Combines Collect Cotton Continuously

Ok, I couldn't resist the temptation of non-sensical alliteration but that headline is semi meaningful. Here's a good article from the NY Times on how U.S. farm subsidies are hurting the world economy, in particular, the poor nations of the world. Most of the subsidies end up going to big corporations rather than small farmers and they end up selling their crops for less than the cost of producing it. This ultimately keeps poor countries from trading their way out of poverty because they can't compete with the artificially low prices of the U.S. crops even though their actual cost of production is less than ours.

Originally created during the Depression to help farmers survive and to promote the stable growth of American agriculture, subsidy programs have continued in part because of strong lobbying by farm groups. These groups argue that, in addition to helping farmers, subsidies serve consumers by keeping the prices of manufactured goods low. Oxfam, however, says the impact of subsidy reduction on consumer prices would be miniscule.

United States trade officials and cotton producers suffered a blow in June 2004 when the World Trade Organization ruled that American cotton subsidies violated international trade rules by depressing world prices and harming farmers in Brazil and elsewhere. A trade appeals court affirmed this ruling in March, but the subsidies have continued. Government payments to American cotton farmers have totaled $16 billion in the last seven years.

Unfortunately, the article quotes renowned macro-economist Minnie Driver cause she and other celebs are involved in a new Oxfam photo campaign protesting U.S. farm subsidies.

This is an informative article for the uneducated like me and it caught my eye cause Kat and I were just talking about this topic the other day and how a friend of hers did a whole masters degree on this situation.

A Moment of Clarity

For the first time, in what seems like forever, a government official is stepping away from partisan rhetoric. Bill Frist, Senate Republican leader (and who knew? a heart-lung transplant surgeon), has decided to support a bill to expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, in direct opposition to the White House's policy placing strict limits on taxpayer financing for the work.

"While human embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage, the limitations put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases," Mr. Frist said. "Therefore, I believe the president's policy should be modified." His speech received the approval of Democrats as well as Republicans.

"An embryo is nascent human life," Mr. Frist says in his speech, adding: "This position is consistent with my faith. But, to me, it isn't just a matter of faith. It's a fact of science."

"Cure today may be just a theory, a hope, a dream," he says, in the conclusion of the text. "But the promise is powerful enough that I believe this research deserves our increased energy and focus. Embryonic stem cell research must be supported. It's time for a modified policy - the right policy for this moment in time."

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security"

-Benjamin Franklin, 1759



In New York, it's either open your bag or find an exit.


Police ordered tourists aboard a Gray Line bus in New York to put their hands in the air before they were taken off and the bus was searched by bomb-sniffing dogs. Five men of Sikh origin were handcuffed and later released.

Islam and Terrorism

In the never ending debate of Islamic fundamentalism and its link to terrorism, some in Egypt, a notoriously fundamentalist nation, are openly debating the issue.

Even pro-government media say authorities have created a climate where young people are turning into radicals and suicide bombers... At one mosque in Cairo, some worshippers objected to prayers for the dead and missing after Saturday's bombings in Sharm el-Sheik because some victims were likely non-Muslims, said the editor of the government weekly Al-Musawwar. Another columnist pointed to a weekly column in the government Al-Ahram daily by a religious scholar, Zaghloul al-Naggar, who explains science by using the Quran. After December's tsunami in the Indian Ocean, he went on Arab television and called the devastation God's revenge on Westerners engaged in vice.

What was unusual about the self-criticism after Sharm was that it came from government media and even from within the Islamic clerical hierarchy picked by the government. "

There is no use denying... We incited the crime of Sharm el-Sheik," ran a bold red headline of a lead editorial Wednesday by Al-Musawwar's editor in chief, Abdel-Qader Shohaib. The bombers "didn't just conjure up in our midst suddenly, they are a product of a society that produces extremist fossilized minds that are easy to be controlled," Shohaib wrote.

Not all are convinced that Islam needs reform, however. Kamal Habib a former member of Egypt's Islamic Jihad militant group who was jailed from 1981 to 1991 along with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahri denounced the critics as "secular extremists who hate religion." He blamed terrorism, instead, on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's autocratic rule. "Mubarak's regime has produced this generation. This is a nihilistic generation of a nihilistic regime."

So the debate continues, but best left up to Muslims to figure out for themselves. If the West gets involved, it will only turn into "them against us" issue instead of figuring out the root of the problem.

