Answer to Monday Brain Teaser

Bayes’ theorem is useful in evaluating the result of drug tests. Suppose a certain drug test is 99% sensitive and 99% specific, that is, the test will correctly identify a drug user as testing positive 99% of the time, and will correctly identify a non-user as testing negative 99% of the time. This would seem to be a relatively accurate test, but Bayes’ theorem will reveal a potential flaw. Let’s assume a corporation decides to test its employees for opium use, and 0.5% of the employees use the drug. We want to know the probability that, given a positive drug test, an employee is actually a drug user. Let “D” be the event of being a drug user and “N” indicate being a non-user. Let “+” be the event of a positive drug test. We need to know the following:

   * P(D), or the probability that the employee is a drug user, regardless of any other information. This is 0.005, since 0.5% of the employees are drug users. This is the prior probability of D.

   * P(N), or the probability that the employee is not a drug user. This is 1 ? P(D), or 0.995.

   * P(+|D), or the probability that the test is positive, given that the employee is a drug user. This is 0.99, since the test is 99% accurate.

   * P(+|N), or the probability that the test is positive, given that the employee is not a drug user. This is 0.01, since the test will produce a false positive for 1% of non-users.

   * P(+), or the probability of a positive test event, regardless of other information. This is 0.0149 or 1.49%, which is found by adding the probability that the test will produce a true positive result in the event of drug use (= 99% x 0.5% = 0.495%) plus the probability that the test will produce a false positive in the event of non-drug use (= 1% x 99.5% = 0.995%). This is the prior probability of +.

Given this information, we can compute the posterior probability P(D|+) of an employee who tested positive actually being a drug user:

P(D|+)  = (0.99 x 0.005)/(0.99 x 0.005)+(0.01 x 0.005)

P(D|+)  = 0.3322

Despite the high accuracy of the test, the probability that an employee who tested positive actually did use drugs is only about 33%, so it is actually more likely that the employee is not a drug user. The rarer the condition for which we are testing, the greater the percentage of positive tests that will be false positives.

The purpose of this exercise was to show that even when common sense suggests that a test with high accuracy should have highly accurate results, the underlying probability of a positive result is the most important factor in getting an accurate result.  In simple terms, we ought to be a lot less confident that prosecutors are charging the correct person, that drug testing works, or that statistics are showing us what we think they are.  Highly unlikely events remain highly unlikely even when we have very accurate tests which indicate they are taking place.

Four at Four

  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. The Guardian reports Shell ‘selling suicide’ by preferring tar sands to wind.

    Shell was accused yesterday of “selling suicide on the forecourt” by pressing ahead with tar sands operations in Canada and continuing to flare off excess gas in Nigeria while pulling out of renewable schemes such as the London Array – the world’s largest offshore wind scheme.

    The accusation that Shell was irresponsibly adding to climate change was made by an unnamed shareholder at its annual meeting in The Hague after Shell chief executive Jeroen van der Veer insisted the company was doing all it could to meet rising demands for energy while reducing CO2 emissions. Shell would listen to all stakeholders but he warned “ultimately it will not be possible to meet fully everyone’s expectations”…

    This comes on the tail of news on Monday from The Guardian that Exxon is facing shareholder revolt over approach to climate change.

    A shareholder revolt at ExxonMobil led by the billionaire Rockefeller family has won the support of four significant British institutional investors who will call on Monday for a shakeup in the governance of the world’s biggest oil company…

    Exxon is facing a rebellion from its investors over its hardline approach to global warming. The firm has refused to follow rival oil companies in committing large-scale capital investment to environmentally friendly technology such as wind and solar power.

    The Rockefeller dynasty, whose ancestor John D Rockefeller founded the original oil business at the core of ExxonMobil, have sponsored four shareholder resolutions demanding changes at Exxon.

    Hat tip Chaoslillith.

    Meanwhile, the Houston Chronicle reports Oil execs ask Congress to allow more U.S. drilling.

    Oil executives today challenged lawmakers to open more areas to drilling and send a signal to the world about the United States’ resolve to deal with its own energy problems.

    “If the nation set a goal of increasing domestic production by 2 (million) to 3 million barrels a day by opening up new sources of exploration and production, we could demonstrate to the world that we are in control of our own destiny,” Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister told a Senate panel today…

    John Lowe, Houston-based ConocoPhillips’ executive vice president, argued “we must move beyond today’s adversarial relationship.” The oil companies, Lowe said should be viewed as the key to the nation’s energy challenges, not the scapegoats.

  2. The Oregonian, however, reports High energy prices are benefiting our environment.

    One of the more promising recent pieces of global warming news emerged from a new federal report: We’re likely to burn through a lot less energy during the coming decades than experts assumed as little as a year ago.

    That means we won’t be pumping as much extra greenhouse gases into the atmosphere…

    Last year, the federal Energy Information Administration projected that U.S. energy demand would grow 1.2 percent a year from 2005 to 2020. But this year, the agency revised that growth projection downward by almost half — to 0.7 percent a year.

    That also reduced projected emissions in greenhouse gases. The EIA projected last year that greenhouse emissions would rise 16 percent from 2005 to 2020, but this year scaled that projected increase back to just 7 percent.

  3. The New York Times reports A busy year as tornadoes wreak havoc.

    Meteorologists who keep records for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration say that the United States is having its deadliest tornado season in a decade and that this year may be on pace to set a record for the most tornadoes.

    At least 100 people have been killed through mid-May, the highest number of fatalities since the same period in 1998. A preliminary tally shows 868 tornadoes were reported through May 18, a pace on par with 2004, which saw an unprecedented 1,819 tornadoes, according to records kept by the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla…

    This tornado season has been atypical because of its early start. From 1953 to 2005, an average of 19 tornadoes struck in January and 21 in February… In 2008, 136 tornadoes were reported in January and 232 in February.

Through the Darkest of Nights: Testament XVI

Every few days over the next several months I will be posting installments of a novel about life, death, war and politics in America since 9/11.  Through the Darkest of Nights is a story of hope, reflection, determination, and redemption.  It is a testament to the progressive values we all believe in, have always defended, and always will defend no matter how long this darkness lasts.  But most of all, it is a search for identity and meaning in an empty world.

Naked and alone we came into exile.  In her dark womb, we did not know our mother’s face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother?  Which of us has looked into his father’s heart?  Which of us has not remained prison-pent?  Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?      ~Thomas Wolfe

All installments are available for reading here on Docudharma’s Series page, and also here on Docudharma’s Fiction Page, where refuge from politicians, blogging overload, and one BushCo outrage after another can always be found.

Through the Darkest of Nights

Consequences

    I have fears, I have hopes, regrets and bittersweet memories.  They’re traveling with me, they’re part of who I was, who I am, and who I will be.  Forgotten lovers abide within me, waiting to be remembered.  Forgotten hopes linger deep in my heart, waiting to be rekindled.  Forgotten kindnesses are there, deserving of remembrance. Forgotten sacrifices are there, deserving of gratitude. Forgotten promises are there, deserving of fulfillment.

    I have promises to keep, I have sins to atone for, I have debts to repay.  In moments of weakness, I’ve wanted to leave them behind, but I can’t leave them behind, they’ve come along for the ride–every promise, every sin, every debt has traveled every mile with me.  They’re getting heavier and harder to bear as the miles pass, as the days get harder and the nights get longer and the road gets rougher.

    Like me, America has promises to keep, sins to atone for, and debts to repay.  But too many of her sons and daughters want to leave them behind, too many of her leaders have left them behind, they got too heavy to carry, the burden was too much to bear.  It was much easier to forget those promises, to deny those sins, to ignore those debts, to speak of them no more, to just pretend that all is well, to tell themselves and the people they lie to instead of lead that America is still the greatest country on earth.

    Empty words, empty slogans, empty suits, an empty Congress, an empty White House, and an empty future, that’s all America has now, that’s all that’s left.  And so I’m here with Shannon in the heartland of this fallen nation, seeking understanding, seeking guidance that only looking inward can bring, seeking wisdom that only self-awareness can bring, seeking redemption for myself and my country, redemption before its too late and there’s nothing left to do but face the end knowing that I tried, that at least I did that, that I did everything I could for as long as I could.  

   How many other Americans are seeking understanding?  How many others are looking inward, seeking guidance, seeking wisdom, seeking redemption for their complicity in the dismantling of democracy?  How many have the courage to fight back, how many even care anymore, how many even see what’s happening all around them?

    Very few.

    But that doesn’t discourage me from standing up and speaking out, it compels me to stand up and speak out, because if one American does, a few more will, and then a hundred will, and then a thousand will, and then ten thousand will, and then a million will.  It’ll happen, I’ll see it, it’s years away, but someone has to take the first stand, someone has to be the first to speak out, someone has to travel the first lonely miles down the road to redemption.

