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IPS - Inter Press Services

• AGRICULTURE: Cultivating Rural Prosperity in Cam ...

  YAOUNDE, Aug 4 (IPS) - Emilie Nyate has a two million CFA smile on her face these days. She's one of the beneficiaries of the Roots and Tubers Market- Oriented Programme, known better by its French acronym of PNDRT, which is transforming the lives of small-scale farmers in Cameroon.

• ZAMBIA: NGO Bill Still Inspires No Confidence

  LUSAKA, Aug 4 (IPS) - As the Zambian parliament resumes, civil society organisations (CSOs) have come out strongly to oppose the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Bill, which seeks to regulate their operations.

• POLITICS: U.S. Officials Protect Pak Military on ...

  WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (IPS) - Despite evidence implicating the current Pakistani Army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, in a major military assistance program for the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan over the past few years, senior officials of the Barack Obama administration persuaded Congre ...

• GUYANA: Govt Complicity With Drug Ring Aired in N ...

  GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Aug 4 (IPS) - This small English-speaking nation, home to the Caribbean trade bloc (CARICOM), has been in the news recently due to revelations in a New York court that the government here willingly and knowingly gave surveillance equipment to a private death squad so that ...

• PARAGUAY: Dance Helps Disabled Kids Leap Barriers

  ASUNCIÓN, Aug 4 (IPS) - Nicolás, a 14-year-old disabled boy, was finally able to open up and begin expressing himself thanks to Open Wings, a project in Paraguay that uses modern dance as a tool to help youngsters with disabilities develop on both the physical and psychological level.

The Intelligence Daily

• Britain To Put CCTV Cameras Inside Private Homes

• Bringing the (Bio) War Home

• Vaccination Myths and Truths

• The demise of the middle class

• The Obama opiate -- crisis deepens, crowds cheer

My AntiWar

• Talks for Secret Mission to North Korea Began Once ...
• Australia Foils Plot to Attack Army Base
• Ga. Terror Suspect: Jihad Chatter Was ‘Empty ...
• Nigeria Survivors Describe Night of Terror by Sect
• Feds: Nc Terror Suspect Promoted Jihad in Home

• Rogue Government.com

• Alex Jones And Apollo Astronaut Harrison Schmitt ...

  There are too many questions, contradictions and issues with the Apollo missions to believe the official story. It is sad to see somebody like Jones serving as a gatekeeper and providing credibility to the official story of the Apollo missions by giving a softball interview to Schmitt who like all ...

• N.C. terror suspects had arms, ammo, FBI 'playboo ...

  Men arrested last week on suspicion of plotting a "violent jihad" overseas had weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition and $13,000 cash in their home, an FBI agent testified in court Tuesday.

• Former Blackwater Employee: Blackwater Founder Vi ...

  The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

• Nearly 80% Of Drivers Oppose 55 MPH National Spee ...

  According a recent US News & World Report poll , there is strong opposition to any law that would mandate a 55 MPH national speed limit.

• Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S.

  A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military.

Innovation Canada

• Filling the glass

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

• i2eye with Bartha Maria Knoppers

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

• Environmental legacy

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

• Rebooting the search for dark matter

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

• Seeking the perfect storm

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

Signs of the times

• UK: Citizen journalism counters police propaganda ...

  Five days after Ian Tomlinson lay dying on a noisy London street, blood seeping into his stomach, the police officer who attacked him amid the chaos of the G20 demonstations had still not come forward. The 47-year-old newspaper vendor died, so his family were led to believe, of natural causes on hi ...

• Pilot dead, 42 hurt after Thai jet skids off runwa ...

  A pilot was killed and seven passengers hospitalised Tuesday when a Bangkok Airways jet skidded and hit an old control tower as it landed on Thailand's resort island of Ko Samui, the airline said. Thailand's public health ministry said 42 people were injured in the crash. Among the injured, Bangkok ...

• Canada on alert as British Columbia fires burn

  Much of British Columbia in western Canada remains on high alert as high temperatures and winds continue to stoke widespread forest fires. Some 5,300 people have fled the latest fires as thousands of firefighters try to tackle the flames. Some 800 extra personnel have been brought in from other par ...

• Plastics that convert light to electricity could h ...

  Researchers the world over are striving to develop organic solar cells that can be produced easily and inexpensively as thin films that could be widely used to generate electricity. But a major obstacle is coaxing these carbon-based materials to reliably form the proper structure at the nanoscale ( ...

• The Real Economy Versus the Make-Believe World of ...

  In the real economy, unemployment is at Depression-era levels (see this, this and this). In the real economy, bank loan loss rates will be higher than the Depression. In the real economy, government revenue is at its lowest level since the Depression, and most states are on the verge of bankruptcy ...

Threat Level

• Inside the World’s Most Hostile Network
• Hacking the DefCon 17 Badges

  LAS VEGAS — For the last four years DefCon’s badges have been designed with circuit boards that attendees have been encouraged to hack as part of a contest. This year, the badge hackers were competing to win a black über badge, which gives the recipient free entry to DefCon for life. The c ...

• DefCon 17 Mystery Challenge

  LAS VEGAS — One of the main tenets of hacking, to explore and understand complex systems, is the basis for one of DefCon’s most popular and difficult contests: The DefCon Mystery Challenge. For the last four years, Ryan “LostboY” Clarke has spent months thinking up creative puzzles, cipher ...

• Student Arrested for Jailbreaking Game Consoles

  A Southern California man was taken into custody Monday on accusations of running a home business of jailbreaking video game consoles so they can run pirated games. Homeland Security authorities arrested Matthew Crippen, 27, from his Anaheim home following his indictment for allegedly breaching the ...

• Feds at DefCon Alarmed After RFID’s Scanned

  LAS VEGAS – It’s one of the most hostile hacker environments in the country –- the DefCon hacker conference held every year in the summer in Las Vegas. But despite the fact that attendees know they should take precautions to protect their data, federal agents at the conference got a sca ...

PERRspectives : Blog

• GOP Returns to 2000 Dade County Recount Playbook

  Every football coach will tell you: if a play works, keep running it until the defense stops you. And so it is with the health care debate. Facing overwhelming public support for health care reform, right-wing groups have deployed mobs...

• Stimulus Paying Big Dividends for GDP, State Budge ...

  Beginning in early July, Capitol Hill Republicans introduced a new talking point, proclaiming the $787 billion economy recovery package (ARRA) a "dismal failure." Sadly for the GOP, as Stephen Colbert might say, reality is showing its well-known liberal bias. After...

• Owner of 13 Cars, McCain Aims to Block Cash for Cl ...

  Moments after the House passed a $2 billion extension to the wildly popular "cash for clunkers" program, John McCain in a double-irony announced he would oppose the bill in the Senate. Ironic, it turns out, not merely because the Arizona...

• The Selective Amnesia of John McCain

  Saturday's Wall Street Journal features a fascinating interview with John McCain by editor Stephen Moore. Fascinating, that is, as a study of revisionist history and selective amnesia by both men. While Moore now praises McCain as "one of the lead...

• Birther Movement Just the Latest Southern Patholog ...

  In a jaw-dropping DaliyKos/Research 2000 poll released today, a stunning 58% of Republicans did not believe (28%) or were unsure (30%) that President Barack Obama was in fact born in the United States. To be sure, this is a Southern...

Blackspot News Feed

• High Speed Robotic Hands

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfdHY26E2jc All I can say is I want some. via Beyond The Beyond | Bot Junkie

• Disrespectful and Disgraceful: The Republican Poli ...

  by Walter BraschFeatured WriterDandelion Saladwww.walterbrasch.comAug 4, 2009It isn’t unusual that the Republican party is anti-union.It isn’t even unusual that the Republican National Committee sent to its base a loaded questionnaire with blatantly leading and highly biased questions.But it is ...

• Israeli general: Israel-Lebanon border could explo ...

  Propaganda Alertcompiled by Cem ErtrFeatured WriterDandelion Salad4 August 20091) Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border (5 August 2009)2) Hezbollah rockets part of Iran and Israel’s political game of chess (5 August 2009)3) Could Iran be plotting a Hizbollah offensive to take the ...

• Keeping track of the empires crimes by William Blu ...

  by William BlumFeatured WriterDandelion Saladwww.killinghope.orgAug 4, 2009Keeping track of the empire’s crimesIf you catch the CIA with its hand in the cookie jar and the Agency admits the obvious what your eyes can plainly see that its hand is indeed in the cookie jar, it means one of two things ...

• Instances of the United States overthrowing, or at ...

  by William BlumFeatured WriterDandelion Saladwww.killinghope.orgAug 4, 2009order hereWhen a range of years is given, the effort to overthrow wasnot necessarily an active operation each year of the period.* = successful ouster of a governmentChina 1949, 1950sAlbania 1949-53East Germany 1950sIran 1953 ...

