Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/17-2

He hit "publish" on the last Wednesday in July, in the middle of a long afternoon. "I also have become homeless and am on the verge of suicide. I slept out in the wood last night and didn't gett very much sleep. I hate to bring you people down with my problems but I thought you would like to know this. I don't know what else to say except I'm very sorry it turned out like this but I can take the strain of living like this very much longer." (All posts are reproduced as published.)

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/17-4

WASHINGTON – Israel has "eight days" to launch a military strike against Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility and stop Tehran from acquiring a functioning atomic plant, a former US envoy to the UN has said.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/states-paralysis-americas-surrender-spectacle-terror62387

As the link between the media and corporate power becomes more integrated, the visual theater of terror mimics the politics of the "official" war on terror. Echoing the discourse of the "official" war on terror, the violence of extremist groups as well as state-sanctioned and corporate violence are understood almost exclusively within the discourse of moral absolutes pitting good against evil. Whether it is former President George W. Bush's claim, "You are either with us or against us," or Osama bin Laden's injunction, "You are either a believer or an infidel,"

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/zach-carter-are-handouts-for-billionaires-more-important-than-feeding-children62388

The crazy conservative assault on government spending has become one of the most irrational economic policy debates in recent years. The Republican Party is trying to maintain the fiction that direct economic relief for millions of working Americans is a fiscally irresponsible splurge, while simultaneously backing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of economically useless tax cuts for the wealthy. The demands are staggering: cut food stamps for the poor, but preserve perks for billionaires.

Link: http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_Congress_cadre_wants_Internet_ke_08172010.html

Four members of Congress bashed a "net neutrality" proposal made by Google and Verizon, calling on US regulators to find their own way to insure all data is treated equally online. "Rather than expansion upon a proposal by two large communications companies with a vested financial interest in the outcome, formal FCC action is needed," the legislators said in a letter to Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski.

Link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h2RPrV9gsoCLqar4c6gx9CsO8RoA

Most young Americans entering university this year can't write in cursive, think email is too slow, that Beethoven's a dog and Michelangelo a computer virus, according to an annual list compiled by two academics at a US college.

Link: http://inhabitat.com/2010/08/17/report-finds-79-of-oil-remains-in-gulf-contrary-to-popular-belief/

Contrary to what the media is telling you, a report from the Georgia Sea Grant and the University of Georgia released yesterday says that a whopping 79% of the oil from the Gulf oil spill still remains in the waters there. The report concludes that the media is way off in their estimates — they are saying that a mere 25% of the oil remains — and that the effects of this spill will be following us for decades while the oil slowly dissipates. The report notes that the large plumes of oil present deep underneath the surface of the Gulf are most likely still present and perhaps will be for years to come. White House: 75 percent of spilled Gulf oil gone

Link: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/08/government-lies-to-american-people.html

The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) just announced: For the seafood to pose a health risk, the food would have to be heavily contaminated with oil, and would therefore have a strong odor and taste of oil. That is patently untrue. “Oil is a complex mixture containing substances like benzene, heavy metals, arsenic, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons -- all known to cause human health problems such as cancer, birth defects or miscarriages,” said Kenneth Olden, founding dean of New York’s CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, who is monitoring a panel on possible delayed effects. Corexit breaks down oil into constituent chemicals. So there could easily be toxic levels in the Gulf of compounds that don't smell anything like oil.

Link: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1399.htm

A grim Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) report prepared for Prime Minister Putin states that a British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also known as MI6) ‘hit team’ was behind the assassination Matthew Simmons [photo top left] who was one of the United States top oil experts and the most outspoken critic of the US and BP’s handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil leak catastrophe.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1303721/Corkscrew-deaths-seals-British-coast-baffling-scientists.html

For animal lovers, the sight is as heartbreaking as it is mysterious. Scores of dead seals have been washed up on shore with terrible ‘corkscrew’ injuries, as if they have passed through a giant pencil sharpener. Such is the concern that police, scientists, the RSPCA and National Trust are all investigating the disturbing phenomenon.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7949773/Free-school-milk-the-white-stuff-might-not-be-the-right-stuff.html

In fact, there are strong arguments that giving cow’s milk to children is doing more harm than good. All of the nutrients in cow’s milk can be found elsewhere in a balanced diet. Although it is frequently cited as an important source of calcium for growing children, we can absorb only a third of the amount it contains due to the high levels of sodium, phosphorus and protein that are also present. Green vegetables – if children can be persuaded to eat them – are a much more efficient vehicle.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9223657

Iran said Monday it has decided where to build 10 new uranium enrichment sites inside protected mountain strongholds and will start construction on the first in March, defying international efforts to curb its nuclear program.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1303674/Dr-David-Kellys-cousin-claims-did-commit-suicide.html

She said: 'From the day I heard he'd died I had an instinct that there was something very unusual about it and I don't believe the official explanation. 'Looking back, was someone frightened that he was going to say more, that he had so much information? 'A man in his position would have been privy to a lot of things, and seen a lot of things, and I believe he was killed.'

