Monday

Manufacturing Mayhem in Mexico: From Nixon to NAFTA and Beyond

Hey, anyone still reading this thing?! Since Keith's sworn off FB, the must-read links have to go up here. :)

Manufacturing Mayhem in Mexico: From Nixon to NAFTA and Beyond

Saturday

GM lobby helped draw up crucial report on Britain's food supplies | Environment | The Observer

GM lobby helped draw up crucial report on Britain's food supplies | Environment | The Observer: "The Grocery Manufacturers of America association estimates that 75% of all processed foods in the US contain a G[enetically]M[odified] ingredient."

Thursday

A $95,000 question: why are whites five times richer than blacks in the US? | World news | The Guardian

A $95,000 question: why are whites five times richer than blacks in the US? | World news | The Guardian

Daily Kos: State of the Nation

Daily Kos: State of the Nation: "The hybrid corn seeds Monsanto has donated to Haiti are treated with the fungicide Maxim XO, and the calypso tomato seeds are treated with thiram....The EPA also barred marketing of the chemicals for many home garden products, because it assumes that most gardeners do not have adequately protective clothing.[4] Monsanto’s passing mention of thiram to Ministry of Agriculture officials in an email contained no explanation of the dangers, nor any offer of special clothing or training for those who will be farming with the toxic seeds."

Sunday

Revenger's tragedy: The forgotten conflict in Pakistan - World Politics, World - The Independent

Revenger's tragedy: The forgotten conflict in Pakistan - World Politics, World - The Independent: "a high degree of technical expertise is not necessary since even the most botched and ineffective bomb attack has a powerful political impact so long as it happens in the US"

American manufacturing: A battery maker's struggles illustrate what's wrong and what's possible - latimes.com

American manufacturing: A battery maker's struggles illustrate what's wrong and what's possible - latimes.com
1400 words on the difficulty of manufacturing in the USA, and complete absence of three letters: W.T.O. Should I say W.T.F.?

Sunday

Two versions of the same story.

SUV Runs Over Sunbather On New Smyrna Beach

Orlando woman hit by car on beach

Sunbathing between cars or darting into traffic? An 18 year-old says playing in traffic, but the captain of the beach patrol says she was lying on the sand sunbathing. One version is obviously better for Volusia County's beach driving business. Guess which version is carried by the AP. A prime example of how the news business is like a sausage factory. You really don't want to know what goes on in there.

Sunday

Performing on CNBC (starts @ 1:30), top-ranking Republican Senator Shelby of Alabama says, "We do not ever want to go back to where we were 18 months ago. The American people are against that."

What happened 18 months ago? The Bush Administration Added $4 Trillion To National Debt

Thursday

High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain, researchers find"When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."

Monday

Remember back in September, when pandemic fears were high, the US and other developed countries pledged to supply vaccine to the developing world?

Well, now that we know we have plenty left over, here it comes. Weeks or months after it might have done the most good.

Saturday

Right Wing Eats Itself Over Sean Hannity's Charity - Sean Hannity - Gawker

Right Wing Eats Itself Over Sean Hannity's Charity - Sean Hannity - Gawker: "Freedom Alliance, the Oliver North-backed charity affiliated with the concerts, reported revenue of $10,822,785. But that only $397,900, or 3.68 per cent, went to troops or the children of troops"

Wednesday

More about the Mariposa botnet | Beyond The Beyond

More about the Mariposa botnet | Beyond The Beyond: "Seizing control of millions of computers owned by utter strangers is, what, a team sport in Spain?"

The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform

The New Jim Crow: How the War on Drugs Gave Birth to a Permanent American Undercaste | NORML Blog, Marijuana Law Reform: "Where is the Martin Luther King Jr. of the movement to end the War on Drugs? Why is he or she not responding to the efforts to end the single greatest cause of racial inequality in this nation?"

Informed Comment: Israel Humiliates Biden, Announces Further Colonization on Eve of US-Brokered Talks

Informed Comment: Israel Humiliates Biden, Announces Further Colonization on Eve of US-Brokered Talks: "demonstrating once again that it has not the slightest interest in pursuing a just peace with the Palestinian people or in trading a cessation of its colonization of the Palestinian West Bank for a comprehensive peace with the Arab world."

Tuesday

The Real Climategate: Conservation Groups Align with World's Worst Polluters

The Real Climategate: Conservation Groups Align with World's Worst Polluters

Two New York Officers Charged With Robbing Perfume Warehouse - NYTimes.com

Two New York Officers Charged With Robbing Perfume Warehouse - NYTimes.com: "But things went awry when one of the victims managed to call 911, Mr. Gramiccioni said. When the police arrived, two of the rental trucks were at the scene. Officials traced those to a rental agency and found that Officer LeBlanca had paid $205.79 for one of the trucks with a Visa debit card, which was subscribed and billed to his home in Manhattan, the court papers said. He and Officer Checo had also provided information from their driver’s licenses, the court papers said."

