Link: http://www.alternet.org/gop-targets-african-american-women-voter-suppression-efforts

Ever since 1980, African American women have been decisive in creating a gender gap that has helped elect Democratic Presidents. How will the American Presidential election be won in November 2012? By the Republicans buying the election? Perhaps. But money cannot always buy an election. That is why Republicans have spent the last 4-6 years passing a spate of voter suppression laws in “swing states” that will make it more difficult and costly for the young, the elderly, minorities, union members and single and elderly women to cast a vote...

Link: http://www.aclu.org/blog/human-rights-national-security/torture-impunity

Yesterday, a dark chapter in American history got that much more disgraceful. Attorney General Holder announced the closure of the last two open criminal inquiries into abusive interrogations by CIA officials. The pronouncement means that not a single CIA official will be prosecuted in federal courts for any of the abuse, torture or even death that took place at the hands of CIA officers and contractors.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9508895/A-virus-that-kills-cancer-the-cure-thats-waiting-in-the-coldc.html

Sitting in a refrigerator in a Swedish laboratory is what promises to be a cheap and effective cancer treatment. So why are the trials to bring it to market not going ahead? On the snow-clotted plains of central Sweden where Wotan and Thor, the clamorous gods of magic and death, once held sway, a young, self-deprecating gene therapist has invented a virus that eliminates the type of cancer that killed Steve Jobs.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/31/obama-justice-department-immunity-bush-cia-torturer?newsfeed=true

By closing two cases of detainees tortured to death, Obama has put the US beyond any accountability under the rule of law. The Obama administration's aggressive, full-scale whitewashing of the "war on terror" crimes committed by Bush officials is now complete. Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the closing without charges of the only two cases under investigation relating to the US torture program: one that resulted in the 2002 death of an Afghan detainee at a secret CIA prison near Kabul, and the other the 2003 death of an Iraqi citizen while in CIA custody at Abu Ghraib. This decision, says the New York Times Friday, "eliminat[es] the last possibility that any criminal charges will be brought as a result of the brutal interrogations carried out by the CIA".

Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/islamic-fundamentalism-in-africa-4721/

Burundi peacekeepers arrive in Somalia. CC US Army AfricaThe proliferation of Islamic fundamentalist groups across Africa represents the latest iteration of the War on Terror. Much to the chagrin of the United States, Islamist militant groups from Nigeria to Somalia are increasingly coordinating their efforts and forging close links to al-Qaeda. This dossier will serve as a brief introduction to four of the most prominent Islamic fundamentalist groups operating in Africa today.

Link: http://www.aclu.org/blog/human-rights-national-security/torture-impunity

Yesterday, a dark chapter in American history got that much more disgraceful. Attorney General Holder announced the closure of the last two open criminal inquiries into abusive interrogations by CIA officials. The pronouncement means that not a single CIA official will be prosecuted in federal courts for any of the abuse, torture or even death that took place at the hands of CIA officers and contractors.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32572

The most urgent political challenge to the world today is how to prevent the so-called “pax Americana” from progressively degenerating, like the 19th-century so-called “pax Britannica” before it, into major global warfare. I say “so-called,” because each “pax,” in its final stages, became less and less peaceful, less and less orderly, more and more a naked imposition of belligerent competitive power based on inequality.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/30/daughter_of_billionaire_gop_donor_sheldon

When Democracy Now! senior producer Mike Burke attempted to interview billionaire casino magnate and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson inside the Republican National Convention, a woman identified as Adelson’s daughter grabbed our video camera, tried to take it into a private suite and then threw the camera to the ground. While Adelson’s daughter first accused Burke of hitting her, she later came out of the suite to apologize. The incident was caught on tape, shortly after Burke questioned another billionaire GOP donor, David Koch, as well as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele. Burke files a report and joins us to describe what happened. [includes rush transcript]

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/30-1

How the GOP presidential candidate and his private equity firm staged an epic wealth grab, destroyed jobs – and stuck others with the bill. Workers Feel the Pain of Bain

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/08/30-4

Supreme leader of Iran says nuclear weapons are "great sin" as Israel's Netanyahu calls meeting of Non-Alligned Movement a "disgrace". Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday reiterated the country's position that it has no desire for nuclear weapons, calling atomic weapons a "great sin" and renewing the call for a nuclear-free Middle East.

Link: http://youtu.be/DlwYnYQNv5U

Our prison system is a beast, gobbling resources that should be going to communities. Watch this video to find out why. Then get involved at http://beyondbars.org.

Link: http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/12890

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), formed in 1961 during the Cold War, is a group of 120 states and 17 observer states not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The NAM held its opening 2012 session yesterday under the new chairmanship of Iran, which succeeded Egypt as the Chair.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-inside-daraya--how-a-failed-prisoner-swap-turned-into-a-massacre-8084727.html

The first Western journalist to enter the town that felt Assad's fury hears witness accounts of Syria's bloodiest episode.

