Ladywriter

kool

spreading the horror wherever I go

I'm just glad that steaming pile of shit has finally been flushed

By Ari Melber, TheNation.com The votes are in, and the top-ranked question -- out of 70,000 submitted to Obama's site -- asks for an investigation of torture and spying. http://www.alternet.org/rights/118708/ A whopping 70,000 questions poured into Change.gov over the past week, in response to the Obama transition team's call for citizen queries to the President-Elect. After votes from about 100,000 people, the top ranked question asks Obama whether he will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture and illegal surveillance by the U.S. government. I've been working with activist Bob Fertik to organize support for the question, and several progressive bloggers urged readers and Obama supporters to vote for it last week. Digby, who has written extensively about the Bush administration's abuse of the rule of law, recently reported on the progress: I wrote a post about [an] initiative spearheaded by Ari Melber of The Nation and Democrats.com to ask President-elect Obama if he will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate war crimes in the Bush administration over at Change.gov. (In a previous round, it was the sixth most asked question...) This time, through their efforts, it's number one. This is particularly important, since the press has only asked Obama about this one time, last April. And a lot has happened since then, most obviously the fact that Vice President is all over television admitting to war crimes as if he's proud of it. Then The New York Times picked up the news: [T]he number one submission on the popular "Open for Questions" portion of the site might seem more than a little impolitic to [President Bush] "Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor -- ideally Patrick Fitzgerald -- to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping," wrote Bob Fertik of New York, who runs the Web site, Democrats.com.Though the Obama team has promised to answer some of the top questions as early as this week, they have not said whether they will respond to Mr. Fertik's, which has received more than 22,000 votes since the second round of the question-and-answer feature began on Dec. 30. The site logged more than 1.5 million votes for 20,000-plus questions ... The second highest-ranked submission, which is about oversight of the nation's banking industry, is several thousand of votes behind the query about a special prosecutor. Mr. Fertik's question has been pushed to the top, in part, by a coalition of liberal bloggers ... The national press corps has not raised this issue with Obama since his victory. (When it surfaced in April, Obama said he would order his attorney general to "immediately review" the potential crimes.) And while the leading question in the last Change.gov forum was dispatched breezily -- Will you legalize marijuana? No. -- this one is far more challenging, both substantively and politically. The Times notes that Obama's team has "not said" whether it will even answer Fertik's question, though ignoring the question that came in first out of 74,000 would turn this exercise into a farce. A terse, evasive answer would be similarly unacceptable. After all, there would be little point in this online dialogue if it reiterates things we already know, (Obama is not in N.O.R.M.L.), and refuses to provide new information. That's why this may be the first big test for Change.gov as a genuinely interactive dialogue. Thousands of Americans are asking whether President Obama will order an independent investigation to ensure our laws are enforced -- in an era when powerful people in government have engaged in criminal conduct and relentlessly tried to make their behavior off limits for media and political discussion. We expect a "yes," "no" or detailed explanation of how and when Obama and his aides will make this decision. Time is running out, of course, because the question must be answered, for Congress and the public, before Eric Holder's confirmation hearing. He must explain how he will restore independence, professionalism and the rule of law to a Justice Department that politicized U.S. attorneys and covered up torture and warrantless surveillance. Law professor Jonathan Turley, a nonpartisan legal analyst who testified before Congress in favor of President Clinton's impeachment, recently explained that Holder simply should not be confirmed if he is not prepared to enforce the laws banning torture. "Eric Holder should be asked the same question that Mukasey refused to answer in his confirmation hearing: is waterboarding a crime?" Professor Turley stated. "If he refuses to answer or denies that it is a crime, he should not be confirmed. If he admits that it is a crime, he should order a criminal investigation." According to Change.gov, the crowds agree with the experts on this one.

