USS Cole ‘ordered to position off Lebanese coast’
A US Navy warship has been ordered to take up station off Lebanon’s coast as a “show of support” as the standoff between Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s government and the opposition continues, the Reuters news agency quoted an official in Washington as saying on Thursday.
Isn’t that, uh, tempting fate?  George Bush REALLY REALLY wants him another war.

Wikimedia

US Sending 3 Warships to Eastern Med
The U.S. Navy is sending three warships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon

Turkish troops pull out of Iraq
CUKURCA, Turkey - Turkey’s military said Friday it has ended a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, but said that foreign influence didn’t play a role in its decision.

‘Chemical Ali’ execution OK’d in Iraq
BAGHDAD - Iraq’s presidential council has endorsed the execution within a month of Saddam Hussein’s cousin, known as “Chemical Ali,” for his role in the 1980s scorched-earth campaign against Kurds, officials said Friday. But it spared the life of two other officials amid Sunni protests that they were only following orders.

Israel warns Gaza invasion impending
ASHKELON, Israel - Israeli leaders warned Friday of an approaching conflagration in the Gaza Strip as Israel activated a rocket warning system to protect Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people, from Palestinian rockets.

Suicide bombing in Sri Lanka capital injures seven: police
COLOMBO (AFP) - A Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew himself up on Friday injuring seven people as police moved in to search his house in the Sri Lankan capital, police and military officials said.

Bolivia sets vote on new constitution
LA PAZ, Bolivia - A bitterly divided Bolivian Congress on Thursday approved a national vote on President Evo Morales’ proposed constitution, which would grant greater political power to Bolivia’s long-oppressed indigenous groups.

Cuba signs human rights treaties at UN
UNITED NATIONS - Cuba’s government signed two key international human rights treaties Thursday that Fidel Castro long opposed, but said it had reservations about some provisions and accused the United States of impeding the Cuban people’s enjoyment of their rights.

Prince Harry pulled out of Afghanistan after cover blown
LONDON (AFP) - The British military decided Friday to pull Prince Harry “immediately” out of Afghanistan after news of his deployment leaked out in the media, the Ministry of Defence said.

Court gags ex-SAS man who made torture claims
A former SAS soldier was served with a high court order yesterday preventing him from making fresh disclosures about how hundreds of Iraqis and Afghans captured by British and American special forces were rendered to prisons where they faced torture. Ben Griffin could be jailed if he makes further disclosures about how people seized by special forces were allegedly mistreated and ended up in secret prisons in breach of the Geneva conventions and international law.

Darfur refugee influx into Chad tops 13,000 in February: UN
GENEVA (AFP) - The United Nations refugee agency said Friday that 3,000 refugees from Darfur have arrived in Chad in the last week, bringing the total number to over 13,000 in February alone.

IRS sending millions of rebate alerts
WASHINGTON - Don’t be alarmed. More than 130 million households will get letters from the IRS starting next week — and it’s good news, not bad.

ACLU: 900,000 Names on U.S. Terror Watch Lists
The FBI now keeps a list of over 900,000 names belonging to known or suspected terrorists, the American Civil Liberties Union said today. Last September, the ACLU notes, the Department of Justice’s Inspector General reported the FBI watch list was at 700,000 names, and growing at 20,000 names per month.

One in 100 US adults behind bars: study
WASHINGTON (AFP) — More than one in 100 adults are now behind bars in the United States, home to the world’s largest penal population, with a startling one in nine young black men incarcerated, a study showed Thursday… America also has the dubious distinction of leading the planet in the rate of incarceration, which is higher than nations like South Africa and Iran, the study said.

State Dept. orders another review of troubled Baghdad embassy
The State Department’s new embassy construction chief has rejected his predecessor’s certification that the $740 million new U.S. embassy in Baghdad is “substantially completed” and has instead begun a top-to-bottom review of the troubled project.

Pennsylvania nuclear plant investigated
WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission acknowledged Thursday that more should have been done to thoroughly investigate a tip that security guards routinely took naps while on the job at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant.

Conservatives block ethics reform bill. (Think Progress)
Yesterday evening, House Democrats were forced to pull an ethics reform proposal after widespread opposition by Republicans, as well as a few Democrats. Several lawmakers insisted that the current system “is working” and there is no need for an independent, bipartisan Office of Congressional Ethics. In an effort to scuttle the office, senior House Republican aides have drawn up a hit list of Democratic lawmakers to target with investigations.  3:32

Republicans Block Consideration of Housing Relief Package in Senate
Senate Republicans yesterday blocked consideration of a bill designed to prop up the struggling housing industry. The mortgage industry has waged a stiff lobbying campaign against the bankruptcy provision.

