John Roberts credentials. The information is somewhat specific but mostly statements about general trends in his career.
I will say this. He is an improvement over Cooper.
The coverage of the tragedy was NOT emoted so much as 'matter of fact.' If people are caught up in emotions it is difficult to motivate for change so much as protection. There needs to be drastic change in the policy regarding Global Warming by the USA. Those words are still not used in this context. The 'exacerbation of 'the numbers' as reported was great. But, people still don't make the connection to the danger linked to high levels of carbon dioxide unless the language is there.
It was a good segment. Thank you.
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Condi Rice is out of line. I don't see it any other way. She is trying to change the elections. That is outrageous and has exacerbated the violence in that country. The higher the violence level the more unstable the country's sovereignty. The violence destabilizes authority and allows immigration of terrorist networks.
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Tom DeLay cannot win his elections in Texas. He is indicted ! THAT should mean something. If sexual affairs make an impact on a politicians career then so should corruption. Actually, corruption should carry far more penalties than 'an affair.' Sexual exploits are personal with personal impacts unless it involves a compromise to the government or intelligence. This administration is compromising the USA Constitution. Impeachment of these people should have occurred long ago. The Capital Police want to prosecute a legislator for breaking through a security line and she is a Democrat, but, yet the current administration can carry out illegal wars, allow tropospheric vortices to kill people, ignore the needs within our own borders for National Security and RECONSTRUCTION of an entire city of the south, impoverish our work force, demoralize our esteem abroad, destroy the ABM treaty to restore nuclear research to the military initatives, corrupt other nuclear nations without insisting on Anit-proliferation while allowoing huge profits for their cronies at the expensee of the people of this country both personally at the gas station and incredible war debt.
Tom DeLay is no surprise for the level of corruption he inspired with the K Street Gang. The crimes don't stop there but extends through a majority of the Republican Party. We need our country back. We need it back now.
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We don't need to hear the dispatch calls to know the horrendous tragedy of September 11th. The gentleman that spoke eloquently about the loss of his wife made more impact than any of the recordings. Those recordings are nothing but mass confusion. A Emergency System overwhelmed by an attack of war for the terorrist network Al Qaeda and it's mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Microsoft needs rabbit out of hat
APRIL 04, 2006
A TOP lawyer for Microsoft says the software maker achieved a "breakthrough" at hearings with European Union regulators in its effort to comply with a 2004 anti-trust ruling and avoid daily fines of $US2 million ($2.7 million).Microsoft says it has a better understanding of how to meet the regulator's demands after two days of closed meetings.
"I'm very optimistic about the new opportunity that we now have," Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith told reporters in Brussels. "It finally gives us the specificity and clarity that we need to work in a constructive way."
Microsoft is fighting EU anti-trust charges that it abused the dominance of Windows, used in more than 90 per cent of the world's personal computers, in order to shut competitors out of the market. The regulator, which levied a record €497 million ($837 million) fine, also ordered the company to licence to rivals data on the way Windows communicates over a network.
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20 Questions for President Bush About Iraq
Written by iakona
Sunday, 02 April 2006
20 Questions for President Bush About Iraq
Arianna Huffington
As part of his latest PR push on Iraq, President Bush has been giving another round of speeches and -- wonder of wonders -- fielding questions from audience members and reporters alike. He even took a question from Helen Thomas for the first time in over three years -- a decision he later said he "semi-regretted."
Well, as long as he's in a question-answering state of mind (or is it a poll-driven state of desperation?), I thought I'd offer up a few questions of my own about Iraq for the president.1.) Last week, you insisted: "I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong... it's simply not true." Yet source after source after source suggests otherwise, including your former Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neil, who has said that invading Iraq was a goal set out at your first National Security Council meeting, just ten days after your inauguration: "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying 'Go find me a way to do this.'" Mr. President, is Paul O'Neil lying?
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More about 911. That is no surprise.
REGION: Greenpeace Urges Pacific To Close Ports To Pirates
Tuesday: March 28, 2006
As new evidence emerges of fish being stolen from one of the poorest regions of the world, Greenpeace Australia Pacific has called on Pacific Island Countries to close their ports to pirate fishing boats, denying them access to overseas markets and to ensure that companies engaging in pirate fishing are prosecuted.
The comments follow moves by Greenpeace and the Environmental Justice Foundation, in cooperation with enforcement authorities from Guinea, to expose pirate-fishing vessels off the West African coast, that are laundering their cargo through European ports.
In a joint operation on board the Greenpeace ship M.Y Esperanza the environmental and human rights organisations have been operating undercover documenting nearly 70 vessels in West African waters for the past ten days.
Dig this. Chertoff wants to protect Japan's ports more than ours.
