NYDN Readers Say: Keep Schieffer
Nearly 75 percent of Richard Huff's readers say CBS should keep Bob Schieffer in the anchor chair.In a "highly unscientific poll," readers chose between Schieffer, Lara Logan, Katie Couric or Shepard Smith. Logan came in a distant second with 13 percent of the vote. Couric and Smith were "no-shows," and John Roberts received a few write-ins. (Aaron Brown got one, too.)"
As a longtime NBC/Tom Brokaw man, I have recently switched to watching Bob Schieffer and the CBS news," one reader said. "He gives the news in an easy, matter-of-fact manner and seems to be very comfortable and sincere, like he's in my living room talking to me."
Monday, December 26, 2005
Aaron spent days covering the tsunami from the toughest and most dangerous front, Banda Aceh Province
While the 'Thought Engineers' of AC360 would have a selective memory; those of us that appreciate excellance in journalism recall very clearly, it was Aaron Brown that lead the teams into The Asian Tsunami. While 'the team' put together a comprehensive view of the devastation both physical and human; Aaron took the toughtest assignment in Banda Aceh where a militia was still alive and well post tsunami.
Aaron Brown also lead 'the team' to Rome for the Pope's passing and funeral onto the anchoring of the choice of a new Pope. Aaron anchored the entire months of presentations of Katrina and Rita. It was only when the news became 'routine' again would he be leaving us to an inferior news anchor still today.
Aaron Brown: (on camera): And what strikes you coming here is this. In Thailand, it was the tourist resorts, the fishing villages right by the sea that were destroyed. Here, we're talking about a capital city of a province. We are four kilometers inland and just look at it. As far as the eye can see, it is destroyed.
(voice-over): Television deals in the human senses of sight and sound, but it is an inadequate medium when it comes to conveying what it's really like here. This is a city pervaded by death, the sight of it, yes, but also the smell of it. Death is everywhere. Today in Banda Aceh, you cannot escape it.
(on camera): Everywhere you drive in Banda Aceh, you come across scenes like this here, teams of workers pulling out bodies from the river that flows through the center of Banda Aceh. We've been here 15 minutes or so and we've seen them pull out five bodies. And this, of course, is 10 days after the waves struck.
(voice-over): Help is here, of course, but seldom can anywhere have needed it as much as this place, this city, or, rather, what remains of it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And, once again, that was Mike Austin of Britain's ITV reporting. Back to Aaron now, looking at some of that same devastation in Banda Aceh. I guess, Aaron, one of the things you were talking about earlier this evening that really struck me -- and it's really hard to understand this -- that you're staying at a point that is a mile and a half inland from the ocean.
BROWN: Yes. It's -- I mean, again, I think, I would just echo everything that Mark Austin said. The difference between what happened here and what happened in Thailand and Sri Lanka is that it isn't just the coast, that we're a mile and a half from the coast here and look what's in front of us. And believe me when I tell you that, if you were to look the other way, it doesn't look any prettier. When Mark was reporting that, I knew exactly where in town he was talking about, four miles in, about 3 1/2 miles from the ocean . And it's just devastated. And the aftershocks continue. We were standing here, what, 2 1/2 hours ago, I guess, and another one rolled through. There was one earlier this morning. How that must traumatize the people who lived through it, the peril they must feel. In any case, we'll take a break. When we come back, this disaster as seen through the lens, as we often do, of some of the world's great still photographers. CNN's special coverage continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: That wraps it up from New York for me this evening. And, Aaron, you'll get to close out the hour here.
BROWN: Thank you very much. There is this kind of dead look that takes over the faces of people when they've grieved at this scale, as if there is nothing else inside.This hour tomorrow looks at the special plight of children in this disaster. We hope you'll join us for that.Until then, good night for all of us.
January 6
Nowhere is the situation worse than it is in Banda Aceh. And that's where we find Aaron Brown tonight -- Aaron.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: We are outside a refugee camp, very much a makeshift refugee camp that is being run by university students and their professors. Jeliteng Pribadi was an economics professor two weeks ago and he's a refugee camp director today. And he's with us. My Indonesian isn't very good, so we'll do this in English, as best we can.
JELITENG PRIBADI, REFUGEE CAMP DIRECTOR: OK.
BROWN: They found you, in a sense. People flooded here, because we're on relatively high ground, and you decided you had to do something, basically, right?
PRIBADI: Yes, you're right.When the tsunami came here, in the very beginning of the day, like, first until the fourth day, we just helped people inside the city, take the dead body, other some people still alive to the doctors, to the hospitals. And after the fourth day, start from the fifth day, we still to be focused, who we need to help? Do we still in there in the city to collect the dead body or we just help the people who still alive?
BROWN: Just a couple -- how much better are things now than they were a week ago here?
PRIBADI: Here. It's just around 1,500, but now it's well into 2,000 people here.
BROWN: You have medicine enough here?
PRIBADI: Right now, we have so many donation from other countries, from other organizations, like from Mercy, from International Red Cross. But, in the very beginning of the day, until -- the first week here, we still have no -- even for like Betadine, alcohol, we have not enough medical.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Just a final question. Can you imagine a time when things will be normal again?
PRIBADI: No. I don't think we will have normal condition in one or two months after the tsunami. And even for six months, I don't think we will have normal condition again like before.
BROWN: Thank you.
PRIBADI: OK. You're welcome.
BROWN: Thank you. One of the tasks here is to figure out, literally figure out who is here, who survived it, who did not. Foremost among that task is reuniting children and parents. UNICEF has set up an office here. Atika Shubert -- it's literally across the street. Atika Shubert has been over there to report on their efforts pretty much.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Aaron. UNICEF feels it is very important that children are able to stay, if not with their immediate family, with their extended family, or at least with the community they feel comfortable with. So one of the things we're doing is trying to identify and register all the tens of thousands of displaced children. We followed them around yesterday.And here's what we found.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT (voice-over): Children play amid the wreckage while a government teams picks its way through. Their mission, to identify children whose parents have gone missing in the disaster. Together with United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, the government is trying to register tens of thousands of displaced children in the hope they can be reunited with family.
ANANDA MELVILLE, UNICEF: It's to try to prevent not only the issue of trafficking of children, but also to prevent very well- meaning people taking the children and putting them in institutions in other countries or in other parts of Indonesia where -- and without -- and later it could be very hard to find them. S
HUBERT: In each camp, the faces of the missing are plastered everywhere, most of them, children. Parents line up at UNICEF, clutching pictures of their sons and daughters.
(on camera): In this camp, there are makeshift shelters and there are makeshift families. In these two tents, a hobbled together community of neighbors who have lost their homes, mothers who have lost their children, and children who have lost their parents.
(voice-over): Twelve-year-old Igbal was registered with UNICEF by Khaidir Stamsul. They seem like father and son. But it was only by chance that Igbal was away from his family, playing near Khaidir's home when the tsunami struck. It saved Igbal's life, but his family is gone. Khaidir has taken him in. "We're his parents as long as he's in this camp," he tells us. "We don't allow him to be left alone in silence, and my kids like him. Honestly, I couldn't give him away now even if someone wanted to adopt him."While other children play, Igbal seems pensive. He says he wants to be a soldier when he grows up, not a doctor, as Khaidir suggests. The reason is understandable. "I don't want to do that. I'm afraid of the ghosts from all of those dead bodies," he says. Despite their smiling faces, the ghosts that will surely haunt these children for years to come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT: Now, it's hope against hope to try and reunite these families, Aaron. There are so many orphans and so many parents looking for missing children. But the good news is, a lot of these Acehnese communities are taking in these orphans, so at least they're not completely on their own.
BROWN: Do the aid workers feel that -- here, we'll raise that up just a little bit.
SHUBERT: Sorry.
BROWN: Do the aid workers feel that the world's attention will stay here long enough to get the work done?
SHUBERT: Well, that's certainly what they're hoping. There's a very desperate need here. And one of the things that UNICEF has pointed out is that the reason why it's so important to register and identify these children is because one of the problems down the line could be something like child trafficking. This is a situation where traffickers exploit the situation, exploit those children. And it's important to identify, register and get those children into communities that are safe for them before the traffickers get to them.
BROWN: It's actually -- it's one of the difficult parts of the story, is to know how much of that is actually happening and how much that is just fear of it happening -- Paula.
ZAHN: Aaron, I wanted to ask you what else you could share with us about the conditions at these camps. You spent the better part of the day at the one you are reporting from now.
BROWN: Were you able to hear? The condition of the camps generally?
SHUBERT: The conditions are a lot better now than they were. Just when I first got here, actually, a week ago, it was quite chaotic. Now there is certainly order. Sanitation is a lot better. But it still needs to be improved. The risk of disease is still there. And so a lot of help still needs to come in.
BROWN: Just to give you an idea, they -- we're, what, 10, 11 days since the tsunami hit. They just got sanitation facilities at this camp yesterday. So, it's -- it's pretty rugged living here, but they are living. And they are being fed. And that's encouraging for them -- Paula.
ZAHN: Aaron and Atika, thanks.Coming up, the world responds with an outpouring of aid. How marine muscle is playing a big part in relief operations. Then, born of the tsunami, a tiny child brings happiness and hope where there was none.
January 7
ZAHN: A little boy with a giant hole in his heart. In Banda Aceh, as in many other areas, the cleanup after the tsunami is beginning to show some signs of progress. But even with a massive effort, getting lives and livelihood back on track is not easy. That story when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: And welcome back to our special report, "Turning the Tide."My colleague Aaron Brown joins us from Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Aaron, you have been telling us over the last couple of days how complicated it is to distribute this aid. Have you seen any progress from where you stand?
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you know, look, I mean, you measure progress in funny ways. And every helicopter that goes out with water and medicine and food is progress. If you're looking for some big sea change, no. But another village gets fed or another refugee camp gets set up and food gets delivered, another wound gets healed, and that -- you measure progress in a kind of simple or small way. But it's -- in fact, nobody knows that better than Dr. Cesar Campo, who is a surgeon, a Spanish surgeon. He's with the Spanish medical team that works here.When you walk up and down the line here, the Aussies, the Americans, everybody says, talk to the Spaniards, because they are the ones who have really done the work. And the doc here has been doing the work. What kind of wounds principally and injuries are you seeing?
DR. CESAR CAMPO, SURGEON: Well, we are seeing very dirty wounds, because they are people that was affected by the tsunami. And then we are the first attendant that are looking for them, you know? Then those wounds are very, very dirty, very infected. And we have to do a work for cleaning, for debriding. It's (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
BROWN: All you can -- is it right that all you can really try to do is try and stabilize the patient and hope for the best?
CAMPO: Yes. Our first work is to stabilize the person and give the first aid here in Banda Aceh. Afterwards, the persons can go to hospitals in Medan, in Banda Aceh, or can go to the refugee camps after our work.
BROWN: Just a quick final question, Doc. What are their chances, generally? Do you think most of them will make it, some of them will make it? What do you think? Will they live?
CAMPO: Well, no, I think all of them will -- won't do, won't live, because there are many people very, very ill. We try to do our best with them with our work, cleaning, debriding, fixing fractures, using antibiotics and so, then -- but we don't know when another doctor or us will review them.
BROWN: I know you've got a lot of work to do. You have got a patient in there now, Doc. Muchos gracias, senor.
CAMPO: Thank you very much.
BROWN: Thank you.
CAMPO: Thank you.
BROWN: We appreciate it. We were talking a moment ago about how you measure progress here. A helicopter goes out, that's progress. You see a heavy piece of machinery come into the city to start clearing the rubble, it's a -- the rubble, the mess here is so vast, it doesn't seem like much to start clearing a block. But it is a small measure of progress. Atika Shubert was out on the bridge that we were broadcasting from the other day, and she, too, found small measures of progress, small measures of normalcy.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Aaron. What we find is that people are starting to get back to normal life, but it's going to take a long time. There just isn't the kind of equipment needed to clear the area quickly. So, we did is, we went to some of the areas that were hardest hit in Banda Aceh to see how they were dealing with the clear-up. And this is what we found.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT (voice-over): Friday prayer in the great mosque of Banda Aceh, the first area to be cleared of debris and bodies. The faithful come to pray. Soldiers stand on guard. Signs of life returning to normal. In the market, shops still in ruins, but order has been restored. Residents line up patiently for food and for water dispensed by Australian soldiers.
(on camera): Residents still live amid the wreckage. Heavy moving equipment is hard to come by and it may take months for any of this to even begin to be cleared.
(voice-over): Boats are still marooned in the center of town more than a kilometer inland. The most spectacular wrecks have become something of a tourist attraction for visiting aid workers. Here we found Mohammad Amwar Illas (ph), a fisherman watching over his family's boat jammed atop a bridge. He was fishing four kilometers offshore in another boat when the tsunami struck, feeling nothing but the rise and fall of a large wave. He came back to this. His home and his parents gone, he focuses on salvaging what he has left. "If I can, I'll build another boat. The engine still works," he says. "We will have destroy the rest of this to get the engine. I just don't think anything else is usable." Mohammad figures it will take six months for his life to return to normal. He waits every day for a cleanup crew to arrive, but they're not stopping here today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT: Now, there are still some more encouraging signs this morning, Aaron. Actually, supermarkets are starting to open and that's a good thing, but it is going to think many months yet.
BROWN: Thank you. Every day, another piece of heavy machinery moves in. Every day, the area inches towards recovery. But you're talking about three months before, four months maybe, before bodies are all cleared out of the city and really years before anything approaching what was -- and what was wasn't all that great -- but what was is recreated again -- Paula.
ZAHN: Aaron, we're reading here that in the province where you're spending most of your time, they're beginning to see outbreaks of cholera and malaria. What can you tell us about what you've seen in the refugee camps you have visited?
BROWN: Well, Atika may weigh in here, too. You know, the conditions are ripe. I mean, you have all of the ingredients for a horrible outbreak of disease. You've got a lot of standing water. The water table, without getting too technical here, is so high that it's just -- standing water is all over the place, mosquitoes all over the place. And so, all of the things that create a health disaster are in place. And while there are actually a lot of doctors here, there's not necessarily -- I'm trying to think of the best way to say this -- there's not necessarily a system set up to get patient to doctor. And so cholera spreads very quickly. And if that were to happen, then -- you've got the worst disaster that anyone can imagine and that would only make it worse.
ZAHN: Well, we hope things improve there, given the speeding up of the distribution, as you've talked about.Atika, Aaron, thank you so much.
Aaron Brown also lead 'the team' to Rome for the Pope's passing and funeral onto the anchoring of the choice of a new Pope. Aaron anchored the entire months of presentations of Katrina and Rita. It was only when the news became 'routine' again would he be leaving us to an inferior news anchor still today.
Aaron Brown: (on camera): And what strikes you coming here is this. In Thailand, it was the tourist resorts, the fishing villages right by the sea that were destroyed. Here, we're talking about a capital city of a province. We are four kilometers inland and just look at it. As far as the eye can see, it is destroyed.
(voice-over): Television deals in the human senses of sight and sound, but it is an inadequate medium when it comes to conveying what it's really like here. This is a city pervaded by death, the sight of it, yes, but also the smell of it. Death is everywhere. Today in Banda Aceh, you cannot escape it.
(on camera): Everywhere you drive in Banda Aceh, you come across scenes like this here, teams of workers pulling out bodies from the river that flows through the center of Banda Aceh. We've been here 15 minutes or so and we've seen them pull out five bodies. And this, of course, is 10 days after the waves struck.