Committee authorizes subpoena for Blackwell
On a party line vote, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee today approved giving its chairman the authority to subpoena former Republican Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to testify about the 2004 election.

Senate shelves Iraq U.S. troop withdrawal bill
A liberal Democrat’s attempt to impose quick U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq collapsed in the U.S. Senate, as expected, but leaders on Thursday insisted they will retool legislation and force votes in coming months.

Texas contest includes primary, caucus
AUSTIN, Texas - People here like to say everything is bigger in Texas, and their oversized presidential contest is no different with not just a primary election, but a caucus added on, too.

Clinton counts on women for comeback
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Fighting to survive, Hillary Rodham Clinton is counting on female power to energize her faltering presidential bid. She’s hoping a double-digit lead among women in Ohio is the answer.

McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out
John McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office. Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed.
This non-issue is as silly as those who are saying Hillary Clinton can’t be president because the Nineteenth Amendment only gave women the right to vote, not the right to be president.

UN experts criticize New Orleans housing
NEW ORLEANS - Two human rights experts for the United Nations on Thursday criticized a federal plan to raze public housing projects in New Orleans, saying it will force the predominantly black residents into homelessness.

Abu Ghraib prison turned soldiers evil by design: researcher
MONTEREY, California (AFP) - The very design of Abu Ghraib in Iraq turned good soldiers into evil tormentors that humiliated and brutalized prisoners, a famed social psychologist said Thursday… [Stanford University professor Philip Zimbardo] is renowned for the 1971 Stanford prison experiment in which students on summer break play roles as guards or prisoners in a mock prison in the basement of a building on the university’s campus in Northern California. The pretend guards grew so sadistic and the prisoners so cowed that the experiment was halted prematurely out of concern for the students.

Economy & Finance

Wall Street stocks head for lower open
NEW YORK - Wall Street headed for opening losses Friday after disappointing earnings from American International Group Inc. and Dell Inc. underscored the challenging economic environment in which companies now operate.

Bush says US not headed into a recession
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Thursday the country is not recession-bound and, despite expressing concern about slowing economic growth, rejected for now any additional stimulus efforts. “We acted robustly,” he said.

Growth dries up
The U.S. economy slowed sharply in the fourth quarter, growing at a slightly lower than anticipated 0.6% annual rate.

Bush blasts Senate mortgage bill
Charging that it would do more to help lenders and speculators than struggling homeowners and also lead to higher interest rates, President Bush urges lawmakers to  reject a Senate bill allowing bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of mortgages.
When did Bush start objecting to helping lenders and speculators, as opposed to struggling homeowners?

Oil crosses $103 courtesy of Bernanke comments (by Chris in Paris at AMERICAblog)
The weak dollar policy is just crushing consumers and careless comments by Bernanke just don’t help. In all likelihood they probably thought they could control the dollar and keep it in a range to help promote exports. It’s a misguided policy but certainly one that many subscribe to in politics. Unfortunately for everyone else, the Administration failed in so many other areas and the rug has been pulled from under their feet. They lost any control they had over this situation long ago and the collapsing banking industry is compounding the problem.

Consumer spending stalls in January
WASHINGTON - Consumer spending was essentially flat for the second straight month in January, raising new concerns about a possible recession.

Euro keeps on climbing against dollar
BERLIN - The euro continued its rapid climb to new highs against the dollar on Friday, hitting $1.5238 in early European trading.

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

I will be a guest on Head-On with Bob Kincaid today at 6:00 PM ET.  Listen to Bob from 6:00 to 9:00 PM ET every weekday on the Head-On Radio Network.

Poll: Huge Majority Thinks Internet Is Having “Positive Impact” On Journalism (by Greg Sargent at TPM Horse’s Mouth)
John Zogby has a very interesting new poll out that probes public attitudes towards the Internet and its relationship to the traditional news media. Check out these numbers: * Web sites are seen as a “more important source of news and information than traditional media outlets.”… [And] three in four, or 75%, think the Internet has “had a positive impact on the overall quality of journalism.”… It’s worth noting that this is an online poll, but the numbers are still significant. They suggest a real and growing base of support for the idea that the Internet and blogs are having a salutary effect on journalism and are as credible or more so than traditional media.

