Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar. ~29 September 2002, Barbra Streisand
ARISE ALL WOMEN! Julia Ward Howe, the founder of Mother's Day wrote in 1870:
Arise then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly, "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, "Disarm! Disarm!"
Cable promises have yet to be kept
Since local cable deregulation became effective in Michigan, the promises of decreased prices and increased customer service have also failed to meet expectations. In this day when consumers are struggling you would think cable companies would want to keep their customers, not drive them away with higher prices and worse customer service.
Sarah Palin Suffers Massive Political Fallout
In March, Palin nominated Wayne Anthony Ross for attorney general. Ross, a colorful far-right lawyer and longtime Palin ally who sports his initials, W.A.R., on his Hummer’s vanity plates, was once considered a shoo-in for confirmation. However, his nomination was thrown into grave peril when his opponents presented evidence that he called homosexuals “degenerates,” hailed the “courage” of a student who lionized the Ku Klux Klan, vowed to undermine the sovereignty of Native American tribes, and allegedly defended men who rape their wives.
Charter Cable Files Bankruptcy
Mar 27—Charter Communications Inc. on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to get relief from its creditors, as the nation's fourth-largest cable operator strives to keep its head above water and still compete with phone companies and satellite TV providers. The St. Louis-based company seeks to emerge from bankruptcy as early as the end of summer and doesn't plan on selling any of its assets to competitors. After Chapter 11, interest costs at Charter, which has never posted a profit since going public in 1999 due to massive debt interest payments, will be cut in half to $830 million a year. The filing restructures about $8 billion of debt at Charter, which is controlled by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, but leaves about $13 billion of debt on its books. Allen will control 35 percent of the votes in the reorganized company.
The Age of Stupid
We wouldn’t be the first life form to wipe itself out. But what would be unique about us is that we did it knowingly. What does that say about us? The question I’ve been asking is: why didn’t we save ourselves when we had the chance? Is the answer because on some level we weren’t sure if we were worth saving?
The great American drilling boom is over
The number of oil and gas rigs deployed to tap new energy supplies across the country has plunged to less than 1,200 from 2,400 last summer, and energy executives say the drop is accelerating further. Lower prices are bringing to an end an ambitious effort to squeeze more oil from aging fields and to tap new sources of natural gas. For the last four years, companies here drilled below airports, golf courses, churches and playgrounds in a frantic search for energy. They scoured the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, the Gulf of Mexico and Appalachia. But the economic downturn has cut into demand. Global oil prices and American natural gas prices have plummeted two-thirds since last summer. Not even an unseasonably cold winter drove down unusually high inventories of natural gas.
Is This the End of the Age of the Automobile?
As a dominant form of transportation, the automobile is dead. So is GM, which now stands for Gone Mad. But the larger picture says that the financial crisis now enveloping the world is grounded in the transition from the automobile---and the fossils that fuel it---to a brave renewable world of reborn mass transit and green power. If GM lives in any form, it must be owned and operated by its workers and the public. But the larger transition is epic and global, based on a simple structural reality: the passenger car is obsolete. Auto sales have plummeted not merely because of a bad economy, but because the technology no longer makes sense. Franklin Roosevelt took GM over in 1943-5 to make the hardware to beat the Nazis. Barack Obama should now do the same to beat climate chaos. Make streetcars, not passenger cars.
Recession-Related Issues Burden US Power, Electric Companies
Public power and electric cooperatives, already facing prospects for regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and additional capital needs, will likely see the most near-term problems from recession-related issues, according to Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.
Civil Unions For All
I believe fervently in the sanctity of marriage, and if you do, too, head immediately to your closest church, mosque, synagogue or flying spaghetti monster chapel, and sign up to procreate, cohabitate and copulate with a sex partner blessed by that holy institution. America's current marriage system, even when it includes same-sex couples, inherently discriminates against millions of people who are not in a sexual relationship. (That many legal marriages are platonic only adds irony to injustice.) Ensuring equal rights for all requires relegating or elevating (however you look at it) marriage to the realm of religion. Kind of like christenings, bar mitzvahs and chicken sacrifice.
Pat Robertson Denounces Rush Limbaugh
Pat Robertson denounced talk show host Rush Limbaugh for saying he wants President Obama to fail, in an interview with U.S. News & World Report. Limbaugh has repeatedly expressed his desire to Obama, and the stimulus package to fail, which is more revealing about his true colors and brand of “patriotism.” Interviewer Dan Gilgoff asked the Conservative Christian leader: “So you don’t subscribe to Rush Limbaugh’s “I hope he fails” school of thought?” To which Robertson replied: “That was a terrible thing to say,” Robertson responded. “I mean, he’s the president of all the country. If he succeeds, the country succeeds. And if he doesn’t, it hurts us all. Anybody who would pull against our president is not exactly thinking rationally.”
Rio Tinto's charm offensive hits the rocks
One top 20 Rio Tinto investor said: "We are absolutely furious, some of the investors are spitting rivets. It just doesn't pass muster under any sort of circumstances and we have made this very clear in our feedback to their advisers. "They are working on a charm offensive to come around and see shareholders but I can't see what sort of 'concessions' would appease the situation because it's pretty black and white." Other investors contacted by Reuters said they were concerned that the Rio example could have broader implications, helping to make it a rule rather than an exception that pre-emption rights were ignored. [EDITOR: Rio Tinto wants to mine rare elements in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Most people there are concerned about Rio Tinto's poor track record, as they seem to be primarily interested in profits at the expense of the environment and the fact that they are well known to be bullies.]
Michigan Republican Discloses Top Secret Info
Republicans appear anxious to demonstrate their new-found affinity for technology, web apps, and gizmos. A recent debate between candidates for RNC chair featured an argument over who had more friends on Facebook. It's all rather silly, but the minority party wants to demonstrate their ability to embrace new mediums. Once in a while, this goes a little too far. A delegation led by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, arrived in Iraq earlier today, and because of Rep. Peter Hoekstra , R-Mich., the entire world -- or at least Twitter.com readers -- now know they're there. Hoekstra, a former chairman of the Intelligence panel and now the ranking member, is routinely entrusted to keep some of the nation's most closely guarded secrets.
It's Fun to Watch Obama Driving These Republicans So Crazy
Obama's deft political moves this week have the right-wingers frothing at the mouth, screaming like fools in all directions. The historical record of far-right ridiculousness has been well-documented here and throughout the blogosphere.
Rush Limbaugh Is Less Popular Than Jeremiah Wright
Congressional Republicans have turned to Rush Limbaugh to lead the battle against Obama. One problem: A poll says he's less popular than Jeremiah Wright. Republicans who have turned to Rush Limbaugh to lead the fight against President Obama may have backed the wrong horse. According to one recent poll, Limbaugh turns out to be one of the most unpopular political figures in the country. Limbaugh's cold rating was higher than that of all the political figures the firm polled. It was seven points higher than Rev. Jeremiah "God Damn America" Wright and eight points higher than former Weather Underground domestic terrorist William Ayers.
Why Is the Government Hell-Bent on Rewarding Greed, Incompetence and Narcissism?
Bankers have never been much loved, but gollies, this Wall Street bunch seems hell-bent on being loathed. As a consequence of their avaricious grab for outrageous personal enrichment during the past decade, these arrogant titans of financial gimmickry have caused a vast economic collapse that is presently costing million of Americans their homes, jobs, pensions and dreams -- while also bringing down the banks themselves. As you would expect, the Wall Streeters who did this to us are now humbled and filled with deep remorse. HA! Just kidding. Instead, the perpetrators keep grasping for all they can get, taking no responsibility for the damage they've done. Obtuse? Self-indulgent? Narcissistic? What's with these people?
America Is Completely Broke, And Here We Are Funding Fantasy Wars at the Pentagon
In December 2008, Franklin "Chuck" Spinney, a former high-ranking civilian in the Pentagon's Office of Systems Analysis wrote, "As has been documented for at least twenty years, patterns of repetitive habitual behavior in the Pentagon have created a self-destructive decision-making process. This process has produced a death spiral." As a result, concluded Spinney, inadequate amounts of wildly overpriced equipment are purchased, "new weapons [that] do not replace old ones on a one for one basis." There is also "continual pressure to reduce combat readiness," a "corrupt accounting system" that "makes it impossible to sort out the priorities," and a readiness to believe that old solutions will work for the current crisis.
It's not going to be OK
The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time. And not much time. When things start to go sour, when Barack Obama is exposed as a mortal waving a sword at a tidal wave, the United States could plunge into a long period of precarious social instability. At no period in American history has our democracy been in such peril. Our way of life is over. Our profligate consumption is finished. Our children will never have the standard of living we had. And poverty and despair will sweep across the landscape like a plague. This is the bleak future. There is nothing President Obama can do to stop it. It has been decades in the making. It cannot be undone with a trillion or two trillion dollars in bailout money. Our empire is dying. Our economy has collapsed.
Public Revolt Builds Against Rip-off Rescue Plans for the Economy
The pattern is clear: governments that respond to a crisis created by free-market ideology with an acceleration of that same discredited agenda will not survive to tell the tale. As Italy's students have taken to shouting in the streets: "We won't pay for your crisis!"
Gay woman fights over hospital visitation rights in Miami court
As her partner of 17 years slipped into a coma, Janice Langbehn pleaded with doctors and anyone who would listen to let her into the woman's hospital room. Eight anguishing hours passed before Langbehn would be allowed into Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center. By then, she could only say her final farewell as a priest performed the last rites on 39-year-old Lisa Marie Pond. Jackson staffers advised Langbehn that she could not see Pond earlier because the hospital's visitation policy in cases of emergency was limited to immediate family and spouses -- not partners. In Florida, same-sex marriages or partnerships are not recognized. Any family should have the right to hold their loved one's hand in the last moments of life, and we were denied that.
Christian Women and Domestic Violence
Escaping an abusive marriage is no easy task for many evangelical women, many of whom have pastors that say physical abuse is no reason for divorce. What is a good enough reason for divorce? Well, according to Rick Warren’s Saddleback church, divorce is only permitted in cases of adultery or abandonment -- as these are the only cases permitted in the Bible -- and never for abuse.
Factory Knowingly Shipped Contaminated Peanut Butter
The Georgia peanut plant linked to a salmonella outbreak that has killed eight people and sickened another 500 across the country knowingly shipped out contaminated peanut butter 12 times in the past two years, federal officials said yesterday. Officials at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have been investigating the salmonella outbreak, said yesterday that the Peanut Corporation of America found salmonella in internal tests a dozen times in 2007 and 2008 but sold the products anyway, sometimes after getting a negative finding from a different laboratory.
The Bushies Stole Us Blind ... So, How'd You Like Your Beer?
Finally. Mercifully. Astonishingly. Incredibly. The insane adventure in national suicide known as the Bush administration is at last coming to an end. This was a ride that beggars belief. Even after McCarthy and Nixon and Reagan and Gingrich, nothing prepared us for the last eight years, and I for one have difficulty finding the words that could begin to do justice to describing this historical folly of epic proportions. The list of self-inflicted wounds is endless: running from the fiscal irresponsibility, the lies about war, the incompetent execution of every policy, the extreme recklessness of environmental catastrophe, the economic meltdown, and turning one of the most admired countries in the world into one of the most reviled. It is a breathtaking record. It really is. If this child in the body of a man were named Putin or Castro or Kim, Americans would get it. If they were observing the country from the perspective of Zimbabwe, instead of the other way around, then they would get it. They can understand the notion of some foreign thug who means to do harm to our country. They get the idea, in other places, of a domestic thug who seeks to plunder his own country. They just can't imagine it happening here. And, therefore, they don't see that it just has. This president -- and indeed the entire movement of regressive politics these last three decades (which I refer to as Reaganism-Bushism) -- can only be properly understood as class warfare. Its purpose was never to make America a better place. Indeed, if we define America as a country belonging to its 300 million inhabitants, then the purpose was actually precisely the opposite. The mission of this ideology was in fact to diminish, if not impoverish, the vast bulk of these citizens so that the already massively wealthy among them could become obscenely wealthy.
The World Is Watching
Are We Civilized Enough to Hold Our Leaders Accountable for War Crimes? Remarkably, the confirmation of President Obama's Attorney General nominee, Eric Holder, is being held up by Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, who apparently is unhappy that Holder might actually investigate and prosecute Bush Administration officials who engaged in torture. Aside from this repugnant new Republican embrace of torture, any effort to protect Bush officials from legal responsibility for war crimes, in the long run, will not work. After reading Sands's book and, more recently, listening to his comments on Terry Gross's NPR show "Fresh Air," on January 7, 2009 I realized how closely the rest of the world is following the actions of these former officials, and was reminded that these actions appear to constitute not merely violations of American law, but also, and very literally, crimes against humanity -- for which the world is ready to hold them responsible.
Obama to Let States Improve Emissions Standards
President Obama on Monday will direct federal regulators to move swiftly to grant California and 13 other states the right to set strict automobile emissions and fuel efficiency standards. The presidential orders will require automobile manufacturers to begin producing and selling cars and trucks that get higher mileage on a faster phase-in schedule. He will also order federal departments and agencies to find new ways to save energy and be more environmentally friendly. And he will highlight the elements in his economic plan intended to create new jobs around renewable energy. Mr. Obama will also direct federal agencies to immediately begin work on making all government buildings more energy efficient, with an eye toward saving as much as $2 billion a year and reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for the warming of the planet. He will also direct the Department of Transportation to immediately begin drafting automobile fuel-economy regulations to comply with a law enacted in December 2007. Former President Bush delayed implementation of the law and left office saying there was not sufficient time to write the rules.
States to Win Big in Proposed Stimulus Package
The economic stimulus plan now moving through Congress would shower billions of federal dollars on state and local governments desperate for cash. The House stimulus bill includes an extra $87 billion in federal aid to state Medicaid programs, for instance. It allots some $120 billion to boost state and city education programs. There’s $4 billion for state and local anticrime initiatives in the legislation, not to mention $30-plus billion for highways and other infrastructure projects. Overall, about one-quarter of the entire $825 billion recovery package would be devoted to activities crucial to governors, mayors, and local school boards – making them among the plan’s biggest beneficiaries.
Obamamazing
In his first eight hours in office, Barack Hussein Obama has been able to accomplish more through diplomacy, openness, honesty, and transparency than George Bush was able to accomplish through war, secrecy, and coercion over the course of his eight years in office. Can you imagine what the United States would be like if we had the trilions of dollars back that the Bush administration has shamelessly and recklessly squandered on war and misguided policy! President Obama is right for America and the planet.
Silicon Valley Leaders to Denounce Prop 8
High Tech Business Executives, Venture Capital leaders to Urge Californians to Stand Up for Equality Santa Clara – The leadership of the nation’s high-tech industry feels so strongly that Prop 8 is wrong and unfair, that a coalition of key leaders is running a full page advertisement in a major daily newspaper urging Californians to vote NO on Prop 8. The ad, running in Friday’s San Jose Mercury News, includes a list of “Who’s Who of the Silicon Valley”, including the founders and CEOs of Google, Yahoo!, Adobe Systems and Cisco Systems.
Chinese Experts Confirm Melamine-Kidney Stone Link
FDA Issues Warning on Chinese-Made Infant Formula Drinking milk tainted with the chemical melamine increases the risk of developing kidney stones, health experts in China have confirmed. The research is the first to positively link the plastic-making chemical with kidney problems, though doctors had strongly suspected a causal relationship. Melamine-tainted milk is blamed for the deaths of six children in China and making another 290,000 people sick. Melamine-tainted candy is suspected in the illness of a Virginia girl and in the unexplained illness and deaths of thousands of family pets throughout the United States.
Another brutal year for liberty
The good news is that it's clear what the Obama administration must do to end the decade-long war on the Constitution. Not even the most cynical political observer would have believed that it was the ascension of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi that would be the necessary catalyst for satisfying Bush's most audacious demands, concerning his most brazenly illegal actions. If anything, hopes were high that Democratic control of Congress would entail a legislative halt to warrantless eavesdropping or, at the very least, some meaningful investigation and disclosure -- what we once charmingly called "oversight" -- regarding what Bush's domestic spying had really entailed. After all, the NSA program was the purified embodiment of the most radical attributes of a radical regime -- pure lawlessness, absolute secrecy, a Stasi-like fixation on domestic surveillance. It was widely assumed, even among embittered cynics, that the new Democratic leadership in Congress would not use their newfound control to protect and endorse these abuses.
Bush Gets Whacked by an Auction Paddle
Good pranks are always fun. They’re really a hoot when the entity being pranked is the Bush administration (less than three weeks to go!) And so we raise our glass to Mr. Tim De Christopher, the coolest monkey-wrencher since the fictional Hayduke roamed the desert west. De Christopher is a 27-year-old student at the University of Utah, and one of the many who was greatly concerned about the flash auction of 150,000 acres of public lands in the southern and eastern parts of that extraordinary state being hurriedly put together by Bushco. The head of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance called it “a fire sale, the Bush administration’s last great gift to the oil and gas industry. “What the environmental movement has been doing in the last 20 years hasn’t worked,” he told the Salt Lake City Tribune later. “There comes a time to take a stand.” And then, following a positively inspired hunch, he took one. He’s created a new strategy for eco-advocacy: Eco-nomic, as opposed to Eco-logic.
America's Hidden Role in Hamas's Rise to Power
No one in the mainstream media or government is willing to acknowledge America's sordid role interfering in Palestinian politics. In the U.S., the claim that the actions of Hamas forced Israel to launch a massive assault on the impoverished population of Gaza is almost universally accepted. But, as scholar Stephen Zunes explains below, the picture of Hamas as an organization of wide-eyed radicalism without electoral legitimacy or the support of a significant portion of the Palestinian population is simplistic. In this important piece, Zunes examines the ways in which Israeli and American policy-makers encouraged the rise of the conservative religious group Hamas in an effort to marginalize secular and leftist elements within the Occupied Territories.
Michigan again had the highest monthly unemployment rate of all U.S. states
Michigan, home to the three major U.S. automobile manufacturers, has long staggered under the weight of car companies' slumping finances, with both General Motors and Chrysler LLC recently idling plants and laying off thousands of workers. The state has had to increase cash assistance it provides under a federal program to help families in need by 1.8 percent this fiscal year and now gives $88 for clothing to each child in the program, according to a fiscal survey conducted by the National Governors Association and National Association of State Budget Officers.
Laid-off workers become symbol of mounting anger
The nation's grim economy now has a rallying point: Employees at a window-and-door factory that went out of business have taken over the building in a siege that has come to symbolize the woes of the ordinary worker. The Republic Windows and Doors factory closed abruptly last week after Bank of America canceled the company's financing. Since then, about 200 of the 240 laid-off workers have taken turns occupying the factory. The standoff has come to embody mounting anger over the government's willingness to bail out deep-pocketed corporations but not average people. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said he wanted to ask his fellow senators to remind banks that the bailout wasn't to be used for dividends and executive salaries.
Barack and Michelle: an inspiration to many
It started with the fist bump seen ’round the world. Soon there were stories of rousing family Scrabble battles and date nights, in spite of election mayhem. Then President-elect Barack Obama referred to his wife Michelle as “the love of my life” during his election night victory speech, embracing her tightly and kissing her afterward, while millions of people worldwide watched. “When Michelle came out on election evening, she and Barack spoke and touched as if they were alone. Then they turned to the audience. If they can communicate that way in public in front of hundreds of thousands of people, their bond is very solid and real.”
The Colossal Collapse of Conservatism
The United States was founded on revolution, a violent break from tradition through radical and sudden change. Conservatism is the disposition to preserve what is already established. If conservatism had prevailed in the 1770s, we would all be British subjects now, answering to the Queen. We are Americans precisely because radical liberalism won the day. Conservatives today are like followers of a religious cult milling about confused the day after their leader's prediction of Armageddon failed to materialize. The immediacy of the problem is clear as normal life goes on. The failure reveals a fundamental flaw in the sect's belief system, but the failure simply cannot be denied in the light of the new day's dawn.
If Obama Doesn't Prosecute Bush's Torture Team, We'll Pay a Big Price Down the Road
Obama isn't likely to pursue torture atrocities during the Bush era, but this is one problem you simply can't wish away. "How did it come about that American military personnel stripped detainees naked, put them in stress positions, used dogs to scare them, put leashes around their necks to humiliate them, hooded them, deprived them of sleep and blasted music at them? Were these actions the result of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own? It would be a lot easier to accept if it were. But that's not the case."
U.S. power, influence will decline in future, report says
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A government report released Thursday paints an alarming picture of an unstable future for international relations defined by waning American influence, a fragmentation of political power and intensifying struggles for increasingly scarce natural resources. The report aims to better inform policymakers, starting with the administration of President-elect Barack Obama . The report aims to better inform policymakers, starting with the administration of President-elect Barack Obama . The report, "Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World," was drafted by the National Intelligence Council to better inform U.S. policymakers -- starting with the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama -- about the factors most likely to shape major international trends and conflicts through the year 2025.
How Did We Ever Let This Guy Get Away with Being a War President?
What George W. Bush loved best about his job was being a war president. Playing war, that is, as opposed to making war like a grown-up. Remember him strutting onto that carrier in his little flight jacket? You never saw Eisenhower, a real general, playing out his martial fantasies this way. You can take the drink out of the drunk, but you can't take the swagger out of a fool. When you make a weakling into a hero, you give him a lot of power. If we'd kept our eyes open and faced the fact that Bush reacted badly to 9/11, we might have been able to ask for a little more detail about his big plans. Those came courtesy of Cheney and his neocon punks. What a crew these guys were! Like their boss, they were also woofers, boasters -- but of a different variety. Dubya was your standard frat boy loudmouth, but Cheney, with his talk about "working the dark side," was more like the ultimate Dungeons and Dragons nerd. And you couldn't ask Hollywood to serve up a goofier selection of dorks than his neocon staffers, who drifted from the universities to D.C.
Assuring an Enduring Democracy
There were a lot of good answers. Ending privatization was, I thought, the best answer of all. Reinvesting in education is important if we want to ensure that the next generation will support and sustain our work and values. (I like to joke that the reason they call it "liberal education" is that the more of it you have, the more liberal you're likely to be. It's not quite accurate, but it's true enough.) Ensuring that people's interactions with government are useful and positive was another: In a lot of states, one afternoon at the DMV is enough to make the most ardent good-government partisan turn into Grover Norquist. (Maybe we don't want to drag the whole government into the bathtub to drown it, but that SOB at Window 11 would be a fine place to start.)
Fight Back Against Pesky Deceptive Robocalls
"John McCain has launched a new round of false, vicious robocalls, mailers, and attack ads – despite being warned to change his tone by a string of Republican leaders including Colin Powell and four sitting Republican senators. To combat his renewed effort to smear Barack Obama, the Obama campaign today launched a fact-checking campaign centered around a new website," the Obama campaign said. The website "allows voters to report new attacks that pop up in their area – and get the facts about smears they’ve heard," it said.
Drill Baby Drill Here Drill Now ... ah, what do you mean drilling is just hollow campaign rhetoric?
No one says that drilling offshore would change gas prices today. The Department of Energy says there may be 18 billion barrels of oil in coastal waters, but they also say that drilling for it would not have a significant impact on production or prices until 2030. Even people in the oil industry say drilling won't ease the oil pinch. It's really misleading to hold that out as a panacea. It won't work. It might work for our grandchildren." Geologists have identified reservoirs or undersea "structures" that might contain oil. But Simmons says that's guesswork. "We don't have any idea whether any of it is there," he said. But first, the government has to lease the offshore sites to oil companies. The companies then have to probe the seabed to find out what's there. Then there are years of exploratory drilling, says Simmons — if anyone can find rigs to do the drilling. "The problem is that the worldwide capacity to build rigs now has a backlog going out until about 2013, and we won't add enough rigs to even start to replace the very old rig fleet that we have," he said. All of that before any oil actually comes out of the seabed. [Editor: Our only hope is to creat jobs and energy based upon renewable resources- click here.]
Your Salary Eight Years from Now Under Obama, or McCain
Middle-class families will earn about $13,000 more in eight years if Obama wins and $5,000 if McCain wins.During his acceptance speech at Invesco Field in August, Barack Obama earned big applause for a line that compared Democratic and Republican economic policies. "We measure progress," he told the partisan crowd, "in the twenty-three million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was president -- when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500, instead of go down $2,000, like it has under George Bush." As rhetoric, it was effective. But was it a fair point, or a cheap shot? It's true that the Bush expansion was one of the weakest economic recoveries in postwar history, but can you really lay the blame for that at the feet of the president? Isn't it the case that, ritual campaign promises to the contrary, presidents actually have very little influence on the economy? The conventional wisdom among economists says yes, but a growing mountain of historical data suggests that they may be wrong. In the postwar era, it turns out, Democratic presidents consistently produce higher growth rates, lower unemployment, better stock market growth, and less income inequality than Republican presidents. Nobody quite knows why, but the results are surprisingly robust. MORE COVERAGE ON THE ECONOMY, CLICK HERE
My U.S.A.: How a Victim of the Housing Crisis Was Saved from the Brink of Eviction
While our government has taken billions of our tax dollars to bail out the wealthy, a peace and justice group came together to bail out a desperate mother, whose son died in Iraq defending the very nation who left her behind. CodePINK modeled exactly what we want our government to do -- bail out families facing personal disaster, not financiers. Now, my friends, isn't this the real America we want? Not the America of corporate greed and CEO bailouts. Not the America of Wall Street fat cats rescued by their elected and appointed government friends. Not the America of selfishness, avoiding taxes, and only caring about me! The values demonstrated by ANP and Codepink represent the America I want to see. Isn't it time this government honored we the people and used our taxes to take care of us rather than their friends in Forbes and Fortune?
Right-Wingers Celebrate Increase in Bicycle Accidents
A few days ago my 13-year old son excitedly showed me the new bumpersticker he got for this bike. It’s a picture of Barack Obama with the word “believe,” designed to stick in the spokes. Cool! A few days later I read in my local alternative weekly here in Minneapolis that a local right wing website announced that an increase in bike deaths on the streets might mean fewer Obama voters come election day. Cruel! A bad joke, I thought, until I looked up the blog and saw that it was illustrated with photos of cars plowing into and presumably killing a group of bicyclists. The photos look authentic (even if they were faked), which makes this more than a sick joke. It’s almost a provocation for motorists to mow down bicyclists, since they are a no-good bunch of liberals anyway. Thinking about this, on top of the shouts of "Kill Obama" and "Off with his head" heard at recent Sarah Palin rallies, worries me. There’s an element in American society -- even here in Minnesota, which has the longest record of voting Democratic for president of any state -- that can’t seem to accept most of their fellow citizens no longer share their right-wing views. And perhaps never did. What will they do if Obama wins on November 4?
Biking will kill off some Obama supporters, says blogger
The latest from the Anti-Strib blog is sure to get hardcore bikers and Sen. Barack Obama fans riled up. After recent reports of deaths and injuries due to the increasing numbers of commuters taking to their bikes for a primary mode of transportation, the Anti-Strib blog says it might help Sen. John McCain win the election.
