EPA doctors climate report....

Do Bush and his oil buddies really believe they can prop up the sky merely by saying it isn't falling? Or do they plan to flee with their children and grandchildren to eco-domes situated on high-ground when the oceans rise, the hurricanes rage, the high temperatures roast people and the crops fail? Their greed and short-sightedness astound me.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House directed a major rewrite of an assessment of climate change, removing references to health and environmental risks posed by rising global temperatures, according to internal draft documents made public Thursday.

Several Senate Democrats, including some running for president, accused the White House of ``doctoring'' the Environmental Protection Agency report to suit President Bush's skeptical views on global warming.

The report on the state of the environment has been an agency priority. It is to be released next week before the agency chief Christie Whitman departs on June 27.

According to EPA officials and internal documents obtained Thursday, most of the original section on climate change was scrapped after the White House directed significant changes and deletions that emphasized the uncertainties surrounding the climate change debate.

The changes demanded by the White House were so extensive that the climate section ``no longer accurately represents scientific consensus on climate change,'' according to an April 29 EPA staff memo....

Complete story here.

Truth in war....

I doubt this angle will be widely reported in US papers.

American troops today admitted they routinely gun down Iraqi civilians - some of whom are entirely innocent.

As distrust of the invading forces increases amongst the local population US soldiers said they have killed civilians without hesitation, shot injured opponents and abandoned them to die in agony.

The testimonies of the troops on the ground further expose George Bush's claims about the role his forces are playing in the failing reconstruction of Iraq.

I'm not at all surprised, although it saddens me greatly.

When the N.Y. Times reported in late March on civilian murders by callous US Marine snipers (here), it caused nary a ripple of noticiable consternation.

Story here. Make sure you read it all the way to the end, where it mentions the soldier's conviction that Iraqis perpetrated 9/11.

Thanks to This Modern World

Could this be related...?

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Defense Department has alerted all U.S. interests in Kenya to a terrorist threat, prompting the closure of the American Embassy in Nairobi, officials said Friday.

The Pentagon also raised the threat level in the East African nation to "high" based on information about a threat against a specific target, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The warning, the highest of four levels, was issued Thursday.

The official said details of the warning, including the target and the nature of the threat, were classified secret.

I know, Angola and Kenya are on opposite flanks of Africa, but presumably, a 727--especially one outfitted as a "fuel-tanker"--could cover the distance.

I hope nothing bad happens.

Complete story here.

Excuse me, has anyone seen my missing Boeing 727...?

Interesting, isn't it, how mum the US media has been about the 727, stolen from the Luanda (Africa) airport on May 25th?

A quick LexisNexis search revealed only 2 US stories, here in the Washington Post and an 84-word brief in the LA Times (no link: you have to pay).

The UK Independent, while saying the incident could be a theft for smuggling or a financial gain, also details US worries that he aircraft could be used in a future 9/11-style terrorist attack against US targets in Africa:

...The CIA has activated spy satellites in a continent-wide search for the plane, recently converted from a passenger jet into a fuel tanker. Airstrips are being scanned while US embassies across Africa are enquiring for other clues.

The search had turned up few leads so far, Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, admitted yesterday. "We don't have any reliable assessments about what this portends, what it could be, who may be behind it," he said.

I'm surprised they're not blaming Saddam Hussein.

Complete story here.

Israelis open a second front....

20 June 2003

They came in their hundreds, picking their way across fields and up the steep hillsides to gather on a remote, windswept hilltop in the West Bank. From a distance, amid the beauty of the hills, it looked like some great ritual gathering, but as you got close, you could see the crowd on the hill punching and kicking each other.

From time to time, there was a yelp of pain or a cry of rage. And, every now and then, people came rushing out of the crowd carrying a stretcher with someone writhing on top of it.

This was the scene as the Israeli army tried to dismantle the first inhabited Jewish settlement in the West Bank to be cleared under the road-map peace plan....

