We need to do more...

The White House is criticizing the Myanmar military dictatorship for its harsh treatment of peaceful, civilian protesters trying to agitate for for democracy. It is hoping that "all civilized nations" will pressure the government there to end its violence on the civilian protesters.

After all, when the White House asked the world to respond in Darfur they were so quick to pick up the call. I'm sure that the response here will be exactly the same.

US Blasts Myanmar for Silencing Internet
ABC News

The White House criticized Myanmar on Friday for cutting off Internet access and called on "all civilized nations" to pressure the military-run government to end its violent crackdown on protesters.

"They don't want the world to see what is going on there," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown talked about the situation via secure video teleconference on Friday. They agreed on the importance of a planned visit this weekend to Myanmar by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari and on "the need for countries around the world to continue to make their views clear to the junta," Stanzel said.

"They need to refrain from violence and move to a peaceful transition to democracy," Stanzel said.

They could do better?

I am so sick of the "end Iraq war" crowd. Not because they want troops out of Iraq, but because the work under the beleaguered fantasy that somehow we can end the war by removing U.S. troops from Iraq. After all, every time there's a power vacuum it immediately quells violence. Obviously, the best way to stop al Qaeda from trying to overthrow the Democratically-elected Iraqi government is by withdrawing the primary thing standing in their way. Obviously, the best way to stop Sunni and Shiite factions from slaughtering each other's civilians is to stop trying to disarm them. Obviously, the best way to stop the new-Baathists from trying to instill a military dictator is to step aside and ignore their attempts at doing so.

Just be honest. If they wanted to end the war in Iraq, they wouldn't be asking for troops to leave. They want to end the U.S.'s involvement in the war which is a dramatically different thing.

Dems could do far more to end Iraq war
The Politico

The vast majority of Democrats in Congress are powerfully clear about what they think about the war in Iraq. It is the greatest strategic blunder of a generation.

It is a lost cause. Above all, it is immoral - with more men and women dying each day for a war that many Democrats concluded years ago was a terrible mistake.

But clarity gives way to muddle when you pose a simple question to Democrats: After eight months in power on Capitol Hill, why have you not done more to end the war?

Most answers come down to some version of "There's nothing we can do."

Full steam ahead

Florida is going ahead with their plans to move their primary up, despite the Democratic National Party's wishes. Personally, I think it's a great, great thing that both Michigan and Florida are moving into the front. Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada are not representative of the country as a whole and there is no good reason why voters in those states should have a greater hand in choosing the candidates for President.

Here's hoping that Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, is right when she predicts, "I think this will be the final straw that will break this ridiculous primary process and give impetus to create a regional primary process that respects diversity and the appropriate role that a variety of states should have." A regional primary would be much better than the current system; even better than that, though, would be a true, national series of primary elections - perhaps narrowing the field down two or three times before the candidates are chosen. Right now, the voices of a few people in a few states are heard much too loudly. At some point, we need to change the rules so that the individuals in the greater whole are heard equally.

Florida Defies the DNC
Newsweek

The Florida Democratic Party is in a defiant mood. Over the weekend it decided to press ahead with plans to hold its presidential primary on January 29, in violation of Democratic National Committee rules that allow only Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina to hold contests before Feb. 5. As a result, the DNC is expected to make good on it's threats to strip Florida of its delegates at the party's nominating convention in August 2008. The state faces an additional punishment, too: the leading Democratic presidential contenders signed a pledge, promoted by the four early-voting states, not to campaign in Florida if the state stuck to their pushed-up date. Though Florida Democrats debated alternatives, such as holding a caucus or mail-in vote after Feb. 5, in the end they decided to hold firm. To find out why, NEWSWEEK's Arian Campo-Flores spoke with U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Broward County. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: How did Florida Democrats arrive at the decision to stick with the January 29 primary date?

Debbie Wasserman Schultz: The party leadership has been going through a pretty deliberative and communicative process over the last months, as well as, concurrently, the congressional delegation going through the same deliberations. We all came together in agreement that the only way to maximize Florida Democratic participation - 3.4 million of them - in choosing who we believe should be the Democratic nominee was to make that selection on Jan. 29, and that any other option would disenfranchise our voters. Mail-in [voting] would require paying to vote [since voters would have to pay for postage], and was extremely expensive anyway. And a caucus would have been incredibly exclusive and internal, and the rank-and-file average voter would never have been able to participate. So there really was no viable option to maximize our Democratic voter participation. We also couldn't risk, given that we have a very important property-tax cut that's on the ballot that would devastate social services across the state and education funding as well, we couldn't risk not having enough Democratic voters show up at the polls and have that pass. There are also regional and municipal elections on the ballot.

How much internal dissent was there over the decision?

It really wasn't difficult. There were a few dissenters in the party leadership -- quite honestly, the normal lead dissenter in the Democratic Party leadership in Florida [Jon Ausman, a DNC member from Tallahassee, who frequently disagrees with the party leadership]. But there was actually significant unity both in the elected and the party leadership. Three-quarters of the executive committee members indicated their support and took two separate votes. This is the most significant swing state in this election. It's incredibly important that we have our say and make sure that our votes are counted.

More info about Israel's strike on Syria's nuclear facility

Fox News has more information regarding the recent Israeli bombing of a Syrian nuclear site. Apparently, Israeli special forces infiltrated the site and obtained nuclear material of North Korean origin prior to the strike. Things are looking rather damning for the Syrians.

Report: Israeli Forces Seized Nuclear Material During Syrian Raid
Fox News

Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syrian before Israel bombed it this month, according to Sunday Times report citing informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.

The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear, the well-placed sources say.

They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Israel special forces had been gathering intelligence for several months in Syria, according to Israeli sources. They located the nuclear material at a compound near Dayr az-Zwar in the north.

Change, perhaps, in Burma?

Hopefully, the world will take note of the brave stance that Buddhist monks are taking in Burma (renamed Myanmar by the currently ruling military junta). Protesting for democracy and freedom there, monks and students have taken the brunt of a military crackdown. The situation there is appalling and demands more direct attention from the United Nations. The United States has done perhaps all it can do - sanctions against the ruling military - without more direct pressure from the U.N. President Bush yesterday called on the U.N. to help with the problem. Here's to hoping that they take up the challenge and do what they were created to do.

Buddhist Monks Defy Assembly Ban
ABC News

Security forces fired warning shots and tear gas canisters while hauling Buddhist monks away in trucks Wednesday as they tried to stop anti-government demonstrations in defiance of a ban on assembly.

About 300 monks and activists were arrested across Yangon, according to an exile dissident group, and reporters saw a number of monks who are highly revered in Myanmar being dragged into trucks.

The junta had banned all public gatherings of more than five people and imposed a nighttime curfew following eight days of anti-government marches led by monks in Yangon and other areas of the country, including the biggest protests in nearly two decades.

A march toward the center of Yangon followed a tense confrontation at the city's famed Shwedagon Pagoda between the protesters and riot police who fired warning shots into the air, beat some monks and dragged others away into waiting trucks.

Subdued environmentalism - what's the world coming to?

From an ABC article about the Philadelphia Eagles, which are apparently an extremely environmentally friendly team but has wanted to avoid public accolades for their success:

"They've not been eager to trumpet this, because I know for a fact that they wanted to make sure that their nest was clean before talking about it much in public," said John Hanger of environmental group PennFuture. "They've been really concerned that if they were playing the role model, they were a real role model.

Okay, that's something I like to hear. I'm sick of the damn grand-standing, look-at-me, holier-than-thou attitudes by self-described "environmentalists" who are more concerned with how they're perceived than with what they do.

NFL's Greenest Team - and Not Just the Uniform
ABC News

It's only a coincidence that the Philadelphia Eagles wear green jerseys.

The Eagles have quietly become the most environmentally friendly team in the National Football League, and perhaps in all of major league sports.

When the lights come on for an Eagles game at Lincoln Financial Field, 30 percent of the power comes from so-called clean sources, such as wind power and methane relcaimed from landfills.

When the Eagles fly to an away game, their organization plants trees in the Philadelphia area to make up for the carbon dioxide emitted by the team's plane.

Important item for consideration

Linda Babcock has an article on ABC which should be required reading for all workers, particularly working women. In it, she talks about her research with Deborah Small, Michele Gelfand, and Hillary Gettman into women's willingness to negotiate higher salaries. While the particular study she discusses might not be very significant, some of her findings may be. Most strikingly, by not negotiating salaries, women give up an average of half a million dollars during their careers.

Hopefully, by hearing about research like this, more women will better understand the control they have over their employment and how they can empower themselves to earn more money throughout their lives.

How Avoiding Negotiations Hurts Women
ABC News

I spend most of Sept. 19 at the campus of Arizona State University, conducting a negotiation study with "Good Morning America" cameras rolling. The study was based on my paper with colleagues Deborah Small, Michele Gelfand and Hillary Gettman.

Study participants signed up for our project, knowing they would be paid between $5 and $12 for their time. When they arrived, they played a game of Boggle. When they were finished, our graduate student experimenter, Justin, went up to a participant and said, "Here is $5. Is $5 okay?"

We were, of course, watching to see who negotiated for more money. In the ASU study, we found that many more men negotiated than women. In our original paper, this gender difference was extremely large - more than eight times as many men as women negotiated (2.6 percent of women versus 22.9 percent of men.)

And not only did men negotiate more often, the cameras revealed another striking difference: The men seemed extremely confident in asking for more money, while the women who did negotiate seemed very tentative. This was reinforced by the interviews that Tory Johnson conducted with the participants after the study.

Quote of the Day

"In Cuba, the long rule of a cruel dictator is nearing it's end. The Cuban people are ready for their freedom. And as that nation enters a period of transition, the United Nations must insist of free speech, free assembly, and ultimately, free and competitive elections."

-- President George W. Bush, speaking to the United Nations General Assembly

Not to create a panic or anything, but...

From the Freep: "Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, called on Gov. Jennifer Granholm to accept a 30-day budget extension. She responded: not without a tax increase."

It amazes me that so many Democrats are pushing so hard on a "raise taxes" platform. These aren't insignificant raises, either. They're talking about raising either income or sales tax by about 17-18%! It surprises me that any of them expect to get reelected after that.

State Warns: Renew your tabs fast
Detroit Free Press

Top state leaders made no public progress Tuesday toward resolving the state's $1.75-billion deficit and avoiding a partial shutdown of state government Monday.

Other developments:

• House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, said the Legislature and governor must have a deal by Thursday to avoid a shutdown.
• Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, called on Jennifer Granholm to accept a 30-day budget extension. She responded: not without a tax increase.
• Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land urged motorists to renew license tabs or their driver's licenses this week.
• In a shutdown, legislators, like other state employees, wouldn't be paid.

Quote of the Day

"Weakness and renunciation do not lead to peace. They lead to war."

-- President Nicolas Sarkozy of France

Really? But I thought it was our fault!

I thought it was "global warming" that was supposed to wreck the world's weather...

La Nina threatens to wreck world's weather
The Times of London

Experts predict a run of severe weather in the coming months, with devastating floods striking some parts of the world while severe droughts afflict other regions, as the climate phenomenon knows as La Niña gathers momentum.

A chronic drought afflicting southern California and many southeastern states of America could be exacerbated, with Los Angeles heading for its driest year on record. In contrast, western Canada and the northwestern US could turn colder and snowier. Mozambique, southeast Africa, and northern Brazil may face exceptionally heavy rains and floods, while southern Brazil and much of Argentina suffer drought.

La Niña could even rearrange the pattern of sea ice around the Antarctic, pushing the ice pack towards the Pacific side of the continent. Already, torrential rains have triggered severe floods across a huge swath of Central Africa, stretching from Senegal in the west to Uganda in the east.

Rupa Kumar Kolli, chief of world applications at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in Geneva, predicts that the worst of La Niña is yet to come. "This La Niña is now in its developing phase and getting stronger, and we can expect it to peak this coming December and January," he said. Whether this episode of La Niña will make itself felt in Britain and continental Europe this winter is not certain. "We tend to get a mild end to winter with La Niña, but it's not a strong signal," said Adam Scaife, at the Hadley Centre of the Met Office in Exeter.

Why can't they follow the rules?

After yesterday's tacit admission by The New York Times that they engaged in illegal campaign contributions to MoveOn.org, it begs the question: Why can't Democrats follow the simple campaign contribution rules? They're not that tough. The Federal Government even has a bunch of good information which details for candidates, citizens, and PACs what they can and cannot donate or accept.

So. here's a run-down for the time being:

1. Former Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Geoffrey Fieger has been indicted on Federal charges stemming from over $75,000 in illegal reimbursements his company made to employees, vendors, and friends who donated money to the John Edwards campaign.
2. Norman Hsu is being investigated for approximately $200,000 in suspicious contributions to the Hillary Clinton campaign, including the possibility that some of the money was illegally reimbursed by Mr. Hsu.
3. The New York Times gave an illegal in-kind contribution of $77,083 to MoveOn.org.
4. Do we even need to get into the cash-in-the-freezer incident?

What concerns me about SCHIP

The SCHIP expansion is aiming to receive a veto from President Bush. What I do like about the bill is two-fold:

1. It has a verified source of revenue; i.e., it will be funded by cigarette taxes. I certainly wish that all government programs were tightly tied to a particular source. Sure, it might make things more difficult for government bean-counters, but having extra tax money that has to be sent back to tax payers is never a bad thing.
2. Insuring uninsured children is a good thing, at least on the surface.

My biggest problem, however, is how the two are tied together. Already, poor families are able to enroll in a number of governmental programs to provide medical care for their children. As this is expanding the number of children who are receiving health care, it will be granting health care to those who are of a slightly highly socioeconomic class. The concerns comes, however, when we look at the funding as cigarette taxes are extremely regressive. What we may have happen, and what should be studied closely, is to determine if we're taxing the poor in order to give middle-class children health insurance, some of whom may be in families who can afford to obtain it themselves.

It parallels nicely with the situation here in Michigan, why are we increasing taxes on the $10 an hour Meijer cashier in order to pay a state contracted general laborer 50% more than he'd make in the private sector?

Bush to Veto Kids' Health Care
Time Magazine

(Washington) -- President Bush again called Democrats "irresponsible" on Saturday for pushing an expansion he opposes to a children's health insurance program.

"Democrats in Congress have decided to pass a bill they know will be vetoed," Bush said of the measure that draws significant bipartisan support, repeating in his weekly radio address an accusation he made earlier in the week. "Members of Congress are risking health coverage for poor children purely to make a political point."

At issue is the Children's Health Insurance Program, a state-federal program that subsidizes health coverage for low-income people, mostly children, in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private coverage. It expires Sept. 30.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers announced a proposal Friday that would add $35 billion over five years to the program, adding 4 million people to the 6.6 million already participating. It would be financed by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack.

This idea is overwhelmingly supported by Congress' majority Democrats, who scheduled it for a vote Tuesday in the House. It has substantial Republican support as well.

But Bush has promised a veto, saying the measure is too costly, unacceptably raises taxes, extends government-covered insurance to children in families who can afford private coverage, and smacks of a move toward completely federalized health care. He has asked Congress to pass a simple extension of the current program while debate continues, saying it's children who will suffer if they do not.

"Our goal should be to move children who have no health insurance to private coverage - not to move children who already have private health insurance to government coverage," Bush said.

Can we stop talking about Al Gore for President already?

I'm really getting sick of people and their whole "Al Gore for President" garbage. This is a many whose primary successes have come from his "environmental" stances and "successes". Of course, running on that would be suicide for him due to the ridiculous amount of hypocrisy. What do I mean?

• He's admitted to exaggeration in his "documentary," An Inconvenient Truth.
• He flies around the world in private jets to discuss global warming.
• He gets a paycheck from a company which he formed that claims to provide carbon credits but in reality doesn't do much for the environment.
• He lives in a 20,000 square foot house and has four-digit monthly utility bills.
• He drives an SUV in An Inconvenient Truth.
• Most notably, however, is that he never submitted the Kyoto accords to the Senate despite his position as President of the Senate.

How someone who lives such an extravagant, wasteful lifestyle and was against the Kyoto accords when he had an opportunity to do something about them could ever run on an environmental platform is completely and utterly beyond me.

...in a china shop

Can you imagine the 911 call? I love how the police pawned him off on the Department of Agriculture who in turn did nothing. Good thing there was a neighbor who knew how to deal with them.

Runaway Bull Attacks Conn. Home and Car
ABC News

An escaped and raging bulll attacked a neighbor's home, tearing off siding, ripping down part of a fence and damaging a car.

Wayne Johnson said he found the bull in his yard Friday morning. It had wandered in from a nearby farm.

While he watched, the bull repeatedly charged his house, tore off clapboards, flipped a picnic table, rammed his car and tore down part of the fence around his swimming pool, he said.

"He was crazy," Johnson said. "The thing was ripping my house apart."

Something odd...

It's odd that this article points out that the Arctic ice sheet is at its smallest levels while the Antarctic ice sheet is at its largest levels...

Leaders Gather for Climate Summit
ABC News

Rising global temperatures that are melting the Arctic and expanding the oceans are now drawing more than 80 world leaders to the U.N. podium for an unprecedented summit Monday on how to combat climate change.

From California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a champion of climate-saving legislation, the presidents and premiers will hear that even an often-reluctant United States is pitching in.

"California is moving the United States beyond debate and doubt to action," he says in remarks prepared for the meeting's morning kickoff.

Fellow opening speaker Rajendra Pachauri, chief U.N. climate scientist, says there's now "much greater evidence of human influence on climate change," and therefore "it's time for action."

A serious situation for Michigan

I can only hope that this will be short-lived. If they strike for more than maybe a week, I don't think that GM will recover. Imagine the effects to the state if the union causes GM to fold...it's a staggering though...

Union sets strike deadline at GM
CNN

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The United Auto Workers union set an 11 a.m. ET Monday strike deadline for its 73,000 members at General Motors late Sunday night, although talks between the union and the company were still ongoing.

The union has kept its members on the job at the automaker on an hour-by-hour contract extension since the previous pact with GM expired Sept. 14. But Sunday, as talks were reportedly making progress, the union leadership felt the need to call for a strike.

The company said in a statement that it was still hopeful of reaching a deal to avoid a shutdown. A company official told CNNMoney.com at 5:20 a.m. ET that the talks were still continuing.

"The 2007 contract talks involved complex, difficult issues that affect the job security of our U.S. work force and the long-term viability of our company," said GM spokesman Dan Flores. "We are fully committed to working with the UAW to develop situations together to address the competitive challenges facing General Motors. We will continue focusing our efforts on reaching an agreement as soon as possible."

Shares of GM were up 0.4 percent in light trading in Franfurt early Monday on news of the strike deadline.

The strike call does not affect operations at Ford Motor or Chrysler Group. The union has granted these companies more formal extensions that require a three-day notice to end while they focused their efforts on reaching an agreement with GM.

Neither side would comment on the sticking point in the talks, although GM has been seeking to close its cost gap with nonunion automakers such as Toyota Motor and Honda Motor by shifting $51 billion in future retiree health care costs to a union-controlled trust fund.

Is he kidding?

"Is there any major presidential candidate who has espoused a view anywhere near this radical or controversial?"

Did this guy really just ask that? How about Barack Obama's stance that if the U.S. knew that genocide would result from a withdrawal of troops from Iraq, he'd still go ahead and pull them out anywhere? Or how about Dodd's stance that the solution in Iraq is U.S. sanctioned ethnic cleansing? Perhaps Obama's view that the U.S. should invade an ally? Just asking...

Giuliani's proposal for endless Middle East wars on behalf on Israel
Unclaimed Territory - Salon

In London this week, Rudy Giuliani proposed what is probably the single most extremist policy of any major presidential candidate, certainly this year and perhaps in many years:

Rudy Giuliani talked tough on Iran yesterday, proposed to expand to NATO to include Israel and warned that if Iran's leaders go ahead with their goal to be a nuclear power "we will prevent it, or we will set them back five or 10 years."...

While Giuliani did not explicitly addresses the implications for Iran of adding Israel to NATO in his speech, his aides later highlighted a 2006 Heritage Foundation paper by Nile Gardiner, a former Thatcher aide who was announced as a new Giuliani adviser yesterday.

That step would "leave the mullahs with no illusions about the West's determination to respond to Iran's strategic threat to the region," Gardiner wrote. "Any nuclear or conventional attack on Israel, be it direct or through proxies such as Hezbollah or other terrorist groups, would be met by a cataclysmic response from the West."

Adding Israel to NATO has been opposed by France and some other European nations in the past, largely because it would entangle the alliance in the Middle East.

Hillary's campaign "engaged in the politics of personal destruction"

Hillary Clinton has fired off some hypocrisy. A senior advisor took aim at Rudy Giuliani's personal life - namely his previous failed marriages and the stained relationships he has with his children. Despite a pledge to run a clean campaign and neither engage in personal attacks nor condone them among allies, Senator Clinton is refusing to condemn Tom Vilsack's personal attacks against Mayor Giuliani. Is there anyone, anywhere who's surprised?

Getting Personal: Clinton Ally Rips Giuliani
ABC News

Despite Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton's longtime state opposition to "the politics of personal destruction," one of her top advisers has attacked the personal life of Republican presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani.

Though this may be the first such high-profile attack on the personal life of a presidential hopeful launched in this highly competitive election season, the New York senator notably refused to distance herself from the comments.

The attack come in an interview on NY1, when former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, a top Clinton presidential campaign advisor, laughed when an interviewer discussed the prospect of Giuliani as the GOP presidential nominee.

Asked what was so funny, Vilsack replied, "There's a lot that the rest of the country's going to get to know about Mayor Giuliani that the folks in New York City know, but the rest of the nation doesn't know."

Same old story...no clue on effects of climate change

From The Times UK: Climate Change may help rainforests.

Translation: We still don't know what global warming is going to do to anything. By all means, let's wreck the economy pursuing anti-capitalist agendas against the auto industry to fight global warming.

Climate change may help rainforests
The Times UK

Climate change may lead to lush growth rather than catastrophic tree loss in the Amazonian forests, researchers from the US and Brazil have found. A study, in the journal Science, found that reduced rainfall had led to greener forests, possibly because sunlight levels are higher when there are fewer rainclouds.

But scientists cautioned that while the finding raises hope for the survival of the forests, there are still serious threats. Climate models have suggested that the forests will suffer as the region becomes drier and will release huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Columbia is "a major forum for robust debate," right?

Columbia University is not backing down on its decision to invite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak to their students, stating that they are "a major forum for robust debate." Odd, then, that this is a school which prohibits students from voluntarily joining the ROTC. Apparently, "robust debate" allows for the expulsion of a particular student group for its viewpoints.

Columbia won't cancel Ahmadinejad speech
AFP

NEW YORK - Columbia University said it does not plan to call off a speech by Iran's president despite pressure from critics including the City Council speaker, who said the Ivy League school was providing a forum for "hate-mongering vitriol."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is traveling to New York to address the United Nations' General Assembly. He was scheduled to appear Monday at a question-and-answer session with Columbia faculty and students as part of the school's World Leaders forum.

City Council speaker Christine Quinn called Thursday for the university to rescind the invitation, saying "the idea of Ahmadinejad as an honored guest anywhere in our city is offensive to all New Yorkers."

Quinn said Ahmadinejad was coming to the city "for one reason - to spread his hate-mongering vitriol on the world stage."

Quote of the Day

"[CBS News] sacrificed support for independent journalism for corporate financial gain, and in so doing, I think they undermined a lot at CBS News,"

-- Dan Rather making the point that the real undermining of the news at CBS had nothing to do with the fraudulent documents he based his infamous report on.

Gotcha!

It was only a matter of time. Let's see Iran weasel out of this one...

U.S. military says it nabbed Iranian commando in Iraq
CNN

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Coalition forces on Thursday arrested a suspected member of an elite Iranian unit that has been accused of training and equipping insurgents in Iraq, the U.S. military said.

The military said the suspect, who was not identified, is a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Quds Force.

The U.S. military calls the force "a covert action arm of the Iranian government responsible for aiding lethal attacks against the Iraqi government and coalition forces."

The military said the Quds Force suspect was involved in bringing roadside bombs from Iran into Iraq and in training foreign terrorists in Iraq.

If you can't do simple math, maybe you shouldn't be on the budget committee...

Does no one know how to do simple math? Saying that going from a 9% tax to an 11% tax is a 2% raise is completely wrong. It's a 22% raise. It's a 2 point raise in the rate, but it's raising the taxes by 22%. You can't just subtract percentages; they're multiplicative not additive.

Cook County sales tax increase proposed
ABC News

One Cook County commissioner wants to increase the county's portion of the sales tax, and if approved, the sales tax would to up to 11 percent. That tax increase would also apply to restaurant and hotel bills.

Cook County Commissioner Joan Patricia Murphy said the additional tax revenue would be used to avoid another crisis when it is time to come up with next year's budget.

It appears everything is on the table as Cook County commissioners prepare for next year's budget. The last time they called for a sales tax increase was 1992. Some commissioners say it is time to get help. But retailers are saying, look elsewhere.

It looks like the board of county commissioners has had enough job cuts throughout the county, including their own staff. They're looking at a gap in the 2008 budget.

A possible cancer cure

Some scientists may have found a universal cure for cancer. This is brilliant and a wonderful possibility, but let's see what happens in three or four years before we get too excited. It is heartening, though, to think that we might be able to wipe out the nation's third leading killer.

Cancer cure 'may be available in two years'
The Telegraph

Cancer sufferers could be cure with injections of immune cells from other people in two years, scientists say.

US researchers have been given the go-ahead to give patients transfusions of "super strength" cancer-killing cells from donors.

Dr. Zheng Cui, of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, has shown in laboratory experiments that immune cells from some people can be almost 50 times more effective in fighting cancer than in others.

Dr. Cui, whose work is highlighted in this week's New Scientist magazine, has previously shown cells from mice found to be immune to cancer can be used to cure ordinary mice with tumors.

The work raises the prospect of using cancer-killing immune system cells called granulocytes from donors to significantly boost a cancer patient's ability to fight their disease, and potentially cure them.

Bipartisan?

I love that Sen. Reid called it a "bipartisan bill." Every Democrat voted for it; 88% of Republicans voted against it. How is that "bipartisan"?

Senate Blocks Bill on Iraq Combat Tours
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Democrats' efforts to challenge President Bush's Iraq policies were dealth a demoralizing blow Wednesday in the Senate after they failed to scrape together enough support to guarantee troops more time at home.

The 56-44 vote - four short of reaching the 60 needing to advance - all but assured that Democrats would be unable to muster the support needed to pass tough anti-war legislation by year's end. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., was seen as the Democrats' best shot because of its pro-military premise.

"The idea of winning the war in Iraq is beginning to get a second look," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who led opposition to the bill alongside Sen. John McCain.

Webb's legislation would have required that troops spend as much time at home training with their units as they spend deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Members of the National Guard or Reserve would be guaranteed three years at home before being sent back.

Most Army soldiers now spend about 15 months in combat with 12 months home.

Obama's tax bait-and-switch

For a moment, he had me. I really thought that Sen. Obama was advocating that we should eliminate all deductions. I'd be all for that. Nope, instead he's repeating the ephemeral "close the tax gap" line that the Democrats have been harping on for ages. Certainly, we need to eliminate the gap between what people are obligated to pay and what they do pay. The only real way to do that, though, is a complete elimination of all deductions and a tax code so simple that you can't avoid paying for fair share.

