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Carolyn Kay
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Car bomb kills 25 at Baghdad market
BAGHDAD - A parked car bomb ripped through a packed outdoor market in southwestern Baghdad on Tuesday morning, killing 25 people and injuring 60 others, despite a 3-month-old security crackdown meant to reduce violence in the capital.

Buck Fush

The World

Lebanese army, militants resume fighting
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Artillery and machine gun fire echoed around a crowded Palestinian refugee camp Tuesday as the Lebanese government ordered the army to finish off the Fatah Islam militants holed up inside the camp in the country's north.

Israel vows response to rocket attack
JERUSALEM - Israel on Tuesday pledged a harsh response for a Palestinian rocket attack that killed a woman in southern Israel, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acknowledged he does not have a quick solution for the nonstop rocket barrages launched from the Gaza Strip.

U.S., Japan to study missile defense with Australia
TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States and Japan plan to study a joint missile defense system with Australia that would boost their security role in the Asia-Pacific region, a Japanese government source said on Tuesday.

Australian PM warns govt may be 'annihilated' at election
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Tuesday warned his government risked being "annihilated" by a resurgent opposition at a national election later this year.

In Darfur, some Arabs now fight alongside rebels
Jebel Mara, SUDAN - There was once only one reason for Tusher Mohamed Mahdi, a member of one of Darfur's many Arab tribes, to venture into the mountainous rebel enclave of Jebel Mara: to kill as many non-Arab guerrilla fighters and their supporters as possible.

U.N. urges attention to Somalia
UNITED NATIONS - U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes urged the international community to not to turn its back on Somalia at a time of desperate need, saying the government appears to be seriously underestimating the humanitarian suffering in the country.

The Nation

Bush reaffirms confidence in Iraqi PM
WASHINGTON - President Bush expressed confidence in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday despite growing frustration in Congress about his government.
The surest sign that you’re a loser is having Bush express confidence in you. —Caro

Bush says he still supports Gonzales
CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush insisted Monday that embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales still has his support and denounced Democratic plans for a no-confidence vote as "pure political theater."

White House hits back at Carter remarks
CRAWFORD, Texas - In a biting rebuke, the White House on Sunday dismissed former President Jimmy Carter as "increasingly irrelevant" after his harsh criticism of President Bush.

House Democrats have to sell Iraq plan
WASHINGTON - After weeks of refusing to back down to President Bush on setting a timetable on the Iraq war, House Democratic leaders soon will be in the awkward position of explaining to members why they feel they must.

Senate puts off action on immigration
WASHINGTON - Senate leaders agreed Monday that they would wait until June to take final action on a bipartisan plan to give millions of unlawful immigrants legal status.

Court rules in favor of telecom firms
WASHINGTON - The nation's largest local phone companies won a Supreme Court victory Monday in a lawsuit by consumers alleging anticompetitive business practices.

Media

Permanent link to MTA daily media news

XM Radio to Launch Election 2008 Station for Political Junkies
XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) announced plans Monday to launch a station devoted completely to coverage of the 2008 election. Dubbed "POTUS '08," the station will debut next month with a sort of sneak preview format that will include original programming as well as rebroadcasts of candidate debates. The station will formally launch in September and remain in place through November 2008.

Reliable Sources: Transcript for May 20
Continuing his campaign against "obscure" presidential hopefuls being allowed "clutter up the stage" at debates, CNN's media reporter displays a disdain for public dialog by wishing the democratic process were "like baseball," or at least some version of baseball that has sidelines: "If you don't make the cut, you get sent to the sidelines."

Russert allowed Gingrich to cite Fort Dix Six as proof that terrorists "don't plan to stop in Baghdad"
On the May 20 broadcast of NBC's Meet the Press, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) suggested without challenge from host Tim Russert that the alleged plot by six men to carry out an armed attack on the Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey represents proof that if the United States withdraws forces from Iraq, terrorists "don't plan to stop in Baghdad. They are coming here as soon as they can get here." However, as Media Matters for America has documented, the assertion that terrorists will "com(e) here" following a U.S. troop withdrawal is widely challenged by experts.

Kurtz again suggested false comparison between MSNBC, Fox News
In his May 21 Media Notes column, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz suggested that MSNBC is the liberal equivalent of Fox News.

Another Bullying Male
Naming Lou Dobbs' "intimidating, bullying, smearing and generally shoving... opponents rhetorically to the ground" as not only "the driving mindset underlying most of the nativist opposition to Latino immigration" but "how authoritarians rule: by fear. And women, it seems, are always among their first targets."

Some sources tell reporters they'll only do e-mail interviews
Blogger Jason Calacanis claims "journalists have been burning subjects for so long with paraphrased quotes, half quotes, and misquotes that I think a lot of folks ... are taking an e-mail only interview policy." PressThink's Jay Rosen, who teaches journalism at NYU, won't do interviews for pretaped television pieces and is weighing whether to insist on e-mail interviews with print reporters. He posts his e-mail exchange with Howard Kurtz.

Technology & Science

Cities struggle with wireless Internet
A $3 million plan to blanket Lompoc, Calif., with a wireless Internet system promised a quantum leap for economic development: The remote community hit hard by cutbacks at nearby Vandenberg Air Force Base would join the 21st century with cheap and plentiful high-speed access. Instead, nearly a year after its launch, Lompoc Net is limping along.

Motorola Gets Patent For Sun-Powered Mobile Phone
Motorola believes it can get 75% or more of the light entering through the front of an LCD to the solar cell by using a different type of liquid crystal.

Dell Linux machines to debut Thursday
San Francisco (InfoWorld) - Dell is expected to begin selling on Thursday three models of its long-awaited laptop and desktop computers loaded with Ubuntu Linux.

NASA Rover Finds Surprising Evidence for Mars' Watery Past
The strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now has been unearthed by NASA's Spirit rover. A patch of Martian soil kicked up and analyzed by Spirit appears to be rich in silica, which suggests it would have required water to produce.

Environment

Surprise Increase in Global Carbon Dioxide Output
Carbon dioxide emissions have accelerated globally at a greater rate than expected in recent years, scientists announced today. The average growth rate of the emissions increased from 1.1 percent a year in the 1990s to 3 percent increase per year since 2000, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

You can cool the planet
Using solar energy would be nice, but there are plenty of other ways to be earth-friendly that require only effort, not money.

Beckett says energy efficiency good for business
TOKYO (AFP) - Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Tuesday that energy efficiency can be good for business as she appealed for companies to help fast-growing China slash carbon emissions.

In Green Push, Apple Offers Free Recycling To Schools
Schools and colleges must comply with laws regarding disposal of public assets and must have at least 25 computers for recycling.

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If I was under constant danger of getting freakin' KILLED. I just might want to take some time off to wind down. The Iraqis want us out of there, they've already said as much. If American soldiers are still in danger it's because Bush is too proud to pull them out and admit defeat.