(voice-over): Help is here, of course, but seldom can anywhere have needed it as much as this place, this city, or, rather, what remains of it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And, once again, that was Mike Austin of Britain's ITV reporting. Back to Aaron now, looking at some of that same devastation in Banda Aceh. I guess, Aaron, one of the things you were talking about earlier this evening that really struck me -- and it's really hard to understand this -- that you're staying at a point that is a mile and a half inland from the ocean.
BROWN: Yes. It's -- I mean, again, I think, I would just echo everything that Mark Austin said. The difference between what happened here and what happened in Thailand and Sri Lanka is that it isn't just the coast, that we're a mile and a half from the coast here and look what's in front of us. And believe me when I tell you that, if you were to look the other way, it doesn't look any prettier. When Mark was reporting that, I knew exactly where in town he was talking about, four miles in, about 3 1/2 miles from the ocean . And it's just devastated. And the aftershocks continue. We were standing here, what, 2 1/2 hours ago, I guess, and another one rolled through. There was one earlier this morning. How that must traumatize the people who lived through it, the peril they must feel. In any case, we'll take a break. When we come back, this disaster as seen through the lens, as we often do, of some of the world's great still photographers. CNN's special coverage continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: That wraps it up from New York for me this evening. And, Aaron, you'll get to close out the hour here.
BROWN: Thank you very much. There is this kind of dead look that takes over the faces of people when they've grieved at this scale, as if there is nothing else inside.This hour tomorrow looks at the special plight of children in this disaster. We hope you'll join us for that.Until then, good night for all of us.
January 6
Nowhere is the situation worse than it is in Banda Aceh. And that's where we find Aaron Brown tonight -- Aaron.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: We are outside a refugee camp, very much a makeshift refugee camp that is being run by university students and their professors. Jeliteng Pribadi was an economics professor two weeks ago and he's a refugee camp director today. And he's with us. My Indonesian isn't very good, so we'll do this in English, as best we can.
JELITENG PRIBADI, REFUGEE CAMP DIRECTOR: OK.
BROWN: They found you, in a sense. People flooded here, because we're on relatively high ground, and you decided you had to do something, basically, right?
PRIBADI: Yes, you're right.When the tsunami came here, in the very beginning of the day, like, first until the fourth day, we just helped people inside the city, take the dead body, other some people still alive to the doctors, to the hospitals. And after the fourth day, start from the fifth day, we still to be focused, who we need to help? Do we still in there in the city to collect the dead body or we just help the people who still alive?
BROWN: Just a couple -- how much better are things now than they were a week ago here?
PRIBADI: Here. It's just around 1,500, but now it's well into 2,000 people here.
BROWN: You have medicine enough here?
PRIBADI: Right now, we have so many donation from other countries, from other organizations, like from Mercy, from International Red Cross. But, in the very beginning of the day, until -- the first week here, we still have no -- even for like Betadine, alcohol, we have not enough medical.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Just a final question. Can you imagine a time when things will be normal again?
PRIBADI: No. I don't think we will have normal condition in one or two months after the tsunami. And even for six months, I don't think we will have normal condition again like before.
BROWN: Thank you.
PRIBADI: OK. You're welcome.
BROWN: Thank you. One of the tasks here is to figure out, literally figure out who is here, who survived it, who did not. Foremost among that task is reuniting children and parents. UNICEF has set up an office here. Atika Shubert -- it's literally across the street. Atika Shubert has been over there to report on their efforts pretty much.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Aaron. UNICEF feels it is very important that children are able to stay, if not with their immediate family, with their extended family, or at least with the community they feel comfortable with. So one of the things we're doing is trying to identify and register all the tens of thousands of displaced children. We followed them around yesterday.And here's what we found.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT (voice-over): Children play amid the wreckage while a government teams picks its way through. Their mission, to identify children whose parents have gone missing in the disaster. Together with United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, the government is trying to register tens of thousands of displaced children in the hope they can be reunited with family.
ANANDA MELVILLE, UNICEF: It's to try to prevent not only the issue of trafficking of children, but also to prevent very well- meaning people taking the children and putting them in institutions in other countries or in other parts of Indonesia where -- and without -- and later it could be very hard to find them. S
HUBERT: In each camp, the faces of the missing are plastered everywhere, most of them, children. Parents line up at UNICEF, clutching pictures of their sons and daughters.
(on camera): In this camp, there are makeshift shelters and there are makeshift families. In these two tents, a hobbled together community of neighbors who have lost their homes, mothers who have lost their children, and children who have lost their parents.
(voice-over): Twelve-year-old Igbal was registered with UNICEF by Khaidir Stamsul. They seem like father and son. But it was only by chance that Igbal was away from his family, playing near Khaidir's home when the tsunami struck. It saved Igbal's life, but his family is gone. Khaidir has taken him in. "We're his parents as long as he's in this camp," he tells us. "We don't allow him to be left alone in silence, and my kids like him. Honestly, I couldn't give him away now even if someone wanted to adopt him."While other children play, Igbal seems pensive. He says he wants to be a soldier when he grows up, not a doctor, as Khaidir suggests. The reason is understandable. "I don't want to do that. I'm afraid of the ghosts from all of those dead bodies," he says. Despite their smiling faces, the ghosts that will surely haunt these children for years to come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT: Now, it's hope against hope to try and reunite these families, Aaron. There are so many orphans and so many parents looking for missing children. But the good news is, a lot of these Acehnese communities are taking in these orphans, so at least they're not completely on their own.
BROWN: Do the aid workers feel that -- here, we'll raise that up just a little bit.
SHUBERT: Sorry.
BROWN: Do the aid workers feel that the world's attention will stay here long enough to get the work done?
SHUBERT: Well, that's certainly what they're hoping. There's a very desperate need here. And one of the things that UNICEF has pointed out is that the reason why it's so important to register and identify these children is because one of the problems down the line could be something like child trafficking. This is a situation where traffickers exploit the situation, exploit those children. And it's important to identify, register and get those children into communities that are safe for them before the traffickers get to them.
BROWN: It's actually -- it's one of the difficult parts of the story, is to know how much of that is actually happening and how much that is just fear of it happening -- Paula.
ZAHN: Aaron, I wanted to ask you what else you could share with us about the conditions at these camps. You spent the better part of the day at the one you are reporting from now.
BROWN: Were you able to hear? The condition of the camps generally?
SHUBERT: The conditions are a lot better now than they were. Just when I first got here, actually, a week ago, it was quite chaotic. Now there is certainly order. Sanitation is a lot better. But it still needs to be improved. The risk of disease is still there. And so a lot of help still needs to come in.
BROWN: Just to give you an idea, they -- we're, what, 10, 11 days since the tsunami hit. They just got sanitation facilities at this camp yesterday. So, it's -- it's pretty rugged living here, but they are living. And they are being fed. And that's encouraging for them -- Paula.
ZAHN: Aaron and Atika, thanks.Coming up, the world responds with an outpouring of aid. How marine muscle is playing a big part in relief operations. Then, born of the tsunami, a tiny child brings happiness and hope where there was none.
January 7
ZAHN: A little boy with a giant hole in his heart. In Banda Aceh, as in many other areas, the cleanup after the tsunami is beginning to show some signs of progress. But even with a massive effort, getting lives and livelihood back on track is not easy. That story when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: And welcome back to our special report, "Turning the Tide."My colleague Aaron Brown joins us from Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Aaron, you have been telling us over the last couple of days how complicated it is to distribute this aid. Have you seen any progress from where you stand?
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you know, look, I mean, you measure progress in funny ways. And every helicopter that goes out with water and medicine and food is progress. If you're looking for some big sea change, no. But another village gets fed or another refugee camp gets set up and food gets delivered, another wound gets healed, and that -- you measure progress in a kind of simple or small way. But it's -- in fact, nobody knows that better than Dr. Cesar Campo, who is a surgeon, a Spanish surgeon. He's with the Spanish medical team that works here.When you walk up and down the line here, the Aussies, the Americans, everybody says, talk to the Spaniards, because they are the ones who have really done the work. And the doc here has been doing the work. What kind of wounds principally and injuries are you seeing?
DR. CESAR CAMPO, SURGEON: Well, we are seeing very dirty wounds, because they are people that was affected by the tsunami. And then we are the first attendant that are looking for them, you know? Then those wounds are very, very dirty, very infected. And we have to do a work for cleaning, for debriding. It's (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
BROWN: All you can -- is it right that all you can really try to do is try and stabilize the patient and hope for the best?
CAMPO: Yes. Our first work is to stabilize the person and give the first aid here in Banda Aceh. Afterwards, the persons can go to hospitals in Medan, in Banda Aceh, or can go to the refugee camps after our work.
BROWN: Just a quick final question, Doc. What are their chances, generally? Do you think most of them will make it, some of them will make it? What do you think? Will they live?
CAMPO: Well, no, I think all of them will -- won't do, won't live, because there are many people very, very ill. We try to do our best with them with our work, cleaning, debriding, fixing fractures, using antibiotics and so, then -- but we don't know when another doctor or us will review them.
BROWN: I know you've got a lot of work to do. You have got a patient in there now, Doc. Muchos gracias, senor.
CAMPO: Thank you very much.
BROWN: Thank you.
CAMPO: Thank you.
BROWN: We appreciate it. We were talking a moment ago about how you measure progress here. A helicopter goes out, that's progress. You see a heavy piece of machinery come into the city to start clearing the rubble, it's a -- the rubble, the mess here is so vast, it doesn't seem like much to start clearing a block. But it is a small measure of progress. Atika Shubert was out on the bridge that we were broadcasting from the other day, and she, too, found small measures of progress, small measures of normalcy.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Aaron. What we find is that people are starting to get back to normal life, but it's going to take a long time. There just isn't the kind of equipment needed to clear the area quickly. So, we did is, we went to some of the areas that were hardest hit in Banda Aceh to see how they were dealing with the clear-up. And this is what we found.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT (voice-over): Friday prayer in the great mosque of Banda Aceh, the first area to be cleared of debris and bodies. The faithful come to pray. Soldiers stand on guard. Signs of life returning to normal. In the market, shops still in ruins, but order has been restored. Residents line up patiently for food and for water dispensed by Australian soldiers.
(on camera): Residents still live amid the wreckage. Heavy moving equipment is hard to come by and it may take months for any of this to even begin to be cleared.
(voice-over): Boats are still marooned in the center of town more than a kilometer inland. The most spectacular wrecks have become something of a tourist attraction for visiting aid workers. Here we found Mohammad Amwar Illas (ph), a fisherman watching over his family's boat jammed atop a bridge. He was fishing four kilometers offshore in another boat when the tsunami struck, feeling nothing but the rise and fall of a large wave. He came back to this. His home and his parents gone, he focuses on salvaging what he has left. "If I can, I'll build another boat. The engine still works," he says. "We will have destroy the rest of this to get the engine. I just don't think anything else is usable." Mohammad figures it will take six months for his life to return to normal. He waits every day for a cleanup crew to arrive, but they're not stopping here today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT: Now, there are still some more encouraging signs this morning, Aaron. Actually, supermarkets are starting to open and that's a good thing, but it is going to think many months yet.
BROWN: Thank you. Every day, another piece of heavy machinery moves in. Every day, the area inches towards recovery. But you're talking about three months before, four months maybe, before bodies are all cleared out of the city and really years before anything approaching what was -- and what was wasn't all that great -- but what was is recreated again -- Paula.
ZAHN: Aaron, we're reading here that in the province where you're spending most of your time, they're beginning to see outbreaks of cholera and malaria. What can you tell us about what you've seen in the refugee camps you have visited?
BROWN: Well, Atika may weigh in here, too. You know, the conditions are ripe. I mean, you have all of the ingredients for a horrible outbreak of disease. You've got a lot of standing water. The water table, without getting too technical here, is so high that it's just -- standing water is all over the place, mosquitoes all over the place. And so, all of the things that create a health disaster are in place. And while there are actually a lot of doctors here, there's not necessarily -- I'm trying to think of the best way to say this -- there's not necessarily a system set up to get patient to doctor. And so cholera spreads very quickly. And if that were to happen, then -- you've got the worst disaster that anyone can imagine and that would only make it worse.
ZAHN: Well, we hope things improve there, given the speeding up of the distribution, as you've talked about.Atika, Aaron, thank you so much.
So, there is 'Big Business' assisting the illegal government tapping.
You mean businesses we can sue for invading our privacy. Businesses we pay fees to for our privacy. Businesses that have GUARANTEED our privacy under Federal Law. You mean those telephone and internet businesses?
Businesses like Carlyle Group?
Telecom & Media
Carlyle’s global network of telecommunications and media investment professionals spans both venture and buyout opportunities in North America, Europe and Asia.
Ford Motor Company yesterday announced it had completed the sale of The Hertz Corporation to a group of private equity firms composed of Clayton Dubilier & Rice, The Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity. They purchased the equity of The Hertz Corporation in a transaction valued at approximately $15 billion including debt. Ford received $5.6 billion in cash for the sale of its 100 per cent holding in Hertz. and will recognize a pre-tax gain in the fourth quarter of 2005 estimated to be in the range of $1.1-$1.3 billion. Hertz operates the largest general-use car rental business in the world and one of the largest industrial, construction and material handling equipment rental businesses in North America, based on revenues. The roll of financial advisors for the investor group in the transaction included Deutsche Bank AG, Lehman Brothers, Inc., Merrill Lynch and Co. Inc., The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., JP Morgan Case Co., BNP Paribas, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Calyon.
KKR Plays Catch-Up With Warburg, Carlyle in Asian Asset Fight
Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., the firm that engineered the biggest-ever leveraged buyout, is now racing to catch up with rivals in the fight for Asian assets.
KKR opened a Hong Kong branch in September, seven months after co-founder Henry Kravis said in an interview at a Frankfurt conference that he had no plans to establish an office in Asia.
Buyout funds are targeting banks, insurers and computer- related companies in India and China as incomes rise in the world's most populous nations and local business owners court overseas investors. Firms such as Warburg Pincus LLC and Carlyle Group invested $10.1 billion in Asia in the nine months to Sept. 30, up 40 percent from a year earlier, according to the Center for Asia Private Equity Research Ltd. in Hong Kong.
``It's difficult to tell investors why you're not here in Asia,'' says Vincent Fan, 57, a Hong Kong-based partner at Capital Z Investment Partners LLC, which manages $2.3 billion in buyout and hedge funds. ``In the last two years, you've seen returns in the multiples of two-to-three, to six times.''
Carlyle picks up a quarter stake in Pacific Life
BEIJING, Dec. 20 -- US buyout firm Carlyle Group said yesterday it agreed to buy a quarter of China Pacific Life Insurance Co, making the deal the biggest private equity investment on China's mainland.
Carlyle Group signed an agreement to buy a 3.3 billion yuan (US$408.7 million) stake in China Pacific Life Insurance Co (CPIC) on December 19, 2005. [newsphoto]Carlyle and Prudential Financial Inc, the third-largest US life insurer, will pay a combined 3.3 billion yuan (US$409 million) for a 24.975 percent of the mainland's No. 3 life insurer, according to a corporate statement. The statement didn't specify the investment amount from each company.
China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co, the Chinese insurer's parent, will also inject 3.3 billion yuan into the venture, the statement said.
CPIC Life gets US$815m from investors(Xinhua)Updated: 2005-12-19 16:41
China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (CPIC Group) and U.S.-based Carlyle Group signed an agreement Monday to inject 6.6 billion yuan (815 million US dollars) into China Pacific Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (CPIC Life), a subsidiary of CPIC Group.
After the injection, Carlyle, a global private equity firm, together with its strategic investor, U.S.-based Prudential Financial Inc., will hold a 24.975 percent stake in CPIC life, China's third largest life insurer.