[Update 7/29/05]

In an effort to clampdown on extremism, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says all foreign students at madrassas, or religious schools, some 1,400 pupils, must leave the country. "Any [foreigners] in the madrassas - even dual nationality holders - will leave Pakistan," Gen Musharraf said... "We will not allow madrassas to be misused for extremism, hatred being projected in our society." An extreme way to deal with an extreme situation.

Coalition of the Willing Not So Willing Anymore

I'm so seriously: Did anybody even know Poland even had troops in Iraq? Sorry, really, I didn't know anyone was left after Italy announced they were pulling out. Apparently, the Polish people initially supported it as they thought that sending troops would help build experience for their armed services and improve their standing on the world stage. As neither of those things has happened their focus has turned to domestic issues such as unemployment and corruption and now they want to bring their kids home. Of course, the article mentions that the London bombings served as scary good motivation.

Who gave the British police actual bullets?

Wasn't it a long standing tradition that bobbies patrol un-armed? I guess it's because they are slightly jumpy. Maybe too much caffeinated earl grey tea.

As it turns out Jean Charles de Menezes, the 27 year old man shot in the head by British police last week, was a Brazilian national and had absolutely nothing to do with the London bombings. He had the misfortune of having slightly dark complexion and wearing a puffy coat. Witnesses saw de Menezes being chased by plain clothed officers, then pinning him to the ground, and while apprehended, shooting him in the head:

A witness to the shooting, Mark Whitby, said he was sitting on the train when "I heard a lot of shouting. I saw a chap run on to the train," Whitby said. "He was running so fast he half sort of tripped. He was being pursued by three guys. One had a black handgun in his hand. As he sort of went down, two of them sort of dropped on to him to hold him down, and the other one fired. I heard five shots."

Sure, maybe he should have stopped, but if you saw two crazed looking men in plain cloths, carrying weapons is your first reaction to stop? Even if the man was connected with terrorist activities, is this anyway to apprehend a suspect? In the worst case scenario, let's say he was decked out in a suit made of TNT, would you want to shoot at a living grenade?

Tony Blair did give a very British apology saying, "we are all desperately sorry for the death of an innocent person. I understand entirely the feelings of the young man's family. But we also have to understand the police are doing their job in very, very difficult circumstances and it is important that we give them every support." Mayhaps 'tis time to go back to rubber bullets.

Time for your comments

So our news blog turned 7 months old and we couldn't be more proud of the lil' sucker. But now we want to know what you think. Is there anything you want to see more of, less of? Do you have an interesting story that no one in the media is talking about and it's driving you nuts? Do you think we are just a bunch of cynical knee-jerk reactionary media liberal ivy-league Taxachussetts elite? (Stephen Colbert is god)

Yes, Fenton and BrooklynKat are needy for feedback and we haven't been getting much of it lately. So now's your chance; let us know what you think or stop in and say hi!

Women get the shaft in new Iraq

As expected, the new Iraq is slowly being overtaken by Islamic fundamentalism, breaking from Saddam Hussein's strictly secular government. The only one, might I add, in the region. The New York Times obtained a draft of a chapter of the new constitution which guarantees equal rights for women as long as those rights do not "violate Shariah," or Koranic law. The Americans and secular Iraqis banished such explicit references to religious law from the interim constitution adopted early last year.

Under that measure, Shiite women in Iraq, no matter what their age, generally could not marry without their families' permission. Under some interpretations of Shariah, men could attain a divorce simply by stating their intention three times in their wives' presence.

Article 14 would replace a body of Iraqi law that has for decades been considered one of the most progressive in the Middle East in protecting the rights of women, giving them the freedom to choose a husband and requiring divorce cases to be decided by a judge.

The document's writers are also debating whether to drop or phase out a measure enshrined in the interim constitution, co-written last year by the Americans, requiring that women make up at least a quarter of the parliament.

The rest of the Middle East would like to welcome Iraq to the 14th Century.

"The turban is not a hat"

Five Sikhs employees are taking legal action against the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority for violating their religious rights by making them wear the MTA logo on their turbans while at work.

The Sikh men said they consider the turban sacred and that attaching a corporate logo violated their religious beliefs. "The turban is not a hat, it's not a one size fits all. It would be like telling Christians to put an MTA logo on their cross. It is a religious article," said Intergie Singh, a 12-year MTA veteran who was one of the men in the suit.

The Sikh workers, all of whom had worked for the MTA for between 9 and 14 years, said the turbans had not been an issue before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by Muslim extremists which destroyed the World Trade center in New York. But they said, although they were not Muslims, there had been growing discrimination against them since then.

