Progressive Daily Beacon

May 2008
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PDB's Friday News Report

By admin | May 9, 2008

How You Can Help the People of Burma (Myanmar)

Perhaps, more than most we Americans can understand the pain of the Burmese people. After all, we know what it is like to have tens of thousands of our fellow citizens crammed into stadiums, forced into conference halls to live in their waste, and more than a thousand die all the while our leaders strum guitars in San Diego, worry about what they'll wear out to dinner, and busy themselves buying new shoes. It is almost hard to imagine a disaster and the response to that disaster by a government superseding Katrina and the Bush junta's response to it, but it appears that the Burmese disaster and its military junta have managed to accomplish just that … if you would like to help end the suffering, follow THIS LINK

Clinton Campaign's Self-Loans Paid for by China and Other Friends of Bill

And the Clintons wonder why people consider them to be "slick" and less than trustworthy…

Hillary Clinton's decision to lend her presidential campaign $6.4 million from assets she holds jointly with her husband is rekindling questions about millions of dollars that special interests have paid Bill Clinton for speeches and other work since he left the White House.In tapping some of that cash, "the Clintons have effectively bypassed campaign finance reform in a manner that's ingenious — using Bill Clinton effectively as a front for the fundraising," said Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor.

More at McClatchy

A Call for Criminal Inquiry on Utah Mine Collapse

Too bad it has taken so long for someone to try and get to the bottom of last summer's Utah mine collapse. It is a safe bet to assume that the people involved with the mine were big-time friends and donors to the Bush-Cheney administration and that they were enjoying some well-bought cover from Bush Inc. Everyone remember the vile Mister Murphy (photo-left)? He is probably a hunting buddy of "Dead-eye" Cheney.

The general manager and possibly other senior staff members at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah, where nine miners died last August, withheld information from federal officials that could have prevented the disaster and should face a criminal inquiry, the chairman of a Congressional investigation said Thursday.

The chairman, Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, accused the company of concealing the extent of an earlier collapse in the mine that involved the same high-risk technique, retreat mining, that was being used when the disaster began.

Mr. Miller said that if federal mine officials had known the extent of that earlier collapse, they would not have allowed the company to continue using the method, in which miners remove coal from the pillars that hold up the tunnels.

Mr. Miller disclosed that he had sent a referral letter late last month to the Department of Justice asking it to investigate whether the mine’s manager, Laine W. Adair, on his own or in conspiracy with others in the company, concealed facts or made false statements to federal investigators about the condition of the mine before the disaster.

More at New York Times

Republican's Ties to Mortgage Industry Raising Eyebrows

Maybe this country needs to pass laws that prevent millionaires from being members of Congress. It is just sickening how millionaires go to Congress and then spend their time making sure that policies favor themselves and their millionaire friends, while causing great harm to the American people and the nation.

He has made millions as a title insurance executive, landlord and real estate developer in this college town, where the economy, despite trouble nationwide, is still growing nicely. Now, as a United States senator, with the mortgage mess fueling a national economic slowdown, Richard C. Shelby has more say over the revamping of housing finance laws than almost anyone else in Congress.

. .. [O]ver the years, his critics say, Mr. Shelby’s ties to the mortgage industry and the Alabama real estate market, and the generous campaign donations he receives from financial services companies, have distorted his perspective and led him to delay critical legislative remedies.

Indeed, Mr. Shelby’s legislative and business worlds have often intersected. For instance, while on the Banking Committee, he financed an apartment complex he owns in Tuscaloosa with a $5 million loan from Freddie Mac, the same government-sponsored mortgage company whose regulation his committee is reshaping.

Even his efforts to steer federal money to the University of Alabama, where a recently built $60 million science building is named after Mr. Shelby and his wife, Annette, have benefited him. The tens of millions in earmarks have helped the university, his alma mater, grow and attract more students. The tenants of his apartment complex are mostly students.

Mr. Shelby said in an interview his business dealings posed no conflict.

More at New York Times

Republican's Moonie-run Paper Tips Hand, Hints that Hillary Clinton May Have Lied to Whitewater Grand Jury

Hillary Clinton continues to insist that she, unlike Obama, has been vetted. Well, the Republicans are now admitting to having more than 1,200 pages of opposition research on her and the Moonies' Republican newspaper, Washington Times, is hinting that the former First Lady lied to a federal grand jury. Is it true? Probably not, but it seems to indicate that the Republican Party's dirty-tricks gang is ready to make the Clintons and America suffer through another endless smear campaign. And Clinton thought she had won over the GOP's hate media. Not very good judgment!

A decade before Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted fudging the truth during the presidential campaign, federal prosecutors quietly assembled hundreds of pages of evidence suggesting she concealed information and misled a federal grand jury about her work for a failing Arkansas savings and loan at the heart of the Whitewater probe, according to once-secret documents that detail the internal debates over whether she should have faced criminal charges.

More at The Moonies' Washington Times

Topics: Political | No Comments »

PDB's Thursday News Report…

By admin | May 8, 2008

Hillary Clinton Stumbles On … Because She is White and Obama is Black

Hillary Clinton is vowing to stay in the long-ago-ended-race for the Democratic nomination. Her reasoning for remaining has, of course, changed again. Now, she is staying in the-race-that-isn't because she has declared herself the candidate most likely to defeat John McCain. It is an odd assessment considering that it is coming from a candidate who hasn't been able to win her own party's primaries and, too, it is coming from a candidate that likely wouldn't have won Indiana had it not been for Rush Limbaugh begging Republicans to throw the election her way.

It begs the question then, what exactly does Hillary Clinton mean when she declares herself better able to beat John McCain? After all, this is a race that her own adviser admitted on Wednesday had been lost in February. Senator Clinton has won half as many states that Obama has won. She cannot overtake Obama's elected delegate count. New York's junior senator no longer has any hope of overcoming Obama's popular vote total. How can Clinton win a general election, when she can't even win her party's nomination?

Well, for the Clinton campaign it all boils down to the fact that Obama is black and she is white. Race … race is what Hillary Clinton meant when declaring herself the candidate more likely to defeat John McCain:

Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans…

Need more be written? This entire nominating battle has, for the Clintons, when in a tough spot, reverted back to race, race-baiting, and racism. So it is again: the only reason that she will continue on toward an end that has already ended … is because she is white and Barack Obama is black. That is what Hillary Clinton means now, when she claims herself the candidate most likely to beat John McCain. She is the white candidate.

More regarding Hillary Clinton's comments can be found HERE

Bartholomew: Drums for Dummies (cartoon)

The Writing is On the Wall

Time for someone to introduce Senator Clinton to Mister Obvious, because the writing on the wall is crystal clear:

The Washington Post picks up some damning comments from a senior Clinton aide on Hillary's dwindling chances:

"Absent some sort of miracle on May 31st, it's going to be tough for us," said a senior Clinton official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be frank. "We lost this thing in February."

That is right … Clinton lost the race back in February. It would appear someone from her campaign is trying to tell her something and not being very subtle about it.

Wednesday News Beat…

By admin | May 7, 2008

PDB's Post-Primary Follow-up (A moment of horn tooting)

Regardless of which way Indiana falls, Obama had a great night! In previous races the Obama campaign had always found a way to mismanage expectations. During the lead up to the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, it was the Clinton campaign that had allowed expectations to spin out of control. By the time Monday rolled around the Clinton campaign and the corporate-owned press were still operating on polling derived from last week. At least that was how it appeared from afar. Hence, the Clintons and the media expected a significant win for Clinton in Indiana and a narrow victory for Obama in North Carolina.

