2 Bombings in Baghdad
Kill 18 People
4:46 pm
Bush Says U.S. in
a War It Will Win
4:46 pm
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has tumbled into a new dispute over the Sept. 11 attacks of five years ago.The Democrats? It's hard to believe that Reid, Pelosi and other Dem leaders could skillfully and effectively collude with anyone on anything.
Its Presbyterian Publishing Corp. has issued "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11" (Westminster John Knox), containing perhaps the most incendiary accusations leveled by a writer for a mainline Protestant book house.
Author David Ray Griffin tells of concluding that "the Bush-Cheney administration had orchestrated 9/11 in order to promote this (American) empire under the pretext of the so-called war on terror."
"No other interpretation is possible," he asserts.
His conspiracy theory includes criminal involvement of the U.S. military and collusion by members of the 9/11 Commission, politicians of both parties and American journalists, who willfully ignored the plot, he says.
Proof that the Left has its nut-cases too.Griffin is unable to provide hard evidence and connects few dots. Rather, he discusses the metallurgy of the World Trade Center towers and various murky details and odd occurrences regarding the fateful day.
He spins forth the speculations after deeming the accepted version of events implausible.Speaking of plausibility, what are the odds that so many conspirators could maintain such a cover-up, except in a Stalinist police state?
Griffin also asserts claims about "abundant evidence" of Bush administration orchestration of 9/11 .... Presbyterian News Service explains that the publishing house ... receives no church money and "operates with complete editorial autonomy."
... Griffin's ultimate goal? He wants Christians to try to supplant America's "demonic" regime with a system of "global government."
[McCaskill] says Missourians are angry about gasoline prices, but she opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on the outer continental shelf.When Will can't find any substantive argument for opposing McCaskill's positions, he resorts to petty snipes. Referring to a statement McCaskill made on illegal immigration, he dismisses the way she said it -- "[w]ith characteristic tartness."
... She opposed estate tax reform, which Talent says is important to Missouri's farmers and small-business owners.
When Howard Dean campaigned for her, before the Senate had confirmed Justice Sam Alito, the Democratic National Committee chairman said her election would mean "one less vote for Judge Alito." First she said Dean did not speak for her. Then she came out against Alito.
(Above) A public school damaged by Katrina -- notice the faint water line about 2 feet up the side of the building, a remnant of the floodwaters."... one of the great signs of recovery all along the Gulf Coast are the schools that are up and going again. A lot of them are in temporary buildings or portable buildings, but they have plans to rebuild.At last count, only 53 schools "are up and going again." That's 53 compared with 117 pre-Katrina public schools in New Orleans.
"We know that families can't move back unless there's schools for the kids. And so education is one of the most important parts of the recovery."Indeed. Unfortunately, my understanding is that FEMA funds won't pay for portable or temporary school buildings; FEMA will only pay for repairs to pre-existing, now-closed schools. Of course, these repairs take time, delaying the process of getting more schools "up and going again."
OTTAWA, Ontario (Reuters) -- The pilot of a Canadian airliner who went to the washroom during a flight found himself locked out of the cockpit, forcing the crew to remove the door from its hinges to let him back in, the airline said on Wednesday.Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still prefer the pilot of my flight to actually be inside the cockpit.
The incident occurred aboard a flight from Ottawa to Winnipeg on Saturday. The regional jet, capable of carrying 50 people, was operated by Air Canada's Jazz subsidiary.
Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stewart said that with 30 minutes of the flight to go, the pilot went to the washroom, leaving the first officer in charge. But when he tried to get back into the cockpit, the door would not open.
... A report in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper said that for about 10 minutes "passengers described seeing the pilot bang on the door and communicating with the cockpit through an internal telephone, but being unable to open the door."
Stewart said the paper's report was "a bit dramatic" and stressed that at no time had the plane or passengers been in danger.
According to the (Arizona) Republic:Was this Arizona's idea of a "faith-based" initiative?
"The district pre-paid multiyear leases on buildings owned by the sect, returned the school buildings before the lease was over, and allowed the owners to keep an over payment of nearly $200,000 ..."
The article also notes that the school district bought a $200,000 airplane, spent $20,000 to maintain it, and paid the son of the board's president $50-an-hour to fly it.
3) Does Senator Lieberman's loss in the Democratic primary help or hurt Hillary Clinton?This is a silly question given the fact that Sen. Clinton (unlike her husband) never played a visible role in Lieberman’s primary campaign. Yes, she issued a very low-key, pro forma endorsement, but that was it.
* Does the Emmy award that Julia Louis-Dreyfus won for best actress in a drama series help or hurt Hillary Clinton?These 3 questions are only slightly more silly than the one that NewsMax.com came up with.
