Mukasey: ‘I Don’t Know’ Whether Bush Has Violated FISA
In [Wednesday’s] Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Mike Mukasey … said he “can’t contemplate” a situation where President Bush would assert “Article II authority to do something that the law forbids.” [Republican Sen. Arlen] Specter shot back, “Well, he did just that in violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act…didn’t he?” Mukasey continued to hedge: “… I don’t know whether he acted in violation of statutes.”
And what’s more, he DOESN’T WANT to know. Click through to watch the video.

The Heretik

Rocket attack wounds 3 British soldiers
BASRA, Iraq – Rockets slammed into the British base near the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Thursday, slightly wounding three British soldiers, a spokesman said. Iraq.

Analysis: One strategy for Iraq oil, power
There’s optimism in Iraq, at least from a mysterious cadre called the Energy Fusion Cell, which for the past eight months worked to bring coherence to both U.S. and Iraqi initiatives in the oil, gas and power sectors

Iraq to provide gas to EU
Brussels – Iraq’s oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, was in Brussels on Thursday to discuss plans to supply the European Union with natural gas from its vast Ekas field.

Mubarak meets Iranian parliament speaker
CAIRO, Egypt – An Iranian official who met Wednesday with Egypt’s president said the two countries could soon restore diplomatic relations severed nearly three decades ago.

Provocative sanctions (The Hindu, India’s National Newspaper)
The belligerence and aggression implicit in the decision by the United States to unilaterally impose yet another set of sanctions on Iran has upped the ante in the region… In the face of Washington’s reckless and abrasive policy, Teheran has signalled that it will not agree to suspend the enrichment of uranium, a U.S.-set precondition for multilateral discussions on its nuclear programme.

Suicide bomber kills Afghan official
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing Helmand province’s deputy governor and five other people, officials said.

US completes military base in Afghanistan province
Another piece of the United States’ regional jigsaw is in place with the completion of a military base in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, just three kilometers from Bajaur Agency in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Pakistani lawyers torch Musharraf effigy: witnesses
LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) – Thousands of Pakistani lawyers burned an effigy of President Pervez Musharraf during nationwide protests Thursday to press for the release of the country’s deposed chief justice, witnesses said.

Shell profits surge to record 31 billion dollars in 2007
LONDON (AFP) – Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday that net profits leapt 23 percent last year to a record 31.331 billion dollars (21.115 billion euros), energised by soaring crude prices.

Watershed Serbia vote plays out in shadow of Kosovo
BELGRADE (Reuters) – Pro-Western Serbian President Boris Tadic faces nationalist challenger Tomislav Nikolic on Sunday in an election that will decide Serbia’s attitude to the West after the imminent loss of breakaway Kosovo province.

Lawmaker killed in Kenya’s Rift Valley
NAIROBI, Kenya – An opposition lawmaker was gunned down by a police officer Thursday in the second fatal shooting of an opposition legislator this week amid ethnic fighting sparked by Kenya’s disputed presidential election, officials said.

Kenya negotiators meet as Kibaki attends African summit
NAIROBI (AFP) – Negotiators for Kenya’s political rivals met here for the first time Thursday, as President Mwai Kibaki attended an African Union summit in neighbouring Ethiopia set to be dominated by the month-long crisis sparked by his re-election.

Budget plan likely to show huge deficit
WASHINGTON – The budget President Bush unveils on Monday is likely to feature deficits reaching $400 billion this year and next, leaving his successor a fiscal ledger dripping with red ink.

Bush defends Iraq war strategy
LAS VEGAS – Sandwiching a war speech in between Republican fundraisers, President Bush is making clear that his priority is to keep Iraq secure, not just to get troops home.

U.S. Commanders in Iraq Favor Pause in Troop Cuts
Senior U.S. military commanders here say they want to freeze troop reductions starting this summer for at least a month, making it more likely that the next administration will inherit as many troops in Iraq as there were before President Bush announced a “surge” of forces a year ago.

Army suicides up as much as 20 percent
WASHINGTON – As many as 121 Army soldiers committed suicide in 2007, a jump of some 20 percent over the year before, officials said Thursday.

Brain screenings for vets may be flawed
WASHINGTON – Thousands of Iraq war veterans who could have suffered traumatic brain injury may be getting unnecessary or inadequate health care because Veterans Affairs officials have yet to determine whether their initial screening tests are reliable, investigators say.
Flawed screening tests.  Uh huh.  This administration has made it a policy to deny government benefits across the board, and only grant them when the rejected person appeals the decision.

24 Hours After Touting Clean Coal In SOTU, White House Drops Ambitious Clean Coal Project
During Monday’s State of the Union address, Bush said, “Let us fund new technologies that can generate coal power while capturing carbon emissions.” Yet just 24 hours [later], Bush’s Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman indicated the White House was pulling the plug on the ambitious FutureGen project, a clean coal plant that was touted as “the cleanest fossil fuel fired power plant in the world.”

In stealthy move, CMS eyes end to care-coordination program
Starting in July, 68,000 Medicare beneficiaries in five states and the District of Columbia will be dropped from care-coordination programs treating their diabetes and congestive heart failure…The under-the-radar nature of CMS’s decision contrasts with promises of transparency from acting Administrator Kerry Weems, who said when he took office last September that he would conduct “business in daylight” and stop “cocktail-hour press release[s].”

Senate panel passes $157 billion stimulus plan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Finance Committee approved a $157 billion economic stimulus package on Wednesday that offers smaller tax rebates to more people than a plan passed by the U.S. House of Representatives … [but] would go to about 20 million low-income retirees on Social Security who would not receive checks under the $146 billion House stimulus bill.

Subprime Lenders Get Tax Breaks in U.S. Senate Stimulus Plan
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Subprime lenders, homebuilders and banks stand to benefit from a $14.4 billion tax break passed yesterday by a Senate committee as part of an economic stimulus package.

Poll: Big expectations for new president
Large majorities of voters believe the president has considerable sway on a range of big issues such as inflation, interest rates, the federal deficit, taxes and more. Fully three-quarters believe the president has at least some influence over health care costs, for example. Sixty-nine percent can see the president making gasoline prices go up or down. They are less certain, though, about the president’s ability to change how things really work in Washington: 55 percent think it’s possible; 44 percent are doubtful, no matter who’s elected. Call it optimism with a cynical streak. Or cynicism with an optimistic streak. David Wells, a consultant from suburban Nashville, Tenn., calls it reality.

Clinton, McCain likely gain most from dropout candidates
For the Democrats, the decision by former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards to abandon his campaign could swing votes to both New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, though probably more to her. Edwards’ supporters are similar in demographic profile and outlook to Clinton’s. A smaller number were drawn to Edwards for his outspoken call to change Washington, which could lead them into the Obama camp. For Republicans, the withdrawal of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani likely will push many of his supporters to Arizona Sen. John McCain.

