Good Morning! - Morning Headlines

[Caro]

Morning headlines brought to you by

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Top Story

Our Troops Must Leave Iraq (by Walter Cronkite and David Krieger)
The American people no longer support the war in Iraq. The war is being carried on by a stubborn president who, like Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War, does not want to lose. But from the beginning this has been an ill-considered and poorly prosecuted war… (M)ore troops will not solve the problem. We have lost the hearts and minds of most of the Iraqi people, and victory no longer seems to be even a remote possibility. It is time to end our occupation of Iraq, and bring our troops home.
As Lyndon Johnson famously said about the Vietnam War, “If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America.” Of course, in this case middle America came around first.—Caro

Dubya’s World

The World

25 Dead in Iraq Bombings As Gates Visits
A car bomb exploded in a largely Shiite neighborhood Wednesday, killing at least 16 people, just as Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited the capital and said a secure and stable Iraq was within reach. It was the deadliest of four bombs in Iraq on Wednesday that killed a total of 25 people. Earlier, a blast went off in the northern city of Mosul, where Gates had landed on his sixth trip to Iraq.

Top US general says no 'victory dances' yet in Iraq
BAGHDAD (AFP) - The top American general in Iraq, David Petraeus, expressed satisfaction on Thursday at the progress made in Iraq but said the military was still far from any victory dance.

12 Dead, 20 Wounded In Afghan Blast
The death toll has climbed by another dozen in Afghanistan, where so far this year there have been over 133 suicide attacks, claiming at least 6,200 lives. Wednesday's target was a minibus full of Afghan soldiers.

Sharif to lead march on home of deposed justice
Police erected barbed-wire barricades Thursday to deter supporters of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from their plans to challenge emergency rule by marching on the heavily guarded home of Pakistan's deposed chief justice.

NKorean nuclear declaration must be credible: US envoy
BEIJING (AFP) - US envoy Christopher Hill said Thursday that North Korea must make credible declarations about all its nuclear programmes, as doubts emerged over whether a year-end deadline would be met.
Get another scary nation into the news, QUICK!—Caro

For Chávez, Reflection and Anger After Defeat
President Hugo Chávez’s political movement is being consumed by recrimination and soul-searching, with calls by some of his followers to embrace a more pluralistic path.

Australia's Iraq withdrawal won't hurt ties: US official
SYDNEY (AFP) - The US alliance with Australia will not be damaged by the Canberra government's sharp policy differences with Washington over the Iraq war and climate change, a top US official said Thursday.

Liberia clears World Bank debt arrears
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Liberia cleared its debt arrears with the World Bank on Wednesday, paving the way for new development lending and debt cancellation that will help the West African country rebuild after years of civil war, a bank official said.

The Nation

Bush told in Aug Iran may have halted nuclear program
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush was told in August that Iran may have suspended its nuclear weapons program, the White House said on Wednesday, a day after Bush said he was not given a full report on the issue.

Limits Proposed on CIA Interrogators
WASHINGTON -- House and Senate negotiators working on an intelligence bill have agreed to limit CIA interrogators to techniques approved by the military, which would effectively bar them from using such harsh methods as waterboarding, congressional aides said Wednesday.

Christmas Presents for New Orleans, From HUD; Bulldozers for the Poor, Huge Tax Credits for Wealthy Developers (by Bill Quigley, a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans)
Despite Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil War, HUD is spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over 4600 public housing subsidized apartments (in New Orleans) and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units--an 82% reduction… The court acknowledged some questions about the fairness of the process but concluded that if the demolitions turn out to be illegal, residents can always recover money damages later.
And in the meantime, they can just live on their trust funds!—Caro

Skeptical Supreme Court ponders major Guantanamo case
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices sounded skeptical Wednesday about the Bush administration's treatment of foreign-born prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, raising questions about the future of White House war-on-terrorism tactics. In a potentially landmark case, at least four justices cast doubt on administration efforts to deny Guantanamo Bay detainees traditional legal rights.

Huckabee let lots more criminals off the hook (by John Aravosis at AMERICAblog)
A friend passed me the following white paper on the other criminals Huckabee helped, to the detriment of society when they struck again.
Click through to read the many instances.—Caro

Exclusive: Another Friend of Giuliani's Embroiled in Sheriff’s Criminal Case
When Hank Asher reached into the bag and pulled out the two $15,000 gold Cartier watches, the holiday crowd at Carmine's restaurant on 44th Street in Manhattan noticed, patrons recalled. Later, so did the U.S. attorney in Orange County, Calif., and soon yet another of Rudy Giuliani's business partners was embroiled in a bribery case.

