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[Caro]

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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Top Story

Bush Bothered By G-8 Stomach Bug
(CBS/AP) President Bush was going to miss the morning session on the last day of the Group of Eight summit in Germany due to a stomach ailment, according to White House aides… According to (spokesman Dan) Bartlett, the president want to avoid following in his father's footsteps — a reference to the time the first President Bush was sick during a state visit, and vomited on the Japanese prime minister.
He never misses a chance to dis his dad. No wonder Poppy likes Bill better now. —Caro

The Radical Fringe

The World

14 killed at Iraqi police chief's house
BAGHDAD - Carloads of attackers descended on a police chief's house northeast of Baghdad at dawn Friday, killing the official's wife, two brothers and 11 guards, and kidnapping three of his grown children, Diyala provincial police reported.

U.S. death toll in Iraq passes 3,500
BAGHDAD - The four-year U.S. military death toll in Iraq passed 3,500 after a soldier was reported killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. A British soldier was also shot to death Thursday in southern Iraq, as Western forces find themselves increasingly vulnerable under a new strategy to take the fight to the enemy.

3 Turk soldiers killed in security zone
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkey's military command declared its "unshakable determination" early Friday to defeat Kurdish separatists hours after a roadside bomb killed three Turkish soldiers and wounded six.

Arms sought for pro-Abbas faction
JERUSALEM - Security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are seeking Israeli permission to import anti-tank missiles, grenades and other weapons in their battle against Hamas, Israeli and Palestinian security officials said Thursday.

NKorea launches missiles off its coast
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea fired missiles into waters off its coast in an apparent test launch Thursday, drawing a rebuke from the United States amid a stalemate in international talks on the communist country's nuclear weapons.

Saudi prince 'received arms cash'
A Saudi prince who negotiated a £40bn arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia received secret payments for over a decade, a BBC probe has found. The UK's biggest arms dealer, BAE Systems, paid hundreds of millions of pounds to the ex-Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
Buncha crooks. —Caro

The Nation

AP Poll: Bush approval matches low point
WASHINGTON - Public approval of the job President Bush is doing now matches its all-time low, an AP-Ipsos poll says. The survey, released Thursday, reflects widespread discontent over how Bush is handling the war in Iraq, efforts against terrorism and domestic issues.

Investigator: CIA ran secret prisons
PARIS - The CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005 to interrogate detainees in its war on terror, European investigator Dick Marty said in a report released Friday.

Cheney lied about Bush spy program
Vice President Dick Cheney lied about his involvement in developing President George W. Bush's controversial and illegal program to use the National Security Agency to spy on Americans. New revelations show Cheney was hip deep in developing the policy, often overruling the objections of Justice Department officials and blocking the promotion of one official who disagreed with him on the warrantless wiretapping program. The same disclosures also show Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied about his role in trying to get approval of the program from previous Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Former Norton aide to plead guilty in Abramoff case
The Hill has learned that Italia Federici, a one-time political aide to former Interior Secretary Gale Norton, has agreed to plead guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of Congress as part of the investigation into the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff. The Republican activist will be the second person with ties to Norton to plead guilty in the Abramoff investigation. Former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his relationship to Abramoff and Federici. He is to be sentenced later this month.

Ted Stevens Pushing Earmark For Son's Employer
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) wants to make sure an earmark left over from 2005 gets to the right oil company – the one that employs his son, former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens. Roll Call (sub. req.) has the story (Thursday) on the $2 million that is supposed to help a subsidiary of SEMCO Energy to study the feasibility of a pipeline in Alaska.

What Bill Clinton Told Me About Al Gore (by Andy Ostroy)
When I found myself literally standing next to a surprisingly unengaged Clinton as we were about to watch an Air America promotional video on Green's large-screen television, I leaned over and asked him "Do you think Gore's going to run?" With his arms crossed and one hand resting on his chin in a true Clintonesque pose, he leaned into me and replied, "I don't know, he could. Someone's got to fizzle. If someone fizzles, then yeah he could enter the race. He's got plenty of money, his own money, to do it." He then agreed when I asked if having that kind of personal wealth could mean Gore would be able to wait until the last stages of the campaign before he'd enter the race.