U.S. security chief urges Japan to safeguard ports
Tue Mar 28, 2006 12:29 PM IST
TOKYO (Reuters) - Installing radiation detectors at Japanese ports to thwart the chance of nuclear attacks should be made a priority as part of greater Asian shipping security, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Tuesday.
Global port security came under renewed scrutiny earlier this month when a U.S. political furore over possible national security threats forced a Dubai company to abandon plans to manage U.S. ports.
Washington is particularly concerned about whether nuclear bombs or radioactive material could be smuggled into the United States in one of the 7 million to 9 million containers that enter the country's 361 ports each year, prompting a U.S. project to install radiation detectors at global ports.
Other countries have been slow to take part, however, with many fearing the screening could slow commerce at their ports.
Chertoff, in Tokyo on an Asian trip that will also take him to Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing, lauded Japan's participation in other U.S.-led shipping security efforts but said it had yet to agree to the radiation screening.
"I want to really push, to make it an urgent item to take action on, partly because we have succeeded in concluding agreement with other major ports around the world and I don't think that shippers in Japan want to feel they're competitively disadvantaged," he told reporters.
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I've moved on from 911. I guess those that brow beat the public for political gain are hoping that momentum continues. There are larger problems. Bush is one of them.
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The News Secretary. A little late in the program, but, Roberts has to start looking like Cooper sooner or later.
Consortium considers bid for AB Ports
Speculation puts possible offer at GBP2.3bn
(The Herald Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)ASSOCIATED British Ports, the UK's biggest ports operator, yesterday emerged as a GBP2.3bn bid target. A consortium including Goldman Sachs and investment groups from Canada and Singapore said it was considering a possible offer for the company.
The US investment bank has teamed up with Borealis, the investment vehicle of Ontario pension fund Omers, and GIC Special Investments, the private equity arm of Singapore government's investment corporation.AB Ports has operations at 21 UK sites, including Ayr, Troon, Hull, Southampton and Grimsby.
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Goldman gears up for UK ports takeover bid
ABP latest asset targeted by foreign investors · Fear that high debts could damage customers Terry MacalisterTuesday March 28, 2006The Guardian
Associated British Ports has become the latest target of international investment funds - this time led by Goldman Sachs - keen to win control of significant parts of Britain's infrastructure. Shares in the country's largest docks group rose 3% to 717p- having already gone up 10% last week - as the US investment bank said it had teamed up with Canadian and Singapore investors for a possible bid.
ABP, owner of Southampton and Immingham docks, follows Britain's main airport owner BAA in attracting interest from foreign financial firms, which historically have used heavily indebted takeover vehicles.
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There is Anderson's boy toy, Frankenstein.
Bush criticized in ports disputeMorgan Stanley
CEO says president should have taken more time.
By Will McSheehy Of Bloomberg News
Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John Mack blamed President Bush for problems faced by DP World as it tried to buy the U.S. assets of the U.K.'s Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
''If the administration had taken more time to vet the transaction, DP World would not have had these issues,'' Mack said Monday at a news conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Lehigh Valley Local Links
U.S. senators including Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton blocked a deal approved in January by the Bush administration for DP World to gain control of six U.S container-ship terminals including New York, Miami and New Orleans. Owned by the Maktoum family who rule Dubai, DP World acquired management leases at the ports when it bought U.K.-based P&O for $6.8 billion on March 2.
The decision may affect trade and investment flows between the United States and the Persian Gulf, where record oil earning have triggered an economic boom. ''It's not a wise decision on their part,'' U.A.E. central bank governor Sultan bin Nasser al-Suwaidi said in a March 6 Bloomberg interview.
The U.A.E., Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the three other oil- producing Gulf Arab monarchies' crude oil sales rose 24 percent last year $270 billion, according to figures from Standard Chartered Plc.
Mack was in the Emirates to open Morgan Stanley's first regional office in the Middle East. The world's third largest securities firm is bringing 24 bankers to Dubai as it seeks to tap the region's wealth.
Mack said he plans to meet Schumer next week when he will suggest the New York Democrat come to Dubai in person. ''Americans have to spend time visiting these new emerging markets,'' he said.
Schumer was a leading critic of the DP World deal and led a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers who asked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to investigate the purchase.
Speaking at a news conference in New York on March 10 he said he opposed the deal not ''because they're an Arab country, but because they're a nexus of terrorism.''
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Nice coverage of the devastation of Tennessee by Rob Marciano.
Dubai ports row claims new scalp
WASHINGTON, March 27 (UPI) -- The fallout from the derailment by Congress of the Dubai Ports World deal continued Monday, as a company executive withdrew from a controversial nomination.
