Clipmarks | papananook's clips

The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke

Sat, 03 May 2008 20:32:43 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Read on, taxpayers!

60 years of enormous military spending is taking a dramatic toll on the rest of the economy.

The military adventurers in the Bush administration have much in common with the corporate leaders of the defunct energy company Enron. Both groups thought that they were the "smartest guys in the room" -- the title of Alex Gibney's prize-winning film on what went wrong at Enron. The neoconservatives in the White House and the Pentagon outsmarted themselves. They failed even to address the problem of how to finance their schemes of imperialist wars and global domination.

As a result, going into 2008, the United States finds itself in the anomalous position of being unable to pay for its own elevated living standards or its wasteful, overly large military establishment. Its government no longer even attempts to reduce the ruinous expenses of maintaining huge standing armies, replacing the equipment that seven years of wars have destroyed or worn out, or preparing for a war in outer space

Dumb as We Wanna Be

Sat, 03 May 2008 20:25:59 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
he goes on:
Are you sitting down?

Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.

These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies.

The

Clip Source: cathy-edgett.livejournal.com

It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful pandering.

Poem about Dick Cheney's Mouth

Sat, 03 May 2008 20:21:18 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: I like

Clip Source: cathy-edgett.livejournal.com

I have often observed that watching Dick Cheney speak is like watching someone lie through their teeth. He has the oddest way of manipulating and holding his mouth.

Clayton Eshleman watched him speak one night on the news and then wrote this. It is an apt description, in my opinion.

Dick Cheney's mouth
slides on circular-saw teeth, with rakers,
to rip out the throats of words,
to drape their worm-casts,
scare-nets, over brains hypnotized by
the blind light of innocence,
that tunnel of camouflaged history called

"it's a free country."

- Clayton Eshleman

Excellent Helen Thomas column on Bush' admission of torture policy

Sat, 03 May 2008 18:24:05 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

The American people have heard President Bush and his spokespeople say many times that the U.S. government does not engage in torture.

Whether Bush was believed or not is another story — especially in light of the photographic evidence of the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. It’s understood that many of the photos are too sadistically graphic to be made public.

Still, the official U.S. denials of torture continued until earlier this month when Bush acknowledged in an interview with ABC-TV that he knew about and approved “enhanced interrogation” of detainees, including “waterboarding” or simulated drowning.

“As a matter of fact,” Bush added, “I told the country we did that. And I told them it was legal. We had legal opinions that enabled us to do it.”

The president added, “I didn’t have any problems at all trying to find out what Khalid Sheik Mohammed knew.”

What is startling is that he feels no remorse about the cruel image he has created for us — and the damage done to our credibility

Al-Jazeera Journalist Freed From Guantanamo After 6 Years

Sat, 03 May 2008 18:15:00 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: When is that atrocity gonna be closed? Shite, Alcatraz was a better place. Maybe i exaggerate.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

An Al-Jazeera cameraman was released from U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay and returned home to Sudan early Friday after six years of imprisonment that drew worldwide protests.

Sami al-Haj, who had been on a hunger strike for 16 months, grimaced as he was carried off a U.S. military plane by American personnel in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. He was put on a stretcher and taken straight to a hospital.

“Thank God … for being free again,” he told Al-Jazeera from his hospital bed. “Our eyes have the right to shed tears after we have spent all those years in prison. … But our joy is not going to be complete until our brothers in Guantanamo Bay are freed,” he added.

“The situation is very bad and getting worse day after day,” he said of conditions in Guantanamo. He claimed guards prevent Muslims from practicing their religion and reading the Quran.

Al-Haj said he believed he was arrested because of U.S. hostility toward Al-Jazeera and because the media was reporting on U.S. rights violations

Winter Soldier to be re-Broadcast

Sat, 03 May 2008 17:37:16 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: If you missed this compelling program, listen in sometime. Very moving testimony from the soldiers who were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan by the Bush/Cheney criminals.

