FTR News and More

Bush Sorry Economic Crisis Has Cut Jobs, 401 (K)S

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:57:00 MST

President George W. Bush expressed remorse that the global financial crisis has cost jobs and harmed retirement accounts and said he'll back more government intervention if needed to ease the recession. "I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's "World News," which was airing Monday. "Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American p...

US Greenhouse Emissions Up

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:48:00 MST

The Bush administration today lost one of its main talking points for defending its approach of relying on voluntary measures to address climate change. The government’s energy statistics agency is reporting that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased 1.4 percent in 2007 — meaning the slight decrease recorded the prior year was a mere blip on the nation’s current pathway toward increasing its fossil fuel burden on the atmosphere. Last year, President Bush touted a 1.3 perc...

Planned Job Cuts Highest In Nearly Seven Years - Report - Dec. 3, 2008

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:51:00 MST

Jobs took another painful hit in November, with planned cuts rising to the highest level in seven years, according to a report released Wednesday by an outplacement firm. Job cut announcements by U.S. employers soared to 181,671 last month, up 61% from October's 112,884 cuts, and 148% higher than the same period a year ago, when 73,140 job cuts were announced, according to the report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. November's total represents the second highest on record, shy ...

Bush Administration: Almost Midnight

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:58:00 MST

The Bush administration deserves credit for its efforts to make the transition go smoothly, perhaps exceptionally so. But these are also ominous days, with Republican political appointees trying to rush through dangerous rule changes on the environment, domestic surveillance, workplace safety and more. It's almost an across-the-board push. The Labor Department is finishing a new rule that would hinder regulations on workers' exposures to toxic substances and hazardous chemicals. The J...

Bush Damage Report

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:56:00 MST

Having promised to "sprint to the finish" of his second term and "to remain focused on the goals ahead," President Bush is "working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules" aimed at protecting workers, consumers and the environment, the Washington Post reports. "The administration wants to leave a legacy," said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, "but across the board it means less protection for the pu...

Behavioral Screening -- The Future Of Airport Security?

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:54:00 MST

Keep your shoes and belts on -- waiting in long airport security lines to pass through metal detectors may soon be a thing of the past. Security experts say focus is shifting from analyzing the content of carry-ons to analyzing the content of passengers' intentions and emotions. "We are seeing a needed paradigm shift when it comes to security," says Omer Laviv, CEO of ATHENA GS3, an Israeli-based security company. "This 'brain-fingerprinting,' or technology which...

It's Official: U.S. In A Recession Since December 2007

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:15:00 MST

The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy . The NBER is a private group of leading economists charged with dating the start and end of economic downturns. It typically takes a long time after the start of a recession to declare its start because of the need to look at final readings of various economic measures. "The committee vi...

Obama Names Campaign Rival Hillary Clinton As His Secretary Of State

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:22:00 MST

President-elect Barack Obama has named his one-time political rival, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, as his secretary of state. Clinton is expected to resign her Senate seat to prepare to lead U.S. foreign policy in the latest chapter in her long career. VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Washington. Many observers are praising President-elect Obama's choice for secretary of state. They said Hillary Clinton comes to the job with name recognition and a familiarity with forei...

Obama Unveils His National Security Team

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:10:00 MST

President-elect Barack Obama on Monday officially introduced the members of his national security team, including former Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state and Robert Gates, who will be remain as defense secretary. Obama also announced that retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones -- a former top commander of NATO and U.S. forces in Europe -- would be his national security adviser. "I am confident that this is the team that we need to make a new beginning for ...

Bush Aides Rush To Enact A Rule Obama Opposes

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:16:00 MST

The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job. The rule, which has strong support from business groups, says that in assessing the risk from a particular substance, federal agencies should gather and analyze “industry-by-industry evidence” of employees’ exposure to it durin...

Bush'S Destructive Path On Environment

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:41:00 MST

So many environmental regulations to gut, so little time. In a surprising show of industriousness, the Bush administration has unleashed a last-minute attack on national environmental regulations. "Midnight regulations," as these activities are called, are nothing new - the first president to ram through unfinished business before leaving office was Jimmy Carter in 1980. Every president since Carter has done the same thing, and the amount of paper used is staggering: Bill Clinton, for...

War On Terror: Barack Obama

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:10:00 MST

Barack Obama will confront a daunting list of priorities when he takes office on Jan. 20. Rescuing the nation's economy -- if there's anything left to rescue by then -- will obviously be at the top of the list. But it is just as important that Obama immediately declare an end to the "war on terror," and reverse all of the policies that have been carried out in its name. George W. Bush's "war on terror" has been an unmitigated disaster. First, it is unwinnable. Terr...

Pawlenty Calls For A More Diverse GOP

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:42:00 MST

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) laid out his vision for the Republican Party and how it can move forward. It needs to get younger, more diverse and build a broader coalition, he said here at the Republican Governors Association conference a little more than a week after Republicans lost the presidency and suffered big losses in both the US House and Senate. "If we're going to successfully travel the road, as a Republican, we need to see clearly, and be honest about where we've bee...