McCain and Romney spar bitterly in GOP debate
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Newly-minted Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain and his chief rival Mitt Romney clashed Tuesday over Iraq and the economy, sometimes with tough talk, sometimes with dueling sets of facts, in the final GOP debate before 21 states around the country vote in GOP contests next week.

McCain and Romney spar bitterly in GOP debate
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Newly-minted Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain and his chief rival Mitt Romney clashed Tuesday over Iraq and the economy, sometimes with tough talk, sometimes with dueling sets of facts, in the final GOP debate before 21 states around the country vote in GOP contests next week.

Groups seek Rosenberg grand jury file
WASHINGTON – Leading historical groups are seeking the release of grand jury records in the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, whose espionage trial for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union became a defining moment in the Cold War.

Asian stocks rise after US rate cut
HONG KONG (AFP) – Most Asian stock markets rose Thursday after another sharp US interest rate cut but Japan’s rally aside, gains were modest due to worries that a US economic recession still looms.

Rate cuts consign gradualism to history
Is the era of gradualism at the Federal Reserve over? After 125 basis points of interest rate cuts in the space of eight days some economists are asking whether the US central bank is taking a new approach to monetary policy.

Investors want more interest rate cuts
WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, criticized last year for being too tentative in cutting interest rates, has shown he can act boldly. But the Fed’s two aggressive rate cuts in the past eight days have left investors demanding still more.
That would be stock and bond investors.  People who depend on the income from interest on CDs are screwed.

Mardi Gras means money in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS – That happy, singsong sound heard on Bourbon Street is trickle-down economics at its best as hundreds of thousands of Carnival season visitors spend themselves silly before Fat Tuesday.
Mardi Gras is next Tuesday.  Get ready to pass a good time! (Note to the Cajun impaired: “pass a good time” means “have a good time”.)

Gas prices seen spiking again in spring
NEW YORK – Get ready for another surge in gasoline prices.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Blog for a Cause!: The Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy
Global Voices Advocacy is pleased to announce the second of several planned manuals focused on the topics of circumventing internet filtering, anonymous blogging and effective use of Internet-based tools in campaigns for social and political change.

Free At Last (by Barb Palser, American Journalism Review)
[D]o we really want to live in a subscription-based world? Imagine daily life if all news sites started charging admission. The convenient micropayment system heralded in the ’90s has not materialized, which means we’d be paying a fee to every news site we visited or for every story we read. If we’re trying to drastically shrink the average person’s news diet and broaden the online culture divide — not to mention opt out of the online ad explosion — that’d be a quick way to do it.
I hate to imagine daily life when the day comes that all our media are not only owned by big corporations, but also pressured by big corporate advertisers not to rock the boat.  There’s an alternative for progressives, if we’re smart.

Nonprofit News (by Carol Guensburg, American Journalism Review)
Beleaguered journalists who once clung solely to the business model of paid advertising and circulation now recognize the urgency of developing new revenue sources for labor-intensive newsgathering. For some, foundations hold increasing promise as allies in meeting the public’s information needs — beyond superficial headlines and celebrity sexploits — so long as there are safeguards for editorial independence.

A gentler capitalism
Every few decades, America’s business leaders change their minds about what obligations corporations and the wealthy have to society… Such a shift, if truly underway today, will have enormous political consequences in the years to come. If the consensus in the executive suites is that economic inequality has risen too much, or that too many social needs like healthcare are going unmet, or that the polar ice caps might really melt, the next president and Congress will have more success tackling these problems. It is far easier to get things done in Washington when Wall Street isn’t digging in its heels.
So our job as progressives, many of us Democrats, is to determine which of the candidates left to us will be better able and willing to take advantage of this shift in emphasis.

Nuance And Narrative In SC (by Gal Beckerman, Columbia Journalism Review)
Do national media tell local voters what to think?

The Legitimate Change That Should Come From This Primary (by dday at Hullabaloo)
I want to thank Senator Edwards for running a tremendous campaign. He moved the policy in a progressive direction and matured far more than in 2004. He was just up against two juggernauts and couldn’t wedge himself into the media spotlight. (the media, by the way, picked the nominees. Again.)… [I]f you prefer media-driven candidates foisted on the bulk of the country, then go ahead and keep this wonderful primary train going! Maybe within a few cycles we can vote for the nominee and the nominee four years hence on the same day! It’d make things so much easier.

An Appeal That Looks to (and Uses) the Spirit of the 1960s
Barack Obama’s first spot highlighting Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement features images of her father and the Moon landing.

I Have Questions for Barack Obama (by Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare’s Sister blog, writing at No Quarter)
How do you pursue an agenda that appeals to conservatives, but is also progressive?… What is the common purpose around which you envision the country rallying? Do you regard “transcending partisanship” an end in itself, and do you foresee the GOP rallying around this goal? If so, how and why do you imagine that will happen? Assume for a moment that you are nominated and subsequently elected, and, despite being “the kind of president” in whom Americans can believe, the profound partisan rancor that currently plagues the nation doesn’t evaporate, that Americans fail to rally around a common purpose. What is Plan B?

Barack Obama: Bamboozling America (by Larry Pinkney, the Black Commentator)
We Black Americans have often and generally been so physically and emotionally brutalized in this nation that we sometimes vicariously tie up our hopes and dreams with others who appear to have somehow accomplished that which we ourselves have not, due to systemic economic, social, and political oppression. This is a fact that has not escaped the attention of Barack Obama and his political advisors/handlers from the corporate military/industrial complex. Thus, his game is simple: Play on the unfulfilled hopes, dreams, and needs of Black people. Sell the people a pipe dream in order to attain your own personal goals. This is what I refer to as political pimping, and this is precisely what Barack Obama and his advisors/handlers are doing, not only to Black America, but to the nation as a whole. Through the use of double-speak, Barack Obama keeps the people from seeing who and what he really is.
Several white males I know have fallen in love with Obama, while the black males I know have not.  The Obama lovers think there will be some kind of rosy future for us all if Obama becomes the Democratic candidate and then wins the election.  Hillary Clinton is too divisive, they say, not realizing that the right wing hasn’t even gotten started yet on its vilification of Obama.  Many Democrats, and many progressives, seem congenitally incapable of understanding that IT’S THE CORPORATOCRACY, STUPID!  We need to stop fooling ourselves into believing any one person can be our savior, no matter how good that person at convincing us to be in love with love, and to believe in belief.  I’m not happy with the allegiance of either of the remaining Democratic candidates to the corporatocracy, but of the two, Clinton’s proposals are more progressive.  And that’s why, now that Edwards has dropped out of the race, I will vote for her on Tuesday.

