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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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Congress sends kids health care to Bush
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Setting up a veto showdown with President George W. Bush, the U.S. Congress on Thursday approved legislation to expand a popular children's health care program and pay for it with higher taxes on tobacco products.

Pablo on Politics

The World

Turkey, Iraq sign deal on Kurdish rebels
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey and Iraq on Friday signed a counterterrorism pact aimed at cracking down on separatist Kurdish rebels who have been attacking Turkey from bases in Iraq.

Cyprus says Syria dispute smoothed over
NEW YORK - The Cypriot president said Thursday he was confident Syria had no intention of recognizing a breakaway state in his Mediterranean island despite a spat over a ferry that sailed to a Syrian port from the separatist region.

UN: No interference in Lebanon
UNITED NATIONS - Lebanese presidential elections must be free of violence and foreign interference, the U.N. Security Council said Thursday, joining an international chorus pressuring the Arab country's rival political forces to advance a process whose delay could split Lebanon apart.

World powers seek to narrow differences on Iran
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's major powers will try to narrow their differences on tougher sanctions against Iran when they meet on Friday in New York, seeking to keep up pressure on Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

Russia, China resist new Iran sanctions
UNITED NATIONS - Russia and China refuse to discuss possible new sanctions against Iran until the U.N. nuclear agency reports on Tehran's disclosure of its past suspicious nuclear work at the end of the year, France's foreign minister said Thursday.

Afghan farmers find alternative to opium: marijuana
BALKH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - As Afghanistan struggles to cut its raging opium production, aid workers try to find alternative crops, but for some former poppy farmers the choice was easy -- they planted marijuana instead.

Pakistan court to rule on Musharraf's fate
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's Supreme Court is set to decide on Friday whether President Pervez Musharraf can run for re-election in uniform in a ruling with far-reaching consequences for the nuclear-armed nation.

Myanmar crowds taunt troops as crackdown draws outrage
YANGON (Reuters) - Crowds taunted soldiers and police sealing off central Yangon behind barbed-wire barricades on Friday in anticipation of fresh protests against 45 years of military rule in Myanmar and deepening economic hardship.

The Nation

Congress agrees to raise US credit limit
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the U.S. government fast approaching its current $8.965 trillion credit limit, the Senate on Thursday gave final congressional approval of an $850 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority.

Bush Signs Sweeping Student Loan Bill Into Law, Adding an Asterisk
President Bush signed into law yesterday a student loan bill that will provide more than $20 billion in federal aid to college students and is being likened to the G.I. Bill, which helped millions of World War II veterans attend college.

Senators vote to crack down on hate crimes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted to crack down on hate crimes on Thursday in defiance of a possible White House veto. In doing so, it declared that the United States must combat terror at home as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan. "At a time that we are fighting terrorism abroad, the United States Senate says, 'We are going to fight terrorism, hatred and bigotry here at home,'" said Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.

U.S. to Let Key Detainees Request Lawyers
Move could allow 14 "high-value" terrorism suspects at Guantanamo to join other detainees in challenging status as enemy combatants in court.

Gates expects to approve Army expansion
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he's inclined to approve an Army proposal to spend nearly $3 billion extra over the next four years to accelerate an expansion of its force. Army Secretary Pete Geren said speeding up the growth of the force, stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would mean recruiting faster and increasing the number of soldiers who re-enlist.

Report: Private Military Contractors Hurt War Effort
The United States' use of mercenary contractors like Blackwater in Iraq has led to unnecessary violence against civilians, inflamed Iraqi sentiment towards the United States and jeopardized military strategies to defeat the insurgency, a new report concludes.
FedSpending.org has the information on Blackwater contracts.—Caro

Wartime Commission Would Investigate Contracting Abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan
Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) have sponsored a bill (S. 1825) that would set up a commission to investigate and reform wartime contracting. It is likely the bill will be introduced as an amendment to the Defense Reauthorization Act that is currently being debated in the Senate.

