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Good Morning!
Longwood Gardens. August, 2011 © joanneleon
News
Commentary: Democrats need to stand up to tea party
I am pleased to report the sighting of an artifact so rarely seen among Democrats that it has become the stuff of legend and conjecture, like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster. It is called a spine.
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But it does acknowledge a reality President Obama refuses to accept: Compromise requires a partner. When the other party’s bottom line is that you fail, when that is the opponent’s prime directive, the most important item on their agenda, then you lack both that partner and any basis for negotiation.
To put that another way: after you have reasoned with the bully, bargained with the bully, tried to appease the bully, sometimes the only remaining option is to punch the bully in the nose. That’s what Maxine Waters just did. Good for her.
Space station may fly without a crew later this year
NASA and Russia's space agency might leave the International Space Station temporarily without a crew starting in November, NASA said on Monday. The announcement was triggered by the failed launch of a cargo ship last week that has called into question the safety of Russian Soyuz rockets used to carry people to orbit.
On Wednesday, a Soyuz rocket failed to reach orbit, causing the Progress cargo ship it was carrying to crash in Russia's Altai region. Fuel pressure in the rocket's third-stage engine dropped suddenly for unknown reasons, causing the engine to shut down prematurely.
A slightly different version of the Soyuz rocket is used to carry Soyuz crew capsules to the space station. Neither Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, nor NASA is willing to launch another crew on a Soyuz rocket until the reason for Wednesday's failure is understood and fixed.
Activists plan protests at G-8, NATO summits in Chicago
CHICAGO — Activists are planning demonstrations to coincide with the Group of Eight and NATO summits in Chicago scheduled for next May with crowds of protesters likely to reach "tens of thousands," organizers said.
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Local activist Andy Thayer said demonstrations will be peaceful, despite a recent statement by police Superintendent Garry McCarthy that the department is preparing for "mass arrests" of protesters during the summit.
The remarks were especially galling given Chicago's mixed history of dealing with large demonstrations, Thayer said. Police in 2003 arrested about 900 people who marched to protest the start of the Iraq war, with some protesters held for up to 36 hours. The arrests prompted a class-action lawsuit, Thayer said.
"Statements like that from McCarthy have a chilling effect," he said. "The city has a history of attacks on civil rights."
Solar bottle-bulbs bring light to Filipinos
A simple, innovative and cheap idea is bringing light to many poor people without electricity.
EU chief: UN bid 'for Palestinians to decide'
European Union foreign policy chief won't say how member states will vote on statehood resolution next month.
The PA plans to ask the UN for recognition, though it has not yet decided whether to pursue full recognition or "non-member observer state" status, which would put it on a par with the Vatican.
The latter requires only a two-thirds vote in the General Assembly, while full recognition also needs approval at the Security Council, where the United States has promised to veto the measure.
The PA has not yet drafted a final resolution requesting recognition; Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to submit it at the General Assembly next month.
Several EU member states, including France and the United Kingdom, have said they will wait to see the final resolution before deciding their vote. Four EU members - Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic - have already said that they plan to vote against the measure.
Gadhafi family's escape to Algeria angers Libya's rebel council
CAIRO — Several members of fugitive Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's family crossed into Algeria on Monday, complicating the interim rebel authority's goal of prosecuting members of his inner circle for allegedly siphoning off the country's oil wealth and contributing to human rights violations.
Gadhafi's wife, Safia, daughter, Aisha, sons Hannibal and Mohamed and their children crossed the border into Algeria at 8:45 a.m. Monday, according to a statement from Algeria's Foreign Ministry. News reports said Mourad Benmehidi, the Algerian ambassador to the United Nations, informed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the family's arrival.
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"We are warning anybody not to shelter Gadhafi and his sons. We are going after them in any place, to find them and arrest them," he said.
Gadhafi and his most visible son, Saif al Islam, remained at large a week after rebel forces ransacked the ruler's Tripoli compound and fought pitched battles against clusters of remaining loyalists.
Cheney: I don't think Iraq war hurt U.S. reputation
In an exclusive live interview on TODAY Tuesday, former Vice President Dick Cheney disputed the notion that the invasion of Iraq has weakened America’s standing in the global community.
“I don’t think that it damaged our reputation around the world,’’ he told Matt Lauer. “I just don’t believe that. I think the critics at home want to argue that.’’
In the interview, Cheney addressed claims from his new book, "In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir," in which he makes clear he supports continued use of waterboarding for terror suspects.
But when presented with the prospect of an American citizen subjected to the controversial interrogation method because another government thought he was a spy, Cheney said he would work to stop that technique.
Death comes again to Iraq's 'Mother of all Battles' mosque
The Baghdad mosque, where 28 people were killed in a suicide bombing Sunday, is tied to some of the biggest failures, and a few of the successes, of post-Saddam Iraq.
The attack is a reminder that as US troop levels continue to dwindle (the US mandate expires at the end of this year), Iraq remains an inordinately violent place. Events at the mosque since the 2003 help illustrate the challenges Iraq continues to confront.
After the attack, Samarrai blamed Al Qaeda for the deaths, but also called for religious tolerance. "Do not describe [the attackers] as Shiite or Sunni or Iraqis," AFP quoted him as saying at the mosque during funeral services for many of the dead today. "They are terrorists and terrorists have no religion."
Perhaps. But the attack highlights the fact that there are still many in the country willing to kill and die in service of the Sunni takfiri ideology of Al Qaeda. The practice of takfir, declaring opponents to be infidels and apostates and therefore fair game for murder, is embraced by the group's fellow travelers in Iraq and elsewhere. To them, Iraq's Shiites are marked for death simply because of their beliefs, as are fellow Sunnis who reject their vision.
Deadliest month yet for U.S. in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan - Sixty-six U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan so far this month, making August the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly decade-long war.
Nearly half of the troops killed died on Aug. 6 when the Taliban shot down a Chinook helicopter in eastern Afghanistan. That was the single deadliest event of the war and sent the monthly total soaring, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
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Aside from the 30 killed in the crash in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, 23 died this month in Kandahar and Helmand provinces in southern Afghanistan, the main focus of Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces. The remaining 13 were killed in eastern Afghanistan.
The deadliest month for American forces until now was July 2010 when 65 were killed.