Sixty-seven percent of Americans believe the war in Afghanistan is a complete waste of time, according to a new poll.

A mere 28 percent of Americans say the prolonged battle, which has claimed 2,248 American lives and left more than 19,000 wounded, has been worth fighting – the lowest figure on record.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that overall support for US military operations in Afghanistan has slumped by 11 percentage points since March.

Since then tensions between the two countries have grown considerably, amid an increasingly hostile Afghan president Hamid Karzai and a resurgence in Taliban attacks.

According to the survey, the drop in support for the war crosses all demographic, party and racial lines.

Only 43 percent of Americans believe the Afghan war has contributed to long-term US security, which is the first time that figure has fallen below 50 percent in the past four years.

The poll was conducted July 18 to 21 among a random national sample of 1,002 adults.

When the war began in early 2002, support for it was at more than 90 percent. By early 2007, that figure had dropped to 56 percent.

At that time, then-President George W. Bush announced the deployment of an extra 3,200 troops, swelling […]

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Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared on MSNBC’s ‘The Ed Show

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Unusually hot, dry weather in Alaska is wreaking havoc on fisheries, as thousands of fish perish in overheated waters. Last month, 1,100 king salmon died on their way up to the Crystal Lake hatchery due to water temperatures around 80 degrees Fahrenheit and lack of oxygen. That’s the bulk of the 1,800 adult salmon that were expected to return to the hatchery this season.

Earlier in the summer, another hatchery lost hundreds of grayling and rainbow trout in a Fairbanks lake where water temperatures reached 76 degrees. Alaska’s heat wave broke records last week, with 14 days straight above 70 degrees in Anchorage and 31 days of 80 degrees in Fairbanks.

Officials cited a number of factors affecting the fish, but observed that the die-off coincided with the hottest weather of the season. While die-offs are not uncommon, Doug Fleming, a sportfish biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, suggested the magnitude of the die-off was surprising.

‘And so, getting through till Wednesday which appeared to be the hottest day, then on Thursday I was conducting an aerial survey just to get a grip on how many fish may have been killed by the warm water, not expecting to see a […]

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Due to Sweden’s innovative waste-to-energy program and highly efficient recycling habits, the Scandinavian nation faces an interesting dilemma. They have run out of trash.

Sweden’s waste management and recycling programs are second to none as only four percent of the nation’s waste ends up in landfills. By contrast, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, over half of the waste produced by U.S. households ends up in landfills.

Because the Swedish manage waste so effectively and then use what remains to partly power their country, they are now living an environmentalist’s dream; a shortage of garbage.

The Circle Of Energy

In order to continue fueling the waste-to-energy factories that provide electricity to a quarter of a million homes and 20 percent of the entire country’s district heating, Sweden is now importing trash from the landfills of other European countries. In fact, those countries are paying Sweden to do so.

You read that correctly, countries are paying to get rid of a source of fuel they themselves produced so that Sweden can continue to have the energy output they need. You don’t have to be an economist to know that’s one highly enviable energy model.

Aside from the economic benefit, Sweden’s system of sustainability clearly has vast […]

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When the Occupiers took an interest in moving San Francisco’s money into a city-owned bank in 2011, it was chiefly on principle, in sympathy with the nationwide Move Your Money campaign. But recent scandals have transformed the move from a political statement into a matter of protecting the city’s deposits and reducing its debt burden. The chief roadblock to forming a municipal bank has been the concern that it was not allowed under state law, but a legal opinion issued by Deputy City Attorney Thomas J. Owen has now overcome that obstacle.

Establishing a city-owned San Francisco Bank is not a new idea. According to City Supervisor John Avalos, speaking at the Public Banking Institute conference in San Rafael in June, it has been on the table for over a decade. Recent interest was spurred by the Occupy movement, which adopted the proposal after Avalos presented it to an enthusiastic group of over 1000 protesters outside the Bank of America building in late 2011. David Weidner, writing in the Wall Street Journal [3] in December of that year, called it ‘the boldest institutional stroke yet against banks targeted by the Occupy movement.

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