Hump Day

I almost thought u were on permanent vacation.. ;)

Sure glad your not.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

MMRules

your version of "Hump Day" Alice ? ;-)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

MMRules

Morning, MM...yes I suppose it is...

I thought Sam moved to BRR... (hee hee)....

How ya feeling lately...?

The same old,same old..
How about you ? Good I hope..

Oh yeah,How's P doing too ?
I hope he's ok,too.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

MMRules

http://audioporncentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Wanna_Be_Your_Lov...
Prince – Wanna Be Your Lover - (White Girl Lust’s Bump Mix)

and had to hear my dumb father in law say something stupid about how cold it is (as in how can there be global warming)...Ugh...

in anything, MM?

Off to teach older people how to use the online library catalog...I remember the first day I did this class and SJ and tonid helped me with my nerves.. l8r.. xo

http://www.fed-soc.org/debates/

Carrie Severino post resonates with me.

A Conversation with Arundhati Roy
and Noam Chomsky
Moderator: Amy Goodman
Friday, April 2
3:30pm-5:00pm

http://amps-web.amps.ms.mit.edu/public/tcf/2010/2010apr02/

---
I only got around to listening to it about a week ago. (It's an hour and a half.)

Alice, listen (again?) to what Roy says about being a clerk. (I mean, if you wanna... ;) )

It speaks to your point about "uber-informedness," not to refute it nor to support it totally. She is ambivalent as well. (And she's a primary source...)

nice to see you back here more MMR. :)

We have to meet tomorrow morning and divvy up what's left evenly because there are no more whole unassigned binders.

This is not good. Six, six and half weeks of employment would have been a good compromise between having time to get ready to go to school at the end of June and getting paid. Not even five weeks. That's too little.

(I am OK for now, but...)

I have something else I have to do at 1:30 is why.

I'm done bitchin' tho'. :}

Venezuela's president said a Miami judge is likely to issue a warrant for his arrest in a money-laundering case.
BY GERARDO REYES AND CASTO OCANDO
greyes@elnuevoherald.com
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said the U.S. government could be preparing an arrest warrant against him and some of his collaborators in a money-laundering case being processed at a federal court in Miami.

Citing the name of the federal judge overseeing the process, Joan Lenard, and other facts about the case, Chávez warned at a cabinet meeting Thursday night that it shouldn't surprise anyone if she issues a warrant for his arrest......

......In his speech Thursday, Chávez said that the possible revelation of links with his government of the money-laundering network captured in Miami is part of a plan to attack his administration, and said that Lenard is the same judge in the case of five Cubans accused of spying.

``Do not be surprised that an aggression is in the works here against the Venezuelan government to charge me and who knows how many other ministers of trafficking and money laundering instead of the real culprits,'' he said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/22/1645582/chavez-expects-arrest-warr...

BP starts 'top kill' by injecting mud into well
CEO also says 'we have let people down in our defense of the shore'
updated 4 minutes ago

COVINGTON, La. - BP said Wednesday it had begun injecting mud into the blown-out well in the hopes of stopping the Gulf oil disaster, shortly after the Coast Guard gave it a green light and its chief executive issued an apology of sorts.

The oil giant said the operation started at 2 p.m. ET.

Earlier, CEO Tony Hayward said the risky procedure would take a day or two to see if it worked.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37353392

Obama invites Netanyahu to White House meeting

President Barack Obama has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House next week, for an apparent fence-mending visit.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel delivered the invitation in person to Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday, while on a family visit to Israel.

Israeli commentators portrayed the surprise talks as an attempt by Obama to counter criticism by U.S. Jewish leaders and in Congress over what was widely seen as his cold shoulder toward Netanyahu after a public dispute over settlement policy.

Obama will host Netanyahu on Tuesday after the Israeli leader completes a visit to France where he will attend a ceremony welcoming Israel to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and to Canada....

...WARMER LIGHT

Israeli media reports predicted Obama would attempt in the upcoming White House talks to portray his relationship with Netanyahu in a warmer light, ensuring photographs would be taken and possibly holding a news conference with him...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64P1QZ20100526?type=politicsNews

Israel launches air raids on Gaza

Israeli air strikes on Gaza has left more than a dozen people wounded.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201052601055156943....

Mistake Number One: Leaving the Deepwater Horizon crime and so-called "clean-up" to BP's "authority" (Fascist Law).

Mistake Number Two: Handing the Deepwater Horizon crime and so-called "clean-up" to the Military's "authority" (Martial Law).

PLUS: Won't the Pentagon just hire BP as the 'no-bid contractor"? Thereby having us PAY BP for its "work"?

Sheesh.

The Military Industrial Oil Complex will get us coming and going.

....GERMAN BAN "COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE"

A senior U.S. Treasury official said Washington was unhappy with Berlin's "counter-productive" decision to go it alone in banning naked shorting of shares in top financial companies and sovereign euro bonds and related transactions in sovereign credit default swaps.

Geithner has also criticized European Union proposals to regulate hedge funds and private equity, warning that they could discriminate against non-European funds.

Far from yielding to widespread criticism, Berlin proposed on Tuesday extending restrictions on such speculative trades to include all shares, a government source said......
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64I12520100526

Hi Shells,

"it all seems so obvious now"

What is?

again..not to be mis-interpreted...

The facts are that basking in negative-ness can be unhealthy...

I wasn't giving a fucking order, CeeCee...

I wasn't giving a fucking order, CeeCee...

...because we are all ****ed if it doesn't work!

Serpico was on C- span 3 yesterday
Submitted by taozen on Wed, 05/26/2010 - 11:42am.

Alice he was talking to A"whistle Blowers' conference and he was marvelous. He thought to replace the term whistle blower with Lamp Lighter . For a guy who got shot in the face he looks and sounds pretty good. It is good for the cells when one speaks the truth and keeps the lamp of Truth lit at all times. Like the perpetual flame for JFK's Tomb in Arlington.
------ITA, taozen

Lamp Lighter - excellent suggestion by Serpico

I am sorry I missed it.
I hope I can find it on the net or maybe there will be a repeat of the show on C-Span.

I recently saw four of Al Pacino's earlier films and "Serpico" is still hanging around in my mind. Al Pacino was awesome as Serpico, you could feel the frustration and fear he must have experienced on a daily basis. I wonder if the real Serpico was satisfied with this film.

I have never seen him. Has been on TV before?

will not prevent what we see daily..It's obvious (to me) that unless a humongous chunk of humanity fly to DC in a protest (against the LAWS that prevent such protests)..we will not see real change...I give two shits about pragmatic, what is-ness when it comes to 'this stuff'..however since humanity in the US has been successfully divided and conquered, (by design), there is no coming together for the people..

So I guess what I mean by it's obvious that "this" dissatisfaction with the way the govt runs, etc etc is not something that appears to be ending or even subsiding in our lifetimes...

You know those times when you feel like one more straw is going to make you vomit...?

I'm opening the floor to the idea that negativity is not the best medicine...the studies vs. what we pour into ourselves each day...that's all..

I didn't see it..., bridge....

Why did yo9u come back here after being gone? I'm just curious...I LOVE you here ..and am wondering how your timing was so precise...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/nyregion/24serpico.html

On C-Span he finished with Some Saroyan lines from a play he had been in.

http://kirjasto.sci.fi/saroyan.htm

The facts are that basking in negative-ness can be unhealthy...
----

That is so true. I am right now on a self-imposed vacation from TV news. Its the fourth time I am doing that.

I also stayed away from the net for ca. 18 months after the primaries.

I am not exactly "basking" in negativeness, but just observing history in the making was making me physically sick ... Mr. bridge always worries about me and always suggests a break from it all when I get too upset.

The fact that we haven't got 'habeas corpus" back is the number one worry for me aside from the wars. Then I get upset that so many people in the country don't even care.

Def. must have another Velvet, soon. Cats are the best meds ;-)

about the precise time

I think I know what you are talking about and I bet you are not the only one to wonder about that. C'est la vie.

But Huge coincidence. I was wondering, too, after a few days back what had happened to the blog but then that question was answered soon because others wondered, too.

Why did I come back at that exact moment? Maybe there was a reason. One thing was talking to you about cats. I missed that a lot. That I know.

You asked a qs? I'll check. Can you let me know where it is? That other thread is a long one.

And I couldn't help observing, as I stepped outside
new
Submitted by gloryoski on Wed, 05/26/2010 - 5:41am.
to take out the trash (sorry nora) which I just realized it isn't even trash day but I took it all the way down to the curb anyhow b/c my brain is swiss cheese (I stole that).

Anyway, I couldn't help noticing in the process that it was a full moon, or very near.

Gotta go take that trash can back up from the curb before I get a ticket or something. After all, I'm not the Vatican. Or a tenured professor of any kind.

=======================

Full Moon?

Hurricane season is upon us next week,......

....we might have a 250-mile wide spinning oil slick in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico for days or weeks after a hurricane.

This could potentially have a significant warming effect on the Gulf waters, since the oil is dark and will absorb sunlight, and the oil will prevent evaporation from cooling the waters underneath it.

Since Loop Current eddies contain a large amount of very warm water that extend to great depth, they often act as high-octane fuel for hurricanes that pass over. The rapid intensification of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were both aided by the passage of those storms over Loop Current eddies.

Thus the warming of the Loop Current Eddy by oil pulled into it by a passing hurricane or tropical storm could lead to explosive intensification of the next hurricane that passes over the eddy...
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1492

I am making a printout of both articles, taozen. Thank you so much.

I also think Serpico looks v. good. I am v. glad about that. That particular scene in the film when he gets shot in the face was incredible. Then he had to leave the country. What a life he has had. So much courage.

Looking forward to reading the articles on my lunch break now.

I just wanted to raise the issue...see what you all think...

Roy repost, I presume?

He's been taking a break. It started before the full moon though. At least the current one. :)

Who knows, he could have popped up whilst I was in the middle of writing this. Or he may do soon. Or not.

That's the latest info I got.

I want to find out if Central American and South American and Caribbean countries are concerned. We get alot of U.S. coastal concern in the news, but what about other nations? Cee-Cee and Gloryoski -- what is the Spanish media saying?

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/26-0

[excerpt]

Also on Tuesday, US officials expanded a fishing ban in the Gulf of Mexico by more than 20,000 square kilometres amid the spreading oil slick.

Some 140,000 square kilometres of water - an area slightly smaller than the size of Greece - are now closed to fishing, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, but added that 77 per cent of the Gulf remains open.

[end excerpt]

dead on. More the uber-informed without a response part than the negativity part.

But I suspect Naomi Klein would say hopelessness/negativity without proactive action would be evidence of inadequate shock protection.

It's like that thing that Levine guy wrote "Are Americans a Broken People?" and then David S actually wrote a response.

Google them if you want them. Can't get links myself now. Sposed to be working,but this was interesting.

Going out soon...

and Miss Anne..but she won't come back...

This one:

-But its not too late-
Submitted by Alice on Tue, 05/25/2010 - 10:35pm.

For what, bridge?

The search for the City of David may offer tourists a reminder of Jerusalem's ancient past. But for the Palestinians whose homes are threatened by the excavations, archaeology is merely the latest weapon being used against them

...In Silwan and Jerusalem, the conflation between settler rightwing ideology, government policy, big money, real estate interests and bad taste produces its unique blend of kitsch and nightmare. Under cover of excavation, massive infrastructure work is done in Wadi Helweh in preparation for the construction of a 115,000 sq m commercial centre, without a town plan scheme and without permits. The work stops only when it comes up against the foundations of Palestinian homes.

"The streets cave in," says one of the men. "You see that darker stretch of tarmac? We had to patch up the road. And the school: the floor of the classroom collapsed under the girls. Fourteen girls fell 2m into the tunnel they'd dug below the school. And we had to hush it up because they would have said the school was unsafe and closed it down." The Israeli military barricade continues to block Silwan's high street.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/26/jerusalem-city-of-david-pale...

when it was posted..She took a lot of time on that talk..didn't seem like that was her allotted time..not that that is all I got out of it...I would have to go re-listen to rehear the part you are speaking of...

Obama sez there will be no rest until environmental is "repaired".

I think words like that are just echoes of Corporate P.R. Myth that these situations are reversible and are like a flat tire or something mechanical that can be 'fixed'.

In the past, Obama has been good at using rhetoric to promote myth -- like that "change" thang of his.

But here's a president who promotes Coal (coal ash disaster), Nuclear (radioactive water contamination in New Jersey aquifer), and Oil (BP/Halliburton/TransOcean Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe) and budgets a highly disproportionate amounts of taxdollars to the Disaster Energies and snubs Green Alternatives. He does not instill confidence.

Add to that Obama's repeating the Corporatist meme "the environment can be 'repaired'" -- erroneously MECHANISTIC view of biology, isn't it??? -- and what is to 'trust' here?

I think Obama is out of his element now. He could slide along get away with this rhetoric stuff in those lousy, awful, predictably self-serving campaign jingle-filled elections. BUT THIS IS A PLANETARY EMERGENCY and Obama is still with The Pose and Rhetoric.

Pathetic.

Can that be separated from water in Kevin Costner's centifugal force separator/pumper? That rust brown goo looks different than oil now, I think. I'm afraid Costner's test will fail now with this dispersant-tainted water+crude mix as the pollution problem. I hope I'm wrong.

We must hold BP responsible for not only poisoning the Sea with crude but also for poisoning the Sea with dispersant!

Carville says that in an emergency like this, Obama could have GAINED 7% in his approval rating IF he had handled this BP Gulf Disaster correctly.

Randi is covering this, and agreeing with Carville.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/26/james-carville-to-obama-o_n_590...

prose (or even clerk--i.e, details, details) phase of resistance versus the poetry phase.