What I love the most (that's sarcastic, by the way) is that his tax plan is going to cut revenues to the federal government beyond a couple years. By raising the top 1% bracket, he'll be slowing nation-wide economic growth; by giving further tax breaks to those in the lower brackets, he'll be cutting overall revenues without a significant economic stimulus. That's not to say we shouldn't be cutting those brackets; you just have to realize that cutting taxes in the bottom brackets generally has a net reduction in federal receipts while cutting taxes in the top brackets generally has a net increase in federal receipts.

Most amusing, however, is his decision to use age as a taxing differential. It's interesting that he thinks that we should just stop paying taxes once we hit a certain age.

Obama tax plan: $80 billion in cuts, five-minute filings
CNN

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed overhauling the tax code to lower taxes for the poor and middle class, increase them for the rich and make it so most Americans can file their taxes in five minutes.

The tax relief plan he envisions for the middle class alone would mean $80 billion or more in tax cuts, he said.

Obama, an Illinois Democrat who is a front-runner for his party's 2008 presidential nomination, said during a speech at the Tax Policy Center that the present tax code reflects the wrong priorities because it rewards wealth instead of work.

"Instead of having all of us pay our fair share, we've got over $1 trillion worth of loopholes in the corporate tax code," he said. "This isn't the invisible hand of the market at work. It's the successful work of special interests."

Liberal MP Belinda Stonach traveled to California last June for a cancer treatment. When you look at the survivability rate of cancer in Canada versus the U.S., you can't blame her. In Canada, they have about 2/3 the rate of cancer but they have about an equal rate of deaths - meaning that you're 50% more likely to die of cancer in Canada once diagnosed than you are in the U.S. Tell me that isn't scary! Our system isn't perfect by any means, but in helping the 15% without insurance, we have to make sure we're not destroying the system for the 85% who don't have any.

Stronach went to U.S. for cancer treatment: research
CTA.ca News Staff

Liberal MP Belinda Stonach, who is battling breast cancer, travelled to California last June for an operation that was recommended as part of her treatment, says a report.

Stonach's spokesman, Greg MacEachern, told the Toronto Star that the MP for Newmarket-Aurora had a "later-stage" operation in the U.S. after a Toronto doctor referred her.

"Belinda had one of her later-stage operations in California, after referral from her personal physicians in Toronto. Prior to this, Belinda had surgery and treatment in Toronto, and continues to receive follow-up treatment there," said MacEachern.

He said speed was not the reason she went to California.

Instead, MacEachern said the decision was made because the U.S. hospital was the best place to have it done due to the type of surgery required.

Al Gore's (still more) hypocricy

They sold 700 seats costing between $1,000 and $25,000 a piece? Reasonably, it cost a total of $1 million for the entire event. Just to put that into perspective, that's about 1/9 of the money needed to build a 2.5MW wind turbine and all the applicable infrastructure. Alternately, that could have been used to give approximately 100 poor families solar energy. Also, the amount of CO2 which Al Gore's private jet had to spew to get him from Washington to Australia would combine to a ridiculous amount of extravagant ecological excess to get together to spew forth hot air about how people aren't doing enough to combat global warming.

Here's an idea - instead of giving obscene amounts of money to ridiculously wealthy jetsetter, why not just donate the money to a charity that builds wind and solar power generators? Nah, it's so much better to be flying around the would on private jets and begrudging the contractor an F-350 pickup so he can haul his three coworkers and about 500 pounds of equipment to the job site.

Paying dearly to hear Gore's climate story
The Age (Australia)

AL GORE has a story he wants to tell the world. But it will cost you a thousand dollars to hear it.

In a passionate attack on the climate policies of Prime Minister John Howard and US President George Bush, the former US vice-president, addressing a very expensive lunch in Sydney yesterday, called Australia and the US "the Bonnie and Clyde" outlaws of the global environment for their failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Mr. Gore called on Australia to change course on Kyoto and its climate policies, saying if it did "it would be impossible for the United States to withstand the pressure" to join the rest of the world in ratifying Kyoto.

Labor under Kevin Rudd has promised to ratify the protocol while Mr. Howard is adamantly opposed to it and is backing Mr. Bush's efforts to find a "post-Kyoto accord."

Mr. Gore made his comments after reporters were asked to leave the lunch venue. Despite the cost, lunch in the 700-seat room at the Sydney Convention Centre was a sell-out, as is tomorrow's event in Melbourne. VIP packages, which included a spot close to Mr. Gore and a meet-and-greet with him, cost $25,000.

Just ridiculous...

The idea that they'd cut off a quarter million a day in funding is ridiculous. Can't they pass a "shutdown" budget which lets them keep revenue-generating areas open?

Detroit: Casinos to roll in shutdown
Detroit Free Press

LANSING - The City of Detroit will defy the state and keep its three casinos open if a budget impasse forces a partial shutdown of state government Oct. 1, a spokesman for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Wednesday.

The privately owned MGM Grand, MotorCity, and Greektown casinos are cash cows for Detroit and the State and employ 7,000 people, including many city residents.

"It's thousands of jobs and also revenue," said Kilpatrick press secretary Matt Allen. "If we have this go into violated status or be cited on this, that's fine. But we're not shutting the casinos."

Greektown's attorneys are studying all options for staying open in a shutdown, including the possibility of going to court, said Roger Martin, a Greektown spokesman.

"We're hoping that what the mayor's office is saying is true," he said. "We don't want to close. It's not good for the city, it's not good for the state, it's not good for the public schools...and certainly not good for the 7.000 people who depend on these jobs."

Solar powered water heaters saves money

If the cost to go solar is $10,000 per house then the cost of raising CAFE by 10%, about $3.6 billion a year, would be enough to install solar power generation on 360,000 homes each year, or about 5,000,000 over the 14 years that CAFE would be raised. This would amount to about 4% of the total number of homes in the U.S. Why aren't we as a nation having a discussion about this?

Sunny Days and Hot Showers: Solar power hits the roof
Detroit Free Press

Jim Svensson already led a pretty environmentally friendly lifestyle from his gas-sipping Ford Aspire to his composting and recycling habits when he decided to go one step further and install a solar-powered water heater.

Two years later, he has cut his natural gas bills in half.

"It's very practical," he said. "The coolest thing is, I'm creating energy myself, using the sun."

Svensson, 48, of Ann Arbor took part in the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association's Go Solar program, which offers reduced-cost solar energy system to homeowners. The program has been offered in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids, but is now expanding to Oakland County, said Jennifer Malinowski, a program manager for the association.

CAFE is not the only option, nor even the best

In Gregg Easterbrook's TMQ today, in which he argues in favor of raising CAFE standards, unfortunately, misconstrued the position of the auto industry, made some statements which were not true, and left out some very important information.

Items where he is incorrect:

• "Now, the U.S. automakers claim a one-third improvement can't be done." The U.S. automakers do not claim this at all. His quote from Mr. Wagner was taken out of context. The automakers claim that it cannot be done without significant increases in the cost of a car or with significant decreases in another area that consumers value more highly.
  