Georgia Congressman Warns Of Obama Dictatorship

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:56:00 MST

A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship. "It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may—may not, I hope not—but we may ha...

Bush Leaving Office More Unpopular Than Nixon

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:06:00 MST

On the day that President-elect Barack Obama is visiting the White House, a new national poll suggests that the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most unpopular president since approval ratings were first sought more than six decades ago. Seventy-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday disapprove of how President Bush is handling his job. That's an all-time high in CNN polling and in Gallup polling dating back to Wo...

Palin Still Center Stage

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:16:00 MST

ABC News' David Chalian Reports: Gov. Sarah Palin is clearly not ready to relinquish the spotlight following her defeat with John McCain on the Republican presidential ticket last Tuesday. The Republican Governors Association has announced today that Gov. Palin will be the featured guest at its annual conference later this week in Miami, Florida. Gov. Palin is set to be a featured speaker at a panel discussion entitled, "Looking Toward the Future." Other featured speakers expec...

Bush Acting Qickly to Kill the Environment

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:21:00 MST

In the next few weeks, the Bush administration is expected to relax environmental-protection rules on power plants near national parks, uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and more mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia. The administration is widely expected to try to get some of the rules into final form by the week before Thanksgiving because, in some cases, there's a 60-day delay before new regulations take effect. And once the rules are in place, undoing them generally would b...

Hope Amid The Ruins

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:36:00 MST

I think that this is a well considered editorial, but how can the writer say that Republicans have been unpopular for years? They controlled the House, Senate, and the Presidency for most of the last 20-odd years! Get a clue! The public is unhappy with you because you let them down!!!!! All Americans should be glad that a black American has been able to make it to the presidency, and hope that President-Elect Barack Obama’s time in office will redound to the country’s long-term...

John Mccain'S Verdict On Sarah Palin: More Trouble Than A Pitbull

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:31:00 MST

So now we know what John McCain really thinks of his running mate Sarah Palin – and that's not just because of the awkward body language between them during his concession speech in Phoenix, Arizona. An exasperated McCain has been telling friends in recent weeks that Palin is even more trouble than a pitbull. In one joke doing the rounds, the Republican presidential candidate has been asking friends: what is the difference between Sarah Palin and a pitbull? The friendly canine ev...

Supreme Court Debates Indecency

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:26:00 MST

The Supreme Court appeared divided on Tuesday over a U.S. government crackdown on dirty words on television as the justices carefully avoided uttering the two four-letter expletives at the heart of the case. In considering the policy that subjects broadcasters to fines for airing a single expletive blurted out on a live television show, the justices and the lawyers who argued the case instead referred to the "F word" and the "S word." Several liberal justices seemed concern...

Barack Obama President: Barack Obama Elected Our Next President

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:15:00 MST

Barack Obama won the presidency Tuesday, the first African-American to claim the highest office in the land, an improbable candidate fulfilling a once-impossible dream. A nation that in living memory struggled violently over racial equality will have as its next president a 47-year-old, one-term U.S. senator born of a Kenyan father and Kansan mother. He is the first president elected from Chicago and the first to rise from a career in Illinois politics since Abraham Lincoln emerged from front...

Voting Problems Roundup: Election Morning, Problems Are Popping Up In Several Key States

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:34:00 MST

Just a few hours into Election Day, problems are popping up in several key states with long lines and broken machines all against the backdrop of what is expected to be the largest turnout in history. As of right now, one national voter protection group says it has received 27,000 reports of problems. - In Virginia, problems at polling places have been reported from over ten locations all across the state, including Richmond, Portsmouth, Lynchburg, Chesapeake, Vienna, Newport News and Virgin...

Coal Diversion on Election Eve

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:06:00 MST

In the closing hours of the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain attacked rival Barack Obama Monday over comments made in January about the coal industry. “We found out yesterday what Senator Obama really thinks about coal,” McCain said Monday during a campaign stop in Blountville Tennessee, which borders southern Virginia. “In a new video talking about his policies on coal, he told — guess who? — the San Francisco newspaper — and this is what he said, &...

Sale of Pristine Wilderness Slated to Happen Six Days Before Christmas

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:59:00 MST

On election day, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to announce that it will sell oil and gas leases on areas in eastern Utah, including sections of Desolation Canyon, White River, Diamond Mountain, Bourdette Draw, and other lands in the Nine Mile Canyon region. These public lands had largely been off-limits to new oil and gas leasing because of a series of federal court and administrative decisions overturning earlier illegal BLM leasing decisions. The BLM had previously declared the...

Bush Hurries to Burn the Environment

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:53:00 MST

As the U.S. presidential candidates sprint toward the finish line, the Bush administration is also sprinting to enact environmental policy changes before leaving power. > Whether it's getting wolves off the Endangered Species List, allowing power plants to operate near national parks, loosening regulations for factory farm waste or making it easier for mountaintop coal-mining operations, these proposed changes have found little favor with environmental groups.
The one chang...

