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Morning headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Top StoryA ‘Great Society’ Conservative (by Joshua Green)
(Karl) Rove’s entire vision for Republican realignment was premised on the notion that he could command government to produce the specific effects that he desired. But as a conservative could have predicted, his proposed policies unleashed a series of failures and unintended consequences… If nothing else, Mr. Rove has strengthened the conservative critique of what happens when you try to engineer great societal changes through government policy. Perhaps conservatives can find some solace by telling themselves they were right all along.
Read Green’s long piece on Rove (subscription required) in the September issue of The Atlantic. I have to disagree with Green that Bush and Rove have proven government can’t be a force for change. But they have surely proven that incompetent and cynical use of government to promote unfairness will fail in its objectives.—Caro Humor Ink
The WorldFour U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Four U.S. soldiers were killed on Monday in Iraq, the military said on Tuesday.
U.S. troops launch big new Iraq offensive
U.S. forces launched a big offensive in Iraq's Diyala province on Tuesday as part of a major new countrywide push against Sunni and Shi'ite militants announced this week.
Iraq pullout could create chaos
WASHINGTON — U.S. troops could withdraw from Iraq within months, but if Iraq's government remains politically deadlocked, it probably would collapse and the nation would descend into chaos, a war game organized by the U.S. Army concluded earlier this month.
Chaos. Uh huh. It’s a real shame, but we can’t trust anything that comes from this administration.—Caro
Iraq political crisis summit set
BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister appeared to clear the way Monday — with a last-minute push from the U.S. ambassador — for a crisis council that seeks to save his crumbling government.
Italy Probe Unearths Huge Iraq Arms Deal
The Associated Press has learned that Iraqi government officials were involved in the ($40 million) deal, apparently without the knowledge of the U.S. Baghdad command -- a departure from the usual pattern of U.S.-overseen arms purchases.
Slaves Saved From China Brick Factories
Two months after Chinese officials busted a number of illegal brick factories and discovered migrants being forced to work as slaves, they say an additional 359 slaves, including many children, have been rescued from 17 more kilns.
China's new revolutionaries: U.S. consumers
Unlike organized labor or human rights groups, consumers don't have to mobilize to effect change; they only have to stop spending. And their bargaining agents -- Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us -- have immensely more clout than the AFL-CIO and Amnesty International in fostering change in China.
Owner of Chinese Toy Factory Commits Suicide
SHANGHAI, Aug. 13 — The head of a Chinese company that was behind the recall this month of about a million Mattel toys committed suicide over the weekend, China’s state-controlled news media reported Monday. Zhang Shuhong, a Hong Kong businessman and owner of Lee Der Industrial, a company that made toys for Mattel for 15 years, hanged himself in a company warehouse in Foshan, in southern China, The Southern Metropolis Daily said Monday. The NationRove Exits
(Karl Rove’s) legacy is a conservative movement largely discredited and disunited, a president with lower consistent approval ratings than any in modern history, a generational shift to the Democrats, a resurgent al Qaeda, an endless catastrophe in Iraq, a long hard struggle in Afghanistan, a fiscal legacy that means bankrupting America within a decade, and the poisoning of American religion with politics and vice-versa. For this, he got two terms of power - which the GOP used mainly to enrich themselves, their clients and to expand government's reach and … drain on the productive sector.
Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned
David Walker, comptroller general of the US, … warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.
Dishonesty and greed are the declining moral values we should be worried about, not the sexual permissiveness that so concerns right wingers.—Caro
US gov't broke Padilla through intense isolation, say experts
When suspected Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla was whisked from the criminal justice system to military custody in June 2002, it was done for a key purpose – to break his will to remain silent. As a US citizen, Mr. Padilla enjoyed a right against forced self-incrimination. But this constitutional guarantee vanished the instant President Bush declared him an enemy combatant.
This article doesn’t say, but apparently they tortured this man without finding out anything incriminating.—Caro
Atty. Gen.'s role could expand in capital cases
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases in California and other states, including the power to shorten the time that death row inmates have to appeal convictions to federal courts. The rules implement a little-noticed provision in last year's reauthorization of the Patriot Act.
The Patriot Act continues to surprise. What does states’ imposition of the death penalty have to do with national security? Anybody?—Caro
Study: Half of nation's poor don't get food stamps
WASHINGTON — Half of the nation's eligible poor aren't getting the food stamps to which they're entitled, a study released Tuesday found.
Electorate Shifts Towards Democrats
In a new strategy memo, Stan Greenberg looks at four months of polling data and sees "big changes that have an enduring quality" that will shape the 2008 presidential race. Key takeaways: The "opinion elite" in the country -- those with a college education and earning more than $75,000 -- support a Democratic presidential candidate by an 11 point margin. Independents have defected from Republican candidates and now support a Democrat for president by 19 points. Young voters are breaking to Democrats with landslide margins. Married women -- a key swing vote -- are breaking marginally for the Democrats this year after swinging strongly for the Republicans in 2004. Unmarried women -- a key bloc of "base" voters for Democrats -- pick the Democratic candidate by two to one margin. MediaPermanent link to MTA daily media news
Media repeated Rove's assessment of 2008 election without noting he was wrong in 2006
In reports about Karl Rove's announcement that he is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff, numerous news reports uncritically repeated Rove's assessments that President Bush "will move back up in the polls" and that Republicans have "a very good chance" of winning the White House in 2008. However, these outlets did not mention Rove's recent track record: Before the November 2006 midterm elections, he predicted that Republicans would "keep" their majorities in the U.S. House and Senate.
