WASHINGTON — Americans overwhelmingly support congressional action to cap the number of U.S. troops in Iraq and set a timetable to bring them home by the end of next year, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds – tougher action than the non-binding resolution the House of Representatives is to begin debating today. While six in 10 oppose President Bush’s plan to use more troops to try to stabilize Iraq, a nearly equal number also oppose any effort to cut off funding for those additional forces. ‘They’re saying the same thing they said in the 2006 elections – that they are against the current policy and they want something done about it,’ says James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. ‘They want Congress to debate it; they want Congress to focus on it; they want to bring this war to a close,’ says Mark Blumenthal, a former Democratic pollster who is now editor of Pollster.com. ‘We don’t want to deny our armed services what they need to do their jobs, but we’d like to bring them home.’ Republicans remain supportive of the war; a majority of them oppose any congressional limits. […]
PHILADELPHIA - Some bad habits, it seems, are easier to kick than others. It took five years for Philadelphia City Council to agree on a smoking ban, but Thursday - mere weeks after the idea was first proposed - council unanimously approved a bill banning trans fats from most dishes served by city restaurants. In recent years nutritionists have vilified trans fats as a largely artificial, artery-clogging fat with no dietary benefits. Think Crisco or margarine: inexpensive, semi-solid fats with long shelf lives. The ban will take effect on Sept. 1, when restaurateurs will no longer be permitted to fry foods in trans fats or serve trans fat-based spreads. By Sept. 1, 2008, trans fats will be banned in all food prepared in Philadelphia eateries. The ban will not apply to pre-packaged foods. Councilman Juan Ramos, who sponsored the bill, said it would have a clear and quantifiable impact on the health of Philadelphia residents. ‘The result could be as much as a 6 percent reduction in coronary heart disease events in our community,’ Ramos said. New York City has already outlawed trans fats in restaurants, and 19 states are considering banning or restricting […]
The percentage of US companies failing to meet Wall Street’s earnings expectations has reached the highest level in more than two years, fuelling fears that corporate America’s record run of profit growth will come to an abrupt end. Concerns of a slowdown in corporate profitability – one of the key reasons for the stock market’s record-breaking streak – have been heightened by companies’ increasingly bearish outlook on business prospects. More than 22 per cent of the 400-plus S&P 500 companies to have reported results for the fourth quarter of 2006 failed to meet Wall Street expectations. This is the highest level of ‘misses’ since the third quarter of 2004, according to Reuters Estimates. The spike in earnings disappointments increases the chances that corporate America will end a three-and-a-half year run of quarterly double-digit profit growth in the last quarter of 2006 rather than at the beginning of 2007, as widely expected. Missing earnings forecasts is particularly embarrassing for US companies because, unlike most of their European counterparts, many set their own yardsticks by providing analysts with quarterly earnings guidance. ‘The period of rapid earning growth is at an end,’ said Ashwani Kaul, senior research analyst […]
Under any circumstances, the Bush administration’s sudden, explicitly political dismissal and replacement of United States attorneys in judicial districts across the country would be very troubling — both as a violation of American law enforcement traditions and as a triumph of patronage over competence. But as the story behind these strange decisions unfolds, a familiar theme is emerging. Again, the White House and the Justice Department have been exposed in a secretive attempt to expand executive power for partisan purposes. And again, their scheming is tainted with a nasty whiff of authoritarianism. There is much more at stake here than a handful of federal jobs. Leading senators of both parties are disturbed by these incidents because U.S. attorneys — the powerful officials appointed by the president to prosecute federal crimes and defend federal interests in each of the nation’s judicial districts — are supposed to be as nonpartisan as possible. Democrats mostly appoint Democrats and Republicans mostly appoint Republicans, but the U.S. attorneys are usually chosen with the advice and consent of the senators from their home states, and then confirmed by the full Senate, with a decent respect for skill and experience as well as political […]
Flocks of the Christian faithful in the US will this Sunday hold special services celebrating Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The idea is to stand up to creationism, which claims the biblical account of creation is literally true, and which is increasingly being promoted under the guise of ‘intelligent design’. Proponents of ID say the universe is so complex it must have been created by some unnamed designer. Support for ‘Evolution Sunday’ has grown 13 per cent to 530 congregations this year, from the 467 that celebrated the inaugural event last year. Organisers see it as increasing proof that Christians are comfortable with evolution. ‘For far too long, strident voices, in the name of Christianity, have been claiming that people must choose between religion and modern science,’ says Michael Zimmerman, founder of Evolution Sunday and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University in Indianapolis. ‘We’re saying you can have your faith, and you can also have science.’ Zimmerman and his backers believe the biblical account of creation is allegorical. ‘Creationists fear that if you believe evolution, you’re an atheist,’ he says. But for Zimmerman, attempts to try and ‘ratify God’s existence’ through […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