Consortium News

• Panetta Pleads for No CIA Punishment

  CIA Director Leon Panetta pens an op-ed that urges no "retribution" for Bush-era CIA crimes, notes Melvin A. Goodman. August 2, 2009

• How Pay-to-Play Corrupts Washington

  From Washington Post "salons" to a conservative group's for-sale sign, it's all about pay-to-play in DC, writes Michael Winship. August 2, 2009

• Why Obama's Health Plan Falters

  The American Left failed to fight for "single-payer" and ended up pushing for an inadequate "public option," says Jeff Cohen. August 2, 2009

• Christians Largely Mum on Torture

  A poll shows American Christians tolerant of U.S. torturing detainees, a failure of church leadership, says Ray McGovern. July 31, 2009

• US Judge Orders Afghan Youth Freed

  A federal judge ordered freedom for a young Afghani at Guantanamo, but his future remains in doubt, reports Jason Leopold. July 31, 2009

CounterPunch

• Mike Whitney : Bernanke's Shell Game
• Dave Lindorff : The Recession Isn't Over, By a Lon ...
• Patrick Cockburn : Did British Bomb Attacks in Ira ...
• Jonathan Cook : Israel's Campaign to Silence Human ...
• Jeff Sher : Making a Mess of Health Care Reform

Institute for Middle East Understanding

• Young Palestinian-American musician's world travel ...

  Barefoot and sun-blasted from a summer job working as a swim coach in upper Northwest Washington, 21-year-old Ramzy Charles Suleiman smiles an easy smile and caresses the keys of his grandmother's upright pi ...

• Evicted Palestinians stand their ground - on thin ...

  It was 13-year-old Diala who was awoken first, just after 5 a.m. on Sunday morning, by the commotion outside. She rushed to the window, saw special riot police in black uniforms, and ran to wake her parents. ...

• Palestinian economy isn't recovering thanks to Isr ...

  PM Netanyahu misses no opportunity to flaunt the flourishing of the Palestinian economy - in the West Bank, of course; not in Gaza. During a sweaty and well-publicized visit he held last weekend at the Allen ...

• Israel approves sale of 1948 Palestinian land (Be ...

  The Israeli parliament has passed a major land reform bill allowing for the privatization of state land, including Palestinian land abandoned or confiscated during the 1948 war. Adalah, a Palestinian human r ...

• Israel targets human rights groups (Jonathan Cook ...

  In a bid to staunch the flow of damaging evidence of war crimes committed during Israel's winter assault on Gaza, the Israeli government has launched a campaign to clamp down on human rights groups, both in ...

Planetsave

• Earth’s Biogeochemical Cycles Slipping Into Disa ...

  The conductor walks on to the stage and mounts the podium with applause from the crowd. Â He bows to the audience, then turns to his orchestra and, with one fluid motion pulls music from the vast expanse of silence. Each musician moves, almost mechanically, in perfect time, in perfect concert. T ...

• Why Are There Fewer Large Trees in Yosemite?

  We’ve all heard the legend of Johnny Appleseed, the legendary apple tree planter of the United States. He walked across the country with his walking stick, and a bucket of seeds, just walking and planting as he went . Everywhere he went, apple trees sprouted up. And he was a hero. It is such a h ...

• Killer Kelp

  When I was doing research on Catalina Island, there was a wanted poster hanging in the dive locker. Although, this wanted poster was not for any bank robber or bandit. This was a wanted poster for kelp. Undaria pinnatifida , an invasive species from Asia that has hitched a ride on boat’s hulls a ...

• Popular Gator Killed by Poachers in Texas

  A 13-foot, 600-pound alligator was killed in a state-managed coastal preserve just north of the Armand Bayou Nature Center (ABNC) in Pasadena, Texas. The alligator, estimated to be 50-years-old, was a popular tourist attraction at the Center and possibly one of the largest ‘gators in the state ...

• Spider Monkeys Invent Medicinal Tools.

  For years and years, humans considered themselves the one and only makers of tools. Homo sapien literally means “wise man” because we were so intelligent that it was us humans, and us humans alone, who could even have the brain capacity to create a tool. It was considered the key feature of th ...

Water Quality - WordPress

• National Resource Defense Council Reports on Water ...

  Beach name Rating details 100 yrds ENE of Little Bridge, Causeway, Nags Head 100 yrds. o

• Great Water Quality at Outer Banks Beaches

  Recently, environmental experts reported that the Outer Banks has some of the nation’s cleanes

• Water awareness: global survey of public perceptio ...

  Molson Coors Brewing Company [has] announced a strategic collaboration with Circle of Blue in suppor

• 2008/2009 Water Quality Committee Annual Report

  The Glen Lake Association Water Quality Committee has focused on the following activities during the

• Pollution Is Closing More Nearby Beaches, Report F ...

  The number of New York and New Jersey beaches that were either closed, or the subject of warnings, b

Public Citizen in Texas

• Austin Energy May Cut GreenChoice Power Prices

  After a rash of local and national press about the recent failure of Austin Energy’s GreenChoice program, Austin Energy has decided to re-evaluate their pricing structure. The city may be able to reduce the cost of the program by as much as 25%. Turns out Austin Energy was overly conservat ...

• Public Citizen Urges Supreme Court to Uphold Campa ...

  Overturning Campaign Finance Restrictions Would Allow Corporations to Dominate Elections WASHINGTON, D.C. – Public Citizen joined a team of other attorneys in submitting a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court today, urging the court to adhere to its precedents and reaffirm the longs ...

• Local Power/Energia Mia Update

  Here is the latest update from the Local Power/Energia Mia Coalition: CPS has a meeting today at Firefighters Union Hall (8925-IH10 WEST) from 6:00-8:00 pm. Anyone from District 8 is encouraged to attend and speak for the cause. Each person gets three minutes of talk time and the Local Power/Energ ...

• Nuclear plans hurting Texas power companies’ (al ...

  Power companies’ plans to pursue new nuclear projects are damaging their credit ratings, which may mean higher costs will be shifted onto ratepayers. In a new report by Moody’s Investors Service titled “New Nuclear Generation: Ratings Pressure Increasingâ€�, the firm raises concerns ...

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

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

Press TV

• Five killed, 15 wounded in US gym shooting

  At least five people have been killed and 15 others wounded when a gunman opened fire on women at a gym in Pennsylvania, media reports say.

• Israeli army kidnaps 20 Palestinians

  Israeli soldiers have invaded Palestinian homes and captured as many as 20 people from different areas of the occupied West Bank over the past 24 hours.

• Israel illegally annexes Palestinian village

  The Israeli occupation regime is continuing its policies of expansion, aggression, and humiliation of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.

• Saudi swine flu death toll reaches 6

  Saudi Arabia has reported two more deaths from swine flu, taking the country's death toll to six.

• Powerful quake shakes southern Japan

  A powerful earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck southern Japan on Wednesday, the country's Meteorological Agency reported.

Axis of Logic

• Of humility, love, and hope

• Israel evicts two Palestinian families - 2 Aug 09

• The Swine Flu Lie

• A Spiritual Conspiracy

• The Spider

They Gave Us a Republic

• Fighting for Health Care Reform: Practical Sugges ...

  This is it. And the Rude Pundit is ready to rumble. Time to Join the Fight Against the Right-Wing Townhall Uprisings?: Is this really the way you guys wanna play this? Is this the way it's gonna go down? You're sending to townhall meetings of members of Congress a bunch of frightened people with mi ...

• How Does Your State Rank on Health Care?

  Via Crooks and Liars. Everyone surprised to find Kentucky in the bottom 10, stand on your head. Jon Perr shows that health care is only the latest social good desperately needed in red states whose wingnut freakazoid congresscritters are determined to deny to their needy constituents. Red state GOP ...

• Laffer Gaffes

  Arthur Laffer is the most appropriately named person I know, because everything out of hos mouth is a few degrees past self-parody. What a joke - first he trashes he post office and he DMV - neither one of which I have any complaints about, and then the payoff: just wait till you see Medicare, M ...

• I, for one, am not bothered in the least when Rahm ...

  " If you don't know what your government is doing, you don't live in a democracy." --Jane Anne Morris The networks really, really, really hate interrupting an hour of prime time to allow the President the opportunity to speak directly to the American people. I really, really, really hate the net ...

• McCain will vote against Sotomayor nomination

  Proving yet again that he is a venal, petty, insufficient, small little man, John McCain was just haranguing President Obama's first nominee for the Supreme Court as an "activist judge" who fancies herself a legislator. And he cited the Ricci case, proving that he doesn't know what the fuck an acti ...

Care 2

• Call on Petland Officials to End Rabbit Sales on H ...

  Last week, PETA discovered a disturbing photograph and comments posted on Facebook by Petland employee Elizabeth Carlisle, who worked at the store in Akron, Ohio. The photo shows a grinning Carlisle posing for the camera as she scruffs the bodies of two Submitted by Cher C. to Animals | Note-it! ...

• Work of forensic veterinarians helps take a bite o ...

  Merck, a top forensic veterinarian, flew in from Atlanta to help with the country’s largest-ever dogfighting bust. She scoured each scene looking for evidence, just as she had done in earlier cases at the properties of former NFL quarterback Michael Submitted by Cher C. to Animals | Note-it! | ...

