:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 12.31.2008 ::

:: 61-Second Minute Takes World into 2009 ::

Daily Tech
Kristy Erdodi

A leap second will be added to clocks worldwide just before 2009 begins.

Not ready to let go of 2008? Tonight official timekeepers will give you one more second to hold onto, just before midnight.

Immediately before 2009 officially arrives, timekeepers will be adding a leap second – the first for three years – to atomic clocks worldwide.

According to Peter Whibley, a senior research scientist at Britain’s National Physical Laboratory, digital clocks with the ability to pick up definite leap second information will countdown to the new year as “57, 58, 59, 60, 00,” with “60” representing the leap second.

Whirbley explained why the earth’s erratic rotation has resulted in this need for an additional second: “The difference between atomic time and Earth time has now built up to the point where it needs to be corrected, so this New Year’s Eve we will experience a rare 61-second minute at the very end of 2008 and revelers…will have an extra second to celebrate.”

Determining time based off of the sun’s movement across the sky is not only a concept from the past, as astronomers still use the approach; inevitably, it has been modernized, but the sun currently stands as a tracking source for both stars and spacecrafts.

In general, the Earth is not completely reliable on keeping time. Disruptions to its core, extreme weather, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes, along with its inconstant speed and ability to wobble, can all act as factors in affecting the length of one day. As a result, in order to align atomic time with astronomical time, leap seconds must be added every so often. This extra time helps in keeping the sun overhead at noon.

posted by me

:: 4:51:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "Yahoo's Data Retention Move Puts Pressure on Google, Microsoft" ::

By Clint Boulton
from eWeek's Google Watch

Some readers chimed in regarding my position that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft seemed headed for zero retention policies in 2009, my response to Yahoo's reduction of storing users' search records from 13 months to 3 months.

As I noted in a response to a comment, I managed to speak to Microsoft privacy strategy honcho Brendon Lynch last night.

I asked him what he thought of Yahoo's move, which came just weeks after Microsoft agreed that 6 months is a fair duration so long as Google and Yahoo agree to that timeframe.

He replied that search engines do an amount of data to run their search engines, so a zero amount is not feasible, and reiterated Microsoft' call for some standardization around a 6-month retention period and strong anonymization methods.

Eh. Take from that what you will. Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have to be careful about what they say heading into the major February meeting with the European Commission's data retention party.

I believe that Microsoft and Google are privately furious at Yahoo for lowering the bar to 3 months. Microsoft is at 18 months, Google at 9 months. Yahoo's move will increase pressure on Google and Microsoft to lower their retention periods, perhaps even before they meet with the EC party next year. How long before Google and Microsoft lower their timeframes?

Three months worth of user data, as I noted yesterday, might as well be no months. We can debate that all day, but what I really wanted to do was spotlight some salient reader comments, which you can peruse here. I pull out my favorites in this post.

Wrote Barry about why Yahoo would pull such a drastic move:

I see this move primarily as a stop-gap strategy for Yahoo, who is still casting about for an identity in an increasingly crowded market space. None the less, it's a smart move. Privacy laws eventually will catch up to these companies and they will be required to change their data retention policies anyway. Might as well score some goodwill brownie points in the process.

I'm right there with you, Barry. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft can only stall for so long. Let's hope they're figuring out less intrusive ways to offer their search services without letting the quality suffer.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 5:21:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Bush & the Shoe Incident ::

Tumult in Iraqi Parliament Over Shoe Hurling
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and ATHEER KAKAN
NYT

BAGHDAD — A session of the Iraqi Parliament erupted in uproar on Wednesday as lawmakers clashed over how to respond to the continuing detention of an Iraqi television reporter who threw his shoes at President Bush during a Baghdad news conference earlier this week, people attending the parliamentary meeting said.

As Parliament began to discuss legislation on the withdrawal from Iraq of armed forces from nations other than the United States, a group of lawmakers demanded that the legislature instead take up the issue of the detained journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, 29. After his shoes narrowly missed Mr. Bush’s head at the news conference on Sunday, Mr. Zaidi was subdued by a fellow journalist and then beaten by members of the prime minister’s security detail, who hauled him out of the room. Mr. Zaidi’s cries could be heard from a nearby room.

The legislative session became so tumultuous that it prompted the speaker of Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, to announce his resignation, according to The Associated Press. A spokesman for Mr. Mashhadani, Jabar al-Mashhadani, refused to confirm whether the speaker had tendered his resignation, although he would not deny it.

Some in Parliament say the government should release Mr. Zaidi immediately, while others say the judiciary should decide his fate.

A L S O

In Iraqi’s Shoe-Hurling Protest, Arabs Find a Hero. (It’s Not Bush.)
NYT

Profile: Shoe-throwing journalist
BBC News

posted by me

:: 3:43:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Dark Energy Stunts Galaxies’ Growth ::

By DENNIS OVERBYE
The New York Times

The same mystery force that is speeding up the expansion of the universe is also stunting the growth of the objects inside it, astronomers said on Tuesday.

After bulking up rapidly in the first 10 billion years of cosmic time, clusters of galaxies, the cloudlike swarms that are the largest conglomerations of matter in the universe, have grown anemically or not at all during the last five billion years, like sullen teenagers who suddenly refuse to eat.

"This result could be explained as arrested development of the universe," said Alexey Vikhlinin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led a multinational team using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to weigh galaxy clusters from far across space. The group reported the results in two papers that will appear in the Astrophysical Journal.

The culprit, he said, appears to be an antigravitational force that astronomers have labeled "dark energy." It was discovered 10 years ago by astronomers who were using exploding stars called supernovas as distance markers to chart the expansion of the universe. In a puzzle that is still reverberating, they found that instead of slowing down because of cosmic gravity, as common sense would suggest, the expansion of the universe was actually speeding up, with galaxies zooming apart faster and faster.

Dr. Vikhlinin’s results dovetail eerily with the supernova results, suggesting that dark energy emerged as a dominant force in the universe about seven billion to five billion years ago. Clusters grow by gravity, according to cosmological theory, starting as small dimples in the heat and fizz of the Big Bang and then drawing in surrounding material over the eons. Dark energy would work against gravity and try to push the matter falling in back out, stalling growth.

Together with earlier observations of supernovas and other effects, Dr. Vikhlinin said, the new data strengthen the suspicion — but do not prove — that dark energy is the result of a weird antigravity called the cosmological constant that was hypothesized and then abandoned by Albert Einstein as a "blunder" almost a century ago.

Many other theories are still in contention, but some that involve modifying Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which has been the last work on gravity for almost a century, might be on the verge of extinction, astronomers said.

"If this was a fox hunt and dark energy was the fox, I think they have closed off another escape route. But there is still a lot of terrain left for the fox, and we’ve seen little more than a glimmer of fur," said Adam Riess, of Johns Hopkins and the Space Telescope Science Institute, and one of the original discoverers of dark energy.

Other astronomers hailed the work as opening a new avenue in the investigation of what is happening and will happen to the cosmos.

Read more here.

A L S O

New Technique Allows Researchers to Measure Dark Energy
Washington Post

Dark Energy = Einstein's Cosmological Constant?
Wired News

Dark energy, which forms almost three-quarters of the universe, is the most mysterious stuff known to man. A new set of Chandra X-Ray Observatory data, however, has given scientists good information on what dark energy might actually be.

