How to save the world

A question of priorities: hunger and disease or climate change?
TWO years ago, a Danish environmentalist called Bjorn Lomborg had an idea. We all want to make the world a better place but, given finite resources, we should look for the most cost-effective ways of doing so. He persuaded a bunch of economists, including three Nobel laureates, to draw up a list of priorities. They found that efforts to fight malnutrition and disease would save many lives at modest expense, whereas fighting global warming would cost a colossal amount and yield distant and uncertain rewards.

That conclusion upset a lot of environmentalists. This week, another man who upsets a lot of people embraced it. John Bolton, America's ambassador to the United Nations, said that Mr Lomborg's “Copenhagen Consensus” (see articles) provided a useful way for the world body to get its priorities straight. Too often at the UN, said Mr Bolton, “everything is a priority”. The secretary-general is charged with carrying out 9,000 mandates, he said, and when you have 9,000 priorities you have none.

So, over the weekend, Mr Bolton sat down with UN diplomats from seven other countries, including China and India but no Europeans, to rank 40 ways of tackling ten global crises. The problems addressed were climate change, communicable diseases, war, education, financial instability, governance, malnutrition, migration, clean water and trade barriers.

the smoking gun?

The United States has found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since 2003, and more weapons of mass destruction are likely to be uncovered, two Republican lawmakers said Wednesday.

"We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons," Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said in a quickly called press conference late Wednesday afternoon.

Reading from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, Santorum said: "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."

... a senior Defense Department official pointed out that the chemical weapons were not in useable conditions.

"This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991," the official said, adding the munitions "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war."The official said the findings did raise questions about the years of weapons inspections that had not resulted in locating the fairly sizeable stash of chemical weapons. And he noted that it may say something about Hussein's intent and desire. The report does suggest that some of the weapons were likely put on the black market and may have been used outside Iraq.

Muslim students get help juggling school and faith

On Friday afternoons, Nathan Hale High School senior Abdisiyad Adan asks his fifth-period teacher what he'll miss in class, writes down the homework for the weekend and leaves school.

Other Muslim students at Nathan Hale pile into Adan's car, and they set off for the Idriss Mosque a little more than a mile away. By the time they return from their mandatory Friday prayers, the school day is nearly over.

At Garfield High School, an empty classroom is provided for Muslims to pray during lunch periods, Principal Ted Howard said. Students who don't want to miss lunch can have an extra 10 minutes to pray after the lunch period provided their teachers sign off on it. On Fridays, Muslims are allowed to go to a nearby mosque.

Judicial Watch Obtains Documents from Army Related to Halliburton Subsidiary’s No-Bid Iraq Contract

Newly Released Documents Raise Questions Regarding Involvement of Vice President’s Office

JACK WHO??

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a “motion to compel” with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to force the United States Secret Service to comply with a court order to provide Judicial Watch with all White House visitor logs detailing the entries and exits of admitted felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.



On April 25, 2006, Judge John Garrett Penn ordered the United States Secret Service to release to Judicial Watch, “all White House visitor logs from January 1, 2001 to present that reflect the entries and exit(s) of lobbyist Jack Abramoff from the White House” without redactions by May 10, 2006. Judicial Watch received two documents from the Secret Service on May 10 that indicated Abramoff made two visits to the White House on March 6, 2001 and January 20, 2004. However, the documents provided by the Secret Service were not official White House logs and contained incomplete information.



According to Judicial Watch’s analysis of the documents:



The two pages, dated March 6, 2006, are not official logs, but rather newly-reproduced summaries of certain information in the Secret Service’s database.

The documents are incomplete. They do not indicate with whom Abramoff visited on either date. The Secret Service routinely requests and records this information for all visitors. Secret Service logs obtained by Judicial Watch from the Clinton administration include information such as the “Visitee,” what room was visited, and the name of the person requesting the visit.

The documents also do not reflect all entries and exits of Abramoff to the White House. The White House has publicly acknowledged several Abramoff visits, such as May 19, 2001, Hanukkah receptions in 2001 and 2002 and additional “staff level meetings.” The first three dates do not appear on the documents produced.

According to press reports, Bush administration officials have admitted more complete logs do exist in response to the Court’s order, but that the White House directed the Secret Service to withhold them.



“The fact that the Secret Service has flagrantly violated the Court’s order is bad enough, but the notion that the White House might somehow be involved is disturbing and it merits investigation,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Secret Service must stop playing games and release all documents per the Court’s order.”

Top 10 Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State

Is the U.S. becoming a police state? Here are the top 10 signs that it may well be the case.

here you go russ

we wont hve to worry about over population. we keep finding ways ot kill off our own species.

From Fairway Mike

Ths is the document that Mike from Fairway referenced last week:

Tax receipts second-highest level in history

This from Pleasant John: Through the first seven months of the current budget year, which began Oct. 1, government receipts total $1.35 trillion, up 11.2 percent from the same period a year ago.

water for fuel?

This could change the world. Thanks for the heads up John.

a Futures market for gasoline?

