Homeland Security's Space-Based Spying Goes Live

 

Following on from the UK data laws, the US are close to implementing a controversial satellite-surveillance program:

While America's attention has shifted to the economic meltdown and the presidential race between corporate favorites John McCain and Barack Obama, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Applications Office (NAO) "will proceed with the first phase of a controversial satellite-surveillance program, even though an independent review found the department hasn't yet ensured the program will comply with privacy laws...

 

Read more at - 'Homeland Security's Space-Based Spying Goes Live'
-

International Observers “Dazzled” by Venezuelan Electoral Process

 

A group of more than 130 international election observers praised the organization, fairness, and efficiency of last Sunday's regional and local elections in Venezuela, and also gave constructive suggestions for how to reduce lines at polling booths in the future. By James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com

read more

Relocating

Dear reader. I'll be shutting down for a few days. Relocating from Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island.

Torturing Democracy: A Documentary

 

Torturing Democracy, an expose of how and why America came to be involved in open large-scale torture of prisoners (many of whom were simply shepherds captured by mountain tribesmen and sold into captivity), is now available for viewing online. As Scott Horton reported last month, PBS can't find a time slot for this Frontline documentary until January 21, 2009 -- the day after Bush and Cheney are scheduled to leave office.

[Uruknet 49057 26-nov-2008 02:37 ECT] Torturing Democracy: A Documentary That Could Put Dick Cheney Out Of Our Misery

Bailout costs more than Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, moonshot, S&L bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq war, Vietnam war, and NASA's lifetime budget -- *combined*!

...and now it's over 7 trillion!!!

Barry Ritholtz sez,

In doing the research for the "Bailout Nation" book, I needed a way to put the dollar amounts into proper historical perspective.

If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars.

People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find the bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

Cory Doctorow

Free trade with Colombia a cruel move

 

Harper says that workers' protection has been written into the trade deal. But whether these stipulations will be enforced is another story.

Free trade with Colombia a cruel move
Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:57:28 GMT

Hemispheric Group Calls for Major Changes in Americas Policy - by Jim Lobe

An elite inter-American commission sponsored by a think-tank that is considered close to likely key policymakers in the administration of President-elect Barack Obama is calling for sharp break in U.S. policy toward Latin America, a substantial opening toward Cuba, greater diplomatic engagement with Venezuela, and a major reassessment of its war on drugs.


Hemispheric Group Calls for Major Changes in Americas Policy - by Jim Lobe

Living the Good Life on $5,000 a Year

 

Today's global financial cloud got you feeling gray? Vermonter Jim Merkel sees a silver lining.

Living the Good Life on $5,000 a Year
Kevin O'Connor, Rutland Herald

10 False Flags that Changed the World

An interesting read.

At it’s simplest, the term false flag means pretending to be the enemy.

The name comes from ships and armies that, in previous centuries, deceived their foes by displaying another country’s flag.

These days, false flag activities are much more sophisticated…and debauched. These aren’t your granddaddy’s covert operations.

Hard-boiled Dreams of the World » Blog Archive » 10 False Flags that Changed the World

Best move for Liberals: Govern by coalition

This topic won't go away in the Canadian political blog world since the election. Dobbins paints a useful scenario. 

Talk of a parliamentary accord between the Liberals, Bloc and NDP continues across the country, and inside and between the Bloc and NDP parties.

It would take the form of a Liberal minority government, following a non-confidence vote, with a proposal to the Governor General that the three parties would agree to govern for at least two years.

It would be based on a limited policy agenda - for example, child care, climate change, the Kelowna accord, early troop withdrawal from Afghanistan - defined by the considerable overlap in the three parties' election platforms.

The Liberals' Bay Street agenda would be put on hold as the price it paid to survive and rebuild.

If Grits go right, they get it wrong

read more

Montreal street artist Roadsworth captured in new documentary

From 2001 to 2004, Montreal harboured its own answer to world-renowned street artist Banksy — the mysterious Roadsworth.

Roadsworth transformed a crosswalk into a giant boot print, a traffic divider into a vineyard and a left turn lane into a giant zipper.

He left more than 80 paintings on the streets over three years, never signing his name.

Montreal street artist Roadsworth captured in new documentary

Who's adicted to Heroin? The C.I.A.- that's who.

Capturing a new, abundant source for heroin was an integral part of the U.S. “war on terror.” Hamid Karzai is a puppet ruler of the CIA; Afghanistan is a full-fledged narco-state; and the poppies that flourish there have yet to be eradicated, as was proven in 2003 when the Bush administration refused to destroy the crops, despite having the chance to do so. Major drug dealers are rarely arrested, smugglers enjoy carte blanche immunity, and Nushin Arbabzadah, writing for The Guardian, theorized that “U.S. Army planes leave Afghanistan carrying coffins empty of bodies, but filled with drugs.” Is that why the military protested so vehemently when reporters tried to photograph returning caskets?

 

CIA, Heroin Still Rule Day in Afghanistan
By Victor Thorn

Chavez Celebrates Sweeping Victory

 

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has survived an electoral challenge with flying colors. His party swept 17 of 22 state elections, although the opposition was victorious in several key skirmishes, including the capital state, the mayoralty of Caracas and even Venezuela’s biggest slum, traditionally a Chavez stronghold.

---

 

Read more

Europeana - Connecting Cultural Heritage

Europeana: digital paintings, books, films and archives

Europeana – the European digital library, museum and archive – is a 2-year project that began in July 2007. It will produce a prototype website giving users direct access to some 2 million digital objects, including film material, photos, paintings, sounds, maps, manuscripts, books, newspapers and archival papers. The prototype will be launched in November 2008 by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

The digital content will be selected from that which is already digitised and available in Europe’s museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. The prototype aims to have representative content from all four of these cultural heritage domains, and also to have a broad range of content from across Europe.

Europeana - Connecting Cultural Heritage

Mp3s: 75 Jimi Hendrix tracks from a 4-hour radio special

JIMI HENDRIX Hendrix For Everyone The Complete Four-Hour KPFA Radio Special. BigO:. KPFA Radio in California had in the past broadcast a four-hour radio special on Jimi Hendrix. With the passing of Mitch Mitchell ...

Mp3s: 75 Jimi Hendrix tracks from a 4-hour radio special

Verdiem Launch Free Software to Slash PC Power Use Up to 80 Percent

 

 

PC energy saving specialists Verdiem have today released free downloadable software designed to help users slash their energy use up to a massive 80 percent.

According to Allison Cornia, vice president of product management at Verdiem, “If we could get just 10 per cent of the world’s one billion PCs using [the product] properly we could save 32 billion kilograms of CO2 a year. That’s equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road.”

Read more of this story »

Making Movies the Afghan Way

 

Incredibly, as Afghanistan sinks back into the anarchy which became its natural state these past 29 years, Afghan film-makers are producing movies of international quality, turning out pictures which prove—even amid war—that a country’s tragedy can be imaginatively recreated for its people.

READ THE WHOLE ITEM

Meditation May Protect Your Brain

For thousands of years, Buddhist meditators have claimed that the simple act of sitting down and following their breath while letting go of intrusive thoughts can free one from the entanglements of neurotic suffering.

Now, scientists are using cutting-edge scanning technology to watch the meditating mind at work. They are finding that regular meditation has a measurable effect on a variety of brain structures related to attention -- an example of what is known as neuroplasticity, where the brain physically changes in response to an intentional exercise.

 

Meditation May Protect Your Brain
Michael Haederle, Miller-McCune.com

Scahill on Obama’s foreign policy trajectory

 

1. Jeremy Scahill's Alternet article: This Is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to Watch for in Obama's White House. 2. Scahill and Mother Jones' s David Corn on Democracy Now: Agents of Change or Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons? A Discussion about Barack Obama’s Advisers and Transition Team

"I think . . . this is the precise moment when this kind of journalism matters, when we have to remind people of the history and the previous policies implemented by the people that are at the center of Obama’s foreign policy team right now, because we’re going to be living with these people for the next four years running the show. And I think it’s incredibly important to be all over this right now, before they’re named."

LIFE and Google -10 million historic images

Posted by Cory Doctorow, November 18, 2008 11:24 PM | permalink

LIFE and Google have teamed up to put 10,000,000 historic images online -- about 20 percent of the images are live now. The Disneyland images are great -- here's the old Submarine Ride. LIFE photo archive hosted by Google (Thanks, Neil and Slas








LIFE and Google bring us 10 million historic images - Boing Boing

Barack Obama and Canada

New from Robin Mathews. In my mind, always worth reading.

The victory of Barack Obama - in the U.S.A. – is a gigantic victory. The centuries-long obsessive racism of the population has been modified dramatically. The size of the victory is not, however, in the popular vote – which was very close – but in the racial break-through. It cannot be discounted by the most cynical of observers. A majority of U.S. voters is willing to see a “black man” occupy the White House – a revolution in the state of the U.S. mind or a large part of that mind.

