October « 2007 « carapace – Not your father's america

Archive for October, 2007

Wednesday October 31, 2007 – “To die for one’s country is noble…….to die in vain is ignominous.”

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

The Department of Computer Science at Dartmouth College announces a new technical report: The Quality of Open Source Production: Zealots and Good Samaritans in the Case of Wikipedia

Dartmouth Technical Report TR2007-606

Denise Anthony
Sean W. Smith
Tim Williamson

Date: September 2007

Abstract:

New forms of production based in electronic technology, such as open-source and open-content production, convert private commodities (typically software) into essentially public goods. A number of studies find that, like in other collective goods, incentives for reputation and group identity motivate contributions to open source goods, thereby overcoming the social dilemma inherent in producing such goods. In this paper we examine how contributor motivations affect the quality of contributions to the open-content online encyclopedia Wikipedia. We find that quality is associated with contributor motivations, but in a surprisingly inconsistent way. Registered users’ quality increases with more contributions, consistent with the idea of participants motivated by reputation and commitment to the Wikipedia community. Surprisingly, however, we find the highest quality from the vast numbers of anonymous “Good Samaritans” who contribute only once. Our findings that Good Samaritans as well as committed “zealots” contribute high quality content to Wikipedia suggest that it is the quantity as well as the quality of contributors that positively affects the quality of open source production.

Note:
A preliminary version of this paper was published online in November 2005.

To obtain an electronic copy, point your web browser to the URL
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/abstracts/TR2007-606/ .

Most reports are available in electronic format.

To order a paper copy, write to reports@cs.dartmouth.edu or to
Technical Report Librarian
Department of Computer Science
Dartmouth College
6211 Sudikoff Laboratory
Hanover, NH 03755-3510
USA
Ask for technical report TR2007-606, and be sure to include your own mailing address.

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Garbage in, garbage out: Indicted garbage executive donated to Lieberman –Senator received $14,000 in 2003

Oct 28 2007

Contributions from associates and friends of now-indicted garbage executive James Galante to the 2004 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Joseph LieberBush have sparked the interest of federal investigators. Lieberman’s bid for the White House took in at least $14,000 from Galante, his associates and their relatives in the fall of 2003, according to a Courant review of campaign records. The contributions to Lieberman (R-Israel) are similar to allegedly bundled contributions to three Republican officeholders that earlier this month led to state charges against Galante, who is also facing a 2006 federal racketeering indictment.

At:

http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-lieberman1028.artoct28,0,5750220.story

From: CLG News

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MRAPs going to Iraq on Russian cargo planes

Oct 28 2007

The Air Force has been forced to use Russian commercial cargo jets to rush mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles from the U.S. to Iraq because it does not have enough C-5 and C-17 planes to do the job, the service’s top civilian official said recently.

At:

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/airforce_MRAP_russian_071026w/

From: CLG News

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National Security Archive Update, October 29, 2007 – Archive seeks to discover true extent of missing e-mails at White House;

Demands the initiation of discovery to ensure Executive Office of the President cannot render judicial preservation decisions meaningless

For more information contact:
Meredith Fuchs/Tom Blanton, 202/994-7000
Sheila L. Shadmand (Jones Day), 202/879-393

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington D.C., October 29, 2007 – The National Security Archive filed a motion on Friday, October 26, seeking expedited discovery against the Executive Office of the President to find out what e-mails are missing from the White House e-mail system or backup tapes.

Archive General Counsel Meredith Fuchs explained, “The pressing need for the information arises out of troubling representations by the EOP and its components about its document preservation obligations and the location of its backup tapes. We need information so we can take steps to preserve all possible sources of e-mails deleted from the White House servers.”

Also on Friday, a similar motion was filed in a virtually identical lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) on September 25, 2007.

The Archive filed this case on September 5, 2007, against the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and its components seeking to recover at least 5 million federal e-mail records improperly deleted by the EOP. After the government failed to provide adequate assurances that backups and copies of the missing e-mail would be preserved throughout this litigation, on October 11, 2007, CREW filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against the White House defendants in its case. A hearing in CREW’s case was held before Magistrate Judge Facciola on October 17, 2007. Magistrate Judge Facciola issued a Report and Recommendation on October 19, 2007, advising the Court to grant a temporary restraining order. The government has filed objections to Magistrate Judge Facciola’s Report and Recommendation, and CREW has responded to the government’s objections.

Visit the Web site of the National Security Archive for more information about today’s posting.

http://www.nsarchive.org

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Gas Guzzlers Group Burns Cash

Source: Associated Press, October 18, 2007

The Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America (SUVOA) industry front group paid the PR firm Stratacomm $440,000 in the first half of 2007 to lobby the U.S. government. Stratacomm boasts a range of auto industry clients. Later this year, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are set to discuss proposals to mandate that the auto industry meet a fuel efficiency target of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 across their range of vehicles, including passenger cars and sport utility vehicles. Associated Press reports that recently filed lobbying disclosure forms reveal that SUVOA “lobbied against Senate legislation promoting higher fuel economy standards.” In 2004, the PR commentator Paul Holmes wrote that “what is clear is that SUVOA is a front for SUV manufacturers. Its board of directors consists largely of industry reps and public affairs execs with ties to the industry.”

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The Cheney Energy Task Force: Mission Accomplished Oil Sets Record, Surpassing $93 a Barrel

Oct 29 2007

Oil prices surpassed $93 a barrel Monday in Asian trading to hit a new trading high amid concerns about political tensions in the Middle East and the weakening U.S. dollar.

At:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102900169.html

From: CLG News

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RUDY GIULIANI’S DIRTY CAMPAIGN MONEY

By Ari Berman, The Nation

Giuliani is cozying up to Bush’s big oil billionaires to fund his race for the Republican nomination.

At:

http://www.alternet.org/stories/65277/

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Billions over Baghdad

Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency—much of it belonging to the Iraqi people—was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some of the cash went to pay for projects and keep ministries afloat, but, incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam’s palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled.

by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele October 2007

At:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/10/iraq_billions200710

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Congressman Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk

Struggling for Relevance in Cuba: Close, Still No Cigars

“In the name of helping Cubans, the US administration is calling for “multibillions” of taxpayer dollars in foreign aid and subsidies for internet access, education and business development for Cubans under the condition that the Cuban government demonstrates certain changes. In the same breath, they claim lifting the embargo would only help the dictatorship. This is exactly backwards. Free trade is the best thing for people in both Cuba and the US. Government subsidies would enrich those in power in Cuba at the expense of already overtaxed Americans!”