‘NY Post’ Endorses Obama
NEW YORK Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post had been, at least off and on, surprisingly kind to Hillary Clinton for quite some time — she is a home state U.S. Senator after all. That ended today when on its Web site (in print tomorrow) it endorsed Barack Obama in next week’s key primary, and used some of its usual colorful language in doing it.
See what I mean?  Conservatives love Obama.

Obama eviscerates Hillary (by John Aravosis at AMERICAblog)
[T]his is particularly pointed from Obama. “’I know it is tempting — after another presidency by a man named George Bush — to simply turn back the clock, and to build a bridge back to the 20th century,’ he said in Denver. ‘… It’s not enough to say you’ll be ready from Day One — you have to be right from Day One,’ he added in unmistakable criticisms of Clinton, who often claims she’s better prepared to govern, and her husband, who pledged during his own presidency to build a bridge to the 21st century.”
Actually, Obama has been landing these kinds of barbs from the beginning.  His mention of Reagan in Nevada contained a deliberate put-down of Bill Clinton.  And every time the Clintons defend themselves they’re crucified.

IN WHICH YOU’RE DECEIVED ONCE AGAIN: (by Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler)
[W]e don’t know Harold Meyerson; maybe he actually doesn’t know that “the old, irrational Clinton hatred is alive and well in certain parts of the media,” including in the “part of the media” known as the Washington Post. (The “part of the media” which employs him.) After all, Meyerson has his head in the clouds; he spends his time with our most pre-eminent philosophers, on Olympian heights, not down here on the teeming plain, where the world’s dumbest people run the “press corps” and indulge in that “old, irrational hatred.” Maybe he doesn’t read Dowd or Herbert, Robinson or Milbank; perhaps he has never heard of Chris Matthews. Perhaps he “deceives” you without understanding. But even then, today’s column deceives.

My evil ways (by Paul Krugman)
Hmm. A little while back I learned from various sources that the reason I criticize Barack Obama is that my son works for Hillary. This was news to me, since I wasn’t aware that I have any children. Now I learn that it’s important that I disclose that I was Bill Clinton’s chief economic adviser in 1992. This is also news to me, since I wasn’t aware that I worked for the campaign at all.
And where do you suppose those rumors are coming from?

The Layoff Cackle (by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo)
[There was a weird moment] in the [Republican] debate where John McCain made a crack about job layoffs at Mitt’s companies. And you hear Mitt in the background cackling. Obviously, meant to push back in some sense at the jab, but had the weird effect of having Romney cracking up — Monty Burns style — about people he downsized.

Daily Show: State of the Union
A weird, oddly subdued, utterly insincere State of the Union brought a smile to Cheney’s face.
Click through to watch the video.

Key 9/11 Commission Staffer Held Secret Meetings With Rove, Scaled Back Criticisms of White House
A forthcoming book by NYT reporter Philip Shenon — “The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation” — asserts that former 9/11 Commission executive director Philip Zelikow interfered with the 9/11 report. According to the book, Zelikow had failed to inform the commission at the time he was hired that he was instrumental in helping Condoleezza Rice set up Bush’s National Security Council in 2001. Some panel staffers believe Zelikow stopped them from submitting a report depicting Rice’s performance prior to 9/11 as “amount[ing] to incompetence.”

NYT Piece On Corruption in the Medical Device Industry (by Dean Baker)
The NYT has another excellent piece exposing corruption in the health care industry. This one is about medical devices, specifically an artificial spinal disk… The one complaint with this and most other stories is that the reporters never step back and examine how the nature of the current system of financing research will inevitably lead to such distortions. In a situation where government granted patent monopolies allow for large rents, it is virtually inevitable that corruption of this sort will arise.

USA Today Can’t Find Economists Who Are Not Surprised by the Economy (by Dean Baker)
That would seem to be the implication of a quote from former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers that, “the housing sector is in serious trouble, even worse than we supposed.” USA Today readers would be better informed if the paper sought out economists who are not part of Larry Summers’ “we” and recognized the problems in the nation’s housing market.

Media Matters for America headlines

After touting his presidential prospects, Matthews said Giuliani “never really offered a big idea as to why he would be a great president”

Once again, NBC’s Myers ignored Obama’s specific response countering suggestion that Rezko “may have essentially subsidized” Obama’s home purchase

NY Times’ Nagourney says Romney vulnerable to charges of inconsistency … but McCain isn’t?

Byron York’s admittedly “wildly inappropriate” comparison: Giuliani’s Florida concession speech and slain Italian hostage’s final words

Imus on President Clinton: “This is a fat, low-rent hillbilly”

Ignoring response at debate, Matthews praised McCain’s “candor” and “honest[y]” on economic knowledge

Scarborough on Giuliani: “America’s Mayor … will endorse John McCain”

CNN’s King, WSJ reported McCain has shifted “emphasis,” “subtly alter[ed]” position on immigration — but he has reversed himself on it

CBS characterized “attack” as “unusual position” for McCain — but it’s not, even as he has denounced negative campaigning

CNN reporter on issue of driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants: “It literally drives some off the deep end, like Lou Dobbs”

Scarborough to Brzezinski on Morning Joe: “[D]on’t make me backhand you”

Afghanistan’s Senate Endorses Reporter’s Death Sentence: Official
Afghanistan’s senate has endorsed a death sentence handed down by a court to a reporter and journalism student accused of blasphemy.

New Lexington Contract Allows Eds To Make Reporters Snap Photos
The paper may now require reporters to take photos under a Newspaper Guild contract approved late Tuesday, according to the union. “This is a compromise that we can live with,” Lexington Newspaper Guild president Brandon Ortiz said in a statement.

Google exec: What NYT does as a company isn’t what we do
Google content partnerships veep David Eun is asked about John Ellis’ column about the possibility of Google buying the New York Times. “We feel like we have a great relationship with the Times,” says Eun. “We hope that they’re very successful. But what they do as a company — with journalists, news bureaus, thinking about what people want to read, producing a newspaper — that’s not what we do.”

Gore’s Current Goes IPO (by Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins at Mashable)
Current.com has filed for a $100 million NASDAQ IPO today, according to PaidContent, with the stock ticker symbol “CRTM”. We’ve covered the network a number of times here, and questioned a few of their strategies (as well as their founder). Not surprisingly, the valuation of the company is far less than the $2 Billion valuation given to it by one of its investors, Ronald W. Burkle, supermarket bag boy turned billionaire… [The company] isn’t profitable, with net losses increasing year over year (in 2006, they were $14.3 million, 2007 they were $17 million).

Continental Airlines To Offer Live TV, E-Mail On U.S. Flights
The airline will offer 36 channels of DirecTV as well as Wi-Fi service that allows passengers to access e-mail and instant messaging.

