Monday News Bucket

21 Comments

1. 

   Family Man on July 9, 2007 at 7:48 am

   If you’re trying to conserve water by not watering your lawn, then it’s best if you don’t live in Orem, Utah.

   Your lawn might be next.

2. 

   CabinGirl on July 9, 2007 at 7:49 am

   collapsing with the poll numbers: NYT

   White House officials fear that the last pillars of political support among Senate Republicans for President Bush’s Iraq strategy are collapsing around them, according to several administration officials and outsiders they are consulting. They say that inside the administration, debate is intensifying over whether Mr. Bush should try to prevent more defections by announcing his intention to begin a gradual withdrawal of American troops from the high-casualty neighborhoods of Baghdad and other cities…

   …Four more Republican senators have recently declared that they can no longer support Mr. Bush’s strategy, including senior lawmakers who until now had expressed their doubts only privately. As a result, some aides are now telling Mr. Bush that if he wants to forestall more defections, it would be wiser to announce plans for a far more narrowly defined mission for American troops that would allow for a staged pullback, a strategy that he rejected in December as a prescription for defeat when it was proposed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.

   “When you count up the votes that we’ve lost and the votes we’re likely to lose over the next few weeks, it looks pretty grim,” said one senior official, who, like others involved in the discussions, would not speak on the record about internal White House deliberations.

   The GOP thinks things are looking pretty grim? Nowhere near as grim as multiple deployments to a war based on lies, I’m sure…

   • 

     idredit on July 9, 2007 at 10:20 am

     Tattered nerves…longing for it to be over

     from Andrew Sullivan, The Sunday Times UK

     Emperor Bush unnerves the Republicans

     here’s the scary money graph:

     “[T]he only thing Washington loves less than a lame-duck president is a completely unpredictable lame-duck president. They are scared that he could do anything, without real consultation. The Libby decision was made just like the decision to author-ise torture: it was done outside the normal channels of government, blindsiding key aides, and shocking the establishment. If he did this once – and he has done it many times – he could do it again. And so, for all his failure and polling dive, he retains the capacity for surprise. Which is the capacity for relevance.

     This is all he’s got left. The mighty power of the presidency, a predilection for sudden action, and absolutely nothing to lose. This lame duck, in other words, could quack or fly without warning. And Washington, for all its increasingly open contempt for him, is rattled by the possibility. They don’t know what’s coming; but they know they’ll have to adjust.

     In this, perhaps for the first time, even Republicans are having a familiar experience. They now know what it’s like to be a European with this president. And they are longing for it to be over. “

     • 

       CabinGirl on July 9, 2007 at 10:27 am

       Gee, we’ve all been afraid what the crazy man in the White House might do for years now with his rubber-stampers backing him every step of the way…those GOPers were just loving him when they were in control, weren’t they?

     • 

       dada on July 9, 2007 at 12:42 pm

       poor, poor little george…nobody loves him but his mother, and she could be jivin’ too…

       Lonely and lame, Bush agonises over legacy

       A backlash against his decision on Monday to commute the jail sentence of the former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby was followed on Thursday by the withdrawal of support for his Iraq strategy by Pete Domenici, a Republican senator for 35 years. The loss of such a loyal senator is ominous for Mr Bush’s war plans.

       More defections are expected, and Mr Bush cuts a lonely figure, holed up in the White House fretting over his legacy.

       Professor Robert Dallek, author of several books about the presidency, said that while it was not unusual for a president to limp to the end of his term as a lame duck, he saw Mr Bush as a particularly pronounced case. “If you are looking at defeat, no one wants to be associated with the person responsible. This is the case with Bush. You do not see his party rally round. He has united opinion against him and it makes for a lonely, isolated position,” Prof Dallek said. “Once a president loses trust, he cannot govern effectively.”

       […]

       But Prof Dallek remains unimpressed. Rating the worst presidents, he said: “Hoover was a disaster. Warren Harding rates very low in the pantheon of presidents and it is likely that Bush will be seen as a bottom feeder.”

       Guardian UK 7 july 07

       lTMF’sA

       

3. 

