Wind Energy Industry Applauds U.S. Senate Passage of Renewable Energy Credits: "the wind industry is on its way to charting another record-shattering year of growth. That 21,000 MW of capacity will generate over 60 billion kWh of electricity in 2009, enough to serve over 5.5 million American homes and eliminating the burning of
30.4 million short tons of coal (enough to fill two 1,000-mile-long coal trains),
91 million barrels of oil per year, or
560 Bcf of natural gas (about 9% of the natural gas used for electricity generation)."
Tuesday
Op-Ed Columnist - Time to Reboot America - NYTimes.com
Op-Ed Columnist - Time to Reboot America - NYTimes.com: "we can’t continue in this mode of “Dumb as we wanna be.”"
UPDATE: Attack on Gaza -- Self-Defense or Mass Murder?
UPDATE: Attack on Gaza -- Self-Defense or Mass Murder?: "In the usual process, the U.S. government -- and media here -- are playing down questions about whether Israel overreacted in its massive air strikes on Gaza, while the foreign press, and even Haaretz in Israel, carries more balanced accounts."
Thursday
Wednesday
Irregularity Is Uncovered at IndyMac Bank - NYTimes.com
Irregularity Is Uncovered at IndyMac Bank - NYTimes.com: "The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One"
Winners & Sinners : CJR:
Winners & Sinners : CJR:: "Cheney’s favorite day was the one when thousands of innocent Americans were murdered by terrorists—because it made it possible for him and his henchmen to wiretap innumerable Americans without obtaining warrants, commit war crimes, and destroy America’s reputation in every corner of the world.
Happy Holidays."
Happy Holidays."
Tuesday
Regulator Let IndyMac Bank Falsify Report - washingtonpost.com
Regulator Let IndyMac Bank Falsify Report - washingtonpost.com: "It is the second time Dochow has been removed from a position as a senior thrift regulator. He was demoted in the early 1990s after federal investigators found that he had delayed and impeded proper regulation of Charles Keating's failed Lincoln Savings and Loan."
Monday
Saturday
The Associated Press: Conservatives win court case in Va. church dispute Although African-Americans were widely blamed for the success of California Prop. 8 and similar measures, at least one writer argues convincingly that African-American churches are no more homophobic than white churches (and the Episcopal schism is the most public evidence of that). Still, it's instructive to see yet another law originally intended to preserve institutional racism being applied in service of the gay-hating community.
Friday
Bloomberg.com: News
Bloomberg.com: News: "Bernanke is basing hundreds of billions in emergency lending on credit ratings from companies that gave AAA grades to toxic securities."
Thursday
UAW busting, Southern style - Los Angeles Times
UAW busting, Southern style - Los Angeles Times: "When one compares how the auto industry and the financial sector are being treated by Congress, the double standard is staggering. In the financial sector, employee compensation makes up a huge percentage of costs. According to the New York state comptroller, it accounted for more than 60% of 2007 revenues for the seven largest financial firms in New York.
At Goldman Sachs, for example, employee compensation made up 71% of total operating expenses in 2007. In the auto industry, by contrast, autoworker compensation makes up less than 10% of the cost of manufacturing a car."
At Goldman Sachs, for example, employee compensation made up 71% of total operating expenses in 2007. In the auto industry, by contrast, autoworker compensation makes up less than 10% of the cost of manufacturing a car."
Sunday
Friday
Matthew G. Kirschenbaum - Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination - Neural.it :: media culture, hacktivism
Matthew G. Kirschenbaum - Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination - Neural.it :: media culture, hacktivism: "offer a working model of immateriality via the implementation of a vast material cascade of affordances"
Jim Rogers calls most big U.S. banks bankrupt | U.S. | Reuters
Jim Rogers calls most big U.S. banks bankrupt | U.S. | Reuters: "government efforts to fix the sector are wrongheaded"
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation: Comments for Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP)
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation: Comments for Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP): "As nuclear terrorism remains one of the gravest threat to U.S. security, the United States should pursue policies that will reduce the stocks of plutonium, rather than produce additional plutonium"
Talking Points Memo | What Happened
Talking Points Memo | What Happened: "Democrats gave up efficiency and emissions standards."
Thursday
UnitedHealth to Insure the Right to Insurance - NYTimes.com
UnitedHealth to Insure the Right to Insurance - NYTimes.com Since innovative derivatives of other types of financial instruments are working so well.
Monday
Sunday
What Obama Has to Look Forward To
What Obama Has to Look Forward To and the Bush regime still has a month to go.
Saturday
Meltdown weakens NYC as global financial capital - Yahoo! News
Meltdown weakens NYC as global financial capital - Yahoo! News: "It's going to be a long, slow process and take many years for us to really restore our leadership in the world,' said Ron Chernow, who has written extensively on the history of Wall Street. 'New York has been damaged, and some of it I think is permanent."
Tuesday
Monday
Tanking economy drives National Guard enlistments | zanesvilletimesrecorder.com | Zanesville Times Recorder The real reason why any economic bail-out won't be designed to create jobs.
Saturday
Friday
Audit Interview: John Ryan : CJR:
Audit Interview: John Ryan : CJR: "The issues related to the unsustainable nature of this housing bubble, the sort of practices that it bred, how the role of Wall Street changed incentives and how the industry itself wasn’t sustainable — these weren’t secrets. ...
