In the News Sunday, January 25

[MacBeth]

Pelosi Backs Letting Courts Modify Troubled Mortgages
www.truthout.org/012409Z
Renae Merle, The Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday gave her support to legislation that would allow bankruptcy judges to modify troubled mortgages, saying it is a 'very high priority and should be passed as soon as possible.' Democrats have been considering whether to include the provision in the economic stimulus package making its way through Congress or attempt to pass it as a stand-alone bill. 'Either way, I'd like to get it passed as soon as possible,' the California Democrat said."

VIDEO | Olbermann Interviews NSA Whistleblower on Wiretaps:
Kim Zetter, Wired: "NSA whistleblower Russell Tice was back on Keith Olbermann's MSNBC program Thursday evening to expand on his Wednesday revelations that the National Security Agency spied on individual US journalists, entire US news agencies as well as 'tens of thousands' of other Americans."
Part I
www.truthout.org/012309Svideo

Part II
www.truthout.org/012309Svideo2

[MacBeth]

BBC refuses to broadcast charity appeal for Gaza aid
01/25/09 07:54 AM, EST

The BBC is refusing to broadcast a plea from leading British charities for aid to Gaza, saying the ad would compromise the public broadcaster's appearance of impartiality.
www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/01/25/bbc.gaza.advert/index.html

Stage manager accused of theft from 'Lipstick Jungle'
01/25/09 01:28 AM, EST

A stage manager on production facilities for the NBC show "Lipstick Jungle" has been charged with stealing almost $30,000 in designer fashion from the show, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said.
www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/25/lipstick.jungle.arrest/index.html

Cartel 'stewmaker' says he dissolved 300 bodies
01/24/09 10:36 PM, EST

A suspect in police custody calls himself a "stewmaker" for a Mexican drug lord, saying he disposed of about 300 bodies by dissolving them in acid.
www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/01/24/mexico.cartel.arrest/index.html

'Cowardly' suicide bombing kills 15 in Mogadishu
01/24/09 03:57 PM, EST

A car bomb exploded Saturday in Somalia's capital, killing 15 people and wounding 24, a government spokesman said.
www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/01/24/somalia.car.bomb/index.html

Nine Hutus slain in fighting Rwanda-Congo forces
01/24/09 10:09 PM, EST

Nine Hutu tribal fighters and several Rwandan and Congolese troops were killed in fighting in eastern Congo, a United Nations spokesman said, as the two governments continued an unprecedented partnership to combat ethnic violence.
www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/01/24/congo.rwanda/index.html

Saudi prince: U.S. action, not words, key in Mideast peace
01/24/09 11:46 AM, EST

Relations between Arab nations and the United States hinge on American leaders living up to their rhetoric about commitment to lasting peace in the Mideast, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal told CNN Saturday.
www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/24/saudi.faisal/index.html

[MacBeth]

FOCUS: Michael Winship | Walking Down to Washington
www.truthout.org/012409Y

Michael Winship, Truthout: "The image from Barack Obama's inauguration that will stay with me forever is people walking. Walking from wherever they lived or were staying in Washington, DC. And all headed for the exact same place. In the hours before dawn on January 20, they already were moving down Connecticut Avenue outside my brother and sister-in-law's apartment: groups of two and three and four or more; some wearing backpacks and carrying signs, quietly converging on the National Mall."

[MacBeth]

Flood of Foreclosures: It's Worse Than You Think
www.truthout.org/012509A
Les Christie, CNNMoney.com: "Housing might be in worse shape than we think. There is probably even more excess housing inventory gumming up the market than current statistics indicate, thanks to a wave of foreclosures that has yet to hit the market. The problem: Many foreclosed homes and other distressed properties that are now owned by banks have yet to be listed for sale. The volume of this so-called 'ghost inventory' could be substantial enough to depress already steeply falling prices when it does go on the market."

Spilling Ink Instead of Blood: Bolivia Votes on a New Constitution
www.truthout.org/012509B
Benjamin Dangl, Truthout: "Dozens of marches and rallies in support of Bolivia's new constitution, being voted on today, have filled the streets of the La Paz in recent days. On Tuesday, at a rally for the constitution and to celebrate Venezuela's donation of 300 tons of asphalt to the city of La Paz, President Evo Morales took the stage, covered in confetti and with a coca leaf wreath around his neck. The crowd cheered and waved signs, one of them saying, 'Thanks for the asphalt and the progress.'"

Security Experts Skeptical on Guantanamo Detainee Report
www.truthout.org/012509C
CNN: "Security experts are questioning information released by the Pentagon last week, saying 61 former detainees from its detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have returned to terrorist activities. The report, released days before President Obama took office, says 18 former detainees are confirmed to have participated in attacks, and 43 are suspected to have been involved in attacks."

William Dalrymple | Pakistan in Peril
www.truthout.org/012509D
William Dalrymple, The New York Review of Books: "The relative calm in Iraq in recent months, combined with the drama of the US elections, has managed to distract attention from the catastrophe that is rapidly overwhelming Western interests in the part of the world that always should have been the focus of America's response to September 11: the al-Qaeda and Taliban heartlands on either side of the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Michael Klare | Repudiate the Carter Doctrine
www.truthout.org/012509E
Michael Klare, Foreign Policy In Focus: "Twenty-nine years ago, President Jimmy Carter adopted the radical and dangerous policy of using military force to ensure U.S. access to Middle Eastern oil. 'Let our position be absolutely he clear,' he said in his State of the Union address on January 23, 1980. 'An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region [and thereby endanger the flow of oil] will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.'"

Hate. Remorse. Forgiveness
www.truthout.org/012509F
Andrew Dys, The Herald: "Next to a lunch counter that was segregated for so long sat a table of two white people and five black people Friday afternoon. Just another Friday in Rock Hill, South Carolina, January 2009. Conversation quickly took the group back to Jan. 31, 1961. Elwin Wilson, one of those white men, had come that day to that very lunch counter four steps from where he was now, wanting to pull one of those black men off of the stool he was sitting on. He wanted to give a beating."

[MacBeth]

FOCUS | Weisbrot: Obama Has Opportunity to Reverse Mistake on Offshore Drilling
www.truthout.org/012509Y
Mark Weisbrot, The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "Campaigning in Florida last June as a presidential candidate, then-Senator Barack Obama blasted the proposal of his opponent, Senator John McCain, to open coastal areas of the United States to offshore drilling. Declaring that it 'makes no sense at all,' Obama correctly stated that such drilling would make very little difference in the price of gasoline, and supported a reduction of fossil fuel use through a stimulus program that would create 'green jobs.' But as gasoline prices soared past $4 a gallon and the Republicans campaigned on the issue of 'drill here, drill now,' the Democratic leadership softened its position. The end result was that a 27-year ban on drilling in coastal areas off the United States was allowed to expire."

VIDEO | Weekly Address: Remarks of President Barack Obama
www.truthout.org/012409Bvideo
Barack Obama delivered his first weekly address to the American people Saturday: "We begin this year and this Administration in the midst of an unprecedented crisis that calls for unprecedented action. Just this week, we saw more people file for unemployment than at any time in the last twenty-six years, and experts agree that if nothing is done, the unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. And we could lose a generation of potential, as more young Americans are forced to forgo college dreams or the chance to train for the jobs of the future. In short, if we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse."