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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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Labor Day 2007
(T)he people whose labor has fueled our nation's economy have suffered greatly under George Bush. If Bush truly appreciated working people and understood the challenges their families face, he would have raised the federal minimum wage for 13 million low income workers without making tax breaks for business a part of the deal. He would have compassion for those who work two or three jobs to feed their families and he would be ashamed that the number of Americans living in poverty has increased by 5.4 million since he became president. He would support the Employee Free Choice Act to give the millions of workers who want to join a union the freedom to do so without employer intimidation… He would expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program… And he would end his misguided war in Iraq, a war that has sacrificed nearly 3,700 of our soldiers and diverted resources that could have been used to build up our nation.

What Now Cartoons

The World

Gen Sir Mike Jackson attacks US over Iraq
General Sir Mike Jackson, the head of the British Army during the invasion of Iraq, has launched a scathing attack on the United States for the way it handled the post-war administration of the country. The former chief of the general staff said the approach taken by Donald Rumsfeld, the then US defence secretary, was "intellectually bankrupt", describing his claim that US forces "don't do nation-building" as "nonsensical".

Some see 'coup' as Iraq's best hope
AMMAN, Jordan - In the lobbies of luxury hotels and the apartments of exiles, an assortment of Iraqi politicians has been spending the summer vacation plotting a new Iraqi coup… At the forefront of these efforts is former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who was Washington's first choice to lead Iraq after the U.S. occupation authority ended. He now is being presented by his followers as the best hope of saving Iraq from what they say is certain catastrophe.
This message was bought and paid for by the powerful Republican lobbying firm hired by Mr. Allawi. Where the money to pay them came from is a mystery, but my bet is on us, the U.S. taxpayers. Digby asks, “does anyone believe they could pull this off and make it work?”—Caro

Iraq Far From Meeting U.S. Goals for Energy
Crucial oil, electricity sectors need $50B in reconstruction to meet nation's demands, making improving standard of living even more difficult.
Before we taxpayers spend another dime, I suggest we extract from the thieves who stole it the 9 billion dollars meant for Iraq reconstruction that’s disappeared.—Caro

Lebanese army kills 28 militants
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese troops killed 28 al-Qaida-inspired militants and captured 15 others in a massive gunfight Sunday after they broke out of a northern Palestinian refugee camp devastated by over three months of fighting, a senior security official said.

Afghan Police Are Set Back as Taliban Adapt
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Aug. 26 — Over the past six weeks, the Taliban have driven government forces out of roughly half of a strategic area in southern Afghanistan that American and NATO officials declared a success story last fall in their campaign to clear out insurgents and make way for development programs, Afghan officials say.

A step toward scrapping North Korea's nuclear program
WASHINGTON — An announcement Sunday that North Korea has agreed to reveal and disable its nuclear programs by the end of this year represents progress on one of the Bush administration's few major diplomatic initiatives. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, announced on Sunday in Geneva, Switzerland, that North Korea had agreed during two days of talks to reveal all its nuclear programs and disable them by Dec. 31.
SEE, right wingers? Diplomacy works. Why don’t we send Christopher Hill to the Middle East? The man has magic.—Caro

The Nation

Lies Swayed Congressman to Support the War
Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski explains how lies were used to convince him to vote to authorize the Iraq war: "'We were told a lot of things that were incorrect or inaccurate' he said. Kanjorski described how, prior to the vote, he and several other representatives were ushered into the Roosevelt Room in the White House and given a 90-minute, highly classified briefing by then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and CIA Director George Tenant. 'They told us all kind of things. That we were under a threat and their information was as complete as possible and they (Iraq) had weapons of mass destruction' he said. "

Iraq's Endless 'False Hopes' (by Robert Parry)
(F)alse hope has been one constant of the Iraq War, from expectations of a “cake walk” to the endless “turning points” – as one sign of “undeniable progress” takes the place of another, which is then forgotten, before the process repeats itself. So, the now-admitted false hope of the Jan. 30, 2005, election is subsumed by the latest hope of the “surge” and by the future hope of Maliki’s ouster, which will be followed by the hope of a better-manipulated election that hopefully will produce a more compliant cast of Iraqi politicians who will finally implement the wished-for neocon agenda. Of course, by the time all these hopes and dreams play out, the American and Iraqi death tolls will likely have doubled and tripled again. But the one certainty is that, by then, the neocons in Washington will have conjured up new hopes.
Or a new distraction. See below.—Caro

Phase III of Bush's War (by Patrick J. Buchanan)
Congress has lost the hawks, and the owls, and the doves. No one trusts its leadership on the war. And George W. smells it. He no longer fears the power of Congress, and his rhetoric suggests he is contemptuous of it. He is brimming with self-assurance that he can break any Democratic attempt to impose deadlines for troop withdrawal and force Congress to cough up all the funds he demands. Confident of victory this fall on the Hill, Bush is now moving into Phase III in his War on Terror: First, Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Iran.