Turns out, it looks suspiciously like Einstein's cosmological constant, a factor he added to his theory of general relativity. He once considered it his greatest blunder.

posted by me

:: 5:07:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "A victory lap without a clear victory" ::

Bush: Iraq war is not over, more work ahead
By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent
via Yahoo! News

BAGHDAD – On an Iraq trip shrouded in secrecy and marred by dissent, President George W. Bush on Sunday hailed progress in the war that defines his presidency and got a size-10 reminder of his unpopularity when a man hurled two shoes at him during a news conference.

"This is the end!" shouted the protester, later identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.

Bush ducked both shoes as they whizzed past his head and landed with a thud against the wall behind him.

"It was a size 10," Bush joked later.

The U.S. president visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to his successor, Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence in a nation still riven by ethnic strife and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

"The war is not over," Bush said, adding that "it is decisively on it's way to being won."

In many ways, the unannounced trip was a victory lap without a clear victory. Nearly 150,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq fighting a war that is intensely disliked across the globe. More than 4,209 members of the U.S. military have died in the conflict, which has cost U.S. taxpayers $576 billion since it began five years and nine months ago.

Polls show most Americans believe the U.S. erred in invading Iraq in 2003. Bush ordered the nation into war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq while citing intelligence claiming the Mideast nation harbored weapons of mass destruction. The weapons were never found, the intelligence was discredited, Bush's credibility with U.S. voters plummeted and Saddam was captured and executed.

"There is still more work to be done," Bush said after his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

It was at that point the journalist stood up and threw a shoe from about 20 feet away. Bush ducked, and it narrowly missed his head. The second shoe came quickly, and Bush ducked again while several Iraqis grabbed the man and dragged him to the floor.

In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes at someone is a sign of contempt. Iraqis whacked a statue of Saddam with their shoes after U.S. marines toppled it to the ground following the 2003 invasion.

White House press secretary Dana Perino suffered an eye injury in the news conference melee. Bush brushed off the incident, comparing it to political protests at home.

"So what if I guy threw his shoe at me?" he said.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 2:45:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Jello shots: An open letter to Barack ::

According to Alternative Tentacles, "Since Election Day, Jello Biafra has been hard at work composing an open letter to President-Elect Barack Obama, which will be submitted via Change.gov, the Obama administration transition site." They've posted it on the AT Web site -- excerpt below:

OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA

PREAMBLE GAMBLE

Dear Mr. Obama,

Congratulations on your recent victory, and for helping build such a strong mandate for change. In that spirit, please do not forget the other aisle you need to reach across. All the relief and publicity for the middle class won't do anything for the 40-100 million Americans who are starving, unemployed or just plain poor.

You have gone out of your way to build a bridge to those of us fed up with war, pollution, inequality, corporate lawlessness and business as usual. You have energized a whole new generation who is far ahead of their elders in knowing what urgently needs to be done. I have never seen such an outpouring of heartfelt emotion, hope and support for an American politician in my life, and I remember Kennedy well. You are the first president in my lifetime to have a bona fide grassroots movement behind you and ready to rock. I hope those crowds' hope and urgency has penetrated deeply enough that you won't let that bridge be washed away.

I remember another person who had the audacity to exploit and toss aside people's hope, and his name is Bill Clinton. Democrats fail time and again when they shirk responsibility and settle for being dealmakers instead of leaders. As important as it is to find common ground and build consensus for change, our situation is so dire we cannot afford any more dealmakers. The people voted for a leader. Anything less risks breaking the hearts of an entire galvanized generation who may then decide it is not worth it to get involved and participate any more.

Strong medicine is needed. Here are some ideas:

IRAQ – TRY THIS!

The closest thing to a solution I have heard was offered clear back in April 2004 by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (www.oic-ico.org). The OIC is comprised of 57 Islamic countries ranging from West Africa clear over to Southeast Asia. At their annual meeting they found six member nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen and Morocco) willing to pony up enough of their own troops (approx. 150,000) that our troops could have gone home! Who slammed the door on that one? Colin Powell, on the grounds that having the Islamic soldiers under UN command instead of Americans was out of the question.

WHY??!? Wouldn't a neutral force of Muslim peacekeepers make a lot more headway than the disaster we've made? Wouldn't they at least command a lot more respect, resulting in a huge drop in violence? Surely the non-stop carnage and Iracketeering we have spawned is Exhibit A that we need to get over this colonialist illusion that other countries' problems can only be solved by Americans. The OIC's proposal for US withdrawal and peace in Iraq must be revisited immediately, and also considered for Afghanistan.

We must end not just our military occupation of Iraq, but our economic occupation NOW. Iraq is not ours to sell, and neither is its oil. Your promise not to leave any permanent US military bases in Iraq is a good start. But you have also backed leaving US troops in Iraq to "protect American assets like the Green Zone." The Green Zone is not our "asset." We stole it and we have to give it back. I hope you don't seriously believe we can get away with that giant feudal fortress of an embassy we are building, ten times the size of any other in history. We cannot afford to waste any more money on this, or down the black hole of the Bush administration's crony backroom deals with corrupt, incompetent private contractors like Blackwater, KBR and Halliburton. We need to fire them and they need to leave—NOW.

We do owe the Iraqi people help, and we have an obligation to clean up the mess we have made. That goes double for Afghanistan. But I can't see this getting done unless someone other than the United States is in charge. Let us also not forget the 2 million-plus refugees stuck outside Iraq who are draining the economies of Iraq's neighbors, especially Jordan and Syria.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 1:07:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Bewerewolves: Fullest Moon in 15 Years Tonight ::

Wired News

Prepare yourself for a sight tonight — not to mention some wild behavior, if the legends are true. The biggest full moon in 15 years is set to grace the Northern Hemisphere tonight.

Because the moon orbits along an egg-shaped ellipse, not a circle, its distance from us changes. Today, the moon is approaching its nearest point to Earth, so it should look about 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than this year's other full moons, according to NASA.

Since the moon takes about 28 days to orbit Earth, it reaches its point of closest approach, called perigee, about once a month. But since the moon's orbit isn't a perfect oval — rather, it wobbles — some perigees are closer than others. Tomorrow's approach will be the closest the moon has come to Earth since 1993.

On top of that, tonight's moon will become full just four hours after perigee. The next time these two events will coincide will be in 2016.

The full moon isn't the only boost we get from this special alignment: Tides should be especially big, too. Lunar gravity at perigee pulls tide waters about an inch higher than usual.

A L S O

The Moon Makes You Crazy? That's Lunacy

The Skeptic's Dictionary entry: full moon and lunar effects

posted by me

:: 6:06:00 PM [+] ::
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:: All Is Bright for Jupiter, Venus ::

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
Washington Post

Unwrap a bounty of night-sky gifts this holiday season: visible planets, glorious conjunctions, a close-up full moon and a change of season.

Jupiter and Venus begin December in conjunction at dusk in the southwestern sky. If the sky remains clear, the Jupiter-Venus conjunction, officially occurring tomorrow night, will be spectacular. Venus is the brighter of the two planets, and it remains high in the southwest throughout December, while the gaseous Jupiter descends the western horizon all month.

