Wednesday, September 11th, 2013
TERRENCE STUTZ, - Dallas News
Stephan: When I say Theocratic Rightists mean you and your children ill this is but one example of what I mean. We have got to push back against this growing trend of Willful Ignorance, and government enforced stupidity.
AUSTIN — Religious conservatives serving on state textbook review panels have criticized several proposed high school biology textbooks for not including arguments against Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
The review panels include several creationists. They urge the State Board of Education to reject the books unless publishers include more disclaimers on key concepts of evolution.
One reviewer even suggested a rule requiring that each biology book cover ‘creation science.
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Tuesday, September 10th, 2013
ALEXANDER BURNS, - Politico
Stephan: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and a handful of other Senators and Representatives stand in contrast to the mass of Congress. This tiny band actually care about the wellbeing of the country as a whole, as opposed to special interest donors who own most Congresspeople. We need to elect more Elizabeth Warrens, and the 2014 elections are going to show what the American people really want.
I think Warren is absolutely correct. At least three sitting Justices ought to be impeached for blatant bias, and two of them for what I would consider ethical violations.
LOS ANGELES — Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka denounced the United States Supreme Court on Sunday as a right-wing panel that serves the interests of corporate America, previewing a theme that is likely to rise in prominence with the approach of the 2016 election.
On the opening day of the AFL-CIO’s convention, Warren – the highest-profile national Democrat to address the gathering here – warned attendees of a ‘corporate capture of the federal courts.
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Tuesday, September 10th, 2013
ROB WILE, - Business Insider
Stephan: Now the truth of the conversion away from carbon energy with its centralized power model becomes real. Great fortunes will be made with the development of decentralized noncarbon energy. But there will be losers as well, just as carriage makers, harness makers, horse dealers, farriers, and all those dependent on animal transportation lost out to the car.
This week, we gave you two extremely bullish projections for the future of solar energy in America.
The focus was on distributed generation in both cases. This includes all solar installations – even small ones on your home rooftop.
Interestingly, the renewable energy revolution is being led by independent power producers and not mainline utility companies.
While net generation among the former has climbed 1,283% since September 2006, electricity from solar gained just 112% for the latter during the same period.
Currently, solar still only meets less than 1% of U.S electricity needs. And it will stay that way for a while.
That’s because some big utilities are actively resisting solar, arguing that the cost of net metering schemes – which allow renewable energy users to sell back excess power to – are often being paid by residents who can’t afford solar.
Here’s how Dave Gram of the Associated Press recently quoted a rep for a small utility in Vermont, which is being forced to roll back its net metering scheme:
Not collecting those costs from all members ‘results in a cost shift to those members without net metered installations,’ Washington’s general manager, Patricia Richards, said in an email. ‘As a not for profit electric […]
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Tuesday, September 10th, 2013
Stephan: For the entire day I have been listening in the background about chemical weapons and how we are unalterably opposed to them. I really dislike hypocrisy, and as we think about going to war in Syria I have chosen two articles this one, and the one below it, to show the hypocrisy of this present situation.
Assad is deeply unsavory, no doubt, but is war the only way to deal with him? What has developed today, in a single day, with Secretary of State Kerry's offhand remark suggests otherwise.
if we step in we own it. Colin Powell is right. Is there really an upside to another Middle Eastern war? Given the history of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen I think the answer is clear: No!
And are our hands really clean in the area of chemical warfare? Does Agent Orange constitute chemical warfare. For tens of thousands of Vietnamese the answer is unequivocally -- Yes!
The Vietnam War ended nearly 40 years ago, but the casualties continue as birth defects plague the country.
There are claims that thousands of children continue to be born with horrific facial deformities due to the 20 million gallons of Agent Orange chemical sprayed by the United States.
The Vietnamese call the disfigured youngsters ‘the children of Agent Orange’.
Da Nang in central Vietnam is thought to have the highest level of congenital deformity in the world.
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Tuesday, September 10th, 2013
SHANE HARRIS and MATTHEW M. AID, - Foreign Policy
Stephan: I realize that my views are in direct opposition to those of the Administration, and I am struck by the energy they are putting into selling another war in the Middle East. That said, I think another war -- and don't for a minute think one bombing, or even several days of bombing is going to end this -- is an incredibly stupid foreign policy move. But mostly the hypocrisy upon which this whole campaign is based I find revolting. That and the fact that it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars that ought to be going into reviving our own country.
Click through to see photocopies of the actual documents referenced in this report.
The U.S. government may be considering military action in response to chemical strikes near Damascus. But a generation ago, America’s military and intelligence communities knew about and did nothing to stop a series of nerve gas attacks far more devastating than anything Syria has seen, Foreign Policy has learned.
In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq’s war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein’s military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.
The intelligence included imagery and maps about Iranian troop movements, as well as the locations of Iranian logistics facilities and details about Iranian air defenses. The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin prior to four major offensives in early 1988 that relied on U.S. satellite imagery, maps, and other intelligence. These attacks helped to tilt the war in Iraq’s favor and bring Iran to the negotiating table, and they ensured that the Reagan administration’s long-standing policy of securing an Iraqi victory would succeed. But they were also the last in […]
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