World-News

Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service: "Contrary to recent media reports of a quick recovery in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists and biologists are 'deeply concerned' about impacts that will likely span 'several decades.' 'My prediction is that we will be dealing with the impacts of this spill for several decades to come and it will outlive me,' Dr. Ed Cake, a biological oceanographer, as well as a marine and oyster biologist, told IPS, 'I won't be here to see the recovery.'"

http://www.truth-out.org/scientists-deeply-concerned-about-bp-disasters-long-term-impact61946

--------

Gulf Oil Flow was 12 Times More Than Feds' Original Estimate
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/03-2

BP's Plan to 'Disperse' Lawsuits
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/08/03-0

Oilgate! BP and All the President's Men (Except One) Seek to Contain Truth of Leak in the Gulf
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/03-7



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=British+Petroleum
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=oil+spill
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Dahr+Jamail
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Erika+Bolstad
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Lesley+Clark
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Riki+Ott

Shahid Buttar, Truthout: "Last week, The Washington Post concluded a two-year investigation of our government's domestic spying activities, revealing a lack of accountability pervading its far-flung and vast operations. Last week, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, confirming that the FBI is violating the constitutional rights of Americans en masse - as it has done before."

http://www.truth-out.org/FBI-Continues-Attack-on-Civil-Rights-Demands-Increased-Powers



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=civil+rights
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=constitutional+rights
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=constitutional+rights
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Federal+Bureau+of+Investigation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+S.+Mueller
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=domestic+spying
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Shahid+Buttar

Jason Leopold, Truthout: "Alyeska Pipeline, the BP-led consortium that operates the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), has implemented deep budget cuts, deferred work on a number of important maintenance and upgrade projects, failed to study how relocating engineers would impact the safe operations and long-term integrity of the pipeline and is led by a chief executive who was described by the company's five vice presidents as 'intimidating,' 'demeaning,' 'aggressive,' 'confrontational,' 'unpredictable,' 'polarizing,' 'withering,' 'edgy,' 'vulgar' and 'inappropriate.' Those are just some of the critical findings contained in a closely held report obtained exclusively by Truthout."

http://www.truth-out.org/BP-Executive-Turned-Alyeska-Pipeline-Into-Deeply+Distressed-Company61927



Alyeska, Federal Regulators Probing Employee's "Cover-Up" Claims Related to May Oil Spill

Jason Leopold, Truthout: "An Alyeska Pipeline Service Company engineer sent a letter to federal regulators and BP's Office of the Ombudsman claiming internal company documents were altered following a 4,500-barrel oil spill May 25 to cover up the fact that Alyeska allegedly failed to perform maintenance on a key piece of equipment."

http://www.truth-out.org/alyeska-federal-regulators-probing-employees-cover-up-claims-related-may-oil-spill62677



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=oil+spill
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=British+Petroleum
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Jason+Leopold

http://www.lewrockwell.com/quinn/quinn33.1.html



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=housing
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=/quinn

Anti-Defamers Defame Muslims
http://www.lewrockwell.com/raimondo/raimondo92.html

New York Mosque: Bigotry Rears Its Head
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis201.html

Beware of Mosque-Building Muslims
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/combs2.1.1.html

Cordoba House: The Acid Test
http://www.lewrockwell.com/raimondo/raimondo95.html

--------

Cossacks in tricorns

Unqualified Offerings
by Jim Henley

08/02/10

[T]the Right’s anti-Muslim crusade has already moved past ’sentiment’ even if you don’t count waging war on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and pushing war against Iran as ‘anti-Muslim.’ (Since, after all, when we wage war on someone it’s for their own good.) But the national campaign against building an Islamic cultural center in lower Manhattan and the separate attempts to stop the construction of Mosques and other Muslim buildings elsewhere in the country already constitute an active program of religious oppression...

http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2010/08/02/11514



My shameful take on the mosque

Liberty For All
by John Jay Myers

08/09/10

I called this ‘My shameful take on the Mosque’, because I believe our country has much more important things to worry about than destroying property rights and freedom of religion. I have noticed that every time election time comes around the media pulls out all the truly divisive issues in our culture. This is a shame. It is a shame that I have to defend the basic principles of our country in this day and age. Possibly more shameful that I have to do it to combat rhetoric from my peers...

