Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/health/01radiation.html?_r=2&th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1280660413-W7IXbUyJfJGTd9yDb5aJ6g

When Alain Reyes’s hair suddenly fell out in a freakish band circling his head, he was not the only one worried about his health. His co-workers at a shipping company avoided him, and his boss sent him home, fearing he had a contagious disease.

Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52343

The oceans are the lifeblood of our planet and plankton its red blood cells. Those vital "red blood cells" have declined more than 40 percent since 1950 and the rate of decline is increasing due to climate change, scientists reported this week. "Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2, and ultimately support all of our fisheries," said Boris Worm of Canada's Dalhousie University and one of the world's leading experts on the global oceans. "An ocean with less phytoplankton will function differently," said Worm, the co-author of a new study on plankton published this week in Nature.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/auto-j31.shtml

President Obama’s four-hour visit to Detroit Friday brought him to the center of the economic catastrophe created by the profit system. The “Motor City” was once a byword for decent-paying jobs in the world’s biggest industry. But Detroit is now synonymous with poverty, urban decay, mass unemployment and the virtual breakdown of a functioning society.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/pers-j31.shtml

The same week that European officials announced the results of bank stress tests designed to give bankers a green light to continue their speculative ways, European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet published a column in the Financial Times (July 22) arguing for an end to economic stimulus programs and the rigorous imposition of austerity measures across Europe.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/army-j31.shtml

As US military fatalities in Afghanistan hit a new high in July, the US Army issued a report exposing record suicides, drug use and other signs of deep demoralization among its ranks after a decade of colonial-style wars. Another six US troops were killed in a series of four separate attacks across southern Afghanistan on Thursday and Friday, bringing the total death toll for the month to at least 66. This follows the previous high set last month of 60. Both were at least double the average number of fatalities for the first five months of this year.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/31

There are places, like the medical examiners office in Tucson, Arizona, where the human cost of migration to the United States is counted. (Getty Images)Dr Bruce Parks, the chief medical examiner, is a tall, thin, quiet man. He put on rubber gloves and led me over to a zippered plastic bag sitting on a steel gurney

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/sec-lets-citi-execs-go-free-after-40-billion-subprime-lie61895

The SEC just hit two Citigroup executives with fines for concealing $40 billion in subprime mortgage debt from investors back in 2007. The biggest fine is going to Citi CFO Gary Crittenden, who will pay $100,000 to settle allegations that he screwed over his own investors. The year of the alleged wrongdoing, Crittenden took home $19.4 million. That’s right. Crittenden will lose one-half of one percent of his income from the year he hid a quagmire of bailout-inducing insanity from his own investors. That’s it. No indictment. No prison time. Crittenden doesn’t even have to formally acknowledge any wrongdoing.

Link: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0731/medicare-anniversary-lawmakers-tout-inevitability-single-payer/

A trio of progressives in Congress invoked the 45th birthday of Medicare's enactment Friday to call for a national single payer health insurance system, predicting it's "inevitable" if Americans want lower costs.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-israel-has-crept-into-the-eu-without-anyone-noticing-2040066.html

The death of five Israeli servicemen in a helicopter crash in Romania this week raised scarcely a headline. There was a Nato-Israeli exercise in progress. Well, that's OK then. Now imagine the death of five Hamas fighters in a helicopter crash in Romania this week. We'd still be investigating this extraordinary phenomenon. Now mark you, I'm not comparing Israel and Hamas. Israel is the country that justifiably slaughtered more than 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza 19 months ago – more than 300 of them children – while the vicious, blood-sucking and terrorist Hamas killed 13 Israelis (three of them soldiers who actually shot each other by mistake).

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia-pacific/2010/07/201073124515884622.html

Around 200 people raised the Morning Star flag in Indonesia's Papua province in December 2001, in a symbolic move to mark the Papuan independence campaign that has been pursued since 1962. Filep Karma was arrested at that ceremony and jailed 15 years for flying the outlawed Papua flag.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/colombia-us-military-aid-may-have-sparked-civilian-killings61904

When Colombian military units receive an increase in U.S. aid, they allegedly kill more civilians and frame the deaths as combat kills, according to a new report. The report, released Thursday by two American human rights organizations, raises serious questions about the implications of U.S. military aid to Colombia. The United States has provided more than $7 billion in mostly military aid to Colombia since 2000 for fighting drugs and counterinsurgency — making it the largest recipient of U.S. military aid after Israel.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/wiki-j30.shtml

