Tag: Docudharma Times

I’ll Be On A Stage With Someone Else

But Pretend Like They Are Not There

That’s Not Presidential That’s Childish

Candidates Clash on Economy and Iraq  

 

 By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY

Published: September 27, 2008    

From the economy to foreign affairs to the way they carried themselves on stage, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama offered a dramatic contrast to the nation in their first presidential debate on Friday night, mixing disdain and often caustic remarks as they set out sharply different views of how they would manage the country and confront America’s adversaries abroad.

The two men met for 90 minutes against the backdrop of the nation’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and intensive negotiations in Congress over a $700 billion bailout plan for Wall Street.

China milk scandal hits home

Chinese had shrugged off previous problems as Western hysteria, but tainted milk has many wondering what else poses a risk. Even professed patriots seek out products not made in China.

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

10:43 PM PDT, September 26, 2008  

BEIJING — Even after regulators assured the public that all contaminated baby formula was off the shelves, B.X. Wei wasn’t going to feed his 2-month-old son anything that came out of a can. Especially not one made in China.

But his wife didn’t have enough breast milk for the baby.  

Then the 30-year-old businessman from Jiangsu province remembered that during his childhood, women would nurse each other’s babies if one ran out of milk. So he decided to try a new twist on the old tradition: On Monday, he put an ad on the Internet soliciting a wet nurse.

“I don’t know if any milk powder is safe,” Wei said.

China’s latest food scandal has created a surge of interest in wet nurses. Wei has been interviewing candidates who are asking for as much as $1,500 a month — about 10 times the average price of a nanny

USA

Economists say House GOP plan would be ineffective, costly

 

By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers  

WASHINGTON – House Republicans are rallying behind an alternative to the Bush administration’s taxpayer rescue of Wall Street. That plan that may be good politics, but experts say it is bad economics.

The lawmakers, led by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, are calling for a temporary elimination of the capital gains tax, a two-year tax holiday that allows U.S. companies to repatriate earnings from abroad, and an insurance program that would be a private-sector alternative to the $700 billion taxpayer rescue proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

When Stupidity Rules The Roost

The Roosters Come Home

Oh The Drama Of The Drama King

WaMu seized, sold  

Deposits safe, but losses here likely to be deep

By BILL VIRGIN, ANDREA JAMES AND DAN RICHMAN

P-I REPORTERS    

Washington Mutual Inc. came to an ignominious end Thursday, with federal regulators seizing the company and selling its branches, deposits and loans to New York-based banking giant JPMorgan Chase in the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

Although WaMu, as recently as two weeks ago, had told investors that it had sufficient capital to work its way through the housing market and losses in its own loan portfolio, regulators said they stepped in because depositors had lost confidence in the institution. The federal Office of Thrift Supervision said $16.7 billion in deposits had been pulled from the company just since Sept. 15.

Talks Falter on Bailout Deal

White House Summit Fails to Yield Accord as House GOP Floats New Plan

By Paul Kane and Lori Montgomery

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, September 26, 2008; Page A01  

A renegade bloc of Republicans moved to reshape a massive bailout of the U.S. financial system yesterday, surprising and angering Bush administration and congressional leaders who hours earlier announced agreement on the “fundamentals” of a deal.

At a meeting at the White House that included President Bush, top lawmakers and both presidential candidates, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) floated a new plan for addressing the crisis that has hobbled global markets.

Democrats accused Boehner of acting on behalf of GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in trying to disrupt a developing consensus.

USA

Palin won’t have to reveal finances until after Biden debate

 

By SHARON THEIMER

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) – Sarah Palin requested and received an extension of the deadline for revealing her personal finances, until the day after her debate with Democrat Joe Biden.

The Republican vice-presidential candidate received a four-day extension today from the Federal Election Commission.

The federal financial disclosure report was initially due Monday. Now Palin has until Oct. 3, the day after her debate in St. Louis with Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

Taking His Ball And Going Home

To One Of His Eight Houses

John McCain Decides He Wants To

Help Wreck The Economy More

How Lucky For You

President Issues Warning to Americans  



   By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: September 24, 2008  

WASHINGTON – President Bush appealed to the nation Wednesday night to support a $700 billion plan to avert a widespread financial meltdown, and signaled that he is willing to accept tougher controls over how the money is spent.

As Democrats and the administration negotiated details of the package late into the night, the presidential candidates of both major parties planned to meet Mr. Bush at the White House on Thursday, along with leaders of Congress. The president said he hoped the session would “speed our discussions toward a bipartisan bill.”