• UN admits failures in Kenya camp

  One of the world's largest refugee camps fails to meet even the most basic standards, the UN has admitted. Submitted by Dee C. to World | Note-it! | Add a Comment

• The Claim: Cold Temperatures Improve Sleep

  Avoiding caffeine, sticking to a schedule and drinking a glass of warm milk are the usual tips for a good night’s rest. But the right room temperature can also play a crucial role. Submitted by Michelle M. to Health & Wellness | Note-it! | Add a Comment

• Gap Factory in Lesotho Dumping Chemical Waste, Say ...

  A factory that produces jeans for US clothing retailers Gap and Levi Strauss is illegally dumping chemical waste in Lesotho, posing a major hazard to children, the Sunday Times reported here. Submitted by Terry West to World | Note-it! | Add a Comment

GreenBiz

• 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.

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

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

• Sustaining California Agriculture in an Uncertain ...

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

Reuters Global

• Bill grabs spotlight from Hillary

  Former U.S. President Bill Clinton turns up in North Korea seeking the release of two American journalists, stealing the limelight from his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

• Boko Haram: a sect alone?

  The Boko Haram sect surprised many in Nigeria and elsewhere with the violence of their uprising last week.

• Sudan open to pressure over trousers, not war crim ...

  Lubna Hussein (C), a former journalist and U.N. press officer, gestures outside the court after her trial in Sudan's capital Khartoum August 4, 2009. Dozens of protesters rallied outside a Khartoum court on Tuesday in support of Hussein, who faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public, in a case ...

• Manmohan Singh’s shrinking room for manoeuvr ...

  By agreeing to delink terrorism from the broader peace process and including a reference to the threats inside Pakistan's troubled Baluchistan province - which Pakistan says is stoked by India - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is seen to have gone too far to accommodate the neighbour without getting a ...

• Newsmaker: Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan

  Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan will take questions from Thomson Reuters clients on how Australia managed to avoid recession and where this remarkable economy goes from here, at 915 am AEST on Tuesday (7:30 pm on Monday, EST).

Ezra Klein

• Tab Dump

  • Debunking the euthanasia canard. • The time Gawker put The Washington Post out of business. • Paul Waldman considers the evidence that successful government programs do not make people more likely to support government. • Tom Philpott's final sentence leaves me very pessimistic about th ...

• The Curious Appeal of Target

  I don't know many hipsters who hate Target . I'm not saying my sample of hipsters is somehow representative of the vast population of people who bought Vampire Weekend, but for what it's worth: Nobody hates Target. They don't like Wal-Mart. They think K-Mart is kind of gross. They think Sears is out ...

• All You Need to Know About Cash-for-Clunkers

  I've kept meaning to catch up on the cash-for-clunkers debate, and have kept, well, not doing it. Luckily, Justin Fox has an excellent summary.

• The Problem With Seniors

  Sadly, it's not only conservative economists who fear that government will get its hands on Medicare. It's seniors. Seniors are by far the least supportive group for health-care reform. Barack Obama jokes about the little old ladies warning the government to "keep its hands off my Medicare," but t ...

• Slow Blogging

  Sorry for the leisurely pace today. I spent the morning on the Hill doing interviews and have to run to a panel on why the media hates using numbers in a few minutes. Then there'll be more blogging. In the meantime, read this quote from respected conservative economist Arthur Laffer and tell me th ...

Booman Tribune

• Quote of the Day

  "I'll tell you, unless more Americans who are suffering under the insurance companies get out there and express their opinion, write their letter to the editor, call these talk shows -- if they don't get their message out the insurance companies will win in September and we just cannot let that happ ...

• Serious Question

  Do you think Max Baucus got pepped by Obama's pep-talk?

• On Sestak's Challenge

  You'd think I'd be more interested in the campaign of Joe Sestak to defeat Arlen Specter and win the Democratic nomination for one of Pennsylvania's two senate seats. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to muster a whole lot of enthusiasm for the race. With the president, the governor, and key repr ...

• Teddy Kennedy Saw It the Same Way

  I, for one, am pleased to discover that Teddy Kennedy had the exact same reaction to the campaign of Hillary Clinton in the early months of 2008 as I did. Kennedy had the added advantage of an ongoing dialogue during that period with former President Bill Clinton. It appears that what Kennedy lear ...

• Obama: 30 Death Threats a Day

  The number of death threats Obama is receiving is 400% higher than the number Bush received. It's also stretching an understaffed Secret Service to its limits trying to keep track of them all: Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from t ...

European Tribune

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 5 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1694 – Leonardo Leo,...

• Tuesday Open Thread

  Come out and chat!...

• European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 4 ...

  A Daily Review Of International Online Media Europeans on this date in history:1792 – Birth of...

• Monday Open Thread

  What has fascinated you recently?...

• Britain leads the way...

  The UK has been at the forefront of pursuing infrastructure projects in a public-private partnership...

Futurismic

• Wintermute vs. Rachel Rosen

  Here is a fine exploration of the differences and similarities in the use of artificial intelligences in Philip K. Dick and William Gibson’s writing: Turing, whose purpose is to prevent AIs from developing too far, mirror the bounty hunters in Androids — the sole purpose of each is to control ...

• Screw WorldCon; I wish I’d been at DefCon

  So, the great and the good of science fiction and fantasy literature are all off to Montreal for this year’s WorldCon, and I’m not bitter and twisted in the slightest… after all, I can keep up to date on the gossip and action from innumerable sources, not least of which is the remarkably fully ...

• Wintermute vs. Rachel Rosen

  Here is a fine exploration of the differences and similarities in the use of artificial intelligences in Philip K. Dick and William Gibson’s writing: Turing, whose purpose is to prevent AIs from developing too far, mirror the bounty hunters in Androids — the sole purpose of each is to control ...

• Screw WorldCon; I wish I’d been at DefCon

  So, the great and the good of science fiction and fantasy literature are all off to Montreal for this year’s WorldCon, and I’m not bitter and twisted in the slightest… after all, I can keep up to date on the gossip and action from innumerable sources, not least of which is the remarkably fully ...

• Fly Simulator

  Proof, if such were needed, that science is awesome and strange in equal measure: have you ever wondered how the hell flies can so effectively dodge your every effort to swat them? Sure you have – but you don’t have a lab full of stuff that you could use to find out the answer. The [...] Project ...

Yahoo! Canada News

• YahooCanadaNews: 'Kindle ate my homework.' Teen su ...

  YahooCanadaNews: 'Kindle ate my homework.' Teen sues Amazon after his copy of 1984 was obliterated from his Kindle without warning. http://tr.im/uX9L

• YahooCanadaNews: 'Surprised' boyfriend thought bab ...

  YahooCanadaNews: 'Surprised' boyfriend thought baby cut from womb was his http://tr.im/uVcG

• YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Parents l ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Parents left poor over son's fatal street racing http://tr.im/uVcw

• YahooCanadaNews: 'So-called recovery' is extremely ...

  YahooCanadaNews: 'So-called recovery' is extremely fragile, says Harper http://tr.im/uNPh

• YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Dog on 'd ...

  YahooCanadaNews: Ryan M. for Y! CA News. Dog on 'death row' unjustly accused, say supporters http://tr.im/uNjm

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

• North Korea releases US journalists

  Ex-US president Bill Clinton secures pardon and release for jailed reporters.

• Haiti protesters clash with police

  Tear gas fired at demonstrators calling for increase in minimum wage.

• US: Ahmadinejad is elected leader

  White House says the current president was chosen by Iranian people.

• N Korea releases US journalists

  Laura Ling and Euna Lee receive "special pardon" after visit by former US president, Bill Clinton.

• Zelaya gets state welcome in Mexico

  Ousted Honduran president looks for support for reinstatement from Felipe Calderon.

Green Inc. - NYT

• Climate Letter Forgeries Stir Outrage

  New details continue to flood in over a lobby group's forgery of letters advocating against Congressional climate legislation.

• Climate Bill Would Raise Costs Slightly

  The climate change and energy bill passed by the House in June will bring somewhat higher energy prices for businesses and households and slow economic growth slightly by 2020, according to a draft report.

• Habitat for Humanity Gets Greener

  Habitat for Humanity plans to build 5,000 green homes around the country for low-income families, the charity announced on Tuesday.

• Study: LEDs Most Efficient Over Lifetime

  Until recently, no one knew if LEDs were really more efficient than other bulbs, when production and distribution is taken into account. Recent research provides an answer.

• Conflict Over Clotheslines in Greenwich

  A tony Connecticut suburb an hour north of Manhattan has banned clotheslines from public housing, citing liability concerns. Some residents are irate.

Dot Earth News

• Climate Panel Author Offers Defense

  A longtime member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change rebuffs critics.

• Can Climate Panel Have Climate Impact?

  Can a prize-winning climate panel move from fame to efficacy?

• 98 Percent 'Discouraged' in Energy Quest

  More than 98 percent of proposals seeking federal money for transformational energy research are "discouraged."

• Shark Week, or Human Week?

  What kind of shark are you?

• What's the Right Number of Americans?

  In the United States, immigration policy is population policy, a demographer says.

