August 31, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, has announced he will work with lawmakers to arrange for an interim appointment to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, until the special election, now scheduled for 19 January 2010, allows voters to choose a senator to complete the last three years of his current 6-year term. The announcement paves the way for negotiations with state lawmakers about how to appoint a “caretaker”, and who should get the appointment.
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August 31, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Japanese opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has won an historic landslide victory in the nation’s parliament. Winning 308 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament, the DPJ now holds a nearly two-thirds super-majority, and has a mandate to effect major change in government. Yukio Hatoyama says his party will break the bureaucracy and pave the way for a more dynamic, 21st-century Japan.
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August 31, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Deval Patrick, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts, is now “coming out strongly in favor of the idea” of naming an interim replacement for the late Sen. Kennedy, at Sen. Kennedy’s request, to avoid leaving his state with a vacancy in the Senate for several months, as reported by the New York Times. After initial skepticism, there are now reports suggesting state lawmakers may be leaning toward supporting such a move.
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August 31, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Apple’s iPhone App Store is reported to be bringing in $200 million per month, roughly $2.4 billion per year. Such soaring earnings reflect that high value users place on the App Store system and its ability to deliver targeted-use software “widgets” that do one thing well. But doing just one thing is far from the goal of the App Store.
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August 31, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
A new innovation developed by scientists in Israel may be able to detect traces of lung cancer in human breath, by identifying molecules linked to the condition. The device would be hand-held and easy to use, and could potentially be available at any family doctor or general practitioner’s office, in the future.
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August 30, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Like the Amazon Kindle family of e-readers, the Sony Reader Touch Edition uses an e-Ink e-paper display. But it’s interface works like a touchscreen. The advance is a major improvement for the standards of design in e-paper e-book readers. The touchscreen standard may be the most significant challenge Sony has put forth for the Amazon Kindle readers, none of which uses a touchscreen interface.
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August 30, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
At yesterday’s funeral service for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, his son Teddy —Edward, Jr.— gave a stirring eulogy, one of many, in which he lauded his father’s spirit of perseverance and his ability to infuse others, himself included, with that optimistic spirit. He tells of his father’s lessons to him as a boy of besting more talented opponents by superior preparation and by working harder and longer to out-perform and outlast them when the time came.
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August 30, 2009 :: staff :: 3 Comments
Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has thrown off the veil of pretending to honor democratic constitutional process, calling for the prosecution of opposition candidates for their criticism of his policies and the handling of the election. Even as Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i, the supreme leader, acknowledged Wednesday that opposition leaders are not in league with any foreign [...]
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August 30, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
One of my closest friends in the world is a committed Republican, as is my father, whose father was a Republican elected to various offices in our state. The friend —whom we’ll call “Dutch”— often chides me for our differences of opinion, and we often have energetic philosophical debates in which we try to detail the workings of the universe according to our own personal abstractions or tastes.
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August 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama and Sen. Orrin Hatch, two men whose views differ in countless ways, but who became, each in his time, close and trusted friends to Sen. Ted Kennedy, should meet privately, then with Congressional leaders, to hammer out workable reform to extend healthcare coverage to all Americans, and honor the life’s work of the late senator. After an initial agreement to commit firmly to weeding out obstructionists and working toward virtuous compromise, Hatch and Obama should gather together a panel of key senators to establish a commitment to passing reform that extends coverage to all Americans.
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August 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The United States was the first nation in the world to establish a universal public education system, and has paved the way for many innovations in that area, including mandatory attendance and universal literacy as standards in law and in practice. But in a nation of more than 309 million people, there are countless ways that underfunding, personal and family misfortune, community disintegration, crime and other causes, can impede many millions from accessing the best-quality education our society has to offer.
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August 28, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
While Republicans have been celebrating the rhetorical chaos seen at some town hall meeting events to discuss comprehensive healthcare reform, it is conservative “blue dog” Democrats who have been holding up passage of the reforms outlined by Pres. Obama and fashioned by Congressional leaders. Now, a study from the non-profit Center for Public Integrity finds that the Blue Dog coalition’s members have been taking more financial contributions from the healthcare industry than any other group.
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August 28, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
A crowd of tens of thousands was already gathering by midnight last night at the John F. Kennedy Library to view the body of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, lying in state. Some mourners had traveled from far away, in the midwest or down the eastern seaboard, as far as Georgia and Florida. Today, a group from the Democratic Republic of Congo entered the library to pay their respects.
