Friday, January 02, 2004
30 years later . . .
The United States government seriously contemplated using military force to seize oil fields in the Middle East during the Arab oil embargo 30 years ago, according to a declassified British government document made public on Thursday.
The top-secret document says that President Richard M. Nixon was prepared to act more aggressively than previously thought to secure America's oil supply if the embargo, imposed by Arab nations in retaliation for America's support for Israel in the 1973 Middle East war, did not end. In fact, the embargo was lifted in March 1974.
The declassified British memorandum said the United States considered launching airborne troops to seize oil fields in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, but only as a "last resort."
President Nixon's defense secretary, James R. Schlesinger, delivered the warning to Lord Cromer, the British ambassador in Washington at the time. In the document, Lord Cromer was quoted as saying of Mr. Schlesinger, "it was no longer obvious to him that the United States could not use force."
History lessons
posted by chris at 1:45 PM
Good ol' Willie
We believe everything that they tell us
They're gonna’ kill us
So we gotta’ kill them first
But I remember a commandment
Thou shall not kill
How much is that soldier’s life worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth
And the bewildered herd is still believing
Everything we’ve been told from our birth
Hell they won’t lie to me
Not on my own damn TV
But how much is a liars word worth
And whatever happened to peace on earth
Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?
posted by chris at 1:42 PM
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Tuesday, December 30, 2003
God, I love the Simpsons!
On the Fox Network, the "Simpsons" episode "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington" included a number of satirical jabs at Fox News, including a fake news crawl with such headlines as: "POINTLESS NEWS CRAWLS UP 37 PERCENT ... DO DEMOCRATS CAUSE CANCER? FIND OUT AT FOXNEWS.COM ... RUPERT MURDOCH: TERRIFIC DANCER ... DOW DOWN 5000 POINTS ... STUDY: 92 PERCENT OF DEMOCRATS ARE GAY ... JFK POSTHUMOUSLY JOINS REPUBLICAN PARTY ... OIL SLICKS FOUND TO KEEP SEALS YOUNG, SUPPLE ... DAN QUAYLE: AWESOME... ASHCROFT DECLARES BREAST OF CHICKEN SANDWICH "OBSCENE" ... HILLARY CLINTON EMBARRASSES SELF, NATION ... BIBLE SAYS JESUS FAVORED CAPITAL-GAINS CUT ... STAY TUNED FOR HANNITY AND IDIOT... ONLY DORKS WATCH CNN ... JIMMY CARTER: OLD, WRINKLY, USELESS... BRAD PITT + ALBERT EINSTEIN = DICK CHENEY ..." —Wendell Wittler
Simpsons coverage via Kent "Tbogg" Brockman
posted by chris at 10:58 PM
Thanks for playing. You can go home now.
For nearly 21 months, a government task force steadily moved toward recommending rules that within three years would force every coal-fired power plant in the country to reduce emissions of mercury, which can cause neurological and developmental damage to humans.
The Environmental Protection Agency-sponsored working group had a well-regarded mix of utility industry representatives, state air quality officials and environmentalists. Without settling on specific emission reductions, the panel agreed that all 1,100 of the nation's coal- and oil-fired power plants must use the "maximum achievable control technology" (MACT) to reduce mercury and other hazardous pollutants.
But in April, the EPA abruptly dismantled the panel. John A. Paul, its co-chairman, said members were given no clue why their work was halted -- that is, until late last month, when the Bush administration revealed it was taking an entirely different approach, using a more flexible portion of the Clean Air Act.
The new approach would still cost the industry billions of dollars to meet long-term goals. But it was far cheaper and less onerous than the MACT approach that most experts had assumed the EPA was developing to meet a court-imposed deadline of Dec. 15.
The administration's alternative plan would technically downgrade the danger of mercury pollution; grant utility companies 10 more years to develop and install new anti-pollution equipment; and launch a cap-and-trade system that would allow utilities to buy emissions "credits" from lesser-polluting companies to meet an overall industry target, or cap, without having to install new scrubbers or anti-pollution equipment on every plant.
Mercury - not as bad as you think it is.
posted by chris at 3:42 PM
Friends in high places
Neil Bush, brother of the president and son of the former president, earned nearly $1.4 million in 2000 and nearly half of it came from simply introducing the executives of a Thailand-based conglomerate to the executives of a U.S. company that makes computer components.
