You'll notice I've removed ersatz from the title.
And...
so it's just bonus dude.
Not of course because my vocabulary has diminished either in volume or invective, but because this is live jive real deal actual factual original episodes.
I'd like to thank Perfect Stormer and Kyle the Mainer. Kyle has really stepped up on a leadership level by hosting the last 2 Tuesday editions (here and here hear?). It's not the easiest thing in the world to go out in front of even the moderate and respectful audience we muster here in the Sausage Grinder of Snark. I hope his stage fright has at least distracted him from the personal problems that preclude him from publishing tonight.
So I'm keeping your mike warm Kyle. You've seen that it's mostly a case of "gotcha".
Stormer I have a frustrating relationship with. On the one hand his emotional neediness for a haven of sanity while surfing the vast orange deep has led me and others to waste countless hours keeping Cheers open when by all rights we should have been sleeping in bed. On the other hand he is a standup guy, a mensch who has covered up and concealed brain farts of mine the least of which was mentally erasing that Emily and Richard's Anniversary Party was a command performance. As the reigning Lorelai I have my duties.
Who the hell is Andrew Ward? I can't work with that.
Stormy on the other hand has grasped the essential nature of TDS/TCR as pioneered by Skubwa and currently disciplined by TiaRachel-
- "Push 'Publish' before the show starts."
So it's not exactly Rocket science either.
Likewise the rigors of Overnight News Digest are exceedingly exacting-
- Link your sources.
- No more than 3 graphs of quote clearly indicated (ok, 5 is the most I've seen Adam B personally use, but it was a long article and there was commentary too).
- Push 'Publish' at some finite period before the next (ahem) "Contributing OND Editor" does. Overnight is easy to find. Look out the window. Is it dark?
You'll note that I've hardly begun to assassinate the character of tonight's guest on Jon, the despicable Pierce Brosnan. I've hated him since Remington Steele with the equally reprehensible StephanieZimbalist but it was those 4 Bond movies that made me deeply despise him.
Stephen has two people to pick on, Jason Riley and Julia Sweig neither of who's publicists even bothers with a Wikipedia page (hint- get better representation).
Hear now the news-
From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Obama, McCain clash on what to do about Iraq war
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
31 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The two major presidential rivals sharpened their long-standing dispute over the Iraq War on Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama calling it a costly distraction that must end while Republican Sen. John McCain insisted it is a conflict the United States has to win.
"Iraq is not going to be a perfect place, and we don't have unlimited resources to try and make it one," Obama said in a speech in which he also said the United States must shift its focus to defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
Rebutting swiftly, McCain said Obama "will tell you we can't win in Afghanistan without losing in Iraq. In fact, he has it exactly backwards." |
2 Gitmo video offers glimpse of interrogations
By CHARMAINE NORONHA, Associated Press Writer
32 minutes ago
TORONTO - Burying his face in his hands, a 16-year-old captured in Afghanistan sobs and calls out "Oh Mommy!" in a hidden-camera video released Tuesday that provides the first look at interrogations inside the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
Lawyers for Toronto-born Omar Khadr released the tapes in hopes of generating sympathy for the young prisoner and to try to persuade the Canadian government to seek custody before he is prosecuted for war crimes at the U.S. special tribunal in Guantanamo later this year.
The son of an alleged al-Qaida financier, Khadr is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. Special Forces soldier during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan that left another soldier blinded in one eye. |
3 Bernanke: Economy faces 'numerous difficulties'
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
22 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Tuesday the fragile economy is facing "numerous difficulties" despite the Fed's aggressive interest rate reductions and other fortifying steps.
At the same time, Bernanke, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, sounded another warning that rising prices for energy and food are elevating inflation risks. This problem looms even as officials try to cope with persistent strains in financial markets, rising joblessness and housing problems.
The situation, he said, poses "significant challenges" for Fed policymakers as they try to chart the best course for keeping the economy growing, while making sure inflation doesn't dangerously flare up. All the economy's problems — including slumping home values, which threaten to make people feel less wealthy and less inclined to spend in the months ahead — represent "significant downside risks" to economic growth. |
4 McCain assailed for opposing adoptions by gays
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
1 hour, 5 minutes ago
NEW YORK - Advocates for gay and lesbian parents are denouncing Sen. John McCain, an adoptive father himself, for opposing adoptions by gays, which prompted his presidential campaign to clarify Tuesday that he does not seek a federal ban on the practice.
Only one state, Florida, outlaws adoptions by gays, which have become commonplace in much of the nation.
