S&P Raises California Credit Rating To Stable From Negative

California Slashes Services For Poor, Elderly, Disabled

http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­2011/07/04­/californi­a-budget-p­oor-elderl­y_n_889029­.html
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tomgram: Chase Madar, A Medal for Bradley Manning?

Bradley Manning, American Hero
Four Reasons Why Pfc. Bradley Manning Deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Not a Prison Cell
Posted by Chase Madar
at 9:50am, July 7, 2011.


"...1: At great personal cost, Bradley Manning has given our foreign policy elite the public supervision it so badly needs.
Bradley Manning is only the latest in a long line of whistleblowers in and out of uniform who have risked everything to put our country back on the right path...

...Take Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the Pentagon Papers, a Pentagon-commissioned secret history of the Vietnam War and the official lies and distortions that the government used to sell it...

...And Ellsberg is hardly alone. Ask Lt. Colonel (ret.) Darrel Vandeveld. Or Tom Drake, formerly of the National Security Agency....

Tomgram: Andy Kroll, The 60-Year Unemployment Scandal

at 10:17am, July 5, 2011.
"Americans care about them more than any other issue, so every poll tells us. The presidential candidates are already crafting their stump speeches and talking points around them. President Obama has seen the writing on the wall and regularly tailors his message to emphasize how many of them he has created. I'm talking, of course, about jobs."

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Jobs
How Racism, Global Economics, and the New Jim Crow Fuel Black America's Crippling Jobs Crisis
By Andy Kroll

Exxon spill Yellowstone river

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Ghulam Nabi Azad, India Health Minister, Calls Homosexuality A 'Disease' From The West

"India health minister calls homosexula­ity a disease"
Hey Azad,

so is the caste system, but that aint stopped its spread
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Happy July 4th 2011

Yeah, I stole the pic. The article on Discovery News is a couple of years old, but interesing:

Eco-Friendly Fireworks Offer Safer Pyrotechnics
Emily Sohn, Discovery News
July 2, 2009
"While particle-filled smoke may be the most obvious concern, it's not the only issue -- or even the worst one...

...Animal studies have linked perchlorates, such as potassium perchlorate and ammonium perchlorate, to thyroid problems. Repeated pyrotechnic displays, especially ones that occur every day at theme parks, can take their toll."

Hmm, reminds me of this. Somebody over at the Huffpo made some crack on a fireworks article that cracked me up, but also caused me to sharply inhale, and then it made me very, very sad. Pretty great comment to make me do all that in one sentence.

Ralph Nader Is Tired of Running for President
Posted on Jul 4, 2011
By Chris Hedges
The most important moral and intellectual voices within a disintegrating society are slowly discredited when their nonviolent protests and calls for justice cannot alter intransigent and corrupt systems of power. The repeated acts of peaceful civil disobedience, efforts at electoral and political reform and the fight to protect the rule of law are dismissed as useless by an embittered, dispossessed and betrayed public. The demagogues and hatemongers, the purveyors of violence, easily seduce enraged and bewildered masses in the final stages of collapse with false promises of vengeance, new glory and moral renewal. And in the spiral downward the good among us are reviled as naive and ineffectual fools...

Fox News Twitter feed says Obama dead in apparent hack

By Richard Allen Greene, CNN
July 4, 2011 -- Updated 1509 GMT (2309 HKT) | Filed under: Social Media

(CNN) -- Hackers apparently broke into the FoxNews.com's Twitter feed for political news early Monday and used it to announce -- falsely -- that President Barack Obama had been assassinated.
Obama was "shot twice at a Ross' restaurant in Iowa while campaigning. RIP Obama, best regards to the Obama family," read one of several Twitter messages posted on @FoxNewsPolitics early Monday.

Apparently Hacked, a Fox News Twitter Account Sent Out Alarming Posts
By LIZ ROBBINS and BRIAN STELTER
Published: July 4, 2011

“Hackers sent out several malicious and false Tweets claiming that President Obama had been assassinated. Those reports are incorrect, of course, and the president is spending the July 4 holiday with his family. The hacking is being investigated, and FoxNews.com regrets any distress the false tweets may have created.”


I'm watching a BBC and PBS special called Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State (C) 2005. The mind boggles.

HA

What Does it Cost to Change the World? from WikiLeaks on Vimeo.

Donate to wikileaks.

Idaho Lawmaker Who Drunkenly Stole Car Gets Off With Misdemeanor

Aaron Wiener | July 1, 2011, 11:38AM
After he stole a Ford Excursion and drove it with a .15 blood alcohol content -- almost twice the legal limit -...