The injection of 3.3 billion yuan from the Carlyle partnership is the largest private equity investment in China to date.
Wang Guoliang, Chairman of CPIC life said that the agreement with Carlyle will dramatically accelerate CPIC Life's expansion plans and its participation in the world's fastest growing life insurance market.
Currently, CPIC Life has an 11 percent share in the China market, of which the country's top three players combined have over 80 percent.
It testifies to the maturing investment and regulatory environment in China and to the government's commitment to financial reform, said Yang Xiangdong, Managing Director and Co-head of the Carlyle Asia Buyout Group.
The transaction is considered a significant move for the CPIC Group to become a financial holding company.
The agreement follows the approval by the Chinese Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), China's insurance watchdog. The transaction, which has gained overwhelming approval from shareholders of the CPIC Group in October, is expected to close within a month.
After the transaction, Carlyle will nominate a new management team in CPIC life.
This is Carlyle's second major investment in China in the past two months.
Carlyle signed a definitive agreement to acquire an 85 percent stake in Xugong Group Construction Machinery Co. Ltd., China's leading construction machinery manufacturer, for 375 million US dollars this October.
Carlyle is a global private equity firm with 35 billion US dollars under its management.
Businesses like Carlyle Group?
Telecom & Media
Carlyle’s global network of telecommunications and media investment professionals spans both venture and buyout opportunities in North America, Europe and Asia.
Ford Motor Company yesterday announced it had completed the sale of The Hertz Corporation to a group of private equity firms composed of Clayton Dubilier & Rice, The Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity. They purchased the equity of The Hertz Corporation in a transaction valued at approximately $15 billion including debt. Ford received $5.6 billion in cash for the sale of its 100 per cent holding in Hertz. and will recognize a pre-tax gain in the fourth quarter of 2005 estimated to be in the range of $1.1-$1.3 billion. Hertz operates the largest general-use car rental business in the world and one of the largest industrial, construction and material handling equipment rental businesses in North America, based on revenues. The roll of financial advisors for the investor group in the transaction included Deutsche Bank AG, Lehman Brothers, Inc., Merrill Lynch and Co. Inc., The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., JP Morgan Case Co., BNP Paribas, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Calyon.
KKR Plays Catch-Up With Warburg, Carlyle in Asian Asset Fight
Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., the firm that engineered the biggest-ever leveraged buyout, is now racing to catch up with rivals in the fight for Asian assets.
KKR opened a Hong Kong branch in September, seven months after co-founder Henry Kravis said in an interview at a Frankfurt conference that he had no plans to establish an office in Asia.
Buyout funds are targeting banks, insurers and computer- related companies in India and China as incomes rise in the world's most populous nations and local business owners court overseas investors. Firms such as Warburg Pincus LLC and Carlyle Group invested $10.1 billion in Asia in the nine months to Sept. 30, up 40 percent from a year earlier, according to the Center for Asia Private Equity Research Ltd. in Hong Kong.
``It's difficult to tell investors why you're not here in Asia,'' says Vincent Fan, 57, a Hong Kong-based partner at Capital Z Investment Partners LLC, which manages $2.3 billion in buyout and hedge funds. ``In the last two years, you've seen returns in the multiples of two-to-three, to six times.''
Carlyle picks up a quarter stake in Pacific Life
BEIJING, Dec. 20 -- US buyout firm Carlyle Group said yesterday it agreed to buy a quarter of China Pacific Life Insurance Co, making the deal the biggest private equity investment on China's mainland.
Carlyle Group signed an agreement to buy a 3.3 billion yuan (US$408.7 million) stake in China Pacific Life Insurance Co (CPIC) on December 19, 2005. [newsphoto]Carlyle and Prudential Financial Inc, the third-largest US life insurer, will pay a combined 3.3 billion yuan (US$409 million) for a 24.975 percent of the mainland's No. 3 life insurer, according to a corporate statement. The statement didn't specify the investment amount from each company.
China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co, the Chinese insurer's parent, will also inject 3.3 billion yuan into the venture, the statement said.
CPIC Life gets US$815m from investors(Xinhua)Updated: 2005-12-19 16:41
China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (CPIC Group) and U.S.-based Carlyle Group signed an agreement Monday to inject 6.6 billion yuan (815 million US dollars) into China Pacific Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (CPIC Life), a subsidiary of CPIC Group.
After the injection, Carlyle, a global private equity firm, together with its strategic investor, U.S.-based Prudential Financial Inc., will hold a 24.975 percent stake in CPIC life, China's third largest life insurer.
The injection of 3.3 billion yuan from the Carlyle partnership is the largest private equity investment in China to date.
Wang Guoliang, Chairman of CPIC life said that the agreement with Carlyle will dramatically accelerate CPIC Life's expansion plans and its participation in the world's fastest growing life insurance market.
Currently, CPIC Life has an 11 percent share in the China market, of which the country's top three players combined have over 80 percent.
It testifies to the maturing investment and regulatory environment in China and to the government's commitment to financial reform, said Yang Xiangdong, Managing Director and Co-head of the Carlyle Asia Buyout Group.
The transaction is considered a significant move for the CPIC Group to become a financial holding company.
The agreement follows the approval by the Chinese Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), China's insurance watchdog. The transaction, which has gained overwhelming approval from shareholders of the CPIC Group in October, is expected to close within a month.
After the transaction, Carlyle will nominate a new management team in CPIC life.
This is Carlyle's second major investment in China in the past two months.
Carlyle signed a definitive agreement to acquire an 85 percent stake in Xugong Group Construction Machinery Co. Ltd., China's leading construction machinery manufacturer, for 375 million US dollars this October.
Carlyle is a global private equity firm with 35 billion US dollars under its management.
Truthiness - "The Spin" of AC360, CNN and FOX - Not the truth, exactly. But, truthiness !
Not quite fact, not quite fiction, it's neither here nor there. But it's all over cable news.
By JACQUES STEINBERG
JUST as the most-discussed coverage of the 2004 presidential election was by a fake-news outlet - "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central - the pundit who probably drew the most attention in 2005 was only playing one on TV: Stephen Colbert, who presides over a "Daily Show" spinoff, "The Colbert Report."
In his debut, on Oct. 17, Mr. Colbert not only gave the show's title a faux-French flourish - cole-BEAR ruh-PORE - but also added a made-up word to the lexicon of political journalism. It was "truthiness," which Mr. Colbert intended as a summation of what he sees as the guiding ethos of the loudest commentators on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.
"Truthiness is sort of what you want to be true, as opposed to what the facts support," Mr. Colbert said in a recent interview. "Truthiness is a truth larger than the facts that would comprise it - if you cared about facts, which you don't, if you care about truthiness."
The success of Mr. Colbert's program (its eight-week tryout was quickly extended to a year) came in a year of sizable changes in real broadcast news, most notably among the network evening newscasts.
By Dec. 2, when Brian Williams celebrated his first anniversary in Tom Brokaw's old chair on "NBC Nightly News," Dan Rather had stepped down as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" after nearly a quarter-century, and Peter Jennings of ABC had died of lung cancer, also after nearly a quarter-century as anchor. Last month, Ted Koppel left the ABC program "Nightline," after more than a quarter-century as its host.
While CBS struggled to reinvent the evening news post-Rather, considering alternatives to the "voice of God" format, ABC forged ahead. It named three reporters to replace Mr. Koppel and two anchors to replace Mr. Jennings.
The biggest roster change on cable news probably came at CNN, which replaced Aaron Brown, a no-nonsense newsman, with Anderson Cooper, who drew attention not only for his marathon coverage of Hurricane Katrina but also for a fashion-style portrait in Maxim magazine.
"I think Anderson needs another disaster," Mr. Colbert said. "I think the heat is off his sewage-soaked trousers."
"He needs to be deeply moved by someone else's misfortune," he said. "Fast."
Mr. Colbert quickly added that Mr. Cooper had been his favorite guest on "The Colbert Report."
By JACQUES STEINBERG
JUST as the most-discussed coverage of the 2004 presidential election was by a fake-news outlet - "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central - the pundit who probably drew the most attention in 2005 was only playing one on TV: Stephen Colbert, who presides over a "Daily Show" spinoff, "The Colbert Report."
In his debut, on Oct. 17, Mr. Colbert not only gave the show's title a faux-French flourish - cole-BEAR ruh-PORE - but also added a made-up word to the lexicon of political journalism. It was "truthiness," which Mr. Colbert intended as a summation of what he sees as the guiding ethos of the loudest commentators on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.
"Truthiness is sort of what you want to be true, as opposed to what the facts support," Mr. Colbert said in a recent interview. "Truthiness is a truth larger than the facts that would comprise it - if you cared about facts, which you don't, if you care about truthiness."
The success of Mr. Colbert's program (its eight-week tryout was quickly extended to a year) came in a year of sizable changes in real broadcast news, most notably among the network evening newscasts.
By Dec. 2, when Brian Williams celebrated his first anniversary in Tom Brokaw's old chair on "NBC Nightly News," Dan Rather had stepped down as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" after nearly a quarter-century, and Peter Jennings of ABC had died of lung cancer, also after nearly a quarter-century as anchor. Last month, Ted Koppel left the ABC program "Nightline," after more than a quarter-century as its host.
While CBS struggled to reinvent the evening news post-Rather, considering alternatives to the "voice of God" format, ABC forged ahead. It named three reporters to replace Mr. Koppel and two anchors to replace Mr. Jennings.
The biggest roster change on cable news probably came at CNN, which replaced Aaron Brown, a no-nonsense newsman, with Anderson Cooper, who drew attention not only for his marathon coverage of Hurricane Katrina but also for a fashion-style portrait in Maxim magazine.
"I think Anderson needs another disaster," Mr. Colbert said. "I think the heat is off his sewage-soaked trousers."
"He needs to be deeply moved by someone else's misfortune," he said. "Fast."
Mr. Colbert quickly added that Mr. Cooper had been his favorite guest on "The Colbert Report."
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Joanna Weiss's Picks
CNN's Anderson Cooper becomes the symbol of journalistic outrage during Hurricane Katrina. CNN elevates Cooper to a marquee anchor slot, ousting Aaron Brown.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Hanukkah Observation
Hanukkah, beginning on 25 Kislev (usually in December), commemorates the triumph of the Jews, under the Maccabees, over the Greek rulers (164 BCE) - both the physical victory of the small Jewish nation against mighty Greece and the spiritual victory of the Jewish faith against the Hellenism of the Greeks. Its sanctity derives from this spiritual aspect of the victory, and the miracle of the flask of oil, when a portion of sacramental olive oil meant to keep the Temple candelabrum lit for one day lasted for eight days, the time it took for the Temple to be rededicated.
Hanukkah is observed in Israel, as in the Diaspora, for eight days. The central feature of this holiday is the lighting of candles each evening - one on the first night, two on the second, and so on - in commemoration of the miracle at the Temple. The Hanukkah message in Israel focuses strongly on aspects of restored sovereignty; customs widely practiced in the Diaspora, such as gift-giving and the dreidl (spinning top), are also in evidence. The dreidl's sides are marked with Hebrew initials representing the message "A great miracle occurred here"; in the Diaspora, the initials stand for "A great miracle occurred there." Schools are closed during this week; workplaces are not.
Hanukkah is observed in Israel, as in the Diaspora, for eight days. The central feature of this holiday is the lighting of candles each evening - one on the first night, two on the second, and so on - in commemoration of the miracle at the Temple. The Hanukkah message in Israel focuses strongly on aspects of restored sovereignty; customs widely practiced in the Diaspora, such as gift-giving and the dreidl (spinning top), are also in evidence. The dreidl's sides are marked with Hebrew initials representing the message "A great miracle occurred here"; in the Diaspora, the initials stand for "A great miracle occurred there." Schools are closed during this week; workplaces are not.
AC 360, the Non News
The usual junk begins the 'show.' Here's Johnny.
1005
Cheney lies backed by Dana Bash. Count the dead. The world is NOT a far safer place. Jordan, Madrid, London, Luxor, Egypt, Beirut experienced two assassinations and the list goes on and on and on………
1009
Iraq - the tribute to "The Lionesses" is a repeat of a previous broadcast.
Blair: troops could begin Iraq pullout within six months
Tania Branigan in Basra and Ewen MacAskill
Friday December 23, 2005
The Guardian
Tony Blair indicated yesterday that a phased withdrawal of British troops from Iraq could begin within six months in the first official confirmation of an exit plan. Speaking during a lightning visit to Basra, his fourth in the past 12 months, Mr Blair held out the prospect of a pullout beginning in the first half of 2006.
Mr Blair refused to divulge a specific timetable, but he sounded an optimistic note and gave the clearest signal yet of British military intentions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,16518,1673279,00.html
Get used to. We are leaving !!!!!!!!!
Australia's 270 mln aud wheat trade with Iraq in jeopardy - report
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/12/22/afx2411193.html
Most think propaganda campaign in Iraq wrong
By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY
Almost three-quarters of Americans think it was wrong for the Pentagon to pay Iraqi newspapers to publish news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows.
USA TODAY reported earlier this month that the Pentagon plans to expand beyond Iraq an anti-terrorism public relations campaign that has included secret payments to Iraqi journalists and publications who printed stories favorable to the USA. In some cases, the stories will be prepared by U.S. military personnel, as they have been in Iraq.
The military will not always reveal it was behind the stories, said Mike Furlong, deputy director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element. The global program will be part of a five-year public relations campaign costing up to $300 million.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-22-poll-propaganda_x.htm
Iraq war has had a crippling effect on Iraq's orange growers
By Mohammed Alawsy
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BAQOUBA, Iraq - Basim Alwan, 50, still walks the orange groves that surround the small house where he grew up. He still looks past the dark green leaves, searching for the fruit that's defined his life.
But these days he finds that fruit less often, and he's worried about what that means for his future, his community's future and even his nation's future.
"Without the orange trees, we'd be fish out of water, we'd die," he said. "We don't have any other jobs here. But since the war, the trees have been bare."
While the trees are still green and plentiful, they haven't borne enough fruit to yield a decent harvest for two and a half years, since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Bombs and bullets didn't rip the fruit from the branches, but residents still blame the war, which has affected the local economy in a surprising number of ways.
Baqouba, the capital of Diyala Province and Iraq's self-proclaimed City of Oranges, has about a quarter-million people. Just northeast of Baghdad, it marks the eastern edge of the world's oldest fertile region, a vast green crescent that cuts through the heart of Iraq's tan, dead desert.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/13467815.htm
1017
The New York Transit Strike
THIS TOOK PLACE UNDER REAGAN'S WATCH.
Caspar W. Weinberger
January 21, 1981 - November 23, 1987
15th Secretary of Defense
Reagan Administration
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/secdef_histories/bios/weinberger.htm
AND WHERE was Don Rumsfeld during this time?
During his business career, Mr. Rumsfeld continued public service in a variety of posts, including:
Member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control – Reagan Administration (1982 - 1986);
President Reagan's Special Envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty (1982 - 1983);
Senior Advisor to President Reagan's Panel on Strategic Systems (1983 - 1984);
Member of the U.S. Joint Advisory Commission on U.S./Japan Relations – Reagan Administration (1983 - 1984);
President Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East (1983 - 1984);
Member of the National Commission on the Public Service (1987 - 1990);
Member of the National Economic Commission (1988 - 1989);
Member of the Board of Visitors of the National Defense University (1988 - 1992);
Member of the Commission on U.S./Japan Relations (1989 - 1991);
http://www.medaloffreedom.com/DonaldRumsfeld.htm
Dutchman faces jail on Iraq genocide charge
22 Dec 2005 23:01:41 GMT
Source: Reuters
AMSTERDAM, Dec 23 (Reuters) - A court in The Hague will pass judgment on Friday on a Dutch businessman charged with selling chemicals to Iraq used to carry out poison gas attacks.
