Thursday, February 07, 2008

BREVITAS


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THE WORLD

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS - Canadians learned from the American president
during his final State of the Union address that our prime minister
would be meeting with him and the president of Mexico in April for the
'North American Summit' in New Orleans, Louisiana. . . At the last
'Leaders Summit', Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to accept 10,000
letters collected by the Council of Canadians from concerned citizens
across the country who called on him to "cease all talks leading to
deeper integration between Canada and the United States" and who
expressed their concern that "our government is forging ahead with the
deep integration agenda enshrined in the Security and Prosperity
Partnership, without any public input or parliamentary debate."

http://www.canadians.org/action/2008/29-Jan-08-2.html

KENYA ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/
2008/01/30/kenya_at_the_brink_of_collapse/?p1=email_to_a_friend


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CORPORADOS

WASH POST - For years, as many as 200 members of Immanuel Bible Church
and their friends have gathered in the church's fellowship hall to watch
the Super Bowl on its six-foot screen. The party featured hard hitting
on the TV, plenty of food -- and prayer. But this year, Immanuel's Super
Bowl party is no more. After a crackdown by the National Football League
on big-screen Super Bowl gatherings by churches, the Springfield church
has sacked its event. Instead, church members will host parties in their
homes. Immanuel is among a number of churches in the Washington area and
elsewhere that have been forced to use a new playbook to satisfy the
NFL, which said that airing games at churches on large-screen TV sets
violates the NFL copyright. . .

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RECOVERED HISTORY

THE SLEEPING CAR PORRTORS AND CIVIL RIGHT
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16381

GALLERY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SNAPSHOTS
http://www.squareamerica.com/af.htm

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FREEDOM BEAT

NOAH SHACHTMAN, WIRED - New York City's plan to secure its subways with
a next-generation surveillance network is getting more expensive by the
second, and slipping further and further behind schedule. A new report
by the New York State Comptroller's office reveals that "the cost of the
electronic security program has grown from $265 million to $450 million,
an increase of $185 million or 70 percent." An August 2008 deadline has
been pushed back to December 2009, and further delays may be just ahead.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/nycs-subway-spy.html

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MONEY AND LABOR

NY TIMES - The economy lost 17,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department
reported, the first monthly decline in four years and the most striking
evidence yet that the United States may be slipping into a recession.
Until now, the labor market had been growing at a steady if softening
pace. Many economists pointed to expanding payrolls as the final holdout
in a sluggish economy weighed down by trouble on Wall Street, the
collapse of the housing bubble, and a cascade of credit problems linked
to soured subprime mortgages. But the January employment report cast the
job market in a startlingly darker light. Jobs disappeared across a
broad spectrum of professions, with the steepest losses coming in the
manufacturing, construction and goods-producing industries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/business/01cnd-econ.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin


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MID EAST

WASH POST - The U.S. military plans to boost the number of neighborhood
outposts across the capital by more than 30 percent this year even as
American forces begin to withdraw, the new commander of U.S. forces in
Baghdad said Tuesday. During a luncheon with reporters in the heavily
fortified Green Zone, Maj. Gen. Jeffery W. Hammond said he would
increase the number of garrisons in the city from 75 to 99 by June to
"push ourselves into locations where maybe in the past we didn't go
before."

ONE WORLD - State legislators in Vermont introduced legislation
demanding the state's National Guard troops return from Iraq. Lawmakers
in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania are poised to push similar
legislation. . . Vermont, like other rural parts of the country, has
suffered disproportionately from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, say
analysts. A November 2006 report by the Carsey Institute at the
University of New Hampshire found soldiers from rural Vermont had the
highest death rate in the nation.

http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/157390/1/

INDEPENDENT, UK - Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, has been
inundated with appeals to save the life of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the
student journalist sentenced to death after being accused of downloading
an internet report on women's rights. While international protests
mounted over the affair, with the British Government saying it had
already raised its concerns, hundreds of people marched through the
capital, Kabul, demanding Mr Kambaksh's release. . .

