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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Friday, November 13, 2009

13 Nov- RSS SnapShot!

Topography of Southeast Asia.Image via Wikipedia

 Feeds Update from Opit's LinkFest! at My Opera

 

 

IPS - Inter Press Services

  • SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Much at Stake for Thai Premier o ...
    BANGKOK, Nov 13 (IPS) - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva faces his toughest foreign policy challenge as his first year in office draws to a close. At stake is this South-east Asian kingdom’s standing in a regional bloc.

  • EL SALVADOR: More Troops on the Streets to Fight ...
    SAN SALVADOR, Nov 13 (IPS) - José, a 46-year-old street vendor in the Salvadoran capital, says he is happy that the leftist government of Mauricio Funes decided to put more army troops on the streets to help fight the soaring levels of crime.

  • AFRICA: Water Summit Ends
    MIDRAND, South Africa, NOV 13 (IPS) - As the Second Africa Water Week ends, participants have reiterated that lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation has a direct bearing on public health and the economy in Africa.

  • Q&A: Civil Society to Lose Major Supporter
    CAPE TOWN, Nov 13 (IPS) - Human rights and democracy are causes that are never completely won, which is why civil society needs the support of philanthropists.

  • DEVELOPMENT: More Promises to Eat
    ROME, Nov 13 (IPS) - Next week's United Nations food security summit is in danger of becoming a massive missed opportunity, experts and non-governmental organisations say. Fears mount that top leaders will not show up, and binding new commitments will not materialise.

Scoop - NZ

  • UK's Afghan exit strategy begins
    The Prime Minister said that British forces would hand over two districts of Helmand province to Afghan control by the middle of next year. "We will transfer authority district by district," he said.One of the first districts to be handed over is understood to be Lashkagar, the capital of Helmand. D ...

  • New Zealand was a friend to Middle Earth, but it's ...
    As the world prepares for the Copenhagen climate negotiations next month, it is worth checking out the greenwash that has followed the promises made 12 years ago when the Kyoto protocol was signed...my prize for the most shameless two fingers to the global community goes to New Zealand, a country th ...

  • JPMorgan finds a nasty surprise
    JPMorgan Chase found an unsettling fact buried in the books of newly acquired Bear Stearns last year: The brokerage had loaned millions of dollars to a German money manager for bets on hedge funds no one had ever heard of.JPMorgan's efforts to follow Bear Stearns's money, described by a person famil ...

  • Clusters of Hemorrhagic H1N1 in Ukraine
    All the six dead young people had symptoms of severe hemmorhagic pneumonia. The disease starts slowly, with temperature rising to 37.2 - 37.3 degrees, slight cough and pain in joints. Nasal catarrh developed at the end of the second or third day. Autopsy revealed that the lungs were soaked with bloo ...

  • Monbiot: local newspapers not worth saving
    They are the pillars of the community, champions of the underdog, the scourge of corruption, defenders of free speech. Their demise could deal a mortal blow to democracy. Any guesses yet? How many of you thought of local newspapers?But this is the universal view of the national media: local papers - ...

Independent ( London )

  • Palin memoirs attack McCain camp
    Sarah Palin's new memoir describes heart-wrenching anguish about her teen daughter's pregnancy playing out before a national audience. But the 413-page tome doesn't contain a single reference to the father of her granddaughter, soon-to-be Playgirl model Levi Johnston.

  • Obama promises Afghan decision soon
    US President Barack Obama said he soon will announce his new plan for Afghanistan, one that takes into account the costs - the possible commitment of thousands more US troops and billions of dollars.

  • Q & A: Who are the Pakistani Taliban insurgents?
    A suicide car bomber attacked an office of Pakistan's main intelligence agency in the northwestern city of Peshawar today, killing 10 people and wounding 60, officials said.

  • Attacks kill 16 in Pakistan as spy agency targeted
    A suicide bomber in a pickup truck attacked the northwestern regional headquarters of the Pakistani spy agency overseeing a campaign against militancy, killing 10 people today. Another suicide assault in the area killed six more.

  • Balloon boy hoaxers accept plea deal
    The Colorado parents who reported that their six-year-old son had floated away in a helium balloon will plead guilty to some charges and serve probation so that the family can stay together, the attorney for the boy's father said yesterday.

CASMII - Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

  • Diplomats: Iran Not Expanding Enrichment Program
    Summary: Bushehr Nuclear Reactor According to diplomats familiar with the IAEA’s surveillance of Iran’s nuclear program, the nation stopped expanding its enrichment program in September, and has left nearly half of the centrifuges at the Natanz site idle. source: antiwar.com read more

  • US Moves to Seize Four Mosques, Claiming Secret Ir ...
    Summary: In a move being touted as “a sharp blow against Iran,” the United States government is attempted to seize four Shi’ite mosques across the United States, calling it the largest ‘anti-terror’ seizure ever and claiming the non-profit which operates them is secretly a front for th ...

  • Erdogan promises Iran Turkish intelligence aid aga ...
    Summary: Erdogan In the secret part of their talks in Tehran on Oct. 28, DEBKAfile's military sources reveal that Turkish prime minister Tayyep Recep Erdogan and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck military cooperation deals which promised Iran Turkish military intelligence and air forc ...

  • Brazil: Ties with Iran important to Mideast peace
    Summary: Lula BRASILIA, Brazil — President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended Brazil's friendly relations with Iran on Wednesday, saying such ties are necessary to build lasting peace in the Middle East. source: AP read more

  • Al Qaeda militant incites Sunnis against Shiites, ...
    Summary: DUBAI — A commander of an Al-Qaeda-linked group warned Islam's majority Sunnis that the Shiites and Iran pose a greater "danger" to their religion than Jews or Christians, a US monitoring group said on Tuesday. source: AFP read more

The Daily Galaxy

  • “Longevity Genes” -Why Some of Us Live Longer
    Scientists have long been baffled as to why some people live so much longer than others. Diet and exercise account for some of it, but researchers have found that genetics also factor heavily into the equation, and that long life...

  • The Dark Attractor: What's Pulling the Milky Way T ...
    Astronomers have known for years that something unknown apears to be pulling our Milky Way and tens of thousands of other galaxies toward itself at a breakneck 22 million kilometers (14 million miles) per hour. But they couldn’t pinpoint exactly...

  • Antarctica Base Camp: Search for Life in the Ice o ...
    The ancient isolated lakes of Antarctica are living biology labs that may yield clues to microbial life existing on Mars and future exploration of Jupiter's Europa and more distant exo-planets beyond of Solar System. Dr. Michael C. Storrie-Lombardi of Kinohi...

  • Image of the Day: The "Bubble" Galaxy
    The bubble forming in the center of NGC 3079 by particles streaming at high speeds (see image below), which were in turn caused by a large burst of star formation, is believed to be about 3000 light-years wide and to...

  • "Voyage Through CERN's Large Hadron Collider": The ...
    This pop-up book may not trigger a black hole, but it still has the has the most awesome paper Large Hadron Collider ever. It will thrill amateur rocket scientists and end-of-days enthusiasts the world over. The majority of people who...

Natural News

  • Facebook crowdsourced investigation exposes vaccin ...
    (NaturalNews) When you publish a hard-hitting story containing links to lots of little-known documents, you never know what kind of bizarre blow-back you'll receive. The latest episode of reactive strangeness occurred following our publication of the story about SIGA Technologies and the conflicts o ...

  • Prevent kidney disease by saying no to diet sodas ...
    (NaturalNews) According to the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), the number of people in the US diagnosed with kidney disease has doubled over the past 20 years. About 20 million Americans are at risk for developing kidney disease and the ASN web site states another 20 million Americans already ...

  • Bicarbonate of Soda Used to Cure Stage Four Prosta ...
    (NaturalNews) Bicarbonate of soda or baking soda to cure cancer? The amazing abundance of alternative cancer cures is more than most of us know, close to 400! The more notorious alternative cancer cures are the ones that get attacked viciously by the Medical Monopoly. Those cures are the ones that b ...

  • Virginia teen athlete in wheel chair after H1N1 va ...
    (NaturalNews) A teenage Virginia athlete is in a wheel chair now after suffering Guillain-Barre Syndrome within hours after receiving an H1N1 swine flu vaccine shot. 14-year-old Jordan McFarland developed severe headaches, muscle spasms and weakness in his legs after being injected. He will need "ex ...

  • Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn explains how to reverse hea ...
    (NaturalNews) This week's NaturalNews Talk Hour features Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., discussing "Making Yourself Heart Attack Proof". Discover Dr. Esselstyn's groundbreaking program backed by the irrefutable results from a 20-year study proving that changes in diet and nutrition can actually cure ...

    TheGallopingBeaver


  • H1N1 Poll
    For what it's worth, CBC is asking if "you think the government mishandled the swine flu vaccination process?"

  • The stupidity . . .
    THE LA TIMES has an obituary written by Claire Noland, that details the life and times of Qian Xuesen , who died at the ripe old age of 98. So, who was Qian Xuesen, and why should you care? He was one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in California, that did the early ground-breaking ...

  • Jason Kenney's Guyed For New ConserCanadians
    . GO . h/t Holly Stick at Bread 'n Roses

  • When the Mexican toilet flushes . . .
    FABIUS MAXIMUS is an American who has an eponymous blog which is " a discussion about geopolitics, broadly defined, from an American's perspective ". Over the years, I have found a sage perspective. Anyway, Fabius has a page on the current debacle that is Mexico, leading with the comment, "Mexico co ...

  • I bet the Leafs could get him in the second or thi ...
    Sure, his fundamentals need a little work, and he's no pretty boy, but this kid is big, strong, tough, dangerous and wild at heart. He's aggressive in the corners, has the killer instinct needed in today's NHL -- he'll really maul the other team . crossposted from the Woodshed

Media Matters for America

  • Quick fact: Cupp cites Palin putting AK's jet on e ...
    Criticizing President Obama's proposed job summit, right-wing columnist S.E. Cupp stated that "When Alaska was pelted by the economy, Sarah Palin put the plane up on eBay," suggesting that that is the sort of "practical answer" the United States should implement. From the November 12 edition of Ha ...

  • Who will mainstream right-wing attacks with Beck' ...
    With Lou Dobbs' departure from CNN, Glenn Beck and the right-wing media have lost one of their lieutenants in their campaign to mainstream conservative misinformation. On both his TV and radio show, Dobbs has ceaselessly attacked President Obama, members of his administration, and other progressive ...

  • Quick fact: Fox Nation pushes Limbaugh's false c ...
    Fox Nation advanced the false claim pushed by RedState.com's Erick Erickson and repeated by Rush Limbaugh that President Obama is, in Fox Nation's words, "Purging Republicans from Civil Service." The November 12 Fox Nation post, which links to a HotAirPundit blog post featuring video and t ...

  • Quick fact: Beck's "new little twist" is the same ...
    Discussing Democratic health care reform, Glenn Beck falsely claimed that "if you don't play ball with them now, if you don't get into their government health care, there will be jail time." From the November 12 broadcast of Fox News' Glenn Beck : BECK: But if you don't play by their new rules o ...

  • Did you get that memo? Right-wing smear machine f ...
    Reading a RedState blog post on his radio show, Rush Limbaugh stated that the "Obama administration intends to purge Republicans from the civil service retroactive to five years ago, starting in the year 2010." In fact, the Office of Personnel Management memo that Limbaugh was referencing would ...

Global Research.ca

TPM Cafe

  • Veterans Week 2009: We've Got Your Back
    Somewhere, high atop the mountains of Afghanistan, Marine Staff Sergeant Todd Bowers is smiling. He's not thinking about Cameron Diaz or all the Jack Daniels he'll consume when he comes home. Or at least not this minute. He's reflecting on... Veterans Day - United States - Military - Afghanista ...

  • Neocon-Realist Collaboration on Ending Cuba Embarg ...
    Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw "Radek" Sikorski, husband of Washington Post editorial writer (and Polish cuisine expert) Anne Applebaum, is a compelling, brilliant, eclectic political intellectual who I admire a great deal. In part, I admire Sikorski because while tenacious and... Washingto ...

  • Brave Rep. Brian Baird Compares Own Twin Grandkids ...
    United States - Minnesota - Twin Cities - Home - Family

  • Why Afghanistan's Fate Entails Our Own
    An article just posted in Dissent notes two ominous ironies in Gen. Stanley McChrystal's plans to add a virtual War on Poverty to the American counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. First, it seems that this warrior-monk discovered "soft power" while on... Afghanistan - Stanley McChrystal - ...

  • Breaking up the Banks, Like Renegotiating NAFTA?
    Remember way back in 2008 when the three leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination all argued in favor of renegotiating NAFTA? We don't hear much talk about renegotiating NAFTA these days, even though one of the three leading contenders... Democratic - Business - Financial S ...

TruthOut

  • Report: White House Counsel Greg Craig to Resign
    White House Counsel Greg Craig is expected to announce his resignation as early as Friday, the Washington Post reported , citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter, and will be replaced by President Obama's personal attorney Robert Bauer. read more

  • Court Rules CIA Did Not Violate Valerie Plame's Fi ...
    By now, most people can agree that former covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson had a decades long career with the spy agency before high-level officials in the Bush administration leaked her undercover status to reporters six years ago. That is, most people except for Valerie Plame Wilson. ...

  • Advocates Worry as California Prison System Shrink ...
    As California prepares to start shrinking its prison system, advocates see more peril than promise. Michelle Freeman's life hit rock bottom when she first started using crack cocaine in 1984. She lost all contact with her family and friends and became homeless because of her addiction. read more

  • Two Dots Don't Make a Political Map
    It is the duty of every pundit to be all-knowing on what the recent elections mean for the future of American politics. They may have only three dots to connect -- and two dots may have been state-level contests mostly about local issues -- but the confident ones plot detailed maps of political chan ...

  • New Report Reveals US Indirectly Funding the Talib ...
    In a last-minute dissent ahead of a critical war cabinet meeting on escalating the Afghan war, US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry has cast doubt on a troop escalation until the Afghan government can address corruption and other internal problems. Meanwhile, a report reveals how the US government is finan ...

Planetsave

  • The Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper
    One of the leading voices in the campaign to rescue Lake Erie from dying again is a persistent, thoughtful, dedicated water protector promoting awareness of the Lake’s benefits, supporting lighthouse restoration, fighting resurgent algae and proposed new pollution sources, and seeking funding to ...

  • Green Books Campaign: The Lazy Environmentalist on ...
    This review is part of the Green Books campaign . Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized b ...

  • Environmentalist, Conservationist, Or Neither?
    Darby Nelson, a member of a Minnesota state panel that advises the Legislature on fish, game and wildlife habitat spending, is a classic conservationist. Almost 40 years after the first Earth Day, the term environmentalist is in some disrepute. Once a badge of honor for public-spirited citizens se ...

  • NASA to Irradiate Monkeys. Horrible Animal Experim ...
    When I first read the news that NASA was going to start experimenting on monkeys with radiation to study the effects of deep space travel, my heart sunk. As an anthropologist who has studied non-human primates I have seen up close the emotions, the feelings, and the physical qualities we share wit ...

  • Great Lakes Get $475 Million in New Money, Questio ...
    Pollution from industrial facilities like this one at East Harbor in Indiana up to the 1970s left a legacy of contamination still in need of cleanup from new Great Lakes restoration funding. Giving President Obama a major victory, Congress on Thursday sent him a spending bill containing $475 milli ...

Water Quality - WordPress

Public Citizen in Texas

Press TV

Axis of Logic

They Gave Us a Republic

  • The Nightowl Newswrap
    Hasan formally charged Army prosecutors today formally charged Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused Ft. Hood shooter, with 13 counts of premeditated murder. It was exactly one week ago today that he (allegedly) went nuts and killed 12 fellow soldiers and a civilian in the base processing center in what is ...

  • An Unexpected Encounter in Section 60
    Via Talking Points Memo , a must-read about an unplanned meeting at Arlington on Veterans Day. Click here for the video.

  • "A Gentleman's Agreement"?: Garbo speaks!
    This is the twenty-seventh post in an ongoing series as we file Missouri Sunshine Law (RSMo 610) requests and investigate the non-renewal of the contract of University of Central Missouri President Aaron Podolefsky. Links to previous coverage are below the fold. BG and MB The weekly dead trees editi ...

  • It's called 'passing on your problem'
    ...and it has absolutely plagued the military for far longer than I have been sentient. I grew up hearing my father bitch about problem Sailors that ended up transferred to him, and I have heard my husband grumble about Airmen who should never have made it out of tech school.  But you know what? As ...

  • Denny Hoskins: Noun, Verb?CPA?
    Oh. My. And I thought Denny Hoskins was having a bad freshman year before the news broke yesterday that he owes over $20,000 in back taxes on properties his rental property business owns with his brother. I would imagine it is something of a toss-up which Denny Hoskins regrets more this week...All t ...

Care 2

  • New Cancer Treatment Breakthrough Protect Healthy ...
    Researchers are working on a new form of cancer treatment that will most likely become available within 5 years. The treatment works on healthy cells by modifying the function of gene to make the cells immune from huge dose of radiation ..... Submitted by FatJ Jim to Health & Wellness  |   Note-it! ...

  • Greenland ice loss 'accelerating'
    The Greenland ice sheet is losing its mass faster than in previous years and making an increasing contribution to sea level rise, a study has confirmed. Submitted by Katie Miller to Environment  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • Video: 5 Missouri family members charged in child ...
    Shocking stories of child sexual abuse and possible multiple deaths are emerging from rural Bates City, Missouri where authorities say a group of family members sexually abused children over the course of two decades. Submitted by Kelli Stowe to Society & Culture  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • Lou Dobbs leaving CNN, does not reveal plans
    CNN host Lou Dobbs, whose outspoken views on U.S. immigration have made him one of the most controversial figures on television, said on Wednesday he is leaving the 24-hour cable news network immediately because he wants a freer platform to state his opin Submitted by Cal Mendelsohn to Society & Cul ...