Frans van Anraat, 63, is charged with complicity in genocide and war crimes for supplying agents to make poison gas used by Iraq in the 1980-1988 war with Iran and against its own Kurdish population, including a 1988 attack on the town of Halabja.
If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
In a magazine interview in 2003, Van Anraat admitted to supplying the chemicals but he denies knowing they were destined for Iraq and that they would be used to make poison gas.
Prosecutors said Van Anraat delivered more than 1,000 tonnes of thiodiglycol -- an industrial chemical which can be used to make mustard gas but also has civilian uses -- to Iraq and more than 800 tonnes ended up on the battlefield.
They said he shipped chemicals from the United States to Belgium and from Belgium to Iraq via Jordan.
He also shipped chemicals from Japan to Italy, and then overland to Iraq, but defence lawyers said a key witness -- Van Anraat's Japanese business partner Tanaka -- was not reliable.
Saddam Hussein, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", and others used chemical weapons including mustard gas and nerve gas in Halabja, Gukk Tapah and Bergin to target the Kurdish population, the charges against Van Anraat said.
The Halabja attack on March 16, 1988, killed an estimated 5,000 people. Some of their relatives were present during the trial.
Defence lawyers said the case was inadmissible as the chief suspect of genocide and war crimes, Saddam, is already on trial in Baghdad. Saddam has denied the charges.
Van Anraat is the first Dutchman to be tried on genocide-related charges.
Sixteen Kurdish victims from Iraq and Iran who joined the criminal trial are seeking the symbolic amount of 680 euros ($800.70) each in damages.
The United States said Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction were one of its main reasons for going to war in 2003, but significant stockpiles of chemical and biological arms have not been found.
Van Anraat was detained in Milan in 1989 following a U.S. request but was released after two months. He then fled to Iraq, where it is thought he stayed until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, when he returned to the Netherlands through Syria.
Dutch officials arrested him last December as he was preparing to leave the country.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22786584.htm
1025
Speculation regarding medical euthanasia in New Orleans.
1030
Commercials
1033
The news review. You know the 10 second flash news reel.
1034
Katrina's Home Movie - he was lucky.
1039
Alaska's 'projects' - pork and nothing else
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday night voted to approve the House-Senate conference report legislation related to the defense appropriations. Included in the conference legislation was $29 billion funding for the hurricane victims from the Gulf Coast. The vote was passed by unanimous vote.
The final appropriations bill did not include the controversial ANWR drilling. The ANWR matter has been very contentious since the drilling issue was attached to the defense appropriations bill by the House of Representatives and had angered environmentalists and most democrats in the Senate.
Earlier today, a vote on cloture of the ANWR-defense appropriations issue failed by a slight margin in the Senate.
The cloture vote put the funding for Katrina and Rita in a wild zone of uncertainty and speculation.
Before the Conference Report vote Wednesday night, the Senate voted to remove the ANWR provision from the defense appropriations.
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=5796
1045
Commercials
Then
Kids and Lunch
Funding to feed hungry children
As we celebrate the holidays, most of us have more food than we could ever need. During this season of giving, state Sen. Teresa Fedor, state Rep. Mark Wagoner, and I encourage each of you to stop and think of the thousands of Ohio children who have an empty dinner table.
As illustrated in a Sept. 2 Blade editorial, 120,000 children in Ohio go hungry each day and 500,000 are at risk of hunger. That's one in every six children in our state. Even more startling is that hungry children suffer a variety of devastating consequences: increased health problems, more disruptive behavior, tardiness or absence from school, and lower scores on achievement tests than their classmates.
While this news is disheartening, there is hope. The National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs, funded by the federal government, exist as a "safety net" by providing children nutritious breakfasts and lunches. Using these programs does not increase our state spending. Rather, taking advantage of them helps us maximize what funds are already available from the federal government.
Here in Lucas County, Senator Fedor, Representative Wagoner, and I have met with the Children's Hunger Alliance (a private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to end childhood hunger in Ohio) in order to help more local schools offer school breakfast programs. We encourage parents to join us in our efforts. They should contact their child's school for information on its breakfast program, or get in touch with one of us. We can all take action. In doing so, we will help local children be prepared to learn and avoid the devastating consequences of hunger, without increasing state spending.
We can end childhood hunger in Lucas County and across Ohio. That's something we can all celebrate.
Jeanine Perry
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051217/OPINION03/512170376
1054
Commercials
END IT.
1005
Cheney lies backed by Dana Bash. Count the dead. The world is NOT a far safer place. Jordan, Madrid, London, Luxor, Egypt, Beirut experienced two assassinations and the list goes on and on and on………
1009
Iraq - the tribute to "The Lionesses" is a repeat of a previous broadcast.
Blair: troops could begin Iraq pullout within six months
Tania Branigan in Basra and Ewen MacAskill
Friday December 23, 2005
The Guardian
Tony Blair indicated yesterday that a phased withdrawal of British troops from Iraq could begin within six months in the first official confirmation of an exit plan. Speaking during a lightning visit to Basra, his fourth in the past 12 months, Mr Blair held out the prospect of a pullout beginning in the first half of 2006.
Mr Blair refused to divulge a specific timetable, but he sounded an optimistic note and gave the clearest signal yet of British military intentions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,16518,1673279,00.html
Get used to. We are leaving !!!!!!!!!
Australia's 270 mln aud wheat trade with Iraq in jeopardy - report
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/12/22/afx2411193.html
Most think propaganda campaign in Iraq wrong
By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY
Almost three-quarters of Americans think it was wrong for the Pentagon to pay Iraqi newspapers to publish news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows.
USA TODAY reported earlier this month that the Pentagon plans to expand beyond Iraq an anti-terrorism public relations campaign that has included secret payments to Iraqi journalists and publications who printed stories favorable to the USA. In some cases, the stories will be prepared by U.S. military personnel, as they have been in Iraq.
The military will not always reveal it was behind the stories, said Mike Furlong, deputy director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element. The global program will be part of a five-year public relations campaign costing up to $300 million.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-22-poll-propaganda_x.htm
Iraq war has had a crippling effect on Iraq's orange growers
By Mohammed Alawsy
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BAQOUBA, Iraq - Basim Alwan, 50, still walks the orange groves that surround the small house where he grew up. He still looks past the dark green leaves, searching for the fruit that's defined his life.
But these days he finds that fruit less often, and he's worried about what that means for his future, his community's future and even his nation's future.
"Without the orange trees, we'd be fish out of water, we'd die," he said. "We don't have any other jobs here. But since the war, the trees have been bare."
While the trees are still green and plentiful, they haven't borne enough fruit to yield a decent harvest for two and a half years, since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Bombs and bullets didn't rip the fruit from the branches, but residents still blame the war, which has affected the local economy in a surprising number of ways.
Baqouba, the capital of Diyala Province and Iraq's self-proclaimed City of Oranges, has about a quarter-million people. Just northeast of Baghdad, it marks the eastern edge of the world's oldest fertile region, a vast green crescent that cuts through the heart of Iraq's tan, dead desert.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/13467815.htm
1017
The New York Transit Strike
THIS TOOK PLACE UNDER REAGAN'S WATCH.
Caspar W. Weinberger
January 21, 1981 - November 23, 1987
15th Secretary of Defense
Reagan Administration
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/secdef_histories/bios/weinberger.htm
AND WHERE was Don Rumsfeld during this time?
During his business career, Mr. Rumsfeld continued public service in a variety of posts, including:
Member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control – Reagan Administration (1982 - 1986);
President Reagan's Special Envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty (1982 - 1983);
Senior Advisor to President Reagan's Panel on Strategic Systems (1983 - 1984);
Member of the U.S. Joint Advisory Commission on U.S./Japan Relations – Reagan Administration (1983 - 1984);
President Reagan's Special Envoy to the Middle East (1983 - 1984);
Member of the National Commission on the Public Service (1987 - 1990);
Member of the National Economic Commission (1988 - 1989);
Member of the Board of Visitors of the National Defense University (1988 - 1992);
Member of the Commission on U.S./Japan Relations (1989 - 1991);
http://www.medaloffreedom.com/DonaldRumsfeld.htm
Dutchman faces jail on Iraq genocide charge
22 Dec 2005 23:01:41 GMT
Source: Reuters
AMSTERDAM, Dec 23 (Reuters) - A court in The Hague will pass judgment on Friday on a Dutch businessman charged with selling chemicals to Iraq used to carry out poison gas attacks.
Frans van Anraat, 63, is charged with complicity in genocide and war crimes for supplying agents to make poison gas used by Iraq in the 1980-1988 war with Iran and against its own Kurdish population, including a 1988 attack on the town of Halabja.
If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
In a magazine interview in 2003, Van Anraat admitted to supplying the chemicals but he denies knowing they were destined for Iraq and that they would be used to make poison gas.
Prosecutors said Van Anraat delivered more than 1,000 tonnes of thiodiglycol -- an industrial chemical which can be used to make mustard gas but also has civilian uses -- to Iraq and more than 800 tonnes ended up on the battlefield.
They said he shipped chemicals from the United States to Belgium and from Belgium to Iraq via Jordan.
He also shipped chemicals from Japan to Italy, and then overland to Iraq, but defence lawyers said a key witness -- Van Anraat's Japanese business partner Tanaka -- was not reliable.
Saddam Hussein, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", and others used chemical weapons including mustard gas and nerve gas in Halabja, Gukk Tapah and Bergin to target the Kurdish population, the charges against Van Anraat said.
The Halabja attack on March 16, 1988, killed an estimated 5,000 people. Some of their relatives were present during the trial.
Defence lawyers said the case was inadmissible as the chief suspect of genocide and war crimes, Saddam, is already on trial in Baghdad. Saddam has denied the charges.
Van Anraat is the first Dutchman to be tried on genocide-related charges.
Sixteen Kurdish victims from Iraq and Iran who joined the criminal trial are seeking the symbolic amount of 680 euros ($800.70) each in damages.
The United States said Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction were one of its main reasons for going to war in 2003, but significant stockpiles of chemical and biological arms have not been found.
Van Anraat was detained in Milan in 1989 following a U.S. request but was released after two months. He then fled to Iraq, where it is thought he stayed until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, when he returned to the Netherlands through Syria.
Dutch officials arrested him last December as he was preparing to leave the country.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22786584.htm
1025
Speculation regarding medical euthanasia in New Orleans.
1030
Commercials
1033
The news review. You know the 10 second flash news reel.
1034
Katrina's Home Movie - he was lucky.
1039
Alaska's 'projects' - pork and nothing else
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday night voted to approve the House-Senate conference report legislation related to the defense appropriations. Included in the conference legislation was $29 billion funding for the hurricane victims from the Gulf Coast. The vote was passed by unanimous vote.
The final appropriations bill did not include the controversial ANWR drilling. The ANWR matter has been very contentious since the drilling issue was attached to the defense appropriations bill by the House of Representatives and had angered environmentalists and most democrats in the Senate.
Earlier today, a vote on cloture of the ANWR-defense appropriations issue failed by a slight margin in the Senate.
The cloture vote put the funding for Katrina and Rita in a wild zone of uncertainty and speculation.
Before the Conference Report vote Wednesday night, the Senate voted to remove the ANWR provision from the defense appropriations.
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=5796
1045
Commercials
Then
Kids and Lunch
Funding to feed hungry children
As we celebrate the holidays, most of us have more food than we could ever need. During this season of giving, state Sen. Teresa Fedor, state Rep. Mark Wagoner, and I encourage each of you to stop and think of the thousands of Ohio children who have an empty dinner table.
As illustrated in a Sept. 2 Blade editorial, 120,000 children in Ohio go hungry each day and 500,000 are at risk of hunger. That's one in every six children in our state. Even more startling is that hungry children suffer a variety of devastating consequences: increased health problems, more disruptive behavior, tardiness or absence from school, and lower scores on achievement tests than their classmates.
While this news is disheartening, there is hope. The National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs, funded by the federal government, exist as a "safety net" by providing children nutritious breakfasts and lunches. Using these programs does not increase our state spending. Rather, taking advantage of them helps us maximize what funds are already available from the federal government.
Here in Lucas County, Senator Fedor, Representative Wagoner, and I have met with the Children's Hunger Alliance (a private, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to end childhood hunger in Ohio) in order to help more local schools offer school breakfast programs. We encourage parents to join us in our efforts. They should contact their child's school for information on its breakfast program, or get in touch with one of us. We can all take action. In doing so, we will help local children be prepared to learn and avoid the devastating consequences of hunger, without increasing state spending.
We can end childhood hunger in Lucas County and across Ohio. That's something we can all celebrate.
Jeanine Perry
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051217/OPINION03/512170376
1054
Commercials
END IT.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Government Television - any subject except those that criticize Bush/Cheney. No mention of citizen spying or IMPEACHMENT.
0959
A CNN Exclusive and Frankenstein, the boy toy, is back. Heeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrreeeeeeeee's Johnny.
1001
Lengthy lead in. The News Round Up. (The Whip with an egotistical center.)
1002
Euthanasia on the coming holiday.
1003
Drew Griffin and his exclusive. Thursday nurses were making decisions about who would be removed from the hospital due to a ?need? for triage and who would survive. Louisiana Attorney General's Office. CNN states more than one person is being looked at regarding euthanasia. Life Care of New Orleans and Tenent Health Care are involved with the query.
1010
The New York Transit Strike - the laws governing public unions are oppressive.
An Unnecessary Transit Strike
Personally, I think New York Law is oppressive of Collective Bargaining. Across the river in New Jersey the public workers' unions are permitted to strike with notice. Those NJ unions are in large cities and in health care settings as well.
How is a union to do anything but give concessions if they can't assert their rights under collective bargaining to strike.
I think the pension issue is huge and shows a clear movement by the city away from supporting their workers rather than asking for 'participation' in an enforced payment for pensions.
The disciplinary actions are also huge. If there is overbearing performance pressure to every transit worker given the already dangerous circumstances they find themselves dealing with regularly then the job is nothing but a revolving door. There won't be pensions. The OBVIOUS fact that leads to this conclusion is that THESE are the TWO issues surrounding this strike. Where the two have common ground is the change in 'payment' to the pension fund.
No matter how much everyone likes the mayor of New York, he is still a Republican with ties to Bush who want privatization of SSI.
It seems very obvious to me what the city is 'up to' and whom pays the price of years of service only to be eliminated before they can be 'vested' enough to retire comfortably.
A unpopular position and the New York Times needs to investigate the disciplinary claims keeping in mind the people involved deserve having this issue treated with confidentiality, especially if they are "W"rongly disciplined. I would also like to know how many members of this union were dismissed before this job action could be called. I don't see this as a disciplinary matter either to relieve all those involved of their jobs. It seems to me where 'discipline' and 'pension' come together there is some solid ground of concern for these city employees.
Additionally, there is a real concern for the oppressive nature of New York law concerning public employees. I think we have the makings of a scandal. Possibly a constitutional scandal.
By the way, why shouldn't pay issues be generous considering the members are in a revolving door and never achieve the higher levels of pay rates.
1013
Commercial
New Year's Eve hosted by Anderson Cooper. Hm?
Just say no to New Year's Eve
By Anderson Cooper
Editor's note: Anderson Cooper anchors CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°," which airs weeknights at 10 p.m. ET. He also is a regular contributor for Details Magazine. This article was published in the December 2004 issue.
If you ask me, New Year's celebrations are proof that we are essentially optimistic creatures.