Alaska seeks to block U.S. protections for belugas By Yereth Rosen ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Five months after suing to keep polar bears off the U.S. threatened species list, Alaska's government said Wednesday it plans to issue a similar challenge to block federal protections for a struggling population of beluga whales in Cook Inlet, a mature oil-producing basin. Former vice presidential hopeful Gov. Sarah Palin said the energy-rich state believes the Endangered Species Act protections for belugas announced in October by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are unwarranted... Beluga whales swimming in Cook Inlet, a glacier-fed saltwater channel running from Anchorage to the Gulf of Alaska, numbered as high as 1,300 three decades ago, but has dropped to about 375 since then, according to NOAA. Alaska's announcement it would challenge the endangered listing drew ire from environmental groups. "Once again Governor Palin has demonstrated either a complete lack of understanding or lack of concern over the plight of endangered species," Brendan Cummings, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement Wednesday... The state and several municipal governments and business groups argue that an endangered listing will hamper business in Alaska's most densely populated region... Governor Sarah Palin just announced she's making the state of Alaska sue to strike down Endangered Species Act protection for the imperiled Cook Inlet beluga whale. The rare white whale's population has already plummeted from thousands to just 375. They will certainly go extinct if Palin has her way. This isn't the first time Governor Palin has tried to sacrifice endangered species to the oil and gas industry. Last August, after a Center for Biological Diversity-led campaign won federal protection for the polar bear, she filed suit to strike the protections down in order to make things easier for Big Oil in the Arctic. The Center's lawyers and scientists are in court already to block Palin's anti-polar bear actions, and we'll soon jump in to save the beluga from her clutches as well. Please, click here to contribute to our legal defense fund: Apparently, it's not enough for Palin to promote the shooting of wolves from helicopters. Her bloodthirsty attitude towards wildlife extends to wiping out whole species that are barely surviving. She is going after endangered animals with missionary zeal, ignoring government scientists and running roughshod over the law. In the words of Brendan Cummings, the Center's master legal strategist on saving marine mammals: "Governor Palin must be suffering from an Ahab complex. She has an irrational obsession with driving the white whale extinct." I'll keep you posted on developments. In the meantime, we won't rest. We have to win this one for the belugas. With my thanks, Kieran Suckling Executive Director Center for Biological Diversity P.S. It's been a busy day for apocalyptic politicians?the Bush administration just announced it is again stripping Endangered Species Act protection from wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes in order to legalize their slaughter. We stopped Bush before by taking him to the courts, and we'll soon be filing suit over this decision too. I'll tell you more about it in tomorrow's email newsletter. somebody shoot Palin already for fucks sake

I'm for investigating Bush Cheeny Rice etc regardless of when it happens (the sooner the better). We're talking about a commander in chief that was so crappy Dennish Kunnich read articles of impeachment against him months ago. His administration committed and condoned war crimes. As a progressive democracy we can't just let that slide. We have to punish so no future administration plays that shit and we have to send a clear message to the rest of the world that our country did not stand with our president when he went renegade. Its pretty sad when the incoming president has to create a team to go over the previous president's ex orders and other dubious activities. Bush has had 8 years to rampage against our rights, send our troops into an illegal war to be killed and maimed only to drop them like a hot potato after they get home, slaughter thousands for finite resources and corporate profit, and destroy the global economy. Somebody better hold him accountable for something. Even if he never sees the inside of a jail cell We the people need to see him go through the process of a fair trial for his crimes. If anyone besides our president tried his shit they'd be dragged outta their hole n shot.