Israeli Prez: Use Facebook To Fight Hate
Israel’s 84-year-old president Shimon Peres told a group of international students about his idea to combat anti-Semitism: Use the social networking site Facebook to counter the spread of hate.

China steps up Internet video control
BEIJING – China will take a new step Thursday to tighten control of the Internet when rules go into force limiting online video-sharing to state companies. But regulators, wary of hurting a fast-growing industry, are expected to let private operators work around the restrictions.

Myanmar arrests blogger, watchdog says
BANGKOK, Thailand – Myanmar’s junta has stepped up surveillance of the Internet, arresting one blogger who wrote about the stifling of free expression in the military-ruled nation, a media advocacy group said.

Founder says Russian authorities hack critical Web site
NAZRAN, Russia (Reuters) – An opposition Web site in the southern Russian region of Ingushetia accused local authorities on Thursday of trying to shut it down after it promoted protests and published details of kidnaps and murders.

Russia’s heir apparent Medvedev puts up Web site
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Dmitry Medvedev, named by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month as his favored successor, launched his personal Internet site on Wednesday.

Air Your Security Gripes on TSA Blog
WASHINGTON (AP) – Frustrated by long airport-security lines? Certain those screeners aren’t paying attention? Wondering why your grandma always gets frisked? The federal government wants to hear – or at least read – your gripes at the “Evolution of Security” blog the Transportation Security Administration introduced Wednesday. And it promises those complaints and suggestions won’t vanish into thin air.

Beauty Blogs Come of Age: Swag, Please!
As more women turn to blogs for advice on beauty, and magazines like Allure and Glamour have started their own beauty blogs, the cosmetics industry has stopped seeing bloggers as bottom feeders.

Study: U.S. broadband goal nearly reached
In 2004, President Bush pledged that all Americans should have affordable access to high-speed Internet service by 2007. A report to be released Thursday by the administration says it has succeeded — mostly.

EU court: Downloaders can stay private
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Record labels and film studios cannot demand that telecommunications companies hand over the names and addresses of people who are suspected of sharing copyright-protected music and movies online, the EU’s top court ruled Tuesday.

Porn to spice up cell phones
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Size matters in pornography, except when it comes to tiny mobile phone screens, the next frontier for erotica.

Media Buyer: TV To Web Shift Not There Yet; Ready For Mobile (Silicon Alley Insider)
When will TV advertising money start moving on the Web? No time soon, says Margaret Clerkin who helps allocate some $175 million in Web advertising money for clients of MindShare Interaction North America, a unit of WPP. But Clerkin says she is itching to start spending money on mobile ads — once the carriers get their act together.

Scientists Say Bush Stifles Science and Lets Global Leadership Slip
In his final State of the Union address, President George W. Bush devoted several lines to science and technology topics. He called for research and funding to reduce oil dependency and reverse the growth of greenhouse gases… But several scientists around the country aren’t buying what they see as rhetoric not backed by funding. And they are frustrated by what they view as the White House’s morality-based politics that they say ignores scientific evidence, distorts facts and leads to outright censorship of reports and scientists.

Trains, bloggers are threats in US drill
WASHINGTON – It’s the government’s idea of a really bad day: Washington’s Metro trains shut down. Seaport computers in New York go dark. Bloggers reveal locations of railcars with hazardous materials. Airport control towers are disrupted in Philadelphia and Chicago. Overseas, a mysterious liquid is found on London’s subway.

Cisco to Sell Faster Switch for Flood of Remote Data
Cisco Systems plans to introduce a network switch that will increase traffic capacity to 15 trillion bits of data a second.

Super Bowl Fans Should Heed Heart Risk Finding
German study found higher chances of cardiovascular trouble during 2006 World Cup matches

Folic Acid May Help Prevent Premature Birth
Women took the B vitamin for one year before conception, study reports.

Mercury in Childhood Vaccines Excreted Quickly
Doesn’t have time to build to dangerous levels in body, possibly cause autism, new research contends.

Allergic Disease Linked To Irritable Bowel Syndrome
ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2008) — Adults with allergy symptoms report a high incidence of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), suggesting a link between atopic disorders and IBS according to a new study.

Minimally Invasive Surgery Fixes Aneurysms
Study finds advantages over conventional operation

Device Zeroes In On Small Breast Tumors
ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2008) — A new medical imager for detecting and guiding the biopsy of suspicious breast cancer lesions is capable of spotting tumors that are half the size of the smallest ones detected by standard imaging systems, according to a new study.

Brain implant unscrambles memories (video)
Jan. 31 – Canadian researchers say they’ve developed a world first – a brain implant that improves memory. 

Japan researchers put tiny camera in mouse’s brain
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese researchers have implanted a small camera inside a mouse’s brain to see how memory is formed, in an experiment they hope to some day apply to humans to treat illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease. 

Experts unearth medieval Berlin under car park
BERLIN (Reuters) – A team of experts has unearthed an 800-year-old cellar under a central Berlin car park which they say dates the city back to the 12th century, earlier than previously thought.

Mining Site Predates Incan Empire
An ancient iron ore mine discovered in Peru reveals civilizations in the Andes mined the valuable rock before the Inca Empire.

One Common Ancestor Behind Blue Eyes
People with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor, according to new research. A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. The mutation occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, so before then, there were no blue eyes.

Spacewalk Repair Boosts Station’s Power
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – Two astronauts pulled off a riskier and trickier-than-usual spacewalk Wednesday, replacing a failed electric motor and giving the international space station a much-needed power boost.

NASA Photos Reveal Mercury Is Shrinking
WASHINGTON (AP) – The first pictures from the unseen side of Mercury reveal the wrinkles of a shrinking, aging planet with scars from volcanic eruptions and a birthmark shaped like a spider.

Actions don’t match ‘green’ attitudes
Just a slim majority of Americans consider global warming “a very serious problem,” despite an avalanche of publicity on the issue, and many aren’t even taking the “green” actions they support, a nationwide survey suggested today.

Antarctic ice riddle keeps sea-level secrets
TROLL STATION, Antarctica (Reuters) – A deep freeze holding 90 percent of the world’s ice, Antarctica is one of the biggest puzzles in the debate on global warming with risks that any thaw could raise sea levels faster than U.N. projections. Even if a fraction melted, Antarctica could damage nations from Bangladesh to Tuvalu in the Pacific and cities from Shanghai to New York. It has enough ice to raise sea levels by 57 meters (187 ft) if it melted, over thousands of years.

UN: Climate Change May Cost $20 Trillion
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Global warming could cost the world up to $20 trillion over two decades for cleaner energy sources and do the most harm to people who can least afford to adapt, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns in a new report.
But NOT doing anything about it might cost even more.  See below.

Warmer Atlantic Worsens Hurricanes
WASHINGTON (AP) – When the water in the hurricane breeding grounds of the Atlantic warms one degree in the dead of summer, overall hurricane activity jumps by half, according to a new study.

