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  		today

today

Thursday May 15th, 2008


World & National News

Obama's Appalchian problem

According to exit polls, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won 67 percent of the white vote in West Virginia, America's third-whitest state. Sen. Barack Obama in early March won 60 percent of the white vote in Vermont, the nation's second-whitest state.

What gives?

America is learning a lot about race this year, most recently that not all white voters are alike. There are enormous regional differences in how whites vote, differences with deep historical roots.

House passes farm bill by veto-proof margin

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi marshaled a 318-vote, veto-proof majority to pass a $290 billion farm bill that will lock in the nation's food policy for five years while granting $3 billion in first-ever money to support California fruits and vegetables.

The bill, expected to pass the Senate today, also by a veto-proof margin, includes as much as $40 billion in subsidies to commodity farmers who already enjoy record prices. It also contains a new $3.8 billion "permanent disaster" program that will create powerful incentives to plow millions of acres of prairie grasslands, which could release tons of harmful carbon into the atmosphere.

John Edwards Endorses Barack Obama

At a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Wednesday evening, John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama, who was on the stage with him, to be the Democratic nominee for president.

Sounding a theme of a nation divided into parts by walls, Mr. Edwards said, “The reason I am here tonight is that Democratic voters in America have made their choice and so have I.”

Mr. Edwards then went on to say, “There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to tear down that wall and make one America, Barack Obama.”

Inflation pressures ease despite food price jump

Consumer prices slowed in April despite the biggest jump in food costs in nearly two decades. But with oil near record levels, Americans should brace for more pain at the pump in coming months.

The Labor Department reported Wednesday that consumer prices edged up 0.2 percent last month, slightly lower than expected and better than the 0.3 percent rise in March.

The lower inflation reflected a flat reading for energy, which helped offset a 0.9 percent jump in food. That was the biggest one-month surge since a 1.5 percent increase in January 1990.

Bush links optimism for Mideast to Israel

President Bush said Wednesday that 60 years of Israel's existence is cause for optimism for democratic change throughout the Middle East. "What happened here is possible everywhere," Bush said, opening a trip divided between ceremonial duties and a new push for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

"I suspect if you looked back 60 years ago and tried to guess where Israel would be at that time, it would be hard to be able to project such a prosperous, hopeful land," Bush said during a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres. "No question, people would have said, 'We'd be surrounded by hostile forces.'"

Yet Bush's message of optimism was immediately offset by troubling realities in the region.

China Sends More Helicopters to Join Quake Relief

Chinese workers are still trying to reach three mountainous towns in southwestern Sichuan province that were cut off by a huge earthquake that struck the region Monday. Chinese authorities worry that the official death toll of nearly 15,000 could skyrocket unless needed help arrives soon. Stephanie Ho reports from Beijing.

Soldiers in Sichuan are pressing more military and civilian helicopters into service, to airlift necessities and help with relief work.

State TV has shown daily reports of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the scene, talking to survivors, encouraging emergency workers and overseeing relief work.

Mississippi win bodes well for Democrats
The GOP loses a special House election for the third time this year, which could spell trouble for Republicans this fall.

Barack Obama wasn't alone in largely ignoring West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary. For political analysts, the contest that really resonated Tuesday night was in Mississippi.

There, for the third time this year, a Democrat won a special House election in a district dominated by Republicans. (The other two occurred in Louisiana and Illinois.) And, for the experts, these victories join other factors that should portend a big Democratic triumph this fall.

Yahoo faces struggle for control

Yahoo faces a proxy fight for control of the company by a billionaire activist with a history of closing controversial corporate deals.

Carl Icahn has announced he will file a slate of alternate directors to replace the present board when it gets together for its shareholder meeting on 3 July.

Mr Icahn purchased 50 million shares in Yahoo after Microsoft walked away from talks in May to buy the net portal.


U.S. Should Engage Iran With Incentives, Pressure
   
The United States should construct a combination of incentives and pressure to engage Iran, and may have missed earlier opportunities to begin a useful dialogue with Tehran, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday.

"We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage . . . and then sit down and talk with them," Gates said. "If there is going to be a discussion, then they need something, too. We can't go to a discussion and be completely the demander, with them not feeling that they need anything from us."


NY prosecutor wins big with Spitzer investigation

Michael Garcia's predecessors as U.S. attorney in Manhattan took on all five mob families, the titans of Wall Street, Osama bin Laden and even Martha Stewart. So it was largely unnoticed when Garcia wanted to attack public corruption.

Then his public corruption unit investigated a prostitution ring that took down former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

In an interview last week, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on the investigation. That's not surprising since his office must decide whether to bring criminal charges against Spitzer, identified in court papers only as Client No. 9.

Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage due in California

More than four years after San Francisco defied state marriage laws by allowing nearly 4,000 same-sex couples to wed at City Hall, the state Supreme Court is set to decide today whether gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry in California.

But the decision, due at 10 a.m., may not be the last word. Conservative religious organizations have submitted more than 1.1 million signatures for an initiative that would amend the state Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. If at least 694,354 signatures are found to be valid, a tally that is due by mid-June, the measure would go on the November ballot and, if approved by voters, would override any court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage.

McAuliffe Whines 90% of Media Back Obama

Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager Terry McAuliffe called the media’s coverage of the Democratic presidential race “the most biased” ever — and praised conservative Fox News for its “responsible” reporting.