Click here for the full article: http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst102807.htm

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three thousand words

Jim Morin: trick or treat

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/MorinJ/2007/MorinJ20071030_low.jpg

RJ Matson: WALL STREET WILDFIRES

http://www.rjmatson.com/images/cartoons/STL537.jpg

Joel Pett: drug abuse

http://img.slate.com/media/83/071029_ed.gif

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Tuesday October 30, 2007 – “Only those in power are able to use propaganda.” – Filmmaker Michael Moore

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

The latest from NASA’s Earth Observatory (23 October 2007)

In the News:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/

* Latest Images:
Fires in Southern California
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17810

Fires in Southern California
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17808

Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17807

Maroon Bells Wilderness, Colorado
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17806

Wave Clouds off West Africa
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17805

Heavy Rain Floods Central America
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17804

Terra Nova Bay Polynya, Antarctica
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17803

Water Levels in Lake Powell
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17802

* NASA News
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/
- NASA Satellites Capture New Images of Raging California Wildfires

* Media Alerts
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/

- North Atlantic Slows on the Uptake of CO2

* Headlines from the press, radio, and television:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/

- How El Niño Slows the Earth’s Spin
- Expert: Warming Climate Fuels Mega-Fires
- Climate Change Blamed for Fading Foliage
- Emissions Cut Needed to Save Reef
- Scientists Collect Antarctic Climate Change Data
- Explorers’ Quest for Key Ice Data

* New Research Highlights
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/

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Discussing reasons for Ron Paul’s “groundswell,” Tucker panel ignored his opposition to Iraq war

On the October 26 edition of MSNBC’s Tucker, discussing Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (TX) and “the remarkable Paul-for-president movement,” Los Angeles Times columnist Rosa Brooks attributed Paul’s support to his “tapping into … a lot of distaste for the kind of cookie-cutter stuff of the major parties. A lot of desire to have a candidate who just says whatever the heck he thinks.” Later in the segment, Washington Post staff writer Anne E. Kornblut said that the “groundswell that Ron Paul has” demonstrates “a real craving on the Republican side for somebody who seems like they are being authentic.” During the segment, the panel discussed Paul’s position on numerous issues, and host Tucker Carlson asked: “But who does agree with him? OK, consider — here is a guy who is against legal abortion. Just against — he’s gonna ban abortion. Very pro-marijuana, Ron Paul, OK? Doesn’t believe the IRS ought to exist and is for the gold standard. So just take those four among 4,000 positions he ‘s taken in his public life.” However, at no point in their discussion of support for Paul and his positions did any of the participants note that Paul is the only Republican presidential candidate to have voted against the Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq Resolution of 2002, or that he has repeatedly voiced his support for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

Read more

http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200710280004?src=other

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U.S. Military Ignored Evidence of Iraqi-Made EFPs

By Gareth Porter

Oct 25 2007

When the U.S. military command accused the Iranian Quds Force last January of providing the armour-piercing EFPs (explosively formed penetrators) that were killing U.S. troops, it knew that Iraqi machine shops had been producing their own EFPs for years, a review of the historical record of evidence on EFPs in Iraq shows. The record also shows that the U.S. command had considerable evidence that the Mahdi army had gotten the technology and the training on how to use it from Hezbollah rather than Iran. The command, operating under close White House supervision, chose to deny these facts in making the dramatic accusation that became the main rationale for the present aggressive U.S. stance toward Iran.

At:

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39810

From: CLG News

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McConnell earmarked $25M for UK defense contractor:

Reported Oct 27 2007

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reportedly tucked $25 million in earmarked funds for British defense contractor BAE Systems into an appropriations bill. McConnell, the Senate minority leader, inserted the money for three BAE systems into the bill that passed the Senate Oct. 3, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported. BAE has given McConnell $53,000 in campaign contributions, while UDI donated $500,000 to his foundation.

At:

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/10/27/mcconnell_reportedly_earmarked_25m_/9874

From: CLG News

IS MITCH MCCONNELL THE NEXT SLEAZY REPUBLICAN LARRY FLYNT WILL EXPOSE?

By Howie Klein

Sen. McConnell’s earmark scandal may be the least of his worries.

At:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/66322/

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Iran; The Road to Armageddon?

By Felicity Arbuthnot

Global Research, October 27, 2007

Global Research and the UN Observer

Reminder to the crusading Armageddonists ….. “Thou shalt not kill.” Exodus 20: 13.

They are at it again. Remember when Milosovic was labelled “the butcher of Belgrade”, the new Hitler? Then Saddam Hussein was “the butcher of Bagdad” and, of course the most dangerous man since Hitler – with weapons of mass destruction which could be unleashed on the world “in forty five minutes”.

Colin Powell lied to the U.N., about the danger Iraq posed to the planet; George Bush lied to anyone who would listen; Tony Blair lied to Parliament and aides concocted dossiers so dodgy they were laughable, yet in spite of the millions who marched, protested and knew the lies for what they were, there were millions who bought fiction as fact.

And here we go again. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (wait for “the tyrant of Tehran”) threatens the planet, is supplying weapons to Iraq’s resistance, is destabilising the region and the paradise that is occupied Iraq. Whilst there are indeed plenty of Iranians or Iranian sympathisers in Iraq, they came in with the occupiers. Many in high places in Iraq’s corrupt, militia driven, American puppet government, speak Farsi, not Arabic.

The increasingly hysterical claims regarding Iran, the latest threat to life as we know it, is being brought to you by the very same warmongers who wrought the duplicity that resulted in Iraq’s murderous decimation, the hawks’ nest which is the American Enterprise Institute and their friends.

A glance at the AEI website lists those including: Paul Wolfowitz (“entrepreneurship and development”), Michael Rubin (“Arab democracy”), Richard Perle (“defence …intelligence”), Joshua Muravchik (“global democracy”), John Bolton (“foreign policy”), Lynne Cheney, whose husband, as ever, is believed a driving force behind the attack plan (“culture and education”), Michael Ledeen (latest book: “The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots Quest for Destruction”), Daniell Pletka (“Vice President for foreign and defence policy studies”) who, writing in the “Wall Street Journal” (28th September 2007) referred to Iran’s “illegal nuclear weapons … Washington’s impotence” and “clear information of a link to a weapons of mass destruction programme”. This in spite of the International Atomic Energy Authority finding no indication of such programmes. It all sounds chillingly familiar.

Interestingly, an item on the Institute’s list of “Research Projects” is “Global Investment in Iran”. Surely a matter for Iran – or does the AEI already regard Iran’s oil fields and assets as their fiscal frolic zone?

…

Complete article at:

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7193

Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist and activist who has visited the Arab and Muslim world on numerous occasions. She has written and broadcast on Iraq, her coverage of which was nominated for several awards. She was also senior researcher for John Pilger’s award-winning documentary, “Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq”. http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partID=4 and author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of “Baghdad” in the “Great Cities” series, for World Almanac Books (2006.)

Note

*Regarding the LSO, this came from a second, but highly trusted source, who for obvious reasons, would not divulge the name or further details of the LSO.

Please also see:

Livni behind closed doors: Iran nukes pose little threat to Israel
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/916758.html

Religious Extremists in America (Christian Zionists)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_UoHfCUBiEM

Kill Or Convert, Brought To You By the Pentagon
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=220960

Military Religious Freedom Foundation http://militaryreligiousfreedom.org
Al-Bushra http://www.al-bushra.org

Christians be aware!
http://www.nwo101.com/2007/10/christians-be-aware.html

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Iran Sanctions

Labeling Iranian government groups “terrorist,” the Bush administration Thursday placed a new set of sanctions on Iran.

