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Radio
- 
Advertising
- Religious
- Rhetoric
- 
Politics
- 
Lawsuit
- 
Military
- "Advertisers
Drop Savage Over Hateful Remarks, USO Hints At Suit."
... "At least four major firms have pulled advertising from Michael Savage's
nationally syndicated radio show following a campaign highlighting his
inflammatory rhetoric. One other company, Geico insurance, is expected
to follow suit." ... "The campaign, launched
recently by Brave New Films, generated thousands of calls urging advertisers
on the Savage Nation show to sever financial ties to the widely popular
(and frequently offensive) talk host." ... "The USO [United Service Organizations],
a non-profit that does work for U.S. [United States] armed forces, wrote
Brave New Films complaining about being targeted and even hinting at a
lawsuit." ... ""Considering the USO's role in the world," said Leighton
Woodhouse, a spokesperson for Brave New Films, "we would have expected
them to be the first to distance themselves from someone who is deliberately
fanning the flames of hatred between Muslims and non-Muslims; we were sorely
disappointed."" -By Sam
Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
Dick
Cheney
- 
US
- 
Iraq
- Military
- 
Government
- 
Intelligence
- Politics
- Language
- Database
- 
History
- "Bush
Administration Lied 935 Times About Iraq Before Invasion:
Study: President [Republican President Bush] cited as most frequent liar,
with 259 false statements about weapons of mass destruction and more."
... "For years, the [Republican President] Bush administration has faced
charges that it bent the truth or flat-out misled the public about Iraq's
alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction in the lead-up to the
2003 invasion of the country. Now, a study by two nonprofit journalism
organizations claims that President Bush and top officials in his administration
issued nearly 1,000 false statements about the security threat posed by
Iraq in the wake of 9/11." ... "Relying on what it described as a "massive
database" of information that fed the results of the project, the authors
said their research was based on juxtaposing what President Bush and the
top officials in his administration said in public against what was known,
"or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis." The searchable database
includes public statements drawn from both primary sources like official
transcripts and secondary sources like the reporting of major news organizations
over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also used information
from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews."
... "An example given in the report is a portion of an address given at
the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars on August 26, 2002,
during which Cheney said, "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam
Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing
them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us." According
to the report, former CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] Director George
Tenet later said Cheney's assertions went well beyond his agency's assessments
at the time, and another CIA official, referring to the speech, told a
prominent journalist, "Our reaction was, 'Where is he getting this stuff
from?' "" ... "As for criticism that the report does not have any new information
but rather rehashes already-reported facts, [Center for Public Integrity
spokesman Steve] Carpinelli said, "The difference is that while there have
been many intelligence reports that came out that contradicted a lot of
statements from administration officials, there's been nothing that could
show you how it was a coordinated effort." The report is accompanied by
a bar graph that Carpinelli said shows how the false statements reached
their peak in the months prior to the March 2003 launch of the Iraq war
and how they tapered off soon after." -By Gil Kaufman
-MTV.com
Dick
Cheney
- US
- Iraq
- Military
- Intelligence
- 
Terrorism
- Politics
- Rhetoric
- History
- 
Journalists
- "Study:
Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war."
... "[Republican] President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false
statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following
September 11, 2001, according to a study released Tuesday by two nonprofit
journalism groups." ... "According to the study, Bush and seven top officials
-- including [Republicans] Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary
of State Colin Powell and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice
-- made 935 false statements about Iraq during those two years." ... "The
overview of the study also calls the media to task, saying most media outlets
didn't do enough to investigate the claims." ... ""Some journalists --
indeed, even some entire news organizations -- have since acknowledged
that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential
and uncritical," the report reads. "These mea culpas notwithstanding, much
of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation
of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq.""
-CNN
Dick
Cheney
- US
- Iraq
- Military
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Politics
- Rhetoric
- History
- Noteworthy
- "The
War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path
to War." ... "False Pretenses: Following 9/11,
[Republican] President Bush and seven top officials of his administration
waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat
posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq." ... "President
George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including
[Republicans] Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements
in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security
threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S.
invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the
statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized
public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly
false pretenses." ... "On at least 532 separate occasions (in speeches,
briefings, interviews, testimony, and the like), Bush and these three key
officials, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott
McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction
(or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both.
This concerted effort was the underpinning of the Bush administration's
case for war." ... "It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess
any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al Qaeda. This
was the conclusion of numerous bipartisan government investigations, including
those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2004 and 2006), the
9/11 Commission, and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, whose "Duelfer
Report" established that Saddam Hussein had terminated Iraq's nuclear program
in 1991 and made little effort to restart it." ... "In short, the Bush
administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information
that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action
against Iraq on March 19, 2003. Not surprisingly, the officials with the
most opportunities to make speeches, grant media interviews, and otherwise
frame the public debate also made the most false statements, according
to this first-ever analysis of the entire body of prewar rhetoric." ...
"President Bush, for example, made 232 false statements about weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq and another 28 false statements about Iraq's links
to Al Qaeda. Secretary of State Powell had the second-highest total in
the two-year period, with 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq and 10 about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Rumsfeld and Fleischer each
made 109 false statements, followed by Wolfowitz (with 85), Rice (with
56), Cheney (with 48), and McClellan (with 14)." -By
Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith -PublicIntegrity.org
Hillary
Clinton
- 
John
Edwards
- 
Barack
Obama
- Race
- Language
- Radio
- Ads
- 
Nevada
- 
Union
- 
Money
- 2008
Election - 
Iowa
- 
North
Carolina - "Clinton,
Edwards campaigns blast radio ads backing Obama."
