1. Military Chief Warns Troops About Politics
   By Thom Shanker, The New York Times

   The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written an unusual open letter to all those in uniform, warning them to stay out of politics as the nation approaches a presidential election in which the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be a central, and certainly divisive, issue.

   “The U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times and in all ways,” wrote the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, the nation’s highest-ranking officer. “It is and must always be a neutral instrument of the state, no matter which party holds sway.” …

   “As the nation prepares to elect a new president,” Admiral Mullen wrote, “we would all do well to remember the promises we made: to obey civilian authority, to support and defend the Constitution and to do our duty at all times.”

   “Keeping our politics private is a good first step,” he added. “The only things we should be wearing on our sleeves are our military insignia.”

   Admiral Mullen said he was inspired to write the essay after receiving a constant stream of legitimate, if troubling, questions while visiting military personnel around the world. He said their questions included, “What if a Democrat wins?” and, “What will that do to the mission in Iraq?” and, “Do you think it’s better for one party or another to have the White House?”

   What if a Democrat wins? Can you imagine what the blowback would have been if Mullen said ‘What if a Republican wins?’ Coming on the tail of Gen. Petraeus expecting troop cuts in September. Hrmmm… the Brass is sure staying clear of politics.

2. Soft landing on a rough Mars terrain
   By Mark Carreau, Houston Chronicle

   NASA’s Phoenix Lander settled softly onto the frozen plains surrounding the unexplored Martian north pole late Sunday and sent back a crystal clear portrait that revealed a healthy machine in one piece.

   Signals confirming the three-legged spacecraft’s arrival reached NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at 6:53 p.m. CDT, unleashing a burst of cheers from an anxious squad of flight controllers…

   Signals heralding Phoenix’s arrival were relayed to Earth through NASA’s Mars Odyssey, a spacecraft circling the Red Planet… Odyssey sailed over Phoenix for a second time, 90 minutes after the dramatic landing to collect a lander self-portrait and relay the photos to Earth.

Four at Four continues with Obama at Wesleyan and ship antics in Duluth.

The Los Angeles Times has an article about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s upcoming trial at Guantánamo Bay. In the article, “Defending KSM, ‘the most hated man in the world’, Josh Meyer writes about the lawyer who is assigned to be KSM’s lead defense lawyer – Capt. Prescott L. Prince, a Navy Reserve judge advocate general. The significance of this trial, I think, cannot be understated as Capt. Prince explains:

“I think it’s the constitutional case of our time,” Prince, 53, said in a recent interview in his office, U.S. and Navy flags front and center on his desk. “Because in the 221st year of America, the question is whether the Constitution applies to the government.“

Not only is KSM on trial at Guantánamo Bay, but also the question many of us have asked over the past seven years – do we still have a Constitution?

1. Iraq Spending Ignored Rules, Pentagon Says
   By James Glanz, The New York Times

   Where did the pallets of cash bound for Iraq really go?

   A Pentagon audit of $8.2 billion in American taxpayer money spent by the United States Army on contractors in Iraq has found that almost none of the payments followed federal rules and that in some cases, contracts worth millions of dollars were paid for despite little or no record of what, if anything, was received.

   The audit also found a sometimes stunning lack of accountability in the way the United States military spent some $1.8 billion in seized or frozen Iraqi assets, which in the early phases of the conflict were often doled out in stacks or pallets of cash. The audit was released Thursday in tandem with a Congressional hearing on the payments.

   In one case, according to documents displayed by Pentagon auditors at the hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a cash payment of $320.8 million in Iraqi money was authorized on the basis of a single signature and the words “Iraqi Salary Payment” on an invoice. In another, $11.1 million of taxpayer money was paid to IAP, an American contractor, on the basis of a voucher with no indication of what was delivered…

   The mysterious payments, whose amounts had not been publicly disclosed, included $68.2 million to the United Kingdom, $45.3 million to Poland and $21.3 million to South Korea. Despite repeated requests, Pentagon auditors said they were unable to determine why the payments were made.

   We was robbed!

2. The Washington Post adds there has been a Surge in U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. In Iraq, two black funeral banners hang outside of a ruined home. The banners read: “They were killed because of the cowardly American bombings”.

