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03-07-09 - The Great Economic Shakedown:
- Krugman: Obama Is Dithering on the Economy - Quit Dithering (nytimes) -- Actions not matching his words.
- What the Great Republicon Recession Looks Like So Far (thinkprogress)
- When securitization blew up, so did the economy (onlinejournal) "This new 'securities-based' credit system emerged almost entirely in the last decade and had never been stress-tested to see if it could withstand normal market turbulence."
- Restore the Rule of Law - Obama Protecting the Guilty:
- Making Sure We Don't Get Full Justice: Karl Rove's testimony to Congress about the firing of US attorneys will obscure, not reveal, the truth of the past eight years (guardian/uk)
- Obama lawyers argue to drop Yoo torture suit (sfgate)
- George Bush could be next on the war crimes list at The Hague (nzherald/nz) "the principle of law used to issue an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir could extend to former US President Bush over claims officials from his Administration may have engaged in torture by using coercive interrogation techniques on terror suspects." -- No doubt Obama would do everything possible to protect the monster.
- Our 'Liberal Media':
- Media Blackout on Single-Payer Healthcare (commondreams) "Though more than 60 lawmakers have co-sponsored H.R. 676, the single-payer bill in Congress, Obama has not expressed support for single-payer; both the idea and its advocates were marginalized in yesterday's healthcare forum. But given the high level of popular support the policy enjoys, that's all the more reason media should include it in the public debate about the future of healthcare." -- NOT change we can believe in. More of the same greedy laissez-faire capitalist insurance and pharmaceutical company influences that have produced the high-priced disaster in the first place. Obama is enthralled to them.
- Israeli Apartheid of Palestinians - It Only Gets Worse:
- East Jerusalem Settlements Ratchet Up Tensions (ips)
- Israel's Nuclear Weapons (opednews) "what nobody wants to talk about is the fact that Israel has had a secret nuclear weapons program for over 30 years that has produced well over 200 nuclear bombs"
- A Flash of Sanity:
- Obama Ends Bush Ban on Embryo Stem Cell Research (guardian/uk)
- Comet Lulin and Distant Galaxies (apod)
03-06-09 - Our 'Liberal Media':
- Judith Miller, Formerly Top Reporter for the New York Times: Give Iran Talks ‘The Good College Try’ But ‘Military Action’ Needed If They Fail (thinkprogress) "As New York Magazine noted in 2004, 'During the winter of 2001 and throughout 2002, Miller produced a series of stunning stories about Saddam Hussein’s ambition and capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction…almost all of which have turned out to be stunningly inaccurate.'” -- Hmmm, seems like I saw somewhere that the CIA has dozens (if not many more - and can anyone say "Operation Mockingbird") agents embedded in both influential and uninfluential positions in the major media. I also read somewhere a reporter's question whether Miller might not have just such an association. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that lying warmonger Miller is a CIA agent. I have no idea whatsoever about any of that. Just that as she was inaccurately cheer leading Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq for months for the New York Times, and now from neocon multibillionaire Rupert Murdoch's lying Faux News, she is once again cranking out her yarns -- only this time it's about Iran. Wouldn't the despicable neocons love to saddle Obama with another war! And, of course, the armaments makers would be perpetually orgazmic about it all.
- Republicon Lying Troglodytes:
- Coburn: I’m Willing To Go To Jail To Save Conscience Clause (wonkroom) -- Well, I say "Bring it on!" Send the whole damned lot of them to jail, where they already belong for a lot of other good reasons, the least of which are treason for aiding and abetting Bush's illegal dictatorship, his illegal invasion of Iraq and his torture policies.
- Great Drug-Addict Slob Leader of the Republicon Party: Rush Limbaugh -- A clear difference between Republicons and Democrats is very apparent here. If Democrats used the same tactics that Republicons have for years, we'd be seeing a glaring headline such as "Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove in Freak Head-On High-Speed Crash on Lonely, Deserted Highway: Authorities baffled at the coincidence, but declare no foul play was involved." I guess that shows pretty clearly where CIA loyalties come down.
- The Great Global Warming Denial Shakedown:
- After His Climate Denial Machine Is Exposed, Jim Inhofe's top aide Marc Morano Will Leave Senate Post (wonkroom) "Morano joined the Senate, with a $134,000 a year salary, from the rightwing [Scaife-owned] website Cybercast News Service (CNS), where he launched the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in 2004 and attacked the war record of Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) in 2006. Morano was Rush Limbaugh’s “Man in Washington” in the 1990s. Limbaugh, of course, still promotes global warming denial."
