8/2 - Baby Announcement

posted by Stephen Lee @ 8/02/2006 12:29:00 PM 0 comments   

7/27

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/28/2006 01:14:00 PM 0 comments   

7/26 - Sharon Weinberger

• Rice Meeting. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with representatives of the several countries as well as of Lebanon on July 26 in Rome to discuss efforts to help end the fighting between Israel and Lebanon. Rice and other representatives announced that the parties had agreed that there should be an international force that is organized by the United Nations and that “will have a strong and robust capability to help bring about peace, to help provide the ability for humanitarian efforts to go forward and to bring an end to the violence.” Rice and others also emphasized the need for an immediate and “sustainable” cease-fire; the New York Times reported that the United States had resisted calling for a simply immediate cease-fire. A transcript of a press conference after the meeting is on-line here.
  Israel currently is involved in military action on two fronts: it has sent forces into Gaza after members of the terrorist organization Hamas captured an Israeli soldier on June 25, and it has sent forces into Lebanon, fired missiles at the airport in Beirut, and imposed a naval blockade on Lebanon’s ports after members of the terrorist organization Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers on July 12. The United States and other G-8 countries have supported Israel’s right to self-defense but have said that Israel should refrain from acts that destabilize Lebanon’s government (statement on-line here). Some leaders have specifically called Israel’s actions disproportionate to those of Hezbollah and Hamas.

• Number Cruncher. An article about Kuwait’s plans to give citizens grants is on-line here. McDonald’s announced its results for the second quarter of 2006 in a July 25, 2006 press release (on-line here); the reported $834.1 million in net income for the quarter represents a roughly 57% increase compared to the same quarter in 2005. British Petroleum also announced its results for the second quarter of 2006 in a July 25, 2006 press release (on-line here); the reported $7.3 billion in net profits for the quarter represents a 30% increase compared to the same quarter in 2005.

• Back in Black. President George W. Bush pushed in early June for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages (June 5, 2006 remarks on-line here). A measure that would amend the U.S. Constitution so that marriage would be defined as “only of the union of a man and a woman” and preventing any federal or state constitution from being construed as allowing same-sex marriage, S.J. Res. 1, did not get enough support in a June 7 Senate vote to reach a full vote (vote results on-line here). Even if the measure had passed the Senate, it would need two-thirds support in the House and ratification by three-quarters of the states before becoming part of the U.S. Constitution.
  Massachusetts is the only state that recognizes same-sex marriages, as a result of two decisions by that state's highest court in 2003 and 2004. Two other states (Vermont and California) recognize same-sex couples' rights via an equivalent to marriage such as civil unions or domestic partnerships. In the wake of the Massachusetts rulings, voters in many states approved measures amending their constitutions to ban same-sex marriage either by defining marriage as between a man and a woman or by going further and stating that legal equivalents such as civil unions may not be recognized.
  Julie and Hillary Goodridge, the lead plaintiffs in the case that led to the Massachusetts same-sex marriage decisions, recently announced through a spokeswoman that they had separated after decades of being partners and after getting married on May 10, 2004, the first day permitted in Massachusetts (article on-line here).

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/27/2006 08:13:00 AM 0 comments   

7/25 - Ed Burns

• Heart of Darkness. Consolidated Edison, which provides power in the New York City area, has been working to restore power to thousands of customers since power went out due to a recent heat wave and storm. ConEd said on July 21 that the outage in northwest Queens was due to problems with the network systems due to the heat and due to primary feeders going out of service because of the increased demand (statement on-line here). New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg defended ConEd and its chairman Kevin Burke in a July 24 press conference, but his comments have been criticized by other city officials like the ones standing behind him (article on-line here).

• Iraq. President George W. Bush said on July 25 that the United States would be increasing the number of troops in Baghdad, where Bush said the situation was “still terrible” and “tough,” by re-deploying them from other parts of Iraq (transcript on-line here and article on-line here). Transcripts of Bush’s remarks during his June 13 visit to Iraq are on-line here and here.

• Trendspotting. Wikipedia’s hookah entry is on-line here.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/26/2006 07:45:00 AM 1 comments   

7/24 - Senator John McCain

• Tour de France. The Tour de France is on-line here. Floyd Landis is on-line here.

• Crises in Israfghyianonanaq. Israel currently is involved in military action on two fronts: it has sent forces into Gaza after members of the terrorist organization Hamas captured an Israeli soldier on June 25, and it has sent forces into Lebanon, fired missiles at the airport in Beirut, and imposed a naval blockade on Lebanon’s ports after members of the terrorist organization Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers on July 12. The United States and other G-8 countries have supported Israel’s right to self-defense but have said that Israel should refrain from acts that destabilize Lebanon’s government (statement on-line here).
  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced on July 21 that she would visit Israel and the Palestinian territories to help achieve a sustainable cease fire in the recent conflict (transcript on-line here. Rice made an unannounced visit to Lebanon before arriving in Israel on July 24.

• Reference to Votes on Withdrawal. Congress has in recent weeks debated calls for a withdrawal from Iraq, what some Republicans call “cutting and running.” On June 16, the House of Representatives passed by a 256-153 vote a resolution (H. Res. 861) that “it is not in the national security interest of the United States to set an arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq” and that “the United States is committed to the completion of the mission to create a sovereign, free, secure, and united Iraq.” The House has voted before on whether to call for a withdrawal. In November, after Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pennsylvania), criticized the U.S. presence in Iraq as prolonging the insurgency and called for redeployment (speech on-line here), the House voted 403-3 against a measure calling for immediate withdrawal.
  In the Senate, Democratic senators have made different proposals calling for some redeployment of U.S. troops. Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) announced on June 12 (release on-line here) that he would introduce an amendment that called for the redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2006, leaving only U.S. troops essential to helping Iraqi security forces, though he later agreed to delay his proposed deadline for redeployment until July 2007. Senators Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) announced on June 19 (release on-line here) that they were offering an amendment calling for the redeployment of U.S. troops to begin by the end of 2006.
  President George W. Bush has rejected calls for a timetable for withdrawal and has said that U.S. forces will stay in Iraq until the mission there is done. In a March 29 speech (on-line here), he said that “[w]e should all agree that pulling our troops out prematurely would be a disaster” and that “[w]e will leave because Iraqi forces have gained in strength, not because America's will has weakened. We will complete the mission in Iraq because the security of the American people is linked to the success in Iraq.”

• Reference to Net Neutrality. An article about Senator Ted Stevens’ comments about the Internet is on-line here. Stevens is the chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which has been considering measures regarding “net neutrality.”
  Proponents of “net neutrality” support measures that would, among other things, prevent broadband Internet providers from allowing different levels of access to certain websites (a campaign called Save the Internet is on-line here and Google has information on net neutrality on-line here).
  The House voted 269-152 on June 8 against a net neutrality amendment that was sponsored by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and that would have prevented broadband network providers from interfering with a person’s ability to use a broadband connection to access information over the Internet and from prioritizing or offering better service for some kinds of a type of data and not for others of that type. The amendment is on-line here.
  A similar measure for net neutrality has been proposed in the Senate by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which is chaired by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), voted 11-11 in late June not to include this amendment, which said in part: “To encourage broadband deployment, and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the Internet, a broadband service provider shall not discriminate Internet traffic based on source, ownership, or destination of such traffic as part of any publicly available Internet offering” (see release on-line here).

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/25/2006 08:36:00 AM 0 comments