Poor Mojo's News Show Podcast No. 68 (64 kbps .mp3 12:06 5.2 Mb)
A daily roundup of things that seemed important.
What do YOU do with a drunken sailor?
THIS IS POOR MOJO'S NEWS SHOW FOR TUESDAY, MARCH THIRTEENTH, TWO THOUSAND AND SEVEN
A DAILY ROUNDUP OF THINGS THAT SEEMED IMPORTANT.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6440365.stm
OIL CONTRACTING GIANT HALIBURTON IS LEAVING THE UNITED STATES AND WILL RE-LOCATE TO DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, ACCORDING TO B-B-C NEWS. POOR MOJO'S NEWSWIRE EDITOR MOJO SAYS: I'm not sure I'm comfortable with so many of the U.S. gov's functions being performed by a foreign company. Not that I was ever comfortable with Halliburton, but at least if they are based on U.S. soil they can be held to U.S. laws.
FROM THE ARTICLE: formerly headed by US Vice-President Dick Cheney, The company said it hoped the move to the United Arab Emirates would help it expand its business in the Middle East.
Halliburton won valuable contracts in Iraq following the US-led invasion of 2003, some of which were awarded without competitive bidding.
http://www.harpers.org/this-week-in-babylon-138281283.html
MEANWHILE, HARPERS' MAGAZINE'S THIS WEEK IN BABYLON COLUMN OUTLINES THE ALLEGATIONS MADE AGAINST HALLIBURTON, in which an international consortium led by a Halliburton subsidiary apparently bribed Nigerian officials to win construction contracts worth $5.3 billion. THE ARTICLE STATES there are questions about whether Vice President Dick Cheney, the former head of Halliburton, had knowledge (or chose not to have knowledge) of the illegal payments. THE AFFAIR IS BEING INVESTIGATED IN FOUR COUNTRIES, INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Cheney_tells_AIPAC_that_Congressional_antiwar_0312.html
SPEAKING OF THE VICE PRESIDENT, HE APPEARED TODAY AT THE AMERICAN ISRAEL PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON, DC, ACCORDING TO RAW STORY DOT COM. HE CAME TO ASSURE THE CONSERVATIVE ISRAEL LOBBY -- WHICH HAS ONLY OCCASIONALLY BEEN ACCUSED OF PARTICIPATING IN ESPIONAGE AGAINST THE UNITED STATES -- THAT WE WERE GOING TO INVADE IRAN, NO MATTER WHAT. NOT THAT THIS SETS HIM APART IN THE NATIONS' CAPITOL -- DEMOCRATIC SENATORS HILLARY CLINTON AND BARACK OBAMA HAVE PROMISED ISRAEL EXACTLY THE SAME THING. BUT DICK WASN'T GOING TO LET THE DEMOCRATS OFF EASY, OH NO, AND HE TOOK TO THE PODIUM TO ACCUSE THEM, ESSENTIALLY, OF TREASON FOR EVEN ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT BOTH THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ AND THE PLANNED INVASION OF IRAN. HIS ARGUMENT WAS TWO-FOLD: ONE, QUOTE: "The most common myth is that Iraq has nothing to do with the global war on terror. Opponents of our military action there have called Iraq a diversion from the real conflict, a distraction from the business of fighting and defeating bin Laden and the al Qaeda network. We hear this over and over again, not as an argument but as an assertion meant to close off argument."
OF COURSE, THIS IS THE TRIED-AND TRUE ROVIAN/CHENEY TACTIC OF ACCUSING YOUR RHETORICAL OPPONENT OF DOING THE EXACT BAD THING THAT YOU ARE DOING.
ARGUMENT TWO WAS THAT YOU CAN'T SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHILE QUESTIONING THE MISSION. CHENEY INVOKED THE WORDS "SLOW BLEED" BEFORE THE AIPAC CONFERENCE TO DEFAME DEMOCRTAIC LEGISLATORS EFFORTS TO REIGN IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IN IRAQ AND STAVE OFF AN ATTACK ON IRAN. THINK PROGRESS POINTS OUT THAT IT WAS ONLY LAST WEDNESDAY THAT A CONSERVATIVE BLOGGER COINED THE PHRASE "SLOW BLEED" -- PRESUMABLY AFTER HE READ IT OFF THE FAX FROM KARL ROVE'S OFFICE -- AND THAT, WITHIN HOURS, the Republican National Committee issued a release falsely claiming that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) 'call their plan the ’slow-bleed strategy,'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6476407,00.html
OF COURSE, DEMOCRATS ON CAPITOL HILL RESPONDED TO CHENEY'S BASELESS ACCUSATIONS AND SMEARS WITH AN UTTER LACK OF BACKBONE. WITH AN EYE TOWARD FUTURE ELECTIONS AND NOT WANTING TO BE SEEN AS SOFT ON IRAN, CONSERVATIVE RANK-AND-FILE DEMOCRATS TOLD SPEAKER PELOSI IN A CLOSED-DOOR CONFERENCE OVER THE WEEKEND THEY WOULD NOT SUPPORT nA attempt to limit President Bush's authority for taking military action against Iran, ACCORDING TO ASSOCIATED PRESS. AND THOSE BRAVE DEMOCRATS MUST HAVE GOTTEN THEIR FAXES OF CHENEY'S SPEECH FROM KARL ROVES' OFFICE over the weekend, BECAUSE, FROM THE ARTICLE, Conservative Democrats as well as lawmakers concerned about the possible impact on Israel had argued for the change in strategy.
THIS IS POOR MOJO'S NEWS SHOW!
