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Morning headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Top StoryWhite House Tells Musharraf: Never ‘Restrict Constitutional Freedoms’ To Fight Terror
During (Monday)’s White House press briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino condemned Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of “emergency rule” in Pakistan. She said that the administration is “deeply disappointed” by the measure, which suspends the country’s constitution, and believes it is never “reasonable” to “restrict constitutional freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism”.
Click through to watch the video.—Caro The Illustrated Daily Scribble
The World5 US soldiers killed by bombs in Iraq
BAGHDAD - Five American soldiers were killed in two separate roadside bomb attacks, the U.S. military said Tuesday, after Iraqi soldiers discovered 22 bodies in a mass grave northwest of the capital.
Barak: Israel won't invade Gaza soon
JERUSALEM - Israel has no plans to invade the Gaza Strip in the near future, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday, hinting he did not want to jeopardize an upcoming U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference.
Turkish prez: Decision made on rebels
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's president said Tuesday his country "has decided" on how to proceed against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and had informed the United States.
Deposed Pakistan judge urges protests
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's deposed chief justice called on lawyers nationwide Tuesday to defy baton-wielding police and protest President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule.
Musharraf's crackdown could fuel insurgency in Pakistan
WASHINGTON — President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan, which he said is intended to curb Islamic extremism, could actually aid the growing insurgency by militants allied with al Qaida and the Taliban, U.S. officials and experts warned Monday. Musharraf's brutal suppression and arrests Monday of thousands of opposition protesters also could endanger U.S. congressional approval of a $750 million plan to help curb the insurgency, they said.
NATO air raid kills dozens of Taliban: Afghan army
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - An air strike by NATO-led forces has killed dozens of Taliban insurgents in northwestern Afghanistan, the Afghan army said on Tuesday.
Bomb targeting Afghan lawmakers kills 6
KABUL, Afghanistan - A bomb blast targeted a group of lawmakers and elders touring a factory north of Kabul on Tuesday, killing and wounding many people, officials said. At least six people died, including a lawmaker, according to a preliminary police figure.
Doctors fight no-abortion policy
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Two weeks after Olga Reyes danced at her wedding, her bloated and disfigured body was laid to rest in an open coffin — the victim, her husband and some experts say, of Nicaragua's new no-exceptions ban on abortion. The Nation2007 is deadliest year for US in Iraq
BAGHDAD - The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of five more soldiers, making 2007 the deadliest year of the war for U.S. troops, according to an Associated Press count.
Bush signs vets' mental health bill
WASHINGTON - President Bush signed the Joshua Omvig suicide prevention bill on Monday, providing improved screening and treatment for at-risk veterans.
Rice’s Legal Adviser Won’t Condemn Waterboarding Of U.S. Citizens By Foreign Intel Services
During a Guardian-sponsored debate about international law on October 24, John Bellinger, the legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, refused to call waterboarding torture — even if it was used “on an American national by a foreign intelligence service.”
General says waterboarding could save U.S. lives
Army General Russel Honore said the general public shouldn't be so quick to condemn the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique… Honore, however, emphasized the military will always remain within the limits of the law, but warned that stiffer interrogation methods may sometimes be necessary in the war on terror… Honore became a national folk hero of sorts in 2005 after taking command of the government's embarrassingly slow response to the devastated residents of the Gulf Coast in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
But those who really know the subject say that torture doesn’t work. So why not just use the techniques that DO work, and retain your humanity at the same time, General?—Caro
24 former intel officials demand hold on Mukasey.
In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee heads Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), 24 former intelligence officials today urged the senators to “not send (Attorney General nominee Michael) Mukasey’s nomination to the full Senate before he makes clear his view on waterboarding.”
Senate panel to take up AG nomination
WASHINGTON - A Senate committee prepared to advance Michael Mukasey's nomination to be the nation's 81st attorney general after two key Democrats pledged to support him because he promised to enforce a law against waterboarding if one was enacted by Congress.