Karl Rove and the Religion of the Washington Press
Conservatives think the ideology of the Washington press corps is liberal. Liberals think the press is conservative in the sense of protecting its place in the political establishment. Karl Rove once said that the press is “less liberal than it is oppositional.”… Whereas I believe that the real—and undeclared—ideology of American journalism is savviness, and this is what made the press so vulnerable to the likes of Karl Rove.
Why Isn't the Press on a Suicide Watch?
You'd never know that at least 3% of all American deaths in Iraq are due to self-inflicted wounds. And that doesn't include the many vets who have killed themselves after returning home.
'DAN RATHER REPORTS' to Present Conclusive Evidence of Touch-Screen Voting Machine Failures
HD Net has announced the content of this Tuesday's "Dan Rather Reports": An hour-long investigative special report dedicated to the failures of touch-screen voting and the companies that make them… Dan Rather Reports “The Trouble with Touch Screens” will air Tuesday, August 14 at 8:00 p.m. ET. The program also airs at 11:00 p.m. ET to accommodate west coast prime time.
The Objectivity Problem
(I)t doesn't seem implausible that some time in the not too distant future, newspapers will choose to get out of the op-ed business altogether, ceding that niche to the sharpest minds on the Web. It's one thing that the Web does much better than traditional media, since in many ways it is a true meritocracy.
Except that it isn’t. The most popular bloggers, except for John Amato of Crooks and Liars, only link to each other or to their good friends. So someone less known has only a small chance of becoming better known.—Caro
How one press critic imagines the newspaper of the future
"The odds are it will be a hybrid publication in which an online edition that's focused mainly on breaking news and service works in tandem with a print edition whose staples are analysis, context and opinion," writes Tim Rutten. "The former almost surely will have a lot more video and interactivity than it does today; the latter will have to be much more thoughtful and far more intensely and carefully edited." Technology & ScienceFCC Tested Defective Prototype Device
WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft Corp. on Monday gave a simple reason why its prototype for beaming high-speed Internet service over unused television airways failed a government test: the device was broken.
Researchers create foldable battery
The battery uses paper infused with an electrolyte and carbon nanotubes that are embedded in the paper. The carbon nanotubes form the electrodes, the paper is the separator and the electrolyte allows the current to flow.
U.N. Web site hacked with anti-war post
UNITED NATIONS - Computer hackers posted an anti-war message on the U.N.'s official Web site, claiming that U.S. and Israeli policies in the Middle East were taking innocent lives, the United
Nations said.
Could this be a right-wing attack pretending to be a left-wing one?—Caro
Aussie farmer abducted in Net love scam
ADELAIDE, Australia - An Australian farmer held hostage in Mali for 12 days by a gang of men who had posed as an online love interest has urged others to be careful when seeking romance on the Internet.
Study: It doesn't pay to be smart
Although money and mental muscles may seem a natural match, brains, alas, may be more hindrance than help when it comes to getting rich, concludes a new study in the journal Intelligence.
This is another one of those chicken or egg situations. Could it be that the smartest people don’t follow the occupations that would make them rich because they prefer other pursuits?—Caro
Behavior: Hostility May Raise Risk for Disease
Anger and hostility may increase the risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, a new study suggests.
Pot Bellies Point to Heart Risk
This kind of fat was strong indicator of trouble ahead, study found.
All those angry, pot-bellied Rush Limbaugh listeners are in real danger.—Caro
Researchers seek mysterious dark matter
LOS ANGELES - In deep underground laboratories around the globe, a high-tech race is on to spot dark matter, the invisible cosmic glue that's believed to keep galaxies from spinning apart. Whoever discovers the nature of dark matter would solve one of modern science's greatest mysteries and be a shoo-in for the Nobel Prize. EnvironmentEU expects Britain to deliver on renewable energy commitments
BRUSSELS (AFP) - The EU Commission remains confident that Britain will deliver on its commitments to increase the use of renewable energy sources, despite doubts expressed in London, a Brussels spokesman said Monday.
Heat on Australia PM over Climate Sceptic MPs
A report questioning climate change and calling global warming a "natural phenomenon" on Monday led to accusations Australia's Prime Minister John Howard was a climate sceptic, possibly denting his re-election hopes.
Australian cities face water shortage
CANBERRA, Australia - Nearly every Australian city will have to find new water supplies over the next decade as climate change and population growth stretch the nation's already limited water resources, according to a study released Tuesday.
Reward Offered for China Cities Curbing Pollution
China's top coal producing province has offered rewards of up to 2 million yuan ($263,800) to cities dropping off a list of the country's 10 worst polluters, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday. For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com. |
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