Shows of force by nations competing to control dwindling energy supplies could trigger conflict in hot spots across the globe.
The following is an excerpt from Michael Klare’s new book, “Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy” (Metropolitan, 2008).
When powerful states wish to signal their determination to pursue particular vital interests against the wishes of weaker powers or deter a rival from overstepping certain boundaries, they often make a conspicuous show of deploying air, ground or naval forces within shooting range of the recipient of the intended “message.” These deployments are not normally meant to initiate hostilities — although they depend on that threat — but rather to suggest a capacity to employ overwhelming levels of force should a decision be made to do so. Because naval forces were widely employed by the major imperial powers to intimidate and subdue weaker states in Asia, Africa and Latin America in preceding centuries, the phrase “gunboat diplomacy” still captures the essence of this phenomenon today, even though the conspicuous deployment of heavy bombers or Marine expeditionary forces may serve the same purpose.
sfgate.com
Elated scientists probing the arctic surface of Mars with their newly-landed Phoenix spacecraft said Saturday they are convinced they have found a bright and shiny layer of real ice only inches beneath the Martian soil and directly under the body of the lander itself.
“It’s the consensus of all of us that we have found ice,” said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson as he talked to reporters in a conference call only six days after Phoenix landed safely from Earth. “It’s shiny and smooth — it’s absolutely astounding!” But Smith did add a note of scientific caution: “It’s not impossible that it’s something else,” he conceded, “but our leading interpretation is ice. We are looking at an extended table of ice.”
And it turns out that Phoenix itself made the epochal discovery, for it was the exhaust from the lander’s twelve retrorockets — firing during the last few seconds of the spacecraft’s touchdown last Sunday -that blew a mere three to six inches inches of Martian topsoil away and uncovered the patch of ice near one of the lander’s three legs. The camera on the lander’s robotic arm snapped images of the flat gleaming slab. Smith added that the newly discovered ice is not the kind of solid carbon dioxide -we call it dry ice — that covers the Martian polar cap, Smith said. More
zdnet.com
It’s official, even a pothead can social engineer Network Solutions. In an in-depth interview with the hijackers, featuring some screenshots showing they had access to the complete portfolio of over 200 domain names controlled by Comcast, the details of how they did it, and why they did it are now coming straight from the source of the attack:
The hackers say the attack began Tuesday, when the pair used a combination of social engineering and a technical hack to get into Comcast’s domain management console at Network Solutions. They declined to detail their technique, but said it relied on a flaw at the Virginia-based domain registrar. Network Solutions spokeswoman Susan Wade disputes the hackers’ account. “We now know that it was nothing on our end,” she says. “There was no breach in our system or social engineering situation on our end.”
However they got in, the intrusion gave the pair control of over 200 domain names owned by Comcast. They changed the contact information for one of them, Comcast.net, to Defiant’s e-mail address; for the street address, they used the “Dildo Room” at “69 Dick Tard Lane.” Comcast, they said, noticed the administrative transfer and wrested back control, forcing the hackers to repeat the exploit to regain ownership of the domain. Then, they say, they contacted Comcast’s original technical contact at his home number to tell him what they’d done.
business24-7
Save the dollar. If it falls further, we all will fall and that’s the truth many refuse to acknowledge. Dollar doomsayers are rampant and widespread across the globe and there are a host of reasons supporting their argument. Crystallizing those points, it can be said that never before has the United States economy been confronted by so many issues that are affecting their fiscal and economic report cards, businesses, individuals and government.
It is facing declining stock and real estate prices, increasing food, commodity and energy prices, trade and fiscal deficits, increasing unemployment and inflation, decreasing investment, stagnant productivity levels, low confidence levels, decreasing consumption, low savings level, increasing cost of debt in a credit dependent economy and failures major investment banks.