The full moon Dec. 12 will be at its closest (356,556 kilometers, or 221,554 miles) to Earth since 1993, and the full moon won't be this close again until 2016. Once a month the moon gets close to Earth at perigee, but sometimes the monthly lunar perigee coincides with the full moon. On Jan. 1, 2257, the full moon will be closer than this year's event -- at 356,371 kilometers, or 221,439 miles -- according to Belgian astronomer and mathematician Jean Meeus. Concerning this phenomenon, the radio program "Earth and Sky," by Deborah Byrd and Joel Block, provides excellent details on its Dec. 12 podcast.

Saturn, the beloved ringed planet, is a late night owl. It rises before 1 a.m. in the southeast now, while at the end of the month it rises about 11 p.m. Its rings are nearly edge-on, and the planet is found in the constellation Leo.

The official start to winter in the Northern Hemisphere -- the Winter Solstice -- occurs at 7:04 a.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 21, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. Before long, our short days will start to get longer.

A L S O
Venus, Jupiter will 'shine' on Monday night
Slendor, crescent moon will illumninate two brightest planets

posted by me

:: 4:54:00 AM [+] ::
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:: W: An Alternet View ::

If Obama Doesn't Prosecute Bush's Torture Team, We'll Pay a Big Price Down the Road
By Liliana Segura AlterNet

Rights and Liberties: Obama isn't likely to pursue torture atrocities during the Bush era, but this is one problem you simply can't wish away.

"How did it come about that American military personnel stripped detainees naked, put them in stress positions, used dogs to scare them, put leashes around their necks to humiliate them, hooded them, deprived them of sleep and blasted music at them? Were these actions the result of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own? It would be a lot easier to accept if it were. But that's not the case."

-- Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, June 17, 2008

***

It was a short but significant report in Newsweek last week, and it began like this:

Despite the hopes of many human rights advocates, the new Obama Justice Department is not likely to launch major new criminal probes of harsh interrogations and other alleged abuses by the Bush administration. But one idea that has currency among some top Obama advisers is setting up a 9/11-style commission that would investigate counterterrorism policies and make public as many details as possible. "At a minimum, the American people have to be able to see and judge what happened," said one senior adviser, who asked not to be identified for talking about policy matters. The commission would be empowered to order the U.S. intelligence agencies to open their files for review and question senior officials who approved "waterboarding" and other controversial practices.

The article, written by Michael Isikoff, came at the heels of another report by the Associated Press, which quoted a pair of anonymous Obama advisors as saying that there was little-to-no chance that an Obama Justice Department would try to prosecute Bush-era officials for torture. The same report quoted Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., as saying that members of the Bush administration would not face war crimes charges in the United States. "These things are not going to happen."

Common consensus is that the Bush administration has been the most lawless in U.S. history. From its illegal invasion of Iraq to the corporate-assisted, warrantless wiretapping of its own constituents, the Bush White House seems never to have held a view of the law from below. And, since long before the election of Barack Obama, a number of groups and individuals have called for accountability, from a vocal network of people calling for impeachment for Bush's illegal and fraudulent invasion of Iraq, to, this summer, the bluntly labeled campaign, Send Karl Rove to Jail.

But if ever there was a stain on the fabric of American democracy that must be deserving of prosecution, it is the dark legacy of torture left by the Bush administration.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 7:00:00 PM [+] ::
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:: W on W ::

Bush Weighs In on His Legacy
New York Times blog
By Michael Falcone

As the clock ticks down on his days in the White House, President George W. Bush is taking part in one of his last presidential rituals — helping to shape the perception of his years in office.

In an interview conducted earlier this month by his sister, Doro Bush Koch, Mr. Bush said he wanted to be remembered “as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process.”

“I came to Washington with a set of values, and I’m leaving with the same set of values,” Mr. Bush said. “And I darn sure wasn’t going to sacrifice those values; that I was a President that had to make tough choices and was willing to make them. I surrounded myself with good people. I carefully considered the advice of smart, capable people and made tough decisions.”

In excerpts of the interview released by the White House, Mr. Bush did not explicitly mention the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or the war in Iraq, which many would consider to be the defining moments of his presidency.

But he said he wanted to be known “as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace; that focused on individuals rather than process; that rallied people to serve their neighbor; that led an effort to help relieve HIV/AIDS and malaria on places like the continent of Africa; that helped elderly people get prescription drugs and Medicare as a part of the basic package; that came to Washington, D.C., with a set of political statements and worked as hard as I possibly could to do what I told the American people I would do.”

The interview, which will become part of National Public Radio’s StoryCorps series, was broadcast in part on Thanksgiving, and will be archived at the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 6:37:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Another Black Friday w/ W at the helm ::

Wal-Mart worker dies in rush; two killed at toy store
(CNN) -- A temporary Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death Friday in a rush of thousands of early morning shoppers as he attempted to unlock the doors of a Valley Stream, New York, store at 5 am, police said.

FBI agents ordered to India to investigate attacks
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The government ordered FBI agents Friday to fly to India to investigate the bloody Mumbai attacks that killed two American travelers and a former New York couple ...

Terrorism in Mumbai should frighten Americans, too
Kansas City Star

Bush on His Legacy: I 'Liberated' Iraqis
ABC News
By JENNIFER PARKER In a personal and wide-ranging interview conducted by his sister about his legacy, his faith and the influence of his father, President George W. Bush said he hopes to be remembered as a liberator of the Iraqi people.

Bomber Kills 12 at Shiite Mosque Before March Against a New Security Pact
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
New York Times
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up just inside the courtyard of a Shiite mosque in a town south of Baghdad on Friday, killing 12 people and wounding 19, according to witnesses and security officials.

Names of the Dead
New York Times
The Department of Defense has identified 4,200 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans yesterday:
- JERNIGAN, William K., 35, First Lt., Army; Doraville, Ga.; 25th Infantry Division.
- FRANK, Warren A., 26, Captain, Marines; Cincinnati; Fifth Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, Third Marine Expeditionary Force.

posted by me

:: 6:15:00 PM [+] ::
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:: United States conducting secret war in Somalia ::

Chicago Tribune
via Contra Costa Times

BERBERA, Somalia — To glimpse America's secret war in Africa, you must bang with a rock on the iron gate of the prison in this remote port in northern Somalia. A sleepy guard will yank open a rusty deadbolt. Then, you ask to speak to an inmate named Mohamed Ali Isse.

Isse, 36, is a convicted murderer and jihadist. He is known among his fellow prisoners, with grudging awe, as "The Man with the American Thing in His Leg."

That "thing" is a stainless steel surgical pin screwed into his bullet-shattered femur, courtesy, he says, of the U.S. Navy. How it got there — or more to the point, how Isse ended up in this crumbling, stone-walled hellhole at the uttermost end of the Earth — is a story that the U.S. government probably would prefer to remain untold.

That's because Isse and his fancy surgery scars offer what little tangible evidence exists of a bare-knuckled war that has been waged silently, over the past five years, with the sole aim of preventing anarchic Somalia from becoming the world's next Afghanistan.

