McClatchy - The headline asks, "Was campaigning against voter fraud a Republican ploy?" The non-profit American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund "and a sister group played a significant role in the party’s effort to retain control of Congress in the 2006 election. That strategy, which presidential adviser Karl Rove alluded to in an April 2006 speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association, sought to scrutinize voter registration records, win passage of tougher ID laws and challenge the legitimacy of voters considered likely to vote Democratic." This story outlines the Republicans' successful vote fraud/disenfranchisement efforts and is worth its own diary.
NY Times - "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia arrived at the Bush family compound here late this afternoon for a two-day visit during which he and ... Bush are planning to mix the relaxation of family and fishing with the high anxiety of a growing list of divisive issues. Mr. Putin’s jet landed in nearby Portsmouth N.H., where former President George H.W. Bush joined him for the helicopter ride back here." So Bush (41) got to talk to Putin first? Interesting, but not surprising.
WaPo - George W. Bush is no Churchill. "The more you understand the historical record, the more the parallels leap out... between Bush and Chamberlain. Like Bush and unlike Churchill, Chamberlain came to office with almost no understanding of foreign affairs or experience in dealing with international leaders. Nonetheless, he was convinced that he alone could bring Hitler and Benito Mussolini to heel. He surrounded himself with like-minded advisers and refused to heed anyone who told him otherwise." An interesting opinion piece by Lynne Olson, a former White House correspondent.
NY Times - "The Carlyle Group is in discussions with Virgin Media, the British cable company whose largest investor is Richard Branson, over a potential bid worth around $20 billion". This is just as alarming as Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones!
Seattle Times - "Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., doesn't want that tax revenue to slip away anymore. He has introduced a bill to tax Internet purchases that slip through the tax loophole." Hey Wyoming! Sen. Enzi wants to raise your taxes and he's up for re-election in 2008.
WaPo - "Illinois Sen. Barack Obama raised $31 million for his presidential primary campaign over the last three months, surging past Bill and Hillary Clinton's fabled fund-raising machine to take the financial lead in the crowded Democratic field."
NY Times - Elizabeth Edwards has "become a free operator on behalf of her husband of 29 years, a development that her friends suggest reflects the clarity and perspective that come from her cancer diagnosis, and her increasingly confident political instincts".
LA Times - "The House has approved legislation that strips funding for the tracking radar in the Czech Republic and silos for 10 interceptor missiles in Poland, meant to defend against a possible Iranian missile attack. Senate approval of a plan to cut funding could come within weeks, a reflection of both chambers' concern that allies have not been properly consulted and that the Pentagon has yet to prove the system actually works." Congress must kill this hokey military-industrial handout program.
Bloomberg - "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) says he's prepared to go to court if ... George W. Bush and his administration continue to resist subpoenas for information on the firing of federal prosecutors."
Reuters - The prosecution in José Padilla's trial are saying "innocuous terms" such as "picnics, eggplants and lazy Miami postal workers" are "actually code words for violent 'jihad,' or 'holy war,' and acts of terrorism... An international terrorism expert who testified for the government, Rohan Gunaratna, said al Qaeda groups and their affiliates around the world used similar code words."
StarTribune - "With momentum appearing to build in some quarters for public funding of a Vikings stadium, interest may grow in a flurry of political contributions last fall by the family of Vikings owner Zygi Wilf. Family members wrote checks to two major state political parties... part of $73,000 in contributions made to Minnesota candidates and party units last year by the Wilf family." Public subsidies for the rich on the back of the taxpayer paid for by strategic campaign contributions.
AP - "Los Angeles's driest year in 130 years of recordkeeping will go into the books this weekend. The nation's second-largest city is short nearly a foot of rain for the year from July 1, 2006, to June 30. Just 3.21 inches has fallen downtown in those 12 months, closer to Death Valley's numbers than the normal average of 15.14 inches."
WaPo - "Since April, when bombers destroyed a large portion of Baghdad's historic Sarafiya bridge over the Tigris River, attackers have systematically taken out bridges in and around the capital, clogging up traffic and isolating neighborhoods. In early June, insurgents damaged the Sarha bridge on a main route from Baghdad to northern Iraq."
