What do melamine contaminated pet food and lead laced baby bibs have in common?  Both are manufactured in a country that is one of the largest poorly regulated importers to the US market.  That would be China.

Walmart has announced a recall of baby bibs containing lead levels that are 16 times greater than allowed in paint.  The bids, sold by Walmart, are made by Hamco Inc., located in Lousiana.  Crown Crafts, Inc., a client of Haliburton Investor Relations, distributes the bibs.

Earlier this semester a talk by former Bush White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card at UMASS, Amherst was met by protest. Many at UMASS hoped that was the last we'd see of one of the propagandists of the Iraq War.  No such luck.
Recently we learned that Andrew Card will be appearing at the 2007 UMASS, Amherst Graduate School Commencement to receive an Honorary Degree.  That's has angered many students, staff and faculty at the campus.

Today's release of the latest Gallup poll runs with the headline that only 36% of Americans support the decider's plans to escalate the conflict in Iraq.  That number, as you'll see and as the title of this post suggests, is misleading.

But the poll included a separate question that summarized a possible "surge" announcement, and found that 36% support the idea of such an increase, while 61% oppose it.

This number, while still low, will be the number trumpeted by the right and it will most likely make the headlines in both print and electronic media.  This number however is not the number that really expresses the dismal lack of support for Bush's misquided policy.

The Clinton policy also said that the United States would develop and operate "space control capabilities to ensure freedom of action in space" only when such steps would be "consistent with treaty obligations." The Bush policy accepts current international agreements but states: "The United States will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space."

Instead of putting our energies into avoiding this next arms race, the Bush administration will actively seek to prevent any treaties that would limit this next level of human folly.

Among the key findings:

• Of the 997 FDA scientists who responded to the survey, nearly one-fifth (18.4 percent) said that they "have been asked, for non-scientific reasons, to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information or their conclusions in a FDA scientific document."

• Forty percent of respondents fear retaliation for voicing safety concerns in public. This fear, scientists say, combines with other pressures to compromise the agency's ability to protect public health and safety.

• More than a third of the respondents did not feel they could express safety concerns even inside the agency.

NYTimes The Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that states have broad authority to regulate their streams under the federal Clean Water Act, even in situations that do not involve control of "pollution" in the strict sense of the word.

The justices ruled in favor of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection and against the S.D. Warren Company, owner of five hydroelectric dams along the Presumpscot River that provide power for a company paper mill.

That's right, all of the Justice's ruled in favor of the State's environmental board.

This morning's local paper carried a very disturbing article about the slaughter of hundreds of protected migratory birds at this private fish hatchery.

Recorder Federal authorities have charged two area men with killing hundreds of blue herons, a bald eagle and other protected migratory birds at a commercial trout hatchery in Sunderland [MA].

Last September, Pombo's Anti-Endangered Spieces Bill was passed in the House.  Pombo's Billed coupled with Crapo's would mean that species protections as we have known them since the early '70's would effectively come to an end.

For more background on republican's efforts to weaken the Endangered Species Act read the following diaries:

Pelosi Satement in Support of ESA
Repubs ramming Anti-Endangered Species Bill through House
House Committee attacks Endangered Species Protection

They have compiled a list of Pro-Gay companies and asked their members to avoid supporting these companies.

AFA's List of Pro-Gay Companies

Please contact some of these companies and thank them for supporting tolerance.

Then contact the AFA at AFA Contact and thank them for ID'ing companies that you can support for supporting tolerance.

AP Insurers are potentially facing billions of dollars in losses from Hurricane Katrina claims, and battle lines have begun forming as carriers argue they aren't responsible for flooding excluded from standard homeowners policies.  

The majority of homes in areas slammed by the hurricane have policies that cover wind and rain damage, but relatively few had extra insurance to cover flooding. Insurers are posturing to limit the amount of damages by saying massive flooding in storm-ravaged New Orleans is a separate event from the hurricane itself.

Bloomberg Traders are using the Internet to sell thousands of products from endangered wildlife species, including live animals, ivory, tortoiseshell and stuffed creatures, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said.

The trade in products made from some of the world's most endangered species, and in the animals themselves, has ``devastating implications for both wildlife conservation and animal welfare,'' yet not all sellers may be aware their activities are illegal, the group based in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, said today in a report on its Web site.

First he presents us with one piece of information about Polar Bear population trends.

NYT This is not an isolated trend. Although the bears seem to be hurting in some places, like the Hudson Bay region south of here, their numbers have increased worldwide. In Canada, home to most of the world's polar bears, the population has risen by more than 20 percent in the past decade.

The chief reason for the rise is probably restrictions on hunting (for which conservationists deserve credit). In this village of fewer than 200 residents, Mr. Kalluk and the other hunters are limited each year to three dozen bears, which they allocate by drawing names out of a hat.

 

Nature News Experts caution that there isn't really anything new within the pact itself. Both the United States and Australia have long promoted technological solutions as the best way to tackle climate change. "The United States already has bilateral technology cooperation agreements with all the countries involved," points out Fiedler.

Energy experts say that new technologies, such as renewable energy systems and more efficient vehicles, are a vital part of climate-change measures. But they add that emission targets are the best way to act now.

ENS Conservationists announced their strong support for a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday that would permanently protect much of the nation's last pristine National Forest land.

The bill codifies the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, promulgated by President Bill Clinton, which was overturned by the Bush administration in May.

Bush has now nominated Hall, the current director of the southwestern region of the Fish and Wildlife Service, to be the new head of the Service.

Hall is a political hack.  He has consistently sided with development interests in decisions regarding the management of our natural resources.

ENS Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Arizona urged the Senate to reject Hall's nomination. Suckling said Hall has "routinely sided with extraction interests" and "undermined scientific standards at every turn."

As our attention is rivited on Rove and the SCOTUS nomination, I hope we can muster enough energy to oppose this nomination.

Women in Saddam's Iraq lived under a system that promised them freedom from gender-based oppression.

Even under Saddam's regime, women were free to choose whether to wear western-style dress and make-up or the black abaya. Many wore western dress in their jobs for government departments and in schools and universities.

...Snip...

Women were given the right to vote, receive an education, and work outside the home. Education was mandatory for both girls and boys up to the age of 16. Women were strongly encouraged to attend universities and acquire professional skills.

This was the starting point when the US invaded Iraq.  I'm not suggesting Iraq was a beacon of democracy.  It was far from it and women in Saddam's Iraq were not free from danger.

A report conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) found large numbers of scientists at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service reported political interference in their scientific determinations.

UCS  More than one third of respondents positioned to make such recommendations (37 percent) have "been directed, for non-scientific reasons, to refrain from making findings that are protective" of marine life and nearly one in four (24 percent) of those conducting such work reported being "directed to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information from a NOAA Fisheries scientific document;"