What kind of neighbor are they?

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - More aid is on the way to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar - but so is the heavy rain. A week after Cyclone Nargis flattened low-lying villages and killed whole families at a time, the military junta finally agreed Friday to allow a U.S. cargo plane to bring in food and other supplies to the isolated country. Myanmar gave the green light after confiscating other shipments, prompting the U.N. to order a temporary freeze in shipments.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080509/D90IE0RO1.html

As they take the minerals out of this country, what does China leave for it, bereft of its monks and spirit?

Taxi to the Dark Side is an Academy Award winning 2007 documentary film directed by American filmmaker Alex Gibney, and produced b Taxi to the Dark Side is an Academy Award winning 2007 documentary film directed by American filmmaker Alex Gibney, and produced by Eva Orner.

The film focuses around the controversial death in custody of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar. Dilawar was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extra judicial detention at the Bagram Air Base.

Taxi to the Dark Side also goes on to examine America's policy on torture and interrogation in general, specifically the CIA's use of torture and their research into sensory deprivation. There is description of the opposition to the use of torture from its political and military opponents, as well as the defense of such methods; the attempts by Congress to uphold the standards of the Geneva Convention forbidding torture; and the popularization of the use of torture techniques in shows such as 24.

Plugs into home power and water supplies to make ethanol for as little as $1 a gallon (3.8 liters), according to E-Fuel

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new company hopes drivers will kick the oil habit by brewing ethanol at home that won't spike food prices.

E-Fuel Corp unveiled on Thursday the "MicroFueler" touting it as the world's first machine that allows homeowners to make their own ethanol and pump the brew directly into their cars.

The portable unit that sells for $10,000 resembles a gasoline station pump and nozzle -- minus the slot for a credit card, or the digital "SALE" numbers that whir ever faster at retail pumps as global demand pushes fuel prices to record levels.

May 9

AP - Blackwater: "If it is determined that there are any individuals who need to be held accountable, we support that."

The Associated Press reports that Blackwater Worldwide is not expected to face criminal charges for the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in September and that it's likely to keep its multimillion-dollar contract to guard U.S. diplomats.

Citing a half-dozen people close to the investigation AP writes that the Justice Department is focusing only on three or four Blackwater guards. Late summer is the earliest the final decision on any charges will be made, one source said.

Last month the State Department extended Blackwater's contract for one year, though it raised concerns about whether the corporation or individuals were liable.

This is just unreal. Not that there are people in America who think this way, but that there are highly educated college professors who think this way. Why? Is it because far too many Americans ever leave the borders of their own country? That America is a 'world apart?' Is it some kind of sick provincialism? What is it that prevents us, in a country of immigrants, to be so intolerant of other people(s) making different choices? The real irony is that a self-described conservative--in the best sense of the word, I hasten to add--would write something so culturally relativisitc. (I'm sure Col. Lang is aware of this irony, as well.) This is the kind of writing that comes with a deep, committed relationship with the world, ideas and other peoples, and the value of real liberty and real choice.

Moscow | May 9

BBC - Russian tanks and intercontinental missile launchers have been paraded through Moscow for the first time since the collapse of the USSR.

The Russian leadership has decided to revive the Communist-era custom of featuring military hardware in the annual Victory Day parade.

New President Dmitry Medvedev said the army and navy were getting stronger.

Observers say the point of the parade was to demonstrate that Russia is a serious military force.

The Kremlin insists the event, which marks the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, is not meant to threaten anyone.

President Medvedev, who was inaugurated on Wednesday, has been leading the parade on Red Square.

Asia Times Online - May 10, 2008 Nineteen years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall effectively eliminated the Soviet Union as the world's other superpower. Yes, the USSR as a political entity stumbled on for another two years, but it was clearly an ex-superpower from the moment it lost control over its satellites in Eastern Europe.

Less than a month ago, the United States similarly lost its claim to superpower status when a barrel of crude oil roared past US$110 on the international market, gasoline prices crossed the $3.50 threshold at American pumps, and diesel fuel topped $4. As was true of the USSR following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the US will no doubt continue to stumble on like the superpower it once was; but as the nation's economy continues to be eviscerated to pay for its daily oil fix, it, too, will be seen by increasing numbers of savvy observers as an ex-superpower-in-the-making.