Alaskan Independence Party: The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel
If Palin's McCarthy-era guilt-by-association is once again a valid political consideration, Palin, it would seem, has more to lose than Obama. Palin, it could be argued, following her own logic, thinks so little of America's perfection that she continues to "pal around" with a man--her husband, actually--who only recently terminated his seven-year membership in the Alaskan Independence Party. Putting plunder above patriotism, the members of this treasonous cabal aim to break our country into pieces and walk away with Alaska's rich federal oil fields and one-fifth of America's land base--an area three-fourths the size of the Civil War Confederacy. AIP's charter commits the party "to the ultimate independence of Alaska," from the United States which it refers to as "the colonial bureaucracy in Washington." It proclaims Alaska's 1959 induction as a state "as illegal and in violation of the United Nations charter and international law." AIP's creation was inspired by the rabidly violent anti-Americanism of its founding father Joe Vogler, "I'm an Alaskan, not an American," reads a favorite Vogler quote on AIP's current website, "I've got no use for America or her damned institutions." MORE ELECTION COVERAGE, CLICK HERE
It's Time for Paulson to Cut the Crap and Do His Job
Just about every economist who supports bailing out the banks thinks that taking an equity stake through a direct infusion of capital is the way to go. While Secretary Paulson had pushed for his buying bad assets approach, he is now playing Hamlet and flirting with the idea of going the equity route. This is not the time for high school drama. MORE COVERAGE ON THE ECONOMY, CLICK HERE
America the Banana Republic
The ongoing financial meltdown is just the latest example of a disturbing trend that, to this adoptive American, threatens to put the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave on a par with Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Equatorial Guinea. In a statement on the huge state-sponsored salvage of private bankruptcy that was first proposed last September, a group of Republican lawmakers, employing one of the very rudest words in their party’s thesaurus, described the proposed rescue of the busted finance and discredited credit sectors as “socialistic.” There was a sort of half-truth to what they said. But they would have been very much nearer the mark—and rather more ironic and revealing at their own expense—if they had completed the sentence and described the actual situation as what it is: “socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the rest.” The chief principle of banana-ism is that of kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize their own gains, always ensuring that any shortfall is made up by those unfortunates whose daily life involves earning money rather than making it. MORE COVERAGE ON THE ECONOMY, CLICK HERE
NSA Eavesdropping on American Citizens 'Outrageous' and 'Disturbing'
A Senate panel is probing claims top secret government workers eavesdropped on communications from American service members, journalists and aid workers overseas. Announcing the probe, Senate intelligence committee chair Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) called the allegations, made on ABC News, "extremely disturbing."
U.S. spies on Americans' intimate conversations
A terrorist surveillance program instituted by the Bush administration allows the intelligence community to monitor phone calls between the United States and overseas without a court order. Adrienne Kinne, a former U.S. Army Reserves Arab linguist, told ABC News the NSA was listening to the phone calls of U.S. military officers, journalists and aid workers overseas who were talking about "personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism." David Murfee Faulk, a former U.S. Navy Arab linguist, said in the news report that he and his colleagues were listening to the conversations of military officers in Iraq who were talking with their spouses or girlfriends in the United States. According to Faulk, they would often share the contents of some of the more salacious calls stored on their computers, listening to what he called "phone sex" and "pillow talk."
Bush Foreign Policy: "They're A**holes
First, he said that during White House discussions on Iran, a senior military leader asked Bush what his strategy was. Bush's answer? "They're assholes." Just gives you a sense as to how crude and clueless our current president is, and how desperately we need a change. Second -- and this was really interesting -- he maintained that the surge was not the cause of the decrease in violence in Iraq. Instead, Woodward said a covert program run by the U.S. military was the primary reason for the decrease in violence. Woodward didn't get specific, but it basically sounded like a targeted assassinations program. According to Woodward, the administration has confirmed his account. Seems like that might be something for McCain to ponder the next time he wants to say that the surge is the defining reason he ought to be elected president.
Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets
Members of Congress were told they could face martial law if they didn't pass the bailout bill. This will not be the last time. Background: the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, three to four thousand soldiers, has been deployed in the United States as of October 1. Their stated mission is the form of crowd control they practiced in Iraq, subduing "unruly individuals," and the management of a national emergency. I am in Seattle and heard from the brother of one of the soldiers that they are engaged in exercises now. Amy Goodman reported that an Army spokesperson confirmed that they will have access to lethal and non lethal crowd control technologies and tanks. George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus, thus making it legal for military to patrol the U.S. He also led change to the 1807 Insurrection Act to give him far broader powers in the event of a loosely defined "insurrection" or many other "conditions" he has the power to identify. The Constitution allows the suspension of habeas corpus -- habeas corpus prevents us from being seized by the state and held without trial -- in the event of an "insurrection." With his own army force now, his power to call a group of protesters or angry voters "insurgents" staging an "insurrection" is strengthened.
CIA Official Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case
Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, the former No. 3 official in the CIA, pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to one count of wire fraud stemming from sweetheart contracting deals he awarded to a friend and a high-level CIA job he got for his mistress. Prosecutors say he received $1,000 meals and lavish vacations from his friend, California businessman and GOP donor Brent R. Wilkes, in exchange for helping Wilkes score CIA contracts. Foggo, 53, was originally charged last year with 28 counts of wire and mail fraud, unlawful money transactions and making false statements. Foggo first was implicated in the corruption scheme back in March 2006, when former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a California Republican, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for accepting bribes and gifts.
ACTION: Restore the Clean Water Act
It's hard to believe, but polluters are actually allowed to contaminate your drinking water. Why? Because the Supreme Court and the Bush Administration have sided with polluters to strip vital protections from the Clean Water Act. That means that dangerous pollutants like E. coli, bacteria, mercury, PCBs, and dioxin could be contaminating the drinking water of more than 110 million Americans . But Congress can act today to restore the Clean Water Act's original protections by supporting the Clean Water Restoraction Act.
Michigan E.coli Outbreak
Public health officials have identified the source of the E.coli outbreak that has sickened at least 24 people in Michigan, mostly in the southeastern part of the state. The Michigan Department of Community Health announced that iceberg lettuce from a Detroit-based produce distributor was the probable source of the statewide E. coli outbreak. The lettuce distributed by Aunt Mid’s Produce Co was linked to more than 30 Illinois cases of E. coli, the Illinois Department of Public Health said. The Illinois Department of Public Health is warning consumers to stay away from Aunt Mid’s products. Esterichia coli is a common bacteria found in the human digestive tract. Some strains, such as the E.coli O157:H7 strain can cause bad stomach cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, sometimes with blood in it. In some cases, it can cause life threatening problems. Children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems are more exposed to the disease. The negative health effects of E. coli can remain for months and years later.
What the Economy Needs Now Are Good, Green Jobs
A national day of action tomorrow for green jobs is showing that clean energy can be our modern day gold rush. If a coalition of clean energy and social justice groups has its way, renewable energy will be something of a modern day gold rush, providing both clean energy and scores of stable living-wage jobs for urban and rural Americans. Climate change and declining fossil fuel deposits are igniting interest in renewable energy, and many see the possibility of an economic boom in the building and installation of wind turbines, solar panels and geothermal energy systems along with a blossoming industry in green buildings and retrofits.
NOTEABLE: We Hold Its Value to Be Self-Evident
Ecuador approved a new constitution this weekend that, among other things, grants inalienable rights to nature, the first such inclusion in a nation's constitution, according to Ecuadorian officials. "Nature ... where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain, and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions, and its processes in evolution. Every person, people, community, or nationality will be able to demand the recognition of rights for nature before the public bodies," the document says. The specific mention of evolution isn't accidental; besides being an activity nature arguably likes to do anyway, evolution as we know it has close ties to Ecuador's territory of the Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin formed his famous theory. Ecuador's constitution grants nature the right to "integral restoration" and says that the state "will promote respect toward all the elements that form an ecosystem" and that the state "will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems, or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles."
Mom had no choice but to bike at night
Jacqueline Robinson, 40, was a single mom raising two kids. With no car, she commuted by bike to care for a 92-year-old man. Friends and family members describe Jackie Robinson as a fighter who had battled adversity and was working hard for her two boys, Bruce, 13, and Keith, 11. "She was a good person," said Heather Weeks, a cousin. "She would give you the shirt off her back." Royal Oak police say Robinson was struck while riding northbound on Woodward a few blocks south of 12 Mile and was dragged about 100 feet. They are searching for a 2008 white Jeep Liberty. Family members said medical personnel reported Robinson suffered massive internal injuries and multiple broken bones in her chest. Friends say she was about 4-foot-11 and weighed around 100 pounds. "Someone left her on the side of the road like a pile of garbage," said Weeks. "What kind of a person can do that?"
Kleenex = Gross Mismanagement of Forest Resources
As these new photos and recent government correspondence reveal, Kimberly-Clark is currently purchasing huge quantities of pulp made primarily from whole, old-growth trees from intact areas of Canada’s Boreal Forest. According to the Ontario Ministry of Environment, the stockpile contained 85,000 cubic metres of wood as of the end of March 2008. That’s equivalent to over 7,000 logging trucks full of wood. Since the closure of an area sawmill in June 2008, this wood has been trucked to the Terrace Bay pulp mill where it is being turned directly into pulp for Kleenex and other disposable products. In total, the logs will have been trucked 6-7 hours from the forest to the mill. What’s worse, even with this massive stockpile of timber already cut and waiting to be pulped, the Ogoki Forest continues to be logged, largely in order to supply Kimberly-Clark. [EDITOR: There is currently a nationwide boycott of Kimberly-Clark products as the result of their logging practices. These products include Kleenex, Cottenelle, Depends, Huggies, GoodNites, Kotex, Scott, Pullups, and Viva.]
Ten Conservative Myths About National Security
I hate having been right about this, though I can hardly blame average citizens for succumbing to the sirens of chaos. Americans trying to make correct sense of the new reality found their efforts stymied everywhere they turned. With the White House distorting intelligence to sell a war, corporate opportunists fanning the coals of panic to heat up vast new business opportunities, media editors milking the drama to keep their ratings high, and terrified hordes quick to shout "treason" whenever anyone dared to question the path we were taking, it was hard for even thoughtful Americans to locate the truth of the matter. And as long as confusion reigned, the terrorists really did keep winning.
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares MUST READ
I don't like raging at women. I have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of women. But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to women which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war. I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God." I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression. MORE ELECTION COVERAGE
“So Sambo beat the bitch!” Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin
Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”MUST READ
“So Sambo beat the bitch!” This is how Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin described Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination. According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat’s primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively. “It was kind of disgusting,” Lucille said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the “lower 48” about life near the North Pole. Then, almost with a sigh, she added, “But that’s just Alaska.” Racial and ethnic slurs may be “just Alaska” and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin. Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article. But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and mean. We’re talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive. MORE ELECTION COVERAGE
What the Chemical Industry Doesn't Want You to Know about Everyday Products
Scientists Frederick Vom Saal and Wade Welshons have been in the industry's crosshairs for more than a decade, since their experiments turned up the first hard evidence that miniscule amounts of bisphenol A (BPA), an artificial sex hormone and integral component of a vast array of plastic products, caused irreversible changes in the prostates of fetal mice. The financial stakes were mind-boggling. The global chemical industry produces about 6 billion pounds of BPA annually, generating at least $6 billion in annual sales. The value of BPA-based manufactured goods, from cell phones and computers to epoxy coatings and dental bindings, is probably incalculable.
Warning: Wrecking Crew at Work
The Interior Department's bungle-dee-botch is what government looks like when you make it "market-based," as Bush once put it. This kind of government answers not to the public but to the party with the most money.
A Tawdry Tale of Bush, Sex, and Oil
People always say the Bush administration is in bed with the oil companies, but it turns out to be literally true. According to the Interior Department, some government officials in charge of collecting oil and gas royalties smoked pot, snorted cocaine and had sex with employees of big energy firms. Meanwhile, the rest of us were getting screwed at the gas pump. Who says that being a bureaucrat is dull work? Such colorful revelations shed some light on the mysterious energy task force assembled by Vice President Dick Cheney at the president's direction, shortly after he took office. Cheney has stubbornly refused to tell American taxpayers what was decided or who participated in these important meetings, though it's known that many major players were involved, including those geniuses at Enron. No wonder the vice president is so secretive about what took place. Obviously these weren't serious policy meetings; they were toga parties, with Cheney dressed up as Bluto from Animal House. In their wildest dreams the boys from big oil couldn't have imagined how much fun the next eight years would be -- sex, drugs and ``treasure hunts.'' Party on, dudes. Drill your brains out
Gov't officials probed about illicit sex
Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties engaged in illicit sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday. The alleged transgressions involve 13 Interior Department employees in Denver and Washington. Their alleged improprieties include rigging contracts, working part-time as private oil consultants, and having sexual relationships with — and accepting golf and ski trips and dinners from — oil company employees, according to three reports released Wednesday by the Interior Department's inspector general. The findings are the latest sign of trouble at the Minerals Management Service, which has already been accused of mismanaging the collection of fees from oil companies and writing faulty contracts for drilling on government land and offshore. The charges also come as lawmakers and both presidential candidates weigh giving oil companies more access to federal lands, which would bring in more money to the federal government. "This all shows the oil industry holds shocking sway over the administration and even key federal employees," said Sen. Bill Nelson. "This is why we must not allow the Republican big oil agenda to be jammed through Congress."
Drug makers seek shield from lawsuits
In a case that could have broad implications for consumers, the Supreme Court this fall will consider barring liability claims involving medications approved by the FDA. [EDITOR: Considering that FDA oversight is minimal and that drugs are being rushed to market at a blazing pace, this law represents an enormous threat to consumers, and removes a great deal of consumer protection.]
This is America. We don't jail journalists here.
Jailing journalists is unacceptable in a democracy. But that's exactly what is happening at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Award winning journalist and host of "Democracy Now" Amy Goodman was arrested on Monday by St. Paul police while covering a protest outside the Republican National Convention. This story has been virtually ignored by the mainstream press. The cable channels are providing extensive coverage of events related to the Republican National Convention, but there has been a virtual news blackout on the arrest of Amy Goodman and the "Democracy Now" team.
POW says McCain is "not cut out to be President"
I Spent Years as a POW with John McCain, and His Finger Should Not Be Near the Red Button
A fellow Vietnam POW of McCain's warns of the candidate's "quick and explosive temper" and suggests McCain is exaggerating his imprisonment. When I was a Plebe (4th classman, or freshman) at the Naval Academy in 1957-58, I was assigned to the 17th Company for my four years there. In those days we had about 3,600 midshipmen spread among 24 companies, thus about 150 midshipmen to a company. As fortune would have it, John, a First Classman (senior) and his room mate lived directly across the hall from me and my two room mates. McCain barely managed to graduate, standing 5th from the bottom of his 800 man graduating class. I and many others have speculated that the main reason he did graduate was because his father was an Admiral, and also his grandfather, both U.S. Naval Academy graduates. I can verify that John has an infamous reputation for being a hot head. He has a quick and explosive temper that many have experienced first hand. Folks, quite honestly that is not the finger I want next to that red button. It is also disappointing to see him take on and support Bush's war in Iraq, even stating we might be there for another 100 years. For me John represents the entrenched and bankrupt policies of Washington-as-usual. The past 7 years have proven to be disastrous for our country. And I believe John's views on war, foreign policy, economics, environment, health care, education, national infrastructure and other important areas are much the same as those of the Bush administration. MORE ELECTION COVERAGE
The New Face of Terrorism?
A Square White Guy
The deadliest biological assault on the United States may have been perpetrated by a church-going white man, with anthrax from our own weapons labs. What we learned last week, after the suicide of Bruce E. Ivins, was disquieting enough without the twisted love angle. If you can believe the recent leaks from the FBI on its most important unsolved crime -- which killed five and sickened 17, immobilized the federal government and traumatized the nation -- it was a clean-shaven, white, God-fearing Catholic guy who done it. Despite a government anxious to find yet another example of Islamic terrorism in the wake of 9/11, it quickly became clear to experts that the anthrax used in the only WMD attack on our nation was a sophisticated product traceable to our own biological weapons labs. This is not surprising, because the United States has long been a leader in this field.
Olympics Expose the Total Hypocrisy of U.S. Immigration Laws
Americans aren't known for their rational views on immigration. So it's no wonder we attack low-wage workers while celebrating immigrant athletes. In America, we have a long and proud tradition of picking on the little guy. We also have a proud tradition of taking half-hearted moral stands. (Remember the Southern Compromise, anyone? Our continuing tolerance of segregation after abolition? Or the Bush Administration's rejection of nation-building ... ?) Why bother standing up for what's right when we can just talk about what we know is right but then just keep doing what we've always done.
Welcome to the Next Epoch
A striking report from the front lines of science suggests we're officially entering a period in which humanity may simply outrun history itself. In somber prose, the London Society warns that "the combination of extinctions, global species migrations and the widespread replacement of natural vegetation with agricultural monocultures is producing a distinctive contemporary biostratigraphic signal. These effects are permanent, as future evolution will take place from surviving (and frequently anthropogenically relocated) stocks." Evolution itself, in other words, has been forced into a new trajectory.
The Problem Is Simple: Too Many People, Too Much Stuff
Over some 60 million years, Homo sapiens has evolved into the dominant animal on the planet, acquiring binocular vision, upright posture, large brains, and -- most importantly -- language with syntax and that complex store of non-genetic information we call culture. However, in the last several centuries we've increasingly been using our relatively newly acquired power, especially our culturally evolved technologies, to deplete the natural capital of Earth -- in particular its deep, rich agricultural soils, its groundwater stored during ice ages, and its biodiversity -- as if there were no tomorrow. The point, all too often ignored, is that this trend is being driven in large part by a combination of population growth and increasing per capita consumption, and it cannot be long continued without risking a collapse of our now-global civilization. Too many people -- and especially too many politicians and business executives -- are under the delusion that such a disastrous end to the modern human enterprise can be avoided by technological fixes that will allow the population and the economy to grow forever. But if we fail to bring population growth and over-consumption under control -- the number of people on Earth is expected to grow from 6.5 billion today to 9 billion by the second half of the 21st century -- then we will inhabit a planet where life becomes increasingly untenable because of two looming crises: global heating, and the degradation of the natural systems on which we all depend.
The Party of Stupid
The Colbert Report is hilarious because Stephen Colbert's caricature of right-wing blowhards is so eerily accurate. Colbert doesn't believe in "reading books," he believes in his "gut." He listens to his "rage." He admires the "Alpha Dog of the Week." And why does Colbert sound like so many of today's Republican Party leaders? Because, as Paul Krugman explained extremely well today, the GOP has "become the party of stupid."
Eating Meat Is Worse Than Driving a Truck ... for the Climate
Reducing our meat consumption may not be popular, but we need to view our love affair with burgers in the same frame as gas-guzzling SUVs. It's false to frame the biofuel debate as a choice between people or SUVs. While there are daily references in the media to the diversion of corn to fuel-making, there's hardly ever a mention of the fact that feeding our livestock uses 50 percent to 60 percent of the American corn crop. Vegetarians have long understood this issue, but asking the American public to eat less meat is still a radical idea, politically untouchable. Yet the meat industry is a giant source of greenhouse gases, of which carbon dioxide is only one, and not the most dangerous one. All those steer feedlots and factory buildings crammed with pigs and chickens produce immense amounts of animal wastes that give off methane. On an equivalent basis to carbon dioxide, methane is twenty-three times more potent as a greenhouse gas. When you add in the production of fertilizer and other aspects of animal farming (including land use changes, feed transport, etc.) livestock farming is responsible for nearly one-fifth of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, more than the transportation sector, according to a 2006 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Finally, Marriage Licenses for All (except in Michigan)
In San Francisco, there wasn't a dry eye in the house when Daughers of Bilitis founders, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon got married in City Hall yesterday, by the studly mayor who started the whole gay wedding stampede in 2004, Gavin Newsom. Del and Phyll are so frail, at their age, it makes you choke up to think of how they've been together since the 1950s, asking for nothing more than a little respect. They are more radical than young people a third their age! These are often couples who've been together for decades, coping with the health and legacy issues than any old person does, wanting their beloved to be by their side without harangue and humiliation. Marriage licenses for all are finally here. It's already a fact in life in so many states and countries; soon the only hold-outs [such as Michigan] are going to look antediluvian.
Bush Administration Putting Immunity For Blackwater Over The Lives Of Our Troops
While McSame runs around accusing Obama of wanting to "forfeit" Iraq, the Bushies are finalizing the negotiations for forfeiting Iraq by 2011. But the negotiations have hit a snag. The sticking point? The U.S. officials said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with al-Maliki on Wednesday to try to resolve the issue of legal immunity for U.S. contractors working in Iraq. The officials described the phone call as tense. Selling out the Constitution to give telecoms immunity is bad enough. Selling out the troops to give [Michigan mercinary company] Blackwater immunity is a whole new level of sickening.
The forged Iraqi Letter
What just happened? Evidence. A secret that has been judiciously kept for five years just spilled out. All of what follows is new, never reported in any way. In the fall of 2003, after the world learned there were no WMD -- as Habbush had foretold -- the White House ordered the CIA to carry out a deception. The mission: create a handwritten letter, dated July, 2001, from Habbush to Saddam saying that Atta trained in Iraq before the attacks and the Saddam was buying yellow cake for Niger with help from a "small team from the al Qaeda organization." The mission was carried out, the letter was created, popped up in Baghdad, and roiled the global newcycles in December, 2003...
If We Drill in the U.S., We Don't Get the Oil
One thing has been driving me crazy about this drilling debate -- everyone seems to assume that if we drill for oil in the US, that we will get the oil. And hence, we won't be dependent on foreign oil anymore. But we won't get anything, Exxon-Mobil will. The oil that comes from that drilling will not be United States property (Republicans aren't suggesting we nationalize the oil companies, are they?). It will be the property of whichever oil company got the rights to that contract. They can then sell it to whoever they like -- and they will. When we ask the question of whether there should be drilling off the coast of Florida or in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, we should ask the question this way -- would you be comfortable with the Chinese or the Germans or Russians or the Saudis drilling on American land? Because for all intents and purposes, they will be.
Bottled Water: The Height of Stupidity
Bottled water is a joke, one of the biggest consumer and taxpayer ripoffs ever. I applaud California's Attorney General Jerry Brown who said recently that he will sue to block a proposed water-bottling operation in Northern California by Nestle. Attorneys General everywhere should require recycling of all plastic bottles and containers by requiring deposits to be paid to encourage returns, as is the case with aluminum cans. Not only do society and the environment pay an unfair price for this consumer hoax, but consumers are being hoodwinked. They are paying from 300 to 3,000 times more than the cost of tap water without any benefit.
Companies Agree To Cut Cancer-Causing Chemicals In Potato Chips
"Potato chips" and "cancer-causing chemicals" are not phrases that belong in the same sentence. So it's a little disconcerting to learn that Heinz, Frito-Lay, Kettle Foods and Lance Inc. have agreed to reduce of the cancer-causing chemical acrylamide in their potato chips and French fries. Acrylamide is a by-product of frying, roasting and baking foods -- particularly potatoes -- that contain certain amino acids. In 2002, Swedish scientists discovered high levels of cancer-causing acrylamide in fried potato products.
Invasive Species Bill Stuck in Congress
Washington - Tiny foreign mussels assault drinking water sources in California and Nevada. A deadly fish virus spreads swiftly through the Great Lakes and beyond. Japanese shore crabs make a home for themselves in Long Island Sound, more than 6,000 miles away. These are no exotic seafood delicacies. They're a menace to U.S. drinking water supplies, native plants and animals, and they cost billions to contain. Yet Congress is moving to address the problem at the pace of a plain old garden snail. Among the best-known cases: Little quagga and zebra mussels from Eastern Europe were discovered in the Great Lakes two decades ago, likely having boarded ships from Europe. In the first six years after their arrival the creatures wreaked as much as $500 million in damage on the regional economy, clogging water intake pipes and gobbling algae at the base of the aquatic food chain.
Of Spam and Spys
There is lots of spam going around with funny subjects like "Mike Tyson to Fight Michael Jackson" or "Afghanistan to be 51st US State", or other equally absurd lines designed to hook unwary recipients into clicking the URL in the spam. Unfortunately, the results of following that link are not at all funny. The victim's computer will be infected with a Trojan horse, it will become part of a spam, malware and DDoS botnet, and all the user's personal data may be compromised. Those malware URLs are the infection path of large-scale attacks by cybercrime gangs to build their botnets.
Hiroshima Day and U.S. Nukes Today
In honor of Hiroshima Day, we'd like to take a minute to reflect on just how absurd it is for America to maintain 10,000 nuclear bombs. Defense experts say that many simply aren't needed, and by reducing the nuclear arsenal our country could save $14 billion dollars -- more than enough to save the lives of six million kids who die of starvation in impoverished nations each year.
The Price of Oil, Tripled? An Attack on Iran Could Make It Happen
An attack on Iran, which Israeli and Bush administration officials appear set to carry out if Iranian uranium enrichment is not halted, would ignite a regional war in the Middle East and lead to economic collapse and political upheaval in the United States. "In short and simple terms, we would be plunged into a depression that would make the Great Depression of the 1930s in which I spent my childhood look like boom times.
How to Survive the Triple Whammy of Energy, Food and Climate Crises
Gas prices are above $4 a gallon; global food prices surged 39% last year; and an environmental disaster looms as carbon emissions continue to spiral upward. The global economy appears on the verge of a TKO, a triple whammy from energy, agriculture, and climate-change trends. Right now you may be grumbling about the extra bucks you're shelling out at the pump and the grocery store; but, unless policymakers begin to address all three of these trends as one major crisis, it could get a whole lot worse. ...an important new study published by Cambridge University Press shows that organic systems in developing countries can produce 80% more than conventional farms.
Will More Drilling Mean Cheaper Gas?
Even if tomorrow we opened up every square mile of the outer continental shelf to offshore rigs, even if we drilled the entire state of Alaska and pulled new refineries out of thin air, the impact on gas prices would be minimal and delayed at best. A 2004 study by the government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that drilling in ANWR would trim the price of gas by 3.5 cents a gallon by 2027. [Editor: Conservatives led by Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh sent over a million messages to Congress calling for offshore oil drilling. Then John McCain joined the push for drilling. Now he's running ads saying Obama's responsible for high gas prices, because Obama's energy plan focuses on alternative energy—not drilling. It's a scam. Offshore drilling won't save any money at the pumps for years (although it will boost oil company profits). But some senior Democrats are showing signs of caving under all this pressure—and polls show McCain's attacks may be hurting Obama. Here's the truth: Right now, progressives are losing this argument. We all need to fight back. If we don't, we could end up losing the election and the fight for clean energy.]
Generation Warfighter
When did American troops become members of "Generation Kill" instead of citizen-soldiers? And when did we become so proud of declaring our military to be "the world's best"?
Al Gore inches toward Solar
This week he advocated getting to an electric power system that is "carbon free" within ten years. It comes alongside the equally telling move by oil baron T. Boone Pickens to invest $2 billion in wind power. Gore has reportedly raised some $300 million (that's not a typo) to spend on moving pubic opinion to support the transition to a totally "carbon-free" electric supply system. That idea has been around at least thirty years, and is a sub-set of the Solartopian demand that our entire energy economy become free of all fossil and nuclear fuels.
