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Morning headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Top StoryBush vetoes war funding bill, calls it 'irresponsible' The president fulfills his threat on a day of political theater for both parties. Lawmakers chart their next moves.
Iraq Generals to President: You've Failed Us Washington, DC Today, two retired Generals who led troops in Iraq expressed outrage at the President's veto of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act. CNN QuickvoteThe WorldIraq using Saddam-era law to block corruption probes: audit The office of Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has used a Saddam Hussein-era law to halt dozens of corruption-related probes of government ministries, a US auditor's report said Monday. The report by the special inspector general for Iraq, Stuart Bowen, said Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) estimates the cost of corruption at around five billion dollars a year.
Key countries object to Iraq plan SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - Some governments key to Iraq's future are balking at entering into an ambitious contract with the country that commits them to substantial aid in exchange for a promise of unity in Iraq within five years.
Report: Iran dismisses talks with U.S. TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's deputy foreign minister dismissed the possibility of direct U.S.-Iran talks on the sidelines of this week's international conference on Iraq, a semiofficial Iranian news agency reported.
Olmert faces party rebellion over damning war report JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced an open rebellion within his party on Wednesday as senior officials joined calls for him to quit over a damning report of his leadership during the Lebanon war.
Afghans protest alleged civilian deaths JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) - More than 1,000 Afghan students demanded the withdrawal of US troops in a fourth day of demonstrations over civilians allegedly killed by coalition troops.
B'desh police probe al Qaeda link to railway bombs DHAKA (Reuters) - Commuters flooded back to Bangladesh railway stations on Wednesday, a day after simultaneous bomb blasts rocked three terminals and raised a security alarm across the country. The NationDemocratic Field Seeks New Moves to Halt War Democratic presidential candidates urged Congress yesterday not to yield to President Bush's veto of an Iraq funding bill that included a timetable for beginning troop withdrawals, but the party's two leading contenders were more tentative than their rivals in offering support for aggressive steps to bring the war to an end.
Republicans Buck Bush On Iraq Benchmarks Brushing aside White House opposition, Republican leaders in Congress said yesterday that negotiations on a second war spending bill should begin with benchmarks of success for the Iraqi government, and possible consequences if those benchmarks are not met.
The Iraq War Slows Growth, Costs Jobs Yeah, that would not be news to any economist, but why is the negative impact of military spending on the economy never raised in political debates? President Bush has said that he won't do anything serious to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because it would hurt economic growth, and that was the end of his discussion. But, for some reason, the fact the jobs the growth and jobs that are lost because of his wars is never even raised as an issue.
Ex-CIA analyst: Forged 'yellowcake' memo 'leads right back to' Cheney Appearing on MSNBC's Tucker Carlson show, Ray McGovern who served in the CIA for twenty-seven years, said, "the (forged) memo leads right back to the doorstep of the Vice President of the United States." He also says he has evidence to prove it.
Renzi pays back taxes; FEC drops probe WASHINGTON - Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi avoided federal campaign penalties by paying $323,830 in back taxes last year to reassure regulators that loans to his political committee came from his own pocket.
Controversial USA Delivered "Voter Fraud" Indictments Right on Time The Justice Department has a longstanding policy regarding the prosecution of election law or voter fraud cases: the closer to the election it gets, the more cautious prosecutors should be about bringing indictments. The reason is simple. Bringing an indictment close to the election can intimidate minority voters, affect voter turnout and potentially even influence the result of the election. But Bradley Schlozman -- the former U.S. Attorney for Kansas City and controversial deputy head at the Civil Rights Division -- broke with the policy. Not only that, but there's evidence that he rushed four indictments to land just before last November's election. MediaBack in the Days of 'Mission Accomplished' Reviewing corporate media coverage of George W. Bush's infamous May 1, 2003 announcement, Mitchell quotes Chris Matthews of MSNBC "booming": "He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics." But excerpts from the New York Times are the real jaw-droppers. Elisabeth Bumiller typically gushed that "Bush's made-for-television address tonight on the carrier Abraham Lincoln was a powerful, Reaganesque finale to a six-week war," and Michael Gordon kept up his mode of uncritical belief in official claims.
Tampa Speaks Out for Local Media, Against Consolidation The media reform group reports its organizing efforts brought "more than 300" concerned people to a Florida FCC hearing "to speak out against media consolidation. Hours before the event started, local residents were arriving by the dozens, eager to sign up for their chance to testify."… The FCC is currently reviewing longstanding media ownership rules governing how many newspapers, radio stations and television stations one company can own in a local market.... "When media companies converge operations, managers urge or even require staffers to spend less time reporting and more time on television," said panelist Eric Klinenberg....
Washington Editors: Reluctant to Publish 'D.C. Madam' Client List "We are making no effort to get the list and I am not sure what we would do if it fell in our lap," said Phil Bennett, managing editor of The Washington Post. "We would have to evaluate it to see what would happen. If there were public officials implicated in this, we would have to figure out their involvement and what it meant." Why do I think that if these were Democratic politicians, there would be less reluctance not just to print their names, but to skewer them and to make points about evil, slimy Democrats? —Caro
What Haircut Stories Tell Us About the Press Only because it would save time and make them more efficient, I think members of the Beltway press corps should consider starting up a new reporting pool, to duplicate the one currently in place for shadowing the president; the one that boasts a rotating cast of reporters who cover his every mundane move and then share the information. Except, instead of tailing the president at each public event, this new media pool would focus exclusively on the grooming habits of leading Democrats. Call it the haircut beat.
TONAL VISION The dumbness of our millionaire press corps is truly a thing to behold. On this weekend’s Chris Matthews Show, the gang evaluated last Thursday’s debate. Will someone tell us why this show’s host hasn’t been sent to a safe, padded room? After playing tape of a brief debate excerpt, Matthews asked Clarence Page if Candidate Clinton had seemed “grown up.” No, we really aren’t making this up. Yes, he actually said that.
Beck said Gore using "same tactic" in fight against global warming as Hitler did against Jews On his radio program, Glenn Beck stated that Al Gore is using "the same tactic" in his efforts to fight global warming that Adolf Hitler used to vilify Jews in Nazi Germany, but Beck said that Gore's "goal is different. The goal is globalization. The goal is global carbon tax. The goal is the United Nations running the world. That is the goal." Technology & ScienceAren't Phones for Talking? There must be some brilliant audiologist out there who's coming up with a way tomake cell phones sound really great—even though he knows that when he's done, cell carriers won't let him talk about it.
Next target of cell phone industry: navigation HELSINKI (Reuters) - After hitting alarm clock makers and camera manufacturers, the cell phone industry has a new target -- personal navigation device makers.
Heart Attack Death Rate Declines Sharply CHICAGO (AP)—In just six years, death rates and heart failure in hospitalized heart attack patients have fallen sharply, most likely because of better treatment, the largest international study of its kind suggests. The promising trend parallels the growing use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, powerful blood thinners, and angioplasty, the procedure that opens clogged arteries, the researchers said.
Doctors test gene therapy to treat blindness LONDON (Reuters) - A team of British doctors has carried out the world's first eye operations using gene therapy to try to cure a serious sight disorder, officials said on Tuesday. EnvironmentU.S. Air Pollution: Less Smog, but More Soot in East The United States is less smoggy than it used to be, but dangerous soot particles are rising in the densely populated eastern part of the country, the American Lung Association reported Tuesday.
New Device Vacuums Away Carbon Dioxide A new device placed in say, Iceland, could suck up atmospheric carbon dioxide emitted from vehicles as far away as Tokyo, making it a potentially useful tool in battling ever-rising levels of this greenhouse gas. For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com.
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