Support MakeThemAccountable.com

CONTRIBUTE!

Quote of the Day

[L]long term, the investment that we’re making today will be a small price if we’re able to stop al Qaeda here, if we’re able to stabilize the Middle East, it’s not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids.
 – John Boehner, September 12, 2007

Tom Toles

Think Progress, Center for American Progress

Congress quietly passes billions for Iraq.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 94-1 for “a stop-gap spending bill that gives the Bush White House at least $9 billion in new funding” for the Iraq war. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) was the sole dissenter in the Senate; the House voted 404-14 to approve the measure. Congress also granted the administration “emergency authority to tap further into a $70 billion ‘bridge fund’” for the occupation while “Congress works on appropriations bills.” 

September 28, 2007

CNN Money

Defense stocks hit new highs
September 26, 2007: 04:02 PM EST

Sep. 26, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) —

WASHINGTON (AP) – Defense stocks on Wednesday hit new highs as Defense Secretary Robert Gates requested an extra $42 billion in funding from Congress to cover military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.

The AMEX Defense Index, which tracks 14 major defense company stocks, rose 14.25 to a high of 1,686.72 in afternoon trading. Since last year, the index has risen roughly 47 percent, outperforming the broader S&P 500 index, which has climbed nearly 15 percent over the same period…

Associated Press

GOP senators offer new timeline for Iraq

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 28, 6:02 PM ET

A small group of Republicans facing election fights next year have rallied around war legislation they think could unite the GOP: Call for an end to U.S. combat in Iraq, but wait until President Bush is almost out of office.

The Democrats on Friday deemed the legislation a nonstarter, and underscored the difficulty Congress has in striking a bipartisan compromise on the war. What attracts Democrats has repelled Republicans and vice versa, making it impossible so far to find a middle ground…

“That’s very courageous,” Reid, D-Nev., quipped when a reporter asked him Friday about the proposal…

The Heretik

McClatchy Newspapers

U.S. agrees to delay on new Iranian sanctions

By Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007

WASHINGTON — Opposition led by Russia forced the Bush administration Friday to slow its drive for tighter United Nations sanctions against Iran and give the Islamic republic until late November to disclose its entire nuclear program to U.N. inspectors.

In another measure of Russia’s increased influence over U.S. foreign policy, McClatchy Newspapers has learned that President Bush is sending his secretaries of state and defense on a rare joint mission to Moscow to try to persuade the Kremlin to drop its opposition to the deployment of U.S. missile defenses in Europe, two State Department officials said…

The talks between Rice and Gates and their Russian counterparts are set for Oct. 12, the officials said. The rare joint mission by Bush’s top national security aides underscores the growing clout that Russia now wields as it reaps windfall profits from rising oil prices and U.S. power ebbs because of the war in Iraq, America’s frayed alliances and domestic financial turmoil.

The administration’s drive to deploy missile defenses in two countries that were long allied with Moscow, meanwhile, has helped plunge U.S.-Russian relations to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War and called into question Bush’s assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a soul mate and strategic ally…

Islamic Republic News Agency

Iran parliament labels US army, CIA as terrorist groups

Tehran, Sept 29, IRNA

Iranian lawmakers on Saturday labelled the US army and CIA as terrorist groups.

The parliament said in a statement that the US army has a record of terrorist operations citing bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons and CIA has been involved in establishment of terror networks and training terrorists worldwide…

McClatchy Newspapers

Blackwater cancels planned expansion

By Joseph Neff | McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007

RALEIGH, N.C. — In more fallout from the Sept. 16 shooting in Baghdad that left 11 Iraqis dead, Blackwater USA apparently has stopped its expansion projects.

On Wednesday, the North Carolina private military contractor canceled a $5.5 million deal to buy 1,800 acres of farmland near Fort Bragg, where it was going to set up a training ground for soldiers and corporate executives.

The diplomatic and public relations damage from the shooting, combined with next Tuesday’s scheduled testimony before Congress by Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince, prompted the company to put all new projects on hold, according to the president of the company that had agreed to sell the land to Blackwater…

Justin Bilicki (thanks to All Hat No Cattle)

McClatchy Newspapers

Congressman: State Dept. official threatened investigators

By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007

WASHINGTON — Aides to State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard threatened two investigators with retaliation this week if they cooperate with a congressional probe into Krongard’s office, the chairman of a House of Representatives panel and other U.S. officials said Friday.