More Questions About the Minot Nukes (by Dave Lindorff, writing at BuzzFlash)
The Pentagon has been stonewalling on my requests for answers to key questions. For two weeks, a public affairs office has been declining to respond to my question about whether the six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles flown by a B-52 from Minot AFB to Barksdale AFB were programmed for specific targets, and, if so, what those targets were or even whether the team that investigated the incident checked to see if they were targeted.
Click through for more questions.—Caro
Whitehouse introduces legislation outlawing ‘caging.’
Today Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced the Caging Prohibition Act, a bill which “would prohibit challenges to a person’s eligibility to register to vote, or cast a vote, based solely on returned mail or a caging list….” In June, Whitehouse requested a DoJ investigation into Tim Griffin, the former Karl Rove protege who was placed as a U.S. attorney in Arkansas, on allegations that he led a “caging” scheme to suppress the votes of African-American servicemembers in Florida.
Conyers Preparing Contempt Report for Josh Bolton, Harriet Miers
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers tells WH Counsel Fred Fielding that Miers and Bolton need to come before Congress and be sworn under oath, or be held in Contempt of Congress. They’ve ignored eight such attempts in the past.
Wilkes convicted on all 13 counts
SAN DIEGO – Brent Wilkes was convicted Monday of 13 felonies for bribing former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham with expensive meals, trips, a yacht and mortgage payments for his Rancho Santa Fe mansion in exchange for lucrative government defense contracts… The 53-year-old Poway defense contractor faces at least 20 years in prison.
Performance-pay Perplexes (by James Surowiecki, The New Yorker)
Fund managers get bonuses at the end of each year, and they keep those performance fees even if the fund eventually goes south… (Therefore), they have a much greater incentive to take big risks than ordinary investors do… A similar tendency to underplay risk is at work in parts of corporate America, thanks to the ubiquity of stock options… Generous options grants may also encourage fraud… (W)hen you make it rational for people to bet the house, you may end up without a roof over your head.
Competitively Priced Electricity Costs More, Studies Show
Retail electricity prices have risen much more in states that adopted competitive pricing than in those that have retained traditional rates set by the government, new studies based on years of price reports show. MediaPermanent link to MTA daily media news
Cable Channel Nods to Ratings and Leans Left
MSNBC executives acknowledged that they were talking to Rosie O’Donnell about a prime-time show.
This is very important news to those of us interested in progressive, or liberal, media. We’ve been shut out for years, and now here’s proof that the programming chiefs are finally starting to look at reality—that liberals are a hugely underserved audience.—Caro
The worst crisis I've seen in 30 years (by Will Hutton, The Observer, U.K.)
The credit crunch is testimony to the exhaustion of a conservative free-market world-view… Already the Americans are cutting interest rates careless of the inflationary consequences. Britain may have to follow suit. Both governments will have to devise new forms of regulation and control. Banks may have to be taken into public ownership. For 30 years we have been suckered into thinking that public authority has no business intervening in the wealth-generating, free-market financial system. This is the year when reality resurfaced with a vengeance.
That suckering has been a well-planned, well-financed, and well-executed campaign to convince us that greed is good and that all government interference in markets is bad. I’d write a book debunking that claim, if I could ever find a publisher.—Caro
The McLaughlin Group: Is it time to open the window and go to the ledge? (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
Mort Zuckerman from U.S. News and World Report doesn’t have a lot of faith in the strength of our economy. He depicts our state as “the worst potential financial crisis since the Depression.” Not exactly rosy. Of course, Pat Buchanan has to bluster about (that’s his job, right? Professional blusterer), but host John McLaughlin asks the line that many of my friends in the finance industry have been asking themselves: “Should we open the window and go to the ledge now?”
Click through to watch the video.—Caro
Why Are They Surprised? (by Dean Baker)
The Financial Times reports that several market analysts now think that the fallout from bad mortgage debt will continue for some time and be much worse than they had expected. Given that these people are paid very high salaries to understand these markets, it would be worth asking why they apparently got this one so badly wrong. It would also be a very good story to report on the extent to which these high priced experts suffer any professional consequences as a result of such a costly mistake.
