Saturday, December 20, 2003
Tofu destroys the rainforest??
This is the Amazon, a vast lung producing 20% of the earth's oxygen, and home to 30% of all plant and animal species. It is so immense that it would swallow Europe in full and three more Englands besides.
The rainforest is shrinking at a rate that is staggering environmentalists. Around 25,000 sq km (10,000 sq miles) disappeared last year - an area about the size of Belgium. Brazil's environment minister has confirmed to the Guardian that this year's figures will be as bad. Others think they will be worse.
Huge swaths of the land are being transformed not only by illegal logging companies and cattle ranchers, but also by a newer invader, the soya bean. For many the extraordinary expansion of this bean - used not only for its oil and food for humans but also as feed for cattle - is the new front in the battle for the Amazon.
Whew! It's just the cattle feed
posted by chris at 12:54 AM
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Friday, December 19, 2003
Going, going, gone!
I'm heading down to Florida for the week, so there probably won't be much action on the site for awhile. I'll be back at it sometime around the 29th. See you then.
posted by chris at 7:38 PM
Used to love him
Donald H. Rumsfeld went to Baghdad in March 1984 with instructions to deliver a private message about weapons of mass destruction: that the United States' public criticism of Iraq for using chemical weapons would not derail Washington's attempts to forge a better relationship, according to newly declassified documents.
Rumsfeld, then President Ronald Reagan's special Middle East envoy, was urged to tell Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz that the U.S. statement on chemical weapons, or CW, "was made strictly out of our strong opposition to the use of lethal and incapacitating CW, wherever it occurs," according to a cable to Rumsfeld from then-Secretary of State George P. Shultz.
The statement, the cable said, was not intended to imply a shift in policy, and the U.S. desire "to improve bilateral relations, at a pace of Iraq's choosing," remained "undiminished." "This message bears reinforcing during your discussions."
The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the nonprofit National Security Archive, provide new, behind-the-scenes details of U.S. efforts to court Iraq as an ally even as it used chemical weapons in its war with Iran.
Where's the love gone?
posted by chris at 3:50 PM
Live feed
News executives of most Boston television stations are decidedly unenthusiastic about a Bush administration plan to transmit news footage from Iraq for local TV outlets in an attempt to supplement media coverage from that war-torn country.
The satellite link, dubbed "C-SPAN Baghdad," is designed to put a more positive spin on events and circumvent the major networks by making it possible for press conferences, interviews with troops and dignitaries, and even footage from the field to be transmitted from Iraq for use by regional and local media outlets, according to news accounts.
"I'm kind of appalled by it. I think it's very troubling," said Charles Kravetz, vice president of news at the regional cable news outlet NECN. "I think the government has no business being in the news business."
"We have no interest in this," said WBZ-TV (Channel 4) news director Peter Brown. "The Fourth Estate is independent and should remain so. As news providers, we should go there and see for ourselves."
If you control what people see, you can control their response.
posted by chris at 3:44 PM
Courts say Bush not omnipotent
A divided federal appeals court in New York ruled yesterday that President Bush lacked the authority to detain indefinitely a United States citizen arrested on American soil on suspicion of terrorism simply by declaring him "an enemy combatant."
Within hours, a second federal appeals court, based in San Francisco, also in a divided ruling, declared that the administration's policy of imprisoning some 660 noncitizens captured in the Afghan war on a naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, without access to United States legal protections was unconstitutional as well as a violation of international law.
The twin blows to the underpinnings of the administration's elaborate legal strategy erected after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks make it all the more likely that the Supreme Court will have the final say on matters that the administration had argued did not belong in the courts in the first place.
The Supreme Court agreed just last month to hear the case of the detainees at Guantánamo and is widely expected to rule as well on the issues raised in the case of Jose Padilla, the American declared an enemy combatant.
More.
posted by chris at 10:28 AM
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Thursday, December 18, 2003
Let the stonewalling begin
For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News.
"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.
"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."
Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.
"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.
More, via Kos.
posted by chris at 1:28 PM
We got Saddam - what more do you want??
David Kay, the head of the U.S. effort to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, has told administration officials he plans to leave before the Iraq Survey Group's work is completed and could depart before February, U.S. military and intelligence officials said.
The move comes as more of Kay's staff has been diverted from the weapons hunt to help search for Iraqi insurgents, and at a time when expectations remain low that any weaponry will be discovered.
