02-03-09
- When Silence Can Be Catastrophic:
- Hiding China’s Bird Flu Outbreak May Lead to Global Catastrophe (theepochtimes) - A bird flu pandemic will give us no clear forewarning. By the time world health organizations have enough information on the number and distribution of human-to-human cases, the pandemic will already be around the world. Everyone should consider how to protect self, family, and whoever from contagion by the virus if it does go pandemic. Last minute decisions could be extremely costly. Maintain a supply of those food and non-food items you would need to have for two to three months if delivery systems shut down because of sick and absentee workers. This even includes household water, sewage disposal, electric and heating needs. Decide whether you are going to have an indoor pet or an outdoor pet -- you can't have it both ways, because dead birds outside and infected bird droppings or even droppings dust could possibly infect your pet, allowing it to infect you. Get started if you haven't already. If we hear on our evening news one day that it has gone pandemic, the store shelves will empty immediately. Plan ahead. Check the news on a daily basis on H5N1 and "human-to-human transmission" as search terms in order to maintain a sense of the current level of danger. Don't wait for that awful news announcement to finish your supply storage and your 'stay healthy' plan. Learn about avian flu pandemic preparedness and stay ahead of it.
- Bigotry on Parade:
- California high court to hear Prop. 8 case March 5 (sfgate) - The Court will then have 90 days to issue its decision.
- Economic Shakedown:
- The real fight starts after the stimulus is enacted, by Robert Reich (salon)
- It’s Not Going to Be OK, by Chris Hedges (commondreams) - "The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time."
- Military-Industrial Complex:
- How Taxpayers Finance Fantasy Wars, by Chalmers Johnson (tomdispatch) - "Mullen wants, instead, to raise the annual defense budget in the worst of times to at least 4% of GDP. Such a policy is clearly designed to deceive the public about ludicrously wasteful spending on weapons systems which has gone on for decades. . . . It is hard to imagine any sector of the American economy more driven by ideology, delusion, and propaganda than the armed services."
- Those who seek justice do so in vain (independent.co.uk)
- Conflict of Interest:
- Don't Mourn for Daschle, by John Nichols (thenation) - Good riddance!
- Appointing Judd Gregg to the Cabinet is bad policy and bad politics for Democrats. (thenation)
- By courting the Republicans, Obama could get the worst of all worlds (guardian.co.uk) - "But while it makes sense as a process, as a principle bipartisanship is worthless, since it depends entirely on who you are engaging with and to what purpose. The war in Iraq, the war on terror and the deregulation of the economy were all bipartisan efforts. All have been disastrous. Many Democrats went along with these things not because they thought they were good for the country, but because they believed that not to do so would be detrimental to their party."
- FLASHBACK: Now They're All For Bipartisanship, by Molly Ivins 11-15-06 (alternet)
- Liberal Media:
- The L.A. Times, Obama & Renditions, by Glenn Greenwald (salon) - "The L.A. Times article is wildly exaggerated and plainly inaccurate."
- Lenticular Clouds Above Washington (apod)
