Plugs into home power and water supplies to make ethanol for as little as $1 a gallon (3.8 liters), according to E-Fuel

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new company hopes drivers will kick the oil habit by brewing ethanol at home that won't spike food prices.

E-Fuel Corp unveiled on Thursday the "MicroFueler" touting it as the world's first machine that allows homeowners to make their own ethanol and pump the brew directly into their cars.

The portable unit that sells for $10,000 resembles a gasoline station pump and nozzle -- minus the slot for a credit card, or the digital "SALE" numbers that whir ever faster at retail pumps as global demand pushes fuel prices to record levels.

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.

Jonathan Adams | Mogadishu | May 7

CSM - Food riots and anti-US protests in Somalia are compounding the chaos in the long-suffering war zone in the Horn of Africa.

Meanwhile, an Amnesty International Report released Tuesday alleged that Islamist militants, as well as US-backed Ethiopian and Somali government troops, are committing widespread atrocities against civilians in the capital, Mogadishu. And a recent US strike against what it says was an Al Qaeda leader in Somalia has sparked further protests.

The Associated Press reports that Tuesday saw a second day of protests over rising food prices, with hundreds of youths burning tires, throwing stones, and blocking roads.

Somalia is just the latest country to see riots over rising food prices, after others including Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso. The Financial Times has a map of the civil unrest sparked by the food crisis here. (more, media roundup article)

When Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president one year ago today, the US media were full of praise for him and expected a big improvement in transatlantic relations.

Sarkozy's pro-American rhetoric was very much appreciated, because it was a big contrast to Gerhard Schroeder's US critical election campaigns. With Schroeder replaced by Angela Merkel and Chirac now replaced by Sarkozy, many Americans were looking forward to a new era in transatlantic relations led by a younger generation of pro-American leaders in Europe.

I did not find this much convincing, but have been very critical of Sarkozy (and to a lesser extent of Merkel). In the last few months, however, President Sarkozy announced some policy changes that indicate more support for US interests, so perhaps I should reconsider my position on Sarko.

Gaelle Fisher has written a very balanced analysis on the question "Has Sarkozy truly improved the state of transatlantic relations and earned his reputation as the most pro-American president France has ever had?" She presents three arguments in favor and three against in a pro & con feature on Atlantic Community: Sarkozy l' Américain? Here is a snippet:

Sarkozy has agreed to increase France’s contribution to the war effort in Afghanistan by adding 1500 to 1700 to the existing French contingent of 1600, sending combat troops to the East, and providing military arsenal. Yet the main new element of French military cooperation with the United States is Sarkozy’s commitment to reintegrating France into NATO’s military wing.

On Sarko’s first anniversary in power, the French are very critical of his domestic policies (and his style), but I wonder what Americans think of his foreign policy. Has he met your expectations? Has he repaired the damage in transatlantic relations as expected by many in the US media?

Michael Savage | May 6

Independent UK - An inmate at the US-run Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba is set to be the first child soldier to go on trial for war crimes since Nuremberg, after a military judge ruled that there were no legal obstacles preventing the camp's special military commissions from prosecuting him.

When it comes to surviving the end of the world, it pays to have your survivalist manbag at the ready - complete with peanut butter - Leo Hickman

The Guardian - When does having a bug-out bag packed and ready to go "just in case" stop being the preserve of cranks and start being a sensible precaution? Well, judging by the sudden rush of reports about a surge of interest in survivalism (in G2 last Friday, but also here, here and here) that time might be now.

That I even now know what a 'bug-out bag' is (a portable kit which allows you to survive for 72 hours after evacuating from a disaster) probably says much about the current atmosphere of anxiety. Whatever your fear - global food crisis, climate disaster, Avian bird 'flu, nuclear war, terrorism strikes, earthquake, peak oil, economic meltdown, [insert your own paranoia here] - it seems that more and more of us and contemplating a growing chance that our comfortable lives might soon be receiving a sudden jolt and that we had better prepare ourselves for a world where we will be - often desperately - fending for ourselves.

