Swine flu infection numbers are down in Mexico.

According to Tribuna.com.mx Mexican Secretary of Health, Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, reported that the number of cases of influenza in the country have declined. After indicating that the World Health Organization (WHO) had elevated the level of alert from 3 to 4, the secretary confirmed that the borders would not be closed or restricted

The secretary assured reporters in a press conference that the Federal Government had acted expediently during the crisis, and would continue to keep the public properly informed. Confirmed cases of swine flu have dropped from 20 to 7 according to frontera.info. The Governor of Jalisco, Emilio González Márquez, insisted that the state was free of cases of swine flu.

Javier Lozano Alarcón, Secretary of Labor, indicated that the economic activity in Mexico would not be suspended.

However, according to a Fox News headline from Tuesday:

New York City Health Commissioner: ‘Many Hundreds’ of School Students Sick With Suspected Swine Flu

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says two people are hospitalized with suspected swine flu. City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden also said Tuesday that “many hundreds” of schoolchildren are sick with suspected cases of swine flu.

From nbcsandiego.com:

Calif. Declares State of Emergency

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency that will help California agencies coordinate efforts in response to the outbreak of swine flu.

From cbsnews.com:

Swine Flu’s Spread Defies Border Cautions

Cases of swine flu were confirmed Tuesday in at least two more countries as global health officials warned that travel restrictions and warnings were doing nothing to stop its advance.

I know they have to “sell” the news, but come on, is it really necessary to scare the crap out of the populace on a daily basis?

Jon Stewart took on the 24-hour news networks, calling their news reports intentionally terrifying. He compiled clips of reporters and anchors saying that the whole world could perish, that this could be an act of bioterrorism, etc. and then showed clips of them saying “we don’t want to freak anybody out.” Really?

In the video below, John Oliver reports from the CDC and Jason Jones reports things he heard from some guy. The latter begins to believe Oliver’s soothing words are just a cover-up for him being a British swine-flu zombie and urges fans to shoot him in the head. Which they attempt to do at the end of the report.

…About swine flu.

What can you do to protect yourself? “No single action will provide complete protection,” the CDC notes, but taking a few steps can help reduce the likelihood of transmission.

1. Wash Your Hands Frequently.

It may sound obvious, but hand washing with soap and water for around 20 seconds is the single best thing you can do. If you can’t wash your hands regularly, try hand-sanitizers with 60 percent alcohol content.

2. Avoid Unnecessary Social Contact.

Stay away from crowds, and avoid people if you’re sick or if you’re concerned that they may be infected. Isolation and avoidance reduce your chances of getting infected or infecting others.

If you need to go someplace crowded, the CDC says, try to spend as little time as possible and try to stay six feet away from potentially infected people. Wearing a surgical or dental facemask - cleared by the FDA as a medical device - “can help prevent some exposures,” the CDC says, but they’re not foolproof.

3. Recognize the Symptoms and Get Help.

Swine flu symptoms are similar to regular flu: Fever, body aches, sore throat, cough, runny nose, vomiting, diarrhea, and lethargy. If you don’t feel well, seek medical attention. This swine flu is treatable (and absolutely survivable). It’s resistant to two of four antiviral drugs approved for combating the flu: Symmetrel and Flumadine. But two newer antivirals - Tamiflu and Relenza - appear to work.

For more information, the CDC has set up a toll-free hotline:
1-800-CDC-INFO. Or check out the CDC Website. http://cdc.gov/

Mexican Swine Flu: An Advanced Biowar Event That Will Be Bigger Than 9/11 By The Earl of Stirling 4-25-9

On 23 rd April 2009 the world began to become aware of a very strange new version of swine flu H1N1 in Mexico with limited cases in Texas and California. By the morning of the 24th of April, we began hear that there were hundreds of sick and 20 or so dead. By late in the day, we have learned that over 1,000 are now reported ill and over 60 are reported dead. There are solid reasons to suspect that this new Mexican Swine Flu is NOT a naturally occurring event but instead is an Advanced Biological Warfare recombination DNA genetically engineered virus.

