Philip Rucker & Eli Saslow | July 3

WaPo - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) announced this afternoon she will resign from office on July 26 and return to private life, a stunning decision by last year's Republican vice presidential candidate to leave office before the end of her first term.

"We know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time on another scale and actually make a difference for our priorities," Palin said in a news conference alongside a lake in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.

Using a basketball analogy, Palin said, "I know when it's time to pass the ball for victory."

Palin, 45, is a major star in the GOP and is seen as a leading candidate for the party's presidential nomination in 2012.

According to CDC, swine flu cases went down last week. Have circumstances changed or is wave I ending?

170 deaths in the USA when 1% of the pandemic has passed (ignoring future vaccinations).

Three Tamiflu resistant infections have been reported from Denmark, Hong Kong and Japan.

Europe exceeded 10 000 cases. 4 deaths. The UK stopped counting of cases.

About 1/10000 of the pandemic has passed in the world (ignoring future vaccinations).

After reading Krugman today I'm ready to go hide under a rock. I figured it was bad, but sheesh. There's bad and then there is bad.

This is great news, if true. Yes, the guts of the story have already been posted here at The Agonist, but Harper goes into a bit more detail, worth reading, if you ask me. I do wonder what Ross did to get fired.

My first week home was, while not exciting, pleasant. Hanging out with my Mom, seeing my sister, old friends, catching up, all a part of the return. After staying at my Mom's the first week I headed out to Williamson County to stay with a buddy until my flat is ready. He's got a wonderful house, spacious, with two dogs that are sweet--if one is a bit to exuberant in the mornings, you know, I just don't like being licked (cue the peanut gallery)--but it's out in sub-urban hell. The last several days after waking up and eating breakfast I drive into town to spend my day writing in a local coffee shop. I greet each morning with a smile, the promise of a new day. But the moment I pull the car out of the subdivision onto Anderson Mill Road, my mood sinks. I look around me. I see blue skies, a warm sun and concrete big boxes in all directions. Home.

"Where is the wonder," I ask myself? I know it's silly. Austin isn't Istanbul. It's not Muscat. It's not even Singapore. And so I drive thirty minutes into town, sit down at a table and fire up my Mac Book Pro. The blank white page and the blinking cursor reflect back on me the emptiness I feel.

More after the jump.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

and had the 2nd hottest June on record
Lakes are setting records for low water- only 1 boat ramp open at Buchannan and Travis(last one still in water)
Hay is available but with out rain soon will be scarce fall and winter
horse slaughter plants are closed in Texas and restrictions on taking them to Mexico
Selling a low end horse is near impossible
Rescues are full
Folks are turning their horses loose- sherriff offices are beggin folks to take them
How long before folks think maybe the Europeans eating horse flesh isnt that bad an idea

If the horses continue being turned out as stray

The USA in my childhood was the country putting Man on the Moon, and fighting alongside my schoolmates older brothers in Vietnam. Our cultural myopia, depending on imports from the UK and a ever-evolving domestic TV panorama (that in hindsight was just copies of succesful US shows), was shattered forever with the introduction of Sesame St and subsequently the Muppets:

Speaking of evolution, an intriguing side by side comparision of some drafts and the final Declaration of Independence of these United Statef of America.

Of course US movies, MASH, Beverly Hillbillies, Days of Our Lives and General Hospital created stereotypical Americans in many Australian eyes, and we could snigger along with Monty Python "Shut up, you American. You always talk, you Americans. You talk and you say, "let me tell you something" and "I just want to say this"... well, you're dead now, so shut up". Yet we and many others around the world became American on 12/9 waking up to the carnage that had happened during our night-time in Australia. However, many Canberrans were less than impressed when your last president ordained that a jet fighter would loop above the suburbs all night, whilst he slept!

TV shows, movies and stereotypes aside, it's been a real pleasure learning from the real Americans here at the Agonist: my world view and understanding has been greatly amplified. Thank y'all and have a great holiday weekend!

