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Last Updated: Jul 10th, 2008 - 11:51:35 |
Probe: Justice Dept. Vetted Applicants for Political Beliefs
The Justice Department is being accused of a discriminatory ideological bias in the hiring of new lawyers over the last six years. In a new report, the Justice Department’s inspector general says top officials illegally rejected many qualified applications because they were deemed as “liberal.” The applications were part of a recruitment program tapping young law school graduates. The shift began under then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2002 and was said to accelerate under his successor, Alberto Gonzales. Emails show applications were vetted for “leftist commentary” or “buzz words” like environmental and social justice as grounds for rejections. Membership in groups such as the American Constitution Society, Greenpeace or the Poverty and Race Research Action Council were seen as drawbacks, while membership with the right-wing Federalist Society was seen positively. The inspector general’s preliminary findings are the first in an ongoing probe into the overall politicization of the Justice Department.
House Delays Medicare Payment Cuts
On Capitol Hill, the House has voted to delay a cut in payments to physicians who treat Medicare patients. The Bush administration’s plan to reduce payments by ten percent has stoked fears many doctors will opt out of treating Medicare patients altogether. The measure now goes to the Senate, where it’s expected to be closely fought.
Drug Lobby Spent Record $168M in 2007
New figures show another record year for drug industry lobbying on Capitol Hill. According to the Center for Public Integrity, pharmaceutical companies and their trade groups spent a record $168 million last year, up 32 percent from 2006. More than 90 percent of the spending came from forty companies and three trade groups. Overall, the pharmaceutical industry has spent $1 billion lobbying the US government over the last decade.
Immunity-Backing Dems Netted Higher Share of Telecom Donations
Meanwhile, a new analysis shows Democratic Congress members who changed their vote to support immunizing telecom companies in last week’s FISA bill have on average received thousands more from phone companies than those Democrats who have voted consistently against immunity. Ninety-four Democrats voted against immunity as recently as March but changed their votes to support it last week. According to MAPlight.org, these Democrats have received an average $8,000 in telecom contributions over the last three years. The 116 Democrats who remain opposed to immunity received on average nearly $5,000.
NASA Scientist Calls for Oil Execs to be Tried for Crimes Against Humanity
NASA’s top climate scientist James Hansen warned Monday that the world has long passed the dangerous level for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and that the earth is nearing a tipping point. Hansen said, “We’re toast if we don’t get on a very different path. This is the last chance.” He also called for the government to block the construction of new coal-fired plants. During an interview on NPR, Hansen called for the chief executives of oil companies to be tried for their role in spreading disinformation on climate change.
James Hansen: “The CEOs of these large energy companies are guilty of crimes against humanity if they continue to dispute what is understood scientifically and to fund contrarians and if they push us past tipping points that end up destroying many species on the planet and having a huge impact on humanity itself.”
It was 20 years ago this week when James Hansen first appeared before Congress to warn that global warming had already started. The year of Hansen’s original testimony, 1988, was the world’s hottest year on record. Since then, fourteen years have been hotter.
McCain Adviser: Terrorist Attack on US Would Benefit McCain
In campaign news, John McCain’s chief political strategist has apologized after telling a magazine that another terrorist attack on US soil would benefit McCain’s candidacy. Charles Black told Fortune magazine, “Certainly it would be a big advantage to him." During the same interview Black said the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had helped McCain.
Network News Drastically Cuts Back on Coverage of Iraq War
The New York Times reports the major TV networks have drastically cut back on their coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during their weeknight newscasts. So far this year, the three evening network newscasts have shown a total of 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage. That’s about two minutes of Iraq coverage per network per week. Just forty-six minutes have been spent by the three networks covering the war in Afghanistan.
George Carlin (1937–2008): Legendary Comedian Challenged Status Quo Throughout 50-Year Career
Fellow comedians and fans across the country are mourning the death of George Carlin. He died of a heart attack, heart failure on Sunday at the age of seventy-one.