Mexican Doctor: Real Figure Is 200 Dead, Situation Out Of Control BBC News Saturday, April 25, 2009

I work as a resident doctor in one of the biggest hospitals in Mexico City and sadly, the situation is far from “under control”. As a doctor, I realize that the media does not report the truth. Authorities distributed vaccines among all the medical personnel with no results, because two of my partners who worked in this hospital (interns) were killed by this new virus in less than six days even though they were vaccinated as all of us were. The official number of deaths is 20; nevertheless, the true number of victims is more than 200. I understand that we must avoid to panic, but telling the truth it might be better now to prevent and avoid more deaths.
Yeny Gregorio Dávila, Mexico City

Navy Experimenting With Flu at Mexican Border New York Times 25 Apr 2009

–Mexico Shuts Schools Amid Deadly Flu Outbreak— Mexican officials, scrambling to control a swine flu outbreak that has killed at least 16
people and possibly dozens more in recent weeks… The unusual strain this year was noticed, said Dr. Anne Schuchat [director of respiratory diseases the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], only because the agency was trying out a new diagnostic test at a Navy laboratory and doing more testing than usual through a new Border Infectious Disease Surveillance Project along the Mexican border. [See: The U.S.-Mexico Border Infectious Disease Surveillance Project: Establishing Bi-national Border Surveillance (cdc.gov).]

The Huffington Post
Ben Sherwood Author, Journalist, Founder and CEO of TheSurvivorsClub.org Posted April 26, 2009 | 06:08 PM (EST)

A single sneeze propels 100,000 droplets into the air at around 90 mph, landing on door knobs, ATM keypads, elevator buttons, escalator railings,
and grocery cart handles. In a subway station at rush hour, according to
British researchers, as many as 10 percent of all commuters can come in
contact with the spray and residue from just one sneeze (or sternutation).
That means as many as 150 commuters can be sickened by one uncovered achoo.

No wonder health officials are extremely concerned about the new strain of swine flu that has infected at least 20 Americans in five states, killed
some 80 people in Mexico, and has traveled to the other side of the world
in New Zealand. Understandably, US officials - following the lead of the
World Health Organization (WHO) - have declared a “public health
emergency.”

“This virus has, clearly, a pandemic potential,” says Margaret Chan,
director general of WHO. Why? The new strain spreads quickly and
efficiently from human to human. It’s “a completely novel virus,” says the
CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This latest variant is a
mixture of human virus, bird virus, and pig viruses from all over the
world. Experts say it’s particularly worrisome because people are getting
sick without any encounters with pigs. Even worse, young, healthy people
(ages 20-40) are dying at a striking rate, a telltale sign of the worst
flu epidemics.

Swine flu fears aren’t new in the United States. In February 1976, a
19-year-old army private at Fort Dix, New Jersey, died within 24 hours of becoming infected with swine flu. Soon, 500 soldiers were afflicted and
the US government began a controversial nationwide vaccination campaign.

Ultimately, some 40 million Americans were inoculated. As a result,
several hundred people developed Guillain- Barr syndrome, a serious neurological condition, and the immunization program was stopped.

What’s going to happen this time? Without question, the disease will
spread farther and wider. At this point, as the CDC says, it can’t be
contained or controlled. (The flu shot from last fall, for instance, won’t
combat this strain).

CIA Link to Cuban Pig Virus Reported

San Francisco Chronicle January 10, 1977

With at least the tacit backing of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency officials, operatives linked to anti-Castro terrorists introduced African swine fever virus into Cuba in 1971.
Six weeks later an outbreak of the disease forced the slaughter of 500,000 pigs to prevent a nationwide animal epidemic.
A U.S. intelligence source told Newsday last week he was given the virus in a sealed, unmarked container at a U.S. Army base and CIA training ground in the Panama Canal Zone, with instructions to turn it over to the anti-Castro group.
The 1971 outbreak, the first and only time the disease has hit the Western Hemisphere, was labeled the “most alarming event” of 1971 by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. African swine fever is a highly contagious and usually lethal viral disease that infects only pigs and, unlike swine flu, cannot be transmitted to humans.

Michael D’Antuono studied in New York and Paris earning a B.F.A. from the prestigious Parsons School of Design. He was an art director for the advertising agency DMB&B creating award winning national campaigns including one that ran for 20 years and a freelance illustrator working for major ad agencies and national publications before deciding to bring his skills to the world of fine art. His work has been shown in New York, Las Vegas, Aspen and California.

Website: http://www.dantuonoarts.com/

Mr. D’Antuono has chosen to paint purely non-political subject matter, opting instead for iconic celebrity portraits and hard-luck romantic narratives. Now the artist feels the need to make a statement. “Aided by the media, politics has taken a nasty turn in the last decade and I firmly believe that this is one of the underlying causes of our nation’s current problems,” says D’Antuono.

