49 QuickLinks

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
KRUGMAN: It's The Dollar, Stupid! (Excerpts)
(3 comments) Bush Explains How He's Screwing The American Worker

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Taxpayers, beware: IRS has stepped up its audits
(3 comments) As if tax season isn't bad enough, don't be surprised this year if you get audited by the IRS. More taxpayers in Utah and nationally are getting audit notices these days as the Internal Revenue Service steps up its enforcement efforts to capture a greater portion of the taxes that are going un- paid. It doesn't matter how much you earn, what you do for a living or if you ever have had a problem with your tax return before.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
House Conservatives Prepare Austere Alternative Anti-Worker Budget
(3 comments) With Congress heading into a politically perilous budget season, influential House conservatives plan this week to propose an austere alternative spending plan that would pare more than $650 billion over five years, balance the budget and drastically shrink three cabinet agencies.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Debt Limit: Cut the cards
(3 comments) Perhaps this has happened to you: There it is, a brand new "Whatever." It's shiny, dazzling really, and even though you cannot afford it, you decide you must buy it anyway. You slip a credit card out of your wallet, give it to the cashier and your dream is interrupted. "Sorry," the cashier says, "your card has been declined." Then the card is taken away and snipped in half. This is a jarring message about reaching one's debt limit. The U.S. Treasury is in a similar predicament. Except when one card is declined, our banker in chief reaches into another wallet and produces yet another card. Sure, this is all paper shuffling but it's a metaphor for the sleazy way government is funded.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
We cannot tolerate children dying for a glass of water
(3 comments) The rich world must act to prevent dirty water and poor sanitation now killing more than a million children a year

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Patriot Act Plus 'Unitary Executive' Give Bush Unbridled Power Over Constitution & Citizens In 1st US Dictatorship
(3 comments) Passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Patriot Act greatly expanded the authority to investigate terror suspects. Critics have said, however, that it infringes on personal privacy by allowing investigators access to information like medical and library records.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
World in peril, Chomsky tells overflow crowd
(3 comments) There are dire consequences to the current direction of the U.S. foreign policy, said Noam Chomsky in a speech Saturday at Binghamton University. Among those consequences, he said, is a nuclear Armageddon. "Under the current U.S. policies, a nuclear exchange is inevitable," the 77-year-old MIT professor said in his presentation, "Imminent Crises: Paths Toward Solutions." He spoke to an over-capacity crowd in BU's Osterhout Concert Theater. Chomsky cited nuclear proliferation and environmental collapse as the two greatest crises that "literally threaten survival."

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Former aide to Powell: authorization for torture came from “the very top”
(3 comments) The CBS News program, “60 Minutes”, broadcast a segment Sunday night examining the brutal deaths of two Afghan prisoners at the hands of American military jailers in December 2002. The program included the accusation that authorization for the murderous abuse came from the “very top of the United States government.”

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
'Moscow Times' Covers Diebold, Crumbling American Electoral System
(3 comments) If only American Media would cover the fall of American Democracy as closely as the Moscow Times does. Remember what the Wingnuts like to say: The world is watching.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
General Condemnation
(3 comments) Interview: Retired Lieutenant General William Odom was the director of the National Security Agency between 1985 and 1988. Currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University, Odom has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s foreign policy. You’ve described Iraq as the greatest strategic mistake that the United States has ever made. Could you elaborate on that?

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Source to Matthews: From The Moment Cheney Was Elected “All He Wanted To Know About” Was Iraq
(3 comments) Yesterday on Hardball, Chris Matthews revealed that a well-placed source told him Cheney was set on invading Iraq as soon as he was elected Vice President. Watch it: HERE

