Blogs

Are 1,500 U.S. Troop Deaths in Afghanistan Enough Reasons to End the War?

Sign our petition to end the Afghanistan War: http://rethinkafghanistan.com

I wish I had time to explain or fully comprehend all the arcane and archaic legislative maneuvers Harry Reid is pulling, but I'll try to process it and lay it out in a post tomorrow. Suffice it to say, Harry Reid is doing just about everything he can to force this contemptible piece of junk on the American people for four more years. Call Senator Boxer at her Sacramento office or call her DC office (202) 224-3553 and ask her to vote "no" on the extension

How Can Congress Debate a Secret Law?

By Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Mark Udall

Members of Congress are about to vote to extend the most controversial provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act for four more years, even though few of them understand how those provisions are being interpreted and applied.

As members of the Senate Intelligence Committee we have been provided with the executive branch's classified interpretation of those provisions and can tell you that we believe there is a significant discrepancy between what most people - including many Members of Congress - think the Patriot Act allows the government to do and what government officials secretly believe the Patriot Act allows them to do.

[...]

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Changes the Sens want to make to § 215

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No Time to Debate Patriot

(Repost from 3-22-10)

This week I’ve begun a new screenplay -- a political thriller. A renowned Congressional progressive is taken for a ride on Air Force One by a relatively new, engaging, corporate-enabling African American president. By the time the plane reaches its destination the progressive has been morally lobotomized.

As for Oprah, up until Obama became President, I couldn’t say enough good things about her. “She’s America’s teacher!” I’d assert whenever she was mentioned. A role model of compassion and humanism. My favorite segments of her show were done with Eckhart Tolle -- conversations about the destructiveness of ego and living a soul-awakened life. If anyone could talk the talk about walking the walk, it was Oprah!

I did recognize that Oprah could also, on occasion, fall victim to “celebrity cronyism”. She would easily promote a fellow celeb’s bad movie to her massive audience. Loyalty to friends is considered an endearing trait, even, or maybe especially, when exposed on national TV. But in this case, it would have consequences. I pitied those naive enough to follow up with time and money on a dog of a movie thanks to her ... well .... let’s call it “codependency-tainted” hype.

Congress is voting today on the war in Afghanistan.

Call Congress today and urge your Representative to vote to cut off funding for the Afghanistan War. Support the Lee amendment as the strongest against the war.

You can call toll-free, 1-888-231-9276, thanks to the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Demand an amendment be adopted striking Section 1034, "Affirmation of Armed
Conflict with Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Associated Forces," completely from the bill.

Demand a serious debate about the Afghanistan War and tell your representative
to vote to immediately end funding for the war and occupation.

Excerpts from Brian Beutler’s “Congress Poised to Give President Power to Continue GWOT Indefinitely.”

State and feds do nothing to stop massive fish kill

By Dan Bacher

In spite of outrage by fishermen, Tribal members and grassroots environmentalists, state and federal officials continue to do nothing to stop the unprecedented massacre of Sacramento splittail and threatened Chinooks in the California Delta pumps.

The state and federal water project pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta continue to kill 400,000 to 600,000 imperiled Sacramento splittail and up to 700 threatened spring-run Chinook salmon each day. These fish are being destroyed to divert Delta water to subsidized corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water agencies.

During the 8-day period from May 16 though May 23, the federal pumps killed 4,241,089 Sacramento splittail and the state facilities took 157,349 fish. That’s a total of 4,400,073 splittail.

A native minnow species found only in the Delta and Central Valley, the Bush administration stripped “threatened” status from the fish under the Endangered Species Act in 2003 under pressure from a political appointee. In October 2010, the Obama administration denied a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity to again protect the fish, in spite of the species declining to barely detectable levels during the Department of Fish and Game's fall surveys in recent years.

Yet, more reasons why we need to contact our Congressmembers and tell them to vote NO on the "Defense Authorization" bill (HR 1750).

Call you Congressmember toll free: Call 1-888-231-9276 and ask for Doris Matsui (or whomever your Congressperson may be).

The Worst Bill Ever in Congress
http://warisacrime.org/node/57943

The "Defense Authorization" bill now before Congress, HR 1750, is arguably the worst bill ever considered likely to pass into law. It includes $118 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars a majority of Americans wants ended. But that's not why it's the worst bill ever.

This bill also includes $553 billion for other military waste. That's enough money to save and improve a lot of lives if it weren't being dumped into the war machine. But that's not why this is the worst bill ever.

The bill limits the President’s ability to implement the New START agreement unless there is full funding for the nuclear weapons complex, bars the retirement of nuclear weapons until two new nuclear facilities are completed, and bars further nuclear weapons reductions below New START levels unless approved by Congress. But that's not why this is the worst bill ever.

The bill invests heavily in a National Missile "Defense" system based in California and Alaska.

This bill revives a second engine for the F-35 that the Pentagon has no use for.

This bill bars any transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo.

But none of that is why this is the worst bill ever.

(531 Obama-dumping days until 2012 election-Hugh's Obama's Scandals List)

Kucinich is one of the VERY few in the belly of the beast -- that horror chamber of mostly profoundly pimped out and betraying representatives -- who is still asserting truth to power.

Can Americans of conscience stand behind him seriously enough to create a ground swell for the 2012 Presidency? Can Kucinich transcend a political party that has so profoundly sold out the welfare of millions of struggling citizens?

