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11/13/2012
7% Think U.S. Is Winning War on Drugs Americans overwhelmingly believe the war on drugs is a failure, but there’s little support for spending more on it to win.
Only seven percent (7%) of American Adults think the United States is winning the war on drugs, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Eighty-two percent (82%) say the country is not winning the fight against illegal drugs. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure. (Rasmussen)
Antidepressants -- nation's top prescription It's up for debate whether Americans are more depressed than they were 20 years ago, but according to the National Center for Health Statistics, we're certainly taking more antidepressant medications. Researchers compared data from 1988-94 with data from 2005-08 and found that the rate of antidepressant use increased nearly 400 percent. The data also show that patients are staying on the drugs for years, and that the prescriptions are especially common among middle-aged women. Source: 1.usa.gov/rpFWAo
1st
Antidepressant ranking among prescription drugs among U.S. adults up to age 44. Antidepressants are the most common prescription medication for Americans age 18-44, and the third most common drug across all ages. (San Francisco Chronicle)
California cap and trade: Climate-change bidding begins -- State's initial auction of emission credits is set for Wednesday despite suit California is soon to launch a bold attempt at climate-change reversal: a cap-and-trade program allowing businesses to buy and sell credits for emission of the most notorious greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.
The first auction of carbon credits is scheduled for Wednesday – despite a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the California Chamber of Commerce that seeks a court ruling to invalidate such auctions.
The program itself is set to begin Jan. 1.
Some 360 manufacturers, utilities and other businesses are expected to take part, representing nearly 600 facilities across the state.
The cap-and-trade market is part of the state's controversial 2006 climate-change law, AB32, which also includes low-carbon fuel standards and promotion of renewable energy projects. (OC Register)
Global warming talk heats up, revisits carbon tax Climate change is suddenly a hot topic again. The issue is resurfacing in talks about a once radical idea: a possible carbon tax.
On Tuesday, a conservative think tank held discussions about it while a more liberal think tank released a paper on it. And the Congressional Budget Office issued a 19-page report on the different ways to make a carbon tax less burdensome on lower income people.
A carbon tax works by making people pay more for using fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas that produce heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
The idea was considered so radical that in 2009, when President Barack Obama tried to pass a bill on global warming, that he instead opted for the more moderate approach of capping power plant emissions and trading credits that allowed utilities to pollute more. That idea, after passing the House, stalled in the Senate in 2010 and has been considered dead since. (Associated Press)
A 'wait-and-see' approach to marijuana laws It is encouraging that the Justice Department is not immediately challenging Washington state and Colorado’s marijuana legalization laws [“Marijuana legality elicits confusion,” news, Nov. 10]. The best course is a “wait-and-see” approach.
The nation can now observe two different experiments in state marijuana control — if the Justice Department cooperates. But if it fights these states the way it has fought state medical marijuana laws for 16 years, it will delay the learning of potential regulatory and social techniques to control marijuana use, production and distribution. (The Washington Post)
IDF and U.S. Army launch four Patriot missiles as part of mass joint drill
The drill, considered the largest ever carried out by the two countries, will be conducted over the course of three weeks, and will simulate an extensive Mideast war with U.S. intervention. - The Israel Defense Forces and the U.S. Army launched four Patriot missiles into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday, as part of a joint military exercise conducted by the two countries.
The missiles were launched from the Palmachim Air Force base in central Israel, near the cities of Rishon Letzion and Yavne.
The two militaries will carry out further similar launches as part of the drill, simulating the interception of aircraft or missiles penetrating Israeli air space. The ongoing drill is considered the largest joint exercise ever carried out by the two countries.
The drill is meant to simulate an extensive war in the Middle East that would require the United States to intervene and provide Israel with further defense to intercept missiles. (Haaretz)
Spain suspends house evictions for two years -- Spanish banks are suspending evictions for the next two years for the most vulnerable people. An estimated 350,000 families have been evicted from their homes since Spain's property market crashed in 2008.
It comes three days after Amaia Egana, who was 53, died after jumping from her fourth floor apartment in northern Spain, just before she was due to be evicted.
Her death has inflamed public anger at banks, accused of being heartless.
Another man in the city of Granada, whose house was also due to be repossessed, apparently committed suicide last month.
Spain's Finance Minister, Luis De Guindos, said it was important to find a bipartisan solution to the problem. (BBC)
Where FEMA fails, Occupy Sandy delivers storm relief The Occupy Wall Street movement, nearly forgotten after a brief but global flourish a year ago, has found a new mission delivering emergency aid to Sandy-stricken residents of New York and New Jersey.