In response to the WikiLeaks posting of tens of thousands of secret documents on the Afghanistan war, the Pentagon has launched a manhunt within the military and called in the FBI for possible prosecution of the actual whistleblower who supplied the evidence of US atrocities. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, used a Pentagon press conference Thursday to vilify WikiLeaks and its editor, Julian Assange, while vowing to crack down on anyone involved in making public the documents comprising the so-called Afghan War Diary posted by the organization.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/30/google_teams_up_with_cia_to

Investors at the CIA and Google are backing a company called "Recorded Future" that monitors tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts in real time in order to find patterns, events and relationships that may predict the future. The news comes amidst Google’s so-called "Wi-Spy" scandal, that refers to revelations that Google’s Street View cars operating in some thirty countries snooped on private Wi-Fi networks over the last three years. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m68450&hd=&size=1&l=e

3 days after documents of 8 years of war crimes against the people of Afghanistan were leaked, what does the U.S. government do? Admit or apologize for the crimes? No -- go after the leakers! Pentagon Launches 'Manhunt' for Document Leaker. Cut off the funding for the wars? No, vote another $59 billion! On Friday U.S. Conducts Afghan massacre - On Tuesday Congress Votes to fund more death. The massive release of documents by Wikileaks.org only proves what our movement has been saying for years: the illegitimate occupation is built on regarding all civillians as potential enemies, killing them in strikes from the air, detaining them indefinitely, depriving them of safe havens from either the Taliban, the war lords in Karzai's government, or US troops, and carving up the resources under Afghanistan for foreign use. In the name of a war for empire, everyone here and there is less safe.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/30/european-union-roma-human-rights

Criticism comes in wake of France's decision to expel illegal Roma immigrants and destroy hundreds of their encampments. Amnesty International says the EU has committed a 'serious breach of human rights' towards the Roma. The European Union was today accused of "turning a blind eye" as countries across Europe carried out a wave of expulsions and introduced new legislation targeting the Roma. Human rights groups criticised the EU for failing to address the real issues driving Europe's largest ethnic minority to migrate in the first place and for choosing not to upbraid countries for breaking both domestic and EU laws in their treatment of them.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26050.htm

"There are alarming links between increased reports of extrajudicial executions of civilians by the Colombian army and units that receive U.S. military financing," John Lindsay-Poland, lead author of a two-year study on the question, told IPS.

Link: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/wikileaks-insurance-file/#ixzz0vEjtcYp4

In the wake of strong U.S. government statements condemning WikiLeaks’ recent publishing of 77,000 Afghan War documents, the secret-spilling site has posted a mysterious encrypted file labeled “insurance.”

Link: http://www.henrymakow.com/black_woman_defends_racism.html

"I'm American to the bone and Black American to the marrow. Encouraging and socially bullying folks into interracial unions is dangerous for us. We're only 13% of the population; we will not exist as a people if we mix out."

Link: http://news.antiwar.com/2010/07/30/record-us-toll-in-afghanistan-as-violence-continues-to-soar/

Early this morning, the US reported on three soldiers slain in Afghanistan, officially putting the death toll for the month of July at a record level since the Afghan War began in 2001. Hours later three more US troops were reported killed, bringing the toll to 66.

Infowars.com received an email today from a pilot for a major airline who claims all passengers are now forced through naked body scanners in El Paso, Texas. “‘I’m a pilot for a major airline and overnighted in El Paso. Came to the airport the next day and everyone except for crew and airport employees were sent through the scanners. Stood there for a while and did not see anyone sent through the metal detectors,” the pilot writes.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/201072811155152491.html

In the days since whistleblower website Wikileaks released more than 90,000 military reportschronicling the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2009, journalists and commentators have written extensively about the deteriorating security situationthey describe. The mass of classified communications has served to highlight links between the Taliban and Pakistan,the spreading danger of improvised explosive devices and the woeful disciplineof Afghan security forces.

Link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/the_economy_cant_recover_until.html

The economic recovery is sputtering, as Neil Irwin documents. Economists think growth between April and June was 2 to 2.5 percent, which is anemic at best. Job growth has been disappointing. Lately, I've been asking economists about this, and everyone says the same thing: The normal cycle of recovery has broken.