Special Comment: George Bush’s Criminal Conspiracy of Torture (by SilentPatriot at Crooks and Liars)
In his latest fire-breathing Special Comment Keith tears into President Bush for firing a true patriot that spoke out against torture, while cowardly and simultaneously ordering others to commit the very same heinous crime.
Click through to watch the video and to read the transcript. Olbermann suggests that Bush knows torture doesn’t extract the truth, but does extract elaborate fiction that can be used to frighten Americans into voting Republican. But there also has to be a sadistic streak in the man. As a child, he blew up frogs, and as a fraternity president he branded pledges. See below.—Caro
Branding Rite Laid to Yale University, Nov. 8, 1967 (via Scott Horton at Harper’s)
NEW HAVEN, Nov. 7–A Yale fraternity accused by the student newspaper of burning its initiates with a brand will have its fate decided Friday by student fraternity leaders… A former president of Delta said that the branding is done with a hot coathanger. But the former president, George Bush, a Yale senior, said that the resulting wound is “only a cigarette burn.”
Bush: ‘C-Span is not what you call exciting TV.’
President Bush today awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to eight recipients, including C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb. Commending Lamb for the honor, President Bush joked, “C-Span is not what you call exciting TV. Though some of the call-in shows do have their moments.”… For the record, C-SPAN regularly covers Bush’s speeches.
Click through to watch the video.—Caro
'Plain Dealer' Suspends Political Blog -- After a Resignation and Uproar
NEW YORK The Plain Dealer of Cleveland today suspended a controversial politics blog that had sought to provide a different approach by using non-staff established bloggers, both conservative and liberal. But when one of the two liberal bloggers was asked this week to withhold his comments on a specific congressional race after it was revealed he had contributed to one of the candidates, he resigned. That led to an uproar among other bloggers and some readers, which ended with the second liberal blogger stepping down and the paper deciding the approach was not workable with just two conservatives.
The Hysterical Defense of "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Tells Much about America's Racial Backslide
Duane Chapman, a.k.a. the Bounty Hunter, got the temporary ax from his A&E show after a hate-filled rant against black women. But he deserves to be shown the door for good.
Radiohead Could Really Piss Off the Music Industry Machine (by Kristen Nicole at Mashable)
Radiohead blew us away with the “donated” sales revenue from its last album “In Rainbows.” The band offered the music for free, and let fans choose how much they’d pay, almost as a tip for the album. What comScore found was that 62% of global users chose not to pay for the album at all… Radiohead used to be part of the music industry’s machine… It was that industry machine that enabled Radiohead to garner such a large fan base, right? So now that the band has kicked the middle man to the curb, the middle man may still want a cut of current sales… The music industry will just need to continue to shift its approach. So will we still have artists able to gain major traction without the music industry’s machine? We won’t have to. The machine will just be better operated.
Beware The Internet Rabble! New York Times Web Site Opens Itself Up For Reader Comments (by Greg Sargent at The Horse’s Mouth)
The paper has hired "four part-time staffers, to screen all reader submissions before posting them, an investment unheard of in today’s depressed newspaper business environment." Why such lengths? Hoyt suggests that the move is all about protecting the paper's "dignified" tone from the Internet rabble… (But the) editors have to know that right-wing bloggers and talk-show hosts will be relentlessly scouring the Times Web site for nutjob anti-troops or pro-assassination reader comments that they can use to depict the paper as a bastion of fifth columnists who are trying to destroy America from within, just as Bill O'Reilly did to DailyKos recently.