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4673



The War Party’s new torchlight parade

Pro Libertate
by Will Grigg

08/12/10

The most powerful patron of radical Islam is not Iran, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia. It is the government headquartered in Washington, D.C., which for more than a half-century has diligently cultivated Islamic terrorism. Yet millions of Americans are suffering what amounts to a collective loss of bladder control over the purported threat embodied in the proposed Cordoba House — the Islamic equivalent of a YMCA — in New York City...

http://tinyurl.com/26u56nz



A manufactured controversy

CounterPunch
by Anthony DiMaggio

08/12/10

The reactionary right has long been opposed to anything related to Arab culture and the Muslim religion in New York and around the country. … This brings us to the most recent ‘controversy’ related to Islam: the Muslim community center planned for Manhattan. Right wingers in radio and at Fox News have gone into overdrive attacking it as a fundamental threat to the American way of life and to American security...

http://counterpunch.org/dimaggio08122010.html



What political courage looks like

Salon
by Glenn Greenwald

08/17/10

Aside from Michael Bloomberg’s impassioned, principled speech in defense of Park 51 — and, if one wants to be generous about it, Barack Obama’s initial, voluntary defense of the religious freedom values at stake — there have been very few commendable acts in this dispute. Until now. The developer of the project, Sharif El-Gamal, gave his first interview this afternoon, with NY 1, and categorically refused even to consider backing down. He made clear that Park 51 has the absolute constitutional right to build a community center in Lower Manhattan, and refused even to acknowledge the toxic notion that Muslims generally somehow bear responsibility for the 9/11 attack...

http://tinyurl.com/24cdkep



Why opponents of the non-Ground-Zero non-mosque are tools for al-Qaeda

Austro-Athenian Empire
by Roderick T. Long

08/19/10

Al-Qaeda seeks to combat the idea that people of different religions can live harmoniously together in the same society. The anti-mosqueteers are certainly doing their best to combat this idea as well. Al-Qaeda seeks to subordinate private property rights to religious law. This is exactly what the anti-mosqueteers do when they declare other people’s property ’sacred ground’ and propose on this basis to interfere with their peaceful use of it...

http://tinyurl.com/25xk69s



Chronology of a bizarre controversy

CounterPunch
by Gary Leupp

08/22/10

Thus by mid-August a modest project by a mainstream U.S. Muslim group backed by the New York City mayor and unanimously approved by the New York City community committee has been transformed into a general attack on Muslim rights in this country. The scary thing is that disapproval is so widespread, bipartisan, and driven by irrational fear if not hatred. What does this tell us about this country? It tells us that nine years after 9-11 (and nice centuries after the First Crusade), Islamophobia is rampant and politically useful...

http://counterpunch.org/leupp08192010.html



Mosque criticism sheds bad light on America

Freedom Politics
by Thomas J. Lucente Jr.

08/22/10

Let them build the ‘mosque.’ Whining over the building of a $100 million Islamic cultural center — known officially as Park51 and informally as Cordoba House — just blocks away from where the World Trade Center towers once stood before being destroyed by Islamic terrorists nine years ago is the perfect example of why I gladly became a libertarian...

http://tinyurl.com/24eje7a


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Defending the Mosque

Joe Conason, Truthout: "No recent controversy has so plainly revealed the hollow values of the American right than the effort to prevent the construction of a community center in Lower Manhattan because it will include a mosque. Arguments in opposition range from a professed concern for the sensitivities of the Sept. 11 victims' families to a primitive battle cry against Islam - but what they all share is an arrant disregard for our country's founding principles."

http://www.truth-out.org/joe-conason-defending-mosque62040



Mosque Mania: Anti-Muslim Fears and the Far Right

Stephan Salisbury, TomDispatch: "There is a distinct creepiness to the controversy now raging around a proposed Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan. The angry 'debate' over whether the building should exist has a kind of glitch-in-the-Matrix feel to it, leaving in its wake an aura of something-very-bad-about-to-happen."

http://www.truth-out.org/mosque-mania-anti-muslim-fears-and-far-right62175



Pandering Over a Mosque

Eugene Robinson: "Lies, distortions, jingoism, xenophobia - another day, another campaign issue that Republicans can use to bash President Obama and the Democrats. First it was illegal immigration. Now it's the so-called 'Ground Zero mosque,' which is not at all what its opponents claim."