... "The campaigns of [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidates]
Hillary Clinton and John Edwards took aim at [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama Thursday over radio ads in Nevada
funded by a third-party group that is backing his candidacy." ... "The
buy is allegedly being funded by the Unite Here Campaign Committee on behalf
of the Culinary Workers Union, which has endorsed Obama." ... "On a conference
call with reporters late this afternoon, Hispanic supporters of Clinton’s
presidential candidacy criticized the union for incorrectly implying that
“Si Se Puede” – a slogan associated with the late activist Cesar Chavez
– was also the Obama campaign’s official slogan." ... "John Edwards was
criticized by Obama in Iowa for not calling an independent group that supported
the former North Carolina senator to demand they pull ads they were running
in support of his candidacy. “When Sen. Obama says ‘turn the page,’ he
obviously means turn to whatever page is most convenient. He loudly and
repeatedly attacked independent ads by unions in Iowa as the product of
special interests,” said Edwards Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince."
... "“But when a different outside group starts running ads on his behalf
in Nevada, there's not a peep from him or his campaign. It must be because
he's burning up the phone lines calling the head of Unite Here personally
to demand he pulls the ads down right away.”" -By
Rebecca Sinderbrand -CNN
Hillary
Clinton
- Language
- Race
- Civil
Rights - Law
- History
- Media
- Politics
- 2008
Election - "New
York Times Keeps Running Truncated Version Of Hillary's Quote About
Martin Luther King." ... "For the second time, the
[The New York Times] paper has run a truncated version of something
[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary Clinton said
about Martin Luther King that has become a major campaign issue -- even
though the full transcript has been available for days." ... "But as Josh
[Marshall, editor and publisher of TPM Media,] pointed
out on TPM the other day, here's Hillary's actual quote from the interview:
US
- 
Iran
- Military- Radio
- Intelligence
- 
Video
- "U.S.:
Voices on Recording May Not Have Been From Iranian Speedboats:
Chilling Threat Could Have Come From the Shore or Another Ship, Navy Says."
... "Just two days after the U.S. [United States] Navy released the eerie
video of Iranian speedboats swarming around American warships, which featured
a chilling threat in English, the Navy is saying that the voice on the
tape could have come from the shore or from another ship." ... "The near-clash
occurred over the weekend in the Strait of Hormuz. On the U.S.-released
recording, a voice can be heard saying to the Americans, "I am coming to
you. You will explode after a few minutes."" ... "The Navy never said specifically
where the voices came from, but many were left with the impression they
had come from the speedboats because of the way the Navy footage was edited."
... "The Iranians have denied using the threatening language and are saying
U.S.-released video is fabricated." (1, 2)
-By Martha Raddatz and Jonathan Karl
-ABCNEWS.com
John
Edwards
- Military
- 
Homeless
- Poverty
- 
Accounting
- Language
- 2008
Election - Politics
- "Edwards
on Veterans: It Checks Out." ... "Several readers
have asked us to check this surprising statistic, often used by [2008 Election
Democratid Presidential Candidate John] Edwards. The language may be overly
dramatic, but the figure is an official one, from the Department of Veterans
Affairs. The department believes that one-third of the adult homeless population
of the United States "have served their country in the Armed Services."
A posting on the department Web site says that about 195,000 veterans are
"homeless on any given night" and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness
at some point during the course of a year."
-WashingtonPost
John
Edwards
- Barack
Obama
- Politics
- 2008
Election - 2004
Election - Iowa
- 
New
Hampshire - Working
- 
People
- Investment
- Civil
Rights - Lawyer
- 
Drug
- 
Oil
- "Obama
borrows from Edwards." ... "After beating [2008 Election
Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards in Iowa on Thursday, [2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama has decided to
join him -- repeatedly poaching his opponent's themes, language, and even
jokes." ... ""We shouldn't just be respecting wealth in this country --
we should be respecting work," Obama told an overflow crowd in a [New Hampshire]
high-school gym today." ... "Edwards's 2004 presidential campaign was centered
around the idea that the [Republican President] Bush administration had
launched a "war on work" through tax cuts that offer incentives for investment
over labor. "Hard work should be valued in this country, so we're going
to reward work, not just wealth," Edwards said in accepting his party’s
vice-presidential nomination at the Democratic’ convention in Boston. In
this campaign, he has sharpened his populist rhetoric, railing against
greedy corporate CEOs who are waging war on working people and the middle
class." ... "Since arriving in New Hampshire Friday, Obama has borrowed
Edwards's favorite verb by bragging that he had "fought" as a community
organizer and civil rights lawyer, and conceding that "insurance companies
and drug companies will not give up their profits" -- which Edwards asserts
repeatedly to ridicule Obama's talk of conciliation. Obama repeatedly invoked
those interests, as well as "big oil and big insurance," common villains
in Edwards speeches." -By Sasha Issenberg with contributions
by Foon Rhee -Boston/Globe
Mitt
Romney
- 
Rudy
Giuliani
- 
Mike
Huckabee - 
Tom
Tancredo - 
Criminal
- Illegal
- Employer
- Immigrants
- Employees
- Language
- Terrorism
- History
- 
Colo
- 
New
York
- 
Arkansas
- US
- 
Mexican
- People
- Noteworthy
- 2008
Election - "GOP
hopefuls run in a hypocrisy derby." ... "Everybody
knows that [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney
was running - as [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudy
Giuliani put it - a "sanctuary mansion." But not many people know that
he was not the only one." ... "No less an anti-immigrant zealot than [2008
Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Colorado Representative]
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.[Republican-Colorado]), the would-be President
who built a failing campaign on the single issue of persecuting "criminal
aliens" - as he is fond of calling undocumented immigrants - also has a
few skeletons in his closet." ... "Listen to this: Five years ago, when
Tancredo wanted to install a home theater and make other renovations in
his house, he had no qualms hiring a contractor that - gasp! - also employed
undocumented workers." ... "The man who had said, "[The face of illegal
immigration] is the face of murder. It is the face of infiltration into
the country of people who are coming to do us great harm," wasn't at all
troubled by the fact that only two in the crew of five or six laborers
spoke English." ... "[In 1994, then New York Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani
said] "If you come here and you work hard, and you happen to be in an undocumented
status, you're one of the people who we want in this city," he told The
New York Times in 1994." ... "While in Arkansas, he [Arkansas Republican
Governor and 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee]
was instrumental in bringing a Mexican Consulate to Little Rock [Arkansas's
capital]. That consulate issued thousands of identification forms that
now, after he has become a presidential hopeful, Huckabee has begun to
call "illegal immigrant identification cards."" ... "And do not forget
that if he is elected President, he has vowed to expel the nation's estimated
12 million undocumented immigrants within 120 days, which comes to deporting
100,000 people per day." -By Albor Ruiz -NYDailyNews.com
Consumer
- 
Health
- Safety
- 
Food
- Agriculture
- 
Country
- Peoples
- Labor
- Law
- Money
- Politics
- Language
- 
West
Virginia - "Democrats
Use Fine Print to Stymie Bush's Deregulation Agenda."
... "It is a single sentence, on page 147 of the annual appropriations
bill funding the [Republican President Bush] White House, listed under
the title ``Additional General Provisions.''" ... "The 18-word clause eliminates
the money to pay for political appointees in each federal agency whose
jobs are to approve any new regulations. By cutting the money for the positions,
Congress would effectively repeal President George W. Bush's 11-month old
initiative." ... "Democrats, writing the budget for the first time since
Bush took office, are using their power over the purse to thwart Bush's
campaign to loosen federal regulations. Lawmakers have added fine print
to must-pass appropriations bills that sets new policy goals and increases
funding for regulators such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
and the Consumer Product Safety Commission." ... "``It is critically important
when we are facing beef recalls, toy recalls, mine collapses and workplace
infringements that Congress provide the necessary resources to the relevant
agencies for them to do the jobs they are required to do,'' said Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, 90, a West Virginia Democrat."
... "Lawmakers also want agencies to file periodic reports to Congress
charting their progress toward a host of Democratic policy goals, such
as developing workplace ergonomic guidelines for a dozen industries, requiring
country-of-origin labels on meat products and regulating a flavoring chemical
that has been linked to lung disease." -By Brian Faler
-Bloomberg
Nuclear
- Energy
- Construction
- Industry
- Government
- 
Environmental
- Law
- Language
- Politics
- History
- 
Land
- 
Maryland
- 
New
Jersey - "Nuclear
Utilities Redefine One Word to Bulldoze for New Plants."
... "On tree-lined bluffs overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, where anti-nuclear
activists won a landmark environmental victory 36 years ago, Constellation
Energy Group Inc. is engineering atomic power's comeback." ... "This time,
even if there are protests, bulldozers will roll." ... "That's because
the [Maryland] Baltimore-based utility and its allies have found a way
around a longstanding regulatory policy they say added a year or more to
construction times for nuclear plants." ... "In April, the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission [NRC] agreed to industry demands that it reduce its
oversight of initial work at reactor sites. By narrowing its definition
of the word ``construction'' in agency rules, the NRC put off the required
public hearings and permits that have waylaid past projects." ... "The
untold story of how the energy lobby and the federal government worked
to clear a path for new reactors -- backed by an NRC commissioner [Republican
Jeffrey Merrifield] seeking a job in the [nuclear] industry -- reveals
one way pro-nuclear forces have stolen a march on environmentalists." ...
"Utilities and the administration of [Republican] President George W. Bush
say they want new reactors on line by 2015. Power companies are rushing
to take advantage of federal tax credits and loan guarantees in the Energy
Policy Act of 2005, some of which begin to expire next year. The NRC says
it expects to receive as many as 21 applications to build 32 new reactors,
the first of which will be filed today by NRG Energy Inc. of Princeton,
New Jersey." ... "The new construction rule is only the latest such initiative.
In 2004, the NRC limited the public's ability to gather evidence and question
witnesses during hearings." ... "By redefining ``construction'' to exclude
excavation, road building and the erection of some cooling towers, the
NRC could reduce its oversight without violating the 1971 court order."
... "Andrew Kugler, senior environmental project manager in the NRC's New
Reactor Office, protested to the general counsel's office. Kugler said
in an e-mail that the proposed rule would exclude from NRC regulation ``probably
90 percent of the true environmental impacts of construction.''" -By
Elliot Blair Smith -Bloomberg
Secret
- United
States - Government
- Foreign
- Intelligence
- 
Surveillance
- History
- 
Electronic
- 
E-Mail
- 
Telephone
- Law
- Language
- Politics
- Terrorism
- "Bush
Signs Law to Widen Legal Reach for Wiretapping."
