Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Bush Slashes Diplomats To Feed The Wars

• It’s tough to be a diplomat for the United States these days. [Washington Post]
• The State Department is cutting 10% of diplomatic posts around the world next year because of “heavy staffing demands in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
• The problem? There aren’t enough qualified people to filled the hundreds of vacancies created after the Bush administration sent hundreds of diplomats to Baghdad and Kabul.
• Last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned foreign service agents that they would be forced serve in Iraq if the 250 embassy jobs weren’t filled with volunteers. [Washington Post]
• The State Department has called “each assistant secretary of state to prioritize jobs in his or her bureau and identify the least critical 10 percent by next Monday.”
• The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it seems, have become a drain on America’s diplomatic resources around the world.
• The cost of these cuts? “the shortfalls limit the number of foreign service officers who can be diverted into language and other training that numerous studies have said are crucial to meeting new diplomatic challenges.”

Seems pretty short sighted to us. Anyone know Mandarin out there?

Clemens. Pettitte. Bonds. Tejada. Gagne.

THE STORY

• In the shot heard ‘round the baseball world yesterday, the Mitchell Commission released its 20-month, 169-page report about performance-enhancing drug abuse in major league baseball.
• Oh, and they named names. [ABC News]
• The report drew on four interviews with a former New York Mets clubhouse attendant named Kirk Radomski. Radomski named players he’d sold steroids and human growth hormones to and provided checks, money orders and mailing receipts to back up his testimony. Statements of other corroborating witnesses were also taken.
• A former New York Yankees trainer named Brian McNamee also gave three interviews about player drug use.
• Bottom Line: Players past and present from every single one of the thirty ball clubs were involved in taking steroids or human growth hormones. (Human growth hormones act in a similar manner to steroids but can’t be detected in urine.)
• Bottom Line: Every named player was invited too meet with Mitchell to discuss allegations. Mitchell said nearly every single one refused.
• Bottom Line: The steroid crisis was also the fault of Major League Baseball, which was both slow to act and ineffectual in its actions.
• So, get to the good stuff already! Who was named? Check it out:
• Mike Bell. Marvin Bernard. Larry Bigbie. Barry Bonds. Kevin Brown. Mark Carreon. Jason Christiansen. Roger Clemens. Jack Cust. Chris Donnels. Lenny Dykstra. Bobby Estalella. Matt Franco. Ryan Franklin. Eric Gagne. Jason Giambi. Jeremy Giambi. Jason Grimsley. Jerry Hairston, Jr. Phil Hiatt. Glenallen Hill. Todd Hundley. David Justice. Chuck Knoblauch. Tim Laker. Mike Lansing. Paul Lo Duca. Josias Manzanillo. Cody McKay. Kent Mercker. Bart Miadich. Hal Morris. Denny Neagle. Andy Pettitte. Adam Piatt. Todd Pratt. Stephen Randolph. Brian Roberts. F.P. Santangelo. Benito Santiago. David Segui. Gary Sheffield. Mike Stanton. Miguel Tejada. Mo Vaughn. Randy Verlarde. Ron Villone. Fernando Vina. Rondell White. Todd Williams. Kevin Young. Gregg Zaun.

THE AUDIO: George Mitchell, at his press conference.

• “Many players were involved. Each of the 30 clubs has had players who have been involved with such substances at some time in their careers.”
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• “We gathered sufficient evidence about their possession or use of performance-enhancing substances to identify in this report dozens of current or former players in Major League Baseball. Each of the players was invited to meet with me so I could provide him with information about the allegations and give him an opportunity to respond. Almost without exception, all current players declined my invitation and refused to meet or to talk with me.”
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• “The use of steroids in major league baseball was widespread. The response by baseball was slow to develop and was initially ineffective.”
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• “The minority of players who used such substances were wrong. They violated federal law and baseball policy. And they distorted the fairness of competition by trying to gain an unfair advantage over the majority of players who followed the law and the rules.”
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• “I urge the commissioner to forgo imposing discipline on players for past violations of baseballs rules on performance-enhancing substances, including the players named in this report, except in those cases where he determines the conduct is so serious that discipline is necessary to maintain the integrity of the game.”
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Go Wizards!

