15 Aug - RSS SnapShot

RSS from Opit's LinkFest! on My Opera

http://my.opera.com/oldephartte/links/

Blacklisted News

• Refusing vaccination may label you a criminal

  The World Health Organization determined in 2005 it has the authority to dissolve sovereign governments and take control should there be a pandemic. This applies to any country signed onto WHO which of course we are. The WHO just raised this non-existent pandemic to level 4.

• The Pentagon Wants Authority to Post Almost 400,00 ...

  The Pentagon has approached Congress to grant the Secretary of Defense the authority to post almost 400,000 military personnel throughout the United States in times of emergency or a major disaster.

• S. Korean firm to open major dog cloning centre

  A South Korean biotechnology firm will early next year open a centre capable eventually of producing up to 1,000 cloned dogs annually, a company executive said Friday.

• “Behaviour detection officers” to study travel ...

  From the furrowed brow to the nervously tapping foot, security personnel will soon start studying air travellers' facial expressions and body movements to see if they could be criminals and terrorists.

• Human Rights Watch probes Israeli shootings of civ ...

  Israel must investigate the “unlawful” killing of 11 civilians carrying white flags during its Gaza operation earlier in 2009, Human Rights Watch has said.

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

• Experts debate swine flu mutation

  The recent outbreak of swine flu at an Australian piggery has raised questions over whether this will cause the virus to mutate and become more deadly.The farm, located near Dunedoo, central-western New South Wales, has been placed in quarantine following the announcement on Friday that its pigs had ...

• H1N1 in 160 countries .. after 4 months

  According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus has spread to 160 countries in less than four months. Laboratory-confirmed infections increased from 94,512 to 134,503 from July 6 to July 27-a 70 percent increase. As of August 4, the official worldwide infe ...

• Pentagon: Escalate Afghanistan, or Lose

  The stage has been set for the Obama administration to announce another major escalation of the war in Afghanistan, amid warnings that the Taliban insurgency has to be stemmed over the next 12 to 18 months to avoid the risk of a humiliating US defeat.General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US a ...

• Spread of Tamiflu Resistant A/H1N1

  Charles Penn, a scientist with the Geneva-based agency, says the WHO has also been alerted informally to the discovery of a small number of other Tamiflu-resistant viruses but he won't say where they were found.The above comments describe additional cases of Tamiflu resistance (H274Y) but provide no ...

• Death by Torture, Ghost Detainees and the Disappea ...

  This report tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individuals' lives on their bodies an ...

Independent ( London )

• Report: Vanished ship's signal appears off France

  A Russian maritime Web site said the tracking system for a freighter missing since last month was broadcasting signals today from the Bay of Biscay, but French Marines said the signals were coming from Russian warships.

• US Senator meets Burmese leader and Suu Kyi

  US Senator Jim Webb met both Burma's top military leader Than Shwe and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today, but it was unclear what he discussed during his separate meetings with them.

• Wildfires spread as California declares emergency

  Strong winds are spreading multiple wildfires across parched parts of California as officials worry the gusts could ignite more blazes and force more evacuations in areas already under a state of emergency.

• US Senator meets Burmese junta leader

  US Senator Jim Webb met Burma's top military leader today - the first senior American official to hold talks with the reclusive junta chief, officials said.

• US Senator will meet Burmese junta leader

  US Senator Jim Webb will meet Burma's top military leader today - the first senior American official to hold talks with the reclusive junta chief, officials said.

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

• Wag The Dog, Again

  Summary: It is curious that in spite of the fact that there is a consensus that Iran is not yet seeking a nuclear weapon and has no capability to accumulate sufficient weapons grade uranium to do so for some time to come, US politicians and media accept without question the Israeli argument that ...

• IRAN: Under Pressure from Hawks, Obama Tacks to th ...

  Summary: But the administration is facing a great deal of pressure to move quickly to sanctions from congressional hawks - backed by hardline organisations within the so-called "Israel lobby" - who have been pushing for a tougher line against Tehran since well before the Jun. 12 elections that t ...

• Iran: Whose War?

  Summary: Huber The logical goal of Iran’s nuclear program is not possession of nuclear bombs but a thriving nuclear energy industry. Having nukes would merely make Iran a target—both Israel and the U.S. would have justification for a massive preemptive strike. We’d know they have them beca ...

• The Ever Present Military Option

  Summary: Last week, retired Air Force Gen. Chuck Wald published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal declaring "There Is a Military Option on Iran." It’s probably not a coincidence that Wald’s piece was hot on the heels of John Bolton’s "While Diplomats Dither, Iran Builds Nukes." source: ...

• Clinton: US Supported Iran Protesters ‘Behind th ...

  Summary: In an interview today on CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that while the US didn’t want to come out too publicly in favor of the protesters in the wake of Iran’s disputed June elections, the State Department was “doing a lot” behind the sc ...

The Daily Galaxy

• Scientists Pinpoint Source of Earth’s "Hum"

  It's not just whales that sing, the Earth does too. A pair of physicists at the University of California figured out that the Earth’s hum is caused not by earthquakes or atmospheric turbulence, but by ocean waves colliding with the...

• Artificial DNA: Will It Trigger Unintended Consequ ...

  Cyborgs have been the sci-fi dream of a generation, merging man and machine in amazing new combinations. Most of which seem to look like major action stars. But a team at the University of Copenhagen think that's amateur hour. In...

• Is a "Hypercane" - A Mega-Katrina Possible? MIT Ex ...

  MIT's Kerry Emanuel describes the worst nightmare hurricane that could ever happen -a "hypercane" with winds raging around its center at 500 miles an hour. Water vapor; sea spray and storm debris are spewed into the atmosphere, punching a hole...

• Storms of Saturn's Moon Titan - A Model of the Ear ...

  NASA's Cassini spacecraft buzzed Titan last year, coming close enough to taste the Saturnian moon's atmosphere. The data acquired has implications for our understanding of life throughout the galaxy, as well as Earth's own past. Meanwhile, just this month astronomers...

• MIT Team Says "Global Warming Part of Earth's Natu ...

  A team of MIT scientists recorded a nearly simultaneous world-wide increase in methane levels -the first increase in ten years. What baffles the team is that this data contradicts theories stating humans are the primary source of increase in greenhouse...

Natural News

• Why Are Smart People So Ignorant When it Comes to ...

  (NaturalNews) A heart disease patient of late Had an IQ of 168. His brain was immense But it lacked common sense And it never engaged when he ate. - by the Health Ranger As an observer of human behavior, one of the most fascinating things I've ever witnessed is really smart people dying of diseases ...

• Specific Pesticide Directly Linked to Parkinson's ...

  (NaturalNews) According to the National Parkinson Foundation, about 1.5. Americans currently have Parkinson's Disease (PD) -- the motor system disorder which afflicts actor Michael J. Fox. Another 60,000 or so people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with PD in 2009. The four main symptoms of this often ...

• How to Beat and Prevent Osteoporosis Naturally

  (NaturalNews) As we age, our bones begin to erode, which to some extent is normal and a natural result of aging. However, some of us lose so much bone that our skeletons become weakened and deformed and in severe cases we incur loss of bone density in multiple places. That is osteoporosis, and it fr ...

• H1N1 Swine Flu Scenarios: Best Case, Worst Case Pr ...

  (NaturalNews) When it comes to swine flu, the public predictions are all over the map: On one hand, governments don't want you to be so worried that you start to panic and stay home from work, but they want you to be worried enough to submit to a vaccine injection. Beyond the vaccine propaganda and ...

• Proton Pump Inhibitors to Treat GERD Cause Heartbu ...

  (NaturalNews) Prilosec, Nexium, Prevacid, Aciphex. These and a dozen more drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have quickly become superstars of Big Pharma. As recently reported by US News and World Report , last year people worldwide shelled out some $ 25.6 billion for these drugs that are ...

• TheGallopingBeaver

• But can they handle Godzilla?

  There a general election at the end of the month here in Japan so the parties are busy running around trying to show how on top of things they are and how they have every possible contingency covered in their little policy books. Naturally, the papers have been full of policy stuff for weeks, much o ...

• The New Know-Nothings

  I often think he's a sexist pig and frequently wish he'd just shut up already about atheism and religion, but Bill Maher is right: Americans are stupid. I don't think all Americans are stupid, but there is a vast swath of dumbness that seem to run through the population like a venereal disease. I ...

• At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning.. ...

  With condolences and respect to the families and friends of Sapper Matthieu Allard and Corporal Christian Bobbitt, 5e Régiment du génie de combat. Killed due to enemy action. Ubique

• Make safe

  Just a little note... This eventful summer - hospitals and other issues - tells me it's time for a break of sorts. Posts from Boris will be likely be a little sparse for the next while. I'm off to a quiet corner of the country for a few months of fieldwork, a needed break, and maybe even some fishin ...

• How to waste money

  FOREIGN POLICY has a neat page, entitled " The List: The World's Biggest Military Boondoggles ". It's quite a list, and it seems that the U.S. is not alone in trying to make failure expensive. Britain: TYPE 45 DARING-CLASS DESTROYER Budget: $10.6 billion for six ships Status: Delayed From the p ...

Media Matters for America

• REPORT: The media have debunked the death panels ...

  Numerous media outlets have now debunked right-wing claims that the House health care reform bill would encourage euthanasia of the elderly, including Sarah Palin's claim -- forwarded by the conservative media -- that the bill would create a "death panel" and the related claim -- initiated by Be ...

• Special Report portrays "death panels" ...

  Fox News' Bret Baier repeated Sarah Palin's false assertion that the end-of-life counseling provided for under the House health care reform bill would, in Baier's words, "not be voluntary as the president says." Baier did not note that the counseling would indeed be voluntary and that Palin's ...

• WSJ misrepresents Obama interview to fea ...

  Claiming that it's "[n]o wonder so many seniors rebel" at President Obama's health care proposals, a Wall Street Journal editorial misrepresented a New York Times interview of Obama to claim that Obama seems to believes that end-of-life "medical issues are all justifiably political questions tha ...

• Cavuto ignores reality in claiming "not a one" ec ...

  Neil Cavuto falsely claimed that "not a one, not a one" economist in the Bloomberg survey of economists "credits that stimulus" with helping the economy begin to recover. But in presenting the survey findings, Bloomberg in fact reported that Kenneth Goldstein, an economist at the Conference Boa ...

• Pruden smears Democrats to back claim that Congre ...

  Purporting to give evidence that Congress is over-privileged and disconnected from voters, Wesley Pruden falsely claimed in his Washington Times column that Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad "are under investigation by ethics committees for taking sweetheart mortgages" and that "Democ ...

Global Research.ca

• 2005 Report: Japan Links Tamiflu to Sudden Deaths ...

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

• Latin American Leaders oppose US Military Interfer ...

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

• Spy bug takes flight, wins more Pentagon money

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

• Italy, Germany and Japan: Former World War II Axis ...

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

• GLOBAL RESEARCH CHALLENGE

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

TPM Cafe

• Format change

  I have changed the format of the Bronte Capital blog. The reason was that the columns were too narrow and I could not get the tables in the last post to display correctly. If people are used to the old... Sponsored Topics: Bronte Capital - Business - John - United States - Financial services

• Modelling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – part IV

  In the last post I introduced readers to cumulative default curves. In this post I am going to create a naïve (but surprisingly robust) model of end losses using those cumulative default curves. Later posts are going to detail the... Sponsored Topics: Freddie Mac - Fannie Mae - Business - Real e ...

• Modelling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – Part III

  In the previous post I showed you what had caused the big losses at Fannie and Freddie to date. In short it was mark-to-market securities (on private label securities and the like) and interest rate hedging instruments that collapsed in... Sponsored Topics: Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac - Business - ...

• T. Friedman "sharing" with and "lecturing" IDF gen ...

  Thanks to Haaretz's Anshel Pfeffer for telling us about Tom's recent lecture gig with the IDF general staff. (HT: As'ad Abu-Khalil.) Pfeffer writes, Friedman gave a lecture last week to a number of members of the IDF General Staff. He... Sponsored Topics: Middle East - Haaretz - Israel - Warfare ...

• Presented By:

TruthOut

• US Economic Myths Bite the Dust

  A foundry in Schmiedeberg in eastern Germany steps up production. Indications are that Europe's recession may end later this year. (Photo: Matthias Rietschel / Associated Press) read more

• Lack of North American Leadership

  Times of crisis require bold leadership and innovative solutions. Crises demand the casting aside of old, failed paradigms and the mobilization of people to create new ones. Exactly the opposite happened when the leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the United States met in Guadalajara fr ...

• Bill Clinton: GOP Promotes Fear Over Health Care

  Pittsburg - Republicans have turned to terrifying people in the debate over overhauling the health care system because the GOP has no political clout to fight it, former President Bill Clinton told a gathering of progressive bloggers on Thursday. Clinton was president when the Democ ...

• Report: Right-Wing Militias on the Rise in US

  Washington - Incensed by the election of the first black US president, right-wing militia groups in the United States are rising again after a decade of decline, according to new research on extremist groups. Ideologically driven by racism and a virulent anti-government, anti-taxation ...

• Howl

  I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix ... read more

The Heathlander

• Silencing civil society

  Former Israeli military commander Efran Efrati recently testified to the BBC that Palestinian children are ‘routinely ill-treated’ by Israeli soldiers: “You take the kid, you blindfold him, you handcuff him, he’s really shaking… Sometimes you cuff his legs too. Sometimes it cuts off the ci ...

• Gaza Freedom March

  For those who don’t know, Norman Finkelstein and others are organising a mass non-violent global march on Gaza to break the siege. Some updates: - Gaza Freedom March website: http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/ - YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/GazaFreedomMarch - A list of peop ...

• The latest anti-Hamas meme: “child brides”

  Last week, Hamas sponsored a mass wedding celebration in Gaza, perhaps in an attempt to reverse its flagging poll ratings: ‘Nearly a thousand Palestinians celebrated marriage on Thursday night in a ceremony organised by Hamas in the north of the Gaza Strip. Hamas dignitaries including Mahmud Zahar ...

• 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 ...

Water - AlterNet

• Mining's Destructive Legacy on Waterways

  Scientists are now beginning to see that mining's most lasting damage may be the massive amounts of debris dumped into valley streams.

• The CA Legislature Unveiled 5 New Water Bills -- A ...

  I would urge that California's water warriors hold their opinions until they actually read and digest these bills.

• Vitaminwater's Empty Calories Are at the Heart of ...

  Vitaminwater tells its customers to "hydrate responsibly." That means not drinking 125-calorie sugar rushes like ... Vitaminwater.

• Why Corporations, Emerging Powers and Petro-States ...

  In the past six months, big players in the global economy have grabbed 50 million acres of arable land, from Africa to Southeast Asia.

• Goodbye Pools, Lawns and a Whole Lot More: Why Lif ...

  Water in the very near future will be neither cheap nor plentiful, and much of the Southwest is destined for real trouble.

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

• Health Care Reform and the Fascist Response: Why? ...

  by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH Featured Writer Dandelion Salad crossposted on Buzzflash.com August 15,

• Politicizing Ethnicity: US Plan To Repeat Yugoslav ...

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

• Alex S. Jones’ "Losing the News" by Chris Hedges

  by Chris Hedges Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Truthdig August 14, 2009 I have spent most of my l

• David Frakt: Military Commissions “A Catastrophi ...

  by Andy Worthington Featured Writer Dandelion Salad www.andyworthington.co.uk 8 Aug. 2009 A month

• In Defense of Food – A Review by Guadamour

  by Guadamour Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Guadamour’s blog post August 8, 2009 In his latest

Unexplained Mysteries

• Mona Lisa gets animated

  A team of animators have created an exhibit of animated masterpieces at Beijing's Planning Exhibition Hall. Paintings such as the Mona Lisa can now mo...

• Massive methane storm spotted over Titan

  A huge storm the size of India has been observed over Saturn's moon Titan. Scientists are now working to try and piece together the processes that cau...

• Antarctic glacier 'thinning fast'

  A vast Antarctic glacier is thinning four times faster than it was a decade ago British scientists have revealed, with the surface of the ice dropping...

• NASA's 21st century Moon car

  NASA are currently developing this unusual looking new vehicle for use by astronauts on their upcoming visit to the moon. Unlike the Apollo moon buggi...

• 'Hypnotist' thief hunted in Italy

  Police in Italy are hunting an unusual thief who is characterised by hypnotising supermarket checkout staff in to handing him money from the cash regi...

Grassroots

• Building a Movement, Haitian Style

  pigs.jpg I spent the better part of last week crisscrossing Haiti’s arid Northwest with Grassroots International’s partner the National Congress of the Peasant’s Movement of Papay (MPNKP). MPNKP is best known to our allies and friends fo ...

• Resilient Hondurans Lead The Way To Protect Democr ...

  IMG00292.jpg Today, thousands of people will fill the streets of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. They are students, housekeepers, children and farmers from different parts of country—many of whom walked 10-12 miles a day to get to the ...

• Yes, We Can - But Will We Join Our Neighbors to Re ...

  More than a month after the military coup in the Central American country of Honduras (for which the term “banana republic” was originally coined due to the overwhelming influence of U.S. fruit corporations in that country), the junta is still in power and shows little real sign of budging. re ...

• They Are Afraid of Us, Because We are Not Afraid o ...

  Tom Loudon from our ally the Alliance for Responsible Trade, which is a member of the Hemispheric Social Alliance (a Grassroots International grantee) is currently in Honduras as part of an international human rights monitoring delegation. Today, August 11th, the Global Day of Action for Honduras, h ...

• On the Global Day of Action for Honduras, Donate y ...

  Want to do something simple to help support Honduran democracy and keep the crisis in the public eye? Donate your status! It’s free, easy, and can make a huge impact. Right now, the corporate news media is mostly silent about what’s happening on the ground in Honduras and the role of US polic ...

Climate

• August 14, 2009

  China Says Rich Up Pressure on Poor over Climate (Reuters) China has accused rich nations at UN climate talks of increasing pressure on the poor to do more to combat global warming while shirking their own responsibility to lead. India Blames Kyoto Failure for Climate Standoff (AFP) India ...

• August 13, 2009

  U.S. Court Blocks Plan to Curb Mountaintop Mining (Reuters) A federal court in Washington has blocked an attempt by the Obama administration to overturn a Bush-era rule that made it easier for coal mining companies to dump mountaintop debris into valley streams. Australian Parliament Rejects C ...

• August 12, 2009

  Oil Sands Test of Obama's Green Credentials (Financial Times) The Obama administration faces a test of its environmental credentials in deciding whether to approve a pipeline carrying greenhouse gas-intensive oil sands fuel from Canada into the US. Virginia Judge Nixes Permit for Coal Power Pla ...

• August 11, 2009

  Alaska Lawmakers Override Palin Energy Veto (AP) In a final spat with former Gov. Sarah Palin, the Alaska Legislature voted to override her veto of $28.6 million in federal stimulus funds intended for energy efficiency projects. India Says Developing World Not Split in Climate Talks (Reuters) ...

• August 10, 2009

  Vast Expanses of Arctic Ice Melt in Summer Heat (AP) The Arctic Ocean has given up tens of thousands more square miles of ice on Sunday in a relentless summer of melt, with scientists watching through satellite eyes for a possible record low polar ice cap. China to Unveil Plan for 'New Energy ...

TomDispatch

• Tomgram: Withdrawing by Bike from Iraq

  [ Note for TomDispatch Readers: So it's sayonara for a couple of weeks. I'm taking my usual August break. TomDispatch will return sometime the week of August 24th, but will be on a limited posting schedule through Labor Day. Let me take this opportunity once again to thank those of you who hav ...

• Tomgram: Mark Engler, Protesting at Climate Groun ...

  We're so past the Roman Empire by now that it's probably time to update the phrase "fiddling while Rome burns." What about, for instance, "writing fake letters ostensibly from real non-profit groups to weaken a climate-change bill while the planet burns"? It's true. According to the New York Ti ...

• Tomgram: Jamail and Lazare, Lost in Military Limb ...

  [ Note for TomDispatch Readers: In Chalmers Johnson's recent piece, "Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire," the mission of the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) was mischaracterized. It has now been corrected at the piece. ] It's not exactly a secret that the U.S. Army and the U.S. M ...

• Tomgram: John Feffer, Their Martyrs and Our Heroe ...

  The way you imagine someone engaged in a suicide attack depends, not surprisingly, on which end of the attack you happen to be on -- in cultural, if not literal terms. In American films and pop culture, there were few acts more inexplicable or malevolent in the years of my childhood than those of ...

• Tomgram: Frida Berrigan, 64 Years Too Late and No ...

  As another August 6th approaches, let me tell you a little story about Hiroshima and me: As a young man, I was probably not completely atypical in having the Bomb (the 1950s was a great time for capitalizing what was important) on my brain, and not just while I was ducking under my school desk ...

