Daily Kos: IMPORTANT NOW: 60 Minutes Niger story that never aired... Let's get it aired!

More detail on the story that never aired below...

* jbalazs's diary :: ::
*

Here is the link to the article written by Michael Isikoff for Newsweek, September 22, 2004 about the CBS decision to bump the Niger story with the TANG documents story. There are some very interesting points in the article:

The Story That Didn't Run

Some excerpts from the article include:

A team of "60 Minutes" correspondents and consulting reporters spent more than six months investigating the Niger uranium documents fraud, CBS sources tell NEWSWEEK. The group landed the first ever on-camera interview with Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who first obtained the phony documents, as well as her elusive source, Rocco Martino, a mysterious Roman businessman with longstanding ties to European intelligence agencies.

Some CBS reporters, as well as one of the network's key sources, fear that the Niger uranium story may never run, at least not any time soon, on the grounds that the network can now not credibly air a report questioning how the Bush administration could have gotten taken in by phony documents. The network would "be a laughingstock," said one source intimately familiar with the story.

Although acknowledging that it was "frustrating" to have his story bounced, David Gelber, the lead CBS producer on the Niger piece, said he has been told the segment will still air some time soon, perhaps as early as next week. "Obviously, everybody at CBS is holding their breath these days. I'm assuming the story is going to run until I'm told differently."

I think enough time has passed that CBS shouldn't be "embarrassed" anymore about the TANG forgery fiasco and get back to reporting news now that 64% of Americans actually may want to hear it!

There is also another article by Mary Jacoby dated September 29, 2004 that talks about some of the details contained in the CBS story that never aired, and shows why this story is even more imprtant NOW than ever.

The Cowardly Broadcasting System

Here is the clip from the article that shows how it ties to the current Grand Jury investigation and why airing the story is so important, not only for the public, but for CBS regaining its credibility:

After the war started, in March, Wilson, shocked that the discredited Niger story had appeared in Bush's State of the Union address, wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times about the lack of evidence he found in Niger. In retaliation and in an attempt to intimidate him and any other future critic, the segment relates, "two senior administration sources gave conservative columnist Robert Novak the name of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, a covert CIA agent, which he published in his column, published in the Washington Post. The act of revealing the identity of an undercover CIA operative is a federal felony against national security. The episode led to appointment of a special prosecutor. That probe continues. Lately, the prosecutor has hauled a number of journalists who may or may not have information in for questioning."

Bradley interviews Wilson, who says that he found nothing in Niger to indicate that any purchase agreement had been signed or executed. Bradley then speaks with the former director of the Department of State's intelligence bureau (intelligence and research), Greg Thielmann, who explains why he concluded that Iraq was not attempting to reconstitute its nuclear program. In March 2002, Bradley reported, the White House received Thielmann's report, entitled "Niger: Sale of Uranium Is Unlikely."

So, please, contact CBS and get them to air this ASAP. I suspect they just might... Hey, if CNN is finally growing some, maybe CBS can too!

Daily Kos: IMPORTANT NOW: 60 Minutes Niger story that never aired... Let's get it aired!

Letter To Governors Asking Them To Defend Science Education

Letter To Governors Asking Them To Defend Science Education

Download a PDF of the Letter to All 50 State Governors Asking Them To Defend Science Education With Signatures of Clergy Members, Nobel Laureates, and Scientists.

To All Fifty State Governors:

As scientists and clergy, we write to express our deep concern about the education of our children. Specifically, we are concerned about efforts to supplement or replace the teaching of evolution in our public schools with religious dogma or unscientific speculation. Science classes should help provide our children with the tools and scientific literacy they need to succeed in a 21st century economy.

We are well aware of studies showing American children falling behind those of other nations in their knowledge and understanding of science. We certainly will not be able to close this gap if we substitute ideology for fact in our science classrooms – limiting students' understanding of a scientific concept as critical as evolution for ideological reasons.

We do not oppose exposing our children to philosophical and spiritual discussion around the origin and meaning of life. There are appropriate venues for such discussion – but not in the context of teaching science in a public school science classroom.

We have come together – people of science and people of faith – for the sake of our children and the competitiveness of our country, to urge you to ensure that:

· Science curricula, state science standards, and teachers emphasize evolution in a manner commensurate with its importance as a unifying concept in science and its overall explanatory power.