The PDB, however, anxiously sifted through polling on a daily basis and found that Obama had been rebounding during the three days leading up to the Indiana and North Carolin primaries. Incredibly, despite the shift in the polls, Clinton and her campaign continued to predict a big victory in Indiana and a squeaker in North Carolina (isn't Mark Penn the Clinton campaign's pollster? … that'd answer a lot of questions). Proving the campaign was truly confident of a big night, prior to returns coming in from Indiana, Terry McAuliffe, Clinton campaign manager, joyously predicted a huge and glorious night for Hillary.

The PDB never bought into the poorly managed expectations spin coming out of the Clinton camp and the corporate-owned media. It was obvious that the polls were changing … moving toward Senator Obama. Based upon the shifting polling, the PDB predicted a 10-12 point Obama win in North Carolina and only a two-to-three point Clinton win in Indiana.

There … the PDB just tooted its own horn

Republican Fake Vote 'Fraud' Prevention Program in Action: 10 Elderly Retired Nuns Unable to Vote in Indiana …

Thank goodness for Republicans and their fake vote fraud prevention programs … otherwise American democracy would be destroyed by gaggles of ID-less elderly nuns trying to vote.

At least 10 retired nuns in South Bend, Ind., were barred from voting in Tuesday's Indiana Democratic primary election because they lacked photo IDs required under a state law that the Supreme Court upheld last week.

John Borkowski, a South Bend lawyer volunteering as an election watchdog for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said several of the retired nuns had been voting all of their lives but were told they lacked the required identification cards and could only file provisional ballots.

Since 2005, Indiana's toughest-in-the-nation law requires every voter to produce a state or federal photo ID card. The Supreme Court, after weighing scores of legal briefs from conservatives who backed the statute and liberals who opposed it, upheld the law by a 6-3 vote, saying there was little evidence that it was unduly burdensome for voters.

Borkowski said Sister Julie McGuire, one of several nuns on poll duty, wasn't pleased to turn away the nuns, some of whom were in their 80s and 90s and no longer had driver's licenses.

"Here's the supreme irony," Borkowski said. "This law was passed supposedly to prevent and deter voter fraud, even though there was no real record of serious voter fraud in Indiana. Here you have a bunch of nuns whose votes can't be accepted by a bunch of nuns … who live with them in the polling place in their convent because they don't have an ID."

More at McClatchy

Another California Hospital Caught Dumping Homeless Patient at Shelter

Is this really the kind of country Americans want … a country that dumps mentally ill patients on the streets? Republican policies of cutting taxes look great and sound great, but the policies make America and the American people appear to be heartless and uncaring. And, frankly, that isn't what America is and that isn't who the American people want to be.

Los Angeles city prosecutors are investigating a Costa Mesa hospital for allegedly taking a mentally ill man 42 miles to downtown's skid row and dropping him off at the Union Rescue Mission, officials said.

The man allegedly was dropped by taxi outside the Union Rescue Mission, one of larger downtown facilities providing services to the homeless, after being discharged from the College Hospital in Costa Mesa about 10 days ago. The man, described as possibly schizophrenic and bipolar, was taken to an L.A. area hospital after being tended to by mission staffers, city officials said.

Prosecutors in City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo's office are conducting a probe into the hospital's conduct. ..

The Union Rescue Mission and sidewalk in front of it are among the most frequently used sites for patient dumping. Andy Bales, president of the Union Rescue Mission, said it is disappointing that medical providers continue to dump patients on skid row despite the high-profile lawsuits and prosecutions.

"There are a lot of homeless facilities in all those miles between here and Costa Mesa, and yet again a hospital chose to bring a patient here to skid row," Bales said. Los Angeles prosecutors have investigated more than 50 alleged dumping cases since 2005.

In 2006, city prosecutors filed false-imprisonment and dependent-care-endangerment charges against Kaiser Permanente — the nation's largest nonprofit health maintenance organization — after Carol Ann Reyes, a 63-year-old patient who was discharged from Kaiser's Bellflower hospital, was videotaped wandering skid row wearing little more than a hospital gown after a taxi dropped her off.

More at LA Times

Beeler: Hillary's Fuzzy Gas-Tax Math…(cartoon)

Clinton's Finger On the Nuclear Button

It is always interesting to see how the media outside the US views domestic events. This is how the US press tackled the Clinton campaign's plan to use the "nuclear option" in an all out effort to win the Democratic nomination: "Using the Rules and Bylaws Committee to force the seating of two pro-Hillary delegations would provoke a massive outcry from Obama forces." And this is how Australia's Sydney Morning Herald summed it up: "It'S called the 'nuclear option', and some say it would would rip the heart out of the Democrats…"

Which media outlet had the more honest assessment? We report, you decide…

It'S called the "nuclear option", and some say it would would rip the heart out of the Democrats and destroy all chance of their winning in November.

As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama wound up punishing campaign schedules before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, talk of the Clinton camp going nuclear emerged.

The Huffington Post, a liberal website, said that the Clintons were working on a strategy to take to the Democratic Party's 30-member rules and bylaws committee the issue of the Florida and Michigan delegates disbarred because those states moved their primaries forward in defiance of the national party. ..

.. . There are real problems with the strategy: first, Senator Clinton would need to persuade her loyalists on the rules committee to back the plan.

Second, it would not look good if the nomination was in effect decided by just 30 people in a closed room.

Third, Senator Obama would appeal to the credentials committee at the convention, setting the stage for one of the ugliest convention brawls in history.

More at Sydney Morning Herald

Special Counsel Who is Investigating Bush and Protecting Whistleblowers, Has House Rolled by FBI

This is Bush's America … it is a lot like Putin's Russia. A special counsel has been investigating the Bush administration for misuse of government resources and now, finds Bush's FBI ransacking his house and office.

Bloch has been caught in a bind for a year, using his office of the special counsel (OSC) powers to investigate the Bush administration for alleged political misuse of government resources while senior White House aides investigated retaliation complaints filed against Bloch by his own aides.

Computers and documents were seized in today's raids, carried out on OSC headquarters and Bloch's suburban Virginia home by the FBI. The electronic evidence may be particularly pivotal, since Bloch has admitted paying outside consultants $1,000 in 2006 to wipe clean the hard drive of his government-issued computer.

Upwards of 20 agents remained at OSC headquarters into the evening, even as a spokesman for Bloch's office said he had no knowledge of why the raids were occurring, according to the Associated Press.

Although Bloch is accused of neglecting whistleblower complaints that crossed his desk, he pursued high-profile probes that helped oust several of George Bush's appointees. Lurita Doan, head of the US agency that handles government property, resigned this week after a storm of scrutiny that began when Bloch charged her with lavishing lucrative contracts on a personal friend.

More at Guardian, UK

Topics: Political | 1 Comment »

Tuesday's News …

By admin | May 6, 2008

PDB's Indiana and North Carolina Primary Predictions

Aside from USA Today, most polls indicate that Obama is surging again. After falling behind last week, Gallup's national daily tracking poll shows Obama with a five point lead. It seems likely that something similar has happened in Indiana. Obama was down last week, but many recent polls show the race in the Hoosier State has tightened. More than 150,000 ballots were cast early in Indiana (4 percent of expected voter turnout) … most being submitted in Obama-leaning areas of the state. For these reasons it appears Obama will make Indiana a closer race than people are expecting. Ultimately, however, the trends tend to favor Clinton.

PDB's Indiana prediction: Clinton by two or three points.

North Carolina is pretty straight forward, however, some polls claim Clinton to be within 5 points of Obama. Sorry, considering the demographics, that just isn't likely.

PDB's North Carolina Prediction: Obama by 10-to-12 points.