Link: http://www.voltairenet.org/The-Brahimi-Plan

In the aftermath of the second Russian-Chinese veto which formally prohibited foreign intervention in Syria on February 4, the West feigned seeking peace while actively organizing a vast secret war... The July 18th attack that decapitated the Syrian military command was intended to open the gates of Damascus for these Contras as part of the West’s pursuit of "regime change." This did not happen. Given the failure of these forces on the ground, and in open contempt of the third Russian-Chinese veto, the Western allies took things to the next level... They therefore sabotaged the Lavrov-Annan Plan and proclaimed their intention to assassinate President Bashar al-Assad.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/fracking/pledge-resist-fracking-writer-biologist-sandra-steingraber-issues-call-action-and-warning

I choose to belong to a vision of an unfractured New York that turns its back on 19th century thinking and death-dealing fossil fuels and leads the world in the creation of a clean energy economy.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/29-0

We saw it bloom spectacularly recently, popping right out of the head of Todd Akin, the GOP's Senate candidate in Missouri. The learned congressman gave America a twisted tutorial on the imaginary science of "legitimate rape," including an astonishing assertion of his belief in medical mojo. Akin explained that raped women don't get pregnant because — according to his grasp of reproductive science — the female body has ways "to shut that whole thing down."

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/29

“We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” says Neil Newhouse, a Romney pollster. A half dozen fact-checking organizations and websites have refuted Romney’s claims that Obama removed the work requirement from the welfare law and will cut Medicare benefits by $216 billion.

Link: http://blackagendareport.com/content/us-worst-police-state-world-%E2%80%93-numbers

There’s no getting around the fact that the United States is the Mother of All Police States. China can’t compete in the incarceration business. With four times the U.S. population, it imprisons only 70 percent as many people – about the same number as the non-white prison population of the U.S. Even worse, 80,000 U.S. inmates undergo the torture of solitary confinement on any given day.

Link: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/08/28/the-western-onslaught-against-international-law-paul-craig-roberts/

A new film, “Compliance,” examines “the human desire to follow and obey authority.” Liberal institutions, such as the media, universities, federal courts, and human rights organizations, which have traditionally functioned as checks on the blind obedience to authority, have in our day gone over to power’s side. The subversion of these institutions has transformed them from checks on power into servants of power. The result is the transformation of culture from the rule of law to unaccountable authority resting on power maintained by propaganda.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/environment/its-eerie-global-climate-disaster-happening-right-now-and-humanity-just-pretending-its

We are going to pay a terrible price for this charade. There are no comparisons to be made. This is not like war or plague or a stockmarket crash. We are ill-equipped, historically and psychologically, to understand it, which is one of the reasons why so many refuse to accept that it is happening.

Link: http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/08/27/nazi-gun-control-gateway-hitler-tyranny-175591/

Hitler would seize ‘gun registration lists’ of legal gun owners in the places he invaded to locate those who owned firearms legally under their previous government. The Nazi’s would immediately order all firearms be turned over within 24 hours or face immediate execution. The people on those lists a horrifying dilemma. If they turned over their weapons as ordered they could face being executed anyway or sent to a forced labor camp anyway.

Link: http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/08/27/important-chart-world-80-crash-175731/

Here it is the ratio of the Dow to The Gold Price demonstrating the real return on stocks and it indicates another 80 percent drop lies ahead. “The Most Important Chart in the World” is the ratio of the Dow Jones Industrial Average: The Gold Price. In a nutshell, charting this ratio demonstrates the “real” return on stocks adjusted for inflation or currency debasement.

Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/cong-a27.shtml

Last week’s report by Washington, D.C. political blog The Hill details the vast wealth of the nation’s legislative representatives and serves as an indictment of the anti-democratic nature of the American political system. The “50 Wealthiest Lawmakers” list shows that dozens of congressional politicians have amassed huge fortunes while simultaneously slashing the wages, benefits and social services of the American people.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/27-4

Mitt Romney’s new energy platform calls for more fossil fuel production and less regulation. It’s a vision of an energy future that is dirtier and deadlier than an economy founded on a transition to renewable energy sources. And, despite the devastating droughts and massive wildfires of the last few months, it’s a plan that ignores the climate dangers associated with a drill-and-burn policy.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/27

Conservatives force the deficit issue, ignoring job creation, and insisting that tax increases on the rich wouldn't generate enough revenue to balance the budget. They're way off. But it takes a little arithmetic to put it all together. In the following analysis, data has been taken from a variety of sources, some of which may overlap or slightly disagree, but all of which lead to the conclusion that withheld revenue, not excessive spending, is the problem.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/education/crazy-country-6-reasons-america-spends-more-prisons-higher-education

Dollars doing to prisons will soon outpace dollars going to higher education in every state of the union.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/college-students-are-going-homeless-and-hungry-and-corporate-america-trying-exploit-them

A look at the growing numbers of homeless and hungry college students trying desperately to make ends meet--and those who are willing to exploit them.