Appearing on “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday, the former Democratic National Committee chairman was asked by host Steve Doocy “what percentage of the mainstream media is in the tank for Barack Obama?”

McAuliffe answered: “Oh, 90 percent. I mean, from day one. It is what it is. We’re not complaining. We have to deal with the hand we’re dealt…


Ohio AG Resigns Amid Pressure of Impeachment

Ohio's attorney general has resigned amid the scandal of a sexual harassment investigation in his office and his extramarital affair.

Marc Dann has been under pressure of possible impeachment and announced he was stepping down on Wednesday.

The 46-year-old Democrat at first refused to resign, despite demands by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and others within his party.


The Republican Panic

If there is such a thing as a useful election defeat, then Tuesday's Republican loss in a special House election in Mississippi would qualify. Maybe this thumping in a heretofore safe GOP seat will finally scare the Members straight, or at least less crooked.

Democrats won with 54% of the vote in a district that a Republican won with 66% in 2006 and that President Bush carried in 2004 by 25 points. It was the GOP's third special election loss this year, and it has Democrats predicting that November will be another rout of 2006 proportions. Oklahoma's Tom Cole, who runs the National Republican Congressional Committee, captured the GOP reaction when he declared that "There is no district that is safe for Republican candidates."



A Better Nuclear Mouse Trap
       by Geoff Metcalf
Excessive courtesy must contain deceit.
--Chinese proverb.

Israel has reiterated (for the umpteenth time) they will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, "Yes, Israel will not tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of people who say openly, explicitly and publicly that they want to wipe Israel off the map. Why should we?"

Meanwhile, the prime minister held out hope that diplomatic efforts by the United States, the European Union and Russia could bear fruit. However, he vehemently disagrees with last year's US National Intelligence Estimate, which claimed that Iran's military nuclear program had been halted in 2003.

When the five biggie nuke powers gathered in Geneva they said the Non-Proliferation Treaty is under threat...primarily because of Iran's uranium enrichment 'Jones'.

NPT challenges have been and are significant:
•    North Korea's nuclear test blast in 2006
•    Iran's pursuit of potentially bomb-capable enrichment
•    New allegations Syria covertly tried to build an atomic reactor with North Korean

On the last day of a two-week meeting of the 106 NPT member nations, the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France said, "The proliferation of nuclear weapons constitutes a threat to international peace and security."

Iran continues to claim it only wants electricity from enrichment. That’s their story and they are sticking to it…despite the empirical reality of their oceans of oil.

The three Western powers and Russia and China have often struggled to agree on a mix of carrots and sticks for dealing with Iran. But they told NPT members they aimed to resolve the standoff with Iran "innovatively through negotiations".

Iran denounced their surprise statement as "destructive and counterproductive" and said it "seriously questions their political will for the negotiated solution they call for".

"We will never bow to threats and definitely not give up our inalienable right" to peaceful nuclear energy under the NPT, Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh said, his voice rising. Gee, sounds kinda like Leonides of Sparta blowing of the Persian hordes trying to gobble up Greece?

However, Iran (posturing notwithstanding) is not the Lone Ranger. North Korea, bailed from the NPT in 2003, and six countries have been embroiled in coalition myopia and duplicity trying to get North Korea to disarm.

Meanwhile Syria (chronically tagged a provocateur) was not included in the harsh words because Russia and China doubt U.S. claims that Damascus was close to finishing a secret reactor before Israel destroyed it last September.

By the way…Israel unplugged Syria the same way they unplugged Iraq back in June 1981 in the world’s first (but not to be last) air strike against a nuclear power plant.

Nuclear states have said that what the NPT needs most is tougher safeguards on transfer of nuclear technology.

Developing states recoil saying this would wipe out their NPT right to peaceful uses of atomic energy. However there is a systemic ‘Catch-22’. The most basic problem with ‘peaceful uses of atomic energy’ is that it creates a by product that can (and most fear would) be used for non-peaceful purposes.

Deceit, mendacity, and simple lying are at the core of the nuclear power debate.   However, perhaps because I am not burdened with superior intellect or Foggy Bottom diplomatic duplicity, I can see an adequate compromise if or when the grown ups ever get control.

Nuclear power is a clean, safe, prolific source of energy. However, EVERYone is hinky about the prospect of ‘someone’ exploiting the inevitable by products of nuclear energy for weapons building purposes.

Here is a simple solution grounded on logic…if or when anyone is serious about fixing the problem. It involves compromises that some countries will consider anathema, but it could and would work, if or when truth, honesty, and honor can ever squeeze into the geopolitical mix.
1.    Nuclear power is made available to ANY country that wants/needs it.
2.    They will have to pay for the development, construction and maintenance, but anyone who wants it can get it.
3.    HOWEVER, the use of nuclear power will be restricted to the power and NOT the by products. Countries would own the power generated but not the waste products.
4.    The NPT signatories establish a monitoring, and management entity to extract any and all weapons grade materials to a NPT depository co-managed by the US, Britain, France, Russia and China.
a.    The coalition entity would be embedded systemically into the system on site.
b.    By Treaty all participants would share responsibility and authority for the routine monitoring, removal and safeguarding of ALL weapons grade waste by products.
c.    Special attention would be necessary for multi-national redundancy to preclude any one country from assuming supremacy.

I’m not smart enough to solve the national sovereignty challenges and the inevitable compromises that are probably insurmountable, but the concept could and would work…IF, anyone really wanted to solve the problems, and IF Duty, Honor, Country are really Universal Values.




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