HERE'S A STORY FOR my long-suffering friends in the high school edutainment business (and who teach Freshman Comp.). WHY IS YOUR TEENAGER SO VILE? ASKS AN ARTICLE FROM NEWS-DASH-MEDICAL DOT NET. Researchers in the U.S. say they may have found a reason for the erratic mood swings of teenagers. researchers from the State University of New York suggest that a hormone produced by the body in response to stress that usually serves to calm adults and younger children, has a paradoxical effect in teenagers and instead increases their anxiety.... THE HORMONE IS CALLED THP. The researchers subjected the mice to a stressful event by suddenly placing them inside a plexiglass container just slightly larger than a mouse's body creating a claustrophobic experience and keeping them there for 45 minutes. My long-suffering friends are now on the search for human-teen-sized plexiglass containers. With air-tight lids.
If one more person tells me global warming will turn Michigan into a vacation paradise, I'm gonna kick their fucking ass in.
http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-0/11733686378520.xml?aanews?NEO&coll=2
And it really does happen! JUST LAST WEEK, SOME OLD COOT WROTE A LONG OP-ED PIECE IN MY LOCAL PAPER ABOUT HOW GLOBAL WARMING WOULD REVIVE MICHIGAN'S MORIBUND STATE ECONOMY.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CNN_Leaked_report_predicts_global_warming_0312.html
WELL, RAW STORY LINKED TO A WIRE SERVICE REPORT ON A LEAKED SCIENTIFIC PAPER by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. HERE'S THE KIND OF VACATION GLOBAL WARMING WILL BRING YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN: By the year 2050, one billion Asians will lack water, the small glaciers of Europe will begin disappearing, large glaciers will change "drastically," and ozone-related deaths will rise 4.5 percent in large cities. In 2050, up to six hundred million people will be hungry due to climate changes. Diseases such as Malaria and Dengue Fever "will run rampant." Scientists predict by the year 2080, three billion Asians will lack water and as many as one hundred million people may be affected by rising sea levels.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258121,00.html
I ONCE ASKED MY LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT IF I COULD VISIT DAILY AND TAKE DOWN THE CRIME REPORTS BECAUSE I WANTED TO POST THEM ON THE INTERNET. THE COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER FOR MY MID-SIZED, FAIRLY WELL-EDUCATED CITY ASKED ME IF I HAD A JOURNALIST'S LICENSE. FOX NEWS REPORTED ON AN INCIDENT IN AFGHANSISTAN LAST WEEK IN WHICH A U-S SOLDIER DECIDED THAT HE WAS REVOKING THE JOURNALIST LICENCES OF TWO ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTERS WHO HAD JUST FILMED the aftermath of a homicide bombing and shooting, saying publication could have compromised a military investigation and led to false public conclusions. NOW, NO REPSPONIBLE JOURNALIST WOULD EVER JEOPARDIZE A POLICE INVESTIGATION, NOT IF HE DIDN'T WANT HER MANAGING EDITORS FOOT IN HER ASS. BUT GENERALLY SPEAKING, REPORTERS AND EDITORS GET TO MAKE THAT DECISION THEMSELVES. THEY DON'T HAVE POLICEMEN, OR SOLDIERS, deletING photos and video AND TAKING AWAY NOTES, AS ALLEGEDLY HAPPENED MARCH FOURTH IN Barikaw, eastern Afghanistan. Col. Victor Petrenko, chief of staff to the top U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan, said in a letter FridaY THAT that photographs or video taken by "untrained people" might "capture visual details that are not as they originally were." SILLY ME, I THOUGHT THAT ASSOCIATED PRESS ONLY HIRED TRAINED PEOPLE TO CAPTURE VISUAL DETAILS, WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION PAID TO HOW THEY ACTUALLY WERE.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandmaster_flash#Grandmaster_Flash_and_The_Furious_Five
GRANDMASTER FLASH AND THE FURIOUS FIVE WERE INDUCTED INTO THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME MONDAY EVENING, THE FIRST RAP ACT TO RECEIVE THE HONOR. FROM WIKIPEDIA'S ENTRY ON THE GROUP:
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five released the classic "Superrappin'" in 1979. They later signed to Sugar Hill Records and released numerous singles, gaining a gold disc for "Freedom." The classic "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel," released in 1981 was the best display of Flash's skills (combining elements of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust", CHIC's "Good Times" and samples from Blondie's Rapture). It also marked the first time that record scratching had been actually recorded on a record. The group's most significant hit was "The Message" (1982), and of the group only MELLE MEL APPEARED ON THE RECORD. It went platinum in less than a month.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070311/pl_nm/usa_votingrights_dc
IN SOME PLACES, THE 60S NEVER HAPPENED. A dispute over voting rights reminiscent of the U.S. civil rights era has broken out in PORT CHESTER NEW YORK, where the federal government has thrust itself into the debate and a judge suspended an election, ACCORDING TO REUTERS. At issue is whether Port Chester is violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a hallmark of the black struggle for equal rights, by insisting its board of trustees be elected by a villagewide vote.
Although they make up 46 percent of Port Chester's population, no Hispanic has been elected to the board governing the town of 28,000 people. ...
"We've never had a problem with our elections or anything else. Now all of a sudden we have the federal government coming here, dictating to us they want us to have districts," said Port Chester Mayor Gerald Logan.
"There's such greater issues that the federal government could be working on, like what we are doing with our borders," he said.
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THIS HAS BEEN POOR MOJO'S NEWS SHOW, I'M ALAN BENARD.
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