Okay, “dollar is doomed”; but is that in the greater interest of people? This is a tricky and complex question, with a lot of strings attached to it. Let us analyse a few. More
The rise in Oil prices will change all of our lives forever. Property values in the suburbs will go down. Inner city property values will go up. Although Stephen Leeb’s book, The Oil Factor, was published in 2004, it applies today. From Publishers Weekly:Stephen Leeb, The Oil Factor, editor of the “Complete Investor” newsletter, believes the U.S. economy is headed for a significant fall because of a severe shortage of oil, which has been inextricably tied to the economy for the past 30 years. Leeb, author of several books including Getting In on the Ground Floor (also co-written with wife Donna), believes the country must become less dependent on oil imports over the long term.
Leeb’s thesis is well researched, and the book offers a solid, concise overview of the economy and stock trends. Still, given the uncertainty of the stock market-and the lack of job security-readers should consider Leeb’s strategies carefully before overhauling their portfolios.
Raw Story
IN SCOTT McClellan’s recent statements to the press regarding his apostasy, he says that one of the things that pushed him over the edge was the revelation on April 6, 2006, that President Bush had secretly authorized the selective release to reporters of classified information, something that both the president and his then-spokesman McClellan had been vigorously condemning in their public statements about the Valerie Plame leak case.
“I walk onto Air Force One and a reporter had yelled a question to the president trying to ask him a question about this revelation that had come out during the [Libby] legal proceedings,” McClellan told the Today Show’s Meredith Viera on Thursday morning. “The revelation was that it was the president who had authorized, or enabled, Scooter Libby to go out there and talk about this information. And I told the president that that’s what the reporter was asking. He was saying that you, yourself, were the one that authorized the leaking of this information. And he said, ‘Yeah, I did.’ And I was kinda taken aback.” More
Photo dobak New York Times
AN AREA of shale and other rock in North Dakota and Montana is estimated to hold the largest potential oil resources in the 48 contiguous states, according to an assessment released Thursday by the United States Geological Survey.
The area, known as the Bakken Formation, might contain 3 billion to 4.3 billion barrels of oil that could be extracted using current technology, the survey said. The United States had an estimated 21 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in 2006, according to the Energy Department. The new assessment by the Geological Survey could raise these reserves once drilling starts.
The survey reinforces what oil companies who have flocked to the region already knew: a boom is afoot. But geologists and industry officials alike cautioned that the number was simply an estimate, easily skewed higher or lower by technological advances or economic changes. If the price of oil drops, companies will not be willing to spend as much to extract it, and the Bakken Formation, which also extends into Canada, requires an expensive technique called horizontal drilling. More
The Swiss university professors Albert A. Stahel (63) and Daniele Ganser (34) discuss hot issues. Something is wrong,” says strategy expert Stahel…and refers to the “incomplete” official 9/11-Report the U.S. government [issued] from 2004. [These are the]….professor(s) at the University criticisms:
Seven hours after the Twin Towers fell next to the World Trade Center 7. The official version: It burned a long time. “Nothing is clear.” Even more than Stahel, historian Daniele Ganser, his colleague at the University of Zurich. The official U.S. version he called “a conspiracy theory:” There are 3 theories, we should treat equally”:
“Surprise theory” Bin Laden and Al Qaeda led the attacks.
“Let it happen intentionally: parts of the U.S. government knew the Al-Qaeda plans. They fail to respond to a series of wars to legitimize.
The attacks were approved by the Pentagon and/or secret. The Bin Laden videos can be faked. 3000 people were sacrificed for strategic interests.
“The more we explore, the more we doubt on Bush’s version.” For him it is possible that the Bush administration was responsible. Bush has lied so much already! More
CLINTON’S chief delegate hunter Harold Ickes angrily informed the committee that Clinton had instructed him to reserve her right to appeal the matter to the Democrats’ credentials committee, which could potentially drag the matter to the party’s convention in August.
“There’s been a lot of talk about party unity — let’s all come together, and put our arms around each other,” said Ickes, who is also a member of the Rules Committee that approved the deal. “I submit to you ladies and gentlemen, hijacking four delegates … is not a good way to start down the path of party unity.”
