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01-17-09 - 200,000 US veterans sleeping homeless on the street every night (democracynow). How many flag-waving US war supporters with "Support Our Troops" stickers on their pickups and SUV's know or even care about this little bit of reality?
- Bailed-Out Firms Have Offshore Tax Havens, GAO Finds (washingtonpost). "Of the 100 largest public companies, 83 do business in tax-haven hotspots like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, where they can move their income into tax-free accounts," costing the US Treasury $100 billion a year in tax revenue. President Obama, if you want to help America out, close these tax loopholes for the very rich. See also my entry on 01-13-09 (Time For Tax Hikes).
- Media Hits & Misses of the Last 8 Years (Laura Flanders, grittv.blip video). Good panel discussion of the so-called US liberal media's real character.
- House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers: Why We Have to Look Back (washingtonpost).
- Someone must stop Israel's rampant madness in Gaza (haaretz). As in Lebanon, Israel will stop its criminal warfare against the people of Gaza when they have reached the end of their bloody agenda in Gaza. Israel has lost all the moral high ground it may ever have had. The abusee has indeed become the abuser.
- The Blame Game In Gaza: Covering For Israel, Concealing War Crimes (Stephen Lendman, countercurrents)
- Al Jazeera now has a YouTube channel (youtube), if you want to watch a non-Israeli-biased perspective.
- IC 410 and NGC 1893 (apod). Like watching clouds, what do you see in it?
- Asteroid Flyby Today (1.3 km wide) (spaceweather), big enough but not close enough to buy a little more time for the human species in its mad plunge into self-extinction through massive overpopulation. Not this monster (youtube), but one that is somewhat smaller and less destructive. The one that extinguished the dinosaurs was an estimated 5 to 15 km wide. It is estimated that there are perhaps 100,000 to 1,000,000 undiscovered asteroids on Earth-crossing orbits (map of known asteroids).
01-16-09 - Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency (theonion video).
- The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating (nytimes)
- Paul Krugman: "If we whitewash the abuses of the past eight years, we’ll guarantee that they will happen again." (nytimes)
- Rick Warren is dangerous (youtube), like most of his Dominionist partners in their fervent efforts to install a theocracy in this nation. Good link to follow - The Yurica Report.
- In black-is-white US politics and MSM reporting of same (thewonkroom), terrorism is bad and condemned only if it is used against us or our allies, given a pass if we or our allies use it.
- Illinois' new U.S. senator: Roland Burris. Obama replacement seated after Senate Democratic leadership makes fools of themselves (boston.com)
- What was going on when? A news and forums aggregator (fark).
- Gaza Is a Concentration Camp (alternet). One Israeli official promised a holocaust in Gaza; it is impossible to keep pace with the death toll.
- -17 °F and still. Heat wave on its way: high of 31 °F forecast for tomorrow. Now entering our annual period of lowest average temperatures. The curve flattens out here for about two weeks, then gradually starts to work its way up till it flattens again in July. The days have been getting longer since the first day of winter. Nature is neutral and always on the move. It's only we who place emotional filters over what nature does naturally.
- ISS: Reflections of Earth (apod).
- International Space Station and other satellite observations schedule (heavens-above) - Example for Tokyo on Saturday evening beginning at 6:06 pm, overhead at 6:09 pm, into earth's shadow at 6:10 pm, southwest to northeast. Partly cloudy. Good luck.
01-15-09- Bush, the best terrorist recruiter in the world (americablog). Bush's entire war on terror has been a bogus, imaginary ruse, designed for one principal purpose--to give the monster political cover as he claimed greater and greater illegal power at home and abroad.
- The Hypocrite-in-Chief declares January 18 as 'National Sanctity of Human Life Day (thinkprogress). The millions of his very real victims (dead and displaced Iraqis, dead third-world AIDS victims deprived of cheap life-saving drugs by his patent-protecting trade agreements and deprived of condoms by his abstinence-only restrictions for US aid, the hundreds of thousands of civilians and soldiers seriously injured in his firecracker-in-the-frog adventures in the Middle East, dead US children and parents without health insurance, dead and displaced Katrina victims, and millions of new poverty-stricken families worldwide--victims of his rapacious economic and deregulatory policies) probably would not take his sanctimonious pronouncement very seriously.