Despite hundreds of years of pathetic parties, ridiculous resolutions and hellacious hangovers, we still cling to the notion that it's possible to have fun going out on New Year's Eve.
It isn't.
There's too much pressure, too many people, and too few bathrooms.
New Year's Eve always frightened me as a kid. It seemed so mysterious, so adult, like a cocktail lounge I was too little to enter.
I'd try to stay up to watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV, but inevitably I'd fall asleep.
I didn't want to be in Times Square, mind you -- I was watching Dick Clark as a kind of sociological study, trying to understand why on earth anyone would want to stand in the freezing cold, crammed next to tens of thousands of people, all of whom screamed every time someone pointed a camera in their direction.
Even in those pre-hi-def days, you could almost smell the alcohol through the TV screen. It just didn't make sense.
I was born in Manhattan, and to most residents of this thin little island, the ball drop was best left to out-of-towners, like eating at Tavern on the Green or taking the Circle Line.
Pretty lights, sure, but not for us.
I know there's a whole industry built around maintaining the lie that going out on New Year's Eve is fun, and I certainly don't want to make anyone lose his job, but let's be honest, have you ever been to a New Year's Eve party that surpassed or even came close to meeting your expectations?
I didn't think so.
If you go to a party and drink on New Year's Eve, it's inevitable: You will at some point find yourself alone and despondent, and the manic merriment and slurred singing of "Auld Lang Syne" won't help.
I don't want to sound like Scrooge McDuck, but whenever I hear that maudlin, melancholy melody on New Year's Eve I'm instantly ravaged by the twin ghosts of failures past and future.
Sadly, these twins look nothing like the Olsens.
A friend of mine who works the door at a big Manhattan nightclub always tries to take New Year's Eve off.
"It's amateur night," he explains. "All these people who never go out try way too hard to have fun. As the hours go by, they begin to realize this party isn't going to be the best ever, this night is going to end, and this next year won't be all that better than the last one. So they drink or take another pill, and that's when it gets really messy."
I was stuck in Moscow one New Year's, and about the only difference is that in Russia the party starts much earlier and the vodka is much stronger.
By the time the new year actually rolled around, my Russian host had passed out and his friends had taken off to find themselves some prostitutes.
The following year I was in London. Everyone talks about how elegant and refined the British are, but stand outside a London pub on New Year's Eve and those aren't the two words that come to mind.
Roman Vomitorium more accurately describes the scene.
Chunky lads and lasses standing in gutters spewing chunky bits and pieces, then returning inside to guzzle more Guinness. Cheerio!
Given my lifelong aversion to New Year's Eve, I was reluctant when asked two years ago to host CNN's special coverage of the ball drop in Times Square.
I was going to say no -- after all, Dick Clark has had a lock on the night for decades. But it had been a couple of years since I'd gone out on New Year's, and I figured, "What the hell?"
Dick Clark's face may not have grown older, but I have, so I decided to give New Year's Eve one last chance.
New York City sets up a stage and bleachers right in the center of Times Square, and each news organization is allotted a small spot on which to place a camera and correspondent.
On TV it looks like you are the only reporter in Times Square, but in fact you are jammed in almost shoulder to shoulder with dozens of others, many of whom seem pissed that they pulled the short straw and have to work.
A lot of the visitors who come to Times Square on New Year's have been before, but the newbies often don't know what they are in for.
First of all, it's cold -- really, really cold. I met a Spanish couple who arrived wearing denim jackets.
Within 10 minutes they seemed to be in the early stages of hypothermia, their teeth chattering like Castilian castanets. They wisely decided to go back to the warmth of their hotel and watch it on TV.
What many first-time visitors don't realize is that when they get to Times Square, they enter a maze of barricades and end up herded into pens.
Once they find a spot, they're stuck, unable to move -- much like ducks being bred for pâté.
As a reporter, there are certain Times Square traditions you are expected to adhere to.
The company that makes the ball supplies you with endless factoids about its weight and history and how it's made, so when you run out of things to talk about, you can always fall back on that.
New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg comes by and makes the rounds of reporters. It being New Year's, you have to ask him about his resolutions.
The first time I did, he made a joke about his golf score. I should have known it was a joke, because I saw him sort of chuckle, but the truth is I don't know anything about golf, and I think I kind of stared at him blankly.
I resolved to at least attempt a smile the next year .
I started a new tradition for CNN, although I'm not sure it's going to last.
In addition to the ball drop in Times Square, we had cameras covering the Drag Queen Drop in Key West, where, at the stroke of midnight more or less, a drag queen named Sushi, sitting inside a giant ladies' shoe, is lowered from the roof of a gay bar.
We'd interviewed Sushi live a couple of times throughout the night, and by midnight ... well, let's just say that Sushi was no longer too fresh.
When she started to descend, something malfunctioned, and the shoe stalled. The last we saw of Sushi, she was crawling on all fours along the roof of the bar.
I told the director to cut away. Seeing a drag queen actually drop off a roof is not how I wanted to kick off the new year.
Say what you will about New York, but it sure does know how to throw an amazing public party.
At the stroke of midnight, when the ball has landed and the new year has begun, it is a sight and a scene that can't adequately be captured in words or by the small lens of a TV camera.
It is a hurricane of confetti and light, a clash of neon and noisemakers, a collision of past, present, and future.
It is like New York itself: noisy and messy, cold and chaotic, wildly, exasperatingly wonderful.
As a television production, the ball drop gives off so much energy that all you really have to do is let the cameras roll and get out of the way. After that first time, I've continued to volunteer to host New Year's specials for CNN.
Something very magical happens in those crowded, confetti-covered streets. There is a continuity to it, a connection between strangers, a connection from one year to the next.
I still think going out on New Year's Eve is lame, so if you can't make it to Times Square, I recommend curling up with someone and watching it on TV.
The truth is the parties and promises never quite live up to expectations. And maybe that's the whole point. It gives us something to look forward to the next year.
After all, if New Year's Eve really were the most fun night of our lives, the wildest, the best, then what would be the point of waking up the next day?
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/27/new.years.eve/
1016
A rapist on the loose
1022
The News Secretary
1020
commercials
1023
Murder in Raleigh of a man. Suspect is spouse and her teen lover.
1026
Commercials
1029
Dick Cheney and his upcoming segment. Hm.
1030
The Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Bulldozing bodies is illegal and a cover up.
1034
The airliner crash near Miami Beach.
1036
Cheney and his Mideast Trip Interruption. Breaking the tie of a Senate vote. Cheney, the bad boy. The Energy Task Force. The erosion of the Executive Office Powers. The Sixth Month extension of the Patriot Act.
NO MENTION OF 'The Government Spying Issue' or 'The National Dialogue regarding Impeachment.'
1042
Commercials
1044
Hurricane Katrina - try and keep the 'Anderson bounce' alive.
Elizabeth Cohen and the homeless that have medical problems. Cute story about Tony's Fishing Pier. Well done, Elizabeth.
1047
Commercials
1052
The Gay Marriage compliments of the Brits - and a diversion to heterosexual dilemma's of The Pre-Nup. This has to be the worst program on the television screen. I have no patience with the level of insult this 'blanding' of the news brings to the American public. It's the Non-News Cable News Networks. It's not exactly censuring the news so much as diminishing it's impact on the political 'climate of Bush.' No wonder the only 'interest' in AC 360 is the yelling. It's the only time concerns of the people are actually addressed. The odd aspect is that the 'yelling' is always focused on Democrats. I dare Anderson to yell at Cheney or Bush in an EXCLUSIVE interview.
CNN is a government focused media service. It's unfortunate it can't break out of the mold that is destroying it.
1100
A CNN Exclusive and Frankenstein, the boy toy, is back. Heeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrreeeeeeeee's Johnny.
1001
Lengthy lead in. The News Round Up. (The Whip with an egotistical center.)
1002
Euthanasia on the coming holiday.
1003
Drew Griffin and his exclusive. Thursday nurses were making decisions about who would be removed from the hospital due to a ?need? for triage and who would survive. Louisiana Attorney General's Office. CNN states more than one person is being looked at regarding euthanasia. Life Care of New Orleans and Tenent Health Care are involved with the query.
1010
The New York Transit Strike - the laws governing public unions are oppressive.
An Unnecessary Transit Strike
Personally, I think New York Law is oppressive of Collective Bargaining. Across the river in New Jersey the public workers' unions are permitted to strike with notice. Those NJ unions are in large cities and in health care settings as well.
How is a union to do anything but give concessions if they can't assert their rights under collective bargaining to strike.
I think the pension issue is huge and shows a clear movement by the city away from supporting their workers rather than asking for 'participation' in an enforced payment for pensions.
The disciplinary actions are also huge. If there is overbearing performance pressure to every transit worker given the already dangerous circumstances they find themselves dealing with regularly then the job is nothing but a revolving door. There won't be pensions. The OBVIOUS fact that leads to this conclusion is that THESE are the TWO issues surrounding this strike. Where the two have common ground is the change in 'payment' to the pension fund.
No matter how much everyone likes the mayor of New York, he is still a Republican with ties to Bush who want privatization of SSI.
It seems very obvious to me what the city is 'up to' and whom pays the price of years of service only to be eliminated before they can be 'vested' enough to retire comfortably.
A unpopular position and the New York Times needs to investigate the disciplinary claims keeping in mind the people involved deserve having this issue treated with confidentiality, especially if they are "W"rongly disciplined. I would also like to know how many members of this union were dismissed before this job action could be called. I don't see this as a disciplinary matter either to relieve all those involved of their jobs. It seems to me where 'discipline' and 'pension' come together there is some solid ground of concern for these city employees.
Additionally, there is a real concern for the oppressive nature of New York law concerning public employees. I think we have the makings of a scandal. Possibly a constitutional scandal.
By the way, why shouldn't pay issues be generous considering the members are in a revolving door and never achieve the higher levels of pay rates.
1013
Commercial
New Year's Eve hosted by Anderson Cooper. Hm?
Just say no to New Year's Eve
By Anderson Cooper
Editor's note: Anderson Cooper anchors CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°," which airs weeknights at 10 p.m. ET. He also is a regular contributor for Details Magazine. This article was published in the December 2004 issue.
If you ask me, New Year's celebrations are proof that we are essentially optimistic creatures.
Despite hundreds of years of pathetic parties, ridiculous resolutions and hellacious hangovers, we still cling to the notion that it's possible to have fun going out on New Year's Eve.
It isn't.
There's too much pressure, too many people, and too few bathrooms.
New Year's Eve always frightened me as a kid. It seemed so mysterious, so adult, like a cocktail lounge I was too little to enter.
I'd try to stay up to watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV, but inevitably I'd fall asleep.
I didn't want to be in Times Square, mind you -- I was watching Dick Clark as a kind of sociological study, trying to understand why on earth anyone would want to stand in the freezing cold, crammed next to tens of thousands of people, all of whom screamed every time someone pointed a camera in their direction.
Even in those pre-hi-def days, you could almost smell the alcohol through the TV screen. It just didn't make sense.
I was born in Manhattan, and to most residents of this thin little island, the ball drop was best left to out-of-towners, like eating at Tavern on the Green or taking the Circle Line.
Pretty lights, sure, but not for us.
I know there's a whole industry built around maintaining the lie that going out on New Year's Eve is fun, and I certainly don't want to make anyone lose his job, but let's be honest, have you ever been to a New Year's Eve party that surpassed or even came close to meeting your expectations?
I didn't think so.
If you go to a party and drink on New Year's Eve, it's inevitable: You will at some point find yourself alone and despondent, and the manic merriment and slurred singing of "Auld Lang Syne" won't help.
I don't want to sound like Scrooge McDuck, but whenever I hear that maudlin, melancholy melody on New Year's Eve I'm instantly ravaged by the twin ghosts of failures past and future.
Sadly, these twins look nothing like the Olsens.
A friend of mine who works the door at a big Manhattan nightclub always tries to take New Year's Eve off.
"It's amateur night," he explains. "All these people who never go out try way too hard to have fun. As the hours go by, they begin to realize this party isn't going to be the best ever, this night is going to end, and this next year won't be all that better than the last one. So they drink or take another pill, and that's when it gets really messy."
I was stuck in Moscow one New Year's, and about the only difference is that in Russia the party starts much earlier and the vodka is much stronger.
By the time the new year actually rolled around, my Russian host had passed out and his friends had taken off to find themselves some prostitutes.
The following year I was in London. Everyone talks about how elegant and refined the British are, but stand outside a London pub on New Year's Eve and those aren't the two words that come to mind.
Roman Vomitorium more accurately describes the scene.
Chunky lads and lasses standing in gutters spewing chunky bits and pieces, then returning inside to guzzle more Guinness. Cheerio!
Given my lifelong aversion to New Year's Eve, I was reluctant when asked two years ago to host CNN's special coverage of the ball drop in Times Square.
I was going to say no -- after all, Dick Clark has had a lock on the night for decades. But it had been a couple of years since I'd gone out on New Year's, and I figured, "What the hell?"
Dick Clark's face may not have grown older, but I have, so I decided to give New Year's Eve one last chance.
New York City sets up a stage and bleachers right in the center of Times Square, and each news organization is allotted a small spot on which to place a camera and correspondent.
On TV it looks like you are the only reporter in Times Square, but in fact you are jammed in almost shoulder to shoulder with dozens of others, many of whom seem pissed that they pulled the short straw and have to work.
A lot of the visitors who come to Times Square on New Year's have been before, but the newbies often don't know what they are in for.
First of all, it's cold -- really, really cold. I met a Spanish couple who arrived wearing denim jackets.
Within 10 minutes they seemed to be in the early stages of hypothermia, their teeth chattering like Castilian castanets. They wisely decided to go back to the warmth of their hotel and watch it on TV.
What many first-time visitors don't realize is that when they get to Times Square, they enter a maze of barricades and end up herded into pens.
Once they find a spot, they're stuck, unable to move -- much like ducks being bred for pâté.
As a reporter, there are certain Times Square traditions you are expected to adhere to.
The company that makes the ball supplies you with endless factoids about its weight and history and how it's made, so when you run out of things to talk about, you can always fall back on that.
New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg comes by and makes the rounds of reporters. It being New Year's, you have to ask him about his resolutions.
The first time I did, he made a joke about his golf score. I should have known it was a joke, because I saw him sort of chuckle, but the truth is I don't know anything about golf, and I think I kind of stared at him blankly.
I resolved to at least attempt a smile the next year .
I started a new tradition for CNN, although I'm not sure it's going to last.
In addition to the ball drop in Times Square, we had cameras covering the Drag Queen Drop in Key West, where, at the stroke of midnight more or less, a drag queen named Sushi, sitting inside a giant ladies' shoe, is lowered from the roof of a gay bar.
We'd interviewed Sushi live a couple of times throughout the night, and by midnight ... well, let's just say that Sushi was no longer too fresh.
When she started to descend, something malfunctioned, and the shoe stalled. The last we saw of Sushi, she was crawling on all fours along the roof of the bar.
I told the director to cut away. Seeing a drag queen actually drop off a roof is not how I wanted to kick off the new year.
Say what you will about New York, but it sure does know how to throw an amazing public party.
At the stroke of midnight, when the ball has landed and the new year has begun, it is a sight and a scene that can't adequately be captured in words or by the small lens of a TV camera.
It is a hurricane of confetti and light, a clash of neon and noisemakers, a collision of past, present, and future.
It is like New York itself: noisy and messy, cold and chaotic, wildly, exasperatingly wonderful.
As a television production, the ball drop gives off so much energy that all you really have to do is let the cameras roll and get out of the way. After that first time, I've continued to volunteer to host New Year's specials for CNN.