In what is arguably the movement's finest hour, hundreds of grassroots volunteers came together and went to work in the immediate aftermath of Sandy's fury, coordinating relief efforts and delivering supplies to desperate residents even as the official government response to the disaster lagged woefully behind.
The day after Sandy blew through the tri-state area, Occupiers established an operational base in St. Jacobi Church in Brooklyn. Using their renowned social media savvy and relying upon the fierce determination of volunteers, Occupy Sandy began collecting donations by the truckload and distributing them among some of the storm's neediest victims.
Canned and cooked food, water, medicine, clothing, shoes, blankets, tools, flashlights, batteries, pet food, construction materials and other essentials have been handed out in large quantities. (Digital Journal)
White House website deluged with secession petitions from 20 states How would Old Glory look with 30 stars instead of 50? As far-fetched as it may sound, the White House might soon be forced by its own rules to examine the question.
On Nov.7, the day after President Barack Obama was re-elected, the White House’s website received a petition asking the administration to allow Louisiana to secede.
If 25,000 people sign the petition by Dec. 7, it will “require a response” from the Obama administration, according to published rules of the White House’s online “We the People” program. (The Daily Caller)
How to Cut Prison Costs Thanks in part to the federal Second Chance Act of 2008, states are finding creative ways to cut prison costs — now more than $52 billion a year nationwide — by making sure that people who are released from prison actually stay out.
The act, aimed at helping states and localities reduce recidivism, encourages changes like those that have already taken place in Kansas, Texas and Oregon. The states have expanded community-based drug treatment programs, improved postprison supervision and retooled parole systems that once shunted people back to jail not for actual crimes but for technical violations that are more cheaply and effectively dealt with through community-based sanctions like house arrest or mandatory drug treatment. (The New York Times)
Washington counties drop marijuana misdemeanor possession cases in light of vote The prosecutor's offices for two Washington counties -- including the one that contains Seattle -- announced today they will dismiss 175 misdemeanor marijuana possession charges, days after the state's voters legalized the drug.
The dropped cases all involve arrests of individuals age 21 and older for possessing one ounce or less of marijuana.
Washington state voters passed Initiative 502 on Tuesday, thus legalizing and regulating the production, possession, and distribution of cannabis for people ages 21 and older.
The initiative is set to take effect December 6, though King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg decided to act before then. (CNN)
U.S. drone strike kills 3 al-Qaida militants near Yemeni capital A U.S. drone strike targeted a group of al-Qaida militants on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday night, killing at least three terrorists, government officials said.
"Three terrorists, including local al-Qaida commander Adnan al- Qathi who is wanted for bombing the U.S. embassy in Sanaa in late 2008, were confirmed killed Wednesday night in a Yemeni-U.S. joint airstrike operation which targeted the militants' vehicle near Sayyan village outside the capital Sanaa," a local security official told Xinhua by phone. He declined to provide further details.
An official from Al-Daylami Air Force Base in Sanaa confirmed the airstrike on Wednesday night in a remote area about 40 km southeast of Sanaa, but said "the raid was not carried out by any Yemeni warplane." (Xinhuanet)
Colorado and Washington State Make History, Become First U.S. States To Regulate, Tax and Control Marijuana Like Alcohol -- Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Measure Also Passes (Press Release) Colorado and Washington have become not just the first U.S. states – but the first political jurisdictions anywhere in the world – to approve regulating, taxing and controlling marijuana similar to alcohol.
The Drug Policy Alliance and its electoral arm, Drug Policy Action, worked closely with local and national allies to draft these initiatives, build coalitions and raise funds.
“The victories in Colorado and Washington are of historic significance not just for Americans but for all countries debating the future of marijuana prohibition in their own countries,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “This is now a mainstream issue, with citizens more or less divided on the issue but increasingly inclined to favor responsible regulation of marijuana over costly and ineffective prohibitionist policies.” (Drug Policy Alliance)
Dow Jones Industrial Average Celebrates "Four More Years" With Biggest Drop In A Year It seems like only last night everyone was celebrating more hope, if not much change. Now comes the hangover. The Dow Jones intraday drop is now 2.23% (and rising), greater than the biggest drop so far in 2012 record on June 1. The last time the market plunged as much: literally one year ago, or November 9, 2011. Sadly, it appears that one can't have their Dow Jones Industrial Average and redistribute it too.
And if the surge in vol the last time we had moves of this magnitude is any indication, we can solmenly say that the world's most overrated job for the next 2 months (and 4 years) will be the Chief Redemption Officer, at any hedge fund.
and the S&P futures are at a critical level...below Draghi's Elbow... (Zero Hedge)
Obama May Levy Carbon Tax to Cut U.S. Deficit, HSBC Says Barack Obama may consider introducing a tax on carbon emissions to help cut the U.S. budget deficit after winning a second term as president, according to HSBC Holdings Plc.
