ExxonMobil Announces Record Profit

Americans are paying for it at the pump

Watch the short video

Energy Security Now

Generating new family-wage jobs and strengthening our economy

The Washington Energy Security initiative will create family-wage jobs and provide crucial additional income to rural landowners. Farmers hosting wind projects earn up to $5,000 a year per wind turbine, helping to keep family farms alive. Local energy efficiency and renewable energy projects will create thousands of new jobs in engineering, construction and building design.

Voters will have a chance to provide clean and affordable energy for Washington consumers by voting on this important issue on November 7, 2006. To qualify the Energy Security Initiative for the November ballot, 300,000 signatures from registered Washington voters need to be collected by June 30, 2006.

Washingtonians for Energy Security needs volunteers from across the state to gather signatures from friends, at events and at their businesses. Please call (206) 283-3335 today to order petitions or make a donation.

For more information contact:
Washingtonians for Energy Security
150 Nickerson St., Suite 109Seattle, WA 98109
Phone: (206) 283-3335Fax: (206) 283-3336
E-mail info@energysecuritynow.org

We must gather OVER 300,000 signatures to place this initiative on the November 2006 ballot. We need YOU to help gather signatures! Please join us.
U.S. Congressman Jay Inslee
Earth Day Founder Denis Hayes
Climate Solutions
NW Energy Coalition
NW Energy Efficiency Council
NW Sustainable Energy for Economic Development
Renewable Northwest Project
Sierra Club, Cascade Chapter
United Steelworkers Wash
PIRG

More from comments

Hi,

Thanks so much for linking to our “Friends with Low Wages” video on Trailing Edge Blog. We appreciate your help getting the word out about Wal-Mart’s ruthless anti-union campaign.

The video has now been watched more than 125,000 times, and is getting a lot of attention. We even heard from Wal-Mart, whose spokeswoman told an Arkansas newspaper that “it's a shame that this group would use this type of publicity stunt to take away from what we do to help working families save money every day.”
(http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2006/01/19/business/01brookswvideo.txt)

Of course, what’s really a shame is how far Wal-Mart will go to keep workers from standing up for themselves. Just last week, a federal appeals court decided to allow a lawsuit against Wal-Mart for threatening to withhold health care and retirement benefits from employees who form unions (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/3598578.html).

Thanks again for your coverage on this issue.

- Liz

Liz Cattaneo
American Rights at Work
http://us.f611.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=liz@americanrightsatwork.org

Don't MAKE me get out the nipple clamps

I sure wish I knew how to quit you, GG

Honest, it really is Bin Laden on this tape

When Seeing and Hearing Isn't Believing

By William M. Arkin
Special to washingtonpost.com Monday, Feb. 1, 1999

"Gentlemen! We have called you together to inform you that we are going to overthrow the United States government." So begins a statement being delivered by Gen. Carl W. Steiner, former Commander-in-chief, U.S. Special Operations Command.

At least the voice sounds amazingly like him.

But it is not Steiner. It is the result of voice "morphing" technology developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

By taking just a 10-minute digital recording of Steiner's voice, scientist George Papcun is able, in near real time, to clone speech patterns and develop an accurate facsimile. Steiner was so impressed, he asked for a copy of the tape.

Steiner was hardly the first or last victim to be spoofed by Papcun's team members. To refine their method, they took various high quality recordings of generals and experimented with creating fake statements. One of the most memorable is Colin Powell stating "I am being treated well by my captors."

"They chose to have him say something he would never otherwise have said," chuckled one of Papcun's colleagues.

Read the rest here

Found at What Really Happened

Non-political Parties

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May those who love us, love us.
And to those that don't love us, may God turn their hearts.
And if he doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we will know them by their limping.

Alternate Reality Department

Why you won’t EVER find a newspaper on my front porch

Putting it all in perspective

President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit the Methodist Church outside Washington as part of his campaign. Karl Rove made a preliminary visit to the Bishop and said to him, "We've been getting a lot of bad publicity among Methodists because of Bush's position on stem cell research and the like. We'd gladly make a contribution to the church of $100,000 if during your sermon you'd say the President is a saint."