Drilling Ourselves Deep in a Hole
At one point in his masterful People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn reflects upon the unspeakable carnage wrought by the Conquistadors in South and Central America, all in the pursuit of gold, and wonders at how those obscene riches sustained imperial greatness… for barely a hundred years. All that bloodletting, enslavement, massacres — genocide in places — for a temporary wealth that quickly vanished on the stage of history. It reminds me of our current oil craze: in one century we have plundered billions of years of stored hydrocarbons, and what do we have to show for it? Fleeting prosperity — one that is hardly shared by all — a highly volatile Middle East, and awesome ecological devastation that will require centuries of recovery. And now, as the age of oil finally signals its inevitable demise, our president and his allies in Washington announce that their grand response is … to drill for more oil. In his latest book, former World Bank director Joseph Stiglitz claims that the war in Iraq will end up costing three trillion dollars. Imagine if that amount had been dedicated to researching and sustaining the transition to renewable energies. A mere trillion dollars would have gone a long way towards remodeling American suburbia for lifestyle and transportation changes. Instead, we have sacrificed unimaginable funds (from future generations, Stiglitz tells us), and tens of thousands of lives (at least) for a resource that is soon to be economically irrelevant!
Profiting from Iraq
There is a lot of money to be made in Iraq. Apparently, all it takes is the right connections to get a piece of the action. Halliburton Co. had those connections. The Houston-based oil services company that was once run by Vice President Dick Cheney set the gold standard for war profiteering. Now comes word that Dallas billionaire Ray Hunt, a crony of President Bush’s and a member of the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, is getting his share of the spoils.
Africa: The Next Victim in the U.S. Quest for Cheap Oil
Resource wars that are already well under way. In mid-June, a Shell facility was attacked by local militants, disrupting production and sending the already sky-high price of oil to further heights before coming back online a week later. Attacks like those have increased in frequency, as Nigerian factions have fought for control of the nation's lucrative petroleum resources, which are the largest in Africa. The problem, especially as indigenous populations caught between Nigeria's prosperous rich and their oil industry's environmental devastation see it, is that viable land and resources have been wasted on a handful while the majority of the country falls into further disrepair and depression. From natural gas flares and oil spills to the destruction of native plants, animal species and other salable commodities, Nigeria's oil industry has wreaked havoc across the land and its people. And it's only getting worse. And if you think it doesn't affect America, think again.
'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter'
The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.
Bush's Banned Interview: An Insight Into Insanity
I came across an interview with President Bush on Irish television that caused a bit of a storm in 2004. The interview conducted by the tenacious Carol Coleman of Radio Television Ireland was not aired on American television, and Bush's press officers apparently complained vociferously about the rigorous questioning. The video shows Bush at the absolute peak of his arrogance. Coleman cut through the simplistic slogans about evil doers and freedom loving Americans and continued to ask Bush serious questions about the illegal war he had just launched. It fast became evident that this was a man who really had no idea what he was doing -- someone so removed from reality that he failed to even understand what he was being asked. The interview with Coleman should go down on record as definitive proof of Bush's utter incompetence, a priceless picture of a madman who had no business occupying the highest office of the land.
Insurance slogans fail reality test
"Like a good neighbor," "you're in good hands," "do the right thing." All are advertising slogans of insurance companies. They sound real comforting and friendly, don't they? Interestingly, all three companies represented by those slogans have ended up on the American Association of Justice's list of the ten worst insurance companies for consumers.
Lawyers Rate Allstate as Worst Insurance Company
Allstate ranks as the worst insurer for consumers, according to a comprehensive investigation of thousands of legal documents and financial filings by the American Association for Justice, a trial lawyers' group.
Cipro Warning
If you take one of a class of antibiotics that includes Cipro, the FDA wants to warn you about some potentially serious side effects. The agency has asked manufacturers to place a "black box" warning on the label, alerting consumers to the increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture. Of course, the consumer group Public Citizen started pushing for that warning two years ago.
Tell your Legislator to Support HB 6299 and HB 6300, make roads safer for cyclists
Representatives Andy Coulouris (D-Saginaw) and David Palsrok (R-Manistee) on June 29 introduced House Bills 6299 and 6300, which enhance penalties for moving violations causing physical injury or death to bicyclists and other vulnerable roadway users. A teen on a bike deserves the same protection as one driving a tractor. These bills will make Michigan roadways safer for bicyclists and all vulnerable users of our taxpayer-funded road system.
Bill Excerpts:
(1) A “VULNERABLE ROADWAY USER” IS DEFINED AS A PEDESTRIAN OR A PERSON OPERATING A NONMOTORIZED TRANSPORTATION DEVICE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO A BICYCLE).
(2) A PERSON WHO COMMITS A MOVING VIOLATION AND AS A RESULT CAUSES INJURY TO A VULNERABLE ROADWAY USER ON A HIGHWAY WHO IS IN COMPLIANCE WITH THIS ACT IS GUILTY OF A MISDEMEANOR PUNISHABLE BY IMPRISONMENT FOR NOT MORE THAN 1 YEAR OR A FINE OF NOT MORE THAN $1,000.00, OR BOTH.
(3) A PERSON WHO COMMITS A MOVING VIOLATION AND AS A RESULT CAUSES DEATH TO A VULNERABLE ROADWAY USER ON A HIGHWAY WHO IS IN COMPLIANCE WITH THIS ACT IS GUILTY OF A FELONY PUNISHABLE BY IMPRISONMENT FOR NOT MORE THAN 15 YEARS OR A FINE OF NOT MORE THAN $7,500.00, OR BOTH.
GOP Just Can’t Give Enough To Big Oil
There are very good reasons why oily guys have been stereotyped over the years as the sorts of villains who twirl their mustaches and tie innocent young women to railroad tracks. Now, as we are nearing the end of eight years of government of, for and by the oil industry, we may have finally reached the point in our history where the oily guys who run Big Oil no longer have any power to fool us. With $4-a-gallon gas and the prospect of continuing price rises to $5 and above before the end of the summer, politicians are having a tougher job duping us into supporting more financial giveaways to the oil companies. Amazingly, though, Republicans still keep trying.
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Direct cash deposits may be made to: SIMBAHANG LINGKOD NG BAYAN (account name/payee), Bank of the Philippine Islands (Loyola-Katipunan Branch), peso checking account number: 3081-1111-61, dollar savings account number: 3084-0420-12.
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For proper acknowledgement, a donor may fax a copy of the validated deposit slip to SLB through telefax 426-5986, indicating contact information (name, address, email, landline/mobile). Those who wish to be anonymous may skip this procedure, according to Bro. Ismael Jose Chan-Gonzaga, SJ, Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan executive director.
Bush's Secret Army of Snoops and Snitches
The full scale of Bush's assault on our civil liberties may not be known until years after he's left office. At the moment, all we can do is get glimpses here or there of what's going on.
Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?
Five defining characteristics of stupidity, it seems to me, are readily apparent. First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who's in charge. Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events. Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts. Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually contradictory, or contrary to the country's long-term interests. Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.
Trains to answer traffic, cost, and pollution
Shifting a fourth of U.S. freight from trucks to railroads by 2026 would spare each American an average of 41 hours of travel time, 79 gallons of fuel, and $985 in gas expenses each year, according to the seventh annual Congestion Relief Index. "Railroads last year were able to move a ton of freight an average of 436 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel," said railroad association president and CEO Edward R. Hamberger, speaking before the U.S. Senate last week. "It's like moving a ton from Boston to Baltimore or Eugene, Ore., to San Francisco on a gallon of fuel." He called for the government to support bills that would expand tax credits to help railways expand capacity. His group also backs public-private partnerships to fund railroads.
The End of Oil
Paul Roberts tgells us in his new book, The End of Oil, that crude, besides being at the core of a host of political and economic problems, is getting harder to find, both in the Middle East and (especially) outside it -- meaning that high prices are here to stay, and that the United States can expect to become more, not less, dependent for its oil on volatile Middle Eastern countries. Roberts says that Americans are “energy illiterate” -- we only think about the nation’s energy policy when oil prices hit us hard in the pocket. If the high price of oil keeps up, it may be just be the rude awakening needed for us to pressure politicians and in turn, the energy industry, to undertake massive investment in the alternatives to oil. If we don’t, the consequences will be disastrous: economic recession, environmental devastation, and further upheaval in the Middle East.
A Metal Scare to Rival the Oil Scare
Indium, gallium and hafnium are some of the least-known elements on the periodic table, but New Scientist warns that reserves of these low-profile minerals and others like them might soon be exhausted thanks to the demand for flat screens and other high-tech goods. Scientists who have tried to estimate how long the worlds mineral supply can meet global demand have made some gloomy predictions. Armin Reller, a materials chemist at the University of Augsburg in Germany, estimates that in 10 years the world will run out of indium, used for making liquid-crystal displays for flat-screen televisions and computer monitors. He also predicts that the world will run out of zinc by 2037, and hafnium, an increasingly important part of computer chips, by 2017. Recycling of rare metals will be the only way to manufacture some gadgets and machines as demand grows in the developing world.
Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency
Will the Last Superpower Recognize In Time What We Must Do to Save the Planet?
Cheap oil provided an energy subsidy that defined the wars, economies, settlements, values, and lifestyles of the 20th century. The result was a century of wasteful extravagance and inefficiency that encouraged us to squander virtually all Earth's resources -- including water, land, forests, fisheries, soils, minerals, and natural waste recycling capacity. We are now waking up to the morning-after consequences of a brief but raucous party. These include depleted natural systems, unsustainable economies, an obsolete physical infrastructure, and a six-fold increase in the human population dependent on the diminished resources of a finite planet. Cheap oil is no more and the global projection of military and economic power it made possible is no longer viable. In May 2008 the price of oil hit a new high of $135 a barrel in contrast to the historic inflation adjusted price of $27.00. We are only beginning to awake as a nation to the reality that our reign as a global superpower is coming to an abrupt end.
The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush soon to be ex-Presidency
The Bush administration can be described as a slapstick comedy with an unusually high body count: Picture the Three Stooges and the Keystone Cops duking it out with cruise missiles. In a lot of ways, choosing the Bush administration's 10 greatest moments -- disastrous failures, all -- is about as pointless as picking out your 10 least favorite hemorrhoids: There are entirely too many of them, and taken together they all add up to a throbbing mass of pain.
The World's Pollution Factory
Chinese manufacturers are extremely energy inefficient. To produce an equivalent amount of goods, they use six times more resources than the United States, seven times more resources than Japan, and, most embarrassingly, three times more resources than India, to which China is most frequently compared. If ever there were a blueprint for a global pollution factory, China would be the model. At the root of many of China's air-quality problems is its heavy dependence on relatively high-sulfur, low-quality coal for everything from electricity generation and industrial production to cooking and space heating in the home. China relies on coal for almost 75% of its energy needs. In fact, each year, China consumes more coal than Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States combined.
Walking is 12 times better for the climate than driving
In case you missed it, there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the blogosphere a few months back, concerning the climate impacts of walking vs. driving. Your mileage may vary, of course; but my shoes get about 220 miles per gallon.
Contaminated Veggies Are the Meat Industry’s Fault
While it's difficult to quantify how many vegetarians live within our borders, it's easier to observe the attitude toward vegetarians. Twenty years ago, "What're you, a Commie?" was a typical response to a confession of veggie brotherhood. Nowadays, despite the occasional stink eye, meat eaters at least understand that vegetarianism is healthy, if not a lifestyle particularly suited for them. Even though the United States is more veggie-friendly these days, it's still difficult to avoid crappy food, even if one chooses to become a vegan, as I did six years ago. Despite my decision, I found myself projectile vomiting into my toilet last week. Diagnosis: food poisoning. Suspect: tomatoes. Unfortunately, becoming a vegetarian or a vegan doesn't ensure healthiness. Sure, vegetarians enjoy many health perks (low rates of: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc.) but we're still at the mercy of the meat industry in many ways. It's not the veggies that are to blame. The problem is the meat. Salmonella is an animal pathogen, so it doesn't originate from tomatoes. Most experts agree that the bacteria probably come from groundwater contaminated with animal feces. You read that right: Cow shit is in your tomatoes. Actually, cow shit is in everything: the water, hamburgers, other plant life, and if one ascribes to the hippie New Age belief that we are all one pulsating organism upon Mother Earth, then cow shit is in all of us.
Big Oil Returns to Iraq
Nearly four decades after the four biggest Western oil companies were expelled from Iraq by Saddam Hussein, they are negotiating their return. By the end of the month, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Exxon Mobil and Total will sign agreements with the Baghdad government, Iraq's first with big Western oil firms since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.The major oil companies have been eager to go back to Iraq but are concerned about their own security and the long-term stability of the country. The two-year no-bid agreements are service agreements that should add another 500,000 barrels of crude a day of output to Iraq's present production of 2.5 million barrels a day.
AAA Auto Club bad for the environment?
When it comes to roadside assistance, most Americans don't even think twice before making a decision. AAA has been around since 1902 and is the leading auto club in the country. But AAA, who did well to focus on roadway safety reform through the 1940s, is isolating many consumers due to its stance on a more current safety issue: the environment. Now one company, with a business strategy built around being environmentally conscious, is hoping to entice American car owners by offering a greener form of roadside assistance.
Finally, Marriage Licenses for All
The legalization of gay marriage is a huge milestone in the fight for equal rights. Still, it begs the question: why do people get married, anyway?
The Worst of All Worlds
House Democrats capitulate to pass a surveillance bill that further compromises our privacy and limits accountability of the government and telecoms. Will the Senate fight back?
Human link in severity of floods
Natural disasters like floods are normally blamed on nature, but some experts believe humans are at least partly responsible for this month's massive flooding in Iowa and elsewhere in the U.S. farm belt. Human re-engineering of landscapes came into question as rivers overran their banks and more than 20 levees along the Mississippi River failed, inundating thousands of acres of prime farmland and displacing nearly 40,000 people.
Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing: The Origins of Aggressive Interrogation Techniques
Intelligence saves lives. Knowing where an insurgent has buried an IED can keep a vehicle carrying Marines in Iraq from being blown up. Knowing that an al Qaeda associate visited an internet café in Kabul could be the key piece of information that unravels a terrorist plot targeting our embassy. Intelligence saves lives. But how do we get the people who know the information to share it with us? Does degrading them or treating them harshly increase the chances that they’ll be willing to help? Just a couple of weeks ago I visited our troops in Afghanistan. While I was there I spoke to a senior intelligence officer who told me that treating detainees harshly is actually an impediment – a “roadblock” to use that officer’s word – to getting intelligence from them.
What Floods?
I just got off the phone with a Congressional staffer, who couldn't quite focus on the issue we were supposed to discuss because she is working overtime on the floods in the Midwest. So I turned on cable news, and found out that the floods are plastered all over, much as the wildfires in California were in October of 2007. And just like 2007, the major environmental groups are AWOL on the most covered climate event of the year so far. Here's an answer to a vexing question for lots of liberals. If you want to know why there is no action on global warming, do the following simple exercise. Turn on cable news right now, or do a Google News search for floods. Here are some news headlines you might find. So one would think the press would cover global warming in the context of extreme weather. Of course journalists don't. But is this a media problem? Yes, but it's not just a media problem. I looked at the home pages and press pages of the Sierra Club, NRDC, Environmental Defense, the League of Conservation Voters, and Al Gore's We Can Solve It. The Sierra Club is asking for higher mileage standards on cars, NRDC is discussing lead and growing support for action on global warming, the League of Conservation Voters brags about its recent endorsement of Gabrielle Giffords, Environmental Defense asks for lower gas prices, and We Can Solve It puts its new ad front and center.
Carl Levin: Senate Floor Statement on Oil and Gasoline Prices
Mr. President, day after day record-high oil and gasoline prices are causing immense harm to millions of American consumers and businesses. Unless something is done to make energy more affordable, these record-high prices will continue to damage our economy, increasing the prices of transportation, food, manufacturing and everything in between. Skyrocketing energy prices are a threat to our economic and national security, and the time is long past for action.
China Surgest Ahead of U.S. in Clean Energy Spending
CHINA is leaving the US in the dust in its spending on clean energy - but it still has plenty to do if it is to shake off its sooty reputation. According to a study released last week by the Washington-based think tank, Worldwatch Institute, China will invest more than $10 billion on renewable energy this year - double the amount invested by the US in 2006.
Ninety-nine billion barrels of oil on the wall...
Ninety-nine billion barrels of oil, take one down, pass it around, ninety-eight billion barrels of oil. A look at world oil consumption by country. The U.S. ought to be ashamed.
Meijer gets judge to hide papers
Meijer Inc. convinced a state appellate judge to hide from public view documents related to Grand Traverse County's efforts to investigate the retailer's campaign finance violations. A motion to seal the appellate case was filed by John Pirich, a Lansing attorney hired by Meijer.
Gay unions shed light on gender in marriage
A growing body of evidence shows that same-sex couples have a great deal to teach everyone else about marriage and relationships. Most studies show surprisingly few differences between committed gay couples and committed straight couples, but the differences that do emerge have shed light on the kinds of conflicts that can endanger heterosexual relationships. While the gay and lesbian couples had about the same rate of conflict as the heterosexual ones, they appeared to have more relationship satisfaction, suggesting that the inequality of opposite-sex relationships can take a toll.
FEMA's $85 million giveaway
Household items meant for Katrina victims were given away to government agencies for free.
Bush Begins Farewell Tour
On his final scheduled visit to Europe before his term ends in January, the U.S. president, George W. Bush, held a farewell summit meeting with leaders of the European Union here on Tuesday, debating issues including diplomacy toward Iran and a trade dispute over chickens.
Michigan Based Mercenary Agency Blackwater is Now Offering Private Spy Services
The notorious mercenary company now offers spy "services" to Fortune 500 companies, for the right price. This past September, the secretive mercenary company Blackwater USA found its name splashed across front pages the world after the company's shooters gunned down seventeen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square. But by early 2008, Blackwater had largely receded from the headlines save for the occasional blip on the media radar sparked by Congressman Henry Waxman's ongoing investigations into its activities. Its forces remained deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and business continued to pour in. In the two weeks directly following Nisour Square, Blackwater signed more than $144 million in contracts with the State Department for "protective services" in Iraq and Afghanistan alone and, over the following weeks and months, won millions more in contracts with other federal entities like the Coast Guard, the Navy and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
Jury Says It's Legal to Protest an Illegal War
A rare bit of good news for the anti-war movement goes largely ignored by the media. The good news is that six peace activists were acquitted on charges of criminal trespass for failing to obey a police request that they abandon their sit-in outside U.S. Sen. Susan Collins' office in the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Maine For Hendrick, a Naval Academy graduate and former Air Force officer who volunteered for two tours in Vietnam and who now teaches peace studies at the University of Maine at Orono, the "not guilty" verdict was especially sweet. In his defense, he told the jury, "My best friend's name is on the wall in Washington, as are the names of three other teammates and nine classmates." Those deaths and the deaths of another generation of soldiers and civilians were on his mind when he refused to leave the Federal Building: "Every life lost is a heinous crime, and we are all complicit. We should all be working to stop a foreign policy run amok without conscience," Hendrick told me.
Complete Streets Bicycle Bill in House and Senate
Representative Doris Matsui (D-CA) took an important step last Thursday, May 1, for safer, better designed streets by introducing the Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2008 into the U.S. House (HR 5951). The bill would make sure that roads built and improved with federal funds safely serve everyone using the roadway,including pedestrians, bicyclists, bus riders, as well as those with disabilities. On the Senate side, Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) signed on this week as first Republican co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, S2686, the Complete Streets Act of 2008, introduced a few weeks ago by Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Thomas Carper (D-DE). This is the first time that comprehensive complete streets bills have been introduced in the House and Senate.
Ex-aide criticises Bush over Iraq
Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said US President George W Bush was not "open and forthright" on Iraq and rushed to an unnecessary war.
ICE Detainees Lack Medical Care
Last week, Miss Sarajevo left a comment with a link to this series of articles in The Washington Post, and I’m just finally getting around to writing about it. The series, “Careless Detention,” is about the terrifying, unethical and downright inhumane medical treatment of immigrants imprisoned by ICE, generally while fighting or awaiting deportation for infractions that are usually non-violent and in fact so mild as to verge on the ridiculous. Since 9/11, Bush and his buddies have really stepped up anti-immigrant measures (which were already largely poor and in place), broadened definitions of who could be deported, increased raids and decided that those seeking asylum must do so while behind bars. Our government is imprisoning both documented and undocumented men and women (and though not mentioned in this series, also children), often without due process, and then, quite simply, killing them with medical neglect, or otherwise abusing/torturing them with inappropriate or an outright lack of medical treatment.
Children and the 'War on Terror'
Surely nothing that President Bush has done in his two wretched terms of office -- not the invasion and destruction of Iraq, not the overturning of the five-centuries-old tradition of habeas corpus, not his authorization and encouragement of torture, not his campaign of domestic spying -- nothing can compare in its ugliness as his approval, as commander in chief, of the imprisoning of over 2,500 children.
Native American Boarding Schools Continue to Haunt
For the government, it was a possible solution to the so-called Indian problem. For the tens of thousands of Indians who went to boarding schools, it's largely remembered as a time of abuse and desecration of culture. An Army officer, Richard Pratt, founded the first of these schools. He based it on an education program he had developed in an Indian prison. He described his philosophy in a speech he gave in 1892. "A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one," Pratt said. "In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." A report in the late 1880s defended the early days of the schools. In the 1920s, a report concluded that children at federal boarding schools were malnourished, overworked, harshly punished and poorly educated. And in 1969, a report declared Indian education to be a national tragedy.
Powering Down the Patriot Act
There's a move afoot on Capitol Hill to rein in some of the vast powers conferred upon government investigators by the Patriot Act, the infamous, hastily crafted law written in response to the 9/11 attacks. New legislation has been introduced in both houses of Congress intended to curb the FBI's ability to collect private data on virtually anybody using a tool called a national security letter (NSL). The bills come in the wake of yet another damaging FBI inspector general report on the bureau's abuse of its expanded authorities.
Bush's Latest Villainous Nominee for a Lifetime Judgeship
In 2004, Estelle Richardson's lifeless and battered body was found on the floor of a Corrections Corporation of America prison cell. Four years later, that unsolved homicide has come back to haunt Republican stalwart "Gus" Puryear, the nation's top private prison litigator and Bush nominee for U.S. District Court.
Will Meijer get its own checkout lane for justice?
Meijer spent years and tens of thousands of dollars bullying local officials, suing them and generally making their lives hell because they dared to exercise local control in a zoning decision. In this case, justice demands more than a wrist-slap and a token fine. In an April 11 ruling, Circuit Court Judge Philip Rodgers in Traverse City said that retailer Meijer does not have to respond to subpoenas issued by Grand Traverse Prosecutor Alan Schneider. Schneider was seeking communications regarding Meijer's corporate-funded efforts to recall elected officials in Acme Township over a zoning issue for a store. Judge Rodgers said that the Michigan Campaign Finance Act gives exclusive jurisdiction of campaign finance violations to the Michigan Department of State, which administers elections.
Election 2008 : Secret Money Project
Remember the Swift Boat ad four years ago: the 60-second video that knee-capped Democratic presidential candidate and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry? That ad is the most powerful evidence yet of the shadow realm in American politics — a place where big donors legally give unrestricted sums, often with no public disclosure. This year we expect to see a record volume of Swift Boat-type messages on the air, in print and over the phone.
Michigan Needs Your Help
As the tax deadline looms today, Michigan families are standing in line to send our tax dollars to pay for the war in Iraq - with huge trade-offs here at home that hit our families, taxpayers and children hard. The Bush administration, John McCain and right-wing members of Congress, while claiming they are against taxes, are spending our tax dollars on Iraq with serious trade-offs here at home. A study by National Priorities Project shows Michigan taxpayers will pour $13.9 billion dollars into the Iraq War this year alone! That number is rising every day. It's time to call the war in Iraq what it is: a massive tax on American families, taxpayers and our children. Here in Michigan we have poured billions of dollars and many troops into President Bush's endless war. The Iraq war has entered its 6th year and surpassed the tragic milestone of 4,000 troop deaths, yet President Bush would keep our troops there indefinitely and U.S. Senator John McCain says he is "fine with" keeping our men and women in Iraq for 100 years. We urge you to go to http://progressmichigan.org/iraqtax and send a message that you want your tax dollars to be invested here at home on healthcare, schools, affordable housing and a strong future. Please stand up and fight the "Iraq tax."
Busted
Michigan doesn’t have a shortage of money, as Democrats argue. The state’s budget is $43 billion annually. Nor are its taxes too high, as Republicans assert. Michigan has a shortage of ideas, vision, and willingness to collaborate. So long as the state’s budget is devoted to building more roads not regional rapid transit, promoting farm products in the farm-killing global commodity markets, subsidizing sprawl in rural areas, selling state forests and other assets at bargain prices, and cutting funding to higher education in the knowledge economy, we all lose.
The Tibetion Monks Weren't Violent After All, but the Imposters Were
Britain's GCHQ, the government communications agency that electronically monitors half the world from space, has confirmed the claim by the Dalai Lama that agents of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the PLA, posing as monks, triggered the riots that have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured. GCHQ analysts believe the decision was deliberately calculated by the Beijing leadership to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region, which is already attracting unwelcome world attention in the run-up to the Olympic Games this summer. March 31st has been designated an international day of action by the International Tibet Support Network. Will you stand up that day, wherever you happen to be? And then continue, as long as the situation lasts.
How Lethally Stupid Can One Country Be?
Watching George W. Bush in operation these last couple of weeks is like having an out-of-body experience. On acid. During a nightmare. In a different galaxy. As he presides over the latest disaster of his administration (No, it's not a terrorist attack -- that was 2001! No, it's not a catastrophic war -- that was 2003! No, it's not a drowning city -- that was 2005! This one is an economic meltdown ... But let's give credit where credit is due. This is precisely by design. This is exactly the outcome intended by the greatest propaganda-promulgating regime since Hermann Göring set fire to the Reichstag. It was Göring himself who famously reminded us that, "Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." Sure worked in Germany. And it worked even better here...
Bush Administration Policy of Compulsory Ignorance
Today we are facing a full-fledged national crisis over the role of scientific information in public policy-making. It's a subtle crisis in some ways, often obscured by the complexities of scientific disputation. But it is a crisis nonetheless, one that threatens every one of us because it affects not only public health and the environment, but the way we treat knowledge itself in American society. Daniel Marsula, Post-Gazette Click illustration for larger version. Chris Mooney is the author of "The Republican War on Science," published this month by Basic Books. He is Washington correspondent for Seed Magazine. The crisis is a direct consequence of continuing, and well-documented, misuses and distortions of scientific information by the Bush administration, on issues ranging from global climate change to embryonic stem-cell research. The extensiveness of the administration's abuses, combined with the fact that it refuses to acknowledge or apologize for its offenses, leaves us with a deep conundrum
Virus from China the gift that keeps on giving
An insidious computer virus recently discovered on digital photo frames has been identified as a powerful new Trojan Horse from China that collects passwords for online games - and its designers might have larger targets in mind. "It is a nasty worm that has a great deal of intelligence," said Brian Grayek, who heads product development at Computer Associates, a security vendor that analyzed the Trojan Horse. The virus, which Computer Associates calls Mocmex, recognizes and blocks antivirus protection from more than 100 security vendors, as well as the security and firewall built into Microsoft Windows. It downloads files from remote locations and hides files, which it names randomly, on any PC it infects, making itself very difficult to remove. It spreads by hiding itself on photo frames and any other portable storage device that happens to be plugged into an infected PC. The authors of the new Trojan Horse are well-funded professionals whose malware has "specific designs to capture something and not leave traces," Grayek said. "This would be a nuclear bomb" of malware.
