Friday, July 11, 2008
Life in a Carbon-Copy Town
What Dennis Has Done
By David Swanson
Imagine that you've not eaten a decent meal in months, that the hunger is squeezing and burning you from the inside, and that suddenly you find yourself at an 18-course feast of a dinner -- say perhaps at a summit meeting of world leaders discussing food shortages. You sit down at the table, and they bring in giant platters of the most delicious foods, building a rolling mountain chain of delicacies from one end of the table to the other. On Thursday, July 10, 2008, Americans, rich and poor, had this experience. Our national sustenance is found in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, and it's been many months that we've been deprived of them. In May of 2006, then House Speaker to be Nancy Pelosi had ordered impeachment "off the table." On Thursday, Congressman Dennis Kucinich put it back on, and we suddenly feasted our eyes on our recently lost Fourth Amendment, on our old staple Habeas Corpus, on our sweet Freedom of Speech, and on our bountiful right to be represented and hold our elected officials to the rule of law.
How did this happen? Millions of Americans made clear to Pelosi their demand for impeachment hearings for Cheney and Bush. And one member of Congress took unusual steps to bring impeachment back from exile. First Kucinich introduced 3 articles of impeachment against Cheney. Then he introduced 35 against Bush. And on Thursday he introduced a single article of impeachment against Bush charging him with misleading Congress into a war on Iraq. And in each case, Kucinich introduced his resolution on the floor of the House, forcing the issue into the media and public discourse, and forcing a vote by his colleagues.
Apparently feeling the pressure and reluctant to have Kucinich raise impeachment on a weekly basis, Pelosi told the media that she expected the Judiciary Committee to consider the matter this time, at least in some half-way sort-of-impeachment hearing. Kucinich held a press conference on Thursday at which he said that what he wants is an opportunity to present his proposals to the Judiciary Committee.
Imagine, for the sake of argument, that Kucinich gets what he's asking for or that Pelosi follows through on her statement in one way or another. The public pressure that has been building for over three years will have achieved a victory. The work of Judiciary Committee members led by Robert Wexler lobbying Chairman John Conyers to begin impeachment hearings will have contributed. But the proximate cause of Pelosi's restoration of impeachment to our public table will have been Kucinich's willingness to introduce impeachment resolutions.
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/34689
Sphere: Related ContentFish fossils plug hole in evolutionary theory
By Julie Steenhuysen Wed Jul 9, 1:48 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Some odd-looking fish fossils discovered in the bowels of several European museums may help solve a lingering question about evolutionary theory, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
The 50 million-year-old fossils -- which have one eye near the top of their heads -- help explain how flatfish such as flounder, sole and halibut developed the strange but useful trait of having both eyes on one side.
For flatfish, which lie on their sides at the bottom of the sea, this arrangement gives them the use of two watchful eyes.
But the trait has posed a problem for evolutionary biologists because no one had found any so-called transitional fossils -- fossils showing intermediate steps in the evolution of this trait.
"The important thing about this study is it delivers evidence of those intermediates," said Matt Friedman of The Field Museum and the University of Chicago, whose study appears in the journal Nature.
This missing link in the evolution of flatfishes has been seen as a hole in the theory of natural selection.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080709/sc_nm/fish_fossils_dc;_ylt=AiU0z_FYI_MZ4yy3VjFOMJADW7oF
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Bigfoot has a small carbon footprint
 | |
| July 10th, 2008 Because he lives a green lifestyle. It was environment week at News Groper. While that might sound a little dry, it most certainly wasn't. In a News Groper exclusive, Dick Cheney published the missing six pages of the climate report he tore out, Radiohead's Thom Yorke is optimistic that 42 more years of diplomatic pleasantries will solve global warming and Al Gore is sick of talking about the environment. (Much like you?)  What shop for photos? by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad You'd vote for McCain because of his pets? by Barack Obama Those six missing pages in the climate report by Dick Cheney  F--- Mario Lopez and his abs by David Hasselhoff This recession, like my hair, just needs an elaborate combover by Donald Trump Regards, The News Groper Editors | |
| News Groper is a network of fake parody blogs. | |
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Biofuels and the Global Food Crisis - Who Is to Blame?
U.S.-Brazil tension, a relatively recent development, resurfaced during the UN World Food Summit in Rome on June 3-5, encouraging the booming Brazilian sugar-based ethanol market to increase its new development projects. This rift represents a de facto counter move against the far less-efficient U.S. model predicated on corn-based ethanol production. Following the summit, Brazilian officials began a weeklong tour, stopping in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, during which they discussed a set of commercial agreements that will boost multilateral cooperation with several African countries. The trade agreements, projected to begin in 2009, include an expansion in ethanol investment, urbanism, air and sea transport, and cooperation in professional training between the two regions.