Gorrell: What recession…(cartoon)

Subprime Disaster Marches On: Countrywide Financial's Debt Rated 'Junk'

Doubts are mounting over a $4bn (£2bn) rescue bid for the US's biggest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, after a deterioration in its stricken loan portfolio and a downgrade in its debt to junk status. ..

The company is under investigation by prosecutors in several US states for its allegedly overzealous promotion of inappropriate mortgages to low earners.

On Friday, Standard & Poor's cut its rating on Countrywide's debt to "BB plus", taking it below investment grade.

At its peak, California-based Countrywide provided one in seven of US mortgages. It was a leading provider of sub-prime loans that homeowners have struggled to repay in a declining property market.

More at Guardian, UK

Global Food Crisis Spreads: Thousands in Mogadishu, Somalia Riot Over Food Prices

Soldiers opened fire and killed at least two people and wounded several others Monday as tens of thousands of people protested in the Somali capital against high food prices.

Poor weather, high fuel costs and rising demand have contributed to rising prices of rice and other staple foods in much of the world. But in Africa, prices of some staples have increased more than 50 percent over the past few weeks…

[T]ens of thousands of people took to the streets, hurling stones that smashed the windshields of several cars and buses. Demonstrators threw rocks at shops and chaos erupted at the city's main market. Hundreds of shops and restaurants in southern Mogadishu closed their doors for fear of looting.

More at International Herald Tribune

Greenpeace Demands Public Inquiry Into Deaths of Migratory Ducks at Oilsands Operation

Greenpeace Canada is demanding a public inquiry into the deaths last week of migratory ducks at an oilsands tailings pond in northern Alberta.

Hundred of ducks died after landing on a pond at Syncrude's Aurora North Site mine, north of Fort McMurray. Only a handful were rescued and most of them died after being covered in the oily residue.

Greenpeace spokesman Mike Hudema told a news conference on the steps of the Alberta legislature Monday that it's becoming evident that the 500 ducks reported by the company represent just a fraction of the wildlife affected by the oilsands plant.

"To believe that an industry is going to report every single incident, every single spill, every single death that occurs is simply putting way too much faith in that industry," Hudema said.

Greenpeace has been a leader in raising concerns about the impact of Alberta's oilsands plants.

Last month activists from the group disrupted a fundraising dinner held by Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach by dropping from a convention centre catwalk and unfurling a banner reading, "Stelmach: the best premier oil money can buy."

[PDB Note: For US readers, a Premier is equal to Governor in the US]

CBC News

Topics: Political | 1 Comment »

Monday's News …

By admin | May 5, 2008

Alaskan Republicans Seek to Fund Research that Denies Polar Bears Threatened by Global Warming

…And Republicans wonder why they are even losing seats in the deep, deep, deep south that the Party had held for more than 33 years? Really … the GOP can't figure out why people have become disgusted by the Party's very existence?

Alaska's state legislature is looking to hire a few good polar bear scientists. The conclusions have already been agreed upon — researchers just have to fill in the science part.

A $2 million program funded with little debate by the legislature last month calls for using state money to fund an "academic based" conference that highlights contrarian scientific research on global warming. Legislators hope to undermine the public perception of a widespread consensus among polar bear researchers that warming global temperatures and melting Arctic ice threaten the polar bears' survival.

Republican legislative leaders say a federal decision to declare the polar bears "threatened" by climate change would have troubling effects on Arctic oil development… Last week a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to release its already-tardy decision under the Endangered Species Act by May 15. By law, such a decision must be based strictly on science, not on possible economic consequences.

More at McClatchy

Obama On Clinton's 'Obliterate' Iran Remarks: When Iran is able to 'get some sympathy, that's a sign that [she's] taking the wrong approach'

Why are people shocked by Hillary Clinton's willingness to act like, talk like, think like Bush? She did after all, vote to support Bush's Iraq War. And now, suddenly, people are surprised that she would nonchalantly decide it would be acceptable to 'obliterate' an entire country and all its millions of innocent people?

Obama, addressing Clinton's statement about Iran, said, "We have had a foreign policy of bluster and saber-rattling and tough talk, and in the meantime have made a series of strategic decisions that have actually strengthened Iran."

Obama said that Israel is "the most important ally" the United States has in the Middle East, and that Washington would respond "forcefully and appropriately" to any attack.

"But it is important that we use language that sends a signal to the world community that we're shifting from the sort of cowboy diplomacy, or lack of diplomacy, that we've seen out of George Bush," he said. "And this kind of language is not helpful."

"When Iran is able to go to the United Nations complaining about the statements made and get some sympathy, that's a sign that we are taking the wrong approach," Obama said.

More at CNN

Houston, Republicans Have a Serious Problem

Regarding the Republican candidate's defeat in Louisiana after the GOP attempted to demonize Obama:

"The NRCC approach is probably the best available tactic for the GOP in this Democratic year," wrote Hastings Wyman in his Southern Political Report newsletter. "Nevertheless, if it didn't work in this conservative Deep South district, it is unlikely to bear fruit in very many other areas of the country."

More at USA Today

Babin: Clueless Bush…(cartoon)

Global Warming Swamps Island Community … Nobody Notices

Maybe all global warming deniers should be made to live on low-lying oceanic islands. The only requirement for them to be allowed off the island would be that they admit global warming is real. They'd probably come around once the water reached their outstretched, straining for air, nearly submerged noses…

No one on Murray had ever seen such a high tide before. Other islands in the Torres Strait, which lies between the far north-eastern tip of the Australian mainland and Papua New Guinea, have witnessed similar scenes in recent years. Houses, roads and graveyards have been flooded, and the locals believe they know the reason: climate change.

The low-lying islands that dot the sparkling waters of this region are facing similar challenges to South Pacific nations such as Kiribati and Tuvalu. But while the plight of those countries is well known and is regularly discussed in the international arena, few people outside Australia have even heard of the Torres Strait. Even Australians would have difficulty locating it on the map, and the remote islands – accessible only by light plane – receive few visitors.

Donna Green is one exception. A scientist at the University of New South Wales, English-born Dr Green is educating the islanders about the possible impacts of climate change and ways in which they can adapt. She embarked on the project after discovering that no one else was doing it. In fact, although the Torres Strait is considered the most vulnerable area of Australia, it is barely on the radar, either as a subject of scientific research or a focus of government policy.

More at Independent, UK

Polls Find Obama Rebounding

..and a report on a second poll…

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appears to be rebounding from sliding poll numbers in the wake the controversy over his former pastor, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll released on Sunday.

Among Democratic primary voters, the Illinois senator now leads opponent Hillary Clinton by 12 points — 50 percent to 38 percent — the poll found. Obama led the New York senator by 8 points in a CBS/New York Times poll released just a few days ago.

The latest poll was taken after Obama's comments last week repudiating Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who repeated statements that the September 11 attacks were retribution for U.S. foreign policy and that the U.S. government had a hand in spreading AIDS to harm blacks.

According to the poll, 60 percent of voters approve of how Obama handled the furor over the Chicago minister, compared with 23 percent who disapprove…

Despite concern among Democrats about the potential damage to the party by the protracted Clinton-Obama fight, both are in a strong position against McCain, CBS said.

The poll found that in a general election Obama would defeat McCain by 51 percent to 40 percent and Clinton would defeat the Arizona senator by a 53 percent to 41 percent.

More at Reuters

Topics: Political | 3 Comments »

The Sunday PDB…

By admin | May 4, 2008

Agricultural Corporations Making a Killing On Global Food Crisis

Giant agribusinesses are enjoying soaring earnings and profits out of the world food crisis which is driving millions of people towards starvation. And speculation is helping to drive the prices of basic foodstuffs out of the reach of the hungry.

The prices of wheat, corn and rice have soared over the past year driving the world's poor – who already spend about 80 per cent of their income on food – into hunger and destitution.