    So that road beckons us onward, into the high country of Colorado, into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, towards the Gateway and whatever awaits us there.  But no matter how far we travel, no matter how many miles we put behind us, no matter how many miles lie ahead, no matter where the journey ends or what the destination is, we are still ourselves, we are still the same mortal package of memories, longings, fears, regrets and hard-wired emotions.  

    Unless the journey changes us.

    It’s changing Shannon.  Since her confrontation with Travis she’s been withdrawn, depressed, and unsure of herself.  I don’t know what Travis said to her or what she said to him, but she’s been distant these past three weeks and won’t tell me why.  We were getting to know each other, we were growing closer as the miles and hours passed on this journey, a bond of mutual trust and respect was forming and growing stronger.  Now, in the aftermath of her encounter with Travis, her nightmares are worse and she has little to say to me.

     Shannon is much like Sarah in many ways.  But there are differences too, Shannon is more assertive than Sarah was, but only because she feels she needs to be.  She’s not as trusting, but she can’t afford to be.  She believes in the power of love, as Sarah did, but she has a fierce contempt for people who take advantage of others, she’s never had much tolerance for them, but she had always contained her anger.  It seems that a trigger point was reached during her confrontation with Travis, I think he pushed her too far one too many times, and she erupted.    

    It happens, it’s happened to most of us at one time or another.  Emotion is primal, it’s hard-wired into us, it’s much older than words and far more powerful.  Words can heal, they enable us to express our emotions and share our feelings, but there are times when raw emotion takes control, and forges words into weapons in a psychic furnace of fury.    

    Shannon seems traumatized, but not because she fears Travis, and not because she can’t bear to confront him again.  Her realization that the visceral power of raw emotion took control of her that night is what seems to have traumatized her, she’s had to acknowledge that she’s capable of rage. I’ve tried to persuade her to talk about what happened, I’ve tried to find out why she’s so deeply upset, for three weeks I’ve tried, but she won’t confide in me. She just looks at my pendant and tells me she’s unworthy of the trust I have in her.

   Is another confrontation with Travis coming?  It looks that way.  Will Shannon try to avoid it?  No, that’s no longer an option.  Shannon and Travis are not just engaged in a heated dispute over his pursuit of her, it’s not just a matter of her rejecting him as a suitor, there’s some deeper conflict being waged here.  A psychic struggle is underway between primal forces, it is underway within every soul, it always has been, but the survival of humanity is at stake now, the resolution of this struggle will either bring redemption to humanity, or extinction.

    Here, on this journey, in the heart of the American Midwest, a seeker of peace and a warrior are waging it. Shannon is suffering the psychic consequences, she’s enduring an assault on her mind and spirit that would destroy most people, but she’ll defend herself, she’ll fight back with everything she’s got, she’ll fight her way through this, of that I have no doubt.  She’ll survive this cauldron of trauma and self-doubt, she’ll emerge from this torment stronger, more determined, and far more prepared to face what awaits us beyond the Gateway.            

The National Assembly

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

In an attempt to reenergize the U.S. antiwar movement, activists from the American Friends Service Committee, U.S. Labor Against the War, and veterans against the war have formed a steering committee, the National Assembly. The Assembly’s first act is to call for a national meeting of antiwar activists, to be held on June 27-28, 2008, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. All antiwar coalitions, organizations, and activists are welcome to attend.

Endorsers of the National Assembly include the Iraq Moratorium, Veterans for Peace, A.N.S.W.E.R., UFPJ, the National Lawyers Guild, Progressive Democrats of America, AfterDowningStreet, Cindy Sheehan, Howard Zinn, Ramsey Clark, Scott Ritter, and many others.

The position of the assembly is that there must be an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Since there is no mechanism such as a national referendum to force a withdrawal, the American people are left with mass action in the streets. It is believed by the organizers that the best way to prepare such mass mobilizations is through “democratic and open conferences that function transparently, with all who attend having the right to vote.”

You can endorse the National Assembly, and details of the conference and their positions can be found at their website.

Please cross-post this wherever you like.

FBI Ordered to Shut Down GITMO “War Crimes” File

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

(h/t to GreyHawk for pointing to this story. GH’s post at epluribus media.)

Yes, the FBI kept a “War Crimes” file about GTMO. So reports the NY Times in  Report Details Dissent on Guantánamo Tactics:

WASHINGTON – In 2002, as evidence of prisoner mistreatment at Guantánamo Bay began to mount, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at the base created a “war crimes file” to document accusations against American military personnel, but were eventually ordered to close down the file, a Justice Department report revealed Tuesday.

Ordered closed down by whom exactly?

Don’t worry about these FBI claims and concerns, though. There’s been an exhaustive report, and everything’s cool, per the DoJ Investigator General Glenn A. Fine:

In sum, we believe that while the FBI could have provided clearer guidance earlier, and while the FBI could have pressed harder for resolution of concerns about detainee treatment by other agencies, the FBI should be credited for its conduct and professionalism in detainee interrogations in the military zones in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq and in generally avoiding participation in detainee abuse.

From p. 413 of Report (warning! 437 page PDF)

There’s a lot to read in this report; I’ve only had the chance to skim through it, but it basically is another dossier from the files of the Kafka Bureau of Government Operations. A report so focused on detail and process, while completely ignoring the larger questions. Not that it was supposed to be anything else; it’s just another example of the hot-potato game of accountability. The report does detail that there was great pushback and concern over the “enhanced interrogation techniques.” As the NY Times says:

The report, an exhaustive, 437-page review prepared by the Justice Department inspector general, provides the fullest account to date of internal dissent and confusion within the Bush administration over the use of harsh interrogation tactics by the military and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The report describes what one official called “trench warfare” between the F.B.I. and the military over the rough methods being used on detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The report says that the F.B.I. agents took their concerns to higher-ups, but that their concerns often fell on deaf ears: officials at senior levels at the F.B.I., the Justice Department, the Defense Department and the National Security Council were all made aware of the F.B.I. agents’ complaints, but little appears to have been done as a result.

The report quotes passionate objections from F.B.I. officials who grew increasingly concerned about the reports of practices like intimidating inmates with snarling dogs, parading them in the nude before female soldiers, or “short-shackling” them to the floor for many hours in extreme heat or cold.

(My emphasis, of course.)

The report deals with this tension and “confusion” simply by explaining that FBI shouldn’t really worry, all of these techniques have been approved by DoD, so everything is just a question of role of FBI interrogators. Nothing is said to address the FBI concerns that these techniques themselves constitute torture or warcrimes:

On December 2, 2002, the Secretary of Defense approved additional techniques on detainees at GTMO, including stress positions for a maximum of 4 hours, isolation, deprivation of light and auditory stimuli, hooding, 20-hour interrogations, removal of clothing, and exploiting a detainee’s individual phobias (such as fear of dogs).

From p. 19 of Report (warning! 437 page PDF)

Indeed, footnote 228 explicitly states:

We did not examine issues related to DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinions concerning the legality of several interrogations techniques the CIA sought to useon certain high value detainees. Wheile senior FBI and DOJ officials were aware of these opinions, an assessment of the validity of OLC legal opinions was beyond the scope of this review.

(My emphasis, of course.)

Well, goddamn it–whose scope is it in to review the legality of these techniques?! When will all of these war criminals be held to account?

Crucially, as the NY Times reports, FBI was concerned not only with the illegality, but also the counterproductive nature of using torture:

The report describes extensive debate inside the F.B.I. over the next six months over whether it should continue to observe or assist the C.I.A. with interrogations using harsh methods it believed were counterproductive.

F.B.I. officials, including Pasquale D’Amuro, then the bureau’s top counterterrorism officer, believed the physical pressure being used by the C.I.A. was less effective than traditional noncoercive methods, that it would “taint” any future effort at prosecution, and that it “was wrong and helped Al Qaeda in spreading negative views of the United States,” the report says.

(My emphasis)

This should be the key point in all discussions of torture as policy. Torture does not work for information extraction.

President Obama, will you hold these criminals to account? And will you shut down GTMO A.S.A.P?

Unfortunately, Secretary Gates seems to think we are “stuck with” GTMO:

The US is “stuck” with the Guantanamo Bay detention centre even though it wants to close it, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said.

Mr Gates said the US wanted to send up to 70 prisoners home but countries would either not take them or could not be trusted to.

Well, that’s it from me for now. Please take a look at the NYTimes article, and I’m also sure that the 437 report is sure to generate many future blog posts.


Oh, yeah, and don’t forget to call your congresscritters and demand:

  • End to Iraq Occupation.
  • Closure of GTMO
  • Investigations and indictments of war criminals: BushCo.

Presidential Tech debate liveblog from CFP

Liveblogging a presentation at the 19th Annual Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy by tech advisors to the Obama and McCain campaigns, entitled the Clinton Campaign was invited to participate, but declined. The official title of the session, Presidential Technology Policy: Priorities for the Next Executive

In attendance a blend of academics, dotgovs, corporados, civil liberties orgs, cyberpunks.

