Sunday, July 25, 2010

Breaking News In America by Political Ironing on July 18, 2010

Breaking News In America

http://www.prosebeforehos.com/political-ironing/07/18/breaking-news-in-america/

by Political Ironing on July 18, 2010 | Trackback URI | Email This Post | 117538 Views

This phenomenon is also perfectly explained by Calvin and Hobbes.

Technorati Tags: breaking news in america, bp oil spill, media coverage, lindsay lohan, lindsey lohan, drug testing, fox news, wtf,image, cartoon, gulf coast oil spill, screen capture

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For Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone, a Terror Topping

Saturday 24 July 2010

by: Ray McGovern, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

(Photo: incendiarymind; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t)

http://www.truth-out.org/for-self-licking-ice-cream-cone-a-terror-topping61659

A recent exposé in The Washington Post shows that if you have a security clearance and are comfortable being part of a lucrative "self-licking ice cream cone" - a process that offers few if any benefits, while perpetuating its own existence - then the "war on terror" is definitely for you!

The conclusion that the Long War against Islamic militants abroad can be enriching for a host of "counterterror" contractors at home leaps out of the Post's "Top Secret America," a comprehensive three-part series by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin on July 19, 20 and 21.

The series presents a graphic account of how lawmakers afraid to be seen as laggards in the war on terror threw billions of dollars willy-nilly at a profusion of intelligence and security contractors after 9/11.

The US intelligence budget grew like Topsey to a publicly announced $75 billion last year - two and a half times its $30 billion figure on September 10, 2001. Even so, the $75 billion figure doesn't include the cost of many military and domestic counterterrorism programs.

You don't have to be an economist to marvel at - and bemoan - the "opportunity costs" of such an investment, at a time when so many Americans are losing jobs, homes and dreams for retirement.

The Post shows clearly that the post-9/11 environment has been a boon for defense and intelligence contractors, who fattened up at the government feeding trough before trying to show their worth in the mission of "defeating transnational violent extremists," like al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and others too many to mention...

[...]

http://www.truth-out.org/for-self-licking-ice-cream-cone-a-terror-topping61659

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Truthout: Researchers Confirm Subsea Gulf Oil Plumes Are From BP Well

Saturday 24 July 2010

Researchers Confirm Subsea Gulf Oil Plumes Are From BP Well
Sara Kennedy, McClatchy Newspapers: "Through a chemical fingerprinting process, University of South Florida researchers have definitively linked clouds of underwater oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico to BP's runaway Deepwater Horizon well - the first direct scientific link between the subsurface oil clouds commonly known as 'plumes' and the BP oil spill, USF officials said Friday."
Read the Article

For Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone, a Terror Topping
Ray McGovern, Truthout: "A recent expose in The Washington Post shows that if you have a security clearance and are comfortable being part of a lucrative 'self-licking ice cream cone' - a process that offers few if any benefits, while perpetuating its own existence - then the 'war on terror' is definitely for you!"
Read the Article

Winslow Myers | Best Practices
Winslow Myers, Truthout: "When I was working as a teacher, I loved the phrase 'best practices.' It suggested pooled wisdom, a collective weeding out of the more effective from the less effective, a distillation of the authentic out of a world of potential baloney. It implied disinterested cooperation to figure out what really does work when we're trying to help children learn. Any collection of best practices would synergize with each other in a perfect storm of competency."
Read the Article

'Soul Of A Citizen': Village Politics - Rebuilding Engaged Communities
Paul Rogat Loeb, Truthout: "How do we respond to a political landscape where Meg Whitman can spend $80 million on her primary candidacy alone? Or where, aided by the ghastly Citizen's United Supreme Court decision, right-wing groups are pledging over $200 million for the November elections. On-the-ground activism is key; ordinary citizens reaching out to knock on doors, make phone calls, talk to friends, neighbors and coworkers, spread the word through social media, and do everything possible to convince undecided voters and get reluctant supporters to the polls. That's what so many of us did during 2006 and 2008, helping tip the balance in race after race."
Read the Article

Senate Democrats Forced to Accept Much Slimmer Energy Bill
Mark Clayton, The Christian Science Monitor: "Without enough votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been forced to abandon a comprehensive energy bill. Gone is any tough climate provision. Will the House buy it?"
Read the Article

Afghanistan: US Steps Up Prisoner Releases
Jean MacKenzie, Global Post: "Zahir Daud says he is not angry with the Americans who took 32 months of his life. The only time the slim, dark-eyed former literature teacher showed a trace of bitterness is when he is asked how many children he had. 'Five,' he said. 'The youngest, a boy, was only 5 months old when they arrested me. I have not seen him since.'"
Read the Article

Bogus 'Obama Mom' Grants Lure Students
Sharona Coutts, ProPublica: "After being laid off from her job as a high school teacher in Dayton, Ohio, Nicole Massey decided to go back to college. For months, she scoured the Web for ways to fund her tuition, while supporting her 10-year-old son, Tyler. So when ads turned up in Massey's inbox claiming that President Barack Obama had created special college grants and scholarships for single mothers, her hopes soared."
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Temperatures Hit Record Highs Globally. El Nino or Global Warming?
Pete Spotts, The Christian Science Monitor: "The first half of 2010 was the hottest six-month period recorded globally with temperatures around the globe 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit above averages."
Read the Article

Cluster Bombs and Civilian Lives: Efficient Killing, Profits and Human Rights
Ramzy Baroud, Truthout: "The human rights agency has confirmed that 35 women and children were killed following the latest US attacks on an alleged al-Qaeda hideout in Yemen. Initially, there were attempts to bury the story, and Yemen officially denied that civilians were killed as a result of the December 17 attack on al-Majala in southern Yemen. However, it has been simply impossible to conceal what is now considered the largest loss of life in one single US attack in the country."
Read the Article

Rachel Maddow | BP May Be Trying to Hire Scientists to Protect Against Their Potential Future Testimony (Video)
Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show: "Something just happened in the BP oil disaster that can really only be explained using a scene from season five of 'The Sopranos.'"
Read the Article

A Prisoner's Wife
Janan Abdu, Truthout: "I used to tell my husband, Ameer Makhoul, 'One day, they'll come for you.' As chairman of the Public Committee for the Protection of Political Freedoms, he'd begun to organize an awareness-raising campaign to push back against the security services' harassment of our community, the Palestinian citizens of Israel."
Read the Comic

We enjoy hearing from all of our readers! Please email us at feedback@truthout.org.