Sorry I missed it hope you enjoyed it I was moving furniture around yesterday

Times Online Hillary Clinton vowed to restore American leadership through a "smart power" mix of diplomacy and defence today as she appeared at a Senate hearing for confirmation as the next US Secretary of State. In a confident and businesslike appearance before her former colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mrs Clinton also promised to push for stronger partnerships around the world if the committee endorsed Barack Obama's nomination of her as the top US diplomat. “America cannot solve the most pressing problems on our own, and the world cannot solve them without America,” Mrs Clinton said. “I believe American leadership has been wanting, but is still wanted.” Signalling a shift away from the militarisation of US foreign policy under President Bush, Mrs Clinton said: “We must use what has been called smart power – the full range of tools at our disposal. With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy.” With her daughter, Chelsea, in attendance, Mrs Clinton appeared set to sail through her hearing, despite concerns among some senators that the global fundraising of her husband could pose ethical conflicts for her. Senator John Kerry, a Democrat and chairman of the committee, said that he welcomed Mrs Clinton’s nomination, calling her “extraordinarily capable and smart”. The panel's top Republican, Senator Richard Lugar, was lavish in his praise, calling her “the epitome of a big leaguer" who is fully qualified for the job and whose presence at the State Department could open new opportunities for American diplomacy, including the possibility of improving America's image in the world. However, Mr Lugar also raised questions about the issue of Bill Clinton’s fundraising work in relation to her wife’s new post. He said that the only way for Mrs Clinton to avoid a potential conflict of interest due to her husband’s charity was to forswear any new foreign contributions. The Senator said the situation poses a “unique complication" that requires “great care and transparency”. “The Clinton Foundation exists as a temptation for any foreign entity or government that believes it could curry favour through a donation,” he said. “It also sets up potential perception problems with any action taken by the Secretary of State in relation to foreign givers or their countries.” The committee could vote on Mrs Clinton’s nomination as early as Thursday. If she is approved, as expected, the former Senator could be confirmed as early as January 20, Inauguration Day. The hearing was closely watched for more specific signs on US foreign policy under an Obama Administration, most notably on the current conflict in Gaza, in which the President-elect has carefully avoided getting embroiled before his inauguration. “As we focus on Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, we must also actively pursue a strategy of smart power in the Middle East that addresses the security needs of Israel and the legitimate political and economic aspirations of the Palestinians,” Mrs Clinton told the Senate committee. Mrs Clinton said the United States must pursue a foreign policy that “effectively challenges Iran to end its nuclear weapons program and sponsorship of terror and persuades both Iran and Syria to abandon their dangerous behaviour and become constructive regional actors.” ... I had one of those moments watching the hearing. In many of these countries she's gonna deal with women don't have equal rights, in some cases even their human rights are denied them. I think she'll be able to put up with that for about 5 minutes She's going to have a huge impact on women (and thus families) globally. She could carry the woman's rights movement to a global scale. She can free our sistas!