People keep telling me really complicated stuff on the phone that I have to pencil into little scan-able boxes...so I'm still here...

...BP, Shell and other conglomerates and oil multinationals have engaged in these egregious disregard for human lives and pristine environments, in their hurry to make profits. And many nations such as Ecuador and Nigeria have dealt with this for decades and decades and were ignored by all, but now, because this current BP disaster and catastrophe occurred on American waters, BP and other oil companies are in trepidations and are gyrating speedily and rapidly, to avoid soiled sullied public image in America, and avoid a corporate black eye and bruises from the Gulf of Mexico disaster. But why? These same oil companies have for decades foisted pollution and deaths on the peoples of Nigeria, Ecuador and other nations without remorse or regret and remedial actions! So why now? Why the difference in attitudes and actions? It is good thing that this massive spill, this disaster and catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is actually a blessing and a wonderfully good thing in disguise, because, from now on, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will become a point of reference or benchmark for oil spills and remediation or remedial actions

It has to be assumed as well, that from now on, conversations about death and destruction caused by oil companies, are no longer seen as merely collateral damage in hydro carbons searches and as such, merely ancillaries and extraneous matters which should not bother Americans.

This is precisely what Niger Delta in Nigeria have experienced for fifty years and the world ignored it and considered it collateral damage, an ancillary and extraneous matter in the search for hydrocarbons to power the engines of the world's economies. But now, the world knows, the chickens have come home to roost! American Oil Spills In Gulf of Mexico and Lessons for Nigerians and Ecuadorians

It should also interest Nigerians and Ecuadorians how American Oyster-men, fishermen, Shrimper, environmentalists, college professors scientists, community groups, block clubs in the Gulf states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have organized themselves without government help or involvements to hold BP to account. BP has been sued and under threats of more law suits and sundry litigation for spewing 4 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Nigerians and Ecuadorians should also note the clear difference in the behavior on the part of the BP and other oil companies, in how voluntarily, remediation, and preemptory actions and compensations have been undertaken, not at the behest of governments, but, voluntarily, and in self-serving public relations offensive in efforts by BP to launder its public image amidst this elephantine catastrophe. Voluntarily is the key word and key phrase

BP already gave $100 million dollars to four states voluntarily, now, it just added $70 million, again, voluntarily! That is a total of $170 million dollars in less than one month, and this amount does not include direct payments to locals engaged by BP to deploy booms to mop up plumes of spewing crude oil which is now floating, drifting and sipping into sea current in the Gulf Coast and to Florida Keys and perhaps onward with these gluts, clumps and loops of oil on ocean waves and ocean current onward to the East Coast seas and the Atlantic Ocean
Continue reading here:
http://www.examiner.com/x-40634-Bergen-County-Independent-Examiner~y2010...
__________________________________

Paul I. Adujie is a Nigerian who lives in New York City in the United States. He is Lawyer, Writer, Pubic Policy Analyst, News & Current Affairs Commentator, Essayist, Radio Show Host etc He considers himself a global or universal citizen. He is passionate about public policy formulations and implementations. Public Policies have great consequences and far reaching ramifications. A good public policy is a great opportunity to have meaningful impact of the lives of multitudes of people. A meticulously crafted and vigorously implemented public policy is how human lives are improved through the creation of health, wealth and happiness for all. Good public policy is such which creates sustainable development, progress and advancement. Enhancing lives requires thorough implementation of public policies. Public policies are crucial for public good or common good .

http://blacklistednews.com/news-8900-0-10-10--.html

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2010-05-26-willie-nelson-hair_N.htm

I was hoping it was to help suck up some oil but I think it was a maintenance issue.

From Greece to Spain

The Eurozone's Self-Inflicted Crisis

By MARK WEISBROT

The current turmoil in financial markets around the world is another illustration of the damage that can be done by a bloated and politically powerful financial sector, combined with finance ministers and central bankers who identify with this sector and have their own right-wing policy agenda.

Welcome to Europe, which has become the epicenter of the new global “financial crisis.”

On Tuesday, the focus of Europe’s troubles shifted somewhat from Greece to Spain.

At first glance it’s not obvious that there should be a crisis in Europe at all. Even if Greece were to default on its debt – and this would most likely be a rescheduling or a restructuring rather than a large-scale cancellation of the bulk of Greece’s debt – this would involve a relatively small amount of money compared to the resources that the EU has available to bail out any affected banks. And Spain’s debt is much smaller, relative to its economy, than that of Greece: it’s about 60 percent of GDP, well below the EU average of 80 percent.

But “the markets” have decided that Spain is next in line for attack, and so the price of Credit Default Swaps – a type of insurance -- on their debt shot up today. If this sentiment grows, Spain’s interest rates will continue to rise, and then their debt burden really could become unsustainable.

To make it worse, “the markets” can’t seem to decide what they want from these governments in order to love them again. Two weeks ago the Euro was plummeting because the financial markets wanted more blood: they wanted Greece, Spain, Portugal, and the other currently victimized countries of Europe (Italy and Ireland) to commit to more spending cuts and tax increases. Then they got what they wanted, and within a day or two, the Euro started crashing again because “the markets” discovered that these pro-cyclical policies would actually make things worse in the countries that adopted them, and reduce growth in the whole Eurozone...
http://www.counterpunch.org/weisbrot05262010.html

"...Not surprisingly, the US ranks as one of the most expensive locations for spill cleanup responses. The high spiller liability, cleanup standards and labor costs of the
US contribute to the higher cleanup response costs. Spills in Asia are also relatively expensive. Much of this has to do with the need for high “how clean is clean” standards necessitated by the vast aquaculture in the region.

The spill costs in Table 9 are based on relatively small numbers of spills in some of the nations and regions. Cost data is not widely available in all regions and therefore, cost estimations have to be extrapolated from the limited historical data that is available. In general, spills in more highly developed nations with high labor costs, complex regulations for spill response, and high standards for environmental protection rank as the most expensive.
http://www.environmental-research.com/erc_papers/ERC_paper_2.pdf

...why we are the target of both corporations and terrorists.

May 25, 2010

Something's Gotta Give

By LAURA FLANDERS

At the very time when the social safety net is most needed, investors the world over are calling it a drag on the world economy.

Here in the U.S., wages are stuck, income is down, unemployment remains around 10 percent, with almost half of those out of work for six months, consumption trends are flat, and Main Street is hurting.

In Europe, where the safety net is a proud tradition, cries for cuts are even louder. "The current system," wrote the New York Times of Europe over the weekend, "is unsustainable."

According to the European Commission, in the 1950s there were seven workers for every retiree in advanced economies. By 2050, Europe's ratio will flip, with less workers supporting more pensioners.

With the retirement of the baby boomers, the number of pensioners will rise 47 percent in France between now and 2050. The French state pension system today is running a deficit of 11 billion euros.

French state pensions, Social Security in the U.S.--investors are pushing hard to cut these programs, unwilling to entertain higher taxes.

But people who sound alarms about fiscal demise rarely point out that stagnant wages leave little room for enhanced savings and putting a lid on retirement income -- here and in Europe -- drives down consumption. There are alternatives but low consumption means low growth.

Something's gotta give.

Laura Flanders is the host of GRITtv, which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV on cable, public television and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Follow GRITtv or GritLaura on Twitter.com.

Do they even have an inkling of how ARROGANT THEY ARE sitting on their Golden Thrones covered in JEWELS and telling their SUBJECTS to cut back on the food in their little larders and eat less fish'n'chips? Probably NOT.

Check out the accompanying photos!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j_DwMpJT86mFoYc_ow6D6s...

Mexico's concern about BP spill reaching Mexico's waters and coast...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-mexico...

[excerpt]

Environment Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada said his staff was looking into legal recourses against BP, which is responsible for the 210,000-gallon daily flow into the Gulf.

Some industry veterans find a bit of irony in Quesada's concern, as PEMEX is responsible for the biggest offshore blowout in history, when its Ixtoc I well blew out in 1979 in the Bay of Campeche, 600 miles south of Texas, and leaked at a rate of more than 420,000 to 1.2 million gallons a day for nearly 10 months. Oil from that spill reached Texas beaches, causing an estimated $4-million loss in tourism revenue, according to an Interior Department Study. Several U.S. lawsuits were filed against PEMEX and a privately held Mexican company.

[end excerpt]

There's is no doubt in my mind that BP is using the Gulf as it's very own DUMP for the DISPOSAL of this OUTDATED TOXIC "dispersant".

Cousteau says it's a "nightmare".

Cousteau's dive into the oil:

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1076665/pg1

Cousteau's blog:

http://www.earthecho.org/blog/?p=619

This is astounding. (KAREL covering this now on KKGN.)

a/ The live video feed looks like it is on a smaller leak of the multiple leaks at the BP Deepwater Horizon site (major leak possibly 7 miles to the East!)

b/ All this time a tanker with a 'vacuum' could have been directly sucking up most of these 7 million gallons so far dumped in the Gulf

http://racetoinfinity.blogspot.com/2010/05/two-oil-drilling-experts-illu...

"...not one truth from BP or the Coast Guard..."

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4212226/parish-president-lashes-out-over-...

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/news/companies/monsanto_patent.fortune/i...

Jamaica bleeds for our 'war on drugs'

The chaos in Kingston is symptomatic of the failure of US-led cocaine prohibition. This tragic violence must force a rethink

A wounded man being carried to hospital in Kingston, Jamaica, on 23 May 2010, after an attempt to arrest and extradite drug trafficker Christopher 'Dudus' Coke led to armed clashes. Photograph: Mark Brown/EPA

The tragedy unfolding in Jamaica is symptomatic of a wider crisis of organised crime, armed violence and political corruption caused by a failed "war on drugs". The tangled political and economic roots of the problem run very deep.

Caribbean nations were born from the violence of chattel slavery and rebellion, colonial domination and the struggle for liberation and self-determination. The postcolonial flight of capital and structural readjustment have been compounded by the end of transatlantic trade agreements that have led to the collapse of the region's agricultural economic base. High levels of unemployment and extreme marginality have been the result for many communities.

By accident of geography, the Caribbean islands sit uncomfortably between the Andean coca producers and the cocaine consumers of North America and Europe. Although the Caribbean routes account for only a small proportion of the cocaine traffic (estimated by the UN to be worth as much as $125bn), the islands' physical location, unprotectable coastlines and transport links to the metropolitan centres of North America and Europe make them an ideal jumping-off point for the traffickers.

The "war on drugs" was supposed to destroy coca production, stifle trafficking and eliminate cocaine use in the US and beyond. It has achieved none of these things. Instead, supply and demand are resilient, and so the "harsh medicine" of drug prohibition has created a lucrative clandestine market with entirely predictable iatrogenic side-effects of political corruption and armed violence. The collateral damage is all too evident across the region – most obviously in Jamaica, but also in Trinidad, Guyana and many other places on the Caribbean rim that have seen gunshot murders escalate to levels equivalent to a bloody civil war.

Jamaica's problems are particularly acute. Political violence can be traced back to the 1940s at least, and escalated at key moments throughout the 20th century, most notably during the 1980 election when guns were funnelled into the island from the US – allegedly by the CIA – to arm the leaders of the "garrison communities".

In the poorest Kingston constituencies, the two main political parties – the Jamaica Labour party and the People's National Party – continue to vie for power, with more than 90% of voters turning out for one or other of the parties. Local politicians and the "dons" exert control but also inspire loyalty among their constituents. In the past, the dons worked as enforcers for the politicians, but they have now accumulated an independent economic power base from drug- and gun-running, protection rackets and corrupt government contracts.

The attempt to extradite Christopher "Dudus" Coke to the US to face trafficking charges has turned from farce to tragedy...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/26/jamaica-k...

Kingston residents trapped inside homes as Jamaican death toll rises

Police hold 500 after raid in search of 'Dudus' Coke, but soldiers order journalists away at gunpoint
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/26/kingston-jamaica-dudus-coke

Alyeska oil spill may close pipeline until Friday
North Slope oil producers are being asked to slow production even more as pipeline officials figure out how clean up a big oil spill that shut down the trans-Alaska pipeline Tuesday.

By telling oil producers that they need to deliver even less oil, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which runs the pipeline and the pump station where the spill happened, is buying itself until Friday noon to get the pipeline running again, said company spokeswoman Michelle Egan.

...Responders are taking a cautious approach to cleaning up the estimated several thousand of barrels of crude oil that spilled into a containment area at Pump Station 9 near Delta Junction, Egan said. A spill of that size -- totaling more than 100,000 gallons -- is one of the largest ever for the 33-year-old pipeline. The pump station is about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks....
http://www.adn.com/2010/05/26/1295235/responders-move-slowly-on-alaska.h...

Neocon 'free market' still alive in Iraq evidently...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/baghdads-fragile-pea...

By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Masked gunmen killed 15 people in an armed robbery on a gold jewellery market in Baghdad yesterday, reinforcing a sense of unease that the improvement in security over the last couple of years might be reversed.

Witnesses said there were between 15 and 20 attackers in five or six cars. They were heavily armed, carrying rocket propelled grenades, machine guns and pistols.

The gang arrived in the south-western district of Baiyaa at 11.20am, wearing Arab head-dresses wrapped round their faces. Their targets were 12 gold shops in two buildings at the end of a busy market street.

Opening fire, the robbers killed nine goldsmiths and two bystanders before breaking open glass cases in which gold jewellery was on display. The attackers also let off a bomb which killed four people.

Eyewitnesses said that no policemen turned up for 15 minutes and when one did arrive, he was shot in the leg and shoulder. The security forces are only said to have arrived after half an hour.

[end excerpt]

NOT the DOJ but rather it is THE SOLICITOR GENERAL Kagan making the case for the Vatican...:

Obama Adm. xxx sides with Vatican on pedophile case
Submitted by nora on Wed, 05/26/2010 - 4:11am.
Argues that Vatican is a sovereign nation...

http://christianchildabuse.blogspot.com/2010/05/administration-sides-wit...