The Republican nominee-in-waiting was asked for his views on the subject in an interview published Sunday in The New York Times. |
5 GM confident it can compete even after cuts
By Kevin Krolicki, Reuters
26 minutes ago
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp will be able to invest more to develop cars and crossover vehicles even after $10 billion in cost cuts under a rushed restructuring that the U.S. automaker sees as the last of its kind, the company's president said on Tuesday.
"In an uncertain market we need to be in as much in control of our own fate as possible," GM President and Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson told Reuters.
Henderson, GM's No. 2 executive, was charged by Chief Executive Rick Wagoner in June with pulling together a plan to address deepening concerns about the automaker's ability to outlast a downturn in U.S. auto sales analysts saw as testing its $24 billion in cash reserves. |
6 Terror suspect can challenge U.S. detention: court
By James Vicini, Reuters
1 hour, 41 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush has the power to order the imprisonment of an al Qaeda suspect in the United States but the detainee must be able to challenge his status as an "enemy combatant," a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
The court, based in Richmond, Virginia, split 5-4 on both issues in a ruling about a Qatari national, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the only foreign national held in the United States as an "enemy combatant."
If the government's allegations about Marri are true, then the U.S. Congress gave Bush the power to detain him as part of its authorization for use of military force after the September 11 attacks by al Qaeda in 2001, the court ruled. |
7 Congress overrides Bush's Medicare veto
By Donna Smith and Richard Cowan, Reuters
6 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In what likely is the last big showdown between President George W. Bush and congressional Democrats over the popular Medicare health care program, the U.S. Congress on Tuesday voted to override his veto of a bill to keep doctors' payments from being slashed.
By enacting the measure over Bush's objections, Congress rescinded an 11 percent reduction in government payments to doctors treating elderly Medicare patients.
Just hours after Bush vetoed the legislation, the Senate voted 70-26 to overturn him, following the House of Representatives, which voted 383-41 to override. The bill now becomes law. |
8 Obama says will end "single-minded" focus on Iraq
By Caren Bohan, Reuters
Tue Jul 15, 1:28 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Tuesday a "single-minded" focus on Iraq was distracting the United States from other threats, and he promised to end the war and shift resources to fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Obama, embroiled in sharp debate with Republican White House rival John McCain over Iraq, said the lengthy commitment of combat troops there diminished U.S. security and standing in the world.
"By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe," Obama said in a speech designed to lay out his views on the war ahead of his planned trip to Afghanistan and Iraq soon. |
9 Iraq suicide bombings kill 37
by Ali al-Tuwaijri, AFP
Tue Jul 15, 12:42 PM ET
BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - A string of suicide attacks against Iraqi security forces killed at least 37 people on Tuesday, including 28 when two suicide bombers blew themselves up among a crowd of army recruits, security officials said.
The two bombers, one of whom wore an Iraqi military uniform, detonated their explosives-filled vests at a recruitment centre on Al-Saad base, east of the Diyala, the provincial capital of Baquba, they said.
At least 55 people were also wounded in the morning attack, which came ahead of a promised Iraqi army offensive in the province, an Al-Qaeda stronghold just north of Baghdad. |
10 UN pulls staff from Darfur after ICC move
by Jennie Matthew, AFP
Tue Jul 15, 1:29 PM ET
KHARTOUM (AFP) - The UN was pulling non-essential staff from Darfur as protesters rallied behind Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Tuesday over allegations he masterminded a campaign of genocide in the region.
Fears of a violent backlash have mounted since the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor on Monday sought an arrest warrant against Beshir on 10 counts including war crimes and the use of rape to commit genocide in Darfur .
The African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission said it would be flying non-essential staff to Ethiopia and Uganda, despite pledges from Sudan to protect peacekeepers and aid workers in the country. |
11 In banking crisis, U.S. steps up
By Mark Trumbull, The Christian Science Monitor
Tue Jul 15, 4:00 AM ET
Actions this week by federal regulators open a new phase in America's banking crisis – with the government stepping toward its most interventionist financial-market role in nearly 15 years.
The latest moves are intended to restore confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, enterprises that play a central role in the home-loan market. Also, the faltering bank IndyMac reopened Monday with a new owner, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Since the subprime lending problem emerged in earnest a year ago, financial institutions and regulators have scrambled to contain the damage. They have made some progress, but this new phase signals that the private sector probably is not capable of resolving the crisis on its own. |
From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Recommended |
12 First U.S. Town Powered Completely By Wind
Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer LiveScience.com
Tue Jul 15, 1:35 PM ET
Rock Port, Mo. has an unusual crop: wind turbines.
The four turbines that supply electricity to the small town of 1,300 residents make it the first community in the United States to operate solely on wind power.
