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Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

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Pentagon to Bush: 'Your plan won't work'
Pentagon planners have examined President George W. Bush's "new" plan for his failed Iraq war and most agree on one key point: It won't work. Military leaders, past and present, say any strategy based on Iraq being able to lead and defend itself is hopeless.

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The Radical Fringe

The World

9 workers killed near Baghdad airport
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen ambushed a bus carrying workers to the airport on Monday, showering them with bullets and killing nine people, a paramedic said.

Court drops charges against Saddam
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein's trial for the killing of 180,000 Kurds in the 1980s resumed Monday with the late dictator's seat empty, nine days after he went to the gallows. The court's first order of business was to drop all charges against Saddam.

Of course this trial was stopped. The whole reason for hanging Saddam so quickly was hiding the role of the U.S. government in these killings. —Caro

Baghdad initiative to go door to door
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops will begin a neighborhood-by-neighborhood assault on militants in the capital this weekend as a first step in the new White House strategy to contain Sunni insurgents and Shiite death squads, key advisers to the prime minister said Friday.

Didn’t the warmongers tell us before we invaded this practically defenseless country that house-to-house fighting would never happen? —Caro

Critic of Hamas gunned down near mosque
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Assailants gunned down a Muslim preacher known for his anti-Hamas views on Friday, witnesses said, moments after he exited a mosque where he delivered a sermon criticizing the Islamic group's role in a wave of Palestinian violence.

Israel Denies It Has Nuclear Strike Plans
A British newspaper reported Sunday that Israeli pilots are training to possibly strike as many as three targets in Iran with low-yield nuclear weapons, aiming to halt Tehran's controversial uranium enrichment program.

Iran reformists slam government's nuclear policy
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian reformist parliamentarians on Saturday blamed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government for failing to prevent United Nations sanctions.

Police fire rubber bullets at Bangladesh protesters
DHAKA (AFP) - Riot police in Bangladesh have fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters who pelted them with stones and small bombs as a nationwide opposition blockade erupted into violence for a second day.

Indian laborers to move to shelters after attacks
DISPUR, India (Reuters) - Thousands of poor migrant laborers in India's remote northeast will be moved to government shelters on Monday after dozens were massacred at the weekend by a powerful rebel group, authorities said.

Somalia's Islamists vow to heed al-Qaida
MOGADISHU, Somalia - The Somali government on Saturday said it was indefinitely postponing a mandatory disarmament program, while Islamic fighters hiding in Mogadishu said they will heed an al-Qaida call for guerrilla attacks and suicide bombings against Ethiopian troops.

Top Brit: U.K. To Split With U.S. On Iraq
Treasury chief Gordon Brown, expected to succeed Tony Blair as prime minister by September, suggested that he will pursue an Iraq policy that is more independent of Washington than the current government including a scaling back of troops in Iraq.

The Nation

Plan to send more troops to Iraq blasted
WASHINGTON - President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq is running into trouble on Capitol Hill, with Republicans joining Democrats in raising eyebrows before the president even has a chance to make his case.

Report: Bush plan to set 'goals' for Iraq
U.S. President George W. Bush s new Iraq policy will include benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet to ease sectarian violence and stabilize the country, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

U.S. general aims for Baghdad pullback
U.S. troops could pull back to Baghdad's outskirts in a matter of months if Iraqi forces step up security, the new commander of U.S. combat forces in Iraq said Sunday.

Democrats vow intense scrutiny of Bush Iraq plan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday vowed aggressive scrutiny of President George W. Bush's expected plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq, but stopped short of saying Congress would block funding for the White House strategy.

Dems prepare slew of oversight hearings
WASHINGTON - In this new era of divided government, the congressional hearing room is where the executive and legislative branches will clash.

New Congress Might Provoke Bush's Veto
President George W. Bush has vetoed just one bill in nearly six years in office. That soon may change. As newly empowered Democrats forge ahead with their own agenda, some items may make it to his desk as prime candidates for veto.

Fine. Let him veto what 60 to 80% of Americans want. He’ll ruin Republican chances for 2008. —Caro

House approves changes to budget rules
WASHINGTON - Resurgent House Democrats voted Friday, their second day back in control, to block future tax cuts or benefit increases from being financed with dollars that swell the national deficit.

Senate keys on ethics, lobbying overhaul
WASHINGTON - On the heels of new ethics rules adopted this week in the House, Senate Democrats mapped plans Friday for changing federal law to address the ethical lapses of lawmakers and their ties with lobbyists that helped bring the downfall of Republicans in the November elections.

Dems look at tax cuts for middle class
WASHINGTON - Democrats are not ruling out raising taxes for the wealthiest people to help pay for tax cuts for middle-income families, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

White House visitor records closed
WASHINGTON - The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.

Economy & Business

Shares off on rate worry
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks declined on Friday after stronger-than-expected December job growth dimmed hopes for a cut in interest rates and a disappointing forecast from Motorola Inc. revived concerns about corporate profits.