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/save-pervez-global-protests-to-
save-afghan-student-from-death-sentence-776783.html
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ECO CLIPS

JIM LOBE, INTER PRESS SERVICE - Despite growing recognition in the
Pentagon and the intelligence community that global warming poses
serious national security threats to the United States, Washington is
spending 88 dollars on the military for every dollar it spends this year
on climate-related programs, according to a new study released here
Thursday by the Institute for Policy Studies

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/01/6784/

SOLAR TRACKING SKYLIGHTS
2008-02-01_140437-TreeHugger-solar-tracking-skylight.jpg

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DRUG BUSTS

HISTORY OF THE WAR ON DRUGS
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/12/22/whyIsMarijuanaIllegal.html


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OUTLYING PRECINCTS

NY TIMES - Alma Rangel, the wife of Representative Charles B. Rangel,
has endorsed Barack Obama's presidential bid. . . Rangel, the dean of
Harlem politics, is a leading supporter of Senator Hillary Rodham
Clinton. . . Mrs. Rangel's appearance on Wednesday at a fund-raiser for
Senator Obama, led by his wife, Michelle Obama, surprised some of the
people present, because of Mr. Rangel's support for Mrs. Clinton.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/its-official-alma-rangel-backs-obama/


RAW STORY - George Clooney has recently become a spokesperson for peace
efforts to counter the ongoing violence in Darfur. "It's ugly, and it's
mean, and people at some point get fatigued from it," he told CNN,
explaining why he feels it's necessary to keep reminding people. Clooney
was also asked whether he would be campaigning for Barack Obama, whose
candidacy he supports, but he answered that he would not. "At times you
can harm the person that you're trying to help, and so I'm very careful
not to go out and stump for Senator Obama," Clooney stated. "I just find
that it's a slippery slope. My father ran for Congress and they sort of
ran against him as Hollywood vs. the Heatland. And so I don't want to
damage anybody."

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/George_Clooney_
explains_role_as_Darfur_0201.html



NEVADA APPEAL - Secretary of State Ross Miller said Wednesday he has
created a "Please Don't Call" list for Nevadans who don't want the
constant campaign phone calls. He said he has heard from numerous voters
tired of having their evenings interrupted by political phone calls. He
said the list will give voters the opportunity to tell campaigns they
don't want the calls. But he said compliance is voluntary. While the
state and national "Do Not Call" lists bar telemarketers from calling
people on the list, that restriction cannot be put on political free
speech.

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080131/NEWS/748779434

MOTHER JONES - The New York Times reports that Bill Clinton went to the
Kazakhstani president and vouched for a Canadian businessman named
Giustra seeking inroads into Kazakhstan's uranium mining business. In a
simple quid pro quo, Giustra later made a massive donation to Clinton's
charitable foundation. The monster deal [that Giustra signed with
Kazakhstan] stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell
company into one of the world's largest uranium producers in a
transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Giustra,
analysts said. Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr.
Clinton's charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3
million donation from Mr. Giustra that had remained a secret until he
acknowledged it last month. The gift, combined with Mr. Giustra's more
recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an
additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton's
inner circle, an exclusive club of wealthy entrepreneurs in which
friendship with the former president has its privileges.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/
2008/01/7047_really_bad_news.html



LA TIMES - The Service Employees International Union, which had backed
Edwards' failed presidential big, endorses Obama. . . The 650,000-member
state union represents employees including nurses, janitors and home
care workers. It is especially strong in the Latino community, a key
voting bloc in Tuesday's primary in California and some 20 other
contests across the nation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-campaign2feb02,0,5394787.story


NADER EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE
http://www.naderexplore08.org/

HOW THE CLINTONS PLAYED THE RACE CARD
http://www.theroot.com/id/44468

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FIELD NOTES

NEW MEDIATION WEBSITE

The Swiss based mediation organisation, the Centre for Humanitarian
Dialogue (HD Centre), has launched a new website. The web site is aimed
at mediators, government officials, funders, armed groups and others
directly involved in peace efforts. Although a great deal of the work of
the organisation is necessarily discreet, there is information on its
public projects and experience in peace-making related issues.

http://www.hdcentre.org

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FURTHERMORE. . .

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - Britons are losing their grip on reality,
according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think
Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes
was real. The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century
English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth. And 23 percent thought
World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage
thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080204/od_afp/
britainpeoplehistoryoffbeat&printer=1;_ylt=
Ams.uwe.4SPvgaGoqEYHa9uhOrgF



TIMES, UK - Woolworths has withdrawn bedroom furniture for young girls
bearing the sexually charged name Lolita after a campaign waged by a
mothers' online chat room. . . A mother who was browsing the site for a
new bed for her daughter was so shocked at the brand name that she
posted a message on the Raisingkids. co.uk website asking other parents
whether they felt the same. . . A tirade of messages followed from
mothers equally horrified that a young girl's bed should be sold under
such a name. . . Whereas many mothers were familiar with Vladimir
Nabokov and his famous novel, it seems that the Woolworths staff were
not. At first they were baffled by the fuss. A spokesman for the company
told The Times: "What seems to have happened is the staff who run the
website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had
either. We had to look it up on Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she
is now."

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article3285597.ece


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