This is from the July 31, 2003 program.
Wow. You really have to see this to believe it.
Daily Show On Shrub’s “9th Solo” Press Conference (Small – 15 MB)
The Daily Show (The best news on television.)
John Poindexter is leaving the Defense Department.
Poindexter to Quit Pentagon Post Amid Controversy
By Reuters.
John Poindexter, the retired Navy admiral who spearheaded two sharply criticized Pentagon projects, intends to resign from his Defense Department post within weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said on Thursday.
“It’s my understanding that he … expects to, within a few weeks, offer his resignation,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters.
This is from the July 28, 2003 Daily Show.
This is actually a two parter — the first part being Jon’s newscast and the second part being Stephen Colbert’s abstract take on the missing pages.
Daily Show On The Missing Pages from 911 Report – Part 1 of 2 (Small – 5 MB)
Daily Show On The Missing Pages from 911 Report – Part 2 of 2 (Small – 9 MB)
Daily Show On The Missing Pages from 911 Report – Complete (Small – 14 MB)
The Daily Show (The best news on television.)
Bush ‘indicted’ over war crimes
In the Japan Times.
A group of Japanese lawyers unveiled documents Monday “indicting” U.S. President George W. Bush for
war crimes allegedly committed against the Afghan people since the United States-led coalition
began its antiterrorism campaign in Afghanistan in October 2001.
“This is an act that breaks international rules, such as the idea of (honoring) human rights, that
have been formed over so many years,” said Koken Tsuchiya, former president of the Japan Federation
of Bar Associations and head of the 11-member prosecutors’ team in the tribunal. “We decided this
case has sufficient reason to be brought to court.”
A civic tribunal will be held in Tokyo, with the first hearing scheduled for July 21.
The charges against Bush, according to the indictment, include aggression, attacks against
civilians and nonmilitary facilities and the torturing and execution of prisoners.
They said the indictment will be handed to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo next week.
The tribunal is being organized by Tokyo Zokei University professor Akira Maeda and others.
Picking Workers’ Pockets
By Bob Herbert for the NY Times.
The Bush administration, which has the very bad habit of smiling at working people while siphoning money from their pockets, is trying to change the federal Fair Labor Standards Act in a way that could cause millions of workers to lose their right to overtime pay.
The act, one of the last major domestic reform measures of the New Deal, gave Americans the 40-hour workweek and a minimum wage (which began at 25 cents an hour in the late 1930’s). It wiped out grueling 12-hour days for many workers and prohibited the use of child labor in interstate commerce.
The act’s overtime regulations have not been updated since 1975, and part of what the administration is proposing makes sense. Under existing rules only workers earning less than $8,060 a year automatically qualify for overtime. That would be raised to $22,100 a year.
But then comes the bad news. Nearly 80 percent of all workers are in jobs that qualify them for overtime pay, which is time-and-a-half for each hour that is worked beyond the normal 40-hour week. The administration wants to make it easier for employers to exempt many of those workers from overtime protection by classifying them as administrative, professional or executive personnel.
The quickest way to determine who is getting the better of this deal is to note that business groups are applauding the proposed changes while the A.F.L.-C.I.O. held a protest rally outside the Labor Department on Monday.
In case you’re ever in a conversation with some bozo that tries to tell you that the fact of whether or not global warming is a reality is still in dispute, you can show them this.
Now. Will someone please give a heads up to the Shrub Administration?
Reaping the Whirlwind
Extreme weather prompts unprecedented global warming alert
In The Independent.
In an astonishing announcement on global warming and extreme weather, the World Meteorological Organisation signalled last night that the world’s weather is going haywire.
In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces detailed scientific reports and staid statistics at the year’s end, highlighted record extremes in weather and climate occurring all over the world in recent weeks, from Switzerland’s hottest-ever June to a record month for tornadoes in the United States – and linked them to climate change.
The unprecedented warning takes its force and significance from the fact that it is not coming from Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, but from an impeccably respected UN organisation that is not given to hyperbole (though environmentalists will seize on it to claim that the direst warnings of climate change are being borne out).
The Geneva-based body, to which the weather services of 185 countries contribute, takes the view that events this year in Europe, America and Asia are so remarkable that the world needs to be made aware of it immediately.