* Does the decision of prosecutors not to charge John Mark Karr with murder in the JonBenet Ramsey case help or hurt Hillary Clinton?
* Does the New York Yankees’ ability to hold onto first place in their division help or hurt Hillary Clinton?
Candidates for public office in Pennsylvania no longer have to sign a McCarthy-era loyalty oath pledging that they are not "subversive." The requirement was unconstitutional, Atty. Gen. Tom Corbett has told election officials.
... The change was ordered after John Staggs refused to sign the oath when he turned in nominating petitions this year and then threatened to sue the state.
"I believe their definition of 'subversive' can really apply to anyone," said Staggs, 59, a Socialist Workers Party member seeking a state House seat. "They want to be able to pick and choose, so they can use it versus people who are challenging the status quo."
... The 1951 law describes as subversive anyone who advocates or participates in "any act intended to overthrow, destroy [or] alter" the government.
... if Wal-Mart's health insurance is inadequate, Congress could command more coverage. (I asked Wal-Mart for coverage figures, which it declined to provide. All a spokesperson said is that more than half of its 1.3 million U.S. employees are full-time, enjoying higher coverage rates, and that 75 percent of all workers have some coverage through the company, the government or spouses' plans.)Read that last phrase carefully. The 75% figure sounds good, but we have no idea how many of those workers are forced onto state government CHIPs programs because they can't afford to pay the out-of-pocket premiums that Wal-Mart charges. Many of the Wal-Mart employees who secure coverage through a spouse probably do so because their spouses' health plans offer better coverage at lower costs.
On any list of major national concerns, the "Wal-Mart problem" would not rank in the first 50. Why, then, are some leading Democratic politicians spending so much time talking about it?Neither would Darfur. Should elected officials not talk about it? (Hopefully, they'll do more than just talk about it.)
"Our entire humanitarian operation in Darfur – the only lifeline for more than three million people – is presently at risk .... If the humanitarian operation were to collapse, we could see hundreds of thousands of deaths.More details on our sister blog – the Coalition for Darfur.
"... Attacks against humanitarians are at an all-time high, with 9 humanitarian workers killed in the month of July alone. More than 25 UN or NGO vehicles have been ambushed or hijacked in the last two months ..."
"We were not in Iraq on September 11th, 2001, and the terrorists hit us anyway."Okay, so he wants us all to know that the Muslim terrorists already hated us before we decided to invade and occupy Iraq. And why is that is relevant? Do ill-advised foreign policy decisions make sense just because they come after — and not before — we are hit by a terrorist strike?
James Webb (D) 47.9%Speaking of Sen. Allen, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank recently observed: "The rattled candidate has lost his bluster; his aides trail him with looks of nausea. Worse, all of this is happening in what Allen, in another context, called 'America and the real world of Virginia.'"
George Allen (R) 46.6%
These days, U.S. Senate candidate and Mary Kay sales rep-lookalike Katherine Harris is going off the deep end. According to the Associated Press: U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris told a religious journal that separation of church and state is "a lie" .... The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate also said that if Christians are not elected, politicians will "legislate sin," including abortion and gay marriage.Then I guess that makes Thomas Jefferson ("wall of separation between church and state"), James Madison (who cited the benefits of "total separation of the church from the State") and many other famous Americans liars.
... Separation of church and state is "a lie we have been told," Harris said in the interview, published Thursday ...
"If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin," Harris said.Oh, there's more. In her interview with the publication Florida Baptist Witness, Harris asserted that separating religion and politics is "wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers." Katherine, dear, put away your lip gloss and listen up.
Her comments drew criticism, including some from fellow Republicans, who called them offensive and not representative of the party. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, who is Jewish, told the Orlando Sentinel that she was "disgusted" by the comments.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon has done little to recover nearly $900,000 mistakenly paid to 75 Army reservists who have not reported for duty since late 2001, congressional investigators said in a report Monday.Now for the icing on the cake:
Less than two dozen have either surrendered or been arrested.
The report by the General Accounting Office details ongoing problems with a military payroll system consistently slammed as convoluted and error-prone -- with repeated instances of troops either being overpaid or underpaid despite months spent trying to straighten things out.
The GAO said the number of improper payments and the amount of money involved is probably significantly understated.
Moments ago, CNN reported: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on U.S. President George W. Bush to participate in a "direct television debate with us," so Iran can voice its point of view on how to end world predicaments.Someone in Iran must have played Ahmadinejad a videotape of Bush's first 2004 debate with John Kerry.
... His comments came during a news conference, currently taking place in Tehran, during which he is expected to respond to a United Nations ultimatum to suspend uranium enrichment or face possible sanctions.
