29 July - RSS Snapshot

Opit's LinkFest! on Opera - Feeds from Links Page

IPS - Inter Press Services

• LATIN AMERICA: Don't Miss the Train to Beijing, D ...

  CARACAS, Jul 29 (IPS) - Latin America and the Caribbean should turn their gaze towards the economies of China, India and Russia to diversify exports and strengthen efforts to bring down unemployment and poverty, according to the Latin American Economic System (SELA), based in the Venezuelan capi ...

• Q&A: "Every Work Form You Fill Asks Your Marital ...

  NEW DELHI, Jul 29 (IPS) - When the New Delhi High Court amended Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial-era law which was used to criminalise consensual homosexual relationships, on Jul. 2, it was a "life-changing moment for me," says Lesley Esteves, a journalist and queer activist base ...

• :

  , (IPS) -

• ENVIRONMENT: Monsanto, Dow Stacking the Deck, Cri ...

  BERLIN, Jul 29 (IPS) - The most complex genetically engineered corn (maize) yet has been approved for use next year in Canada and the United States without its potential health and environmental risks being investigated, anti-biotech activists charged Wednesday.

• Q&A: Brazil’s Lesson to the World: Invest i ...

  NOVA RUSSAS, Brazil, Jul 29 (IPS) - Kanayo F. Nwanze chose Brazil for his first official visit as the recently elected president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and was pleased to personally attest to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s commitment to family ...

The Intelligence Daily

• “The New American Drug Lords”

• 6 Ideas For Those Needing Defensive Technology to ...

• The Forgotten Question in the Health Care Debate: ...

• Reality: “Russia and China won’t cope without ...

• MSNBC Implies People Skeptical Of Government Are P ...

My AntiWar

• IRAN: RIDING THE "GREEN WAVE" AT THE CAM ...
• Christopher Pyle, Whistleblower Who Sparked Church ...

  The news of peace activists in Olympia, Washington exposing Army spying, infiltration and intelligence gathering on their groups may strengthen congressional demands for a full-scale investigation of US intelligence activities like those of the 1970s. We speak with law professor and former Army whis ...

• US Revokes Visas for Honduran Coup Officials; Huma ...

  The US has revoked the visas of four officials serving in the Honduran coup government. Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya had asked the Obama administration to revoke the visas in order to increase international pressure on the coup regime.

• Obama Admin Expands Law Enforcement Program 287(g) ...

  The Obama administration has expanded the controversial 287(g) program, which allows local law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, effectively giving local police the powers of federal immigration agents. The agreement ...

• Headlines for July 29, 2009

  At Least 18 Killed in Iraq Violence, Iraqi Forces Raid US-Backed Iranian Exile Group, General: US Control of Iraqi Airspace Likely Beyond 2011, Hundreds Protest Gates in Baghdad, British Forces Exiting Iraq, Colombian Troops to Join US in Afghanistan, 8 Killed in Afghan Bombing, Poll: Most Brits Fav ...

Rogue Government.com

• U.S. Military Spy Was in Washington Antiwar Group ...

• Air Force on the Hunt for Subversive Online Behav ...

  The Air Force’s geek squad wants the technology to monitor government employees’ deviant online behavior. And they want you to build it.

• "Radicalization" of Americans worrying: ...

  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder warned on Wednesday of increased "radicalization" of Americans in recent months, two days after seven people were arrested in North Carolina for allegedly plotting attacks overseas.

• Anti-Obama 'birther movement' gathers steam

  It's because those upstanding Americans who cheered as Barack Obama 's predecessor rode roughshod over the constitution in his war on terror have found a new enthusiasm for a strict adherence to the US's supreme law.

• Senators Push Nationwide Ban On Texting While Dri ...

Innovation Canada

• Filling the glass

  Walkerton, Ont., North Battleford, Sask., and the Kashechewan First Nation Reserve, in Northern Ontario, have all become high-profile — and tragic — examples of what can go wrong when a community’s drinking water becomes contaminated. Surprisingly, they are not alone. At any given time, 1,700 ...

• i2eye with Bartha Maria Knoppers

  “Don’t plan your career — be curious.” That’s the credo that Bartha Maria Knoppers, the new director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Centre, espouses — and one she lives by. Knoppers turned her love of books into a master’s in c ...

• Environmental legacy

  (Article courtesy of University of Regina) University of Regina biologist Chris Somers is fascinated by how humans and wildlife interact and how animals respond to human-modified environments. “My research often combines animal ecology in the field, environmental chemistry and genetics,” explain ...

• Rebooting the search for dark matter

  “This is just a regular day at the office,” says researcher Chris Jillings as a two-kilometre-long cable lowers an elevator down into a maze of sweltering passageways leading to the “clean rooms” at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, or SNOLAB. “But every so often, I realize this is all rea ...

• Seeking the perfect storm

  Mother Nature always has the upper hand — and sometimes the last laugh. John Hanesiak knows this well. When asked about the most memorable weather he’s tracked, the University of Manitoba atmospheric scientist and storm chaser points out that he’s witnessed several tornadoes, but the event t ...

Signs of the times

• Casualties of War, Part I: War crimes of the Iraq ...

  Before the murders started, Anthony Marquez's mom dialed his sergeant at Fort Carson to warn that her son was poised to kill. It was February 2006, and the 21-year-old soldier had not been the same since being wounded and coming home from Iraq eight months before. He had violent outbursts and thras ...

• Reprogramming Human Cells Without Inserting Genes

  Worcester, Mass. - A research team comprised of faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute's (WPI) Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center (LSBC) and investigators at CellThera, a private company also located at the LSBC, has discovered a novel way to turn on stem cell genes in human fibroblasts ...

• Jet-propelled Imaging for an Ultrafast Light Sourc ...

  John Spence, a physicist at Arizona State University, is a longtime user of the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he has contributed to major advances in lensless imaging. It's a particularly apt propensity for someone who works with x-rays, since they can't be fo ...

• Incan Empire Aided by Global Warming

  A 400-year warm spell helped the ancient Inca to build the largest empire ever to exist in the Americas, a new study has established. Beginning around 1100 A.D., the increase in temperature served as a "perfect incubator" for the Inca's expansion, an international team of researchers report in the ...

• Cardiff, Wales and Ibiza, Spain - Large, Bright Or ...

  Posted: July 28, 2009 Location of Sighting: Cardiff, UK and Portinatx, Ibiza Date of Sighting: Cardiff 18th July and 26th June and Ibiza 11th June 2009 Time: Around midnight for all Witness Statement: Ibiza - group of around 15 people sat in bar in hotel over looking the bay, looked out to see hug ...

Threat Level

• Exclusive Peek Inside Defcon’s High-Tech Badge

  LAS VEGAS — Thousands of hackers, script-kiddies, feds and security professionals will be gathering at the Riviera Hotel and Casino this weekend for DefCon, the world’s largest hacker convention and they’ll all have one thing in common: Joe “Kingpin” Grand’s custom-engineered badge. Nor ...

• Vulnerabilities Allow Attacker to Impersonate Any ...

  LAS VEGAS — Two researchers examining the processes for issuing web certificates have uncovered vulnerabilities that would allow an attacker to masquerade as any website. Normally when a user visits a secure website, such as Bank of America, Paypal or eBay, the browser examines the website’s ce ...

• McAfee Warns Spam, Trojans and Botnets Skyrocketin ...

  Zombie penetration set a record for the second straight quarter this year. Spam jumped 80 percent from the previous period, which made it a record 92 percent of all e-mail, according to the McAfee Threats Report released Wednesday. “If the economy could rebound as spam has done in (the) second qu ...

• Noted Security Pros Hacked

  Two noted security professionals were targeted this week by hackers who broke into their web pages, stole personal data and posted it on the web. The two pros, security researcher Dan Kaminsky and former hacker Kevin Mitnick, were targeted because of their high profiles and because the hackers cons ...

• Obama Stimulus Buys $8M in Airport Spy Cameras

  Five domestic airports will share nearly $8 million worth of new surveillance cameras, thanks to the Obama administration’s stimulus package, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, Ronald Reagan Washington National, Spokane International, ...

PERRspectives : Blog

• Obama Fails Marketing 101 on Health Care Reform

  Seven years ago, President Bush's chief of staff Andy Card famously explained the administration's post-Labor Day campaign for war with Iraq, "'From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." As cynical and deceitful as the...

• CBO Slams GOP Claim on Public Option and Employer ...

  To be sure, the preliminary analyses from Congressional Budget Office (CBO) have not always bolstered the Obama administration's case for health care reform. But on one vital issue - the impact of the so-called "public option" on employer-provided health care...

• In Parting, Palin Decries Federal Largesse She Acc ...

  In her fiery parting shot in Fairbanks Sunday, now-ex Governor Sarah Palin resorted to all of her now trademark rhetorical tactics. Bashing the media while using the U.S. military as human shields, she told the television cameras, "How about, in...

• A Look Back at the Sarah Palin Hall of Shame

  As she prepared for her final day in the Alaska governor's office Sunday, Sarah Palin's last week on the job produced more of the same head-scratching that has defined her 10 months on the national stage. Despite her demonstrated ignorance...

• Family Health Insurance Premiums to Reach $22,000 ...

  Whatever you think of the merits of President Obama's claim that the current American health care system is "unsustainable," the assertion is indisputable when it comes to the trajectory of insurance premiums. In a new analysis, the Center for American...

Blackspot News Feed

• The Real Twitpocalypse: Asteroid Alerts Come to Tw ...

  Twitter will now let you know when the sky is really falling: Alerts about asteroids cruising near Earth have come to Twitter. @AsteroidWatch will let you know any time a space rock gets within a few lunar distances. Much more asteroid info will be distributed via a new NASA/JPL website. (Though if ...

• Liquid Wood Is Plastic of Tomorrow

  Norbert Eisenreich, a senior researcher and deputy of directors at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) in Pfinztal, Germany, said his team of scientists have come up with a substance that could replace plastic: Arboform — basically, liquid wood. It is derived from wood pulp-base ...

• THE ACT-I-VATE PRIMER

  16 original stories by the premier webcomix collective, ACT-I-VATE, with a foreword by me, coming this October from IDW Publishing.