Smirking Chimp

• The GOP Chooses Fascism

  After Barack Obama's convincing win over John McCain, it was clear the Republican Party was at a crossroads. The Grand Old Party had to decide what ideology was going to guide it in the post-Bush era: a philosophy rooted in conservative ideas or a credo based upon fear and anger. Unfortunately for ...

• Ending The Culture of Violence Against Women: A Cr ...

  I was walking down the street in Berkeley many years ago when I saw a man with a knife holding a woman by her hair. He would release her, hit her, then grab her again, using the knife to make sure she didn't run. A small crowd was gathering around them. "It's okay," he said to the onlookers. " Sh ...

• Bush Refuses to Read Cheney's Memoir, Calling It ' ...

  On a day when Washington was abuzz with the news that former Vice President Dick Cheney planned to publish a tell-all memoir, former President George W. Bush offered his personal reason for not reading it. 

 "I have no intention of reading Dick Cheney's book," Mr. Bush told reporters, "because ...

• What If They Gave a War and Nobody Knew Why?

  Obama Still Trying to Define Victory in Afghanistan NEW YORK--What if they gave a war and nobody knew why? When the U.S. began bombing Afghanistan in October 2001, America's war aims were clear: capture or kill Osama bin Laden, overthrow the Taliban government, deny Al Qaeda training camps and a saf ...

• The Truth Will Not Out, on Its Own

  The right-wing fury at town hall meetings over health care and the Republican obstruction of any serious reform in Washington are not just symptoms of a complex debate on an issue packed with powerful special interests; it is a test of whether reality matters in the United States. When a suppose ...

Ten Percent

• CDS- Burning Down The House

  HARRY Markopolos — the whistleblower on Bernie Madoff who proved to be much smarter than the SEC — says there are evildoers out there who will make the Ponzi scum “look like small-time.” Markopolos gave a speech to 400 of the faithful at the Greek Orthodox Church in Southampton and predicted ...

• Attempt To Be Surprised, Washington Sneakily Funne ...

  A taxpayer funded US foreign aid agency, chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, earlier this year inked a multi-million dollar contract with a company controlled by one of the ringleaders of the recent coup d’état against the democratically elected president of Honduras, according to docu ...

• Those Astroturf Shills For Capital

  Image via A Very Public Sociologist’s Twitter (me like the Nambu) Margaret Talev, McClatchy Newspapers- Conservatives for Patients’ Rights is led by health care entrepreneur Rick Scott, the co-founder of Solantic urgent care walk-in centers, which he’s spread across Florida and is looking ...

• Friday! Soupy Norman

  The heartwarming & bizarre tale of insane Irish folk complicated by the fact the show is actually a Polish soap opera redubbed/remixed by Irish comedians. Complete run playlist is here ya feckin’ culchies!

• Would Obama Have Supported Pinochet?

  Honduras, from the Quixote Center (ht2 Otto)- In Tegucigalpa, the Teachers University resembles a military base. Large numbers of people remain detained and missing. The use of 1980’s torture centers as detention sites raises concerns that people are being tortured. COMAL and COPINH report that ...

Paul Krugman

• Deficits and interest rates

  It turns out that there's a strong correlation between budget deficits and interest rates -- namely, when deficits are high, interest rates are low.

• Isakson's lament

  Giving Sen. Isakson his fig leaf.

• The reality of TV

  The truth about the talking head.

• Yes, Bush tried to destroy Social Security

  The Bush plan would have ended Social Security for the middle class.

• Journamalism

  One of my biggest gripes is reporting that focuses on the political game without ever informing readers or viewers about the actual facts.

No Quarter

• We Let Them Down - Open Thread

  “We really have let them down. We did not help prevent this recession.” Trust and respect. They are fragile things. You do not earn them by finger pointing. You can not instill them through political theater. You should not jeopardize them with fear mongering. Those are the tactic of politic ...

• Have you seen these TV ads?

  The aggressive far-left union SEIU has teamed up with the pharmaceutical industry and the AMA to spend tens of millions to blitz TV and radio with pro-Obama health care ads. To counter this dominating ad flood, each of us needs to spread the word and contribute to keep the following two opposition a ...

• Live Blog Obama’s Montana Town Hall (& Open Thre ...

  Obama’s town hall meeting in Montana (3 p.m. ET/noon PT) is supposed to be more “open” than his New England town hall. Tickets have been dispensed openly. “Officials and media are bracing for a potentially aggressive crowd similar to the ones that have confronted lawmakers during town hall ...

• Are Your Representatives Chickening Out? UPDATED

  See the Update about how many of our Elected Officials will/not be holding Town Hall Forums at the bottom of the page. Friend to NQ, Kathleen Wynne from HandCountPaperallotsNow made a suggestion after seeing the negative spin the MSM is putting on reports of concerned citizens calling out their repr ...

• If You Think Sexism Is Not an Issue Anymore …

  This video was created by The New Agenda, which is celebrating its one-year anniversary this week! Take a look at this excellent synopsis: Here’s the video’s description, which also describes the mission of The New Agenda: “A look at how far women have come in politics in the last 50 year ...

Environmental Graffiti

• Ant Invaders Enslave their Kind and Subject them t ...
• Rare Photo of 1840s American Steam Locomotive
• The Incredible Terraced Chalk Ponds of Pamukkale
• Amsterdam From Above
• Largest Temple Complex in Polynesia

Foreign Policy in Focus

• Lack of North American Leadership

  The three amigos met in Guadalajara and failed to usher in a new paradigm of North American cooperation.

• Learning from the British in Iraq

  History suggests that the United States won't be leaving Iraq any time soon.

• The Pursuit of True Security

  For all of the money we spend on defense, are we really all that safer?

• The Bully in Baghdad

  Politics has trumped democracy as Iraq just postponed a key vote on the status of U.S. forces in their country.

• Postcard From...Dharamsala

  Dharamsala is where Tibet 2.0 is being created.

Therapy News

• Temp Jobs Harm Mental Health - Study Suggests

  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline In the modern economic environment, many people are struggling with job loss or with the fear of losing their sources of income, and some are turning to temp jobs in an effort to stay afloat. While this may be a wise choice financially, a study conducted at McGill Uni ...

• Multi-National Study Links Many Mental Health Conc ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline In the consideration of suicide, it’s a commonly held idea that those with symptoms of depression are most prone to thinking about suicide and exhibiting relevant behaviors. This may not be the case, however, as described by a recent study based on over one hundred ...

• Therapy for Smoking Cessation May Ward Off Dementi ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Update Smoking Cessation Therapies May Ward Off Dementia Cognitive decline is a serious mental health issue affecting a large number of aging people, and tends to strike for a variety of reasons, sometimes without much of any warning. As the progress of medical science marches ...

• Annual Conference for OCD Helps Clients Cope

  A GoodTherapy.org News Headline While the effects, for both clients and their families, of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD can have far-reaching consequences that greatly impact elements of everyday life, many who grapple with the mental health concern remain untreated, even during the normal c ...

• Growing Awareness of Nutrition Sets to Foster Happ ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Update Check into a given health-related news portal these days and you’re likely to find a wealth of material about obesity. Calling the increasing number of people who grow up overweight an “epidemic,” some medical professionals and reporters have represented the ...

Mountaintop Removal

• Enviro Groups Tread Lightly With Endangered Specie ...

  The Appalachians' 28.5 billion tons of anthracite coal is obtained through mountaintop removal -- dynamiting the tops off the...

• Obama's OSM Pick Dodges Questions on Mountaintop R ...

  by Ken Ward Jr. CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- President Obama's choice to be the nation's top strip-mining regulator said Thursday he needs to learn more about mountaintop removal coal mining before he can comment on whether it needs to be more strictly policed. Joseph G. Pizarchik declined to offer his view ...

• Scioto County Ohioans Fighting Pain Pill Abuse (WS ...

  Despite the troubling local Florida connection to Miami area pain pill mills, one local county with a growing pain pill problem is fighting back. Scioto County Health Commissioner Dr. Aaron Adams said a local coroner's study shows a dramatic rise in overdose deaths from prescription painkillers. ...

• Man Purchased Cartons of Cigarettes with Stolen Cr ...

  Kanawha County Sheriff's Deputies are looking for a man accused of purchasing cartons of cigarettes with a stolen credit card.

• Woman Wanted in Connection with Credit Card Theft ...

  Police in St. Albans are asking for your help to catch a woman they say used a stolen credit card to buy hundreds of dollars in merchandise.

Memeorandum

• Conrad says he won't support government-run health ...

  Katie Ryan / Jamestown Sun : Conrad says he won't support government-run health care program — CARRINGTON, N.D. — Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. presented his cooperative health care proposal here Thursday and told an audience of 100 that he would not vote for a government-run health care progr ...

• Septuagenarian Twitter Flame War: Grassley Warns S ...

  Brian Beutler / TPMDC : Septuagenarian Twitter Flame War: Grassley Warns Specter He Never Said “Death Boards” — Earlier today, I reported that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) planned to call his old friend Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to admonish him that health care legislation will not result ...

• Oh, Those Death Panels (Amy Sullivan/Swampland)

  Amy Sullivan / Swampland : Oh, Those Death Panels — You would think that if Republicans wanted to totally mischaracterize a health care provision and demagogue it like nobody's business, they would at least pick something that the vast majority of them hadn't already voted for just a few yea ...

• Obama: 'TV loves a ruckus' (Carol E. Lee/The Polit ...

  Carol E. Lee / The Politico : Obama: ‘TV loves a ruckus’ — BELGRADE, Mont. - It was another town hall and another well-mannered crowd for President Barack Obama as he took his pitch for health care reform to the Rockies, telling residents of a small town in this big Republican state tha ...

• Toxic Loans Topping 5% May Push 150 Banks to Point ...

  Ari Levy / Bloomberg : Toxic Loans Topping 5% May Push 150 Banks to Point of No Return — Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank's equity ...

Energy & Environment News

• Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security

  A growing number of policy makers say that the world’s rising temperatures, surging seas and melting glaciers are a direct threat to the national interest.

• Bronx River Journal: Herring Return to the City, W ...

  An experiment to see if the fish would spawn in the Bronx River, go to sea and return to spawn again has succeeded.

• National Briefing | Charities: More Groups’ ...

  At least two more charities’ names were used in a lobbying campaign that sent out letters falsely purporting to be from nonprofit groups to express opposition to climate change legislation.

• Dot Earth: Transformational Energy Ideas

  A closer look at potentially transformational energy ideas.

• National Briefing | West: California: Deal in Bay ...

