2007
From dKosopedia
Categories: Timeline | Event articles timeline
2006 2007 2008
Timeline
January
January 1
- The number of U.S. military personnel killed in the Republican War in Iraq reaches 3000. Military personnel killed for the other members of the almost virtual international coalition supporting the U.S. include: Britain: 126; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 18; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; and Denmark, six. Is it a big ole mistake yet Bushies?
- Romania and Bulgaria "offically" join the European Union, but not the Eurozone. Romania cannot adopt the euro until 2014 and Bulgaria not before 2010. Also, unlike other EU citizens, Romanians and Bulgarians cannot travel freely across EU borders.
January 3
- The first Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte announces he will resign and take the number two slot at the State Department, Deputy Secretary of State.
January 4
- 110th Congress is sworn in with Democratic majorities. Big Oil and Big Pharma are mobilized to stop reform.
- Sen. Patrick Leahy introduces the War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007 See Daily Kos Story
- Sloppy journalism or stealth conservative propaganda? ABC News with Charles Gibson broadcasts report about the Patriot Riders that begins by noting they were created to protect militiary funerals from protesters but neglects to mention that they were anti-gay rather than anti-war protests. See media bias.
January 5
- Listen to the American People Bush! Democratic Speaker of the U.S. House of Represenatatives Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid send U.S. Pres. George W. Bush letter opposing his planned troop escalation in Iraq.
- Prison riot in Apanteos, El Salvador begins. By January 7, 2007, 20 will be dead.
January 6
- Conservative Correctness at CNN: weather report explains "Wacky Weather" without reference to the phrases "Global Warming" or "Climate Change." CNN Anchor Betty Nguyen comments she studied Spanish and therefore cannot read French news reports about UFOs.
- U.S. Pres. George W. Bush appoints Lt. Gen. David Petraeus to oversee the surge (an easier to spell conservative euphemism for escalation) in U.S. troops deployed in the Republcian War in Iraq. Adm. Mike McConnell appointed to replace John D. Negroponte as Dorector of National Intelligence. Neo-con Zalmay Khalilzad is rumored to be appointed as U.S. Ambassador to the UN.
- Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace, and other peace activists arrive in Havana, Cuba.
January 7
- On Meet the Press Maryland Democratic Sen. Joe Biden announces that he is running for the Demcoratic Nomination for President in 2008.
January 8
- Russian oil supplies cut to Poland, Germany, and Ukraine.
January 9
- U.S. air strike in Somalia targets senior Al Qaeda operative Fazul Abdullah Mohammed.
January 10
- George W. Bush delivers Iraq War speech announcing escalation of U.S. troops deployed to 22,000.
- British government is rumored to be planning the withdraw 3000 of its 7000 troops in Iraq.
- Estonian Parliament passes legislation allowing re-burial of Soviet soldiers from the Second World War as part of the demolition of Soviet military memorials in Estonia. The Soviet Red Army stopped and then defeated the German Wehrmacht in massive land battles that determined the outcome of the Second World War in Europe. Estonian nationalists are using the destruction of the Soviet military memorials to humiliate the ethnic Russian minority living in Estonia.
January 11
- U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates urges Americans to support Bush's escaltion of the absurd Republican War in Iraq: "At this pivotal moment the credibility of the United States is on the line in Iraq." In reality the second Bush administration has no more credibility to lose.
- British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett endorses the Bush escalation: "We hope that this joint effort to resolve the security situation, which is undermining efforts to put other things right in Iraq, will indeed succeed," she said.
- China destroys its own aging weather satellite in demonstration of a ground based missile kinetic kill weapons system.
- Russian oil supplies restored to Poland, Germany, and Ukraine.
January 12
- Crying Game: U.S. Pres. George W. Bush sheds a tear while awarding a Medal of Honor to the family of late Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham.
- Fourteen members of the Carter Center's Advisory Board resign to protest the title and perhaps the content of former U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter's new book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid: Alan Abrams, Steve Berman, Michael Coles, Jon Golden, Doug Hertz, Barbara Babbit Kaufman, Liane Levetan, Jeff Levy, Leon Novak, Ambassador William B. Schwartz Jr., William B. Schwartz III, Steve Selig, Cathey Steinberg, and Gail Solomon.
January 14
- Governor of Conakry bans all public rallies.
- International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement adopts Red Crystal as a non-religious emblem for use in its overseas operations.
January 15
- Another bungled state execution in Baghdad: Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court.
January 16
- Illinois Senator Barack Obama establishes an presidential campaign exploratory committee.
- New U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates discusses a surge (Republican code for "escalation" or "increase") in Afghanistan, the other war that the second Bush administration is not winning.
January 17
- Flip-flop? U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announces that U.S. Pres. George W. Bush would not reauthorize the Terrorist Surveillance Program, a controversial domestic warrantless surveillance program. Does this mean it was never necessary in the first place?
- Israeli military chief Dan Halutz resigns.
January 18
- Conservative intellectual Dinesh D'Souza appears on the Glenn Beck show to pimp his book accusing American liberals of responsibility for 9/11.
- U.S. Department of Defense finally issues its Manual for Military Commissions.
- Protest in Conakry led by Rabiatou Sera Diallo, president of the National Confederation of Guinea Workers met with tear gas and arrests.
January 19
- The new Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives completes its 100 hours legislative agenda with time to spare. The minority House Republicans whine.
- Republican U.S. Secretary of Defense Roberts Gates states that the additional 22,000 troops the second Bush admministration wants to send to Iraq will be there "probably going into the summer" and into "late summer."
- Armenian-Turkish reporter Hrant Dink is assassinated in Istanbul.
January 20
- New York Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says, "I'm in and I'm in to win." Becomes the instant Democratic Party frontrunner. Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback announces on the same day.
- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears on television to denounce the assassination of Hrant Dink: "The bullets aimed at Hrant Dink were shot into all of us."
- Somali warlord Mohamed Dheere surrenders to the Somali Army. Ethiopian Army convoy is ambushed in Mogadishu.
- Democratic California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber announces she will introduce legislation banning spanking.
- Blackhawk down: U.S. helicopter shot down northeast of Baghdad, kiling 12 U.S. soldiers.
January 20-21
- A narcissistic CNN News organization treats the charity auction of a hummer that its journalists used in Iraq as a major news event.
January 21
- Turkish teenager Ogun Samast is arrested in Samsun for the assassination of Armenian-Turkish reporter Hrant Dink.
January 22
- Australian flag carrier Quantas Airline kicks passenger Allen Jasson off a flight from Melbourne to London for wearing an anti-George W. Bush tee-shirt. Australian Prime Minister is a neo-con junior partner in George W. Bush's failed foreign policy in Iraq.
- Thousands of Guinean demonstrators shout "down with dictatorship" in Conakry, police shoot and kill 7.
January 23
- U.S. Pres. George W. Bush delivers effectively irrelevant State of the Union address. Admits what everyone else on the pleanet except James Inhofe already knows: that global warming is real.
- Republican Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia justify the 2000 party line vote on the high court giving George W. BVush the presidency as a fait accompli. The Gannett Co.'s Journal-News reports that he tells an audience, "It's water over the deck - get over it." Expressions of such arrogance demonstrates a lack of judicial temperment, something necessary for the position Scalia occupies.
