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[Caro]

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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Top Story

US House defies Bush with Iraq funding vote
The Democratic-led House of Representatives defied a White House veto threat Wednesday and inserted timelines for an immediate troop withdrawal in a 50 billion dollar Iraq war funding bill. The House voted 218 to 203 to pass the emergency war budget, calling for a pullback of most combat troops to start within 30 days, with a goal of completion by December 15, 2008.
Stick with it, Dems. There’s no reason why the next president, who will surely be a Democrat, should have to fix George Bush’s worst mistake.—Caro

All Hat No Cattle

The World

US general: Roadside bombs down sharply
BAGHDAD - Iran's commitments to stem the flow of weapons and explosives into Iraq "appear to be holding up" and have contributed to a sharp drop in roadside bombs across the country, a U.S. general said Thursday.
Great! Bring the troops home.—Caro

Iraqi Government Is Criticized for Inaction
Senior commanders portray intransigence as key threat facing U.S. effort, eclipsing al-Qaeda, insurgency and Iranian-backed militias.

Abbas calls for Hamas overthrow in Gaza
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday called for the overthrow of Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers, his first explicit call that they be removed.

China calls for Tehran to work with IAEA
BEIJING - China supports Iran's right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes but wants Tehran to allay international suspicions about its nuclear program, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Bhutto hopes to form nat'l unity gov't
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Detained opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said Thursday she hopes to form a national unity government to replace President Gen. Pervez Musharraf ahead of elections, and is contacting other opposition parties to get them on board.

Musharraf holds talks on caretaker Pakistan government
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf conferred with key aides Thursday to hand-pick a caretaker government that will steer the emergency-ruled nation toward elections.

UN investigator meets Myanmar prisoners
YANGON, Myanmar - A U.N. human rights investigator said he met with several prominent political prisoners before ending his five-day mission to Myanmar on Thursday.

Kosovo votes ahead of independence showdown
PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - The breakaway province of Kosovo holds a parliamentary election on Saturday, ahead of a showdown with Serbia over the ethnic Albanian majority's demand for independence.

Ukraine implicated in CIA renditions
STRASBOURG, France - An EU investigator said Wednesday he has evidence to suggest that a Ukrainian airstrip was used by CIA-operated planes involved in the U.S. extraordinary rendition program.

UN raises alarm about inadequate Darfur peace force
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - A senior UN official warned here Wednesday that the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force may fail in its mission to protect civilians in strife-storn Darfur without the required air mobility and firepower.

The Nation

Bush promises to rebuild Justice Dept.
WASHINGTON - President Bush welcomed Michael Mukasey back into government Wednesday and promised to help the new attorney general rebuild the top leadership of the beleaguered Justice Department.


Intel chief blasts 'cherry picked' intel
National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said Tuesday he would resign if administration officials mischaracterized or "cherry-picked" intelligence to support their own political agenda.
But he won’t insist on publication of an unclassified version of the soon to be published National Intelligence Estimate. We’ll just have to trust him.—Caro

Airport screeners missed bomb parts
WASHINGTON - Government investigators smuggled liquid explosives and detonators past airport security, exposing a dangerous hole in the nation's ability to keep these forbidden items off of airplanes, according to a report made public Wednesday.

Guantánamo how-to manual hits the Web
Guantánamo detainees were denied Red Cross visits and mail, had criticism of the U.S. government or leaders censored and dogs were allowed to patrol at the detention hospital, according to a once-secret prison camps manual that has suddenly appeared on the Internet. Military public affairs officers were struggling with whether or how to respond Wednesday to specific contents of the 238-page policy manual, dated March 28, 2003, and signed by the prison camps commander at the time, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller.

Federal funding for rural religious pregnancy centers.
New data compiled by CREW finds that rural “pregnancy resource centers” that often offer religious content and false information have received nearly $6 million in federal grants since early 2006. Some of these centers tell patients that abortion leads to breast cancer, suicidal thoughts, alcohol and drug abuse, and even a “fear of punishment from God.”

White House stocks K Street
At least 150 senior Bush administration officials have traded their government service badges for K Street’s pinstripes… “They have had more turnover than any administration in recent history, going back to the Kennedy administration,” when researchers began tracking that figure, said professor Paul C. Light, an expert on the executive branch at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service.