http://www.truth-out.org/eugene-robinson-pandering-over-a-mosque62365



Ground Zero for Tolerance

Robert Scheer, Truthdig: "Are the Republicans terminally stupid, or are they just playing the dangerous fool? In either case, the irrational attack on Muslims everywhere by the GOP's leadership is not only deeply subversive with regard to the American ideal of religious tolerance but also poses a profound threat to our national security. Nor does it help that some top Democrats, like Harry Reid, are willing to demean Muslims even as we fight two wars in which victory depends on our ability to convey a respect for their religion."

http://www.truth-out.org/robert-scheer-ground-zero-tolerance62426



Mosques, Muslims and America in Darkness

William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "Things have come to a pretty pass when I'm the guy saying it would be really helpful if George W. Bush were still around. I'm saying it, and I mean it, because this country could really use his brand of wisdom right now."

http://www.truth-out.org/mosques-muslims-and-america-darkness62409

--------

Opponents fight new mosques in U.S. heartland

Muslims trying to build houses of worship in the nation's heartland, far from the heated fight in New York over plans for a mosque near the World Trade Center site, are running into opponents even more hostile and aggressive.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-08-08-mosque-opposition_N.htm



Mosque Debate: Keith Ellison 'Gets It,' While Harry Reid Gets In the Way

Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison did a terrific job of explaining Monday why Democrats ought not fear the sad little debate about whether to allow a moderate Muslim group to build an Islamic Center near the site of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/154054/mosque-debate-keith-ellisongets-itwhile-harry-reid-gets-way



Muslim Community Center

Keith Olbermann - Special Comment

Video

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment about the Muslim Community Center in New York, erroneously called the "Ground Zero Mosque".

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26189.htm



America Has Disgraced Itself

By Peter Beinart

Conservative fury over the "ground zero" mosque shows that when it comes to the battle for freedom and religious liberty, the U.S. has thrown in the towel.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26202.htm



It's Not About The "Mosque"! It's America's War On "the Other."

By Will Bunch

This country has long had its Know-Nothings and its Birchers and its McCarthyites, but it never had gizmos like Fox News or Sarah Palin's Twitter feed to fuel toxic ideas so far so fast. It's time we admit these seemingly disconnected battles over "anchor babies, mosques, and a black man in the Oval Office are all part of the same war against "the Other," and that we are in the fight of a lifetime.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26201.htm


From Information Clearing House

--------

Manhattan Mosque Debate Fuels Islamophobia Nationwide
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/13-3

Pro-Mosque Mom Who Lost Pregnant Daughter In Trade Center: 9/11 Families 'Not Monolithic'
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/16-8



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Harry+Reid
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Keith+Ellison
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pat+Robertson
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Palin
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=GOP
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=war+party
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=national+security
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=muslim
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Islamic+terrorism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Islamophobia
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=9/11
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=al-Qaeda
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=raimondo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jim+Henley
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Joe+Conason
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=John+Jay+Myers
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Stephan+Salisbury
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=com/grigg
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Anthony+DiMaggio
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Chris+McGreal
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Christina+Bellantoni
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Eugene+Robinson
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=margolis
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Scheer
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Keith+Olbermann
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=William+Rivers+Pitt
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=/combs
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Peter+Beinart
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Roderick+T.+Long
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Gary+Leupp
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Thomas+J.+Lucente

http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski253.html

--------

Congressman says PFC Bradley Manning Should Face Death Penalty for Wikileaks Case

"If they don't charge him with treason, they ought to charge him with murder."
http://bit.ly/a0tLvh


From Information Clearing House

--------

Remarks in Support of Whistleblower Private Manning

Ray McGovern, Truthout: "We are living in a liminal time, that is to say, we live on the threshold. So much that we have taken for granted is passing. In times like this, we must be careful to keep our bearings, lest we come to love the chaos that passes for reality. This is why we need to honor our brother Bradley Manning. He was not afraid to face the unknown; not afraid to resist the seduction of conformity; not afraid to follow his conscience; AND not afraid to give us the wherewithal to distinguish truth from lies so that we, too, can follow our conscience."

