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Today’s headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Technical problems again today—my apologies for posting so late.Top StoryBothersome Intel on Iran (by Michael Hirsh , Newsweek)
(The) recent National Intelligence Estimate…, made public Dec. 3, embarrassed the administration by concluding that Tehran had halted its weapons program in 2003… But in private conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week, the president all but disowned the document, said a senior administration official… "He told the Israelis that he can't control what the intelligence community says, but that (the NIE's) conclusions don't reflect his own views".
Bush wants him his war. Don’t get in his way!—Caro Left Wing Conspiracy
The WorldBush Mideast speech draws cool response
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — President Bush on Sunday described Iran as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and called on Arab allies to help his administration curb the threat "before it's too late."… But Bush appears unlikely, based on the regional reaction to his address, to find many Arabs to heed his alarms against Iran, a powerful neighbor and trading partner. Nor did many endorse his speech's other theme — a vision of "free and just society" featuring broad political participation and a voice for moderate Muslims in a region where money and family are common keys to leadership.
Israel: 'No options' out on Iran nukes
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a powerful parliamentary panel on Monday that Israel rejects no options to block Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, a meeting participant said.
Iraq's parliament lets Baathists back into government
BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament voted Saturday to allow former members of the Sunni-dominated Baath party back into government jobs and pensions, a move that could speed reconciliation between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Baathists wary of new Iraq law
(S)enior Baathists were sceptical that (the new law) would bring reconciliation and feared instead they would be newly targeted by the Shiite-led regime. "Anyone can now take revenge against a Baathist by filing a false lawsuit," said Abu Ali, 58, a high-ranking official of the former Baath party. "The current government said it would bring democracy but it brought chaos instead. The divisions are still deep," he told AFP.
Iraqi appeals court judge killed
BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed an appeals court judge as he headed to work in the western Baghdad district of Mansour on Monday, police and the deputy justice minister said.
US envoy meets former Taliban commander
MUSA QALA, Afghanistan - The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan flew to a town previously held by the Taliban in the heart of the world's largest poppy-growing region and told the ex-militant commander now in charge there that Afghans must stop "producing poison."
Bomb in southern Thailand kills 8 troops
BANGKOK, Thailand - Suspected Muslim insurgents killed eight soldiers Monday in a bombing and shooting attack in one of Thailand's restive southern provinces, the army spokesman said.
China says democracy hurts Kenya
BEIJING - The election-related violence that has killed hundreds in Kenya is proof that Western-style democracy is a bad fit for Africa, said China, which has been under fire for its friendly relations with authoritarian leaders on the continent.
Nepal needs to tackle southern unrest before polls: UN
KATHMANDU (AFP) - Ethnic unrest in southern Nepal that has blighted the country's fragile peace process has to be tackled before crucial polls to decide Nepal's political future, the United Nations said.
Race-hate fears prompt Australian school security boost: official
SYDNEY (AFP) - Jewish, Muslim and other schools in Australia at risk of race-hate attacks will receive millions of dollars in special funding to improve their security, the government said Friday.
Blair kicks off campaign to become EU President
Tony Blair launched his campaign to become the first fully-fledged President of the European Union (Saturday) by describing the notion of left- and right-wing politics as redundant. With France preparing to oversee the appointment process, Blair set out his vision of modern European democracy at a meeting of the French governing conservative party by also claiming that EU countries could achieve far more by working together than acting in isolation.
Does that mean he can work for JP Morgan and be EU president at the same time? That’s not a revolving door, it’s a big bed of corruption.—Caro
French offer Saudi nuclear energy help
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - France's president offered Saudi Arabia help in exploring a possible civilian nuclear energy program as the French leader began a visit to the oil-rich kingdom on Sunday. The NationSorry, Barack, You’ve lost Iraq (as a campaign issue). (by Michael Hirsh, Newsweek)
Bush said that negotiations were about to begin on a long-term strategic partnership with the Iraqi government modeled on the accords the United States has with Kuwait and many other countries… The target date for concluding the agreement is July, … just in time for the Democratic and Republican national conventions… (T)he new partnership deal with Iraq, including a status of forces agreement that would then replace the existing Security Council mandate authorizing the presence of the U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq, will become a sworn obligation for the next president.
Here goes our unitary prezidunce again! Bush can’t commit to that kind of treaty without Senate ratification, but he may do it anyway. If he can get the Iraqis to agree to it, which is by no means certain. Oh, and Barack Obama is not nearly the anti-war purist he now wants us to believe he is.—Caro
Objects From Iranian Boats Posed No Threat, Navy Says
The small, boxlike objects dropped in the water by Iranian boats as they approached U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf on Sunday posed no threat to the American vessels, U.S. officials said yesterday, even as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff charged that the incident reflects Iran's new tactics of asymmetric warfare.