AVENTURA, Fla | May 9

WTVJ-TV - Two South Florida cities have voted in favor of splitting Florida into two separate states, but Gov. Charlie Crist seems skeptical. Earlier this week, Margate and North Lauderdale voted in favor of the measure, which would turn Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties into a 51st state.

Proponents of the move said South Florida has different needs than the rest of the state. The mayors of North Lauderdale and Margate also said South Florida should receive more tax money because of the amount taxpayers here contribute.

Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens

Video at Think Progress

Yesterday I was driving back from the farm. My mind wandered as I drove. I noticed crops wilting in the heat—once again we haven’t had sufficient rain from Seguin to parts west. I couldn’t help but feel for the farmers that spent time preparing ground and money on expensive fuel, fertilizer and seed. My thoughts were interrupted as a car passed me. The driver cast an angry look as he sped by and then passed another pickup, ignoring the solid yellow stripe in his lane. Luckily no one came over the hill in the opposite direction. I looked at my speedometer. 60 mph.

The cocksucker needs to slow down.

May 9

BBC - Pro-Taleban militants say they are holding six soldiers in a tribal region in north-western Pakistan.

A spokesman for the militants said 24 other soldiers had been freed in Bajaur agency. The military says just one soldier was captured.

Elsewhere in the region a soldier was killed and at least two others wounded in an attack in the Swat Valley.

Violence in the region has increased in recent days after militants suspended peace talks with the government.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

By Hannes Artens

No doubt, this Sunday's parliamentary elections in Serbia are the most decisive in the country's short but turbulent democratic history. Never since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic the stakes have been so high and prospects so ominous. In two days, the Serbian people will decide on whether they still envision a future in the European family of nations for their nation or decay into self-inflicted isolation and the status of a Trojan Horse for Russian great power aspirations. For the European Union, the elections will determine whether it can count on having an interlocutor in Belgrade to negotiate with past May 11, or face up to a nationalist Serbia acting as a permanent spirit of discord for the entire Western Balkans.

The unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo on February 17, sent shockwaves through the country that not only culminated in the ravage of several Western embassies and brought the government down, but also dominates this election campaign right down to the last comma on every stump. The collective national trauma of having ultimately lost the very territory mystified as the cradle of the Serbian nation and the impolitic signals the EU sent out over the last weeks render a radical-nationalist landslide a given. According to most recent polls, the nationalist bloc could bank on winning a super-majority of 55%, relegate all reform-minded powers into opposition, and set off to permanently disengage Serbia from Europe.

Moscow | May 9

ITV - Russia has celebrated its victory over Nazi Germany with a display of military might not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The annual Victory Day parade, which commemorates almost 27 million Soviets who died in World War Two, also showed Russia's revival and a military that the Kremlin says is still a force to be reckoned with.

David Perlman | Monte Verde, Chile | May 9

San Francisco Chronicle - Southward those First Americans must have come - all the way from Alaska to South America, generation after generation.

And at the end of their migration route 14,000 years ago, they built their wood-framed tents of hide, cooked their food, found medicines in seaweeds, and settled only a few miles from the sea where shellfish of all kinds abounded.

thank goodness for NASA taking aim at a 40 meter wide asteroid.

>>NEAT<< plus a petaflop computing breakthrough

Washington | May 9

NYT - When the Pentagon announced in March that Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood would become the senior American officer based in Pakistan, it reflected the military’s aim to put a crisis-tested veteran in a critical job at a pivotal time in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

But nearly two months later, the military has quietly canceled the assignment of General Hood, a 33-year Army veteran who was excoriated in the Pakistani news media for one of his previous jobs: commander of the United States prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

During General Hood’s command from 2004 to 2006, military authorities force-fed with tubes detainees who were engaging in hunger strikes at the Guantánamo prison, a step they justified as necessary to prevent the prisoners from committing suicide to protest their indefinite confinement. Also during General Hood’s tenure, reports that an American guard may have desecrated a Koran stirred wide protests in the Islamic world.

Lambert doesn't like what Matt Stoller saying about how Obama ran his campaign and how he's now consolidating power. He thinks Matt's kissing Obama's boots.

