calculator needed

Useless Peace Envoy on the Planet

Tony and the Shah of Palestine

By YVONNE RIDLEY

Ever since a group of ordinary people from more than 40 different countries came together and set sail for Gaza have we seen various world leaders scramble to persuade Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza. Why? To honour the memory of those martyred by Israeli soldiers who shot nine unarmed peace activists at virtually point-blank range? Hell no!

They realize that people power has achieved more in that one heroic action, than any of them have achieved for the people of Palestine. And, despite that brutal episode, they know that more flotillas and convoys are being planned because people power is achieving more than anything else has over the past 60 years for the people of Palestine.

The so-called Middle East Peace Envoy Tony Blair certainly does not want to see any more flotillas sailing for Gaza. It’s not because he lies awake at night thinking about the deaths of those innocent humanitarian activists. No, Blair is afraid - very afraid - that people power will expose him for what he is, probably the most useless peace envoy on this planet. Exactly what has he done for the Palestinians since he took the job? Actually it would be easier to list what he hasn’t done:
http://www.counterpunch.org/ridley07062010.html

Government Launches Huge Attack on Poor

By P. SAINATH

India witnessed a major 'bandh' or general strike on Monday, July 65, with millions of people across the country responding to a stay-off work call. Vast regions of the country were affected by the strike which was total in some states. The general strike saw a wide array of opposition parties mobilize for a protest against the Congress-led UPA government's decision to decontrol petrol prices ("the market will set the price") and also hike diesel and kerosene (the latter used by very poor people) prices steeply. The hikes come at a time of already spiralling inflation. Food price inflation -- before the hikes -- was already touching 17 per cent and general inflation is into double digits. This article was written just as the strike began.

There was irony in the timing of the petrol price decontrol order. The decision, which affects hundreds of millions of people, came even as Manmohan Singh advised world leaders in Toronto on the need for “inclusive growth” and while we are still debating “food security” and how best that should be achieved in law. It came amid severe food price inflation. Who are we trying to “include” in that growth?

No less tragic was the media's reaction to the price decontrol. Even as Cabinet Ministers sought to distance themselves from it, the editorials mostly reeked of triumphalism: “Free at Last,” screamed one. “A bold, welcome move,” shrilled another headline. With rare exceptions, the edits — in contrast to the response of millions to Monday's strike— showed yet again how far the mass media are from mass reality.

Most of the time, as the late Murray Kempton used to say, the job editorial writers do, is to “come down from the hills after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.” The media have done that definition proud. There's even been an editorial on Bhopal in the same month that didn't wait for that battle to be over. It finds the villains of Bhopal to be the “activist industry that continues to milk the tragedy” and mourns the real tragedy: that “any corporation, across the world, would be forced to think twice before proudly announcing to its shareholders that it has set up an ancillary unit in Bhopal.” It does not once mention the words “Union Carbide.” Roll over Kempton. The shooting's on.
http://www.counterpunch.org/sainath07062010.html

...to know that it is ****ed up no matter how you look at it. The only way I would be happy is if they actually went green instead of putting green into producing and paying for advertisements trying to convince us they were.

In typical reThug fashion, saying it is just as good as being it. Besides, by dumbing down (and dumping on) America, few if any can can count to know the difference, and if they can, no one can get close enough to do so.

July 4, 2010
Gaps in Watchdog Journalism Reflected in News From a Trial
By DAVID CARR
Readers who came across a public radio blog documenting the five-week trial of a former Chicago police commander on charges of perjury and obstruction about cases involving torture under his command had to wonder where in the world WBEZ Chicago found so much expertise.

The blogger, John Conroy, went deep on the history of the case, often filling in context that testimony only hinted at, and seemed to know at least as much as the lawyers prosecuting the case.

As the trial was concluding, he wrote an item headlined “What the Jurors Don’t Know.”

What many readers did not know was that Mr. Conroy had been there since the beginning. Over two decades ago, Mr. Conroy, a longtime reporter for The Chicago Reader, an alternative weekly, began investigating a case involving reports that Lt. Jon Burge and men under his command in the Chicago Police Department — they were called “The Midnight Crew” — used an array of torture techniques, including electroshocks, to extract confessions.

Last Monday, a federal jury found former Lieutenant Burge guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice. That means Mr. Conroy, who was laid off from The Reader in 2007, is once again without a job, at least in journalism.

“I think it especially poignant that it comes to a resolution now and he ended up writing for the public radio outlet because there is not a newspaper in town that will pay him to do the job,” said Michael Lenehan, who was Mr. Conroy’s editor at The Chicago Reader in the early 1990s.

“The importance of his work can’t really be overstated. He is writing about good versus evil, right and wrong.”

Much has been made of the pullback in foreign bureaus by American news organizations, leaving brutal regimes uncovered and third-world corruption unchecked. But there are many domestic instances in which a police force or local government has turned on people in inappropriate ways and, given the growing gaps in accountability reporting, no one will be the wiser as time goes on.

Mr. Conroy’s work reflects constancy rare in an industry now stripped of years of institutional knowledge.

“Back when this all started, John took all of the evidence from the first trials and wrote a story called ‘House of Screams,’ about the screaming that was coming out of the interrogation room of Area 2 headquarters,” recalled G. Flint Taylor, a lawyer who represented victims of the police tactics.

After dozens of groundbreaking articles, a book and a play based on the reporting, Mr. Conroy would seem to have earned a measure of satisfaction, but he said what he felt most was worry, for himself and for a criminal justice system that was often inadequately covered by the press.

“This story is far from over,” Mr. Conroy said last week. “There are 20 men in prison who are there on the basis of suspect confessions, and no one is paying attention to them because investigative reporting is time-consuming and expensive and no one wants to pay for it. I’m not paying attention because I can’t afford to.

Continue to read here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/business/media/05conroy.html?_r=1&part...

It has nothing to with with Palestine and Peace, but everything to do w. Jewish support for the upcoming elections

----Norman Finkelstein dares to ask the question nobody else will

---
It's about money, not peace: Norman Finkelstein on Netanyahu visit to US

VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMVF3R4ceiU&feature=player_embedded

July 4, 2010
At Yahoo, Using Searches to Steer News Coverage
By JEREMY W. PETERS
Welcome to the era of the algorithm as editor.

For as long as hot lead has been used to make metal type, the model for generating news has been top-down: editors determined what information was important and then shared it with the masses.

But with the advent of technology that allows media companies to identify what kind of content readers want, that model is becoming inverted.

The latest and perhaps broadest effort yet in democratizing the news is under way at Yahoo, which on Tuesday will introduce a news blog that will rely on search queries to help guide its reporting and writing on national affairs, politics and the media.

Search-generated content has been growing on the Internet, linked to the success of companies like Associated Content, which Yahoo recently bought, and Demand Media, which has used freelance writers to create an online library of more than a million instructional articles.
Continue to read here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/business/media/05yahoo.html?_r=1&partn...

In the 77 days since oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has skimmed or burned about 60 percent of the amount it promised regulators it could remove in a single day
===
I heard this on Amy Goodman. I was not sure if she was saying that BP was burning or skimming 60% daily, or 60% was the total amount.

If Not Now, When?
Where the Hell is the Peace Movement?

By MISSY COMLEY BEATTIE

Peace activists with Peace of the Action (POTA) had just set up across from the White House when police officers arrived to shake their authority at Cindy Sheehan with a badass threat of six months in jail. Of course, she and Jon Gold knew they were under a stay-away order and couldn't put even a toenail over the line of demarcation--this order imposed after they were arrested March 20, 2010 and spent more than 50 hours behind bars for exercising shrinking rights to protest.

We POTA activists are focusing on a gargantuan dilemma--one that impacts our security with heartbreakingly vivid images of gushing oil, dead marine life, and a bleak prognosis for planet Earth. We gathered in Lafayette Park in DC across from the House occupied by an imperial president to declare freedom from oil addiction.

This declaration is significant. It addresses more than a cataclysmic rupture beneath the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It questions the meaning of humanity, our responsibility to our fellow human beings, and to other species with whom we share this planet. And it connects our energy consumption to endless war.

But here's the deal: our action was attended by less than 20 peaceniks. Where the hell is the peace movement? Do people who were outraged by the militarism of George Bush really believe that Obama is different--that he merely inherited a mess and just requires more time to "fix" the problem? Obama is George Bush, droning and drilling, the bedfellow of Big Oil.

And we were heckled--for expressing concern for the environment, for our troops, and for the civilians in the lands we've occupied. One guy walked by, laughed, and said, "Free Nelson Mandela."

read here
http://www.counterpunch.com/beattie07062010.html

--
"Do people who were outraged by the militarism of George Bush really believe that Obama is different? .....

Yes. And not only that. He hoodwinked them to such a degree that they now love killing, droning, and drilling. Can you spell I n s a n i t y?

Hillary ponders '012 run with McCain
Submitted by ghettodefender on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 6:32pm.
---

ghetto,
I can't find the info about Hillary.

Was it just a joke?

I actually wouldn't be surprised if she would go for it another time. Not w. McCain but anything is possible these days. It all depends how the fall elections turn out.

he blamed Holder for not prosecuting BP.
Obama can hire and fire who he wants so the onus is on the Potus.

The Benefits of Blowing Your Top
Submitted by taozen on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 1:05pm.

"The longing for President Obama to vent some fury at oil executives or bankers may run far deeper than politics."
------

Oh Please, Benedict Caray, where have you been in the last four years. Not observing Obama, that is for sure.

re oil execs and bankers Obama doesn't need his blowout preventer because they are his dear friends and they all work towards the same goal. So to keep his sang-froid in place is a piece of cake for him.

Many people find it hard to believe that Obama doesn't care about all that death and destruction. But Why should he? He indulges in exactly that on a daily basis: killing, drilling, droning ....

In summary, We just simply don't care about the same things. So why should he blow his top and vent fury at oil execs or bankers.

But that doesn't mean Obama misses his "emotional battery." He just saves his blow-up for different occasions? Maybe he had a bad day on the golf course, his dog ate his homework, or his teleprompter broke in the middle of a speech. In any case, People who appear suppressed like Obama wait until they are safely behind close doors before they blow their top.

Anyone remember his petulant and insecure behavior when the primaries didn't go well for him? Then totally losing his cool and Telling everyone during a debate that Hillary was "nice enough" with a look in his eyes that would peel the wallpaper of the wall? I am v. secure in my knowledge that there are times one wouldn't want to be with this person in the same room.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/health/06mind.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=hea...

President Obama will bypass Congress and appoint Dr. Donald M. Berwick, a health policy expert, to run Medicare and Medicaid, the White House said Tuesday.

Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, said the “recess appointment” was needed to carry out the new health care law, which calls for huge changes in the two programs, which together insure nearly one-third of all Americans.

Mr. Pfeiffer said the president would appoint Dr. Berwick on Wednesday. Mr. Obama decided to act because “many Republicans in Congress have made it clear in recent weeks that they were going to stall the nomination as long as they could, solely to score political points,” Mr. Pfeiffer said.
(more)

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/obama-bypassing-congress-o...

what do you think about meds like Fosamax for the treatment of osteoporosis.

Lots of people take these meds nowadays and I was wondering if
there is something bad about it -

also Do you have a favorite Health website you can suggest?

FOSAMAX HAS A LONG HISTORY OF TROUBLE. There is a very bad jaw bone problem. It was tauted as a super solution to osteoporosis.
Fosamax Side Effects - Serious Fosamax Side Effects, Osteonecrosis ...AKA 'DEAD JAW'
s bisphosphonate drug has been linked with the development of a number of Fosamax side effects. Fosamax users often suffer from a number of GI tract ...
www.yourlegalguide.com/fosamax-side-effects/ - Cached - Simila
=======
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870397680457511418134999939...

www.drpressman.com is my first choice. he has a radio show that you might listen to. Dr Alan pressman is really a very good teacher.My second choice for supplies and info is Master Pharmacist Jerry Hickey / Invite HEALTH
============
Listen To Jerry Hickey Every Sunday on WOR710 AM at 11am. This Week's Topic: Bone Health Today's Special Offer: Click here for Today's Invite Specials ...
www.invitehealth.com/invite-health-specials.html - Cache

--------
Strontium is now considered important to add to the calcium/ vitamin D3 and K2 basic bone formulas.

keeping the Body PH correct is very important for bone health.

also having enough hydrocloric acid in the stomach at the right time for proper assimilation/ digestion

read this for clarification:

http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.aspx?Id=1863

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

The following films are all Alex Jones films available on Netflix. Right now Netflix is streaming "Terrorstorm" and I watched it last night. I think he did a amazing job with this film. Its all about false flag. His docu about the terror attacks in England alone was worth watching the film. It was all staged, in the underground and the bus. Then there was this man from Brazil, "in his long coat" w. suspicious stuff hanging out" who was shot execution style by the brit. police. Turned out he just wore a T-shirt. I remember that so well when that happened.

You can see Terrorstorm also on Youtube. Its about 2 hours long and after that there is one hour about 9/11.

How Weed Won the West (2010)

The Obama Deception (2009)

Fall of the Republic (2009)

Police State 4: The Rise of FEMA (2009)

New World Order (2009)

Endgame: Blueprint for Global Enslavement (2007)

Terrorstorm (2006)

-------
I also watched another film about 9/11: 9/11 Press For Truth. This one is based partly on Paul Thompson's book The Terror Timeline. And how the Jersey widows pressed for the 9/11 truth and then were v. disappointed.
I forgot to check if its on YouTube. Probably is.

I am v. concerned that the electronic press and esp. all these great films and docus will be shut down thats why I am watching as much as I can these days.

ITA, I noticed how few people view some of the greatest youtubes. When I first came across the Ital. ZERO 9/11 film it was the German version and the first part (10 minutes) was viewd by ca. 70 000 people. Then it went down to 5000, 3000, etc. Thats such a pity because there is no way the mainstream media over there in Germany tells folks anything else but the "official" version.

re climate change and carbon tax
that is the weirdest thing ... I just started to get into it and began to study it. Btw. Where is Al Gore? That made me v. suspicious. Got an Oscar, Nobel, and vanished to become a Mogul. Thats what I read in "More" magazine although I don't really know what he is up to except he earns a fortune per speech. They had just built a monster of a house in 2006/7 or so.
But why is he not speaking out for the environment, the Oil gusher (???) the wars, the attack of the Gaza flotilla? Hello? Gore has a Nobel price. Shouldn't he do something like that? Unbelievable.

Thanks to you I found all these films, Nora. Remember when you posted about "Endgame" ... wasn't it that one? That was the first one I ever heard Alex Jones' name. Now I know all about "False Flag." Unbelievable.

I still have to watch Police State and the New World Order. The new one has a long waiting list on Netflix.

Don't forget to watch Terrorstorm. Its so worth it.

Talk to you later, Nora! Be strong!

xo

You know Mr. B. is taking Fosamax for his back. This doesn't sound good and we better study all the info you gave.

And should find a a different kind of meds then, I suppose.

You are the blog doctor, taozen, so smart.

I'll be back ;-))

Pap spoke up for Obama today
new
Submitted by taozen on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 8:28pm.
he blamed Holder for not prosecuting BP.
Obama can hire and fire who he wants so the onus is on the Potus.
=======================

Hello, Taozen. Hello, Bridge.

Most days I listen to each show on the progressive dial and sometimes it appears as if a mist pours out from the ethers and engulf some radio folks and callers: The moment there is a direct attack on Obama predicated on Obama's own awful actions, someone is ready to leap to his defense.

Sometimes there may be an explanation about Obama not being as bad as Bush(/Cheney) to justify their words. "Not as bad as Bush"? WHAT would it take to be as bad as Bush? Flipping us the finger and being unable to finish grammatical sentences? Anything better than that makes Obama worthy of being defended? (If just having had a sadistic, arrested development, sleazebag like Bush in office to LOWER THE BAR now makes any behavior "better" -- that is wrong thinking. Obama's behavior must no longer be measured against Commander and Thief Bush's behavior, but against the best behavior of those who are BETTER than Obama.)

This particular knee-jerk behavior -- in psychology or politics in my view -- is CONFLICTED behavior. Just the fact that someone protects Obama's every move, looks to me like their resolve for their own progressive ideals is being denied temporarily, or weakened, or overwhelmed. How do they do and still remain resolved to pursue progressive accomplishments. Does it seem like the knee-jerk reaction is going away or getting more pronounced? For me, these defenses are by now glaring.

I mean, if they want to praise Obama for actual decent actions, that is fine with me. That seems realistic and, one would hope (at least in a normal world) wise encouragement of what good any person might do.

But to defend Obama against those who are pursuing a full discussion of events, and who point out Obama's FAILURES and ASSAULTS (like turning the actions of a free press at the Gulfcoast into a felony) in pursuit of full assessment of what Obama is doing is dangerous folly -- dangerous to each situation at hand, to the country, and to the balanced thinking of the progressive who makes the case for Obama's defense where such a defense is NOT deserved ON PRINCIPLE.

But I blather toooo long!

Taozen says it best with "Onus on the POTUS".

Note map of dead zone at link.

About the dead zone; it is in an area where there are a lot of oilwells already. Is it possible the dead zone was not the sole result of agricultural-runoff? Could some of the oilwells in the area have used dispersants in the past to hide their spills? Also, if the area lacks oxygen, why don't they just get some oxygen in that water like they do in collection farms on ponds or a large version of aerators like folks use in their fish tanks? Put some oil platforms out there rigged with big aerators that go deep, and get some bubbles down there, for god's sake.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/06/MNF91E84SL.D...

[excerpt]

Each year, nitrogen used to fertilize corn, about a third of which is made into ethanol, leaches from Midwest croplands into the Mississippi River and out into the gulf, where the fertilizer feeds giant algae blooms. As the algae dies, it settles to the ocean floor and decays, consuming oxygen and suffocating marine life.

Known as hypoxia, the oxygen depletion kills shrimp, crabs, worms and anything else that cannot escape. The dead zone has doubled since the 1980s and is expected this year to grow as large as 8,500 square miles and hug the Gulf Coast from Alabama to Texas.

As to which is worse, the oil spill or the hypoxia, "it's a really tough call," said Nathaniel Ostrom, a zoologist at Michigan State University. "There's no real answer to that question."

Some scientists fear the oil spill will worsen the dead zone, because when oil decomposes, it also consumes oxygen. New government estimates on Thursday indicated that the BP oil spill had gushed as much as 141 million gallons since an oil-rig explosion and well blowout on April 20 that killed 11 workers.

[more at link]

I found this--

http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/about/board_bios/donald-m-berwick.ht...

But I don't know how to interpret this further than Berwick looks like a Conventional, Establishment guy.

What's your read, Taozen?

I watched ZERO, An Investigation into 9/11 and it was a not only informative but also it was a well-made film. Thanks.

Things in it I'd never seen described and shown so thoroughly anywhere else--

o that examples of giant chunks of Twin Towers steel embedded in neighboring buildings; explosion demolition vs. implosion demolition

o that the samples analyzed showed that the thermite used was made up of a fourth ingredient added to the usual three ingredient formula that resulted in a hotter incendiary, and that that is the Pentagon's type of thermite

o and I always wonder where some of these folks are now (like William Rodriguez, the janitor who heard explosions in the tower BEFORE the plane struck, risked his life to take the keys and open all the stairwell doors so folks could flee)

RE: your recommendations--

I did see Fall of the Republic on account of one of your earlier posts about it.

I saw The Obama Deception last year.

But I think I've seen parts of these other Jones' videos, but will look them up.

BTW--Have you seen 9/11 Mysteries?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwayjX4ipFc

And Painful Deceptions is an earlier 9/11 video and long, but interesting and unique in parts--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_q6j6BZkHQ&feature=related

This is one I still intend to watch -- The Creature from Jekyll Island on the creation of the Federal Reserve in the 19teens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7auQEXTWomA&feature=related

I think one of your posts or somebody's here got me to see the Jersey Moms' video Press for Truth about the issues around the 9/11 Commission. Very moving; I was in awe of their perseverence and courage.

I'm halfway through Terrorstorm Final Cut. Thanks for reminding me to complete that one! Endgame I saw one night when I was very tired many moons ago, and I probably should look it over again.

All the others I need to add to my list.

Thanks, Bridge!

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/debunking-the-war-on-terror.html

So much for the First Lady's organic garden at the White House.

http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=slowed_food_revolution

[excerpt]

Slowed Food Revolution

Obama seeks to boost demand for organic food but doesn't offer meaningful support for the people who grow it.

Heather Rogers | July 6, 2010

...
When the eco-friendly, food-savvy Obamas rolled into D.C., they sparked hope for a renovation of the nation's agricultural priorities. The first family promptly ripped up a plot on the White House lawn, and at the urging of Alice Waters, planted an organic vegetable garden. Michelle Obama invited local school kids to collect its first harvest. Wholesomeness and health were the message -- eating right, being environmentally responsible, enjoying nature. It looked like non-industrial food was poised to finally reclaim its place at America's dinner table.

But, as George W. Bush's before it, President Barack Obama's Department of Agriculture is doing little to ensure the survival of Pitts and thousands of other holistic local farmers. Obama is making some changes at the USDA, but they're the type of improvements that appear larger than they really are. Sustainable agriculture proponents don't want to complain because finally they're getting something. But these incremental changes won't be enough to ensure farmers can stay on their land and sell their produce at reasonable rates. Neither will they clear the path for a new generation of farmers to participate in remaking the food system.

While the public and organic advocates may be wooed by feel-good photo-ops, the fact is Obama has yet to get his hands dirty and truly commit to reforming the industry. The stakes are high: Unless the administration takes immediate steps to remake oligopolistic, fossil-fuel reliant, scorched-earth agriculture, the small farmers meant to lead the way will remain critically endangered.

[more at link]

http://samsedershow.com/node/5897
that's how we roll these days, tex
we roll on the crest of poetic foreplay
(don't ask me what the means)
(it was inspired by tz's droll poetic summaries of current events)

yes, we had to purge the bitches & back stabbers
after sam refused to wish the snarly old wench toni the toothless hag a happy birthday
(hee-hee)
(re-writing history is fun-fun, boy)
(he said with one tooth wide open)
(don't ask me what that means)
(it was inspired by one of gd's wry headings that mesmerized bridge's imagination @ 7:59pm)

see we're an exclusive jewish enclave of free speech & wild-eyed conspiracy sex machines
[see Sunshine Jim on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 12:38am]
and everybody is simulataneously invited, barred, defrocked & disrobed...
yeeeah!
that's how we roll, knuckles
even i, the mighty ono, have to beg at the tootsies of ceecee just to get a look in
and while i'm down there i have a look up...
does that make me a bad person
or opportunist?
: )

what a peach that tom tomorrow is...
he sensibly flays the sensible liberal's bubble-gum rationale
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/comics/this_modern_world/2010/06/29/t...

(don't ask me what bubble-gum rationale means)
(it was inspired by something not related to anything)
(anyway...)
sorry, my darlings
have been away
i won't bore you with the reasons why...
but that's no excuse to ditch the time honoured tradition of screeching new fucking thread!
when there's a new fucking thread!

Yea though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me MICKEY!
mickey is the way, the truth, and our salvation!
watch as he leads these 2 blind fucks to
to...
to tu-tu land
and unregulated capitalism
which is anarchy in it's purest form

EM-EYE-SEE
KAY-EE-WHY
EM-OH-YOU-ESS-EE...

(the horror)
(it never leaves, never gets old, never rests)

Later in the day, DeMar introduced Gary North to the attendees... North is a son-in-law of the late Rousas J. Rushdoony, who is widely touted as the founder of Christian Reconstructionism...

North has called for the death penalty, like Rushdoony did, for youngsters who curse their parents, gays and others who violate his interpretation of biblical law. He has argued that stoning is the preferred means of capital punishment, noting that it is a communal activity and "the implements of execution are available to everyone at virtually no cost."

hey that sounds like fun, mr. north (yay)
http://www.truth-out.org/article/christian-reconstructionists-trying-tak...

“Please don’t put your faith in market forces [emphasis in original]. It’s a popular idea: that Adam Smith’s invisible hand would do a better job of designing care than leaders with plans can. I find little evidence that market forces relying on consumers choosing among an array of products, with competitors fighting it out, leads to the healthcare system you want and need. In the U.S., competition is a major reason for our duplicative, supply driven, fragmented care system.”

Berwick also outlined his 10 suggestions for Britain’s National Health Service at a speech he delivered in Wembley, England, on July 1, 2008. In the speech, Berwick said that the health care choices made by “leaders” will be better than the choices that individuals make for themselves.

“I cannot believe that the individual health care consumer can enforce through choice the proper configurations of a system as massive and complex as health care. That is for leaders to do,” Berwick said.

Berwick delivered his speech and wrote his article to commemorate the 60th birthday of Britain’s single-payer, government-run health-care system. In his article, in wishing the system “happy birthday,” he urged the British to keep going with their system because the world needed “an example at scale of a health system that is universal, accessible, excellent, and free at the point of care.”

"The only sentiment I feel for the NHS that exceeds my admiration is my hope," said Berwick. "I hope you will never, ever give up on what you have begun. I hope you realise and reaffirm how badly you need—how badly the world needs—an example at scale of a health system that is universal, accessible, excellent, and free at the point of care—a health system that, at its core, is like the world we wish we had: gener ous, hopeful, confident, joyous, and just. Happy birthday."

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who serves on the Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight over Berwick’s nomination, told CNSNews.com that he believes Berwick misunderstands the American health care system.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/66553

Dr. Berwick seems Ok to me. he is quite like Alan Grayson in attitude. ,
I think he is a very good choice By Obama . I can see why the rethugs dont like him. he plans to move forward and to really try and distrubute health care services more fairly. He will mess up the "for profit only system "that the rethugs love. he supports Single payer health care system that the British have had for 60 years.

He ia good choice by Obama. He is too good a guy for the greedy rethugs to handle,but they know he is squeeky clean and has the right motives.. Obama did the right thing in pushing this guy in at recess
++++++++++++
I also think pushing Dr. Berwick in,even for the short term is a manly thing our easily pushed around Pres has made. there I said it Obama did a good thing here.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/faculty/DonaldBerwick.html

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement -- The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a Boston-based, independent, non-profit organization working since 1991 to accelerate improvement in health care systems in the United States, Canada, and Europe by fostering collaboration, rather than competition, among health care organizations. IHI provides bridges connecting people and organizations that are committed to real health care reform and who believe they can accomplish more by working together than they can separately

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2010/June/30/Donald-Berwick-Reso...