• Obama Details Health Care Plan

  President Barack Obama pitched his health care plan at a town hall meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday. (Photo: Stephen Crowley / The New York Times) read more

• Military Commissions Debate Rages On in Senate

  Hearing reveals weaknesses on both sides of argument. Last week, President Obama's detention policy task force issued its preliminary recommendations on the prosecution of Guantanamo detainees. read more

Consortium News

• Obama Faces Carter/Clinton Parallels

  After six months in office, Barack Obama confronts dangers that damaged two previous Democratic presidents, writes Robert Parry. July 29, 2009

• The Left's Media Miscalculation

  From the Archive: A lookback at that how the American Left squandered its media advantage and aided the Right's ascendancy. By Robert Parry

• Wall St. Rally Masks Deeper Problems

  Stocks are up, but so too are pressures on workers in higher-wage countries, reports TheRealNews. July 28, 2009

• Sudan's Lesson for Iraq, Mideast

  Outside mediators helped warring factions in Sudan settle a land dispute in a possible model for other conflicts, writes Ivan Eland. July 28, 2009

• Obama, the Great Wealth Creator?

  With stocks down in March, Barack Obama was a "great wealth destroyer," so what now with stocks rising, asks Robert Parry. July 27, 2009

CounterPunch

• Ishmael Reed : Gates: Post-Race Scholar Yells Raci ...
• Patrick Cockburn : Elections Shake Kurdistan
• Roger Burbach : Hillary and Obama Nix Change in Ho ...
• Steve Breyman : Bomber Joe and Russia: Why is Bide ...
• Carl Ginsburg : Our Crisis, Their Gain

Institute for Middle East Understanding

• Israeli court awards injured Bil'in protester dama ...

  Israeli lawyer and peace activist Limor Goldstein was shot in the head with a rubber bullet at an anti-wall protest in the West Bank in 2006 and awarded 860,000 US dollars in damages by an Israeli court Tues ...

• For first time in eight months, Israel allows ceme ...

  Israel has authorised a one-off shipment of hundreds of tonnes of cement and building materials to the heavily embargoed Gaza Strip. It is the first official transfer of such goods since Israel's operation e ...

• When will Americans come to the aid of Palestine? ...

  Unless President Barack Obama resolves to expunge 'special' from the U.S.-Israeli 'special relationship,' this entangled alliance will continue to ensure that the U.S. is portrayed as guilty by its associati ...

• Far-rightists urge Israeli Army draftees to cover ...

  Far-right activists distributed fliers to fresh draftees at the Israel Defense Forces induction center in Tel Hashomer on Tuesday urging them not to confide in their commanders and to refrain from cooperatin ...

• In Israel, no settlement deal for US envoy – jus ...

  US Mideast envoy George Mitchell wrapped up three days of talks here on Tuesday, heralding "good progress" in his meetings with Israeli officials. But he made no mention of a much anticipated agreement on th ...

Planetsave

• Invasive Species, Habitat Loss Threaten to Extingu ...

  It is estimated that man has been in Oceania for up to 125,000 years. The land was there before man. And for a long time a balance has been found between man and nature. Perhaps that balance was achieved because man and nature were not separate entities, but one and the same. However, in the recent ...

• Timberland Leather Won’t Come from Amazonian Cat ...

  Timberland has announced a new policy agreement with Greenpeace to ensure that leather used in new boots and shoes won’t contribute to deforestation in the Amazon. The policy will issue a moratorium on purchasing any cattle raised in newly deforested areas within the Amazon Rainforest, and it wil ...

• Global Warming Means Shorter Lives for Cold-Bloode ...

  Cold-blooded animals have a lifespan which is exponentially related to the temperature of their environment, a new study finds . That means that as temperatures increase due to global warming, cold-blooded animals around the world will begin dying younger. Given that the vast majority of animals on ...

• Crippled Baby Elephant Chhouk: Now Walking and Run ...

  Several years ago, orphaned baby Chhouk was found wandering alone in the forest without a foot. The endangered Asian baby elephant apparently lost his left front foot due to injuries sustained from a poacher’s snare. Rescued in a remote area of northeastern Cambodia, the injured elephant was t ...

• Human Pollution Causes Cancer in Wildlife

  Cancer in wildlife caused by human pollution is on the rise, according ot Newsweek . Our impact on the environment is leading to health problems in wild animals, especially considering much of our trash contains carcinogens. A report titled “Wildlife Cancer: a Conservation Perspective” p ...

Water Quality - WordPress

• July Minutes

  Minutes for the Humboldt Chapter Meeting at Plaza Grill on 7/7/09 at 7pm No. of people in attendance

• battling Olin

  despite this obscurely placed warning, people still fish & consume, and birds can't read the

• Government: EPA announces more than $121 million i ...

  EPA announces more than $121 million in Recovery Act Funds for water infrastructure projects in Indi

• Clean Water Should Be Recognized as a Human Right, ...

  The editors of the open acccess journal PLoS Medicine have added their voice to those who are deman

• living here and now...

  I can’t help wonder why decision making is sometimes so difficult. Are we afraid of ‘no

Public Citizen in Texas

• Good Day, (for Texas) Sunshine [Flickr]

  Public Citizen Texas posted a photo: This morning marks a good day for Texas sunshine! Public Citizen Texas gives you the early morning scoop -- late last night the Texas Senate passed through HB 1423, a net metering bill to provide owners of solar installations with fair buy-back rates for the ex ...

• Jon Stewart gets ACES Right!

  If you missed Tuesday night’s episode of The Daily Show, you did not get to see John Stewart and guest Steven Chu (Obama’s Nobel Prize winning Secretary of Energy) discuss the Waxman-Markey climate bill and America’s energy future. For those who missed it here are some highlights: Jon S ...

• Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Roundup

  Time again for the Texas Progressive Alliance weekly blog roundup. Off the Kuff takes closer look at that story about Texas turnout in last year’s election. WCNews at Eye On Williamson adds some context to what’s being said in Texas about Unemployment insurance, the stimulus, and Gov. Perry. Th ...

• Energia Mia: San Antonio coalition tries to stop ...

  Don’t Nuke The Alamo! As we all know, San Antonio’s CPS energy is on the verge of investing in a third and fourth reactor for the South Texas Nuclear project in Bay City. In addition to the environmental and social concerns we have about nuclear power at Public Citizen, we also want to m ...

• Dispelling Green Choice Myths

  Since the Austin American Statesman published a couple of articles on the less-than-stellar sales of Austin Energy’s Green Choice program, many media outlets have picked up the story and the takeaway message is something like “liberal Austin finds out the hard way that renewable energy is too ex ...

Press TV

• US casts doubt on Swat operation's achievements

  A top US official has expressed doubt about whether Pakistan's military offensive against militants in the swat Valley has killed insurgents or scattered them.

• Iranian MP: MKO might move to Pakistan

  An Iranian lawmaker says following the Iraqi crackdown on the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), its remaining members could be moved to Pakistan.

• Spain blames ETA for police station bombing

  The Spanish government has blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for a powerful car-bomb explosion outside a police barracks in northern Spain.

• South African workers' strikes enter 4th day

  Thousands of South African workers are expected to continue striking for a fourth day on Thursday after failing to resolve a wage dispute with employers.

• Israel lets meager cement into ruined Gaza

  Israel says it will allow a one-time transfer of cement into the Gaza Strip for the first time since it left many homes in ruins during the 22-day onslaught against the territory.

Axis of Logic

• An Ode to Orwell

• Germany is dragged into the war in Afghanistan Aga ...

• No jobs on the moon

• Six months of the Obama administration

• This Light

They Gave Us a Republic

• Public Option Still Alive in the House - Keep Up t ...

  So, the indefatigable Henry Waxman managed a health care reform compromise that retains the public option, but delays the actual vote until September. Which means, boys and girls, that it's our turn. Get to work now, and don't stop until both the House and Senate pass real health care reform with a ...

• The New Southern Strategy

  I've never been fond of the "If you are/aren't blank , then you have to be blank " formulation. As in, if you're not for the war in Iraq, then you hate the troops. Probably because even though I was raised in a liberal, reality-based home, my grandparents were the extinct variety of republicans wh ...

• Send this kid home already

  Over the weekend we had an item in the Newswrap about an Afghan child who was picked up at the age of 12 and has been held at Guantanamo Bay ever since. The 'confession' that had been the basis for holding him was thrown out of court by Federal Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle on July 16, when she ruled ...

• Shocking

  Digby remind us that while the outrage of repug-undermined health care reform has everyone's attention, other outrages are flying under the radar. They whooped and hollered when they heard about it. Taser International unveiled its first new stun gun since 2003 on Monday, a device that can shock thr ...

• How Bipartisanship is Killing Health Care Reform, ...

  As Blue Girl often says, if you can't use profanity to describe an obscenity, when can you use it? The great Rude Pundit once again harnesses his genius for sexual metaphor to explain the obscenity that is Congressional Democrats' idea of bipartisanship. It is the usual way for Democrats, thinking t ...

Care 2

• BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Sharif tiger spark ...

  . Submitted by Mick Cave to Offbeat | Note-it! | Add a Comment

• 2-year-old Brooklyn boy watches father get gunned ...

  2-year-old boy was splattered with his father's blood, but survived unharmed after the dad was killed in a spray of bullets in Brooklyn Submitted by Terry West to Society & Culture | Note-it! | Add a Comment

• Lightning Strike Kills Lawyer on N.C. Beach

  Department of Justice lawyer from Prince William County was fatally struck by lightning Monday while jogging on the beach on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, authorities said Submitted by Terry West to Society & Culture | Note-it! | Add a Comment

• Truth Testing: the Body Compass

  Have you ever used a pendulum to get answers to questions? What about using your body?Amy Scott Grant explains another Truth Testing method: how to use your body as a compass to receive yes or no answers to any question. Submitted by Gregory S. to Offbeat | Note-it! | Add a Comment

• 10 Best Places You Dont Want To Miss Diving In

  If you are crazy about swimming, diving and water boarding you should be aware of the ten best places you don’t want to miss carrying that out. If it important for you to know about these ten best places so you can gather as much information.... Submitted by Kiki S. to Offbeat | Note-it! | A ...

GreenBiz

• Green Wineries Embrace Innovation from the Fields ...

  Solar-powered vineyards, biodynamic farming, organically grown grapes and innovative packaging put several California wineries on the leading edge of sustainable wine production. Their remarkable results offer valuable lessons for green leaders in any industry.

• Coca-Cola Enterprises Emissions Reductions, Recycl ...

  The bottling, marketing and distribution arm of the beverage giant has set a goal to reduce CO2 emissions by 15 percent before 2020, as well as to recover 100 percent of its bottles for recycling.

• Report Urges Efficiency as a Solution to Californi ...