The UK Independent article speculates that the destruction of a "couple of tents, a rather temporary looking concrete house with a tin roof and a small metal hut that looked as if it was about to collapse under the weight of the news photographers and television cameramen who climbed on it," was for show, to impress US Secretary of State Colin Powell, due to arrive today for peace talks.

The story also commented on Israeli restraint.

On the road to the settlement, a couple of army bulldozers were stuck, unable to move because a crowd of settlers were sitting in front of them. It was extraordinary to see the Israeli army, which regularly uses live ammunition against Palestinian protesters, brought to a standstill by a few unarmed youths.

When peace activists tried the same tactic against Israeli bulldozers trying to tear down Palestinian houses in the Gaza Strip, it went tragically wrong and an American activist, Rachel Corrie, was crushed to death by a bulldozer. But it was Israeli houses being demolished yesterday and the army was careful. Most of the soldiers were armed only with knives.

An optimistic interpretation would be that the IDF learned from Rachel Corrie's death.

Now, why don't I believe that?

Complete story here.

Hatch wants to zap illicit napsters....

It's not enough the Republicans want to spy on where we surf; now they want the power to blast computers if we break their rules.

A US senator wants to develop new technology which would remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music tracks.

Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican representing Utah, asked technology chiefs at a hearing in Washington about whether they could develop ways to damage or destroy the computers.

Legal experts have said any attack on people's computers would contravene the US's anti-hacking laws. [At the very least!]

Mr Hatch said damaging computers "may be the only way you can teach someone about copyright".
...

"If that's the only way, then I'm all for destroying their machines." [Mr Hatch said.]

For these Right-Wing fanatics, the Bill of Rights takes second-place to copyrights.

Scary story here.

NY Times finally gets the Jessica Lynch story right....

NASIRIYA, Iraq
I've been roaming Iraq, turning over rocks in my unstinting effort to help the Bush administration find those weapons of mass destruction. No luck yet.

But I did find something related, here in the city where it seems (contrary to early Pentagon leaks) that Pfc. Jessica Lynch did not mow down Iraqis until her ammo ran out, was not shot and apparently was not plucked from behind enemy lines by U.S. commandos braving a firefight. It looks as if the first accounts of the rescue were embellished, like the imminent threat from W.M.D., and like wartime pronouncements about an uprising in Basra and imminent defections of generals. There's a pattern: we were misled.

Admittedly, this rather irresolute piece is on the op-ed page. Did I miss an earlier article? Or is the nation's beleaguered "flagship" paper only just now setting the record straight on a story that's been all over the blogs for weeks?

Complete story here.

Who's to blame...?

While major U.S. newspapers are blaming Hamas for derailing Mid-East peace talks, Britain's Guardian has a different idea:

..."It's the Israeli army that holds the key, at least on the streets," he [Palestinian security minister, Mohammed Dahlan] said. "We were actually getting close to an agreement with Hamas but because the Israeli army rejects the idea that there can be an internal agreement [among Palestinians], they hit Rantissi. As long as they keep saying they are at war, then they will find justifications for 'mistakes' like killing children and women which create so much anger on the streets and make this whole road map process harder."

He said Israeli democracy was being subordinated to the will of the military, with Ariel Sharon providing the shield: "Sharon is giving them political cover. The army is using the politicians as camouflage to destroy the peace process."

The Israeli army's chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Moshe Ya'alon, gave added cause for concern this week when he told his soldiers that he did not care if the military "looks like lunatics", in its fight against Hamas...

Complete story here.

More on the Y chromosome....

This week-old story tragically illustrates what a culture will do with the "scientifically-supported" idea of sexual differences.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- An Egyptian woman married to a man with six daughters from previous marriages drowned herself Saturday just hours after giving birth to a girl because she feared her husband's reaction to fathering another daughter.