I think after reading it you can see Dr. Berwick's good points.

snipped

we should get our terminology right here - the Japanese ships are RESEARCH vessels and the crew are RESEARCH STAFF. If you keep calling them whalers - then the ships and the crew are in contravention of international law and they then have no rule of law on the sea since they're essentially pirates

Separately, Japan has said the leader of Sea Shepherd, Canadian citizen Paul Watson, 59, is now on an Interpol wanted list for allegedly ordering Bethune's actions as part of the group's disruption of Japanese whaling in the Antarctic. Watson was placed on the Interpol list in late June at the request of Japan, which accuses his group of risking whalers' lives during their expedition.

Still, on Wednesday, the group called Bethune "a hero" and said his mission helped save hundreds of whales which were to be killed by Japan

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100707/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_whaling;_ylt=Ak...

"Last week, we launched a first-of-its-kind website that makes it easier to find health care coverage and clearly explains how new rules like the Patient’s Bill of Rights in the Affordable Care Act will benefit you, your family, or your business.

"While technology has made it easier to search for plane tickets or to find the right apartment, shopping for private health insurance plans has remained difficult for too long. HealthCare.gov takes some of the mystery out of shopping for health insurance.

"Just answer a few easy questions, and HealthCare.gov will provide all the coverage options that are right for you, including public and private health insurance tailored to your age, location, and health needs. The site also helps Americans make informed decisions about health care coverage by offering easy to understand information about new benefits and protections for individuals, families and employers.

"The site is easy to use and comprehensive, and it’s only going to get better. Throughout the site, there are places to ask questions and give feedback, and the team at the Department of Health and Human Services will be responding to common questions and updating content based on your feedback. In October, the site will include information on the price of health insurance plans and we’ll be adding other new features like tools to help you stay healthy and a database of hospital quality ratings.

"The launch of HealthCare.gov is just one of many steps we have taken to strengthen the health care system for all Americans since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Here are a few others:

---Parents can now rest a little easier knowing that insurance companies will be prohibited from denying children coverage because of a preexisting condition or putting a cap on the amount of benefits that will be paid in lifetime;

---Young adults up to age 26 without insurance will be able to get on their parent’s plan;

---Seniors hitting a gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage known as the “donut hole” are getting $250 checks; and

---Small businesses are now eligible for tax credits to help them afford coverage for employees.

"But there is much more to be done. Be sure to check out HealthCare.gov regularly to stay current about benefits available to you and informed about what’s ahead."

Sincerely,

Nancy-Ann DeParle
Director, White House Office of Health Reform

P.S. TODAY Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will be answering your questions about HealthCare.gov and the Affordable Care Act at 12 noon EDT. You can submit your questions head of time at: http://www.youtube.com/whitehouse

TODAY Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will be answering your questions about HealthCare.gov and the Affordable Care Act at 12 noon EDT. You can submit your questions head of time at: http://www.youtube.com/whitehouse

"...this black Upstart from the Us he works for our side."

Johnny Rotten has explained the lyrics as follows: "You don't write a song like 'God Save The Queen' because you hate the English race. You write a song like that because you love them, and you're fed up of seeing them mistreated."

God save the Queen
The facist regime
They made you a moron
Potential h-bomb

God save the Queen
She ain't no human being
There's no future
In England's dreaming

Don't be told what you want
Don't be told what you need
There's no future, no future
No future for you

God save the Queen
We mean it man
We love our Queen
God saves

God save the Queen
'Cos those tourists are money
And our figure head
Is not what she seems

Oh God save history
God save your mad parade
Oh Lord God have mercy
All crimes are paid

When there's no future
How can there be sin
We're the flowers in the dustbin
We're the poison in the human machine
we're the future, your future

God save the Queen
We mean it man
We love our Queen
God saves

God save the Queen
We mean it man
And there's no future
In England's dreaming

No future (x3)
For you
No future (x3)
For me
No future (x3)
For you
No future, no future
For you

"God Save the Queen" was the second single released by the punk rock band Sex Pistols. It was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977. The record's lyrics, as well as the cover, were controversial at the time, and both the BBC and the Independent Broadcasting Authority refused to play the song.

The single reached number one on the NME charts in the UK, but only made it to #2 on the official UK Singles Chart as used by the BBC. This led to accusations by some that the charts had been "fixed" to prevent the song from reaching number one. In March 2001, the BBC wrote that the single "reached number one in the UK in 1977 despite being banned by the BBC".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Save_the_Queen_%28Sex_Pistols_song%29

Hillary ponders '012 run with McCain
Submitted by bridge on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 7:59pm.

ghetto,
I can't find the info about Hillary.

Was it just a joke?

The joke's on us. I keep expecting barack to name Lieberman as his 2nd term running mate.

you jammy bastard (ie, you lucky person)
without a word of a lie, if my internets weren't down
i would have posted this half an hour ago...

ELLWORT...
REMEMBERS THE OLD DAYS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt5fAU7tNxY

the isp peoples must be doing maintenance work
or my puter has picked up a virus...

man, i don't know but sometimes
sometimes i feel like i'm being shagged by an 'orrible 'arf goat-man
ever get that feelin', sid?

fuckin' a!
fuckin' 'arf goat-person
fuckin' 'ate 'em

By Gilbert Achcar

July 07, 2010

Negotiating in good faith

Abba Eban, the most sophisticated foreign minister Israel ever had, is said to have declared in 1973, after the aborted Peace Conference that was convened in Geneva in December of that year: "The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." The saying accords with Eban's speech at this conference when, after emphasizing that "a new opportunity is born," he declared: "We have no way of knowing whether this opportunity will be fulfilled or wasted. ... Israel for its part is resolved to seize the chance."

Those were the times when Israel could present itself as a seeker of peace confronted by Arab governments and political forces that were still reluctant to negotiate with it, let alone conclude a peace. Syria indeed boycotted the Geneva Conference, although the gathering was cosponsored by its patron, the Soviet Union. Its attitude was not altogether negative, however, and soon after, in May 1974, Damascus signed a military disengagement agreement with Israel. In the following years, the boldest initiatives in seeking a Middle East peace agreement were indisputably taken by Arab leaders.

---
The UN 1947 partition resolution could not have been reasonably accepted by any Arab leader -- or by any people in their shoes, for that matter. Accepting it would have amounted to capitulation without battle and relinquishment of fundamental rights. As for sympathy for the plight of Jewish Holocaust survivors, the Arabs, let alone the Palestinians, could legitimately say that they had already accommodated much more than their fair share of them, compared with the rest of the world, especially the victors of World War II. On the other hand, the League of Arab states had made a peace offer that is hardly mentioned in the propagandistic literature that prevails on this topic. Their proposal was summed up by the UN Special Commission on Palestine in September 1947:

(a) That Palestine should be a unitary State, with a democratic constitution and an elected legislative assembly,

(b) That the constitution should provide, inter alia, guarantees for (i) the sanctity of the Holy Places and, subject to suitable safeguards, freedom of religious practice in accordance with the status quo; (ii) full civil rights for all Palestine citizens, the naturalization requirement being ten years' continuous residence in the country; (iii) protection of religious and cultural rights of the Jewish community, such safeguards to be altered only with the consent of the majority of the Jewish members in the legislative assembly,

(c)That the constitution should provide also for (i) adequate representation in the legislative assembly of all important communities, provided that the Jews would in no case exceed one-third of the total number of members [that is, the proportion of Jews in the Palestinian population in 1947, regardless of the date on which they immigrated]; (ii) the strict prohibition of Jewish immigration and the continuation of the existing restrictions on land transfer, any change in these matters requiring the consent of a majority of the Arab members of the legislative assembly; (iii) the establishment of a Supreme Court which would be empowered to determine whether any legislation was inconsistent with the constitution.

http://www.zcommunications.org/israel-the-writing-on-the-wall-by-gilbert...

Submitted by Leah on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 12:16pm.

How are the British still pulling all the strings since the end of WW2?

are they the ones who are the primary controllers of oil and banking monies?

the Queen's visit infuriated me. and seeing Bloomberg shaking her hand with that Puppy dog love look in his face?

I assume as Business first Jew Bloomberg is thankful for the British solution at the end of WW2. but does he remember how the British sabotaged any realistic solution. The queen acts all polished and together without an ounce of remorse for the trouble the British have caused.

Climate scientists at a top UK research unit have emerged from an inquiry with their reputations for honesty intact but with a lack of openness criticised.

snip

Monday, a review commissioned by the Dutch government into the IPCC's projections of climate impacts found "no errors that would undermine the main conclusions" - that man-made climate change poses a significant threat in many regions of the world.

Dr Chris Huntingford from the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, said that research in to the global environment had shifted in the last two decades, from being "an intellectual curiosity, to one of utmost importance".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10538198.stm

HEAR? ;)
Tea Cheers but needing more Tea. Had to be doing work & errands and even spoke before City Hall about "them" draining Underwater Creek -- only water for Wildlife in area {grrr}.
And have been even sleeping a bit more. :o

B1 Campaign
It is not enough to read about Authentic Patriotism. If you share the belief that people who act in common purpose for the good of the country are essential to restoring America, don’t just admire authentic patriots. Be one. Be one.

That is the thrust of the B1 campaign: to empower all Americans over the age of 10 to participate in some endeavor that serves the public good – for the difference it will make in the lives of needy people, for the contribution it will make to national strength, for the positive impact it will have on the economy, and for the emotional enrichment people will receive by participating in a cause larger than themselves.

The campaign has five parts:

Click here for a list of organizations profiled or mentioned in Authentic Patriotism. You’ll also find a link to a site that lists 72,000 nonprofit ventures across the country – making to easy to find one in or near your community.
http://stephenpkiernan.com/b1-campaign/valued-partners/

If you have a story about an especially meaningful project or volunteer experience you had, I’ve launched a B1Campaign page on Facebook where we can all share experiences and learn from one another. Here is the B1 Campaign Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-B1-Campaign/269679140852?ref=ts

Read in its entirety here:
http://stephenpkiernan.com/b1-campaign/

On July 7, 1981, President Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court.

(March 10, 2006
Newly retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor took on conservative Republican critics of the courts in a speech Thursday. She told an audience at Georgetown University that Republican proposals, and their sometimes uncivil tone, pose a danger to the independence of the judiciary, and the freedoms of all Americans.)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5255712

The times there a changing alright.

Jul 7, 1983:
Samantha Smith leaves for visit to the USSR
Samantha Smith, an 11-year-old American girl, begins a two-week visit to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Soviet leader Yuri Andropov......n April 1983, the Soviet government released a letter written by Smith to Andropov as part of a school project. In the letter, Smith asked Andropov about his country and whether he wanted peace with the United States. Surprisingly, Andropov answered the letter personally, assuring Smith that he had the greatest friendliness toward America and wished only for peace and mutual understanding. He ended by inviting Smith to come see the Soviet Union for herself. The fifth grader accepted Andropov's offer and the trip was set for July 1983....
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/samantha-smith-leaves-for-vis...

Death

On August 25, 1985,

Samantha and her father were returning home aboard Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 after filming a segment for Lime Street. While attempting to land at Lewiston-Auburn Regional Airport in Auburn, Maine, the Beechcraft 99 commuter plane struck some trees 4,007 feet (1,221 m) short of the runway and crashed, killing all six passengers and two crew on board.[26] Much speculation regarding the cause of the accident circulated afterwards. Accusations of foul play circulated widely in the Soviet Union.[27][28] An investigation was undertaken in the United States and the official report—which did not show evidence of foul play—was made public....

Smith's return to the U.S. on July 22, 1983 was celebrated by the people of Maine with roses, a red carpet, and a limousine[16] and her popularity continued to grow in her native country. Some critics at the time remained skeptical, believing Smith was unwittingly serving as an instrument of Soviet propaganda.[17][16] In December 1983, continuing in her role as "America's Youngest Ambassador", she was invited to Japan,[18] where she met with the Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and attended the Children's International Symposium in Kobe. In her speech at the symposium, she suggested that Soviet and American leaders exchange granddaughters for two weeks every year, arguing that a president "wouldn't want to send a bomb to a country his granddaughter would be visiting".[19] Her trip inspired other exchanges of child goodwill ambassadors,[20] including a visit by the eleven year old Soviet child Katya Lycheva to the United States.[21] Later, Smith wrote a book called Journey to the Soviet Union.

Smith pursued her role as a media celebrity when in 1984, she hosted a children's special for the Disney Channel entitled Samantha Smith Goes To Washington...Campaign '84.[22] The show covered politics, where Smith interviewed several candidates for the 1984 presidential election, including George McGovern and Jesse Jackson.

A monument to her was built in Moscow; "Samantha Smith Alley" in the Artek Young Pioneer camp was named after her in 1986.[34] The monument built to Smith was stolen by metal thieves in 2003 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 2003, Voronezh retiree Valentin Vaulin built a monument to her without any support from the government.[35] The Soviet Union issued a commemorative stamp with her likeness. In 1986, when Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh discovered asteroid 3147, she named it 3147 Samantha.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith

(Not a word about her death on the History Channel remembrance.)

...Obama echoed Israel's veiled justifications for having the bomb.

Obama told reporters: "We strongly believe that, given its size, its history, the region that it's in, and the threats that are leveled against us -- against it, that Israel has unique security requirements."

Dan Meridor, Netanyahu's deputy prime minister in charge of nuclear affairs, said Obama's endorsement was not new but that its public expression -- two months after Washington supported Egypt's proposal at a review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) -- was significant.

"Why repeat this publicly? Because between then and now there was the NPT conference that may have created the impression that there is a change in the American view," Meridor told Reuters........

The White House said Obama had further pledged to keep Israel, which has not signed the NPT, from being "singled out" at a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog in Vienna in September as well as at the Egyptian-proposed regional conference in 2012.......

In a separate development Wednesday, Israeli officials said the United States had offered to help Israel produce atomic energy despite Israel's refusal to sign the NPT, which is designed to stop countries using civilian programs as cover for building nuclear bombs.

Army Radio's diplomatic correspondent said the offer could put Israel on a par with India, another NPT holdout which is openly nuclear-armed but in 2008 secured a U.S.-led deal granting it civilian nuclear imports...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6664P120100707

NATO airstrike kills five Afghan soldiers

Five Afghan government soldiers were accidentally killed and two others wounded in a pre-dawn NATO airstrike on Wednesday, prompting condemnation from the country's government.

"ISAF aircraft bombed and martyred five of our soldiers," spokesman Zaher Azimi said. "We condemn this incident and regret that this is not the first time such an incident has occurred. We hope it is the last time."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66617L20100707

There are no laws that say an unemployed person, or someone who is late paying a bill can be discriminated against, but here it is. (Plus, when prospective employers keep checking credit history of applicants, they DAMAGE applicants' credit rating, right?)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/06/ED4B1E8REO.D...

Job seekers with poor credit histories are at a significant disadvantage today. Some 60 percent of employers examine applicants' credit reports, which means a poor credit rating can turn a successful job search into an even longer stay within the purgatory of unemployment.

But what if someone's credit is impaired simply because he lost his job and thus lacks the income to pay all his bills on time? This is a profoundly unfair Catch-22, which effectively prevents applicants from getting a job because they do not have a job.

Surprisingly, there is no research correlating good or bad credit scores with good or bad job performance. It is a popular myth, promoted by two main sources: credit bureaus who wish to sell as many credit checks as possible (even though they admit that credit checks have no predictive value of job performance) and shortsighted human resources departments who see credit checks as an appealing shortcut to a thorough vetting of applicants. Job seekers get caught in the middle, and face unfair discrimination as a result.

Credit reports are a faulty selection tool because they reveal little about one's moral character or integrity. In truth, they reveal more about the times in which we live. During high unemployment, credit reports can be particularly misleading. More than 6.5 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or more, which means that more bills are paid late. Does this mean that someone without money to pay his bills will make a substandard worker? No research has found such a correlation.

Perhaps studies have been unable to link credit and job performance because people with bad credit may be motivated to work harder and stay with their company longer, because they need the job to resolve their financial problems.

According to CoreLogic's recent report, 11.6 percent of California's borrowers are more than 90 days late with mortgage payments. Another 3.1 percent are in foreclosure. Either situation is devastating to one's credit score. Yet many of these individuals have demonstrated a lifetime of financial responsibility, until they bought a home at the peak of the real estate bubble.

As with Social Security numbers, the use of credit report data has moved well beyond what it originally was designed for - to the detriment of consumers. Years ago in California, insurance companies tried to charge higher premiums if you had a low credit score. The assumption was outlandish: If you paid your student loan bill late, would a tree be more likely to fall on your roof? Of course not, and for this reason California banned discrimination on the basis of credit reports by insurers. For the same reason, employers should not be allowed to use credit reports to discriminate against job applicants.

AB482, introduced by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Norwalk (Los Angeles County), would prohibit the use of credit checks in hiring decisions unless the information was "substantially job-related," which would allow Californians to compete for jobs based on their real, rather than imagined, qualifications. The time is right to end this credit catch-22.

Joe Ridout is a spokesman for Consumer Action, a consumer advocacy group.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/06/ED4B1E8REO.D...

An experimental plane, powered only by rays from the sun, has taken off from Switzerland for its first 24-hour test flight.

The "Solar Impulse" took off on Wednesday from Payerne airfield shortly after dawn
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/europe/2010/07/201077151014692989.htm...

The Justice Department's challenge to Arizona's immigration law illustrates Obama's reluctance to confront race

.....This might be enough to make you suspect that the Justice Department’s preemption-only strategy is not the result of pure legal analysis. Instead, it seems that the Obama administration is walking a fine political line -- attempting to please the left by challenging a much-despised law while avoiding the firestorm that would result if the challenge were grounded in race. By omitting from the suit any suggestion that the Arizona law unfairly targets Hispanics or other minorities, Obama and the Justice Department withhold from Steve King and his ilk ammunition for the claim that the administration holds special solicitude for minorities.......
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/07/07/arizona_lawsuit_o...

"We tired of u n-----s movin in are neighborhood!"

Nearly 20 black families in a Detroit neighborhood got racist - not to mention seriously badly spelled - letters Tuesday telling them to move out or get killed, the latest in a string of racially ugly events that included a cross burning and Aryan Nation flyers found in Easter eggs. Welcome to Obama's post-racial America.

"We tired of u n------ keep movin in are neighborhood!!" read the letter. "you need to move across 8 mile. we just need to start killing you n------ one by one!"
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2010/07/07-1

Employers are creditors. The more credit they destroy the more their firms can charge. Ruining credit is just another bonus. That's what capitalism is about.

The Japanese are expert Whale "researchers", alright. The Japanese "research" how Whale tastes, "research" how Whale oil conditions hair, "research" how it makes smooth brush painting ink and so on. In other words, the Japanese are "researching" Whales so they can keep themselves supplied with the same products they've been consuming for too long already....They are expert "researchers" because they've been "researching" whales for so long.

What a scam.

Research shmesearch.

May they be successful; but keep in mind, if they are successful, it will have been a successful EXPERIMENT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/science/06drill.html

[excerpt]

...like a wet noodle.

“The challenge is not to get it to bend,” said Aravindh Kaniappan, a product manager for Baker Hughes, a drilling equipment and services company. “It’s to get it to not bend.”

Because a string of drill pipe, along with the rotating bit at its cutting end, tends to go this way and that, drillers need critical information about the location of a well as it is being drilled.

“First you need to know where you are,” Mr. Kaniappan said. “Then you need to know from where you are, where you need to go.”

The need for accurate location information — in a subterranean environment that Global Positioning System satellite signals cannot reach — is true now more than ever, as oil and gas wells go deeper and become more complex, veering off horizontally through narrow hydrocarbon reservoirs or parallel existing wells.

But it is especially true right now in the Gulf of Mexico, where BP is drilling a relief well to intersect the runaway well that has been spewing oil since April.

The relief well will be used to pump heavy drilling mud, followed by cement, into the damaged well to stop the gusher permanently. But first it, or a second relief well being drilled nearby as a backup, must hit the target — the existing well’s steel casing pipe, only seven inches in diameter, more than 3 miles below the surface of the gulf.

The first relief well is currently about 20 feet horizontally and less than 1,000 feet vertically from the interception point. “We feel very good about the progress we’ve made,” Kent Wells, a BP vice president overseeing the relief well effort, said at a recent news conference, but did not revise an estimated completion date of early August.

Baker Hughes and other companies are helping BP reach the target, providing specialized techniques and tools for measuring and surveying the relief wells as they are drilled, and steering them in the right direction.

Many of these services — variously described as “measuring while drilling,” “logging while drilling” and “directional drilling” — are used in almost all wells, and have been for decades. But the techniques have been improved and expanded over the years, aided by advances in sensors and processing.

Baker Hughes and companies like Halliburton, Schlumberger and Vector Magnetics use sophisticated accelerometers and magnetometers to determine the inclination, or angle, and azimuth, or compass direction, of the hole, sending the data back to the drill rig as binary pulses in the drilling mud that circulates through the drill pipe. If the drill bit has strayed, it can be steered back on course by several means, one of which uses pressure pads against the well bore to change the bit’s direction.

[end excerpt]

On Tuesday, the European Commission will formally propose giving back to national and local governments the freedom to decide whether to grow crops that many Europeans still call Frankenfoods.

The new policy is aimed at overcoming a stalemate that has severely curtailed the market for biotech seeds in Europe for years. Only two crops, produced by Monsanto and B.A.S.F., are sold for cultivation here.

The new flexibility is supposed to open up markets in countries like the Netherlands, where governments are broadly favorable toward growing and trading biotech products, while countries like Austria, where the products are unpopular, can maintain a ban.

But far from celebrating, the growing global industry, as well as some farmers themselves, is extremely wary of the new approach.

(continues)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/business/energy-environment/08biotech....

ANOTHER SCAM!!!!!

Just heard Mike Papantonio say the $20 billion is only a talking point to make it look like BP has a moral compass, something so Rahm Emmanuel can say the Administration is on top of this disaster.

BUT THE MONEY IS NOT SECURED even weeks after promised, not secured even after Obama names the person who is supposed to distribute the NONEXISTENT MONEY!

If BP collapses, is bought out, there will be nothing just as before.

Pap was on Randi Rhodes just now.

they should start farming cloned whales in big fish tanks. this way the free whales can remain free. oh yea free whales dont cost anything this whale farming idea sounds expensive.
.

I hope they keep Mr. Pap in a secured underground area because the more he speaks the more he is at risk.

He is my first choice for the Supreme Court,gosh he defended the president's inadequacy isn't that good enough?

The Japanese wouldn't have to clone whole Whales, they can just clone and grow the cells of Whales' parts -- flesh cells in vats, blubber cells in vats, etc.

That would be the good news.

Now for the bad news.

Taozen, I think this very technology is the reason why the Ruling Class does NOT CARE that the sealife habitat of the Gulf of Mexico-Caribbean Ocean Basin is being destroyed. If a source of food accessible to individual ordinary citizens in a boat disappears, all the better from the point of view of the Ruling Class because they could not totally control that flow of food and have total profit from it. Now seafood can be cloned and grown in vats and be UNDER THE TOTAL CONTROL of the Ruling Class' technocratic experts for the Ruling Class' domination over another source of sustenance.

When I read how the Ruling Class' MEAT INDUSTRY was behind the rapid growth of the U.S.'s railroad transportation system, it was an eye-opener how powerful these folks are. They planned the railway system to SERVE the meat industry needs to get the cattle from the open western lands and feedlots to the railcars to Kansas City and Chicago slaughterhouses and carcasses quickly out in ice cars on railway lines radiating out to the rest of the country.

I think the technocrats have learned that people won't choose a vat-raised blob over something natural, unless there were no other choice. The death of the Gulf could be a boon to this industry using cloning technology. Sounds sci-fi, but I think these exploiters are ready to make money this way. Just my theory.

Tune in to Comedy Central:
Thursday, July 8th
11:30 pm EST / 11:30 pm PST
TV Guide describes it this way: "Stephen Colbert is teaming up with U.S. farm workers to present a tongue-in-cheek campaign called 'Take Our Jobs...."'
The Take Our Jobs campaign spotlights the issue of immigrant laborers who are the backbone of the country's agricultural economy. Without reform, domestic agriculture could be crippled, leading to more jobs moving offshore.
While the show is sure to be a riot, the campaign is no laughing matter. The offer to recruit unemployed Americans is serious. Would-be farm workers can sign up via the Take Our Jobs website to be matched to growers across the country.
Most importantly, however, the campaign spotlights the ongoing need for immigrant labor in the U.S. economy. Consider this: a full three-quarters of all crop workers in American agriculture were born outside the United States.
But it's not just Colbert or UFW bringing attention to this issue. Just last week, President Obama recognized the vital role immigrant farm workers play in feeding America.
The President is right. Deporting all undocumented farm workers would surely destroy the agricultural industry. Now it is time for Congress to stand up to the rhetoric on immigration and pass the bipartisan AgJobs bill the UFW has negotiated with the agricultural industry that would give undocumented farm workers presently here the right to earn legal status by continuing to work in agriculture.

This Dr. Berwick quote makes beaucoup sense:

Institute for Healthcare Improvement Video, Defining Quality: Aiming for a Better Health Care System
"If you’re buying a car, there are dimensions of quality: safety, fuel efficiency, comfort, fun in driving, durability and so on. We’re used to that. But what are the dimensions of ‘goodness’ in health care?" (Oct. 2008).

27,000 abandoned oilwells in the Gulf with estimates that at any time, 1000 are leaking. Underwater rusting wellheads....

The article--

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100707/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_abando...

summertime and the living is easy?
^^^<>^^^
Nora I enjoyed your post from a day or so ago about changing sleeping patterns, very interesting.
===
Dr Berwick is the type of "bridge' we need to get from greedy out of control American health care to a more worldy,efficent and workable redistribution of services ,medicines and food resources

The only ones really complaining about him are Rethugs BECAUSE WITH GUYS LIKE THIS THINGS COULD CHANGE AND THEIR MONOPLY OF POWER MIGHT Come to an end.
++++
More assertive people who are tired of being hustled and are getting ready to rumble. This is scary to me. I still hold out for internal,spiritual growth flowering up across the planet at basically the same time and some polar shift of consciousness takes place. you see Iam a spacey dreamer type. Long Live the message and spirit of MLK and Ghandi and the guys and gals in
white hats. what is your hat size anyway? must be a big one with all that "brain" you got going on...

...the "October Surprise" (when you got nothing, create a crisis) just came early this year.

From American Public Media's Marketplace:
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/business-news-briefs/2010...

Here’s one for the awful coincidence category. The blogosphere is buzzing this week after photos of a 1970s board game surfaced on the Internet. It’s called “BP Offshore Oil Strike.” We haven’t seen the rule book, but according to CNN.com, players face many of the same real-world challenges that BP is up against in the real-life version unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/06/70s-board-game-contains-eerie-bp-oi...