The Bishop thinks it over for a few moments and says, "The Church is in desperate need of funds and I will agree to do it."

Bush pompously shows up looking especially smug and as the sermon progresses the Bishop begins his homily:

"George Bush is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite and a nitwit. He is a liar, a cheat, and a low-intelligence weasel. He has lied about his military record and had the gall to put himself in a jet plane landing on a carrier and posing before a banner stating 'Mission Accomplished.' He invaded a country for oil and money, and is using it to lie to the American people. He is the worst example of a Methodist I've ever personally known, but compared to Dick Cheney and the rest of his cabinet, George Bush is a saint."

W...T...F...

If you are having a difficult time putting the missile attack on a neighborhood in Pakistan in mental perspective, click here to see what Kate has to say about it.

I think about all this in terms of religiosity, and I come up with flippant little thoughts like “Do unto others…”, “An eye for an eye”, and “What goes around”.

When are we going to see some maturity in our Nation’s leadership?

A culture created (by Republicans)

Another great shot of whiskey

(Excerpt from Billmon’s Whiskey Bar) click here for complete post

On a warm evening in June 2003, a star-studded crowd of political and corporate conservative celebrities flocked to the Homer Building on 13th Street NW to toast the opening of the Washington outpost of [Ralph Reed’s] public-affairs firm Century Strategies . . . Mingling in the lobby and enjoying drinks and hors d'oeuvres were the likes of Ken Mehlman, now the campaign manager for Bush-Cheney '04; former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, chairman of the Bush campaign and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee; Grover Norquist, the conservative anti-tax activist; Jack Abramoff, then an uber-lobbyist for Indian casinos; and lobbyists from some of Reed's blue-chip corporate clients.”

National Journal
Go-To Guy
July 17, 2004

From John Conyers

The following is an excerpt from a John Conyers letter to interested and concerned Americans, hopefully willing to take a stand against the culture of corruption allowed and, indeed, encouraged by George W. Bush. Please click over to the complete letter, and do what you can to stand up and be counted. There should be millions of voices raised in support of this effort. Nothing less will make the difference required to finally put our prison system and corrupt politicians in the proper proximity.

(Excerpt)

I also want to let you know about a program I have started called the Citizen Cosponsorship campaign which encourages people to sign onto my legislation calling for the investigation of possible impeachable offenses. We have amassed 30,000 signatures in a week and are seeking to reach 100,000 cosponsors by the time Congress reconvenes at the end of January.

This campaign follows a thorough review of Bush Administration misconduct I undertook which culminated in the publication of a 250-page report. [A copy of the report may be found at Raw Story.com and also at CensureBush.org.]

The latest incidence of the Bush Administration's abuse of power underscores why we must unite to take strong action now. Late last night we learned that NBC is investigating reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) conducted wiretaps of CNN reporter, Christiane Amanpour. While it is very troubling that the NSA would be targeting journalists to uncover terrorist plots, what is especially disconcerting is that Ms. Amanpour's husband served as a senior advisor to the John Kerry presidential campaign and would have been using the same phone that the Agency is alleged to have been wiretapping. The overreach of the NSA in conducting warrantless wiretaps is astounding in its audacity and I have demanded the White House disclose to Congress whether, and to what extent, journalists have been under surveillance and report on additional elements of this program. 21 other Members of Congress joined me in this request, a copy of which may be found on RawStory.com.

These continued constitutional abuses means your voice needs to be heard. Please take the time to get involved. Help send the message to the President, the media, and the American people that we want an end to the war and we are not going to stand for an imperial presidency any longer.

Sincerely,

John Conyers

From the comments

Hey,

It’s Liz from American Rights at Work.

I’m writing because we’re launching a new cartoon to expose Wal-Mart’s anti-union campaign. “Friends with Low Wages” features Garth Brooks and a new take on one of his classic hits. Garth recently signed an exclusive distribution deal with Wal-Mart and you may have caught him in one of the TV ads he did for Wal-Mart over the holidays. Because you’ve covered our issues on Trailing Edge Blog in the past, we thought you and your readers might be interested in poking fun at the retail giant.