The World Bank says that 100 million more people are facing severe hunger. Yet some of the world's richest food companies are making record profits. Monsanto last month reported that its net income for the three months up to the end of February this year had more than doubled over the same period in 2007, from $543m (£275m) to $1.12bn. Its profits increased from $1.44bn to $2.22bn.

Cargill's net earnings soared by 86 per cent from $553m to $1.030bn over the same three months. And Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world's largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 per cent in the first three months of this year from $363m to $517m. The operating profit of its grains merchandising and handling operations jumped 16-fold from $21m to $341m.

Similarly, the Mosaic Company, one of the world's largest fertiliser companies, saw its income for the three months ending 29 February rise more than 12-fold, from $42.2m to $520.8m, on the back of a shortage of fertiliser. The prices of some kinds of fertiliser have more than tripled over the past year as demand has outstripped supply. As a result, plans to increase harvests in developing countries have been hit hard.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation reports that 37 developing countries are in urgent need of food. And food riots are breaking out across the globe from Bangladesh to Burkina Faso, from China to Cameroon, and from Uzbekistan to the United Arab Emirates.

Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement, called the escalating earnings and profits "immoral" late last week. He said that the benefits of the food price increases were being kept by the big companies, and were not finding their way down to farmers in the developing world.

More at Independent, UK

Americans Wonder Why the World Has Lost All Respect for the U.S.

Approximately 70 percent of all murders in the United States are committed with firearms, but there is no political will to control the illegal use, possession, or sale of the deadly weapons. Not to fret, however, because 15 states believe they have found a solution …

Concerns that realistic-looking toy weapons are confusing police and threatening safety have led 15 states to try going beyond gun control and cracking down on fake firearms.

That's right, according to Yahoo News, 15 states believe that the solution to gun violence is the banning of TOY WEAPONS.

Bad Sign for GOP, Good Sign for Obama: Dem Wins Seat Held by GOP for 33 Years; Republicans Linked Dem to Obama and It Didn't Hurt the Democrat

The race in the 6th Congressional District, matched Democrat state Rep. Don Cazayoux , a 44-year-old small-town lawyer, with Woody Jenkins, a 61-year-old Christian-right GOP candidate who spent 28 years in the state House. Cazayoux lead in polls during the final days leading up to the election. ..

Coming in the middle of a presidential cycle, the race has attracted attention from Washington interest groups and the national parties.

Cazayoux has drawn the brunt of the attacks. He's sought to rebuff a campaign that brands him as a supporter of "big government" policies of presidential contender Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Saturday's 6th Congressional District election will fill the seat of Richard Baker, who resigned in January to take a job in hedge funds.

The district covers the Old South plantation country around Baton Rouge and had been held by Republicans for 33 years.

More at WAFB Channel 9

Sunday Cartoons…

Food Crisis Causes Malaysian Government to Redirect Public Finances Toward Food Purchases

The Malaysian government will delay non-essential public projects and use the money instead to build up food stockpiles amid a global food crisis, the Prime Minister said.

More at Guardian, UK

Did you know that "Americans with below-average incomes are much less likely than their counterparts in other industrialized nations to see a doctor when sick, to fill prescriptions or to get needed tests and follow-up care"? (New York Times; August, 2007)

Did you know that compared to Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the United States' healthcare system "ranked last or next to last on most measures of performance, including quality of care and access to it"? (Common Wealth Fund; May, 2007)

Did you know that for healthcare, "the United States spends a higher proportion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries"? (World Health Organization; June 21, 2000)

Did you know that Chile, Costa Rica, Columbia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Dominica ALL rank higher in healthcare than does the United States? (World Health Organization; June 21, 2000)

Did you know that 20.5 million children in the United States are completely without health insurance or end up without medical care for part of the year? (CBS News; May 2, 2007)

Corruption Eats Away at Afghanistan's Government

Among the soldiers, diplomats and aid workers who live in Afghanistan, it is the problem that nobody dares mention.

Among ordinary Afghans, it's a daily presence, the corruption that is rooted deeply in the Western-backed Afghan government and its appointed officials.

When Afghans are forced by uniformed men to pay large sums of cash in order to travel safely on provincial roads, as they are daily, when their colleagues are arrested and beaten in exchange for ransom payments, when they learn that people pay $150,000 for the job of district police chief in parts of Kandahar province, when entire aid shipments or thousands of police salaries are seized for private use, when world-record heroin exports take place under police watch, everyone in Afghanistan knows where to look.

On heavily guarded streets on the edge of every Afghan city and in the centre of Kabul are the large, wedding-cake houses, surrounded by walls and guards and filled with luxury goods, built in a style popularly known as “narcotecture.”

Inside live the senior officials with top roles in Afghanistan's government, some of whom have amassed fortunes of hundreds of millions of dollars. Some are governors of provinces, like Kandahar governor Asadullah Khalid, reported by Canadian diplomats to have committed torture. Some are top cabinet ministers.

Others wield power through family ties to the President. The man considered by many observers to be the most powerful and feared figure in the Afghan south is not the Kandahar governor but rather Ahmed Wali Karzai, appointed by his brother, President Hamid Karzai, to represent Kandahar province in Kabul.

More at Globe and Mail

Topics: Political | 2 Comments »

PDB's Saturday Reading Room…

By admin | May 3, 2008

Why Didn't the Corporate-Owned Media Cover the Pentagon-trained Propagandist ex-Generals? It is After All, Illegal for the Government to Peddle Propaganda

The New York Times reported on April 20th that several dozen retired military leaders with ties to groups competing for hundreds of billions in government contracts have for years taken part in a Pentagon campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war. Included were a number of retired generals and other high-ranking officers who are regular contributors on op-ed pages and TV.

The story has implications of illegal government propaganda and, possibly, improper financial gains. The Times reporter, David Barstow, stopped short of making those charges — but they are at least as logical as more benign interpretations.

For the mainstream news organizations that took part, this effort is yet another cause of embarrassment. Some of the same outlets that failed to ask hard questions in the run-up to the war, it turns out, proceeded to carry water for the White House and Pentagon in the years since.

More at Nieman Watch

Corporate-Owned Media Makes Race Into Pornography, While Ignoring Issues that Matter

Race is like pornography in the United States — the dirty stories and dirty pictures that everyone professes to hate but no one can resist. But I suspect that even porn addicts get their fill sometimes.

The challenge for the working press right now is to see if we can force ourselves past the overwhelming temptations of Wright and race and focus in a sustained way on some other important matters, like the cratering economy, metastasizing energy costs, the dismal state of public education, the nation’s crumbling infrastructure or the damage being done to the American soul by the endless war in Iraq.

A highly decorated Army ranger named David McDowell, a 30-year-old father of two from Ramona, Calif., was killed in Afghanistan this week. As I read his obituary, I noticed that he had been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq seven times. What does that tell us about our shared wartime sacrifices?

More at New York Times

Bart: Looney Tunes (cartoon)

Corporate-centric Policies and the Global Food Crisis

Food riots are erupting around the world. Protests have occurred in Egypt, Cameroon, the Philippines, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Senegal.

Sarata Guisse, a Senegalese demonstrator, told Reuters: "We are holding this demonstration because we are hungry. We need to eat, we need to work, we are hungry. That's all. We are hungry."

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has convened a task force to confront the problem, which threatens, he said, "the specter of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale." The World Food Program has called the food crisis the worst in 45 years, dubbing it a "silent tsunami" that will plunge 100 million more people into hunger.

Behind the hunger, behind the riots, are so-called free-trade agreements, and the brutal emergency loan agreements imposed on poor countries by financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund.