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
WSJ’s Taranto: Gitmo Detainees “Lucky To Be There”
(3 comments) Here’s Taranto’s take: It may be that many of the Gitmo detainees are lucky to be there–and the self-styled do-gooders who are trying to get them out would condemn them to a much worse fate.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Displaced Iraqis Have Better Voting Opportunities Than Displaced Katrina Victims
(3 comments) The NAACP estimates that “66 percent of those displaced are outside of Louisiana,” but a federal judge last month refused to “order Louisiana officials to provide out-of-state satellite polling places for displaced voters” in the primary. Instead, over 700,000 former city residents will receive “information packets” about how to vote by absentee ballot. (Worse, the address the city has on file may be unreliable.) In response, local leaders have wondered why Iraqis living in the U.S. were given this right, yet African-Americans are not.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Some Sleeping Pill Users Range Far Beyond Bed
(3 comments) With a tendency to stare zombie-like and run into stationary objects, a new species of impaired motorist is hitting the roads: the Ambien driver.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
UK beef export ban lifted by EU
(3 comments) A worldwide ban on British beef exports has been lifted by the EU - 10 years after it was introduced to prevent the spread of mad cow disease.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Gallup: Bush disapproval rating lowest of any president since Nixon
(3 comments) More than 4 in 10 Americans strongly disapproving of the job George W. Bush is doing as president, according to the latest CNN/Gallup poll, the lowest of any president except Nixon in the waning months of his presidency. Just 40 percent of Americans believe Bush can manage the country effectively; Bush registers a 38% approval rating with a 60% disapproval rating. When Americans were asked a follow-up of whether they strongly approve or disapprove of Bush, more than twice as many Americans say they strongly disapprove (44%) as say they strongly approve (20%) of Bush. The strong disapproval rating is the highest Gallup has measured for Bush by a percentage point, and is the highest for any president since Richard Nixon during the Watergate era. Nixon is the only other president to register strong disapproval ratings above 40% in Gallup Polls.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
42,000 at GM to have their pensions cut
(3 comments) Automaker says huge loss in 2005 forced changes

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
'Hurricane Cowboy' Visits Gulf Coast AGAIN
(3 comments) Six months after Hurricane Katrina hammered the Gulf Coast, Idiot-in-Chief Bush returned Wednesday for a firsthand look at the slow-moving recovery and rebuilding efforts that have left many residents frustrated and angry.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
N. Korea Test-Fires Two Missiles
(3 comments) North Korea fired two surface-to-air missiles near its border with China that apparently landed in North Korean territory, a Japanese news agency reported, citing security sources.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
102 Irish Priests Suspected of Abuse
(3 comments) The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Dublin said Wednesday that 102 of its priests are suspected of sexually or physically abusing at least 350 children since 1940 — the biggest such admission to date in Ireland.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Rumsfeld: Al-Qaida may be behind media reports on Iraq
(3 comments) Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said today that the U.S. news media is to blame for the public's poor perception of the war in Iraq, suggesting that "al-Qaida media committees" are succeeding in filling Americans' minds with incorrect and unduly negative reports about the situation on the ground. Although he didn't say so, Rumsfeld seemed to be focused on a disputed Washington Post report that put the death toll from sectarian violence at about 1,300 when many other media outlets were reporting numbers in the 300-400 range. "Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side," Rumsfeld said at a news conference. "It isn't as though there simply have been a series of random errors on both sides of issues. On the contrary, the steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq." Rumsfeld is a fine one to talk about media errors and exaggerations. It was Rumsfeld, after all, who said unequivocally before the war that Saddam Hussein "possesses chemical and biological weapons." It was Rumsfeld who said that "we know" where those weapons are. And it was Rumsfeld who told anyone who'd listen that the war would probably take no more than a matter of months. None of that stopped Rumsfeld from throwing stones today, nor did his admitted lack of proof for any link between the U.S. media and al-Qaida...Talk about a bunch of whinning chickenhawks...

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
RAIMONDO: Biddle's Pivot
(3 comments) The ominous implications of a new strategy for winning the war in Iraq

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Ivins: Enough of the D.C. Dems
(3 comments) Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton. I will not be supporting Senator Clinton because: a) she has no clear stand on the war and b) Terri Schiavo and flag-burning are not issues where you reach out to the other side and try to split the difference. You want to talk about lowering abortion rates through cooperation on sex education and contraception, fine, but don’t jack with stuff that is pure rightwing firewater. I can’t see a damn soul in D.C. except Russ Feingold who is even worth considering for President. The rest of them seem to me so poisonously in hock to this system of legalized bribery they can’t even see straight.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Iran Offers to Suspend Uranium Enrichment
(3 comments) Iran Offers to Suspend Full-Scale Uranium Enrichment for Up to Two Years, Diplomat Says