The allegations are the latest in a growing uproar surrounding Krongard. Current and former officials in his office charge that he impeded investigations into alleged arms smuggling by employees of the private security firm Blackwater and into faulty construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Krongard has denied the charges and is due to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee next month…

Los Angeles Times

A new poll tax?
Election fraud isn’t a problem, but the Supreme Court may OK an ID law that burdens poor and minority voters.

By Daniel P. Tokaji
September 28, 2007

The U.S. Supreme Court announced this week that it would hear a challenge to an Indiana law that requires people to show government-issued photo identification in order to have their votes counted. Two other states have passed such laws in recent years, and others have debated the issue. Promoters of these laws argue that they are needed to prevent fraud. Opponents claim that they will impede eligible citizens from voting — a disproportionate number of them poor, elderly, disabled or racial minorities.

In fact, there’s reason to believe that suppressing turnout is precisely the motivation behind the strictest voter ID laws. There are almost no documented cases of people pretending to be someone they’re not at the polls, the only “problem” that these laws purport to address. On the other hand, there is considerable evidence that requiring ID will suppress turnout among some groups of voters…

Jamiol’s World

McClatchy Newspapers

Racism may affect infant mortality rates

By Halimah Abdullah | McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007

WASHINGTON — For decades, health experts have tried to determine why African-American babies are twice as likely to die as white infants.

A new series of studies from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ Health Policy Institute, along with a small but growing number of neonatalogists nationwide, suggests that the stressful effects of racism play a role.

“That’s the elephant in the room,” said Michael Lu, an obstetrician-gynecologist and professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who studies disparities in infant health. “When we’re studying racial disparities, for decades people have looked at stress and infant mortality without looking at the reasons for the stress.”…

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Military Reports It Has Killed A Senior Leader of Al Qaeda In Iraq, But Was He Killed A Year Ago?
The U.S. military announced today that it has killed a “senior leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.” Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson “identified the man as Abu Usama al-Tunisi, a Tunisian described as a close associate and likely successor to Abu Ayyub al-Masri, Al-Qaeda in Iraq’s Egyptian leader.”… But terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann issued a “global terror alert” last year stating that al-Tunisi had died in July 2006…. While it’s possible that there could have been two different Abu Usama al-Tunisis, it is the responsibility of news organizations to resolve these kinds of questions and double-check the facts before reporting them.

Sycophant Savior
A great political general doesn’t tell his masters what they want to hear. He tells them what they need to hear, thereby nudging them to make decisions that must be made if the nation’s interests are to be served. In this instance, [Gen. David] Petraeus provided cover for them to evade their responsibilities. Politically, it qualifies as a brilliant maneuver. The general’s relationships with official Washington remain intact. Yet he has broken faith with the soldiers he commands and the Army to which he has devoted his life. He has failed his country. History will not judge him kindly.
That’s from the crazed, leftist, troop haters at The American Conservative. (Thanks to Keith Olbermann’s Countdown.)

Presto! False Associated Press Reporting Makes Limbaugh’s Bogus Pushback Sound Perfectly Reasonable
The Associated Press has now covered the controversy surrounding Rush Limbaugh’s now-infamous assertion that soldiers favoring withdrawal from Iraq are “phony soldiers.”… In the AP’s telling, Limbaugh first mentioned [a] specific phony soldier, and then “followed” with a reference to “phony soldiers.” This description, of course, makes Limbaugh’s pushback sound completely reasonable: Limbaugh established the specific context — a discussion of MacBeth — before using the controversial phrase. But this is not what Limbaugh’s transcript says at all, of course. Indeed, not even Limbaugh himself is arguing this.

WH distances itself from Rush on ‘phony soldiers’ remark.
In a press briefing this morning, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino was pressed specifically about Rush Limbaugh’s “phony soldiers” comment. She responded: “It’s not what the President would have used, no.”
Ah, but was it “disgusting”?  Click through to watch the video.