"That's something to be very proud of, especially in a rural area like this - that we're doing our part for the environment," said Jim Crawford, a natural resource engineer at the University of Missouri Extension in Columbia. |
13 FTC enforces do-not-call rules, fines cos. $95,000
By DEBORAH YAO, AP Business Writer
9 minutes ago
PHILADELPHIA - Two telemarketing companies that sell Dish Network Corp.'s satellite TV services have agreed to pay fines of $95,000 for ignoring the federal do-not-call list and hanging up on customers, federal regulators said Tuesday.
Planet Earth Satellite Inc., of Phoenix, Ariz., and its president have been charged with calling consumers whose phone numbers are on the National Do Not Call Registry.
Star Satellite LLC, based in Provo, Utah, was accused of making telemarketing calls that failed to connect consumers to a live telemarketer within two seconds after consumers answer the call. |
From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Viewed |
14 Oil prices plummet more than $6 amid economic fear
By ADAM SCHRECK, AP Business Writer
2 hours, 28 minutes ago
NEW YORK - Oil prices fell harder than they have in 17 years Tuesday, as fears that record fuel prices are spreading broad economic pain exacerbated the third big sell-off in just over a week.
Light, sweet crude plunged $6.44, or 4.4 percent, to settle at $138.74 a barrel in an extremely volatile session. Prices at one point plummeted more than $10 from the day's high.
Mounting concerns about the risks inflation poses to the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer, helped spark the declines. Analysts also attributed the sell-off to Thursday's expiration of options contracts, which tend to increase volatility, and to computers programed to automatically sell once prices reach certain thresholds. |
15 Brazilians first to unlock new iPhone: reports
AFP
Tue Jul 15, 1:56 PM ET
SAO PAULO (AFP) - A Brazilian company is claiming to be the first to have found a way to unlock Apple's new iPhone 3G, getting around restrictions that require users to sign up for calling plans with exclusive carriers, reports said Tuesday.
The website of Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo and various online sites including Digg.com and Gizmodo.com said the firm, DesbloqueioBr, hacked the phone by altering its firmware and by adding a special card add-on to the SIM chip.
The results allow iPhone users to connect to any carrier, not just the one that has an exclusive arrangement with Apple in each country where the phones are sold. |
From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Emailed |
16 Rush (no, not him) to guest on `Colbert'
By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer
Tue Jul 15, 4:12 PM ET
NEW YORK - Rush will be appearing on "The Colbert Report," and it's not Limbaugh.
The Canadian band Rush, which hasn't performed on U.S. television in more than three decades, will play their classic "Tom Sawyer" on the Comedy Central show Wednesday (11:30 p.m. EST). The Geddy Lee-led trio, which is currently on tour, hasn't played on U.S. television since 1975.
Rush is only the latest act to perform on "The Report," which has steadily edged closer to "Ed Sullivan Show" territory. With increasingly frequent musical performances, "The Report" has grown a variety-show impulse, evident in other upcoming bookings. |
17 Bush: Troubled financial system is basically sound
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
53 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Tuesday the nation's troubled financial system is "basically sound" and urged lawmakers to quickly enact legislation to prop up mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He also called on the Democratic-run Congress to follow his example and lift a ban on offshore drilling to help increase domestic oil production.
"I readily concede it won't produce a barrel of oil tomorrow, but it will reverse the psychology," Bush told a White House news conference — his first since late April.
Bush said the two troubled mortgage companies play a central role in the nation's housing-finance system and that government action to help them were not bailouts because the two would remain shareholder-owned companies. |
18 Genocide charges not a threat to Sudan's leader
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jul 15, 3:18 PM ET
KHARTOUM, Sudan - Buoyed by support from the Arab and African world, Sudan's president showed no signs of giving in to pressure Tuesday after an international prosecutor sought his arrest for war crimes in Darfur.
Omar al-Bashir has emerged tarnished but apparently unbowed from the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court charging him with orchestrating a campaign that the U.N. says has killed 300,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes in Sudan's western region.
"This regime is not in crisis," said Mahjoub Mohammed Saleh, a respected analyst and co-founder of the independent newspaper al-Ayam. |
19 Crisis brews as Turkey's ruling party faces ban
By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jul 15, 2:08 PM ET
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's Islamic-rooted government was elected last year with a huge majority, continues to bask in popular support — and will probably fall within a month.
The strange state of affairs is not due to any internal revolt or opposition threat, but to a case before Turkey's Constitutional Court that seeks to ban the Justice and Development Party on charges of undermining secularism.
With the court stacked with members of the secular elite, many Turks expect to see their democratically elected government booted out. |
20 Zimbabwe Christian churches reject Mugabe victory
By MacDonald Dzirutwe, Reuters
Tue Jul 15, 1:41 PM ET
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's Christian community on Tuesday rejected President Robert Mugabe's re-election last month as marred by violence and intimidation and said it would support a government of national unity.
