New Levels of Censorship on Gov't Scientists? and Their Peer Reviewers?

What sort of danger is there for the public when politics interferes with the dissemination of scientific data and information? What if it is in regards to Public Health, Public Safety? What if politics gets in the way of the actual scientific findings even coming out?

Or worse yet, what happens when the studies done by scientists are falsified?

That might be the case, for instance, in the study of the water that seeps through Yucca Mountain where the federal government will place tons of radioactive waste material.

Can you imagine the impact of the true data on that being tampered with? It is a harrowing, but all too believable, scenario to think that Inconvenient Truths are swept aside for political reasons. But what are the costs to you and I in the end? What happens, say, if the great aquifer of North America becomes contaminated with radioactive material? What happens to you and I, or our children, or the plants and the animals?

There are news stories almost every day about something unexplained plaguing populations of birds and animals. And when scientists find the culprits, or go looking for them, they often begin and end their search with contaminates that have entered land and waterways by human hands.

If we are at the top of the food chain, we are dumping our most toxic waste into the very chain we will eat from. That isn't 'shitting where you sleep' that is 'shitting where you eat', a foul image but one that is disgustingly true.

Today's Article on the Government regulating the information that comes from our own Publicly funded Scientists...and the information that is coming from their Peer Reviewers, which means every other Scientist in the Country.

Today's Article on 1000 dead Mallard Ducks found alongside ONE stream. They don't know what is causing it, but they suffered and died from lesions on the lung walls and hemorrhaging of the heart.

Today's Article about a Wisconsin hunter that found a deer with 7 legs and both female and male sex organs.

Today's Article about sloppy use of scientific data in regards to opening up areas of Grizzly habitat in Idaho and WA. Now a federal judge has slapped down the government agencies in question and sent them back to the drawing board on their assessment of impact.

Yesterday's Article about the extinction of an entire species of fresh water Dolphin in China. A species that was with us not so long ago. Many more marine and fresh water animals are where the Yangtze White Dolphin was just a few years ago, which is now so much more clearly meaning on the verge of extinction.

Things That Make You Go BOOM

From the Seattle Times today...

Imagine, thousands of nuclear warheads sitting 20 miles from your home. Mmmm, that's a thought to warm the soul..

Full Article

Nearly one-quarter of America's 9,962 nuclear weapons are now assigned to the Bangor submarine base on Hood Canal, 20 air miles northwest of downtown Seattle.

This makes Bangor the largest nuclear weapons storehouse in the United States, and possibly the world.

Check It Out, Y'all

Truly Kick Ass Story

There is a recent story in the news of one of the first female spies, and what an amazing job she did during WWII.

It excites the imagination. I would love to read the biography.

In 1942, the Gestapo circulated posters offering a reward for the capture of "the woman with a limp. She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies and we must find and destroy her."

The dangerous woman was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore native working in France for British intelligence, and the limp was the result of an artificial leg. Her left leg had been amputated below the knee about a decade earlier after she stumbled and blasted her foot with a shotgun while hunting in Turkey.

The injury derailed Hall's dream of becoming a Foreign Service officer because the State Department wouldn't hire amputees, but it didn't prevent her from becoming one of the most celebrated spies of World War II.

Full Article

"Truthiness" is named Word of The Year

Hurray for Stephen Colbert and his finger on the pulse of...lexiconiphiliapopularis.

Full Article

After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is ... "truthiness."

The word — if one can call it that — best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.

"Truthiness" was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."

"We're at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs," said Merriam-Webster president John Morse. "`Truthiness' is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue."

Other Top 10 finishers included "war,""insurgent,""sectarian" and "corruption." But "truthiness" won 5-to-1, Morse said.

Colbert, who once derided the folks at Springfield-based Merriam-Webster as the "word police" and a bunch of "wordinistas," was pleased.

"Though I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honor me," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Who Needs Tazers When You Have This!

Rotten sent me a link to this article on Wired. It is all about a new 'non-lethal' weapon that has been in development by the department of defense. Picture something that emits waves of ... well, something like microwaves but actually the wave lengths are between a microwave and a radio wave.

It burns, it hurts, and it might just heat up your lunch while it is at it.

Here is the link to the Full Article

The crowd is getting ugly. Soldiers roll up in a Hummer. Suddenly, the whole right half of your body is screaming in agony. You feel like you've been dipped in molten lava. You almost faint from shock and pain, but instead you stumble backwards -- and then start running. To your surprise, everyone else is running too. In a few seconds, the street is completely empty.

You've just been hit with a new nonlethal weapon that has been certified for use in Iraq -- even though critics argue there may be unforeseen effects.

According to documents obtained for Wired News under federal sunshine laws, the Air Force's Active Denial System, or ADS, has been certified safe after lengthy tests by military scientists in the lab and in war games.

The ADS shoots a beam of millimeters waves, which are longer in wavelength than x-rays but shorter than microwaves -- 94 GHz (= 3 mm wavelength) compared to 2.45 GHz (= 12 cm wavelength) in a standard microwave oven.

The longer waves are thought to limit the effects of the radiation. If used properly, ADS will produce no lasting adverse affects, the military argues.

Documents acquired for Wired News using the Freedom of Information Act claim that most of the radiation (83 percent) is instantly absorbed by the top layer of the skin, heating it rapidly.

The beam produces what experimenters call the "Goodbye effect," or "prompt and highly motivated escape behavior." In human tests, most subjects reached their pain threshold within 3 seconds, and none of the subjects could endure more than 5 seconds.

"It will repel you," one test subject said. "If hit by the beam, you will move out of it -- reflexively and quickly. You for sure will not be eager to experience it again."

But while subjects may feel like they have sustained serious burns, the documents claim effects are not long-lasting. At most, "some volunteers who tolerate the heat may experience prolonged redness or even small blisters," the Air Force experiments concluded.

Ancient Greek Astronomical Machine

This discovery shows an incredible amount of advanced mathematics belonged to someone over 2,000 years ago. Very cool story.

Scientists have finally demystified the incredible workings of a 2,000-year-old astronomical calculator built by ancient Greeks.

A new analysis of the Antikythera Mechanism [image], a clock-like machine consisting of more than 30 precise, hand-cut bronze gears, show it to be more advanced than previously thought—so much so that nothing comparable was built for another thousand years.

Read More of this Article

Gaia Scientist Predicts...

...that we are just holding off the inevitable at this point. Global temperatures, he says, could raise as much as 8 degrees Celsius and that the best we can do is buy ourselves time...because the damage has been done, the gears of the giant mechanism are already in motion in make it happen.

The Gaia theory, from what little I have heard about it, looks at the entire earth as one living organism which can and does regulate itself.

This would be the counterpoint on the other end of the spectrum from the Global Warming Science skepticism that I posted several weeks ago.

The earth has a fever that could boost temperatures by 8 degrees Celsius making large parts of the surface uninhabitable and threatening billions of peoples' lives, a controversial climate scientist said on Tuesday.

James Lovelock, who angered climate scientists with his Gaia theory of a living planet and then alienated environmentalists by backing nuclear power, said a traumatized earth might only be able to support less than a tenth of it's 6 billion people.

"We are not all doomed. An awful lot of people will die, but I don't see the species dying out," he told a news conference. "A hot earth couldn't support much over 500 million."

"Almost all of the systems that have been looked at are in positive feedback ... and soon those effects will be larger than any of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions from industry and so on around the world," he added.