Mr. Bush used a prime-time address to warn Americans that “a long and painful recession” could occur if Congress does not act quickly.

Iraqi Red Crescent Paralyzed by Allegations



By Amit R. Paley and Ernesto Londoño

Washington Post Foreign Service

Thursday, September 25, 2008; Page A01

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Red Crescent, the country’s leading humanitarian organization, has been crippled by allegations of embezzlement and mismanagement, including what Iraqi officials call the inappropriate expenditure of more than $1 million on Washington lobbying firms in an unsuccessful effort to win U.S. funding.

The group’s former president, Said I. Hakki, an Iraqi American urologist recruited by Bush administration officials to resuscitate Iraq’s health-care system, left the country this summer after the issuance of arrest warrants for him and his deputies. He and his aides deny the allegations and call them politically motivated.

USA

Ole Miss hopes presidential debate will spotlight campus progress

 The university has the opportunity to show, once and for all, that it has moved beyond its old, infamous and self-destructive reputation as a bastion of white supremacy.

By Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer  

OXFORD, MISS. — For the University of Mississippi, Friday’s debate is about more than presidential politics: Officials hope it also helps combat what may be one of the most enduring public relations problems in American higher education.

They know that for many Americans, Ole Miss means little more than the deadly 1962 riot sparked by the matriculation of the first black student, James Meredith, and the 1990s-era controversy over the display of the Confederate flag at football games.

But if the debate goes off as planned, it will provide the 160-year-old school with the opportunity to show, once and for all, that it has moved beyond its old, infamous and self-destructive reputation as a bastion of white supremacy.

First, of course, the school will have to wait and see if the debate takes place. On Wednesday, Republican presidential nominee John McCain said he would not participate unless Congress approved a bailout package for Wall Street by Friday. The Commission on Presidential Debates said in a statement that it was “moving forward with its plan” for the debate. School officials said they were still prepared to host candidates McCain and Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee.

How Does One Know The Press Is Doing Its Job?

When A “Certain Campaign” Is Accusing The Press Of

Being In The Tank.

McCain Loses His Head

By George F. Will

Tuesday, September 23, 2008; Page A21

“The queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. ‘Off with his head!’ she said without even looking around.”

— “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that “McCain untethered” — disconnected from knowledge and principle — had made a “false and deeply unfair” attack on Cox that was “unpresidential” and demonstrated that McCain “doesn’t understand what’s happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does.”

Bailout Plan Talks Advance in Congress  



  By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: September 22, 2008  

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration and Congressional leaders moved closer to agreement on a historic $700 billion bailout for financial firms on Monday, including tight oversight of the program and new efforts to help homeowners at risk of foreclosure.

But lawmakers in both parties voiced anger over the steep cost and even skepticism about the plan’s chances of success.

As heated debate began on Capitol Hill, Congress and the administration remained at odds over the demands of some lawmakers, including limits on the pay of top executives whose firms seek help, and new authority to allow bankruptcy judges to reduce mortgage payments for borrowers facing foreclosure.

Head of watchdog resigns as number of babies in hospital from tainted milk rises to 13,000

· Over 40,000 treated in melamine scandal

· Countries across Asia ban or recall imported goods

Tania Branigan, China correspondent

The Guardian,

Tuesday September 23 2008

Almost 13,000 Chinese babies are in hospital after consuming tainted baby milk, and a further 40,000-plus have been treated, in a scandal which yesterday led to the resignation of the head of the country’s quality watchdog, according to state media.

The scandal, which began when dozens of babies suffered kidney stones and even kidney failure after drinking a popular brand that contained the chemical melamine, has since spread to more than 20 companies and affected products including fresh milk, yoghurt and ice-cream.

Countries across Asia are checking imported dairy products from China. Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have already banned or recalled a variety of milk products. Taiwan banned all mainland dairy products on Sunday.

USA

Financial industry’s campaign donations could help it in bailout

Firms have given lavishly to both parties in Congress. That could help them get the language they want in the bill – as well as block provisions such as homeowner assistance.

 By Tom Hamburger and William Heisel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

September 23, 2008  

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress were pressed hard Monday by financial industry lobbyists and consumer advocates alike seeking favorable language in the massive bailout bill expected to come for a vote this week.

Through conference calls, e-mail and personal emissaries, lenders and other business groups sought to block language that would allow struggling homeowners to have mortgage debt forgiven in bankruptcy cases.