D’Antuono may raise more questions than answers when he unveils his highly controversial new painting, “The Truth” on the South Plaza of NYC’s Union Square on the 100th day of Barack Obama’s presidency. The artist’s politically-, religiously- and socially-charged statement on our nation’s current political climate and deep partisan divide has been privately raising eyebrows (and voices) since its creation.

The 30″ x 54″ acrylic painting on canvas depicts President Obama appearing much like Jesus Christ on the Cross; atop his head, a crown of thorns; behind him, the dark veil being lifted (or lowered) on the Presidential Seal. But is he revealing or concealing and is he being crucified or glorified?

D’Antuono insists that this piece is a mirror; reflecting the personal opinions and emotions of the viewer; that “The Truth” like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. D’Antuono expects that individual interpretations will vary as widely as they do in the political arena. One viewer at a time will see the work behind a voting booth-inspired public installation.

“The Truth” will be on exhibit on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the South Plaza of Union Square Park at 14th Street in New York City.

Website: http://www.dantuonoarts.com/

DURING his career as a cocaworkers’ leader, Evo Morales took part in hunger strikes on 18 occasions. Then he was elected as Bolivia’s president. So it came as a surprise when just before Easter he unrolled his mattress on the floor of an ornate stateroom in the presidential palace and began a five-day political fast, fortified by chewing coca leaves. This time the object of his gesture was not to change government policy but to implement it.

President Morales won a referendum approving a new constitution inspired by his Movement to Socialism (MAS). This calls for a fresh election on December 6th, in which the president hopes to win a second term. But the opposition, which controls the Senate, was holding up the requisite electoral law, because the government refused to agree to a new electoral register.

The opposition fears that a government programme to give identity cards to Bolivians who lack them was abused to swell the government’s vote in rural areas. When the president of the electoral court said there was no time to organize a new register, the opposition walked out. That prompted President Morales to begin his fast.

Last year, Morales ejected the U.S. ambassador and Drug Enforcement Administration officials based in his country over accusations that American diplomats had supported the opposition. He said that while President Obama has promised changed, it has not reached U.S. officials in Bolivia. ”One hundred days have gone by and we in Bolivia have yet to feel any changes,” Morales said, referring to Obama’s length in office. “The policy of conspiracy continues.”

President Morales remains popular, largely due to his support of indigenous Bolivians and his nationalization of the natural-gas industry, which has boosted the government’s finances. He seems assured of a second term.

Scientists have hailed footprints found on a sandy plain in eastern Africa as the earliest evidence of modern upright walking. The findings mark one of the most important discoveries in recent years regarding the evolution of human walking.

The footprints, dated to between 1.51m and 1.53m years ago, were discovered in sedimentary rock at Ileret, Kenya, researchers report in today’s edition of the journal Science. The footprints are not the oldest belonging to a member of the human lineage. That title belongs to the 3.7 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis prints found in Laetoli, Tanzania, in 1978.

Those prints, however, showed comparatively flat feet and a significantly higher angle between the big toe and the other toes, representative of a foot still adapted to grasping.

Exactly how that more ape-like foot developed into its modern version has remained unclear.

The 1.5-million-year-old footprints display signs of a pronounced arch and short, aligned toes, in contrast to older footprints. With a large toe parallel to the other toes, the prints indicate a modern upright stride, the researchers said. They are likely to have been made by the early hominid Homo ergaster or early Homo erectus.

A fossil footprint left by a human ancestor about 1.5 million years ago in Kenya. Photograph: Matthew Bennett/Bournemouth University/Reuters

Another critical feature that the series of footprints makes clear is how Homo erectus walked. There is evidence of a heavy landing on the heel with weight transferred along the outer edge of the foot, progressing to the ball of the foot and lifting off with the toes.

That’s typical of the modern style of walking, and the Laetoli prints don’t give that same profile.

The Kenyan series of footprints, including one apparently from a child, were left by individuals walking on a muddy riverbank. Judging from stride length, they estimated the individuals were about 5ft 9in tall.

“It was kind of creepy excavating these things to see all of a sudden something that looks so dramatically like something that you yourself could have made 20 minutes earlier in some kind of wet sediment just next to the site,” one of the researchers, archaeologist David Braun of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, told Reuters. “These could quite easily have been made on the beach today,” he said.

Earth Day 2009 is a special day to learn about our planet and how to take care of it!

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across America celebrated the first Earth Day. It was a time when cities were buried under their own smog and polluted rivers caught fire. Now Earth Day is celebrated annually around the globe. Through the combined efforts of the U.S. government, grassroots organizations, and citizens like you, what started as a day of national environmental recognition has evolved into a world-wide campaign to protect our global environment.