Mark Udall to introduce resolution to condemn Rush
“On Monday I will introduce a resolution honoring all Americans serving in the Armed Forces and condemning this unwarranted attack on the integrity and professionalism of those in the Armed Forces who choose to exercise their constitutional right to express their opinions regarding U.S. military action in Iraq. Sincerely, Mark Udall”

Senate Democratic Leaders Demand Apology For Limbaugh’s ‘Outrageous,’ ‘Unconscionable’ Remarks
ThinkProgress has obtained a letter being circulated on Capitol Hill today by the Senate Democratic Leadership that calls on Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays to repudiate its employee Rush Limbaugh’s “phony troops” remark… The letter, signed by Sens. Harry Reid (D-NV, Dick Durbin (D-IL), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Patty Murray (D-WA), states that Limbaugh’s comments were “outrageous” and “unconscionable”

Outsiders Aim to Frame Political Debate
WASHINGTON — They raise millions of dollars, conduct provocative ad campaigns, work with a vast network of like-minded allies and have the power to frame the presidential election going forward as much as the candidates themselves. That used to define only the liberal MoveOn.org, an organization of 3.3 million members that has raised $25 million in the past 18 months and is helping spearhead an anti-war coalition. Now, a group of conservatives and Republicans with close ties to the White House have formed their own enterprise, Freedom’s Watch, landing on the political scene with a $15 million ad campaign to defend President Bush’s Iraq war strategy.
There’s one big difference.  MoveOn.org is a grassroots organization.  Freedom’s Watch is just another organization funded by rich right wingers.

Couric: ‘Not My Job’ To Critically Report On Iraq, ‘Unless Something Is Really Egregious’
This week, [CBS anchor Katie] Couric spoke at the National Press Club with host Marvin Kalb to discuss “Democracy and the Press.” Couric explained that her goal in Iraq was to appear neutral and avoid “a Walter Cronkite moment,” as she put it… Kalb rebutted Couric’s assertions, charging that she offered only neutered judgments about the status on the ground and missed an opportunity to critically assess the situation in Iraq.
Click through to watch the video.

Couric Admits Feeling NBC Pressure On Iraq (by Cliff Schecter)
This is the sad state of our corporate-owned media. Katie Couric is now admitting she felt “corporate pressure” to ease off of Condi Rice and The Bush Administration overall after a “tough interview” she conducted… It’s not as if we don’t know this kind of thing is going on… But for some reason, I still get that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I hear stories like this. It reminds me that as skeptical as I am of our corporate-crony media, I am not skeptical enough.

Foto Funnies Pt. II
[A press release from David Horowitz’s FrontPageMag] reads, “The photo accompanying this article, which shows a teenage girl buried before being stoned to death for alleged sexual offenses, will serve as the poster for the protest Week. The stoning took place in Iran.” This photo turns up all over the right-wing media, but the ’stoning’ actually takes place in a 1994 Dutch indie film called De Steen, directed by Mahnaz Tamizi. The ‘teenage girl’ is actress Smadar Monsinos.
The right-wing crazies are trying their best to demonize all Muslims in their attempt to justify an attack on Iran.

Blackburn’s TV tiff gets spotlighted
WASHINGTON — A recent television interview with U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., has exploded in the blogosphere as pundits debate which is worse: that Blackburn couldn’t name the last soldier killed in her district or that the interviewer might have gotten that name wrong… [David] Shuster was forced to read a correction… But Shuster’s apology may have been premature. The tiny hamlet of Bon Aqua, Tenn., is where Bohannon lived in the months immediately prior to entering the Army. The Census Bureau places his home in Blackburn’s 7th Congressional District.

Dan Abrams and Shuster’s Apology
FishbowlDC hears that MSNBC General Manager Dan Abrams asked David Shuster to apologize for Wednesday’s Rep. Marsha Blackburn incident and even wrote the bulk of Shuster’s on-air apology. We also hear that an on-air explanation of this episode is not expected today [Friday], with MSNBC hoping to pretend the entire episode never happened.

Mythbuster: S-CHIP and Socialism (from The Democratic Strategist)
S-CHIP, in the expanded as well as in the existing version, typically purchases private health plans for those it covers [and therefore cannot be defined as “socialized medicine”, though right-wing pundits are doing just that]. And far from being some Washington leviathan, S-CHIP is run by the states, who make a wide variety of decisions about coverage, and also help finance the program.

The Wørd on Health Care
Stephen Colbert urges President Bush to veto the SCHIP bill, for the good of the children. “If we really care for our kids, we should deny them health insurance now to immunize them against expecting it as adults. If we don’t, when they grow up, who knows what other unrealistic things they’re going to expect? You know, if we fund Head Start now, later, they’ll expect education. If we fund school lunches now, later, they’ll expect food.”
Click through to watch the video.

