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BLOG'a'Boulder
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Dispatches from Boulder the Damned
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Thursday, March 06, 2008
Long overdue. The Washington Post leads with a detailed look at how the "wall" that has long existed between local law enforcement and intelligence gathering on national security matters is coming down more quickly than most realize, says Slate. Rather, it's always been a Potemkin Chinese Wall, impressive only in image. The FBI, in its unlimited reach for all police power, smashed the barrier to chips long ago. The fact is: you cannot be both a police agency - required to obey the law - and an intelligence fiefdom - tasked with gathering info by any means necessary.
After Sept. 11, police agencies began to link up their systems to share more information than ever before, and these efforts are going to shift into high gear this month as some local and state agencies will connect to a new Justice Department system known as N-DEx (National Data Exchange). U.S. Postal Service officials approve almost all the requests from law enforcement to record information that is on the outside of letters and packages. A Freedom of Information Act request revealed that more than 97 percent of the requests are approved, and there have been more than 10,000 of these authorizations since 1998, a number that doesn't even take into account the mail that was monitored as part of national security investigations.
N-DEx aims to become a central repository of information that will allow "federal law enforcement, counterterrorism and intelligence analysts to automatically examine the enormous caches of local and state records for the first time," explains the WP. Previous efforts to create these types of networks haven't been very successful, but officials are optimistic that this new $85 million system developed by Raytheon will be different. The paper notes that these new systems of information networks highlight the important role private companies are playing in national security matters, but doesn't expand much on the issue or elaborate on why that could be considered troubling. Of course, many are simply troubled by such extensive information-sharing networks that could easily lead to abuse. Even some proponents of these systems are worried that if there's a lack of proper oversight "the new networks pose a threat to basic American values by giving police too much power over information." No kidding. And don't think the neo-cons and social conservatives weren't aware of that when they hid their wet dreams within the Patriot Act, so called.
Naturally, attention is fixed on Sen. Hillary Clinton's 'victories' this week. No one doubts that winning three out of the four primaries on Tuesday has revived Clinton's bid for the White House, but in reality she wasn't able to cut into Obama's lead by a significant margin. The full results from Texas aren't in yet, but the NYT estimates that Clinton will get a net gain of anywhere from five to 15 delegates, while the Associated Press thinks the number will be around 12. Estimates vary, but Clinton still trails Obama by more than 100 delegates, including superdelegates. A lot, but doable.
Clinton's victories caused more heartburn among Democratic Party insiders who are concerned that a long primary fight will cause irreparable damage to both candidates and hand the presidency over to Sen. John McCain. As predicted, more attention is being paid to Michigan and Florida, two states that were stripped of their delegates for scheduling early primaries. Yesterday, the governors of the two states called on the party and the candidates to come to an agreement so their delegates can be seated at the convention. This is the states' fault for being greedy. But some are concerned about a potential backlash if there's a feeling Obama lost because the rules were changed, particularly among black voters who could see it as the party's way to stop the first viable African-American candidate. "It would be an absolutely gigantic fight that would spill over not only to the convention floor, but to the streets of Denver," a Democratic strategist tells the WSJ. Joy. Valid point.
Making matters more complicated for the Democratic insiders is that there doesn't seem to be any way for either candidate to clinch the nomination without the help of superdelegates. The Clinton campaign is leading an effort to convince superdelegates that they should stay put and not make any commitments at least until Pennsylvania votes on April 22. Assuming she wins that state, Clinton could then try to convince superdelegates to join her by arguing she is the better nominee for the general election, even if she trails in the delegate count. In that scenario, the race would still go on, and now it seems even more Democrats are suggesting that the best way to avoid potential damage would be a joint ticket. "To me that's the most logical option, the easiest one to figure out," Leon Panetta, a Clinton supporter, said. Clinton opened the door to this discussion yesterday when she suggested, "that may be where this is headed," but Obama countered that the talk "is very premature."
But it's a terrible idea, having a hugely popular and ambitious vice president, or even a powerful one. Look at Cheney, and the temptation is to make the executive divided between two Consuls. Not everyone is convinced that a long Democratic race automatically helps McCain. Karl Rove writes that as long as the Democratic contenders keep fighting each other (and there were hints yesterday that the battle is about to become even more aggressive), McCain will have trouble getting media coverage. True, but what he gets will be halfassed and friendly. The WP's Libby Copeland agrees and says that "such a fascinating election deserves a little more time and contemplation." Copeland argues that as long as the Democrats hog the news coverage, "voters are left with the image of McCain … receiving the president's endorsement," which may not be to his advantage considering Bush's low approval ratings. A new poll out today by the WP that shows McCain would lose to either of the Democratic contenders—although by a larger margin when paired against Obama—could give credibility to this view. The paper doesn't mention it, but the poll was taken the weekend before Tuesday's primaries, when the media largely ignored McCain and focused on the Democratic battle.
There is intense infighting that has plagued the Clinton campaign, but today the WP adds several choice nuggets about this battle that won't die and points out that as soon as the results were known yesterday, her advisers quickly let everyone on their contact lists know that Mark Penn, her chief strategist, should not be credited for the victories. Many of the campaign's most senior officials have frequently tried to convince Clinton that she should fire Penn, but she has stuck by him. During the month of February, tensions were so high that apparently insults (including several instances of "[Expletive] you!") were bandied about. Two other interesting tidbits from the insidery article about the sources of statements that backfired: It seems Penn was the one who gave Bill Clinton the line about comparing Obama's victory in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson, and it was Bruce Reed (a Slate contributor) who offered up the "change you can Xerox" line that Clinton used in last month's debate.
In history, this day in 1820, we entered the Age of Moronic Concessions with the Missouri Compromise, enacted by the U.S. Congress and signed by U.S. President James Monroe. The act admitted Missouri into the Union as a slave state, but prohibited slavery in the rest of the northern Louisiana Purchase territory.
This day in 1836, the thirteen-day siege of the Alamo by Santa Anna and his army ended. The Mexican army of three thousand men defeated the 189 Texas volunteers. The holdouts suffered unnecessary deaths, disobeying direct orders by remaining, and lost their arms and cannon to the Mexicans in a battle that served no military purpose and was, actually, fought against a nation that outlawed slavery in order to make Texas a slave state.
Not a good day for Civil Rights in general. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision ruled that blacks could not sue in federal court to be citizens.
And hale! In 1899, aspirin was patented by German researchers Felix Hoffman and Hermann Dreser.
It begins. On March 6, 1918 (um...during WW I with German subs afoot....), the US naval vessel "Cyclops" vanished in the Bermuda Triangle. Must be space aliens.
In 1967, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his plan to establish a draft lottery. That's always fun.