Kay requested the change for personal and family reasons, officials said. When he accepted the job in June, they said, he expected to quickly find the expansive evidence that the administration had claimed as its primary reason for going to war. Rather, Kay's preliminary report in October said the group had so far discovered only that Iraq was working to acquire chemical and biological weapons, had missile programs under various stages of development and possessed only a rudimentary nuclear program.
WMD? What WMD?
UPDATE: Bush doesn't care either - "What's the difference?"
posted by chris at 1:17 PM
Anyone ever read Orwell?
It's not quite Soviet-style airbrushing, but the Bush administration has been using cyberspace to make some of its own cosmetic touch-ups to history.
White House officials were steamed when Andrew S. Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said earlier this year that U.S. taxpayers would not have to pay more than $1.7 billion to reconstruct Iraq -- which turned out to be a gross understatement of the tens of billions of dollars the government now expects to spend.
Recently, however, the government has purged the offending comments by Natsios from the agency's Web site. The transcript, and links to it, have vanished.
This is not the first time the administration has done some creative editing of government Web sites. After the insurrection in Iraq proved more stubborn than expected, the White House edited the original headline on its Web site of President Bush's May 1 speech, "President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended," to insert the word "Major" before combat.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, administration Web sites have been scrubbed for anything vaguely sensitive, and passwords are now required to access even much unclassified information. Though it is not clear whether the White House is directing the changes, several agencies have been following a similar pattern. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and USAID have removed or revised fact sheets on condoms, excising information about their effectiveness in disease prevention, and promoting abstinence instead. The National Cancer Institute, meanwhile, scrapped claims on its Web site that there was no association between abortion and breast cancer. And the Justice Department recently redacted criticism of the department in a consultant's report that had been posted on its Web site.
Editing the past.
posted by chris at 1:06 PM
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Wednesday, December 17, 2003
The propaganda machine
It is to be called Al Hurra, a slickly produced Arab-language news and entertainment network that will be beamed by satellite from this Washington suburb to the Middle East. The name translates to English as "The Free One."
Al Hurra is meant to be America's "fair and balanced" pan-Arab answer to outlets like Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite network that White House officials accuse of fanning anti-Americanism in the Persian Gulf region.
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Acknowledging the challenges, they say it will exemplify the best values of American journalism and present the best chance so far to deepen understanding of America in the region.
"We're contending with a media environment that includes hate speak in radio and TV," said Norman J. Pattiz, who heads the Middle East committee of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the United States agency that is financing and overseeing the project, as it does Voice of America and several other ventures.
"It's in that environment that the Arab street gets its impression of our policies, our culture, our society," Mr. Pattiz said. "We simply cannot ignore the indigenous media."
Al Hurra will be available everywhere in the Middle East that Al Jazeera is, said Mr. Pattiz, chairman of Westwood One, the largest radio network in the nation.
The answer to our problems in the Arab world isn't to create better propaganda. It's to enact policies that aren't based on bullying and exploitation; that recognize that we are part of the world, not rulers of it.
posted by chris at 1:39 PM
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Tuesday, December 16, 2003
It all comes back to shopping, doesn't it?
With less than 10 days until Christmas, the capture of Saddam Hussein may be good news for retailers. After a couple of lack-luster holiday shopping seasons, retailers will take good news where they can get it.
News on 6 consumer reporter Rick Wells found one place in town where things may be changing for the better.
Tara Cone is the Marketing Director at the Promenade Mall. She says the attitude is more positive this year. "I think over the last couple of years everybody's been down with the war in Iraq and now this year things seem to be picking up."
And Sunday she says was a simply spectacular day. "I can't express it enough our gift certificate sales were through the roof." As you can see she's almost giddy about it. Nationally, analysts are more than ready to give much of the credit for a positive sale day.
It will be the end of the season before we know for sure, but retailers hope the bearded guy on the cover of the newspaper is just the Christmas gift their bottom line has been looking for.
Ugh.
posted by chris at 4:13 PM
Debunking the lies, part XXI
The Center for American Progress debunks the White House's latest document of hyperbole and delusions of grandeur. For example:
WHITE HOUSE CLAIM: "President Bush's economic leadership is producing positive results."
