US-Map of Soviet Invasion in Afghanistan

Image via Wikipedia

Pakistan's military operations in Kashmir
The country's army has frequently intervened, both covertly and openly, in Kashmir - often with dangerous results.
Kashmir has been the major source of conflict between India and Pakistan since the departure of the British from the region in 1947. Both countries have fought open and covert wars on this thorny issue over the past 60 years.
Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Pakistan was fully engaged on its western front for the best part of a decade and kept a low profile on the Kashmir issue. During this period, Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), cooperated with a number of other intelligence agencies to recruit, train and launch "irregulars" from Afghanistan - as well as other countries - against Soviet troops in Afghanistan. When Soviets decided to leave Afghanistan, a confident Pakistani military decided to replicate the Afghan project in Kashmir.

Three questions on Libya
Marwan Bishara

An initial Libyan scorecard
Mark LeVine

The last days of Gaddafi
Yuriko Koike

Libya: freedom is in the air
Larbi Sadiki

Guilty until proven innocent
Yasmeen El Khoudary

Glenn Beck is exploiting Israel
MJ Rosenberg

Beware of Rick Perry, the French cuff cowboy
Cliff Schecter

UK bid for US-style police reveals despair
Isaac Ontiveros

China's $3.2 trillion headache
Yao Yang

Europe's financial wasteland
Howard Davies

Kafka at the Rafah border
Diane Shammas

The socio-politics of the Middle East
Majid Rafizadeh

Social reconstruction is a family affair
Muhammad Abdul Bari

China rules the rare earth
Pepe Escobar

Britons face insurance ‘crisis’ as U.K.’s government trims flood defence

Britain’s coalition government is engaged in the biggest spending cuts since World War II to cut the country’s record budget deficit. It will reduce spending on flood defense to about 2.1 billion pounds over the next four years, from 2.36 billion pounds over the last four years, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

“This is a looming crisis,” said Jamie Reed, a lawmaker for Cumbria for the opposition Labour Party in an e-mailed statement. “Massive flood defense cuts have completely distorted the insurance market for homeowners and businesses. This could leave whole swathes of the country uninsurable and thousands of properties unmortgageable.” […]

U.S. Congress Paves the Way for Coal Ash To Continue Contaminating America

According to EHS, members of the the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy recently approved an amendment to the subtitle D of the Solid Waste Disposal Act.

, the EPA has been taking comments and holding public hearings on two proposed rules, one of which would create the first ever national regulation on coal ash disposal, or, as it is otherwise called, coal combustion residues.

What is Coal Ash Contamination?

Coal ash dumps across the country are volatile enough to meet the "open dumping" criteria of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) because they have contamination of arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, fluoride, lead, mercury and selenium. The Environmental Integrity Project monitored groundwater contamination in 33 states where coal ash is being dumped and found levels of these contaminants that would normally require cleanup or closure of those sites.

According to a New York Times article there are more than 1,300 coal ash dumps across the country.

From the Sourcewatch Link - not nearly all they have

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coal_waste

I have seen the future of Canada's working class

Sunday, August 21st, 2011 | Posted by Veterans Today

How did Americans get so utterly clueless about world events? (Hint: It was no accident.)

via Current TV

The U.S. Should Follow Benin's Lead

The West African nation of Benin has abolished the death penalty. “Benin wants to promote human dignity and progressive development of human rights,” the president of the Parliament declared. Thus, Benin will become the 74th country to join the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which calls for the death penalty to be abolished.

opit said...: These executions reflect a larger policy which give it a context to understand 'the problem' in ways that take into account acts which generated Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay ( see my 'Law' file re: enabling legislation - in the Topical Index ). It's not likely you'll see 'Lost' Topical Files without prompting. The second category is the backgrounder of note to be considered in context with http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2010/04/politics-of-perception-foreign-policy.html and perhaps the 'Perception Alteration' file itself.

Parent Regrets: Why I Wished We Never Went To See Taylor Swift

Maybe my family got the vacuous experience we deserved. That would be true if it were just a benignly bad concert experience. The problem is that it was an insidious concert experience that emphasized everything but the artist's voice -- the flowing fairy dresses and saccharine monologues covering up Swift's real power. Covering up girl power.

The best moments were rare authentic ones with Swift's top lip a wee bit sweaty, hair oh-so-slightly disheveled, strumming "Mean" on a banjo and later "Fearless" on a ukulele. That's what we had come to see, but it was fleeting.

Viewing ALEC as a Political Party

As we know, ALEC is registered as a 501c3, educational service nonprofit. Most of us know that Common Cause has challenged ALEC’s 501c3 status – and rightfully so.

… political party, a group of persons organized to acquire and exercise political power. … The term party has since come to be applied to all organized groups seeking political power, whether by democratic elections or by revolution.

Please bear with me as I pose the supposition that ALEC could realistically be viewed as a - political party, based on recognizable and accepted characteristics of a political party.

When in power, a party attempts to put its philosophy into practice through legislation.

Political parties perform key tasks in a democratic society, such as … Activating and mobilising citizens into participating in political decisions and transforming their opinions into viable policy options … Channelling public opinion from citizens to government

Just Foreign Policy

Action Spotlight

Cut Military Spending First!

The recent Washington agreement to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for budget cuts has created a historic opportunity for deep cuts in projected military spending--cuts that would help prevent future wars. By Thanksgiving, a joint House-Senate committee is supposed to recommend $1.5 trillion in cuts in projected spending over 10 years. Most of these cuts can come from the projected military budget. Email the President and your reps >

The Fire Hose: Fracking, Sea Level, Climate and Conflict

An Inconvenient Truth: Christie Is Right on Climate

Christie accompanied his veto with a statement acknowledging that human activity is contributing to global climate change. Specifically, Christie explained that his original decision to withdraw from RGGI was not based upon any “quarrel” with the science.

While I acknowledge that the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere are increasing, that climate change is real, that human activity plays a role in these changes and that these changes are impacting our state, I simply disagree that RGGI is an effective mechanism for addressing global warming.

As Christie explained, RGGI is based upon faulty economic assumptions and “does nothing more than impose a tax on electricity” for no real environmental benefit. As he noted, “To be effective, greenhouse gas emissions must be addressed on a national and international scale.”

opit says:

Woodland Critter:
The fundamental challenge on the issue is that everyone has an opinion without any knowledge. AGW is a hypothesis that may not be testable.
1) Modeling simple non-linear systems is very difficult.
2) Modeling complex non-linear systems is incredibily difficult.
3) Modeling complex non-linear systems without a complete understanding of all variables and forces is impossible.
4) Poorly selected data and biased data selection techniques reduce the results of the aforementioned models to gibberish.
Given the above, acceptance or rejection of the AWG hypothesis is a matter of faith. Which is why the proponent/sceptic debate tends toward the religous.

You might note that sounds very like a certain Australian Professor Emeritus who advised the government at one point.
http://www.nmatv.com/video/4235/Monckton-names-names-on-Climategate
and also Climate Scientist Roger Pielke Sr. who has a website advising more or less the same. Nor are they alone...though these do not care to debate on the basis of questionable endpoints for measurement, etc. to put the gilt on the modern version of computerized crystal ball prophecy :
http://suzukielders.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/climate-change-evidence-from-the-geological-record/ (Quote)

(Comment awaits moderation) August 24, 2011, 5:01 pm