By Tony Newman, AlterNet This is a time to put big ideas on the table. We have to learn how to coexist with drugs. They aren't going anywhere. http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/119061/ The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars waging its 40-year "war on drugs," responsible for the imprisonment of 500,000 of our fellow American citizens. Despite this enormous waste of money and lives, drugs are as easily available and cheap as ever. The drug-warmongers say it is all for the safety and protection of our children, yet high schoolers all over the country can easily obtain just about any illegal drug they are seeking in this unregulated market. Half of all high-school seniors will have tried marijuana before graduating. The government's latest Monitoring the Future report, released in December, indicates that more young people are now choosing to smoke pot rather than cigarettes. Despite these disheartening facts, there is reason for optimism and hope. More and more people are joining the movement to end the failed war on drugs. Passionate people in every neighborhood and from every walk of life, liberals and conservatives, are joining this fast-growing movement. Though there are some compelling reasons drugs should remain illegal, we should at least begin an honest discussion about the root causes of the violence and the range of options to deal with the harms associated with prohibition. It is clear that the strategy of the past 40 years is not working. Below are five opportunities to engage our fellow citizens, discuss the enormous challenges we face, and come up with solutions to reduce the harms of both drug misuse and drug prohibition. 1. Drug Prohibition is Creating a Bloodbath Along the U.S.-Mexico Border Thanks to the drug war, a bloody war is raging in Mexico right now -- spilling into otherwise low-crime U.S. cities along the border! Over 5,000 Mexicans have been killed this year alone as a direct result of drug prohibition -- more deaths than all the fallen American service members since the Iraq War began. Whole towns and communities are living in fear with no one -- neither politicians, judges, journalists nor pop stars -- immune from the violence. Classrooms are half empty because children are afraid to go to school; decapitated heads are left in the streets; and there are even murders occurring in hospitals where gunmen go to "complete" the job. Nothing in the coca or marijuana plant causes these deaths. Rather, it is prohibition that creates a profit motive people are willing to kill for. Remember, when alcohol consumption was illegal in this country we had Al Capone and shootouts in the streets. Today, no one dies over the sale of a beer. This week, the border town of El Paso, Texas, passed a resolution suggesting an open and honest dialogue on ending drug prohibition. The nonbinding resolution suggested that legalizing drugs in the U.S. could help curb a volatile and bloody drug war that last year claimed nearly 1,600 lives in the city of Juarez, just across the Rio Grande. In Arizona, State Attorney General Terry Goddard said we should consider legalizing marijuana, observing that marijuana sales are responsible for up to 75 percent of the money that cartels use for smuggling other drugs and for combating the army and police in Mexico. Goddard contends these profits could be significantly reduced if marijuana possession were to be legalized. 2. Economic Crisis: We Can No Longer Afford an Ineffective Drug War States from New York to California and in between are facing billion-dollar budget deficits. Governors and mayors are being forced to cut spending on everything from education to heath care, and are even shutting down popular prevention programs. Fortunately, a win-win solution for governors facing a budget crunch is apparent: Reform the drug laws and offer treatment instead of jail for nonviolent drug offenders. States could save hundreds of millions of dollars by doing away with these wasteful laws that lock up nonviolent people with drug convictions at a hefty price tag of $40,000 per year. We can't afford these ineffective and inhumane laws anymore! 3. Obama and Drugs: Personal and Political President-elect Obama has been refreshingly honest about his current and past drug use. Obama has been making news recently because of his struggles to give up cigarettes. He has written and talked about his marijuana and cocaine use when he was younger. He has never run from or made excuses about his drug use or habits. Like Obama, tens of millions of Americans have tried marijuana and so far they seem not to be holding his past drug use against him. Having someone in the White House who continues to grapple with relapses from his nicotine addiction will hopefully create more empathy between the executive branch and others trying to give up drug addictions. On the policy front, President-elect Obama has made some good commitments during the campaign: He supports repealing the harshest drug sentences, removing federal funding bans on needle-exchange programs to reduce AIDS, ending federal raids on marijuana dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal, and supporting treatment alternatives for low-level drug offenses. President Obama will also have some key allies in the Democrat-controlled Senate and House. Senator Webb of Virgina has made our country's prison overcrowding crisis -- fueled by the drug war -- a top priority. 4. Our Veterans Are Self-medicating from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder People use drugs for both pleasure and pain; there is no doubt that much drug use is self-medication. One group that will be dealing with self-medication for a long time is U.S. soldiers returning from war. How does one deal with the pain of having friends die in one's arms? What does killing other human beings do to one's emotional stability? What is it like being away from family for a year or more? It's not hard to imagine how such experiences could lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, which in turn can lead to drug addiction, homelessness and even suicide. It's easy to demand that everyone "support the troops." But if we're going to talk the talk, we had better be ready to offer compassion and treatment to our brothers and sisters who need to heal from the damages of war. And once more people realize that incarceration for petty drug law violations is not an appropriate response to veterans' suffering from addiction and depression, then hopefully people will question the logic of giving long jail sentences to others in our society who also could be self-medicating for pain and trauma in their own lives. 5. Incarceration Nation: When Being #1 is Not a Good Thing America likes to promote its self as the "home of the free" but, unfortunately, we have the embarrassing honor of being known as the incarceration nation. The U.S. has less than five percent of the world's population but almost 25 percent of the world's prison population, incarcerating more of its citizens per capita than any other country in the world. We lock up more people on drug charges than Western Europe locks up for EVERYTHING and they have 100 million more people than we do. A government report released last month by theU.S. Justice Department found that 1 in 31 Americans was in prison or jail or on parole or probation last year. The Time for Change Has Arrived The world is in an intense time right now! We have wars raging in Iraq and Afghanistan; millions of people are out of work; and a growing economic crisis is on everyone's minds. We have a bloody war in Mexico and states across this country struggling to pay for the overcrowded prisons. But, in my heart, I truly believe there are many reasons to be optimistic and hopeful. We have a new president and millions of activated citizens who helped put him there. The pro-war idealogues have less credibility then ever before. This is a time to put big ideas on the table. We have to learn how to coexist with drugs. They have been around for thousands of years and will be around for thousands more. We are smart and compassionate people and we can figure out how to reduce the harms from both drugs and drug prohibition.

hmmm.... pay to watch Naruto or just drop the show not that difficult of a decision

