OpEdNews - Diary: Does ExxonMobil Pay the New York Times a Premium to Run Ads Next to Global Warming Stories?

This is a pattern with ExxonMobil, which seems to always just happen to run a corporate responsibility ad next to NYT op-eds and stories that have to do with global warming. So is the NYT ad sales staff selling against this content? Does ExxonMobil have a standing request to place ads next to global warming content? Or is it all a coincidence?

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DIANE'S NEWS CLIPS begins here :)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> Submitted by: http://eddiestinson@gmail.com Mother Jones http://www.motherjones.com Does ExxonMobil Pay the New York Times a Premium to Run Ads Next to Global Warming Stories? ... By Clara Jeffery This is a pattern with ExxonMobil, which seems to always just happen to run a corporate responsibility ad next to NYT op-eds and stories that have to do with global warming. So is the NYT ad sales staff selling against this content? Does ExxonMobil have a standing request to place ads next to global warming content? Or is it all a coincidence? (And don't forget that ExxonMobil also sponsored all the major election coverage in 2006. Maybe because it didn't like the fact that lawmakers were beginning to stand up to it.) December 29, 2006 >> http://snipurl.com/16qfb ----- The most amazing space photographs in the universe : http://snipurl.com/16p96 _________________________________ Submitted by: http://jablankfort@earthlink.net Analysis: Arabian Medicis By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE UPI Editor at Large WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- When King Abd al-Aziz -- also known as Ibn Saud -- died in 1953, he left 44 sons and uncounted daughters by 17 wives. He used to break up the monotony of daylong cabinet meetings with intimate interludes selected from a catalogue that contained pictures of over 600 concubines. Founded by Abd al-Aziz in 1932, modern Saudi Arabia is an oligarchy of 7,000 male princes. The royals number an estimated 21,000 (including up to 4 wives allowed by the Koran). King Abdullah, who succeeded the late King Fahd in August 2005, is the fifth son of the founder to mount the throne as the guardian of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. First among royals are known as the "Sudairi Seven," which comprised seven brothers with the same mother, who was the founder's favorite wife, Al-Fadha bint Asi al-Shuraim. Surviving Sudairis are in their late seventies and include next in line to mount the throne Prince Sultan, the defense minister, who is the father of Prince Bandar, the national security adviser to the king and former ambassador to the U.S. He is known to see himself as a future kingmaker. His unique global Rolodex of the planet's powers that be also puts him in a stable of dark horses. Interlocking royal blood relationships give over 100 princes and one princess commanding positions throughout the government, armed forces and National Guard. Only finance and petroleum are under non-royal technocrats, a safeguard against any one royal acquiring control of the kingdom's income stream. After Sultan, who recently recovered from stomach cancer, the most popular royal, Salman bin Abd al-Aziz, now the governor of Riyadh, may become king. But younger princes are growing restless, some Iraq-weary of the post-World War II alliance with the U.S., others impatient with the slow pace of political reform, and still others against reform. Like the 15th century House of Medici, the House of Saud brought renaissance to a medieval Arabian peninsula. But like the Medicis, it weaves a tale of intrigue that spins tangled passions, ambition, treachery and revenge. More opaque than the Iron Curtain of Cold War shame, a sand curtain shields Saudi Arabia's ruling family from the prying eyes and ears of foreign intelligence. Until very recently, that is. Two days after hosting a dinner at his residence attended by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, CIA Director Michael Hayden and White House consigliere on terrorism Fran Townsend, at which he praised the present warm state of Saudi-U.S. relations, Saudi Ambassador Prince Turki al-Faisal, the son of the late king Faisal, assassinated in 1975, abruptly resigned. He had been on the job only 16 months, and much of that time visiting 37 states. As the former head of Saudi intelligence for a quarter of a century, who suddenly resigned two weeks before 9/11, Turki's abrupt exit from Washington, without the usual round of diplomatic farewells, was bound to send the rumor mill into overdrive. Which is precisely what Turki intended. It was a tale of two channels. In his private talks with U.S. national security officials, journalists and other foreign diplomats, Turki had been advising the U.S. to engage in direct talks with Iran, which is the kingdom's principal rival for influence in the oil-rich Gulf. "We talk to Iran all the time," Turki told this reporter, "why