Hawaii’s governor calls for agreement on climate change – Summary
Washington – Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle called on climate officials from the world’s biggest polluting countries to find common ground on combatting global warming, at the start of a US-hosted meeting on the Pacific island Wednesday.

UK greenhouse gas emissions fall in 2006
Britain reversed previous estimates to say its emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases fell in 2006, showing on Thursday that it was already nearing a self-imposed goal for 2025.

Screen-printed Solar Cells In Many Colors And Designs, Even Used In Windows
ScienceDaily (Jan. 31, 2008) — Newly designed solar cells can be screen-printed in a wide array of colors and patterns to allow them to be attractively incorporated into building design. The solar cells also can be used on windows, providing shading from glare while generating electricity. The key component of the new modules is an organic dye which in combination with nanoparticles converts sunlight into electricity. Due to the small size of the nanoparticles, the modules are semi-transparent. This aspect makes them well suited for façade integration.

E. Coli Bacteria: A Future Source Of Energy?
By genetically modifying the bacteria, Thomas Wood, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has “tweaked” a strain of E. coli so that it produces substantial amounts of hydrogen…. Renewable, clean and efficient, hydrogen is the key ingredient in fuel-cell technology, which has the potential to power everything from portable electronics to automobiles and even entire power plants.

Hawaii Poised to Become Big Green Power Player
OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 31, 2008 — Costco Wholesale boasts the distinction of having the two largest solar energy installations in Hawaii, a state that could become a major player in tomorrow’s renewable energy market.

The Greening of Transport, One Mile at a Time
With the soaring cost of fuel and transportation’s dramatic impact on the environment, companies have no choice but to look at logistics as a place to go green. Some successful initiatives rely on small common sense programs that deliver incremental results, such as reduced idling or more direct truck routes.

Free Reusable Bags at Whole Foods
Whole Foods Markets from New Jersey to Virginia began giving away one free reusable bag per customer yesterday to encourage shoppers to “BYOB” — Bring Your Own Bag. The bag had already caught my eye, not only because it’s so cheerful and colorful, but also because it’s made from 80% post-consumer waste. Plus, it’s got a washable surface and actually seems more ample inside than the standard paper grocery bag.

HP Speeds Up Ink-Cartridge Recycling Program
PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 31, 2008 – Hewlett-Packard has already made more than 200 million ink cartridges by recycling old cartridges, and is stepping up its production of recycled-content products to reduce overall waste.

GM Starts Big Push to Green Its Chinese Operations
SHANGHAI, Jan. 31, 2008 — As part of a wide-ranging effort to drive sustainable growth in China, General Motors will fund a $250 million research center in Shanghai, and the automaker’s Chinese division has launched a three-pronged strategy to address its environmental impacts.

Brazil unable to curb Amazon destruction
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s government is unwilling and unable to halt destruction in the Amazon rainforest despite emergency measures it announced last week to curb rising deforestation, environmental experts say. High commodity prices and increased land use elsewhere in Brazil are driving ranchers and farmers deeper into the Amazon in search of cheap land, environmentalists say.

The Guy James Show today will feature Granny Bee’s latest commentary, Bubbleheads! Listen to Guy every weekday from 3 to 5 PM ET on the Head On Radio Network. Guy’s shows are archived at the White Rose Society.

And Granny has been posted at The Specious Report!

Granny Bee’s Home Page

Edwards to quit presidential race
DENVER – Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voter’s sympathies but never diverted his campaign, The Associated Press has learned.
It’s a sad day for progressives.  Clinton is conservative, and Obama is even more conservative.

All Hat No Cattle

Severed heads and bodies found in Iraq field
Police found nine bodies and 10 severed heads in an abandoned field north of Baghdad on Tuesday, in a region where U.S. and Iraqi forces were pressing ahead with offensives against al Qaeda forces.

Army investigating deaths of ’several’ detainees in Iraq
The Army is investigating the deaths of “several” detainees captured in 2007 by the Schweinfurt, Germany-based 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division during its recent deployment to Iraq.

New analysis ‘confirms’ 1 million+ Iraq casualties
Following responses to ORB’s earlier work, which was based on survey work undertaken in primarily urban locations, we have conducted almost 600 additional interviews in rural communities. By and large the results are in line with the ‘urban results’ and we now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been of the order of 1,033,000. If one takes into account the margin of error associated with survey data of this nature then the estimated range is between 946,000 and 1,120,000.

Iraq withdrawal to go ahead, Govt tells US
Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith says he has made it clear to the Bush Administration that Australia will go ahead with the withdrawal of its combat troops from Iraq.

Israel court upholds Gaza sanctions
JERUSALEM – The Israeli Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the government’s cutoff of fuel and electricity to the Gaza Strip, a court spokeswoman said.

Turkish military quiet on head scarves
ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkey’s military has a tradition of interfering in politics, even staging several coups in past decades. But on Wednesday, the chief of the secular armed forces kept a low profile on one of his country’s most explosive issues: the Islamic head scarf.

Study: Afghanistan could fail as a state
WASHINGTON – Afghanistan risks sliding into a failed state and becoming the “forgotten war” because of deteriorating international support and a growing violent insurgency, according to an independent study.

Ex-Bangladesh PM goes on trial for corruption
DHAKA (AFP) – Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed went on trial for corruption on Wednesday, facing accusations that she extorted 435,000 dollars from a power company owner, officials said.

Chinese dumplings sicken 10 Japanese
TOKYO – Ten Japanese were sickened, including a child who fell into a coma, after eating Chinese-made dumplings contaminated with insecticide, police and health officials said Wednesday.

Australia to apologize to Aborigines
CANBERRA, Australia – Australia will issue its first formal apology to its indigenous people next month, the government announced Wednesday, a milestone that could ease tensions with a minority whose mixed-blood children were once taken away on the premise that their race was doomed.

Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – It was lunchtime in one of Haiti’s worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti’s poorest can’t afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies.

‘Rogue trader’ breaks his silence and insists his bosses knew what he was doing
Senior Société Générale officials “closed their eyes” to a culture of cheating on the trading floor, so long as it generated profits, the alleged “rogue trader”, Jérôme Kerviel, told investigators. In verbatim extracts from his questioning at the weekend, seen by The Independent, M. Kerviel says that the ruling maxim of SocGen was: “Not seen, not caught. If you are caught, you are hanged.”
OF COURSE they knew something was wrong.  But whether they did or not, they should all be fired.  They either pulled the wool over their own eyes or they were incompetent.  Either way, they should never work in the securities industry again.

Nigerian police raid newspaper, arrest editor
LAGOS (AFP) – Nigerian police raided an independent newspaper in Abuja and arrested its editor, the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) said Wednesday.

