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Morning headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Top StorySenate Allies of Bush Work to Halt Iraq Vote
The new effort is aimed at preventing a potentially embarrassing rejection of the presidents plan to push 20,000 more troops into Iraq. Humor Ink
The World3 U.S. troops killed in Iraq fighting
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three U.S. troops were killed in fighting in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the military said Wednesday.
Suicide bomber blows himself up in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber driving an oil truck blew himself up after he was stopped at a checkpoint near an Iraqi army headquarters north of Baghdad on Wednesday, wounding 9 soldiers, a spokesman said.
Palestinian cease-fire holds on 1st day
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A cease-fire aimed at halting months of deadly internal Palestinian violence held on its first day, but underlying tensions cast doubt on the future of the stand-down.
Israel examines moving separation barrier
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office on Wednesday said the government is looking into moving a stretch of its separation barrier deeper into the West Bank to include two Jewish settlements
First Arab nominated for Holocaust honor
JERUSALEM - At the height of World War II, Khaled Abdelwahhab hid a group of Jews on his farm in a small Tunisian town, saving them from the Nazi troops occupying the North African nation.
Indonesia, Pakistan say Muslims must unite
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Muslim nations must work together to end spiraling bloodshed in the Middle East, the leaders of Indonesia and Pakistan said Wednesday, as they sought to counterbalance U.S. influence in the region.
Bomb kills 6 policemen in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Suspected separatist Tamil rebels detonated a roadside bomb in eastern Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing six policemen and one civilian, the military said, as soldiers found 12 similar bombs hidden elsewhere.
Ecuador leader's backers invade Congress
QUITO, Ecuador - Supporters of leftist President Rafael Correa armed with sticks and stones fought their way into the Congress building Tuesday, demanding lawmakers call a referendum on whether the country's constitution should be rewritten.
Venezuela rejects U.S. official's remarks
CARACAS, Venezuela - The Venezuelan government rejected comments by a senior U.S. official who called President Hugo Chavez a threat to democracy, saying they revealed that Washington's overtures for rapprochement were insincere.
Cuba TV shows Castro meeting with Chavez
HAVANA - Cuban state television Tuesday showed a video of a healthier looking Fidel Castro meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and saying his recovery was "far from a lost battle," in the first images of the ailing leader in three months.
Warrants issued in Germany kidnapping
BERLIN - Arrest warrants have been issued for 13 people in connection with the alleged CIA-orchestrated kidnapping of a German citizen in the agency's extraordinary rendition program, a Munich prosecutor said Wednesday.
Eight anti-terror arrests in central England
LONDON (AFP) - Eight people have been arrested under anti-terrorism laws in Birmingham, police said, while one report said a planned major terrorist plot had been foiled.
All-female U.N. peacekeeping unit arrives in Liberia
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The first all-female U.N. peacekeeping unit, made up of 103 women from India, arrived in Liberia on Tuesday to help the West African nation recover from 14 years of on-and-off civil war.
Somalia starts implementing martial law
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia's interim government began imposing martial law in areas under its control, the prime minister said, as rising violence threatens its tenuous grip on power. The NationSenators warn against war with Iran
WASHINGTON - Republican and Democratic senators warned Tuesday against a drift toward war with an emboldened Iran and suggested the Bush administration was missing a chance to engage its longtime adversary in potentially helpful talks over next-door Iraq.
Specter: Bush Not Sole 'Decision-Maker'
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate Republican on Tuesday directly challenged President Bush's declaration that "I am the decision-maker" on issues of war. "I would suggest respectfully to the president that he is not the sole decider," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said during a hearing on Congress' war powers amid an increasingly harsh debate over Iraq war policy. "The decider is a shared and joint responsibility," Specter said.
House Dems want to change direction of war funds
Democratic leaders in Congress plan to make extensive changes to the Bush administration's anticipated $100 billion request for new war funds. They want to redirect money from Iraq to military readiness at home and say Iraq, Afghanistan and other NATO countries must carry more of the financial burden.
Group: Training Iraqi police essential
WASHINGTON - Training the police is as important to stabilizing Iraq as standing up an army there, but the United States has botched the job by assigning the wrong agencies to the task, two members of the Iraq Study Group say.
Investigators: Millions in Iraq aid wasted
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government wasted tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction aid, including scores of unaccounted-for weapons and a never-used camp for housing police trainers with an Olympic-size swimming pool, investigators say.