can't you?" The man who ran the $600 million a year Saudi operation to evict the Soviets from Afghanistan in the 1980s was convinced the recommendation by the Baker-Hamilton Commission report to talk to Tehran was the only way to persuade the mullahocracy to forgo their nuclear weapons option. But other, currently more influential, voices among the Saudi royals, were truculently bellicose. Proselytized by Prince Bandar, the kingdom's national security chief, and Turki's predecessor in Washington for a record-setting 22 years, king Abdullah, Defense Minister Sultan, and Interior Minister Naif bin Abd al-Aziz, also a Sudairi Seven, had become convinced that nothing short of military action would deter Iran from becoming the world's 10th nuclear power. There is a growing convergence of opinion among the leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt that only an aerial bombardment of 17 known nuclear sites could retard Iran's nuclear ambitions by five to 10 years. One U.S. intel topsider remarked (not for attribution), "If we can gain five years that way, it's worth considering." He speculated Iran's moderate reformers could gain power in the interim, Royal hawks remembered how Iranian pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard) agitators had joined the annual pilgrimage to Mecca to stir up the masses of worshippers and provoke a coup against the ruling Saudi family. In the early 1980s, several hundred were killed in clashes with Saudi law enforcement. The Saudis can also see Iran becoming the big winner in the wake of a U.S. disaster in Iraq. And unless the U.S. ceased pampering Iraq's Shiites at the expense of the Sunnis, or precipitously withdrew from Iraq, the kingdom would have to openly side with the Sunni insurgency, supplying both arms and funding to Iraq's Sunni minority. This, in turn, could agitate Saudi minority Shiites that live and work in the eastern oil fields. Since Turki became ambassador, Bandar made several secret trips to the U.S., ostensibly to visit his palatial Aspen mansion (56,000 square feet, larger than the White House, set on its own mountain top of 95 acres, that includes 15 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms with 24-karat gold fixtures, now listed for sale at $135 million). But Bandar had permission to land at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington, ostensibly for refueling, which allowed him to move incognito to Camp David for meetings with National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley. Bandar also met with NSC Middle East Director Elliott Abrams, a prominent neocon. Turki believes he was kept in the dark about a number of important meetings on his own turf, as it were. Turki was also angered that his own king had asked Vice President Dick Cheney to meet with him at short notice in Riyadh, but Turki was not invited to attend, an unusual omission as such summit meetings go. Bandar, not the ailing and longest serving Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Feisal, 75, who is Turki's brother, wrote the post-summit briefing for Turki. Last month, Bandar also met secretly with Israeli, Egyptian and Jordanian national security and intelligence chiefs in Sharm El Sheikh at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula. His American, Israeli and Arab interlocutors share his alarm over Iran's nuclear ambitions and believe preemptive air strikes will become necessary in 2007. A new existential alliance appears to be in gestation against Iran's nuclear program. Since the 1973-74 oil embargo and skyrocketing oil prices, the Saudi-led, six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the latest defense hardware from the U.S., U.K. and France. Saudi Arabia alone, with a population of 21 million and oil revenue of $500 million a day, bought $268.6 billion worth of armaments since 1990, proportionally more than India or China, each with populations of more than one billion, writes Youssef Ibrahim, a prominent Arab American journalist. But the "Gulfies" know they're no match for the Iranian military with eight years of war fighting experience following Iraq's 1980 invasion. A nuclear-tipped Iran, undeterred by the U.N. Security Council's slap-on-the-wrist sanctions vote, has alarmed all six countries, from Oman to Kuwait. They, too, are now planning a "peaceful" nuclear power program. The GCC Arabs are also planning their largest ever joint exercise -- Peninsula Shield -- to test interoperability. By reinforcing their naval presence inside and outside the Gulf, the U.S., Britain, and Gulf navies keep demonstrating that the military option is very much on the table. A second U.S. carrier task force will be on station in early 2007. Gulf countries possess over half the world's oil reserves. Conversely, Iran is honing its retaliatory capabilities. Several hundred Hamas operatives recently left Gaza for Iran for special training by Revolutionary Guards, according to Israeli intelligence. Iran has also re-equipped Hezbollah