SNL’s Take on the Election Is Better Than Most News Coverage (by Carol Jenkins, Women’s Media Center. Posted at AlterNet)
As Tim Russert showed in Tuesday’s debate, the mainstream media seems to think it’s the third candidate in the Democratic presidential race.

Pew survey: Obama up but potholes ahead (Hot on the Trail, McClatchy Washington Bureau)
A survey released [Thursday] by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows… Democratic primary voters … prefer Obama to Hillary Clinton 49 percent to 40 percent… But if Obama were to emerge as the Democratic nominee, some trends could undercut his edge even though polls show him more popular than McCain right now. One in five white Democratic voters said they would cross party lines to vote for McCain over Obama; that’s twice as many as if Clinton were the nominee. Meanwhile, 56 percent of voters think Obama’s promises are too vague. Another 43 percent worry he isn’t tough enough on foreign affairs.

The press will torment Obama, too (by Eric Boehlert at Media Matters)
With Sen. Barack Obama now emerging as the Democratic front-runner, clear signs suggest that his press treatment will soon change and that the media will fall back into their routine of viewing — and critiquing — leading Democrats through the eyes of Republican spin. Just last week, we saw how a single line from a Michelle Obama speech was seized upon by conservative partisans, led by Fox News, to suggest she is not patriotic, and how that attack was given a wider airing in the mainstream press… Meanwhile, in Sunday’s New York Times, Obama was twice described as being overly effeminate… Writing at Slate.com, John Dickerson announced he’s had enough of the Obama euphoria: “Isn’t there a natural limit to our enthusiasm for to this kind of sweeping phenomenon?”… I’m not sure this foreshadows a full-fledged media backlash against Obama, but it certainly suggests a fundamental shift is on the horizon. The pendulum is swinging.

Fox News Falsely Claims That Weatherman Bill Ayers Was Obama’s “Mentor” (by Greg Sargent at TPM Horse’s Mouth)
The germ of the story — that Obama has some sort of relationship with [unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers] — is true. But look at how creatively [John] Batchelor embellishes the whole tale… You see, in Fox’s telling, now Ayers is Obama’s “mentor” and he and fellow Weather Underground member Bernadine Dohrn were “principals” on his first campaign for state senate. Also note how [John] Batchelor slyly slips in the reference to September 11th, an obvious effort to connect the bombing by Obama’s “mentor” to the terrorism that brought down the towers. [G]et ready for eight months of this sort of garbage. It’s going to get a lot uglier than this.

IT’S TIME FOR THEM TO GROW: (by Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler)
[Wednesday] night, in Hardball’s opening segment, a panel of pundits discussed two events: Bill Cunningham’s anti-Obama rant, and the scurrilous, moronic press release from the Tennessee Republican party. All these pundits understand what is involved in these events. They all understand that the Tennessee press release is 1) an attempt to play racial/ethnic politics, and 2) an attempt to reinforce the crackpot claims that Obama’s a scary Muslim. But to our eye, the pundits seemed weirdly constrained in their comments. Hence a question, one which has presented quite early in the current campaign: Do these pundits intend to speak clearly about what is occurring this year?… Americans of all political stripes should hound these people to the gates of hell if they spend the next nine months pretending they can’t see what’s before them.

WHY THE MUSLIM SMEAR IS BIGGER THAN ISLAM… (by Ari Berman at Campaign Matters, The Nation)
So far, the Obama Campaign has effectively battled the multi-pronged smear [that he is secretly a Muslim] with several tacks…. Yet  [Naomi] Klein believes Obama must go further. “What he has never done,” she writes, is “denounce the attacks themselves as racist propaganda, in this case against Muslims.”… [T]he larger imperative [of right-wing attacks] is to undermine the character, credibility and honesty of the candidate, developing a resilient narrative to poison media coverage and stoke fundamental doubts about anything the candidate says.
And that is what few in the Democratic leadership seem to have understood, that it’s not enough to point out that these attacks are false, and simply present the truth.  These kinds of smears go deep into the psyche of people willing to believe them.  Democrats need to attack the sources of the smears and expose them for who and what they are.  I’ve been saying it for eight years.  Look what 16 years of filth promotion has done to the other Democratic candidate still in contention for the nomination.  Even a lot of Democrats have been poisoned against her.