The War Criminal in the Living Room (by Paul Craig Roberts)
The media is silent, Congress is absent, and Americans are distracted as George W. Bush openly prepares aggression against Iran. US Navy aircraft carrier strike forces are deployed off Iran. US Air Force jets and missile systems are deployed in bases in countries bordering or near to Iran. US B-2 stealth bombers have been refitted to carry 30,000 pound "bunker buster" bombs. The US government is financing terrorist and separatist groups within Iran. US Special Forces teams are conducting terrorist operations inside Iran. US war doctrine has been altered to permit first strike nuclear attack on Iran and other non-nuclear countries. Bush's war threats against Iran have intensified during the course of this year. The American people are being fed a repeat of the lies used to justify naked aggression against Iraq.

Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran
THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.

Do We Have the Courage to Stop War With Iran? (by Ray McGovern)
Why do I feel like the proverbial skunk at a Labor Day picnic? Sorry; but I thought you might want to know that this time next year there will probably be more skunks than we can handle. I fear our country is likely to be at war with Iran - and with the thousands of real terrorists Iran can field around the globe. It is going to happen, folks, unless we put our lawn chairs away on Tuesday, take part in some serious grass-roots organizing, and take action to prevent a wider war - while we still can.

Sour Americans hungry for change as election '08 approaches
DES MOINES, Iowa — A year before they choose a new government for the post-Bush era, Americans are desperate to change the country's course. Most lean left, a U.S. population more liberal than at any time in a generation, hungering to end the Iraq war, turn inward and use the federal government to solve problems at home.

Suite deal
As politicians all over Tampa Bay slash jobs, trim arts budgets, shut down recreation programs, close public swimming pools and eliminate cable access programming in reaction to the property tax crisis, consider this: Hillsborough politicians said "yes" to spending $1.5 million in taxes for new $4,000 high-definition television screens for the exclusive use of patrons in the plush club level section and the überpricey luxury suites at Tampa Bay Buccaneers games.

Data sifters help unscrupulous mortgage lenders find their prey
Information provided by data aggregators forms the base for deceptive ads. Armed with loan details, unscrupulous mortgage lenders target low-income homeowners with ads that look as if they were issued by the federal government offering benefits under the Community Reinvestment Act. Others use official-looking seals with eagles.

New Evidence on Old Idea That Works for the Poor: Gene Sperling
Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- With Labor Day approaching and concerns over economic insecurity and inequality rising, there is an understandable demand for new ideas to bolster incomes for working families. Yet in the search for something novel, we shouldn't overlook the need to expand old ideas where the evidence is already in. One such old idea is the earned income tax credit, or EITC, a refundable tax credit that provides a wage subsidy for poor Americans.

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Dry up the tears for that golden period in US Journalism that never was
(T)he performance of a mass media system must be measured and graded according to output, and this output has been consistently deplorable, for at least 150 years, and shamefully so since the era of supposedly “professional journalism” began in the 1920s.
Click through to see the examples.—Caro

GENERAL PETRAEUS'S PR BLITZKRIEG....
Petraeus has been slowly and methodically carrying out an extremely disciplined military campaign with a very precise goal: gaining support for David Petraeus and the surge… And it's worked. Even though there's been no discernable political progress, minimal reconstruction progress, and apparently no genuine decrease in violence, he's managed to convince an awful lot of people that the first doesn't matter, the second is far more widespread than it really is, and the third is the opposite of reality.

Why Was Petraeus Able To Shift The Debate On Iraq? The Media Enabled It
If you step back and survey the totality of media's performance this summer on the Iraq debate, it becomes a good deal clearer just how awful it's all been -- and just how complicit these failings were in helping to shift the debate: (1) Big news orgs repeatedly twisted the words of Democrats who had returned from Iraq to make their assessments sound more positive than they were… (2) Big news orgs shifted the definition of the success of the surge from a political goal to a military one… (3) Many news organizations gave tons of coverage to outside experts who said the surge is working, while giving little to none to people who said it wasn't… (4) Multiple news outlets repeatedly and falsely described the September Iraq assessment as representing the sole judgment of Petraeus, echoing White House propaganda… (5) News orgs and pundits are now baselessly asserting that the White House is "confident" that it will "win" the September showdown with Dems over Iraq.

