group as the world’s third largest vendor of personal computers.

Back to School Means Backpack Safety
Help protect kids from stress and strain, experts say
And if you’re REALLY paranoid, you can get bulletproof backpacks for your kids.

Through Analysis, Gut Reaction Gains Credibility
German social psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer, regarding his new book Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious”: My research indicates that gut feelings are based on simple rules of thumb, what we psychologists term “heuristics.” These take advantage of certain capacities of the brain that have come down to us through time, experience and evolution. Gut instincts often rely on simple cues in the environment. In most situations, when people use their instincts, they are heeding these cues and ignoring other unnecessary information.
Yes, but our gut feelings can also lead us astray.  Therefore, they have to be checked out against reality, and that’s where George Bush goes wrong.  He only accepts evidence that bolsters what he’s already decided.  We’ve seen how well that’s worked out.

A World of Eloquence in an Upturned Palm
An anthropologist looks into the roots of the open-hand shrug gesture and finds they run deep.

Stereotypes turn girls off to math, science
The days of sexist science teachers and Barbies chirping that “math class is tough!” are over, according to pop culture, but a government program aimed at bringing more women and girls into science, technology, engineering and math fields suggests otherwise.

New study finds married men do less housework than live-in boyfriends
[T]he key finding of the study is that it suggests the institution of marriage changes the division of labor. Couples with an egalitarian view on gender—seeing men and women as equal—are more likely to divide the household chores equally. However, in married relationships, even if an egalitarian viewpoint is present, men still report doing less housework than their wives.

Obesity Rate in U.S. Still Climbing
New findings show no state posted a decline in adult rates last year.

Patterns: Examining Dementia and Weight Loss
Some studies suggest that obesity in middle age may be a risk factor for dementia and others show that weight loss precedes dementia’s onset.

New vaccines bring hope to polio fight
GENEVA (Reuters) – New vaccines have sharply reduced the number of children paralyzed by polio and raised hopes that a $5 billion campaign to wipe it out may be close to success, a top public health official said in an interview. 

Trapped Chinese miners survive on coal, urine diet
BEIJING (Reuters) – Two Chinese brothers who tunneled their way out of a coal mine collapse after being trapped for nearly six days survived by eating coal and drinking urine, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.

A Daddy Longlegs Tells the Story of the Continents’ Big Shifts
These sesame seed-sized creatures carry a record of hundreds of millions of years of geological history.

Sunken city echoes ‘Atlantis’
Aug. 24 – A Japanese researcher claims there are ruins of an ancient civilization under the Pacific Ocean. 

Do sunspots foretell heavy rains and disease?
Periodic peaks in the number of visible sunspots may help predict heavy rains and subsequent disease outbreaks in East Africa, according to a controversial new study.

Saturn’s mysteries keep scientists guessing
Humanity has known of Saturn since prehistory, but enigmas about this ringed world still abound from a baffling hexagon of clouds to perennial puzzles concerning its famous rings.

Einstein’s Warping Found Around Neutron Stars
Einstein’s predicted warping of space-time has been discovered around neutron stars, the most dense observable matter in the universe. The warping shows up as smeared lines of iron gas whipping around the stars, University of Michigan and NASA astronomers say.

Energy efficiency seen easy way to aid climate: U.N.
VIENNA (Reuters) – Energy efficiency for power plants, buildings and cars is the easiest way to slow global warming in an investment shift set to cost hundreds of billions of dollars, the United Nations said on Tuesday. 

Forecast for solar power: Sunny
Solar power has long been the Mercedes-Benz of the renewable energy industry: sleek, quiet, low-maintenance.

Engineers Perfecting Hydrogen-Generating Technology
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Researchers at Purdue University have further developed a technology that could represent a pollution-free energy source for a range of potential applications, from golf carts to submarines and cars to emergency portable generators.

Cyclone Power Technologies Tests Fuel Made From Oranges
Cyclone Power Technologies announced today that it has burned a bio-fuel derived from orange peels in the high-performance fuel injector of its Green Revolution Engine.

Norway Unveils “First Ecological Prison”
BASTOEY, Norway – Norway put on show on Monday what it calls “the world’s first ecological prison,” where inmates play important roles in daily operations and learn to do their bit to protect the environment. The Bastoey Island low security prison uses solar panels for energy, produces most of its own food, recycles everything it can and tries to reduce its carbon footprint.

