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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (301742)	8/30/2006 9:40:28 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1572033

"I don't know, but this program should certainly get bipartisan citizen support." According to Coburn, one of the sponsors of the bill, the blocking senator is Ted "Bridge to Nowhere" Stevens of Alaska.

To: Road Walker who wrote (301742)	8/30/2006 4:41:46 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572033

Windy City goes for the green A worker plants a green roof at the Chicago Cultural Center, part of Mayor Richard M. Daley's ecology program. Chicago is joining Portland and Seattle as one of the nation's most committed environmental cities. By Peter Slevin and Kari Lydersen CHICAGO — On the scalding eighth-floor roof of the Chicago Cultural Center, workers dripped sweat as they planted row upon tidy row of hardy plants, the latest signal of one big-city government's determination to be green. On other downtown rooftops, tall, corkscrew-shaped turbines will harness the winds that race across the plains. A new roof on Chicago's vast convention center will channel 55 million gallons of rainwater a year into Lake Michigan instead of into overburdened storm drains. Skeptics snickered 17 years ago when Mayor Richard M. Daley added flowers and trees to the city's to-do list. They scoffed at the apparent folly of beautifying a sprawling, gritty urban landscape. A few tulips, they figured, and that would be the end of it. But the city-kid mayor raised on the rough-and-tumble South Side stuck with it. The greening project grew strong roots, giving Chicago a reputation as one of the nation's most committed environmental cities of any size. The company it keeps is not Newark and Detroit, but Portland and Seattle. As other cities have climbed on board, Pacific Northwest progressives no longer have a corner on the market. Since Daley began investing tax dollars in greening the city, Chicago has planted as many as 400,000 trees, according to city spokesmen. It employs more arborists than any U.S. city. There are 2.5 million square feet of green roofs completed or under construction, boosted by expedited permitting and density bonuses for developers who embrace the concept. "A lot of people think this is weird stuff, like yurts and straw-bale houses. The mayor has set a big and important commitment. He really wants people to walk the talk," said Judith Webb, a U.S. Green Building Council spokeswoman. "When a city with a reputation and a population like Chicago begins doing green building as a matter of course, that's a real indication this isn't a fad or short-term trend." On other fronts, the city provides 10,000 bike racks and announced a goal of quintupling bike lanes to 500 miles by 2015. The city spent $3.1 million on a bike station at Millennium Park that has 300 indoor bike spaces, along with lockers and showers. "The more concrete we pour down America, the more deserts we destroy and farmland we destroy, the more global warming we're going to have," Daley said. "If there's more trees, more flowers and more greenery, it helps the environment and attracts nature." Daley is an especially big fan of green roofs. The City Hall roof, planted with more than 150 varieties of plants, is often 50 degrees cooler in summer than nearby asphalt roofs, where temperatures can reach 170 degrees. "The quality of the building outside affects how you live inside, what you're breathing," Daley said. "Anytime you fly into an airport, you see flat roofs. Imagine if every one of those flat roofs had a green roof. What a difference that would make!" Despite 70 miles of planted medians, Chicago is hardly a new Eden. Among other challenges, the city of 3 million is clogged with commuter traffic, its sewage infrastructure is outdated, its beaches often close because of summertime bacteria and its recycling program has long been an inefficient tangle of missed opportunities. "We're all humble about this," said Kathryn Tholin, chief executive of the Center for Neighborhood Technology. "There's lot more to do, but if it's measured in commitment that goes all the way to the top in the city administration, we definitely have it." seattletimes.nwsource.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (301742)	8/30/2006 6:41:00 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1572033

Rumsfeld Speech on Terrorism Generates Controversy By Al Pessin Pentagon 30 August 2006 The Defense Department has called on the Associated Press to correct a report that it says mischaracterized a speech by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday. But the AP is standing by the story and many other news organizations ran similar accounts of the speech. Donald Rumsfeld speaking at the American Legion convention Secretary Rumsfeld's speech to a veterans group drew parallels between the current conflict with terrorists and the period between World Wars I and II. "It was a time when a certain amount of cynicism and moral confusion set in among western democracies, when those who warned about a coming crisis, the rise of fascism and Nazism, they were ridiculed or ignored," said Donald Rumsfeld. The secretary said today America faces a new type of fascism that, just as in the 1930s, can not be accommodated or appeased. "This enemy is serious, lethal and relentless," he said. "But this is still not well recognized or fully understood. It seems that in some quarters, there is more of a focus on dividing our country than acting with unity against the gathering threats." Rumsfeld asked a series of rhetorical questions, including this one. "With the growing lethality and increasing availability of weapons, can we truly afford to believe that somehow, some way, vicious extremists can be appeased," asked Secretary Rumsfeld. Secretary Rumsfeld specifically criticized the human rights group Amnesty International, as well as media coverage of the war in Iraq, saying it is focused too much on bad news. He said that could damage public support for what he sees as the broader struggle against violent extremism. "That is important in any long struggle or long war, where any kind of moral or intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong can weaken the ability of free societies to persevere," he said. In his report on the speech, Associated Press reporter Robert Burns, the senior newswire service reporter covering the Pentagon, said Secretary Rumsfeld had "accused critics of the Bush administration's Iraq and counter-terrorism policies of trying to appease" terrorists. A later version of the story noted that Rumsfeld had not specifically mentioned critics of the administration, but quoted the secretary as saying "many" have not learned history's lessons. The Pentagon issued a statement saying the story "seriously mischaracterized" the secretary's remarks, and calling on the Associated Press to correct the story. On Wednesday, Pentagon Press Secretary Eric Ruff explained just what he thinks was wrong with the report. "The mischaracterization comes from the reporting that said the secretary was accusing critics of the Bush administration of supporting appeasement or being appeasers," said Eric Ruff. "I'm paraphrasing. And that is not what was said by the secretary." In response to an email inquiry, spokeswoman Linda Wagner said only that the Associated Press is standing by its story. She provided no other response to the Pentagon criticism and declined a request for an interview. Other major news organizations also interpreted Secretary Rumsfeld's words as referring to administration critics, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today and CNN. Democratic Party politicians responded angrily to the secretary's remarks, with some again calling for his resignation. Secretary Rumsfeld has frequently spoken about what he sees as the high stakes of the war on terrorism, and the central role that the fighting in Iraq has in that broader conflict. President Bush is planning a series of speeches with a similar theme, starting Thursday. voanews.com