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[Caro]

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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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Georgie Anne Geyer: A spreading terror: Iraq now set up as a school for insurgents ready to be exported
President Bush is more convinced than ever of his righteousness. Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny." The truth of the steadily deteriorating situation in the Middle East is, of course, quite different.

We’ve been trying to tell you. Click here to learn more about The Real George Bush.
Wizard of Whimsy

The World

Sunnis revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq
BAGHDAD - U.S. troops battled al-Qaida in west Baghdad on Thursday after Sunni Arab residents challenged the militants and called for American help to end furious gunfire that kept students from final exams and forced people in the neighborhood to huddle indoors.

Lebanese army masses around refugee camp
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Under the cover of artillery barrages, dozens of Lebanese army tanks and armored carriers moved toward a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon Friday in pursuit of Islamic militants holed up inside.

No Breakthrough as Iranian Nuclear Talks Recess
Talks ended late Thursday with few signs the sides were closer to breaking their deadlock over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Taliban say they downed Afghan helicopter: Web
KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban fighters downed a NATO military helicopter which crashed in Afghanistan, the militant group said in a statement on the Internet on Thursday.

Korea talks end without breakthrough
South Korea insisted it would withhold food aid to the North until its communist neighbor starts dismantling its nuclear weapons program, forcing their high-level reconciliation talks to end Friday with no substantial agreement.

UK profs reject plan to spy on students
LONDON - A union of British academics voted unanimously to reject a government plan to tackle Islamic extremism in universities, likening the initiative to "witch hunts" that would single out Muslim students.
Good for you, professors!

The Nation

Repudiation, Not Impeachment
Scott Ritter: The former weapons inspector and author of “Waging Peace” argues that the mere impeachment of President Bush would fail to repair the damage caused by an executive branch run amok and an uninformed and uninvolved citizenry.

Bush Proposes Goal to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
If carried through, such an agreement would be a major shift for a White House that has long resisted setting firm limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
Even The New York Times is saying “IF carried through”. No one trusts this man to do what he says he’s going to do. We’ve been burned too many times. —Caro

Baghdad embassy plans appear on Internet
WASHINGTON - Detailed plans for the new U.S. Embassy under construction in Baghdad appeared online Thursday in a breach of the tight security surrounding the sensitive project.

White House follows new path to secrecy
WASHINGTON - A newly disclosed effort to keep Vice President Dick Cheney's visitor records secret is the latest White House push to make sure the public doesn't learn who has been meeting with top officials in the Bush administration.

Fitzgerald Again Points to Cheney
Special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald has made it clearer than ever that he was hot on the trail of a coordinated campaign to out CIA agent Valerie Plame until that line of investigation was cut off by the repeated lies from Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Minnesota case fits pattern in U.S. attorneys flap
WASHINGTON — For more than 15 years, clean-cut, square-jawed Tom Heffelfinger was the embodiment of a tough Republican prosecutor… So it came as a surprise — and something of a mystery — when he turned up on a list of U.S. attorneys who had been targeted for firing. Part of the reason, government documents and other evidence suggest, is that he tried to protect voting rights for Native Americans.

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

I will be a guest on Joe Vecchio’s Cup O’Joe Show this morning. Listen to Joe from 10 to 11 AM ET every weekday on the Head On Radio Network.
Says Joe: “I sent the following letter to the newly-formed Center For American Progress (CAP) on behalf of myself and all the other bloggers. I urge all of you to please read it and send a similar email of your own, urging them not to neglect those of us who have been working for the cause without any organized support. It's imperative that these think-tanks be made aware of the great resources and energy that we have, and that we could use a little help from the people who supposedly believe the same things we do.”
Click here to read the full blog post and to send your letter to the Center for American Progress. —Caro

NBC to air Live Earth concerts
NBC Universal has landed the U.S. broadcast rights to Al Gore's Live Earth concerts. The Peacock will serve up coverage July 7 on a slew of its networks, from the NBC mothership to Universal HD. Bulk of the coverage will run on Bravo, Universal HD and Sundance Channel. On the broadcast side, Ann Curry and Carson Daly will co-host a three-hour primetime special on NBC featuring highlights from the daylong concerts, as well as some live performances from the U.S. concert.