“The game…revolves around four players exploring for oil, building platforms and constructing pipelines - all in the name of being the first to make $120 million,” CNN.com reports. “But like the real-life oil game there are some big hazards, too. Players have to deal with the possibility of large-scale oil spills and cover cleanup costs. You struggle with “hazard cards” that include phrases now part of our daily vernacular, including: “Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick cleanup costs. Pay $1 million.”“

That last line points to another oddity of the game. According to the UK’s Metro, which first reported the story,...

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/834121-rare-1970s-bp-board-game-promises-oil...

...the game was made by the Scottish company Printabox. So why were the damages listed in American dollars.

UPDATE: While we’re on the topic of oil exploration board games, check out this other find from the US Minerals Management Service. Who knew oil drilling could be so much fun for kids!
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/business-news-briefs/2010...

excellent post Leah
Submitted by taozen on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 1:09pm.
Submitted by Leah on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 12:16pm.

How are the British still pulling all the strings since the end of WW2?
{They are not. They retreated to a subordinate role a long time ago.They lost their empire, and US oil interests largely pushed them out in the 1940s and 1950s. Who was Bush's poodle? Do you remember?}

are they the ones who are the primary controllers of oil and banking monies?
[I am sure there are individual rich and powerful Brits who are profiting.There is BP. It is the US who controls the action here. Our government demands control of the oil resources. "Our natural resources. That is why we destroyed Saddam and Iraq.]

the Queen's visit infuriated me. and seeing Bloomberg shaking her hand with that Puppy dog love look in his face?
[C'mon. She is rather harmless. Prince Charles has done good things for oppressed people over the years. He does have some royal privilege.]

I assume as Business first Jew Bloomberg is thankful for the British solution at the end of WW2. but does he remember how the British sabotaged any realistic solution. The queen acts all polished and together without an ounce of remorse for the trouble the British have caused.
[I know you did not mean it, but the "first Jew" stuff is offensive. I'll leave it there. As for the "British solution": Britain washed their hands to the whole affair, and turned it over to the UN. The awful partition plan was a UN project. UN 181. It was a huge land grab.]

»

Where the Hell is the Peace Movement?
Submitted by bridge on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 7:52pm.
If Not Now, When?
Where the Hell is the Peace Movement?

By MISSY COMLEY BEATTIE

Peace activists with Peace of the Action (POTA) had just set up across from the White House when police officers arrived to shake their authority at Cindy Sheehan with a badass threat of six months in jail. Of course, she and Jon Gold knew they were under a stay-away order and couldn't put even a toenail over the line of demarcation--this order imposed after they were arrested March 20, 2010 and spent more than 50 hours behind bars for exercising shrinking rights to protest.

We POTA activists are focusing on a gargantuan dilemma--one that impacts our security with heartbreakingly vivid images of gushing oil, dead marine life, and a bleak prognosis for planet Earth. We gathered in Lafayette Park in DC across from the House occupied by an imperial president to declare freedom from oil addiction.

This declaration is significant. It addresses more than a cataclysmic rupture beneath the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It questions the meaning of humanity, our responsibility to our fellow human beings, and to other species with whom we share this planet. And it connects our energy consumption to endless war.

But here's the deal: our action was attended by less than 20 peaceniks...
...
==================

Like MAKING PEACE -- no more 'war' against nations, against the environment, against other animals. TOTAL PERPETUAL PEACE, perhaps?

Bye!

btw Nora great posts... & TZ great posts & BRILLIANT Pap for SCOTUS
;)

Mexico leftist presidential candidate to run again

The leftist politician who narrowly lost Mexico's last presidential election says he will run again in 2012.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador cried fraud after he lost the 2006 presidential race to conservative Felipe Calderon and he still refuses to recognize Calderon as president.

Lopez Obrador was the candidate of the Democratic Revolution Party last time, but he told W Radio on Wednesday that he will seek the support of a smaller leftist party for his next run.

The man who was elected to succeed Lopez Obrador as Mexico City's mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, also is a member of the Democratic Revolution Party and is considering his own run as the party's presidential candidate in 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9162668

Summer School for Conservatives: Glenn Beck Opens Virtual University

Glenn Beck fans in search of a deeper understanding of the media master's libertarian message will soon be able to join him in a new venue. The commentator recently announced the launch of Beck University, a collection of online seminars. From July 7 through September 1, class will be in session every Wednesday night at 8 pm.

Beck U will open with nine single-session seminars -- Faith 101, 102 and 103; Hope 101, 102 and 103; and Charity 101, 102 and 103 -- for subscribers of Beck's Insider Extreme group, which costs between $6.26 and $9.95 per month.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/media/glenn-beck-university-opens/1954...

U.S. casualties to mount as Afghan war widens, general says

U.S. troops deaths in Afghanistan, which reached record highs in the last two months, will continue climbing, a top U.S. military commander warned Wednesday because the military is trying to oust the Taliban from places they've never been challenged before.

......Rodriguez said that increased U.S. casualties should not be interpreted as Afghan regions falling back into the hands of the Taliban.

Instead, "This is a contest of will and a contest of threat and intimidation versus people who are going to stand up for themselves and their government, and then the security forces who are charged with protecting the Afghan people," he said....
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/07/97158/us-casualties-to-mount-as-af...

I can take it . My people suck. I have british and german blood. it is easier for me to admit that I come from greedy stock. it is liberating for me to give my heritage the finger. they would think I was a traitor hindu anyway.
I am very dissapointed with my christian heritage and I have no problem giving the tag team of church and state the double finger.
Leah
I did not mean to be offensive. I could write more clearly. Bloomberg is kissin Israel and the Brits ass all the time. The brits are still very big players in the world banking system. Bloomberg is all about money, sorry for the sterotyping he happens to fit in. he is out defending BP!! Obama has the Queen and Israel show up on the same day is not just a coincidence. The Queen going down to the 9 11 sight is symbolic. the Orignal players in this War on terror are sticking together. I say the Brits are very high up on the Board of Directors at the MIC corp/ The Afhgan war is going on ten years now somebody is invested in it and making money.

I dont think that the US the UK or Israel are democracies in the Greek sense.
In the states we have so much voter fraud and In the Uk if you dont have an apartment they wont let you vote. In Israel you have to be Jewish to prosper . no natives need apply. these three governments are very bad . We are all in the Nuke club. and most of the work on the atom bomb was done by this trifecta of self important pompous racist governments.
Obama caved in to the needs of the Brits and The israelis he failed me as an American . and yes 400 years ago my people left England to seek freedom from Religion . What America did to the Locals is not anything I am proud of. Lets move into the 21st century, Lets look back at out collective mistakes and quit it.

You sound like a laroucheite.

- BP

I looked that term up and I dont think it fits. please try harder to explain yourself.

The European Parliament asked on Wednesday for a ban on the sale of foods from cloned animals and their offspring, the latest sign of deepening concern in the European Union about the safety and ethics of new food technologies.

The chamber, meeting in Strasbourg, France, also called for a temporary suspension of the sale of food containing ingredients derived from nanotechnology, which involves engineering substances down to very small sizes. Members were voting on legislation that would have regulated the sale of foods based on new production processes, including cloning. That legislation would have required companies to ask permission to market food derived from cloned animals.

But the chamber rejected that plan and instead called for separate legislation on cloning because of potential problems with the technology and concerns about animal cruelty.

“Although no safety concerns have been identified so far with meat produced from cloned animals, this technique raises serious issues about animal welfare, reduction of biodiversity, as well as ethical concerns,” said Corinne Lepage, a French member of the European Parliament.

Governments now will have to negotiate with European Union legislators to complete the rules, starting in September.

There are no European Union rules to specifically allow or ban dairy products and meat from cloned animals, according to a statement from the European Parliament.

But Europeans could also be eating cloned meat imported from the United States, said Struan Stevenson, a British member of the Parliament. Also, some of the bull semen imported from the United States for inseminating cattle in the European Union “could be coming directly from cloned livestock,” he said.

Mr. Stevenson called for labels on all meat imports warning that the product might come from a cloned animal if no procedure could be devised to test it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/business/global/08clone.html?src=busln

(Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he was prepared to discuss "right away" the future of Jewish settlements if Palestinians entered direct peace talks with Israel.

Asked on CNN's "Larry King Live" if he would extend beyond September a 10-month moratorium on housing starts in settlements in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu said it was time for the Palestinians to drop preconditions for face-to-face talks.

"Let's just get into the talks and one of the things we'll discuss right away is this issue of settlements and that's what I propose doing," he said.

Netanyahu was interviewed a day after a fence-mending meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, where the Israeli leader repeated a call for a restart of peace negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Direct talks on Palestinian statehood have been suspended since late 2008. Obama's Middle East mediator, George Mitchell, has been shuttling between Netanyahu and Abbas in so-called proximity talks.

The Palestinians insist on keeping Israel at arm's length until it makes certain things clear -- namely, what size and shape of Palestinian state is Netanyahu prepared to consider, and will its Jordan Valley be free of Israeli troops?

Earlier on Wednesday, Netanyahu said on ABC television's "Good Morning America" that Israel was prepared to take additional steps to ease Palestinian movement in the West Bank to coax Abbas into direct peace talks.

"The point is, we are prepared to do them. But what we want to see finally is one thing: We want President Abbas to grasp my hand ... to shake it, sit down and negotiate a final settlement of peace between Israel and the Palestinians," he said.

After years of welcoming well-heeled tourists from around the world with open arms, one of Tuscany's smartest, most discreet beach resorts is in revolt against outsiders, wealthy or not.
Forte dei Marmi – the traditional summer retreat for Italian captains of industry, writers and film stars – is changing the law to try to stop locals fleeing because of house prices driven out of control by incoming Russian millionaires. The town's combative mayor, Umberto Buratti, is reserving space next to luxury villas with sea views for new homes that will only be sold to locally-born buyers or long-term residents. Other Italian resorts with similar problems will monitor the experiment with interest.
"We want to safeguard the character of the town instead of seeing it turn into a place with no ties, as anonymous as a motorway service station," Buratti said.
"Not everyone here is rich or Russian," added local councillor Michele Molino. "You look at the designer shops round here and we could be in London."
Despite the economic crisis that has kept some smart Muscovites at home, local estate agents expect up to 500 Russian families to descend this summer, following in the footsteps of super-rich visitors such as Roman Abramovich and splashing out up to €100,000 at a time to rent villas for the season – albeit a snip compared with the €20m reportedly paid out to buy the biggest villas nestling behind bougainvilleas between the broad beaches and Apuan Alps.
"Five million is the norm now, but if you go just a few miles inland prices drop by two thirds, which is where the locals have disappeared to," said a local estate agent, Umberto Giannecchini.
On the seafront, Humvees and Ferraris descend on beach clubs like Twiga, where €1,000 will reserve a table in the VIP section and Russians spend up to €15,000 on a night out.
It is all a far cry from Forte dei Marmi's 16th-century origins, when Michelangelo built a road from quarries inland to load marble on to waiting ships. The artistic tradition continued into the 20th century with the arrival of Thomas Mann, Aldous Huxley, Giacomo Puccini and Henry Moore, followed by industrial dynasties such as the Agnellis and the Morattis.
"Despite their wealth, the Italians here have always loved elegant simplicity and understatement," said hotelier Paolo Corchia, pointing to the tradition of CEOs and aristocrats shopping by bicycle at the town's family-run shops. Where those stores once proliferated, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Miu Miu – with a shop window full of coyote fur stoles – now draw in the Russians.
The Milanese agree with the locals' revolt. "I want to bring the local artisans back in the centre," said Milly Moratti, wife of Inter Milan chairman Massimo, "the fabulous tailors and focaccia bread sellers I remember as a child that have been almost completely replaced by designer stores."
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/04/italian-resort-forte-dei-mar...

when money and power became the bottom line except for token morality and ethics this all became the result.

the fact that in the long run it's all globally suicidal doesn't make a dent in short term rationalizsing from the perps.

in the universe of universes out there with all the worlds that have life and have had life i wonder where we rate on the stupidity and greed index?

Richard Nixon is believed to have ordered nuclear bombers to be put on standby for an immediate strike on North Korea. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
It is more than 35 years since he was shunted out of office, but the thought of Richard Nixon's finger on the nuclear trigger still has the power to terrify.
Now it has been revealed that the highly erratic president's metaphorical digit was hovering even closer than was widely realised as his administration laid plans for an atomic strike against North Korea in 1969 following the shooting down of a US spy plane.

more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/07/nixon-north-korea-nuclear-st...

My long term Mate Robyn is off to represent for the rights of artists in NYC at 500 Perl Street.
Bloomberg has decided to go against tradition and the second amendment and he is forcing real artists out of their little corners and forbidding them to offer their paintings for sale , This local color of artists is what makes NY city unique and vibrant. . This group of artists is lucky to have pro bono representation. Bloomberg tolerates some god awful food trucks and street fairs of walmart merchandise all over the city and esp on week ends. He sucks.

Exactly. Think lost civilizations a la Chitzen Itza

http://www.realitysandwich.com/masturbation_victorian_age

taozen on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 11:57pm.
{giggle} ;)

http://jivamuktiyoga.org/

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

(filed under small connected world)
(i kid you not i thought about scott ritter before i read your post)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter#Arrests

Ritter was arrested again in November 2009[37] over communications with a police decoy he met on an Internet chat site. Police claim that he showed himself masturbating via a web camera after the officer said she was a 15-year-old girl. The next month, he waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was released on $25,000 unsecured bail.[38] Charges included "unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communications facility, corruption of minors, indecent exposure, possessing instruments of crime, criminal attempt and criminal solicitation".[39] Ritter is scheduled to face trial on these charges in September 2010.[40]

most definitely
yoga joints are the new disco

: )

do me a favour
shove your white guilt where the sun don't shine, son
you're a good guy
you're not responsible for the carnage...

conquest is the name of the game, son
if the aztecs had been technologically advanced and came to europe and conquered us
they'd probably be an aztec tz apologizing

(historical fact: fernando is part aztec - or so he claims - and you don't see him compensating the victims of the aztec who had their hearts ripped out to appease whatever fucked up god that they worshipped)

and george michaels drove his car into a storefront.

sexuality is a complicated thing. it is safer to talk about religion and politics.

or religion and politics are so complicated I think I will embrace my animal nature.

YO man I am fading out but I am glad to see you. I was just looking at AU age some aussie newspaper that makes the Enquirer look sophisticated!

please dont let AU become The US what ever you do. when the polar shift happens youse guys might be in a better position,.
kiwis are sweet . limeys are sour. f*ck the Queen eh?

Thanks for the absolution . AND It was nice to see fernando's exploding glf or what ever you call that thing.

http://inciteblog.wordpress.com/

they should start farming cloned whales in big fish tanks
Submitted by taozen on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 5:24pm.

well one day they'll breed miniature whales the size of anchovies
so you won't need a massive fishtank
just an ordinary sized fishtank
and you'll be able to reach in and pop one in your mouth
(fresh!)

and if you don't believe me...
watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw9s0ivfn3w
it's about housing but @ the 2 minute mark he mentions meat from a test tube

but it's not all it's cracked up to be...
as the dude will inform you
one day (now don't giggle ms_a) i may enter your home literally via the back door
yes, the sphincter muscle

there's a lot to chew on that last post of yours

: )

be proud of your heritage
be proud of your american heritage
of your european heritage
and ultimately your african heritage
and your animal nature heritage

which you do
and i do
and as we all do here
on bloggie #1

it's a wild and wicked world
and i take the good with the bad
which is easy for me to say
because i've never suffered true iniquity that others have
whether being a woman in pakistan and having acid thrown in my face
or an american indian and having a blanket infected with small pox thrown over me
or been hacked to death by hutus
etc
etc
etc
etc
etc

(it's a wild and wicked world)

the hindu approach is not to be loyal to any one group but to be loyal to the sum total of humanity. but I only see that I am not living it yet.

poof it got me I am that I am . popeye is my guru.
----
Henry ford's son died of un pasterurized milk from his dads dairy . wow life is a bitch.

i got to go you deserve better.. peace out.

pretend i'm ingrid bergman
and you're a black piano player
and sunshine jim is bogart

as if they adhere to that principle
with their repressive caste system

:):(

good luck to robyn today, tz
and good morning
i trust everyone had a nice sleepy

and good morning, ms_a
we could have danced all night

but now it's time for bed
xox

Chicago's public library commissioner has hit back at a report on Fox News that suggested libraries are a "waste of tax money", saying that the argument posed by the story was a "non-starter" and a contributor who suggested salaries in the public sector were higher than those in the private sector was "simply wrong".
Last week's Fox News slot on Chicago's libraries saw the rightwing American television channel question whether they were still needed. "There are 799 public libraries in Illinois. And they're busy. People borrow more than 88m times a year. But keeping libraries running costs big money. In Chicago, the city pumps $120m a year into them. A full 2.5% of our yearly property taxes go to fund them. That's money that could go elsewhere – like for schools ... police or pensions," the Fox report said. "Libraries are quiet havens for the community. They can take you to another world ... But should these institutions – that date back to 1900 BC – be on the way out?"
Now, the Chicago public library commissioner, Mary A Dempsey, has responded, saying that she was "astounded at the lack of understanding" the Fox report showed and pointing to the 12m visitors that Chicago's public libraries receive every year, the 10m items checked out from the libraries' 74 locations in 2009 and the 3.8m free one-hour internet sessions the people of Chicago used last year.
She took particular issue with an "undercover" section of the report, which counted about 300 visitors using the Harold Washington library over the course of one hour. "Most of them were using the free internet. The bookshelves weren't so busy," said Fox.
"Your 'undercover cameras' shots were taken in a series of stacks devoted to bound periodicals used for reference. Next time, try looking at the circulating collections throughout the building," responded Dempsey in a letter to Fox.
"The public library is supported by taxpayers for the common good of all the people of Chicago – just like public school. We don't ask our schools to make profit. Neither should we ask it of the public library," she said. "As journalist Walter Cronkite once remarked, 'Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.'"
more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/08/fox-news-libraries-chicago

It was the most orchestrated photo op of the year. And even if Tuesday's White House meeting between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was more show than action, it did reinforce what Capitol Hill and America's taxpayers already know: Israel is America's best buddy in the Middle East, and the dollars Washington sends Jerusalem proves that. More than any other nation, including war-torn Iraq, Israel gets the most U.S. aid, according to the Feds.

The relationship between the United States and Israel has historically been characterized by generosity. Data from the U.S. Agency for International Development and from State Department budgets show that Israel has, since 1946, been the top recipient of U.S. aid, and continues to play a big part in the United States foreign assistance budget.

According to the USAID Greenbook, which quantifies all U.S. overseas loans and grants from 1946 through 2008, Israel has received over $34 billion from the United States, since 1951. This puts it ahead of other top recipients Iraq ($31.4 billion), Egypt ($29.6 billion), India ($15.5 billion), and Russia ($13.9). Meanwhile, aid to the West Bank/Gaza region, which began in 1988, has totaled $2.7 billion. This puts the West Bank and Gaza at 41 on the list of 202 countries and regions that have received U.S. aid since 1946.

In addition, State Department budgets show that since 2008, Israel's place in U.S. foreign spending has remained undiminished. The fiscal year 2011 budget contains a proposed $3 billion for Israel. All of this money is appropriated for foreign military financing, a program that helps foreign countries to purchase weapons and defense equipment produced in the United States., as well as military training. This $3 billion comprises 42 percent of the total assistance to the Near East region.

The 2011 budget also provides $550.4 million for the West Bank and Gaza, toward the purposes of narcotics control and law enforcement, as well as economic development and security programs.

http://politics.usnews.com/news/washington-whispers/articles/2010/07/06/...

Reuters reports on a series of studies published Friday in the Lancet, which examine the health of populations living in the Gaza Strip.

The studies, which look at the effects of the violence on the region, conclude that Israel's blockade of the territory could "cause long-term damage to Palestinians' health, with many children at risk of stunted growth or malnutrition."

more
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/193999.php

Among other findings, one study (.pdf) showed that 70 percent of households relied on food aid (Kelland, 7/2).

"Public health researchers led by Niveen Abu-Rmeileh of Birzeit University in the West Bank carried out a study of around 3,000 Gazan households, numbering nearly 18,000 people, six months after the conflict. ... Funding for the research was provided by Medical Aid for Palestinians, a long-established British humanitarian group," Agence France-Presse writes (7/2).

Another study (.pdf) of around 2,000 children and adolescents, found that one in four Palestinian children "misses breakfast - the main indicator of healthy eating habits - while one in 10 is anaemic, and one in 17 is stunted," Reuters reports. "Around 2 percent are underweight and 15 percent are either overweight or obese" (7/2).

This information was reprinted from www.globalhealth.kff.org

... for tomorrow is another day {night} ;)

Beautiful Snail & Picture, at the balance between Night & Day...
*Poof*

fernando is part aztec

Back when Fernando was justifying our Afghan adventure, I asked him if Cortez' conquest could be justified on the basis of ending human sacrifice-- and cannibalism. I didn't really get an answer.

We, San Diegeans, now that Don Coryell has joined Vince Lombardi, are all Aztecs now.
http://www.chargers.com/news/article-1/Don-Coryell-passes-at-85/638fdd54...

Let’s rewind the video tape to 1957. A very young Jimmy Page appears on a BBC children’s talent show to play some skiffle. Mixing together strands of American blues, jazz, country and folk music, this style of music became all the rage in the UK during the 1950s. Lonnie Donegan got the craze going. And it wasn’t long before John Lennon formed his own skiffle band – The Quarry Men (photo here) … later to become The Beatles. Heading into the 60s, a maturing Jimmy Page took his music in entirely new directions, which brings us to our post last week: The Strange Tale of Dazed and Confused. Video via LaughingSquid

-

JOIN THESE ARTISTS IN THE BOYCOTT OF ARIZONA!

http://www.thesoundstrike.net/content/sign-petition-stop-sb-1070

*

http://www.thesoundstrike.net/

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

MMRules

... on Hartmann's Show

Submitted by taozen on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 9:51am.
US libraries hit back at Fox News
...Last week's Fox News slot on Chicago's libraries saw the
rightwing American television channel question whether they were still needed.....
_____________________
That's disgusting!
To that I say: Is the Fox Network needed?
_ _ _ _ _ _
|

but I did..it comes to me on the library group online...I read it a little bit differently because it mentions this:

In an hour, we counted about 300 visitors. Most of them were using the free internet. The bookshelves? Not so much.

That is good for me. I'm technical support for the public computers...and all the other online parts of the library...(in addition to all of the regular library assistant jobs such as circulation, shelving, cataloging, inter-library loans, etc...

Next week I have to go to a meeting to make it known that there is a "new" position in libraries and I deserve to have my position reevaluated for a new title..I'm not even asking for more money...Just the title I was promised and then they gave it away under my nose...

Anyway...that article points out what I know in that part...But they are fucking stupid for thinking libraries are a waste...promoting ignorance is their boring game...we know that.

My brother , Jake Holmes waited for a long time before he decided to sue for Dazed and Confused. the Law says he can only sue for money that the song generated over the last three years. better than nothing. he will use the money if he gets any for a " Musical show'' he is putting on. He also said he would NOT take it to Arizona or to Israel, now he is thing straight.

I use our library because the spectacular free market has failed for a decade to delivery high speed internet to my home.

Albert Einstein once said something very profound. He said the Universe could have been chaotic, random and ugly—and yet we have this gorgeous synthesis at the origin of the Universe itself, giving birth to the galaxies, the planets, DNA, life. Einstein said that the harmony he sees could not have been an accident. We’re not necessarily talking about the design of humans; we’re not talking about an intervention that gave us eyes, noses and ears, but where did the laws of physics come from?

As you know, I work in something called String Theory which makes the statement that we are reading the mind of God. It’s based on music or little vibrating strings thus giving us particles that we see in nature. The laws of chemistry that we struggled with in high school would be the melodies that you can play on these vibrating strings. The Universe would be a symphony of these vibrating strings and the mind of God that Einstein wrote about at length would be cosmic music resonating through this nirvana… through this 11 dimensional hyperspace—that would be the mind of God. We physicists are the only scientists who can say the word “God” and not blush.

The fact of the matter is that we are dealing with the cosmic questions of existence and meaning. Thomas Huxley, the great biologist of the last century said that the question of all questions for science and religion is to determine our true place and our true role in the Universe. For both science and religion it is the same question.

However, there has essentially been a divorce in the last century or so between that of science and the Humanists and I think that it’s very sad that we don’t speak the same language anymore.
----------------
(comment section has some interesting posts)

http://bigthink.com/ideas/20718?utm_source=Big+Think+Main+Subscribers&ut...

Robert Fisk: Newspeak: why the BBC has an 'issue' with problems

"....What all these words – issues, challenges, delivery, success, quality, achievers, touchy topics – have in common is the essential lie: that everything is for the good; that problems, disasters, third-rate work or bloodbaths simply don't exist, or are at best to be regarded as "touchy topics", something we don't need to hear about or for which we should be forewarned...."
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-newsp...

Octavia Nasr's Firing and What "the Liberal Media" Allows

CNN yesterday ended the 20-year career of Octavia Nasr, its Atlanta-based Senior Middle East News Editor, because of a now-deleted tweet she wrote on Sunday upon learning of the death of one of the Shiite world's most beloved religious figures: "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah . . . . One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot."
......First, consider which viewpoints cause someone to be fired from The Liberal Media. Last month, Helen Thomas' 60-year career as a journalist ended when she expressed the exact view about Jews which numerous public figures have expressed (with no consequence or even controversy) about Palestinians. Just weeks ago, The Washington Post accepted the "resignation" of Dave Weigel because of scorn he heaped on right-wing figures such as Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh. CNN's Chief News Executive, Eason Jordan, was previously forced to resign after he provoked a right-wing fit of fury over comments he made about the numerous -- and obviously disturbing -- incidents where the U.S. military had injured or killed journalists in war zones. NBC fired Peter Arnett for criticizing the U.S. war plan on Iraqi television, which prompted accusations of Treason from the Right. MSNBC demoted and then fired its rising star Ashleigh Banfield after she criticized American media war coverage for adhering to the Fox model of glorifying U.S. wars; the same network fired its top-rated host, Phil Donahue, due to its fear of being perceived as anti-war; and its former reporter, Jessica Yellin, confessed that journalists were "under enormous pressure from corporate executives" to present the news in a pro-war and pro-Bush manner.....
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/08-8

CNN sacking over Fadlallah tweet
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/07/2010784132514853.ht...

seize power?:

Tea Party Think Tank Headed By Clarence Thomas' Wife Makes Common Cause With Militia Guru Larry Pratt
Listed among the friends of Virginia Thomas' new Tea Party think-tank is Gun Owners of America, headed by white-supremacist-friendly, militia guru Larry Pratt

"...It is highly unlikely that Pratt's bitter rhetoric is a secret to Ginni Thomas. Pratt is no stranger to controversy. He's an unabashed supporter of the militia movement; his 1990 book, Armed People Victorious, is viewed by many in the movement as an inspirational text.