Something very magical happens in those crowded, confetti-covered streets. There is a continuity to it, a connection between strangers, a connection from one year to the next.
I still think going out on New Year's Eve is lame, so if you can't make it to Times Square, I recommend curling up with someone and watching it on TV.
The truth is the parties and promises never quite live up to expectations. And maybe that's the whole point. It gives us something to look forward to the next year.
After all, if New Year's Eve really were the most fun night of our lives, the wildest, the best, then what would be the point of waking up the next day?
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/27/new.years.eve/
1016
A rapist on the loose
1022
The News Secretary
1020
commercials
1023
Murder in Raleigh of a man. Suspect is spouse and her teen lover.
1026
Commercials
1029
Dick Cheney and his upcoming segment. Hm.
1030
The Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Bulldozing bodies is illegal and a cover up.
1034
The airliner crash near Miami Beach.
1036
Cheney and his Mideast Trip Interruption. Breaking the tie of a Senate vote. Cheney, the bad boy. The Energy Task Force. The erosion of the Executive Office Powers. The Sixth Month extension of the Patriot Act.
NO MENTION OF 'The Government Spying Issue' or 'The National Dialogue regarding Impeachment.'
1042
Commercials
1044
Hurricane Katrina - try and keep the 'Anderson bounce' alive.
Elizabeth Cohen and the homeless that have medical problems. Cute story about Tony's Fishing Pier. Well done, Elizabeth.
1047
Commercials
1052
The Gay Marriage compliments of the Brits - and a diversion to heterosexual dilemma's of The Pre-Nup. This has to be the worst program on the television screen. I have no patience with the level of insult this 'blanding' of the news brings to the American public. It's the Non-News Cable News Networks. It's not exactly censuring the news so much as diminishing it's impact on the political 'climate of Bush.' No wonder the only 'interest' in AC 360 is the yelling. It's the only time concerns of the people are actually addressed. The odd aspect is that the 'yelling' is always focused on Democrats. I dare Anderson to yell at Cheney or Bush in an EXCLUSIVE interview.
CNN is a government focused media service. It's unfortunate it can't break out of the mold that is destroying it.
1100
The Frequency of airline issues these days are larger than an occassional problem.
1000
Well done, John. Peaceful landing indeed.
The Jet Blue airliner was an Airbus and had to burn off it's fuel before it landed. I'm wondering what this Boeing did about it's fuel before it landed.
Flight Attendant's love to talk.
I think the aspect of the public address system, in the plane, being a 'tool' and not a matter of PR is an interesting observation by Mr. Tilmon. The aspect that it is times like this when people realize the pay a pilot receives is understandable is an unfortunate reality. Air flight is thought of as 'common place' but when one realizes what happens all along the way in a flight no matter how common place it is, is to realize exactly 'the pay' the pilots make. I am concerned about the 'trend' these planes are having. This is the third landing gear issue in a few months. Besides the Jet Blue landing gear is also Nike Plane with similar problems.
Nike plane safely on ground after landing-gear drama
By BRAD CAIN
Associated Press Writer
HILLSBORO — Nike CEO William Perez and other company executives went through a six-hour drama in the skies over Oregon on Monday as a wheel on their jet got stuck in a partially extended position, but the plane landed safely after aerial maneuvers meant to shake the wheel into landing position.
Portland International Airport and Hillsboro airport — where the Gulfstream V plane took off at 6 a.m. on a flight for Toronto — had both prepared for an emergency landing.
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2005/11/22/news/oregon/state02.txt
There seems to be issues with maintenance.
Then there is the accidents one has yet to hear about investigations:
The wing of a seaplane that crashed off Miami Beach, Fla., is lifted by a crane on a barge from the waters of the crash site Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005. The crash on Monday killed all 20 people on board. The rest won't be raised until Wednesday, Coast Guard spokesman Dana Warr said. Rosenker called it a delicate operation because moving the plane too quickly could cause it to break under the weight of the water. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1427011
Amazing. A passenger from the Midway flight. Well done. "The doors of the landing gear and sensor problem. …. The bearings turned out to be the problem." Bearings? What are they packing the bearings in? Water? Maybe vegetable oil? Is there a problem with maintenance equipment and not the mechanics at all? A mechanic can't work miracles if they don't have quality equipment to work with. Are these airlines cutting corners they aren't supposed to? There was this 'scandal' a while back. Something about 'out sourcing' the mechanical issues. What air crash did that come out? Hm.
1038
The Midway Airliner, the Boeing, dumped the fuel. Provides for a faster landing scenario. A safer plane.
HERE IT IS. It was involving the airline crash here in North Carolina.
Are Airlines Outsourcing Safety?
Eyewitness News Investigation
Steve Daniels
(05/09/05 - RALEIGH) - An Eyewitness News investigation is uncovering a new trend in outsourcing -- the outsourcing of airline maintenance.
Some airlines have been outsourcing nearly 80 percent of their maintenance. It's a way to save money, but we've discovered disturbing safety issues at one North Carolina maintenance company.
You can hear terror in the voice of the captain on US Airways Express flight 5481.
"We have an emergency in the cockpit for Air Midwest 5481," she said on a cockpit voice recorder tape.
The plane, operated by Air Midwest, crashed in Charlotte in January 2003, killing all 21 people on board.
"It came own nose first into a fireball," said Tracy Right, who saw the crash.
Flight 5481 was headed to Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, then to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The NTSB blamed the crash, in part, on an outsourced maintenance company in Huntington, West Virginia. Two nights before the crash, a mechanic who had never worked on that kind of plane made a major mistake. He incorrectly rigged critical cables that control the plane.
Just last week, the president of Air Midwest, Greg Stephens, apologized to the people who lost loved ones in the crash.
"We are truly sorry and regret and apologize to everyone affected by this tragedy," he said.
Ernie Kiss has spent his career as an airline mechanic. Now he's in charged of safety at the nation's largest mechanics union. When Steve Daniels met him at RDU International Airport, he told Eyewitness News what his union members are seeing on the job.
"Approximately 84 to 90 percent of our technicians have seen mistakes made at third-party vendors," Kiss said. "We're having to re-work maintenance that is farmed out, and it's costing the carrier more to farm out than if we did it in house to start with."
In fact, our Eyewitness News investigation is uncovering disturbing safety issues at a TIMCO in Greensboro. United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Fed Ex and America West all outsourced maintenance work to TIMCO.
A source showed us pictures of a panel above the wing that flew off a United Airlines Boeing 757 on a flight leaving TIMCO.
The source says workers at TIMCO forgot to screw in panels during a maintenance overhaul. Another United plane a wide-body Boeing 767 also had serious safety problems after it left TIMCO, according to our source and documents obtained by Eyewitness News.
A panel under the wing nearly ripped off in flight. Cockpit warning lights indicated repeated problems with the slats and flaps on the wings. The cockpit control sticks were not working properly, and the emergency evacuation lighting system wasn't working properly.
"It sounds like it's a total quality management problem, there at TIMCO with their quality assurance and their lack of training," Kiss said.
We also obtained documents revealing problems on another United Boeing 767, which our source says was at TIMCO in December 2003. Pilots reported a series of cockpit warnings connected to the slats and flaps on the wings. Our source says another 767 had problems with the emergency evacuation lighting after going to TIMCO last October.
Back in 2001, the FAA fined United Airlines for work that TIMCO did on a Boeing 737. The report said TIMCO "failed to properly re-install fuel system components, rendering the aircraft unairworthy."
TIMCO would not answer our questions about the documents we obtained. They did release a statement saying TIMCO is an industry leader in safety:
"In fact, our safety standards surpass those required by both the FAA and commercial airlines. TIMCO performs millions of maintenance tasks annually. Just like airline maintenance operations, we are not immune to an infrequent service issue. If there are service issues, we are quick to investigate to determine the root cause and to implement corrections actions."
The statement also said TIMCO has an experienced, well-trained workforce.
During our investigation, we discovered the NTSB has blamed maintenance outsourcing at other companies in several other crashes, including the ValuJet crash in Miami in 1996 and the crash of an Emery cargo plane in Sacramento, Calif., in February 2000.
"It doesn't cross anybody's mind that these things are being maintained by unlicensed technicians at a third-party vendor," Ernie Kiss said. "I don't think the American flying public knows that."
Greg Stephens, the man whose company operated the US Airways Express flight that crashed in Charlotte, says his airline has learned some tough lessons.
"We have taken substantial measures to prevent similar accidents and incidents in the future, so that your losses will not have been suffered in vain," he said. Stephens also said his company is following all of the NTSB safety recommendations that emerged from the crash investigation.
United Airlines says in a statement:
"We have worked cooperatively with TIMCO for maintenance work for years. At no time has the safety of United's passengers, employees or aircraft ever been compromised. Safety -- the cornerstone of United's business -- is the company's number one priority. Outsourced and internal maintenance operations are in strict compliance with United Airlines' FAA-approved maintenance program and all applicable Federal Aviation Regulations. FAA safety inspectors and United's own Quality Assurance division also provide additional oversight to our maintenance programs."
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=investigative&id=3054470
Okay, everybody, how much of these problems are outsourced?
1054
commercials
1057
Frankenstein? John you have got to be joking? Junior Achievement's voice toy of Glitz and Glitter? This is nothing but garbage and cheap stunts. Anderson needs a permanent vacation. Heeerrreeee's Johnny !
1058
Stuff about airliners.
1105
The News Round Up.
1107
The Transit Strike. They hold out long enough the million dollar a day fine will become irrelevant.
1109
Spying of Citizens without a warrant. A letter requesting a joint investigation. It needs more than that. This is a national emergency concern. Bush is impeachable and so is Cheney. This 'poor state of repair' of this country is not a desirable position for a nation at war and an illegal war at that. We need relief from this situation as a nation concerned with the security of this nation. We don't know if this president and his administration is abusing their power to 'blunt' efforts that secure this nation that they PERSONALLY don't approve of. This abuse of power is at empowering their personal and political control over this country. That is no longer a democracy, it's a dictatorship. This abuse of power has NO PROOF of it's benefit.
1113
commercials
1116
The plane that crashed off Miami. "A great deal of science that goes along with this type of recovery, I assure you." Science? Are you sure? I thought is was all luck.
Engineers approve latest Boeing contract offer
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WICHITA, Kan. -- Engineers at the Boeing Co.'s defense operations in Wichita on Tuesday overwhelmingly accepted a new contract offer that looks a lot like the one they turned down earlier this month.
In their second election, 73 percent of the engineers who voted approved of the three-year contract. The vote was 184-69 to accept the company's latest proposal.
The contract covers 788 engineers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace at Boeing's defense operations in Wichita.
"The engineers were ready to move on, rather than fuss over the contract," said SPEEA executive director Charles Bofferding.
Boeing spokesman Forrest Gossett said the company was obviously pleased that engineers accepted the region-leading contract.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_KS_Boeing_Wichita.html
1119
The News Secretary
1121
Senator Stevens plays blackmail with piers.
For Stevens, drilling in Alaska is personal payback
By LAURIE KELLMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The Incredible Hulk appeared Tuesday on the Senate floor, adorning the necktie of Sen. Ted Stevens - a familiar sign that the veteran from Alaska is pumped for the fight to open part of an arctic wildlife refuge to oil drilling.
But to hear his colleagues tell it, Stevens is more like the Grinch who would steal Christmas - and New Year's, if need be - to collect on his end of a vote-swapping deal he struck with two Democrats 25 years ago.
"A promise made is a debt unpaid," Stevens, 82, is fond of repeating. "This is a debt unpaid to this Senate, to the country, to Alaska."
Back in 1980, the deal went like this: Vote yes on setting aside 19 million acres of wilderness, said Sens. Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington and Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and Congress will support permission to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Stevens agreed. Tsongas and Jackson, meanwhile, died before Congress could grant permission to drill.
Their debt survives, Stevens insists. And he's playing procedural hardball to make the Senate pay up.
"We're going to have to face up to ANWR either now or Christmas Day or New Year's Eve or sometime," Stevens thundered from the Senate floor Tuesday, bucking criticism from drilling opponents furious that he succeeded in attaching the drilling permission to a must-pass bill to fund the military.
Off the floor, Stevens acknowledged he has little to lose by muscling opponents into this uncomfortable choice: Vote for a bill that allows arctic drilling or be seen as blocking money for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, new aid for hurricane victims and subsidies to help the poor meet what are expected to be record winter heating bills.
"This is the toughest battle I've ever had," Stevens said Tuesday, a senatorial red handkerchief perched in a jacket pocket just inches from his surly alter ego.
The big green guy on the necktie is famous in the Senate for injecting a bit of playfulness into spending fights during Stevens' years chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee. "I've won every other battle with it on, so I'm wearing it for this one," Stevens said.
All-night sessions and a list of stalled bills have left little humor on Capitol Hill as the clock ticks toward the end of the year.
"This is, after all, Christmas!" Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., complained on the Senate floor.
The showdown vote could come as early as Wednesday.
The 1980 law doubled to 19 million acres the size of the Alaska wildlife refuge. Stevens said he supported that law only after Jackson and Tsongas promised him that Congress would later consider allowing drilling on a 1.5 million-acre tract bordering the Beaufort Sea.
Democrats disagreed on whether current senators are obligated to pay what Stevens calls a "debt" owed him by Jackson and Tsongas.
"The Grinch Who Stole the Defense Bill," they called Stevens in a news release put out Tuesday by the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
"Every Sen. in Washington liked the defense bill a lot," they added, channeling Dr. Seuss. "But Stevens, who lives north, in Alaska, did NOT."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_Stevens_Hurrah.html
COMMERCIALS
1124
Joe Johns
There is no such thing as 'responsible exploration.' The oil industry is exploitive and that is all it is.
The Alaskan Coastal Plain could produce more than all of Texas. ANYWHERE these days produces more than Texas. Texas is mostly DRY. Try again.
1128
Cantwell vows Senate fight to stop oil drilling
Democrat may lead filibuster to preserve Arctic refuge
By CHARLES POPE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Maria Cantwell vowed Monday to keep the Senate in session until the brink of Christmas to defeat legislation that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
"If this language is allowed to stand, one of our nation's most pristine wildlife areas will be lost," Cantwell, a Democrat, said as she outlined plans by her party and its allies to defeat language offered by Alaska Republican Ted Stevens to open ANWR.
"This is nothing more than a sweetheart deal for Alaska and the oil companies," Cantwell said. "That's why I am prepared to use every procedural option available to me as a senator to prevent this language from moving forward."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/252683_anwr20.html
commercials
1131
Passenger's perspective
1134
Jim Tilmon's perspective.
1138
The News Round Up
1139
The Happy Living Together Ever After Crowd. Good for them. 86 million single adults. The "Marriage Discrimination" issue. It's real and Bush's agenda promotes it.
Unmarried persons raise children well, too.
1143
Commercials
1146
Intelligent design is theology. Their arguments, including DNA, is very poorly put forward. It's all political. There is no basis in fact. Part of what this might be, could be good ole Texas politics. See the idea is to allow the opposition to feel confident and boastful only to be defeated later by the 'self-righteous.'
It is upto the 'MATURE' citizens of the USA to see through the political volleys laughed at in back rooms and continue to pursue the 'correct' path regardless the idiocy otherwise.
That 'type' of politics allows for the opposition to Bush/Cheney to exist regardless of their domination. It tells me the calls to impeachment are being heard and returned in ways to underhandedly control.
Impeach ANYWAY. (This is PSYOPS used by Bush/Cheney for personal agendas while telling the mlitary it is a matter of national security.)