(Context being everything, of course; with the world's sympathies and thoughts currently directed at the people of Burma, westerners worrying about whether they're going to suffer, say, a power outage somehow barely registers). more..

NATO deserves attention both in terms of its current activities in Afghanistan and because of the current debates revolving around NATO expansion to Ukraine and Georgia. NATO’s quest for a new identity since the end of the Cold War has rightly resulted in much debate about the utility of the Alliance in a world with contemporary threats that can no longer be defined by East and West. Several articles published recently at the Atlantic Community provide an excellent framework for anchoring discussions around NATO.

Andre Kelleners, a member of the Atlantic Community, argues that rather than sidelining Russia, NATO membership states should consult with Russia to determine a common understanding of NATO’s role. It makes sense, he contends, for Partnership-for-Peace countries to eventually join the alliance as full members, but only together with and at the same time as Russia. It is in all parties’ best interest for NATO and Russia to share the same vision.

Andreas Umland of the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, continued the debate about when and how to offer a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Ukraine. He highlighted the February 2008 statistics which revealed that a staggering 53% of Ukraine’s population were against NATO membership and only 21% in favor. He blames NATO rather than Germany for this statistic, saying that NATO “has done too little too late in terms of explaining to Ukrainians what NATO is about. Instead, Ukraine's political and public discourse remains corrupted by Soviet legacies.”

Timo Noetzel and Benjamin Schreer of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin focus the discussion around NATO on the difficulties which NATO is currently facing in Afghanistan and argue that the chances are high that the Alliance will fail. NATO, they contend, is both politically and militarily ill-prepared to execute the required counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. An Afghan disaster might not be a death sentence for the Alliance, but would certainly have major repercussions.

Four-thousand U.S. troop deaths and counting. We shouldn't have to feel that the biggest enemy facing our troops, national security and international reputation is the bureaucratic mess and greed allowing private contractors to use the cradle of civilization as their own personal playground.

And yet, with every story that breaks, exposing scandal after scandal of private contractors cutting corners, hording money and endangering our troops, I can't help picturing these contractors as operating in some alternate reality, where consequences don't exist, money is no object, and the well-being of our troops is just an obstacle standing in the way of the contractors' ability to capitalize on the destruction befalling the occupied country.

Craig Whitlock | Aden, Yemen | May 4

WaPo - Almost eight years after al-Qaeda nearly sank the USS Cole with an explosives-stuffed motorboat, killing 17 sailors, all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials.

Jamal al-Badawi, a Yemeni who helped organize the plot to bomb the Cole as it refueled in this Yemeni port on Oct. 12, 2000, has broken out of prison twice. He was recaptured both times, but then secretly released by the government last fall. Yemeni authorities jailed him again after receiving complaints from Washington. But U.S. officials have so little faith that he's still in his cell that they have demanded the right to perform random inspections.

May 2

BBC - A cameraman from the al-Jazeera television station, freed from US detention in Guantanamo Bay, has arrived home in Sudan.

Sami al-Hajj had been in US custody for more than six years. He was detained in Afghanistan in 2001.

He arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on a US military plane in the early hours of Friday morning.

After a 16-month hunger strike, Mr Hajj grimaced as he was carried off the plane by US military personnel.

"I have been so overwhelmed with happiness that I've been in tears," he said shortly after his arrival.

"I have every right to cry after I've survived these seven horrid years of humiliation, repression and injustice for no fault on my part apart from being a Muslim."

In what is an alarming trend among American women, a study has found that for the first time in decades the life expectancy for women is declining. Women have always enjoyed longer life expectancies than men during modern times due in large part to their historic roles as homemakers. As more and more women have left the home and joined the workforce they have begun to suffer from the same stress related illnesses as men have suffered. As a result of their new roles outside the home they are now being diagnosed with larger instances of diseases such as diabetes, lung cancer, and heart disease. Most of these diseases are related to stress, poor eating and health habits.