As Brazil Defends Its Bounty, Rules Ensnare Scientists
A world-renowned primatologist’s research of monkeys in the Amazon has led to a prison sentence of nearly 16 years in Brazil.

First death of a U.S. wind farm worker recorded
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A man died over the weekend at a wind farm under construction in Oregon in what is believed to be the first death of a wind power worker in the United States, law enforcement and industry officials said on Monday.

The Great Iraq Swindle
Operation Iraqi Freedom, it turns out, was never a war against Saddam ­Hussein’s Iraq. It was an invasion of the federal budget, and no occupying force in history has ever been this efficient… In Iraq the lines between essential government services and for-profit enterprises have been blurred to the point of absurdity — to the point where wounded soldiers have to pay retail prices for fresh underwear, where modern-day chattel are imported from the Third World at slave wages to peel the potatoes we once assigned to grunts in KP, where private companies are guaranteed huge profits no matter how badly they fuck things up.
Not to mention how much danger they create for our troops.  See below.

Iraqi insurgents taking cut of U.S. rebuilding money
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s deadly insurgent groups have financed their war against U.S. troops in part with hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. rebuilding funds that they’ve extorted from Iraqi contractors in Anbar province.

Dubya’s World

For second time, Maliki responses to criticism
BAGHDAD – For the second time in a week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki on Sunday expressed agitation with U.S. politicians who say they are frustrated with his government’s lack of political progress, this time targeting two prominent U.S. senators. Maliki’s comments came as a Kurdish militia spokesman said U.S. helicopters and fighter jets had mistakenly bombed two police stations near Qara Taba, a village 80 miles north of Baghdad in Diyala province. Four policemen were killed and eight others injured.

Iraq Body Count Running at Double Pace
BAGHDAD (AP) — This year’s U.S. troop buildup has succeeded in bringing violence in Baghdad down from peak levels, but the death toll from sectarian attacks around the country is running nearly double the pace from a year ago.

More Iraqis Said to Flee Since Troop Increase
BAGHDAD, Aug. 23 — The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes has soared since the American troop increase began in February, according to data from two humanitarian groups, accelerating the partition of the country into sectarian enclaves.

Egyptian man, stranded in Gaza, swims home
ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) – A young Egyptian man swam along the Mediterranean coast from the Gaza Strip to Egypt overnight after almost two years of living without papers in the Palestinian enclave, police sources said on Sunday.

Iran: Nuclear activities have not halted
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said Sunday its nuclear activities have not halted or slowed down, rejecting reports that it has not significantly expanded its uranium enrichment program this summer as planned.

Pak test fires nuclear capable missile
Pakistan on Saturday ”successfully” test fired a new air-launched cruise missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead upto 350 kilometres, the military said… It said that the missile has a low detection probability due to stealth design and materials used in its manufacturing.

Afghan forces strike Taliban inside Pakistan
KABUL (AFP) – US-led and Afghan troops struck Taliban positions inside Pakistan in fresh clashes with the extremist Islamic militia that left at least 19 rebels dead, security forces said Sunday.

NATO: Taliban making false accusations
KABUL, Afghanistan – The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan accused Taliban militants Monday of falsely reporting civilian casualties to discredit Afghan and international forces. Six insurgents and two foreign soldiers, meanwhile, were killed in fresh fighting.

India blames ‘terrorists’ as blasts kill 42
HYDERABAD, India (AFP) – Indian security forces launched a manhunt Sunday for those behind twin bombings in the southern city of Hyderabad that killed 42 people, with officials pinning the blame on Islamic militants.

Bush pleads for more patience for Iraq war efforts
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) – President George W. Bush, faced with growing calls to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, pleaded with Americans on Saturday for patience and cited progress in the past two months.

National Guard troops cheer call for Iraq withdrawal.
Speaking to the National Guard Association general conference yesterday, Puerto Rico’s governor said that the Bush administration has “no new strategy and no signs of success” and called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. His comments earned him a standing ovation from the more than 4,000 current and former Air and Army National Guard officers.

Warner May Back Dems’ Bill on Withdrawal
WASHINGTON (AP) – GOP Sen. John Warner, who wants U.S. troops to start coming home from Iraq by Christmas, said Sunday he may support Democratic legislation ordering withdrawals if President Bush refuses to set a return timetable soon. “I’m going to have to evaluate it,” Warner said. “I don’t say that as a threat, but I say that is an option we all have to consider.”