Scientists say that global warming due to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport could boost average temperatures by up to 6C by the end of the century causing floods, famines and violent storms.

But they also say that tough action now to cut carbon emissions could stop atmospheric concentrations of CO2 hitting 450 parts per million -- equivalent to a temperature rise of 2C from pre-industrial levels -- and save the planet.

Lovelock said temperature rises of up to 8C were already built in and while efforts to curb it were morally commendable, they were wasted.

"It is a bit like if your kidneys fail you can go on dialysis -- and who would refuse dialysis if death is the alternative. We should think of it in that context," he said.

"But remember that all they are doing is buying us time, no more. The problems go on," he added.

Full Article Here

Newt Gingrich says Freedom of Speech Helps the Terrorists

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.

Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.

"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich, a Republican who helped engineer the GOP's takeover of Congress in 1994.

Full Article Here

Yeah, Free Speech Bad! Oh wait, isn't that what we are supposedly fighting terrorists over?...um, Freedom? yeah, whatever...

No Peter Jackson "Hobbit" :(

In the news today is the tragic tale of how New Line has screwed their cash cow by wrankling Peter Jackson (who brought in 3bl with the first three movies). Now they are in court because Jackson believes they underpaid him, and because that is not resolved New Line is looking for someone else to film both the Hobbit and a LoR Prequel.

Frankly, cutting Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson out to the picture just cut the bottom line on potential profits for New Line. This is most likely not going to be a popular move with the fan base, IMO.

Read on...

Peter Jackson says he will not be directing a movie based on J.R.R. Tolkien's novel "The Hobbit" or a planned prequel to "The Lord of the Rings."

In a letter posted on Theonering.com., Jackson and partner Fran Walsh said an executive from New Line Cinema had called to tell them the studio was moving ahead with "The Hobbit" without him.

"Last week, Mark Ordesky called Ken (Kamins, Jackson's manager) and told him that New Line would no longer be requiring our services on `The Hobbit' and the LOTR `prequel,'" the 45-year-old New Zealand director wrote.

"This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects," he said.

Robert Pini, a New York-based representative for New Line Cinema, said Tuesday the studio had no comment.

New Line Cinema holds the rights to produce "The Hobbit" and Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer has the rights to distribute it.

Jackson, who shepherded Tolkien's Middle-earth saga to the screen in a series of three films, won a best-director Oscar for 2003's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." The trilogy also includes 2002's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and 2001's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

A spokesman for Wingnut Films, Jackson's production company in Wellington, who spoke on his standard condition that he not be named, confirmed Tuesday the letter was genuine.

The announcement came amid an ongoing dispute between Wingnut Films and New Line Cinema over the amount Jackson was paid for "The Fellowship of the Ring," including DVD payments.

While Jackson hasn't said how much he believes he was underpaid, The New York Times last year quoted his lawyers as saying it was as much as $100 million. He is suing New Line Cinema over the shortfall.

The Dominion Post newspaper quoted Jackson as saying that because he and Walsh didn't want to discuss upcoming movies "until the lawsuit is resolved, the studio is going to have to hire another director."

"We are very sorry our involvement with `The Hobbit' has ended this way," the pair added.

Plans for Jackson to make a $128 million movie version of the sci-fi video game "Halo" were also scrapped this month after backers 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures pulled out.

Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy grossed nearly $3 billion at box offices worldwide.

Article was found here

Peter Jackson on the Net: http://tbhl.theonering.net/

Dear One Ringers,

As you know, there's been a lot of speculation about The Hobbit. We are often asked about when or if this film will ever be made. We have always responded that we would be very interested in making the film - if it were offered to us to make.

You may also be aware that Wingnut Films has bought a lawsuit against New Line, which resulted from an audit we undertook on part of the income of The Fellowship of the Ring. Our attitude with the lawsuit has always been that since it's largely based on differences of opinion about certain accounting practices, we would like an independent body - whether it be a judge, a jury, or a mediator, to look at the issues and make an unbiased ruling. We are happy to accept whatever that ruling is. In our minds, it's not much more complex than that and that's exactly why film contracts include right-to-audit clauses.

However, we have always said that we do not want to discuss The Hobbit with New Line until the lawsuit over New Line's accounting practices is resolved. This is simple common sense - you cannot be in a relationship with a film studio, making a complex, expensive movie and dealing with all the pressures and responsibilities that come with the job, while an unresolved lawsuit exists.

We have also said that we do not want to tie settlement of the lawsuit to making a film of The Hobbit. In other words, we would have to agree to make The Hobbit as a condition of New Line settling our lawsuit. In our minds this is not the right reason to make a film and if a film of The Hobbit went ahead on this basis, it would be doomed. Deciding to make a movie should come from the heart - it's not a matter of business convenience. When you agree to make a film, you're taking on a massive commitment and you need to be driven by an absolute passion to want to get the story on screen. It's that passion, and passion alone, that gives the movie its imagination and heart. To us it is not a cold-blooded business decision.

A couple of months ago there was a flurry of Hobbit news in the media. MGM, who own a portion of the film rights in The Hobbit, publicly stated they wanted to make the film with us. It was a little weird at the time because nobody from New Line had ever spoken to us about making a film of The Hobbit and the media had some fun with that. Within a week or two of those stories, our Manager Ken Kamins got a call from the co-president of New Line Cinema, Michael Lynne, who in essence told Ken that the way to settle the lawsuit was to get a commitment from us to make the Hobbit, because "that's how these things are done". Michael Lynne said we would stand to make much more money if we tied the lawsuit and the movie deal together and this may well be true, but it's still the worst reason in the world to agree to make a film.

Several years ago, Mark Ordesky told us that New Line have rights to make not just The Hobbit but a second "LOTR prequel", covering the events leading up to those depicted in LOTR. Since then, we've always assumed that we would be asked to make The Hobbit and possibly this second film, back to back, as we did the original movies. We assumed that our lawsuit with the studio would come to a natural conclusion and we would then be free to discuss our ideas with the studio, get excited and jump on board. We've assumed that we would possibly get started on development and design next year, whilst filming The Lovely Bones. We even had a meeting planned with MGM executives to talk through our schedule.

However last week, Mark Ordesky called Ken and told him that New Line would no longer be requiring our services on the Hobbit and the LOTR 'prequel'. This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects.

Ordesky said that New Line has a limited time option on the film rights they have obtained from Saul Zaentz (this has never been conveyed to us before), and because we won't discuss making the movies until the lawsuit is resolved, the studio is going to have to hire another director.

Given that New Line are committed to this course of action, we felt at the very least, we owed you, the fans, a straightforward account of events as they have unfolded for us.

We have always had the greatest support from The Ringers and we are very sorry our involvement with The Hobbit has been ended in this way. Our journey into Tolkien's world started with a phone call from Ken Kamins to Harvey Weinstein in Nov 1995 and ended with a phone call from Mark Ordesky to Ken in Nov 2006. It has been a great 11 years.

This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancor. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects.

We send our very best wishes to whomever has the privilege of making The Hobbit and look forward to seeing the film on the big screen.

Warmest regards to you all, and thanks for your incredible support over the years.

We got to go there - but not back again ...

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh

Peace "Movement" -- or Orgasm for Peace

Two peace activists have planned a massive anti-war demonstration for the first day of winter.

But they don't want you marching in the streets. They'd much rather you just stay home.