By Amy Goodman

The Clinton-McCain "Gas-Tax" Holiday is Voodoo Economics

…[T]here's a lot to be said against a tax holiday, so much so that it is amazing (on policy terms alone) that the idea even got off the starting blocks. Here's why.

The first reason is that the tax cut won't actually cut the price of gas by much, if it all. Without needing a PhD in economics, that's because what happens to the price of something depends of the demand for it. The demand for gas in the US is what economists call relatively price inelastic - that is to say that overall demand for gas is only affected marginally by a change in price. I don't want to get too far down in the weeds on this, but one economist remarks that in the short-term (and a three-month tax holiday is nothing but short term) what would happen is that - all other things being equal - retail gas prices would go down maybe half the total tax cut (say, nine cents per gallon) and oil companies and retailers would put prices up and retain the rest in higher income. (There's a more complex explanation of how this works here.)

But all other things won't be equal, since summer is a time when demand for gas usually hits its peak in the US, and prices tend to rise in a typical year. Refineries are already running flat out. Yet cutting the tax, and to some degree the price of gas, only serves to increase demand for gas, since it's an axiom of economics that if something is cheaper then people tend to buy more of it. Even if that effect is only a small one it will still have the likely outcome of raising gas prices. So cutting the tax may actually be counterproductive, or at least ineffectual.

More at Guardian, UK

Lait: Grand Theft Auto 2008 (cartoon)

Clinton and Obama Avoiding Carter

Both Clinton and Obama know that Carter understands the Middle East better than anyone who is currently in the White House — and that the Nobel Peace Prize winner is the one American president who has proven that sincere diplomacy can achieve dramatic results in the region.

Both Clinton and Obama know that Carter is performing a service to the United States and Israel by keeping lines of communication open at a time when naive actors like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are maintaining the same "isolation" strategies that failed with Iraq and Iran.

But neither Clinton nor Obama has defended Carter — let alone sought to align themselves with the former president or his diplomatic drive. They condemn his efforts in language not so different from that of Arizona Sen. John McCain, whose ignorance regarding the Middle East would be fodder for late-night comics were he not the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Obama is particularly unsettling in this regard; the candidate who has gotten much credit for promoting diplomacy as a necessary tool to avert violence has been a steady critic of Carter's diplomacy — calling the former president's determination to meet with all the key players in the Israel-Palestine conflict "unnecessary" and employing the old lie that talking with individuals or groups with whom you disagree "gives them legitimacy.

More at Capital Times

Time to Stop Subsidizing Big Oil

In 2006, the CEO of Exxon Mobil exclaimed that, gosh, his corporation was rolling in so much profit that he simply didn’t know how to spend it all.

Well, one place worthy of major investment would have been R & D on alternative fuels to help America break its dependency on ever-more expensive and ever-more polluting oil. But, no go. Two years later, with oil above $100 a barrel and Exxon’s profits topping $40 billion a year, the rationale for such an investment is even stronger. Yet, the oil giant recently rejected a congressional request that it start putting 10 percent of its earnings into alternative energy development.

Okay, maybe we don’t even want Big Oil mucking around in solar, wind, hydrogen, and other renewables, since they would try to monopolize production and engage in the same kind of gouging they do with oil products. But here’s one small step Congress could take toward new energy resources: Repeal the $1.8 billion annual tax subsidy that the Bushites gave to the oil industry in the 2004 tax bill.

By Jim Hightower

Topics: Political | No Comments »

PDB's Friday News…

By admin | May 2, 2008

Clinton Aide Linked to Right-Wing Smear Campaign Against Obama

Former journalist Sidney Blumenthal has been widely credited with coining the term "vast right-wing conspiracy" used by Hillary Clinton in 1998 to describe the alliance of conservative media, think tanks, and political operatives that sought to destroy the Clinton White House where he worked as a high-level aide. A decade later, and now acting as a senior campaign advisor to Senator Clinton, Blumenthal is exploiting that same right-wing network to attack and discredit Barack Obama. And he's not hesitating to use the same sort of guilt-by-association tactics that have been the hallmark of the political right dating back to the McCarthy era.

PDB's Thursday News Beat

By admin | May 1, 2008

Political Impact Decides Which Guantanamo Cases Go to Trial

A Pentagon legal adviser improperly influenced the Guantanamo war crimes prosecutions, dictating which cases would be tried based on how likely they were to pique US public interest, a military court has heard.

Military prosecutor Army Lieutenant Colonel William Britt said in an affidavit presented on Tuesday that the Government-appointed lawyer, Air Force Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, explained his selections this way: "This case is going to seize the imagination of the American public and that case won't."

Navy Lieutenant-Commander Brian Mizer read the affidavit in court as he sought dismissal of charges against his client, Yemeni prisoner Salim Hamdan, who was once Osama bin Laden's driver.

Commander Mizer argued the charges should be dismissed on the grounds that improper meddling by senior officials had tainted the tribunals. Colonel Britt's affidavit was originally submitted to an internal Pentagon investigation of the Office of Military Commissions, which oversees prosecutions at Guantanamo.

Colonel Britt's statement came a day after the former chief prosecutor, Air Force Colonel Moe Davis, testified that the Guantanamo court set up to try foreign terrorism suspects had been tainted by politics and improper influence from senior officials.

More at Sydney Morning Herald, AU

Five Years Later and Bush Regime Still Denying Meaning of Iraq War "Mission Accomplished" Banner

Thursday is the fifth anniversary of Bush's dramatic landing in a Navy jet on an aircraft carrier homebound from the war. The USS Abraham Lincoln had launched thousands of airstrikes on Iraq.

"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," Bush said at the time. "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on Sept. 11, 2001, and still goes on." The "Mission Accomplished" banner was prominently displayed above him — a move the White House came to regret as the display was mocked and became a source of controversy.

After shifting explanations, the White House eventually said the "Mission Accomplished" phrase referred to the carrier's crew completing its 10-month mission, not the military completing its mission in Iraq. Bush, in October 2003, disavowed any connection with the "Mission Accomplished" message. He said the White House had nothing to do with the banner; a spokesman later said the ship's crew asked for the sign and the White House staff had it made by a private vendor.

"President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said `mission accomplished' for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. "And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner.

More at Yahoo News

(Cartoon) John Sherffius: Instead…

Rockefeller Family Takes On EXXON

Members of the Rockefeller family took a fight with Exxon Mobil Corp. public Wednesday, challenging the oil giant spawned by their namesake to split the roles of chairman and CEO and focus more on renewable energy.

The family members, who describe themselves as the company's longest continuous shareholders, said they are concerned that Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil is too focused on short-term gains from soaring oil prices and should do more to invest in cleaner technology for the future. Separating the leadership roles, they argue, would better position the company for challenges to come.

"They are fighting the last war and they're not seeing they're facing a new war," said Peter O'Neill, who heads the Rockefeller Family committee dealing with Exxon Mobil and is the great-great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller.

O'Neill said he had the support of more than 80 percent of family members over the age of 21. Family representatives said they were not sure how much of the company they own collectively, but that it represented a significant holding. Mutual funds and other institutional investors, not individuals, are the company's top shareholders.

"We feel tied very closely to this company, and that's why we feel so passionately about them becoming the best company they can be," said Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, an economist and family member who briefed reporters.

Exxon Mobil was formed by the combination of two offspring of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust. It is now the world's largest publicly traded oil company.

More at AOL News

Canadian Company's "Tar-Sand" Oil Operation Turns Environmental Disaster

Just five mallard ducks have been rescued from an oily tailings pond, while up to 500 birds have sunk to their deaths in the toxic byproduct of Syncrude Canada Ltd.'s oil-sands operation in northern Alberta.