Clip Source: www.noliesradio.org

Saturday -- 1 Hour -- WINTER SOLDIER Teach-in --- Iraq Veterans Tell All

Saturday at 9am Pacific - 12 Noon Eastern - 16:00 GMT

n 1971, a courageous group of veterans exposed the criminal nature of the Vietnam War in an event called Winter Soldier. On March 13-16, 2008, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War gave first-person accounts of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground. That historic event brought together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence of war crimes they have witnessed. Radio audiences throughout the country were stunned and shocked by this gripping and honest testimony.This was the most important anti-war event in the United States in decades.

NO LIES RADIO CARRIED THIS EVENT LIVE.
NOW WE WILL RE-BROADCAST WINTER SOLDIER
Every Saturday hear one-two hours of this gripping testimony.

Palfrey Suicide: Wayne Madsen Goes On Record Against Cheney

Sat, 03 May 2008 17:17:31 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: The thought of Darth Cheney with a hooker is truly obscene. I hope Madsen nails him, tho.

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

Maybe it's the booze they serve at Cafe Milano in Georgetown. Maybe it's just Madsen being Madsen. After all, journalists and writers with any lick of integrity have been shamed, shocked and traumatized by the "suicides" of both Hunter S. Thompson and Gary Webb -- not to mention the sudden "fading into the discredited bastion of mental health treatment" of Mike Ruppert.

Having seen this vast panoply of weirdness unfolding before our very eyes while creampuffs and lightweights like Matt Lauer and Brit Hume have made all the money -- perhaps Madsen has just had enough. Perhaps he is ready to be a hero. Or a martyr.

At any rate, our intrepid Wayne Madsen wanted our beloved Vice President, Richard "the Dick" Cheney to know that his dealings with Palfrey's escort agency in the 1990's wasn't going to be forgotten. One would infer that Madsen has some evidence regarding Cheney's addiction to Cialis-laden trysts with frustrated hookers who couldn't get the poor bastard off

Green Party ains in Great Britain

Sat, 03 May 2008 16:27:57 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: News from my friend Minto, green advocate in London. Great bloke--see his LJ

Clip Source: mintogrubb.livejournal.com

Greens make gains!!!

In London the Green vote held up well against the two-party squeeze,
returning Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson to the London Assembly with an
increased percentage of the vote and seeing highly respectable results for

Sian Berry in the mayoral contest, and for the constituency candidates.

There were spectacular gains in Norwich, where we’re now the official
opposition; an astonishing leap in Solihull, from fourth to first in one
year to displace the Labour council leader; group status in Liverpool with
a second seat; and first seats in Cambridge and Stroud. Sheffield and
Camden Greens (north London) both gained one seat to make full Green wards

in Central and Highgate respectively.

The grand tally sees us with five extra seats to a total of 116 on 39

unitary authority councils.

Go them Greens!!!

But the news is not all good. Boris has won as the Mayor. Also, the BNP has taken a seat on Greater London assembly.

I am more worried by the BNP bloke, to be honest.

Godd Ol' Boys have a live-in horse

Sat, 03 May 2008 15:47:57 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Thanks to Alanocu and http://www.lifeinthefastlane

Clip Source: www.lifeinthefastlane.ca

One of the world’s zaniest horses does everything but talk — but that doesn’t stop him from trying. Patches is one pampered male — a human trapped inside a horse’s body. He rides in a coordinating convertible Cadillac, eats cheeseburgers, drinks apple juice, and sleeps in a queen-sized bed.

Equine entrepreneurs and brothers Robert and Herbert Thompson are just a couple of good ole boys and their pony, doing what comes natural.

“Every time we’d start to go anywhere, he would act like he wanted to go with us.” says Herbert.

“So I said why don’t we fix the car so he can get in and out. We fixed the car, and sure enough …”

Robert says “While he’s riding in the car, he’s watching the scenery go by.”

“We’d be out riding with him in the car, get hungry and want us a burger.” says Herbert. “When we pulled in to get us one, well naturally the first thing we thought about was Patches, reckoning he would want one.”

“He answers the phone, but he doesn’t actually talk.” adds Robert.