Reba Shimansky update:
I have always thought that the media has given Obama a free ride regarding his membership in the  Trinity United Church of Christ which just gave Farrakhan an award and his relationship with Jermiah Wright who said that the United States had it coming for 09/11… [Wednesday night] I attended a lecture given by Pat Robertson. I asked him if  he thought the GOP would make Obama`s church and minister an issue in the 2008 campaign. He said that McCain will not make it an issue but under the radar organizations connected to the GOP will.

D’oh! (by Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo)
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) has always been one of my favorite buffoons in Congress. No one trick pony, he’s been putting in long moron hours for years up on the Hill and on the chat shows. But it was a particular tour de force even for Jack when he showed up last night on MSNBC to bash Barack Obama for not wearing a flag lapel … without remembering to wear one himself …
Click through to watch the Dan Abrams show video.

Obama staffer gave warning of NAFTA rhetoric (Canadian TV)
Barack Obama has ratcheted up his attacks on NAFTA, but a senior member of his campaign team told a Canadian official not to take his criticisms seriously, CTV News has learned. Within the last month, a top staff member for Obama’s campaign telephoned Michael Wilson, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, and warned him that Obama would speak out against NAFTA, according to Canadian sources. The staff member reassured Wilson that the criticisms would only be campaign rhetoric, and should not be taken at face value.

CTV Re-confirms Obama NAFTA Story (Taylor Marsh)
Obama’s campaign issued a statement declaring “inaccuracies,” while Obama himself said during a plane press gaggle … that the Canadian government had denied it happened… [I spoke] personally to Greg McIsaac of CTV to get a statement: “The facts of our story are accurate.” [Thursday night], we get [a video], featuring CTV’s Tom Clark who reconfirms their original story, which they stood by in their statement to me.
Think about it.  What possible reason could CTV have for making up a story like that?  Why and how would they even think of it?  Do they have fiction writers on their staffs the way our networks do?  And it’s not as though it’s the first time Obama has displayed his dog whistling capabilities.  Click through to watch the video.

Obama and the Media Invoke Senator Clinton’s Pre-war Position By Way of Selective Memory (by David Fiderer at The Huffington Post, thanks to No Quarter)
Clinton’s position was substantially similar to that of Hans Blix, who believed that Saddam would never allow intrusive WMD inspections without the threat of force. But once the inspections were under way, neither Clinton nor Blix saw any basis or pursuing military action. McCain’s position was like Dick Cheney’s. He didn’t care about inspectors or evidence of WMD. He just wanted war, period… Obama and the media prefer to suggest some equivalency between the pre-war positions of Senators Clinton and McCain, conflating the October 2002 vote with the decision to invade in March 2003. As I’ve explained before on HuffPost, this is less than entirely honest. Republicans and their lapdogs have been pulling this same stunt since 2004.
The Iraq resolution required President Bush to get UN backing.  He didn’t get the backing, but he invaded Iraq anyway.  I hate the fact that so many Democrats fell for Bush’s dishonesty, but you don’t fight gullibility for dishonesty by being dishonest yourself.

Clinton raises $35 million in 1 month
WASHINGTON - Rebounding from weak fundraising in January, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to raise $35 million in February, a figure rival Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign said it would surpass, a campaign official said Thursday.
Of course, he will surpass her.  He ALWAYS has to surpass her.  Every little scrap of good news for Clinton has to be surpassed.  She can’t have ONE.  TINY.  MOMENT.  in the sun.

To the Editor [of the New York Times]:
Re “Begrudging His Bedazzling,” by Maureen Dowd (column, Feb. 27): Ms. Dowd says Hillary Rodham Clinton is lame for accusing journalists of treating her campaign differently than they treat Barack Obama’s, and applauds the “open-mindedness of the press” in its treatment of Senator Clinton. Here are the words she uses in association with Senator Clinton: “desperate,” “primal scream,” “clanging,” “churlish,” “discombobulated,” “gloomy,” “flipping,” “begrudging,” “whining,” “experience,” “pea green with envy,” “Sybil,” “cascading,” “dizzying,” “unsettling,” “struggling,” “tartly,” “peevishly,” “pointlessly,” “sarcasm.” And here are the words she uses for Senator Obama: “golden child,” “sunny,” “consistency,” “bedazzling,” “confidence,” “excitement,” “exceptionally easy in his skin.” If Ms. Dowd wants to make the point that she doesn’t like Senator Clinton, then she’s made it. If she wants to make the point that the press treats Mrs. Clinton fairly, contrary to what the senator may believe, then this column, alas, has made Senator Clinton’s point.

