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.

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.

I will be appearing on Virtually Speaking tonight at 9PM Eastern, in second life live, on Blog Talk Radio and podcast available later. I'll be speaking on a very simple idea: the coming Progressive Century, and why it is society, and not technology, that is going to be driving this change.

For people who have Second Life accounts - which are free and take only a few minutes to sign up for - the SLURL is In world Studios. Regular attendees in world include Jesus' General and other in world progressives. Previous guests have included McJoan of Daily Kos and Jeffery Feldman. Coming up is Darcy Burner on the 15th, Ed markey on the 22nd and Rick Perlstein, author of the just published Nixonland, on the 29. For those of you who don't kno the host Jay Ackroyd, he is a long time progressive media stalwart, with a sharp mind and a broad knowledge of politics and economics. This is sure to be an incisive discussion.

The overwhelming beauty of two phenomena of nature. A thunderstorm on the huge column
of ash that rises from the volcano Chaiten and reaches a height of 14 kilometers.
More at Link - Copyright Terra Networks Chile S.A.

  h/t Hullabaloo

A Primer on Plan Mexico
By LAURA CARLSEN
Counterpunch
May 8, 2008

On Oct. 22, 2007 President Bush announced the $1.4 billion dollar "Merida Initiative," security aid package to Mexico and Central America. The initiative has fatal flaws in its strategy; instead of leading to a stable binational relationship and peaceful border communities, its military approach will escalate drug-related violence and human rights abuses.

Mexico and the United States face a joint challenge in decreasing transnational organized crime and they must cooperate to strengthen the rule of law and stop illegal drug and arms trafficking over the border. This misguided policy will result in an inability to achieve its own goals and will waste taxpayers' money. It will also seriously undermine the U.S.-Mexico relationship and Mexican stability.

Brian and Numerian have added some very nice new additions to our blogroll, check them out here:

Brian Downing's Picks:

Al Jezeera, Asia Times, Night Watch, Emirates Journal, Soldiers for the Truth , The War Report, Iraq Casualties and Global Security

Numerian's choices:

Mother Jones, Tom Dispatch, Der Spiegel, Big Picture, Calculated Risk, Bonddad, House Bubble and Prudent Bear

And in the future you can find them midway down the right-hand column under the 'timely' divider.

The link, below, is to a Senate hearing on KBR's abuse of tax dollars. The man testifying, Frank Cassady, is a long-time friend of my sister-in-law; I've received many email regarding all of this but was asked not to disclose until after the hearings. Now that he's testified, I can share the information.

It's over an hour, but 10 minutes of listening will give you an idea of what's been going on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9iX5XJpeEI

Nadim Ladki | Beirut | May 8

Reuters - The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Thursday the U.S.-supported Beirut government had declared war by targeting its communications network.

Hezbollah launched a new street campaign on Wednesday, piling pressure on the government after it declared the network illegal and removed the head of airport security, a figure close to the group, from his post.

Supporters of Hezbollah and its allies have blocked roads leading to the airport -- Lebanon's only air link to the outside world -- and other main streets, paralysing much of the capital.

Sporadic gun battles erupted between Hezbollah supporters and pro-government loyalists in the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country, wounding five people, security sources said. Similar clashes took place in Beirut on Wednesday.

Why forging a sustainable energy future is dependent on foreign oil

Mother Jones | Paul Roberts | May/June Issue

On February 1, 2006, Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, arrived at the White House in a state of agitation. The night before, in his State of the Union address, President Bush had declared the United States to be "addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world." He had announced plans to "break this addiction" by developing alternatives—including a multibillion-dollar subsidized ramp-up of biofuels—and had boldly stated that by 2025, America could cut imports from Gulf states by three-quarters and "make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." "I was taken aback," Prince Faisal later told cnn, "and I raised this point with government officials."

Two years on, anyone who's been to a gas station or a grocery store knows the prince had very little to worry about. Despite supposedly bold initiatives such as last year's Energy Independence and Security Act, America is no freer from foreign oil: Since 2006, imports have remained steady at about 13 million barrels every day, while the price for each of those barrels has jumped by $30. And though federal efforts to encourage biofuel production have significantly boosted output, our heavily subsidized ethanol refiners now use so much corn (closing in on a third of the total crop) that prices for all grains have soared, sparking inflation here at home and food riots abroad.

May 8

BBC - Russia has ordered the expulsion of two military attaches from the American embassy in Moscow, US officials say.

The US state department said it would comply with the order although it objected to it.

Two Russians have been expelled from Washington in recent months, one in November and the second on 22 April.

May 8 | The Independent

In the US and Britain, there is a campaign to smear anybody who tries to describe the plight of the Palestinian people. It is an attempt to intimidate and silence – and to a large degree, it works. There is nobody these self-appointed spokesmen for Israel will not attack as anti-Jewish: liberal Jews, rabbis, even Holocaust survivors.