A tax starting at $20 a metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent and rising at about 6 percent a year could raise $154 billion by 2021, Nick Robins, an analyst at the bank in London, said today in an e-mailed research note, citing Congressional Research Service estimates. “Applied to the Congressional Budget Office’s 2012 baseline, this would halve the fiscal deficit by 2022,” Robins said.
Hurricane Sandy sparked discussion on climate protection in the election after presidential candidates focused on other debates, HSBC said. A continued Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives means Obama’s scope for action will be limited, Robins said. Cap-and-trade legislation stalled in the U.S. Senate after narrowly passing the house in 2009. (Bloomberg)
Obama's Second Term Foreign Policy Will Bring New Challenges Over Drone Strikes On Wednesday morning, as many Americans sifted through the voter data and exit poll numbers of President Barack Obama's reelection the night before, the Twitter feeds of close watchers of Yemen lit up with reports of another sort of presidential event: an apparent U.S. drone strike had killed several individuals in that country.
There was no way of being certain if the strike was indeed American, or for that matter if it was a drone strike at all, although it had all the markings of one.
"All signs (after dark, suspicions of locals, target) point to Sanhan strike being a US drone," Yemen-based freelance journalist Adam Baron wrote on Twitter.
Several other analysts concurred.
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. If it were a American strike, of course, it would have to have been authorized by Obama.
Whatever its provenance, the strike served as a macabre reminder of the burdens that Obama faces as he turns his attention away from the campaign and back to the business of being commander in chief. (Huffington Post)
Prop. 37: Genetic food labels defeated A measure that would have required most foods made with genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled in California lost early Wednesday.
Supporters of Proposition 37 said consumers have a right to know whether food has been genetically altered, particularly when the long-term health impacts are unclear. Opponents argued that the labels would stigmatize foods that are scientifically proven to be safe.
With 100 percent the precincts reporting, voters rejected the proposed labeling law by six percentage points. California would have been the first state in the nation to pass such an initiative.
"We said from the beginning that the more voters learned about Prop. 37, the less they would like it," said Kathy Fairbanks, a spokeswoman for the opposition. "We didn't think they would like the lawsuits, more bureaucracy, higher costs, loopholes and exemptions. It looks like they don't."
But Stacy Melken, a spokeswoman for the Prop, 37 campaign, said supporters believe they will win the labeling debate over the long term. She noted that proponents were outspent by a five to one margin and still managed to capture more than 4.2 million votes. (San Francisco Gate)
Senator Dianne Feinstein Moves To Ban ALL Assault Rifles, High Capacity Magazines, and Pistol Grips The agenda no longer needs to be hidden from public view. With President Obama winning another term and democrats taking control of the Senate, the move to fundamentally change America from within has begun – with a vengeance.
We're all aware of the restrictive gun laws in the State of California which require low capacity magazines for handguns, fixed magazines for "assault" rifles, and a whole lot of running around just to be granted the right to carry a concealed firearm.
Now, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who has championed gun control in her state for decades and co-wrote the original assault weapons ban enacted by the federal government in the 1990's, wishes to bring even more stringent federal mandates to the land of the free. (Market Daily News)
What Tuesday's Marijuana Victories Mean For The War On Drugs -- Voters in three states helped overturn marijuana prohibition this past Tuesday, but the War on Drugs is far from over. Election day was a big win for the president, Democrats in the Senate and Republicans in the House, and for advocates of gay marriage in Maine and Maryland.
It was also a big win for an issue that’s been gaining support at a surprising clip over the past decade or so: the end to marijuana prohibition.
In three states—Washington, Colorado, and Massachusetts—efforts to liberalize marijuana laws succeeded last night. In Washington and Colorado, the new laws enacted go even further than past efforts. In these two states, fully regulated recreational pot use has now been approved by voters. (Forbes)
Wisconsin elects openly gay U.S. senator Wisconsin voters made history in electing Tammy Baldwin the first woman and the first openly gay politician to the U.S. Senate.
Baldwin, 50, an attorney and seven-term Democratic congresswoman, defeated four-term former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson in the statewide race that also put Wisconsin in President Obama's win column despite native son Rep. Paul Ryan being the Republican vice presidential nominee.