Link: http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Product-Categories/Food-safety-and-labeling/Brazil-orders-Nestle-to-label-GM-products

A court in Brazil has ordered Nestlé to impose mandatory labelling for all its products in the country highlighting more than 1% genetically modified (GM) ingredients.

Link: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/27/13509837-a-less-polar-pole-arctic-sea-ice-at-record-low?lite

This visualization shows the extent of Arctic sea ice on Aug. 26, 2012, the smallest area in three decades of satellite records. The yellow line shows the average minimum summer ice coverage from 1979 to 2010. The amount of summer sea ice in the Arctic has reached a record low in three decades of satellite data, scientists reported Tuesday, with one of them describing recent warm years there as creating a "less polar pole." The decline was expected to continue for at least several more days before cold weather sets in and creates new ice through fall and winter.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/fcc-shakes-down-consumers-for-socialist-connect-america-fund/

Get ready for another transfer of wealth via government confiscation. The FCC is ready to tax internet service in order to fund its Connect America Fund boondoggle. As is usually the case in corporatist nations – Mussolini told us corporatism is the essence of fascism – mega-corporations support this brazen theft.

Link: http://truth-out.org/news/item/11129-the-conservative-psyche-how-ordinary-people-come-to-embrace-paul-ryans-cruelty

Scientific research into the way we think explains the reasons decent people wind up supporting horrific policies. Earlier this year, Democratic operatives looking for the best way to define Mitt Romney discovered something interesting about Paul Ryan's budget. The New York Times reported that when the details of his proposals were run past focus groups, they found that the plan is so cruel that voters “simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing.”

Link: http://www.juancole.com/2012/08/plot-to-provoke-war-with-iran-thwarted-by-navy-analyst.html

Shorter WaPo: In spring of 2007, someone in the Bush administration (unindicted co-conspirator Richard Bruce Cheney? Neocons?) Sends uber hawk Vice Admiral Kevin J. Cosgriff to Oil Gulf with instructions to provoke a war with Iran. He allegedly toys with challenging Iran’s claim to half of the Shatt al-Arab. He certainly decided abruptly to bring two aircraft carriers to the Gulf, in hopes of provoking Iran into doing something stupid, and without telling the State Department or the White House.

Link: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/shas-spiritual-leader-calls-on-jews-to-pray-for-annihilation-of-iran-1.460765

During his weekly sermon, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef says Jews should pray for destruction of the enemies of Israel, with an emphasis on Iran and Hezbollah.

Link: http://www.backdoorsurvival.com/index.php/2012/08/25/uncorking-the-lid-on-the-preparedness-test/

8. Do you know where the main gas shut-off valve to your house is located?
IF AN EMERGENCY LASTED FOR THREE DAYS ( 72 HOURS) BEFORE HELP WAS AVAILABLE TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY:
17. Would you have sufficient food?
18. Would you have the means to cook food without gas and electricity?
19. Would you have sufficient water for drinking, cooking, and sanitary needs?
25. Do you have emergency cash on hand? (During emergencies banks and ATMs are closed)
28. Do you have a plan for toilet facilities if there is an extended water shortage?

Link: http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/2012-us-elections-obamney-vs-rombama/

War, economic collapse, and personal devastation await Americans no matter who they vote for – and what we should do instead.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/pers-a25.shtml

The election campaign debate on Medicare is a façade behind which the two big business parties are preparing an unprecedented attack on not only Medicare, but Social Security and all that remains of the social welfare programs enacted since the New Deal.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/food-a25.shtml

A Gallup poll released this past week shows the tens of millions of American families continue to face the threat of hunger. The “food hardship” statistics are based on surveys conducted with more than 177,000 US adults during the first six months of 2012, as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2012/08/25/title-162

Consortiumn News Exclusive: As Israel threatens to bomb Iran, U.S. pundits are again pontificating about the necessity of war and opining about military tactics. Left out of their frame is the certainty of mass human suffering, a reality forgotten since the days of the Vietnam War, says former U.S. intelligence analyst Elizabeth Murray.

Link: http://theintelhub.com/2012/08/25/us-slams-israel-for-failed-investigation-of-rachel-corries-death/

The US ambassador in Tel Aviv said Israel failed to carry out a “thorough, credible and transparent investigation” when it stopped looking into the murder of a 23-year old American killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in 2003. On March 15, 2003, 23-year old American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer after trying to stop the vehicle from destroying Palestinian houses on the Egypt-Gaza border.

Link: http://naturalsociety.com/vision-problems-eye-diseases-scary-rise-us/

Interestingly, these eye diseases have something in common: a dietary link. In other words, these vision problems and conditions are largely preventable, especially diabetic retinopathy, which stems from a complication of the lifestyle disease diabetes. Proper diabetes management or even reversal through diet could completely prevent this frequent cause of loss of vision.