Dalai Lama Says Diplomacy With Beijing Has Failed

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:15:00 MST

Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, says he is giving up on talks with China about autonomy, adding that his faith in the Chinese government is becoming "thinner and thinner." > Speaking with reporters Monday in Tokyo, the Buddhist leader said he has to accept failure. He said he has no other alternative but to ask the Tibetan people what to do next.
He also said that suppression in Tibet is increasing and that he cannot pretend everything is OK. > The s...

Action Needed To Save Orcas

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:20:00 MST

It was a grisly time in Vancouver Island waters, as boats fitted with blades on their bows searched out basking sharks, gentle giants who lazed near the surface, and sliced them into pieces. Basking sharks are extraordinary creatures, the second largest fish on the planet at up to 12 metres. But they were a nuisance for fishing boats, so the federal government set out to eliminate them. The sharks are now considered endangered. The slaughter is not some dark chapter from the distant past....

Green Activists Rue Easing Of Species Act

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:55:00 MST

Lost amid the discussions of socialism, tax cuts and Joe the Plumber is what will happen to the Arizona bald eagle - and hundreds of other endangered species - when a new president takes office Jan. 20. > In the waning days of the Bush administration, one of its final acts may be a new set of rules that would drastically change the Endangered Species Act, the 1973 law that has been credited with saving the grizzly bear, the bald eagle and the California condor.
The rules, which...

Anchorage Daily News: Palin Not Helping On 'Troopergate'

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:51:00 MST

Gov. Sarah Palin's handling of Troopergate is getting more and more troubling. She has reneged on her pledge, made before becoming the Republican vice-presidential nominee, to cooperate with the Legislature's investigation. While stonewalling the independent inquiry, she is trying her side of the case in the press. Working on her behalf Monday, McCain-for-president operatives ripped into Walt Monegan and the legislators overseeing the inquiry. > Whatever happened to the "o...

Bush Administration Gives 10 Days For Species Comments

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:33:00 MST

It wasn't unexpected, but today the Bush administration said it's going ahead extremely quickly with a proposal that has enraged environmentalists -- and is giving the public just 10 days to comment on it. I guess the Bushies can see 1/20/09 coming up very fast. > It sounds like a snoozer: changes in the consultation requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. The Bush administration calls the changes "narrow." But it's bound to mean big changes whe...

Obama in Denver

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:28:00 MST

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, working to win over Latino voters in Colorado, chanted ``si se puede,'' or ``yes we can,'' in Spanish along with an outdoor crowd in Denver estimated at more than 100,000. > Obama has a 12 percentage-point lead over Republican rival John McCain among likely voters in Colorado, according to a Rocky Mountain NewsCBS4 News poll. The state hasn't picked a Democrat for president since 1992. Denver police chief Gerry Whitman est...

Hey, Sarah Palin, There Are Real American Heroes, Even Here In New York City

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:27:00 MST

This is what Sarah Palin said not long ago at a fund-raiser in North Carolina, as she once again decided she was ready to speak for America: "We believe the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all you hardworking, very patriotic, um, very pro-America areas of this great country ... those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom." Palin wou...

McCain a Weak Imitation of Bush

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:13:00 MST

Democrat Barack Obama portrayed Republican rival John McCain as a weak imitation of President George W. Bush on Sunday and warned a McCain White House would mean four more years of failed policies and broken politics. > "We're not going to let George Bush pass the torch to John McCain," Obama told a crowd of more than 100,000 supporters who jammed a downtown Denver park and sprawled up the steps of the Colorado state capital building.
The Illinois senator,...

Palin Stretches Facts In Effort To Paint Obama As Presumptuous

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:05:00 MST

You kinda get the feeling that Sara Palin is a liar... don'cha now? > Following a fiery introduction by "The View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who accused the media of being "deliberately sexist" in its coverage of Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor suggested that Barack Obama assumes he already has the election wrapped up.
"And you know that elections - they're not decided until the votes are counted," Palin said at a rally ...

Alaska’S Biggest Paper Backs Obama

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:15:00 MST

If it were up to the nations newspapers to decide, Barack Obama and Joe Biden would win in a landslide. According to Editor & Publisher - a journal covering the newspaper industry - the Democrats are favored over their GOP rivals by editorial boards 147 - 57 with just nine days until E-Day. > So it was really no surprise when papers like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The LA Times came out for Obama for president — but the Anchorage Daily News? Governor Sarah Pa...

Palin Returned Most Gop Clothes

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:11:00 MST

I just have one thing to say... "SO WHAT!" Oh yeah, these people think Americans are stupid. Republican John McCain said Sunday that one-third of the $150,000 that the GOP spent on clothing and accessories for his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and her family, "is given back." McCain strategist Mark Salter said "about a third of it was returned immediately" because they were the wrong size, or for other reasons. Salter's explanation was the first time...

If It Weren'T So Late, Would Mccain Push Palin Out Of His Sinking Ship?

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 09:27:00 MST

Ouch Sarah! According to yesterdays Washington Post - ABC News poll: > 58% of respondents said Sarah Palin is “insufficiently experienced” to be a good president.
51% of respondents said they have a negative impression of her. > Less than 46% said they have a favorable view of Palin. This is down from Palin’s favorable number of 59% in early September.
40% of all voters had a strongly negative view of Palin. > Obama now has a...

