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Morning headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Top StoryIran Strategy Stirs Debate at White House
The debate has pitted Ms. Rice and her deputies, who appear to be winning so far, against the few remaining hawks inside the administration, especially those in Vice President Dick Cheney’s office who, according to some people familiar with the discussions, are pressing for greater consideration of military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.
It’s a “debate” that encompasses all points of view, from right to far right. —Caro The Illustrated Daily Scribble  The WorldU.S. should stop arming Sunni militias: PM Maliki
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States runs the risk of creating new militias in Iraq if it arms Sunni Arab tribesmen indiscriminately to battle al Qaeda, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said.
US: 60 pct. of Baghdad not controlled
BAGHDAD - Security forces in Baghdad have full control in only 40 percent of the city five months into the pacification campaign, a top American general said Saturday as U.S. troops began an offensive against two al-Qaida strongholds on the capital's southern outskirts.
Lebanon militants fire rockets at Israel
JERUSALEM - Militants in Lebanon fired at least two rockets into Israel on Sunday, causing no casualties and little damage, but raising the possibility of a new flare-up on the volatile border less than a year after Israel's bloody monthlong war against Hezbollah.
Negroponte behind Samarra blast
The US Deputy Secretary of State reportedly planned the attack on the holy Shia shrines in Samarra to help topple the Iraqi government. According to an informed source John Negroponte plotted the attack during an unannounced trip to Iraq on June 12 in order to fuel insecurity and sectarian violence in the country. Negroponte's motive was to overthrow Iraq's legitimate government, the same source added.
I have no idea if this story is true or not. The source is suspect, but we leave ourselves open for charges like this when we put criminals like John Negroponte in high positions. Middle Easterners will have no trouble believing it.—Caro
35 killed in Kabul bus bomb attack
KABUL, Afghanistan - A bomb ripped through a police bus in a crowded civilian area in Kabul on Sunday, killing more than 35 people, officials said, in what appears to be the deadliest attack in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.
Blair knew US had no post-war plan for Iraq
Tony Blair agreed to commit British troops to battle in Iraq in the full knowledge that Washington had failed to make adequate preparations for the postwar reconstruction of the country. In a devastating account of the chaotic preparations for the war, which comes as Blair enters his final full week in Downing Street, key No 10 aides and friends of Blair have revealed the Prime Minister repeatedly and unsuccessfully raised his concerns with the White House. The NationThe War Inside
Troops Are Returning From the Battlefield With Psychological Wounds, But the Mental-Health System That Serves Them Makes Healing Difficult
More top-notch reporting by Dana Priest. —Caro
McConnell Sees Lower Troop Levels In Iraq By This Fall
This morning on “Face The Nation”, Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told Bob Schieffer of his disappointment in the lack of progress from the Iraqi government and that a growing number of Republicans are coming around to the idea of reducing troop levels as recommended by the Iraq Study Group as early as this fall.
Yes, well, I’ll believe it when I see it. Click through to watch the video. —Caro
Petraeus: “Historically, Counter-Insurgency Ops Have Gone At Least 9 or 10 Years”
General David Petraeus (talked) to Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” about the progress of the ongoing military surge in Iraq. With the recent revelation that U.S. forces only control 40% of Baghdad, Wallace contends that this operation will take a long-term commitment (see the Korean model) and asks Petraeus if it’s time for the government to “square up” with the American public about how long the occupation will last. The General’s response lays the groundwork for lowered expectations for the upcoming deadline in September when he is to report to Congress…
Got whiplash yet? —Caro
Bush promises to veto homeland security bill.
(Friday), the House passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, despite President Bush’s veto threat. The White House objects to a provision that would require DHS contractors to “pay their employees at least the local prevailing wage.” It also “funds the hiring of 3,000 new border patrol agents, rejects the cuts President Bush sought in the training and equipping of first responders, and improves aviation and port security.”
Administration pushes for mandatory sentences
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is trying to roll back a Supreme Court decision by pushing legislation that would require prison time for nearly all criminals. The Justice Department is offering the plan as an opening salvo in a larger debate about whether sentences for crack cocaine are unfairly harsh and racially discriminatory. Republicans are seizing the administration's crackdown, packaged in legislation to combat violent crime, as a campaign issue for 2008.
Everyone should go to prison except Scooter Libby, of course. —Caro
POINTING THE WAY FOR PROSECUTORS
(Atty Gen. Alberto) Gonzales described what he delicately calls "a more vigorous and a little bit more formal process" for annually evaluating prosecutors. What that means, as he explained it, is hauling in every U.S. attorney for a meeting to hear, among other things, politicians' beefs against the prosecutor. If that should happen, expect the fair-mindedness and independence Americans still count on from their Justice Department to slip.
Problems continue with defense contracts
WASHINGTON - A pair of U.S. senators investigating reports of waste, fraud and mismanagement in defense contracts in Iraq reported from Baghdad Saturday that they see some improvement but the military has a long way to go.