The Global Orgasm for Peace was conceived by Donna Sheehan, 76, and Paul Reffell, 55, whose immodest goal is for everyone in the world to have an orgasm Dec. 22 while focusing on world peace.

"The orgasm gives out an incredible feeling of peace during it and after it," Reffell said Sunday. "Your mind is like a blank. It's like a meditative state. And mass meditations have been shown to make a change."

Full Article

Website: http://www.globalorgasm.org.

Where are You on Iran?

Do you think they are building towards nuclear weapons?

Do you think they should be able to have a civilian nuclear power plant?

If there was proof of a secret weapons program, what would you say then?

If there is no evidence of a weapons program, what would you say then?

On the Left...on Iran

And, to show the other side (in our times of stark polarity) here is a story in today's news that is inspired by prolific writer Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker and he continues to piss off the white house with yet another article.

Article Origin Here

Hersh's Story

The White House dismissed a classified
CIA draft assessment that found no conclusive evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program, The New Yorker magazine reported.

The article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said the CIA's analysis was based on technical intelligence collected by satellites and on other evidence like measurements of the radioactivity of water samples.

"The CIA found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that
Iran has declared to the
International Atomic Energy Agency," according to the article.

"A current senior intelligence official confirmed the existence of the CIA analysis, and told me that the White House had been hostile to it," it said.

The United States has accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy program.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino did not respond directly to Hersh's assertions, but said the article was another "error-filled piece" in a "series of inaccuracy-riddled articles about the Bush administration."

"The White House is not going to dignify the work of an author who has viciously degraded our troops, and whose articles consistently rely on outright falsehoods to justify his own radical views," she said on Monday.

The article, in the current issue of the magazine, discussed how Vice President
Dick Cheney believed the Bush administration would deal with Iran if the Republicans lost control of Congress -- as they did in the November 7 election.

"If the Democrats won on November 7th, the vice president said, that victory would not stop the administration from pursuing a military option with Iran," Hersh wrote, citing an unidentified source familiar with the discussion.

On the Right...on Iran

In the LA Times there is an article by Joshua Muravchik that calls, no sues, for aggression upon Iran now. The following is an excerpt and a link to his article.

Entire Article Here

Bomb Iran

Diplomacy is doing nothing to stop the Iranian nuclear threat; a show of force is the only answer.

By Joshua Muravchik, JOSHUA MURAVCHIK is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
November 19, 2006

WE MUST bomb Iran.

It has been four years since that country's secret nuclear program was brought to light, and the path of diplomacy and sanctions has led nowhere.

First, we agreed to our allies' requests that we offer Tehran a string of concessions, which it spurned. Then, Britain, France and Germany wanted to impose a batch of extremely weak sanctions. For instance, Iranians known to be involved in nuclear activities would have been barred from foreign travel — except for humanitarian or religious reasons — and outside countries would have been required to refrain from aiding some, but not all, Iranian nuclear projects.

But even this was too much for the U.N. Security Council. Russia promptly announced that these sanctions were much too strong. "We cannot support measures … aimed at isolating Iran," declared Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov.

It is now clear that neither Moscow nor Beijing will ever agree to tough sanctions. What's more, even if they were to do so, it would not stop Iran, which is a country on a mission. As President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad put it: "Thanks to the blood of the martyrs, a new Islamic revolution has arisen…. The era of oppression, hegemonic regimes and tyranny and injustice has reached its end…. The wave of the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world." There is simply no possibility that Iran's clerical rulers will trade this ecstatic vision for a mess of Western pottage in the form of economic bribes or penalties.

So if sanctions won't work, what's left? The overthrow of the current Iranian regime might offer a silver bullet, but with hard-liners firmly in the saddle in Tehran, any such prospect seems even more remote today than it did a decade ago, when students were demonstrating and reformers were ascendant. Meanwhile, the completion of Iran's bomb grows nearer every day.

Houston Police Trample Janitors with Horses

It looks like organized labor might want to organize a bridge club instead of standing up for their rights...

Houston Police seemingly used horses to subdue janitors who were peacefully protesting. Here is an excerpt from one of the protest organizers.

It reminds me of the first hand accounts of people rounded up during WTO in Seattle, regardless of whether they were marching legally, protesting, or just spectators.

We sat down in the intersection and the horses came immediately. It was really violent. They arrested us, and when we got to jail, we were pretty beat up. Not all of us got the medical attention we needed. The worst was a protester named Julia, who is severely diabetic. We kept telling the guards about her condition but they only gave her a piece of candy. During roll call, she started to complain about light-headedness. Finally she just collapsed unconscious on the floor. It was like she just dropped dead. The guard saw it but just kept going through the roll. Susan ran over there and took her pulse while the other inmates were yelling for help, saying we need to call somebody. The medical team strolled over, taking their own sweet time. She was unconscious for like 4 or 5 minutes.

They really tried to break us down. The first night they put the temperature so high that a woman--one of the other inmates--had a seizure. The second night they made it freezing and took away many of our blankets. We didn't have access to the cots so we had to sleep on a concrete floor. When we would finally fall asleep the guards would come and yell `Are you Anna Denise Solís? Are you so and so?' One of the protesters had a fractured wrist from the horses. She had a cast on and when she would fall asleep the guard would kick the cast to wake her up. She was in a lot of pain.

The guards would tell us: `This is what you get for protesting.' One of them said, `Who gives a shit about janitors making 5 dollars an hour? Lots of people make that much.' The other inmates--there were a lot of prostitutes in there--said that they had never seen the jail this bad. The guards told them: `We're trying to teach the protesters a lesson.' Nobody was getting out of jail because the processing was so slow. They would tell the prostitutes that everything is the protesters' fault. They were trying to turn everybody against each other.

I felt like I was in some Third World jail, not in America. One of the guards called us `whores' and if we talked back, we didn't get any lunch. We didn't even have the basic necessities. It felt like a police state, like marshal law, nobody had rights. Some of us had been arrested in other cities, and it was never this bad before.

They tried to break us down, to dehumanize us. But we were stronger. We made friends with the other inmates and we organized them. The prostitutes felt a lot of solidarity with us. All of us together told stories, and played games like telephone and charades. We even did stand-up comedy monologues about what was happening to us and we all laughed. One woman--a woman of deep faith--gave a sermon that was both funny and deadly serious. We showed them that we weren't afraid. We did it all together. Now we're ready to fight on for basic American rights like the freedom of speech and the right to protest. --Anna Denise Solís, Lead Organizer, SEIU Local 1877, San José, CA.

Slow the Aging Process? Increase your Stamina?

Recent research into a substance found in red wine and other foods has produced startling results in lab mice which include longer life spans, double their normal endurance, and therefore also the ability to stave off extra weight while eating high caloric diets.

Although this is just the beginning of the research, and even though there are more questions to be answered before once could conclusively say it would work for humans and is safe for humans that has not stopped over half the researchers and some of their family members from taking the drug themselves.

Full Article

Would you like a Tazer with that library book?

The latest in a recent spate of cellphone videos documenting questionable arrest tactics surfaced Wednesday, this one showing a UCLA police officer using a Taser to stun a student who allegedly refused to leave the campus library.

Grainy video of the Tuesday night incident at UCLA's Powell Library was broadcast Wednesday on TV news and the Internet, prompting a review of the officers' actions and outrage among students at the Westwood campus.

The footage showed the student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, falling to the ground and crying out in pain as officers stunned him.

