A concrete failure. Why is a private company responsible for such an important safety issue? Why isn't a state agency in charge of such matters? Better ask your local Republican - Where's Rudy, America's Mayor, when you need him? / A promise made, and then broken. Many have attacked Obama over his funding decision, but read this and you may calm down a bit. / Anyway, this is worse, and I'm more pissed at Obama for supporting warrantless wiretapping. / Happy Birthday, Baby. / Time for a Green Industrial Revolution? / How Peggy Noonan won the Democratic primary (yes, it's a link to a Women's Wear Daily article, but it is nonetheless interesting, so pipe down already). / The 21 Club: Twenty One - the number of legislators in the 109th Congress investigated for corruption - that's almost 4%. And check the split; 17 Republicans, and 4 Democrats. The Democrats account for less than one percent, while the Republicans account for more than 3%. And a Republican is four times more likely to be a crook, or at least bend the rules so much as to get noticed. Way to go! Right on, America! Yeh! / Let's look at The Big Picture. / Everything seemingly is spinning out of control.
"Last week, scientists at Imperial College London confirmed that a meteorite called Murchison contained extra-terrestrial molecules that were the precursors to DNA and RNA." - Ivuna, made of the same stuff as the Sun.
Today, Andrew Sullivan linked to and commented on this article dated 18 October, 2007, by Jim Holt from the London Review of Books - and an excellent article it is. It appears that Holt was spot on; don't miss reading it.
Some former Bear Stearns managers get hedged in. The Congressional Democrats fall down again on surveilllance, and Laura Rozen asks a good question about it... not that anybody in Washington is listening (although the experience of the UK should give us pause). Glenn Greenwald weighs in on the subject. Mission Accomplished! - the US government has convinced the Iraqi government into giving away its future. That was the whole point of this long, drawn out exercise in nation-building, wasn't it? Meanwhile, back in the States, lots of "sensitive nuclear missile components" have gone missing. Oops! Afghanistan, graveyard of empires. Vice President Dick Cheney has been linked to torture tactics. "...there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account." A travel advisory to certain people in the Bush Administration.
Somewhere, the sun is shining...
Somewhere, the sun is shining...
The US is accused of war crimes. Phillippe Sands discusses Covering up the truth. Torture plans hatched in secret. Torture From The Top Down, by Scott Horton.
As we Americans face a shrinking economy with higher energy costs and turn our attention to the coming election season, we must remember how we came to this state of affairs, and those responsible for it. As Bill Moyers reminded us last week, Roger Ailes said the reason we went to invade Iraq was to ensure $20 per barrel oil. Gee... that didn't work out did it? Not exactly liberators, are we? Instead, we are now viewed as a pariah state, a malign influence on the world. How this came to pass is now a cottage industry, spawning endless books and analyses.
One issue stands above the rest: Torture. Here is a timeline from Salon on the history of the Bush Administration's support of torture. And while Gitmo still grabs the headlines, according to George Monbiot, Gitmo is nothing but a distraction from the larger horrors being committed in our names. Recent estimates state that the US has "detained" as many as 80,000 people worldwide at various black sites and on board ships far from the prying eyes of the Red Cross, the UN, Human Rights Watch, and reporters - and there are believed to be as many as 26,000 still in US custody. If Gitmo is any indication, a large number of the detainees are probably innocent, their lives wasted rotting in jail. Is there a better way to recruit a jihadi army?
Is this the America you want to give to your children and grandchildren? A country that secretly holds people indefinitely? A country that uses the prisons of the former Soviet Union to hold people away from the light of day? No matter how real and terrifying the threat of terrorism is, we must come to understand that the darkest, most frightening threat to our country has come from within. The malign reign of King George cannot end too quickly. Upon the election of a new president, we must not bury our heads in the sand and shrink from the responsibility of determining the truth of what happened in secret, and holding those responsible accountable for their actions. Then - and only then - will we be able to move forward and to protect this republic from such dark forces again.
One issue stands above the rest: Torture. Here is a timeline from Salon on the history of the Bush Administration's support of torture. And while Gitmo still grabs the headlines, according to George Monbiot, Gitmo is nothing but a distraction from the larger horrors being committed in our names. Recent estimates state that the US has "detained" as many as 80,000 people worldwide at various black sites and on board ships far from the prying eyes of the Red Cross, the UN, Human Rights Watch, and reporters - and there are believed to be as many as 26,000 still in US custody. If Gitmo is any indication, a large number of the detainees are probably innocent, their lives wasted rotting in jail. Is there a better way to recruit a jihadi army?
Is this the America you want to give to your children and grandchildren? A country that secretly holds people indefinitely? A country that uses the prisons of the former Soviet Union to hold people away from the light of day? No matter how real and terrifying the threat of terrorism is, we must come to understand that the darkest, most frightening threat to our country has come from within. The malign reign of King George cannot end too quickly. Upon the election of a new president, we must not bury our heads in the sand and shrink from the responsibility of determining the truth of what happened in secret, and holding those responsible accountable for their actions. Then - and only then - will we be able to move forward and to protect this republic from such dark forces again.
Wow!
Yoo've gotta be kiddin' me! Not quite Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, but interesting nonetheless. Department of Globalization and its Discontents: How my vendetta against the Benetton family was born, by Andrew Leonard. On the verge of peace? Believe it when I see it... "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong." Dark genius, or corrupt mastermind? We report, you decide!
So long, ol' chap!
Yoo've gotta be kiddin' me! Not quite Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, but interesting nonetheless. Department of Globalization and its Discontents: How my vendetta against the Benetton family was born, by Andrew Leonard. On the verge of peace? Believe it when I see it... "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong." Dark genius, or corrupt mastermind? We report, you decide!
So long, ol' chap!
Is it true that Marxism-Leninism is scientific?' 'No, surely not. If it were, they would have tested it on animals first.' - [old Soviet joke].
An essential truth - we were meant to nap. Start snoozing: It's good for you... A Beijing vs. Shanghai Architectural bake-off. BLDG BLOG has some time-lapse images by Alexy Titarenko - everything flows. This is amazing - scientists have experimented with a bacterium that eats waste and excretes petrol. Why bother to create a solution in the lab when it's so much harder to start a war for finite resources? I'm just sayin'... The Greatest Story Never Told. And when it comes to Bob Woodward, remember to follow the money.
Al Gore finally throws his weight behind the Obama campaign.
An essential truth - we were meant to nap. Start snoozing: It's good for you... A Beijing vs. Shanghai Architectural bake-off. BLDG BLOG has some time-lapse images by Alexy Titarenko - everything flows. This is amazing - scientists have experimented with a bacterium that eats waste and excretes petrol. Why bother to create a solution in the lab when it's so much harder to start a war for finite resources? I'm just sayin'... The Greatest Story Never Told. And when it comes to Bob Woodward, remember to follow the money.
Al Gore finally throws his weight behind the Obama campaign.
George W. Bush on his legacy. Yeh... and if you believe that, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
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