Friday, July 10, 2009

07-10-09
  • Steal That Vote:
    • Groups say states violating voter registration law (usatoday) -- Widespread state violations target most likely Democratic voters - keep them away from the polls - when you have what is really a minority voting population, such as the Republicon Party, you have to prevent Democratic voters from voting, then rig the voting system in every way possible. A vast conspiracy? You bet! And it has worked in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008, except in 2006 and 2008, the winning candidates simply overwhelmed the vote tally manipulators. They'll be there in 2010 and 2012, but Obama's consistently broken promises and continuation and advancement of the Bush agenda will hurt Democratic chances of overcoming the Republican election stealing machine as they did in 2006 and 2008. All the Republicons need is the public perception that the candidates are very close, if not too close to call, in the polls. The right-leaning MSM will do their best to promote that perception. The machine does the rest.
  • The Phony War on Drugs:
    • Open letter to Congress: End the insane drug war now! (onlinejournal)
  • What it means to have a Bush - ANY Bush - in the White House or other position of authority:
    • New Evidence that Bush Administration Impeded 3 Investigations into Alleged Massacre of Up to 2,000 Prisoners in Afghanistan (digby)
  • The United Police State of America:
  • Lendman doesn't give Obama very good overall marks so far - WOW !!!
    • HR 2749 - An Agribusiness Empowering Act (sjlendman)
  • The Greatest Theft of All Time:
    • Robert Reich: When Will The Recovery Begin? Never. (robertreich) "All we know is the current economy can't 'recover' because it can't go back to where it was before the crash. So instead of asking when the recovery will start, we should be asking when and how the new economy will begin."
    • Credit card firms try out new squeeze tactics (msnbc)
  • Global Broiling:
    • Rising ocean temperatures near worst-case predictions (watoday/au) "The ocean is warming about 50 per cent faster than reported two years ago . . . ."
    • However unlikely success might be, we can't afford to abandon efforts to cut emissions - we just don't have any better option (guardian/uk) "Yes, it is true that mitigation has so far failed. Sabotaged by Clinton, abandoned by Bush, attended halfheartedly by the other rich nations, the global climate talks have so far been a total failure. The targets they have set bear no relation to the science and are negated anyway by loopholes and false accounting. . . . On current trajectories we'll be lucky to get away with 4C. Mitigation (limiting greenhouse gas pollution) has failed; now we must adapt to what nature sends our way. If we can. . . . The IPCC also finds that, above 3C of warming, the world's vegetation will become 'a net source of carbon'. This is just one of the climate feedbacks triggered by a high level of warming. Four degrees might take us inexorably to 5C or 6C: the end - for humans - of just about everything." Also see my 05-21-09 entry (The latest MIT . . .).
    • Only 49% of Americans believe humans responsible for climate change, study finds (guardian/uk) -- Frogs a'simmerin'.
    • Top Climate Scientist Dr. James Hansen Calls Obama's Climate Bill "less than worthless" (huffpo) "Let's pass a bill, any bill, now and improve it later, they say. The real naïveté is their belief that they, and not the fossil-fuel interests, are driving the legislative process. The fact is that the climate course set by Waxman-Markey is a disaster course. Their bill is an astoundingly inefficient way to get a tiny reduction of emissions. It's less than worthless, because it will delay by at least a decade starting on a path that is fundamentally sound from the standpoints of both economics and climate preservation."
  • No, Virginia, Man Is Not the Center of the Universe:
    • The Pillars of Eagle Castle (apod)
Posted by at