Job growth, hourly earnings jump in December
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Job growth was surprisingly strong in December and pay jumped, according to a government report on Friday that may fan policy-makers' concern that a strong job market could ignite inflation.

Homeowners snap up flood insurance
WASHINGTON - Sales of federal flood insurance rose sharply across the country last year as homeowners saw the devastation from Hurricane Katrina and realized that typical policies didn't cover many losses.

Wal-Mart will defend reputation in ads
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will run national television ads starting Monday praising its record as an employer and corporate citizen, taking its arguments straight to the public in an ongoing battle over its reputation with unions and other critics.

It’s a sign of our pitifully immoral times that it isn’t about doing right, it’s about making people THINK you’re doing right. —Caro

Media

For coverage of Democrats' historic day in Congress, NBC interviews ... John McCain
Not that NBC is the only news outlet that treats McCain this way. On CNN, we can only be grateful that Blitzer stopped short of offering to peel McCain a grape.

News media seek audio of Libby trial
WASHINGTON - Fifteen news organizations and five other groups are asking a federal judge to release audio recordings each day in the upcoming criminal trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

Cell-Phone Videos Transforming TV News
NEW YORK (AP) - Michael Richards in a West Hollywood comedy club and the authorities in Iraq who executed Saddam Hussein painfully learned that the prying eyes of television news can belong to anyone who carries a cell phone.

Hang 'Em High! It's Good for the Economy!
Last Saturday, the gang of Forbes magazine pundits that blather their way through the weekly edition of Forbes on FOX engaged in a macabre discussion about whether or not hanging dictators would be "good for the economy".

Fox Cancels Geraldo at Large
Fox will cease production on Geraldo at Large in mid-January, with a weekend version of the show returning to Fox News Channel. The move strengthens the chances that Warner Bros. will gain a clearance this fall for its new celebrity magazine series based on Time Warner's TMZ.com, since it is geared toward the same early and late fringe slots that Geraldo had appeared in on the Fox stations.

Intensely local news gathered by pros is due for a comeback
Small-town newspapering -- with high school box scores, police blotters and zoning news -- is considered boring and unhip, but Danny Westneat believes it's the way to go. ""I think intensely local, professionally gathered news is due for a comeback. It's the one thing you can't get anywhere else."

Newspapers' hypocrisy, tone deafness can be breathtaking
William Powers points to Wall Street Journal publisher L. Gordon Crovitz's letter to readers, which said his paper reduced its size primarily because of reader requests. Crovitz referred "only parenthetically to what everyone knows is the crucial factor, newsprint costs," notes Powers. "This is classic top-down mediaspeak, pomposity rooted in insecurity. It's why newspapers are the butt of so many jokes, while relatively lightweight New Media outlets are taken seriously. They seem to speak more plainly and with less guile."

'Anthrax' Case: Did 'NYT' Editor Warn Kristof About Column?
Lawyers for a former Army scientist suing The New York Times for libel said Friday that an editor at the paper warned columnist Nicholas Kristof to remove incriminating passages from a column that raised suspicions that Steven Hatfill was involved in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Science & Technology

Mocking politicians has an ancient history
As a new Congress gets underway, and a fresh batch of legislators ascend to Capitol Hill, one venerable tradition of democracy seems likely to continue its noble history. Mocking politicians goes back a long way, it seems — at least as far back as the foundation of democracy in ancient Athens.

Self-Cleaning Underwear Goes Weeks Without Washing
Self-cleaning fabrics could revolutionize the sport apparel industry. The technology, created by scientists working for the U.S. Air Force, has already been used to create t-shirts and underwear that can be worn hygenically for weeks without washing.

Color me skeptical. —Caro

GM goes electric with concept car
DETROIT (Reuters) - Struggling auto giant General Motors Corp. on Sunday revived its once-failed idea of a mass-market electric car, unveiling a new "concept" car called the Volt designed to use little or no gasoline.

Peruvian root in bioprospecting dispute
A dispute over maca, a root that supposedly boosts libido, is just the latest collision between indigenous people and commercial interests over so-called biological prospecting, the growing practice of scouring the globe for exotic plants, microbes and other living things ripe for commercial exploitation.

Stem cells extracted from amniotic fluid
Researchers have been able to derive human stem cells from the amniotic fluid surrounding babies in the womb, potentially providing a source of stem cells that is easily available and uncontroversial.

Whooping Cranes Rebounding in Texas
HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) - Once down to about 15, the world's only naturally migrating flock of whooping cranes has continued its comeback, now numbering a record 237 birds in wintering grounds along Texas' Gulf Coast.

Astronomers Create 3D Map of Dark Matter
SEATTLE - Astronomers have mapped the positions of vast, invisible isles of dark matter in the sky, within which normal "bright" matter galaxies are embedded like glittering gems. The three-dimensional map [image] spans not only space, but also time, and stretches back to when the universe was only about half its present age.