You can view it here: http://www.WalMartWorkersRights.org

Please take a look and let us know what you think of the video. Thanks for your help!

Take care,
Liz

Liz CattaneoAmerican Rights at Workliz@walmartworkersrights.org

P.S. If you want to learn more about American Rights at Work and our efforts to support workers' rights to a free choice and a fair chance to join a union, check out our website at www.americanrightsatwork.org.

Prison britches for Bobby

The Soon-to-be-Indicted Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio's Connection To Electoral Fraud


There's been a great deal of speculation over the last several days, particularly in the light of Jack Abramoff's recent guilty pleas, concerning the connection of Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH) to Election Fraud in Ohio, vis a vis his stewardship and authoring of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) back in 2001 and 2002. The heavy-handed tactics he has taken since, in order to keep the flawed act from being changed in any way over the years, along with going to great lengths to keep the nation's eyes off of massive electile dysfunction in Ohio and elsewhere since 2004, may finally get the attention it all properly deserves.

Both Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon have directly informed prosecutors of Ney's alleged wrong-doing in regard to money and gifts given to Ney, in apparent exchange for support on various legislation and even personal business deals. Ney, who chairs the important U.S. House Administration Committee, has been fingered, and now subpoenaed, for accepting illegal trips, gratuities and other apparent quid pro quo deals with Abramoff's former firms, partners, friends and groups who had paid both him and Scanlon as lobbyists.

His direct connection to the HAVA Election Reform bill passed in the wake of the 2000 Florida Election Debacle, and his various extraordinary efforts to specifically block amendments to the bill and to smokescreen attempted investigations into his home state's conduct during the 2004 Election Debacle, has been less widely reported. Until now.

Click the link...there is much more to see here

The buck stops (in a Republican pocket)

1-9-2006: DuPage County Elections paid $30,000 to Republican political consultant

Frank Salvato, a Republican media consultant, acknowledged in a brief interview with Black Box Voting today that he received nearly $30,000 from the DuPage County (IL) Elections division in 2004. Initially, when asked what DuPage County was paying for, Salvato said "media consulting."

Salvato's bio from his Web site, TheRant.us, describes him as a political media strategist. "He supports and is affiliated with the Republican Presidential Task Force, the RNC's Presidential Victory Team, RightMarch.com, Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and is a GOP T... More

Random Thoughts

Every morning as I browse through my favorite blogs and the buzzflash headlines, I stumble across dozens of items that are worthy of posting about, but I have been reluctant to push the post about Depleted Uranium any further away from the top because it is so damned important. There are people in the Pentagon and elsewhere that need to be held up in a public forum and allowed to explain their decision to unleash this toxic material on an innocent world. I know it is going to happen eventually, but it shouldn’t take an eighty or ninety percent Veteran death rate to force the people who can to do the right thing regarding this issue.

I turned sixty in 2005, and decided that my right of passage would be marked by acquiring my first tattoo. I opted for a Gecko, which represents the energy of bringing dreams to reality. It has been an appropriate and significant image for me.
In 2006, many of our Congressional Politicians and their Lobbyist friends will be going through a rite of passage of their own, and I would like to suggest an appropriate and significant tattoo for each of them…”This Side Up” in tribal script right above their ass crack. This would also represent the energy of bringing dreams to reality for many of them.

The voting machine issue (Diebold and ES&S) will be an add-on to the scandal that is currently unfolding before our eyes. I hope the entire truth is revealed, and it shows that the Bush vote was inflated by thirty percent, because it would be painful to think that more than twenty percent of Americans could be stupid beyond recovery. I suspect that GW has never legitimately been elected to any office.

I just heard that the twelve miners in West Virginia have been found alive. Blessed Be! (Next morning update: I found out that all but one have died, and the single survivor is not expected to make it. My heart goes out to the families.)