Rest of Article here...

CNN to New Rep. -elect Keith Ellison

CNN Headline News' Glen Beck interviewed the Representative elect Keith Ellison earlier this week. Two things I find interesting here.

First, Keith Ellison is the first Muslim ever elected to the House.

Second, Glen Beck's statement right out of the gate. Does anyone with an ounce of education buy into this stuff? And how are Muslims any different from other religions? Read on and you will note a few statements that well...are stupid. And at least one where could insert any other major institutionalized religions' name where Muslim is used.

What percentage of the population do you think actually is concerned with this question below?

And, is this just an echo of talking points meant to paint Democratic wins as a win for the 'enemy'? the drum of war on terror continues to beat strongly.

I know the media shouts it, but I really wonder what the disparity is between what the public thinks and what is served up to them (which doesn't appear unbiased at all).

CNN's Beck to first-ever Muslim congressman: "[W]hat I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies' "

From the November 14 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck:

(Video Link to clip from Media Matters)

BECK: History was made last Tuesday when Democrat Keith Ellison got elected to Congress, representing the great state of Minnesota. Well, not really unusual that Minnesota would elect a Democrat. What is noteworthy is that Keith is the first Muslim in history to be elected to the House of Representatives. He joins us now.

Congratulations, sir.

ELLISON: How you doing, Glenn? Glad to be here.

BECK: Thank you. I will tell you, may I -- may we have five minutes here where we're just politically incorrect and I play the cards face up on the table?

ELLISON: Go there.

BECK: OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. I've been to mosques. I really don't believe that Islam is a religion of evil. I -- you know, I think it's being hijacked, quite frankly.

With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, "Let's cut and run." And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."

And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.

ELLISON: Well, let me tell you, the people of the Fifth Congressional District know that I have a deep love and affection for my country. There's no one who is more patriotic than I am. And so, you know, I don't need to -- need to prove my patriotic stripes.

BECK: I understand that. And I'm not asking you to. I'm wondering if you see that. You come from a district that is heavily immigrant with Somalians. And I think it's wonderful, honestly, I think it is really a good sign that you are a -- you could be an icon to show Europe, this is the way you integrate into a country. I think the Somalians coming out and voting is a very good thing. With that --

ELLISON: I'd agree with you.

A Faux Follow Up

I came across this blog post by Bob Geiger on this alleged internal letter at Fox and decided to post it as a follow up on yesterday's topic.

And to think, we thought routine misleading stories and repeatedly identifying Republican pedophile Congressman Mark Foley as a Democrat was bad. Now we get the elusive documentary evidence that GOP propaganda machine Fox News truly does decide what news they want to produce before events even occur.

The Huffington Post has somehow managed to get hold of an internal Fox News memo, written by the guy in charge of their news operation and detailing his instructions to be on the lookout for any shred of information that could be used to tie Democrats to those attacking our troops in Iraq.

"The elections and Rumsfeld's resignation were a [sic] major event but not the end of the world," read the instructional memo from Fox's Vice President for News, John Moody, the day Democrats won the House and the Senate.

Now, the first thing you would naturally ask yourself is why in the world would an executive at a "fair and balanced" news organization, have to assure news staff that one party triumphing on election day is "not the end of the world."

But it gets better.

"The war on terror goes on without interruption," writes Moody, to his Republican operatives, dressing up as journalists. "And let's be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled Congress."

I'm sure around the water cooler later that day he also promised a bonus to the first staffer who could seamlessly Photoshop a picture of insurgents dancing in the streets, while waving giant posters of Claire McCaskill, Jim Webb and Sherrod Brown.

But, as our friends at Newshounds report, it didn't take the "reporters" at FOX News long to start acting on Moody's directive.

On that very day, "Live Desk" anchor Martha MacCallum went with the theme. While doing an interview with guest Erick Stakelbeck, lead terror analyst for the Christian Broadcasting Network -- because, of course, where else would you go for a political analyst than the Christian Broadcasting Network? -- she asked "what does the Democratic leadership mean for the war on terror?"

MacCallum followed that with an observation directly in line with Moody's script.

"Some reports of cheering in the streets on the behalf of the supporters of the insurgency in Iraq, that they're very pleased with the way things are going here and also with the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld," she said, referring to the sweeping Democratic victory and the Defense Secretary's resignation.

Naturally, MacCallum provided no evidence or sourcing behind the contention that bad guys were dancing in the streets of Baghdad because Democrats won.

Which kind of made me think back to that University of Maryland poll done a few years ago that basically gauged how dumbed-down some Americans were based on what they used as their primary news source.

You won't find any surprises in the October, 2003 poll conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland, that detailed which news networks had the least-informed viewers on the war in Iraq.

(Double Click the image for larger view)


They asked poll respondents about weapons of mass destruction being found in Iraq and about alleged links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. And here's the least shocking thing you'll hear today: The most ignorant people surveyed said they use Fox News as their primary news source.

I think that the average Fox News viewer also believed in 2004 that John Kerry had weekly strategy meetings with Osama bin Laden and that the International Astronomical Union's recent downgrading of Pluto, represented a liberal attack on the loveable cartoon dog.

And our most recent evidence would suggest that Fox News has gotten even worse in the three years since this poll was done.

And we're not manufacturing news -- Fox gives us evidence to back up that assertion each and every day.

You can read more from Bob at BobGeiger.com.

Non Partisan News?

I just saw this over at HuffPo....

...and found it interesting enough to see what others thought about it.

It is an alleged copy of an internal memorandum at Fox by the vice prez of News..

(if this isn't large enough to read go Here or just Double Click the image)

Astro, Skepticism, and Open Minds

Here is a little Q & A session with one of my favorite Astrologers, Mr. Rob Brezny. I enjoyed hearing his answers, particularly where they concern how to be open to wonder & mystery, the unexplained, and also holding on to skepticism and mundane answers for things.

To be stuck in an extreme is to be blind to what is possible beyond a single ideology or viewpoint. So I offer up this Q&A from Rob as piece on remembering to be a Free Thinker, and on being able to set aside our own beliefs to be open to what might be the truth we were never aware could even be a possibility.

Enjoy

Q & A

QUESTION. How can an intelligent, educated person possibly believe
astrology has any merit?

ROB. Many of the debunkers who're responsible for trying to discredit
astrology have done no research on the subject. They haven't read smart
astrological philosophers like Dane Rudhyar, don't know that seminal
astronomer Johannes Kepler was a skilled astrologer, and aren't aware
that eminent psychologist C.G. Jung cast horoscopes and believed that
"astrology represents the summation of all the psychological knowledge
of antiquity." The closest approach the fraudulent "skeptics" usually
make to the ancient art is to glance at a tabloid horoscope column. To match
their carelessness, I might make a drive-by of a strip mall and declare
that the profession of architecture is shallow and debased.

That's one reason why these ill-informed "skeptics" spread so many
ignorant lies. For instance, they say that astrologers think the stars
and planets emit invisible beams that affect people's lives. The truth is,
most Western astrologers don't believe any such thing.


QUESTION. Because you pack your column with doses of humor and wild
imagery, some people think you don't take astrology seriously.

ROB. On the contrary, I think this proves how much respect I have for
astrology--I mean REAL astrology. Not astrology as a superstitious
belief system that generates boring predictions in dead language about trivial
events that only our neurotic egos are obsessed with; but rather
astrology as a mytho-poetic symbol system that expands your
imagination about the big cycles of your life, liberates you from the
literalistic trance that the daily grind tends to trap you in, and
opens you up to the understanding that you're much more beautiful and full of
potential than you've been taught to believe.