  A new study by the Pacific Institute shows ways that California farmers can cut their water use by as much as 17 percent without cutting the productivity of the nation's most productive agricultural region.

• Sustaining California Agriculture in an Uncertain ...

  This report from the Pacific Institute details the ways that California farmers can implement water efficiency practices to reduce water use by 17 percent while maintaining current levels of productivity.

• Cash for Killing Your Lawn: Cities Get Creative on ...

  In Las Vegas, the biggest desert city in the U.S., and still one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation, the local water utility is offering cash incentives to replace water-sucking lawns with drought-resistant landscapes.

Reuters Global

• Austria’s Graf gets grief over “united ...

  A call by a far-right populist for a referendum over whether a mainly German-speaking region of Italy should rejoin Austria has challenged the taboo of old unconstructed nationalism in a country determined to live down its Nazi past.

• UPDATE-De facto Honduran leader asks God to enligh ...

  TEGUCIGALPA - Honduras' de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, made a live appearance on state television to lead the people in prayer, asking God to enlighten those who do not agree with him.

• How do you solve a political crisis? Hondurans try ...

  TEGUCIGALPA - A month after a coup that has plunged Honduras into its worst political crisis in decades, the country's de facto rulers declared Tuesday an official Day of Prayer for peace.

• U.S. border agents under fire as Mexican smugglers ...

  U.S. Border Patrol agent Robert Rosas was killed by Mexican smugglers in California on July 23. As efforts to disarm Mexican gangs struggle, attacks on U.S. border agents are rising.

• Northern Nigeria erupts again

  So far the exact toll from the latest bout of religious rioting in northern Nigeria is not clear. At least 150 have died and the toll may well go higher. The killings are bad enough, but the north has experienced much worse within living memory. One of the bloodiest outbreaks of religious rioting o ...

Ezra Klein

• Blue Dogs and House Democrats Reach a Deal; Senate ...

  Yesterday, the Blue Dog negotiators were held in the seven-hour meeting with House leadership and Rahm Emmanuel. It was not, I'm told, a pretty meeting. But it produced a deal . The substantive changes the Blue Dogs made to the bill are minimal. The original legislation let the public plan use Medi ...

• On Co-Ops

  As an addendum to the last post, since Jane Hamsher and Firedog Lake accused me of being part of the " Co-Op Squeeze Play ," I should probably say a word on the proposal. I'm not an opponent of the co-op idea. So far as alternatives to insurance go, the more the merrier. But as a midpoint between a ...

• The Most Important Part of Health-Care Reform

  Firedog Lake helpfully reminds me to double down on yesterday's post: The public option isn't the most important part of health-care reform. It's not the most important part for covering people, and it's not the most important part for reforming the system. And you know the weirdest part? The public ...

• Lunch Break

  This is a wonderfully trippy new video from the Octopus Project:

• How to Think About the CBO

  I want to link to some of the criticisms of the Congressional Budget Office that are flying around today, but I want to link to them with a disclaimer: These are not criticisms of the Congressional Budget Office. These are criticisms of how the Congressional Budget Office's work is being used by pol ...

Booman Tribune

• This is a Victory?

  What I don't understand is why I'm supposed to think this is a good thing. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) said she believes the Blue Dogs have scored a major victory by getting leaders to back away from their goal of having the House vote on a healthcare bill before members return home ...

• Open Thread

  Why does it feel like Friday already?

• If Honest Abe Were Alive Today

  The Civil War ended seven score and four years ago. But if you took a look a the makeup of the Senate Judiciary Committee, you might have a hard time believing it didn’t end more recently. Why? Well, if Abraham Lincoln woke up yesterday morning and watched that committee deliberating the confirm ...

• Beck: Obama Hates White People

  Well, we now know who are the racists in this country. It's not white men. They never commit any racist acts. No, the racists in America are Latina women who have the nerve to think they might make better judges than white men like KKK loving Senator Jeff Sessions and, according to Glenn Beck, our ...

• CNN President Stands With Lou Dobbs

  It's not Headline News that Lou Dobbs has a credibility problem as a journalist. He's long used his show on CNN as a platform to advance conspiracy theories. This particular gem is just one example: “The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans,” Mr. Dobbs said ...

European Tribune

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 30 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1898 – Birth of...

• Wednesday Open Thread

  Mmmmmmmmmm...

• HRE bailout: you pay!

  The global financial crisis claimed its first major victim in the EU with the collapse...

• Rubbish at equality? Publish it.

  The UK's new Equality Bill currently making its way through Parliament is likely to require...

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 29 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1805 – Birth of...

Futurismic

• Light in a bottle

  Scientists have developed a technique for confining light within a bottle: Similar to the motion of a charged particle stored in a magnetic bottle, i.e., a particular spatially varying magnetic field, the light oscillates back and forth along the fiber between two turning points. For this reason, th ...

• The Big World of Nanotechnology

  What technology is invisible to the naked eye and yet both changing and mimicking the world all around us? The idea of hidden change is what started me down this month’s path of nanotechnology. The topic has interested me since it was one of Bill Joy’s scary science triumvirates in his fa ...

• What are the rules of a cyberwar?

  Despite its age (and its semantic inaccuracy), the term “cyberwar” is cropping up a great deal in mainstream media of late, and promises to do so with increasing frequency as the world’s infrastructure becomes more tightly interwoven with the internet. The web is the ideal platform for modern ...

• Get up to speed on high-frequency trading

  Remember that story we ran a few weeks back about the alleged theft of the Goldman-Sachs automated trading code? Well, thanks to said case, Goldman-Sachs and the high-frequency automatic trading (HFT) practices that they dominate are increasingly sliding into the spotlight of Congressional scrutiny, ...

• Get up to speed on high-frequency trading

  Remember that story we ran a few weeks back about the alleged theft of the Goldman-Sachs automated trading code? Well, thanks to said case, Goldman-Sachs and the high-frequency automatic trading (HFT) practices that they dominate are increasingly sliding into the spotlight of Congressional scrutiny, ...

Yahoo! Canada News

• YahooCanadaNews: New Brunswick newspaper apologize ...

  YahooCanadaNews: New Brunswick newspaper apologizes to prime minister for communion story http://tr.im/utsY

• YahooCanadaNews: Life sentence for teen convicted ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Life sentence for teen convicted in Rengel murder http://tr.im/urX1

• YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Pakistan ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Pakistan rescues boys 'brainwashed' to be suicide bombers http://tr.im/urlG

• YahooCanadaNews: MK here for Y! CA News. The civic ...

  YahooCanadaNews: MK here for Y! CA News. The civic strike in Toronto may be over as workers and the city reach a "basis for a deal." http://bit.ly/FCQup

• YahooCanadaNews: @thankasoldier And thank you for ...

  YahooCanadaNews: @thankasoldier And thank you for following Yahoo! Canada News

Global Elite

• President European Commission Advocated World Gove ...

  Jurriaan Maessen. Infowars. July 24th, 2009 On September 7, 1992, two term President of the European Commission Jacques Delors gave a speech to the Royal Institute of International Affa ...

• Billions of People Expected to Die Under Current C ...

  Barbara Minton, Natural News, July 21st, 2009 Your right to eat healthy food and use supplements of your choice is rapidly vanishing, but every effort has been made to keep you in the d ...

• Bioweapons, Dangerous Vaccines, and Threats of a G ...

  Stephen Lendman, Global Research, July 7th, 2009 Although international law prohibits the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons, America has had an active biological warfare progr ...

• Today we’re all prisoners in the USA

  Papers, Please! June 2, 2009 As of today, June 1, 2009, even U.S. citizens are officially prisoners in the USA, or exiles barred from entering our own country without the government’s ...

• Biopiracy, GM Seeds and Rural India "Over 100,000 ...

  Priya Kumar, Global Research, June 2, 2009 The reality for the average Indian remains the same: agricultural cultivation and the ability to farm is the bedrock of rural living. With its historical practices, values, and communal sentiments of ...

Al Jazeera

• South Korea boat seized by North

  Pyongyang says will "check the situation" after Seoul urges it to release fishing vessel.

• Thousands flee Nigeria violence

  Hundreds believed dead as troops continue hunt for fighters seeking sharia across country.

• US mulls freeing Guantanamo inmate

  Government preparing to release one of jail's youngest inmates within three weeks.

• Microsoft reaches deal with Yahoo

  Software firm's partnership with online company marks attempt to challenge Google.

• US threatens Eritrea with sanctions

  Washington says Eritrea is running out of time to end support for Somali opposition fighters.

Green Inc. - NYT

• Success Stories in Energy Efficiency

  A McKinsey report cites several programs and policies that have been effective at saving energy and could serve as models for the nation. These include efficiency policies in California and Vermont, as well as tough federal energy-saving mandates for appliances.

• McKinsey Report Cites $1.2 Trillion in Potential S ...

  A new report on energy efficiency from the consulting firm McKinsey found that the United States could save $1.2 trillion dollars by 2020, by investing $520 billion in improvements such as sealing building ducts and more efficient refrigerators.

• Financing Model for Home Renewables Spreads

  A method of financing solar panels or energy efficiency improvements through higher property taxes is now available in nine states.

• A Plan to Cut Carbon Emissions From Deforestation

  (Credit:Matthew Stangoni) An agricultural field in Western Kenya. As policymakers prepare for the Copenhagen conference on climate change in December, the proposed program for reducing emissions from deforestation is considered among the more promising ways to reduce atmospheric carbon. The program ...

• China, United States Pledge Climate Teamwork

  China and the United States close in on climate cooperation.

Dot Earth News

• Meet the Barefaced Bulbul

  A "bald" songbird discovered in Laos.

• Views on an Opening Arctic Ocean

  Will an open-water Arctic pull shipping away from the Panama Canal?

• U.N. Chief Poleward Bound

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon plans to head toward North Pole to make case for action on climate.

• China and U.S. Pledge Climate Teamwork

  China and the United States close in on climate cooperation.

• Era of Trans-Arctic Shipping Nigh

  A German ship is poised to make the first commercial passage from Asia to western Europe via the Arctic.

Doug Feith : Hong Pong

• Hat tip for Joaquin Phoenix conspiracy

  Not a bad idea! Which makes this potentially one of the greatest performances any modern actor has ever given -- or at least one of the most baldly courageous. The closest comparison would have to be Andy Kaufman's utter commitment to his obnoxious Tony Clifton persona, but Phoenix is going Kaufman ...

• Tough times south of the border

  Duly noted: Mexican TV reporter ducking stray bullets: Hat tip to the thoughtful Texas farmer Don , who knows what you ought to know about the War On Drugs. This video was recently the #1 most discussed from Mexico on YooToob... Plus, don't miss the five stages of complete social collapse! http://c ...

• Pirate Bay Trial and Kopimi: The Kopimi Manifesto

  I can't say I get it. But I like it. In these apocalyptic and bitchy times, it is high time to get some sarcastic Swedish hacker philsophy out there. Now is the time. The spectrial is apparently the place. How could we forget the Pirate Bay Spectrial?! They released a Pirate Bay Manifesto - POwr, Br ...

• Some notes from the Abyss; Fusion Centers going to ...

  We're on the brink of disaster | Salon! As people lose confidence in the ability of markets and governments to solve the global crisis, they are likely to erupt into violent protests or to assault others they deem responsible for their plight, including government officials, plant managers, landl ...

• From ADD to Virtual Eschatonism: Twitter and rando ...

  First up! Fargo flood. 'We will beat this challenge,' flood battle continues as officials plead for help | INFORUM | Fargo, ND Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service: Eastern North Dakota/Grand Forks: Red River of the North at Fargo One of my stronger memories from back in school was cleaning up in ...

AlterNet Top Stories

• It's Not Hard to Be a Job-Slashing, Pension-Grabbi ...

  CEOs in America pull in the big bucks because there's a shortage of people willing to destroy the lives of many other human beings.

• The Joy of Sex Toys: How Vibrators Stopped Being ' ...

  Once considered shameful, the vibrator has become a common part of most people's sex lives. Turns out we like sexual pleasure.

• Rachel Maddow Mystified By Lou Dobbs' Odd Teabag A ...

  Dobbs called Maddow a "teabagging queen". What does that mean? And has Dobbs completely lost it?

• The Heart Attack Grill: Where You Can Eat Free If ...

  A restaurant has launched an anti-health rebellion, serving Quadruple Bypass Burgers (8,000 calories) and Flatliner Fries cooked in pure lard.

• Will Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Continue to Defy Sel ...

  The historic company was founded by "the godfather of today's green brands." Will his grandsons keep the vision alive?

Threat Level

• Exclusive Peek Inside Defcon’s High-Tech Badge

  LAS VEGAS — Thousands of hackers, script-kiddies, feds and security professionals will be gathering at the Riviera Hotel and Casino this weekend for DefCon, the world’s largest hacker convention and they’ll all have one thing in common: Joe “Kingpin” Grand’s custom-engineered badge. Nor ...

• Vulnerabilities Allow Attacker to Impersonate Any ...

  LAS VEGAS — Two researchers examining the processes for issuing web certificates have uncovered vulnerabilities that would allow an attacker to masquerade as any website. Normally when a user visits a secure website, such as Bank of America, Paypal or eBay, the browser examines the website’s ce ...

• McAfee Warns Spam, Trojans and Botnets Skyrocketin ...

  Zombie penetration set a record for the second straight quarter this year. Spam jumped 80 percent from the previous period, which made it a record 92 percent of all e-mail, according to the McAfee Threats Report released Wednesday. “If the economy could rebound as spam has done in (the) second qu ...

• Noted Security Pros Hacked

  Two noted security professionals were targeted this week by hackers who broke into their web pages, stole personal data and posted it on the web. The two pros, security researcher Dan Kaminsky and former hacker Kevin Mitnick, were targeted because of their high profiles and because the hackers cons ...

• Obama Stimulus Buys $8M in Airport Spy Cameras

  Five domestic airports will share nearly $8 million worth of new surveillance cameras, thanks to the Obama administration’s stimulus package, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, Ronald Reagan Washington National, Spokane International, ...

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

• House Democrats reach deal on healthcare bill

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have reached a deal with a group of fiscal conservatives in their own party on how to move forward with healthcare legislation, a leading lawmaker said on Tuesday.

• Organic food is no healthier, study finds

  LONDON (Reuters) - Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday.

• Canadians cry foul over U.S. healthcare attacks

  VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canadian physician Robert Ouellet is tired of hearing Canada's healthcare system cast as the boogeyman in the vitriolic U.S. political debate over healthcare reform.

• US experts set rules for swine flu vaccines

  * Pregnant women, health workers likely get first shots

• Key Republican says on "edge" of US healthcare dea ...

  WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic senators negotiating financial details of healthcare reform have made great progress and are on the verge of a deal, a key Republican senator said on Wednesday.

Godspace

• Making Space for the Rabbi

  Today is likely to be a busy day on my blog – not because of those who read it but primarily because I am going away for a couple of days tomorrow and there is so much that I want to post before that – including book reviews, thoughts on Jimmy Carter’s statement about leaving [...]

• Jimmy Carter – Losing My Faith For Equality

  Jimmy Carter, president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 has just left the Southern Baptist Convention because of their discrimination against women. I have always admired him for his involvement in peacemaking and concern for the poor. This stand has increased my estimation of him 10 fold ...

• Grief as a Spiritual Practice

  This mornings post for the What is a Spiritual Practice Series is by Bowie Snodgrass program director at Faith House Manhattan Grief as a Spiritual Practice I was spiritually touched by the televised farewell to Michael Jackson. I think it was good for the country to have a collective day of grief ...

• Engagement as Spiritual Practice

  This morning’s post is by Thomas Turner from Everyday Liturgy.  It was first posted on the Everyday Liturgy blog While on vacation I saw on my brother’s bookshelf a book by Gene Edward Veith entitled Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture. Intrigued, I ...

• What Is A Spiritual Practice – More Great Po ...

  I hope that you have been following the blog posts in my blog series What is a Spiritual Practice. There are a number of excellent articles that have been posted in the last couple of weeks and the submissions keep coming in. We still have the promise of topics as varied as parenting, yoga, civil ...

Blacklisted News

• We’ve only just begun.

  Banks, Insurance companies, Automakers, and The U.S. Post Office have benefited from your future tax extortion. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports, “The war is costing $720 million a day or $500,000 a minute”. Combine these debacles with the 7 million lost jobs since the “recession ...

• Carbon Trading Giants and Big Energy Are Both Tryi ...

  If we just let them make out like bandits off of carbon trading , then everything will be fine. Not only is this an awfully convenient for the banksters who conned us into an economic crash, but many environmentalists don't even buy that carbon trading is the best way to reduce carbon emissions.

• Data Detailing New York Stock Exchange Network Exp ...

  Sensitive information about the technical infrastructure of the New York Stock Exchange’s computer network was left unsecured on a public server for possibly more than a year, Threat Level has learned.

• Cambodian government accused of creating 'Aids col ...

  Aids campaigners and human rights groups today accused the Cambodian government of herding HIV-affected families into an "Aids colony" outside the capital, Phnom Penh.

• Commando Subs Sending Drones, Robo-Torpedos Into C ...

  The U.S. Navy’s four Special Forces-optimized submarines are using a wide range of robots in combat in coastal areas, the Navy’s top officer for irregular warfare said in a surprisingly candid interview.

Project Censored

• WALTER CRONKITE: THE END OF AN ERA – JULY 17, 20 ...

  WALTER CRONKITE: THE END OF AN ERA – JULY 17, 2009 The end of an era is a term too often over-used. But it is a term that is properly used when discussing the passing of Walter Cronkite. It is truly the end of an era in journalism. No other journalist could do what Walter did. He could cal ...

• You Can Now Find Our Investigative Research at the ...

  You can now find all of the investigative research that we have done over the years at our new and exciting Media Freedom International Website Please check the website often for news and updates.

• Analysis of Project Censored: Are We a Left-Leanin ...

  By Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” –Frederick Douglass ...

• Infotainment Society: Junk Food News and New ...

  By Mickey Huff and Frances A. Capell We can do the innuendo We can dance and sing When it’s said and done We haven’t told you a thing We all know that crap is king Give us dirty laundry! Don Henley, Dirty Laundry, 1982 The late New York University media scholar Neil Postma ...

• A Black President Doesn’t Mean Racism is gone in ...

  By Peter Phillips Racial inequality remains in the US. People of color continue to experience high rates of poverty, significant unemployment, police profiling and repressive incarceration. School segregation is a continuing concern among race scholars as well. According to a new Civil Rights re ...

Scoop - NZ

• ALLIANCE: Paula Bennett must resign

  The Alliance Party says the Minister of Social Development Paula Bennett should resign after releasing private details of income of two solo mothers who had criticized cuts to training allowances.Alliance Party co-leader Kay Murray says the situation is an example of the arrogance of power - and it ...

• Rosa Luxemburg DNA identification proceeds

  In May, doctors in Berlin discovered a headless corpse that they believe might belong to left-wing icon Rosa Luxemburg. A long-lost relative has now been found in Israel whose DNA might help solve the mystery.One of Germany's most puzzling historical mysteries may soon be solved. Earlier this year, ...

• Seattle bank in trouble again ..

  Don't look now, but another big Seattle-based bank is struggling under the weight of distressed mortgage-backed securities, declining loan business and the deflated housing market.This time it's not a consumer-oriented bank such as Washington Mutual, which collapsed last year, but the Federal Home L ...

• Alliance: Power companies hit the jackpot

  The Alliance Party says that electricity price hikes are continuing to surge above the rate of inflation, siphoning money out of consumers pockets as winter grips the country.Alliance Party energy spokesperson Ian Tinkler says that while overall inflation rose 0.6% for the June 2009 quarter, electri ...

• Volvo sees truck orders tumble

  World number two truckmaker Volvo on Tuesday posted a deeper-than-expected second-quarter operating loss and stood by its forecast of sharp declines in its main markets this year.The Swedish company skidded to an April-June operating loss of SKr6.9bn ($886m), versus a forecast for SKr4.7bn. Volvo ma ...

Independent ( London )

• Conservative Democrats lift Obama's healthcare hop ...

  Prospects of an agreement in the US Congress on a sweeping overhaul of America's bloated healthcare system brightened a little yesterday after a group of conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives announced they had accepted a compromise bill allowing it to move forward.

• Solzhenitsyn's widow takes Putin to task

  Vladimir Putin received a rare public rebuff from the widow of Alexander Solzhenitsyn for using the term "propaganda" in discussing the author's account of Soviet Gulag life, The Gulag Archipelago.

• Iranian election protesters face trial this week

  About 20 Iranians detained during protests over the disputed presidential election will face trial this weekend, on charges including bombings, carrying weapons and attacking security forces.

• Historical general election looms in the east

  As an historical general election looms on 31 August, Japan's long-suffering electorate face a clear choice: vote for the conservative party that has virtually monopolised power since 1955, or opt for its more liberal but untested rival which promises reform.

