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Links to Global Warming Deniers and Some Revealing Facts About Them

2006-06-27T10:09:00.000-06:00

[The following links were sent to me by someone who believes the issue of Global Warming is still up for debate -- these are links she sent to prove, as she says, "In all fairness, 10s of 1,000s of climatologists and other scientists reject the concept of global warming as presented in Al Gore's movie." I've followed her links by my research into who they are, who's funding them, etc.]

I repeat here a small list of Exxon-Mobil funded 'scientists' that appear over and over again in the 'literature' that is supposed to prove Global Warming is either not happening or is not caused by human activity, as reported by Mother Jones News. Every denier I've researched has been shown to be on the payroll of corporate interests (mostly oil and gas), is not an expert in the appropriate field, has done questionable to downright dishonest 'science,' if any, or has in some other way disqualified themselves from being taken seriously. According to Wikipeda, there seem to be far less than 10's of thousands of scientists who deny global warming -- they list anywhere from eleven-a couple of dozen ("Only scientists with a record of scholarship are included, and they must have been making specific statements, not merely participating in a poll or survey of opinion. This list is intended to be comprehensive, but is likely to be incomplete."). Here is a partial list:

SALLIE BALIUNAS, a Harvard-Smithsonian Institute astrophysicist, has, along with colleague
WILLIE SOON, been giving deniers scientific cover since the mid-1990s. They began by claiming solar effects could account for the rise of the global thermostat. After that theory was debunked, Baliunas and Soon wrote a paper-partially funded by the American Petroleum Institute-for Climate Research that claimed that the 20th century hasn’t been all that warm. Their conclusions have been praised as the epitome of “sound science” by deniers, including Sen. James Inhofe. The journal’s editor, meanwhile, said the paper should never have been published. Baliunas and Soon are each connected to at least four ExxonMobil-funded groups.
PAUL DRIESSEN: ExxonMobil-funded groups: at least five.
PATRICK MICHAELS: Connections to ExxonMobil-funded groups: at least seven.
STEVEN MILLOY [of JunkScience.com]: Connections to ExxonMobil-funded groups: at least five."
S. FRED SINGER: A godfather of global warming denial, Connections to ExxonMobil-funded groups: at least seven.

http://www.oism.org/oism/s32p686.htm --
The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM) ... is headed by Arthur B. Robinson, an eccentric scientist who has a long history of controversial entanglements with figures on the fringe of accepted research.
[more on them below]
from: SourceWatch.org

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=052406F --
Tech Central Station.com is a news site associated with the Tech Central Science Foundation, which received $95,000 funding from Exxon-Mobil; Baliunas is a commentator; Soon is the science director; and Milloy is a contributing writer. Run by former FoxNews.com editor and hosted by an AEI fellow.

TCS is published by the DCI Group, "a prominent Washington public affairs firm specializing in P.R., lobbying, and so-called 'Astroturf' organizing, generally on behalf of corporations, GOP politicians, and the occasional Third-World despot." Corporate funders of Tech Central Station include AT&T, Avue Technologies, The Coca-Cola Company, General Motors Corporation, Intel, McDonalds, Merck, Microsoft, Nasdaq, PhRMA, and Qualcomm (Tech Central Station website).
from: ExxonSecrets.org

http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p357.htm --
The Oregon Petition, sponsored by the OISM, was circulated in April 1998 in a bulk mailing to tens of thousands of U.S. scientists. In addition to the petition, the mailing included what appeared to be a reprint of a scientific paper. Authored by OISM's Arthur B. Robinson, Sallie L. Baliunas, Willie Soon, and Zachary W. Robinson, [the petition was designed to give] some persons the impression that Robinson's paper was an official publication of the [National Academy of Sciences]' peer-reviewed journal. The blatant editorializing in the pseudopaper, however, was uncharacteristic of scientific papers, [and had nothing] to do with the National Academy of Sciences. Robinson was not even a climate scientist. He was a biochemist with no published research in the field of climatology, and his paper had never been subjected to peer review by anyone with training in the field. In fact, the paper had never been accepted for publication anywhere, let alone in the NAS Proceedings. It was self-published by Robinson, who did the typesetting himself on his own computer. (It was subsequently published as a "review" in Climate Research, which contributed to an editorial scandal at that publication.) The NAS issued an unusually blunt formal response to the petition drive. "The petition does not reflect the conclusions of expert reports of the Academy."

Robinson's paper claimed to show that pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is actually a good thing. "As atmospheric CO2 increases," it stated, "plant growth rates increase. Also, leaves lose less water as CO2 increases, so that plants are able to grow under drier conditions. Animal life, which depends upon plant life for food, increases proportionally." As a result, Robinson concluded, industrial activities can be counted on to encourage greater species biodiversity and a greener planet. [excuse me while my head explodes - Marilyn]
from: SourceWatch.org

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st285/ --
National Center for Policy Analysis has received $390,900 from ExxonMobil since 1998. Adjunct Scholar, S. FRED SINGER: Connections to ExxonMobil-funded groups: at least seven. Founded in 1983, NCPA acts as an organizer for other conservative groups as well as conducting its own free-market oriented public policy analysis on issues such as health care, social security, fiscal policy, and the environment.

NCPA has an "E-Team" that analyzes environmental policy. The global warming "experts" on the team are climate skeptics who opposed the Kyoto Protocol and continue to oppose any regulation of greenhouse gasses.
from: ExxonSecrets.org

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2006/20060623155710.aspx --
a branch of the right-wing Media Research Center. "...it is [Brent] Bozell's Media Research Center that stands out as the right's preeminent media cop. Bozell is a Republican operative with credentials earned in George Bush's 1988 presidential campaign. The nephew of William F. Buckley, he headed the Conservative Victory Committee that year. He is also connected to the Political Club for Growth, a network of conservative and libertarian activists and groups sympathetic to cutting taxes and shrinking government.

What Bozell and others perceive as liberal bias often means presenting information about government help for the poor, the homeless, the weak, and so on -- information that conflicts with the objectives of the right."
from: MediaTransparency.org

http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=357 --
Both Baliunas and Soon worked with Frederick Seitz at the George C. Marshall Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank where Seitz served as executive director. Funded by a number of right-wing foundations, including Scaife and Bradley, the George C. Marshall Institute does not conduct any original research. It is a conservative think tank that was initially founded during the years of the Reagan administration to advocate funding for Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative--the "Star Wars" weapons program. ... Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, the Marshall Institute has adapted to the times by devoting much of its firepower to the war against environmentalism, and in particular against the "scaremongers" who raise warnings about global warming.
from: SourceWatch.org

http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/cause.htm --
I could spend a lot of time debunking this 'article' point-by-point. I'd rather not waste my time, but really, apply your critical thinking skills and question each statement as you read it -- I think you'll see what I mean. Or see below for more info on them.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200409%5CNAT20040915c.html --
"The Cybercast News Service (also CNSNews.com) is a conservative news website founded on June 16, 1998 by the Media Research Center, a media watchdog group. Originally calling itself the "Conservative News Service," CNS changed its name to Cybercast in 2000. CNS sees its role as serving an audience which puts a "higher premium on balance than spin" by covering stories that mainstream news organizations ignore.

...Unsurprisingly, CNS itself has been accused of having its own bias. ConWebWatch, a website set up to challenge possible biases in politically conservative news sources, accuses CNS, among others, of engaging in the same tactics as the "liberal media" they criticize:
In reality, these sites are no less slanted or arrogant than they accuse the "mainstream" media of being. They demonstrate time and again that, despite promoting themselves with words like "fairness," "responsibility," "accuracy" and "balance," their real goal is to attack and discredit anyone who doesn’t agree with them, as well as to promote their own political views -- the same exact thing they accuse the "liberal" media of doing
from: Wikipedia.org

http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/ --
"The Junk Science Page is not about junk science so much as it is about anything which does not support a conservative or libertarian political agenda for businesses and industries that do not like regulations that limit their ability to pollute or poison us or our environment. Milloy uses the term 'junk science' mainly as a political and polemical term. What the majority of scientists call sound science, Milloy usually calls junk science. And what he calls 'sound science', the majority of scientists usually call junk science.
...
In short, the Junk Science page has some valid analyses sprinkled amongst its propaganda, but overall the page is deceptive. There's nothing wrong with having a political agenda, and there is certainly nothing wrong with being concerned that the government is spending its resources on the wrong projects, and there is nothing wrong with being critical of the work of scientists, but there is something wrong with pretending to care about science and truth, while labeling scientists who produce work contrary to your agenda as doing junk science. But don't take my word for it. Just look at the list of scientists that Mr. Milloy considers to be junk scientists: nearly every person on his hit list has done a study with potential political implications that offend his political agenda."
from: http://skepdic.com/refuge/junkscience.html

Hired Hack 'Scientists' and Global Warming

2006-06-27T08:59:00.000-06:00

Many partisan organizations have been created over the past (at least) 25 years as disinformation specialists, whose job it is to obfuscate the facts, and create a perception that the facts are in doubt. A lot of moneyed interests want to prevent any policies that would keep them from dumping more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Facts are not fair; they just are. In the interest of fairness, is it fair that paid hack 'scientists' promote ideas meant to confound the public into doing things against their best interest or not doing things for their best interest, all to benefit corporate interests? How many times has this happened in the past? Remember when the big tobacco companies perjured themselves about the addictive & harmful effects of cigarettes, and were deliberately working on increasing that addictiveness? Remember Love Canal? The list of corporate crimes is seemingly endless, but of the top 100 corporate crimes of the 1990's, 38 were environmental crimes.

Here's a fact: an environmental group recently estimated that ExxonMobil Corp. and the products it makes have been responsible for roughly five percent of the world's manmade carbon dioxide emissions since 1882.

Here's another fact: Exxon-Mobil has spent over $12 million dollars funding think tanks to obfuscate the idea of global warming in the minds of the average American.

"ExxonMobil has funded dozens of front groups, think tanks, industry associations, corporate-friendly research centers, and purportedly independent scientists to spread its denialism. Greenpeace has documented the company’s support for a web of more than 100 organizations - from the American Council on Science and Health to the Washington Legal Foundation - that work to cast doubt on global warming science and likely consequences."
"The company has also collaborated with the administration on the basic denialism project. A former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute and chief of staff of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, Philip Cooney, resigned in June 2005 after the New York Times revealed he had edited government reports to challenge the link between carbon emissions and global warming. A week later, Cooney was on ExxonMobil’s payroll."

Buying policy is apparently cheaper than doing the right thing.

For example, Koch Industries, the largest privately-held oil company in the United States, has financed a network of conservative nonprofit organizations designed to influence policy debate in this country."

Many of the same key “skeptics” show up again and again in the echo chamber funded by ExxonMobil:

Here are some other good sources for finding out who's related to whom in the field of global warming (and more) obfuscation:
Media Transparency: Recipients -- tracks the impact of conservative philanthropy on the media - recipients of conservative funding.
Media Transparency: Funders -- tracks the impact of conservative philanthropy on the media - funders.
ExxonSecrets.org -- Documenting Exxon-Mobil's funding of climate change skeptics.
SourceWatch - Documents public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests.
Center for Media and Democracy -- Investigates and exposes public relations spin and propaganda, and promotes media literacy and citizen journalism.
ConWebWatch -- dedicated to analysis and critique of conservative Web-based journalism.
CorporateCrimeReporter -- Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade (1990's)
The Center for Corporate Policy -- a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization working to curb corporate abuses and make corporations publicly accountable.
from the Center for Public Integrity -- Post-War Contractors Ranked by Total Contract Value in Iraq and Afghanistan
from CommonDreams --The Ten Worst Corporations of 2005
Big Oil Protects its Interests --
Industry spends hundreds of millions on lobbying, elections
Front groups -- List of example front groups from SourceWatch.org

Global warming is a scientific issue that's been politicized

2006-06-26T22:02:00.000-06:00

Global warming is a scientific issue that's been politicized, due to social and economic implications. Sadly, currently..."environmental policy is based on what profits there are to be gained or lost today, without attention paid to what the immeasurable long-term costs will be to the shared resource of our environment."

