[Quote:]

But what about the president’s audacious claim that the Taliban “is no longer is in existence“? Or the president’s allies who insist that “things are going swimmingly in Afghanistan“? Apparently, reality keeps getting in the way.

Afghanistan’s opium harvest this year has reached the highest levels ever recorded, showing an increase of almost 50 percent from last year, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Saturday in Kabul.

He described the figures as “alarming” and “very bad news” for the Afghan government and international donors who have poured millions of dollars into programs to reduce the poppy crop since 2001.

He said the increase in cultivation was significantly fueled by the resurgence of Taliban rebels in the south, the country’s prime opium growing region. As the insurgents have stepped up attacks, they have also encouraged and profited from the drug trade, promising protection to growers if they expanded their opium operations.

“This year’s harvest will be around 6,100 metric tons of opium — a staggering 92 percent of total world supply. It exceeds global consumption by 30 percent,” Mr. Costa said at a news briefing.

He said the harvest increased by 49 percent from the year before, and it drastically outpaced the previous record of 4,600 metric tons, set in 1999 while the Taliban governed the country. The area cultivated increased by 59 percent, with more than 400,000 acres planted with poppies in 2006 compared with less than 260,000 in 2005.

“It is indeed very bad, you can say it is out of control,” Mr. Costa said Friday in an interview before the announcement.

It’s not a pretty picture. The Bush administration’s plan for Afghanistan emphasizes two points: poppy eradication and the elimination of the Taliban. What we find instead is a thriving Taliban forcing farmers in southern Afghanistan to grow more poppy than world-wide demand can handle, in exchange for protection.

It’s another stark reminder: both of Bush’s wars are going in the wrong direction.

[Quote:]

President Clinton urged Congress Tuesday to act swiftly in developing anti-terrorism legislation before its August recess.

“We need to keep this country together right now. We need to focus on this terrorism issue,” Clinton said during a White House news conference.

But while the president pushed for quick legislation, Republican lawmakers hardened their stance against some of the proposed anti-terrorism measures.

[..]

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, emerged from the meeting and said, “These are very controversial provisions that the White House wants. Some they’re not going to get.”

Hatch called Clinton’s proposed study of taggants — chemical markers in explosives that could help track terrorists — “a phony issue.”

“If they want to, they can study the thing” already, Hatch asserted. He also said he had some problems with the president’s proposals to expand wiretapping.

Hmm… wiretapping… I wonder what happened to that issue?

[Quote:]

While all and sundry in the media seem to be leading with the capture of yet another alleged Al-Qaida bigwig (always hailed as a breakthrough and always anything but) the really big story in Iraq today is being ignored – and perhaps even downplayed – even though all the clues are out in the open.

I’m referring to a ceremony that was supposed to occur on Saturday which was meant to formally “transfer operational control of Iraq’s military to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government”. A momentous moment in Iraqi history, some good news for a Bush administration beleagured by bad news about Iraq…the press were there in droves.

Reuters reports that it didn’t happen.

“There was an error in planning between us and the Iraqi defense minister over the ceremony. This all boils down to a bureaucratic thing,” said Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson. He said the ceremony had been rescheduled for Sunday.

Actually, what happened was that they told the press and dignataries that it would be delayed a couple of hours, then later came back and said it would be Sunday before the handover, which had “been hailed by the U.S. military as a big step toward Iraq taking responsibility for security.”

So Sunday came and according to Reuters again…it still didn’t happen. This time, the same U.S. spokesman had a different story.

“There is a disagreement on the wording of the document that outlines the new relationship between Coalition Forces and Iraqis,” U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson told Reuters late on Saturday evening.

“It is embarrassing, but it was decided it was better not to sign the document,” he said, adding that objections to the wording had been raised by Maliki’s government.

…They are not going to go ahead with the document until the language is agreed upon. It’s not a matter of major substance, but they’re not happy with the wording of the document,” Johnson said, adding that it would be signed “in a matter of days.”

So, not just a bureaucratic error then? So maybe we should be sceptical about it not being a “matter of major substance” too?

Al-Jazeera has more on what the actual problem is.

Talks between the United States and Iraq remain deadlocked over how much control the US military will transfer to Iraqi forces.

A day after the dispute forced an embarrassing delay of a signing ceremony in Baghdad, an Iraqi defence ministry source said disagreements remained on Sunday over the wording of a document that outlines the new relationship between US-led forces and Iraq’s military.

“There are some disputes between the two parties. We have our own point of view and they have theirs. We want thorough control and want the freedom to make decisions independently,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

…in a sign that negotiations could drag on, Mohammed al-Askari, spokesman for Iraq’s defence ministry, said the government would take its time until an agreement was reached.

“We need more time regarding these discussions. There are some articles that need more discussions with the Americans. We don’t want to be rushed into making these decisions. Our points of view are not identical.”

That sounds like a “matter of major substance” to me. Nor does it look likely that the transfer will be signed “in a matter of days”.

So what’s going on? Well, another Reuters report which has since been deleted had another detail – that the dispute was over equipment.

