Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Americans Say Legalize It, Don’t Criticize It

• Accordiong to a new poll from the Wall Street Journal Americans strongly — *strongly* — back the ability to import cheap prescription drugs from Canada. The highlights: [Wall Street Journal]
• 80%: Percent of Americans who think people should be able to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada
• 84%: Percent of Americans who believe “the law banning pharmaceutical imports from Canada and other countries is intended to protect drug companies’ profits.”
• 77%: Percent of Americans who think “confiscating drugs at the Canadian border jeopardizes the health of some Americans.”
• 6%: Percent of Americans who think people who order medications from Canada should be fined or arrested.

We hope the FDA is listening.

Big Brother Strikes Again

• Are you a student? The FBI may have been watching you. [NYT]
• According to the New York Times, “The Federal Education Department shared personal information on hundreds of student loan applicants with the Federal Bureau of Investigation across a five-year period that began after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the agencies said yesterday.”
• The program was called Project Strikeback. No word if any investigations ever came out of the information sharing.
• The Department of Education passed along information like students’ “names, addresses, Social Security numbers, incomes and, for some students, information on parents’ incomes and educational backgrounds.”
• The program came to light as part of a civil liberties paper written by, yes, a student (at NorthwesternUniversity).
• David L. Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities: “This operation Strikeback confirms our worst fears about the uses to which these databases can be put. The concentration of all this data absolutely invites use by other agencies of data that had been gathered for very specific and narrow purposes, namely the granting of student aid to needy kids.”

President Bush Starts His Media Tour

President Bush started his media campaign this week. Here are clips from yesterday’s speech. Remember: He says this is not political.

• The “facisim” thing again: “As veterans, you have seen this kind of enemy before. They are successors to fascists, to Nazis, to Communists, and other totalitarians of the twentieth century. And history shows what the outcome will be.”
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• Bush on what we should think when faced with the ongoing violence: “The images that come back from the front lines are striking and sometimes unsettling. When you see innocent civilians ripped apart by suicide bombs, or families buried inside their homes, the world can seem engulfed in purposeless violence.”
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• Bush on the situation with Iran: “We will continue to work closely with our allies to find a diplomatic solution, but ther emus tbe consequences for Iran’s defiance and we must not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
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• Bush, saying no one is coming home any time soon: “The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror, and that depends on victory in Iraq, so the United States of America will not leave until victory is achieved.”
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• Bush, on bringing troops home: “Still there are some in our country that insist the best option in Iraq is to pull out, regardless of the situation on the ground. Many of these folks are sincere and they’re patriotic, but they could not be more wrong. If America were to pull out before Iraq could defend itself, the consequences would be absolutely predictable and absolutely disastrous.”
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Not everyone is buying it. Here’s a taste of the response.

• Rep Marty Meehan: “Five to seven percent of the combatants in Iraq are terrorists that have come in from outside of Iraq. The fact is, the war against Al Qaeda is really in Afghanistan, and if you look at the way we’ve let our guard down there, the Taliban is reconstituting, Al Qaeda is reconstituting. The war in Iraq has helped fuel the recruitment for Al Qaeda. It’s been five years since 9/11 where Presdient Bush said we’re gonna track down Bin Laden, and he’s still on the loose.”
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• Rep. Chris Shays: “Well, I think the President has an opinion, but I think he’s dead wrong. It’s a timeline not about when a war ends, because who knows when the war ends. The fighting will still continue. It’s a timeline to transfer the power to the Iraqis.”
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• Sen. Barbara Boxer: “This is a rubber stamp Congress and we have to stand up and be heard when the Secretary of Defense attacks the American people.”
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• Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson: “Let them finally understand blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism.”
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Violent Crimes Up