In a statement obtained by Reuters, the heads of all the churches in the predominantly Christian country said the contest between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was marred by the worst violence since independence in 1980.
Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off ballot last month, citing a campaign of intimidation and killings by Mugabe supporters that Western governments said made his re-election illegitimate. |
21 Pakistan asks court to uphold curbs on scientist
Reuters
Tue Jul 15, 9:54 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan on Tuesday asked a court not to withdraw restrictions on disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan because he risked implicating the state in nuclear proliferation, a government lawyer said.
Khan, lionized by many Pakistanis as the father of the country's atomic bomb, was pardoned but placed under house arrest by President Pervez Musharraf in 2004 soon after he made a televised confession to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
The scientist subsequently said he had been persuaded to confess and take the rap alone for the good of Pakistan. Khan says the government broke commitments that he would be rehabilitated and allowed to move freely inside the country. |
22 Belgium's future in the balance as premier quits
by Philippe Siuberski, AFP
Tue Jul 15, 11:32 AM ET
BRUSSELS, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - Belgium's future hung in the balance Tuesday as King Albert II considered whether to let his prime minister resign over his failure to bridge the gulf between the country's two linguistic communities.
The king, informed by Yves Leterme of his decision overnight, was "weighing" the move, the palace said, and met political leaders from both sides of the political divide as well as parliamentary officials.
"It appears that the communities' conflicting visions of how to give a new equilibrium to our state have become incompatible," Leterme said in a statement, after his shock move. |
23 Electioneering under way in Iraq, with bombs, threats, verbal jousting
By Nancy A. Youssef and Sahar Issa, McClatchy Newspapers
Tue Jul 15, 2:34 PM ET
BAGHDAD — Throughout Iraq , legislators, armed factions and former members of Saddam Hussein's regime were electioneering Tuesday— some with bombs, others through vitriolic audio messages— in an effort to bolster themselves for the scheduled fall provincial elections.
The government hasn't set an election date, but Iraqis of all persuasions think that the process could reshape the political landscape. Nearly every interest group has begun positioning itself. |
24 Europeans say trial of Osama's alleged chauffeur would harm human rights
By Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers
2 hours, 52 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of European legislators are supporting a man that U.S. officials accuse of being Osama bin Laden's personal driver and bodyguard.
In a much-anticipated hearing Thursday morning, attorneys for Yemeni native Salim Hamdan will try to convince a federal judge to postpone Hamdan's trial by military commission. The first-of-its-kind trial is supposed to start next week in Guantanamo Bay , but Hamdan wants it delayed while he challenges the commission's legality.
"(We) are concerned that (Hamdan's) imminent military commission trial will not exclude evidence that contravenes international standards of fair trial, due process and the protection of human rights," European legislators declared in a new legal brief. |
25 'Sesame Street' toymaker, others investigate sweatshop claim
By Kat Glass, McClatchy Newspapers
2 hours, 1 minute ago
WASHINGTON — The "Sesame Street" Workshop and a U.S. toymaker launched investigations Tuesday of allegations that some "Sesame Street" toys are being made in a Chinese sweatshop.
The National Labor Committee, a New York based foreignlabor watchdog, released a report Monday claiming that some 600 workers— many of them teens— put in 15-hour days for weeks at a time making "Sesame Street" toys. It said the Kai Da factory in Shenzhen, China , paid the workers less than half the legal minimum wage.
But officials at U.S. toy companies named in the committee's report — K'NEX Brands L.P. and Hasbro — say aspects of the findings don't add up. |
26 New Attack Adds to Afghans' Woes
By JEFFREY STERN / KABUL, Time Magazine
Tue Jul 15, 5:45 AM ET
The first movement came before dawn: villagers filed out of their homes and a few hundred armed attackers took up positions in people's parlors and bedrooms. At about 4:30 a.m. in the town of Want, which is part of Nooristan province in eastern Afghanistan, the attackers, believed to be Taliban, let fly their rounds and rocket-propelled grenades in four directions at the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Command Outpost, surprising coalition soldiers and their Afghan National Army counterparts stationed there. U.S. and Afghan government forces returned fire, but the mud brick walls of the village houses absorbed the impact of incoming bullets, and the Taliban kept the barrage coming, breaching the outer security ring and fighting hard until noon. The Americans called in mortars and close air support; Apache attack helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft responded with fire from the sky. The Taliban were finally driven back, reportedly suffering more than 40 casualties. But nine American soldiers also lost their lives. |
27 Choosing Justice Over Peace in Darfur
By SIMON ROBINSON / LONDON, Time Magazine
Tue Jul 15, 12:40 PM ET
The indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes over the slaughter in Darfur is a step as bold and historic as it is fraught with practical and political peril. |
