April 30, 2009 :: staff :: 3 Comments
We have learned that an individual who traveled to Mexico City to support the U.S. delegation that accompanied the President to Mexico City came down with flu-like symptoms associated with his work in Mexico. Three members of the individual’s family tested positive for Type A influenza, and tests are currently underway to determine if they contracted the 2009 H1N1 influenza strain. Individual family members suffered mild to moderate symptoms and received no medication and were not hospitalized.
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April 30, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: Comments Off
Nobel-prize-winning Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi has joined the defense team representing Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi. She says Saberi was convicted in a trial that took place in violation of Iran’s own laws governing due process. She urged Saberi should have access to her lawyers and that evidence should be reviewed in open hearings.
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April 30, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The World Health Organization has questioned the global tally for confirmed deaths from the H1N1 “swine flu” outbreak, saying only 7 deaths from the virus have been confirmed, not the 149 to 159 previously reported. All 7 deaths took place in Mexico. The WHO, which yesterday raised its pandemic alert level to Phase 5 for the outbreak, says it has confirmed only 40 cases in the Americas, 26 in Mexico, resulting in 7 deaths.
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April 30, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón is now reported to be opening a preliminary investigation to the acts involved in creating the Guantánamo Bay prison camp where the Bush administration held hundreds of alleged terror suspects without charge for up to 7 years. The investigation will target “any of those that executed and/or designed a systematic plan of torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of the prisoners [at Guantánamo] that were under their custody”.
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April 30, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The election of 2008 is historic for a variety of reasons: it saw the election of the first African American president, a second consecutive “wave election” —not seen since 1930 and ’32—, saw two women come very close to the most powerful job in the world, mobilized millions of voters and saw record amounts of fundraising from “small donors”. It was, however, also a watershed moment in the fundamental decentralization of the American political process.
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April 30, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Countless families and communities touched by our auto industry still face tough times ahead. Our projected long-term deficits are still too high, and government is still not as efficient as it needs to be. We still confront threats ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation, as well as pandemic flu. And all this means you can expect an unrelenting, unyielding effort from this administration to strengthen our prosperity and our security in the second hundred days, in the third hundred days and all of the days after that.
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April 30, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Pakistan’s government, under pressure from the US and other governments, has stepped up its offensive against Taliban militants in the Buner district. When Taliban forces were said to have withdrawn last week, they also left behind newly recruited local cadres through whom they might seek to expand their reach. According to the AP: “The military said more than 50 Taliban fighters and one member of the security forces died in the offensive launched Tuesday amid U.S. pressure”.
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April 29, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Dr. Margaret Chan: Based on assessment of all available information, and following several expert consultations, I have decided to raise the current level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5. Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world.
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April 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Dr. Margaret Chan, director of the World Health Organization (WHO), today announced that the global public health alert for the H1N1 flu outbreak from Phase 4 to Phase 5. Phase 5 means there is a genuine risk of a global pandemic, but the outbreak does not yet constitute a global pandemic.
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April 29, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
The New Hampshire state Senate voted today to officially recognize same-sex marriage in the state. The bill passed by a 13-11 vote, and must still pass the state House before being sent to Gov. John Lynch for signature. The Senate measure distinguishes between religious and civil marriage ceremonies, a provision which might be able to win support among more conservative opponents of gay marriage.
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April 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was today confirmed by the US Senate as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and sworn in as the latest member of Pres. Barack Obama’s cabinet. This White House photo by Peter Souza shows Sebelius being briefed today on the US response to the 2009 H1N1 flu virus outbreak, reported to have begun in Mexico City.
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April 29, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
The Congressional negotiation on the budget for fiscal year 2010 has worked out a $3.44 trillion budget proposal that features many of Pres. Obama’s highest-priority initiatives. Healthcare reform will be included as part of the standard budget, meaning that votes on healthcare reforms can pass the Senate with a simple majority, i.e. 50 votes plus the Democratic VP Joe Biden. The agreed budget resolution would cut the budget deficit even in the first year by more than expected.
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April 29, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 3 Comments
Democratic Senate candidate from Minnesota, Al Franken, declared the winner by a 3-judge panel after a series of recounts and election contests, has hired a chief of staff for his Washington office, should he be certified and seated. It had been reported Franken was hiring staff, even as his opponent, one-term senator Norm Coleman, mounts a new round of appeals in a quest to find more votes.