Krongard Confirms ‘Ugly Rumor’: Brother Attended Blackwater Advisory Board Meeting Yesterday
During today’s House Oversight Committee hearing on the performance of State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) revealed that Krongard’s brother — former CIA Executive Director A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard — sits on Blackwater USA’s board. Krongard vehemently denied the allegation, calling it an “ugly rumor”… During a break in today’s hearing, Krongard called his brother and confirmed that the “ugly rumor” was in fact true, and promised to recuse himself from any Blackwater investigations.
Don’t forget, in September, McClatchy reported that two of Howard Krongard’s aides “threatened two investigators with retaliation … if they cooperate(d) with a congressional probe into Krongard's office.”—Caro

Science adviser grilled over altered testimony
The president’s science adviser tells senators that he recommended changes in a health official’s global warming testimony — but denies wanting entire pages cut.
So it’s all right for political hacks to alter scientific reports, as long as they don’t cut whole pages at a time? They think we’re stupid, friends, honestly!—Caro

Congress passes 5-year Head Start bill
WASHINGTON - Congress on Wednesday passed and sent to President Bush a five-year Head Start bill that opens up the popular preschool program to more children while taking steps to see that the program is well-run and that its teachers are better qualified.

Court Says Med Mal Caps Violate Separation of Powers
Victims' rights are violated by limits in medical malpractice cases on non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane Joan Larsen found on Tuesday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The judge determined "the legislature can't interfere with the right of juries and judges to determine fair damages," according to the Chicago Tribune.
Wow! This is big! I hope this judge’s opinion prevails. It makes no sense to me that the legislative branch can keep people from being fairly reimbursed for horrors inflicted on them.—Caro

Why we need a recession – soon (by Jon Markman, MSN Money)
There must be a recession eventually, after all. It's just math. Banking analyst Richard Bove over at boutique brokerage Punk Ziegel points out that debt in the U.S. economy over the past five years has grown at a pace three times faster than income… That is an unsustainable pace, the type that typically leads to the big splats that academics call recessions… So the government is in the process of twisting the arms of Federal Reserve Board members to lower interest rates by as much as 2 percentage points over the next year… If that doesn't work, the government has been making noises about creating something like a Marshall Plan for home foreclosures -- a giant bailout fund.

Carlyle exec sees lower returns for private equity
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Private equity is likely to see lower returns in coming years as it faces challenges including more costly debt, Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein said on Thursday.
Aw, and fewer wars with Democrats in power! Aren’t you sorry for them?—Caro

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

I will be a guest on the Guy James Show today at 3:30 PM ET. Call in toll free at 866- 546-5254. Listen to Guy from 3:00 to 5:00 PM ET Tuesday through Thursday on the Head On Radio Network.

Conservatism's Unintelligent Design (by Greg Anrig, Jr.)
(T)he Discovery Institute’s Center was in the business of marketing—not research. It had a product to sell – intelligent design -- and was focused on doing whatever it could to sell that idea. Even the name of the idea itself was changed from creationism to make it more palatable… Now think about the role played by the Cato Institution and the Heritage Foundation in selling Social Security privatization… For years they honed a pitch aimed at reassuring everyone that, far from phasing out Social Security, they actually wanted to bolster it… (T)he debate over the teaching of evolution in the schools will continue for generations to come, despite the one-sidedness of the factual evidence against “intelligent design.” So, too, the debate over the other lame-brained agenda items of the well-financed, relentless conservative movement.
I’ve revamped the Progressive Media Strategy, if you’re interested in actually DOING something about right-wing domination of the media, instead of just complaining about it.—Caro

Bridge Too Far (by Jon Swift)
Last month at the world Bridge championships in Shanghai (a member of) a team of women representing the United States … held up a hand-lettered sign that said "We Did Not Vote for Bush."… The United States Bridge Federation has an excellent opportunity to show the world what America stands for by punishing these women… In Pakistan we can already see the tragic results that can occur when some people misunderstand what America stands for. Americans don't think that just anyone deserves the right to free speech and democracy. These are rights that have to be earned after years of being under the thumbs of U.S.-supported dictators. Once the people of these countries have demonstrated that they are not going to vote for Communists or Jihadists, then we allow them to have democracy on a trial basis, with the understanding that the CIA might have to start a coup and put another dictator in place if things get out of hand.
You tell ‘em, Jon! And we should eat their babies, too. I believe you have a few recipes.—Caro

Signs of desperation (by Paul Krugman)
This represents a level of misunderstanding that has to be deliberate: “Enough already. Nobody believes Reagan is a bigot.” That is, of course, not the question. Reagan’s personal attitude is of no consequence. The question is whether he deliberately appealed to bigots, as a political tactic. And he did.