NOAM CHOMSKY, via Sam Husseini, sam@accuracy.org, http://zmag.org/Chomsky
Chomsky is author most recently of “Interventions.” He said today: “When we or our allies and clients carry out terror (or aggression), it’s the justified use of force (for stability, self-defense, etc.). When some official enemy does the same thing, it’s terror (or aggression). It’s independent of the form of government. Nicaragua in the 1980s had an elected government (free election, closely monitored and approved by international observers, etc.), but the U.S. opposed the election and wanted to overthrow the government, so it was supporting or carrying out terrorism; the U.S. had an elected government and was condemned by the World Court, but it was not terrorism. … “Palestinians have a free elected government (monitored elections, endorsed by international observers, etc.), but they voted ‘the wrong way,’ and the governing party is on the official terrorism list. When the Reaganites decided that Saddam Hussein would be their close friend and ally in 1982, they removed Iraq from the list of states supporting terror (and sent Rumsfeld to firm up deals on supplying aid, including means to develop WMD); there was an empty spot on the list, so they added Cuba, perhaps because U.S.-backed terror against Cuba had peaked in the preceding years. And so it continues, without end.”

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

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Those Who Know don’t know much

By MARK TRAHANT
P-I EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

It’s interesting to go back and read what we’ve been told by Those Who Know.

Two years ago, now Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that there wasn’t a housing bubble about to burst. Sure, prices went up, by nearly 25 percent in two years, but that was explained by “strong economic fundamentals.”

Don’t worry.

A year later he testified that the “economy appears to be in a period of transition.” Instead of strong economic fundamentals, he said, “the anticipated moderation in economic growth now seems to be under way … . That moderation appears most evident in the household sector.”

Great. Why worry about moderation?

This year it’s a different story.

The conversation shifted from a “is there a disease?” to the “post-mortem.”

Bernanke testified last month: “During the past two years, serious delinquencies among subprime adjustable-rate mortgages have increased dramatically.”

He now says there is greater risk. “Subprime mortgage losses that triggered uncertainty about structured products more generally have reverberated in broader financial markets, raising concern about the consequences for economic activity … the turbulence originated in concerns about subprime mortgages, but the resulting global financial losses have far exceeded even the most pessimistic estimates of the credit losses on these loans.”

…

Complete article at:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/337041_trahant28.html

Mark Trahant is editor of the editorial page. E-mail: marktrahant@seattlepi.com

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On Track for U.S. Collapse

by Michael S. Rozeff

Bush and Cheney are steering the U.S. into a collapse. Only strong public voices by influential people can prevent the coming disaster. We desperately need for men and women who are known to the public and have credibility to speak up in the critical period ahead to avoid catastrophe.

A few weeks ago, Israel bombed a alleged nuclear facility in Syria. This is a warm-up for an attack on Iran.

In the last few days, the U.S. unilaterally tightened sanctions on Iran. Russia and China do not support this move.

A week ago Bush warned Iran that its attainment of nuclear arms would lead to World War III. Russia, which has been assisting Iran in its nuclear construction program for decades, regards Western military action against Iran as unacceptable.

China has been arming Iran with missiles. Its relations with Iran have been improving for years. We know that Bush and Cheney are capable of pre-emptive attack. We know that Bush will act if he believes he is right no matter what the costs are. In his distorted worldview, Iran with nuclear weapons is a scenario worth any cost to avoid.

We know that Bush, Cheney, and Rice have repeatedly warned Iran of meaningful consequences if Iran arms itself with nuclear weapons. We know that their terms in office end in 15 months. These are the critical months.

But it is by no means clear that the front-running candidates for office who may replace them hold substantially different views. Hillary Clinton has publicly called for sanctions against Iran and has called Iran a threat to Israel.

Why may an unprovoked attack on Iran lead to WWIII and why may it lead to the collapse of the U.S.?

…

Complete article at:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff183.html

Michael S. Rozeff is a retired Professor of Finance living in East Amherst, New York.

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BushCo’s Covert Attempt To Force Iraq Into Giving Up 87% Of Its Oil

By Richard Clark

Plenty of evidence, from a variety of sources, that the Bush administration, with the help of the mainstream media, is covertly trying to force Iraq’s parliament to sign an oil law that will grant the vast majority of Iraq’s oil profits to multinational oil companies.

At:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_richard__071023_bushco_s_covert_atte.htm

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three thousand words

This Modern World: The scariest costume Tom Tomorrow can think of.

http://images.salon.com/comics/tomo/2007/10/29/tomo/story.jpg

Steve Benson: who do those turks think they are?

http://azcentral.com/sshow/News/Benson/5089_87076.jpg

Cartoon du Jour – By Khalil: the problem in iraq. rampant corruption in the iraqi government

http://www.bendib.com/newones/2007/october/small/10-27-Corruption-in-Iraq.jpg

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Monday October 29, 2007 – “Success is dependent on effort.” – Sophocles

Monday, October 29th, 2007

The Military Strategy of Global Jihad.

Authored by Lieutenant Colonel Sarah E. Zabel.

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=809

Al-Qaeda has declared war on the United States and the rest of the civilized world, but how does the organization plan to win that war? The author draws on sources from within the broader global jihad movement to explain the movement’s goals and the mechanisms it proposes to enact a revolution.

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Ignoring deficit spending, Wash. Post’s soon-to-be economics reporter asserted Bush “is pay[ing] for the war” with other cuts in budget

The Washington Post’s Michael Fletcher asserted that President Bush “is generally against tax increases as he believes they stifle economic growth. So his idea is to pay for the war by cutting back elsewhere in the budget.” In fact, inflation-adjusted non-defense discretionary outlays have risen each year since Bush took office; Bush has actually paid for the war by deficit spending.

Read more

http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200710260002?src=other

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WHERE DOES THE RIGHT-WING END AND THE MEDIA BEGIN?

By Rory O’Connor, AlterNet

Economist Paul Krugman on how the right-wing media machine is destroying social progress.

Read more

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/65870/

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Much of U.S. Could See a Water Shortage

Oct 26 2007

Across America, the picture is critically clear – the nation’s freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst. The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess. [Think Exxon Mobil's profits are too high? Wait till Bush's corpora-terrorists start privatizing the water supply. This is the first step: GOP media whores start telling us that there's a shortage (due to military and agribusiness over-usage), but that's not how the issue will be spun or remedied. Consumers paying a fortune is on tap for the tap. --LRP]

At:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071026/D8SH34A04.html

From: CLG News

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DROUGHT IN SOUTHEAST US FUELS BATTLE OVER WATER RESOURCES

Drought in southeast US fuels battle over water resources

An extreme drought in the southeastern United States has fueled a bitter tri-state battle over dwindling water resources that pits man against mussels. Millions of people in the state of Georgia fear their taps could run dry, while environmentalists in Florida say freshwater mollusks protected under the US Endangered Species Act risk dying off.