- Israeli President Moishe Katsav does not resign but instead asks for a leave of absence in response to charges of rape, obstruction of justice and fraud.
- Neo-cons never fall on their own swords. In his perjury trial Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defense is that he is the designated fall guy for the Bush White House. Libby never complained about his place in the second Bush administration before his resignation and indictment.
- Hezbollah paralyzes Beirut with an army of demonstrators.
January 24
- In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Vice President Richard "Dick" Cheney predicts that Hillary Clinton will not be elected President.
- Blitzer - "Do you think she will be President then?"
- Cheney - "I don't."
January 26
- U.S. Pres. George W. Bush issues the neo-con equivalent of the Commissar Order permitting the summary execution of captured Iranian intelligence agents in Iraq.
January 28
- Guinean union leader Ibrahima Fofana announces on state television that the national strike directed against the Lansana Conte dictatorship had been "suspended."
- Conservative Republican Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee announces that he is running for the Republican nomination for president in 2008.
- Iraqi (Shi'a) Army defeated in engagement with Iraqi (Sunni) insurgents in battle near Najaf. 1 U.S. helicopter is shot down. Iraqi Brig. Gen. Fadhil Barwari claimed that 300 insurgents were killed, including 30 Afghanis and Saudis, and that 20 were captured. How does the Iraqi insurgents Army know how many were killed if it retreated from the battle under fire? The Iraqis also claim that the insurgents include members of a Mahdist sect called Soldier of Heaven.
- Speaking in Davenport, Iowa, Hillary Clinton says she doesn't want to inherit the Iraq War as President, George W. Bush should "extricate our country" from Iraq before he leaving office and it would be "the height of irresponsibility" to pass the war along to the next president.
January 29
- Profits before people is conservative S.O.P. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) turns down proposal by Bridge the Gap to cage nuclear power plants to deflect attacks like those of September 11, 2001.
- Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer rolls over on Scooter Libby, telling jury that Libby told him anti-war critic Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife was CIA agent Valerie Plame.
- Three die in Palestinian suicide bombing in a bakery in the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat.
- Moscow Mayor and homophobe Yury Luzhkov engages in hate mongering: "Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as Satanic...We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future."
- On Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor Bill O'Reilly complains that public objections in Seattle that scantily clad women are serving coffee in a coffeeshop is ridiculous. The O'Reilly Factor 8:55 PM EST (What could be wrong with that? Aren't interns supposed to serve coffee while scantilly clad?)
January 30
- Windows Vista is released.
January 31
- Announcement that Al Franken will run for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota in 2008.
- Columnist Molly Ivins dies at age 62.
- West Midlands Police arrest 9 home-grown Islamists in Birmingham in kidnapping/internet behading plot targettign British Muslim soldier.
- Former Rhode Island state senator John Celona sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for accepting bribes from CVS and Blue Shield of Rhode Island.
- Former Israeli Justice Minister (56 year old) Haim Ramon is convicted of forcibly kissing a 21 year old female soldier on the first day of 2006 Israeli-Lebanese War.
February
February
February 1
- "Fair and Balanced" Fox News broadcasts a segment with the title "Will Hillary Clinton be the Worst President Ever?" The Big Story With John Gibson 5:31 PM EST.
- James Ujaama, formerly known as James Earnest Thompson, was sentenced to two years in U.S. Federal prison for violating parole by travelling to Belize.
- 75,000 march in Mexico City to protest food price increases.
- China announces that it is ready to negotiate a treaty to prevent an arms race in space.
February 2
- International Conference on Climate Change in Paris issues 21 page summary report that global warming is very likely caused by human activity. In apparent reversal of its long standing opposition to admitting the truth about global warming, the White House allowed U.S. government scientist Susan Solomon to comment that, "there can be no question that the increase in greenhouse gases are dominated by human activities."
- The Guardian reports that the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) offered scientists payments of up to $10,000 for articles emphasising the shortcomings of the Paris Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
- Declassified version of 90 page National Intelligence Estimate warns that the situation in Iraq will probably deteriorate unless changes are made to save the situation. The Peace Movement offered that assessment before the 2003 invasion.
February 3
- Is British Prime Minister Tony Blair striking a George W. Bush pose? He urges fellow Labour Party members to "weather the storm" of the current party politcal crisis.
February 4
- Indianapolis Colts defeat Chicago Bears 29 to 17 in Super Bowl XLI in Miami.
February 5
- Conservative populist CNN host Glenn Beck reveals his ignorance of the geography of England when he rails about London Mayor Ken Livingstone's comments that London is a multicultural success story and then uses the recent arrests of Islamists plotters in Birmingham as evidence to the contrary. From his comments, Beck may have believed that Birmingham is a suburb of London. In fact London is in the Southeast of England and Birmingham is in the West Midlands.
- 7th Annual Cannibis Convention at the University of Victoria’s David Lam Auditorium.
- U.S. Pres. George W. Bush announces $2.9 trillion Federal government budget with his trademark combination of bad grammar and cheap posturing. He lectures Congress on the vils earmarks, a problem he recognizes only after his party loses control of both chambers.
- Beantown government officials hysteria: Boston extracts $2 million in damages from Turner Broadcasting for costs incurred because Boston officials overracted to a guerrilla advertisement for Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
- Japanese Sumiyoshi-kai mob boss Ryoichi Sugiura is shot to death in opening gang war between the Sumiyoshi-kai and Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza families.
February 6
- Party trumps integrity. Republicans U.S. Senators, including the once courageous Sen. Chuck Hagel, unite to block debate on the Republican War in Iraq. Democratic U.S. House leadership pledges they conduct the vote that their colleagues in the Senate could not.
- Former Democratic U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman proposes a War on Terrorism tax: "I think we have to start thinking about a war on terrorism tax...I mean people keep saying we're not asking a sacrifice of anybody but our military in this war and some civilians who are working on it."
- Much of Jakarta was underwater on Tuesday, after torrential rains, overflowing rivers and clogged sewers brought widespread flooding over the weekend.
February 7
- Pat Robertson reportedly threatens Texas bodybuilder Rhilip Busch: "I am going to kill you and your family."
February 8
February 9
- News of Anna Nicole Smith's death swamps FOX News effort to gin up a scandal from Nancy Pelosi's request for Air Force transport.
- "We're not in jail for this either, dude." Friendly fire U.S. airstrike kills 8 Kurdish security forces near Mosul.
February 10
- Army Gen. David Petraeus takes control of the U.S. military quagmire in Iraq in a ceremony in Baghdad. He then utters heroic sounding but soon to be forgotten words: "We can and we must prevail. This mission is doable."
- Conservative Party Leader David Cameron admits that he smoked cannabis while at Eton! Was he also a toker at Oxford? Report in The Independent
February 11
- Portugal Abortion Law Referendum: voters will decide whether to legalize abortion for all women until the tenth week of pregnancy.
- The Real America repudiates the conservative Republican boycott. Dixis Chicks clean up at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.