Ryan was re-elected to his U.S. House seat. Baldwin was elected to the seat of retiring four-term Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl. (United Press International)
Chris Matthews: "I'm so glad we had that storm last week." Chris Matthews probably wishes he could take back his closing remarks on election night. The MSNBC anchor casually said about Hurricane Sandy and its affect on the election: "I'm so glad we had that storm last week." Now, co-anchor Rachel Maddow voiced displeasure with an "ooh." Matthews quickly, then, added a caveat: the storm was only good "politically" not "in terms of hurting people." Still, he said it "brought in the possibility for good politics," possibly referring to Obama coming together with NJ Gov. Chris Christie. (MSNBC)
Massachusetts voters approve marijuana for medicinal purposes Voters in Massachusetts approved a law Tuesday allowing people to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, NBC News projected.
It’s one of six states in which voters are being asked to decide on a wide array of laws around legalizing marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes.
In three of those states – Colorado, Oregon and Washington – voters were deciding whether to allow people over 21 to use marijuana for any purpose. (NBC)
Occupy Sandy Efforts Highlight Need for Solidarity, Not Charity Hurricane Sandy, the unprecedented superstorm that ravaged the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States, left large swaths of New York City destroyed and ultimately killed 109 people in the US alone. In addition to experiencing trauma and shock, many resident now express frustration with lagging federal aid and assistance from other aid agencies like the Red Cross.
Vincent Ignizio, a New York City Councilman representing Staten Island’s 51st District, blames the gas shortage for hurting the recovery effort. Five-hour-long waits for gas have resulted in citizens’ being highly frugal with their commutes, and may be hindering aid, according to Ignizio.
“People who want to volunteer…are stymied from doing so,” he said.
And while the Defense Department recently dispatched 24 million gallons of fuel to the region, many citizens haven’t seen the military, or the Red Cross, since the storm hit. While FEMA workers were spotted recently in Staten Island, other citizens have received help from an entirely separate source: Occupy Wall Street. (The Nation)
Is Occupy Wall Street Outperforming the Red Cross in Hurricane Relief? In Sunset Park, a predominantly Mexican and Chinese neighborhood in South Brooklyn, St. Jacobi’s Church was one of the go-to hubs for people who wanted to donate food, clothing, and warm blankets or volunteer help other New Yorkers who were still suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. On Saturday, Ethan Murphy, one of the people heading the kitchen operation, estimated they would prepare and send out 10,000 meals to people in need. Thousands and thousands of pounds of clothes were being sorted, labeled, and distributed, and valuable supplies like heaters and generators were being loaded up in cars to be taken out to the Rockaways, Staten Island and other places in need. However, this well-oiled operation wasn’t organized by the Red Cross, New York Cares, or some other well-established volunteer group. This massive effort was the handiwork of none other than Occupy Wall Street—the effort is known as Occupy Sandy. (Slate)
FEMA wins praise, responds to anger about gas supply Seven years after a disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is winning praise for how it's dealing with Superstorm Sandy.
"This is the all-new FEMA, and the leadership is very, very good, very focused," said Dr. Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "They're doing an excellent job."
Score one for FEMA's attempts to come back from its infamous failure after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005.
But the post-Sandy reviews for FEMA aren't all moonlight and roses.
Photos: New York recovers from Sandy Photos: New York recovers from Sandy
As Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano -- whose department oversees FEMA -- is expected to visit the region Friday, many survivors in hard-hit places are angry. (CNN)
General Failure
Looking back on the troubled wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many observers are content to lay blame on the Bush administration. But inept leadership by American generals was also responsible for the failure of those wars. A culture of mediocrity has taken hold within the Army’s leadership rank—if it is not uprooted, the country’s next war is unlikely to unfold any better than the last two. - On June 13, 1944, a few days after the 90th Infantry Division went into action against the Germans in Normandy under the command of Brigadier General Jay MacKelvie, MacKelvie’s superior officer, Major General J. Lawton Collins, went on foot to check on his men. “We could locate no regimental or battalion headquarters,” he recalled with dismay. “No shelling was going on, nor any fighting that we could observe.” This was an ominous sign, as the Battle of Normandy was far from decided, and the Wehrmacht was still trying to push the Americans, British, and Canadians, who had landed a week earlier, back into the sea.
Just a day earlier, the 90th’s assistant division commander, Brigadier General “Hanging Sam” Williams, had also been looking for the leader of his green division. He’d found MacKelvie sheltering from enemy fire, huddled in a drainage ditch along the base of a hedgerow. “Goddamn it, General, you can’t lead this division hiding in that goddamn hole,” Williams shouted. “Go back to the [command post]. Get the hell out of that hole and go to your vehicle. Walk to it, or you’ll have this goddamn division wading in the English Channel.” The message did not take. The division remained bogged down, veering close to passivity.