This is a tactic of control at some levels.
This decision will make it's way to the 'pre-loaded' Supreme Court. If this country wants to promote 'Anti-Intelligence' then it has lost it's basis of validity in the greater international community of science.
The country is in sad shape. It has been lead by an Anti-American who believe in regression and not progress.
1150
Nelson Mandela. His mission never ended.
1150
Commercials
1153
Secrets.
1156
John's good night.
1157
Well done, John. Peaceful landing indeed.
The Jet Blue airliner was an Airbus and had to burn off it's fuel before it landed. I'm wondering what this Boeing did about it's fuel before it landed.
Flight Attendant's love to talk.
I think the aspect of the public address system, in the plane, being a 'tool' and not a matter of PR is an interesting observation by Mr. Tilmon. The aspect that it is times like this when people realize the pay a pilot receives is understandable is an unfortunate reality. Air flight is thought of as 'common place' but when one realizes what happens all along the way in a flight no matter how common place it is, is to realize exactly 'the pay' the pilots make. I am concerned about the 'trend' these planes are having. This is the third landing gear issue in a few months. Besides the Jet Blue landing gear is also Nike Plane with similar problems.
Nike plane safely on ground after landing-gear drama
By BRAD CAIN
Associated Press Writer
HILLSBORO — Nike CEO William Perez and other company executives went through a six-hour drama in the skies over Oregon on Monday as a wheel on their jet got stuck in a partially extended position, but the plane landed safely after aerial maneuvers meant to shake the wheel into landing position.
Portland International Airport and Hillsboro airport — where the Gulfstream V plane took off at 6 a.m. on a flight for Toronto — had both prepared for an emergency landing.
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2005/11/22/news/oregon/state02.txt
There seems to be issues with maintenance.
Then there is the accidents one has yet to hear about investigations:
The wing of a seaplane that crashed off Miami Beach, Fla., is lifted by a crane on a barge from the waters of the crash site Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005. The crash on Monday killed all 20 people on board. The rest won't be raised until Wednesday, Coast Guard spokesman Dana Warr said. Rosenker called it a delicate operation because moving the plane too quickly could cause it to break under the weight of the water. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1427011
Amazing. A passenger from the Midway flight. Well done. "The doors of the landing gear and sensor problem. …. The bearings turned out to be the problem." Bearings? What are they packing the bearings in? Water? Maybe vegetable oil? Is there a problem with maintenance equipment and not the mechanics at all? A mechanic can't work miracles if they don't have quality equipment to work with. Are these airlines cutting corners they aren't supposed to? There was this 'scandal' a while back. Something about 'out sourcing' the mechanical issues. What air crash did that come out? Hm.
1038
The Midway Airliner, the Boeing, dumped the fuel. Provides for a faster landing scenario. A safer plane.
HERE IT IS. It was involving the airline crash here in North Carolina.
Are Airlines Outsourcing Safety?
Eyewitness News Investigation
Steve Daniels
(05/09/05 - RALEIGH) - An Eyewitness News investigation is uncovering a new trend in outsourcing -- the outsourcing of airline maintenance.
Some airlines have been outsourcing nearly 80 percent of their maintenance. It's a way to save money, but we've discovered disturbing safety issues at one North Carolina maintenance company.
You can hear terror in the voice of the captain on US Airways Express flight 5481.
"We have an emergency in the cockpit for Air Midwest 5481," she said on a cockpit voice recorder tape.
The plane, operated by Air Midwest, crashed in Charlotte in January 2003, killing all 21 people on board.
"It came own nose first into a fireball," said Tracy Right, who saw the crash.
Flight 5481 was headed to Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, then to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The NTSB blamed the crash, in part, on an outsourced maintenance company in Huntington, West Virginia. Two nights before the crash, a mechanic who had never worked on that kind of plane made a major mistake. He incorrectly rigged critical cables that control the plane.
Just last week, the president of Air Midwest, Greg Stephens, apologized to the people who lost loved ones in the crash.
"We are truly sorry and regret and apologize to everyone affected by this tragedy," he said.
Ernie Kiss has spent his career as an airline mechanic. Now he's in charged of safety at the nation's largest mechanics union. When Steve Daniels met him at RDU International Airport, he told Eyewitness News what his union members are seeing on the job.
"Approximately 84 to 90 percent of our technicians have seen mistakes made at third-party vendors," Kiss said. "We're having to re-work maintenance that is farmed out, and it's costing the carrier more to farm out than if we did it in house to start with."
In fact, our Eyewitness News investigation is uncovering disturbing safety issues at a TIMCO in Greensboro. United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Fed Ex and America West all outsourced maintenance work to TIMCO.
A source showed us pictures of a panel above the wing that flew off a United Airlines Boeing 757 on a flight leaving TIMCO.
The source says workers at TIMCO forgot to screw in panels during a maintenance overhaul. Another United plane a wide-body Boeing 767 also had serious safety problems after it left TIMCO, according to our source and documents obtained by Eyewitness News.
A panel under the wing nearly ripped off in flight. Cockpit warning lights indicated repeated problems with the slats and flaps on the wings. The cockpit control sticks were not working properly, and the emergency evacuation lighting system wasn't working properly.
"It sounds like it's a total quality management problem, there at TIMCO with their quality assurance and their lack of training," Kiss said.
We also obtained documents revealing problems on another United Boeing 767, which our source says was at TIMCO in December 2003. Pilots reported a series of cockpit warnings connected to the slats and flaps on the wings. Our source says another 767 had problems with the emergency evacuation lighting after going to TIMCO last October.
Back in 2001, the FAA fined United Airlines for work that TIMCO did on a Boeing 737. The report said TIMCO "failed to properly re-install fuel system components, rendering the aircraft unairworthy."
TIMCO would not answer our questions about the documents we obtained. They did release a statement saying TIMCO is an industry leader in safety:
"In fact, our safety standards surpass those required by both the FAA and commercial airlines. TIMCO performs millions of maintenance tasks annually. Just like airline maintenance operations, we are not immune to an infrequent service issue. If there are service issues, we are quick to investigate to determine the root cause and to implement corrections actions."
The statement also said TIMCO has an experienced, well-trained workforce.
During our investigation, we discovered the NTSB has blamed maintenance outsourcing at other companies in several other crashes, including the ValuJet crash in Miami in 1996 and the crash of an Emery cargo plane in Sacramento, Calif., in February 2000.
"It doesn't cross anybody's mind that these things are being maintained by unlicensed technicians at a third-party vendor," Ernie Kiss said. "I don't think the American flying public knows that."
Greg Stephens, the man whose company operated the US Airways Express flight that crashed in Charlotte, says his airline has learned some tough lessons.
"We have taken substantial measures to prevent similar accidents and incidents in the future, so that your losses will not have been suffered in vain," he said. Stephens also said his company is following all of the NTSB safety recommendations that emerged from the crash investigation.
United Airlines says in a statement:
"We have worked cooperatively with TIMCO for maintenance work for years. At no time has the safety of United's passengers, employees or aircraft ever been compromised. Safety -- the cornerstone of United's business -- is the company's number one priority. Outsourced and internal maintenance operations are in strict compliance with United Airlines' FAA-approved maintenance program and all applicable Federal Aviation Regulations. FAA safety inspectors and United's own Quality Assurance division also provide additional oversight to our maintenance programs."
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=investigative&id=3054470
Okay, everybody, how much of these problems are outsourced?
1054
commercials
1057
Frankenstein? John you have got to be joking? Junior Achievement's voice toy of Glitz and Glitter? This is nothing but garbage and cheap stunts. Anderson needs a permanent vacation. Heeerrreeee's Johnny !
1058
Stuff about airliners.
1105
The News Round Up.
1107
The Transit Strike. They hold out long enough the million dollar a day fine will become irrelevant.
1109
Spying of Citizens without a warrant. A letter requesting a joint investigation. It needs more than that. This is a national emergency concern. Bush is impeachable and so is Cheney. This 'poor state of repair' of this country is not a desirable position for a nation at war and an illegal war at that. We need relief from this situation as a nation concerned with the security of this nation. We don't know if this president and his administration is abusing their power to 'blunt' efforts that secure this nation that they PERSONALLY don't approve of. This abuse of power is at empowering their personal and political control over this country. That is no longer a democracy, it's a dictatorship. This abuse of power has NO PROOF of it's benefit.
1113
commercials
1116
The plane that crashed off Miami. "A great deal of science that goes along with this type of recovery, I assure you." Science? Are you sure? I thought is was all luck.
Engineers approve latest Boeing contract offer
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WICHITA, Kan. -- Engineers at the Boeing Co.'s defense operations in Wichita on Tuesday overwhelmingly accepted a new contract offer that looks a lot like the one they turned down earlier this month.
In their second election, 73 percent of the engineers who voted approved of the three-year contract. The vote was 184-69 to accept the company's latest proposal.
The contract covers 788 engineers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace at Boeing's defense operations in Wichita.
"The engineers were ready to move on, rather than fuss over the contract," said SPEEA executive director Charles Bofferding.
Boeing spokesman Forrest Gossett said the company was obviously pleased that engineers accepted the region-leading contract.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_KS_Boeing_Wichita.html
1119
The News Secretary
1121
Senator Stevens plays blackmail with piers.
For Stevens, drilling in Alaska is personal payback
By LAURIE KELLMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The Incredible Hulk appeared Tuesday on the Senate floor, adorning the necktie of Sen. Ted Stevens - a familiar sign that the veteran from Alaska is pumped for the fight to open part of an arctic wildlife refuge to oil drilling.
But to hear his colleagues tell it, Stevens is more like the Grinch who would steal Christmas - and New Year's, if need be - to collect on his end of a vote-swapping deal he struck with two Democrats 25 years ago.
"A promise made is a debt unpaid," Stevens, 82, is fond of repeating. "This is a debt unpaid to this Senate, to the country, to Alaska."
Back in 1980, the deal went like this: Vote yes on setting aside 19 million acres of wilderness, said Sens. Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington and Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and Congress will support permission to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Stevens agreed. Tsongas and Jackson, meanwhile, died before Congress could grant permission to drill.
Their debt survives, Stevens insists. And he's playing procedural hardball to make the Senate pay up.
"We're going to have to face up to ANWR either now or Christmas Day or New Year's Eve or sometime," Stevens thundered from the Senate floor Tuesday, bucking criticism from drilling opponents furious that he succeeded in attaching the drilling permission to a must-pass bill to fund the military.
Off the floor, Stevens acknowledged he has little to lose by muscling opponents into this uncomfortable choice: Vote for a bill that allows arctic drilling or be seen as blocking money for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, new aid for hurricane victims and subsidies to help the poor meet what are expected to be record winter heating bills.
"This is the toughest battle I've ever had," Stevens said Tuesday, a senatorial red handkerchief perched in a jacket pocket just inches from his surly alter ego.
The big green guy on the necktie is famous in the Senate for injecting a bit of playfulness into spending fights during Stevens' years chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee. "I've won every other battle with it on, so I'm wearing it for this one," Stevens said.
All-night sessions and a list of stalled bills have left little humor on Capitol Hill as the clock ticks toward the end of the year.
"This is, after all, Christmas!" Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., complained on the Senate floor.
The showdown vote could come as early as Wednesday.
The 1980 law doubled to 19 million acres the size of the Alaska wildlife refuge. Stevens said he supported that law only after Jackson and Tsongas promised him that Congress would later consider allowing drilling on a 1.5 million-acre tract bordering the Beaufort Sea.
Democrats disagreed on whether current senators are obligated to pay what Stevens calls a "debt" owed him by Jackson and Tsongas.
"The Grinch Who Stole the Defense Bill," they called Stevens in a news release put out Tuesday by the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
"Every Sen. in Washington liked the defense bill a lot," they added, channeling Dr. Seuss. "But Stevens, who lives north, in Alaska, did NOT."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_Stevens_Hurrah.html
COMMERCIALS
1124
Joe Johns
There is no such thing as 'responsible exploration.' The oil industry is exploitive and that is all it is.
The Alaskan Coastal Plain could produce more than all of Texas. ANYWHERE these days produces more than Texas. Texas is mostly DRY. Try again.
1128
Cantwell vows Senate fight to stop oil drilling
Democrat may lead filibuster to preserve Arctic refuge
By CHARLES POPE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Maria Cantwell vowed Monday to keep the Senate in session until the brink of Christmas to defeat legislation that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
"If this language is allowed to stand, one of our nation's most pristine wildlife areas will be lost," Cantwell, a Democrat, said as she outlined plans by her party and its allies to defeat language offered by Alaska Republican Ted Stevens to open ANWR.
"This is nothing more than a sweetheart deal for Alaska and the oil companies," Cantwell said. "That's why I am prepared to use every procedural option available to me as a senator to prevent this language from moving forward."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/252683_anwr20.html
commercials
1131
Passenger's perspective
1134
Jim Tilmon's perspective.
1138
The News Round Up
1139
The Happy Living Together Ever After Crowd. Good for them. 86 million single adults. The "Marriage Discrimination" issue. It's real and Bush's agenda promotes it.
Unmarried persons raise children well, too.
1143
Commercials
1146
Intelligent design is theology. Their arguments, including DNA, is very poorly put forward. It's all political. There is no basis in fact. Part of what this might be, could be good ole Texas politics. See the idea is to allow the opposition to feel confident and boastful only to be defeated later by the 'self-righteous.'
It is upto the 'MATURE' citizens of the USA to see through the political volleys laughed at in back rooms and continue to pursue the 'correct' path regardless the idiocy otherwise.
That 'type' of politics allows for the opposition to Bush/Cheney to exist regardless of their domination. It tells me the calls to impeachment are being heard and returned in ways to underhandedly control.
Impeach ANYWAY. (This is PSYOPS used by Bush/Cheney for personal agendas while telling the mlitary it is a matter of national security.)
This is a tactic of control at some levels.
This decision will make it's way to the 'pre-loaded' Supreme Court. If this country wants to promote 'Anti-Intelligence' then it has lost it's basis of validity in the greater international community of science.
The country is in sad shape. It has been lead by an Anti-American who believe in regression and not progress.
1150
Nelson Mandela. His mission never ended.
1150
Commercials
1153
Secrets.
1156
John's good night.
1157
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
I hope John King has a good evening
I don't agree with his political views on some issues but then that was true of Aaron. John always worked well with Aaron's team of journalists when he had "The Whip Around the World."
He's ambitious and I nearly died when he showed up at the very spot Rita was making landfall. That was a bit fool hearty.
I sincerely hope he brings equity to the evening. If not I encourage anyone who cares to write and criticize. He doesn't yell at you.
I'm tied.
Tomorrow then.
He's ambitious and I nearly died when he showed up at the very spot Rita was making landfall. That was a bit fool hearty.
I sincerely hope he brings equity to the evening. If not I encourage anyone who cares to write and criticize. He doesn't yell at you.
I'm tied.
Tomorrow then.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Andy plays, "Lets' divert reality to protect our president regardless of the truth.'
1000
About spies and me? Is my government spying on little ole me? You, betcha. They keep trying to shut down my blogs. I think there is something to this mess. I am quite confident I'm considered a subversive. I wear that designation proudly.
Frankenstein as usual.
1002
Kelly Arena - the Lewis Libby of Pakistan. Why do I always get the feeling she is the phoniest baloney in the country?
1006
The NSA. Condi Rice was in charge of the NSA at this time. Now it's Hadley. CNN won't focus on the personalities as it might hurt the politics, but, they'll victimize the 'government' and make it be the big bad Daddy to us. This is not an issue of THE GOVERNMENT. It is Bush's administration that is in question. Discrediting the government and seeking scapegoats in it's employees needs to be avoided. The issue is not about our government structure or the faithful people that work for it but this is about the lousy bastard in the Oval Office !