Party At War As Palin 'Goes Rogue'

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 09:21:00 MST

DAMAGING recriminations between aides to John McCain and Sarah Palin, who is being accused of "going rogue", are spilling out into public view. > Reflecting a bitterly divided campaign going into the final week of the presidential race, unnamed campaign insiders are starting to speak out in a traditional Washington game of "precriminations", where blame starts to be apportioned in the face of a likely defeat.
Ms Palin is making it obvious she is unhapp...

Palin ‘Going Rogue’?

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:05:00 MST

A widening split has developed between Sarah Palin and key campaign aides for John McCain, with one McCain adviser saying the Republican vice presidential candidate is going "rogue," two reports say today. > Some McCain sources wonder whether Palin is intentionally making public her disagreements with campaign positions, says a CNN story (http:/www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/25/palin.tension/index.html). > “She takes no advice from anyone,” CNN quotes one unn...

Republican Fears Of Historic Obama Landslide Unleash Civil War For The Future Of The Party

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:00:00 MST

Aides to George W.Bush, former Reagan White House staff and friends of John McCain have all told The Sunday Telegraph that they not only expect to lose on November 4, but also believe that Mr Obama is poised to win a crushing mandate. They believe he will be powerful enough to remake the American political landscape with even more ease than Ronald Reagan did in 1980. The prospect of an electoral rout has unleashed a bitter bout of recriminations both within the McCain campaign and the wid...

Gop In Blame Game Over Mccain Campaign

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:49:00 MST

With despair rising even among many of John McCain’s own advisers, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering — much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely. A McCain interview published Thursday in The Washington Times sparked the latest and most nasty round of finger-pointing, with senior GOP hands close to President Bush and top congressional aides denouncing the candidate fo...

Barack Obama - Endorsement - Nytimes.Com

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:41:00 MST

Hyperbole is the currency of presidential campaigns, but this year the nation’s future truly hangs in the balance. The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggli...

Scott Mcclellan Bails On John Mccain

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:53:00 MST

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, the consummate Bush loyalist no more, has a knack for dropping bombshells. > He did it with his tell-all book about life and lies in President Bush's inner circle.
And now comes his grinning declaration, taped for a new weekend CNN show, "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News," that he has a favorite in the presidential election, and it is not John McCain. > His face lighting up as bright as his French blue shirt, it i...

Palin'S Wardrobe Expenses Prompt Complaint To Fec

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:50:00 MST

A watchdog group filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission Wednesday alleging that the Republican Party broke federal campaign laws by buying Sarah Palin and her family about $150,000 in clothes for campaign appearances. > The complaint names as defendants Palin, the RNC, Larson and other operatives associated with the RNC.
The Federal Election Campaign Act specifically prohibits expenditures for such purposes, the liberal-leaning Center for Responsibility and Ethi...

Small Newspapers for Obama

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:08:00 MST

The Obama-Biden ticket has had an impressive showing so far in the race for editorial endorsements, and not just with the traditionally Democratic newspapers. The campaign has successfully changed the minds of close to 30 traditionally Republican newspapers, as we have shown in our daily update. > The Yamhill Valley News-Register (McMinnville, Ore.) is one of these papers, having recently published its first endorsement of a Democratic presidential candidate since at least 1928, when the l...

Donkey Wrong: Sarah Palin Wears 'Vote Democrat' Scarf At Republican Rally

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:02:00 MST

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been photographed wearing a 'Vote Democrat' scarf at a rally in Nevada. > The photographs show Ms Palin in Reno on Tuesday wearing the scarf emblazoned with donkeys and the words 'Yes' and 'Vote'.
The donkey has become the established political symbol for the Democratic Party. Republicans are most commonly associated with the elephant. > Mr McCain's running-mate was criticised yesterday afte...

Fast Readers Wanted

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:58:00 MST

ushing to ease endangered species rules before President Bush leaves office, Interior Department officials are attempting to review 200,000 comments from the public in just 32 hours, according to an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press. The Fish and Wildlife Service has called a team of 15 people to Washington this week to pore through letters and online comments about a proposal to exclude greenhouse gases and the advice of federal biologists from decisions about whether dams, power plan...

Endangered Species: A 9-Second Rewrite

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:31:00 MST

It's a time of maximum danger for the environment. The clock is winding down on the Bush administration, leaving little time to fulfill its long-cherished dreams of weakening endangered species protections. > Not known for worrying about manipulating the rules, facts or common sense, the administration appears ready to go to absurd lengths to rush through damaging changes. Consider how the Department of the Interior is hurrying to cement into federal policy the administration's hig...

India Space Probe Seeks Fusion Power Source On Moon

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:13:00 MST

India took a giant leap into the global space club Wednesday when its Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft blasted off on the country's first mission to the moon. Chandrayaan-1 is unmanned, but its mission is long, complex and important. It will follow in the footsteps of the cost-effective and highly successful 1994 U.S. Clementine Deep Space Program Science Experiment that pioneered geologically mapping the moon. > The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft will be prospecting from close lunar orbit for he...