LA Times - Seven police dead in Iraq. "In Fallouja, a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives while a group of men fired three rocket-propelled grenades at a checkpoint at the entrance of the city, killing at least two police officers and injuring four others... In nearby Ramadi, a suicide bomber rushed a police checkpoint north of the city, killing five officers and injuring 11, including six police, according to a Ramadi police officer."
Telegraph - "Iran's Supreme Leader has addressed widespread public dismay over the introduction of petrol rationing by praising the 'brave' decisions of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in the Islamic republic, endorsed the government's decision to limit all Iranian motorists to 100 litres of fuel each month. The restriction caused riots in Teheran last week".
Reuters - "Israel transferred to the Palestinians on Sunday a portion of the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax funds it had frozen for 17 months, hoping to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas while isolating Hamas."
Independent - " More than 100 people, nearly half of them Afghan civilians, were killed in Nato air strikes against the Taliban this weekend, an investigation by local officials in Helmand province has concluded... The assessment of Saturday's pre-dawn air strike in the Gereshk district came from the mayor and police chief, who said that 62 Taliban militants had died during the attacks as well as 45 ordinary Afghans including women, children and the elderly. President Hamid Karzai said this weekend that it was 'difficult for us to accept or understand' what had happened."
BBC News - "Flash floods have swept through villages in Pakistan, hampering attempts to bring aid to more than one million people hit by storms. At least 50 people are feared to have died in the latest flooding in Balochistan province."
IHT - "Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, was warned this month that Islamic militants and Taliban fighters were rapidly spreading beyond the country's lawless tribal areas and that without "swift and decisive action," the growing militancy could engulf the rest of the country. The warning came in a document from the Interior Ministry, which said Pakistan's security forces in North-west Frontier Province abutting the tribal areas were outgunned and outnumbered and had forfeited authority to the Taliban and their allies." No one could have imagined the Taliban would turn on Pakistan.
BBC News - "Authorities in India's north-eastern state of Assam have threatened local oil refineries with closure unless they stopped polluting local rivers. Assam's Pollution Control Board has given five refineries a year to stop discharging effluents into rivers."
AP - Fumio Kyuma, "Japan's defense minister said Saturday that the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II was an inevitable way to end the war... He also said he did not resent the U.S. because the bombs prevented the Soviet Union from entering the war with Japan". His remarks "drew sharp criticism from survivors" and he later apologized.
BBC News - "A mysterious underground chamber has been found inside the Chinese imperial tomb guarded by the famous Terracotta Army, Chinese archaeologists say. Historical records describing the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of China's Qin dynasty, do not mention the room which is 30 metres (98 feet) deep. The unopened chamber was found at the site near the old imperial capital of Xian using remote sensing technology."
Independent - "East Timor faces days of suspense while votes are counted in legislative elections that Timorese hope will restore stability to the tiny, violence-wracked nation... The first parliamentary election since independence from Indonesia is being seen as a test of how far East Timor has travelled along the path of nationhood. Campaigning was relatively peaceful, as was polling day itself, with voting overseen by 500 foreign observers."
IHT - "Hong Kong marked on Sunday the tenth anniversary of its return by Britain to Chinese rule... President Hu Jintao of China personally swore in Donald Tsang, the chief executive, and his ministers Sunday morning, a reminder to residents that Beijing reserves the final power to appoint the leaders of Hong Kong... Carrying small flags that bore the slogan 'One Person, One Vote,' protesters marched through the heart of the city Sunday afternoon in sweltering heat to demand greater democracy.
Stuff - Special Air Service Corporal Bill (Willy) Apiata will become the first "New Zealand soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross since World War Two says he was just doing his job when he carried a wounded comrade through enemy fire... The action took place in Afghanistan when the SAS was helping US and British forces fight the Taliban."
SMH - In New South Wales, Australia, "Thousands of hectares of publicly owned wilderness will be systematically sold to private landholders at a fraction of market value from this week. Green groups say NSW's temperate woodlands and endangered wetlands are among about 6000 Crown leases that face a new land clearing threat... The program is expected to raise almost $38 million from the sale of 10,000 leases, although the total market value of the land is $4.7 billion. Something rotten in NSW.
SMH - "The Pasha Bulker has budged but is still stuck fast on the reef at Nobbys Beach, Newcastle. Damage to the environment from oil spilling from the ship remained unknown early today... The Ports Minister, Joe Tripodi, had said earlier that oil had leaked from the vessel but it was unknown how severe the spill was. He said the ship was only a couple of degrees off the point where it could be towed out to sea."
