Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Bush Is The Bully On The Climate Change Block

• Here’s the background: Earlier this week, President Bush opted to skip out on all-day meetings at the UN that were focused on combating climate change. Instead, he focused on his own gathering of leaders in Washington later in the week, a meeting with the same stated goal, a reduction in the emissions blamed for climate change, but a fundamentally different idea of how to achieve it. The move raised further fear that Bush could once again put the U.S. “in the position of objecting to any binding international agreement intended to slow or reverse the emissions linked to rising temperatures.” [New York Times]
• That meeting — the one in Washington — went down on Tuesday night. And let’s just say the world leaders weren’t as polite as Bush might have liked. According to the Washington Post: Using unusually blunt language, several high-ranking ministers from abroad, as well as American lawmakers, said the Bush administration’s resistance to a national, economy-wide carbon cap is jeopardizing the world’s ability to address climate change. [Washington Post]
• The meeting’s attendees also said that the administration’s goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2008 end “will not avert catastrophic climate change.”
• Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard, a self-described “Danish conservative,” said she and other European leaders “are getting a bit impatient, not on our own behalf but on behalf of the planet.”
• “The question on the mind of everybody heading into those meetings. . . will be, ‘How serious is this? Is this talking about talking, or deciding about doing?’ ” said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s special representative for climate change, John Ashton. “The word ‘voluntary’ means what you can do without heavy lifting.”

Sounds like some pretty heated discussions..."heated"...heh.

For Bush, It’s La Vie En Rose In Afghanistan

• At this point, we don’t know what we should be more concerned about: The current state of Afghanistan, or where President Bush is buying these rose-colored glasses. [AP]
• On Wednesday, the President announced that Afghanistan becoming a “safer, more stable country,” thanks, in part, to the efforts of Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
• Funny enough, during their discussion, President Bush and President Karzai “made no direct mention of Afghanistan’s soaring drug trade, the unsuccessful search for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or the resurgence of the Taliban. Karzai said the liberation of Afghanistan is often overlooked these days.
• And on Tuesday, at the United Nations, Bush made only passing comments about the war-torn country. He said the people of Afghanistan — and Iraq and Lebanon — were in a deadly fight for survival.
• “I don’t know if you feel it in the United States but we feel it immensely in Afghanistan,” Karzai said. “Afghanistan has indeed made progress,” he said, citing improvements in basic services such as roads and education.
• Unfortunately, we’re not feeling it. In August, the United Nations reported that “Opium cultivation in [Afghanistan] grew by 17 percent in 2007, reaching record levels for the second straight year.” In sum, production in Afghanistan accounts for 93 percent of the world’s opium. [New York Times]
• More bad news: The drugs are linked directly to the ever-growing Taliban insurgency. Western officials warn that insurgents use the drugs as currency that’s traded for weapons and bombs. The UN report from August notes that 3,000 metric tons of opium appear to not be reaching the world market and may be stockpiled in Afghanistan. Experts warn that the Taliban could be stockpiling the drug and planning to use it as a source of financing for years to come.

Ignorance is (devastating) bliss.

Judge Sees His Shadow, Nation Gets Six More Weeks Of Larry Craig

• Remember September 1, 2007, when Sen. Craig announced, “It is with sadness and deep regret that I announce that it is my intent to resign from the Senate, effective Sept. 30”? Yeah, don’t hold your breath. [Fox News]
• After the judge’s decision to hold on the case, Craig announced “The court has not issued a ruling on my motion to withdraw my guilty plea. For now, I will continue my work in the U.S. Senate for Idaho.” Not one word about resigning next week.
• Earlier this month, Craig decided to go the unusual route of asking a Judge to give him a do-over on his guilty plea surrounding solicitation of sex in a men’s room at the MinneapolisAirport in June. [NY Times]
• Hennepin County Judge Charles Porter yesterday announced he would put Craig’s request “under advisement.” He said he probably wouldn’t be ruling on his request any time before next month.
• This is telling: “Throughout the 40-minute hearing, Porter repeatedly questioned Craig’s attorney, Billy Martin, and asked prosecutors only a single procedural question.” This doesn’t seem like it will go the way the Senator is hoping. [Washington Post]
• Craig says he never meant to enter the guilty plea, that he panicked and didn’t know what he was doing.
• Pat Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission and the prosecution team, points out Craig’s guilty plea didn’t come until 8 full weeks after his arrest, after he spoke to advisors.

Insert your own toilet sex joke here — we’re finally out.

The Mustache Of Justice Vs. Condi Rice

• Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, thinks the State Department is trying to block his committee’s ability to investigate what’s going on with contractors in Iraq.
• Our favorite Mustache of Justice wrote to Secretary Condi Rice this week, accusing the State Department of interfering with Congressional oversight on two different cases.
• Case One: Earlier this month, Rep. Waxman picked up a copy of The Nation magazine and read a leaked State Department paper which stated officials secretly thought the Iraqi government was “not capable of even rudimentary enforcement” of its own anticorruption laws and would not meet “any reasonable timeline” for improvement. [Washington Post]
• This is very different from what the State Department was telling Congress, so Rep. Waxman asked for all copies of State Department reports on the matter.
• After ignoring him, the State Department finally complied with a subpoena on September 20. However, the Department said the following would be off limits: Any “broad statements/assessments which judge or characterize the quality of Iraqi governance or the ability/determination of the Iraqi government to deal with corruption, including allegations that investigations were thwarted/stifled for political reasons; [and] statements/allegations concerning actions by specific individuals, such as the Prime Minister or other [Government of Iraq] officials, or regarding investigations of such officials.”
• Get it? Congress could have any documents they wanted dealing with Iraqi corruption…except for any documents that dealt with Iraqi corruption.
• Case Two: Rep. Waxman also wanted to investigate the Blackwater security contractor shootings in Iraq. The State Department blocked him. [NY Times]
• We’ll quote his letter to explain: “Blackwater has informed the committee that a State Department official directed Blackwater not to provide documents relevant to the committee’s investigation into the company’s activities in Iraq without the prior written approval of the State Department.”

