Good Morning! - Morning Headlines

[Caro]

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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Top Story

U.S., Iran Hold Meeting On Iraq Security
Ambassadors from the United States and Iran held a four-hour meeting today in Baghdad about Iraqi security. It marked the first high-level talks between the two countries since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

All Hat No Cattle

The World

Bombing in central Baghdad kills 17
BAGHDAD - A parked minibus packed with explosives blew up Tuesday afternoon in a busy section of central Baghdad, killing 17 people and injuring 53 others, police said.

Iraqi Refugees Turn to the Sex Trade in Syria
As a group, prostitutes represent one of the most visible symptoms of an Iraqi refugee crisis that has exploded in Syria in recent months.

Hamas rockets fall, Israel eyes escalation
Hamas kept up rocket fire into Israel on Monday in defiance of a ceasefire call by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli threats to escalate military strikes in the Gaza Strip.

13 killed in Afghan protest: witnesses
Thirteen people were killed and 35 wounded in Afghanistan on Monday when police opened fire to break up a violent protest against a provincial governor, witnesses said. Separately, Taliban militants ambushed U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces escorting supply trucks in southern Afghanistan

Ex-China drug regulator to be executed
BEIJING - China's former top drug regulator was sentenced to death Tuesday in an unusually harsh punishment for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.

Japanese Minister Hangs Self Amid Scandal
A Japanese Cabinet member hanged himself just hours before he was to face questions in Parliament over a growing scandal involving accounting practices, bid rigging and political contributions.
Our politicians, on the other hand, blame others for their wrongdoing. —Caro

The Nation

Candidates set aside politics, praise fallen soldiers
Presidential candidates joined in praising fallen soldiers and left partisanship aside on Memorial Day despite their differences over the war in Iraq.

Sessions: Time to draw down troops is coming
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a loyal supporter of President Bush, indicated Sunday that Republicans will be ready by September to look at bipartisan efforts to draw down the troops that were part of the surge to help secure Baghdad.

Military leaders seek to redefine Iraq success
Officers doubt that top goals set by the White House will be achieved before the September assessment.

Analysis: The Bush take on U.S. opinion
WASHINGTON — Confronted with strong opposition to his Iraq policies, President Bush decides to interpret public opinion his own way. Actually, he says, people agree with him.

Democrats in Washington want to keep impeachment off the table
The push to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is gaining a hearing in some parts of the country, but not in Washington. More than 70 cities and 14 state Democratic parties have urged impeachment or investigations that could lead to impeachment.
Democrats, you would lose your shirts playing poker. You never, EVER take anything off the table before you even sit down to play. —Caro

Who's Afraid of Democracy?
Believing that "people are rational as consumers and irrational as voters," many conservatives would favor free markets without democracy

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Thom Hartmann -- Air America's Renaissance Man Talk Show Host
With this interview with Thom Hartmann, who replaced Al Franken on the Air America Radio network, BuzzFlash is beginning a series of talks with some of the progressive radio hosts who are favorites of our readers… We'll be providing, in our nationally recognized BuzzFlash interview series, a forum for you to meet some progressive talk show hosts. It's your job to listen to them for awhile (and we guess that at least 1/4 of our readership has), and decide which ones you want to listen to regularly.

Al Gore slams 'trivialities and nonsense' in news media
Former US vice president Al Gore on Friday criticized the "trivialities and nonsense" of celebrity gossip in the media and called on people to focus instead on issues like Iraq and climate change.

FAIR Media Advisory: Coup Co-Conspirators as Free-Speech Martyrs: Distorting the Venezuelan media story
The story is framed in U.S. news media as a simple matter of censorship: Prominent Venezuelan TV station RCTV is being silenced by the authoritarian government of President Hugo Chávez, who is punishing the station for its political criticism of his government.

'Achievements '
Today we live in Iraqi’s achievements time, I’m talking about the fictional achievements that our government try to persuade us of its existence by using statements, signs, or even using brain washing to make us believe of these achievements.

Knowing When It’s Time to Go
It’s not clear how much longer Bush will override Congress’ Iraq timetables. But in doing so he is flagrantly ignoring public opinion.

Right-wing blogger geniuses expose another journalistic fraud!
The genius investigators in the right-wing blogosphere -- who serve as our Watchdogs over the Corrupt "MSM" -- made a major, major discovery this weekend. Last Wednesday, former CIA agent Larry Johnson published a Memo … sent from the U.S. Mission in Iraq which advised troops and other military personnel in Iraq of a "theater-wide delay in food delivery" which would likely limit the available food supply. As has been true for the last four years, right-wing bloggers simply shut their eyes and refused to believe that any news reflecting poorly on the Leader's War could be real. Just as was true for news reports of civil war and a growing Iraqi insurgency, this Memo just had to be a fake, so they declared it to be such.

Technology & Science

Hong Kong cracks down on spam
HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong spammers will face big fines and a long jail terms under a new law to control unsolicited advertising, officials said Monday.
How come I never see any results from all these crackdowns? —Caro

Doctors Group Posts Prices Online
TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California physicians group has become one of the first and largest health organizations in the nation to make prices for procedures easily available to the public. HealthCare Partners put an itemized price list on its Web site last week, with little fanfare.

Weird science
Science can explain many strange phenomena, but it doesn't have an answer for everything. From hairy beasts to humming deserts, these mysteries go unexplained.

Astronomers discover 28 new exoplanets
Astronomers have discovered 28 new planets outside of our solar system, increasing to 236 the number of known exoplanets, revealing that planets can exist around a broad spectrum of stellar types — from tiny, dim stars to giants.

Environment

Lawmakers Push for Big Subsidies for Coal Process
The push for coal-to-liquid fuels reflects a tension between slowing global warming and reducing dependence on foreign oil… With both House and Senate Democrats hoping to pass “energy independence” bills by mid-July, coal supporters argue that coal-based fuels are more American than gasoline and potentially greener than ethanol… Environmental groups are adamantly opposed, warning that coal-based diesel fuels would at best do little to slow global warming and at worst would produce almost twice as much of the greenhouse gases tied to global warming as petroleum.

Inuit crash through ice to death as warming bites
BELIZE CITY (Reuters) - Global warming has made life more dangerous for Inuit hunters in the Arctic as they increasingly fall to their deaths through thinning ice sheets while pursuing seals and polar bears.

EU presses climate case with Asians ahead of G8
HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - EU foreign ministers urged Asian countries on Tuesday to join the fight against climate change after hearing China argue that protecting the environment had to be balanced by the right to develop.

Canada declines to enter G8 climate change fight
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada declined on Monday to take sides in a dispute among Group of Eight members over climate change, saying merely it wanted to build consensus on the question of how to fight global warming.

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