Is the media biased against Hillary Clinton?
Are media outlets biased against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton due to her gender? It’s an open question and one I’m not prepared to answer. But Tuesday night’s debate in Cleveland certainly blew open some angles for examination. First, there’s the time question: Who got more of it? According to The New York Times Web site’s Democratic debate analysis page, Clinton spoke for 30:43 while Sen. Barack Obama spoke for 38:17 (the moderators spoke for 16 minutes). So Obama was allowed some 25 percent more critical time on-camera.

Sklar: Why are pundits suggesting Hillary drop out now?
That seems a tad dire, says Rachel Sklar, “so it’s surprising that it’s become such a media meme.” She adds: “I’ve watched the same debates, the same coverage, and don’t agree that ‘a referee would stop the fight,’ as Bob Herbert says, nor that ‘Hillary Clinton is exhausted, and her supporters are becoming increasingly demoralized.’”

Daily Show: Anti-Hillary Conspiracy (video)
The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee, in the Anti-Hillary war room of the Paula Jones Conference Center, admits that the press has been out to get Hillary for years.

What The Times Didn’t Tell About McCain (By Robert Scheer, Truth Dig)
As John McCain twisted briefly in the wind kicked up by that New York Times story suggesting he had swapped political favors for the personal favors of an attractive lobbyist for the telecommunications industry, I kept waiting for the media policy punch line. Surely the Times would spell out just what it was that McCain had delivered to big media beyond what the paper originally reported: an all-too-typical congressional request that the FCC speed up its review of a broadcast licensing dispute.

McCain Resurrected (by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone)
John McCain, defying the expectations of almost everyone who watched him last summer — myself included — has risen from the political dead to wrap up the GOP nomination. He’s survived because Onward to Victory is the last great illusion the Republican Party has left to sell in this country, even to its own followers. They can’t sell fiscal responsibility, they can’t sell “values,” they can’t sell competence, they can’t sell small government, they can’t even sell the economy. All they have left to offer is this sad, dwindling, knee-jerk patriotism, a promise to keep selling world politics as a McHale’s Navy rerun to a Middle America that wants nothing to do with realizing the world has changed since 1946. The lesson of the McCain campaign is that one should never underestimate America’s capacity for self-delusion.

The Surge Goes on Forever (Think Again by Eric Alterman, Center for American Progress)
Almost every one of the 18 benchmarks laid out by the Bush administration have failed, yet the spinning never ends.

Ben Bernanke’s Theories on the Economy and Rent (by Dean Baker)
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress yesterday that he didn’t think that the economy would experience a recession. He also claimed that the collapse of the housing market could fuel inflation by pushing up rents. It would have been useful if the media had provided some background for these assertions. As far as Mr. Bernanke’s assessment of the risk of a recession due to the collapse of the housing bubble, it is worth reminding readers that Mr. Bernanke consistently denied that there was a housing bubble… [T]he switch from owning to renting is being matched by the number of ownership units being converted to rental units, leaving little net change in the demand for rental units.

Media Matters for America headlines

Will MSNBC devote as much coverage to McCain’s embrace of Hagee’s support as it did to Obama’s rejection of Farrakhan?

Limbaugh defended Cunningham’s use of Obama’s middle name

Scarborough, Brzezinski defended MSNBC from charges of “sexism” in political coverage

NY Times again ignored its own reporting on McCain public funds waffling

Wash. Times falsely claimed Obama “urg[ed] the Bush administration to conduct air strikes against terrorist targets in Pakistan without its approval”

Media reporting on McCain-Obama dispute over Iraq ignore previous McCain statements on Iraq as a potential “base for Al Qaeda”

Misrepresenting debate question, Wash. Post said Obama “did not directly answer” a question about his pastor and Farrakhan

Wash. Post’s Milloy mischaracterized Bill Clinton’s “fairy tale” comment

CNN’s John King again failed to note that Cunningham has a history of referring to Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama”

Fox News’ Powers asserted, “I would have just immediately denounced” Farrakhan — but Obama did

WSJ uncritically reported McCain attack on Obama over public financing, ignored his loan

Russert continues pattern of misrepresenting facts in debate questions for Clinton

O’Reilly: “I don’t see any difference between Huffington and the Nazis,” KKK

Iraq journalist union head dies after gun attack
The head of Iraq’s biggest journalist organization died on Wednesday, colleagues said, four days after being seriously wounded by gunmen who opened fire on his car in Baghdad.