Bush Blasts Congressional ‘Majority’ For Earmarks Belonging To Leading Republicans
(Tuesday), after President Bush used his sixth-ever veto to squash “a measure to fund education, job training and health programs,” he criticized the fiscal responsibility and spending priorities of “the majority” in Congress… White House press secretary Dana Perino added that it was “not only the extra spending” that raised White House objections, but “also 2,000 earmarks that the president would like to see stripped out.”… According to the November 6 edition of CQ Today, the two largest individual earmarks in the bill were placed by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

“24″ Creator Thinks Clinton As President “Is Nuts” (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
CNN: “The man who has created several presidents for the hit TV show ‘24’ says it’s ‘nuts’ to think of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton being the next real president…” So let me get this straight: The man who went with Rush Limbaugh on that ill-fated trip to the Dominican Republic, forever inflicted upon us the “Jack Bauer Scenario” as a foreign policy, not to mention the completely unfunny Half Hour News Hour “comedy” show (I use that term loosely) wants us to believe that the idea of President Hillary Clinton is nuts???

THE TRUTH ABOUT RUSSERT: (by Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler)
Geraldine Ferraro spoke up in a letter to the New York Times… (and) was willing to suggest the obvious—Bombardier (Tim) Russert was taking sides when he directed the trashing of (Hillary) Clinton. But even Ferraro omits the obvious. Yes, this probably happened, in some part, because Clinton is a woman. But it clearly happened because she’s a Democrat! Even Ferraro fails to suggest what has been clear for a very long time: Russert, and the rest of Jack Welch’s Lost Boys, have a plain partisan animus.

Worst Person In The World: Bad Info Edition (by Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
Proving that he has more honesty and integrity than all the FOXNews anchors combined, Keith awards himself the bronze for giving out erroneous information on an earlier broadcast by saying that 1 in 4 veterans are homeless instead of 1 in 4 homeless are veterans. Still too many, no matter what the number.
Fessing up to and correcting errors is one of the most important things we can do.—Caro

No wonder people are confused … (by A Siegel at Energy Smart, thanks to Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
Andrew Revkin, at the New York Times, who I generally find very much worth reading, has a dousy today. In a review of three global warming books, Revkin speaks of Bjorn Lomborg as a “centrist” and discusses his book without suggesting that there any factual errors or how truthiness runs roughshod over the truth. He similarly glosses over the serious problems with Newt Gingrich’s Contract on the Earth (Contract with the Earth, actually)… Revkin has done his readership and discussions of Global Warming a real disservice with this review. To the extent that Gingrich and Lomborg are “centrist”, this can only be viewed in a context of American politics where utter rejection of fact and dismissing evidence are accepted as reasonable.

Resource: The Score
Here's an interesting site: The Score allows you to track the latest happenings on the House and Senate floors, as well as upcoming floor debates and committee hearings.

Resource: Socially Enabled Legal Documents?
Thanks to the fine folks at Public.Resource.Org and Fastcase, 1.8 million pages of federal case law are now freely available under a Creative Commons license. This includes all Supreme Court decisions since 1754, and all Appeals Court decisions from 1950 to present.

Google’s Hopes for Government Websites (by Kristen Nicole at Mashable)
Google and the government, hand in hand again. Almost. This time, Google’s working on a Sitemap Protocol, which it’s hoping will be implemented across the board for government websites… Google is hoping to work with the government to make their sitemaps better, so you won’t spend 45 minutes trying to find the section of your state’s website that tells you what you need in order to renew your driver’s license.
It would be nice to have consistency among federal government websites, too, and consistent data formats. All government data should be available for easy access by researchers.—Caro

Technology & Science

Papa John's takes texted pizza orders
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Michelle Kratschmer's family was craving the usual — a large pepperoni pizza and a small pie with black olives and cheese — but how she entered the phone order was entirely new.