... "[Republican] President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation
that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international
telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants."
... "Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law
said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration
officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists.
They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply
alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions
of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States."
... "They also said that the new law for the first time provided a legal
framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was being
conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is supposed to regulate
the way the government can listen to the private communications of American
citizens." ... "“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said
Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington,
who has studied the new legislation." ... "Previously, the government needed
search warrants approved by a special intelligence court to eavesdrop on
telephone conversations, e-mail messages and other electronic communications
between individuals inside the United States and people overseas, if the
government conducted the surveillance inside the United States." -By
James Risen -NYTimes
US
Immigration - Law
- Language
- Gasoline
- Companies
- Politics
- "Large
majority supports path to citizenship: A poll finds
63% of all respondents, and 65% of Republicans, back the controversial
measure." ... "A strong majority of Americans — including nearly two-thirds
of Republicans — favor allowing illegal immigrants to become citizens if
they pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements, a new Los Angeles
Times/Bloomberg poll has found." ... "That is a striking show of support
for a primary element of an immigration overhaul bill that has stalled
in the Senate amid conservative opposition." ... "Only 23% of adults surveyed
opposed allowing undocumented immigrants to gain legal status." ... "As
gasoline prices soar over $3 a gallon, survey participants were most likely
to blame U.S. oil companies and the Bush administration rather than market
fluctuations. Whereas 12% said market forces were responsible for the high
price of gas, 38% blamed oil companies and 21% blamed the administration."
... "Corporate chiefs in general were viewed with suspicion, with 81% saying
they are overpaid and 33% saying they are ethical." (1, 2)
-By Janet Hook -LAtimes
US
- Iraq
- Global
- Military
- Terrorism
- Torture- Civil
Liberties - Spying
- Politics
- 2008
Election - Edwards
- "Edwards
Rejects the "War on Terror" [Language]." ... "Campaign-hardened
Republicans used to treat the phrase "global war on terror" so casually,
even affectionately, that they talked about "the G-WOT," after the four-letter
abbreviation used in White House calendars to denote Iraq messaging meetings.
Democrats embraced it, too, with John Kerry asserting during his acceptance
speech at the Democratic National Convention: "We are a nation at war,
a global war on terror."" ... "But increasingly the phrase is being regarded
with hostility by many Democrats, who view it as little more than propaganda,
and with a degree of skepticism by some Republicans, who consider it tired
and vague. The left lobe of the blogosphere roared its approval in March
when the House Budget Committee directed its staff to eschew "global war
on terror" and instead use more precise language like "the war in Iraq"
and "ongoing military operations throughout the world." And last month
the British government announced that it too had retired the phrase." ...
"Now Kerry's former running mate is declaring his independence from a phrase
that politicians have been brandishing with brio for more than five years."
... ""This political language has created a frame that is not accurate
and that Bush and his gang have used to justify anything they want to do,"
[2008 Democratic Presidential candidate John] Edwards said in a phone interview
from Everett, Wash. "It's been used to justify a whole series of things
that are not justifiable, ranging from the war in Iraq, to torture, to
violation of the civil liberties of Americans, to illegal spying on Americans.
Anyone who speaks out against these things is treated as unpatriotic. I
also think it suggests that there's a fixed enemy that we can defeat with
just a military campaign. I just don't think that's true."" ... "Edwards,
previewing the foreign policy he will unveil in coming weeks, made it clear
that his objections to Bush's world view are not merely semantic. Indeed,
the Edwards foreign policy will be built around a rejection of the Bush
doctrine, which puts a primary emphasis on the projection of American military
power. "Americans are completely prepared for, and receptive to, an alternative
approach," Edwards said. "I don't think they would accept an approach that
did not include a component of strength. Our capacity to lead requires
that we be strong - and that we have the moral authority to do it."" ...
""What they [the Republican administration] have proven beyond any doubt
is that the exercise of raw power does not make you a leader," Edwards
said." -By Mike Allen
-TIME.com
John
Edwards
- Free
Speech - 2008
Election - Don
Imus - Media
- 
Entertainment
- Business
- Politics
- Language
- 
Women
- 
University
- Sports
- "Edwards
On Imus Spat: 'I Believe In Forgiveness: Presidential
Candidate Stays Mum On Future Imus Appearances." ... "Democratic Presidential
candidate John Edwards' spoke exclusively to CBS 2 on Wednesday morning
about the Don Imus and Rutgers University controversy, and though he feels
Imus deserves a second chance, he wasn't so sure about his future on Imus'
popular radio show." ... ""I believe in redemption, I believe in forgiveness,"
Edwards said of Imus, who was suspended earlier in the week after calling
the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy headed hos."" ... "Unlike candidates
Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, who say they will continue to appear on
Imus' radio show, Edwards says he hasn't seen enough from the shock jock
to make that decision just yet." ... ""What he said is wrong because it's
wrong. It has to be condemned, we have to speak out when people use this
kind of language," Edwards said. "This is a very serious matter, it should
be taken very seriously."" -By Marcia Kramer
-WCBStv.com
2008
Election - Don
Imus - Media
- Television
- 
Humor
- Business
- Employee
- Language
- Censorship
- Politics
- Women
- University
- Sports
- 
Daughters
- Human
Rights - People
- 
Illinois
- "Obama:
Fire Imus: [Illinois Democratic Senator and Democratic
Presidential candidate] Obama [is] First White House Contender to Call
for Imus' Firing Over Racial Slur." ... "In an interview with ABC News
Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., called for the firing of
talk radio host Don Imus. Obama said he would never again appear on Imus'
show, which is broadcast on CBS Radio and MSNBC television." ... ""I understand
MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus," Obama told ABC News, "but I would also say
that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they
made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would
hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."" ... "Obama said he appeared
once on Imus' show two years ago, and "I have no intention of returning.""
