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Morning headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Top StoryUS says it has right to kidnap British citizens
AMERICA has told Britain that it can “kidnap” British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States. A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it… Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the “extraordinary rendition” of terrorist suspects. Left Wing Conspiracy
The WorldSunnis return to parliament as Negroponte asks for political progress
BAGHDAD — Sunni parliament members agreed to return to the legislative assembly after a brief boycott ended Sunday night, as a top U.S. official warned of future violence if more political reconciliation is not made. The parliamentary boycott, which began Saturday and pitted Sunnis against Shiites following what was called the house arrest of a leading Sunni politician, subsided as Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte rapped up his six-day tour of Iraq.
12 bodies unearthed in Iraq mass grave
BAGHDAD - A mass grave containing the remains of 12 people, including a paramedic who disappeared more than a year ago, was unearthed in central Iraq in an area long controlled by al-Qaida, officials said Monday.
Nonstop Theft and Bribery Are Staggering Iraq
BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 — Jobless men pay $500 bribes to join the police. Families build houses illegally on government land, carwashes steal water from public pipes, and nearly everything the government buys or sells can now be found on the black market.
Gee, I thought unbridled greed was GOOD for an economy. That’s what the right wing has been telling us.—Caro
Israel releases 429 Palestinian captives
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Tearful friends and relatives, some cheering or waving flags, welcomed 429 Palestinian prisoners after their early release by Israel on Monday in a gesture meant to strengthen moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Iran says ties with Syria rock solid
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's adversaries cannot harm the strong ties between Tehran and Damascus, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday, a week after Iran appeared to chide Syria for its decision to take part in a Mideast summit in the United States.
Myanmar to restrict drafting constitution
NAYPYITAW, Myanmar - Military-ruled Myanmar said Monday it would restrict drafting a new constitution to a government-appointed panel, in an apparent rebuff to a push by the United Nations to open the process up.
Putin's party wins Russian election
MOSCOW - European election monitors said Monday that Russia's parliamentary ballot was unfair, hours after President Vladimir Putin's party swept 70 percent of the seats in the new legislature.
Thousands flee army offensive in Philippine south
MANILA (Reuters) - Nearly 3,000 tribespeople have fled their mountain homes in the southern Philippines as the military stepped up an offensive against insurgents of the communist New People's Army (NPA), officials and church leaders said on Monday.
Venezuelans reject Chavez's bid for new powers
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelans have rejected President Hugo Chavez's bid to win new powers and run for re-election for decades to come in an unprecedented defeat that could slow his socialist revolution in the OPEC nation.
This is very good news. No one should have lifetime powers. Power corrupts.—Caro
Sudan releases British 'teddy' teacher
KHARTOUM (AFP) - A British woman jailed in Sudan for insulting religion was released on Monday after being granted a presidential pardon for insulting religion by giving a teddy bear the same name as Prophet Mohammed. The NationCongress returning for daunting agenda
WASHINGTON - A daunting agenda confronts lawmakers as they return Monday for an abbreviated holiday season session. Taxes, spending, paying for the war, energy, farm subsidies and wiretapping top a crowded list of items Congress will consider during the three weeks.
National debt grows $1 million a minute
WASHINGTON - Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day — or nearly $1 million a minute.
White House seeks to slash anti-terror funds
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration intends to slash counterterrorism funding for police, firefighters and rescue departments across the country by more than half next year, according to budget documents obtained by The Associated Press.
I guess that means we’re safe now. Great, so let’s start using our common funds to feed the hungry, as Jesus commanded.—Caro
An Old Face Resurfaces
Nearly three years after Paul Wolfowitz resigned as deputy Defense secretary and six months after his stormy departure as president of the World Bank—amid allegations that he improperly awarded a raise to his girlfriend—he's in line to return to public service. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has offered Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Iraq War, a position as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, a prestigious State Department panel.
It’s like playing Whack-A-Mole with these people. You think they’ve been scandaled out of the picture, and here they come again.—Caro
Business Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 — Business lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections, are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety, labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals from the Bush administration than from its successor.
Administration political appointees will be burning the midnight oil from now until January 20, 2009 to screw ordinary people at the expense of the already rich in every way they possibly can. It will take years to unravel the mess.—Caro
Mental Health and the Hillary Hostage Situation
(T)he ordeal--which thankfully ended without any casualties--ought to focus attention on the dire state of mental health care in this country. More than a third of this country's homeless population have severe mental health issues, including schizophrenia and manic depression. At least one in every six inmates in America have been diagnosed with serious mental health conditions.
