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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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U.S. Agrees to Meeting with Iran and Syria
The Bush administration has agreed to sit around a negotiating table with official representatives of Iran and Syria next month -- as part of a planned regional conference in Baghdad to discuss ways to stabilize Iraq. Critics for months have been urging the administration to end its diplomatic isolation of Iran and Syria and begin a constructive dialogue with them about how to stabilize Iraq.
Why did Bush-Cheney refuse so stubbornly and for so long to engage in talks? Who knows, but they sure look stupid for just capitulating now, with no concessions. —Caro

The Radical Fringe

The World

Iraqi VP narrowly escapes assassination
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Shiite vice president narrowly escaped assassination Monday as a blast ripped through a government meeting hall just hours after it was searched by U.S. teams with bomb-sniffing dogs. At least 10 people were killed.

Iraq cabinet endorses landmark draft oil law
Iraq's cabinet on Monday endorsed a draft oil law crucial to regulating how wealth from the country's vast oil reserves will be shared by its ethnic and sectarian groups, a move hailed as a major political milestone.

Lebanese president asked to Arab summit
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Saudi Arabia's king on Monday invited Lebanon's president to an Arab summit next month amid signs in this fractured country that his Western-backed political opponent, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, might not be asked to attend.

Iran will not suspend uranium enrichment
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's foreign minister reiterated Tuesday that his country would never again suspend uranium enrichment, a move the United States says is essential for Washington-Tehran negotiations.

The Nation

Democrats back away from Iraq plan
WASHINGTON - Democratic leaders backed away from aggressive plans to limit President Bush's war authority, the latest sign of divisions within their ranks over how to proceed.
Don’t lose heart, Democrats. Americans are with you. See below. —Caro

Majority favors Iraq deadline
With Congress preparing for renewed debate over President Bush's Iraq policies, a majority of Americans now support setting a deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces from the war-torn nation, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Gen. Pace: Military capability eroding
WASHINGTON - Strained by the demands of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a significant risk that the U.S. military won't be able to quickly and fully respond to yet another crisis, according to a new report to Congress.

Cheney OK after explosion in Afghanistan
BAGRAM, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber killed and wounded some two dozen people outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney. The Taliban claimed responsibility and said Cheney was the target.

Media

Juror Dismissed At CIA Leak Trial
The judge in the CIA leak trial dismissed a juror who had seen or read something about the case over the weekend. The remaining jurors were told to continue deliberating the fate of ex-White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
I would really like to know if this juror opened up the Outlook section of the Washington Post on the Sunday before the case went to the jury, and saw a faked mug shot of the prosecutor. —Caro

The Washington Post's crush on right-wing bloggers
I don't know if the Post's cozying up is part of an overt effort to shed the "liberal media bias" charge, or if Post news execs actually believe the online GOP bomb-throwers represent an interesting and important piece of today's political dialogue. But for whatever reason, the Post has gotten into bed with the right-wing bloggers again and again. It's time the Post ended this ill-conceived romance. It's also time for the Post to show influential liberal bloggers a little love.

Broadcasters Want to Silence the Public
A National Association of Broadcasters VP recently wrote to FCC Chair Kevin Martin to confide that he finds “something curious about these so-called localism hearings” attracting attendees from neighboring cities and states. The VP proposed that public participants “identify the city or town where they reside" to ensure they live “in the local markets where the hearings are being conducted." The Free Press's Craig Aaron points out that “there are 210 television markets in the United States—and the FCC has promised to hold public hearings in just six of them.”

Advertising to the File-Sharing Crowd
Skyrider is one of a growing number of companies trying to deliver ads over the peer-to-peer services once deemed the agents of piracy. Among them is MediaDefender, an antipiracy company acquired by ARTISTdirect in 2005. Last summer, MediaDefender launched a program that returns licensed videos or songs, often sponsored by advertisers, to peer-to-peer searches for that artists' work.

Technology & Science

The Killing of Wi-Fi
There is mounting evidence that the cellular service companies are going to do whatever they can to kill Wi-Fi. After all, it is a huge long-term threat to them. We've seen that the route to success in America today is via public gullibility and general ignorance. And these cell-phone–service companies are no dummies.

Tiny Open-Source Company Tackles E-Mail Exchange
A tiny provider of open-source e-mail exchange software is using a disruptive pricing model to compete against Microsoft Corp. and other large providers of proprietary e-mail service technology.

Scholars Dismiss Jesus Documentary
Archaeologists and clergymen derided claims in a new documentary produced by Oscar-winner James Cameron that contradict major Christian tenets. The documentary claims the bones of Jesus Christ and his family were found in a Jerusalem tomb.

South Pole Telescope to study dark energy
The new South Pole Telescope has successfully collected its first light as part of a long-term project to unravel one of the biggest mysteries in cosmology, researchers announced today.

Environment

Group questions level of energy use at Gore home
A day after a film about his efforts to combat global warming won an Oscar, former Vice President Al Gore was called a hypocrite by a Tennessee group that said his Belle Meade home is consuming too much energy. The home's average monthly electric bill last year was just under $1,200, according to bills that The Tennessean acquired from Nashville Electric Service. Gore's power bill shows, however, that the former vice president … purchased 108 blocks of "green power" for each of the past three months, according to a summary of the bills. That's a total of $432 a month Gore paid extra for solar or other renewable energy sources.

For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com.

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I plan to post headlines every weekday morning.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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