28 Sudan: Retaliation Against the Hague?
By SAM DEALEY / KHARTOUM, Time Magazine
Tue Jul 15, 5:30 PM ET
The reaction in the Sudanese capital was deceptively muted after the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, charged Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Monday with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur's five-year war. Only hundreds of people gathered outside a U.N. compound to protest Moreno-Ocampo's announcement, and government officials largely refrained from the fiery outbursts reporters have come to expect. |
From Yahoo News U.S. News |
29 NYPD: Off-duty cop in shooting failed drunk test
By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 58 minutes ago
NEW YORK - An off-duty police detective failed a required sobriety test after wounding an armed suspect, leading a union official to suggest Tuesday that officers will think twice about stepping in when they're off the job.
The shooting early Sunday was the first time an officer failed a Breathalyzer test since a rule took effect last September. The test — the same one used in drunken-driving stops — is now administered to any officer who kills or wounds someone. Previously, a senior officer at the scene would determine whether those involved appeared sober at the time.
In this case, the detective's blood alcohol content was 0.09 percent, and the legal limit is 0.08 percent, authorities said Tuesday. |
30 Mass. Senate votes to let out-of-state gays marry
By STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 25 minutes ago
BOSTON - The Massachusetts Senate voted Tuesday to repeal a 1913 law used to bar out-of-state gay couples from marrying in the state, a law that critics say was originally aimed at interracial marriages.
The law prohibits couples from obtaining marriage licenses if they can't legally wed in their home states.
The House is expected to vote on the repeal measure later this week. The Senate action came on a voice vote. |
31 Customers furious in Day 2 of IndyMac fed takeover
Associated Press
Tue Jul 15, 11:59 AM ET
LOS ANGELES - Police ordered angry customers lined up outside an IndyMac Bank branch to remain calm or face arrest Tuesday as they tried to pull their money on the second day of the failed institution's federal takeover.
At least three police squad cars showed up early Tuesday as tensions rose outside the San Fernando Valley branch of Pasadena-based IndyMac.
Federal regulators seized Pasadena-based IndyMac on Friday and reopened the bank Monday under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Deposits to $100,000 are fully insured by the FDIC. |
32 Price, retail data paint stagflationary picture
By Burton Frierson, Reuters
Tue Jul 15, 5:22 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Weak U.S. retail sales and a rise in producer prices to their highest annual rate in 27 years provided further evidence of "stagflation" in the world's largest economy on Tuesday.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reinforced the troubled outlook, saying the economy faced significant downside risks, even though the Fed -- the U.S. central bank -- raised its forecast for growth as well as for inflation this year.
U.S. retail sales rose a less-than-expected 0.1 percent in June, as auto sales posted their biggest drop in more than two years, government data showed, leading investors to lower bets that the Fed would raise benchmark interest rates this year. |
33 School districts drop bus routes on fuel costs
By Rebekah Kebede, Reuters
Tue Jul 15, 3:14 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - As parents usher their children back to school this fall, they may have one more challenge to deal with: how to get their kids to school.
School districts around the country are cutting back on school bus routes and asking students to walk farther to bus stops as the average diesel price races toward $5 per gallon.
"Fuel conservation methods have been exploited already. It's gotten to the point where hard choices have to be made," said Robin Leeds, spokeswoman for the National School Transportation Association. |
34 NY man gets 30 months in prison for spamming AOL
Reuters
2 hours, 38 minutes ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Tuesday for sending spam e-mails to more than 1.2 million subscribers of America Online in a scheme that foiled the Internet company's spam-filtering system.
Adam Vitale, 27, was sentenced in federal court in Manhattan after pleading guilty more than a year ago to breaking anti-spam laws. He was also ordered to pay $180,000 to AOL in restitution.
Vitale was caught making a deal with a government informant to send junk e-mails -- known as spam -- that advertised a computer security program in return for 50 percent of the product's profits, prosecutors said.
"Spamming is serious criminal conduct; this is not a teenager engaging in child's play," U.S. District Judge Denny Chin told Vitale as he sentenced him. Vitale earlier apologized and said he had learned a lesson. |
35 Google-Viacom lawsuit deal cloaks YouTube user identities
AFP
2 hours, 12 minutes ago
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A deal struck Tuesday lets Google cloak identities of YouTube users while complying with a court order to show Viacom the video-viewing habits of everyone who has ever used the popular website.
