Rising price of the war on terror
With the Iraq war and clashes in Afghanistan grinding on, the cost to the US budget is $500 billion and still mounting.
Click here to read this article.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1121/p01s03-usmi.html
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Rice admits mistakes were made in Iraq, but won’t say what they were until Bush leaves office. I smell a book deal. Let’s call it: Revisionist history.
At:
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/02/rice-iraq-mistakes/
From: Poacnewsletter
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Limbaugh said he learned about women from his cat, which “gets loved,” “petted,” and “fed” and “doesn’t have to do anything for it”
On the November 30 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Rush Limbaugh proclaimed: My “cat’s taught me more about women, than anything my whole life” because his pet cat “comes to me when she wants to be fed,” and “[s]he’s smart enough to know she can’t feed herself. She’s actually [a] very smart cat. She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn’t have to do anything for it.” Limbaugh has previously stated, on the March 1, 2005, edition of his show, that “[w]omen still live longer than men because their lives are easier”; on January 10, he suggested that some women “would love to be hired as eye candy.”
Read more
http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200612010005?src=other
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ROBO-CALLS AND OTHER 2006 ELECTION IRREGULARITIES
by Elliott Fullmer
Congresspedia is tracking the reports of irregularities in the 2006 ongressional elections, which include problems with electronic oting machines, voter suppression tactics and even voter registration fraud. These issues, which came as little surprise to any, were not confined to one state or region, but rather propped p in nearly every corner of the country.¼br />
One widespread controversy involved the use of “robo-calls,” or utomated telephone calls, in the weeks preceding the elections. hese calls, the vast majority of which were paid for and authorized y the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC), were reported n at least 53 competitive House districts. The NRCC-sponsored calls ypically began with an automated voice saying, “Hello, I’m calling with information about [Democratic candidate],” not revealing that they were sponsored by the GOP until the end of the call, which left residents under the impression that the call was from a Democratic candidate if they hung up before the call was over. Indeed, numerous Democratic campaign offices around the country received complaints and requests to halt the calls. In addition, many voters later expressed that the calls led them to oppose Democratic candidates at the polls.
For the rest of this story, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/5494
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America’s media bubble
A willful blindness
Lawrence Pintak / The Boston GlobePublished: November 19, 2006
CAIRO: The United States no longer controls the script. That’s a reality Democratic congressional leaders must digest as they seek to recast America’s relationship with the world.
There used to be a time when the U.S. media wrote the global narrative. The world saw itself through a largely American camera lens. No more. The launch last week of Al Jazeera International, the English-speaking cousin to the channel the Bush administration loves to hate, is just the latest reminder of that.
U.S. foreign policy is being reflected through a blinding array of prisms. Yet America continues to pursue an analogue communications strategy in a digital age.
Just look at the satellite landscape. Here in the Middle East, we can watch more than 300 channels, from Hezbollah’s Al Manar (labeled a terrorist organization by the United States) to Fox News (which, to borrow Fox’s favorite line, “some people say” is the moral equivalent).
Turkey, India, Singapore – wherever you look overseas, all-news satellite channels are de rigueur. France 24 launches in a few weeks to bring “French values” to global coverage. China has a channel. Russia Today will soon broadcast in Arabic. Latin America has a continent-wide all-news channel. Africans are also talking about one. And then, of course, there’s the Internet.
The perspective of these channels is different. So is the spin. The American election was a big story here in the Middle East, but cheering Democrats shared the screen with gut-wrenching images of blood-drenched Palestinian children torn to shreds by Israel tank shells as they lay asleep in their beds. More of those “birth pangs of a new Middle East” that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked about last summer. Americans may be talking change, but Arabs, watching those scenes repeat endlessly through the day, saw business as usual.