[Video]

Palestine: A Letter to the Peace Movement

Sat, 03 May 2008 14:32:04 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Thousands of Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli detention centers where there is reported use of torture. People die at Israeli checkpoints because they cannot get to medical facilities. Palestinians are being denied water, food and medical supplies. Palestinians have to endure continual attacks by jets, helicopters and drones used for assassinations (which are illegal by international law) that also kill many civilians. According to Chris Hedges (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19127.htm), since 2000, 1033 Israelis have died and 4,437 Palestinian have died from this conflict. 119 of these deaths were Israeli children and 971 have been Palestinian children. All these deaths are a waste of life, but these numbers also show that the fault is not equal between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The fault lies with the aggressor and the occupier. When people live under a brutal occupation, have their lands stolen, their houses destroyed, orchards wiped out by bulldozers

Clip Source: www.greenparty.org

The peace movement cannot be concerned only with the war in Iraq. We have to look at the bigger picture of all wars to determine what’s going wrong in our country. This is especially true in regards to Palestine.

Many in the peace movement believe that the use of violence is proportionately equal between Palestinians and Israelis and that both sides are equally responsible for the bloodshed. This is not true. This is not an equal situation. Israel is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Gaza is one of the poorest and with one of the highest population densities in the world. Israel has the fourth strongest army in the world with a large arsenal of nuclear weapons, while the Palestinians have rifles, home-made rockets, and people willing to be used as suicide bombers.

It is reported that over the last six years, 12 Israelis have been killed by the rocket attacks.

But this does not compare to the thousands upon thousands of Palestinian deaths

Very strange Japanese ferry

Sat, 03 May 2008 13:55:12 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: I wonder if they are hitting any ocean wildlife?

Clip Source: www.japantoday.com

The newly commissioned ferry, Natchan World, arrives at Hakodate port from Aomori on Friday. The vessel is said to be the world’s largest high-speed ferry.

Today, 5/2/08, is No Pants Day--enjoy!

Sat, 03 May 2008 13:23:46 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: I'm not wearing any pants right now! But then i usually don't...

Clip Source: community.livejournal.com

EPA Administor Needs firing

Sat, 03 May 2008 13:11:04 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: See site to help fire this jazzbo--I've watched some of his act before congress on C-SPAN and was really disgusted by his stonewalling and lying.

Clip Source: action.foe.org

Tell Administrator Johnson: "You're Dismissed!"

Sign his walking papers and send Congress a message

By filling out the form at the bottom of this page, you will be signing our dismissal notice below, which will be presented to EPA Administrator Steven Johnson. You will also be sending your members of Congress a message regarding your wish to see Administrator Johnson out of his current position (which you can edit).

Notice:

We the undersigned condemn you, Administrator Stephen Johnson, for violating the mandate of the Environmental Protection Agency and undermining the good work of its employees.

Whereas you have rejected California’s request for permission to allow it to limit global warming pollution from vehicles; which overrides recommendations of EPA’s own career experts and prevents the implementation of laws passed in more than a dozen states.

New Rule for Toxic Trains: a Disaster Waiting to Happen

Sat, 03 May 2008 13:03:58 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Within the last year, a coal train derailed in the nation's capital and dumped tons of its load into the Anacostia River that runs through the heart of Washington, DC; had that train been shipping toxic gas, the resulting horrors would probably still be leading our newscasts.

Mainline routes through major U.S. cities annually carry more than 110,000 shipments of poison gas railcars. In many cases these shipments could be easily re-routed and are not, so railroads and chemical shippers are in effect recklessly pre-positioning these cargoes for potential derailment or terrorist attack.

The new rule utilizes railroad-friendly regulatory techniques to ensure that virtually no protective re-routing will occur

Clip Source: action.foe.org

The Bush Administration's new final chemical transportation security regulation (Fed Register 4 16 08) would allow US railroads to unilaterally select rail routes through or around major target cities for chemical railcars that the federal agencies consider "Weapons of Mass Destruction."

Allowing trains carrying toxic chemicals through populated areas is a serious and avoidable risk. The President’s own former top homeland security official, Richard Falkenrath, in 2005 testified in Congress that this was the greatest vulnerability in the nation. President Bush’s new rule, however, leaves life-and-death routing decisions entirely in private railroad hands. Bush’s new rule allows railroads unilaterally to analyze and select hazmat routes using railroad assumptions and calculations that are to be kept secret from the public. They also allow virtually no role for state and local officials to influence route selections and would preempt any state or local re-routing legislation.