Link: http://www.morphcity.com/home/82-sugar-beets-monsanto-wins-again-

Last Friday a federal judge imposed a nationwide ban on GMO sugar beets and it was overturned the next business day. Sugar beets comprise 50% of the sugar used in US food, and 95% of the sugar beets grown in the US are GMO. It is the jurisdiction of the US Department of Agriculture to determine whether plants are environmentally safe; this case is about whether the plants can cross pollinate (by wind, insects, etc) and contaminate other plants. This could have cost Monsanto billions of dollars. Less than 2 weeks ago, wild growing canola in North Dakota was discovered to be 86% GMO. Because GMO crops are crossed with herbicide resistant plants (usually weeds), they grow like weeds and contaminate natural plants. Alarmingly, two of the canola samples collected by scientists showed that multiple genes from different species of GMO canola plants cross pollinated without cultivation, and probably for several generations. The implication of this is that GMO seeds can readily contaminate natural seeds and become out of control.

Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52519

It is necessary to move from a "masculine" economy based on competition and a win-lose mentality to a "feminine" win-win economy based on the concept of collaboration, says writer Rose Marie Muraro, one of the pioneers of Brazil's feminist movement.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/yates08172010.html

Sometimes events conspire to make you think that things are worse than you imagined. On August 3, Marilyn Buck died. Marilyn was a fighter in the struggle for racial justice and against the most virulent pestilence in the world—United States imperialism. Unlike most of us, she put her money where her mouth was and her life on the line. It is easy now to forget that the agents of repression—the police, the FBI, the courts, the government itself—consciously and actively targeted those who were active in and led the civil rights and Vietnam war resistance movements. They infiltrated and acted as provocateurs in movement organizations; they arrested innocent people; they enacted and enforced draconian laws; they illegally tapped phones and spied on any and all persons suspected of “subversive” activity; and they tortured and murdered those who they deemed to be the most dangerous radicals.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/aclu-sues-mississippi-school-excluding-teenager-wearing-tuxedo-yearbook

JACKSON, MS – The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Mississippi today filed a lawsuit against a Mississippi high school that excluded a female student's name and senior portrait from the yearbook rather than publish a photo of her in a tuxedo. The lawsuit charges that Ceara Sturgis was unfairly discriminated against by the Wesson Attendance Center based on her sex and unfair gender stereotypes.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/dreaded-hindenburg-omen-will-play-out-within-4-weeks/

UBS Financial Services Director Art Cashin says that we’ll know within 3 or 4 weeks whether the dreaded Hindenburg Omen, a set of market factors that precede a stock market collapse, will unfold as many are now predicting. The Hindenburg Omen, named after the May 1937 Hindenburg disaster during which the German zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg suddenly caught fire and was destroyed, is a technical analysis that, when fulfilled, portends a greater likelihood of a stock market collapse.

Link: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/17/poll-opposition-to-iraq-afghanistan-wars-reach-all-time-high/

A new CNN poll reveals Americans' opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is at an all time high. Two-thirds of Americans favor President Obama's plan to remove combat troops from Iraq by the end of the month as opposition to the war in that country, as well as the one in Afghanistan, has climbed to new highs. According to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, Obama's withdrawal plan wins support not because Americans think the U.S. has achieved its goals in Iraq - only three in 10 feel that way - but because a majority believe that the U.S. will never achieve its goals in that country no matter how long troops remain there. That's one reason why 69 percent oppose the war in Iraq - the highest amount of opposition in any CNN poll.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/20108171445535995.html

Israeli soldiers are routinely taking degrading photographs of dead and captured Palestinians and posting them on the internet, human rights groups have said. The claims come a day after the Israeli military attempted to quell controversy over photographs showing a female soldierposing provocativelywith blindfolded Palestinian detainees.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/08/201081612554999771.html

How can we process the idea of 20 million people left homeless and six million facing immanent starvation, with little or no locally produced food available for at least the next two years? How do you quantify feeding and housing 20,000,000 people - the seven zeros make the sheer scope of the disaster far more tangible than the word "million"?