- REVEALED: Marc Morano’s Pack Of Climate Denial Jokers (wonkroom)
- The Great Economic Shakedown:
- Krugman takes apart the Bernanke-Geithner plan on creating a market for toxic assets (nytimes)
- Crescent Moon and Venus (apod)
03-05-09 - It's not who votes that matters, but who counts the votes:
- E-VOTE BOMBSHELL: Diebold Tabulator Drops Votes, Allows Undetectable Audit Log Deletion (bradblog) "That's right. The Diebold/Premier vote tabulation system in question, not only fails to record all events accurately, and sometimes at all, it also allows for anyone with access to the system, to completely delete audit logs, covering the tracks of any tampering that may have occurred, at any time, on the system."
- German High Court: E-Voting Unconstitutional (bradblog)
- See also my 02-05-09 entry (Election Theft - HAVA . . . )
- Democrat pols in D.C. seem as dumb as rocks when it comes to doing what is necessary to assure free and fair elections. They continue to be enthralled by technical, electronic solutions when the only real solution is old fashioned: The only safe way to vote is with a marker - on a paper ballot - that is placed in a clear, always-visible ballot box - and is hand-counted at the same polling place at the end of the day in full close-up view by public observers -- nationwide. Repeal HAVA and replace it with comprehensive modern legislation that takes the electoral processes out of the hands of corporations and puts them back into the hands of local citizens -- WITHOUT ELECTRONIC CONTRIVANCES. Couple this with comprehensive, NATIONWIDE CONFORMITY of all federal, state and local laws so they promote electoral participation and make it VERY, VERY COSTLY for any individual or governmental body to try in any way to disenfranchise a voter of his right to vote.
- IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula (apod)
- Doomed Comet (spaceweather Commentary - Movie) -- Watch its final plunge into the sun. I observed one of these little guys when I first began watching SOHO time lapse movies daily several years ago. No specific mention of it was ever made by SOHO of the one I saw, just general information that it happens very often. This is probably how Earth first accumulated its vast supply of water -- and probably still does daily -- though now from much, much, much smaller snowballs.
03-04-09 - Unveiling the Matrix:
- Lendman: Capitalism on Trial (sjlendman)
- Our Worst Enemies Aren't Terrorists: Rethinking National Security on a Sinking Planet (alternet) "The typical American meal travels, on average, 1,000 miles to get to your plate. The wheat in your burger bun may be from Canada, the beef from Argentina, and the tomato from Chile."
- Only in an Administration of Adults:
- Obama Restoring Endangered Species Act Provision (washingtonpost)
- FEMA:
- Digby: No Job Search At The Arabian Horse Shows (digbysblog) -- Qualified FEMA director named. -- Too bad he'll also be the one we blame when hungry, pissed-off, jobless Americans start rioting, as has already happen in Europe, Africa and Asia - and protesters start disappearing into "immigrant detention centers." See also my 01-30-09 entry (Project Censored's # 6 story . . .)
- Competence Returns to FEMA (firedoglake)
- FCC:
- Obama's FCC Pick Another Good Sign for Open Media (huffingtonpost) -- Looks like a protector of net neutrality -- but how does he feel about media consolidation and its effects on an informed electorate?
- Don't Drink the Water and Don't Breathe the Air: Tom Lehrer
- 10 Things We Didn’t Know About Food (timesonline/uk) "How the authors of the new Rough Guide to Food lost their appetites for the food industry"
- Military-Industrial Complex:
- Israelisch Reich vs Palestinian Vermin:
- More and More Israeli's Favor Separation of Arabs from Israelis (alternet)
- Lendman: Human Rights in Israel and Palestine (sjlendman)
- Restore the Rule of Law:
- The International Criminal Court Speaks (wonkroom) "The International Criminal Court, or ICC, has issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President, Omar al-Bashir, on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes."
- G. W. Bush: Dictatorship Fine - "Just So Long As I'm the Dictator"
- Horton: The Period From Late 2001-January 19, 2009, This Country Was A Dictatorship (georgewashington2)
- Leopold:: Justice Memos Gave Bush Total Power (consortiumnews) "Lawyers for George W. Bush’s Justice Department asserted that the President had unlimited powers to prosecute the 'war on terror' on American soil and could ignore constitutional rights, including First Amendment freedoms of speech and the press and Fourth Amendment requirements for search warrants, according to nine secret memos just released."
- Parry: How Close the Bush Bullet (consortiumnews) -- Well, it was not just idle joking. He WAS dictator from shortly after 9/11 until Obama's inauguration. In a just and rule-of-law world, these guys would be kicking helplessly at the air for a few very long moments.