Barack Obama and Canada - Vive

The Steep Price of Power

LA GUAJIRA, COLOMBIA–In the Guajira, a remote northern region of Colombia, the human and environmental costs of coal extraction go beyond the climate crisis, and it is Atlantic Canadians who are fueling part of the demand for Colombia's mineral fuel.

The Cerrejon mine, the world's largest open-pit coal mine, produces half of Colombia's annual 52 million tons.

The Steep Price of Power
Moira Peters

Fascism Hunts Roma

The newly virulent anti-gypsyism is an eerie reminder of the Porrajmos, the Romany Holocaust during the Second World War that killed more than half of Europe's Roma population.


ZNet - Fascism Hunts Roma

Naomi Kline: In Praise of a Rocky Transition

 

Naomi Klein Every sweetheart deal the Bush administration makes threatens to hobble Obama's ability to deliver on his promise of change.

 

 Today in The Nation: In Praise of a Rocky Transition

'Use Your Illusions' by Slavoj Zizek

 

Noam Chomsky called for people to vote for Obama 'without illusions'. I fully share Chomsky's doubts about the real consequences of Obama's victory.

In The News: 'Use Your Illusions' by Slavoj Zizek
Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:20:00 GMT

Delta Blues, a book review

By Ed Ward

Do we really need another book about Mississippi Delta blues? Hasn’t this topic been covered adequately by now?

Truthdig - Arts and Culture - Ed Ward on Ted Gioia’s ‘Delta Blues’

Is Obama Screwing His Base with Rahm Emanuel Selection?

More on Obama's new chief of staff.

I had really wanted to celebrate Barack Obama's remarkable victory for a day or so before becoming cynical again. I really did.

And yet, less than 24 hours after the first polls closed, the president-elect chose as his chief of staff -- perhaps the most powerful single position in any administration -- Rahm Emanuel, one of the most conservative Democratic members of Congress.

 

Is Obama Screwing His Base with Rahm Emanuel Selection?
Stephen Zunes, AlterNet

Canada: A Welfare State That Lost Its Way

Book review. 

The good news is that Canada's unique capacity for success can be found like a buried treasure in this country's history. The bad news is that not only has it been buried, but it has been intentionally covered up.

Canada: A Welfare State That Lost Its Way

Wall Street Lays Another Egg

 

Not so long ago, the dollar stood for a sum of gold, and bankers knew the people they lent to. The author charts the emergence of an abstract, even absurd world--call it Planet Finance--where mathematical models ignored both history and human nature, and value had no meaning.

Wall Street Lays Another Egg
Niall Ferguson
Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT

President-Elect Obama and the Future of US Foreign Policy: A Roundtable Discussion

Worth a listen! 

 

Congratulations pour in from around the world for President-elect Barack Obama after his historic victory Tuesday night. But what are Obama’s foreign policy positions, and what are the concerns for those living in countries at the target end of US foreign policy? We host a roundtable discussion with filmmaker and investigative journalist John Pilger in Britain, Columbia University professor and Africa scholar Mahmood Mamdani, Laura Carlsen of the Center for International Policy in Mexico City, Iraqi analyst Raed Jarrar, Pakistani author Tariq Ali, and Palestinian American Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada. [includes rush transcript]

President-Elect Obama and the Future of US Foreign Policy: A Roundtable Discussion
mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:09:55 GMT

Obama Picks Pro-Israel Hardliner For Top Post

 

By Ali Abunimah
During the United States election campaign, racists and pro-Israel hardliners tried to make an issue out of President-elect Barack Obamas middle name, Hussein. Such people might take comfort in another middle name, that of Obamas pick for White House Chief of Staff: Rahm Israel Emanuel

Obama Picks Pro-Israel Hardliner For Top Post
Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:47:51 GMT

A young Dalai Lama.

 Tibet: trilogy of silent films from the 1940s, with a young Dalai Lama.
Xeni Jardin

Rating the agencies - Yahoo! Finance

...and then there's the credit rating agencies, classifying all those (now known as) toxic assets as AAA.

“Let me read this email to you. It’s a series of instant messages between Standard & Poor’s officials that were sent on April 7 2007.”

The speaker is John Yarmuth, a Democratic Congressman from Kansas. It’s Oct. 22, 2008, Yarmuth, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in Washington, D.C., is in the process of grilling two former executives at credit rating agencies, and one current one. (Ratings agencies represent just one of many players being assigned blame in the ongoing financial crisis.)

Yarmuth’s question is directed at Mr. Frank Raiter, the former head of the division in charge of rating mortgage backed securities at Standard & Poors.

“These employees are from the structured finance division,” Yarmuth goes on. “One writes: ‘By the way, that deal is ridiculous.’”

