Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Americans Not Fooled By Bush’s Fake Drawdown

• Bush’s touted “return on success” drawdown, which would return troop levels in Iraq next summer to what they were in November 2006, is not convincing America. [CBS] [MicCheck]
• After Bush’s speech, a CBS poll found that most Americans believed that his plan “did not go far enough” and 68% believed that U.S. troop levels in Iraq should either be reduced or that all troops should be removed.
• The poll also found that people do not trust Bush to bring the troops home: 49% want “large numbers of troops” home within a year, but only 10% believe this will happen.
• Only 25% of Americans approve of the President’s handling of Iraq.
• Remember: the “drawdown” is not the result of success on the ground, but because if the troop surge continued, the army would be “pushed to the breaking point.” [AP]

Fool us once...

California Judge Hearts Cars, Hates Planet

• First, the back story: In September of 2006, California’s attorney general sued the six largest U.S. and Japanese automakers, including GM, Ford and Toyota, for damages related to greenhouse gas emissions. The federal lawsuit made some bold accusations: It alleged that emissions from the automakers’ vehicles have harmed Californians’ health, damaged the environment and cost the state millions of dollars to combat their effects. And overnight, we developed a monster crush on the Golden State’s AG. [AP]
• But now, a federal judge in San Francisco has killed our buzz. District Judge Martin Jenkins tossed out the lawsuit filed by the AG. He ruled that it was impossible to determine to what extent automakers are responsible for global-warming damages in California.
• “The court is left without guidance in determining what is an unreasonable contribution to the sum of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere, or in determining who should bear the costs associated with global climate change that admittedly result from multiple sources around the globe,” Jenkins wrote.
• And he didn’t stop there. Jenkins also said that the lawsuit threatened the United States’ foreign policy positions by undermining the Bush administration. We’re guessing Jenkins missed the International Institute for Strategic Studies’s report that global warming was, in fact, a “threat to global security” that was on par with “nuclear war.” [On Deadline]
• Also note: Other federal courts have held different views than Judge Jenkins. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Vermont gave the first legal endorsement yesterday to rules in California, being copied in 13 other states, that intend to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles and light trucks. The ruling follows a decision by the United States Supreme Court in April that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide as air pollutants. [New York Times]

And, finally, today in weird: Before being appointed as a federal judge, Jenkins briefly played pro football with the Seattle Seahawks. Seriously.

Fallout From Blackwater

• The U.S. suspended all diplomatic travel in Iraq yesterday after fallout from the Blackwater deaths resulted in violent outbursts around the country. [CNN]
• Text of the notice sent to all American civilians in Iraq from the U.S. Embassy: “This suspension is in effect in order to assess mission security and procedures, as well as a possible increased threat to personnel traveling with security details outside the International Zone.”
• Also yesterday, the Iraqis said it was going to “review the status of all foreign and local security companies working in Iraq after a shooting that left eight Iraqis dead.” [NY Times]
• Iraqi officials claim their investigation will “compel the company to respect the Iraqi laws, citizens’ dignity and the results and consequences the investigation would come up with.”
• American officials have not yet said whether they consider Blackwell culpable for the deaths.
• Iraq banned Blackwater from the country after the shootout over the weekend.
• However, “a security expert based in Baghdad said Monday night that the law granting contractors immunity, Order No. 17, had never been overturned.”
• According to a Julyreport from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, Iraqis have been upset over shootings by military contractors in the past, complaining four times about shootings involving Blackwater.

Underscoring the problems with outsourcing the war...

General Abizaid Attacks Conventional Wisdom on ‘Islamofascism’ and Iran

The Story

• Retired Four Star General Abizaid, former Commander of U.S. Central Command under President George W. Bush, is the talk of the town. [Think Progress]
• Abizaid, a fluent Arabic speaker and the highest ranking U.S. military officer of Arab descent, plunged into the public debate this week, taking an unorthodox stance on Iran and criticizing pundits and politicians for using terms like “Islamo-Fascists”
• Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani ® has attacked progressives for shying away from the term saying, “I can’t imagine who you insult if you say Islamic terrorist“ and Senator Joe Lieberman said in July that it was a “problem of political correctness.” [Cox] [Salon]
• But Abizaid disagrees. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Abizaid said that “even adding the word Islamic” makes it “very difficult” to work with “mainline muslims” against extremism.
• And that’s not the only fear mongering Abizaid debunked. Later in his talk, Abizaid maintained that, while the U.S. should work to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons, “There are ways to live with a nuclear Iran.” [AP]
• His rationale: “I believe that we have the power to deter Iran, should it become nuclear...Iran is not a suicide nation...Let’s face it, we lived with a nuclear Soviet Union, we’ve lived with a nuclear China, and we’re living with (other) nuclear powers as well.”
• That may be true, but the best way to keep them from getting a weapon in the first place is to Contain and Engage. Read the plan here: [Center for American Progress]

The Audio

General John Abizaid

• “These are huge difficulties we need to overcome, this notion of ‘Christianity v. Islam.’ It’s not that. It doesn’t need to be that.”
  Please log in to download this clip.
• “The battle of words is meaningful, especially in the Middle East to people.”
  Please log in to download this clip.

Way to buck the CW, General.