Journalist for CTV labelled ‘unlawful enemy combatant’ by U.S. military
The U.S. military has designated a journalist employed by CTV in Afghanistan as an unlawful enemy combatant. A military spokesman told the Associated Press that a review board has determined Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan national, is a danger to foreign troops and the Afghan government.

Missing: Minorities in Media (by Laura S. Washington, In These Times. Posted at AlterNet)
In the wake of racial upheaval, the 1968 “Riot Report” concluded the media had to improve its coverage of Black America. Has it?

Prince’s cover in Afghanistan blown by Drudge Report
An American website, the Drudge Report, broke a news blackout yesterday by revealing that Prince Harry has been serving in Afghanistan for more than two months. To the fury of the Ministry of Defence and condemnation from the head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, the website announced a “world exclusive” and proclaimed: “They’re calling him ‘Harry the Hero!”. The article brought to an end an agreement with the media that the Prince’s deployment to Helmand be kept quiet in the interests of his safety and that of the soldiers with him.

Supermarket tabloid ran controversial Obama photo last May
The AP photo of Barack Obama in a turban and robe ran in the Globe supermarket tabloid last year. “I’m shocked no one made a big deal out of this months ago,” says editor Tony Frost. “Here you have a man whose middle name is Hussein dressed as a Muslim. I thought it was a great news photo.”
It’s just more proof of the power of the right-wing media machine.

Small Towns, Big Profits: How Many Papers Survive Slump
What industry declines? While Wall Street analysts predict a future for newspapers in ever more apocalyptic terms, the fact is: Many small-market papers are not just surviving, but thriving. How do they do it?

Sun-Times’ #2 investor is hiring a bank to find buyers
K Capital Partners says it doesn’t have confidence in Sun-Times Media Group’s board to negotiate a sale that will be beneficial to shareholders.

NYT to meet with dissident shareholder’s board candidates
The New York Times Co. has confirmed reports that it will meet with the four directors being proposed by Harbinger Capital, which now owns 19% of the Times’ public stock.

Some good news!: WP staffers are getting a game room
There will be Wii, air hockey, and foosball. “Word is that the nod to dot-com-style workplace recreation is coming from the paper’s new publisher, Katharine Weymouth,” writes Erik Wemple.

How long will Murdoch tolerate WSJ’s global warming stance?
While other global waming denialists voice their opinions fairly carefully these days, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page remains vociferous and unrelenting, says David Sassoon, who notes that Rupert Murdoch believes climate change poses clear catastrophic threats. “The Journal likes to call people who voice such opinions ‘global warmists’ and ‘alarmists,’” writes Sassoon. “None of its editorial writers has yet been imprudent enough to slap the label on Father Murdoch, and so far he has been tolerant of the wayward behavior of his most recently adopted children.”

Conservatives don’t like Washington Times’ style changes
Tim Graham of the Media Research Center says the changes — “we will use illegal immigrants, not illegal aliens,” and other style tweaks — suggest that Washington Times executive editor John Solomon “has his eyes on impressing the national media elite, and not just impressing the inside-the-Beltway readership of the Times.”

Film prompted first humane slaughter law
WASHINGTON - A film showing slaughterhouse workers abusing animals spurs demands for the federal government to put a stop to the behavior. That happened this year — and also a half-century ago, when a Seattle animal rights activist filmed hogs being mistreated at a Washington state slaughterhouse.
This shows how much good media can do for the world.  Sadly, we also know how much bad they can do.

Viacom Profit Rises 16% on Strong Ad Revenue
The chief executive said that the company benefited from a shift of ad dollars to cable from broadcast during the writers’ strike.

Liberty Media gets DirecTV as News Corp deal completed
NEW YORK, Feb 27, 2008 (AFP) - Liberty Media, the holding company of tycoon John Malone, completed a deal Wednesday that takes control of satellite broadcaster DirecTV from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Beijing Olympics: Chinese State Broadcaster Makes Online Plans With MySpace China, Tudou.com (Paid Content)
An intriguing move by China Central Television … the Wall Street Journal reports that the state-run broadcaster is tying up with MySpace China and online-video site Tudou.com for an interactive Olympics site. As is customary with IOC rights deals, the site’s streaming video will be—well, should be—available only in China. Users also will be able to contact Olympic athletes through the site.