It is a standoff war in which the Pentagon lobs million-dollar cruise missiles into a famine-haunted African wasteland the size of Texas, hoping to kill lone terror suspects who might be dozing in candlelit huts. (The raids' success or failure is almost impossible to verify.)

Covert operations

It is a covert war in which the CIA has recruited gangs of unsavory
warlords to hunt down and kidnap Islamic militants and — according to Isse and civil rights activists — secretly imprison them offshore, aboard U.S. warships.

Mostly, though, it is a policy time bomb that will be inherited by the incoming Obama administration: a little-known front in the global war on terrorism that Washington appears to be losing, if it hasn't already been lost.

"Somalia is one of the great unrecognized U.S. policy failures since 9/11," said Ken Menkhaus, a leading Somalia scholar at Davidson College in North Carolina. "By any rational metric, what we've ended up with there today is the opposite of what we wanted."

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 5:59:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Life in Afghanistan ::

BBC News
Afghanistan continues to struggle to find stability as the increasing Taleban insurgency and refugee problems cast a shadow on advances in education and the economy.

posted by me

:: 2:22:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties ::

New York Times
By GARDINER HARRIS

An influential psychiatrist who was the host of the popular NPR program “The Infinite Mind” earned at least $1.3 million from 2000 to 2007 giving marketing lectures for drugmakers, income not mentioned on the program.

The psychiatrist and radio host, Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, is the latest in a series of doctors and researchers whose ties to drugmakers have been uncovered by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. Dr. Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, is the first news media figure to be investigated.

Read more here.

A L S O

from BNET
Fred Goodwin Loses NPR Gig Over GlaxoSmithKline Ties

R E L A T E D

Conflicts of Interest May Ensnare Journalists, Too
New York Times

Health reporters may become entangled in the same kinds of ethical conflicts they often expose when accepting industry-sponsored awards and relying on corporate public relations offices, three researchers warn.

Journalism awards consisting of cash prizes and all-expense-paid trips given out by drug companies are among the more “astonishing” financial ties between journalists and drug companies, the authors said. The paper appears in the online edition of the British medical journal BMJ.

Among the prizes cited are the Embrace Award for reporting on urinary incontinence — consisting of trips to Washington, D.C., and Paris — offered by pharmaceutical firms Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim, as well as another Eli Lilly award for cancer treatment stories that includes a weeklong international trip for two.

The authors also point a finger at journalism training and education programs sponsored by the health care industry and to professorships funded by drug company grants. The writers go on to criticize reporters’ reliance on drug company press officers for referrals to experts or to patients, whose views may have been carefully screened.

Pharmaceutical companies “work really hard to get their message out to the public and physicians through advertisements and continuing medical education and all the other things people hear about, so it makes sense they would go after the media as well,” said Dr. Steven Woloshin, associate professor of medicine at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, one of the paper’s authors. “It’s striking that nobody’s been writing about this.”

posted by me

:: 4:11:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Judge Orders Five Detainees Freed From Guantánamo ::

The New York Times
By WILLIAM GLABERSON

In the first hearing on the government’s justification for holding detainees at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, a federal judge ruled Thursday that five Algerian men were held unlawfully for nearly seven years and ordered their release.

The judge, Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court in Washington, also ruled that a sixth Algerian man was being lawfully detained because he had provided support to the terrorist group Al Qaeda.

The case was an important test of the Bush administration’s detention policies, which critics have long argued swept up innocent men and low-level foot soldiers along with high-level and hardened terrorists.

The six men are among a group of Guantánamo inmates who won a Supreme Court ruling that the detainees have constitutional rights and can seek release in federal court. The 5-4 decision said a 2006 law unconstitutionally stripped the prisoners of their right to contest their imprisonment in habeas corpus lawsuits.

The hearings for the Algerian men, in which all of the evidence was heard in proceedings that were closed to the public, were the first in which the Justice Department presented its full justification for holding specific detainees since the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Judge Leon, in a ruling from the bench, said that the information gathered on the men had been sufficient to hold them for intelligence purposes, but was not strong enough in court.

“To rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court’s obligation,” he said. He directed that the five men be released “forthwith” and urged the government not to appeal.
Judge Leon, who was appointed by President Bush, had been expected to be sympathetic to the government. In 2005, he ruled that the men had no habeas corpus rights.

Lawyers said the decision was likely to be seen as a repudiation of the Bush administration’s effort to use the detention center at the American naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as a way to avoid scrutiny by American judges. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to close the prison.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 10:21:00 PM [+] ::
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:: How would Hillary Clinton do as top US diplomat? ::

Some raise questions, but most analysts – left and right – think she’s qualified.
The Christian Science Monitor

For the past 16 years, Hillary Rodham Clinton has crisscrossed the world, developing relationships with heads of state and grass-roots civil society advocates alike.

That’s given foreign-policy experts confidence that the former first lady and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee has the experience needed to become an effective secretary of State – that’s if she’s offered the job, as expected.

Some progressives question whether the New York senator is too hawkish, especially because of her pro-war vote on Iraq. Some conservatives are quick to note she lacks experience managing such a large organization as the State Department.

But the consensus in foreign-policy circles of the left and the right is that if President-elect Barack Obama does offer her the job, she has the potential to excel at it.

“She would be a fine choice,” says Danielle Pletka, vice president of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. “Over the years, what we’ve seen from Hillary Clinton in public life is a lot of growth based on experience – she’s a lot more seasoned after eight years in the Senate.”

The job has not yet been offered, and Senator Clinton has made it clear she is uncertain herself about what she’ll do if it is. She could become America’s top diplomat or stay in the Senate and take a leading role in fixing America’s broken healthcare system.

Her dilemma has preoccupied the nation’s chattering classes for the past week, creating one of the few commotions in President-elect Barack Obama’s transition process.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 9:26:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Lost In Transition ::

Lose the BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe
The NY Times
By JEFF ZELENY

WASHINGTON — Sorry, Mr. President. Please surrender your BlackBerry.

Those are seven words President-elect Barack Obama is dreading but expecting to hear, friends and advisers say, when he takes office in 65 days.

For years, like legions of other professionals, Mr. Obama has been all but addicted to his BlackBerry. The device has rarely been far from his side — on most days, it was fastened to his belt — to provide a singular conduit to the outside world as the bubble around him grew tighter and tighter throughout his campaign.

“How about that?” Mr. Obama replied to a friend’s congratulatory e-mail message on the night of his victory.

But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.

For all the perquisites and power afforded the president, the chief executive of the United States is essentially deprived by law and by culture of some of the very tools that other chief executives depend on to survive and to thrive. Mr. Obama, however, seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century on that score; aides said he hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so.

Mr. Obama has not sent a farewell dispatch from the personal e-mail account he uses — he has not changed his address in years — but friends say the frequency of correspondence has diminished. In recent days, though, he has been seen typing his thoughts on transition matters and other items on his BlackBerry, bypassing, at least temporarily, the bureaucracy that is quickly encircling him.

A year ago, when many Democratic contributors and other observers were worried about his prospects against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, they reached out to him directly. Mr. Obama had changed his cellphone number, so e-mail remained the most reliable way of communicating directly with him.

“His BlackBerry was constantly crackling with e-mails,” said David Axelrod, the campaign’s chief strategist. “People were generous with their advice — much of it conflicting.”