“The other writes back: “The model does not reflect even half of the risk.’”

“The first employee writes back: “Yeah, but we rate every deal. It could be structured by cows, and we would be rating it.’

“What exactly does this mean, Mr. Raiter, that the model ‘does not even capture half the risk?’”

Raiter takes a breath. “Collateralized Debt Obligations were driven by the diversity index,” he explains. “They are supposed to tell you if bonds are highly correlated or not. But I can remember days when I was requested to put ratings onto transactions I had not even seen.”

Rating the agencies - Yahoo! Finance

Can Obama Stop the Bush Administration's Final Economic Heist?

Terrible looting of public capital has a habit of taking place during periods of dramatic political transition, and Bush has one underway.
Plus major article in Rolling Stone.

Can Obama Stop the Bush Administration's Final Economic Heist?
Naomi Klein

U.S. Election: Pot a Winner

 

Voters dealt what may be a fatal blow to America's longest-running and least-discussed war -- the war on marijuana.

Pot Wins in a Landslide: A Thundering Rejection of America's Longest War
Rob Kampia, AlterNet
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:00:01 GMT

Economics can open to new realities

An analysis of the U.S. financial/political quagmire and some thoughts on a new paradigm of social organization.

The United States government has for two decades attempted to maintain a financial bubble rather than address the fundamental problems underlying the political economy. Our understanding of reality, rather than belief in the facade of false growth, offers a better platform on which to build a more reliable economic future. - Joe Costello

Economics can open to new realities
Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Barack Obama: How He Did It

Major look behind scenes from todays Newsweek election issue.

A team of NEWSWEEK reporters reveals the secret battles and private fears behind an epic election."

Barack Obama: How He Did It | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 | Newsweek.com:

Israeli industrial zones using West Bank as chemical dump

Don't read this if you're feeling a little low today.

The Israeli administration has buried more than 50 percent, or three million tons, of its nuclear and chemical waste in the occupied West Bank. Most of the waste comes from the Israeli industrial zones and is buried secretly causing slow death and disease as it seeps from the soil, PNN partner station Radio Dream reports.

[Uruknet 48504 04-nov-2008 08:13 ECT] Israeli industrial zones using West Bank as chemical dump

Only Nader Is Right on the Issues

By Chris Hedges —

Tomorrow I will go to a polling station in Princeton, N.J., and vote for Ralph Nader. I know the tired arguments against a Nader vote. But there is little disagreement among liberals and progressives about the Nader and Obama campaign issues. Nader would win among us in a landslide if this was based on issues.

For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

Only Nader Is Right on the Issues
Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:25:00 GMT

Michael Moore And The Great Barack Hope

Reality check? What changes, what doesn't. Passing of the guards or the same old story.

By John Murphy
When Amy Goodman asked how Michael Moore could say that he was opposed to war and yet support a candidate who has announced his intentions to commit the same crimes against humanity as are being committed by the Bush cabal and which were committed by the Clinton regime, the rotund Republican-lite moviemaker said, well, I dont know if Im giving him the benefit of the doubt. Im hoping that he breaks his campaign promise, like all politicians do. Im counting on him to be a good politician and do that. Michael Moore is hoping that O-BOMB-A is just a liar instead of a mass murderer

Michael Moore And The Great Barack Hope
Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:15:14 GMT

Cuts Targeted to Keep the Neo-Cons on Top

A little backgrounder on 'the Calgary School, Straussism and the Harperites world view.

by Frances Russell - October 10, 2006

Despite their professed Christian beliefs, many theological and social conservatives have a strong 'survival of the fittest' streak. They want a hierarchical society with heterosexual white males at the top.

read more

Palin Punked by Faux Sarkozy Prank Call

 

In what will go down as one of the epic prank calls of all time, Canadian radio show jester Marc Antoine Audette got Sarah Palin on the phone Saturday by telling her French President Nicolas Sarkozy was calling. Oops.

READ THE WHOLE ITEM

The Lost Synthesizer Classics of Ursula Bogner

 

It seems almost incredible that Ursula Bogner's musical talents should have remained undiscovered until now.

Europe Seeks Moratorium to Protect Public Water from Privatization Push

The first-ever pan-European civil society coalition against water privatisation was launched last week during the European Social Forum in the Swedish city Malmö. Including citizens groups from Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Turkey and a dozen other countries across Europe, the European Network for Public Water will insist on major changes in EU policies towards water management, away from the current pro-privatisation approach.

Europe Seeks Moratorium to Protect Public Water from Privatization Push
Olivier Hoedeman, Corporate Europe Observatory