February 12
February 13
- Unhappy with the diminutive size of his religious home-state (Utah) and the politics of the citizens where he was governor (Massachusetts), Mitt Romney announces he is running for the Republican presidential nomination at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Perhaps he knows he won't get the tiny Republican Jewish vote anyway. The Detroit Free Press-Local 4 Michigan Poll conducted in January found that only 8% of likely Michigan Republican primary voters favored Romney. News Report
- Announcement of a tentative deal in the six party talks in Beijing to end North Korea's bid to become a nuclear weapons state. The U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France, Israel, India and Pakistan are all nuclear weapons states.
February 14
- Terrorist car-bombing in southeastern Iran by the Sunni Islamist "Jundallah" or "Allah's Brigade" targets a bus transporting members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards; 18 dies.
February 15
- Evacuations of foreigners continue in Guinea as the country descends into anarchy.
February 16
February 17
- European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering orders investigation into accusation that the EU funded a 30 page anti-Semitic booklet written by wingnut 71 year-old Polish MEP and botanist Maciej Giertych. In the booklet Giertych claims that Jews prefer to settle "among the rich," "create their own ghettos," and seek "biological separation" which leads to differences in facial features. The "Polish League of Families" MEP's son is the Polish Education Minister, Roman Giertych.
February 18
- Lunar New Year
- Local elections in Albania.
February 19
February 20
- More shame; 24 year old U.S. soldier Paul E. Cortez enters guilty plea to rape in the gang rape and murder of 14 year Iraqi Abeer Qassim al-Janabi in Mahmoudiya.
February 21
- The second Bush adminitration's Coalition of the Willing becomes even more threadbare as Britain and Denamark announce timetables for the withdrawal fo their troops. The UK will pull out 2000 plus troops, Denmark will withdraw all of its 430 troops, while mighty Lithuania is considering withdrawing its 50 soldiers. Speaking in Berlin, U.S. Secretary of State Rice offered a patheticaly transparent denial that the coalition was crumbling: "The coalition remains intact and in fact the British still have thousands of soldiers deployed in Iraq, in the south."
- Dick Cheney likes his audiences extra safe. Speaking on hangar deck of the USS Kitty Hawk docked in Tokyo, Cheney vowed, "We want to complete the mission, and we want to get it done right, and we want to return with honor." News Report (Was that the "imperial we" that we hear?)
- Dreamworks founder and Big Dem contributor David Geffen slams Hillary Clinton in interview with NYT columnist Maureen Dowd. Geffen describes Clinton as the Democratic candidate "easiest to beat" and criticized her unfusal to apologize for her 2002 vote on the Iraq War: "It's not a very big thing to say 'I made a mistake' on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can't."
February 22
- Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi offers resignation after losing a parliamentary vote on foreign policy involving Italian troop deployed in Afghanistan and expanding the U.S. military base in Vicenza.
- UFO report in Somerset County, Maine.
- More pathological sexual repression from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Tehran authorities plan to make Caspian sea Arezou (Wish) Island female only for female vactioners.
- Declassified documents reveal that the British Ministry of Defence had hired psychics to find Osama bin Laden.
February 23
- Speaking to the the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue U.S. Vice President Richard "Dick" Cheney warned about Chinese miltiary intentions. Ironically, Cheney's own government has armed forces fighting in two wars and threatens to start a third against Iran.
- U.S. ally Pakistan tests a nuclear capable Shaheen II missile or Hatf VI missile.
February 27
- U.S. Veep Richard Bruce (Dick) Cheney hears the distant sound of war during a visit to Baghram Airbase as a suicide bomber kills 23 and wounds more. Pity that Cheney and the other neocons couldn't wait to finish winning the war in Afghanistan before launching their disastrous war in Iraq.
- U.S. Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell states that the War in Iraq is at "a precarious juncture" with security and political trends moving "in a negative direction." Translated from national security bureaucratese that means "we're losing." Well done Bushies!
- Incumbent Democratic Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley wins re-election with 72% of the vote.
- Liberal Party defeats Conservative Party attempt to extend two controversial anti-terrorist measures (allowing preventive arrests and investigative hearings) by a vote of 159 to 124 in the Canadian House of Commons.
February 28
- International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors indict Sudanese Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Ahmed Haroun and a Janjaweed commander Ali Kosheib for war crimes in the Darfur conflict.
- Liberal historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. dies in New York at age 89.
- Unofficial annoucnment by John McCain that he is running for President on Late Night With Dave Letterman.
March
March
- Nato and Afghan forces launch Operation Achilles, an offensive against the Taliban in the south. There is heavy fighting in Helmand province.
March 1-March 9
- "Ground Zero Sixty-Nine" rioting in Copenhagen over control of squatters settlement at Jagtvej 69 that police are helping to exproporaite for a Christian group: 695 are arested.
March 2
- Pakistani officials announce they have arrested Mullah Obaidullah Akhund in a raid earlier in the week.
- University of Nebraska file suit against the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to stop its "unlawfully withholding and unreasonably delaying action" on its application for Bolivian academic Waskar Ali to teach as an assistant professor in the departments of history and ethnic studies.
March 4
- Parliamentary Election in Estonia: 101 seats in the Riigikogu.
March 5
- Nine U.S. soldiers in Iraq killed with IEDs.
- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed an ethics complaint against Republcian U.S. Senator Pete Domenici. Dismissed U.S. Attorney David Iglesias had earlier revealed that Pete Domenici and Republican U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, both New Mexico Republicans, telephoned him before the Nov. 7, 2006 Midterm General Election seeking information on the pace of corruption investigations involving Democratic officeholders.
- Former first officer of the Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth) cult Fumihiro Jopu announces he will establish a new religious group.
March 6
- U.S. Vice Pres. Dick Cheney is diagnosed with a blood clot (deep venous thrombosis) in his left leg.
- Two suicide bombers kill 90 in Iraq.
March 7
- Northern Ireland Assembly elected: 108 seats.
- Isreali Defense Force raids Palestinian Authority's Military Intelligence headquarters in Ramallah, arresting 18.
March 8
- Students, environmentalists and leftists protest visit to Brazil of U.S. Pres. George W. Bush.
- Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski tells Texas state legislative committee about his frustration with inaction by the Texas Youth Commission Board over the sex scandal at the West Texas State School in Pyote: "I can only imagine what the students think about the Ranger who was unable to bring them justice."
March 9
- FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III admits "deficiencies" in his agency's reporting of the issuance of National Security Letters, a finding of the Inspector General. The report accuses the FBI of failing to retain evidence supporting the legality collecting more than 142,000 telephone, credit, and e-mail records, failing to ensure data received matched its needs or requests, and failing to monitor abuses and accurately tally statistics for Congress. Snooping around in the business records of customers and the library records of patrons is apparently still absolutely crucial in counter-terrorism operations. Also much easier and safer for agents than infiltrating terrorist cells.
March 11
- In an bizarre wingnut rant at the CATO Institute Czech President Vaclav Klaus asserts that enviornmentalism is a religion and should be grouped with feminism and communism as a social science.