Opening, Conference Chair Eddan Katz of Yale reminds that the only tech question of the 2000 Predidential debate cycle, asked at the MYV/CNN debate, was “Mac or PC.” Apparently, the questioner had a more sophisticated question in mind, but was told to use the softball by debate organizers.

For the Obama Campaign: Danny Weitzner (sp?) formerly of Center for Democracy and Technology

Opening statement: Wiezner: The campaign’s use of tech has brought in a lot of people with tech sophistication. Net Neutrality a fundamental value.

Sen. Obama a supporter of diverse media ownership. Reverse consolidation trends. Free expression while protecting children. Tools into hands of parents, work we law enforcement rather than censorship.

Critical of abuse of nat Sec letters.

Consumer Privacy: In addition to traditional privacy protection, new legislation for private use of info. Protect against abuse of genetic information.

Govt wide Chief Technology Officer.

Promoting broadband deployment

Patent reform

Chuck Fish for McCain former counsel for Time-Warner (patents)

Update 1

Fish mostly talkking making US tech economically competitive. Education, expansion of H1B visas.

Light regulation, free and open markets. “When you bneed a telecon Act, 700,000 words, “perhaps that tells you ypu’re going down the wrong path.” Incorrect regulation stifles innovation.”

Reform Sarbanes/Oxley

“Commitment to discovery.” 2.7% of GDP on R&D, needs to be more. Make R&D tax credit permanent.

Update 2 Fish:

Privacy. (not his specialty)

Liberty is not licentiousness.

Privacy must be seen in context of what’s necessary for personal security.

Update 3 Questions

What is the role of Govt in ensuring broadband infrastructure is available?

Fish: I can’t make anything of his response.

Weizner: We’re doing well in integrating. Skeptical of value of new regulation, last time it got so bogged in court as to be useful. Openess more important than bandwidth. McCain has said market forces will keep net open, w anti-trust in background. We see a need for Net Neutrality legislation.

Update 4 NSA Wiretap cases, changes to law?

Fish: More collaborative legislative process. Important and competing values. Factfinding, not posturing. Immunity: tough question. “We’re not talking about indulgences.” Hearings to find out what actually happened. Need clear rules going forward.

Weizner: Recognises McCain’s voice against torture.

Obama’s history: In PATRIOT , supported Judicial review. ( but voted for renewal without it.) Voted against retro immunity, McCain didn’t.

Forward, See TCampaign’s tech whitrepaper.

Advanced surveillance and datamining can be important tools for Nat. Security, wants to protect against mission creep to traditional law enforcement.

Update 5Intellectual Property, should there be an IP Czar?

Weizner, no. Campaign has not stated a position on DMCA. His view, we got ahead of ourselves.

Fish: His opionion No Czar. Campaign has not taken a position.

Weizner: No new laws needed to protect US IP, just enforcemnent of existing laws. Fish: Agrees.

Update 6 China Olympics censorship

Weizner I’m unaware of a position from the Campaign. My view, we can be persuasive. US businesses have to abide by laws of countries in which they operate.

Fish: Also no official position from Campaign. There are limits on our ability to influence. McCain believes we win by example.

Update 7 Audience questions

Will your candidate use email? Will the WhiteHouse use non-gove email servers?

Fish: Yes, Definitively No.

Weizner: I’ve never received a personal email from Barrack, but I believe he’s familiar. I’d expoect we’d use open gov’t servers.

Update 8(I missed the quesation, Weizner calls for more openess of govt info, roll back new Bush “sensitive but unclassified.”

Update 9, My Question

Cellphone location tracking: should Law enforcement need a warrant?

Weizner: No position from campaign. Court rulings in different have varied. We should not shut tracking, but need oversight, wait for the courts before legislating.

Fish, Same.

I’m taking timeout..

Update 10 Consumer Privacy:

Fish: Business has always known more about us than Govt. We’re reluctant to legislate solution in search of a problem.

weizner: Not aleways up to consumer to protect themselves, we’d consider strengthening FTC role in particulars.

Update 11 Three Qs together: FISA going forward

Fish: McCain has said it’s an outrage that House has not dealt with responsibility to update.

W: Obama voted against confirming Hayden. Actions not up to standards.

Securing Govt. data “Cybersecurity Initiative

Fish: No evidence of a problem. ???

W: No campaign position. I can’t make much of his personal answer.

Respecting privacy of those outside US (Question from European)

Neither answered.

12: Pre-emption of State Privacy Laws

W; Sees benefit of diversity in some areas.

F: Agrees nearly entirely. McCain a federalist in general.

13 Universal Service

W: Decreasing need, don’t scrap the fund yet.

F: A robust market solves those problems most of the time. Targetted fixes where a problem’s demonstrated.

14 How do we engage with your campaign and adminitration on these issues going forward?

W: This campaign is committed to engagement. Offers his email [email protected]

F: You can also start your own conversations, blogs, wikis etc, and we’ll notice…

_____________

Others blogging the session include Ryan Singel at Wired, Julian Sanchez at Reason.

McCain fundraising in the tank. Republican Party to have to foot the bill.

John McCain is having some serious difficulty getting the big Republican doners (you know those guys; the 1 percenters with all the money) to give money to his campaign for the Republican Presidential nominee.

It has gotten so bad and his funding is trailing both of the Democratic Presidential Candidates by so much that McCain is planning to tap into the Republican National Committee to help him fund his campaign.

From The New York Times:

Pivoting toward the general election, Senator Barack Obama is turning again to his history-making fund-raising machine, which helped to anoint him as a contender against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and then became a potent weapon in their battle for the Democratic nomination.

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. Mr. McCain’s efforts to raise money suffered a blow this weekend when a key fund-raiser, Tom Loeffler, resigned because of a new campaign policy on conflicts of interest.

McCain, the Maverick™ who says that he does NOT deal with lobbyists had another lobbyist resign again this weekend.  

From the WSJ:

The McCain campaign lost another top aide Sunday over ties to lobbying, the fourth such departure in less than two weeks.

Thomas Loeffler, a former U.S. representative from Texas, resigned from his post as a national finance committee and campaign co-chairman, a campaign spokesman confirmed Sunday.

Mr. Loeffler is the founder of The Loeffler Group, a San Antonio lobbying shop that has worked on behalf of AT&T Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. as well as foreign interests, including Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Loeffler’s resignation continues the fallout from a new policy that John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, instituted last week requiring full disclosure of involvement with lobbying firms and other independent political groups.

No wonder McCain can’t get anyone to donate to him.  The Republican base despises him, the independents are growing tired of politicians telling them one thing and then doing another (like the McCain Lobbyist spin that keeps backfiring on him) and his campaign has had all of the air sucked out of it by the ongoing Democratic Primary race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Back to McCain’s money woes.

Mr. McCain is likely to depend upon the party, which finished April with an impressive $40 million in the bank and has significantly higher contribution limits, to an unprecedented degree to power his campaign, Republican officials said.

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. They will appear together at a fund-raiser in Phoenix on May 27, and the next day the president will take part in a luncheon with Mitt Romney in Salt Lake City and then an exclusive dinner at Mr. Romney’s vacation home in Park City, Utah.

You can’t tell me that you don’t ABSOLUTELY LOVE this set of current events!

McSame is truly linking himself at the hip to President (Worst Disapproval Rating Evah!) Bush because he needs the Neo-Con money, even while he tries to distance himself from Mr. Bush in other ways.

In other words, not only will McSame have to use George W. Bush as his personal cheerleader for campaign financing, he is going to have to rely on the Republican National Committee and various 527 groups to do his fundraising and run commercials for him.  

The more the RNC has to spend on McSame’s campaign, the less they have left to spend on Senatorial and Congressional campaigns.  Sounds like a win-win for Democrats all the way around.

I love the smell of Republican desperation in the morning.

.

x-posted at eenrblog

UN, ASEAN Press For More Aid to Burmese Cyclone Victims

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is en route to Myanmar today, but already his presence in the region seems to have had an affect:

“We have received government permission to operate nine WFP (World Food Program) helicopters, which will allow us to reach areas that have so far been largely inaccessible,” Ban told reporters in New York on Tuesday before departing for Southeast Asia. His announcement was not immediately confirmed by officials in Myanmar.

“I believe further similar moves will follow, including expediting the visas of (foreign) relief workers seeking to enter the country,” Ban said, warning that relief efforts to save survivors of the May 2-3 Cyclone Nargis had reached a “critical moment.”

“We have a functioning relief program in place but so far have been able to reach only 25 percent of Myanmar’s people in need,” he said.

link: http://ap.google.com/article/A…

Progress can’t come too soon, as cyclone victims, desperate for food, beg by the side of the road:

ASEAN is also pressing for a wider relief presence in the hardest hit areas:

ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan met with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein Wednesday to explain the association’s self-assigned role in a massive, but much delayed, relief effort underway in the country in the wake of Cyclone Nargis which swept over the central coast on May 2-3, leaving 133,000 people dead or missing.