Gop Spent $150,000 In Donations On Palin'S Look

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:04:00 MST

John McCain's presidential campaign said thousands of dollars worth of clothing purchased by the Republican Party for running mate Sarah Palin will go to a "charitable purpose" after the campaign. The Republican National Committee spent about $150,000 on clothing, hair styling, makeup and other "campaign accessories" in September for the McCain campaign after Palin, the governor of Alaska, joined the ticket. The expenses include $75,062 spent at Neiman Marcus in Minnea...

Palin, N.C. Lawmaker Apologize For Comments

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:14:00 MST

Republicans were in mea culpa mode yesterday after comments in North Carolina suggesting that their supporters are more patriotic than Democrats. > At a fund-raiser in the Tar Heel state last week, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said, "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America . . . pro-America areas of this great nation."
Yesterday on CNN, Pa...

Obama Is The Way Forward For Women

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:14:00 MST

Women are at a crossroads in our struggle for legal equality as a means to social equality. Having women in politics matters, but it is crucial to have the policies women need. At this moment we risk losing ground gained, but we also have the opportunity to advance. At stake in this presidential election are the federal courts. > Despite inroads, women's status remains characterized by sex-based poverty and impunity for sexual abuse from childhood on. The next president will appoint sc...

McCain Goes Rove

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:54:00 MST

Trailing in the polls with the election barely two weeks away, John McCain has dug deep into the Lee Atwater/Karl Rove playbook, now portraying Barack Obama as a combination of class-warfare socialist, terrorist fellow-traveler and crooked pol. > McCain also has sought to tie Obama to ACORN, a controversial grassroots organization that has been registering voters. At the third presidential debate, McCain alleged that ACORN “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the gre...

Ebay Bans Ivory Sales

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:46:00 MST

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW - www.ifaw.org) applauds eBay's decision to institute a global ban on the sale of elephant ivory products by 1 January 2009 and calls on all other internet traders to follow their example. eBay's decision was announced just hours before the release of IFAW's latest investigative report showing internet trade in wildlife poses a significant and immediate threat to the survival of elephants and many other endangered species. The re...

Troubled Species 2, Sarah Palin 0

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:15:00 MST

Alaska's governor and John McCain's high-flying running-mate, who lost in her attempt to stop the US government from declaring polar bears a threatened species, went 0-for-2 on Friday. That's when Washington decided to put the beluga whales of Alaska's Cook Inlet, which haven't recovered since their numbers were cut in half during the 1990s, on the endangered species list. > Why a whale derider? Palin on Friday called the decision ''premature'' and chall...

Bush Rushes To Enrich Industry While Stiffing The Environment - October 17, 2008

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:34:00 MST

Lame ducks they may be. But President Bush and Vice President Cheney are using their last months in the White House to cram more sweets into the goodie bags of industry with yet more of their public-be-damned orders to create more misery for nature and the environment. > First out of their bags of tricks was an order to the Bureau of Land Management to ignore the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which allows Congress to take emergency action when public lands are threatened. &l...

Gop Environmental Record A Challenge For Mccain

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:25:00 MST

As GOP Sen. John McCain struggles to distance himself from President Bush on economic policy and the national debt, he also faces the tough task of separating himself from a Republican administration with the worst environmental record in recent years. > California has passed the most sweeping environmental measures in the nation, and voters in the state are likely to take into account the criticism McCain is getting from environmentalists for backing a Bush philosophy of ultra-light regul...

Beluga Whale Added To Endangered List

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:22:00 MST

The federal government on Friday placed the beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, concluding that a decade-long recovery program has failed to assure their survival. > "In spite of protections already in place, Cook Inlet beluga whales are not recovering," said James Balsiger, acting assistant administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The findings by NOAA's National Marine...

Green Groups Deliver Comments On Species Act

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:11:00 MST

n August, the Bush administration proposed seriously weakening the Endangered Species Act by allowing government departmentsmost of which employ no biologiststo assess for themselves whether their proposed projects would jeopardize endangered species or their habitats. > Breaking with its own conventions, the Fish and Wildlife Service refused to accept comments by email. So several green groups took it upon themselves to accept email, print it out, and deliver it to the FWS.
He...

Udall Vows To Fight Bush Administration Fast-Tracking Of Oil-Shale Leasing

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:05:00 MST

Even as Republican Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman declared his state open for business to the oil-shale industry Monday in Golden, Democratic congressman Mark Udall of Colorado vowed to fight the Bush administrations fast-tracking of commercial leasing in the West. We will go back to work and make sure that the interests of Colorado are protected when it comes to oil-shale development, Udall told the Colorado Independent. If were going to have a few months here where the Bush administration wants to...

System Acts As Wildlife Crossing Guard

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:33:00 MST

On a quiet sage- and pine-dotted stretch of highway in southwest Colorado, deer and elk wander into the paths of oncoming cars so often that they account for 70% of the crashes that occur there. > If this were another road, Colorado transportation officials might fence it off to keep the animals from crossing. But the one-mile portion of U.S. Highway 160 is an important migration route for wildlife.
So the state is trying a different approach: an intrusion detection system that...