  • Spare Hundreds of Wolves the Fate of Wolf 527-Plea ...
    Hundreds of wolves across Montana and Idaho could soon share the same cruel fate as Yellowstone's Wolf 527 -- unless they are swiftly granted federal protection. So please take the important wolf-saving action of sending this message to Interior Secretar Submitted by Tierney Grinavic to Animals  |  ...

GreenBiz

  • Nike Debuts Latest Collection of 'Considered Desig ...
    Nike will debut a new collection of athletic footwear Saturday made with environmentally preferred materials. A portion of revenue from the N7 line will support Native American youth sports through the N7 Fund.

  • Diversey Ups Emissions Reductions Investments, Ear ...
    One year after setting a goal to cut corporate emissions by 8 percent before 2013, Diversey CEO today announced the company had already surpassed that target, and upped the goal to a 25 percent reduction in the same time frame.

  • The Green Building Market and Impact Report 2009
    This second annual report, by Rob Watson and the GreenBiz.com editorial team, explores the impacts that LEED-certified buildings have already had on energy, water, waste and employee productivity -- and projects those impacts for the next 20 years.

  • Business Owners Beware: Quick Fixes Can Cost More ...
    Looking to save a little money this fall and winter by turning down the thermostats in your offices? Think again before you fiddle with those temperatures settings. Doing that alone could cost you far more than you save, especially if employees take their workplace comfort into their own hands.

  • Cadbury and Sprint to Save Tons of Waste with New ...
    Cadbury will abandon its customary round metal tins in favor of square, recyclable cardboard boxes for its Roses and Heroes chocolate lines, while Sprint's new recyclable casing for its wireless accessories will save the company about $2.1 million a year.

Reuters Global

  • Is swine flu getting worse?
    540 children killed by swine flu

  • Swine flu sales: windfall or hard work?
    Swine flu is turning out to be a sales bonanza for drug companies - just don't call it a windfall, says GlaxoSmithKline.

  • APEC MEETING IN SINGAPORE: LIVE BLOG
    Leaders of the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum gather in Singapore this weekend for their annual summit, which this year will focus on ways of sustaining a fragile economic recovery. Reuters correspondents will be blogging live from the event, and will post stories and comments fro ...

  • Afghanistan: neither Vietnam nor Iraq, but closer ...
    The war in Afghanistan can neither be compared to Iraq or Vietnam. Perhapw the best analogy would be closer home, to itself and the Pashtun lands straddling the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

  • APEC SUMMIT IN SINGAPORE: LIVE BLOG
    The 21 leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meet in Singapore at the weekend with the focus on sustaining a fragile global economic recovery. APEC ministers this week warned the current upturn was a respite rather than A recovery and currency exchange rates are shaping up as a batt ...

Ezra Klein

  • Who belongs to unions?
    John Judis summarizes a report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research: [I]n the last twenty-five years, the proportion of unionized workers with college-degrees has gone from 20.4 to 37.5 percent. If you add workers who have attended but not graduated from college, you have 66.4 percent o ...

  • Did the invention of the airplane end the filibust ...
    Whenever I write about ending the filibuster, the same question arises: Why doesn't Reid let the Republicans go at it? If you can't end the filibuster, you can at least make sure that the minority actually has to talk for weeks on end, as opposed to simply threatening to do so. To help answer this ...

  • Tab dump
    Chris Dodd, who released a major financial regulation package this week, shoots a coquettish glance at Mark Warner. 1) One of the perks of working at The Washington Post is access to their massive photo archive. Problem is, I'm limited to photos that relate to the post I'm writing. Now, they're tes ...

  • Is the individual mandate constitutional?
    Chuck Grassley: occasional defender of the Constitution, and of the individual mandate. In a conference call, Chuck Grassley raised the idea that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. He didn't endorse it, or embrace it. Just raised the question. Suggested it could use some discussion. He's j ...

  • How dangerous is Baltimore?
    Does the media give an accurate picture of crime statistics? One answer is very, very dangerous: Baltimore is, statistically, the second-deadliest city in the USA; only in Detroit are you more likely to be murdered. Last year there were 234 homicides in the city, which has a population of 650,000. ...

Booman Tribune

  • Doing the Right Thing With the 9/11 Plotters
    Attorney General Eric Holder will announce today that the five suspects most closely tied to the September 11th attacks will be moved to New York City and tried in civilian courts. The suspects include: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, and Ali A ...

  • Serious Question
    If a Lanny Davis stops writing a column for the Moonie Times, does it make any noise?

  • Casual Observation
    It seems the last places on earth that the Cold War still exists is in the minds of right wing tea baggers and North Korea's government. Both groups see the US Government as their enemy. I wonder why that is?* * That's a rhetorical question, so feel free to answer it or not, though I'd still lov ...

  • On Afghanistan, Can We Talk?
    I don't think Hamid Karzai is a terrible guy. I just think he's incapable of governing Afghanistan. What I don't understand is why we would think we can succeed where he has failed. He gets his hands dirty trying, because you have to get your hands dirty if you want to make a sincere effort to go ...

  • FUBAR in Afghanistan
    Or is the right acronym SNAFU? I'll let you decide after you read this: Welcome to the wartime contracting bazaar in Afghanistan. It is a virtual carnival of improbable characters and shady connections, with former CIA officials and ex-military officers joining hands with former Taliban and muja ...

European Tribune

Futurismic

  • Want to stave off swine flu? Catch a cold
    OK, before anyone says it, the headline is not to be taken as medical advice (I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on television, etc, etc). But research into surprisingly low incidences of swine flu in France in recent months suggests that the common cold may be suppressing the ability of the [...] ...

  • NASA debunks the 2012 Mayan apocalypse myth
    NASA has taken a step into the rough-and-tumble world of conspiracy theory by posting a point-by-point debunking of the 2012 apocalypse meme, brought to public prominence by the recent movie based upon it [image by auntjojo]. You’ve got to admire the blunt certainty of it – here’s the first of ...

  • Brain-food: white hats, anti-hackers and post-mode ...
    By way of an experiment, I thought I’d round up a handful of links which made for interesting reading, but about which I felt no particular urge to editorialise (or waffle tangentially, if there’s any measurable difference between the two in my case). If you like the format, let me know in the c ...

  • But is it art? Modern Warfare 2, computer games an ...
    Serendipity, yet again… Jonathan’s latest Blasphemous Geometries column on the moral dimension of modern computer game mechanics arrived in my inbox last weekend, and hence (unless he has contacts in the industry of which I am unaware), he’d have had no idea that this week would see a firestor ...

  • The Mechanics of Morality: Why Moral Choices in Vi ...
    Moral ambiguity is an increasingly ubiquitous part of modern computer game character mechanics – so why are the moral elements to gameplay increasingly less enjoyable? ### I remember when having a game take into account the morality of your character was something of an innovation. I remember b ...

Therapy News

  • Method of Internet Use Affects Emotional State
    A GoodTherapy.org News Headline Millions of people use the internet each day to find information, communicate, participate in games or events, or simply keep up to date with the global buzz. Ways to examine internet users’ behaviors are constantly being developed in order to create better advertis ...

  • Combination of Visual and Auditory Emotional Trigg ...
    A GoodTherapy.org News Headline Being able to recognize emotional activity within others is one of the most important aspects of social interaction, and difficulties with such tasks can have a negative impact on the lives of many people, spawning interest in creating ways to help trigger recognition ...

  • What’s Your “Holiday Story”?
    By Peggy Gold, MS, NCC, LMHC, Narrative Therapy Topic Expert Contributor Click here to contact Peggy and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile What’s your “Holiday Story”? For some, it may be about connecting with friends and family, eating hearty meals and treats, singing songs, or getting in t ...

  • A Bad Diet Might be Responsible for a Bad Day
    A GoodTherapy.org News Summary Reasons for eating a healthy diet abound; from the purported feel-good benefits of chowing down on natural and nutritious foods to the potential to save money on groceries and of course, to lose weight when waist size is an issue, plenty of people are aware of the ince ...

  • Meddling Parents may have Stronger Psychological I ...
    A GoodTherapy.org News Headline Battles between parents and children over a variety of issues, from when to go to bed to appropriate dress and supervision of academic study, are known to occur in most households, whether they’re subtle or the cause of major conflicts. In some cases, these issues m ...

Mountaintop Removal

  • Blowing Their Tops - In These Times
    Pittsburgh Post Gazette Blowing Their Tops In These Times Tensions in southern West Virginia's coal country are higher than they've been in most residents' lifetimes, as opposition to mountaintop removal coal ... Coal must read: Industry takes a look in the mirror Charleston Gazette Mayfly May Thwa ...

  • Mayfly May Thwart $3 Billion in Coal Mined in US M ...
    Pittsburgh Post Gazette Mayfly May Thwart $3 Billion in Coal Mined in US Mountaintops Bloomberg ... creeks and streams have been buried by mining debris in Appalachia from surface-mining techniques, including mountaintop removal , the EPA said in 2005. ... Coal Country screened at DragonFly Nov. 17 ...

  • Appalachian Voices makes technological strides - A ...
    Appalachian Voices makes technological strides ASU The Appalachian Online Google Earth produced a behind-the-scenes video about the campaign to end mountaintop removal in late October, giving special recognition ... Final Green Screen movie tonight at The Showroom Spartanburg Herald Journal Appalac ...

  • Coal must read: Industry takes a look in the mirro ...
    Pittsburgh Post Gazette Coal must read: Industry takes a look in the mirror Charleston Gazette Coal mining industry resistance to abandoning mountaintop removal and valley fills, despite readily available alternatives. This is probably the most ... Coal Country screened at DragonFly Nov. 17 Boone M ...

  • Coal country Democratic lawmakers seek extension o ...
    Coal country Democratic lawmakers seek extension of Bush mining rules The Colorado Independent Joe Manchin (D) met with industry leaders regarding the mixed signals coming from the EPA on mountaintop removal , a method of mining that sees the tops of ...

Memeorandum

  • Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Be Sent to New York for ...
    Evan Perez / Wall Street Journal : Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Be Sent to New York for Trial   —  WASHINGTON — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and four others accused in the attacks will be put on criminal trial in New York, Attorney General ...

  • HER TURN! - Chapter Four; Section 8, pages 255-257 ...
    Sarah Palin / Drudge Report : HER TURN!   —  Chapter Four; Section 8, pages 255-257  —  By the third week in September, a “Free Sarah” campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp's decision to keep me, my family and friends back hom ...

  • Key 9/11 Suspect to Be Tried in New York (Charlie ...
    Charlie Savage / New York Times : Key 9/11 Suspect to Be Tried in New York   —  WASHINGTON — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and four other men accused in the plot will be prosecuted in federal court in New York City, a federal law enforcement o ...

  • After spending binge, W.H. says it will focus on d ...
    The Politico : After spending binge, W.H. says it will focus on deficits   —  President Barack Obama plans to announce in next year's State of the Union address that he wants to focus extensively on cutting the federal deficit in 2010 - and will downplay other new domestic spending beyond jobs ...

  • Among Obama Aides, Debate Intensifies on Troop Lev ...
    New York Times : Among Obama Aides, Debate Intensifies on Troop Levels   —  WASHINGTON — The disclosure that the United States ambassador in Kabul has expressed written opposition to deploying more American troops to Afghanistan lays bare the fierce debate within the Obama administration ove ...

Energy & Environment News

5+ quakes - 7 days

China Dialogue

  • The future of oil
    New market dynamics created by climate change, geological and geopolitical pressures will transform our hydrocarbon economies, write John Elkington and Gary Kendall. The race for the world’s remaining oil reserves could get very nasty. Recently, Nigerian militants announced their determination to ...

  • Carbon trading isn’t working
    Last week, Graciela Chichilnisky wrote that carbon trading can save a climate-change agreement. Here, Kevin Smith responds that such markets haven’t worked – and won’t in future. Carbon trading isn’t working, and doesn’t show any signs of improving either. The biggest experiment in carbon ...

  • “China needs time”
    On Thursday, Graciela Chichilnisky proposed that the carbon market is used to avoid a stand-off between the US and China at Copenhagen. Here, Simon Zadek responds. Graciela Chichilnisky’s proposal (see “ Saving Kyoto ”) offers food for thought, and an innovative mechanism of moving money elega ...

  • Saving Kyoto
    The carbon market can be used to avoid a stand-off between the major emitters at Copenhagen and forge a consensus among nations. Graciela Chichilnisky sets out her proposal. As nations get ready for the climate-change showdown at Copenhagen in December, the pieces are falling into place for a major ...

  • Corporate values, green governance
    The failure of companies to report environmental pollution in China exposes challenges for governments in the developed and the developing world, writes Tang Hao. Eighteen multinational and Chinese companies, all of them listed in last year's Fortune Global 500 or Fortune China 100 – including She ...

AlterNet Top Stories

Threat Level

  • Bush Concerned Successor Might Revoke Telco Spy Im ...
    The George W. Bush administration expressed concern future administrations might not use the legal amnesty it wanted to give the nation’s telecommunication companies that were being sued for assisting the president’s warrantless, electronic wiretapping program, according to internal documents re ...

  • Researchers: Flaw in Federal Wiretaps Could Allow ...
    People who think they are being wiretapped by the cops could disable the taps by sending a stream of text messages or making numerous VoIP calls to overwhelm the system’s thin bandwidth, researchers in Pennsylvania postulate. The researchers say they’ve found a vulnerability in U.S. law enforce ...

  • Help Threat Level Examine Federal Spy Documents
    We’re putting together a story about the behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to 2008 legislation immunizing the nation’s telecommunication companies from liability for assisting the government’s warrantless dragnet program — the hijacking of Americans’ electronic communications. Threat ...

  • Convicted Murderer Sues Wikipedia, Demands Removal ...
    Wikipedia is under a censorship attack by a convicted German murderer invoking his country’s privacy laws in a bid to remove references to him killing Bavarian actor Walter Sedlmayr in 1990. Lawyers for Wolfgang Werle, of Erding Germany, sent Wikipedia a cease-and-desist letter (.pdf) demanding th ...

  • Government Will Pay $3 Million in Coffee Table Spy ...
    The U.S. has agreed to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him with a bugged coffee table. Rather than comply with a court order to provide lawyers in the case with what the U.S. government says is classified information, ...

Reuters - Most Popular Articles

  • Obama faces strains in Japan, first stop in Asia
    TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama headed into talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Friday in which he will likely try to smooth strained ties as the allies adjust to a rising China.

  • Billionaire Bill Gates says Wall Street pay too hi ...
    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bill Gates said on Wednesday he believes Wall Street pay is "often too high" and that U.S. government ownership of American International Group Inc worries him because it has devalued the giant insurer.

  • Pacquiao in best shape of life, says trainer Roach
    LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Manny Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach says the Filipino southpaw has never been in better shape and has predicted a knockout when he challenges Miguel Cotto for the WBO welterweight title on Saturday.

  • Colorado parents to plead guilty in balloon hoax
    DENVER (Reuters) - The parents of a Colorado boy thought to have floated away in a homemade helium balloon will plead guilty to criminal charges of staging the incident in a publicity-seeking hoax, their lawyer said on Thursday.

  • Blast strikes near U.S. military base in Kabul
    KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber struck a convoy of civilian vehicles outside a U.S. military base in Kabul early on Friday, wounding three Afghans and causing several casualties among foreigners, police said.

Pine River World News

  • To Georgia's Good Fortune, Russia is Winning
    The following column is reprinted with permission from Stanislav Mishin. To Georgia's Good Fortune, Russia is Winning ©  Stanislav Mishin Source:   Mat Rodina November 12, 2009 Since the mid 1990s and maybe even earlier, the leadership of Orthodox Christians Georgia has been in bed with the Saudi- ...

  • Fidel Castro: A science fiction story
    This English translation of Fidel Castro's latest article is courtesy of Granma Internacional news agency, Havana, citing Cubadebate as the source. Reflections of Fidel: A science fiction story ©  Fidel Castro Ruz Translated by Granma Internacional Post date:  November 12, 2009 HOW I regret having ...

  • 'Play the terrorist' video game disturbs players
    The following article is from The New Zealand Herald. 'Play the terrorist' video game disturbs players ©   The New Zealand Herald By James Ihaka November 12, 2009 A graphic and violent video game where the player assumes the role of a terrorist to massacre dozens of innocent people, is tipped to b ...

  • Obama exploits Fort Hood massacre to promote U.S. ...
    The following commentary is reprinted with permission from World Socialist Web Site. Obama exploits Fort Hood massacre to promote U.S. wars ©   World Socialist Web Site By Bill Van Auken November 11, 2009 President Barack Obama used his speech at Tuesday's service for the 13 men and women killed ...

  • Clinton says U.S. has some responsibility in milit ...
    The following article is from Pakistan's Geo television network. Clinton says U.S. has some responsibility in militant creation ©   Geo TV Pakistan November 11, 2009 WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged continued pressure on militants along Pakistan Afghanistan border and no ...

PDA AMERICA

  • Come Together Right Now
    By David Swanson | AfterDowningStreet If you have an interest in grassroots organizing, international alliance building, the peace movement, the labor movement, the conversion of the U.S. economy from weapons to human needs, the preservation of ...

  • IOT: Inside the Party October Call
    On this call Congressman Mike Capuano (MA08) joined us to talk about his campaign. We officially endorsed him for Senate on this call. We also discussed our new national endorsement policy.