- Displeased with Utah (aka Mormon bigots), gays cancel a big ski trip (americablog). Let's see more of this till it snowballs all over that bigoted state.
- Suspension Bridge Solargraph (apod)
01-14-09 - Cat's Paw Nebula (apod) - Halo of the Cat's Eye Nebula (apod).
- Looks so much like Little Miss Personality Plus (bandofcats), just lighten some of the black color in her fur.
- Among the smartest of animals - Why Do Cats . . . ? (sniksnak)
01-13-09 - Dixie Chicks "Not Ready To Make Nice" at Grammy Awards 2007 (youtube)
- Tear down the George W. Bush myth before it starts (philly.com).
- Gaza: Barack Obama’s Silence on Gaza (commondreams). Just how enthralled is Barack Obama to the neocons? It's beginning to look dismal on that front.
- Time For Tax Hikes (commondreams). US economic growth has been strongest when our taxes have been high on the richest members of society, the very richest. During World War II, then under Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, our upper marginal tax rates were between 88-92%. Read those numbers again. They are astonishingly high. Those were our strongest growth years. . . . During a depression or recession, the point where taxes are increased marks the point when the economy begins its recovery. When will the Great Appeaser ever grow such cajones?
- Global Warming: Half of world's population could face climate-driven food crisis by 2100 (grist). US not exempt as most of the country will be arid by then. Greatest gift to your planned, but still unconceived child: DON'T add to the planet's burden and DON'T bring another being into such a place of so much easily anticipated human suffering.
- Get in on the action: Climate Change Litigation in the US (arnold&porter pdf)
- Time magazine exposes "the myth of clean coal" (time). Clean Coal: This Is The Reality (youtube).
- Foes of Coal See Hope in Cancellation of Iowa Plant (commondreams)
- Coal Pollution: Hiding in Plain Sight (dailycamera)
- Wouldn'tcha know it: New Alaska Dem. Begich kicks off Congress with call for ANWR drilling (grist). This is further proof that an increased Democratic majority in the Senate doesn't mean it will be all rainbows and sunshine when it comes to environmental policy.
- Largest Moon of 2009 Over the Alps (apod)
01-12-09 - America's First Gay President Concludes Historic Second Term (theonion)
- Obama's choice for Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, not only supported East Timor genocide, but also now appears to have lied to congress later, whitewashing Indonesia's activities in East Timor (democracynow). See also my entry on 1-7-09 (Obama picks . . .).
- Gaza massacre: More images of what Israel's 100 to 1 payback looks like (globalresearch). Very graphic.
- Obama has swallowed hook, line and sinker the neocon talking points about Iran's nuke bomb efforts (salon). 2007 NIE pdf consensus of all 16 US intelligence agencies concludes that Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003--which Obama touted back then. Better to now parrot neocon propaganda than appear weak to Republican opponents. How far is the Great Appeaser willing to go for the sake of bipartisan unity? Where is the military-industrial complex (illustration) in all of this?
- Warren Pick Makes Us Ask: Will Obama Be Good for the Gays? (edgeboston). In a few days Obama's Warren inaugural insult to gays and to the rational world will be a fait accompli, except for the lingering resentment and distrust toward Obama among gays afterward. Warren never should have been chosen for such a significant symbolic occasion. Along with Obama's hiding behind mythical religion to justify his opposition to gay marriage, it gives a progressive pause.
- Patriots Question 9/11 - Criticize the Official Myth: Professors, Engineers and Architects, Pilots and Aviation and Aerospace Professionals, 9/11 Survivors and Family Members, and Artists, Entertainers, and Media Professionals stand up and speak out. How many generations do we have to wait to learn the official truth of this second step of the Bush-43 coup d'etat? Maybe in another life. Corporate news media are terrified of taking on such issues at a time when something can still be done. As in the case of JFK's murder, such official information exists solely for the purpose of being sealed until all the actors are dead of old age, then maybe longer or forever.