Help with home buying revealed in guilty plea
A New York financier has admitted playing a key role in the scandal that brought down former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, according to a guilty plea unsealed this week. Thomas Kontogiannis said he helped finance the purchase of Cunningham's $2.5 million house in Rancho Santa Fe, in a deal that evolved from two military contractors' alleged plans to bribe the congressman. MediaPermanent link to MTA daily media news
Media play to worst instincts (by Jon Sinton, a creator and co-founder of Air America Radio)
(I)n an effort to hang on to the greatest number of readers, viewers and listeners to bundle and sell to advertisers, our traditionally responsible outlets, newspapers, radio stations, TV networks and news-weeklies have all come to worship tabloid content… The recently relaunched Air America is not enough alone to combat this slide. Not when even the previously benign CNN harbors crackpots such as Glenn Beck. Fortunately, internet sites such as the Daily Kos, Media Matters and Web-video site GoLeft.tv (emphasis added) are taking up some slack, but it is incumbent on the mainstream media to shake itself out of its lazy, ratings/profit driven stupor and regain its position of primacy as the watchdog of democracy.
The media's assault on reason
In The Assault on Reason, (Al) Gore correctly laments that we cannot have intelligent, informed national debates. Yet the sad fact remains there are Beltway press players who devote much of their time and energy to ensuring that those debates cannot take place. Hopefully Gore will write a book about them some day.
Anthrax scare briefly closes ABC News office
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A portion of a sixth-floor ABC News office housing "Good Morning America" was closed down for five hours Friday afternoon after an employee found a letter containing an unidentified white powder. A portion of a floor in the building at 147 Columbus Ave. was shut down after 1 p.m. when the unnamed employee found the letter. Addressed to "Good Morning America" weatherman Sam Champion, the letter mentioned anthrax.
What Petraeus is planning to do in September
The media has outright ignored ABC News' scoop of two weeks ago that our top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, has already decided that come September he's going to call the surge an increasing success regardless of what happens between now and then. We see report after report about September being the make it or break it point for the surge in Iraq, with no mention whatsoever of the fact that Petraeus has already been reported to have made up his mind in advance. This fits into a larger pattern that now makes clear what Bush is planning coming this September.
The conservative myth …
Two months ago, PBS gave Richard Perle a whole hour to repeat discredited neocon arguments about Iraq and the Middle East…It appears that PBS is going down a similar road this month, with a special on religious liberty called "Wall of Separation."… (T)his PBS special will explain that the Founding Fathers had "a radically different definition" of religious liberty than what we have today, and that "the modern understanding of the role of religion in the public square is exactly the opposite of what the Founders intended."…
NBC Developing Web Site for Students
Imagine Tim Russert introducing a classroom history lesson about the Articles of Confederation, or Brian Williams describing the reverberations of the Stamp Act.
Imagine the fear of America’s parents when they find out that the people who obsess over Paris Hilton and can’t get the simplest facts straight are in charge of teaching history to our young. —Caro Technology & ScienceThe Economist’s Technology Quarterly:
Getting wind farms off the ground
Energy: If people object to wind farms cluttering up the countryside, one answer might be to put them in the air instead
A cool concept
Energy: Hydrothermal cooling is a novel approach that uses cold water from lakes and oceans to run air-conditioning systems
Seeing the light
Visual implants: An electronic retinal implant uses technology borrowed from digital cameras to restore some sight to the blind
Bubbling under
Microbubbles: A new technique to treat disease involves the careful injection of tiny, drug-coated bubbles in the bloodstream
Overdoing it?
Networking: Internet-service providers are worried that new online-video services, such as Joost, will overload their networks
Robot wars
Military technology: Unmanned vehicles and robot soldiers are on the march. Can such machines be programmed to act ethically?
The trees have eyes
Conservation: An elaborate combination of technologies is being deployed to try to curb the illegal hunting of endangered species
Sharing what matters
Software: A computing maverick hopes to upgrade the web, transforming it from a document collection into a data commons
Home truths about telecoms
Technology and society: Anthropologists investigate the use of communications technology and reach some surprising conclusions
Turning surgery inside out
Medicine: “Natural orifice” surgery could have a number of benefits, but it requires an entirely new set of tools
Radio silence
Wireless technology: It was hailed as a breakthrough that would revolutionise logistics. What ever happened to RFID?
The truth about recycling
As the importance of recycling becomes more apparent, questions about it linger. Is it worth the effort? How does it work? Is recycling waste just going into a landfill in China? Here are some answers
Taking storage to the next dimension
Computing: After years of development, holographic data-storage systems are finally ready to go on sale
Are you talking to me?
Speech recognition: Technology that understands human speech could be about to enter the mainstream
Bringing free software down to earth
Mark Shuttleworth, software entrepreneur and space tourist, believes that open-source software is not just for geeks For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com. |
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