‘He (Surin) stressed that the expeditious execution of these steps would create an atmosphere of mutual confidence among all parties concerned,’ said a statement issued by ASEAN after Surin’s meeting with General Thein Sein.

‘This will ensure the success of the tremendous tasks at hand, including the upcoming ASEAN-UN International Pledging Conference in Yangon on 25 May 2008, and the rehabilitation, resettlement, and reconstruction that will follow,’ it added

.

link: http://www.monstersandcritics….

Such assistance cannot come too soon, as this BBC interview with Dr Sean Keogh, who worked for nine days in the region, illustrates:

“Some families have been so completely wiped out, there is no-one to bury the dead,” he added. “They are hanging from trees and trapped on posts.”

snip

Children had been particularly badly hit by the cyclone, he said, with orphans most at risk from illness, malnutrition and even abduction.

“A lot of young children can’t swim and some people have many children and they can’t save the whole family,” he said.

“Many children have lost both parents. They are obviously highly vulnerable and we don’t want them to get picked up.”

link:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi…

The BBC also reports separately that the junta has been actively cracking down on random acts of kindness by local Burmese who want to help:

“When we arrived in the first village, the police came to us and said not to distribute to the villagers. We all were very upset.”

Tun Tun and his team of private volunteers simply moved on to the next village. Here the village head approached Tun Tun and said that he could not distribute aid there.

At this point, according to Tun Tun, “the villagers angrily confronted the village head”.

The situation became clearer when the village head explained his predicament. He was ordered, on receiving aid from volunteers, to first make a list of the aid, then to report this to the township council, which would then report to the division council, which would then decide how and who to distribute aid to – but only after 24 May, the date of the postponed referendum.

“The villagers were very angry, very angry when they heard this. You know, they have been eating coconut, bamboo shoots and the inner stems of a banana for a week, ” said Tun Tun.

link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi…

In spite of this – and the military regime’s recent, repeated rebuff of US offers of assistance to deliver supplies by naval ships – aid is still getting through, as Bridget Gardner, the head delegate for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Burma recently reminded the world community:

Ms Gardner said aid was reaching badly affected regions but urged the world “not to forget us, not to forget Myanmar in spite of all the other things that are going on in the world”, such as the devastating earthquake in China.

“On the ground, things are happening but of course everybody wants things to happen bigger, and better, and faster,” Ms Gardner said from Rangoon today.

“There are still very vulnerable communities in the delta, the ones that are the most difficult to reach, so support is still required for some of the actions are being taken.”

snip

“We have the people in Yangon (Rangoon) ready to go. We’re having negotiations with authorities and we are assisting the Myanmar Red Cross with its efforts.”

link: http://www.news.com.au/story/0…

Please keep the people of Burma (Myanmar) and the victims of the earthquake in China in your thoughts, prayers and meditations.

Pony Party, The Devil’s Clothes

I read an interesting article at the Christian Science Monitor called “Iraqi Women Eye Islamic Law”. (its written by jill carroll, btw)

Because the United Iraqi Alliance is currently being controlled by Shiites, the oppressive sharia law is now taking away some of the rights and freedoms afforded Iraqi women under Sadaam Hussein.  Where Iraq had once been progressive, in relative terms, for a Muslim nation, the laws imposed on women are becoming more conservative.

But Umm Hibba jumps in with concerns that Iran’s theocracy is making Iraq more conservative. “They said what I am wearing is devil clothes,” she says of the time she was recently turned away from the main mosque in Baghdad’s Shiite Kadhimiya neighborhood. She pulls incredulously at the shapeless black robe that got her banned because openings between the fasteners revealed flashes of the long formless dress underneath.

As we all know, the situation is complicated beyond my communication skills and the breadth of a 9 am edt pony party…..and what’s apparent is that the women quoted are saying the right things.  And it’s really hard to guess what they’re really thinking….

And who are we to tell them how to live?  we’re nobody, in that sense…

But i always find myself thinking that it would be nice to have the choice….to follow the strict religious laws and guidelines….or NOT, and not be verbally (or worse!!) assaulted in the street, by strangers…or beaten by your husband…legally…as long as he doesn’t leave a mark….

…sigh…anyone still wondering why we werent greeted as liberators???  anyone???

Three Simple Words

What makes a President?

We demand a flood of delegates. 10. 15. 30. 50!

We get a steady trickle. 2, 5, maybe 7 at the most.

We turn blue in the face, yelling and screaming and panicking.

“Idiots!”… “Racists!”… “Irrelevant, fucking, toothless morons!”

We get silence. Probably a post-it note on dry-erase board.

“Consider speech. Maybe early August? Lets discuss.”

We rush to the shed for the pitchforks and the torches.

“Get her out! Doesn’t she see what she’s doing! Who the hell does she think she–”

We get brevity and poetry:

Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and yours will come of age.

We’re sure every slight is Mamet:

“Fuck! Fuck! Shit and fuck!”

We get the play that cannot be named in response:

“It is a tale… full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.”

We insist on a finite and definitive end. Super Tuesday. Ohio and Texas. Pennsylvania. Texas and Ohio. Tomorrow. And hour from now. ARE WE THERE YET!

We get a slow path through the woods, whose inevitable destination gradually reveals itself… the trees slowly thinning mile by mile. Wait… wait… look… up ahead there.

What makes a President?

Three words.

Sure and steady.

The Morning News

(I think this belongs over here.–Robyn – promoted by Robyn)

The Morning News is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Bush apologizes over US soldier’s Quran shooting

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

6 minutes ago

BAGHDAD – President Bush has apologized to Iraq’s prime minister for an American sniper’s shooting of a Quran, and the Iraqi government called on U.S. military commanders to educate their soldiers to respect local religious beliefs.

Bush’s spokeswoman said Tuesday that the president apologized during a videoconference Monday with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who told the president that the shooting of Islam’s holy book had disappointed and angered both the Iraqi people and their leaders.

“He apologized for that in the sense that he said that we take it very seriously,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said. “We are concerned about the reaction. We wanted them to know that the president knew that this was wrong.”

2 NYPD seeks discipline for 7 officers in killing of groom

By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer

8 minutes ago

NEW YORK – Seven police officers were hit with disciplinary charges Tuesday in the 50-shot slaying of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day – a case that has sparked protests and raised questions about police firepower.

If found guilty at an internal trial, the officers – including three shooters acquitted last month at a criminal trial and their supervisor – could be fired. A union official said Tuesday that they would fight the allegations.

Police officials described the move as procedural, citing administrative guidelines requiring them to bring charges against officers within 18 months of the incident.

3 Critics: Polar bear plan must fight global warming

By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Conservation groups returned to court to challenge Bush administration efforts to help save the polar bear, saying federal officials’ refusal to include steps against global warming violates the Endangered Species Act.

In court documents filed late Friday, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups asked a federal judge to reject Interior Department actions that were announced last week.

Polar bears are threatened with extinction in many areas because of the melting of their sea ice habitat. The groups say greenhouse gas emissions have led to rapid melting in the Arctic.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, facing a court deadline because of the groups’ earlier lawsuit, had announced Wednesday that polar bears would be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

4 Stocks stumble on record oil, inflation worries

By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer

1 hour, 15 minutes ago

NEW YORK – Wall Street stumbled Tuesday after oil prices spiked to a new record above $129 a barrel and a government report raised investors’ concerns about the impact of inflation on consumer spending. The Dow Jones industrials fell nearly 200 points.

Crude jumped after OPEC’s president was quoted as saying his organization won’t raise its output before its next meeting in September. That sent a barrel of light, sweet crude to a trading high of $129.60 before it finished just above $129 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department’s producer price report indicated higher energy and food prices might be seeping into other parts of the economy – compounding investors’ concerns raised by higher oil. The department said wholesale inflation edged up by 0.2 percent in April following a 1.1 percent jump in March, but outside of food and energy, prices rose by a faster 0.4 percent – double what analysts expected.

5 NFL owners vote to opt out of labor agreement

By DAVE GOLDBERG, AP Football Writer

32 minutes ago

ATLANTA – NFL owners voted unanimously Tuesday to end their labor agreement with the players’ union in 2011. The league and union, however, insisted the next three seasons won’t be interrupted by a contract dispute and both sides are working toward a new deal.

“We have guaranteed three more years of NFL football,” commissioner Roger Goodell said after the owners used the opt-out clause built into the agreement signed more than two years ago. “We are not in dire straits. We’ve never said that. But the agreement isn’t working, and we’re looking to get a more fair an equitable deal.”

The decision by the owners was anticipated, although not this early. The 2006 agreement allowed either side to negate the contract by Nov. 8. Godell said the owners acted early “to get talks rolling.”