Dems want trade talks to include protections
President Bush and congressional Democrats fired the opening salvos Tuesday in what could become a major debate about whether the U.S. pursues additional trade agreements.
Obama Pushes for Iraq Pullout Deadline
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said Tuesday U.S. combat forces should be out of Iraq by spring 2008 to end "a foreign policy disaster" but he stopped short of endorsing a cutoff in funds.
Clinton attacks Bush's "irresponsibility" on Iraq
DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Iowa on Sunday President George W. Bush should find a way out of Iraq before he leaves office and called it "the height of irresponsibility" to leave the problem to the next administration.
Bush ready to sign off on spending bill
WASHINGTON - The White House has signaled its embrace of a $463.5 billion omnibus spending bill, removing doubts that the measure will soon be on President Bush's desk.
Panel hears climate 'spin' allegations
WASHINGTON - Federal scientists have been pressured by the White House to play down global warming, advocacy groups testified Tuesday at the Democrats' first investigative hearing since taking control of Congress.
Spy chief nominee faces ethical thicket
WASHINGTON - President Bush's choice for the nation's next spy chief would give up his $2 million-a-year job at one of Washington's premier consulting firms for a position that provides him with considerable influence over lucrative secret government contracts.
Libby wants to know Miller's sources
WASHINGTON - Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail before testifying that White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was one of her confidential sources. Now, Libby wants to know who else she was talking to.
Russert: Not Source of CIA Officer Leak
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- NBC News reporter Tim Russert said Monday that he did not tell vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby that a prominent war critic's wife worked at the CIA, as Libby has claimed. Economy & BusinessEnergy sector rises on oil; Fed clips gain
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged higher on Tuesday as a 5 percent jump in oil prices lifted shares of major energy companies and Motorola Inc. gained after investor Carl Icahn said he will seek a seat on the board.
Consumer confidence edges up in Jan: Conf Board
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumers' mood brightened slightly in January on a more favorable view of the labor market, a survey showed on Tuesday.
Panel presses automakers on fuel economy
WASHINGTON - A Senate panel on Tuesday pressed automakers to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles, saying it would help the industry weather the impact of higher gas prices and improve their long-term fortunes.
You’d think smart businessmen would figure this out for themselves. But if not, let senators tell them what’s in their long-term best interest. —Caro
Weapons of mass manipulation
MarketWatch -- Sorry investors, but you're at a distinct disadvantage, running a handicap race. You're one of America's 94 million Main Street investors and the odds are 100:1 against you given the enormous firepower of Wall Street. And thanks to behavioral finance, it's getting worse, the gap's widening. On cable, in ads and sales pitches The Street panders to your ego: You're "the man," a "rational man." You can beat the averages, the indexes. But behind your back, they laugh; they know you're irrational when it comes to investment decisions. MediaWP editorial blasts Obama report in Moon's Insight magazine
The Post goes after Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Insight magazine for its "scurrilous 'report'" claiming that Barack Obama, as a child in Indonesia, attended a radical Islamic madrassa. "Insight, whose piece was eagerly touted by Fox News Network, might have learned if it had bothered to check its story rather than cravenly attributing the false report to 'Hillary Clinton's camp.'"
IN SEARCH OF THOSE EVIL, BAD MEN
Until the day he’s made to stop, Matthews will continue his sneering remarks about Clinton. He’ll call her “Dukakis in a dress.” He’ll say she reminds him of “a stripteaser.” He’ll pretend, as he did last Thursday and Friday, that Bill Clinton has called her an “uppity woman” (text below). These sneering, gender-based comments and insults will be available each evening on Hardball. And this worthless man will sing the praises of the twin virile saints, John and Rudy. What lies at the soul of the celebrity press corps? Consider Clinton’s joke this Sunday about “evil/bad men.”
Vanity Fair editor shows no sign of silencing his political voice
When they open their magazine each month, Vanity Fair readers can expect to find an editor's letter that attacks the Bush administration. Editor Graydon Carter's political passion has unquestionably benefited Vanity Fair, says Bree Nordenson. "It has deepened his commitment to serious journalism and rescued the magazine from a fallow period around the millennium."
Truth sells magazines. It can sell newspapers, radio, and television, too. And it WILL do so, for those who are bold enough to go against the right-wing trend. —Caro
Is Keith Olbermann the Future of Journalism?
The MSNBC anchor’s unorthodox amalgam of the serious and the silly and his trenchant criticism of the war in Iraq have boosted the struggling network’s ratings and made him a hot media commodity. But some critics dislike blurring the line between fact and opinion.