The arrests were a reminder that there still are lots of people in the world -- and quite possibly in this country, too -- who are trying to kill as many of us as they can and to destroy our way of life.Actually, al Qaeda is very unhappy that we're in Iraq. Osama bin Laden sounded pretty pissed in April when he called the U.S. presence in Iraq a "Zionist crusade against Muslims." Shouldn't someone like Barone, a Fox News commentator and a senior writer at US News & World Report, be aware of this?
They are not unhappy because we haven't raised the minimum wage lately or because Bush rejected the Kyoto Treaty or even because we're in Iraq.
... Mr. Bush met Wednesday with Rockey Vaccarella, a Katrina survivor who with much publicity drove a "replica" of a FEMA trailer from New Orleans to Washington to seek an audience with the president.
... Mr. Bush granted his wish and paraded him before the press. That was enough to distract the visitor from his professed message to dramatize the unfinished job on the Gulf.
Instead Mr. Vaccarella effusively thanked the president for "the millions of FEMA trailers" complete with air-conditioning and TV. "You know, I wish you had another four years, man," he said. "If we had this president for another four years, I think we'd be great."
The CNN White House correspondent, Ed Henry, loved it. "The White House couldn't have scripted this any better, a gritty guy named Rockey slugging it out, trying to realize his dream ..."
He didn't ask how this particular Rockey, a fast food manager who lost everything a year ago, financed this mission or so effortlessly pulled it off. It was up to bloggers and Democrats to report shortly thereafter that Mr. Vaccarella had run as a Republican candidate for the St. Bernard Parish commission in 1999.
It was up to Iris Hageney of Gretna, La., to complain on the (New Orleans) Times-Picayune Web site that the episode was "a huge embarrassment" that would encourage Americans to "forget the numerous people who still don't have trailers or at least one with electricity or water."
"We've got the most productive workers in the world right here in America. And that's good for the long-term economic prospects. You see, higher levels of productivity means that we'll see better-paying jobs for the American worker."Meanwhile, on Sunday the New York Times reported:
President Bush, 9-4-2003 speechThe median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity — the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation’s living standards — has risen steadily over the same period.But that's okay, Mr. President — it's the thought that counts.
As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview aired Sunday that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.Nasrallah must have completed the same “Earnest Dishonesty 101” course that so many Bush administration officials have taken.
Guerrillas from the Islamic militant group killed three Israeli soldiers and seized two more in a cross-border raid July 12, which sparked 34 days of fighting that ended with a cease-fire on Aug. 14.
"We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 … that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not," he said in an interview with Lebanon's New TV station.
“Anyone who reads the Koran and the holy writings of the monotheistic religions sees what they did to the prophets, and what acts of madness and slaughter the Jews carried out throughout history …. Anyone who reads these texts cannot think of co-existence with them, of peace with them, or about accepting their presence …"And, like Iran’s prez, Nasrallah has also scoffed at “the legend of the Nazi atrocities.” Yep, Nasrallah is a real charmer.
"Don't Marry Career Women".
I was talking about the Democratic 2008 options with a smart Republican Beltwayer, pre-Connecticut, and he saw the 2006 Democratic party for what it is: “The Democrat base is dominated by the Kossacks, Cindy Sheehan disciples, and Big Labor special interests who are increasingly devoted to a cause-oriented political jihad against what they view as a Democrat Establishment. Their disagreement with the Establishment is born out of their belief that: moderation is akin to treason towards the liberal doctrine; support for the war in Iraq is the political equivalent of having ‘666’ marked on your skull. You’re either with them or against them.”You know, Kathryn, if you ask any Beltway insider what they think of the 2008 race and this is the sort of answer that they give, maybe it is time to reconsider whether that person is actually "smart," because this is a shockingly unintelligent answer.
ABC News's Martha Raddatz was not satisfied. "The violence has gotten worse in certain areas," she reminded him. "Is it not time for a new strategy?"How could any American have seen or heard about this exchange and not think their president is an arrogant dick?
Bush acted as if Raddatz were Cindy Sheehan.
"We're not leaving, so long as I'm the president," he vowed. "That would be a huge mistake. It would send an unbelievably terrible signal to reformers across the region. It would say we've abandoned our desire to change the conditions that create terror. It would give the terrorists a safe haven from which to launch attacks. It would embolden Iran. It would embolden extremists."
"Sir," Raddatz pointed out, "that's not really the question."
Bush shook his head in disbelief. "Sounded like the question to me," he said.
