Monday News Bucket

28 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on February 13, 2006 at 7:15 am

   Peter Benchley dead at 65: Yahoo/AP

   Peter Benchley, whose novel “Jaws” made millions think twice about stepping into the water even as the author himself became an advocate for the conservation of sharks, has died at age 65, his widow said Sunday.

   Wendy Benchley, married to the author for 41 years, said he died Saturday night at their home in Princeton, N.J. The cause of death, she said, was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and fatal scarring of the lungs.

   Thanks to Benchley’s 1974 novel, and Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster movie of the same name, the simple pastime of ocean swimming became synonymous with fatal horror, of still water followed by ominous, pumping music, then teeth and blood and panic.

   His legacy will live on in the minds of swimmers everywhere…

   • 

     CabinGirl on February 13, 2006 at 7:16 am

     Shark frenzy in Australia AP/Yahoo

     BRISBANE, Australia – Several tourist beaches along Australia’s popular Gold Coast were closed again Sunday because of a massive feeding frenzy involving more than 100 sharks, a lifeguard official said.

     Several beaches in Queensland state were closed for the second straight day after more than 100 hammerhead, gray nurse and whaler sharks were spotted feeding close to shore, said Sue Neil, spokeswoman for Surf Lifesaving Queensland.

     Seems fishy to me…

2. 

   CabinGirl on February 13, 2006 at 7:28 am

   It’s a man’s world at the top: San Jose Mercury

   For every nine men holding executive posts or seats on the boards of California’s largest public companies, there is only one woman, according to a study released Thursday by the University of California-Davis…

   …All told, women hold only 10.2 percent of the board seats and highest-paid executive positions at the state’s biggest firms, and 37.5 percent of the companies examined have just one female director, according to the survey. And 55 companies — more than 27 percent — don’t have any women as a board member or chief executive…

   …The researchers identified the state’s largest companies ranked by net revenue, reported for the year ended May 2004. The study then compiled names of female directors and the top five corporate executives from the companies’ filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. However, any personnel changes after Aug. 31, 2005, were not reflected.

   The findings “paint a dismal picture of the gender diversity in the upper echelons of corporate leadership in America,” the authors said. “Women executive officers in California’s largest public companies are a rare breed.”

   Wonder what they have to say about the makeup of the Supreme Court of the United States?

3. 

   CabinGirl on February 13, 2006 at 7:37 am

   Look, Rummy’s making friends: NYT

   Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday that he discussed possible arms sales to Algeria with the country’s president in what other Pentagon officials described as a growing American effort to build a military relationship.

   “They have things they desire, and we have things we can be helpful with,” Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters about possible arms sales after meeting with the president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

   A senior Pentagon official said Algeria was interested in high-technology equipment like night vision goggles and helicopters useful in tracking down suspected antigovernment fighters in the country’s desertlike southern region.

   Mr. Rumsfeld, who later flew to Morocco for talks with King Mohammed VI, is finishing a three-day visit to North Africa that also included a stop in Tunisia.

   Pentagon officials said they believed that Mr. Rumsfeld was the first secretary of defense to visit Algeria, which shunned ties with Washington during the cold war and endured a brutal Islamic insurgency during the 1990’s that kept American officials away.

   Relations have warmed since 2001, which American officials attribute to what they call a realization on both sides that they face similar threats from Islamic militants.

   Who says he doesn’t play well with others?

4. 

   AndiF on February 13, 2006 at 8:15 am

   From Women’s eNews

   A new method is being tested to help prevent the transmission of the HIV virus. The full article details  the testing and its goals but also discusses other matters such as concerns about testing being done primarily on poor women in Africa and India and about testing being done on young women.

   On a dusty backstreet just off the highway north of South Africa’s capital Pretoria lies a simple, low building in the shade of a few trees. The research that takes place within that nondescript clinic could revolutionize women’s sex lives and empower women across the globe in the battle against HIV and AIDS.

   The Setshaba Research Centre is one of three sites in South Africa where a microbicide gel named Carraguard is being tested in phase 3 clinical trials, the last phase of drug testing on humans before approval for marketing.

   More than 5,000 women are trying out the vaginal gel to determine if it really protects against HIV; most of them are from poor, neighboring areas.