Truth is an opinion? Maybe he should just mealy-mouth, as the NYT wants its reporters to do. See below. —Caro
Drawing a Line
The Times' public editor relates going to his bosses with great concern over military correspondent Michael Gordon publicly expressing his "purely personal" opinion that "I think it’s worth...one last effort for sure to try to get this right, because my personal view is we’ve never really tried to win" the war in Iraq. The paper's Washington bureau chief replied that his reporter had "stepped over the line" by not making his point in a "more nuanced and unopinionated way" and Calame concurred, lauding the decision as "a line drawn correctly...and accepted honorably by Mr. Gordon." But the real result of these concerns with any appearance of bias is to obscure in "nuance" Gordon's actual pro-escalation position—leaving readers to infer this from his consistent favoring of sources who basically echo what he believes.
Call It MyNewspaperSpace
LAS VEGAS (AdAge.com) -- As stodgy old newspapers begin to think of themselves in digital terms, they're increasingly looking to MySpace -- the unedited, consumer-generated and not-infrequently-profane social-networking site purchased by News Corp. in 2005 -- as an unlikely role model.
Harris Report: YouTube Users Watch Less TV
ROCHESTER, January 29: According to Harris Interactive, about 32 percent of frequent YouTube users are watching less TV as a result of the time they spend online. Further, 73 percent of frequent YouTube users say they would visit the site less if it started including short video ads before every clip.
Well, of course they’ll SAY they don’t want ads. But they don't want to pay for content, either. —Caro
Apple's iPhone Presents Test Case for Media Buyers
According to Nielsen BuzzMetrics, a system which tracks English language blogs, the music, phone and web device was mentioned by more blogs than either George W. Bush or McDonald’s for the next 10 days. Though their main business remains planning and buying mass media campaigns, agencies are increasingly trying to assess how internet commentators can affect the fortunes of a big consumer product launch, in advance of any conventional marketing spend. The answers may shape how companies market products overall.
Download revenue to rise tenfold by 2012
LONDON — Revenue from legitimate online TV and film downloads worldwide will rise tenfold to $6.3 billion by 2012. The U.S. will account for 65% of this amount, according to a report published by Informa. Increased broadband penetration and changing consumer habits will fuel the rising popularity of Web downloads. "These trends are now so pronounced that the term 'social revolution' no longer seems too much of an exaggeration," said Adam Thomas, media research manager at Informa. "With social change occurring on such a large scale, traditional media companies are being forced to change their behavior and business models to adapt their offering to consumer demand."
XM, Microsoft to Offer Additional Channels
XM Satellite Radio announced Monday it had lined up some additional distribution for its subscription radio service through an agreement with Microsoft. Beginning Tuesday, Microsoft will offer 80 channels of XM in its new operating system, Windows Vista, as part of its digital music hub. Web users can sign up for unlimited listening for $7.99 a month. Current subscribers can tune-in XM Radio Online for no additional charge. Technology & ScienceScientists Criticize White House Stance on Climate Change Findings
Witnesses spoke about how the Bush administration had delayed, altered or watered down the findings of government scientists on the issue of global warming.
EPA Scientists To Back Smog Standards
Federal scientists want to tighten smog standards, a step that would allow tens of millions of Americans to breathe easier but also would clash with President Bush's plan to wean Americans away from gasoline.
Backers push for genetic nondiscrimination bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supporters of a bill to bar discrimination against people because of their genetics have launched a push for congressional passage even as some business leaders oppose it, fearing a flood of frivolous suits.
Dry Cleaning's Dirty Trick
There's a curious sign in the storefronts of many drycleaners boasting of a new "organic" cleaning technique that is non-toxic and environmentally benign. Clearly they are trying to capitalize on the consumers' pursuit of all things wholesome. The new cleaning fluid they are using, called DF-2000, is indeed very organic, as organic as gasoline and every major dry-cleaning fluid since the creation of the industry 150 years ago. After all, to a chemist, a chemical is organic if it contains a chain of carbon. Semantics aside, the toxic DF-2000 is safe only in comparison to what it hopes to replace.
Geologists Watch as African Continent is Torn Apart
The African and Arabian plates meet in the remote Afar desert of Northern Ethiopia and have been going through a rifting process—at a speed of less than 1 inch per year—for the past 30 million years. This rifting formed the 186-mile Afar depression and the Red Sea. |
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