Word Of Warning: Rep. Henry Waxman can find corruption from 10 miles away, buried solid concrete. While blindfolded. Nobody messes with Henry.

The UAW/GM Deal Is All About Health Care

The Story

• After a two day strike, the United Auto Workers have reached a contract deal with General Motors that will set the model for U.S. automakers. Here’s why universal health coverage would have made these negotiations easier. [AFP]
• GM’s big problem is that they currently pay about $1,500 in health care costs for every vehicle they produce, making it difficult to compete in the world market. [American Progress]
• The deal that was struck with the UAW would shift management of a $50 billion of retiree health care fund, to control of the union to manage.
• This money has to be managed and invested in a way to beat the rising costs of healthcare, or the fund will go bankrupt and workers could lose or be forced to reduce their benefits. Now the union is bearing this risk.
• As Center for American Progress has reported, “the failure to address America’s health care finance problems has become a major competitive disadvantage for our economy as a whole and has placed U.S. workers in a diminished bargaining position for wages and job security in relation to the rest of the industrialized world.”
• A 2005 proposal by the Center for American Progress would pair assistance in relieving health care costs with requirements that Detroit shift to cars with higher fuel efficiency and that harness alternative fuels. [American Progress]
• But this must come with a comprehensive health care reform that would help share costs across society, helping to make businesses more competitive, and guarantee high quality, low cost health care for all. Learn how here: [American Progress]

The Audio

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger

• “We successfully resolved a lot of difficult issues…We feel very good about this tentative agreement.”
  Please log in to download this clip.

Universal healthcare: win, win, win.

Good News, Bad News

We learned in elementary school that everything can be counted: beans, candy, tequila-fueled regrets...you get the idea. Turns out, same goes for clutter. Scientists are working hard on developing a mess-o-meter — a device that measures clutter and then quantifies it. Let’s check out the pros and cons. [MSNBC]

GOOD NEWS

“Future mess-o-meters could lead to better Web designs, improved navigation systems and even smart cars that warn when an overly cluttered street scene may create a dangerous situation.”

BAD NEWS

These so-called scientists get a hold of our rooms and cubicles.

Quote Of The Day

“When you hear people say ... ‘If you kill one of them, they’ll just replace him with another leader,’ remember that that’s like saying, ‘If you take out Robert E. Lee or Ulysses S. Grant, well, they’ll just replace them with another leader.’”

— Secretary of State Condi Rice, whistling Dixie while talking about al Qaeda.

“I think the analogy doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

— Retired Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar said Rice’s comparison was way off target.

[NY Daily News]

Speed Round

SCRUB-A-DUB-DUB

Guess which part of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech to Columbia University this week didn’t make it into the official transcript posted on his website? That’s right – Ahmadinejad scrubbed out the section in which he claimed, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.” [Think Progress]

AUDIO: HOMOPHOBIA

Yesterday’s Senate Appropriations Committee hearing was temporarily adjourned after the crowd erupts in outrage after outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace asserts “My upbringing is one that says, sex, other than between man and a woman inside the bonds of marriage, is a sin. … We should respect those that want to serve the nation, but not through the law of the land condone activity that in my upbringing, is counter to God’s law.”

TODAY IN BUSH

“Childrens do learn.” This has been Today In Bush. [Washington Post]

$190 BILLION

Amount of money Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is requesting for the Iraq war for 2008. [Washington Post]

ATTORNEY FOR IRAN

The law firm of Michael Mukasey, Bush’s nominee for Attorney General, has represented a front group for the Iranian government for over 25 years. Dear Senate, grill this guy like a hamburger. [ABC]

THREE GORGES OH DAMN!

The controversial Three Gorges Dam in western China “could trigger an environmental catastrophe unless emerging problems are treated urgently.” [BBC]

THE GORE PLAN

Al Gore is calling for a global “Marshall Plan” to alleviate global poverty with the “creation of jobs around the reduction of carbon.” [Financial Times]

3,000+

The number of students and faculty at Stanford University “protesting plans to bring former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the Hoover Institution next year as a distinguished visiting fellow.” [KCBS]

RACIST ARICHITECTURE

The Navy is spending $600,000 to mask the fact that one of their buildings looks like a swastika from the air. Maybe Al Sharpton should take it out to Sylvia’s for dinner. [LAT]

TRAGEDY

In Somalia, 13,500+ children are so malnourished that they face death. [On Deadline]

TODAY, IN HURRICANES

Come on down, Karen! Tropical depression Karen gains strength as it heads towards Mexico. [AP]

KATIE, UNCENSORED

“Everyone in this room would agree that people in this country were misled in terms of the rationale of this war.” — Katie Couric opens up at the National Press Club. She later said that it is “pretty much accepted” that the war in Iraq was a mistake. [Examiner]

BOOKS BEHIND BARS

Prisons across the nation decide to restore religious texts that they had banned earlier this month. [NY Times]

VICKGATE

Turns out, Michael Vick not only enjoys watching dogs fight, he also enjoys smoking the reefer. [USA Today]

YOUR RIGHTS

A federal judge rules that “two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause.” [USA Today]