Saturday

So what's in our food (besides HVP and maybe salmonella)? Take a look ... | Booster Shots | Los Angeles Times

So what's in our food (besides HVP and maybe salmonella)? Take a look ... | Booster Shots | Los Angeles Times
Oh yeah, that Chinese drywall: "The coal-ash muck is laden with heavy metals linked to cancer... [but] isn't considered hazardous waste. EPA officials late last year delayed a decision whether to propose reclassifying coal ash as hazardous. Doing so would limit where it could be sent for disposal, possibly increasing the projected $1.2 billion cleanup cost for TVA ratepayers and affecting the ability to recycle the ash into cement and building materials."

Monday

Heads Up: Prayer Warriors and Sarah Palin Are Organizing Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America | News & Politics | AlterNet

Heads Up: Prayer Warriors and Sarah Palin Are Organizing Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America | News & Politics | AlterNet

The Cost of Doing Nothing on Health Care - NYTimes.com

The Cost of Doing Nothing on Health Care - NYTimes.com: "“People think if we do nothing, we will have what we have now,” said Karen Davis, the president of the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit health care research group in New York. “In fact, what we will have is a substantial deterioration in what we have.”"

Saturday

You’re So Vain - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

You’re So Vain - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com: "a crucial dynamic in American political debate: the extent to which public figures are punished for actually knowing what they’re talking about."

Tuesday

Turkey: Archeological Dig Reshaping Human History - Newsweek.com

Turkey: Archeological Dig Reshaping Human History - Newsweek.com: "a vast and beautiful temple complex, a structure so ancient that it may be the very first thing human beings ever built. The site isn't just old, it redefines old: the temple was built 11,500 years ago—a staggering 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid, and more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge first took shape. The ruins are so early that they predate villages, pottery, domesticated animals, and even agriculture—the first embers of civilization. In fact, Schmidt thinks the temple itself, built after the end of the last Ice Age by hunter-gatherers, became that ember—the spark that launched mankind toward farming, urban life, and all that followed."

Exclusive: How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web | Magazine

Exclusive: How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web | Magazine: "the only company whose name is synonymous with the verb search"

Group tries to lift veil on mystery in D.C. | Columbus Dispatch Politics

Group tries to lift veil on mystery in D.C. | Columbus Dispatch Politics "an exclusive residential club for powerful officials may be masquerading as a church."

Wonk Room » Lisa Jackson Announces EPA Will Delay And Weaken Proposed Greenhouse Standards

Wonk Room » Lisa Jackson Announces EPA Will Delay And Weaken Proposed Greenhouse Standards

Sunday

Firedoglake » “Mount Vernon Statement” Erases Equality, Rights

Firedoglake » “Mount Vernon Statement” Erases Equality, Rights: "nothing so clearly reveals the conservatives’ true authoritarian mission better than the omission of the Declaration’s very first self-evident truth: “That all men are created equal.”

"That beautiful phrase does away with the cornerstone of conservative thought, which is that some are born to rule, others to be ruled. Quite conveniently, conservatives place themselves in the former category."

Friday

palingates: Andrea Friedman, actress from "Family Guy" sets the record straight after Sarah Palin's Facebook rant - UPDATE

palingates: Andrea Friedman, actress from "Family Guy" sets the record straight after Sarah Palin's Facebook rant - UPDATE: "My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes."

Wednesday

By way of the arctic | The Columbus Dispatch

By way of the arctic | The Columbus Dispatch: "Global warming has melted so much Arctic ice that a telecommunication group is moving forward with a project that was unthinkable just a few years ago: laying underwater fiber-optic cable between Tokyo and London by way of the Northwest Passage." Making hay while the sun shines.

Much higher tritium levels found at nuclear plant - Boston.com

Much higher tritium levels found at nuclear plant - Boston.com

Tomgram: Frida Berrigan, Pimping Weapons to the World | TomDispatch

Tomgram: Frida Berrigan, Pimping Weapons to the World | TomDispatch: "America’s Global Weapons Monopoly
Don’t Call It “the Global Arms Trade”"

Struggling Over a Rule for Brokers - NYTimes.com

Struggling Over a Rule for Brokers - NYTimes.com Congress shall make no law regulating the separation of fools from money.

Friday

Health insurers take heat for rise in profits - latimes.com

Health insurers take heat for rise in profits - latimes.com: "the five largest health insurance companies racked up combined profits ... up 56% over 2008, [and] covered 2.7 million fewer people than they did the year before.

The report released Thursday also said some of the five insurers cut the proportion of premiums they spent on their customers' medical care, committing relatively more to salaries, administrative expenses and profit."

Thursday

FAIR Blog � Blog Archive � Political Reporters Too Scared of Politics to Cover Politics

FAIR Blog - Blog Archive - Political Reporters Too Scared of Politics to Cover Politics: "Washington political journalists can't tell you what's going on inside the White House because then they would lose access to what's going on inside the White House."

