Tag: Open Thread

1 Witnesses testify in Blackwater lawsuit

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer

44 minutes ago

Some afternoon news and Open Thread.

1. The Los Angeles Times reports Defense War Secretary Robert Gates urges more funds for State Department. “Gates compared the yearly defense appropriation — at nearly $500 billion, not counting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — with an annual State Department budget of $36 billion. He noted that even with new hires, there are 6,600 career U.S. diplomats, or ‘less than the manning for one aircraft carrier strike group.'” In his lecture at Kansas State University, Gates said:

   We must focus our energies beyond the guns and steel of the military, beyond just our brave soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen. We must also focus our energies on the other elements of national power that will be so crucial in the coming years… Having robust civilian capabilities available could make it less likely that military force will have to be used in the first place, as local problems might be dealt with before they become crises.

   Despite the importance Gates placed on U.S. diplomacy, he promised that he will be asking for even more money for the defense war department next year.

2. The Guardian reports Australia’s Prime Minister-elect, Kevin Rudd talks climate change with Al Gore. Rudd already plans to have Australia ratify Kyoto, isolating the United States, but he also plans to take a leadership role by personally attending the UN climate summit in Bali and help shape the successor treaty to Kyoto. Rudd said that he and Gore “talked a lot about climate change and some of the important things which need to be done globally. We will resume that conversation… in Bali over a strong cup of tea – or something stronger.”

   In related news, The Guardian reports Less than 10 years to change our ways, warns UN report. “The stark warning from the UN’s Human Development report… said climate change would hit the least-developed countries the hardest… Developed countries, the UN said, should cut emissions by at least 30% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050. Developing nations should cut emissions by 20% by the year 2050. The UN said the world must spend 1.6% of global economic output each year until 2030 to stabilise carbon levels and to limit a rise in global temperature to 2C [3.6F] to avoid the catastrophic impact of climate change.”

3. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Around S.F. Bay, oiled birds still found nearly 3 weeks after spill. “About 2,150 birds have been found dead or have died at the bird rescue center since Nov. 7, the day the Cosco Busan crashed into the Bay Bridge and spilled 58,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel oil. Bird experts figure that for every bird found dead or alive, about five to 10 others go unreported because they sink at sea, get eaten by predators or fly elsewhere. That would put the fatality number at up to 21,500 birds.”

4. The Oregonian reports Oregon’s Coos Bay coal beds bubbling with gas. “The project is in the early exploration stage, and nothing is certain. Recovering the gas is a scientifically complex prospect made less certain by potentially deal-killing environmental concerns… A byproduct of drilling into the coal seams is underground water that is laced with copper, salts and other minerals. Before moving ahead on a large scale, Methane Energy will have to figure out what to do with hundreds of thousands of gallons of water without damaging drinking water supplies, the surrounding forest or sensitive salmon habitat of Coos Bay’s estuary… Last week, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality approved a five-year permit allowing 100,000 gallons to be dumped each day, which would cover water from as many as two dozen wells. The approval came despite concerns from local residents and environmental groups about the water’s effects on soil, plants and fish.”

Six more stories lurk below the fold.

This is an Open Thread: Open Carefully

Headlines for Tuesday November 27th: Hillary The Organized : GOP Comeback Climb Is Increasingly Steep: Stepped-up Army recruiting enlists many with problems: Iraqi police: US gunfire at bus kills 4

USA

Stepped-up Army recruiting enlists many with problems

WASHINGTON – Two weeks ago, the Pentagon announced the “good news” that the Army had met its recruiting goal for October, the first month in a five-year plan to add 65,000 new soldiers to the ranks by 2012.

But Pentagon statistics show the Army met that goal by accepting a higher percentage of enlistees with criminal records, drug or alcohol problems, or health conditions that would have ordinarily disqualified them from service.

In each fiscal year since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, statisics show, the Army has accepted a growing percentage of recruits who do not meet its own minimum fitness standards. The October statistics show that at least 1 of every 5 recruits required a waiver to join the service, leading military analysts to conclude that the Army is lowering standards more than it has in decades.

Some news and Monday afternoon’s Open Thread.