Sudan activists call for help in Darfur
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – In a former life, Emmanuel Jal turned a gun against his government as a conscripted rebel soldier in his native Sudan.

US envoy: ‘Ethnic cleansing’ in Kenya
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – A U.S. envoy said Wednesday that the violence in Kenya’s Rift Valley was “clear ethnic cleansing,” aimed at chasing out President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu people amid the turmoil over the recent disputed presidential election.

White House Shows Signs of Rethinking Cut in Troops
Four months after announcing troop reductions in Iraq, President Bush is now sending signals that the cuts may not continue past this summer, a development likely to infuriate Democrats and renew concerns among military planners about strains on the force.

Bush Issues Signing Statement On Defense Act, Waiving Ban On Permanent Bases In Iraq
President Bush [on Monday] signed the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act… Even though he forced Congress to change its original bill, Bush’s signature … came with a little-noticed signing statement, claiming that provisions in the law “could inhibit the President’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations.” CQ reports on the provisions Bush plans to disregard: “One such provision … bars funding for permanent bases in Iraq and for any action that exercises U.S. control over Iraq’s oil money.”

Bush to charge lawmakers $200 for budget hard copy
President Bush’s budget proposal has never been popular on Capitol Hill, but this year’s request comes with an added layer of insult: a price tag of $200… Lawmakers may read the budget online without cost. But those accustomed to holding a copy in their hands — or distributing multiple copies to their staffs to pore over the details — are going to have to dig into their own pockets and hand over some cash.
Was there ever a president who showed such open contempt for Congress?

Bush orders agencies to ignore earmarks
During his final State of the Union address, Bush announced that he would veto all future appropriations bills that do not cut in half the number and cost of earmarks. He also issued an executive order on Tuesday directing federal agencies to ignore all future earmark requests that are placed into committee reports and not brought to a vote. “The people’s trust in their government is undermined by congressional earmarks, special interest projects that are often snuck in at the last minute, without discussion or debate,” Bush said Monday night.
I actually almost agree with Bush on this.  I think earmarks should be banned, especially ones that don’t get a vote from the whole legislative chamber, but I don’t think it’s up to the executive to bar them.  Is this his way of getting a line item veto, even though it’s been declared unconstitutional?

Mukasey Holds Back on Torture Issue
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said yesterday that the interrogation tactic known as waterboarding appears to be clearly prohibited by current law in some circumstances, but said that other circumstances would present “a far closer question.”

Mukasey: Waterboarding Can Be Used Again If Requested By W. H.
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said Tuesday that the harsh C.I.A. interrogation technique known as waterboarding was not clearly illegal, and suggested that it could be used against terrorism suspects once again if requested by the White House.

Watchdog says Gonzales probe stymied
The government agency that enforces one of the principal laws aimed at keeping politics out of the civil service has accused the Justice Department of blocking its investigation into alleged politicizing of the department under former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Scott Bloch, head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, wrote Attorney General Michael Mukasey last week that the department had repeatedly “impeded” his investigation by refusing to share documents and provide answers to written questions, according to a copy of Bloch’s letter.

F.B.I. Opens Subprime Inquiry
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened criminal inquiries into 14 companies as part of a wide-ranging investigation of the troubled mortgage industry, F.B.I. officials said Tuesday. The F.B.I. said it was looking into possible accounting fraud, insider trading or other violations in connection with loans made to borrowers with weak, or subprime, credit.

White House drops anti-radiation pill plan
The Bush administration has dropped a program to distribute anti-radiation pills to citizens who live near nuclear reactors, officials said. John Marburger, U.S. President George Bush’s top science adviser, said Monday the over-the-counter potassium iodide pills “offer negligible additional protection” against radiation exposure and there were more effective ways to protect citizens, USA Today reported.

FCC wants to fix phone fund
WASHINGTON – The government issued three proposals Tuesday aimed at reining in the spiraling costs of the Universal Service Fund, a subsidy program that provides affordable phone service to people who live in rural areas.
“Fix”, to Republicans, can only mean doing something that benefits industry at the expense of consumers.

Don Young opens a legal defense fund
Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who is under FBI investigation and faces a tough reelection fight, opened a legal defense fund earlier this month, according to House filings.  The House ethics committee approved the defense fund Jan. 9, but it has not reported taking any donations yet, and Young spokesman Mike Anderson would not say if anyone had written checks.

Florida voters turn out for primary
TAMPA, Fla. – A close Republican presidential race and a proposal to lower property taxes brought out Florida voters in large numbers Tuesday.

McCain beats Romney to win Fla. primary
MIAMI – Sen. John McCain won a breakthrough triumph in the Florida primary Tuesday night, seizing the upper hand in the Republican presidential race ahead of next week’s coast-to-coast contests and lining up a quick endorsement from soon-to-be dropout Rudy Giuliani.

Clinton wins primary but no delegates
DAVIE, Fla. – Hillary Rodham Clinton won the Florida Democratic primary Tuesday night, an event that drew no campaigning by any of her presidential rivals and awarded no delegates to the winner.

Obama gives away money tied to donor
WASHINGTON – Barack Obama is giving to charity more than $70,000 in contributions linked to an indicted Chicago businessman whose past connections to the Democratic presidential candidate have created a distraction and raised questions about his judgment.

Can McCain Control His Temper? (Investor’s Business Daily)
McCain admits he’s rubbed some senators the wrong way. But he explains that what they really don’t like is his tough stand against farm subsidies and “pork barrel” spending. If that were the case, we’d say more power to him. But it seems McCain goes ballistic on anyone who disagrees with him. And he’s not just verbally abusive, but physically threatening.

McCain plan to scale back drug benefit gets little attention in Florida
If elected president, Sen. John McCain would pursue reforms to Medicare that could lead to hundreds of thousands of Florida seniors losing their current prescription drug coverage. During his run for the White House, McCain has not obscured his view that the drug benefit needs to be scaled back, indeed even bragging about it at times.

Florida Primary voters reporting problems at polls
On Florida Primary day, voters are reporting problems across Central Florida from Daytona Beach to Hunter’s Creek. Among the precincts experiencing glitches was one in Orange County where voters were told by poll workers early on there was no Democratic primary today.

Government ethics an issue at all levels
WASHINGTON – Anyone who thinks Washington is an ethical quagmire should talk to a cross-section of government employees, who say the problem is worse at the state and local levels.

Ex-Ill. gov appeals to US Supreme Court
CHICAGO – Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to reverse his racketeering and fraud conviction, claiming he did not receive a fair trial.

Wall Street to open lower with Fed ahead
NEW YORK – Stocks headed for a moderately lower opening Wednesday, with investors unlikely to make bold moves ahead of a widely expected interest rate reduction by the Federal Reserve.

