ArguendoClass.com

The February 5, 2007 Financial Times reports that:

Military action in response to Iran's atomic programme would be "highly dangerous" with diplomacy still an option, according to a report published on Monday by a group of British non-governmental organisations, think-tanks and trade unions.

"It cannot be said that the potential for diplomacy has been fully explored while direct talks between Iran and the US have not taken place," says "Time to Talk: the Case for Diplomatic Solutions on Iran", from -Crisis Action.

The report warns that US or Israeli attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities could lead to civilian deaths, radioactive contamination, heightened conflict in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan, al-Qaeda attacks stemming from intensified anti-western feeling, higher oil prices and an acceleration of Tehran's nuclear programme.

Be the debater you want to see.

by Ross_Smith on 02/06/2007 05:59:28 PM EST

The February 6, 2007 New York Times reports:

The officer, First Lt. Ehren K. Watada, was charged in July with missing a movement and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman after he refused to join his unit, the Third Brigade, Second Infantry, when it was deployed.

Lieutenant Watada has said the Bush administration has falsely used the 9/11 attacks to justify the war. He has said that the war has been proved unjust because unconventional weapons have not been found in Iraq and that American soldiers have mistreated the Iraqis.

"....under military law those in the military are allowed to refuse -- in fact, have the right to refuse unlawful orders -- a duty to refuse," Lieutenant Watada said last month at a forum featuring war opponents, according to a transcript distributed on Monday by Zoltan Grossman, a professor at Evergreen State College who helped organize the forum.

In the transcript, Lieutenant Watada said being denied the chance to argue the legality of the war in his court-martial was "a violation of our most sacred premises of due process and, indeed, is un-American."

Caitlin

by berrcs5 on 02/06/2007 09:09:31 PM EST

As USA Today reported today,

At least a half-dozen states are considering broadening the death penalty, countering a national trend toward scaling back its use.
Lawmakers have proposed legislation that would increase the range of crimes eligible for execution. In Texas and Tennessee, for example, legislators want to include certain child molesters who did not murder their victims.

"I'm a believer in the deterrent effect of the death penalty," says Republican Delegate Todd Gilbert, a state prosecutor who sponsored two of the measures. "I know a number of states are reconsidering their position on the death penalty.  I feel confident Virginia's system is set up to work."

by kyleovers on 02/07/2007 10:52:42 AM EST

From Reuters, Sunday February 4

Texas is evaluating a pilot program in which it allowed Internet access to video of unmanned sections of its border with Mexico and urged viewers to send an e-mail if they spotted something.

"The cameras don't replace police officers. They are in essence a force multiplier. They serve as an extra set of eyes," Velasquez said.

The Chicago center is manned 24 hours a day by veteran police officers. A dozen screens depict a few street corners and a stadium, while others are tuned to cable news or Web sites.

They can retrieve video from thousands of cameras and their universe is expanded by private cameras owned by cooperating buildings and stores, but they can monitor only a few at a time.

Velasquez said his officers receive training on privacy and constitutional rights -- for example it is illegal to look into private homes and offices -- and digital recordings hold his officers accountable and prevent abuses that have occurred elsewhere.

In Britain, which has 4.2 million government security cameras, 2 million in London alone, a study showed that male surveillance workers sometimes ogled women on their screens, while others focused on minorities excessively.

by joeboy on 02/07/2007 02:04:37 PM EST

" Washington has reportedly shown a willingness to sit down and discuss North Korea's demands to lift financial sanctions."
Meanwhile, North Korea reportedly recently told visiting US officials it would take the first steps to disband its nuclear programme in return for 500,000 tonnes of fuel oil and other benefits.

" Washington has reportedly shown a willingness to sit down and discuss North Korea's demands to lift financial sanctions."
"Meanwhile, North Korea reportedly recently told visiting US officials it would take the first steps to disband its nuclear programme in return for 500,000 tonne s of fuel oil and other benefits. "

"The big question is whether the North Koreans are really ready to make some progress," he told reporters.

"I think we also know that there is going to be some rather hard bargaining, so we'll see how we do."

"One good day can erase all the bad that precede it, today could be that day" ~Dr. Martin Miller

by anders387 on 02/07/2007 04:30:10 PM EST

"In a statement, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said the European Commission's proposals would damage Europe's economy "in terms of wealth, employment and growth potential"."

Reps from the ACEA have also said that soon they will be in a place where they can provide the most efficient and cleanest cars in the industry, and that putting such a harsh curb on the allowed emissions would hinder the process and future.