Number of times that President Bush’s “signing statements” have exempted his administration from provisions of new laws: 750
Total number of times for all other presidents since Washington: 568
Many media figures who have reported Sen. George Allen's claim not to know what the term "macaca" means have omitted the fact that Allen's mother grew up in North Africa.Many reports by mainstream media, including this Washington Post story, neglected to share this information about Allen's mother. Although it doesn't provide absolute proof that Allen knew he was using a slur when he called the Webb staffer a "macaca," this detail certainly casts significant doubt on Allen's claim: "I don't know what [the word] means."
However, on the August 16 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews acknowledged the role her background may have played in Allen's use of the word, which, as a racial slur, reportedly originated in North Africa.
Prompted by The New Republic's Ryan Lizza during the August 16 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews suggested that Senator George F. Allen's (R-VA) mother's ties to the North African nation of Tunisia might explain how Allen came to use the derogatory term "macaca" to describe one of his opponent's campaign volunteers.
... while the word's use as a slur originates in North Africa, many media figures who reported Allen's claim not to know what the term means ... (and) left out the fact that Allen's mother grew up in Tunisia ..."
... Pakistan was penalized five runs for tampering with the ball by umpires Hair and Billy Doctrove, from the West Indies. Pakistan continued in the short-term, but protested the decision by refusing to come out of the pavilion after a tea [break]. That prompted the umpires to award a forfeit to England, the first in almost 130 years of Test cricket.
Pakistan went on to the pitch later in the day, but by then the umpires had made up their minds. Hours of frantic negotiations would not sway the officials to change the decision.
... (the Pakistani English-language newspaper) Nation, said the events at The Oval "left none with honour and damaged the game immeasurably," and that ICC should not leave the game "to the whims and biases of mini-Hitlers like Mr. Hair."
... "Is it because the ICC's chief executive is a fellow Australian that Mr. Hair gets away with murder, despite being complained against by three South Asian boards over the last decade?" Tuesday's Nation wrote in an editorial entitled "Bad Hair day."
The hawks who continue to defend the U.S. presence in Iraq are a persistent bunch. For three years, they have recited their two or three stock talking points.The mystery of the Iraq War is to explain how a brilliantly executed invasion turned into a messy counterinsurgency struggle.But is this really such a mystery?
... American soldiers know combat secrets that their enemies do not and cannot match. Whether pure military skills will win the war, however, cannot be predicted.But our "combat secrets" don't really matter when the enemy rarely reveals itself and almost never in large numbers.
In some corners of political punditry, Wisconsin has a reputation for being a liberal state, but undeservedly so. Consider the facts.Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush's handling of the war on terrorism?The White House and Republican allies have emphasized the fact that there has not been an attack on the U.S. since 9/11, citing it as proof that they have kept the country safe. But do Americans feel safe and secure? In Wisconsin, at least, the answer would seem to be "no." The Strategic Vision poll asked:
Approve 43%
Disapprove 50%
Undecided 7%
Do you expect another terrorist attack within the next six months?
Yes 82%
No 6%
Undecided 12%
The Federal Pension Protection Act passed by Congress and signed into law today by President George W. Bush contains two key provisions that will extend important financial protections to same-sex couples and other Americans who leave their retirement savings to non-spouse beneficiaries. The bipartisan provisions in the bill are a step forward in equality and stem from a continuous effort led by the Human Rights Campaign.A GLBT-friendly piece of legislation passed by congress and signed by Bush?!?!? I'm surprised it didn't state that any proof of a romantic relationship between people of the same-sex means the money is taxed twice the amount of everyone else.
...
The first provision allows the transfer of an individual’s retirement plan benefits to a domestic partner or other non-spouse beneficiary (sibling, parent, child, etc.) when the individual dies. Specifically, the surviving partner (or other non-spouse beneficiary) will now be able to transfer his or her deceased partner’s retirement funds into an Individual Retirement Account and either draw down the benefits over a five-year period, or over his or her own life expectancy. In the past, surviving same-sex partners or other non-spouse beneficiaries in similar situations were typically forced to withdraw the entire amount as a lump sum and incur immediate tax charges. In addition, this action often bumped the survivor into a higher tax bracket because the withdrawal was counted as taxable income to the beneficiary.
The second provision, which addresses retirement plan hardship distributions, allows gay couples (and others with non-spouse, non-dependent beneficiaries — siblings, parents, children, etc.) similar access to laws that permit people to draw on their retirement funds in the case of a qualifying medical or financial emergency. In the past, the federal law covered only the spouses or dependents of employees when it came to accessing retirement funds during an emergency.
Jim ("I am a gay American") McGreevey might have a new job soon -- as one of the homosexual hosts on the talk show Joan Rivers is launching this fall on Bravo that's described as a queer version of "The View."