Newshoggers has the videos of the entire incident.—Caro
White House times arms sale, Bush trip
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will notify Congress on Monday of its intent to sell $20 billion in weapons, including precision-guided bombs, to Saudi Arabia, moving up the announcement to coincide with the president's arrival in Riyadh, The Associated Press has learned.
US military chief favors closing Guantanamo
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba (AFP) - The US military chief said Sunday that "war on terror" detention center here should be shut down because of the damage its done to the US image in the world, but there are no plans to do so.
He’s not worried about imprisoning people without justification. He’s only worried about our image.—Caro
DNI McConnell suggests waterboarding is torture. (Think Progress)
In an interview with the New Yorker, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said that waterboarding “would be torture” if used against him, but still declined to say whether the technique should be legally classified as torture… McConnell warned that if waterboarding is “ever is determined to be torture, there will be a huge penalty to be paid for anyone engaging in it.”
Justice Department Argues in Court that CIA Did Not Have to Preserve Torture Tapes While It Continues to “Independently Investigate” That Very Crime (by Jonathan Turley)
With little attention in the media, the Justice Department has filed papers in federal court arguing that the CIA did not have an obligation to preserve the infamous torture tapes and therefore was lawfully entitled to destroy them. The filing patently demonstrates the conflict of interest in Attorney General Michael Mukasey insisting that the Justice Department investigate the possible criminal conduct in the matter.
GAO questions nonproliferation program
WASHINGTON - A U.S. economic aid program to keep Russian scientists from selling weapons information to terrorists apparently funneled much of the money to scientists who never claimed to have a background in nuclear, chemical or biological programs, a congressional report said Friday.
Congress faces war economy, election
WASHINGTON - Still smarting from the partisan wars of 2007, Congress confronts a sinking economy, a lingering war and election-year politics as it gets back to work for the 2008 session.
Government Loses Appeal on Education Testing Law
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed Chief U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman and issued a 2-1 decision holding that the No Child Left Behind Act does not provide clear notice on who must pay for compliance with some of its requirements. School districts argued that some of the laws' requirements constituted an unfunded mandate, despite a specific provision in the law that prohibits such mandates, and argued that the federal government should provide more money for compliance with its provisions.
Court blocks NASA background checks
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that NASA should be blocked from conducting background checks on low-risk employees at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, saying the practice threatens workers’ constitutional rights.
AP poll: Economy ties war as top issue
WASHINGTON - The faltering economy has caught the Iraq war as people's top worry, a national poll suggests, with the rapid turnabout already showing up on the presidential campaign trail and in maneuvering between President Bush and Congress.
Romney, Clinton lead Michigan poll
Voters planning to participate in Tuesday's Michigan presidential primary favor Mitt Romney and Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a poll released Saturday night. MediaPermanent link to MTA daily media news
The Moral Instinct (by Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the author of “The Language Instinct”)
The science of the moral sense … alerts us to ways in which our psychological makeup can get in the way of our arriving at the most defensible moral conclusions. The moral sense, we are learning, is as vulnerable to illusions as the other senses. It is apt to confuse morality per se with purity, status and conformity. It tends to reframe practical problems as moral crusades and thus see their solution in punitive aggression. It imposes taboos that make certain ideas indiscussible. And it has the nasty habit of always putting the self on the side of the angels.
This is a long article, but one that is very important for helping to understand human nature, a necessary prerequisite for those of us hoping to persuade others to support issues and policies we believe are important. As I’ve been arguing for almost eight years now, one of the most important things we can do is to expose the tactics of the right, to keep their distortions to the moral sense to a minimum. Oh, and by the way, Prof. Pinker validates many of the points I make about human nature in my book, Off Balance. Too bad I can’t find a publisher.—Caro
The new metrics of campaigns (by Jeff Jarvis)
Polls are as discredited as they should be. So I’m thinking about writing my Guardian column next week about all the new metrics we have to take the pulse of the nation on the internet… Among these metrics (many tracked by TechPresident): * Mainstream media coverage… * Google searches… * AdWords demand… * Blog mentions… * Textual analysis… * Web traffic… * Video traffic… * Microblogging traffic…* Social sites… * Donors… * Prediction markets… * Odds…
Click through for specifics.—Caro
When 'Mad Men' In Media Took Control of Political Campaigns
Upton Sinclair is back, thanks to 'There Will Be Blood' movie ties. But in 1934 his race for governor gave birth to the modern media-based political campaign.