- U.S. President George W. Bush arrives in Bogota, Columbia to discuss cocaine and insurgency. Five bombs in Cali and nearby Buenaventura before his arrival wound 3. While on his 5 nation tour of Latin America Bush announces another troop escalation for the Republican War in Iraq.
- Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas meet.
- Zimbabwean opposition leader and Movement for Democratic Change President Morgan Tsvangirai arrested.
March 16
March 18
- Parliamentary Election in Finland: 200 seats.
March 19
March 20
March 21
- Help for both R. Giuliani and H. Clinton--New York state legislature overwhelmingly approved a measure moving the state's presidential primary to February 5.
- Gaillist French Pres. Jacques Chirac surrises no one by endorsing the presidential bid of Gaullist Nicholas Sarkozy.
- General Strike in Isreal.
March 22
- John and Elizabeth Edwards announce that Elizabeth has incurable but treatable cancer, but vowed to fight on in the 2008 presidential campaign. "You can go cower in the corner and hide or you can be tough and go out there and stand up for what you believe in," said John Edwards.
March 23
- Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives passes by 218 to 212 an Iraq War spending measure that includes a timetable for withdraw. Fourteen Democrats, including Dennis Kucinich voted "no" on the measure and one Democrat, Pete Stark, voted "present."
- Iranian naval forces arrest 15 British Royal Navy sailors and marines on boats near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
- Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry expels Marine Corps special operations company from Afghanistan for their incompetent response to a March 4 ambush.
- Assistant Professor of Central American Studies Alicia Estrada is ejected from a screening of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto at California State University, Northridge after questioning Gibson in the post-viewing discussion. "In no way was my question aggressive in the way that he responded to it. These are questions that my peers, my colleagues, ask me every time I make a presentation. These are questions I pose to my students in the classroom." Source: Sandy Cohen. "Gibson at Center of Campus Uproar After Prof Challenges Movie." San Jose Mercury News. March 23, 2007.
March 24
March 25
March 26, 2007
- Referendum conducted on Constitutional Reforms "legitimating" Egyptian regime's authoritarianism. Major political and civil groups boycotted the vote. The Egpytian government claims 27.1% voter turnout with 75.9% of these voting to approve. However the independent Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) estimated only 5% voter turnout.
March 27
- Senate Committee members question FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III about the abuse of National Security Letters. Why hasn't Mueller resigned yet?
- U.S. White House announces that spokesperson Tony Snow's cancer has reappeared.
- German Red Army Faction leader Brigitte Mohnhaupt is released on parole after 24 years in jail.
- Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence M. Small resigns because of revelations of irregular housing and travel expenditures.
- Massive bombing of a Shi'a neighborhood in Tal Afar, Iraq kills 152, wounds 347 and destroys more than 100 homes.
March 28
- U.S. Senate passes legislation 50-48 funding the War in Iraq but including a timetable for withdrawal. A posturing U.S. Pres. George W. Bush compalins about pork-barreling in the legislation and threatens to veto the legislation.
- Crude oil for May delivery rises to $64.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
March 29
- Multiple suicide bombings in markets in predominantly Shi'a neighborhoods kill at least 104. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker is sworn in Baghdad.
- Saudi King Abdullah criticises the U.S. Occupation of Iraq: "blood is spilled between brothers under an illegitimate foreign occupation and despicable sectarianism that threatens civil war."
March 30
- Mombusho has decided to revise more of Japanese history. Apparently the Imperial Japanese Army never forced Okinawan civilians to commit suicide in an effort to convince the U.S. of the fanaticism of the Japanese in the closing days of the Second World War.
- Report of a Pew Study published in Science reveals massive decline in 11 Atlantic predatory shark species.
March 31
April
- April: China will launch its first lunar orbiter—the Chang’e-I—on a Dongfanghong III rocket.
April 2
- U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Clean Air Act gives the EPA authority to regulate CO2 as an air pollutant in Massachusetts v. EPA.
- Hostage Iranian diplomat Jalal Sharafi freed by his kidnappers in Baghdad.
April 3
- Employee at Malden Massachusetts's Town Line Inn discovers starving accesory chihuahua thrown away in a travel bag with the trash in a dumpster. Human monster on the loose.
- Two people wounded in shooting at the CNN Center, Atlanta.
- French train sets record by traveling 357.2 mph.
April 6
- Scientists do battle with government officials in Brussels over the wording of the latest report U.N. panel on climate change. Neil Adger of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research explains: ""It looks like very blatant vested interests are trying to stop particular messages getting out. We give our best to provide the best scientific assessment, but when the wording of that is then changed...we get very upset. It's three years' work."
April 8
- Blonde Fox News anchor Page Hopkins or another member of the Aryan sisterhood who looks rather like her interviews Col. David Hunt so that he can promote his new book. She joins him to endorsing the political murder of Muqtada al-Sadr before turning to wish everyone a Happy Easter! Neither appears to understand to contradiction between those two thoughts.
- The second Bush administration continues to decompose as 2008 Republican presidential candidate and disgraced former Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich attacks U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzalez for a mishandled, artificial, self-created mess. So Newt would have conducted a much more effective purge?
April 9
- Massive protests by supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr waving Iraqi flags in Najaf, Iraq.
- East Timor Presidential Election
April 10
- Campaign Obama scores direct hit on campaign McCain: "The idea that the situation in Iraq is improving because it takes a security detail of 100 soldiers, three Black Hawk helicopters and a couple of Apache gunships to walk through a market in the middle of Baghdad is simply not credible and not reflective of the facts on the ground."
- Kurt Vonnegut dies at age 84.
April 11
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates extends Iraq tours of active duty U.S. Army units from 12 to 15 months.
- In Baghdad U.S. military spokesgeneral Maj. Gen. William Caldwell claism that Iran is arming Sunni insurgents: "There are groups that are receiving training in Iran with the most modern weapons and munitions that are available and then being smuggled into Iraq and being utilised by these groups against the Iraqi security force and coalition forces."
- CBS Poll finds that a plurality of American respondents (39%) believe that 2008 Republican War candidate John McCain 39 is painting too rosy a view of the situation in Iraq.
- Two suicide bombings in Algeria kill 33 and wound 220.
- U.S. Senate votes to lift the Republican second Bush administration's stem cell research ban 63 to 34.
April 12
- On CNN's Robin & Company CNN Anchor Robin Meade makes fun of an air traffic controller who had to leave his post for a bathroom break. Her contempt for less well paid professionals with skills on which lives actually depend signals journalistic arrogance.
- Suicide bomber kills 1 and wounds 12 in the cafeteria of the Iraqi Parliament building in Baghdad's Green Zone.
- New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine is seriosuly injured in a car crash.
April 13
- NBC News (which owns MSNBC) offers up a sacrifical goat to anti-racist outrage by firing shock jock Don Imus for having performed his job as a shock jock. Big Media then returns to the profitably degrading American culture.
April 14
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson praises World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz as a "very dedicated public servant." Very dedicated to getting his mistress a $60,000 raise in her tax free salary. Meanwhile Wolfowitz disapproves of corruption in the Third World.
- Russian police break-up pro-democracy demonstration near Pushkin Square in Moscow and arrest chess phenemomenon Garry Kasparov.