Certain facts about global warming have been established through true scientific methods, published in peer review journals, and are accepted by the vast majority of scientists doing work in the field. "Scientific methods are impersonal. Thus, whatever one scientist is able to do qua scientist, any other scientist should be able to duplicate. ...When scientists cannot duplicate the work of another scientist that is a clear sign that the scientist has erred either in design, methodology, observation, calculation, or calibration."

For example, levels of CO2 poured into the atmosphere each day are measurable. The levels of CO2 in the atmosphere correlate directly with global ambient temperature. As far back as scientists have been able to measure, higher levels of CO2 = higher temperatures. They have measured through ice-cores back as far as 450,000 years. Yes, global warming trends happen in cycles, but the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have risen measurably over the past 100-150 years to be significantly higher than all previous highs over the course of the past 450,000 years. They are the highest they have ever been in recorded time.

"On May 2, 2006, the Federal Climate Change Science Program commissioned by the Bush administration in 2002 released the first of 21 assessments which concluded that there is
"clear evidence of human influences on the climate system." The study said that the only factor that could explain the measured warming of Earth's average temperature over the last 50 years was the buildup of heat-trapping gases, which are mainly emitted by burning coal and oil."

Actually, "There have not been any such scientists since 2001 who express the opinion that evidence of global warming is inconclusive or who are skeptical that temperatures have risen the 0.6 ± 0.2 °C as advanced by the IPCC."

The IPCC's conclusion that most of the observed warming of the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations accurately reflects the current thinking of the scientific community on this issue.

More comprehenisve info regarding scientific opinion on global warming.

Scientists who oppose the idea of human contribution to global warming (note that several of these are among the list of scientists who engage in questionable scientific methods, and are funded by Exxon-Mobil).

"...conclusions that greenhouse gases are causing the planet to heat up are the result of the "most rigorously peer-reviewed scientific collaboration in history.

"The contradictory statements of a tiny handful of discredited scientists, funded by big coal and big oil, represent a deliberate -- and extremely reckless -- campaign of deception and disinformation."

The whole point, as stated by the National Academy of Sciences, is that "greenhouse warming poses a potential threat sufficient to merit prompt responses. Investment in mitigation measures acts as insurance protection against the great uncertainties and the possibility of dramatic surprises."

More on "An Inconvenient Truth"

2006-06-26T21:49:00.000-06:00

[The following I wrote in response to an email I received telling me about a scientist (an astronomer) who doesn't believe human activity has anything to do with global warming].

There is a very small minority of actual scientists who believe human activity has had no effect on global warming, though of course there are some, and they are often pimping for corporations, or ideologues who have not done true empirical research in the field of climatology and atmosphereic science (in fact, here's a link to a chart that shows many of the 'think tanks' that dispute global warming, and their connections to the energy corporations: http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2005/05/exxon_chart.html ). There's a lot of intentional disinformation out there, so you have to decide for yourself who's telling the truth, if their truth is based on facts, and what, if anything, you want to do about it.

Before sending out my encouragement to see the movie, I started checking out whether the 'facts' presented in the movie seemed to be true or false, and I believe my research is pointing to them being true.

But see the movie, look at the charts, start doing your own research. The chart I was most amazed by is a prettier version of the 4th chart on this page (sorry I haven't yet found a better, clearer version of this chart): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/warming/etc/graphs.html (Graph showing a 450,000 year record of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the earth's atmosphere). I'd love to hear your friend's explanation of that enormous spike at present-time that shows the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere to be enormously higher than all previous *highs* over the past 450,000 years.

There was a time when 99% (or more) of people thought the earth was flat. Their being wrong about that didn't have as much of a consequence as those in charge being wrong about this does, if they are in fact wrong.

Wanna take that chance? It's the only planet we've got....

Personally, I have no dog in this hunt, other than my sense of personal responsibility to not leave things worse than they were when I got here. And I apologize to everyone younger than me that I couldn't be more effective in leaving you a better place to live. All I can do is educate myself on the important issues, not let myself be fooled by the emperors with no clothes, take the small environmentally sound actions I'm capable of taking, talk to people, and vote my conscience. I do what I can...and I hope you younger folks can figure out how to make things better for yourselves and your children.

At any rate, I just wanted to encourage people to go see the movie, because I believe it effectively shows a lot of facts, well-presented, for a very tiny investment of your time and money, that will help educate you about what might be the most important trend on our planet today.

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-06-26T21:45:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to say, having just seen this movie, if you live on this planet, you owe it to yourselves, your children and any future generations you may hope for to see this movie. It may be the most important hour and 1/2 worth of information you can watch. It's not political, and shows in a very graphic way both a very disturbing present and more disturbing future if we keep on the path we're on and ways we can avert what may seem to be an inevitable world tragedy. Truly, the graphs and photographic evidence presented so well here with such great explanations are shocking -- and I thought I was fairly well informed. Apparently, not so much...

If you don't live on this planet, continue to listen to the 53% of media who claim global warming isn't happening and not to the nearly 100% of legitimate scientists who say that it is, for what have you got to lose?

Last Day to Tell EAC: We Want Voter-Verified Paper Ballots!

2005-09-30T09:45:00.000-06:00

The public comment period is ending on draft voting system guidelines which will govern how voting systems are configured and evaluated in the US. It expires TODAY, FRIDAY September 30.

Take this opportunity to tell the Election Assistance Commission: Voter-verified paper records should be mandatory for all voting systems.

All elections must be audited for accuracy; but unless that audit uses a voter-verified paper record to check the machines are functioning correctly, it's not a legitimate audit. No electronic record can meet that standard, nor any reprint unseen by the voter. The EAC has the authority to define the manual audit trail: it must be a voter-verified paper record.

Other important recommendations:

1. No wireless networking (or wireless capability of any kind) in any voting system
2. Clarify terms: voter-verified paper audit trails are not the same as voter-verified paper ballots, and standards written for one may not apply to the other.
3. Certification must be tougher for security. Adopt Resolution #17-05 for more stringent testing of voting systems.
4. Allow interoperability - voting systems from different vendors should be able to work together more freely, saving costs.

Click on the link (in the title) above to send a letter to the EAC Commissioners.

[For more info on these recommendations, see http://www.verifiedvoting.org/downloads/EAC%20Guidelines%20Notes.pdf ]

Some Notes from "Orwell Rolls in His Grave"

2005-09-29T08:09:00.000-06:00

"I can see that your head has been twisted and fed

with worthless foam from the mouth."

-- Bob Dylan, "Ramona"

Saw this movie this past weekend. "Orwell Rolls in His Grave" is a documentary that explains how "...America is under an Orwellian watch with the rise to prominence of the radical, right-wing Republican party, an ascent aided...by the mainstream media." A full, better description is here: http://www.orwellrollsinhisgrave.com/synopsis.htm

This movie has further helped me to see the bigger picture -- the real agenda of the right-wing (further enriching the super-rich at the expense of the middle class) and how they use 'hot-button issues' to get the little guy riled up and voting for them, etc. All the things we argue about with the other side of our families and friends are mostly just diversions, while the rich are busy screwing all of us equally.

Took some notes from the extra interviews on the DVD; here they are (some of these are straight quotes, some paraphrased, depending on how fast I could write -- so my thanks to those who contributed to this movie, and my apologies if I didn't get all the words transcribed correctly. I think I mostly got the gist of the meaning, though I certainly didn't cover all that was said, by any means...):

from Tony Benn (former Labour MP and Cabinet Minister):

He mentioned how astonished he was to learn that Clinton was elected by only 20% of the populace (and of course, George W. by far fewer percent than that), because so many were not registered, or did not vote or voted for one of the other guys. "If people don't vote, it destroys the legitimacy of the government that IS elected, and THAT is the moment at which the hard right picks up."

He talked about how the German people were unemployed and depressed in the 30's, and how Hitler was able to use that to gain prominence: "They went for the man who had a scapegoat."

"Democracy," he says, "requires a well-informed and understanding people with clear ideas which they wish to see represented." But now we're being 'managed' and not represented.

Charles Lewis (Founder and former Director of the Center for Public Integrity):

"A lot of guys in politics get paid a lot of money to manipulate media."

...it's a conundrum for we who are frustrated with the news media. News execs say 'Look at the numbers!' It's prurient, sensational crap that sells the most. The media is NOT into disseminating information. There's no sense of media responsibility. It's "legal corruption."

Robert McChesney (writer, professor and media-access advocate who is critical of corporate concentration and control of media):

Head of the FCC under Clinton was told by former FCC heads," You're referring fights between the super-rich and the super-super rich." You have to let each side win a little bit from time to time. [btw, the FCC is supposed to be in the business of regulating the public airwaves, which we all pay for as taxpayers. Though the public part of their mission seems to have disappeared from their mission statement. Read their current strategic goals: http://www.fcc.gov/omd/strategicplan/ ].

Vertical integration - where a company owns all the different layers of an industry: i.e., with movies -- both production and distribution (and if they also own the TV and radio stations, promotion). This makes it very hard for there to be a competitor, as they have to invest in and compete on all the same levels.

The huge myth of our society is that it's based on competition. That's just the pablum they serve the bottom fishes (i.e., you and me). The top of the system is crushing competition.

Horizontal integration - bad for the public; good for big conglomerates. They hyper-commercialize content. Grotesque commercialization.

1996 Telecommunications Act-- media wanted to keep the public from hearing about it. And mostly did. Congress doled out $70 billion for free airwaves for the mega corporations, while cutting out foodstamps for the poor.

Government creates the giants, built around monopolies.

Murdoch -- Fox news doesn't DO journalism, just pontification. CNN was trying to do journalism (and they were doing well); but FOX showed you could make much huger profits without actual journalists doing actual news. So, in 2000, CNN got rid of their head guy.

Read "The Media Monopoly."

Media manipulation is a science. The agenda of the free market -- to enrich the few and screw over the many. Their agenda -- to lower taxes for the rich and slash social services for the middle class. They do it by finding other 'hot-button' issues to run on (because people would never vote for this agenda if they were aware of it, of course!) -- issues like patriotism, racism, abortion, gay rights. Don't ever talk about the whole underlying purpose of their agenda. [it's been interesting to watch how they are now using the tragedy of Katrina as a further excuse to push their agenda -- see if you can't find this agenda in every new proposal the right-wing makes.]

They have re-defined the left and the right, and dropped all the core issues from the discussion.

They've defined Liberal as:

ivy-league intellectual
for gay rights
for abortion rights
hoighty-toighty
does not attend church

And conservative as:

hard-working
beer-drinking
often Catholic
white
church-going
believe in America and kicking ass

However, both political parties are in bed with the military.

All conservative money goes into organizations to conduct ideological warfare and to move the debate to the right.

The right has trained more conservatives to become 'journalists.' They've built up an armada of journalists, a farm-system.

Plus, they help sound convincing by giving 'sources.' Starting in the 70's, they created such institutions as the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute -- all very well-funded with $$ from the super-rich right-wingers (like Richard Mellon-Scaife, etc.). So, those from these institutes become "experts on the issues" and are now employed as media sources. They can really influence the news.

There's so much more in the movie. I can't recommend it highly enough!!! Really, you owe it to yourself to rent this ASAP! http://www.orwellrollsinhisgrave.com/index.htm

Arctic ice 'disappearing fast'

2005-09-28T09:42:00.000-06:00

By Richard Black Environment Correspondent, BBC News website

The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk for a fourth consecutive year, according to new data released by US scientists.

They say that this month sees the lowest extent of ice cover for more than a century. The Arctic climate varies naturally, but the researchers conclude that human-induced global warming is at least partially responsible.

They warn the shrinkage could lead to even faster melting in coming years.
...
The current rate of shrinkage they calculate at 8% per decade; at this rate there may be no ice at all during the summer of 2060.
...
Though there are significant variations across the region, on average the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, according to a major report released last year.

"What we're seeing is a process in which we start to lose ice cover during the summer," he said, "so areas which formerly had ice are now open water, which is dark. "These dark areas absorb a lot of the Sun's energy, much more than the ice; and what happens then is that the oceans start to warm up, and it becomes very difficult for ice to form during the following autumn and winter.

