U.S.

Prospects Bleaker for Kids Already Left Behind

One consequence of the new restrictions on international adoption that we wrote about Wednesday will be longer waiting times for older children languishing in orphanages.

Ayn Rand 101

THE JAUNDICED EYE

 

Two dozen colleges have accepted millions to start programs devoted to Ayn Rand's philosophy. What could a survey course look like?

'Why Are We Bombing These People?'

From Tuesday's White House press conference with Dana Perino, long-time Washington reporter Helen Thomas, now a columnist with Hearst Newspapers, had a few pointed questions about the mission at hand in Iraq. From the official transcript:

Usually Ducking and Spinning, Perino Takes Up Referring

Could it be fatigue, stonewalling or just symptom of a lame-duck administration that White House press secretary Dana Perino -- usually well versed in the fine craft of artful spin -- has taken instead to a habit of deflecting questions to other administration offices?

Doan Speaks, Envisions Victory Dance

On Friday, The New York Times had a pithy assessment of ousted GSA Administrator Lurita Doan: "She exits as a minor but revealing character in a far more sweeping tale of the partisan undermining of public service."

Well, it's not like Lurita Doan to take such swipes lying down. Today she fired back on the airwaves of Federal News Radio, giving an interview that was over-the-top even by Doan's standards. The news from the interview is that White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Counsel Fred Fielding told Doan she had to go, because she was a "distraction." Here are some other highlights:

Why Is Doan Out?

It's never wise to blast those in charge of audits.

Burger King Responds

 Here's more on Burger King from yesterday. The company didn't receive the farm worker petitions calling for a penny more in pay per pound of tomatoes picked, which were left outside its Miami headquarters. But eventually the company distanced itself from the comments attributed to Grover:

Workers Petition Burger King

About 100 demonstrators allied with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a grassroots farmworker organization, presented 85,000 petition signatures at the company's headquarters in Miami on Monday. The farmworkers want Burger King to agree to pay them an additional penny per pound of tomatoes they pick, a move that would increase their wages by about 75 percent.

 

Guards Blame Understaffing for Deadly Prison Riot

Two inmates were killed in a massive riot Sunday in the country's highest security prison, according to Colorado Confidential. Early news reports blamed racial tensions ignited by white prisoners celebrating Adolf Hitler's birthday but reporter Erin Rosa says the problems run deeper at the Federal Correctional Complex in Florence.

Scientists Ignored on Toxic Trailers

Why did the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry fail Hurricane Katrina victims housed in formaldehyde-tainted trailers?

McCain Green Reality Check

John McCain is drilling for oil and gas money at the Petroleum Club in Denver Thursday, reports Colorado Confidential.

Credit Check Induces Panic Selling

Stocks took a tumble after Treasury Secretary Henry A. Paulson Jr. said yesterday that investment banks might be required to provide more information on their dealings in return for access to money from the Fed. Note that Paulson didn't go as far to recommend the "R" word - Regulation.

But apparently any possible intrusion into the investment banking world merits panic. 

This is all very rich, considering the financial services industry has been claiming for years that any regulation would freeze up the markets by drying up capital. Considering the scope of the credit crunch, they seem to have done a fine job of that all by themselves.

What About Main Street?

The Fed swooped in to hash out a deal for Bear Stearns, despite looking the other way when investment banks were profiting from subprime mortgages.

Milking It

The growth hormone gets an extra gallon of milk out of a cow each day, but it's also been linked to health problems in humans.

Boston Financier's Newest Fund

Last week, a California wrestling promoter put on a match between to raise funds for immigrants arrested in a raid.  He brought in $4,000. Two days earlier, a Boston millionaire had put up $200,000 to bail out 40 factory workers arrested in an immigration raid last March.  (Sign of the times: they were making vests and backpacks for U.S. soldiers in the Middle East.)

Super Mojado Beats INS

If you guessed that this took place in Los Angeles, you're right: more precisely, in Van Nuys, a district north of Hollywood.   And if you guessed that it involved a masked wrestler, Mexican style, you know about Lucha Libre.

Last Saturday, Super Mojado, the masked hero of undocumented workers, beat the two-man team of Ronnie K, an unmasked white man, and Viper, the masked traitor to his Latino brothers.  

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, the former INS, does not exist anymore, so the bad guys in this battle were the Irresistible Notorious Studs.  That's not to say that immigration control, now called ICE, for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was out of the picture.

With Sheriffs Like These...

After spending untold billions of dollars securing the nation's airlines from ill-intentioned passengers, it seems there's a new menace in the nation's skies. A gun being carried by a U.S. Airways pilot accidentally discharged on a Saturday flight between Denver and Charlotte with 124 passengers on board, according to reports.

Why a pilot was carrying a loaded weapon on a passenger flight seems the logical question, but apparently a program launched after the 9/11 attacks -- the Transportation Security Administration's Federal Flight Deck Officer program -- allows certain airline personnel, including pilots, to carry guns on flights to defend against terrorist threats. Why the pilot would be handling it in the cockpit without the safety lock engaged remains under investigation.

You Are Looking At The Future of The Media

Why, what do we have here, in Eric Alterman's excellent New Yorker piece about the Huffington Post?

The survivors among the big newspapers will not be without support from the nonprofit sector. ProPublica, funded by the liberal billionaires Herb and Marion Sandler and headed by the former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger, hopes to provide the mainstream media with the investigative reporting that so many have chosen to forgo. The Center for Independent Media, headed by David Bennahum, a former writer at Wired, recently hired Jefferson Morley, from the Washington Post, and Allison Silver, a former editor at both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, to oversee a Web site called the Washington Independent. It’s one of a family of news-blogging sites meant to pick up some of the slack left by declining staffs in local and Washington reporting, with the hope of expanding everywhere. But to imagine that philanthropy can fill all the gaps arising from journalistic cutbacks is wishful thinking.

Pelosi Thumbs China's Eye With Praise for the Dalai Lama

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) met the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India,, today, praising the Tibetan spiritual leader for his courage and leadership in the face of Beijing's crackdown on recent anti-China protests in Tibet.

If freedom loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in Tibet we have lost all moral authority to speak on human rights anywhere in the world. The cause of Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world -- a challenge we can help meet...When we return home we will bring your message and try to meet the challenge to our conscience.

Democracy 'Every Four Years'

In defense of Vice President Dick Cheney's open dismissal of public disenchantment with the Iraq war earlier this week, White House press secretary Dana Perino uttered an equally revealing statement yesterday about the way this administration views the workings of our constitutional democracy. Responding to pressure from reporters, Perino said the administration would not be swayed by public opinion polls, but would lead instead based on "principle."

Public sentiment on specific policy, Perino added, matters little except during elections.