Mr. Obama is the second president to grapple with the idea of this self-imposed isolation. Three days before his first inauguration, George W. Bush sent a message to 42 friends and relatives that explained his predicament.

“Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace,” Mr. Bush wrote from his old address, G94B@aol.com. “This saddens me. I have enjoyed conversing with each of you.”

But in the interceding eight years, as BlackBerrys have become ubiquitous — and often less intrusive than a telephone, the volume of e-mail has multiplied and the role of technology has matured. Mr. Obama used e-mail to stay in constant touch with friends from the lonely confines of the road, often sending messages like “Sox!” when the Chicago White Sox won a game. He also relied on e-mail to keep abreast of the rapid whirl of events on a given campaign day.

Mr. Obama’s memorandums and briefing books were seldom printed out and delivered to his house or hotel room, aides said. They were simply sent to his BlackBerry for his review. If a document was too long, he would read and respond from his laptop computer, often putting his editing changes in red type.

His messages to advisers and friends, they say, are generally crisp, properly spelled and free of symbols or emoticons. The time stamps provided a window into how much he was sleeping on a given night, with messages often being sent to staff members at 1 a.m. or as late as 3 a.m. if he was working on an important speech.

He received a scaled-down list of news clippings, with his advisers wanting to keep him from reading blogs and news updates all day long, yet aides said he still seemed to hear about nearly everything in real time. A network of friends — some from college, others from Chicago and various chapters in his life — promised to keep him plugged in.

Not having such a ready line to that network, staff members who spent countless hours with him say, is likely to be a challenge.

“Given how important it is for him to get unfiltered information from as many sources as possible, I can imagine he will miss that freedom,” said Linda Douglass, a senior adviser who traveled with the campaign.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 2:06:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Obama may reverse Bush policies on stem cells, drilling, abortion ::

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama could reverse some of President Bush's most controversial executive orders, including restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, shortly after taking office in January.

Two other executive orders from Bush -- one dealing with a so-called "gag" order on international aid organizations regarding abortion, the other with oil and gas drilling on federal lands -- also are receiving increased scrutiny.

Obama's transition team is reviewing hundreds of Bush's executive orders, according to John Podesta, Obama's transition co-chair.

New presidents often use executive orders to put their stamp on Washington quickly. Unlike laws, which require months to complete and the consent of Congress, presidents can use their executive authority to order federal agencies to implement current policies.

"Much of what a president does, he really has to do with the Congress -- for example, budgeting, legislation on policy -- but executive actions are ones where the president can act alone," said Martha Kumar of the White House Transition Project, a nonpartisan group established to help new presidential administrations.

Read more here.

ALSO

See what orders Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, other presidents issued »
CNN

Bush, Obama Join For Historic White House Meeting
NPR

posted by me

:: 3:21:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: A message from Michael Moore ::

"Pinch Me ..."

Friends,

Who among us is not at a loss for words? Tears pour out. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. A stunning, whopping landslide of hope in a time of deep despair.

In a nation that was founded on genocide and then built on the backs of slaves, it was an unexpected moment, shocking in its simplicity: Barack Obama, a good man, a black man, said he would bring change to Washington, and the majority of the country liked that idea. The racists were present throughout the campaign and in the voting booth. But they are no longer the majority, and we will see their flame of hate fizzle out in our lifetime.

There was another important "first" last night. Never before in our history has an avowed anti-war candidate been elected president during a time of war. I hope President-elect Obama remembers that as he considers expanding the war in Afghanistan. The faith we now have will be lost if he forgets the main issue on which he beat his fellow Dems in the primaries and then a great war hero in the general election: The people of America are tired of war. Sick and tired. And their voice was loud and clear yesterday.

It's been an inexcusable 44 years since a Democrat running for president has received even just 51% of the vote. That's because most Americans haven't really liked the Democrats. They see them as rarely having the guts to get the job done or stand up for the working people they say they support. Well, here's their chance. It has been handed to them, via the voting public, in the form of a man who is not a party hack, not a set-for-life Beltway bureaucrat. Will he now become one of them, or will he force them to be more like him? We pray for the latter.

But today we celebrate this triumph of decency over personal attack, of peace over war, of intelligence over a belief that Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs just 6,000 years ago. What will it be like to have a smart president? Science, banished for eight years, will return. Imagine supporting our country's greatest minds as they seek to cure illness, discover new forms of energy, and work to save the planet. I know, pinch me.

We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, "gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?" Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We've entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible.

An African American has been elected President of the United States! Anything is possible! We can wrestle our economy out of the hands of the reckless rich and return it to the people. Anything is possible! Every citizen can be guaranteed health care. Anything is possible! We can stop melting the polar ice caps. Anything is possible! Those who have committed war crimes will be brought to justice. Anything is possible.

We really don't have much time. There is big work to do. But this is the week for all of us to revel in this great moment. Be humble about it. Do not treat the Republicans in your life the way they have treated you the past eight years. Show them the grace and goodness that Barack Obama exuded throughout the campaign. Though called every name in the book, he refused to lower himself to the gutter and sling the mud back. Can we follow his example? I know, it will be hard.

I want to thank everyone who gave of their time and resources to make this victory happen. It's been a long road, and huge damage has been done to this great country, not to mention to many of you who have lost your jobs, gone bankrupt from medical bills, or suffered through a loved one being shipped off to Iraq. We will now work to repair this damage, and it won't be easy.

But what a way to start! Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States. Wow. Seriously, wow.

Yours,
Michael Moore

:: 1:25:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: There's always room for Jello ::

Quote of the Day
from Alternative Tentacles
Don't stop at November 4!

"We can't rest easy and sleep this time. There will be no change from Obama or a congress of corporate-owned Democrats unless we increase the pressure and keep a blowtorch up their ass the whole time they're in power. We need leaders, not more deal makers."

~ Jello Biafra

In other Jello News
10 Questions with Jello Biafra
from Sundance Channel's Voices on the Election Blog

An excerpt:

There are two things about an Obama regime that worry me the most.

1. I remember someone else who had the audacity to misuse peoples' Hope when they were desperate for a change, and his name is Bill Clinton. Let's not forget it was not Bush but Clinton who gave us NAFTA, the WTO, the Telecom Act of 1996 that opened the floodgates for Clear Channel and Fox News, and laugh out loud Abstinence-only sex "education." Clinton signed Newt Gingrich's cruel welfare reform bill at the urging of Al Gore. And, yes, it was Clinton who planted the seeds of the economic meltdown when he gleefully deregulated the banks.

If Obama turns out to be another Clinton - and surrounding himself with Biden, Lawrence Summers, Robert Rubin and Zbigniew Bzrzinsky is not a good sign - I fear he will break the hearts of whole energized generation of voters who won't feel it's worth it to participate again.

2. When Clinton got in, people rejoined "Ding Dong, Bush is gone. Now we can finally sleep at night" - and went to sleep for the next 8 years! We can't rest easy and sleep this time. There will be no change from Obama or a congress of corporate-owned Democrats unless we increase the pressure and keep a blowtorch up their ass the whole time they're in power. We need leaders, not more deal makers, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (remember him?) need to be replaced with people who actually give a shit.

