In An Alternate Universe Somewhere...
Excerpts from today's headlines - 9/11/06 - from around the world:
(Washington Post Online) "9/11 Victims' Families End Appeal"
Families of passengers on the two hijacked flights that were shot down by military jet fighters in 2001 that appealed the 2002 restitution judgment have ended their appeal in the case, accepting the terms of the original judgment. Of the over 400 families named in the original suit, thirteen families appealed....
(Missoulian Online) "Minimum Wage Report Gives Green Light To Next Increase"
The Montana Legislature has approved the next increase in the state's minimum wage, as outlined in a bill passed in 2000, from $6.75 to $7.50. The increase was automatic, contingent on the results of an economic analysis and report mechanism outlined in the original bill. Criteria for success include business owner reports on impact to their business; state welfare system input; local tax base impact; and other effects....
(New York Times Online) "Gore Campaigns For Texas Democrats"
Texas Democrats welcomed their party chief as President Gore lent his support to local campaigns. Bolstered by record budget surpluses in each of his six years in office, broadening of Social Security benefits, and strong economic alliances with countries around the world, Gore's stumping is expected to lend powerful support to local Democrats. Challenges to incumbent Democrats are most likely to come on the issue of defense. Though enlistments have held steady since 2003, base closings around the globe and the renewal of various non-proliferation treaties have unsettled defense contractors, who have pushed for increases in the nation's defense spending, ostensibly to bolster the various non-weaponized peacekeeping efforts in progress....
(Caged_Fury Blog) "Iran And Iraq Are Not The Same Country, Folks!"
I'm stumped. I'm confabulated. I'm boggled. Is it because the names are spelled similarly that so many Americans (http://www.zogby.com/features/featuredtables.dbm?ID=777) think that Iran and Iraq are the same country? That they have the same economic, political, and religious agendas? Iran is not going the way of Iraq; it's not going to get chunked up into ethnic regions, because there isn't the ethnic diversity in Iran like there is in Iraq. Iran hasn't been strangled by economic and political sanctions for the last six years like Iraq has. Iran's nuclear energy program, it's role in the Palestinian/Israeli negotiations, it's recent religious moderation - these have all worked to win support for Iran's growing stature in the Middle East. None of this progress is evident in Saddam Hussein's peaceful, but miserable, beleagured, divided country....
(CNN Online) "US Sells First Carbon Credits"
For the first time since President Gore signed the Kyoto Protocol, the United States was able to sell carbon credits. After having to buy credits the first two years of the Protocol, the US greenhouse gas emissions have slowly decreased. Last night, France petitioned to buy the US's first credits, and the transaction is expected to be approved later this week. Many attribute the decline to the surprising increase in hydrogen fuel and electric hybrid car sales, which have in turn been spurred on by new tax credits instituted in 2002....
(Washington Post Online) "9/11 Victims' Families End Appeal"
Families of passengers on the two hijacked flights that were shot down by military jet fighters in 2001 that appealed the 2002 restitution judgment have ended their appeal in the case, accepting the terms of the original judgment. Of the over 400 families named in the original suit, thirteen families appealed....
(Missoulian Online) "Minimum Wage Report Gives Green Light To Next Increase"
The Montana Legislature has approved the next increase in the state's minimum wage, as outlined in a bill passed in 2000, from $6.75 to $7.50. The increase was automatic, contingent on the results of an economic analysis and report mechanism outlined in the original bill. Criteria for success include business owner reports on impact to their business; state welfare system input; local tax base impact; and other effects....
(New York Times Online) "Gore Campaigns For Texas Democrats"
Texas Democrats welcomed their party chief as President Gore lent his support to local campaigns. Bolstered by record budget surpluses in each of his six years in office, broadening of Social Security benefits, and strong economic alliances with countries around the world, Gore's stumping is expected to lend powerful support to local Democrats. Challenges to incumbent Democrats are most likely to come on the issue of defense. Though enlistments have held steady since 2003, base closings around the globe and the renewal of various non-proliferation treaties have unsettled defense contractors, who have pushed for increases in the nation's defense spending, ostensibly to bolster the various non-weaponized peacekeeping efforts in progress....
(Caged_Fury Blog) "Iran And Iraq Are Not The Same Country, Folks!"
I'm stumped. I'm confabulated. I'm boggled. Is it because the names are spelled similarly that so many Americans (http://www.zogby.com/features/featuredtables.dbm?ID=777) think that Iran and Iraq are the same country? That they have the same economic, political, and religious agendas? Iran is not going the way of Iraq; it's not going to get chunked up into ethnic regions, because there isn't the ethnic diversity in Iran like there is in Iraq. Iran hasn't been strangled by economic and political sanctions for the last six years like Iraq has. Iran's nuclear energy program, it's role in the Palestinian/Israeli negotiations, it's recent religious moderation - these have all worked to win support for Iran's growing stature in the Middle East. None of this progress is evident in Saddam Hussein's peaceful, but miserable, beleagured, divided country....
(CNN Online) "US Sells First Carbon Credits"
For the first time since President Gore signed the Kyoto Protocol, the United States was able to sell carbon credits. After having to buy credits the first two years of the Protocol, the US greenhouse gas emissions have slowly decreased. Last night, France petitioned to buy the US's first credits, and the transaction is expected to be approved later this week. Many attribute the decline to the surprising increase in hydrogen fuel and electric hybrid car sales, which have in turn been spurred on by new tax credits instituted in 2002....
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