I found this refreshingly candid piece This Memorial Day Look At How The Other Half Shops by Laura. 'njoy.

Washington Post, By Jeremy Borden, May 25

Woodbridge, VA - Before she was 2, her mother recalls, Lori Anne Madison was reading her first book — Dr. Seuss’s “Hop on Pop.” At age 3, she competed in her first spelling bee.

Now 6, Lori Anne is the youngest contestant on record to qualify for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Her ticket to the competition that begins Tuesday was the word “vaquero,” meaning cowboy, which she spelled correctly to win the Prince William County bee.

It will get tougher onstage at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center when the home-schooled girl from Woodbridge faces 277 opponents, most of whom are at least twice her age. Last year, the winning word was “cymotrichous,” which means having wavy hair. The previous winner spelled “stromuhr,” which is a medical instrument.

But Speller 269, who will compete for $30,000, among other prizes, reports that she isn’t particularly nervous and isn’t cramming.

When you compare them head-to-head, the Obama and Romney tax plans are nearly identical:

Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, is offering a 20 percent tax cut for everyone. Given the mood of the conservatives in the United States today, that may not surprise you. But even President Barack Obama, who is routinely described as a socialist by his opponents, is peddling a plan under which 99 percent of Americans would pay less than they did under the last Democrat in the White House, Bill Clinton.

We probably shouldn't be, because something similar could happen to Democrats, eventually:

Washington (CNN) -- When presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appears before Latino small-business owners in Washington on Wednesday, he'll address a group whose explosive birth rates foreshadow a seismic political shift in GOP strongholds in the Deep South and Southwest.

"The Republicans' problem is their voters are white, aging and dying off," said David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, who studies minority political engagement.

From IPS:

The results from 19 different state-of-the-art climate models project extreme and persistent drought conditions (colored dark red-brown on the maps) for almost all of Mexico, the midwestern United States and most of Central America.

If climate change pushes the global average temperature to 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial era levels, as many experts now expect, these regions will be under severe and permanent drought conditions.

Future conditions are projected to be worse than Mexico's current drought or the U.S. Dust Bowl era of the 1930s that forced hundreds of thousands of people to migrate.

These are some of the conclusions of the study "Projections of Future Drought in the Continental United States and Mexico", which was published in the December 2011 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Hydrometeorology and has gone largely unnoticed.

"Drought conditions will prevail no matter what precipitation rates are in the future," said co-author Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a U.S. government research centre in California.

...The 19 models used in the study show that the increased heat will dry soils more than any additional rain can replenish soil moisture levels. Ever warmer air temperatures will cause greater evaporation, drying out soils.

I know I've written about this before, but I'm going to keep repeating the message because this is the biggest danger of climate change to Americans, who need to realise this is coming. American-produced apathy and denialism is one of the biggest drags on world-wide climate change opinion, and thus on action. Maybe this, a disaster for the bulk of America's heartland, will convince Americans to get their collective heads out of their asses.

Matt Stoller explains a stark reality of U.S. (and, increasingly, British) politics:

Most activists and political operatives are under a delusion about American politics, which goes as follows. Politicians will do *anything* to get reelected, and they will pander, beg, borrow, lie, cheat and steal, just to stay in office. It’s all about their job.

This is 100% wrong. The dirty secret of American politics is that, for most politicians, getting elected is just not that important. What matters is post-election employment. It’s all about staying in the elite political class, which means being respected in a dense network of corporate-funded think tanks, high-powered law firms, banks, defense contractors, prestigious universities, and corporations. If you run a campaign based on populist themes, that’s a threat to your post-election employment prospects. This is why rising Democratic star and Newark Mayor Corey Booker reacted so strongly against criticism of private equity – he’s looking out for a potential client after his political career is over, or perhaps, during interludes between offices. Running as a vague populist is manageable, as long as you’re lying to voters. If you actually go after powerful interests while in office, then you better win, because if you don’t, you’ll have basically nowhere to go. And if you lose, but you were a team player, then you’ll have plenty of money and opportunity. The most lucrative scenario is to win and be a team player, which is what Bill and Hillary Clinton did. The Clinton’s are the best at the political game – it’s not a coincidence that deregulation accelerated in the late 1990s, as Clinton and his whole team began thinking about their post-Presidential prospects.

Bill Clinton is nowadays worth around $80 million and admits "I never had any money until I got out of the White House, you know, but I’ve done reasonably well since then." Stoller notes in a tweet that you can substitute "general" for "politician" and understand what makes the Pentagon tick too.

Mississippi State Rep. Andy Gipson (R.), the man who denounced gays by quoting from the famous biblical passage on homosexuality found in Leviticus (20:13), has refused to retract his remarks. Mr. Gipson wrote this morning on his Face Book page, “To be clear, I want the world to know that I do not, cannot, and will not apologize for the inspired truth of God's Word. It is one thing that will never 'change.'"

