In the News Friday, January 23

[MacBeth]

Yahoo! Alerts
news.yahoo.com/
Thursday, January 22, 2009, 7:20 PM PST


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Nashville, Tenn., voters reject measure requiring government business be done only in English.

[MacBeth]

t r u t h o u t | 01.22

Go directly to our issues page: www.truthout.org/issues

George McGovern | Calling a Time Out
www.truthout.org/012209R

George McGovern, The Washington Post: "As you settle into the Oval Office, Mr. President, may I offer a suggestion? Please do not try to put Afghanistan aright with the US military. To send our troops out of Iraq and into Afghanistan would be a near-perfect example of going from the frying pan into the fire. There is reason to believe some of our top military commanders privately share this view. And so does a broad and growing swath of your party and your supporters."

KBR Negligence Caused GI's Death
www.truthout.org/012209S

Kimberly Hefling, The Associated Press: "An Army investigation called the electrocution death of a US soldier in Iraq a 'negligent homicide' caused by military contractor KBR Inc. and two of its supervisors, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press. An Army criminal investigator said the manner of death for Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Pittsburgh, has been changed from accidental to negligent homicide because the contractor failed to ensure that 'qualified electricians and plumbers' worked on the barracks where Maseth died, according to the document."

Tony Karon | Change Gaza Can Believe In
www.truthout.org/012209T

Tony Karon, TomDispatch.com: "Lest President Barack Obama's opportunistic silence when Israel began the Gaza offensive that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians (more than 400 of them children) be misinterpreted, his aides pointed reporters to comments made six months earlier in the Israeli town of Sderot. 'If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that,' Obama had said in reference to the missiles Hamas was firing from Gaza. 'I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.' Residents of Gaza might have wondered what Obama would have done had he been unfortunate enough to be a resident of, say, Jabaliya refugee camp."

Report: Afghan Unrest Killed 4,000 Civilians in 2008
www.truthout.org/012209U

Agence France-Presse: "Nearly 4,000 Afghan civilians were killed in insurgency-linked unrest in Afghanistan last year, more than two-thirds in rebel attacks and about 1,100 by foreign forces, a rights group said Tuesday. The figures released by an independent Kabul-based group called Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) are far higher than those from the United Nations and international military forces."

NOW | Power Struggle
www.truthout.org/012209V

NOW: "As America looks to dramatically increase its use of renewable energy, an inconvenient reality stands in the way: the need to upgrade the country's antiquated electricity grid. Part of that overhaul will be the construction of gigantic and expensive long-distance transmission lines to carry clean energy from remote sites to population centers. NOW travels to California, which has the most ambitious clean-energy plan in the nation."

Peter A. Seligmann | Protecting Our Most Valuable Joint Asset: Earth
www.truthout.org/012209EA

Peter A. Seligmann, Conservation International: "Barack Obama became the 44th US president in a world that is a tinderbox of ever more complex looming threats linked to unprecedented ecological challenges. This makes one of his toughest challenges also his greatest opportunity."

Seth Sandronsky | Healthy Growth? SEIU's Move to Merge California Locals
www.truthout.org/012209LA

Seth Sandronsky, Truthout: "What happens when 91 percent of eligible Service Employees International Union members do not vote on two options to merge health care locals in California? Just ask the international executive board of the SEIU. After the nine percent vote, the SEIU board voted January 9 to create a single union of long-term (home care and nursing home) workers statewide."

Shhh ... Don't Speak of Abortion: Roe v. Wade at Thirty-Six
www.truthout.org/012209WA

Frederick Clarkson, Religion Dispatches: "Recent efforts to reach a compromise between evangelicals and liberals have managed to avoid the discussion of abortion altogether. The fact remains: according to many clergy representing millions of Americans of all faiths and denominations, the moral reality of women's lives is that sometimes abortion is the best moral choice."

Is Obama Right That Technology Can Lower Health Care Costs?
www.truthout.org/012209HA

Katherine Harmon, Scientific American: "One needn't look far to see how technology has improved medical care - from anesthesia to ultrasounds. And some - Obama seemingly among them - believe that such technology can make health care more efficient. That could mean shorter hospital stays, more complete medical databases or ordering fewer tests because those we have are better. But whether more technology will actually lower the overall costs of health care in the US, which top $2 trillion annually, is more of an open question."

Weak Economy Threatens Rural Schools
www.truthout.org/012209EDA

Ashley Powers, The Los Angeles Times: "Ron and Paula Marino decided to move from Las Vegas to this village of thick pines and ski-lodge-style homes so their two boys can attend Earl B. Lundy Elementary School. With its one teacher for a total of nine students, the school seemed like Shangri-La within the underfunded and overcrowded Clark County School District, which encompasses Las Vegas and outlying rural areas. But by the time the Marinos' 4- and 5-year-old boys are ready to start school, Lundy may be closed."