CBS Launches New Online Video Initiative
CBS is launching a new project called EyeLab that will produce short clips relating to some of the popular shows on the network… According to the President of CBS Interactive, the network’s research indicates that less than a third of their viewers are interested in viewing full-length shows online, which is why they decided to offer short-form video as well. It’s a different approach than rival NBC, which plans to make available full-length downloads of their shows.

Corporate America Continues to Block Facebook
More companies are joining the bandwagon and blocking access to social networking sites. A web security firm called ScanSafe reports that a third of employers are now restricting access to social networking sites. Is it because of a loss of productivity? Not entirely. The report shows that companies are worried about security issues as well, with employees visiting social networks on company computers.

Lookery Moving Beyond Facebook to “Rent” Data from Smaller Networks
Scott Rafer’s Lookery, the ad network for Facebook apps, is branching out to encompass the entire web… Lookery on the Web will, in a sense, aggregate the personal information from many secondary social networks, like Hi5, and provide a large pool of data for market researchers, advertisers, and other companies that would want to use the demographic stats.

YouTube Puts AdSense in Embedded Players
This is very interesting: according to [a] page on YouTube, certain sites can now embed YouTube players that contain an AdSense unit above the clip. In other words: you could soon make money by embedding YouTube clips in your site. The page, spotted by ProBlogger today, doesn’t yet provide a way to sign up for this, and I can’t find any mention in my AdSense account. However, it does display a new type of embedded player that’s long enough to accommodate the ad unit. It also mentions that the player is customizable.

iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store Now Live
The iTunes wifi music store has officially launched. You can now access the wifi music store from your iPhone or the new iPod Touch in order to purchase songs and albums directly to your device. You can currently only download music with the wifi store, but television shows and movies may become available later on.

Congress sends kids health care to Bush
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Setting up a veto showdown with President George W. Bush, the U.S. Congress on Thursday approved legislation to expand a popular children’s health care program and pay for it with higher taxes on tobacco products. 

Pablo on Politics

Turkey, Iraq sign deal on Kurdish rebels
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey and Iraq on Friday signed a counterterrorism pact aimed at cracking down on separatist Kurdish rebels who have been attacking Turkey from bases in Iraq.

Cyprus says Syria dispute smoothed over
NEW YORK – The Cypriot president said Thursday he was confident Syria had no intention of recognizing a breakaway state in his Mediterranean island despite a spat over a ferry that sailed to a Syrian port from the separatist region.

Cyprus says Syria dispute smoothed over
NEW YORK – The Cypriot president said Thursday he was confident Syria had no intention of recognizing a breakaway state in his Mediterranean island despite a spat over a ferry that sailed to a Syrian port from the separatist region.

UN: No interference in Lebanon
UNITED NATIONS – Lebanese presidential elections must be free of violence and foreign interference, the U.N. Security Council said Thursday, joining an international chorus pressuring the Arab country’s rival political forces to advance a process whose delay could split Lebanon apart.

World powers seek to narrow differences on Iran
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The world’s major powers will try to narrow their differences on tougher sanctions against Iran when they meet on Friday in New York, seeking to keep up pressure on Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

Russia, China resist new Iran sanctions
UNITED NATIONS – Russia and China refuse to discuss possible new sanctions against Iran until the U.N. nuclear agency reports on Tehran’s disclosure of its past suspicious nuclear work at the end of the year, France’s foreign minister said Thursday.

Afghan farmers find alternative to opium: marijuana
BALKH, Afghanistan (Reuters) – As Afghanistan struggles to cut its raging opium production, aid workers try to find alternative crops, but for some former poppy farmers the choice was easy — they planted marijuana instead.

Pakistan court to rule on Musharraf’s fate
ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan’s Supreme Court is set to decide on Friday whether President Pervez Musharraf can run for re-election in uniform in a ruling with far-reaching consequences for the nuclear-armed nation.

Myanmar crowds taunt troops as crackdown draws outrage
YANGON (Reuters) – Crowds taunted soldiers and police sealing off central Yangon behind barbed-wire barricades on Friday in anticipation of fresh protests against 45 years of military rule in Myanmar and deepening economic hardship.

Major powers urge ‘constructive’ Kosovo talks: Miliband
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Major powers urged Serbia and Kosovo Albanian separatists to show “a constructive spirit” in their upcoming direct talks here on the Serbian breakaway province’s future status, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said late Thursday.