  The company based in Hong Kong that operates the cargo ship that caused a 2007 oil spill in San Francisco Bay pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

5+ quakes - 7 days

• M 5.3, Minahasa, Sulawesi, Indonesia

  Saturday, August 15, 2009 12:30:12 UTC Saturday, August 15, 2009 08:30:12 PM at epicenter Depth : 154.00 km (95.69 mi)

• M 5.2, Philippine Islands region

  Friday, August 14, 2009 20:56:28 UTC Saturday, August 15, 2009 04:56:28 AM at epicenter Depth : 10.80 km (6.71 mi)

• M 5.3, Andaman Islands, India region

  Friday, August 14, 2009 19:39:50 UTC Saturday, August 15, 2009 01:39:50 AM at epicenter Depth : 26.40 km (16.40 mi)

• M 5.4, Vanuatu

  Friday, August 14, 2009 08:20:03 UTC Friday, August 14, 2009 07:20:03 PM at epicenter Depth : 63.40 km (39.39 mi)

• M 5.7, Tonga

  Thursday, August 13, 2009 11:17:02 UTC Friday, August 14, 2009 12:17:02 AM at epicenter Depth : 14.70 km (9.13 mi)

China Dialogue

• Removing chemicals from our food

  Recent studies show that food safety in China still needs improvement. Organic production is the answer, argues Jiang Gaoming. Here he explains how to make the shift. Environmental group Greenpeace recently tested vegetables purchased in supermarkets and markets in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou at ...

• Beginning of the end for oil?

  Greenpeace and others see the industry approaching a tipping point, thanks to price declines, technological advances and climate policies. Controversial investments in Canadian tar sands may be doomed. David Teather reports. A long-term decline in the demand for oil could undermine the huge investme ...

• Solar futures at the foot of Everest

  Passive solar homes could help to improve people’s daily lives and protect the environment on the Tibetan plateau, finds Cai Rupeng. The summer had only just started, but village elder Yuzhen was already looking forward to winter. Standing in front of her home in Tingri , Tibet, one looks up and s ...

• Leading the swine-flu battle

  WHO director Margaret Chan announced in June that a new virus had reached pandemic proportions. She tells Aida Edemariam how H1N1 is being fought and of the personal price she pays. Although she would no doubt point out that swine flu should properly be called H1N1, there is something pleasing in th ...

• “I openly call for emissions cuts” (2)

  In the second section of a two-part interview, Liu Jianqiang and Yi Shui talk to Hu Angang about how China’s climate-change policy is formed, and how it can change. [Produced in association with Rutgers Climate and Social Policy Initiative ] chinadialogue: Many Chinese people who oppose a comm ...

Daily Censored

• Cavuto And Payne Baselessly Suggest Obama Wants To ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds Guest blogged by Brian On Friday’s (8/14/09) Your World, host Neil Cavuto got together with a fellow conservative, Charles Payne, to discuss pay and car czars. There was no liberal in the discussion. Referring to the pay czar, Payne said, “This is the tip of th ...

• Cavuto And Payne Baselessly Suggest Obama Wants To ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds Guest blogged by Brian On Friday’s (8/14/09) Your World, host Neil Cavuto got together with a fellow conservative, Charles Payne, to discuss pay and car czars. There was no liberal in the discussion. Referring to the pay czar, Payne said, “This is the tip of th ...

• Blackwater Still Armed in Iraq

  Read the full story at CommonDreams.org Headlines by Jeremy Scahill Despite the Iraqi government’s announcement earlier this year that it had canceled Blackwater’s operating license, the US State Department continues to allow Blackwater operatives in Iraq to remain armed. A State Department of ...

• Grassley brings Glenn Beck’s book to town hall m ...

  EDITOR’S NOTE: Over the coming month, ThinkProgress will be traveling to town hall events across the country to report on what we’re seeing on the ground. This is our fourth eyewitness report. On Wednesday, during Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) town hall in Winterset, Iowa, an attendee pro ...

• ACLU Sends Defense Department Letter Requesting In ...

  Yesterday the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter to the Department of Defense asking them to reconsider releasing information — such as “a list of names, citizenship, length of detention, [and] capture location” — about detainees held at the detention facility at Bagram air ...

AlterNet's Breaking News

• First named storm of hurricane season forms in Atl ...

• Japan records first death from swine flu: official

• Iran detainees tortured, beaten to death: Karroubi

• Hamas, Islamist clashes in Gaza killed 20: medics

• At least 19 dead in prison riot in Mexico

Institute for Policy Studies

• Their Martyrs and Our Heroes

  Powerful, developed countries have suicide bombers too.

• Taxing Wealth for the Common Good

  Business leaders and wealthy individuals call for a repeal of the Bush-era taxes on high incomes.

• The Destruction of the Black Middle Class

  Left out of the commentary on race and class over the Gates affair has been talk of the increasing impoverishment — or, we should say, re-impoverishment — of African Americans as a group.

• Asia's Axis of Evil?

  Burma and North Korea are the pariahs of Asia. Are these birds of a feather flocking together?

• 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.

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

• Taliban claim blast at NATO base in Kabul

  KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb that killed seven people on Saturday in the heart of the Afghan capital's most secure district five days before an election the Islamist group has vowed to disrupt.

• Controller's role in NY air collision studied

  * Safety regulators differ on importance of phone call * FAA to review safety rules over Hudson River By John Crawley WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Scrutiny of an air traffic controller's actions, including whether a phone call may have distracted him, intensified on Friday as investigators releas ...

• Obama says insurance companies holding U.S. hostag ...

  BELGRADE, Montana (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, pushing for healthcare reform during a trip to the West, said on Friday the country was "held hostage" by insurance companies that deny coverage to sick people.

• Taliban claim suicide strike on NATO compound in K ...

  KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb in front of the heavily fortified headquarters of U.S. and NATO troops in Kabul on Saturday, saying the target was the U.S. embassy nearby.

• Wall St Week Ahead-Stocks could pull back as earni ...

  NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks could extend this week's retreat after a four-week advance as the earnings season winds down and investors search for signs that consumer spending will help sustain an economic recovery.

Godspace

• Unemployment as a Spiritual Practice

  I am now back from Australia and as you can imagine the posts for my series on What is a Spiritual Practice have been mounting up while I have had limited internet access and less time to focus on such things. Â Thanks for your patience and for your prayers during this challenging season. Today’ ...

• Editing your Life: The Spiritual Discipline of Edi ...

  I am sitting in Sydney on a beautiful but crisp winter’s morning watching the rainbow lorikeets out in the trees. Â My Dad’s funeral is over and I will head back to Seattle in 2 days time. Â I have been very aware of prayer and the grace of God in the midst of this. Â Thanks to [...]

• Living in Transition as Spiritual Practice

  I am now in Sydney Australia after what has been one of the easiest long international trips I have made for a long time. Â I even slept for several hours on the flight which makes me very aware of the fact that people have been praying for me. Today’s article comes from Guy Chmieleski who is [. ...

• Recent Additions to the Spiritual Practices series

  Here’s the round-up of the most recent Spiritual Practices posts: The Spiritual Practice of Apologizing by T Freeman Love-making as a Spiritual Practice by Mark Scandrette Smoking the Glory of God by Jason Clark The Spiritual Practice of Getting Honest With Myself by Jonathan Brink Spiritual Disci ...

• Between the Sheets: Sleeping as A Spiritual Practi ...

  I will be heading out to Australia this afternoon but am hoping to continue posting while I travel. Â The submissions continue to arrive which is wonderful and I am enjoying reading them before I post them. This morning’s post is from Teri Peterson a presbyterian pastor who loves her new bed (wh ...

Equality Trust

• Shattering the myth of equality

  An article by Boris Frankel in Melbourne's newspaper 'The Age'.

• Polly Toynbee: This bold equality push is just wha ...

  Polly Toynbee writing about the new Equality Bill today's Guardian. "Harriet Harman's bill is a frank recognition of the role of class in Britain. A decade earlier, it might have had a real impact..."

• Seumas Milne: This naked display of class egotism ...

  "It's more than a week since Alistair Darling's budget, but the howls of protest haven't stopped for a day ever since. That's not been the public sector employees facing a harsh squeeze on jobs and pay who've been squealing, or the million workers expected to join the dole queues in the next year, ...

• Bob Holman on social breakdown

  Bob Holman writes in the Glasgow Herald about the evidence in The Spirit Level.

• Inequality is the root of our unhappiness

  Former director of the Institute of Education Peter Mortimore, writing in today's Education Guardian.

IntelNews

• News you may have missed #0068

  US overt aid to Pakistan revealed. Intolerance of Arabs, Muslims led to torture, says US interrogator. China drops Rio Tinto espionage charges.

• Sri Lankan forces score massive intelligence victo ...

  Not only does the Sri Lankan government appear to be scoring a massive tactical victory in its 25-year military confrontation with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), it is also well on its way to smashing the LTTE’s intelligence infrastructure.

• Ex-FBI translator alleges Turkish intelligence act ...

  A former FBI translator has alleged that agents acting at the behest of the Turkish government have bugged, blackmailed and bribed US politicians.

• News you may have missed #0067

  David Wise on CIA assassinations. These are the architects of torture in 9/11’s wake. Defector recounts torture, terrorism by Uzbek government.

• News you may have missed #0066

  US court upholds conviction of CIA contractor. US ex-Attorney General comes out against CIA probe. A rare Chinese view on the Rio Tinto spy case.

Res'Eau-WaterNet

• Too Many Canadians Without Safe Water: $5.2M to He ...

  For six million Canadians, quenching their thirst isn’t a matter of simply turning on the kitchen faucet.

• Dr. David Wilkinson appointed Director of the Clea ...

  RES'EAU-WaterNET researcher Dr. David Wilkinson was recently appointed Director of the Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC), beginning July 1, 2009.

• Walkerton Clean Water Centre Receives Ontario Mini ...

  The Walkerton Clean Water Centre (WCWC) – a RES’EAU-WaterNET partner – received the 2008 Emerald Award for innovation from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment at an awards ceremony held on March 3, 2009.

• Filling the glass

  Innovation Canada : Showcasing Research Excellence in Canada

PDA AMERICA

• A Progressive Response to Mitch Stewart & OFA

  Dear Mitch Stewart & OFA, I am glad you are still Organizing for America — we need the activated grassroots energy that swept Mr. Obama into office to keep things moving forward. But I have ...