• "It's not that Detroit cannot achieve better fuel economy - it's that Detroit doesn't want to." It's not U.S. automakers who do not want higher fuel economy; it's the consumers. Consumers consistently put fuel economy at the bottom of concerns, well below performance, perceived quality, perceived safety, price, and styling. Excluding the Toyota Prius, very few hybrids have been able to sell well in an open market. Even the Prius itself is not immune to this. When asked why they selected a Prius, more Prius drivers chose styling ("What it says about me") over fuel economy.

He is also critical of the idea that CAFE standard increases will reduce safety; however, a recent study by the IIHS in 2007 shows a correlation of about 250-500 fatalities per year per MPG increased. The Harvard Center for Risk Analysis presented a study this year that indicated that 2,200 to 3,900 additional motorist fatalities per year can be attributed to existing CAFE standards.

Reducing fossil fuel use, CO2 emissions, and oil use in particular are worthy goals. However, the focus has long been on the automotive industry, despite the fact that cars produce less than 20% of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, being dwarfed by agriculture and energy production.

In looking at reductions of CO2 and fossil fuel use, we should do so with an eye towards doing so in the most economic methods possible. The big hole in CAFE increases is the cost it would apply to consumers and to the economy. Certainly, fuel economy can be easily increased by 1/3 by moving exclusively to diesel hybrids. Doing so, however, would add about $7,000 to the price of a new car. The FTC released a study suggesting that the total cost to the economy of CAFE increases would be approximately $3.6 billion a year.

Instead of taking aim at the auto industry, spending billions of dollars a year, and destroying tens of thousands of American jobs, we should first look at the areas where we can make a difference and do so in a net cost-savings approach. Replacing all incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent, for example, would reduce household electricity use by 7% and would pay for itself inside of two years. Mandating that all new thermostats sold be programmable and come pre-programmed to reduce energy usage could dramatically reduce the costs of heating and cooling and would quickly pay for themselves. Use of household geothermal heating/cooling and passive solar heating where appropriate can dramatically reduce the costs of heating and cooling and are net cost savers. Mandating carpools lanes on all of the nation's highways of 3 or more lanes would dramatically reduce the number of cars on the road and the total miles driven while saving money.

The $3.6 billion a year could easily be spent on a variety of alternatives: creating a hydrogen-power infrastructure to facilitate the move to fuel cells, researching carbon sequestion methods to pull carbon fro the atmosphere, creating battery research initiatives to make electric cars practical, purchasing enough private, approximately 300 MW worth of home solar panels installed each year (based on household costs of about $11,000 per kW), or approximately 1 GW worth of wind turbines (based on costs of approximately $9 million for a 2.5 MW turbine and applicable infrastructure) installed each year.

In short, the auto industry produces less than 20% of greenhouse gases but is expected to shoulder 100% of the burden for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of making the auto industry the bad-guy, common-sense and cost-savings solutions are available to dramatically cut the problem with no net cost to the American economy or to U.S. jobs.

Oh Ye of Little MPG
Tuesday Morning Quarterback for ESPN

Recently, the CEOs of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors launched with Senate leaders, telling them the one-third vehicle mileage increase proposed by George W. Bush and Barack Obama - you heard that right, Bush and Obama have offered nearly identical fuel-efficiency plans - was impossible. Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, said at a news conference after the lunch that a one-third mileage improvement "doesn't look achievable." This is exactly the kind of excuse-making that allowed Honda and Toyota to wrap their hands around the Big Three's necks in the first place! As the UAW-Detroit contracts talks heat up, the relationship between mpg and saving Chrysler, Ford and General Motors bears exploring.

The National Academy of Sciences said in 2002 that a one-third improvement in mpg is practical using existing technology, and without sacrifice of safety or passenger comfort. Now, the U.S. automakers claim a one-third improvement can't be done. It's not that Detroit cannot achieve better fuel economy - it's that Detroit doesn't want to. What the current executive-suite suits at the Big Three want is to maximize their bonuses and stock options during their short stays at the top, then let somebody else take the blame for the net round of decline of the U.S. auto industry that is inevitable if fuel economy does not improve. And that's setting aside the national-security implications. A one-third increase in car and SUV mpg is what's needed to break U.S. dependence on Persian Gulf oil. Wouldn't it be nice if Detroit CEOs acted as though they cared about national security!

Musharraf quitting?

I'll believe it when I see it, but Pervez Musharraf is claiming that he'll resign from the army if reelected as Pakistan's president. It's bothersome that one of our closest allies in the fight against al Qaeda is a military dictator so I would definitely welcome a return to democratic, civilian leadership and away from the current situation.

Lawyer: Musharraf to quit army if re-elected
MSNBC

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf will give up his post of army chief if he is re-elected president and will be sworn in for a new term as a civilian, his lawyer told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The promise to stand down as army chief removes a major objection to Musharraf's proposed re-election by October 15, but legal challenges abound.

U.S. ally Musharraf retained his army post after he seized power in a 1999 coup despite opposition calls to quit.

"If elected for a second term as president, General Pervez Musharraf shall relinquish charge of office of chief of army staff soon after election and before taking oath of office," Musharraf's chief lawyer, Sharifuddin Pirzada, told the Supreme Court during a hearing into challenges against Musharraf's rule.

The date of a presidential election is expected to be announced this week; parliamentary elections are due by mid-January. Pakistan's main stock index reacted positively, gaining about 1.5 percent by noon (0700 GMT).

Putin to have power after stepping down?

A press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been reported in the BBC. It has a few items of concern:

1) President Putin is sounding more and more like a dictator.
2) There isn't a single quote from President Putin in the article...

Putin 'may seek 2012 re-election'
BBC News

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he expects to remain an influential figure in Russian politics after he steps down next March.

Speaking to Western journalists and academics, he did not rule out standing for president again in 2012 or 2016.

He also suggested the race to succeed him was wide open, with at least six credible candidates including Russia's new PM, Viktor Zubkov.

Mr. Putin described the little-known Mr. Zubkov as a "real professional."

Mr. Zubkov was picked from obscurity to run the Russian government just this week.

It can't be!

What? A socialized medical system making decisions based on money and not on clinical concerns? No way!!

'Standards drop' in NHS dentistry
BBC News

Reforms of NHS dentistry mean some patients are receiving substandard care, critics claim.

Dental Laboratories Association figures show a drop in the number of complex treatments, like dentures, carried out since the new contract began in April.

The DLA says financial rather than clinical concerns are driving decisions - to the detriment of patients.

But the government says the new contract was designed to cut unnecessary complex treatments.

Quote of the Day

"As one who always thought the word "surge" was ridiculous, I find it pointless to complain that even President George W. Bush uses the term as a cover for retreat...It makes no sense to announce that the more we surge, the faster we can be out of there; everybody knows that unless the United States affirms its iron determination to stick around and to hold the ring, every faction in Iraq will start making its accommodations to a future that will be arbitrated instead by local militias and cross-border neighbors."

-- Christopher Hitchens

Murtha continues to deny reality...