Doug Feith : Hong Pong

• Hat tip for Joaquin Phoenix conspiracy

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

• Tough times south of the border

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

• Pirate Bay Trial and Kopimi: The Kopimi Manifesto

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

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

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

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

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

AlterNet Top Stories

• The Ugly Racism of the Right Will Be Their Undoing

  Watching the GOP morph into the National Association for the Advancement of White People should give us all hope, not despair.

• Do Hate Crime Laws Do Any Good?

  There's no indication that getting hate crimes on the books actually prevents them.

• 5 Dangerous and Fraudulent Health Fads You Should ...

  From colon flushing to using magnets to heal joint pains, there are a lot of counterproductive and potentially damaging health therapies out there.

• Pregnant Mother Tasered at Baptism Party (Video)

  A noise complaint to police results in another senseless act of brutality.

• How I Reconciled My Diet With My Feminism

  How can you be a fat-positive feminist who's trying to losing weight?

Threat Level

• Inside the World’s Most Hostile Network
• Hacking the DefCon 17 Badges

  LAS VEGAS — For the last four years DefCon’s badges have been designed with circuit boards that attendees have been encouraged to hack as part of a contest. This year, the badge hackers were competing to win a black über badge, which gives the recipient free entry to DefCon for life. The c ...

• DefCon 17 Mystery Challenge

  LAS VEGAS — One of the main tenets of hacking, to explore and understand complex systems, is the basis for one of DefCon’s most popular and difficult contests: The DefCon Mystery Challenge. For the last four years, Ryan “LostboY” Clarke has spent months thinking up creative puzzles, cipher ...

• Student Arrested for Jailbreaking Game Consoles

  A Southern California man was taken into custody Monday on accusations of running a home business of jailbreaking video game consoles so they can run pirated games. Homeland Security authorities arrested Matthew Crippen, 27, from his Anaheim home following his indictment for allegedly breaching the ...

• Feds at DefCon Alarmed After RFID’s Scanned

  LAS VEGAS – It’s one of the most hostile hacker environments in the country –- the DefCon hacker conference held every year in the summer in Las Vegas. But despite the fact that attendees know they should take precautions to protect their data, federal agents at the conference got a sca ...

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

• North Korea pardons U.S. journalists as Clinton me ...

  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea ordered the release of two jailed American journalists on Tuesday after former U.S. President Bill Clinton held talks with Kim Jong-il and the reclusive and ailing leader issued what North Korea's KCNA news agency said was a "special pardon" for the pair.

• Goldman employees told no big purchases: report

  (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein told employees to avoid making high profile purchases, the New York Post said, citing sources.

• Consumer spending rises in June, incomes fall

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending rose slightly more than expected in June, a government report showed on Tuesday, likely pushed up by higher gasoline prices, and incomes saw their biggest drop in four-and-a-half years.

• Scientists study huge plastic patch in Pacific

  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Marine scientists from California are venturing this week to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of miles (km) of open sea dubbed the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

• Bank regulators dig in against Obama shake-up

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. bank regulators will speak out on Tuesday against some key elements of the Obama administration's plan to reshape financial regulation, saying parts of it were unneeded or could be disruptive.

Godspace

• 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 ...

• Driving as Spiritual Practice

  The weather has cooled down considerably here in Seattle and everyone feels that things are back to normal. Â A little rain would be appreciated – yes we do have days and in this case months without rain in the Pacific NW. Â The garden is flourishing but definitely crying out for a good soakin ...

• Yoga & Jesus: This is a spiritual practice

  I continue to be challenged and stretched by the ways that people connect to God and to Jesus Christ. The posts below are by Christina Whitehouse-Sugg. I found them particularly intriguing because of my growing interest in Christian meditation and as you know I am also passionate about Henri Nou ...

• Spiritual Discipline – Serving At the Pantry

  Well yesterday afternoon all my good intentions went out the window. I had expected to post another of the excellent articles still being submitted for the series on What is a Spiritual Discipline but two things happened to change all that. First the temperature in Seattle climbed to an all time ...

• Making Space for the Rabbi

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

Pine River World News

• JIHAD IN NIGERIA: Government support for Boko Hara ...

  Pine River World News / IntelTrends August 4, 2009 An article in today's Nigerian Tribune is titled "Top govt officials behind Boko Haram" and starts off: "TOP government functionaries sponsored the activities of Islamic militant leader, Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed last week, Nigerian Tribune ca ...

• Laundering Money through the Big Banks: Bernanke's ...

  The following commentary is reprinted with permission from Global Research. Laundering Money through the Big Banks: Bernanke's Quid Pro Quo © Global Research By Mike Whitney August 3, 2009 Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is a man who knows how Washington works and uses that knowledge to great effect. ...

• Is Obama's new Afghanistan strategy coming unstuck ...

  The following editorial is from The Frontier Post, Peshawar, Pakistan. Upcoming storm © The Frontier Post August 3, 2009 The calculated leaks in the American media that U.S. General Stanley A. McChrystal, now commanding the American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, is going to ask for more Americ ...

• Burma Army instructs Thai firm to build road near ...

  The following article is reprinted with permission from Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.), Thailand. Shan army has say on cross-border road © S.H.A.N. By Hseng Khio Fah August 3, 2009 The Shan State Army (SSA) 'South' has warned a Thai firm to seek its cooperation with regards to a cross-b ...

• Intelligence sources of Caucasus Emirate report 30 ...

  The following article is reprinted with permission from Kavkaz Center, Caucasus mujahideen news agency. A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moving towards Georgia © Kavkaz Center Publication time: 2 August 2009, 17:40 Intelligence sources of Armed Forces of the Caucasus Emirate reported that a ...

Blacklisted News

• Government Fines & Harassment For People Who Refus ...
• Goldman Sachs Employees Told Not to Make Big Purch ...
• Russia increases troops' alert in S Ossetia after ...

  Russia has deployed its troops and border guards in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia on increased alert following provocations from Georgia, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.

• Mercenaries training US local police a new trend

  There are many police and law enforcement officials who are concerned with the growing trend of using military-experienced mercenaries to train and work with local police officers in the United States, but there are many who believe the events of September 11, 2001 dictate the need for this new para ...

• Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

  The private security company, facing charges in a US court for killing and injuring Iraqis, is attempting to silence its victims and their lawyers.

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

• An Open Letter to Roger Douglas (and other MP's)

  An open letter to Roger Douglas challenging him on his expense claims for international travel in the face of his long time advocacy for cuts in government spending. » PLIGG_Visual_RSS_OriginalNews

• US: Second Stimulus Or A "Lost Decade" ?

  It's worth slogging through the minutes of the June Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting. Read the deliberations of the Fed board members and staff and you see an economic horizon that is much more dangerous than what is suggested by the assurances of the White House and some of our allies ...

• Kiwi in France wants builders from home for specia ...

  Based in France, kiwi Pauline is seeking kiwi tradespeople to renovate her French home using builderscrack.co.nzIf you are a tradesman who is looking to do something exciting, check it out. » PLIGG_Visual_RSS_OriginalNews

• Power companies "profiteering"

  Power companies have been increasing their charges at a higher rate than inflation and continue to do so. » PLIGG_Visual_RSS_OriginalNews

• Vodafone plans faster network

  In what looks like a reaction the Telecom's XT network, which brought Telecom's network up to the standard of Vodafone's, Vodafone are planning a new upgrade as soon as trials are finished which will bring speeds of about 21Mbit/s. Telecom plans to do the same at Christmas. » PLIGG_Visual_RSS_Orig ...

Independent ( London )

• Taliban rockets shatter fragile peace in Kabul

  A salvo of Taliban rockets shook Kabul's diplomatic district yesterday as insurgents ramped up attacks countrywide in a bid to derail presidential elections, less than three weeks away.

• Sicilian councillors praying for €116m jackpot

  The eye-popping €116m (£99m) up for grabs in Italy's record lottery this week would be enough to change the lives of an entire community. And that's exactly what the mayor of the impoverished Sicilian village of Ficarra had in mind when he ordered that €115 be docked from the wages of each cou ...

• Australian police foil 'terrorist attack' on army ...

  A plot branded as potentially the worst terrorist attack in Australia's history has been foiled in a dramatic series of pre-dawn arrests.

• Hell hath no fury like three women scorned

  A married man who planned a rendezvous with one of his handful of lovers at a Wisconsin motel instead found himself bound, blindfolded and assaulted by a group of women out for revenge.

• Americans held for 'illegal entry'

  Iran said yesterday that three Americans who strayed across the border from Iraq are under arrest for illegal entry and claimed that the West was using the case for propaganda.

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

• Iran fuel imports possible target in nuclear stand ...

  Summary: WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The United States and Israel are discussing the feasibility of curbing Iran's imports of gasoline and other refined oil products if Tehran refuses to enter negotiations over its nuclear program, an Israeli official said on Monday. source: Reuters read mor ...

• U.S. Weighs Iran Oil Sanctions if Nuclear Talks Ar ...