David Sanborn, nominated in January by President Bush to head the U.S. Maritime Administration, which oversees the nation's ports, is director of operations in Europe and Latin America for the firm, which is owned by the Emirate of Dubai.
Monday the White House said it was withdrawing the nomination, which several senators, including Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida, had vowed to block.
White House spokeswoman Erin Healy told United Press International the withdrawal was at Sanborn's request, which came in a letter to the president Monday.
She would not comment as to whether the move was connected with the successful efforts to block the proposed take-over by the Gulf state-owned company of six U.S. port operations.
The largest loss of life of a single event in Tennessee's history.
Cyclone Glenda Shuts Ports, Oil Fields in Australia (Update3)
March 29 (Bloomberg) -- The fourth tropical cyclone of the year off northwestern Australia strengthened to a category 5 storm, shutting down iron-ore export ports and oil fields as well as interrupting loading of liquefied natural gas cargoes.
Tropical Cyclone Glenda shut Dampier Port and Port Walcott at Cape Lambert, Vic Justice, harbor master at Dampier Port Authority, said today. Port Hedland was also closed this morning. BHP Billiton, the North West Shelf venture, Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Chevron Corp. and Santos Ltd. have all closed oil fields.
The northwest region of Australia is forecast to have about five tropical cyclones this November-April season, which is about the average, the Bureau of Meteorology said last month. Rio Tinto Group, the world's second-largest iron ore exporter, said yesterday its West Australian iron ore mines may have lost more than 20 percent of output this quarter. About 147,000 barrels a day of oil output has been halted.
``This is a seasonal thing, we tend to get lower production and shipments in the first quarter so the market won't be too concerned about it,'' said Mark Pervan, head of research at Daiwa Securities SMBC in Melbourne. ``The disruptions do seem to have been a bit larger than normal this time.''
Glenda, which has maximum wind gusts of as much as 290 kilometers (180 miles) an hour, was 435 kilometers north- northeast of Karratha at 8 a.m. local time today and moving west-southwest at 12 kilometers an hour, the bureau said. The cyclone is forecast to move toward the coast later today.
Very Large Seas
``We're expecting the cyclone to pass very close to us if not adjacent to the port,'' Justice said in an interview. ``We would expect very large seas inside the port, maybe 10-meter (33 feet) seas coming down through the main entrance into the port, extremely strong winds and a considerable amount of rain.''
Rio Tinto may have lost as much as 6 million metric tons of output this quarter at its Western Australian iron ore mines because of cyclones, Warwick Smith, managing director of expansion at Rio's iron ore unit said yesterday.
BHP Billiton has lost about 475,000 tons of output this quarter, Daiwa's Pervan said.
``From a share price point of view the impact is probably mixed to slightly positive because it gives the iron ore producers a bit more leverage in the iron ore price negotiations,'' Pervan said.
Steelmakers in China, the largest user of iron ore, may accept as much as a 10 percent increase in annual contract prices this year for the steelmaking raw material, two Chinese steel industry officials said yesterday.
Preparations
Rio Tinto declared force majeure after cyclones dumped rain and disrupted mining at its West Australian mines March 2. Force majeure is a legal clause that allows a company to miss contracted deliveries because of circumstances beyond its control.
``Any impact the cyclones have had on production we'd be looking to make that up during the course of the year,'' said Katina Dawson, a Perth-based spokeswoman at Rio Tinto.
The Woodside-operated North West Shelf venture halted production at the Cossack Pioneer oil vessel late yesterday and the ship has sailed away, Kirsten Stoney, a spokeswoman for Perth-based Woodside said. The Karratha Spirit used to store oil at the Ocean Legend production facility at the Legendre field has also sailed out of the path of the cyclone.
Natural gas, liquefied natural gas and condensates production is continuing, Stoney said. Loadings of LNG have been interrupted at Karratha, she said.
Evacuation
Chevron Corp., which operates oil production systems on Barrow and Thevenard Island, is closing down output and will evacuate all personnel by 2 p.m. local time today, said Scott Walker, a spokesman for the U.S. company's Australian unit. Santos and Exxon Mobil Corp. have stakes in the ventures. Barrow Island typically produces about 10,000 barrels a day of oil, while Thevenard Island produces about 4,000 barrels a day.
BHP Billiton spokeswoman Emma Meade said the production vessel the company uses at its Griffin oil field is unable to connect to the field because of bad weather. Griffin, in which Exxon Mobil and Inpex Corp. have stakes, produced about 4 million barrels of oil and 5.9 billion cubic feet of gas in the year ended June 30. BHP Billiton is the world's biggest mining company and Australia's largest oil and gas producer.