This is a great idea. Sign me up for a few hundred gallons. smaller stations could make it work but they would probably have to do much shorter terms. The smaller capacity would probably only work for 6 months or so since you'd probably have a small group of users in the beginning. But once you get to ,say 30% of your customers (remember, I am no economist so i have no idea what the actual nmbers would have to be)buying gas at cheaper than current prices you would start losing money. The first aspect of Petrowski's program would allow consumers to buy prepaid cards for a certain amount of gasoline at a set price. If the price at the pump rises, the card holder would still pay the lower price they locked in with their prepaid card.

A working version of the plan is here.

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement

When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.


In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."

McGovern

Ray McGovern bio

Financial friendly fire

Army specialist Tyson Johnson of Mobile, Ala., had just been promoted in a field ceremony in Iraq when a mortar round exploded outside his tent, almost killing him.

"It took my kidney, my left kidney, shrapnel came in through my head, back of my head," he recounted.

His injuries forced him out of the military, and the Army demanded he repay an enlistment bonus of $2,700 because he'd only served two-thirds of his three-year tour.

When he couldn't pay, Johnson's account was turned over to bill collectors. He ended up living out of his car when the Army reported him to credit agencies as having bad debts, making it impossible for him to rent an apartment.

Leftist leaders reject U.S. trade plan

Bolivia's new left-leaning president signed a pact with Cuba and Venezuela on Saturday that rejects U.S.-backed free trade and promises a socialist version of regional commerce and cooperation.
Cuba promised to send Bolivia doctors to provide medical care to poor people, and teachers to conduct literacy campaigns. Venezuela will send gasoline to the Andean nation and set up a $100 million (€80 million) fund for development programs and a $30 million (€24 million) fund for other social projects.

Cuba and Venezuela also agreed to buy all of Bolivia's soybeans, recently left without markets after Colombia signed a free trade pact with the United States.


"According to any reasonable definition of the term, this is not a trade agreement," Michael Shifter, a political analyst with the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, said of last year's ALBA deal. "It's an attempt to pose a real counterweight to the U.S. role and agenda in Latin America."

Shifter predicted few other Latin America nations would join ALBA, instead preferring trade agreements with the United States.

But he said Chavez is likely eyeing Peru as a potential ALBA member if nationalist Ollanta Humala prevails in a presidential runoff expected for May 28 or June 4. Humala was the front-runner in the April election.

BIG Brother alert

Federal and state governments are seeking to add millions of DNA profiles to anti-crime databases by including genetic information about people who are charged — but not yet convicted — of crimes.

The arrestee-testing laws generally permit a person's DNA to be taken after he or she is charged with a felony. If a defendant is acquitted or the charges are dropped, the profile is expunged from the database and the biological sample is destroyed. As long as the profile is in the database, it can be matched to other crimes.

Such databases initially contained only DNA profiles taken from convicted felons. However, New Mexico and Kansas this year enacted laws that require DNA testing for all people arrested for alleged felonies, and similar plans are under consideration in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois and Tennessee.


Advocates such as Sepich say that testing DNA profiles of arrestees is no more intrusive than comparing fingerprints found at crime scenes to databases of convicts and arrestees. The DNA profiles do not code for any genetic characteristics, they say.

Cheney exempts his own office from reporting on classified material

A standing executive order, strengthened by President Bush in 2003, requires all agencies and "any other entity within the executive branch" to provide an annual accounting of their classification of documents. More than 80 agencies have collectively reported to the National Archives that they made 15.6 million decisions in 2004 to classify information, nearly double the number in 2001, but Cheney continues to insist he is exempt.

Not only has the administration reported a dramatic increase in the number of documents deemed "top secret," "secret" or "confidential," the president has authorized the reclassification of information that was public for years. An audit by a National Archives office recently found that the CIA acted in a "clearly inappropriate" way regarding about one-third of the documents it reclassified last year.

Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their government," Bush said in his executive order on classified information. "Nevertheless, throughout our history, the national defense has required certain information be maintained in confidence in order to protect our citizens."

Bush and Cheney have made it clear they are intent on reclaiming presidential powers lost by Bush predecessors. That erosion of power started with Richard Nixon's losing fight over the privacy of his papers after the Watergate scandal and continued through Bill Clinton's impeachment.

REMEMBERING THE REALITY OF REPUBLICAN WRONGNESS

NEVER FORGET FALLUJAH

Iraqi president, says he recently met the representatives of seven armed groups

Now this looks promising:
"...there are groups other than the Saddamists and Zarqawists who joined the armed operations for the purpose of fighting the occupation,” Talabani was quoted as saying. “We are trying to have a dialogue with them to join the political process.”

law forbids more than three people from living together unless they're related by "blood, marriage or adoption."

On that basis, the city denied an occupancy permit to Olivia Shelltrack and her
fiance, Fondray Loving. In January, the couple moved into their five-bedroom
home with their three children. But city officials have repeatedly ruled that
the household fails to meet its definition of family.