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In a statement that appeared in Brazzil magazine, Brazilian Secretary of Development Ivan Ramalho remarked that he hoped the meetings would enhance trade with other countries in order to diminish Brazil's over-reliance on the U.S. market. Brazil's recent trade initiatives with other developing countries have emerged largely due to the reluctance of some developed nations to lower trade subsidies. This impedes Brazil's ability to trade, adding significantly to the current debate over rising food prices. In an official statement released after the first set of meetings, Michel Alaby, Secretary General of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, called for solidarity among countries suffering from rising food prices and demanded that developed countries, especially the U.S. and Europe, eliminate international trade barriers in the agricultural sector (Brazzil Magazine). With the emerging agreements, Brazilian officials hope to call attention to the U.S.' highly inefficient corn-based ethanol production at the height of a snowballing food crisis. The government aspires to be a strong actor in the midst of the food crisis and plans to show the rest of the world the benefits of Brazil's efficient sugar ethanol market, while it professes to be executing projects stalling the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
http://www.coha.org/2008/07/biofuels-and-the-global-food-crisis-who-is-to-blame/
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Zen Of Midgets
The Japan G-8 summit photos offer a stunningly incongruous portrait of politics and nature.
One way to read the group shot involves the miniscule leadership displayed by world leaders just at the point the environment and climate change has moved to the forefront of the world agenda. To appreciate the larger tension in the photo, also consider that the leaders are actually sandwiched between the rock garden and Toyaka's massive Windsor hotel, this resort emblematic of the highest levels of consumption and wealth. (And, also notice how all of the male leaders except one thought to wear black this day.)
Similar to the first image, it is ironic to the point of blasphemy to see "W" -- someone so profoundly out of touch and detached from any true rhythm -- in such a blissfully meditative setting.
Courage Ain't Nothin' But A Six Figure Book Deal
by Paul Constant
The liberal Town Hall crowd applauded McClellan because he wrote a book titled What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception. It cautiously alleges the obvious: The United States government lied to its citizenry about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Some people are praising McClellan for being courageous. He isn't. And What Happened is not a good book. It's as bland, inoffensive, and generic as a political tell-all can be, and it contains exactly no insights or revelations. McClellan merely sold his story to the highest bidder because he is an opportunist and a fink.
In fact, McClellan is the worst kind of amoral snake-oil salesman, twisting with the shifting winds of public perception. If Bush's approval rating was above 50 percent, McClellan would still slither onto talk shows to praise the wisdom of the president's plan in the Middle East. He's the kind of idiot who actually says the word "irregardless" without any sense of irony.
But he does have the tireless, leg-humping energy of a used-car salesman, and I have never seen an author so shamelessly shill his work at every opportunity from the stage; practically every sentence referred back to his book, as though McClellan took a course on marketing before his appearance. He's obviously a spineless hack with a heart full of hate, but the Town Hall audience swallowed his bullshit so eagerly, their tickets should've come with bibs.
Media moguls meet at Sun Valley amid industry changes
By Sue Zeidler
SUN VALLEY, Idaho (Reuters) - The summer U.S. box office is sizzling due to hits like "Hancock" but Hollywood leaders focused on the chilling effects of industry change brought on by labor strife, fragmentation and new technology at the annual retreat of moguls this week.
Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp.
"The whole industry is in transition," said Anne Sweeney, co-chairman of Walt Disney Co's Disney Media Networks and President of Disney-ABC Television, as she left the morning session of the annual Allen & Co media confab in Sun Valley.
"I'd say that every day for the next five years, you have to track consumers and be adaptable," she said.
While the U.S. box office is on pace to top last year's record summer revenues of over $4 billion, industry watchers note the overall pie is being divided differently than a year ago as big studios such as Viacom Inc's Paramount have sought to cut risks but also profits by serving only as distributors of big films like "Iron Man" and "Kung Fu Panda."
Big studios are also facing oversupply as new, small players like Overture Films, Summit Entertainment, Weinstein Co and a repositioned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc have added films to the pipeline at a time of stagnating attendance and slowing DVD sales and an increasingly fragmented audience to the Web.
One speaker during the morning session of the conference predicted that DVDs were going the way of CDs, which have seen sales collapse with a wide-scale generational shift to digital downloading that the music industry has struggled to monetize.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Case Of The Invisible American War Machine
Last week, I thought there was something fishy about the photos from Amara, and now a new TIME article bears it out.