This was the day in 1978 that Larry Flynt, publisher of the fine magazine Hustler, was shot, like his lawyer, and paralyzed.
In my hometown of New Bedford, March 6, 1983, was the day that Cheryl Araujo was gang raped atop a pool table at Big Dan's Tavern. Other men in the establishment applauded the spectacle. Four men are convicted of the crime in a trial that attracted nationwide attention and was made into a movie.
In 1990, the Russian Parliament passed a law that sanctioned the ownership of private property.
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Wednesday, March 05, 2008
What is the matter with people? Arizona State Senator Karen S. Johnson offered a bill permitting students and teachers to carry guns in public schools. Johnson initially wanted her bill to cover kindergarten and up. That's kindergarten. "I feel like our kindergartners are sitting there like sitting ducks." Lord.
"And so, General, I want to thank you for your service. And I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq." Our President, meeting with Army Gen. Ray Odierno, Washington, D.C., March 3, 2008. Christ almighty. Way to show gracious approval for a soldier, bonehead. Couldn't take the time to rehearse it in your mind?
Meanwhile, your SOS, Condi Rice, struggled to get the Palestinians to pay lip service to peace. Meaningful development, as anything she touches turns to crisp carbon and of course the Palestinian talks have such a great track record anyway.
I have to say, it's a damned exciting primary season, and by and large on the up and up. Clinton won key victories in Ohio and Texas primaries, which marked another comeback for the former first lady and assured Democrats that the fight for the nomination will continue. Sen. Barack Obama won Vermont, and Clinton received more votes in Rhode Island. The New York Times points out that Clinton achieved victory in Texas by a small margin, but her earlier, more decisive, win in Ohio allowed her to "deliver a televised victory speech in time for the late-night news." By breaking her opponent's winning streak, Clinton effectively "jolted a Democratic Party establishment that was beginning to see Obama as the likely nominee," says the Washington Post. Not to mention the media, main stream and especially the chirping blogs. Andrew Sullivan, the posing tortured soul of conservative gays, has had such a palpable crush on Obama that his literary prancing about on Obama's behalf became a self parody months ago. He's apoplectic and now, perhaps, his dubiously authentic "a reader writes" quotes might receive the long overdue cancerous eye from his readers they deserve. Sullivan supported the Iraq War and pretty much everything the Bushies did till it became untenable, and he switched sides midstream. A real rock of principle, that guy.
Obama had hoped to "provide a knockout punch" yesterday, and the Los Angeles Times says Obama looked "disappointed" last night even as he emphasized that he continues to lead in delegates. Everybody notes that despite the momentum that Clinton might gain from the high-profile victories, she still faces an uphill battle to narrow Obama's lead. Obama doesn't look strong in defeat. Unsurprising since he's rarely lost, but as President, he'd lose his share.
Clinton won the primary vote in Texas by a narrow margin, but all the papers remind readers Obama could still get more delegates out of the state because of its complicated voting system that allocates 35 percent of delegates through caucuses that began after the polls closed. Results from the caucuses aren't in yet, but Obama was leading before counting stopped for the night.
Despite the fact that Clinton "will continue to find herself in a difficult position mathematically," as the NYT puts it, winning in both Texas and Ohio was exactly what Clinton needed to effectively challenge calls for her to withdraw from the race. Before the Texas results were known, Clinton dedicated her Ohio victory to everyone "who's ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out, and for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up." So, how did she do it? Mostly by regaining the blocs of voters that had been an integral part of her base but lately seemed to be switching to Obama. Her biggest advantage was with white voters who don't have a college education, with whom she led by 25 percentage points in Texas and almost 40 points in Ohio. Surveys showed Hispanics and women also supported Clinton by wide margins.
Exit polls showed she had a clear advantage among late-deciding voters, suggesting that her attacks against Obama in the last few days worked as intended. In a Page One analysis, the LAT says Clinton "seemed to finally figure out how to make her brand of 'experience' compete with a mantra of 'change.' " And now she can continue saying that Democrats need a nominee who can win the big, battleground states. Still, as the NYT points out in its own analysis, Clinton is "viewed by many party leaders as an obstacle to the fight ahead." There are concerns that a continued negative tone in the Democratic campaign could hurt the party's chances in November. Others argue that Democrats could benefit from a long fight that will continue to energize voters while helping the eventual candidate figure out how to best fend off attacks from the Republicans. But the LAT cites an interesting statistic from exit polls that suggests "negativity will take its toll." In previous contests, Democrats overwhelmingly said they'd be satisfied with either candidate, but in Texas and Ohio only four in 10 expressed the same sentiment.
John McCain won all four contests and clinched the Republican nomination. Mike Huckabee dropped out of the race soon after polls closed and vowed "to do everything possible to unite our party." In his victory speech, McCain lumped the two Democratic contenders and made it clear that he will continue talking about how neither one is fit to lead the country. "I will leave it to my opponent to propose returning to the failed, big-government mandates of the '60s and '70s to address problems such as the lack of health-care insurance for some Americans," he said. McCain will travel to the White House today, where he will officially accept President Bush's endorsement which will lose him the Presidency right there.
The Wall Street Journal's print edition closed before Clinton's victories were evident, and the paper emphasizes that McCain now has to raise lots of money and figure out how to "transform his shoestring primary campaign into a machine able to win the presidency," particularly since he's made it clear that he wants to compete in reliably Democratic states.
The unusually high number of voters who wanted to express their opinion in yesterday's primaries led to problems in Ohio and Texas. Paper ballots ran out in several places in Ohio and some polls were left open for an additional 90 minutes. In Texas, there was chaos at several caucus sites that were filled to capacity, and Clinton's campaign said Obama supporters were unfairly trying to gain an upper hand in several caucuses.
Up next for the Democrats are the caucuses in Wyoming on Saturday and the Mississippi primary next Tuesday, two states where Obama has a big lead. But Pennsylvania, a state that doesn't vote until April 22, is the big prize, and Clinton is thought to have an advantage there. As the battle for delegates continues, there's likely to be a big push from the Clinton camp to persuade the Democratic Party that delegates from Florida and Michigan should count.
Although McCain won decisive victories yesterday, voters who described themselves as "very conservative" supported Huckabee in large numbers, and at least 40 percent of Republicans said the senator from Arizona isn't conservative enough. Regardless, seven in 10 Republicans said they'd be satisfied with McCain as their nominee. Meanwhile, the NYT points out inside that Republicans will now focus on who McCain will choose as his running mate, a particularly important decision considering that he would be the oldest candidate ever elected to a first term.