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Al Franken Getting Progressives Organized with Midwest Values PAC
(3 comments) We've had actors, physicians, and exterminators run for office. Is radio show host, "Saturday Night Live" alumnus, and author Al Franken ready to become a Prime Time player? He is thinking about it. Franken is smart, progressive, and a great voice for the disenchanted. On his Air America radio show, he hosts an array of brilliant progressives, exploring political topics in depth and in fun. Franken is considering a run for the senate, to oppose Norm Coleman of Minnesota. Meanwhile, his newest venture is the Midwest Values PAC, which aims to support progressive/liberal activists with a community network, and help get good people elected. Sounds like a plan.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
KRUGMAN; Feeling No Pain
(3 comments) President Bush's main purpose in visiting India seems to have been to promote nuclear proliferation. But he also had some kind words for outsourcing. And those words help explain something that I know deeply puzzles the administration's political gurus: Mr. Bush's dismal polling on economic issues.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
WAXMAN Says No to Food Safety - H.R. 4167, "The National Uniformity for Food Act of 2005"
(4 comments) As H.R. 4167, the "National Uniformity for Food Act of 2005" comes to the floor, Rep. Waxman leads opposition to the bill, which would hamper California's-and all states'-ability to implement laws regulating food safety. Currently, state and local governments conduct approximately 80% of food safety activity. H.R. 4167 would radically shift the balance of power between the states and federal government, taking a historically state role and giving it to the federal government.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Bush Perceived Blunders on Iraq, Katrina Buoy Democrats in 2006
(3 comments) After years of disunity, disorder and disappointment, Democrats finally have something going for them: Republicans. The Democrats, who languished in public-opinion polls even as President George W. Bush's approval ratings plunged, now say their prospects are on the rise: In the most recent Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll, Americans by a margin of 46 percent to 37 percent said they plan to vote Democratic for Congress this year.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
New Executive Order: Responsibilities Dept. of Homeland Security with Respect to Faith-Based Organizations
(3 comments) By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to help the Federal Government coordinate a national effort to expand opportunities for faith-based and other community organizations and to strengthen their capacity to better meet America's social and community needs, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Establishment of a Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the Department of Homeland Security. WTF?

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
BUSH & THE NEOCON RENDITION TALE: They Came for the Chicken Farmer
(3 comments) This has been our nightmare since the Bush administration began stashing prisoners it did not want to account for in Guantánamo Bay: An ordinary man with a name something like a Taliban bigwig's is swept up in the dragnet and imprisoned without any hope of proving his innocence. A case of mistaken identity's turning an innocent person into a prisoner-for-life was supposed to be impossible. President Bush told Americans to trust in his judgment after he arrogated the right to arrest anyone, anywhere in the world, and toss people into indefinite detention. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld infamously proclaimed that the men at Guantánamo Bay were "the worst of the worst." But it has long been evident that this was nonsense, and a lawsuit by The Associated Press has now demonstrated the truth in shameful detail.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
G.O.P. Senators Say Accord Is Set on Wiretapping
(3 comments) Moving to tamp down Democratic calls for an investigation of the administration's domestic eavesdropping program, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that they had reached agreement with the White House on proposed bills to impose new oversight but allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days. [WHAT IS IT WITH THE 45 DAYS NOW??]

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Beware of What's Sold as Reform
(3 comments) Continuing revelations about the money-driven symbiosis of lawmaker and lobbyist make it clear that any law stripped of credible enforcement is an election-year charade.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
House Agrees To Vote On Ports - Showdown With President Likely
(3 comments) Efforts by the White House to hold off legislation challenging a Dubai-owned company's acquisition of operations at six major U.S. ports collapsed yesterday when House Republican leaders agreed to allow a vote next week that could kill the deal.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Former Enron CFO Implicates Old Bosses
(3 comments) CEO Sanctioned Fraud, Jury Hears -- Andrew S. Fastow, the government's star witness in the Enron Corp. trial, took the stand Tuesday and testified that he concocted a massive fraud in face-to-face meetings with the company's chief executive, who both sanctioned the deals and asked him to "get me as much juice as you can."