Hoping to guarantee no one will go thirsty, Georgia authorities want to drastically reduce the outflow from a reservoir that supplies drinking water to three million people. But neighboring Alabama claims that would have devastating economic effects on its population, while Florida says a reduced flow would threaten fragile ecosystems.

“You’d think people would come before mussels,” said Bob Leamy, 55, walking on caked mud that was once under Lake Lanier’s waters.

The man-made lake is at the frontline of the battle of words. It supplies drinking water for more than three million people in the city of Atlanta, feeds the Chattahoochee river that runs along the border with Alabama and flows into Florida’s Apalachicola river.

Because of the drought, the 38,000 acre reservoir is almost five meters (15 feet) below average levels, and officials say the water will continue to dwindle.

…

Complete article at:

http://www.physorg.com/news112794329.html

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House Passes Thought Crime Prevention Bill

By Lee Rogers

25 Oct 2007

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955 titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This bill is one of the most blatant attacks against the Constitution yet and actually defines thought crimes as homegrown terrorism. If passed into law, it will also establish a commission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism. Amazingly, 404 of our elected representatives from both the Democrat and Republican parties voted in favor of this bill. There is little doubt that this bill is specifically targeting the growing patriot community that is demanding the restoration of the Constitution.

At:

http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=4682

From: CLG News

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Beatdown on Bloggers

Source: Reporters Without Borders, October 16, 2007

As the internet becomes an increasingly important source of information for the public, government repression is shifting from traditional journalists to bloggers, according to the latest Worldwide Press Freedom Index issued by Reporters Without Borders. The report notes the arrest of bloggers in China, Egypt, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as the case of San Francisco blogger Josh Wolf, who was jailed for eight months for refusing to provide evidence in a grand jury investigation. “We are concerned about the increase in cases of online censorship,” the organization states. “More and more governments have realised that the Internet can play a key role in the fight for democracy and they are establishing new methods of censoring it. The governments of repressive countries are now targeting bloggers and online journalists as forcefully as journalists in the traditional media.”

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BURN BABY BURN – The California Celebrity Fires

The ‘Boo ain’t no N.O.
Plus: George Bush, Flame Retard

By Greg Palast

What color is your disaster? It makes a difference. A life and death difference.

Dig:

Population of San Diego fire evacuation zone: 500,000
Population of the New Orleans flood evacuation zone: 500,000

White folk as a % of evacuees, San Diego: 66%
Black folk as % of evacuees, New Orleans: 67%

Size counts, too. Size of your wallet, that is:
Evacuees in San Diego, in poverty: 9%
Evacuees in New Orleans, in poverty: 27%

The numbers would be even uglier, though more revealing, if I included evacuees of the celebrity fire in Malibu.

The President didn’t do a photo-strafing of the scene from 1700 feet this time. Instead, we have the photo op of George, feet on the ground, hanging with Arnold the Action Man. (However, I’m informed that the President was a bit disappointed that he didn’t get to wear one of those neat fireman hats like Rudi G got at Ground Zero.)

In 2005, while the bodies were still being fished out of flooded homes in New Orleans, Republican Congressman Richard Baker praised The Lord for his mercy. “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did,” he said about the removal of the poor from the project near the French Quarter much coveted by speculators.

But as this week’s flames spread, no Republican Congressman cried, “Burn baby burn!” to praise the Lord for cleaning up the ‘Boo, the sin-and-surf playground of Hollywood luvvies.

In New Orleans, God’s covenant with real estate developers has been very profitable. Over 70,000 families remain, two years after the waters receded, in mobile home concentration centers far away from the N.O. re-building boom. Let’s see how long it takes to get Tom Hanks back on his beach towel.

Standing next to Governor Schwarzenegger, a smug little Bush said, “It makes a big difference when you have someone in the statehouse willing to take the lead” – a snide attack on the former Democratic Governor of Louisiana on whom the White House successfully dumped the blame for the horror show in New Orleans.

Mr. Bush never mentioned – and the media would never give away his secret – that 15 hours before the levees broke, the White House and FEMA knew the flood barriers were cracking, yet failed to inform the Governor and state police. Nor did Mr. Bush mention that his Department of Homeland Security’s FEMA trolls took away evacuation planning from the state and gave it to a crew of crony contractors who, for a million bucks, came up with a plan that came down to, “If a hurricane comes, get in your car and drive like hell.”

In California, plans were in place, money poured down with the flame retardant, and no one is suggesting that Mel Gibson move his swastika collection to a FEMA trailer.

Not comparable, the ‘Boo and the N.O.? You can say that again. But as a kid who grew up in the ass end of Los Angeles, I can tell you that disaster apartheid applies on the local scale as well. Look at the tarry filth of Compton and Long Beach shores versus the panicked reaction when a bit of garbage or oil sheen hits Malibu sands. (I remember, standing on the crude-covered shore of an Alaska Native village in March, 1991, the day Exxon announced it would end the clean-up from the Exxon Valdez spill. That same day, the papers showed the careful scouring that week of every pebble on Malibu beaches hit by dinky spill incident.)

Please don’t get the idea I’m slap-happy about the California inferno. My parents live in San Diego – and one of my favorite Air America hosts had to evacuate from her Del Mar hot tub, poor dear. (I’ve heard, however, that billionaires well done taste just like chicken.)

What I’m saying is: Besides the flames, there’s a class war raging in America. Or, should I say, Class Massacre. Because only one side is taking all the bullets. Malibu, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica are “incorporated communities” – islands of privilege politically fenced off from the riff-raff sea of Los Angeles. These self-incorporated Bantustans of the wealthy have their own fire departments and schools. The money islands are relieved of having to pay for the schools and hospitals of the city where their gardeners live. (I can’t tell which is the worst disaster that can befall an Angelino – a fire, an earthquake or the LA public school system.)

Now, it’s easy to say it’s just George Bush who’s the class clown of the class war. But it’s an old story. When a flood took out the tony homes at Westhampton Dunes, the Clinton Administration picked up the full tab for rebuilding these summer hideaways of investment bankers. While today, death-by-poison stalks the environment of Black townships of Louisiana (the FEMA ‘guests’ are parked in a zone called Cancer Ally), Al Gore can’t be found. But when speaking of rising sea levels that can take out the homes of his buddies in ‘Boo or the Hamptons, Gore goes ga-ga.

The one thing I’ll say in favor of that vile little Louisiana Republican cheering the drowning of public housing residents, at least he’s honest about how the system works. He’s not afraid to remind us of the gods’-honest truth: disaster response is class war by other means.

So let me not forget to report the war’s body count:

New Orleans flood deaths: 1,577.

California celebrity fire deaths: 5.

