May 2008 archive

In just a few minutes, Iowa state legislator and candidate for Congress Ed Fallon will be joining us for a live blog at 1pm et over at the EENR Blog. Get your questions ready and let’s get the conversation going!

One of the first candidates the bloggers of EENR decided to endorse was state legislator Ed Fallon running for Congress in Iowa’s 3rd c.d. It wasn’t a difficult choice. Ed Fallon is a progressive’s progressive. In his 14 years as a legislator in Iowa’s House, he never accepted PAC/lobbyist money. Fallon had his values in place long before it was the progressive thing to do to refuse lobbyist/PAC money. Here’s a statement from Fallon about why he’s running for Congress:

Our country needs and wants change.  I’m ready to take on the corporate interests who have corrupted our federal government.  I’m ready to give working families and the poor a voice in national politics.  I’m ready to do what I can to see that environmental issues are taken seriously inside the beltway.  I’m ready to apply what I’ve learned during 23 years of public service in Iowa and be a part of the solution in Washington.

More below the fold….

Another liveblog from the Coinference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy. Session on closed circuit law enforcement video surveillance and law  enforrcement data sharing and mining via “Fusion Centers.” Panelist bios at http://www.cfp2008.org/wiki/in… .

EPIC’s resource on Fusion Centers  

Found this joke on a site that sells t-shirts.  Since theyre apparently ‘into’ the whole ‘capitalist’ thing ;), ill add the link

President Bush was visiting a primary school and he dropped in on one of the classes. They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked the President if he would like to lead the discussion of the word “tragedy”.

“I’m quite confident we will be able to overcome this tragedy. I’ve tried to bring a message of hope to your people,” Ban said earlier as he made an offering at the country’s holiest Buddhist shrine, the Shwedagon Pagoda.

“At the same time, I hope your people and government can coordinate the flow of aid, so the aid work can be done in a more systematic and organised way,” said Ban.

“The United Nations and the whole international community stand ready to help you overcome this tragedy.”

link: http://afp.google.com/article/…

Meanwhile pressure is building on the military regime to do far more to help the victims of the cyclone, and not all of the pressure is coming from outside the country:

Who Won America Idol?

I Don’t Know

Nor Do I Care To Know

As It Is Unimportant

Thursday’s Headlines:   Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts   Different goals take Clinton and Obama to Florida   UN head tours cyclone-hit Burma   Pakistan makes peace deal to end pro-Taliban violence   Mbeki deploys troops as xenophobic violence spreads to Zulu   Uganda: Implementing Tax Amendments   Berlusconi clamps down on Gypsies   The Big Question: Is Iceland the happiest place on the planet, and what can we learn from it?     Israel contemplates giving up Golan Heights to Syria    Lebanon rivals agree crisis deal    Mexico boosts police ethics to fight drugs

Senate reaches deal on Iraq war funding

Tentative $165 billion fund backs Pentagon operations in Iraq, Afghanistan

WASHINGTON – The Senate plans to vote Thursday on providing $165 billion to fund Pentagon operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, under a deal that likely would doom billions of dollars in domestic programs.

A plan announced Wednesday night by Senate leaders would pay for the wars until a new administration take over.

But it would likely kill money for 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits for the jobless, heating subsidies, fighting Western wildfires and aid to rural schools, among many programs backed by senators in both parties despite a promised veto from President Bush.

It has been 10 long days since the devastating 8.0 Sichuan earthquake and although there have been several recent rescues of people that have been trapped for 9 days, the mission has moved into the recovery stage.

According to China Daily Online, there are 5 million homeless in the region and 32,666 still missing. There are 25,681 still in hospital.

Many children have been orphaned but all have been adopted.