  • How to End Wars
    By David Swanson Around the United States, peace groups are engaged in effective campaigns against proposed new military installations, local funding of weapons companies, and the routine destruction of the environment and of workers’ health by ...

  • The Beginning of An Alliance
    by Michael Meo | Portland Metro Pacific Greens One result of State Senator Rod Monroe’s appearance as a speaker at last night’s weekly meeting of the Portland Metro Chapter was his pledge to help our party ...

  • Diagnostic tools for Maine’s controversial g ...
    This week, Maine rolled back gay marriage rights, just as California did last year with Prop 8. Many of our members have contacted us to request information on how to investigate the Maine election. Here ...

Marler Blog

  • What will the USDA do about non-E. coli O157:H7 Sh ...
    Several weeks ago I filed with the USDA a Petition for an Interpretive Rule Declaring all enterohemorrhagic Shiga Toxin-producing Serotypes of Escherichia coli, Including Non-O157 Serotypes, to be Adulterants Within the Meaning of 21 U.S.C. § 601(m)(1). The Petition can be found here. I just receiv ...

  • Speech at China Agricultural University School of ...
    Perhaps not quite on par with the Great Wall or the Forbidden City, yet meeting the about 150 law students was pretty exciting - even for my 10-year-old daughter, Sydney (she took the photo).  Think of China Agricultural University as a Davis/WSU/Cornell with a Law School. I had been invited to spea ...

  • Food Safety News Supported Third China Food Safety ...
    Despite postponing the Conference from late September until this week for the 60th anniversary of the Revolution, CIFSQ once again put on a quality Conference with several hundred in attendance for dozens of countries. Food Safety News – www.foodsafetynews.com was a presence – sponsoring the sp ...

  • Comparing the Food Safety Record of Pasteurized an ...
    Part 1 and Part 2 of this series examined the historical context of the debate surrounding dairy product food safety, and the mechanisms by which pasteurized or raw dairy products may become contaminated with foodborne pathogens. Part 3 compared foodborne illnesses and disease outbreaks linked to ra ...

  • Food Poisoning is Serious - Read Mari's Story of a ...
    I am in Beijing at yet another food safety conference.  It is odd really that at each of these conferences - regardless the continent - all tend to talk about the victims of food safety failures in the abstract.  Mari's story is jarringly real.  Click on the below and read the three part story of a ...

AutoblogGreen

  • AutoblogGreen for 11.13.09
    Greenlings: Why does mileage drop in winter? You've got questions, we've got answers. BMW mull lengthening Mini E lease times Early problems might mean extra time for the EV drivers. ...

  • AutoblogGreen for 11.12.09
    First Drive: 2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid is technologically impressive... but to what end? Tell me why we'd want to own one of these, again. GM fuel cell boss explains that the technology needs to pass final ...

  • First Drive: 2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid is technolog ...
    Filed under: Hybrid , Crossover , BMW , First Drive , Luxury 2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid - Click above for high-res image gallery BMW's pitch on how great the X6 ActiveHybrid is goes like this: it's the world's most powerful hybrid vehicle, fuel consumption is reduced about 20 percent compared to a s ...

  • AutoblogGreen for 11.11.09
    Lutz: High-performance Chevy Volt SS a "possibility" Could the Volt become a high-performance vehicle? Brammo cuts Enertia price to $7,995 2k down, $249 a month and you're good to go. ...

  • AutoblogGreen for 11.10.09
    At Witz' End: Notes from "The Business of Plugging In" A sampling of thoughts from PEV 2009. SEMA 2009: eVARO plug-in hybrid three-wheeler debuts, returns The golden squid is back. ...

Rafe's Radar

  • YouTube to get high-def 1080p player
    YouTube exec announces another bump-up in available YouTube resolution. The new resolution, as well as a new full-screen player, will roll out to all users within days. Originally posted at Webware

  • Clicker launches for all--watch it
    This online video directory service is the best TV search engine we've seen. Originally posted at Webware

  • Two new remote Webcams: Mole and Vue
    One is small and simple but fails as a security camera; the other is big and ugly but does it all.

  • Reporters' Roundtable 9: The business of app store ...
    This week on the Roundtable: the App Store revolution. Something funny has happened to software. While the model we all grew up with for the distribution of software was mostly to buy it through retail channels or other resellers, or maybe direct from manufacturers, another model emerged and has ...

  • Personal services get business flavor: Xobni and S ...
    IT pros will often tell you that a lot of consumer technology isn't ready for the enterprise. It's not secure, it's not priced correctly, it can't be administered, yada yada. That doesn't stop businesspeople from using consumer tools in their jobs, though. It just stops ...

Camera Obscura

  • Pathos and pathology: the cinema of Todd Haynes.
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935025/pathos-and-pathology-cinema.html September 1, 2004... Because infinity--for the eye--begins just a few meters away from the retina.... --Roger Caillois, "The Image" There are at least two shots in Todd Haynes's work that recur so frequ ...

  • The incredible shrinking star: Todd Haynes and the ...
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935026/incredible-shrinking-star-todd.html September 1, 2004... Critics have consistently characterized the films of Todd Haynes within the terms of what B. Ruby Rich described in 1992 as the "new queer cinema"--films whose style displayed traces of ...

  • Written on the screen: mediation and immersion in ...
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935031/written-screen-mediation-and.html September 1, 2004... Recently, while engaging in one of my favorite forms of procrastination--using my computer to search for mid-century modern bargains on eBay rather than using it to engage in more rigorous ...

  • Traumatic postmodern histories: Velvet Goldmine's ...
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935030/traumatic-postmodern-histories-velvet.html September 1, 2004... If modernity was characterized by and imagined itself in terms of a particular awareness of time and history--the unfolding of social, political, and technological projects of pro ...

  • Dangerous spaces: Safe.
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-126935029/dangerous-spaces-safe.html September 1, 2004... For me, the problem is always in content; we want to define the perspective of a film solely through its content, and not through its form. --Todd Haynes No matter how much we desire, wit ...

Democracy Now!

  • Lou Dobbs Resigns From CNN
    The controversial TV anchor has resigned from CNN amid a campaign to force him off the air due to his reporting on Latinos and immigrants. Past Democracy Now! Coverage of Lou Dobbs: Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez’s 2007 interview with Lou Dobbs Amy Goodman’s column ‘The Dubious Mr. ...

  • The Man Who Put the Rainbow in 'The Wizard of Oz'
    Thanksgiving is around the corner, and families will be gathering to share a meal and, perhaps, enjoy another annual telecast of “The Wizard of Oz.” The 70-year-old film classic bears close watching this year, perhaps more than in any other, for the message woven into the lyrics, written during ...

  • "First as Tragedy, Then As Farce": Philosopher and ...
    Dubbed by the National Review as “the most dangerous political philosopher in the West” and the New York Times as “the Elvis of cultural theory,” Slovenian philosopher and public intellectual Slavoj Žižek has written over fifty books on philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and po ...

  • The Tortured Logic Continues
    “Extraordinary rendition” is White House-speak for kidnapping. Just ask Maher Arar. He’s a Canadian citizen who was “rendered” by the U.S. to Syria, where he was tortured for almost a year. Just this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York City, dismissed Arar ...

  • The Late Clarence Kailin in his Own Words: "We've ...
    Clarence Kailin was one of the last survivors of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of American volunteers who fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. Kailin fought in defense of Spain’s democratically elected government against a military coup led by Gen. Francisco F ...

Farming Pathogens

  • A Visitation of the Influenza
    In seeping through the world’s every nook and cranny, pandemics have a way of forcing themselves into our lives as a lurking presence. Even the most insular of functionaries, who typically makes his living solving problems by ignoring them, straightens up and takes notice.    As an epidemic ...

  • I Do Like Green Eggs and Ham
    Much of what we’ve addressed on this blog has focused on the epidemiological failures of industrial farming. But what of the alternatives? Can we farm in another way? Is another world possible?    It’s only since I’ve moved to the Midwest that I’ve learned that not only is that world p ...

  • Heart of Modeling
    Greed is often mistaken for humanity’s heart of darkness. Look instead to the rationalization that transforms the most rapacious pillaging into an act of benevolence. A one-ton bomb dropped on a peasant wedding party is dissembled into regret without responsibility or, baser yet, a tough love offe ...

  • Bird Flu’s Industrial Revolution
    Public talks can be private affairs. In sharing our work we bare the triumphs and limits of a thinking born in long hours alone or with a few fellow conspirators sworn to secrecy. But in breaking our oaths we are able to take the next step.   In talking bird flu twice this past month I learned [... ...

  • The Agro-Industrial Roots of Swine Flu H1N1
    Mexico appears ground zero for an outbreak of deadly human-specific H1N1.   Of the over 1400 people that have been reportedly infected there so far, 86 have died. Short chains of transmission of the virus have also been reported in California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, New York City, Canada and New Zeal ...

Digg Green

  • Biotech Firm Makes a Breakthrough in Creating Fuel ...
    In what could be a major breakthrough, Joule Biotechnologies announced that it has directly produced fuel from just the plentiful carbon dioxide in the air around us using highly engineered photosynthetic microbes.

  • Miniature Robots to Swarm the Oceans
    Swarms of soup-can-sized robots will soon plunge into the ocean seeking data on poorly understood phenomena from currents to biology.

  • 10% of US Electricity Comes from Old Russian Nucle ...
    Nuclear disarmament has become an integral part of the electricity industry, little known to most Americans. Salvaged bomb material now generates about 10 percent of electricity in the United States — by comparison, hydropower generates about 6 percent and solar, biomass, wind and geothermal toget ...

  • 15,000 Reasons to Worry About Invasive Species
    With over 15,000 inland lakes, the infestation of zebra mussels and more than 185 non-native species (a result of the practice of dumping contaminated ballast water in the Great Lakes from overseas freighters) is having significant environmental and economic impact in the region.

  • Ecosystem in Peru Is Losing a Key Ally
    Peruvians pose what might be a final challenge to the ecosystem supported by the giant huarango tree, which is coveted as a source of charcoal and firewood.

Invisible Opportunity

  • Five Hundred Lawyers on the Bottom of the Ocean
    By Les Visible What The Constitution has become is a big wedge of Swiss cheese or maybe a honeycomb, something with a lot of canals; thruways and byways and any fucking ways that you can. There are little paths and wide thoroughfares that are traveled by lawyers who move through and across them like ...

  • BAXTER ADMITS CONTAMINATING 72 KILOS ON MAIN STREA ...
    This is a 5 minute material from a TV show called “Teraz my” (“Now us”) broadcasted on 9/11/2009 on biggest Polish private station TVN. The program is very respected and has very large audience so this is real mass media in Poland. The hosts invited current Polish Health Minister Ewa Kopacz ...

  • Conflicts of interest? Dr. Mehmet Oz owns 150,000 ...
    By Mike Adams Dr. Mehmet Oz is a huge promoter of vaccines. He’s been on television reinforcing fear about H1N1 swine flu and telling everyone to get vaccinated. But what he didn’t tell his viewing audience is that he holds 150,000 option shares in a vaccine company that could earn him millions ...

  • CFR Recording Suggests Creating False Scarcity To ...
    By Steve Watson A recording of a recent Council On Foreign Relations symposium reveals attendees discussing ways and means of getting the public [...]

  • H1N1 vaccines too little, too late; most people al ...
    By Mike Adams The Big Pharma frenzy over H1N1 vaccines has turned into a circus of hilarious medical quackery thanks to the fact that by the time the vaccines are available, most people will have already been exposed to the virus. Hence, most people will have already built up their own H1N1 antibodi ...

Care2 Picks

  • World freedom Day ( To the Tune of 'Annie Get Your ...
    I guess the Nobel Prize made me irritable. The Commander in Chief had an inspiration to declare 'World Freedom Day' More than a few facts in evidence rubbed against that idea. I had fun. Submitted by John Farnham to US Politics & Gov't  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • U.S. cat has the H1N1 virus
    Swine Flu has now spread to multiple animals in the US...Read On... Submitted by Lisa Rinaldi-Kohl to Animals  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • Battle at Coal River Mountain Explodes
    Start of the destruction of the range slated for wind project, blasting and forest clearing reported : mining involves hazard of release of reservoirs of toxic ash deposits threatening flood of death and groundwater poisoninghttp://opitslinkfest.blogspot. Submitted by John Farnham to Environment  | ...

  • Top 10 Places to Get Online Radio for Free
    Then grab a pair of headphones, the below top ten places to get online radio, and make the work fly by with your favorite music. Best of all, these stations are completely free to listen to and work with a pop up blocker. Submitted by Sophie Smith to Science & Tech  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • Coal Waste
    Sourcewatch compilation of information on coal waste includes information often radioactive/concentrated heavy metal coal ash contaminates groundwater at ALL 'containment' sites Submitted by John Farnham to Environment  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

Insurgency Watch - Newswire

  • Obama, us leaders should contemplate future of Afg ...
    BBC News Obama, us leaders should contemplate future of Afghan women Chicago Tribune Would nuclear-armed Pakistan become even more vulnerable to its own Taliban insurgency ? Will a defeat embolden America's enemies? That line of thinking must ... Vietnam syndrome has begun in Afghanistan Sri Lanka ...

  • Officials: Campus blasts perplexing - United Press ...
    Officials: Campus blasts perplexing United Press International ISLAMABAD, Pakistan , Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The International Islamic University, where bomb blasts killed at least six people, is a unique Pakistani institution ... and more »

  • Schools closed in Pakistan after bombing - GMA new ...
    Schools closed in Pakistan after bombing GMA news.tv An Associated Press reporter met three Taliban fighters Tuesday traveling in a car with darkened windows at Shaktoi, a town close to the border between ... and more »

  • An Evolving Afghan Policy - American Chronicle
    An Evolving Afghan Policy American Chronicle ... triumph for the forces of Islamic extremism, al-Qaeda would once again gain a foothold, and the return of the Taliban would likely destabilize Pakistan . ...

  • Schools close in Pakistan following university bom ...
    Schools close in Pakistan following university bombings Emirates Business 24/7 ... in Pakistan after suspected militants bombed a university close to the capital, sowing fear across the country as the army presses a major anti- Taliban ... and more »

AlterNet - Rights and Liberties

Sideways News

  • Leaf Logs coming to business world
    An inventor is looking to help companies across the UK boost their green credentials by promoting the use of biomass technology.

  • Dinosaurs: Nimble and warm-blooded?
    Scientists have debated for decades about whether dinosaurs were warm or cold-blooded. But new research suggests larger prehistoric creatures were warm-blooded and athletic as opposed to the lumbering cumbersome creatures depicted by traditional thinking.

  • The new North Pole
    Millions of presents are exchanged for Christmas every year, but where do they come from?  Good Magazine  investigates the role China plays in our festive gift-giving. 

  • Labour plans public control of services
    Schools, hospitals, care homes and even leisure centres could be reorganised in a John Lewis-style mutual partnership, according to new plans unveiled by the government.

  • Operation Christmas Child
    Operation Christmas Child is the world's largest children's Christmas appeal. Run by Samaritan's Purse, every year they send shoeboxes - filled with gifts donated by people from across the world - to children in parts of Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Last year they sent a staggering 1.2 m ...

Fabius Maximus

  • FM newswire, 13 November – links to old-fash ...
    Today’s broadsheet from the FM website pressroom.  There are 5 sections, all with hot news. Links to interesting news and analysis News, updates to posts past on the FM website Quote of the Day, advice from the past News about themes from posts past on the FM website Note from the past â ...

  • Follow-up on America’s latest wetting our pa ...
    As was perfectly clear in September – but lost amidst America’s hysterical crying — the Iran atomic facility at Qom is not significant.  I will not embarrass anyone by providing links, but you know the stories.  The rest of the world must believe us daft, going through this again s ...

  • FM newswire, 12 November – links to old-fash ...
    Today’s broadsheet from the FM website pressroom.  There are 4 sections, all with hot news. Links to 4 interesting articles of news and analysis Quote of the Day News about themes from 2 posts past on the FM website Thought for the day (-1) Plus an Afterword (I)  Links to interest ...

  • Update about Mexico, the failing state on our bord ...
    Mexico continues to fall apart in slow-mo.  There seems to be little we can do to help, so our government pretends all is fine — rather than take defensive measures. Contents Mexico Security Memo, Stratfor, 9 November 2009 — A typical week in Mexico, reported by one of the few agencies cover ...

  • Today’s edition of the FM newspaper – ...
    Today’s broadsheet from the FM website pressroom.  There are four sections, all with hot news. Links to interesting news and analysis Today’s special item News about themes from posts past on the FM website Lifted from the comments of the FM website (I)  Links to interesting news and ...

sibeledmonds - tweets

WIRED Magazine | Science

  • New Brain Cells May Knock Out Old Memories
    Old memories may get the boot from new brain cells. A new rodent study shows that newborn neurons destabilize established connections among existing brain cells in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in learning and memory. Clearing old memories from the hippocampus makes way for new lear ...

  • Comet Hunter’s Last Look at Earth Is Haunting
    This gorgeous image of a blue arc of the Earth against the blackness of space was captured by the Rosetta spacecraft as it swung by our planet. The European Space Agency mission is on its way to intercept the comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The ship will deploy a lander onto the comet’s surface ...

  • Underwater Glider Hunts, Records Cryptic Whales
    The mysterious beaked whale is the target of a new undersea glider trying to track the deep-diving mammals by their high-frequency clicks and squeals. A Seaglider unmanned underwater vehicle with an underwater microphone began patrolling the coast of Hawaii on October 27 and will finish up its init ...

