Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/2009-05-03-guantanamo-trials_N.htm

Yahoo! Buzz Digg Newsvine Reddit FacebookWhat's this?WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration may revamp and restart the Bush-era military trial system for suspected terrorists as it struggles to determine the fate of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and fulfill a pledge to close the prison by January.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/obama-supports-treaty-outlawing-gun-possession/

Obama is in favor of the ratifying CIFTA, the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms. On its face, the treaty sounds reasonable because it would “prevent, combat, and eradicate the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials” (emphasis added). However, upon reading the bill we discover the following:

Link: http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/blog2/index.php/advocates/national-hydrogen-association-report-on-positive-growth-for-h2-cars/

The National Hydrogen Association has come out with a document called the “Energy Evolution: An Analysis of Alternative Vehicles and Fuels to 2100.” In this document is a comparison of 15 vehicle and fuel alternatives that can cut greenhouse gases and provide energy independence from now to the turn of the century.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/02-2

Got to hand it Max Baucus (D-Montana). He knows how to follow orders. He’s in charge of health care reform in the Senate. And he’s following the precise orders of the health insurance industry. The health insurance industry says – keep single payer off the table. And Max snaps to and keeps single payer off the table. On Tuesday, for example, Max will host a roundtable discussion on Capitol Hill titled “Expanding Health Care Coverage.” Max has invited 15 people to testify. Who has Max invited to be around the table? Blue Cross Blue Shield. America’s Health Insurance Plans – the private health insurance industry lobby.

Link: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/05/ecosocialism-for-a-society-of-good-ancestors-part-one/

The world is getting hotter, and the main cause is greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activity. Enormous damage has already been done, and we will have to live with the consequences of past emissions for decades, perhaps even centuries. Unless we rapidly and drastically cut emissions, the existing damage will turn to catastrophe.

Link: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/05/monsanto-and-its-philanthropy/

Over a period of several years Monsanto, a multi-billion dollar transnational corporation (TNC), has worked very hard to build its image as a champion of the poor. To legitimize this image it is engaged in a high profile effort through giving grants to some established NGOs such as the World Vision.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/five-things-you-should-know-about-the-torture-memos/

Judge Andrew Napolitano- I have read the 175 pages of legal memoranda (”the memos”) that the Department of Justice (DoJ) released last week. They consist of letters written by Bush DoJ officials to the Deputy General Counsel of the CIA concerning the techniques that may be used by American intelligence agents when interrogating “high value” detainees at facilities outside the U.S. The memos describe in vivid, gut-wrenching detail the procedures that the CIA apparently inquired about. The memos then proceed to authorize every procedure asked about, and to commend the CIA for taking the time to ask.

Link: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22529.htm

The best kept secret of the Bush’s war crimes is that thousands of children have been imprisoned, tortured, and otherwise denied rights under the Geneva Conventions and related international agreements. Yet both Congress and the media have strangely failed to identify the very existence of child prisoners as a war crime. In the Islamic world, however, there is no such silence. Indeed, the prophet Mohammed was the first to counsel warriors not to harm innocent children.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/1/torture_expert_alfred_mccoy_obama_reluctance

This week, President Obama said waterboarding is torture but gave no indication he is planning to hold anyone accountable for authorizing it. We speak with University of Wisconsin professor, Alfred McCoy, author of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/chry-m01.shtml

Chrysler—the third largest US automaker—filed for bankruptcy in New York Thursday, announcing that it would close its manufacturing facilities until it emerges from a Chapter 11 reorganization. The move threatens the livelihoods of 54,000 hourly and salaried workers in the US and Canada and hundreds of thousands of retirees and workers at dealerships, parts suppliers and other related companies in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and other states.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2009/may2009/garz-m01.shtml

Spain’s top investigative judge, Baltasar Garzón, has launched a new criminal investigation into allegations of torture at Guantánamo Bay and other US prison camps that will target the “possible material authors, enablers and accomplices” of the illegal abuse of detainees.

Link: http://rawstory.com/08/blog/2009/05/01/john-dean-rice-may-have-admitted-to-conspiracy/

In little-noticed comments Thursday, the former White House counsel for President Richard Nixon John Dean said Thursday that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have unwittingly admitted to a criminal conspiracy when questioned about torture by a group of student videographers at Stanford.

Link: http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/05/01/us-to-drop-israel-lobbyist-spy-case/

The U.S. government Friday said it would drop charges in an espionage case against two pro-Israel lobbyists because it was unlikely to win at trial and classified information would have to be disclosed. Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, former American Israel Public Affairs Committee officials, were accused of conspiring with a former Pentagon analyst to provide defense information to foreign government officials, policy analysts and the media.