• Bloomberg's solution to the homeless problem: a on ...

  New York is experimenting with a bold new way to control the newly expanding homeless rolls. While some might call it a variation of the old, discredited, "on yer bike" approach to dealing with folk on welfare, such a description would not be quite accurate. Better call it "on yer airplane", destin ...

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

• Iraqi forces raid Iran exile camp

  Summary: Iraqi forces have raided a camp north of Baghdad which for years has housed an exiled Iranian opposition group. source: BBC read more

• Middle East Show of Farce

  Summary: Bush/Cheney foreign policy turned the Middle East into an analog of Cold War Europe, and incredibly, they managed to cast pismire Iran as the second coming of the Soviet Union. That the Obama administration is conducting the same clownish statecraft is a sure sign that the American Empi ...

• Gates Threatens ‘Tough Sanctions’ Against Iran

  Summary: Gates Following meetings with top Israeli officials, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the US would seek tough new sanctions against the Iranian government if it rejected the US offer for talks. Gates vowed that such measures would not be incremental. source: Anti War.Com read mo ...

• Iran insists it has no plans to build nuclear arms

  Summary: TEHRAN — Iran reiterated on Monday it has no plans to build nuclear weapons, after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Tehran that any pursuit of atomic arms was futile. source: AFP read more

• Iran rejects Clinton's nuclear defense umbrella

  Summary: Dimona nuclear plant Foreign ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi told reporters Monday that "there is no need" for a U.S. defensive umbrella, just for Washington to tell Israel to "dismantle its own 200 nuclear warheads." source: AP read more

The Daily Galaxy

• Hot Comments: Is Hyper-Evolution Possible?

  The thing that gets me about random mutation is that these changes don't seem random to me. It would take many years of trial and error to get these results. Something about evolution always seemed guided to me, and I'm...

• Realworld "Angels & Demons": Surges of Antimatter ...

  Scientists have seen surges in antimatter particles sweeping through space, and some believe the cause could be collapsing cosmic strings. As opposed to Ming the Merciless. Note that cosmic strings are entirely different strings from string theory - blame any...

• Could Atmosphere of Venus Harbor Life? Experts Say ...

  Scientists suspect that Venus's atmosphere might hide extraterrestrial lifeforms, and in the ultimate safari ever, they want to go there and capture them with a flying balloon. Interplanetary travel, extraterrestrial life, and Venusian airships - anyone doing anything other than...

• New Species Discovered in Midst of 6th Mass Extinc ...

  Since the last summary of the world’s mammals was published in 2005, giving Linnaean tags to roughly 5,400 mammalian species then known, some 400 or so new species have been discovered. Humanity doesn’t need a moon-base or a manned trip...

• StumbleUpon Users -Unleash the Power!

  Hey, we know you Stumblers never sleep, so if you have a free moment we would greatly appreciate your reviews of Daily Galaxy posts on science, space, technology and the environment. Our daily Most Popular Posts is a great source...

Natural News

• Boku Super Food Giveaway Aims to Put Potent Nutrit ...

  (NaturalNews) This has been in the works for a long time, and you'll love this news: Boku Superfood, makers of my top-recommended superfood powder product, has announced an exclusive Boku Super Food giveaway that gets you a 10-day supply of this remarkable superfood at (virtually) no cost. It's excl ...

• It is Official: WHO Recommends Mandatory Injectio ...

  (NaturalNews) Executives from Baxter, Novartis, Glaxo-Smith Kline, and Sanofi Pasteur have seats at the advisory group that on July 13th recommended mandatory H1N1 vaccination of everyone in all 194 countries that belong to the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a report just issued by jo ...

• Gardasil Causes 400 Percent More Deaths than Other ...

  (NaturalNews) A federal report has concluded that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil has a 400 percent higher rate of adverse effects than another comparable vaccine, the Menactra anti-meningitis shot. "It is unusual for there to be such a big discrepancy between two vaccines used in si ...

• Ten Things You're Not Supposed to Know about the S ...

  (NaturalNews) She was deathly afraid of the flu. So she asked her doc what she should do. He jabbed her unseen With a swine flu vaccine Blurting, "Darling, I haven't a clue." - by the Health Ranger Let's not beat around the bush on this issue: The swine flu vaccines now being prepared for mass injec ...

• Breast Cancer Discovery: Vitamin A Derivative Norm ...

  (NaturalNews) What if a substance was found that normalizes out-of-control cell growth? The result could be a way to treat and prevent cancer. And a new study offers hope that discovery may have already been made. Scientists from the University of Chicago have just published groundbreaking research ...

Webhosts

• Paged Media

TheGallopingBeaver

• The lips are different

  Dr. Dawg asks, "who is Lawrence Cannon?" , wondering if 'Mr. Cannon' is really a Canadian and not some sort of imposter. The question has bugged me since I read it. I keep thinking that I've seen that face somewhere before. Only I think the lips the lips and hair are a little different. ...

• Tired old thieves

  A difference (there are many), dear Conrad, between "tired lefties" and common thieves is that one group tends to end up in prison (or worse) for their political thinking, and the other for taking that to which they are not entitled. Further, the prison writing by old leftists tends to be anythin ...

• Wrong Answer!

  Seems the pony soldiers and their current federal bosses have a bit of a problem with Braidwood's recommendations. Surprise, surprise. Comments mine. RCMP spokesman Sgt. Tim Shields said it's too early to say whether the RCMP will comply with the Heed's directive to adopt Braidwood's recommendatio ...

• Intuition and survival

  THE NEW YORK TIMES has a very interesting article by Benedict Carey, " In Battle, Hunches Prove to Be Valuable ". It's a look at the experiences of the U.S. Army and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how a small segment of them are much more adept at finding and avoiding IED's and ambushes. The U ...

• TASER™ media template

  As reports of gratuitous TASER™ abuse by police pile up daily, here at The Beav we are pleased to provide this handy template to the media for all future TASER™ stories : Officers who used a Taser on a ___ in a ___ found out only later he was ____ and didn't understand ____, police said Tuesday. ...

Media Matters for America

• Matthews purports to correct Romano on end-of-lif ...

  During a Hardball discussion about a provision in the House health care reform bill that provides coverage for end-of-life counseling as a service through Medicare, host Chris Matthews purported to correct Washington Post reporter Lois Romano's explanation of the provision, claiming: "We alr ...

• REPORT: Not just immigration: Dobbs out of step w ...

  CNN's Lou Dobbs is obsessed with the issue of gun control, often fearmongering that the government will seize his audience's guns. Over a period of six months, his show devoted 11 times more words per broadcast hour to the topic than did CNN's The Situation Room .Dobbs devoted far more covera ...

• Fox's claim July temps "challenge climate change" ...

  On July 28, Fox Nation posted the headline "Record Low Temps in July Challenge 'Climate Change.' " However, the claim is apparently based on findings from an AccuWeather.com post, the author of which makes clear: "Cold OR warm outbreaks, by themselves, are not signs of Climate Change." [ Th ...

• Wash. Post latest to promote end-of-life ...

  A Washington Post article about President Obama's AARP forum on health care promoted the falsehood that a provision in the House Democrats' health care reform bill makes end-of-life counseling for seniors mandatory -- it does not. Ceci Connolly wrote that "[o]ne woman asked Obama about 'rumors' ...

• CNN chief Klein misrepresents birther coverage to ...

  On July 28, CNN president Jonathan Klein reportedly defended Lou Dobbs' coverage of conspiracy theories about President Obama's birth certificate by falsely characterizing Dobbs' coverage as being limited to asking why some people continue to doubt Obama's citizenship. In fact, Dobbs has gone f ...

Global Research.ca

• The plans of the Mafia to undermine Italian democr ...

  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

• Iran: Whose side are you on?

  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

• Iran: Riding the “Green Wave” at the Campaign ...

  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

• How to Reverse Global Warming: 21st Century Clima ...

  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

• Venezuela: Class struggle heats up over in battle ...

  For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

TPM Cafe

• Follow up on high frequency trading

  My last blog post on high frequency trading got a surprisingly wide reception – and was reprinted for several different audiences. The comments at Talking Points Memo were muted and did not touch the general angst about this issue. That... Sponsored Topics: Business - Investing - Wall Street - ...

• Learning From Iran How To Negotiate With The Israe ...

  Thursday is the 40th day commemoration of the martyrdom of Neda Agha-Soltan, an Iranian woman shot dead while peacefully protesting against the election results in Iran. Her murder was televised via the Internet around the world and has become a... Sponsored Topics: Middle East - Arab - Israel - ...

• Roger Cohen: Only Israeli Bombs Can Save Iranian R ...

  Roger Cohen, the New York Times columnist, is, in my opinion, the best mainstream media columnist on matters Middle Eastern. I've watched him grow in his position. A few years ago, he struck me as conventional in his thinking and... Sponsored Topics: Iran - Roger Cohen - Middle East - The N ...

• An 'Imperturbably Valiant' Lawyer

  Few if any who recall the uproar over Mahmoud Amadenijad's appearance at Columbia University two years ago can recall the uproar over the appearance at Columbia of Hans Luther, the first Nazi ambassador to the U.S, in 1933. But one... Sponsored Topics: Columbia University - United States - Politi ...

• How New Orleans Copes

  In addition to Cheryl's book, another book out this year, Dan Baum's Nine Lives, also examines in some granularity the experiences of New Orleanians, both before and after the disaster. Dan's reporting, also represented on a blog he wrote... Sponsored Topics: New Orleans - Mental Health - Health ...

TruthOut

• Frank Threatens Banks: We Will Make You Stop Forec ...

  House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. (Left) is attempting to pressure banks to save more homeowners from foreclosure. (Photo: AP) read more

• House Progressives Force Yet Another Mark-Up Delay

  And here we go again. Now that House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman has enough Blue Dog support to pass the bill, he has to sell it with progressives. And that's not proving to be as easy as he'd hoped. "[They] have a lot of questions about the legislation," Waxman told ...

• Bend It Like Obama?

  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada). (Photo: Jason Reed / Reuters) read more

• Blue Dogs Strike Deal: No Health Vote Before Reces ...

  The Energy and Commerce Committee will resume its markup of health care legislation Wednesday afternoon under a deal between Blue Dogs and House leaders, but there will be no floor vote on the legislation before August. Delaying a vote until August was a key demand of the Blue Dogs, along w ...

• Human Activity Is Driving Earth's "Sixth Great Ext ...