What Matt is saying is simple:

Obama is taking over the party and cutting out everyone who isn't in his camp. He believes in post-partisanship (this doesn't contradict having Daschle as your bud, y'know). Money flow is going to come mostly from Obama going forward, unless he loses the election. The independents-folks like MoveOn, ActBlue, the netroots, etc... are being cut out or marginalized, whether they realize it or not (and I know that some don't.) Obama doesn't feel he really needed them (sorry MoveOn), and he isn't planning on giving them any real say or power.

May 8-14

1. Number Of Acceptable Things Candidates Can Say Now Down To Four

After Sen. Barack Obama's comments last week about what he typically eats for dinner were criticized by Sen. Hillary Clinton as being offensive to both herself and the American voters, the number of acceptable phrases presidential candidates can now say are officially down to four.

"There would still be five phrases available to the candidates if the Obama camp hadn't accused Clinton of saying 'Glad to be here' with a little tinge of sarcasm during a stump speech in North Carolina." chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos said on Sunday's episode of This Week.

2. Economic Stimulus Check Burned for Warmth

Saying the extra bit of kindling material couldn't have come at a better time, 43-year-old Montana school teacher Tim Donaldson received his $618 rebate check from the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday, and then immediately burned it to provide warmth for his wife and two sons.

"It gets pretty cold here at night," said Donaldson, adding "I just want to thank the government for sending such a large check. It burned for quite a while." Donaldson, who could not afford matches or fuel to light the check, said he made do by placing the envelope's clear plastic address window at an angle underneath the sun to spark the initial flame, which his family then huddled around until they fell asleep.

I advocate all the time for talking as a means of resolving conflicts. Somehow this has become a somewhat radical idea, but like Roosevelt and Reagan I believe that we can talk with people even in the midst of conflict.

Talks encounter all kinds of hurdles. But that doesn't make it a bad idea to talk. When talks break down, the pessimists - and the hawks - will be quick to gloat over that fact, arguing that it reinforces the need for heavy-handed military solutions. And when that happens, sane people should remind everyone that shutting down channels of communication rarely works.

With that said, recent talks between Pakistan's civilian government and hardline pro-Taliban elements are breaking down. About a week and a half ago, the Taliban decided to suspend talks, citing the government's continued military presence in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan as an obstacle to an agreement, despite the fact that all parties seemed interested in the draft proposal that was then on the table.

Mohammed Tawfeeq, Jomana Karadsheh, Tommy Evans, Terry Frieden and Ingrid Formanek | Baghdad | May 7

CNN - The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was captured early Thursday in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said....

... Al-Masri ("the Egyptian"), also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, took the reins of the Iraqi al Qaeda offshoot in June 2006 after a U.S. missile strike killed his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Since then, Iraqi officials have reported his death three times, his capture twice and a mortal wounding once.

New York | May 8

Reuters - A U.S. judge ordered the Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday to submit to the court a 2002 memo said to specify harsh interrogation methods used on suspected terrorists held abroad.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the memo was written by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel and sent to the CIA in August 2002. The ACLU described the memo as "one of the most important torture documents still being withheld by the Bush administration."

In a copy of the order posted on the ACLU's Web site, Judge Alvin Hellerstein told the government to produce the memo so he can determine whether it should be made public as part of a lawsuit the ACLU and other organizations filed in June 2004 requesting records concerning the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad.

Hellerstein has scheduled a review of the document for Monday.

"This memo authorized the CIA to use specific torture techniques -- including waterboarding," Jameel Jaffer, ACLU's national security project director, said in a statement.

Na'ama Lanski and Gidi Weitz | May 8

Haaretz - Olmert's bureau conceded that 10 invitations were issued on official paper, and regretted this error.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert used his bureau to promote the artistic career of his wife Aliza, a Haaretz report reveals. The report also says that when the couple were in New York for a private art exhibit by Olmert, their stay at a luxury hotel was paid for by an American association.

In the summer of 2005, Olmert presented an exhibition in New York to which dozens of wealthy and influential people were invited. The invitations were allegedly issued by Rachael Risby Raz, the foreign affairs advisor in Olmert's bureau when he was minister of industry, trade and labor. Invitations for a dinner were printed on official ministry stationary.

The Olmerts stayed at the exclusive Peninsula Hotel in a $2,500-a-night suite, for only $500 a night on the say-so of the hotel chain's Jewish billionaire owner Michael Kadoorie. A pro-Israel group headed by a former Likud activist, Sharon Tzur, paid for the room.