"The millions spent on this is wasted money," Ziyad al-Aajeely, director of Iraq's nonprofit Journalistic Freedom Observatory, said as he flipped through a recent edition of Baghdad Now. "Nobody reads this."
U.S. military officials and contractors have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on billboards, pamphlets and TV and radio airtime in Iraq over the past six years to burnish the U.S. military's image, marginalize extremists, promote democracy and foster reconciliation.
A High-Priced Media Campaign That Iraqis Aren't Buying
Galilee communities: We're not racist, we just don't want Arabs
Residents of the Misgav bloc of communities in the Galilee consider themselves to be liberal, peace-loving people who support coexistence with their Arab neighbors and even root for Bnei Sakhnin, the soccer club based in a nearby Arab town considered a prominent symbol of that community. Which is why they were shocked this week when proposals raised at local council meetings to accept only applicants who shared their Zionist principles drew negative headlines and criticism for alleged racism.
Key to blood clotting discovered
Scientists have discovered a molecular mechanism that is key to regulating the way blood clots.
The team from Harvard University, writing in the journal Science, said the finding could help treat people who have blood-clotting disorders.
More...
Haass: Cheney Bugged My Calls Because I Wasn't a Hawk
What was it about former State Department official Richard Haass that bugged former Vice President Dick Cheney? Haass, out with a new book, War of Necessity, War of Choice, says he was shocked to read in Angler, a book about Cheney, that the former veep ordered his phone calls tapped. An aide to both former President Bushes, Haass thinks the reason might have been that he wasn't hawkish enough while working with another moderate, former Secretary of State Colin Powell."To me it was just indicative of how ideological the administration had become," Haass says. For example, he pushed for a dialogue with Iran, rejected by the Bush-Cheney team. "The idea that something like that would be seen as somehow beyond the pale—that in many ways encapsulated my fundamental difference with this administration."
On American sustainability: anatomy of societal collapse
“Our American way of life—300+ million people enjoying historically unprecedented material living standards—is not sustainable.”
Let me repeat Clugston’s words, “…not sustainable.” California cannot sustain its own addition of 1,700 people and 400 vehicles added to that state—daily! It cannot sustain its projected added 20 million people. It does not possess enough water today! The USA cannot continue adding 3.1 million annually, net gain, on its way to adding 100 million in 26 years.
“America is irreparably overextended—we are living hopelessly beyond our means, both ecologically and economically. The available supplies of many critical ecological resources and economic resources upon which we depend will soon be insufficient to enable our American way of life,” Clugston said.
He’s not pretending or making this up! We exploded our civilization to over 300 million people that need to be watered, fed, housed and educated. We’re failing across the nation in May 2009 so what will it be like with an added 100 million? Darned frightening!
Clinton Rejects Israeli Claims of an Understanding on Settlements
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton forcefully rejected yesterday Israeli claims that the Bush administration had secretly agreed to expanding Jewish settlements on the West Bank, deepening the impasse between the two countries.
"We have the negotiating record, that is the official record, that was turned over to the Obama administration by the outgoing Bush administration,"
Obama Weighs Plan Allowing 9/11 Suspects to Plead Guilty
The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.
Much of the evidence against the men accused in the Sept. 11 case, as well as against other detainees, is believed to have come from confessions they gave during intense interrogations at secret C.I.A. prisons. In any proceeding, the reliability of those statements would be challenged, making trials difficult and drawing new political pressure over detainee treatment.
Some experts on the military commissions said such a proposal would raise new questions about the fairness of a system that has been criticized as permitting shortcuts to assure convictions.
TVNL Comment: Guilty, by any means necessary! Creating the 9/11 patsies.
Bankruptcy filings rise to 6,000 a day as job losses take toll
Consumer and commercial bankruptcy filings are on pace to reach a stunning 1.5 million this year, according to a report from Automated Access to Court Electronic Records.
But filings are surging back in part because of rising job losses. The unemployment rate could hit 10% this year. And tighter credit, dwindling 401(k) accounts, smaller paychecks and less savings have left unemployed workers and those who are working but struggling with fewer financial resources to keep creditors at bay.
How the Vatican sold its soul
A new book by the journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi lays bare a history of political bribes being paid through the Vatican's central bank.
Nuzzi's allegations are based on internal IOR documents, more than 4,000 in all, that were smuggled out of the Vatican by a disgruntled employee. This unique violation of IOR confidentiality was made possible by an unlikely whistleblower, Monsignor Renato Dardozzi. An electronic engineer who held a top job at the state telecommunications company, Dardozzi discovered his vocation late in life and was ordained a priest at the age of 52.
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