The deal was reached after committee members met privately for more than three hours, trying to hammer out a deal, and announced in a raucous hearing that reflected deep divisions within the party. The sticking point was Michigan, where Obama’s name was not on the ballot. More
CNN
MEMBERS of a Democratic rules committee voted on Saturday to seat all of Florida’s and Michigan’s delegation to the party’s national convention and give their delegates a half vote each. A first vote, which would have seated all of Florida’s delegation with full voting privileges, failed.
After the results were announced, spectators started to boo and his and some started chanting, “Denver! Denver!” the site of the party’s convention in August. Democrats fear that a protracted battle over the issue all the way to the convention could split the party and weaken it’s chances of winning the White House in November. The panel must now vote on how to address Michigan’s disputed delegates. The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is hearing the two states’ appeals on its decision to strip all of their delegates because they moved their primary contests earlier on the calendar. More
JENNIFER McKEE
Gazette State Bureau
HELENA - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton told Montana reporters Friday that she no longer favors national handgun registration and licensing, even as she supports such measures in her adopted state of New York. “What I came out for was the New York law,” the U.S. senator said in a noon conference call Friday. “I don’t think there is any contradiction between defending Second Amendment rights and trying to keep guns out of the hands of” criminals and the mentally ill.
In 2000, as she was beginning her campaign for senator from New York, Clinton came out as first lady in favor of licensing and registering of all new handguns sold in the United States. She also supported a bill that would create a registry of all guns sold in the U.S., along with requiring buyers to get a license and undergo a background check. More
BBC News
US GIANT Ford is to invest $3bn (£1.5bn) in a new car plant in Mexico, the biggest investment in the country’s manufacturing sector. The move is a blow to American car workers who had hoped the factory would be built in the United States. Ford has lost more than $15bn (£7.5bn) over the past two years and says the new facility is crucial to its future.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon hailed the announcement as a “turning point” for his country. The new factory, and other changes to Ford’s Mexican operations, are likely to create an estimated 4,500 jobs in Mexico, where car workers earn substantially less than their American counterparts. Mr Calderon made the announcement with Ford president Alan Mullaly at the presidential compound in Mexico City on Friday. “We want Mexico to be an automotive country, one that is competitive and with the most advantages so that the worldwide automotive industry will establish itself here,” Mr Calderon said. More
Photo GISuser.com SETH BORENSTEIN/AP
UNDER a court order and four years late, the White House Thursday produced what it called a science-based “one-stop shop” of specific threats to the United States from man-made global warming. Andrew Weaver, a Canadian climate scientist who was not involved in the effort, called it “a litany of bad news in store for the U.S.”
And biologist Thomas Lovejoy, one of the scientists who reviewed the report for the federal government, said: “It basically says the America we’ve known we can no longer count on. It’s a pretty dramatic picture of all kinds of change rippling through natural systems across the country. And all of that has implications for people.” More
Like the Ford/Nixon pardon, it’s the same story around the globe—the corrupt protect the corrupt and exploit their own populations. CNN
Thailand’s prime minister has warned he may send in police and soldiers to disperse several hundred people who have been staging an around-the-clock protest in Bangkok for the past six days. The Peoples Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is protesting proposed changed to Thailand’s constitution which would protect former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his followers from corruption charges.
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej issued his warning on government television Saturday, saying the protest must stop immediately and calling it a “make or break point.” PAD officials have rejected the warning and vowed to continue their demonstration which has not stopped since it began last Sunday.
It was a series of rallies by PAD in 2006 that led up to a military coup that toppled Prime Minister Thaksin, a wealthy telecommunications tycoon who now lives in exile. Thaksin’s party, the People Power Party (PPP), is the largest member of the current coalition government.
Bloomberg
FEDERAL Reserve Board Vice Chairman Donald Kohn raised the possibility of giving Wall Street securities firms permanent access to loans from the central bank, as long as regulators tighten oversight of the companies. Kohn also advocated continuing Fed auctions of funds to commercial banks and loans of Treasuries to Wall Street dealers even after markets stabilize. Such channels would stay open “either on a standby basis or operating at a very low level,” he said in a speech in New York yesterday.