With Web 2.0, a new breed of malware evolves
San Francisco - Web 2.0 technologies may be laying the groundwork for a new generation of hacker tools, a noted security researcher said Wednesday.

Game to teach children Internet safety launched at UN meet in Rio
RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - A game designed to teach children how to stay away from sexual predators and other dangers lurking on the Internet was unveiled Wednesday at a UN forum in Rio de Janeiro that addressed cybercrime.

What's in a name? Maybe an unconscious trend toward failure
Your name made you do it, albeit unconsciously, suggests new research that finds your name can negatively undermine your goals.
But maybe the unconscious expectations of the parents, which led them to give the child a loser name, also influences the child’s trend toward failure.—Caro

Women Expected to Miss More Work Than Men
It's considered more socially acceptable for Mom, rather than Dad, to be absent from work… A new study formally links the data and the norm, indicating women miss more work than men because that's what society expects. This seemingly benign "policy" could foster workplace discrimination in wages and advancement for women, the study authors suggest.

Adult Type 2 Diabetes Can Be Predicted in Childhood
Researchers at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center found that parental history of diabetes, as well as the presence of metabolic syndrome in childhood were major predictors of type 2 diabetes in adulthood. The finding was particularly true for black American men and women, the researchers report.

What's in Your Genes? Ancient Parasites
You may not know it, but you're part virus. At least, some of your genes come from viruses that slipped their DNA into the genes of our primate ancestors millions of years ago. The DNA remnants of these ancient "retroviruses," distant relatives of today's HIV, account for an estimated 8 percent of the human genetic code and may have enabled master genes that account for some of the differences between us and our chimpanzee relatives.

Tropical Fish Can Live for Months Out of Water
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - A tropical fish that lives in mangrove swamps across the Americas can survive out of water for months at a time, similar to how animals adapted to land millions of years ago, a new study shows.

Record-busting supernova prompts new ideas on death of stars
PARIS (AFP) - Astronomers analysing the brightest supernova ever detected say the titanic flare has reshaped thinking about the death struggle of gigantic stars.

Scientists Stop Light in 'Trapped Rainbow'
Scientists have worked out how to bring beams of light to a screeching halt inside a material that would separate the light into its constituent colors, creating a rainbow—a trapped rainbow.

Environment

Greenhouse gases rising faster than UN forecasts: report
SYDNEY (AFP) - Greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster than worst-case predictions by the United Nations' top climate change body, said a new Australian report issued Thursday.

U.N. Completes Carbon Trading Link Under Kyoto
LONDON (Reuters) - Japan on Wednesday became the first country to take delivery of carbon offsets which it can use to help it stay within its binding greenhouse gas emissions limits under the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. climate body said.

California Leading Clean Tech Innovation, Report Finds
OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 15, 2007 -- The California Green Innovation Index found that California is now at the forefront of the fight against climate change, and its development of, and investment in, clean and energy efficient technologies will bring new breakthroughs.

Methane-Guzzling Bacteria Thrive in Bubbling Mud Pots
Tiny bacteria hiding out in a witches' brew of bubbling mud not only thrive in the searing-hot slurry but also chow down on its methane… These specialized bacteria could help to suck up methane from the Earth's crust that would otherwise spew into the atmosphere.

GM on track to road-test electric car in early '08
As the race to bring a mass-market, rechargeable electric vehicle to market heats up, Bob Lutz, GM's head of global product development, said the largest U.S. automaker is on track to launch the Volt in November 2010.

Study: Big German cars lead in CO2 emissions ranking - Summary
Brussels - Big cars from Germany have consolidated their lead in the undesirable ranking of European vehicles that emit most polluting carbon dioxide (CO2), a study published on Thursday found.

Group urges free TV recycling
DALLAS - A national recycling coalition says television manufacturers need to make it easier for American consumers to safely dispose of aging TVs, which can seep lead and other hazardous chemicals into the soil around dumps, often in China, Nigeria and other countries.

Russian oil slick clean-up 'could take months': WWF
MOSCOW (AFP) - A major oil spill off the southern coast of Russia could take months to clear, a top environmentalist said on Wednesday as the first charges were brought over the accident.

For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com.

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