The introduction, which led to a $20 million investment in the U.S. company, is one of several high-stakes international business deals that President Bush's younger brother has been involved in over the past few years, according to court and corporate records.
Neil Bush, 48, the second-youngest son of former President George Bush, has chosen not to join the family business of politics, but to some he seems to have parlayed the family name into a lucrative private enterprise.
While most multinational business deals are made behind the scenes, Neil Bush's role in several major transactions and other financial business is detailed in a lengthy court document relating to his stormy divorce this year from Sharon Bush.
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In one situation brought up in the proceedings, Neil Bush acknowledged that he was being paid about $60,000 a year by a company called Crest Investment, where he said he served as "co-chairman."
Asked by Brown what his duties were at Crest, Neil Bush said he provided "miscellaneous consulting services, such as answering phone call[s]." He said he spent about three or four hours a week to earn the $60,000 from Crest.
Steven Weiss, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, a public watchdog group, said that making a connection with the president's brother was "an obvious way to develop a relationship that could lead to the president himself."
The dirt.
posted by chris at 1:51 PM
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Monday, December 29, 2003
Branded, for life
They're part of a growing trend toward naming children after products -- brand-name babies.
There are kids named after cars: Corvette, Acura, Camry, Celica, Infiniti. Little designers: Armani, Dior and Halston. Alcohol brand names abound: Courvoisier and Hennessy could be coming soon to a preschool near you, joining Killian and Guinness and Ronrico.
"Picking unusual names is more popular than ever, because people are willing to choose from all sorts of sources, including brand names," says Cleveland Evans, a psychology professor at Bellevue University in Nebraska who discovered the surprising number of brand-name babies in a massive database of names registered with the Social Security Administration in 2000.
Evans, a longtime member of the American Name Society, an academic group, got hold of the list, the only time the SSA has released a full list of all names given five times or more, and noticed how many products there were.
Children now about 3 years old are named Delta, Avis, Disney, Ikea, Evian, Hyatt, Breck and Delmonte.
There's a little boy in Texas named ESPN. Connie Brown of Atlanta has a granddaughter in Washington, D.C., named Cambria, after a brand of wine. It's also a type of kitchen countertop, she notes.
"Increasingly, brand names are being used as a metaphor for something else," says Lucian James, a business branding expert in San Francisco. "You say 'Gucci' to anyone in the world, and they know what you mean.
"When you're looking to name a baby, you're looking for something that sounds familiar and aspirational," he continues. "Parents are projecting onto their children the things they want to have themselves."
Nike Disney Wrigley's Jones
posted by chris at 5:17 PM
That's gotta hurt your credibility
Tony Blair is facing severe embarrassment after the US official running Iraq dismissed his claims that “massive evidence” of weapons programmes had been found in the country as a “red herring”.
Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, has recorded an interview for broadcast this morning, in which he was unaware the claims were from the Prime Minister, when he described them as unfounded and the work of someone trying to undermine the US-led coalition in Iraq.
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Bremer’s comments have been recorded for ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby programme to be broadcast this morning. The presenter put to the US administrator the claim that the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) had unearthed “massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories”. The claim went on to say that Saddam Hussein had attempted to “conceal weapons”.
That was in Blair’s Christmas message to British troops in Iraq. But without being told whose claim it was, Bremer responded that the claim was not true and did not square with the survey reports he had seen. “I don’t know where those words come from but that is not what [ISG chief] David Kay has said,” said Bremer. “It sounds like a bit of a red herring to me. It sounds like someone who doesn’t agree with the policy sets up a red herring, then knocks it down.”
Story.
posted by chris at 5:07 PM
J-O-B
The nation's official jobless rate is 5.9%, a relatively benign level by historical standards. But economists say that figure paints only a partial — and artificially rosy — picture of the labor market.
To begin with, there are the 8.7 million unemployed, defined as those without a job who are actively looking for work. But lurking behind that group are 4.9 million part-time workers such as Gluskin who say they would rather be working full time — the highest number in a decade.
There are also the 1.5 million people who want a job but didn't look for one in the last month. Nearly a third of this group say they stopped the search because they were too depressed about the prospect of finding anything. Officially termed "discouraged," their number has surged 20% in a year.
Add these three groups together and the jobless total for the U.S. hits 9.7%, up from 9.4% a year ago.
Playing with numbers.
posted by chris at 4:52 PM
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