"It looks like this is exactly what we're seeing - a positive feedback effect, a 'tipping-point'." The idea behind tipping-points is that at some stage the rate of global warming would accelerate, as rising temperatures break down natural restraints or trigger environmental changes which release further amounts of greenhouse gases.

Read the rest at the above link.

America Has Fallen to a Jacobin Coup

2005-09-21T08:28:00.000-06:00

By Paul Craig Roberts09/16/05 "ICH" -- --

The most important casualties of September 11 are respect for truth and American liberty. Propaganda has replaced deliberation based on objective assessment of fact. The resurrection of the Star Chamber has made moot the legal protections of liberty.

The US invasion of Iraq was based on the deliberate suppression of fact. The invasion was not the result of mistaken intelligence. It was based on deliberately concocted "intelligence" designed to deceive the US Congress, the American public, and the United Nations.

In an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC News, General Colin Powell, who was Secretary of State at the time of the invasion, expressed dismay that he was the one who took the false information to the UN and presented it to the world. The weapons of mass destruction speech, he said, is a "blot" on his record. The full extent of the deception was made clear by the leaked top secret "Downing Street Memos."

Two and one-half years after the March 2003 invasion, the US Congress and the American people still do not know the reason Iraq was invaded. The US is bogged down in an expensive and deadly combat, and no one outside the small circle of neoconservatives who orchestrated the war knows the reason why. Many guesses are rendered – oil, removal of Israel’s enemy – but the Bush administration has never disclosed its real agenda, which it cloaked with the WMD deception.

This itself is powerful indication that American democracy is dead. With the exception of rightwing talk radio, everyone in America now knows that the invasion of Iraq was based on false information. Yet, 40 percent of the public and both political parties in Congress still support the ongoing war.

The CIA has issued a report that the war is working only for Osama bin Laden. The unprovoked American aggression against Iraq, the horrors perpetrated against Muslims in Abu Ghraib prison, and the slaughter and mistreatment of Iraqi noncombatants, have radicalized the Muslim world and elevated bin Laden from a fringe figure to a leader opposed to American hegemony in the Middle East. The chaos created in Iraq by the US military has provided al Qaeda with superb training grounds for insurgency and terrorism. Despite overwhelming evidence that the "war on terror" is in fact a war for terror, Republicans still cheer when Bush says we have to "fight them over there" so they don’t come "over here."

If fact played any role in the decision to continue with this war, the US would not be spending hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars to provide recruits and training for al Qaeda, to radicalize Muslims, and to destroy trust in the United States both abroad and among its own citizens.

The article gets better (if you can call it that)...read the rest at the above link.

After Blocking the Bridge, Gretna Circles the Wagons

2005-09-16T16:46:00.000-06:00

Long wary of next-door New Orleans, the town stands by its decision to bar the city's evacuees.
by Nicholas Riccardi

GRETNA, Louisiana - Little over a week after this mostly white suburb became a symbol of callousness for using armed officers to seal one of the last escape routes from New Orleans — trapping thousands of mostly black evacuees in the flooded city — the Gretna City Council passed a resolution supporting the police chief's move.

Also See: GretnaSucks.com
GRETNA POLICE BLOCKED FLEEING VICTIMSThe Crescent City Connection bridges that cross the Mississippi River into downtown New Orleans, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)"This wasn't just one man's decision," Mayor Ronnie C. Harris said Thursday. "The whole community backs it."

Three days after Hurricane Katrina hit, Gretna officers blocked the Mississippi River bridge that connects their city to New Orleans, exacerbating the sometimes troubled relationship with their neighbor. The blockade remained in place into the Labor Day weekend.

Gretna (pop. 17,500) is a feisty blue-collar city, two-thirds white, that prides itself on how quickly its police respond to 911 calls; it warily eyes its neighbor, a two-thirds black city (pop. about 500,000) that is also a perennial contender for the murder capital of the U.S.

Itself deprived of power, water and food for days after Katrina struck Aug. 29, Gretna suddenly became the destination for thousands of people fleeing New Orleans. The smaller town bused more than 5,000 of the newcomers to an impromptu food distribution center miles away. As New Orleans residents continued to spill into Gretna, tensions rose.

After someone set the local mall on fire Aug. 31, Gretna Police Chief Arthur S. Lawson Jr. proposed the blockade.

Read the res at the above link.

Bush Library would be too darned close to Deep Eddy Cabaret, by John Kelso

2005-09-16T15:15:00.000-06:00

by John Kelso

I'm having a little trouble with the concept of putting George W. Bush's presidential library in hippie dippie Austin.

For one thing, will this library have actual books in it? And if so, why? Why in God's name would a George W. Bush library contain reading material? This is too much irony even for me. Who's going to read to him? He doesn't like reading, so you know he's not going to read this stuff himself.
...
Instead, why not put the money into the George W. Bush Presidential Game Room and Big Screen TV? I think he'd be much happier there. And you could probably do the whole remodel for under $30,000.

Or, since it's Bush, instead of a library, how about the George W. Bush Frat House Museum? An interactive establishment, every time you go in the door, somebody throws a beer mug against the wall. I'd visit a presidential museum like that. Heck, I might even make a donation to help build the thing.

The UT System is offering three locations for the Bush library -- two in Dallas, and the third one in Austin on Lake Austin Boulevard next to Deep Eddy Cabaret.

This is really bad feng shui. You just don't put a presidential library next to a beer joint. It ends up giving the beer joint a bad name. ...

read the rest at the above link.

Timeline of Katrina: What Happened When

2005-09-16T14:36:00.000-06:00

Katrina: What Happened When
It will take months to get the full story, but meanwhile here are some of the key facts about what happened and when officials acted.

Summary

Multiple investigations are likely into the response by federal, state, and local officials to the disastrous flooding of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. New facts are still emerging, and we expect it will be months or years before a full picture can be properly assessed.
In response to numerous requests, we present here a brief timeline of events, as best as we can document them from public records and the best news reporting from the scene. We do not blame or excuse anyone, and leave it to others to judge what, if anything, could or should have been done differently. All times are converted to Central Daylight Time.

Check the link above for the full timeline.

"If New Orleans were dry" by Michael Ventura

2005-09-16T14:24:00.000-06:00

Excellent column by Michael Ventura in this week's Austin Chronicle (excerpt):

"If our leaders are criminals that should come as no surprise, for we live on theft. We've invented polite words for our theft ("capitalism," "the global economy," "the free market"), but in fact it takes a lot of muscle and legalized theft for 5% of Earth's population to gobble 50% of its resources. Our way of life is a criminal enterprise, and it takes criminals to run it. For more than a century we've depended upon thinly veiled criminality for our good fortune, and we damn well are implicated.

Which is the underlying reason most Americans want to know nothing about their governance. To know would be to admit responsibility. To admit responsibility would put one in the moral dilemma of either taking action toward a more just world and thereby ultimately undermining one's own prosperity, or ignoring it all in the desperate attempt to live happily ever after. Many will believe anything that allows their fearful desperation to pose as righteous happiness. Any lie is welcome, and those who point out the lies are mightily resented. Democrats are as loath as Republicans to face the real problem. George W. Bush and the right-wing cabals cause tremendous and needless suffering, but they are not the fundamental problem. The problem is the way we sustain ourselves. The way we sustain ourselves causes much more suffering than Bush does. The way we sustain ourselves has brought disorder to every corner of the world and undermined the viability of the planet itself. Collectively, we are the maddened coven."

From the Tao te Ching: "Prosperity rests on disaster; disaster is hidden in prosperity."

Read the whole thing at the link above.

Amazing NASA Images of Hurricane Katrina and Damage Wrought

2005-09-16T10:01:00.000-06:00

Click on the link above -- very informative!

Bush Disaster

2005-09-16T09:59:00.000-06:00

The Adminstration's Gross Negligence

2005-09-16T09:56:00.000-06:00

Bill Maher's letter to the prez

2005-09-16T09:54:00.000-06:00

Bill Maher's letter to the prez

Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you any more. There's no more money to spend--you used up all of that. You can't start another war because you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. Listen to your Mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit cards maxed out. No one's speaking to you. Mission accomplished.

Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man? Now I know what you're saying: there's so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don't. I know, I know. There's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.

But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes.

On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: 'Take a hint.'

Information on John Roberts Confirmation Hearings

2005-09-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

I watched the hearings (introductions) on Monday. Almost all of the Republicans said basically the same thing to John Roberts, which boiled down to: "don't say anything." They said that Ruth Bader Ginsburg hadn't answered questions, so neither should he. Forget the fact that this isn't exactly true (she answered a lot of questions, and there were many others (probably inappropriate, but don't quote me on that) that she didn't answer.

The Democrats primarily implored Roberts to remember that he is the last line of defense for many Americans, and that his rulings will affect over 200 million people for generations to come. They said that this hearing is the last opportunity to discover if he will be a fair judge, though conservative, and if his rulings will protect the rights of Americans or not.

Here's a good link to daily updates on the hearings and lots of information about John Roberts and the whole process:

"Senator Hatch's opening statement cited Ruth Bader Ginsburg's testimony before the same committee as a model for Roberts to emulate. Claiming she was reluctant to answer the committee's questions, Hatch echoed many Republicans by urging John Roberts to remain tight lipped. But in fact, Ginsburg was an open nominee that we wish Roberts would emulate.
As for Sen. Hatch, he's changed his tune since 1997, when he said that senators must "be extensive in its questioning of nominees' jurisprudential views." Said Hatch, "[T]he Senate can and should do what it can to ascertain the jurisprudential views a nominee will bring to the bench in order to prevent the confirmation of those who are likely to judicial activists."
We agree. Read more about secrecy, the Bush administration and John Roberts."

Read more at the above link.

TERROR IN TINY TOWN

2005-09-13T07:45:00.000-06:00

Sunday Sep 11, 2005
Greg Palast reporting from Southold, New York

In the War on Terror, we are all on the front lines. Now Southold has apparently been targeted by Al Qaeda. I'm not surprised.

Southold, if you look at a map, is situated at the ass end of nowhere. We are known for our Strawberry Festival and fire truck parade. According to the Census, this tiny place is made up almost entirely of inbred farmers, real estate speculators and volunteer firemen. At one end of town is the "Brand Names Outlet Mall" and the water-slide park. At the other end, there's a ferry boat that takes those who feel lucky to the Indian casino in Connecticut. And in between, there's Main Street where we hold the Strawberry Festival. (The festival is a quaint and annoying white-folks' ritual, an opportunity for backstabbing, petty infighting and all-American small-mindedness. But that's another story altogether.)

Last month, Town Supervisor Josh, with powers granted him by the Department of Homeland Security, declared a "national security emergency." (Supervisor Josh Horton is called by his first name because he was elected at the precocious age of 26 -- based, it seems, on his stellar qualifications: he wears shoes.) In light of the clear and present threat of attack, Supervisor Josh ordered every one taking the ferry boat to the Indian casino to park in the dirt lot across from the Country Store and not along Route 25.

It was just after the London bombings and Supervisor Josh insisted this was truly a matter of preparing for terrorist attack, though some locals suspected it was less about Al Qaeda and more about zoning. Supervisor Josh had been trying all year, unsuccessfully, to change the zoning on the dirt lot next to the ferryboat launch from "farming" to "parking" to boost the town's take from the inebriated gambling tourists. To scare off both Al Qaeda and parking violators, Josh has posted, care of the federal treasury, an SUV at the ferry dock armed with two .50-caliber machine guns. I kid you not.

read the rest at the above link.

Fortune Cookie Fortune of the Day

2005-09-09T09:45:00.000-06:00

Wise men learn more from fools, than fools from the wise.

Blog from New Orleans

2005-09-05T12:49:00.000-06:00

From a guy holed up in New Orleans - in his words: "This journal has become the Survival of New Orleans blog. In less perilous times it was simply a blog for me to talk smack and chat with friends. Now this journal exists to share firsthand experience of the disaster and its aftermath with anyone interested."

Where There's a Will

2005-09-05T12:17:00.000-06:00

from Billmon:

"Paul Krugman's column in yesterday's New York Times argues that the Cheney administration's lackadaisical response to Hurricane Katrina is a symptom of a much larger problem -- the GOP contempt for government:

At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about
some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they
don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive
measures.