In 1996, Pratt was forced to resign his role as an adviser to Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign when it was revealed that, in 1992, he addressed a gathering of white supremacists in Estes, Colorado. Included on the roster of speakers that day were neo-Nazis and militia advocates, including Louis Beam, a former Texas Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan who had taken his cause over to the Aryan Nation organization. The meeting had been called by Pete Peters, then leader of the Christian Identity movement, whose theology states that black people are subhuman and Jews are the spawn of Satan..."
http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/147464/tea_party_think_tank_headed_by_c...

It's Not Just the Bees -- Now Scientists Say 25% of All Flowering Species Could Go Extinct
Human activity could spell end for a quarter of all flowering plants, with huge impact on food chain.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/147462/it%27s_not_just_the_bees_--_n...

California transit cop found guilty of manslaughter

A white transit police officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Thursday in the videotaped shooting death of an unarmed black man that triggered a night of rioting in Oakland, California.

The defendant in the racially charged trial, Johannes Mehserle, 28, testified that he mistakenly drew his pistol instead of his electric Taser weapon and shot Oscar Grant, 22, while trying to subdue him during a New Year's Day 2009 confrontation.

But prosecutors said in closing arguments that Mehserle "lost all control" and intentionally shot Grant because he was resisting arrest.

The Los Angeles County jury of four men and eight women deliberated for about six hours over two days before reaching their verdict, indicating they essentially believed Mehserle's account that he shot Grant accidentally.

Juries can find a defendant guilty of involuntary manslaughter if they believe he lacked the intent to kill but that his actions were so grossly negligent that he should be held criminally responsible for them.

Legal experts have said involuntary manslaughter is generally punishable by two to four years in prison. It is rare for a law enforcement officer to be charged with murder in connection with an on-duty shooting.

Police in Oakland, across the Bay to the east of San Francisco, moved to a tactical alert status as they braced for the possibility of renewed violence following the verdict. But civic leaders appealed for calm.

Demonstrations by supporters of Grant, a young father who worked as a grocery store butcher, were planned in Oakland and Los Angeles.

"We don't know if we're going to have a riot or a celebration, but either way we're going to have one," protester Cindy Delgado said outside the downtown Los Angeles courthouse before the verdict was announced.

"I'm concerned about riots. I don't want to be hit by a bottle," said Francisco Raygoza, 30, an accountant leaving work in San Francisco. "Our office manager said leave as soon as you can."

Video footage of the slaying shown widely over the Internet and television, appeared to show Grant lying face down on the train platform when he was shot in the back. Mehserle was seen holstering his gun immediately afterward and putting his hands on his head as in disbelief.

The killing unleashed charges of police brutality and a night of civil unrest in Oakland, where demonstrators smashed store windows and set cars on fire. Police arrested over 100 people on charges of vandalism, unlawful assembly and assault.

The Alameda County Superior Court judge in the case, which was moved to Los Angeles because of heavy pretrial publicity in Oakland, ruled that the jury could not consider a first-degree murder charge. Judge Robert Perry held there was too little evidence to show the killing was premeditated.

Had he been convicted of second-degree murder, Mehserle faced a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. The jury could alternatively have found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter or acquitted him entirely.
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wpr/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1673151/...

(The cop --involuntarily-- shot Oscar mistakenly with a gun and not a taser.)

from Iranian threat, says Hillary Clinton.

"It would appear that the rest of the world and the UN Security Council have given the Americans a pass to lie without end in order to advance Washington’s goal of world hegemony. How does this benefit the Security Council and the world? What is going on here?"

Roberts: "Why would Iran be a threat to Poland?"

------Endless lies ..... -----------

Transparent Lies

By Paul Craig Roberts

July 08, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- The BBC reported on July 4 that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the US ballistic missile base in Poland was not directed at Russia. The purpose of the base, she said, is to protect Poland from the Iranian threat.

Why would Iran be a threat to Poland? What happens to US credibility when the Secretary of State makes such a stupid statement? Does Hillary think she is fooling the Russians? Does anyone on earth believe her? What is the point of such a transparent lie? To cover up an act of American aggression against Russia?

In the same breath Hillary warned of a “steel vice” of repression crushing democracy and civil liberties around the world. US journalists might wonder if she was speaking of the United States. Glenn Greenwald reported in Salon on July 4 that the US Coast Guard, which has no legislative authority, has issued a rule that journalists who come closer than 65 feet to BP clean up operations in the Gulf of Mexico without permission will be punished by a $40,000 fine and one to five years in prison. The New York Times and numerous journalists report that BP, the US Coast Guard, Homeland Security, and local police are prohibiting journalists from photographing the massive damage from the continuing flow of oil and toxic chemicals into the Gulf.

On July 5 Hillary Clinton was in Tbilisi, Georgia, where, according to the Washington Post, she accused Russia of “the invasion and occupation of Georgia.” What is the point of this lie? Even America’s European puppet states have issued reports documenting that Georgia initiated the war with Russia that it quickly lost by invading South Ossetia in an effort to destroy the secessionists.

It would appear that the rest of the world and the UN Security Council have given the Americans a pass to lie without end in order to advance Washington’s goal of world hegemony. How does this benefit the Security Council and the world? What is going on here?

clip clip clip

"Why has Russia stepped aside? At Washington’s insistence, the Russian government has not delivered the sophisticated air defense system that Iran purchased. Does Russia view Iran as a greater threat to itself than the Americans, who are ringing Russia with US missile and military bases and financing “color revolutions” in former constituent parts of the Russian and Soviet empires?

Why has China stepped aside? China’s growing economy needs energy resources. China has extensive energy investments in Iran. It is US policy to contain China by denying China access to energy. China is America’s banker. China could destroy the US dollar in a few minutes.

Perhaps Russia and China have decided to let the Americans over-reach until the country self-destructs.

On the other hand, perhaps everyone is miscalculating and more death and destruction is in the works than the world is counting on.

Like the Gulf of Mexico."

read here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25906.htm

The death spiral into a fascist nightmare is unstoppable now.

APNewsBreak: $500K donated to Ariz. to defend law

Retirees and other residents from all over the country were among those who donated nearly $500,000 to help Arizona defend its immigration enforcement law, with most chipping in $100 or less, according to an analysis of documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

The donations, 88 percent of which came from through the Arizona defense fund's website, surged this week after the federal government sued Tuesday to challenge the law. A document from Gov. Jan Brewer's office showed that 7,008 of the 9,057 online contributions submitted by Thursday morning were made in the days following the government's filing.

Website contributions came from all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, including nearly 2,000 from Arizona. Donations ranged from $5 to $2,000, with the vast majority between $10 and $100.

The AP examined about a quarter of the fund's total contributions, and found only two that came from businesses.

The willingness of thousands of individual Americans to contribute to the Arizona fund illustrates broad concern and frustration over border security and illegal immigration. The state's legislation has since renewed calls for broader immigration changes.......

Donors contacted by the AP said they contributed because the federal government should be helping Arizona, not taking the state to court.

"Arizona needs our help," said Mary Ann Rohde, a retired municipal worker who lives in Rialto, Calif., who donated $20 with her husband. "It's a disgrace what our government is doing."

Georganna Myer, an Arizona Department of Revenue spokeswoman, said the state tax agency believes contributions to the fund are deductible for Arizona and federal income purposes because they are donations to a state.

Brewer spokeswoman Tasya Peterson said Thursday that donors are required to identify themselves when they submit online contributions. An online form specifies a minimum donation of $5 but does not state a maximum.

With the federal lawsuit, the law enacted in April and set to take effect July 29 is now the subject of six lawsuits now pending in federal court. Other plaintiffs include civil rights groups, individuals and several Arizona municipalities.

Brewer established the Governor's Border Security and Immigration Legal Defense Fund with an executive order on May 26. Her office said the state had received about $10,000 in unsolicited donations from people in dozens of states by then.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9164393

(07-08) 17:46 PDT LOS ANGELES -- A jury found former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle guilty today of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the New Year's Day 2009 shooting of an unarmed train rider, finding that he had acted with criminal negligence when he fired a single shot into Oscar Grant's back at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland.

The Los Angeles jury reached its verdict at 2:10 p.m. today, after 6 1/2 hours of deliberations that began Wednesday morning when an alternate juror was seated to replace a panel member who had gone on vacation.

Jurors were given four options when the original panel began deliberations Friday. They could have convicted Mehserle, 28, of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter, or they could have acquitted him.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/08/BAM21EBDOD.D...
The involuntary manslaughter verdict indicates that jurors concluded that Mehserle did not intend to kill the 22-year-old Grant but had been criminally negligent when he drew his gun. The former officer testified that he had mistaken the pistol for his Taser as he sought to subdue Grant following a fight on a BART train, a shooting that was captured on video by five other riders.

Mehserle, who had been free on bail, was remanded into custody and led away in handcuffs by bailiffs after the verdict was read. Dressed in a gray suit and blue shirt, he turned to family members sitting in the front row of the gallery, including his parents, and said softly, "I love you guys."

Members of Grant's family murmured in discontent as verdicts acquitting Mehserle of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter were read. There was little reaction from them when the former officer's conviction was announced.

But outside the court afterward, Oakland attorney John Burris, representing the family, said Grant's relatives were "extraordinarily disappointed" by what he called "a true compromise verdict."

"The system is rarely fair when a police officer shoots an African American male," Burris said. "No true justice has been given." Grant was African American and Mehserle is white.

Burris said the family believed the former officer should have been convicted of murder. "All have seen the video and understand the tragedy that has taken place," Burris said.

Grant's uncle Cephus Johnson said that "we knew from the beginning that we were at war with the system. ... We have been slapped in the face by this system that has denied us true justice."

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, speaking at a news conference in Oakland, said she was disappointed and frustrated by the verdict. "We believe Johannes Mehserle was guilty of the crime of murder," she said. "We presented the case that way, we presented the evidence that way, and the jury found otherwise."

Jurors left the downtown Los Angeles courthouse without commenting.

In addition to involuntary manslaughter, the jury found that Mehserle had used a gun during the crime. O'Malley cited that finding as an indication that jurors did not believe Mehserle's story that he had thought he was pulling his Taser.

Mehserle's possible sentence for involuntary manslaughter is two, three or four years, plus three, four or 10 years for using a gun. That means the minimum total sentence that Judge Robert Perry could impose would be five years, and the maximum would be 14 years.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 6. O'Malley would not say what sentence she will seek.

Mehserle's attorney, Michael Rains, could argue for probation, with no prison time. California law requires an increased prison sentence for using a gun during a felony, but it is not clear whether that law overrides another statute that allows probation for manslaughter in unusual cases.

It is also possible that there could be further criminal proceedings against Mehserle. The U.S. Justice Department issued a statement saying its civil rights division, the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI "have an open investigation into the fatal shooting and, at the conclusion of the state prosecution, will conduct an independent review of the facts and circumstances to determine whether the evidence warrants federal prosecution."

Security was heavy in the courtroom as the jury filed in just after 4 p.m. Mehserle had entered a few minutes before, looking shaken and nervous. Grant's mother, Wanda Johnson, was in the second row of the gallery, her head bowed in apparent prayer.

When the "not guilty" verdict was read to the second-degree murder charge, Mehserle's father, Todd Mehserle, began to sob. One of the jurors also dabbed at her eyes.

Mehserle's shooting of Grant was witnessed by dozens of New Year's revelers, most of whom were on their way home from a fireworks show in San Francisco. It prompted a series of protests, including one that mushroomed into a riot in downtown Oakland.

Alameda County prosecutor David Stein said during the trial that Mehserle had "lost all control" of his emotions and shot Grant intentionally in the back after briefly trying to handcuff him. Grant, who had a young daughter, was unarmed and on his chest.

Taking the stand near the end of the trial, Mehserle testified that he had decided to use his Taser on Grant because he saw Grant put his right hand in his pants pocket and believed the Hayward man might be reaching for a gun.

Mehserle said he had accidentally pulled out his pistol and fired a single shot before realizing he had grabbed the wrong weapon.

Mehserle's Taser was positioned to the left of his belt buckle. The right-handed officer's gun was on his right hip.

Grant had been detained at about 2 a.m., along with four friends, for fighting on a Dublin-Pleasanton train. He and a second man were soon placed under arrest by then-BART Officer Anthony Pirone, who said they had resisted him. Stein, the prosecutor, argued that the arrest itself was unlawful because Grant had cooperated.

Video footage played repeatedly in court showed that as Mehserle raised his gun, Pirone had his left knee on Grant's neck. Pirone's left hand was pressing Grant's head into the platform, and Pirone's right hand was holding Grant's right arm - the same one Mehserle said he had struggled with - behind his back.

The shooting brought on a tumultuous period at BART, which has a full-service police force of about 200 officers. Police Chief Gary Gee retired late last year, and outside auditors criticized the transit agency for the way it trained, supervised and disciplined cops.

Mehserle resigned soon after the shooting and never spoke with BART internal affairs investigators.

Pirone and his partner the night of the shooting, Marysol Domenici, were fired earlier this year by BART - Pirone for his actions on the train platform and Domenici for the way she reported the incident to investigators.

BART agreed in January to pay $1.5 million in a civil settlement to Grant's daughter, Tatiana Grant, who is now 6. Grant's mother and several of his friends who were with him when he was shot still have pending lawsuits.

The trial was moved to Los Angeles in part because of the tensions the killing caused in the East Bay. Some community leaders, activists and others believe the shooting underscored a larger problem of police officers abusing people of color with little accountability.

There were no African Americans on the jury that convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter. Seven jurors identified themselves as white, three identified themselves as Latino and one identified herself as Asian. One juror declined to state a race or ethnicity.

Many police officers around the state also followed the trial, with some expressing concern that a fellow officer could go to prison for making a mistake under pressure.

The defense put much of the blame for the shooting on poor training at BART - particularly Taser training, which Mehserle received a month before the shooting - and on the character of Grant, a parolee who had spent time in prison.

Rains, the defense attorney, argued that Grant never stopped resisting Mehserle's efforts to handcuff him before he was shot.

The case marked the first murder prosecution of an on-duty Bay Area police officer. Prosecutors rarely file charges against police for shootings. A Chronicle review of police use-of-force cases around the country found just six cases in the past 15 years - not including the BART shooting - in which murder charges had been filed.

The cases, involving a total of 13 officers, typically resulted in large civil payouts to victims' relatives. However, none of the officers was convicted of murder and most were acquitted or cleared altogether. One pleaded no contest to manslaughter and got three years in prison.

Chronicle staff writers Jaxon Van Derbeken and Bob Egelko contributed to this report.

E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.

Left-Leaning Despisers of the 9/11 Truth Movement:
Do You Really Believe in Miracles?
----
A MUST READ carefully detailed and documented Open Letter (Incl. up to 200 endnotes) to the Left-Leaning Despisers of the 9/11 Truth Movement by the awesome David Ray Griffin.

I knew that blogs like Huffington Post (see the recent Gov. Ventura brouhaha), dailykos and most others do not allow discussions of 9/11 and that left-leaners like Chomsky and Cockburn from Counterpunch showed contempt for the "conspiracy theorists" from the v. start. But I didn't know how hard at work certain liberals from Cockburn to Taibbi have been - until the present - to discredit anyone who questions the official 9/11 version. The language used by these people is downright shameful. Methinks they protest too much and something is going on here ... No matter all the facts that have come to light in the last 8 years, these critics prefer to remain in strong denial and in the process completely ignore the political consequences of 9/11.
Why is that? Griffin sheds some much needed light on these "scientifically challenged" critics in this article. And it is not pretty.

=====
Left-Leaning Despisers of the 9/11 Truth Movement:
Do You Really Believe in Miracles?

By David Ray Griffin

An Open Letter to Terry Allen, Noam Chomsky, Alexander Cockburn, David Corn, Chris Hayes, George Monbiot, Matthew Rothschild, and Matt Taibbi.1

July 07, 2010 "GR" -- According to several left-leaning critics of the 9/11 Truth Movement, some of its central claims, especially about the destruction of the World Trade Center, show its members to be scientifically challenged. In the opinion of some of these critics, moreover, claims made by members of this movement are sometimes unscientific in the strongest possible sense, implying an acceptance of magic and miracles.

After documenting this charge in Part I of this essay, I show in Part II that the exact opposite is the case: that the official account of the destruction of the World Trade Center implies miracles (I give nine examples), and that the 9/11 Truth Movement, in developing an alternative hypothesis, has done so in line with the assumption that the laws of nature did not take a holiday on 9/11. In Part III, I ask these left-leaning critics some questions evoked by the fact that it is they, not members of the 9/11 Truth Movement, who have endorsed a conspiracy theory replete with miracle stories as well as other absurdities.

I The Charge that 9/11 Truth Theories Rest on Unscientific, Even Magical, Beliefs

Several left-leaning critics of the 9/11 Truth Movement, besides showing contempt for its members, charge them with relying on claims that are contradicted by good science and, in some cases, reflect a belief in magic. By “magic,” they mean miracles, understood as violations of basic principles of the physical sciences.

For example, Alexander Cockburn, who has referred to members of the 9/11 Truth Movement as “9/11 conspiracy nuts,”3 quoted with approval a philosopher who, speaking of “the 9-11 conspiracy cult,” said that its “main engine . . . is . . . the death of any conception of evidence,” resulting in “the ascendancy of magic over common sense, let alone reason.”4 Also, Cockburn assured his readers: “The conspiracy theory that the World Trade Centre towers were demolished by explosive charges previously placed within them is probably impossible.”5 With regard to Building 7 of the World Trade Center, Cockburn claimed (in 2006) that the (2002) report by FEMA was “more than adequate.”6

Likewise, George Monbiot, referring to members of the 9/11 Truth Movement as “fantasists,” “conspiracy idiots,” and “morons,” charged that they “believe that [the Bush regime] is capable of magic.”7

Matt Taibbi, saying that the “9/11 conspiracy theory is so shamefully stupid” and referring to its members as “idiots,” wrote with contempt about the “alleged scientific impossibilities” in the official account of 9/11; about the claim that “the towers couldn't have fallen the way they did [without the aid of explosives]”; of the view (held by “9/11 Truthers”) that “it isn't the plane crashes that topple the buildings, but bombs planted in the Towers that do the trick”; and of “the supposed anomalies of physics involved with the collapse of WTC-7.” He had been assured by “scientist friends,” he added, that “[a]ll of the 9/11 science claims” are “rank steaming bullshit.”8

read here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25895.htm

Norman Finkelstein: Results, Not Rhetoric

By GRITtv

Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussing their countries' foreign relations resembles two lovers discussing their future together. Though they have squabbled in the past over trivial things (things like settlement expansion that most other countries deem flagrant violations of international law), their July 6th meeting at the White House showed that their "unbreakable bond" cannot be shaken. Norman Finkelstein joins us in the studio to report that one should judge the alleged "peace process" with results, not rhetoric. Obama has certainly given enough lip service to settlement moratoriums, proximity talks, and direct talks, but what are the results? Since the Oslo Accords in 1993, there are three times as many settlers and Israel has annexed 42% of Palestinian land for even more expansion. Though Obama waxes eloquently about "direct negotiations," there are no signs of Israel withdrawing to the 1967 borders that would only begin to indicate a successful peace process.

Posted July O8, 2010

V I D E O

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25904.htm

US Treasury Grants Tax Exemptions to Funders of Illegal Israeli Settlements

By Paul Wachter

July 08, 2010 "Huffington Post" -- A New York Times investigation revealed Tuesday that the U.S. Treasury is helping to promote illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank by granting tax exemptions to U.S. groups that funnel money into them. These specific settlements aren't only illegal under international law, but also under Israeli law.

The funds -- $200 million over the past decade -- undermine the very peace process Washington claims to support. "The result is a surprising juxtaposition: As the American government seeks to end the four-decade Jewish settlement enterprise and foster a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the American Treasury helps sustain the settlements through tax breaks on donations to support them," reports The New York Times.

"For example, when Israeli authorities suspended plans for permanent homes in Maskiot, a tiny settlement near Jordan, in 2007, two American nonprofits -- the One Israel Fund and Christian Friends of Israeli Communities -- raised tens of thousands of dollars to help erect temporary structures, keeping the community going until officials lifted the building ban."

Many of the American groups consist of evangelical Christians, who believe that Jews securing the Holy Land is a prerequisite to Armageddon. (Largely glossed over in this evangelical-Zionist alliance is the belief by Christians that on Judgment Day the Jews will be sent to hell.)

Palestinians expressed outrage at the revelation. "Settlements violate international law, and the United States is supposed to be sponsoring a two-state solution, yet it gives deductions for donation to the settlements?" asked Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

read here

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25897.htm

Obama administration: Israel Has Right to Nuclear Capability for Deterrence Purposes

By Barak Ravid

July 08, 2010 " "Haaretz" -- NEW YORK - The Obama administration has revealed to the public, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington, a series of understandings between the two countries on Israel's policy of "nuclear ambiguity" - which to date had been kept under wraps.

At the center of these understandings lies an Israeli veto on the holding of an international conference for a nuclear-free Middle East, as well as an unprecedented American willingness to cooperate with Israel in the field of nuclear power for civil use.

The revelations come in the wake of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference held in May, which called on Israel to agree to international inspection of its nuclear installations, and to the holding of an international conference for a nuclear-free Middle East. The conference's final document was passed despite Israel's strong protests to the Americans.

In talks since the conference, the Americans made it clear that that decision had been a "mistake." In an effort to clarify the administration's stance on the Israeli nuclear question, it was determined that - in coordination with Israel - the full details of the high-level understandings between the two sides, reached during the 1960s, would finally be revealed.

The understandings have been updated over the years, including during this past year.

Washington's aim through these revelations was to clear the air and correct the impression given at the May conference that the United States did not back Israel.

Following their meeting at the White House Tuesday, a special announcement was made an hour later concerning assurances given to Netanyahu by U.S. President Barack Obama.

According to the announcement, "The president told the prime minister he recognizes that Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat or possible combination of threats, and that only Israel can determine its security needs. The president pledged to continue U.S. efforts to combat all international attempts to challenge the legitimacy of the State of Israel."

read here

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25902.htm

All Eyes on Turkey

The Chronic Failure of Israeli Leadership

By PATRICK COCKBURN

President Obama was full of gushing goodwill towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their summit in Washington this week. There was no mention of an extension to the moratorium on Israeli settlement building or the Israeli commandos' attack on the Turkish aid flotilla bound for Gaza. In private, the White House and even the Israeli delegation were quick to say that Obama's climb-down had not been quite as humiliating as it looked, and assurances had been given that the moratorium would be quietly extended. But the President was at pains to reverse the cool reception Netanyahu got during his visit to the White House in March when when he was not even allowed a photograph with Obama, who kept him waiting while he had dinner with his family upstairs.

The reason for Netanyahu's friendlier reception is obvious enough. Obama needs every vote he can get in the mid-term Congressional elections in November when a third of the Senate and all the House face re-election. The Republicans have been seeking with some success to portray him as anti-Israel. Pro-Israeli lobby groups have been putting intense pressure on Democratic Senators and Congressmen to demand that the White House be more accommodating.

The outcome of the brief confrontation between Israel and the US is not surprising. With its collective mind focused on the upcoming elections, the White House is disregarding signs of disquiet from the US chiefs of staff and security policy establishment that Israeli ill-treatment of the Palestinians and excessive use of force in the region is turning Israel into a liability for the US. They warn that the US will not always give unstinting support to acts they see as irresponsible misjudgements, be it against the Turks on the high seas or Palestinians in Gaza and Lebanon.

read here
http://www.counterpunch.com/patrick07082010.html

"The pablum about "keeping us safe" is a ruse for a grand scale money laundering campaign which involves big business and big corporations. This is nothing new, but it is alarming nonetheless that even transparency now comes with an expiration date."

---
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Jump Starting the First Amendment

By JAYNE LYN STAHL

In February, 2009, the Pentagon allowed the International Red Cross to photograph detainees at Guantanamo Bay for the first time. They had been barred from doing so for eight years prior to that.

Photographers with the Miami Herald went with the Red Cross, and said that it was nearly impossible to distinguish so-called "high value" detainees from those who have been since released. The photos are disturbingly happy, and relaxed, given what we now know about detainee abuse. Some of the men were smiling, and holding up pictures of their young children, children they had not seen since birth. Clearly, it is not in the interest of national security to show the human face of war.

Granting the Red Cross this kind of access was one small step for the Pentagon, but one big step for the war on illegal incarceration. Yet, again, it is one step forward, and two steps back.

And, what the Pentagon giveth, the Pentagon taketh away.

http://www.counterpunch.com/stahl07082010.html

Professor Mearsheimer: "No Accountability for Israel on Any Issue!"

V I D E O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g-fgPmSlRs

(via Counterpunch)

When You Visit Israel (Formerly Palestine) ...
A Presidential Tour Guide to Israel

By ROBERT BLOOM

“The reports about the demise of the special relationship aren’t just premature, they’re just flat wrong,” the [Israeli] prime minister said. He publicly invited Mr. Obama to visit Israel, and the president said, “I’m ready.”

From the NY Times, July 6, 2010

Dear Mr. Obama,

When you travel to Israel (formerly known as Palestine), be sure to visit some of the great tourist sites in Israel (formerly Palestine):

*The countless checkpoints, where Palestinians are humiliated and mistreated every hour of every day (and don't forget to ask to see the several locations where Palestinian women have lost their children and/or died in childbirth at these places because the Israelis wouldn't process them through);

*The handsome and loving wall that keeps families apart and prevents Palestinians from getting to work. As an added benefit, this could be the model for the ever-expanding wall that many americans would like to see at the Mexican border;

*The illegal settlements --- illegal under international law, and in clear violation of those sacred U.N. sanctions that american presidents always cite when it comes to Iran, Cuba, etc, but ignore when the resolutions relate to Israel;

*The secret facilities where the Israelis have created nuclear weapons (and where they are stored this very day). Just ask. They'll show you. I think one of the sites is in a town called Vanunu. Don't miss it;

*The interrogation centers where Palestinians are tortured every day, all day, all night. In fact, the Israelis taught the americans quite a bit about these endeavors, and there's still lots to learn from Israel;

* The wonderful prisons to which the Israelis send Palestinians, including children who, gasp, threw rocks at soldiers;

*The place where the Israelis murdered Rachel Corrie (and don't fail to speak to the colonels and other Israeli officials who whitewashed the murder);

*The storage area for the (illegal) white phosphorus weaponry the Israeli's used on civilians in their unspeakable genocide (known in some circles as a holocaust(tm) on Gaza:

*The site where the Isrealis entered into a chillingly evil deal with the chillingly corrupt government of Egypt to enforce the disgraceful blockade of food and medical supplies and building materials on 1.5 million human beings in Gaza;

*The site of the decision to escalate the assault on Palestinians by desecrating Temple Mount;

*Be sure to go to one of the trials that are conducted in military tribunals, where Palestinians are NEVER acquitted, NEVER. (You can learn how to conduct trials in the secret courts at Bagram, in the secret prison [torture center] at Bagram, (the new and improved Guantanimo).