Economy nearly stalled in 4th quarter
WASHINGTON – The economy nearly stalled in the fourth quarter with a growth rate of just 0.6 percent, capping its worst year since 2002.

Private sector added 130,000 jobs in Jan: report
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. private employers added 130,000 jobs in January, about three times the number that economists had been expecting, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday.

Mortgage applications near 4-year high
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Applications for home mortgages jumped to their highest level in nearly four years as low interest rates led more homeowners to seek refinancing, according to data from an industry group on Wednesday.

Halliburton Co. enjoys 46% income growth
Net income of the American oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. in 2007 was $3,5 billion, up 46% from $2,4 billion of the previous year. Halliburton reported that revenue was $15,3 billion, an increase of 19% from $12,9 billion in 2006. Halliburton’s net income for the fourth quarter of 2007 was $690 million. This compares to net income of $658 million in the fourth quarter of 2006.
The war industrial complex is doing very well, thank you.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Clinton Finishes Third In Battle For Campaign Coverage (But It’s Bill!!!) (Journalism.org)
With the South Carolina primary as backdrop, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton finished in a near tie in the media derby. But in a nasty week former President Bill Clinton was a bigger newsmaker than any Republican candidate.

A tale of two headlines: Associated Press, “Clinton wins primary but no delegates”; Associated Press, “Clinton claims win in Florida primary”
Every single mention of Hillary Clinton has to diminish her in some way?

Spinning Florida (by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo)
For the Democrats, the big question tonight was how the press would play Hillary Clinton’s ‘win’ in Florida, or how successfully she could spin the result to count as a landslide victory on a par with Obama’s big win in South Carolina. The final number seems to be Hillary 50%, Obama 33%, Edwards 14% which, in numerical terms, is a trouncing, even [if] it doesn’t match the spread in South Carolina. Just judging from the cable news we watched this evening and how the major newspapers are playing it on their websites, it doesn’t look like they get much of a pop.

Silly Voters (by digby)
[D]oes anyone think it’s a good idea for MSNBC to be rude, snide and dismissive about more than a million and a half Democratic voters in Florida (more than double the turnout from 2004)?… [T]he Florida Democratic party actually worked to get their people out to the polls even if there wasn’t a presidential campaign down there and they deserve at least a little bit of credit for getting so many people out under those circumstances. It’s not the news media’s job to make a judgment about whether they were right to do so… The contempt these elites hold for the people of this country is unparalleled. They are smirking and laughing and practically rolling their eyes, even as they report that more than a million Florida citizens cast their votes today. Who do they think they are?

Notes from the Underground (by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo)
We’re getting late word on the subterranean Dem campaign going on in the last few days in Florida. A mailer went out from the Hillary-backing AFSCME. And a Clinton surrogate, Rep. Corrine Brown, did a robocall run for a state initiative that happens to mention that she’s going to be supporting Hillary. Meanwhile, Obama’s allies are in the mix too. Unite, an Obama-backing union, has also sent out a pro-Obama mailer.

THE AGE GAP…. (by Kevin Drum at Political Animal, the Washington Monthly)
A few weeks ago I noted that in New Hampshire Hillary Clinton had lost to Barack Obama among 18-24 year olds and 30-39 year olds, but oddly, had won in the middle group of 25-29 year olds. I wrote it off as a statistical fluke, but guess what? The same thing happened in Florida. Once might be a fluke, but not twice. So what’s going on? Why would Hillary do 10 points better among a small donut hole of 25-29 year olds compared to the two age groups surrounding it? FWIW, this cohort is the one that turned 18 during the four years of Bill Clinton’s second term. Was that a period when Hillary was especially appealing to young voters, who have stuck with her ever since?
Click through to see a chart.

Clinton in bid to calm angry racial debate
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is scrambling to shore up support among black voters and tamp down charges that her presidential campaign has been playing the race card. Following her thumping defeat by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in the South Carolina primary, the former first lady secured an important endorsement Tuesday from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), an influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and a leader of the Out of Iraq Caucus.
It’s starting to look as though Clinton is the uniter and Obama is the divider.  Waters’ endorsement is important, but it gets little play in comparison to the Teddy and Caroline Kennedy endorsements.  And why is there no talk of Camelot with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

THE REBUTTAL…. (by Kevin Drum at Political Animal, the Washington Monthly)
Dana Goldstein didn’t think much of the Democratic rebuttal to the State of the Union address:  “I had been excited about Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ official Democratic rejoinder, but her speech left me cold. It relied on feel-good platitudes over any real, specific critique of President Bush…” Unless I miss my guess, Sebelius was trying to sound like Barack Obama, talking about unity, bipartisanship, ending the rancor in DC, etc. But guess what? Unless you’ve got the gift for it, that kind of stuff just sounds weak and mushy.
And then Sebelius endorsed Obama right after the speech.  How did the Obama campaign arrange for her to be the one to give the SOTU rebuttal, so that her endorsement could have the greatest impact?  I’m telling you, Obama isn’t the political naïf that so many people think he is.

Arlo Guthrie endorses Ron Paul
Arlo Guthrie — of Alice’s Restaurant fame and son of folk legend Woody Guthrie — has endorsed Republican Rep. Ron Paul’s bid for the White House.
Hang down your heads and cry, children of the 60s.

Mitt is staying in the fight. Rudy is out and will endorse McCain (by Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog)
Lots going on in GOP world after the Florida primary. Mitt is staying in the race and taking the fight to McCain over who is the most right wing of the right wingers. Mitt’s got a lot of his own money to spend so this should be fun: “…  We won’t have Rudy to kick around anymore, although we’ll be mocking his candidacy for years to come. What a spectacular disaster. Despite his best finish so far — a distant third, which is way better then his usual sixth place — Rudy is dropping out and backing McCain.

Scarborough: McCain’s Platform Is ‘Less Jobs And More Wars’
During the coverage of  [Tuesday] evening’s Florida primary results, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough discussed the impact of John McCain’s victory with Pat Buchanan. The Republican establishment will rally around McCain and say “he’s the guy,” Buchanan said, but he cautioned that McCain’s vision for America was foreboding. “What does he say? The jobs are never coming back, the illegals are never going home, but we’re gonna have a lot more wars,” Buchanan said of McCain. Scarborough remarked that McCain’s “inviting” presidential platform for the fall consists of “less jobs and more wars”.
Click through to watch the video.

Chris Matthews to McCain: “You’re In My Heart” (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
Chris Matthews is really, really starting to creep me out. He reminds me of an older relative of mine who has no filters on anything he says and so consequently says some very inappropriate things without realizing it. We’ve heard before that John McCain is very popular with the press corps simply because he’s always been very accessible to them, but this is simply taking things a little too far: “There he is! Senator McCain! You know you’re in my heart. “
Click through to watch the video.