"there were significant risks here that were recognized back in the mid 90’s by all sorts of players and debated here in Washington, in terms of the risk of these complex financial instruments and the lack of transparency of the markets in which they were originated and traded."
"there were significant risks here that were recognized back in the mid 90’s by all sorts of players and debated here in Washington, in terms of the risk of these complex financial instruments and the lack of transparency of the markets in which they were originated and traded."
Popular Radio Host Has Drug Company Ties - NYTimes.com
More evidence that Big Pharma controls access to health information at every level: Sen. Charles "Grassley is systematically asking some of the nation’s leading researchers and doctors to provide their conflict-of-interest disclosures, and Mr. Grassley is comparing those documents with records of actual payments from drug companies. The records often conflict, sometimes starkly."
Thursday
Obama Needs a Protest Movement
Obama Needs a Protest Movement: "The parallels between the election of 2008 and the election of 1932 are often invoked, with good reason. ...FDR became a great president because the mass protests among the unemployed, the aged, farmers and workers forced him to make choices he would otherwise have avoided."
Wednesday
Protests Over a Rule to Protect Health Providers - NYTimes.com
Protests Over a Rule to Protect Health Providers - NYTimes.com What's needed is a rule to protect people from religion.
Monday
Don't Believe Spending Cut Rumors - Defense News
Don't Believe Spending Cut Rumors - Defense News: "The informal alliance between the services and conservative think tanks threatens to further politicize the military. The abuse of national security arguments to win political arguments is both morally suspect and threatens the security of the nation by delinking strategic assessment from public policy."
Friday
Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
Bloomberg.com: Worldwide The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
Monday
Sunday
Wednesday
Editorial - So Little Time, So Much Damage - NYTimes.com
Editorial - So Little Time, So Much Damage - NYTimes.com: "Attorney General Michael Mukasey rushed out new guidelines for the F.B.I. that permit agents to use chillingly intrusive techniques to collect information on Americans even where there is no evidence of wrongdoing."
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Naomi Klein: Bailout = Bush's Final Pillage | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet
Naomi Klein: Bailout = Bush's Final Pillage | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet: "The bailout has been designed to keep stealing from the Treasury for years to come."
A Last Push To Deregulate - washingtonpost.com
A Last Push To Deregulate - washingtonpost.com: "the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo."
Thursday
Wednesday
Appeals Courts Pushed to Right by Bush Choices - NYTimes.com
Appeals Courts Pushed to Right by Bush Choices - NYTimes.com: "Republican-appointed judges, most of them conservatives, are projected to make up about 62 percent of the bench next Inauguration Day, up from 50 percent when Mr. Bush took office. They control 10 of the 13 circuits, while judges appointed by Democrats have a dwindling majority on just one circuit."
Tuesday
The Political Scene: The Insiders: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
The Political Scene: The Insiders: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin.
Monday
Sunday
Friday
Anti-Smoking Warnings Make You Want to Smoke, Claims Study - Advertising Age - News
Anti-Smoking Warnings Make You Want to Smoke, Claims Study - Advertising Age - News Or, why "Values Voters" vote for people with no values.
Thursday
Health insurers reinvent themselves as money managers - Los Angeles Times I'll think of a pithy comment as soon as I stop fuming, or figure out something that isn't wrong with this model.
Wednesday
A 'Green New Deal' can save the world's economy, says UN - Green Living, Environment - The Independent
A 'Green New Deal' can save the world's economy, says UN - Green Living, Environment - The Independent: "It argues that the world is caught up in not one, but three interlinked crises, with the food and fuel crunches accompanying and intensifying the financial one....
every year, for example the felling of forests deprives the world of over $2.5 trillion worth of such services in supplying water, generating rainfall, stopping soil erosion, cleaning the air and reducing global warming . By comparison, he points out, the global financial crisis is so far estimated to have cost the world the smaller one-off sum of $1.5 trillion....
Pavan Sukhdev, the chair of Deutschbank's Global Market Centre, who is leading the initiative, says: “Hundreds of millions of jobs can be created, there is no question that traditional industries like steel and cars cannot provide them. But this is a really huge business opportunity.” "
every year, for example the felling of forests deprives the world of over $2.5 trillion worth of such services in supplying water, generating rainfall, stopping soil erosion, cleaning the air and reducing global warming . By comparison, he points out, the global financial crisis is so far estimated to have cost the world the smaller one-off sum of $1.5 trillion....
Pavan Sukhdev, the chair of Deutschbank's Global Market Centre, who is leading the initiative, says: “Hundreds of millions of jobs can be created, there is no question that traditional industries like steel and cars cannot provide them. But this is a really huge business opportunity.” "
Friday
Voters contend they were duped into registering as Republicans - Los Angeles Times
Voters contend they were duped into registering as Republicans - Los Angeles Times "Elections officials and lawmakers have launched investigations into the activities of YPM staff in Florida and Massachusetts. In Arizona, the firm was recently a defendant in a civil rights lawsuit. Prosecutors in Los Angeles and Ventura counties say they are investigating complaints about the company..... It all sounds familiar to Beverly Hill, a Democrat and the former elections supervisor in Florida's Alachua County. About 200 voters -- mostly college students -- were unwittingly registered as Republicans there in 2004 by YPM staffers using the same tactic, Hill said."