- Two suicide bombings outside U.S. consulate and an American cultural center in Casablanca.
April 15
- Second pro-democracy demonstration in Moscow.
April 16
- School shooting at Virginia Tech takes the lives of 32. Easy access to guns claims more lives in America.
- Pope Benedict XVI celebrates his 80th Birthday.
April 17
- Republicans and conservative Democrats quietly close ranks to protect gun "rights" from the "threat" of gun control.
April 18
- Another 230 die in multiple bombings in the Iraqi civil war as the second Bush administration's latest strategic plan fails. In another visit to Baghdad, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that it is only to be expected: "We have anticipated from the very beginning...that the insurgency and others would increase the violence to make the people of Iraq believe the plan is a failure."
- Conservatives succeed in reducing individual American liberty once again. The new Republican supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court strips part of a woman's right to choose and affirms the power of Congress to strip privacy rights to achieve moral purposes.
- Adjunct financial accounting professor Nicholas Winset leads discussion the Virginia Tech massacre in a manner that administrators at Emmanuel College in Boston (a so-called "liberal arts" institution) later dispprove as insensitive. (Those who cannot teach second guess.) They decide to fire him.
April 19
- The worst public performance by a neo-con ever! U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzalez uses 70 plus variations of the phrase "I don't recall or remember" in his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Can this really be the chief law enforcement official in the United States of America?
- U.S. Army issues Army Regulation 530-1, Operations Security (OPSEC), restricting blogging by active sevice personnel.
- FBI agents search the Oakton, VA home of U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, as they probe his ties to Jack Abramoff. For some reason this does not appear on the JohnInTheNews page of his Congressional Home Page! Most major News Media sources forget to report that Doolittle is a Republican. Oops! again.
April 21
- University of Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition (CRC) holds the 16th Annual Extravaganja on Amherst Common. CRC President John Werner told the assembled throng, "We made the laws, and we can change them."
- Nigeria holds Presidential and parliamentary elections that everyone but the "winning" government candidates think were flawed beyond redemption.
- Absurd presidential advisor Karl Rove becomes embroiled in heated exchange with Sheryl Crow and Laurie David at black-tie dinner.
April 22
April 23
- Boris Yeltsin dies. The alcoholic Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation (1991-1999) during whose tenure the Soviet Union evaporated as a superpower, ordinary Russians were impoverished, and much of the state assets of the country grab-it-ized by a handful of now enormously wealthy oligarchs.
- David Halberstam dies in car crash.
- U.S. Pres. George W. Bush asserts in very brief White House press conference that he has confidence in Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzalez.
April 24
- Suicide car bomb kills 9 U.S. soldiers and wounds 20 others in Diyala Province.
- Republican Vice President Richard B. "dick" Cheney accuses Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harru M. Reid of "defeatism." For a neo-con speaking the unvarnished truth is anathema and thus speaking the truth that the Republican second Bush administration has lost its optional war in Iraq is enough to draw the pallid neo-con out of his bunker to attack.
- Puerto Rican activist Alberto de Jesus, a.k.a. Tito Kayak, was arrested by Israeli authorities for hanging a Palestinian Authority flag on a tower in the West Bank town of Bil'in.
- U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visits Poland to negotiate on a site to deploy part of a U.S. ABM system aimed at the Russian Federation.
- Mexico City assembly votes 46 to 19 to legalize abortion.
- Swiss, French and Portuguese scientists at the European Space Observatory in Chile find an Earth-like extrasolar planet orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 581 some 20.5 light years from Sol.
April 25
- U.S. House of Representatives passes Iraq war funding bill with a loose timeline on a 218 to 208 (largely party line) vote.
- Suicide bombing of a police station in northeast Baghdad kills 9 and wounds 16.
April 26
- U.S. Senate passes Iraq war funding bill with a loose timeline on a 51 to 46 vote.
- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits Washington, DC.
- Snoop Dogg is denied an entry visa by Australia after "failing a character test." As a non-citizen Snoop Dog is apparently held to a higher standard than is Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who is regularly allowed back into the country.
- U.S. military announces that Lt. Col. William Steele, commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment, was in custody on charges of "aiding the enemy" and having improper relationships, including one with one with a detainee's daughter.
- First 2008, and earliest ever, major debate among candidates for the Democratic Party Presidential Nomination at South Carolina State University. Those participating inlcude South Carolina Senator John Edwards, Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich, freshman Illinois Senator Barak Obama, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, Delaware Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, and New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
April 27
- Senior White House counselor Dan Bartlett dismisses the assertion in the new books by former DCIA George Tenet that the second Bush administration rushed to war with Iraq: "The president did wrestle with those very serious questions." (Try to imagine Bush intellectually wrestling with any serious public policy issue.)
- Mstislav Rostropovich dies in Moscow at age 80.
April 30
- Massive demonstration in Istambul by Turkish secularists.
May
May
- This month will be the third deadliest for the U.S. military in the Republican War in Iraq with 114 dead.
- Parliamentary Election in The Netherlands
May 1
- U.S. President George W. Bush is not in Washington, DC on the Fourth Anniversary of his absurd "Mission Accomplished" performance. U.S. Congress delivers legislation that funds the war but includes a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops. Bush has promised to veto the $124 billion worth of funding, $100 billion to continue losing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and domestic projects whose public policy purposes Bush disdains: health care for poor children, farm aid to rebuild southern states hit by 2005 hurricanes and increasing the minimum wage.
- LAPD use batons and fired 240 "less-than-lethal" rounds at demonstrators and reporters to break-up immigrant rights protest without makign a single arrest.
- Turkish Constitutional Court annulls first round of parliamentary vote for a new Islamist president.
May 2
- Heroic Space Age astronaut Wally Schirra dies at age 84.
- U.S. and Middle Eastern diplomats meet at Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss the consequences of the failed Republican War in Iraq.
- French presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royale conduct 2.5 hour televised debate.
May 3
- Conservative news media designated Republican presidential nomination "front-runners" Rudi Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney plus designated "lesser knowns" debate Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Romney is deemed a front-runner not because of suppport among likely Republican primary voters but because his campaign has been showered by contributions, which it spent a fortune to attract.
- Elections conducted for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh National Assembly, and local councils in Scotland and England. The Scottish National Party (SNP) emerges as the largest single party in the Scottish Parliament, winning 47 seats compared with the Scottish Labour Party's 46 seats. The Conservative Party won 17 seats and the Liberal Democratic Party won 16. Other parties won three seats.
May 5-12
May 6
- Second Round of the 2007 French Presidential Election: Gaullist Nicolas Sarkozy defeats Socialist Segolene Royal 53.2% to 46.8% with a massive voter turnout of 85%. Sarkozy announces that "France is back in Europe today."
- Car bombing kills 33 in Bayaa, a Shi'a market in Baghdad.
- Iraqi police station in Samarra is attacked by a suicide bomber who ploughs van packed with explosives into the gate during a firefight between police and insurgents; 12 Iraqi police were killed and 11 wounded in the attack before U.S. military units arrive to save the "our" Iraqis from the other Iraqis.