What a Choice! Sex with a Sleaze for $100,000 or Writing for Peanuts
Sites like SugarDaddy.com lure young women by offering them far more money than they could get in most professions. What’s wrong with this picture?
Gives a whole new meaning to the term social media.

Yahoo battling 7 shareholder suits
SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Yahoo Inc. is facing seven shareholder lawsuits alleging the slumping Internet pioneer bungled its response to Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited takeover bid.

Bill Gates links up with LinkedIn
SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp.’s big bet on Facebook’s online social network isn’t stopping Chairman Bill Gates from promoting other popular Internet hangouts.

Group sues Justice for Google contacts
WASHINGTON - An online privacy group is asking a federal court to order the release of all communications between Google Inc. and a former Justice Department official who now works for the Internet search company.

Your Wordpress Blog Can be a Forum? (by Kristen Nicole at Mashable)
The developer community for Wordpress and Wordpress themes is getting to be a pretty big and dedicated group, and Jeffro has come across an interesting Wordpress theme from The_dead_one (TDO), that essentially turns your blog into a forum. If you head over to TDO’s Demo Forum, you can see exactly how this works. You’ll notice that post comments are in a forum reply format, giving site visitors an opportunity to create their own “entry” in response to the original blog post. From there, blog posts are then listed by the date of the last comment, instead of the original blog’s publish date.

Net company sued for holding domain names
A company that sells Internet addresses is being sued for its controversial practice of holding a domain name in reserve if someone checks for its availability but does not buy it right away.

Google joins $300m Unity cable project
Google has confirmed its long-expected participation in the Asian bandwidth business with a stake in a new multi-terabit cable between Japan and the US.

Interrassisch deepthroat MPEGsComic hentai - NAMIkostenlose Hand Video Clips Otk Spankingpreeteen AsianSex-Film Dschungel Proben Interrassischnackt Mädchen Kostenlos minderjährigeEhefrau Rio Amateurnackt Bilder bbw KostenlosScheiden afeitadasvon nackten Kostenlos clits großen Frauen Bilder mit

Over 50 percent of companies fire workers for e-mail, Net abuse
San Francisco - Think you can get away with using e-mail and the Internet in violation of company policy? Think again.

Learn Beatles tunes via Web video
Help! Any Beatles fans who have struggled to learn to play guitar on “Revolution,” “A Hard Day’s Night” or other Fab Four megahits can now find assistance on the Web, while saving big bucks on private lessons.

Teen charged in cyber crime network
A New Zealand teenager allegedly at the center of an international cyber crime network appeared Friday in court where he was charged with computer hacking crimes.

Trawl of two groups’ genes shows differences
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A trawl through the genes of white people in Utah and Yoruba people in Nigeria shows a significant number of differences that can explain why some groups respond differently to drugs than others. 

Monkey Gene That Blocks AIDS Viruses Evolved More Than Once
Findings hint epidemic is not unique to present, afflicted humans’ primate ancestors

Spanking Raises Chances of Risky, Deviant Sexual Behavior
Review found physical punishment of kids linked to unprotected, masochistic sex as adults

Kids vaccine linked to fever, seizures
Children suffered higher rates of fever-related convulsions when they got a Merck & Co. combination vaccine instead of two separate shots, according to a new study presented Wednesday.

Baxter Recalls Rest of Heparin Products
Investigation into allergic reactions, deaths related to blood thinner continues.

Vitamin E Supplements May Raise Lung Cancer Risk
Study found a slight but significant association.

Broccoli Sprout Extract Hinders Bladder Cancer Development
Rats given concentrated dose had risk of growths cut in half, study says

Ginkgo Biloba Might Not Preserve Memory in Octogenarians
Study saw no clear benefit, but did see small number of strokes, mini-strokes

Family Of Liver Cancer Genes Discovered
ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Stony Brook University Medical Center has identified a family of genes linked to the development of liver cancer.

Thalidomide Shows Promise For Treatment Of Recurrent Ovarian Cancer, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — Thalidomide, a drug blamed in the 1950s for causing birth defects, is now showing promise as a safe and effective treatment for women with recurrent ovarian cancer, according to a study led by a University of Minnesota Cancer Center researcher.

Stress And Fear Can Affect Cancer’s Recurrence
ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — A scientist shows that mind may indeed affect matter. After the surgical removal of a malignant tumor, the chance that cancer will re-appear in a different location of the body remains high. But new research from Tel Aviv University, in a bold new field called Psychoneuroimmunology, may prevent those cancer cells from taking root again — and the key to the treatment is stress reduction.