On the other side, labor unions and advocacy groups for low-income people said the bankruptcy provision and other measures to help homeowners were needed to prevent the rescue package from being simply a bailout for Wall Street banks that made bad investment bets.

Republican Fiscal Policy

Always Reward Those Who Destroy The Economy

And Screw Over The Average Taxpayer

Radical Shift for Goldman and Morgan  



By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and VIKAS BAJAJ

Published: September 21, 2008    

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the last big independent investment banks on Wall Street, will transform themselves into bank holding companies subject to far greater regulation, the Federal Reserve said Sunday night, a move that fundamentally reshapes an era of high finance that defined the modern Gilded Age.

The firms requested the change themselves, even as Congress and the Bush administration rushed to pass a $700 billion rescue of financial firms. It was a blunt acknowledgment that their model of finance and investing had become too risky and that they needed the cushion of bank deposits that had kept big commercial banks like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase relatively safe amid the recent turmoil.

Iraqi detainees languish in clogged justice system

A new U.S.-funded legal clinic in Baghdad attempts to review the cases of those who have been held without charge or trial, but the task is daunting and hurdles numerous.

 By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 22, 2008  

BAGHDAD — Just five minutes.

That’s what Iraqi soldiers said they needed when they took Ahmed-Hussein Juma in for questioning in February 2007.

“And now here we are, 1 1/2 years later,” Juma said with a hopeless laugh last month as he stood in a holding cage, metal handcuffs on his wrists and a prison number stitched crookedly on his green jumpsuit.

Dozens of other men sat on benches at Baghdad’s Rusafa detention center, all waiting to visit a new U.S.-funded legal aid clinic that American officials hope will help clear the backlog of detainees lost in Iraq’s severely overloaded prison system.

In its bid to get the men fair trials or release, the clinic faces immense obstacles, not the least of which is a case file system that consists of paperwork tied together with bits of string. But even more worrying are the sectarian overtones: Most of the detainees are Sunni Arabs accused of terrorism-related offenses, and many claim to be targets of the Shiite Muslim-dominated security forces who they say used trumped-up charges to achieve sectarian “cleansing.”

USA

As Hill Debates Bailout, Wall St. Shifts Continue

Paulson, GOP Oppose Democrats’ Proposal to Limit Executive Pay

By Lori Montgomery and David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writers

Monday, September 22, 2008; Page A01  

Congressional Democrats considering the Bush administration’s emergency plan to shore up the U.S. financial system countered with their own demands yesterday, presenting draft legislation giving the government power to cut salaries of chief executives at firms that participate in the bailout and slash severance packages for their top management. Democratic leaders have broadly embraced the administration’s proposal to spend up to $700 billion to take troubled assets off the books of faltering firms and are not questioning the need to give the Treasury Department expansive authority to halt the meltdown in world markets.

Sarah Palin Is Responsible For Nothing

As The McCain Campaign Now Governs Alaska And

The Up Coming Debate Will Have No Difficult Questions

Because Her “Expertise” May Shine Through  

Tab for financial bailout: $700 billion  

The White House submits a proposal to Congress seeking unprecedented authority with no oversight.

 By Peter G. Gosselin and Maura Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

September 21, 2008    

WASHINGTON — Unveiling its plan to rescue the nation’s financial system from near-paralysis, the Bush administration is asking Congress for the authority to spend $700 billion and for powers to intervene in the economy so sweeping that they have virtually no precedent in U.S. history.

The proposal, set out in a spare 2 1/2 page document sent to congressional leaders Saturday, would in effect allow the Treasury secretary to set up a government investment bank to buy up the billions of dollars of the mortgagebacked securities now clogging the arteries of the global financial system.

The dollar figure alone is remarkable, amounting to 5% of the nation’s gross domestic product. But the most distinctive — and potentially most controversial — element of the plan is the extent to which it would allow Treasury to act unilaterally:

Alaskans angered that Palin is off-limits

Queries are directed through the McCain campaign machine. Her political capital at home is eroding.

By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 21, 2008  

ANCHORAGE — Jerry McCutcheon went to Sarah Palin’s office here last week to request information about the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, the scandal that for weeks has threatened to overshadow the governor’s role as Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate.

McCutcheon was given a phone number in Virginia to call: the national headquarters of the McCain-Palin campaign.

Why, he wanted to know, did he have to call a campaign office 4,300 miles away to find out what was going on in Alaska government? The longtime civic activist phoned his local state representative, Les Gara, who quickly filed a protest.