  Population growth, pollution and invasive species are having a disastrous effect on species in the southern hemisphere, a major review by conservationists warns. Earth is experiencing its "sixth great extinction event" with disease and human activity taking a devastating toll on vulnerable ...

The Heathlander

• Chomsky on the ‘Responsibility to Protect’

  Earlier this week Noam Chomsky participated, along with Jean Bricmont, Gareth Evans (former Australian FM and long-time President of the International Crisis Group) and Ngugi wa Thiong’o, in a UN panel on the doctrine of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P). You can watch the three hour discussio ...

• How to lose friends and alienate people

  Hiring paid hasbaratchiks to “spew forth bullshit” online, parading out Ehud Olmert to convince Americans that opposing settlement construction is like opposing rainbows and kittens, launching a smear campaign against Human Rights Watch, one of the most conservative human rights organisations ar ...

• Breaking the Spin

  The BBC’s report on the ‘Breaking the Silence’ testimonies of IDF soldiers describing the commission of serious war crimes during Operation Cast Lead is pretty representative of its output on the topic: there’s nothing outrageous, but there is nonetheless a systematic bias that underplays or ...

• Global march on Gaza

  When Gandhi’s doctrine of non-violent resistance (satyagraha) is invoked in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, it is invariably as a propaganda weapon intended to undermine the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance and shift the blame for the continuing occupation on to its principal vic ...

• Newsnight goes a bit Chomsky

  Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, FAIR, Robert McChesney, Media Lens and… Jeremy Paxman? That’s right, folks: if you’re looking for trenchant critique of media performance, rooting biased and misleading coverage in institutional structure and exploring the media’s broader social function beyond t ...

Water - AlterNet

• Privatize the Seas? If Only Solving Overfishing We ...

  Merely having a market with clear private ownership rights does not protect against short-sightedness and greed.

• Why California Can Have Healthy Farming Even as Wa ...

  The Pacific Institute show how California's agricultural sector can flourish despite threats to water supply.

• Desalination Creates More Problems than Solutions ...

  Other cities considering desal would be wise to look at what happened in Tampa.

• Will Much of New Orleans Be Underwater by 2100?

  Sea-level rise and sinking land mean the Mississippi River Delta's habitable land will shrink.

• Why Our Next Fuel Source May Come from Our Own Was ...

  One researcher has figured out how to use human waste to make the fuel of the future while also treating sewage.

TruthHugger

• Republicans Have Government Insurance, Why Can’t ...

  For weeks I have been listening to all the BS Republicans have spewed about health care reform. Republicans shouted it was socialized medicine and when that didn’t work they came up with other untruths. The fact of the matter is all members of Congress use the public option plan. Republicans are w ...

• Retire Early In Self Defense Could Be A Mistake †...

  /h3> Collect Now, or Later? Timing Your Social Security Benefits With the current state of US and world economy, the alternative to jumping out a window, committing a heinous crime or planting your pup tent under an overpass, is retire early and collect your meager social security check at gene ...

• Texas Progressive Alliance – July 13, 2009

  It’s Monday and it’s time for another version of the Texas Progressive Alliance weekly highlight reel. Off the Kuff suggests that a pro-science PAC could do a lot of good, nationally and in Texas. WCNews at Eye On Williamson reminds us that despite the brouhaha over transportation during the rec ...

• Protect Us From Another Celebrity Death and Networ ...

  The world is reeling from political upheaval, economic meltdown and environmental catastrophe. What does the national media focus on for two weeks? The high drama of a controversial musical artist who has the audacity of dying. News that effects each and every person on this planet is buried un ...

• Texas Progressive Alliance – July 6, 2009

  Now that we’ve celebrated another birthday for America, it’s time for the weekly Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup. Here are your highlights from the holiday week. The loss of Ron Artest from the Rockets to the Lakers (essentially a trade for Trevor Arista) is a bad deal, writes PDiddie a ...

Dandelion Salad - Featured Writers' Posts

• Disturbing the Universe: Holocaust Denial, Revisio ...

  By Gary Corseri Featured Writer Dandelion Salad July 23, 2009 “They will take evil and call it goo

• Andy Worthington discusses the closure of Guantán ...

  by Andy Worthington Featured Writer Dandelion Salad www.andyworthington.co.uk 23 July 2009 Yesterda

• South Asia, Latin America: Pentagon's 21st Century ...

  by Rick Rozoff Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/mes

• Colombia: US Escalates War Plans In Latin America ...

  by Rick Rozoff Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/mes

• Origins of the American Empire: Revolution, World ...

  by Andrew Gavin Marshall Featured Writer Dandelion Salad July 28, 2009 Part 1: Global Power and Glo

Unexplained Mysteries

• "Transparent aluminium" created

  Scientists have succeeded in creating a transparent form of aluminium through the use of the world's most powerful soft x-ray laser. The material is b...

• Climate change helped the Incas

  It is believed that a warm period between AD1100 and 1533 was pivotal to the success of the Incan civilization, providing large areas of fertile mount...

• New creatures in an age of extinctions

  In an age when entire species are continuing to disappear from Earth's natural habitats on a regular basis there is still good news to be had in the f...

• Hunting the Mongolian Death Worm

  Two men from New Zealand are embarking on an expedition next week to seek out the fabled Mongolian death worm, a large red invertebrate said to immobi...

• Deep secrets of a UFO think tank

  Anthony Bragalia writes about a secret UFO "think tank" contracted by the US government since the 1940's to research technologies and investigate amon...

Grassroots

• [Cassava] Bread and Roses: Brazilian Farmers Seek ...

  brazil200907-300.jpg During our visit to Brazil earlier this month, Saulo Araujo and I met with Grassroots International’s partners and the communities in which they work. I had prepared myself to talk about a range of issues, from Creole se ...

• Call to Action for the International Community

  Below is a letter received from one of our Honduran colleagues asking for support to end human rights violations in the country. As she describes, the situation is worsening. Please visit our action page now to send a letter to President Obama. Thank you. By Wendy Cruz read more

• Repression by Honduran Junta continues - Take acti ...

  honduras_police_violence_2.jpg Over the weekend, Rafael Alegría, a prominent leader of the Via Campesina Central America and outspoken critic of the recent military coup in Honduras, was arrested along with several others including colleagues ...

• Updates from Honduras

  honduras200904-062-1.jpg Via Campesina leader arrested, released The repression against demonstrations to reinstall Honduran President Manuel Zelaya continues. In the border region with Nicaragua, intense conflicts between the Army and protes ...

• Debt Cancellation a Step Forward in Haiti

  haiti200802-003.jpg read more

Climate

• July 29, 2009

  US-China Talks End With Smiles, No Progress on Climate (Los Angeles Times) U.S. and Chinese officials ended two days of high-level talks in Washington still at loggerheads on climate action. Among the unresolved issues, Beijing contends that the U.S. should share its green technology if it trul ...

• July 28, 2009

  Inside a Coal Confab: Global Warming Just a Scare (Coal Tattoo) The coal industry presentation was billed as a “pursuit to better understand the overwhelmingly complex issue of ‘cap & trade’,” but it came off as a pep talk urging officials to continue denying global warming is real and ...

• July 27, 2009

  US, China Resume Climate Change Talks in Washington (Los Angeles Times) The United States and China today kick off talks in Washington that are expected to include the need for both sides to reach consensus on tackling climate change. Japan Opposition Party Vows Stronger Emissions Targets (Bloo ...

• July 25-26, 2009

  EU: Delayed U.S. Climate Action Increases Risks (Reuters) A U.S. proposal to cut global warming emissions slowly at first before making deeper cuts after 2020 will increase the risks of irreversible climate damage, a report by the EU has said. California Kills Offshore Oil Lease Project (Reute ...

• July 24, 2009

  Energy Companies Opened Wallets Wide to Sway Climate Bill (New York Times) Electric utilities boosted lobbying in the second quarter of 2009, narrowing the gap with oil and gas companies that had dominated spending on persuasion by a wide margin earlier this year. Slow Shift to Renewables Und ...

TomDispatch

• Tomgram: Juan Cole, Empire's Paranoia About the P ...

  These days, it seems as though the United States is conducting its wars in places remarkably unfamiliar to most Americans. Its CIA-operated drone aircraft, for instance, have been regularly firing missiles into Waziristan , where, in one strike in June, an estimated 80 tribespeople were killed wh ...

• Tomgram: An American Hell

  Don't Turn the Page on History Facing the American World We Created By Tom Engelhardt We've just passed through the CIA assassination flap, already fading from the news after less than two weeks of media attention. Broken in several major newspapers , here's how the story goes: the Agency, evi ...

• Tomgram: David Bromwich, America's Serial Warrior ...

  Here's part of the way that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently defended his decision to stop production of the F-22 Raptor, the U.S. Air Force's giant boondoggle of a fighter jet. "Consider," the secretary of defense said, "that by 2020, the United States is projected to have nearly 2, ...

• Tomgram: The Face in the Mirror

  b[ Note for TomDispatch readers: Last year, at my birthday, I wrote "When I'm 64...," a post about war and (lack of) peace in my time. Another year has rolled around, as it tends to do, so think of what follows as further scribbled notes, stuffed in an e-bottle, and set afloat, all part of a fut ...

• Tomgram: Ann Jones, Creating Hescostan in Kabul

  Writing on the phenomenon of escalation, journalist Norman Solomon begins a recent piece this way: "The president has set a limit on the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. For now. That's how escalation works. Ceilings become floors. Gradually." Then he adds: "[N]o amount of spin can chang ...

Smirking Chimp

• The Risks of a Partial Prosecution

  If Attorney General Eric Holder creates a special prosecutor for torture but forbids him or her to prosecute the lawyers who facilitated torture or the top officials who ordered it, proposing to go after only torturers who exceeded the limitations outlined in the lawyers' memos, what are the risks? ...

• Cops Gone Wild

  Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley has gone whining to his professional organization, the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Assn., asking for support in calling for President Obama to apologize for saying he acted "stupidly" in arresting Harvard Prof. Henry Gates after first suspecting the promine ...

• Yes, Say the Word

  Single Payer -- National Health Insurance. Horrors! We can't have that! That's Socialism! Yes, say the word -Socialism! We can say it and we can have it--at least a little bit of it; even in a capitalist country. A little government for the people--not the corporations--might be a good thing. Insur ...

• Attack of the One-Percenters: Land Rover Liberals, ...

  The health care debate has reminded us that there really are three separate but coordinated armies that defend the status quo in Washington -- and will defend that status quo, whether on health care or any other economic issue. In my newspaper column today, I look at who these factions are, and what ...