May 9
- U.S. V.P Richard B. "Dick" Cheney meets with U.S. and Iraq leaders in the Baghdad Green Zone and spent one night at Camp Speicher, 7 miles from Tikrit, where he was defended by the 25 Infantry Division. Contrary to all the conservative whining about negative (conservative code for truthful) news coverage about the Republican War in Iraq Cheney asserts that it has no effect on U.S. troop morale or perfomace: "Our soldiers are smart, they read and we have good television connections here – AFN, CNN, Fox. They watch it, they listen to it. It doesn’t affect their morale or their performance." News Report.
- Pope Benedict XVI endorses excommunication for elected officials who voted for Mexico City's decision to legalize abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy: "It's nothing new, it's normal," he said. (Normal? Well perhaps in the same way that celibacy is normal.)
May 10
- British PM Tony Blair announces that he will step down on June 27.
May 12
- Schuman Parade -- an annual demonstration of support for European integration. EU supporters marched in a parade through the streets of Warsaw carrying flags of Poland, European Union and various EU counties. The EU anthem was sung.
May 13
- 1st Lt. Andrew J. Bacevich, son of Boston University professor Andrew J. Bacevich, dies of wounds suffered after a bomb explosion in Iraq.
May 15
- Rightist religious extremist Jerry Falwell dies of a heart attack. The oibese televangelist was responsible for gulling millions of working class white fundamentalist Protestants into voting against their own class interests.
- Islamist suicide bomber kills 25 in Peshawar, Pakistan.
May 15
- 2008 Republican presidential candidates conduct second debate, this time in South Carolina. Ron Paul is attacked by Rudy Giuliani for telling the tabooed truth about U.S. militarism in the Middle East. Giuliani and Romney appear to endorse torture.
May 16
- Hamas and Fatah militias battle in Gaza.
- French President Nicholas Sarkozy names Socialist Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of Medicins Sans Frontiers as Foreign Minister.
May 17
May 18
- Israel and Hamas continue to trade airstrikes and rocket attacks along the Israel-Gaza border.
May 19
- Effective today, Judge Reggie B. Walton is appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by the Chief Justice of the United States.
- Speaking in Little Rock, Arkansas, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says aloud what most Americans and the rest of the planet already knows: "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history."
- Israel and Hamas continue to trade airstrikes and rocket attacks along the Israel-Gaza border.
May 20
- Israel and Hamas continue to trade airstrikes and rocket attacks along the Israel-Gaza border.
May 21
- New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson declared himself a candidate for the presidency.
- Israel and Hamas continue to trade airstrikes and rocket attacks along the Israel-Gaza border.
- After creating chaos in American politics in 2000, Florida may do it again in 2008. Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed legislation moving Florida's presidential primary to January 29.
May 22
- Israel and Hamas continue to trade airstrikes and rocket attacks along the Israel-Gaza border.
- Bombing of a crowded shopping mall in Ankara kills 5 and wounds 60.
- The New Democratic Party (NDP) wins a legislative majority in the Manitoba Provincial Assembly for a third time. The NDP won 36 of 57 seats. The Tories lost 2 seats to take 16 seats and the Grits win 2 seats.
May 27
- Price of oil hits 65.20 a barrel.
May 28
- Japanese LDP (conservative) Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Toshikatsu Matsuoka apparently commits suicide. Implicated in bribe-taking for awarding public works contracts, the 62-year-old is found in his pyjamas hanged with a dog leash attached to his living room door.
- U.S. and Iran have the first high level diplomacy in 27 years in Baghdad's Green Zone.
May 29
- Whose gunmen are scarrier? Five security personnel of the Montreal-based security firm GardaWorld, fiour Britons and a "client" are taken prisoner (or "kidnapped" in the Newsspeak used by Western news media) in the Iraqi Finance Ministry in broad daylight and driven away in vehicles of the Iraqi police. News reports suggest the gunmen taking custody as opposed to being in custody are from the Mahdi Army.
May 31
- Date on which British tabloid The Sun predicts British PM Tony Blair will step down as Prime Minister. (Actually it turns out that he will step down on June 27).
June
June
June 5
June 8
- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace will not be renominated to a second term as the highest-ranking military officer the White House reports.
June 12
- Two days of fighting between Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip have left 34 dead.
June 13
- Hamas succeeds takes control of much of the Gaza Strip. Fatah holds on to the West Bank.
June 22
- Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, is told by North Korean officials that the country is prepared to shut down its primary nuclear reactor.
June 27
- Gordon Brown replaces Tony Blair as the prime minister of Great Britain.
- President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and the Justice Department are asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee to produce documents about the National Security Agency's justification for its warrantless wiretapping program.
July
July
July 2
- Calling the 30-month sentence of I. Lewis Libby excessive, President Libby's sentence.
July 4
- Alan Johnston, a BBC correspondent who was abducted on March 12, is released.
July 7
- A truck bomb destroys dozens of homes and shops in Amerli, a Shiite village north of Baghdad. 150 are killed.
July 9
- Citing executive privilege, President Bush refuses to hand over any documents relating to the firing of nine U.S. prosecutors in 2006 to Congress.
- Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation rate. President Mugabe has imposed price controls. Zimbabwe's economy continues its downward spiral.
July 12
- A White House report indicates that the Iraqi government has met eight out of 18 benchmarks.
July 17
- A NIE report concludes that al-Qaeda has gained strength in the past two years and that the United States faces "a persistent and evolving terrorist threat over the next three years."
- An Airbus 320 skids off a runway in São Paulo and crashes into an office building, killing about 180 people.
July 24
- The minimum wage increases to $5.85, up from $5.15.
July 27
- Flooding in Texas since mid-June have killed at least 16 people and caused widespread property damage.
July 30
July 31
- Heavy rains and flooding have killed 652 people in China so far this year. 200 million have been displaced over last two months.
- House passes ethics bill.
August
August
August 1
- The 8 lane Interstate 35 West bridge that crosses the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed.
- The Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) announced its withdrawal from the government and the resignation of five ministers in addition to Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie.
August 4
- New Parliament sworn in, in Turkey. 550 deputies took their oaths of office, 21 of the newly elected deputies are Kurdish. This is the first time the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party is represented in parliament in more than ten years.
August 5
- Bush signs the Protect America Act of 2007. The law legalizes government eavesdropping of telephone conversations and emails of American citizens and people overseas without a warrant as long as there is a "reasonable belief" that one party is not in the United States. The law expires in six months.
August 7
- "Research aimed at disputing the scientific consensus on global warming is part of a huge public misinformation campaign funded by some of the world's largest carbon polluters, former Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday". [1]
August 8
- United Nations said it has received pledges of troops and police for a predominantly African peacekeeping force to help end the four-year conflict in Darfur.
August 9
- Dow Falls 387 Points due to a weak mortgage market.
- Artic Ice Shrinking at Record Rate
- Democratic candidates talk on LGBT issues on LOGO.
August 10
- Stock indexes around the world fall sharply a day after markets in the US and Europe were down.
- Canada's PM Stephen Harper reasserts his country's claims to the Arctic, days after Russia staked claims to the North Pole.
August 12
- Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson dropped out of the presidential race after he did not meet the expectations he set for himself in the Iowa Republican Party straw poll.