· Science teachers in your state are not advocating any religious interpretations of nature and are nonjudgmental about the personal beliefs of students.

· There are no requirements to teach "creation science" or related concepts such as "intelligent design," or to "teach the controversy" – implying that there is legitimate scientific debate about evolution when there is not. Teachers should not be pressured to promote nonscientific views or to diminish or eliminate the study of evolution.

· Publishers of science textbooks should not be required or volunteer to include disclaimers in textbooks that distort or misrepresent the methodology of science and the current body of knowledge concerning the nature and study of evolution.

Our nation's future rests, as always, in the hands of our children. We hope to have your commitment to ensure that our schools teach science, not ignorance, to our children as they prepare the next generation for the challenges of a new century.

Letter To Governors Asking Them To Defend Science Education

Islands of Ignorance: Top 10 Places Where Science Education is Under Threat

Islands of Ignorance: Top 10 Places Where Science Education is Under Threat

Is the religious right pushing "Intelligent Design" in your community?

Islands of Ignorance: Top 10 Places Where Science Education is Under Threat

abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down

WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday criticized former Education Secretary William Bennett for remarks linking the crime rate and the abortion of black babies.

"The president believes the comments were not appropriate," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Bennett, on his radio show, "Morning in America," was answering a caller's question when he took issue with the hypothesis put forth in a recent book that one reason crime is down is that abortion is up.

"But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," said Bennett, author of "The Book of Virtues."

White House Condemns Bennett's Remarks - Yahoo! News

Daily Kos: Delay Prison Photos !!

Daily Kos: Delay Prison Photos !!

Daily Kos: ABSOLUT CORRUPTION. Parody Ad

Daily Kos: ABSOLUT CORRUPTION. Parody Ad

BBC NEWS: Microgrids as peer-to-peer energy

lead researcher, Dr Tom Markvart says: "A microgrid is a collection of small generators for a collection of users in close proximity. It supplies heat through the household.. it is easy to construct" [by reusing the current eletrical cables] . As an analogy, the microgrids could work like peer-to-peer file-sharing technologies, such as BitTorrents, where demand is split up and shared around the network of "users". Microgrids ..deal much more efficiently with fluctuating power demands which the national grid ..the ..current electricity distribution system was built around the availability of fossil fuels. [And now Peak Oil threw a monkey wrench on it -- law]

Microgrids as peer-to-peer energy
Small networks of power generators in "microgrids" could transform the electricity network in the way that the net changed distributed communication.

That is one of the conclusions of a Southampton University project scoping out the feasibility of microgrids for power generation and distribution.

Microgrids are small community networks that supply electricity and heat.

They could make substantial savings, and emissions cuts with no major changes to lifestyles, researchers say.

Electricity suppliers are aiming to meet the UK government's Renewables Obligation, requiring them to generate 15% of electricity from renewable sources by 2015.

Microgrids, say the researchers, could easily integrate alternative energy production, such as wind or solar, into the electricity network.

They could also make substantial savings and cuts to emissions without major changes to lifestyles, according to lead researcher, Dr Tom Markvart.

"This would save something like 20 to 30% of our emissions with hardly anyone knowing it," he told the BBC News website.

"A microgrid is a collection of small generators for a collection of users in close proximity," explained Dr Markvart, whose research appears in the Royal Academy of Engineering's Ingenia magazine.

"It supplies heat through the household, but you already have cables in the ground, so it is easy to construct an electricity network. Then you create some sort of control network." That network could be made into a smart grid using more sophisticated software and grid computing technologies.

As an analogy, the microgrids could work like peer-to-peer file-sharing technologies, such as BitTorrents, where demand is split up and shared around the network of "users".

Microgrids could exist as stand alone power networks within small communities, or be owned and operated by existing power suppliers.

Campaign groups such as the Green Alliance have been pushing for micropower generation technologies, such as micro-CHP (combined heat and power) boilers - a vital part of microgrids - mini-wind turbines and photovoltaic (PV) solar arrays.

Micro-CHP units work by turning heat which would normally escape through flues into electricity. Homeowners then sell any surplus electricity back to the national grid.

The Green Alliance says the government should take micro-generation more seriously.

Putting just six panels of solar PVs on a typical new three-bedroom house would reduce that household's carbon emissions by over 20%, according to the group.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Microgrids as peer-to-peer energy