[excerpt]

Monday, May 24, 2010
Obama administration sides with Vatican in Oregon case

Obama administration sides with Vatican in Oregon case
by John L Allen Jr on May. 24, 2010 NCR Today

In a strongly worded brief for the United States Supreme Court, the Obama administration has sided with the Vatican in an Oregon lawsuit that names the Holy See as a defendant for its role in the sexual abuse crisis.

In effect, the brief asserts that the standards for an exception to the immunity that foreign governments enjoy under American law have not been met in the Oregon case.

Filed on Friday, the brief stops short of recommending that the Supreme Court directly take up the case of Doe v. Holy See, originally filed in federal district court in Oregon in 2002. Instead, it suggests that the Supreme Court set aside the 2009 ruling of an appeals court that allowed the case to go forward, sending it back for further consideration.

Experts say this is the first time the United States government has officially expressed an opinion about efforts to sue the Vatican in American courts, as opposed to the pope personally. In 2005, the U.S. State Department recommended dismissing Pope Benedict XVI from a Texas lawsuit over the sexual abuse crisis, on the basis of a separate personal guarantee of immunity enjoyed by heads of state. The judge in that case complied.

Friday’s brief was filed by the Acting Solicitor General of the United States, the top deputy to Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagan, as well as by officials from the Attorney General’s office and the State Department.

The brief asserts that the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit made a mistake in ruling that a district court in Oregon has jurisdiction over the claim that the Vatican is liable for sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests.

...[more at link, lots more]

BP would like it to be limited to three billion. Did BP's P.R. flacks float this number out there?

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/30/news/economy/bp_gulf_oil_spill_cost/inde...

==================

AND--

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) -- S.3305 Big Oil Bailout Prevention Liability Act of 2010 to require all polluters to pay the full cost of oil spills

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s3305/show

BUT, BP still has its good friends in the Senate:

Announced today, the Murkowski-Vitter bill to waive the $75 million liability--

http://www.actionnews17.com/News/OilSpillCoastinCrisis/tabid/83/articleT...

[excerpt]

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. David Vitter yesterday introduced legislation with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski that would waive the $75 million cap on BP's liability for economic damages from the Gulf oil spill and expedite the claims process for the Deepwater Horizon incident.

“We need to deal with the current spill first before we begin the debate on how to address future oil spills,” said Vitter. “As heavy oil continues to impact our beaches and marsh in Louisiana, we need to solve this current ongoing problem and provide more immediate relief to Louisianians affected in the Gulf.

Vitter’s bill accepts BP's official communications and congressional testimonies offering to pay all "legitimate" claims far beyond the $75 million cap into the law as a contract offer and finalizes that agreement in law. Vitter tried to pass the measure by unanimous consent on the U.S. Senate floor, but the legislation was blocked by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)

[end excerpt]

[Heard on a news spot: Under Murkowski's bill, BP would only have to pay for the first five days of a spill and the Feds would pick up the rest of the cost....]

All you guys watching some live feed?

For comments on the live feed from people with some understanding of what they are looking at(?)....

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6511#more

Btw...morning everyone...
Submitted by gloryoski on Wed, 05/26/2010 - 12:04pm.

nice to see you back here more MMR. :)

*******

:)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

MMRules

I am reading everything and it is hard to comment. .I guess it is time to look at the chaos on the planet and accept the fact that the bad guys are zombies and the manual has specific instructions on how to kill zombies.but the manual is out of print . I went to the Zulu Shaman and he asked for Joint I was not amused. really even the Dali Lama was without much insight as to the solution of our present condition. I am glad your eating your wheaties and pulling so much weight with no clydesdales to help.

Ghettodefender I am still reeling from the report that Israel was in negotiations to sell nukes to South Africa in 75. and the president is warming up to The Netanhayu wing of the Israeli government.
I think it is going to be a long hot summer.

MMRules ! good morning EST

I remember an interview with Chalmers Johnson on cspan and he recommended formulating your own EXIT STRAGEGY. He said (paraphrasing), "Hey I'm 75 now. We're no spring chickens! So we're looking at Vancouver across the bay! Haha!"
Yes he chuckled when asked about HIS Exit Strategy.
(NOTE: this interview was on c-span2, perhaps a Book-TV special; there was another gentleman also being interviewed. I cannot find it. If you do please post on the Sunday BTV. thx.)

I digress.

Methinks me exit strategy will NOT include any Caribbean locations.

How long before the underwater oil gusher(s) are stopped?
Methinks this latest "junk shot" will fail (hey some "expert" on teevee gave it a 50-50 chance!)
How many Valdezes have been released so far? 10? 30? 50? More?
How long does it take a "message in a bottle" to travel the Gulf Stream? (red line subtropical recirculation, above) See Just how big is that gusher in the Gulf of Mexico? ar www.pesn.com

Here's a thought: All that subterranean oil and gas being released now is relieving pressure from the "pocket" it has been in for millions of years. As the oil and gas escape, the entire "pocket" is no longer providing its equilibrium pressure on the ocean floor above anymore (as it has been for millions of years). When a pressure equilibrium does not exist, one side of the pressure divide will seek to restore the equilibrium by PUSHING into the zone of LESS PRESSURE. Blowing Politicians (BP) is not telling us how big this exposed "pocket" is or how much potential "energy" it contains (their VIPs were having a party there right before it blew up) nor this "pocket's" geographical size (aka how big IS this "find"). It's also been floated that Bogus Practitioners (BP) were drilling the seafloor WAY PAST their MMS-"mandated" permit some 18,000+(?) feet BELOW the sea floor a mile down already. SO, what will happen when the sea floor exerts its pressure (from gravity) on this "pocket"? Cracks in the sea floor releasing MORE gas and oil?? Earthquakes? Tsunamis? Now this re-establishment of pressure equilibrium may take months, years, decades or even centuries. But the earth will keep rotating and gravity will exist on the mantle for millennia and the pressure equilibrium WILL HAPPEN, perhaps not all at once but maybe in small, incremental steps that still may create devastating effects.

WHAT'S IN YER EXIT STRATEGY? ARRR
So, how about Kiwi?

Now I am an angry redneck.
and I cant get those Thai spices or Jamacian hot peppers it is time to get Greeky.

(Reuters) - The Obama administration plans to announce on Thursday a suspension of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic until 2011 as a result of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, an Alaska senator said

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64Q0WP20100527?feedType=RSS&feedNa...

Democratic Senator Mark Begich said he had been told by the Interior Department that the Obama administration will announce that consideration of any applications for exploratory drilling in the Arctic is suspended until 2011 etc...

Amnesty International complained in its annual report released Thursday that the U.S. and members of the European Union had obstructed international justice by using their positions on the UN Security Council to shield Israel from accountability for war crimes allegedly committed during last year's Gaza war.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/amnesty-u-s-and-europe-shi...

With reference to Sam's opening remarks:
Janeane cracked us all up at Comix; so did Marc, who opened for her.
Really. We were slapping our (own) knees with open palms and slamming our (own) foreheads on the tables. Almost busted (our own) guts. We shoulda had those spandexy things Janeane brought into the conversation - something like the US naughty version of the Brits' slaps and tickles.

Sounds like a tornado or something heading into New Haven - Who can be serious? Ha.
And then the oil soon to head up to us on the Gulf Stream. Ha.

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's new national security doctrine on Thursday is expected to enshrine his break with the go-it-alone Bush era, instead promising more diplomacy abroad and economic discipline at home to bolster America's standing in the world.

The White House is poised to roll out Obama's first official declaration of national security priorities, a list all but certain to pointedly omit predecessor George W. Bush's policy of pre-emptive war that alienated some U.S. allies.

Laying out a vision for keeping America safe as it fights wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the document is meant to formalize Obama's intent to rely as much on diplomatic engagement as military power to shape the world order.

As Obama grapples with a struggling economy and record deficits, there is also growing recognition that U.S. national security also depends on regaining economic health, putting its fiscal house in order and reducing dependence on foreign oil.

But it is not clear whether Obama's strategists will go as far as admitting what has become an emerging consensus in foreign policy circles -- that heavy U.S. indebtedness to countries like China now poses a national security problem.
more
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64P62320100527?type=politicsNews

When a pressure equilibrium does not exist, one side of the pressure divide will seek to restore the equilibrium by PUSHING into the zone of LESS PRESSURE.

Here's an example of PRESSURE in AIR

Some years ago a funnel cloud passed over a parking lot not too far from here. It didn't touch down, but it made a heckuva wind. A bit of math/physics.

HIGH VELOCITY = LOW PRESSURE
LOW VELOCITY = HIGH PRESSURE

This axiom is why wings work and airplanes can fly.

IN THE PARKING LOT when the funnel cloud passed over with very high speed (upwards 70 mph) ALL the cars' windows blew OUT (inside the car low velocity 0 mph i.e. HIGH pressure). The equilibrium was so exaggerated the windows HAD TO blow OUT.

Just sayin'....

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/26/94884/bp-could-be-held-criminally-...

Norman Goldman sez the legal process -- aggravated by the absence of data that BP won't collect or share or save -- will take decades.

We need trees/forests to sequester CO2 and more.

This is a great piece on natural trees/forests--

http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2010/05/deforestation-combat-climate-c...

----------------

P.S. Monoculture in tree farming and with GMO trees actually requires maintenance, high water use, and so, are energy intensive. Natural forests which can replicate themselves are the best choice.

http://www.propublica.org/ion/blog/item/more-reports-of-illness-emerge-a...

What is the greenhouse gases load being generated by BP's reckless operation and fraud (hiding the oil with more toxic dispersant)?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/science/earth/25climate.html?hp

[excerpt]

“Legitimacy has shifted to the side of the climate skeptics, and that is a big, big problem,” Ben Stewart, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said at the meeting of environmentalists here. “This is happening in the context of overwhelming scientific agreement that climate change is real and a threat. But the poll figures are going through the floor.”

The lack of fervor about climate change is also true of the United States, where action on climate and emissions reduction is still very much a work in progress, and concern about global warming was never as strong as in Europe. A March Gallup poll found that 48 percent of Americans believed that the seriousness of global warming was “generally exaggerated,” up from 41 percent a year ago.

Here in Britain, the change has been driven by the news media’s intensive coverage of a series of climate science controversies unearthed and highlighted by skeptics since November. These include the unauthorized release of e-mail messages from prominent British climate scientists at the University of East Anglia that skeptics cited as evidence that researchers were overstating the evidence for global warming and the discovery of errors in a United Nations climate report.

Two independent reviews later found no evidence that the East Anglia researchers had actively distorted climate data, but heavy press coverage had already left an impression that the scientists had schemed to repress data. Then there was the unusually cold winter in Northern Europe and the United States, which may have reinforced a perception that the Earth was not warming. (Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a United States agency, show that globally, this winter was the fifth warmest in history.)

[end excerpt]

they believed in climate-change!

I still can't get over how "profiteering-as-usual" this Kerry-LieBerman Climate Bill is.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64A6BY20100512

with this hand: 2 ♥ 3 ♠ 4 ♠ 5 ♠ 6 ♠
i could probably make a peter greenaway movie...

2 of ♥'s @ 2:50pm nora enters
3 of ♠'s @ 3:37pm bridge exits
4 of ♠'s @ 4:12pm Alice exits
5 of ♠'s @ 5:09pm gloryoski exits
6 of ♠'s @ 6:06pm CeeCee exits

Playing for the high one, dancing with the devil,
Going with the flow, it's all a game to me,
Seven or Eleven, snake eyes watching you,
Double up or quit, double stakes or split,
The Ace Of Spades
The Ace Of Spades
The Canned Goods School of Economics
Wednesday, May 26, 2010

An opinion columnist writing for Market Watch, a sister publication to Rupert Murdock’s right-wing Wall Street Journal confirmed that the rumors are true. The investment bankers are telling their big money clients to sell all their stocks, buy a farm in the country and stock up on plenty of canned goods. They are predicting that by the end of the year the Great Depression II will be in full swing, you won’t recognize the country and no matter who wins the election in the fall there is no fixing the system.

Paul Farrell who wrote the column and quotes investment bankers he knows from his trading days at Morgan Stanley has doctorates in psychology and law and writes on behavioral economics. He makes a perfectly logical argument that history is repeating itself yet again as it has over the last 800 years. Although I suspect he is a recent convert to the “canned goods” school of economics.

Behavioral economists have been warning ever since the Ayn Rand devotees at the Chicago School of Economics came into vogue under Reagan that the crash was coming. Their only misreading of the situation was under-estimating Alan Greenspan’s ability to create bubble after bubble sucking more and more wealth out of the middle class and making investment bankers like Paul Farrell rich.

It would be easy to assume that the only reason a Rupert Murdock publication would be telling such a “truth” would be sway the election in their favor but maybe they are simply trying to build some credibility with the villagers before they come to visit the castle with torches. “We didn’t create monster that destroyed your village, it was the other guys”.

Is a crash coming? Of course it is! Is it coming right now? Maybe… The credit spreads like the Libor are heating up again as they did in 08. Banking and corporate finance could freeze up again very quickly since nobody has any real confidence in the system. It wouldn’t be a good idea for Obama to go around saying “ the fundamentals of the economy are strong” like McCain did.

Obama’s contention that the Financial Reform bill is good legislation is about as dumb. FDR resisted calls to declare martial law and pushed reform instead but things move much faster now. You can’t wait to buy canned goods until the President declares an emergency.