QUESTION. You have said that you believe in astrology "about 80
percent." What's up with the other 20 percent?

ROB. I use the same 80-20 approach with every belief system I love and
benefit from: science, psychology, feminism, and various religious
traditions like Buddhism and Christianity and paganism. I take what's
useful from each, but am not so deluded as to think that any single
system is the holy grail that the physicists call the "Theory of
Everything." Unconditional, unskeptical faith is the path of the
fanatic and fundamentalist, and I aspire to be a rowdy philosophical anarchist,
aflame with objectivity and committed to the truth that the truth is always
mutating.


QUESTION. But don't you risk playing the same role the tabloid
astrologers do: enticing people to take on a superstitious approach to
life and seducing them into believing their fate is determined by
supernatural forces beyond the influence of their willpower?

ROB. I call what I do predicting the present, not forecasting the
future. My goal is to awaken my readers to the hidden agendas, unconscious forces,
and long-term cycles at work in their lives so that they can respond to
the totality of what's happening instead of to mere appearances. I want
to be a friendly shocker who helps unleash their imaginations, giving
them the power to create their destinies with the same liberated fertility
that great artists summon to forge their masterpieces.


QUESTION. How do you write your column? Do you use actual astrological
data, or just go into a trance and let your imagination run wild?

ROB. I draw up a weekly chart for the sun, moon, and major aspects of
each sign. It's the framework within which I improvise. The artistic
part of the work is harder to pin down. One of my guiding principles, though,
is to treat each sign's horoscope as a personal love letter--to speak as
intimately about the mysteries of the moment as if I were addressing a
close friend.

Where do my inspirations come from? Dreams, letters from readers,
overheard conversations, meditation, lots of reading in a wide variety
of texts both sacred and profane, and the intensive cultivation of my own
receptivity. I also rely on fact-finding missions I call whirlygigs.
During these, I steep myself with the intention of attracting lessons I don't
know I need, then meander through the world at random, going places I've
never been and striking up conversations with strangers with whom I
apparently have nothing in common.


QUESTION. You confuse me in the way that you praise rational thought
and the scientific method, yet reserve the right to believe in
astrology, angels, miracles, and other woo-woo.

ROB. Thousands of amazing, inexplicable, and even supernatural events
occur every day. And yet most are unreported by the media. The few that
are cited are ridiculed. Why? Here's one possible reason: The people
most likely to believe in wonders and marvels are superstitious, uneducated,
and prone to having a blind, literalist faith in their religions'
myths. Those who are least likely to believe in wonders and marvels are skilled at
analytical thought, well-educated, and yet prone to having a blind,
literalist faith in the ideology of materialism, which dogmatically
asserts that the universe consists entirely of things that can be perceived by
the five human senses or detected by instruments that scientists have thus
far invented.

The media is largely composed of people from the second group. It's
virtually impossible for them to admit to the possibility of events
that elude the rational mind's explanations, let alone experience them. If
anyone from this group manages to escape peer pressure and cultivate a
receptivity to the miraculous, it's because they have successfully
fought against being demoralized by the unsophisticated way wonders and
marvels are framed by the first group.

I try to be immune to the double-barreled ignorance. When I behold
astonishing synchronicities and numinous breakthroughs that seem to
violate natural law, I'm willing to consider the possibility that my
understanding of natural law is too narrow. And yet I also refrain from
lapsing into irrational gullibility; I actively seek mundane
explanations for apparent miracles.


QUESTION. Can you sum up your approach to seeing the world?

ROB. My outlook combines the rigorous objectivity of a scientist, the
"beginner's mind" of Zen Buddhism, and the compassionate friendliness
of the Dalai Lama. I blend a scrupulously dispassionate curiosity with a
skepticism driven by expansiveness, not spleen.

To pull this off, I have to be willing to regularly suspend my theories
about the way the world works. I accept with good humor the possibility that
what I've learned in the past may not be a reliable guide to
understanding the fresh phenomenon that's right in front of me. I'm suspicious of my
biases, even the rational and benevolent ones. I open my heart as I
strip away the interpretations that my emotions might be inclined to impose.

"Before we can receive the unbiased truth about anything," wrote my
teacher Ann Davies, "we have to be ready to ignore what we would like
to be true."

At the same time, I don't want to turn into a hard-ass, poker-faced
robot. I keep my feelings moist and receptive. I remember my natural affection
for all of creation. I enjoy the power of tender sympathy as it drives
me to probe for the unimaginable revelations of every new moment. "Before
we can receive the entire truth about anything," said Ann Davies, "we
have to love it."

Rob Brezny

Naysayers and Global Warming Skeptics

On the whole, the vast majority of climatologists and those doing direct scientific research into climate and climate change agree on some vary basic very significant points.

However, there are the few who actively disagree. Do they have merit? where do you fall on the topic?

Here is the Wiki on the Global Warming Skeptics...

This page lists scientists who have expressed doubt regarding the scientific opinion on global warming. The consensus has been summarized by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as follows:

1. The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2°C since the late 19th century, and 0.17°C per decade in the last 30 years.
2. "Most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities", in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane.
3. If greenhouse gas emissions continue, the warming will continue and indeed accelerate, with temperatures increasing by 1.4°C to 5.8°C between 1990 and 2100, causing sea level rise and increasing extreme weather events like hurricanes. On balance, the impacts of global warming will be significantly negative.

These main points are held by the majority of climate scientists and those doing research in closely related fields; however, there are also a small number of scientists who actively disagree.

GOP says Rumsfeld is stepping down

Get the Scoop Here

Blue Wave Washes Over US

Democrats Sweep the House and Take Away Majority in Senate...with a possible majority of 51

...all I know is I liked the Libertarian candidate (Guthrie)...

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is reporting the following:

Montana Vote Situation: Jon Tester leads Conrad Burns by approximately 1,700 votes (as of 11am EDT) and counting. In Silver Bow County (Butte), a Democratic stronghold, votes are still being counted but Tester is winning there with 66% of the vote. We expect to gain the majority of these uncounted votes and to add to Tester's margin.

Montana Process: When the counting phase is completed, a canvass will verify the vote tallies. That process could take as long as 48 hours, and must begin within three days and end within seven. Unless the canvass shows the margin to be within ¼ of 1%, there is no recount. As the loser, Burns would have to request the recount. When the votes are all counted, we expect to be outside that recount margin.

Virginia Vote Situation: Jim Webb is up by approximately 8,000 votes and once the provisional ballots are counted, we expect Webb's margin to increase. (Please note that VA absentees were included in the tallies from last night.)

Virginia Process: A canvass is underway to verify the results and we expect that process to finish within a day or so. To be in recount, the margin needs to be less than 1% and Allen (as the loser) would have to request it. Because of Virginia voting laws, the margin would have to be much tighter than it currently is to see any change in the outcome. Given the current margins, that is highly, highly unlikely.

Voter Suppression

Senator Allen's campaign is linked to Voter Suppression

Listen here..

Oh, now I'm convinced....

Is this the level to which we have sunk? now Fox is trying to convince the public that torture is not so bad by having a correspondent go through a mock version of it.

The big difference here? he knows he is not going to die. And, cameras are rolling. And, he isn't being held secretly so if he dies no one knows about it, and...