6 Senate loads up war funding bill with other things

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

Tue May 20, 3:22 PM ET

WASHINGTON – The Senate Tuesday kicked off debate on legislation to add a grab bag of domestic programs to President Bush’s war request, including work permits for immigrant farm labor and heating subsidies for the poor. The White House renewed its veto threat.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., brought up the add-ons in an unusual move designed to win their adoption – over opposition from the White House and GOP conservatives – before turning to companion legislation providing $165 billion to conduct military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring.

The bill before the Senate would add more than $28 billion to Bush’s budget request for this year and next, with almost $50 billion more for a big expansion of veterans benefits under the GI Bill from 2010-2018.

7 More schools to face law’s consequences

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, AP Education Writer

Tue May 20, 6:26 AM ET

WASHINGTON – Pink slips for principals and teachers. School-funded tutoring for poor kids. Schools are increasingly looking at those kind of consequences for failing to raise math and reading scores.

The federal No Child Left Behind law says that by the 2013-14 school year all students must pass state tests in these subjects.

About half of the states have steady annual goals for increasing the percentage of students passing, or working at their proper grade level. But the other half set the bar very low early on, and starting about now expect big annual achievement gains, according to a report being released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy.

8 China says over 70,000 dead or missing from quake

By Lucy Hornby, Reuters

Tue May 20, 10:51 AM ET

CHENGDU, China (Reuters) – China raised the number of dead or missing from a devastating earthquake to more than 70,000 on Tuesday, as rescuers found more survivors eight days after the huge tremor hit.

A government statement said the number killed had now topped 40,000, and state news agency Xinhua reported that a further 32,000 were missing.

Authorities had previously said they expected the final death toll to exceed 50,000. More than 247,000 were injured.

9 Efforts to close Guantanamo at standstill: Gates

By Andrew Gray, Reuters

Tue May 20, 2:53 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Efforts to explore ways of closing the military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay have reached a standstill due to legal and practical problems, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.

“The brutally frank answer is that we’re stuck and we’re stuck in several ways,” Gates told a U.S. Senate hearing when asked about his desire to shut down the detention site for terrorism suspects at a U.S. naval base in Cuba.

Human rights groups and many governments, including allies of the United States, have called on the Bush administration to close the prison, saying it violates international legal standards and harms America’s standing in the world.

10 House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices

By Tom Doggett, Reuters

Tue May 20, 2:27 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

11 Myanmar mourns dead as U.N. reports aid progress

By Aung Hla Tun, Reuters

Tue May 20, 3:31 PM ET

YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar’s junta has given the World Food Program permission to use helicopters to send aid to cyclone survivors, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as flags flew at half-staff across the country to mourn the dead.

The first day of a three-day mourning period passed in torrential rain and diplomatic prodding of the reclusive generals to allow more international aid after Cyclone Nargis hit in early May, leaving 134,000 people dead or missing.

The junta in the former Burma has allowed relief flights to deliver supplies to Yangon, the largest city, but had balked at aerial access to the southwestern Irrawaddy Delta, where an estimated 2.4 million people were left destitute.

12 Gates questions notion of useful U.S.-Iran talks

By David Morgan, Reuters

Tue May 20, 3:14 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday questioned whether the United States could have productive talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without first stepping up pressure on Tehran.

Gates, who a week ago spoke publicly in support of enhanced U.S.-Iranian engagement, said Washington may have had an opportunity to open useful discussions with Iran in 2003 and 2004 while the country was governed by the less hard-line Mohammad Khatami.

“But what we have now is a resurgence of the original hard-line views of the Islamic revolutionaries,” Gates said in response to lawmaker questions at a Senate defense appropriations hearing.

13 Iceland tops list of peaceful nations, U.S. 97th

By Sue Pleming, Reuters

Tue May 20, 3:35 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iceland is the world’s most peaceful nation while the United States is ranked among the bottom third, according to a study released on Tuesday.

The “Global Peace Index,” compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranked the United States 97th out of 140 countries according to how peaceful they were domestically and how they interacted with the outside world.

The United States slipped from 96th last year, but was still ahead of foe Iran which ranked 105th. It, however, lagged Belarus, Cuba, South Korea, Chile, Libya and others which were listed as more peaceful.

Iraq, which the United States invaded in 2003, leading to the toppling of Saddam Hussein, ranked lowest on the index. Afghanistan, another country invaded by the United States this decade, was also in the bottom five, along with Sudan, Somalia and Israel.

14 Miracle rescues in China quake as death toll tops 40,000

by Ian Timberlake, AFP

Tue May 20, 1:58 PM ET

CHENGDU, China (AFP) – A woman who survived on rainwater and a man fed via a straw were Tuesday pulled out of the rubble eight days after China’s earthquake but hopes faded for others as the death toll topped 40,000.

Amid fears of new aftershocks among a traumatised population, Beijing put out a fresh urgent appeal for tents as foreign medical teams began to arrive in southwestern Sichuan province.

Despite the overwhelming odds against finding any more survivors under the rubble, rescue workers Tuesday saved a 60-year-old woman, Wang Youqun, nearly 200 hours after the earthquake, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

15 Oil price hits record above 129 dollars

AFP

Tue May 20, 3:46 PM ET

NEW YORK (AFP) – Oil soared to a record above 129 dollars a barrel Tuesday as worries about US tensions with Iran heightened speculative fever in a market driven by concerns about tight global supplies and strong demand.

New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, traded as high as 129.60 dollars before pulling back slightly to close at 129.02 dollars a barrel, up 2.02 dollars on Monday’s close.

London’s Brent crude contract for July leapt 2.78 dollars to settle at 127.84 dollars a barrel after briefly hitting a new all-time high of 128.07 dollars.

16 The new Gulf: Safe enough?

By Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor

Tue May 20, 4:00 AM ET

Bay St. Louis, Miss. – Crews with trucks and bulldozers are laying pipe and asphalt along Main Street of this Gulf Coast town, as customers at the Mockingbird Cafe, seemingly oblivious to the din, sip cappuccinos. Traffic now clogs inland Route 90 on most mornings, and the local building inspector has recently complained of being “swamped” with work.

Well into the third year since hurricane Katrina leveled nearly all the shoreline mansions and tore beachfront shops to pieces, Bay St. Louis is, for all intents and purposes, a boom town, along with much of surrounding Hancock County.

“The country is [about] in recession, but we’re not seeing anything like that here – quite the opposite,” says Jeffrey Reed, city council president.

17 Iraq’s antiquities garner international attention

By Howard LaFranchi The Christian Science Monitor

Mon May 19, 5:00 AM ET

Baghdad and Chicago – Across southern Iraq, large stretches of terrain resemble a moonscape, the earth pocked by dozens of untidy craters.

The man-made holes have been dug as part of the looting of Mesopotamia’s archaeological sites that experts say is robbing Iraq of its ancient heritage.

The looting not only funds unscrupulous dealers of artifacts, but also elements of the Iraqi insurgency. Experts say it has dwarfed the high-profile looting of Iraq’s National Museum shortly after the US took Baghdad in 2003.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Recommended

18 Fewer children go to war, but problem lingers

By Peter Apps, Reuters

Tue May 20, 12:07 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) – The number of children forced to fight wars around the world has fallen but a hardcore of governments, rebels and armed groups are resisting pressure to stop using underage soldiers, a report said on Tuesday.

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers said the number of conflicts in which children were forced to fight totaled 17 in 2007, down from 27 in its last report in 2004.

The coalition said firm figures were impossible to produce but it was clear there were tens of thousands of child soldiers.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Viewed

19 Survey: Passengers call airline service ‘dismal’

By DAVE CARPENTER, AP Business Writer

Tue May 20, 2:10 PM ET

CHICAGO – Passengers are more dissatisfied with airlines’ customer service than they have been in years at a time when carriers are charging more and more for tickets and services.

An annual survey being released Tuesday by the University of Michigan found customers giving airlines the worst grades since 2001, with the industry’s overall scores dropping for the third straight year.

United Airlines and US Airways Group Inc., which are in talks to potentially combine into a single carrier, finished next-to-last and last, respectively, in the university’s American Customer Satisfaction Index.

20 Missing matter found in deep space

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Reuters

Tue May 20, 3:17 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Astronomers have found some matter that had been missing in deep space and say it is strung along web-like filaments that form the backbone of the universe.

The ethereal strands of hydrogen and oxygen atoms could account for up to half the matter that scientists knew must be there but simply could not see, the researchers reported on Tuesday.

Scientists have long known there is far more matter in the universe than can be accounted for by visible galaxies and stars. Not only is there invisible baryonic matter — the protons and neutrons that make up atoms — but there also is an even larger amount of invisible “dark” matter.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Emailed

21 $175 burger: you want gold with that?

By Daniel Trotta, Reuters

Tue May 20, 2:26 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Its creators admit it is the ultimate in decadence: a $175 hamburger.