Michigan laser beam believed to set record for intensity
If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam made in a University of Michigan laboratory. The record-setting beam measures 20 billion trillion watts per square centimeter. It contains 300 terawatts of power. That's 300 times the capacity of the entire U.S. electricity grid. The laser beam's power is concentrated to a 1.3-micron speck about 100th the diameter of a human hair. A human hair is about 100 microns wide.
Great Lakes advocates not pleased with Bush's spending plan
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Map, News) - President Bush's proposed budget would shortchange efforts to clean up the Great Lakes and to keep problems such as sewage overflows and exotic species invasions from getting worse, critics said Wednesday. Federal spending for Great Lakes water quality programs would be slashed 16 percent from this year's total under the president's fiscal 2009 spending plan released this week, advocacy groups said.
Senate Rewards Millionaire Farmers, Again
The U.S. Senate, last week not only caved in to Republicans on the energy bill by jettisoning renewable energy requirements and restoring oil company subsidies, but also caved in to lobbyists on the farm bill by rejecting a proposal to limit subsidies to the richest of the rich. With the Senate's passage of the farm bill, as the Corpus-Christi Caller-Times put it, "Now the way is all but clear for the passage of a $286 billion farm bill that is again loaded with hundreds of millions of dollars for corporations and for millionaire farmers under the guise of helping small family farms stay afloat in tough times."
Top Ten Automotive Outrages of 2007
The American motorist gets blamed for many things, including urban sprawl, global warming, unsafe streets, drunken driving and conspicuous consumption. But it's not the motorist who makes airbags that don't work, SUVs that burst into flames, cars that leap violently forward for no reason or engines that spit out their spark plugs. Like air pollution and crowded highways, these problems aren't new and there's no sign they'll end anytime soon.
2008 forecasts: food at least 3% higher; gas up 10.7%
For cash-strapped consumers already beset by higher gasoline prices and escalating mortgage rates, the hits just keep on coming. This time, it's food. The sharp rise in food prices seen in 2007 is expected to be followed by another higher-than-normal jump next year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said last week. And 2008's punch will be to the breadbasket. Items made with wheat (breads and crackers) and soybean oil (cooking oil and fried foods) are expected to rise so much next year that they'll boost the cost of cooking at home by up to 4.5 percent — half a percentage point more than predicted just a month ago.
Where Anti-Immigrant Zealots Like Lou Dobbs Get Their "Facts"
The vast majority of these groups were founded or funded by John Tanton, a major architect of the contemporary nativist movement who, 20 years ago, was already warning of a destructive "Latin onslaught" heading to the United States. At the center of the Tanton web is the nonprofit Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the most important organization fueling the backlash against immigration. Founded by Tanton in 1979, FAIR has long been marked by anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes. It has mixed this bigotry with a fondness for eugenics, the idea of breeding better humans discredited by its Nazi associations. It has accepted $1.2 million from an infamous, racist eugenics foundation. It has employed officials in key positions who are also members of white supremacist groups. Recently, it has promoted racist conspiracy theories about Mexico's secret designs on the American Southwest and an alternative theory alleging secret plans to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada. Just last February, FAIR President Dan Stein sought "advice" from the leaders of a racist Belgian political party. For decades, John Tanton has operated a nativist empire out of his U.S. Inc. foundation's headquarters in Petoskey, Mich. Even as he simultaneously runs his own hate group -- The Social Contract Press, listed for many years by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of its anti-Latino and white supremacist writings.
Born to Shop: How Marketers Brainwash Babies
Santa's shopping is in full swing. Peak season for what I consider child abuse, family abuse and democracy abuse -- marketing to children. I'm of the baby boomer generation. When I was a kid, there was Tony the Tiger hawking Frosted Flakes and little elves selling me cookies, but marketing to children was peanuts -- well, probably Cracker Jacks. Everything has changed, and changed gradually on such a scale that we are paying an enormous price -- in kids' physical, mental and emotional health, and in the health of our families and our democracy. From 1992 to 1997, the amount of money spent on marketing to children doubled, from $6.2 to $12.7 billion. Today they are spending over $15 billion.
The American Dream is Alive and Well ... in Finland!
New research suggests the United States' much-ballyhooed upward mobility is a myth, and one that's slipping further from reality with each new generation. On average, younger Americans are not doing better than their parents did, it's harder to move up the economic ladder in the United States than it is in a number of other wealthy countries, and a person in today's work force is as likely to experience downward mobility as he or she is to move up. Moreover, the single greatest predictor of how much an American will earn is how much their parents make. In short, the United States, contrary to popular belief, is not a true meritocracy, and the American worker is getting a bum deal, the worst of both worlds. Not only is a significant portion of the middle class hanging on by the narrowest of threads, not only do fewer working people have secure retirements to look forward to, not only are nearly one in seven Americans uninsured, but working people also enjoy less opportunity to pull themselves up by their bootstraps than those in a number of other advanced economies.
Meijer Gets SLAPPed back
It is unconscionable that Meijers is engaging in SLAPP Suit tactics. I am glad that Bill Boltres "SLAPPed" back. The SLAPP suit is a tactic traditionally used by the most brutal petrochemical corporations and the most rapacious developers to silence ordinary citizens' concerns and thwart the democratic process. Some one at Meijers made a very bad choice.
Solvitur Ambulando
The crisis of industrial society may just be approaching a critical stage in the near future. This has had an interesting and welcome impact on discussions about the future. Concerns that have been exiled to the far reaches of our collective discourse for most of three decades now – resource depletion, atmospheric pollution, and the other consequences of the fatal mismatch between fantasies of infinite economic growth and the hard limits of a finite planet – have been thrust back into center stage by the press of events.
Humanity as your enemy -- or is it "the economy, stupid"?
We look around to see arguably lethal behavior by the average person. Most people drive cars unnecessarily, consume foods from great distance, and engage in other activities that serve to enrich powerful corporations that are a menace to the planet. We still do not see much attempt to restructure lifestyles ecologically and thus challenge the socioeconomic system. At this critical time in history can we argue that modern people are generally stupid? That they are your enemy? And that you may be your enemy too? Or, do we just blame the Bad Guys?
U.S. House says that the Internet is a Terrorist Threat
"The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 1955) last month, by a vote of 404 to 6, that says the Internet is a terrorist tool and that Congress needs to develop and implement methods to combat it."
The End of America?
An interview with author Naomi Wolf, whose new book, "The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot," may confirm your worries about democracy in America.
Extended Warranty? Think Again
It's tempting to spend a few bucks more on an "extended warranty" when buying a major appliance or gadget. But look out! These service contracts -- they're not really warranties -- can wind up being worth less than the paper they're written on. The terms are complex, the loopholes are large and, in all too many cases, the retailer simply dreams up a reason not to make good on the deal.
Senate Takes a Stand on Media Ownership: Bipartisan legislation would put the brakes on FCC plan to gut media ownership limits
WASHINGTON -- At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing today, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) announced plans to introduce legislation that would halt the Federal Communications Commission's rush to gut longstanding media ownership rules. The bipartisan "Media Ownership Act of 2007" -- co-sponsored by Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), John Kerry (D-MA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) -- would direct the FCC to conduct a separate proceeding on localism and create an independent minority and female ownership task force before moving forward with any changes to media ownership limits. The bill would also give the public a 90-day comment period on any proposed rules.
Who’s Your Daddy Now?
As everyone knows, the Republican Party has spiraled into disrepute. A whopping 20 percent of Americans have swung from positive to negative on the GOP in just three years, leaving pretty much only hard-core partisans in the clubhouse/bunker. It’s Iraq, of course—but not just Iraq. The GOP’s remarkable success at presidential politics the past 40 years has been a function of its “daddy party” image—happy to exercise military power abroad, unaccommodating of misbehavior and hard-luck stories at home, penny-pinching, can-do— in contrast to the Democrats’ “mommy party” M.O. of naïveté, mollycoddling, and profligacy. And the Republicans’ only shot at electing a president next year really does depend on pushing that old trope. Ken Duberstein, the Reagan chief of staff turned lobbyist and board whore (Boeing, Fannie Mae, etc.), insisted the other day that “the Republican Party continues to be the ‘daddy party.’ ”
International Bad Products Award winners announced
Congress 2007: Consumers International (CI) today announced the winners of the International Bad Products Awards, as 400 delegates from national consumer organisations and governments convene in Sydney to attend CI’s World Congress. The awards aim to highlight failings of corporate responsibility and the abuse of consumer trust by internationally recognised brands. Coco-cola, Kellogg’s, and Mattel top the list of international brands guilty of abusing consumer rights, with Takeda Pharmaceuticals winning the overall prize for taking advantage of poor US regulation and advertising sleeping pills to children, despite health warnings about paediatric use.
So Much for Net Neutrality
Verizon and AT&T have spent a lot of time assuring Congress that there's no need for legislation guaranteeing neutrality in their provision of Internet services. "What? Us mess with the Internet?" telco tubbies have asked with mock horror. Indeed, the telcos have a long record of getting their way in Washington but even a Congressman might be aghast to see what happens when a FiOS subscriber types a non-existent URL into his Web browser.
Most People Are Clueless About Online Tracking
Every single move you make online can, and often is, tracked by online marketers and advertising networks that gather and use the information for serving up targeted advertisements. But the average American consumer is largely unaware that such tracking goes on, the extent to which it is happening or how exactly information is being used.
Borrowers Face Dubious Charges in Foreclosures
As record numbers of homeowners default on their mortgages, questionable practices among lenders are coming to light in bankruptcy courts, leading some legal specialists to contend that companies instigating foreclosures may be taking advantage of imperiled borrowers. Questionable practices by loan servicers appear to be enough of a problem that the Office of the United States Trustee, a division of the Justice Department that monitors the bankruptcy system, is getting involved. Last month, It announced plans to move against mortgage servicing companies that file false or inaccurate claims, assess unreasonable fees or fail to account properly for loan payments after a bankruptcy has been discharged.
A Short Guide to Debunking Common Creationist Claims
Religious fundamentalists who still espouse belief in a geocentric Universe are now met with ridicule and scorn; not due to discrimination but a lack of evidence for their cause. Unfortunately, the same can not be said about the 40-50% of Americans who, despite a near unanimous consensus among scientists, refuse to accept the theory of evolution. Ever since Darwin published The Origin of the Species in 1859, the idea of common descent has been hard for many religious individuals to swallow. The refusal to accept anything as truth that contradicts the Biblical account of creation has resulted in a massive war of misinformation waged by anti-evolutionists in our courts, schools, and places of worship.Operating under the banners of Creation Science and Intelligent Design, religious individuals have managed to confuse the public about evolution and its supporting evidence while sneaking theology into science classrooms. By educating ourselves about the truth behind evolution, we can put a stop to this degenerative sleight of hand.
Why PETA's unrealistic worldview is doing more harm than good
PETA has become the worst kind of “environmental” activist group – one whose decrees are blindly followed by its members without any attempt to understand basic ecology. As a result, more rationally-minded animal rights proponents and vegetarians have received a bad rap. Much of the general public now assumes that vegetarians are naïve treehuggers who simply can’t stomach devouring anything with eyes, and that animal rights activists run around willy-nilly pelting fur garments with paint. Such fallout has inspired the ire of fellow animal rights campaigners.
No email privacy rights under Constitution, US gov't claims
On October 8, 2007, the US Court of Appeals granted the government's request for a full-panel hearing in US v. Warshak, centering on the right of privacy for stored electronic communications. The position the US gov't is taking, if accepted, may mean that the government can read anybody's e-mail at any time without a warrant.
Climate wars threaten billions
A total of 46 nations and 2.7 billion people are now at high risk of being overwhelmed by armed conflict and war because of climate change. A further 56 countries face political destabilisation, affecting another 1.2 billion individuals. Conflict triggered by climate change is not a vague threat for coming years, he added. 'It is already upon us.'
Michigan leaders push U.S. for fix in St. Clair River
With no natural relief -- like more rain and snow -- on the horizon, three powerful Michigan politicians are prodding federal bureaucrats to dust off decades-old ideas about doing something unnatural to help restore water levels now at near-historic lows on Lakes Huron and Michigan. Gov. Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, both Democrats, and U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, a Macomb County Republican, have asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to consider a quick fix at the head of the St. Clair River to stymie the flow out of Lake Huron and help shippers, boaters and wildlife suffering from low water levels.
Inch by Inch the Great Lakes Shrink
From his office at the port here, Jonathan Daniels stared at a watermark etched on the rocks that hug one of the commercial piers — a thick dark line several inches above the surface of Lake Ontario — and wondered how much lower the water would dip. Water levels in the Great Lakes are falling; Lake Ontario, for example, is about seven inches below where it was a year ago. And for every inch of water that the lakes lose, the ships that ferry bulk materials across them must lighten their loads by 270 tons — or 540,000 pounds — or risk running aground, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association, a trade group for United States-flag cargo companies. As a result, more ships are needed, adding millions of dollars to shipping companies’ operating costs, experts in maritime commerce estimate.
While Most of the Democrats in Washington Cower The Presidency Is Taking Over the Courts and Congress
It's way past time for members to stand up. Historic matters are at stake. The Constitution is being trampled, the very form of our government is being perverted, and nothing less than American democracy itself is endangered - a presidential coup is taking place. I think of Barbara Jordan, the late congresswoman from Houston. On July 25, 1974, this powerful thinker and member of the House Judiciary Committee took her turn to speak during the Nixon impeachment inquiry. "My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total," she declared in her thundering voice. "And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution." Where are the likes of Barbara Jordan in today's Congress? While the BushCheney regime continues to establish a supreme, arrogant, autocratic presidency in flagrant violation of the Constitution, members of Congress largely sit there as idle spectators - or worse, as abettors of Bush's usurpation of their own congressional authority.
Where is the National Guard (by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson)
The war in Iraq is a complete disaster and that we need to get our troops out now (www.getourtroopsout.com), I look at the natural disaster in California and feel compelled to also ask President Bush and every candidate who thinks it is okay for our troops to remain in Iraq until 2013 or longer - where is our National Guard? It is a sad irony that yesterday, the very day I sent fire crews to California, 300 more New Mexico National Guard members were sent to Iraq. Just when we need them most at home, more of our brave men and women, true public servants, are sent away to a war we cannot win.
Human race will 'split into two different species'
The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist. 100,000 years into the future, sexual selection will mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed. The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000.
American kids, dumber than dirt
We are, as far as urban public education is concerned, essentially at rock bottom. We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon, and if you think the hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country, just wait. Notable is our teens' decreasing abilities when confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from understanding simple history to working through moderately complex ideas to even (in a couple recent examples that particularly distressed him) being able to define the words "agriculture," or even "democracy." Not a single student could do it.
Bush wars to cost 40 times higher than original estimates
The United States is spending about $8,000 per man, woman and child in the country to pursue wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to new estimates that show the wars will cost about $2.4 trillion over the next decade. More than one-fourth of the money spent in Iraq and Afghanistan -- $705 billion -- will go to paying interest on the wars' costs, which are being funded with borrowed dollars, according to an estimate to be released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office. Iraq accounts for about 80 percent of the costs with a $1.9 trillion tab, including $564 million in interest, a House budget committee staff director told USA Today, which reported the numbers Wednesday morning.
Testifying Before Congress, Rendition Victim Maher Arar Gets Apology From Bi-Partisan Lawmakers but None From White House
A bi-partisan group of Congressmembers have personally apologized to Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen seized by U.S. officials secretly flown to Syria where he was tortured. Arar testified last week before a House panel, the first time he has had a chance to tell his story to U.S. lawmakers. But he couldn’t testify in person. Even though the Canadian government has cleared his name, Arar remains barred from the U.S. because the Bush administration says he poses a national security threat.Testifying Before Congress, Rendition Victim Maher Arar Gets Apology From Bi-Partisan Lawmakers but None From White House A bi-partisan group of Congressmembers have personally apologized to Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen seized by U.S. officials secretly flown to Syria where he was tortured. Arar testified last week before a House panel, the first time he has had a chance to tell his story to U.S. lawmakers. But he couldn’t testify in person. Even though the Canadian government has cleared his name, Arar remains barred from the U.S. because the Bush administration says he poses a national security threat.
Did I uncover your credit card details on the web today!?
Today I accidentally uncovered a huge list of people’s names, addresses and credit card details online. No kidding. Credit Cards I found more than that: login details to people’s web hosting accounts and e-commerce site memberships as well. It was really freaky to think it was all just staring at me, thanks to a flukey Google search. Nothing more complicated than that. (And no, don’t email me for the search details!)
America's Armageddonites Push for More War
Utopian fantasies have long transfixed the human race. Yet today a much rarer fantasy has become popular in the United States. Millions of Americans, the richest people in history, have a death wish. They are the new "Armageddonites," fundamentalist evangelicals who have moved from forecasting Armageddon to actually trying to bring it about.
In millions of Windows, the perfect Storm is gathering
A spectre is haunting the net but, outside of techie circles, nobody seems to be talking about it. The threat it represents to our security and wellbeing may be less dramatic than anything posed by global terrorism, but it has the potential to wreak much more havoc. And so far, nobody has come up with a good idea on how to counter it. It's called the Storm worm.
Bill would let ID theft victims seek restitution
A bipartisan bill that would let victims of identity theft seek restitution for money and time they spent repairing their credit history was introduced on Tuesday in the Senate. The legislation would also give federal prosecutors more tools to combat identity theft and cybercrime, according to sponsors Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'
Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products. Investigators from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are seeking information about stations across the country after a report produced by a campaign group detailed the extraordinary extent of the use of such items.
Americans Flunk Self-Assessment
Research has shown that Americans are bad at assessing their performance and skills. Apparently, part of our national character — optimism — keeps us from interpreting feedback accurately. And our overconfidence results in errors that are sometimes critical.
Tax breaks for big industry are hurting homeowners
How would like your tax bill to drop by 51 percent in one year? That’s what happened to the major industrial firms of north Lake County, Indiana in 2003. U.S. Steel, Ispat Inland Group, International Steel Group and BP Products North America collectively paid $59.4 million less in 2003 than they did in 2002 as a result of special legislation, HB 1858. The tax break was part of a series of events that continues to cause financial trauma to the homeowners of northwest Indiana. Andrew and Dado Rothenberg are homeowners in Whiting, Indiana, where BP’s refinery has been located since John D. Rockefeller built it in 1889. Their property tax bill has skyrocketed along with that of thousands of other residents of north Lake County, which hugs Lake Michigan about 48 miles east of Chicago. The young couple experienced a 1,200 percent increase in their property tax bill.
Hard to Break
My moment of plastic panic came a few months ago. As a science writer, I've spent the past several years following the steady stream of research into the disturbing effects of the chemicals that leach into our bodies from everyday plastic objects. I'd managed to stay pretty calm about these unsettling discoveries, but then I went to yet another presentation where renowned scientists described new, peer-reviewed findings on how plastic's ingredients may cause reproductive abnormalities and obesity. Afterward, I huddled with the other journalists present, brimming with uneasy questions: Does this mean we should ditch our refillable plastic water bottles? Is it safe for our kids to chew on plastic toys? Should we try to go completely plastic free? "Today there are no babies born without measurable levels of phthalates," says Dr. Shanna Swan, director of the Center for Reproductive Epidemiology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Phthalates, which are used to give flexibility to pvc (a.k.a. Recycler Image 3 plastic—though it's rarely labeled), turn up in bath and teething toys, shower curtains, upholstery, flooring, medical equipment, and countless other products, including cosmetics. Animal studies have linked phthalates to the same genital abnormalities that are now among the most common birth defects in American baby boys. "We're not yet sure what level of exposure produces these adverse effects, but they are a real concern," explains Dr. Paul Foster, a senior researcher at the National Toxicology Program.
How Hospitals Systematically Harm People
The minute you're admitted into the hospital, you confront a disturbing paradox: Most hospitals aren't particularly healthy places. As a patient, you're likely to encounter toxic chemicals, eat lousy food, breathe unhealthy air and suffer stress triggered by an often-dismal and alienating environment. Even worse, you may find yourself at the mercy of drug-resistant "super bugs" or overworked staff members who make mistakes -- all in a place that's supposed to help you heal. It's enough to make you sick. And sometimes it does. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 2 million people a year contract infections in hospitals, and nearly 100,000 are expected to die from them this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although such statistics are deeply troubling, hospitals around the world also contribute to a subtler but equally insidious threat: They expose patients and staff to a host of substances and practises that can harm their health.
Random Tax Audits Return to the IRS
The Internal Revenue Service began this month selecting thousands of taxpayers for audits — even though the IRS has no reason to think they've underpaid their taxes. It's part of the IRS' National Research Program.
America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle
What would you buy if you had an extra $42 billion to spend every year? What might our government buy if it suddenly had that much money dropped onto its lap every year? What else could we spend $42 billion each year on? Health insurance for kids? Better paid teachers? It's our choice.
Michigan companies lack women execs
Women have made few strides at the executive level and in boardrooms compared with their male counterparts at Michigan's largest public companies, according to a report expected to be released today. The 2007 Michigan Women's Leadership Index, first published in 2003, looks at the presence of female leaders at 100 corporations headquartered in the state.
Christianist Mercenaries, Michigan, and You
His name is Erik Prince, and he is the founder and CEO of a mercenary army that is receiving hundreds of millions of our tax dollars. His late father, Edgar, founded the anti-gay Family Research Council. His mother, Elsa Prince, gives lavish amounts of money to the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and the Council for National Policy, an organization that wants to re-write our Constitution to make the United States one nation under their idea of God. Oh, and by the way - his brother-in-law, Dick DeVos, is a former and probably future candidate for Governor of the state of Michigan. In other words, these people are all right-wing religious extremists who want to criminalize our sexual orientations and gender identities. And not only do they have money and major ties to the White House, they also have access to a lot of automatic weapons. Scared yet?
Bush, Michigan, and Blackwater
When Blackwater contractors guarding a U.S. State Department convoy allegedly killed 11 unarmed Iraqi civilians on Sept. 16, it was only the latest in a series of controversial shooting incidents associated with the private security firm. Blackwater has a reputation for being quick on the draw. Since 2005, the North Carolina-based company, which has about 1,000 contractors in Iraq, has reported 195 "escalation of force incidents"; in 156 of those cases Blackwater guns fired first.
My Problem with Christianism
The number of Christians misrepresented by the Christian right is many. There are evangelical Protestants who believe strongly that Christianity should not get too close to the corrupting allure of government power. There are lay Catholics who, while personally devout, are socially liberal on issues like contraception, gay rights, women's equality and a multi-faith society. There are very orthodox believers who nonetheless respect the freedom and conscience of others as part of their core understanding of what being a Christian is. They have no problem living next to an atheist or a gay couple or a single mother or people whose views on the meaning of life are utterly alien to them--and respecting their neighbors' choices.
Shakey Jake dies Sunday at the age of 82
Ann Arbor street legend "Shakey Jake" died Sunday at the age of 82. Ann Arbor News file photoShakey Jake Woods was a familiar sight around downtown Ann Arbor. Known around town for his trademark three-piece suit, hat and dark sunglasses, the man known simply as "Shakey Jake" could be seen playing his guitar on the street downtown for as long as many can remember.
The Total Perspective Vortex
Most people think of the "mentally disordered" as a delusional lot, holding bizarre and irrational ideas about themselves and the world around them. Isn’t a mental disorder, after all, an impairment or a distortion in thought or perception? This is what we tend to think, and for most of modern psychology's history, the experts have agreed; realistic perceptions have been considered essential to good mental health. More recently, however, research has arisen that challenges this common-sense notion. In 1988, psychologists Shelly Taylor and Jonathon Brown published an article making the somewhat disturbing claim that positive self-deception is a normal and beneficial part of most people’s everyday outlook. They suggested that average people hold cognitive biases in three key areas: a) viewing themselves in unrealistically positive terms; b) believing they have more control over their environment than they actually do; and c) holding views about the future that are more positive than the evidence can justify. The typical person, it seems, depends on these happy delusions for the self-esteem needed to function through a normal day. It’s when the fantasies start to unravel that problems arise.
UN General Assembly backs indigenous peoples' rights
The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a non-binding declaration protecting the human, land and resources rights of the world's 370 million indigenous people, despite opposition from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States.
Labor Day: Travails of the Super-Rich
Just in time for the holiday, two liberal groups–United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies–have issued a gleefully malicious new attack on our CEO class. They point out that the CEOs of large companies earn an average of $10.8 million a year, which is 362 times as much as the average American worker, and retire with $10.1 million in their exclusive pension funds. The groups further point out that the compensation of US CEOs wildly exceeds that of their European counterparts, who, we are invited to believe, work equally hard.
Mexico's President Proves His Critics Wrong
Mexican President Felipe Calderon is giving his first State of the Union address Saturday night — and what a difference a year makes. Coming into his presidency, it looked as though Calderon would be a lame duck. There was a divided electorate, an opposition figure in Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — who refused to concede defeat — and a country that seemed beset with insolvable problems, such as a raging drug war. But now, even his critics say Calderon has been governing with a deft touch.
Fighting Fire With Fire? New Weapons Sales and Military Aid Will Not Bring Peace and Stability to the Middle East
The Bush administration’s recent announcement of tens of billions in new high-tech weapons and military aid for Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Gulf States was offered as the solution to many of the problems facing the region. But, critical and worthy goals like stability in Iraq, a nuclear-free Iran and peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved through the barrel of a gun, the point of a precision missile or the belly of a fighter plane. The policy amounts to fighting fire with fire– introducing more weapons into a highly volatile and militarized region in the name of peace. The announcement also shows a grim determination to ignore the lessons of history. Colombia, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Iraq in the 1980s, the Afghan mujahedeen in the 1970s-in each of these instances U.S. weapons, military aid and training have undermined security, been used against civilian populations, absorbed resources better devoted to human development and sowed the seeds of future conflicts. The Bush administration is making a grave mistake, and Congress must use its power to block these weapons transfers.
Ignoring science: Not just for Republicans anymore!
Newt Gingrich, claiming a mandate to make government smaller, actually managed to abolish only two offices: the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). The OTA was a widely praised, nonpartisan board that helped Congress understand and deal with technical issues -- exactly the kind of office you don't need if you get your understanding of biology from Genesis, your thoughts on telecommunications from K Street, and your opinions on energy from Exxon. The OTA was probably one of the least-known but best performing offices in all of D.C. Oddly, Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan just killed the Michigan Environmental Science Board, which was composed of volunteer scientists appointed by the Governor. The only cost to the state was for member travel when on assignment, and for preparation and distribution of reports.
