Saturday, December 20, 2008

SPB News for Saturday.



GOP slams Bush over bailout — Republican leaders across the board have let loose on President Bush's auto industry bailout in what may be some of the toughest GOP criticism of the Bush presidency. — John McCain is leading the way, saying it is “unacceptable that we would leave …

More trouble for gay marriage
Prop. 8 sponsors ask Supreme Court to nullify 18,000 gay marriages.

Rice: Only an 'idiot' would trust N. Korea
Referred to 2005 deal in which Korea agreed to abandon nuclear program.
GOP Chief's Private Memo: WE'RE NOT WORTHY!
A private memo written by Republican National Committee chief Mike Duncan, and obtained by TPM, provides a stark assessment of the failures of the GOP, conceding that "we have not used our principles to provide solutions to the kitchen table concerns of middle-class America" and asserting "an obligation to develop principled solutions rather than falling back on ideology alone."
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Read The Full RNC Memo

California posts 8.4% jobless rate, the third highest in U.S.
Iraq ministry says employees killed in US raid The Iraqi government has accused U.S. forces of killing at least three Trade Ministry employees in a pre-dawn raid on ministry property in Baghdad, officials said on Thursday. The cabinet's National Media Centre and the Trade Ministry issued statements alleging that U.S. forces raided a facility belonging to the Iraqi Grain Board, part of the Trade Ministry, early on Wednesday morning. They said the troops killed several security guards, burnt the guards' offices and searched files and computers.

Robert Gates orders plan for closing Guantanamo US defence secretary Robert Gates has ordered aides to draw up plans for closing the "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo, a declared priority for President-elect Barack Obama, a spokesman has said.

Is the internet going down? Undersea sub-cables have just broken... Interoute, the internet networks company, reports that three of the four internet sub-cables that run from Asia to North America have been damaged. These carry more than 75 per cent of traffic between the Middle East, Europe and America. It's hard to gather what this actually means - is it that the internet is down or (more likely) significantly slower than usual between the Middle East and America?

Secret Service Sanctioned in Race Bias Suit A federal magistrate judge has ruled that the U.S. Secret Service "made a mockery" of long-standing rules by failing to preserve, concealing and even destroying evidence sought by 10 African American current and former employees in a racial discrimination case.
Fox Business Network Suing Treasury Dept. Fox Business Network has filed suit in Federal Court in New York against the United States Treasury Department. The suit is over the Treasury's failure to respond to requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act. The FOIA requests were seeking information on the details of the allocations of bailout funds to Citigroup, AIG and Bank of New York Mellon.

E.P.A. Ruling Could Speed Up Approval of Coal Plants Officials weighing federal applications by utilities to build new coal-fired power plants cannot consider their greenhouse gas output, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency ruled late Thursday. Some environmentalists fear the decision will clear the way for the approval of several such plants in the last days of the Bush regime.
President-elect Barack Obama who hails from “The Land of Lincoln” – the nickname given to Ilinois - will kick off the 56th Presidential Inauguration on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, January 18.
There he’ll welcome everyone to our nation’s capital in an event that’s free and open to the public. Many past presidential inauguration activities have taken place at the monument, including President Bill Clinton’s free concert in 1993 with Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, and Bob Dylan.
We also announced today that there will be a youth concert that Monday night, on the eve of the Inauguration, at the Verizon Center in downtown Washington.
The concert is free, but you’ll need a ticket to get in

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