Could it be true that GW Bush thinks a court order is something he shouts from the throne?

The greatest threat to our war fighters demands public discussion

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Depleted Uranium by Kit Smith

(Excerpt) Click here to read the complete article


Depleted Uranium (DU) is a waste product of the processes by which enriched uranium is separated from natural uranium, as used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons and to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. It is provided free of charge to defense contractors by nuclear power plants, eager to eschew the high costs of storing it in nuclear waste sites, a win-win situation for both industries. DU is a pyrophoric metal, meaning it combusts spontaneously when exposed to air, and it has a density nearly 1.7 times that of lead. This combination of density and flammability grants this material enormous value as armor-piercing ammunition. Heavy, flaming bullets and kinetic energy penetrators (rods of solid metal shot from guns)burn through the tanks somewhat like a blowtorch causing injury, damage and secondary fires. DU makes for great weapons. The often-overlooked downside of using such a metal is that it’s RADIOACTIVE.
It might seem obvious to the average citizen that radioactive =bad . That leaving behind fields full of these shells and shrapnel or the resultant dust might effectively destroy an ecosystem for generations to come. That, as stated by former U. S. nuclear weapons laboratory employee and international DU expert Leuren Moret, “Living in a radioactive environment with chronic exposure to low levels of in contaminated areas will slowly be destroyed. Genetic defects will be passed to future generations who will also be exposed to new sources of radiation from contaminated air, water and food. The depleted uranium dust will cycle through the environment and travel throughout larger regions, carried on the atmospheric dusts which travel around the earth.”

The Gulf War (1991) saw the first widespread use of DU munitions and armor. Since then, the United States has used such armaments in conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia (1999), Afghanistan (2001), and currently in Iraq. More than 300 tons of DU were deposited in Iraq during the Gulf War. An estimated 25-30 tons remain in Kosovo. And our veterans seem to have brought quite a bit of it home with them. The souvenir gift that keeps on giving!

Official Pentagon numbers show a total of 697, 000 U. S. citizens as taking part in Gulf War I, a number which increases to over one million when non-military members are included. Slightly less than one percent of this million reported ailments which could not be diagnosed. Typified by headache and memory loss, chronic joint and muscle pain, fatigue, sleep disorders, and intestinal and respiratory ailments, these have come to be known as the symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome.

There are more sinister conditions: Veterans from the US, UK, and Australia report blood in their urine, constant rashes, lesions, gynecological infections, sudden urges to vote Democrat, and in some cases the expression of uranium through semen . Sexual partners of these most unlucky vets often complained of a burning sensation during inter course, followed by their own debilitating illnesses. Though most US citizens who have awareness of DU expo sure symptoms garnered it through the plight of Gulf war veterans, it is the residents of the conflicted areas who are the biggest losers. The Christian Science Monitor reported. radiation at the sites of burned-out tanks and other locations wherein US troops used DU shells in Iraq as registering 1, 000 times the background levels.

All this radiation hasn’t even gone to produce anything useful or fun like glowing fish or six-legged chickens or giant frogs. Just horrific things like babies being born without eyes, or with enlarged heads. Also, a massive rise in incidences of childhood cancer, leukemia and birth deformities has been observed in southern Iraq since 1991.

DU is considered by the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veteran’s Illnesses to pose little threat to the body so long as it remains outside the organism, as its radiation cannot penetrate the skin. Though admitting to shared symptoms among soldiers stationed in the Persian Gulf in 1991 and veterans from the former Yugoslavia (the Brits call their mystery illness “Balkan flu”), the claim is that other causes are to blame. The singular listed shared exposure is, um. . .”stress.” That’s seriously the best they could come up with. Even if one believes that stress can cause lesions and eyeless babies, reports from as far back as 1943 show clearly that DU-contaminated dust is a lethal weapon and can travel miles.