Earth Day Activities:

Recycling is when an object can be shredded, melted or otherwise processed and then turned into new raw material.

Reusing is when you find a new use for an existing item.

Shop Wisely to save resources.

Plant a Tree to help the Earth breathe.

Clean Up and Beautify some area in your town.

Compost your own food scraps and garden waste and turn it into healthy compost in your own yard.

Reduce Consumption

• Shut off the water when they brush their teeth
• Walk, ride a bike or take the bus instead of traveling by car
• Take faster showers or baths in just a small amount of water
• Help hang clothes on the line instead of putting them in the dryer
• Choose products that are not over packaged

Donate your old clothing, toys, shoes, or other items in reusable condition to your local thrift store, recycling center, or church.

http://www.earthday.net/

http://www.earthday.gov/

http://crafts.kaboose.com/holidays/earth-day/earth_day_crafts.html

http://holidays.kaboose.com/earth-color.html

Earth Day Founder Gaylord Nelson passed away July 2005 at the age of 89. He believed strongly that education is the key to changing people’s attitudes about the environment and he devoted much of his energy to that challenge.

The official position of the Roman Catholic Church, as expressed in the current canon law and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is that: “Only a baptized man (In Latin, vir) validly receives sacred ordination.” In 1976, the Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood concluded that for various doctrinal, historical, and theological reasons, the Church “… does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination”. The most important reasons stated were first, the Church’s determination to remain faithful to its constant tradition, second, its fidelity to Christ’s will, and third, the idea of male representation due to the “sacramental nature” of the priesthood.

The Biblical Commission, an advisory commission that was to study the exclusion of women from the ministerial priesthood from a biblical perspective, had three opposing findings. They were, “that the New Testament does not settle in a clear way… whether women can be ordained as priests, [that] scriptural grounds alone are not enough to exclude the possibility of ordaining women, [and that] Christ’s plan would not be transgressed by permitting the ordination of women.”

So what happens if a Catholic priest publicly supports ordaining women?

“Nearly 5,000 Catholic priests have sexually abused over 12,000 Catholic children…but they were not excommunicated,” says Father Roy Bourgeois, who faced the latter scenario after helping celebrate what the Vatican considers to be an illegitimate ordination mass in August 2008. Bourgeois, a Vietnam veteran with a Purple Heart who became a prominent peace activist, stood with the trailblazers of the female ordination movement in Lexington, Ky., to make Janice Sevre-Duszynska a Catholic priest.

For breaking one of the most sacred tenets of the church hierarchy — that only men are acceptable for ordination — Bourgeois was harshly rebuked by the Vatican, telling him in a letter 2 months later, that he had 30 days to renounce his actions or face excommunication.

After his deadline passed without word from the Vatican, Bourgeois told Ms. Magazine that his heart wouldn’t allow him to obey the Vatican. “Deeper than the hurt, the sadness, there’s a peace that comes from knowing I followed my conscience in addressing this great injustice,” he said.

“The church believes that the intent of Jesus’ founding of the priesthood is that it was reserved for men,” explained Sister Mary Anne Walsh, spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Speaking for the group Roman Catholic Womenpriests, Bridget Mary Meehan (ordained in 2006 and subsequently excommunicated) disagrees with that teaching. “Jesus never ordained anyone,” says Meehan. “And in the tradition, women were ordained deacons, priests and bishops for the first 1,200 years.”

The Vatican’s strong response to Bourgeois’ action stands in stark contrast to its overwhelming failure to punish molesters. Even a homicidal priest, Father Gerald Robinson, who was convicted in 2006 of the brutal murder of a 71-year-old nun in an Ohio chapel (see “The Nun’s Story,” Summer 2006), has not been excommunicated.

Walsh’s explanation: As heinous as the crime was, the Church doesn’t excommunicate for murder.

EC goes after Britain over Phorm DPI

The European Commission has started legal action against Britain over online data pirate Phorm. The move follows complaints to the EC over how the behavioral advertising ’service’ was tested on the BT broadband network without the knowledge or permission of users. “Last year Britain had said it was happy Phorm conformed to European data laws,” says the BBC, but, “the commission has said Phorm ‘intercepted’ user data without clear consent and the UK need to look again at its online privacy laws.”

Nigerian group frees UK hostage

A British man held hostage in Nigeria for more than six months has been freed, a military official said. The official said Robin Barry Hughes was handed over to the military in Nigeria’s southern oil region. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) had held the 59-year-old oil worker, from St Margaret’s Bay in Kent, since September. Kidnapping is common in the Niger Delta by armed groups trying to force the government to share oil revenue.