• Progressive Democrats take a stand on health care

  From the RNN: The Real News Network Some members of Congress are going to fight for a robust public option and a single-payer amendment VIDEO CAN BE VIEWED BY CLICKING HERE An amendment introduced by representative Anthony ...

• Who Decides About War?

  WhoDecidesAboutWar.org National Conference on War Powers, Law, and Democracy October 2-3, 2009 Washington D.C. Who decides about war and peace? Congress? The President? The Courts? The People? What kind of national defense should the U.S. have? What ...

• Another Scandal Near New Orleans

  By Jayne Lyn Stahl There have been no shortage of news stories about how detainees have been treated at Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib before it. Likewise, there has been a lot of talk about so-called ...

• CDPP Report for August 2009

  CDPP report, August 2009, Mervis Reissig and Anna Givens Two of us have volunteered to continue working with the Congressional District Point Person program for PDA. As CD Point People ourselves and longtime volunteers for ...

Marler Blog

• Why the CDC has it right - It was Nestle Toll Hous ...

  In early June 2009, public health investigators noticed an increase in isolates submitted by multiple state public health laboratories to PulseNet with a two-enzyme pattern combination of EXHX01.0224 and EXHA26.0536. This is a relatively common pattern combination, appearing at least 364 times in t ...

• OK, I made a mistake - FSIS did publish Retail Rec ...

  I blew it. I look at the FSIS site daily and I missed that they had posted the below list of retail outlets that received the Salmonella Newport Beef: I am sorry. The Sterling Pacific Meat products subject to recall include: Fatburger Brand: * 20-pound packages of "8 oz. PUCK (80/20) GROUND BEEF P ...

• A week after FSIS announces a Class I Recall of Sa ...

  On August 6, 2009 Beef Packers, Inc., of Fresno, California recalled approximately 825,769 pounds of ground beef products linked to an outbreak of salmonellosis (disease that can be caused by antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Newport). This was announced on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Sa ...

• Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough E. coli Outbreak, P ...

  There are a lot of things I love about my job, but one is the science behind linking people in dozens of states to food that they consumed that poisoned them. Once that link is scientifically determined, and the outbreak stopped, then the time comes to learn from the mistakes so the next outbreak c ...

• H.R. 2749 - Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 - ...

  Click on above image to see final bill passed from the House, or see my post below.

• IPS - Inter Press Services

• RIGHTS-CHILE: Mapuche Activist's Death Heats Up C ...

  SANTIAGO, Aug 14 (IPS) - The lack of opportunities for dialogue and participation and the struggle for control over land and natural resources in Chile are hurdles to a solution to the Mapuche Indians' century-long conflict, which claimed a new victim this week: a 24-year-old activist shot by t ...

• POLITICS-US: J Street’s Muslim Funding for ...

  WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (IPS) - News reports and right-wing blogs have been repeating reports which claim that Muslims and Arabs are among the donors to the J Street political action committee (PAC) which lobbies American policymakers to work on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conf ...

• RIGHTS-SPAIN: Conditions Getting Tougher for Immi ...

  MADRID, Aug 14 (IPS) - Immigrants in Spain are getting a raw deal from state institutions and at the same time from small and medium business owners, who not only take unfair advantage of them, but sometimes also physically ill-treat them.

• DISARMAMENT: U.S. Says No to Nukes, Yes to Conven ...

  UNITED NATIONS, Aug 14 (IPS) - U.S. President Barack Obama’s pledge to take concrete steps towards "a world without nuclear weapons" has garnered overwhelming support from peace activists worldwide.

• US: Children Call for End to Immigration Raids

  PHOENIX, Arizona, Aug 14 (IPS) - It has been two months since Katherine Figueroa has shared a meal with her parents. Both of them are undocumented workers that were arrested in a workplace raid last June by Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office here.

The Intelligence Daily

• Video -- Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century ...

• 9/11 Mind Swell

• Global Depression and Regional Wars - Part I

• Italy, Germany and Japan: Former World War II Axis ...

• Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Econom ...

My AntiWar

• Wag The Dog, Again

  Summary: It is curious that in spite of the fact that there is a consensus that Iran is not yet seeking a nuclear weapon and has no capability to accumulate sufficient weapons grade uranium to do so for some time to come, US politicians and media accept without question the Israeli argument that Ir ...

• IRAN: Under Pressure from Hawks, Obama Tacks to th ...

  Summary: But the administration is facing a great deal of pressure to move quickly to sanctions from congressional hawks – backed by hardline organisations within the so-called “Israel lobby” – who have been pushing for a tougher line against Tehran since well before the Jun. 12 elections t ...

• In Iran, Reformists Call for Investigation Into Su ...
• Friday: 2 Iraqis Killed, 7 Iraqis Wounded
• General Considers More Afghanistan Fighters

• Rogue Government.com

• Invisible doorways or portals a step closer to re ...

  Using a technique known as transformation optics, the researchers have revealed a way to alter the pathway of light waves that could eventually allow them to create portals that are invisible to the human eye.

• Australian Senate Reject's Rudd's Cap And Trade E ...

• No-warrant terrorism raids proposed

  The Federal Government has unveiled plans to toughen its counter-terrorism laws, including a change to allow police to break into a suspect's home without getting approval from a judge.

• Computer scientists reveal new voting machine hac ...

  A team of computer scientists at University of California, San Diego, the University of Michigan and Princeton University announced a new way to electronically steal votes Monday.

• Airlines to Require More Passenger Data

  Airlines this week will begin requiring some people making reservations for domestic flights to submit their dates of birth and genders as part of a screening process aimed at keeping boarding passes out of the hands of suspected terrorists, the Transportation Security Administration said.

Innovation Canada

• Ocean view

  The winch at the rear of the ship slowly lowers a 13-tonne steel capsule about the size of three minivans into still water in early July. The shell, painted a garish yellow, is a trawl-resistant frame designed to deflect fishing nets. More important, once settled on the ocean floor, the capsule will ...

• Space reader

  (Article courtesy of the University of Windsor) Bill McConkey probably won’t be around to see the day when humans are finally able to travel tremendous stretches through outer space to distant planets such as Jupiter. When they do make that journey, however, they’ll owe a significant debt of gra ...

• 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 ...

Signs of the times

• Deadly contractor incident sours Afghans

  Mirza Mohammed Dost stood at the foot of his son's grave, near a headstone that read, "Raheb Dost, martyred by Americans." His son was no insurgent, Dost said. He was walking home from prayers on the night of May 5 when he was shot and killed on a busy Kabul street by U.S. security contractors. "Th ...

• Blackwater Still Armed in Iraq

  Despite the Iraqi government's announcement earlier this year that it had canceled Blackwater's operating license, the US State Department continues to allow Blackwater operatives in Iraq to remain armed. A State Department official told The Nation that Blackwater (which recently renamed itself Xe S ...

• UK: Anti-fascist protesters to 'kettle' BNP festiv ...

  Anti-fascist protesters are to attempt to "kettle" a controversial BNP festival. The annual Red, White and Blue festival started on Friday in Codnor, Derbyshire, and runs until Sunday. The rally, in its 10th year, has sparked widespread controversy, and protesters will descend on the site to show th ...

• Massachusetts deputizes dentists, paramedics, and ...

  Massachusetts health authorities took the unprecedented step yesterday of deputizing dentists, paramedics, and pharmacists to help administer vaccines against both the seasonal flu and the novel swine strain expected to make a return visit in the fall. In another emergency measure, regulators direc ...

• In India swine flu panic spreads faster than virus

  The streets of the western city of Pune were half-empty, schools in Mumbai were ordered closed, and people suffering aches flooded hospitals across the country as India confronted dueling outbreaks of swine flu and swine flu panic. Twenty one people have died from the flu here, the government said ...

Threat Level

• Luckless Predator Only Attracted to Undercover Cop ...

  It’s official. There’s nobody in the chat rooms but pedophiles and undercover police. On Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld the conviction of an Indiana man whose online efforts to proposition underage girls led him to not one, not two, but three undercover cops, none of whom apparently kn ...

• Hotel Error Advertises Room Rate in Italy for 1 Ce ...

  Word apparently spread quickly across the internet on Sunday night that a luxury hotel in Venice, Italy, was offering a special 1-cent-a night rate. Visitors to the online registration page of the luxury Crowne Plaza Venice East-Quarto d’Altino hotel discovered it wasn’t just a rumor and that in ...

• Firefox Plug-In Frees Court Records, Threatens Jud ...

  Access to the nation’s federal law proceedings just got a public interest hack, thanks to programmers from Princeton, Harvard and the Internet Archive, who released a Firefox plug-in designed to make millions of pages of legal documents free. Free as in beer and free as in speech. The Problem: Fe ...

• Feds Support $1.92 Million RIAA File Sharing Verdi ...

  The Obama administration told a federal judge Friday the $1.92 million jury verdict against a Minnesota woman for sharing 24 music tracks on Kazaa was constitutionally sound, despite defense claims it was unconstitutionally excessive. After the June verdict against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, defense atto ...

• Top Security Firm RSA Tries to Silence Blog

  RSA security, one of the top security firms in the country, has sent takedown notices to a blogger and his hosting company in an effort to silence his discussion of a vulnerability found on a bank web site that RSA helps monitor, according to the blogger. The firm has accused the blogger of tradema ...

PERRspectives : Blog

• Health Scare: When Politics is Entertainment

  "When politics is just another form of entertainment," I lamented in a presentation on the 2008 campaign last year, "the first thing that suffers is the truth." And so it is with the incendiary health care debate and so much...

• Smoking Grassley on Health Care Reform

  After his predictable experience with unified Republican obstructionism on the stimulus bill, President Obama must be high if he thinks there's a glimmer of hope for bipartisan cooperation on health care reform. Not because Sarah Palin is doubling-down on her...

• Smoking Grassley on Health Care Reform

  After his predictable experience with unified Republican obstructionism on the stimulus bill, President Obama must be high if he thinks there's a glimmer of hope for bipartisan cooperation on health care reform. Not because Sarah Palin is doubling-down on her...

• Guns and Bitter in Pennsylvania

  During the Democratic primaries last spring, Barack Obama almost derailed his campaign with his unfortunate remark about "bitter" people in small town Pennsylvania who "cling to guns." Now after the second Keystone State shooting rampage in four months, that clumsy...

• The Unbearable Whiteness of Being...a Birther

  As has been documented in detail, the anti-Obama birther movement is strongest in precisely those states where Republicans poll best and, ironically, health care is worst. But despite experiencing serial embarrassments akin to learning the sun does not rise in...

