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White House Wants Nature Off the Agenda
Saturday, August 27, 2005 ~ The Bush administration, whose pro-business policies on climate change have long rankled environmentalists and U.N. delegates, is pressing to scrap a proposal to have world leaders gathering in New York next month express "respect for nature."
That phrase was included in a draft statement of principles to be agreed to by 175 heads of state and government attending a Sept. 14 United Nations summit on poverty and U.N. reform. The statement invited leaders to embrace a set of "core values" that unite the international community, including respect for human rights, freedom, equality, tolerance, multilateralism and respect for nature.
The offending phrase would place no fresh legal or financial burdens on U. S. taxpayers, but the Bush administration voiced concern that it would distract attention from the main goal: reforming the United Nations. (We’re doing so well in Afghanistan, Iraq, and here at home. . .)
'I don’t know what the milk will be like after this,' drug agency officer says.
Updated: 5:03 a.m. ET Aug. 16, 2005
MOSCOW - Russia’s long winter will just fly by for a herd of Russian cows which, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, will be fed confiscated marijuana over the cold months.
Drug workers said they adopted the unusual form of animal husbandry after they were forced to destroy the sunflowers and maize crops that the 40 ton of marijuana had been planted among, Novye Izvestia daily reported.
"There is simply no other way out. You see, the fields are planted with feed crops and if we remove it all the cows will have nothing to eat," a Federal Drugs Control Service spokeswoman for the Urals region of Sverdlovsk told the paper. "I don’t know what the milk will be like after this."
Robertson Calls for Chavez's Assassination
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Tuesday, August 23, 2005
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. ~ Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has suggested that American agents assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."
An official of a theological watchdog group on Tuesday criticized Robertson's statement as "chilling."
"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ...and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."
Evangelist Backs Off Chavez Assassination Call
Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:59 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson, who called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said on Wednesday he was misinterpreted and there were a number of ways to "take him out" including kidnapping.
"I said our special forces could take him out. Take him out could be a number of things including kidnapping," Robertson said on his "The 700 Club" television program.
>P>"There are a number of ways of taking out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted," Robertson added.
Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition and a presidential candidate in 1988, said on Monday of Chavez, one of Bush's most vocal critics: "If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."
"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability." He made the comments during his "The 700 Club" television program.
Palestinian-American gets credit card offer addressed to 'Bomber'
August 24, 2005
CORONA, Calif. (AP) - The address was his, but the name on the credit card offer took Sami Habbas by surprise: "Palestinian Bomber."
"I thought it was a joke or something," said Habbas, 54, a Palestinian-American who served in the U.S. army.
Habbas opened the letter, and the salutation read "Dear Palestinian Bomber."
When he called the company, JPMorgan Chase & Co., provided his ZIP code and invitation number, two operators said to him: "Yes, Mr. Bomber, what can we do for you?"
"It's very upsetting," Habbas said. "I'm not what they are saying, a Palestinian bomber. That's uncalled for. I have a name. My name is Sami Habbas."
CEO: Worker Pay Ratio Shoots Up to 431 : 1
Biggest Defense Contractors Raise CEOs’ Pay 200% Since 9/11
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
2004 was a banner year for CEOs and a dismal year for workers, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, Executive Excess 2005: Defense Contractors Get More Bucks for the Bang.
The ratio of average CEO pay (now $11.8 million) to worker pay (now $27,460) spiked up from 301-to-1 in 2003 to 431-to-1 in 2004.
If the minimum wage had risen as fast as CEO pay since 1990, the lowest paid workers in the US would be earning $23.03 an hour today, not $5.15 an hour.
The report found that CEOs are individually profiting from the Iraq War, with huge average raises at the biggest defense contractors.
At the 34 publicly traded US corporations among the 2004 top 100 defense contractors with 10% or more of their revenues from defense contracts – companies such as United Technologies, Textron, and General Dynamics – average CEO pay increased 200% from 2001 to 2004, versus 7% for all CEOs.
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