Mr. Hughes is being released on age and health grounds, the group said.

Iran plans fast appeal for US ’spy’

The head of Iran’s judiciary has ordered a “quick and fair” consideration of an appeal against an eight-year jail sentence imposed on a US journalist convicted of spying. Roxana Saberi was sentenced on Saturday following a trial that was conducted behind closed doors in a Tehran court. Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi on Monday released a statement that “emphasized the necessity of access to fair consideration of Roxana Saberi’s case, especially at the appeals stage, which is the certain right of the accused”. “Different dimensions of this case, including material and moral elements of the crime, must be considered at the appeals stage in a careful, quick and fair way,” it said. Saberi, who has US and Iranian nationality and has lived in Iran for six years, has been detained in the Evin prison in Tehran, the capital, since she was arrested in January.

Roxana Saberi with former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

The CIA and NSA Want You to Be Their Friend on Facebook

The online social-networking service Facebook works for finding old classmates or arranging happy hours, so why not use it to help recruit the next generation of spies? That’s what’s happening now in cyberspace, as the country’s intelligence community turns to such sites to attract a wider range of résumés. The CIA now has its own Facebook page, as does the hush-hush National Security Agency, which vacuums up the world’s communications for analysis. Both invite Facebook members to register and read information about employment opportunities. It’s part of a larger, multiyear hiring push to boost the size of the U.S. intelligence community.

2007 Senator James Webb

Webb’s Prison Crusade

After more than a year of hearings before the Joint Economic Committee, in March Virginia Senator Jim Webb introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009. The legislation would create a blue-ribbon panel with the mandate to make recommendations for wholesale reform of criminal justice policy.

You’ve probably heard about the pirates of Somalia, but have you heard this:

Why We Don’t Condemn Our Pirates in Somalia
By K’Naan , URB Magazine

Can anyone ever really be for piracy? Outside of sea bandits, and young girls fantasizing of Johnny Depp, would anyone with an honest regard for good human conduct really say that they are in support of Sea Robbery? Well in Somalia, the answer is: it’s complicated. The news media these days has been covering piracy in the Somali coast, with such lopsided journalism that it’s lucky they’re not on a ship themselves. It’s true that the constant hijacking of vessels in the Gulf of Aden is a major threat to the vibrant trade route between Asia and Europe. It is also true that for most of the pirates operating in this vast shoreline, money is the primary objective. But according to many Somalis, the disruption of Europe’s darling of a trade route is just Karma biting a perpetrator in the butt. And if you don’t believe in Karma, maybe you believe in recent history. Here is why we Somalis find ourselves slightly shy of condemning our pirates.

Somalia has been without any form of a functioning government since 1991. And despite its failures, like many other toddler governments in Africa, sprung from the wells of post-colonial independence, bad governance and development loan sharks, the specific problem of piracy was put in motion in 1992.

After the overthrow of Siyad Barre, our charmless dictator of twenty-some odd years, two major forces of the Hawiye Clan came to power. At the time, Ali Mahdi, and General Mohamed Farah Aidid, the two leaders of the Hawiye rebels were largely considered liberators. But the unity of the two men and their respective sub-clans was very short-lived. It’s as if they were dumbstruck at the advent of ousting the dictator, or that they just forgot to discuss who will be the leader of the country once they defeated their common foe. A disagreement of who will upgrade from militia leader to Mr. President broke up their honeymoon. It’s because of this disagreement that we’ve seen one of the most devastating wars in Somalia’s history, leading to millions displaced and hundreds of thousands dead. But war is expensive and militias need food for their families, and Jaad (an amphetamine-based stimulant) to stay awake for the fighting. Therefore a good clan-based Warlord must look out for his own fighters. Aidid’s men turned to robbing aid trucks carrying food to the starving masses, and reselling it to continue their war. But Ali Mahdi had his sights set on a larger and more unexploited resource, namely: the Indian Ocean.

Already by this time, local fishermen in the coastline of Somalia have been complaining of illegal vessels coming to Somali waters and stealing all the fish. And since there was no government to report it to, and since the severity of the violence clumsily overshadowed every other problem, the fishermen went completely unheard. But it was around this same time that a more sinister, a more patronizing practice was being put in motion. A Swiss firm called Achair Parterns, and an Italian waste company called Progresso, made a deal with Ali Mahdi, that they could dump containers of waste material in Somali waters. These European companies were said to be paying Warlords about $3 a ton, where as in to properly dispose of waste in Europe costs about $1000 a ton.