There is growing tension in South America resulting from Colombia's strike against a rebel leader in Ecuador. The LAT notes Venezuela "made a move that could halt billions of dollars worth of trade" with Colombia, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez characterized Colombia as the "Israel of Latin America." Meanwhile, Ecuador's president went on a tour of Latin American countries to seek condemnation for the bombing, emphasizing that the killing of the FARC leader likely ruined any chance that more hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, would be released.
Colombia fired back, and said it would file charges against Chávez at the International Criminal Court for assisting the rebel group with money and other resources. Colombia's vice president claimed that the FARC had been trying to obtain material to build a radioactive dirty bomb. Despite all the saber-rattling, USAT emphasizes, and everyone notes, that a full-scale war in Latin America still seems highly unlikely. Yeah? I remember the soccer war.
Even though presidential debates have garnered relatively high ratings, the TV networks preferred to eschew coverage of the important primaries during prime-time hours to broadcast shows like The Biggest Loser and Big Brother. "It's official," writes the NYT's Alessandra Stanley, "The networks no longer cover news, they slap it onto the bottom edge of their regular programming like Post-it notes." Well, these days, there's media overkill, and standing around with nothing to say lost interest of the public, so what's the big deal?
In history, this day in 1770, Crispus Attucks was killed with four others in "The Boston Massacre," when British troops fired on a crowd in Boston. He was a free African American, and the first to die in our Revolution, really. Two British troops were later convicted of manslaughter.
In 1836, Samuel Colt manufactured the first pistol (.34-caliber).
In 1845, the U.S. Congress appropriated $30,000 to ship camels to the western U.S. They were reportedly still wandering our deserts for decades when we lost interest.
Setting a trend, in 1900 two U.S. battleships left for Nicaragua to halt revolutionary disturbances.
This day in 1922, the remarkable Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee broke all existing records for women's trap shooting. She hit 98 out of 100 targets.
In 1933, President Roosevelt ordered a four-day bank holiday in order to stop large amounts of money from being withdrawn from banks. That same day, the Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote in German parliamentary elections, a plurality.
In 1946, this day, Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain Speech".
Seven years later to the day, Uncle Joe Stalin, worse than Hitler by body count, died after 29 years at the helm.
In 1959, twenty-one kids were killed in a fire at the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial Reformatory, Little Rock Arkansas.
While I was with John Bayley playing a gig in western Colorado in 1982, the great John Belushi, 33, was found dead at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood from a cocaine and heroin overdose. A sketchy woman, Cathy Smith, is later charged with administering the fatal injections. Smith was a friend of Gordon Lightfoot's, who'd written "Sundown" about her. Prescient.
In 1998, NASA announced that an orbiting craft had found enough water on the moon to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.
This day in 2004, Martha Stewart was found guilty of lying about the reason for selling 3,298 shares of ImClone Systems stock, conspiracy, making false statement and obstruction of justice.
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Tuesday, March 04, 2008
"If the war in Afghanistan had been managed as well as Harry's part in it -- who knows, it might be over by now." True. I'm a little embarrassed the media and the public continue to be taken in by these carefully managed events. There was no way in hell that a Windsor would be allowed to be killed or shot. That's why they generally serve in the Navy, as older brother William is going to do. This, by the way, in no way implies hypocrisy to them. Elizabeth's father (Battle of Jutland) and Lord Mountbatten (damned near everywhere) and others actually served in serious combat. They were good officers from all accounts in a revisionist world. Still.
I'm a little foggy, a little desperate for good news. Is this it? I hope to hell it's true. I'm an atheist, but I take no pleasure beyond the hope that the Muslim young are thinking for themselves, entertaining the idea that God isn't a street gang leader. Be there a god, thank you. If not, good news still.
Israel's withdrawal of its ground troops from the Gaza Strip. The move "lays bare" the difficult situation Israel faces as it tries to both weaken Hamas and continue peace talks with Palestinians in the West Bank.
The NYT fronts, and everyone goes inside with, Hamas quickly declaring victory after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as militants continued launching rockets into the Jewish state. The NYT emphasizes that it looks like Hamas is taking on tactics that are typical of Hezbollah in Lebanon, which was clear yesterday when the Hamas leader vowed to reconstruct homes that were damaged by the Israeli strikes. The parallels aren't lost on Israeli officials, who say they are convinced that Hezbollah is helping Hamas with "training and logistical support." But the LAT says there's a growing debate inside Gaza about the wisdom of continuing the rocket attacks into Israel, which some see as a way for Hamas to maintain its support among Palestinians by continually provoking Israel. "....which SOME see....?" Christ, it's all they got.
The WP and NYT go inside with news that charges were dropped against two former high-ranking Shiite government officials accused of running death squads in Iraq. The move once again raises questions about the independence of Iraq's judiciary and whether the government would ever be able to hold Shiites accountable for perpetrating sectarian violence. No. Of course, they can't.
Today's Der Tag of the potentially decisive primaries in Ohio and Texas. Voters in Rhode Island and Vermont also go to the polls today but the big focus tonight will be on the big states that could seal the fate of Sen. Hillary Clinton. The two Democratic candidates engaged in an intense battle of words yesterday over trade and national security while Clinton vowed to stay in the race. "I'm just getting warmed up," she said, even as Sen. Barack Obama's aides emphasized she won't be able to catch up in the delegate count. There now seems to be general agreement that the only way Clinton will conceivably drop out is if she loses both Texas and Ohio, a prospect that is seen as highly unlikely. She might win both.
With a general feeling that her attacks against Obama are finally beginning to stick, Clinton continued on the offensive yesterday. Obama is now criticized for not holding hearings as chairman of a Senate subcommittee that is in charge of overseeing NATO troops in Afghanistan. NAFTA was also on the menu yesterday as Clinton's campaign pushed a newly released memo about a meeting one of Obama's senior advisers had with Canadian consulate officials. The memo said Obama's talk on NAFTA should be seen "as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans." Obama had previously said that reports of a meeting between his adviser and Canadian officials were false, and yesterday the adviser said his words had been misinterpreted. The senator from Illinois said this was all part of Clinton's "kitchen sink strategy … three, four things a day. This is one of them. It doesn't, I think, change the facts."
There seemed to be no shortage of material for Clinton's camp, which was also fortunate that Antoin Rezko went on trial this week, which forced Obama to answer questions about his relationship with the infamous Chicago developer. Obama insisted he has already made clear that carrying out a real estate deal with Rezko was "a boneheaded move."