Reckless Abandonment (by Douglas Brinkley)
Two full years after the hurricane, the Big Easy is barely limping along, unable to make truly meaningful reconstruction progress… [W]hat makes the current [Bush administration’s] inaction plan so infuriating is that it’s deceptive, offering up this open-armed spin to storm victims: “Come back to New Orleans.” Why can’t Bush look his fellow citizens in the eye and tell them what seems to be the ugly truth? That as long as he’s commander in chief, there won’t be an entirely reconstructed levee system.

White House defends US terror tribunals
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration told a newly formed appeals court Friday that discrepancies between the nation’s new terrorism law and the way it is being carried out should not stall one of the Pentagon’s first terror trials.

Full court access urged for detainees
WASHINGTON – Twenty retired federal judges, two rear admirals and a Marine general joined 383 current or former members of the European and British parliaments on Friday in urging the Supreme Court to grant detainees at Guantanamo Bay full access to the U.S. court system.

What Else Does Mueller Know?
The domestic snooping story doesn’t end with the White House’s bullying of a sick John Ashcroft. The FBI chief must still answer grave questions about the administration’s suspected abuse of national security letters.

Maybe Trading Up Soon at Justice
The buzz among top Bushies is that beleaguered Attorney General Alberto Gonzales finally plans to depart and will be replaced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Why Chertoff? Officials say he’s got fans on Capitol Hill, is untouched by the Justice prosecutor scandal, and has more experience than Gonzales did, having served as a federal judge and assistant attorney general.

Whistleblowers on Fraud Facing Penalties
Congress gave more than $30 billion to rebuild Iraq, and at least $8.8 billion of it has disappeared, according to a government reconstruction audit. Despite this staggering mess, there are no noble outcomes for those who have blown the whistle… They have been fired or demoted, shunned by colleagues, and denied government support in whistleblower lawsuits filed against contracting firms.

Executive agencies’ trips paid by firms
WASHINGTON — At a time when Congress has moved to ban most lobbyist-funded travel, executive- branch officials are routinely accepting trips from companies and trade associations with a stake in their agencies’ decisions, according to a USA TODAY review of public records.

New ethics legislation could affect Cabinet-level executives
New ethics legislation, which has passed both chambers of Congress but still needs President Bush’s signature, would extend the cooling-off period for very senior executives who leave government from one year to two years. During this time, former executives are banned from interacting with agency officials in any capacity that can be construed as lobbying or attempting to influence policy.

Reviving a Consumer Watchdog
Now is the time to revitalize the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The fact is, Americans have never rejected the notion of spending money for cleaner air, unadulterated food or safe appliances. Judging from the dangerous foods and products that have made their way to consumers, industry is doing an unacceptable job of policing itself.

Brzezinski Embraces Obama Over Clinton for President
Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) — Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the most influential foreign-policy experts in the Democratic Party, threw his support behind Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy, saying the Illinois senator has a better global grasp than his chief rival, Hillary Clinton.

Wall St seen set to open weaker, housing data eyed
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures pointed to a weaker start on Wall Street on Monday, dropping back from a rally in the previous session as investors turn to key housing data for direction.

Analysts mull contagion from US property market woes
WASHINGTON (AFP) – An increasingly fragile US economy is facing growing risks from the meltdown in the property market, which threatens to spill over into other sectors as credit markets freeze, analysts say.

Cleaning Up on the Meltdown
By anticipating problems in the credit markets, a Yale-trained computer scientist and other asset managers are producing healthy returns

Inside the Countrywide Lending Spree
Countrywide’s entire operation, from its computer system to its incentive pay structure and financing arrangements, is intended to wring maximum profits out of the mortgage lending boom no matter what it costs borrowers, according to interviews with former employees and brokers who worked in different units of the company and internal documents they provided.

From equity to equality
[T]he 1990 Trust, OBV and other organisations have joined forces with Rev Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push coalition to form Equanomics, a project that will focus on racial justice through economic equality… Our central and positive argument will be that for the private sector to ignore the deluge of talent within black communities is simply not good business. When many more people in society can fulfil their employment potential everybody wins. But as consumers and shareholders, if gentle persuasion makes not one jot, we have the right to choose where we spend our money.