Link: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02052010/profile3.html

While many in Congress, the press and the public have given up on the idea of even a limited public option in health care reform, Flowers and her group, Physicians for a National Health Program, are standing firm for a single-payer plan. Specifically, they want to extend the Medicare program, which they see as a functioning single-player plan, to the nation as a whole. Flowers has testified before Congress and penned Op-Eds and she has been arrested three times in her attempts to get Congress and the White House to pay attention to single-payer.

Link: http://rawstory.com/2010/02/california-senators-single-payer-bill-raked-insurance-cash/

Senators opposing bill raked in twice as much insurance cash as backers. With national health reform in peril, California has taken matters into its own hands. Its Democratic-led Senate last Thursday approved the creation of a single-payer insurance system. Authored by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the bill passed in a largely party-line vote of 22-14.

Link: http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20100205/157780962.html

U.S. plans to place elements of its global missile shield in Romania pose a real threat to Russia's national security, a Russian military analyst said on Friday. Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Thursday his country was ready to host U.S. medium-range interceptor missiles to counter a potential ballistic missile attack, but stressed that they would not be directed at Russia.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50235

Over the past two decades, Ricardo Dominguez has made a career for himself tweaking the sensibilities of government officials and developing software tools meant to disrupt the status quo. Presently, he leads a team at the University of California at San Diego that is designing a mobile application to assist migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

Link: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/us-says-200-troops-on-the-ground-in-pakistan/#ixzz0eiIDcl0v

The U.S. military has 200 troops on the ground in Pakistan. That’s about the double the previously-disclosed number of forces there. It’s a whole lot more than the “no American troops in Pakistan” promised by special envoy Richard Holbrooke. And let’s not even get into the number of U.S. intelligence operatives and security contractors on Pakistani soil.

Link: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/jobs-are-up-i-mean-down-whatever/

A confusing employment report this morning: employment down, but unemployment also down. Nor is this a story about workers dropping out of the labor force; the report shows an increase in the employment-population ratio, the percentage of adults who are working. What?

Link: http://wire.antiwar.com/2010/02/05/bus-hospital-bombed-in-pakistan/

Suspected Sunni militants bombed a bus carrying Shiite worshippers and two hours later attacked a hospital treating the victims, killing 25 people and wounded 100 on Friday in a strike on Pakistan's largest city.

Link: http://news.antiwar.com/2010/02/05/report-eight-us-troops-died-for-worthless-afghan-base/

An executive summary was released today regarding the October Taliban attack on Combat Outpost Keating, a Nuristan Province base. The attack was driven back, but not before eight Americans were killed.

Link: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1960415,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

By killing three U.S. soldiers in a bomb attack in a remote corner of northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, Feb. 3, the Taliban scored a political jackpot. With anti-American sentiment cresting in Pakistani public opinion, the presence of the three American trainers in a convoy passing through Koto village when it was struck by a roadside bomb has set off a flurry of questions and even wild conspiracy theories about the U.S. presence in the country.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security-technology-and-liberty/tell-google-not-enter-agreement-nsa

Yesterday, The Washington Post reported that Google — the world’s largest Internet search company — is negotiating an information-sharing agreement with the National Security Agency (NSA) — the world’s largest network for routine, mass communications surveillance. The partnership is supposed to help protect Google’s networks, but the ramifications of companies like Google working with the NSA are frightening. Concerned? You can take action today by sending a letter to Google, letting them know that you object to such a deal and value your privacy online.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/02/20102514519317857.html

The US unemployment rate has reached a five-month low of 9.7 per cent, despite US employers reporting that they cut 20,000 jobs from their payrolls in January. Before Friday's announcement from the US labour department, it was widely reported that the number of employed was likely to rise by between 5,000 and 15,000.

Link: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/306.php

Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans took to the streets on Wednesday, January 27 to protest the inauguration of Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo Soza. Lobo was the victor in fraudulent elections held last November and his new regime is seen by the Honduran resistance as a continuation and consolidation of the coup regime that first came to power by overthrowing democratically-elected President, Manuel Zelaya, on June 28, 2009. During the march I caught up with Rafael Alegría, a key leader in the National Resistance Front, and a leading Honduran figure in the international peasant movement, Vía Campesina.

Link: http://www.redress.cc:80/palestine/jcook20100205

Over the past four decades Israel has defrauded Palestinians working inside Israel of more than two billion US dollars by deducting from their salaries contributions for welfare benefits to which they were never entitled, Israeli economists have revealed. A new report, “State Robbery”, to be published later this month, says the “theft” continued even after the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994 and part of the money was supposed to be transferred to a special fund on behalf of the workers.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/02/201024102050255189.html

Many in Pakistan believe Siddiqui is innocent and thousands have protested against the verdict. Thousands of Pakistanis have staged rallies against the conviction of a Pakistani scientist found guilty of trying to kill American servicemen in Afghanistan. Protests were held on Thursday in several cities in Pakistan, where many believe that Aafia Siddiqui is innocent.