http://www.truth-out.org/rally-support-private-manning62147



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Bradley+Manning
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Wikileaks
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=com/kwiatkowski
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Ray+McGovern

http://www.lewrockwell.com/daughty/mogambo59.1.html

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Runaway federal spending good for special interests, bad for the rest of us

Liberty For All
by Brian Irving

07/31/10

‘Over the past few years, U.S. government debt held by the public has grown rapidly — to the point that, compared with the total output of the economy, it is now higher than it has ever been except during the period around World War II.’ That’s the chilling opening line of a brief recently released by the Congressional Budget Office. The non-partisan CBO warns that without significant policy reforms ‘growing budget deficits will cause debt to rise to unsupportable levels’...

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4616


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=debt
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=budget
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=deficit
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Daughty
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=mogambo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Brian+Irving

Rick Wolff, Monthly Review: "Where is this elusive recovery? The banks, some say, have 'recovered.' Yet they remain dependent on Washington, they do not make the loans needed for a general recovery, and many medium and small banks keep collapsing.... Everywhere else - unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcies, depressed housing market, and so on - no recovery in sight. Yet, my search finally found genuine recovery for one group, and its recovery offers a better policy to treat this crisis."

http://www.truth-out.org/economic-recovery-few61906

--------

The Avoidable Depression; "No one believes the U.S. is the land of opportunity anymore"

By Mike Whitney

8 million jobs have been lost since the beginning of the recession, but policymakers on Capital Hill and at the Fed refuse to initiate government programs or provide funding that will put the country back to work. Long-term "structural" unemployment is here to stay.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26081.htm



The Unemployment Horror Show

"When you combine the long-term unemployed with those who are dropping out and those who are working part-time because they can't find anything else, it is just far beyond anything we've seen in the job market since the 1930s."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/opinion/10herbert.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print


From Information Clearing House

--------

As the Obama Economic Team Bails, the System Fails to Generate Jobs. Are the Causes 'Structural'?
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/09-5

--------

This recession is not like the others

The American Spectator
by Ron Ross

08/12/10

At 33 months [the current recession] is already more than three times longer than the average length of the other ten recessions we’ve had since WWII. There are no clear signs it will be ending anytime soon. Glimmers of a recovery appear from time to time, but most indicators remain depressed and many are worsening. On balance, the outlook is more negative than positive. Not since the Great Depression have we had two consecutive years of unemployment in excess of nine percent. What we’re seeing is economic stagnation...

http://tinyurl.com/2c33pa3


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=recession
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=recovery
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Great+Depression
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Banks
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=housing
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http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bankruptcies
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=unemploy
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Rick+Wolff
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Whitney
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Danny+Schechter
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Bob+Herbert

Zach Carter, AlterNet: "The SEC just hit two Citigroup executives with fines for concealing $40 billion in subprime mortgage debt from investors back in 2007. The biggest fine is going to Citi CFO Gary Crittenden, who will pay $100,000 to settle allegations that he screwed over his own investors. The year of the alleged wrongdoing, Crittenden took home $19.4 million. That's right. Crittenden will lose one-half of one percent of his income from the year he hid a quagmire of bailout-inducing insanity from his own investors. That's it. No indictment. No prison time. Crittenden doesn't even have to formally acknowledge any wrongdoing."

http://www.truth-out.org/sec-lets-citi-execs-go-free-after-40-billion-subprime-lie61895



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Citigroup
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Zach+Carter

US economy shows signs of slowdown as consumer spending falters

"Normally at this stage of the recovery we see confidence returning, but that just isn't happening at the moment. Instead we see anxiety about the future and the outlook for sub-trend growth," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/30/us-economy-falters-consumer-spending-slows



IMF Says U.S. Financial System May Need $76 Billion in Capital

The U.S. financial system remains fragile and banks subjected to additional economic stress might need as much as $76 billion in capital, according to the results of International Monetary Fund stress tests.

http://bit.ly/b7X8CI



Homes keep falling into foreclosure as programs fail to help

In the first half of 2010, more than 1.6 million U.S. properties were hit with foreclosure filings, which include bank repossessions, default notices and auction sale notices.

http://bit.ly/9CfWk0


From Information Clearing House



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=financial+system
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=recovery
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=foreclosure
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=IMF
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=consumer+spending