These days, many such queries about Monegan — or anything else involving Palin’s record as governor — get diverted to McCain staffers.

USA

Candidates spend at record rate in August

$3 million a day; Obama leads McCain in fundraising, cash on hand

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON – Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain together spent $94 million in August, a record spree mostly aimed at about a dozen states that will probably decide their historic presidential contest.

Their campaign finance reports, filed before Saturday’s midnight deadline, shows that more than half of their $3-million-a-day spending rate was devoted to advertising that became increasingly negative during the month.

John McCain Wants The Chairman Of The “FEC” To Resign

Is This Because His Campaign Has Sunk To The Bottom Of

Tokyo Bay?

Or Is It Because He Does Not Understand The “Alphabet Soup” Of Government Regulators? Or Maybe He Just Doesn’t Know the Alphabet.

Capital Feels Its Way on Huge Rescue Plan, Eyes on Nov. 4  



By JACKIE CALMES

Published: September 19, 2008    

WASHINGTON – The huge bailout of the financial system that the Bush administration and Congress are rushing to draft will leave taxpayers with at least part of the bill at a time when high gasoline prices, job losses and stagnant incomes have already helped produce an overwhelming sense that the nation is on the wrong track.

Policy makers cannot say where it all ends. News reports are unrelentingly talking of “crisis.” After decades of deregulation and free-market fealty, antiregulation, small-government Republicans are putting the government in control of a big chunk of the financial sector.

All of which has left Washington in the midst of a political convulsion that both parties are struggling to understand and turn to their advantage – or at least keep from turning against them.

A Modernized Taliban Thrives in Afghanistan

Militia Operates a Parallel Government  

By Pamela Constable

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, September 20, 2008; Page A01  

KABUL, Sept. 19 — Just one year ago, the Taliban insurgency was a furtive, loosely organized guerrilla force that carried out hit-and-run ambushes, burned empty schools, left warning letters at night and concentrated attacks in the southern rural regions of its ethnic and religious heartland.

Today it is a larger, better armed and more confident militia, capable of mounting sustained military assaults. Its forces operate in virtually every province and control many districts in areas ringing the capital. Its fighters have bombed embassies and prisons, nearly assassinated the president, executed foreign aid workers and hanged or beheaded dozens of Afghans.

USA

McCain’s camp tests fundraising limits

Helping him is a key advocate of campaign finance reform  

By MICHAEL LUO

Sept. 20, 2008  

Senator John McCain toiled for years to push a campaign finance overhaul through Congress. After the measure finally passed, Trevor Potter, a lawyer and vigorous advocate for reforming the system, was instrumental in defending the law from challenges and pressing for strict enforcement.

Now, as Mr. McCain makes his final sprint for the White House, Mr. Potter is again helping Mr. McCain, but this time by maneuvering to wring the maximum out of campaign finance laws in ways that some contend are at odds with the spirit of the reforms they championed.

World Premiere: It’s A Road Picture

The Road To Nowhere Staring Sarah Palin As

The Governor Who Never Accepts Earmarks

Until She Does

Fed and Treasury Offer to Work With Congress on Bailout Plan



 By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: September 18, 2008  

WASHINGTON – The head of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve began discussions on Thursday with Congressional leaders on what could become the biggest bailout in United States history.

While details remain to be worked out, the plan is likely to authorize the government to buy distressed mortgages at deep discounts from banks and other institutions. The proposal could result in the most direct commitment of taxpayer funds so far in the financial crisis that Fed and Treasury officials say is the worst they have ever seen.

For Georgians, a Much-Needed Break

 

By Tara Bahrampour

Washington Post Foreign Service

Friday, September 19, 2008; Page A14  

KVARIATI, Georgia — Kitty Arsenidze had beach plans in August, but then her country went to war. Russian troops occupied her town, Gori. A bomb hit her house. She spent her 50th birthday installing a new roof and windows. Only after the Russians left did she finally make it to the beach.

“We have so much stress after this bombing that I’m thinking that I have to make psychological healing,” she said, leaning on a green lawn chair by the Black Sea. “I feel better than in Gori.”

The people swimming, sunbathing, and zipping around on water scooters this week did not look as if they had just suffered a crushing military defeat.

USA

Sarah Palin said yes, thanks, to a road to nowhere in Alaska

 While seeking votes, she told Ketchikan residents she backed the ‘bridge to nowhere.’ As governor, she spent the money elsewhere and moved ahead with a $26-million road to the nonexistent bridge.