   [sni]

   In Africa HIV and AIDS spread mainly through heterosexual sex and women are at particular risk of contracting the virus. Already, a majority of those infected on the continent–13.5 million of 25.8 million–are women. This is partly because women are biologically more vulnerable to HIV infection and partly because many women have little power over their sex lives. Women are twice as likely as men to contract HIV from a single act of unprotected sex, but often find it very difficult to insist on using a condom if the male does not agree.

   • 

     CabinGirl on February 13, 2006 at 8:26 am

     We were talking about that at PP last month.  I’m forwarding your link to my crew-thanks!

   • 

     CabinGirl on February 13, 2006 at 8:33 am

     Week in Review from bayprairie: Our Word

5. 

   ask on February 13, 2006 at 9:29 am

   Dubai – growing fast

   The fastest-growing city on earth, Dubai is spending mind-boggling sums on construction and is about to swallow up P&O in its bid to be a global maritime power. Given the scale of its ambition, could it become the most important place on the planet? Adam Nicolson reports from ‘Mushroom City’
   (snip)
   Dubai is growing faster than any city on earth. “Mushroom City”, Ravi Piyush, a plumply content dealer in the Gold Souk, said to me. “Nothing today, everything tomorrow.” The World Bank reckons that the reconstruction of Iraq is going to cost $53bn. Here, along the strip of footballer-friendly sand that stretches 25 miles or so along the shores of the Persian Gulf, there is, at a rough estimate, about $100bn worth of projects either underway or planned for the near future. That is a numbing figure, ungraspable. It is the equivalent of every single dollar invested in the United States from abroad last year; almost twice the foreign investment in China.
   (snip)
   Next to it, as the Dubai government’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing puts it, “There will be several smaller cities that will cater to the financial, industrial, service and tourism industries.” To fill these airports, Emirates, the national airline, has just placed the biggest order that Boeing has ever had: $9.7bn for 42 777s, each capable of carrying 300 passengers non-stop more than 9,000 miles across the world. They have also ordered a fleet of the biggest Airbuses on offer, each capable of carrying 555 people.
   (more)

   • 

     CabinGirl on February 13, 2006 at 9:41 am

     Well, they’re definitely in a better financial position than the US, aren’t they?  But of course, they aren’t spending money they don’t have on a war they didn’t need to fight, are they?

     • 

       ask on February 13, 2006 at 9:43 am

       “..they aren’t spending money they don’t have..”
       That is the essence, most of what they ae doing is financed through equity.

     • 

       rba on February 13, 2006 at 10:17 am

       “BOOM” may be right if you consider their neighbors.

6. 

   ask on February 13, 2006 at 9:32 am

   Saddam creates uproar in forced court appearance

   Saddam Hussein shouted “down with Bush” and complained bitterly as he was led into court after being forced to attend his trial today.
   The former Iraqi dictator and his seven co-defendants had boycotted recent court sessions. They were told they would have to attend today, even if that meant physical force had to be used
   Saddam walked into court without being manhandled, but immediately launched a tirade against the judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, demanding he try him in absentia.
   (more)

7. 

   IndyLib on February 13, 2006 at 10:50 am

   Not that long ago, “oral arguments” used to mean something quite different in the queer community, but now we all know it means a court challenge involving our equal rights and we are, collectively, just as enthusiastic about these kinds of oral arguments as we’ve always been about the other kinds.

   The New Jersey Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday that gay and lesbian couples hope will lead to same-sex marriage rights in the Garden State.

   New Jersey has a decent domestic partnership law that doesn’t seem to be under serious threat from any direction. NJ itself is arguing for the status quo, to keep the domestic partnership law as is; gays, of course, are arguing for full equality. In light of that, the precise nature of the debate in Jersey at this point has kinda become, “Hey look, if it’s cool to give gay people some rights, then why, exactly, are we not giving them the same rights as straight people again?” Which is a question that I’ve asked people who were opposed to my equality on numerous occasions, and it almost always exposes their anti-gay bigotry right away, even when they were unaware that they had such bigotry.

   The simple truth is that, in a secular democratic republic, there is no legitimate argument to deny queer people any right that is extended to straight people, and there is no legitimate reason to treat queer and non-queer people as though we were two radically different classes of people.

