20 May 2008
News and Comments - 05/20/08
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: What's News .
I am neither for nor against apathy.
9 Comments so far...
Cameron Says:
20 May 2008 at 6:17 am.
This is about the biggest problem we have in Washington, attaching things to a bill that the president won’t veto so your pork barrel item gets passed, which often occurs without much scrutiny.
Senate loads war funding bill with domestic programs
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer 50 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Despite numerous veto threats, senators in both parties have loaded up President Bush’s war funding bill with a grab bag of domestic programs, including work permits for immigrant farm labor and heating subsidies for the poor.
The Senate was scheduled to begin debate on the measure Tuesday, just days after a key panel added more about $28 billion to Bush’s budget request for this year and next, with almost $50 billion more for a big expansion of veterans benefits under the GI Bill over 2010-2018.
The new GI Bill and Democratic priorities like extending unemployment benefits are simply the big-ticket add-ons, both of which have drawn veto threats. There’s also $50 million to track down child predators, $400 million to help rural schools and $350 million fight western wildfires, just for starters.
Senators are acting as if the war funding bill coming to the floor Tuesday is the last train leaving the station, and, as a result, have added billions of dollars for pet programs and hitched on several policy “riders” as well. Few if any other spending bills are likely to come before the Senate this election year, which makes the supplemental measure an even more attractive vehicle for carrying spending proposals that would stall otherwise.
The White House is fighting the add-ons much more vigorously than it did during last year’s bruising war funding debate. Then, it accepted $17 billion in spending that Bush didn’t ask for as the price for getting an Iraq war funding bill that didn’t tie his hands on the war.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080520/ap_on_go_co/congress_iraq_funding
Cameron Says:
20 May 2008 at 8:06 am.
Taking away the Books of Mormon is a stunning development.
Texas sect parents complain of vague custody plans
By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer
SAN ANGELO, Texas - The parents of the children in state custody after a raid at a polygamist sect’s ranch came to a courthouse asking one question: How do we get back our children?
They left complaining that Texas child welfare officials offered no real answers Monday as five judges began sorting the massive custody case into separate family groups. The state has more than 460 children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in foster care.
Texas officials are making it impossible for parents to get back their children, complained Willie Jessop, an elder of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which runs the ranch in Eldorado.
“Every parent is accused of being bad and there’s no cure,” he said after the first day of hearings, which were to resume Tuesday and expected to last three weeks.
All the parents got the same template plan outlining allegations of abuse at the ranch and services required for the children and parents. Judges made few changes, though several expressed concerns about the lack of specifics. The plans do not make it clear whether the children will ever be allowed to return to the ranch.
“What the parents are trying to find out here is what they need to do to get their children back, and there’s no clear answer to that,” FLDS spokesman Rod Parker said.
The parents say they are being persecuted for their religion, which includes the belief that polygamy brings glorification in heaven.
In one hearing, attorneys complained that the Book of Mormon was confiscated from some of the children at a foster facility.
“If they can openly admit they can take away the Book of Mormon from us today, it’ll be the Bible tomorrow,” Jessop said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080520/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat_16;_ylt=AgNFgTF0vYj4uw0afHLUDiwE1vAI
Sharon Anderson Says:
20 May 2008 at 9:20 am.
Good news. Court ruling on First Amendment. Maybe decency is not dead after all.
On Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 upholding anti-child pornography laws and confirming this fact: “obscene speech—sexually explicit material that violates fundamental notions of decency—is not protected by the First Amendment.”
http://www.familyfragments.com/2008/05/supreme-court-victory.asp
Angela Rogin Says:
20 May 2008 at 10:48 am.
That is good news and it is important to share the good things too.
Mac Says:
20 May 2008 at 11:14 am.
Crazy what is going on with the FLDS. To keep away the book of Mormon directly attacks freedom of religion. It isn’t a book I would choose to read but I would die for the right of other Americans to read it if they want.
Matt Says:
20 May 2008 at 11:20 am.
Oil crosses $129 for first time, heads for $130
Tuesday May 20, 12:09 pm ET
By Adam Schreck, AP Business Writer
Crude oil futures pass $129 a barrel for the first time, likely headed past $130
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices spiked to a new trading high Tuesday, sweeping toward $130 a barrel as supply concerns intensified the momentum buying that has lifted crude deeper into record territory. Gasoline, meanwhile, reached an average of $3.80 at the pump for the first time.
The June contract for light, sweet crude traded as high as $129.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange before settling back to $129.43, up $2.38. The imminent expiration of that contract created additional volatility in the market, and raised the very real possibility that crude could hit $130 before the end of the day, when the contract was ending.
Oil’s trek toward $130 coincided with the Labor Department’s report of an unexpectedly sharp rise in wholesale inflation last month. The combination raised fears that inflation will slice into Americans’ discretionary spending, and that sent stocks falling sharply on Wall Street.
Retail fuel prices also shattered records. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline touched $3.80, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service, while diesel jumped nearly 2 cents to a record $4.54 a gallon. Gas prices are up about 19 percent from this time last year.
Jim Ritterbusch, president of oil trading advisory firm Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Ill., said oil prices were being supported by strong demand for diesel fuel in Asia, and a weakening of the U.S. dollar against the euro, which makes oil cheaper for some investors overseas.
CindyL. Says:
20 May 2008 at 12:27 pm.
I can’t afford to drive any more. This is so insane and I can’t believe nothing can be done about it. I have an old piece of junk car I’m babying along until I graduate and get a good job. Now I really don’t have the money to drive. I’m thinking about selling it and getting a bike and taking public transportation to go home to visit my family and other long distance trips.
Cameron Says:
20 May 2008 at 2:38 pm.
Cindy, hang in there. Think of how healthy you will get biking around.
Sen. Edward Kennedy has malignant brain tumor
By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
BOSTON - A cancerous brain tumor caused the seizure Sen. Edward M. Kennedy suffered over the weekend, doctors said Tuesday in a grim diagnosis for one of American politics’ most enduring figures. “He remains in good spirits and full of energy,” the doctors for the 76-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement.
They said tests conducted after the seizure showed a tumor in Kennedy’s left parietal lobe. Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma, they said.
His treatment will be decided after more tests but the usual course includes combinations of radiation and chemotherapy.
Kennedy has been hospitalized in Boston since Saturday, when he was airlifted from Cape Cod after a seizure at his home.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080520/ap_on_go_co/kennedy
Concerned American Says:
20 May 2008 at 5:00 pm.
Stocks stumble on record oil, inflation worries
By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK - Wall Street stumbled Tuesday after oil prices spiked to a new record above $129 a barrel and a government report raised investors’ concerns about the impact of inflation on consumer spending. The Dow Jones industrials fell nearly 200 points.
Crude jumped after OPEC’s president was quoted as saying his organization won’t raise its output before its next meeting in September. That sent a barrel of light, sweet crude to a trading high of $129.60 before it finished just above $129 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department’s producer price report indicated higher energy and food prices might be seeping into other parts of the economy — compounding investors’ concerns raised by higher oil. The department said wholesale inflation edged up by 0.2 percent in April following a 1.1 percent jump in March, but outside of food and energy, prices rose by a faster 0.4 percent — double what analysts expected.
Wall Street is worried that a drop-off in consumer spending could ensue if wholesale price increases are passed along; consumer spending is critical because it accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy.
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