in Lebanon with thousands of missiles and rockets to replace those fired at Israeli targets for 34 days last summer. Next on the Mideast's geopolitical menu: protracted sectarian warfare, a spike in oil prices, escalating to a Saudi-Iranian confrontation over the future of Iraq. © Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc http://snipurl.com/16nnu _________________________________ [NEWSDISSECTOR] The Day of The Donkey On The Hill DEMS TAKE OVER IN CONGRESS ... CHENEY BOOTED FROM OFFICE ... DANGERS OF WIFI SPYING http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2007/01/05/the-day-of-the-donkey-on-the-hill/ _________________________________ Excerpted from: http://www.truthout.org Hurricane Center Chief Issues Final Warning http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507P.shtml Frustrated with people and politicians who refuse to listen or learn, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield ends his 34-year government career today in search of a new platform for getting out his unwelcome message: Hurricane Katrina was nothing compared with the big one yet to come. --- Ray McGovern and W. Patrick Lang | CIA Immune System Still Working http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507M.shtml "Lies have consequences. All those who helped President George W. Bush launch a war of aggression - termed by Nuremberg 'the supreme international crime' - have blood on their hands and must be held accountable. This includes corrupt intelligence officials. Otherwise, look for them to perform the same service in facilitating war on Iran," write Ray McGovern and W. Patrick Lang. --- Biden: Bush Pushing War Loss to Next President http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507L.shtml Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Delaware), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he believes top officials in the Bush administration have privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster so the next president will "be the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof," in a chaotic withdrawal reminiscent of Vietnam. --- French President Chirac Slams Iraq War as Boost to Terrorism http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507C.shtml French President Jacques Chirac has unleashed a torrent of criticism against the US-led war in Iraq, saying the conflict, which he fiercely opposed, had boosted the spread of terrorism. --- Bill Moyers | For America's Sake http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507J.shtml [snip] ... Bill Moyers says, "Everywhere you turn you'll find people who believe they have been written out of the story. Everywhere you turn there's a sense of insecurity grounded in a gnawing fear that freedom in America has come to mean the freedom of the rich to get richer even as millions of Americans are dumped from the Dream. [snip] --- US Launches Major Assault in Diyala Province, Iraq http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507E.shtml About 1,000 US and Iraqi troops launched a major offensive at dawn Thursday in Diyala province, ...[snip] --- Egyptian President Mubarak Slams Hussein Execution http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507F.shtml Saddam Hussein was made into "a martyr" by the manner of his execution, the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, warned today, saying he had urged Washington not to hang him during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. --- Waxman Launches New Committee to Monitor Bush Administration http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507N.shtml --- Iraq Postpones Execution of Saddam Aides http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507O.shtml Iraq postponed executing two of Saddam Hussein's henchmen amid international pressure following the ousted dictator's bungled and much criticized hanging. --- Conduct Charges Might Help Watada's Defense http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507K.shtml Army prosecutors might have unwittingly aided the defense of the Fort Lewis officer they're trying for his refusal to deploy to Iraq. [snip] --- Paul Krugman | First, Do Less Harm http://snipurl.com/16hy7 --- New UN Chief Calls for Resignations of 30 UN Officials http://snipurl.com/16qac _________________________________ BUSH BUMPER STICKER: Hey Bush Supporters: Embarrassed Yet? _________________________________ .ron corvuswire@verizon.net Saddam Copycat Hanging - 10 yr. old boy http://snipurl.com/16otl --- Three children die in copycat Saddam hangings The deaths of an American boy, a teenage girl in India and a boy in Pakistan have been linked to the television coverage of Saddam Hussein's execution. Relatives told police in Webster, Texas, that 10-year-old Sergio Pelico had seen the video of the former Iraqi leader's hanging and asked about it before the child hung himself on Sunday. [snip] http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=175316 _________________________________ Excerpted from: http://mediamatters.org Leaked Giuliani document lays out his potential political troubles -- and still the media look away Read more >> VIDEO: http://mediamatters.org/items/200701040004?src=other --- Question the media should ask Giuliani: Whodunit? Read more >> http://mediamatters.org/items/200701040012?src=other --- Imus sat by as McCain said Nelson resigned RNC over Ford ad Don Imus didn't challenge John McCain's claim that his 2008 presidential campaign manager, Terry Nelson, while serving as head of the independent expenditure unit of the Republican National Committee, "realized it was a mistake" to sign off on an ad attacking Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. and that Nelson subsequently "resigned from the group of people who approved of it." In fact, Nelson has publicly defended the ad, and there is no apparent evidence that Nelson "resigned" from his RNC position in protest over the ad. Read more >> VIDEO: http://mediamatters.org/items/200701040008?src=other --- CNN used coffee klatch at Baltimore diner to challenge its own poll On the January 4 edition of CNN's American Morning, CNN national correspondent Bob Franken set out to determine what "the voters think" by talking with four customers in Baltimore's Sip & Bite diner, who he said were "real crabby about [the new] Congress." Franken contrasted their opinions with the results of CNN's own national poll showing that most respondents were optimistic about the new Congress. Read more >> VIDEO: http://mediamatters.org/items/200701040009?src=other --- Robertson dubiously claimed "relatively good track record" on predictions [snip] ... a review of Robertson's 2006 New Year's predictions undermines that claim. He predicted, for example, that: Read more >> VIDEO: http://snipurl.com/16nk0 --- Novak repeated myth about Casey at 1992 Dem convention Read more >> http://mediamatters.org/items/200701040013?src=other _________________________________ 100 YEARS LATER, THE FOOD INDUSTRY IS STILL 'THE JUNGLE' Amherst Times.com - Amherst,NY,USA ... As a result of Sinclair's crusade, Congress passed the Food and Drug Act, which had been effectively blocked by industry. At the ... http://www.amhersttimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3819&Itemid=27 _________________________________ http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/ | http://www.watchingamerica.com/index.shtml _________________________________ ........................Create your own home page What's the first thing you like to see when you open your Web browser? Personally, I want quick access to information. I like to have search tools at my fingertips, along with other reference tools. But, at the same time, I like to have fun stuff, too. That's what's so great about today's Cool Site: You can customize it to suit your tastes. You can start a Web search, or you can look up terms in a number of specialized dictionaries. Then there are the fun parts. There's a horoscope section, games, quotes and articles. Don't like these sections? Simply remove them and replace them with something that interests you. Nifty!TO VISIT TODAY'S COOL SITE, GO HERE: http://www.thefreedictionary.com --- HEADS-UP >> Adobe: Upgrade to Reader 8 | http://snipurl.com/16od5 A recently discovered Adobe Reader flaw has raised concern among security experts. Any site hosting PDF files could be used to exploit the flaw. But there is a quick fix: Adobe urges users to upgrade to the latest version of the program immediately. Be sure to listen to me Monday through Friday. Use my map to find me near you http://www.komando.com/listen/index.aspx _________________________________ eHEALTHY NEWS The Hidden Dangers of the Explosion of Bottled Water Use - More than half of you reading this drink bottled water. Find out the problems with this choice. http://snipurl.com/16nkq ----- Seven Secret Ways to Improve Dinner With Your Family - Mealtimes can be an enormously powerful tool to nurture the development of your family. Use these little-known tips to improve the mental health of your family. http://snipurl.com/16nkx ----- How You Can Help Improve Food in Your Child's School - Just like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, there is a new movement underway to address the atrocious food -- which is accelerating the obesity epidemic -- that is being served in many of our schools. http://snipurl.com/16nl5 _________________________________ VIDEO Schneider's 2nd Stage | 17:04 | 4.3 | 15,020 plays | 10/21/03 Director: Phil Stoole | United Kingdom A seemingly innocent drive into the woods leads to a nightmarish game of cat and mouse. Catch the superb thriller starring Kenneth Branagh! http://snipurl.com/1030s _________________________________ NationalGeographic.com http://lava.nationalgeographic.com/pod/ _________________________________ NASA Astronomy picture of the day http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html _________________________________ Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. ~ Cyril Connolly