The San Bernardino County story is several weeks old and extensively reported in local media - and just now making the Local section of the LA Times.
The San Bernardino County story is several weeks old and extensively reported in local media - and just now making the Local section of the LA Times.
Thursday
Tuesday
Freegans and FreeCycling Gain Fans - BusinessWeek
Freegans and FreeCycling Gain Fans - BusinessWeek: "Freecycle now has 6 million members internationally, and since Wall Street imploded it has been registering 50,000 more each week, up from 25,000 previously. Freecycle and the Freegans are among the fastest-growing groups on Yahoo!"
Experiments in Field Drawing on Vimeo The RFID pen maps out the fields surrounding an RFID tag.
RFID ("Ar-fid") chips represent an easy solution to tracking people or things. The chips are embedded in everything: cars, shoes, cell phones and clothing. Useful for retailers tracking inventory, but after the goods are sold the chips remain track-able. Buying chipped merchandise with a credit card links the RFID chip in the merchandise to your identity. RFID readers can be programmed to send an alert whenever your RFID chip is nearby.
Of course, you're a law-abiding citizen so you have no concerns about ubiquitous monitoring and surveillance.
RFID ("Ar-fid") chips represent an easy solution to tracking people or things. The chips are embedded in everything: cars, shoes, cell phones and clothing. Useful for retailers tracking inventory, but after the goods are sold the chips remain track-able. Buying chipped merchandise with a credit card links the RFID chip in the merchandise to your identity. RFID readers can be programmed to send an alert whenever your RFID chip is nearby.
Of course, you're a law-abiding citizen so you have no concerns about ubiquitous monitoring and surveillance.
YouTube - Rev. Arnold Conrad at McCain Rally - Jesus versus Obama?
YouTube - Rev. Arnold Conrad at McCain Rally - Jesus versus Obama? McCain's God is bigger than your God.
Wednesday
Tuesday
Monday
In Fla., Palin Goes for the Rough Stuff as Audience Boos Obama | The Trail | washingtonpost.com
In Fla., Palin Goes for the Rough Stuff as Audience Boos Obama | The Trail | washingtonpost.com: "'Kill him!' proposed one man in the audience."
Sunday
Mad Dog Palin : Rolling Stone
Mad Dog Palin : Rolling Stone "Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.
And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she's a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed Middle American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant-size bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the Sizzlin' Picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else's, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning."
And none of it matters, so long as you remember a few months before Election Day to offer them a two-bit caricature culled from some cutting-room-floor episode of Roseanne as part of your presidential ticket. And if she's a good enough likeness of a loudmouthed Middle American archetype, as Sarah Palin is, John Q. Public will drop his giant-size bag of Doritos in gratitude, wipe the Sizzlin' Picante dust from his lips and rush to the booth to vote for her. Not because it makes sense, or because it has a chance of improving his life or anyone else's, but simply because it appeals to the low-humming narcissism that substitutes for his personality, because the image on TV reminds him of the mean, brainless slob he sees in the mirror every morning."
Tuesday
Sunday
Press TV - US offers pirates $7m bribe for Iran ship entry
Press TV - US offers pirates $7m bribe for Iran ship entry Pirates demand $2 million ransom, US offers $7 million.
Monday
McCain camp criticism rife with errors - Ben Smith - Politico.com
McCain camp criticism rife with errors - Ben Smith - Politico.com: "top campaign aides convened a conference call today to complain of being called “liars.” They pressed the media to scrutinize specific elements of Sen. Barack Obama’s record.
But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy."
But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy."
Sunday
Another Predictable Black Monday
Another Predictable Black Monday: "This situation was allowed to fester for six years after concerns with subprime lending were first raised."
Saturday
Friday
Business & Technology - newsjournalonline.com
Business & Technology - newsjournalonline.com: "Bright House Networks is making speeches from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Palin, as well as some highlights at the Republican National Convention, available on Central Florida News 13 On Demand, channel 313.
'Customers can access 24/7 at their convenience"
'Customers can access 24/7 at their convenience"
The Energy Challenge - Wind Energy Bumps Into Power Grid’s Limits - Series - NYTimes.com: "Transmission lines carrying power away from the Maple Ridge farm, near Lowville, N.Y., have sometimes become so congested that the company’s only choice is to shut down — or pay fees for the privilege of continuing to pump power into the lines.....[J]ust two of the windiest states, North Dakota and South Dakota, could in principle generate half the nation’s electricity from turbines. But the way the national grid is configured, half the country would have to move to the Dakotas in order to use the power."
Tuesday
Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process - NYTimes.com
Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process - NYTimes.com: They chose Palin "to rev up the base and potentially reach out to Clinton supporters" referring to underage pregnancy and Bill.
wcco.com - Marchers Fret As Arrests Cloud Anti-War Message
wcco.com - Marchers Fret As Arrests Cloud Anti-War Message: "confronted by a group of counter-protesters carrying signs like 'Victory Over Terrorism' and 'Stop the 60s Juggernaut,' however, a group of about 15 broke into a spontaneous 'Electric Slide' line dance to Madonna's 'Like A Virgin.'"
Friday
Wonkette: The D.C. Gossip » Blog Archive » Crazy Convention Cartoon Calamity!