  Summary: Bushehr Reactor The Obama administration is talking with allies and Congress about the possibility of imposing an extreme economic sanction against Iran if it fails to respond to President Obama’s offer to negotiate on its nuclear program: cutting off the country’s imports of gasoli ...

• U.S. briefs Israel on new Iran nuke sanctions

  Summary: American officials briefed Israel this week on the administration's ideas for intensifying sanctions against Iran if it fails to respond to President Barack Obama's offer of dialogue China soon to try to enlist Beijing to join the coalition. source: Haaretz read more

• US ‘Not Happy’ as Iraq Announces Plans to Clos ...

  Summary: Camp Ashraf US officials are reportedly “not happy” with the situation unfolding in the MEK’s Camp Ashraf, following yesterday’s deadly raids by Iraqi forces. Today, the Iraqi government says that it plans to close the camp down entirely. source: Anti War.Com read more

• Iraqi forces raid Iran exile camp

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

The Daily Galaxy

• Pacific Voyage Sets Sail to Study Vast "Plastic Is ...

  The second of two research ships bound for a huge "island" of plastic debris larger than the State of Texas leaves San Francisco today. The expedition, named Project Kaisei, will study the impact of the waste on marine life. The...

• Today's Most Popular Posts

  Satellites Track Object With Magnetic Field 100 Trillion Xs Stronger Than Earth's Jupiter's Dark Invader: NASA Asks "What Was It?" Peter Jackson's "District 9": The SciFi Hit's High-Tech Anti-Apartheid Message Will Amazon's Kindle Will Replace the Book -Pundits Say "Yes"...

• Your Online Genome: The Ultimate Privacy Invasion ...

  At least Thirteen thousand people are having their genomes uploaded online, along with their photos and complete medical histories. Never mind stealing social security numbers - a few more years of development and people will be able to copy them...

• Manned Mission-to-Mars Simulation: The Ultimate Re ...

  Manned missions to Mars pose problems - carrying enough fuel and supplies, shielding from cosmic radiation, and the way humans locked in a small box for two years tend to go totally crazy. Scientists are simulating space-psychosis by shutting six...

• Satellites Track Object With Magnetic Field 100 Tr ...

  On Aug. 22, 2008, NASA's Swift satellite reported multiple blasts of radiation from a rare object known as a soft gamma repeater, or SGR, some 15,000 light years away. This ancient stellar remnant -one of the totally weird stars of...

Natural News

• Diseased African Monkeys Used to Make Swine Flu Va ...

  (NaturalNews) To most people, vaccines sound medically harmless. "They're good for you!" say the doctors and drug companies, but they never really talk about what's in those vaccines. There's a good reason for that: If people knew what was really in those vaccines, they would never allow themselves ...

• New Study: Fat in Meat and Dairy Products Increase ...

  (NaturalNews) Cancer of the pancreas, the large organ located horizontally behind the bottom part of the stomach, typically spreads quickly and is usually deadly. Symptoms are often vague at first and a diagnosis is typically not made until the malignancy is advanced and treatment is futile. In fact ...

• Breastfeeding Your Baby Could Save a Life

  (NaturalNews) According to the World Health Organization, breastfeeding babies exclusively for the first six months can save the lives of 13 percent of infants that die under five. Breast milk is what nature intended for infants to be eating, and eating in ways in accordance with nature is always to ...

• Vitamin D Deficiency Reveals an Instant Health Car ...

  (NaturalNews) It's official: Vitamin D deficiency is so widespread in U.S. children that it poses a huge threat to the future health of an entire generation. A new study published in the journal Pediatrics paints a disturbing picture of vitamin D deficiency across the population of children aged 1 t ...

• C-Reactive Protein Test for Heart Disease Found Us ...

  (NaturalNews) When scientific studies found possible biomarkers for cardiovascular disease in recent years, it didn't take long for the medical industry to start manufacturing and promoting blood tests for them, especially the main, supposedly new risk factor for heart disease and stroke known as C- ...

TheGallopingBeaver

• Where are the mighty Martin Mars?

  As thousands of people in BC are evacuated from their homes ahead of raging forest fires, where are the mighty Martin Mars water bombers? From owners Coulson Flying Tankers in Port Alberni, BC : They can be in the air in ten minutes and, based on historical data, each can make a drop every fifteen ...

• Ships! We will have ships! Many ships...

  Maybe. Petey "Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates" MacKay was making bold with his announcement of 50, that's right count 'em, fifty ships to be built in Canada by the Canadian shipbuilding industry. Canada's shipbuilders have agreed to a radical change in the way contracts will be doled out by the f ...

• 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

• Elizabeth II and the economists

  As Ma'am is no doubt aware... A group of eminent economists has written to the Queen explaining why no one foresaw the timing, extent and severity of the recession. The three-page missive, which blames "a failure of the collective imagination of many bright people", was sent after the Queen asked, ...

• The lips are different

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

Media Matters for America

• Special Report says "public venting" at ...

  On Special Report , anchor Bret Baier claimed that at recent congressional town hall meetings, the "public" is "venting" about health care reform, while correspondent Shannon Bream stated that "skeptical Americans across the country are pushing back" against the legislation. But at no point di ...

• Fox at it again: Now promoting anti-health reform ...

  Just as it promoted the April 15 "tea party" protests, Fox News is now promoting the disruptions of Democratic town hall events by protesters opposed to health care reform, protests that are being touted by Republican leaders and supported by conservative groups. Following the August 2 disrup ...

• Right-wing birthers now pushing town hall disrupt ...

  Conservative media figures who have promoted conspiracy theories about President Obama's birth certificate have recently used their platforms to promote the anti-health care reform disruptions of congressional town hall events. Indeed, the disruptions resemble similar efforts by birthers to dis ...

• Contradicting Fox's own reporting, Garrett claims ...

  On Special Report, Major Garrett asserted that Robert Gibbs "said that [a forthcoming] jobless report will also probably tabulate another several hundred thousand jobs lost, meaning the stimulus law has yet to stimulate the U.S. economy." But Fox News itself recently reported that "Obama's sti ...

• Out of touch: Conservative media argue insured do ...

  Conservative media figures have echoed House Minority Leader John Boehner's statement that "93% of the American people have access to high-quality, affordable health insurance" by arguing that because most Americans purportedly have access to health insurance, health care reform constitutes, in ...

Global Research.ca

• Disinformation and Warfare

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

• VIDEO: Is Israel Guilty of Piracy off the Coast of ...

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

• Media Disinformation; Britain's The Economist ba ...

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

• Laundering Money through the Big Banks: Bernanke' ...

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

• Vietnam: unexploded air bombs, shells and mines

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

TPM Cafe

• Robert Kaplan, Former Neocon, Former IDF Fighter, ...

  I like Robert Kaplan's writing. Even though he was a big Iraq war supporter, he publicly repented in 2004. His book, Balkan Ghosts, is terrific. But, in general, I have not admired his work on Israel. Kaplan, who is an... Presented By: Drain the Ocean - Sunday August 9 9P e/p This is a world yo ...

• Breaking Down the Silos

  Beyond shedding light on the shifting realities of how we provide support for low-income workers and families in this country, Scott's book really brings home the extent to which place equals access (or lack thereof) to a substantial chunk... Sponsored Topics: Poverty - Scott - TPMCafe Book Club ...

• Reducing Mismatches in the Safety Net

  Today, social service programs offering job training, adult education, emergency food and cash assistance, mental health and substance abuse services, and child care receive about $150 to $200 billion a year - tens of billions of dollars more than... Sponsored Topics: Mental health - Substance ab ...

• Bill Clinton's Magical Mystery Tour to North Korea

  Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry might have brought Senatorial gravitas to the US-North Korea relationship and have opened connections for Pyongyang beyond the White House. Al Gore, if he had gone to help secure the release of journalists... Sponsored Topics: North Korea - B ...

• Presented By:

TruthOut

• Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

  Founder and CEO of Blackwater Worldwide Erik Prince stands in the company's offices in North Carolina. (Photo: AP) read more

• Report: Bank of America, Wells Fargo Have Modified ...

  The Obama administration on Tuesday offered the first of what will become monthly reports on mortgage modifications, including a name-and-shame approach that'll allow the public to see which banks are and aren't working to help keep struggling Americans in their homes. The first report, cove ...

• Abbas's Big Move to Revamp Fatah

  On Tuesday, the Palestinian president convened his party's first congress since 1989 to strengthen its position in negotiations with Israel and Hamas. Ramallah, West Bank - For the first time in two decades, the most enduring force in Palestinian politics convened a partywide congress Tuesd ...

• For the Modern GOP, It's a Return to the "White Vo ...

  With Republican Party leaders so constrained by ideological blinders that none of their positions is likely to produce gains among non-white minorities, especially Hispanics, the GOP is finding it has no real alternative but to revert to a "white voter" strategy. To some extent, it's working ...

• Congress May Ease Law on College Aid for Drug Offe ...

  Washington - College students convicted of illegal drug possession could get federal financial aid for the first time in more than a decade under legislation aimed at overhauling the student loan system. The bill, which a House of Representatives committee approved recently and which the ful ...