The overall theme today seems to be that Clinton could surprise and score another comeback. It could be an eagerness to continue the horse race, but as Dana Milbank (who last week openly mocked the Clinton campaign and said her aides "have resorted to a mixture of surreal happy talk and angry accusation") points out, the press went on the offensive yesterday, which appeared to catch Obama off-guard. "The lumbering beast that is the press corps finally roused itself from its slumber Monday and greeted Barack Obama with a menacing growl," writes Milbank. And, about time. He ain't ready for the GOP, be it said.
Still, the papers recognize that even if Clinton wins a majority of the 370 pledged delegates that are at stake today (and remember that, particularly in Texas, she could win the popular vote but lose in the delegate race) it will be difficult for her to cut into Obama's lead. In a particularly insightful edition of his now-famous "8 Questions that Today's Primaries Could Answer," the Post's Dan Balz is clear: "There is virtually no realistic way for Clinton to emerge from the primary-caucus season with more pledged delegates than Obama." But any outcome besides a clear loss will probably keep Clinton in the race, particularly since she's seen as having an advantage in Pennsylvania, where voters will go to the polls on April 22.
Despite all the pundit talk about Clinton dropping out, she would have a good basis of support from the voters to stay in the race. A new WP poll reveals that a mere 29 percent of Democratic voters think Clinton should leave the race if she wins one of the two big states at stake, although 51 percent think she should call it quits if she loses both Texas and Ohio.
I remain impressed with the bi-racial composition of both campaigns, and that race, per se, ain't an issue. Serious. I wouldn't have believed this described to me twenty, even ten years ago.
It's easy to forget Republicans will also vote today and some think it'll finally mark the end of Mike Huckabee's candidacy. If McCain wins by a wide margin in Texas and Ohio, it might give him enough delegates to officially claim the nomination, which the NYT thinks could be possible when superdelegates are factored into the math. Even if the numbers don't add up, some Republican strategists think Huckabee will drop out. "The Huck will suspend after Texas," predicted one. "He's tired of being the star forward of the Washington Generals against the McCain Globetrotters." Huckabee looks a lot like George Wallace with his dark eyebrows. And, you know, his professed views.
In yet another easily recognized fraud that somehow got passed as truth, the NYT fronts word that notes Love and Consequences, a memoir by Margaret B. Jones that received rave reviews, was all made up. The author of the work is really Margaret Seltzer and she confessed to the NYT in a "sometimes tearful, often contrite" telephone interview. Instead of a half-white, half-Native American who was raised by a black foster mother in a tough neighborhood of Los Angeles and sold drugs for the Bloods gang, Seltzer is a white woman who was raised by her biological family in a well-off area of San Fernando Valley and went to an exclusive private school. The story began unfolding when her sister saw a profile of "Jones" in the NYT (which apparently didn't check any of her claims) last week and alerted the publisher. Seltzer admits she made a mistake but emphasized the book was based on real experiences of her friends and she said she wrote it while "sitting at the Starbucks" in South Central Los Angeles, where "I would talk to kids who were Black Panthers and kids who were gang members and kids who were not." This recalls Harry Potter's fertilization.
USA Today leads with an interesting poll that shows one-third of Americans ask their doctors about a prescription drug they saw advertised. Of those who asked, 44 percent ended up with the drug they had inquired about, while 82 percent walked away with some sort of prescription. "Our survey shows why the drug companies run all these ads: They work," the president of the Kaiser Foundation said.
The LAT leads with the price of oil, which briefly hit an inflation-adjusted record when it reached $103.95 a barrel yesterday. The previous record was set in April 1980, when, adjusted for inflation, oil reached $103.76 a barrel. The falling dollar is seen as a key culprit and many expect oil prices to keep increasing as investors continue to seek protection in commodities.
In history, this day in 1634, Samuel Cole opened the first tavern in Boston. Cheers!
This day in 1789, the first Congress of the United States met in New York and declared that the U.S. Constitution was in effect.
An event Americans rarely know, but Europeans do: In 1813, the Russians fighting against Napoleon reached Berlin. The French garrison evacuated the city without a fight. Germany and Russia feared......France.
In 1837, the state of Illinois granted a city charter to Chicago.
In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the microphone.
And Japan. In 1904, in Korea, Russian troops retreated toward the Manchurian border as 100,000 Japanese troops advanced.
This day in 1908, the New York board of education banned the act of whipping students in school.
In 1917, Ms. Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.
It was this day in 1933 that U.S. President Roosevelt gave his inauguration speech. Regarding the Depression, he said "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."
In 1933, Frances Perkins became the first woman to serve in a Presidential administrative cabinet. She became Secretary of Labor.
This day in 1944, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the head of Murder, Inc., was executed for murder at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. He was the leader of U.S. organized crime during the 1930's. This may have played a role in our negotiations with the Mafia as we invaded Sicily and Italy.
This day in 1946, Canada reported that it had uncovered a spy ring that had been organized by the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa. All four people accused admitted to being involved.
In 1954, in Boston, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital reported the first successful kidney transplant.
This day in 1966, John Lennon claimed that The Beatles are "more popular than Jesus", and that "Christianity will... vanish and shrink." Nobody noticed......This day in 1991, as Sheik Saad al-Jaber al-Sabah, the prime minister of Kuwait, returned to his country for the first time since Iraq's invasion, the U.S. Army destroyed an Iraqi bunker holding 7 tons of sarin nerve gas. It is later determined that 24,000 troops in the 82nd Airborne may have been adversely affected by this toxin release.
In 1994, Bosnia's Croats and Moslems signed an agreement to form a federation in a loose economic union with Croatia. John Candy died.This day in 1997, President Clinton barred federal spending on human cloning.
In 1998, Microsoft repaired software that apparently allowed hackers to shut down computers in government and university offices nationwide. That was scary. Also, perhaps not related.....The U.S. Supreme Court said that federal law banned on-the-job sexual harassment even when both parties are the same sex.
Five years after Clinton's ban, Canada banned human embryo cloning but permitted government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.
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Monday, March 03, 2008
Rising tensions in South America a day after Colombian forces killed a senior guerilla leader inside Ecuador. Colombian officials apologized for the incursion into Ecuador's soil, where troops killed 17 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, including its second-ranking commander. But Rafael Correa, Ecuador's president, rejected the apology, kicked out Colombia's ambassador, withdrew his ambassador from Bogota, and moved additional troops to the border. For his part, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has friendly ties with the leftist guerilla group, mobilized troops to its border with Colombia and sternly warned against any incursions. "This could be the start of a war in South America," Chavez said. The LAT also catches word that Colombian officials announced they recovered a few laptops in the guerilla camp that show the slain rebel leader held meetings with Ecuadorean officials.
This is incredibly serious for the US, which doesn't like to take Latin America seriously. Add refugees to the border issues.