Wonkette: The D.C. Gossip » Blog Archive » Crazy Convention Cartoon Calamity!: "Since I don’t even have basic cable, I’ve been following it entirely through editorial cartoons."
CJR: Coming Clean About Casualties
CJR: Coming Clean About Casualties: "the accounts given by officials differ so sharply from those of local eyewitnesses that the coalition’s portrayal of events seems disconnected from reality."
Bikers rally for GOP
YouTube - McCain Exploits Wife for Topless Biker Beauty Pageant August 4, Sturgis, South Dakota
Harley 105th Anniversary Pary August 28, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
GOP Convention September 1, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Good thing Cynthia McCain sells beer
YouTube - McCain Exploits Wife for Topless Biker Beauty Pageant August 4, Sturgis, South Dakota
Harley 105th Anniversary Pary August 28, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
GOP Convention September 1, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Good thing Cynthia McCain sells beer
Thursday
Wednesday
The Associated Press: Arctic sea ice drops to 2nd lowest level on record
The Associated Press: Arctic sea ice drops to 2nd lowest level on record: "We could very well be in that quick slide downward in terms of passing a tipping point,' said senior scientist Mark Serreze at the data center in Boulder, Colo. 'It's tipping now. We're seeing it happen now."
Russia, ignoring U.S., recognizes breakaway Georgian regions - Yahoo! News
Russia, ignoring U.S., recognizes breakaway Georgian regions - Yahoo! News US says, "Hey, we don't care how those South Ossetian's voted."
FDIC may borrow money from Treasury: report - Yahoo! News
FDIC may borrow money from Treasury: report - Yahoo! News: "to see it through an expected wave of bank failures"
Why was Cheney's guy in Georgia before the war? | Countdown to Crawford | Los Angeles Times
Why was Cheney's guy in Georgia before the war? | Countdown to Crawford | Los Angeles Times With Georgia's Saakashvili out of the country, Cheney's national security adviser joined US troops in Georgia laying the groundwork the war for South Ossetia.
cbs4denver.com - Investigators Look Into Possible Plot To Kill Obama If this were four Muslims with a slingshot arrested within 50 miles of John McCain it would be 24/7 coverage on every network and on every major metro front page. But this is four white American Christian terrorists arrested in Denver with guns, walkie talkies and bulletproof vests and you probably haven't heard anything about it because the GOP-connected & GOP-appointed US Attorney says they're no credible threat.
Tuesday
U.S. Intelligence and Iraq WMD
U.S. Intelligence and Iraq WMD: "PR Push for Iraq War Preceded Intelligence Findings"
Monday
Sunday
Golden official grilled for al-Jazeera invite - The Denver Post
Golden official grilled for al-Jazeera invite - The Denver Post: "an Arabic TV network with a reputation"
Thursday
Wednesday
Op-Ed Contributor - Russia Never Wanted a War - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
Op-Ed Contributor - Russia Never Wanted a War - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com: "What is clear is that Western assistance in training Georgian troops and shipping large supplies of arms had been pushing the region toward war rather than peace."
Sunday
Kremlin dusts off Cold War lexicon to make US villain in Georgia - Times Online
Kremlin dusts off Cold War lexicon to make US villain in Georgia - Times Online: "the conflict in South Ossetia was part of a plot by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, to stop Barack Obama being elected president of the United States."
Friday
The Real News Network - Story
The Real News Network - Story: "The last referendum in the region was in November 2006. Ninety-one percent of attendance. Ninety-nine percent, they voted for union with North Ossetia and Russia. And the referendum was totally ignored by Georgia, the US, and in Europe. Once Saakashvili decided to attack South Ossetia last week, he was applying Pentagon tactics. US troops had just finished teaching Georgians how to ethnically cleanse an area. That was part of the so-called, I quote, 'Georgian-US Immediate Response 2008 Military Exercises.'"
Wednesday
Tuesday
CJR: Unhealthy Alliances Between Hospitals and TV Stations
CJR: Unhealthy Alliances Between Hospitals and TV Stations: "a plea to news outlets to stop doing phony journalism"
Thursday
Win Points for McCain! - washingtonpost.com
Win Points for McCain! - washingtonpost.com: "Just cut and paste."
CJR: Dissent Deficit
CJR: Dissent Deficit: "America’s sclerotic political system (the “sensationalist” press included) is too consumed with trivia and sustaining the status quo to respond effectively to a world in which, as he writes, “on every dimension—industrial, financial, educational, social, cultural—the distribution of power is…moving away from American dominance.”"
Tuesday
Annals of National Security: Preparing the Battlefield: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
Annals of National Security: Preparing the Battlefield: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker: "a meeting took place in the Vice-President’s office. “The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington,” he said."
The Rise and Relative Fall of Stupidity in America (Comics)
The Rise and Relative Fall of Stupidity in America (Comics) "Maybe letting stupid people run everything wasn't such a good idea."