What Caring for Illegal Immigrants Costs - Prescriptions Blog - NYTimes.com

What Caring for Illegal Immigrants Costs - Prescriptions Blog - NYTimes.com: "contrary to popular perception, immigrants actually cost the health care system less per person than do natives of the United States. Nor do illegal immigrants make up a disproportionate share of the costs to public programs like Medicaid"

3 Questions: Steven Spear on Toyota’s troubles

3 Questions: Steven Spear on Toyota’s troubles: "And I think Toyota got in trouble because they just overburdened that capacity — not necessarily the technical capacity, but the capacity to develop people." Scroll down to the comment placing Toyota's current recall(s) into perspective compared to massive recalls by other automakers.

Tuesday

Prosecutors: Bernie Kerik Was a Republican - bernie kerik - Gawker

Prosecutors: Bernie Kerik Was a Republican - bernie kerik - Gawker

Krugman: ‘Dark age of macroeconomics’ is upon us

Krugman: ‘Dark age of macroeconomics’ is upon us: "As Krugman sees it, the economic ideas associated most heavily with the University of Chicago — such as the continuous efficiency of markets and the need to keep government out of the economic arena — have had a broad and baleful influence on economics education."

Tuesday

Classified Outreach to Muslim Women | Secrecy News

Classified Outreach to Muslim Women | Secrecy News

Clare Short: Tony Blair lied and misled parliament in build-up to Iraq war | UK news | guardian.co.uk

Clare Short: Tony Blair lied and misled parliament in build-up to Iraq war | UK news | guardian.co.uk

OIA Air Marshals Accused Of Bigoted Game - News Story - WFTV Orlando

OIA Air Marshals Accused Of Bigoted Game - News Story - WFTV Orlando: "I don't want to get on a plane with a guy who might be more likely to shoot a black guy than a white guy"

How Your Right-Wing Talking Point Sausage Is Made - Politics - Gawker

How Your Right-Wing Talking Point Sausage Is Made - Politics - Gawker: "And the Tea Party people don't like you to mention this (not because it renders their movement illegitimate but because it would turn off the people they are trying to appeal to who really do dislike the Republican party), but they are the well-funded activist arm of the Republican party establishment as it has existed since the Reagan era."

Monday

America Hits the Wall on Fast Food - Food - Gawker

America Hits the Wall on Fast Food - Food - Gawker: "In short, we seem to have reached the point at which America is so saturated with grease and corn syrup that is brain has locked into a holding pattern, unable to be influenced by even the cleverest of clever marketing campaigns. We are, at last, chair-bound zombies—and the very plastic-food companies that pushed us to this point will suffer for it."

First rise in teen pregnancies since 1990 gives agency new mission | The Columbus Dispatch

First rise in teen pregnancies since 1990 gives agency new mission | The Columbus Dispatch: "the pregnancy rate among 15- to 19-year-olds jumped 3 percent from 2005 to 2006." The after effects of abstinence-only sex education.

60 years of waste must go at Delphi casino site | The Columbus Dispatch

60 years of waste must go at Delphi casino site | The Columbus Dispatch: "GM dumped about 1,800 tons of waste sludge in the lagoons each year"

Sunday

Justice Official Clears Bush Lawyers in Torture Memo Probe - Declassified Blog - Newsweek.com

Justice Official Clears Bush Lawyers in Torture Memo Probe - Declassified Blog - Newsweek.com: "But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry."

Thursday

Panopticlick

Panopticlick

Hans Blix | Blair's blind faith in intelligence | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Hans Blix | Blair's blind faith in intelligence | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk "A month before the war, I told Tony Blair it would be absurd if 250,000 troops were to invade Iraq and find no WMD. So it was."

Wednesday

‘All or nothing’

‘All or nothing’: "If you have insurance, the idea that whatever happens to people who are uninsured isn’t going to affect you is a very misleading notion,” Finkelstein explained. “When you increase the share of the population with insurance, you increase the market size for these technologies, and you almost surely increase the pace of development of these technologies in the future."

Monday

Speech Transcription - Dr. Martin Luther King's 1963 WMU Speech Found - Archives - WMU Libraries

Speech Transcription - Dr. Martin Luther King's 1963 WMU Speech Found - Archives - WMU Libraries: "There are certain technical words within every academic discipline that soon become stereotypes and cliches. Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in modern psychology. It is the word 'maladjusted.' This word is the ringing cry to modern child psychology. Certainly, we all want to avoid the maladjusted life. In order to have real adjustment within our personalities, we all want the well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurosis, schizophrenic personalities.

But I say to you, my friends, as I move to my conclusion, there are certain things in our nation and in the world which I am proud to be maladjusted and which I hope all men of good-will will be maladjusted until the good societies realize. I say very honestly that I never intend to become adjusted to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, to self-defeating effects of physical violence."

China rising - The Long Now Blog

China rising - The Long Now Blog "the world will be a different place if China is the country setting the global agenda for everything"