Agonistas may find some enjoyment in Bob Ellis :
abc.net.au - unleashed - Last Monday Hillary Clinton said she'd "obliterate" Iran if Iran attacked Israel and on Tuesday picked up some Jewish, redneck, gun-loving, wog-hating, duck-shooting, Catholic and early-dementia votes in nursing homes and by 10 per cent won handily the "rust-belt", "lunch-bucket" and Amish-cluttered state of Pennsylvania in which she was leading by 30 per cent a month before.

"The road to the White House," she then exulted to her weeping followers, "runs through Pennsylvania!" - later amending this to "the road to Pennsylvania Avenue runs through Pennsylvania!"

Mogadishu | May 1

Reuters - A U.S. air strike killed an Islamist commander thought to be al Qaeda's leader in Somalia and at least a dozen other people on Thursday, the insurgents and witnesses said.

Aden Hashi Ayro, who led al Shabaab militants blamed for near daily attacks on government troops and their Ethiopian allies, died in the latest of several U.S. bombings in recent months to have targeted Somali rebel leaders.

"Infidel planes bombed Dusamareb," Shabaab spokesman Mukhtar Ali Robow told Reuters by telephone, referring to a small town in central Somalia. "Two of our important people, including Ayro, were killed."

Arms Race in Space
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:31:40 -0500
By Marko Beljac - GNN

It's on. It's expensive. And it could destablize the world.

Being a fan of Wired and a graduate of MIT, I stumbled across this article. It has some interesting food for thought on the whole Global Warming issue. The article is alright, but the paper itself makes for some interesting reading.

The study primarily examined energy requirements, and thereby carbon footprints, as a function of different lifestyles, from the homeless to Oprah. Interestingly, when you factor in government services and other "subsidies" to our lifestyles, there is only so much you can do...

Tehran | April 30

AP - Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, has completely stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.

Iran has dramatically reduced dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of increasing U.S. pressure on its financial system and the fall in the value of the American currency.

Earlier today in Salon I posted something very similar to the quick essay below. It's rather pointed, and awfully pro-oil of me. But I think it's an honest and even moral assessment of reasons to drill in ANWR. I would be delighted to get any and all reactions from Agonistas on this.

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It pains me to point out the massive NIMBYness of not drilling in ANWR, because I've been a card-carrying environmentalist since childhood. But I have also consulted on the North Slope and see the deliberate and careful practices of the oil industry across our existing Arctic oilfields -- they are really some of the safest and cleanest oilfields in the world.

Josh White | Guantanamo Bay, Cuba | April 29

Washington Post - The Defense Department's former chief prosecutor for terrorism cases appeared Monday at the controversial U.S. detention facility here to argue on behalf of a terrorism suspect that the military justice system has been corrupted by politics and inappropriate influence from senior Pentagon officials...

His testimony in a small, windowless room -- as a witness for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, an alleged driver for Osama bin Laden -- offered a harsh insider's critique of how senior political officials have allegedly influenced the system created to try suspected terrorists outside existing military and civilian courts.

Davis's claims, which the Pentagon has previously denied, were aired here as the Supreme Court nears a decision on whether the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that laid the legal foundation for these hearings violates the Constitution by barring any of the approximately 275 remaining Guantanamo Bay prisoners from forcing a civilian judicial review of their detention.

Davis told Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred, who presided over the hearing, that top Pentagon officials, including Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England, made it clear to him that charging some of the highest-profile detainees before elections this year could have "strategic political value."

Mario Osava | Rio de Janiero | April 26

IPS - The success of pioneering efforts to reduce inequality and poverty using relatively few resources has led to an expansion in Latin America of direct aid, targeting the most vulnerable families, especially in rural areas. "Conditional cash transfer" encompasses many different strategies in more than a dozen Latin American countries. Brazil and Mexico have truly massive programmes, reaching 11.1 million and five million impoverished families, respectively, while Colombia's programme involves just 1,500 families.