Farrell's Latest Column
May 25, 2010 - Warning: Crash dead ahead. Sell. Get liquid. Now.
May 18, 2010 - 12 ways to cash in on the 'collapse of Eaarth'

More Paul B. Farrell
May 11, 2010 - Buffett joins greed Conspiracy
May 4, 2010 - Goldman Conspiracy must kill bank reform
Apr 27, 2010 - Six investing rules for a worst-case scenario
Apr 20, 2010 - Obama vs. Goldman's Reaganomics

Feb 9, 2010 - How to invest for a global-debt-bomb explosion
Feb 2, 2010 - 20 reasons Global Debt Time Bomb explodes soon

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/05/27/gaza.aid.convoy/?hpt=Sbin

http://pinktentacle.com/2010/05/zombie-meat/

ithn't it wonderful, thammy
that all your fanthnz have come out of the woodwork to worthip you
yeth you, thammy...

i've collected them and here they all are...
Submitted by stravansky on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 8:35am.
and again, because it thounded tho nithe
Submitted by stravansky on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 8:35am.
Submitted by pinellas on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 10:33am.
oh, how do you pronounth that nic...
pin-arth?
pinny-larth?

oh, and what a tweat
zombie meat
oh, ty tz
oh, big {hug}

Obama extends stop on deepwater wells
May 27 06:55 AM US/Eastern
By ERICA WERNER and CHARLES BABINGTON
WASHINGTON - Escalating his administration's response to the disastrous Gulf oil spill, President Barack Obama plans to announce Thursday that a moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling permits will be continued for six months while a presidential commission investigates, a White House aide said.
Continue reading here:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9FV4VB85&show_article=1

U.S. withdrawal from Iraq will be on time, Vice President Biden says
By Scott Wilson
Thursday, May 27, 2010

President Obama called Iraq his predecessor's war of choice. Now it is his war to exit -- and quickly.

The challenge for Obama, whose opposition to the Iraq invasion helped propel him to the presidency, is sticking to his timeline for a U.S. military withdrawal despite a jump in violence and continued wrangling among Iraqi politicians over who will lead the country.

The sensitive departure is being managed by Vice President Biden, who says the U.S. military will reduce troop levels to 50,000 this summer, even if no new Iraqi government takes shape.

"It's going to be painful; there's going to be ups and downs," Biden said in a 40-minute interview in his West Wing office this month. "But I do think the end result is going to be that we're going to be able to keep our commitment."

White House officials say Iraqis are increasingly relying on politics, rather than violence, to deal with disputes, diminishing the need for U.S. forces. But the situation on the ground demonstrates that Iraq remains fractured.

Rival factions have yet to establish a new government, nearly three months after close national elections, and politicians have begun warning of a power vacuum as neighboring Iran works to influence the outcome. Adel Abdul Mahdi, one of Iraq's vice presidents, urged all parties this month to agree quickly on a new leader to head off attempts by "terrorist gangs to use the circumstances in the country to hurt the Iraqi people and the armed forces."

Some recent attacks have had sectarian hallmarks that Iraqis fear could revive the divisions within their security forces that existed during the 2006 civil war. Iraq's factions also have yet to resolve such essential long-term issues as how to share oil revenue among regions and how to settle territorial disputes rooted in history.

Speaking Saturday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Obama said that the U.S. commitment to Iraq endures and that, as U.S. troops depart, "a strong American civilian presence will help Iraqis forge political and economic progress." He also reiterated his definition of success: "an Iraq that provides no haven to terrorists; a democratic Iraq that is sovereign and stable and self-reliant." On the day Obama spoke, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq dipped below the number in Afghanistan for the first time since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Biden, once a leading skeptic of U.S. involvement in Iraq, is now among the country's most ardent cheerleaders. He is seeking to balance Obama's determination to leave Iraq against growing concerns among some conservative critics that the current circumstances make a swift U.S. withdrawal too dangerous.

Senior administration officials counter that Iraq's fledgling democracy, now defended by improved domestic security forces, is sturdy enough to solve the country's problems with far fewer U.S. troops on hand.
Continue Reading Here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR201005...

May 27, 2010
Head of Minerals Management Service fired, sources say
Posted: May 27th, 2010 10:48 AM ET

Washington (CNN) - Minerals Management Service Director Elizabeth Birnbaum has been fired, according to two CNN sources.

A senior administration official has told CNN that an official announcement will be made during President Barack Obama's news conference scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

The decision to fire Birnbaum comes in the wake of a recently released report highlighting what many observers have characterized as widespread corruption at the Minerals Management Service (MMS), which is part of the Interior Department.

Among other things, the report, issued by the Interior Department's inspector general, revealed that federal inspectors overseeing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico accepted meals and tickets to sporting events from companies they monitored.

In one case, an inspector in the MMS office in Lake Charles, Louisiana, conducted inspections of four offshore platforms while negotiating a job with the company, the report stated.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar insisted Thursday in testimony before a House subcommittee that Salazar had resigned "on her own terms and own volition."

She "is a strong and very effective person who, among other things, helped us break through the very difficult things which we have a lot more work to do," Salazar said. "She helped us with addressing a very broken system. And all I can really (say) is that she is a good public servant."

As part of the growing push to crack down on the MMS, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, introduced legislation Wednesday requiring federal oil industry regulators to wait at least two years after leaving government service before going to work for companies they helped regulate.

Among other things, the bill would bar regulators from accepting gifts from oil companies. It also would require regulators to divest any stock they may currently hold in oil companies, and prohibit regulators from part-time employment in the industry.

While introducing the bill, Nelson blasted a "cozy, incestuous relationship between the oil industry and the regulators."
Continue Reading Here:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/27/breaking-mms-director-fi...

...other news sources and Salazar are saying she is resigning with anonymous sources saying she was handed the paper and pen.

Manhattan Investment Guru to the Stars Busted in Alleged Ponzi Scheme
Ken Starr's client list reportedly includes Annie Leibovitz, Uma Thurman, Martin Scorcese
By JONATHAN DIENST, MICHAEL CLANCY and VICTORIA CAVALIERE
Updated 12:38 PM EDT, Thu, May 27, 2010

A Manhattan investment advisor to celebrities, politicians and business tycoons was arrested by federal authorities this morning for allegedly perpetrating a $30 million fraud and Ponzi scheme, law enforcement officials said.

Ken Starr, who boasts a client list that includes Annie Leibovitz, Uma Thurman, Martin Scorsese, Wesley Snipes, Henry Kissinger, Caroline Kennedy and Robert Ziff among others, was arrested by IRS agents this morning and is expected to face investment fraud, tax fraud and other related charges, officials said. He is expected to appear in court later today.

Read the complaint.
http://media.nbcbayarea.com/documents/Starr+Kenneth+and+Stein+Andrew+Com...

Starr has served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the New York-based Starr & Company since its founding in 1989. He has no relation to the Ken Starr who investigated President Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Also arrested this morning was Andy Stein, the former Manhattan borough president and New York City Council President. Stein is expected to face charges for allegedly lying to law enforcement officials conducting the probe. According to investigators, Starr was depositing money in a Wind River LLC account that was linked to a credit card used by Stein.

"Approximately $1.6 million was depostied into the account and withdrawn to cover what appear to be Stein's personal expenses," sources said. Some of the withdrawls include $77,171 at ATM machines and $6, 034 at Duane Reade.

Sources tell NBCNewYork that Stein denied to the IRS "his use of credit cards in the names of third parties and his rental of a luxury summer home in Bridgehampton."

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Phareet Barrara is expected to hold a press conference this afternoon to detail the charges.
Continue reading here:
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Manhattan-Investment-Guru-to-t...

6 months
...
October
November

I'm hoping the Fox/Rethug Impeach BO Bullshit is in overdrive by then. He wanted to look forward.
How's that working out for u, Messiah?
I never thought I would want to kiss Carville.
He's got the bo cultists all worked up.

greetings

How are you and Buddy?

Did he like the bird's
wedding song I played for him? (5/26 8.11am)

Is he getting the wedding itch? That song can do it. It is v. long and like an earworm.

Or how about you?

:)

Marine scientists have discovered a massive new plume of what they believe to be oil deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico, stretching 22 miles from the leaking wellhead northeast toward Mobile Bay, Alabama.

The discovery by researchers on the University of South Florida College of Marine Science's Weatherbird II vessel is the second significant undersea plume recorded since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20.

The thick plume was detected just beneath the surface down to about 3,300 feet, and is more than 6 miles wide, said David Hollander, associate professor of chemical oceanography at the school.....

The first such plume detected by scientists stretched from the well southwest toward the open sea, but this new undersea oil cloud is headed miles inland into shallower waters where many fish and other species reproduce.

The researchers say they are worried these undersea plumes may are the result of the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants to break up the oil a mile undersea at the site of the leak.

Hollander said the oil they detected has dissolved into the water, and is no longer visible, leading to fears from researchers that the toxicity from the oil and dispersants could pose a big danger to fish larvae and filter feeders such as sperm whales.

"There are two elements to it," Hollander said. "The plume reaching waters on the continental shelf could have a toxic effect on fish larvae, and we also may see a long term response as it cascades up the food web."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9099685

Anti-whaling activist has 'no regrets' as his trial begins in Tokyo

Peter Bethune of Sea Shepherd, who boarded a Japanese whaling ship in February, could face 15 years in jail

....In an interview with New Zealand's Sunday Star-Times, Bethune said he stood "a 95% chance" of being convicted and serving a long prison term. He said he had been escorted by more than 100 security guards when he was taken back to the Shonan Maru 2 to re-enact the boarding: "I had a hood over me, like I'm a psychopathic killer. It was bizarre."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/27/sea-shepherd-whaling-a...

Rage Against the Machine lead Arizona boycott

Rap-rock crew invite musicians to skip Arizona on concert tours until the state's controversial new immigration law is repealed

Hot on the heels of Shakira, Rage Against the Machine are leading a fresh charge against Arizona's controversial new immigration law. Artists including Kanye West, Sonic Youth and Massive Attack have all pledged a musical boycott of the US state, refusing to tour there until the "odious" bill is repealed.

...But for de la Rocha, the greatest fear is that SB1070 will become a model for other US border states. "If other states follow the direction of Arizona," he wrote, "we could be headed towards a pre-Civil Rights era reality." Sound Strike has invited all musicians to join their boycott, and launched a petition asking president Obama "to take necessary and appropriate action" against the Arizona bill. At the time of writing, there are, er, 81 signatures.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/27/rage-against-machine-arizona...

""We do not accept the siege on Gaza," said Zoabi. "... Israel does not want a siege. It wants a silent siege. Israel does not want occupation, it wants a silent occupation. It wants its policies to go without criticisms of the world. That's why it wants to stop the flotilla and also avoid coverage of the event," she said."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/05/27/gaza.aid.convoy/?hpt=Sbin

Israel to stop Gaza aid ships

Israel says it will prevent, if necessary by force, a nine-ship flotilla of peace activists and humanitarian aid from reaching the Gaza Strip.

...The Israeli army also took journalists on a tour of a detention centre being prepared at Ashdod port for holding the aid activists.

Ma’ariv, an Israeli newspaper, said preparations were being made to provide the detainees with food, drink and medical treatment...

Some Israeli officials see this as a disastrous public-relations situation.

"We can't win on this one in terms of PR," Yigal Palmor, a foreign ministry spokesman, said.

"If we let them throw egg at us, we appear stupid with egg on our face. If we try to prevent them by force, we appear as brutes."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201052791958545391....

...will make violent revolution inevitable."

Toronto Police Get 'Sound Cannons' for G20
by Jennifer Yang

Riotous protesters marching at the G20 summit next month may be greeted with ear-splitting "sound cannons," the latest Toronto police tool for quelling unruly crowds.

Toronto police have purchased four, long-range acoustic devices (LRAD) - often referred to as sound guns or sound cannons - for the upcoming June 26-27 summit, the Star has learned.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/27-0

air-ono says:
ithn't it wonderful, thammy
that all your fanthnz have come out of the woodwork to worthip you
yeth you, thammy...

----yes, lots of worshipping going on ....

I didn't worship
I better do that next time
hope I don't get banned
since I even wrote that notso-worshipful comment

oh, dear me ....;-))

Toronto police have purchased four, long-range acoustic devices (LRAD) - often referred to as sound guns or sound cannons - for the upcoming June 26-27 summit, the Star has learned.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/27-0

-----
This would make me ill on the spot.

Almost every day
we hear about a new
violent device or law
designed to fight the citizens
it seems to me

yet people continue to sleep
the majority that is

I mean Sam...um, er...

Anyhow. I think that when Mr. Seder hears a bunch of folk making dovetailing critiques of his analysis (and others agreeing etc with those)... I think that Mr. Seder is intellectually honest and non-divo-ish enough that he would either change his tune at least somewhat or respond to the critique with more arguments to make his case.

I think you must be confusing him with someone else, bridge. ;) (Speaking of timing...At least I think we may be one the same page there.)

:)

I didn't eat a fucking thing yesterday.

This morning I only had time to have some Reesee cups.

Now I finally ate three bagels and want to sleep but can't.

Thanks for asking.

(Oh...one was sesame with egg and provolone and the other two were everything with olive cream-cheese spread. I didn't want to leave anyone wondering.)

"...But our preconceptions go much further back – to the days when we generally used the word "Turk" for Muslims. In Italy, they were using the word "Turks" as a curse before the 16th century. As Swedish diplomat Ingmar Karlsson discovered when researching for a paper he delivered in Istanbul in 2005, the Italians used to have a phrase "puzza come un Turco" which meant "he stinks like a Turk". Today, we still use the phrase "to talk turkey" and my own 1949 Random House American College Dictionary gives one definition of "Turk" as "a cruel, barbarous, or tyrannical person"...
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-power...