I'm not particularly sold on Nostradamus I think ppl get a little carried away with interpretation sometimes... just how some people take the bible code to the extreme.... The Mayan calendar ~ . Conquistadors and missionaries burned the texts, including a lot of science, astronomy etc. There was so little left it took a long time for it to be deciphered. Now we're coming to realize the scope of their knowledge; they were obsessed with space and time and had that shit all mapped out. They knew when we'd be trippin the rift

gaseous fuel Should I guess that gas is methane released during the decomposition process? I'm for alternative fuels. I'm for finding uses for methane to keep it from piling up in the atmosphere. Its 20x the greenhouse gas co2 is and highly flammable. Methane refinement in a stationary plant, turn our dumps into power plants = sugee! Doin somethin like that when yer drivin down the road with the device exposed to some asshole following you in a big vehicle falling asleep behind the wheel..... *twitch* Finding a way to get and keep methane out of the atmosphere is an even better idea then carbon capture cuz its the methane that will dick over and much faster then co2. We should try to capture all of the methane we create daily. Earth turds in the permafrost ~methane hydrates~ and the oceans store methane and as they warm they release that shit. Its already begun and we need ways to catch that methane. We need to do something quickly to bring the temps down again so that shit is cold enough again to hang onto its methane.

he's so laid back and happy with his lil piece of popcorn *dies again*

tRzTfgds0UI cuuteeeeeeeeeeeee:puppyeyes:

The first case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009 will be argued on Monday by Earthjustice as we oppose a combined attack on our nation's waterways by the Bush administration and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. We are sending out this news alert to our supporters because of the issue's great significance. Bush and Palin are jointly asking the Supreme Court to re-interpret the Clean Water Act so that the mining industry can dump its wastes in streams, rivers and lakes throughout America. They want permission to kill every fish and organism in a particular waterway if necessary. The only obstacle to achieving their ambitions is Earthjustice. Arguing the case is Earthjustice attorney Tom Waldo, whose appearance before the Supreme Court climaxes a successful, years-long battle in lower courts to prevent a mining company from killing a pristine Alaska lake with chemically treated waste. It's this case the high court is hearing on Monday. *********************************** Learn more about Earthjustice's Supreme Court case: http://action.earthjustice.org/ct/C1M4qs11mLNS/ *********************************** But, as Tom knows all too well, the stakes are much higher than one small lake. An adverse decision would make a shambles of the Clean Water Act and the waters it is supposed to protect. The threat is especially imminent in Alaska, whose governor openly promotes unrestrained dumping of mine tailings because of the mining boom it could ignite. The first venture to benefit would be the proposed Pebble Mine -- a monster gold mine planned to operate above Alaska's remarkable Bristol Bay, home to the world's richest sockeye salmon fishery. Dumping mine wastes into its waters could be disastrous. As a supporter of Earthjustice, you have the opportunity to read a live report from the Supreme Court on Monday through our blog, unEarthed. The case will be heard at 10 a.m. (EST), and we expect to have our first blog report shortly after noon. *********************************** Read the live report on Monday at Earthjustice's blog, unEarthed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/typepad/earthjustice/unearthed *********************************** Regards, Trip Van Noppen President, Earthjustice

n...nani?....

November 6th, 2007 - If you care about children's health care, you may want to pick up a pack of cancer sticks... or you may want to support H.R. 676 instead. It's healthier for everyone Michael Moore Talks SiCKO & Tobacco on Keith Olbermann nhG92MI8Z5Y

MONBIOT GRILLS SHELL OIL CEO: IS THERE ANY INVESTMENT YOU WOULD NOT MAKE ON ETHICAL GROUNDS? By George Monbiot, Monbiot.com Shell will pour big money into alternative energy when more lucrative opportunities are blocked. Where is the government brave enough to block them? http://www.alternet.org/environment/118021/ I asked Mr van der Veer a simple question -- fifteen times. (Only a few of these attempts feature in the edited film). "What is the value of your annual investments in renewable energy?" He waffled, changed the subject, admitted that he knew the figure, then flatly refused to reveal it. Nor could he give me a convincing explanation of why he wouldn’t tell me, claiming only that "those figures are misused and people say it is too small" and it "is not the right message to give to the people." It strikes me that there is only one likely reason for these evasions: that Shell’s spending on renewables has fallen sharply from the figure it announced in 2000. It’s a fair guess that the current investment would look microscopic by comparison to its spending on the Canadian tar sands, and would make a mockery of its new round of advertising. I challenge Shell -- for the 16th time -- to prove me wrong. Nor would Mr van der Veer give me a straight answer to another straight question: "is there any investment you would not make on ethical grounds?" I asked this six times. He was unable to furnish me with an example. It’s not hard to see why. As well as exploiting the tar sands, which means destroying forest and wetlands, polluting great quantities of water and producing more CO2 than conventional petroleum, Shell is still flaring gas in Nigeria, at great cost to both local people and the global climate. It has been fiercely criticised for its secret negotiations with the Iraqi government, which led last year to the first major access for a western company to Iraq’s gas reserves. It is prospecting for oil in some of the Arctic’s most sensitive habitats. All this makes my question difficult to answer. Aside from the greenwash, it is not easy to spot the practical difference between this civilised, progressive company and the Neanderthals at Exxon.