Plame sues CIA over memoir
WASHINGTON - Valerie Plame, the former undercover CIA officer whose 2003 exposure touched off a leak investigation, is accusing the government of delaying publication of her new book.

Pearlstine: How Fitzgerald's leak investigation hurt the press
Former Time Inc. editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine says Patrick Fitzgerald's leak investigation "has set a precedent that will encourage other prosecutors to seek testimony from the press, forcing other journalists to betray their sources. Journalism and the public interest will suffer."
I disagree, Mr. Pearlstine. (I know, how dare I?) It’s not the job of the media to print an out-of-control administration’s vicious attacks on its perceived enemies. If Fitzgerald’s investigation helped to stop such occurrences, then it was a very good thing for the American people. —Caro

Will the media address Bernstein's charges of "misleading," "factually off-base" Clinton coverage?
In his upcoming book, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Knopf, June 2007), Carl Bernstein repeatedly criticizes the media's coverage of the Clinton presidency as, at various times, "overzealous," "misleading," "factually off-base," and a "free-for-all" that lacked "restraint." Given the widespread media coverage that Bernstein's book has, and will undoubtedly, receive, will the media address Bernstein's claims?

Starr's Way: Gerth, Van Natta cite Starr, OIC "sources" at least 33 times in new book
A Media Matters review of Her Way by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. identified at least 33 citations of conversations with officials in the former Office of Independent Counsel (OIC) that investigated Whitewater, at least seven of which refer to an interview with former independent counsel Kenneth Starr. Some of these notes refer to interviews with OIC officials in 1997 and 1998, recalling serious legal questions raised by alleged leaks from the OIC's office in the late 1990's. Given that three prosecutors decided against filing charges against Hillary Clinton, the high number of citations by Gerth and Van Natta of former OIC officials gives rise to questions about the authors' overreliance on sources who concluded they were unable to prove their allegations in a court of law.

Technology & Science

Scammers mimic IRS in e-mail scheme
WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service warned computer users not to fall for phony e-mails that scare people into believing they are under tax investigation — then give scammers access to their computer hard drives.

Japanese Robot Dances to IPod Music
TOKYO (AP) -- A Japanese robot twists and rolls to music from an iPod in an intricate dance based on complex mathematics, a technology developers say will enable robots to move about spontaneously instead of following preprogrammed motions.
Robots moving on their own? I don’t think I’m ready for that. —Caro

Pet DNA Helps CSIs Take a Bite Out of Crime
“There's some real serious cases where animal DNA played a role in helping solve the case,'' said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, a DNA expert who has asked investigators to collect DNA samples from murder suspects' pets at crime scenes. “I believe that it will be used more and more.''

TV Ads on Stroke's Warning Signs Can Improve Care
Better education gets people to the hospital more quickly, study finds

California Whales May Finally be Free
SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists observing the wayward wanderings of two humpback whales in a California river have more to celebrate than their return to the Pacific Ocean — the duo provided an unexpected opportunity to study the endangered species.

Man says he captured Loch Ness on film
The Loch Ness monster is back — and there's video. A man has captured what Nessie watchers say is possible footage of the supposed mythical creature beneath Scotland's most mysterious lake.

Environment

NASA Chief's Global Warming Remarks Called 'Naïve'
NASA sought today to deflect criticism its chief received following skeptical comments he made on the topic of the agency's role in global warming research. During an interview Wednesday with NPR, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin expressed doubts that global warming was an issue that humans could or should address.

G8 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rise; U.S. Not Worst
Greenhouse gas emissions by leading industrialised nations have accelerated since 2000 and several countries are performing worse than the United States which opposes a U.N. pact for curbing global warming, U.N. data shows.

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