I was thinking about posting something along those same lines -- along with a modest proposal to chaingang all the conservative pundits and politicians who've spent the past twenty five years trashing the federal government, and put them to work stacking sandbags down in Louisiana. And while we're at it, we could take all the think-tank libertarians and corporate bunko artists who promised us their blessed free market could and would solve all human problems, and use them as filler for the sandbags.

But after thinking about it, I realized Krugman got it wrong -- or at least partially wrong. This catastrophe isn't a product of the anti-government biases of the conservative true believers; it's a product of the uses to which government has been put by the Mayberry Machiavellis and their GOP ward heelers in Congress.

Even the legally blind can see the Rovians are serious about the essential functions of government. It's just that in their value system, funneling federal money to sympathetic interest groups while simulatenously redistributing the tax burden away from those same groups are the two essential functions of government.

Likewise, the Bush family is prepared to spend almost unlimited amounts of federal money on preventative measures -- that is, on efforts to prevent them from losing an election."

The rest at the above link.

A Beast Called a Yeast

2005-09-05T12:00:00.000-06:00

There once was a beast called a yeast
Whose neighbors in numbers increased
He said "My, Oh Me,
I'm drowning in pee."
Now all of his tribe is deceased.

--Just a little ditty penned by husband and me this morning on the walk home from breakfast -- the tail-end of a conversation that began with the horrible catastrophe of Katrina on New Orleans, ran through this admin's extreme incompetance, indifference and selfishness, to the end of cheap oil and how we all need to be reliant on our closest neighbors, in the long run.

Great Blog with lots of Bush Culpability links...

2005-09-02T17:55:00.000-06:00

...timeline, etc., over at DKOS:
Lake New Orleans is Bush's Fault & I Can Prove It (Research Material)

Bush's Role in the Drowning of New Orleans by Van Jones

2005-09-02T16:34:00.000-06:00

by Van Jones
Fri Sep 2, 1:30 AM ET

Don't say that a hurricane destroyed New Orleans. Hurricanes don't drown cities.
It was a "perfect storm" of a different kind that put that great city underwater: Bush-era neglect of our national infrastructure, combined with runaway global warming and a deep contempt for poor African-Americans.

The result: catastrophe. The flooding was not a result of heavy rains. It is a result of a weak levee -- one that was in mid-repair when the storm hit. And that levee, which has held back floodwaters for time beyond memory, collapsed for one simple reason: Bush refused to fix it last summer, when local officials were begging him to do so. Instead, he diverted those funds to the war effort.

In other words, the dollars that could have saved New Orleans were used to wage war in Iraq, instead. What's worse: funds that might have spared the poor in New Orleans (had the dollars been properly invested in levees and modern pumping stations), were instead passed out to the rich, willy-nilly -- as tax breaks.

With those two simple steps, Bush squandered the hard-won Clinton-era surplus. He left the national piggy bank empty for fixing and maintaining basic U.S. infrastructure. (And what was Clinton doing next to the president, giving him cover at a time like this?)

read the rest, please, at the link above.

FEMA Timeline

2005-09-02T16:21:00.000-06:00

Sorry, this was sent to me without a link, and Google turns up no results, so I'll just post the whole thing here. I'll gladly cut it down and post the link, if one shows up...

Friday, September 02, 2005 9:40 AM
FEMA castration
from Henry Breitrose, Professor of Communication
Department of Communication
Stanford University

CHRONOLOGY.... Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration.
Read it and weep:

January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.

April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said.
"Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."

2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."

December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.

March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.

2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.

Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."

June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay."

June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.

August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.

A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA.

Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country.

FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to reduce the role of government.

After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.
Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident.

It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence.
It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.

Halliburton gets contract to repair damage from Hurricane Katrina

2005-09-02T16:12:00.000-06:00

(HalliburtonWatch.org) 01 Sep 2005

The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Chronicle reported today. The work was assigned to Halliburton's KBR subsidiary under the Navy's $500 million CONCAP contract awarded to KBR in 2001 and renewed in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi.KBR has not been asked to repair the levees destroyed in New Orleans which became the primary cause of most of the damage. Since 1989, governments worldwide have awarded $3 billion in contracts to KBR's Government and Infrastructure Division to clean up damage caused by natural and man-made disasters.
...
In March, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is tasked with responding to hurricane disasters, became a lobbyist for KBR. Joe Allbaugh was director of FEMA during the first two years of the Bush administration. Today, FEMA is widely criticized for its slow response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Rest at the link above.

Interview with Mayor of New Orleans

2005-09-02T10:11:00.000-06:00

Tellin' it like it is! Powerful, honest, emotional interview on AirAmerica Radio...pull out your hankies.

Hundreds flock to hear anti-war mother

2005-09-02T09:02:00.000-06:00

Cindy Sheehan gets enthusiastic welcome in Austin

Cindy Sheehan got a rock star's welcome as she arrived in Austin on Wednesday to launch a 26-state "Bring Them Home Now" bus tour to protest the war in Iraq.

Hundreds of Austin peace activists and protesters sweated through the thick, 100-degree, rush-hour heat to hear Sheehan, who has become a national figure after setting up camp near President Bush's Crawford ranch in early August and demanding to meet with him about her son Casey, a soldier killed in the Iraq war.

Read the rest at the above link. See a video here: sheehan_video.html

"No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming"

2005-09-01T20:22:00.000-06:00

By Sidney Blumenthal 09/01/05 "Der Spiegel"

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, Hurricane Katrina has left millions of Americans to scavenge for food and shelter and hundreds to thousands reportedly dead. With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a series on the federal funding problem, and whose presses are now underwater, reported online: "No one can say they didn't see it coming ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

The Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands to developers almost certainly also contributed to the heightened level of the storm surge. In 1990, a federal task force began restoring lost wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Every two miles of wetland between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot. Bush had promised "no net loss" of wetlands, a policy launched by his father's administration and bolstered by President Clinton. But he reversed his approach in 2003, unleashing the developers. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency then announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce.

Read the rest at the above link.

Bush, New Orleans Tragedy and The News

2005-09-01T20:19:00.000-06:00

Bush's response when asked why it took him so long to respond to this disaster? "Now is not a time to play politics, he said to Democratic critics." http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/weather_bush_dc

He and his whole army of liars and incompetent nincompoops -- that's all they've got to say!

Sheesh, again!!!

I've been channel flipping the past several days; glued to this horrible tragic story. My Canadian news channel (NWI) has been bought and taken off the air (by whom, we don't know), so I've had to resort to American TV news, and found CNN the lesser of several evils. I was actually amazed today, that McCafferty (? -- sour old guy, who I used to think of as an apologist for the admin) has really been ragging on Bush, et al for massive incompetence in how they've handled (not) the hurricane tragedy, and the letters he's been reading are 4 or 5 to one slamming the Bushies!

Not only that, but squirrelly little Anderson Cooper read Landrieu, Mary (admittedly, a Dem) the riot act tonight when she was going on about thanking this politician and that politician for all they're doing for the poor people of New Orleans...

I feel like John Stewart..."wha?" Is it possible the media is actually waking up? Could this be what it takes to get enough people to realize how bad these guys are?

Marilyn
(hoping against hope (hopefully NOT) for the gazillionth time since 12-12-2000)

Cindy Sheehan in Austin

2005-08-31T20:27:00.000-06:00

I rode the bus for free (ozone action day, you know) down to the capital to join many of my friends in welcoming Cindy Sheehan to Austin.

Lots of folks honked in support, but even more showed up, and once the buses arrived and a few tiny speeches were made, we all marched politely, and with a very polite police escort, down to City Hall, chanting and drumming all the way.

At City Hall, the crowd was amazing! I'm guessing around 1000 or more, filling the entire plaza and all the steps up to the building, plus close to spilling out into the street. I saw a bunch more people I knew there, too. Friends I used to work with, one of my fellow Kucinich delegates to last year's State convention, friends I've known for years, one of our friendly servers from Waterloo Ice House.

Short and to the point speeches were interspersed wth some very fine music -- a great new song by Butch Hancock, and perfomed by the Flatlanders; two beautiful (as always) songs by Eliza Gilkyson; some very pointed political pieces by a guy whose name I missed; a fabulous song written by a woman during the last quagmire for her older friends who were losing their children in Viet Nam -- still completely appropriate and chilling today.

I was impressed that, for a change, everybody stayed on message, and only one message at that (with the notable and totally appropriate exception being when Cindy Sheehan said they were donating all their extra supplies from Camp Casey to the victims of hurricane Katrina).

Jim Hightower spoke and was great, as always. I'm not even sure who all spoke, as I couldn't see through the throng of folks, even though I wasn't at all far from the 'stage.' And then when Cindy Sheehan spoke...well, just 'wow!' She's not slick at all, just a regular thinking person like all of us, only one who just went that extra little step of saying, 'Enough!'

A lot of important words were strung together very nicely in the speeches and prayers last night, and dang it -- I should've taken notes, 'cuz I can't remember most of the words or how they were strung together! Cindy Sheehan read a very moving poem that her daughter had written; and I remember being impressed by the request to keep our eyes open while we prayed for all those in the world who needed help right now -- unlike those who pray (and more) with their eyes closed!

Marilyn

Crawford Update

2005-08-24T20:08:00.000-06:00

Crawford Update

Crawford Peace House

2005-08-16T17:48:00.000-06:00

Updates, ride-sharing board, Peace House needs, forum, how you can help, Crawford area info, etc.

PLUS:

Help us start Radio Free Crawford (LPFM) --
We need a low-power FM (FPFM) enthusiast with their own equipment to broadcast our message of peace to the citizens of Crawford.
Call us and come on down.

See it all at the link above.

Pesky grieving mom messes up vacation

2005-08-16T17:18:00.000-06:00

by Mike Littwin
...
It's safe to say that Bush does not vacation well, even if he vacations often. Would you vacation in Crawford, Texas? I mean, even if you didn't have to stay a whole month?

It isn't that he doesn't know better. He's a Bush. Bushes have family compounds. But in the Rovean political era, you lose if you windsurf and win if you vacation where Paris Hilton might someday star in a TV reality show.

But this year's vacation is different. It's different because the point of a vacation, even one in Crawford, is to get away.

And this year, Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother, followed him to Crawford. And the world followed her there.

Read the rest at the above link.

Got milk? You've got problems

2005-08-16T17:14:00.000-06:00

By Karen Dawn

DAIRY COWS have overtaken automobiles as the No. 1 air polluter in parts of California, according to a Los Angeles Times article. A New York Times editorial discussed "the eye-stinging, nose-burning smell of cattle congestion in rural California," acknowledging that something had to be done. What nobody wants to say, in this land of milk and cookies, is that we shouldn't be drinking cow's milk.In the last edition of his "Baby and Child Care" bible, Dr. Benjamin Spock made it clear that cow's milk is for baby cows, not for human children. He wrote that it was "too rich in the saturated fats that cause artery blockages" and that it "slows down iron absorption." He suggested that it may cause ear and/or respiratory problems, and may be linked to childhood onset diabetes. He stressed that infants should drink only human breast milk and older children should try soy and rice milk products.

But the dairy industry would rather you didn't know that. As it spends millions of dollars telling us that milk consumption will help us lose weight, it would rather we didn't see a study published in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The study found that children who drink more than three servings of milk daily are prone to becoming overweight, even if it is low-fat milk. Neither does the industry advertise the Harvard School of Public Health finding that 15% of whites, 70% of African Americans and 90% of Asians are lactose intolerant.

Read more at the link above.

Republicans Speak Out About War

2005-08-15T20:45:00.000-06:00

"You can support the troops, but not the president." -
Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to
happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15,
maybe 20 years." - Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

"The President is once again releasing American
military might on a foreign country with an
ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet
to tell the Congress how much this operation will
cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed
forces about how long they will be away from home.
These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."
- Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)

"American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery.
Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the
world with a feel-good foreign policy." -
Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be
certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal
and an exit strategy." - Karen Hughes, speaking on
behalf of George W Bush

"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the
beginning. . . I didn't think we had done enough in
the diplomatic area." - Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

"I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History
teaches us that it is often easier to make war than
peace. This administration is just learning that
lesson right now. The President began this mission
with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered
questions. A month later, these questions are still
unanswered. There are no clarified rules of
engagement. There is no timetable. There is no
legitimate definition of victory. There is no
contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear
funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our
over-extended military. There is no explanation
defining what vital national interests are at stake.
There was no strategic plan for war when the President
started this thing, and there still is no plan today."
- Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?" - Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

And for the grand finale...
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for
the President to explain to us what the exit strategy
is." - Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)

Apparently when Clinton was in the White House, the GOP and Friends felt differently about war...

