U.S. Fears Iraq Won't Keep Up Rebuilt Projects

Nov 21, 2009 - BAGHDAD — In its largest reconstruction effort since the Marshall Plan, the United States government has spent $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, building tens of thousands of hospitals, water treatment plants, electricity substations, schools and bridges. But there are growing concerns among American officials that Iraq will not be able to adequately maintain the facilities once the Americans have left, potentially wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardizing Iraq’s ability to provide basic services to its people. The projects run the gamut — from a cutting-edge, $270 million water treatment plant in Nasiriya that works at a fraction of its intended capacity because it is too sophisticated for Iraqi workers to operate, to a farmers’ market that farmers cannot decide how to share, to a large American hospital closed immediately after it was handed over to Iraq because the government was unable to supply it with equipment, a medical staff or electricity. - 5 Comments

EPA & Obama try to censor EPA Attorneys

Nov 13, 2009 - http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4929 EPA: Capping Dissent? November 10, 2009 By Brita Belli Under cap-and-trade legislation, coal plants could continue polluting and simply purchase offsets. Two U.S. - 0 Comments

Iran charges three detained Americans with espionage

Nov 09, 2009 - TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran has charged three detained U.S. citizens with espionage, the official IRNA news agency quoted a prosecutor as saying on Monday, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was no evidence to back the charges. The three, Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27, were held after they crossed into Iran from northern Iraq at the end of July. - 5 Comments

Shutting off the miracle-drug spigot (Gee Go Figure)

Nov 07, 2009 - Shutting off the miracle-drug spigotBy JEFF STIER & HENRY I. MILLER  (NY POST)House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was right last week when she called her latest health-care-reform proposal a "his toric moment": After decades of life-saving and cost-cutting scientific innovations from drug and medical-device companies, the government is about to step in and stifle the R&D that is our best hope for improving health outcomes.<p> </p><br> Pelosi's bill may cost pharmaceutical companies $150 billion over a decade -- nearly double the amount they conceded when they cut a White House-approved deal with Sen. Max Baucus this summer.<p> </p><br> The Pelosi bill is a prescription for fewer new life-saving drugs. - 0 Comments

Fan denies sex-for-tickets gambit

Oct 29, 2009 - A US woman charged with offering sex for baseball World Series tickets has denied she did anything wrong. "I'm not embarrassed about my actions. I'm embarrassed about how I was arrested," Susan Finkelstein, from Philadelphia, told AP news agency. - 38 Comments

Bush Confidant in His Presidential Decisions

Oct 26, 2009 - Former President George W. Bush told more than 11,000 people at the Fort Worth Convention Center that he was confident he made the right decisions as president, even if it hurt his popularity. “Every single day I was honored to be your president by bringing honor and dignity to the office,” Bush said Monday afternoon, during his first foray into motivational speaking, at the day-long "Get Motivated" seminar. - 98 Comments

8 Reasons Fox Is Not a News Organization

Oct 24, 2009 - Even before Barack Obama was elected to the presidency, Rupert Murdoch had declared war on him via the personalities of Fox News Channel, a subsidiary of Murdoch's media conglomerate, News Corp. Since Obama's election, the cable channel's hosts and paid analysts have launched a full frontal assault on the president, smearing his nominees, calling him a racist and suggesting that his administration was trying to persuade disabled veterans to off themselves. Now the fearmongers at Fox are crying foul since the president and his aides declared Fox not to be a news organization. - 5 Comments

Musicians crank up the volume on Guantanamo debate

Oct 22, 2009 - WASHINGTON — A coalition of mega-bands and singers outraged that music — including theirs — was cranked up to help break uncooperative detainees at Guantanamo Bay is joining retired military officers and liberal activists to rally support for President Barack Obama's push to shutter the Navy-run prison for terrorist suspects in Cuba. Pearl Jam, R.E.M., and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails are among the musicians who have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, which launched Tuesday. On behalf of the campaign, the National Security Archive in Washington is filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking classified records that detail the use of loud music as an interrogation device. - 5 Comments