[MacBeth]

Fox & Friends' Carlson falsely claimed Geithner "kind of put the blame a little bit on a computer program" for tax failure
On Fox & Friends, Gretchen Carlson asserted that in answering questions about his failure to pay social security taxes several years ago, Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner "kind of put the blame a little bit on a computer program." In fact, at his hearing, Geithner mentioned the tax software he used only after he was asked which brand he used to file his taxes.

Hannity advances false comparison of inauguration costs
Ignoring the additional costs of security, transportation, and other expenses incurred by federal, state, and local governments in conjunction with former President Bush's 2005 inauguration, Fox News' Sean Hannity allowed former Gov. Mitt Romney to claim that "[President] Barack Obama spen[t] three times" what Bush spent on his 2005 inauguration. In doing so, Hannity allowed his show to become the latest media outlet to promote the false comparison between the costs of Obama's inauguration and Bush's 2005 inauguration.

Limbaugh tells caller with personal economic troubles: "Well, you might want to consult history. ... It was much worse than this 26 years ago"
Rush Limbaugh responded to a caller's account of her own economic troubles as a homeowner and small business owner and her assertion that she "need people to start believing that America is going to turn that corner" by stating, "Well, you might want to consult history," adding: "It was much worse than this 26 years ago."

Limbaugh falsely claimed Clinton "imposed" international family planning funding policy
On Hannity, speaking of President Obama's reported plan to reverse the U.S. government's Mexico City policy restricting federal funding for international family planning groups, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed "[former President] Clinton imposed it." In fact, the Mexico City policy prohibiting the federal government from providing funds to international family planning groups that promote abortion or provide information, counseling, or referrals about abortion services in other nations was imposed by President Reagan, rescinded by Clinton, and revived by George W. Bush.

NY Times, MSNBC's Morning Joe ignored evidence undermining former Bush speechwriter's defense of administration's national security policies
In citing an op-ed by Marc Thiessen, President Bush's former chief speechwriter, in which Thiessen claimed that "the policies and institutions" Bush implemented in the name of national security after 9-11 "are succeeding," The New York Times and the hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe did not note evidence undermining Thiessen's argument.

CNN, AP falsely claim that Pentagon says 61 Guantánamo detainees have returned to terrorism
The Associated Press falsely stated, "The Pentagon recently reported that 61 former prisoners at Guantanamo have returned to the fight against the U.S. and its allies." Similarly, on CNN Newsroom, anchor Kyra Phillips asserted, "New Pentagon figures actually say 61 released detainees have been linked to some kind of terror activity." In fact, the Pentagon's figure includes 43 former prisoners who are suspected of, but not confirmed as, having, in the AP's words, "returned to the fight."

O'Reilly hosted former tax delinquent Morris to criticize Geithner's tax failure
On The O'Reilly Factor, Dick Morris repeatedly criticized Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner for his failure to pay Social Security taxes several years ago. But Morris has his own history of tax delinquency; USA Today included Morris in an April 2008 report on "ig names" who are tax delinquents.

NBC's Chuck Todd reports CBO criticism of stimulus, but not Democrats' response
On NBC's Nightly News, Chuck Todd reported that President Obama "drew more criticism from Republicans [...] thanks to a new report claiming the stimulus will take years, not months, to improve the economy" and aired a clip of House Minority Leader John Boehner criticizing the stimulus plan. However, Todd did not mention the Democratic leadership's response: that the Congressional Budget Office report ignored faster-moving provisions in the stimulus, creating a "false impression" of the plan's effects.

Scarborough shares Gibson's view that "it's on Barack Obama" if he abandons Bush policies that "kept us safe"
Fox News' John Gibson and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough each asserted that if President Obama abandons Bush administration policies and procedures "which kept us safe for the last seven, eight years," in Gibson's words, Obama will bear responsibility for any future act of terrorism. However, neither mentioned evidence that President Bush's policies did not eliminate the terrorist threat to America and that some Bush policy decisions, such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq, may, in fact, have aggravated the threat.


mediamatters.org/

[MacBeth]

This week's fun photos from around the world
01/22/09 08:35 PM, EST

www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/22/offbeat.images/index.html

[MacBeth]

Amid protests, Obama backs 'right to choose' on Roe anniversary
01/22/09 10:48 PM, EST

President Obama affirmed his support for a woman's "right to choose" on Thursday, the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that led to the legalization of abortion, as thousands of anti-abortion activists descended on the National Mall to challenge his position.


www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/22/obama.abortion/index.html