  • T. Rex Finally Has a Buyer, We Just Don’t Know W ...
    The Tyrannosaurus rex that was featured in a Las Vegas auction in October finally has a home. We just can’t tell you where. Samson, as the giant fossil is affectionately known, failed to fetch enough at the live auction to satisfy the owner. In October, Tom Lindgren, who curated the natural histo ...

  • Video Close-Up: The Sun’s Surface in Swirling De ...
    A telescope carried by balloon to the edge of Earth’s stratosphere has returned the most detailed video of the sun’s surface to date. Released Wednesday by an international research team led by astronomers from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the video shows what ...

The Progressive Realist

  • Obama's Heartening Indecision
    Odd though it may sound, I am vaguely heartened by Obama's continued indecision on Afghanistan - not for what it reveals about his foreign policy strategy for the region, but for what it says about the internal decision-making process in the White House. Specifically, what it indicates is that there ...

  • Off the Radar News Roundup
    - Good thing Greece blocked Macedonia's NATO bid in 2008. Now the Macedonian army chief of staff is in Beijing looking to improve military cooperation with China .- For that China-Taiwan MoU on banking regulation, the signature's ready, but the title it goes over is holding things up .- After Malays ...

  • Soviet Ink Spots
    I don’t think I agree with the analytical conclusions of this item from the Ghosts of Alexander blog assessing the prospects for “A Hybrid Rumsfeld/Soviet Strategy for Afghanistan.” But it’s worth reading, and this map, originally from Gilles Dorronsoro’s Revolution Unending: Afghanistan, ...

  • Obama On Afghanistan: "None Of The Above."
    Late yesterday afternoon, news broke that former U.S. Army General and current Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry told the White House twice last week that it would be a mistake to send more troops to Afghanistan before the issues with Hamid Karzai's government are resolved. He also stated th ...

  • Proactive Asian Security
    This news article from Monday is a geopolitical shock wave in Asia, perhaps one of the more interesting and long term important developments involving the security arrangements in Asia in some time. India and Japan "expressed their commitment to contribute to bilateral and regional cooperation," ac ...

TAPPED - The American Prospect

  • The Chilling Subtext Of The Al-Nashiri Decision.
    Earlier this morning, I posted about the administration's decision to try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in civilian court. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri , who is a suspect in the bombing the U.S.S. Cole, will face trial by military commission. Glenn Greenwald argues that this exposes "a multi-tiered justi ...

  • Annals of Our Broken Congress: Jobs Edition.
    President Obama has announced his intention to hold a Jobs Summit at the White House, reacting to the high unemployment rate and increasing dissatisfaction with his economic policies. Sure, fine, get the folks together, hopefully some actual results will come out of it. But reading the Washington Po ...

  • Alleged 9/11 Mastermind KSM To Face Civilian Trial ...
    Khalid Sheik Mohammed , long alleged to be the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks that destroyed the Twin Towers and killed nearly 3000 people, is headed to the Southern District Court of New York to face trial in a civilian court alongside five other alleged co-conspirators, according to the Associ ...

  • Lightning Round: The First Rule of Revenue Generat ...
    Doug Elmendorf doesn't have to face voters, so he has the freedom to point out that it's contradictory for Americans to demand government services that they aren't willing to pay for. But I often wonder what the reaction would be to a politician who honestly made the pitch for higher taxes to pay f ...

  • The Chocolate Milk Offensive.
    In 2005, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver successfully experimented with healthy whole foods in school lunch. Now, Tom Laskawy at Grist reports that first lady Michelle Obama could be preparing policy to wrest school lunch from the grip of food conglomerates. And earlier this year, Obama planted ...

Andy Worthington

  • Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo – ...
    Following the successful launch of the new documentary film “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamoâ€� at the Cochrane Theatre, London, on October 21, 2009 – and the current mini-US tour of the film (with Andy Worthington showing it at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C. ...

  • Bringing Guantánamo To New York
    So it’s three days since I arrived in New York, at the start of a ten-day promotional tour (also taking in Washington D.C. and the Bay Area in California) to show my new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (co-directed with filmmaker Polly Nash) and to discuss Guant ...

  • Italian Judge Rules “Extraordinary Rendition ...
    In an unprecedented ruling in a courtroom in Milan, at the end of a trial that — in fits and starts — has lasted for over two years, 22 CIA agents and a US Air Force Colonel received sentences of between five and eight years (and two Italian agents received three-year sentences) for their involv ...

  • Military Commissions Revived: Don’t Do It, Mr. P ...
    I was so delighted that the Defense Authorization Act, signed into law by President Obama last Wednesday, included a hard-won concession that the administration can transfer prisoners from Guantánamo to the mainland to face trials (even though the legislation still bears the fingerprints of interfe ...

  • Guantánamo Uighurs In Palau: First Interview And ...
    In the first interview with one of the six Uighurs recently released from Guantánamo to the Pacific nation of Palau, Radio Free Asia in Washington D.C. spoke by phone to Anwar Hassan, who revealed that, although the men were enjoying their new-found freedom, they were all concerned that they were u ...

Buzzflash

  • President Obama's war -- at home
    Body A bit more than a week ago I wrote that "it's safe to conclude there's not an outside observer left who doesn't believe there's electoral trouble stirring," and now come a couple of new polls -- one showing the symptoms of a national rage turned inward; the other, mostly just the ra ...

  • BuzzFlash Mailbag for November 11, 2009
    BUZZFLASH MAILBAG Want to join the conversation? Share your thoughts with other Mailbag readers by clicking here . You also may comment below; post articles yourself at BuzzFlash.net ; or send urls for BuzzFlash to post to: www.buzzflash.com/contact/newstip.html . Subject: Health Care Reform? Not a ...

  • Carl Finamore: San Francisco's Palace Hotel Says, ...
    BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY by Carl Finamore In exactly one month, San Francisco's proud, illustrious Palace Hotel will celebrate the centennial anniversary of its 1909 reconstruction after the city's devastating earthquake three years earlier. At the time of its original construction in 1875, it was ...

  • If We Cannot Afford to Care for Veterans, We Canno ...
    BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS by Meg White President Obama is meeting again today with top advisers to mull four choices for what to do in Afghanistan, plus the pitch for a 40,000-troop surge requested by top Afghanistan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal . Though details are sparse, reportedly all five op ...

  • Barbara's Daily BuzzFlash Minute for November 11, ...
    BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE If you're really interested in why the Repuglican Party is imploding -- when Rep. Cao (R-LA) broke with the Party and voted for Healthcare Reform because, "... the needs of his constituents trumped partisan politicking ", in retaliation, "The reaction to Cao from the ...

Glenn Greenwald - Salon

  • Detainees to get "the-state-always-wins" system of ...
    According to The Associated Press , Eric Holder will announce later today that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 defendants will be brought from Guantanamo to New York to stand trial, in a real criminal court, for the crimes they are accused of committing.  This is a decision I really wis ...

  • The sleazy advocacy of a leading "liberal hawk"
    The New York Times today details the unbelievably sleazy story of Peter Galbraith, one of the Democratic Party's leading so-called "liberal hawks" and a generally revered Wise Man of America's Foreign Policy Community.  He was Ambassador to Croatia under the Clinton administration in the mid-1990 ...

  • What do these religiously-motivated terrorist acts ...
    (updated below) From Haaretz , today : Alleged Jewish terrorist: I know God is pleased The Jerusalem District Prosecutor's Office on Thursday charged alleged Jewish terrorist Yaakov (Jack) Teitel with two murders, three attempted murders and other acts of violence. "It was a pleasu ...

  • Newspaper punished for criticizing Iraqi leader
    In April of this year, the British daily, The Guardian , published an article by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, an Iraqi citizen, documenting the increasingly autocratic practices of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.  The article quoted an Iraqi intelligence official claiming that "Maliki is running a di ...

  • Denying responsibility for the wars one cheers on
    David Brooks' column today perfectly illustrates what lies at the core of our political discourse:  namely, self-loving tribalistic blindness laced with a pathological refusal to accept responsibility for one's actions.  Brooks claims there is a unique evil that one finds in the "fringes of the ...

The BiPartisan Report

Sciencebase

  • Genetically engineered heavy metal fans
    The wastewater released from industry often contains high levels of toxic heavy metals, which can kill organisms, damage ecosystems, and accumulate in the foodchain. Electroplating, lead smelting, mining, and countless other processes produce enormous volumes of such wastewater. In a perfect world, ...

  • Juggling cancer nano news
    Latest news reports from yours truly on Spectroscopynow.com Juggling matters on the brain – UK scientists have used magnetic resonance imaging to reveal that learning a complex task like juggling can causes changes in the white matter in the brain. The findings could have implications for developi ...

  • Berlin Wall falls in Australia
    Twenty years ago today, my girlfriend (now my wife) and I lay on a bed in a cramped backpackers’ hostel in the Katherine Gorge National Park (now Nitmiluk), in Australia’s Northern Territory, watching news of the fall of the Berlin Wall (now rubble). Outside insects were buzzing ferociously, the ...

  • Alchemical Anomalies
    In the current issue of The Alchemist we learn how to stick methane molecules to metals without breaking carbon-hydrogen bonds and how to make impossible carbene catalysts without the usual prerequisite of an attendant metal centre. Another seeming impossibility comes to light: a new microscopy tech ...

  • Twitter science list categories
    The manually compiled Scientwists list of science people on Twitter grew from around 100 of my contacts in January 2009 to almost 700 members, who asked to join or who retweeted the link as of October. Justin Reid helped automate the inclusion of bios and photos and 2020science did some amazing anal ...

change: org.

  • Poverty--'Prison Without Bars'
    While I think I know something about poverty, I could never succinctly describe it as Dorothy Thomas did, "Poverty is prison without bars." Her homelessness probably galvanized her way of looking at her income-deficit disorder. It just takes a glance at headlines to realize that our country suffers ...

  • Low Income Women Can't Get Abortions, But RNC Staf ...
    It is pretty obvious by now that Republicans don't want you to be able to have an abortion. Republicans don't want government funds to be used to cover a legal medical procedure that "kills babies" despite the fact that they support the death penalty and federal funding for psychotherapy for pedophi ...

  • What is Checkpoint Etiquette?
    Every checkpoint is different, from border crossings to police roadblocks to Holy crap heads down! Here are a few insider tips from locals, aid workers, contractors, and journalists to help newcomers to relate to people who live this every day. Do get professional training if you're planning to work ...

  • No More Elephants in India's Circuses and Zoos
    In Defense of Animals has just sent out word of good news for elephants in India. Recognizing that zoos and circuses can't possibly, even in the best of circumstances, meet these animals' needs, the Central Zoo Authority has ordered the release of 140 captive elephants in the country. They will be m ...

  • Send Your Government Officials to Auschwitz (To Le ...
    My colleague Amelia Green-Dove and I had a chance to have coffee with Alex Zucker, the Media Relations guru for the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation , at the Empire State Building in New York. We agreed that one of the best ways to help reduce the rate of war crimes around the wor ...

Common Dreams-Progressive Newswire

  • CREW Receives Senate Ethics Cmte. Response to Sen. ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 12, 2009 CREW Today, nearly two years after filing complaints with the Senate ethics committee and the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) finally received a response from the Senate ...

  • Last Stand Made for Endangered West Virginia North ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 12, 2009 Conservation Groups A coalition of conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of Blackwater, Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, The Wilderness Society, and Wild South, filed suit today in federal court in Washington, D.C., ...

  • Former US Diplomat Got Stake in Iraqi Oil
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 12, 2009 Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) The New York Times reports today: "Peter W. Galbraith, an influential former American ambassador, is a powerful voice on Iraq who helped shape the views of policy makers like Joseph R. Biden Jr. and John Kerry. In the summer ...

  • Military Families Decry Move to Send More Troops t ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 10, 2009 MFSO/Gold Star Families This Veterans Day, as President Obama is poised to escalate the war in Afghanistan and send thousands more troops, Military Families Speak Out appeal to people and organizations across this country and decision-makers at all levels to ...

  • ACLU Lawsuit Charges American Citizen Illegally De ...
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 10, 2009 ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a lawsuit on behalf of a New Jersey man who was illegally detained and mistreated by U.S. officials in Kenya and Ethiopia. After fleeing hostilities in Somalia in 2006, Amir Meshal was arrested, secretly impr ...

Common Dreams-Views

  • Our Corrupt Occupation of Afghanistan
    by Robert Naiman s it just me, or is the pontification of Western leaders about corruption in Afghanistan growing rather tiresome? There is something very Captain Renault about it. We're shocked, shocked that the Afghans have sullied our morally immaculate occupation of their country with their dir ...

  • Detainees to Get 'The-State-Always-Wins' System of ...
    by Glenn Greenwald According to The Associated Press , Eric Holder will announce later today that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 defendants will be brought from Guantanamo to New York to stand trial, in a real criminal court, for the crimes they are accused of committing.  This is a dec ...

  • US Must Solve Its Own Economic Problems
    by Mark Weisbrot President Obama will go to Asia next week and has promised to say something about the exchange rate between the Chinese yuan and the U.S. dollar. read more

  • The Lethal Injection College Fund
    by Mark Morford Here's a modestly clever idea that will never come to pass in a thousand years because it's absolutely not the way modern life or America work right now, but it's nevertheless all sorts of delightfully ironic fun to ponder anyway. read more

  • The Nighmare Of Coat Hangers Revisited
    by Lucinda Marshall Wouldn't you know it- while we silly feminists have been agonizing about the impact of the Stupak Amendment after Nancy and the Cardinals did the C Street Shuffle at the Saturday Night Congressional Jerk I mean Dance Off it turns out that if we really want to keep our reproductiv ...

Karl Burkart

Water Privatization

  • CHR airs view on Angat privatization (Manila Bulle ...
    The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) feared the Arroyo government could be violating two major United Nations (UN) human rights treaties if it pursues the privatization of Angat Dam. These international accords are the Convention on the Elimination on all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW ...

  • Background Note: India (Scoop.co.nz)
    Geography Area: 3.29 million sq. km. (1.27 million sq. mi.); about one-third the size of the U.S. Cities: Capital --New Delhi (pop. 12.8 million, 2001 census). Other major cities --Mumbai, formerly Bombay (16.4 million); Kolkata, formerly Calcutta ...

  • Morales favoured to earn new term (Angus Reid)
    At stake: President, National Assembly

  • Abu Dhabi to tender power project (AME Info)
    Abdulla Al Nuaimi, director of privatization at Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (Adwea) has said the authority will launch the tender for a giant power and desalination project aimed at helping meet soaring domestic electricity and water demand in Q1 2010, Dow Jones News has reported.

  • Special Reports (Online Journal)
    A seemingly wholesome local event recently led to some disturbing discoveries about a global GHG matrix that will affect people everywhere in all countries.

Guardian

  • Alleged 9/11 mastermind faces trial in New York
    Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees to be tried in civilian federal court, reports say The alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantánamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, according ...

  • Nato urged to share Afghan burden
    Prime minister dismisses reports he is planning to talk to the Taliban Gordon Brown today said he was leading a drive to get Britain's non-US coalition partners to commit another 5,000 troops to the Nato operation in Afghanistan. In a interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the prime minister al ...

  • Labour hails Glasgow poll landslide
    Jim Murphy says 60% of vote won by Labour gives party real shot of confidence for general election The SNP's claims it could win 20 seats at the general election have been demolished by Labour's "thumping" victory in Glasgow North East, the Scottish secretary, Jim Murphy, claimed today. Murphy said ...

  • 10 dead in Pakistan spy agency attack
    Attack on offices of Inter-Services Intelligence agency in Peshawar signals major escalation in war with Taliban militants A suicide truck bomb struck Pakistan's main intelligence agency in the north-west of the country this morning, killing at least 10 people and signalling a fresh escalation in th ...

  • Non-Europeans shut out from jobs
    Brown to clamp down on student visa abuses Home Office plans big asylum system changes More than 250,000 skilled engineering, care and catering jobs are to be closed to non-European overseas workers next year as a result of Gordon Brown's immigration speech today. The prime minister promised that th ...

Diigo | Green Community

  • U.N. Talks in Spain Seek to Salvage Climate Deal
    Climate negotiators from 175 nations meet in Spain next week for a final session to try to break deadlock between rich and poor and salvage a U.N. deal due in Copenhagen in December. Comments: Climate negotiators from 175 nations meet in Spain next week for a final session to try to break deadlock b ...

  • EU Agrees Final Stance For Copenhagen Climate Talk ...
    European Union leaders agreed an offer Friday to put on the table at global climate talks in Copenhagen in December after healing a rift over how to split the bill. Comments: European Union leaders agreed an offer Friday to put on the table at global climate talks in Copenhagen in December after hea ...

  • French Firm Pushes Carbon Capture Solution at us C ...
    Eyeing lucrative markets in China, India and beyond, French firm Alstom on Friday unveiled the world's largest carbon capture facility at a coal plant -- a technology backers hope will fuel a new multi-billion dollar industry and keep the coal industry alive. Comments: Eyeing lucrative markets in Ch ...

  • S.Africa's Tutu criticizes world leaders on climat ...
    Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu criticized European Union leaders on Friday for standing in the way of a global deal to combat climate change. Comments: Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu criticized European Union leaders on Friday for standing in the way of a global deal to combat climate change. ...

  • Will U.S. go empty-handed to world climate talks?
    Without a new law requiring cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. could end up going empty-handed to the international climate talks in December. Comments: Without a new law requiring cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. could end up going empty-handed to the international climate talks i ...

Electronic Intifada

  • A glimmer of hope
    While the Obama Administration proved twice recently that it intends to continue to consider Israel above the law, there is a glimmer of hope that the people of Gaza will see justice. The massacre bro ...