I may have omitted some of the special sites you should see in Israel when you visit. Be sure to consult some Palestinian victims of Israeli Apartheid before you go --- just in case I missed something.

Robert Bloom lives in Berkeley, CA.

http://www.counterpunch.org/bloom07082010.html

-Alice, on the Jimmie Page story
Submitted by taozen on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 1:07pm.

My brother , Jake Holmes waited for a long time before he decided to sue for Dazed and Confused. the Law says he can only sue for money that the song generated over the last three years. better than nothing. he will use the money if he gets any for a " Musical show'' he is putting on. He also said he would NOT take it to Arizona or to Israel, now he is thing straight.-

That guy is your brother?

It makes me happy that you use your local library.. :)

I think that's why most people use our computers here..either they only have dial up or their machines (pcs or printers) break and they come to use ours...No service in the hills around here...

It makes me happy that you use your local library.. :)

I think that's why most people use our computers here..either they only have dial up or their machines (pcs or printers) break and they come to use ours...No service in the hills around here...

(LIFE EXPECTANCY ONLY 51 YEARS)

Warning To Gulf Volunteers: Almost Every Cleanup Worker From The 1989 Exxon Valdez Disaster Is Now Dead

Michael Snyder | Jun. 30, 2010, 12:20 PM |

Are you sure that you want to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? In a previous article we documented a number of the health dangers from this oil spill that many scientists are warning us of, and now it has been reported on CNN that the vast majority of those who worked to clean up the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska are now dead. Yes, you read that correctly. Almost all of them are dead.

In fact, the expert that CNN had on said that the life expectancy for those who worked to clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill is only about 51 years. Considering the fact that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is now many times worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster, are you sure you want to volunteer to be on a cleanup crew down there? After all, the American Dream is not to make big bucks for a few months helping BP clean up their mess and then drop dead 20 or 30 years early.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/warning-to-gulf-cleanup-workers-almost-ev...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRrbqBEGxiw&feature=player_embedded

VIDEO

VIDEO

http://www.businessinsider.com/warning-to-gulf-cleanup-workers-almost-ev...

Saturday, September 15, 2001

The World Trade Center's Heroic Rescue Dogs
[Page 1] [Page 2] [Page 3] [Page 4] [Page 5] [Last Page]

NEW YORK CITY — Not enough can be said about the heroic individuals, both bipeds and quadrupeds, who lend their abilities to the security and rescue efforts underway in the wake of last Tuesday's terrorist attack on America. With that said, here are a few pictures worth a few thousand words:

see the pics of these wonderful dogs and their human rescue worker friends
and read more here

http://www.dogsinthenews.com/issues/0109/articles/010915a.htm

"Worf" located the bodies of two missing firefighters on the first day. Overwhelmed, he lay down and curled up on the spot. The dog began shedding profusely, quit eating and refused to play with other dogs. His partner Mike Owens made the decision to retire the 12-year-old German Shepherd from search-and-rescue duty permanently. They are now back at home in Monroe, Ohio, where the entire town takes turns petting and playing with Worf. (Photo: (Michael Snyder / Cincinati Enquirer)

http://www.dogsinthenews.com/issues/0109/articles/010926a.htm

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Resurrection Of A Scandal

by digby

So the most famous blogger in the world has been banned from MSNBC after Joe Scarborough pitched a fit about a passing comment on twitter nobody even paid attention to. It's hard to believe that anyone in politics or the media would be so incredibly stupid as to draw attention to the fact that he had a forgotten scandal in his past by forcing a public spectacle of it, but there you go. Of course, he is a Republican.

Those of you who don't know about Joe Scarborough's dead intern problem probably didn't start reading the internet regularly until after 2002. Certainly the mainstream press didn't cover it. You see at the time the entire village was hysterical over the disappearance of congressman Gary Condit's mistress, a woman who happened to work in his office and who seemed to remind everyone of Monica Lewinsky, which naturally made them come completely unglued. The media, with the help of the family, pretty much convicted Condit of murder in one of the most revolting displays of railroading ever seen in American politics. Even when the actual murderer was revealed years later, the worst of the perpetrators refused to back down.

Meanwhile, that same summer, star up-and-coming Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough, recently divorced under charges of infidelity, had unexpectedly decided to resign from office six months after being re-elected. Shortly thereafter an intern on his Florida staff was found dead -- in the office -- under mysterious circumstances with allegations of cover-ups by the local authorities and the quack medical examiner. And nobody in DC even raised an eyebrow. The story went largely unremarked upon and he soon found himself a lucrative perch as a highly paid celebrity gasbag.

Now I have to assume that Scarborough is either brain damaged or must want people to look at that story again because otherwise he would have let some innocuous, snarky tweet pass by. Now we all have no choice but to rehash the whole thing in order to explain why Markos has been banned from the network.

I'm guessing he's running for office again. After all, in today's GOP if you aren't picking up men in bathrooms, harassing pages by the dozen or hiking the Appalachian trail, you just aren't worth the teabag you're steeping in.

I'll be curious to see if any of the MSNBC hosts put up a fight. I doubt they will. There seems to be some kind of village Omerta when it comes to Joe Scarborough.

.
digby 7/07/2010 01:00:00 PM Comments (75)

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/joe-scarborough-r-mensa-has-fit-o...

My uncle, not Uncle dave but Uncle Jeff is dying , he has cancer all the way through his spine and its causing his head to swell and a massive tumor in his lung, he has a day or two at most, we are going to visit him today.

So if any of you would like to call me to offer some support and love I would much appreciate

I think you know my number

Im not sure how Im going to handle this, its been a while since Ive dealt with such tragedy up close. My uncle dave is a wreck, He broke down in tears last night , so did I.

CNN) -- A federal judge in Boston, Massachusetts, has ruled that the federal ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, because it interferes with an individual state's right to define marriage.
The ruling gives same-sex married couples in Massachusetts the same right to federal benefits that heterosexual couples enjoy.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that "as irrational prejudice plainly never constitutes a legitimate government interest," the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates the protection under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
Tauro ruled simultaneously in favor on two separate lawsuits that were filed by the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) on behalf of eight same-sex married couples and three widows, and by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where same-sex marriage has been permitted for over six years.
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley called the ruling "a victory for civil rights." Coakley, who attended court Thursday for the ruling, told reporters, "All citizens who are married in Massachusetts should be treated equally."
Tauro ruled that in DOMA it was "only sexual orientation that differentiates a married couple entitled to federal marriage-based benefits from one not so entitled."
He added that "the relevant distinction to be drawn is between married individuals and unmarried individuals. To further divide the class of married individuals into those with spouses of the same sex and those with spouses of the opposite sex is to create a distinction without meaning,"
Nancy Gell, one of the plaintiffs in the case said that she let out a huge "Yahoo!" when she heard the ruling on television as she was cooking dinner. "We are just absolutely thrilled, I am so happy I can't ever put it into words," she told reporters.
Coakley who said that she believed that DOMA statute had no purpose other than to discriminate, said that the ruling applied to all same-sex married couples in Massachusetts.
Gary Buseck, GLAD's legal director, said that Thursday's ruling "is for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, so it seems to be encompassing all of the same-sex married couples in Massachusetts." He added that it would be "highly unusual" if the ruling was not appealed.
Department of Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said of the ruling, "We are reviewing the decision."

http://blogs.reuters.com/gregg-easterbrook/2010/07/08/why-we-let-our-you...

Angry mobs smashed windows and set small fires in downtown Oakland Thursday night, their rage sparked by a white transit cop's conviction of a lesser charge in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in a subway station New Year's Day 2009.

The rioting and looting started hours after former police officer Johannes Mehersle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Oscar Grant was shot in the back while laying face-down on a subway platform. Mehersle dodged the more severe charge of second degree murder.

Mehersle faces a prison sentence of two to four years.

The protesters, described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a racially diverse group, faced off with police, threw rocks and bottles, smashed storefronts and sprayed graffiti on walls that read "Riot for Oscar."

Several trash cans along the streets were set on fire.

"This city is not the wild, wild west," said Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts. "This city will not tolerate this sort of activity."

Earlier in the evening, demonstrations after the verdict had been peaceful as community leaders urged calm.

"I'm angry as hell, but he was found guilty of something," Tony Coleman, a community organizer who started a movement on Grant's behalf, said of the convicted ex-cop.

Grant's family members were outraged at the verdict, with an uncle saying the family had "been slapped in the face" by the justice system.

Grant's grandfather, meanwhile, told demonstrators to stay calm: "Please don't tear up the Bay Area," he said.

During the trial, prosecutors said Mehersle, 28, who was responding to a fight on the subway platform, was angry that Grant, 22, resisted arrest.

The former officer said he accidentally drew his .40-caliber handgun, wanting instead to pull out his Taser.

At least five bystanders filmed the incident.

Eight women and four men sat on the jury, none of whom listed their race as black.

The three-week trial was held in Los Angeles because of riots in Oakland following the shooting.

Tragic story. When you're a Menshevik, ain't nobody got your back bro.
Soon barack will get fired too.
Tragic.

I heard that Markos's ban is only temporary. A suspension. I don't like that him very much, but he is good on Countdown. I don't know enough to comment on the suspension.

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

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10564798.stm

When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person," she wrote.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10572025.stm

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/070810.html

snippet

Boot himself is a staunch advocate for the so-called Long War against Islamic militants, arguing that the United States must curtail domestic programs, including health care, if necessary to sustain and expand the military budget so the projection of U.S. power around the globe can continue unabated.

“It will be increasingly hard to be globocop and nanny state at the same time,” Boot wrote last March 25 in a Wall Street Journal article opposing Obamacare. “Something will have to give.”

By Dean Baker

From now until November 2, the Republican Party will be the party of unemployment. The logic is straightforward; the more people who are unemployed on Election Day, the better the prospects for Republicans in the fall election. They expect, with good cause, that voters will hold the Democrats responsible for the state of the economy. Therefore anything that the Republicans can do to make the economy worse between now and then will help their election prospects.

While it might be bad taste to accuse a major national political party of deliberately wanting to throw people out of jobs, there is no other plausible explanation for the Republicans' behavior. The Republicans have balked at supporting nearly every bill that had any serious hope of creating or keeping jobs, most recently filibustering on bills that provided aid to state and local governments and extending unemployment benefits. The result of the Republicans' actions, unless they are reversed quickly, is that hundreds of thousands more workers will be thrown out of work by Election Day.

The story is straightforward. Nearly every state and local government across the country is looking at large budget shortfalls for their 2011 fiscal years, most of which begin July 1, 2010. Since they are generally required by state constitutions or local charters to balance their budgets, they will have no choice except to raise taxes and/or make large cutbacks and layoff workers to bring spending and revenue into line.

State and local governments have cut their workforce by an average of 65,000 a month over the last three months. Without substantial aid from the federal government this pace is likely accelerate. The Republican agenda in blocking aid to the states may add another 300,000 people to the unemployment roles by early November

The blockage of extended unemployment benefits promises similar dividends. Unemployment benefits are not just about providing income support to those who are out of work, they also provide a boost to the economy. Since unemployed workers generally have little other than their benefits to support themselves, this is money that will almost immediately be spent. The benefits paid to workers are income to food stores and other retail outlets.
http://www.zcommunications.org/republicans-the-party-of-unemployment-by-...

Greeenpeace founder Jim Bohlen has died
Xeni Jardin at 12:09 PM Thursday, Jul 8, 2010

Jim Bohlen, a Greenpeace founder, died this week at age 84. He trained as a US naval radio operator, then obtained an engineering degree and worked for a defense contractor on Long Island, where he met R. Buckminster Fuller. He was a Quaker and a longtime peace activist. "Jim is survived by his wife Marie, a stepson, a son and daughter by his first wife Anna, and a global environmental organisation."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/us/08bohlen.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries
=============
The New Pioneer’s Handbook: Getting Back to the Land in an Energy-Scarce World” (Schocken, 1975)
----------------
here is a good book for the library Alice.

and if you are feeling your friday
this one might do the trick instead.

The Starflight Handbook: A Pioneer's Guide to Interstellar Travel (Wiley Science Editions) [Paperback]
Eugene F. Mallove (Author), Gregory L. Matloff (Author)

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

\Watson and Jim Bohlen / they differed in style and approach but they are very importaNT.

Actually, I hope he gets back on Countdown. For our media, he's like Chomsky. I just hate him though, because of his no 911 discussion, no criticism of Israel policy. I heard he got fired and thought...

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: 409 of the penal code prohibits remaining in present at an unlawful assembly. If you remain in the area, just described, regardless of your purpose, you'll be in violation of section 409.

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: Move forward. Move forward. Move forward and make a right. Move forward and make a right.

Outrage in Oakland
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/09-4

Frank Bajak

BOGOTA, Colombia - The U.S. government has denied a visa to a prominent Colombian journalist who specializes in conflict and human rights reporting to attend a prestigious fellowship at Harvard University.

[In this photo taken March 24, 2010, Colombian journalist Hollman Morris smiles while posing for the camera in Bogota. The U.S. government recently denied Morris a visa to attend a prestigious fellowship at Harvard University. The U.S. government recently denied Morris a visa to attend a prestigious fellowship at Harvard University.
Hollman Morris, who produces an independent TV news program called "Contravia," has been highly critical of ties between illegal far-right militias and allies of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe, Washington's closest ally in Latin America.......
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/09

with my taser , thats why I painted the handle of the taser red.

Marine who dismissed charges in Iraqi civilian deaths to lead Centcom

Mattis may also come under scrutiny during his Senate confirmation for the way he handled charges against eight Marines for the November 2005 killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha, especially since one of the key strategies of current U.S. policy in Afghanistan is to reduce civilian casualties.

The Marines at Haditha killed the Iraqis in their homes, including women and children, in what survivors described as an indiscriminate shooting spree after a fellow Marine was killed by a roadside bomb. A military investigation found that none of the dead were insurgents or had threatened the troops.

As head of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif., however, Mattis dismissed many of the charges...
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/08/97217/outspoken-marine-general-nam...

'Brawler' general to lead Centcom

A US general once criticised for saying it was "fun to shoot some people" has been picked by the Pentagon to replace General David Petraeus as head of the military command overseeing the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/201078233717799692.ht...

Like the earthquake in Mexicali and the resulting tension quake yesterday.. (or the day before?)

It's nap time... byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

About the murderer of Oscar Grant getting convicted of involuntary manslaughter, things that bother me:

:: The first thing officer Mehserle did after the murder was QUIT his job so he would not have to answer questions in any official inquiry under oath.

:: Then Mehserle ran away, leaving the state of California and it was necessary for authorities to pursue and apprehend him (if my memory serves me correctly). Sorry, this behavior by Mehserle sounded like the act of a guilty person to me.

:: Then Mehserle gets to court and claims he didn't know the difference between his gun and a taser, and that's supposed to be believable? The victim Oscar Grant was already subdued, face down on the pavement, when Mehserle VOLUNTARILY decided to do the UNNECESSARY -- that is, subdue the victim even more? How does that work? How does one further subdue someone who IS already subdued?! It is hard to believe that Mehserle's claim that he didn't know the difference between his gun and his taser. But when the Court and Prosecution allowed the accused to center all the attention on his claim that he didn't know where his gun was or what it felt like in his hand or what it felt like to fire his gun makes me think the Prosecution wasn't trying very hard. Why allow the accused to take the attention away from the fact that Mehserle's victim was unarmed, outnumbered by officers and ALREADY SUBDUED. Whether Officer Mehserle had used a billy club or taser or gun on the victim, Mehserle was still acting VOLUNTARILY with UNNECESSARY force. (And did anybody ask Mehserle WHY he aimed the taser at the back of the victim's head? Did Mehserle learn to do that in taser training??? Aren't police warned not to do that, because it can cause death?)

A real tragedy. A tragedy for the victim and his family, and the whole community of The People who are brutalized by police -- police who grow more authoritarian and more immune to the effects of justice.

Open Letter to Left-Leaning Despisers of the 9/11 Truth Movemen
Submitted by bridge on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 9:39pm.
Left-Leaning Despisers of the 9/11 Truth Movement:
Do You Really Believe in Miracles?
----
A MUST READ carefully detailed and documented Open Letter (Incl. up to 200 endnotes) to the Left-Leaning Despisers of the 9/11 Truth Movement by the awesome David Ray Griffin.
...
========================

This article indicates another example of the attitude that -- to some, even some on the Left -- science only makes sense and can be taken seriously when that science comes through Corporations and the Power Elite.
Science from actual independent scientists or whistleblower scientists or protesting scientists is automatically suspect.

This problem exists not only in the 9/11 challenge but also in the BP Gulf Disaster where it is okay to pollute if the Oil Industry's own scientists say it is okay....Oh, yes, and it exists regarding GMO safety, regarding the practicality (and sanity) behind the processed (dead and unnutritious) foods filling our supermarkets, and the treatment of patients using harmful pharmaceutical drugs, etc.

Whose science counts first? The science put forth by the Big Money Elite.

I always confuse my service revolver
Submitted by taozen on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 2:34pm.
with my taser , thats why I painted the handle of the taser red.
================

My neighbor was telling me that police feel they are justified in using their tasers to knock out victims in order to put on handcuffs -- as a substituted for just regular force. If a tasered person uncontrollably CONVULSES and breaks their teeth or jaw in the process, it is no the fault of the police or the government that gave this taser to the police; same goes for the victim who is tasered and suffers a heart attack or the victim who is killed by the policeman's use of the taser.

Looks to me that the Oscar Grant murder justifies our getting rid of tasers altogether, since police offficers can't tell the difference between tasers and guns, and use each the same way -- to wipe out the unbooked, untried, unconvicted citizen. We are justified in getting rid of tasers because our government officials who give tasers to cops do not want to face the fact that the taser is a lethal weapon, too.

Why even decades after the civil-rights era, a cop shooting an unarmed black man is barely a crime.

....I want to focus for a moment on the distinction between voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. To convict on the higher charge of voluntary manslaughter, the prosecution would have had to prove that Mehserle's fear of Grant and his friends was "unreasonable." It decided the crime was involuntary. In other words, Mehserle's fear? That was reasonable.

Fear is at the core of questions of justice involving the deaths of black people at the hands of the authorities in the United States of America, dating back to when Toussaint L'Overture put the fear of G-d in slaveowners by revealing that their "property" might someday rise up against them....
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/adam_serwer_archive?month=07&year=201...

Bad news: Barack Obama is the Censorship President.

http://rense.com/general91/deter.htm

[excerpt]

Deteriorating Conditions For
Israeli Arab Citizens
By Stephen Lendman
7-8-10

In April 2010, the Mossawa Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel published a report titled, "One Year for Israel's New Government and the Arab Minority in Israel," assessing the climate for Israeli Arabs - citizens comprising 20% of the population but none of the rights and protections afforded Jews.

Mossawa calls them "a potentially formidable force for peace and coexistence between Palestinians and Israeli Jews" if only they were respected as equals. They're not and face systemic discrimination, despite their wanting to be active participants and partners for peace in a nation as much theirs and Jews. Why not! They lived there for centuries without persecuting the minority Jewish population.

Like earlier governments, the Netanhayu regime denies them - its key portfolios openly hostile, extremists in them endorsing schemes to collectively expel them to a future undefined Palestinian state, either outside Greater Israel or in isolated cantons, surrounded by hostile Jewish settlements, incrementally stealing their land.

[end excerpt]

Black Out? ... Maybe a Care2 petition?
:):(

DON'T GET OLD

DIE QUICKLY

No full Social Security benefits until age 70?

Last month, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., launched his in a major address to a Washington budget conference....

A bipartisan national commission is weighing strategies to reduce the national debt, and the Washington buzz is that everything — even former untouchables such as higher taxes and cuts in Medicare and Social Security benefits _will be considered.

This week the International Monetary Fund urged the U.S. to cut future Social Security benefits, among other painful steps that it said were necessary to avoid unsustainable debt and an increased risk of global economic instability.

"If we could address Social Security reform," said Peter Peterson, the founder and chairman of a foundation that works for federal debt reduction, "it would provide a much-needed confidence builder with our valued foreign lenders ... so they don't lose faith that we can manage our own fiscal affairs."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/09/97271/no-full-social-security-bene...

(Here's another great idea: Work longer to grow that IRA.

"working longer would also improve individuals' own retirement finances by generating more retirement wealth and reducing the number of years their wealth needs to fund.")

Possibility that all $20 billion (if ever that money is used in compensation since it is not yet in escrow) will be all translated into a windfall for BP in terms of tax free cost of doing business. However, if that money is paid in FINES for the leaking millions of barrels of spewage or legal awards to damaged parties -- there would be NO deduction. This one is worth continued exposure:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/27/INFM1E32VD.D...

[excerpt]

Crude joke on American taxpayers - we will pay
Rodney P. Mock,Arline Savage

...

what the public may not know is that it may end up footing a good portion of BP's legal damages, fees and costs because they are tax deductible.

History tells the tale. After long battles with the federal government and the State of Alaska, Exxon eventually settled for a reported $1.15 billion (of which $125 million was forgiven in recognition of that company's cooperation). But the reality, according to the Congressional Research Service, is that the after-tax cost to Exxon was $524 million, and more than half of the $900 million in civil damages it paid were also tax deductible. In other words, taxpayers picked up much of the bill.

The same slippery tax secret is at issue with BP. Thanks to a commonly used provision in the Internal Revenue Code, the oil company may be able to deduct many of the settlements and judgments against it as "ordinary and necessary" business expenditures. These deductions result in fewer taxes paid and, for a corporation like BP, the after-tax savings are as high as 35 percent, excluding any state and local income tax savings. Worse, these deductions can be carried back two years and forward 20 years to more profitable times.

What constitutes an "ordinary and necessary" business expense was intentionally left undefined by Congress, because listing all these expenses (e.g., rent, salaries, utilities) would be too lengthy and cumbersome. The lack of a formal list has created some confusion about what deductions qualify, and generally speaking, the courts have been liberal in interpreting the rule. As a result, companies have deducted as business expenses everything from judgments for patent infringement to settlements relating to antitrust disputes. Legal and accounting fees are also often deductible if the lawsuit arises in the ordinary course of business. And even claims resulting from a violation of state or federal law are able to be deducted as long as they are sufficiently connected to a business' operations. So, as unbelievable as it is, negligence, fraud and a host of other misdeeds may be deductible, as are punitive damages assessed for wrongdoings.

Juries are typically oblivious to the tax ramifications of such awards. Consequently, punishment may be sharply different from what was intended. (The Obama administration has proposed eliminating the tax deductibility of punitive damages.)

The deductibility of payments made to settle claims and judgments filed by government agencies is different. The federal tax code specifically prohibits a deduction for any civil or criminal "fines or penalties" paid for the violation of any law. Compensatory damages on the other hand, even if paid to a government, are deductible. Thus, whether or not a payment is deductible depends on the specifics of the law violated.

...

[end excerpt]

Hundreds of thousands of unemployed Californians are in limbo as Congress clashes over extending jobless benefits.

With the state unemployment rate at 12.4 percent and Stanislaus County at 17.3 percent...

...Bronson's last check came last week. He filed an extension but has yet to hear back from the EDD.

If it isn't approved, Bronson said, he won't be able to make next month's rent.

"I am looking at homelessness, really," he said. "Next month I might be down at the Modesto Gospel Mission or standing on a corner with a sign. I don't know."

Bronson also pays child support to his ex-wife out of his unemployment check for his two daughters, ages 12 and 16.

With the stakes this high, Bronson said, he watched the Senate hearings all last week.

"It's an argument between Republicans and Democrats. I just don't understand it," he said. "They don't care about the working guy. The Republicans say if they stop unemployment, people will go back to work. But there is no work to go to."

http://www.modbee.com/2010/07/08/1245292/jobless-stuck-in-limbo.html#ixz...

Nobody's foolin' nobody is to where it goes

Why are the Republicans poised to take back many seats in both houses this upcoming election. Their refusal to extend unemployment benefits alone should guarantee that they lose their collective asses this fall. Any thoughts?

Throwing Mumia Under the Bus:
Read the whole secret memo:
Mon, 06/28/2010 - 22:25 — Anonymous
CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM to ECPM
from the US members of the Steering Committee of the WCADP
Involvement of Mumia Abu-Jamal endangers the US coalition
for abolition of the death penalty

ECPM has unilaterally, and over objection, determined to give the Mumia Abu-Jamal case a prominent role in the upcoming 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, including the participation of Mr. Abu-Jamal's lawyers and his direct participation by telephone. The US members of the Steering Committee of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty do not agree to this, because it will be counter-productive to our effort to achieve abolition in our country.

The Abu-Jamal case, regardless of its merits, acts as a lightning rod that galvanizes opponents of abolition and neutralizes key constituencies in the cause of abolition. Continuing to give Abu-Jamal focused attention unnecessarily attracts our strongest opponents and alienates coalition partners at a time when we need to build alliances, not foster hatred and enmity.

While Abu-Jamal still attracts some positive attention outside of the United States, it is at a real cost to the US abolition effort. In 1999, the world's largest association of professional law enforcement officers, the Fraternal Order of Police, announced a boycott of organizations and individuals who support Abu-Jamal. Bills have been introduced in both houses of the US federal legislature condemning the naming of streets for Abu-Jamal. The result is that Abu-Jamal, rather than abolition of the death penalty, becomes the issue and the focus of attention. That is dangerously counter-productive to the abolition movement in the US.
The voices of the Innocent, the voices of Victims and the voices of Law Enforcement are the most persuasive factors in changing public opinion and the views of decision-makers (politicians) and opinion leaders (media). Continuing to shine a spotlight on Abu-Jamal, who has had so much public exposure for so many years, threatens to alienate these three most important partnership groups.
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/116
=============
Unfortunately, this is not new. I have been involved with Free Mumia Movement since the 1990s, and I have seen this sort of stuff on all levels, local, national and international (not so much internationally). You think AIPAC is a tough lobby, go up against the police lobbies and see what happens.
FREE MUMIA!
JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
DOWN WITH THE FOP!