Mammal Gamble

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:26:00 MST

The world's most comprehensive study of mammals in the wild reveals that at least a quarter of species risk extinction. A staggering 79 percent of apes and monkeys in regions of Asia, for instance, face such danger. But while this study may be alarming, it need not come across like an alarmist. > True, hundreds of mammal species could disappear "within our lifetime," according to Julia Marton-Lefèvre, director general of the Geneva-based International Union...

Co2 Could Worsen Whales’ Sonar Problems

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:58:00 MST

On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court heard a dispute between a group of conservationists and the Navy over sonar exercises that scientists say are killing and injuring whales. What isnt often mentioned in the debate is how the burning of fossil fuels could be making the problem worse. > It’s not mentioned because the discovery of the connection was published only last week. Scientists have long known that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes ocean acidification, and th...

McCain Hypocrite... Who Knew?

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:44:00 MST

The night he officially accepted his party's nomination, just one month ago, John McCain was interrupted by a heckler. "My friends," McCain said, "don't be alarmed by the ground noise and static. I'll keep saying it. But Americans want us to stop yelling at each other." We will begin to find out Tuesday night in Nashville if McCain really believes that, when he and Barack Obama have the second of their three debates. We will find out if this begins the last chapte...

Grey Wolf Returns To Us Endangered Species List |

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:59:00 MST

A federal judge on Monday overturned a decision that removed the grey wolf from the endangered species list in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. > The ruling immediately halts the practice of killing wolves that threaten livestock and pets in the three states.
Forty-five wolves have been killed in Wisconsin this year, either by government personnel, at the request of landowners, or by landowners themselves, a state official said. > The ruling was in response to a lawsuit ...

Bush Failing Environment

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:55:00 MST

Loose regulation, now blamed for ills ranging from the U.S. financial crisis to imports of tainted Chinese goods, is drawing increasing fire from opponents of the Bush administration's environment program. > In the final months of President George W. Bush's two terms in office, criticism about the use of regulation instead of legislation to craft environmental policy has grown louder.
That is amplified by the campaign for the U.S. presidential election on November 4, wi...

Palin Problem

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:43:00 MST

If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream away from Sarah Palin. > To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.
Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman. > Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who ...

Palin fails 3rd Interview

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:16:00 MST

Before this, I thought Palin was smart but isolated. Now I just think she's blatantly an IDIOT! Her first interview, with the ABC News anchor Charles Gibson, was too hard. The second, with Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel, was too soft. The third, however, did not turn out to be just right for Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. On the “CBS Evening News” on Thursday, Katie Couric asked Ms. Palin, Senator John McCain’s running mate, what she meant when she cited Alaska...

Boxer Calls Absent Bush Officials 'Cowardly'

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:05:00 MST

Sen. Barbara Boxer called top Bush administration officials cowards Wednesday after they failed to attend a hearing on the administration's environmental record. Boxer, D-Calif. and chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, was incensed that two high-level officials at the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Interior skipped the committee hearing. > “They're cowardly and they have been a danger to the people of this country,&rdq...

Mccain Suspends Campaign, Obama Plans To Continue

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:48:00 MST

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the "historic" crisis facing the U.S. economy. Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama said at a news conference later Wednesday that he and McCain had spoken by phone and had agreed to issue a joint statement about shared principles in the approach to resolving the economic crisis. But he disagreed with McCain's call for postponing Friday...

North Korea Bars International Inspectors From Nuclear Facility

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:40:00 MST

George Bush fails again... North Korea has barred international inspectors from a nuclear reprocessing plant that produces weapons-grade material and intends to restart activity there in a week, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday. The decision by North Korea comes as the Vienna-based nuclear agency also announced it had completed on Wednesday the removal of all seals and surveillance cameras from the reprocessing plant, one of several sites at its vast Yongbyon nuclea...

Palin Meeting With World Leaders Ahead Of VP Debate

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:48:00 MST

Gov. Sarah Palin met with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday, the first of nine major international leaders she will meet with in the span of just 30 hours. > The appearances with world leaders, taking place on the sidelines of the United Nation's General Assembly meetings in New York, come as the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain tries to convince voters that Palin is ready for the world stage.
Palin is holding photo-ops with the leade...

Palin Media Blackout Continues

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:47:00 MST

It has been widely reported that Sarah Palin has yet to give a news conference or even answer a few questions from the traveling press that follow her from city to city on her plane. But, today the Palin camp went to new lengths to control the media, which is covering the GOP Vice-Presidential nominee. It was decided by the campaign that today’s meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, and Former Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger would be pool...

Agency: Relist Wolves

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:27:00 MST

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday asked a judge to reinstate the gray wolf as an endangered species. Department of Justice attorneys filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont., asking the court to vacate the department’s rule that removed wolves from the endangered species list and send it back to the agency for further determination. In the motion Monday, Fish and Wildlife said it planned to reconsider the rules and the appropriate designation for wolve...