  • Report: The economic toll on Gaza after Israel's a ...
    The Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip last winter was the most violent and deadly offensive by Israel since the second intifada began. A new report by The Alternative Information Cente ...

  • Palestinian students at Israeli universities suppo ...
    We are Arab students at the Israeli universities writing to you in support of the proposed academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions. We believe that the boycott is timely and hopefully ...

  • Goldstone report met with muted enthusiasm in Gaza
    Tareq Abu Daya, owner of a popular souvenir shop in the heart of Gaza City, has recently offered his customers a new kuffiyeh , or traditional checkered scarf, on which the name of Judge Richard Golds ...

  • Palestinians symbolically dismantle sections of th ...
    Two decades after the fall of the Berlin wall, walls of separation still exist throughout the world. Israel's wall in the West Bank is much bigger than the Berlin wall ever was, as it encloses more th ...

CS Monitor - News

  • October 16, 2009
    The UN Human Rights Council votes to adopt the Goldstone Report on Israel's military incursion into Gaza.

  • October 19, 2009
    Saudi Arabia is wary of terrorists, especially from neighboring states.

  • October 20, 2009
    How some TV insiders view parents and children on reality television.

  • October 21, 2009
    How African Anglicans might respond to the Vatican's offer.

  • October 23, 2009
    US-China economic relations, Microsoft and Wall Street, and September home sales.

The Wonk Room

  • Fourteen Democratic Senators Stick Up For Coal
    Today, fourteen Democratic senators affirmed their allegiance to the profits of polluting industry at the expense of the health and jobs of their constituents. In a letter to Senate leaders, a bloc of senators with powerful coal interests in their states called for “fair emissions allowances in cl ...

  • WSJ’s Henninger: Bush Critics Enabled Ft. Ho ...
    The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger thinks he knows how the Fort Hood shootings happened: In our time, nothing was bigger than the nearly 3,000 killed on September 11. But anyone who got involved with the development of public policy then knows that for the next seven years the battle never ...

  • Is Raising The Payroll Tax The Best Way To Fund He ...
    The Associated Press is reporting that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to increase the payroll tax used to fund Medicare to help pay for health care reform. “Current law sets the tax at 1.45 percent of income, an amount matched by employers.” “The increase would apply only to the porti ...

  • ‘Fiscal Peril’: State Budget Crises Co ...
    Back during the stimulus debate, one of the items that was pared back in order to get the overall package under an arbitrary $800 billion price tag was fiscal aid to states and local governments. $40 billion that would have gone to help states weather the economic downturn was lopped off of the bill ...

  • EJ Dionne To Democrats: ‘Learn To Live&#8217 ...
    In this morning’s Washington Post, EJ Dionne characterizes the debate over the Stupak Amendment as a minor “skirmish” that is “unlikely to have a significant effect on the availability of abortion.” “Democratic supporters of abortion rights need to accept that their House majority depend ...

thwap's schoolyard

  • Shorter Right-Wing Canadian Wingnuts ...
    "First Nations peoples who live in conditions of extreme poverty and who suffer racist oppression and the theft of their land must NEVER protest their lot. Furthermore, Canadians who have been tortured or tortured and illegally exiled with the Canadian government's active complicity no doubt deserv ...

  • Hearsay and Anecdotes
    That's all we've got really,* so far as these allegations of torture and child-rape in Afghanistan go. Of course, the gigantic pink elephant in the room is that the powers that could investigate these serious charges have refused to do so and are actively blocking anyone else from being able to do ...

  • "Prime Minister Stephen Harper said nearly half of ...
    That's stephen harper quoted in this CBC article about the partisan allocation of stimulus spending. "Prime Minister Stephen Harper said nearly half of the projects are in opposition ridings." Wow! Nearly half??? That's pretty generous. Except, waitaminnit! Doesn't harper have a minority gover ...

  • Honest Racism
    In the comments section for the last post, Sir Francis mentioned that arguing from ethics or legality with racists was a waste of time. They aren't going to see the injustice of their cases against Maher Arar or any of the other Muslim men being victimized by our "War on Terror" because they're rea ...

  • Ah Loves This Video!!!
    It's brilliant!

Financial Sense Editorials

  • Market Observation: FHA Bailout By Taxpayers On Th ...
    by Mike Shedlock. "Taxpayers may as well brace for an FHA bailout. It is all but guaranteed. With current FHA practices it is likely to be a big one. On November 5, the Richmond Register was asking What does the FHA think it is doing?..."

  • How Will Niagara Falls Fit Through a Garden Hose?
    by Jeff Clark. "First, let’s look at gold. If we added up all the gold ever mined on the planet, its total value would equal no more than $5 trillion at today’s prices. Yet, look at how this compares to the debt and bailouts and other monetary mischief of current governments..."

  • Monetizing the housing debt
    by Tim Iacono. "In reading the newspapers over the last eight months, since the Federal Reserve decided to print money on a massive scale in order to buy $300 billion in U.S. Treasuries along with about a trillion and a half dollars in mortgage related debt, these two groups of purchases have been v ...

  • The American Economy in One Chart
    by Ceri Shepherd. "They say a picture paints a thousand words. Well this picture paints very clearly the American Economy for the last 30 years."

  • On Doing God’s Work
    by Rob Kirby. "I’ve already reported on irregular physical gold settlements which occurred in London, England back in the first week of October, 2009. Specifically, these settlements involved the intermediation of at least one Central Bank"

on Government Oversight

  • Morning Smoke: Whistleblower Claims Lockheed Knowi ...
    Ex-Lockheed engineer claims F-22 tech 'defective' [The Washington Post] Defense wants watchdogs to play nice [Federal Times] Obama Needs More Time to Find Fannie, Freddie Agency Inspector [Bloomberg] FDA Shouldn't Outsource Antibiotic Decisions [Pharmalot] White House push to reduce contractors...

  • Morning Smoke: Strengthening Acquisition Workforce ...
    Federal procurement nominee outlines agenda [Federal Computer Week] Lockheed Was NOT the First Bailout: A look back at capitalism, Pentagon-style [The Big Money] SEC Whistleblowers May Get Rewards Under Senate Plan [Bloomberg] Treasury Shuts Down Capital Assistance Program [BailoutSleuth] Credit-Rat ...

  • Five Ways Congress Can Ensure Health Care Advisory ...
    On Tuesday, POGO joined 19 other groups in a letter urging Congress to ensure transparency in the federal advisory committees that are likely to emerge from health care legislation. Both chambers have put forth health care proposals that would create...

  • Morning Smoke: Federal Acquisition Coalition Wants ...
    New alliance hopes to spur new talent in procurement field [Government Executive] Is the BLM practicing unsafe CX? [High Country News] Flu outrunning vaccine, experts say [Washington Post] GAO to report on GSA [Fedline] Clash Looms on Banks [The Wall...

  • Some Good News on the Stimulus Front
    A few months ago, POGO blogged about our concerns that many state and local governments with laws limiting contractors’ campaign contributions (meant to reduce the influence of private interests in the public contracting process) are facing obstacles to enforcing these...

    Blacklisted News


  • China Signals That It May Allow Currency to Rise A ...
    China sent its clearest signal yet that it was ready to allow yuan appreciation after an 18-month hiatus, saying on Wednesday it would consider major currencies, not just the dollar, in guiding the exchange rate.

  • Serbia Declares Swine Flu Epidemic
    Serbian Health Minister Tomica Milosavljevic has announced a swine flu epidemic in the country, meaning that nation-wide emergency vaccination can be carried out.

  • Chicago’s Daley Blames Second Amendment for Fort ...
    On Monday, Chicago Mayor Daley blamed the Ft. Hood Jihad Massacre on America’s love of guns!

  • Estulin: After G20, Oligarchs Moving on African Un ...
    In an exclusive interview with The Corbett Report earlier today, Daniel Estulin revealed the behind-the-scenes details of last week’s G20 Finance Minister’s meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland.

  • NBC enlists prime-time programs in green message
    NBC gives new meaning to the phrase " green screen " next week, spreading a pro-environmental message across five of its prime-time entertainment programs.

The Intelligence Daily

My AntiWar

Innovation Canada

  • Building better bridges
    (Reprinted with permission from ResearchLife, Summer 2009 issue, University of Manitoba, umanitoba.ca/research) It was 1952 when Aftab Mufti, a 12-year-old boy living in Karachi, Pakistan, began building bridges. His mother planted a vegetable garden that summer and to help her water it Aftab and hi ...

  • Viral control
    Depending on whom you ask, the H1N1 flu virus that is making its way around the globe could be anything from a particularly virulent form of influenza to the next worldwide pandemic. As virologists scramble to understand the virus and develop vaccines against it, a Halifax facility is already on the ...

  • Fear factor
    Let’s say you’re wandering through a deserted alley late one foggy October night. You turn a corner, and lo and behold, you’re surrounded by a crowd of brain-thirsty zombies. Your pulse quickens, your amygdala fires, your respiration is off the charts. You try to run, but you trip and fall. As ...

  • Fuels of the future?
    A recession-related dip in flight demand might actually be considered a green blessing. Just a small one, mind you. The David Suzuki Foundation estimates that aviation is responsible for up to nine percent of the total global climate-change  impact of human activity, so it would take a huge drop to ...

  • i2eye with Bif Naked
    The last few years have been a roller-coaster ride for Bif Naked. After two years of touring, TV work and datelessness following her 2005 album Superbeautifulmonster, the Vancouver-based alt-rock singer-songwriter — whose real name is Beth Walker — met and married her husband, sportswriter Ian W ...

Signs of the times

  • Dollar Overwhelms Central Banks From Brazil to Kor ...
    Brazil, South Korea and Russia are losing the battle among developing nations to reduce gains in their currencies and keep exports competitive as the demand for their financial assets, driven by the slumping dollar, is proving more than central banks can handle. South Korea Deputy Finance Minister ...

  • UFO Hacker Gary Mckinnon suicidal over health
    Protracted extradition proceedings have turned UFO hacker Gary McKinnon into a nervous wreck who is on medication to quell his suicidal tendencies, his mother, Janis Sharp, told MPs yesterday. In the light of Gary McKinnon's hearings, the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee has questioned ...

  • From the River to the Sea
    Let's once and for all stop getting excited about America mounting pressure on Israel to freeze West Bank settlements. The entire fascination with the topic is a product of Zionist spin. It is there to divert attention from the root cause of the conflict: The robbery of Palestine and Palestinians ...

  • Fox News host admits using false protest clip
    Shocker: Fox News isn't always fair and balanced. After Comedy Central's The Daily Show pointed out Tuesday night that Fox News' Sean Hannity program used footage from another GOP protest in a clip about a recent teaparty rally, Hannity admitted the network incorrectly used bogus footage in their i ...

  • "Don't join. Everything they advertise and tell yo ...
    The military operates through indoctrination. Soldiers are programmed to develop a mindset that resists any acknowledgment of injury and sickness, be it physical or psychological. As a consequence, tens of thousands of soldiers continue to serve, even being deployed to combat zones like Iraq and/or ...

Threat Level

  • Bush Concerned Successor Might Revoke Telco Spy Im ...
    The George W. Bush administration expressed concern future administrations might not use the legal amnesty it wanted to give the nation’s telecommunication companies that were being sued for assisting the president’s warrantless, electronic wiretapping program, according to internal documents re ...

  • Researchers: Flaw in Federal Wiretaps Could Allow ...
    People who think they are being wiretapped by the cops could disable the taps by sending a stream of text messages or making numerous VoIP calls to overwhelm the system’s thin bandwidth, researchers in Pennsylvania postulate. The researchers say they’ve found a vulnerability in U.S. law enforce ...

  • Help Threat Level Examine Federal Spy Documents
    We’re putting together a story about the behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to 2008 legislation immunizing the nation’s telecommunication companies from liability for assisting the government’s warrantless dragnet program — the hijacking of Americans’ electronic communications. Threat ...

  • Convicted Murderer Sues Wikipedia, Demands Removal ...
    Wikipedia is under a censorship attack by a convicted German murderer invoking his country’s privacy laws in a bid to remove references to him killing Bavarian actor Walter Sedlmayr in 1990. Lawyers for Wolfgang Werle, of Erding Germany, sent Wikipedia a cease-and-desist letter (.pdf) demanding th ...

  • Government Will Pay $3 Million in Coffee Table Spy ...
    The U.S. has agreed to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him with a bugged coffee table. Rather than comply with a court order to provide lawyers in the case with what the U.S. government says is classified information, ...

PERRspectives : Blog

  • Take the Palin-Prejean Challenge!
    Karl Marx famously said that historical events occur twice, first as tragedy and then as farce. And so it is with Carrie Prejean, the second coming of Sarah Palin. Like Palin, Prejean is a former beauty pageant contestant turned conservative...

  • Veterans Day Reflections
    This Veterans Day is an especially painful reminder of the immeasurable sacrifices American military men and women make every day to protect our nation. Even as tens of thousands of U.S. troops remain in Iraq and thousands more are poised...

  • Keeping Extremisms Out of the U.S. Military
    Revelations that the FBI, the Pentagon and even his medical colleagues were aware of Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Malik Hasan's extremist ideology have raised serious questions about the U.S. military's ability to screen, monitor and remove dangerous personnel from...

  • For Midterms, Republicans Hope to Party Like It's ...
    As Politico reported Monday, Republicans in the wake of Saturday's cliff-hanger health care vote in the House immediately began their campaign to target vulnerable Democrats in traditionally GOP districts. But for a Republican Party looking to retake the House of...

  • House GOP Reverses Role from 2003 Medicare Rx Vote
    With its talking babies and warnings of government takeovers and terrified seniors, the grandstanding by House Republicans during Saturday's narrow 220-215 passage of the Democratic Affordable Health Care for America Act was entirely predictable. And if that vote count sounds...

Blackspot News Feed

Consortium News

  • Rev. Moon's Troubled Generation Next
    The right-wing Washington Times is caught up in the messy succession for Rev. Sun Myung Moon's empire, reports Robert Parry. November 11, 2009

  • America's Debt to Italian Justice
    In a victory for justice, an Italian court convicted U.S. intelligence agents for kidnapping a Muslim cleric, notes David Swanson. November 10, 2009

  • Why Lieberman Blocks a Public Option
    With a shrunken "public option" no longer a threat to private insurers, why is Joe Lieberman vowing a filibuster, asks Robert Parry. November 10, 2009

  • US Punditry's Anti-Obama Lensi
    In interpreting last week's elections, U.S. media emphasized the Obama negatives, not the positives, notes Michael Winship. November 9, 2009

  • Blaming the 'Dithering' Obama
    By not getting tougher with Washington, President Obama is earning a risky reputation for "dithering," says Robert Parry. November 9, 2009

CounterPunch

Institute for Middle East Understanding

Water - AlterNet

TruthHugger

  • To Dave Cashin Re: Proselytizing
    To Dave Cashin Re: General Order Number One, Forbid Proselytizing Before I answer all of Dave’s points, I will say that Humanitarian Missionary work has achieved wonderful results by helping people through hunger, poverty, education and displacement.  Whether they are victims of war or natural di ...

  • Texas Progressive Alliance November 9, 2009
    The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone had a happy Election Day last week, and is already looking forward to the next one. Here are this week’s highlights. TXsharon continues to report from a backyard in the Barnett Shale. Despite all the local and national press on drilling related toxins ...

  • Health Care and The Brick Wall
    So, the wellness party is short lived.  The Senate is drunk with its own power … regardless of the fact there are millions  in health care distress.  Senators are so busy posturing in front of cameras, to get elected.  They continue to sabotage the current administration, ignoring mill ...

  • Hooray for the House
    Let me ‘dis’ the local Austin news media.  The 10PM news still says congress is still debating and repeats old news.  CSPAN shows the vote passed at 8:15PM.  Austin still lives in a bubble.  We are very well versed about the Texas football dramas and Austin icon Leslie,  but US ne ...

  • The Economics of Polarization Focus on Nadal Malik ...
    American media is focusing on Hasan's religion more than the cause for his meltdown. Tragedies don't JUST happen.

Dandelion Salad - Featured Writers' Posts

Unexplained Mysteries

  • Are you scared of Friday 13th ?
    It is a day that you either care about or you don't, some go to great lengths to avoid doing anything at all while others carry on as though i...

  • The magic and myths of mirrors
    Mirrors have had a spiritual and superstitious significance for centuries, from being a "tool of the devil" to a portal leading to another dimensi...

  • Atlantis: the continent that Solon sank
    Doug Fisher continues his research in to Atlantis with his discoveries indicating that according to Plato the continent of Atlantis was larger tha...

  • Vatican considers alien life
    The Vatican's top astronomer has commented on the possibility of extraterrestrial life following a week long astrobiology conference saying that a...

  • New study finds middle child of black holes
    Most black holes are either very large or very small, but a new study has identified evidence for what it believed to be an intermediate size of b...

Grassroots

  • Climate change and violence in Mexico
    mexico200601-003.JPG Cab drivers are often a good source of news information, or at least a good barometer of public opinion. Such was the case when I finally arrived in Mexico City this afternoon for visits with Grassroots International’s p ...

  • Climate change in Mexico
    mexico200601-003.JPG Cab drivers are often a good source of news information, or at least a good barometer of public opinion. Such was the case when I finally arrived in Mexico City this afternoon for visits with Grassroots International’s p ...

  • "The wall will fall in Bil’in; the wall will fal ...
    ME001_976.jpg   The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago today was an epic event that literally changed the course of history. As many people in the international community celebrate what happened in Germany, today is also a painful reminder t ...