- Cohn: Newly Released Secret Memos Provide the Blueprint for Bush's Police State (alternet)
- Wolf: John Yoo's Legal Groundwork for Subverting the Republic (commondreams)
- Greenwald: The Newly Released Secret Laws of the Bush Administration (salon)
- Equality for All Under the Law:
- Same-sex spouses put DOMA on trial (boston.com)
- Married Same-Sex Couples Denied Thousands Of Dollars In Vital Federal Benefits And Protections (wonkroom)
- Fundies the Same the World Over:
- Malaysia revives ban on Christian use of "Allah" (alarabiya)
- Saturn in View (apod)
03-03-09 - Barack's Gang - A Flash of Insanity in an Insane World:
- A Flash of Sanity in an Insane World:
- The Great Economic Shakedown:
- Robbin' the Hood (opednews)
- Change for the Worse (opednews)
- Enough of Everything but Dollars - The Money Party at Work (opednews)
- Military-Industrial Complex:
- Tariq Ali: Pakistan's Drift into the Hands of Extremists (guardian/uk)
- Israeli Attrocities And Apartheid Against Palestinians: Israel Boycott Movement Gains Momentum (ips)
- It’s time for the madness to stop (onlinejournal)
- Restore the Rule of Law:
- Prosecuting the Bush Team? (fpif) "In view of the problems indicated here, it is unlikely that a criminal prosecution of the Bush advisors for their role in propagating torture will occur." -- My question about this article is: Is it designed to guide away from criminal prosecution because of partisan notions, or is it a fair and honest assessment?
- White House-RNC Self-Incriminating Email Backed Up in Chattanooga? (locustfork)
- Our 'Liberal Media':
- Is multi-billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch also a despicable homophobic bigot? Why Much of Asia Didn't Hear Sean Penn's "Homo-Loving" Speech or 'Milk' Writer Dustin Lance Black's Acceptance Speech (alternet) -- See also my 03-02-09 entry (Starve The Beast: . . . ) about some of his other wonderful attributes. What a great guy to have in this world! Reminds me somewhat of Hannibal Lecter. Brilliant man!
- The Helix Nebula from La Silla Observatory (apod)
03-02-09 - Folks, Face It. We Have Polluted Ourselves Out of Existence: China's far-sighted one-child policy was the most enlightened social policy that any country has adopted, that if extended to the whole world for a hundred years, could have averted the global broiling catastrophe that will now surely do most, if not all, of us in within the lifetimes of our unfortunate children and grandchildren. Just stating the probable facts. Annoying, aren't they? This is invariably what happens when commerce is divorced from social responsibility. Anyone for 40 more years of laissez–faire capitalism run by the greediest bastards in the universe?
- Floating Land-Fill in Central Pacific Ocean - As Large As the Continental U.S. (vbs.tv video in 12 parts) -- At least 100 million tons of floating debris -- mostly plastic -- and no way to remove it. Some enlightened oceanside cities have actually banned plastic shopping bags in order to prevent more bags from being washed down storm sewers and into the ocean. It's a small step, but it's a conscientious step. Most plastic does not decompose for up to a thousand years, but rather merely breaks up into ever smaller and smaller particles. Marine animals eat it, thinking it's real food, and die of malnutrition. Also, chemicals in the plastic are hormone disrupters, that can drastically alter the reproductive capacity of those marine animals that eat either the debris particles or those animals that have eaten it down the food chain.
- There is also a trash island in the Atlantic Ocean in the Sargasso Sea (geography.about)
- Our 'Liberal Media':
- Starve The Beast: The Wrath Of The Right (newscorpse) -- Neocon billionaire Rupert Murdoch pulling the strings of his mouthy, lying, possibly treasonous marionettes at Faux News. GE-owned propaganda subsidiaries only slightly better. Murdoch's mouthpieces have at least twice appeared to promote the assassination of President Obama via either Faux News direct comment or NY Post cartoon. Murdoch's propaganda was probably instrumental in promoting the illegal invasion of Iraq by the criminal Bush regime.
- High Cost of the Prison-Industrial Complex:
- One in Every 31 Adults in Prison; Prison Spending Outpaces All but Medicaid (commondreams, nytimes)
- Racism is Alive and Well in These United States of Many Colors:
- Holder's Much Touted Speech on Race Lets White People Off the Hook (alternet)
- Restore the Rule of Law - Justice for Lawbreakers:
- CIA Admits to Destroying More Interrogation Videos (guardian/uk) "Bush scandal resuscitated as pressure builds for Obama to support an investigation into the CIA's detention practices"
- Who Watched the 92 Torture Tapes Before the CIA Had Them Destroyed? (emptywheel)
- Military-Industrial Complex:
- It's Obama's War, Now (commondreams)
- Why Are We "Surging" into Afghanistan? (alternet)
- Defense Contractor Trying to Get Obama Killed (americablog) -- After all, it means more money in their pockets if they can get a another gunslinging cowboy into the Oval Office, like John McCain, for instance.
