Today’s Headlines

[Caro]

Today’s headlines brought to you by

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Top Story

Stimulus package will boost deficit
A proposed economic stimulus plan could boost this year's deficit by $100 billion, but political leaders believe the flood of red ink is worth the cost if it keeps the country from falling into a prolonged recession.

Left Wing Conspiracy

The World

5 U.S. soldiers die in Iraq in 2nd-deadliest attack this year
BAGHDAD — Five U.S. soldiers were killed Monday afternoon in northern Iraq when explosives detonated near their vehicle, the second-deadliest attack on American soldiers this year. The attack occurred in Mosul, a city that the Iraqi government has dubbed al Qaida in Iraq's last major stronghold, and the site of some of the biggest attacks in the country so far this year.

Egypt's Bahais score breakthrough in religious freedom case
CAIRO (AFP) - A Cairo court on Tuesday ruled to allow Egyptian Bahais to leave their religion blank on official documents, in effect restoring their access to jobs, schools and medical and financial services.
I don’t know anything about the Bahai religion, but they do build beautiful temples. There’s one here in Chicago.—Caro

Turkey Warned Over Iranian Banks
A U.S. Treasury Department official urged Turkey on Monday to be vigilant in its financial dealings with Iran, which Washington accuses of bankrolling terror and seeking nuclear missiles.

Afghan women protest American kidnapping
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - About 500 Afghan women gathered in a rare mass protest Tuesday against the kidnapping of an American aid worker. The women, many wearing burqas, called on officials to find the captive American and urged the kidnappers to release her.

Pakistani Taliban grows bolder, taking fight to doorstep of frontier city
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Islamic militants known as the Pakistani Taliban have extended their reach across all seven of Pakistan's frontier tribal regions and have infiltrated Peshawar, the provincial capital, heightening U.S. concerns that an insurrection may be broadening in the nuclear-armed nation. Fighting over the weekend spilled into previously peaceful parts of the tribal belt that borders Afghanistan and intensified in South Waziristan, Bajour and Mohmand.

Missile kills 12 militants in Pakistan
MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - A missile destroyed a suspected militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 12 people inside, officials said, as hundreds of students protested Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led war on terror.

Congo factions vow peace after ceasefire violations
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congolese Tutsi rebels and a rival Mai Mai militia group pledged on Tuesday to respect a recently-signed peace accord, a day after clashes between their fighters broke the ceasefire.

Rival tribes trade revenge attacks in Kenya
NAIVASHA, Kenya — Hundreds of Kikuyus wielding stones, sticks, machetes, and wooden planks studded with nails confronted rival tribes Monday on a main road, whooping and wailing for blood as violence from last month's disputed election raged in Kenya's Rift Valley. Having borne the brunt of the violence since the election, Kenya's dominant tribe, the Kikuyu, is fighting back with ferocity.

The Nation

Congress unlikely to buy Bush proposals
WASHINGTON - A Democratic Congress is poised to heed President Bush's call to help save the economy, but may not give him much else after a State of the Union speech that recycled many of the administration's past initiatives.

U.S. used waterboarding: ex-spy chief
The United States used waterboarding in terrorism interrogations but no longer does, a former U.S. spy chief said in the Bush regime's most explicit confirmation of the technique's use.

Cheney has piece of house where Zarqawi died ‘on display.’ (Think Progress)
In a cover story on “how Bush decided on the surge,” the Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes declared that “it’s clear the surge has been a success” and noted that Vice President Dick Cheney has a gruesome souvenir from Iraq: “The week before Camp David, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, had been killed. (Cheney has a piece of the house where Zarqawi died on display at his residence.)” President Bush also has a souvenir from the war: a pistol Saddam Hussein was clutching when U.S. soldiers pulled him from his hideout in Dec. 2003.
These are VERY sick people.—Caro

CDC Suppressed Toxic Trailer Warnings
CBS News has learned that the Centers for Disease Control suppressed repeated warnings from one of its top scientists, raising questions about whether the CDC bowed to pressure from FEMA to conceal the long-term health risks of formaldehyde in the trailers it distributed to hurricane victims, CBS News reports.

Bush to seek $70 bln in partial 2009 war funding
The Bush administration will ask the U.S. Congress next week for $70 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and related operations for part of the 2009 fiscal year, the Pentagon said on Monday… Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Congress has approved $691 billion to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and such related activities as Iraq 'reconstruction,' the Congressional Budget Office said last week.

Senate Democrats Adding to Stimulus
Senate Democrats will move to add to a $150 billion economic stimulus package rebates for senior citizens living off Social Security and an extension of unemployment benefits, setting up a clash with the White House and House leaders who are pushing a narrower package.

Divided Senate headed toward spy bill extension
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell relented on Monday and said he would offer a short-term extension of an anti-terror surveillance law, set to expire this week, as he seeks immunity for telephone companies.
Looks like Harry Reid followed through on his promise to keep from rushing into an update of the FISA law. Thanks, Harry! Democracy for America is one of the organizations that mounted a call-in campaign. Please help them continue their good work.—Caro

Indicted Obama fundraiser Rezko arrested
Indicted businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who has raised thousands of dollars for Barack Obama and other Illinois politicians, was arrested Monday for what federal officials described as a violation of his $2 million bond.