   “Since late March, the military has fired more than 200 Hellfire missiles in the capital, compared with just six missiles fired in the previous three months. The military says the tactic has saved the lives of ground troops and prevented attacks, but the strikes have also killed and wounded civilians, provoking criticism from Iraqis.” Criticism?!?! The Iraqis want us to stop killing them? That isn’t criticism. That’s a plea for us to get out. Many Iraqis think the U.S. is making indiscriminate attacks on their family, friends, and homes.

   Those civilians include people like Zahara Fadhil, a 10-year-old girl with a tiny frame and long brown hair. Relatives said she was wounded by a missile on April 20 at approximately 8 p.m. in Baghdad’s Shiite enclave of Sadr City. The U.S. military said it fired a Hellfire missile in Zahara’s neighborhood at that time, targeting men who were seen loading rockets into a sedan.

   Her face drained of color and her legs scarred by shrapnel, Zahara spoke haltingly when asked what she thought of U.S. troops.

   “They kill people,” she said. Lying in bed, she gasped for air before continuing. “They should leave Iraq now.“

   Compare and contrast:

   [Capt. Ben] Katzenberger, of Kansas City, Mo., fired his first missiles last month. Arriving in Iraq last winter on his first deployment was nerve-wracking, he said.

   “You’ve been building up for this for three years and now you’re going to get to do what you were trained to do,” he said. “You get this bit of excited rush feeling, like right before you get out of the locker room before a game. We got in the helicopter and started flying up and you start looking down and you’re like — wow. I’m in Iraq now. This isn’t back in Texas where we were just training. People down there are going to try to shoot me. This is for real. Game on.” …

   Katzenberger said pilots adhere to strict rules of engagement. They occasionally get reports of what happened on the ground after they fire the missiles. After that, “we never hear about it again,” he said. “It leaves you a little sense of wondering. You kind of get that detached feeling.“

   He’s not alone. Thanks to a near total governmetn and media blackout of the news, people back in America have a detached feeling from the battles going on in Iraq too. We have little idea what we’re asking our troops to do on a daily basis in Iraq (and Afghanistan).

3. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports House aims at Pentagon ‘propaganda’ on Iraq war.

   The House of Representatives moved Thursday to crack down on a Pentagon program that Democrats say planted false and overly optimistic news stories about the Iraq war, using military analysts who appeared regularly on television.

   Acting on a 2009 defense policy bill, lawmakers forbade the Defense Department from engaging in “a concerted effort to propagandize” the American people over the war.

   The amendment by Rep. Paul W. Hodes (D-N.H.), which passed by voice vote, also would force an investigation by the General Accounting Office of efforts to plant positive news stories about the war. The overall bill passed 384-23.

Four at Four continues with the Bush administration uniting Russia and China in opposition to the U.S. Plus bonus stories salmon and the increasing acidity levels along the Pacific coast.

1. So Israel and Syria have begun peace talks. The type of dialogue that Bush compared attempts to “negotiate with the terrorists and radicals” with appeasement of Hitler. So was Bush using the horrors of Nazi Germany to attack Obama or disrupt Israel’s peace talks with Syria?

   According to “Advice From White House Is Not Always Followed“, a news analysis by Helene Cooper in The New York Times, The Bush administration was “initially opposed” to the talks.

   The Israel-Syria announcement, in particular, offers an interesting case study, because Israeli officials have said for months that the United States was the only obstacle blocking talks with Syria, which both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak advocated.

   In particular, Elliott Abrams, Mr. Bush’s deputy national security adviser, has cautioned against an Israeli-Syria negotiation, according to Israeli and Bush administration officials. Administration officials said they feared that such a negotiation would appear to reward Syria at a time when the United States was seeking to isolate it for its meddling in Lebanon and its backing of Hezbollah.

   But a few weeks ago, Israeli officials told their counterparts at the State Department that they planned to begin the negotiations, which are being mediated by Turkey.

   “They weren’t asking our permission,” one senior administration official said. Another Bush official characterized the Israeli announcement as “a slap in the face.”

   And there it is: talk of peace is a slap in the face of the Bush administration. Hat tip a gnostic.

2. Yet another way Bush’s failed war in Iraq impacts Bush’s failed war in Afghanistan. The Associated Press reports One NATO soldier killed in Quran protest.

   Gunfire broke out Thursday at a protest in western Afghanistan against a U.S. sniper in Iraq who used a Quran for target practice. Officials said a NATO soldier and two civilians were killed.