We stopped Vietnam. We torpedoed the Gulf War. Our civil rights and environmental awareness as we know them today didn't happen because our corporate lords granted the peasants new rights out of the goodness of their corporate hearts. They don't have any. We got where we are because we got together and fought for it. Same for the New Deal. It was us.

And the only thing standing in the way of more wars, more Abu Ghraibs and more Guantanamo Bays coming soon behind a Wal-Mart near you is us.

So don't give up, OK? Besides, causing trouble is so much fun.

posted by me

:: 12:43:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: Sen. Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech in Chicago, Ill. ::

CQ Transcripts Wire
via The Washington Post
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek ¿ it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers ¿ in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House ¿ a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends¿though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn ¿ I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world ¿ our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down ¿ we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security ¿ we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright ¿ tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

For that is the true genius of America ¿ that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

posted by me

:: 11:35:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Transcript: McCain concedes ::

CNN

"It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again."

posted by me

:: 11:23:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: EARLY REPORT - Obama wins, first black to gain White House ::

By DAVID ESPO
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama was elected the nation's first black president Tuesday night in a historic triumph that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself.

The 47-year-old Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his victory by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa.

A huge crowd thronged Grant Park in Chicago to cheer Obama's improbable triumph and await his first public speech as president-elect.

Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009.

As the 44th president, Obama will move into the Oval Office as leader of a country that is almost certainly in recession, and fighting two long wars, one in Iraq, the other in Afghanistan.

A L S O

Barack Obama Wins the Presidency
Washington Post


Propelled by Internet, Barack Obama Wins Presidency
Wired News


Democrats gain new grip on US Senate
AFP

Shift in congressional power
Boston Globe

posted by me

:: 10:23:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: "Following e-voting glitches" ::

CNET News.com
Posted by Stephanie Condon

In any election, voting problems are bound to crop up--whether it's miscalibrated electronic machines or a lack of pencils to fill out paper ballots.

In such a highly anticipated election, the sheer number of people expected to vote Tuesday will likely add to the problems. CNET News will be keeping track of e-voting glitches and problems as they arise. Refresh for updates throughout the day (all times in PST, unless noted otherwise).

ALSO, you can check out ongoing election coverage from Alternet and The Nation.

posted by me

:: 11:11:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: The end of a long journey for Obama ::

A final rally in the Virginia suburbs is the last stop in an epic campaign.
By Thomas Schaller
Salon.com

MANASSAS, Va. -- Monday night, Barack Obama came full circle.

On a perfect autumn evening in this growing suburb of Washington, on the eve of an election he is favored to win, the Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate brought a crowd of 80,000 to cheers with a story of a long-ago rally attended by 20 hardy souls.

In his last campaign stop, Obama concluded his remarks with a story that was a staple of his amazing run-up to his pivotal Iowa victory the first week of January. It was the story prompted by a promise to a female state legislator from Greenwood, S.C., who said she'd consider an endorsement if he would make a trip to her small city. Though Obama and his staff drove out of their way on a rainy morning in late 2007 to attend a small gathering in the remote town, the trip turned out to be a useful diversion.

Obama's efforts to work the small room that day, he says, were no match for a small, boisterous old woman who "stole his thunder" by leading five minutes' chanting of "Fired up!" and "Ready to go!" Obama returned to this story to remind people how "one voice can change a room" and how that change can cascade to change a city, then a state, then a country and, eventually, the world. He closed his final speech by leading the massive crowd of supporters, many of whom had battled hours of traffic to stand outside for five hours to see him, in those same trademark chants.

Yet the overall mood in Manassas was strangely subdued. It's not that the crowd at the Prince William County Fairgrounds was reluctant or bored. You don't battle rush-hour traffic on I-66 to then stand shoulder to shoulder for hours -- and, for most, so far away that you can't see Obama without binoculars -- unless you are committed. It was, rather, the weight of the moment that hung heavy over the proceedings, the culmination of the longest presidential campaign in history.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 9:59:00 AM [+] ::
...

:: Astronauts to Vote From Space Station ::

Space.com
By Tariq Malik

While most Americans will flock to the polls Tuesday to cast their vote for the next U.S. president, two U.S. citizens will beam their ballots down from the International Space Station as they fly 220 miles (354 km) above Earth.

Like all U.S. spaceflyers since 1997, NASA astronauts Michael Fincke and Gregory Chamitoff can vote in their local and national elections thanks to a handy Texas state law that ensures their ballots can be counted, even from space.

"So I'm going to exercise my privilege as a citizen and actually vote from space on Election Day," Fincke, the space station's Expedition 18 commander, told SPACE.com before he left Earth. "I think the candidates this year are exciting in and of themselves. But hopefully we get people to realize what a privilege it is, and they exercise and get a chance to vote."

Only four Americans in NASA's 50-year history have voted from space, largely because the Texas law allowing was passed just 11 years ago, said Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters, a spokesperson with NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. And just one of those four, now-retired spaceflyer Leroy Chiao, voted during a presidential election in 2004 while commanding the space station's Expedition 10 crew.

"I was so busy preparing for my ISS mission in 2004 that I almost forgot about the fact that I would be in space during that U.S. presidential election," Chiao told SPACE.com, adding that it was his wife Karen who remembered he'd be in orbit on Election Day. "As she and NASA looked into it, the process turned out to be fairly straightforward. Another astronaut had already voted from space earlier for a state election, so the law allowing this was already established. It was just a matter of applying it to the presidential election."

The 1997 Texas bill allowed NASA's first orbital voter David Wolf to cast his ballot from Russia's Space Station Mir, Cloutier-Lemasters told SPACE.com. Astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Clayton Anderson also voted during their separate missions to the International Space Station in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

Fincke and Chamitoff have been encouraging the American people to remember that no matter which presidential candidate they choose, be it a ballot for Barack Obama (D-Ill.) of John McCain (R-Arizona), that they remember to vote above all else.

"Voting is the most important statement Americans can make in fulfilling a cherished right to select its leaders," Fincke said in a NASA TV video with Chamitoff. "So this Election Day, take time to go to the polls and vote. If we can do it, so can you."

posted by me

:: 11:11:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird

LEAD STORY
Donna and Joel Brinkle of Deltona, Fla., raised a family and held respectable jobs until, in the 1990s, they declared themselves a sovereign nation and stopped paying taxes. Subsequently, the county took their home, and they now appear to be living on the handouts of their son and their church, but they have become irritations by filing property liens against government officials (including, once, President Clinton) who fail to recognize their independent authority. Once, they tried to buy a $700,000 house with a "money order" drawn on their home-made currency. Even though the Brinkles' game plan has failed on every single point (and Joel even did some jail time), the couple remains chipper, according to an October Orlando Sentinel report, certain that some higher official will soon vindicate them. [Orlando Sentinel, 10-14-08]

posted by me

:: 11:59:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Analysis: Syria raid suggests new US stance ::

Associated Press
By PAMELA HESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bold U.S. raids into Pakistan and Syria show the stark choice the Bush administration is putting to both friends and adversaries in its final weeks: Clamp down on militants and terrorists or we'll do it for you.

Raids like the one in Syria on Sunday hold the potential to kill or capture wanted al-Qaida terrorists or other militants, but they also risk killing civilians and angering foreign governments and their citizens.