   • 

     CabinGirl on February 13, 2006 at 3:08 pm

     I know that NJ is more reliably ‘democratic’ than PA in terms of passing pro-choice/FP/rape counseling legislation.  Doesn’t surprise me that they would be open to pro-gay marriage legislation too.  As they should be.

8. 

   idredit on February 13, 2006 at 11:49 am

    
   You recall that Ohio coin scandal involving prominet rethuglican Tom Noe?

   Today he got a Valentine coin package of 53 felonies indictment and potential 175 years in a 5 star rebar hotel.

   via thinkprogess here

   Now if only IF ‘please sir can we have some more’?

9. 

   Arcturus on February 13, 2006 at 12:11 pm

   We thought it was bad in Florida or Ohio?

   Preval likely to face runoff in Haiti election

   Former President Rene Preval fell further below the 50 percent he needed to win the Haitian election outright as the counting of ballots continued on Monday and allegations of manipulation mounted.

   Smoke from burning tires rose over the capital of Port-au-Prince from impromptu barricades as suspicions spread among protesting Preval supporters that the count was being tampered with to stop the one-time ally of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from winning a first-round victory.       {snip}

   With 89.9 percent of ballots counted, Preval’s share of the vote in last Tuesday’s largely peaceful but chaotic election had slipped to 48.7 percent by Monday morning, the Provisional Electoral Council said on its Web site.

   When initial results were announced several days ago, Preval held 61 percent of the vote, comfortably over the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff on March 19.

   Another ex-president, Leslie Manigat, had 11.84 percent percent and the main candidate for the business elite, industrialist Charles Baker, was at 7.9 percent.      {snip}

   Preval himself complained that a computer-generated graphic on the electoral council’s Web site had him at 52 percent of the vote at the time the director-general of the council was telling the media that Preval only had 49 percent.     {snip}

   Two of the nine electoral council members, Pierre Richard Duchemin and Patrick Fequiere, also remarked on the discrepancy and said the vote tabulation was being manipulated. link

   Two members of Haiti’s electoral council are charging fraud as early returns show a dwindling lead for Presidential front-runner Rene Preval. Initial results had Preval in the lead with over 60% percent. But with over three quarters of votes counted, Preval’s lead has fallen to 49% — just below the 50% needed to avoid a run-off vote in March. The two election officials say they’ve noticed discrepancies between the official results and the results on the electoral computer system. Pierre Richard Duchemin, who is in charge of the main voting tabulation center, said: “There is an unwholesome manipulation of the data. Nothing is transparent.” Further questions are being raised with the disclosure election officials have counted over 72,000 blank ballots. When counted, the ballots have the effect of lowering a candidate’s percentage — even though they contain no vote. In the capital of Port-au-Prince, over 10,000 Preval supporters took to the streets Sunday demanding a fair vote count.    link

   • 

     Arcturus on February 13, 2006 at 12:47 pm

     from a 2004 article:

     The nine-member electoral council (CEP) was created without the participation of the Lavalas party, which decided to boycott it following waves of arrests and persecutions of Aristide loyalists. As the report further indicated, such situation “has undermined confidence in the panel, and especially in the government’s plans for a computerized voting system that some analysts fear could be manipulated to prevent Aristide’s supporters among the poor majority from determining the outcome. Preparations for the election have been torn by infighting, and the electoral council faces the further challenge of trying to organize high-tech voting with digitized identity cards and electronic voting machines in a country that barely has electricity.”

     In an effort to appease critics of the plan, council chairwoman Roselaure Julien made a public statement last week in which she announced that an agreement was reached between the CEP and the political parties to forgo the electronic voting machines and retain the digitized ID cards instead. It is only in this status quo that one can envision digital ID cards without digital machines. Her statement, which failed to address the prospect of influencing the outcomes of the election, comes months after a power struggle to control the electoral body was made public. The infighting was so heated that both Boniface and Latortue had to intervene in order to keep the actual makeup of the institution. The clash was intended to bring down Julien and replace her with the actual representative of the private sector, which in turn wanted to have complete control over the high-tech aspect of the upcoming elections. Julien “accused her colleagues of a plot to hijack the electoral process and denounced a fierce power struggle among those who helped oust Aristide and said she had come under pressure to resign because she had resisted attempts to influence her. I won’t kneel down, said Julien, I say there should be a free and fair election, not selection, nomination or plebiscite.” In such a context, one must assume that the fight to control the CEP will not go away given that the private sector has no way of capturing the presidency except through electronic ballot.   link

