Poll: Cheney, Pelosi almost equally unpopular
by Stephen C. Webster
Don't act surprised.From Gallup: 'Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Dick Cheney have little in common politically, but they receive almost identical image ratings from the American public. According to a May 29-31 Gallup Poll, 37% of Americans have a favorable view of Cheney and 34% have a favorable view of Pelosi. Both Cheney and Pelosi are viewed unfavorably by at least half of Americans. |
Bernard Barker, Watergate burgler, dead at 92
by Stephen C. Webster
Bernard Barker, one of Nixon's Watergate burglars and associate to since-deceased U.S. spook E. Howard Hunt, has died in Miami after a lengthy bout with lung cancer and heart ailements. He was 92.From The New York Times' obituary: 'Mr. Barker, a Cuban-born American, was recruited for undercover operations during the Nixon administration by E. Howard Hunt Jr. The ties between the two went back to Mr. Hunt’s days in the Central Intelligence Agency and the planning of the 1961 invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. |
Russia: New world reserve currency a decade away
by Agence France-Presse
Moscow’s finance minister says China’s Yuan the ’shortest path’ to new world reserve; predicts ‘new major currency unions’ not soon to emergeDeveloped nations are dragging their feet over reforms of the International Monetary Fund, where Moscow wants to have a greater say, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Saturday. |
Brazil: Bodies found near Air France crash site
by NBC News
NBC: U.S. Navy is sending locator devices to find black boxes in wreckagePARIS - Searchers found two bodies and a briefcase containing a ticket for Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean close to where the jetliner is believed to have crashed, a Brazil military official said Saturday. |
Bodies of two Air France passengers found
by Karl Penhaul and Helena DeMoura
RECIFE, Brazil (CNN) -- A Brazilian navy frigate navigated deep waters of the Atlantic on Saturday, carrying the bodies of two men confirmed as passengers of an Air France plane that crashed nearly a week earlier. The bodies, discovered along with several items from the plane earlier in the day, were being transported by the Constituicao Frigate roughly 675 kilometers (420 miles) southward to Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean, said Col. Henry Munhoz, spokesman for the Brazilian air force. |
Former Dolphin Keith Jackson's son arrested on drug charges
by The Associated Press
Former Arkansas defensive tackle Keith Jackson Jr. was arrested on Friday on suspicion of felony drug charges after being found in an apartment with marijuana, cocaine and Ecstasy.Prosecutors in Little Rock District Court said that 2 pounds of marijuana, 1 gram of cocaine and about 50 tablets of Ecstasy were found in the apartment. Three other people were also arrested, and police said two minor children were at the apartment when they executed a search warrant. |
New Anti-Drug Plan Doomed to Failure, Reformers Charge
by Marijuana Policy Project
Failure to Consider Fundamental Reforms Guarantees Cartels Will Continue to Dominate Marijuana TradeWASHINGTON - June 5 - The new anti-drug initiative for the Southwestern border announced today by the Obama administration is doomed to failure because it simply dresses up failed policies in new clothing, the Marijuana Policy Project charged today. |
Obama Caves in to Coal Pressure
by Lexington-Herald Leader
The celebration was short for the Obama administration's expected crackdown on devastating coal-mining practices in Kentucky and West Virginia.Back in March, the applause and good press rolled in.A retooled Environmental Protection Agency, under administrator Lisa Jackson, announced that it was formally questioning a couple of mountaintop-removal permit applications and would scrutinize others for compliance with the Clean Water Act and other federal laws. |
Time to Break Up the Banks
by Peter Rothberg
Last April, I wrote about A New Way Forward, a new and growing movement organized via the web and founded by young people who want to take back the power of the ordinary citizen to affect our economic structure. The organization's coming-out party took place last April 11 with more than sixty coordinated events coast to coast all making the case for alternative bailout plans based on the public's interest. |
48 of 48
by Bob Herbert
The teenager’s voice on the other end of the phone on Thursday was more than exuberant. It was ecstatic. 'I’m going to college!' she said, virtually singing. 'I’m going to college!'I met Shanequa High some years ago when she was a sixth-grader at a middle school that was still in the embryonic stage (there were only two grades) in rural Gaston, N.C. The Gaston College Preparatory School was part of the KIPP network of charter schools, and the early word was that it was showing great promise. |
Industry Defends Drilling, Ignores Water Contamination
by Abrahm Lustgarten
Industry Defends Federal Loophole for Drilling Before Packed Congressional HearingIn a packed and sometimes contentious hearing [1] on Capitol Hill Thursday, representatives of the oil and gas industry and their state regulators vigorously defended the practice of injecting toxic fluids underground without federal regulatory oversight [2]. |
Triage Economics
by Bob Burnett
America's economic health continues to be marginal. While the Obama Administration suggests the worst is behind us and mentions signs of economic progress, unemployment remains high and businesses continue to close. How can we tell if we are at the bottom of the economic decline? And what should we expect over the next twelve months? |
We Don't Need the General Motors Corporation
by Mike Ferner
Times are anxious indeed, but simultaneously we are face-to-face with an extremely rare chance to replace our transportation system with something we can literally live with.To take advantage of this uncommon opportunity we will have to do something far more profound, yet less costly, than a government bailout or an act of Congress. We will have to, as Paul Newman said in Cool Hand Luke, 'get our minds right' on one simple fact: what we need is reliable, sustainable transportation. That does not mean we need General Motors Corporation or even cars. Contemplate the freedom implied in that statement for just a moment: we do not need General Motors Corporation. |
If we only had a leader with guts: What a State-Run GM Could Do
by Dave Lindorff
If the government were to actually take charge of GM, instead of playing the pathetic role of passive owner, the bankrupt and seriously troubled auto giant could move beyond just making more cars and more problems to become a forward-thinking pioneer in acrually solving problems. |
Dr. Tiller's Tragic (Not Senseless) Murder: How Pro-Choicers Should Learn to Talk to Pro-Lifers
by Ted Rall
NEW YORK--All too often in American politics opposing sides talk past one another, firing off arguments loaded with language that stands no chance of persuading those who hold other views.The debate over what to do about 9/11 was such a moment, one that initiated the current era of polarization. When liberals recoiled at torture and GOP attacks on civil liberties, conservatives accused them of being anti-American traitors. When Republicans supported preemptive warfare against Iraq, liberals called them fascists and warmongers. |