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/20108171426594613.html

Abir Aramin was walking home after school when she was hit by a rubber bullet. An Israeli court has ruled that the Israeli government is responsible for the death of a young Palestinian girl in the occupied West Bank three years ago, lawyers for the family said. The Jerusalem court found Israeli forces responsible for the death of Abir Aramin, 10, in the town of Anata, north of Jerusalem, in January 2007.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/16/journalist_exposes_how_private_investigation_firm

An exposé in The Atlantic magazine reveals how one of the world’s largest private investigation firms, Kroll, hired by oil giant Chevron, tried to recruit an American journalist to undermine a massive $27 billion lawsuit against Chevron brought by the residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon. We speak with the journalist, Mary Cuddehe, and with Han Shan, the coordinator for Amazon Watch’s Clean Up Ecuador campaign. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/16/harvard-israeli-shares-sale-boycott

Harvard University has sold millions of dollars in shares in Israeli companies, a move that it insists is purely financial but which has already been claimed by a pro-Palestinian group as a victory in its boycott and divestment campaign against Israel.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/16-7

New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman, in his column today, is right to expose the attacks on Social Security as being the work of right-wing ideologues eager to destroy a government program that works, backed by cowardly Democrats who want to show their fiscal "responsibility" by getting tough with future pensioners.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/16-9

A former Israeli soldier has sparked controversy after posting pictures of herself on Facebook posing with bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners. The photographs show Eden Abergil positioned provocatively with the men, prompting lurid comments from other users of the popular social networking site.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/pers-a16.shtml

A lengthy article in the New York Times on Sunday entitled “A Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents” has provided a glimpse into the extent of the Obama administration’s covert wars. Obama has not only continued, he has expanded the murderous operations that were waged under the banner of the “war on terror” by the CIA and Pentagon during the Bush administration.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2010/08/16/homeless-and-hungry-at-college

A shocking new trend is developing at college campuses across the country (Jonathan Greenwald) AS THE mainstream press frets that the much-touted "economic-recovery" appears to have lost steam, the economic crisis continues to escalate for ordinary people.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2010/08/16/disaster-to-social-catastrophe

THE FLOODS which have devastated huge areas of Pakistan may be an act of nature, but the worsening humanitarian crisis that followed is a direct result of the failures of Pakistan's venal leaders--and the impact of the U.S. "war on terror."

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/uncovering-lies-that-are-sinking-oil62345

The rampant use of toxic dispersants, out-of-state private contractors being brought in to spray them and US Coast Guard complicity are common stories now in the four states most affected by BP's Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

Link: http://www.truth-out.org/keith-olbermann-there-no-ground-zero-mosque62376

"They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/16/AR2010081604569.html?referrer=emailarticle

Georgia scientists say their analysis shows that most of that BP oil the government said was gone from the Gulf of Mexico is still there. The scientists say as much as 80 percent of the oil still lurks under the surface. The Georgia team said it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that is dissolved is actually gone. The report from University of Georgia and other scientists came from an analysis of federal estimates.

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=13247

President Barack Obama has warned the Turkish prime minister that Ankara's position on Israel and Iran could lessen its chances of obtaining US weapons, a report said Monday.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/world/147865/noam_chomsky%3A_the_real_reasons_the_u.s._enables_israeli_crimes_and_atrocities/

Noam Chomsky: Very pleased to be with you.
KW: Speak to me about the relation between the United States and Israel. Specifically, address, as you have previously stated, how every crime, violation of international law, that Israel commits is done through the direct participation and authorization of the United States.

Link: http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/the-man-with-the-israeli-accent-uss-liberty-survivor’s-life-threatened-by-mossad-on-american-soil-while-uncle-sam-yawns/

One would think that in this–the post 9/11 age–that a direct, face-to-face threat against the life of a decorated American war hero by someone claiming to be an agent working for a Middle Eastern country tied to previous acts of terrorism against the US would rouse some concern. That is of course, unless the country from which this foreign agent hails is Israel and the war hero being threatened is a survivor of the USS LIBERTY, attacked by the Jewish state in 1967, leading to the deaths of 34 American servicemen.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysm_UJNHlxs

You should be, but not with the Muslim people.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/nader08162010.html

By RALPH NADER The Obama Administration’s treatment of its current majority ownership of bailed out General Motors and its standoffishness toward the pioneering but troubled ShoreBank, a community bank based in Chicago, are lessons in how the Big/Bad fare in Washington, D.C., as compared with the Good/Small. Having shed its bad assets and abandoned its common shareholders, the new GM emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 with a clean balance sheet and lots of taxpayer cash. For the first two quarters of 2010, it has signaled a comeback by reporting over $2 billion in profits.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/halper08162010.html

On the day before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, at 2:30 in the morning, workers sent by the Israeli authorities, protected by dozens of police, destroyed the tombstones in the last portion of the Mamilla cemetery, an historic Muslim burial ground with graves going back to the 7th Century, hitherto left untouched.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/alex-jones-show-hamid-gul-god-help-america/

In a landmark interview, Alex talks with former director of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, Hamid Gul. Mr. Gul recently characterized the “leaked” Wikileaks documents implicating him in a string of attacks against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan as “malicious, fictitious, and preposterous.”

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts08162010.html

The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery. As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times column, “Welcome to the Recovery.”