POLITICS-US: No Traction in the Middle East
POLITICS-US: No Traction in the Middle East: "The hard-line, confrontational policy the United States has embraced under the Bush administration has inadvertently demonstrated the limits of U.S. power"
Monday
Tuesday
U.S. special forces soldier pleads guilty in stolen weapons case -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
U.S. special forces soldier pleads guilty in stolen weapons case -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com: "Army investigators found 32.5 pounds of C4 explosives, 11 grenades, a full spool of detonator cord, one live rocket-propelled grenade warhead and other firearms and explosives"
Friday
Wednesday
Tuesday
Sunday
President George W Bush backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran - Times Online
President George W Bush backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran - Times Online: "stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready"
Saturday
Regulators Seize Mortgage Lender - NYTimes.com
Regulators Seize Mortgage Lender - NYTimes.com "You haven’t had a lot of failures of that size, yet."
Thursday
Wonkette: The D.C. Gossip » Blog Archive » Anti-Gay Alabama A.G. Caught Being Gay
Wonkette: The D.C. Gossip » Blog Archive » Anti-Gay Alabama A.G. Caught Being Gay: "What are the odds of a dude named Troy King getting caught in bed with a Homecoming King from Troy University?"
Tuesday
Monday
Sunday
The Associated Press: The buck doesn't stop here; it just keeps falling
The Associated Press: The buck doesn't stop here; it just keeps falling: "The almighty dollar is mighty no more. It has been declining steadily for six years against other major currencies"
Saturday
Thursday
Tomgram: Rick Shenkman, American Stupidity
Tomgram: Rick Shenkman, American Stupidity: "we are living in an Age of Ignorance."
Monday
Annals of National Security: Preparing the Battlefield: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
Annals of National Security: Preparing the Battlefield: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker: "members of the Democratic leadership—Congress has been under Democratic control since the 2006 elections—were willing, in secret, to go along with the Administration in expanding covert activities directed at Iran, while the Party’s presumptive candidate for President, Barack Obama, has said that he favors direct talks and diplomacy"
Saturday
Friday
Tuesday
Saturday
Bangladesh is set to disappear under the waves by the end of the century - A special report by Johann Hari - Asia, World - The Independent
Bangladesh is set to disappear under the waves by the end of the century - A special report by Johann Hari - Asia, World - The Independent: "If you really want people in the West to understand the effect they are having here, it's simple. From now on, we need to have a system where for every 10,000 tons of carbon you emit, you have to take a Bangladeshi family to live with you. It is your responsibility."
U.S. Says Israeli Exercise Seemed Directed at Iran - NYTimes.com Oil companies hope Israeli exercise brings $7/gallon gasoline.
How the Russert Test Failed America
How the Russert Test Failed America: "Dick Cheney's press aide testified during the Scooter Libby trial, Russert's show was the place the Bushies loved the most for 'getting their message out.'"
Friday
Rubio: linking drilling to gas prices is 'disingenuous' | Naked Politics
Rubio: linking drilling to gas prices is "disingenuous" | Naked Politics: Florida's Republican House Speaker says, "For anyone to represent that someone drilling off the coast in Florida is going to lower gas prices here or anywhere in this country is disingenuous and a flawed argument."
Sunday
Thursday
Think Again: Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction: Did “ Everyone” Agree?
Think Again: Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction: Did “ Everyone” Agree?: "the claim that “everyone agreed” that the evidence of Iraqi WMD was incontrovertible is simply false"
Wednesday
Monday
Citing History, Bush Suggests His Policies Will One Day Be Vindicated - washingtonpost.com
Citing History, Bush Suggests His Policies Will One Day Be Vindicated - washingtonpost.com: "just two out of 109 historians said Bush would be judged a success; a majority deemed him the 'worst president ever.'"
Friday
Replicating Rapid Prototyper Replicates Replicating Rapid Prototyper | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com
Replicating Rapid Prototyper Replicates Replicating Rapid Prototyper | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com: "You can start counting the minutes now until our planet is submerged in a gray-goo tidal wave of these things"
South Carolina to Offer Cross on Car Plates - NYTimes.com
South Carolina to Offer Cross on Car Plates - NYTimes.com: "The whole issue here is that people are trying to get the state to endorse their religion, and that’s wrong. It’s almost as if there’s insufficient support, and they have to go to the state to get it."
Thursday
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: "the Bush Administration led the nation into war under false pretenses"
Tuesday
Thursday
The Wenatchee World Online - A loud motorcycle does not a patriot make
The Wenatchee World Online - A loud motorcycle does not a patriot make: "the Current Occupant welcomed them with open arms at the White House, put on a black leather vest, and gave a manly speech about how he'd just 'choppered in' and saw the horde 'cranking up their machines' and he thanked them for being so patriotic. They are his kind of guys, full of bluster, giving off noxious fumes, and when they leave town, nobody misses them."
Wednesday
Sunday
Bloomberg.com: Exclusive
Bloomberg.com: Exclusive Google, Chevron Build Mirrors in Desert to Beat Coal With Solar
Friday
Restaurant menu promises buried in calories, fat
Restaurant menu promises buried in calories, fat: Can I get a diet Coke with that?
The 'Long War' fallacy - Los Angeles Times
The "Long War" fallacy - Los Angeles Times Iraq has shown the limits of U.S. power. We must change America, not the world.