• This week, 170 police chiefs and mayors met for a National Violent Crime Summit. Their conclusion: Violent crime is back, and only getting worse across the country. [NY Times]
• Violent crime last year was up for the first time in four years, jumping 2.5% from 2004.
• Last year, 16,000 people were murdered across the United States. That’s a 4.8% increase in murders from the year before.
• This may surprise you; New York and LA may be the violent cities on TV, but the biggest rise in murders actually has been in middle-sized cities and the Midwest.
• “Cincinnati had a 30-year high in homicides last year. Philadelphia recorded the city’s most killings in 10 years. And Orlando logged its most slayings ever.” [Washington Post]
• Many law enforcement officials blame the new federal policy to divert resources away from law-enforcement to homeland security and Iraq. A police chief from Massachussets, Edward Flynn, said it’s become “a zero-sum game, where we have a choice between funding homeland security and criminal justice.”
• P.S.: White-collar criminals are also really happy about the government’s inattention. White-collar crime prosecutions are down 28% from five years ago (and it’s not because people have finally realized stealing is wrong). The White House has dramatically shifted resources away from prosecuting white-collar crimes – for example, in 2000, there were 2,385 FBI agents fighting financial crime; by 2004, there were 1882. For all you non-matheletes, that’s a 21% cut. [CS Monitor]

Instead of being safe from terrorists OR being safe from being murdered on the streets...can’t we have both?

We Heart CA: State Legislature Curbs Carbon Dioxide Emissions

• California, here we come: turns out that the Democratic-controlled state legislature and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have reached a deal that calls for a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. More: the deal could establish controls on huge industrial sectors — including oil refineries and cement plants. [New York Times]
• They do things differently out west: the Bush administration has rejected the idea of placing limits on carbon dioxide emissions.
• The timeline: the first major controls are set to begin in 2012. The plan allows for incentives to help businesses to reach the goal.
• Already a trend? Governors in “New York, New Jersey, Delaware and four New England states have signed an agreement to curb power-plant emissions, cutting them by 10 percent by 2019. That would amount to about 24 million tons, said Dale Bryk of the New York office of the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, about one-seventh of the total envisioned in the California legislation, which will be an estimated 174 million tons.”

Loves it.

Good News, Bad News

Tired of that old, black and white television set sitting on the kitchen counter? Well, tire no more, dear friends. Flat screen TV manufacturers are saying that overproduction will lead to dramatic cost drops in 2007. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons. [Reuters]

GOOD NEWS

You can finally afford the last touch to that rockin’ bachelor pad you’ve always dreamed of.

BAD NEWS

Panasonic just announced that their latest produce — a 103 inch flat screen — will have a $80,000 price tag. [Reuters]

Quote Of The Day

TODAY’S MORAL HANGOVER AWARD GOES TO:

A “faceless enemy” of terrorists “drive taxi cabs in the daytime and kill at night.”

— And Sen. Conrad Burns (R., MT) wonders why he has such a tough time hailing a cab. [Billings Gazette]

Speed Round

AUDIO: CBS BOB SCHIEFFER SAYS GOODBYE

A news legend makes a graceful exit.

FRIST

Don’t be a fool! Stay in school! Sen. Bill Frist, failing to do the coursework required to keep his medical license, will be fined $40 for every hour of class he skipped. [AP]

FORE!

Golfers in Venezuela may have to find somewhere else to practice their chip shots: City fo Caracas considering turning golf courses into low-income housing. [LA Times]

WE KNOW A SECRET

For all of you who thought you knew which senator was secretly holding up that bill to create a searchable database to track Congressional pork, you were right! It was Sen. Ted Stevens (R., AK)! [Washington Times]

CORPORATE DRUG DEALERS

Cigarettes…now with more nicotine! According to tests, the amount of nicotine in brands of cigs “most popular with young people and minorities” have almost 10% more addictive nicotine today than they did in 1998. (Cigarette company response: “Huh? Wha’?”) [Washington Post]

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION

Rochester, Minn., City Council member Pat Carr has a secret admirer…himself. Carr was forced to apologize for posting anonymous messages on his local newspaper’s Web site like, “Pat Carr has done nothing but stand up for the silent majority.” [Think Progress]

HURRICANES

Dios Mia! Hurricane John stays offshore from Mexico. [AP]

IRAQ

More violence: attacks kill at least 51 in Baghdad. [AP]

BURNING PLANES

Miami’s so hot, even the planes are catching on fire: plane’s landing gear catches on fire as it touches down in South Florida. [AP]

ERNESTO

He’s baaa-aaack: Ernesto (once again) nearing hurricane status. [AP]