Rivers is hiring three male co-hosts. After auditioning dozens, she's said to have eliminated all but the final 10, one of whom is the former New Jersey governor. Rivers was overheard telling an associate, "I am mad about the ex-governor. I am dancing down the streets."
The civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired by Wal-Mart to improve its public image, resigned from that post last night after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had “ripped off” urban communities for years, “selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables.”This statement was part of Young's (feeble) attempt to apologize:
In the interview, published yesterday in The Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly, Mr. Young said that Wal-Mart “should” displace mom-and-pop stores in urban neighborhoods.
“You see those are the people who have been overcharging us,” he said of the owners of the small stores, “and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.”
Mr. Young, 74, a former mayor of Atlanta and a former United States representative to the United Nations, apologized for the comments and retracted them in an interview last night. Less than an hour later, he resigned as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group created and financed by the company to trumpet its accomplishments.
“It’s against everything I ever thought in my life,” Mr. Young said. “It never should have been said. I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles.”So I guess it will "work" to make hateful, stereotypical comments about Jews, Koreans and Arabs in Atlanta -- but just not in New York or L.A.
Marylee McCallister, a mother of three who was a Republican for 42 years until this April, already has. She voted for Bush because she believed his warnings that the Democratic nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), would weaken the nation.You've got to hand it to her for being that forthcoming. She didn't say, "I was confused" or "I probably should have known better" or "Bush's campaign misled me ...." She said, "I was dumb." And she was.
"I was dumb," she said. "Now, granted, they came here and rammed bombs into us, but I am afraid we have gotten into something full scale which perhaps did not have to be."
A video showing Lebanese soldiers cordially offering Israeli troops glasses of tea during the military offensive earlier this month has hit Israeli and Hezbollah airwaves.Click on this link and you'll find a secondary link to the tea-time video clip.
The video, shot by Israelis on August 10, when Israeli troops "took control" of the southern Lebanese town of Marjeyoun, aired on Israel's Channel 2 on Wednesday. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV network and pro-Hezbollah NEW TV then picked up the video and condemned the Lebanese soldiers as deserters.
People who live in white houses shouldn't throw stones.Looks like someone located their fighting spirit. Too bad they're two years too late. Oh well, better late than never.
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove should know better, but it's no surprise they don't. For almost five years now, every time they've got their backs to the wall politically, they play "the fear card." The latest example: Dick Cheney claiming that Democratic candidates who dare to challenge the Bush White House on Iraq are "emboldening terrorists."
What's worse, and startling, is that in Connecticut Joe Lieberman is now echoing their intolerable rhetoric attacking the Democratic Senate nominee.
...
There's only one way we can win. We've got to help our candidates give back as good as they get.
We'll meet every shameless attack with more energy, every distorting ad with more passion, and every ugly appeal to fear with more determination.
And 82 days from now, we'll celebrate the election of standup Democrats all across America.
We'll teach them, once and for all, that people who live in white houses shouldn't throw stones.
Let's get it done.
Sincerely,
John Kerry
Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, running as an independent, gets 53 percent of likely voters, with 41 percent for Democratic primary winner Ned Lamont and 4 percent for Republican Alan Schlesinger ...A 12-point deficit shouldn't thrill Lamont. But it does indicate that he's made a substantial gain from where this 3-way race stood last month:
This compares to a 51-27 percent Lieberman lead over Lamont, with 9 percent for Schlesinger in a July 20 poll by the independent Quinnipiac University.
... the administration has always pinched pennies when it comes to actually defending America against terrorist attacks.
Now we learn that terrorism experts have known about the threat of liquid explosives for years, but that the Bush administration did nothing about that threat until now, and tried to divert funds from programs that might have helped protect us.
"As the British terror plot was unfolding," reports The Associated Press, "the Bush administration quietly tried to take away $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new explosives detection technology."
Immigrant workers recruited from South America and the Dominican Republic after Hurricane Katrina sued a prominent hotelier Wednesday, saying they are being exploited.The only difference between this and the indentured servants of the 17th and 18th centuries is that these workers could choose to leave America and return home. Of course, they'd need money to do that, which none of them say they have so I guess there isn't much difference after all.
More than 80 workers from Peru, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic have joined the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court against Decatur Hotels LLC and its president and chief executive, F. Patrick Quinn III. The workers are employed in housekeeping, maintenance and other hotel support jobs in New Orleans.
Mary Bauer, a Southern Poverty Law Center attorney who helped file the lawsuit, said workers were lured by recruiters in their home countries with promises of high wages and steady work.