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April 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The biggest banks in the United States have been engaging in practices designed to nudge US economic policy and banking regulation toward permitting nearly any sort of interest-rate manipulation and ignoring, or erasing, necessary anti-usury laws. It’s been part of a concerted effort to try to shape policy to make it easier for banks to come into fresh money and claim new levels of profit from what would otherwise be considered escalating risk.
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April 29, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The US-based watchdog group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report on the 1st 100 days of Pres. Barack Obama’s first term in office. The report praises Obama for key reforms banning abusive treatment and moving toward a system of due process for detainees, but is critical of some holdover policies from the Bush era, which Obama has yet to reform or plans to keep in place. On the whole, Obama is rated by HRW as having “got off to a great start when he issued executive orders to close Guantanamo and ban CIA prisons on his second full day in office,” while “failure to reject the substance of the Bush-era ‘war on terror’ framework was a tremendous disappointment.”
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April 29, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office have been a flurry of major reforms and of global political and economic strategy. He took the oath of office on 20 January 2009 with the worst recession in 70 years setting in, major banks on the verge of insolvency, record numbers of home foreclosures, two wars in Asia, an increasingly hostile Russia and a predecessor’s policy of using torture to “enhance” interrogations. Not only has he moved forward on the economy, healthcare, security, and energy; he has reformed the entire American diplomatic paradigm, moving toward a “smart power” based on 3d vision: diplomacy, development, defense.
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April 28, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
Earlier this month, Cuban president Raúl Castro made the stunning announcement that Cuba was “ready to discuss everything” with the Obama administration, including political prisoners, economic policy, and democratic electoral processes. Pres. Obama has been firm but cautious in his declarations of a willingness to open a new era of engagement with the Cold War enemy just 90 miles from the Florida coast.
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April 28, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
We are witnessing the systematic implosion of the American auto industry. The situation is so grave that instead of seeking to reinvent, or spin off or sell off its Pontiac division, GM is simply closing it down and laying people off. No attempt to fix problems or to take advantage of the opportunity to comprehensively reinvent a company already fitted with major industrial manufacturing capacity, just the unilateral shuttering of major plants and an entire company.
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April 28, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Progressives are pledging to contribute $1 per day to a political action fund until Republican Norm Coleman concedes defeat in the 2008 Minnesota senate race against Al Franken. Franken has been found to be the winner after every stage of recount and judicial review, and was ruled to be the winner by unanimous decision of a three-judge panel earlier this month.
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April 28, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), one of the most senior Republicans in the US Senate is switching to the Democratic party. The Democrats will now have an effective majority of 59-40, and can achieve the coveted 60-vote supermajority that can break any Republican filibuster, if Al Franken is seated as the junior senator from Minnesota. Specter was facing a determined challenge from the conservative side of his state Republican party.
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April 28, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
A nation with a long, difficult experience with imperial politics, old European aristocratic dominance, ideological bloodshed and the experience of totalitarianism, Hungary joined the European Union with hopes of a rapid accession to the riches and social integration touted by the founding member states. But deep inequality between the original EU states and the new members, economic migration, and now a banking collapse, have led to widespread economic hardship, with the state seemingly less able to respond.
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April 27, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
As the US State Dept. has issued a travel advisory warning Americans to avoid unnecessary travel to Mexico, and the two countries are screening all travelers coming from the other nation, Canada, Spain and New Zealand have reportedly confirmed at least one case each of swine flu. The multi-strain flu virus is expected to meet little immunity in the human population, which it has not previously affected in large numbers.
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April 26, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States is healthcare costs. The system, as it is designed is destroying people’s lives as punishment for their seeking means of staying alive or maintaining relative good health. This is a comprehensive failure of the system, at all levels. As of 2008, some 54.5% of personal bankruptcies filed in the US involved unpayable medical expenses or loss of income or insurance due to health-related causes.
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April 26, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Secretary of Homeland Security for Barack Obama’s US administration, Janet Napolitano, today announced that the new strain of influenza commonly called Mexican Swine Flu constitutes an “incident of national interest” to US security. The new strain of flu has been found in at least 20 cases so far in the US, across 5 states, with all known patients so far recovering.
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April 25, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Good morning. Over the last three months, my Administration has taken aggressive action to confront an historic economic crisis. As we do everything that we can to create jobs and get our economy moving, we’re also building a new foundation for lasting prosperity – a foundation that invests in quality education, lowers health care costs, and develops new sources of energy powered by new jobs and industries.