The good old days... Funny how times have changed, eh?

Many thanks to one of my political lists for this....

Specialists fault mass transit security

2005-08-11T06:00:00.000-06:00

Money, planning called inadequate

By Kaitlin Bell, Globe Correspondent August 11, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Despite deadly terrorist bombings in London and Madrid, mass transit systems in the United States are scarcely more secure than they were before the Sept. 11 attacks and require at least 10 times the current federal funding to protect against future terrorism, transportation security specialists said yesterday.

And if public buses, subways, and trains are to become any safer, the federal government needs to set its priorities and decide which agency will fund and oversee them, panelists asserted at a policy luncheon. They blasted a Department of Homeland Security restructuring plan announced last month, saying it would do little to alleviate gaps in oversight, and criticized the transportation bill signed into law yesterday for failing to provide needed mass transit security funding.

''We are continuing to do homeland security on the cheap," said panel moderator P.J. Crowley, director of National Defense and Homeland Security at the Center for American Progress.

More at the above link.

Warming hits 'tipping point'

2005-08-11T05:40:00.000-06:00

A vast expanse of western Sibera is undergoing an unprecedented thaw that could dramatically increase the rate of global warming, climate scientists warn today.

Researchers who have recently returned from the region found that an area of permafrost spanning a million square kilometres - the size of France and Germany combined - has started to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

The area, which covers the entire sub-Arctic region of western Siberia, is the world's largest frozen peat bog and scientists fear that as it thaws, it will release billions of tonnes of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.

It is a scenario climate scientists have feared since first identifying "tipping points" - delicate thresholds where a slight rise in the Earth's temperature can cause a dramatic change in the environment that itself triggers a far greater increase in global temperatures.

Dr Kirpotin told the magazine the situation was an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming". He added that the thaw had probably begun in the past three or four years.

Climate scientists yesterday reacted with alarm to the finding, and warned that predictions of future global temperatures would have to be revised upwards.

Read the rest at the above link.

The Bush Plunge

2005-08-10T13:49:00.000-06:00

The founder of The Progressive magazine, Robert La Follette, whose 150th birthday we just celebrated, believed that no President should be allowed to wage war without first going directly to the American people in a plebiscite. La Follette, who introduced a constitutional amendment to this effect, failed to win approval for it. Even 100 years ago, though, he understood the risk that the President would increasingly wage war on his own, despite the constitutional requirement that Congress declare war. Today, as Congress refuses to apply its brake on the President, Bush is pretty much free to do what he wants in Iraq, and he’s raiding the vaults of the U.S. Treasury to do so.

Bush’s Iraq War raises the fundamental question: To what extent are we a democracy? By launching the war on a pile of lies and now by pursuing it over the objections of a majority of Americans, Bush is acting more like emperor every day.

If Bush is left to his own devices, he would still have 100,000 troops in Iraq at 11:59 a.m. on January 20, 2009. The death toll of American soldiers by then could very well exceed 5,000, the number of U.S. soldiers injured could top 30,000, and the tally of dead Iraqi civilians could surpass 250,000.

And Bush would still say the mission is “worth it.”

“The U.S. military presence in Iraq has become a powerful recruiting tool for terrorists, and Iraq is now the premier training ground and networking venue for the next generation of jihadists.”—Senator Russ Feingold

Because to him it is a mission. In his speech to the nation on June 28, Bush dipped back into the well of messianic militarism and pulled out the following phrase: “This great ideal of human freedom” is “entrusted to us in a special way.”

Aside from the whisperings from on high, Bush would remain on the mission because of Iraq’s oil. When in his speech he mentioned a couple of times that Iraq is in “a vital region” of the world, he wasn’t referring to its date trees.

He and Cheney and Rumsfeld understand that the world economy runs on oil, that Saudi Arabia’s supplies are peaking, that the House of Saud is unstable, and so Iraq, with the second largest oil reserves in the world, is “vital.” By controlling Iraq’s oil, the United States also can have more leverage over the Pentagon’s enemy on the horizon, China, which now desperately needs to import oil to keep its economy chugging.

For Cheney and Rumsfeld, this is the fundamental geopolitical reason for the ongoing occupation. To them, Bush’s channeling of the Lord above provides a patina of morality for it, and the Al Qaeda threat lends it some off-the-shelf urgency.

Please read the whole essay at the link above -- it is well worth it!

Rove 101 By Molly Ivins

2005-08-10T13:12:00.000-06:00

from my favorite columnist; Molly Ivins -- please read the whole column at the link above -- it's well worth your time (as always with Molly!).

from the September 2005 Issue

The pure joy of the whole Karl Rove/Valerie Plame affair is in watching the massive Republican spin-control machine in operation. Here’s Rove, who has famously gone after his political enemies over the years on behalf of any candidate he has ever been hired to represent, now unleashing his entire spin operation, perfected over five years in the White House, on behalf of . . . himself. It’s just so interesting to watch it work.

The entire Republican Party, under Rove’s whip, finds itself shocked (!) that anyone would suggest Karl Rove (!!) might actually go after an opponent’s wife in order to discredit said opponent. Oh, the horror. And Karl has always been such a sweet boy.

Any political reporter who doesn’t recognize the going-after-the-wife gambit as Rove 101 should be hanged for dereliction of duty.

One time Rove was displeased with the work done by a Republican advanceman. Rove’s response was: “We will f*ck him. Do you hear me? We will f*ck him. We will ruin him. Like no one else has ever f*cked him.” And that was a guy who was on his side.

Next we have that great Rovian tactic, the shotgun of irrelevant charges aimed at everyone else involved except Our Boy.

You Can Lie About Killing Our Children in an Illegal War, but Never About Sex!

2005-08-07T19:57:00.000-06:00

Impeachment Question Shows Bitterness of Divide
In a sign of the continuing partisan division of the nation, more than two-in-five (42%) voters say that, if it is found that President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should hold him accountable through impeachment. While half (50%) of respondents do not hold this view, supporters of impeachment outweigh opponents in some parts of the country.

from Zogby Poll: http://www.zogby.com/search/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1007

Only 26% of Americans felt Clinton should have been impeached. Where's the justice?

War Crimes and The "Just War" Theory

2005-08-07T15:35:00.000-06:00

The "Just war" theory serves to camouflage the nature of US foreign policy, while providing a human face to the invaders.
by Michel Chossudovsky
July 17, 2005

The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) through sessions held in Western Europe, Asia and the US has established a comprehensive record of US-UK war crimes in Iraq.

An extensive documentation has been put forth, testimonies have been presented in some 17 global sessions. The BRussells Tribunal sessions of the WTI in Brussels in April 2004 focused on the role of "The Project for the New American Century" (PNAC) which consists in a blueprint of global military conquest. http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=28

At the New York session in August 2004, organized by the International Action Center, criminal indictment charges were brought against inter alia George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney and Donald H. Rumsfeld, for "Crimes Against the Peace" and violations of the Charter of the United Nations and the Constitution of the United States. (http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=32 )

The WTI at its final session in Istanbul in June 2005, brought to public attention the testimonies of several prominent writers including Dahr Jamail , Arundhati Roy, Niloufer Bhagwat , Hans von Sponeck, not to mention the powerful statement of Denis Halliday on the role of the United Nations. ( http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?# )

The WTI put forth a powerful final declaration by the Jury which contains the following charges against the the governments of the UK and the US:
• Planning, preparing, and waging the supreme crime of a war of aggression in contravention of the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Principles.
• Targeting the civilian population of Iraq and civilian infrastructure
• Using disproportionate force and indiscriminate weapon systems
• Failing to safeguard the lives of civilians during military activities and during the occupation period thereafter
• Using deadly violence against peaceful protestors
• Imposing punishments without charge or trial, including collective punishment
• Subjecting Iraqi soldiers and civilians to torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment
• Re-writing the laws of a country that has been illegally invaded and occupied
• Willfully devastating the environment
• Actively creating conditions under which the status of Iraqi women has seriously been degraded• Failing to protect humanity’s rich archaeological and cultural heritage in Iraq
• Obstructing the right to information, including the censoring of Iraqi media
• Redefining torture in violation of international law, to allow use of torture and illegal detentions

"The Jury also established charges against the Security Council of United Nations for failing to stop war crimes and crimes against humanity among other failures, against the Governments of the Coalition of the Willing."

Long article; read the whole thing at the above link.

Mom Protesting Iraq War Meets Bush Aides

2005-08-06T11:43:00.000-06:00

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 6, 7:56 PM ET
CRAWFORD, Texas -

The angry mother of a fallen U.S. soldier staged a protest near President Bush's ranch Saturday, demanding an accounting from Bush of how he has conducted the war in Iraq.

Supported by more than 50 demonstrators who chanted, "W. killed her son!" Cindy Sheehan told reporters: "I want to ask the president, 'Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?'" Sheehan, 48, didn't get to see Bush, but did talk about 45 minutes with national security adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin, who went out to hear her concerns.

Appreciative of their attention, yet undaunted, Sheehan said she planned to continue her roadside vigil, except for a few breaks, until she gets to talk to Bush. Her son, Casey, 24, was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, on April 4, 2004. He was an Army specialist, a Humvee mechanic.

"They (the advisers) said we are in Iraq because they believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, that the world's a better place with Saddam gone and that we're making the world a safer place with what we're doing over there," Sheehan said in a telephone interview after the meeting.

Read the rest at the above link.

Dean: Bolton Appointment Another "Abuse of Power"

2005-08-02T06:06:00.000-06:00

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement and sharply criticized President Bush's recess appointment of Bolton to the United Nations:

"In a truly arrogant move, President Bush abused his power by refusing to provide documents to answer legitimate questions about John Bolton and our national security, and his use of the recess appointment for one of the most important and sensitive posts in international diplomacy is troubling," said Dean. "Bolton is the next in a line of Bush nominees who have had their integrity called into question because of this President's continuing failure to fulfill his constitutional obligation to be honest and forthright with the Senate and the American people. By moving unilaterally to overrule the Senate and appoint a nominee who is being dogged by significant questions about his integrity on intelligence matters, Bush has reduced our nation's ability to cooperate with our allies on the war on terror."

Trouble in the Land of the Free

2005-08-02T05:53:00.000-06:00

Published on Monday, August 1, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

by John Atcheson

Well, it's official; there's trouble right here in the land of the free.

Mr. Bush can not only use taxpayer's money to set up Soviet-Style propaganda events, but he can have US citizens kicked out of these public meetings by strong-armed stooges impersonating Secret Service Agents. That, at least, was the conclusion last week by the US Justice Department Attorney who said there was not enough evidence to prosecute an unnamed man who kicked three people out of one of Mr. Bush's "town hall" meetings in Denver this past March. The White House, by the way, refuses to release the mystery thug's name.

And here in the good old USA no one seems to give a damn.

Hundreds of billions of dollars and nearly two thousand American dead to bring democracy to Iraq, but no need to go overboard with that freedom stuff here at home, thank you.

Apparently, after years of government funded "Mission Accomplished," propaganda events, government-produced fake news casts, government-funded journalists/shills, and a phoney reporter planted into the White House press corps, we're just fresh out of outrage.

A series of fake town hall meetings in which First Amendment Rights are violated just isn't the stuff of headlines anymore.

[read the rest of this excellent essay at the link above]

Who's Paying for Our Patriotism?

2005-08-02T05:44:00.000-06:00

Who's Paying for Our Patriotism?
By Uwe E. ReinhardtMonday, August 1, 2005; Page A17

President Bush assures us that the ongoing twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are worth the sacrifices they entail. Editorialists around the nation agree and say that a steadfast American public was willing to stay the course.