In 2004, after Tsunami washed ashore several leaking containers, thousand of locals in the Puntland region of Somalia started to complain of severe and previously unreported ailments, such as abdominal bleeding, skin melting off and a lot of immediate cancer-like symptoms. Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environmental Program, says that the containers had many different kinds of waste, including “Uranium, radioactive waste, lead, cadmium, mercury and chemical waste.” But this wasn’t just a passing evil from one or two groups taking advantage of our unprotected waters, the UN Convoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, says that the practice still continues to this day. It was months after those initial reports that local fishermen mobilized themselves, along with street militias, to go into the waters and deter the Westerners from having a free pass at completely destroying Somalia’s aquatic life. Now years later, that deterance has become less noble, and the ex-fishermen with their militias have begun to develop a taste for ransom at sea. This form of piracy is now a major contributor to the Somali economy, especially in the very region that private toxic waste companies first began to bury our nation’s death trap.

Now Somalia has upped the world’s pirate attacks by ove r21 percent in one year, and while NATO and the EU are both sending forces to the Somali coast to try and slow down the attacks, Blackwater and all kinds of private security firms are intent on cashing in. But while Europeans are well in their right to protect their trade interest in the region, our pirates were the only deterrent we had from an externally imposed environmental disaster. No one can say for sure that some of the ships they are now holding for ransom were not involved in illegal activity in our waters. The truth is, if you ask any Somali if they think getting rid of the pirates only means the continuous rape of our coast by unmonitored Western vessels, and the production of a new cancerous generation, we would all fly our pirate flags high.

It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end, if our pirates are to seize their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums. It seems to me that this new modern crisis is a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice. As is apparent these days, one man’s pirate is another man’s coast guard.

Source: Alternet

I’ve read this information from different sites online, this was the most detailed report I found. What I don’t understand is why I had to go online to learn all of this. I am so sick of our media completely ignoring the “other side” of a story. The news is supposed to be about the truth, not profit. What idiot thought that making the news “profitable” was a good idea? Telling the truth is not profitable. People won’t pay to hear the truth because the truth is frequently uncomfortable and often unwelcome. That doesn’t mean it isn’t necessary. People need to hear the truth, even if they won’t pay for it and don’t like it

Ignoring the truth just means we will pay for it in a different way.

Islamabad is desperate for support in its civil war against the Taliban

Peter Preston The Guardian

It is “the most dangerous place in the world”, according to Barack Obama. It’s also where 90% of our own home-front terrorist threat comes from, according to Gordon Brown. Forget scratched heads and reddening faces over Manchester’s missing weapons of destruction. No anxious leader can forget Pakistan - or fail to remember one lethally complex thing. Pakistan’s crisis is political as well as religious, economic as well as tribal, personal as well as endemic. Call Jinnah’s pure state a failed state now and expect ritual resentment. But ask in return what equals “success”, and hear silence descend. The misty, murky road from Operation Pathway is not so long after all.

Does Perry’s Support Of 10th Amendment Bill Make Him A Dangerous Right-wing Extremist?

Steve Watson Infowars.net

Texas Governor Rick Perry has backed a House resolution in support of states’ rights under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In the eyes of the Department of Homeland Security this makes him a dangerous right-wing extremist. HCR 50 affirms that Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government. The bill also designates that all compulsory federal legislation that requires states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties, or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding, be prohibited or repealed.

Taxing Matters

Robert L. Borosage Co-Director of Campaign for America’s Future

Tax Day. Fox News is flogging Astroturf “tea parties” underwritten by corporate lobbyists, while its pundits warn that raising the top income tax rate to the level it was under Bill Clinton constitutes “socialism.” The Wall Street Journal editorializes about the evils of the estate tax. Ari Fleischer, Daddy Bush’s old flack, is trotted out to complain that “redistribution of income” through the tax code “is getting out of hand.”

Really? Here’s the grim reality. Since 1980, when the conservative era began, inequality has reached Gilded Age extremes - while top end tax rates have been cut. The wealthiest few captured ever more of the nation’s income while successfully lowering their tax rates.