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August 27, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Edward Moore Kennedy, United States senator for 46 years, has died from the effects of brain cancer, aged 77. Only two senators served longer, Robert Byrd and Strom Thurmond. The fourth of Joseph Kennedy’s sons, Sen. Kennedy entered the nation’s upper house of Congress in 1962, after a special election to replace his brother John, who had become president two years earlier. He devoted his career in the Senate to voting rights, civil rights, education and to the cause of achieving universal healthcare in the United States.
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August 27, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
And that’s one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy. His extraordinary life on this earth has come to an end. And the extraordinary good that he did lives on. For his family, he was a guardian. For America, he was the defender of a dream.
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August 27, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
When his brother Robert was assassinated, in June 1968, in the midst of a celebration for his victory in the California Democratic primary, Ted Kennedy became his family’s patriarch, and young as he was, he delivered an historic eulogy, outlining and elevating the political ideals his brother Robert, and John before him, the fallen president, had so devotedly pursued.
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August 26, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
This video shows an emotional introduction by Caroline Kennedy, along with a video tribute to the life and work of Sen. Ted Kennedy, followed by a rousing speech by the senator himself, who spoke before an adoring audience of Democratic delegates.
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August 26, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
In this video, Sen. Ted Kennedy speaks about his personal connection to and passion for the issue of reforming healthcare in the United States so that people at an economic disadvantage are not forced to suffer preventable complications and death due to inadequate available coverage and/or treatment.
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August 26, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
A special prosecutor’s investigation launched under the Bush administration, to collect evidence relating to the CIA’s destruction of video tapes of abusive interrogations has been expanded to include possible illegal activity carried out in connection with the “war on terror”. Holder announced on Monday that US Attorney John Durham will expand the videotape-destruction probe to include potential illegal activities related to abusive interrogations and potentially the circumventing of due process laws, both international and domestic.
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August 25, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
Iran has put on trial a fourth group of leading opposition supporters, including some who served as ministers in the reformist government of former president Mohammad Khatami. The prosecution alleges the accused are guilty of conspiring with foreign powers to sow civil unrest in Iran and destabilize the republic. Opposition leaders and independent observers say the accused are being put on trial for nothing more than being in the opposition, within a democratic system.
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August 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Outrage ensued when it was announced that Europe could extract electricity from the Grand Inga dam project, in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, deep in sub-Saharan Africa. At present, less than 30% of the African population has access to electricity, and in some countries, the figure is below 10%. The World Bank has found that the diversion of electricity to wealthier customers in Europe may be necessary to fund the project.
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August 23, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Life expectancy in the United States is 78.11 years, 50th in the world, behind the Wallis and Futuna Islands and just ahead of Guadeloupe. Canada is 8th, at 81.23 years; France is 9th, at 80.98; Sweden is 10th, at 80.86. Despite Canada’s “socialized” healthcare system, the average Canadian can expect to live more than three years longer than the average American.
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August 22, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Has the Republican party lost its way? Has it entered a long period of wandering in the wilderness, in the absence of fresh thinkers and new ideas? How could a single political entity, with all three branches of the American government firmly in its grasp and in ideological unison, just a few short years ago, be so cast aside by the tides of democratic process and public sentiment? The short answer: a lack of genuine services to offer the people who decide who fills the positions of power in the people’s government.
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August 21, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Both Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s incumbent and only post-Taliban president, and his main rival Abdullah Abdullah, claim they are ahead in early counting of the ballots. According to Australia’s ABC news service, “there are reports that in some parts of the country there has been violence, irregularities, and low voter turnout”. The procedural troubles have arisen despite word from international observers that the election appeared to be largely peaceful and to meet democratic standards.
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August 21, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The Internet Archive is joining with major internet-related firms, such as Yahoo and Amazon, to fight Google’s settlement with the Authors’ Guild, allowing Google Books to publish copyright-protected materials online, if they are out of print, and to compensate authors according to the sales generated by the display of the copyrighted text (possibly 70% going to publishers or copyright holders, including a cut of ad revenues). The Coalition plans to fight the legal settlement on anti-trust grounds.
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August 20, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), popularly known as the “Lion of the Senate”, who has served 47 years in the upper house of the US Congress, is battling an aggressive brain cancer, and has been relegated to a long absence, even as the nation debates the issue that has most consumed his efforts as a legislator. Healthcare reform has been Ted Kennedy’s primordial concern throughout his time in the Senate, and it has never been closer, but at a time he is needed on Capitol Hill, he is sidelined by gravely ill health.