July 3

BBC - At least 10 militants have died after missiles were fired by a suspected US drone aircraft at a Taliban target in Pakistan, intelligence officials say. Unnamed officials said it was an attack on a militant training facility in the South Waziristan area. It took place in an area on the Afghan border controlled by Pakistan's top Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

Cancun | July 3

BBC - The UN's top health official has opened a forum in Mexico on combating swine flu by saying that the spread of the virus worldwide is now unstoppable. World Health Organization head Margaret Chan added that the holding of the meeting in Cancun showed confidence in Mexico, which has been hard hit. The WHO says most H1N1 cases are mild, with many people recovering unaided. As the summit opened, the UK alone was projecting more than 100,000 new cases of H1N1 a day by the end of the summer, and informed the ECDC that the country has changed its response strategy, acknowledging that containment of the virus is no longer possible.

The disease, which the WHO declared a full-fledged pandemic on Jun. 11, is now spreading fast in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, fuelled by the southern hemisphere winter.

<sub>* The United States, with nearly 34,000 confirmed cases, remains the most affected country, followed by Mexico at about 9,000 and Canada with about 8,000 cases.
* 337 people have died from swine flu, which has also sickened 80000 others in 121 countries
* 1970's lab accident may have caused pandemic
* Obama to launch "national influenza campaign"
* WHO update 56 1/7</sub>

Bill Sizemore | Alexandria, VA | July 2

The Virginia-Pilot - A just-amended lawsuit alleges six additional instances of unprovoked attacks on Iraqi civilians by Blackwater contractors.

Three people, including a 9-year-old boy, are said to have died.

Also added to the suit is a racketeering count accusing Blackwater founder Erik Prince of running an ongoing criminal enterprise involved in, among other things, kidnapping and child prostitution.

Yangon | July 3

AFP - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon prepared Thursday for a risky visit to Myanmar amid warnings that his trip will be a "huge failure" if he fails to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ban is set to arrive in the military-ruled nation on Friday for a two-day visit that the UN says will focus on pressing the junta to free all political prisoners -- including the opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate who is currently on trial. He is due to meet junta leader Senior General Than Shwe and members of opposition parties including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), but

George Jahn | July 3

AP - The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency chose a veteran Japanese diplomat as the agency's next head on Thursday, in a tight vote reflecting stubborn North-South divisions of the U.N. nuclear monitoring organization.
Yukiya Amano collected 23 votes, compared to 11 for Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa, with one abstention, barely giving him the two-thirds majority needed for victory.
Even that tight margin came only after hard-fought preliminary sessions. A March vote between the two men — Amano, backed by the U.S. and like-minded countries, Minty supported by the developing world — was inconclusive, showing the divide separating the two camps.

They're still not big fans of the U.S., but Barack Obama is a big improvement over W. from the poll:

Most Pakistanis now see the Pakistani Taliban as well as al Qaeda as a critical threat to the country–a major shift from 18 months ago–and support the government and army in their fight in the Swat Valley against the Pakistani Taliban. An overwhelming majority think that Taliban groups who seek to overthrow the Afghan government should not be allowed to have bases in Pakistan.

But given Sharif's numbers, this makes the tie of his to the Taliban important to make:

Asked about the nation’s leaders, a large majority–68 percent–views President Zardari unfavorably (very, 50%), but–unlike the recent past–there are multiple national leaders whom most do view favorably. Prime Minister Gilani is seems untarred by negative views of Zardari and gets favorable ratings from 80 percent of Pakistanis. The restored Chief Justice Chaudry is very popular (82%), and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif is extremely popular (87%). The leader most associated with the Pakistani Taliban, Maulana Sufi Mohammad, is viewed positively by only 18 percent of Pakistanis.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saddam Hussein believed Iran was a significant threat to Iraq and left open the possibility that he had weapons of mass destruction rather than appear vulnerable, according to declassified FBI documents on interrogations of the former Iraqi leader.