“If you are a bondholder in one of these Wall Street firms, you know you have a big `Sugar Daddy’ now called the Federal Reserve that’s going to back you up,” said Jeff Pantages, chief investment officer of Alaska Permanent Capital Management in Anchorage, which oversees $1.8 billion in assets. “But if you are a stockholder this kind of worries you because investment banks will be more highly regulated and won’t be able to use leverage as much as before,” he said. More
Photo burge5000 chycho.com
“THE MILITARY judge in the Omar Khadr trial in Guantanamo Bay has been relieved of his duties, a move that Mr. Khadr’s defence counsel implied is a result of the judge siding with the defense on a number of evidence-disclosure issues in the controversial military tribunal case.” Omar Khadr is the Canadian child soldier that the United States government has been holding captive in Guantanamo Bay for the last six years.
“Mr. Khadr’s U.S. military defense lawyer, Lieutenant Commander Bill Kuebler, said the sudden change of judge comes after a recent commission hearing in which Col. Brownback ‘threatened to suspend proceedings in the case of Omar Khadr if prosecutors continued to withhold key evidence from Omar’s lawyers.’”
This news comes one week after the Supreme Court of Canada issued a judgment stating that Guantanamo Bay was an illegal operation and ordered “the Canadian government to hand over interrogation documents to Omar Khadr’s defence lawyers.” The ruling essentially implies that Canada and the United States are committing war crimes by allowing these ‘show trials’ to continue. More
Photo Karen Horton The beginning of political wisdom is the realization that despite everything you’ve always been taught, the government is not really on your side; indeed, it is out to get you.
Robert Higgs
SOMETIMES government functionaries and their private-sector supporters want simply to bully you, to dictate what you must do and what you must not do, regardless of whether anybody benefits from your compliance with these senseless, malicious directives. The drug laws are the best current example, among many others, of the government as bully. Our rulers presently enforce a host of laws that combine the worst aspects of puritanical priggishness and the invasive, pseudo-scientific, therapeutic state. They tolerate our pursuit of happiness only so long as we pursue it exclusively in officially approved ways: gin, yes; weed, no.
Notwithstanding the great delight that our rulers take in tormenting us with their absurdly inconsistent nanny-state commands, they generally have bigger fish to fry. Above all, the government and its special-interest backers want to take our money. If these people ran a store, they might aptly call it Robberies R Us. Their credo is simple and brazen: “you have money, and we want it.” More
USA Today
THE same Air Force unit that mistakenly flew nuclear-tipped cruise missiles on a B-52 last summer has failed a nuclear security inspection, according to a Defense Department report.
Security broke down on multiple levels during simulated attacks across the 5th Bomb Wing’s North Dakota base, including attacks against nuclear weapons storage areas, according to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency report, which was obtained by Air Force Times.
Inspectors watched as an airman played video games on his cellphone while standing guard at a “restricted area perimeter,” the report said. Meanwhile, another airman nearby was “unaware of her duties and responsibilities” during the exercise. More
WEST POINT graduates become second lieutenants in the U.S. Army and most are expected to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan. About a dozen of the graduates have already served as enlisted troops in Iraq or Afghanistan. Geren told the cadets they have their chance to make history like other West Point graduates, listing the names of famous generals from Ulysses Grant to David Petraeus. “Our nation needs you and we salute you,” he said under a cloudy sky that gave way to rain before the traditional hat toss. More
JORDAN AND France on Friday signed two agreements for cooperation in the peaceful development of nuclear technology and political coordination on regional and international issues, according to an official statement. The accords were signed by Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Bashir and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner, who also held talks on latest developments in the Middle East.
The nuclear cooperation agreement provides for using nuclear reactors for generation of electricity, the extraction of uranium from phosphate mines in Jordan, the training of Jordanian manpower and arrangements for nuclear safety, Chairman of the Jordanian Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) Khalid Touqan said. More
WSWS
TENS of thousands of Iraqis protested in a number of cities Friday against the proposed agreement between the puppet regime of Nouri al-Maliki and the Bush administration that would codify a long-term US military occupation.