George Carlin was one of the most well-known comedians of the past half-century. He was widely considered one of the top stand-up comics of all time. In a career that spanned half a century, he released twenty-two comedy albums, earning him five Emmy nominations, four Grammys. He was the first guest host of Saturday Night Live in 1975, appeared on The Tonight Show 130 times, starred in fourteen HBO specials and authored three bestselling books.
The most significant moment in George Carlin’s career may have been his landmark routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” When Carlin did the bit during a 1972 show in Milwaukee, he was arrested. He was charged with disturbing the peace. A state judge later dismissed the case, saying while Carlin’s language may have been indecent, it still represented free speech. Then, in 1973, Pacifica Radio station WBAI aired an unedited version of George Carlin’s monologue. This is an edited version of what they heard.
Citing Executive Privilege, Bush Withholds EPA Documents
The Bush administration is refusing to turn over subpoenaed documents connected to the EPA’s decision to deny California permission to implement its own vehicle emission standards. Citing executive privilege, the Bush administration has announced it will not turn over thousands of pages requested by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The committee’s chair, Henry Waxman, said, “I don’t think we’ve had a situation like this since Richard Nixon was president.”
5 Killed in Kentucky Plant Shooting
In Kentucky, a plastics plant employee killed four co-workers earlier today before taking his own life. Two others were injured in the shooting.
San Francisco Residents Seek “George W. Bush Sewage Plant”
And in San Francisco, residents are proposing an unusual memorial for President Bush once he leaves office. A group calling itself the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise is planning to ask voters to approve renaming a water treatment sewage plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant. The proposal would go on the ballot this November.
Mugabe Dismisses Calls to Delay Vote
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| Robert Mugabe won't delay marred election. |
In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe is defying international pressure to cancel a run-off election marred by allegations of intimidation and the withdrawal of his opponent. Addressing a rally of supporters, Mugabe said he would proceed with Friday’s vote.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe: “Raising a lot of noise for nothing, absolutely nothing. We will proceed with our elections. The verdict is our verdict. Other people can say what they want, but the elections are ours. We are a sovereign state, and that is it."
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round of elections in March but withdrew from the run-off, saying he could not ask people to die voting for him. Tsvangirai has sought refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare out of what he says is concern for his life. On Tuesday, Tsvangirai said he was prepared to emerge from hiding but renewed his call for the election’s delay.
Morgan Tsvangirai: “The government can do what it wants. There will be no election, because I, as the contender, will not be part of that election. The people will not be part of that election, because it is ridiculous to go in an election of that kind. It’s a one-man competition and therefore self-delusionary to think that one can go in a one-man race."
Tsvangirai and his supporters say forces loyal to Mugabe have killed dozens and displaced thousands in a campaign of intimidation. Meanwhile, in the United States, Mugabe has come under criticism from the civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson and Mugabe have known each other for decades and worked together in the campaign against South African apartheid. Speaking on CNN, Jackson called Mugabe a “heresy to democracy.”
Rev. Jesse Jackson: “Well, he was a hero. Now, he’s kind of a heresy to democracy. That’s why the AU and others must step up their diplomatic initiatives, one, to get humanitarian relief back into Zimbabwe; two, to get a free press back in to talk to both leaders about some kind of reconciliation. The opposition withdrawal today is really a way of saying they cannot take the heat of violence. And so, the people there deserve an open, free and fair democracy. And we must somehow reconcile these two extremes. We cannot, as it were, leave Zimbabweans suffering in isolation.”
US Blocked Money for Haiti to Clean Drinking Water
A coalition of human rights groups has accused the US government of withholding money intended to provide clean drinking water to Haiti as leverage to push for regime change in the country. In 1998, the Inter-American Development Bank approved $54 million to help the Haitian government revamp the country’s water and sanitation systems. Ten years later, the water projects have yet to be started, because the US government aggressively attempted to block the disbursement of the loans. According to the report, the US government derailed the projects in 2001 at a time when it was pushing for the ouster of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s democratically elected president. Aristide was eventually overthrown in 2004 in a US-backed coup.