Inspector General of the State Department Under Investigation for Very Bad Things

• Howard J. Krongard, the inspector general of the U.S. State Department, today is under investigation for doing some Very Bad Things to save the White House from embarrassment.
• A 13-page letter sent to Krongard by the House Committee on Oversight charges he “interfered with ongoing investigations to protect the State Department and the White House from political embarrassment.” [Washington Post]
• The letter to Krongard also states “your strong affinity with State Department leadership and your partisan political ties have led you to halt investigations, censor reports and refuse to cooperate with law enforcement agencies.”
• Charge: Krongard refused to let investigators go to Iraq to check out $3-billion-worth of State Department contracts.
• Charge: Krongard was “ warned about poor workmanship at the U.S. embassy site, where serious electrical problems eventually occurred, but blocked investigations into it.” As a result, the $22-million guardbase at the compound caused fires whenever the stoves were turned on and gave guards electrical shocks. It is now unsafe to occupy. [NY Times] [Washington Post]
• Charge: The contractor the State Department hired to build the U.S. embassy in Iraq, First Kuwaiti, made workers into slaves, lying to foreign employees about where they’d be working, shipping them to Iraq then confiscating their passports so they couldn’t escape. Krongard used “highly irregular” procedures to let the company off the hook.
• Charge: Krongard “impeded efforts” by his investigators “to cooperate with a Justice Department probe into allegations that a large private security contractor was smuggling weapons into Iraq.” [The Hill]
• Charge: When Karl Rove’s close friend Ken Tomlinson was under investigation for misusing State Department funds and using his office at the Broadcasting Board of Governors to run his horse-breeding business, Krongard tipped him off by slipping him information about the investigation against him. [The Hill] [MSNBC]
• Charge: Kroger is reportedly such a monster to work with that he created a “dysfunctional office environment in which you routinely berate and belittle personnel, show contempt for the abilities of career government professionals and cause the staff to fear coming to work.” Everyone quit, and today only 7 out of the 27 inspector positions are filled.

Thank you, Henry Waxman and your Mustache of Justice for getting to the bottom of this!

Good News, Bad News

Trolleys Of Ill Repute

In Seattle, the name of the new downtown trolley system is the “South Lake Union Streetcar,” but in planning stages it was known as the “South Lake Union Trolley.” Why do you think they changed it? [Fox]

GOOD NEWS

“Gregg Hirakawa, a spokesman for the Seattle Department of Transportation, told the paper the term ’streetcar’ was selected because it sounded more modern than ‘trolley.’”

BAD NEWS

Local coffee shops are already selling “Ride The SLUT” t-shirts.

Quote Of The Day

“Ah, at what point after a disaster and personal hardship are people expected to start taking care of themselves again? Is one hurricane supposed to be a permanent lifelong ticket on a bleeping gravy train? Come on!”

And then...

“Today, we are limiting ourselves greatly when it comes to taking part in this sentimental orgy about New Orleans.”

—Hate Radio alert: KSFO’s conservative blowhard Lee Rogers wants to know why we have to feel badly about the 1,300+ New Orleans residents who lost their lives during hurricane Katrina. [Media Matters]

Speed Round

THE FED

Responding to growing anxiety in the housing and mortgage markets, Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke surprises investors by slashing interest rates one half of one percent. Stocks soar. [AP]

LANDMINES

The international ban, now a decade old, is “a success” but countries have more work to do, says representatives of the Campaign to Ban Landmines. [Reuters]

SUICIDE

The demographic most at risk for suicide is also the one with the fewest suicide prevention programs targeting it: the elderly. [AP]

BLACKWATER

After the high profile private security firm gets banned from Iraq for their participation in a shootout that killed eight civilians, the Iraqi government is reviewing “the status of all foreign and local security companies working in Iraq.” [NY Times]

HADITHA

The Marines have dismissed charges against “one of the officers accused of dereliction of duty for failing to report accurately the U.S. killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005.” [Reuters]

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY

In China, 2 million people flee ahead of a deadly typhoon. [AP]

EDUCATION

Alabama resegregates its schools like it’s 1959. [NY Times]

MEAN PEOPLE SUCK

Some jerk vandalizes the Vietnam Memorial, splashing both the Wall and curb around it with an unidentified “oily substance.” [Washington Post]

THE OL’ COLLEGE TRY

Harvard goes green: The university will slice emissions from its mammoth new science center 50% below the national standard. [NY Times]

PAGING JUSTICE

Rep. Mark Foley may be off the hook for those dirty e-mails to underaged congressional pages – the statute of limitations for prosecution has run out. [ABC Blotter]

WAR

Remember that Taliban leader who kidnapped the 23 South Koreans two months ago? We got him. [AP]

WAR

The Army has decided to ask for 10,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles to counter the threat of makeshift bombs in Iraq. [USA Today]

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON DRUGS

A new national survey shows that a whopping one in three youths sees little or no risk in trying meth. [Gannett]

IT’S OFFICIAL

OJ Simpson has been officially charged on ten accounts, including kidnapping and burglary with a deadly weapon. [USA Today]

VOTING RIGHTS

Taxation without representation: A bill to give DC congressional representation passed the Senate 57 to 42, but it failed to get the 60 votes needed to overcome Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) filibuster. [Mother Jones]