FACT: "More than 2.2 million jobs have been lost since Bush took office. Bush is still on pace to be the first President since Herbert Hoover to have a net job loss over his four year term." - BLS Data
FACT: In July 2003, the Counsel of Economic Advisors predicted that the President's latest round of tax cuts would produce 1,530,000 jobs would be created in the first five months. In fact, only 271,000 jobs were created over those five months for a cumulative shortfall of 1,259,000 jobs. - Economic Policy Institute
FACT: "Only 14% of CEOs are planning to increase the pace of hiring." - Business Council Poll, 10/9/03
FACT: Poverty levels have risen for the second straight year in a row – the first time in more than 13 years. - Economic Policy Institute
And so on.
posted by chris at 4:05 PM
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Monday, December 15, 2003
The Money Pit
From a recent episode of NOW with Bill Moyers on PBS, Bill interviews retired Pentagon officer Chuck Spinney:
MOYERS: Are we getting the best weapons at the lowest prices?
SPINNEY: No. No way at all. We could get… The weapons we're buying, we could get at lower prices if we held the contractors' feet to the fire. And I submit that many of the weapons we're getting, the best that you can say about them is that they are not designed for the threats that we face. Some of them may not work at all.
MOYERS: Spinney should know. His job at the Pentagon for the last three decades: to analyze the cost and effectiveness of America's weapons. And he says, national security is at risk because the country's not getting what we're paying for.
SPINNEY: I think it's out of control. I think a lot of people have just thrown up their hands.
MOYERS: So out of control, says Spinney, that the Pentagon can't account for billions upon billions of the dollars it's spending while its financial books border on pure fiction.
SPINNEY: We have an accounting system that is unauditable. Every year, they do an audit and the inspector general would issue a report saying we have to wave the audit requirements, issue a disclaimer of opinion because we can't balance the books. We can't tell you how the money got spent.
MOYERS: Case in point: since 1995, the General Accounting Office has ranked the Defense Department's financial management among the worst in the federal government "… on [the] GAO's list of high-risk areas vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement."
What's more, in fiscal year 2000, the Defense Department's own inspector general found that the Pentagon could not account for more than $1 trillion — trillion with a "t."
There's more and it gets much deeper.
posted by chris at 10:23 AM
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Sunday, December 14, 2003
2003: A Year of Accomplishment for Right-Wing Ideology
The White House said in a year-end report released yesterday that the invasion of Iraq had produced "clear evidence of Saddam's illegal weapons program" and new intelligence about his ties to terrorist organizations.
Those statements and other assertions in the eight-page report offer a preview of President Bush's plan for framing his record as he begins the final year of his term and plunges into his reelection campaign. The document also could provide fodder for Democratic presidential candidates, who contend that crucial elements of Bush's prewar case have been discredited.
Where's the proof for these statements??
posted by chris at 12:56 PM
Under cover of darkness
From U.S. Congressman Sherrod Brown, Democrat from Ohio and the ranking member on the Committee on Energy and the Commerce Subcommittee on Health:
Never before has the House of Representatives operated in such secrecy:
At 2:54 a.m. on a Friday in March, the House cut veterans benefits by three votes.
At 2:39 a.m. on a Friday in April, the House slashed education and health care by five votes.
At 1:56 a.m. on a Friday in May, the House passed the Leave No Millionaire Behind tax-cut bill by a handful of votes.
At 2:33 a.m. on a Friday in June, the House passed the Medicare privatization and prescription drug bill by one vote.
At 12:57 a.m. on a Friday in July, the House eviscerated Head Start by one vote.
And then, after returning from summer recess, at 12:12 a.m. on a Friday in October, the House voted $87 billion for Iraq.
Always in the middle of the night. Always after the press had passed their deadlines. Always after the American people had turned off the news and gone to bed.
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And late last month, they did it again. The most sweeping changes to Medicare in its 38-year history were forced through the House at 5:55 on a Saturday morning.
The debate started at midnight. The roll call began at 3:00 a.m. Most of us voted within the typical 20 minutes. Normally, the speaker would have gaveled the vote closed. But not this time; the Republican-driven bill was losing.
By 4 a.m., the bill had been defeated 216-218, with only one member, Democrat David Wu, not voting. Still, the speaker refused to gavel the vote closed.
Then the assault began.
The subversion of democracy.
posted by chris at 12:30 PM
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