Blackspot News Feed

• The art of the drug deal by Helen Redmond

  Helen Redmond explains how the drug industry got a seat at the head of the health care reform table.SocialistWorker.orgAugust 13, 2009BILLY TAUZIN, a former Republican member of Congress from Louisiana and the current president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America PhRMA, is al ...

• Several Charges Dropped in False Statements Case F ...

  The BRAD BLOGAugust 14, 2009Claiming that Ohio’s Republican U.S. House Rep. Jean Schmidt R-2nd is “conced[ing] that she does deny the Armenian Genocide”, the campaign of her Democratic challenger David Krikorian has just issued a press release posted in full below, stating that Schmidt has dro ...

• Fascist America II: The Last Turnoff By Sara Robin ...

  By Sara RobinsonCampaign for Americas FutureAugust 11, 2009Writing about fascism for an American audience is always a fraught business. Invariably, a third of the readers will dismiss the topic (and your faithful blogger’s basic sanity) out of hand. Either they’ve got their own definition of fas ...

• Fascist America: Are We There Yet? By Sara Robinso ...

  By Sara RobinsonCampaign for America’s FutureAugust 7, 2009All through the dark years of the Bush Administration, progressives watched in horror as Constitutional protections vanished, nativist rhetoric ratcheted up, hate speech turned into intimidation and violence, and the president of the Unite ...

• Bill Moyers Journal: Healthcare with Jamieson and ...

  Bill Moyers JournalAugust 14, 2009Media analyst Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Kaiser Family Foundation president and CEO Drew Altman discuss the messages in health care ads today, and how well they reflect the real issues of health care reform.via Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBS more about â ...

Consortium News

• The Truth Will Not Out, on Its Own

  The hysterias over the Iraq War and now health-care reform suggest truth is a fragile U.S. commodity, writes Robert Parry. August 13, 2009

• Rove Implicated in Prosecutor Firings

  Political adviser Karl Rove pressed for the firing of a key U.S. Attorney who balked at prosecuting Democrats, reports Jason Leopold. August 12, 2009

• Palin's 'Death Panel' and GOP Lying

  Sarah Palin's rant about Barack Obama's "death panel" fits with a 30-year-old Republican strategy to deceive, says Robert Parry. August 11, 2009

• Holder Torture-Probe Plan Faulted

  Attorney General Eric Holder's intent to okay only a limited torture probe is called too narrow, reports Jason Leopold. August 10, 2009

• McGovern on 'Downing Street Minutes'

  Ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern revisits the curious case of the "Downing Street Minutes" and the Iraq War, reports TheRealNews. August 10, 2009

CounterPunch

• Alexander Cockburn : Health Plans and Death Plans
• Ron Jacobs : Unconditional Negotiations, Now!
• Charles R. Larson : Egyptian Economics 101
• Poets' Basement : Reiss, Ford and Moser
• Jeffrey St. Clair : The Fall of the House of Stanf ...

Institute for Middle East Understanding

• Obama's America is not delivering the goods (Gide ...

  With great sorrow and deep consternation, we hereby declare the death of the latest hope. Perhaps rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase the famous quote by Mark Twain, but the fears are ...

• Invincible: 'You can't disconnect a people from t ...
• Rights group accuses Israeli government of waging ...

  Human Rights Watch on Friday accused the Israeli government of waging a propaganda war after authorities questioned the credibility of its latest report on civilian deaths in the Gaza war. "Instead of respo ...

• Big challenges ahead for Mahmoud Abbas (Helena Co ...

  Mahmoud Abbas, the 74-year-old leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement, registered a significant achievement in holding the movement's Sixth General Conference, which has been wrapping up its business in Be ...

• No hope of goodwill prisoner release before Ramada ...

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office will make no efforts to push forward a rumored prisoner release as a goodwill gesture to Palestinians ahead of Ramadan, Israel Radio reported Friday. In Aug ...

Planetsave

• Growing Acid in our Oceans: A Looming Threat to Se ...

  This picture is a picture of the beautiful Monterey, California coastline. This is where I grew up. It is famous for it’s beautiful sea life. Sea otters, jelly fish, sea lions, kelp forests all populate the Monterey coast. The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in the world. Yet, with all th ...

• Great Lakes Offshore Wind Aesthetics

  [social buttons] While public opinion remains divided about the risks and benefits of installing wind farms in the Great Lakes, several of the eight states with Great Lakes water are racing to be first to approve projects capturing energy from frequently strong offshore winds. It remains to be seen ...

• ET Text Home? Send your own Texts Into Space

  Gliese 581 d. Such a catchy name eh? You probably have never heard of it. It is 20 light years away, but in late April 2009 new observations by the original discovery team concluded that the planet is within the habitable zone where liquid water, and therefore, life, could exist. Some of you may h ...

• Australia Plans Airstrikes to Kill 650K Camels in ...

  Australia’s wild camel population is out of control. An estimated 1 million roam the outback, destroying fragile ecosystems, fouling water holes, and causing a threat to endangered wildlife. They are Australia’s largest invasive species, and the government is spending $19 million AUD to deal wi ...

• Dancing Rabbit Eco Village: The Inside Scoop

  Unless you live in an eco village or other form of intentional community, you’re probably curious about the lifestyle. You’ve probably already got some images stuck in your head (I know the commune from Easy Rider always comes to my mind). You may even cling to a few stereotypes. But, as you’v ...

Water Quality - WordPress

• Eutrophication : Sources and Drivers of Nutrient P ...

  World Resources Institute / by Mindy Selman and Suzie Greenhalgh http://www.wri.org/publication/eutr

• A Water Quality Report

  The 2009 Drinking Water Quality Report from the Portland Water Bureau arrived in the mail today. I r

• What's the difference between PondClear and MuckAw ...

  Pond clarity results with MuckAway and PondClear Pond & Lake Q & A Q: What’s the diffe

• Santa Monica's Green Street Explored

  Santa Monica's Bicknell Avenue Green Street, looking southwest toward the Santa Monica Bay Los A

• Fixing the Delta : How Will We Pay for It?

  Public Policy Institute of California / by Dean Misczynski http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R

Public Citizen in Texas

• Grassroots vs Astroturf- the difference in citizen ...

  Most people have a good general conception of what a real grassroots movement looks like: citizens get outraged over some injustice or inequity and get organized and get active. These campaigns are built from the bottom up. And what happens when you don’t have a grassroots movement but want to ...

• Boerne Makes Move on Local Renewable Power

  I came across this article recently in the Express-News’ Northwest Daily and had to share. Boerne, population c. 9,400, located about 30 miles northwest of San Antonio, will soon establish a framework for the development of distributed generation. Under the terms of an ordinance that passed a fir ...

• Texans care about climate change too

  Being an environmentalist in Texas, sometimes it feels like the whole world is against you. Â There’s a common assumption that folks around here just don’t care as much about the environment as elsewhere, and that people don’t see climate change as all that much of a threat. Â When I tell ...

• San Antonio Mayor’s Nuclear Town Hall Tonight

  Tonight, August 10, is Mayor Castro’s Town Hall Meeting, where he wants to allow the community to tell city council and himself what they think about going the nuclear route. This is so important to attend. It will be at the City Council Chambers downtown where Flores and Commerce meet (map belo ...

• Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round Up

  The Congress may be in recess, but the Texas Progressive Alliance is always in session. Here’s the weekly roundup of blog highlights. Off the Kuff takes a closer look at the crimefighting plan of Houston Mayoral candidate Annise Parker. WCNews at Eye On Williamson encourages everyone to get involv ...

Press TV

• Hundreds protest attacks on Caracas journalists

  Demonstrators took to the streets of Caracas in Venezuela after a group of journalists were attacked because of protesting against a new education law.

• Mexico prison riot leaves 19 dead

  At least 19 inmates have been killed and 20 others have been injured in a prison riot in northern Mexico, officials say.

• Sadeq Larijani appointed to head judiciary

  The Leader of the Islamic Revolution has appointed Sadeq Larijani to replace Mahmoud Shahroudi as Iran's new judiciary chief.

• Iran to try judge, 12 officers over Kahrizak

  Twelve Iranian police officers and one judge have been removed from their posts in connection with the notorious Kahrizak detention center and are now awaiting prosecution.

• Real cost of US missile shield under question

  The investigative arm of the US Congress has questioned the real cost of building the proposed US missile shields in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Axis of Logic

• Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Econom ...

• The 'Anti-Starbucks' Starbucks

• Exclusive: Kill Them All and Cover Them with Bulls ...

• One State, Two States - Resolving the Israel/Pales ...

• The Empire strikes back!

They Gave Us a Republic

• Which Side Are They On?

  The greatest threat to repug corporatist control of the economy is labor unions. The systematic destruction of labor unions in the '70s wasn't a byproduct of the stagflation, unemployment economy; it was the cause. Low wages, no benefits, income inequality - all track with the declining influence o ...

• In Defense of Low Level Torture Prosecutions

  A rumored special prosecutor to investigate those directly involved in allegations of torture prompted sharply different reactions among those who have largely been in agreement on the issue to this point. The question: Would it be little more than a whitewash or the first step in a fuller account ...

• The Nightowl Newswrap

  Did you read your Krugman today? If not go do so right now. Run along, we'll wait... Another reason to lead the way on environmental issues: Pollution Kills Particulate matter generated by diesel engines and coal-burning power plants doesn't observe borders or hang around where it's generated, but ...

• Surrender Monkeys

  The liberal blogosphere is surrendering on health care reform and I can't fucking believe it. First we get Steven Benen seconding the white flag raised by Paul Begala, mewling that even FDR didn't get the perfect Social Security bill at first. Then Benen piles on with a fine whine about how the publ ...

• How to Talk About Health Care Reform

  Via Down with Tyranny, Howard Dean at Netroots Nation explains:

Care 2

• Gaur - the tiger killer

  The Gaur is a big relative of the cow, being a bovine itself, and is the largest known wild cattle on the planet – in fact they are bigger than bison, water buffalo, and the Cape buffalo. They are found in south Asia, and are particularly vulnerable. Submitted by Rafael Apollo Lido to Animals | ...

• Banff squirrel photo gets huge attention-Video

  An Alberta ground squirrel is poised to become Canada’s most famous animal — at least for a week or two — after the creature inserted itself hilariously into a timed photo being taken by an American couple at a lake in Banff National Park. Submitted by Rafael Apollo Lido to Animals | Note- ...

• ASPCA Asks Court to Direct Helmsley Money Back to ...