CBC - "Thousands of Canadians gathered on Parliament Hill to celebrate Canada's 140th birthday, in a bash featuring music, a flypast by the Snowbirds, the RCMP Musical Ride and fireworks." Happy 140th Canada! Here's Chandra Crawford singing 'O Canada':
WaPo - "Argentine President Néstor Kirchner will not run for reelection in October, but his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, will run in his place".
Reuters - "Cuban President Fidel Castro charged on Sunday the release of classified CIA documents detailing past abuses was a smoke screen behind which the Bush administration hoped to hide even worse methods." Castro wrote in an editorial:
I think that this action could be an attempt... to make people believe that these methods belong to another era and are no longer used... Everything described in the documents is still being done, only in a more brutal manner around the entire planet, including an increasing number of illegal actions in the very United States.
AP - Andrés Manuel López Obrador, "the leftist who barely lost Mexico's closest presidential election in history, is betting on a weekend rally to reignite his flagging political movement, calling supporters to an enormous march on the capital's central plaza." He "now barely makes the news with his low-budget nationwide speaking tour and a predawn weekly TV show paid for by supporters."
Guardian - "Conservationists working in the wetlands of the Amazon have uncovered evidence" that suggest red-bellied piranhas "may not be ferocious, blood-lusting pack hunters. Rather, they appear to have a nervous disposition and huddle into shoals out of constant fear of being eaten by other predators." Hah! Take that Blofeld!
Telegraph - "Cars were banned from approaching airport terminals last night as unprecedented security measures were enforced to combat a suspected al-Qa'eda bombing campaign. The terrorist threat level was at 'critical' - its highest - after two car bombs were found in London and a third, potentially devastating, attack was narrowly averted at Glasgow airport. It has forced police and the Government to take the draconian step of closing off all forecourts at airports. Passengers cannot be picked up or dropped off and must instead be directed to outlying car parks and bussed in."
Independent - " Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said yesterday that France will bolster security following the terror scares in Britain... A decision to maintain the danger alert at its current level, the second highest, was made".
LA Times - There is growing skepticism and opposition in Europe to the Bush administration's long-range missile defense system. "In Poland and the Czech Republic, governments publicly back the proposal but hold shaky parliamentary majorities and are facing growing opposition... 60% of both Poles and Czechs disapprove of the program... One powerful opponent is former Polish Defense Minister Radoslaw "Radek" ... who resigned his Cabinet post in February... [and] has argued that the system actually could endanger Poland." The U.S. is bribing the Czeck Republic by promising to support their efforts to join NATO. "There are signs that the Czech public is becoming more active in its opposition. Officials in towns near the planned radar site have banded together to oppose construction. More than 25 towns and villages have voted against it in referendums... Any intensification of public opposition could spell trouble for the government in Prague".
Telegraph - "Plans to allow genetically modified crops to be grown throughout Europe have been shelved amid fears of a public backlash against 'Frankenstein foods'. The European Commission has failed to find enough support for its plans to lift a nine-year-old freeze on GM crops being grown on a commercial basis." Apparently, the Telegraph got this story wrong.
Houston Chronicle - "Latin Americans find Spain a haven... Pushed by financial woes at home and pulled by Spain's growing economy, more and more Latin Americans are choosing to move to this European nation where linguistic and religious ties help ease the transition... Women make up 55 percent of Spain's Latin American immigrants."
Independent - " The Portuguese government faces a storm of protest over its decision to invite the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, to a Europe-Africa summit in December. A poisonous thicket of other problems awaits Portugal, which yesterday took over the EU presidency until the end of the year."
AP - "30-metre-long replica of a Viking longship glided out of a Danish fjord Sunday with 65 crew members determined to sail across the North Sea to Ireland... The ship is billed as the world's biggest and most ambitious Viking ship reconstruction. It was modelled after a warship excavated in 1962 from the Roskilde fjord after being buried in the seabed for nearly 950 years."
Guardian - "Household cats can trigger allergic reactions in more than a quarter of the population, suggesting the pets have a far greater impact on human health than doctors had previously believed, scientists warned yesterday. A study of nearly 2,000 volunteers across Europe found that cats could cause breathing difficulties in people with some of the most common allergies." Potent pooties plague a percentage of people prone to puff and pant from a pother.