And worse - this is still going on. This month, every Republican Senator - joined bizarrely by 10 Democrats - pushed for yet another tax break for the super-rich - those with fortunes over $7 million. Apparently worried that the heirs of the Paris Hilton class might not be able to keep the yacht clubs humming, Republican Senators voted in lockstep to direct the Congress to raise the full exemption of estates from $7 to $10 million per couple, and drop the top rate from 45% to 35%. Over a decade when fully in effect, this represents a bauble worth about $90 billion to the 1 in 400 estates (one-fourth of one percent) that reach that level.

Fleischer would suggest this is a small, but inadequate step to curb the confiscatory redistribution of the tax code. But he’s peddling bull.

Obama lifts restrictions on Cuban travel, money transfers

Jennifer Loven The New Zealand Herald

President Barack Obama is allowing Americans to make unlimited trips and money transfers to family in Cuba and easing other restrictions to usher in a new era of US openness toward the island nation ruled by communists for 50 years.

Cubans make their way through a street in Havana. President Barack Obama is now allowing Americans to make unlimited trips and money transfers to family members in Cuba. Photo / AP

Mexican Congress debates legalizing marijuana

The Associated Press

Mexico’s Congress opened a three-day debate Monday on the merits of legalizing marijuana for personal use, a policy backed by three former Latin American presidents who warned that a crackdown on drug cartels is not working. Although President Felipe Calderon has opposed the idea, the unprecedented forum shows legalizing marijuana is gaining support in Mexico amid brutal drug violence. Such a measure would be sure to strain relations with the United States at a time when the two countries are stepping up cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking. The congressional debate — open to academics, experts and government officials — ends a day before President Barack Obama arrives in Mexico for talks on the drug war. Proponents had a boost in February when three former presidents — Cesar Gaviria of Colombia, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Fernando Cardoso of Brazil — urged Latin American countries to consider legalizing the drug to undermine a major source of income for cartels.

Antigovernment ‘ red shirts’ retreat to rally at Government House after violent clashes

* The Wall Street Journal Asia * By James Hookway

BANGKOK—Thailand’s army appeared to subdue rioting antigovernment protesters Monday, while exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra backed away from his earlier call for a full-scale revolution and instead urged peaceful protests. The army’s tough response against thousands of red-clad protesters was a boon to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, 44 years old. At the weekend, it was unclear whether Thailand’s politically powerful armed forces were willing to put their weight behind Mr. Abhisit’s government. Several hundred demonstrators simply pushed their way past troops to derail a major economic conference involving China, Japan and other regional powers in the seaside town of Pattaya.

Germany: The World’s First Major Renewable Energy Economy

by Jane Burgermeister, Berlin, Germany RenewableEnergyWorld.com

Germany’s Reichstag in Berlin is set to become the first parliamentary building in the world to be powered 100 percent by renewable energy. Soon the entire country will follow suit. Germany is accelerating its efforts to become the world’s first industrial power to use 100 percent renewable energy — and given current momentum, it could reach that green goal by 2050.

A new Roadmap published by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment sketches out the route the world’s largest exporter plans to take to switch over completely to renewable energy, and add 800,000 to 900,000 new cleantech jobs by 2030 as it does so.

Solar Power Is Here and There. But Can It Be Everywhere?

by Chris Stimpson, Solar Nation

Ideas are taking shape in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EUMENA) for a truly comprehensive, continent-wide energy landscape of the future. And some of the strategies coming out of planning bodies “over there” deserve serious attention on the North American continent. They also deserve a more liberal and disinterested response from legislators and regulators at the local level than these officials have historically been wont to give. And that makes us wonder whether we can rise above the technical challenges involved, only to drown in a sea of regulation and self-interest.

The Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), an initiative of The Club of Rome non-governmental global think tank, has developed a concept known as DESERTEC, whose main elements include:

• Establishing large numbers of concentrating solar power (CSP) arrays in desert areas of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and
• Transmitting power from these and other renewable sources throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EUMENA) via super-efficient high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission lines.

Here are some of the people who got it right—early and often:

1. William Greider—author and columnist with The Nation magazine—wrote books (including Secrets of the Temple, 1988) and articles warning about the Federal Reserve and the anti-democratic consequences of rampant corporate globalization.

2. Robert Kuttner whose books (e.g. Everything for Sale, 1999) and articles predicted what will happen to workers and pensions when the regulatory state is tossed aside by the corporatists operating inside and outside of government.

3. Jim Hightower whose books (If the Gods Has Meant Us to Vote, They Would Have Given Us Candidates, 2000) and the monthly mass circulation Hightower Lowdown newsletter pointed out again and again the abuses of the “greedhounds” and vastly overpaid corporate bosses that have run consumers of health care, credit, cars and banks into the ground.