Fox News is in for a very rough 2008 (by Eric Boehlert at Media Matters)
Bottom line is that Fox News is in for a very rough 2008. And the umbrella reason for that is quite simple: Eight years ago the all-news cable channel went all-in on the presidency of George Bush and became a broadcast partner with the White House… Fox News years ago made an obvious decision to appeal almost exclusively to Republican viewers. The good news then for Fox News was that it succeeded. The bad news now for Fox News is that it succeeded. Meaning, when the GOP catches a cold, everybody at Fox News gets sick.

Bolton: ‘The Mullahs In Tehran’ Want A Democrat To Win The Presidency In 2008
Voicing his support for the major Republican presidential candidates — who have supported attacking Iran — [Tuesday] on Fox News, Bolton said Iran’s “mullahs” want a Democratic president elected in 2008 in order to ensure that they can continue to pursue building a nuclear weapon… Bolton’s fearmongering on Iran mirrors the conservative strategy around the 2006 elections. At the time, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Dick Cheney, and the White House all suggested al Qaeda was hoping for a Democratic Congress.
Click through to watch the video.

Doing the Media Mash: CNBC, Jon Stewart and Newsweek! (by Ken Doctor at Content Bridges)
Confused about the state of modern mass media? Join the club. You could see the current landscape nicely displayed within a few minutes on CNBC’s Fast Money stock talk fest, which I took in courtesy of Jet Blue yesterday. First the panel wowed itself with its own press clippings, or rather video clippings of the day — where the Fast Money crew had appeared on….TV. Among the clips, one of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. It was the one in which Stewart interviewed CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis, and used Fast Money clips, among others, to skewer money program jargon. (As Motley Fool picked up, there was irony within irony here as Willis, asked to interpret the jargon, got it exactly backwards.) Media eating media eating media.

Why don’t chimpanzees like to barter commodities? (thanks to Economist’s View)
In a series of experiments, chimpanzees at two different facilities were given items of food and then offered the chance to exchange them for other food items. [Researchers] found that the chimpanzees, once they were trained, were willing to barter food with humans, but if they could gain something significantly better – say, giving up carrots for much preferred grapes. Otherwise, they preferred to keep what they had. The observed chimpanzee behavior could be reasonable because chimpanzees lack social systems to enforce deals and, as a society, punish an individual that cheats its trading partner by running off with both commodities.
Well, we don’t have those enforcement systems either, when Republicans are in charge.

Media Matters for America headlines

NBC’s Myers ignored key facts in reporting on controversy over Obama’s home purchase

Carlson — who has said Obama “seems like kind of a wuss” and “sounds like a pothead” — now claims he “give[s] the guy a pass at every turn”

Beck asked, “[Y]ou ever just pictured Ted Kennedy naked?”

Echoing Bush, Hannity and Luntz misrepresented impact of allowing Bush tax cuts to expire

Wash. Post attributed defeat of Bush health-care proposal to partisan politics without reporting Democrats’ substantive criticisms

CNN’s Bash and Snow omitted McCain “shift” on immigration when airing McCain quote that Romney “flip-flopped”

NY Times’ Hulse falsely suggested Dem Congress primary defender of congressional earmarks

Scarborough called Crawford “only guy” defending Bill Clinton’s Jackson comment — ignoring Jackson himself

NY Times article falsely suggested authority to eavesdrop on terrorism suspects expires on Feb. 1

On Fox News, Cunningham repeatedly referred to Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama”

Iran: Leading Women’s Magazine Forced To Close
After 16 years of publication, Iran’s most important women’s magazine, Zanan, has been forced to close after being accused of painting a “dark picture” of Iran.

Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Endorses Media Repression
The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s brazen public call yesterday to censor the media and reintroduce criminal defamation laws.

N.Y. legislation targets Internet predators
New York sex offenders would be required to reveal their online aliases to the state under legislation that aims to protect users of MySpace, FaceBook and other Web hangouts from Internet predators.

Two Groups of Editors Pen Strong Complaints About New AP Fees, Other Practices
Editors from Boston to San Diego are protesting a string of Associated Press practices, from new fee structures to news coverage practices, according to a pair of angry letters sent to AP executives in recent weeks. Tom Curley, AP president, says fees are fair and not likely to change.

Student paper forced to stop publishing after funds frozen
The Montclair State University student body president froze the campus paper’s financing to silence criticism of the student government. The school’s administrators haven’t intervened because “we want our students to experience leadership and conflict resolution,” says a spokeswoman. “This is a very good learning lab.”
It’s good to teach Republican repressive tactics?  I guess I expected more of our college officials.

Writers, Studios Edge Closer
Outlines of a deal are said to be near, raising hopes on both sides.

Experts trying to preserve world’s digital knowledge
An international group of experts began work this week in Washington to tackle a huge problem facing ordinary families, the entertainment industry, scientists, businesses and governments, among others. The problem is that most of the words, sounds or pictures that are created these days come in digital form. They consist of endless streams of electronic zeroes and ones stored on magnetic tapes or computer disks, not printed on paper or film or carved in stone. Digital data can be accessed only by machines whose technology keeps changing and soon is outdated.

Don’t force annoying web ads on readers looking for news
When newspapers force readers to look at online ads that hide the news, they encourage those readers to visit other sites, notes Robert Niles. “Society benefits when large numbers of people read high-quality, accurate and insightful news on a daily basis. But those readers have no responsibility to do so. We, as a news industry, must make them want to do so. And wrapping our reporting with spam, pop-ups, take-overs and irrelevant come-ons is not helping us do that.”
PLEEEEEEEEEZE get rid of the popups associated with links embedded in the text. I can’t stand them!

WSJ’s Web Site Adds Facebook Function
NEW YORK (AP) – The Wall Street Journal has just accepted Facebook’s request to be online friends. Hoping to tap into the growing buzz of online social networks, the Journal is adding a feature to its Web site that will allow readers to see which Journal stories are popular among that user’s Facebook friends.
That’s weird.  News Corp., which now owns the WSJ, also owns Facebook’s biggest rival, MySpace.  Not understanding the strategy here.

Microsoft to Provide Ads to WSJ Sites
Microsoft will become the new provider of paid search and contextual advertising links on sites run by The Wall Street Journal, the companies announced.

Vuitton Is Embracing Medium of the Masses
In an unusual marketing move for a fashion and luxury goods brand, Louis Vuitton said it planned to advertise on television for the first time.

Researchers make tiny radio from nanotubes
Transistor radios tinier than a grain of sand, made using nanotechnology, can not only tune in to the traffic report, but may end up outperforming current silicon-based electronics, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Concern rises over wireless airwaves auction
Bidding remained stalled Tuesday on a key piece of spectrum in the U.S. government’s wireless airwaves auction, prompting concern regulators will have to modify rules requiring some of it be shared with public safety agencies.