They spent $3,500 to $5,000 for travel and other expenses, which Bauer said Decatur Hotels had yet to reimburse ....
"They are hugely in debt. They say, 'We would have not have come if we had known the truth,' " Bauer said.
Luis Lopez, a room service employee from the Dominican Republic, said he's spent most of the last two months without the work hours he was promised. His last paycheck was for $18, far less than the $500 to $600 he expected to earn every two weeks or even the $325 he would have earned on the job he left in his home country.
... His wife, with whom he has three young children, is getting desperate as debt collectors swarm in and she can't buy food, Lopez said, crying as he held small photos pulled from his wallet.
... The lawsuit against Decatur, which operates luxury hotels including the Astor Crowne Plaza, says the company abused the H-2B visa program. Employers obtain such visas by certifying that no one in the United States can do the work.
The visas, which typically are good for less than a year, tie workers to the employer, so a worker may not take employment elsewhere even if working conditions are not as expected, a provision Bauer says indentures immigrant workers.
Later this year every resident of Alaska will get a check in the mail for roughly $1,000 -- or $4,000 for a family of four -- simply for living in the state.
... The money for these bonuses comes from the interest earned on what is now a $35 billion oil-revenue investment fund that Alaska has amassed since the late 1970s. While $75 oil is pinching pocketbooks in the lower 48 states, for the 640,000 residents of Alaska the cost of energy has been a gift. Some 85% of the revenue the state collects comes from oil severance taxes -- a levy applied to the 850,000 daily gallons of North Slope oil that travels via pipelines such as BP's to the rest of the nation.
As a result, Alaska is only one of nine states without a state income tax, and one of only two (along with New Hampshire) with no income or statewide sales tax. Alaska is the only state that can fund government services by exporting its tax burden via energy taxes to the other states.
And here's the political rub: Alaska is also the largest state recipient of federal spending earmarks. The Tax Foundation says Alaskans receive nearly $2 of income transfer from the taxpayers of the other 49 states for every $1 they pay in taxes each year.
Ron Utt of the Heritage Foundation calculates that Alaska gets $5 of federal highway spending for every $1 in gas tax money it pays to the federal trust fund -- twice as much back as any other state. We all know about Alaska's $230 million Bridge to Nowhere -- a federally funded highway project that will connect the town of Ketchikan (pop. 9,000) to a tiny island with a population of 50.
... Year after year the 49th state manages to secure federal dollars for skating rinks, sea otter recovery grants, berry research, the Arctic winter games, native-Alaskan museums and miles upon miles of roads through deserted areas of the state.
"Yes, absolutely. And, Helen, that's an important point. We do not [deal] in 'Amen' choruses. What you do is you invite smart people in who have different points of view."But, once again, the White House was blowing smoke up our you-know-what. This meeting took place, but there was no debate, no discussion with contrasting points of view.
Paul Richter and Peter Wallsten write in the Los Angeles Times that "the analysts who attended the Pentagon lunch, which lasted nearly two hours, said it was arranged as a fact-gathering session, rather than a policy debate." So there was no such debate.Davis did his best to reinforce the stereotype that PhD merely stands for "piled high and deeper." His opening remarks to the president set a new standard for bullshit. Froomkin writes:
And, they add: "Although at least three of the four experts have criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East, none has called for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq."
I spoke at some length yesterday with one of the participants in the meeting, trying to get a sense of whether Bush was exposed to any substantive critique of his Iraq policy. The answer: apparently not.
Eric M. Davis is a political science professor at Rutgers University, best known for his optimism about Iraqi democracy. Like the other participants, he has in the past expressed some views that aren't entirely in line with the White House's.
For instance, Davis said he personally feels that Bush "let the genie out of the bottle and made some major mistakes" in Iraq. But, he adds: "now that we've done that, we need to stay there." And Davis said he didn't get into that first part with Bush. "That's water under the bridge."
(Professor) Davis sent me a copy of his prepared remarks. He started this way: "First, Mr. President, you have done a forceful job of explaining to the American people what is at stake in Iraq. However, I believe that the American people do not fully understand the potential domino effects that the collapse of Iraq into disorder and anarchy would have on the Middle East and the global political system."Isn't that a bit contradictory?
Former President Bill Clinton leaped to the defense of the Bush administration's AIDS efforts on Tuesday, saying the United States is spending more to fight HIV than any other government.Yes, the U.S. is devoting a lot of money to address HIV and AIDS, and the Bush administration deserves a brief round of applause for that. But what Clinton doesn't seem to acknowledge is the effect that the abstinence mandate has on how developing countries spend their own money.
Clinton joined Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in praising President George W. Bush's President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, saying it has done more good than harm.