An estimated 400 to 500 ducks landed on the hydrocarbon contaminated lake…

[T]he provincial and federal governments have launched investigations under environmental and migratory- bird legislation, which could result in charges and fines of up to $1-million or prison terms against the world's largest producer of synthetic crude oil.

“Whenever we have an economic activity, we've got to do it in an environmentally friendly way,” Federal Environment Minister John Baird said Wednesday.

“Something went wrong here. I'm not happy about it and I want to get to the bottom of it. I want to hold those that are responsible to account and we want to make sure it doesn't happen again,” he said.

Just how the ecological tragedy came to light is under dispute, but Syncrude workers say they spotted the goo-covered birds on Monday and contacted the Alberta government, which dispatched wildlife officials to the site.

At some point, a tip was also called in to the government, spawning a flurry of criticism from opposition parties about adequate monitoring and the potential for cover-ups.

“I think the world expects more than anonymous tips to protect the oil sands,” Liberal Leader Kevin Taft said during Question Period in the legislature.

Ted Morton, Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, said the notification process will be part of the investigation.

“We will get to the bottom of this. We'll get the facts, and if there is negligence, negligent parties will pay,” he said.

The timing couldn't be worse for the Alberta government, which wrapped up a mission to Washington Wednesday aimed at promoting the province as having environmentally responsible policies in the oil sands.

At the same time, the province faced a renewed barrage of questions about its plan to spend $25-million on a public-relations campaign designed partly to dispel myths about the oil sands.

More at Globe and Mail

Topics: Political | No Comments »

Wednesday Morning News …

By admin | April 30, 2008

Is Obama's Former Pastor Working for Clintons?

Reverend Wright, Obama's former pastor, has been close to the Clintons for at least since Bill Clinton's Monica affair (photo of Clinton and Wright, as well as a letter Bill Clinton sent to Wright can be found below). As it turns out, Wright's recent appearance at the National Press Club may have been arranged by a close Clinton supporter and that supporter was photographed with Wright at the function.

This is the photo of Wright with the Clinton supporter, Barbara Reynolds, at the National Press Club:

(Above, Wright with Clinton supporter, Reynolds, seated to his left)

And here are the pictures of Wright with Bill Clinton and the letter Wright received from the then President:

(Above, Wright and Bill Clinton at official White House function)

(Above, letter Bill Clinton wrote to Wright thanking him for support regarding Lewinsky)

This is a recent report on the Wright-Reynolds-Press Club situation:

But now, it turns out, we should have been paying a little less attention to Wright's speech and the histrionics of his ensuing news conference and taken a peek at…. who was sitting next to him at the head table for the National Press Club event.

It was the Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds, a former editorial board member of USA Today who teaches at the Howard University School of Divinity. An ordained minister, as New York Daily News writer, Errol Louis points out in today's column, she was introduced at the press club event as the person "who organized" it.

But guess what? She's also an ardent longtime booster of Obama's sole remaining competitor for the Democratic nomination, none other than Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. It won't take very much at all for Obama supporters to see in Wright's carefully arranged Washington event that was so damaging to Obama the strategic, nefarious manipulation of the Clintons.

More at LA Times

The Fury of the World's Poor

Around the world, rising food prices have made basic staples like rice and corn unaffordable for many people, pushing the poor to the barricades because they can no longer get enough to eat. But the worst is yet to come.

Fort Dimanche, a former prison in the hills above the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince … thousands of impoverished Haitians live in the prison's grounds, digging through piles of garbage for food. But even dogs find little to eat there.

On the roof of the former prison, enterprising women prepare something that looks like biscuits and is even called by that name. The key ingredient, yellow clay, is trucked in from the nearby mountains. The clay is combined with salt and vegetable fat to make dough, which is then dried in the sun.

For many Haitians, the mud biscuits are their only food. They taste of fat, suck the moisture out of the mouth and leave behind an aftertaste of dirt. They often cause diarrhea, but they help to numb the pangs of hunger.

Food is becom[ing] increasingly scarce and expensive, and it is already unaffordable for many people. The world's 200 wealthiest people have as much money as about 40 percent of the global population, and yet 850 million people have to go to bed hungry every night. This calamity is "one of the worst violations of human dignity," says former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Should we be surprised that despair often turns into violence? The food crisis afflicts the world's poor — in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East — like a biblical plague. Prices for staples like rice, corn and wheat, which were relatively stable for years, have skyrocketed by over 180 percent in the last three years. A bottleneck is developing whose consequences are potentially more severe than the global crisis in the financial markets. With nothing left to lose, people on the brink of starvation are more likely to react with boundless fury.

More at Der Spiegel

Foreclosures Up 112%, Double Over Last Year

U.S. home foreclosure filings continued to climb in the first quarter of 2008, jumping 23 percent over the previous quarter and more than doubling from the first quarter of 2007, according to a new report released Tuesday.

It was the seventh consecutive quarter that foreclosure activity increased, said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, a real estate data firm in Irvine, Calif.

"Foreclosure activity in the first quarter increased on a year-over-year basis in 46 out of the 50 states and in 90 of the nation's 100 largest metro areas, demonstrating that most regions of the country are seeing more foreclosures," Saccacio said.

Nearly 650,000 U.S. homes received foreclosure filings in the first quarter of 2008, up 112 percent from roughly 307,000 over the first three months of 2007.

More at McClatchy

Not All Jews Will Celebrate Israel's 60th Anniversary

In May, Jewish organisations will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This is understandable in the context of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-semitism and Hitler's genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasised, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Naqba is to the Palestinians. ..

… We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations.

We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East.

More at Guardian, UK

GOP Should Be VERY Nervous: Obama Bogged Down by Wright, Clinton and Still McCain Can't Compete

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Barack Obama attracing 46% of the vote while John McCain earns 44%. In a match-up with Hillary Clinton, it’s Clinton 46% McCain 45%.

The Democratic Presidential Nomination remains stable. It’s Obama 49%, Clinton 41%…

More at Rasmussen Reports

Topics: Political | 1 Comment »

Tuesday Morning News …

By admin | April 29, 2008

Cheney Lawyer Claims Congress Has No Authority Over Vice-President

The lawyer for US vice-president Dick Cheney claimed today that the Congress lacks any authority to examine his behaviour on the job.

The exception claimed by Cheney's counsel came in response to requests from congressional Democrats that David Addington, the vice-president's chief of staff, testify about his involvement in the approval of interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo Bay.

Ruling out voluntary cooperation by Addington, Cheney lawyer Kathryn Wheelbarger said Cheney's conduct is "not within the [congressional] committee's power of inquiry".

"Congress lacks the constitutional power to regulate by law what a vice-president communicates in the performance of the vice president's official duties, or what a vice president recommends that a president communicate," Wheelbarger wrote to senior aides on Capitol Hill.

The exception claimed by Cheney's office recalls his attempt last year to evade rules for classified documents by deeming the vice-president's office a hybrid branch of government - both executive and legislative.

The Democratic congressman who is investigating the legal framework for the violent interrogation of terrorist suspects, John Conyers, has asked Addington and several other top Bush administration lawyers to testify. Thus far all have claimed their deliberations are privileged.

More at Guardian, UK

Taliban Scores Propaganda Coup With Parade Attack

A Taliban attack on an Afghan state parade was a propaganda victory undermining faith in the ability of President Hamid Karzai's government to protect itself, let alone provide security for the Afghan people, analysts said.

At least three Taliban militants managed to evade a wide security cordon and hide in a cheap hotel, one of only a very few buildings on flat ground overlooking the parade ground.