A New Direction for the Economy (Public Opinion by Ruy Teixeira, Center for American Progress)
The public is not optimistic about the current economic outlook, and this time, more Bush tax cuts aren’t going to cut it.
Responding to Recession (by Paul Krugman)
Instead of trying to divine the candidates’ characters by scrutinizing their tone of voice and facial expressions, why not pay attention to what they say about economic policy?... On the Democratic side, John Edwards … proposed a stimulus package including aid to unemployed workers, aid to cash-strapped state and local governments, public investment in alternative energy, and other measures. Last week Hillary Clinton offered a broadly similar but somewhat larger proposal… As was the case with his health care plan, which fell short of universal coverage, (Obama’s) stimulus proposal is similar to those of the other Democratic candidates, but tilted to the right… I know that Mr. Obama’s supporters hate to hear this, but he really is less progressive than his rivals on matters of domestic policy.
D.L.C. Leaders Cut Edwards Out (The Caucus, The New York Times)
As would be expected, the two gentlemen from the Democratic Leadership Council on a conference call today told reporters they’re very confident in their party’s chances of reclaiming the White House, they’re happy that substantive issues are being discussed… And then Al From, the D.L.C. founder, said he was “very happy about the two candidates” Americans are considering. Only two candidates?
The two candidates the DLC considers considerable are Clinton and Obama, and the NYT notices that cuts only one candidate. My comment: NEW YORK TIMES CUTS KUCINICH OUT!—Caro
The Power and the Inspiration (by Sean Wilentz at The New Republic)
The media echo chamber is now booming with charges that Senator Hillary Clinton has disparaged Dr. King, praised President Johnson in his stead, and thereby distorted the history of the civil rights movement… Martin Luther King led the movement; Lyndon B. Johnson supported that movement, played the politics, guided the legislation, and signed it into law. Both were indispensable to the civil rights successes of the 1960s. To acknowledge both denigrates neither man. Describing such an acknowledgement as a denigration of Dr. King is, at best, bad history. At worst, it is a manipulative and inflammatory racial appeal concerning a crucial era in American history--an era that needs very, very careful consideration indeed. Either way, the current heated rhetoric demonstrates that the utopia of post-racial politics has hardly arrived.
Matthews: ‘messed around’ quote was ‘unexceptional.’ (Think Progress)
Earlier this week, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews sparked controversy when he claimed that “the reason” Hillary Clinton is “a U.S. Senator, the reason she’s a candidate for President, the reason she may be a front-runner, is her husband messed around.” Defending the comment to the Associated Press yesterday, Matthews said he “thought it was an unexceptional statement” because he says he was only referring the circumstances when she was “asked to run for the Senate from New York.” Matthews original statement, however, didn’t refer to how she was drafted to run. Instead, he claimed “she didn’t win it on the merits.”
Being a Democrat hater means never having to say you’re sorry.—Caro
Global ‘enthusiasm’ for Bush’s departure. (Think Progress)
The 2008 U.S. elections are attracting an “eager” audience worldwide. This past week, for example, major British newspapers “devoted more than 87 pages to news of the U.S. primaries, including 22 front-page stories.” Much of the enthusiasm, according to the Washington Post, is for the end of the Bush presidency.
Jonah Goldberg’s Revisionist Definitions (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
Speaking in front of the Heritage Foundation (because, honestly, who else could sit through this tripe?) to pimp his latest book, Liberal Fascism, Jonah Goldberg tries again to prove Moynihan wrong, not only by coming up with his own facts, but his own definitions as well… For example: “… the only reason (Mussolini) got dubbed a fascist and therefore a right-winger is because he supported World War I.” Um, actually, not so much. Mussolini was dubbed a fascist because he founded the Fascist Party, you big, fact-ignoring dope.
Click through to watch the video.—Caro
After Ratings Slip, Animal Planet Turns to Its Wilder Side
Animal Planet, long regarded as a gentle wildlife channel, is shedding its cute and cuddly image.
It had better not start showing animals killing and eating other animals, or I’ll stop watching. I couldn’t watch Discovery’s “Planet Earth” for that very reason.—Caro
Netflix To Lift Limits For Online Viewing (Mashable)
Fans of the Netflix option to watch movies online are getting a nice gift Monday: No more limits to how much you can watch via the Web per month! Up until now, all Netflix customers were restricted to how many hours of streaming video they could watch, but under the new plan, only those who pay $4.99 a month will be restricted. Add this to the news that they are going to be releasing a set top box for you to stream movies directly to your television, and this could accelerate the consumer jump from tangible media to a disk-less existence. Technology & ScienceHacked MySpace Page Disguises Trojan as Update
There's now one more reason to be security-conscious while using MySpace.com: fake Microsoft updates.