'Do Not Track' Could Backfire
Adoption of a federal list intended to limit monitoring of Web surfers could lead to a barrage of extra online advertising Technology & ScienceGPhone: The Facts are In; Google Launching Open Mobile Platform
Google has finally made a much-anticipated announcement regarding its mobile strategy. The centerpiece is Android, what Google is calling the “first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices.” As for all of those high profile partners we’ve been speculating about? Along with Google, they are forming the “Open Handset Alliance,” which includes long-rumored cohorts T-Mobile, Motorola, Qualcomm, and HTC.
Gene explains why breast-feeding makes kids smarter
LONDON (Reuters) - A very common gene can help explain why breast-fed babies tend to grow up to be more intelligent than those raised exclusively on bottled milk.
Breast-Feeding Confers Long-Term Heart Benefits
Lower body mass, high levels of good cholesterol combat cardiovascular disease, study says
Kids Who Skimp on Sleep Tend to Be Fatter
Just 45 minutes more shut-eye a night might make a difference, study finds
Early Weight Gain Can Mean Heart Trouble Later in Life
Children as young as 7 show signs of cardiovascular risk factors, study finds.
Australian researchers find hunger switch
Australian scientists have found how to switch hunger on and off using a molecule that targets the brain -- a discovery which could stop weight loss in terminally ill patients or produce weight loss in the morbidly obese.
Girl born with 8 limbs undergoes surgery
BANGALORE, India - Doctors began operating Tuesday on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs in an extensive surgery that they hope will leave the girl with a normal body, a hospital official said.
TV Violence May Spur Aggression in Boys
Preschoolers who watched such fare more likely to act out at 7, 10, study found
NSAIDs Protect Against Parkinson's Disease
Over-the-counter pain meds reduced risk by as much as 60%, researchers say
New versions of curry ingredient to fight cancer
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Scientists in Japan have created two synthetic versions of an ingredient in curry that is noted for its potential to fight cancer.
Go Ahead, Rationalize. Monkeys Do It, Too.
Psychologists have suggested we hone our skills of rationalization in order to impress others, reaffirm our “moral integrity” and protect our “self-concept” and feeling of “global self-worth.” If so, capuchin monkeys are a lot more complicated than we thought. Or, we’re less complicated. In a paper in Psychological Science, researchers at Yale report finding the first evidence of cognitive dissonance in monkeys and in a group in some ways even less sophisticated, 4-year-old humans.
50 Years Ago: The First Dog in Orbit
MOSCOW (AP) – Just a month after the Soviet Union stunned the world by putting the first artificial satellite into orbit, it boasted a new victory – a much bigger satellite carrying a mongrel dog called Laika. The mission, 50 years ago Saturday, ended sadly for Laika but helped pave the way for human flight. EnvironmentRich nations' climate emissions up, near record
Rich nations' greenhouse gas emissions rose near to an all-time high in 2005, led by U.S. and Russian gains despite curbs meant to slow global warming, U.N. data showed.
U.S. explores ocean winds, waves, currents as new energy sources
WASHINGTON — A year after a bitter congressional fight over offshore drilling for oil and gas, the Bush administration wants to tap the ocean's winds, waves and currents for alternative energy. The plans could mean that within a few years, towering wind turbines could start spinning off North Carolina's Outer Banks to harness the gusts that have tossed ships out there for centuries. Other turbines could capture energy from tides and waves beneath San Francisco Bay and the Tacoma Narrows, or Gulf Stream currents off the Florida coast.
Florida gov. to lobby for ethanol on U.S. Congress
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said on Monday he will encourage U.S. Congress members to lobby for more ethanol use and a reduction in the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on Brazilian imports of the biofuel. The use of more cane-based ethanol is seen as a way to curb greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. state, which is aiming to reduce them to 1990 levels by 2015.
Using cane is better than using corn. We don’t need more sugar in our diets, but corn is one of our staples, and it’s also used to feed animals that we eat.—Caro
Massachusetts pushes biofuel standards
BOSTON - Gov. Deval Patrick and top lawmakers want to put Massachusetts on the clean energy map by requiring biofuel blends in home heating oil and providing tax incentives for producers of more efficient ethanol technology, known as cellulosic ethanol. For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com.
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