Should anyone be surprised by this national resolve, given that these wars visit no sacrifice of any sort -- neither blood nor angst nor taxes -- on well over 95 percent of the American people?
...
The administration and Congress have gone to extraordinary lengths to insulate voters from the money cost of the wars -- to the point even of excluding outlays for them from the regular budget process. Furthermore, they have financed the wars not with taxes but by borrowing abroad.

The strategic shielding of most voters from any emotional or financial sacrifice for these wars cannot but trigger the analogue of what is called "moral hazard" in the context of health insurance, a field in which I've done a lot of scholarly work. There, moral hazard refers to the tendency of well-insured patients to use health care with complete indifference to the cost they visit on others. It has prompted President Bush to advocate health insurance with very high deductibles. But if all but a handful of Americans are completely insulated against the emotional -- and financial -- cost of war, is it not natural to suspect moral hazard will be at work in that context as well?

[Read the rest at the link above.]

Reasonable Doubt

2005-08-01T17:06:00.000-06:00

What if the four London bombers didn’t know they were bombers?

By James K. Galbraith
Web Exclusive: 07.27.05

Anywhere else, the police killing of the young Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in the London Underground on July 22 would be called a gangland-style murder. Yet the authorities are unmoved. Sir Ian Blair, commissioner of Scotland Yard, stiffly warned that more shootings might follow. Home Secretary Charles Clarke stated “full support” for the police. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw gave the reason: Police must “have effective discretion to deal with what could be terrorist suicide outrages about to take place.”

But this raises a question. Have any “terrorist suicide outrages” actually taken place? Outrages, certainly. But were the bombs of July 7 suicide bombs, as every commentator has accepted?

In judging this question, we can rely only on information that has come from the police. So let’s do that. Let’s assume that every fact asserted by British security forces with respect to the July 7 bombings is true. We may have to relax that assumption later, as economists say. But let’s accept them all to begin with. And that includes some statements that were later retracted, but which are arguably more credible than the revised versions. What do we have?

[Read the rest at the above link.]

Some More Statistics

2005-07-31T19:08:00.000-06:00

Here are some interesting stats I found at: http://www.nationmaster.com (most of these numbers are from 2000, before Bush was selected and before he radically altered, I'm sure, at least some of these numbers) and at the CIA World Factbook, with July 2005 estimated numbers.

Here are some interesting numbers:
"America is first in McDonald’s restaurants per million people and mortality due to obesity, with more deaths than Mexico, Germany, Spain, Austria and Canada combined.

The United States consumes more energy than India, the Middle East, South America, Africa, South East Asia and Oceania combined - which means more than 3.1 billion people.

More than 8.5 million planes take off from airports in the USA every year. That is almost half the number worldwide. More than a third of all the airports in the world are in the USA."

GENERAL:
Area - Land: US ranks #4 at 9,631,418 sq km
Population: US is ranked #4 at 295,734,134 (out of 6,446,131,400).
GDP (value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year): US ranks #1 with $11,750,000,000,000
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $40,100 (2004 est.)
GDP - PPP (purchasing power parity): US ranked #1 in the year 2000 at $9,612.7 billion
Gasoline prices (Ratio of premium gasoline price to world average): US ranked #102 at 0.77 (1998-2000 MRYA); way under countries like Uganda, Croatia, Lithuania, etc. -- odd when we can most afford it!

TAXATION:
Total tax wedge - Single worker : US is ranked #21 at 30%
Corporate income tax (Corporate Income tax as a percentage of total tax collected by the country.): Us ranks #10, at 8.5%
Personal income tax (Personal Income tax as a percentage of total tax collected by the country. ): US ranks #3 at 42.4%
Goods and service tax (Goods and service tax as a percentage of total tax collected by the country.): US ranks #18 at 15.7%
Property tax (Property tax as a percentage of total tax collected by the country. ): US ranks #3 at 10.1%
Social security - Contribution by employees (Tax on employee's contribution of social security as a percentage of total tax collected by the country. ): US ranks #6 at 10.2%

RANKINGS IN EDUCATION:
Average years of schooling of adults: #1 at 12.0 years of eduation (2000), (although we rank #68 in Literacy - Total population at 97% literacy)
Education spending: #47 at 4.7% of GDP, 1990-99 (worse now, I'm sure).
Public spending per student - Primary level: US ranks #36, with a score of 17.9 (1998-2002) -- compare that to #1 Lithuania, who scored 61.4 (1998-2002), and has a literacy rate of 99.6%.
Scientific literacy: US ranks #14 with a score of 499 mean value of performance scale 15 years old (2000) (but don't ask me what that means!)
Reading literacy: US ranks #15
Mathematical literacy: US ranks #18

LIFESTYLE:
Human Development Index: US ranks #6 at an index of 0.939 (whatever this means!)
We're not doing too bad in some other lifestyle sections, either :-) :
Beer consumption: US ranked #8 at 85 liters per person (2000)
Cannabis use : we're #3! -- 12.30% of people who have used cannabis;
Then there's happiness:
Happiness level - Very happy: US ranks #8 with 39% of people who answered the survey question: ""Taking all things together, would you say you are: very happy, quite happy, not very happy, or not at all happy?"" by stating that they were ""Very happy""." and #36 in
Happiness level - Not very or not at all happy: only 8% answered the same survey question "by stating that they were "not very" happy or "not at all" happy."
Life satisfaction: US ranks #12 scoring their lives at 7.4 out often when asked "All things considered, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life-as-a-whole now? 1 dissatisfied to10 satisfied"
Here's a surprise(?): in the 1990's, when that evil bastard Clinton was making hay (just kidding -- I love him - though not in that way!) , the people of the US were ranked #1 in Very proud of their nationality with 77% responding they were very proud. Wonder what that number is now?

ENERGY:
Oil - production: 7.8 million bbl/day (2004 est.)
Oil - consumption: 19.65 million bbl/day (2001 est.)
Electricity - production: 3.839 trillion kWh (2002)
Electricity - consumption: 3.66 trillion kWh (2002)
Electricity - exports: 13.36 billion kWh (2002)
Electricity - imports: 36.23 billion kWh (2002)
Oil - proved reserves: 22.45 billion bbl (1 January 2002)
Natural gas - production: 548.1 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption: 640.9 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports: 11.16 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports: 114.1 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves: 5.195 trillion cu m (1 January 2002)

CRIME: We're #1 in:
Adults prosecuted: at 14,203,822 (1999)
Assaults: at 2,238,480 (1999)
Burglaries: 2,099,700 (1999)
Car thefts: 1,147,300 (1999)
Crime: Drug offences at 560.1 per 100,000 people
Females prosecuted: 2,481,808 (1999)
Prisoners: 2,078,570 prisoners
Prisoners - Per capita: 715 per 100,000 people
Rapes: 89,110 (1999)
Software piracy losses: $6,496
Total crimes: 23,677,800 (1999)

TRANSPORTATION: We're #1 in:
CO2 Emissions: 5,762,054.0
Light commercial vehicle production: 7,000,354
Motor vehicles: 65 per 1000 people (1996)

POLITICS: We're #1 in:
Female decision makers: 45% (although we're [162nd of 166] in Female candidacy: with only 1788 females having run for office)
Presidential elections - Total vote: 105,404,546 (2000)
Presidential elections - Voter registration: 156,421,311 (2000)
Presidential elections - Voting age population: 213,954,023 (2000) (but we rank [65th of 85] for Presidential elections - Turnout: at only 49.3% (2000), and [56th of 89] for Presidential elections - Registered voter turnout: at only 67.4% (2000)

We're also #1 in:
Divorce rate: US ranks #1 at 4.95 per 1000 people
Gender division of housework: 2.26
Confidence in social institutions - Church: 72%
Members of voluntary organisations - Parties: 12%
Soft drink consumption: 216.0 litres
Undesirable neighbours - Criminal record holders: 54%
Undesirable neighbours - Heavy drinkers: 61%
Military Expendtures: $370,700,000,000
Air force personnel: 370,300 (8/98)
Navy personnel: 380,600 (8/98)
Weapon holdings: 38,538,000 (2001)
Conventional arms exports: $4,562 million
Military Exports to developing nations: $90,929 million
Olympic medals - Bronze - Sydney 2000: 33 bronze medals
Olympic medals - Gold - Sydney 2000: 40 gold medals
Olympic medals - Total - Sydney 2000: 97 total medals
Olympic point totals - Sydney 2000: 201
Summer olympic medals - All time: 2,116
Aircraft departures: 8,534,500 (2001)
New citizenships: 898.0 thousand
English speakers:
210,000,000 first language speakers in USA (1984 estimate). 8,400,000 USA residents with no one 14 years old or older who speaks fluent English; 38% or 7,700,000 households headed by immigrants.
Catholic - Permanent Deacons: 13,462
Jehovahs Witnesses: 1,012,201 (2002)
Jews: 5,800,000
Cotton exports: 12,000thousand bales
Banana imports: $1,389 million
Economic importance: 197.9
Foreign investment: $124,435
Foreign investment - Share: 16.9%
Imports: $ 1,476,000,000,000
Growth competitiveness score: 5.82
Infrastructure: 100
Innovation: 30.30 (2001)
Technology index: 6.24
Internet Service Providers: 7,000 (2002 est.)
Internet Hosts: 115,311,958 (2002)
Secure servers: 37.5 per 100000 people
Linux web servers: 11,108
Livejournal users: 1,292,816
Personal computers: 161,000,000 (2000)
Radios: 575,000,000
Television viewing: 28 hours per person per week
Cinemas: 15,559 (2000)
Films produced: 3,865
Nuclear electricity generation : 780.1 terawatt-hours
Nuclear energy consumption: 821.1 terawatt-hours
Nuclear reactors operable: 104
Nuclear reactors operable - MWe: 98,530
Nuclear reactors uranium required: 21,741
Oil Usage per person: 8.35 TOE per person
Red Cross donations: 221,259,353

HEALTHCARE #1s:
Health Care - Total expenditure as % of GDP: 13.9% of GDP
Health care Spending - Per person: $4,271 (1999)
Health care funding - Private per capita: $2,580 per capita
Health care funding - Total per capita: $4,631 per capita
Child maltreatment deaths: 2.2 per 100,000 children
Motor vehicle deaths: 15.5 deaths per 100,000 people
Plastic surgery procedures: 90,992
Teen birth rate: 64
Teenage pregnancy: 494,357 births
Teenage pregnancy - Share: 22%
Obesity: 30.6%
Obesity in men: 27.8%
Obesity in women: 33.3%

DISEASES: We're #1 in:
We're#1 in a huge number of diseases; too many to list; see them here.

Some of these stats and much, much more can be found at: http://www.nationmaster.com .
Other stats and updated information was found at the CIA World Factbook online resource.

Some Sobering Statistics

2005-07-31T17:51:00.000-06:00

The cost of the Iraq war to the people of the city of Austin, as of May 26,2005: 558.2 million! Look up your own city here: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/Issues/Military/Iraq/highcost/costofwar.html

The average household in Austin paid $7,107 in 2004 Federal Income Taxes.

Where do your tax dollars go?

Military and defense: $2,130
Health: $1441
Interest on the military debt: $627
Interest on the non-military debt: $695
Income security: $468
Education: $261
Veteran's benefits: $244
Nutrition: $191
Housing: $152
Natural resources: $123
Job training: $28
Other: $747 (5)

The numbers in Texas:
Cost of the Military $17,163,980,048
Cost of Nuclear Weapons $727,312,195
Cost of War in Iraq $11,506,998,749
Defense Contracts $20,820,951,238

Here's what we could have had in Texas instead:
Taxpayers in Texas will pay $16.6 billion for the cost of war in Iraq.
For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:
3,662,704 People Receiving Health Care or
310,148 Elementary School Teachers or
2,343,817 Head Start Places for Children or
11,048,493 Children Receiving Health Care or
224,863 Affordable Housing Units or
2,373 New Elementary Schools or
3,959,149 Scholarships for University Students or
301,389 Music and Arts Teachers or
408,598 Public Safety Officers or
289,352 Port Container Inspectors (1)

Military spending consumes 26 cents out of every individual income tax dollar. It makes up about 20% of total federal spending and over half of the discretionary budget. The United States is the world's biggest military spender, accounting for over 40% of world military spending, and amounting to more than 30 times what the 'rogue' countries spend (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria). The Pentagon pays for more helicopters, airplanes and warships than all of these countries combined, and the capabilities of U.S. weaponry are unrivaled in the world.