Jessica

by J2Peck on 02/07/2007 05:26:09 PM EST

In order to avoid raising prices, many companies will simply lay off workers, driving up the unemployment rate.

The do-gooders believe that by passing a law saying that nobody shall get less than $2 an hour or $2.50 an hour, or whatever the minimum wage is, you are helping poor people who need the money. You are doing nothing of the kind. What you are doing is to assure that people whose skills are not sufficient to justify that kind of a wage will be unemployed. -Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist

With the increase, employers will have to pay higher wages and higher unemployment insurance and additional taxes, since employers are responsible for paying 50 percent of their employees' income taxes.

More importantly, businesses with slim profit margins will struggle to cover the additional costs. To avoid raising prices, these businesses will be forced to lay off employees and place more responsibility on those who remain. Or, they may rely more on machinery.

by hudsgm3 on 02/07/2007 06:59:42 PM EST

From Newsweek

The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq, representing the consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies says that Iran involvement in Iraq "not likely to be a major driver of violence" because internal sectarian violence between Iraqis is so intense and "self sustaining."
In addition, the homemade bombs triggered by common infared censors (which have been increasingly sold in Iran) could be smuggled into Iraq from Iranians with no high-level involvement in Iranian government necessary. This makes official Teheran involvement "ambiguous" say 3 U.S. officials familiar with unpublished intelligence.

by welljs4 on 02/07/2007 10:36:37 PM EST

From the New Work Times, Feb. 5 2007

John Edwards proposed a detailed plan on Monday to provide health care coverage to the 47 million Americans who now go without, becoming the first major presidential candidate to do so.

Mr. Edwards, in an interview on Monday, described the American health care delivery system as dysfunctional and said that incremental steps would not cure it. "This proposal embraces the concept of shared responsibility to provide universal health care," he said.

Mr. Edwards also said that billions of dollars could be saved by making the health system more efficient and investing more in preventive care. The Edwards plan would provide tax credits or subsidies to low-income families who cannot afford health insurance, expand Medicare and the federal program of health care for children, and create a federal health insurance agency that could become the basis for a single-payer system that would eventually do away with private health insurance.

by SethMaheu on 02/08/2007 01:34:25 AM EST

In the rhetorical climax to her speech to the Democratic National Committee last weekend in Washington, Clinton sounded a twin call to action, "We can stop the genocide in Darfur. And, yes, we can find the right end to the war in Iraq."

On Wednesday when Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Clinton pressed them on whether the Bush administration would order U.S. aircraft to enforce a no-fly zone to prevent the Sudanese government from bombing civilians in Darfur.

This would not involve thousands of U.S. soldiers, Clinton implied, stressing the relatively limited military commitment her proposal would entail.

"This does not need to be a no-fly zone on the scale of what we formerly ran over Iraq, but could be accomplished with a significantly smaller outlay of resources by directing punitive strikes against Sudanese planes known to have taken part in illegal bombing missions in Darfur," she told Gates.

Knapp Fitzsimmons

by beatles1313 on 02/08/2007 10:15:20 AM EST

In an effort to gain military strength in the Middle East, the US governemnt is seeking to isolate Iran from "friendly" Middle East countries.  This plan is already cracking as Saudi Arabia is not only talking, but cooperating with Iran.

If anything, the chorus coming from Iraq and some of the key elements of the purported anti-Iran alliance is urging the U.S. to do what the Bush Administration has steadfastly refused to do -- begin talking with Iran. The Saudi cooperation with Iran over Lebanon and its engagement with Hamas in the Palestinian territories reflects the reality that Iranian influence in Iraq and in the wider region -- and Hamas's centrality in Palestinian politics -- are inescapable facts. And some facts can't be altered to fit a new U.S. theory of how it would like the Middle East to work.

emily white

by emilyrebeccawhite on 02/08/2007 10:29:37 AM EST

The Associated Press reports on February 8th that:

Republicans on Wednesday assailed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's request for access to an Air Force transport plane as an extravagance, though former Speaker Dennis Hastert flew in a military jet as well.

Republicans are taking issue with the size of the plane Pelosi has requested. Pelosi had asked for access to a C-32 plane, a military version of the Boeing 757-200.

Rep. Adam Putnam (news, bio, voting record) of Florida, the No. 3 Republican leader, said he supported the tradition of House speakers having access to secure airplanes with secure communications in the post-9/11 era, because of their spot in the presidential line of succession.