In a July 3 ruling, a federal judge backed US media conglomerate Viacom's request for data on which YouTube users watch which videos on the website in order to support its case in a billion-dollar copyright lawsuit against Google.
Privacy advocates and fans of the globally popular video-sharing website were outraged by the court order. |
36 Obama holds lead over McCain, but undecided voters increase
AFP
9 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Barack Obama maintained a lead over John McCain in the White House race in three national polls published on Tuesday, but voters still trust McCain more to lead the country in the face of a major crisis as president.
Less than four months before the November 4 presidential election, Democrat Obama held a lead of six to eight points among registered voters in the three surveys -- 50-42 percent in the Washington Post/ABC News poll, 44-37 percent in the Quinnipiac poll; and 45-39 percent in the CBS/New York Times results.
The polls showed Obama's lead over his Republican rival anchored on a firm support base of women voters, young people and the African-American community. |
37 Making Water a Matter of Race
By CLAIRE SUDDATH, Time Magazine
1 hour, 37 minutes ago
To this day, Jerry Kennedy only does laundry when it rains. For the first 54 years of his life, he lived without running water, and rainstorms were the only way he could collect enough water to wash his clothes. But Kennedy isn't from some far-off rural outpost. He was born and raised in the Coal Run neighborhood of Zanesville, Ohio - a former coal-mining center of 25,000 in the eastern part of the state - just a few hundred feet from a municipal water line. Kennedy, now 58, is black. His neighbors, who did not have running water for more than 50 years, are also black. On July 10, the U.S. District Court of Ohio awarded them almost $10.9 million, ruling that they had been denied access to public water because of their race. |
38 House Democrats launch first TV ad of fall race
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
1 hour, 53 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - House Democrats launched the first television commercial by either party Tuesday in the 2008 battle for control of Congress, criticizing a Republican challenger in Pennsylvania as a friend and supporter of an unpopular President Bush.
Republican Lou Barletta "may be George Bush's friend. But he's no friend of the middle class," says the commercial. The president's image appears before the candidate's is seen, and never leaves the screen in the 30-second ad.
Barletta is running against Rep. Paul Kanjorski, who has been accused of ethical lapses in the past, and Republicans said the television ad campaign signaled problems ahead for him. |
39 Obama Web site removes `surge' from Iraq problem
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jul 15, 5:06 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's aides have removed criticism of President Bush's increase of troops to Iraq from the campaign Web site, part of an effort to update the Democrat's written war plan to reflect changing conditions.
Debate over the impact of President Bush's troop "surge" has been at the center of exchanges this week between Obama and Republican presidential rival John McCain. Obama opposed the war and the surge from the start, while McCain supported both the invasion and the troop increase.
A year and a half after Bush announced he was sending reinforcements to Iraq, it is widely credited with reducing violence there. With most Americans ready to end the war, McCain is using the surge debate to argue he has better judgment and the troops should stay to win the fight. Obama argues the troop increase has not achieved its other goal of fostering a political reconciliation among Iraqi factions. |
40 Congress dissects Treasury's GSE plan, no vote set
By Kevin Drawbaugh, Reuters
Tue Jul 15, 5:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional leaders on Tuesday agreed swift action is needed to bolster housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but they raised basic questions about the Treasury Department's plan, leaving the timing of final action in doubt.
As share prices in the nation's largest mortgage companies tumbled for a third day, Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Barney Frank said Democrats plan to alter the Treasury's plan "to enhance taxpayer protection."
He said Democrats want to ensure that any Fannie or Freddie equity stake the government might buy under the plan -- unveiled on Sunday by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson -- must be "a very senior position for the federal government," possibly involving preferred stock. |
41 U.S. aid bill seeks to boost Pakistan civilian ties
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent, Rueters
1 hour, 54 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senior U.S. senators on Tuesday unveiled a $7.5 billion, 5-year aid bill for Pakistan aimed at boosting civilian ties in an alliance heavily skewed toward a military fight against Islamic militants.
The legislation introduced by Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware and Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana directs aid to development projects such as schools, roads and clinics and aims to make Pakistan's military more accountable for the billions in U.S. support it has been receiving since the September 11 attacks.
The bipartisan legislative move comes amid increasing attacks in Afghanistan blamed on militants based in Pakistan's border tribal belt, which is believed to be the sanctuary of al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden and key Taliban leaders. |
42 Russian opposition to missile defense unjustified: US general
by Jim Mannion, AFP
Tue Jul 15, 4:40 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top US general hit out Tuesday against what he said were "increasingly aggressive" statements by Russia against US plans for missile defenses in Europe.