- Behind the Balfour Declaration: Britain's Great War Pledge To Lord Rothschild (ihr). And this is how the whole mess started.
- Unusual Light Pillars Over Latvia (apod)
01-11-09- Obama continuing to lay the groundwork for letting Bush criminals off scot-free (thinkprogress - washingtonmonthly - dailykos). The rule of law is dead -- except, that is, for the little guy -- who'd have guessed it. That's change we can believe in.
- Senators say no witch hunt aimed at spy agencies (afterdowningstreet). Just repeat, "I was only following orders."
- Note to Obama: This “Prosecute the Torturers” Issue Isn’t Going to Go Away (firedoglake Part I - Part II).
- WPost Again Flacks for Bush's Crimes (consortiumnews) "With only 10 days left before George W. Bush leaves office, the Washington Establishment – and its chief mouthpiece the Washington Post – are trying to stymie any meaningful accountability for the outgoing administration and thus cover up for their own complicity in Bush’s crimes and incompetence." -Robert Parry
- France bans advertising of mobile phones to children (theindependent), new limits will be placed on radiation levels amid fears of increased risk of cancer from phone use. Other nations have issued warnings. How far behind will the big-business-biased FDA be unless Obama revamps it completely? Light years.
- Bill Moyers' sober, fact-based, even-handed video essay on Israel/Gaza (salon).
- Naomi Klein says, "Enough. It's time for a boycott" against Israel, similar to the global BDS movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa (guardiain.co.uk). Since 2006 Israel has been steadily escalating its theft and bloody criminality against Palestinians, yet enjoys broad international backing, and that backing must be stopped by people and organizations of conscience all over the world imposing broad boycotts and implementing divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. It is time for that movement to begin.
- UN: One-third of Gaza dead, injured are children (yahoo/ap).
- Getting away with murder (smh). Israeli PR flacks: killing children was an act of self-defence.
- At Least 860 Palestinians Killed, Israel Says Bombings Will Continue (voanews)
- NYTimes Wrong: US Did Sell Israel Bombs for Iran Attack (firedoglake). Now using some of 1000 purchased US bunker busters in Gaza.
- In the Shadow of Saturn (apod)
01-10-09- Obama set to nominate another What-Is-It? as his new regulatory czar (wonkroom). What's in the henhouse now!? Honestly, I don't know how much more of Obama's "inclusiveness" I can take! Just two examples of Cass Sunstein's classic mind: 1) He argued that it “might be better” to help future generations deal with global warming by “including approaches that make posterity richer and better able to adapt” than by “reducing emissions” and 2) He raised questions about the value of cleaning up Love Canal, reducing arsenic in drinking water and using child restraints in automobiles. Where to they dig up these saviors of our broken nation? Please Mr. President-Elect, go back and pray some more for the right kind of guidance. No, on second thought, don't pray - that doesn't work. Ask some progressive experts for help, that is, if you're even talking to progressives.
- PEBO (Obama) Wants AEI Libertarian Opposed to Product Bans Deciding OMB’s Health and Enviro Rules (firedoglake)
- Right-wing evangenital religious whackos strike again, anointing with oil the walkways and doors Barack Obama will use on his way to the platform where he will be sworn in. (rightwingwatch). Questions: Did they drop any banana peels along with that oil? Was the oil recently appropriated Iraqi oil? If their god-babble is so effective, does that mean that is why the world is in such a mess--because that is what they prayed for?
- Oklahoma First To Push Flat Earth Legislation in 2009 (liberalvaluesblog). Would have public school science teachers "help" students understand "scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories." The topics specifically identified as controversial are "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning." (washingtonmonthly). I wonder if these are the same whiz kids who got the Genius-in-Chief to insist that teachers in his fed-funded abstinence-only sex education classes, when discussing condoms could only teach them as ineffective failures (actually, not unlike himself and the evangenital religions that promote such garbage). Gee, is it any wonder that sex-illiterate victims of these programs have more unwanted pregnancies than properly educated kids (starbulletin)? --- Hmmm, is there any provision in the Constitution about what to do with a "failed state" within the United States? Can we break it up like a failed investment bank and sell off its various parts?
- Martian Sunset (apod)