Good for Mr. Gipson. We are all getting tired of pusillanimous, limp-wristed Republican politicians, conservative voters, and religious leaders who speak up against the gay menace in this country, but then back down the minute there is the slightest peep of a protest from liberals.

Las Vegas, NV | May 8

The Telegraph - Google's autonomous cars have passed their first driving test in Nevada, which included a trip along the famous Las Vegas Strip.

The desert state is the first to grant the vehicles a licence to use public roads. They are controlled by computers processing a combination of mapping data, radar, laser sensors and video feeds.

Officials from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles rode in the cars "along freeways, state highways and neighborhoods both in Carson City and the busy Las Vegas Strip", they said in a statement.

Photograph: Gary Schiff

Chris McGreal, The Guardian, 4th May:

A United Nations investigator probing discrimination against Native Americans has called on the US government to return some of the land stolen from Indian tribes as a step toward combatting continuing and systemic racial discrimination.

James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, said no member of the US Congress would meet him as he investigated the part played by the government in the considerable difficulties faced by Indian tribes.

Anaya said that in nearly two weeks of visiting Indian reservations, indigenous communities in Alaska and Hawaii, and Native Americans now living in cities, he encountered people who suffered a history of dispossession of their lands and resources, the breakdown of their societies and "numerous instances of outright brutality, all grounded on racial discrimination".

Read the whole thing.

Napp Nazworth | May 2

Christian Post - A decennial census of U.S. religions in America was released Tuesday by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB). The results show a dramatic increase in the number of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, and Muslims, a modest increase in the number of evangelical Protestants, and a drop in the number of Catholics and mainline Protestants.

Muslims saw the greatest growth rate among the five main religious groups studied. Their numbers increased by 66.7 percent in the 2010 census from a decade earlier. Latter-day Saints saw the next highest growth at 45.5 percent, followed by evangelical Protestants at only 1.7 percent. The number of Catholics decreased by five percent and the number of mainline Protestants decreased by 12.8 percent.

Notably, when combined, nondenominational and independent churches are now the largest faith group, with over 12 million adherents, according to the report.

If I have a million dollars to spend on a candidate, and you have a dollar, then clearly the spirit of democracy is perverted. We are each one citizen in the nation, and so should have about equal say in matters.

However, if I have a million dollars and you have a million people with one dollar, the democracy works, but only a little bit better. You still have to persuade all those people to part with their dollar towards your cause, and that's not easy. It can be done, and as Barack Obama's early 2008 campaigning proved, it can be done effectively.

It's still easier for me to get my consensus of one to agree to spend the money, to whom and how. You'll probably have a million different, "Oh, by the ways" to deal with.

Mark MacKinnon | Beijing | May 2

The Globe & Mail - Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident who made international headlines by taking shelter in the U.S. embassy in Beijing, has now left diplomatic territory, escorted by U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke.

Mr. Chen is said to be receiving medical treatment at Beijing’s Chaoyang Hospital and his wife and daughter are reportedly en route from his native Shandong Province to join him. There were reports that Mr. Chen – who has said he doesn’t want to leave China – will be allowed to move to another part of the country, away from the local officials in Shandong who were responsible for holding the 40-year-old self-taught lawyer incommunicado in his home village of Dongshigu for the past 20 months.

According to a Reuters report, Mr. Chen would be moved to a “safe environment” where he could attend university. “This was an extraordinary case involving exceptional circumstances, and we do not anticipate that it will be repeated,” a U.S. official told Reuters.

How many intelligence agencies does one nation need? According to the US, lots. There's a new kid on the block:

The Pentagon is creating a new intelligence agency that will focus on Iran and China as it begins to pivot away from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, the New York Times reported.

The newspaper said late Monday that the new Defense Clandestine Service would make use of existing agents, authorities and assets and work closely with the Central Intelligence Agency to track emerging threats.

...The new intelligence service is expected to grow "from several hundred to several more hundred" agents in the coming years by shifting personnel and funding from existing assignments, the Times quoted the official as saying.

The two things I can guarantee about this new agency are that, like all the others, it's primary mission will be bureaucratic turf-fighting with the rest of the US Intelligence Community and that it will quickly develop into a monster with as much budget and staff as it can garner.

Financial Times columnist Ed Luce explains the real reason for American decline. Lots to think about in this lengthy interview over at FP magazine.

First, do nothing:

Obama turned his call for middle-income tax breaks into law within a month of taking office, incorporating a $400-a-person tax credit for workers into the 2009 stimulus law. In late 2010, with the economy still weak and Republicans gaining political clout, Obama agreed to an $858 billion tax cut that extended all of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts for two years.

"The tax policy has been substantially in the conservative direction whereas the rhetoric has gone in the exact opposite direction," said Don Susswein, a tax aide to former Republican Senator Bob Dole who said he supported Obama in 2008.