At the end of a 21-gun salute to mark the mujahideen victory over the Afghan communist government 16 years ago, the Taliban gunmen opened fire, sending the president, ministers, foreign diplomats and military top brass diving for cover…

The spectacle of Afghan leaders cowering on the ground and Afghan troops fleeing the parade ground will of course hearten Taliban fighters, but more importantly leaves ordinary Afghan wondering how Karzai's government can protect them.

"There is no security force in Afghanistan that people trust," said Afghan parliamentarian Ramazan Bashardost. "If you pay attention to yesterday's incident, the security forces fled the area before the ordinary people did."

More at Reuters AlterNet

Afghan Heroin Trade Fueling Taliban Resurgence

Russian gangsters who smuggle drugs into Britain are buying cheap heroin from Afghanistan and paying for it with guns. Smugglers told The Independent how Russian arms dealers meet Taliban drug lords at a bazaar near the old Afghan-Soviet border, deep in Tajikistan's desert. The bazaar exists solely to trade Afghan drugs for Russian guns – and sometimes a bit of sex on the side.

The drugs are destined for Britain's streets. The guns go straight to the Taliban front line. The weapons on sale include machine guns, sniper rifles and anti-aircraft weapons like the ones used in the attempt to assassinate the Afghan President Hamid Karzai last weekend.

"We never sell the drugs for money," boasted one of the smugglers. "We exchange them for ammunition and Kalashnikovs."

Independent, UK

Another Texas Shame: DNA Proves Man Innocent After 27 Years in Prison

A man who spent more than 27 years in prison has been cleared of a 1980 murder and is expected to be released as early as Tuesday, which would make him the longest-serving wrongly convicted man in the nation to be exonerated by DNA testing, his lawyers said.

James Lee Woodard, 55, of Dallas, was expected to be released on bond Tuesday, said Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas.

"After a careful review of the files in this case by our Conviction Integrity Unit, it is apparent that James Woodard did not have a fair trial back in 1981 and the results of his post-conviction DNA test exclude him as the perpetrator of any sexual assault that may have occurred, making him eligible for bond while we finalise our investigation on this case," Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said in a news release.

Woodard would also become the 18th person in Dallas County to have his conviction cast aside, a figure unmatched by any county nationally, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions.

Overall, 31 people have been formally exonerated through DNA testing in Texas, also a national high.

More at Sydney Morning Herald

Conservative Steroid-Fueled Hero, Roger Clemens, Adulterer and Possibly Statutory Rapist

Roger Clemens had a decade-long relationship with country star Mindy McCready that began when she was a 15-year-old aspiring singer and the pitcher was a Boston Red Sox ace, the Daily News reported…

Clemens was 28 and a married father of two when he first met McCready, the newspaper reported.

The story, which appeared on the newspaper's Web site Sunday night and in editions Monday, quoted several people who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation. It said Clemens sent cash to McCready to help her with legal issues and reached out to her when she was in jail last year in Tennessee for violating probation after allegedly hitting her mother.

The revelation could undermine Clemens' reputation, which is central to the defamation suit the former pitcher has filed against former personal trainer Brian McNamee. McNamee contends Clemens used performance-enhancing substances during his major league career.

More at Toronto Star, CA

Topics: Political | 1 Comment »

Poll: McCain Clueless, Clinton Dishonest, Obama Doing Well

By admin | April 28, 2008

A full 67 percent say McCain has no plan to solve problems and more now than ever before see Clinton as dishonest…

The latest USA Today/Gallup update on the presidential candidates' personal characteristics finds a significant decline since March in the percentage of Americans who believe John McCain "has a clear plan for solving the country's problems." Only 33% currently say this, compared with 42% in March…

The April poll also finds a decline in perceptions that Clinton is honest, with only 37% describing her in those terms, down from 44% in March. As recently as 2005, a majority of Americans thought Clinton was honest and trustworthy. ..

Obama's comments about "bitter" voters sparked media discussion about whether he is an elitist. But his comments did not seem to affect Americans' view that he is a compassionate person, with 6 in 10 Americans saying that he both "understands the problems Americans face in their daily lives" and "cares about the needs of people like you."..

[R]atings of Obama on the character dimensions are largely unchanged from March. He is widely viewed as being honest and trustworthy (60%)..

More at Gallup Poll

Topics: Political | 1 Comment »

Warren Buffett: Recession Worse than Most Expect

By admin | April 28, 2008

It is a safe bet that Buffett has forgotten more about the economy than Bush, Cheney, McCain, and the rest of the right-wing trickle-downers will ever know…

Warren Buffett, the world's richest person, said on Monday the U.S. economy is in a recession that will be more severe than most people expect.

..[M]y general feeling is that the recession will be longer and deeper than most people think," Buffett said. "This will not be short and shallow.

"I think consumers are feeling gas and food prices," he added, "and not feeling they've got a lot of money for other things."

More at Yahoo News

Topics: Political | No Comments »

Monday Morning News…

By admin | April 28, 2008

Soaring Prices Putting Basic Food Staples Out of Reach, Middle Class Turning to Food Banks

It seems as if the cost of everything is outpacing people's pay these days. Gas, the rent, utility bills — and now food.

According to the Labor Department, the average cost of groceries is climbing at an annual rate of about 5%, the sharpest increase in 18 years. Average weekly earnings are rising at an annual rate of 3.3%.

This disparity has resulted in significantly higher customer traffic at bakery thrift outlets, employees say, as well as a surge in people turning to food banks.

"It's an alarming situation," said Michael Flood, chief executive of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, which distributes free groceries to about 600,000 people countywide via a network of 875 religious entities and nonprofit groups. "The trends are not good."

Flood noted that other necessities — gas, rent, utilities — typically offer no price breaks. So after working-class families pay fixed expenses, that leaves whatever is left for food. And these days, that's often not enough.

Flood said a particularly troubling trend was that more people are showing up at food banks who don't fit the usual profile of lower-income families trying to make ends meet.

He said free groceries are now being sought by middle-class people who may have lost their jobs or experienced some other economic upheaval.

"We're worried," Flood said. "We don't necessarily have the supply of food to handle this increase."

More at Los Angeles Times

Foreclosure Crisis Turning American Suburbia Into 'Slumburbia'

The full onset of the mortgage foreclosure crisis, coupled with demographic changes, rising fuel prices and a host of other factors means that the suburbs could be on the way out. One analyst has postulated a future in which the suburbs, which once promised so much domestic happiness, are transformed into the new slums, with rampant crime fuelled by poverty and decay. The term "slumburbia" was not far behind.

Franklin Reserve, a walled but not gated community of 15,000 people, appears to be a prosperous development. But there are signs that all is not well. Some front lawns are unkempt, and for sale signs abound, almost matched by signs offering properties for rent. On Caprezzo Way a five-bedroom, three-bathroom house, complete with pool, is on the market for $550,000, probably $100,000 less than it would have been advertised for a year ago. Across the street a more ominous sign of the mortgage foreclosure crisis is taped to the wrought iron gate of a stucco house on Cortino Way. "Notice to quit," it declares, telling the defaulting occupants they have three days to leave.

More at Guardian, UK

Honor Killings Latest Sign of "Success" in Iraq

At first glance Shawbo Ali Rauf appears to be slumbering on the grass, her pale brown curls framing her face, her summer skirt spread about her. But the awkward position of her limbs and the splattered blood reveal the true horror of the scene.

The 19-year-old Iraqi was, according to her father, murdered by her own in-laws, who took her to a picnic area in Dokan and shot her seven times. Her crime was to have an unknown number on her mobile phone. Her "honour killing" is just one in a grotesque series emerging from Iraq, where activists speak of a "genocide" against women in the name of religion.

