Not Good Stewards

Hate to ruin your Friday, but it appears somebody is ruining the Amazon…

Big Oil polluting Amazon

And to think that some don’t understand why people are against drilling in sensitive areas in Alaska and offshore near the coast in the US. The track record for Big Oil is not very strong, to say the least.  "A US oil company has been accused of contaminating an area of the Peruvian Amazon where it and its successor company have drilled for oil for the past 32 years, creating misery for [...]

Tags: Amazon, Oxidental Oil, Pollution

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Not Fired

Just pushed out?  Perhaps.  And, as always, TPMmuckraker finds…

Today’s Must Read

Adam Cohen, writing in a The New York Times op-ed,breaks news: There is yet another United States attorney whose abrupt departure from office is raising questions: Debra Wong Yang of Los Angeles. Ms. Yang was not fired, as eight other [...]

Tags: U.S. Attorneys, Debra Yang

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Journalism?

Not hardly.  The gang over at olbermannwatch.com better lighten up on their criticism of Keith Olbermann presenting one-sided shows.  Unless they watch to take some shots at Glenn Beck, too.

Beck’s global warming special dominated by industry-funded "experts," serial misinformers

CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck’s May 2 hour-long special, Exposed: The Climate of Fear, purported to present the "other side of the climate debate that you don’t hear anywhere." Introducing the show, Beck stated: "I want you to know right up front, this is not a balanced look at global warming." Indeed, Beck relied heavily on people with energy industry ties and others espousing positions on global warming that have been soundly debunked or rejected by the overwhelming majority of [...]

Tags: Global Warming, Climate Change, Glenn Beck, CNN Headline News

Tags: Keith Olbermann

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TGIF

Here’s my Friday gift to you.  Definitely one of those "did you hear about those radio guys who…" stories to bring up during weekend conversations with friends and family.

Talk show hosts in hiding after police threat

Until this week, the only people who really hated the Jersey Guys were corrupt politicians. Now, corrupt state troopers hate them, too. Craig Carton and Ray Rossi walked out in the middle of their popular afternoon talk radio show and took their families into hiding after learning of a press conference in which New Jersey state police union leader David Jones gave out their home addresses and threatened to "crush" the people who leaked anonymous Internet postings by state troopers in which they apparently were plotting a ticket-writing blitz [...]

Tags: Speeding Tickets, New Jersey State Troopers

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The Big Meeting

Rice and the Syrian Foreign Minister.  They did meet.  That’s good.  For thirty minutes. Impressed?

Condoleeza Rice Claims Her Thirty Minute Lunch In Syria With Foreign Minister Was More Productive Than Nancy Pelosi’s Three Hour Sit-Down With Syrian President

The audacity of this Secretary of State of ours. After bashing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for traveling to Syria last month to open dialogue between our two countries in a heart-to-heart three hour chat with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Condi travels there herself a month later, visits with one of the “lackeys” for [...]

Later, another meeting didn’t work out so well, either…

Iranian Foreign Minister Walks Out Of Dinner With Rice

Iran’s foreign minister walked out of a dinner of diplomats where he was seated directly across from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, ostensibly because a female violinist entertaining the gathering was dressed too revealingly. "I don’t know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of state," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday, regarding the [...]

Eventually, a couple of folks did get together..

U.S. & Iran Meet On The Side

Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Syria

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Hillary And The War

Interesting tactic.  Somewhat lost in the debate shuffle yesterday.  But, even the liberal-leaning bloggers aren’t impressed…

Clinton Tries for Cred with Anti-War Dems

…Now, [Cinton's] advisers say, a vote to withdraw authorization would make plain to antiwar and liberal Democrats that she was repudiating her 2002 vote. The hope among her aides was that demands by antiwar voters for her to apologize for her vote would be rendered moot. How would her refusal to apologize for a vote that has cost over 600,000 people their lives be rendered moot, you might ask? Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed Thursday that Congress repeal the authority it gave President Bush in 2002 [...]

Hillary knows she has a problem

Tags: Hillary Clinton

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Avoiding The Boss

There’s tons of analysis of last night’s debate floating around the internet today.  I’m sure you’ve found what you’re looking for by this point in the day.  I’ll just point you to one note that I found really interesting:

Bush got mentioned exactly ONCE in the GOP debate

Tags: Republican Debate, George W. Bush

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Not Coming Home Whole

New report on growing problems for our returning military folks…

More Invisible Costs Of War

The burden on soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan got a little less bearable last month when Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that active-duty Army units would have tours extended to 15 months, with just 12 months at home. That is a far cry from the normal deployment ratio — two years at home or on base for one year in combat. More time in the line of fire and less time with family and loved ones spells [...]

Tags: Iraq War, Department of Defense, U.S. Army

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What’s Wrong With THIS Idea?

Absolutely nothing!

Spanish solar tower could eventually power an entire city

Just last month we witnessed a gigantic skyscraper / solar tower hybrid that generates a whopping 390-kilowatts of energy, but even that looks like child’s play compared to the 40-story solar power plant that resides in Spain. The expansive system consists of a towering concrete building, a field of 600 (and growing) sun-tracking mirrors that are each [...]