Thursday
Tuesday
Monday
Friday
Wednesday
Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause
Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause: "volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed -- and unreported -- this election season"
Tuesday
Saturday
Wonk Room » Right Wing Doctors Audio Clips To Distort Al Gore’s Comments About Cyclone Nargis
Wonk Room » Right Wing Doctors Audio Clips To Distort Al Gore’s Comments About Cyclone Nargis When the Left Wing doctors audio clips it sounds like this: Dick is a Killer (NSFW)
Thursday
Wednesday
Sunday
Friday
DispatchPolitics : Food banks quit payday fight Columbus Dispatch Politics
DispatchPolitics : Food banks quit payday lending fight - after threats from national donor Rent-A-Center
Wednesday
Secret Law Debated in Senate Hearing » Secrecy News
Secret Law Debated in Senate Hearing » Secrecy News: "Secret law excludes the public from the deliberative process, promotes arbitrary and deviant government behavior, and shields official malefactors from accountability"
Microsoft | Microsoft device helps police pluck evidence from cyberscene of crime | Seattle Times Newspaper
Microsoft | Microsoft device helps police pluck evidence from cyberscene of crime | Seattle Times Newspaper: "It can decrypt passwords and analyze a computer's Internet activity, as well as data stored in the computer." But can the thumb drive be easily duplicated?
Tuesday
From Chief Prosecutor To Critic at Guantanamo
From Chief Prosecutor To Critic at Guantanamo: "took the witness stand to declare under oath that he felt undue pressure to hurry cases along so that the Bush administration could claim before political elections that the system was working"
Monday
Sunday
Plant emissions trigger health concerns | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY
Plant emissions trigger health concerns | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY: "exempt from certain air quality rules because it was built before those rules took effect, starting in the 1970s"
Thursday
The Associated Press: Talk of firing Chicago's US attorney cited at Rezko trial
The Associated Press: Talk of firing Chicago's US attorney cited at Rezko trial: "a government witness claims Rezko discussed efforts among top Republicans, including former White House political director Karl Rove and GOP national committeeman Robert Kjellander, to have Fitzgerald fired to derail a corruption probe"
2008 Annual Arab Public Opinion
Poll (PDF file) Key Findings - Iraq: Only 6% of Arabs polled believe that the American surge has wo: worked. A plurality (35% ) do not believe reports that violence has in fact declined. Over 61% believe that if the US were to withdraw from Iraq, Iraqis will find a way to bridge their differences, and only 15% believe the civil war would expand. 81% of Arabs polled (outside Iraq) believe that the Iraqis are worse off than they were before the Iraq war.
Poll (PDF file) Key Findings - Iraq: Only 6% of Arabs polled believe that the American surge has wo: worked. A plurality (35% ) do not believe reports that violence has in fact declined. Over 61% believe that if the US were to withdraw from Iraq, Iraqis will find a way to bridge their differences, and only 15% believe the civil war would expand. 81% of Arabs polled (outside Iraq) believe that the Iraqis are worse off than they were before the Iraq war.
Wednesday
The Good Old Days: The military budget is out of control » FAS Strategic Security Blog
The Good Old Days: The military budget is out of control » FAS Strategic Security Blog: "In the end, we are competing with ourselves."
Tuesday
VA Hid Suicide Risk, Internal E-Mails Show, Follow-Up Reporting On Exclusive Investigation Reveals Officials Hid Numbers - CBS News
VA Hid Suicide Risk, Internal E-Mails Show, Follow-Up Reporting On Exclusive Investigation Reveals Officials Hid Numbers - CBS News: "1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans" says head of mental health for VA.
RIGHTS-US: Vets' Lawsuit Opens Door on Suicides, Poor Care
RIGHTS-US: Vets' Lawsuit Opens Door on Suicides, Poor Care: "18 veterans commit suicide every week"
Monday
Sunday
Wednesday
Sunday
Saturday
DEVELOPMENT: Family Planning Gets Mere Sliver of Aid Pie
DEVELOPMENT: Family Planning Gets Mere Sliver of Aid Pie: "funding for family planning as a percentage of all population assistance has dropped considerably, from 55 percent in 1995 to 7.0 percent in 2005."
POLITICS-US/IRAQ: Stuck!
POLITICS-US/IRAQ: Stuck!: "That neither Petraeus, now commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, nor his civilian counterpart, Washington's ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, was able to offer even the slightest clue as to 'how this ends' in Congressional testimony this week added yet one more layer of irony to a war which has systematically defied every prediction of its architects."
Thursday
Wednesday
Monday
Wednesday
Arphid Watch: Skimming becomes a felony in Washington State | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com
Arphid Watch: Skimming becomes a felony in Washington State | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com: "The stark fact that everybody in Washington State is about to become an automatic electronic identity beacon is rather glossed-over"
Tuesday
J.P. Morgan Raises Its Offer for Bear Stearns - washingtonpost.com
J.P. Morgan Raises Its Offer for Bear Stearns - washingtonpost.com: "In the reworked deal, J.P. Morgan agreed to cover the first $1 billion in losses if the value of those securities falls, with the Fed responsible for any losses beyond that."
"if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
"if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
Thursday
Court Details Opposition to Bias in Jury Selection - New York Times
Court Details Opposition to Bias in Jury Selection - New York Times With two justices dissenting, Scalia and guess who? "What a waste of pubic hair."
Monday
Many voting for Clinton to boost GOP - The Boston Globe
Many voting for Clinton to boost GOP - The Boston Globe: "it will sustain this soap opera, and it's something I think we need."