Bread Basket Case

What if the Midwest stopped trying to feed the world and started focusing on itself?

Full Article

In Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," a sailor contemplates the paradox of thirst amid a literal sea of water. "Water, water everywhere," he famously laments, "nor any drop to drink."

Rural Midwesterners can likely identify with that iconic seaman. Cornfields stretch to the horizon, but the harvest won't end up on anyone's plate -- at least not directly. To provide useful calories for people, that corn is used to fatten animals on feedlots, or milled and processed into sweeteners, starches, and flours.

Like other U.S. citizens, Farm Belt residents increasingly turn to the supermarket, and thus the vast and far-flung industrial networks that supply it, for their sustenance. The region's corn returns to its residents in the form of corn-syrup-sweetened Coca-Cola and corn-fed McDonald's burgers.

If this odd arrangement actually generated wealth in the region, it might make some sense. But farming is such an economically disastrous endeavor in the Midwest that it's a wonder anyone still does it.

Teach a Man to Fish and...er...oh, forget it I guess...

Better get to bio-engineering land fish for the bar-b-q....

An international group of ecologists and economists warned yesterday that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if steep declines in marine species continue at current rates, based on a four-year study of catch data and the effects of fisheries collapses.

The paper, published in the journal Science, concludes that overfishing, pollution and other environmental factors are wiping out important species around the globe, hampering the ocean's ability to produce seafood, filter nutrients and resist the spread of disease.

"We really see the end of the line now," said lead author Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Canada's Dalhousie University. "It's within our lifetime. Our children will see a world without seafood if we don't change things."

straight to the source: The Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin, 02 Nov 2006

straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Marla Cone, 02 Nov 2006

straight to the source: Reuters, Deborah Zabarenko, 02 Nov 2006

straight to the source: USA Today, Elizabeth Weise, 02 Nov 2006

Samsung...makers of Personal Home Defense...

I guess MP3 players isn't the only thing that Samsung is building these days.

Here is there latest, for only $200,000.

Robot sentinella
Uploaded by Alice_in_Wonderland

The Case for Bad Science....

(thanks to Steve for find)

A look at climate numbers from a different perspective..

..worth your time.

The Stern report last week predicted dire economic and social effects of unchecked global warming. In what many will see as a highly controversial polemic, Christopher Monckton disputes the 'facts' of this impending apocalypse and accuses the UN and its scientists of distorting the truth

Full Article

If you said yes at any point, it's not a rape

...finally, a ruling we can all agree upon...

or NOT

Can you believe this ???

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- An appellate court said Maryland's rape law is clear -- no doesn't mean no when it follows a yes and intercourse has begun. A three-judge panel of the Court of Special Appeals Monday threw out a rape conviction saying that a trial judge in Montgomery County erred when he refused to answer the jury's question on that very point. The appeals court said that when the jury asked the trial judge if a woman could withdraw her consent after the start of sex, the jury should have been told she could not. The ruling said the law is not ambiguous and is a tenet of common-law.

Jessica at feministing.org says:

So ladies, once it's in, it's in. Ain't nothing you can do about it. Changed your mind? Suck it up. He's hurting you? Oh, sorry--should have thought of that before. After all, it's not like your body is yours or anything. Jeez.

Mid-term Election fun from Daily Show

a funny clip here on some of the closer races going on...

Stewart and Colbert

I read the excerpt from the new Rolling Stone's article on these two yuksters...

If you like these cats, you can find the web version of it here

Voter Supression, Dirty Politics, or Just Plain Buying Opinion Fair and Square?

..You decide..and please leave your opinion and reasoning below...

Is it wrong to play psychological warfare with the Voting Process? We have already seen campaigns designed to keep legal hispanic immigrants from voting in California...

...is this the same thing? is smear just good tactics, or dirty politics?



In a Tense Election Year, Push Polls Flourish

In increasingly tight races around the country, voters are receiving telephone "push poll" calls, a classic dirty trick designed to suppress turnout on election day. One calling firm in particular, with White House ties and an impressive ability to fire off millions of automated calls per day, is benefiting from the strategy.

Gabriel Joseph III, president of the robo calling company FreeEats.com, may be the king of the push poll, in which real-sounding questions with ludicrous premises are asked to plant negative ideas in voters' minds. His company, which is better known under its business alias ccAdvertising, has impressive Republican ties: According to a recent piece in Mother Jones, the group has, on at least one occasion, drawn on its White House ties to get business. And its founder, Donald Hodel, is a veteran of the Reagan administration and a former president of Focus on the Family.

Full Article

Monthly Astro Report

from one of my favorites, Yasmin Boland



Hi All
The evening of November 15 brings the once-a-year meeting between the planet of love, Venus and the planet of luck, Jupiter - this means the night is truly packed with romantic potential ... Enjoy!

Meanwhile, the really big news of the month is that Jupiter changes signs - after spending a year in Scorpio, he moves into his 'home sign' Sagittarius. Jupiter is all about luck, expansion, optimism and risks. To find out how his move will affect you, just read your forecast for the month. Good luck!
Yasmin x

NOVEMBER MOON REPORT
Full Moon in Taurus on November 5 at 12.58pm GMT This is a deeply sexy Full Moon full of potential for anyone who wants to go further, deeper, longer into their sensual nature. (Do it sober for best results!)

New Moon in Scorpio on November 22 at 5.13am GMT It's a lucky New Moon. If at first you haven't succeeded, today (and the next three days) is the time to try, try again. And again.
Click here to convert those to your time zones.

STAND OUT DATES FOR US ALL IN OCTOBER
November 2 - turnarounds re love possible ...
November 7 - smell a rat? Run a mile! ...
November 9 - high energy ...
November 11 - watch your temper ...
November 15 - lovely mushy moments possible ...
November 18 - Mercury goes direct and communications become less crazy ...
November 24 - Jupiter into Sagittarius � where did you just get luckier? Find out in your forecast ...
November 28 - kiss and make up

A MONTH TO
Honour your dark side but get back in touch with your light side ... Give an ex a second and last chance ... Learn to love without smothering ...

Check Out Your Sign for November Here

Govt Spending Millions To Preach Abstinence To Adults Up To Age 29...

Why does a certain portion of our society...and particularly our own Government...have such a messed up/hang up issue with Sex?

The % of sexually active people in this age range is enormous, something on the order of 90%.

Isn't this out of touch with reality? this is the wrong segment of the population to be preaching abstinence to.

Education for youngsters is what is needed. Studies in Europe, particularly in the Scandanavian countries show that the greatest positive impact on 1) unwanted pregnancies 2) teen pregnancies 3) sex out of wedlock 4) safe sex practices 5) and less sexual frequency comes from actually EDUCATING young people about Sex, about choosing partners for yourself for the best reasons, and about the realities of Sex, sexual relations, and protecting yourself from disease and pregnancy.

Educating them actually leads to less sex, and more protection, and arms them with what they need to make good and healthy choices for themselves.

Repression, which this sort of abstinence push engenders, (and I am speaking psychologically now) leads to those repressions coming out in negative ways....such as.....

Unprotected Sex...cuz you want it when you have the opportunity, not when you have planned it.

Unwanted pregancies...for the same reasons

Spread of STD's ....for the same reasons

and most likely also adds to the amount of 'date' rape sort of situations.

There is a reason why repression leads to 'dark' behavior in ...oh say, elected officials.