Lieutenant General Henry Obering reiterated that the plan to put a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland was aimed at countering a growing Iranian missile threat, not at Russia.
"When they make increasingly aggressive statements, it's incumbent upon them to justify those," Obering told reporters here, referring to the Russians. Obering heads the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency. |
43 Google-Yahoo tie-up draws fire on Capitol Hill
by Rob Lever, AFP
Tue Jul 15, 3:24 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A proposed online advertising tie-up between Google and Yahoo drew fire at a Senate antitrust hearing Tuesday even as both companies defended the alliance as positive for consumers and businesses.
Microsoft senior vice president and general counsel Brad Smith delivered a scathing assessment of the tie-up, saying it would crimp competition and give Google "unprecedented" control of the gateway to the Internet.
"If search is the gateway to the Internet, and most believe that it is, this deal will put Google in a position to own that gateway and the information that flows through it," Smith told the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. |
44 Amnesty wants Bush to speak out on human rights in Beijing
AFP
2 hours, 37 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Amnesty International asked US President George W. Bush Tuesday to make a "strong public statement" on China's need to respect human rights when he attends the opening of the Beijing Olympics.
"We propose that President Bush make a strong public statement while in Beijing on Chinese rights concerns, including political prisoners, torture and religious and media freedom," said T. Kumar, Amnesty's Asia-Pacific director for advocacy in Washington.
He said that Amnesty would be among a dozen human rights groups scheduled to meet with Bush's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley on July 28 ahead of the president's trip to attend the August 8 Olympics opening ceremony. |
45 Paulson sees mortgage assistance as backup
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
Tue Jul 15, 1:36 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday the Bush administration has no immediate plans to extend emergency loans to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or to purchase the stock of the two companies.
Paulson told the Senate Banking Committee that the assistance plan put together by the administration and the Federal Reserve over the weekend was intended to serve as a backup if needed.
He said that if the government extends any financial backing to the two institutions it will be done "under terms and conditions that protect the U.S. taxpayer." |
46 Volkswagen selects Tennessee for US auto plant
By BILL POOVEY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jul 15, 4:11 PM ET
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - Volkswagen picked Chattanooga for its U.S. assembly plant that will employ about 2,000 workers and make a new midsize sedan as part of a plan to triple sales in the U.S. by 2018.
Sites in Alabama and Michigan were also considered by Europe's biggest automaker which plans to invest about $1 billion in the plant.
The announcement came on a day that the euro soared to a new high against the dollar and General Motors executives in Detroit announced planned layoffs. It also comes about 20 years after VW closed its last U.S. plant. |
47 Bank shares sink to 1996 levels on loss fears
By Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
Tue Jul 15, 5:41 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. bank shares fell to their lowest level since 1996 on fears of greater credit losses for an already battered sector.
The 24-member KBW Bank Index (.BKX), consisting mainly of the biggest U.S. banks, fell as much as 7 percent on Tuesday.
They closed down 3.1 percent, recovering some losses after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke affirmed that helping financial markets return to normal functioning was a top priority for the central bank. |
48 Murdoch, Zuckerman may combine NY printing: source
Reuters
Tue Jul 15, 5:53 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitter rivals New York Post owner Rupert Murdoch and New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman may combine the printing, distribution and back office operations of their New York newspapers, a source familiar with the discussions said on Tuesday.
The source confirmed a New York Times's website report about the preliminary discussions.
The tabloid newspapers have waged a decades-long battle for readers and advertisers through the streets of New York City. |
49 EU adopts emergency aid package for fishing sector
AFP
2 hours, 53 minutes ago
BRUSSELS (AFP) - EU fisheries ministers adopted late Tuesday an emergency aid package worth up to two billion euros to help fishermen cope with soaring fuel prices, the EU's French presidency said.
"Political agreement was reached by a qualified majority on urgent measures for the fishing sector," the presidency said, as the ministers met into the evening in Brussels.
The European Commission says that fuel prices for fishing boats have soared 240 percent since 2002, putting severe pressure on a sector already struggling to cope with overcapacity and dwindling fish stocks. |
50 Airbus flying high after Gulf states snap up more planes
by Ben Perry, AFP
Tue Jul 15, 1:06 PM ET
FARNBOROUGH, England (AFP) - Airbus soared above its US rival Boeing here on Tuesday after striking deals to sell eco-friendly passenger jets worth 15.2 billion dollars (9.5 billion euros) to mainly cash-rich Gulf states.
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise announced a firm order for 100 Airbus planes worth 12.6 billion dollars for its leasing operations, at the Farnborough International Airshow, outside London.