there was just so much in this email I'm postin the whole thing From the editors: The new year started with the bloodiest military assault on Gaza in decades. Some 700 Palestinians have been killed, among them 43 innocent civilians who died after Israel bombed a United Nations school being used as a shelter. That happened yesterday; even as the developments in Gaza move too fast to keep up, the cumulative story remains the same: death, destruction, an appalling humanitarian crisis -- despite claims to the contrary -- and no end in sight. Below are only some of the stories on the horrific events unfolding in Gaza. For more coverage, including the voices of victims' family members and journalists on the ground (despite Israel's ban on foreign reporters), visit AlterNet's Rights & Liberties section. *** In the early morning hours of New Year's Day, 22-year-old Oscar Grant was shot in the back by Bay Area Rapid Transit police in Oakland, CA. Grant was on the ground alongside other young men of color who had been pulled off a train after an alleged scuffle. Video footage shot by a witness -- who refused to hand over her camera to police as they confiscated others' phones and cameras -- show Grant subdued, lying on his stomach on the train platform before he was shot. He died soon thereafter, leaving behind a 4-year old daughter. If this story outrages you, go here to find out what you can do. Happy New Year -- and thanks for reading. Liliana Segura Editor, Rights & Liberties Special Coverage ___________________________________________________________ MY FATHER WAS NO MILITANT, BUT ISRAEL'S BOMBS REDUCED HIM TO A 'PILE OF FLESH' By Fares Akram, Independent UK What is the difference between the pilot who blew my father to pieces and the militant who fires a small rocket? http://www.alternet.org/rights/117377/ MY GRANDPA LIVES IN GAZA By Laila Al-Arian, The Nation My family has struggled to get in touch with my grandfather. As missiles rain over his Gaza neighborhood, I can only imagine what he is thinking. http://www.alternet.org/rights/116846/ UNPRECEDENTED NUMBERS OF AMERICANS QUESTION ISRAEL'S ACTIONS IN GAZA By Max Blumenthal, Huffington Post Could it be the rise of online progressive media telling the truth about Israel, or that the public rejects the same pundits who sold us Iraq? http://www.alternet.org/audits/117568/ KEEPING JOURNALISTS OUT OF GAZA IS FUTILE AND COUNTERPRODUCTIVE By Robert Fisk, Independent UK Israel is ignoring the lessons of history by banning the press from the areas it is bombing. http://www.alternet.org/rights/117369/ ATROCITIES IN GAZA: PIECING TOGETHER THE STORY By Liliana Segura, AlterNet As Europe calls for a ceasefire, Israel is accused of cruel tactics and use of deadly white phosphorous in its blood-soaked assault on Gaza. http://www.alternet.org/rights/117519/ ISRAEL BOMBS UN SCHOOL, THREE KILLED; DEATH TOLL 100 ON MONDAY ALONE By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! A "large number" of Monday's casualties were civilians, and twelve of them were children. http://www.alternet.org/rights/117696/ HOW THE U.S. ARMY'S FIELD MANUAL CODIFIED TORTURE -- AND STILL DOES By Jeffrey S. Kaye, AlterNet Buried in Appendix M of the Army Field Manual, the Guantanamo virus is spreading, and eradicating it will require all of us to spread the word. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/117807/ WOMAN ASKS FOR RIGHTS, GETS ACID THROWN ON FACE By Apostolis Fotiadis, IPS News After standing up to workplace injustice, two men poured sulphuric acid on Decheva Elena Kuneva, badly disfiguring her. http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/117453/ ___________________________________________________________ AlterNet Blogs: WAR ON GAZA: MORE CIVILIAN DEATHS; OLMERT LIES: 'NO HUMANITARIAN CRISIS' By Siun, Firedoglake Despite Olmert's claims, reports of civilian causalities and brutal firsthand accounts continue to pour in. http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/117404/ COP SHOOTS HELPLESS MAN ... DID HE MISTAKE HIS GUN FOR HIS TASER? By Digby, Hullabaloo See, the problem isn't the form of gun cops use, a stun gun or one with bullets. It's that they use any gun on people who are already down. http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/117688/ TALKING WHILE BROWN: A LOOK AT RACISM IN U.S. AIRPORTS By dday, Hullabaloo No kind of profiling is more justifiable than any other. It's all part of a creeping assault on our collective civil liberties and it has to stop. http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/117047/ ___________________________________________________________ These stories and more are available on in Rights & Liberties on AlterNet. http://www.alternet.org/rights