By Robert Wells

In the early morning hours of December 9, 1981, a policeman was shot and killed in the downtown red-light section of Philadelphia. What at first may have seemed like just another sordid after-hours tragedy quickly became a sensation, and then in the years since has exfoliated as the corruption behind the murder has become more and more exposed.

What was meant to appear like the gunning down of a hero cop by a small-time street hood was actually a murder conspiracy that started to unravel almost before it began. Very much like the attempted murder of Officer Frank Serpico ten years earlier, the killing of policeman Daniel Faulkner was set up by crooked cops to silence an officer who they were sure was informing to the FBI about police corruption. Other Philadelphia cops had been assaulted or killed for the same reason both before and after Daniel Faulkner’s death.

The police and organized crime had arranged for two shooters that night; while the first one attacked Faulkner the second was to be shot and killed by cops at the scene, thereby writing the next day’s headlines, covering up the murder, and closing the case.

Except that when police tried to shoot the second shooter they missed, only lightly grazing his shoulder. He went on to shoot Faulkner too and both killers fled the scene.

But then, in an incredible stroke of luck for the police, a famous journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal, barged into the assassination, not entirely by coincidence, so the cops shot him instead, and when he didn’t conveniently die they charged him with the murder.

Though this all took place at roughly four o’clock in the morning there were actually a fair number of people about in the after-hours Center City neighborhood, what with the clubs, the cabdrivers, the prostitutes, the tow-truck drivers, people going to work. Accounts of numerous witnesses eventually testified to the picture of two killers dressed in army fatigues shooting Daniel Faulkner and running away. (“Eventually” because at first witness testimony was distorted by police intimidation.)
http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/novdec_06/novdec_06_12.html

US Professors Raise Doubts About Report on South Korean Ship Sinking

By Akiko Fujita

July 09, 2010 "VOA" -- A new study by U.S. researchers raises questions about the investigation into the sinking of a South Korean navy ship. International investigators blamed a North Korean torpedo, raising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Researchers J.J. Suh and Seung-Hun Lee say the South Korean Joint Investigation Group made a weak case when it concluded that North Korea was responsible for sinking the Cheonan.

Speaking in Tokyo Friday, the two said the investigation was riddled with inconsistencies and cast "profound doubt" on the integrity of the investigation. "The only conclusion one can draw on the basis of the evidence is that there was no outside explosion," Suh said. "The JIG completely failed to produce evidence that backs up its claims that there was an outside explosion."

Suh is an associate professor in international relations at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, where he runs the Korean studies program.

International investigators said in May that an external explosion caused the South Korean ship to sink last March, killing 46 sailors. The report said a North Korean-made torpedo caused the explosion.

read here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25909.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suAvWWTdE4U&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdmjb6nIjDs&feature=related

industrious honey bee back in the saddle!

the cupboard is bare without you nora
(not really - because it's a slap in the face to everyone else, but you know what i mean)

now regarding bridge's article @ 9:39pm.
the Left-Leaning Despisers of the 9/11 Truth Movement...
fuck them!

but at the same time, and at the risk of being labelled an apologost, i sympathise with them and won't pile on top of them - the accused, who generally do sterling work, have their limits

these limits are imposed from on high and you ignore them at your peril...
maybe they were shown the zapruder film
(this is a reference to a bill hicks bit of ultra-reality where the newly elected potus is taken into a dark room and shown the zapruder film... from a different angle)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awpmdRxLLCo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MRykTpw1RQ
so maybe they want to go home tonight, have a meal and hang out with friends... knowing full well that if they meet with an unfortunate accident that snuffs them, that in 5 minutes, a day, a week, their death will be forgotten - knowing full well that you, yes you, will do fuck all to avenge them - knowing full well that you will continue on with your lives

or maybe they feel obliged to tell a noble lie in the interests of social cohesion...
knowing full well that if the truth was front & center of mainstream america
it would rip & tear society beyond recognition

so it's easy for us, us of little consequence, to bemoan their lack of heroism...
yes, it would be nice for them to risk their lives or risk oblivion of some sort, and stick it to the man
but then it would be nice if bob's uncle didn't have cancer
(commiserations, bob)
(hang tough for uncle dave's sake)

hmmm, i have all this money & i want more - what to do?
what to do?
hey, i know!
i'll control the freakin' media...

George Carlin -"Who Really Controls America"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI

yeah, i remember you posted that your (half?) brother wrote dazed & confused...
(man, that's massive - that song had an incredible impact on rock'n'roll)
but for some reason it slipped my mine
as did something i've been meaning to clarify...
remember when i called chinese herbal medicine a "rip off"
i wasn't denigrating it
i didn't mean it in the sense of it being bogus snake oil
i meant it in the sense of me not being able to afford it on a regular basis
(it's expensive)
(and before you ask - no there's no such thing as bargain chinese herbal medicine here in oz)

sorry, to go postal on you guys
but i wanted to emphasise the blood & guts of going out on a limb
because we have a tendency of, um
being too idealistic

: )

you read the David Ray Griffin article?

"Piling on" was not the purpose of this Open Letter
that should become very clear once you read this very professional piece

and the left-leaning despisers (whose work is far from being sterling, btw.) are also far from being the accused here. Noone forces them to excel in such nitwittery, for heavens sake. Taibbi, one of the kool aid drunken Obama glorifiers still writes his maniacal unprofessional article as late as 2008? Now why do you think he does that? Just because he doesn't know any better?

Besides it is the amazing David Ray Griffin who is going out on a limb here.

THATS WHY I HOPE EVERYONE WILL READ HIS WORK HERE AND CONTEMPLATE THE ISSUE SO CAREFULLY spelled OUT IN DETAIL BY GRIFFIN.

Thanks for bringing up this article, air-ono. Noone else commented on it and I thought it was being ignored.

Griffin's article is worth all the time and attention we can give it.

I know money is tight and I am glad you told me the concept doesn't bother you. just the money issue.

Jake is my half brother, I have spent many years trying to make him a full brother, but his jingle writing business and I didn't get along. he wrote "be all you can be in the Army' and numerous dr pepper, burger king and other products I don"t think much of. when the big bucks slowed down he came around.

he was in a group with Joan rivers that played the Bitter End and it was.
In the time period though I met the original writer of Hey Joe, Tim Rose and Richie havens , most of BST , and it was an exciting time on Bleaker and Mc dougal st. in the glorious west village.. Jake had an apartment that was a hang out for comedians like David Steinberg. Jake shared Woody Allen's Girl Friend actress Louise lasser , that was the lifestyle back then. I don't know if you remember Louise Lasser? she met woody in therapy and as Louise told me when her mother committed suicide she left a note blaming Louise! The Tarty actress Susan Hubley and Walter Cronkites daughter( who killed herself on a bad acid trip)
would come to my fathers house in the country to sober up.
Frank Zappa would wonder into the Dug Out and across the street the Cafe A Go Go had amazing shows like BB King and Jams with Hendrix and the Paul Butterfield band... Eric Weisberg, the banjo guy on dueling banjos was often seen riding a little 250 cc honda bike with a telecaster(fender guitar) in a bag on his back.
I was about 14 and just as happy as you could be to catch some of that scene. I got a job washing dishes and we consumed nitrous oxide from whip cream containers in the back of the Bitter End. I even saw the Mothers of Invention,
and hung out in Danny Armstrong's guitar Store, he invented
the clear lucite guitar was a well respected repairman for Eric Clapton. as a treet Danny showed 12 les Pauls of Eric's that had been broken by drunken roadies and shitty guitar cases /end of memories/ for now.

How goes it roo banger?

Whatch ya think of that case bout that fellar with cancer whom walmart fired illegally?

Think hell get paid?

Think it will set precedent>?

"Am off next week, but thrilled to have
@lizzwinstead (Thurs, Fri),
@SamSeder (Tues) and Mike Rogers (Mon) sitting in."
about 2 hours ago via web

http://twitter.com/msignorile
Name Mike Signorile
Location New York City

Bio author, columnist and host of The Michelangelo Signorile Show
on Sirius XM: Sirius 109, XM 98, 2-6 ET weekdays.

http://www.signorile.com/
_ _ _ _ _ _
|

and lmao @ the 11:35am video...
that is one of the most intense interviews of a skiffle band i've ever seen
although i suspect the interviewer had ulterior motives
he had pedophile written all over him...
he was postively drooling

also from a historical perspective
to think that sweet 13yo jimmy would go on to become one of 20th centuries great rip off artists

that really was a few years ago. thanks.

by 1971 or so that whole village scene crumbled and most of the crowd went west to california..

bridge - point taken
taozen - man, you lived a life that i have only read about
and bob...
wtf are you talking about?

: )

taozen,
how did robyn's big day of protesting pan out

BY HAND! The Gold Standard of counting!

"or maybe they feel obliged to tell a noble lie in the interests of social cohesion...
knowing full well that if the truth was front & center of mainstream america
it would rip & tear society beyond recognition"
(Submitted by air-ono on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 9:08pm.)

---

How many innocent people have died because of 9/11?

How many more innocent people will die because of 9/11?

The Afghanistan war is almost 10 years old.

Obama broke every single campaign promise except for his urgent wish to escalate the Afghanistan War (and move into several other countries and hype the Iran threat) and in his speech to the nation he gave the Reason: 9/11 and the "terrorists."

Now we are engaged in endless wars.

But don't forget, The truth shall set you free.

don't take everything i wrote to the nth degree

my post is equally valid from certain perspectives
and here's one of those perspectives...
the perspctive of exposure

why doesn't david griffith receive wide spread exposure
as compared to say taibbi...
(who i have reservations about myself)
(although i do not want to detract from his, what i would describe as, "sterling" work)

hence, my focusing on who controls the media & whose voice is heard

in their estimation, not mine

i'm only speculating as how one can ignore irrefutable proof that 9/11 was a horrendous false flag operation

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/30/1708422/realtytrac-40-percent-of-f...

that heard the Artist's case was saying that the City(bloomberg) didn't have the right materials to support
their position. He said favorable things to the Artist's Pro Bono lawyers but I think Bloomberg's lawyers will come back with a better presentation and then things might go south from there. There was some TV coverage outside but not much press about it. There were a lot of Tibetan's who sell hand made articles that were protesting peacefully in front of the court house. They seemed used to the struggles maybe their karma will help?

dance
dance motherfuckers
dance to chicks, motherfuckers
dance to microwave ovens
and dance to 9/11

(motherfuckers)

Why are Chomsky and Tariq Ali being ignored by the mainstream media? Same thing. Besides, even bloggers on mainstream blogs like dkos et al never discuss them. Most of them have no clue who Amy Goodman is.

I'll have to come back to this subject because I have a date w. Mr. B.

And There are several v. important former government officials I read on a regular basis, so-called "whistleblowers," who used to be quite popular on TV during Bush time but w. the election of Obama are not asked to appear on TV news shows anymore.

bbl

(what ever those number are )

I know your day started in some pain over your sick relative. I hope you all are coping ok / blessings\

just to wrap it up, um
does robyn have a sister
and can i have your autograph

: )

n'est-ce pas?

now if i was mr.v of v the movie fame
i'd play the video i posted on that large tv screen in timesquare
and i'd be smoking reefer with a couple of black girls
having my head cracked open
by a copper on a horse
(cool stuff)

see what you done, tz
i'm fantasizing what life must of been like in america when e.g. andy warhol movies such as flesh and heat came out & walking on the wild side... damn, what a time

and zombie nation being pumped into my head...
the song featured in the 9/11 video
oh my

and bob if you're crying from what i wrote you
i'll punch your head in

: )

Why?
Submitted by Leah on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 7:15pm.
Why are the Republicans poised to take back many seats in both houses this upcoming election. Their refusal to extend unemployment benefits alone should guarantee that they lose their collective asses this fall. Any thoughts?
=================

Acknowledging that Ralph Nader has been correct about the corporate connections of the Repooplicans and Dumbicrats might be a good place to start.

We are to the point where there are many large obstructing tumors that need to be cut out in order for the patient to survive. We gotta alot to abolish, like:

:: Abolish monopoly
:: Abolish corporate stranglehold on the media
:: Abolish monied influences' hold on politics
:: Abolish corporate personhood
:: Abolish inequality
:: Abolish pollution*
:: Abolish wars of aggression and profiteering
:: Abolish bigotry
:: Abolish exploitation
:: Abolish injustice

* Abolish pollution -- Beautiful in its simplicity, isn't it? Do what it takes. Like take the profit out of polluting. Change the way we do things as quickly as possible to control pollution, utilize waste, end the waste stream. Regulate. Be solution-oriented instead of profit-preserving. Public subsidies only for unpolluting ways of doing things.

Sorry, I just feel like simplifying tonight.

LET THE UNEMPLOYED/UNDEREMPLOYED and Progressives UNITE!!!

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

Leah, perhaps the Reps will pick up seats in the locales where the unemployment is low and is not an issue.

This article in the WSJ is the kind of tripe some people are reading and absorbing, unfortunately:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870486240457535130178837627...

Glad to see you...

;)

it's the name of the game
and here's how the game works, bridge
as explained by mr. Spocko...
"I've always wondered about the whole booking process on these shows. I know that when a liberal does too good of a job they don't get invited back. I know if they make a comment that makes the conserative guest look bad they don't get invited back. We see that when you make a comment that referrs to someones negative history you don't get invited back... There is a very very narrow ra[n]ge of people who can fit their catagories."

this is from the comments section @ digbys to her post that bob linked to early in the day...
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/joe-scarborough-r-mensa-has-fit-o...

(play-on-words warning:)
(exposure)
(if you don't have it)
(you die from a lack of exposure)

I cannot "wrap my head around" the thought. I have from a distance - supported him and others FOR DECADES... that is why I worry for Humanity.

...we protest and write for DECADES to no avail... & 'THEY' are ROTTING & DYING in Jail, still!
:(

Great news to suffer Deep Sorrow...
I still think Humanity is suffering from Major GLOBAL Manic Depression.

nora & ms-a

Richie Havens...but can't re-find:}

Strong and Beautiful /|\om...hung/|\)0(
Thank You Air-Ono...

:):(

gtg...

Seriously--the G8/G20 Corporate Overlords don't pay for the security they demand?!

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-06-27/news/21928121_1_summit-meeting-sec...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT72bL7xocM

he is still out there.

I saw him in a car a year or so a go and at the light I started to sing this tune and he gave me the smile of a lifetime.

I am sure there are better vids.

In my newspaper today--

Word balloon above the White House:

"...on the bright side, Sir...the immigration lawsuit has shifted peoples' attention away from the oil calamity which had shifted peoples' attention away from the economic disaster which had shifted peoples'attention away from the Afghanistan conflict...."

July 9 - 11, 2010

CounterPunch Diary

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

It’s the worst of times. America is plunging back into Depression. Only one out of every two Americans of working age has a job. Forty years ago that would have been okay. Dad went to the factory. Mom stayed at home to mind the kids. These days, just to keep the show on the road, mom and pop both work and the kids get daycare.

Start looking for work now and on average it will take till next April for you to find something. Across the last two months, more than a million Americans simply gave up seeking employment, even as benefits are running out. Ironically, if you quit looking for work you count as officially "discouraged", and don't figure in the official unemployment stats, which is the only reason that number hasn't shot up to record highs.

Somewhere near 10 million Americans without work aren't getting any kind of check. One in every five children is living below the poverty line, sometimes by as much as 50 per cent – classed as "extreme poverty". Across America, in state after state the till is empty. Barack Obama's home state of Illinois is effectively bankrupt. So is California. Forty-six of the 50 states are buried under huge deficits.

The stimulus has failed. The housing market is in free fall. A couple of months ago market analysts predicted there would be five million more foreclosures between now and 2011 and it looks like they're on target. Forty per cent of delinquent homeowners have already loaded up the SUV, thrown the plastic chairs in the swimming pool and tossed the house keys back at the bank. Only 30 per cent of foreclosures have been re-listed for sale. The banks have been keeping them back to avoid flooding the market.

For tens of millions of Americans the house is as central and crucial a financial asset as a pig was for an Irish peasant family in the 19th century. The pig, as the old Irish saying goes, was "the man beside the fire". It had the place of honor. The pig died, the family starved. Knock 20 per cent off the aggregate value of housing in America today and that means sunset years of penny pinching and, of course, yet one more knife in the belly for the overall economy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07092010.html

July 9 - 11, 2010

Why Helen Thomas Was Right

Hard Facts About Israeli/Palestinian Peace Peace Possibilities

By JEFFERSON CHASE

Now that all the accusations and insults about the Gaza Flotilla and Helen Thomas incidents have been hurled from both sides, it is time to look at the often-ignored facts underlying the Israel-Palestine conflict. Because while it is very hard to believe in the present atmosphere, peace and justice for both Palestinians and Jews is possible – extremely difficult to achieve to be sure, but possible nevertheless.
http://www.counterpunch.org/chase07092010.html

>> Freedom <<
;)

:):(

Excellent interview of oil expert Matt Simmons by Karel that indicates possibility that this solution above is an attempt to hide BP's responsibility for causing a multiple leak disaster over a large area of the sea floor that has little to do anymore with the wellhead itself or relief wells.

http://www.green960.com/mediaplayer/?station=KKGN-AM&action=ondemand&ite...

If there is a subsurface blow-out, this is how it was discussed one month ago on Olberman's show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0fsG-AA46o&feature=related

Caribbean snorkler's video --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjUrJqlMZio&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBZNKcQ4ba8&feature=player_embedded#!

There has been an oxygen-depleted "dead zone" off the coast of Louisiana for years. It has been explained away, blamed on agricultural run-off coming down the Mississippi River.

But now I am wondering. There are 27,000 abandoned oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico; some of the wells are over half a century old, subjected to rusting and corroding seawater, and it is estimated many are leaking already. This dead zone is in the same area where many oil wells are located.

So is this dead zone also possibly caused by the Oil Industry? Has the Oil Industry been using dispersants to HIDE its leaking abandoned wells for a long time, such a long time the result was already a dead zone? When is our government going to have a REAL investigation of what the Oil Industry has been doing along our coasts? When are they going to make this industry seal and monitor these abandoned wells?

A sane policy about this greedy industry is overdue. Can Obama continue to go along with this industry, like he's gone along with the medical insurance corporations and the Wall Street et al big banks? Jeez.

http://www.peoplesworld.org/greek-workers-stage-second-general-strike-in...

July 9 - 11, 2010

Has Chief Wahoo Cursed Cleveland Again?

By HARVEY WASSERMAN

Another tomahawk has sailed into the hearts of Cleveland sports fans.

Is it the work of Chief Wahoo, the most racist logo in all of sports?

Has the ridiculous, buck-toothed profoundly offensive caricature of a single-feathered native poked yet another hole Cleveland's soul?

Mark Welch, part Ho-de-no-sau-nee (Iroquois) and part Lakota (Sioux) might say so.

Mark is a mainstay of the native community in Ohio's capital. For years he's joined other activists when the season opens in Cleveland. They picket in protest of a cartoon they find deeply offensive.

In response, Cleveland Indian fans throw beer at them.

It's time to reconsider.

The departure of LeBron James from the Cavaliers is a death blow. Barring a miracle, no major sports franchise in this tough, depressed lake town has even a remote shot at a league title in the near future.

Not since the glory days of the football Browns and their great running back, Jim Brown, has there been a champion in Cleveland.

The Browns and Cavs have both threatened since. The Indians twice came within a run of winning the World Series.

The details are too heartbreaking to recount.
http://www.counterpunch.org/wasserman07092010.html

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0%2C8599%2C2002378%2C00.html?xid...

[excerpt]
...
...on June 28 when the Tomahawk-laden 560-ft. U.S.S. Ohio popped up in the Philippines' Subic Bay. More alarms were likely sounded when the U.S.S. Michigan arrived in Pusan, South Korea, on the same day. And the Klaxons would have maxed out as the U.S.S. Florida surfaced, also on the same day, at the joint U.S.-British naval base on Diego Garcia, a flyspeck of an island in the Indian Ocean. In all, the Chinese military awoke to find as many as 462 new Tomahawks deployed by the U.S. in its neighborhood. "There's been a decision to bolster our forces in the Pacific," says Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "There is no doubt that China will stand up and take notice."

U.S. officials deny that any message is being directed at Beijing, saying the Tomahawk triple play was a coincidence. But they did make sure that news of the deployments appeared in the Hong Kong–based South China Morning Post — on July 4, no less....

[more]

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0%2C8599%2C2002378%2C00.html?xid...

Only effort taken by BP is around the Deepwater Horizon well according to commentator. This video dated July 6--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV0TnjnuFww&feature=player_embedded

views Andrew Napolitano about his new book "Lies the Government Told You"

Premiering Saturday July 10 at 10pm on C-Span TV.

It replays on Sunday at 9pm and Monday at midnight and 3am.

For more info check out the C-Span link here.

On August 1st, 2010, Ralph Nader will be interviewed for 3 hours live on C-Span's Book TV's In Depth from noon-3pm.

Nader will take live phone calls.

You can call the show at that time.

Onward to single payer!

Matthew Zawisky

Summer Reading

By RALPH NADER

Summer time is reading time. Here are ten suggested new books:

1. Toxic Talk (Thomas Dunne Books) by Bill Press, the liberal talk show host, unloads in his words, on “how the radical right has poisoned America’s airwaves.” The five major syndicates are dominated by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Bill O’Reilly. Using their own statements, Press applies indignation, satire and humor to demonstrate the bigotry, the falsehoods and the propaganda that sustain the concentrated power of corporate oligarchs who fan far right-wing flames with advertising revenues.

2. Stop Getting Ripped Off (Ballantine Books) by Bob Sullivan. MSNBC’s penetrating consumer reporter gets very specific about how you are being fleeced and how you can often get a fair deal. If you have credit cards, mortgages, life insurance, cell phones, cable tv, are shopping for a new car or worried about preserving your retirement, this is the personal budget protector and aggravation-reliever for you.

3. Unequal Protection (second edition, expanded, Berrett-Koehler Publishers) by Thom Hartman. The growing debate against corporations having the same constitutional rights as human beings flows in part from this brainy author and talk show host’s documentation of the portentous drive since the notorious 1886 Supreme Court decision to establish corporate supremacy over the sovereignty of the people. He writes with dramatic historical accuracy, using primary sources, to wake Americans up to this incremental judicially-decreed coup d’etat.
http://www.counterpunch.org/nader07092010.html

Transit Officer Convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter–Not Murder–in Killing of Unarmed Oscar Grant
By Amy Goodman

Source: DN!
Saturday, July 10, 2010

JUAN GONZALEZ: We go now to Oakland, California, where scores of people were arrested last night in protests over the verdict in the the Oscar Grant shooting. Grant was the unarmed 22-year-old African-American man who was shot dead by a white transit officer on an open train platform on New Year’s Day 2009. Cell phone videos of the shooting show the transit officer Johannes Mehserle, pulling out a gun and shooting Grant in the back while he was lying face down on the ground on the train platform. On Thursday, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter, but he was acquitted on the more serious charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. The jury included eight women and four men. No African-Americans served on the jury. Mehserle will be sentenced on August 6th and voluntary manslaughter carries a penalty of two to four years in prison, but a sentencing enhancement for using a gun means he could face an additional three to 10 years behind bars.
http://www.zcommunications.org/outrage-in-oakland-by-amy-goodman

Bringing misery out of hiding
By DANNY LUCIA

THIS YEAR marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the passage of the Social Security Act (SSA). The SSA, which created unemployment insurance and assistance programs for the elderly, disabled, and poor, is the most lasting achievement of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.1 These programs formed the foundation of a social welfare system that today keeps an estimated 31 million people out of poverty.2 Equally important, the passage of the SSA marked a fundamental shift in American political culture that has endured, even through the past thirty years of conservative attacks on “entitlements” that have steadily eroded the social welfare provisions of the act. Today, unemployment is seen as a societal question that demands some type of government response.

The history taught in most high schools is that Roosevelt created the Social Security Act with the aim of “relieving human suffering…helping business and industry to recover…[and] adjusting the economic system to prevent recurrence.”3 The textbooks typically do not explain why Roosevelt, elected in 1932, did not present the SSA to Congress until 1935, a three-year period that saw no shortage of human suffering.

In fact, Roosevelt had no intention of creating the programs for which he has become a liberal hero. He came into office with a modest package of regulation and piecemeal programs, many of which were watered down by the reactionary Southern segregationist wing of his own Democratic Party. FDR was pressured to create more extensive social welfare programs by the largest protest movement the country had seen since the populist movement of the late 1890s.
http://www.isreview.org/issues/71/feat-unemployed.shtml

Tea Whatever :):(

So Very Glad video Showed Truth.
All has been said = ENOUGH RHETORIC

From the time I first heard, I knew this oil volcano was decades of healing... many decades moreso than ANY Other damage done before. All I heard was rhetoric from all sides.
And still the oil volcano gushes forth, killing the Ocean and life and the food chain...

All are affected ... still nothing is done.

People should be say * ENOUGH BP * and America step in. This is such a catastrophe we should have a MANHATTAN ... dealing with oil volcano to get BEYOND PETROLEUM!

IMHO = grrr

certain "groups'" action & custom - oh yes ...

As The Red Queen said, Off With BP's Head TeaHee}
;)

Forget the British Royalty Snobs! And the felonious BP/British Petroleum (rebranding did NOT work to hide the real agenda of these profiteers who overthrow nations and destroy the environment). Revolt against them AGAIN!

More rhetoric, huh?

Folks I've been listening to this week seem to be at a loss, Ms_A. I listened to Mike Papantonio with Nicole Sandler (on Randi Rhodes) this week; the message is that The People seem to be immobile and no large organized demands are being made on the government to do The Right Thing. Another guest, Cindy Sheehan, indicated that the Peace movement seems to have evaporated.

I can't remember who said this week that all we have are keyboard activists, and that that isn't enough.

The People sound drugged.

Are they drugged?

This book I'm reading titled "Beating the Food Giants" written by a biochemist and he gives the nitty-gritty background behind the processed foods that fill the largest part of our supermarkets and how they are literally dead substances which are formulated so they will have a long shelf life (shelf life first, nutrition unnecessary), many of the processed foods are chemicalized to try to get these processed materials to imitate food from the real world. Perhaps the first thing that is necessary is for people NEVER to buy anymore chemicalized 'foods' from 9/10ths of the supermarket aisles. Maybe if folks can de-chemicalize from processed foods, they'll get their energy back, they'll operate like the geniuses they are instead of feeling foggy and unable to focus or do anything but pursue non-living escapist stuff -- as described by this author I'm reading. Maybe the growing disengagement of the American people starts at a point as basic as what they put in their mouths.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/07/bp-ignoring-dispersant-direct...