Robert Fisk: Power to change

If America can't broker peace in the Middle East, is it time for the Russians to step in? They have a long history with the region – and aren't hobbled by an Israeli lobby

but I find it hilarious that the most pigheaded champions of "capitalism" can't see that the Reds rule the world:

Wall Street rallies on China comment

Stocks rose sharply on Thursday as investor worry was eased after China refuted a report that it was reviewing its holdings in euro-zone sovereign bonds due to the region's debt.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6341EA20100527

I don't think I need to worry, glory -
Sam has always been v. generous and cool with his bloggers

and my experience goes back also all the way to early 2004 when the Majority Report started
(we used to write haikus then, so much fun... SJ was so good at it)
----

right now ghetto is keeping me busy
I have to check up on Carville and may have to break down and wander over to the forbidden blog to see what the Obamafans are up to ;-))

and then there is one of my favorites to read, Fisk (thanks for the article, ghetto).

bbl

Clinton: Efforts to "buy time" for Iran dangerous

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that actions taken by countries like Brazil to help find a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear program have made the world more dangerous.

"We think buying time for Iran, enabling Iran to avoid international unity with respect to their nuclear program, makes the world more dangerous not less," Clinton said.

She was referring to efforts by Brazil and Turkey to help broker a deal to ease international fears over Iran's nuclear program.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64Q5RR20100527?type=politicsNews

the pleasure of the President (Obama)

(one of the most annoying statements ever IMO)

sometimes I tend to forget that
when she is hyping War is Peace
seems to be the only thing she is doing these days- YIKES!
----bbl
War is Peace, etc.
new
Submitted by ghettodefender on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 3:34pm.

Transcript:

http://ironicsurrealism.blogivists.com/2010/05/27/transcript-obama-press...

My stomach turned when Obama encouraged Americans to vacation on the un-spoiled Gulf beaches.

Just ignore the TOXIC FUMES out-gassing from the BP's crude+dispersant pollution? Don't be a wimp and let the Pollution Headache ruin your vacation, or your kids' vomit bother you?

Bush didn't seem to care if there were more terrorists lurking in the landscape the day after 9/11 (but maybe he knew they weren't out there since 9/11 was a false flag operation?)....

Does Obama care that this Gulf-Caribbean toxic destruction is a HEALTH EMERGENCY for ALL Lifeforms???

Randi did NOT praise Obama's performance. She indicated that the MMS resignation of Elizabeth Birmbaumead was like a scapegoating for effect (though she did not use the word "scapegoat"; that's my interpretation of her dissatisfaction).

She wanted to hear Obama saying what he was going to do to fix the Gulf uncontrolled destruction, and the "management restructuring" of the MMS Obama mentioned is not like any emergency management solutions -- like setting up special health clinics to handle respiratory illnesses from the toxic fumes from the dispersant-crude mix.

APNewsBreak: New, giant sea oil plume seen in Gulf
Submitted by ghettodefender on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 1:31pm.
Marine scientists have discovered a massive new plume of what they believe to be oil deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico, stretching 22 miles from the leaking wellhead northeast toward Mobile Bay, Alabama.

The discovery by researchers on the University of South Florida College of Marine Science's Weatherbird II vessel is the second significant undersea plume recorded since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20.

The thick plume was detected just beneath the surface down to about 3,300 feet, and is more than 6 miles wide, said David Hollander, associate professor of chemical oceanography at the school.....

The first such plume detected by scientists stretched from the well southwest toward the open sea, but this new undersea oil cloud is headed miles inland into shallower waters where many fish and other species reproduce.

The researchers say they are worried these undersea plumes may are the result of the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants to break up the oil a mile undersea at the site of the leak.

Hollander said the oil they detected has dissolved into the water, and is no longer visible, leading to fears from researchers that the toxicity from the oil and dispersants could pose a big danger to fish larvae and filter feeders such as sperm whales.

"There are two elements to it," Hollander said. "The plume reaching waters on the continental shelf could have a toxic effect on fish larvae, and we also may see a long term response as it cascades up the food web."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9099685
====================

Why aren't they using the technology to vacuum this into tankers???

Our bureaucrats do everything slowly. To them, stalling and obstructionism are skills. They don't know how to respond rapidly to anything let alone to an emergency -- is that the reason they are failing us?

If MMS was BROKEN by Bush in the Big Bush Dismantling of Government Agencies -- then Mineral Management Service (MMS) was BROKEN when Elizabeth Birmbaumead arrived. Did she ever get the word from President Obama to clean house and ENFORCE regulations?

If she was just filling a seat without being given the task to "change" the way MMS was run, I hope she talks it up and writes a book, etc.

About her firing -- oops! -- resignation:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100527/pl_ynews/ynews_pl2282_2

This is CRIMINAL behavior by BP and the crime is happening NOW!

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2010/bp_info_blackout

[excerpt]

BP has refused to do better air monitoring. It has refused to release air samplings for cleanup workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which monitors compliance with worker safety standards, has been relying on information from BP.

“The information is not ours to publish,” said Dean Wingo, OSHA’s assistant regional administrator who oversees Louisiana. “(We are) working with (BP) and encouraging them to publish the data so that it is publicly available.”

Much of the worker health information is being collected by subcontractors of BP. Toby Odone, a BP spokesman, said BP is sharing the data with “legitimate, interested parties” which include government agencies and companies participating in the cleanup.

When asked whether the information could be released publicly, he replied: “Why would one do it? Any parties with a legitimate interest can have access to it.”

‘Out of sight’ out of mind
“(Oil companies) want to make the visible part of the oil spill disappear – for political reasons, for limiting liability to the spillers,” said Richard Charter, government relations consultant and oil drilling expert for the Defender’s of Wildlife action fund, referring to BPs unprecedented use of some 600,0000 gallons of the highly toxic Corexit oil dispersant, which has been banned in the UK.

“If we were looking at food chain impacts, and biomagnification in the marine ecosystem, we probably never would have invented Corexit,” he said.

Indeed, the dispersant, which is now warranting further investigation from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), causes oil to sink, keeping it “out of sight” according to Mississippi Congressman Gene Taylor, who admitted to having no special knowledge of dispersants or their effects, but expressed concerns about their long term effects.

Appearing before a Senate panel on Tuesday, EPA head Lisa Jackson acknowledged the environmental concerns surrounding dispersants, but said she has been "hesitant to take it out of the tool kit all together."

The agency, she said, is "working with BP and others to get less toxic dispersants to the site as quickly as possible," and is "still looking into" why Corexit was banned in the UK. The EPA will review its policies for evaluating dispersants, she said, adding, "I'm amazed by how little science there is on the issue."

But how long can the secret of the spill’s magnitude be contained? How long can information on the spill be micromanaged by the Coast Guard, Halliburton and BP?

[end excerpt]

==================================

In the press conference, Obama said he was in charge. Is he a willing fallguy for this policy of the Oil Industry, or does he approve of it?

I wish I would've read some of his before I sent him the crappy ones I did for his last birthday. I would've just begged off on that request and done something else.

So...I have read some of the archives, but all I have been saying here lately is I'm not responsible for it if any of it is on the exam, b/c no one even told me there was gonna be an exam. ;)

Not something that you hear someone say to Amy Goodman every day.

I don't know how full of shit this guy is or isn't. Not listening carefully enough.

Only enough to hear him mention Brown and Root as a "good oil company."

Maybe Kellogg was the fatal ingredient? (That would make tz feel vindicated, prolly. ;) )

It's this Clint Giddrey guy was on today I'm talkin' about.

Preventing the use of health gear is cold-blooded murder by BP!

http://www.actagainstoil.com/2010/05/democracy-now-cleanup-health-issues...

[excerpt]

BP has refused to provide respirators to many hired fishermen, and the company has reportedly threatened to fire workers who use their own respirators on the job.

[end excerpt]

================================

This reminds me of the way the FIRST RESPONDERS at 9/11 Ground Zero Twin Towers and New Yorkers were told by the Bush Adm./EPA that the air was safe!

THIS IS MORE OF THE SAME!

THIS IS SICKENING.

On top of destroying the Gulf-Caribbean Eco-system, the Authorities -- for the sake of safe-looking photo-ops -- want to destroy working responders' lungs and health!

THIS IS A CRIME.

ouch!

Actually he would be more "fun" if there were more of either.

9/11 Responders, fire crews, volunteers are dead and dying from overexposure to the 9/11 rubble/dust! This was the crime of Bush and the Corporations controlling the World Trade complex!

Here we go again. BP and the Obama Administration are making the same criminal decisions at the expense of the lives of innocent and caring people WILLING TO PUT THEMSELVES ON THE FRONTLINE OF THE so-called 'CLEAN-UP'!!!

THIS MUST NOT BE TOLERATED!

Pollute, pollute, pollute.
Hide, hide, hide.
Deny, deny, deny.
Pretend, pretend, pretend to 'clean-up'.
Litigate, litigate, litigate.
Continue to pollute, pollute, pollute forever.
Kill and go free, free, free forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

http://www.onr.navy.mil/focus/ocean/motion/currents1.htm

ewww!
i went in there recently, for the 2nd time since their "day-3"
and ewww, even mire had cobwebs growing between her vagina
and i immediately rushed into the shower to cleanse my body
before i too became a zombie sheep.
it was horrifying!
as horrifying as this piece of fetta cheese that my mother brought me
and that i just ate...
ewww, it was bland!
bland!
bland!
as if someone had gone to the trouble to take the greek out of it...
excuse me, dear old mother thing
but i want effing F-cheese that effing knocks me the fuck out
and not puts me to sleep
like a zombie sheep

now i need something twangy and bitchy...

ps. my lisp post was inspired by...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwqPmatZ8WQ

//For Buddy with love//
lol, it's one of his favourites

(and when you leave that sederless shithole, don't forget
to have a shower before you set foot back in here, please)

you're really on the warpath today
you're scalping everything in sight

re: It's infuriating
oh, i know how you feel, dear
re: BP is behaving like Union Carbide behaved after Bhopal!
oh i know, dear
i think i got some on my fetta cheese
it's so infuriating
i'm already contaminated
i'll have to go take another shower

[and if you think that's facetious - you should see what ended up on the cutting room floor (omg!)]

"to talk turkey"
new
Submitted by ghettodefender on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 2:56pm.
---
The phrase "talk turkey" means to have an honest discussion.

The word "Turk" was a derogatory term used by the people we think of as Turks today. A dirty, ignorant peasant, or something like that. It wasn't until this century, when the Ottoman Empire (Osmanli) began to lose its possession, that reformers began thinking of a nation of Turks within Anatolia, which is pretty much present day Turkey. Hence, the Turks and Turkey.

Turkiye Cumhuriyet=Republic of Turkey

Dear Yahoo!:
When was the phrase "let's talk turkey" first used?
Candace
Lansing, Michigan
Dear Candace:
Our readers never get tired of turkey-related questions. In years past, we've covered "cold turkey," "fried turkey," and why Thanksgiving dinner makes us sleepy. Now, we add another feather to our cap with talking turkeys.
As most of our esteemed readers know, turkeys don't actually have the power of speech. "To talk turkey" means to speak plainly about a difficult or awkward subject ("Let's talk turkey about your credit history, shall we?"). According to World Wide Words, there are several possible explanations to the origin.

Interestingly, the phrase used to refer to pleasant chitchat. This may have started from the "nature of family conversation around the Thanksgiving dinner table." You know, everybody's happy, full, and on their best behavior.

(The Turkish word for the fowl "turkey" is "hindi". Which means Indian (the people from Hindustan).

http://www.signsabound.com/2010/05/roller-derby-ridiculing-feminism.html

"If you woulda did your research..."
Submitted by gloryoski on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 5:15pm.
Not something that you hear someone say to Amy Goodman every day.

I don't know how full of shit this guy is or isn't. Not listening carefully enough.
=======
It was not as bad as it sounded. Clinton Guidry was merely pointing out that BP banned the use of protective respiratory devices by clean up workers because it would set BP up for huge lawsuits. This is standing operating procedure, according to Guidry.
(Clinton Guidry sounds to me like the sort of person you would want representing the public interest in a business dominated government.)

he must not know that Amy asks questions she knows the answer to in order to inform her audience...it's not like DN goes out seeking their own news..they take the news and present other sides etc..but I think that's one way that she gets her spin on it out there without making statements that would present her as having a side... does that makes sorta sense..?

But yeah it made me look up when he said that...

Roller Derby Ridiculing Feminism
===
The writer of brief is probably a jerk. Doesn't get it at all.

made the point for DN. It is shocking to think that BP has little regard for its workers. But it is ultimately Profit Uber Alles! Until we rise up and change the equation.

aa stalinist? What was that debate all about?

If you've been reading you know her brand new house is all fucked up.

I hope she comes over here and boxes your ears (whatever the fuck that means). It doesn't sound like it would be very much fun, as abuse goes so that's why I picked it.

This doesn't help much...

In fact it's kinda sexy. But prolly only to a solterona construct like me. You know how fucking loony we are. All the books and things say so.

Oh gawd!! Not a big pitcher!! Now I'm gonna get my ears boxed.

I wasm't calling anyone a Stalinist.

A commenter on Hedges' "The Greeks Get It" was setting up a straw man by saying "what you'd [Hedges'd] probably call the Stalinist left" had had more success in actually gaining power and therefore being in the position to change something than anarchists.

Here:

Drew
Shit, if only we had listened to Macdonald, we would have had this thing worked out by now!
Anarchism has always been a theory and always will be, 'cause you lack a plan and the organisation necessary to beat the austere clinical discipline of the Right and it's efficient hierachical structure. You can only react, this is why what you call the 'Stalinist left' has had more success throughout history, because it has an authroitarian heirachical structure and it is capable of putting theory into practice, offering real resistance to the Right, (and even replacing it from time to time). Anarchist theory sounds good, in theory but pretty much remains just an idea. But putting theory into practice is an ugly business, and mistakes are made, humans being human. But at least the despot Stalinists have got to that position to be able to make those mistakes.
But hey, prove me wrong, organise the first anarchist revolution and replace that "state" that devoures us so!