Romney fires landscaper over illegals
Republican Mitt Romney, ridiculed by rival Rudy Giuliani for employing illegal immigrants at his "sanctuary mansion," said he had fired the landscaper for his suburban Boston home after learning for a second time about undocumented workers laboring on the property.

Clinton volunteer coordinator resigns over e-mail claiming Obama is Muslim
A volunteer Iowa county coordinator for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign has resigned after forwarding a chain e-mail that suggests Barack Obama is a Muslim who wants to destroy the United States by being elected to its highest office.

Voter Turnout In US Elections Not Increased By Early Voting Measures
ScienceDaily (Dec. 6, 2007) — Early voting measures are touted by election reform advocates as a principal way of increasing voter turnout, but a new empirical study by political scientists concludes that most early voting options have a negligible or even negative impact on turnout.

Teen Birth Rates Up for First Time in 14 Years, U.S. Reports
Birth rates among unmarried women, C-section deliveries also hit new high last year.
Could this and the increase in STDs among teens have anything to do with the abstinence only approach to sex education?

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Thom Hartmann: How Liberals Can Speak Without Boring Everyone to Tears
It turns out we have a lot to learn from the advertising world and even Republicans.

A Rare Moment of Candor (by David Kurtz at Talking Points Memo)
Dan Bartlett, on the White House's use of right wing blogs: “I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on.”

Joe Scarborough Rips Bush On Iran NIE: He’s Either ‘Lying’ Or ‘Is Stupid’
(Tuesday) in his press conference, President Bush asserted that Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told him “we have new information” on Iran’s nuclear program, but “he did not tell me what the information was.” (Wednesday) morning, the cast of Morning Joe chided Bush’s claim. Co-host Willie Geist said, “It’s just not a credible answer, I’m afraid.” Host Joe Scarborough ripped into Bush, saying that president is either “lying to the American people” or is simply “stupid”.
Click through to watch the video.—Caro

3 out of 4 Fox primetime shows ignored NIE.
Early Monday afternoon, the Bush administration released a new National Intelligence Estimate revealing that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Though the blockbuster revelation was featured prominently that night in all three network newscasts, it was all but ignored on Fox News. Steve Benen reports that on Monday night, only one of Fox’s primetime shows — Special Report with Brit Hume — even mentioned the report. On Tuesday, after President Bush held a news conference, the shows did cover it, but with only conservatives and administration supporters discussing it.

Nonpartisan AEI(by Paul Krugman)
I have a lot of problems with (a) Kit Seelye piece… But this takes the cake: “Joseph Antos, a health policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a nonpartisan group.” Is it really possible for a veteran reporter to believe that AEI is nonpartisan? Not even a qualifier, like “right-leaning” or “free-market-oriented”?

Malkin blames the “liberal media”–for reporting the facts (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
Case in point: The Boston Globe reports that Romney is using illegal immigrants to
take care of his lawn. Is Michelle Malkin disappointed in him for his hypocrisy of tough anti-immigration rhetoric on the campaign trail and actually supporting at home? Hell no - she is angry at the “liberal MSM” for reporting it.

Wash. Post Obama Story Under Fire
A front page story about Barack Obama's rumored Muslim ties came with a twist: Many voices within its own newsroom joined in the firestorm.

Breaking: Washington Post Finally Calls Obama Muslim Smears False! (by Greg Sargent at TPM Horse’s Mouth)
Check out the headline on (a) new article on The Washington Post political blog from Perry Bacon, Jr., the author of the original Obama Muslim false rumor piece: “Clinton Campaign Volunteer Out Over False Obama Rumors”. The article goes on to describe the Muslim rumors as false four times. Methinks there's a bit of tongue-in-cheek overkill push-back going on here, but hey, good for Bacon. Now the trick is to get the paper itself, and not just the blog, to do the same...