Tonight and this weekend, listen to “The Fire Next Time,” on the Palast Report, aired each week on Air America’s Clout with Richard Greene, on the Nova M network with Cynthia Black (from KPHX), on the Solution Zone with Christiane Brown (KJFK) – and live, in Chicago, this weekend, for Buzzflash.com, The Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights and WCPT, Chicago’s Progressive Talk – and, on this Sunday morning on the Bree Show, KTLK Los Angeles, with host/evacuee Bree Walker, slightly charred (or is that a tan?) but undaunted.

Greg Palast is the author the New York Times bestselling book, Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans – Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild.

==========

Iraq Oil Report – ‘The State Department again warns oil companies from signing deals with Iraq’

Plus: A Turkish Invasion Update

Iraq Oil Smuggling and Keeping Tabs on the Loot

Iraqis Against Biden

Remembering King Faisal II

The U.S. is reiterating its plea to international oil not to sign oil deals in Iraq prior to a national oil law.

We continue to advise companies from outside of Iraq that they incur significant political and legal [...]

You may view the latest post at

http://tinyurl.com/3b727b (iraqoilreport.com)

==========

[Dallas Fed] What’s Driving Gasoline Prices?

Economic Letter Vol. 2, No. 10, October 2007
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

At:

http://dallasfed.org/research/eclett/2007/el0710.html

If current market conditions prevail, gasoline prices are set to rise over the next few months and then fall over the next three years, according to the October issue Economic Letter.

==========

Perspectives on Iraq, Turkey and Kurds

VERA BEAUDIN SAEEDPOUR, kurdishlib@aol.com

Saeedpour is editor of Kurdish Life and director of the Kurdish Library. She said today: “The notion that the PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] is inaccessible is simply ludicrous. Scores of Western journalists have visited their mountain retreats. … “Ironic. The PKK is on the State Department’s terrorist list; the U.S. claims it doesn’t ‘talk with terrorists.’ But the U.S. — and Israel — aids and abets the PKK through local Iraqi Kurds. And why?

The PKK arm, Pejak, attacks Iran. For services rendered, while the PKK attacks Turkey the administration winks and has kept the Turkish military from retaliating. … “For giving safe haven to the PKK/Pejak, for doing Washington’s bidding in Baghdad, [Massoud] Barzani and [Jalal] Talabani have been more than amply rewarded. In 2003 the U.S. military facilitated their takeover of ‘security’ in Kirkuk and even in Mosul. Now, under the pretext of fighting al Qaeda, units of the U.S. military have been joining Kurdish fighting units (veiled as members of the ‘Iraqi’ military) in ethnically cleansing ‘contested areas’ of non-Kurds in advance of a referendum that will determine under whose jurisdiction these parts of Diyala and Nineveh provinces will fall.

“Perhaps it all depends on who’s doing the cleansing. In 1992 Armenians in Nagorno Karabagh aided by the Republic of Armenia ethnically cleansed Red Kurdistan, the largest and oldest Kurdish community in the Caucasus — 160,000 Kurds simply disappeared. With few exceptions, Kurds elsewhere said nothing. Kurdish Life did a detailed report on the issue and distributed it to members of Congress, not least Rep. Tom Lantos, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Joe Biden, all still in office. President Bill Clinton did nothing. Instead, Armenians were rewarded with direct U.S. foreign aid.”

from: Institute for Public Accuracy

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Borowitz Report – Soundproof Hillary Shocker

Hillary to Spend Rest of Campaign in Soundproof Glass Box

Risk-averse Strategy for Homestretch, Aides Say

In what some observers are calling a strategic masterstroke to avoid missteps in her quest for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) will spend the rest of her campaign encased in a soundproof glass box, aides confirmed today.

The decision to surround the New York senator with one-inch-thick walls of soundproof glass struck many Democratic insiders as a sign of just how risk-averse the Clinton campaign has become.

But with Sen. Clinton leading all of her rivals by a formidable margin, campaigning inside a soundproof box could be the surest way to protect her frontrunner status down the homestretch, aides believe.

Sen. Clinton’s soundproof box made its debut last night at a candidates’ forum in Davenport, Iowa, where the New York senator was seemingly impervious to the attacks of her closest rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill).

After Sen. Obama excoriated her for voting to authorize the war in Iraq, Sen. Clinton merely smiled and mouthed the words “I can’t hear you.”

Clinton aides also confirmed after the debate that the New York senator’s face would be shot up with Botox to freeze her features in the most inoffensive expression possible for the remainder of the campaign.

Professor Davis Logsdon, chairman of the political science department at the University of Minnesota, says that Sen. Clinton’s Botox strategy could prove whether a totally lifeless, emotionless candidate can win the White House.

“It didn’t work for Kerry,” he says.

Elsewhere, a new survey from the American Psychological Association shows that one out of three adults feels extreme stress, especially after taking a survey from the American Psychological Association.

http://www.borowitzreport.com/

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three thousand words

Tom Toles: aspiring dictators sometimes win elections

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20071025/ltt071026.gif

David Horsey: we’re not trick or treating there …

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20071028/Cartoon20071028.gif

The people must believe they are not manipulated …

http://www.winstonsmith.com/images/gallery.big/people.jpg

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Sunday October 28, 2007 – To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely. – Jorge Luis Borges

Sunday, October 28th, 2007

Barry Goldwater

On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom.

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Bring back the Greek gods

By Mary Lefkowitz

Mere mortals had a better life when more than one ruler presided from on high.

Complete article at:

http://tinyurl.com/355b6j (www.latimes.com)

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FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN USES CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES AS EXCUSE TO ATTACK GAYS

By Pam Spaulding

For him to exploit the disaster of thousands being burned out of their homes in his state is just sick.

Complete article at:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/66029/

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AMERICA’S ARMAGEDDONITES PUSH FOR MORE WAR

By Jon Basil Utley, Foreign Policy in Focus

Some fundamentalist evangelicals have moved from forecasting Armageddon to actually trying to bring it about.

Complete article at:

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/65845/

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Self-righteous warmongers phony patriots

Greg James, guest columnist: If we choose to measure results and not talk, Rush Limbaugh and his ilk clearly have made us less safe, aided radical Islam and bin Laden and generally worked against our long-term interest. They are phony patriots.

Complete article at:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/336152_firstperson22.html

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GIULIANI DEFENDS, EMPLOYS PRIEST ACCUSED OF MOLESTING TEENS

By Howie Klein

If he isn’t hiring mafia criminals, cocaine dealers, whoremongers and closet queens, he’s not letting go of a child molester.

At:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/65991/

==========

How Same Sex Marriage Marriage Threatens Liberty

By lloydletta(lloydletta)

The Swedish chancellor of justice said any reference to the Bible’s stating that homosexuality is sinful might be a criminal offense, and a Pentecostal minister is already facing charges. “In Britain, police investigated Anglican Bishop …

http://lloydletta.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-same-sex-marriage-marriage.html

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Center for American Progress Action Fund – The Anti-Family Planning Czar

On Monday, President Bush appointed Susan Orr Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a position that gives her oversight of federal family planning programs. Orr, who is currently directing HHS child welfare programs, was touted by the administration as “highly qualified.” Before joining HHS, Orr served as senior director for marriage and family care at the conservative Family Research Council, which opposes family planning, and was an adjunct professor at Pat Robertson’s Regent University. In her new role, Orr, who considers contraceptives part of the “culture of death,” will be responsible for “HHS’s $283 million reproductive-health program, a $30 million program that encourages abstinence among teenagers, and HHS’s Office of Population Affairs, which funds birth control, pregnancy tests, counseling, and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.” Given Orr’s record of opposition to comprehensive family planning services, women’s rights and reproductive health advocates are speaking out strongly against her appointment. “We are appalled,” said Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. “While her resume suggests a commitment to child welfare and children, her professional credentials fail to demonstrate a commitment to comprehensive family planning services for all men and women in need.” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) called her appointment “absurd.” Referring to her as “a virulently anti-family planning radical,” Planned Parenthood has circulated a petition opposing Orr. Unfortunately, though, appointing Orr as an “acting” secretary allows the administration to sidestep the need for Senate confirmation.

www.americanprogressaction.org

==========

New RI Report Raises Questions on Clergy Abuse … and more

By Frank Douglas

The number of alleged abusers was reported in a civil court case in which a lawyer for an alleged victim of abuse by a Providence priest was asking the diocese to disclose all documents referring to allegations of sexual assault or …

http://reform-network.net/?p=1039

Pastor Charged After Women Allege Abuse

(RNS) At least 100 people were gathered for Sunday afternoon prayer at a Northeast Portland church when a woman stood to interrupt the preacher’s sermon with some alarming allegations.

by Maxine Bernstein, Lynne Palombo and Alex.

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=9606

Clergy Sex Abuse Affected Man’s Life

WSAV-TV – Savannah,GA,USA

NEWS 3 met with one victim who says he always thought the abuse was his fault. “The priest said it was my fault,” says Mike Coode. …

http://www.wsav.com/midatlantic/sav/news.apx.-content-articles-SAV-2007-10-25-0028.html

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three thousand words

Russell’s Teapot: Dra Til Helvete

http://russellsteapot.com/comics/2007/Dra-Til-Helvete.html

Keith Knight: … abstinence only programs

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/KnighK/2007/KnighK20071024_low.jpg

Pat Bagley: what a bunch of toadying sycophants “god bless ‘em”

http://cagle.com/working/071023/bagley.jpg

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Saturday October 27, 2007 – All men having power ought to be mistrusted. – James Madison

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

Joint Economic Committee Report on Subprime Lending Crisis

October 25, 2007 press release:

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), released a report today analyzing the greater financial impact of the subprime foreclosure boom. The JEC report entitled, The Subprime Lending Crisis: The Economic Impact on Wealth, Property Values and Tax Revenues, and How We Got Here (34 pages, PDF) reveals that families, neighborhood property values, and state and local governments will lose billions of dollars as two million subprime mortgage homes are foreclosed. The subprime fallout report argues in favor of foreclosure prevention, which can save the economy billions in housing wealth and ease falling housing prices.”

At:

http://jec.senate.gov/Documents/Reports/10.25.07OctoberSubprimeReport.pdf

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Beck falsely clamed “the globe was the hottest” in 1934 — it was actually 2005

Glenn Beck declared that “the globe was the hottest” in 1934; in fact, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the hottest year on Earth was actually 2005, and 1934 — now designated the hottest year on record in the U.S. after a revision in climate data — does not even rank among the globe’s five warmest years. Beck also suggested that the statistic “was, I believe, intentionally distorted by the guy the left holds up as the scientist on global warming,” an apparent reference to GISS director James Hansen. In August, the GISS revised historical climate data because “the monthly more-or-less-automatic updates of our global temperature analysis had a flaw in the U.S. data.”

Read more

http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200710250006?src=other

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Global Warming: * Fires * War

TED GLICK, indpol@igc.org, http://www.climateemergency.org

Glick was one of the organizers of Monday’s “No War, No Warming” protest at the U.S. Capitol Building, where he and over 60 others were arrested for civil disobedience. He is coordinator of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council and is on the 50th day of a “Climate Emergency Fast.”

He said today: “The Iraq war is a war for oil. We get the oil, we burn the oil, we heat up the earth. We aggravate and make worse conditions of life for people all over the world as global warming has its impacts: droughts, floods, sea level rises; that’s going to lead to more and more climate refugees, going to increase conflict, going to lead to more war.

It is a vicious cycle.”

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

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U.S. envoy warns of growing power of Iraqi militias

Oct 25 2007

The U.S. military has succeeded in delivering a crippling blow to al Qaeda [al-CIAduh] in Iraq, but this has only served to highlight “the other big problem” — the power of Shi’ite militias, Washington’s envoy to Iraq [Ryan Crocker] said on Thursday. “We have seen JAM [Jaish al-Mehdi] Militant transform into JAM Incorporated. They may not be shooting at us or Iraqi soldiers, but (they are) controlling gas stations, real estate, trade and services,” Crocker said.

At:

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSCOL55146220071025

From: CLG News

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Perspectives on Iraq, Turkey and Kurds

BEN H. BAGDIKIAN, benmar@berkeley.edu, http://www.zmag.org/bios/homepage.cfm?authorID=139

Professor emeritus and former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, Bagdikian is most widely known for his book “The Media Monopoly.” He is also author of “Double Vision: Reflections on My Heritage, Life, and Profession,” which is in part about his Armenian heritage — Bagdikian’s family survived a massacre in present-day Turkey.

He said today: “The face-off with Turkey over their decades-long fight against their own independence-seeking Kurds, has become a multi-sided dilemma for all parties. Kurds have lived for centuries in the mountains that straddle the Turkish-Iraqi border. In Iraq, the Kurds are among the U.S. Army’s most stable friends, and also occupy the other end of Iraq in its oil rich region.

Dilemma No. 1. But Turkey hates the Kurds and hints it might stop cooperating with the U.S.

Dilemma No. 2. Turkey needs U.S. help to enter the European Union.

Dilemma No. 3. But the U.S. needs the big Turkish airfield to supply Iraq.

Dilemma No. 4. Bush has threatened Iran if it does not stop nuclear development and Cheney has raised the threats of military action against Iran. But Iran has oil and is Shiite.

Dilemma No. 5. In Iraq various Shiites are our ‘friends.’ But so is Israel a U.S. friend.

Dilemma No. 6. If we move militarily against Iran, it has missiles it can send into Israel. Israel could fire back.

Dilemmas 7 and 8. “It is a mess with no way to satisfy all the conflicting problems created when Bush decided he would try to dominate the entire Middle East.”

From: Institute for Public Accuracy

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War in Afghanistan lost, says former UN envoy

Oct 26 2007

NATO has “lost in Afghanistan” and its failure to bring stability there could provoke a regional sectarian war “on a grand scale”, says a former British Royal Marine Commando officer and United Nations representative. “We have lost, I think, and success is now unlikely,” Lord Ashdown said.