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Park That Scooter: Five Major Papers Say, Don't Pardon Libby
NEW YORK In the aftermath of the sentencing of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to 30 months in prison for perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to FBI agents, earlier this week, some newspaper editorials have advocated a presidential pardon. But the Chicago Tribune, a strong backer of George W. Bush in his campaigns for president, declared today, "That shouldn't happen."

Humor Ink

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

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2007/06/07/917/">That's Farkin' Right
What (news aggregator Fark.com’s Drew) Curtis has discovered … utterly contradicts the conventional media wisdom: If you look at the audience like lab rats and only look at how they respond to a particular stimulus, then people are going to seem pretty dumb. However, if you actually listen to what the audience has to say, then people start looking pretty clever – and occasionally, New York has to sit up and notice Kentucky, instead of the other way around.

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2007/06/07/report-more-media-consumption-less-commitment-to-traditional-values/">Report: More Media Consumption, Less Commitment To Traditional Values
Americans who watch more hours of television tend to be less committed to classical virtues such as honesty and fairness and less likely to value religious principles, according to a conservative media watchdog.
According to the article, the study says that people who watch television more are less likely to attend church and less likely to claim they “try to live by God’s principles”. The implication is that you can’t be a moral person unless you attend church or CLAIM to live by “God’s principles”, whatever that means. Forget those of us who follow moral principles because it’s the right thing to do. Unless we fit their right-wing mold, we’re trash. —Caro

THE OFF-SHORING OF LOCAL NEWS (by Jim Hightower)
Here in Austin, Texas, a TV station fired its news director and didn't replace him. Instead, the conglomerate owner decided to put the news director of its Tampa, Florida, station in charge of our "local" news coverage. Rumor has it that the Tampa guy had once visited our fair city, so apparently that qualified him to be the long-distance arbiter of Austin news. Can journalism sink any lower? Of course it can!

Politico article baselessly suggested "culture of corruption" is bipartisan
(I)n suggesting that due to the Jefferson indictment, the "culture of corruption" is a bipartisan problem, The Politico failed to report the extent to which current and former Republican members of Congress have been convicted or indicted or are reportedly under investigation, or the fact that the House under Democratic control has passed several ethics reforms.

NBC Exec Says He Will Do Anything to Get Rosie O'Donnell
New programming chief Ben Silverman is telling friends he will do anything to get O'Donnell onto the network, and not just in daytime. Silverman is talking to O'Donnell about hosting a prime-time game show he has up his sleeve as well as a daytime hour a la "The View." O'Donnell, meanwhile, is sitting pretty. Her final ratings on "The View" skyrocketed the show to unprecedented success.

Technology & Science

MIT team claims wireless power demo
BOSTON - Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly — from a device 7 feet away — potentially heralding a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get juice without having to be plugged in.

Hurricane Simulator to Blow Real Houses Down
Wind engineers have created the world’s largest portable hurricane simulator, which they will use to blow over vacant buildings with Katrina-strength winds to test how they withstand the fierce forces of a hurricane. “We want to conduct experiments to evaluate real homes in communities that are impacted by hurricanes,” said project leader Forrest Masters of the University of Florida. “This simulator also gives us the ability to test home retrofits and new building products aimed at preventing hurricane damage.”

US scientists discover new, potentially deadly bacteria
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - In a dramatic case of microbial sleuthing, US scientists said they have discovered a new, potentially deadly strain of bacteria previously unknown to medicine.
Oh, great! ANOTHER deadly disease to worry about. —Caro

Yoga May Help Treat Depression, Anxiety Disorders
Brain scans showed boost in valuable brain chemical, study says

New Imaging Techniques Hold Promise for Variety of Diseases
Advances could lead to better treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, Alzheimer's, ovarian cancer, studies say

Acropolis, Chichen Itza lead New 7 Wonders contest
LISBON (Reuters) - The Acropolis in Athens and Mexico's Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza are among the leaders in a competition, ending in one month, to choose the New Seven Wonders of the World, the organizers said on Thursday.

Environment

G-8 agrees on plan to cut gas emissions
HEILIGENDAMM, Germany - Group of Eight leaders including President Bush agreed Thursday to call for substantial global emissions reductions to fight global warming and cited a goal of a 50 percent cut by 2050.

Auto Execs Visit Congress To Try To Head Off Higher Fuel Economy Standards
Congress has avoided upgrading fuel efficiency standards for new vehicles during the past three decades. With $3-plus gasoline prices and global warming, however, there may be a new outlook on Capitol Hill.

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