   Police opened fire on demonstrators who threw rocks and set tents on fire near a military airfield in western Ghor province, said NATO spokesman Maj. Martin O’Donnell.

   Two civilians were slain and seven others were wounded, he said.

   Gunfire also killed one NATO soldier from Lithuania and wounded another, but it was not clear who shot at them, O’Donnell said. The Lithuanian Defense Ministry identified the dead soldier as Sgt. Arunas Jarmalavicius, 35, the first Lithuanian soldier killed in Afghanistan.

3. Meanwhile back in Iraq, The New York Times reports another U.S. airstrike kills 8 civilians in Iraq. “Iraqi officials said an American helicopter strike on Thursday killed eight civilians including two children and an elderly man during an assault near the northern Iraqi town of Baiji. American officials confirmed that two children had died in an American assault on Sunni insurgent suspects in the area and expressed regret. Iraqi officials, however, said the incident was likely to stoke anti-American resentment.”

   “Unfortunately, two children were killed when the other occupants of the vehicle in which they were riding exhibited hostile intent,” said the American statement, which was released in Baghdad.

Four at Four continues with this year’s Atlantic hurricane outlook.

1. The Washington Post reports that FBI reports Of detainee abuse were ignored by the White House.

   Complaints by FBI agents about abusive interrogation tactics at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other U.S. military sites reached the National Security Council but prompted no effort to curb questioning that the agents considered ineffective and possibly illegal, according to an internal audit released yesterday.

   Reports that Guantanamo detainees were being subjected to extreme temperatures, religious abuses and nude interrogation were conveyed at White House meetings of senior officials in 2003, yet these questionable tactics remained in use, a lengthy report by the Justice Department’s inspector general concluded.

   In one instance, colleagues of then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft reported that he personally aired concerns about Defense Department strategy toward a particular detainee with Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, while other Justice managers shared similar fears with the council’s legal adviser in November 2003, the report said.

   From the report via TPM Muckraker, an inventory of the abuse and torture reported by the FBI agents to the Justice Department Inspector General. Of the 450 interviewed, “nearly half reported witnessing or hearing about ‘rough or aggressive treatment of detainees, primarily by military investigators.'”

Four at Four continues with stories about big oil, the environment, and tornadoes.

1. Some incredibly sad news about Senator Ted Kennedy. The New York Times reports Senator Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor. “Tests performed over the weekend at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston indicated that Mr. Kennedy, 76, has a type of cancer known as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe, the upper left portion of his brain.”

   News of the diagnosis was greeted by “stunned silence” at a weekly lunch conference for Senate Democrats, said Senator Ben Nelson, of Nebraska. Mr. Nelson said that Senator John Kerry, of Massachusetts, who had spoken with Mr. Kennedy, reported that “Senator Kennedy is quite optimistic.”

2. According to a report in The Guardian, the World was ‘more peaceful’ in 2008. According to the Vision of Humanity’s Global Peace Index Ratings, the top five most peaceful countries are: Iceland, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand, and Japan. The index measures “internal and external turmoil in 140 countries. Only one of the G8 countries [Japan], the world’s most economically powerful nations, makes it into the top ten of the survey”.

   Unsurprisingly, the five least peaceful nations are Israel (136), Afghanistan (137), Sudan (138), Somalia (139), and Iraq (140). But, “the survey suggests that the world is a marginally more secure place than it was a year ago.”

   Small, stable, democratic countries are the most peaceful, according to the index, but economic is not seen as a guarantee of a high ranking. Of the G8 countries, France (36), the United Kingdom (49), the United States (97), and Russia (131) did not even make it into the top thirty…

   “On average, scores for level of organised conflict (internal) and violent crime, political instability and potential for terrorist acts have all got marginally better,” according to the summary of the index. In contrast, the world’s armed services have grown on average per country, as has the sophistication of their weaponry.

   “The world appears to be a marginally more peaceful place this year,” said Steve Killelea, the Australian technology entrepreneur and founder of the Global Peace Index. “This is encouraging, but it takes small steps by individual countries for the world to make greater strides on the road to peace.”

Four at Four continues with news from Iraq and “Honey From the Hood”.