…
For the rest of this story, visit:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/19/opinion/edpintak.php
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Plant and Factory Closings
Caraustar Closing Penn. Plant
Recycling Today – Cleveland,OH,USA
Caraustar Industries, Inc. announced that it is closing its York, PA, carton plant. The decision to shut the plant continues the …
http://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/news.asp?ID=10658
TransAlta coal mine closes
By stilwell
TransAlta, which operates a coal-fired electrical generating plant in Lewis County, said the 225 workers at the power plant would not be affected by the coal mine’s closing, said Doug Jackson, president of TransAlta’s US operations. …
http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2006/11/transalta-coal-mine-closes.html
Franklin auto parts plant to close
Dickson Herald – Dickson,TN,USA
… 12, officials said. “Each and every job at the facility is being eliminated as a result of this plant closing,” wrote Kip … “This is a permanent plant closing.”. …
http://www.dicksonherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061128/BUSINESS01/611280335
Weyerhaeuser announces it will close Arkansas veneer mill
Seattle Post Intelligencer – USA
… A previous round of layoffs took 56 students out of its local high school, she said, raising fears the plant’s closing could mark the school’s closing as well. …
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_Weyerhaeuser_Mill_Closing.html
Copper mill closing after 157 years
Newsday – Long Island,NY,USA
… by Olin on Tuesday said reduced industry demand for copper and copper-alloy strip products, plus cost increases, contributed to the decision to close the plant …
Manufacturing Plant Closing
WNEP-TV – Scranton,PA,USA
… A company that makes embroidery thread is closing. … Workers have fewer than two more months of work before the embroidery thread plant shuts its doors. …
http://www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=5752194
Blue Water Automotive closing plants
Port Huron Times Herald – Port Huron,MI,USA
… The closings include the Marysville company’s Range Road Plant in St. Clair and its Lexington Plant on South Lakeshore Road. The …
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061201/NEWS01/61201001/1002
Broyhill Furniture plans to close Lenoir plant
WHNS – USA
… months. The company announced the elimination of nearly 700 jobs in June with the planned closing of the Pacemaker plant in Lenoir.
http://www.fox21.com/Global/story.asp?S=5758492&nav=2KPp
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CBO Report: Recruiting, Retention, and Future Levels of Military Personnel
Recruiting, Retention, and Future Levels of Military Personnel, October 2006
At:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/76xx/doc7626/10-05-Recruiting.pdf
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THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT GOES BACK TO BIBLE BOOT CAMP
By Alexander Zaitchik, AlterNet
After a study revealed that less than 10% of evangelicals were bible literate, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family is desperately taking a two-day multi-media Bible boot camp on the road, selling “truth” for $179 a seat.
At:
http://www.alternet.org/stories/44934/
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Borowitz Report – Heckuva Job Shocker
Bush: Heckuva Job, Al-Maliki
President’s Words of Praise May Mean Iraqi Premier is Through
In a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today, President George W. Bush reportedly told him that he had his “full support” and that he was doing “a heckuva job,” indicating that Mr. al-Maliki’s tenure in office may soon be over.
In the hours leading up to the meeting with the president, Mr. al-Maliki was reportedly dreading hearing any words of praise from Mr. Bush, knowing that similar compliments paid to former FEMA chief Michael Brown and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had immediately preceded their ousters.
“I want him to say ‘your job is hanging by a thread’ or ‘you totally suck,’” Mr. Maliki reportedly told a close associate. “Anything but ‘heckuva job.’”
But moments after the meeting with Mr. Bush in which the president pledged his full support for the Iraqi prime minister, an ashen-faced Mr. Maliki emerged, telling reporters, “I guess I better go to Kinkos and start copying my resume.”
While Messrs. Brown and Rumsfeld are two of the most famous former staffers of the president who received his praise as a prelude to getting the boot, over twenty thousand lesser-known former Bush employees gathered this weekend for their annual convention in Scottsdale, Arizona, to focus on networking and job retraining.
“I was trimming the hedges and the president said I was doing a heckuva job,” said Blanton Kellard, a former gardener at the president’s Crawford ranch. “That’s when I knew I was toast.”
Elsewhere, for the first time since the U.S. invasion in 2003, the number of car bombs in Baghdad now exceeds the number of cars.
http://www.borowitzreport.com/
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three to see
M.e Cohen: the “c” word
http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/27485/
Steve Benson: Iraq SHAMu
http://www.azcentral.com/sshow/News/Benson/4271_72915.jpg
Mike Peters: christmas gift from putin