Millions of tax refunds could be delayed
WASHINGTON - Silena Davis had counted on an early tax refund to pay for getting her teeth fixed. Now, because Congress has dawdled all year on a tax bill, she and millions of other early filers could have to wait extra weeks for refunds that last year averaged $2,291.
Signing statement is president's first since 2006
WASHINGTON - President Bush this month issued his first signing statement since the Democratic takeover of Congress, reserving the right to bypass 11 provisions in a military appropriations bill under his executive powers.
These statements are clearly un—Caroconstitutional. Why haven’t any of our legal watchdogs challenged them in court?
Secrecy Invoked on Abramoff Lawsuits
The administration agreed last year to produce all responsive records about (Jack Abramoff’s White House) visits "without redactions or claims of exemption," according to a court order. But in a court filing Friday night, administration lawyers said that the Secret Service has identified a category of highly sensitive documents that might contain information sought in a lawsuit about Abramoff's trips to the White House.
Highly sensitive! I’ll bet they are. That’s why we want to see them, bozos.—Caro
TRYST FUND 'SICKENS' EX-OFFICIAL
December 2, 2007 -- A former Giuliani administration official says he's "sick" over reports that his little-known agency was used to hide taxpayer money that funded police escorts during the ex-mayor's romantic rendezvous in the Hamptons. "The cover-up of this and the explanations for it have been so disingenuous," said Brendan Sexton, who chaired the Procurement Policy Board in 2000.
Senator Clinton to urge freeze on foreclosures: report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is expected on Monday to call for a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures and a five-year freeze on the rates of adjustable rate mortgages, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition.
Good for you, Sen. Clinton!—Caro
Innovating Our Way to Financial Crisis (by Paul Krugman)
the innovations of recent years — the alphabet soup of C.D.O.’s and S.I.V.’s, R.M.B.S. and A.B.C.P. — were sold on false pretenses. They were promoted as ways to spread risk, making investment safer. What they did instead — aside from making their creators a lot of money, which they didn’t have to repay when it all went bust — was to spread confusion, luring investors into taking on more risk than they realized. Why was this allowed to happen? At a deep level, I believe that the problem was ideological: policy makers, committed to the view that the market is always right, simply ignored the warning signs… And free-market orthodoxy dies hard.
My rule: If it’s too complicated for me to understand, it’s too complicated for me to invest. Not that I have anything to invest any more.—Caro MediaPermanent link to MTA daily media news
Jeff Gannon Hits The College Circuit To Pimp His New Book (by Heather at Crooks and Liars)
I happened to catch this little gem by accident and missed the very beginning of it, but this is rich. Here are Mr. Gannon/Guckert’s own words from the video when asked about the male escort scandal: “Well, there’s not much to say about that. You know it, after two and a half years, there’s nothing to it…” So what Mr. Gannon? So those screen shots of your web site before they took it down were Photoshopped or you really didn’t go into the White House how many hundreds of times without signing out so anyone would know when you left, and you really weren’t a gay hooker asking softball questions to Scotty-boy?
Gay male hookers get their college tours. But not progressive authors writing about issues that are vital to our nation's future. Click through to watch the video of Gannon talking about his tour.—Caro
Analysis: Clinton calm in hostage crisis
When the hostages had been released and their alleged captor arrested, a regal-looking Hillary Rodham Clinton strolled out of her Washington home, the picture of calm in the face of crisis… It was a vintage example of a candidate taking a negative and turning it into a positive. And coming just six weeks before the presidential voting begins, the timing could hardly have been more beneficial to someone hoping to stave off a loss in the Iowa caucuses and secure a win in the New Hampshire primary.
WHAT???!!! She didn’t have a post-menopausal meltdown? She didn’t cry? She didn’t run to daddy? Amazing, since she’s just a girl.—Caro
FOX Blows It (by John Ehrenfeld at Brave New Films )
FOX has embarassed itself once again by breaking nearly every journalistic standard imaginable in covering the hostage situation at the Hillary Clinton campaign office in Rochester, NH… (Carl Cameron mistakenly) identified an innocent man as a hostage taker and a paranoid (schizophrenic). I wonder if Troy Stanley knows a good lawyer; does anyone remember Richard Jewell and the Atlanta Olympics?
This Week: Lying Liars On Iraq (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
(T)he most ridiculous statement of the day has to come from (This Week) host George Stephanopoulos, who claims that Iraq is “receding” from the minds of voters… a meme forwarded by the Politico after talking to Bush Dog Democrats, but in Iowa, The Nation’s Ari Berman didn’t find that to be true at all.