The 27-year-old woman left her home in Saff, a rural town about 25 miles [40 kilometers] south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and drowned herself in an irrigation canal three hours after giving birth to her second daughter, police officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Before his wife gave birth, her husband had threatened to kill or divorce her if the couple had any more daughters, police said.

And to think, it's the male who contributes--or not--the Y chromosome to make a baby a boy.

Gender, which in my opinion is almost entirely socially-constructed, has become about distribution of power. Which is neither morally nor biologically justifiable.

Appalling story here.

Science supports sexual differences....

What a surprise.

From today's New York Times:

Biologists have made a fundamental discovery about how the human Y chromosome, a genetic package inherited by men, protects itself against evolutionary decay.

As part of the work, the scientists have tallied the exact number of genes on the Y chromosome, finding more than they had expected. That and other research has led the researchers to assess the genetic differences between men and women as being considerably greater than thought.

The details on how the Y chromosome maintains its integrity over time are quite interesting. The conclusion of this article, however, is absurd:

...Men and women differ by 1 to 2 percent of their genomes, Dr. Page said, which is the same as the difference between a man and a male chimpanzee or between a woman and a female chimpanzee.

Almost all male-female differences, whether in cognition, behavior, anatomy or susceptibility to disease, have usually been attributed to the sex hormones. But given the genomic differences that are now apparent, that premise has to be re-examined, in Dr. Page's view.

"We all recite the mantra that we are 99 percent identical and take political comfort in it," Dr. Page said. "But the reality is that the genetic difference between males and females absolutely dwarfs all other differences in the human genome."

Talk about loaded language! In a world where, like in Iran, a woman's life is valued at half that of a man, saying men and women differ as much as humans and chimpanzee is reckless, to say the least. Is Dr. Page badly quoted, or did he neglect to emphasize that it's not simply the percentage of genes that differ, but which genes?

Having experienced life from both sides of the sexual divide, I can say that men and women are much more alike than different.

Complete story here.

Wolves outgunned in Alaska....

This from today's New York Times:

ALASKA: HUNTING FROM PLANES IS ALLOWED Gov. Frank H. Murkowski signed a bill that will allow hunters to shoot wolves from helicopters or planes. John Manly, a spokesman for the governor, a Republican, said predator populations had increased, creating a need for aerial hunting in some areas. The governor originally opposed the bill, fearing that it granted the Game Board too much discretion in granting permits, but he was satisfied with the final version, Mr. Manly said. Matthew Preusch (NYT) (Here.)

Firing with high-powered weapons from planes and helicopters on fleeing, defenseless animals is "slaughter," not "hunting." Furthermore, it's despicable.

On June 11, Gov. Murkowski also signed one of the most permissive gun laws in the nation, HB-102, making it legal for Alaskans to carry concealed weapons without a permit. (Story here.)

Too bad the wolves can't arm themselves.

Congratulations to our neighbors north of the 49th parallel...!

TORONTO, June 17 -- Canada will change its law to allow homosexual marriage, joining Belgium and the Netherlands as the only countries where same-sex couples can legally wed, Prime Minister Jean Chretien said today.

According to the Washington Post article, opinion polls show a majority of Canadians support same-sex marriage. Dozens of gay Canadians have already obtained marriage licenses, and at least one wedding has taken place.

Canada's progressive move contrasts starkly with the increasingly puritanical US, where gay marriage remains illegal in all 50 states. (Vermont only recognizes civil unions that give gay couples the benefits and responsibilities of marriage.) To add insult to injury, in 1996 Congress passed the preposterously-named "Defense of Marriage Act," thereby monopolizing marriage for persons of the opposite sex.

True to its customary hypocrisy, the Religious Right supports "family values," only when its adherents can decide who constitutes a family.

I'm baaaaaack...!

After almost a month's silence, I'm resuming this blog.

I plan to focus once more on news and current events, with occasional digressions to more personal topics.

So, spread the word: Krieg9 is blogging again!