Sexual energy is present in us...it needs a healthy outlet. Let's start by educating people about how to do that.

The federal government's "no sex without marriage" message isn't just for kids anymore.

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.

Full Article Here

Kucinich Taking Heat...

By Rep. Dennis Kucinich

Editor’s note: The Ohio Democrat sees desperation in the Republican National Committee’s attack on his potential 2006 ascent to a key national security subcommittee.

The Founders envisioned and created a national government with an intricate series of checks and balances. One-party rule has demolished that system. It has led to a government which has abused the war power, corrupted the Bill of Rights, established a national security state, and sharply accelerated upwards the wealth of the nation.

Under these circumstances, the American people, fed up with an illegal and untenable war, are demanding accountability and a true restoration of the two-party system. The 2006 elections will reflect the American people’s desire for a new start and a new direction. The desire for change is palpable. Few are more aware of this shift than the operatives of the Republican National Committee, who, in this election season, have attempted to make a new art form of the political smear.

A few days ago the RNC singled me out for obloquy. Let us consider the source. The tenor of their fear-driven attack is a measure of their anxiety-ridden anticipation: They have been institutionally and constitutionally incapable of publicly (and legally) accounting for their conduct of state.

I will not prejudice with any criticism or charges any oversight hearings of any committee I may chair in the next Congress. However, I do know that the American people still have unanswered questions about 9/11, WMDs, the abandonment of international law and the Geneva Conventions, the war in Iraq, the White House Iraq Group, the Rendon propaganda machine, Afghanistan, Abu Graib, Guantanamo, the Pat Tillman case, Iraq war casualties, the missing $10.8 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds, the human and economic toll of the war, rendition, wiretapping, domestic spying, and plans for an attack on Iran,

I do know that the American people cannot believe what has happened to this country in the past six years. I do know that the American people are demanding accountability.

And, in whatever capacity I serve in the next Congress, I will uphold the solemn oath I take to defend the Constitution of the United States, without regard to fear or favor.

Pee in the Cup, Granny

I found this rather humorous post by Bill Maher on a county in Florida and its rather absurd requirement to be a Volunteer Librarian...

They can't have very nice lives - librarians. It's like being a teacher, only without the opportunities for dating, because the only kids you meet are the nerds. So the last thing America's shsssshing minority needs is the indignity of a urine test. But that's just what we're doing. I'm not sure this is the best use of our time.
The last time a librarian did something really stupid and reckless on drugs was when Laura married George.

Last year, Florida's Levy County introduced drug testing for library volunteers. Whose average age is between 60 and 85. The volunteers were required to drive to another city - Gainesville - and urinate in a cup "within hearing distance" of a laboratory monitor. That'll teach 'em for offering to work for free. "Okay, grandma, now get pissing. And I'd better hear a nice even unbroken stream."

And then something weird happened. Inexplicably, the number of volunteers dropped from 55 to two. It's almost like they didn't enjoy being degraded. And they call themselves the greatest generation.

I know what you're thinking. If Aunt Iris has nothing to hide, she can get a little of her own urine on her hands and prove she's not strung out on junk. Then we can feel safe, and she can go back to mis-shelving the Readers Digests. But then a second thought occurs to you, later, when you really, really think about it. And that thought is this: What the fuck is wrong with us? Are we high?

They're not flying planes. They're showing the homeless how to use the microfiche readers. For free. The only people who profit from this are the stockholders of the drug testing company, who stood to make $33 a head, money the library would have otherwise just wasted on books.

A spokesman for the libraries said she wouldn't make the volunteers drive to Gainesville for their cavity searches anymore. And she also thought the problem wasn't the drug test itself, but the method they used. That's why they're looking into switching from urine tests to mouth swabs. The same method used by the Florida Department of Corrections

Rising tide of global warming threatens Pacific island states

An environmental article that I saw today in the Independent

Here is a snippit...

While rich nations tinker with policies that may shave their carbon dioxide emissions, low-lying South Pacific nations such as Kiribati are sinking beneath the waves.

Kiribati, an archipelago of 33 coral atolls barely 6ft above sea level, is vanishing as global warming sees the oceans rise. Yesterday, its president, Anote Tong, warned Australia and New Zealand - the two developed countries in the region - to prepare for a mass exodus within the next decade.

Speaking at the annual South Pacific Forum in Fiji, Mr Tong said that rising sea levels would create countless environmental refugees. "If we are talking about our island states submerging in 10 years' time, we simply have to find somewhere else to go," he said.

Over 92,000 people live on low lying islands throughout the archipelago of the Pacific. All of these peoples and nations have been witnessing their actual amount of land dissapear every year. It seems the consensus among them is that they will eventually be forced to move from their island homes forever.

Advertising Terror

Keith's clips are entertaining. He has a flair for the dramatic.

At the very least, it is food for thought...

Is Sustainability Within Our Grasp?

A section of China's Yellow River is stained red from pollution caused by a discharge from a sewage pipe in Lanzhou, in western Gansu province Monday, Oct. 23, 2006. Environmental protection officials took samples and were trying to determine whether the sewage was toxic.

Perhaps it is, but the real question may be a lot more like this:

Is Sustainability Within Our Consciousness?

article

Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday.

Populations of many species, from fish to mammals, had fallen by about a third from 1970 to 2003 largely because of human threats such as pollution, clearing of forests and overfishing, the group also said in a two-yearly report.

"For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path," WWF Director-General James Leape said, launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.

"If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us," Leape, an American, said in Beijing.

People in the United Arab Emirates were placing most stress per capita on the planet ahead of those in the United States, Finland and Canada, the report said.

Australia was also living well beyond its means.

The average Australian used 6.6 "global" hectares to support their developed lifestyle, ranking behind the United States and Canada, but ahead of the United Kingdom, Russia, China and Japan.

"If the rest of the world led the kind of lifestyles we do here in Australia, we would require three-and-a-half planets to provide the resources we use and to absorb the waste," said Greg Bourne, WWF-Australia chief executive officer.

Everyone would have to change lifestyles -- cutting use of fossil fuels and improving management of everything from farming to fisheries.

"As countries work to improve the well-being of their people, they risk bypassing the goal of sustainability," said Leape, speaking in an energy-efficient building at Beijing's prestigous Tsinghua University.

"It is inevitable that this disconnect will eventually limit the abilities of poor countries to develop and rich countries to maintain their prosperity," he added.

The report said humans' "ecological footprint" -- the demand people place on the natural world -- was 25 percent greater than the planet's annual ability to provide everything from food to energy and recycle all human waste in 2003.

In the previous report, the 2001 overshoot was 21 percent.

"On current projections humanity, will be using two planets' worth of natural resources by 2050 -- if those resources have not run out by then," the latest report said.

eVoting

Your Votes Are Completely Safe

Proponents of electronic voting have found themselves again on the defensive following the unauthorized release of software for voting machines used by the State of Maryland and manufactured by Diebold Election Systems.

and in a related article there are eVoting machines that are cutting off the name of the candidate on the verification page for some voters.

Rebuttal - Military Commissions Act and US Citizens

I appreciate Steve pointing out that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 specifically states that it is in reference to aliens, or non-citizens, wherein they do not retain Habeas Corpus rights. That is a valid point.

However, as we have already witnessed, US Citizens can be picked up as enemy combatants and held indefinitely without recourse, and be subjected to what is arguably torture (see Jose Padilla for further reference. The U.S. administration has in the past described him as an illegal enemy combatant, arguing that he was thereby not entitled to the normal protection of US law, nor protection under the Geneva Convention.)