In The Tank: Did National Review Reporter Make His Stories Up? (by Thomas B. Edsall at The Huffington Post)
There is a growing dispute over the veracity of reporting from Lebanon by former Marine W. Thomas Smith, Jr. who is posting reports on his blog, The Tank, published by the conservative website, National Review Online (NRO). Smith is a supporter of the war in Iraq, and is affiliated with two politically conservative organizations, the Counterterrorism Research Center and the Family Security Foundation. He is the executive editor of World Defense Review, and the co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Intelligent Design.
Karl One-Note
I once knew a jazz pianist who told me, “When I hit a wrong note, I keep hitting it -- so the audience will think it’s intentional.” To move away from the wrong note would be a subtle admission of a mistake, and make the error more obivous. Karl Rove clearly lives by the same principle. “On Fox News Sunday this (week), Karl Rove reiterated his false claim that Democrats in Congress -- not the Bush administration -- forced a war vote prior to the 2002 midterm elections. Despite having being contradicted by former Chief of Staff Andrew Card and former Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Rove continued to press his make-believe story about how the Iraq war vote occurred.”
John McCain: There are No Thomas Jeffersons in Iraq (by billw at Crooks and Liars)
Despite trumpeting the success of the occupation in Iraq all along and now trying to claim otherwise, John McCain on this morning’s Face the Nation explained that reason the surge hasn’t resulted in the political reconciliation it was supposed to is because “there are no Thomas Jeffersons in Iraq.”
And there are none here, either. Sen. McCain. Click through to watch the video.—Caro
Hagel: Administration gets 'lowest grade of any I've known'
“I have to say this is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I’ve ever seen or ever read about,” (Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska) said, … “They have failed the country.” Then Hagel went to dinner with New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the recently turned independent who has toyed with the idea of a Bloomberg-Hagel presidential ticket.
Sean Hannity With the Right’s Answer to Giuliani’s Judy Scandal (by billw at Crooks and Liars)
Hannity’s rebuttal to growing evidence that a GOP Presidential front-runner’s blatant misuse of his office to get NYPD detectives to taxi his mistress & co. all over the place and even NYPD cops to walk her dog at taxpayer expense is — wait for it — two words: “Sandy Berger”
I know it sounds crazy, but Sandy Berger is the new Bill Clinton when it comes to riling the right-wing troops. And don’t forget that Hannity has appeared at fundraisers for Giuliani. He’s obviously using his media platform to shill for a particular candidate. Click through to watch the video.—Caro
An Assault on Fairness (by Brent Budowsky)
Both of (Tucker Carlson’s recent shows on Al Gore) were one-sided insult sessions, without the kind of debate that Gore’s stature, the worldwide credibility of his views, and the large number of his supporters should mandate… If Tucker wants a platform to insult and demean those he does not like, without providing a fair platform for a two-sided debate, he might find a place at Fox, with its sham Democrats who play Tatu to Mr. Rourke’s insults. My guess is, MSNBC is headed in a very different direction, as it should be.
O’Reilly Goes After McClellan Sends Fox News Goons to His Home (by billw at Crooks and Liars)
O’Reilly goes ballistic over former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s publisher’s recent revelations and Scotty in particular for not coming out and clarifying whether he is calling Bush a liar in his upcoming book or not… So Billo, just as he has done so many times before, sent his minions out to ambush him at his home but there was no answer. The big giant head then gets himself all worked up, screaming and shaking his finger and he basically calls Scott a wimp in playgroundspeak.
Click through to watch the video.—Caro
Where Was Jeb?
In the past few days, municipalities have withdrawn roughly $9 billion, nearly a third of the $28 billion fund (which is similar to a money market fund) controlled by the Florida's State Board of Administration (SBA). The run on the fund was triggered by worries that a percentage of the portfolio contained debt that had defaulted. A majority of this paper was sold to SBA by Lehman Brothers. (Jeb) Bush, as the state's top elected official, served on a three-member board that oversaw the SBA until he retired as governor in January. In August, Bush was hired as a consultant to the bank.
Air America to Test Its Fan Base and Its Sea Legs
Air America Radio’s announcement that it will be sponsoring a vacation cruise is not the first time a media organization has entered into the cruise business.