     & from John Maxwell’s Haiti Elections: The ‘Pottery Barn Rules’:

     If you really want to know what’s wrong with Haiti consider this: On Thursday night, when it was clear that Rene Preval was getting something over 60% of the votes in the UN organised Haitian election, one of his opponents, the man coming second with about 12% of the votes was a former stand-in president, Leslie Manigat.

     Manigat, recognising reality, said that the trend suggested that Preval had swept the board and that there might be no need for a runoff.

     The candidate running third, a millionaire sweatshop owner named Charles Henri Baker, had a different opinion. Mr Baker, with about 6% of the vote,one tenth of Preval’s and half as many as Manigat’s, was promising to launch an election petition, charging fraud, hoping to overturn the results.   {snip}

     For the last ten years Charles Henri Baker and an assortment of freebooters like himself, notably fellow sweatshop owners Reginald Boulos and Andy Apaid, have been able to convince the United States that ‘populists’ like Preval and Jean Bertrand Aristide do not represent the Haitian people. The Elite’s stiff-necked refusal to cooperate, negotiate or participate in the democratic process recruited support from the most backward and primitive forces in US politics and effectively brought the operations of Haitian government to a standstill.

     [Just to harp on this again –A]

     In a country of 8 million people with 4 million voters spread over 28,000 sq. km ( about the size of the US state of Maryland and nearly three times the size of Jamaica) there were 800 designated polling stations. about as many as would serve in the city of Kingston, Jamaica. There were three polling stations outside of the main slum cities adjacent to Port au Prince – to serve nearly 300,000 voters. There were none inside.

     • 

       CabinGirl on February 13, 2006 at 12:50 pm

       Im glad you posted these Arcturus.

10. 

    Arcturus on February 13, 2006 at 12:19 pm

    Meanwhile, the US government has served legal papers to seven members of a US Christian group that held a vigil outside the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The group, Witness Against Torture, held a five-day march to the prison in December. Around 500 prisoners are being held at Guantanamo, most without charge. The seven members each face up to 10 years in prison or a $250,000 dollar fine. Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights said: “I find it extremely hypocritical that Washington is investigating this group for the ‘crime’ of traveling to Cuba. The U.S. government is flagrantly violating even the most basic norms of human rights – such as indefinite detention without charges, denial of fair trials and, most importantly, torture.”    link

11. 

    ask on February 13, 2006 at 12:31 pm

    INTERVIEW-U.N. seeks $680 mln in aid for Congo

    BRUSSELS, Feb 12 (Reuters) – The international community must provide $680 million in aid for Congo this year to stop a humanitarian disaster that kills as many people as the 2004 Asian tsunami every six months, a top U.N. official said.
    The United Nations and the European Commission will jointly launch this appeal on Monday at a conference in Brussels, two months before the Democratic Republic of Congo is due to hold landmark elections, U.N Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said.
    “Too few leaders understand that four million people have died and many more can die unless we put it right,” Egeland told Reuters in an interview on Sunday.
    The current daily death rate of 1,200 people was equivalent to a tsunami “every six months, year after year after year,” he added.
    In what some experts call the deadliest humanitarian crisis of the last 60 years, an estimated four million people have died in Congo, mostly from hunger and disease, since civil war began in 1998. It ended officially in 2003, but deaths continue.
    Egeland said the United Nations had so far struggled to get resources because the sprawling central African state was seen as a hopeless case.

12. 

    Damnit Janet on February 13, 2006 at 12:32 pm

    CodePink are terrorists

    • 

      Damnit Janet on February 13, 2006 at 12:33 pm

      “The Hit List

      Below is a list of enemies that pose a considerable threat to the American people. They hate the fact that America is the greatest country in the world and they stand against everything that made America the greatest country in the world. They fight and work alongside terrorists. They actively and openly support those that are trying to cause the destruction of the United States from within. This used to be known as “Treason” and “Sedition” and it used to be punished as such.”