Apparently, Representative Murtha is waiting on approving any further war spending, hoping that either more Republicans will share his delusions about the current status of the war or that the tide of war will shift, we'll begin to lose, and that Republicans will come around to his point of view.

This really strikes me as a stupid position for the Democrats to take. They appear to have gone from hoping that the war would fail to blindly assuming that it will, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Why they think that Republicans are going to move to their side when the war is going well is completely beyond me.

Democrats to wait on funding war
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Democrats are poised to delay money for the Iraq war by several weeks, giving them time to calculate their next move and see if Republican support for President Bush's policies deteriorate.

The funding delay would likely cause only a minor disruption for the Defense Department. But it will escalate an already heated standoff between the Democratic-controlled Congress and Bush, who says at least 130,000 troops are needed in Iraq through next summer.

"Just because this administration wears blinders, we cannot afford the limitations of their shortsighted world view," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a Vietnam veteran and prominent war critic.

Democrats are in a tough spot. Still lacking enough votes in the Senate to pass legislation ordering troops home by spring, they would have to soften their approach if they want to attract more Republicans. But doing so would rile much of the party's rank-and-file, elected on anti-war platforms and eager to cut of money for combat.

Hawkish France and Germany

In a strange turn of events, it is France and Germany who are pushing the idea of military strikes against Iran if they don't turn away from nuclear armament while it is the United States is arguing for sanctions. I guess that's what happens when you have Merkel and Sarkozy in charge instead of Chirac and Schroeder.

France: Prepare for war over Iran
CNN

PARIS, France -- France's foreign minister warned Sunday that the world should prepare for war if Iran obtains nuclear weapons and said European leaders were considering their own economic sanctions against the Islamic country.

Negations and two sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear power plants as well as material used in atomic weapons.

Iran insists its atomic activities are aimed at producing energy, but the U.S., its European allies and other world powers suspect Iranian authorities of seeking nuclear weapons.

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, speaking on RTL radio, called for "more effective sanctions" against Iran if it continues to resist the demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
"We will not accept that such a bomb is made. We must prepare ourselves for the worst," he said, specifying that could mean a war. He did not elaborate on what kid of preparations that would entail.

also:

U.S. Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Plan
Fox News

WASHINGTON - A recent decision by German officials to withhold support for any new sanctions against Iran has pushed a broad spectrum of officials in Washington to develop potential scenarios for a military attack on the Islamic regime, FOX News confirmed Tuesday.

Germany - a pivotal player among three European nations to reign in Iran's nuclear program over the last two-and-a-half years through a mixture of diplomacy and sanctions supported by the United States - notified its allies last week that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel refuses to support the imposition of any further sanctions against Iran that could be imposed by the U.N. Security Council.

The announcement was made at a meeting in Berlin that brought German officials together with Iran desk officers from the five member states of the Security Council. It stunned the room, according to one of several Bush administration and foreign government sources who spoke to Fox News, and left most Bush administration principals concluding that sanctions are dead.

The Germans voiced concern about the damaging effects any further sanctions on Iran could have on the German economy - and, also, according to diplomats from other countries, gave the distinct impression that they would privately welcome, while publicly protesting, an American bombing campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities.

Nothing new on the budget...

The Michigan state budget impasse continues, with nothing be done. What concerns me most, however, is the apparent straw-man position that the Republicans in the Senate have taken. Apparently, the Senate's plan to reduce the budget by $1.7 billion, using cuts in spending to enact the changes, was voted on in the House and failed 105-0. That's the story I'd like to hear about. Why is it tat the Republican budget-cut that they've been championing went down without a single vote in it's favor?

House session grinds along without progress
Detroit Free Press

LANSING -- A House deal on a balanced state budget slid further from reach Saturday as Democrats and Republicans continued bickering late into the evening over taxes and spending, and government moved another day closer to possibly shutting down.

A marathon session that began Friday morning slogged through a second day without passage of an income tax increase that majority Democrats proposed. Democrats held two votes on the measure, one late Saturday night. Both recorded virtually the same results: no Republicans in favor, and about a dozen Democrats withholding support.

A shutdown would stop virtually all state efforts including the state lottery and close Detroit's casinos because state gaming control officials wouldn't be on duty to monitor them.

The Democrat plan would raise the income tax rate from 3.9% to 4.6%. No Republicans supported the hike, while 14 Democrats did not vote either way, many of them vulnerable for re-election next year and fearful of threatened recall campaigns if they voted for a tax increase.

Sally Field, committed chauvenist

Apparently, Sally Field has never heard of Margaret Thatcher or Indira Gandhi. I am so sick of these bigoted, sexist, chauvinists who live in this make-believe world that if women ruled there would be peace. Of course, history proves otherwise. The one step that Sally Field made in her speech at the Emmy is that it is "mothers" and not just women who would be these benevolent dictators able to mystically work out all the world's problems without war. That eliminates individuals like Elizabeth I, but seems to say very little about the largely needless war Margaret Thatcher ordered in the Falklands Islands.

However, when prejudices like the ones which Sally Field espouses are as entrenched in our society as they appear to be, one can't help but be surprised when they boil to the surface like this. What kind of mother does she know who wouldn't be willing to fight to the death to protect her children? Just the idea that women are somehow incapable of feeling the need to defend their children, defend their country, or defend themselves is such a demeaning, offensive slight against women that it shocks me that anyone would take her seriously, even for a moment.

Sally Field Speaks Out at the Emmys

Sally Field gave a heartfelt affirmation of motherhood on the Emmy stage when accepting her ward for ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" that segued into a criticism of the Iraq War.

"At the heart of [her character] Nora Walker, she is a mother," Field said. "May they be seen, may their work be valued and raised, and to especially the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait - wait for their children to come home for from danger, from harm's way and from war. I'm not finished. I have to finish talking...if the mothers ruled the world their would be no goddamn wars in the first place."

When she said "goddamn" onstage, however, Fox censors apparently took the opportunity to bleep the rest of her comments.

I wanted to say something about the mothers who wait for their military children to come home from harm's way," she said backstage. "I said at the end that if mothers ruled the world, there would be no wars."

"Comply! Or we will be forced to write you a very angry letter!"

Mitt Romney wrote, in the words of fictional "Hans Brix" from Team America, a very angry letter to the United Nations. The contents of which, basically, are vapid charges against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by calling for the destruction of Israel, Ahmadinejad has committed crimes against humanity; namely, incitement of genocide.

Obviously, Ahmadinejad is a horrifying dictator bent on hegemony not only of the Middle East, but likely as the world as a whole. His government is clearly funding and training anti-American forces in Iraq and is working towards creating nuclear weapons. And, of course, there's that whole funding-of-Hezbollah thing. I tend not to be a fan of those funding attacks whose only purpose is the slaughter of as many innocent civilians as possible. Thus, my humor is not directed towards him.