August 13
- Karl Rove has submitted his resignation as President Bush's senior political adviser and his last day in office is on August 31.
- Taliban free two women of the 23 South Korean hostages abducted in Afghanistan. Two others had been killed by their abductors. The 23 were abducted on July 19.
August 14
- Approximately 400 were killed and hundreds more injured in suicide truck bombings in two Yazidi villages, Qahtaniya and Jazeera near Mosul in Iraq. Yazidi are a religious minority among Kurds. This is the deadliest attack on a single area since since the war began in March 2003.
August 15
- An 8.0-magnitude earthquake, centered in the ocean about 90 miles south of Lima, Peru kills more than 300 and close to 1,500 were injured.
August 16
- Jose Padilla and two co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, were convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people in a foreign country, which carries a penalty of life in prison. All three were also convicted of conspiracy to provide material support for terrorists, and providing material support for terrorists. Those two counts carry potential 15-year sentences each.
August 17
- Underground efforts to rescue six trapped Utah miners were halted indefinitely after a collapsing tunnel wall killed three rescuers, including a federal mine safety officer.
August 21
- Hurricane Dean hits Yucatan peninsula.
- Space shuttle Endeavour touches down a day early at Kennedy Space Center, gouge on wing not a problem.
- CIA releases document summary critical Tenet pre 9/11 planning to counter terrorism.
August 22
- Midwest, Plains Flooding Deaths Reach 22
August 23
- In the National Intelligence Estimate: Civilian casualties remain high, sectarian groups can't get along, al Qaeda in Iraq is still pulling off high-profile attacks and "to date, Iraqi leaders remain unable to govern effectively."
- Former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican Senator John Warner has called on President Bush to start the process of bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq in September.
August 24
- Sudan continues to ignore a United Nations arms embargo and peace agreements by sending arms into Darfur, according to Amnesty International.
- Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi announce a four-month 'war' that would focus on problem products that have shaken consumers' confidence in the "Made in China" label.
August 27
- Attorney General Gonzales hands over his resignation on Aug 26. President Bush accepts the resignation on Aug. 27 and announces Solicitor General Paul Clement will serve as acting attorney general.
August 28
- Conservative Republican Sen. Larry Craig's 'inappropriate' behavior in a Minneapolis airport bathroom, his subsequent arrest after the June incident and his pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, exploded into the news cycle.
- Sierra Leone's President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has warned he could declare a state of emergency if the violence ahead of next month's presidential run-off election worsens.
- Clashes between Shiite militias left dozens of people dead and hundreds wounded inKarbala and Baghdad. Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr calls for cessation of the violence.
- Turkey's islamist Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has been elected president in a parliamentary vote on the third round of voting.
August 29
- Myanmar's military rullers start to crush pro-Democracy protests of high fuel prices that had started on August 19.
- Taliban realeases 12 hostages to the Red Cross in Afghanistan.
August 30
- The last seven of the South Korean hostages held in Afghanistan are released by the Taliban.
- Media circus continues with Sen. Larry Craig, an audio tape of the interrogation of Sen. Craig is released. Comparisons between Sen. Craig's bathroom incident and subsquent Republican outcry for his resignation and Sen. David Vitter's using the services of a madam and subsequent slap on the wrist: Republican hypocrisy.
August 31
September
- Sixty-three U.S. military deaths were reported in September, the lowest monthly toll since July 2006,
September 1
- Sen. Larry Craig resigns from the U.S. Senate effective September 31. (Sen. Craig later states, on Oct. 4, he will not resign)
- Search ends for six buried Utah miners.
September 2
- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas revised Palestinian election laws to favor his Fatah Party.
- Hurricane Felix churning in the Carribean becomes a category 5 hurricane.
- North Korea agrees to shut down nuke programs
September 3
- President Bush makes surprise visit to Iraq
September 5
- Fred Thompson (R) jumps in to presidential race by announcing his bid on Jay Leno's Tonight Show.
September 6
- Israeli airstrike inside Syria against purported nuclear weapons development site.
September 7
September 9
- The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting closed with an agreement to adopt weak nonbinding greenhouse gas emissions targets
September 10
- Gen. Petraeus said that the U.S. should be able to reduce its troop strength in Iraq to the level it was at before the recent increase by next summer. Patraeus recommended deferring Congressional decisions on reducing the main body of troops in Iraq.
- Nawaz Sharif, a Pakistani opposition leader and former prime minister, was flown to Saudi Arabia per his decision rather than remain under arrest in Islamabad. Sharif had arrived in Pakistan at Islamabad Airport when he was arrested.
- Anti-war Senate Repubican Chuck Hagel announces his retirement.
September 11
- Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told ruling party leaders he intends to resign.
September 12
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has nominated Viktor Zubkov, to be Prime Minister.
September 14
- President Bush made a televised address backing a limited withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
- Alan Keyes (R-MD), a former Ambassador and former TV talk show host, launches a campaign to draft himself for President.
September 16
- Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis wins reelection, but with smaller majority party in the Parliament.
- French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that the world should prepare for war if Iran obtains nuclear weapons.
September 17
- Iraq has cancelled the licence of the private security firm, Blackwater USA, after it was involved in a gunfight in which at least eight civilians died.
- Jim Ramstad (R) of Minnesota, (MN-03), unexpectedly announced retirement.
- President Bush nominates former US District Court Judge Michael Mukasey to be the next Attorney General.
- Greenspan attacked President Bush and Republican lawmakers over an explosion of federal spending in a memoir released during this week. He also declared that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.
- Federal Reserve lowered interest rates by half a percentage point.
September 20
- A Senate Democratic proposal to cut funds for the war failed on Thursday, and a plan by Democratic Senator James Webb, to give U.S. troops more leave between deployments also was defeated.
September 21
- By 47-47, the Senate defeated a Democratic proposal that would have started a redeployment of troops from Iraq in 90 days and brought most troops home in nine months.
September 22
- Chile extradites Peru's ex-leader Alberto Fujimori to face charges of human rights abuses and corruption.
September 24
- In his controversial appearance at Columbia University, President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked incredulous laughter with the statement that his country has no homosexuals.
- Myanmar's junta threatens Buddhist monks who lead 100,000 people in protest march.
September 27
October
October 3
- In South Africa, 3,200 workers trapped in gold mine.
- President Bush vetoes bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance.
- Typhoon Lekima hits Vietnam's central coast. Storm related deaths 61, with 15 other people missing
October 4
- North Korea and South Korea agree to begin work on a peace plan that would officially put an end to the Korean War.
- Sen. Larry Craig says he was not resigning from the Senate despite a Minnesota judge denying his request to withdraw his guilty plea stemming from his arrest in a sex sting at an airport men's room.
October 5
- Japan puts its first satellite into orbit around the moon.
- Marion Jones, who won five medals at the 2000 Olympics, three of them gold, admits to steroid use.
October 6
- Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf was elected for a third term as president.
- Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his chief rival, Abdelaziz Hakim, reached a truce to end bloodshed between their loyalists.
October 7
- Typhoon Krosa came ashore in China's Zhejiang and Fujian provinces but weakened and was soon downgraded to a tropical storm.