Palin, Mccain Disagree On Causes Of Global Warming

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:24:00 MST

No one, including Gov. Sarah Palin, questions that Alaska's climate is changing more rapidly than any other state's. But her skepticism about the causes and what needs to be done to address the consequences stands in sharp contrast to the views of her running mate, Sen. John McCain, and place her to the right of the Bush administration and several other Republican governors....

Mccain Campaign Strategist Lambasts New York Times

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:47:00 MST

John McCain's campaign stepped up its assault on the media today as its chief strategist denounced the New York Times. The broadside was prompted by a Times report saying that campaign manager Rick Davis had been paid nearly $2 million by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to protect them against stricter regulations. Davis is no longer a lobbyist. In a conference call with reporters, chief strategist Steve Schmidt said: "Whatever the New York Times once was, it is today ...

Palin Pick Pushes Us Women'S Group To Back Obama

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:27:00 MST

Prominent US women's rights groups on Tuesday backed Democrat Barack Obama for the White House and slammed his Republican rival John McCain for trying to lure women voters by choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate. "The nation's oldest and largest women's rights organization... the National Organization for Women (NOW), proudly endorses Senator Barack Obama for president of the United States," NOW chief Kim Gandy told a news conference held jointly with other groups claim...

Sarah Palin'S Florida Speech Draws Tens Of Thousands

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:24:00 MST

Terrifying... In the biggest event of the 2008 campaign in Florida so far, Sarah Palin drew tens of thousands of people Sunday to a Central Florida town square decked out like the Fourth of July for a speech aimed at pumping up the state's Republican heartland. > Palin focused her speech on her track record as governor of Alaska, John McCain's experience in wartime, and did not delve into the nitty-gritty of the ailing economy. That suited several people in the crowd who said th...

Scott'S Column: President Bush Has Been Abysmal On Environment

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:18:00 MST

A federal judge last week silenced a plan to allow 540 snowmobiles to roar through Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks every day this winter. It was an appropriate, and welcome, rejection, especially for those who believe the parks and the wildlife need protection from the noise and pollution caused by the machines. But you can bet the Bush administration is figuring out a way to get the snowmobiles back in the park. That’s what it has been doing for the better part of its two...

Fed Boosts Support For Goldman, Morgan

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:13:00 MST

This is so freaking major... I don't know if anyone realizes how insane it is that the 'deregulate-em-all' Bush administration has just engineered the biggest platinum parachute for Wall Street in history. And then there were none. Federal regulators converted Wall Street's remaining stand-alone investment banks - Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley - into bank holding companies Sunday night. The move allows Goldman and Morgan to scoop up retail banks and to streamline thei...

If Palin Were A Man Or A Democrat

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:58:00 MST

It’s difficult to get my head around the mindset of letter-writers who clearly get their basic notions about American life from Fox News. Usually I just grit my teeth and turn the page. But the two letters today, implying that Ms. Palin is actually better qualified than Barack Obama, have forced a response. Let’s review, shall we. I make no claim to authorship of the following, but it is factually accurate. (As if facts actually matter anymore.) If you grow up in Hawaii, raised...

Karl Rove Says Excitement Over Palin Will Subside

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:59:00 MST

Republican tactician Karl Rove said Wednesday that John McCain’s vice presidential pick was a political choice and that excitement over Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will subside. “Nothing lasts for 60-some-odd days,” Rove told The Associated Press after appearing at a health care conference. “Will she be the center of attention in the remaining 48 days? No, but she came on in a very powerful way and has given a sense of urgency to the McCain campaign that’s pretty re...

Adviser Calls Blackberry 'Miracle' Mccain 'Helped Create'

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:06:00 MST

Sen. John McCain's senior domestic policy adviser said Tuesday that the BlackBerry mobile e-mail device was a "miracle that John McCain helped create." The adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, discussing the nation's economic woes with reporters, said that McCain -- who has struggled to stress his economic credentials -- did have experience dealing with the economy, pointing to his time on the Senate Commerce Committee. Pressed to provide an example of what McCain had accomplish...

German Scientists Discover 120 Million Year-Old Ant

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:51:00 MST

German biologists have discovered a new species of ant they believe is the oldest on the planet, dating back around 120 million years. Researchers from Karlsruhe's Natural History Museum found the 3-millimetre-long (0.118 inch) insect in the Amazon rainforest in 2007, and hope it will shed light on the early evolution of ants. "It's by far the most spectacular find of my 26-year career," said museum biologist Manfred Verhaagh on Tuesday. Scientists from Karlsruhe origi...

Palin'S Project List Totals $453 Million

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:36:00 MST

Last week, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, hadn't sought earmarks or special-interest spending from Congress, presenting her as a fiscal conservative. But state records show Gov. Palin has asked U.S. taxpayers to fund $453 million in specific Alaska projects over the past two years. These projects include more than $130 million in federal funds that would benefit Alaska's fishing industry and an additional $9 million t...