Model T takes on a HUMMER in hill climb
It wasn't a fair fight at all, but for funsies, a vintage-car hill-climb allowed Forbes Magazine to enter a late model HUMMER H2. You know, just to see how the 316-hp, 4WD SUV would do against, say, a 100-hp 1921 Model T driven by a 70-year-old man. Like we said, it wasn't fair at all.
Farm Bill Favors Big Business Over Family Farms
If the bill becomes law, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says the cap will affect just 3,100 farmers, assuming they do not use accounting tactics to reduce their taxable income. Actual payments to farmers would rise over the five years authorized by the bill. The bill is over budget, so Democratic leaders propose a $4 billion tax increase on U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies to pay for it. "When you say to the biggest farms in the country, 'The bigger you get, the more money you get from the government,' then the farm program effectively subsidizes the destruction of family farming," said Chuck Hassebrook, executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska. "Most people in rural America think that is bad policy." Environmentalists have taken aim at farm subsidies this year because the farm programs are where the money -- and the land -- is.
Latest Bush Executive Order Kills Your 5th Amendment Right to Own Property
If you own a business, this concerns you. Whether you own it as a sole proprietorship, as a sole shareholder, or even as a partial shareholder of a corporation, you stand to lose all of it if the Secretary thinks you may commit an "act of violence" that may disrupt the war (or peace) effort in Iraq. Naturally, "act of violence" is not defined anywhere in this order. Once this becomes law, he has all the tools Hitler and Stalin had to keep their respective populations in utter subjection to their will. The executive order states in Section 1(a) that “all property and interests in property” of “any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of - blah, blah, blah (followed by a laundry list of “purposes or effects”).
Ex-surgeon general faults White House
President Bush's first surgeon general testified Tuesday that his speeches were censored to match administration political positions and that he was prevented from giving the public accurate scientific information on issues such as stem cell research and teen pregnancy prevention. "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Dr. Richard H. Carmona, who was surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, told a congressional committee. "The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation — not the doctor of a political party."
Office smoking hits non-smokers hard
Working in an environment where smoking is allowed is especially harmful for non-smokers, as they immediately absorb a potent carcinogen that is not considered safe at any level, a study has found. The study was carried out by researchers at the Multnomah County Health Department and Oregon Department of Human Services who found that non-smoking workers have elevated levels of the carcinogen NNK, which is found in the body only as a result of using tobacco or breathing secondhand smoke. They also found that levels of NNK, which is known to cause lung cancer, increased by 6 percent for each hour of work.
Poll Finds That Young Americans Are Leaning Left
Young Americans are more likely to favor an open-door policy on immigration, the legalization of gay marriage and government-run health care, a poll found. More than half of Americans ages 17 to 29 — 54 percent — say they intend to vote for a Democrat for president in 2008. They share with the public at large a negative view of President Bush, who has a 28 percent approval rating with this group, and of the Republican Party. They hold a markedly more positive view of Democrats than they do of Republicans.
Bush Government to Poor Voters: We Don't Want You to Vote
State welfare offices across the country are not offering millions of low-income Americans the opportunity to register to vote when applying for public assistance despite a federal law requiring them to do so, according to an analysis of a recent federal voting registration report and experts who say the Department of Justice and states are to blame.
How to Stop Our Political and Economic Systems From Stealing Our Future
Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From multimillion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise a movement that has no name, no leader, no location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up. Hawken's new book, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming, explores the diversity of the movement, its ideas, strategies and hidden history.
Whites Just Don't Understand the Black Experience
White Americans seem to fully appreciate the costs associated with the kinds of disparities that African Americans actually face in the United States," Mazzocco says. "Our data suggest that such resistance is not because white Americans are mean and uncaring, morally bankrupt or ethically flawed," adds Dr. Mahzarin R. Banaji, a professor of social ethics at Harvard University. "White Americans suffer from a glaring ignorance about what it means to live as a black American."
CIA Acknowledges Years of Assassination Plots, Coerced Drug Tests and Domestic Spying
The CIA has released its so-called "family jewels" -- nearly 700 pages of documents detailing some if its most infamous and illegal operations dating back to the 1950s. These include assassination plots against foreign leaders, drugs tests on unwitting citizens, wiretapping of U.S. journalists, spying on activists, opening mail, break-ins at the homes of ex-CIA employees and more.
Why Do We Pay Our Plumbers More Than Our Caregivers?
Surely leaky pipes aren't more important than our children. Yet, in America, most plumbers make five times what caregivers do. Author Riane Eisler shows how our economic system, rooted in gender inequality, is failing us. Why does the stock market rally when workers are laid off? Why are working people consistently losing ground? Why do so many women and children live in poverty? Why is the average age of a homeless person in the United States 9 years old? Why are so many seniors forgotten? Why don't we plan ahead or invest well when it comes to things like the environment, education or healthcare? Can the answer be that our economic signals are out of whack with reality?
Finally, the Neocons Are Sinking
As the George W. Bush administration struggles through its last two years in office, it appears that the agenda of neoconservative ideologues has finally lost its appeal among strategic parts of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus. But as their influence has waned at the Pentagon and State Department, neo-conservative hawks have taken charge on the battlefield of public diplomacy. Intent on fixing what American Enterprise Institute (AEI) fellow Joshua Muravchik termed Bush's "public diplomacy mess," right-wing hawks have gained control of the weapons in the "war of ideas" -- U.S. government-funded and supported media outlets such as Voice of America (VOA), Al-Hurra, and Radio Farda, which broadcast to the Middle East and aim to offer an alternative view of the news. The recent appointment of Jeffrey Gedmin, a veteran neo-conservative polemicist, as the director of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty (RFE), and a smear campaign that led to the recent resignation of Larry Register, Al-Hurra's former news director, appears to herald a turn towards more ideologically rigid programming. As a result, viewers and listeners of U.S.-supported media in the Middle East are being exposed to a tougher ideological line that endorses the hallmarks of the neoconservative agenda -- regime change and interventionist policies in the region.
Fair and Balanced? My Ass!
Those of us who watch Fox News professionally, or simply to unwind at the end of the day with a few well-earned belly laughs, dismiss the network at our own peril. While there may be a considerable measure of Schadenfreude involved in tuning in to, say, The O'Reilly Factor, it's hard to overlook the fact that he influences millions of people nearly every day. Indeed, watching Fox can be a little like watching Jeopardy! During kids' week. Even if you know more than they do -- and you probably will -- it's hard to feel good about yourself for the experience. But it's not like the leading lights at Fox actually enjoy turning America into a nation of fatuous morons. If they could accomplish the same goals by not making their viewers morons, they'd probably do so, just as the tobacco companies would probably prefer their products didn't cause cancer, and Ann Coulter probably wishes the sound of her voice didn't make young men's and small animals' testicles shrivel. But none of that is going to stop any of them from making their money and spreading their propaganda.
New Thoughts On 'curing' Gays
Alan Chambers directs Exodus International, widely described as the nation's largest ex-gay ministry. But when he addresses the group's Freedom Conference at Concordia University in Irvine this month, Chambers won't celebrate successful "ex-gays." Truth is, he's not sure he's ever met one. Despite the fundamental gulf that divides them, gay-rights activists and those who see homosexuality as a sinful disorder are starting to reach agreement on some practical points. Chambers and other Exodus leaders talk deliberately about a possible biological basis for homosexuality, in part to explain that no one can turn a switch and flip from gay to straight, no matter how hard they pray.
That's So Gay
If sexual orientation is biological, are the traits that make people seem gay innate, too? The new research on everything from voice pitch to hair whorl.
Conservative Christian Reserves Right to Preach Gay Bashing
Running around like a chicken with its head cut off, the American Family Association's Don Wildmon is out to prove that America's most high profile religious voices are as archaic, bigoted and dumbed-down as "the new atheists" preach they are. Wildmon recently sent an ominous warning to supporters that "A bill in Congress makes it a crime for pastors and churches to speak against homosexuality," claiming that the new Hate Crime bill, which extends protection to the LGBT community, actually threatens free speech. Err, not exactly. What H.R. 1592 DOES say is that if you bash a gay or transgendered person -- that is, if you physically assault them -- you are subject to a particular kind of prosecution because of the nature of the crime. In fact, while it should say that when a religious figure's expressed antipathy toward anyone in the LGBT community (or Muslims or women or anyone) can be directly tied to a violent crime, they can be held accountable -- but it doesn't. It just says that if you cause bodily harm you're in trouble. Who could oppose that?
Twenty Things You Should Know About Corporate Crime
Did you know that corporate crime inflicts far more damage on society than all street crime combined? This and 19 more amazing facts about the state of corporations in America.
Where Have All the Emails Gone?
This will sound naive, for sure, but why isn't anyone talking about sending someone to jail for breaking the law? Yeah, I know Richard said it first, but it can't be said often enough. 88 people in the White House used the RNC and the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign email systems in order to hide what they were doing and circumvent the law. And you can bet that nobody will take responsibility in this White House.
New Report Shows Bush's Presidential Signing Statements Have Been Used to Nullify Laws
Well, it's official: President Bush doesn't much respect the laws Congress passes. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report -- commissioned by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and released today -- confirms that Bush's use of presidential signing statements are, in fact, utterly without precedent. Though they've been used by American presidents for about 200 years, signing statements -- edicts issued by the president to declare his intent to construe a provision within a law differently than Congress does -- are Constitutionally questionable. But George W. Bush's use of them far exceeds his predecessors', both in number and in severity, and he has consistently used them to flout the will of the legislative branch.
30 Days of Consumer Celibacy
While many people will spend countless hours this year lining up at Wal-Mart and maxing out their credit cards at Nordstrom, a small Bay Area group has declared it will do just the opposite. About 50 teachers, engineers, executives and other professionals in the Bay Area have made a vow to not buy anything new in 2006 -- except food, health and safety items and underwear. "We're people for whom recycling is no longer enough," said one of the members of the fledgling movement, John Perry, who works in marketing at a high-tech company. "We're trying to get off the first-market consumerism grid, because consumer culture is destroying the world." The Compact is part of the larger trend of consumers beginning to "tread gently on our planet." JOIN THE COMPACT
How victim snared ID thief
She chased down woman who had given her 6 months of hell. If it hadn't been for the distinctive suede coat, there would have been no chase through the streets of San Francisco, no heroine and, in all likelihood, no justice. But when Karen Lodrick turned away from ordering her latte at the Starbucks at Church and Market streets, there it was, slung over the arm of the woman behind her.
America: Oh, Now I Get It ... Dah
Finally, the great American disconnect may be ending. Only four years after the invasion of Iraq, the crucial facts-on-the-ground might finally be coming into sight in this country -- not the carnage or the mayhem; not the suicide car bombs or the chlorine truck bombs; not the massive flight of middle-class professionals, the assassination campaign against academics, or the collapse of the best health-care service in the region; not the spiking American and Iraqi casualties, the lack of electricity, the growth of Shia militias, the crumbling of the "coalition of the willing," or the uprooting of 15 percent or more of Iraq's population; not even the sharp increase in fundamentalism and extremism, the rise of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the swelling of sectarian killings, or the inability of the Iraqi government to get oil out of the ground or an oil law, designed in Washington and meant to turn the clock back decades in the Middle East, passed inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone -- No, none of that. What's finally coming into view is just what George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, the top officials of their administration, the civilian leadership at the Pentagon, and their neocon followers had in mind when they invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003.
Department of Weird Weapons: The Gay Bomb
Edward Hammond, of the University of California's Sunshine Project, obtained through a FOIA request Pentagon documents that indicated the military had, in 1994, investigated building a "gay bomb." The bomb would release a strong aphrodisiac that would cause the enemy army to become "irresistibly attracted to one another." You gotta give the military points for consistency: They clearly believe, World War II notwithstanding, that homosexuals in the ranks make the military ineffective. The proposal also indicates that conservatives are willing to act on their belief, notwithstanding the dismal success rates of the ex-gay movement, that sexual orientation is not at all innate. But the $7.5-million proposal's creepiness rating is extremely high. Not to mention the implication that being gay or lesbian is the biggest insult an army can bestow on its enemy—that it essentially equals destroying them—is deeply offensive to gays and lesbians, particularly those who've served with honor and distinction.
The Rich Are Making the Poor Poorer
Twenty years ago it was risky to point out the growing inequality in America. I did it in a New York Times essay and was quickly denounced, in the Washington Times, as a "Marxist." Twenty years ago it was risky to point out the growing inequality in America. I did it in a New York Times essay and was quickly denounced, in the Washington Times, as a "Marxist." If only. I've never been able to get through more than a couple of pages of Das Kapital, even in English, and the Grundrisse functions like Rozerem. But it no longer takes a Marxist, real or alleged, to see that America is being polarized between the super-rich and the sub-rich everyone else. In Sunday's New York Times magazine we learn that Larry Summers, the centrist Democratic economist and former Harvard president, is now obsessed with the statistic that, since 1979, the share of pretax income going to the top 1 percent of American households has risen by 7 percentage points, to 16 percent. At the same time, the share of income going to the bottom 80 percent has fallen by 7 percentage points.
The Bush Team Plan to Erode Our Liberties
Understanding the significance of this week's ruling means delving into a bit of procedural arcana. The devil in the MCA is, almost literally, in the details -- and unless we attend closely to the rococo details of the statute, we'll miss the ways in which the Administration intends to slowly erode our liberties. The Military Commissions Act threatens more than terror suspects at Gitmo. It is the spearhead of a long-term incursion on all our civil liberties and it must be rolled back.
Patrick Moore the Goto Corporate Greenwash Guy
Moore is a supporter of nuclear power. He is also an advocate for clear-cutting forests, genetically modified foods and a wide range of other corporate eco-assaults. The companies behind them fund Moore's "consulting" agency, which appears to specialize in greenwashing. Moore's mission also seems to include tagging the Greenpeace name onto things Greenpeace opposes. As a voting member of Greenpeace USA, my e-mail box is often filled with contemptuous messages about Moore's latest outrage, and anger about his claim to be a Greenpeace founder. Many advocate ignoring him. I'm not of that faith.
Whoops: Judges Say US Can’t Hold Man as ‘Combatant’
The federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled yesterday that the president may not declare civilians in this country to be “enemy combatants” and have the military hold them indefinitely. The ruling was a stinging rejection of one of the Bush administration’s central assertions about the scope of executive authority to combat terrorism. The court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, said a fundamental principle is at stake: military detention of someone who had lawfully entered the United States and established connections here, it said, violates the Constitution. “To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians,” Judge Motz wrote, “even if the president calls them ‘enemy combatants,’ would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution — and the country.” For his first 16 months in the brig, Mr. Marri was allowed no contact with his family or lawyers. He was, a lawsuit filed on his behalf in 2005 said, denied basic necessities and subjected to extreme sensory deprivation. Interrogators threatened to send him to Egypt or Saudi Arabia, the lawsuit said, “where, they told him, he would be tortured and sodomized and where his wife would be raped in front of him.” Under the administration’s theory, Mr. Hafetz said, “the executive could effectively disappear people by picking up any immigrant in this country, locking them in a military jail and holding the keys to the courthouse. This is exactly what separates a country that is democratic and committed to the rule of law from a country that [Mr. George Bush] is a police state.”
Making Other Arrangements
As the American public continues sleepwalking into a future of energy scarcity, climate change, and geopolitical turmoil, we have also continued dreaming. Our collective dream is one of those super-vivid ones people have just before awakening. It is a particularly American dream on a particularly American theme: how to keep all the cars running by some other means than gasoline. We’ll run them on ethanol! We’ll run them on biodiesel, on synthesized coal liquids, on hydrogen, on methane gas, on electricity, on used French-fry oil . . . !
Bush in Fantasyland
Last month’s failed missile defense test was categorized as a “No Test” by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The target missile didn’t fly into range of the interceptor so it was never launched. Even though it was deemed a “No Test” by the MDA, an agency spokesman nevertheless claimed that the results of “the failed test underscored the need of the US to install 10 interceptors in Poland and a tracking radar station in the Czech Republic as a defense against potential missile attack from Iran…. It showed that any missiles that Iran launched could similarly go astray and land in Europe even if Europe was not Iran’s target.” Huh? Welcome to what Joseph Cirincione - senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and author of the new book, Bomb Scare - calls, “This week’s episode of President Bush in Fantasyland.” “President Bush is rushing to deploy a technology that does not work against a threat that does not exist,” Cirincione says. “Iran is at least 5 to 10 years away from the capability to build a nuclear weapon and at least that far from having a missile that could hit Europe let alone the US. And anti-missile systems are still nowhere near working despite $150 billion spent since the 1983 Star Wars program started and years of phony tests staged to demonstrate ‘progress’ and ‘success.’” None of this has stopped Bush from continuing to tout his Czech Republic and Poland-based “proposed missile defense system designed to thwart a possible nuclear attack from Iran.” The mayor of the Czech village of Trokavec where the radar site would be located recently held a referendum and 71 of 72 votes were cast against the plan. Cirincione says. “President Bush so fervently believes in something that doesn’t exist that he jeopardizes - again - our real security interests. The fact is the Czechs don’t want the radar, the Europeans don’t trust his explanations and deplore his unilateralism, the Congress has already cut the funds on purely programmatic grounds. This was a dumb idea before, now it is yet another foreign policy disaster.” All of this for a system Cirincione says isn’t important to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who view these programs as “expensive pet rocks.”
The Great American Disconnect
Finally, the great American disconnect may be ending. Only four years after the invasion of Iraq, the crucial facts-on-the-ground might finally be coming into sight in this country — not the carnage or the mayhem; not the suicide car bombs or the chlorine truck bombs; not the massive flight of middle-class professionals, the assassination campaign against academics, or the collapse of the best health-care service in the region; not the spiking American and Iraqi casualties, the lack of electricity, the growth of Shia militias, the crumbling of the “coalition of the willing,” or the uprooting of 15% or more of Iraq’s population; not even the sharp increase in fundamentalism and extremism, the rise of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the swelling of sectarian killings, or the inability of the Iraqi government to get oil out of the ground or an oil law, designed in Washington and meant to turn the clock back decades in the Middle East, passed inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone — no, none of that. What’s finally coming into view is just what George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, the top officials of their administration, the civilian leadership at the Pentagon, and their neocon followers had in mind when they invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003.
Mommies Opting Out of Work: A Myth That Won't Die
In recent years the media has obsessed over a storyline about highly educated mothers "opting out" of employment. These stories are not only wrong -- the reality is that there is no increase in recent years in women, even women with advanced degrees, choosing to be stay-at-home mothers over working mothers -- they also imply that most mothers have a choice to work or not. This couldn't be further from the truth. Wives typically bring home a third of their family's income and single mothers often have no option but to work. While the choices of professional upper-class women might be interesting to read about, they certainly are not representative of the economic reality facing the majority of families.
Confirmed: CIA Ran Secret Prisons
Romanian and Polish senior security officials confirmed to the Council of Europe that their countries were used as homes to CIA secret prisons. Poland and Romania continue to deny hosting these prisons.
The United States, Not Very Peaceful
The
BBC reported last week that the United States ranks 96th, out of 121 countries, on the Global Peace Index, a list determining the peacefulness of each country. (121 being the least peaceful.)
War Czar Questions War
Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute reconfirms the fact that it is politicians, and not military men, who scream "Support the troops!" as a political attack against their enemies. When asked about the debate over the Iraq War that has consumed Washington and the nation, Lute said at his confirmation hearing today, "I don't believe it undercuts [the troop's] morale." The troops "understand the democratic process," he said, "and, in fact, that's what we've sworn to protect and defend." The dark lord , Dick Cheney, said that questioning the war is "detrimental to our troops." I suggest the vice president fact-check that with his generals, his Secretary of Defense, or any one of the troops fighting on the ground.
Is It Anti-Americanism or Just Anti-Bushism?
“In Papua New Guinea,” a woman said to my wife when we were in that country recently, “we used to look up to the United States, see it as our father, our model. Now we are afraid of the United States. What has happened is very sad.”As Americans who have been living abroad for the past four months, we could not help but agree that what has happened to our nation’s image around the world is indeed very sad. But while America’s reputation in the world has suffered great harm in recent years, the damage is not irreparable. Although most Americans would probably agree that world opinion of the United States is low, our travels abroad have revealed that this is not entirely accurate. In fact, it is not truly anti-Americanism but anti-Bushism that has gripped the world - and this is an illness that time can cure. The fact is, Mr. Bush took, in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 2001, the greatest worldwide outpouring of good will the United States has enjoyed at least since World War II and squandered it by pursuing a foolish invasion of Iraq, ignoring international organizations and world opinion, and declaring that it is the right of the United States to engage in pre-emptive war and invade any country it wishes to.
What If Our Mercenaries Turn On Us?
Armed units from the private security firm Blackwater USA opened fire in Baghdad streets twice in two days last week. It triggered a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, a reminder that the war in Iraq may be remembered mostly in our history books for empowering and building America’s first modern mercenary army.There are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq, although there are no official figures and some estimates run much higher. Security contractors are not counted as part of the coalition forces. When the number of private mercenary fighters is added to other civilian military “contractors” who carry out logistical support activities such as food preparation, the number rises to about 126,000. “We got 126,000 contractors over there, some of them making more than the secretary of defense,” said House defense appropriations subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D., Pa.). “How in the hell do you justify that?” Mercenary forces like Blackwater operate beyond civilian and military law. They are covered by a 2004 edict passed by American occupation authorities in Iraq that immunizes all civilian contractors in Iraq from prosecution. Blackwater, barely a decade old, has migrated from Iraq to set up operations in the United States and nine other countries.
Blackwater Heavies Sue Families
Raleigh, NC -- The families of four American security contractors who were burned, beaten, dragged through the streets of Fallujah and their decapitated bodies hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River on March 31, 2004, are reaching out to the American public to help protect themselves against the very company their loved ones were serving when killed, Blackwater Security Consulting. After Blackwater lost a series of appeals all the away to the U.S. Supreme Court, Blackwater has now changed its tactics and is suing the dead men's estates for $10 million to silence the families and keep them out of court. "I initially took this case because it was the right thing to do in helping the families find closure by discovering the events surrounding their loved ones deaths, " said Daniel J. Callahan, attorney for the families. "I have found the evidence concerning Blackwater's involvement in the deaths to be overwhelming and appalling. Even more disturbing though is the callous nature in which Blackwater has not only concealed the truth, but also outright sued to force the families to stop pursuing the case and to silence them." Blackwater has spent millions of dollars and hired at least five different law firms to fight the families, rather than meeting and addressing what should be Blackwater's top priority -- the safety and well being of the mothers, wives, and children left behind. Blackwater has said that it will not pay one red cent to assist or console the surviving families, but instead has counter sued for $10 million. Due to lack of accountability and oversight, Blackwater's private army has been able to obtain huge profits from the government, utilizing contacts established through Erik Prince's relationships with high-ranking government officials such as Cofer Black and Joseph Schmitz. [Editor" Blackwater is the Bush secret Army of mercinaries. Blackwater is owned by Erik Prince, the brother-in-law of Michigan Amway owner Ricard DeVos, Jr.]
Magnetic fields may open door to efficient wireless power
MIT researchers now say that they have found a new method to direct a wireless power stream into a specific direction. Their “WiTricity” (“Wireless elecTricity”) method uses coupled resonant objects, which aims to create a scenario where two objects - the power source and the receiver – interact strongly with eachother, while there is weak interaction with everything else. The MIT project focused on magnetically coupled resonants, which revealed that this approach can identify the strongly coupled object in this system, even when the distance between them was several times larger than the sizes of the resonant objects. [Editor: There was no mention of the significant increase in cancer found among people exposed to electromagnetic radiation.]
Fresh health fears hit benzoate in soft drinks
Common preservative sodium benzoate, widely used in soft drinks and other foods, is again at the centre of health concerns after research emerged linking it to cell damage. Professor Piper's research, which suggests that benzoate contributes to faster ageing and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's. Last year, an investigation by BeverageDaily.com revealed soft drinks industry leaders had known the preservative may break down to form benzene, a potentially cancerous chemical, in drinks also containing ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or citric acid. And more recently, sodium benzoate was one of seven 'E-numbers' again linked to behavioural problems in children.
Diabetes drugs get warning
In prepared testimony before a Congressional committee that was convened Wednesday following a published report on the cardiac dangers of Avandia, FDA Commissioner Dr Andrew von Eschenbach said the agency had asked that Avandia, made by GlaxoSmithKline, and Actos, made by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, carry the more prominent warning because "despite existing warnings, these drugs were being prescribed to patients with significant heart failure."
Cheney Blocks DOJ Official's Promotion: Document
June 7, 2007 · Documents relating to the late-night hospital room standoff between the Justice Department and the White House over the domestic spying program suggests that Vice President Dick Cheney punished a DOJ official who stood in the way of the reauthorization of the controversial program.
Israel's 40 Years of Occupation: From Democratic State to Violent Oppressor
Israel captured and occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank 40 years ago this week. The victory was celebrated as a great triumph, at once tripling the size of the land under Israeli control, including East Jerusalem. It was, however, a Pyrrhic victory. As the occupation stretched over the decades, it transformed and deformed Israeli society. It led Israel to abandon the norms and practices of a democratic society until, in the name of national security, it began to routinely accept the brutal violence of occupation and open discrimination and abuse of Palestinians, including the torture of prisoners and collective reprisals for Palestinians attacks. Palestinian neighborhoods, olive groves and villages were, in the name of national security, bulldozed into the ground. Israel's image has shifted from that of a heroic, open society set amid a sea of despotic regimes to that of an international pariah. Israel's West Bank separation barrier, built ostensibly to keep out Palestinian bombers, has also been used to swallow huge tracts of the West Bank into Israel
Bush Directive Places All Govenment Powers in His Hands! Don't We Have a Constitution Anymore?
June 1, 2007—Bush has issued a directive that would place all governmental powers in his hands in the case of a catastrophic emergency. As the nation focused on whether Congress would exercise its constitutional duty to cut funding for the war, Bush quietly issued an unconstitutional bombshell that went virtually unnoticed by the corporate media. The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007, would place all governmental power in the hands of the President and effectively abolish the checks and balances in the Constitution. This Presidential Directive is a blatant power grab by Bush to institutionalize "the unitary executive." As of December 22, 2006, Bush had used the words "unitary executive" 145 times in his signing statements and executive orders. Yoo, one of the chief architects of Bush's doctrine of unfettered executive power, wrote memoranda advising Bush that because he was commander in chief, he could make war any time he thought there was a threat, and he didn't have to comply with the Geneva Conventions. As elections approach it is entirely possible that Bush and Cheney may be unwilling to relinquish power to a successor administration.
The Bush Economy
Supposedly we are in a sustained economic recovery and have been since 2002. Part of this is Bush hot air and the Republican Noise Machine, which the media quotes verbatim. By a certain measure, however, it's real. The economy has grown. Corporate profits are at an all-time high. Average income is up. There's lots of money around. But the recovery has some really strange features. Oddities never before seen in a recovery.