... ""He didn't just cross the line," Obama said. "He fed into some of
the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with
today in America. The notions that as young African-American women — who
I hope will be athletes — that that somehow makes them less beautiful or
less important. It was a degrading comment. It's one that I'm not interested
in supporting."" ... "Tuesday, the basketball team held a press conference."
... ""I think that this has scarred me for life," said Matee Ajavon. "We
grew up in a world where racism exists, and there's nothing we can do to
change that."" ... ""What we've been seeing around this country is this
constant ratcheting up of a coarsening of the culture that all of have
to think about," Obama said." ... ""Insults, humor that degrades women,
humor that is based in racism and racial stereotypes isn't fun," the senator
told ABC News." ... ""And the notion that somehow it's cute or amusing,
or a useful diversion, I think, is something that all of us have to recognize
is just not the case. We all have First Amendment rights. And I am a constitutional
lawyer and strongly believe in free speech, but as a culture, we really
have to do some soul-searching to think about what kind of toxic information
are we feeding our kids," he concluded." (1, 2)
-By Jake Tapper with contributions by Clayton Sandell
-ABCNEWS.com
2008
Election - Politics
- "Gingrich:
Spanish a 'ghetto' language." ... "Former Speaker
Newt Gingrich [Republican considering 2008 Presidential election] can always
be counted on for the controversial and didn't disappoint over the weekend
with a comment in which he appeared to say that the [Spanish] language
of Cervantes and Lorca, is the "language of the ghetto." -By
Frank James -ChicagoTribune
Telecommunications
- Money
- Government
- Language
- Politics
- "Justice
gets wrong statute, pays $100M price." ... "Poorly
written Justice Department documents cost the federal government more than
$100 million in what was supposed to have been the crowning moment of the
biggest tax prosecution ever." ... "Walter Anderson, the telecommunications
entrepreneur who admitted hiding hundreds of millions of dollars from the
IRS and District of Columbia tax collectors, was sentenced Tuesday to nine
years in prison and ordered to repay about $23 million to the city." ...
"But U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said he couldn't order Anderson
to repay the federal government $100 million to $175 million because the
Justice Department's binding plea agreement with Anderson listed the wrong
statute." ... "Friedman said he could have worked around that problem by
ordering Anderson to repay the money as part of his probation. But prosecutors
omitted any discussion of probation -- a common element of plea deals --
from Anderson's paperwork." -APvia
-CNN
US
- 
Florida
- 
Cuba
- 
Venezuela
- 2008
Election - Languages
- "Romney
Finds Peril in Checklist for '08." ... "As [Republican]
Mitt Romney transitions from one-term governor to presidential candidate
[2008 election], he has been ticking through a presidential checklist,
sometimes with perilous results." ... "But this month, Romney scratched
when he tried to wade through the cauldron of Cuban-American politics during
a speech to South Florida Republicans." ... ""Hugo Chavez has tried to
steal an inspiring phrase - 'Patria o muerte, venceremos.'" Romney said,
referring to the Venezuelan president and persistent U.S. critic. "It does
not belong to him. It belongs to a free Cuba."" ... "In truth, the phrase
does not belong to free Cubans. It has been the trademark speechmaking
sign-off of their most despised opponent, Fidel Castro. And unlike Romney,
Castro would switch to English to declare, "Fatherland or death, we shall
overcome."" -By Glen Johnson
-AP
Noteworthy
- US
- Iraq
- Intelligence
- Language
- Politics
- "Pentagon:
Iraq in some ways in civil war." ... "The U.S. military
for the first time Wednesday said in a new report that some of the violence
in Iraq can be described as a civil war." ... "In its bleakest assessment
of the war to date, a quarterly Pentagon report said that last October
through December was the most violent three-month period since 2003. Attacks
and casualties suffered by coalition and Iraqi forces and civilians were
higher than any other similar time span, said the report." ... "But it
added, "Some elements of the situation in Iraq are properly descriptive
of a 'civil war,' including the hardening of ethno-sectarian identities
and mobilization, the changing character of the violence and population
displacements.""
... "A similar assessment released by the U.S. intelligence community last
month came to roughly the same conclusion." -By Lolita
C. Baldor -AP
via -HoustonChronicle.com
George
Allen - Language- History
- US
- 
Virginia
- 
Indian
- 2008
Election - 2006
Election - Military
- Law
- 
Israel
- "Guess
Who's Mad At George Allen Now? Confederate Group
Slams Va. Senator For Demeaning Rebel Flag." ... "[Virginia Republican]
Sen. George Allen's use [of] the word "macaca" for a young man of Indian
descent forced him to spend the past six weeks disputing claims that his
past is littered with racist language and a fondness for Confederate symbols."