[Quote:]

Wow, I’m impressed: The J Train finds a small guttering flicker of reason on WingNutDaily. It’s an article by a conservative Christian opposing public prayer at football games—he’d been in Hawai’i, where he’d been shocked to discover that pre-game prayers were given by Buddhist monks, and he found himself an uncomfortable minority in a sea of people following some strange religion (hmmm…does anybody else know what that’s like?)

It’s actually funny to read. He’s plainly horrified that he’d have to be in the presence of someone reciting a pagan prayer! He doesn’t quite get the response right, though.

We were frozen in shock and incredulity! What to do? To continue to stand and observe this prayer would represent a betrayal of our own faith and imply the honoring of a pagan deity that was anathema to our beliefs. To sit would be an act of extreme rudeness and disrespect in the eyes of our Japanese hosts and neighbors, who value above all other things deference and respect in their social interactions. I am sorry to say that in the confusion of the moment we chose the easier path and elected to continue to stand in silence so as not to create a scene or ill will among those who were seated nearby.

As I thought through the incident over the next few days I supposed that the duty of offering the pre-game prayer rotated through the local clergy and we just happened to arrive on the night that the responsibility fell to the Buddhist priest. However, after inquiring I learned that due to the predominance of Buddhist and Shinto adherents in this town, it was the normal practice to have a member of one these faiths offer the pre-game prayer, and Christian clergy were never included. Needless to say that was our first and last football game. Although many of the students we worked with continued to invite us to the games, we were forced to decline. We knew that if we were to attend again we would be forced to abstain from the pre-game activity. And not wanting to offend our Asiatic neighbors and colleagues, we simply refrained from attending.

Well…so his solution was to simply and completely withdraw from the social activity? I wonder how he’d react if the entire culture was saturated with overt displays of such religiosity—where courtrooms would claim their justice was founded on their religion, where the government, top to bottom, was loaded with official who would regularly trumpet their religious affiliation, where store owners would declare themselves adherents of particular faiths, and promise that a percentage of their profits would go to promote their beliefs, where much of the business of the town was mediated via contacts at places of worship? Would he divorce himself from the culture entirely, throw out his radio and TV, bunker down in his house and pray?

Steve Irwin posed with his wife, Terri, and their daughter, Bindi Sue, in London in 2002.

[Quote:]

The Census Bureau reported that median incomes for working-age families were down again, for the fifth straight year. Real median income for households under age 65 is down by 5.4 percent since 2000, even though the economy has grown every year. All of that gain has gone to upper-bracket people and corporate profits.

[..]

The economy’s productivity increased by a remarkable 33.5 percent between 1995 and 2005, but real wages have declined since 2000. Employer-provided health coverage declined from 69 percent in 1979 to 56 percent in 2004. The top 1 percent’s share of interest, dividends, and capital gains has risen from 37.8 percent in 1979 to 57.5 percent in 2003.

Politically, it’s evident what is occurring. Those in a position to capture astronomical incomes are awarding themselves an ever-larger share of the national economic pie. Meanwhile, ordinary incomes, job security, health security, and retirement security are eroding.

The political mystery is why everyone else is not kicking up a fuss. After all, as the Pew report suggests, it’s not as if people are unaware of what’s happening. Here’s a clue to some of the puzzle: Polls show that people do want more reliable wages, pensions, and health insurance. But too many people have given up on the idea that the political process can be used to restore the American dream.

[Quote:]

A Cleveland grocer has been arrested in an alleged baby formula theft ring, a potential source of funding for terrorist groups abroad, officials said.

So that’s why the USA bombed the baby formula factories! If you’re not breast-feeding, you’re a terrorist!

[Quote:]

Prince Harry faces the humiliation of being held back from frontline service in Iraq because his presence there could prove ‘too dangerous’ for both himself and his men.

Although discussions are underway to send soldiers from his Household Cavalry regiment to the war-torn region next May, senior officials have admitted they may be forced to stop the third-in-line-to-the-throne from going.

They’re afraid he might Di.

Today we’re going to visit the world’s 10 most venomous snakes. Conveniently, they’re all located right here in Australia.

I have no fear of losing my life – if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it.

Crikey, mate. You’re far safer dealing with crocodiles and western diamondback rattlesnakes than the executives and the producers and all those sharks in the big MGM building.

I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message.

When I talk to the camera, mate, it’s not like I’m talking to the camera, I’m talking to you because I want to whip you around and plunk you right there with me.

Yeah, I’m a thrill seeker, but crikey, education’s the most important thing.

This poor turtle got nailed:

A couple images that show the serrated barbs on the spines:

Stingrays lie buried in the sand and you might not see one. If you swim cloe to the bottom and over the top of one it may whip it’s tail up and stab you.

More info on wikipedia

[Quote:]

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has died after a stringray barb caught him in the chest.

The 44-year-old international TV star was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary when the incident happened.

Ambulance officers received a call to a reef fatality this morning at Batt Reef. The Queensland Ambulance Service said the call was received about 11am and an emergency services helicopter was flown to the boat with a doctor and emergency services paramedic on board.

Irwin had a puncture wound to the left side of his chest and he was pronounced dead at the scene.