First, some background: In nearly every account of the push two weeks ago to clear out the Mahdi army from the southern city of Amara, the operation was described as an initiative of "Iraqi forces backed by US troops." Yet, in combing through the newswire images of the Amara action, I found a striking absence of involvement on the part of the Yanks.
...With one exception -- involving the first photo above, as part of that standard portrait of the "captured enemy weapons haul."
The fact the remote presence of an American GI commands first notice in the Getty caption seems almost too telling to ignore. It reads:
A US soldier stands in the background (L) as Iraqi police display a captured weapon in the southern city of Amara in Maysan province, 365 kilometers south of Baghdad, on June 18, 2008. Dozens of Shiite militiamen surrendered to Iraqi forces Today, hours before the expiry of a four-day deadline set by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for them to lay down their arms ahead of a new crackdown on militia in the south.
And the TIME article?
Well, stashed near the end of Monday's otherwise routine story about the Amara clean out ("Baghdad's Grasp on Iraq's South") was this passage on the American role, including a little nugget about the campaign's photo policy:
The offensive has been tough, Amara's commanders say, but they're not going it alone. Shortly after the morning's mission, four American soldiers visited al-Moussawi's station to inquire about progress made in dismantling an office used by the Sadrists. One of the soldiers, who said they were under orders to prohibit the press from photographing them, put the number of American troops brought into the area since last month at around 1,000. They are also building a new forward operating base in the area.
Indeed, despite a low profile, Harbia says the support provided by the U.S. forces has been a key component in Amara's success.
That General Petraeus, he's a PR genius.
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2008/07/amara-the-case.html#more
Atheist soldier sues Army for 'unconstitutional' discrimination'
/US KANSAS CITY, Kansas (CNN) -- Army Spc. Jeremy Hall was raised Baptist.
Like many Christians, he said grace before dinner and read the Bible before bed. Four years ago when he was deployed to Iraq, he packed his Bible so he would feel closer to God.
He served two tours of duty in Iraq and has a near perfect record. But somewhere between the tours, something changed. Hall, now 23, said he no longer believes in God, fate, luck or anything supernatural.
Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist.
His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety. 
In March, Hall filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others. In the suit, Hall claims his rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment were violated and suggests that the United States military has become a Christian organization.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/08/atheist.soldier/index.html
Sphere: Related ContentGOP club accused of racism for Obama web banner
By Cynthia Burton
The Web master, Ed Kuck, a recently elected Republican County committeeman, said he had seen the slogan on an Internet site and copied it onto the club's Web page about a month ago as "a joke."
He removed it yesterday from the site, http://homewebs.net/pem, after a community person told him it would offend people, he said.
"I found out it was inappropriate, and I took it down," Kuck said, adding: "I just want to apologize to anybody who was offended, because that wasn't our intention at all."
Pemberton Councilwoman Diane Stinney said a Republican friend had called to tell her about the ad, saying: "I just want you to know I'm very disappointed with our Republican page."
Stinney then reported it to fellow Democrats.
She said the slogan had offended her, adding that Pemberton is a very diverse community.
"We've come a very long way, and we people of different colors still have a lot of growing up to do, but there are other issues that the two [presidential] candidates have to and should be addressing," she said.
Rick Perr, chairman of the Burlington County Democratic Committee, said that, although the phrase was taken down, he preserved a copy of it.
Comparing U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee for president, "to O.J. Simpson, an accused murderer who was found civilly liable for his ex-wife's death, is reprehensible," Perr said in a statement. "Moreover, it is a veiled attempt at inserting race into the political arena, for which the Republicans should be ashamed."
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080709_N_J__GOP_club_accused_of_racism.html
State employee won't lower flags for Helms
U.S. and state flags have been flying at half-staff since Gov. Mike Easley ordered them lowered after Helms died Friday.
L.F. Eason III told his staff at the state Standards Laboratory to ignore the directive. The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that Eason sent workers an e-mail saying he didn't think it was appropriate to lower the flags because of Helms' "doctrine of negativity, hate, and prejudice."
Eason is calling it quits after 29 years with the Department of Agriculture after superiors told the 51-year-old to lower the flags or retire immediately.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/State_employee_wont_lower_flags_for_0709.html
Sphere: Related ContentNoah's Blog
Day 1
Rain.
Rain.
Day 2
Rain.
Day 3
Rain.
Day 4
Rain.
Day 5
Rain.
Day 6
So I was loading up the last of the animals last week when I walk past my neighbor Roger, the Molech-worshipper. He looks up and says "Hey, looks like rain."
True story.