... "What had been a warm-up race for a 2008 presidential [election] bid
has become the fight of Allen's political life. He had been a strong [2006
election] favorite over Democrat Jim Webb, a decorated combat veteran who
once served as President Reagan's Navy secretary." ... "Stories about how
the Confederate flag he kept in his home and a hangman's noose in his law
office have gained new currency. At a debate, Allen was startled and irritated
by a question about whether his grandfather was Jewish, then confirmed
it a day later." -AP
via -CBSNews
US
- Iraq
- Military
- Virginia
- Election
2008 - Language
- "Allen
Flap May Give A Boost To Webb: Reenergized Va. Democrats
Gain Support." ... "The nationwide fallout from controversial remarks [Virginia
Republican Senator] Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) made last week has given
Democrats new hope in a race many thought would be difficult to win in
the historically conservative state." ... "Before Allen insulted a native
Fairfax County man of Indian descent, many Democratic officials were privately
doubtful that [Virginia Democrat] James Webb could mount an aggressive
challenge to the former governor and possible 2008 presidential candidate."
... "But Allen's remarks to S.R. Sidarth, 20 -- which included saying "welcome
to America" -- are generating new support for the Webb campaign and energizing
Democratic activists." ... "Webb, an Iraq war opponent who is a former
Marine and was secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration,
still faces a relentless campaigner who last month had 10 times as much
to spend on his reelection bid." ... "Last Friday, while speaking at a
GOP rally in southwestern Virginia, [Republican George] Allen singled
out Sidarth, a Webb volunteer, and called him "Macaca."" ... "The term
"macaca" refers to a genus of monkey and is considered an ethnic slur in
some cultures." (1, 2,
3)
-By Tim Craig and Michael D. Shear
-WashingtonPost
US
Immigration - Legislation
- Economic
-
Music
- Entertainment
- "Bush
Says Anthem Should Be Sung in English." ... "President
Bush said today that the national anthem should be sung in English -- not
Spanish -- and that he opposes an economic boycott planned Monday by immigrant
groups supporting legislation to legalize millions of people living in
the United States illegally." ... "Bush favors legislation that would tighten
the nation's borders but give illegal immigrants in the United States a
chance to gain citizenship if they met certain conditions, such as learning
the English language." ... "A Spanish language version of the U.S national
anthem, sung by Latin pop stars and dubbed "Nuestro Himno" ("Our Anthem"),
hit the airwaves today." -By Bill Brubaker
-WashingtonPost
Animal
- Psychology
- 
Science
- 
California
- "Songbirds
can sing, but can they learn grammar?" ... "The simplest
grammar, long thought to be one of the skills that separate man from beast,
can be taught to a common songbird, new research suggests." ... "Starlings
learned to differentiate between a regular birdsong "sentence" and one
containing a clause or another sentence of warbling, according to a study
in Thursday's journal Nature. It took University of California at San Diego
psychology researcher Tim Gentner a month and about 15,000 training attempts,
with food as a reward, to get the birds to recognize the most basic of
grammar in their own bird language." ... "Yet what they learned may shake
up the field of linguistics." -AP
via -USATODAY
Antonin
Scalia
- Photo
- Journalism- Free
Speech - Law
- Politics
- Language
- Humor
- People
- 
Massachusetts
- "Photographer:
Herald got it right." ... "Amid a growing national
controversy about the gesture U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
made Sunday at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross [Boston, Massachusettes],
the freelance photographer who captured the moment has come forward with
the picture." ... "“It’s inaccurate and deceptive of him to say there was
no vulgarity in the moment,” said Peter Smith, the Boston University assistant
photojournalism professor who made the shot." ... "Smith was working as
a freelance photographer for the Boston archdiocese’s weekly newspaper
at a special Mass for lawyers Sunday when a Herald reporter asked the justice
how he responds to critics who might question his impartiality as a judge
given his public worship." ... "“The judge paused for a second, then looked
directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ”
punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin,
Smith said." ... "The Italian phrase means “(expletive) you.”" (1, 2)
-By Marie Szaniszlo -BostonHerald.com
US
Immigration - Law
- Politics
- Language
- Los
Angeles - California
- Media
- "How
DJs Put 500,000 Marchers in Motion." ... "He's one
of the hottest Spanish-language radio personalities in the nation. So when
Los Angeles deejay Eddie Sotelo joined hands with his radio rivals to urge
listeners to turn out for a pro-immigrant rally in downtown Los Angeles
[California] on Saturday, organizers hoped for a big turnout." ... "But
many said Monday that they were stunned by how many responded to the call
to march against federal legislation that would crack down on undocumented
immigrants and penalize those who assist them." ... "As a result, what
was initially expected to draw fewer than 20,000 ballooned into a massive
march that police estimated at 500,000 and said was one of the largest
demonstrations in Los Angeles' history." ... "The deejays did more than
publicize the march. Working with the organizers, they also helped develop
some ground rules: Marchers had to be peaceful and clean up after themselves."
... "They were also encouraged to wave American flags." (1, 2)
-By Teresa Watanabe and Hector Becerra with contributions
by Scott Martelle -LAtimes
Language
- Computer
- 
Internet
- Radio
- Media
- "`Podcast'
is lexicon's Word of the Year." ... "The editors
of the New Oxford American Dictionary have validated the sudden spread
of podcasting by naming "podcast" the Word of the Year for 2005." ... ""Podcast,"
defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program,
made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player,"
will be added to the next edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary."