Physicists contest missile shield claims
A number of top U.S-based physicists say the United States used inaccurate claims to reassure NATO allies about U.S. missile defense plans in Eastern Europe, but the Pentagon stands by its claims.

Doolittle, five staffers subpoenaed in Abramoff probe
WASHINGTON — California Rep. John Doolittle said Thursday that the Justice Department has issued subpoenas to him and five of his staff members seeking office records going back 11 years in connection to the congressman's relationship with jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Doolittle's attorney indicated that he might fight having to comply.

Dems can't make guarantee on Iraq troops
HANOVER, N.H. - The leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013.

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2007/09/27/a-critical-juncture-for-media-reform/">A Critical Juncture For Media Reform
The new Free Press Action Network will be a forum to help expand this growing movement across the country.

I will be a guest on Tony Seton’s America Back on Track today at 3:30 PM ET. Listen to Tony from 3:00 to 4:00 PM ET every weekday on the Quality News Network.

Access to Web appears cut in Myanmar
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's government appeared to have cut public Internet access and troops occupied key Buddhist monasteries on Friday, witnesses and diplomats said, in an effort to end demonstrations against the ruling junta.

Spoonfed citizens (by Jeff Jarvis)
In (the) video from (Wednesday) night’s debate, Barack Obama makes politics a bit too cause-and-effect, in my book. Sound bite: “One of the things the next president has to do is to stop fanning people’s fears. If we spend all our time feeding the American people fear and conflict and division then they become fearful and conflicted and divided. If we feed them hope and we feed them reason and tolerance then they will become tolerant and reasonable and hopeful.” Isn’t that essentially insulting? We are politicians’ empty vessels. We are molded by their rhetoric? The Presidency isn’t a PBS self-improvement show. It’s an executive job. Sounds like Obama has been hanging out with Oprah too much.

Financial Modeling for Fun and Profiteers (by Barry Crimmins)
the Huffington Post. It just got done raising $5 million dollars from Softbank Capital and other corporate concerns. Not a dime of this money is going to the dozens of writers who draw the traffic to millionaire Arianna Huffington's website… Don't look now but the South has done it again-- and on a "liberal" website! They have brought back slavery under cover of the term "financial model." Last I checked, great companies pay their laborers in more than visibility, promotion and distribution. They pay money.
But Barry, Arianna may start asking her contributors to pay to post on her websites, if she reads about what Will Ferrell did for his new movie. See below.—Caro

Boy gets $47,000 shot to act in Will Ferrell comedy
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The parent of a 10-year-old boy has won the bidding for a coveted spot to appear alongside comedian Will Ferrell in an upcoming movie, paying $47,100 in an Internet charity auction.

Rather chokes up, and hunkers down
Former CBS "Evening News" anchor Dan Rather choked back tears on several occasions today when discussing his decision to file a lawsuit against CBS… When asked by Carol Joynt, host of the "Q&A Café" held at Nathans restaurant who worked with Rather at CBS in the 1970s, whether "he'd like to" call President Bush as a witness in the trial, Rather paused, then said "I'd like not to answer the question," leaving both Joynt and audience members wondering whether the newsman has Bush in his sights."

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2007/09/27/spies-prep-reporters-on-protecting-secrets/">Spies Prep Reporters On Protecting Secrets
Frustrated by press leaks about its most sensitive electronic surveillance work, the secretive NSA convened a series of off-the-record "seminars" in recent years to teach reporters about the damage caused by such leaks and to discourage reporting that could interfere with the agency's mission to spy on America's enemies.

Rush Limbaugh On Saving Troops' Lives: "Whatever"
Newsflash: Rush Limbaugh just described soldiers who are in favor of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq as "phony soldiers." This will naturally explode into a huge controversy. Pundits like Richard Cohen will scowl darkly and demand that Republicans condemn Rush over it, just as they demanded that Dems condemn MoveOn for criticizing Mighty Scholar-Warrior Petraeus. Pundits will say for days and days that it has put the Republicans on the defensive. (Editor's note: Sarcasm too heavy-handed here. Please tone down.)