   CabinGirl on July 9, 2007 at 7:56 am

   WashPo

   The Bush administration has failed to fill roughly a quarter of the top leadership posts at the Department of Homeland Security, creating a “gaping hole” in the nation’s preparedness for a terrorist attack or other threat, according to a congressional report to be released today.

4. 

   CabinGirl on July 9, 2007 at 7:59 am

   seems even Laura Bush doesn’t think abstinence-only is a very good idea: Ms magazine

   First Lady Laura Bush revealed recently that, while she believes that abstinence education is an important component of HIV prevention efforts, she would be supportive of waiving the earmark mandating that 33 percent of US prevention funds be spent of abstinence-only programs. In an interview with CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux during a trip through several African countries, Laura Bush commented that condoms are “absolutely necessary” and that she was “perfectly fine” with the proposed idea — now passed in the House and introduced in the Senate — that the abstinence only provision be waived from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

   When are we going to stop throwing money away on abstinence-only funding?  And why do the Dems support this rightwing boondoggle?

5. 

   Oui on July 9, 2007 at 8:52 am

   .

   Iraqis Urged to Take Up Arms for Defense

   BAGHDAD (AP) – Prominent Shiite and Sunni politicians called on Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of violence that claimed more than 220 lives, including 60 who died Sunday in a surge of bombings and shootings around Baghdad. The calls reflect growing frustration with the inability of Iraqi security forces to prevent extremist attacks.

   The string of attacks in the Iraqi capital showed that extremists can still unleash strikes in the city despite a relative lull in violence here in recent weeks amid the U.S. offensives in and around Baghdad.

   …
   But the bloodshed in the Baghdad area paled in comparison to the carnage Saturday when a truck bomb devastated the public market in Armili.

   Turkish military air ambulances evacuated 21 people wounded in the attack for treatment in Turkish hospitals, the country’s Foreign Ministry said. Turkey feels special responsibility for its ethnic brethren, the Turkoman, who speak a Turkic language.

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

   • 

     CabinGirl on July 9, 2007 at 10:29 am

     Well, if the Iraqis arm themselves, does that count as “standing up so we can stand down” and now our military can leave?

6. 

   idredit on July 9, 2007 at 9:46 am

   Another example of outsourcing. From Wapo:

   Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire

   The most intriguing secrets of the “war on terror” have nothing to do with al-Qaeda and its fellow travelers. They’re about the mammoth private spying industry that all but runs U.S. intelligence operations today.  
   Surprised? No wonder. In April, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was poised to publicize a year-long examination of outsourcing by U.S. intelligence agencies. But the report was inexplicably delayed — and suddenly classified a national secret. What McConnell doesn’t want you to know is that the private spy industry has succeeded where no foreign government has: It has penetrated the CIA and is running the show.”

   For those who missed this:

   Judges OK warrantless monitoring of Web use
   Privacy rules don’t apply to Internet messages, court says

   “Federal agents do not need a search warrant to monitor a suspect’s computer use and determine the e-mail addresses and Web pages the suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.”

   Chip, chip, chip away….till  there’s nothing left to chip. Take my keyboard.

   • 

     CabinGirl on July 9, 2007 at 10:29 am

     Privacy…going the way of LP records and rotary telephones.

7. 

   CabinGirl on July 9, 2007 at 9:56 am

   With W leading the way in the battle against children: NYT

   The fight over a popular health insurance program for children is intensifying, with President Bush now leading efforts to block a major expansion of the program, which is a top priority for Congressional Democrats.

   President Bush has opposed the Congressional Democrats’ proposals to increase spending on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

   The seemingly uncontroversial goal of insuring more children has become the focus of an ideological battle between the White House and Congress. The fight epitomizes fundamental disagreements over the future of the nation’s health care system and the role of government.

   Democrats have proposed a major expansion of the program, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, to cover more youngsters with a substantial increase in federal spending.

   Disgusting.

8. 

   idredit on July 9, 2007 at 10:28 am

   Years late and an hour short  

   THE former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today’s conflict cannot be resolved by US forces.

   “I tried to avoid this war,” Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. “I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers.”