Link: http://www.rense.com/general85/pedopro.htm

The National Prayer Network has just produced a 10-minute video that rips the veil of secrecy off Democrats' efforts to pass a pedophile-protecting federal hate crimes bill. Incorporating video from last week's House Judiciary mark-up and Wednesday's debate on the floor of the House, this new NPN video provides powerful documentation so all fighters for freedom can accurately describe the federal hate bill as pedophile-protecting legislation. Watch the video now on the homepage of www.truthtellers.org. Invite as many as possible to do the same. Call every member of the Senate Judiciary Committee immediately. Their names and those of all Senators are posted on the action page at www.truthtellers.org. Call to Congress 1-877-851-6437 toll-free or 1-202-225-3121 toll.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/01/iraq-britain-inquiry

It's hardly surprising that those responsible for the human and social catastrophe unleashed by the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, on both sides of the Atlantic, should be desperate to rewrite its history – or try to salvage the shattered reputation of those armies that carried it out. In Britain, as the bulk of its troops withdraw after a campaign that has already lasted longer than the second world war, that propaganda offensive has now reached fever pitch.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/01/recession-food-handouts-america-virginia

Working parents feed their children in soup kitchens as cost of living soars Each Friday, teachers in elementary schools in a corner of the richest country in the world quietly slip packs of peanut butter, fruit and granola bars into some pupils' bags - enough food to get them through the weekend before school dinners resume on Monday.

Link: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m53859&hd=&size=1&l=e

A false claim is wafting through the press: Obama is hanging tough with Benjamin Netanyahu, he’s going to "twist Israel’s arm" and at long last force the Jewish state into a two-state agreement, settling the Israel-Palestine question for good. There’s even talk that Obama backs the Arab League’s 2002 peace initiative, complete with its main demand: Israel’s withdrawal to its 1967 borders.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/estabrook05012009.html

“When we convince the American people that it will be a long war.” --Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, after the 9/11/2001 attacks, answering a reporter's question, “How will we know when we've won the war on terror?” A generation ago, when the Reagan administration came into office, they announced that their foreign policy would be "a war on terror." They rejected with scorn the Carter administration's assertion that the theme of American foreign policy should be the promotion of human rights (a pious hope at best under Carter, who supported US client dictators in Iran, Indonesia, Nicaragua, and elsewhere).

Link: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/139243/what%27s_behind_the_epidemic_of_family-killings_could_it_be_anti-depressants_/

Economic stress is usually blamed, but a bunch of government-approved psychoactive drugs have proven homicidal and suicidal side effects.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/rights/139272/super_prude_prosecutors_charge_teenagers_with_pornography_and_worse_for_sexy_text_messages/

Sending a nude or semi-nude picture to a friend's cell phone is apparently a crime -- if you're a teen. "Taking nude pictures of yourself--nothing good can come of it." -Police Capt. George Seranko, Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Link: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1231.htm

FSB reports circulating in the Kremlin today are stating that United States Supreme Court Justice David Souter has been forced to resign over his refusing an order from Bush-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts to support the planned implementation of Martial Law within the US...

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2009/05/01/the-nafta-flu

Robert Wallace, a professor and frequent writer on socio-ecological and health issues, including at his blog Farming Pathogens, explains how agribusiness' thirst for cheap labor and cheap land set the stage for the swine flu epidemic to spread so quickly. Squalid conditions inside industrial farms provide a fertile breeding ground for disease (Compassion in World Farming) CASES OF swine flu H1N1 are now reported in Honduras, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Austria, Thailand, Israel, etc. Can't keep up at this point.

Link: http://news.scotsman.com/world/American-icon-wins-a-stay.5225475.jp

CHRYSLER, one of the United States' most iconic car makers, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday as it was announced that a rescue deal with the Italian firm Fiat had been reached. President Barack Obama said the partnership would give the country's third-largest car manufacturer a chance "not only to survive but to thrive". He said it would save 30,000 jobs.

Link: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30949

Fourth day of hunger strike, the Iranian government’s attempts to intimidate Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, her family and her lawyers. Sentenced to eight years in prison on a spying charge, Saberi been on hunger strike since 21 April. “The Iranian authorities are applying a great deal of pressure on Roxana’s parents to get them to deny that their daughter is on hunger strike,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge the Iranian authorities to stop this intimidation. We also urge them to let her lawyers visit her in Evin prison and to respect her rights.”

Link: http://www.prisonplanet.com/pesticides-shown-to-be-huge-parkinsons-disease-risk.html

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, most researchers believe exposure to some kind of toxin or toxins in the environment triggers the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD) But a new study just published in the American Journal of Epidemiology by University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) scientists places pesticides at the top of that list. They found that exposure to a combination of two widely used pesticides increased the risk of Parkinson’s disease by an incredible 75 percent.

Link: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4654.shtml

USA TODAY attributes its decline to a drop-off in hotel occupancy due to the economic slump plus a December price increase for non-subscription copies. Does that give you a clue? It’s famous for the easy-to-read, non-investigative, non-challenging and totally bland as a hotel room’s wallpaper writing with lots of pictures to boot, duh. It is the antithesis of what journalism should be -- and the opposite of what the Internet is, rich with facts, opinions, theories, history, politics, blogs, websites, search engines, conspiracy theories, truth, lies and videotape, name it.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article18750

Barack Hussein Obama (BHO) has just passed the 100 day mark of his presidency. Decent anti-racist humanitarians can ask the question: how many people have died avoidably in the Occupied Territories of the American Empire under President Obama? The answer: 180,000 including 113,000 under-5 year old infants; for details read on.

Link: http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/61860

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been making headlines for months. The story goes like this, or at least this is what we’re told: a few lightly armed Somali pirates in small boats manage to threaten big ships, demand ransoms in the millions of dollars, get paid, and flee. The pirates have repeated this operation so often that the accumulated ransoms have reached some $100 million.