Fallout from the Sale of Chrysler
Auto workers are bracing for a bumpy road ahead at Chrysler, following the May 14 announcement that Daimler-Chrysler (DCX) would sell off 80 percent ownership of the company to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm. In its 15 years of operation, Cerberus has bought up companies in a range of industries, from real estate to governmental outsourcing services to firearms to transportation (totaling over $24 billion in assets). Cerberus then institutes cost-cutting measures and sells the restructured companies back to investors at big profits. Last year it began making bids for a number of pieces of the U.S. auto industry, including controlling interests in GM's lucrative financing arm, GMAC, and Delphi. Besides Chrysler, it currently controls 51 percent of GMAC and five auto parts suppliers: GDX Automotive, CTA Acoustics, Tower Automotive, Guildford Mills, and Peguform.
Gas price lawsuit filed in Roscommon
A Houghton Lake attorney has filed a class action lawsuit in 34th Circuit Court, Roscommon, seeking to lower gasoline prices and legalize marijuana. Stephen P. Fitzgerald filed the lawsuit on behalf of "all citizens of Roscommon County," against the United States of America and George Walker Bush, "purported president of the U.S." Stephen P. Fitzgerald claims in the lawsuit, filed May 24, that President Bush has "violated the oath of his office continually and flagrantly, as detailed...Bush conspired to orchestrate the attacks upon the U.S.A. which occurred on Sept. 11, 2001...to further tighten Big Oil's monopolistic grip upon the petroleum industry in the U.S.A." He claims "Big Oil," cited as Shell Oil, Marathon Oil, Gulf Oil, BP Petroleum, Standard Oil, Amoco, Exxon, Torco, Speedway and Admiral, and all other petroleum companies which do business in Roscommon County, "has succeeded so well in its aims that it manipulates the price of gasoline in the U.S.A. and Roscommon County at its own whim without any fear of intervention by the Federal Government. It has perfected Fitzgerald told the Resorter he is the lead plaintiff on behalf of "we the people," and that the lawsuit is about "enforcing our rights." He further claims in the lawsuit that "the price of gasoline in Roscommon County has soared from below two dollars a gallon just a few months ago to almost four dollars a gallon now. This immense squeeze upon plaintiffs is causing them ruinous harm. They can scarcely afford to buy gasoline themselves, and the tourists trade upon which many of them rely for their living is drying up entirely because travelers from elsewhere in Michigan and the Midwest cannot afford to drive here."
Blue Moon on Thursday? Not So Fast
There is a prevailing myth about what a blue moon is. Thursday, May 31, will bring the second full moon of the month. But that does not constitute a blue moon, as is popularly believed. Kelly Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine and executive editor of Sky and Telescope, tells Robert Siegel that a blue moon actually refers to the phenomenon of having four full moons in a season, which ordinarily has three.
Mistaken Rendition Case in Germany Takes Turn
May 23, 2007 · Khalid el-Masri is a German citizen who was kidnapped by the CIA and kept in an Afghan prison for four months in early 2004. Legalities aside, it was a blundered rendition - the CIA got the wrong guy - but that hasn't made el-Masri's life any easier in the years since he returned home and has been trying to seek justice.
Bush is Leading U.S. to Nuclear War
The administration is building the case for war against Iran -- a job made easier by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent announcement that Iran can now enrich uranium on an industrial scale -- despite the fact that many Iran-watchers and nuclear experts consider their claims of enrichment capacity to be an overblown boast. Yellow cake, aluminum tubes and histrionics about Saddam Hussein's nuclear capabilities have turned out to be completely fabricated. And, when not grinding the axe of pre-emptive war as counter-proliferation strategy, the administration periodically raises the specter of nuclear terrorism, in the form of dirty bombs and suitcase-sized warheads. In spite of these facts the Bush administration is busy planning a new generation of nuclear weapons known as "Complex 2030." While the United States demands that other countries end their nuclear programs, the Bush administration is busy planning a new generation of nuclear weapons. Nearly 20 years after the Berlin Wall crumbled, the United States is allocating more funding, on average, to nuclear weapons than during the Cold War.
We're No. 1!
Hey, aren't we the most exceptional nation in history? George Bush and his pals thought so -- and they were in a great American tradition of exceptionalism. Of course, they were imagining us as the most exceptional empire in history (or maybe at the end of it), the ultimate New Rome. Anyway, explain this to me: Among all the exceptional things we claim to do, how come we never take credit for what may be the most exceptional of all, our success of successes, the thing that makes us uniquely ourselves on this war-ridden planet -- peddling more arms to Earthlings than anyone else in the neighborhood? Why do we hide this rare talent under a bushel? In the interest of shining a proud light on an underrated national skill, I asked Frida Berrigan to return the United States to its rightful place in the Pantheon of arms-dealing nations.
Garfield On The Oil Problem
A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country. Well, there's a very simple answer.
An End to Oil Price Gouging?
The Energy Information Administration just announced we can expect gas prices to skyrocket again—to well over $3 or in some places $4. Meanwhile, oil companies continue to break profit records. Tomorrow, hearings start on a bill that would make gas price gouging a federal crime, punishable by 10 years in prison. Speaker Pelosi has said she'll move the bill to a vote this week—if there's a two-thirds majority required to pass the bill without full hearings. But Big Oil is fighting the bill hard. ...STORY DEVELOPING...
Separate Oil & State
Send emails to your representativesSeparation of Oil & State is a campaign to get oil money out of politics. Its important that we demand that our representatives stand up for the future of energy, not for the dinosaurs of the oil industry.
The Price of Oil
Americans are counting on your efforts in Congress to end the war and bring the troops home in a way that rebuilds the credibility of our nation and reaffirms America's position as a force for freedom and democracy in the world. However, if Democrats are perceived to be advocating withdrawal only after access to Iraqi oil has been assured this will do little to reassure critics. The proposed Iraqi Oil Law will open up Iraq to international oil companies for the first time in decades, and potentially rob the Iraqis of billions of dollars. We are therefore joining Hasan Jum'a Awad, Head of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions urging you "not to link withdrawal with the oil law".
The Surprising Truth Behind the Construction of the Great Pyramids
"This is not my day job." So begins Michel Barsoum as he recounts his foray into the mysteries of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. As a well respected researcher in the field of ceramics, Barsoum never expected his career to take him down a path of history, archaeology, and "political" science, with materials research mixed in.
GOP to Gonzales, Just Go Already!
There is no way to get around the fact that the Attorney General is in bigger trouble today than he was yesterday, and he will almost certainly be in more trouble tomorrow. The latest shoe to drop took the form of the revelation by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey that Gonzales in March 2004 - when he served as George Bush's White House counsel - plotted to undermine the authority of the department he now heads by pressuring Ashcroft to approve the president's warrantless wiretapping project. The debate over whether Gonzales should stay is no longer a partisan or ideological fight. At stake is the question of whether the Department of Justice can continue to function when the Attorney General is suspected of lying to Congress and the American people on a regular basis.
Can We End the Ascent of Empire, before it Ends Us
In politics, as in medicine, a cure based on a false diagnosis is almost always worthless, often worsening the condition that is supposed to be healed. The United States, today, suffers from a plethora of public ills. Most of them can be traced to the militarism and imperialism that have led to the near-collapse of our Constitutional system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, none of the remedies proposed so far by American politicians or analysts addresses the root causes of the problem. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, released on April 26, 2007, some 78% of Americans believe their country to be headed in the wrong direction. Only 22% think the Bush administration's policies make sense, the lowest number on this question since October 1992, when George H. W. Bush was running for a second term -- and lost. What people don't agree on are the reasons for their doubts and, above all, what the remedy -- or remedies -- ought to be.
Former Justice Deputy Describes Bush Behavior
Leaders at the White House and the Department of Justice clashed long before last year's dismissal of U.S. attorneys, according to former Deputy Attorney General James Comey. Comey, who worked under John Ashcroft in President Bush's first administration, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the firings of U.S. attorneys and the alleged politicization of the Justice Department. One senator called it some of the most dramatic testimony he's heard in 25 years as a legislator.
Angry Wolfowitz in four-letter tirade
An angry and bitter Paul Wolfowitz poured abuse and threatened retaliation on senior World Bank staff if his orders for pay rises and promotions for his partner were revealed, according to new details published on Monday. Under fire for the lavish package given to Shaha Riza, a World Bank employee and Wolfowitz's girlfriend when he became president, an official investigation into the controversy has found that Wolfowitz broke bank rules and violated his own contract - setting off a struggle between US and European governments over his future. Sounding more like a cast member of the Sopranos than an international leader, in testimony by one key witness, Wolfowitz declares: "If they f*** with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to f*** them too." Wolfowitz still enjoys support from the Bush administration, where he served as deputy defense secretary at the Pentagon during the invasion of Iraq [Editor: which he also seriously mismanaged].
World Bank panel dooms Wolfowitz
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz broke ethics rules and put his own interest above the bank's when he directed a promotion for his girlfriend, an investigating panel found
Moore Strikes Back
Moore wrote a letter to Henry Paulson, Treasury Secretary, on Friday, claiming that the investigation may have a political basis. "For five and a half years, the Bush administration has ignored and neglected the heroes of the 9/11 community," wrote Moore in the letter posted on the Daily Kos website. "These heroic first responders have been left to fend for themselves, without coverage and without care," he added. "I understand why the Bush administration is coming after me — I have tried to help the very people they refuse to help, but until George W. Bush outlaws helping your fellow man, I have broken no laws and I have nothing to hide."
What's a Mother Worth?
This Mother's Day let's give mothers what they really need: a more secure old age. If you're a woman, or a man who cares about his mother, sister, or daughter, there's something you need to know. In the United States women over the age of 65 are twice as poor as men in the same age group. There's a reason poverty so disproportionately hits women. Most of these elderly poor women were, or still are, caregivers -- and according to most economists, the people who do the caring work in households, whether female or male, are "economically inactive." Of course, anyone who has a mother knows that most caregivers work from dawn to dusk. And we also know that without their work of caring for children, the sick, the elderly, and maintaining a clean home environment there would be no workforce, no economy, nothing. Yet current economic indicators and policies fail to include this work as "productive work."
Feds Target Michael Moore
A new Michael Moore film is on the way and, just in time, more controversy. The Treasury Department has confirmed it is investigating the firebrand filmmaker for taking 10 ailing 9-11 rescue workers on a trip to Cuba—allegedly in violation of a government travel ban to the island—to shoot a segment for Moore's upcoming documentary, Sicko. Sicko's producer, Meghan O'Hara, released a statement saying the OFAC has launched "a politically motivated investigation" and an attempt to prevent people from seeing the movie. O'Hara also said the workers who accompanied Moore are suffering ill health from exposure to chemicals at Ground Zero and have been unable to get the proper treatment in the States. "These 9-11 first responders risked their lives searching for survivors, recovering bodies, and clearing away toxic rubble. Now, many of these heroes face serious health issues—and far too many of them are not receiving the care they need and deserve," O'Hara says in a statement. "President Bush and the Bush Administration should be spending their time trying to help these heroes get health care instead of abusing the legal process to advance a political agenda."
Moore under investigation for Cuba film trip
Michael Moore, film-maker and scourge of the Bush administration, has been handed a timely gift of pre-release publicity for his new documentary, SiCKO, by the US treasury department which is investigating him for filming in Cuba in violation of a travel ban. MichaelMoore.com
State House Judiciary Committee OK's Second-Parent Adoption!
House Bill 4259, which would legalize second-parent adoption in Michigan, passed the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 8-5 earlier today. Today's committee vote is a victory for children and for families. We urge the both the State House and Senate to pass this pro-family legislation quickly and send it to the Governor for her signature. All children deserve the protection of having a legal relationship with both of their parents.
Why do Gas Prices Always End in 9/10 of a Cent?
So the gas companies take an extra 9/10 of a cent for every gallon of gas we buy--what is that actually worth? According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), "prime suppliers" of "motor gasoline" reported sales of 372,833.5 thousand barrels sold in February 2007. Each barrel represents 42 gallons, and to determine the value of 9/10 of a cent for each gallon, we did the following calculation: 372,834 x 1000 x 42 x .009 = $140,931,063 That means that in February 2007, gas companies collected an extra $141 million USD because of their unique pricing practices. Assuming Februrary is a rough average for the year, that's $1.7 billion USD in additional revenue!
Gas station owner told to raise prices
BP owner Raj Bhandari has been offering senior citizens a 2 cent per gallon price break and discount cards that let sports boosters pay 3 cents less per gallon.
'Encyclopedia of Life' Launched
The 10-year scheme, launched with initial grants of $12.5 million from two U.S.-based foundations, could aid everyone from children with biology homework to governments planning how to protect endangered species. "The Encyclopedia of Life plans to create an entry for every named species," James Edwards, executive director of the project which is backed by many leading research institutions, told Reuters. "At the moment that's 1.8 million."
Cost of First Class Stamp Increases to 41 Cents
Sending a card or letter is about to get more expensive. The U.S. Postal Service is raising the cost of a first-class stamp to 41 cents next week.
'Dumb Dubya' in right royal gaffe
London - British newspapers were scathing on Tuesday about US President George W Bush's blundering welcome for Queen Elizabeth II, labelling him "Dumb Dubya" and saying he has the "gift for the gaffe". Bush messed up at a ceremonial welcome for the queen at the White House Monday when he spoke of a visit paid by Elizabeth to mark the 200th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence from Britain "in 17 - in 1976". After the queen looked up at him from beneath her wide-brimmed black hat, he winked at her, before turning to the laughing audience and telling them: "She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child." This was not Bush's first slip in front of the monarch, the Guardian added. "When she visited the White House in 1991 during his father's presidency, he said he was the black sheep of the Bush family. "He then asked: 'Who's yours?' The queen did not reply."
Road to Ruin?
In its latest issue, Business Week weighs in with a cover story on the push to privatize the nation's highways, bridges, and airports, among other public infrastructure. This growing trend is now moving along at a feverish clip, propelled by investment banks and foreign companies who see in these low-risk assets the prospect of enormous and steady returns, not to mention, as Business Week puts it, "monopolistic advantages that keep those cash flows as steady as a beating heart." For would-be privateers, it doesn't hurt that this model is enthusiastically backed by the Bush administration.
How a Number Became a Web Celebrity
The online uproar came in response to a series of cease-and-desist letters from lawyers for a group of movie studios and electronics companies, demanding that the code be removed from several high-profile Web sites. Rather than wiping out the code, which is essentially one long number, the letters led to its proliferation on Web sites, in chat rooms, inside cleverly doctored digital photographs and on user-submitted news sites.
WWJD
Yes Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Happy Mother's Day!
Protect Our Children Now
Currently in Michigan, only one partner in an unmarried couple can be considered the legal parent of the couple’s children. If the legal parent dies, the other parent may lose custody of his or her child. Worse, children can’t receive benefits ranging from health insurance to Social Security survivors’ benefits from their parents who aren’t legally recognized – and if that parent dies, any inheritance she or he leaves their child will be taxed as if they were strangers. If you feel that children deserve the protection of having a legal relationship with both of their parents, there are three things you can do:
Reversal of Fortune
The formula for human well-being used to be simple: Make money, get happy. So why is the old axiom suddenly turning on us?
Suburbia: America's Unseen Poverty
America's suburbs evoke images of dream homes, plush lawns and neighborhood BBQs, not low-wage jobs and houses under foreclosure. Yet for the first time ever, more poor Americans live in the suburbs than in all our cities combined.
Is the Scene of the Crime the Cause of the Crime?
Schoolyard massacres are rebellions against oppressive and bullying environments by students who can't take it anymore. Another rampage massacre, this time the worst ever. Which means another fake attempt at trying to understand this uniquely American crime -- these interminable rage killing sprees in our workplaces and our schoolyards. What makes the Virginia Tech massacre more horrifying isn't just the body count but the reaction of the living: The official fake soul-searching is more idiotic than ever. It is difficult to deal with the possibility that other factors may have led to the massacre, factors that are still too painful and close to us to consider. For example, how was this nerdy South Korean immigrant treated at his suburban high school and at Virginia Tech? What is the campus life like? What was it about Virginia Tech that made it the setting for the first student-on-student college massacre? And why were there copycat threats at campuses across Middle America over the following days? [Editor: Read the next story below for more insight on this concern.]
Hate crime victims need your help!
Legislation that would add protections for GLBT citizens to existing hate crimes legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate. A vote is expected this week, National Crime Victims' Rights Week. We need you to help in efforts to pass this important legislation. The Matthew Shepard Act, also known as the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007, would finally recognize anti-gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender violence for what it is - a hate crime. Just as important, this bill recognizes that sexual minorities both need and deserve the same protections as other minorities. Please take a moment today to write to our two U.S. Senators and to your U.S. Representative and urge them to support The Matthew Shepard Act.
Milking The Mayhem and Baiting For More: Inside The Mind of The Media
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time once again for a commercial from our specious sponsors at “American Media Whores”: “Terrorists… Mass murderers… Tired of feeling isolated? Sick of being unknown? Not wanting to commit that massacre for fear no one will know? Sensational. Salacious. Dramatic. Delights for pernicious predators like self-serving media whores. American media are parasites. Tragedy and mayhem are their hosts. They prey on sorrow, incite fear, and ignite rage. They even start wars. They anoint ‘the evil’, and savage ‘the good.’ They swift-boat honor and uplift lies. They make idols of murderers and glorify their crimes. They cater to sorrow-seekers and thrill-mongers. They encourage voyeurs. They create addicts who worship the offender and worship the offense.
Privatizing and Profiteering
The Deepening college loan scandal is a classic case of what can happen when government uses private companies as middlemen to carry out public goals. Lately, investigations by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, US Senator Edward Kennedy, and others have revealed a number of problems. The private lending industry adds nothing of value and takes no real risk, since loan repayment is guaranteed by the government. It simply skims off exorbitant profit at taxpayer expense — and then adds further costs of marketing and bribing college officials. According to government figures tabulated by US News & World Report, the direct loan program does better than break even, while the private loan program costs taxpayers $12.80 for every $100 borrowed. Most of those extra costs go for company profits. If all reduced-rate loans had been made through the direct loan program, Kennedy reports, we would have saved $30 billion since 1994, the year Congress revised and expanded the federal program.
Bills target wage discrimination against women
House Democrats appeared around the state Monday in support of bills they say would strengthen Michigan laws related to wage discrimination against women. One of the bills would create a statewide pay equity commission that would be responsible for developing definitions of comparable wages. The latest U.S. Census figures say that on average, a woman employed full-time and year-round earns about 77 cents for every $1 earned by a man. A group called the Michigan Pay Equity Network says that the gap in the state is 67 cents for every $1.
Government reveals 63,000 Social Security numbers
U.S. government officials warn of possible identity theft after the Social Security numbers of 63,000 people were posted on a public Web site. The officials said Friday the U.S. Census Bureau posted the Social Security numbers thousands of recipients of federal farm loans in an apparent violation of federal law
Presidential hopeful sings 'bomb Iran'
US presidential hopeful John McCain crooned the words "Bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann in a joking response to a question about any possible US attack over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program. "That old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran ... bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb," the Vietnam War veteran warbled softly to the band's Barbara Ann when he was asked when the United States would send an "airmail message" to Iran.
Pew Survey looks at Americans' knowledge of the news …
Coverage of the latest Pew poll on Americans' media consumption and knowledge of current events will no doubt feature much hand-wringing over the fact that viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are much more knowledgeable about current events than viewers of Fox News, although I'm not sure why that would be a surprise to anyone.
Yahoo Sued for Human Rights Violations
The suit, a legal first against an Internet company, was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act. According to the International Herald Tribune, the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act lets foreigners sue in American courts for fundamental violations of international law, like torture and genocide. It has been used in recent years to sue people who have violated basic human rights. And the 1991 Torture Victims Protection Act allows plaintiffs, including foreign citizens, to file civil suits in the United States. Both laws require proof of torture.
God Hates You and the World (sayeh Westboro Baptists)
I hate to say it, but I'm glad for the existence of Westboro Baptist because Fred Phelps' church helps expose a hateful underbelly of parts of American Christianity. Westboro Baptist represents the quintessence of a tendency within Christianity, mirrored no doubt within Islam as well, that presumes to know which societal groups and even which cities and entire geographical regions are slated for the wrath of divine destruction for alleged sins.
Beyond Imus
Many Americans still seem to think that racism, sexism, and other bigotries are myths -- a staggering feat of collective denial. How many times have you heard someone start (or finish) a diatribe with "Well, I'm no racist (sexist, homophobe, etc.), but ... ?
Women Who Ditch Their Career
Women who abandon their careers and become financially dependent on their husbands often look back on that decision as the biggest mistake of their lives -- even women in stable, enduring marriages. I interviewed women all over the country, of every age, socio-economic level and background, but many used the exact same words to ask an angry question: "Why didn't anybody tell me what a mistake this was?"
Feed Your Kids Pig Chow
"In capitalism, the most fundamental building block is trust," writes Ben Stein. "When yeoman farmers sent their savings to banks in London and Glasgow and Paris, they had to be able to count on it not being stolen. That was what allowed capital to be accumulated and deployed, and for the entire world economy to take off. "When I see what the top dogs at all too many corporations are now doing to that trust, I feel queasy. Outrageous - yes, obscene - pay. Greedy backdating of stock options, which in my opinion is straight-up theft. Managers buying assets from their trustors, the stockholders, at pennies on the dollar, then forestalling competing bids with lockups and insane breakup fees. "These misdeeds and many, many more are hammer blows at the granite foundation of trust we built in the 1940s and '50s… "It's built on man's notion that he can trust his neighbor with his money, and that if the neighbor misbehaves, the law will chase him and catch him, and that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom… "If that trust disappears - if the system is no longer a system for the ordinary citizen but only for the tough guys - how much longer can the miracle last?"
Abstinence education doesn't work, US report shows
Abstinence-only education programs meant to teach children to avoid sex until marriage failed to control their sexual behavior, according to a US government report. Teenagers who took part in the programs as elementary and middle school students were just as likely to have sex as those who did not take part in them, the survey found. "For both the program and control group youth, the reported mean age at first intercourse was identical, 14.9 years," says the report, available on the Internet at http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/abstinence07/index.htm.
Take Back the Airwaves
Our airwaves, the single most important method by which Americans get information about choosing the future president, are being held hostage by corporate broadcasters. The costs of running for federal office have been skyrocketing. More than $880 million was raised by the 2004 presidential campaigns. The 2008 election is expected to cost more than $1 billion. Sixty percent will be spent on advertising. The citizens are the losers, and the broadcasters and elite political consultants are the winners. We ought to turn this around. The public owns the airwaves that are being used by the big corporate broadcasters. The broadcasters, like NBC, ABC and CBS, have an obligation to use those airwaves "in the public interest, convenience and necessity." These profitable corporations take these public airwaves for free, then peddle them for exorbitant advertising rates. We have to ask, as U.S. servicemen and -women are being killed overseas ostensibly in defense of democracy, why are our airwaves, the single most important method by which Americans get information about choosing the future president, being held hostage by corporate broadcasters?
America, Maxed Out
The federal government -- and the majority of Americans -- can no longer get by a single day without taking on additional debt. And as more borrowing goes to simply pay off old debt, or to make interest payments, the new debt does little more than increase banking profits. Eventually the higher levels of debt will lead to higher interest rates, which will lead to more debt, creating a cycle as vicious as it is inevitable. Over the past generation, banks and credit card companies have made trillions of dollars of high-interest, unsecured debt available, and Americans have scooped it up. Our incomes have risen an average of 1 percent in real terms, while our household debt has increased over 1,000 percent. (Note: Banks realized more than a generation ago that they can make far more money teaching us to spend than to save. They've also learned that making money up front, mostly in the form of fees, is a lot more fun than waiting for a revenue stream to trickle in.)
Online music is in danger
A recent ruling by an obscure regulatory board threatens to put independent and public radio on the Internet out of business. The "Copyright Royalty Board" is dramatically increasing the royalties "webcasters" must pay every time they stream a song online. Public Internet radio like NPR is especially at risk. The rules could shut down nonprofit and smaller commercial Internet radio outlets and force larger webcasters to play the same cookie-cutter music as Clear Channel. So much for new online alternatives.
No Bar Code News
An evangelical Virginia farmer says a revolution against industrial agriculture is just down the road.
For the Christian Right, Gay-Hating Is Just the Start [Nazi Germany Anyone?]
As the Christian right works hard to make gays and lesbians second-class citizens, society needs to make a stand -- or else the same tactics will soon be used against other "social deviants." These attacks mask a sinister agenda that has nothing to do with sexuality. It has to do with power. The radical Christian right -- the most dangerous mass movement in American history -- has built a binary worldview of command and submission wherein male leaders, who cannot be questioned and claim to speak for God, are in control and all others must follow.
Bush's 'We Care' tour to Latin America greeted by protest
President George W. Bush has portrayed his trip to Latin America this week as a "We Care" tour aimed at dispelling perceptions that he has neglected his southern neighbors. But the fresh graffiti on streets here in São Paulo, where he landed Thursday night for his first stop, calls him a murderer.
China announces agency to invest its foreign currency reserves
The finance minister of China announced the formation of a new agency on Friday to oversee investment of the country's massive $1 trillion in foreign currency reserves. China already has the world's largest foreign exchange holdings, and they are growing at a rapid pace because of the country's huge trade surpluses. Most of the reserves China now accumulates are conservatively invested in U.S. Treasury bonds and other government securities.
The Lies They Tell: How to Stop the Fox Propaganda Machine
As presidential aspirants announce their candidacies in an already mind-numbing procession, the "Sliming Bowl" is well under way. "Sliming" is the rabid, rapid, media barrage of persistently repeated lies and innuendo mastered by the right-wing media machine, which aims to tar candidates with negative associations before their campaigns get rolling. Or alternatively, to bruise them enough so that they will suffer under the burden of damaged goods as they try to gain footing. The conservative roots usually puts out a speculative story through Fox News or Matt Drudge (of the Drudge Report), a powerful mouthpiece for the Bush White House. Then the right-wing echo reverberates as the lies make their way to talk radio and the right-wing blogosphere. Eventually, it gets picked up and carried by the mainstream media, with few understanding where the story originated.
U.S. Trade Deficit Grew to Another Record in ’06
The gap between what Americans import and what they export widened to another record in 2006, totaling $763.6 billion, the Commerce Department said today. It was the fifth year in a row that the trade deficit broke through its previous record. [EDITOR: George Bush wants you to believe that the economy is strong, it isn't. We are in serious financial trouble, as the rest of the world, whom we owe, will be calling in the debt we have borrowed from them. Each and every American, from the just-born, to the aged carries a huge personal debt due to the actions of this presidency in the amount of tens of thousands of dollars. It is time to end the military buildup and the invasion of sovereign nations, and support the U.S. domestic economy with job creation, health care, education and all of the other services that make us strong and competitive in the world market.]
February 12: Happy Darwin Day
Darwin's 200th Birthday will occur on February 12, 2009; it will also be the 150th Anniversary of the publication of his famous book, On The Origin of Species. So, together we can evolve a truly international Celebration to express gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity. The objective of Darwin Day Celebration is to encourage existing institutions worldwide, such as municipalities, public and private schools, colleges and universities, libraries, museums, churches, private organizations and individuals to celebrate Science and Humanity every year, on, or near, February 12, Darwin's birthday!