The extreme weather it documents, such as record high and low temperatures, record rainfall and record storms in different parts of the world, is consistent with predictions of global warming. Supercomputer models show that, as the atmosphere warms, the climate not only becomes hotter but much more unstable. “Recent scientific assessments indicate that, as the global temperatures continue to warm due to climate change, the number and intensity of extreme events might increase,” the WMO said, giving a striking series of examples…
“New analyses of proxy data for the northern hemisphere indicate that the increase in temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been the largest in any century during the past 1,000 years.”
While the trend towards warmer temperatures has been uneven over the past century, the trend since 1976 is roughly three times that for the whole period…
It is possible that 2003 will be the hottest year ever recorded. The 10 hottest years in the 143-year-old global temperature record have now all been since 1990, with the three hottest being 1998, 2002 and 2001.
The unstable world of climate change has long been a prediction. Now, the WMO says, it is a reality.
These are pretty self-explanatory.
Bush Administration Repeals Requirement That Employers Report Strain Injuries
By Leigh Strope for the Associated Press.
Democrats Protest Changes to Overtime Rules
By Steven Greenhouse for the NY Times.
Forty-two Democratic senators and more than 100 Democratic House members urged the Bush administration yesterday to withdraw proposed regulations that they said would eliminate overtime pay for millions of workers.
The lawmakers made their plea on the final day of a 90-day comment period in which the administration received tens of thousands of criticisms of its proposals, which are the first effort to update overtime regulations since 1975.
“Our citizens are working longer hours than ever before
Glad these guys made it, but I’m kinda glad I didn’t go too. I was unprepared and would’ve gotten heatstroke in a traffic jam, sounds like.
(Unrelated side note: Boy am I glad it’s cooled down here in S.F. — That was a miserable couple of days [and nights] last week…)
Protesters battle heat to boo Bush —
Tough day to make voice heard as cars jam airport-area streets
By Ryan Kim for the SF Chronicle.
The day was trying for many of the protesters and Bush supporters trying to converge on Friday’s luncheon. While the relentless heat did its share of damage, the closure of Millbrae Avenue and Old Bayshore Highway for security reasons caused major traffic headaches on streets and Highway 101.
Opponents of Bush harped on a number of topics but consistently hammered home their belief that the president lied about Iraq’s weapons capabilities as a false pretext for invasion.
“Bush lied, people died,” shouted the throng of protesters as he arrived.
Inside the hotel, five members of Code Pink, a nationwide anti-war organization, gained access to the lobby after they booked a hotel room together. Dressed in pink evening wear, the women engaged many of the luncheon guests, knocking Bush and his $2,000-a-plate fund-raiser.
“I find it obscene to charge $2,000-a-plate when he’s making sweeping budget cuts across the country in veterans’ benefits and health care,” said Carol Norris, an organizer with Code Pink.
The Code Pink women drew their own protester — Terri Connell of Fairfield, who paused from checking into the Marriott to say, “I respect your First Amendment rights, but you’re wrong.”
Looks like there will be a whole lot of political statements being misinterpreted as death threats if all you gotta do is hold up a “No War For Oil” sign to qualify.
I’m not sure if I’m going to be there tomorrow myself yet, when the Shrubbery himself pulls into Burlingame for an instant tomorrow afternoon (morning?), but I think I can speak for a lot of other people when I say:
‘See you tomorrow, Mr. “President.” No death threats. No violence. Just a whole lotta love for each other and our country. Something you probably wouldn’t understand…’
S.C. Man Charged with Threatening the President
CBO Expects Deficit to Shatter Record
By for the Alan Fram for the Associated Press.
Congress’ top budget analyst warned Tuesday that the government is on track this year for a record deficit exceeding $400 billion, providing fresh fodder to President Bush and Democrats in their battle over taxes and spending.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had estimated last month that the 2003 shortfall would surpass $300 billion. But that was before lawmakers approved fresh tax cuts for families and investors plus aid for cash-strapped states, projected to cost $61 billion this year alone. It also did not fully reflect the economy’s malaise, which has constricted revenue.
The deepest shortfall ever, $290 billion, occurred in 1992. This year’s deficit will be the second straight, a jarring turnabout from the four consecutive annual surpluses that marked the last years of the Clinton administration.
“The president has us on an utterly reckless course,” said the Senate Budget Committee’s top Democrat, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, referring to budget pressures that will intensify when the baby boom generation starts retiring late this decade.