The Palestinians via President Mahmoud Abbas have suspended all peace talks with Israel as violence continued to rage across the region yesterday, although with fewer casualties than on Saturday. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed since Wednesday, and Abbas said talks will resume once Israel ends its "criminal war on the Palestinian people."
Despite the continued strikes, Palestinian militants continued to fire rockets into Israel yesterday while the United Nations condemned the Israeli attacks as "disproportionate." The WSJ makes clear the obvious that the recent violence is a "blow to the Bush administration" that had previously hoped there could be a peace deal by the end of the year, moronic on its face. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a legendary diplomatic failure of the first water, will begin a trip to the region today, and although the administration had hoped that she could pressure both sides to move along on a deal, it now looks like she will have to spend her time trying to end the current bout of violence.
The NYT's Helene Cooper writes that Hamas has made it clear that by controlling Gaza it can be a player in the negotiations and now "the United States finds itself with dwindling choices, none considered attractive." Rice could encourage Israel to increase attacks against Hamas, but that would undoubtedly result in more condemnation from the Fatah-controlled West Bank and could actually increase Hamas' power, just as Hezbollah benefited from the Israeli strikes in Lebanon. Alternatively, Rice can't exactly pressure Israel to negotiate with Hamas, which would undermine Abbas and bring further legitimacy to the group that is widely seen as a terrorist organization. "Excluding them doesn't work, and including them doesn't work, either," a former U.S. ambassador to Israel said. "This is a situation that does not lend itself to a sensible policy." All brought together by the Bush team.
To the surprise of no one, Dmitry Medvedev won a landslide victory by collecting more than 70 percent of the vote in Russia yesterday. Now the question on everybody's mind is whether Vladimir Putin and his handpicked successor will be able to share power effectively. Even as Medvedev vowed to continue with Putin's policies, many continue to be skeptical that there can be such a thing as shared power in a country that has "traditionally been ruled by a single strongman," as the LAT puts it. Some are cautioning that Medvedev won't turn out to be as much of a puppet as many are expecting (the LAT shares a common joke: "Putin and Medvedev sit in a restaurant. Putin: 'I'll have the steak.' Waiter: 'And what about the vegetable?' Putin: 'He'll take the steak too.' ") and could end up making a grab for power further down the line. The NYT notes that even if Medvedev and Putin don't clash on a personal level, "the very fact that there will be two centers of power could stoke conflicts."
So little is known about Medvedev and what his relationship with Putin will be like that analysts look for signs in the unlikeliest of places. Lately, the subject of wristwatches has come up. "Putin wears his watch on the right wrist; Medvedev on the left," explains the LAT. "Kremlin watchers say some of the United Russia party faithful have begun to switch their watches from right wrist to left to signal loyalty to the new chief."
USA Today leads with the latest from the Democratic presidential race as Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama prepare for Tuesday's crucial primaries. Both candidates were in Ohio yesterday and traded critical words on familiar issues, including Obama's inexperience and Clinton's poor judgment for voting to authorize the Iraq invasion. Pressure continued to grow on Clinton to drop out of the presidential race if she doesn't get good results out of Tuesday's primary. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson characterized it as "D-Day" and said: "Whoever has the most delegates after Tuesday, a clear lead, should be, in my judgment, the nominee." But as the WP reminds readers, "Obama has such a big lead in pledged delegates that there is virtually no way Clinton can overtake him on Tuesday." Advisers are hoping that she'll be able to keep her candidacy going by winning the popular vote, even if that means they'll both get about the same number of delegates. The NYT points out that Clinton's campaign "has been steadily managing expectations" and is now suggesting she can keep going as long as she wins Ohio.
The LAT looks into the internal problems and squabbles that brought problems to Clinton's campaign and contributed to her current predicament. There have been a number of turf wars as her staffers have been constantly plagued by a debate over whether Clinton's defeats were a question of organization or message. Even as Clinton continues to be optimistic about her prospects, it seems some of her most high-level staffers are quickly trying to distance themselves. Strategist Mark Penn, who has often been pointed to as a source of conflict, tells the LAT that his influence has been largely exaggerated and he had "no direct authority in the campaign."
The New York Times leads with a look at how a number of states and cities are complaining that Wall Street's system to rate municipal bonds is unfair. It's a complicated issue but it comes down to a complaint that Wall Street gives municipal borrowers low credit scores compared to corporations, despite the fact that "states and cities rarely dishonor their debts." This lower rating makes it more expensive for cities and states to borrow money, forces them to buy expensive insurance policies, and ultimately ends up transferring billions of dollars in taxpayer money to the financial markets that could be used for local projects. But ratings agencies dispute these assertions and emphasize that little or no money would be saved if the system changed.
Federal prosecutors are using documents that were recovered in Iraq to bring charges against alleged spies who were working in the United States during Saddam Hussein's regime. So far, 12 people have been charged and there are more ongoing investigations. These agents weren't spies in the conventional sense because they weren't out to uncover government secrets, but rather were told to infiltrate opposition groups, keep tabs on Iraqi immigrants, and figure out ways to influence U.S. policy. The Justice Department says it's the first time since the Cold War that it has brought so many charges against foreign agents from one country.
In history this day in 1845, the U.S. Congress passed legislation overriding a U.S. President’s veto. It was the first time the Congress had achieved this.
In 1905, the Russian Czar agreed to create an elected assembly. Thirteen years to the day later, paying the penalty for not becoming more like England, the Czar was out and The Treaty of Brest Litovsky was signed by Germany, Austria and Russia. The treaty ended Russia's participation in World War I.
Like terrorism, in 1908 the U.S. government declared open war on on U.S. anarchists.
In 1969, this day, Sirhan Sirhan testified in a Los Angeles court that he killed Robert Kennedy, and a nation of shutins and lunatics bewailed the lack of conspiracy.
In 1980, the submarine Nautilus was decommissioned. The vessels final voyage had ended on May 26, 1979.
This day in 1991, here in Colorado, 25 people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while on approach to the Colorado Springs airport. That same day, Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video.
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Sunday, March 02, 2008
The WP says President Bush is speaking out to oppose the dozens of lawsuits pending against telecommunications firms that, if allowed to go forward, would establish whether companies including AT&T, Cingular, and Verizon had handed over phone records en masse to the government. Bush's primary concern is that airing e-mails and other documentation pertinent to the case would "aid our enemies" and "give al-Qaeda and others a road map as to how to avoid the surveillance." Also, Bush pushed back against the high-level unnamed source who yesterday told newspapers that the administration was planning a major troop drawdown in July: somebody's lying here, folks.