American troops were fighting to stay alive—no small feat in that summer’s bloody combat. One infantry company in the 90th began a day in July with 142 men and finished it with 32. Its battalion commander walked around babbling “I killed K Company, I killed K Company.” Later that summer, one of the 90th’s battalions, with 265 soldiers, surrendered to a German patrol of 50 men and two tanks. In six weeks of small advances, the division would use up all its infantrymen, requesting replacements of more than 100 percent. (The Atlantic)
NJ to use military trucks as polling places in storm-battered areas, extends mail-in voting New Jersey will deploy military trucks to serve as polling places on Election Day in storm-battered communities, the state secretary of the state announced Thursday during a visit to this flood-ravaged town. The state is also extending the deadline on mail-in ballots.
Department of Defense trucks will be parked at regular polling places that have lost power, as long as the sites are still accessible. Paper ballots will be used.
Republican Secretary of State and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno said voters will find “a DOD truck with a well-situated National Guardsman and a big sign saying, “Vote Here.” (Associated Press)
Sandy leaves election officials scrambling When Sandy slammed into the East Coast on Monday, it set into motion a tight timeline for election officials: one week to ensure that voters in states from Virginia to New Hampshire would be able cast their ballots on Election Day.
But power outages, flooding and snow left in the storm's wake could make that impossible for voters in some of the hardest-hit states.
Some fire stations, schools, community centers and other venues that serve as polling places will have to be cleaned up if they were flooded or damaged.
Other polling spots may need to be relocated if they are too damaged to be used. Voting machines may have to be dropped off at some polling places with election officials gambling that power will be restored there by Tuesday. (CNN)
Can Drug-Sniffing Dog Prompt Home Search? You can already hear all the likely jokes at the Supreme Court, about the justices going to the dogs. But the issue being argued Wednesday is deadly serious: whether police can take a trained drug-detection dog up to a house to smell for drugs inside, and if the dog alerts, use that to justify a search of the home.
In the case before the court, the four-legged cop was named Franky, and as a result of his nose, his human police partner charged Joelis Jardines with trafficking in more than 25 pounds of marijuana.
In the fall of 2006, police in Florida got an anonymous crime-stoppers tip that there was illegal drug activity at the Jardines home. A month later, police officers took Franky to the house and walked him up to the front porch. When the dog alerted for drugs, the police got a warrant, found marijuana growing inside and arrested Jardines. The Florida Supreme Court ruled that the dog sniff was an illegal search and thus could not justify a warrant. Now the state has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the case poses tricky issues for both law enforcement and privacy advocates. (National Public Radio)
Gary Johnson Talks Nwo, Bilderberg & Bohemian Grove Gary Johnson has been an outspoken advocate for efficient government, balanced budgets, rational drug policy reform, protection of civil liberties, comprehensive tax reform, and personal freedom. As Governor of New Mexico, Johnson was known for his common sense business approach to governing. He eliminated New Mexico's budget deficit, cut the rate of growth in state government in half, and privatized half of the state prisons. (Prison Planet)
Napolitano: US financial institutions 'actively under attack' by hackers Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Wednesday warned that some of the largest U.S. financial institutions "are actively under attack" from cyber hackers.
While Napolitano sounded the alarm about the attacks at a cybersecurity event hosted by The Washington Post, she declined to provide any details about them.
"Right now, financial institutions are actively under attack. We know that. I'm not giving you any classified information," she said. "I will say this has involved some of our nation's largest institutions. We've also had our stock exchanges attacked over the last [few] years, so we know ... there are vulnerabilities. We're working with them on that." (The Hill)
Sandy curtails nuclear plants, oldest under alert Hurricane Sandy slowed or shut a half-dozen U.S. nuclear power plants, while the nation's oldest facility declared a rare "alert" after the record storm surge pushed flood waters high enough to endanger a key cooling system.
Exelon Corp's 43-year-old Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey remains on "alert" status, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said early Tuesday. It is only the third time this year that the second-lowest of four emergency action levels was triggered.
"Oyster Creek is still in an alert but may be getting out of it as long as water levels continue to drop," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan told Reuters.
The alert came after water levels at the plant rose more than 6.5 feet above normal, potentially affecting the "water intake structure" that pumps cooling water through the plant. (Reuters)
Nation's oldest nuclear plant on alert The nation's oldest nuclear power plant, already out of service for scheduled refueling, was put on alert late Monday after waters from Superstorm Sandy rose 6 feet above sea level.
Conditions were still safe at and around Oyster Creek, a plant in Lacey Township, N.J., and at all other U.S. nuclear plants, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees plant safety. No plants that had been up and running before the storm were planning to shut down.
High water levels at Oyster Creek, which generates enough electricity to power 600,000 homes a year, prompted safety officials to declare an "unusual event" around 7 p.m. About two hours later, the situation was upgraded to an "alert," the second-lowest in a four-tiered warning system.