Report: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Waterboarded 100 Times
The New York Times is reporting the CIA operated a secret black site prison in Poland, where they held the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other prisoners. While being held at the secret prison, Mohammed was waterboarded 100 times during a two-week period. Overseeing Mohammed’s interrogation was Deuce Martinez, a longtime narcotics agent who had no formal interrogation skills and didn’t speak Arabic. Martinez has since left the CIA. He now works for the company Mitchell Jessen & Associates, run by two former military psychologists who advised the CIA on interrogations. Martinez also interrogated Abu Zubaydah, who was held at a secret prison in Thailand.
NATO Shells Guerrillas in Pakistan
Tension is escalating on the Afghan-Pakistan border. On Sunday, NATO forces in Afghanistan shelled guerrillas in Pakistan, reportedly in retaliation for rocket and artillery attacks. Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened to send troops across the border to attack militants inside Pakistan. Earlier this month, an American airstrike on a Pakistani border post killed eleven Pakistani soldiers.
Haditha Residents Outraged Over Dismissed Charges
In news from Iraq, residents of Haditha are reported to be outraged at the US military for freeing almost all of the Marines involved in the 2005 massacre that killed twenty-four Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Eight Marines were originally charged in the case, but criminal charges have been dismissed against six. A seventh Marine was acquitted. Yousef Aid Ahmed told the McClatchy newspapers, “We put our hopes in the law and in the courts, and one after another they are found innocent. This is an organized crime.”
Head of UN Refugee Agency in Somalia Abducted
In other news from Somalia, the head of the United Nations refugee agency in Mogadishu, has been abducted. Meanwhile, a peace activist who headed Somalia’s Center for Research and Dialogue was shot dead outside his home on Sunday.
1,300 Dead or Missing After Typhoon Hits Philippines
In the Philippines, officials say over 1,300 people are dead or missing after a typhoon hit the country on Saturday. A ferry carrying 800 people sank. So far, only thirty-two survivors have been found.
Israel Closes Gaza Border, Launches Attacks
In Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government has re-imposed border restrictions on the Gaza Strip that were slightly eased under a ceasefire with Hamas. Israel says it reinstated the closures following rocket fire from militants with the group Islamic Jihad. The rockets came in apparent response to the killing of two Palestinian militants in the West Bank where the ceasefire does not apply. Speaking at a donor’s conference in Berlin, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called the Israeli attack a provocation.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad: “I am now departing from the written text to tell you that as early as the early morning hours of today, there was yet another incursion in the city of Nablus where two people actually were killed. This is an example, precise example, of the kind of activity that has to stop, and stop immediately and promptly, if in fact we are going to be able to succeed in the provision of security to our people."
Palestinian medical officials say Israel has launched attacks in the Gaza Strip despite the ceasefire. An eighty-year-old Palestinian farmer was reportedly shot twice shortly after the border restrictions were re-imposed. In Gaza, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri criticized Israeli actions but said Hamas would respect the truce.
Sami Abu Zuhri: “Hamas is keen to maintain the deal on calm and for that is interested in treating any problems that occur through dialogue. Hamas is following up what happened with the Islamic Jihad and other factions to ensure
maintaining the agreement over the calm."
US Defends Palestinian Boycott
Meanwhile, back in Berlin, the US is facing criticism for its refusal to support lifting the international boycott on the Palestinian government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the US stance.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: “To my good friend Amr Moussa, I just want to make certain that we understand fully that no one would be happier to see a reconciliation of the Palestinian people than I would. I think it would be very good for the Palestinian people. But that reconciliation has to take place on a basis that at least observes the international agreements to which the Palestinians themselves have signed on, because you cannot have reconciliation for peace if there is not a partner that respects the right of the other partner to exist."
The US has been accused of hypocrisy because it refuses to demand Israel also respect international agreements or recognize Palestine’s right to exist.
7 Americans Die in Iraq Attacks
In Iraq, at least seven Americans have died in attacks over the last two days. Earlier today, three US troops and an interpreter were killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. The attack came one day after ten people, including four Americans, were killed in a bombing in Sadr City. At least twenty-five US servicemembers have died this month. Meanwhile, Tuesday, at least ninety Iraqis were injured when a bombing struck a café in Mosul.
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