ABC’s Boston Legal Takes Swipe At Glenn Beck, Ignores His Affiliation With ABC
While the plot of the show is fictional, (Candice) Bergen’s character took a real-life approach in her arguments defending (a) fired radio host. She blasted the media for censoring political content while ignoring “racist or hateful remarks”: “Glenn Beck. He’s on CNN, the ‘most trusted name in news.’ He’s referred to the Katrina survivors as a vulgarity I’m not allowed to repeat here. He also said he didn’t think it possible to hate any victims faster than the 9/11 victims.”
Why are we leaving it to fiction writers to make these points for us? Mind you, I’m not complaining. The more voices we have calling the right wingers on their hate mongering the better, but it shouldn’t be ONLY fiction writers and us non-mainstreamers doing it.—Caro

Moonves on Media
CBS CEO Leslie Moonves offhandedly admitted how much corporate media are indebted to our money-driven political system. He assured attendees at a luncheon speech that political advertising is going to be a major part of CBS next year. We’re seeing a very robust amount of money. We like the fact that there are a lot of candidates. And we like a lot of candidates with a lot of money. We do not want election reform. "To which Forbes helpfully appended: '(laughter).'"

Technology & Science

Microsoft shuts down Santa for talking dirty
Microsoft Corp. quickly shut down Santa Claus’ Web privileges after it found out the automated elf it created for kids to instant message with was talking naughty, not nice.

Cellphone could be boarding pass, too
Continental Airlines passengers in Houston will be able to board flights using just a cellphone or personal-digital assistant instead of a regular boarding pass in a three-month test program launched Tuesday at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

GOOG411 Testing in India for Voice Activated Search? (by Kristen Nicole at Mashable)
Could Google be working on an initiative through its India research lab for the mobile search service GOOG411? This experimental mobile search tool, as you know, works by using voice recognition so that you can call in and find the information you’re looking for.

Hack: Young Professor Makes Lab-on-a-Chip with Shrinky Dink and Toaster Oven
A young professor has used her favorite childhood toy, a laser printer, and a toaster oven to make microfluidic devices - tiny computer chips with plumbing that are usually fabricated in multimillion dollar labs.

Overweight Kids Often Become Obese, Unhealthy Adults
Experts warn of surge in cardiovascular troubles by 2035

What makes skin strong? Velcro-like cells
Scientists have gotten their best look ever at interactions inside human skin cells, finding a Velcro-like setup that links them and makes skin strong while also supple.

Close Families Raise More Independent Adults
ScienceDaily (Dec. 6, 2007) — You're already 25 and you still live with your parents. You're 26 and you still bring your laundry take home food from your mother. Don't worry; new research at the University of Haifa found that, contrary to common belief, young adults who maintain a close or moderate relationship with their parents exhibit greater independence in their personal lives than those who have a distant relationship.

Humans Appear Hardwired To Learn By 'Over-imitation'
ScienceDaily (Dec. 6, 2007) — Children learn by imitating adults--so much so that they will rethink how an object works if they observe an adult taking unnecessary steps when using that object, according to a new Yale study.

Environment

WWF: Global warming will destroy 60% of Amazon by 2030
The impacts of climate change plus deforestation could wipe out or severely damage nearly 60% of the Amazon forest by 2030 making it impossible to keep global temperatures from reaching catastrophic levels, an environmental group said Thursday.

Scientists beg for climate action
For the first time, more than 200 of the world's leading climate scientists, losing their patience, urged government leaders to take radical action to slow global warming because "there is no time to lose." A petition from at least 215 climate scientists calls for the world to cut in half greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It is directed at a conference of diplomats meeting in Bali, Indonesia, to negotiate the next global warming treaty.

US under mounting pressure at Bali
BALI, Indonesia - American negotiators at a climate conference came under mounting pressure Thursday to back mandatory caps on greenhouse gases, after Australia threw its support behind deep emission cuts and anti-global warming legislation passed a crucial test in the U.S. Senate.

U.N. hails U.S. Senate climate steps
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - The United Nations praised on Thursday a step by a U.S. Senate committee to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the world's top carbon emitter even as Washington reaffirmed opposition to caps.

Australian PM distances himself from big emissions cuts by 2020
BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday denied his government would support deep carbon emission cuts for developing nations by 2020 aimed at curbing global warming.

Air Force Base Harvests Solar Energy
NEVADA, Dec. 6, 2007 -- Nellis Air Force Base's solar farm is set to be fully operational this month, providing 30 percent of the base's energy and saving $1 million a year.

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