Greenspan: Economy In 'Once-In-A-Century' Crisis

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 11:20:00 MST

The U.S. credit squeeze has brought on a "once-in-a-century" financial crisis that is likely to claim more big firms before it eases, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said Sunday. Greenspan told ABC's "This Week" that the situation "is in the process of outstripping anything I've seen, and it still is not resolved and it still has a way to go." "Indeed, it will continue to be a corrosive force until the price of homes in the United States stab...

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends And Lashed Foes

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:10:00 MST

Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal. > So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.
Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at ...

Palin'S Record Questionable

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 19:41:00 MST

As the mayor of Wasilla, she hired a Washington lobbyist who secured $27 million in federal funding through 14 different earmarks. That brought an income of $4,000 per resident of Wasilla. When John McCain states he will expose pork barrel spending and special earmarks and he will call them by name, I would expect him to indict Governor Palin first. > Lastly, as a woman candidate, she needs to quit whining about the media scrutiny. She needs to reflect her own words about Hilary Clinton (m...

Expert: Palin Didn'T Look Confident

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:07:00 MST

Almost two weeks after John McCain announced she was his choice for a running mate, portions of Sarah Palin's first network television interview aired Thursday night. How did she do in her talk with ABC News anchor Charles Gibson? Democratic critics have assailed Republicans for keeping her from being questioned by the press, charging it's because the Alaska governor isn't ready to be vice president and GOP operatives don't want that to become known to voters. The McCain ...

Palin'S Climate Remarks Conflict With Past Views

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:02:00 MST

Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's assertion that she believes humans play a role in climate change — made in her first major interview since joining the Republican ticket — is at odds with her previous statements. Palin said she didn't disagree with scientists that the problem can be attributed to "man's activities." "Show me where I have ever said that there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any eff...

Palin Clueless in the Spotlight

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:55:00 MST

The question of experience came up again last night: Was the man of the moment prepared for the difficult task at hand? Did he have the chops? ABC News anchor Charles Gibson got the get, the first mano- a-womano sit down with the Republican vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. He had the chops. Palin may not have blinked when John McCain asked her to be his running mate. Last night, however, found her frozen in the Klieg lights as the dogged interlocutor set his sights on his visitor....

Freshwater Fish On Rapid Decline In North America

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:02:00 MST

About four out of 10 freshwater fish species in North America are in peril, according to a major study by U.S., Canadian and Mexican scientists. And the number of subspecies of fish populations in trouble has nearly doubled since 1989, the new report says. One biologist called it "silent extinctions" because few people notice the dramatic dwindling of certain populations deep in American lakes, rivers and streams. And while they are unaware, people are the chief cause of the proble...

Palin Links Iraq To Sept. 11 In Talk To Troops In Alaska

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:58:00 MST

Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans." The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected ...

Sarah Palin: Russian Offense Augurs War

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:12:00 MST

ABC News offers this headline for its exclusive interview with Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's nominee for vice president: > "GOV. SARAH PALIN WARNS WAR MAY BE NECESSARY IF RUSSIA INVADES ANOTHER COUNTRY.''
And the interview tonight supports the headline: "Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help,'' Palin says in the inter...

Judge Warned Palin In 2005 To Back Off Brother-In-Law'S Job

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:55:00 MST

An Alaska judge warned Gov. Sarah Palin's family against trying to get her then-brother-in-law fired, according to court records. That warning came long before the controversy over her dismissal of the brother-in-law's boss, the state's public safety commissioner, records show. Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, is battling allegations she and her advisers pressured Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire her sister's husband, State Trooper Mike Woot...

Oil 'Could Hit $200 Within Years'

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:51:00 MST

A serious oil supply crisis is looming, which could push prices above $200 a barrel, a think tank has warned. A "supply crunch" will affect the world market within the next five to 10 years, the Chatham House report said. While there is plenty of oil in the ground, companies and governments were failing to invest enough to ensure production, it added. Only a collapse in demand can stave off the looming crisis, report author Professor Paul Stevens said. "In reality, th...

Why All Of This Obama-Mccain 'Lipstick On A Pig' Noise Is Hogwash | The Dish Rag | Los Angeles Times

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:10:00 MST

When is it OK to talk about lipstick on pigs? It depends. Sen. Barack Obama is being lambasted for his statement about Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin's policies not being about change but "just calling the same thing something different." "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," Obama said during a town-hall style event in Virginia on Tuesday night. As you probably recall, Palin got applause at the Republican National Convention when she said...

Federal Investigators Accuse Oil Officials Of Gifts, Sex

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:13:00 MST

Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties engaged in illicit sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday. The alleged transgressions involve 13 Interior Department employees in Denver and Washington. Their alleged improprieties include rigging contracts, working part-time as private oil consultants, and having sexual relationships with - and accepting golf and ski trips and d...

Palin Backed 'Bridge To Nowhere,' Then Opposed It, But Kept the Money

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:46:00 MST

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's boast to have opposed the infamous "bridge to nowhere" is a staple of the Alaska governor's stump speech, but her record is more complicated than the one-liner. She repeated the line Tuesday in Lebanon, Ohio, telling supporters, "I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks' for that bridge to nowhere up in Alaska. If our state wanted a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves." But Palin originally supporte...