 By Erika Hayasaki, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 19, 2008  

GRAVINA ISLAND, ALASKA — The 3.2-mile-long partially paved “road to nowhere” meanders from a small international airport on Gravina Island, home to 50 people, ending in a cul-de-sac close to a beach.

Crews are working to finish it. But no one knows when anyone will need to drive it.

That’s because the $26-million road was designed to connect to the $398-million Gravina Island Bridge, more infamously known as the “bridge to nowhere.” Alaskan officials thought federal money would pay for the bridge, but Gov. Sarah Palin killed the project after it was ridiculed and Congress rescinded the money. Plans for the road moved forward anyway.

Some residents of Ketchikan — a city of 8,000 on a neighboring island where the bridge was to end — see the road as a symbol of wasteful spending that Palin could have curtailed. Some of them even accuse her of deception.

Sometimes I Think Being A Republican

Is A License For Stupidity

I Thought They Liked Welfare For Corporations?  

Stocks Slump as Investors Run to Safety



  By VIKAS BAJAJ

Published: September 17, 2008  

The financial crisis entered a potentially dangerous new phase on Wednesday when many credit markets stopped working normally as investors around the world frantically moved their money into the safest investments, like Treasury bills.

As a result, the cost of borrowing soared for many companies, while the stocks of Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley that only a couple of weeks ago were considered relatively strong came under assault by waves of selling. Investors were so worried that they snapped up three-month Treasury bills with virtually no yield and they pushed gold to its biggest one-day gain in nearly 10 years. Stocks fell by nearly 5 percent in New York.

Japan releases £13bn to stem Asia market panic

 

From Times Online

September 18, 2008

Leo Lewis Asia business correspondent

Japan’s central bank today poured a further 2.5 trillion yen (£13 billion) into the financial market in an effort to calm panicked investors who continue to dump stock despite America’s $85 billion bailout of AIG, the insurance giant.

Today’s injection – the Bank of Japan’s sixth in one week – takes to its total fillip to 8 trillion yen since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch was rescued by Bank of America and the US Fed agreed a two-year loan to AIG.

However, Asia markets continued to plunge overnight. Japan’s Nikkei closed 1.8 per cent down while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng plummeted, losing 1,301.5 points to close 7.3 per cent down. In Australia and Singapore stocks plunged by over 3 per cent in the morning session.

USA

7 U.S. soldiers die in helicopter crash in Iraq

The Chinook was a part of an aerial convoy flying to military base at Balad  

Associated Press    

BAGHDAD – An American Chinook helicopter crashed early Thursday as it was landing in southern Iraq, killing seven U.S. soldiers, the military said.

The CH-47 Chinook was landing after midnight about 60 miles west of Basra at the time of the crash, the U.S. statement said.

A spokesman for the Multi-National Force-Iraq confirmed that the helicopter had crashed. He said five had died, and the bodies of two soldiers who had originally been missing were found.

The Fundamentals Of The economy Are Sound If?

You Live On

Dune, In Parallel Wingnut Universe, In A Cave Or

Your Name Is John “I Know Nothing About The Economy” McCain.

Wall Street Posts Worst Loss Since 2001



   By STEPHEN LABATON

Published: September 15, 2008  

WASHINGTON – In another unnerving day for Wall Street, investors suffered their worst losses since the terrorist attacks of 2001, and government officials raced to prevent the financial crisis from spreading.

Trading opened sharply down Monday morning, and the mood later turned even gloomier, despite efforts by President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., in separate appearances at the White House, to reassure markets that Wall Street’s deepening problems would not weaken an already anemic economy.

World markets tumble after Wall Street turmoil

Japan’s central bank injects $24 billion into markets amid fears of crisis

Associated Press

PARIS – Global stock markets tumbled Tuesday amid growing fears of a global financial crisis as investors reacted to the demise of two of Wall Street’s biggest names, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 5.3 percent to 11,560.66 in mid-afternoon trading, while Hong Kong’s blue-chip Hang Seng Index shed 5.7 percent. Both markets – Asia’s two biggest – had been closed for holidays on Monday, when news first broke about the dramatic events on Wall Street.

USA

Violent Crime Fell in 2007 From Previous Year

FBI Reports Decline In Almost Every Type  

 By Holly Watt

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, September 16, 2008; Page A19  

Violent crime in the United States fell slightly last year, reversing the upward swing of the previous two years, according to statistics released by the FBI yesterday.