Becoming a Gentleman
A group of Japanese men say they have the answer to marital bliss. The group's founder says he saved his own marriage by learning to take out the garbage.
Family: What Makes Them, What Breaks Them
“A team of 90 scientists just issued a new report describing global-warming as man-made. Those who wish to avoid the heat ought to visit chilly Michigan, where voters and the courts are icing up our own, entirely man-made frosty social climate for, well, some people. Isn't it ironic that, just as Michigan's economy tanks, the state is getting more stand-offish by the minute? We might as well announce: Take your educated, your skilled, your scholarly gay intellectuals and Ph.D.s, your out-of-state minority students. Keep 'em. Never mind that some of these may be top-tier job seekers likely to find other states more welcoming.”
Inherited disease linked to Hatfield-McCoy feud
The most infamous feud in US folklore, the long-running battle between the Hatfields and McCoys, may be partly explained by a rare, inherited illness -- Von Hippel-Lindau disease -- that can lead to hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.
Who Americans Are and What They Do
December 15, 2006—Americans drank more than 23 gallons of bottled water per person in 2004 — about 10 times as much as in 1980. We consumed more than twice as much high fructose corn syrup per person as in 1980 and remained the fattest inhabitants of the planet, although Mexicans, Australians, Greeks, New Zealanders and Britons are not too far behind. As recently as 1980, only 12 percent of doctors were women; by 2004, 27 percent were. In 1970, 33,000 men and 2,000 women earned professional degrees; in 2004, the numbers were 42,000 men and 41,000 women. This eclectic portrait of the American people is drawn from the 1,376 tables in the Census Bureau’s 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, the annual feast for number crunchers that is being served up by the federal government today.
Chamber of Commerce: Agency of Corruption.
The Chamber of Commerce, run by corrupt lobbyist Tom Donahue, has turned into a pay-to-play vehicle for right-wing causes and corporate dishonesty. Donahue is on the board of directors of Sunrise Senior Living, a company that offers assisted living facilities to the elderly, and according to Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times, he sold stock in advance of an accounting problem which later became public and shaved $342 million from the company's market value. Shareholders are demanding answers. The national Chamber of Commerce isn't pro-business, in other words, it's just a fully captured right-wing organization that has been taken over by the Republican Party. There are state and local Chambers all over the country that are not right-wing, but are genuinely apolitical organizations fostering networking and business growth in local areas. Many trial lawyers in the South belong to local Chambers, unwittingly contributing to a massive lobbying operation in D.C. undercutting their ability to represent the public against abuses.
ID Theft and You
In today's Peeping Tom Dystopia, government datacrats at all levels are fixated on finding out everything about us. They track us with spycams and RFID chips and warrantless wiretaps and computer stealthbugs and black boxes in our autos and covert email intercepts and mandatory snitching from our bankers and doctors and telephone firms and credit card companies. They need this massive database of birthdays and divorces and pay raises and colonoscopies and vaginal wart prescriptions because they are from the government and they are here to protect us. But protect us how? And from what?
Congress Can Overrule The President On Any Decision - Including Our Policies On Iraq
There has been a lot of talk going on lately about the "decisions" which President Bush will make regarding his disastrous War in Iraq. Many people who should know better are speaking as if the President somehow has the authority -- all by himself -- to determine the Military and Foreign Relations policies of the United States of America. On the Sunday talk shows, people are anxiously awaiting to see which recommendations Bush will "accept," as if his acceptance or rejection were all-important. "After all," they seem to say, reverently: "he is the Commander-In Chief! These decisions belong to him alone!" Wrong! This belief is dangerous nonsense, created by the Bush Administration and promoted by their obedient Rubber-Stamp followers in the old Congress. The truth is, the President is not supposed to be the Great Decider, but the Capable Administrator, who faithfully executes whatever laws are duly enacted by Congress.
Microsoft Word Documents Are Ticking Timebombs
Microsoft has issued a zero-day attack alert for its ubiquitous Word application. The unpatched flaw can be exploited when a user simply opens a maliciously rigged Word document, and there are no pre-patch workarounds available, Microsoft warns. Affected software versions include Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Word Viewer 2003, Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac and Microsoft Word 2004 v. X for Mac. The Microsoft Works 2004, 2005 and 2006 suites are also affected because they include Microsoft Word. This is the second major Microsoft Word zero-day attack this year. In May 2006, a sophisticated attack originating from China and Taiwan was detected using a Trojan dropper and a backdoor with rootkit features to mask itself from anti-virus scanners.
NASA Plans Base on the Moon
The lunar outpost would be a staging point for a journey to Mars and enable NASA to conduct a wide range of scientific investigations, officials said. Missions to the moon for the project are expected to begin by 2020, NASA Spokesman Michael J. Braukus said on Dec. 5. As of now, he added, there are no firm figures on costs or how long the base will take to build. [Editor: Now if they could just figure out how to fund education and healthcare, and stop global warming that will make this planet about as uninhabitable as the moon currently is. When will we ever use some common sense when it comes to our national priorities?]
Caution Urged on U.S. plan for RFID-enabled ID cards
A government plan to use radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in a proposed passport card program for U.S. citizens is drawing fire from some quarters. The identification cards would be needed by residents who don't have passports for verifying their identity at land and sea border
Few tears for the great intimidator
The Guardian Outside the depleted ranks of America's neoconservatives, few tears are likely to be shed over John Bolton's resignation as US ambassador to the United Nations. Mr Bolton's political fate was effectively sealed, like that of Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, when the Republicans suffered their crippling defeat in the Congressional elections last month: two senior administration figures who were closely associated with the multiple disasters of the Iraq war have now happily paid the price.
Boeing: Accused of Running Torture Travel Agency
A British author and an ex-prisoner's attorney say that records uncovered by Spanish investigators show Boeing has a direct role in "extreme renditions" -- planning and organizing the flights through a unit of its Seattle commercial airplane division. The prisoner flights, launched by the Clinton administration to transfer foreign suspects to trial in the United States, became a darker undertaking following 9/11. George W. Bush approved what critics say amounts to the kidnapping of foreign nationals, some flown to countries such as Morocco or Egypt, known for abusive interrogation techniques. Others were taken to a system of CIA prisons in Afghanistan and Europe, or the U.S. compound in Guantánamo, rights groups say.
Michigan Internet Under Attack: The Stakes Are HUGE!
Think twice before you write this story off as a geek issue: this seemingly arcane debate will ultimately determine the future of virtually all communications in America. Here's why. The phone companies' new service delivers TV, phone and web service that is faster, and competes with cable companies -- which is great -- but they also may go around local governments avoiding consumer protections. For instance it is vital that big telephone are offering service to all residents, not just the wealthiest. The phone companies don't want to negotiate with the local governments and obey these requirements and are trying to bypass them in national and state legislation. If we permanently lose net neutrality, the Internet will become more like cable TV, where phone and cable companies (who together control 98% of broadband access) control what you see, how fast it downloads and how much it costs. If we win, in a few years, faster broadband speeds will allow any Web site to become a TV or radio network, breaking open the bottleneck on access and distribution. The stakes are huge!
Consider Buying Nothing!
Corporations invest billions of dollars yearly to persuade people to accept the religion of consumerism. It's a religion that goes against the teaching of just about every other religion, belief system, or moral code. Think about what you really believe, and see if your decisions are motivated by your own code or by slick advertisements.
In Debt We Trust
“In Debt We Trust” started out to be a film about what I thought were other people's problems. I came to realize how deeply they affect me as well. The experience of making this film has led me to understand how many ways policies and practices are tied to a growing national debt burden and have an impact on my personal finances. Even as a former network journalist and long-time investigative reporter, I was shocked and outraged when I started probing the roots of these issues. This is a problem involving millions of people and billions of dollars yet it is downplayed and rarely discussed in all of its disastrous dimensions. It's about a growing inequality that some experts fear will lead to a new 21st century serfdom. It's about the transfer of wealth from working people into the vaults and accounts of a relatively small number of financial institutions and real estate interests. The lenders are profiting by charging usurious rates and doing so legally, in part, because they have mastered the art and science of marketing products and then manipulating media, politicians, and political institutions.
A Politics of the Common Good
A movement is growing that aims to build a politics of decency and sanity, which speaks to the generosity of the American people. It's not going to be easy, but it's time to rock the boat.
Economists say Michigan is in for lengthy recovery
Five and a half years ago, Michigan's economy was booming and the state had so much money it was cutting taxes while still finding plenty for schools and state programs.
Media Ownership Takes On a Nightmarish Hue
At a time when warnings abound that the concentration of wealth in America is dangerously threatening the underpinnings of our democracy, it’s unsettling to see a cast of billionaire moguls and dubious characters circling their wagons around the Nation’s largest newspapers. The Tribune Company, owner of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Newsday (Long Island), Hartford Courant (Connecticut) and 25 television stations, is under heavy pursuit by at least six teams of bulge bracket players. One of those players is Maurice (Hank) Greenberg, ousted Chairman of AIG, who is facing a civil fraud lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General and Governor-elect, Eliot Spitzer over sham transactions and accounting at AIG.
Arrows for the War
The Christian 'Quiverfull' movement measures a mother's spiritual resolve by the number of children she raises, each one an arrow in the quiver of God's army. When the Gospel Community Church in Coxsackie, New York, breaks midservice to excuse children for Sunday school, nearly half of the 225-strong congregation patters toward the back of the worship hall: the five youngest children of Pastor Stan Slager's eight, assistant pastor Bartly Heneghan's eleven and the Dufkin family's thirteen, among many others. It's the un-ignorable difference between the families at Gospel Community and those in the rest of the town that's led some to wonder if the church isn't a cult that forces its disciples to keep pushing out children.
Is Marriage Rational?
As a child of the '60s counter-culture, I equated marriage with the Vietnam War -- some sham ceremonial act, like saving the world from communist hordes, that actually had nothing to do with mental health, romance or commitment, but was rather one more way that mass society sought to colonize our minds. I am not kidding, and, believe me, I wasn't alone. Back in the day, most of my friends saw marriage as a strange ritual, honeycombed with contradictions. Marriages were stultifying, burdened by adultery and inequality. They were invitations to divorce. Of course, as the idealistic 1970s gave way to the pragmatic Reagan years, some of my best friends also got married, though like me with the stipulation, "I don't need the government to sanctify my relationship."
Save the Wild UP HERE
Kennecott Minerals has submitted a mining permit application under Michigan's as yet untested sulfide mining law, for the development of the first recognized sulfide metallic mine in the history of the State of Michigan. This mining application proposes to develop a massive sulfide mine UNDER one of Michigan's most important trout streams-the Salmon Trout River;and on the Yellow Dog Plains which is known for its beauty, wild streams, and extraordinary wildlife. Because we feel this application is fundamentally deficient in meeting the protection criteria of Michigan's Non-Ferrous Metallic Mining Statute and rules, established to protect our state and waters from the acknowledged risks of sulfide mining; because these risks are too great to this region dependent on a thriving economy based on tourism and recreation; and because the people of Michigan are not willing to allow the degradation of the Upper Peninsula, Lake Superior and U.P. communities-WE URGE THE STATE OF MICHIGAN TO DENY THIS PERMIT.
D.C. Fear Face-Off
After years of using voter fear as their favorite campaign weapon, Republicans are suddenly the ones running scared -- terrified that the reality contained within the new National Intelligence Estimate will confirm the undeniable: that the war in Iraq has fueled terrorism and made us all less safe. And that President Bush has been intentionally misleading us with his insistence that Iraq is the centerpiece of the battle against terrorism, and his assurance that "America is winning the war on terror."
GOP Fear-Mongering Kicks into High Gear
Sure enough, with just two weeks to go and the polls heavily skewing Democratic, the administration's panic-button pushers have brought out the big guns, including an ad alleging that Osama Bin Laden said that 9/11 was "nothing compared to what you will see next," the specter of colossal tax raises, Dick Cheney repeatedly mentioning the possibility of "mass death in the United States," and even that old race-baiting favorite, the fear of black men lusting after southern white women. It's beginning to look a lot like November.
Fighting the 'Imperial' Internet
Corporate media are looking to use the "free market" to add the internet to their empire. But we can't let them dominate the 'net and undermine our democracy.
A Test of Power
Projections of the rise and fall of nations form an indispensable element in the conduct of diplomacy, yet such estimates of what power is and how it is changing are very uncertain. Some observers, indeed, have suggested that we are nearly destined to get it wrong. The English statesman Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, noted that those "who are in the sinking scale do not easily come off from the habitual prejudices of superior wealth, or power, or skill, or courage, nor from the confidence that these prejudices inspire. They who are in the rising scale do not immediately feel their strength, nor assume that confidence in it which successful experience gives them afterwards."
Foley, Gays and the Religious Right: Is This the Nail in the GOP Coffin?
It's become clear that the Republican leadership protected a predator. Will it cost them the conservative Christian votes they so desperately need? Foley faces an FBI investigation to perhaps, ironically, be convicted under some of the laws he helped to pass. But the bigger, more institutional question remains: What did the GOP leadership know, and when did they know it? Evidence suggests that Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Jim Boehner both knew that there were issues -- though neither, of course, cops to awareness of anything approaching the text above. In fact, evidence suggests that Foley's behavior was well known in GOP circles for years, with former page Matthew Loraditch telling ABC News that pages were warned to "watch out for Foley" as early as 2001.
Foley: Who's to Blame?
It occurs to me, in watching the Republican leadership and their allies scramble for an alibi that flies in the scandal surrounding Congressman Mark Foley, that no one is stating one, obvious fact: that for all Americans, gay or straight, it is simply unacceptable to engage in solicitous behavior with teenagers. Why do I feel the need to state the obvious? While Foley has left town, his colleagues are rushing to get back on message with less than five weeks left to the midterm elections. And when all else fails this group, they fall back to a time-tested formula: blame the gays. Newt Gingrich from going on Fox News to say that the GOP leadership didn't act because there were afraid of being accused of gay bashing. Oh really? The same GOP leaders who are trying to write gay people out of the Constitution chose not to investigate inappropriate sexual behavior because they were worried that they might be branded as homophobic? This has nothing to do with homophobia. This is about the sexual solicitation of teenagers. In fact, The Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90 percent of pedophiles are men, and that 98 percent of those men are heterosexual.
Understanding "The World Can't Wait" Organization (a cautionary tale)
The rise of the most recent Revolutionary Communist Party front group, "The World Can't Wait," provides a good opportunity for criticisms of the Revolutionary Communist Party, its strategies and leader, Bob Avakian. In the past, the RCP has attempted to utilize front groups like Not In Our Name, and the October 22nd Organization (O22). Its strategy is similar to that of another Stalinist sect, the Workers World Party, which for several years has operated through its front group International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now To Stop War and End Racism). Both groups hope to use their fronts in order to manipulate folks who honestly oppose the policies of the Bush regime and the war, as well as to recruite new members to the Revolutionary Communist Party (USA). The Revolutionary Communist Party is a deceptive, centralized and authoritarian organization. There's an old saying, "If you want to know what a communist is saying, look at his hands." That means, the rhetoric is just that - rhetoric. Forget the words, look at what they are doing if you want to know what they really mean. We need to keep an eye on the RCP and WCW.
Brainwash a Nation — A MUST VIEW
An excerpt from a four-part series called "The Century of the Self." The series tracks how American elites have aggressively used the modern behavioral sciences to persuade, coerce and manipulate the American public into accepting the corporate-government world's version of events as their own.
Big Jump Found in Anti-Muslim Incidents
Complaints involving anti-Muslim discrimination, harassment and violence jumped over 30 percent in 2005 compared to 2004, according to a new report released here Monday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim organisation.
Secret CIA Prisons in Your Backyard
The largest covert CIA operation since the Cold War is run not only by shadowy government contractors in the darkest corners of Afghanistan, but also by unassuming Americans in places like Dedham, Mass.
Pope urged to retract Islam remarks
"The language used by the pope sounds like that of his 12th-century counterpart who ordered the crusades" Hamid Ansari, Indian muslim leader. The Pakistani national assembly, parliament's lower house, unanimously passed a resolution on Friday demanding the Pope retract his remarks "in the interest of harmony among different religions of the world". "The derogatory remarks of the pope about the philosophy of jihad and Prophet Mohammed have injured sentiments across the Muslim world and pose the danger of spreading acrimony among the religions," the resolution said. In Qatar, prominent Muslim scholar shaikh Youssef al-Qaradawi rejected the Pope's comments and said Islam was a religion of peace and reason.
Powell joins opponents of Bush tribunal plan
President Bush made a rare visit to Capitol Hill on Thursday as key Republican senators who oppose the administration's military tribunal plan gained a powerful ally -- the president's former secretary of state. In a letter to one of the major opponents of Bush's plan, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he opposed the part of the proposal that would amend the interpretation of Article III of the Geneva Conventions. The White House and the Senate GOP leadership are at odds with McCain and Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, over the administration's tribunal plan. "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," Powell, a retired Army four-star general, wrote in a letter Wednesday to McCain, whose amendment last year opposed the use of torture. (Read Powell's letter) "To redefine Common Article III would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk."
What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA
Plame was no analyst or paper-pusher. She was an operations officer working on a top CIA priority -- searching for proof of Bush's case for invading Iraq
For U.S. Workers, Vacation Is Vanishing
More than a quarter of working Americans won't take time off, while Europeans enjoy two months of holiday. Did the Reagan revolution make us forget how to relax?
Lie By Lie: A Chronicle of a War Foretold By Mother Jones
The stream of dire dispatches from Iraq has left many Americans wondering, "How did it get this bad?" The editors of Mother Jones offer an answer with this extensively sourced and cross-referenced interactive timeline of political swindle. Tags, like "fear factor" and "distraction," break down the daunting mass of information into more manageable parts. Contemporary history is laid bear, from then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney's call to protect Kuwait's oil from Saddam Hussein in 1990, to Colin Powell's now-infamous speech before the United Nations, all the way to March 19, 2003, the day the United States invaded Iraq.
Mom and Pop Stores Take on Wal-Mart
local businesses in our community are more directly connected to our well-being. The assets of these small firms are, by definition, sited in the community and owned by people residing there. They almost exclusively hire neighbors. The benefits of their success and the fallout of their failure are experienced directly by residents.
Court backs right to wear anti-Bush shirt
Zachary Guiles knew he was being provocative when he showed up for school two years ago in a T-shirt that accused George Bush of being a war-mongering draft-dodger, a drunkard and a drug addict. What the 13-year-old may not have realised was that he would provoke a major free-speech battle that culminated this week in a court victory.
Executives Cash In on War and Oil Bonanza
Top oil and defence industry executives in the United States are raking in record personal profits on the backs of the U.S. wars following the terror attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 and sky-high oil prices, two think-tanks said Wednesday. "CEOs (chief executive officers) in the defense and oil industries have been able to translate war and rising oil prices into personal jackpots," says the new report "Executive Excess 2006," a 60-page study by the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington and the Boston-based United for a Fair Economy. The report's authors say U.S. taxpayers are funding much of this bonanza and faulted U.S. political and congressional leaders for not exercising better and more thorough oversight.
What Keeps Rumsfeld Up At Night?
Forget the escalating sectarian violence. Forget the rising influence of Iran. Forget the 100-Iraqi-deaths-per-day. Forget the 2,638 American dead. For Don Rumsfeld the problem isn't that we are not winning the war in Iraq, the problem is that we are not properly spinning the war in Iraq. Along with comparing his critics to Hitler appeasers, the beleaguered Defense Secretary has spent the early part of this week making the case that the horrific state of affairs in Iraq is really just a case of bad PR.
Hackers Hit AT&T System
Computer internet Hackers gained access to Credit Card info from 19,000 customers of the telephone company's online store
Michigan household income falls
Household income in Michigan -- once the Promised Land for American workers -- dropped more than $200 below the national median last year, according to new census figures released Tuesday. Michigan, which ranked sixth at the end of the 1960s, ranked 23rd among the states in median household income in 2005, at $46,038, compared to the national figure, $46,242. Across the nation, household incomes rose last year and the poverty rate stayed stagnant, the first year it hasn't increased since before President Bush took office. The last decline in the poverty rate was in 2000, during the Clinton administration.
Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity
With the economy beginning to slow, the current expansion has a chance to become the first sustained period of economic growth since World War II that fails to offer a prolonged increase in real wages for most workers. That situation is adding to fears among Republicans that the economy will hurt vulnerable incumbents in this year’s midterm elections even though overall growth has been healthy for much of the last five years. The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity — the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation’s living standards — has risen steadily over the same period. As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s.
Gore Lashes Out at Media Consolidation
Vice President Al Gore said Sunday ever-tighter political and economic control of the media is a major threat to democracy. Former US Vice President Al Gore waves at the media as he arrives at the International Television festival in Edinburgh, Scotland Sunday Aug. 27, 2006 to talk about his award-winning American TV network "Current TV". (AP Photo/Ian Jacobs) Gore said the goal behind his year-old "interactive" television channel Current TV was to encourage the kind of democratic dialogue that thrives online but is increasingly rare on TV. "Democracy is under attack," Gore told an audience at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. "Democracy as a system for self-governance is facing more serious challenges now than it has faced for a long time. [Bruce Peterson, in Traverse City, has been fighting for years to keep the news show, Democracy Now, regularly airing on the community access channel TCTV2. In the end, he lost this battle with station managment.]
New age nuclear
What if we could build a nuclear reactor that offered no possibility of a meltdown, generated its power inexpensively, created no weapons-grade by-products, and burnt up existing high-level waste as well as old nuclear weapon stockpiles? And what if the waste produced by such a reactor was radioactive for a mere few hundred years rather than tens of thousands? It may sound too good to be true, but such a reactor is indeed possible, and a number of teams around the world are now working to make it a reality. What makes this incredible reactor so different is its fuel source: thorium.
The Trouble with Bush's 'Islamofascism'
If you thought the War on Terror was bad, get ready for the international disasters that the "war on Islamic fascism" will produce.
Confronting the Truth about Torture
Despite mounting evidence, Americans remain willfully blind to the government's barbaric treatment of terror suspects. Now, human rights groups and religious organizations are using testimonies from victims to awaken moral revulsion at what is being done in our name.
Wanted: Scarier Intelligence
August 25, 2006—The last thing this country needs as it heads into this election season is another attempt to push the intelligence agencies to hype their conclusions about the threat from a Middle Eastern state. That’s what happened in 2002, when the administration engineered a deeply flawed document on Iraq that reshaped intelligence to fit President Bush’s policy. And history appeared to be repeating itself this week, when the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, released a garishly illustrated and luridly written document that is ostensibly dedicated to “helping the American people understand” that Iran’s fundamentalist regime and its nuclear ambitions pose a strategic threat to the United States. It’s hard to imagine that Mr. Hoekstra believes there is someone left in this country who does not already know that. But the report obviously has different aims. It is partly a campaign document, a product of the Republican strategy of scaring Americans into allowing the G.O.P. to retain control of Congress this fall. All in all, this is a chilling reminder of what happened when intelligence analysts told Vice President Dick Cheney they could not prove that Iraq was building a nuclear weapon or had ties with Al Qaeda. He kept asking if they really meant it — until the C.I.A. took the hint. The nation cannot afford to pay the price again for politicians’ bending intelligence or bullying the intelligence agencies to suit their ideology.
The Most Trusted Names in News (Really!)
There are still some hero-journalists out there standing in front of the schoolyard bullies and fighting the good fight. Facts are facts, they are not to be spun into the illusion of fair and balanced. There are still some hero-journalists out there standing in front of the schoolyard bullies and fighting the good fight.
Wal-Mart Licks Its Wounds
Wal-Mart blames its troubles on the unions it has worked so hard to bar from its stores. They're so touchy, those unions! They take offense just because the Wal-Mart orientation for new hires includes a 12-minute video on the evils of unions, portraying them as little better than extortionists. They get all bent out of shape every time a union sympathizer is fired by Wal-Mart on some trumped-up charge like using profanity or being discourteous to customers. They jump up and down when Wal-Mart is caught making its associates work overtime for no pay, or locking them into the stores at night. Wal-Mart is even priced out of the reach of its own employees. I was surprised, in my brief stint as a Wal-Mart associate, that our ladies' wear was too costly for many of my co-workers. (In Nickel and Dimed, I told the story of a $7 an hour associate who could not afford a $7 polo shirt of the kind we were required to wear.) When the American majority can't buy the very goods they manufacture or sell, that system is cruising for a bruising. [Editor: Consumers are slowly waking up to the real problems communities face as the result of Walmart stores.]
Disabled People Left Behind in Emergencies
Right now, there is no standardized federal preparedness plan for disabled people, so when a Katrina-level disaster strikes again, many will be left in the cold.
Abolish the TSA, Save Lives
The Transportation Security Administration exists not to prevent terrorists from bringing down planes but to prevent passengers from realizing the government is powerless over such catastrophes. Aside from making travellers even more miserable than they already are, what has the recent restriction on liquids, fluid and gels on airlines accomplished? Terrorists financed by Osama bin Laden first experimented with explosive elixirs 12 years ago in the hopes of blowing up planes, yet we've survived thousands of flights with liquids and gels since. Now the TSA wants us to believe that the mouthwash, mascara and medicines lying dormant in millions of carry-on bags have suddenly become lethal weapons. Toothpaste that posed no threat Tuesday was Public Enemy No. 1 Thursday, though uncounted tubes lurked in overhead bins this last decade.
How to Make Sure Children Are Scientifically Illiterate
With their changing political tactics, creationists are an excellent example of evolution at work. Creation science evolved into intelligent design, which morphed into “teaching the controversy,” and after its recent court loss in Dover, Pa., and political defeats in Ohio and Kansas, it will no doubt change again. The most recent campaign slogan I have heard is “creative evolution.” But perhaps more worrisome than a political movement against science is plain old ignorance. The people determining the curriculum of our children in many states remain scientifically illiterate.
Public Stoning: Not Just for the Taliban Anymore
Christian reconstructionists believe democracy is heresy and public school is satanic -- and they've got more influence than you think. Along with lesser lights of the religious far right who spoke at American Vision's "Worldview Super Conference 2006," Herb Titus and Gary North called for nothing short of the overthrow of the United States of America. Titus, former dean of TV preacher Pat Robertson's Regent University law school, has led the legal battle to plant the Ten Commandants in county courthouses across the nation. North, an apostle of the creed called Christian Reconstructionism, is one of the most influential elders of American fundamentalism. "I don't want to capture their (mainstream Americans') system. I want to replace it," fumed North to a cheering audience. North has called for the stoning of gays and nonbelievers (rocks are cheap and plentiful, he has observed). When you see the South Dakota legislature outlaw abortions, the Reconstructionist agenda is at work. The movement's greatest success is in Christian home schooling, where many, if not most, of the textbooks are Reconstructionist-authored tomes. Moreover, the Reconstructionists are the folks behind attacks on science and public education. They're allied with proselytizers who have tried to convert Air Force cadets -- future pilots with fingers on nuclear triggers -- into religious zealots. Like the communists of the 1930s, they exert tremendous stealth political gravity, drawing many sympathizers in their wake, and their friends now dominate the Republican Party in many states.