Day 7
Now wondering if it was wrong to have borrowed Roger's hedge clippers.
Day 15
It's been the same every day for the last two weeks, but then last night, our mama elephant gave birth. I'll put up some pics soon.
Day 16
Just look at this little guy. We need to name him something. Anybody have an idea?
Day 18
Note to self: next time I'm on a long cruise and I want to play badminton and I only have one birdie, play below deck. I'm so stupid.
Day 20
I hesitate to write this down, but here goes. . . .
I was working late last night when I felt something bite the back of my neck. Without thinking, I slapped it. Long story short, the new world might have to do without the zhingi-zhingi fly.
Day 25
New Year's Day. A few resolutions for this year:
- Lose weight (let's face it, I'm not 300 years old anymore)
- Work out more
- Read the entire Bible (there's only four chapters in the whole thing, you think I would have done this one already)
-After we land, once a week: date night with the missus.
http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/noahs-blog
Sphere: Related ContentCow farts collected in plastic tank for global warming study
Scientists are examining cow farts and burps in a novel bid to combat global warming.
Argentine scientists are strapping plastic tanks to the backs of cows
Experts said the slow digestive system of cows makes them a key producer of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that gets far less public attention than carbon dioxide.
In a bid to understand the impact of the wind produced by cows on global warming, scientists collected gas from their stomachs in plastic tanks attached to their backs.
The Argentine researchers discovered methane from cows accounts for more than 30 per cent of the country's total greenhouse emissions.
A worthless gust of hot air
Taking part in a traditional Japanese Tanabata festival in Hokkaido this week, George Bush tied a piece of parchment to a bamboo tree. On the parchment, the President of the United States outlined his dearest wishes for the future of the planet. And there is evidence of yet more wishful thinking in the G8's communiqué on climate change from Hokkaido.
The leaders of the world's eight largest economies committed themselves to "avoiding the most serious consequences of climate change". They also set themselves a goal of halving global emissions by the middle of the century. It is hard to fault the target. But how is it going to be achieved?
There is no detail in the communiqué; no medium-term targets; no commitment to agreeing a legally binding successor to the Kyoto protocol at Copenhagen next year. There is not even agreement on the date from which CO2 cuts will be measured. The European Union is measuring its own targets from 1990 levels, but the Japanese Prime Minister spoke this week about using the considerably higher 2000 level as a benchmark. By far the biggest problem, though, is the lack of detail on the method. These leaders can set all the long-term goals they like, but without realistic means of achieving them, any document they produce will simply be a gust of hot air.
Should Bush be tried for war crimes?
The chorus demanding George Bush be prosecuted for torture and other constitutional abuses is getting louder
I had a good laugh when my friend Seth Gitell reported in the New York Sun on a campaign by the dean of the obscure Massachusetts School of Law to put George Bush and other top White House officials on trial for war crimes.
Lawrence Velvel, Gitell notes, wrote last month that his model was the Nuremberg trials held after second world war. Velvel went so far as to say that "we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top Germans and Japanese." Oh, my.
Though I found Velvel's apparently earnest quest as ridiculous as Gitell did, the idea of holding our leaders accountable for the crimes and constitutional violations of the past seven and a half years isn't ridiculous in the least.
We are less than a decade removed from impeaching a president and nearly relieving him of office because of a lie in a civil deposition about blowjobs. Yet when congressman Dennis Kucinich recently attempted to impeach Bush over torture, extraordinary rendition and other grotesque constitutional abuses, Kucinich's embarrassed fellow Democrats couldn't kill the measure quickly enough.
Why? Top Democrats are so complicit in what has happened since 9/11 that my guess is they dare not travel down that road. From voting in favor of the war in Iraq to holding the telecommunications companies guiltless for their role in spying on Americans (Barack Obama infuriated much of his progressive base by voting for immunity), the Democrats have often acted more as enablers than as a true opposition party. From their point of view, no doubt it's best to move on.
And yet we can't move on. Everywhere you turn, there are reminders of the demons that have been unleashed in the name of fighting terrorism. We are less democratic and less free than we were before Bush and Dick Cheney entered office following an election that they demonstrably did not win. If we don't come to terms with what happened, there's little chance of reversing our slide into authoritarianism.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/08/usa.warcrimes
A Tale of Two Cities
by caaron
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
And when it comes to broadband, Tokyo is a long way from Little Rock.
The Japanese enjoy broadband speeds that are up to 30 times faster than what's available here at a far lower cost. This faster, cheaper, universal broadband access – according to an excellent article in today's Washington Post – "is pushing open doors to Internet innovation that are likely to remain closed for years to come in much of the United States."