The Wall Street Burger Shoppe just raised its price from $150 to assure its designation as the costliest burger in the city as determined by Pocket Change, an online newsletter about the most expensive things in New York.

“Wall Street has good days and bad days. We wanted to have the everyday burger (for $4) … and then something special if you really have a good day on Wall Street,” said co-owner Heather Tierney.

22 Court: Paper money discriminates against the blind

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

39 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Close your eyes, reach into your wallet and try to distinguish between a $1 bill and a $5 bill. Impossible? It’s also discriminatory, a federal appeals court says.

Since all paper money feels pretty much the same, the government is denying blind people meaningful access to the currency, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday. The decision could force the Treasury Department to make bills of different sizes or print them with raised markings or other distinguishing features.

The American Council of the Blind sued for such changes, but the government has been fighting the case for about six years.

From Yahoo News World

23 Growing danger of coup in Zimbabwe: think tank

By Barry Moody, Reuters

1 hour, 12 minutes ago

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – There is a growing danger of a coup by military hardliners in Zimbabwe to prevent opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai from toppling President Robert Mugabe, a leading think tank said on Wednesday.

The International Crisis Group called for African mediation leading to a national unity government led by Tsvangirai as the best way to resolve a crisis caused by disputed elections on March 29, saying Western diplomacy would have a limited impact.

It said continued rule by Mugabe, who has led the southern African country since independence from Britain in 1980, would be “catastrophic,” for a nation already suffering inflation of 165,000 percent and 80 percent unemployment.

24 Explosion rocks Ethiopian capital, three dead: police

By Barry Malone and Tsegaye Tadesse, Reuters

Tue May 20, 4:05 PM ET

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – An explosion on a minibus shook central Addis Ababa on Tuesday, killing three people and wounding nine, Ethiopian police said.

All the dead and wounded were on the bus, police said.

“Three people were killed and nine seriously injured by an explosion from a device planted by suspected terrorists inside a minibus taxi,” said Addis Ababa police spokesman Densash Hailu.

The blast on a road between the Hilton hotel and the foreign ministry was the latest in a string of explosions in Addis Ababa that Ethiopia has blamed on extremists backed by its neighbor and rival Eritrea.

25 13,000 displaced by SAfrica mobs as Mbeki urges calm

by Fran Blandy, AFP

Tue May 20, 4:09 PM ET

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – A wave of violence against foreigners in South Africa has forced 13,000 people to flee their homes, the UN said Tuesday, as President Thabo Mbeki pleaded for an end to a “shameful” show of xenophobia.

As calls grew for the army to be sent in to quell the worst unrest since the end of apartheid, the scale of the damage was becoming apparent, both to the victims and the so-called Rainbow Nation’s new reputation for racial tolerance.

As police revealed the number of arrests had now risen to around 300, the United Nations’ International Organisation for Migration gave the first figures on the numbers who have been displaced.

26 Bush ends 5-day Middle East trip with little progress

By Hannah Allam, McClatchy Newspapers

Sun May 18, 3:01 PM ET

SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt_Wrapping up a five-day tour of the Middle East , President Bush on Sunday told his Arab allies that expanding democratic reforms and isolating the “spoilers”- Iran and Syria – were crucial steps to a secure and prosperous future for the region.

Bush spoke at the opening of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East in this Red Sea resort town, where 1,500 policymakers have gathered. More lecture than rallying cry, Bush’s speech stuck to familiar themes: Iran’s nuclear program, more civil liberties, a bigger role for Arab women, free trade, and progress on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the end of the year.

Bush, however, heads home to Washington with few, if any, concrete gains on his largely ceremonial tour, his second trip to the Middle East in four months. He failed to win Saudi help with rising oil prices and didn’t make any breakthroughs on groundwork for a Palestinian state.

27 The Burmese Rulers’ Paranoid Home

By HANNAH BEECH, Time Magazine

Tue May 20, 9:30 AM ET

“There aren’t any,” says the hotelier, with an embarrassed laugh when asked about the best tourist attractions in Burma’s new capital. That’s no surprise, really: Naypyidaw – the name translates as “Abode of Kings” – was built from scratch just three years ago, on 1,800 square miles of land carved out of scrubland on the orders of the ruling junta. Naypyidaw doesn’t even exist in the Lonely Planet’s latest Burma travel guide; there’s not much tourist charm in a dusty bunker town that is little more than the wish-fulfillment of paranoid generals.

28 Burma’s Woes: A Threat to the Junta

By ANDREW MARSHALL, Time Magazine

1 hour, 32 minutes ago

I spent a week reporting from remote towns in the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta before the Burmese junta began its crackdown. Foreign aid workers, diplomats and undercover journalists were expelled from the disaster area or barred entry at police or military checkpoints. Beyond those checkpoints, Burmese were suffering and dying – 2.4 million people urgently need help, says the United Nations. But the junta’s restrictions made it almost impossible for outsiders to witness it.

29 Lebanon Braces for Failure of Talks

By ANDREW LEE BUTTERS/BEIRUT, Time Magazine

Tue May 20, 12:20 PM ET

Almost as soon as Lebanon’s leaders boarded planes for Qatar on Friday for talks to resolve their most dangerous political showdownn since the end of the civil war, the Lebanese took a collective sigh of relief. Not because anyone thinks that peace is about to break out, but because Lebanon is arguably safer as long as most of the top men are out of town. “Don’t come back until you’ve reached an agreement,” read signs carried by disabled civil society protesters rallying in wheelchairs along the airport road.

30 Anti-Immigrant Terror in South Africa

By MEGAN LINDOW/ALEXANDRIA WITH ALEX PERRY/CAPE TOWN, Time Magazine

34 minutes ago

Ten days of mob attacks on immigrants in townships around Johannesburg showed no signs of abating Tuesday, as the death toll reached 23 and South Africa’s government faced growing calls to deploy its army. The attacks have mostly targeted impoverished migrants from neighboring African countries living (some legally, some illegally) in shantytowns around the business capital of Africa’s wealthiest country. Every night since Saturday May 11, crowds of South African men, some brandishing guns, have rampaged through areas dominated by refugees, warning the foreigners to leave the country, burning huts, raping women, and beating and killing men. The victims say their attackers accuse them of taking jobs away from South Africans, in a country where the national unemployment rate is estimated at around 40%, and is much higher in many townships.
From Yahoo News U.S. News

31 Senate panel passes housing rescue plan

By Patrick Rucker, Reuters

1 hour, 21 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Banking Committee approved legislation on Tuesday that could save a half million homeowners from foreclosure and help stabilize the nation’s rattled housing market.

Under the plan, lenders who agree to erase a large share of the original loan amount could win a government guarantee on future mortgage payments. The bill would also create a stronger regulator for mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Both the Senate bill and a similar plan passed by the House of Representatives earlier this month would create a fund under the Federal Housing Administration to allow distressed homeowners to refinance into government-guaranteed loans.

32 Court strikes down state ban on abortion method

Reuters

1 hour, 19 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that a Virginia law banning an abortion procedure was unconstitutional because it infringed on a woman’s right to end her pregnancy.

The 2-1 decision by the appeals court based in Richmond, Virginia, was a victory for abortion rights advocates who had challenged the 2003 law that bans what it terms “partial birth infanticide.”

The U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld a federal law, the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, saying it prohibited only a clearly defined method. It marked the first time the court has ever upheld a nationwide ban on a specific abortion procedure.

33 W. House ignored FBI concerns on prisoner abuse: probe

By Randall Mikkelsen, Reuters

35 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top Bush administration security officials ignored FBI concerns over abusive treatment of terrorism suspects, which one agent called “borderline torture,” a four-year Justice Department probe found.

The FBI clashed with the Pentagon and CIA over interrogation techniques including snarling dogs, sexual provocation and forced nudity, said the 370-page report, released on Tuesday by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

Critics say such techniques inflicted on terrorism suspects captured after the September 11 attacks amounted to torture. The report covers late 2001 to the end of 2004.

34 Retail gasoline demand sluggish on high prices

Reuters

Tue May 20, 2:02 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. retail gasoline demand inched up slightly from the previous week, even as longer-term measures showed an overall weakening in demand, MasterCard Advisors said on Tuesday.

“We usually see uptick on a week-to-week basis this time of year. The compelling thing right now is that the uptick is so small,” said Michael McNamara, vice president of MasterCard Advisors.

The rise in demand during the spring months leading up to the traditional start of the U.S. summer driving season on Memorial Day is typically much more substantial, but record gasoline prices have kept demand levels low, McNamara said.

35 US carbon dioxide emissions up 1.6 percent in 2007

AFP

Tue May 20, 11:53 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels increased 1.6 percent in 2007, a preliminary government estimate showed Tuesday.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said emissions rose to 5,984 million metric tonnes last year from 5,888 million in 2006.

The agency said factors that drove the emissions increase included weather conditions that increased the demand for heating and cooling services and “a higher carbon intensity of electricity supply,” according to an agency statement.