Email Fraud to Watch Out For:
Michigan Schools & Government Credit
The purpose is to obtain the victim’s credit card number, CVV Code, Expiration Date, and ATM PIN Code through a spoofed URL. The spammed email message pretends to be a legitimate Michigan Schools and Government Credit Union verification email. The said message instructs the user to click a fake link that opens to a malicious Web site. Several different messages are now circulating on the internet with the same purpose of obtaining information from you to be used illicitly. Delete the message without opening. If you do open the message do NOT open or click on any link contained within the message and/or answer any of the questions pertaining to your account. You may contact the real Credit Union by visiting: www.msgcu.org
Will the UN Stop This War?
Robert
Naiman is national coordinator of the new D.C.-based advocacy group Just Foreign Policy, which issued a statement today saying: "Under international law the UN Security Council is supposed to act to stop crimes against peace but [it] cannot do so in this case because it is paralyzed by the veto of the Bush administration, which opposes an immediate cease-fire and is backed in this position by the United Kingdom. However, under resolution 377, 'Uniting for Peace,' the UN General Assembly can act when the Security Council fails to do so. This procedure has been used 10 times in the history of the UN, often at the initiative of the United States."
A view of the truth: Spinoza's faith in reason
Baruch Spinoza understood the powerful tendency in each of us toward developing a view of the truth that favors the circumstances into which we happened to have been born. Self-aggrandizement can be the invisible scaffolding of religion, politics or ideology. Against this tendency we have no defense but the relentless application of reason. Reason must stand guard against the self-serving false entailments that creep into our thinking, inducing us to believe that we are more cosmically important than we truly are, that we have had bestowed upon us - whether Jew or Christian or Muslim - a privileged position in the narrative of the world's unfolding.
America Struggles With Its Own Evangelical Taliban
At this late stage of the Bush rapture, American evangelism is a lot like the Exxon Valdez: Massive, sloshing with oily energy and not a little drunk on its power as it steers through hazards of its own designs. The moment evangelicals began tearing down the church-state wall, the rubble became their shoals. The wreck will be ugly. It will take years to mend because, as one of their own, Minnesota's Rev. Gregory Boyd, recently put it: "Never in history have we had a Christian theocracy where it wasn't bloody and barbaric. That's why our Constitution wisely put in a separation of church and state." Meanwhile, too much damage is being done by policies keyed to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" not to have lasting consequences abroad and at home. Bush advisor and leader of the Texas based Christian Zionist movement, John Hagee: "The end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad -- the best is yet to be." In other words, war is a good thing, rapturous and necessary and sealed with a kiss from God, as the world edges toward Armageddon. The Bush presidency is that evangelical view's self-fulfilling prophesy. Militants for Hezbollah, Hamas and the Taliban speak the very same language. Only the roles are reversed.
Tax Cheats Called Out of Control
So many superrich Americans evade taxes using offshore accounts that law enforcement cannot control the growing misconduct, according to a Senate report that provides the most detailed look ever at high-level tax schemes. Among the billionaires cited in the report are two Texas businessmen, Charles and Sam Wyly, who the Center for Public Integrity found in 2000 were the ninth-largest contributors to President Bush. Cheating now equals about 7 cents out of each dollar paid by honest taxpayers, as much as $70 billion a year, the report estimated.
Petro Profits Pour in at BP
Profits are pouring in at the BP Group. At the same time, the company announced a profit of $7.27 billion in the second quarter, 30 percent more than the comparable period a year ago and the equivalent of more than $55,000 a minute. Sky-high crude oil prices are the main reason BP’s coffers are overflowing, and analysts expect a string of similarly robust figures from the other global oil giants as they report their second-quarter results in the next few days, which will probably prompt a new round of calls by politicians to impose windfall profits taxes on the industry.
Gullible Americans
A July Harris Poll reported that 50 percent of Americans still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when Bush invaded that country, and that 64 percent of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein had strong links with Al Qaeda. The Chinese leaders and intellectuals with whom I was meeting were incredulous. How could a majority of the population in an allegedly free country with an allegedly free press be so totally misinformed? The only answer I could give the Chinese is that Americans would have been the perfect population for Mao and the Gang of Four, because Americans believe anything their government tells them. Americans never check any facts. Who do you know, for example, who has even read the Report of the 9/11 Commission, much less checked the alleged facts reported in that document. The two co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission Report, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, have just released a new book, “Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.” Kean and Hamilton reveal that the commission suppressed the fact that Muslim ire toward the US is due to US support for Israel’s persecution and dispossession of the Palestinians, not to our “freedom and democracy” as Bush propagandistically claims. Kean and Hamilton also reveal that the US military committed perjury and lied about its failure to intercept the hijacked airliners. The commission even debated referring the military’s lies to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. Why should we assume that these admissions are the only coverups and lies in the 9/11 Commission Report? Governments lie all the time--especially governments staffed by neoconservatives whose intellectual godfather, Leo Strauss, taught them that it is permissible to deceive the public in order to achieve their agenda.
The fraud of primitive authenticity
Why, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, does popular culture portray primitives as peace-loving folk living in harmony with nature, as opposed to rapacious and brutal civilization? Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, which attributes civilization to mere geographical accident, made a best-seller out of a mendacious apology for the failure of primitive society.
The Authoritarian Streak in the Conservative Movement
The despotic personality types we see in the Bush White House have their origins in the amoral politics practiced by the low-lifes of the Nixon administration.
Capitalism's Suicide
Hedge funds are investment pools for the rich -- and they're causing serious harm to our country's economy.
An Imperial Defeatist
Supposedly, the U.S. military has expanded its presence and combat role around the world to foster democracy and prevail in the President's War on Terror; and, without a doubt, many brave Americans have risked their lives -- and some have died - in the pursuit of these noble objectives. But this is not, I believe, what has motivated Messrs. Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld in their pursuit of global supremacy. Rather, they appear driven by a messianic determination to impose American dominance on large swaths of the planet and to employ this hegemonic presence to gain control over global energy supplies. In attempting to do so, they are bankrupting the nation and exposing American citizens to a higher, not lower, risk of terrorist attack.
US Has No Idea of 'War on Terror' Cost
Watchdog The US government has lost track of the cost of the "war on terror" ....which is now taking up tens of billions of dollars a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Congress watchdog warned. ...neither DoD (Defence Department) nor the Congress reliably know how much the war is costing and how appropriated funds are being used or have historical data useful in considering future funding needs. Government Accountability Office report The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that neither the Defence Department nor Congress had any accurate idea how much the war has cost
Study Finds Worst Performance in Conservative Christian Schools
The federal Education Department reported Friday that, in reading and math, children attending public schools generally do as well as or better than comparable children in private schools. The report, which compared fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math scores from nearly 7,000 public schools and more than 530 private schools in 2003, also found that conservative Christian schools lagged significantly behind public schools. The report separated private schools by type, and found that among private-school students, those in Lutheran schools did best, while those in conservative Christian schools did worst. ....
Allen mum on campaign reforms, contributions
State Sen. Jason Allen, the Legislature's leading fundraiser, won't comment on campaign finance reforms proposed by members of his political party and won't reveal who contributed more than $75,000 to two accounts he created.
Paralyzed Man Uses Thought To Operate Computer
Imagine being able to run a computer through thought. That's the future, and that's exactly what a paralyzed man did using implanted electrodes in his head. The device is called the Braingate sensor and involves a tiny silicon chip with 100 electrodes implanted into the part of the brain responsible for movement or Cerebellum. The activity of the cells are recorded and then sent to a computer for processing.
Damning Report on U.S. Human Rights
- Rights advocacy groups in the United States are calling for the United Nations to take note of the gross human rights violations being committed in their country. A coalition of human and civil rights organizations Monday sent a 465-page report to a key United Nations committee, which details ongoing abuses of human rights across the United States. ...the coalition [of human and civil rights organizations] accused the U.S. State Department of trying to sidestep the UN process on the question of ongoing human rights abuses in the United States and described its behavior as 'a systematic pattern' of ignoring international human rights obligations.
An Apology by Conservative Talk Show Host Doug McIntyre
There’s nothing harder in public life than admitting you’re wrong. By the way, admitting you’re wrong can be even tougher in private life. If you don’t believe me, just ask Bill Clinton or Charlie Sheen. But when you go out on the limb in public, it’s out there where everyone can see it, or in my case, hear it. I was wrong to have voted for George W. Bush. I believe that George W. Bush has taken us down a terrible road. I don’t believe the Democrats are offering an alternative. That means we’re on our own to save this magnificent country. The United States of America is a gift to the world, but it has been badly abused and it’s rightful owners, We the People, had better step up to the plate and reclaim it before the damage becomes irreparable.
In Struggle For Women's Freedom, Which Side is US On?
Across the globe right now the epochal struggle is not between Islam and the West, but between those societies in which women are free and those in which they are repressed. Social and political control over women's bodies, however, extends well beyond the Islamic world. In the developing world, it has been a truism for a generation that the surest indicators of a country's social and economic progress are the educational levels of its women and women's ability to limit their pregnancies. During the 20th century, the control of women's reproductive lives marked the most despicable regimes. Among the first things the Nazis did upon seizing power in 1933 was to outlaw abortion. Family planning centers were closed, access to contraception made increasingly difficult and abortion criminalized. By 1943 the Nazis made abortion a capital offense. States that are repressive enough to control women's contraceptive options are just as likely to control other aspects of childbearing. So as Ohio and Louisiana rush to join South Dakota in attempting to criminalize abortion, we should ask: Which side are we on? Are we among those societies who permit women the full measure of their freedom or with those who control women's bodies in the service of a larger state agenda?
World Scientists Unite to Attack Creationism
The world's scientific community united yesterday to launch one of the strongest attacks yet on creationism, warning that the origins of life were being "concealed, denied or confused". Some schools in the US hold that evolution is merely a theory while the Bible represents the literal truth.
Physics Professor Finds Thermate (Building Demolition Explosives) in WTC Samples
Based on chemical analysis of WTC structural steel residue, a Brigham Young University physics professor has identified the material as Thermate. Thermate is the controlled demolition explosive thermite plus sulfur. Sulfur cases the thermite to burn hotter, cutting steel quickly and leaving trails of yellow colored residue. Prof. Steven Jones, who conducted his PhD research at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and post-doctoral research at Cornell University and the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility, has analyised materials from WTC and has detected the existence of thermate, used for "cutting" the steel support columns, as evident in the photo below.
I feel a draft coming: Universal National Service Act of 2006 HR 4752 IH
109th CONGRESS, 2d Session—To provide for the common defense by requiring all persons in the United States, including women, between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.
Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'
Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.
Make Big Oil Pay Back Its Profits
It's time to get some of those billions back from the oil companies -- let's establish a windfall profits tax and put an end to sweeheart tax breaks.
WARNING: Use Microsoft Word in Safe Mode
Use Microsoft Word in safe mode to protect against targeted zero-day attacks. That's the advice from Microsoft's security response team to counter known attacks against a serious code execution vulnerability in the widely used word processing program.
Inside Donnie Rumsfeld's Orwellian Pentagon
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al. are deliberately and determinedly striving to impose the AntiAmerica on our own land -- an unrecognizable America of supreme executive authority, constant surveillance of the citizenry, secret government and suppression of dissent. Their chief weapon is fear. They feverishly wave the bloody flag of 9/11, shouting that the citizenry must surrender liberties or be attacked again by The Madmen, that we mustn't question authority for this only encourages The Madmen, that all government operations must be cloaked in a dark veil of secrecy to keep The Madmen off balance, and that executive and police power must drastically expand to protect us from The Madmen. The Madmen hate our freedoms, the Bushites screech, so in order to defeat The Madmen, our freedoms must be suspended … for as long as it takes. Not only is that grotesquely absurd, it is entirely un-American.
Where Are They Now
President Bush has not fired any of the architects of the Iraq war. In fact, a review of the key planners of the conflict reveals that they have been rewarded – not blamed – for their incompetence.
The NSA's Political Fiction
Here's what disturbs me: in light of recent revelations that the National Security Agency has been illegally collecting vast databases of information about every single phone call made in the United States since late 2001, only 53 percent of US citizens polled by Newsweek think the government has gone too far in its efforts to stop terrorism in spite of the fact that the Bush administration has cited no evidence to justify snooping on innocent people's telephone calls.
Mr. Ice Cream Sticks It to the Pentagon
Ben Cohen has built a grassroots organization of half a million to fight the obscene size of the U.S. military budget -- and he uses Oreo cookies to make the case.
The Hijacking of Jesus
Christianity in America has become nearly synonymous with rightwing fanaticism, conservative politics, and--courtesy of Mel Gibson--a brutally sadistic version of the religious experience. But millions of devout Christians, like longtime journalist and author Dan Wakefield, are appalled by the religious right's distortion of their faith, which only three decades ago stood largely for peace equality, healing, and compassion for society's outcasts.
The Immigrant Gold Rush
Rights and Liberties: Private prison companies are salivating after the billions in public money that will be spent on new superjails to hold immigrants for trial or deportation.
The Rove Indictment Story
We know that we have now three independent sources confirming that attorneys for Karl Rove were handed an indictment either late in the night of May 12 or early in the morning of May 13. We know that each source was in a position to know what they were talking about. We know that the office of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald will not confirm, will not deny, will not comment on its investigation or on our report. We know that both Rove's attorney Robert Luskin and Rove's spokesman Mark Corallo have categorically denied all key facts we have set forth. We know we have information that directly contradicts Luskin and Corallo's denials. We know that there were two network news crews outside of the building in Washington, DC that houses the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm that represents Karl Rove. We know that the 4th floor of that building (where the Patton Boggs offices are located) was locked down all day Friday and into Saturday night. We know that we have not received a request for a retraction from anyone. And we know that White House spokesman Tony Snow now refuses to discuss Karl Rove - at all.
Time for U.S. to Form an "Army of Mercenaries"?
Little known to the American public, there are some 50,000 private contractors in Iraq, providing support for the U.S. military, among other activities. So why not go all the way, hints Ted Koppel in a New York Times op-ed on Monday, and form a real "mercenary army"?
Hold the Corrupt Jerks Accountable
Looking at the wreckage of the Bush administration leaves one with the depressed query, "Now what?" The only help to the country that can come from this ugly and spectacular crack-up is, in theory, things can't get worse. This administration is so discredited it cannot talk the country into an unnecessary war with Iran as it did with Iraq. In theory, spending is so out of control it cannot cut taxes for the rich again; the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bushies is already among its lasting legacies.
Americans Don't Like President Bush Personally
The president's public perception problem is not only about his dismal job performance, but also his striking lack of personal favorability.
A drop in his personal popularity, as measured by several public polls, has shadowed the decline in Bush's job-approval ratings and weakened his political armor when he and his party need it most.
[Yet Another] 9/11 Story That Got Away In 2001, an anonymous White House source leaked top-secret NSA intelligence to reporter Judith Miller that Al Qaida was planning a major attack on the United States. But the story never made it into the paper.
The Scariest Predators in the Corporate Jungle
The world's oil, gas and mining industries account for nearly two-thirds of all violations of human rights, environmental laws and international labor standards, according to a soon-to-be-released United Nations study. The food and beverages industry is a distant second, followed by apparel, footwear, and the information and communications technology sector. "The extractive industries - oil, gas and mining - also account for most allegations of the worst abuses, up to and including complicity in crimes against humanity."
US Secretly Backing Warlords in Somalia
More than a decade after U.S. troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, officials of Somalia's interim government and some U.S. analysts of Africa policy say the United States has returned to the African country, secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu.
Bush's Immigration Speech Is Bad Policy, Bad Politics
Let's get a couple of things straight about the immigration speech President George W. Bush unreeled Monday night from the Oval Office. His address had nothing to do with actual border policy and everything to do with domestic electoral politics.
Battle Cry for Theocracy
If you've been waiting to get alarmed until the Christian fascist movement started filling stadiums with young people and hyping them up to do battle in "God's army," wait no longer. In recent weeks, BattleCry, a Christian fundamentalist youth movement, has attracted more than 25,000 people to mega-rally rock concerts in San Francisco and Detroit, and this weekend it plans to fill Wachovia Stadium in Philadelphia. For an idea of the kind of religious government these "christians" have in mind for you and I as U.S. citizens ... Interns are forbidden to listen to secular music, watch R-rated movies or date; men can’t use the Internet unsupervised; the length of women’s skirts is regulated. The logic behind this is what drives Islamic fundamentalists to shroud women in burkhas! As the Bush regime wages unjust wars and conducts torture in our names, as it leaves New Orleans to rot and drags us closer each day to a theocracy in which abortion and birth control are banned, science is pulled under and gays are persecuted, it is no wonder that young people are searching for meaning and morality. However, the truth is that youth will not find the morality they need in a stadium listening to Ron Luce preach about religious war and intolerance.
Intelligent Thought: Science Versus The Intelligent Design Movement
The media chatter provoked by the intelligent-design movement has made collective fools of large segments of the American public. Educated Americans are dumbstruck by the attempt of the state of Kansas to officially redefine science to include the supernatural. Europeans cannot believe that such an argument should be raging in the twenty-first century—and in the United States, of all places, the seat of our most advanced technology and a leader in so many areas of scientific research.
Big Brother's Secret Calling Plan
Disclosure of the NSA's illegal database of Americans' telephone records has brought outraged demands for an investigation -- and for legal action against the government. Just a day after a new CBS/Times poll found his approval ratings at all-time lows -- and as low as ever registered for any president -- Bush faces the gravest crisis of his presidency. In a long list of impeachable offenses, from lying about Iraqi WMD to prisoner torture to issuing Executive Orders declaring his plans to disregard provisions of new laws, Bush's creation of a purely domestic spying program is the most flagrant.
US in Secret Gun Deal
The Pentagon has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms from Bosnia to Iraq in the past two years, using a web of private companies, at least one of which is a noted arms smuggler blacklisted by Washington and the UN. The 120-page Amnesty report, focusing on the risks from the privatisation of state-sponsored arms sales worldwide, says arms traffickers have adapted swiftly to globalisation, their prowess aided by governments and defence establishments farming out contracts.
How Would a Patriot Act?
In an excerpt from his new book, Greenwald explores how fear-mongering became the most potent political tool in Bush's arsenal.
Are You Ready for the Energy Crash?
While most of us are preoccupied with the astronomical price of gasoline, a far bigger energy catastrophe is brewing that will make pricey gas seem like a walk in the park. It's "peak oil" -- the term for the period after which global oil and natural gas demand outstrips supply and the prices for these commodities become too volatile for modern society to function.
Going Down!
Americans have a bleaker view of the country's direction than at any time in more than two decades, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. Sharp disapproval of President Bush's handling of gasoline prices has combined with intensified unhappiness about Iraq to create a grim political environment for the White House and Congressional Republicans. About two-thirds said the country was in worse shape than it was when he became president six years ago. Vote to Impeach Bush Now
The Hard Truth About Suicide Bombers
Though many Americans assume otherwise, most suicide bombers are not poor, violent Muslims, as explained in this special report from MIT's Center for International Studies.
Your argument makes no sense
U.S. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards didn't mince words when dealing with government lawyers from the Federal Communications Commission who were trying to justify why they've been evesdropping, without a warrant, into thousands of Internet communications. Judge Edwards called thier arguments "gobbledygook" and "nonsense" while addressing the serious breach of civil liberties caused by the snooping.
Bush Clears the Way for Corporate Domination
Antonia Juhasz, author of 'The Bush Agenda,' explains what Bush really means when he says he wants to spread freedom around the world. [Excerpt:
Bush believes that 'free trade' and 'free markets' are synonymous with 'freedom' -- and he's willing to implement this theory with military force.]
The Real Oil Story
Oil is pretty slippery stuff. The press is playing up $3 a gallon gasoline, record oil company profits, and the $400 million retirement package for Exxon’s former CEO. But these stories are trivial compared to the oil story they have ignored all along. The war in Iraq. It’s an oil war. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Read former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips new book, “American Theocracy: the Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century.” Bush, Cheney, Rice and other key Bush players have impeccable oil industry credentials. When they came to the White House, so did the oil industry. Cheney, Rumsfeld and others also have strong ties to the Project for a New American Century, a neo-conservative organization which unabashedly advocates U.S. world supremacy through pre-emptive war, regime change for governments they don’t like, and permanent military bases in the Persian Gulf to secure U.S. interests – foremost among them oil. U.S. world domination requires not only access to oil but control of it – a tall order since 65% of the world’s oil reserves lie within the boundaries of a handful of Arab countries.
Why Bush Won't Fix the Gas Price Problem
It's not complicated: Bush is an oilman, his father is an oilman, and all the people who gave him money that put him in the White House are oilmen. [Fact: The Bush administration itself represents the first time in history that the president, vice president and secretary of state are all former energy company officials. In fact, the only other U.S. president to come from the oil and gas industry was Bush's father. In 2005 ExxonMobil recorded the single most profitable year of any corporation in world history.]
Mexico, NAFTA and the GOP
Dec. 16, 2005, is a day that will live in infamy in the Hall of Fame of Unintended Republican Consequences. A bunch of the guys were just noodling around in the House of Representatives in Washington, see, kind of fooling around with the idea that they might get some traction out of immigration as a hot-button issue. The old hot buttons have kind of cooled off here lately, with people up in arms about Iraq, oil, health insurance and all this other stuff that makes the boys say, "Who me?" Where's a good divisive social issue when you need one? They weren't that far wrong — some variation on the race card usually works. Trouble is, they played the card, tried to make every illegal worker in the country a felon and woke up the Sleeping Brown Giant, instead.
Goss in the Cold
Porter Goss's sudden announcement of his departure from the CIA is puzzling. The former Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee and ex-CIA case officer offered no reason for vacating the CIA directorship, and there was no successor ready to go. News of his resignation came during a brief joint appearance at the White House by George W. Bush and Goss on Friday afternoon (the traditional time slot for putting out bad news). And--whaddayaknow--no pesky questions from journalists. The CIA beset with problems, Americans dying overseas--why would Goss give up this crucial post at a critical time before a replacement was in the wings? What sort of patriot is this? This has led to the obvious speculation: was it the hookers?
Pro-American = Anti-BushCo
I (and every single other individual on this planet working for peace and justice) am often accused of being "anti-American" for dissenting against my feral government that has gone wild with lawlessness and greed; even though dissent from our government is as American as apple pie. Some people believe that if one is critical of the Bush criminal regime, then one is anti-American. I steadfastly believe that to be anti-BushCo means being pro-American; pro-life; and most of all: pro-peace.
America's Worst Governors
Bush might be the worst president ever, but some Republican governors are giving him a run for his money.
Fossil discovery fills a piece of evolutionary puzzle
Scientists hailed the long-sought discovery of the transition from sea to land. In the story of life on earth, these fish fossils mark what is considered one of the major transitions, along with such milestones as the first multicellular organism or the first warm-blooded animal. The find, scientists said, provides the clearest picture yet of this moment, as well as clues to how such major shifts in evolution happen. The fossils are especially interesting, they said, because they show the beginning of the basic human body plan: Over the course of eons, Tiktaalik's front fins became the human arm and hand. ''It is an extraordinary discovery," said Philippe Janvier, a leading paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris who was not involved in the find. ''It fits perfectly in the tree of life."
Homeland Insecurity Department
Sheriff's detectives never know what they're going to find when they fish for sexual predators by creating bogus profiles on adult Internet sites. Prosecutors prepared Wednesday to extradite Brian Doyle -- a senior public information officer in the Homeland Security Department in Washington who faces 23 felony counts of using a computer to seduce a 14 year old girl and transmitting harmful materials to a minor.
American Children Getting Too Fat For Car Safety Seats
Over 250,000 American children under the age of 6 are too heavy for car-safety seats designed for their age-group. As the American obesity epidemic gains pace and spreads through all age groups, the number of children under 6 who are obese is growing at an alarming rate. Standard safety-seats are designed for children who weigh less than 40 pounds. Most of the children who were found to be over the limit were three years old. For a three-year-old to weigh over that amount he/she is either incredibly tall or seriously overweight.
Former top judge says US risks edging near to dictatorship
Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary.
Gays Needed To Reduce Number Of Children Needing Homes
A new report on adoption concludes that "there is no child-centered reason to prevent gays and lesbians from becoming adoptive parents", and recommends that they be utilized more extensively to provide permanent, loving homes for children living in state care across the country. The report, prepared for the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute - a nonpartisan policy organization that deals in adoption issues - says that "adoption by gays and lesbians holds promise as an avenue for achieving permanency for many of the waiting children in foster care." There are currently about 120,000 available for adoption across the country.
Walgreens sued for ‘inappropriate comments’ in patient database
Three women have filed separate lawsuits against drug store chain Walgreen Co. after unflattering comments about them were allegedly entered by pharmacy workers into prescription records kept in the company’s customer databases (Comments in the records include ‘CrAzY!!’ and ‘She’s really a psycho!!’).
Offshore outsourcing cited in data leak
State employees are being warned that their personal data may have been compromised when a human resources system was improperly subcontracted to a company in India (108,000 current and former state employees may be affected by the data breach).
Enough of the D.C. Dems
Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Oh, for God's Sake! FBI Can't Afford E-mail?
A quarter of local agents have no access to external e-mail. What is this, 1985? This is another example not only of the ineptness of the FBI's senior management in handling both information and IT; it's a major failure to support the agents in the field who are doing the pick-and-shovel work of anti-terrorism and law enforcement work. [Editor: So much for homeland security]
U.N. Creates New Watchdog Over U.S.
A running gag at the United Nations is that whenever the United States takes a defiant stand against an overwhelming majority of the 191 member states, there are only three countries that predictably vote with Washington most of the time -- whether it is right or dead wrong. No country with such a record of torture, secret detentions, 'extraordinary renditions,' rejection of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), denial of due process and generations of capital punishment, even for minors and the mentally disabled -- all as a matter of official policy -- should be allowed to serve on the new Human Rights Council. Israel and the two tiny Pacific Island nations of Palau and the Marshall Islands -- were the only member states to stand in unison with the United States when it rejected a resolution calling for the creation of a new Human Rights Council.
Economists say Michigan is in for lengthy recovery
Five and a half years ago, Michigan's economy was booming and the state had so much money it was cutting taxes while still finding plenty for schools and state programs.
Smoking gun for Big Bang found
Physicists say they have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the Big Bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.
US wants to end gray wolf protection
... Fewer than 1,000 gray wolves remained in the contiguous United States when the ... 3,020 in Minnesota, 425 to 455 in Wisconsin and 405 in Michigan
"Loyalty in character means absolute obedience that does not question the results of the order nor its reasons, but rather obeys for the sake of obedience itself. Such obedience is an expression of heroic character when following the order leads to personal disadvantage or seems even to contradict one's personal convictions." --Rudolf Hess, 25 February 1934, "The Oath to Adolf Hitler"
Right-Wingers Celebrate Increase in Bicycle Accidents
Kleenex = Gross Mismanagement of Forest Resources
Election 2008 : Secret Money Project 
The Tibetion Monks Weren't Violent After All, but the Imposters Were
An End to Oil Price Gouging?
Why do Gas Prices Always End in 9/10 of a Cent?
Becoming a Gentleman 
Wal-Mart Licks Its Wounds