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August 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Kenya’s famed big cat, the great lion of the African savannas, is suffering one of the most startling population collapses in the world. Losing more than 100 from the total every year for the last 7 years, there are only 2,000 wild lions remaining in all of Kenya, and experts fear they could be extinct there within 10 years. Habitat destruction and other environmental factors are key to the erosion of their numbers.
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August 19, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The interim president of Honduras, who came to power after the disputed ouster of Pres. Manuel Zelaya, says the former president will be arrested if he attempts to re-enter Honduras from neighboring Nicaragua. Micheletti says he is the legitimate president of Honduras and will not agree to a plan being negotiated by Costa Rica’s Pres. Oscar Arias, which would have Zelaya return to finish the rest of his term in office.
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August 19, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff and a seasoned Capitol Hill negotiator, says it has become clear that the Republican party will oppose any version of healthcare reform, because they see it as a way to hurt Pres. Obama and the Democratic majorities in Congress. Congressional leaders have signaled their willingness to sideline obstructionist Republicans and push ahead with major reforms.
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August 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Opponents of healthcare reform have taken the so-called “public option” as a rallying cry in order to use vocabulary painting all reform as “socialist” and in order to prevent reforms that would put profit-reliant insurers under pressure. Proponents of the public option, including Pres. Barack Obama have called on opponents to offer an alternative that would do something comparable to correct market distortions that rule out those unable to pay for expensive insurance.
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August 17, 2009 :: Mirya Dunaeva :: Comments Off
During his presidency, now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin consistently enforced a brutal policy of confronting any and all activities of separatist groups in the north Caucasus, specifically Chechnya, as issues of warfare with high national security stakes for the Russian Federation. Atrocities committed in Chechnya, both during and after the war, and including recent political killings, have yet to be fully investigated, and violence is now spreading across the north Caucasus region into other republics.
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August 17, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
La Casa Blanca del Pres. Barack Obama ha lanzado una web nueva ‘La Realidad’, para corregir información falsa que han propagado los que oponen reformas al sistema de seguridad sanitaria. La web tiene como fin darle al público estadounidense hispanoparlante información concreta y correcta sobre las propuestas reformas actualmente presentadas en las dos cámaras del Congreso.
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August 17, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Iranian government has ordered the closure of an opposition newspaper which was to publish a statement by opposition candidate Medhi Karoubi —3rd in the June election tally—alleging Iranian security forces were raping political prisoners. Karoubi had made the claim previously, and says there is evidence to support the claim; his statement was to defend himself against criticism from the government and might have included evidence. The paper’s closure effectively stops the publication of his statement in the Iranian press.
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August 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov were abducted from the headquarters of the children’s charity Save the Generation on Monday, 10 August, and found dead the following day, their bodies riddled with bullets and stuffed in the trunk of their car. The gruesome murder is the latest in a long string of killings of rights workers and activists investigating or with access to evidence about atrocities and human rights abuses in Chechnya.
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August 16, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Software giant Microsoft has been ordered to stop selling one of its flagship computer programs, Microsoft Word, in the US, within 60 days, after a federal judge found that a component within the application violates an XML patent held by another firm. The software engineering firm i4i, based in Toronto and boasting only 30 employees, secured a patent for a kind of customized XML in 1998, which it alleges Microsoft has included in Word since 2003, in violation of its patent protection.
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August 16, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
“I think Governor Palin knew exactly what she was doing”, says Republican strategist Ed Gillespie about Palin’s lie that the Obama administration plans to institute “death panels” to euthanize the elderly, infirm or “no longer productive”. Gillespie told ABC’s ‘This Week’ that he views it as disappointing whenever anyone “from either party” makes misleading, false or manipulated statements.
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August 15, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Jude Ndambuki is a native Kenyan chemistry teacher in New York, who has been collecting, refurbishing and shipping used, discarded and donated computers, to Kenyan schools in order to help protect the environment, reduce the chemical contamination of landfill sites and spur technological educational resource availability for young Kenyans. He is celebrated by CNN as one of its do-gooder “heroes”, an example of someone helping to improve the lot of others.
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August 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The quest for the most fuel-efficient vehicles has entered a new phase, with major government private-sector investment in research and development for industrial-scale commercial production of a new class of gas-electric hybrid vehicles and EVs (all-electric cars). Swiss-based Solar Impulse is building the world’s first 100% solar-powered airplane, an achievement that will revolutionize the travel, industrial production, transport and fuel sectors.