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Dana Reeve; Widow Advocated for Paralysis Research
(3 comments) The causes her husband, Christoper Reeve, began to embrace, including stem cell research and other potential treatment paths for paralysis, became her own. [Please call you representatives and senators in Washington and ask them to support stem cell research. The US is already years behind the 8-ball on research because of the right wing religious influence on the White House.]

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
US: Security Council likely to warn Iran
(3 comments) he UN Security Council is likely to call on Iran to halt nuclear research shortly or risk consequences, the US has said in a statement to the nuclear watchdog agency board.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
UN: Progress to women's equality slow
(3 comments) Despite the recent election of women heads of state in Chile, Liberia and Germany, women are making scant progress around the world in getting into leadership positions, a UN report says.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
'Unitary Executive' Or Autocracy?
(3 comments) Yet it is no exaggeration to say that no administration in American history has had as much contempt for the law as this one. There may have been administrations more corrupt—in the briefcase-full-of-cash sense—but none which so regularly proclaimed in the light of day its belief that it alone can decide which laws to obey and which to ignore.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
China Warns U.S. On Issue of Taiwan
(3 comments) Diplomat Concerned by 'False Signals'

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Two Men Arrested in Alabama Church Fires
(3 comments) Two young men have been arrested and a third person is being sought in the string of church arsons that destroyed or damaged nine rural churches in Alabama last month, a federal law enforcement official said Wednesday.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Bush Faces GOP Effort to Stop Ports Deal
(3 comments) His presidency already at a low point, President Bush now faces a GOP move in Congress to stop a plan he steadfastly supports: a Dubai-owned company's entry into U.S. port operations.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Spring Break Endangers Women's Health, Survey Finds
(3 comments) The American Medical Association is warning girls not to go wild during spring break.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
World warned it must do better as 20m face threat of famine in Africa
(3 comments) More than 20 million people in the Horn of Africa are at risk of famine in conditions which the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) described yesterday as the worst in his experience.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Bush's new best friends
(3 comments) The American president is betting on India becoming one of the world's great powers, writes Randeep Ramesh

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Gunmen Kidnap Up to 50 Workers in Baghdad
(3 comments) Gunmen in camouflage uniforms stormed the offices of a private security company Wednesday and kidnapped as many as 50 employees, police reported. The attackers hit the al-Rawafid Security Co., a private Iraqi-owned business, at 4:30 p.m. and forced the workers into seven vehicles, including several white SUVs.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Indians Protest, Fear Violence Will Spread
(3 comments) Security forces deployed to holy sites across India on Wednesday after terrorist bombings killed 20 people in Hinduism's holiest city, sparking anger among its residents and worry about possible widespread sectarian violence.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
"They tried to attach themselves to his virtue; then they wiped their feet with him."
(3 comments) MARY TILLMAN has been a model of patience and fortitude as she doggedly pursues the facts concerning her son Pat’s death in Afghanistan two years ago. In that spirit, she welcomed as positive the news that the Pentagon’s inspector general has asked the Army to launch an investigation into whether criminal negligence was involved in the “friendly fire” incident that resulted in the death of her football-star son who turned soldier.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Gallup: More Than Half of Americans Reject Evolution, Back Bible
(3 comments) A Gallup report released today reveals that more than half of all Americans, rejecting evolution theory and scientific evidence, agree with the statement, "God created man exactly how Bible describes it." NS

Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Post-mortem on the Intelligence Committee vote
(3 comments) In lieu of fulfilling their pledge to discover the scope of the Administration's warrantless eavesdropping on Americans, Sens. Hagel and Snowe decided instead that they would support legislation which would create a 7-member Subcommittee (4 Republicans and 3 Democrats) to which the Administration is required to report all warrantless eavesdropping activities: The proposed legislation would create a seven-member "terrorist surveillance subcommittee" and require the administration to give it full access to the details of the program's operations. . . .