The real question is will this provision be upheld? isn't the MCA itself a signing into law a series of practices that were previously used and currently used that were against the standing law of the land and the Geneva Conventions? is this a hind-sighted justification of flouting the law?

Certainly, if the provisions in this act were carried out with a foreign national who belonged to one of the other signatory nations to the Geneva Conventions...some of the MCA sanctioned activities and suspension of rights would still be considered illegal.

here is some quoted text from Steve's source on the wiki encyclopedia that is listed under Criticism:

A number of legal scholars and Congressional members - including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) - have said that the habeas provision of the Act violates a clause of the Constitution that says the right to challenge detention "shall not be suspended" except in cases of "rebellion or invasion."[17]

The Act has also been denounced by critics who assert that its wording makes possible the permanent detention and torture (as defined by the Geneva Conventions) of anyone - including American citizens - based solely on the decision of the President.[18] Indeed, the wording of section 948b[19] of the act appears to explicitly contradict the Third Geneva Convention of which the United States is currently a signatory, however as long as the Act is not used when dealing with a country or countries that have also signed the conventions, the Geneva Conventions do not hold any weight.

In the House debate, Representative David Wu of Oregon offered this scenario:

Let us say that my wife, who is here in the gallery with us tonight, a sixth generation Oregonian, is walking by the friendly, local military base and is picked up as an unlawful enemy combatant. What is her recourse? She says, I am a U.S. citizen. That is a jurisdictional fact under this statute, and she will not have recourse to the courts? She can take it to Donald Rumsfeld, but she cannot take it across the street to an article 3 court.[20]

One has described the Act as "the legalization of the José Padilla treatment" - referring to the American citizen who was declared an unlawful enemy combatant and then imprisoned for three years before finally being charged with a lesser crime than was originally alleged.[21] A legal brief filed on Padilla's behalf alleges that during this time he was subjected to sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, and enforced stress positions.[22]

Amnesty International said that the Act "contravenes human rights principles."[23] An editorial in The New York Times described the Act as "a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts."[24]

American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said, "The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions." [25]

The law has also been criticized for allegedly giving a retroactive, nine-year immunity to U.S. officials who authorized, ordered, or committed potential acts of abuse on detainees.

R.I.P. Bill of Rights and Habeas Corpus

He Swore An Oath to Defend The Constitution...

Instead...

Today (oct 17th), 135 years to the day after the last American President (Ulysses S. Grant) suspended habeas corpus, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. At its worst, the legislation allows President Bush or Donald Rumsfeld to declare anyone — US citizen or not — an enemy combatant, lock them up and throw away the key without a chance to prove their innocence in a court of law. In other words, every thing the Founding Fathers fought the British empire to free themselves of was reversed and nullified with the stroke of a pen, all under the guise of the War on Terror.

Senator Santorum, The Eye of Sauron, and Steven Colbert

How often can you put three things together like that in one place?

Check it...

Got Sunscreen?

OZONE HOLE IS RECORD SETTING THIS YEAR
full article


(snippit)

This year's Antarctic ozone hole is the biggest ever, government scientists said Thursday. The so-called hole is a region where there is severe depletion of the layer of ozone — a form of oxygen — in the upper atmosphere that protects life on Earth by blocking the sun's ultraviolet rays.
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Scientists say human-produced gases such as bromine and chlorine damage the layer, causing the hole. That's why many compounds such as spray-can propellants have been banned in recent years.

"From Sept. 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. That's larger than the area of North America...

Global Warming, who? oh, that old wives tale, puusha...

A British article in the Independent on the coming drought and water crisis caused by Global Warming...

Here is a short review...

British scientists have issued the harshest warning yet about the devastating impact of unrestrained greenhouse gas emissions: “One third of the planet will be desert by the year 2100.”

This stunning new UK research, from the Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, shows

[The] figure for moderate drought, currently at 25 per cent of the Earth’s surface, rising to 50 per cent by 2100, the figure for severe drought, currently at about 8 per cent, rising to 40 cent, and the figure for extreme drought, currently 3 per cent, rising to 30 per cent.

Within 100 years, some 30 percent of Earth will be rendered essentially uninhabitable, leading to mass migrations and millions of environmental refugees. And this result is based on a greenhouse gas emissions growth scenario that ignores key carbon cycle vicious cycles (such as the tundra melting). The Independent reports: “In one unpublished Met Office study, when the carbon cycle effects are included, future drought is even worse.”

The UK study shows that we are already seeing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on drought: “In the last decade of the 20th century droughts were nearly 25% more widespread than in the previous 40 years.” Climate Progress has noted the undercoverage of the drought-climate link in the major US media, but the British media certainly gets it, as evidenced by the cover story in The Independent. That may be because there is less muzzling of scientists. The Met Office is actually within the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

Full Article Here

No Arms Race In Space

From an article in the Washington Post today

...there isn't an arms race in space...because no one else has the capability of racing there but the US...

Bush Sets Defense As Space Priority
U.S. Says Shift Is Not A Step Toward Arms; Experts Say It Could Be

President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests."

The document, the first full revision of overall space policy in 10 years, emphasizes security issues, encourages private enterprise in space, and characterizes the role of U.S. space diplomacy largely in terms of persuading other nations to support U.S. policy.

"Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power," the policy asserts in its introduction.

National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said in written comments that an update was needed to "reflect the fact that space has become an even more important component of U.S. economic, national and homeland security." The military has become increasingly dependent on satellite communication and navigation, as have providers of cellphones, personal navigation devices and even ATMs.

The administration said the policy revisions are not a prelude to introducing weapons systems into Earth orbit. "This policy is not about developing or deploying weapons in space. Period," said a senior administration official who was not authorized to speak on the record.

Nevertheless, Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank that follows the space-weaponry issue, said the policy changes will reinforce international suspicions that the United States may seek to develop, test and deploy space weapons. The concerns are amplified, he said, by the administration's refusal to enter negotiations or even less formal discussions on the subject.

"The Clinton policy opened the door to developing space weapons, but that administration never did anything about it," Krepon said. "The Bush policy now goes further."

Theresa Hitchens, director of the nonpartisan Center for Defense Information in Washington, said that the new policy "kicks the door a little more open to a space-war fighting strategy" and has a "very unilateral tone to it."

The administration official strongly disagreed with that characterization, saying the policy encourages international diplomacy and cooperation. But he said the document also makes clear the U.S. position: that no new arms-control agreements are needed because there is no space arms race.

Amazon Rainforest Conservation

..another from ENN...

..snip..

Brazil Tells Foreigners Amazon Not for Sale

October 18, 2006 — By Andrea Welsh, Reuters



BRASILIA, Brazil -- Brazil Tuesday rejected a foreign proposal to buy and preserve land in the endangered Amazon and asked former U.S. Vice President Al Gore to support a home-grown rainforest-protection plan.

Gore, who has become a prominent green campaigner since leaving office, is in Brazil to promote the Portuguese-language version of his new book on climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth".

"The former vice president will study the proposal and may become a supporter," Environment Minister Marina Silva said in a statement after meeting Gore in Sao Paulo.

Brazil wants international support to help preserve the Amazon, the world's largest remaining tropical rainforest. Negotiators will present the new conservation plan at a round of global climate talks in Nairobi next month.

Full Article