1. The Washington Post reports the Fifth top aide to McCain resigns. “Tom Loeffler, the national finance co-chairman for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, resigned yesterday because of his lobbying ties… He is the fifth person to sever ties with the campaign amid a growing concern over whether lobbyists have too great an influence over the Republican nominee.”

   “McCain… has been criticized for months about the number of lobbyists serving in key positions in his campaign. Until recently, his top political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., was the head of a Washington lobbying firm…”

   “Loeffler, a former congressman from Texas, is a close friend of McCain’s and took over the campaign’s fundraising last summer… His firm, the Loeffler Group, had collected $15 million from Saudi Arabia and millions more from other foreign governments. He is listed as chairman and senior partner at the firm.”

   The New York Times reports McCain to rely on Republican Party money against Obama. “To confront the Obama juggernaut, Senator John McCain, whose fund-raising has badly trailed that of his Democratic counterparts, is leaning on the Republican National Committee…

   To that end, Republican officials said they were enlisting President Bush, a formidable fund-raiser who has raised more than $36 million this year for Republican candidates and committees, for three events on Mr. McCain’s behalf… Offering a glimpse of the kind of money that can be spread around with such a committee, $300,000 was collected from nine hedge fund executives and real estate investors at an event in New York in March…

   Lacking a robust small-dollar Internet fund-raising operation, Mr. McCain has a busy schedule of some two dozen high-dollar fund-raising events this month.”

2. Meanwhile, Barack Obama draws a crowd of between 72,000 and 75,000 people in Portland, Oregon. The Oregonian reports “Tens of thousands jammed Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland on Sunday to watch Sen. Barack Obama wrap up a busy weekend in Oregon and a historic campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.”

   According to the Tribune Newspapers, Obama gave his standard 30-minute stump speech, but added a few Portland flourishes. “He’s added a few Oregonian flourishes, drawing big cheers when he said the country can learn from Portland’s commitment to mass transit and bicycle lanes. The biggest applause came when he denounced the Iraq war”.

   “If you vote for me on Tuesday,” Obama said, “We won’t just win Oregon. We’ll win this nomination, we’ll win this general election. And you and I together, we’ll change this country, we’ll change the world.”

Four at Four continues below the fold with a story from Guantanamo Bay and about banning cluster bombs.

1. This is what appeasement looks like. Something… From Voice of America, Bush in Saudi Arabia for Nuclear Deal. “Bush and King Abdullah… will discuss a deal to help the kingdom develop civilian nuclear power for medical and industrial uses as well as generating electricity. The agreement provides access to safe, reliable fuel sources for nuclear reactors and demonstrates what the Bush Administration calls Saudi leadership as a non-proliferation model for the region.”

   For nothing… The Guardian reports Saudis reject Bush’s plea to ease oil prices. “Saudi Arabia today rebuffed George Bush’s appeal to increase production and help cut record oil prices, the White House said. It was the second time this year that the pleas of the US president, who is visiting King Abdullah, have fallen on deaf ears. Bush’s latest request came as the price of crude oil hit a new high of more than $127 (£65) a barrel.”

2. The Great Lakes Compact is becoming more and more likely. In Cleveland, The Plain Dealer reports the Great Lakes Water Compact nears agreement in Ohio legislature. ” Lawmakers in both Wisconsin and Michigan this week nearly unanimously approved the proposed interstate agreement, which supporters say would guard the region’s water from diversion outside and overuse within its borders. That leaves only Ohio and Pennsylvania as states that have not signed on to the water deal.”

   “The Council of Great Lakes Governments conceived the compact, which also includes a less-formal agreement with the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, in 2005. Six states – Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin – have now approved the plan.” In addition to the states, Congress must also give its approval.

   According to NPR, “The Great Lakes Water Compact… lays out rules for conservation and water use in the region.” Or as the Detroit Free Press explains the “historic regional agreement that would prevent Great Lakes water from being diverted to thirsty parts of the country or globe.”

Four at Four continues with barbarisation and laissez-faire ethnic cleansing.

1. The Bush administration has yet another way to steal from America. The Associated Press reveals Defense contractors and insurance firms make millions off loose Iraq insurance rules.

   A poorly run Pentagon program for providing workman’s compensation for civilian employees in Iraq and Afghanistan has allowed defense contractors and insurance companies to gouge American taxpayers, a House oversight committee said Thursday.