Selective U.S. military action across the borders of nations friendly and unfriendly suggests a new strategy, if not a wholly new counterterrorism doctrine. It's a demonstration of overt military strength that the U.S. has been reluctant to display in public for fear it would backfire on U.S. forces or supporters within the governments of the nations whose borders were breached. Now, senior U.S. officials favor periodic use of the newly aggressive tactics, seeing more upsides than down. They reason that whatever diplomatic damage is done will be mitigated when President Bush leaves office and a new president is inaugurated.

That may work in Syria, where the government has already said it is looking forward to a better relationship with the next U.S. president, said Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In Pakistan, however, special operations raids could box in the new American president by inflaming an already outraged public.

Read more here.

A L S O

US crossing more borders in terror war?
Christian Science Monitor

posted by me

:: 5:14:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: U.S. Allegedly Listened In on Calls of Americans Abroad ::

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer

The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee is looking into allegations that a U.S. spy agency improperly eavesdropped on the phone calls of hundreds of Americans overseas, including aid workers and U.S. military personnel talking to their spouses at home.

The allegations, by two former military intercept officers assigned to the National Security Agency, include claims that U.S. spies routinely listened in on intimate conversations and sometimes shared the recordings with each other. At least some of the snooping was done under relaxed eavesdropping rules approved by the Bush administration to facilitate spying on terrorists.

The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), yesterday termed the accusations "extremely disturbing" and said his staff had begun gathering information and may consider holding hearings. "Any time there is an allegation regarding abuse of the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, it is a very serious matter," he said.

The alleged intercepts were described by two linguists who said they witnessed the activity while assigned to the NSA's giant eavesdropping station known as Back Hall at Fort Gordon, Ga. Adrienne Kinne, 31, a former Army reservist, was an intercept operator at the site from 2001 to 2003, while Navy linguist David Murphee Faulk, 39, held a similar position from 2003 to 2007. Both provided accounts to investigative journalist James Bamford for his book "The Shadow Factory," due for release next week (here is an audiobook excerpt), and also in interviews with ABC News.

Both said the NSA's intercept program was intended to pick up intelligence about terrorists and their plans -- which sometimes happened. But the operators also would frequently tap into phone calls by Americans living abroad -- usually satellite phone calls made from the Middle East, or routine calls made by U.S. military personnel from phones in Baghdad's Green Zone, they said in interviews broadcast yesterday.

Faulk said some of his fellow operators, after stumbling upon a titillating conversation, couldn't wait to let their friends in on it.

"There's good phone sex or there's some pillow talk -- pull it up, it's really funny," Faulk told ABC, recalling conversations between operators.

While declining to give specifics, an NSA spokesman said some of the allegations were currently under investigation, while others had been "found to be unsubstantiated."

A L S O

Panel to Study Military Eavesdropping
New York Times

NSA spied on US aid workers, officers, and journalists in Baghdad
Register, UK

Major shock: Eavesdropping powers abused without oversight
Salon

Posted by me

:: 1:43:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: FCC Probes Pentagon Analysts ::

By Paul Bedard
Washington Whispers
US News & World Report

The Federal Communications Commission has begun notifying several TV military analysts that it is probing congressional complaints that the pundits did not properly disclose their ties to the Pentagon when reviewing the war in Iraq on air. According to a copy of the October 2 FCC letter to one of the pundits, the probe was prompted by Reps. John Dingell and Rosa DeLauro, who filed a complaint with the agency after the New York Times reported that some of the pundits were working on or bidding on Pentagon contracts and had also taken free military trips to Iraq. "When seemingly objective television commentators are in fact highly motivated to promote the agenda of a government agency, a gross violation of the public trust occurs," the duo wrote to the FCC. Copies of their May 6 complaint, above, and the FCC letter were provided to Whispers. The Times story discussed the so-called military analysts program, where many former military officials were briefed about the war in Iraq by the Pentagon.

At issue is that some of them were also linked to Pentagon contracts, raising the issue of conflict of interest. In its letter signed by the chief of the investigations and hearings division enforcement bureau, the FCC suggests that TV stations and networks may have violated two sections of the Communications Act of 1934 by not identifying the ties to the Pentagon that their military analysts had. The FCC is so far reaching out to the analysts mentioned in the New York Times article and asking for each to respond to the allegations of wrongdoing within 30 days.

We wrote about this recently when we reported that the Defense Department's inspector general was looking into the program, also at the request of Congress.

posted by me

:: 12:53:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: Meteor Predicted to Hit Earth's Atmosphere Tonight ::

By Betsy Mason
Wired News

A meteoroid around the size of a Smart Car is predicted to burn up in Earth's atmosphere over Sudan tonight, marking the first time scientists have made such a forecast. There's no danger from an object this size, but the burn-up could be spectacular for those who witness it.

"A typical meteor comes from an object the size of a grain of sand," Gareth Williams of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, which made the prediction, said in a statement Monday. Objects this size are what cause the nighttime streaks that many people think of as shooting stars. "This meteor will be a real humdinger in comparison!"

For perspective, the meteoroid that created Meteor Crater in Arizona was probably 150 feet across.

Astronomers at the Minor Planet Center are among the scientists working to keep track of any potentially dangerous asteroids, known as Near-Earth Objects. The Center is tasked with collecting all the observations from around the world, checking them, calculating orbits and then disseminating the information.

The small meteoroid was discovered earlier today by the Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona, and quick calculations showed it was headed for Earth.

"We estimate objects this size enter Earth's atmosphere once every few months," Don Yeomans of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement Monday. "The unique aspect of this event is that it is the first time we have observed an impacting object during its final approach."

posted by me

:: 12:41:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: The destructive policies of President Bush ::

Boston Globe OP-ED
By H.D.S. Greenway

IT IS HARD to believe how far this republic has fallen since President George W. Bush took office. Eight years ago, the United States had a budget surplus, peace and prosperity reigned, and America was universally respected. True, Bill Clinton had besmirched the office of the presidency by his self-indulgence. In his memoir, he would put down his dalliance with a White House intern to the worst of all possible motives. He did it because he could. But that pales in comparison to what Bush has done to the country.

I believe that the decision to invade Afghanistan was the right one. But instead of finishing what he started, Bush botched the job and hared off into Iraq, which was not a threat, never committing the necessary resources and attention to Afghanistan. Iraq is, and always was, a diversion to the struggle against Islamic extremism. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia didn't exist before Bush invaded. And Iran has been immensely empowered.

Remember Donald Rumsfeld talking about hitting Iraq after 9/11, not because there was any connection between Iraq and 9/11 but because there were more things to bomb in Iraq than in Afghanistan? And no discussion, no dissent, no word of caution would be allowed to influence Bush's decision.

When all the various reasons for a preemptive war against Iraq are examined - the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, spreading democracy, helping Israel, etc., etc. - it all boiled down to the worst of all possible reasons: Bush invaded Iraq because he could.

Bush promised a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict before he left office, but his efforts have been half-hearted, sporadic, and pathetic - almost designed to fail.

The hubris and arrogance of Bush's first term still poisons the wells of good will this country once enjoyed. The undermining of the Constitution, the secret torture chambers have besmirched this administration more than any tawdry intern scandal ever could. Today we are bogged down in two wars and an unprecedented deficit, with a financial crisis of a magnitude not seen since the days of Herbert Hoover. The president has so little respect it's as if he has already left the stage.