But he called Pelosi's desire for a large transport "an extravagance of power that the taxpayers won't swallow."

by Brad Matthews on 02/08/2007 11:38:52 AM EST

Steven Levit claims in Freakonomics that the drop in crime during the 1990's was not a result of any strategies by local authorities, goverment, etc.. but to Roe v Wade and the legalization of abortion.  

"Perhaps the most dramatic effect of legalized, however, and one that would take years to reveal itself, was its impact on crime... In the early 1990's , just after the first cohort of children born after Roe v Wade was hitting its late teens years- the rate of crime began to fall... Legalized abortion led to less unwantedness; unwantedness leads to high crime; legalized abortion, therefore, led to less crime"

by estesc5 on 02/08/2007 11:40:45 AM EST

We have a term for a team that effectively gives up to increase its draft position -- "tanking" -- but nothing to describe when fans turn on their team for the same reason. Let me create one: "fantanking." Not only can you use it as a noun or as a verb, it sounds like a title of a Weezer CD.

Like every other rational Boston fan, I turned my fantanking switch on just as the Celtics were slipping Pierce's foot into a protective boot. Less rational fans can't stomach the thought of fantanking, even when it's with the most noble intentions, because it makes them feel like traitors. This is one of the age-old dilemmas in sports, right up there with when you should stop bringing a baseball glove to games, when (or if) you should sell your baseball cards and when you should stop wearing your team's jersey in public. And there's no definitive answer to any of them except one: If you're older than 18 and you still bring your glove to games, you're a loser. Hate to break it to you.

Here's the most reasonable antifantanking argument: You're hoping for a series of losses that eventually yields a prize, only the prize isn't a sure thing. The worst NBA team has a 25 percent chance to get the first pick

by melaaj4 on 02/08/2007 12:06:55 PM EST

But when President Bush said Senator Obama was articulate, I'll confess to thinking he was giving the guy a genuine compliment. I mean, who knew some African-Americans would find the "a" word offensive? Many of us are still confused.
According to some columnists, if you label a black person "articulate," you are implying that other blacks are not. You are expressing surprise that an African-American can actually speak English well. And that's condescending, is it not?
Well, I guess it could be. But Mr. Bush's tone wasn't condescending at all. So I chalk this one up to mild paranoia and/or a victimization play.
Many of us know people of all races who are professional victims. They see slights everywhere. The world is against them, and if you live in the world, so are you. These people are tough to deal with. Anything you say to them can and will be used against you.
Few want to deal with this victim mentality and that's the danger in this "articulate" controversy. I know some white people who don't know what to say to black Americans, so they completely disengage. They don't want to offend, and they don't really understand the "rules," so they play it very cautious.
This is not a good thing for America. All responsible citizens should be trying to break down racial and religious barriers and work together. But, believe me, there is fear in the marketplace--fear along racial lines.

by mikeyfaulkner on 02/08/2007 01:36:48 PM EST

In comparison with other professional sports, the NFL's progress in diversifying its coaching ranks has been glacial, and the league's executive suites are all but closed to African Americans.

About 70% of the players in the NFL are black, but out of the league's 32 teams, only six African Americans are head coaches. The situation is worse in the executive box -- three black general managers. As poor a record as this is, black representation in the ranks of college football coaches makes the NFL coaching fraternity look like the Harlem Globetrotters. Only six of 117 NCAA head football coaches are African American, according to the Black Coaches Assn.

As columnist Bomani Jones wrote for ESPN.com, "There is nothing worth celebrating about a league that has to force its franchises to interview nonwhite coaching candidates and finally has a black coach in the 41st edition of its biggest game. That's not a good thing. That's a damn shame."

by Vince on 02/08/2007 01:44:46 PM EST

Sally Pipes and Benjamin Zycher of the Pacific Research Institute review the data on global warming here.