In a secret videoconference last November, Maliki and Bush signed an agreement, a cynically titled “Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship,” which outlined plans for the establishment of permanent American military bases and preferential treatment for US energy conglomerates and investors to exploit Iraqi oil reserves. The full details of the pact, including the general dimensions of the American occupation force, were to be worked out by July 31, 2008. More
TODAY the World Health Organization took a strong stance to protect 1.8 billion young people by urging governments to outright ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. The call to action comes on the eve of World No Tobacco Day (on May 31st). This year’s campaign focuses on the multi-billion dollar efforts of tobacco companies to attract young people to its addictive products through sophisticated marketing.
“The tobacco industry employs predatory marketing strategies to get young people hooked to their addictive drug,” said Dr Douglas Bettcher, Director of WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative. “But comprehensive advertising bans do work, reducing tobacco consumption by up to 16% in countries that have already taken this legislative step.”
CNN — FEDERAL regulators investigating possible price manipulation of crude oil are likely looking at what role collapsed energy giant Enron may have played, a former commission member told CNN Friday.
In an interview on “American Morning,” Michael Greenberger, who once headed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Trading & Markets, said, “Almost certainly what they’re looking at is as a result of Enron pushing for having energy futures contracts being done outside of the United States’ regulatory purview.
“There is a theory that has gained momentum among economists and market observers that the price of crude oil is being driven up not by supply/demand principles in whole, but by speculators who are using what are called dark markets, markets that can’t be watched by the public or regulators, to manipulate the price of crude oil and, therefore, gasoline and heating oil in an upward direction,” he said.
Press TV
FORMER German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer says Israel is planning to attack Iran in the near future over its nuclear program. He wrote a piece that appeared in today’s Daily Star, an English-language Lebanese newspaper, arguing that President Bush’s recent visit to the Middle East was a precursor to a war against Iran.
“The Middle East is drifting toward a new great confrontation in 2008. Iran must understand that without a diplomatic solution in the coming months, a dangerous military conflict is very likely to erupt. It is high time for serious negotiations to begin,” he said. Fischer said Bush’s speech during his address to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, this month indicated a coming Israeli-US attack on Iran’s nuclear program. “He (Bush) seemed to be planning, together with Israel, to end the Iranian nuclear program — and to do so by military, rather than by diplomatic, means….
Although it is acknowledged in Israel that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would involve grave and hard-to-assess risks, the choice between acceptance of a nuclear Iran and an attempt at its military destruction, with all the attendant consequences, is clear. Israel won’t stand by and wait for matters to take their course,” Fischer said. Fischer was German’s top diplomat from 1998 to 2005 and is a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
IRAN will not give up its right to enrich uranium, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday, days before major powers submit an upgraded package of incentives to try to coax Tehran into halting the work. “Suspending enrichment is not negotiable … Depriving Iran of its right cannot be on offer,” Gholamhossein Elham, the government spokesman, told a weekly news conference.
Iran has agreed to a visit by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to submit the package of incentives, in exchange for a full suspension of uranium enrichment. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia — and Germany, known as the P5+1, offered a package to Iran in 2006 that also required Iran to halt enrichment. Tehran rejected those proposals and the latest package is an enhanced version. More
Photo Adnan Asim
A FOX NEWS employee who says she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after being bitten by bedbugs at work filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the owner of the Manhattan office tower where she worked. Jane Clark, 37, a 12-year veteran of Fox News, a unit of News Corp, said she complained to human resources after being bitten three times between October 2007 and April 2008.
She said she was ridiculed and the office was not treated for months. Clark, who says she’s been diagnosed with PTSD and can no longer work, has filed a separate workers compensation claim with News Corp, and the company is paying her medical bills and lost wages. A News Corp spokeswoman declined to comment because News Corp was not named in the lawsuit. More
Photo from a second story
PROTESTS are expected to get under way in Iraq against a deal between Baghdad and Washington over the US’s long-term military role in the country. Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia leader of the Mahdi Army, has called for the demonstrations after Friday prayers to pressure the Iraqi government into abandoning the proposed agreement.