Does Air America have a strategy? It’s hard to imagine that they do. Appealing to the same elites as The Nation doesn’t seem very smart. Most likely listeners can’t afford that kind of luxury. Technology & ScienceGoogle Street Views Hides Your Face. What Took So Long? (by Kristen Nicole at Mashable)
Finally, Google’s thinking about making its Street Views map completely anonymous, to protect the privacy of people that show up in the photographs. For its Europe Street Views version, Google will be modifying all photos to ensure that faces and license plates are not visible. It may do the same with the US version, which launched months before Street Views in Europe. So what took so long?
Online bullying a growing part of US teen Internet life
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - US researchers warn that bullies are taking their hurtful ways from real-world schoolyards to the "cyber" world by targeting teens with nasty e-mail, text messaging, and online chat.
Effort to Limit Junk Food in Schools Faces Hurdles
Federal lawmakers are considering the broadest effort ever to limit what children eat: a national ban on selling candy, sugary soda and salty, fatty food in school snack bars, vending machines and a la carte cafeteria lines. Whether the measure, an amendment to the farm bill, can survive the convoluted politics that have bogged down that legislation in the Senate is one issue. Whether it can survive the battle among factions in the fight to improve school food is another.
Holidays Don't Have to Leave You Heavier
Smart choices, even chewing gum, can help keep extra pounds at bay, expert says
'Tis the Season For Allergy, Asthma
Everything from Christmas trees to fake snow can trigger symptoms, experts warn
Couples Emphasize Career of Man over Woman
When working couples move, the husband's career often gets a boost and the wife's career suffers. A new study suggests what's behind that typical outcome. Couples tend to put more emphasis on the man's career, even if the wife works full-time and is college-educated.
Archaeologists find ancient remains
Syrian archeologists have discovered an ancient glass jar containing an infant's ashes at one of the Mideast's most famous sites from Classical antiquity.
Mummified dinosaur reveals surprises: scientists
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A partially mummified hadrosaur discovered by a teenager in North Dakota may be the most complete dinosaur ever found, with intact skin that shows evidence of stripes and perhaps soft tissue, researchers said on Monday.
Spot the Great Andromeda Galaxy
Now that the bright Moon has left the evening sky, it's a good time to turn our attention to one of the most amazing sky objects which is passing almost directly over our heads this week between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. This object was known as the "little cloud" to the Persian astronomer Abd-al-Rahman Al-Sufi, who described and depicted it in his Book of Fixed Stars in 964 A.D.
Click through for directions to find it in the sky.—Caro EnvironmentEarth's Tropics Belt Expands
WASHINGTON (AP) - Earth's tropical belt seems to have expanded a couple hundred miles over the past quarter century, which could mean more arid weather for some already dry subtropical regions, new climate research shows.
150 Global Firms Seek Mandatory Cuts in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
A sizable fraction of the international business community launched an effort to press for mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions yesterday, on the eve of a major round of climate negotiations set to begin Monday in Bali. In an unprecedented show of solidarity, leaders from 150 global companies endorsed the idea of a legally binding framework in a statement published in the Financial Times newspaper.
The United Nations Goes Green–Streams Climate Summit Online (by Kristen Nicole at Mashable)
The United Nations is going green in an appropriate manner for its Climate Summit, which is being nicknamed the Virtual Bali Conference due to its green efforts–the organization will be streaming the Climate Summit live, beginning tomorrow and through December 14th. This is part of the United Nations’ efforts to emphasize the importance of the global plight by encouraging participants to view the conference online instead of flying in for the events.
Australian PM ratifies Kyoto Protocol
SYDNEY (AFP) - Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd became Australia's 26th prime minister Monday and immediately began dismantling the former government's policies by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
U.S. says seeks new climate deal, rejects Kyoto
BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it would seek a new global deal to fight climate change after Australia's move to ratify the Kyoto Protocol isolated it as the only developed nation outside the current U.N. pact.
Energy plan pushes automakers on mpg
The groundbreaking deal in Congress to raise mile-per-gallon standards will compel the auto industry to churn out more fuel-efficient vehicles on a faster timeline than the companies wanted, though with flexibility to get the job done.
How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power
Europe is considering plans to spend more than £5bn on a string of giant solar power stations along the Mediterranean desert shores of northern Africa and the Middle East… Billions of watts of power could be generated this way, enough to provide Europe with a sixth of its electricity needs and to allow it to make significant cuts in its carbon emissions.
Now, we’re talkin’! And how about our sunlit places—Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada?—Caro
Wind power sets sail from crowded Germany
BERLIN (Reuters) - Nearly 19,000 wind turbines cover Germany: dotted across the countryside, nudging to the edge of cities and whirring alongside motorways. For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com.
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