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April 25, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: Comments Off
Roxana Saberi, jailed for 8 years by Iran for alleged “espionage” (read: reporting without a censor’s license), is now in her 5th day of a hunger strike. She says she will continue her hunger strike until she is freed. Her father, Reza Saberi, says he has spoken to her, she is determined to refuse food until released, and that she “seems weak”. Foreign governments, the US, as well as individuals and rights groups, are calling for her immediate, unconditional release.
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April 25, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
Former US vice president Al Gore testified Friday in Congressional hearings on the subject of global climate destabilization. The hearings were linked to new legislation being considered that would establish regulatory measures that seek to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Gore said the legislation would serve to protect the environment, as well as national security, and urged unity in the interests of the country and the world.
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April 25, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
There are few things as fundamental to the American Dream or as essential for America’s success as a good education. This has never been more true than it is today. At a time when our children are competing with kids in China and India, the best job qualification you can have is a college degree or advanced training. If you do have that kind of education, then you’re well prepared for the future — because half of the fastest growing jobs in America require a Bachelor’s degree or more. And if you don’t have a college degree, you’re more than twice as likely to be unemployed as somebody who does. So the stakes could not be higher for young people like Stephanie.
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April 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Pentagon is releasing today as many as 2,000 photos never before seen, some showing prisoner abuse at Guantánamo Bay. The photos were tied up in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, calling for evidence of Defense Department actions at the prison camp to be made public. According to The Washington Post, the release will contain “21 images depicting detainee abuse in facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan other than the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, as well as 23 other detainee abuse photos”.
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April 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The Minnesota Supreme Court has agreed to hear Norm Coleman’s appeal of the ruling in which a 3-judge panel ordered the state to certify Al Franken as the winner in the November 2008 election. The date set for that hearing is 1 June 2009, meaning Minnesota may continue without its 2nd senator for another 5 weeks. Coleman had been ordered to pay court costs and the ruling had been issued not only unanimously, but “with prejudice”. The Republican governor of the state has not yet acceded to the Court’s order.
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April 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The central government of Pakistan has reportedly deployed 300 paramilitary soldiers to Buner district to counter a Taliban incursion from their recently consolidated stronghold in the Swat Valley. International media today reported that the first Taliban soldiers began withdrawing from Buner, which they had overtaken with no police resistance.
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April 24, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: One Comment
North Korea is proceeding with a trial against two Korean-American journalists from California, despite witnesses claiming they were detained when North Korean border guards entered Chinese territory to seize them while their cameras were rolling. The trial will be held behind closed doors, and foreign governments have expressed concern the process will not allow the journalists a fair hearing or even a defense.
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April 23, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: 2 Comments
With an Afghan-Pakistani hybrid Taliban taking hold of significant areas inside Pakistan, the nuclear-armed nation has become a grave security risk to the rest of the region and the world. After signing a deal with Pakistan’s government to take control of the Swat Valley and impose a brutal distortion of shari’a law, the Taliban almost immediately launched attacks deeper into Pakistan, taking control of parts of the Buner district.
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April 23, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Must we, one by one, analyze and deconstruct every last bit of refuse floating in the seething drift of waste left by the Bush administration? Apparently, yes. John Bolton has now opined on his belief that the US should dictate to other nations whether or not they can investigate crimes allegedly committed against their citizens. He wants the US to tell Spain to stop meddling in US treatment of Spanish citizens, while defending the US right to detain whomever it pleases, even without charge.
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April 23, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
David Frum likes to think he knows what he’s talking about, but here’s the main reason he so often does not: he tends to link ideological assumptions with cynical bad-faith arguments about geo-politics. He mixes willing naïveté with the radical pretense of cynical omniscience. Frum would have us commit to the dangerous gamble that is selective non-proliferation, because he can’t think a better way.
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April 22, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Redford notes that it is young people who will inherit the world we are making and their views, their concern about whether it will be stable and livable in their prime, is vital for planning now in a conscious and ethical way.
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April 22, 2009 :: Severino Villalonso :: Comments Off
Former vice president Dick Cheney has repeatedly used mass media to accuse Pres. Obama of jeopardizing America’s security or even inviting a major terrorist attack by acting to bar US personnel from using torture in terrorism investigations or interrogations. He has repeated those claims in response to Obama’s releasing memos that show how the Bush administration crafted a legal “justification” for using techniques banned by law.