A recent Congressional Budget Office study predicts the costs of the military will continue to increase well into the future. Current Pentagon plans will bring defense spending to levels higher than at anytime since World War II. Many Americans are willing to pay a high price for the military if they believe it buys them real security. However, highly respected critics argue that the Bush Administration's policy of unilateralism and first strike is actually a 'terror-generator.' They suggest alternatives, including stopping the arms trade and safeguarding nuclear materials, which are far less costly and far more likely to bring greater national security than the current policy. (2)

Some numbers:

5 percent or fewer of the insurgent force in Iraq are foreign 'terrorists.' The vast majority of those fighting to expel our troops are native Iraqis, perhaps 20,000 strong.

Donald Rumsfeld estimated in January 2003 that the Iraq war would only cost us $50 billion. To date, we have spent $194 billion, by September it will be over $200 billion, and if you add the war in Afghanistan and other anti-terrorist activity around the globe, the price jumps to $350 billion.

The reported death toll of American soldiers in Iraq has topped 1,700, and the reported wounded number over 13,000. "More than 90 percent of those deaths occurred after Bush landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003 and declared an end to major combat operations."

This, of course, is not counting the dead who are rushed out of Iraq as they are dying in order to keep the death toll numbers appear lower.

The number of Iraqi civilians killed is unknown -- some say as high as 25,000, others say over 100,000!

"Iraq was exporting 2.1 million barrels [of oil] before the start of war in March 2003. That number is now about 1.3 million barrels a day. " This for a war pursued in part to guarantee our country a stable source of oil for the future.

The price of a barrel of oil before the war was about $28; now it's up to $60 a barrel! (Of course, the war alone is not solely to blame for this, but it has had a large effect). (3)

Some more numbers:
26 million
Population of Iraq

5,000
Estimated number of insurgents in November 2003
16,000
Estimated number of insurgents in May 2005

150,000
Total number of U.S. troops in May 2003
135,000
Total number of U.S. troops in June 2005

74
Number of U.S. troops killed in April 2003
76
Number of U.S. troops killed in June 2005

16
Average number of hours of electricity available each day in March 2004
9.4
Average number of hours of electricity available each day in June 2005

.6 percent
Rate of inflation in July 2004
11.4 percent
Rate of inflation in February 2005

18
Number of car bombs in June 2004
135
Number of car bombs in May 2005

16
Number of daily attacks by insurgents in July 2002
70
Number of daily attacks by insurgents in May 2005

137
Number of U.S. troops killed before Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1, 2003
1,607
Number of U.S. troops killed after Bush declared an end to major combat operations (4)

Sources:
(1) http://database.nationalpriorities.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/NPP.woa/12/wo/QEDTcJPGpGVOyyYYT6XmN0/0.0.1.3.12.1;
(2) http://database.nationalpriorities.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/NPP.woa/12/wo/QEDTcJPGpGVOyyYYT6XmN0/3.0.1.3.12;
(3) http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=7927;
(4) http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=7928 ;
(5) http://www.nationalpriorities.org/TaxDay2005/pdf/txaus.pdf

"Bringing Light into Darkness", on KOOP Monday 5:30pm

2005-07-31T17:31:00.000-06:00

We're not in the business of providing news and information, We're simply in the business of selling our customers' products. " Clear Channel CEO Lowry Mays

"Bringing Light Into Darkness" is in the business of bringing light into darkness.....
pedro gatos - KOOP 91.7 www.koop.org - radio de la comunidad

Friends, Good evening and please Don't Be Late for "Bringing Light into Darkness",

In addition to ....."Bringing Light into Darkness" from 6-6:30pm CST, I will be substitute host for the KOOP Monday News from 5:30-6pm CST this week. Please grab a friend and tune in beginning at 5:30pm to 91.7 FM, Austin, TX or on the web (webstreaming @ www.koop.org) for the extended news show.
This week's show: Monday 8/1/05 at 5:30pm - 6:30pm CST.
(Special Guest Mary A. (Ann) Wright)

Mary A. (Ann) Wright is a former U.S. Diplomat and US Army Colonel who resigned on March 19, 2003 to protest the Bush Administration's policies on Iraq, specifically its decision to got to war. In June of 2005 Ms. Wright was invited to testify forthe Public Hearings conducted by the Hon. US Congressman John Conyers, Jr. On the Importance of the Downing Memos.

Ms. Wright was on the first State Department team to go to Kabul , Afghanistan . She helped reopen the US Embassy in Kabul in December, 2001 and worked in Afghanistan for five months, serving in the last month as Deputy Chief of Mission (Deputy Ambassador).

Ms. Wright joined the Foreign Service in 1987. Before entering the Foreign Service, she served in the Army and has a combined regular Army/Army Reserve service time of 29 years. Ms. Wright has Master's and Law Degrees from the University of Arkansas and a Master's Degree in National Security Affairs from the US Naval War College, Newport , Rhode Island . Ms. Wright has been featured in articles in the Washington Post magazine, Government Executive magazine, Foreign Service Journal, Ms magazine and has been interviewed by radio and TV networks. She participated in the documentary film "Uncovered: The Truth About the Iraq War”.

Please join us tomorrow night to Among the topics we will be discussing include:
1. The half truths and deceit used by the Bush Admin. in the march to war, seen from the perspective of State Department employee Ann Wright that ultimately led to her resignation.
2. The Downings memo(s) importance and Ms. Wright's testimony and insights therein.
3. The apparent decision by President Bush to circumvent congressional approval for the appt of John Bolton to become the US Ambassador.
4. The importance of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame with respect to discouraging other American patriots in addition to Joseph Wilson from speaking out and the role played by the White House.
5. and more ...............

Please forward comments, questions and ideas to gatos@ccms.net. Please pass the word and enlarge our concerns by extending the listener base of bringing light into darkness.. thanks and please respond with your interests and concerns,

respectfully and siempre fieles,pedro gatos

PS. You can also send comments to the station both positive or negative to promote your feelings about the show and our community radio station at koop@yahoo.com"Do not believe everything you think. This is Pedro Gatos inviting you to join us each Monday night from 6:00 - 6:30pm CST, on KOOP 91.7FM, Austin TX , for Bringing Light into Darkness. Opinions and ideas are an outcome of life experiences, and within that paradigm, each day information is both made available and unavailable for our conscious consumption. Don't be Late! Join us this Monday at 6pm to access critical thinking news and perspectives to augment your own ideological library of information from which each of us launch our own understanding of the world around us. Cuba Si! Boqueo No! Venceremos!"

Students Not Soldiers:Military Recruiters Out of Our Schools!

2005-07-31T15:53:00.000-06:00

Saturday, September 17, 4 pm

Gather at Republic Square Park (4th & Guadalupe) for a march calling for the demilitarization of our schools.

More details, TBA

Sponsored by Youth Activists of Austin(YAA!)

Austin Against War's Our Grief is not a Call for War!

2005-07-31T15:52:00.000-06:00

Sunday, September 11, 2005

The purpose of this event is to create a public dialog concerning alternatives to the war on terrorism. To help achieve this goal , Austin Against War is inviting different groups to provide information on the threat to our civil liberties, human rights and other freedoms as a consequence of War.

12:30 pm - Gather at Gillis Park (South First & Oltorf)
1:00 pm - March down South First, to City Hall.
1:30-5:00 pm - Peace Festival at City Hall, featuring music and speakers.

www.austinagainstwar.org
contact Mac aaw@austinagainstwar
Endorsed by September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

60th Anniversary Hiroshima & Nagasaki Remembrance Ceremony

2005-07-31T15:49:00.000-06:00

Events
Saturday, August 6, 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.Zilker Park Peace Grove (near soccer field, off Barton Springs Rd.)
Dr. Konishi A Hibakusha or survivor will share his testimony as a survivor of Hiroshima atomic bomb and his experience as a peacemaker for a nuclear-free world; ceremony proceedings moderated
6:30 pm: Music -Bring your own picnic supper
7 pm: Dr. Konishi and others speak, music 8 pm: Candlelight procession, floating of candles at Town Lake

Talking about Peace: Community Forum
Sunday, August 7, 1:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Austin Presbyterian Seminary - McCord Center dining hall, behind the chapel, north side of 27th street between Guadalupe and Speedway
Austin Area Interreligious Ministries (AAIM) will host a public forum to discuss the significance of Hiroshima Day. AAIM panel will discuss its peace and pro-war positions, and Jewish and Islamic statements will be included, followed by breakout groups to discuss ways to work towards peace. Dr. Konishi will speak; moderated by Father Sam Hose, St. Vianney Catholic Church
Lunch available at $8/person from 12:30 - 1:15 p.m. Please RSVP for lunch 459-0299.

Sponsored by:
Austin Against War-
\American Friends Service Committee
Peace Action Texas
Texans for Peace
Austin Center for Peace and Justice
Veterans for Peace
www.hiroshimaday.org/

Nobody's Fault

2005-07-31T09:07:00.000-06:00

by Charley Reese

The underlying theme of most Western politicians can be summed up in the phrase "It's not my fault." This is the motto of the Age of Irresponsibility.

Have you ever wondered how, if all the problems we face are nobody's fault, they became problems in the first place? It's been my personal experience that when I tracked down the source of nearly all of my problems, it was me. I was fortunate to grow up when the most commonly heard phrase was "No excuses."

It's the not-my-fault syndrome that explains why both President Bush and Great Britain's Tony Blair react so angrily when someone suggests that terrorist attacks are a response to American and British foreign policy. If they are a response, then obviously the attacks are the fault of the policy-makers.

more at above link.

Insurers were TAB's biggest donors

2005-07-31T09:04:00.000-06:00

Study of records reveals corporations that contributed to 2002 state election efforts.

By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, July 22, 2005

The Texas Association of Business secretly financed its 2002 election effort largely with money from an insurance industry that was trying to fight tougher regulations at the Capitol, the Austin American-Statesman has determined after studying TAB's records.

More at above link.

Great News: Chris Bell is running for TX Governor!

2005-07-29T08:56:00.000-06:00

I'm Running!
by Chris Bell
Thu Jul 28th, 2005 at 13:33:47 PDT
Over the past half year, I have traveled all over Texas, literally exploring the race for governor. You have indulged me in this process as I sought the answers to some important questions, some personal (and Alison's doing better every day, thanks) and some of them public: Can a Texas Democrat win? Are Texas Democrats ready to try something different? Do people see what is happening in Texas the same way that I do?
Well, I have my answers, and today I am proud to share the news that I've decided to run for governor.

(his whole diary at the link above).

The GOP is Certain to Win in 2006 — Unless...

2005-07-27T19:42:00.000-06:00

Yikes! I have to say, I concur, and I sadly, but accurately predicted the outcome of the last two elections, due to electronic voting machine shenanigans...(whole article at the link above - in the title)

Here’s the very bad news: the Democrats will almost certainly lose in 2006 and again in 2008.

Three essential reasons: (a) the GOP and the Bush junta simply cannot afford to lose, (b) they can prevent their defeat no matter what the voters have to say about it (as they have in the last three elections), and (c) apparently the Democratic Party, the media, and law enforcement are unable and/or unwilling to do anything about it.

A GOP win in 2006 and 2008 seems simply inevitable: as "inevitable" as LBJ’s re-election, Nixon completing his second term, and the endurance of the Soviet Union and apartheid South Africa. By this I mean that all this would have come to pass but for some extraordinary and unforeseen developments. Nothing less will budge the GOP from the White House and the Congress. After all, their “private sector” supporters count and compile the votes with secret software – and do so with no official independent means of validation. These facts about voting in the United States are publicly known and undisputed. And yet, despite compelling and unrefuted evidence of voting fraud, no one, except some determined citizen groups and a small minority of members of Congress, appear to be bothered enough to take action.