  • Grassroots International Signs Statement to Eradic ...
    1._Food_sovereighty_movement.jpg read more

  • The U.S. Can Still Do the Right Thing in Honduras
    Honduras_detenidos_22_Sept.JPG Despite a press release from the office of Senator Jim DeMint yesterday evening declaring that he has secured a commitment from the Obama Administration to recognize the Nov. 29th elections in Honduras regardless ...

Climate

  • November 13, 2009
    US Weighs Backing Interim Global Climate Deal (Washington Post) Backing an interim agreement based on “political commitments” to cut greenhouse gas emissions rather than legally binding ones would be an attempt to keep the talks from being viewed a failure. UN Official: Climate Deal Needs ...

  • November 12, 2009
    China Mulls Emissions Reduction Goal for First Time (China Daily) China should aim to reduce its carbon intensity by 4 or 5 percent a year if it is to achieve its goal of low-carbon development by 2050, a leading Chinese environmental think tank says. State media describes it as a first. Clinto ...

  • November 11, 2009
    EPA: Dangerous Mercury Levels Found in Fish in Half of US Lakes (AP) Fish in 49% of U.S. lakes and reservoirs contain potentially harmful levels of mercury, the EPA found in a new study. The Obama administration is working on new regulations for mercury emissions from power plants. Climate Take ...

  • November 10, 2009
    IEA: Fossil Fuel Use Must Peak by 2020 (Financial Times) The International Energy Agency warned as it released its World Energy Outlook report today that the world’s use of fossil fuels will have to peak by 2020 if it is to escape a dangerous spike in global temperatures. Climate Breakthroug ...

  • November 9, 2009
    Climate Rift Grows Between US, Poor Nations (NPR) As the world prepares for crucial climate-change talks in Copenhagen next month, there is a growing rift between the United States and some of the world's poorest nations. The gap grew wider this past week, at the final official pre-Copenhagen tal ...

TomDispatch

  • Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, Surveillance State, U.S.A.
    Wars come home in strange, unnerving ways -- as Americans have just discovered at Fort Hood. Even before Major Nidal Malik Hasan went on his killing spree, that base, a major military embarkation point for our war zones, was already experiencing the after-effects of eight years of war and repeate ...

  • Tomgram: Droning On
    [ Note for TomDispatch Readers : A number of you have recently written in for clarification on contributing to this site through your purchases at Amazon.com. Here's my best shot at a useful explanation: If you click on any book image at this site -- like the book-cover image of The End of Vict ...

  • Tomgram: Jamail and Lazare, Who Will Be Sent to A ...
    In a grim November 3rd Wall Street Journal piece (buried inside the paper), Yochi Dreazen reported record suicide rates for a stressed-out U.S. Army. Sixteen soldiers killed themselves in October alone, 134 so far this year, essentially ensuring that last year's "record" of 140 suicides will be b ...

  • Tomgram: Nick Turse, In Afghanistan, the Pentagon ...
    In our day, the American way of war, especially against lightly armed guerrillas, insurgents, and terrorists, has proved remarkably heavy. Elephantine might be the appropriate word. The Pentagon likes to talk about its "footprint" on the geopolitical landscape. In terms of the infrastructure it ...

  • Tomgram: Barbara Ehrenreich, Why Your Child May N ...
    This week, the Obama White House released a very partial record of those who had visited since January 20, 2009. This it hailed as "transparency like you've never seen it before" and as the beginning of a new White House visitor transparency policy. Unfortunately, the policy applies mainly to po ...

Smirking Chimp

  • Paving the way to a small "d" depression; The econ ...
    The Fed's extraordinary intervention into the financial markets, makes another Lehman-type meltdown extremely unlikely. But while the financial system has been stabilized with a government blank check and rivers of liquidity, the real economy continues to languish. On its current trajectory, GDP wil ...

  • The War On Patients' Rights
    What a week. We've already seen Blue Dogs take women to the back of the bus (or was it the alley?) with Stupak's impressively Stupid Amendment. Now we're hearing that those who supposedly worry about "too much spending" when it comes to health care--you know, the meatloaf-brains who rejected t ...

  • Fifteen very bad things Republicans would do if th ...
    Always the political instrument of moneyed elites, and a retrograde societal force, the GOP today is more negatively impactful than ever. Its agenda, if fully implemented, would prove catastrophic. Here's what an unfettered Republican Party would do "for" America: 1) Greatly reduce or entirely elim ...

  • Media, Money and Sun Myung Moon
    In January 1992, PBS Frontline broadcast a film I directed that documented the amazing rise, fall and subsequent resurrection of Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church movement. The documentary showed how, through an adroit combination of money, media and the consistent promotion of a con ...

  • Will Anyone Ever Go To Jail In Connection With Wal ...
    Hedge Fund Perps Walk Free From Criminal Trial PARIS: I had come from a heated financial journalism conference in a far more orderly Brussels where I had been thundering against Wall Street crime. The first news I saw from "the homeland" was that the only two big shots busted for crimes against thei ...

Ten Percent

  • US Ambassador To Afghanistan Against Escalation
    Karl W. Eikenberry, he say No! General Eikenberry crossed paths with General McChrystal during his second tour in Afghanistan, when General McChrystal led the military’s Joint Special Operations Command, which conducted clandestine operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Their relationship, a sen ...

  • Quilliam Foundation, No Accounting For Taste
    After Craig Murray posted that the Quilliam Foundation had not filed any accounts, the Foundation claimed it had and has sent a lawyer’s letter to Murray threatening libel action. Murray is willing to amend his post if they provide proof of their claim, surely that is the mature free speech way fo ...

  • US Vets To Obama- Don’t Escalate
    Sign the petition here @ Rethink Afghanistan

  • Anti War Soldier Arrested For Speaking Out
    Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, the soldier who faces desertion charges for refusing to return to Afghanistan, has been arrested and charged with five further offences for speaking out in opposition to the presence of troops in Afghanistan. The charges allege that he led the Stop the War demonstration i ...

  • Bad Handwriting Aside
    Yesterday the Ministry of Defence announced that British forces may take more than the Nato limit of 96 hours’ detention to extract vital intelligence from Afghan detainees before they have to be released from UK facilities.

Paul Krugman

  • Lou Dobbs
    Until now it really has seemed as if there was nothing, nothing at all, that someone on the right could say and do that would make them unacceptable in polite company.

  • Goodbye, Mr. TIPS?
    Puzzling interest rate movements.

  • The agony of Fox Business
    The economy just refuses to punish liberals and reward conservatives the way it's supposed to.

  • Elizabeth Kolbert can't say that, can she?
    Kolbert builds her essay around an extended metaphor that I'm pretty sure wouldn't be allowed under Times style.

  • Classical cloture
    Back when men were men and women were property, they had ways of dealing with obstructionist tactics from the legislative opposition:

No Quarter

  • Health Insurance Ain’t Car Insurance
    (Bumped up from Wednesday.) The founders of the United States correctly feared the power of a central, national government and sought to mitigate this risk by dividing powers among the various branches and leaving to the states those powers not explicitly granted to the Federal Government. Now Demo ...

  • Secretary Clinton On The Job - Updated
    (Bumped up from November 7th.) The current issue of Time Magazine has Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the cover, and an article by Joe Klein entitled, “The State of Hillary: A Mixed Record On The Job.” On Joe Scarborough the other morning, they discussed this article (major H/T to Bronwynâ ...

  • Health Insurance Ain’t Car Insurance
    The founders of the United States correctly feared the power of a central, national government and sought to mitigate this risk by dividing powers among the various branches and leaving to the states those powers not explicitly granted to the Federal Government. Now Democrats want to change this an ...

  • Why Women’s Orgs Must Become Non-Partisan
    Reprinted from HuffingtonPost.com with the express permission of Amy Siskind, founder of The New Agenda, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. After yet another evening of being thrown under the bus, it is high time that women’s organizations drastically change thei ...

  • Why Didn’t They Fire Him?
    When I see headlines and stories like these, I shake my head. EVERYTHING else aside, including his horrific murders, this man had NO business working with soldiers needing counseling. He had NO business in the U.S. Army. He should have been discharged (but also closely monitored thereafter). Walter ...

Environmental Graffiti

Foreign Policy in Focus

Global Elite

Al Jazeera

Green Inc. - NYT

Dot Earth News

Doug Feith : Hong Pong

  • Collapse, conspiracy, concern trolling, commidifie ...
    "I have heard much of the nefarious, and dangerous plan, and doctrines of the Illuminati, but never saw the Book until you were pleased to send it to me." "It was not my intention to doubt that, the Doctrines of the Illuminati, and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On t ...

  • The new Boiling Frogs Post/Sibel Edmonds site; Joh ...
    Sibel Edmonds & co have set up a new website called Boiling Frogs Post and they're going to be looking at a lot of shady stuff. The podcasts that have been going for a while have been really good & detailed material from whistleblowers and journalists about what's going on. [BTW here is a good recen ...

  • Ooky spooky Soviet bioscience: 1940 Soviet Zombie ...
    In all likelihood this Soviet propaganda video is fake, but it has a Zombie Dog head. I gotta say they should have had a better angle at the dog head, but it does kinda look real. Via this list of 25 scariest scientific experiments on io9.com. Tuskegee, Mengele and Unit 731 are all noted in the rund ...

  • A time for truth: New York Times reports Brother K ...
    I was a bit surprised to see the New York Times report this evening that embattled Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother has been taking mad CIA cash for some time. [Or rather, the three journalists who did the story are oddly emphasized, 'compartmentalized' on this risky exposure.] Earlier Willia ...

  • A quick hit from the G20: Democracy 101 by Indymed ...
    I was proud to help contribute some footage to this video - soon enough there will be more video out from what happened at the G20. For now please just check this out. It's certainly a "rough cut" and needs some help in the narrative & so forth, but it's a great intro to the widespread police abuse ...

Daily Censored

  • THE HASAN POWERPOINT: POINTING TO A RADICAL ISLAMI ...
    THE HASAN POWERPOINT: POINTING TO A RADICAL ISLAMIC THREAT WITHIN THE MILITARY, OR POINTING TO HIMSELF? The Hasan PowerPoint makes for interesting reading. It is 50 slides long and was apparently to be used, as with most PowerPoint presentations, in conjunction with an oral presentation. Given the c ...

  • How We Got to Zero: General Eikenberry’s Hail M ...
    Michael Collins U.S. Afghan Envoy Urges Caution on Troop Increase “WASHINGTON — The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senio ...

  • Venezuela Prepares For Conflict With U.S. In Colum ...
    "The empire is more threatening than ever. Don't make a mistake, Mr. Obama, by ordering an attack against Venezuela by way of Colombia." -Hugo Chavez

  • Why Do We Celebrate Veteran’s Day?
    Reflective citizens need to ask what the celebration of Veterans Day is really about. If we are no longer celebrating the cause of peace, and instead are celebrating the military, what exactly are we celebrating?

  • Smart meters raise privacy concerns
    New electrical meters are being rolled out to help reduce energy use, but privacy concerns have risen over how much data is being sent in real time to utility companies. The devices send data on household energy consumption directly to utilities on a regular basis, allowing the firms to manage deman ...

AlterNet's Breaking News

Institute for Policy Studies

Godspace

  • Inspiration from Geez Magazine: Neo Monasticism al ...
    Our good friend, community member and colleague Eliacin Rosario Cruz has just written a thought provoking response to an article published in Geez Magazine – one of my favourite publications.  The original article Changing the Story of Change, raises some important issues. Hosting visiting grou ...

  • My God My Rope
    While Tom & I were in Australia I had a number of opportunities to conduct my seminar Rhythms of Grace. As part of this I always get people to reflect on everyday events and encourage them to write a prayer that reflects how they have encountered God in the midst of that activity.  Here is [...]

  • Is There Life After College?
    I thought that some of you might be interested in these offerings from our time at Eastern Mennonite University. The first is an article that appeared in the Mennonite Weekly Review – Hard Times Offer Chance to Help More The second is a podcast of our address at EMU – New Possibilities for Life ...

  • Truly Ecumenical Firestarters
    Have you ever wondered what happens to all those candles that get used once or twice at church and then disappear? Well here is one possibility: Believe it or not you can get a blaze going in a minute with these firestarters, which combine recycled church candles with wood fiber…. Amen! A truly ec ...

  • Quietness and Rest – A Great Christmas Gift
    Maybe it is just because of the busyness of the last few weeks, or because Tom & I have just booked accommodation for our annual Advent retreat, but I have been thinking a lot lately about the need for rest and quietness in our lives.  I think particularly as we move into what is generally [...]

Equality Trust

  • Thinking Allowed: Is an unequal society bad for yo ...
    Thinking Allowed on BBC Radio 4, broadcast Wednesday 16th July and available to Listen Again for 7 days . Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works. Research has shown that health and social problems become more acute in an unequal society, where the gap between the ri ...

  • Beware the liberal drift. Equality, always
    Read Labour MP John Cruddas' comment piece in the Guardian. Which way forward for the left? We must tackle society's glaring wealth and income inequalities.

  • The Spirit Level - recommended holiday reading
    The Spirit Level has been picked by the Guardian as one of their best summer reads . The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (Allen Lane, £20) For anyone whose morale has been sapped by all the recent revelations of greed and di ...

  • Richard Wilkinson among social experts analysing C ...
    David Cameron's speech on poverty, the state and the mass engagement of a new generation of community activists on Tuesday set the direction of travel under a Conservative government. In the Guardian today a panel of social experts analyse the Tory leader's key points. Prof Richard Wilkinson, Direc ...

  • Social mobility and political inertia
    Ekklesia's Associate Director Symon Hill writes about the need for social and economic egalitarianism.

IntelNews

  • Israel reveals long-awaited Levinson spy case deta ...
    As part of a move by Israeli intelligence agencies to adhere to elementary provisions of Israel’s declassification laws, Shin Bet has for the first time published details about the Shimon Levinson spy case. Levinson was a senior agent in Shin Bet (domestic intelligence) and the Mossad (external in ...

  • News you may have missed #0180
    UK spy tip led to Zazi arrest in New York. US prevents Indian spies' access to jailed Islamist. Largest military deal in Israeli history taking shape.

  • Lawsuit exposes rumored CIA-NRO turf war
    After the CIA’s ongoing turf wars with the FBI and the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DCI), a new federal lawsuit appears to substantiate rumors of another turf war, this time between the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

  • News you may have missed #0179
    Iran charges three US citizens with espionage. Findings of spy reform committee ignored in South Africa. Colombia paid Ecuador informant to infiltrate FARC.

  • Indians allege Pakistani spies funded through Euro ...
    Indian authorities have told a major newspaper that Pakistani spies operating in India are funded with money transfers from spy handlers in Europe.

After Downing Street.org

  • Video: Bruce Gagnon Interviews David Swanson
    This is the latest from Bruce Gagnon's cable TV show, which is shown all across the state of Maine, and which you can ask to have shown in your part of the country. Watch Video . (It's way better quality than the internet requires, so please be very patient for it to start. Then ask your local cab ...

  • Former CIA Station Chief Says Get Out of Afghanist ...
    “Why the whole dithering?” wondered Howard Hart, who served in the CIA’s clandestine service for 25 years and ran operations in Afghanistan for three-and-a-half years during the Cold War. “That’s the word. Dithering.” Hart believes Obama should stop making up his mind and withdraw Americ ...

  • T.R. Reid: The Healing of America
    read more

  • Charlotteans Welcome End The Fed Rally on Sunday, ...
    What: End the Fed Rally When: Sunday, November 22, 2009, 1-4 PM Where: Charlotte Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank, 530 E Trade St Charlotte, NC 28202 read more

  • UVA Disgraces Itself, Takes on Task of Recording O ...
    The University of Virginia, to the shame of us alumni, contracts with the Pentagon, builds a research park nextdoor to a military spying center, employs the guy in charge of derailing the 9-11 commission, and now proposes to record the oral history of George W. Bush's misleadership. If they were to ...

Grist - News

  • Europe places outcome of Copenhagen squarely on Ob ...
    by Brendan DeMelle The chief negotiator for the European Commission announced this afternoon in Barcelona that the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass legislation before December has doomed the chances for success in Copenhagen . A climate protest at the Barcelona talks: World leaders with \'big ...

  • Cash for Clunkers brought us ... more clunkers!
    by Jonathan Hiskes So how did Cash for Clunkers work out from an environmental standpoint? You don’t want to know. The $3 billion federal program was kinda sorta supposed to send inefficient, high-polluting, belchy vehicles to an early grave. Instead it put a lot of new large, inefficient vehicle ...

  • Senate Democrats push climate bill through committ ...
    by Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats on Thursday pushed through a sweeping climate change bill, maneuvering an end-run around opposition Republicans who continued their boycott of deliberations. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the Kerry-Boxer bill by a v ...

  • Why developing countries cannot afford failure in ...
    by Brendan DeMelle The African delegation insisted today in Barcelona that its decision to walk out on negotiations Tuesday was necessary in order to jolt the intransigent European Union and other developed nations to move forward with serious discussions, rather than obstruct progress by bringing ...

  • U.S. puts onus on China for climate deal
    by Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON - The United States will not agree to targets cutting greenhouse-gas emissions unless developing countries, particularly China, make similar moves, U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern warned Wednesday. "No country holds the fate of the Earth in its hands more than China ...

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Technorati - What's Hot in Blogs

Time - Top Stories

Washington Independent

  • Craig to Resign as White House Counsel
    The Associated Press reports that White House Counsel Greg Craig is stepping down: The White House’s top lawyer is returning to private practice and being replaced by a longtime adviser to Barack Obama. White House counsel Greg Craig, who’s leaving in early January, has been the subject of quest ...