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April 22, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Because there’s something in it for everybody. The current global nuclear weapons-control regime operates on a dangerously untenable false premise: that only ‘responsible’ nations can or should be allowed to make and maintain arsenals of nuclear warheads. At first blush, it may seem highly rational: only those who will behave responsibly should have the most dangerous weapons; but, then, upon further examination, who is qualified to make that judgment?
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April 22, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
While clearly showing caution, taking care to repeat his position that prosecutions of former officials could be counterproductive, Pres. Obama today signaled that he does not rule out that some legal avenues may exist by which former Bush officials could face charges in relation to “enhanced interrogation” policy. The president did not, however, endorse any process of prosecution or call for action against any officials, saying instead “I don’t want to prejudge” what the attorney general might find legally necessary.
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April 21, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: 2 Comments
After just over two weeks of sporadic fighting in the Buner district of Pakistan, between the Swat Valley —now under shari’a law and run by the Taliban— and the nation’s capital, Taliban fighters have reportedly forced the local government to flee. This leaves them within 100 km of the capital, Islamabad, where the insurgents may seek to claim control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
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April 21, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
Today comes the news that the Taliban have taken more territory in Pakistan’s Buner district, just 100 km from the capital Islamabad. The shockingly weak government of Pres. Zardari has already ceded the Swat Valley to the Taliban, allowing harsh shari’a law to be imposed. The local government has been forced out of Buner, and the area is becoming a stronghold. If the Taliban reach Islamabad, they may be able to seize control of the one of the world’s 9 known arsenals of nuclear weapons.
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April 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
After one Republican senator committed the extremely dangerous act of openly calling for a run on the banks, something that could literally bankrupt the nation and lead to massive economic collapse, one would expect the national party to ignore, disavow or directly oppose the idea. But the national party is so drunk with the lust to sabotage Barack Obama’s presidency, it has endorsed the idea.
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April 20, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
The 24th and 25th banks to fail this year in the US, American Sterling Bank of Missouri and Great Basin Bank of Nevada, were closed Friday by the FDIC. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will fund their accounts to solvency and management of their insured deposits will be taken over by other banks.
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April 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
A court in Iran has jailed Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, to 8 years in prison, alleging that she spied for the US. Saberi had been detained originally on charges she violated Iranian law by reporting without an official press license. The charges were later raised to espionage, and within one week, she was found guilty, after a one-day closed-door trial.
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April 19, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Lead by example. It’s a simple idea, and one that tends to be fully realized only by those who are most able. You lead by demonstrating the best qualities, because you are able to — 1. because you have them; 2. because you are in a position to do so; 3. because you are confident both of your ability to embody these qualities and of the qualities themselves, their virtue and their efficacy.
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April 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The UN rapporteur on torture responded to the announcement by US pres. Barack Obama that CIA agents who engaged in practices the Justice Dept. had authorized as legal would not be prosecuted by saying that such an amnesty would violate US treaty obligations under international law. Manfred Nowak told the Austrian newspaper Der Standard that any acts of torture must be investigated and those involved prosecuted.
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April 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
En la Cumbre de las Américas, el presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, ha proclamado su intención de llevar a cabo un nuevo programa diplomático en las Américas, buscando colaboración y apertura. Había establecido esta semana en México su apoyo al tratado interamericano contra el tráfico de armas, prometiendo impulsar al Senado a actuar para ratificarlo.
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April 17, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 3 Comments
The race for the 2nd Minnesota Senate seat continues, fully 5 and a half months after election day. The state has been without a 2nd senator since 3 January 2009, over 3 months. Norm Coleman, the incumbent in the race, has lost all challenges to date, and has seen his narrow deficit widened, as more recount votes went to Al Franken, the Democratic candidate. Now, with some supporters calling for an unending court battle, pressure is mounting on Coleman to concede.
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April 17, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will regulate greenhouse gas emissions, after a comprehensive policy review shows real dangers posed to human health and wellbeing by the effects of accumulating greenhouse gases. The Clean Air Act will, for the first time, be applied as the basis for instituting national regulations on carbon emissions and other gases that could contribute to climate destabilization.
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April 17, 2009 :: Severino Villalonso :: One Comment
Cuban pres. Raúl Castro has said he is willing to engage the US in talks on any subject, including human rights and democratization, so long as there are no preconditions. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton today said that 50 years of US policy toward Cuba have “failed” to bring about the changes sought, and hinted the Obama administration would be looking to a new era of engagement and negotiation.
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