36 Bush and McCain’s Awkward Embrace

By RAMESH PONNURU, Time Magazine

Tue May 20, 12:30 PM ET

The Democratic strategy for beating John McCain is pretty simple. Its principal element: Tie McCain to President Bush, no matter how hard he struggles to break free.

Last week illustrated the maneuvering over Bush. McCain started the week with a speech on global warming, where he broke with the president. By the week’s end, though, McCain had been drawn into a fight over Mideast policy between Barack Obama and the White House, with McCain taking Bush’s side. Obama knows that voters do not yet trust him on foreign policy. But he also knows that they are even more wary of what Democrats call “a third Bush term.”

From Yahoo News Politics

37 Congress mulls trade safety for service sector workers

By Doug Palmer, Reuters

Tue May 20, 2:30 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Legislation to help win approval of three free trade deals pending in Congress could qualify millions of U.S. service industry workers, in jobs ranging from low-level data entry clerks to high-paid financial analysts, for government aid if their jobs move overseas.

For decades, only manufacturing workers have been eligible for job retraining and extended unemployment benefits under the federal trade adjustment assistance program.

Democrats want to extend the program to the huge services sector, making it “key to everything on the trade front. I can’t see the free trade agreements moving through Congress until something on TAA is done,” said Greg Mastel, a senior adviser at the Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld law firm.

38 In Miami, McCain attacks Obama on Cuba

By Steve Holland, Reuters

1 hour, 59 minutes ago

MIAMI (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate John McCain criticized Democratic front-runner Barack Obama on Tuesday for saying he was willing to meet with Cuban President Raul Castro and accused him of wanting to weaken the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

Seeking to rally Florida’s influential Cuban-American vote behind him, McCain vowed to maintain a strict economic embargo on Cuba until its communist government releases political prisoners, grants basic freedoms and schedules internationally monitored elections.

McCain’s visit to Miami was all about appealing to Cuban-Americans, from his stop for coffee at a Little Havana cafe to his visit to a memorial for Cubans killed fighting the communist government.

From Yahoo News Business

39 Target, Saks expect weak sales climate for year

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer

Tue May 20, 4:29 PM ET

NEW YORK – For U.S. retailers, the phrase “challenging environment” has become a shared refrain for one of the toughest quarters in decades. And merchants expect the climate to remain rough for the rest of the year as higher gas and food costs as well as slumping home prices weigh on shoppers.

Discount retailer Target Corp. reported Tuesday that first-quarter earnings fell 8 percent on weaker-than-expected sales, particularly of non-necessities like lawn furniture. Meanwhile, Saks Inc., the operator of luxury chain Saks Fifth Avenue, posted a 66 percent profit compared with first-quarter results hobbled by onetime charges a year ago, but said that heavy discounting hurt profit margins.

Shares of Target slipped 63 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $54.29, though results beat Wall Street estimates. Saks’ shares tumbled 93 cents, or 6.6 percent, to $13.20 as results missed analysts’ projections. Saks also forecast that operating profit margins will remain relatively unchanged from 2007.

40 EU plans farm sector shake-up in face of record food prices

by Leigh Thomas, AFP

Tue May 20, 11:25 AM ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Commission urged on Tuesday a shake-up of Europe’s farm sector to ramp up production in the face of soaring food prices, with Britain and France braced for battle over hand-outs to farmers.

With food prices rocketing worldwide on tight supplies, the European Union’s executive arm wants to encourage farmers to produce more after years of trying to rein in chronic overproduction.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told reporters in Strasbourg that the package “aims to remove restrictions on farmers to allow them to respond to the market.

41 Britain agrees deal on rights for temporary workers

AFP

Tue May 20, 5:08 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) – Britain announced an agreement on equal rights for agency — temporary — workers Tuesday, in a move welcomed in Brussels as boosting the chances of reaching a Europe-wide accord.

Britain has been blocking a European Union directive on agency workers but Business Secretary John Hutton said the government now agreed that such workers would receive equal rights to full employees after 12 weeks.

“This is the right deal for Britain. Today’s agreement achieves our twin objectives of flexibility for British employers and fairness for workers,” he said, adding that it would boost rights for over a million agency workers.

42 US wants to quiz more BAE staff in corruption probe: company

AFP

Tue May 20, 5:00 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) – The United States is seeking to question more employees of BAE Systems after already quizzing two senior executives in a corruption probe, Britain’s largest defence firm said Tuesday.

“The company confirms that last week the (US Department of Justice) issued a number of additional subpoenas in the US to employees of BAE Systems plc and (its US subsidiary) BAE Systems Inc as part of its ongoing investigation,” it said in a statement.

“The company has been and continues to be in discussion with the DoJ concerning the subpoenas served in the course of its investigation.”

From Yahoo News Science

43 UK lawmakers approve embryo research

By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer

Mon May 19, 7:07 PM ET

LONDON – British lawmakers voted Monday to approve controversial plans to allow the use of animal-human embryos for research. The proposed laws, the first major review of embryo science in Britain for almost 20 years, have provoked stormy debate – pitting Prime Minister Gordon Brown and scientists against religious leaders, anti-abortion campaigners and a large number of lawmakers.

Brown has said he believes scientists seeking to use mixed animal-human embryos for stem cell research into diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s are on a moral mission to improve – and save – millions of lives.

The process involves injecting an empty cow or rabbit egg with human DNA. A burst of electricity is then used to trick the egg into dividing regularly, so that it becomes a very early embryo, from which stem cells can be extracted.

44 Millions of tiny starfish inhabit undersea volcano

By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer

Mon May 19, 7:07 PM ET

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Marine scientists surveying a large undersea mountain chain were amazed to find millions of tiny starfish swirling their arms to capture food in the undersea current.

An expedition by 19 scientists, including five from Australia, studied the geology and biology of eight Macquarie Ridge sea mounts. They are part of a string of underwater volcanoes – dormant for millions of years – that stretches 875 miles from south of New Zealand toward Antarctica.

The scientists also investigated the world’s biggest ocean current – the Antarctic Circumpolar Current – amid expectations they would find evidence of climate change in the Southern Ocean.

45 Robot digger set to land Sunday at Martian pole

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

Mon May 19, 7:07 PM ET

LOS ANGELES – Like a miner prospecting for gold, NASA hopes its latest robot to Mars hits pay dirt when it lands Sunday near the red planet’s north pole to conduct a 90-day digging mission. The three-legged Phoenix Mars lander fitted with a backhoe arm is zeroing in on the unexplored arctic region where a reservoir of ice is believed to lie beneath the Martian surface.

Phoenix lacks the tools to detect signs of alien life – either now or in the past. However, it will study whether the ice ever melted and look for traces of organic compounds in the permafrost to determine if life could have emerged at the site.

Before this robotic geologist can excavate the soil, it must first survive a nail-biting plunge through the Martian atmosphere. Despite the rousing success of NASA’s twin Mars rovers, which landed in 2004, more than half of the world’s attempts to land on the planet have failed.

46 First dinosaur tracks found in Arabian Peninsula

By Michael Kahn, Reuters

41 minutes ago

LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists have discovered the tracks of a herd of 11 long-necked sauropods walking along a coastal mudflat in what is now the Republic of Yemen, the first discovery of dinosaur footprints on the Arabian peninsula.

Sauropods, the largest land animals in earth’s history, walked on four stout legs and ate plants.

“The nice thing is we finally filled in a bit of a blank spot in the dinosaur map,” said Anne Schulp, a palaeontologist at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, who worked on the study.

47 Giant kangaroo gives clues on climate

Reuters

Tue May 20, 8:43 AM ET

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Scientists in Australia hope a giant cardboard image of a kangaroo, photographed from space on Tuesday, will help them better understand how the earth reflects sunlight and give them new clues about global warming.

Similar images are due to be photographed from space at sites in the United States, France, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Israel, Wales and Singapore as part of the experiment, involving science centres and the American space agency NASA.

The 32-metre (105 feet) tall kangaroo, an Australian national symbol, was placed in the southern city of Melbourne, and was photographed by satellite in parkland to measure the Albedo effect, or the amount of sunlight reflected by the earth.

48 Extinct Australian Tiger gene functions in mouse

Reuters

Tue May 20, 12:22 AM ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) – For the first time DNA from an extinct species, Australia’s marsupial Tasmanian Tiger, has been used to induce a functional response in a living organism, a mouse embryo, Australian and American scientists said on Tuesday.

The scientists extracted DNA from a 100-year-old Tasmanian Tiger or thylacine, which had been preserved in ethanol in a museum, and injected it into a mouse embryo where it was “expressed” or produced in cartilage.

The results, published in the international scientific journal PLoS ONE, show that the thylacine Col2A1 gene had a similar function in developing cartilage and bone development as the Col2A1 gene in the mouse, said the scientists from the University of Melbourne and the University of Texas.