Anyone wanting to read one more Bush retrospective might pick up Bushism chronicler and Slate editor Jacob Weisberg's book The Bush Tragedy, which reviewer Alan Brinkley deems "mostly persuasive," if occasionally "highly speculative." Brinkley also points out that tragedies usually involve some amount of talent squandered and self-awareness of failure, which Weisberg argues that this presidency lacks.
No! What a shock...... Israel has launched a new incursion into the Gaza strip, killing 60 Palestinians—half of them civilians—in the area's deadliest day since 2000. This had been building since Wednesday, when Israel hit a van carrying five Hamas members thought to be planning an attack inside the country, setting off a hailstorm of rockets and mortars from militants in Gaza.
The diplomatic implications for President Bush's attempt to negotiate a settlement between the governments anytime soon (another shocker! they don't look good!), paired with an analysis of the United States' shrinking role in Middle East politics, for which Bush and Rice should take a bow. The NYT's page three coverage instead emphasizes the experience of civilians under fire, and suggests that Hamas may be attempting to lure Israel into a major ground operation. The Israeli army contends that the escalation is nothing out of the ordinary, but rather "within the scope" of activities carried out in Gaza since the army has been permanently engaged there. President Ehud Barak has been signaling that a larger operation may launch when the weather warms up.
Russian Deputy prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, the subject of an illuminating below-the-fold profile in the Post, had it made as soon as he got the endorsement of President Putin. Forty-two-year-old Medvedev, a former law professor, talks a good game about personal freedom and cracking down on corruption—but with the possibility of Putin becoming his prime minister, observers say, those claims will need some backing up.
Meanwhile, news arrives that days after a settlement had been reached following weeks of post-election violence in Kenya, Armenia seems to be following suit, declaring a state of emergency eleven days into clashes between police and people protesting an election they say was stolen. And even after a changing of the guard in Pakistan, US troops will help the country form an 86,000-strong paramilitary force called the "Frontier Corps," in what the NYT calls "another sign of the Bush administration's concern and frustration with Pakistan's failure to do more about Al Qaeda's movement in the tribal areas." And we know how well training and supplying militias works out.
Perhaps most sobering of all, the janjaweed are back in Darfur, intones the lede for a center-stage story on the NYT front page. The Sudanese government has in recent weeks re-employed the fearsome Arab militias that terrorized villages on horseback in earlier stages of the conflict, turning to a scorched-earth policy to reclaim territory from rebels who vacated for a period in February to come to the aid of the president of Chad, with whom they have close ties.
The Los Angeles Times leads with an analysis of how the new popularity of corn ethanol as a source of fuel could lead to price shocks in everything from food to gasoline, especially if any kind of drought hits this summer.
Tuesday's the big day for Hillary Clinton. Candidates are going full tilt before the Tuesday primaries, where Obama has 50 million to spend over Hillary's $30 million, plus television input from independent heavyweights like the SEIU: "If this can be purchased, he can win it," said Gov. Ted Strickland, a Hillary supporter. Potentially more problematic for the Hillary camp is a scheduled concert by popular indie-rock band and Obama supporters Arcade Fire, which may prompt at least a few temporary desertions. Although Ohio voters remain focused on the economy, the Post's front-page coverage features the impact of the candidates' pitches on foreign policy, noting the prominence of arguments over what each would do with a red phone. The paper also finds that youth may trump ethnicity in the battle for the Latino vote—long considered a check in Clinton's column—as younger Hispanics increasingly stump for Obama.
It's also Women's Day in election coverage, as the LAT looks into feminist debates over the number of females jumping ship for Obama. A piece in the Post's Outlook section breaks the split down along class lines: Maria Shriver types favor Obama, while the less-educated stick with female solidarity. A companion piece bemoans the tendency of "us women" to fall for the sentimental and superficial pitches of both sides.
In front-page economic news, the WP makes concrete that creeping feeling that things are not all right in corporate America, talking to businesses in all sectors (although mostly D.C. area-based) that are cutting jobs to insulate themselves from the downturn. It's not as bad as the 2001 recession yet, but deflated consumer spending is having ripple effects through the corporate sector, which in turn—as the NYT notes in a similar story back in Business—hurts people looking for jobs on the lower end of the pay scale.
The LAT thinks it has hit upon a scandal in the overvaluing of multi-million dollar pieces of art used as tax write-offs, estimating that half the donations over the last 20 years were appraised at double their actual value. Elsewhere in swindle news, and continuing with its coverage of how seniors get screwed in America, the NYT fronts a long piece on the selling of "reverse mortgages:" payments tied to the value of a home that only need to be repaid when the owner moves out or dies. Drawing heavily on the experience of one elderly woman who says she lost thousands of dollars in a scheme, the paper recounts dozens of sketchy details about a $20-billion a year industry that says it's only trying to help seniors out.
The NYT took the time to collect a few voices from the dead, giving has-been presidential candidates the chance to hammer away at pet issues one more time. One of them, the Hon. Dennis Kucinich, may be more dead than others.
In history, this day in 1807, the U.S. Congress passed an act to "prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States... from any foreign kingdom, place, or country." Widely ignored, it did make profitable home breeding. Yes.
In 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election this day by the U.S. Congress. Samuel J. Tilden, however, had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876. Swine, all.
Casting aside fear of the military and naval poo-bahs, on this day in 1899, President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey. Recall? "You may fire when ready, Gridley."
In 1917, this day, the Russian Revolution began with Czar Nicholas II abdicating.
In 1933, the motion picture King Kong had its world premiere in New York.
What is it with our states? In 1939, the Massachusetts legislature sobered up and voted to ratify the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. These first ten amendments had gone into effect 147 years before.
In 1995, Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev was killed by a gunman in Moscow.
In 1998, images from the American spacecraft Galileo indicated that the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat.
Five years ago today, over the Sea of Japan, there was a confrontation between four armed North Korean fighter jets and a U.S. RC-135S Cobra Ball. No shots were fired in the encounted in international airspace about 150 miles off North Korea's coast. The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights on March 12.
In 2004, NASA announced that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water had existed on Mars in the past. Why water? No other liquid?
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Saturday, March 01, 2008
Thank God. The scam about a little girl who lived with wolves and survived the Holocaust has been revealed. How the hell could people have EVER believed this? Pan's Labyrinth as documentary.
An unnamed "senior White House official" said yesterday that the Bush administration would resume withdrawing troops from Iraq following a short pause this summer. "This is not a stall tactic," the official said. "I fully expect further reductions this year, in '08, and so does the president." And if Bush thinks so, as he thinks there's no recession on the day the DOW Jones tumbles 300 points, than we can take that to the bank. There's no indication, though, of how many troops will be withdrawn; the NYT speculates that Bush might order only token withdrawals, leaving the final decision to his successor.