Oh, please. David Ensor seeks to let us know what is NOT a secret. Go to hell !
1009
Commecials
Frankenstein's influence is spreading. He's heard in nearly every crook and cranny. He works cheap.
1012
The Braunstein Tragedy. The families has my sincerest sympathy for it's pain on all sides of this crime. I would be surprised if he is still in the country.
1015
The News Secretary
1016
Heidi wants to know what life in Iraq is really like. Send her there. She'll figure it out.
1017
Commercials
1020
An exhilarating week for Anderson in Iraq. Good. Stay there. You might hone an expertise other than yelling at governors.
1021
Christian Amanpour and a very bright 13 year old. They have food. Good. Too much violence in their old neighborhood. Yeah, there are section of Newark has the same problems. She's 18? She looks like a child.
You know the streets of Iraq should be this peaceful all the time and for the life of me do I understand why it isn't EXCEPT Bush's capitalist focus returns traffic and killing for the sake of a 'normalizing' business pattern. I really want to know why Iraq is not more controlled as it is on election days. It's nonsense as far as I am concerned.
I don't know, I think Chris knows more than she is willing to say. Or allowed to say. I believe a lot of the violence of Iraq is ALLOWED for the sake of business interests. It's "W"rong.
My estimation.
Thanks, Chris.
1026
Commercials
1029
News items.
1030
Heidi is attacking PETA tonight.
1030
Rick Sanchez
Unwanted animals are euthanized by PETA. That is a surprise.
Volunteer at your local animal shelter. Most animal shelters welcome volunteers, who help walk dogs, clean cat cages, and dole out love and attention to the lost and homeless animals who wait to be reunited with their caretakers— or find new ones. Contact your local shelter for details on how to sign up.
Organize a fundraiser to support your local animal shelter or low-cost spay and neuter programs. Round up others to hold a car wash, bake sale, dog walk, or rummage sale. Donate profits to your local animal shelter or to support low-cost spay and neuter programs.
http://www.helpinganimals.com/a.html
This might be a reason why people might seek to resolve the animal confinement issues in a way some might believe compassionate rather than having them submitted to research. PETA is famous for opposing research at all costs. It might be an agenda by the extremists (AND THIS IS PURE SPECULATION) that to starve the research facilities of animals by humanely euthanizing the shelter animals will stop the practice.
Is It Helter Skelter at Your Local Animal Shelter?
Animal shelters vary greatly— by size, purpose, capacity, and their treatment of the animals in their charge. They may be operated by the government, by a local humane society, by private individuals, or by a combination of these. Some are funded by donations alone, while others receive tax money. Sometimes tax money comes with a stipulation that some animals must be turned over to experimenters. Every effort should be made to reverse such a policy, which is known as "pound seizure." Click here to find out more about pound seizure.
If you have concerns about your local shelter, size up the situation by paying a personal visit— carry a camera to photograph conditions for the animals. Find out which method(s) of euthanasia are practiced. Although PETA only advocates an intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital, compressed cylinder gas is considered the most humane of all gassing methods. If the shelter is gassing animals, try to take photographs of the gas chamber and find out if the chamber is used to kill young, old, or sick animals, who process oxygen and carbon monoxide differently than healthy adult animals and should never be gassed.
http://www.helpinganimals.com/a-shelter.html
1040
Commercials
You know PETA really opposes animals that are allowed to multiple indiscriminately. They oppose irresponsible pet ownership. To a greater extent they oppose animal ownership at all and their confinement.
http://www.petacatalog.org/prodinfo.asp?number=AT145&variation=&aitem=2&mitem=21
1043
The tragedy of death never ends on CNN.
Are there ANY holiday programs these days?
make joins feel-good holiday fare
By Kay McFadden
Seattle Times TV critic
CHRIS HELCERMANAS-BENGE / ABC
Carol Burnett is the over-protective queen in ABC's musical "Once Upon a Mattress." When Burnett starred in the show on Broadway more than a quarter-century ago, she played the princess.
At Christmastime — holiday time — Christmastime — whatever — the message of family is pounded home. I'm still waiting for a TV classic about a single character not doomed to melt, fall off a cliff or be forced into communal celebration.
No dice. The closest we get this weekend is ABC's Disneyfied remake of "Once Upon A Mattress," a happily-ever-after musical with enough clingy-mom clichés to curdle eggnog.
But the real togetherness play of the season isn't on TV yet. It belongs to the cable industry's politically minded leaders, who this week announced a plan to offer "family tiers" of cable programming.
The move comes as Congress ponders a legislative crackdown on alleged cable indecency and bears all the fending-off marks of an industry determined to (A) self-regulate; (B) end all talk of a la carte cable; and (C) find new ways to sell shows.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002685989_kay16.html
1048
Commercials
2005 Holiday TV Spotlight - A Christmas Carol
Although movie versions of the Dicken's classic A Christmas Carol have been remade again and again, the 1951 movie starring Alistair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge is considered by many holiday movie junkies as the definitive one.
Out of circulation for many years due to copyright and license haggles, the holiday favorite is being shown again throughout December on cable movie channel AMC.
Watch for showings of A Christmas Carol on AMC on the December 4th, December 6th, (with two airings at 4PM and 10:45PM) and again on December 20th.
Meanwhile, gather around the TV with friends and relatives to find other favorites with our Web wrap-up of what's on during the season, featuring direct links to U.S. television programming tagged especially for the holidays, plus a spotlight on what's on TV Christmas Eve & Christmas Day ...
http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/christmas/whats-on-tv.htm
1051
Andy's Reporter Notebook
There is no progress. This is the year 2005. American soldiers are dying. Civilians of Iraq are dying. They didn't before. This war is unnecessary and NO, I will not change my point of view. Elections or no elections, Iraq is the biggest blunder this country has ever undertaken. A lot of people in that country are dead. If Iraq is quieter, it is because there are less to make noise. That was a goal by the way.
1054
Commercials
1058
Introduction by Frankenstein. Heeerreeee's Hollywood Andy !
1059
The news around the world.
There used to be all kinds of holiday specials. I am very surprised.
For ABC's Ratings, Christmas Time Is Here
By John Maynard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 14, 2005; Page C07
The little round-headed kid with the zigzag-striped shirt can still pack 'em in during the holidays.
Last week's annual "Charlie Brown Christmas" special on ABC drew 15.3 million viewers Tuesday night, the show's biggest audience on ABC since it moved from CBS in 2001.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/13/AR2005121301796.html
1111
John Fisher Burns - Military commanders are commanding the people of Iraq not to squander this opportunity. That sounds like a great relationship with the people in Iraq. It tells me that the lethargy of the Iraqis is mired in the fact they are living their lives without feeling urgency about changing the status quo. These folks lived under a dictatorship. They take life as it comes.
"The Opportunity" is to bring insurgents including the Baathists into the political process. A broad based government. I think it is reaching for a standard that is unrealistic for these people. They are better off in self governing provinces of ethnic preference with clear, defined and defendable boundaries. Where the federal government of Iraq goes is irrelevant. So long as the people of Iraq are safe and maintaining a standard of life that prevents disease and human rights violation; that is the best we can hope for. One day they'll be ready to move on but for now the lack of death hanging over their heads has too seem like a relief to say the very least.
1119
I've had enough of this mess tonight. I don't consider this programming healthy. It is very Anti-American. It seeks to justify every action by a corrupt government. When the government is Anti-American there should never be any justification. Ever !
About spies and me? Is my government spying on little ole me? You, betcha. They keep trying to shut down my blogs. I think there is something to this mess. I am quite confident I'm considered a subversive. I wear that designation proudly.
Frankenstein as usual.
1002
Kelly Arena - the Lewis Libby of Pakistan. Why do I always get the feeling she is the phoniest baloney in the country?
1006
The NSA. Condi Rice was in charge of the NSA at this time. Now it's Hadley. CNN won't focus on the personalities as it might hurt the politics, but, they'll victimize the 'government' and make it be the big bad Daddy to us. This is not an issue of THE GOVERNMENT. It is Bush's administration that is in question. Discrediting the government and seeking scapegoats in it's employees needs to be avoided. The issue is not about our government structure or the faithful people that work for it but this is about the lousy bastard in the Oval Office !
Oh, please. David Ensor seeks to let us know what is NOT a secret. Go to hell !
1009
Commecials
Frankenstein's influence is spreading. He's heard in nearly every crook and cranny. He works cheap.
1012
The Braunstein Tragedy. The families has my sincerest sympathy for it's pain on all sides of this crime. I would be surprised if he is still in the country.
1015
The News Secretary
1016
Heidi wants to know what life in Iraq is really like. Send her there. She'll figure it out.
1017
Commercials
1020
An exhilarating week for Anderson in Iraq. Good. Stay there. You might hone an expertise other than yelling at governors.
1021
Christian Amanpour and a very bright 13 year old. They have food. Good. Too much violence in their old neighborhood. Yeah, there are section of Newark has the same problems. She's 18? She looks like a child.
You know the streets of Iraq should be this peaceful all the time and for the life of me do I understand why it isn't EXCEPT Bush's capitalist focus returns traffic and killing for the sake of a 'normalizing' business pattern. I really want to know why Iraq is not more controlled as it is on election days. It's nonsense as far as I am concerned.
I don't know, I think Chris knows more than she is willing to say. Or allowed to say. I believe a lot of the violence of Iraq is ALLOWED for the sake of business interests. It's "W"rong.
My estimation.
Thanks, Chris.
1026
Commercials
1029
News items.
1030
Heidi is attacking PETA tonight.
1030
Rick Sanchez
Unwanted animals are euthanized by PETA. That is a surprise.
Volunteer at your local animal shelter. Most animal shelters welcome volunteers, who help walk dogs, clean cat cages, and dole out love and attention to the lost and homeless animals who wait to be reunited with their caretakers— or find new ones. Contact your local shelter for details on how to sign up.
Organize a fundraiser to support your local animal shelter or low-cost spay and neuter programs. Round up others to hold a car wash, bake sale, dog walk, or rummage sale. Donate profits to your local animal shelter or to support low-cost spay and neuter programs.
http://www.helpinganimals.com/a.html
This might be a reason why people might seek to resolve the animal confinement issues in a way some might believe compassionate rather than having them submitted to research. PETA is famous for opposing research at all costs. It might be an agenda by the extremists (AND THIS IS PURE SPECULATION) that to starve the research facilities of animals by humanely euthanizing the shelter animals will stop the practice.
Is It Helter Skelter at Your Local Animal Shelter?
Animal shelters vary greatly— by size, purpose, capacity, and their treatment of the animals in their charge. They may be operated by the government, by a local humane society, by private individuals, or by a combination of these. Some are funded by donations alone, while others receive tax money. Sometimes tax money comes with a stipulation that some animals must be turned over to experimenters. Every effort should be made to reverse such a policy, which is known as "pound seizure." Click here to find out more about pound seizure.
If you have concerns about your local shelter, size up the situation by paying a personal visit— carry a camera to photograph conditions for the animals. Find out which method(s) of euthanasia are practiced. Although PETA only advocates an intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital, compressed cylinder gas is considered the most humane of all gassing methods. If the shelter is gassing animals, try to take photographs of the gas chamber and find out if the chamber is used to kill young, old, or sick animals, who process oxygen and carbon monoxide differently than healthy adult animals and should never be gassed.
http://www.helpinganimals.com/a-shelter.html
1040
Commercials
You know PETA really opposes animals that are allowed to multiple indiscriminately. They oppose irresponsible pet ownership. To a greater extent they oppose animal ownership at all and their confinement.
http://www.petacatalog.org/prodinfo.asp?number=AT145&variation=&aitem=2&mitem=21
1043
The tragedy of death never ends on CNN.
Are there ANY holiday programs these days?
make joins feel-good holiday fare
By Kay McFadden
Seattle Times TV critic
CHRIS HELCERMANAS-BENGE / ABC
Carol Burnett is the over-protective queen in ABC's musical "Once Upon a Mattress." When Burnett starred in the show on Broadway more than a quarter-century ago, she played the princess.
At Christmastime — holiday time — Christmastime — whatever — the message of family is pounded home. I'm still waiting for a TV classic about a single character not doomed to melt, fall off a cliff or be forced into communal celebration.
No dice. The closest we get this weekend is ABC's Disneyfied remake of "Once Upon A Mattress," a happily-ever-after musical with enough clingy-mom clichés to curdle eggnog.
But the real togetherness play of the season isn't on TV yet. It belongs to the cable industry's politically minded leaders, who this week announced a plan to offer "family tiers" of cable programming.
The move comes as Congress ponders a legislative crackdown on alleged cable indecency and bears all the fending-off marks of an industry determined to (A) self-regulate; (B) end all talk of a la carte cable; and (C) find new ways to sell shows.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002685989_kay16.html
1048
Commercials
2005 Holiday TV Spotlight - A Christmas Carol
Although movie versions of the Dicken's classic A Christmas Carol have been remade again and again, the 1951 movie starring Alistair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge is considered by many holiday movie junkies as the definitive one.
Out of circulation for many years due to copyright and license haggles, the holiday favorite is being shown again throughout December on cable movie channel AMC.
Watch for showings of A Christmas Carol on AMC on the December 4th, December 6th, (with two airings at 4PM and 10:45PM) and again on December 20th.
Meanwhile, gather around the TV with friends and relatives to find other favorites with our Web wrap-up of what's on during the season, featuring direct links to U.S. television programming tagged especially for the holidays, plus a spotlight on what's on TV Christmas Eve & Christmas Day ...
http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/christmas/whats-on-tv.htm
1051
Andy's Reporter Notebook
There is no progress. This is the year 2005. American soldiers are dying. Civilians of Iraq are dying. They didn't before. This war is unnecessary and NO, I will not change my point of view. Elections or no elections, Iraq is the biggest blunder this country has ever undertaken. A lot of people in that country are dead. If Iraq is quieter, it is because there are less to make noise. That was a goal by the way.
1054
Commercials
1058
Introduction by Frankenstein. Heeerreeee's Hollywood Andy !
1059
The news around the world.
There used to be all kinds of holiday specials. I am very surprised.
For ABC's Ratings, Christmas Time Is Here
By John Maynard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 14, 2005; Page C07
The little round-headed kid with the zigzag-striped shirt can still pack 'em in during the holidays.
Last week's annual "Charlie Brown Christmas" special on ABC drew 15.3 million viewers Tuesday night, the show's biggest audience on ABC since it moved from CBS in 2001.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/13/AR2005121301796.html
1111
John Fisher Burns - Military commanders are commanding the people of Iraq not to squander this opportunity. That sounds like a great relationship with the people in Iraq. It tells me that the lethargy of the Iraqis is mired in the fact they are living their lives without feeling urgency about changing the status quo. These folks lived under a dictatorship. They take life as it comes.
"The Opportunity" is to bring insurgents including the Baathists into the political process. A broad based government. I think it is reaching for a standard that is unrealistic for these people. They are better off in self governing provinces of ethnic preference with clear, defined and defendable boundaries. Where the federal government of Iraq goes is irrelevant. So long as the people of Iraq are safe and maintaining a standard of life that prevents disease and human rights violation; that is the best we can hope for. One day they'll be ready to move on but for now the lack of death hanging over their heads has too seem like a relief to say the very least.
1119
I've had enough of this mess tonight. I don't consider this programming healthy. It is very Anti-American. It seeks to justify every action by a corrupt government. When the government is Anti-American there should never be any justification. Ever !
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)