Upon impact, a DU penetrator becomes partly aerosolized. Over half of the aerosolized particles are smaller than 5 microns and can be inhaled deep enough into the lungs that the body cannot easily remove them. Here, they emit a steady dose of alpha radiation. “Depleted” is something of a misnomer: Though DU radioactivity is often cited as being only 57%that of natural uranium, this value reflects only the alpha radiation. When beta and gamma radiation are taken into account, the number increases to 75%.

Besides the dust, specific radiation hazards exist from body embedded DU shrapnel, and military surgery manuals now include specific removal guidelines (though Air Force Major and former director of the Pentagon’s Depleted Uranium Program Dr. Doug Rokke said on a radio program that “In 1993. . . the US Army medical department sent an order out. . . they deliberately said to leave the uranium shrapnel embedded in the arms and the bodies of the US friendly-fire casual ties to determine what the health effects would be.”). Finally, when these shells explode, they permanently contaminate their target with low-level ration.

DU has a dual mechanism, as it is both radioactive and toxic. Toxins are biological in their destructive nature. They react with specific molecules in the body, altering their function. Radiation is physical in its destructive nature. Studies have shown a synergist effect between the chemical and radiological properties, leading to a combined toxicity as much as eight times greater than would be predicted by dose. Several European studies have linked DU to chromosome damage and birth defects in mice. Many scientists say we still don’t know enough about the long-range effects of low-level radiation on the body to say any amount is safe.

Yet another point of interest: The use of DU weapons is illegal. By using such weaponry, the Pentagon deliberately defies a 1996 United Nations resolution that classifies depleted uranium ammunition as an illegal weapon of mass destruction (seriously). Nor are we the only country partaking in such hypocrisy. Other countries known to have DU munitions or armor include the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, and Greece (Israel denies use of DU, contradicting Palestinian claims).

It might not impossible that other conditions in the Persian Gulf, especially circumstances related to the burning oil fields, could produce a similar combination of symptoms in so many soldiers. But we have enough medical data to know whether their symptoms are or are not the result of radiation expo sure. DU isotopes have reportedly been detected in US, British and Canadian Gulf War veterans’ lung, liver, kidney and bone samples. Urinalysis of samples from veterans and residents consistently detect uranium.

Additionally, as former US army adviser and current professor of medicine at the Uranium Medical Research Center in Canada, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, expressed to BBC News Online: “In Afghanistan there were no oil fires, no pesticides, nobody had been vaccinated—all explanations suggested for the Gulf veterans’ condition. But people had exactly the same symptoms. I’m certainly not saying Afghanistan was a vast experiment with new uranium weapons. But use your common sense.”

With the government denying the dangers of depleted uranium and the public awareness at nearly zero (oddly, given reports in such prestigious media outlets as the Christian Science Monitor, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone), perhaps the best Gulf War veterans and other victims can hope for is that somebody will make a cool, creepy movie about them some day, a la Jacob’s Ladder. Instead of being bayoneted in the beginning, our hero could be sprayed with DU dust, come home to hallucinations of eyeless, two fingered babies and eventually find his way to heaven with the help of his oncologist. Tim Robbins will be too old by then, but Jake Gyllenhaal will be just the right age, and what better way to round out his career?

Response to Hannity

(Excerpt) click here to read the entire article

Bush and his faithful ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have been playing the same scratched CD track: "We're better off now without Saddam." That is not true. The fall of Saddam led to the rise of al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers; and even Allawi admitted that human rights in Iraq now are no better than under Saddam. Not to mention that there is no reconstruction, unemployment is at 70%, and a country which in the late 1980s had one of the highest standards of living in the Arab world has been razed to a sub-Saharan level.

Whatever the Americans do - with "Iraqification" doomed to failure, as much as "Vietnamization" - the war in Iraq now is a rampaging beast that threatens to spill all over the Middle East.

"Bring 'em on," said Bush, and they did; the result is a new, deadly generation of global jihadis. Sunni-Shi'ite antagonism will spill over to oil-rich Sunni Gulf states (including Saudi Arabia) with huge but heavily marginalized Shi'ite populations. Kurdish separatist dreams have tremendous implications for Turkey, Syria and Iran, especially if Iraq, through civil war, finally disintegrates.