Thursday
Monday
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Thursday
House Republican Blasts Bush Administration “Stonewalling” » Secrecy News
House Republican Blasts Bush Administration “Stonewalling” » Secrecy News An' it stinks so bad the stones be chokin' 'n weepin' greenish drops...
At the High Court, Damage Control
At the High Court, Damage Control: "Exxon Mobil, the giant oil corporation appearing before the Supreme Court yesterday, had earned a profit of nearly $40 billion in 2006, the largest ever reported by a U.S. company -- but that's not what bothered Roberts. What bothered the chief justice was that Exxon was being ordered to pay $2.5 billion -- roughly three weeks' worth of profits -- for destroying a long swath of the Alaska coastline in the largest oil spill in American history.
'So what can a corporation do to protect itself against punitive-damages awards such as this?' Roberts asked in court.
The lawyer arguing for the Alaska fishermen affected by the spill, Jeffrey Fisher, had an idea. 'Well,' he said, 'it can hire fit and competent people.'
The rare sound of laughter rippled through the august chamber. The chief justice did not look amused."
'So what can a corporation do to protect itself against punitive-damages awards such as this?' Roberts asked in court.
The lawyer arguing for the Alaska fishermen affected by the spill, Jeffrey Fisher, had an idea. 'Well,' he said, 'it can hire fit and competent people.'
The rare sound of laughter rippled through the august chamber. The chief justice did not look amused."
Sunday
Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us | Environment | The Observer: "As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions."
Saturday
Truthdig - Reports - The War Against Tolerance
Truthdig - Reports - The War Against Tolerance: "they offer a window into a worldview that is destroying the United States. It has corrupted the Republican Party. It has colored the news media. It has entered into the everyday clichés we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. It is ignorant and racist"
Thursday
Tuesday
Democracy Now! | Discovery Channel Accused of Political Censorship for Dropping Oscar-Nominated Doc on U.S. Torture
Democracy Now! | Discovery Channel Accused of Political Censorship for Dropping Oscar-Nominated Doc on U.S. Torture: "AMY GOODMAN: But if they still own the rights, can they just not air it for three years and keep you from airing it anywhere else?
ALEX GIBNEY: Yes, they can."
ALEX GIBNEY: Yes, they can."
Monday
Alexander Cockburn: The Terrorists Still at Ground Zero, 7 World Trade Tower, Lower Manhattan
Alexander Cockburn: The Terrorists Still at Ground Zero, 7 World Trade Tower, Lower Manhattan: "US interrogators torture men in secret prisons seeking to catch those members of Al Quaeda still at large, starting with Osama bin Laden and Aiman al-Zwahiri. Yet here's Moody's man calmly threatening to destroy the US government's credit ranking unless it follows his agenda, and he strolls around Lower Manhattan unmolested, even if his threats could add up to the financial equvalent of a thermonuclear device planted under the Statue of Liberty."
Saturday
The Intelligence Community Tells the American Public All About Cyberwar | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com
The Intelligence Community Tells the American Public All About Cyberwar | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com: "An American-owned global Storm-bot network by Christmas"
Friday
Physicians group urges easing of ban on medical marijuana - Los Angeles Times
Physicians group urges easing of ban on medical marijuana - Los Angeles Times: "The American College of Physicians, the nation's largest organization of doctors of internal medicine, with 124,000 members, contends that the long and rancorous debate over marijuana legalization has obscured good science that has demonstrated the benefits and medicinal promise of cannabis."
Monday
Thursday
Safety lapse during bioterror test a wake-up call for labs | ajc.com
Safety lapse during bioterror test a wake-up call for labs | ajc.com: "The test simulated the arrival of samples where a bioterrorism agent is suspected, but not identified. The labs were to conduct tests to identify or rule out various agents. The testing kits included written instructions stating the samples should be handled inside a special safety cabinet and within the protective barriers of a Biosafety Level 3 lab.
Despite these instructions, some lab workers handled the samples in high risk ways, even sniffing open culture plates as they sought clues to what was growing on them"
Despite these instructions, some lab workers handled the samples in high risk ways, even sniffing open culture plates as they sought clues to what was growing on them"
Wednesday
Bush asserts authority to bypass defense act - The Boston Globe
Bush asserts authority to bypass defense act - The Boston Globe: "Bush's frequent use of signing statements to advance aggressive theories of executive power has been a hallmark of his presidency. Previous presidents occasionally used the device, but Bush has challenged more sections of bills than all his predecessors combined - among them, a ban on torture."
Saturday
Bush plan for Iraq would be a first - The Boston Globe
Bush plan for Iraq would be a first - The Boston Globe: "Bush does not intend to submit the deal to Congress"
Why Bush Wants to Legalize the Nuke Trade with Turkey - by Joshua Frank
Why Bush Wants to Legalize the Nuke Trade with Turkey - by Joshua Frank: "As with most stories of this magnitude, the U.S. media has put on blindersAs with most stories of this magnitude, the U.S. media has put on blinders"
Friday
Wolfowitz appointed chairman of arms-control advisory panel - The Boston Globe
Wolfowitz appointed chairman of arms-control advisory panel - The Boston Globe: "The advice given by Paul Wolfowitz over the past six years ranks among the worst provided by any defense official in history"
DefenseNews.com - CBO Report: U.S. War Costs Up in Iraq - 01/23/08 08:48: "Congress has written checks for $691 billion to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and related activities...