It is, however, directed towards Gov. Romney because the entire idea of the letter is a joke. Of course, the United Nations is going to ignore it. Of course, Ahmadinejad is going to come to New York, call President Bush the Great Satan, then go have an anti-American tea in Caracas with Chavez. The letter is just simple posturing, trying to attract attention and bolster his credentials as a hawk in the face of new challenges from Fred Thompson.

I'm glad that the useless, worthless gesture for purely political reasons amounted to little more than writing a letter, making copies for the press, and calling a short press conference. it could be worse, though; he could have paralyzed Congress for months in order to make a statement about the war in Iraq.

Romney Calls on U.N. to Bar Iranian President
The New York Times - The Caucus blog

Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, is sending a letter to the United Nations Secretary General tomorrow, calling for him to bar Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from addressing the General Assembly next week and instead hand him an indictment under the Genocide Convention.

Mr. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to give a speech at the 62nd annual meeting of the General Assembly, which begins Tuesday in New York. It will be his third visit to the United States, where he is expected to spend two days, before he departs for Venezuela to meet with President Hugo Chavez.

An array of Jewish leaders, political leaders and others, including John Bolton, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, gathered last year to call for the United Nations' International Court of Justice to indict Mr. Ahmadinejad for incitement of genocide. They base their argument on his calls for the destruction of Israel.

The specific statute the officials cite falls under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which includes under its list of prohibitions, incitement to commit genocide.

In President Bush's nationally televised speech last week on Iraq, he stressed the need to contain Iran as one of the reasons to continue a robust American presence in Iraq. In an interview about his views about Iraq last week, Mr. Romney also highlighted the influence of Iran in the region as a major source of concern.

If it was anyone other than Rangel...

If it wasn't Chuck Rangel who was diverting millions of federal dollars to give himself a "presidential" library, I wouldn't believe it. Rep. Rengel, though? Seems as though we should have seen this coming.

He's designated an earmark (weren't the Democrats getting rid of those?) which would go towards getting a building and conference center named after him as well as get him a "well-furnished office" and a place for his papers. Oh, and it'll try to get some minority and poor students into politics. Perhaps that is the real reason behind his determination to reinstate the draft and send those same students into war against their will.

Is Rangel's 'Monument to Me' Worth It?
CBS News

Millions of your tax dollars are going for a new program at The City College of New York in the heart of Harlem. The mission is to get more minority and poor students into politics.

"This is an effort to make sure that America's government looks like America," says City College spokeswoman Mary Lou Edmondson.

Nobody's taking issue with that. What they are griping about is that one member of Congress funneled $2 million in tax dollars into the project through a special "earmark" and the whole thing is named after him.

As CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports, that member of Congress is Rep. Charles Rangel - one of the most powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill.

"I cannot think of anything I am more proud of," said Rangel, D.-N.Y.

According to promotional brochures, the soon-to-be refurbished building will house the new "Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service," the "Rangel Conference Center," "a well-furnished office for Charles Rangel" and the "Charles Rangel Library" for his papers and memorabilia. It's kind of like a presidential library, but without the president. In fact, the brochure says Rangel's library will be as important as the Clinton and Carter libraries.

Republican Congressman John Campbell of California says it's downright unseemly.

If it works for the soda...

Slap a deposit on it and be done with it. It works well enough for pop and beer and all vendors of bottled water are already selling pop; why not just add the deposit to the bottled water and be done with the discussion?

Call for cap on bottled water use
Financial times

It was not so long ago that asking a waiter for bottled water in a US or British restaurant was considered pretentious.

Today bottled water is so prevalent - in offices, coffee shops, supermarkets, and homes - that a request for tap water is likely to cause more embarrassment.

Over the past decade, global consumption of bottled water has soared to 180bn litres a year, from 78bn litres a decade ago, according to Zenith International, consultants to the food and drinks industry. However, questions are now being asked about the environmental costs of packaging this volume of water in disposable plastic containers.

In the US, the world's biggest market for bottled water, city governments have started banning bottled water dispensers from their offices, with some switching to filtered water systems. About 40 per cent of bottled water sold in the US, including Aquafina and Dasani, is purified tap water.

Apparent European view: Terrorists learn bombmaking from Wikipedia

I love the "liberal" view that if you keep the law-abiding citizenry from getting to something, it'll somehow magically keep the criminals or terrorists from doing the same. In just the same way that the Liberal Elite feels that denying law-abiding, responsible citizens the abilities to keep weapons for self-defense would mystically cause all criminals to give theirs up, their European allies-in-spirit think that preventing web searches for bomb recipes would keep terrorists from leaning how to make them. Right, because the terrorist training camps rely on Wikipedia or Google to determine exactly how to build bombs.

Web search for bomb recipes should be blocked: EU
Reuters

BRUSSELS - Internet searches for bomb-making instructions should be blocked across the European Union, the bloc's top security official said on Monday.

Internet providers should also prevent access to any site giving instructions on how to make a bomb, EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said in an interview.

"I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector...on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism," Frattini told Reuters.

The EU executive is to make this proposal to member states early in November as part of a raft of anti-terrorism proposals.

What part of "suicide bombing" don't you understand?

"They told me to take [the truck] to an address in Baghdad. As soon as I got there the truck exploded...I think God took me out of death to show others what can happen," he told CNN. "If you join al Qaeda, they will use you, and maybe you will die." -- Ahmad al Shayea, former member of al Qaeda in a CNN interview.

Failed suicide bomber turns on al Qaeda
CNN

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Ahmad at Shayea is the rarest of truck bombers -- he survived his suicide mission in Iraq even though the blast from his bomb was strong enough to kill 12 bystanders.

Al Shayea, who was disfigured during the attack, claims al Qaeda tricked him into becoming a bomber by asking him to deliver a tanker truck, which they had rigged with a bomb.

"They told me to take it to an address in Baghdad. As soon as I got there the truck exploded," said the native of Saudi Arabia. He survived by jumping out of the truck.

Al Shayea renounced terrorism and returned to Saudi Arabia, where he works to convince would-be insurgents and terrorists to give up their deadly ways.

That's his "responsible" plan?

Democratic Senator Jack Reed, responding to the President's address last night, urged support for "a plan to responsibility and rapidly began a reduction of our troops in Iraq."

If Jack Reed can give a plan which would responsibility and rapidly reduce troops in Iraq, I'd love to see it. Last time I checked, an act which resulted in genocide is not one which is "responsible", which is what everyone involved agrees is the result of a rapid reduction of troops in Iraq.

Too little too late, democrats say of US troop reduction in Iraq
Brietbart.com

U.S. President George W. Bush's announcement that he will withdraw some 21,500 soldiers from Iraq by mid-2008 drew angry fire from Democrats who said his plan amounted to an endless military commitment.

Rejecting calls for a swifter troop pullout, Bush told war-weary Americans in a televised address on Thursday that the troop "surge" strategy that he announced in January was working.

"Because of the measure of success we are seeing in Iraq, we can begin seeing troops come home," Bush said. "The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home."

Insisting the unpopular war can still be won, Bush said whoever succeeds him at the White House will likely inherit the conflict and warned against giving up on a fledgling ally that is "fighting for its survival."