Adelaide-based Santos, Australia's biggest natural gas producer, halted production at its A$440 million ($313 million) Mutineer-Exeter oil project March 27, its fourth shutdown this year due to a cyclone. The field, in which Nippon Oil Corp., Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. and Woodside have stakes, was producing about 50,000 barrels a day before the shutdown, said Kathryn Mitchell, a spokeswoman.
Western Australia produced about 210,000 barrels a day of oil in 2004, since which time Mutineer-Exeter has started up.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Madelene Pearson in Melbourne at mpearson1@bloomberg.net
Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 28, 2006 22:16 EST
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The experience of the people of this storm is important. "The bathtub protection" is not a new story. Tornadoes toss rocks around but don't break them up. In other words, the porcelain is a rock. So the bathtub might be picked up and moved with the tornado but it stays intact along with the person in it. I have heard of entire families huddled in bricked entrance ways to homes living through a direct hit from tornadoes. No one survives a F5 or F6 tornado. They are over 250 miles per hour. An F6 is over 320 mph. Something like that. There is just no way that force will allow skin to stay intact. NASCARS never get over 200 mph, not because engines can't take cars faster in circles around tracks but because the human body can't tolerate the G forces of higher speeds and the crashes that results. So, surviving a tornado is also due to the level of TORNADIC force.
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Michael Ware and ethnic cleansing of the Sunni Arabs in Iraq. Good report. Thank you, Michael.
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Jill Carroll is home and back to work. Wonderful. What a great idea. Back in the saddle, Jill. Yeah, the release had to come from the 'authority' that held her. They would not and do not recognize any Western authority.
Unsecure ports of entry
OUR OPINION: MUCH WORK REMAINS TO BE DONE TO FIX HOLES IN U.S. SAFETY NET
While Congress was engaged in the hysterical debate over foreign ownership of U.S. ports, something much more dangerous was taking place in America's vulnerable ports of entry. As disclosed yesterday at a congressional hearing, federal investigators were able to smuggle enough radioactive material into the United States last year to make two dirty bombs.
The General Accountability Office is the investigative arm of Congress. In a test in December, undercover GAO teams managed to sneak small amounts of cesium-137 across U.S. border crossing points in Washington State and Texas. Radiation alarms went off, but security inspectors were fooled by phony documents and allowed the material through.
The Bush administration responded by saying that within 45 days it will give U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents the tools to verify false documents in the future. That's of little comfort, considering that we are now well into the fifth year after 9/11 and such gaps could be exploited by terrorists -- without much effort, apparently.
And the GAO had even worse news for Congress: The Homeland Security Department's goal of installing 3,034 radiation detectors by September 2009 at ports of entry across the United States is ''unlikely,'' leaving a huge blind spot on our borders for years to come.
Congress should use the GAO findings to show its true terrorist-fighting credentials. It should act now to move up the 2009 deadline and insist that the administration tighten security at all U.S. ports and entry points. If lawmakers were quick to overturn the Dubai deal, they should be even more eager to deal with the far greater threat posed by real holes in America's security net.
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If American firms are having difficulty obtaining interests in AMERICAN ports then the federal government needs to supplement the interaction in a way that works for the acquiring American company. It can come out of the USA military budget !
AB Ports Rejects $3.8 Bln Bid From Goldman, Singapore (Update1)
March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Associated British Ports Holdings Plc, the biggest U.K. operator of ports, rejected a 2.2 billion-pound offer ($3.8 billion) from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Singapore and a Canadian pension fund.
The offer of 730 pence a share was ``wholly inadequate,'' London-based Associated British Ports said in a statement on the U.K.'s Regulatory News Service, after markets closed. Shares of the company today fell 1.9 percent to 717 pence.
The Goldman-led group said March 27 it may bid for Associated British Ports, which owns 21 ports in the U.K. and handles car imports at four U.S. ports. Dubai's DP World in March bought Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the U.K.'s oldest port company, for $6.8 billion, and was later forced to sell U.S. operations because of lawmakers' security concerns.
New York-based Goldman bid as part of a group including Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc., a unit of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Fund, Canada's No. 4 pension fund; and GIC Special Investments, the private-equity unit of GIC, an investment company owned by the government of Singapore.
Port operators are attracting takeovers as growth in the volume of world trade lifts earnings, and their ability to generate steady returns lures investors. Associated British Ports, which says it handles about 25 percent of Britain's seaborne trade, owns an operation in the U.S. that handles car imports at four ports including Baltimore and Jacksonville, Florida. The company's U.S. operations contributed 4.3 million pounds of 167.6 million pounds of operating profit in 2005.
The company on Feb. 22 forecast that earnings at its U.K. ports business will accelerate in the second half of this year after the opening of two new facilities at the port of Immingham, on the northeast coast of England.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Richard Blackden in London at rblackden@bloomberg.net.
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