Report
Reply
2 replies

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25529.htm

And if you don't mean me I guess I'll back read and feel stupid at some point in the future.

This appears very politically exploiting to me (as opposed to merely normally politically exploiting).

I'll be surprised if this is positively resolved BEFORE the election.

If this had been introduced a year ago, it would have gained momentum and by the 2010 election, the Dems and Obama could have PROVED they were behind it. But introducing it at this late date, sheesh. It won't be resolved by the election, but the Dems and Obama will be stringing the LBGT community along, getting them to work again for the Dems during the election. Will they keep this plan alive after the election? That's the question.

Through testing my new p/a system...for NOW.

What's your view of the media coverage of the BP mess over on your side of the world?

And the "manwoman on the street"? Do they seem more aware of it than average Americans were aware of the tanker mess on the coral reef or the other Halliburton mess on the northwest coast of Australia?

(P.S. Thanks for your quick humor. It is appreciated. Even when I'm on the warpath, as you observe, I can't "humbug" those who are in a different place/mood.)

areohtee-effel nora.

The commentary on Hedges was a bunch of gobbly gobbly. Stalinist is such a loaded term. Dictatorship is one connotation. The anarchism commentary was a load of crap, too. I would like to have a discussion over these issues.

He's so intense, with a skill for combining the serious concerns with the funny delivery of satirically sharp critique.

Police say nine people have been arrested during an immigration protest rally in Santa Barbara.

Activist Nayra Pacheco says those arrested Thursday included eight University of California, Santa Barbara, students and one professor.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9100245

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/us/01tiller.html?_r=1

One Year Later: Honoring Dr. George Tiller
Posted: May 24, 2010 10:05 AM
Nancy Keenan, President NARAL

We are days away from marking the one-year anniversary of the Sunday morning Scott Roeder walked into Dr. George Tiller's church in Kansas and shot him at close range.

After his murder, many women and men came to our blog to express their appreciation for what Dr. Tiller had done for their sisters, wives, relatives, and friends. Many of these women had found themselves in desperate and heart-breaking circumstances and turned to Dr. Tiller in their time of need.

Karen from Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania gives us one example of what Dr. Tiller meant to women:

Dr. Tiller, you saved my niece Jeanette's life, you helped our family through one of the darkest, most desperate and unthinkable moments we ever experienced. When we thought there was no where to turn, there you were. I called you the 'Wizard,' because of the incredible journey we had taken to find you, in Kansas. You are, and will always be my Hero.

...We didn't have to wait long for the intimidation to resume. Less than four months after Dr. Tiller's murder, the members of the notorious Operation Rescue picked up their signs and bullhorns and moved 328 miles north to Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Tiller's murder didn't change their tactics; they just changed their mailing address -- and their target.

...one of the few abortion providers to whom women in heart-breaking circumstances can turn. Many of these women have wanted and cherished pregnancies but something goes wrong, such as a fetal anomaly or a condition that threatens their life or health. These circumstances are of no interest to Operation Rescue. Their goal is to close (that)clinic, too.

I am proud to report that pro-choice Americans in the heartland sent a strong message to Operation Rescue. On the day of Operation Rescue's protest, pro-choice activists outnumbered their protesters two to one.

Unfortunately, our numbers weren't as strong when it came to the Nebraska Legislature, where anti-choice lawmakers hold an overwhelming advantage. What Operation Rescue couldn't achieve through violence and harassment, anti-choice politicians in Nebraska made possible through legislation. Just this spring, the state enacted a divisive and invasive anti-choice law aimed directly at threatening (providers)and the women serve(d)...

As we mark the one-year anniversary of Dr. Tiller's murder, those of us in America's pro-choice majority must be vigilant about telling our friends and family that what happened in Kansas was not an isolated incident. It is a part of an ongoing campaign of threats -- in legislative chambers and outside abortion providers' offices and homes -- to make it more difficult and dangerous for women to access abortion care...

We can take inspiration from the pro-choice activists who stared down anti-choice demonstrators in Omaha. Not all of us can go to Nebraska, but we can join others in sending messages of support to Dr. Carhart. We can share our reasons for being pro-choice and standing up for women with friends and family. We can pledge to only vote for pro-choice candidates at all levels of government, so that groups like the National Right to Life Committee can't coerce their followers into attacking women through the legislative process.

We can -- and will, I have no doubt -- pay tribute to Dr. Tiller, his family, and the women he served by speaking openly and honestly about our pro-choice values.

As we speak out, let's always remember to use the two powerful words that guided Dr. Tiller's work:

Trust Women.

Excerpted - For the complete commentary:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-keenan/one-year-later-honoring-d_b_5...

ANduh...

Alice izza fixin' ta read a big ol faincy smchaincy anarkist academentchic book, y'know. ;)

Recall the book that Hedges was touting. MacDonald's ""The Root is Man". Have you read it?

It was written immediately after WWll. The labor movement was then in a powerful position. Can you give any reasons as to why labor was in this position?

Rahm Emanuel travels in Israel, and right-wing protesters follow

JERUSALEM — White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's visit to Israel with his family was meant to smooth over tensions between the two countries, but right-wing Jewish activists cursing him as a "hater of Israel" did their best Thursday to disrupt the visit.

The activists have pursued the Emanuel family across the country, attempting to deter them from celebrating the bar mitzvah, or Jewish coming of age, of Emanuel's eldest son Zach Emanuel.

Israeli commentators have described a "significant warming" of relations between the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who'll visit the White House next week after Emanuel hand-delivered an invitation. The protesters, however, are trying to hound him out of the country.

"I think it is disgraceful that Mr. Rahm Emanuel should be allowed to go the Western Wall when he is clearly a hater of Israel who would give all this away to the Palestinians," right-wing activist Itamar Ben Gvir told McClatchy. "We will continue to make it clear that we do not want them here...."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/27/94954/rahm-emanuel-travels-in-isra...

In case your are not yet among the nearly 1.5 million who have viewed this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5SxX2EntEo

Spit it out. Or don't.

I'd rather swallow crude like a brown pelican than hear professorial discourse like that.

Does NOT do it for me anymore.

:)

fucking MacDonald book! What was fucking Hedges referring to with all the shit about war industry, propaganda, and the liberals buying into it?
WTF!

“When I woke up this morning and I’m shaving, and Malia knocks on my bathroom door and she says — did you plug the hole yet Daddy?” he said, recounting how often he thinks of the spill, adding, “I grew up in Hawaii, where the ocean is sacred.”

fwiw, the ocean is sacred everywhere in the world
even in the Gulf, Mr. President

-----

“In case anybody wonders, in any of your reporting, in case you are wondering who’s responsible, I take responsibility.”

ok
just in case anyone wondered
I didn't wonder about that

---btw.
How can one not admire Helen Thomas? Keeps asking and always gets the same blahblah answers

Her patience with "the messiah" is admirable
it really is
----
oh, and Carville rocks just like in the good old days
anyone saw the "The War Room" documentary (election 92)?
If not, I recommend highly.
Thruout the 90s he showed a lot of guts ./. the Dems in Congress.

Attacks on Federal Forest and Park Staff Reach All-Time High
Incidents More than Triple in National Parks, Forest Violence Up a Third in 2009
Published on May 27, 2010 - 7:08:31 AM

Washington, DC May 27, 2010 - Attacks and threats against U.S. Forest Service employees and National Park Service rangers reached an all-time record in 2009, according to agency incident reports released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). This spike in violent incidents reflects growing danger to both staff and visitors on federal lands.

Agency incident reports, obtained by PEER through the Freedom of Information Act, document increasing lawlessness in remote public lands where people go to get away from urban ills:

* The National Park Service (NPS) recorded 158 attacks or threats on its law enforcement rangers, more than triple the 36 such incidents it reported for 2008 and nearly 50% above its previous record year of 2004. These numbers are understated, however, as the agency only records assaults against its law enforcement staff and not those directed against other workers and these numbers do not include assaults on the U.S. Park Police, an urban police force largely based in D.C;

* The U.S. Forest Service logged 427 violent incidents in 2009, a 33% jump from the year before and the greatest number ever recorded. This is also the fourth straight annual increase; and

* The U.S. Bureau of Land Management reported only a slight increase in incidents but surveys of its law enforcement rangers by PEER indicate a strong sentiment that the influx of violent elements with off-road vehicles (ORVs) presents a new major threat on recreational desert lands.

Incidents ranged from murders to sexual assaults to break-ins of government buildings. Drugs and alcohol appeared to play a role in a large number of incidents. These figures do not reflect the effects of liberalized firearm rules in national parks and refuges which went into effect earlier this year.

"These numbers suggest that the challenges facing national park and forest workers have never been greater," said PEER Staff Counsel Christine Erickson who obtained and compiled the agency incident reports. "They say ‘it's not easy being green' but deteriorating public treatment of federal land management staff make that statement truer today than ever before."

PEER has maintained a database of incidents against federal resource employees since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The U.S. Justice Department stopped tracking assaults on federal employees back in 2002, after it persuaded Congress to repeal a reporting requirement for such incidents.
For actual reports and to continue reading:
http://yubanet.com/usa/Attacks-on-Federal-Forest-and-Park-Staff-Reach-Al...

AFTER SPENDING BILLIONS ON BANK BAIL-OUTS, NOW OBAMA TELLS US THAT WHEN IT COMES TO SAVING THE GULF AND THE GULFCOAST AND COASTAL LANDS AND WATERS BEYOND -- HE IS CONCERNED ABOUT "COST-EFFECTIVENESS"????!!!! And is Obama worried about BP's bottomless pocketbook???!!! REALLY???!!!

I missed this during the live press conference today, but KAREL just pointed out Obama's actual words!

Here is the Obama quote from the press conference:

>>So let’s take the example of Governor Jindal’s barrier islands idea. When I met with him when I was down there two weeks ago, I said I will make sure that our team immediately reviews this idea, that the Army Corps of Engineers is looking at the feasibility of it; and if they think — if they tell me that this is the best approach to dealing with this problem, then we’re going to move quickly to execute. If they have a disagreement with Governor Jindal’s experts as to whether this would be effective or not, whether it was going to be cost-effective given the other things that needed to be done, then we’ll sit down and try to figure that out.<<

=======================

Addendum--

What part of EMERGENCY don't they understand???

TIME counts. NOT MONEY!

We do NOT have a genius, three-dimensional chess President, folks. There is no longer a debate about that that is worth engaging in.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

---
It's infuriating
Submitted by nora on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 5:48pm.

of my bastard former professor's translation of Los de abajo so I can send it along and not be out of balance.

Then I shall endeavor to start the troubleshooting guide written by my non-bastard former professor--as if it is going to do any good. Probably cry a little and if I don't cry myself to sleep, why then get pissy and talk back to Malloy for awhile--or not if he's on his best behavior.

And then first thing in the morning recalculate my calculus about meds, given my new possible lack of temporary employment.

That is what is on the plate for the Solterona Construct (hereafter TSC) tonight.

No time to read no fuckin' Macdonald book tomorrow either. Sorry. Perhaps someone else who has time can engage in this essential reading if no other fuckin' book (or life experience, or context) could possibly tell us something about what Hedges meant.

I did :), however so why you gettn' loud? (It's mostly a rhetorical question.)

...was this on any news channels...tweet, tweet

Chevron Management Hit Hard at Annual Meeting over Ecuador Liability

Board Members Confronted by Angry Shareholders, Indigenous Leaders; Five People Arrested As Company Refuses Proxies
Published on May 27, 2010 - 5:17:15 AM

HOUSTON, TX, May 27, 2010 - Chevron's annual shareholder meeting erupted in chaos today after CEO John Watson received a stern rebuke from shareholders for its Ecuador environmental disaster and a 71-year-old Ecuadorian woman said the company was responsible for an environmental atrocity in the rainforest that cost her two children and was devastating the lives of thousands of people.

Chevron's management also seemed to panic during the meeting when they summoned the Houston police to arrest noted author and Chevron critic Antonia Juhasz when she confronted Watson over Chevron's environmental record. Four other individuals – all well-known critics of the company – also were also arrested when they were refused entry despite having proxies from shareholders.

"Chevron's [CEO] Watson lost control of the meeting and it degenerated into chaos and ended abruptly," said Maria Ramos, an organizer with the Rainforest Action Network, a San Francisco-based group that has been campaigning against the company. "It was obvious that Watson has very thin skin when it comes to Chevron's critics."

In all, only seven of the 27 persons with proxies that were brought by the environmental groups were allowed to enter the meeting – possibly an "illegal act" that violates SEC regulations, said Ramos. Chevron selectively enforced various proxy rules to keep critics out of the meeting, Ramos said.

"Chevron was smarting for a confrontation today and then lost its head when it happened," said Ramos.

Others arrested were Mitch Anderson, the lead campaign coordinator against Chevron for Amazon Watch; Han Shan, also a leading Chevron critic who works with Amazon Watch; the Rev. Kenneth David from Richmond, California, the site of a Chevron refinery that local residents say causes pollution; and Juan Parras, a Houston-based organizer who has confronted Chevron over pollution at its refineries in Texas.

Chevron's management team also suffered a humiliating rebuke when shareholders supported a resolution stemming from the Ecuador problem with a whopping 26% of the vote representing approximately $38 billion in shareholder value. (Generally, any shareholder resolution that receives 10% support is considered a success given the opposition of management.)

The resolution, which called for the company to appoint a director with environmental expertise, was co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania State Treasury, Trillium Asset Management Corporation, and Amnesty International USA. Risk Metrics, an influential investment advisory group, advised shareholders to support the resolution.