The Heathlander

• 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 ...

• Breaking the Spin

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

• Global march on Gaza

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

Water - AlterNet

• Your Water Footprint: It's Not Just How Much Water ...

  94 percent of the water we use comes from the products we buy -- from almonds and tomatoes to blue jeans and microchips.

• Can California Be Drought-Proof by 2020?

  The state has got a plan to cut water use 20 percent by 2020. Is it realistic? And will rate increases spur revolt?

• Why Can't the U.S. Guarantee the Most Basic of Hum ...

  California is leading the way with new legislation to guarantee clean water for all, but the federal government is far behind.

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

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

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

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

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

• Disrespectful and Disgraceful: The Republican Poli ...

  by Walter Brasch Featured Writer Dandelion Salad www.walterbrasch.com Aug 4, 2009 It isn’t un

• Israeli general: Israel-Lebanon border could explo ...

  Propaganda Alert compiled by Cem Ertür Featured Writer Dandelion Salad 4 August 2009 1) Hezbolla

• Book Excerpt: ‘Empire of Illusion’ by Chris He ...

  by Chris Hedges Featured Writer Dandelion Salad Truthdig July 30, 2009 Read this brilliant and humo

• Capitalism, Fascism and World War 2 by Gary Sudbor ...

  by Gary Sudborough Featured Writer Dandelion Salad 30 July 2009 Most Americans know enough about t

• US Torture Under Scrutiny In British Courts by And ...

  by Andy Worthington Featured Writer Dandelion Salad www.andyworthington.co.uk 29 July 2009 Andy Wor

Unexplained Mysteries

• UFO photographed tailing RAF Hercules

  A man taking photographs of an RAF Hercules as it approached RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire has snapped the image of a mysterious silver orb tailing the air...

• Japanese 'robot suit' to help disabled

  A company in Japan has revealed a robotic power suit that can effectively augment a person's muscles and allow people with weak limbs or a physical di...

• Humans, and 'hobbits' existed together

  The debate over mysterious 'hobbit' Homo floresiensis has raged on ever since its discovery in 2003, now a new study comparing the bones to those of o...

• 'Junk' organs are not really useless

  Junk organs long considered to be expendable may actually serve an important purpose. Organs such as the spleen, appendix and tonsils could all hold v...

• Mysterious bright spot found on Venus

  Astronomers are trying to determine the cause of a mysterious spot that has appeared on Venus. The spot was first observed on the very same day a dark...

Grassroots

• Just Released—Food Rebellions! Crisis and the H ...

  Cover_Mock-up_rev_13_Feb_09.jpg We’re pleased to announce the release of Food Rebellion s! , co-published by Grassroots International and our ally Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy. Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger f ...

• Honduras Crisis Exposes the Weakness of US Democra ...

  While Honduras is on the brink of a civil war, politics-as-usual in Washington, D.C. threaten, quite literally, to block US support for democracy in that country. It also threatens to squelch democracy here as well. On Thursday, the office of Sen. Richard Lugar sent a letter to Secretary of State ...

• No, We Can't: Latin America Must Take the Lead

  The junta in Honduras is still in power and shows little real sign of budging. And the human rights situation has only gotten worse with the military and police cracking down on peaceful protestors, arrests, alleged torture and forced exile of social movement leaders who have had to flee the repress ...

• "Generation 3.0" of Intervention in Haiti: What Is ...

  trinidadandtobago200904-132.jpg Below is a blog by Salena Tramel, Grassroots International Program Coordinator for the Middle East and Haiti. It originally appeared on Huffington Post . Here in Haiti, a country all too often characterized by ...

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

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

Climate

• August 4, 2009

  Scandal Surrounding Fake Climate Bill Letters Mushrooms (Politico) The coal front group ACEEE, caught up in a fraudulent grassroots lobbying scandal, tried to contain the damage only to see it mushroom, dragging in two more lawmakers and prompting a congressman to call for an official investigati ...

• August 3, 2009

  Australia's Wong Rejects Carbon Trade Changes (Reuters) Australian laws for carbon trading appear to be headed for defeat in parliament's upper house Senate next week. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong today rejected nine proposed opposition amendments. Aviation Industry Expects Certified Biofuel ...

• August 1-2, 2009

  India Rejects Emissions Cuts for a Decade (Financial Times) India will not discuss signing up to legally binding obligations to make absolute cuts in CO2 emissions for at least 10 years, the country's environment minister has said. Utility Raises Cleanup Cost in Tennessee (New York Times) T ...

• July 31, 2009

  Koch Industries Fueling K St. Lobbying Boom - And Some Dems (Wonk Room) Oil and natural gas interests are pumping money into lobbying firms to influence climate change legislation at a furious pace, $82.2 million in just the first half of 2009 compared to $132.2 million in all of 2008, and that†...

• August 3, 2009

  Australia's Wong Rejects Carbon Trade Changes (Reuters) Australian laws for carbon trading appear to be headed for defeat in parliament's upper house Senate next week. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong today rejected nine proposed opposition amendments. Aviation Industry Expects Certified Biofuel ...

TomDispatch

• 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 ...

• Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, Dismantling the Empire

  The Obama administration's plan to end production of the F-22 Raptor has received plenty of press coverage , but the Pentagon budget itself, even though it's again on the rise, hardly rates a bit of notice. In fact, amid the plethora of issues large and small -- from health care reform to Gates-g ...

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

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

• Tomgram: An American Hell

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

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

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

Smirking Chimp

• Imagine your child being tortured...for years

  For weeks now, I have been telling the story, chapter by chapter, of one Guantanamo Bay detainee, Fayiz al-Kandari. I'd never heard of him before, had you? No, nobody has for nearly eight years now. Before I go on, do me one small favor, if you would. Clear your head of all other thoughts and imagi ...

• Taboo Alert: The Real - And Most Disturbing - News ...

  The New York Times story about MSNBC's corporate parent, General Electric, forcing the network to soften its criticism of Fox News has generated a lot of buzz over the weekend. But what's so telling about the story and the residual chatter is that, with the exception of Glenn Greenwald's typically t ...

• New GOP Healthcare Talking Points Leaked: The Obam ...

  To: Radio/TV Talk Show Hosts and Pundits From: Michael Steele, GOP Chairman Subject: FYIO - Health Plan Information Distribution NOTE: Please make sure this is sold with conviction with a choke in the voice or a Beckian single- tear-running-down-cheek approach. Always refer to Obama’s Killing Fi ...

• Obama may say that Dr. King paved his way, but Kin ...

  In his rousing speech to the NAACP, President Obama praised the civil rights leaders of the past whose sacrifices "began the journey that has led me" (to the White House). He neglected to mention, however, that the majority of those civil rights leaders, most notably Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., opp ...

• Twilight Zone of Prejudice

  Racial guilt, of sorts, gnaws at me. With the Cambridge flap looming large, two African-American women were handed a legitimate reason to wonder if I was dissing them. I stepped off a train at Penn Station in Manhattan, entered an elevator holding four other people and stood directly in front of the ...

Ten Percent

• Dorothy Naor Writes A Great Letter

  The Israeli feminist peace activist (of the currently persecuted New Profile organisation) is here writing to Leonard Cohen. But I think the letter would work for anyone you need to broach the subject of Israel and Palestine to who may be labouring under common misconceptions about the issues and pr ...

• De-Growth

  (IPS) – Serge Latouche, professor emeritus of economic science at the University of Paris-Sud, is one of the main proponents of “the society of de-growth”. He calls for “abandoning the objective of growth for growth’s sake, an insane objective, with disastrous consequences for the environ ...

• Ian Tomlinson- IPCC Pass Their Investigation Onto ...

  As the family of Ian Tomlinson say, let a jury decide, the CPS should bring charges against the officer shown on video attacking him. Or will it be business as usual? The IPCC did not launch its criminal inquiry until six days after Tomlinson’s death, when the Guardian gave the watchdog a dossier ...

• Patriotism, War Criminal’s Fan Club

  Immigrants who take part in protests against British troops could be denied citizenship of this country under controversial new Home Office rules. The Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, will launch a consultation tomorrow on a new points-based system for would-be migrants according to their behaviour, as ...

• Aung San Suu Kyi, Verdict Delayed

  Now would be a good time to contact the Myanmar Mission in your country and let them know of your concerns, here is the list. (note the London email link creates a faulty address, try- melondon at btconnect.com) (IPS) – A political trial in Burma that could prolong its pro-democracy icon’ ...

Paul Krugman

• A moveable mob?

  Are the same protesters showing up multiple health care town halls?

• Shape of planet blogging

  It seems that a fact isn't worth reporting unless someone is willing to deny it.

• Hey, Mister Postman

  Why has the Post Office become a byword for "something bad"?

• Big business America

  Interesting paper from CEPR: Despite our national self-image as a nation of small businesses and entrepreneurs, the United States small-business sector is proportionately not as large an employer as the small-business sectors in the rest of the world's rich economies. A couple of possible explanatio ...