At:

http://tinyurl.com/3d97ub (www.smh.com.au/news)

From: CLG News

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Iraq Oil Report – ‘Iraq’s oil flowing to Turkey still, but bad signs linger in the north and south of Iraq’

Oil continues to flow from Kirkuk to Turkey, despite Kurdish separatist threats to blow it up as a tactic against Turkey, Simon Webb reports for Reuters. Iraq was pumping around 400,000 barrels per day of Kirkuk crude to Turkey on Thursday for the seventh consecutive day, the shipper said. “The flow is about 18,000 barrels per hour,” [...]

You may view the latest post at

http://tinyurl.com/3akpsj (iraqoilreport.com)

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National Security Archive Update, October 25, 2007 – CHE GUEVARA’S HAIR UP FOR AUCTION

Scrapbook of memorabilia kept by CIA operative who buried Che renews attention to Guevara’s execution, U.S. Role

Selling of history, including captured Cuban records, intercepts and communications, raises questions about future access

For more information contact:
Peter Kornbluh – 202/994-7000

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington D.C., October 25, 2007 – As bidding begins today at 5:00 p.m. CST at the Heritage auction house in Dallas, Texas for a scrapbook containing a lock of Che Guevara’s hair along with photos, captured documents, intelligence intercepts, and original fingerprints relating to the capture, execution and secret burial of the Argentine-born revolutionary, the National Security Archive today posted declassified U.S. documents relating to his death 40 years ago this month. (Censored versions of some of the documents were first posted on the 30th anniversary of Guevara’s execution, which took place on October 9, 1967 in Bolivia.)

The macabre memorabilia being auctioned off to the highest bidder were compiled by a Cuban exile CIA operative named Gustavo Villoldo, who was tasked to help capture Guevara and, after his execution by the Bolivian military, secretly bury him in the middle of the night. Before Guevara’s hands were cut off, Villoldo helped fingerprint his corpse, and a “death mask”–a plaster cast of his face–was made as proof that the real Che had been captured and killed. The covert operative also clipped a portion of Che’s beard as a memento of the CIA’s triumph over Latin America’s most famous revolutionary.

“This collection of memorabilia records one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of revolution and counterrevolution during the Cold War,” said Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Archive’s Cuba Documentation Project. “The documents and photos are of high value to current and future students of Latin America and U.S. policy toward the region.”

The documents posted today by the Archive include secret memos to President Lyndon Johnson on Che’s capture and death and a declassified debriefing with another CIA operative, Felix Rodriguez, who was present when Che was executed.

The government of Venezuela has reportedly expressed interest in bidding on the collection. Kornbluh said he hoped that whoever acquired the documents and scrapbook would make the materials available for public study or donate them to a museum.

Visit the Web site of the National Security Archive for more information about today’s posting.

http://www.nsarchive.org

==========

Anti-Tax Lobby Not Just in Kansas Anymore

Source: The Capital Times (Madison, Wis.), October 22, 2007

“According to the Americans for Prosperity Web site, some 28 Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature signed a ‘no tax increase’ pledge with the organization,” along with two Democrats, writes Dave Zweifel. He blames pressure from no-tax groups on delays with Wisconsin’s state budget, now more than three months overdue. When these legislators “already had announced they had closed their minds — even to an increase in cigarette taxes to expand health care to kids — how really could there be compromise?” he asks. Americans for Prosperity, which held an anti-tax rally in Madison on October 17, has also been active in other states. In March, Americans for Prosperity put pressure on Kansas legislators as they debated their state budget. The group patched in calls from residents to legislators’ offices, but “they weren’t quite clear why they were calling in,” said one office assistant, referring to the callers. “Something about state spending,” but the Kansans “couldn’t tell her who had made the call or any specifics on what they were told,” reported the Capital-Journal in Topeka.

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Wal-Mart Tax Evasion Strategies Revealed in Court Documents

Corporations don’t usually like to reveal how they evade taxes, but a lawsuit by the state of North Carolina over Wal-Mart’s tax practices has produced the detailed game plan for how the company has manipulated the law to cut their state taxes. As the Wall Street Journal detailed Tuesday, the court case highlighted how the company used tax shelter strategies designed by corporate accounting firm Ernst & Young, a company where four current and former partners were indicted this year for illegal tax-shelter work.

The key to many of the tax evasion strategies used by Wal-Mart, like many other companies, was to manipulate the reporting of national profits and expenses in different states tailored to wherever reporting them would minimize the taxes owed. The end result was that instead of paying the 6.9% average tax on corporate profits paid by most companies to state authorities, Wal-Mart paid only half that rate. As we discussed earlier this year, one key strategy has been using real estate trusts owned by Wal-Mart to “rent” property to itself. Six states this year passed laws to prohibit this maneuver and encourage combined reporting of all profits by subsidiaries in a state. Four other states are challenging the practice in court.

The Journal article highlights the problem of having a company like Ernst & Young providing tax advice, then turning around to act as an “outside auditor” to pass judgement on its own advice in reporting to shareholders, exactly the kind of dual role that led to wholesale criminal activity at Enron.

Requiring Tax Disclosure: It shouldn’t take a lawsuit for public officials to be able to identify tax abuses by big companies. When supposedly independent auditors have become partners in often criminal tax evasion, the time has come for states to require annual and public disclosure of what taxes large corporations are paying and how they are allocating supposed costs and profits between different states. In its Requiring Corporate Tax Disclosure, the Center on Budget Policy & Priorities outlined a model plan for how states can design such tax disclosure policy to allow legislators and tax authorities to identify likely corporate abuses more easily.

Progressive States Network http://www.progressivestates.org/dispatch

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HOW BAD WILL THE NEXT RECESSION BE?

By Scott Thill, AlterNet

If our government really is a corporation and Bush is its CEO, we’re all likely to be self-employed contractors out of a job.

At:

http://www.alternet.org/stories/65037/

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three thousand words

Joel Pett: we just thank god we’ve been spared!

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoons/PettJ/2007/PettJ20071026_low.jpg

Tony Auth: responses to the california fires

http://img.slate.com/media/32/071025_ed.gif

Dwayne Booth, Mr. Fish: war, war, war, …

http://www.cagle.com/working/071011/booth.jpg

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Friday October 26, 2007 – “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.” – Thomas Jefferson

Friday, October 26th, 2007

October 2007 Southwest Climate Outlook

The October Southwest Climate Outlook is online. This month’s outlook provides recent drought conditions and the latest seasonal forecasts. The feature article is the annual Southwest Climate Outlook “water year in review.”

This month’s cover photo was provided by Philip Greenspun.

You can both view the latest Southwest Climate Outlook in html format or view the printer-friendly PDF file at: http://www.ispe.arizona.edu/climas/forecasts/swoutlook.html

Highlights from the October 2007 Outlook

Drought – Short-term drought conditions have improved slightly across Arizona due to some precipitation from frontal storms in September, while conditions across northeastern New Mexico have worsened. The National Drought Monitor continues to show moderate to severe drought across much of Arizona with some expansion into New Mexico due to persistent below-average precipitation levels over the past several months.

