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Woolsey's way to peace

We've all heard the line.  "That would make us look weak on national security."  That line is supposed to be based on public opinion, not just the opinions of media corporations and pundits working for Pentagon-funded think tanks.  That line is supposed to have something to do with the general American public.  But it does not.

Take a look at this survey from last spring by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (University of Maryland): http://tinyurl.com/8jzp5

According to this data, the largest cut by far that most Americans would make in federal discretionary spending is in the military budget, which they would cut by nearly a third.  In particular, majorities favor reducing spending on the capacity for conducting large-scale nuclear and conventional wars.  Next on the list of cuts after the "defense" budget?  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Most Americans believe that spending on economic and humanitarian aid is much higher than it is, and yet they want it increased significantly.  Most Americans favor multilateral approaches to security.

NASA ready for the worst, response will be prompt if Atlas 5 explodes

NASA will quickly gauge the magnitude of any radiological release and notify the public what to do next if an Atlas 5 rocket and a plutonium-powered spacecraft explode during launch today, officials said Monday.

Equipped with an electrical generator fueled by 24 pounds of plutonium, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station between 1:24 p.m. and 3:23 p.m. on the world's first mission to explore Pluto.

Government studies show there is a one in 350 chance of a launch accident that would trigger a release of radioactive plutonium. Under most circumstances, the material will not pose a threat beyond the Air Force station's property.

Sixteen field teams armed with high-tech monitoring equipment will be spread out in Brevard County to determine the significance of any release.

People in surrounding communities would be asked to go indoors, close windows and turn off air conditioning if prelaunch forecasts showed winds might push the plume from a rocket explosion toward their cities or towns.

Ted Koppel: “natural fit” at NPR news and longtime booster of Henry Kissinger

No doubt many people are glad that Ted Koppel will become a regular voice on National Public Radio. He recently ended 25 years with ABC’s “Nightline” show amid profuse media accolades. But what kind of journalist goes out of his way to voice fervent admiration for Henry Kissinger?

NPR has announced that Koppel will do several commentaries per month on “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.” The Associated Press reported that “he also will serve as an analyst during breaking news and special events.”

There’s some grim irony in the statement issued by NPR’s senior vice president for programming: “Ted and NPR are a natural fit, with curiosity about the world and commitment to getting to the heart of the story. The role of news analyst has been a tradition on NPR newsmagazines and there is no one better qualified to uphold and grow that tradition than Ted.”

But “the heart of the story” about U.S. foreign policy has often involved deceptions from Washington. And since Koppel became a prominent journalist, he has been a fervent booster of one of the most prodigious and murderous deceivers in U.S. history.

Ethical Republicans

AUSTIN -- It takes a Texas Republican to get that fine, hairline reading on the ethical sensitivity scale we all prize so highly. Thus, it comes as no surprise that a couple of six-packs of Texas Republican congressmen have signed up to endorse Rep. Roy Blunt, Tom DeLay's chosen successor, in the House leadership fight. Glad to see they're taking this ethical stuff seriously.

Why else support a man of whom the director of CongressWatch observes, "[His] tenure in Congress has been marked by exchanges of favors between himself and special interests, and a deep embrace of lobbyists. He is an architect of today's sleazy, big-money politics, not the agent of change that Congress so desperately needs right now to regain credibility with the public." Just the man for our delegation.

Products for a New American Century

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Dr. King: Drum Major for Justice

We celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His dedication and his vision, expressed in word and deed, inspire generation after generation. “I have a dream” will be heard in classrooms across America. School children and TV specials will remind us of his vision of an America in which we would judge others on the quality their character, not the color of their skin. President Bush will add his praise on Dr. King’s birthday. But we should not airbrush Dr. King for public viewing. Dr. King had a dream, but he was just not a dreamer. He was a poetic orator, but he was not just an orator.

Remember me, Dr. King said, as a “drum major for justice.” He was arrested, stoned, knifed, wiretapped, scorned and hated during his life. Then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover loathed King, and the Bureau sought to discredit him even after his death.

Bush and Republicans vs. rule of law

It is amazing that the Republican controlled Corporate Media and the Republican controlled federal and state governments have been able to control the flow of information vital to American Democracy by abusing positions of power. Examples can be found at all levels of government and in the media.

The Bush Administration engaged in blatantly criminal behavior by wiretapping millions of American citizens without a court order. Bush has called the program limited but a NSA Whistleblower and admitted source for the New York Times story that exposed the illegal program stated in an ABC news story that millions of citizens were likely involved. The wiretapping orders and the disinformation on the scale of the program came directly from Bush and Cheney.

Bush and Cheney ignored the law by claiming governmental powers that simply do not exist. The type of “powers” claims made by Bush have been made before and reviewed by federal courts. They were found to be not supported by law.

The latest Bush mega-catastrophe is now pharmaceuticals

No matter what you think of George W. Bush, he is staking out his claim as a bona fide Horseman of the Apocalypse.

With his Hand of Hell in Iraq already yielding countless dead, $200 billion wasted and a global war against Islam well on its way to Armageddon, Bush has definitively established his ability to wreak unparalleled disaster on a global scale with zero positive outcome.

By drowning New Orleans and turning its alleged rebuilding plan into a sinkhole of corruption and disarray, he has shown he can lay waste to an entire American city.

And now he is visiting disease and death on tens of millions of our elderly and ill with a botched Medicare/Medicaid drug plan that has plunged the nation's pharmacies into total chaos while driving the states even closer to bankruptcy. As you read this, millions of Americans are without medications that may be life-sustaining because of what Bush has done to "improve" their pharmaceutical plan.

One can only shudder at what might come next.

There have, of course, been lesser catastrophes, or ones whose long-term devastation is primarily political.

Poll: Americans support impeaching Bush for wiretapping

New Zogby Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeaching Bush for Wiretapping

By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,216 U.S. adults from January 9-12.

The poll found that 52% agreed with the statement:

"If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment."

43% disagreed, and 6% said they didn't know or declined to answer. The poll has a +/- 2.9% margin of error.

The Clock is ticking: the global collapse of ecosystems

Just as new species are constantly evolving, old ones are going extinct. Such background level extinctions are the consequence of natural selection, when species can no longer cope due to changes in their ecosystems to which they can’t adequately adapt. One of those changes is the evolution of new species. The march of evolution is not, however, some sort of progress, in which species are becoming better and better. This is teleological thinking, like the Great Chain of Being (), and has no scientific value.

There’s also no evidence for built-in senescence or obsolescence of species, which makes sense: there’s no way to select for such a trait, just as there’s no way to select for a trait ahead of time that would be a useful response to a future, novel challenge. We can also rule out the idea that species can acquire traits through the life experience of individuals. There’s no mechanism whereby your offspring can be made stronger through inheritance of a strength you’ve acquired by pumping iron, because there’s no way to program your genes to specify the acquired property.

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