"Hussein believed that Iraq could not appear weak to its enemies, especially Iran," FBI special agent George Piro wrote on notes of a conversation with Saddam in June 2004 about weapons of mass destruction.

He believed Iraq was being threatened by others in the region and must appear able to defend itself, the report said.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will buy more than 5,200 new armored vehicles designed to protect troops from roadside bombs in the rugged and steep terrain in Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.
The move comes as statistics show roadside bomb attacks have surged to record levels in Afghanistan, and commanders there have an urgent need for maneuverable trucks that are safer than armored Humvees when struck by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The need for an all-terrain Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle is acute as more U.S. troops are sent to Afghanistan to help quell the growing insurgency.

As if there was really any question that our mainstream media wasn't composed entirely of whores--although a whore might be insulted by the comparison, let there be no remaining doubts:

The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."

With the newsroom in an uproar after POLITICO reported the solicitation, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said this morning that he was "appalled" by the plan and said the newsroom will not participate.

"It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase," Brauchli told The Post’s media reporter, Howard Kurtz. The proposal "promises we would suspend our usual skeptical questioning because it appears to offer, in exchange for sponsorships, the good name of The Washington Post."

I'm speechless.

Painful acceleration in job losses this month. Economist's expected losses of 365,000, instead they got 467,000.

Here's the killer quote, however:

Consumers are saving 6.9 percent of their disposable income, and spending remains sluggish.

Consumers are still retrenching. 6.9% for American consumers? That's a huge number. An implicit argument in the Times article comes from this quote:

“We have to wait to see where things go,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “If we didn’t have the stimulus, the economy would’ve contracted twice as fast in the second quarter and the job losses we’re suffering now would be very similar to the ones we were suffering at the beginning of the year.”

I read this to mean the bounce from the stimulus is, to a certain degree, over. Is it? I can't say. We'll have to wait an see what the July numbers are like.

Still, are you still retrenching? Are you saving more than you spend? How are your neighbors doing? Still unemployed? Or recently laid-off? I know far too many people here in Austin who are unemployed. Another indicator is the sheer amount of homeless people I see on the streets, begging at stop lights and the like. This isn't over.

wasn't it supposed to peak at 8% and rise no more if the stimulus package was approved

and whos watch was this on??

July 2

BBC - Saudi Arabia has signed a deal with a major European defence contractor to build a hi-tech security system including a fence around the whole of its 9,000 kilometre border. The country has been wanting to build a strong border security system for some time.

Its two main concerns are its neighbours Iraq and Yemen, and the instability and lawlessness of these two countries have raised fears in Saudi Arabia that their problems will overflow the border. Specifically, the Saudis are worried about weapons and drug smuggling. The cost of the contract has not been officially disclosed, but a French magazine said it is worth about $3 billion.

Jeff Rubin interviewed by Jim Puplava at Financial Sense. Audio at the link. From the web-page:

What do subprime mortgages, Atlantic salmon dinners, SUVs and globalization have in common?

They all depend on cheap oil. And in a world of dwindling oil supplies and steadily mounting demand around the world, there is no such thing as cheap oil. Oil might be less expensive in the middle of a recession, but it will never be cheap again.

Take away cheap oil, and the global economy is getting the shock of its life...

t r u t h o u t - Jason Leopold on Yoo, Walker, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, officials from the Defense Intelligence Agency, representatives of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and judge advocate generals (JAGs) from all four branches of the military and the process of justifying degrading interrogation tactics in clear violation of the Geneva Convention.

July 2

scoop.co.nz - Two tribal communities in eastern Chad have agreed to end a long-running feud and live peacefully together under an initiative co-sponsored by the United Nations peacekeeping mission to the country.

MINURCAT, the UN mission to Chad and the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR), and local authorities in the town of Adre brought together members of the ethnic Zaghawa and Massalit communities yesterday to formalize the end to their feud.