1. The AP reports Iraqi government may offer US long-rerm presence, business preference in return for security. “Iraq’s government is prepared to offer the U.S. a long-term troop presence in Iraq and preferential treatment for American investments in return for an American guarantee of long-term security including defense against internal coups”. As Spencer Ackerman of TPMmuckraker writes, “So it begins. After years of obfuscation and denial on the length of the U.S.’s stay in Iraq, the White House and the Maliki government have released a joint declaration of ‘principles’ for ‘friendship and cooperation.’ Apparently President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the declaration during a morning teleconference.” Ackerman also reports that “war czar” Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute believes Permanent Iraq bases won’t require Senate ratification.

2. The New York Times reports Short of funds, Republians recruit the rich to run. “Confronting an enormous fund-raising gap with Democrats, Republican Party officials are aggressively recruiting wealthy candidates who can spend large sums of their own money to finance their Congressional races, party officials say. At this point, strategists for the National Republican Congressional Committee have enlisted wealthy candidates to run in at least a dozen competitive Congressional districts nationwide, particularly those where Democrats are finishing their first term and are thus considered most vulnerable. They say more are on the way. These wealthy Republicans have each already invested $100,000 to $1 million of their own money to finance their campaigns”. Even more blatantly the Republicans are the party only of the rich.

3. According to the Washington Post, Class makes cameo as a campaign issue. “Who’s rich? Who’s middle class? … Class, always an awkward topic in the United States, made a rare cameo appearance at a recent candidates debate in Las Vegas.”

   The exchange between Obama and Clinton began when the senator from Illinois said he was open to adjusting the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax. That’s the tax that the government prefers to call a “contribution” to Social Security. Under current law, a worker pays a flat percentage (and employers match it) of wages up to $97,500. Wages beyond that aren’t taxed.

   Clinton responded by saying that lifting the payroll tax would mean a trillion-dollar tax increase, adding that she did not want to “fix the problems of Social Security on the backs of middle-class families and seniors.”

   Obama replied: “Understand that only 6 percent of Americans make more than $97,000 a year. So 6 percent is not the middle class. It is the upper class.”

   Clinton: “It is absolutely the case that there are people who would find that burdensome. I represent firefighters. I represent school supervisors.”

   … As for how people see themselves, location is key. Is Clinton right that firefighters make the kind of money mentioned in Las Vegas? Yes, sometimes, in some places. According to the Web site FactCheck.org, the base pay of a New York City firefighter with five years’ experience is $68,475, but with overtime and holiday work, the same firefighter can make $86,518. A city fire captain can make $140,173 with overtime. Most school superintendents in New York state make more than $100,000.

   Online calculators allow anyone to make an instant city-to-city cost-of-living comparison. One such Web site calculates that someone making $97,500 in Washington could live just as comfortably on $67,846 in Ames, Iowa.

   The story goes on to try to give a definition of who is wealthy. Some of their ideas are degree of ‘financial stress’ and the ability to live off of wealth. Personally, I think it is only fair to remove the Social Security wage cap.

Two more stories below the fold. First proof, the weather is getting worse. Then a story about the time lords of Paris.

This is an Open Thread: Open Minds Open Thoughts

Headlines For Monday November 26th:Thompson’s plan offers Americans flat tax option : Obama PAC Is Active In Key Election States:Iraqi Shiites denounce draft legislation

USA

Thompson’s plan offers Americans flat tax option

Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson proposed an income tax plan yesterday that would allow Americans to choose a simplified system with only two rates: 10 and 25 percent.

Thompson’s proposal, announced on “Fox News Sunday,” would allow filers to remain under the current tax code or use the flat tax rates. “We’ve known for years any time we have lowered taxes and any time we’ve lowered tax rates, we’ve seen growth in the economy,” the former Tennessee senator said.

I’m sorry for the lack of content in todays Times. There was one finished and ready to be automatically posted to the Front Page but, reasons that shall remain a mystery it was deleted. Thank you for your understanding.  

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Former PM Sharif returns to Pakistan

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 15 minutes ago

This an Open Thread: So open it already

Headlines for Sunday November 25th.: As Democrats See Security Gains in Iraq, Tone Shifts: U.S. Notes Limited Progress in Afghan War: Losing ground in Alaska: U.S. Scales Back Political Goals for Iraqi Unity

USA

As Democrats See Security Gains in Iraq, Tone Shifts

By PATRICK HEALY

Published: November 25, 2007

As violence declines in Baghdad, the leading Democratic presidential candidates are undertaking a new and challenging balancing act on Iraq: acknowledging that success, trying to shift the focus to the lack of political progress there, and highlighting more domestic concerns like health care and the economy.