[excerpt]

So much for the May 26 directive from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard calling for BP to slash dispersant use in the Gulf. According to records recenty released by the Coast Guard, BP has exceeded the limits on an almost daily basis since the directive took effect—with the express approval of the federal government.

BP was supposed to limit subsea use to 15,000 gallons per day and "eliminate the surface application of dispersants" except in "rare cases when there may have to be an exemption." But as we reported several weeks ago, the company is still regularly exceeding both those limits. BP also hasn't reduced its average use much at all—just 9 percent from the pre-directive average.

In order to surpass the limits imposed by the EPA and the Coast Guard, BP needs to request an exemption from the government's on-scene coordinator (currently Coast Guard Admiral James Watson, who took over on June 1). Based on exemption requests, which the Coast Guard posted online, the Coast Guard has granted BP permission to surpass those limits routinely—and with few questions, notes Richard Denison, a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund. In the majority of cases, he writes, the federal on-scene coordinator has "accepted without modification the exemption request submitted by BP" and "has simply approved the exemption request by signing and dating it at the bottom."

A look at the requests and approvals makes that clear. On May 29, the company requested permission to spray up to 19,000 gallons of disperstants over a period of 12 hours, arguing that it had spotted some "dispersible oil" approximately 20 to 30 miles from the spill site; burning or skimming the oil, BP said, wouldn't be sufficient. The plan was approved without any suggested modification. On June 2, BP asked for an exemption to use up to 6,000 gallons per day on the surface for a whole week, noting that "BP also respectfully requests to exceed these volumes as required." That, too, was greenlighted.

On June 25, the Coast Guard actually raised the amount approved from BP's request. BP asked to use 30,000 gallons, and Watson authorized 43,000 gallons. On June 26, BP upped the request again—this time to 50,600 gallons. (The Coast Guard only granted the company permission to use 10,880 gallons that day, but that was still 10,880 gallons more than the directive a month earlier indicated should be allowed.)

The pattern continues through June. The repeated exemptions of course beg the question: What's the point in setting limits on dispersant use—an acknowledgment that these chemicals themselves present serious environmental concerns—if they're going to be ignored almost every day?

UPDATE: The EPA sent along this statement regarding the dispersant use: "The goal of this directive was to rampdown dispersant use from peak usage, and dispersant use has dropped by nearly 70 percent. EPA and the Coast Guard took these steps to ensure that BP prioritized skimming and burning and relied on surface application only as a last resort. That prioritization has happened."

[end excerpt]

Offshore Oil Drilling Moratorium to be handled by compromised judges?

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/07/moratorium-case-goes-another-...

[excerpt]

Only three judges from the panel in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans will hear the appeal of the case, Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar. The Alliance for Justice (AFJ) looked at the financial records of the three-member panel that will hear the Obama administration's appeal and found that two of the judges, Jerry Edwin Smith and William Eugene Davis, "frequently represented the oil and gas industries while in private practice." Smith represented Exxon, Conoco, and Amoco, as well as others. Davis represented Diamond Drilling Company in private practice, and has also held stock in Edge Petroleum and Progress Energy.

Both Davis and Smith have also attended all-expense paid "seminars" sponsored by the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE), a free-market organization whose seminars focus claim to be "pro-environment," but focus on explaining "why ecological values are not the only important ones."

The third judge on the panel, James L. Dennis, has had financial holdings in at least 18 companies in the energy industry. He used to own stock in Deepwater Horizon rig owner Transocean, but sold it in 2006. His 2008 financial disclosure listed a range of investments in oil and natural gas producers, suppliers, distributors, and service companies.

[end excerpt]

What insanity.

It is like both BP and Obama want to DELAY the clean-up, vacuuming because that would actually MEASURE the quantity of oil BP is liable for in terms of fines! DELAY, delay and that means eventually a storm will come along and wipe out measurable evidence, or DELAY, delay and the relief well will close the wellriser/wellhead and BP will claim their job is done, and any further leaks in the area from the seafloor around the Deepwater Horizon well is not BP's responsibility. That's what it looks like to me right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VfypUzx1tI&feature=youtube_gdata

The Pipeline is a rusty mess that has not beeen maintained.

Palast wants to continue his Amazon to the Arctic investigation into the Oil Industry's exploitation. Requires funding....

http://www.gregpalast.com/shoot-bp%c2%a0the-amazon-to-arctic-investigati...

PROMOTED! Despite his mindset.

Disgusting and wrong direction.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7880617/Gener...

[excerpt]

Centcom, as it is known, oversees operations in a volatile swathe of the world that covers 20 countries and stretches from Egypt across the Middle East and into south and central Asia.

Mr Gates also dismissed concerns about his 2005 comments, saying Mattis had learned his lesson.

[end excerpt]

:):(

{... he has to be kewl. he listens to old RUSH & other '70's songs ... ;) }
tea hee *poof* ;)

;)

as you know...
australians are the most trusted humans on planet earth!
and here's one such aussie and his contribution to the climate change debate.
it's the 1st of 10 and it's a very dry presentation...
(i fell asleep halfway through)

(nb: if you can keep awake you may have your cc knowledge enhanced)
(and to make it sexy, i'd like to watch while having sex)

Yesterday was a million years ago,
In all my past lives I played an asshole,
Now I found you, it's almost too late,
And this earth seems obliviating.

I know it's the last day on Earth,
We'll be together while the planet dies.

I know it's the last day on Earth,
We'll never say goodbye.

(ah, marilyn we hardly knew ye)
(if you & jfk had stayed alive, you would have married and spawned a new breed of mutants - many of whom can be found blogging here - where we feast on the liver of sam - our host of hosts & ghosts... boo, did i scare you little rabbit - come here little rabbit - come here so that i may eat you - so that i may grow strong and prosper for millenia and especially for sex and succulence, my little rabbit hole, nom nom nom)

sorry, i don't know what came over me...

VIDEO

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/04/hilarious-hiker-guy-freak_n_634...

NAYSAYERS? I could understand when I was 14 MANY FOLKS NEEDED MORE PROOF and needed more SCIENCE {I DIDN'T NEED MORE PROOF -- SINCE EVEN SCIENCE PROVED WHAT IS SAID} - MOST BELIEVED BUT MANY "WE THE PEOPLE" NEEDED MORE PROOF

Enough ... air-ono on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 8:15pm.
;);(

Rainbows. :)
/|\)0(

http://buzzerblog.flashgameshows.com/abcs-six-minds-now-casting/

comment 241

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

sheesh AO, "many of whom can be found blogging here - where we feast on the liver of sam - our host of hosts & ghosts.."

we give as good as we get.

(i thought you might like a slice of fresh SJ spleen)

Time for more Sunday CorporoPress!
Brick TeeVee What Oil?
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5907

The economic forecast is pretty gloomy as the G20 proclaim "austerity measures" for the Global Great Unwashed (yeah YOU TOO). So we scheduled a nice re-fi meeting with a local Credit Union for Monday under the premise we can help starve the beast, one mortgage and savings account at a time. We hope to land a 20-yr note @ FIXED 4.167%! Sweet! And ditch one of the TBTF banks at the same time! HAHA!

See http://moveyourmoney.info/ to move yer $$$$$ too!

Look for the new Credit Union Logo

See http://www.cuna.org/cuna/ for more info

Go to WCPN 90.3 and listen to 90.3 WCPN ideastream®:
The Sound of Ideas®
Mortgage Refinancing Conundrums

As Bob Kincaid likes to say, HOWDY!

man it's late - i gotta crash soon - a repost on the next thread maybe? -fsr out

Did Coast Guard jump the gun by three hours on reporting the Deepwater Horizon explosion/fire?

http://cbs2.com/national/oil.rig.explosion.2.1649252.html

[excerpt]

The Coast Guard said Thursday evening that there had been an initial explosion three hours before the rig went up in flames on Tuesday, but later retracted its statement, saying the error was due to a computer time-stamp problem. Petty Officer Tom Atkeson said there was only one report sent at 10 p.m. CST.

[end excerpt]

http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/index.php/news-events-a-media/press-re...

For Immediate Release

BP and Ruby Pipeline Connection Raises Questions About Removal of Calico Wild Horses from Northwestern Nevada

Bloody BLM roundup results in more than 140 deaths of federally protected animals

Colorado Springs, CO (July 10, 2010)—A contract between the $3 billion Ruby Pipeline project managers, El Paso Corp of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and energy giant, British Petroleum, was uncovered this week by ATS News, the investigative journalism arm of number-one "alternative topics" web site, AboveTopSecret.com. The contract reveals how BP stands to reap millions of dollars from the proposed 675-mile pipeline from Wyoming to Oregon. Ruby would destroy areas of pristine wilderness in northwestern Nevada, formerly home to the majestic wild horses of the Calico Mountains. Ruby Project Coordinator Lars Ecklund said during an April 16 meeting, reported on by the Klamath Falls Herald and News: "Don't think we're going to put this pipe in without making a mess . . . It's going to look like Hiroshima. It's going to look nasty.”

The Cloud Foundation first raised the issue of a possible deal between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Ruby in January, 2010 when a letter and documents (September 14, 2009-p. 30) from Ruby Pipeline, L.L.C to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) revealed a link between the pipeline and the removal of federally protected wild horses in northwestern Nevada. Digging a 4-6 foot deep and 8 foot wide trench for a 42” diameter pipe would gravely impact five wild horse herd areas. In a written response to questions posed by the Office of Energy Projects (an agency within the Department of Energy), Ruby project consultant, Dan Gredvig, stated that “Ruby will work with BLM to minimize wild horse and burro grazing along the restored ROW (right-of-way) for three years. Possible management actions would be to . . . reduce wild horse populations following BLM policy ... CONTINUED, MORE AT LINK

whoa! slow down
new
Submitted by air-ono on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 10:16pm.

bridge - point taken
taozen - man, you lived a life that i have only read about
and bob...
wtf are you talking about?

: )

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

Oh man you havent heard, look at this crazy shit.

ACLU Sues Wal-Mart for Firing Medical Marijuana Patient
Man Who Earned Associate of the Year Honors Fired by Employer Even Though Medical Marijuana Legal (Video Included)

oseph Casias, a cancer patient who was fired by Wal-Mart for using medical marijuana to cope with his pain is getting some big legal help from a national Constitutional rights organization. The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Michigan along with a Michigan law firm have filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart and the manager of the chain's Battle Creek, Mich., store for wrongfully firing Casias.

Former Walmart employee contends he was wrongfully terminated.

Casias, who is 30, was fired for a positive drug test even though he is legally registered to use marijuana under Michigan's medical marijuana law.

"Medical marijuana has had a life-changing positive effect for Joseph, but Wal-Mart made him pay a stiff and unfair price for his medicine," ACLU staff attorney Scott Michelman said in a statement. "No patient should be forced to choose between adequate pain relief and gainful employment, and no employer should be allowed to intrude upon private medical choices made by employees in consultation with their doctors."
Related
Black Barbie Sold for Less Than White Barbie?

Michigan is one of 14 states where medical marijuana is legal, but employers in the Wolverine state can and do terminate employees who fail drug tests. Wal-Mart policy, like the policy of other companies, indicates that in states such as Michigan which allow marijuana use for medical purposes, the store can still terminate an employee following a positive drug test. The law in Michigan says employers do not have to accommodate the ingestion of marijuana in the workplace or employees working while under the influence.

The news last November he'd been terminated was devastating for Casias who took great pride in his job, earning the honor of Associate of the Year.

"It hurts. It hurts because I care. I care a lot about the store. I always wanted to make sure I do well," he told ABC News back in March.

Casias started taking the medicine a year before then to cope with pain from sinus cancer and a brain tumor. He says the rare form of cancer causes him pain constantly and he almost died when he was first diagnosed.

Casias sprained his knee at work last November and underwent the routine drug test that follows all workplace injuries. Questioned about his positive test, Casias told management about his condition and presented a state card authorizing his marijuana use for medical purposes, but he was fired anyway. Casias says management told him Wal-Mart does not honor medical marijuana cards.

"I just can't believe that it has to be this way. I don't see why they have to fire me," he said. "This is just an unfortunate situation all around," Wal-Mart spokesman Greg Rossiter told ABC News in March. "We're sympathetic to Mr. Casias' condition, but like other companies we have to consider the overall safety of our customers and our associates, including Mr. Casias when making a difficult decision like this."

Continues......... http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-fires-michigan-man-medical-mariju...

My Uncle Jeff did pass. Im just really worried about Dave, he has been couphing up blood, First they found pnuemonia from an xray, so he went on antibees and it cleared up but there is a big spot on his lung that the pnuemonia was hiding.

Man I could not take losing him.

That was my phone number btw. If anyone wants to call me and offer a little support, just ask and I will give my number.

Thanks, with Love

Wealthy Are Cashing in Huge, While Workers' Salaries Keep Shrinking
Times are tough for workers in the U.S. where a recession has a stranglehold on much of the economy, but life is perfectly rosy for those at the top.

Cont. http://www.alternet.org/economy/147492/wealthy_are_cashing_in_huge%2C_while_workers'_salaries_keep_shrinking/

Rand Paul: America’s Poor Are Lucky to Have it so Good!

Here’s some authentic frontier gibberish from Rand Paul (via TPM):

“The poor in our country are enormously better off than the rest of the world,” Paul said. “Doesn’t mean we can’t do better, but we have to acknowledge and be proud of our system of capitalism, be proud of our American way.”

******

Well then Rand, take a stroll through detroit or any of the other countless ghettos, oh and btw, dont bring any bodyguards, Im sure the ppl who live there will have no problems with your statements. lol

“This is what Israel is most afraid of,” said Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, a prominent Palestinian who is calling for a nonviolent mass movement. He says Palestinians need to create their own version of Gandhi’s famous 1930 salt march.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/opinion/11kristof.html?th&emc=th

wow, that would be your worse nightmare, bob
but on a brighter note...
i was over at alternet to check out the article you posted
and there was a michael moore interview & how he got started...
and i thought of you!
yes, you
you should make working class documentaries
you have a great take on the state of the union...
you're a natural!
(i'm dead fucking serious)

and sunshine jim
are you serious with that post @ 2:21am
did you think i was insulting the bloggers here
when i was being playful...
fuck you
instead of your petty misinterpretations
why don't you make yourself useful and post a nonsequitur cartoon

and just for the record: we're all mutants...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDknzZ9b6rg

A nation... cannot survive treason from within... the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist... The traitor is the plague.
~cicero

and that plague is religion:

WHEN POLITICAL GIBBERISH MAKES ITS WAY TO THE OP-ED PAGE....
Steve Benen
July 10, 2010

Rick Barber (R), a delusional congressional candidate in Alabama, has made quite a name for himself recently.

Barber first came to national prominence with the release of a bizarre video in which the agitated conservative had an imaginary "conversation" with some Founding Fathers, suggested that the president should be impeached, and came pretty close to calling for a violent uprising against the United States government. Two weeks ago, he released a sequel -- a "conversation" with Abraham Lincoln that equated American tax policies with "slavery" and showed viewers images of Nazi concentration camps.

Today, Barber has an op-ed in the Washington Post, defending the "politics of fear," and rationalizing his hatred for America's leadership.

"Over the past 18 months, the federal government has sought to seize or has seized control of the health-care industry, the financial industry, the mortgage industry, the automobile industry, student loans, broadband Internet and the energy sector through cap-and-trade legislation."

If this were true, it might help shed some light on why right-wing activists like Barber are so hysterical. But here's the thing: these complaints are gibberish. His indictment of the government is based on observations with no foundation in reality.

The federal government hasn't "seized control" of the health care industry -- it approved modest reforms of a dysfunctional system, the kind of reforms many Republicans supported up until very recently, while leaving private control intact. The federal government didn't "seize control" of the financial industry -- the Bush administration bailed out the industry to prevent an economic collapse, and Democrats approved some new safeguards to protect consumers, but left private enterprise in private hands.

And on and on. The mortgage industry has not been nationalized. The automobile industry was rescued, is paying the taxpayers back, and will return to private control. The government was subsidizing student loans anyway, we just ended needless and expensive taxpayer-financed giveaways to banks. The Internet and the energy sector are no closer to government ownership than they were before.

In other words, given a high-profile platform, Rick Barber's case against the Obama administration and congressional Democrats is patently ridiculous for anyone who takes reality seriously. These aren't subjective questions, judgment calls, or matters of opinion -- the observations he states as fact are demonstrably false.

Which leads to the obvious questions: why on earth is the Washington Post publishing an op-ed with claims the editors surely know to be wrong? How does it inform the newspaper's readers to present them with delusional assertions with no basis in fact?

Barber's hysterical op-ed reads like a confused screed on an obscure right-wing blog. It warns of Obama bringing "totalitarianism," makes obligatory references to Saul Alinsky, suggests that Americans may yet become "slaves" to their government, and warns that we may well be on "the road to serfdom."

This is deranged garbage; nothing more. Why it's on the Washington Post's op-ed page is a mystery.

for the links embedded in this post...
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_07/024662.php

and for more immoral deranged republican wisdom...
Sharron Angle's Advice For Rape Victims Considering Abortion: Turn Lemons Into Lemonade
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/sharron-angles-advice-for_n_639...

tried to call B3.i see the old # is gone.

AO u ol snort, u were a victim of a midnite twit.

< width="400"/p>

;)

and the class warfare continues........
new
Submitted by Bob26003 on Sun, 07/11/2010 - 8:00am.
Wealthy Are Cashing in Huge, While Workers' Salaries Keep Shrinking
Times are tough for workers in the U.S. where a recession has a stranglehold on much of the economy, but life is perfectly rosy for those at the top.

Cont. http://www.alternet.org/economy/147492/wealthy_are_cashing_in_huge%2C_while_workers'_salaries_keep_shrinking/

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

And that was what it was like during the Depression in the 1930s too. Richest get richer, poor (that's everybody else?) get poorer.

The Lebanese Ayatollah dies, but the British ambassador cannot acknowledge it without Israel going c-c-crazy about it?

First article:

[excerpt]

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, one of Shiite Islam’s highest religious authorities, died in a Beirut hospital on Sunday, his family said.

Fadlallah, who was 74, had a wide following beyond Lebanon’s Shiites, extending to Central Asia and the Gulf.

...

His followers revered him for his moderate social views, openness and pragmatism. Fadlallah issued religious edicts forbidding female circumcision and saying women could hit abusive husbands.

Despite his criticism of the US, Fadlallah was also quick to denounce the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States which killed some 3,000 people.

Fadlallah survived several assassination attempts, including a 1985 car bomb which killed 80 people in south Beirut. US news reports said the attack was carried out by an US-trained Lebanese unit after attacks on American targets in Lebanon.

He distanced himself from the abduction of Westerners by Islamic militant groups in Lebanon during the 1980s, saying he was against kidnappings, and repeatedly called for their release.

[end excerpt]

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_...
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

--------

Second article--

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1293720/Frances-Guy-forced-apolo...

[excerpt]

A British envoy yesterday said sorry for lauding an Ayatollah the White House had branded a terrorist.

Ambassador to Lebanon Frances Guy had called Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who died last week, a 'true man of religion' and said the world needed more like him.

But Fadlallah, Lebanon's leading Shia Muslim cleric, was linked to Hezbollah militants and some in the US blamed him for the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut.

Israel said he inspired 'suicide bombings, assassinations and all kinds of wanton violence'.

The Foreign Office said yesterday that Ms Guy's internet posting praising Fadlallah had been removed 'after mature consideration'.

In a new posting, Ms Guy, our ambassador for nearly four years, said: 'I recognise that some of my words have upset people. This was certainly not my intention.'

She added that she had only meant to acknowledge Fadlallah's 'spiritual significance to many'.

[end excerpt]

Isn't he actually saying he uses manipulative opportunism against Israel's perceived enemies? So much for fairness and peace.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/obama-israelis-suspicious-...

[excerpt]
During the interview Wednesday, when confronted with the anxiety that some Israelis feel toward him, Obama said that "some of it may just be the fact that my middle name is Hussein, and that creates suspicion."

"Ironically, I've got a Chief of Staff named Rahm Israel Emmanuel. My top political advisor is somebody who is a descendent of Holocaust survivors. My closeness to the Jewish American community was probably what propelled me to the U.S. Senate," Obama said.

"I think that sometimes, particularly in the Middle East, there's the feeling of the friend of my enemy must be my enemy, and the truth of the matter is that my outreach to the Muslim community is designed precisely to reduce the antagonism and the dangers posed by a hostile Muslim world to Israel and to the West," Obama went on to say. [Emphasis added]

[end excerpt]

their visit to her home. Sure.

Mother of five videotapes FBI visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfK8eXKj3H0

Local resident tells what it's like.

Video, less than 4 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI-bYawDUeE

Costa Rica to Allow US To Send Troops
July 06, 2010
Knight Ridder

Costa Rica has granted the U.S. military a six-month window to bring 7,000 Marines, five planes and 46 warships into its territory to help stem the flow of drugs northward.

The Central American country has increasingly become a target for drug traffickers as intelligence and law enforcement agencies have cut off other routes through Mexico. Without an army and with long coastlines and poorly guarded borders, Costa Rica is vulnerable to drug cartels using well-refined transportation mechanisms and the latest technological equipment, security experts say.

Some Costa Rican legislators voiced concern about the authorization, saying it gives the United States a "blank check" to use its territory and threatens the nation's sovereignty............
http://www.military.com/news/article/costa-rica-to-allow-us-to-send-troo...

Panama strikers seize police

Panamanian banana workers protesting over a new law that weakens the power of labour unions have seized four police officers, according to the president's office.

The officers were taken hostage on Friday, the second day of violent confrontations between the striking workers and security forces in Changuinola in western Panama.

At least one man died on Thursday as police firing tear-gas and buckshot battled strikers who had blocked roads with felled trees and burning tyres.

Hospital authorities said 102 people had been treated for injuries by early on Friday.

Eighteen of the injured in Bocas del Toro province, on the border with Costa Rica, were in critical condition, the national emergency agency said in a statement.

The National Front for the Defence of Economic and Social Rights, a non-governmental labour umbrella group, identified the dead man as Antonio Smith, a banana union leader.

"Look at how many injured people are here. President, place your hand on your heart and sort this problem out because you are in power thanks to us Panamanians," Simon, a Changuinola resident, told the Reuters news agency.

Last month, Ricardo Martinelli, Panama's president, signed a law which limits the power of unions and gives companies the right to suspend the contracts of striking workers and hire replacements.

In a separate incident a day earlier, 48 striking workers on a $5.25bn project to widen and deepen the Panama Canal were fired and at least six were arrested after refusing to return to work.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/07/201071032730437502.ht...

Catalans march to assert nationhood

Hundreds of thousands of people have marched in Barcelona in support of the Catalan region's statute of autonomy after it was challenged by a constitutional court.

Saturday's protest in the northeastern Spanish city was in response to a June 28 ruling stating that the term "nation" defining Catalonia had no legal value because the constitution only knows one nation, Spain....

It was one of the first initiatives of the socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain's prime minister, which took office in 2004.....
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/07/2010710185032846718.htm...

Shrimper goes to jail. Tony Hayward still free on Day 83.

Video--

http://current.com/news/92537702_who-goes-to-jail-bp-ceo-or-shrimper-fre...

Greenpeace building new flagship

Greenpeace activists have gathered to mark 25 years since the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, their iconic flagship, and to hold a keel-laying ceremony to start construction of a new Rainbow Warrior ship.

Leaders from the environmental group, including Kumi Naidoo, the executive director, and Peter Willcox, captain of the original Rainbow Warrior, which was sunk by French secret agents in 1985, assembled in Gdansk, Poland on Saturday.

The new vessel, which is expected to be completed in October 2011, will rely mostly on sail power.

The environmental group says the third-generation Rainbow Warrior will help them with campaignsto defend forests and protect oceans, while showcasing green-technology.

Nuclear protest

French agents bombed the original ship while it was docked in New Zealand in order to prevent Greenpeace activists from staging protests against French nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean.

The attack, launched with underwater mines shortly before midnight on July 10 1985, killed Fernando Pereira, 35, a Portuguese-Dutch crewman and photographer and severely damaged French political credibility in the region.

Two French agents posing as tourists were arrested by New Zealand police after the 1985 bombing, although the police believed other conspirators got away.

The agents pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to 10 years in jail.

UN settlement

France used trade pressure to push New Zealand into accepting a United Nations brokered settlement in 1986, which transferred the agents to what was supposed to be three years of exile in French Polynesia.

The agents were home in France by 1988, outraging some New Zealanders and Pacific islanders.

The first Rainbow Warrior, whose names come from a North American Indigenous prophecy, was a converted fisheries research trawler built in 1955.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/07/2010710135740349244.htm...

Dated June 27.

http://bp-blows.info/oilspill/bp-rig-worker-reported-oil-leak-weeks-befo...

[excerpt]

A rig worker has claimed that he told both BP and the rig operator of a problem with a piece of equipment blamed by many for causing the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He says he gave the warning weeks before the explosion at the rig, and says the problem was not fixed at the time. Tyrone Benton says that he spotted a leak on the rig’s Blowout Preventer (BOP), the device that is meant to shut the well down if there is an accident. He told the BBC’s Panorama programme that both BP and Transocean, who owned the rig, were informed of the leak, and the faulty part — a control pod — was switched off rather than being repaired. This comes as BP announced that the 2 relief wells that are being drilled to stop the oil spill will not be completed until August.

[end excerpt]

http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=689718367668000

[excerpt]

CLEANUP GUESSWORK

The value of one highly touted facet of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup _ the small navy of vessels skimming oil from the surface _ has proven all but impossible to measure. That could make it difficult to figure out how much damage BP is liable for when the gusher is finally stopped. BP and the federal government admit they have no idea how much oil has been collected by hundreds of boats that range from retrofitted fishing vessels to state-of-the art craft designed specifically for the task. The harshest critics say the amount of oil skimmed is as low as 2.9 million gallons of the 87 million to 171 million gallons of crude that have gushed into the Gulf since April 20, but BP and independent scientists alike say there's no real way of knowing.

[end excerpt]

Dutch squad has much Afrikaner support

For some South Africans, there is still a ''home'' team to cheer for in the World Cup final.

When the Netherlands faces Spain on Sunday at Soccer City, a sizable portion of the Afrikaner population will be watching closely, and mostly because of their Dutch roots.

''I feel a strong connection to them because of my heritage,'' said Anja Bredell, a 25-year-old fashion design student from Pretoria. ''I also have blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin like most of the Dutch.''

The Dutch East India Company established its first settlement in Cape Town in 1652, creating what became the Afrikaans culture. More and more Dutchmen settled in the Western Cape in the ensuing years, and it is still home to many Afrikaners...
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/fifaworldcup/news/story/2010/07/09/sp-du...