In Iraq, and under pressure from the US, Turkey yesterday announced that it had withdrawn its troops from northern Iraq, bringing to a close an eight-day offensive against Kurdish guerrillas. It's hard to gauge the operation's impact; the NYT notes that Kurdish and Turkish spokesmen gave contradictory accounts, each claiming their side had killed hundreds of enemy fighters while incurring minimal losses. The Post notes that US officials were skeptical about the Turkish statement, since a full withdrawal would take several days to complete.
The British defense ministry's decision to recall Prince Harry from military service in Afghanistan is somehow news. The move came after the Drudge Report broke a media embargo that had kept the prince's deployment secret for ten weeks. The Post notes that even Britain's much-derided tabloid editors considered the leaked report "a cheap hit"; the LAT is more critical of the British media's complicity in concealing Harry's presence on the front lines. Still, as the NYT notes, the press pack were careful to commit only to covering up the rowdy prince's military activity: "If Prince Harry had managed to find a nightclub in Kabul, that news would have been acceptable to report," one tabloid editor sighed.
I don't buy it. The Brits wanted the guy out of harm's way because his presence was, as his nickname referenced, a bullet magnet. Unlike most of his family, who served - and with distinction be it said - in the Navy, Henry's presence in combat was just a pain rather than a neutral or beneficial element. Captured, many would die in a rescue attempt beyond that accorded just another soldier.
The Pentagon's unexpected decision to award a $40 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers to a US-European partnership between Northrop Grumman and Airbus rather than to Boeing is, somehow, national news of import. The Air Force says that its decision to pass over Boeing for a massive air-tanker contract was a no-brainer, with the Northrop-Airbus proposal offering better value and better performance across the board. Still, the decision riled many who believe military hardware ought to be entirely homegrown: "This isn't an upset," one analyst gasped to the NYT. "It's an earthquake." The Post reports that the Pentagon took painstaking efforts to ensure its selection process would withstand scrutiny – essential not least because previous plans to award a similar contract to Boeing were shelved after negotiations were found to have been conducted illegally. A protracted congressional battle is now expected; the LAT reports that both Boeing and Northrop have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring lobbyists to argue their case.
Hiring lobbyists to convince the military an item is better than the competition. Wouldn't the military be the only ones that could know?
Wall Street is dying. A series of negative economic and financial reports sent shares tumbling. Things are looking bleak there: the NYT reports that a new study suggests financial institutions could lose up to $600 billion amid continuing turmoil in the global credit markets, due to their short sighted greed and stupidity. The news spooked already-wary investors, fueling sell-offs that saw both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones slump more than 2.5 percent. The WSJ argues that the stock market is stuck in a rut, and ponders the wisdom of the massive write-downs being posted by financial firms: it's unclear whether current accounting rules make matters better or worse. Meanwhile, billionaire investor Warren Buffet takes a swipe at America's financial firms in his latest letter to investors: "You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out," he wrote. "And what we are witnessing at some of our largest financial institutions is an ugly sight." And deserved.
Hillary Clinton upped the ante yesterday ahead of Tuesday's crucial primary votes in Texas and Ohio, running provocative TV ads that the NYT says "all but declared Senator Barack Obama unprepared to serve as commander in chief". The ads show children sleeping while an international crisis brews and a phone rings, unanswered, in the White House; the announcer says that only Clinton has the experience "to lead in a dangerous world" and asks: "Who do you want answering the phone?" The LAT notes that Clinton staffers hope the ad will rally female voters, in a repeat of the last-minute surge that helped Hillary to victory in New Hampshire. With everyone – including Slate's John Dickerson – noting parallels to Walter Mondale's 1984 "red phone" ad, Obama countered with an ad of his own, arguing that Clinton had already fluffed her "red phone" moment by backing the war in Iraq.
And that's what bugs me about Obama. The only thing he can say in his behalf is he opposed the war in Iraq when he was out of federal office. But if the President of the United States comes to Congress and says 'we have to do this now or the nation is in immediate peril', I'd be annoyed if the Senate did NOT side with him, provided it was for a limited time. We have assumptions of good intentions, which the Bushies destroyed, upon which our government must work. If he had been in the Senate and provided with the same info Clinton had, why would he not have voted for the Iraq war?
Clinton strategists were yesterday trying to downplay the necessity of winning both Texas and Ohio in Tuesday's vote. Still, the WSJ notes that if Hillary fails to pick up both states – or if Texas's complex primary-caucus hybrid ends in tears – she'll likely face pressure to step aside for the good of the party. Bob Herbert picks up the theme in the NYT: "Tuesday's elections may decide the nominee. But if they don't, the wisest heads in the party will be faced with the awesome task of preventing a train wreck that would ruin what was supposed to have been a banner year."
In history, this day in 1562, in Vassy, France, Catholics massacred over 1,000 Huguenots, French Protestants. The event started the First War of Religion. Between Christians. In France. Well. For a while.
Of course in 1692, in Salem Village, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the witch trials began. Four women were the first to be charged.
This day in 1781, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. Articles so confusing and pointless we ended up with the Constitution.
In 1815, this day, Napoleon returned to France from the island of Elba. He had been forced to abdicate in April of 1814.
All hale! In 1872, the U.S. Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone National Park. It was the world's first national park, and still among the best.
In 1896 at the Battle of Adowa, Ethiopian soldiers under Emperor Menelik II walloped Italian troops. Yet another example of the baseless feelings of superiority over aborigines that Europeans felt. Whether Zulu, Sioux, Ethiopian, or Afghani, we simply weren't all that. Painful lesson, partially learned.
Brave beyond the norm. In 1912, Captain Albert Berry made the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
This day in 1932, the 22-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped. The child was found dead in May.
In 1947, rock ribbed incompetent and brother to Madam Chiang, Chinese Premier T.V. Soong resigned. Too late.
This day in 1949, Joe Louis announced that he was retiring from boxing as world heavyweight boxing champion.
In 1950, Manhattan Project participant Klaus Fuchs was convicted of giving U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Four years to the day later, the United States announced that it had conducted a hydrogen bomb test on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
In 1961, the Peace Corps was established by U.S. President Kennedy.
In 1969, the great Mickey Mantle announced his retirement from major league baseball.
In 1992, Bosnian Muslims and Croats voted to secede from Yugoslavia.
Operation Anaconda began in eastern Afghanistan this day in 2002. Allied forces were fighting against Taliban and Al Quaida elements, and we failed to nail them at their hole in Tora Bora.
In 2003, approximately 180,000 personnel from 22 different organizations around the government became part of the Department of Homeland Security. Sorta. This completed the largest government reorganization since the beginning of the Cold War.
