Archive - Nov 7, 2007

• Farm Bill Debate Hits a Wall on the Senate Floor
• Election Day Marks a Significant Change of the Political Winds in Virginia
• Cheney Impeachment Resolution Grasps for Life in the Judiciary Committee
• Whistleblower Speaks on AT&T/NSA Information Sharing
• In Lead-Up to Palestinian-Israeli Talks, Peace Appears Unlikely
• Rescue Workers Search for Bodies after a Massive Landslide in Chiapas

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• State of Emergency Declared in Georgian Capital
• Bhutto Calls for Opposition Rally in Pakistan
• Burmese Junta Rejects Proposal for 3-Way Talks
• Lawsuit Filed in Canada over Treatment of Afghan Detainees
• Los Angeles Jury Rules in Favor of Nicaraguan Farmworkers
• CT Utility Wants to Hike Rates to Pay for Executive Bonuses

After weeks of heavy rains and flooding, both the Mexican States of
Tabasco and Chiapas have declared a State of Emergency, and are
requesting federal disaster funds. Mexican President Felipe Calderon
has already promised more than 650 million dollars worth of relief
money, but the Governor of Tabasco has said it will take more than 7
times that amount to pay for the disaster.

During Monday's joint press briefing with Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, US Secretary of States, Condoleezza Rice,
said the up-coming Annapolis peace summit will be a spring-board for
productive Palestinian-Israeli talks.

But as Rami Al-Meghari reports from Gaza, Rice's optimism over the
willingness of the two sides to negotiate may be short-sighted –
especially considering the Israeli government's actions on the ground.

A whistleblower has come forward to denounce the telecommunications
industry collaboration with the White House domestic wiretapping
program. Mark Klein exposed the telecommunication industry's use of
"splitters" to divert internet-based communications to the National
Security Agency. Klein worked as a technician at AT&T for 22 years.
He personally maintained systems to copy and feed billions of emails,
internet phone calls, web searches, and other data communications to
the NSA as part of President Bush's domestic wiretapping program.

Klien Cut:

Will they or won't they? That's the question for the Judiciary
committee on whether they will pick up the impeachment debate.
Yesterday, Presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich introduced a
resolution that would bring articles of impeachment against Vice
President Dick Cheney.

The House then decided to send the resolution to the Judiciary
Committee for debate. Now that impeachment may be on the table,
there's a mêlée brewing between progressive Democrats and the
Democratic leadership to see if it will stay there.

Karen Miller reports.

Most elections talk lately focuses on votes that are still a year
away, but state polls were open across the country yesterday with
governorships, state legislatures and ballot initiatives in the
balance. Election day was marked by two unsurprising gubinatorial
outcomes. Republican Governor Haley Barbour won reelection in
Mississippi – despite running against a socially-conservative
born-again Christian. And Democrat Steve Beshear defeated GOP
incumbent Ernie Fletcher in Kentucky. Fletcher's tenure in office had
been plagued by scandal – and he had even been indicted on three
misdemeanor charges related to a state hiring case.