All of the Iraq and Afghanistan war money — about $11 billion a month - ...gets added to the U.S. debt. The CBO estimated that just the interest payments on the debt would total $234 billion this year, more than the likely $250 billion budget deficit for the year."
All of the Iraq and Afghanistan war money — about $11 billion a month - ...gets added to the U.S. debt. The CBO estimated that just the interest payments on the debt would total $234 billion this year, more than the likely $250 billion budget deficit for the year."
Thursday
The Complex Crux Of Wireless Warfare: "The Defense Science Board, an advisory body to the secretary of defense,...said...that it 'lacks confidence in current tools for detecting malicious code.'"
U.S. in role of wounded giant at Davos - International Herald Tribune
U.S. in role of wounded giant at Davos - International Herald Tribune: "Several economists said the Federal Reserve seemed to have lost control of events since the subprime crisis erupted last summer. Some criticized its steep cut in interest rates Tuesday as a knee-jerk reaction to calm the markets rather than a sound response to a deteriorating situation."
The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard Got 20 minutes to connect with stuff you already knew intellectually?
Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Daily Kos: State of the Nation: "It's really stretching the imagination try to understand how a new doctrine of pre-emptive nuclear strikes can possibly be part of the War on Terror™. The concept of nuclear deterrence can't apply if your perceived enemy doesn't have nuclear weapons. 'We think they might be making them,' is not the same as a nation having them, and being overtly hostile toward another nation"
Monday
Greenhouse gases at new peak in sign of Asia growth - Yahoo! News UK
Greenhouse gases at new peak in sign of Asia growth - Yahoo! News UK: "The affluent world wants to buy cheap stuff and we buy it...from the inefficient old-fashioned technology that we have got rid of"
Sunday
Saturday
A conversation with Dennis Kucinich | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/04/2008
A conversation with Dennis Kucinich | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/04/2008: "In October of 2002 the Democrats counseled in a telephone conference with our leaders in which we were told that the election of 2006 was about three things: Iraq, Iraq and Iraq. The ads attacking Republicans were replete with references to the war and the Democrats sensed from the polls indicating a shift in public opinion against the war, campaigned against the war, elected House and Senate because of the war, and yet it wasn't one month after that victory was achieved because of the war that the Democrats gathered in a conference and declared that has a party we were going to continue to fund the war."
Friday
Monday
IRAQ: Awoken to a New Danger
IRAQ: Awoken to a New Danger: "'The armed groups called 'Awakening' are now the only powerful players in many Sunni areas in Baghdad, and so they show their power the way others did,' Qussay al-Tai'i, a lawyer from Saydiya town southwest of Baghdad told IPS. 'It seems that violence has become routine procedure for American soldiers, Iraqi security men and now the so-called Awakening fighters.'"
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: What do you no longer believe? What do you now believe?
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: What do you no longer believe? What do you now believe?: "What makes the 2007 sea-ice collapse so unnerving is that it happened too soon. The ensemble averages of our most sophisticated climate model predictions, put forth in the IPCC AR4 report and various other model intercomparison studies, don't predict a downwards lurch of that magnitude for another fifty years"
Sunday
‘Filipino Monkey’ may be behind radio threats, ship drivers say - Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times
‘Filipino Monkey’ may be behind radio threats, ship drivers say - Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times: "Several Navy ship drivers interviewed by Navy Times are raising the possibility that the Monkey, or an imitator, was indeed featured in that video."
Friday
Heart ailments linked to terror worries, UC Irvine researchers find - Los Angeles Times So 9/11 is profitable for the pharmaceutical industry, too - surprise, surprise.
McClatchy Washington Bureau | 01/10/2008 | U.S. counterfeiting charges against N. Korea based on shaky evidence: "'I can't remember if I was laughing or asleep,' said one person."
Tuesday
America's inflated asset prices must fall - Yahoo! News
America's inflated asset prices must fall - Yahoo! News: "A sharp decline in asset prices is necessary to rebalance the US economy. It is the only realistic hope to shift the mix of saving away from asset appreciation back to that supported by income generation. That could entail as much as a 20-30 per cent decline in overall US housing prices and a related deflating of the bubble of cheap and easy credit."
Voting Machines - Elections - Ballots - Politics - New York Times
Voting Machines - Elections - Ballots - Politics - New York Times The NYT Sunday Magazine asks "Can You Count on Voting Machines?" The answer depends on who "you" are.
Monday
Saturday
News Hounds: It Was a Terrible Day on Wall Street but Neil Cavuto Blew it Off
News Hounds: It Was a Terrible Day on Wall Street but Neil Cavuto Blew it Off: "Cavuto spends his days touting the wonders of capitalism, the 'free market,' and the Republican way of doing business, but when those policies begin to collapse the economy, he protects the very people who created the mess because his first allegiance is to them, not to his viewers. Watch Cavuto, he'll lie to you and treat you like an idiot"
US doomed if creationist president elected: scientists - Yahoo! News
US doomed if creationist president elected: scientists - Yahoo! News: "This is a way of leading our country to ruin"
Friday
Dark Reading
Dark Reading The World's Biggest Botnets - What makes three of today's largest botnets tick, what they're after – and a peek at the 'next' Storm
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