Texas AG: Photo ID Irrelevant for Election Fraud Prosecutions (American Constitution Society)
"Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has prosecuted 22 cases of voting or other election fraud in nearly six years, and none would have been prevented with a law requiring photo IDs at polling stations, officials from his office told state lawmakers on Friday," according to an article in the Denton Record Chronicle.
Not to mention that 22 cases in six years doesn’t indicate a huge problem.—Caro

Countrywide CEO forfeits $37.5 million
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Countrywide Financial Corp. CEO Angelo Mozilo, under fire over the size of his potential payout from the proposed sale of his troubled mortgage company, says he is forfeiting some $37.5 million in severance pay, fees and perks he was scheduled to receive upon his retirement. Mozilo, however, will still retain retirement benefits and deferred compensation that he has already earned, Countrywide said in a statement released Monday.
He ought to forfeit everything, including all the money he made during the years when he was running the company into the ground.

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Resource: The Center for American Progress debunks Bush’s many false claims in last night’s State of the Union address.

Obama Turns Away from Clinton (The Swamp, Baltimore Sun)
Obama returned to stand by his seat next to Sen. Edward Kennedy who endorsed Obama today in a widely watched event that reverberated across the political world. As Clinton approached, Kennedy made sure to make eye contact and indicated he wanted to shake her hand. Clinton leaned towards Kennedy over a row of seats and Kennedy leaned in towards her. They shook hands. Obama stood icily staring at Clinton during this, then turned his back and stepped a few feet away. Kennedy may've wanted to make peace with Clinton but Obama clearly wanted no part of that. As president, Obama has said he would meet with the U.S.'s enemies without precondition. But making nice with Clinton apparently is another mattter after the increasingly angry fight the two have waged, with charges and countercharges, for the Democratic presidential nomination. The sense in the press gallery was that Obama didn't cover himself in glory. Someone even used the word "childish." (Not this writer.) Judging by how much conversation there was about this brush off in the press gallery, Americans will be hearing a lot more about this tomorrow and in coming days.
Note to the age impaired: John Kennedy waffled on civil rights. And it wasn’t John, or even Bobby, Kennedy who got civil rights legislation passed. It was that bare knuckler Lyndon Johnson.—Caro

A frown for Clinton
Taylor Marsh

A smile for Bush
No Quarter

How the press played the race card (Clive Crook's blog, Financial Times, thanks to Economist’s View)
I find the idea that the Clintons have “played the race card”—which is now established as one of the stylised facts of this election—hard to understand. It is never defended in detail. The case is advanced as a matter of deduction rather than fact. The logic seems to be that race has become a big issue in the Democratic primaries, and that this will mainly help the Clintons in future primaries; therefore, it is all a Clinton plot. I have no instinctive affinity with the Clintons’ campaign—but I think the accusation is wrong.
Any criticism of Saint Barack is racist, it seems.—Caro

Senator Kennedy Betrays Women by Not Standing For Hillary Clinton for President (New York Chapter of the National Organization for Women)
Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him… We are repaid with his abandonment! He’s picked the new guy over us.
And this is nonsense, too.—Caro

Seeing the Light in South Carolina (by Gal Beckerma, Columbia Journalism Review)
(W)hen I … read the Times’s assessment of the Democratic field, I realized that the editorial board understood something the rest of us consumers of daily media have missed, but which was obvious to me after just one Obama-in-the-flesh event: what the Illinois senator excels at is packaging himself for the press (and, consequently, the public). I imagined, seeing him speak in person for the first time, that I would hear more of a discussion of policy than I’ve heard in the coverage of his campaign. I was sure that the sound bites that his stump speech produced about unity and change may pepper his talk, but could not possibly be the sum total of his message. But, basically, they were. There was very little sense that he was standing in North Charleston talking to a specific community of people. His transcendent talk was just that, transcendent. It’s not that this didn’t have a strong effect on the people who had waited to see him. It did. But there was something slightly gimmicky about his presentation. In my notebook, I wrote twice, “How will he make change?”