Kucinich is saying what seems like the obvious to anyone with a heart and conscience -- okay, a pulse -- but the sociopathic kleptocrats and war criminals are behind the controls of our government enabled by a pimped out, propagandizing media. Kucinich is so “uncool” for the media I relish the opportunity to stand behind him in defiance of them alone. I think it is high time substance shot down style in America!

Winnemem Wintu will dance for the salmon and estuary on June 5

By Dan Bacher

The state and federal water project pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River continue to kill hundreds of thousands of imperiled Sacramento splittail and hundreds of threatened spring run chinook salmon every day.

Natural Resources Secretary John Laird and the Department of Fish and Game have failed to take action to stop the unprecedented carnage caused by the export of Delta water to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water agencies. Meanwhile, the state and federal governments continue to go forward with the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal/tunnel.

The federal Central Valley Project pumps killed 470,532 Sacramento splittail, a native minnow species found only in the Delta and Central Valley. The State Water Project facilities killed 34,456 splittail on Thursday, May 19, according to data available from the DFG website. (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/delta/data/salvage/)

Exothermic or Endothermic?

The following is supposedly an actual question given in a university chemistry exam. The answer by one student was so profound that the professor shared it with colleagues.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

(534 Obama-dumping days until 2012 election-Hugh's Obama's Scandals List)

Kevin Hall of McClatchy Newspapers reports that on April 20 the big Italian oil company Eni put off its deal with Gazprom, the big Russian oil company.

SCORE big and bloody for the US (and France). This has been a goal of the US for three years according to Wilikleaks documents claims Hall.

Hall discovered a confidential cable revealing that when Silvio Berlusconi was about to become the new Italian prime minister, he was being pushed to discourage Eni from helping Russian Gazprom’s interests in Libya. Eni is 30% owned by the Italian government. Eni’s helping Gazprom to dominate Europe’s energy supply has been a thorn in the side of American corporatists and thus the US corporate-agenda-ed government.

The oil in the Caspian region is the prize. Gazprom was going to partner with Libya and with Eni, the largest “player” there. Libya had been a former Italian colony, after all.

Delta pumps killed over 1.9 million native fish in 3 days

by Dan Bacher

The carnage of imperiled native fish continues to accelerate in the state and federal water project pumps on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

These massive pumps deliver subsidized water to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water agencies.

On May 18, the federal Central Valley project pumps took 792,730 Sacramento splittail, an imperiled native minnow found only in the Central Valley and Delta. The State Water Project took 20,268 splittail the same day. (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/delta/data/salvage/)

In just three days – from May 16 through May 18 – the federal pumping facilities killed 1,864,659 fish. The federal pumps took 546,668 splittail on May 16 and 525,261 splittail on May 17.

During the same three-day period, the State Water Project pumps took 36,011 splittail, with 10,028 entrained on May 16 and 5,355 on May 17.

The combined total for the federal and state pumps for the three day period is 1,900,670 splittail!

1st, a study shows how the atmosphere above Japan heated rapidly before the M9 earthquake. Then, the galaxy may swarm with billions of wandering planets. Then, researchers find that quiet places on Earth’s Crust are core-meltingly hot underneath. Then make sure to scroll all the way down for an award winning picture of the Aurora Borealis over a glacial lake in Iceland. The song is "Beneath a Phrygian Sky" by Loreena McKennitt

Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake

(535 Obama-dumping days until 2012 election-Hugh's Obama's Scandals List)

An article well worth reading word for word is “Escaping the Matrix: Are you ready for the red pill?” by Richard K. Moore, written in 2000. He launches his declarations:

The defining dramatic moment in the film The Matrix occurs just after Morpheus invites Neo to choose between a red pill and a blue pill. The red pill promises "the truth, nothing more." Neo takes the red pill and awakes to reality--something utterly different from anything Neo, or the audience, could have expected. What Neo had assumed to be reality turned out to be only a collective illusion, fabricated by the Matrix and fed to a population that is asleep, cocooned in grotesque embryonic pods. In Plato's famous parable about the shadows on the walls of the cave, true reality is at least reflected in perceived reality.

Moore maintains, for example, that within the matrix each political party believes and maintains that the other is responsible for the political stalemate that prevents the solution of social problems.

Moore emphasizes that between the time of Columbus and 1945, Western nations dominated the globe by staking out their spheres of influence and exploiting colonial empires. Military might was used to expand empire. Periphery countries were kept backward to keep their people under control and to provide cheap labor and goods. Imperialism stifled natural developments of cultures and economies in peripheral societies.

from Bruce Tokars of Salmon Water Now (www.salmonwaternow.org):

Once again we have taken a look at the current state of affairs concerning salmon and shake our head in disbelief. If you have been following the news then you already know about the two main subjects of our new video, a lawsuit filed to stop the salmon season and the continuing saga of the BDCP. Here is the information brief about the video. Please share and embed if you agree with us that this really is a strange season.

Watch it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1B6I43vMag&hd=1 or Watch it on Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/23662404

A Strange Season (14:46)

We seem to be in the middle of a very a strange season.

There has been a glimmer of hope that the numbers of wild salmon are finally showing signs that they are starting to rebound. Enough so that the Federal agencies who determine if there are enough fish in the system to allow a full fishing season told both recreational and commercial salmon fishermen to go fishing. Finally some good news! But wait, there’s suddenly more to this story.

A group of Central Valley irrigators, who supply water to agriculture and industrial customers, has filed suit in Federal court to reverse the government’s go fishing decision. They seek to ban anyone from catching salmon this year.