... "The word originated as a play on the word "broadcast" using the name
of Apple's popular handheld digital music player, the iPod." -By
Nathan Bierma -ChicagoTribune
Books
- 
Library
- Languages
- "Study:
1 In 20 Can't Read English." ... "An estimated in
one in 20 U.S. adults is not literate in English, which means 11 million
people lack the skills to perform everyday tasks, a federal study shows."
... "The 11 million adults who are not literate in English include people
who may be fluent in another language, such as Spanish, but are unable
to comprehend text in English." -AP
via -CBSNews
US
- World
- Karl
Rove
- Political
- Government
- Radio
- Television
- Language
- Media
- "Rove
friend is at center of inquiry." ... "Kenneth Tomlinson,
who is also a close friend of Karl Rove, the White House political guru,
was removed last week from the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
after its inspector general concluded an investigation that was critical
of him. That examination looked at his efforts as chairman to seek more
politically conservative programs on public radio and television in the
United States." ... "But Tomlinson remains an important official as the
chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, whose members include
the secretary of state. It supervises the U.S. government's foreign broadcasting
operations, including the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Sawa
and Alhurra, transmits programs in 61 languages and says it has more than
100 million listeners each week." ... ""People involved in the inquiry
said that investigators had already interviewed a significant number of
officials at the agency and that if the accusations were substantiated,
they could involve criminal violations." -By Stephen
Labaton with contributions by Steven R. Weisman
-NYTimes via -IHT.com
PA
- Psychology
- Language
-
- Alzheimer's
- "Study
Links Daydreaming, Alzheimer's." ... "Scientists
who set out to explore changes in the brain as Alzheimer's disease progresses
got a surprise: a possible link between daydreaming and the degenerative
brain disease that robs memory, language and thought." ... "The part of
the brain involved in daydreaming is always active, even if the mind is
at rest, said William Klunk, coauthor of the study and associate professor
of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania]. "It's like
an engine on idle," he said. "It never shuts down. That activity might
fuel the sequence of events that could lead to Alzheimer's."" -By
Cheryl Wittenauer -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
- "In
un-P.C. Brazil, a list of 96 offensive terms causes offense."
... "Throughout Latin America, a person is as likely to be described by
his skin color or girth as someone elsewhere might be called tall or smart
or gregarious. A word that in the US could provoke a fistfight or a court
case is often just a personal identifier here." ... "Now Brazil is making
its first forays into changing this. Last year the government quietly issued
an 87-page document entitled "Political Correctness and Human Rights,"
which listed 96 words and phrases it hopes will eventually become unacceptable."
... "In the US, minorities have waged lengthy battles to take control of
the language used to describe them. Indigenous groups have rejected the
term "Indians." "African-American" has replaced negro and colored." -By
Andrew Downie -CSMonitor
Animals
- Psychology
- Georgia
- Des-Moines
-
- "Great
apes to learn human behaviors." ... "The first two
bonobos will make the 16-hour road trip from the Language Research Center
at Georgia State University to their new $10 million, 13,000-square-foot
home near downtown Des Moines later this month. All eight --three females
and five males -- will arrive at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa by mid-May."
... ""If you want to find a human-like creature that exists in a completely
natural state ... that creature is the bonobo," said [Dr. Sue] Savage-Rumbaugh,
an experimental psychologist who is one of the world's leading ape-language
researchers." -AP
via -CNN
- 
-
-
- Languages
- Secrets-
"Decoded
at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the
world: Scientists begin to unlock the secrets of
papyrus scraps bearing long-lost words by the literary giants of Greece
and Rome." ... "For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration
in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it
could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible."
... "Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding
the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology
to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the
prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems
will soon be revealed." ... "In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists
have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing
by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient
world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost
Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time
of the earliest books of the New Testament." -By David
Keys and Nicholas Pyke -Independent.co.uk
- "Notre
Dame keeps Irish language alive." ... "In Ireland,
the Irish language is viewed by some affluent citizens as a peasant language
that should be allowed to fade into oblivion." ... "But at the University
of Notre Dame, where students pay nearly $40,000 a year to attend, the
little-used language is enjoying a renaissance." ... "The Keough institute,
established in 1993, allows students to examine everything from the language
to Irish history and dance. It is named for Donald Keough, an Irish-American
alumnus and former president of Coca-Cola Corp., who helped fund it and
a $13 million Keough-Notre Dame Center in Dublin, Ireland, that opened
in 1998." -AP
via -CNN
-
-
- "Oldest
Jewelry? "Beads" Discovered in African Cave." ...
"Humans may have been wearing jewelry as far back as 75,000 years ago,
about 30,000 years earlier than previously thought, if 41 shells found
at Blombos Cave in South Africa prove to have been used as beads." ...
"Beads are considered definitive evidence of symbolic thinking, which many
scientists don't think occurred in modern humans until about 45,000 years
ago." ... "The presence of beads, whether used as trade items, to convey
group status, or to identify group members or relationships within a group
suggests some form of language existed, says [Blombos Cave Project director
Christopher] Henshilwood, who is affiliated with the University of Bergen,
Norway, and the State University of New York." ... "Recent studies have
suggested that Khoisan, a southern African language that includes many
clicks, could be as many as 100,000 years old. It's possible the people
at Blombos were speaking in some form of click language, Henshilwood said."