The plant's owner, Exelon Corp., said power was also disrupted in the station's switchyard, but backup diesel generators were providing stable power, with more than two weeks of fuel on hand. (Associated Press)
NRC News No. I-12-042: NRC CONTINUES TO MONITOR HURRICANE SANDY; ALERT DECLARED AT OYSTER CREEK PLANT; NO PLANTS SHUT DOWN DUE TO THE STORM The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is continuing to monitor impacts from Hurricane Sandy on nuclear power plants in the Northeastern United States, including an Alert declared at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey. The plant, currently in a regularly scheduled outage, declared the Alert at approximately 8:45 p.m. EDT due to water exceeding certain high water level criteria in the plant’s water intake structure.
An Alert is the second lowest of four NRC action levels. The Alert was preceded by an Unusual Event, declared at approximately 7 p.m. EDT when the water level first reached a minimum high water level criteria. Water level is rising in the intake structure due to a combination of a rising tide, wind direction and storm surge. It is anticipated water levels will begin to abate within the next several hours. (US Nuclear Regulatory Commission)
Why I'm Voting Green The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle between the corporate state and us. And if we do not immediately engage in this battle we are finished, as climate scientists have made clear. I will defy corporate power in small and large ways. I will invest my energy now solely in acts of resistance, in civil disobedience and in defiance. Those who rebel are our only hope. And for this reason I will vote next month for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, although I could as easily vote for Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party. I will step outside the system. Voting for the “lesser evil”—or failing to vote at all—is part of the corporate agenda to crush what is left of our anemic democracy. And those who continue to participate in the vaudeville of a two-party process, who refuse to confront in every way possible the structures of corporate power, assure our mutual destruction.
All the major correctives to American democracy have come through movements and third parties that have operated outside the mainstream. Few achieved formal positions of power. These movements built enough momentum and popular support, always in the face of fierce opposition, to force the power elite to respond to their concerns. Such developments, along with the courage to defy the political charade in the voting booth, offer the only hope of saving us from Wall Street predators, the assault on the ecosystem by the fossil fuel industry, the rise of the security and surveillance state and the dramatic erosion of our civil liberties.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any,” Alice Walker writes.
It was the Liberty Party that first fought slavery. It was the Prohibition and Socialist parties, along with the Suffragists, that began the fight for the vote for women and made possible the 19th Amendment. It was the Socialist Party, along with radical labor unions, that first battled against child labor and made possible the 40-hour workweek. It was the organizing of the Populist Party that gave us the Immigration Act of 1924 along with a “progressive” tax system. And it was the Socialists who battled for unemployment benefits, leading the way to the Social Security Act of 1935. No one in the ruling elite, including Franklin Roosevelt, would have passed this legislation without pressure from the outside. - The flimsy excuses used by liberals and progressives to support Obama, including the argument that we can’t let Romney appoint the next Supreme Court justices, ignore the imperative of building a movement as fast and as radical as possible as a counterweight to corporate power. The Supreme Court, no matter what its composition, will not save us from financial implosion and climate collapse. And Obama, whatever his proclivity on social issues, has provided ample evidence that he will not alter his servitude to the corporate state. For example, he has refused to provide assurance that he will not make cuts in basic social infrastructures. He has proposed raising the eligibility age for Medicare, a move that would leave millions without adequate health care in retirement. He has said he will reduce the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security, thrusting vast numbers of seniors into poverty. Progressives’ call to vote for independents in “safe” states where it is certain the Democrats will win will do nothing to mitigate fossil fuel’s ravaging of the ecosystem, regulate and prosecute Wall Street or return to us our civil liberties.
“There is no state out there where either Obama or Romney offers a way out of here alive,” Stein said. “It’s up to us to create truly safe states, a safe nation, and a safe planet. Neither Obama nor Romney has a single exit strategy from the deadly crises we face.” (Truth Dig)
Mayor Bloomberg Gets Flu Shot, Urges New Yorkers To Do The Same -- Health Commissioner: Flu Is Third Leading Cause Of Death In New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg turned his annual flu shot into a public service announcement, urging New Yorkers to protect themselves from influenza.
The mayor got his flu shot from pharmacist Barbara Naprawa at a Duane Reade pharmacy in lower Manhattan.
“Literally can’t feel it,” Bloomberg told reporters during the injection. He even refused a band-aid afterward, WCBS 880′s Rich Lamb reported.
“Flu season is almost upon us and the best way to avoid getting the flu is to get a flu shot. It’s also the best way to prevent the flu from spreading to someone else. So if you get a shot, you’re not only protecting yourself you are protecting your family members and those you love,” Bloomberg said. (CBS)
Police Arrest 60-Year-Old Woman Speaking At City Council Meeting A Riverside woman is facing misdemeanor charges following her arrest for speaking too long at a Riverside City Council meeting, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Thursday.