More at Independent, UK

Limbaugh's Call to Arms (Cartoon, Ed Stein)

Wolves Slaughtered for Sport

Tony Saunders stalked his prey for 35 miles by snowmobile through western Wyoming's Hoback Basin, finally reaching a clearing where he took out a .270-caliber rifle and shot the wolf twice from 30 yards away.

Gray wolves in the Northern Rockies have been taken off the endangered species list and are being hunted freely for the first time since they were placed on that list three decades ago, and nowhere is that hunting easier than Wyoming.

Most of the state with the exception of the Yellowstone National Park area has been designated a "predator zone," where wolves can be shot at will…

Environmental and animal rights groups plan to file a lawsuit Monday seeking an emergency injunction to block the killings and trying to put wolves back on the endangered list.

They predict that if states continue to control the animals' fate and proceed with public hunts, wolves could be driven back nearly to extermination in the region.

"There will be opportunistic shooting 365 days a year. This will become a continual black hole for wolves," said Franz Camenzind with the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, which is joining the lawsuit.

More at Yahoo News

Protests Dog Canadian Government Minister's DC Oil Sands PR Campaign

Conservationists will be rolling out an advertising campaign and dispatching polar-bear-suit-clad protesters this week in an attempt to derail Alberta's mission to Washington that is aimed at propping up the province's environmental image south of the border.

Ron Stevens, Alberta's deputy premier and Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations, said he will stress his province's commitment to “environmentally sustainable development of the oil sands” when he meets with U.S. government officials, industry representatives and policy analysts this week.

But he will also be trailed by protesters and a full-page newspaper ad featuring an oil-soaked maple leaf that describes Canada's oil sands as a major contributor to global warming and a supplier to the United States of the “world's dirtiest oil.”

The $12,000 (U.S.) ad that will run Tuesday in Roll Call, Washington's congressional newspaper, is backed by a coalition of environmental groups, which also criticize Alberta's soon to be launched $25-million advertising campaign aimed at improving the province's “brand” and “perception.”

More at Globe and Mail

Topics: Political | 6 Comments »

PDB's Saturday Reading Room…

By admin | April 26, 2008

The Petraeus Effect

By naming his favourite military officer, General David Petraeus, to head the US Central Command, President Bush evidently hopes to terrify Iran. Americans and people in the rest of the world, however, have at least as much reason to be terrified as anyone in Tehran.

For several years, President Bush and those around him sought to justify the idea of attacking Iran on the grounds that Iranian leaders were on the brink of producing nuclear weapons. "Iran's pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust," Bush said in August last year.

That argument was deflated by the end of last year, when US intelligence agencies announced their conclusion that Iran was not, in fact, building nuclear weapons. Almost immediately, the administration found a new argument: Iran is an outlaw state because it is responsible for killing Americans in Iraq. General Petraeus has vigorously promoted this view.

"Is it fair to say that the Iranian-backed special groups in Iraq are responsible for the murder of hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians?" Senator Joseph Lieberman asked General Petraeus at a recent hearing in Washington. "It certainly is," Petraeus replied. "That is correct."

General Petraeus and President Bush may well be right that groups in Iran are supporting and arming factions in Iraq. Their suggestion that some Iranian leaders dream of building nuclear weapons may also be true. What makes their charges so frightening, though, is their evident belief that these transgressions may justify an American attack on Iran. Such an attack would strengthen militant factions in Iran rather than weakening them; make Iran more dangerous rather than less; and undermine US national security rather than strengthening it.

More at Guardian, UK

Peak Oil: World Running On Empty

It used to be that only environmentalists and paranoids warned about running out of oil. Not anymore. As climate change did over the past few years, peak oil seems poised to become the next big idea commanding the attention of governments, businesses and citizens the world over. The arrival of $119-a-barrel crude and $4-a-gallon gasoline this spring are but the most obvious signs that global oil production has or soon will peak. With global demand inexorably rising, a limited supply will bring higher, more volatile prices and eventually shortages that could provoke–to quote the title of the must-see peak oil documentary–the end of suburbia. If the era of cheap, abundant oil is indeed coming to a close, the world's economy and, paradoxically, the fight against climate change could be in deep trouble.

Though largely unnoticed by the world media, a decisive moment in the peak oil debate came last September, when James Schlesinger declared that the "peakists" were right. You don't get closer to the American establishment and energy business than Schlesinger, who has served as chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, head of the CIA, Defense Secretary, Energy Secretary and adviser to countless oil companies. In a speech to a conference sponsored by the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, Schlesinger said, "It's no longer the case that we have a few voices crying in the wilderness. The battle is over. The peakists have won." Schlesinger added that many oil company CEOs privately agree that peak oil is imminent but don't say so publicly.

One who does is Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell. Without using the term "peak oil," van der Veer warned in January, "After 2015, easily accessible supplies of oil and gas probably will no longer keep up with demand."

Of course, peak oil could arrive sooner than 2015; columnist George Monbiot has claimed in the Guardian that a Citibank report calculates the date at 2012. But even 2015 leaves a very short time in which to prepare, because modern societies were built on cheap, abundant oil.

"The world has never faced a problem like this," warned a 2005 study funded by George W. Bush's Energy Department. "Previous energy transitions (wood to coal and coal to oil) were gradual and evolutionary; oil peaking will be abrupt and revolutionary."

More at The Nation

Gorrell On Global Food Crisis and Biofuel

Getting Jimmy Carter

Carter's belief that even the most evil dictators will see the light is a testament to his Christian faith in redemption. It can be exasperating if you do not share his principles, but it is certainly preferable to the predestinarianism and damnation that informs other, less Christian evangelicals. Indeed, many probably find his Southern accent and piety a trifle over-unctuous. However, it is certainly not enough to explain his ostracism, which is almost entirely caused by his views on the Middle East.

Condoleezza Rice, representing the administration that brought the world the Iraq debacle and has earned the lowest-ever standing at home and abroad (in particular in the Middle East), saw fit to lecture him for talking to Hamas despite state department instructions. Carter denied getting any such warnings, but who are you going to believe: the most mendacious administration in history or the ex-president who wears his principles on his sleeve?

In any sane polity, there would be profound respect for the views of a president who engineered the only durable Arab-Israeli peace deal at Camp David, one that has now lasted over 30 years. Of course, meeting Hamas is considered very bad. Elected they may have been, but democracy has its limits in this brave new world where the label "terrorist" has more pungency and even less discrimination than Joe McCarthy's "communist". Indeed, Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, called Carter a "bigot" yesterday. Can you imagine the reaction if a US envoy to Israel - or a presidential candidate - had used that term about several Israeli ex-prime ministers who truly deserve it?

More at Guardian, UK

Clinton's Pretended Popular Vote Lead

The Clinton campaign, which is losing the pledged delegate race, is now talking up a different metric: the cumulative popular vote.

"I'm very proud that as of today, I have received more votes by the people who have voted than anyone else," Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday, a day after she won the Pennsylvania primary by more than 200,000 votes.

Her characterization is true only in a highly technical way: If you count the votes she received in Michigan (where hers was the only name on the ballot) and Florida (where an outlaw primary was held in January), and if you ignore a series of caucus states where hundreds of thousands of Democrats participated but no official popular vote tally was kept, then yes, she has received more votes than Barack Obama. …

The point is that under the most basic and probably the fairest criteria — simply counting every state and U.S. possession where there was a legitimate primary or a caucus where popular votes were tallied — Obama will finish the primary season hundreds of thousands of votes ahead of Clinton. Considering that an estimated 36 million primary votes may ultimately be cast, Obama's advantage, obviously, won't be huge. But it will still be significant: You'd have to forecast some extraordinarily good results (putting it mildly) in the remaining primaries for Clinton to overtake Obama.

More at New Yorker

South Africa's Union Dock Workers Shame Dictator Mugabe