Tags: Solar Power

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Limping Along

And getting set to do worse.  This just makes no sense to me…

Plan to shut FDA labs

WASHINGTON — A Food and Drug Administration plan to close seven of 13 field laboratories has angered some lawmakers, government workers and safety advocates, who fear the move will chase away skilled veteran employees and hurt the FDA’s ability to [...]

Tags: FDA, Food and Drug Administration

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Global Warming

Here, Glenn Beck.  Chew on this.

New Climate Change Report Debunks Key Right-Wing Talking Point On Global Warming

Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the third part of its Assessment Report. The first two parts of the report released earlier this year dealt with the science and impacts of climate change. This new part suggests mitigating global warming’s effects can be done at a “modest cost.” The right-wing has repeatedly advocated against [...]

Tags: Climate Change, Global Warming, Glenn Beck

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Conversation-Starter

Guaranteed.  Just toss the idea out, next time you’re talking politics.

Do You Feel a Draft?

Guest blogged by Stephen Heller… America needs a military draft. Admittedly, this idea is anathema to many progressives. Nevertheless, it would be good for this nation. It would boost our national security, but it would also be an invaluable part of preventing our so-called "leaders" from taking us into another unnecessary war. There’s no [...]

Tags: Military Draft

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You’ve Got Mail!

Welcome back from the Middle East, Condoleezza. There’s another letter waiting for you.

Waxman to Rice: Step Back

Here’s the latest volley in the ongoing battle between Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Waxman, the chairman of the House committee on oversight, wrote to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice today to complain that State [...]

Tags: Henry Waxman, Condoleezza Rice, Niger

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Putting the Wraps on The Week

If you’ve been out of the blog-reading loop this week, Mahablog has a good summary that’s representative of a lot of what’s been talked about.

Acceptable Outrage

Surely, somewhere, someone has compiled all the changing reasons for the War in Iraq. By that I mean how it started out to be about an imminent threat to the U.S. — smoking guns, mushroom clouds — that was not imminent; then about finding weapons of mass destruction that weren’t there; then about establishing a [...]

Tags: Iraq War, Acceptable Violence

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Ridiculous

Good thing my commute is half of what it used to be…

US gasoline prices hit $3 as refiners strain

NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) – U.S. gasoline prices shot above $3.00 per gallon on Friday, within striking distance of record highs, as the creaking domestic refinery system strained to keep up with rising demand.  Average retail gasoline prices in the world’s top consumer [...]

Tags: Gas Prices, gasoline Prices

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Suicide Bombers

Ever wonder who they are?  Where they come from?  Answers follow…

Creating Terrorists

The New York Times has a story up on their website today about recruits for jihad in Iraq, and in particular the young men of Jordan who are volunteering to strap on explosives and blow themselves and others to kingdom come in the name of their faith. It’s worth a look: Abu Ibrahim, a lanky 24-year-old, was on [a suicide bomb] mission when he left this bleak city north of Amman for Iraq last October. But he made it only as far as the border before he was arrested, and [...]

Tags: Iraq War, Suicide Bombers

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Wondering About Murtha

I’ve always respected Congressman Murtha for his willingness to stand up for his beliefs, particularly when it comes to the Iraq War.  But, he’s boxed himself into a corner with some recent remarks…

Murtha’s Mangled Memory

Is anti-war Democrat Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) beginning to show signs of memory loss? As reported yesterday on the liberal Think Progress, Murtha said the following in an exchange with Chris Matthews in an exchange with Chris Matthews on MCNBC’s [...]

Tags: John Murtha, Iraq War, Chris Matthews

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Wonder of Wonders

Good old Coach Karl.

Rove Coached DOJ Officials on Congressional Testimony

Deputy chief of staff Karl Rove participated in a hastily called meeting at the White House two months ago. The subject: The firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year. The purpose: to coach a top Justice Department official heading to Capitol Hill to testify on the prosecutorial purge on what he should say. Now some investigators are saying that Rove’s attendance at the meeting shows that the president’s chief political advisor may have been involved in an attempt to mislead Congress–one more reason they [...]

Tags: Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys

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The War’s Toll

The numbers just keep climbing.  Those we hear about.  And those we don’t.

Walking By The Wounded

What the hell is wrong with us? Why do we keep acting as though only the dead in Iraq matter? (And, sadly, I must pass over the literally countless Iraqi and Afghan dead and wounded, who are only known to their loved ones, and will never be listed in any document or abstract, as if their [...]

Tags: Iraq War, Death Toll, War Injuries

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Not Good Stewards

Hate to ruin your Friday, but it appears somebody is ruining the Amazon…

Big Oil polluting Amazon

And to think that some don’t understand why people are against drilling in sensitive areas in Alaska and offshore near the coast in the US. The track record for Big Oil is not very strong, to say the least.  "A US oil company has been accused of contaminating an area of the Peruvian Amazon where it and its successor company have drilled for oil for the past 32 years, creating misery for [...]

Tags: Amazon, Oxidental Oil, Pollution

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