Temperature – Temperatures were generally below-average across most of Arizona. New Mexico saw the opposite pattern, with temperatures above-average over the past thirty days.

Precipitation – Both Arizona and New Mexico observed below-average precipitation across most areas over the past thirty days. Many locations in central Arizona and central New Mexico saw precipitation amounts of less than 25 percent of average for the period.

Climate Forecasts – Seasonal climate forecasts indicate above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation in the Southwest through the fall and into the winter season. Developing La Niña conditions are responsible for the below-average precipitation forecast while long-term trends in increasing temperatures strongly influence the temperature forecast.

The Bottom Line – La Niña is the big story this month with the prospect of below-average precipitation amounts plaguing the Southwest this upcoming winter. Recent below-average precipitation amounts across Arizona and New Mexico as well as the development of new drought impacts across New Mexico may continue to expand and increase through the late fall into the winter season.

Kristen E. Nelson
Associate Editor
Institute for the Study of Planet Earth

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Despite extensive coverage of Medal of Honor ceremony by CNN and MSNBC, O’Reilly said they “are not going to report stories that reflect well on the American military”

Bill O’Reilly asserted that “some television news organizations ignored the Medal of Honor awarded to Lieutenant Michael Murphy”– a Navy SEAL who was killed during a rescue mission in Afghanistan — claiming that “CNN and MSNBC just said no to Lieutenant Michael Murphy” on their prime-time newscasts, finally concluding, “The hard truth is that MSNBC and CNN are not going to report stories that reflect well on the American military.” In fact, though CNN and MSNBC did not cover the story during the 8-11 p.m. ET prime-time period, both provided extensive coverage of the Medal of Honor ceremony earlier in the day: MSNBC reported on Murphy at least five times, including carrying the award ceremony live, and CNN covered the Murphy story on at least seven distinct occasions.

Read more

http://mediamatters.org/items/dailyemail/200710250001?src=other

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Robert Weiner and John Larmett – Orwell in 2007

From:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101507M.shtml

Robert Weiner and John Larmett write for The Oregonian, “In ’1984,’ the novel that most baby boomers read in high school, George Orwell creates a theoretical modern-day government with absolute power — a state in which government, called the Party, monitors and controls every aspect of human life to the extent that even having a disloyal thought is against the law….’1984′ is happening in 2007.”

Complete article at:

http://tinyurl.com/2t9d3h (www.oregonlive.com)

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Cost of ‘War on Terror’ could rise to $2.4 trillion –Congressional Budget Office expects the funds would keep 75,000 troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next 10 years.

Oct 24 2007

The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and anti[pro]-terrorist efforts abroad could cost the country $2.4 trillion over the next ten years, according to a report Wednesday. The money, over 70 percent of which would go to support operations [mercenaries] in Iraq, includes the estimated $600 billion spent since 2001, Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag said in testimony before the House Budget Committee.

At:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/24/news/economy/cbo_testimony/?postversion=2007102412

From: CLG News

Trillion-dollar war: Afghanistan and Iraq set to cost more than Vietnam and Korea

Oct 24 2007

President [sic] George Bush will have spent more than $1 trillion on military adventures by the time he leaves office at the end of next year, more than the entire amount spent on the Korean and Vietnam wars combined. There are also disturbing signs that Mr Bush is preparing an attack on Iran during his remaining months in office. He has demanded $46bn (£22.5bn) emergency funds from Congress by Christmas and included with it a single sentence requesting money to upgrade the B-2 “stealth” bomber.

At:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3090340.ece

From: CLG News

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Newspaper Used as Slush Fund for Pentagon PR?

Source: Stars and Stripes, October 20, 2007

Allison BarberThe U.S. Defense Department Inspector General’s review of the “America Supports You” (ASY) program has widened to include the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes. “Both America Supports You and American Forces Information Service — the parent organization for Stripes — are headed by Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary for public affairs,” reports Stars and Stripes. In July 2006, the paper awarded a $499,000 purchase agreement to Susan Davis International, the PR firm for ASY. According to the agreement (PDF), the PR firm engaged in “scripting, taping and programming with celebrities, regional and national sports organizations, and specific business sponsors,” public service announcements and other outreach activities. A description of ASY’s dog tag program mentions the firm’s “considerable corporate outreach.” Stars and Stripes’ top editors said the agreement raised “extreme concern among editorial staff,” and promised to conduct a review of the paper’s reporting on ASY. “We were aware of some interaction between S&S marketing department and ASY, but were appalled to learn the degree of involvement and the use of Stripes finances to fund the Pentagon’s public relations campaign,” they added. Previous to the 2006 agreement, a Stars and Stripes contracting officer awarded $100,000 for ASY dog tags and arm bands. ASY has also been criticized for its involvement with evangelical programs.

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Caspian Summit: Putin Puts Forward A War-Avoidance Plan

Putin has grasped the fact that what the Cheney Crowd is threatening is World War

By Muriel Mirak-Weissbach

Global Research, October 22, 2007

The visit to Tehran on Oct. 16, by Russian President Vladimir Putin was officially billed as his participation in the second summit of the Caspian Sea littoral nations, convoked to deal with legal and other aspects of resource-sharing in the oil-rich waters. Although that summit did take place as scheduled, and important decisions were reached by the leaders of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Iran, the main thrust of Putin’s visit was another: The Russian President’s trip–the first of a Russian head of state since the 1943 Tehran conference of war-time powers–was geared to register his government’s commitment to prevent a new war in the region, at all costs. That new war is the one on the strategic agenda of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, against Iran.

Putin’s participation in the summit, especially, his extensive personal meetings with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, constituted a spectacular gesture manifesting Russian support for war-avoidance factions in the Iranian government, in their showdown with Cheney’s neocon war party. As one Iranian political source put it, Putin’s visit was tantamount to saying to Washington: If you want to start a war against Iran, then you have to reckon with me, and that means, with Russia, a nuclear superpower. Perhaps not coincidentally, Putin right after his return to Moscow, stated in a worldwide webcast press interview, that his nation was developing new nuclear capabilities. His Iran visit was, as one Arab diplomat told me, a message to the warmongers in Washington, that Russia is still (or again) a superpower, and is treating the Iran dossier as a test for its status as a great power.

The Caspian Sea summit was, in and of itself, productive. Although the legal status governing the sharing of the sea’s resources, was not solved, the points agreed upon in the final document of the summit constitute a great step forward in cooperation among the participating countries. Most important, the summit explicitly rejected the possibility that any one of its countries could be used for mounting aggressive acts against Iran, or any other country. It also explicitly endorsed the right of all countries to the peaceful use of nuclear energy. There was no mention of “concerns in the international community” about possible military applications of Tehran’s program, or the like.

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