   Insurance companies alone have pocketed $600 million in excessive profits over the past five years, says a staff report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but the Defense Department refuses to adjust its approach for managing the program…

   “What makes the situation even worse is the people this program is supposed to benefit – the injured employees working for contractors – have to fight the insurance companies to get their benefits,” committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said at a hearing Thursday. “Delays and denials in paying claims are the rule.”

   KBR Inc., one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, paid the insurance giant AIG $284 million for medical and disability coverage under the Defense Base Act, a reference to the federal law mandating the insurance. Due to the way KBR’s contract is structured, this premium, along with an $8 million markup for KBR, gets billed to the taxpayer.

2. Just in case you missed it, General David Petraeus is in charge of who gets promoted in the Army. The Washington Post reports Army’s next crop of generals forged in counterinsurgency. “An Army board headed by Gen. David H. Petraeus has selected several combat-tested counterinsurgency experts for promotion to the rank of brigadier general, sifting through more than 1,000 colonels to identify a handful of innovative leaders who will shape the future Army, according to current and former senior Army officers. The choices suggest that the unusual decision to put the top U.S. officer in Iraq in charge of the promotions board has generated new thinking on the qualities of a successful Army officer — and also deepened Petraeus’s imprint on the Army.”

Four at Four continues with stories about the impact of climate change and our American history crumbling away due to neglect.

1. The Los Angeles Times reports Consumer prices up just 0.2% in April, but there’s a catch. “The government’s main inflation gauge, the consumer price index, rose just 0.2% in April, when adjusted for seasonal changes, the Labor Department reported. Since energy prices normally go up in March and April, the department said, the seasonally corrected index showed energy prices as flat… The government noted that gasoline prices actually rose 5.6% in April, which is about what is expected this time of year. The problem for consumers is that the prices were so high to begin with — the department said that in nominal terms, gasoline prices are up 20.9% nationally over the past 12 months.”

   Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports Food prices see greatest monthly increase in nearly 20 years. “Food prices have risen 6.1 percent in the past three months on a seasonally adjusted annual basis. The one-month rise between March and April of 0.9 percent was the biggest since January 1990, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics… The costs of cereal and bakery products increased 1.4 percent from March to April and have risen nearly 20 percent in the past three months on a seasonally adjusted basis. Prices for fats and oils jumped more than 5 percent in April, on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, and have increased more than 26 percent in the past three months. Prices for sugars and sweets increased more than 10 percent during that same period.”

   The Guardian reports US property foreclosures up 65%. “The wave of misery caused by America’s sub-prime mortgage crisis engulfed more homeowners in April as foreclosures leapt by 65% year-on-year… Banks filed foreclosure papers on 243,353 US properties last month according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for repossessed homes. The figure was up 4% on March” and would be higher if not for court backlog.

   The Washington Post adds Standards of living are challenged, burdened by the weight of inflation. “Nearly seven in 10 Americans are worried about maintaining their standard of living… Soaring consumer prices are a major challenge, with many people struggling under the weight of the rising costs of fuel, food and health care… Overall, two-thirds called rising gasoline prices a financial hardship, including a third who said higher pump prices have proved to be a severe burden.” But, “U.S. gasoline consumption has continued to grow gradually over the past five years even as crude oil prices have quadrupled, but there are some signs in the poll that prices have finally hit a level that is altering driving habits.”

   But Wall Street doesn’t notice reality — just some cooked book numbers from the Bush administration. Instead, the Associated Press reports Stocks advance following better-than-expected inflation read. “Stocks steamed higher Wednesday after a better-than-expected report on consumer prices tempered some of Wall Street’s concerns about inflation. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 100 points.”

   And the Wall Street Journal gleefully plasters across the front page: Recession? Not So Fast, Say Some. “Economists also cite swift policy responses, including a sharp reduction in interest rates by the Fed — to 2% from 5.25% last September — and the distribution of fiscal-stimulus checks to millions of Americans, as factors possibly easing the downturn.” All that was done was to shift the blame to the next administration.

   I think the problems are just starting,” said Lehman Brothers economist Drew Matus, citing high gasoline prices and tightening lending standards, saying that prolonged stagnation can be worse than a recession.

   Asked in an interview… whether the U.S. could avoid a recession, Gary Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said, “No,” adding, “But there are recessions and then there are recessions….The average resident doesn’t distinguish between whether the economy is growing half a percent or one and a half percent….It’s more, how does this feel?”