Chris Matthews: Condi Rice Could Counter Obama’s “Ethnic Excitement” (by Logan Murphy at Crooks and Liars)
Chris Matthews as been sticking his foot in his mouth (more so than usual) a lot this primary season and during MSNBC’s coverage of the State of the Union address tonight, he stepped in it again. Tweety made the suggestion that because Barack Obama has created an ethnic excitement in America, if he doesn’t get the nomination Condi Rice would make a great VP choice for a GOP candidate because black people might still be hopeful of putting an African American in higher government.
Because Condi engenders so much excitement. Click through to watch the video.—Caro

Why the right loves a disaster (by Naomi Klein, writing in the Los Angeles Times)
Moody's, the credit-rating agency, claims the key to solving the United States' economic woes is slashing spending on Social Security. The National Assn. of Manufacturers says the fix is for the federal government to adopt the organization's wish-list of new tax cuts. For Investor's Business Daily, it is oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, "perhaps the most important stimulus of all."… If this kind of crisis opportunism feels familiar, it's because it is. Over the last four years, I have been researching a little-explored area of economic history: the way that crises have paved the way for the march of the right-wing economic revolution across the globe. A crisis hits, panic spreads and the ideologues fill the breach, rapidly reengineering societies in the interests of large corporate players. It's a maneuver I call "disaster capitalism."
And don’t forget how the right took advantage of 9/11, and continues to do so. It’s almost as if they had a laundry list ready, before the twin towers were even attacked.—Caro

Subprime Obama (by Max Fraser, The Nation)
As the subprime mortgage debacle drives a recession that threatens financial markets around the world, the Democratic presidential candidates are pushing plans to address the crisis. John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are pledging substantial federal resources to stabilize the mortgage market and intervene on behalf of borrowers. Barack Obama's proposal is tepid by comparison, short on aggressive government involvement and infused with conservative rhetoric about fiscal responsibility. As he has done on domestic issues like healthcare, job creation and energy policy, Obama is staking out a position to the right of not only populist Edwards but Clinton as well.

Fair Lending a Necessary Part of Global Fair Trade
The credit crisis may be fouling up billion-dollar takeover deals, but if you're a poor African seamstress who needs a loan for a new sewing machine, you could not ask for a better borrowing market to expand your business. Anyone with $25 to spare and an Internet connection can now become an international microfinancier through Kiva http://www.kiva.org , an organization that matches individual lenders with impoverished entrepreneurs in the developing world.
This is exactly the kind of mechanism that I’ve recommended as part of a coordinated progressive media effort.—Caro

Technology & Science

Prison study to investigate link between junk food and violence
Some of Britain's most challenging young prisoners are to be given food supplements in a study aimed at curbing violent behaviour. Scientists from Oxford University say the effect of nutrition on behaviour has been underestimated. They say increases in consumption of "junk" food over the past 50 years have contributed to a rise in violence.

Hitting It Off, Thanks to Algorithms of Love
As online matchmakers compete for customers using algorithms in the search for love, the battle has intrigued academic researchers who study the mating game.

Strange Creature Immune to Pain
As vulnerable as naked mole rats seem, researchers now find the hairless, bucktoothed rodents are invulnerable to the pain of acid and the sting of chili peppers. A better understanding of pain resistance in these sausage-like creatures could lead to new drugs for people with chronic pain, scientists added.
Do scientists just go around inflicting pain on animals to see if they’re immune to it or not?—Caro

Cold Meds Send 7,000 U.S. Kids to ER Each Year
Most cases due to accidental ingestion, study finds.

Polymer Gel Prevents Skin Grafts From Shrinking
ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2008) — A gel that could prevent the painful and disfiguring contractions of skin grafts used to treat burns has been developed by British scientists.

Sedentary Lifestyle Accelerates Aging
Active people biologically younger than couch potato set, British study suggests

Turtle Migrates 12,774 Miles
A leatherback turtle was tracked by satellite traveling 12,774 miles (20,558 kilometers) from Indonesia to Oregon, one of the longest recorded migrations of any vertebrate animal, scientists announced in a new report on sea turtle conservation.

Rogue Stars: The Miscreants of Our Galaxy
A young star speeding away from the Milky Way is in fact an alien visitor, astronomers have confirmed. The wayward object is one of several rogues that are giving astronomers a glimpse into the volatile nature of our galaxy and others.

Environment

Economy, Planet in Trouble: Green Energy to the Rescue?
Among the measures that can be done now is to continue to build emission free renewables while dramatically cutting back on power consumption, so that new fossil power plants don’t need to be built until carbon sequestration technology can be implemented. There needs to be some political leadership to put direction in the climate saving effort.

Russia clears way for carbon profits
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's government on Tuesday opened the door to applications from entrepreneurs and big polluters to profit from greenhouse gas emissions cuts by selling these to Western countries.

Japan aims to halve greenhouse gas with model city programme
Tokyo - Japan may need to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by more than half by 2050 without a joint international effort to fight global warming, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Tuesday.

First Antarctic marine census launched
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - U.S., New Zealand and Italian marine scientists began a two-month voyage to Antarctica's northern coast Tuesday as part of the first-ever census of Antarctic marine biodiversity, Prime Minister Helen Clark said.

Antarctic ice cores reveal Earth's climate history
Scientists, engineers and technicians on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet have just completed the inaugural season of a multiyear effort to compile the largest and most detailed record of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.

Groups sue seeking documents connected to Chukchi Sea sale
Conservation groups on Monday sued the federal agency responsible for the upcoming offshore petroleum lease sale in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast, claiming the federal government has not disclosed documents that could show harmful effects to polar bears and other marine mammals.

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[Karenina]

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