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Saturday, July 24, 2010

This week in The Tentacle

http://www.thetentacle.com/

Friday, July 23, 2010

Offing Obama

Roy Meachum

The final straw for me was the British hedge fund manager’s saying Sunday that Barack Obama should be “shorted:” Wall Street-speak for finished off.

A Child’s Lesson in Economics

Joe Charlebois

An eight year old boy at the Delaware shore was shopping with his family in the boardwalk’s version of a 5 &10 store. The family was getting the necessities to survive a week at the beach.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Same Old Politics

Patricia A. Kelly

On Tuesday, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins spoke at the Hagerstown TEA Party meeting on "Illegal Immigration in Maryland, a Plan for Action." He, of course, discussed the 287(g) program, active in Maryland only in Frederick County, wherein illegal immigrants who violate the law may be placed in federal custody and deported instead of incarcerated locally. He received a standing ovation.

Reshaping the School Board

Adam Avery

I usually save my predictions for March Madness, for I learned long ago that the only guarantees in life are death, taxes and death by taxes. A recent informal and unscientific poll of Frederick County’s candidates for the Board of Education has me reaching deep into my discretionary income pocket to place a wager: Come November, we will enjoy a well qualified and conservative majority on the school board.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

A Free Pass for Fannie and Freddie

Kevin E. Dayhoff

Last Thursday the Obama Administration’s broad sweeping financial reform legislation edged past its final hurdle when the Senate approved the measure by a vote of 60-39.

Stuck on Porcupines

Tom McLaughlin

Matang Wildlife Center, Kuching, Malaysia – Porcupines? Wandering the jungle? I had never heard of such a thing until my occasional visit with my friends at the wildlife center. Two caged animals, quills bristling and snouts to the ground, had been brought to the center by an individual who became aware of Malaysia’s tough laws for keeping threatened species.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

More Meaningless Papal Blather

Roy Meachum

Last week I exchanged Email with the priest whose plight plunged me into reporting the tribulations of the Roman Catholic Church, some 43 years ago.

A Cuban History Lesson – Part 4

Nick Diaz

In this last installment on the story of “Operation Peter Pan,” I’ll be summarizing and putting this little-known event in the context of the times. It was almost fifty years ago, in late 1960 and early 1961, that the Irish-American Jesuit priest, Father Bryan Walsh, realized the need for housing and caring for the hundreds of unaccompanied children who were arriving at Miami International Airport on a daily basis.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Friends of Frederick County Fraud

Shawn Burns

Here are a few bits of information that Friends of Frederick County would never make available on their website or in their literature:

A REVIEW – X-Rated “Muppets”

Roy Meachum

Wondering how any puppet show could win three Tony awards, to find out I wandered into the 7th Street theatre for the Washington Shakespeare Company for Friday’s opening night.

Campaign Diary – Door-to-Door

Michael Kurtianyk

I thought that after last night’s rain, the temperatures might have cooled down a bit, but it hadn’t. However, I did go door-to-door hoping people were home. When no one answered, I left my literature.

Friday, July 16, 2010

The Commissioners’ Final Whirlwind

Roy Meachum

In this Board of County Commissioners’ swan songs there is a frenzy to get done items postponed and neglected in the past.

Blind Allegiance

Joe Charlebois

The great foe of the “Tea Party” is not and has never been people of color; rather it is socialism and the welfare state that the left and collectivist groups such as the National Association of Colored People) support.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

“Our” Children at Play…

Joan McIntyre

The Board of County Commissioners has moved into the top spot for arrogance of the week. Over the past four years they’ve done these over-the- top, "I'm boss of you” moves; but now that election time is bearing down on us, they are ramping it up.

Pay Attention, Voters!

Amanda Haddaway

The field of primary candidates has been finalized and the speculation about the projected winners and losers can begin. Candidates will be busy on the carnival and forum circuits.

Decisions and Reality TV

Derek Shackelford

Reality Television really has a huge audience in our current culture. We perceive to be a society where the public display of people’s lives paraded before television intrigues us.

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Tappahannock, VA 102 degrees

Photo by David and Liz Babylon

July 24, 2010

[20100724 Tappahannock 102 degrees]

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DAYHOFF: WMC renovation project marks birthplace of McDaniel College

Eagle Archives

By Kevin Dayhoff

Explore Carroll DAYHOFF WMC renovation project marks birthplace of ...

DAYHOFF WMC renovation project marks birthplace of McDaniel College · Westminster paints the town purple for Ravens training camp ...

[...]

The $300,000 project to renovate Buell's old home is led by society chairman Don Rembert (Class of 1961), and his wife, Judy Ellis ('60), of Reston, Va.

They also, according to the website, helped lead fundraising that supported the publication of the college's history, "Fearless and Bold," by Dr. Jim Lightner ('59), a professor emeritus of mathematics and college historian.

[...]

However, while the college took root here, the seminary actually relocated in October 1958 -- to the grounds of American University, in Washington, where it is now the prestigious Wesley Theological Seminary.

www.explorecarroll.com/.../wmc-renovation-project-marks-bir...