• Insurers only pull your coverage when it hurts

  Via Yves Smith, an important piece on "rescissions": cases in which insurance companies retroactively cancel your health coverage. The industry would have you believe that it's a minor issue, because only a small fraction of the insured experience rescissions in any given year. But as the post poin ...

No Quarter

• When Diamonds are the Enemy

  “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” feels trivial at best for anyone paying even cursory attention to the non-sparkly side of the diamond business. Blood Diamonds, staring Leonard DiCaprio, did bring the issue of conflict diamonds to more widespread public attention, at least temporarily. I ...

• Join Nocturnal Warrior on No Quarter Radio - Tonig ...

  Tuesday night program concluded and promo bumped down. Catch the archived show at your convenience. Tonight, join the one and only Nocturnal Warrior on No Quarter Radio. from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. ET. Join the live chat and call in to the show via (347) 677-0792. Here are the plans for tonight: Tonight ...

• In 15 Minutes, Tune In to Nocturnal Warrior’s Ra ...

  Program concluded and promo bumped down. Catch the archived show at your convenience. At the top of the hour, join the one and only Nocturnal Warrior on No Quarter Radio. from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. ET. Join the live chat and call in to the show via (347) 677-0792. Here are the plans for tonight: Tonigh ...

• In 15 Minutes, Tune In to Nocturnal Warrior’s Ra ...

  At the top of the hour, join the one and only Nocturnal Warrior on No Quarter Radio. from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. ET. Join the live chat and call in to the show via (347) 677-0792. Here are the plans for tonight: Tonight it’s all about the media on the Nocturnal Warrior Show. It turns [...]

• Joe’s Running! A Race to Watch

  Here is his heartfelt declaration–worth a watch! Last May, my cartoon (reposted below) was about “Davidâ€� (Joe Sestak) thinking of running against “Goliathâ€� (Arlen Specter) for United States Senator from Pennsylvania. When long-time Republican Specter dumped the GOP because po ...

Environmental Graffiti

• Incredibly Realistic Ballpoint Pen Drawings by Jua ...
• The Flying Tree Snake of Southeast Asia
• 25 Objects Devoured by Sand
• The Incredible Light Shows of Niagara Falls
• Mind-Boggling Photo Manipulations by Erik Johansso ...

Foreign Policy in Focus

• The Geopolitics of Facebook

  FPIF's weekly update.

• Book Excerpt,

  'The Will to Resist' is a book about average soldiers and their brave acts of dissent against a system that is betraying them.

• 60-Second Expert: Ban Ki Moon and R2P

  The UN secretary general has taken a forceful position on the Responsibility to Protect doctrine.

• Ban Ki Moon and R2P

  The UN secretary general has taken a forceful position on the Responsibility to Protect doctrine.

• Against the Lisbon Treaty

  The European radical left opposes the latest version of European integration.

Therapy News

• Depression Among the Very Young: Chronic Sadness i ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Summary The occurrence of apparent sad spells, lethargy, or irritability in the very young –children under three years of age– may often be written off as a stage or passing episode. But a study recently conducted on preschoolers has suggested that children this young m ...

• Anti-Depressant Use Has Doubled in the United Stat ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Update Study Finds that Anti-Depressant Use Is Rising –Doubly The fast pace of modern life along with tense war-time environments and a growing financial crisis might be natural precursors to mental health concerns such as depression and anxiety, but along with these sometim ...

• Anxiety and Depression Have Insignificant Effect o ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Summary When seeking fertility treatment in the quest to become pregnant, some women may experience symptoms of anxiety and depression, and may further be concerned that these issues could lower their chances of achieving a viable pregnancy. But a new study recently published ...

• Difficult Marriages Take Exceptional Health Toll o ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Summary Conflicts, whether in the form of overt fights, hidden resentments, or other issues common in marriages, can be strong indicators for a range of mental health concerns, including depression. Studying the medical as well as the psychological effects of difficult marriag ...

• Schizophrenia and the Flu: Scientific American Rep ...

  A GoodTherapy.org News Update A recent edition of the popular science and technology publication Scientific American begins its in-depth article on the possibility of a link between mental health concerns and biological agents with a fairly simple observation: “Schizophrenia is a devastating illne ...

Mountaintop Removal

• Charleston Mall to Offer On-line Shopping Experien ...

  Charleston Town Center is debuting a way to go on-line to find deals at the mall and share experiences with other local shoppers.

• School-Based Health Clinic Getting Congressional S ...

  West Virginia Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito recently promoted increasing the funding for school-based health clinics.

• Clay County College Going Strong After First Year ...

  The school plans to celebrate its grand opening on August 15th with a job fair and student registration.

• State Leader Promotes Putnam County School Levy (W ...

  Mark Manchin, the executive director of the W.Va. School Building Authority, spoke to the Rotary Club in Putnam County Tuesday.

• Dunbar Moves Memorial for Teen Killed in Accident ...

  A granite memorial put in place by the city of Dunbar will have to find a new resting place.

Memeorandum

• Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S. (Ne ...

  New York Times : Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S. — WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence ...

• HONORING AN AMERICA-HATER - THE Medal of Freedom i ...

  New York Post : HONORING AN AMERICA-HATER — THE Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honor. Past recipients include John Wayne, Norman Rockwell and Vaclav Havel. This year, one of the 16 recipients President Obama selected (along with such worthies as Sen. Edward Kennedy an ...

• Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel bo ...

  Martin Ivens / Times of London : Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border — Richard Beeston on the Israel-Lebanese border and Nicholas Blanford in Beirut — Three years after Israel fought a bloody war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, there are fears that hostilities could er ...

• Shocked. SHOCKED. Astoturfing Exists. ... Now What ...

  Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel : Shocked. SHOCKED. Astoturfing Exists. ... Now What? — In eight years of writing about politics, nothing gets people angrier than when I try to make the case that most activists and most journalists practice politics differently, have diff ...

• White House Strategy: Ridicule The Angry Republica ...

  Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel : White House Strategy: Ridicule The Angry Republicans — The White House and Democratic officials, surprised by the angry words thrown at Democratic lawmakers in their first weekend of August town hall meetings, are scrambling to put together a s ...

Energy & Environment News

• In Congress, a Jump-Start for Clunkers

  The House on Friday voted, 316 to 109, to provide emergency funds for the car-rebate program after the original funding was quickly snapped up.

• Profit Dips 71 Percent at Chevron

  The oil company suspended its natural gas drilling operations, citing weak demand.

• Pueblo Journal: New Energy Injects Hope in a Color ...

  With a steelmaking history that dates to the days of the railroad barons, Pueblo may be heading to a second act.

• A Fuel-Belching Nascar Track Has Big Plans for Sol ...

  Pocono Raceway, which hosts two Nascar Sprint Cup races each year, plans to become the world’s largest sports facility to be powered by solar energy.

• Senate Leader Expects to Extend ‘Cash for C ...

  The secretary of transportation and Senate majority leader expressed confidence that the Senate would revive the auto-purchase program.

5+ quakes - 7 days

• M 5.1, Kyushu, Japan

  Wednesday, August 5, 2009 03:51:15 UTC Wednesday, August 5, 2009 12:51:15 PM at epicenter Depth : 41.60 km (25.85 mi)

• M 6.1, southern East Pacific Rise

  Saturday, August 1, 2009 13:33:31 UTC Saturday, August 1, 2009 05:33:31 AM at epicenter Depth : 10.00 km (6.21 mi)

• M 6.4, southwestern Ryukyu Islands, Japan

  Wednesday, August 5, 2009 00:18:00 UTC Wednesday, August 5, 2009 09:18:00 AM at epicenter Depth : 35.00 km (21.75 mi)

• M 5.8, Tonga

  Thursday, July 30, 2009 20:05:35 UTC Friday, July 31, 2009 09:05:35 AM at epicenter Depth : 10.00 km (6.21 mi)

• M 5.0, Vanuatu

  Tuesday, August 4, 2009 17:57:40 UTC Wednesday, August 5, 2009 04:57:40 AM at epicenter Depth : 49.00 km (30.45 mi)

China Dialogue

• Are we ready for REDD?

  Climate-change negotiators in Copenhagen would be wise to pay attention to some of the challenges highlighted by early experiments using market mechanisms to avoid deforestation, writes Tan Copsey. An agreement to curb deforestation is expected to be one of the major outcomes of this year’s global ...

• “Why don’t we stop hurting Earth?”

  Telling children about climate change could leave them angry, worried or even traumatised. So when and how should we do it? Leo Hickman explores an issue that can only grow in importance. “A four-year-old child could understand this! Run out and find me a four-year-old child.” For the past year ...

• Green growth in the Himalayas

  In the cold desert valleys of Ladakh, simple greenhouses provide fresh vegetables year round, writes Maryann Bird. For its innovative work in India, France’s GERES has won an Ashden Award for sustainability. When winter comes and the temperatures plummet to -25º Celsius in Ladakh , in the dry, re ...

• Facing Asia’s water woes

  Concerns over water scarcity are particularly acute in Asia, writes Saleem H Ali. But despite the potential for conflict, there are also prospects for ecological cooperation. As countries prepare for the climate change conference in Copenhagen later this year, water scarcity concerns that are likely ...