... "If you take out the 30 percent of the money that has to be spent on [abstinence] -- the other 70 percent is still a whopping amount of money and more money in federal aid than I think anybody else is getting," Clinton told a plenary session of the conference.
The requirement that a large fraction of President Bush's global AIDS plan go to promote abstinence and fidelity is causing confusion in many countries and in a few is eroding other prevention efforts, including ones to reduce mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
... Of the 15 "focus countries" -- 12 African countries, plus Haiti, Guyana and Vietnam -- nine reduced the amount of money for programs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in their 2006 budgets to meet the spending target for abstinence promotion.
Colmes: "The American people are going to decide that, aren't they?"Consider that: a) it was Morris himself who described the nature of his comments as "haranguing," and b) this is the dictionary definition of "harange":
Morris: "After a lot of haranguing by me."
HARANGUE nounI'll give Morris credit for at least recognizing his pompous nature and tirade-style attacks.
1. A long pompous speech, especially one delivered before a gathering.
2. A speech or piece of writing characterized by strong feeling or expression; a tirade.
Mr. Romanelli, a railroad industry consultant from Wilkes-Barre and a former family-court support officer, qualified with enough signatures Aug. 1 to get on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. He has said that most of his financial backing has come from Republicans, and Democrats have challenged his signatures in court.I've been following this race pretty closely and Romanelli blows my mind. He takes Nadercissim to a festering level. Romanelli says he is standing up for his beliefs by running against Casey because of Casey's anti-choice views, although he's doing it by taking ANTI-CHOICE MONEY FROM REPUBLICANS WHO WANT SANTORUM TO WIN TO FURTHER THEIR ANTI-CHOICE WORK.
Mr. Romanelli is considered a potential spoiler against Mr. Casey, who is now Pennsylvania's state treasurer, because he supports abortion rights while Mr. Santorum and Mr. Casey oppose them.
In a three-way matchup, Casey leads Santorum 45 percent to 39 percent, with Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli picking up 5 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters. Eleven percent were undecided or did not plan to vote.Casey's not a bad guy, he might have anti-choice personal views but it's very highly unlikely he'll do much, if anything, about them in office. My parents are active liberal Dems and all the Dems they know are supporting Casey-- as part of the Stop Santorum movement. They openly acknowledge that Casey isn't a progressive's wet dream but he's a step in the right direction; most importantly Casey can defeat Santorum, Romanelli cannot.
Let’s start with the mother of all racist pejoratives -- you know the word I mean. This one I won’t put it in print; it’s too lurid. Obviously, no one would name a team the Washington N-----s, and anyway, I don’t think Redskins is equivalent to that. We white folk (this includes not just the United States, but pre-U.S. colonialists) may have killed far more native people, but what we did to black people occupies a more prominent place in our national memory, and I think probably rightly so. So the N-word, so fully associated with that history, is a special case, and it has no equal.What is it about "nigger" that makes it unprintable? Why does it always have to be written as "n----r" or referred to as the "N-word"?
“Fuck yeah it did!” screamed a well-known Washington environmental activist seated in front of me as he pumped his fist. “Fuck yeah!”Or "shit"
Looking very little like Knight himself, Dennehy stomps around the screen screaming "fuck" and "pussy" with abandon. It's not an inaccurate portrayal so much as a bland one. Though the script is in many cases taken directly from Feinstein's quotes, Dennehy's performance has the weird effect of making the material feel less outrageous than it actually is. In one scene, Dennehy ends a tirade by yelling, "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
Thanks to the dinner roll incident at the G-8 meeting, we know this is Bush's sincere view. "You see," Bush famously explained to Blair, "the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's all over."Or "motherfucker"
“Yesterday was a motherfucker,” one AFL-CIO staffer commented this Wednesday, referring to Tuesday’s announcements that the federation would eliminate 167 of the AFL-CIO’s 426 positions (61 new positions will also be created)Or "fag"
I even gave a name to this strategy: "Wag the Fag."Or "gook"
[P]eople were calling you a gook, a slut, a pigHell, it even has dozens of other instances where it has printed "nigger," so what exactly is the standard?
Schoonmaker-Brown expressed remorse moments before she was sentenced. She said her parenting skills have improved since she enrolled in a parenting class.This was after children claimed they wanted to ride in the trunk on an 8-hour road trip in July. It sounds like listening to her young children about how to parent them is the last thing she should do.
"I personally apologized to all three of my children," Schoonmaker-Brown said. "I sat down with them and said, 'I need your help to be the parent I need to be.'"
NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.I really didn't want to believe this and I feel like a charter member of the tinfoil hat club, but I had a sneaking suspicion last week that this story wasn't what they made it out to be, that there seemed to be more than a few things wrong with this story from the get-go.