Karen Wright, whose arrest was videotaped and obtained by the paper, was cited for disrupting a public meeting Tuesday night.
“The incident unfolded after Wright exceeded her allotted three minutes to speak at the lectern while commenting on a sludge hauling contract,” the paper reported.
Wright, 60, was initially handcuffed by two officers while she was on her knees.
In video of the incident, Wright can be heard yelling in pain as officers tried to bring her to her feet. (CBS)
Consumption of artificial sweetener- and sugar-containing soda and risk of lymphoma and leukemia in men and women. Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Despite safety reports of the artificial sweetener aspartame, health-related concerns remain.
OBJECTIVE:
We prospectively evaluated whether the consumption of aspartame- and sugar-containing soda is associated with risk of hematopoetic cancers.
DESIGN:
We repeatedly assessed diet in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS). Over 22 y, we identified 1324 non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs), 285 multiple myelomas, and 339 leukemias. We calculated incidence RRs and 95% CIs by using Cox proportional hazards models.
RESULTS:
When the 2 cohorts were combined, there was no significant association between soda intake and risks of NHL and multiple myeloma. However, in men, ≥1 daily serving of diet soda increased risks of NHL (RR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.72) and multiple myeloma (RR: 2.02; 95% CI: 1.20, 3.40) in comparison with in men without diet soda consumption. We observed no increased risks of NHL and multiple myeloma in women. We also observed an unexpected elevated risk of NHL (RR: 1.66; 95% CI: 1.10, 2.51) with a higher consumption of regular, sugar-sweetened soda in men but not in women. In contrast, when sexes were analyzed separately with limited power, neither regular nor diet soda increased risk of leukemia but were associated with increased leukemia risk when data for men and women were combined (RR for consumption of ≥1 serving diet soda/d when the 2 cohorts were pooled: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.00, 2.02).
CONCLUSION:
Although our findings preserve the possibility of a detrimental effect of a constituent of diet soda, such as aspartame, on select cancers, the inconsistent sex effects and occurrence of an apparent cancer risk in individuals who consume regular soda do not permit the ruling out of chance as an explanation. (Brigham and Women's Hospital & Harvard Medical School)
Memoto: A Wearable Camera That Gives You a Photographic Memory One of the big ideas that seems destined to explode over the next decade is lifelogging, the ability to automatically capture and store one’s life and experiences for future reference. Memoto is a new camera that’s trying to be a pioneer in this emerging market. Its name and tagline should give you a good sense of what it does: “Memoto Lifelogging Camera: A tiny, automatic camera and app that gives you a searchable and shareable photographic memory.”
How’s that for an elevator pitch? Basically, the app allows you to document nearly every waking moment of your life through photographs — well, one in every thirty waking moments — and then relive those moments anytime you’d like.
Memoto: A Wearable Camera That Gives You a Photographic Memory pencil
It’s similar to the Autographer, another lifelogging camera we wrote about just last month. Both are small cameras that you can clip to your clothing (though, Memoto does claim to be the world’s smallest) and both automatically snap photos throughout the day. (Peta Pixel)
Indiana State Police unveil new weapon to reduce crashes Looking down on traffic on the Borman Expressway from the closed Chase Street overpass, Indiana State Police on Monday demonstrated a new weapon to help reduce crashes caused by drivers who speed, follow other vehicles too closely and change lanes unsafely.
What looks like a traditional hand-held speed monitor, the LTI 20/20 Lidar has new Distance Between Cars software that measures and records both how fast the vehicle is traveling and exactly how close it is to the vehicle it’s following.
“Even in a group of vehicles, this device clocks a specific vehicle. The laser beam bounces off the car, semi or motorcycle and returns to the device,” said Master Trooper Russell Hayes, of the Indiana State Police Lowell District 13. (Franklin Times)
MTA recording bus conversations to eavesdrop on trouble -- Officials call audio surveillance a crime-fighting tool; privacy advocates question need A Maryland Transit Administration decision to record the conversations of bus drivers and passengers to investigate crimes, accidents and poor customer service has come under attack from privacy advocates and state lawmakers who say it may go too far.
The first 10 buses — marked with signs to alert passengers to the open microphones — began service this week in Baltimore, and officials expect to expand that to 340 buses, about half the fleet, by next summer. Microphones are incorporated in the video surveillance system that has been in place for years.
"We want to make sure people feel safe, and this builds up our arsenal of tools to keep our patrons safe," said Ralign Wells, MTA administrator. "The audio completes the information package for investigators and responders."