So the most probable scenario for 2006 and beyond is a fragile central government in Baghdad bombarded by an intractable guerrilla movement - a chaotic and sectarian hornets' nest breeding one, 10, 100 mini (or maxi) al-Qaeda leaders able to convulse the Middle East. Maybe this is what the neo-cons meant by "creative destruction".

Al-Qaeda has a masterplan for the Middle East, and the next stages - apart from the Gulf emirates - are to be played in vulnerable Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and even Israel. As for the air war against the Sunni Arab resistance, it may buy a few votes at home but will do absolutely nothing to improve America's dreadful image in the Middle East - especially because civilian "collateral damage" will be enormous.

That bearded, vociferous guy Saddam's trial - the outcome of which is already determined - will proceed as a purely sectarian propaganda coup. If this were a real trial, Saddam would be in The Hague in front of an international panel of respected judges, experts in human rights law.

Or the United Nations would have been commissioned to organize a special tribunal in a neutral country like Switzerland. Saddam's secrets, though, are so vast - and so extremely embarrassing for the US - that he cannot possibly leave the Green Zone, where he will certainly be executed. Saddam's trial will become the sorry mirror image of the sectarian politics let loose in Iraq at large.

Bush has opened a Pandora's box with his shock and awe tactics. The ultimate quagmire will keep mutating and unleashing its deadly new powers for years on end. And there is nothing anyone - not even the "indispensable nation" - can do about it. We have all been, and will remain, shocked and awed.


Found at Left Edge North

Is there a God?

From my Christmas morning buzzflash headlines

Yes, a God who manifests the divine in the good deeds and good will exchanged between people on a daily basis. In Judaism, there is an expression that it is the duty of a believer to engage in "tikkun olam," the healing of the world.

But our qualification is that those who defile the works of the divine by engaging in lying, killing, ill will, spiteful words, hate, bigotry, profiteering in death, corruption, arrogance, and the diminishment of the common good -- our qualification is that these people do the bidding of another master, a master who is at war with the revelation of the divine in the world; these people betray God.

That is because the revelation of the divine comes from those who would leave the world a better place than when they were born into it.

Christmas is the holiday of the majority of Americans, it is true. And, as so, at it's best, it has become a symbol for the glory of the divine spark of life -- of the celebration of the warmth of friends and family.

As a nation, we are sectarian, although we are each entitled to our own faith, our own explanation of this great mystery called life.
Let us remember that there is no one religion -- and Christianity is a minority religion in the world.

Faith should make us better people, not more evil and hateful. It is a positive, affirming force for most Christians -- as the idea of God is for most people of other faiths. We just got the runt of the Christian litter running our country right now. They are the spokespeople for those who would battle the obligations of the divine in the name of God -- when they are doing the work of the devil.

So, to all our readers, we want to convey this. If our lives are manifestation of a divine force, than we bear responsibility for our lives and the good that we do, not God. It's our responsibility, not his or hers. And if we bear responsibility for our lives, then we are accountable for our behavior. And if we are accountable for our behavior, then we must live a life of good deeds, benevolence, love and peace.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa -- and to all the other faiths of the world and your holiest days, we say remember this: the divine lives in those who walk amongst us.
Treat your neighbor, your friends, your families, and the strangers you meet as you would treat God, for God is in all who inhabit this planet. We -- the earth we live on and all of its creatures -- are the divine.

Remember this and you will truly celebrate this holiday season as it should be celebrated -- a celebration of a life and love that does not live in the shadow of fear and darkness.

My wish for you

Accountability is a noble concept

12-23-05: ES&S under fire in California
BREAKING: The Associated Press -- Errors lead California officials to warn voting-machine

California election officials have told one of the country's largest manufacturers of voting machines to repair its software after problems with vote counts and verification surfaced during California's November special election.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Secretary of State for Elections Bradley J. Clark threatened to start the process of decertifying Election Systems and Software machines for use in California if senior officials didn't address the concerns immediately... More