How stupid are people?! Sikhs are NOT Muslim! It is a completely different religion and culture.

A sixth man filing suit against the MTA, Kevin Harrington, was the hero who put his No. 4 train in reverse, backed into the Wall Street station and ushered his passengers to safety across the Brooklyn Bridge after two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center on September 11th. Now, he and the others have been ordered to put the logos on their turbans even though other transit employees who wear Yankees caps, yarmulkes or other head gear are not required to do so.

As Scarface said to Michelle Pfeiffer: "Your womb is polluted!"

And it looks like he's right! According to a report released on Thursday, unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides.

The report by the Environmental Working Group is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical-cord blood taken by the American Red Cross. They found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA.

"If ever we had proof that our nation's pollution laws aren't working, it's reading the list of industrial chemicals in the bodies of babies who have not yet lived outside the womb," Slaughter, a Democrat, said.

Also found were polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which are produced by burning gasoline and garbage and which may cause cancer; flame-retardant chemicals called polybrominated dibenzodioxins and furans; and pesticides including DDT and chlordane. The same group analyzed the breast milk of mothers across the United States in 2003 and found varying levels of chemicals, including flame retardants known as PBDEs. This latest analysis also found PBDEs in cord blood.

Once again, conservatives make no sense to me. They don't think that we should protect the environment from pollutants, but they do want to stop abortions since all life is sacred. So what good is it if yo babies pop out of the womb wearing little coal miners' hats?

It's a C-O-N-spiracy!

The White House has shit the bed and the Karl Rove story is exploding everywhere. Joseph Wilson, husband to Valerie Plame, the CIA agent who was identified through a leak by Karl Rove, is speaking out today and calling this fiasco a White House cover up.

"What this thing has been for the past two years has been a cover-up, a cover-up of the... web of lies that underpin the justification for going to war in Iraq," said Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former career foreign-service officer who held diplomatic posts in the first Bush administration and served in the Clinton White House. "And to a certain extent, this cover-up is becoming unraveled. That's why you see the White House stonewalling," Wilson said in an interview with NBC's "Today" show.

A growing number of Democrats have called for Rove to resign. Wilson, who briefly served as an adviser to the campaign of Bush's 2004 presidential opponent, Sen. John Kerry said he thought the president should fire his adviser. "The president really should stand up and prove to the American people that his word is his bond and fire Karl Rove," said Wilson.

Wilson scoffed at the notion that Rove did not use his wife's name or that he did not realize she was an undercover agent. "My wife's name is Wilson, it is Mrs. Joseph Wilson, it is Valerie Wilson. He named her, he identified her. That argument I don't believe passes the smell test," said Wilson.

"What I do know is that Mr. Rove was talking to the press and saying things like, my wife is 'fair game.' That is an outrage. It is an abuse of power," Wilson added.

And on your way out, be sure to sign the "Fire Karl Rove!" petition started by Air America Radio and maybe even pick up a spiffy t-shirt. It will go nicely with your "Free Katie" gear.

Bolton Willing to Settle for Sloppy Seconds

I love this Washington Times article on the current state of the Bolton nomination for ambassador to the U.N. They note that the whole Bolton thing just isn't fashionably newsworthy right now given the Karl Rove ruckus and the upcoming opportunity for Dubya to appoint a Supreme Court Justice. Given the indefinite delay of an actual Senate vote, a source close to Bolton essentially says that he'll take a recess appointment which will last through 2006, "despite warnings from some GOP senators that it would weaken his influence and effectiveness." Why must every picture of him look so goofy? What would he look like with a haircut and a close shave? I think those are the pressing questions on the minds of the people.

Florida Sentencing Convicts to 25 Years to Life (in Heaven)

This is over a week old but I just heard about this today on CBS radio while driving in to work. Love that Charles Osgood.

[Florida's] Lawtey [Correctional Institution] is the country's first faith-based prison where every prisoner must attend character-improvement programs ranging from GED classes to anger-management courses.
...
"I think this is a terrible program," says Rev. Barry Lynn.

Lynn champions the separation of church and state. He charges that inmates following Lawtey's righteous path have access to many more programs than Florida's 80,000 other prisoners.

Of course, the ACLU is all over these fools. We'll update this as we hear more.

Why do Americans hate New York?