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August 15, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
Sen. James Webb (D-VA) has won the release of American John Yettaw, who was sentenced to 7 years, including hard labor, for swimming to Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s lakefront home, effectively breaching the terms of her house arrest. Suu Kyi’s house arrest was extended by 18 months after she was convicted for allowing Yettaw to rest and recuperate at her home; the sentence will exclude her from the planned 2010 elections process.
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August 15, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
The British government has ordered the UK-appointed governor of Turks and Caicos to suspend the ministerial government and assembly and institute direct rule, after an investigation turned up evidence of systemic official corruption. The order of direct rule will also suspend the right to jury trial in the Turks and Caicos, and the UK says the imposed rule could last up to 2 years.
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August 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
A World Bank study has projected that the global financial crisis and resulting recession will plunge some 53 million people across “emerging markets” —like China and India— into absolute poverty, in 2009 alone. In China, tens of millions of people have lost jobs related to the export-dependent manufacturing sector.
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August 15, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Your report “Violence at Town Hall Meetings Could Escalate” uses inflammatory, irresponsible language and is full of misstatements of fact and even overt falsehoods. It also appears the document could be used to promote a campaign of violence against citizens or public officials promoting reform.
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August 14, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
On Tuesday, I was in New Hampshire talking about people denied insurance coverage because of preexisting conditions. Now today, we’re talking about folks like Katie who’ve had their insurance policies suddenly revoked, even though they were paying premiums, because of a medical condition. They got sick, and suddenly that’s when they get dropped. Tomorrow, in Colorado, we’ll be talking about the people who have insurance but are still stuck with huge bills because they’ve hit a cap on their benefits or they’re charged exorbitant out-of-pocket fees.
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August 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
One of the great complaints heard from groups opposing comprehensive health insurance reform, especially from quarters where the chief concern is to prevent a drop in private profit related to healthcare services, is that reform will strip away incentives to devote funding to medical research, in pathologies, treatments and technology. This is a point of philosophical dispute, but to make sure we enact reforms that will not curb research incentives, we should institute a new medical research tax credit.
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August 13, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Pres. Barack Obama yesterday hosted 16 new Medal of Freedom recipients at the White House, honoring their lifelong contributions to the expansion of human understanding and the promotion of individual liberty and human dignity. Among the recipients were scientists and activists, soldiers and political leaders, preachers and athletes, native Americans, African Americans, Latin Americans, Africans and Asians. The 16 laureates exemplify not only rare talent and indomitable spirit, but also a devotion to human dignity and understanding.
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August 13, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
August 2009 —one year after the beginning of the visible collapse of the American financial sector set off a global recession— has brought the news that the largest US banks are taking in record revenues from small-account overdraft fees. Applying fees between $25 and $39 per overdraft, the nation’s largest banks are now taking in more revenue from overdraft fees than from their primary banking operations. The reliance on such fees to drive profits also suggests major US banks may not be sustainable in their current form.
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August 13, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The Chevrolet Volt will get 230 miles per gallon in city driving. The Volt is a plug-in hybrid not yet on the market, which will mark a technological breakthrough if it achieves the projected fuel efficiency, “changing the game” as some observers see it on automotive transport and fuel usage. If realized, the 230 mpg standard will shatter the existing paradigm for automotive fuel efficiency.
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August 12, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Now, let me just start by setting the record straight on a few things I’ve been hearing out here — (laughter) — about reform. Under the reform we’re proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. You will not be waiting in any lines. This is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance. I don’t believe anyone should be in charge of your health insurance decisions but you and your doctor. (Applause.) I don’t think government bureaucrats should be meddling, but I also don’t think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling. That’s the health care system I believe in. …
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August 12, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
It is a mystery to many people why certain political fringe elements are so violently enraged by the idea of extending healthcare coverage to all Americans. Some individuals have made racist and degrading remarks about Pres. Obama and his administration; some suggest that there is “evil” behind efforts to expand healthcare coverage to those who don’t have it; some say things like “then there’s the illegals, they shouldn’t even be here!” shouting in anger.
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August 12, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US secretary of State, has denounced the brutal treatment to which women have been routinely subject during the long and many-faceted civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DR Congo war has claimed an estimated 5 million lives since 1998, with only brief periods of relative calm in a war of many interests and shifting fronts. Even now, there are two conflicts raging in the eastern Kivu regions, and thousands of women are reported to have been raped this year alone.
More on page 3996
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