• Geoengineering: mirror, mirror

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

Daily Censored

• Fox News Coverage Of Health Care Reform Parallels ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds Just as town hall health care discussions are being hijacked by right-wing astroturfers, Fox News has ceded its own coverage to the same scare tactics, talking points and outright advocacy disguised as discussion and debate. Yesterday (8/3/09), I posted about Fox & ...

• Fox News Coverage Of Health Care Reform Parallels ...

  Read the full story at News Hounds Just as town hall health care discussions are being hijacked by right-wing astroturfers, Fox News has ceded its own coverage to the same scare tactics, talking points and outright advocacy disguised as discussion and debate. Yesterday (8/3/09), I posted about Fox & ...

• Brodner Cartoon du Jour: More Beer Less Yelling

  Read the full story at MoJo Articles The Beer Summit behind him, Skip Gates is planning a peace offensive on his own. So this illo, for the Washington Post, perhaps documents the pre-game....

• Coal industry flack says mountaintop removal solve ...

  Read the full story at Think Progress The coal industry front group embroiled in an Astroturf scandal is now arguing that mountaintop removal coal mining helps communities “hampered because of a lack of flat space.” Joe Lucas, vice president of communications for the American Coalition for Clea ...

• Local Fox Reporter Attends Town Hall And Finds ‘ ...

  Read the full story at Think Progress Last night, Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) hosted a rowdy town hall meeting to discuss health care reform. Fox’s local Houston affiliate reporter, Duarte Geraldino, reported that he talked to the participants and found that “some attendees admit they don’t live in ...

AlterNet's Breaking News

• Obama to Chair UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Meetin ...

• Cupcakes for Reporter on Obama's Birthday

• North Korea Pardons U.S. Journalists

  Announcement comes after Bill Clinton meets with Kim Jong Il.

• US Calls on Iran to Release Iranian-American Schol ...

• Clinton Meets North Korea's Kim

Institute for Policy Studies

• 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.

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

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

• Hypocrisy and the Honduran Coup

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

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

• North Korea pardons U.S. journalists as Clinton me ...

  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea ordered the release of two jailed American journalists on Tuesday after former U.S. President Bill Clinton held talks with Kim Jong-il and the reclusive and ailing leader issued what North Korea's KCNA news agency said was a "special pardon" for the pair.

• Goldman employees told no big purchases: report

  (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein told employees to avoid making high profile purchases, the New York Post said, citing sources.

• Consumer spending rises in June, incomes fall

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending rose slightly more than expected in June, a government report showed on Tuesday, likely pushed up by higher gasoline prices, and incomes saw their biggest drop in four-and-a-half years.

• Scientists study huge plastic patch in Pacific

  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Marine scientists from California are venturing this week to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of miles (km) of open sea dubbed the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

• Bank regulators dig in against Obama shake-up

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. bank regulators will speak out on Tuesday against some key elements of the Obama administration's plan to reshape financial regulation, saying parts of it were unneeded or could be disruptive.

Godspace

• 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 ...

• Driving as Spiritual Practice

  The weather has cooled down considerably here in Seattle and everyone feels that things are back to normal. Â A little rain would be appreciated – yes we do have days and in this case months without rain in the Pacific NW. Â The garden is flourishing but definitely crying out for a good soakin ...

• Yoga & Jesus: This is a spiritual practice

  I continue to be challenged and stretched by the ways that people connect to God and to Jesus Christ. The posts below are by Christina Whitehouse-Sugg. I found them particularly intriguing because of my growing interest in Christian meditation and as you know I am also passionate about Henri Nou ...

• Spiritual Discipline – Serving At the Pantry

  Well yesterday afternoon all my good intentions went out the window. I had expected to post another of the excellent articles still being submitted for the series on What is a Spiritual Discipline but two things happened to change all that. First the temperature in Seattle climbed to an all time ...

• Making Space for the Rabbi

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

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.

• BLOGGER SIDEBAR

To Do

renewable recycling conservation

Renewable Ventures Completes $200M Solar Fund

Reuters

- Aug 04, 2009

- 8 hours ago

By Sustainable Business - Sustainable Business Renewable Ventures, a Fotowatio company, announced the completion of Solar Fund V to finance more than $200 ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Is Nuclear Power Renewable?

New York Times

- Aug 03, 2009

- Aug 03, 2009

By James Kanter Bloomberg News An international renewable energy group said last week that nuclear power would not be among the technologies it supports. ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Bills Would Boost Renewable Energy, Storage

Reuters

- Aug 04, 2009

- 14 hours ago

By John Gartner - Matter Network When Congress returns from its summer vacation it will consider legislation that could energize investment in renewable ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Bill would classify Orion technology as renewable

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

- Aug 04, 2009

- 17 hours ago

The bill would provide renewable energy credits to users of direct-use renewable energy technology, including the Apollo Solar Light Pipe developed by Orion ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

powered by

Human Habitat

ecology water energy

Ecology cruise offers fun, educational adventure

Cape Coral Daily Breeze

- Aug 04, 2009

- 1 hour ago

... eyes get wide when they find a hermit crab," said Finkel, who added that the ecology-minded cruise was initiated by Captiva Cruises owner Paul McCarthy. ...

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Yosemite trees in decline; climate change is lead suspect

Los Angeles Times

- Aug 04, 2009

- 6 hours ago

The study was published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management. "Climate change is a likely contributor to these events and should be taken into ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Officials look for source of pollution in Colfax

Seattle Times

- Aug 03, 2009

- Aug 03, 2009

State Ecology Department researchers will be taking water samples next week along the South Fork Palouse River in Colfax to try to find the source of fecal ...

Related Articles »

clipped from Google - 8/2009

Ecology sues over illegal river work

The Wenatchee World Online

- Aug 04, 2009

- 18 hours ago

By Michelle mcniel WENATCHEE — The state Department of Ecology has sued a Dryden man who has not paid a fine for illegally building a 200-foot dike along ...

clipped from Google - 8/2009

powered by

• Water Power

  water floods pollution
  Democratic lawmakers introduce bills to deal with California water ...

  Los Angeles Times

  - Aug 04, 2009

  - 4 hours ago

  By Bettina Boxall Democratic lawmakers unveiled a package of water bills Tuesday that would create a politically appointed council with power to push ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 8/2009
  Mueller Water falls to 3Q loss, hurt by charges

  Forbes

  - Aug 04, 2009

  - 9 hours ago

  AP , 08.04.09, 03:46 PM EDT Mueller Water Products Inc. shares saw a boost Tuesday on possible increased municipal spending next year a day after reporting ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 8/2009
  Hydrant water pressure near Reno blaze was reduced

  San Jose Mercury News

  - Aug 04, 2009

  - 12 hours ago

  Authorities say someone had used a tool to reduce the water pressure at a fire hydrant closest to a Reno apartment complex that went up in flames last week ...

  Related Articles »

  clipped from Google - 8/2009
  Dearborn boy, 3, drowns in Ohio water park
  The Detroit News
  - Aug 03, 2009
  - Aug 03, 2009
  Dearborn -- Authorities Monday were investigating the death of a Dearborn boy at a popular Sandusky, Ohio, water park. Family members of Hassan Itani, 3, ...
  Related Articles »

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California's prisons to release 40,000 inmates
US judges have told California to prepare to release more than 40,000 of its 150,000 inmates to reduce overcrowding in state prisons, which suffer from massive healthcare problems.

The cash-strapped state already plans to release ailing and short-term inmates for budget issues

Z-Blog

Introducing Balloons: Free multimedia overlays for bloggers

Posted by jure, under releases, zemanta on July 30th, 2009

Zemanta offers a way to easily create links within your blog posts, providing additional reading to your readers that support and extend your blog post. Today we’re introducing “Balloons“, dynamic overlays that allow any blogger or online publisher to integrate multimedia content into their pages.

The way it works is that you use Zemanta as usually and normally insert links, lets say to Teriyaki sauce. After your post goes public, we’ll add additional icon next to it, that will allow your readers to access the information that you’re linking to without having to leave your blog.

Balloons currently brings you content from from the Creative Commons-licensed Freebase database, which includes information from sources such as YouTube, Wikipedia, Google Maps, and MusicBrainz, as well as millions of articles from Freebase contributors.

Get Balloons for your blog

To start using Balloons on your blog, go to (accessible in bottom-right corner of Zemanta widget) and turn on More info in Readers’ features section. You have to be logged-in into Zemanta Preferences to see this option.

Additional thing to note is that Balloon links will appear only when we can show a smart overlay about the link. If you link to a homepage or another type of Internet page that we don’t support, there will be no Balloon links around it.

It’s about standards and open web

The underlying code for Balloons is open source and built on the Common Tag architecture, the open tagging format developed by Zemanta, Yahoo, AdaptiveBlue, Freebase, and others. It aims to make content more connected, discoverable, and engaging. As with Common Tag, every aspect of Balloons – from its open source code base to its use of Freebase’s openly licensed content – has been designed to ensure the easy, free, and open spread of information across the web.

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