My own case isn't especially important, but it illustrates how the wider process of intimidation works. I have worked undercover at both the Finsbury Park mosque and among neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers to expose the Jew-hatred there; when I went on the Islam Channel to challenge the anti-Semitism of Islamists, I received a rash of death threats calling me "a Jew-lover", "a Zionist-homo pig" and more. more after the jump

May 8

Independent - Home Secretary Jacqui Smith vowed today to "turn the tables" on troublemakers, urging police to crack down on individuals who ignore warnings over their anti-social behaviour.

Building on a scheme piloted in Essex, officers will be told to give those who persistently make their neighbours' lives hell "a taste of their own medicine" by subjecting them to repeated visits, checks and warnings.

And their details could be shared with other Government agencies, so they can be targeted for checks on whether they have paid their road tax, car insurance, TV licence and council tax.

Ms Smith also said that parents have a greater role to play in controlling young people.

She told GMTV today: "Parents have to take more responsibility. If we get to the stage where we have to give someone an ASBO, we should consider putting alongside that a parenting order so that the parents take responsibility for the young person's actions."

C.J. Chivers | Moscow | May 8

NYT - Russia’s Parliament overwhelmingly confirmed Vladimir V. Putin as prime minister on Thursday, completing a carefully managed departure from the presidency in a manner that left him the country’s dominant politician and with a clear grip on power.

Mr. Putin, out of office less than 26 hours, received 392 votes in the 450-seat Duma, Parliament’s lower house.

After a brief endorsement from his protégé and presidential successor, Dmitri A. Medvedev, Mr. Putin once again commanded the stage. He gave a 45-minute speech, proposing a series of domestic policy initiatives that seized many of Mr. Medvedev’s campaign themes and echoed his presidential addresses over the past eight years.

“Great and grandiose tasks lie before us,” Mr. Putin said, addressing a legislature firmly under his control as Mr. Medvedev sat silently.

Sarah Rohrs | Bay Area | May 8

San Jose Mercury News - Vallejo has become the first city of its size in California to seek bankruptcy protection.

The decision to file for bankruptcy came in a unanimous vote by the city council Tuesday night as hundreds of residents watched . . . Vallejo has been slammed by increasing costs of its public safety contracts, the housing crisis and lower property values. The city faces a $16 million deficit in the 2008-09 fiscal year that starts July 1. Tuesday night's vote came after months of fruitless talks between city and labor representatives.

Nota bene: They are the first, but they certainly won't be the last! ~spk Mish who is now on our blogroll has more.

This email comes from an email correspondent of mine who reads the site regularly. There are some interesting generational comments and observations here that might be the seeds of a fruitful discussion:

[War Inc. was] co-written by a very angry John Cusack. Most of the audience, which I would say was my age or older was very unconfortable with the over-the-top satire of Haliburton, US in Iraq etc. I guess it might be less uncomfortable to see if "Iraq" ever ends. Somewhere my generation's heart, boomer or no, is not prepared to confront our country'sactions as strictly driven by greed. But younger audiences at the Tribeca film festival had no problem accepting it.

I forget how much after the height of the cold war Doctor Strangelove was made and whether it was a hit as opposed to an Oscar nominee. It will be interesting to see how it does when it is released. It was made in Bulgaria by an Israeli production company.

Thoughts?

Penang, Malaysia | May 8

BBC - A religious court in Malaysia has allowed a Muslim convert to leave the Islamic faith, in what is being hailed as a landmark ruling.

Penang's Sharia court ruled that Siti Fatimah Tan Abdullah was free to return to Buddhism, following the collapse of her marriage to a Muslim man.

For more than a month I have called a moratorium on the Democratic race only blogging on the hype of the contests as presented by the media. After the two primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, it is apparent that Hillary Clinton can not win the nomination. Even if she were to win the remaining contests she would still not be able to catch Obama. So what is the point of continuing? Hillary Clinton has waged a strong campaign and is deserving of praise for being able to recover when most had pronounced her campaign dead. The time has now come for Hillary to set aside her personal belief that the nomination was inevitably hers and to do what is best for the Party. What is best for the Party is for Hillary to gracefully suspend her campaign and allow the Party to coalesce behind the presumptive nominee Barack Obama.

It's like an omen: as I'm putting the final touches on my five part blog series, "Who's Supporting Our Troops?", featuring an in-depth interview with a formerly-deployed soldier sharing her firsthand account of the KBR contaminated water scandal (this blog will run on the Progressive Future website all next week), it turns out that contractor abuse and fraud has exploded all over the blogs.

And thank heavens. Because as I have been following story after story of private contractors acting in total disregard for the health and safety of our troops, I was starting to think the American public is too jaded by the lies and deception the administration has been feeding us for the past seven years, to come together and take action.