  The ASPCA, along with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Maddie’s Fund, filed suit this week in New York Surrogate’s Court to intervene in the matter of the late Leona Helmsley’s $5 billion estate. Submitted by Phyllis P. to Animals | Note-it! | Add a Comment

• Your morning adorable: Baby western lowland gorill ...

  Although little Kibibi, a 7-month-old western lowland gorilla, will continue nursing for another few years, she recently began experimenting with solid food. Keepers at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., home to Kibibi and her mother, Mandara, say Submitted by Cher C. to Animals | Note-it! | ...

• Living with a non-vegan

  What do you do when you see that chicken meat and cow’s milk in the fridge sitting right next to your tofu and rice milk? Congratulations, you’ve chosen a non-vegan roommate. We don’t pick our roommates because of what they eat but how well we get Submitted by Simone D. to Green Lifestyle | ...

GreenBiz

• The Bottled Water Business Takes Another Licking

  In another sign that the worm has turned on the bottled water industry, Mother Jones magazine has an in-depth look at the impacts of FIJI Water on the planet and the island nation itself.

• Kraft Overhauls Its Manufacturing Ops to Cut Water ...

  In less than three years -- and a full two years ahead of its company-wide goal -- the snack giant has managed to save 3 billion gallons of water by adopting new manufacturing and cleaning methods.

• Bottled Water is Way More Complicated Than I Thoug ...

  It should be easy to phase out bottled water from company headquarters, right? Think again. It can bring up issues with a company's supply chain, cafeteria inventory and vending machines -- and don't forget the new dishwashers or glassware that may need to enter the picture.

• 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.

Reuters Global

• North Korea’s “Dear Leader” open ...

  A North Korean traffic officers directs cars on the streets of Pyongyang under a new umbrella. Photo provided by North Korea's official KCNA news agency on August 13, 2009.

• Pakistan’s Enemy No.1

  An overwhelming majority of Pakistanis consider the United States to be the greatest threat to the nation, far more than traditional rival India, and the Taliban, according to a new poll.

• Who is funding the Afghan Taliban? You don’t ...

  It is the open secret no one wants to talk about. In Afghanistan, one of the richest sources of Taliban funding is the foreign assistance coming into the country. International donors, primarily the United States, are to a large extent financing their own enemy.

• Targeted killings inside Pakistan;are they working ...

  The U.S. strategy of targeted killings inside Pakistan would seem to be working if the death of Baitullah Mehsud the leader of the Pakistani Taliban turns out to be true, as seems increasingly likely. But the jury is out over whether such strikes are effective over the longer term.

• Is a moral instinct the source of our noble though ...

  A growing number of psychologists, biologists and philosophers see the brain as the base of our moral views. Noble ideas such as compassion, altruism, empathy and trust, they say, are really evolutionary adaptations that are now instinctive responses fixed in our brains.

Ezra Klein

• Tab Dump

  • The economy: Now with more gild! • The myth of management consultants. • The New York Times calls a lie a lie. • End-of-life care: Where ethics meet economics. • Arlen Specter and Chuck Grassley, both septuagenarian senators, have a spat on twitter. Rarely has America been so terrib ...

• The New Message

  Barack Obama was in Montana today for a town hall on health care. I've pasted his remarks below the fold. They're most interesting for what's not in them. The word "cost" never appears. Nor does "curve." The word "insurance" appears 36 times, as in "insurance companies will no longer be able to ca ...

• The Michael Jackson Moment

  "We're in the Michael Jackson moment for health-care reform," says Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union. "These town halls are stages that have been set for a show. There's no way any congressman can think this is representative." At least, Stern hopes not. Before the town ...

• A Chat With the Head of the Health Insurance Indus ...

  Turns out the C-SPAN folks lied. The video of my interview with insurance industry poo-bah Karen Ignagni is not embeddable. But it is watchable online. You just have to go here .

• An Interview With Ezekiel Emanuel

  Before Ezekiel Emanuel joined his brother Rahm in the White House, he was director of the National Institute of Health's clinical bioethics programs and an oncologist specializing in breast cancer. Since he began advising President Obama's budget chief, Peter Orszag, on health care, however, he's be ...

Booman Tribune

• Netroots Nation

  This conference sucks:

• Wankers of the Day

  This is easy: Blanche Lincoln, Byron Dorgan, Kent Conrad, and Ben Nelson.

• Sestak and Specter in Pittsburgh

  I'm sitting in the Media Room with John Fund, Ron Reagan Jr., Arlen Specter, Shira Toeplitz of Roll Call, and a bunch of other reporters. I actually just shook hands with Specter, who's working the room. We're getting geared up for the big debate. It appears that Specter prefers Coca-Cola to Spri ...

• Netroots Nation

  I'm sitting in the big hall at Netroots Nation waiting for Bill Clinton to arrive. Adam Bonin is doing a great job of entertaining the crowd. He's introducing Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC). Brad Miller, you may remember, has a history with Booman Tribune. This is from the Las Vegas Yearly Kos: The ...

• Grassley is Putting Himself at Risk

  Until recently, I didn't think that Chuck Grassley would have any difficulty getting reelected. The Democrats don't have really high-profile contenders, and Grassley has a lot of seniority and remains fairly popular in Iowa. But I'm starting to wonder whether Grassley might be putting himself in j ...

European Tribune

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 15 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1875 – Birth of...

• Friday Open Thread

  Keep up the fight...

• "2007 was an incredibly good year for the super ri ...

  The top .01% (top 14,988 US families, making at least $11.5m in 2007) share increased...

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 21 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1936 – Birth of...

• It's all right, then

  Geithner Says Financial Revamp is on Track WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he...

Futurismic

• Scriths and legends: hidden portals a possibility

  Researchers in Hong Kong are developing technologies that could one day lead to hidden portals [1]: In the research paper, the researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Fudan University in Shanghai describe the concept of a “a gateway that can block electromagnetic wa ...

• Scriths and legends: hidden legends a possibility

  Researchers in Hong Kong are developing technologies that could one day lead to hidden portals [1]: In the research paper, the researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Fudan University in Shanghai describe the concept of a “a gateway that can block electromagnetic wa ...

• They’ve got a TV eye on you

  Much as we all bemoan the relentless increase of surveillance technologies in our countries, it appears that the cable TV companies are confident that we’ll just invite it in to our homes if there’s enough of an incentive. After all, who wouldn’t want a set-top DVR unit with a camera so it cou ...

• Universal robot operating system: well, they’re ...

  As evidenced by the number of posts we end up doing about them, robots are a real growth industry. Which is all well and good, but the folks in R&D departments everywhere have a problem. In a nutshell, it’s interoperability: each robot is developed in isolation, meaning valuable resources are exp ...

• They’ve got a TV eye on you

  Much as we all bemoan the relentless increase of surveillance technologies in our countries, it appears that the cable TV companies are confident that we’ll just invite it in to our homes if there’s enough of an incentive. After all, who wouldn’t want a set-top DVR unit with a camera so it cou ...

Yahoo! Canada News

• YahooCanadaNews: NDP name change may prove awfully ...

  YahooCanadaNews: NDP name change may prove awfully embarrassing in Quebec http://tr.im/wqGT

• YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Federal N ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Federal NDP to mull name change at N.S. convention http://tr.im/wmRD

• YahooCanadaNews: MK for Y! CA News. Small Canadian ...

  YahooCanadaNews: MK for Y! CA News. Small Canadian firm wins battle against Microsoft. http://bit.ly/FV0lE

• YahooCanadaNews: Ont. girl braces for unique heart ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Ont. girl braces for unique heart procedure http://tr.im/wgsA

• YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Iran cond ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Iran condemns 'rude' Western meddling into affairs http://tr.im/wgsw

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

• Deadly blast strikes Afghan capital

  At least seven killed and 85 injured in suicide bombing near Nato offices in Kabul.

• US senator meets Myanmar's leaders

  Jim Webb holds talks with both military ruler Than Shwe and opposition leader Suu Kyi.

• Turkey weighs Kurdish peace plans

  Turkish PM says he is seeking ways to end the conflict which began exactly 25 years ago.

• Iran reformists challenge Khamenei

  Ex-MPs lodge unprecedented complaint against supreme leader over his fitness to rule.

• Taiwan president offers apology

  Ma says "we are very sorry" amid public anger over state's slow response to typhoon havoc.

Green Inc. - NYT

• In Case You Missed It . . .

  The green-collar economy, the environmental challenges of solar power, and other energy and environment stories from around the globe.

• High Carbon Cost for 'Clunkers' Program

  The popular "cash for clunkers" program may be costing the government several hundred dollars for each ton of carbon dioxide that it destroys, according to conclusions reached separately by two California academics.

• Energy Leapfrogging: A View from Togo

  (Credit: Themba Hadebe/The Associated Press) Solar panels sit atop rental rooms in Johannesburg, South Africa. As renewable energy systems become more efficient and less expensive, many environmentalists hope to incorporate the technologies into development models around the world. Just as millions ...

• As Prices Slump, Solar Industry Suffers

  A run of bad earnings has dampened confidence in once-booming solar companies.

• Exxon Fined for Causing Bird Deaths

  Exxon Mobil has pleaded guilty to causing the deaths of 85 protected birds -- and agreed to pay penalties amounting to $7,000 per bird.

Dot Earth News

• Energy Frontiers: Space Solar, Hot Lots

  A closer look at potentially transformational energy ideas.

• Data Gap on Atlantic Storms and Warming

  More questions raised about recent hurricane trends.

• A Billion Teenagers, for Better or Worse

  Some of the world's poorest and most turbulent regions are witnessing explosive population growth, meaning enormous numbers of teenagers and children.

• Landslide Losses Not Inevitable

  With planning, the risks from landslides like those in Taiwan can be reduced.

• In Praise of Activism

  Human progress on a finite planet will require lots of vigilant activists.

Doug Feith : Hong Pong

• Thanks to Rose for finding my phone! Plus: I'm sta ...

  I nearly had a horrible day today, leaving my trusty old Helio phone on a bench at the University of Minnesota mall. A good samaritan named Rose picked it up and called the Boiler Room coffee shop back after I tried the phone. I got it back! Thanks a ton, Rose, you saved yet another messy situation ...

• 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 ...
  

• AlterNet Top Stories

• Why the Right's 'Astroturfing' Propaganda Is Textb ...

  Faux grassroots firms are exhibiting all the tell-tale signs.

• Lou Dobbs Tours Single-Payer Systems Abroad and Re ...

  Has CNN's government-out-of-my-face bloviator actually had a change of heart when it comes to Obama's health plan?

• No Matter What Lies the Right Wing Screams, the Br ...