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Friday, February 29, 2008
I'm waiting.....operators are standing by. It was on this day in 1288 that Scotland - land of My People - established this day, February 29, as one when a woman could propose marriage to a man. In the event that he refused the proposal he was required to pay a fine. To who, I wonder? Being pre-Wallace Scotland, probably to the 'church.' Either way, this terrifying prospect is only valid every four years, so moderation - a Scot trait - takes over. So, Happy Leap Day.
Out of Africa, some good news, maybe. The NYT says that in Kenya, where President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga signed a power-sharing deal yesterday, hope arises that the agreement, which creates a powerful new prime minister position for Odinga, will bring an end to the violence that broke out after the disputed elections in December and has killed at least 1,000 people. Maybe. The two leaders also agreed to form a sort of coalition government and split cabinet positions between their two parties. But it remains to be seen whether the two sides can truly work together and if Kenyans will accept the compromise. Hundreds of thousands of lives are lost to this yearly.
Bowling is the second biggest high school varsity sport. And they say we're obese. Bathtub Fart is also an Olympic Event.
The LAT notes that Iraq's three-member presidential council has approved the execution of Ali Hassan Majid, more commonly known as "Chemical Ali." The council decided not to execute Majid's two co-defendants, who were also convicted of genocide in June. There's no official date set for the hanging, but it must be carried out within 30 days. Ali was Saddam's cousin. Good.
The problem with the GOP (mostly) Country Club tough guys: they're idiots. Trying to give their racism cover as 'tough on crime', they produced the opposite of what they wanted, because prejudice costs money. The Washington Post reveals more than one in 100 adults in the United States are behind bars. Holding the rank as the country that imprisons more people, both in terms of raw numbers and as a percentage of population, is hardly a cheap proposition, as states spend almost $50 billion a year on corrections. The report found a total of 2.3 million people incarcerated and highlights how minorities have been particularly affected by the tougher sentencing laws imposed in the 1980s. One in 15 black men, and more specifically, one in nine black men ages 20 to 35, are behind bars. For Hispanic men, the figure is one in 36. Although the violent-crime rate has decreased 25 percent since 1987, spending on corrections has increased 127 percent (adjusted for inflation). Many believe that nonviolent criminals could be better served by other types of punishment, including community service, which would be far cheaper. "Getting tough on crime has gotten tough on taxpayers," a Pew director tells the NYT.
The New York Times leads with news that the Food and Drug Administration has found problems at a Chinese plant that made most of the active ingredient for Baxter International's blood thinner heparin. Baxter announced a recall of most of its products containing the lifesaving drug, which is made from pig intestines. The NYT makes much of the fact that the FDA revealed the number of deaths that could be associated with heparin has risen to 21 from four that had been announced earlier. But the FDA warned that its precise link to heparin was still unclear, and the WSJ says a dozen of those who died were using the Baxter drug.
Although the agency said it found problems in the quality-control procedures at the Chinese plant that supplied most of the raw ingredients for Baxter's heparin, it also emphasized that the "root cause" of the problem is still not known. USAT highlights that despite the 448 adverse reactions to Baxter's drug that had been discovered, the company apparently delayed a recall until its main competitor was certain it would have enough supply to go around. Looking at the big picture, this is yet another reminder of how the FDA is struggling to catch up to the changing nature of drug manufacturing that is increasingly being carried out in China and India. The WSJ visited suppliers of the raw heparin in China and last week had a story that detailed how the whole supply chain was often plagued with poor oversight and that some of the material from pig intestines came from small villages that had little in the way of quality control (the NYT published a similar story yesterday). Hands. Who's surprised?
USA Today looks at how the huge turnout in the presidential primaries is making election officials nervous about potential problems in November. Officials in several states across the country are requesting more voting machines, paper ballots, and poll workers to make sure they won't have problems on Election Day.
The money conscious Wall Street Journal leads its world-wide newsbox with, and the WP fronts, Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign announcing that it raised $35 million in February. Sen. Barack Obama's camp hasn't released official figures, but aides said their total was "considerably more." There are estimates that he raised about $50 million, which, combined with Clinton's total, would surpass the record that was set by President Bush and Sen. John Kerry in March 2004. It seems that lending her campaign $5 million was a good strategy for Clinton because online donations, which accounted for $30 million of the total, soared after the news got out.
The Los Angeles Times says Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears to have cured himself of his long-held allergies to more taxes. California's governor said the state's huge budget shortfall could be decreased by closing "tax loopholes."
The Middle East continues apace, with Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continuing for a second day and killing at least 19 Palestinians, including four boys who were playing soccer. Meanwhile Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets and mortar shells into Israel, where officials emphasized that at least eight of them were Iranian-made devices that are more technologically advanced and have a longer range than the crude, locally made rockets that are normally used. Israeli officials characterized the use of these rockets as an escalation, and the defense minister said there's a "real and tangible" possibility of a large-scale ground offensive in Gaza.
Prince Harry has been fighting in Afghanistan for 10 weeks. Amazingly, the British news media, hardly known for its discretion, knew about this all along and stayed quiet. All major news outlets in Britain agreed to not reveal anything about the prince as long as they got some access to him in the war zone so they could have good stories when he got back. Oh, and the military agreed to bring him home on a Friday so it'd be convenient for both daily and Sunday papers. The deal lasted much longer than most were expecting but came undone after the Drudge Report blasted the news to the world yesterday. The British media quickly published all their information on the prince in the front lines of war. "It's very nice to be sort of a normal person for once," he said in an interview. As could be expected, officials are now making arrangements for him to get back home.
In history, this day in 1692, Sarah Good and Tituba, an Indian servant, were accused of witchcraft in Salem.
This day in 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first black person to win an Oscar. She won Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Mammy in "Gone with the Wind." About the best part of the movie.
In 1944, the Office of Defense Transportation, for the second year in a row, restricted attendance at the Kentucky Derby to residents of the Louisville area. This was an effort to prevent a railroad traffic burden during wartime.
In 1952, this day, four signs were installed at 44th Street and Broadway in Times Square that told pedestrians when to walk. To this day, their legal status is unknown.
Fun days. In 1960, an Earthquake killed 1/3 of Agadir, Morocco's population (12,000) in 15 sec. Also that day, it was hit with a tidal wave and a fire.
A sad end to a good guy. On February 29, 1960, Melvin Purvis, the G-Man who led the two raids when John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd were slain, committed suicide.
In 1972, columnist Jack Anderson revealed a memo written by ITT's Washington lobbyist, Dita Beard, that connected ITT's funding of part of the Republican National Convention.
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All material on this site copyright Richard L. MacLeod (Dark Cloud) 1968-2010 unless otherwise stated.
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