Clip Room: Listen In On The Dem Debates

• The top Democratic candidates met yesterday in Iowa for a debate on the issues.
• Now-legendarily boring moderator Carolyn Washburn (who also moderated the Republican debates two days ago) managed to open the debate like a scrooge, and end the debate on a poignant note: the candidates’ new years resolutions. Here’s what happened in between.

On The Economy

• CLINTON: You can’t do it in a year. It’ll take time. But the economy will grow again when we start acting fiscally responsible.
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• OBAMA: If we can get on a path of sustained growth, if we can end the war in Iraq, end some of the special interest loopholes and earmarks that have been clogging up the system, then I think we can return to a path of balanced budget.
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• EDWARDS: And one of the reasons that we’ve lost jobs, we’re having trouble creating jobs, we’re having trouble with growing and strengthening the middle class, is because corporate power and greed have literally taken over the government.
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On The Energy Crisis

• BIDEN: The bottom line here is that the President’s got to make this a moral crusade for the American people. We’re going to have to sacrifice to be able to get by for the next couple years in order to get a handle on the energy crisis.
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• CLINTON: We cannot sustain the current energy profile in this country. That’s why we have to act. And we will act in a way that brings the country together and lifts us up and gives us a feeling that we are, once again, reaching for the stars — only we’re going to do it here on earth.
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Carolyn Washburn: The Grinch Who Stole The Debate

• WASHBURN: I’ll try not to be a scrooge about it because it’s the season, but I will ask you to respect the time so we don’t have to shorten up answers down the line and so there’s plenty of time for conversation.
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Obama Delivers A Zinger

• MODERATOR WASHBURN: How will you rely on so many Clinton advisers, and still deliver the kind of break from the past that you’re promising voters.
• [Laughter]
• OBAMA: Well, the...you know...
• CLINTON: I want to hear that.
• [Laughter]
• OBAMA: Well, Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me, as well.
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She’s a mean one, Mrs. Washburn.

Our Army’s Suicide Shame

• Mike Bowman, at a House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing, spoke of his son Timothy, an Iraq War vet.
• “As my family was preparing for a 2005 Thanksgiving meal, our son Timothy was lying on the floor, slowly bleeding to death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His war was now over, his demons were gone.” [CNN]
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• This year, a record number of soldiers and veterens, 109, have killed themselves. [USA]
• The suicides included 27 among soldiers in Iraq and 4 in Afghanistan.
• And Mike Bowman lays much of the blame on the Veterans Administration.
• “When these veterans come home, they find an understaffed, under-funded, under-equipped VA mental health system that has so many challenges to get through it that many just give up trying.”
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• Despite an influx of money, more than $1 billion for veterans mental health since 2001, many, including Mike Bowman, say we’re not doing enough.
• “Why don’t they have somebody at that armory with a computer and desk registering them before they can go home? They are coming out of combat. You know they are going to need help...Don’t make it so that the solider has to go to the VA; make the VA go to the soldier.”
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• A continuing tragedy: “Male U.S. veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide than people with no military service.” [Mic Check]

When the war comes home...

Threats Of U.S. Boycotts Loom In Bali

• For the past two weeks, we’ve been keeping you abreast of the going-ons at the U.N. conference on climate change in Bali. But just in case you forgot (or hit your head really, really hard): The goal of the Bali meeting, which is being attended by delegates from 190 countries and which is scheduled to end Friday, is to reach agreement on a “roadmap” for a future deal to reduce greenhouse gases. [New York Times] [Mic Check]
• The agreement reached in Bali is expected to take the place of the Kyoto protocol, which will expire in 2012.
• Unfortunately, bitter arguments and divisions are now threatening the climate talks. Here’s the jist: The U.S., Japan, and a handful of other nations are refusing to agree to any language “suggesting that industrialized nations consider cutting emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020.” [Associated Press]
• Why are those specific goals important? Namely, the figures reflect the measures scientists say are needed to rein in global warming and head off predictions of rising sea levels, worsening floods and droughts, and the extinction of plant and animal species.
• The European Union, meanwhile, isn’t happy with the Bush administration’s stubbornness. Next month, 16 nations — including those from the EU, Japan, China and India — are supposed to meet with the U.S. to discuss voluntary cutbacks in emissions. Now, countries from the EU are threatening to boycott those talks.
• “No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting,” said Sigmar Gabriel, top EU environment official from Germany, referring to the series of separate climate talks initiated by President Bush in September. “This is the clear position of the EU. I do not know what we should talk about if there is no target.”
• Can you blame the EU? In our eyes, not really. The United States is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the only major industrial country to have rejected Kyoto.
• In a riveting speech given Thursday, former VP and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore echoed this sentiment, saying that “my own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali.”
• Our question: Does the Bush White House know that global warming is putting it’s beer in danger? Because we’re guessing that, if they did, they’d change their tune. [American Progress]