Evidently, "we have let America down," says Mayor Michael Bloomberg, by not managing to secure the 2012 Olympics, going instead to London. He lays blame on New Yorker's refusal to go along with an almost $2 billion West Side stadium, money that most citizens believe should be used for other more important things like fixing our schools, rebuilding a post September 11th downtown, granting reasonable contracts for city workers, increasing security, etc. The rest of America has moved on since the attacks, but New York is still struggling. Let's face it, the burden of another terror attack falls squarely on the shoulders of this city and yet, per capita, it is still not receiving nearly as much fiscal government support as Wyoming, who has been granted $27.80 per person in anti-terrorism grant money (as opposed to NY's $15.54 per person).

After 9/11, New York City was chosen as the American bid for the 2012 Olympics, based mainly on the heroism of its citizens and not on any sort of preparedness. The Village Voice argues that U.S. Olympic Committee should stop blaming New Yorkers and start blaming themselves for choosing NY instead of let's say San Francisco who had already built 80% of its facilities.

From the New York Daily News, "Ever since they got in office, Mayor Bloomberg and his supersalesman, Doctoroff, have been waving the Olympic flag. Nothing so absorbed their time and energy - not proper funding for our public schools or our transit system, not rebuilding Ground Zero or providing decent labor contracts for our cops and firefighters. But underneath that Olympic flag and those grand Olympic dreams were naked land deals to make their rich friends even richer. Thankfully, last month's defeat of the West Side stadium showed some New Yorkers aren't easily fooled."

New Yorkers were pretty indifferent to the Olympics one way or another. We are used to crowds and tourists so what's a few more. I for one was excited at the prospect of having us host the games.

NYC2012 claimed in the bid that it has encountered no organized opposition to bringing the 2012 Olympic Games to New York. In fact, New York's . . . Plan has received overwhelming public support, though isolated concerns regarding traffic and the environment have been expressed about a few sites.

However only 54 percent of Americans surveyed approved of having New York host the games, while 79 percent of the French supported staging the Olympics in Paris. So America, you got your wish now stop bitching.

War Mongering Just Ain't the Same No More

Here's an interesting article describing how the Pentagon is reviewing their long standing national defense and war waging strategies. Due to the ongoing lesson that is Iraq, they're realizing traditional approaches will be ineffective when applied to conflicts that we are likely to end up in going forward. The current model is described as the

1-4-2-1 [strategy], with the first number representing the defense of American territory. That is followed by numbers representing the ability to deter hostilities in four critical areas of the world, and to swiftly defeat two adversaries in near-simultaneous major combat operations The final number stands for a requirement that the military retain the capability, at the same time, to decisively defeat one of those two adversaries, which would include capturing a capital and toppling a government.

All the hippies in college always told me we were wasting too much money on the military and here it is in writing. I guess the budgeting process isn't as accommodating since the Iraq war is costing us way more money than anyone ever cared to consider.

Filmmaker Becomes Star of Own Prison Drama

In yet another example of war time justice gone wrong, documentary filmmaker Cyrus Kar is being held in places unknown as his friends, family, and the ACLU are trying to have him freed after 2 months of unjustified detention. He was trying to film a documentary "about an ancient Persian king who championed tolerance and human rights" in Iraq. (Irony pointed out by NY Times). All this after the FBI searched his stuff (back in LA, including his computer) and found nothing of concern.

In mid-May, he traveled to Iraq with an Iranian cameraman to film archaeological sites around Babylon. After a taxi they were in was stopped in Baghdad, the two men were arrested by Iraqi security forces, who found what they suspected might be bomb parts in the vehicle.

Since then, Mr. Kar has been held in what his relatives and their lawyers describe as a frightening netherworld of American military detention in Iraq - charged with no crime but nonetheless unable to gain his freedom or even tell his family where he is being held.
...
Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, who are representing Mr. Kar's relatives, said they would file a lawsuit on Wednesday in Federal District Court in Washington, accusing the government of holding Mr. Kar in violation of American and international laws and seeking his release through a writ of habeas corpus.

"Saddam Hussein has had more due process than Cyrus Kar," said Mark Rosenbaum, the lead lawyer in the case. "This is a detention policy that was drafted by Kafka."

[7/11/05 Update] The NY Times is reporting that Cyrus Kar has been released in Iraq although it may be a week or more before he can come home.

Tick tock, the clock is winding down on Iraq

Although Bush strongly opposes setting an exit date for Iraq and Rumsfeld indicated that the war can last up to 12 years (a number he surely reached into his ass to grab), British troops plan to significantly withdraw from Iraq within the next 18 months.

