various headlines
Giuliani named keynote speaker at GOP convention
Notorious cross-dresser and miserable failure of a Presidential
candidate, Rudy Giuliani, has been chosen to give the keynote speech in
Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sept. 2. For a good idea of what 9iu11ani will
say, see: here.
[Newsday]
UPDATE: It looks like Rudy's first gig as GOP keynote speaker, a conference call with the press today, didn't go so well. Politico's Ben Smith is reporting that McCain goons cut the line of Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporter Ron Kampeas after he began pressing 9Iu11ani on some of his shady business dealings.
Rudy Giuliani's appearance on a McCain conference call got off to a rocky start when Ron Kampeas, the Washington, D.C. of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, compared an Obama advisor's trip to Syria — the subject of the call — to Giuliani's and McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann's paid work on behalf of Georgia (in Scheunemann's case) and Venezuela's Citgo and the Saudi government (in the case of Giuliani's law firm).
"You're making an issue of him taking a hotel room?" Kampeas asked — and then dropped off the call mid-sentence.
"I think they cut me off," he said in an email just now.
Scheunemann noted that his lobbying contract, unlike Obama advisor Daniel Kurtzer's trip to Syria, was publicly disclosed and not "covert." Giuliani said that Citgo, which is owned by the Venezuelan government, is an "American company."
"I never represented Saudi Arabia," he said.
The Associated Press reported that Bracewell & Giuliani, a Texas-based energy firm, has represented Saudi Arabia.
Bush Administration Proposal Guts Endangered Species Act, Whitehouse Says
Bush Administration Proposal Guts Endangered Species Act, Whitehouse Says
Interior Dept. Wants to End Independent Scientific Review of Projects' Harm to Protected Wildlife PopulationsA Bush Administration proposal to allow individual government agencies, rather than scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to decide whether vulnerable wildlife would be harmed by new construction projects badly undermines the Endangered Species Act, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said today.
Goodyear to Close 92 US Stores, Cut Jobs
Detroit - Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co said it would close 12 percent, or 92, of its company-owned U.S. stores and cut 600 full- and part-time jobs as the U.S. economic downturn put more pressure on the company.
"In the current economic condition, people are driving less and it obviously affects every facet of the U.S. auto industry, including how often they replace tires or buy new cars," Goodyear spokesman Keith Price said on Tuesday after the announcement.
Top Medical Journal Warns Supreme Court Against Banning FDA Lawsuits
Washington - Top doctors at the helm of one of the nation's most influential medical journals are giving the Supreme Court some unsolicited legal advice about a major case.
The Food and Drug Administration "is in no position" to guarantee drug safety, the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine said in a friend-of-the-court brief. Lawsuits can serve as "a vital deterrent" and protect consumers if drug companies don't disclose risks.
This Just In: Developers More Powerful, Connected Than Average Residents
from Chicagoist by Margaret Lyons
The 50th Ward is corrupt, Alderman Bernie Stone may or may not be in the pockets of developers rather than representing the wants of his constituents, according to a longass article in the Trib today. Zoning rules are widely flouted, with developers not notifying residents of new plans or putting up required signs.
The Tribune has found that zoning rules have been ignored or changed to make it easier for developers and harder for residents to have a meaningful say in what gets built on their streets.
Sadface. The story focuses on a proposed senior housing facility in West Rogers Park. The developer's lawyer? James Banks and Samuel Banks, nephew and brother of Alderman William Banks, who is the head of the zoning committee. Some "neighborhood activists" oppose the construction, saying the building will be far taller than everything around it and will lead to increased an unwanted traffic, and they went to the zoning committee meeting to have their complaints heard. Which...didn't work out like that.
[50th Ward resident Hugh Devlin]...told the committee that he wanted to note the multiple political donations to his alderman from the Banks law firm and from the project architect's. State records show more than $3,000 in donations to Stone from Samuel Banks.[Alderman Gene] Schulter cut off Devlin: "That's totally, totally out of line. Totally out of line. We are talking about the project before the committee at this time . . . This is totally irrelevant."
The committee unanimously approved the construction. [Trib, photo by bowl rider]