   It feels like the next administration is being set up for very bad things.

Four at Four continues with renewed fears for the Amazon, a contentious objector’s day in court, and the next low-wage stop for globalization.

1. The Miami Herald reports that Newcomers are assimilating quickly in U.S. “A wide-ranging and provocative new study of immigrants’ integration into U.S. society has concluded that newcomers today are assimilating more quickly than their predecessors did 100 years ago — with Cubans, Vietnamese and Filipinos among those leading the way.”

   Jacob L. Vigdor, a Duke University economist, authored the study which was published by the Manhattan Institute, a right wing think tank. The study found that new immigrants become part of the American society “remarkably well.” “Today’s immigrants are making faster progress. As a result, even as immigration has skyrocketed, assimilation has remained stable, Vigdor concluded. ‘This is something unprecedented in the United States,’ he said.”

   Only “Mexicans — by far the most numerous nationality — lag significantly behind other big immigrant groups, possibly because a lack of legal status keeps many Mexican immigrants from advancing.” The Washington Post adds “A major reason” why the assimilation of Mexican immigrants lags behind others is a “high percentage of Mexican immigrants who are in the country illegally… ‘If you’re in the country illegally, a lot of the avenues of assimilation are cut off to you,’ he said. ‘There are lot of jobs you can’t get, and you can’t become a citizen.'”

   Vigdor noted: “In general, the longer an immigrant lives in the United States, the more characteristics of native citizens he or she tends to take on… however, that the speed with which new arrivals take on native-born traits has increased since the 1990s. As a result, even though the foreign population doubled during that period, the newcomers did not drive down the overall assimilation index of the foreign-born population. Instead, it held relatively steady from 1990 to 2006.”

2. The New York Times reports Defense War Secretary Robert Gates wants weapons useful in current conflicts. “Gates issued a clear warning to the military and its industrial partners on Tuesday that expensive, new conventional weapons must prove their value to current conflicts, marked by insurgency and terrorism, if they hope for a place in future budgets.” In addition, Gates indicated “the Army and Marine Corps would continue to carry the brunt of the nation’s combat effort. The Air Force and Navy, he said, would be cast as ‘America’s main strategic deterrent’ against potential adversaries such as Iran, North Korea and China.”

   He acknowledged that given troop commitments to Iraq and Afghanistan, “it is true that we would be hard-pressed to launch a major conventional ground operation elsewhere in the world at this time.”

   “The risk of overextending the Army is real,” Mr. Gates said. “But I believe the risk is far greater – to that institution, as well as to our country – if we were to fail in Iraq. That is the war we are in. That is the war we must win.”

Four at Four continues with the oil pander of Congress and the real betrayal of America.

1. The Guardian reports Microloans guard America’s middle class.

   The world thinks of microfinance as a tool to lift its poorest from grinding poverty. But in an age of pricey fuel and shrinking credit, the entrepreneurial movement that began in Bangladesh is taking off in the richest country of all.

   Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus opened 11 branches of his Grameen Bank in New York City this spring, more than 30 years after he revolutionised foreign aid by delivering the first microloan to a group of rural Asian villagers.

   If Yunus is the father of microfinance, his US offspring already are maturing quite nicely. The spectre of recession, combined with a diverse array of lending models, is sparking a new demand in America for small loans and business counselling…

   Almost anyone can send a few dollars to Asia that can feed a family for weeks, thanks to Kiva and other groups that turn ordinary Americans into microlenders. But sending a few thousand dollars to a rural Pennsylvania craftsman is more difficult.

   Micro Business Development Corporation, led by Denver lender Kersten Hostetter, has created thousands of jobs and boosted the local economy by more than $15m. Still, Hostetter is so keen for more investment that she has written a unique job ad seeking a celebrity spokesman for US microfinance.

   “We’re the bridge between poverty alleviation and economic development, the guardians of the middle class,” Hostetter said. “We didn’t brand ourselves initially because there wasn’t a need for it.”

   This will probably sound elitist. I think microloans are great, but using them to protect the American middle class, I think, is alarming. Just how far has the U.S. fallen? Micro-finance is about ending poverty. This is more evidence there are “two Americas” and parts of the U.S. are becoming more like some of the world’s poorest countries.

Four at Four continues with the spread of nuclear power, mixed environmental news, and locust swarms.