The "Chile Solidario" initiative, often included in the same category, "is not comparable to other programmes in terms of amounts or objectives," like Brazil's "Family-Grant" and Mexico's "Opportunities" programmes, said Verónica Silva, executive secretary of Chile's Social Protection System. The Chilean programme, created in 2002, now covers 290,000 families, about 40 percent of whom live in rural areas. "The proportion of participants is much higher in rural zones, because if you want to find the poorest of the poor in Chile, you have to look for an indigenous mother who is the head of a household in a rural area," Silva told Tierramérica.

The focus is on extreme poverty, which affected 5.6 percent of the Chilean population in 2000, a sector so marginalised that it falls outside the social welfare networks. The aim is to bring these families into the fold with psycho-social support and a monthly stipend, which gradually declines from 28 to eight dollars over two years.

Not a day goes by without mention of the phrase “tipping point”, and with good reason. Different variations of this phrase include “critical mass”, “precipice” and the ever popular “day of reckoning”. The truth is alarming when one considers how many times these phrases are used, and used correctly. Our nation and the World are facing challenges that need to be addressed, and addressed as swiftly as possible. The human race can no longer pass off the responsibility of meeting challenges by doing nothing while we put the onus of problem solving onto our children and grandchildren. The time of band-aids and temporary short term fixes in regard to our most pressing problems is just about over. This planet is poised to reap the rewards that have come about from choosing half measures and politically acceptable “solutions” that are not solutions at all, but rather compromises expressly designed to placate the people, while protecting political, economic or religious interests.

Washington | April 24

BBC -

The United States has accused North Korea of helping Syria build a nuclear reactor that "was not intended for peaceful purposes".

The site, said to be like one in North Korea, was bombed by Israel in 2007.

Syria must "come clean" about its secret nuclear programme, the White House said in a statement after CIA officials briefed members of Congress.

Syria has repeated denials that it has any nuclear weapons programme, or any such agreement with North Korea.

But the White House said the "cover-up" operation that Syria carried out after the Israeli air strike reinforced the belief that the reactor "was not intended for peaceful activities".

Randall Mikkelsen | Washington | April 23

Reuters - Crime groups operating as "mobsters without borders" have gained significant footholds in global markets and provide logistic support to terrorists, the United States said on Wednesday.

Launching a campaign against such international criminals, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said they were more adaptable and sophisticated than La Cosa Nostra and other syndicates the U.S. government set out to defeat half a century ago.

"These international criminals pose real national security threats to this country," Mukasey said in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. He cited recent cases, many with links to the former Soviet bloc.

Franco Ordonez | Mexico City | April 23

McClatchy - The price of oil is reaching record levels worldwide, but Mexico, long considered an oil power, is failing to reap the rewards because its state-owned oil company hasn't developed many of the areas known to be rich in petroleum.

President Felipe Calderon this month proposed allowing the ailing state oil company to contract with international companies to help drill deeper in those areas. But leftist lawmakers have blocked the legislation to allow that, claiming that Calderon's proposal amounts to privatizing a national treasure.

Since I was having Marvin L. Zimmerman, the author of The Ovum Factor, on my radio show (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/liberalpro you can hear the podcast of the interview there), it meant that I was obliged to peruse the novel that was sent to me by his publicist. The Ovum Factor arrived at my home, and before I got a chance to look through it, my wife picked it up first and wouldn’t let go of it for three days. During that time my dinner was late, I had to do the vacuuming (the dogs are shedding), and I had no real conversation with her as her head was behind the novel. When she finished it, she just looked at me and said “Wow”. That meant only one thing… I had to read it.

April 22

BBC - Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has blamed Iran for spreading the theory that Israel was behind the 11 September 2001 attacks.

In an audio tape posted on the internet, Zawahiri insisted al-Qaeda had carried out the attacks on the US.

He accused Iran, and its Hezbollah allies, of trying to discredit Osama Bin Laden's network.

Correspondents say the comments underline al-Qaeda's increasing public hostility towards Iran.

In a two-hour audiotape posted on an Islamist website, Osama Bin Laden's chief deputy responded to questions posted by al-Qaeda sympathisers.

In response to a question about persistent rumours in the Middle East that Israel was involved in the 9/11 attacks, Zawahiri said the rumour had begun on the Hezbollah television station, Al-Manar.