Sowing The Seeds Of A Tasty Tomato Revival
A New Jersey tomato variety that was cherished for its unique taste and texture 20 years ago, but was then bred out of agriculture in favor of hardier strains, is about to stage a comeback.
Great! I was so happy when peaches went back to tasting good instead of just looking good.—Caro
Fungus Sheds Light on Development of Human Genders
Gene findings may explain how the two sexes evolved
MIT: Culture influences brain function
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - People from different cultures use their brains differently to solve the same visual perceptual tasks, MIT researchers and colleagues report in the first brain imaging study of its kind.
Biotechnology Builds a New Heart
Stem cells injected into 'skeleton' of animal organ was beating in just 8 days.
Teens Getting Help For Suicidal Behavior From An Online Community
Elaine Greidanus says many teens aren't picking up a phone, or seeing a counsellor, they're more likely logging on for emotional support. Greidanus, a grad student in Educational Psychology, did a study to see how helpful cyber support really is. Not only would the teens get advice from the site volunteers but from other adolescents who were online.
Doctors Underestimate The Power Of Screening For Problem Drinking, Study Shows
ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2008) — A 10-minute screening and talk with a doctor about problem drinking delivers almost as much bang for the buck to the health system as childhood immunization and advice about taking aspirin to prevent stroke and heart attack, according to a new systematic review — but just 8.7 percent of problem drinkers report receiving such information.
Vitamin C May Play Role in Stroke Prevention
Experts suspect that healthy diet and lifestyle are at root of reduced risk
Fast-Acting Alzheimer's Therapy Excites Researchers
It is one of those claims that immediately sounds too good to be true. But researchers say a new therapy, currently used to treat arthritis, appears to reverse the effects of Alzheimer's disease within minutes… While the article discusses one patient, many other patients with mild to severe Alzheimer's received the treatment and all have shown sustained and marked improvement, the authors say.
Source of Mysterious Antimatter Found
Antimatter, which annihilates matter upon contact, seems to be rare in the universe. Still, for decades, scientists had clues that a vast cloud of antimatter lurked in space, but they did not know where it came from. The mysterious source of this antimatter has now been discovered -- stars getting ripped apart by neutron stars and black holes. EnvironmentStudy: Northeast winters warming fast
ALBANY, N.Y. - Earlier blooms. Less snow to shovel. Unseasonable warm spells. Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years and now researchers have nailed down numbers to show just how big the changes have been.
7 of the 8 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 (by John Aravosis at AMERICAblog)
But there is no global warming, and Noah had dinosaurs on the Ark 6,000 years ago. This is how empires die, and take the rest of the world down with them.
Increasing Amounts Of Ice Mass Have Been Lost From West Antarctica
ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2008) — Increasing amounts of ice mass have been lost from West Antarctica and the Antarctic peninsula over the past ten years, according to research from the University of Bristol and published online recently in Nature Geoscience.
8 Ways to Green Your Home
Here are eight easy ways to be eco-friendly around the house.
Power Your Gadgets by Sun and Water
We don't need no stinking grid--at least not all the time. These devices use the elements to charge your laptop, cell phone, and music player.
Abu Dhabi unveil plans for sustainable city
WWF and the government of Abu Dhabi today launched a Sustainability Strategy to deliver the world’s greenest city. Masdar City will be the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste, car-free city, meeting or exceeding a set of stringent sustainability goals established under the “One Planet Living” programme established by WWF and environmental consultancy BioRegional.
With Nuclear Rebirth Come New Worries
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Global warming and rocketing oil prices are making nuclear power fashionable, drawing a once demonized industry out of the shadows of the Chernobyl disaster as a potential shining knight of clean energy.
G.M. Buys Stake in Ethanol Made From Waste
Eager to ensure a supply of fuel for the fleet of flex-fuel ethanol-capable vehicles it is building, G.M. has invested in a start-up bio-fuel producer, Coskata Inc.
Next-generation biofuels edge to center
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The quest by executives and venture capitalists to build a next-generation biofuels industry has made strides this year as oil reached $100 a barrel and the world's largest energy consumer laid down ambitious new mandates for alternative fuels.
Extreme Hybrid Showcases Green Technology
Finally, a "plug-in hybrid" powerful enough to accelerate to sixty miles per hour in about ten-seconds, with the range to run forty miles on battery power alone. For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com.
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