October 9
- Pakistani warplanes attacked suspected pro-Taliban positions near the Afghan border for a fourth day.
October 10
- Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked suspected positions of Kurdish rebels near Iraq.
- U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs approved a non-binding resolution recognizing as "genocide" the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman-Turkish forces in 1915.
October 11
- Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
- Turkey recalls its ambassador to the United States and showed displeasure over U.S. congressional efforts to label the World War I era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces "genocide."
October 12
- Burma's military junta arrests three of the last remaining leaders of the recent pro-democracy protests.
- Eight former boot-camp workers acquitted of manslaughter in the death of a 14-year-old boy.
October 14
- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes same-sex marriage bill.
October 15
- Sen. Larry Craig files an appeal to judge Porter's refusal to let him to withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct.
- China protests U.S. honors for the Dalai Lama by pulling out of a planned international strategy session on Iran sought by the United States
October 16
- The National Climate Data Center repoorts that at the end of September about 43 percent of the contiguous United States was in moderate to extreme drought.
- Niki Tsongas, widow of Paul Tsongas, wins a special election for Massachusett's 5th Congressional District seat, MA-05 to succeed Democrat Martin Meehan.
October 17
- Syria denies that one of its U.N. representatives told a panel that an Israeli airstrike hit a Syrian nuclear facility and added that "such facilities do not exist in Syria." [2]
- MPs in Turkey authorize cross-border military operations into northern Iraq to target Kurdish rebel bases there.
October 18
- Benazir Bhutto arrives in Pakistan after eight years in exile. As many as 135 people die as a suicide bomber attacks her motorcade.
October 20
- Louisiana Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal wins Louisiana's governor's race.
October 21
- In Poland's parliamentary elections, the Civic Platform party, a pro-business opposition party that wants Poland's troops out of Iraq, ousted Prime Minister Jaros Kaczynski's government.
October 22
- President Bush asks Congress to authorize $46 billion in emergency spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
October 24
- President Bush declares California a disaster area after devastating Southern California wildfires.
October 28
November
November 2
- President Bush vetoes Water Resources Development Act
- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the U.S. envoy to Baghdad remind diplomats of their duty to serve their country, aimed diplomats resisting the possibility of forced assignments to Iraq.
November 3
- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf suspends the country's constitution, fires Chief Justice Iftakar Mohammed Chaudhry and the other judges on the Supreme Court, and postpones parliamentary elections that were scheduled for January 2008.
November 4
- Parliamentary Elections in Turkey
November 5
- former Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Steve Beshear (D) wins Kentucky gubernatorial election.
- Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) wins reelection.
November 6
November 8
- President Bush suffered the first veto override as the Senate enacted a $23 billion water resources bill.
November 9
- Retired federal judge Michael Mukasey was sworn in Friday as the nation's 81st attorney general.
- Congressman Jim Saxton (R-NJ) and Congresswoman Barbara Cubin (R-WY) both announce they will not seek re-election in 2008.
November 12
- Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's Birthday celebrated as Cultural Renaissance Day in Taiwan.
- New Mexico Congressman Tom Udall (D) decides to run for the open US Senate seat next year.
November 15
- Typhoon Sidr, a category 4 cyclone raked Bangladesh's southwest coast with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph killing thousands.
- Democratic presidential debate held in Las Vegas, moderated by CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
- Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, who served as House speaker longer than any other Republican, bade farewell to his colleagues confirming that he will not complete his 11th term.
November 17
- Rep. William J. Jefferson of Louisiana is accused of soliciting bribes in two suspected schemes that are separate from the bribery charges he already faces.
November 19
- U.S. and Russian officials agree on how to safely dispose of 34 metric tons of Russian weapons-grade plutonium, overcoming a major hurdle in a joint nuclear nonproliferation effort.
- Moderate Republican congressman Mike Ferguson of New Jersey, NJ-07, announced that he will retire. Rep. Ferguson is the 15th Republican member of the House to announce retirement plans since Democrats took control after the 2006 elections.
November 26
- Sen. Trent Lott announced his plans to resign before the end of the year. Lott had been reelected to a fourth term in 2006.
November 27
- The Israeli and Palestinian leaders committed themselves to negotiate a peace treaty by the end of 2008.
November 28
- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf stepped down as the country's military leader.
December
December 2
- The United Russia party takes 64.1% of the vote in Russia's parliamentary elections. President Vladimir Putin is a member of the United Russia party.
- Venezuela elections on constitutional changes deny President Hugo Chavez expanded powers.
December 3
- Bali conference on Global Warming opens.
December 4
- A US intelligence report states that Iran has not had a military nuclear program since 2003.
December 5
- A US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passes the Climate Security Act (S. 2191) by an 11-8 vote. The bill moves to the full Senate.
December 6
- News breaks of CIA destruction, in 2005, of videotapes which shows interrogation of two terrorist suspects.
- 19-year-old Robert Hawkins opened fire with an AK-47 in an Omaha mall killing 8 people before taking his own life.
December 8
- The Justice Department and the CIA's internal watchdog announced a joint inquiry into the spy agency's destruction of videotaped interrogations of two suspected terrorists: Abu Zubaydah, one of the first close associates of Osama bin Laden to be caught after the 9/11 attacks and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. The House Intelligence Committee would start its own inquiry on the following week.
December 10
December 11
- Virginia, VA-01 special election: State Delegate Rob Wittman (R) cruised to a landslide victory over Iraq War veteran Philip Forgit (D). The vote: Wittman - 63%, Forgit - 35%, and Lucky Narain (Independent) - 2%. Wittman will replace the late Congresswoman JoAnn Davis (R), who died of cancer on October 6.
December 12
December 13
- The "Mitchell Report" by former United States Senator George Mitchell is released. The report is the result of an investigation into the use of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone in Major League Baseball (MLB). Mitchell also makes recommendations regarding the handling of past illegal drug use and future prevention practices. The report names 88 Major League Baseball players who are alleged to have used steroids or drugs.
December 15
- Indiana Congresswoman Julia Carson (D), IN-07, died Saturday of lung cancer.
- U.S. first rejects and then accepts a compromise at the UN Bali climate conference. The conference finishes a day later than scheduled with a 'watered down' pact that provides a negotiating foundation or 'road map' for further negotiating rounds which are to conclude in 2009. The U.N. climate change conference had been scheduled to end Friday"
December 17
December 18
- The Federal Communications Commission adopted proposals to tighten the reins on the cable television industry while loosening restrictions that have prevented a company from owning both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city.
December 19
- President Bush signed an energy bill that increases in fuel-efficiency standards in automobiles and mandates a fivefold increase in the use of home-grown biofuels.
- South Korea elects conservative Lee Myung-bak President with 48.7% of the votes in an 11-man field. Lee's election victory ended a decade of liberal rule.
December 23
- Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov was re-elected with overwhelming support.
December 27
- Benazir Bhutto was gunned down as she waved to supporters from the sunroof of her armored vehicle in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
December 28
- US military deaths in Iraq at 3,901.
December 29
- President George W. Bush signed a bill extending the State Children's Health Insurance Program funding through March 2009.
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