Bad day for the Israelis too (Jerusalem Post):

Soccer Politics: Root for the Dutch

Since Denmark and the US are out, Israelis can still cheer on Holland.

But now that there are only four left and Holland is still one of them, the field looks much better for Israelis, who now can support 25 percent of the teams – just Holland.

The Dutch have not succeeded since then in building a new coalition government, perhaps because they are too busy watching the World Cup.

But whatever coalition is formed is expected to be among the most pro-Israel in Europe.

The unexpected Dutch defeat of Brazil on Friday excited many Israelis who were upset with Brazil joining Turkey in voting against United Nations sanctions on Iran.

The amount of Israelis wearing orange to synagogue on Friday night appeared to be the highest since the disengagement from Gaza....

But why do so few Israelis support Uruguay? Is it because they can’t find it on a map? Is it because they voted for a probe into the flotilla incident at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva last month?...
http://www.jpost.com/Sports/Article.aspx?id=180557

About:

http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/government-stopping-charities-from-feed...

The study:

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/foodsharing/pr_2010.html

Native American tribe reclaims slice of the Hamptons after court victory

Shinnecock nation recovers ancestral lands in millionaires' Long Island playground after gaining federal recognition

But this land is not part of the Hamptons, neither is it really part of the United States any more. This patch – in the middle of the playground to Manhattan's social elite – is proudly and fiercely Native American country.

Almost four centuries since their first contact with the white man and after a 32-year court battle that has just ended in victory, the tiny Shinnecock tribe has now been formally recognised by America's federal government.

Historically – and indeed pretty much since Europeans first arrived in the area in the 1600s – the Shinnecock have been on the retreat. They lost land steadily as more and more Europeans began to farm their traditional territory, eventually leading to an agreement in 1703 that saw them confined to a broad swath of land around Southampton under a 1,000-year lease. However, in 1859 the pressure of development saw that deal scrapped by the settlers and the Shinnecock reduced to their current tiny holding. For years tribal members then eked out a living working on white farms or helping local fishermen and whalers.

Now that is all set to change as a key part of federal recognition allows the Shinnecock to do the one thing that has changed Native American fortunes more than anything else in the last 100 years: build a casino. Gumbs now sees real power finally in Shinnecock hands. "We are going after everything we are entitled to," he said. "I am not a big fan of Southampton. They were happy as long as we were the good little Indians in the corner. Well, that's changed now."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/11/shinnecock-tribe-hamptons-na...

The decision means that the Shinnecock, numbering some 1,300 members, many of whom live in deep poverty compared with their wealthy neighbours, can apply for federal funding to build schools, health centres and set up their own police force. It means their tiny 750-acre reservation is now a semi-sovereign nation within the US, just like much bigger and more famous reservations in the west....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJiwLOUJOMA&NR=1

Kindra Arnesen makes it clear!
ProjectGulfImpact.com

If a fisherman/tour/charterboat owner refuses to use his/her boat and personal labor to "clean-up" BP's toxic oil pollution, BP can subtract that "potential" income from any claim settlement!

THIS MESS JUST GETS MORE HORRENDOUS and is UNACCEPTABLE!

I'm curious. Any of you all who watch TV news, is anyone talking about this on the tube?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh_ESQj1gkI&feature=related

KAREL the only radio host talking about this last week.

Is this story getting coverage on tv?

http://current.com/news/92531328_27-000-abandoned-gulf-oil-wells-may-be-...

[excerpt]

More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one - not industry, not government - is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.

The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the neglected wells - those characterized in federal government records as "temporarily abandoned."

Regulations for temporarily abandoned wells require oil companies to present plans to reuse or permanently plug such wells within a year, but the AP found that the rule is routinely circumvented, and that more than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year, and many since the 1950s and 1960s - even though sealing procedures for temporary abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures.

As a forceful reminder of the potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in the Gulf, according to government data.

[end excerpt]

This description puts together in one very serious 3 minute 48 second the full concerns of this Gulfcoast resident (and alot of this is what has been out here&there for a while now and posted on this blog a bit at a time, referencing scientists and oil professionals):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4CJk8rXtn0&feature=related

"So complete was Obama’s identification with Israel yesterday that he actually referred to Israel as “us” before correcting himself:

“We strongly believe that, given its size, its history, the region that it’s in, and the threats that are leveled against us—against it, that Israel has unique security requirements.”
-------------

Obama: 'I Have Met Israel and It Is "Us"'

By Robert Dreyfuss

July 12, 2010 "The Nation" -- Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu set up another illegal Jewish settlement, this time on the White House lawn. And, it appears, President Obama has agreed to serve as its armed guard.

So complete was Obama’s identification with Israel yesterday that he actually referred to Israel as “us” before correcting himself:

“We strongly believe that, given its size, its history, the region that it’s in, and the threats that are leveled against us—against it, that Israel has unique security requirements.”

By “its size,” did Obama mean Israel’s overwhelming military superiority? By “its history,” did he mean Israel’s usurpation of Arab lands and forty-three-year-long occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem? By “the region that it’s in,” did he mean the Arab and Muslim world, the region with which Obama wants to rebuild US relations? No: Obama was echoing Israeli talking points: that Israel is a tiny, besieged nation that made democracy flourish and the deserts bloom post-Holocaust, surrounded by scimitar-waving crazies.

Dana Milbank, writing in the Washington Post, characterized the Obama-Netanyahu meeting aptly:

"To capture the real significance of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit with President Obama, White House officials might have instead flown the white flag of surrender…

"On Tuesday, Obama, routed and humiliated by his Israeli counterpart, invited Netanyahu back to the White House for what might be called the Oil of Olay Summit: It was all about saving face."

But really, it was more about saving the fall elections, or at least that’s how it seemed. Not that American Jewish voters are going to flock to the Republicans, since they vote reliably Democratic, and more and more American Jews seem to care less and less about Israel. But, of course, crazed evangelical, right-wing Christian Republicans do care about Israel, if only because they hope it will be destroyed during the battle of Armageddon. And they vote.

read here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25915.htm

U.S. Congress United in its Support of Israel, says Republican Minority Whip

Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor, the highest ranking member of Republican Party, assures hundreds of worshipers in New York of lawmakers' stance on Israel's interests.

By Shlomo Shamir

July 11, 2010 "Haaretz" -- U.S. Republicans and Democrats differ on nearly every issue in the U.S. Congress but are united in their support of Israel, Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA) told a congregation of U.S. Jews on Saturday.

Speaking at The Hampton Synagogue in Long Island, the Republican minority whip characterized the current U.S. Congress as one of the most divided in recent memory.

But despite its many differences with regard to foreign and domestic matters, said Cantor, the Congress stands united on one issue: support for Israel and its vital interests.

Cantor, who is the highest ranking Jewish member in the Republican Party, attended the synagogue as a guest of Rabbi Marc Schneier. Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger was also present for the Sabbath services.

Cantor was honored during the service with a call to the Torah and delivered his address to hundreds of worshipers.

read here

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25914.htm

Israel Prefers Real Estate to Peace

A Peace Crime

What more can Assad say that he hasn't already? How long must he knock in vain on Israel's locked door?

By Gideon Levy

July 11, 2010 "Haaretz" - -It couldn't have been spelled out more explicitly, clearly and emphatically. Read and judge for yourselves: "Our position is clear: When Israel returns the entire Golan Heights, of course we will sign a peace agreement with it .... What's the point of peace if the embassy is surrounded by security, if there is no trade and tourism between the two countries? That's not peace. That's a permanent cease-fire agreement. This is what I say to whoever comes to us to talk about the Syrian track: We are interested in a comprehensive peace, i.e., normal relations."

Who said this to whom? Syrian President Bashar Assad to the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir last week. These astounding things were said to Arab, not Western ears, and they went virtually unnoticed here. Can you believe it?

What more can Assad say that he hasn't already? How many more times does he have to declare his peaceful intentions before someone wakes up here? How long must he knock in vain on Israel's locked door? And if that were not enough, he also called on Turkey to work to calm the crisis with Israel so it can mediate between Israel and Syria.

Assad's words should have been headline news last week and in the coming weeks. Anwar Sadat said less before he came to Israel. In those days we were excited by his words, today we brazenly disregard such statements. This leads to only one conclusion: Israel does not want peace with Syria. Period. It prefers the Golan over peace with one of its biggest and most dangerous enemies. It prefers real estate, bed and breakfasts, mineral water, trendy wine and a few thousand settlers over a strategic change in its status.

Just imagine what would happen if we emerged from the ruins of our international status to sign a peace agreement with Syria - how the international climate regarding us would suddenly change, how the "axis of evil" would crack and Iran's strongholds weaken, how Hezbollah would get a black eye, more than in all the Lebanon wars. And maybe even Gilad Shalit, held by the Damascus-based Hamas, would be freed. Sound too good to be true? Maybe, but Israel is not even trying. A prime minister who ignores this chance is no less than a peace criminal.

read here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25913.htm

We Who Advocate Peace

By Camillo Mac Bica

July 11, 2010 "Information Clearing House" -- They wage preemptive war, occupy and bomb sovereign nations, utilize video-game technology and robotics to murder and then dehumanize hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children as collateral damage. We who advocate peace and justice say that such acts of war and occupation are illegal, immoral and a barbaric and paranoid response to contrived evil . . . and they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They chose to avoid military service themselves or had “other priorities” when their Country called, but yet cavalierly send our children, not theirs, to kill and to die in their war for oil and empire. We who advocate peace and justice say that if the threat is real and the peril immanent and grave, then our chickenhawk leaders and their privileged children should be the first to go. Only then will we follow . . . and they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They continue to use the fear of terrorism, prey upon the anxiety and distress of the American people post 9/11to “justify” continuing, even escalating, their wars and occupations, and to deny fundamental human liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. We who advocate peace and justice say that the exploitation of a vulnerable citizenry, and the disregard and abuse of basic human rights is Un-American, uncivilized, and a clear violation of the very values they allege to be championing and defending . . . and they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

They send our military into harm’s way to kill and be killed in pursuit of goals that are ambiguous and ill-defined in an endless war and occupation they sell to the American people and to the world as a response to terrorism. We who advocate peace and justice say that our troops are not cannon fodder; that terrorism is a tactic not an enemy or an ideology; that war, occupation, and the indiscriminate use of violence by the military promotes rather than abrogates the terrorist threat . . . and they say we are unpatriotic, treasonous, and unsupportive of the troops.

read here

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25918.htm

and for the Bali bombings

Immediately after another death of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan, our Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, came out to her rostrum flanked by Australian flags and said that we should continue in Afghanistan because the people in Afghanistan were responsible for 9/11 and for the Bali bombings. The defence chief supported her by saying that we should continue "until the job is done."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25918.htm

-----acc. to commenter from Australia

Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' event
by Terrence Aym

Ominous reports are leaking past the BP Gulf salvage operation news blackout that the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico may be about to reach biblical proportions.

251 million years ago a mammoth undersea methane bubble caused massive explosions, poisoned the atmosphere and destroyed more than 96 percent of all life on Earth. [1] Experts agree that what is known as the Permian extinction event was the greatest mass extinction event in the history of the world. [2]
http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-ha...

Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' event
by Terrence Aym

Ominous reports are leaking past the BP Gulf salvage operation news blackout that the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico may be about to reach biblical proportions.

251 million years ago a mammoth undersea methane bubble caused massive explosions, poisoned the atmosphere and destroyed more than 96 percent of all life on Earth. [1] Experts agree that what is known as the Permian extinction event was the greatest mass extinction event in the history of the world. [2]
http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-ha...

Super essay.

And WHERE is this President's Gulf Pollution War Room???

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-sive/from-bp-massacre-to-bp-ma_b_6...
[excerpt]

...I...wonder where the hustle is in President Obama's reaction to the BP Massacre. BP is massacring fish, birds, a culture, people's livelihoods: You name it. (Where is this President's Gulf War Room?).

And, yeah, I know it's also an easy hit to talk about Huey Long, when you're talking Louisiana history or politics, but here's the thing.

When Huey Long named himself the Kingfish (after an Amos and Andy character, the character who led the show's mythical Mystic Knights of the Sea!), he did so because he wanted to lead Louisiana's "ordinary" people; lead them, in order to make things right for them, to make things right for the very parents and grandparents of the Gulf Coast shrimpers and oystermen now losing their (mystic sea) world.

Who did the Kingfish battle first? Well, none other than a BP relative. That's right: The Kingfish took-on Standard Oil.

Why? Because the Kingfish saw the evil in this cabal from (its) git go. Yes, the Kingfish was loud, abrasive, and dictatorial, but he was also right--right for the people of Louisiana, and, it now appears, right for the rest of us Americans, too.

Later in his career, as Governor of Louisiana, the Kingfish taxed Standard Oil to "finance his free textbook program, provoking the wrath of Standard Oil, which launched an unsuccessful attempt to remove him from office."

...

Say, the President named himself the Kingfish, too...
Here's what the Louisiana Kingfish would then recommend to the President Kingfish.

First: Stop focusing on esoteric policy proposals that haven't happened for a hundred years.

Second: Focus on policy proposals for today, for the needs of right now , for those "ordinary people" you're wont to talk about.

...

In his later years, Huey Long's Kingfish cry was: "share our wealth, every man a king."

Why? Well, because he believed that, in those Great Depression years, just like in these Great Recession years, capitalism had run amok, had mucked-up our American world.

Well, here we are 85 years later, and one of the biggest capitalist cabals on the face of the planet is mucking-up our American world, literally.

The Kingfish recognized that to "share our wealth, [make] every man [and woman] a king, first, we had to recognize the country-wide web of despair BP could (and had) woven.

Now, we're realizing this, as we learn about the closing of century-old Louisiana businesses and losses of everyday jobs, not to mention the destruction of the Gulf, due to the BP Massacre.

Here's how the Kingfish put it:

[quote]The same mill that grinds out the extra rich is the same mill that will grind out the extra poor, because, in order that the extra rich can become so affluent, they must necessarily take more of what ordinarily would belong to the average man.[unquote]

In recent NBC coverage of the BP Massacre, Kindra Arnesen, the wife of a Gulf Coast shrimper who went on-camera to criticize BP, was asked why she was the only person willing to speak on-camera: Her response: Everyone else is afraid, because "You're messing with the king." (BP)

What if, instead of BP, the Kingfish of today's Louisiana were Barack Obama? Would she have said that? And would she, in 2010, be saying this at all, if the original Kingfish had prevailed during the Great Depression, so that every (American) man would now be a king (and every woman now a queen)--not just the rich folks running BP?

Here's what the Kingfish proposed be done back in the Depression day, to share the wealth.

· Cap personal fortunes at $50 million each (equivalent to about $750 million today) · Limit annual income to one million dollars each (about $12 million today) · Limit inheritances to five million dollars each (about $60 million today) · Guarantee every family an annual income of $2,000 (or one-third the national average) · Free college education and vocational training · Old-age pensions for all persons over 60 · Veterans benefits and healthcare · A 30 hour work week · A four week vacation for every worker · Greater regulation of commodity production to stabilize prices...

And Mr. President, contemplate this, too: Had the Kingfish's Share Our Wealth program been adopted, it might have precluded your BP Massacre. Why? Well, because, then, there just wouldn't have been enough money around to make it possible for BP to get its way today with our government and our environment--to skirt environmental laws; pay off public officials; fill jobs that only desperate people would take, not desperate for any reason other than their inability to find a less dangerous job that pays a decent wage.

...

The BP Massacre is the biggest environmental disaster America faces, in part because it is an outcome of the biggest economic disaster we've faced in over half a century--the accumulation of kingly wealth and power by a tiny group of people, while the vast majority of Americans eke out a (powerless) living as best they can, including going to work on oil rigs they know are life-threatening.

Mr. President, I repeat: Please, please keep the Share our Wealth proposal handy....

[end excerpt]

Introducing
Australian PM Prime Minister Julia Gillard

VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdXlUdSBOYk&feature=fvw

Saving Face in Unwinnable War

Sinking in debt and no closer to victory, heads may roll as the U.S. and NATO wrap up their pointless Afghan adventure

By Eric Margolis

July 13, 2010 "Toronto Sun" -- Fire-breathing U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his Special Forces "mafia" were supposed to crush Afghan resistance to western occupation. But McChrystal was fired after rude remarks from his staff about the White House.

A more cerebral and political general, David Petraeus, replaced McChrystal. Petraeus managed to temporarily suppress resistance in Iraq.

Last week, the usually cautious Petraeus vowed from Kabul to "win" the Afghan War, which has cost the U.S. nearly $300 billion to date and 1,000 dead. The problem: No one can define what winning really means. Each time the U.S. reinforces, Afghan resistance grows stronger.

Afghanistan is America's longest-running conflict.

The escalating war now costs U.S. taxpayers $17 billion monthly. President Barack Obama's Afghan "surge" of 30,000 more troops will cost another $30 billion.

The Afghan and Iraq wars - at a cost of $1 trillion - are being waged on borrowed money when the U.S. is drowning in $13.1 trillion in debt.

America has become addicted to debt and war.

By 2011, Canadians will have spent an estimated $18.1 billion on Afghanistan, $1,500 per household.

The U.S. Congress, which alone can declare and fund war, shamefully allowed U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Obama to usurp this power. A majority of Americans now oppose this imperial misadventure. Though politicians fear opposing the war lest they be accused of "betraying our soldiers," dissent is breaking into the open.

read here

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25917.htm

Bridge @ 10:45.
=====================

Like, the more that scientists and professionals comment on the realities of the 9/11 occurrences, the more those fewer than 19 people and the people in the Afghan Mountains (whom our soldiers call "backwards"(!)) seem unlikely to have played anything more than a patsy role.

Afghans and 19 hijackers wired the Twin Towers with thermate charges? Really?

'It's Fun to Shoot Some People'

By Ed O'Keefe & Al Jazeera

VIDEO

Posted July 11, 2010

President Obama's pick to lead military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and the Middle East is an experienced ground combat commander, but also earned a stern rebuke in 2005 for controversial comments about combat operations.

Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, then a lieutenant general, told a crowd in San Diego that it was "fun to shoot some people" and said that some Afghans deserved to die.

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years, because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said. "You know guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot 'em." (Watch Mattis's comments in the video above.)

Then-Marine Corps Commandant Michael W. Hagee told Mattis to choose his words "more carefully," but also praised him as "one of the country's bravest and most experienced military leaders."

"While I understand that some people may take issue with the comments made by him, I also know he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war," Hagee said. "Mattis often speaks with a great deal of candor. I have counseled him concerning his remarks, and he agrees he should have chosen his words more carefully."

Military ethicists warned that Mattis's comments had the potential to cause violent events committed either by U.S. military service members or against American troops.

On Thursday Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters that appropriate action was taken against Mattis in 2005.

"Obviously in the wake of the Rolling Stone interview [with Gen. Stanley McChrystal], we discussed this kind of thing," Gates said. "And I have every confidence that -- that General Mattis will be -- will respond to questions and speak publicly about the matters for which he is responsible in an entirely appropriate way."

read here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25916.htm

here we have another lady warmonger

it was just a coincidence that I saw that comment by the Aussie poster - the comments on that site are v. interesting and posted by people from all over the world. I should read them all but just don't always have the time.

Looks like the new Australian PM is just carrying on Howard style ... too bad.

So I Thought I better take a look at another new world leader STILL using 9/11 to hoodwink and bamboozle the citizens and sending them to their deaths ....grrrrr.

Feds challenge could be avoided if Feds would just enforce immigration laws on the books. Is this worth a fight over state's rights?

The suit has opened the door to the Rightwing saying that the Feds pick and choose the laws it enforces, rather than fulfilling its duty to enforce them all.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100706/ap_on_re_us/us_immigration_enforceme...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88HnGWRRUiM&feature=related

http://www.seattleglobaljustice.org/2010/02/michael-taylor/

[excerpt]

Bovine growth hormones are banned in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union but were approved in the US largely thanks to Taylor’s efforts. Monsanto’s own research from 1987 showed a link between rBGH milk and increased risk of breast cancer and according to a European Union scientific commission, use of rBST substantially increased health problems with cows.

Just prior to joining Obama’s transition team last year, Taylor was a Senior Fellow at the D.C. think tank Resources for the Future, where he published two documents on U.S. aid for African agriculture. These papers were funded by The Rockefeller Foundation who also financed the first Green Revolution in Asia and Latin America in the 1960s, and in 2006 teamed up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Not surprisingly, Taylor’s recommendations included a “market-oriented approach and the promotion of thriving agribusinesses”, “applied agricultural research”, “markets for agricultural inputs and outputs” and increased agricultural export capacity. So what’s wrong with a second Green Revolution in Africa? As pointed out by Paula Crossfield in the Huffington Post, “…there is broad consensus that the Green Revolution in India has been a failure, with Indian farmers in debt, bound to paying high costs for seed and pesticides, committing suicide at much higher rates, and resulting in a depleted water table and a poisoned environment, and by extension, higher rates of cancer.” So the Green Revolution hasn’t been very helpful to farmers, but it has been extremely profitable for corporations such as Monsanto.

Michael Taylor’s appointment to FDA food safety czar is the second major setback for food activists from the Obama administration, following their choice of Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack is also a proponent of the biotech industry and is famous for taking rides on jets provided by Monsanto while serving as governor of Iowa.

[end excerpt]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/07/lake-pontchartrain-oil-se_n_637...

[excerpt]
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is seeping into Lake Pontchartrain north of New Orleans, threatening another environmental disaster for the huge body of water that was rescued from pollution in the 1990s.

The lake rebounded then to once again become a bountiful fishing ground and a popular spot for boating and swimming.

"Even the people involved in the restoration didn't believe it could be restored. It was completely written off. It was thought to be an impossible task," said John Lopez, a scientist with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, which led the restoration effort. "It has been a dramatic turnabout."

It is threatened again after a weekend when tar balls and an oil sheen pushed by strong winds from faraway Hurricane Alex slipped past lines of barges that were supposed to block the passes connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the lake.
[end excerpt]

This is a very important article, imo.

People on the Obama team like Steven Chu (Obama's oft-mentioned "Nobel Prize Winning" Energy Secretary who just happens to be a bagman for BP) and John Holdren are sort of like window dressing for the Corporatists. Otherwise, it is an agenda of Corporate Free Market Planet-Polluting, Planet-Abusing Business as Usual under Obama as it was under Bush. A real tragedy.

Also, note that this article doesn't even address the science of gene-spliced food products and their safety to consumers and to the genetic integrity of the natural world!

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-science-obama-20100...

[excerpt]

Scientists expected Obama administration to be friendlier

A culture of politics trumping science, many say, persists despite the president's promises. The use of potentially toxic dispersants to fight the gulf oil spill is cited as just one example.

...Now scientists charge that the Obama administration is not doing enough to reverse a culture that they contend allowed officials to interfere with their work and limit their ability to speak out.

"We are getting complaints from government scientists now at the same rate we were during the Bush administration," said Jeffrey Ruch, an activist lawyer who heads an organization representing scientific whistle-blowers.

...

White House officials, however, said they remained committed to protecting science from interference and that proposed guidelines would be forwarded to Obama in the near future.

But interviews with several scientists — most of whom requested anonymity because they feared retaliation in their jobs — as well as reviews of e-mails provided by Ruch and others show a wide range of complaints during the Obama presidency:

In Florida, water-quality experts reported government interference with efforts to assess damage to the Everglades stemming from development projects.

In the Pacific Northwest, federal scientists said they were pressured to minimize the effects they had documented of dams on struggling salmon populations.

In several Western states, biologists reported being pushed to ignore the effects of overgrazing on federal land.

In Alaska, some oil and gas exploration decisions given preliminary approval under Bush moved forward under Obama, critics said, despite previously presented evidence of environmental harm.

The most immediate case of politics allegedly trumping science, some government and outside environmental experts said, was the decision to fight the gulf oil spill with huge quantities of potentially toxic chemical dispersants despite advice to examine the dangers more thoroughly.

And the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based organization, said it had received complaints from scientists in key agencies about the difficulty of speaking out publicly.

"Many of the frustrations scientists had with the last administration continue currently," said Francesca Grifo, the organization's director of scientific integrity.

For example, Grifo said, one biologist with a federal agency in Maryland complained that his study of public health data was purposefully disregarded by a manager who is not a scientist. The biologist, Grifo said, feared expressing his concerns inside and outside the agency.

Most of the examples provided by Ruch, Grifo and others come from scientists who insist on anonymity, making it difficult for agencies to respond specifically to the complaints. Officials at those agencies maintain that scientists are allowed and encouraged to speak out if they believe a policy is at odds with their findings.

The director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, John P. Holdren, said in a statement last month that the president effectively set policy in his March 2009 memorandum calling for administration-wide scientific integrity standards....

[more]

[end excerpt]

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/coast_guard_tr...

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/toughest_gulf_...

"Daddy won't you take me back to Mulenburg County
Beside the green river where Paradise lay...."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNAuDEUcHvU&feature=related

Coal Industry attempts to shut up actress Ashley Judd for her criticism of Mountain Top Removal Mining--

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/topless-ashley-judd-poste_n_640...

[excerpt]

Judd said in a speech last month to the National Press Club that mountaintop removal, which blasts the tops off mountains to extract coal, is the "rape of Appalachia."

She also referred to golf courses that have been built atop former mining sites, like StoneCrest.

"I'm not too keen on reinforcing stereotypes about my people, but I don't know a lot of hillbillies who golf," Judd said in the June 9 speech. The actress, who spent her childhood in eastern Kentucky and attended the University of Kentucky, said she is "proud of being a hillbilly."

Judd said in a statement that she anticipated criticism from "cunning and greedy" coal companies when speaking out against mountaintop mining.

"It is time to retire the cynical and superficial coal company-created argument that we must choose between people, their jobs, and our mountains," Judd said. "That is simply false, fear-based and fear-mongering."

[end excerpt]

>> ALSO, EXACTLY << It is part of The Food Chain ...
Move along ... nothing to see here! {eye-roll}

Oh Shit!
Submitted by Leah on Sun, 07/11/2010 - 10:52pm.

Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' event
by Terrence Aym

Ominous reports are leaking past the BP Gulf salvage operation news blackout that the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico may be about to reach biblical proportions.

251 million years ago a mammoth undersea methane bubble caused massive explosions, poisoned the atmosphere and destroyed more than 96 percent of all life on Earth. [1] Experts agree that what is known as the Permian extinction event was the greatest mass extinction event in the history of the world. [2]
http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-ha...

a major change ...
/|\)0(
... As Hagal in Labyrinth said, "If you ever want me ..."
{JFI I can call in lower 48 Day or Night}

NEW THREAD
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5909

Yer a wanker.

you're referring to this...
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5902#comment-412375
as well as making a general observation