Washington wants the Iraqi government to provide a legal framework for US troops to remain in Iraq beyond the expiration of a UN mandate in December. Officials from Washington told Al Jazeera they expect to finalise the deal by the end of July.
Sheikh Salah Obaidi, spokesman for al-Sadr’s bloc in parliament, said the call for protests is not a “threat” to the Iraqi government, but a “warning”. Al-Sadr on Tuesday warned the government against signing the agreement, saying “it is against the interests of the Iraqi people”. More
Photo count_wood
High levels of bisphenol A prompted many consumers to toss water and baby bottles containing the controversial material. Now, tests conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV have found high levels of the estrogen-mimicking chemical in canned food sold in Canada.
Canned foods sold in Canada contain the estrogen-mimicking chemical bisphenol A at concentrations as much as double the levels that prompted many consumers to shun plastic baby bottles and water bottles made from the controversial material, according to testing conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV.The highest amounts were in a food often consumed by children - tomato sauce, which had 18.2 parts per billion. But the news organizations tested 13 other canned goods purchased at Toronto stores, including beer, ravioli, apple juice and cream-style corn, and found bisphenol A in every sample. More
mcclatchydc.com
Twenty former U.S. attorneys, both Republicans and Democrats, urged a federal judge Thursday to intervene in a constitutional battle over whether two White House officials should be forced to testify before Congress about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.
The former top prosecutors, including two who served under President Bush, argue in court papers that the judge should reject the Bush administration’s assertion of blanket immunity for presidential chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in the congressional investigation.
“This congressional inquiry involves the possible subversion of principles at the core of Constitutional government,” they wrote. “It is a matter of the utmost importance for Congress to conduct a complete investigation to determine whether White House officials have injected, or attempted to inject, partisan considerations into a process that must be rigorously insulated from such considerations.” More
recombinomics.com
In view of the possible threat posed by H7 viruses, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is sponsoring several studies of human H7 vaccines, according to NIAID Director Dr. Anthony S. Fauci.A phase 1-2 clinical trial of a vaccine based on a US H7N7 virus was launched in March, Fauci told CIDRAP News today. The trial, based at Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, involves 125 volunteers who received doses ranging from 7.5 to 90 micrograms of antigen to study the vaccine’s safety and immunogenicity.
The egg-based vaccine was made by Sanofi, he said.In addition, the NIAID recently conducted an intramural phase 1 clinical trial of a cold-adapted H7N3 vaccine made from the British Columbian strain, Fauci reported. He said the results show that the vaccine is safe, but the immunogenicity findings are still being analyzed.Fauci said some additional research on H7 vaccines is under way in NIAID labs in Bethesda, Md. “The bottom line is there is stuff going on,” he said.
New York Times
A total of 51 corporations, the most recent being the consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, have agreed to adopt a new political disclosure resolution that has been promoted by shareholder activist groups. The Center for Political Accountability, a Washington nonprofit, announced Thursday that it had just passed the mark of getting 50 companies to agree to the proposal.
The resolution, which has been brought before corporate boards since 2002, requires corporations to disclose publicly when corporate funds are used for political purposes, whether on the state or federal level. The agreement requires disclosure of payments from corporations to trade associations — groups like the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers — that lobby and make political contributions.