"Sectarian deaths are down" unless you count the dead bodies
The GOP is going to parrot the talking point that "sectarian deaths are down" for the next few weeks. It's becoming one of their favorite campaign slogans. One problem -- it's a lie. And, you know it's a blatant, glaring lie when even Wolf Blitzer debunks it.
Click through to watch the amazing video of Wolf Blitzer debunking a Republican talking point.—Caro

Meet The Press: A Pissy Mary Matalin Throws Her Pen When Punked By Shrum
On (Sunday) morning’s Meet The Press, Senior Cheney apologist and right wing sniper, Mary Matalin, threw a little hissy fit at Bob Shrum on the issue of Iraq and the upcoming presidential election. As Shrum continually smacks down her spin, Matalin becomes increasingly perturbed and at the end of the segment as Mike Murphy was getting in some right wing spin of his own, she chucks her pen across the table in front of him
Click through to watch the video.—Caro

Feds to restrict volunteers at disasters
In an effort to provide better control and coordination, the federal government is launching an ambitious ID program for rescue workers to keep everyday people from swarming to a disaster scene… Many … volunteers angrily dispute the notion they were a burden (on 9/11 or after Katrina). They insist that in many instances they were able to deliver respirators, hard hats, and protective boots to workers when no one else seemed able.
I’ll bet any amount of money that the real purpose of this program is to keep the MEDIA away from disaster scenes. As we know from Katrina, the media were there when FEMA was not. It really was bad for the administration. Lots of people who could help in emergencies won’t be able to. Lives will again be sacrificed to boost the image of the administration.—Caro

Iraq War Debated On YouTube
During the Vietnam War, protestors took to the streets to make their opinions known. Today's generation is taking to the Internet.

Media Players Go After Free-Spending Boomers
TV Land, Host of Websites Try to Cash Out by Building Content for Over-50 Demo
I don’t know why more advertisers aren’t targeting the Boomer generation. Oh, that’s right. They’d have to change their thinking about always targeting young people, whether or not they have money to spend.

Technology & Science

U.N. alerts Iraqi refugees in Syria via text message
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. refugee agency is alerting more than 33,000 vulnerable Iraqi refugees in Damascus through text messages on cell phones, which many of them use to keep in touch with family and friends.

Do the Mash (Even if You Don’t Know All the Steps)
Several companies are creating online systems to let ordinary people create useful computer applications by combining different information sources.

IBM stores data on an atom
As researchers look for ways to replace silicon in order to shrink chips, IBM has been able to perform functions like switching and data storage on atoms and molecules

Human Genome Project is beginning to bear fruit
Last September, mutations linked to breast and colon cancer were reported. In October, a variant showed up in a gene linked to memory. In December, it was the turn of inflammatory bowel disease. April saw a flurry of reports on prostate cancer, obesity and heart disease. In June, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, bipolar disorder, type 1 and type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease were added to the list. In July, GWA researchers identified three gene variants associated with HIV and AIDS.

Growing Number of U.S. Kids Not Getting Needed Vaccinations
'Working poor' families at risk of disease outbreaks, experts warn

Useful Mutants, Bred With Radiation
Public fears aside, scientists mimic nature’s genetic scrambling to bolster fruits and vegetables, as well as beer and whiskey.

Human Family Tree Now a Tangled, Messy Bush
Like most animals, humans have a checkered past, and our family album is now full of side branches and dead ends. And it's populated with creatures, such as the little people (Homo floresiensis) of Flores Island in Indonesia, that we could never have imagined in our wildest dreams.

Texas spiders' monstrous webs baffle scientists
LAKE TAWAKONI STATE PARK, Texas (Reuters) - Texans like to say everything in their state is bigger. They can now add spider webs to that list.

Environment

Greek forest fires could be CO2 threat
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's huge forest fires have been blamed by some on global warming, but satellite images of smoke plumes drifting as far as Africa prompt the question: are forests a major source of greenhouse gas?

Spreading deserts threaten world food supply
GENEVA (Reuters) - Spreading deserts and degradation of farm land due to climate change will pose a serious threat to food supplies for the world's surging population in coming years, a senior United Nations scientist warned on Friday.

Agreement reached on greenhouse gas curb
VIENNA, Austria - Negotiators from 158 countries reached basic agreement Friday on rough targets aimed at getting some of the world's biggest polluters to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Pope urges young to care for planet
LORETO, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI urged hundreds of thousands of young Catholics on Sunday to take better care of the planet, saying the world's water supply needs to be preserved and shared to avoid conflicts.

Power to the People: Run Your House on a Prius
Power failure? Some hybrid owners are plugging their houses into their cars to provide backup electricity.

Canada wind industry grows amid opposition storm
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's fledgling wind power industry, late off the global starting blocks, has stumbled on growing local resistance to the idea of massive turbines dotting the country's relatively unmarked landscape.

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