- CFR Professor Reveals Plot for Military Coup in 2012 (blacklistednews)
- Necon Richard Perle is a liar (foreignpolicy)
- Earthgrazer: The Great Daylight Fireball of 1972 (apod)
- Surprise Asteroid Just Buzzed Earth This Morning (nationalgeographic) -- 65 to 164 feet wide and 40,000 miles away - about the same size as the infamous Tunguska object in Siberia in 1908. That explosion knocked over an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometres (830 square miles) and knocked a man off his front porch 400 miles away. The asteroid this morning, however, traveling 12 miles/second, did not impact the earth - but will drop by again some other day, so they say.
03-01-09- Me and Mini-Me:
- U.S. Rushes to Aid of Israel: Says Canada, not Israel, is the top source of ecstasy (torontostar) -- Only yesterday Haaretz in Israel was reporting "Israelis at center of ecstasy drug trade."
- U.S. will not attend U.N. conference on racism (reuters) -- U.S. doesn't want the truth to be told about Israel's apartheid and atrocities against Palestinians.
- Military-Industrial Complex Can't Wait to Attack Iran:
- Iran has enough nuclear fuel to make bomb: U.S. (yahoo 03-01-09) -- Bush's generals and private military contractors can't get enough of shooting off their guns -- and raking in the awaiting billions of military dollars. So they constantly misrepresent what Iran's status is. -- Where have we heard this approach before?
- Iran NOT producing weapon-grade uranium: IAEA (thehindu 02-22-09) -- There is a monumental difference is the effort and time it takes to produce low-enriched uranium and high-enriched uranium. Even so, it's no different than N. Korea or Pakistan having the bomb. It protects them from the U.S. and ties the hands of the U.S. politicos who would otherwise like to threaten and control them. How much angst has the U.S. ever shown over Israel's possession of hundreds of nukes in their secret nuclear program? And the U.S. is quite happy to develop India's nuclear arsenal even further. Double standards make liars and hypocrites of us all. -- Furthermore, what would another war do to Obama's efforts to bring stability to the world the despicable conservatives have raped and pillaged since the earliest days of St. Ronald Reagan? More than likely Obama simply would not be able to find the money to execute the programs that could help heal the nation. Along with continuous corporate media lies about it all along the way, as now, that would be great fodder for the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns.
- Iran "not close" to nuclear weapon: Gates (reuters 03-01-09)
- Update 03-02-09: Bomb. Repeat (firedoglake) ''So deliberately absent from this discussion are a few minor facts - that Iran would have to 1) move the LEU out from storage in full view of international inspectors, 2) use a lot more centrifuges to enrich the uranium, which still won't be as good as highly-enriched uranium (HEU), 3) develop a nuclear warhead and prove it will work (maybe AQ Khan can help them), 4) develop a small enough nuclear warhead for a ballistic missile, and 5) convince the world that it wants to use its one nuclear weapon to blackmail Israel, Europe, and the United States. Sounds like a tall order."
- In Praise of Diversity:
- Self-Portrait in His 30's of World-Class Homosexual Leonardo da Vinci Teased From Pages of Codex (telegraph/uk) -- Oh, how he liked to hide images in plain sight! What would this world be like without the many great contributions of both Leonardo and the other great homosexuals and bisexuals of history, such as these, or these, or these, or these, or these. What a drab shroud our culture would indeed be if thousands of very productive gays had not made their vibrant contributions to its real tapestry. -- I have also long been of the opinion that if gay traits were ever one day successfully bioengineered out of human DNA, lacking the mitigating gentle influence of the usual gay personality intermingled throughout the population, violence-dominated straights might be likely to wipe each other out in short order.
- Leftward Ho!
- Bolivia Ratifies New Constitution Returning Power to the People (upi) -- What a novel idea! Do you suppose it could catch on in the good old United Police States of America, Inc., where corporations have more rights and power than the people?
- That 'Phony War on Drugs':
- Legislation to Overhaul New York's Rockefeller Drug Laws Moves Ahead Swiftly (nytimes) -- It's a start. Maybe saner minds will prevail and begin to give this move nationwide momentum. For far too many years, legislators have taken the most cruel and easy of paths: setting mandatory sentencing limits on drug offenses, thus overburdening our prison system for minor crimes and exploding our prison population to the largest of any in the world. Oh, but what a profitable boost to the prison-industrial complex. You don't suppose any of those profits have been recycled back into campaign contributions for political friends, do you?
- Tiresome, Hateful RW Religious Wackos - What Would We Ever Do Without Them?
- New Mexico Chooses Hatefulness and Intolerance (opednews)
- Omega Centauri: The Largest Globular Cluster Known (apod)