Change in the presidential line of succession

2005-07-27T06:57:00.000-06:00

Since the queston of the presidential line of succession is coming up so often these days (how far down do we have to go to reach safety?), thought this was a good find from Yahoo:

The Senate approved a bill Tuesday to raise the homeland security secretary from last to eighth place in the presidential line of succession, just after the attorney general.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, passed without objection just before the chamber adjourned. The companion House bill, sponsored by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., is pending before the Judiciary and Government Reform committees.
If the bill also passes the House, the order of those in line to assume the presidency if
President Bush is unable to serve would be:

_Vice President
Dick Cheney ( News News Photos Images Web)
_House Speaker
Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. ( News News Photos Images Web )
_Senate President Pro Tem
Ted Stevens, R-Alaska
_Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice ( News News Photos Images Web)
_Treasury Secretary
John Snow ( News News Photos Images Web )
_Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld
_Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales
_Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff (News News Photos Images Web )
_Interior Secretary
Gale A. Norton
_Agriculture Secretary
Mike Johanns (News News Photos Images Web )
_Commerce Secretary
Carlos Gutierrez ( News News Photos Images Web )
_Labor Secretary
Elaine Chao (News News Photos Images Web )
_Health and Human Services Secretary
Mike Leavitt (News News Photos Images Web )
_Housing and Urban Development Secretary
Alphonso Jackson (News News Photos Images Web )
_Transportation Secretary
Norman Y. Mineta
_Energy Secretary
Samuel Bodman (News News Photos Images Web )
_Education Secretary
Margaret Spellings (News News Photos Images Web )
_Veterans Affairs Secretary
Jim Nicholson

The Constitution, however, requires that the president be a natural-born citizen, so Gutierrez, born in Cuba, and Chao, born in Taiwan, would be ineligible.
___
The bills are S. 442 and H.R. 1455.
___
On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov

If Texas had icebergs, this would be the tip of one

2005-07-26T22:05:00.000-06:00

Here in Texas, where Karl Rove and his boy apprentice, G.W. Bush, got their start, there are signs that the stink of corruption at the heart of the era is beginning to take its toll.
Today, in the Texas House of Representatives, some GOP lawmakers joined a disciplined, courageous Democratic caucus and blocked passage of bills which would have raised taxes on most Texans while lowering taxes on Big Insurance and other interests.

more at the link above.

Roberts gave GOP advice in 2000 recount

2005-07-26T21:22:00.000-06:00

John G. Roberts, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, played a role in the chaotic, 36-day period following the disputed 2000 presidential election.

By GARY FINEOUT AND MARY ELLEN KLAS
gfineout@herald.com

U.S. Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts provided legal advice to Gov. Jeb Bush in the weeks following the November 2000 election as part of the effort to make sure the governor's brother won the disputed presidential vote.
Roberts, at the time a private attorney in Washington, D.C., came to Tallahassee to advise the state's Republican administration as it was trying to prevent a Democratic end-run that the GOP feared might give the election to Al Gore, sources told The Herald.

(more at the link above; registration required, but free)

Cool Map of Municipal Wireless Projects

2005-07-26T08:17:00.000-06:00

Click on the link above to view.

Community Ownership & Challenging the GOP's Privatization Agenda

2005-07-26T07:44:00.000-06:00

It seems that as Washington, D.C. tries to privatize more and more of American life and turn it over to Big Business, there is a quiet but growing battle in the states trying to do exactly the opposite. Call it the Community Ownership movement – and hope that it comes to a town near you.

Here are the basics: we are in an era where the right-wing's free-market-for-everything ideology has been allowed to be turned into reality – and we are starting to see some serious downsides. Think Enron, where Corporate America abused the unregulated market to gouge consumers. Think Social Security privatization, where Wall Street will be allowed to rip off unsuspecting taxpayers for billions. And think Halliburton, where an oil company is being allowed to overcharge America for the privatized work it is doing in Iraq.

But far away from the out-of-touch confines of the Beltway where free market extremism reigns supreme, ordinary Americans are realizing that there's an alternative path, whereby community ownership of certain economic institutions and businesses are a pretty good deal. Instead of allowing Corporate America to reap the windfalls of everything, more and more communities are trying to get a piece of the action – all while making sure the public is adequately served, and not abused.

The highest profile example of this is in municipal broadband, where city governments are developing taxpayer-owned high speed Internet networks. Instead of allowing Verizon or other corporations to control Internet access and rake in all the profits from it, these communities are making Internet access a public utility and sharing in the profits. These communities can make some money at it, while doing the public a service by keeping rates low.

See rest of story at the link above.

Karl Rove Sums it All Up

2005-07-25T19:19:00.000-06:00

Click on the little box below, if the image (a cartoon by Ward Sutton of the Village Voice) doesn't show up, or go to the original at the link above...

More great cartoons from Ward Sutton

2005-07-25T08:05:00.000-06:00

The Fantastically Arrogant Four: http://www.villagevoice.com/people/0529,sutton,65994,24.html
The Republican Culture Gap:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0528,sutton,65764,9.html
Bush Seeks to Reassure Nation About Iraq War: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0527,sutton,65609,9.html
War Distractions in Final Throes?: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0526,sutton,65338,9.html
Right Wing Sesame Street:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0525,sutton,65144,9.html
Ignoring Sudan:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0524,sutton,64905,9.html

'Iraq has been an absolute gift to al-Qaida'

2005-07-24T22:59:00.000-06:00

July 24, 2005
BY DANICA KIRKA

With the frequency of terror attacks apparently mounting, experts searching for common threads behind the attacks suggest that the war on terror is being waged against an ever-increasing well of recruits, bound together by motives and cause -- rather than a single al-Qaida mastermind.

''They all want to be part of this phenomenon,'' said Loretta Napoleoni, author of Terror Incorporated: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks, as she explained the terror wave. ''It's not like someone is telling [the militants], 'You bomb on the first of July.'"

Anger over the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict also seems to be providing some inspiration, despite early arguments from Bush administration officials that fighting insurgents in Iraq would help prevent them from launching attacks on Western targets. The war has instead turned into a recruiting tool, experts said.

Rest of the story at the link above.

Rove's War: Rovegate and Downing Street Minutes House Party DVD

2005-07-24T21:28:00.000-06:00

Link for the house party DVD above.

VoteRescue Meeting August 9th at Vinny's Italian Cafe

2005-07-24T16:02:00.000-06:00

VoteRescue, a newly formed Central Texas Voting Rights group, is hosting a meeting and a call for more coalition building around election integrity issues. Everyone is welcome, groups and individuals alike.

Come meet with others in the Austin Community to discuss election integrity. Help secure you right to vote. Learn about legislation and efforts you can join now, to assure that each and every vote in Austin and in the U.S. is counted accurately.

When: Tuesday August 9, 2005
6-8 p.m.
Vinny's Italian Cafe (enclosed patio area)
1003 Barton Springs Road (just east of Lamar)

Contact VoteRescue@aol.com or 512-294-9527 and 512-496-7408

Carbon dioxide at its highest level in 400,000 years

2005-07-24T15:37:00.000-06:00

"Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now at its highest level in 400,000 years and it continues to rise," said Cicerone, an atmospheric scientist who left as chancellor of University of California-Irvine to become academy president this month. "Nearly all climate scientists today believe that much of Earth's current warming has been caused by increases in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mostly from the burning of fuels."

from: http://news.yahoo.com/news

American Taliban

2005-07-23T11:52:00.000-06:00

Read it and weep. Is this what this country is coming to? Yikes!

http://www.reandev.com/taliban/

Details of US microwave-weapon tests revealed

2005-07-22T11:56:00.000-06:00

Test results of a US microwave weapon have been made public under the Freedom of Information Act. Called the Active Denial System, the weapon fires a 95-gigahertz microwave beam which is supposed to heat skin but leave no physical damage. Designed with crowd-control in mind, the beam causes pain in moments and becomes intolerable in under 5 seconds. To protect their eyes, test "rioters" were asked to remove contact lenses and glasses before being fired upon. They were also relieved of their loose change - everyone knows what happens to metal left in microwaves. But some experts wonder exactly how the amount of radiation a target receives can be controlled: what if someone in the crowd is unable to move away from the beam?

more at: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18725095.600

Wisdom from the Tao

2005-07-21T20:30:00.000-06:00

From The Tao, Chapter 53, Sentences 1-4

"Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centered within the Tao.
The great Way is easy,
yet people prefer the side paths.

"When rich speculators prosper
While farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn -
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao."

Thanks to Dave of Austin Democrats

Democrats author 70-page dissent on Patriot Act reauthorization

2005-07-21T18:27:00.000-06:00

Larisa Alexandrovna

House Judiciary Democrats have prepared a 70-page dissent opposing the renewal of the U.S. Patriot and Intelligence Reform Reauthorization Act, RAW STORY has learned.

Unlike some Democratic opposition, those decrying the Patriot Act include a diverse panoply of voices: 389 communities and seven states have passed resolutions opposing parts of the PATRIOT Act, representing over 62 million people, they note.

Groups running the gamut of the political spectrum oppose certain sections of the PATRIOT Act, including the American Civil Liberties Union, American Conservative Union, American Immigration Lawyers Association, American Library Association, Gun Owners of America and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The dissent cites repeated abuse of the Act by police and law enforcement.

Among the more troubling, perhaps, for RAW STORY readers: "It has been used to unconstitutionally coerce an Internet Service Provider to divulge information about e-mail activity and web surfing on its system, and then to gag that Provider from even disclosing the abuse to the public."

A New Vision for a Democratic Party from Texas (ex-)Congressman and Local Hero Chris Bell

2005-07-21T18:24:00.000-06:00

"As I travel Texas, Democrats are telling me something that just a few years ago would have sounded like heresy to some in our party. Everywhere I go, Texas Democrats say they are looking for new leaders who aren’t afraid to act like Democrats...

"As I travel the state, I talk about what I call the New Mainstream. And some people are asking me what I mean by that.

When Republicans say they’re representing the mainstream they really mean a narrow section of special interest groups in Texas, leaving a huge majority of people on the outside. Remarkably, these new outsiders are solution-oriented people of all stripes--the moderate Republicans who Rick Perry is trying to kick out of his party, the Independents who are getting quite scared about what’s going on, and the Democrats who knew from the start that Rick Perry couldn’t lead a silent prayer. People who want our state to work, in short.

And all those folks who don’t take frequent dips in Tom Delay’s hot tub and whom Rick Perry says aren’t real Texans, well, they are part of the New Mainstream. Todos estamos en esto juntos. We are all in this together.

And if we are all in this together, it’s time that we in the Democratic Party start acting like it."

More of this great speech at: http://www.chrisbell.com/speeches/A_Vision_for_the_Democratic_Party

They're at it Again - Stealing Your Social Security

2005-07-21T18:16:00.000-06:00

The Latest News and Happenings from Americans United to Protect Social Security

Volume No. 1 - Thursday, July 21, 2005 - Issue No. 3

It's official -- the anti-Social Security forces dropped the privatization bomb. Last week, U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery (R-LA), the Chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, introduced his long-awaited legislation to raid the Social Security Trust Fund to establish risky private accounts. Sadly, the move comes on the heels of 70th Anniversary of the Social Security program -- seven decades of providing guaranteed benefits for millions of Americans. There is no better time to show the pro-privatizers in Congress what Social Security means to you.

Take action at the link above.

KARL ROVE: THE KING OF DIRT

2005-07-20T18:48:00.000-06:00

The Turd Blossom's Chickens May Come To Roost

By Wayne Madsen
(Special to From The Wilderness)

December 5, 2003 100 PDT (FTW) -- After many years as a privacy advocate and author of privacy books, I now reluctantly believe that there's one citizen of the United States who is not entitled to any privacy or solitude, but should be subjected to a relentless campaign of intimidation, harassment, and knavery. In other words, patriotic Americans who believe in fair play should -- within the bounds of the law -- make this person's life a living hell.

The target for such a campaign is Karl Rove, George W. Bush's political Svengali, and the chief instigator of character assassination campaigns against those who challenge the policies of the Bush administration.

(note this was written over 2 years ago! Read the rest at the link above).

Texas Number 1? Try Number 50!

2005-07-19T20:53:00.000-06:00

http://www.knowthecandidates.org/ktc/bushtexasranks.htm