After two days at one of the biggest events in the commercial aviation industry's calendar, Airbus had secured orders for 195 new planes, putting it way ahead of Boeing's total of 50 in the traditional Farnborough battle for deals. |
51 Astronauts take another spacewalk for tamer job
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
2 hours, 1 minute ago
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The space station's two Russian astronauts stepped outside for the second time in less than a week Tuesday, taking a spacewalk that proved to be tame compared to last week's work with explosives.
Although Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko had a lengthy to-do list, none of the chores were notably complicated or dangerous this time around.
They quickly installed a docking target to be used when a new Russian mini research module arrives next year and the crew size doubles. But Kononenko had trouble taking pictures of the target; he couldn't aim his camera the right way as he dangled at the end of a 50-foot boom, his body rotating at times. |
52 Training reassessed after plutonium spill
Associated Press
Tue Jul 15, 5:28 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Use of radioactive materials has been suspended and worker training is being reassessed following a plutonium spill at the Boulder, Colo., laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the agency's deputy director told a congressional subcommittee Tuesday.
"Based on the information available at this time, this incident was preventable," James M. Turner told the House Science and Technology's subcommittee on technology and innovation.
Turner said medical experts report that no significant health effects are likely for the people involved. |
53 Mystery insect bugging experts at London museum
By MEERA SELVA, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jul 15, 6:41 AM ET
LONDON - The experts at London's Natural History Museum pride themselves on being able to identify species from around the globe, from birds and mammals to insects and snakes. Yet they can't figure out a tiny red-and-black bug that has appeared in the museum's own gardens.
The almond-shaped insect, about the size of a grain of rice, and was first seen in March 2007 on some of the plane trees that grow on the grounds of the 19th century museum, collections manager Max Barclay said Tuesday.
Within three months, it had become the most common insect in the garden, and it was also spotted in other central London parks, he said. |
54 Ulcer bacteria may protect from asthma
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Reuters
Tue Jul 15, 9:02 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bacteria only recently revealed as a major cause of ulcers and stomach cancer may help protect children from developing asthma, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
Children infected with the bacteria, called Helicobacter pylori, were much less likely to have asthma than uninfected children, they reported.
"Our findings suggest that absence of H. pylori may be one explanation for the increased risk of childhood asthma," said Yu Chen, assistant professor of epidemiology at New York University School of Medicine, who worked on the study. |
55 Algae plaguing Olympic sailing venue cleared: state media
AFP
Tue Jul 15, 2:24 PM ET
BEIJING (AFP) - Foul-smelling green algae that has been plaguing China's Olympic sailing venue has been cleared, state media said Tuesday, after more than one million tonnes of the sludge was removed.
Authorities had set a Tuesday deadline to clean up the algae bloom in Qingdao, drafting 10,000 soldiers and volunteers and hundreds of fishing boats to help with the mammoth task.
After a month of working to remove the algae, which had hit about one third of the venue, two barriers have now been erected to keep any more algae out, the official Xinhua news agency said late Tuesday. |
56 Facing extinction, Tasmanian devils start sex younger: study
AFP
Tue Jul 15, 2:52 AM ET
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's iconic Tasmanian devils have started having sex at a younger age since the advent of a deadly disease which threatens to wipe out the species, researchers said Tuesday.
Data collected before and after the cancer-causing disease appeared showed a 16-fold increase in early sexual behaviour, according to research published on Tuesday in a leading US journal.
Scientists fear the disease, which causes facial tumours, could lead to the marsupial carnivore's extinction within 20 to 25 years. |
57 Mars Lander Exposes More Ice
Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer SPACE.com
Tue Jul 15, 10:30 AM ET
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander used its robotic arm to expose more of the hard icy layer just below the Martian surface so that it can more easily gather a sample of the material for analysis.
The trench, informally called "Snow White," was about 8 by 12 inches (20 by 30 centimeters) after digging by the arm Saturday. Mission controllers sent commands to the spacecraft Monday to further extend the length of the trench by about 6 inches (15 centimeters).
Scientists said tests in a lab on Earth suggested more area must be exposed in order to collect a proper sample. |
58 Gulf Dead Zone May Grow Larger Than Ever
LiveScience Staff
Tue Jul 15, 12:45 PM ET
An annual dead zone that develops in the Gulf of Mexico could be larger than ever this summer, scientists said today.
The region, largely devoid of life, develops when an overgrowth of algae, fueled in part by agricultural runoff, robs the sea of oxygen, and other organisms can't survive.
The researchers are predicting the area could measure a record 8,800 square miles, or roughly the size of New Jersey. In 2007, the dead zone was 7,903 square miles. The largest dead zone on record was in 2002, when it measured 8,481 square miles. Researchers began taking regular measurements of the dead zone in 1985. |