A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.
In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports.
The specific holdup seems to be the decision to redesign the face of the medal.Five months after Congress voted to bestow its highest honor on the Tuskegee Airmen -- pioneering aviators who during World War II broke the color bar banning black pilots in the U.S. military -- the Congressional Gold Medal is still not in their hands.
"Every time you pick up a newspaper, one or two more are gone," said retired Lt. Col. Spann Watson of Westbury, N.Y. "We'd like people who are still living to be able to receive them. I want to get my medal in my hand."
... Of the 994 black aviators who got their training at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama beginning in 1942, 388 are still alive. Last month, Elmore Kennedy, 90, a retired lieutenant colonel who lived in Philadelphia, died of complications of a stroke.... Congress unanimously approved the medal in recognition of the group's aerial exploits -- its fighter escort pilots never lost a bomber to enemy fire -- as well as their battles against racial discrimination.
DANDONG, China - Chinese tourists who come to this border city with North Korea often hop on boats for excursions to a virtual human zoo: They cross the Yalu River and motor along the other side to gawk at poor North Koreans.
... "I feel sorry for them," Gao Feng, a visitor, said after a boat trip, launching into praise for his own country. "I feel proud to be a Chinese. Our country is developed, and people have become rich."
On the Chinese side, high-rise hotels and modern condos tower overhead ... At nighttime, the Chinese side is ablaze in neon lighting.
Barely a light flickers on the North Korean side, a sign of dire energy shortages in the most closed society in the world. Some 350,000 residents dwell in the border city of Sinuiju, but smokestacks over dilapidated factories issue nary a wisp. Along the river, rusted fishing boats list, and residents squat, staring aimlessly. A Ferris wheel sits idle.
"When you compare the two sides, you see how prosperous China is," said Wu Zhanjun, 36, who's from Liaoning province, in China's surrounding industrial heartland.
"I saw their children catching fish," added Han Quanyi, a truck owner who was taking a vacation here. "They don't look like Chinese children. They are very thin. Their clothes are old and dirty. And the women have mud all over their bodies."
... For decades, North Korea has been the easiest foreign destination for the Chinese. Until last year, they didn't even need passports.
... Those (Chinese) who opt for travel often bristle at the strict rules they must follow. Among the items that Chinese tourists are prohibited from taking to North Korea are mobile phones, binoculars, laptop computers, professional cameras and zoom lenses.
North Korea recently demanded that Chinese tourists stop posting impressions of their visits to the country online, warning that it may cut off the travel agencies' business.
Nearly 30 percent of State Department employees based overseas in "language-designated positions" are failing to speak and write the local language well enough to meet required levels, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.I'm not sure which one is a more depressing commentary on the state of U.S. education and literacy -- the 30 percent figure or the fact that a State Department report actually used the silly, sophomoric term "superhard."
"We have a shortage of people with language skills in posts that need them," said John Brummet, assistant director for international affairs and trade at the GAO. "If people do not have the proper language skills, it is difficult to influence the people and government and to understand what they are thinking. It just doesn't get the job done."
Languages described as "superhard" by the report are proving particularly difficult. Four out of 10 workers in posts requiring Arabic, Chinese and Japanese fail to meet the requirements.
The commonplace assumption that a more homogeneous society is a more peaceful society certainly sounds reasonable. Surely monoethnic Japan should have an easier time maintaining domestic order than Indonesia; or Slovenia than Macedonia.
After all, in a country with numerous ethnic or religious groups, politicians are easily tempted to organize factions along group lines ...
But what if this whole premise is wrong? Odd as it may seem, there is a growing body of work that suggests that multiethnic countries are actually no more prone to civil war than other countries.
In a sweeping 2003 study, the Stanford civil war experts James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin came to a startling finding: “it appears not to be true that a greater degree of ethnic or religious diversity — or indeed any particular cultural demography — by itself makes a country more prone to civil war.”
Fearon and Laitin looked at 127 civil wars from 1945 to 1999, most often in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. They found that regardless of how ethnically mixed a country is, the likelihood of a civil war decreases as countries get richer. The richest states are almost impervious to civil strife, no matter how multiethnic they might be — think for instance of Belgium, where Flemings and Walloons show almost no inclination to fight it out.
Governments rarely reform spontaneously or expose themselves voluntarily to public scrutiny. Stimulating demand from citizens for greater accountability and better quality of services therefore becomes an important tool for improving governance.Can anyone think of another example of a country whose government has become secretive and ignored constitutional limitations on its powers because the citizenry has not challenged the leadership sufficiently?