The economy founders, and it may yet bring the world down with it. The same ideologically driven, hopelessly incompetent administration that brought you Iraq and "mission accomplished" was responsible for the sweetheart deal that the Security and Exchange Commission allowed the investment brokers to increase their debt in proportion to their capital, and then failed to police them.

That deal, according to The New York Times, "fitted squarely" into the broader Bush culture of deregulation that savaged everything from the "Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, to worker safety and transportation agencies."

There was a time when deregulation made sense, but, as in so much else in the life of this administration, Bush took it to extremes.

"I will seize the opportunity to achieve big goals," Bush told Bob Woodward back in 2001. But now, in his fourth book on the Bush presidency, "The War Within," Woodward concludes that in the last eight years Bush has "displayed impatience, bravado, and unsettling personal certainty about his decisions. The result has too often been impulsiveness and carelessness, and, perhaps most troubling, a delayed reaction to realities and advice that run counter to his gut. . . . By his own ambitious goals of 2001, Bush has fallen short."

Whereas he once said he would unite the country, he has been deliberately and destructively divisive. Strangely detached, he has let his vice president run rings around him, and outsourced decisions that should have been his. As Woodward says, in the final days of his hapless presidency Bush "had not rooted out terror wherever it existed. He had not achieved world peace. He had not attained victory in his two wars."

And now this: a great financial meltdown coming down on his watch in the twilight hours of what history will judge as among the worst administrations in our history. When you think of Bush and his team, it's hard to believe so much harm could be done to so many by so few.

posted by me

:: 3:10:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Web Radio Bill Passed ::

By BEN SISARIO; Compiled by Dave Itzkoff
Arts, Briefly
New York Times

Internet radio services are breathing a sigh of relief after the Senate approved a bill on Tuesday that would allow them to renegotiate a royalty rate that Web broadcasters say is too high. By law, Web sites like Pandora.com and Live365.com have to pay the performers and owners of the recordings they broadcast, and have been in a tug-of-war with record companies over the size of these payments. (Songwriters and music publishers are paid a royalty by radio stations and Web broadcasters; Web broadcasters also pay the performer.) Under the terms of the Webcaster Settlement Act, which was passed by the House on Saturday and now goes to President Bush for his signature, Web broadcasters have until Feb. 15 to negotiate with SoundExchange, the agency that collects and distributes the royalty. Under the current rate set by federal statute last year, said Tim Westergren, one of Pandora’s founders, his site has had to pay 70 percent of its gross revenue for this performance royalty, and will have to shut down if it is not reduced.

A L S O

Internet Radio Lives To See Another Day
CRN

Analysis: Webcaster Settlement Act -- What Does It Mean?
By David Oxenford
Digital Media Wire

posted by me

:: 11:43:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Smart Slime, Ovulating Strippers Among 2008 Ig Nobels ::

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

Some fake drugs are better than others, armadillos are assaulting our history, and slime mold is smarter than we think—these and other offbeat scientific triumphs were honored Thursday night at the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

The prizes celebrate "achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think."

More than 1,200 people attended a raucous affair at Harvard University, dubbed the "18th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony" in honor of this year's theme—redundancy.

William Lipscomb, who had won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1976, dispensed prizes to the ten honorees. He himself was the prize in the Win a Date With a Nobel Laureate contest.

The gala is thrown every year by the science/humor journal Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).

(Related: "Poop Vanilla, Endless Soup Among 2007 Ig Nobels" [October 5, 2007].)

Generics and Jerks

Duke University business professor Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, took home the Ig Nobel Prize for medicine.

In one study covered in the book, a group of people took placebos—fake pharmaceuticals—that they were told were expensive. Another group took the same pills but was told the drugs were inexpensive.

The "expensive" pills were found to be more effective pain relievers than the "cheap" ones.

The study could have implications for patients given generic, instead of brand-name, medications.

An eight-year-old girl, Miss Sweetie-Poo, chased Ariely from the podium when he delivered an acceptance speech longer than the allotted 60 seconds.

Organizers employed the child to loudly repeat "Please stop! I'm bored!" when winners exceeded the time limit.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 3:04:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Defiant House Rejects Huge Bailout ::

Next Step Is Uncertain
New York Times

WASHINGTON — Defying President Bush and the leaders of both parties, rank-and-file lawmakers in the House on Monday rejected a $700 billion economic rescue plan in a revolt that rocked the Capitol, sent markets plunging and left top lawmakers groping for a resolution.

The stunning defeat of the proposal on a 228-205 vote after marathon talks by senior Congressional and Bush administration officials lowered a fog of uncertainty over economies around the globe. Its authors had described the measure as essential to preventing widespread economic calamity.

The markets began to plummet even before the 15-minute voting period expired on the House floor. For 25 more minutes, uncertainty gripped the nation as television showed party leaders trying, and failing, to muster more support. Finally, Representative Ellen Tauscher, Democrat of California, pounded the gavel and it was done.

In the end, only 65 Republicans — just one-third of those voting — backed the plan despite personal pleas from President Bush and encouragement from their presidential nominee, Senator John McCain. By contrast, 140 Democrats, or 60 percent, voted in favor, many after voicing grave misgivings. Their nominee, Senator Barack Obama, also backed the bill.

By the end of day, the Dow had fallen almost 778 points, or nearly 7 percent, to 10,365. Credit markets also remained distressed, with bank lending rates rising and investors fleeing to the safety of Treasury bills.

Among opponents of the rescue plan, some Republicans cited ideological objections to government intervention, and liberal Democrats said they were of no mind to race to aid Wall Street tycoons. Other critics complained about haste and secrecy in assembling the plan.

But lawmakers on both sides pointed to an outpouring of opposition from deeply hostile constituents just five weeks before every seat in the House was up for election as a fundamental reason that the measure was defeated. House members in potentially tough races and those seeking Senate seats fled from the plan in droves.

“People’s re-elections played into this to a much greater degree than I would have imagined,” said Representative Deborah Pryce of Ohio, a former member of the Republican leadership who is retiring this year and voted for the plan. Congressional leaders in both parties said they did not know how they would proceed but were examining options, including having the Senate, where there was more support for the bailout, advance a bill after the Jewish New Year on Tuesday.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 5:37:00 PM [+] ::
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:: NASA extends Phoenix mission as snow falls on Mars ::

A Reuters report
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON - NASA extended the mission of the busy Phoenix lander Monday, saying it will operate the lander until it dies in the cold and dark of the Martian winter.

It is already snowing there, above the equivalent of the Arctic circle on Mars, the researchers said.

The explorer found evidence that the dust on the surface of Mars resembles seawater in its chemical makeup, adding to evidence that liquid water that once may have supported life flowed on the planet's surface.

The Phoenix lander already has operated far longer than expected when it was dropped onto the Martian surface in May, and its controllers said they would squeeze every drop of life they could out of the solar-powered lander.

Read more here.

A L S O

Looking for water on Mars
Reuters

NASA Sets Date for Phoenix's Return to the Ashes
Wired News

posted by me

:: 5:24:00 PM [+] ::
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