49 Greenpeace calls for deforestation fund

AFP

Tue May 20, 10:24 AM ET

BONN (AFP) – Greenpeace urged industrialised nations Tuesday to set up an international fund to fight deforestation but warned it would require at least 30 billion dollars a year to work.

The plan would see rich nations give poorer ones money to preserve their natural forests instead of felling trees to create farmland, Greenpeace’s Roman Czebiniac told an 11-day UN conference on biodiversity in Bonn.

He said the fund would need 20 to 27 billion euros (31 to 47 billion dollars) a year to halt the rapid destruction of forests, but billed it as the only plan on the table “to protect both biodiversity and the climate.”

50 Some biofuel crops could become invasive species: experts

AFP

Tue May 20, 11:46 AM ET

BONN (AFP) – Countries thinking of joining the rush for biofuels run the risk of planting invasive plant species that could wreak environmental and economic havoc, biologists warned on Tuesday.

In a report issued on the sidelines of a major UN conference on biodiversity, an alliance of four expert groups urged governments to select low-risk species of crops for biofuels and impose new controls to manage invasive plants.

“The dangers that invasive species pose to the world couldn’t be more serious,” said Sarah Simons, executive director of the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP).

51 House Bill Would Authorize Additional Shuttle Flights

Becky Iannotta, Space News Staff Writer

Mon May 19, 6:31 PM ET

WASHINGTON – House lawmakers have introduced legislation authorizing three additional space shuttle flights before the fleet’s scheduled 2010 retirement, including the launch of a science probe removed from the manifest after the 2003 Columbia accident.

The proposed NASA Authorization Act of 2008 designates $150 million for a space shuttle flight to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station in 2010.

Two other flights that NASA already has budgeted for and placed on its manifest as contingencies while awaiting White House approval would become part of the official manifest under the bill introduced last week by Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), chairman of the House Science and Technology space and aeronautics subcommittee, ranking minority member Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.), and Reps. Ralph Hall (R-Texas) and Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.).

Climate Disintegration is a Human Rights Issue

(10:30 am – promoted by ek hornbeck)

This is an attempt, by using the Eight Stages of Genocide by Gregory H. Stanton, to show how climate change is a human rights issue in our own backyard.

Crossposted at Native American Netroots &
Progressive Historians

The Inuit in Alaska are the “canary in the coal mine,” while the rising sea levels from the melting Arctic ice endanger the coast line of Hawaii. As a measure of awareness and hopefully of prevention, six stages of genocide are given in word only in between quoted materials. The last two stages, extermination and denial, are not cited. Allow me to explain my justification.

If and only if the intent to commit genocide could be shown in terms of the state deliberately disallowing outside aid or the state not giving direct necessary aid itself for the sustaining of life, then it should be concluded that that said state willfully used a natural disaster as the extermination stage of genocide and then denied that extermination.


The 8 Stages of Genocide

1. Classification:

Global Warming & Human Rights Gets Hearing on the World Stage

Sheila [Watt-Cloutier] has provided a powerful description of some of the ways global warming is already affecting individuals and communities throughout the hemisphere. I would like to take a few minutes to discuss the relationship between these impacts and human rights, and what that means for the obligations of Members of the Organization of American States.

The 8 Stages of Genocide

2. Symbolization:


Sheila so clearly described — global warming has particular impacts on indigenous peoples throughout the hemisphere. The relationship between human rights and global warming must therefore be evaluated in the context of indigenous rights.

The 8 Stages of Genocide

3. Dehumanization:

World CO2 levels at record high, scientists warn

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a record high, according to new figures that renew fears that climate change could begin to slide out of control.

Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii say that CO2 levels in the atmosphere now stand at 387 parts per million (ppm), up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years.

– snip –

Scientists say the shift could indicate that the Earth is losing its natural ability to soak up billions of tons of carbon each year. Climate models assume that about half our future emissions will be re-absorbed by forests and oceans, but the new figures confirm this may be too optimistic. If more of our carbon pollution stays in the atmosphere, it means emissions will have to be cut by more than currently projected to prevent dangerous levels of global warming.

The 8 Stages of Genocide

4. Organization:


Because indigenous peoples’ traditional lands and natural resources are essential to their physical and cultural survival, the Commission and the Court have acknowledged that environmental damage — like that being caused by global warming — can interfere with the rights of indigenous peoples to life and to cultural integrity. We must keep these principles in mind in considering the relationship of the following rights to the effects of global warming.


The 8 Stages of Genocide

5. Polarization:

Source

…it is estimated that between 3 and 7% of carbon added to the atmosphere today will still be in the atmosphere after 100,000 years (Archer 2005, Lenton & Britton 2006). This is supported by studies of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a large naturally occurring release of carbon 55 million years ago that apparently took ~200,000 years to fully return to pre-event conditions (Zachos et al. 2001).


The 8 Stages of Genocide

6. Preparation:


Global warming is human rights issue: Nobel nominee

How hot is it? So hot that Inuit people around the Arctic Circle are using air conditioners for the first time. And running out of the hard-packed snow they need to build igloos. And falling through melting ice when they hunt.

Gregory Stanton: The Eight Stages of Genocide


To conclude, the premises is restated. If and only if the intent to commit genocide could be shown in terms of the state deliberately disallowing outside aid or the state not giving direct necessary aid itself for the sustaining of life, then it should be concluded that that said state willfully used a natural disaster as the extermination stage of genocide and then denied that extermination. Whatever the case, climate change is a human rights issue. That much is certain. The problem with unintended consequences and intended consequences is that the consequences are the same, though probably not in the same degree, when the forces of nature are involved; consequently, natural forces that human beings have unleashed or made worse by being poor stewards of the earth. What counts, is what states do after a situation that was beyond control. Whether or not the destructive forces of nature are “conveniently used” as the extermination stage of genocide and for cultural genocide for that matter will have to be watched and be questioned as –


…concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a record high, according to new figures that renew fears that climate change could begin to slide out of control.

– without exception.

As long as there as those who idealize butchers like Stalin and there are private contractors like Blackwater, using a natural disaster for the last two stages of extermination and denial will remain more of a possibility than we would like to recognize.

(emphasis mine)


Michelle Goldberg, “Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism” p.160.

…Constitutional lawyer Edwin Vieira discussed Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion…which struck down that state’s antisodomy law…Vieira accused Kennedy of relying on “Marxist, Leninist, Satanic principles drawn from foreign law… “What to do about Communist judges in thrall to the Devil? Vieira said, “Here again I draw on the wisdom of Stalin. We’re talking about the greatest political figure of the twentieth century…He had a slogan, and it worked well for him whenever he ran into difficulty. No man, no problem.'”


Source

The Artificial Famine/Genocide(Holodomor) in Ukraine 1932-33. A Man-Made Famine raged through Ukraine, the ethnic-Ukrainian region of northern Caucasus (i.e. Kuban), and the lower Volga River region in 1932-33. This resulted in the death of between 7 to 10 million people, mainly Ukrainians. This was instigated by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his henchman Lazar Kaganovich.


Blackwater Down

The frightening — and possibly illegal — presence of heavily armed private forces in New Orleans only demonstrates what everyone already feared: the utter breakdown of the government.

The men from Blackwater USA arrived in New Orleans right after Katrina hit.

The company known for its private security work guarding senior US diplomats in Iraq beat the federal government and most aid organizations to the scene in another devastated Gulf. About 150 heavily armed Blackwater troops dressed in full battle gear spread out into the chaos of New Orleans. Officially, the company boasted of its forces “join[ing] the hurricane relief effort.” But its men on the ground told a different story.


Katrina, Rita and the Houma Tribe: A Nation Recovers

Louisiana may be best known as the home of Mardi Gras and the football Saints, as a stirring pot of jazz and blues and zesty cuisine. Thanks to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it may forever be the memory stick for disaster, for images of broken levees and a stifling Superdome, and for tales of heroism and despair in now-familiar places like the Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

But it is also Indian Country, land of the mostly forgotten. It is home to the United Houma Nation, nearly half of whose members were displaced up and down the bayou, their homes battered by hurricane winds or flooded by avalanches of water.

“Our people suffered a lot, and many people don’t know that,” said Brenda Dardar Robichaux, principal chief of the Houma Nation. “We’re still recovering, and it’s been a slow process.”

Climate disintegration is a human rights issue. It is time for the United Nations to consider expanding the definition of the extermination stage of genocide in the face of present and looming climate devastation on the horizon to include a state using a natural disaster as the extermination stage of genocide, as well as the subsequent denial thereof.


The legal definition of genocide

Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a group
includes the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival, such as clean water, food, clothing, shelter or medical services. Deprivation of the means to sustain life can be imposed through confiscation of harvests, blockade of foodstuffs, detention in camps, forcible relocation or expulsion into deserts.


The IPCC’s vice chairman Mohan Munasinghe warns against the economic and social consequences of global warming

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