The bureau’s Crime in the United States report showed a decline in crimes in almost every category. About 1.4 million violent crimes occurred in 2007, down 0.7 percent from 2006.

The Bush Deregulation, No Holds-Barred, Who Needs Oversight

Economy  Begins Circling The Drain And

Its Not Funny

After Frantic Day, Wall St. Banks Falter  

This article was reported by Jenny Anderson, Eric Dash and Andrew Ross Sorkin and was written by Mr. Sorkin.

  By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN

Published: September 14, 2008  

In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself on Sunday to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, said it would seek bankruptcy protection and hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer.

The humbling moves, which reshape the landscape of American finance, mark the latest chapter in a tumultuous year in which once-proud financial institutions have been brought to their knees as a result of hundreds of billions of dollars in losses because of bad mortgage finance and real estate investments.  

New phase of disaster plagues Ike’s survivors

Texas shelters grow crowded after nearly 2,000 rescued; death toll at 28

Associated Press

GALVESTON, Texas – As teams continued the biggest search and rescue operation in Texas history, a new phase of the disaster wrought by Hurricane Ike was only beginning as thousands of people faced long stays in crowded shelters because their homes were damaged or destroyed.

The death toll from Ike rose to 28, but many of those were far to the north of the Gulf Coast as the storm slogged across the nation’s midsection, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction. Glass-strewn Houston was placed under a weeklong curfew, and millions of people in the storm’s path remained in the dark.

USA

Spike in jobless rate for women is worst in more than 33 years

 

 By Tony Pugh | McClatchy Newspapers  

WASHINGTON – A sharp monthly rise in unemployment for women could be a sign that the economic slowdown has begun to hit working women with a force not seen in decades.

When the unemployment rate for women went from 4.6 percent in July to 5.3 percent in August, it was the largest one-month spike in the jobless rate for women in more than 33 years.

Black women were hit even harder, as their unemployment rate jumped 21 percent, from 7.5 percent in July to 9.1 percent in August.

Among single mothers and women with families, unemployment climbed to 9.6 percent in August – the highest level in 15 years.

Why Is IT So Difficult

To Hold People Accountable For Their Actions?

Hurricane Damage Is Extensive in Texas  



 By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JAMES C. MCKINLEY Jr.

Published: September 13, 2008  

HOUSTON – Hurricane Ike barreled across a wide swath of Texas on Saturday, deluging the city of Galveston with a wall of water, flooding coastal towns and leaving extensive damage across metropolitan Houston. With wind gusts approaching 100 miles per hour, the 600-mile-wide Category 2 hurricane peeled sheets of steel off skyscrapers here, smashed bus shelters and blew out windows, sending shattered glass and debris across the nation’s fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.2 million.

The storm came ashore on Galveston Island, which in 1900 suffered one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States.

‘It’s voter registration, stupid’ – the fight moves South

Small-town Virginia, once a backwater, has become a vital battleground. By Rupert Cornwell

  Sunday, 14 September 2008  

Last week was one Barack Obama will want to forget: more Sarah Palin, more depressing polls, and a deepening fear in the pit of Democrat stomachs that somehow they’re going to blow yet another presidential election. But as the campaign enters its final stretch, everything is still to play for across the handful of swing states that will decide the outcome – not least here in deepest Virginia.

Since the Republican convention and the triumphant unveiling of the lady from Alaska, everything has gone John McCain’s way. To be sure, Palin is a divisive figure. “To be honest, I can’t stand her,” one Obama supporter here said last week. But not only has she electrified the Republican base, in her persona as a no-nonsense all-American housewife, she has given her party a new lease of life among women voters. And as the fact-twisting Republican juggernaut rolls on, the Obama campaign, seemingly wanting to play by a nobler set of rules, appears incapable of hitting back.

USA

Conflict Over Spying Led White House to Brink

This is the first of two stories adapted from “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency,” to be published Tuesday by Penguin Press. Original source notes are denoted in [brackets] throughout.

 By Barton Gellman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, September 14, 2008; Page A01

A burst of ferocity stunned the room into silence. No other word for it: The vice president’s attorney was shouting.

“The president doesn’t want this! [1] You are not going to see the opinions. You are out . . . of . . . your . . . lane!”

Five government lawyers had gathered around a small conference table in the Justice Department command center. Four were expected. David S. Addington, counsel to Vice President Cheney, got wind of the meeting and invited himself.