Advisers to Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama say that the candidates have watched security conditions improve after the troop escalation in Iraq and concluded that it would be folly not to acknowledge those gains.

1 Doom and gloom plays out on Broadway

By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP Drama Writer

Sat Nov 24, 9:02 AM ET

This is an Open Thread: All thoughts are welcome

Headlines For Saturday: New York loses mean streets image as murder rate plunges: In Bush’s Last Year, Modest Domestic Aims: Wal-Mart Extends Its Influence to Washington: Bombers kill up to 35 in Pakistan

PM Howard concedes Australia poll

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has admitted defeat in the country’s general election, and looks set to lose his parliamentary seat.

Mr Howard said he had telephoned Labor leader Kevin Rudd “to congratulate him on an emphatic victory”.

USA

New York loses mean streets image as murder rate plunges

The city of New York, once widely feared for its mean streets scarred by random violence, is on course for its lowest murder rate in four decades with this year’s total expected to be below 500.

Aided by burgeoning affluence and a decade of “zero-tolerance” policing, a steady decline in the Big Apple’s violent crime rate has left the city basking in a new-found glow of safety. Criminologists suggest that killings by strangers have become so rare that the police cannot reasonably be expected to stamp out the problem any further.

Some afternoon news and open thread.

1. The Los Angeles Times reports on Justice Stevens and the tipping point. “Justice John Paul Stevens, 87, last week became the second-oldest justice in the Supreme Court’s history… Although Stevens has given no hint of retiring and shows no sign of slowing down — in the courtroom, he looks and sounds much as he did 20 years ago — the question of his tenure looms over the court and the 2008 presidential campaign. If there is a tipping point in the Supreme Court’s future, it is likely to come with his departure. What kind of justice would replace him — and how strong the court’s slim conservative majority would be — may well depend on who is elected president.”

2. The Guardian reports another person has been killed by police in Canada by Taser. So, Inquiries launched after Canadian stun gun deaths. “Canadian authorities have launched urgent reviews into the safety of Taser stun guns following two recent deaths. Yesterday, a 45-year-old man died while in police custody after being shocked by the 5,000-volt weapon… Canada’s provincial Nova Scotia government today began an inquiry into Thursday’s death. Police said the victim had been taken into custody on assault charges just after midnight on Wednesday, when he became violent. The man then tried to escape from the police station, but one officer used a stun gun to shoot him in the thigh. Emergency services took the victim to hospital where he was assessed, deemed to be healthy, and released back into police custody. The man, whose identity has not yet been released, died 30 hours after being shocked.”

3. The Denver Post reports Polis blogging from Baghdad about the war. “Congressional candidate Jared Polis, in a late-night blogging session from his Baghdad hotel, said Wednesday that all U.S. senators and representatives should see the war firsthand. The Boulder Democrat.. was hit with few confrontational questions during his hour-long blog chat on the political website coloradoconfidential.com. Polis, a multimillionaire Internet entrepreneur, acknowledged he is covering his trip expenses as well as those of the Mile High United Way representative traveling with him.” Polis has also been posting on Daily Kos.

4. According to The Christian Science Monitor, On election eve, Australia’s opposition leader says climate change is his no. 1 priority. “Kevin Rudd, a bookish former diplomat who heads the opposition Labor Party, has pledged to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, a move which would leave the US as the only developed nation not to have ratified the treaty. Mr. Rudd, a fluent Chinese speaker, has also promised to withdraw Australia’s small but politically significant contingent of 550 combat troops from Iraq… [Rudd] said he would personally represent Australia at a UN climate change meeting of environment ministers next month in Bali to discuss the next stage of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Ratifying the Kyoto treaty would be a radical departure from Prime Minister John Howard, a climate change skeptic and close friend of US President Bush. ‘Australia needs new leadership on climate change. Mr. Howard remains in a state of denial,’ Rudd said.”

There’s a bonus story below the fold…

This is an Open Thread: Hey don’t pull the string

Friday’s Headlines:Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request: Abortion foes’ strategy advances : D.B. Cooper, where are you?: Returnees Find a Capital Transformed

USA

Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request

Secret Warrants Granted Without Probable Cause:

By Ellen Nakashima

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, November 23, 2007; Page A01

Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.