To the Japanese, our "high-speed" Internet service doesn't look much different from dial-up:
The speed advantage allows the Japanese to watch broadcast-quality, full-screen television over the Internet, an experience that mocks the grainy, wallet-size images Americans endure.
Ultra-high-speed applications are being rolled out for low-cost, high-definition teleconferencing, for telemedicine — which allows urban doctors to diagnose diseases from a distance — and for advanced telecommuting to help Japan meet its goal of doubling the number of people who work from home by 2010.
Open Secrets
What's the secret of Japan's success? Open access.
Less than a decade ago, DSL service in Japan was slower and pricier than in the United States. So the Japanese government mandated open access policies that forced the telephone monopoly to share its wires at wholesale rates with new competitors. The result: a broadband explosion.
http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2007/08/29/a-tale-of-two-cities/
The Mind and the Obama Magic
But before I get into the details, it is important to get a sense of why Obama might be "moving to the Right." There are at least three possibilities. The first is for political expediency. The second is to reassure voters that he is a responsible leader, not a crazy radical. The third is that he thinks that nuanced positions don't have the effect of the moving to the right.
Let's start with the first possibility -- expediency, the one assumed by most observers.
The Political Expediency Argument
The usual political wisdom is (1) voters vote on the basis of positions on issues, (2) there is a left-to-right spectrum of voters defined by positions on issues, (3) most voters are in the "center." Polls are constructed to appear consistent with this tri-partite hypothesis. The Dick Morris strategy, based on this hypothesis, says: if a Democrat moves the Right, he will get more votes because he will "take away" the other side's issues. If Obama and his advisors believe this, then the more they more to the Right, the bigger their win should be. But all three hypotheses are false, and so is the conclusion based on it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/the-mind-and-the-obama-ma_b_111105.html
It's Time to Vote: Choose Your Science Idol!
| This spring, to draw humorous attention to the serious issue of political interference in science, we offered Union of Concerned Scientists supporters the chance to enter Science Idol: the Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest. Please vote on the right for your favorite of the 12 finalists. You'll be entered to win some great prizes! Click thumbnail for full size version.
Voting will close on Friday, August 8, 2008, at 11:59 p.m. EST. |
http://ucsaction.org/campaign/science_idol_2008_vote/w363n3k4o7ewtbk3?
Sphere: Related ContentQuote of the day
"Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence."
- Robert Anton Wilson -
Ignored, Scorned, Belittled and ... Right
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Have you forgotten what real leadership and real straight talk look and sound like? No wonder.
Well here's a refreshing refresher course. Back in 1977 the much maligned, President Jimmy Carter, showed genuine leadership and political courage, two traits almost entirely missing from today's "leaders." Following the Arab oil boycott of 1973, Carter took a cold, hard look at world oil supplies and declared them a national security threat just waiting to happen. He laid out a vision of what must be done, and done quickly to avoid just such a threat to America's robust, but excessive, lifestyle. Carter, as was his wonkish wont, laid out both his vision and his solutions in painstaking detail in a prime-time television address.
It was filled with hard truths and bitter pills, neither of which pampered Americans had (and still have) no use for and conservatives scorn as "defeatism" and "surrender." On a ship of fools it's always "full speed ahead -- and stop with the iceberg business! Yahooooooo."
When I came across this speech yesterday I intended to only quote from it. That was until I began reading it. I simply could not stop. It could have been written yesterday.
Carter was prophetic in nearly every detail. And, like most prophets, his warnings were ignored -- ignored by the American people because it called on them to trim their consumption. And it was ignored by members of Congress because it required them to do something that, while the rigth thing to do, would have been unpopular. Genuine profiles in cowardice.
If you're one of those "damn the facts, full speed ahead" conservatives who still thinks Carter was wrong then and anyone making similar noises is wrong today, read this and tell me why it's so. But, before you start ragging on me about how all this could have been averted if only we'd drilled more in Alaska and offshore, click the link at the end of Carter's speech and read the pdf file linked on that page. I know conservatives like to live in fact-free, care-free, ignorance-is-bliss environment, but that reports contains facts you cannot ignore and still be right.
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Barack Obama should not move, or even appear to be moving, toward right-wing views on issues -- even with nuanced escape clauses. Arianna Huffington, Paul Krugman, and the NY Times Editorial Page all agree, for various reasons. I agree as well, for many of the same reasons, as well as important reasons that go beyond even excellent political commentary. My reasons have to do with results in the cognitive and brain sciences, as discussed in my recent book, The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st Century Politics with an 18th Century Brain.