Google's YouTube Starts Program to Help Charities
Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc.'s YouTube video site will grant some non-profit organizations their own channels so they can solicit donations and upload footage of their work. The channels will include buttons that let people make donations through Google Checkout, YouTube said today in a statement. Google, based in Mountain View, California, will process the donations for free through 2008.

Technology & Science

IRobot develops gutter cleaner, mobile phone
BOSTON (Reuters) - IRobot Corp , a maker of vacuums and bomb defusers, said on Thursday it has developed a device for cleaning gutters on homes and a Web-controlled robot with a video phone.

Apple update disables unlocked iPhones
Don’t say you weren’t warned. After cautioning customers earlier this week that unlocked iPhones may be disabled when installing future Apple software updates, the company on Thursday made good on its warning.
They said the phones would be disabled. They didn’t say they would be the ones doing the disabling.—Caro

Wine, Beer, Spirits Boost Breast Cancer Risk Equally
Three or more drinks a day raise odds by 30%, study finds

For Some, Diabetes Care Worse Than Illness Itself
Complicated daily regimens lower their quality of life, survey finds

Scientists study woolly mammoth DNA
Scientists are approaching woolly mammoths in a different way, extracting DNA from their dense coats in an effort to learn more about them.

New Study Challenges Timeline of Oxygen
WASHINGTON (AP) - Oxygen, key to life on Earth today, began to appear on the planet millions of years earlier than scientists had thought, new research indicates. An analysis of a deep rock core from Australia indicates the presence of at least some oxygen 50 million to 100 million years before the great change when the life-giving element began rising to today's levels, according to two papers appearing in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

NASA rover reaches first stop in crater
LOS ANGELES - NASA's rover Opportunity has reached its first stop inside a huge Martian crater and was poised Thursday to carry out the first science experiments.

Out-of-This-World Hypothesis: Cosmic Forces Control Life on Earth
The rise and fall of species on Earth might be driven in part by the undulating motions of our solar system as it travels through the disk of the Milky Way, scientists say.

Environment

Bush's Climate Meeting: Talk, But No Action
The President's summit shows a willingness to take global warming seriously. But don't expect much more than that
That comment is from the communists at Business Week.—Caro

Banks Urging U.S. to Adopt the Trading of Emissions
A group representing some of the world’s leading banks will urge the U.S. to introduce a lightly regulated system for trading carbon emissions permits.

Gutsy Equador Proposes A Lid On Oil
Little countries can find the strength to do big things that big countries fear to do. For the good of itself, for the good of the planet, the South American country of Ecuador has proposed to keep the lid on nearly one billion barrels of oil under its Yasuni National Park.

Britain to start phasing out high energy lightbulbs
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will begin phasing out energy-guzzling incandescent lightbulbs early next year in favor of low energy varieties as part of its battle against climate change, the environment ministry said on Thursday.

ING to Power U.S. Operations with Wind Energy
HARTFORD, Conn., Sept. 28, 2007 -- ING announced this week its intent to buy enough renewable wind energy to power its U.S. operations as part of its bid to become carbon neutral by the end of the year.

BP Teams With MIT for Clean Energy Research
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 28, 2007 -- BP became a founding member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative this week to explore energy conversion of low-carbon feedstocks.

Wal-Mart to Only Sell Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergent
NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2007 -- The nation's largest retailed promised to only sell concentrated liquid laundry detergent to save water, plastic and cardboard. The move is one of several high-profile commitments made at the third Annual Meeting of the Clinton Climate Initiative.

Mountain mining called "genocide" of Appalachia
Larry Gibson's tiny house sits in a green oasis on top of the Appalachian peak his family has called home for 230 years. The setting would be peaceful if not for the roar of machinery scraping away the surrounding mountain in search of coal. "It's a noisy, dusty place. They dynamite constantly," said Gibson, 61. "It's the genocide of Appalachia, the destruction of a people who have lived in these mountains forever."

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