12-30-08
- US government still investigating the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster (nyt). Where are the continuing government investigations of the 9/11 coup d'état?
- Obama takes time out from his vacation to condemn Illinois governor for filling his vacant senate seat, but has no comment on Israel's barbaric ongoing attacks on Gaza's general population.. Now, that's change we can believe in! But maybe he's just thinking it all over for awhile before making some very humane, judicious remarks later. Does anyone remember that Obama rushed directly from his nomination in Denver to speak next morning at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington?
- Fuel Efficiency Standards by Country Table from An Inconvenient Truth - US automakers should be forced to improve mileage efficiency drastically or be sold to foreign automakers who will. And auto-industry-shill Congressman John Dingell should be unceremoniously kicked out of the halls of congress for fighting improved fuel efficiency standards in congress for so many years. The damage he has done to this country and the planet is immeasurable.
- Bush was as ignorant of foreign affairs as Sarah Palin (ap) - More White House oral history (vanityfair) - Republicans have tragically proven themselves too criminally irresponsible to ever hold political power in this country again -- at ANY level. (IMHO)
- Over One Million Violent Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation (projectcensored), (orb) surpassing the Rwandan genocide of 1994. (Project Censored's #1 Censored Story for 2009) These one million deaths, along with those of the fallen soldiers of the so-called "coalition of the willing" are on the heads of every one of the five proactive Republican supreme court justices/operatives who placed George W. Bush on the throne, and every neocon and willing or frightened politician who aided and abetted Bush in the criminal actions that shoved this nation into such an unholy misadventure. Bush says he sleeps very well at night. Would he if his life were hanging in the balance in a trial for his heinous abuse of power?
- Project Censored's Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009 (projectcensored)
- Scientific American's 10 Biggest Science Stories of 2008 (sciam)
- Pakistan says India moves troops toward shared border (cbcnews)
- Palestinian Lives for Israeli Votes (Tariq Ali, guardian.co.uk) - George Washington's warnings and U.S. policy towards Israel (Glenn Greenwald, salon) Beltway orthodoxy: whatever Israel does is absolutely right and the US must fully and unconditionally support them. 70% of Americans reject this viewpoint. Congress ignores this fact just as they did similarly high numbers of Americans who wanted us out of Iraq. George Washington: "The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave" producing "a variety of evils." Glenn's one must-read article on the Israeli-Gaza conflict: Gaza the logic of colonial power (guardian.co.uk) - Why Are Palestinians Expected to Do What Americans Would Never Do? (firedoglake)
- Obama is considering another cash stimulus of $140 billion (ap), going to US workers who actually still have jobs, even though history shows such giveaways do NOT stimulate the economy, because the money more often than not goes to purposes other than buying new 'stuff'. Also, since so much of our new 'stuff' is imported from 3rd-world countries where workers earn pennies for their labor, much of the money that is spent on our new 'stuff' actually goes to foreign businesses and to wealthy US owners of foreign businesses, not generally to US workers, thus effectively exporting the stimulus money while further enriching some retail owners such as Walmart's Walton family, who already collectively have as much money as the US's poorest 120 million people combined. The middle class has indeed been financing the plutocrats who pull our strings in almost every significant way. Since that oligarchy also pulls the strings of government, they have also engineered the tax code through Republican and Democratic administration alike to favor themselves and shift to everyone else the financial burden of running our country and maintaining our bloated and very expensive military empire. Obama promised repeatedly to change Bush's tax pampering of the rich. Now, he has already indicated he plans to renege on part of that promise by allowing Bush's misbegotten tax giveaways to continue undisturbed, rather than end them as he promised and use the money for sorely needed domestic programs. This $140 billion will not produce many new desperately needed jobs. It will add pocket money to those Americans lucky enough to still have payroll deductions in their lives. On the other hand, give financial relief to ALL lower-middle-class and poor Americans - YES. They will spend it immediately on the necessities of life. Start turning the tax code back against those well-heeled oligarches who have raped the middle class and the US Treasury for decades - YES. Make the tax code equitable for all - YES. Will Obama's handlers ever allow him to do that? Do T-Rexes still eat dogs in San Diego?
- AC/DC Levi's 501 Ads (youtube Straight - youtube Gay)
- Earth view from the ISS (apod)