   Dude STFU. This is no time for attonement.  Your resignation then and there would have sent a powerful message.

   • 

     CabinGirl on July 9, 2007 at 10:30 am

     Two and a half hours qualifies as a valiant effort?  Puh-leeze.

     • 

       BrendaStewart on July 9, 2007 at 11:36 am

       well, 2 and 1/2 hours is a bit excessive in my opinion, considering that powell shuld have known that after the first 5 minutes that w’s attention spand was over.  he should have gottent he clue right then and there…;o)  hugs good to be with you today.

       • 

         BrendaStewart on July 9, 2007 at 11:49 am

         Please let me make a correction here on the time limit…maybe 2 and one-half seconds should have been the clue..;o)

       • 

         CabinGirl on July 9, 2007 at 11:59 am

         I think you’re right…W’s brain probably shut down the second he realized Colin wasn’t going to just agree with him and tell him he was brilliant.

         • 

           idredit on July 9, 2007 at 12:34 pm

           CG;BS – the prez of the USA as in current POTUS? OMG.

           He’s long been brain dead – right after the shock.  Harry told him he was smart – the smartest man she’d ever met. Just goes to show the level of intelligence, so little – yet they’ve managed to outsmart us in 2 elections and a march into 2 wars.

9. 

   dada on July 9, 2007 at 12:28 pm

   China rejects binding target to cut greenhouse gas emissions

   David Adam, environment correspondent
   Friday July 6, 2007
   The Guardian

   China will not agree any form of binding target to reduce its soaring greenhouse gas emissions as part of a new international deal on climate change, a senior official confirmed yesterday.

   Lu Xuedu, deputy director of the Chinese government’s office of global environmental affairs, said it “was not the time” for China to consider binding commitments, and he criticised developed countries for playing what he called the “games of children” over global warming.But Mr Xuedu said China had not ruled out binding targets in future. “For the time being we don’t have that capability to make those commitments. We hope we will have that capability very soon but it depends on the development process,” he said in evidence to the UK joint committee on climate change. “When we can take such binding commitments will depend on our capability, our economical development level.”

   […]

   Link

   this on the heels of a study by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency that concluded China has overtaken the US as the world’s biggest CO2 emitter…

   at the rate china’s growing, re: pollutant levels, it may not make a hell of a lot of difference what anyone else does…tipping point?…what tipping point.

   lTMF’sA

   

10. 

    JanetT in MD on July 9, 2007 at 4:29 pm

    This is hysterical:  

    Bar-exam flunker sues: Wannabe rejects gay-wed question, law

    One domestic law question used a married lesbian couple as the example (since gay marriage is LEGAL there now!), and he refused to answer it on the grounds it violated his religious beliefs…. and he failed the bar exam (having missed a few other questions, apparently).  And now he’s suing…  The funny thing is, had he even attempted to answer the question, ignoring the gender of the couple, he might have actually gotten enough points to pass….  

    Some amusing commentary here.

11. 

    Oui on July 9, 2007 at 5:02 pm

    .

    Bush denies Congress access to aides

    WASHINGTON – President Bush invoked executive privilege to deny requests by Congress for testimony from two former aides about the firings of federal prosecutors. “The president feels compelled to assert executive privilege with respect to the testimony sought from Sara M. Taylor and Harriet E. Miers.”

    In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary panels, White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in good faith and refused lawmakers’ demand that the president explain the basis for invoking the privilege.

    “You may be assured that the president’s assertion here comports with prior practices in similar contexts, and that it has been appropriately documented,” the letter said.

    Fielding was responding to a 10 a.m. EDT deadline set by the Democratic chairmen, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Conyers, for the White House to explain it’s privilege claim, prove that the president personally invoked it and provide logs of which documents were being withheld.

    Retorted House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers:

    “Contrary what the White House may believe, it is the Congress and the courts that will decide whether an invocation of executive privilege is valid, not the White House unilaterally,” the Michigan Democrat said in a statement.

    The exchange was the latest step in a slow-motion legal waltz between the White House and lawmakers toward eventual contempt-of-Congress citations. If neither side yields, the matter could land in federal court.

    "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."