Wells said the system was deemed legal by the state attorney general's office and letters were sent to the American Civil Liberties Union and the union representing bus drivers informing them of the initiative. A spokesman for the attorney general's office confirmed that transit officials were advised by their counsel that based on a 2000 appeals court decision, the audio recordings did not violate the state wiretapping law. (Baltimore Sun)
Sex Abuse Rife At BBC Says Ben Fellows A FORMER child actor revealed how he “ran a gauntlet of paedophiles” at the BBC, claiming the entertainment industry was rife with sex abuse.
Ben Fellows, who appeared in Eastenders, The Bill and Starlight Express before becoming an award-winning filmmaker, spoke last night about how he was preyed upon by actors, directors and producers.
Mr Fellows’s testimony will pile more pressure on the BBC in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex scandal.
He said: “Once I’d entered the entertainment industry proper I ran a gauntlet of paedophiles – both at the BBC and other television production companies and also in theatres, as well as commercial photo shoots.
“In fact, almost every production I was involved with I was targeted in some way or another.”
Mr Fellows, 38, who trained at the Royal Shakespeare Company, claims that as a teenager he was asked to take his top off and pose for photographs before being propositioned by men and women “all the time”. (UK Daily Express)
Global warming stopped 16 years ago, reveals Met Office report quietly released... and here is the chart to prove it The figures reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012 there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures
This means that the ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996 - The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, was issued quietly on the internet, without any media fanfare, and, until today, it has not been reported.
This stands in sharp contrast to the release of the previous figures six months ago, which went only to the end of 2010 – a very warm year.
Ending the data then means it is possible to show a slight warming trend since 1997, but 2011 and the first eight months of 2012 were much cooler, and thus this trend is erased. (UK Daily Mail)
Will Iran Weather the Economic Storm? -- The depreciation of the rial is unlikely to change Iran's foreign-policy calculations. The conventional wisdom that the collapse of the Iranian rial will have disastrous consequences for the Islamic Republic has it wrong: On the contrary, it could be the best thing that has happened to the Iranian economy in years.
Iran is a classic case of the resource curse. OPEC founder Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso, who served as Venezuela's oil minister, called oil "the devil's excrement" for the pernicious impact petroleum revenues had on his country's economy. The same is true for Iran, which faces the challenge of becoming a country that produces goods, not merely consumes them. Unfortunately, the current Iranian government shows few indications it will meet this challenge. Rather, history suggests that Tehran will instead persist in its populist policies, including its confrontation with the international community about its nuclear program. (Foreign Policy)
Governing The Global Drug Wars Since 1909 the international community has worked to eradicate the abuse of narcotics. A century on, the efforts are widely acknowledged to have failed, and worse, have spurred black market violence and human rights abuses. How did this drug control system arise, why has it proven so durable in the face of failure, and is there hope for reform? (London School of Economics)
Drugs Live: the Ecstasy Trial, Channel 4, review -- Helen Brown reviews Drugs Live: the Ecstasy Trial, Channel 4's experiment in which volunteers, including actor Keith Allen and novelist Lionel Shriver took MDMA to see its effect on the brain. A quick glance at the TV listings gave the impression that Channel 4's groundbreaking two -part programme on the effects of MDMA would feature 25 volunteers (including actor Keith Allen) popping ecstasy pills for the cameras.
The dangled lure from the TV station that gave us Big Brother was that all hell might break loose and people would embarrass themselves.
In fact, only one pharmaceutically altered volunteer appeared on our screens: a psychiatric nurse, who sat rather calmly – less nervously, he suspected, than he might otherwise have been on national television – on the small stage before the live audience and told presenter Jon Snow that he hoped the clinical trial funded by Channel 4 would lead to a greater understanding of, and advances in treatment for, some of the debilitating mental health conditions suffered by his patients.
The hope is that the empathy, happiness and hyper articulacy promoted by the drug more commonly known as ecstasy – illegal in the UK since 1977 – might make it a powerful tool in the fight against depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). (London Telegraph)
Lobbyist Says Israel Should Create A 'False Flag' To Start A War With Iran Israel is conducting massive "snap-training" exercises.
The U.S. is doing unprecedented naval mine clearing evolutions.
Iran is launching anti-ship missiles and submarines.
Now is the time that a small provocation could lead to a full-blown war.
And Patrick Clawson, Director of Research at Washington Institute Of Near East Policy (WINEP), has suggested that someone should fabricate that small provocation.
Speaking at the WINEP policy forum luncheon on "How to Build US-Israeli Coordination on Preventing an Iranian Nuclear Breakout," Clawson (ironically) said that "if, in fact, the Iranians aren't going to compromise, it would be best if someone else started the war." (Business Insider)
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