Blind Irishman sees with the aid of son’s tooth in his eye
An Irishman blinded by an explosion two years ago has had his sight restored after doctors inserted his son’s tooth in his eye, he said on Wednesday.

Scientists See Deep Inside Human Brain
The human brainstem, the most primitive area of our brains, has been notoriously difficult to image because of its small size. Now researchers have devised a new experimental technique that produces some of the best functional images ever taken of the human brainstem.

What Separates You From Chimps
Scientists keep finding more similarities between humans and chimps. They share most of our genes, they seem to be able to handle tools, and they grasp some English pretty well, too. Now researchers have found that we share a similar brain pattern when communicating.

Electric Fish Advertise Their Bodies
Male fish can amp up their electric fields to woo females and intimidate rivals, research now reveals.

Bats use same flying trick as insects: study
LONDON (Reuters) - Bats stay aloft by employing an aerodynamic trick previously thought unique to insects, researchers said on Thursday. 

Remote Canada town a hub for Northern Lights seekers
YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories (Reuters) - In the subarctic woods of Canada’s Northwest Territories, a quiet crowd searches the moonlit sky, a wave of concern creeping into hushed voices. Time is running out.

Graphite Whiskers, Rather Than Dark Energy, Could Explain Dimness Of Stellar Explosions
ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — Interstellar space may be strewn with tiny whiskers of carbon, dimming the light of far-away objects. This discovery by scientists at the Carnegie Institution may have implications for the “dark energy” hypothesis, proposed a decade ago in part to explain the unexpected dimness of certain stellar explosions called Type1a supernovae.

Seafloor Cores Show Tight Bond Between Dust And Past Climates
ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — Each year, long-distance winds drop up to 900 million tons of dust from deserts and other parts of the land into the oceans. Scientists suspect this phenomenon connects to global climate–but exactly how, remains a question. Now a big piece of the puzzle has fallen into place, with a study showing that the amount of dust entering the equatorial Pacific peaks sharply during repeated ice ages, then declines when climate warms.

High-tech insulator created from rice husks
A Malaysian scientist says she has discovered a cheap way to turn discarded rice husks into a high-tech material that could reduce electricity bills, protect buildings from bomb blasts and make airplanes and tennis rackets lighter.

EPA Could Exempt Farms From Reporting Certain Emissions
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 28, 2008 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to exempt farms from reporting emissions of certain toxic gases, such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide.

America’s Toxic 10 Corporate Polluters - A Story of Contradictions
America’s “Toxic 10,” a special report put out by Conde Nast portfolio.com, demonstrates that we have entered a new realm of corporate environmental governance. We frequently read headlines that highlight corporate sustainability initiatives, like “Ford’s New Green Roof Initiative” or “Boeing’s New Fuel-Efficient Airplanes.” But the sad reality is that corporate giants, by and large, continue to violate egregious crimes against human health and nature. Almost every company listed in the “Toxic 10″ has promoted some form of corporate greening, but this article shows that these may be attempts to legitimate and continue their polluting practices more than anything else.
Well, at least they’re coming to realize that the public doesn’t favor their polluting ways.  It’s better than ignoring us altogether.

California Grocers Recycled 2.3 Billion Pounds of Materials in 2006
OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 28, 2008 — The amount of plastic, paper, wood and waste recycled by 90 percent of the state’s grocers in 2006 was 100 million pounds more than in 2005.

Aravo Solutions and WSP Partner to Make Supply Chain Carbon Counts Easier
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 29, 2008 — The supply chain management company and WSP’s environmental consultancy announced a partnership that aims to help companies of all sizes take stock of the emissions associated with every step in their supply chains.

China Tightens Environmental Standards
OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 29, 2008 — Corporate Chinese polluters may have a harder time raising capital if they don’t improve and disclose their environmental performance. Separately, the country’s largest plastic bag producer closed earlier this month following announcement of a bag ban.

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Marines halt study critical of MRAP program
The Marine Corps has ordered a civilian scientist to stop work on a report critical of its efforts to obtain new armored vehicles, saying he exceeded his authority, a Marine official said Tuesday. Franz Gayl, a retired Marine officer and civilian science adviser, alleged in a Jan. 22 report that “gross mismanagement” of the program to quickly field Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles had resulted in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of Marines in Iraq.
Of course he went beyond his authority.  He was only authorized to find out that the Marine Corps did nothing wron