    • 

      ask on February 13, 2006 at 1:07 pm

      What an ugly site, in all respects!

      • 

        Damnit Janet on February 13, 2006 at 1:21 pm

        I sent it on to CodePink.

        They are “targeting” liberals they say. They don’t speak of violence … but have “targets” and photos of several of us from all over. But those could be snatched from the net…

        But they do advocate “punishing” us as traitors and terrorists.

        Very scary. My husband will shit a brick if he sees this site. He’s already nervous about the Intl Womans Day coming up.

        • 

          ask on February 13, 2006 at 1:58 pm

          The wording used on the site was quite disturbing.

          The Hit List

          Below is a list of enemies that pose a considerable threat to the American people. They hate the fact that America is the greatest country in the world and they stand against everything that made America the greatest country in the world. They fight and work alongside terrorists. They actively and openly support those that are trying to cause the destruction of the United States from within. This used to be known as “Treason” and “Sedition” and it used to be punished as such.

          But they are truly pathetic – just follow the link to the so-called “Hate mail”.  Thoughtful, well reasoned letters are considered hate mail.
          Maybe these suckers should just be ignored, the site counter only had 4,550 clicks and some of the documents posted are dated last summer.  Not exactly high traffic.

          • 

            Damnit Janet on February 13, 2006 at 2:30 pm

            I noted the “threat” by the word “punish”…

            Also they updated their “target” of CodePink 2/2/06

13. 

    maryb2004 on February 13, 2006 at 3:40 pm

    Jim Talent and stem cell research are in the sights of Bob Novak.  

    Novak describes the breach in the Republican party over stem cell research as a dispute between the country club Republicans and the religious conservatives and that’s probably as good a way to describe it as any.

    Missouri has been a passionate battleground, beginning with the Civil War and more recently as a weathervane for national elections. The stem cell struggle there reflects nationwide tension between the country club and religious conservatives that has been kept under control in the largely dormant abortion debate. But Democrats want to use stem cell research as a wedge issue in the way Republicans used gay marriage. Talent had a political choice between the country club and his old right-wing constituency, and he picked the country club.

    Bob, being Bob, makes the whole column about himself.  He claims that Talent made his hurried decision to flip flop because Bob and his reporters were getting ready to break the news that Talent was going to flip flop.  (Yeah, whatever).

    But Bob does have good sources on where some of the pressure may be coming from:

    Republican sources say the billion-dollar endowed Stowers Institute in Kansas City, headed by Republican contributors, has threatened to move to Los Angeles if the constitutional amendment is not passed. Such a proposal is the law in California, enabling patent holders for certain research techniques and products to profit heavily.

    And I like the way Bob finishes:

    Talent told me he could not take a position on the amendment because it is not on the ballot, is tied up in court and is not in its final form. In fact, it is sure to be on the ballot, faces no serious legal impediment and clearly permits human cloning in scientific research. Jim Talent, having stationed himself in the middle of the road on a passion-provoking issue, risks being run over.

    I’m hopeful that the Show Me state Democrats will be able to show Democrats in other states how to pick a wedge issue that favors the Democrats. So far, its looking good.

14. 

    idredit on February 13, 2006 at 4:12 pm

    Those are not my words. Read on.

    GOPs are not happy campers, maybe running scared they’ll lose control of Senate and House at mid-term ’06. The in fighting has begun.

    Not looking pretty. For those who missed it CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) met over the weekend. Looks like the party is breaking out in more than just fists fights. Don’t call the fire department just yet.

    Here are some samplings:

    “Bush is spending money like a pimp with a week to live” – Jonah Goldberg  Is that you Jonah? Can’t believe my lying eyes.

    “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy” – a soon to be released book by Bruce Bartlett, ex Reagan domestic-policy adviser

    Gov. Rick Perry of TX, yea that one, chided Bush ‘for failing to secure the borders.’ You’re sporting.

    Rove called Rep. Tom Tancredo a “traitor”?  True to form Karl.

    Bob Barr said Bush is wrong to conduct warrantless spying of Americans. Some booed but on this side we all agree. Would you like to manage the impeachment Bob..erm like you did for Bill?

    go read the rest  here

    Ya think the next poll will have his numbers at 40% approval?