Those agreeing to the resolution include American Express, Avon, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, eBay, E.I. DuPont, General Dynamics, General Electric, General Motors, Home Depot, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, McDonald’s, Merck, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Target, United Parcel Service, Verizon and Xerox. A total of the 35 of the 51 companies agreeing to the resolution are S&P 100 companies, which represent some of the nation’s largest publicly traded companies. More
tracypress.com
A dead crow found in Tracy was confirmed infected with West Nile Virus, the first sign of the pathogen in the Central Valley this year, the San Joaquin County Mosquito and Vector Control District found late Wednesday. Like most birds, crows live only five days after getting infected, she said. Bearden said vector control scientists find the virus a week earlier every year. Since the virus is heat-activated, she added, a few consecutive days of 100-degree weather in early
A dozen California counties have reported infected or dead animals because of the virus this year. The first recorded human case of the virus now endemic to the county was in summer 2004, when a man died from the avian infection. Two Central Valley residents, a horse and 158 birds have since died from it. Forty-one of those birds died in Tracy. More
briefingroom.thehill.com
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said that the House Judiciary Committee would be willing to arrest Karl Rove if the former White House official doesn’t testify about his role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.
Wasserman Schultz, in an interview on MSNBC Tuesday, echoed the demand of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) that Rove would not be allowed to invoke executive privilege to avoid testifying. Rove could not invoke the privilege since he said he did not have conversations with the president about the attorneys’ firing, Wasserman Schultz said.
Asked by MSNBC host Dan Abrams if the committee would go far as having Rove arrested, Wasserman said it would. “Well, if that’s what it takes,” she said. “I mean we really cannot allow the co-equal branch of government, the legislative branch, to be trampled upon by the executive branch. The founding fathers established three branches of government. We are a co-equal branch, and this is an administration that essentially has ignored and disrespected the role of the legislative branch for far too long.”
Eye To Eye With Katie Couric: Scott McClellan (CBS News)
Couric shamelessly defends press complicity and focus on rushing to war instead of questioning White House motives. She cites Colin Powell’s bogus UN speech as justification for the press being deceived. During war governments lie! Even a fifth grader knows that. Proof the so-called liberal press relied exclusively on Pentagon sources for prewar news at the exclusion of all other avenues of information. Democracy Now
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan took to the airwaves Thursday to explain his speaking out on his former bosses in the Bush administration. In a new memoir, McClellan accuses the administration of deliberately manipulating the public to wage the war on Iraq. McClellan also criticizes his former bosses for the handling of Hurricane Katrina and the CIA leak case. Appearing on the Today Show, McClellan said he had mistakenly allowed his personal admiration for President Bush to overshadow concerns about the deceptive rush to war in Iraq.
Scott McLellan:
“I felt like we were rushing into this, but because of my position and my affection for the President and my belief and trust in he and his advisers, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. And looking back on it and reflecting on it now, I don’t think I should have.”
McClellan went on to say President Bush had personally told him he authorized the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. McClellan says he asked President Bush aboard Air Force One if he was the one who approved outing Plame to the media. McClellan says Bush replied, “Yes, I was.”
Two veteran police officers were charged Friday with providing protection for purported shipments of cocaine and stolen goods in what was actually an undercover FBI operation. Officer Geovani Nunez and Detective Jorge Hernandez are accused in court documents of helping protect shipments of what they thought were stolen televisions and computers and at least 12 kilograms of cocaine - sometimes by using their police cars to escort trucks.
Prosecutors said the 13-year veterans of the Miami Police Department were paid a combined $39,500 by a secret FBI informant they thought was involved in illegal businesses, prosecutors said. Nunez and Hernandez were released on bail after appearing briefly in court. Nunez’s attorney, Michael Catalano, said the allegedly illegal conduct was staged and not real because it was an FBI sting. Catalano also said the officers would fight the charges, which carry potential life sentences. More
thinkprogress.org
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) today announced that he and his staff were going to begin discussions with former press secretary Scott McClellan about testifying before Congress regarding revelations in his new memoir. In particular, Conyers pointed to attempts by the White House to cover-up Scooter Libby’s involvement in the Valerie Plame leak:
I believe this issue may require closer examination, so I have instructed my counsels to begin discussions with Mr. McClellan to determine whether a hearing is necessary and to secure his possible cooperation.
In today’s White House press briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters that the White House, hypothetically, could stop McClellan from testifying. It’s not clear on what grounds the White House would be able to block McClellan. More