  Republicans and right-wing pundits in the US have tried to scare us about Britain's public health system -- because it works.

• Let The Sun Shine In: Marriage Equality Comes to B ...

  The classic protest musical, Hair, is back to tackle what many consider to be the biggest civil rights issue of our era: marriage equality.

• Put Down That Coors: Why We Should Be Boycoting Bi ...

  One reason to boycott large breweries is the union busting, right wing culture that dominates some of the biggest breweries in America.

Threat Level

• Luckless Predator Only Attracted to Undercover Cop ...

  It’s official. There’s nobody in the chat rooms but pedophiles and undercover police. On Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld the conviction of an Indiana man whose online efforts to proposition underage girls led him to not one, not two, but three undercover cops, none of whom apparently kn ...

• Hotel Error Advertises Room Rate in Italy for 1 Ce ...

  Word apparently spread quickly across the internet on Sunday night that a luxury hotel in Venice, Italy, was offering a special 1-cent-a night rate. Visitors to the online registration page of the luxury Crowne Plaza Venice East-Quarto d’Altino hotel discovered it wasn’t just a rumor and that in ...

• Firefox Plug-In Frees Court Records, Threatens Jud ...

  Access to the nation’s federal law proceedings just got a public interest hack, thanks to programmers from Princeton, Harvard and the Internet Archive, who released a Firefox plug-in designed to make millions of pages of legal documents free. Free as in beer and free as in speech. The Problem: Fe ...

• Feds Support $1.92 Million RIAA File Sharing Verdi ...

  The Obama administration told a federal judge Friday the $1.92 million jury verdict against a Minnesota woman for sharing 24 music tracks on Kazaa was constitutionally sound, despite defense claims it was unconstitutionally excessive. After the June verdict against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, defense atto ...

• Top Security Firm RSA Tries to Silence Blog

  RSA security, one of the top security firms in the country, has sent takedown notices to a blogger and his hosting company in an effort to silence his discussion of a vulnerability found on a bank web site that RSA helps monitor, according to the blogger. The firm has accused the blogger of tradema ...

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

• Taliban claim blast at NATO base in Kabul

  KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb that killed seven people on Saturday in the heart of the Afghan capital's most secure district five days before an election the Islamist group has vowed to disrupt.

• Controller's role in NY air collision studied

  * Safety regulators differ on importance of phone call * FAA to review safety rules over Hudson River By John Crawley WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Scrutiny of an air traffic controller's actions, including whether a phone call may have distracted him, intensified on Friday as investigators releas ...

• Obama says insurance companies holding U.S. hostag ...

  BELGRADE, Montana (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, pushing for healthcare reform during a trip to the West, said on Friday the country was "held hostage" by insurance companies that deny coverage to sick people.

• Taliban claim suicide strike on NATO compound in K ...

  KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb in front of the heavily fortified headquarters of U.S. and NATO troops in Kabul on Saturday, saying the target was the U.S. embassy nearby.

• Wall St Week Ahead-Stocks could pull back as earni ...

  NEW YORK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks could extend this week's retreat after a four-week advance as the earnings season winds down and investors search for signs that consumer spending will help sustain an economic recovery.

Godspace

• Unemployment as a Spiritual Practice

  I am now back from Australia and as you can imagine the posts for my series on What is a Spiritual Practice have been mounting up while I have had limited internet access and less time to focus on such things. Â Thanks for your patience and for your prayers during this challenging season. Today’ ...

• Editing your Life: The Spiritual Discipline of Edi ...

  I am sitting in Sydney on a beautiful but crisp winter’s morning watching the rainbow lorikeets out in the trees. Â My Dad’s funeral is over and I will head back to Seattle in 2 days time. Â I have been very aware of prayer and the grace of God in the midst of this. Â Thanks to [...]

• Living in Transition as Spiritual Practice

  I am now in Sydney Australia after what has been one of the easiest long international trips I have made for a long time. Â I even slept for several hours on the flight which makes me very aware of the fact that people have been praying for me. Today’s article comes from Guy Chmieleski who is [. ...

• Recent Additions to the Spiritual Practices series

  Here’s the round-up of the most recent Spiritual Practices posts: The Spiritual Practice of Apologizing by T Freeman Love-making as a Spiritual Practice by Mark Scandrette Smoking the Glory of God by Jason Clark The Spiritual Practice of Getting Honest With Myself by Jonathan Brink Spiritual Disci ...

• Between the Sheets: Sleeping as A Spiritual Practi ...

  I will be heading out to Australia this afternoon but am hoping to continue posting while I travel. Â The submissions continue to arrive which is wonderful and I am enjoying reading them before I post them. This morning’s post is from Teri Peterson a presbyterian pastor who loves her new bed (wh ...

Pine River World News

• BURMA: Junta's ploy: Push Kokang to shoot first

  IntelTrends - The following article is reprinted with permission from Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.), Thailand. Junta's ploy: Push Kokang to shoot first © S.H.A.N. August 14, 2009 Knowing the ceasefire groups' major concern is the border closure imposed by China, Burma's military leade ...

• Alan Philps: The Muslim scare story that just does ...

  The following opinion is from The National, Abu Dhabi. The Muslim scare story that just doesn't add up © The National By Alan Philps August 14. 2009 One of the most popular items on YouTube, the video-sharing website, is a slickly produced clip called Muslim Demographics. Since it was posted in ...

• Case study: U.S. healthcare is fine until you need ...

  [ Blogmaster note : The current health care system in the United States is a "for profit" industry which is an insult to the American people. The U.S. government can find unlimited funds to wage war but not to care for its citizens . As a retired government employee (deputy sheriff) who lacks Medic ...

• U.S. Marine Corps renews ban on social networking ...

  The following commentary is reprinted with permission from World Socialist Web Site. U.S. Marine Corps renews ban on social networking sites © World Socialist Web Site By Peter Kloze August 13, 2009 In another attempt by the Pentagon to control all information coming from the war zones of Iraq ...

• YEMEN: Houthis accuse army of airstrikes on villag ...

  IntelTrends - The following article is reprinted with permission from Yemen Times, Sana'a. Houthis accuse army of airstrikes on villages © Yemen Times By Mohammed Bin Sallam August 12, 2009 SA'ADA - The sixth Sa'ada war began on Tuesday as army personnel carried out offenses and airstrikes agai ...

• PsyBlog

• Consumer Psychology

  · How and why we consume and how our beliefs, ideas and senses influence consumption. Peter Drucker, the management consultant, famously argued that about 80% of all products and services fail or fall well short of targets within six months of launching. Clearly markets have little understanding ...

• Why Left to Right Punches Are More Aggressive, Pow ...

  Reading and writing from left to right is a skill so well-practised, so ingrained in language, that it's easy to ignore. Yet, according to some research, the direction in which language flows could have implications that spread into many other areas of our experience. Consider that people are often ...

• Persuasion: The Right-Ear Advantage

  If you want someone to comply with a random request for a cigarette, you should speak into their right ear, according to a new study by researchers in Italy. Marzoli & Tommasi (2009) had a female confederate visit a disco and approach 176 random people asking for a smoke. Clubbers were about twice ...

• 10 Rules That Govern Groups

  Much of our lives are spent in groups with other people: we form groups to socialise, earn money, play sport, make music, even to change the world. But although groups are diverse, many of the psychological processes involved are remarkably similar. Here are 10 insightful studies that give a flavou ...

• Are Your Initials Holding You Back?

  "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." ~Romeo and Juliet In these lines from Shakespeare's famous play, Juliet is trying to persuade Romeo that the bitter feud between their respective families doesn't matter, that he and his surname are easily divisib ...

After Downing Street.org

• If U.S. Health Care's So Good, Why Do Other People ...

  If U.S. health care's so good, why do other people live longer? By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg | Sacramento Bee via McClatchy "You can't ignore the health care system, but the big payoff is in lifestyle factors and disease prevention," he said. "A dollar spent on those activities saves $5 in health car ...

• Pundits Trying to Help Cheney Avoid Jail

  Pundits Trying to Help Cheney Avoid Jail By Ray McGovern The stenographers of the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) are missing the most obvious explanation for former Vice President Dick Cheney’s widely reported “disappointment” with former President George W. Bush on the issue of pardons — ...

• Senator Sanders Unfiltered: Lies, Fibs and Anti-Re ...

• Care to Write Army Doctrine? With ID, Log On

  Care to Write Army Doctrine? With ID, Log On By Noam Cohen | NYTimes Join the Army, where you can edit all that you can edit. In July, in a sharp break from tradition, the Army began encouraging its personnel — from the privates to the generals — to go online and collaboratively rewrite seven o ...

• Browse Health Insurance Information About Your Sta ...

  Browse reference information on health insurance in your state here produced by AHIP. There's also a full report available here . America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Center for Policy and Research has as its mission to advance ideas, research, and policy solutions to help Americans build a 21st ...

Grist - News

• Ruminations on the Obama era, with a side of spicy ...

• Cheap-chicken ad from KFC hides true cost of food; ...

• For a quick fix to school-lunch woes, pack an appe ...

• Stalking the wild leeks of spring

  What could improve a forest walk in early spring? Spotting a bunch of that delicious wild relative of the leek known as the ramp.

• From a zingy spring herb, a soup for sipping on th ...

  Gardeners and gastronomes fawn over sorrel—and almost everyone else ignores it. That’s a shame; it’s is a powerful addition to soups and sauces, and tasty in salads when picked young.

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Water Power

water floods pollution

Utah-Nevada water deal draws flak

Salt Lake Tribune

- Aug 14, 2009

- 13 hours ago

By Patty Henetz A day after Utah and Nevada officials released a proposed Snake Valley water-sharing deal, the Millard County Commission sharpened its ...

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clipped from Google - 8/2009

Water conflict in the works between India and Pakistan

Examiner.com

- Aug 15, 2009

- 4 hours ago

Right: Plastic cans used to carry water are transported in a vehicle in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009. Excessive irrigation and the unrelenting ...

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clipped from Google - 8/2009

Man sentenced after leaving water bottles for immigrants

CNN International

- Aug 14, 2009

- Aug 14, 2009

By Taylor Gandossy (CNN) -- An Arizona man caught leaving water bottles in the desert for illegal immigrants has been sentenced to 300 hours of community ...

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clipped from Google - 8/2009

Astounding Chicago Air and Water Show

Chicago Tribune

- Aug 14, 2009

- 16 hours ago

In response to Barbara Traczyk-Hoshino about her complaints about the Air and Water show in Chicago ("Terror in the sky," Voice of the People, Aug. ...

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