Marianna Jimenez, a 71-year-old grandmother from Ecuador, stood up during the meeting and said Chevron's pollution had caused the deaths of two of her children. She told Watson: "I want you to take responsibility for this crime that your company has committed in my country."

Watson also received a direct challenge from Ramos in the meeting when he was nominated to join Chevron's Board. Watson was the Chevron executive with lead responsibility for integrating Texaco into the company in 2001.

"A particular important question for shareholders is whether Watson, as architect of the merger, adequately vetted Texaco before purchasing the company for $31 billion – a sum only $4 billion more than its current exposure in the Ecuador lawsuit," said Ramos. Watson responded by saying Chevron had been "richly rewarded" by its acquisition of Texaco.

Speaking in front of Chevron's Houston headquarters before the meeting, Ecuadorian indigenous leaders demanded that Watson stop hiding the disaster that Chevron's operations have caused in Ecuador. Guillermo Grefa, from the Kichwa tribe, said: "We must not allow Chevron to continue lying to us about its contamination in the Amazon."

Chevron has admitted to dumping at least 15 billion gallons of toxic "produced water" into the region's water supply when it operated an oil concession in Ecuador between 1964 and 1990. It also abandoned more than 900 unlined waste pits, causing an outbreak of cancer and the decimation of indigenous groups, according to evidence in trial.

"Mountains of evidence in the trial prove what the people of the Ecuadorian Amazon already know; that Chevron is guilty of massive toxic contamination in Ecuador," said Shan before his arrest. "Instead of taking responsibility, Chevron is weaving an ever more complex web of deception and deceit, and it's time for Chevron's Board of Directors to put an end to it."

Chevron General Counsel Hewitt Pate also has come under fire for making false statements designed to mislead shareholders about the trial process in Ecuador. Pate, a Deputy Attorney General in the Bush administration, has been criticized for not adequately disclosing the company's risks in Ecuador to shareholders – a fact which prompted an inquiry into Chevron's public disclosures last year from the New York Attorney General.

At last year's annual Chevron meeting, a resolution relating to Ecuador that asked the company to adopt a "verifiable" human rights policy garnered a remarkable $37 billion in voting shares out of the $133 billion outstanding.

"The entire issue of corporate compliance with human rights norms is trending heavily against Chevron, which is falling behind most of its peers in this area," said Ramos.
http://yubanet.com/usa/Chevron-Management-Hit-Hard-at-Annual-Meeting-ove...

Or is it only funny when men do that?

:)

what?

The Senate rejected a proposal on Thursday to require President Barack Obama to submit a timetable for pulling U.S. forces out of Afghanistan, despite unease among some members of his party over the nine-year-old war.

[The 80-18 vote nixed a bid by liberal Democrat Russ Feingold for a detailed troop timetable, which he argued would avoid future "emergency" war spending bills such as the $33 billion one now before the Senate.

The 80-18 vote nixed a bid by liberal Democrat Russ Feingold for a detailed troop timetable, which he argued would avoid future "emergency" war spending bills such as the $33 billion one now before the Senate.

But most members of the Democratic-majority Senate proved unwilling to dictate to the president, with a buildup of 30,000 additional troops still underway that Obama ordered to Afghanistan and a new military push in the Kandahar area.

Adopting Feingold's plan would "reinforce the fear ... that the United States will abandon the region," Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat, said.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/27-7

Macdonald argued that democratic states had to dismantle the permanent war economy and the propaganda that came with it. They had to act and govern according to the non-historical and more esoteric values of truth, justice, equality and empathy. Our liberal class, from the church and the university to the press and the Democratic Party, by paying homage to the practical dictates required by hollow statecraft and legislation, has lost its moral voice. Liberals serve false gods. The belief in progress through war, science, technology and consumption has been used to justify the trampling of these non-historical values. And the blind acceptance of the dictates of globalization, the tragic and false belief that globalization is a form of inevitable progress, is perhaps the quintessential illustration of Macdonald's point. The choice is not between the needs of the market and human beings. There should be no choice. And until we break free from serving the fiction of human progress, whether that comes in the form of corporate capitalism or any other utopian vision, we will continue to emasculate ourselves and perpetuate needless human misery. As the crowds of strikers in Athens understand, it is not the banks that are important but the people who raise children, build communities and sustain life. And when a government forgets whom it serves and why it exists, it must be replaced.
HEDGES

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/media/view/?id=e267f46a-d883-45e2...

Then I call it the BP/Obama Gulf Catastrophe.

...Now four years removed from her time on the bench, Sandra Day O'Connor has been working fervently on her newest passion: iCivics, a free, web-based education project designed to teach middle school students. It also offers teachers comprehensive teaching materials.

Click HERE to visit iCivics.org:
http://www.icivics.org/

According to a 2007 Annenberg Public Policy Center study, two out of three Americans can name a judge on "American Idol ," the hit reality TV singing competition, but only 1 in 7 can name the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. O'Connor said that was "scary."

O'Connor said she hoped the iCivics would engage students across the country.

Half of U.S. states have stopped making civics and government a requirement for high school, she said, adding that she believed this was an "unintended consequence" of the No Child Left Behind Act, the controversial federal educational policy that rewards schools for meeting certain goals.

The program was "an incentive to the schools to get their kids up to snuff on math and science and reading, but they were not getting money for American history, or civics or anything else," she said.
Excerpted-to read in its entirety:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/icivics-sandra-day-oconnor-mission-educate-stu...

...No, Sandra, what is scary is what Bush-Cheney has done to our country.

Nine more cases uncovered...

http://www.thenation.com/blog/dod-investigating-nine-cases-terrorism-rel...
[excerpt]

Buried within the new Department of Defense Inspector General's report, "Contingency Contracting: A Framework for Reform," is the eye-opening revelation that the Defense Criminal Investigative Service has nine open investigations into alleged "Terrorism-Related Acts" by "U.S. contractor personnel, U.S. Military, Government personnel." No other details are provided. DCIS is the criminal investigative agency working for the DoD's Inspector General.

I called the IG's office and asked them for information on these nine "terrorism-related" cases. "When it comes to individual cases or ongoing investigations, they're not going to comment on that," a spokesperson told me.

The "terrorism-related" investigations are part of more than 220 open investigations in DCIS's "Global War on Terror Investigations." Many of these relate to bribery, false claims, theft and export violations. DCIS agents have federal law enforcement authority and have authority to make arrests.

I have asked the Inspector General's office in writing to provide any details on the terrorism investigations and will update this post if I receive a response.

Meanwhile, in a not shocking revelation, the IG report also documents how private contractors working for US Special Forces have been allowed to "perform inherently governmental functions:"

"Specifically, management and contracting personnel allowed contractors to administer task orders, determine what supplies or services the Government required, and approve contractual documents. The contractors performing inherently governmental functions did not identify themselves as contractors. For example, in 3 of 46 task orders, valued at approximately $18 million, contractors working for the Special Operations Forces Support Activity signed contractual documents as a Special Operations Forces Support Activity representative. In addition, contracting personnel took direction and implemented contract changes from contractors working for their customers. These conditions occurred because the Special Operations Forces Support Activity lacked internal controls and standard operating procedures on the performance of inherently governmental functions. As a result, Special Operations Forces Support Activity may not have correctly administered and protected the best interests of the Government for approximately $82 million in task orders issued under the Special Operations Forces Support Activity contracts."

[end excerpt]

RE:
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5843#comment-409312

Pump station oil spill may close Alaska pipeline until Friday
By MEGAN HOLLAND and ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
Anchorage Daily News
Published: May 27th, 2010 07:27 AM
Last Modified: May 27th, 2010 07:30 AM

The North Slope oil producers late Wednesday were asked to slow production even more to give operators of the trans-Alaska pipeline more time to deal with a big oil spill and get the pipeline restarted.

By telling oil producers that they can deliver only 8 percent of their normal production, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which runs the pipeline and the pump station where the spill occurred, is buying itself until noon Friday to get the pipeline running again, said company spokeswoman Michelle Egan.

"We don't want to move too quickly or miss something that could cause a longer shutdown by some subsequent action," she said.

Egan said she still does not know when the pipeline will be running again.

The 800-mile pipeline between the North Slope oil fields and the Valdez tanker port is shut down due to a spill Tuesday of several thousand barrels of oil at Pump Station 9 near Delta Junction. A spill of that size -- totaling over 100,000 gallons -- is one of the largest ever for the 33-year-old pipeline.

The shutdown is disrupting about $45 million a day of North Slope production and about $13 million a day in state revenue. The pipeline carries about 650,000 barrels a day of crude oil, about 10 percent of U.S. production.

The North Slope production slowdown is the second Alyeska has requested since Tuesday's spill. Alyeska asked that production be slashed to 16 percent of normal right after discovering Tuesday's spill.

ADVERTISEMENT

Less than a day's production can be stored on the North Slope, and the new production slowdown means the storage tanks there won't be full until midday Friday.

Investigators from six state and federal agencies headed to the pump station to investigate the accident.

Although the spill was contained within the pump station site, "some procedures weren't properly implemented, apparently" said Mike Thompson, the state pipeline director at the Joint Pipeline Office, a group of federal and state agencies that regulate the pipeline.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/05/26/1295235/responders-move-slowly-on-alaska.h...

BP requests one Texas judge hear ALL suits filed against BP.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/26/94887/bp-wants-houston-judge-with-...

[excerpt]

MIAMI — Facing more than 100 lawsuits after its Gulf of Mexico oil spill killed 11 workers and threatened four coastal states, oil giant BP is asking the courts to place every pre-trial issue in the hands of a single federal judge in Houston.

That judge, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, has traveled the world giving lectures on ethics for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, a professional association and research group that works with BP and other oil companies. The organization pays his travel expenses.

Hughes has also collected royalties from several energy companies, including ConocoPhillips and Devon Energy, from investments in mineral rights, his financial disclosure forms show.

Hughes, appointed to the bench in 1985 by then-President Ronald Reagan, declined to comment for this report.

Legal experts say the request for a single judge, while not unprecedented, is unusual, and they surmise BP is seeking rulings from a judge well-versed in the company's issues.

Edward Sherman, a law professor at Tulane University in New Orleans who has closely followed the BP legal maneuvers, said BP probably studied Hughes' past rulings and his caseload before suggesting he take the cases.

"Obviously, another factor is they would like to have a judge who understands their point of view," Sherman said.

Hughes is "well known as a competent judge," Sherman added.

No one has suggested that Hughes — or any judge — would rule a certain way before hearing the evidence. Records show the jurist has ruled both for and against the industry — including one ruling on behalf of oil companies later overturned on appeal.

In court papers, BP said Hughes should handle the cases because he is already hearing one class-action case, filed by a group of Vietnamese-American fishermen after the spill, and has presided over complex, multi-jurisdictional cases in the past.

The company wants all of the oil spill lawsuits — at least 98 as of May 21 — to be heard in Houston because that's the home of BP's American headquarters, where many witnesses and records are located, and where many of the suits have been filed. BP is facing suits in at least seven different courts in five states, including Florida.

BP requested the judge in papers filed with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, as part of a larger request to have all pre-trial matters decided in one court to save time and money. The special panel of judges will decide in July if the BP suits should be consolidated in a single court — and if Hughes should handle the cases.

Shrewd lawyers often try to steer cases to judges viewed as potentially sympathetic to their arguments, said Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, an assistant professor of law at Florida State University.

"Sometimes they will ask for a judge by name," Burch said. "Other times, they are a bit wilier about what they'll ask for, so it looks less blatant."

Other lawyers were surprised that BP was seeking to select its own judge; in both state and federal courts, cases are typically assigned to judges randomly.

[end excerpt]

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/26/94887/bp-wants-houston-judge-with-...

U.S. police chiefs say Arizona immigration law will increase crime

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2010

Arizona's new crackdown on illegal immigration will increase crime in U.S. cities, not reduce it, by driving a wedge between police and immigrant communities, police chiefs from several of the state's and the nation's largest cities said Wednesday.

Arizona's law will intimidate crime victims and witnesses who are illegal immigrants and divert police from investigating more serious crimes, chiefs from Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia said before meeting with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to discuss the measure. Counterparts from Phoenix, Tucson, San Jose and Montgomery County, among others, joined them.

"This is not a law that increases public safety. This is a bill that makes it much harder for us to do our jobs," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. "Crime will go up if this becomes law in Arizona or in any other state."

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, four states have introduced their own versions of the Arizona law, which defines illegal immigration as criminal trespassing and requires police to request documents of anyone they stop and have a "reasonable suspicion" is in the country illegally.
Continue reading here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR201005...

http://www.archiveofthenow.org

Deportation Nightmare: Eduardo Caraballo, US Citizen Born In Puerto Rico, Detained As Illegal Immigrant
Updated: 05-26-10 09:53 AM

Eduardo Caraballo, a U.S. citizen born in the United States, was detained for over three days on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant.

Despite presenting identifying documents and even his birth certificate, Caraballo was held by federal immigration authorities over the weekend and threatened with deportation, according to an NBC Chicago report. He was only released when his congressman, Luis Gutierrez -- a vocal supporter of immigration reform -- intervened on his behalf.

Caraballo was born in Puerto Rico, making him a natural-born citizen of the United States. He moved to the mainland as an infant, and now lives in Chicago.

Last week, NBC reports that he was arrested in connection with a stolen car in Berwyn. Caraballo maintains his innocence. In any case, when his mother posted bail on Friday, he was not freed.

"Instead of being released, he was told by authorities that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was detaining him because he was an illegal immigrant," NBC reports.

Caraballo spent the weekend in the custody of federal immigration agents. When he presented them with ID and his birth certificate, he says officials were skeptical: "Because of the way I look, I have Mexican features, they pretty much assumed that my papers were fake."