In 2001, more than 17,000 scientists--physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, environmental scientists, chemists, biochemists, biologists, and so forth--endorsed the proposition that:The proposed [Kyoto Treaty] limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the earth's atmosphere and disruption of the earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the earth.6 That this dissent from the casually-asserted mainstream "consensus" on global warming is so massive suggests the presence of a serious body of evidence refuting the conventional view. An overview of the data can be summarized as follows: * Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased from about 290 parts per million (ppm) in 1900 to about 360 ppm today. Over 80 percent of this increase occurred after the surface temperature peak around 1940, a sequence of events inconsistent with the conventional (IPCC) hypothesis.7 * Evidence derived from marine organisms and other natural phenomena shows that surface temperatures 3,000 years ago were about 2°C higher than today, abnormally low 1,500 years ago, and over 1°C warmer 1,000 years ago, after which the earth entered the Little Ice Age until about the year 1700, from which surface and atmospheric temperatures now are emerging. Temperatures now appear to be a bit below or at the 3,000-year average, and the evidence does not support the claim that temperatures in the 20th century were unusual compared with the previous 900 years.8 * Satellite and weather balloon (radiosonde) measurements since 1979, corrected for orbital drift, instrument calibration shifts, and other such measurement error, show an increase in lower tropospheric temperature of 0.06°C per decade during January 1979 through April 2002, or 0.6°C if extrapolated for 100 years.9 Other recent work correcting various biases in the IPCC's model projects similarly modest warming over the next century, of about 1.5°C.10* Surface temperature measurements over the last century show an increase of about 0.27°C; since 1940, the figure is about 0.09°C if extrapolated for 100 years. Increasing world urbanization may distort the long-term surface data due to a heat island effect, for which adjustments in the data may be incomplete.11* Since 1979, surface temperatures have increased at about 0.18°C per decade. As noted above, the figure for the lower troposphere is 0.06°C per decade; but the conventional models predict that the troposphere should warm more than the surface. That this prediction is not consistent with the data suggests that the models predicting substantial anthropogenic warming are afflicted with significant modeling errors.12* The IPCC models predict larger effects from increased concentrations of carbon dioxide than actually observed in the satellite and weather balloon data, an outcome consistent with the hypothesis that the interactions among water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other atmospheric components tend to dampen the effects of increased concentrations of carbon dioxide.13* Data on solar activity and surface temperatures show a high correlation.14* Despite assertions that global warming will yield coastal flooding over large areas, satellite measurements of global sea levels show a downward trend for most of the earth, with the exception of the eastern equatorial Pacific, with far greater variability in terms of annual increases and decreases in various regions and no acceleration in the 20th century.15* Despite assertions that hurricane frequencies and intensities (wind speeds) will increase with global warming, the data since 1940 show trend declines in both.16 * Both theory and evidence suggest that prospective anthropogenic warming will be modest and will occur for the most part in the coldest and driest air masses, particularly Siberia and western North America in the winter.17 Accordingly, it is far from clear that the earth is warming significantly, particularly in the context of increases above the very long-term average. To the extent that warming is occurring, it is not clear that the dominant source is anthropogenic, and the attendant magnitude is obscure as well.

by Adam Abelkop on 02/08/2007 01:50:36 PM EST

Senior military officers, including members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have told President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that the new Iraq strategy could fail unless more civilian agencies step forward quickly to carry out plans for reconstruction and political development.

General Pace argued that the United States government needed "to be able to get folks over to be able to help with judiciary systems, be able to help with engineering, be able to help with electricity and the like before a country devolves into a state where the terrorists can find a home."

by furljm4 on 02/08/2007 02:26:31 PM EST

USA Today 2/7/07 reports:

Serial numbers and markings on explosives used in Iraq provide "pretty good" evidence that Iran is providing either weapons or technology for militants there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted Friday.

Offering some of the first public details of evidence the military has collected, Gates said, "I think there's some serial numbers, there may be some markings on some of the projectile fragments that we found," that point to Iran.

At the same time, however, he said he was somewhat surprised that recent raids by coalition and Iraqi forces in Iraq swept up some Iranians.

Just last week, Gates said that U.S. military officers in Baghdad were planning to brief reporters on what is known about Iranian involvement in Iraq but that he and other senior administration officials had intervened to delay the briefing in order to assure that the information provided was accurate.

Speaking to reporters at a defense ministers' conference here, Gates said, "I don't think there was surprise that the Iranians were actually involved, I think there was surprise we actually picked up some."

He and other U.S. officials have said for some time that Iranians, and possibly the government of Iran, have been providing weapons technology, and possibly some explosives to Iraqi insurgents.

by beamcc5 on 02/09/2007 01:39:17 PM EST

Earlier this week Apple (AAPL) issued a warning that iTunes for Windows doesn't work on Vista and offered instructions for a workaround.  But according to another Apple document updated the same day, available here but largely overlooked, the problems with Apple's Windows applications are a lot deeper than that. It's not just iTunes that doesn't work with Vista, but also Quicktime, Appleworks, Airport, Bonjour, Standalone iPod Updater, iDisk Utility, Apple Software Update and iPod Shuffle Reset.

Some users of PC's may move toward Apple if these problems are not corrected

by brett hubler on 02/11/2007 05:31:01 PM EST