World Bank to Contribute Record $3.5B
WASHINGTON — Seeking to overcome a major funding shortfall, the World Bank said it would contribute a record $3.5 billion from its own income to provide grants and credits to a unit of the bank that lends to the world’s poorest countries.

loan credit extended overstudent forgive pa loan educloan pan and savinga pacificact loans home requirements on patriotpay washington day advance loanday loan with check payloan extra pay onloan pay off quickly Map

Congress agrees to raise US credit limit
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With the U.S. government fast approaching its current $8.965 trillion credit limit, the Senate on Thursday gave final congressional approval of an $850 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority.

Bush Signs Sweeping Student Loan Bill Into Law, Adding an Asterisk
President Bush signed into law yesterday a student loan bill that will provide more than $20 billion in federal aid to college students and is being likened to the G.I. Bill, which helped millions of World War II veterans attend college.

Senators vote to crack down on hate crimes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voted to crack down on hate crimes on Thursday in defiance of a possible White House veto. In doing so, it declared that the United States must combat terror at home as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan. “At a time that we are fighting terrorism abroad, the United States Senate says, ‘We are going to fight terrorism, hatred and bigotry here at home,’” said Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

U.S. to Let Key Detainees Request Lawyers
Move could allow 14 “high-value” terrorism suspects at Guantanamo to join other detainees in challenging status as enemy combatants in court.

Gates expects to approve Army expansion
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he’s inclined to approve an Army proposal to spend nearly $3 billion extra over the next four years to accelerate an expansion of its force. Army Secretary Pete Geren said speeding up the growth of the force, stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would mean recruiting faster and increasing the number of soldiers who re-enlist.

Report: Private Military Contractors Hurt War Effort
The United States’ use of mercenary contractors like Blackwater in Iraq has led to unnecessary violence against civilians, inflamed Iraqi sentiment towards the United States and jeopardized military strategies to defeat the insurgency, a new report concludes.
FedSpending.org has the information on Blackwater contracts.

Wartime Commission Would Investigate Contracting Abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan
Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) have sponsored a bill (S. 1825) that would set up a commission to investigate and reform wartime contracting. It is likely the bill will be introduced as an amendment to the Defense Reauthorization Act that is currently being debated in the Senate.

Physicists contest missile shield claims
A number of top U.S-based physicists say the United States used inaccurate claims to reassure NATO allies about U.S. missile defense plans in Eastern Europe, but the Pentagon stands by its claims.

Doolittle, five staffers subpoenaed in Abramoff probe
WASHINGTON — California Rep. John Doolittle said Thursday that the Justice Department has issued subpoenas to him and five of his staff members seeking office records going back 11 years in connection to the congressman’s relationship with jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Doolittle’s attorney indicated that he might fight having to comply.

Dems can’t make guarantee on Iraq troops
HANOVER, N.H. – The leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013.

Edwards to Accept Public Financing
ABC News’ Raelyn Johnson Reports: As the end of the third quarter fundraising period draws to a close, former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., has announced that he intends to accept public financing for his bid for the Democratic nomination. Edwards, who has severely lagged behind Clinton and Obama in fundraising, has not leaked his third quarter fundraising expectations, as he has done in previous quarters.

GOP electoral initiative dealt major blows
SACRAMENTO — A proposed California initiative campaign that could have helped Republicans hold on to the White House in 2008 was a shambles Thursday night, as two of its key consultants quit… Intended for the June 2008 ballot, the proposed initiative sought to change California’s winner-take-all system to require that electoral votes be awarded based on how individual congressional districts vote.

‘Jena Six’ teen released on bail
Sep 27 – Mychal Bell, one of the African-American high students known as the “Jena 6″ is released on bail after 10 months in jail. 

Wall Street edges up with energy shares
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks edged up on Thursday as higher oil prices lifted energy companies’ shares in a noncommittal market faced with conflicting data on the economy’s health.

Home sales fall, job market resilient
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of new homes plunged in August and prices posted their biggest year-on-year drop in nearly 37 years, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday, underlining the depth of problems facing the housing sector.

Stock Funds Disgorged $12 Bil In Aug.
Investors yanked $12.27 billion from stock funds last month in the wake of a market sell-off that started in July and persisted into mid-August.

A dose of optimism
The head of MIT’s AgeLab sees a bright future for boomers heading into retirement, with technology leading the way.

Will Pharma Have to Fess Up?
New efforts are under way to limit or make public its billions in giveaways to doctors