The U.S.: forever the buzz-kill.

Good News, Bad News

Glowing Kitties

Using a genetic engineering cloning technique, South Korean scientists have created cats that glow red and green under UV light (a black light). Freaky. [C-Net]

GOOD NEWS

Glowing kitties make a great psychedelic addition to any tripped out swingin’ bachelor pad.

BAD NEWS

” Debates about the ethics and safety of concocting cloned and transgenic animals continue to rage.” Paging Doctor Moreau.

Quote Of The Day

Let AFJ be crystal clear on a subject where these men are opaque: Waterboarding is a torture technique that has its history rooted in the Spanish Inquisition. In 1947, the U.S. prosecuted a Japanese military officer for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II.

Waterboarding inflicts on its victims the terror of imminent death. And as with all torture techniques, it is, therefore, an inherently flawed method for gaining reliable information. In short, it doesn’t work. That blunt truth means all U.S. leaders, present and future, should be clear on the issue.

— The Armed Forces Journal, in a note directed to Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Michael Mukasey. [Armed Forces Journal]

Speed Round

NEXT WEDNESDAY

The day the House Judiciary Committee will hold hearings into the KBR/Halliburton rape charges from two years ago. [ABC Blotter]

TORTURE

The House of Representatives yesterday, by a 222-199 vote, passed a bill banning waterboarding and limiting the CIA “to the interrogation tactics permitted by the Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations.” [Congressional Quarterly]

SIR! YOU ARE IN CONTEMPT!

White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten! Advisor Karl Rove! The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted you in Contempt of Congress! [NY Times]

STAT ATTACK

According to the Department of Labor, wholesale prices in the United States jumped 3.2% last month, the worst surge in 34 years. Thank crazy gas prices. [USA Today]

IT’S TOXIC

Keep an eye out for this report, coming next week: “The White House pressured the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken requirements that companies annually disclose releases of toxic chemicals, congressional auditors say.” [Associated Press]

$70 MILLION

The amount the CEO of Goldman Sachs will make next year, thanks to his recent 30% pay hike. [Financial Times]

STORMS THEY ARE A-BREWIN’

As the Midwest thaws, a deadly winter storm hits the Northeast. [AP]

NOT-SO-FABULOUS

Marriage equality opponents in Florida say they’ve got enough votes on a petition slamming gay marriage that they’ll be able to put the issue before voters next year. [AP]

PUT THAT SCUBA GEAR ON EBAY

Experts are now saying that global warming could destroy the world’s coral reefs by 2050. [USA Today]

HERE WE GO AGAIN

The Bush administration is renewing it’s push for a missile defense system, now in light of Iran’s nuclear intentions. [Reuters]

TERROR FLUB

Remember those 7 weird guys charged with plotting to destroy the Sears tower...only they didn’t really have any materials or plans, and the FBI tricked them into taking a loyalty oath to Al Qaeda? Well, one of them’s been acquitted and the other six have a hung jury. [Fox]

LABOR RELATIONS

Congressional leaders say that ” the U.S. government’s labor relations board under the Bush administration” is “hostile to workers’ rights.” We are shocked. [Reuters]

MID-LIFE MISERY

The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans is the highest it’s been in 25 years: 16.6 completed suicides per 100,000 people ages 45-54. [AP]

WATCHING THE WATCHER

The FBI has opened an investigation into Stuart Bowen, “the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Justice Department officials said Thursday, following allegations of misconduct from former employees.” [AP]

SALMON

When salmon farms exist near streams where wild salmon swim, sea lice infect juvenile wild salmon, putting the population at risk. Darn you, salmon farms! [AP]