Monday, September 13th, 2010
BRAD JOHNSON, - THE WONK ROOM
Stephan: Read the last paragraph of this story, and weep: '...the United States is largely being left behind. 'They're asleep at the wheel on climate change, asleep at the wheel on job growth, asleep at the wheel on this industrial revolution taking place in the energy industry,
Global financial giant Deutsche Bank has crushed the climate skeptics in a new paper released today, finding that ‘human-made climate change is already happening and is a serious long term threat.
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Monday, September 13th, 2010
CARA MATTHEWS, - Gannett Newspapers - Albany Bureau
Stephan: This story, which ought to be the news lead everywhere, is so buried it took me 20 minutes of searching, even knowing it was out there, to find coverage that really said anything. Nineteen Jihadists killed 3,000 and we are still struggling with it 9 years later. Coal will kill 13,500 people this year, as it did last year, and the year before, and few know or give a damn. Something is deeply deeply wrong with our values.
ALBANY — Pollution in coal-fired power-plant emissions will cause an estimated 13,500 premature deaths nationwide and roughly 945 in New York this year, according to a Clean Air Task Force report.
The study estimates that the total cost of health problems related to coal plants is more than $100 billion a year in the United States.
New York ranks third for total number of deaths, hospital admissions and heart attacks projected, but it doesn’t make it into the top 15 states for per capita mortality risk. But the top metropolitan area in the country affected by the pollution includes New York City and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with an expected 799 deaths, 698 hospital admissions and 1,541 heart attacks this year.
‘We’ve got all these dirty dinosaurs out there, spewing out pollutants when the technology exists to clean them up, but what we’re lacking is the regulatory power,
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Sunday, September 12th, 2010
Stephan: Turkey is the one example of a truly functioning modern Islamic State that has reached an approximation of the European standard of living for its people. Thanks to Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, from its modern founding Turkey has had a separation of religion and state which has allowed a pluralistic middle class country to emerge. Not constantly being in a crisis of religious struggle gives people time, energy, and money to focus on improving the quality of their, and their families, lives. It is in everyone's interest that there be civil peace. Turkey is not immune though to the politically powerful fundamentalism that is sweeping so many countries, including the U.S. So this election is yet another exercise in tuning that balance.
The people of Turkey are voting in a referendum on changing the nation’s constitution.
The government wants to make a number of alterations that would bring the constitution more in line with the European Union’s standards.
Some critics say the changes would give the government too much control over the judiciary, others that the process has been rushed.
Supporters of the move say the 28-year-old military constitution must change.
There are 26 amendments to the constitution on the table.
They are mostly small and somewhat technocratic alterations, which many find difficult to understand, says the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Istanbul.
The ruling conservative religious Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed the changes will strengthen Turkish democracy.
The EU has backed the changes.
Polling stations will close at 1400GMT and results are expected several hours later.
The secular opposition say that they will vote against the plan and accuse Mr Erdogan’s party of trying to seize control of the judiciary as part of a back-door Islamist coup.
* The military would be more accountable to civilian courts
* Parliament would have more power to appoint judges
* Civil servants would be given the […]
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Sunday, September 12th, 2010
, ERIC LIPTON - The New York Times
Stephan: This is what the American Congress has become, as represented by the man who would be the Republican Speaker. The only thing that could place John Boehner further in the bag would be if the corporations just paid his salary, and made him an employee. But they don't have to pay that money since you do it for them. It just makes him that much cheaper on their balance sheet. And it is all done unapologetically. Business as usual.
Boehner is far from alone. Not every Congress member, but on both sides of the aisle it is amazing how many are for sale, and how cheaply they can be bought. If you look at these influence transactions you see how little it takes, particularly in the context of how much the purchasing individual or corporation benefits from buying influence. What makes Boehner stand out is his crassness.
Doesn't it give you pause that the country sits still for this? We sit still for this.
These stories are like reading about the late Roman Empire.
WASHINGTON – House Democrats were preparing late last year for the first floor vote on the financial regulatory overhaul when Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio and other Republican leaders summoned more than 100 industry lobbyists and conservative political activists to Capitol Hill for a private strategy session.
The bill’s passage in the House already seemed inevitable. But Mr. Boehner and his deputies told the Wall Street lobbyists and trade association leaders that by teaming up, they could still perhaps block its final passage or at least water it down.
‘We need you to get out there and speak up against this,
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Sunday, September 12th, 2010
MARK AMES, - The New York Observer
Stephan: The natural tendency is to dismiss stories such as this as conspiracy theories, but this seems to be grounded in fact, and has the weird vibe of the intelligence world. Remember the cake and sword the Americans took to Iran, and the other weird deals of Iran-Contra?
Thanks to David Goodman, MD.
So far, the debate over the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero has unfolded along predictable lines, with the man at the center of the project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, drawing attacks from the right painting him as a terrorist sympathizer with ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
But meanwhile, links between the group behind the controversial mosque, the CIA and U.S. military establishment have gone unacknowledged.
For instance, one of the earliest backers of the nonprofit group, the Cordoba Initiative, that is spearheading the Ground Zero mosque, is a 52-year-old Scarsdale, New York, native named R. Leslie Deak. In addition to serving on the group’s board of advisors since its founding in 2004 by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Deak was its principal funder, donating $98,000 to the nonprofit between 2006 and 2008. This figure appears to represent organization’s total operating budget-though, oddly, the group reported receipts of just a third of that total during the same time period.
Deak describes himself as a ‘Practicing Muslim with background in Christianity and Judaism, [with] in-depth personal and business experiences in the Middle East, living and working six months per year in Egypt.’ Born into a Christian home, Deak became an Orthodox […]
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