  • KSM and 9/11 Co-Conspirators to Face Trial in N.Y. ...
    After much delay and speculation, the Obama administration has reportedly decided to try the alleged co-conspirators of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in a civilian federal court in New York. That’s a significant defeat for some lawmakers, who had hoped to ban the men from civilian courts an ...

  • Military to Seek Death Penalty for Fort Hood Massa ...
    Even though the military justice system hasn’t actually executed anyone in over 50 years, military prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty in the case of alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, The Wall Street Journal reports this morning. Hasan was charged with 13 counts of p ...

  • A Retraction of My Eikenberry Post
    Update: I am retracting this post, published yesterday, titled “Inside This Morning’s White House Afghanistan Meeting: Anger With Eikenberry, ‘Beef’ With McChrystal.” My original source for the post stands by the account provided. The individual, a National Security Council staffe ...

  • Lawyers Allege Ongoing ‘Dragnet’ Surve ...
    Although the government has said that warrantless wiretapping under the Terrorist Surveillance Program has stopped, the Obama administration has not said that warrantless wiretapping isn’t ongoing under some other program.

CowBoss' Brain Food

  • Obama picks new farm trade negotiator from chemica ...
    Islam "Isi" Siddiqui is the Obama administration's pick for chief agricultural trade negotiator: senior farm trade official during the Clinton era, Siddiqui has been a vice president since 2001 at the chemical trade lobby CropLife America, a position that Submitted by cowboss at wscc to US Politics ...

  • TV host curious about attacks on animal ag (audio)
    “Anybody from a city, in my opinion, who spends a day, a week, maybe even just a few hours on a working farm is going to be quickly disabused of a lot of what they believe,” Rowe told AgriTalk radio host Mike Adams last week. Submitted by cowboss at wscc to Society & Culture  |   Note-it!  |   A ...

  • Toyota Turns to GMO Flowers to Relieve it of Prius ...
    Are you overcome with guilt about how much carbon, sulfides, nitrides, and other emissions goodies were pumped into the atmosphere in the making of your new Toyota Prius? Do you feel dirty? Submitted by cowboss at wscc to Society & Culture  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

  • Where's the beef? In land of cowboys, pig thrives
    The president of the National Pork Producers Council — the person who represents the people who represent the nation's pigs — appeared recently before Congress to talk about sales in the swine flu era. He wasn't happy. "Things look bleak going forward, Submitted by cowboss at wscc to Business  | ...

  • Ulema protests torture against racing cows
    A number of ulemas in Madura have been urging the regional administration to issue bylaws against the use of torture on cows used in the traditional karapan sapi (cow race). Submitted by cowboss at wscc to Animals  |   Note-it!  |   Add a Comment

Suzie-Q

  • Seymour Hersh: Obama puts his foot down


  • Rumsfeld, Defence Industries, 911, & Corporate Gov ...
    Rumsfeld, Defence Industries, 911, & Corporate Government in Retrospect On September 10, 2001 Rummy said this in a speech at the Pentagon “Today’s announcements are only the first of many. We will launch others ourselves, and we will ask Congress for legislative help as well. We have, for examp ...

  • Gorbachev to Obama: ‘Prepare the ground for with ...
    By Jordan Fabian,  The Hill, Nov. 10, 2009 Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday advised President Barack Obama to prepare to withdraw forces from Afghanistan, rather than adding more troops. The USSR leader, who in 1986 began the withdrawal of Soviet troops [...]

  • Pilger: Breaking The Great Australian Silence
    John Pilger | ZNet, Nov. 7, 2009 Editor’s Note: An important speech/article by a great writer who has stood for  truth and justice that  needs the attention of all of us around the world. Thank you all for coming tonight, and my thanks to the City of Sydney and especially to the Sydney Pea ...

  • Paid Lying – What Passes For Major Media Journal ...
    Stephen Lendman, Baltimore Chronicle, Noveber 9, 2009 Today’s major media journalism is biased, irresponsible, sensationalist reporting that distorts, exaggerates or misstates the truth. It’s misinformation or agitprop disinformation masquerading as fact to boost circulation, readership, viewe ...

Solari

  • Economy Is Once Again Top Issue For Voters
    The Rasmussen Report After being knocked out of first place last month for the first time in nearly two years, the economy is back as the issue voters view as most important. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 85% of voters consider the issue of the economy as very im ...

  • Money & Markets ~ Charts 11.12.09
    View this week’s chart comparisons of gold against fiat currencies, oil and the Dow. Stay tuned for our next Money & Markets segment of The Solari Report tonight, Thursday, November 12, 2009. Click here to view all charts as a pdf file. Previous Money & Markets Charts blog posts: Nov 2009 (1) / O ...

  • Community Call to Prayer
    Artist: Benjamin West Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? ~ Corrie ten Boom . . . they cried out to God in the battle. He heeded their prayer, because they put their trust in Him. ~ 1 Chronicles 5:20 Heartfelt thanks and many blessings to all who have joined us in prayer, either on th ...

  • Great Advice from David Icke


  • US Stock Market: Driving Out Healthy Companies and ...
    ZeroHedge.com (10 Nov 09) The decline in the number of U.S. listed companies has cost our economy millions of potential jobs. Market structure changes began to erode support for small cap stocks and eventually worked their way up to damage the support for larger companies. The results of low transa ...

Global Insights

  • Less Than a Week Away
    We encourage you to register for Awake and Aware. George Green will be a featured speaker. September 19th & 20th • Burbank, CA Click here for Tickets & Reservations  

  • The Georgia Guidestones
    On one of the highest hilltops in Elbert County, Georgia stands a huge granite monument. Engraved in eight different languages on the four giant stones that support the common capstone are 10 Guides, or commandments. That monument is alternately referred to as The Georgia Guidestones, or the Ame ...

  • The Creation
    THE CREATION (A recent message given to George Green from the "guys upstairs") We are pleased to bring understanding and clarification on what is the Creation. This is a challenge because your language of communication has not the words for describing this conception of Creation. So as not to put an ...

  • The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catas ...
    In his previous books, James Kunstler focused on the shortsighted vision of suburban planning; now he expands that view to the country's urban growth challenges and the need to drastically change our current course of auto and oil dependency. The Long Emergency is filled with history plus eye-openin ...

  • About George Green
    Dear Friends, Thank you for your interest in our catalog of unusual and informative materials. The knowledge gained will give you choices in the days ahead and lessons of discernment as the chaos increases. It is necessary for those of you who are now in the "know" so to speak, to begin to focus ...

Insurgency Watch - Posts

  • InsurgencyWatch moving to True/Slant
    In the coming days, InsurgencyWatch will be moving to True/Slant, “an original content news network tailored to both the ‘Entrepreneurial Journalist’ and marketers who want a more effective way to engage with digital audiences.” (That’s what the official about page says.) It’s not a deci ...

  • Kerry-Lugar’s First Victim
    If true, this is total bullshit: After strong criticism on the Kerry-Lugar bill in Pakistan, the government has decided to replace Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani and the announcement in this respect is expected within the next two days. There’s nothing in the bill reasonable Pa ...

  • Pakistan’s Civil War Heating Up
    In the aftermath of this weekend’s assault on the Pakistani General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, the Taliban hit again in Alpuri, in the Shangla district east of Mingora in Swat. According to military sources who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to talk to the press, a 1 ...

  • At Home with a Swat Lashkar
    I just finished up a few days in Swat and while I’m working on a story about it, I thought you might like to see a few pictures I took while there. Enjoy. Share/Save

  • FACTBOX: Uzbek militant leader killed in Pakistan ...
    Washington PostFACTBOX: Uzbek militant leader killed in PakistanReutersBy this time he is thought to have fled the region for the safe haven of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. * Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader ...Pakistan to Target Taliba...

AlterNet - DrugReporter

Twilight Earth

  • Twilight Earth Debuts TwilighTV – Sustainable Li ...
    Twilight Earth is excited to be debuting a new feature called TwilighTV. TwilighTV will bring you a great mix of content from Current TV and Elephant Journal. Related posts: Green Living Ideas and Twilight Earth Form New Major Environmental Network, Simple Earth Media Twilight Earth News Twilight ...

  • EPA Orders Employees to Remove YouTube Climate Vid ...
    The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered two of its attorneys to remove a video they posted on YouTube about problems with climate change legislation. Related posts: Technology Transfer and Climate Change (Video) Barack Obama’s New Video to the Governors Global Climate Change Summit Activ ...

  • Keep Keeping America Beautiful
    During the spring and summer of 2009, more than 3 million volunteers worked tirelessly for 5.2 million hours during the 2009 Great American Cleanup organized by the nonprofit group Keep America Beautiful. Related posts: U.S. Petroleum Industry Responsible for 25% of Toxic Pollutants in North Ameri ...

  • Green Living Ideas and Twilight Earth Form New Maj ...
    Sean Daily, CEO of Green Living Ideas, Inc. and Adam Shake, founder of Twilight Earth, have teamed up to create online media company Simple Earth Media. Related posts: The Twilight Earth Green Friend Force – Weekly Greenosphere Picks Twilight Earth Aquires Another Green Website – Eco Tech D ...

  • Massey Energy is Blasting on Coal River Mountain, ...
    Appalachia's West Virginians unite to stop Massey Energy Mountain Top Removal Related posts: Residents to Protest at Massey Energys Toxic Coal Sludge Dam Coal Country Film: Inside Modern Coal Mining West Virginians Come to DC to Protest Mountaintop Removal at the EPA

Inhabitat

  • PREFAB FRIDAY: Hive Modular Unveils New X-Line 003 ...
    Hive Modular recently unveiled a brand new pre-fabulous house chock full of eco-friendly materials and lots of high-tech home system controls. Situated in Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, the new X-Line 003 is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath home that boasts clean lines and a sleek interior. There are a lot of prefa ...

  • Circular Hakka Houses Create Self-Sustaining Commu ...
    War and conflict often bring about the destruction of architecture, however these forces can also result in new constructions that define a cultural identity and place. Stressed by China’s growing population, the Hakka people have been confronted with armed warfare for local resources since the 17 ...

  • San Francisco Green Festival Starts Tomorrow!
    CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS! The mother of all green events, the San Francisco Green Festival starts tomorrow! This huge 3-day event runs from November 13th-15th and will feature a sustainable food fair, hemp fashion show, over 150 eco-minded speakers and 400 exhibitors so don’t miss it. Get all t ...

  • Beyond LEED: Living Building Challenge 2.0 Certifi ...
    This week the International Living Building Institute released its new green building standard to the public at Greenbuild 2009. Version 2.0 expands on its already impressive focus to now cover social issues – any Certified Living Building must be net-zero energy, net-zero water, non-toxic, provid ...

  • Light Switch Ghost is Happy When Kids Save Energy, ...
    When it comes to teaching kids to conserve energy, positive reinforcement is the name of the game. Combine that with a cute and fun toy, and you really can’t go wrong. Case in point: Tio, an educational ghost pal and light-switch system for your tot that teaches them how cool turning off lights wh ...

Pogue's Posts

  • Verizon: How Much Do You Charge Now?
    Verizon's cellphones are designed in such a way that you can almost never avoid getting $1.99 charge on the bill for its mobile Web services, even if you immediately cancel the action.

  • Fun With Google's Auto-Suggestion Feature
    Start a phrase in a Google and who knows how the search engine will complete it?

  • Cleaning Up the Clutter Online
    A new Web tool strips away all the flashing and the blinking and leaves you with clean, readable prose.

  • Medical Apps for the iPhone
    Last week, I spoke at the TED MED conference. My assignment was to speak for 18 minutes about medical apps for the iPhone. Sounds easy, right? Only one problem: there are about 7,000 medical apps.

  • Return to Sender
    Have an amazing idea? Here's why Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer and Sergey Brin don't want to hear about it.

Open Your Eyes News

  • ‘Chemical cosh’ for dementia kills 1,800 Brito ...
    The Times – About 145,000 people with dementia are wrongly being prescribed powerful anti-psychotic medication which cause around 1,800 deaths a year, a Government-ordered review has found. Only around 36,000 of the 180,000 people being given the drugs derive any benefit from them. The medication ...

  • Bomber attacks Pakistani intelligence agency; 9 de ...
    Reuters – A suicide car bomber attacked an office used by Pakistan’s main intelligence agency in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Friday, killing nine people and wounding 55, officials said. Read Article

  • Blast strikes near U.S. military base in Kabul
    Reuters – A car bomb exploded near a NATO convoy just outside a U.S. military base in Kabul early on Friday, wounding civilian contractors, foreign soldiers and Afghan bystanders, the NATO-led force said. Read Article

  • Israel open to peace talks with Syria
    ABC – Israel has renewed an offer to hold peace talks with Syria, provided they are held without preconditions. Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been in Paris for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He told the French leader he was willing to reopen negotiations with Syr ...

  • Detroit police property seizures ensnare even the ...
    Detroit News – Local law enforcement agencies are raising millions of dollars by seizing private property suspected in crimes, but often without charges being filed — and sometimes even when authorities admit no offense was committed. The money raised by confiscating goods in Metro Detroit soare ...

Monkey Smashes Heaven

  • First Worldism underneath the Beyonce controversy
    First Worldism underneath the Beyonce controversy (monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com) Pop diva Beyonce’s “I Am..” tour has so far made 53 million dollars, and generated controversy to boot. In giant posters that pepper the streets, Beyonce sports a revealing, flame covered outfit  in th ...

  • Fragging statement: MSH and Anwar al Awlaki
    Fragging statement: MSH and Anwar al Awlaki (monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com) All the facts about the Fort Hood shootings are not in yet. The facts may never be fully known. After all, the bourgeois media, the accused’s handlers, and others, will try to craft their own narratives around the eve ...

  • Floating parasitism
    Floating parasitism (monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com) Royal Caribbean International has just launched the world’s largest cruise ship. The Oasis of the Seas weighs 225,282 tonnes. The ship is 360 meters long and 72 meters high above the water line. Passenger features include luxuries such as tw ...

  • Third World countries protest First World countrie ...
    Third World countries protest First World countries over climate change (monkeysmashesheaven.wordpress.com) 50 African countries walked out of a UN working meeting on climate change in Barcelona, Spain. The African and 70 other Third World countries have been protesting U.N. climate negotiations th ...

  • Lackeys in Iran: Help! Obama! Help!
    Lackeys in Iran: Help! Obama! Help! (monkeysmasheshheaven.wordpress.com) This week witnessed demonstrations in the streets of Tehran. According to reports, these are the first significant ones since the end of demonstrations surrounding the contested presidential elections months ago. The recent pr ...

PakAlert

  • Population Reduction: Globalist Endgame Begins?
    ‘A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.’ – Ted Turner to Audubon Magazine, 1996 SkyWatch Canada Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko wears a protective mask as she visits a hospital in Ivano-Frankivsk November 3, ...

  • Signs of Last Day and Swine Flu Epidemic
    by  SheikhImran N. Hosein Click Here For More Swine Flu Updates In a Caribbean island of Trinidad that is blessed with a plural society, and which celebrates that plurality with the democratic proclamation “here every creed and race finds an equal place”, we Muslims are grateful that we still ...

  • Israel’s Role In Destabilizing Pakistan
    By Jeff Gates When waging war “by way of deception,” the motto of the Israeli Mossad, well-timed crises play a critical agenda-setting role by displacing facts with what a target population can be deceived to believe. Thus the force-multiplier effect when staged crises are reinforced with pre- ...

  • Sinister Sites – Illuminati Pyramid in Blagnac, ...
    By Vigilant Located in a suburb of Toulouse, the “Place de la Révolution” is probably one of the most blatant displays of Illuminati designs in existence: a huge pyramid hovering atop a map of the world. The symbolical meaning of this structure reveals a rather grim and elitist ideology and see ...

  • India’s Breakup Is Inevitable
    INDIA: Before and after maps “The decline of India is inevitable, Mr. Speaker, for many of the same reasons that doomed the Soviet Union,” – Congressman Edolphus Towns in his 1998 speech. “The Indian state, in its present manifestation, practices the same repressive violent policies as that ...

ecogeek

  • Wind Turbines to Power Cell Phone Towers
    Small-scale wind turbines can't produce the large amounts of power that their giant brothers can, but there's still room for them in the renewable energy landscape.  As an example, cell phone company Core Communications will begin using small vertical-axis wind turbines to power their cell phone t ...

  • Finally! A Recycling Plant for Dirty Diapers
    As a new mom and an ecogeek, I know that choosing a diapering method is a huge issue.  Disposable diapers clog landfills for hundreds of years.  There are alternatives to disposables, of course, but they have their drawbacks.  Cloth diapers require extra water and electricity for laundering and ...

  • Europe Testing "Road Trains" to Cut Fuel ...
    Have you ever been driving in rush hour and wished you could just zone out and read a book during your trip instead of stressing about the traffic?  Well, the EU is testing a way to make that possible while cutting fuel consumption at the same time.  The idea is that eight vehicles would travel a ...

  • Garmin Offering "Eco" Cable to Go with S ...
    Garmin has revealed screen shots of its new Eco-Route add-on for the Nuvi 1xxx GPS systems with Bluetooth.  The Eco-Route is a cable that plugs into your car's diagnostic communications port and feeds data to your GPS. Eco-Route reads air, fuel, throttle position and combustion mixture information ...

  • Bacteria Could Rid the World of Packaging Waste
    Consumer and shipping packaging can be incredibly wasteful.  Some companies are downsizing their packaging, but many products sitll come wrapped and boxed in ridiculous amounts of plastic, paper, cardboard - you name it.  One designer has come up with a way to get rid of the waste by wrapping obj ...