• Is Jon Stewart Funny in France?

  — from the Philadelphia Weekly On most weeknights, I travel to Paris in my mind, joining my daughter, Sionann, who lives there, nine hours ahead of me in time, a continent and an ocean away in space. I stare blankly at the pages of a book, or wool-gather in front of the TV while my mind lopes over ...

Ten Percent

• Thugs & Child Kidnappers Charge Gray Lady of Bagra ...

  Several former detainees at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan have said they heard the screams of a woman, who’s been dubbed “The Gray Lady of Bagram.” Ok, quick recap, are you ready?- Aafia Siddiqui is taken by US forces and disappeared for FIVE YEARS, she then miraculously reappears in the US w ...

• Exit & Re-entry

  UK out (for now)- Britain will withdraw its remaining forces from Iraq to Kuwait by the end of the month because the Iraqi parliament failed to pass a deal allowing them to stay to protect oil platforms and provide training, a spokesman said Tuesday. Britain already has withdrawn its combat forces a ...

• Some Released

  Iranian authorities have released 140 people detained during a crackdown on protesters following last month’s disputed presidential election. The detainees were freed on Tuesday during a visit to the Evin prison in the capital, Tehran, by a parliamentary committee investigating prisoners’ condit ...

• Class War With Your Rations Sir?

  Eleven workers taking part in a sit-in protest over job cuts at a wind turbine blade factory on the Isle of Wight have been dismissed. Vestas Windsystems said it had sacked 11 employees who it had identified as being inside the office. Mike, one of the workers, told the BBC that dismissal letters ...

• Prisoners Being Moved To Revolutionary Guard’s O ...

  From Naj, help Saeed Hajjarian-

Paul Krugman

• Medicare versus insurers

  I notice from comments that a fair number of readers think that Medicare has had runaway costs. What you need to ask is, runaway compared to what? Here's the raw fact, from the National Health Expenditure data: since 1970 Medicare costs per beneficiary have risen at an annual rate of 8.8% - but insu ...

• CB uh-oh

  Stan Collender writes about the role CBO is playing in the health care debate - and he's worried. So am I. When Doug Elmendorf came out with his pronouncement that giving MedPAC much more authority would do essentially nothing to curb costs, my immediate reaction was deep puzzlement. Serious health ...

• Speechless

  Bill O'Reilly explaining that of course America has lower life expectancy than Canada - we have 10 times as many people, so we have 10 times as many deaths. I need a drink.

• Irresponsible punditry

  Pundits don't have to be right about everything - in fact, if you write a newspaper column and you never make a prediction that turns out wrong, you're not taking enough risks. They do, however, owe it to the public to make enough effort to get basic facts right. (Note to readers: having a different ...

• Hey, we can do this

  Yglesias points out that the Gang of Six negotiating the Senate Finance version of health reform all represent very small states - in fact, the combined population of their states is less than that of New Jersey. So hey, why not let New Jersey do this instead? We can get a committee of, say, three c ...

No Quarter

• Maxine Waters Threatens Blue Dog Democrats

  Just as a reminder of who Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is, here’s this little clip of her speaking to the “Non-partisan” (HAHAHAHAHA) group, ACORN: Just when were you thinking you weren’t going to let Obama get away with anything, Rep. Waters?? Because, so far, if you ask me and will pardon ...

• Jane Harman Sacrifices Intelligence for Politics

  Admin Note: Originally published at the California Chronicle and reprinted with express permission. See Mike’s other recent story published at No Quarter, “POTUS, Pelosi and Panetta Promise Partisan Political Pandering.” Mike is a former CIA officer, and he and Larry are good friends. On July ...

• A Traumatized 911 Caller Speaks Out

  In “911 Caller in Gates Incident Says She Was Unfairly Called a ‘Racist’,” Fox News reports: A clearly distressed Lucia Whalen addressed reporters at a press conference in an effort to clear her name after the city released the 911 tape. It revealed that Whalen did not identify either of the ...

• Neda’s Grave

  Basiji Weary. Simple, sad, compelling video, a minute of sorrow far away in a graveyard in southern Tehran, where the body of a young woman was hidden from the world by the usurper Ahmadinejad and his goons, who murdered her and covered up the crime. We have this from resistance. The [.. ...

• Cutting Health Care Costs: New Plan for Seniors

  My recent toon, Are Grandma and Grandpa the Target? presented the full text of what will be in store for those over 65 years of age. You won’t hear much about this in the MSM, of course. HARP made a quick comment to that toon: The reaper is cheaper. An image sprang into [...]

Environmental Graffiti

• The Evolution of the New York Skyline
• 10 Most Suggestive Vegetables on Earth
• The Incredible Aqualung of the Diving Bell Spider
• Ephemeral Snapshots of Solar Eclipses
• When Death Finds You at 30,000 Feet…

Foreign Policy in Focus

• Poem: "Three Gifts"

  A poet from Iran remembers someone for whom time ran out too soon.

• Demystifying Iran

  Beneath the fog of politics, according to a new documentary, Iran has a vibrant youth and art culture.

• Obama and Arroyo: Time for a Reset

  The worsening human rights situation in the Philippines requires the United States to rethink its political and economic relations with the country.

• Poem: "The Center for the Intrepid"

  The war's casualties are measured in more than broken bodies.

• Poem: "River, Page"

  A river can be a lifeline for refugees, or it can be just another line of sorrow in a story.

Therapy News

• North Carolina Celebrates Citizens’ Group Therap ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Summary The consequences, both physical and mental, of domestic violence and related abuse can be debilitating for many people, and the addition of substance abuse problems can make it an incredible challenge to extricate oneself from a harmful situation and seek help. Still m ...

• Mental Health First Aid Explored in Wales

  A GoodTherapy.org News Update First aid training is a great way to add something extra to a resume, prepare for potentially dangerous situations, and to enable a greater opportunity to be of service to others, and many people have decided to participate in training workshops for these benefits. But ...

• Relationships and Trust

  Click here to contact Anne and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile Trust is essential for a good enough relationship. It is possible to be naïve and trust someone too much while at the other end of the continuum is not being able to trust someone. Building trust in a relationship with a partner is a ...

• Concern Rises over Abuse of PTSD Claims

  A GoodTherapy.org News Summary While the majority of people who report symptoms associated with post traumatic stress disorder confront challenging and sometimes life-threatening difficulties requiring extensive therapy and other treatments, there is a growing concern over the ability of others to c ...

• Child Abuse Programs in UK Get a Bad Rap

  A GoodTherapy.org News Update Though an increasing number of people are approaching psychotherapy as an enlightening way to learn more about themselves and their environment, others work with therapy for specific concerns or events, and in the case of children and teens, this later situation is ofte ...

Mountaintop Removal

• W.Va. churches urge calm over mountaintop removal ...

  The West Virginia Council of Churches is calling for peaceful dialogue on mountaintop removal mining. The Rev. Dennis Sparks urged civic leaders, politicians, coal industry officials and environmental groups to stop using inflammatory rhetoric and inciting confrontation.

• Churches urge calm over mountaintop removal (The C ...

  CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The West Virginia Council of Churches is calling for peaceful dialogue on mountaintop removal mining. The Rev. Dennis Sparks urged civic leaders, politicians, coal industry officials and environmental groups to stop using inflam...

• Massey Turns Lemons into Lemonade (The Motley Fool ...

  This Appalachian coal miner dramatically defied the odds.

• Mountain Songs (Cincinnati CityBeat)

  Socially-aware and politically-minded musicians like U2 and Public Enemy could be accused of trying to move (proverbial) mountains with their music. This weekend, several local musicians will be joining forces to do just the opposite. “Music for the Mountains” is a music-minded event aimed at ha ...

• W.Va. churches urge calm over mountaintop removal ...

  The West Virginia Council of Churches is calling for peaceful dialogue on mountaintop removal mining.The Rev. Dennis Sparks urged civic leaders, politicians, coal industry officials and environmental groups to stop using inflammatory rhetoric and inciting ...

Memeorandum

• WARNING EXPLICIT CONTENT: - ... (MyFox Boston)

  MyFox Boston : WARNING EXPLICIT CONTENT: - A copy of the email sent by Police Officer Justin Barrett — Weather - Traffic - News - Sports - Business - Entertainment - Morning - Health - On TV - Blogs - About Us — Many pages in this Fox Television Stations, Inc. web site feature ...

• New Poll Finds Growing Unease on Health Plan (New ...

  New York Times : New Poll Finds Growing Unease on Health Plan — President Obama's ability to shape the debate on health care appears to be eroding as opponents aggressively portray his overhaul plan as a government takeover that could limit Americans' ability to choose their doctors and cou ...

• Poll: Obama loses ground on health care (Mark Murr ...

  Mark Murray / msnbc.com : Poll: Obama loses ground on health care — NBC/WSJ survey also shows a drop in his overall job-approval rating — President Barack Obama discusses health care reform during a town hall meeting at Broughton High School on Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C. — Deput ...

• Prof. Gates' Unconstitutional Arrest (Harvey A. Si ...

  Harvey A. Silverglate / Forbes : Prof. Gates' Unconstitutional Arrest — There's a First Amendment right to be rude to a cop. — The now-infamous Gates story has gone through the familiar media spin-cycle: incident, reaction, response, so on and so forth. Drowned out of this echo chamb ...

• Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison Clarifies Resignation Ta ...

  NPR Blogs : Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison Clarifies Resignation Talk, Kinda Sorta — Here are two things we have long assumed about Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. — One, she will challenge Gov. Rick Perry in next year's Texas gubernatorial primary. Yes, I know, it should be more than just “ ...

Energy & Environment News

• Efficiency Drive Could Cut Energy Use 23% by 2020, ...

  An investment of $520 billion in energy improvements could produce $1.2 trillion in savings on energy bills through 2020, a McKinsey study found.

• Dot Earth: Will Health Battle Wound Climate Effort ...

  Could it be time to slow down on climate to make room for health?

• Exelon Drops Its Bid for NRG Energy

  A nine-month $7.53 billion takeover effort ended after NRG’s shareholders rejected board nominees from its suitor.

• Advertising: An Environmental Group’s Campa ...

  Tap or bottled water? That is the question for some marketers, who contend bottled water is just tap water repackaged.

• Dead Zone in Gulf Is Smaller Than Forecast but Mor ...

  Researchers found that the actual volume of low-oxygen water may be higher, as the layer is deeper and thicker in some parts of the Gulf of Mexico than normal.