we have 1 that does that too, I think its the brand. Is it shockin ya yet?

Earlier leaks should have been seen as stability issue, he says NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The nation's largest government-run utility ignored two small leaks that could have provided a warning years before a coal ash pond collapsed, flooding a neighborhood with a billion gallons of sludge, a former federal regulator contends.Jack Spadaro, a retired mining engineer who investigated a 1972 coal waste dam break that killed 125 people in West Virginia, said states have done a poor job monitoring huge ponds of coal ash, which aren't regulated by the federal government. Three homes were destroyed and 42 parcels of land damaged when one such pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Steam Plant collapsed Dec. 22. Tennessee uses solid waste landfill regulations for ash ponds, even though the substance in them — a mix of water and fly ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants — behaves more like a liquid when it spills."State regulation has failed obviously," said Spadaro, who contends the ponds should be regulated like dams. "I think there needs to be federal regulation of the fly ash and the construction of these reservoirs." The federal Environmental Protection Agency doesn't regulate the utility ponds because it doesn't consider the coal ash hazardous material, although it can contain trace amounts of heavy metals. Two federal agencies that oversee mining keep an eye on similar waste at coal mines but don't regulate coal-burning power plants. 2003, 2006 leaks At the Kingston plant, two small leaks in 2003 and 2006 caught the attention of Tennessee's Department of Environment and Conservation, which asked the TVA to provide additional details on the water going into the ponds but didn't require a new storage system. TVA spokesman Gil Francis said the earlier leaks were not related to last month's spill and were in a different area from the section that TVA officials believe caused the breach. When the pond wall ripped open Dec. 22, more than one billion gallons of coal ash and water spilled out like a tidal wave, sweeping a home off its foundations and tearing trees out of the ground. "This is not a typical landfill," said Glen Pugh, program director for Tennessee's division of solid waste management, which regulates the ash ponds. The ponds on the banks of the Emory River had sides 55 feet above the nearest road and contained more than 145 million gallons of water, according to the TVA. At the time of the spill, piles of ash reached 50 to 60 feet above the water in the ponds, Francis said. Pugh said the TVA applied for a landfill permit in the late 1990s when it decided it needed a new system to handle the ash piling up at the Kingston plant, about 35 miles west of Knoxville. The TVA had to repair the dike in 2003 after the ash started to leak out, Pugh said. He said the leak wasn't much but enough to lead the TVA to consider disposing of the ash in a dry form. The utility eventually decided to continue using the pond and Francis said repairs were made based on several recommendations from an independent engineering consultant. According to a 2008 inspection report, the TVA stopped dredging operations in a main pond after the 2003 leak, but continued using a smaller temporary pond while repairs were made. TVA resumed dredging in 2006, only to find ash seeping out of the dike just nine months later. Effort made to relieve pressure The TVA installed a system to relieve pressure on the walls, and Pugh said it was typical to see small areas of water seeping out of the ponds because of the drains that the TVA installed. The state regulators were focused on the effect on the environment, and nothing in the TVA's latest inspection reports in May and October indicated that there was a structural problem with the retention ponds, Pugh said. But Spadaro, who spent nearly 30 years with the federal government as a mining regulator and instructor, said the TVA's last inspection report indicated the agency was irresponsible for failing to see these previous failures as an indication of a serious stability problem. Spadaro, who also directed the National Mine Health and Safety Administration's training academy, said that rather than continuing to operate the pond, TVA should have drained it and rebuilt the dam. Gov. Phil Bredesen has said Tennessee is now planning stronger oversight of such ponds. Other states where the TVA has ash ponds or landfills, including Alabama and Kentucky, say they perform regular inspections at these sites and have not had any problems. Knoxville-based TVA supplies electricity to Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.