Morning News Roundup (24 August)

Middle East Sturm und Drang

• Israel is carefully watching the world's reaction to Iran's continued refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, with some high-level officials arguing it is now clear that when it comes to stopping Iran, Israel "may have to go it alone," The Jerusalem Post has learned.
  
  One senior source said on Tuesday that Iran "flipped the world the bird" by not responding positively to the Western incentive plan to stop uranium enrichment. He expressed frustration that the Russians and Chinese were already saying that Iran's offer of a "new formula" and willingness to enter "serious negotiations" was an opening to keep on talking.
  [...]
  He said there was a need to understand that "when push comes to shove," Israel would have to be prepared to "slow down" the Iranian nuclear threat by itself.
  
  Having said this, he did not rule out the possibility of US military action, but said that if this were to take place, it would probably not occur until the spring or summer of 2008, a few months before President George W. Bush leaves the international stage. The US presidential elections, which Bush cannot contest because of term limits, are in November 2008. [Jerusalem Post]
  
  
• A House Intelligence Committee report warned that the U.S. is facing “significant gaps” in its intelligence on Iran that could be as serious as the shortcomings in its prewar knowledge about Iraq, leaving Washington ill-prepared to assess Tehran’s military capabilities. “American intelligence agencies do not know nearly enough about Iran’s nuclear weapons program” to help policymakers at a critical time, the report said. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• Hizbollah has trumped both the UN army and the Lebanese government by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars - most of it almost certainly from Iran - into the wreckage of southern Lebanon and Beirut's destroyed southern suburbs. Its massive new reconstruction effort - free of charge to all those Lebanese whose homes were destroyed or damaged in Israel's ferocious five-week assault on the country - has won the loyalty of even the most disaffected members of the Shia community in Lebanon.
  [...]
  [F]or now - and in the total absence of the 8,000-strong foreign military force that is intended to join Unifil with a supposedly "robust" mandate - Hizbollah has already won the war for "hearts and minds". Most householders in the south have received - or are receiving - a minimum initial compensation payment of $12,000 (£6,300), either for new furniture or to cover their family's rent while Hizbollah construction gangs rebuild their homes. The money is being paid in cash - almost all in crisp new $100 bills - to up to 15,000 families across Lebanon whose property was blitzed by the Israelis, a bill of $180m which is going to rise far higher when reconstruction and other compensation is paid. [Robert Fisk in The Independent]
  
  
• Things could be worse. “For three years, the president tried to reassure Americans that more progress was being made in Iraq than they realized. But with Iraq either in civil war or on the brink of it, Bush dropped the unseen-progress argument in favor of the contention that things could be even worse.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]

Enviro News

• Illinois could reduce its dependence on foreign oil with help from its corn and soybean harvests, according to a $1.2 billion energy plan developed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The plan calls for investing $225 million over the next five to 10 years to build as many as 20 plants to turn corn into ethanol, five soy biodiesel plants and four facilities that would make ethanol from plant waste like corn husks. [my Hugg via CBSNews]

Domestic Potpourri

• President Bush played host to Rockey Vaccarella, a Hurricane Katrina survivor trailed by a documentary crew, for coffee at the White House yesterday to demonstrate concern for those still afflicted a year after the storm. Vaccarella, it turned out, had another idea in mind as well.
  
  "I just wish the president could have another term in Washington," he said as cameras rolled on the South Lawn, where the two appeared together after coffee.
  [...]
  The Vaccarella visit was part of a preemptive effort by the White House to fend off fresh criticism of the administration's handling of Katrina as the first anniversary approaches. Vaccarella praised the government effort while saying he "wanted to remind the president that the job's not done, and he knows that." [WaPo; includes video]
  
  
• This guy is a symbol of the misery that so many people in Louisiana and Mississippi? If we didn't know any better, this couldn't have been more of home run for Bush if the whole thing had been set up by Karl Rove.
  
  Hmmmmm... Turns out that the earthy Vaccarella -- a highly successful businessman in the fast-food industry -- is indeed a Republican pol, having run unsuccessfully under the GOP banner for a seat on the St. Bernard Parish commission back in 1999.
  [...]
  And in fact, Vaccarella seemed very confident that he would be meeting with Bush when he left home, to the point where he had a date scheduled and everything. [Will Bunch from the Philadelphia Daily News]
  
  
• A year after the costliest disaster in US history nearly wiped out this cultural mecca, New Orleans is struggling to rebuild its shattered soul. More than half the population is still scattered across the country. Entire neighborhoods remain abandoned to the mold and misery left behind by floodwaters that swamped 80 percent of the city. And bodies are still being pulled out of the ruins.
  [...]
  Outside of the main tourist districts, people who came back to rebuild look out their windows at the wrecked and abandoned homes of neighbors who have not returned. Most are exhausted from the effort of mending their shattered lives and weaving through the endless bureaucracy of government aid offices and insurance companies.
  
  Depression is rampant and the suicide rate remains high. Living in tiny trailers or in spare rooms of friends and relatives has brought an increase in domestic violence. Drug and alcohol abuse are common, and the National Guard had to be called back after a slew of gangland-style slayings. [AFP via TerraDaily]

Misc.

• Pluto has lost its seven-decade status as the ninth and outermost planet of the solar system, the world's top astrononomical body decided. "The eight planets are Mercury, Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune," said the IAU resolution, passed Thursday in a raised-hands vote after what, by the discreet standards of the astronomical community, was a stormy debate. Pluto's status had been contested for many years by astronomers who said that its tiny size and highly eccentric orbit precluded it from joining the other acknowledged planets. [Agence France Presse]
  
• The owner of a restaurant named after Adolf Hitler said Thursday he will change its name because it angered so many people. Hitler's Cross opened five days ago and serves pizza, salad and pastries in Navi Mumbai, a suburb of Bombay, also known as Mumbai. Puneet Sablok said he would remove Hitler's name and the Nazi swastika from billboards and the menu. He had said the restaurant's name and symbols were only meant to attract attention. [Happy News]

And finally... I don't know why Mrs. F sent me this article from the NYTimes. I really don't.