Link: http://www.enewspf.com/index.php/latest-news/analysis/17840-obama-administration-in-danger-of-establishing-new-normal-with-worst-bush-era-policies-says-aclu-

The Obama administration has repudiated some of the Bush administration's most egregious national security policies but is in danger of institutionalizing others permanently into law, thereby creating a troubling "new normal," according to a new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2010/07/29/terrible-truth-about-good-war

Why the classified Pentagon documents on Afghanistan released by WikiLeaks present a damning portrait of who is suffering from the U.S. war. THE RELEASE of more than 92,000 classified documents relating to the war in Afghanistan by the muckraking Web site WikiLeaks has left the Obama administration and its war partners trying to defend the indefensible.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/econ-j29.shtml

More than one in five Americans in 2009 suffered a household income loss of 25 percent or more over the previous year, according to a new report sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and entitled “Economic Security at Risk.” The report documents a steady increase in economic insecurity since the 1960s, and concludes that annual income losses of 25 percent or greater increased by 49.9 percent between 1985 and 2009.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/gulf-j29.shtml

The first 100 days of the BP Gulf oil catastrophe have provided an object lesson in the destructiveness and irrationality of capitalism.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/pers-j29.shtml

The public release of the 92,000 secret documents on the Afghanistan war by WikiLeaks, together with the reaction of the media and the official establishment, has immense political implications for the antiwar struggle in the US and internationally.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/29/patrick_cockburn_on_missing_billions_in

In Iraq, an official audit by the US Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction found that the Pentagon cannot account for almost $9 billion taken from Iraqi oil revenues between 2004 and 2007 for use in reconstruction. Meanwhile, a new medical study has found dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004. We speak with Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for the London Independent.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/29-6

"In watching the flow of events over the past decade or so, it is hard to avoid the feeling that something very fundamental has happened in world history." This sentiment, introducing the essay that made Francis Fukuyama a household name, commands renewed attention today, albeit from a different perspective.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/28/arizona-us-immigration-law-protest

A federal judge yesterday slapped down key elements of a controversial anti- immigration law in Arizona, handing a temporary victory to the Obama administration against a rising tide of anti-immigration feeling in the US. Judge Susan Bolton granted a preliminary injunction which prevents implementation of two main elements of the legislation: the requirement that police determine the immigration status of people they arrest or question should they suspect them of being illegal, and the part of the new law that would make it a state crime for a foreigner to be in Arizona without registration papers.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/147667/4_bogus_attacks_bankers_and_their_political_puppets_are_using_to_attack_elizabeth_warren/

Nominating a dedicated reformer like Warren will send a clear signal to the entire world that the U.S. government is serious about regulating the banks that drove the global economy off a cliff. Nominating anybody else will send a clear signal that bankers still have veto power over key political appointments. By contrast, there are no compelling arguments against appointing Warren. Four have basically been offered, and they are all so weak that it's hard to view them as anything but bad-faith excuses to block somebody the bank lobby simply doesn't like.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66S0JP20100729?type=domesticNews&feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

Foreclosures rose in 3 of every four large U.S. metro areas in this year's first half, likely ruling out sustained home price gains until 2013, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38457713/ns/business-economy_at_a_crossroads/

The U.S. economic recovery will remain slow deep into next year, held back by shoppers reluctant to spend and employers hesitant to hire, according to an Associated Press survey of leading economists.

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=13137

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.

Link: http://www.naturalnews.com/029314_waterways_contamination.html

The President's Cancer Panel (PCP) recently released its yearly report to the President outlining the status of cancer in America. This year's report focuses primarily on environmental factors that contribute to cancer risk. According to the report, pharmaceutical drugs are a serious environmental pollutant, particularly in the way they continue to contaminate waterways across the country (and the world).

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38463013/ns/technology_and_science/

Users' personal information cannot now be made private, security consultant says. The personal details of 100 million Facebook users have been collected and published online in a downloadable file, meaning they will now be unable to make their publicly available information private.

Link: http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/jim-turpin-endless-war-and-american.html

Orwell would be proud. The United States is about to begin its tenth year in Afghanistan in an attempt to prove that “endless war” is not only possible, but the accepted norm in American society. But why has militarism become such an integral part of our political and social lives in this country? I see three main areas of influence on why we accept the present state of aggressive militarism in this country:

Link: http://news.antiwar.com/2010/07/28/sen-graham-prosecute-wikileaks-for-undermining-the-war-effort/

'We Need to Go After Anyone Who Was Involved in the Leak' With the Obama Administration still trying to contain the damage a massive leak of classified documents has done to their Afghanistan war narrative, Sen. Lindsey Graham is calling on the administration to step up to the plate and attack WikiLeaks directly.

Link: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0728/top-1-making-280-1979/

In the wake of BP's calamitous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, CEO Tony Hayward is stepping down, but he will be receiving a severance package amounting to an estimated $18 million.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/afgh-j28.shtml

Little more than 24 hours after the release of 91,000 documents detailing US military atrocities in Afghanistan, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives gave final approval to a funding bill to pay for the escalation of the war. By a margin of 308-114, well over the two-thirds majority required under an expedited procedure known as “suspension of the rules,” the House backed a $60 billion supplemental funding bill passed by the Senate last week.