4. Nomi Prins (Other People’s Money, 2004) a former managing director of Goldman Sachs, quit in disgust and began disclosing how these giant Wall St. firms deal and how, with their ideological backers, they wove their webs of deception and fraud against investors, students borrowing money for college, taxpayers ripped off by corporate contractors, sick people gouged and insurance companies denying legitimate claims. (See her book Jacked: How “Conservatives” Are Picking Your Pocket, 2008)

5. John R. MacArthur, author (The Selling of “Free Trade”, 2001) columnist and publisher of Harpers, authored a sharp, prophetic criticism of NAFTA’s effect on U.S. and Mexican workers. Finally, on March 24, 2009 the New York Times featured a report titled “NAFTA’s Promise, UNfulfilled.”

6. Robert A.G. Monks—the leading shareholder rights advocate in our country warned for years in books (latest Corpocracy, 2008) , articles, testimony and standup challenges at corporate annual meetings that keeping investors—the owners of these companies—powerless and dominated by corporate executives would lead to big trouble. Everyday, you can now see the ways that avaricious abuses of executive compensation by Wall Street led to cooking the books, hiding the debts and wildly losing other peoples’ money.

7. Tom Stanton, whose 1991 book State of Risk, exposed the dangerously undercapitalized condition of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and predicted coming disaster if this reckless leveraging continued. By comparison, a year ago Fannie and Freddie’s federal regulator, James B. Lockhart III called fears of a bailout “nonsense” and amazingly further lowered the required capital levels months before their collapse and takeover a few months later. Mr. Lockhart is still in his job heading a new regulatory entity over these two goliaths.

8. Republican Kevin Phillips, (latest book Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, 2007) whose numerous writings on Wall Street power and money and the dictatorial rule of the plutocracy were wise, historically—rooted premonitions of future collapse.

9. Dean Baker, (latest Plunder and Blunder, 2004) Washington-based economist, warned repeatedly earlier in this decade of the housing bubble and the calamitous consequences once it burst. He even sold his own home in 2004 and became a tenant, so convinced was he of the housing precipice.

10. Then there is Naomi Klein who has been documenting how economic disasters produced by corporations and their governmental cohorts end up not with reforms but with further increasing the power of the corporate state. (See Shock Doctrine the Rise of Disaster Capitalism, 2007)

Source: Ralph Nader at Common Dreams

FBI joins effort in hostage standoff with pirates

NAIROBI, Kenya - FBI hostage negotiators joined U.S. Navy efforts Thursday to free an American cargo ship captain held captive on a lifeboat by Somali pirates. A U.S. destroyer and a spy plane kept a close watch in the high-seas standoff near the Horn of Africa.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_af/piracy;_ylt=Amxl6bd4nn.ku0AumRUIJAFvaA8F

Iran president says he’s open to nuclear talks

ISFAHAN, Iran - Iran’s president said Thursday his country is open to talks with the U.S. and other countries over its nuclear program. But he insisted the talks must be based on respect for Iran’s rights, suggesting the West should not try to force Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_nuclear;_ylt=AtRxcKOmEXchYHkewEmCR8RvaA8F

Stocks surge as profits at Wells Fargo jump

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks bounded higher early Thursday after banking giant Wells Fargo & Co. issued a surprise profit announcement that was far above analysts’ estimates. Investors have been grasping at any sign of improvement in the crippled banking sector, and Wells Fargo’s report early Thursday that it expects record first-quarter earnings of $3 billion provided an encouraging sign that a deep freeze in bank lending may finally be beginning to thaw.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WALL_STREET?SITE=ININS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Bolivian president announces hunger strike

LA PAZ, Bolivia – President Evo Morales announced he was starting a hunger strike on Thursday to pressure Bolivia’s congress to set a firm date for general elections that are likely to return him to power. Bolivia’s opposition-led Senate has failed to approve a law to handle the elections, which are mandated by a Morales-backed constitutional reform approved by voters in January. The socialist president, who took office in 2006, has suggested opposition leaders are trying to block the planned December elections with delaying tactics.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_bolivia_morales;_ylt=AiDlcre82qO9FgGa6Tq70ulvaA8F

Australian jailed over deadly lawn-watering fight

SYDNEY – A man was sentenced Thursday to at least 18 months in jail for fatally beating another man during an argument over Sydney’s water restrictions. All major cities in Australia have water use restrictions as the nation experiences its worst drought in a century.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_water_slaying;_ylt=Akj9LV_1Uy4XBckgBTbny.VvaA8F