5+ quakes - 7 days

• M 5.2, New Britain region, Papua New Guinea

  Wednesday, July 29, 2009 21:33:06 UTC Thursday, July 30, 2009 07:33:06 AM at epicenter Depth : 47.50 km (29.52 mi)

• M 5.0, Taiwan

  Sunday, July 26, 2009 06:10:58 UTC Sunday, July 26, 2009 02:10:58 PM at epicenter Depth : 6.80 km (4.23 mi)

• M 5.4, near the north coast of Papua, Indonesia

  Sunday, July 26, 2009 06:06:44 UTC Sunday, July 26, 2009 03:06:44 PM at epicenter Depth : 24.30 km (15.10 mi)

• M 5.0, Vanuatu

  Sunday, July 26, 2009 05:03:16 UTC Sunday, July 26, 2009 04:03:16 PM at epicenter Depth : 236.70 km (147.08 mi)

• M 5.4, Taiwan region

  Wednesday, July 29, 2009 16:53:04 UTC Thursday, July 30, 2009 12:53:04 AM at epicenter Depth : 15.60 km (9.69 mi)

China Dialogue

• Geoengineering: mirror, mirror

  Firing trillions of reflective discs into space sounds like science fiction, but some people think it could protect the earth. chinadialogue reports. What’s the big idea? Shooting 16 trillion glass discs into space. It sounds like a giant disco ball, but it’s actually supposed to create a 10 ...

• Rumble in the jungle

  Could uncontacted Amazonian tribes in Peru be wiped out by oil giants? Not if they don’t exist. If they do, they could impede the country’s quest for a windfall. Rory Carroll reports. Stand on the muddy riverbank at Copal Urco just before dawn and it is easy to see why the Amazon breeds legends. ...

• Designing a greener China

  Hu Jie is the landscape architect of the 680-hectare Olympic Forest Park in Beijing. In an interview with Jared Green, Hu explains the philosophy behind its design and discusses the importance of ecological ideas and Chinese tradition. [This interview was first published by the American Society of L ...

• The human tsunami (2)

  What to do about environmental migration, and climate change as a whole, is entirely bound up in the overall challenge of development, writes Sam Knight, concluding his report from Ghana. Quite how many people are going to leave the savannahs of northern Ghana has the attention of policymakers in Ac ...

• The human tsunami (1)

  By 2050, climate change could force hundreds of millions of people from their lands. Sam Knight traveled to Ghana to see one region from which potential environmental refugees might come. The heart of Nandom is a fork in the road. It is here, in one of the northernmost towns in Ghana , that the buse ...

Daily Censored

• Racial Attacks On Obama A-OK On Fox News, Says Bil ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds Fox News has responded to Glenn Beck's racial attacks on Barack Obama, in which he said, "This president has exposed himself as a guy – over and over and over again - who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture, ...

• Racial Attacks On Obama A-OK On Fox News, Says Bil ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds Fox News has responded to Glenn Beck's racial attacks on Barack Obama, in which he said, "This president has exposed himself as a guy – over and over and over again - who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture, ...

• REPORT: A Statistical Analysis Of Policy Trends An ...

  Read the full story at Think Progress After stepping down on Sunday morning, Sarah Palin posted her final Twitter update to her @AKGovSarahPalin account, which had close to 125k followers. With Palin’s refusal to specifically address her post-gubernatorial plans, speculation has run rampant over w ...

• Conservatives fabricate ‘mandatory’ end-of-lif ...

  Read the full story at Think Progress Yesterday, during President Obama’s AARP town hall, a caller stated that she had “heard lots of rumors going around about this new plan.” “I have been told,” she continued, “there is a policy there that everyone that’s Medicare-age will be visited ...

• Conservatives fabricate ‘mandatory’ end-of-lif ...

  Yesterday, during President Obama’s AARP town hall, a caller stated that she had “heard lots of rumors going around about this new plan.” “I have been told,” she continued, “there is a policy there that everyone that’s Medicare-age will be visited and told to decide how they wish to di ...

AlterNet's Breaking News

• U.S. Proposes Releasing Guantanamo Detainee Abroad

• Domestic Spying Continues Under Obama

• Dem Senators Take On Palin, Offer Bill To Ban Aer ...

• A look at the deal worked out on health care

• Health Insurance Stocks Soar On Baucus Deal

Institute for Policy Studies

• Obama: Renegotiate NAFTA as You Promised

  Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. leaders should scrap their failed "Security and Prosperity Partnership" and begin overhauling the North American Free Trade agreement at an upcoming Guadalajara meeting.

• Why Are We Letting Polluters Regulate Themselves I ...

  The new energy bill would strip EPA of its power and let polluters take the reigns with a market-based system.

• Hypocrisy and the Honduran Coup

  The United States needs to stop supporting coups — of all political stripes — and start supporting actual democracy.

• Military vs. Climate Security: Mapping the Shift f ...

  In addition to creating an existential threat to the planet and its people, rapidly accelerating climate change is a security challenge.

• Structural Inequality: News Not Fit to Print?

  President Obama's address to the NAACP acknowledged that racial inequality is not an African-American problem, but rather a problem of our entire nation. So why didn't the New York Times?

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

• House Democrats reach deal on healthcare bill

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have reached a deal with a group of fiscal conservatives in their own party on how to move forward with healthcare legislation, a leading lawmaker said on Tuesday.

• Organic food is no healthier, study finds

  LONDON (Reuters) - Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday.

• Canadians cry foul over U.S. healthcare attacks

  VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canadian physician Robert Ouellet is tired of hearing Canada's healthcare system cast as the boogeyman in the vitriolic U.S. political debate over healthcare reform.

• US experts set rules for swine flu vaccines

  * Pregnant women, health workers likely get first shots

• Key Republican says on "edge" of US healthcare dea ...

  WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic senators negotiating financial details of healthcare reform have made great progress and are on the verge of a deal, a key Republican senator said on Wednesday.

Godspace

• Making Space for the Rabbi

  Today is likely to be a busy day on my blog – not because of those who read it but primarily because I am going away for a couple of days tomorrow and there is so much that I want to post before that – including book reviews, thoughts on Jimmy Carter’s statement about leaving [...]

• Jimmy Carter – Losing My Faith For Equality

  Jimmy Carter, president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 has just left the Southern Baptist Convention because of their discrimination against women. I have always admired him for his involvement in peacemaking and concern for the poor. This stand has increased my estimation of him 10 fold ...

• Grief as a Spiritual Practice

  This mornings post for the What is a Spiritual Practice Series is by Bowie Snodgrass program director at Faith House Manhattan Grief as a Spiritual Practice I was spiritually touched by the televised farewell to Michael Jackson. I think it was good for the country to have a collective day of grief ...

• Engagement as Spiritual Practice

  This morning’s post is by Thomas Turner from Everyday Liturgy.  It was first posted on the Everyday Liturgy blog While on vacation I saw on my brother’s bookshelf a book by Gene Edward Veith entitled Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture. Intrigued, I ...

• What Is A Spiritual Practice – More Great Po ...

  I hope that you have been following the blog posts in my blog series What is a Spiritual Practice. There are a number of excellent articles that have been posted in the last couple of weeks and the submissions keep coming in. We still have the promise of topics as varied as parenting, yoga, civil ...

Sidebar search returns here at Blogger

To Do

renewable recycling conservation

Wind industry calls for renewable energy standard

Examiner.com

- Jul 29, 2009

- 4 hours ago

Wind might be one of the brightest stars in the US economy but a national renewable energy standard, transmission legislation, and carbon regulation are ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 7/2009

DOE Looks for Submissions for $30B Renewable Energy Loan Guarantees

Greentech Media

- Jul 29, 2009

- 6 hours ago

The federal government has announced two funding programs for renewable energy, including biofuel, and transmission grid projects. ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 7/2009

Michigan Representative Unveils Plan To Increase State's Renewable ...

North American Windpower

- Jul 29, 2009

- 12 hours ago

Pam Byrnes has unveiled a plan to increase the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) that would increase alternative energy production and employment. ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 7/2009

FPL 2Q profit soars on renewable subsidiary

Forbes

- Jul 28, 2009

- Jul 28, 2009

The company attributed its profit boost to its renewable energy subsidiary, NextEra Energy Resources, which saw a surge in second-quarter earnings, ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 7/2009

powered by

Human Habitat

ecology water energy

Former SC bomb plant offering tours to the public

Newsday

- Jul 29, 2009

- 20 hours ago

Organizers say the four-hour tours will feature stops at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, as well as drives by two towns relocated when the site was ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 7/2009

Ecology fines Woodinville construction project $62000

Access Washington

- Jul 28, 2009

- Jul 28, 2009

BELLEVUE – The Department of Ecology (Ecology) has fined Wellington Hills Park, LLC $62000 for ongoing and repeated water quality violations at the ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 7/2009

Rufus sets Kawal meet with House Ecology Committee

American Chronicle

- Jul 29, 2009

- 58 minutes ago

The Kagayan Watershed Alliance (Kawal) will meet the House Ecology Committee in Cagayan de Oro to discuss concerns regarding the proposed bioethanol plant ...

clipped from Google - 7/2009

One quarter of giant panda habitat lost in Sichuan quake

CNN International

- Jul 27, 2009

- Jul 27, 2009

According to the report published in "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment", 23 percent of the pandas' habitat in the study area was destroyed, ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 7/2009

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Water Power

water floods pollution

Texas beaches improve in water quality survey

Houston Chronicle

- Jul 29, 2009

- 14 hours ago

By RG RATCLIFFE AUSTIN BUREAU AUSTIN — Water quality at Texas' public beaches improved in 2008, but the state still ranked behind 17 others when it comes to ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 7/2009

Watts Water swings to loss on revenue slide, restructuring charge

Bizjournals.com

- Jul 29, 2009

- 14 hours ago

Watts Water Technologies Inc., a supplier of water quality and management technologies to the home and commercial construction markets, swung to a net loss ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 7/2009

US advances to women's final in water polo

USA Today

- Jul 29, 2009

- 17 hours ago

The Canadians will be going for their first major title in water polo. They have one silver and two bronze medals at worlds, and have never won an Olympic ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 7/2009

Water wars threaten Gwinnett

Atlanta Journal Constitution

- Jul 29, 2009

- 4 hours ago

By Dan Chapman and Patrick Fox pfox@ajc.com Gwinnett County, which gets all its drinking water from Lake Lanier, sits directly in the legal cross hairs of a ...

Related Articles »