-By Hillary Mayell -NationalGeographic>News
-
-
-
- "Speaking
in 'approved' tongues: Should the government be allowed
more oversight of foreign language study?" ... "As in many college departments,
intellectual independence is a theme at Columbia's Department of Middle
East and Asian Languages and Cultures." ... "An office door is decorated
with a sticker that reads "Subvert the dominant paradigm," and the topics
of faculty-authored books on display range from Iranian cinema to Israeli
literature. But some academics worry this independence may be at risk as
legislation increasing oversight of international studies programs makes
its way through Congress." ... "The bill, called the International Studies
Higher Education Act (HR 3077), reauthorizes about $80 million in funding
for international and foreign language study, but with a twist - now the
government would allocate more resources to programs that emphasize national
security." -By Kimberly Chase
-CSMonitor
- "Last
'Adieu' to French as World Language?" ... "It was
meant as a jibe, but when a U.S. senator recently branded French a "near
forgotten" language he hit Gallic sensitivities right where they hurt most."
... "Yet instead of outraged denials, the remark has triggered soul-searching
among French intellectuals who not only concede English's pre-eminence
as world "lingua franca" but fear French is being shoved off the international
scene
altogether." ... "For a country which in the past has proclaimed its tongue
the language of love, global diplomacy and the universal rights of man,
that would be bad news." -By Mark John-Reuters
-
- "Intel's
sights on lip-reading software: Intel has released
software that lets computers read lips, a step forward that could lead
to better voice recognition applications." ... "The Audio Visual Speech
Recognition (AVSR) software tracks a speaker's face and mouth movements.
By matching these movements with speech, the application can provide a
computer with enough data to respond to voice recognition commands, even
when these are given in noisy environments. The AVSR program is part of
the OpenCV computer vision library, a collection of open-source applications
and tools that help computers interpret visual data." -By
Michael Kanellos -CNET/News
-
- "Intel
gives away lip-reading speech recognition code."
... "Intel has released lip-reading visual speech recognition software
under an open source licence." ... "Called Audio Visual Speech Recognition
(AVSR), the software is part of Intel's OpenCV computer vision and facial
recognition code library. Essentially, it tracks the speaker's mouth movements
as individual character and syllable sounds are formed. Intel reckons the
technique to be far more accurate than traditional speech recognition algorithms,
which analyse sounds rather than images." -By Tony
Smith -TheRegister.co.uk
-
- "Reading
Lips In Software." -Slashdot
- CNNArabic.com - "Showdown:
Iraq." -CNN
Osama
bin Laden
- "Bin
Laden Tape Authentic, U.S. Intelligence Officials Say."
... "Linguists at the National Security Agency who have been assigned for
many years to study bin Laden's voice and analyze tape recordings and intercepts
of his suspected conversations have no doubt it is the voice of al Qaeda's
leader. But the quality of the tape, in which bin Laden is believed to
be speaking into a telephone that is near a tape recorder's microphone,
is not good enough to allow a 100 percent certainty that it is him, a U.S.
intelligence official said." -By Dana Priest and Susan
Schmidt -WashingtonPost
- "North
Korea sows confusion with nuclear arms comment."
... "But analysts in Japan and South Korea, two neighbours who are working
closely with the United States to pressure the North to scrap its nuclear
ambitions, said on Monday it looked more like a linguistic mix-up." ...
"Just one Korean syllable separates North Korea's stock assertion of its
right to possess nuclear arms from a declaration it has such weapons --
a development that would complicate allied efforts to pre-empt a new nuclear
crisis on the Korean peninsula." -By Paul Eckert -Reuters/Asia
-
- "U.N.
passes Iraq resolution on weapons inspections:
Bush: 'All nations must continue to pressure Saddam'" ... "The United Nations
Security Council on Friday approved a resolution that demands unfettered
access for U.N. inspectors to search for weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq." ... "All 15 member states of the Security Council voted in favor
of the resolution." ... "Iraq has seven days to accept the resolution's
terms." ... "Within 30 days, Iraq must send the U.N. a list of its
weapons." ... "Within 45 days, Iraq must allow inspections to begin."
... "Iraq is accused of possessing weapons of mass destruction -- nuclear,
biological, chemical -- in violation of the ceasefire treaty it signed
when Baghdad lost the 1991 Persian Gulf War." -Report
contributed to by Jane Arraf -CNN
-
-
-
- "US,
France agree on new Iraq resolution. " ... "The U.N.
Security Council set the vote for 10 a.m. EST after the United States and
its cosponsor Britain, at French urging, changed the wording in a key provision
that would declare Iraq in "material breach" of its U.N. obligations."
... "The change addresses concerns by France, Russia, Syria and others
that the original text would have let the United States determine on its
own whether Iraq had committed an infraction." -By
Edith M. Lederer -AP
via -Boston/Globe
- "Utah: Center for Foreign Language Training:
Utah is now a hotbed for training foreign language interpreters, who help
intelligence agencies intercept potential terrorist communications. Weekend
All
Things Considered host Lisa Simeone talks with NPR's Howard Berkes."-NPR
/News / ATC
AltaVista's Babel Fish Translation Service
Google Search: translator Google Search: translation Google Search: language Google Search: languages Google Search: foreign language Google Search: foreign languages
LeMonde.fr Iraq = Irak - Translate - To English - via AltaVista's BabelFish translation Tool - through: systransoft.com - "You can now follow links on translated web pages." - new pages are subsequently translated. http://babel.altavista.com/ ?= http://world.altavista.com/
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