Only after his congressman interceded was Caraballo set free.

Rep. Gutierrez, a Chicagoan who is himself of Puerto Rican descent, is a long-time advocate of immigration reform. He was one of the first and loudest voices on the Hill to speak out against the Arizona immigration law, and he was recently arrested at a protest demanding fairer treatment for immigrants and their families.

"It gets worse," Gutierrez said in an interview. "We know of instances in which young people in his same situation are actually taken to the border and deported from the United States.

Not surprisingly, the nine-term Democratic congressman saw a disturbing connection to the situation in the Grand Canyon State.

"In Arizona, they want everybody to be able to prove they're legally in the country. They want everybody to prove that they're an American citizen. Here we had an American citizen, that the federal government... could not determine, for more than three days, his status as an American citizen. It's very, very, very dangerous ground to tread."

According to NBC Chicago, Caraballo "is considering legal action." Meanwhile, he and his congressman hope the incident will open people's eyes to the dangers of profiling.

Watch Eduardo Caraballo and Luis Gutierrez speak to NBC reporters:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/deportation-nightmare-edu_n_588...

...and maybe ICE authorities could benefit from iCivics.

From my newspaper--

In a speech at Catholic University (part of the law school's lecture series), Justice Antonin Scalia praised Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Scalia said Kagan's plus was never having been a judge.

------

I bet Opus Dei Scalia liked that Kagan was a good soldier in arguing in tandem with the Vatican that the Vatican has no liability in pedophile cases the Vatican instructed its Bishops to cover-up.

On May 26, 2010, RMCO and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report on the special places around the Gulf of Mexico threatened by oil from the BP blowout. The report identifies 15 national and state parks and wildlife areas at risk of oil contamination, and documents the resources that are in peril.

Those resources include much of what makes the Gulf of Mexico such an environmentally rich area: fish and fishing, beaches and wetlands, coral reefs, and many of the wildlife species so important to Americans, including critically threatened whooping cranes and sea turtles, manatees, and bottlenose dolphins.

The top 15 parks and wildlife areas identified:

Breton National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana
Pass a Loutre Wildlife Management Area, Louisiana
Delta National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana
Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana
Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi and Florida
Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Mississippi and Alabama
Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Alabama
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Florida
Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge, Florida
Everglades National Park, Florida
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Florida
Key West National Wildlife Refuge, Florida
Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas
Padre Island National Seashore, Texas

http://www.rockymountainclimate.org/reports_2.htm

http://samsedershow.com/node/5845

Everytime I hear this spot, spoken by President Obama, I add the words, "End war and wage peace." Just a futile exercise on my part, I know.

http://www.fatherhood.gov/media/messages/index.cfm

[excerpt]

Transcript
Length: 30 Seconds
As Produced
President Obama: To be a good father is the most important job in a man's life, but it doesn't have to be hard. Play catch, go to a park or visit a zoo. Help your child with their homework. Sit down together for dinner. Ask them how their day was. Things get busy, and sometimes we all fall short, but the smallest moments can have the biggest impact on a child's life. Take time to be a dad today.

[end excerpt]

Pristine Arctic wildlife breeding ground scheduled to be victimized by SHELL OIL via offshore oil drilling.

Malloy reading about the planned rape of the Beaufort Sea by SHELL OIL.

http://www.altonaecho.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2575972

[excerpt]

... in light of an ever-spreading spill that is now visible from space, that this free-market free-for-all in the high seas will be revisited by the Harper Government, and all development efforts be capped until science and common sense catch up with corporate greed and government collusion.

[end excerpt]

=======

Even what the oil industry would consider a 'clean' operation does not belong in the Arctic eco-system. Even the smallest "spill" would be impossible to deal with.

But the Oil Industry is insatiable. (We consumers are NOT insatiable for oil. If the Authorities gave us consumers green sustainable forms energy systems, we'd be obedient then, too.)

http://www.galdu.org/web/index.php?odas=4217&giella1=eng

[excerpt]

Secretary Salazar’s approval of Shell’s 2010 Arctic Ocean drilling runs directly counter to other Obama administration initiatives to reverse the previous administration’s short-sighted and destructive Arctic policies and instead develop a science-based approach to managing the region. The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force has identified proactive, science-based management of the Arctic as a priority. The Department of Commerce has adopted a protective Arctic Fisheries Management Plan that closes the Arctic Ocean to commercial fishing until more scientific information is available. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has also warned about the dangers of the rush to drill in the Arctic. Everyone agrees that large gaps remain in our scientific understanding of the Arctic Ocean – as the U.S. Arctic Research Commission stated, the Arctic is the “least studied and most poorly understood area on Earth.”

The Arctic is also a region under great stress from climate change. The Arctic ecosystem depends on sea ice to thrive. As climate change ravages the region – the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world – this sea ice melts at a rapid pace. Scientists now predict that summer sea ice could be gone within a decade, threatening the very existence of species such as polar bears, seals, and walrus, that make the ice their home. Industrial development in these waters will only compound the problems.

Shell’s drilling threatens oil spills. Nonetheless, the Minerals Management Service downplays the risks and impacts of oil spills, saying that they simply won’t happen. If a large oil spill occurred, there is no technology and little capacity to adequately clean it up in the Arctic´s icy conditions. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen noted in a recent Senate committee field hearing in Alaska that this lack of capacity to clean up a spill in the Arctic could spell disaster for the Arctic´s pristine waters. An oil well blow-out like the one that recently fouled waters off the coast of Australia for over two months before being capped could leave oil in the ice and water and along the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for decades. This would likely kill polar bears, birds, whales, seals, and fish and would devastate the subsistence culture of Alaska Native coastal communities.

Shell’s planned drilling in both seas, as well as other offshore oil activities currently contemplated, would take place along a key migratory route for the endangered bowhead whale - a critical subsistence source of food for the Inupiat people of Alaska´s North Slope. A Shell survey of the area showed large numbers of bowhead whales resting and feeding in waters proposed for drilling in the Beaufort Sea. This region also provides essential habitat for the threatened polar bear, and supports ringed seals, bearded seals, spotted seals, Pacific walrus, beluga whales, over sixty species of fish, and several million birds.

[end excerpt]

Justice Scalia Praises Elena Kagan’s Lack of Judicial Experience
May 26, 2010 8:59 PM

Obama Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has been criticized by some Republican senators for lacking judicial experience. But Justice Antonin Scalia, the High Court’s most outspoken conservative, said Wednesday that he likes that the former Harvard Law School dean and Solicitor General is not currently a judge.

“When I first came to the Supreme Court, three of my colleagues had never been a federal judge,” said Scalia who joined the Court in 1986 after being nominated by President Reagan. “William Rehnquist came to the Bench from the Office of Legal Counsel. Byron White was Deputy Attorney General. And Lewis Powell who was a private lawyer in Richmond and had been president of the American Bar Association.”

“Currently, there is nobody on the Court who has not served as a judge --indeed, as a federal judge -- all nine of us,” he continued. “. . . I am happy to see that this latest nominee is not a federal judge – and not a judge at all.”

Scalia made his remarks about Kagan while delivering the Second Annual Judge Thomas A. Flannery Lecture.

Flannery, who passed away in 2007, is a 1940 graduate of the Columbus School of Law which is now part of The Catholic University of America. The speech was delivered in the Ceremonial Courtroom at the United States Courthouse in Washington, D.C.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/05/justice-scalia-praises-e...
______________________

Justice Scalia: Kagan's lack of judicial experience no bar to Supreme Court
By Robert Barnes
Thursday, May 27, 2010

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's lack of judicial experience got a high-profile defense Wednesday night from a prospective colleague: Justice Antonin Scalia.

Scalia said the court would benefit from having someone who has not been a judge.

"Currently, there is nobody on the court who has not served as a judge -- indeed, as a federal judge -- all nine of us," he told an audience at the Ceremonial Courtroom at the U.S. Courthouse in Washington. " . . . I am happy to see that this latest nominee is not a federal judge -- and not a judge at all."

ABC News first reported Scalia's remarks, which came as he delivered the annual Judge Thomas A. Flannery Lecture.

Kagan, the first female U.S. solicitor general, is the former dean of Harvard Law School. She also worked in the Clinton administration. But some Republican senators have criticized her because she has never been a judge.

Scalia has said previously that he doesn't believe judicial experience is a prerequisite, and that when he joined the Supreme Court, three of his colleagues had never served on the bench.

Scalia has also been friendly with Kagan in the past. He alluded to that last week, when he and Justice Stephen G. Breyer testified before a congressional committee on administrative law.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR201005...
______________________

Justices Breyer and Scalia testified about the Administrative Conference of the United States, which provides administrative support for the federal judicial system. They both talked about their experiences working on the Administrative Conference of the United States before serving on the Supreme Court. The Administrative Conference of ... Video and Read More:
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/ID/224560&start=3467&end=3529
_________________________

Elena Kagan Bio: 10 Little-Known Facts, From Socialism to Spitzer
Patricia Murphy and Lynn Sweet
Posted: 05/18/10

As a college student in the 1970s and '80s, she was deeply interested in the roots of socialism. Her net worth exceeds $1 million. She calls Eliot Spitzer a personal friend.

Those and other little-known facts about Elena Kagan were revealed Tuesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee released thousands of pages of information about her and her nomination to the Supreme Court. Along with a 200-page questionnaire, the committee release articles, speeches, letters and e-mails from Kagan's past, including her time as the dean of Harvard Law School and the solicitor general of the United States.

The documents give both fans and critics of Kagan a much fuller picture of the next woman who may occupy a seat on the high court, including:

1. She wrote her senior thesis at Princeton on socialism in New York City. In her 134-page thesis, Kagan thanked her brother Marc, "whose involvement in radical causes led me to explore the history of American radicalism,"and dedicated the paper to her parents. In the end, she concluded, "American radicals cannot afford to become their own worst enemy. In unity lies their only hope." Anyone tempted to conclude that Kagan's thesis topic makes her a socialist should remember that Chief Justice John Roberts wrote his senior college thesis on Marxism.

2. Kagan may already know the secret handshake. In 2005, Kagan helmed a panel with Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Stephen Breyer and was the toastmaster at a banquet honoring Appellate Judge Merrick Garland -- a runner-up for Kagan's spot as Supreme Court nominee. In 2008, she moderated panels or introduced panels with Justices Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Earlier this year, she was on a panel with the first female justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, delivered remarks at a dinner to honor Justice Anthony Kennedy, and spoke at an event to honor retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, the man she may soon replace.

3. Kagan was on the White House's very short list for SCOTUS. The White House contacted her for the first time more than a month before John Paul Stevens announced he would retire from the Supreme Court on April 9. Kagan got a call from White House counsel Bob Bauer on March 5, 2010, well before Stevens' official announcement, but, the White House suggested, only after Stevens had made it clear he was mulling retirement.

4. It takes a village to pick a Justice. After first getting a call from White House counsel Bob Bauer, Kagan met or spoke with at least 17 people and numerous "groups of people" and White House staff, including David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, the vice president and the president. One name conspicuously absent from the list of people she met with is White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

5. She has lost $500,000 since January 2009. On her financial disclosure reports, Kagan estimates her net worth at about $1.7 million, including $739,000 in cash and $824,000 in retirement accounts. While she's doing better than most, she's not doing as well as she was just a year ago, when she listed her net worth at $2.26 million. The difference between then and now is a home in Boston, which she listed as an asset at its 2004 purchase price of $1.4 million, which she no longer owns. She now reports she owns no house and no car; has no investments outside of her retirement accounts; and has no debt.

6. She has worked exclusively for Democrats. In 1988, Kagan worked as a researcher for the Dukakis for President campaign. In 1996, she worked briefly for President Bill Clinton's re-election effort while she was also working in the White House. In 2009, she began her work in the Obama administration.

7. Kagan has never tried a case to verdict. Although Kagan has gotten plenty of criticism from Republicans for her lack of judicial experience, she's gotten relatively little blowback for the fact that she had nearly no courtroom experience before becoming solicitor general in 2009. Since then, she has argued six cases before the Supreme Court.

8. She was once a reporter. Kagan was a writer and editor at her college newspaper, The Daily Princetonian, where she wrote frequently about about the school's football team, the Princeton Tigers, the faculty and the college's student body.

9. She has opinions on Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Although Kagan has historically held her opinions closely, she has spoken out twice about legal rights for detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. In 2005, she advocated for prisoners there to have legal representation. In 2007, she wrote a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to encourage him to have federal courts hear habeas petitions of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

10. Eliot Spitzer is a friend. In 2009, Kagan recused herself from a case involving The New York Times and Eliot Spitzer, the former New York governor who resigned amid scandal, because of her friendship with him. Spitzer was a classmate at Harvard Law.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/18/elena-kagan-bio-10-little-known-...

Submitted for her nomination and confirmation as Solicitor General:
http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/111thCongressExecutiveNomination...

Submitted by CeeCee on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 11:53pm.

thanks for this on Spizer and Scalia's friend Kagan. WHAT IS HER POSITION ON MONSANTO'S TAKE OVER OF THE SEED MARKET. I WANT A ROUND UP NEWS REPORT.

The italian girl with the chunky butt? Cool, glad to hear she escaped from the Scientologists. Those fuckers are scary, they eat performers like candy.

When you gonna get a real gig, Seder? Damn. Maybe you and Busey could go to Haiti together or something.

I would have washed some oil off some birds. I would admit that endless deepwater drilling will not solve out problems. i would admit how much fuel is wasted in war. I would show some balls and have a couple of show trials"

I would comment on the Israeli situation and ask the U.N to have an emergency meeting.

tomorrow we are back to remembering the total mess the cold hearted corporatists have created.

I think israel is radicalizing alot of hopeless people today and the US will suffer for our support of this out of control, Nuclear power. I am furious!

in town!

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