April 2008 archive

(Part of the NOLA/GULF BLOGATHON now ongoing at Dkos, see below for the schedule)

Priorities.

“Our” government is spending $434 million per day, $3 billion per week and $13.2 billion per month on Iraq. And still no one can tell us why, not even it’s architects

As Americas infrastructure crumbles, as the Iraqi government builds a surplus. As New Orleans languishes, still destroyed, still hanging on by a thread, still essentially abandoned by both government and the Republican lauded “private sector.” (Please read commonscribes diary

on the insurance industry and NOLA!)

.

The US Senate has been quite complacent lo these past couple of years since the Democrats took over the Leadership(?) of the Senate.  FISA? check.  

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization? check.  

No Change of Course in Iraq? check

Impeachment of Officials for lies, torture, myriad other illegal dealings?  No Check Here

Today, the US Senate may (note the word MAY) look to request a Federal Investigation into the changing of wording regarding an earmark installed into a 2005 Highway Funding bill, after the bill had been passed and before it was sent to President Bush.

From CNN:

The Senate may seek a federal investigation into a 2005 earmark on a highway funding bill that was mysteriously altered after Congress approved the measure but before President Bush signed it.

Original article by Pat LaMarche via bangordailynews.com.

Are we really having discussions about whether or not to participate in the 2008 Olympics? Are people actually sitting in coffee shops discussing whether the civil rights violations in China warrant a U.S. boycott of the opening ceremonies or even the games themselves?

Non-cooperation is directed not against men but against measures. It is not directed against the Governors, but against the system they administer. The roots of non-cooperation lie not in hatred but in justice, if not in love.  —Mahatma Gandhi

Two thousand protesters staged a rival torch relay to protest the arrival of the Olympic torch in New Delhi:

What are YOU doing today?

I’m going to start my day by e-mailing this piece to everyone I know (some will be getting it twice).  It’s about John McCain.  It’s called “Bigotry, Apology, Repeat As Necessary”.  An excerpt:

We’ve come so far so fast from what they call the past

Laying down foundations and we know they’re gonna last

Present and the future we will never fall

Realise united we stand and divided we fall

Thursday’s Headlines: Moratorium on Lethal Injection Is Over, but Hardly the Challenges: Obama Pressed in Pa. Debate: Torch reaches locked-down Delhi: US offers Pakistan government $7bn in non-military aid to fight terrorism: Reuters cameraman ‘killed by Israeli tank’: Report reveals Iran seized British sailors in disputed waters: Mugabe has stolen poll win, Brown tells UN: Odinga sworn in as Kenyan premier: Boycott call as Gibraltar decides to cull monkeys: Seven police hurt in Spanish bomb: Colombia trade pact dispute spills into Californians’ laps

A Drought in Australia, a Global Shortage of Rice

DENILIQUIN, Australia – Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. “It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety,” he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, “and now it has stopped.”

The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people around the world. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia’s rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.

Welcome to the United States of Gattaca. The Washington Post is reporting that the Bush administration is expanding DNA collection of people arrested for crimes.

The U.S. government will soon begin collecting DNA samples from all citizens arrested in connection with any federal crime and from many immigrants detained by federal authorities, adding genetic identifiers from more than 1 million individuals a year to the swiftly growing federal law enforcement DNA database.

The policy will substantially expand the current practice of routinely collecting DNA samples from only those convicted of federal crimes…

Anyone now arrested of a federal crime will have their DNA collected. With the past examples of abuse of the justice system by the Bush administration, it isn’t difficult to imagine how this change in policy could be abused. When the policy is implemented, roughly 1.2 million people a year will have their DNA collected.