John Reid, Britain's defense secretary said in a BBC interview this week that, "although Donald Rumsfeld may have said, correctly, that this may take years before it is finally completed, that did not imply that all that period will have to be led by the multi-national forces or the British forces... I personally think that within a year we could begin that transition to the Iraqi forces leading the effort themselves."

Air Chief Marshall Jock Stirrup, the current Royal Air Force commander who will become chief of the general staff next year, said more stable Iraqi provinces - including those under UK command - were likely to be handed over to local security forces more quickly than first thought. By next April, a best-case scenario would see current troops levels of 8,500 reduced to about 4,000-5,000, with a further cut in the period leading to the first quarter of 2007, when the British military presence is expected to fall to about 1,000 advisers and training personnel.

Where's your "coalition of the willing" now? Soon it will just be Occupation by the One.

Memin Pinguin or Speedy Gonzalez

On the heels of Mexican President, Vicente Fox's comment in May, that Mexican immigrants in the United States did jobs "not even blacks" would do, comes the most offensive stamp you've ever seen. Mexico's tiny black community, the Asociacion Mexico Negro, which represents some 50,000 blacks, demanded Monday that President Fox apologize for a set of stamps featuring a black comic book figure that U.S. civil rights groups have slammed as racist.

The stamp features Memin Pinguin, a 1940s comic book character whose looks, stereotypical and racist, with thick lips, a flat nose and monkey-like antics embody outdated ideas about blacks, like many comic books of the time. Mexico said that like Speedy Gonzalez that debuted in the United States in 1953, the Memin Pinguin character shouldn't be interpreted as a racial slur.

"At this point in time, it was probably pretty insensitive" to issue the stamp, said Elisa Velazquez, an anthropologist who studies Mexico's black communities for the National Institute of Anthropology and History. "This character is a classic, but it's from another era," Velazquez said. "It's a stereotype and you don't want to encourage ignorance or prejudices."

Rev. Glyn Jemmott, a Catholic priest in the 98 percent black village of El Ciruelo in Guerrero state told Reuters, "what is evident is the level of tolerance of racism that exists in the country. We are accustomed to racism to the point where anyone who dares question it runs the risk of being considered unpatriotic."

President Fox said that U.S. activists who have called a new Mexican postage stamp racist don't understand the issue and should read the comic book. "All Mexico loves the character," Fox said, adding that he himself was fond of it.

Attacking The Free Press

Recently there has been an alarming increase in prosecutors requiring reporters to reveal their confidential sources. Prosecutors in several high-profile cases insisted that journalists name their sources, and judges backed up the demands by ordering reporters to testify or face fines and imprisonment.

The most scandalous example of this attack deals with syndicated columnist Robert Novak who cited two unnamed Bush administration officials, identified Valerie Plame as a CIA agent in a July 2003 piece. But instead of taking aim at Novak directly prosecutors are attacking journalists who have dissented against the Bush administration.

It is potentially illegal for government officials to willfully disclose the identity of an undercover CIA agent, and Attorney General John Ashcroft named a special prosecutor to investigate the source of the leak. However, the investigation, led by U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, took aim at several reporters who were not involved in the story in question. At year's end, it appeared more likely that those reporters would go to jail before the government officials who may have violated the law.

Novak's column came eight days after Plame's husband, former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV, wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times challenging the Bush administration over its allegations regarding Iraq's weapons programs. Other reports surfaced later with Plame's identity, most suggesting that administration officials had leaked the name in retaliation against Wilson.

Last week the Supreme Court rejected appeals from New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper who have refused to testify before a grand jury. Both have declined for more than a year to identify confidential sources they spoke with in the summer of 2003 about government efforts to discredit a high-profile critic of President Bush's argument for going to war with Iraq: former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, the husband of CIA operative Valerie Plame. They argued that they could not do their jobs if they broke their promise of anonymity to sources who provided a look inside an increasingly secretive government.

In repressive countries, journalists are routinely compelled to reveal their sources... Because the United States has set a high standard for press freedom, any perceived weakening in U.S. protections provides cover for authoritarian regimes to justify crackdowns on the press. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Fri­as recently complained when international observers criticized his country's new media law, which severely restricts broadcast news coverage in the name of maintaining social order. They should complain instead, Chavez said, about "U.S. journalists that are being prosecuted by the government in Washington for not revealing their sources."

*Late breaking update*
Looks like Karl Rove, Bush's puppet man (or is he the puppet master?), was Novak's source, although the white house strongly denies it. Scandal is a brewin'!