Times Online - Science

Environment _ National Geographic

drinking liberally in new milford ( with beersphere feeds )

  • Windsock Joe
    We really want to know which way the wind blows, Joe? The other day you were dead set against the Public Option, much to the chagrin of Connecticut voters. And now? Sen. Joe Lieberman has reached a private understanding with Majority Leader Harry Reid that he will not block a final vote on healthca ...

  • Blue Dog Mike Ross Real Estate Scandal?
    Via TomP at dKos, Rep. Mike Ross is getting his first taste of promised push-back for going against what the majority of Americans want : ProPublica is reporting that Blue Dog Congressman Mike Ross (DINO-AR) "sold a piece of commercial property in 2007 for substantially more than a county assessment ...

  • Boehner at CPAC calling all of Obama's Policies So ...
    Flushing out Boehner's lie on Meet the Press and a David Gregory that doesn't follow politics well enough to be able to call him out on the obvious: Boehner is no different then any other Bircher whackjob.

  • Senator Dodd On Snowe Delaying Legislation
    ctblogger uploaded this video and I thought I would yank it from him because it shows a lot slicker version of the material I covered: Pay no attention the Blogging geek asking the question nor the mug of Sam Adam's Octoberfest beer on the counter behind him.

  • Senator Chris Dodd on Obama's Afghanistan Strategy
    In this video, taken on Saturday, September 26th, '09, Senator Chris Dodd makes sense on the situation in Afghanistan. It starts with Nutmegger John Kantrowitz, from My Left Nutmeg and the Conn-Post Blogs , discussing the shades of Vietnam parallels. But there is an 800 pound guerrilla that too many ...

SPL Center

  • In Christian vs. Atheist Documentary, a Bizarre Ad ...
    In a new documentary pitting atheism against faith, contrarian critic Christopher Hitchens debates evangelical pastor Douglas Wilson on the merits of Christianity. “Collision,” released today, has already generated buzz: Hitchens and Wilson have appeared on National Public Radio’s “All Th ...

  • Man Killed in FBI Shootout Said to Lead Terror Cel ...
    A Detroit man fatally shot last week by FBI agents was a high-ranking leader of a nationwide separatist group that advocated violence and denigrated Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims, according to an FBI complaint. Luqman Ameen Abdullah (also known as Christopher Thomas), 53, was killed during ...

  • A Peek Behind the Curtain: Views of a Racist Filmm ...
    As we reported yesterday, white supremacists are enamored of first-time filmmaker Craig Bodeker’s A Conversation about Race, presumably because the polished documentary lends a veneer of respectability to their racist beliefs. Bodeker, who narrates the film, comes across as an affable guy intent o ...

  • Earth to Lou: It Could Have Been Different
    It didn’t have to end this way for Lou Dobbs. He could have been a contender. But Dobbs, a supremely self-confident man who often mentions his Harvard education in private conversation, just wouldn’t listen. Time after time, as the “Lou Dobbs Tonight” show he has hosted on CNN since 2003 gre ...

  • Rise Up and Fight the Swine Flu Conspiracy, Says & ...
    Of all the fantastic musings and mutterings about the H1N1 flu and vaccine, few are more outrageous than the pronouncements of retired Army Maj. Gen. Albert Stubblebine III and his psychiatrist wife, Rima Laibow. They run a nonprofit organization called Natural Solutions Foundation, which warns of t ...

Rio Times

  • Blackout Hits Brazil
    By Doug Gray, Senior Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – Rio, Sao Paulo and Recife were among the major cities affected by a blackout that hit nine states on Tuesday night as power problems that began over the weekend continue to affect the country. After several Rio neighborhoods were affected in the early ...

  • USAID and Esso/ExxonMobil, Film in Amazonas
    By Ananda Alves, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – Mamirauá, which is an indigenous word for “baby manatee”, is a 1,124,000 hectare Sustainable Development Reserve, located in the Amazonas state, the largest reserve of its kind protecting flooded forest (“varzea”) in Brazil. Esso/Exx ...

  • Woody Allen Film Planned for Rio
    By Harold Emert, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO - A Woody Allen film shot in 2012 may happen for Rio de Janeiro after the recent visit of the director’s sister Letty Aronson and Allen’s agent Stephen Tenenbaum.The pair reportedly received an offer of US$15 Million to produce the film fr ...

  • Watching NFL Football in Rio
    By Jayme Monsanto, Senior Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO - In a country renowned for its love of futebol, it is not always easy to find a place to watch any sport other than Brazilian soccer. If the sport you want to watch is American Football, things get even harder. With less than two months before the ...

  • Salgueiro: Dance With The Champs
    RIO DE JANEIRO - As temperature rises in Rio de Janeiro, Samba School madness heats up. This week, The Rio Times brings to its readers, 2009 Carnival Champion, G.R.E.S. Academicos do Salgueiro. The red and white ‘gremio’ from Tijuca, after last year’s great success, is getting ready for anothe ...

change: org.

  • Poverty--'Prison Without Bars'
    While I think I know something about poverty, I could never succinctly describe it as Dorothy Thomas did, "Poverty is prison without bars." Her homelessness probably galvanized her way of looking at her income-deficit disorder. It just takes a glance at headlines to realize that our country suffers ...

  • Low Income Women Can't Get Abortions, But RNC Staf ...
    It is pretty obvious by now that Republicans don't want you to be able to have an abortion. Republicans don't want government funds to be used to cover a legal medical procedure that "kills babies" despite the fact that they support the death penalty and federal funding for psychotherapy for pedophi ...

  • What is Checkpoint Etiquette?
    Every checkpoint is different, from border crossings to police roadblocks to Holy crap heads down! Here are a few insider tips from locals, aid workers, contractors, and journalists to help newcomers to relate to people who live this every day. Do get professional training if you're planning to work ...

  • No More Elephants in India's Circuses and Zoos
    In Defense of Animals has just sent out word of good news for elephants in India. Recognizing that zoos and circuses can't possibly, even in the best of circumstances, meet these animals' needs, the Central Zoo Authority has ordered the release of 140 captive elephants in the country. They will be m ...

  • Send Your Government Officials to Auschwitz (To Le ...
    My colleague Amelia Green-Dove and I had a chance to have coffee with Alex Zucker, the Media Relations guru for the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation , at the Empire State Building in New York. We agreed that one of the best ways to help reduce the rate of war crimes around the wor ...

Common Dreams -News

  • Invest in Nature Now, Save Trillions Later: Study
    by Marlowe Hood PARIS - Investing billions today to protect threatened ecosystems and dwindling biodiversity would reap trillions in savings over the long haul, according to a UN-backed report issued Friday. More than a billion of Earth's poorest denizens depend directly on coral reefs, forests, man ...

  • Obama's Pesticide-Pushing Nominee
    by Kate Sheppard When Michelle Obama announced plans to plant an organic garden at the White House, nearly everybody thought it was a great idea. Everybody except for the pesticide industry. read more

  • Rift in US War Cabinet as Obama Throws out All Opt ...
    by Tim Reid in Washington Two leaked classified cables from the US Ambassador in Kabul voicing grave concern about sending more American troops to Afghanistan have exposed open conflict inside President Obama’s national security team over his war strategy. The contents of the cables, passed to The ...

  • UN Investigator Accuses US of Shameful Neglect of ...
    by Chris McGreal in Los Angeles A United Nations special investigator who was blocked from visiting the US by the Bush administration has accused the American government of pouring billions of dollars into rescuing banks and big business while treating as "invisible" a deepening homeless crisis. Raq ...

  • Will Nader Challenge Dodd?
    by Glenn Thrush Could Ralph Nader reprise his spoiler role at the expense of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.)? The consumer crusader, perennial presidential aspirant and Winsted, Connecticut native says lots of people are asking him to run for the Senate against Dodd in 2010 -- and he isn't saying no just ...

Lifehacker

  • YouTube Rolling Out 1080p HD Video Next Week [Str ...
    If you've been uploading really high-resolution stuff to YouTube, you'll see a real payoff next week. That's when the video sharing service starts streaming videos in 1080p, wide-screen-TV-friendly, high-definition video. Video fiends will dig the crispness and clarity now available on the de facto ...

  • Google Wave Adds Follow/Unfollow Feature for a Cl ...
    When we taught you the first Google Wave search you should know ( with:public ), Wave automatically added public waves you read to your inbox, and an empty inbox quickly became hard to come by. Today, Wave fixes that with a handy Follow/Unfollow button. Now, rather than automatically adding a public ...

  • Hanging Lego Recharger Holds Your Keys, Charges Y ...
    We're suckers for any project that involves Legos , and the DIY gurus at weblog Make play to our weaknesses with this saucy Lego recharger and key holder. All you'll need is the appropriate Lego bricks (naturally), some screws, your devices' chargers, and a few common tools. The guide actually takes ...

  • Gadget and Gear Deals of the Day [Dealhacker]
    Discounted HDTVs, laptops, and bluetooth peripherals are today's order of business. Tired of waiting for an Apple Tablet? You can save $500 off a Mac-based "ModBook" tablet. Computer Gear! Axiotron Modbook Mac-based Tablet for $1599 (previously $2100) HP TouchSmart IQ500t All-in-One Desktop with 2 ...

  • Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony ...
    Windows 7 and Ubuntu, despite their opposing missions, can get along like best pals on a single computer. Here's how to set up a dual boot system that lets you enjoy the best of both worlds in perfect harmony. By default, Windows 7 takes over your boot-up process and wants to be your only OS, and Li ...

Newshoggers - AfPak

  • Garbage, gaffes and decision loops
    By Dave Anderson: Everyone involved in the US debate over Afghanistan fundamentally agrees that the Karzai government has serious problems. It is corrupt. It is weak. It is propped up by 100,000 heavily armed foreigners. It is a black-hole of competency. It includes various warlords and their militi ...

  • Obama to ask for greater Chinese Involvement in Af ...
    By Steve Hynd According to the Financial Times: As US President Barack Obama prepares to make a final decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, his visit to Beijing next week will be an opportunity to press China to become more involved in the conflict. Since the start of the year, the ...

  • "The Army is basically paying the Taliban not to s ...
    By Steve Hynd Today's must-read is by Aram Roston over at The Nation as he gets in-depth about a major part of the Taliban's funding: "the US military's contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes" in deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars to contractors ...

  • Report: NSC Given Until Friday To Come Up With Afg ...
    By Steve Hynd Spencer Ackerman has a great piece today based around a leaking staffer inside the National Security Council's deliberations on Afghnaistan strategy. The staffer noted that everyone at the NSC is annoyed with Ambassador Eikenberry for apparently leaking his own cables to Obama and conf ...

  • Waiting is leverage
    By Dave Anderson: If the cascades of leaks are correct, President Obama is taking his time to make a well informed decision that may actually be a decent decision on troop strength and political objectives that those troops could achieve in Afghanistan instead of making a decision that came out of t ...

Water Wars

  • Alameda Letters to the Editor (Alameda Times-Star)
    Think about the kidsIt is about the kids. It is about building a new Boys & Girls Club. It is about the kids. It is about a need in our community. It is about the kids.

  • Alameda Letters to the Editor (Alameda Journal)
    It is about the kids. It is about building a new Boys & Girls Club. It is about the kids. It is about a need in our community. It is about the kids. It is about doing the right thing for the right reason.

  • Saturday’s Friends of BCL Big Fall Book Sale off ...
    If you want to start the fall off right and enjoy those books you’ve promised yourself to read, don’t miss Saturday’s Friends of Blanchard Community Library Big Fall Book Sale.

  • Deltona, Volusia County spar over water (The DeLan ...
    While municipal suppliers of water in West Volusia talk publicly of working together, a skirmish is brewing between Deltona and Volusia County over the right to sell water and sewer. Deltona has staked out the right to provide water and sewer services in the unincorporated area five miles east of it ...

  • Water wars: Snake Valley issue is not as simple as ...
    SNAKE VALLEY — Jerald Bates climbs into his dusty Ford truck, drives a quarter mile up a winding dirt road, gets out and points to his lifeblood. The water bubbles up from the ground, surrounded by lush grass as it courses over rocks.

WordPress | Economics

McClatchey

BBC - Richard Black's Earth Watch

  • Copenhagen Countdown: 31 Days
    Most of those concerned with climate have had their eyes on Barcelona this week, where delegates from 192 countries plus hundreds of observers, campaigners, lobbyists - and journalists - convened for the final session of preparatory talks before the UN climate summit in Copenhagen . As I've reporte ...

  • All's fair in the climate blame game
    At the UN climate negotiations in Barcelona. It's a story that's been coming for the last few months; now that it's being written , the first cards of the blame game are being played. Remember the UN climate conference in Bali two years ago , and the road that stretched from there to Copenhagen? ...

  • Climate talks: To the wire and beyond
    At the UN climate negotiations in Barcelona. It looks like the UN climate summit in Copenhagen is shaping up to be another final-night, early-hours, last few seconds kind of affair. On the surface, what we're witnessing here at the final preparatory session in Barcelona is a stand-off between a pa ...

  • Copenhagen countdown: 38 days
    This post - my second weekly round-up of political moves as we approach December's UN climate summit - is a little delayed, partly because the week's most important event took place on Thursday and Friday. "File on final whistle," as editors say to football correspondents - most of whom are much be ...

  • Magnetic attraction of climate 'scepticism'
    There's been interest on this blog and elsewhere about a meeting organised on Wednesday by Piers Corbyn , the independent UK weather forecaster who argues that the sources of modern-day climate change lie in magnetic interactions around the Earth rather than greenhouse gas emissions on it. So - a g ...

Afghanistan Sun

  • Leaked cables expose Obama War Cabinet rift over A ...
    Washington/New York, Nov.13 : The leaking of two classified cables sent by US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry has exposed the rift prevailing within President Barack Obama's national security team over his war strategy, reports The Times.

  • UK PM for more nations to share troops burden in A ...
    London, Nov.13 : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has has ordered the country's Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth and senior foreign policy adviser Simon McDonald to embark on a round of diplomatic l...

  • Obama comes to Japan mulling Afghan war options
    By CHARLES HUTZLERAssociated Press Writer TOKYO (AP) - President Barack Obama aims Friday to shore up relations with a new Japanese government vowing to be more assertive with its U.S. ally, even as ...

  • Obama comes to Japan mulling Afghan war options
    (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)President Barack Obama, center, speaks during a rally with U.S. troops in Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009. Standing behind Oba...

  • WITNESS - Afghan night mission ends in bullets
    Deborah Gembara recently returned to Washington from a six-week reporting stint in Afghanistan. In the following story she recounts a night mission last month with U.S. soldiers in eastern Afghanistan...

Futurismic

  • Want to stave off swine flu? Catch a cold
    OK, before anyone says it, the headline is not to be taken as medical advice (I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on television, etc, etc). But research into surprisingly low incidences of swine flu in France in recent months suggests that the common cold may be suppressing the ability of the [...] ...

  • NASA debunks the 2012 Mayan apocalypse myth
    NASA has taken a step into the rough-and-tumble world of conspiracy theory by posting a point-by-point debunking of the 2012 apocalypse meme, brought to public prominence by the recent movie based upon it [image by auntjojo]. You’ve got to admire the blunt certainty of it – here’s the first of ...

  • Brain-food: white hats, anti-hackers and post-mode ...
    By way of an experiment, I thought I’d round up a handful of links which made for interesting reading, but about which I felt no particular urge to editorialise (or waffle tangentially, if there’s any measurable difference between the two in my case). If you like the format, let me know in the c ...

  • But is it art? Modern Warfare 2, computer games an ...
    Serendipity, yet again… Jonathan’s latest Blasphemous Geometries column on the moral dimension of modern computer game mechanics arrived in my inbox last weekend, and hence (unless he has contacts in the industry of which I am unaware), he’d have had no idea that this week would see a firestor ...

  • The Mechanics of Morality: Why Moral Choices in Vi ...
    Moral ambiguity is an increasingly ubiquitous part of modern computer game character mechanics – so why are the moral elements to gameplay increasingly less enjoyable? ### I remember when having a game take into account the morality of your character was something of an innovation. I remember b ...

geopolitics | geoeconomics

Whistleblowers Protection Blog

  • CIA to pay $3 million so Horn will not oppose vaca ...
    The CIA has decided to pay Richard Horn $3 million for a unique settlement of a fifteen (15) year-old spying case. The government not only wants Horn to dismiss the case and release the CIA and State Department officials who spied on him, but the government also wants Horn to promise that he will no ...

  • Bad Apples in a Rotten Barrel
      In the United Kingdom, a former investigator of the Royal Military Police (RMP), speaking anonymously, alleges that Senior British army commanders in Iraq refused to investigate Iraqi civilian abuse claims. According to BBC News on October 11 th , the whistleblower claims that while he has seen d ...

  • Whistleblower Film Festival Features Silkwood, spo ...
    Tomorrow, October 15th , The DC Labor Film Festival’s Whistleblower Film Series continues with a screening of Silkwood . The film is sponsored by the National Whistleblowers Center and recounts the true story of Karen Silkwood, the gutsy plutonium factory worker who took on her supervisor’s unet ...

  • 2009 National Conference and AGM of Whistleblowers ...
    Whistleblowers Australia (WBA), an association of whistleblowers in Australia, will host 2009 National Conference and annual general meeting at Aquinas College of the University of Adelaide from December 5-6, 2009. The conference theme is “blowing the whistle in the workplace.” Shelley Pezy, con ...

  • Burnham and Stockton answer questions about the Si ...
    Peter Stockton and David Burnham answer questions from the audience at the Whistleblower Film Festival last night.  After the showing of Silkwood , Burnham recounted his experience as the New York Times reporter waiting to meet with Karen Silkwood on the night she died. Peter Stockton was the s ...

Defense and trhe National Interest

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