New York Times Motherlode Blog, By Karen Le Billon, April 13

Consider this: Our children are three times more likely to be overweight than French children. In fact, we lead the world in producing overweight children, but the French have one of the lowest rates of overweight children in the developed world.

The causes of obesity are complex (lifestyle, physical activity, poverty, food insecurity, genetics and obesogenic chemicals all play a role). But what we eat is undoubtedly a factor. Because of poor eating habits, the current generation of American children will suffer far more health problems — and perhaps have a shorter life expectancy — than their parents. We may be teaching our kids to eat themselves into an early grave.

Washington | April 9

BBC - Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has stressed the growing importance of relations with the US after meeting President Obama at the White House.

Ms Rousseff said there was potential to deepen co-operation, particularly in Brazil's booming oil and gas industry.

She expressed concern about expansionist monetary policies in developed countries, saying they were impairing growth in emerging economies.

Wired Gadget Lab, By Alexandra Chang, April 9

Rube Goldberg machines make accomplishing a simple task — like putting a stamp on an envelope — an over-engineered marathon of moving parts. This year’s Rube Goldberg Machine Contest held at Purdue University featured one of the most complex contraptions yet: The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers created a machine that blew up and popped a balloon in a winding 300 steps, breaking the team’s own Guinness world record for largest Rube Goldberg machine.

Just when you thought the Treyvon Martin story couldn't take any worse a turn...

Neo-Nazis are currently conducting heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida and are "prepared" for violence in the case of a race riot. The patrols are to protect "white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety" in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting last month, says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement. "We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody, but we are prepared for it," he says. "We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over."

Because nothing diffuses racial tension like gun-toting racial separatists patrolling an already on-edge community.

The comments at the link from some neo-Nazi trolls are...well, distasteful would be a very understated and British way of putting it.

Nukes Of Hazard blog caught this frank admission from an Obama administration official about the missile defense system wingnuts accuse Obama of abandoning despite his spending $10.4 billion on it this year and planning to spend another $9.7 billion in 2013. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) asked Dr. Michael Gilmore, Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, Office of the Secretary of Defense, how the missile defense program was doing at a House Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing last year.

Dr. GILMORE. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and my office jointly published operational realism flight test criteria in 2005 as required by the Fiscal Year 2005 National Defense Authorization Act. There are nine criteria: Operationally-Representative Interceptor; Threat-Representative Target; Complex Countermeasures; Operational Sensor(s); Operational Fire Control Software; Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs); Warfighter Participation; Unannounced Target Launch; and End-to-End Test.

Every Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) flight test since then has demonstrated at least some of the nine operational realism criteria. No test has yet demonstrated all nine criteria. FTG–05, conducted in December 2008, was the most operationally realistic test of GMD conducted to date, demonstrating at least partial operational realism for eight of the nine criteria. Although simple countermeasures were planned for FTG–05, a malfunction prevented deployment. The targets for both FTG–06 and FTG–06a successfully deployed simple countermeasures but the GMD kill vehicles malfunctioned before they could complete their intercepts in the countermeasures environments.

No GMD tests against a true intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) have yet been conducted. A multiple simultaneous engagement of two ICBM targets by two GMD interceptors launched from Vandenberg AFB, California, is currently under consideration for inclusion in the third operational flight test, FTO–03, included in the Integrated Master Test Plan that General O’Reilly and I recently approved.

Obama, who was against this multi-million boondoggle before he was for it, has fallen for the Pentagon's snake oil sales-talk. meanwhile, it's making the world more dangerous because people with lots of nukes already and the ability to deliver them (China, Russia - NOT Iran) see the missile defense program as an attempt to get an effective first-strike capability by making the US safe from retaliation.

The Wall Street Journal, By Jim Krane, April 3

Doha, Qatar - President Obama’s sanctions plan on Iran follows an old Mideast policy playbook. Western moves against an oil-exporting country take place with the cooperation of Saudi Arabia. U.S. strategy requires the Saudis to ramp up production and replace Iranian exports in hope of avoiding a damaging spike in prices.

It’s a familiar scenario: At one time or another, the Saudis have been called upon to replace exports from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and, most recently, Libya. The idea is to have your cake and eat it—to meet U.S. foreign policy goals without disrupting oil markets and antagonizing the American motorist.

But the old playbook may have to be torn up. This time Saudi Arabia is struggling to assume its usual role as the oil market’s swing supplier. This can be seen in current market tightness and in U.S. gasoline prices, which are edging toward $4, a dangerous prospect at election time.

In all the hoopla over the ACA arguments in the Supreme Court last week was lost a tactical blunder that liberals and Democrats could have...should have...been making all along: defining freedom:

Behind the challenges to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) being heard at the Supreme Court this week is the idea that Barack Obama wants to take away your freedoms (as Mitt Romney himself asserted today). I’ve long since stopped counting the number of ridiculous things said about Obama, but this might be the ridiculousest of them all. At least the Kenyan rumors have some basis in reality, however threadbare it is, since his father was indeed Kenyan and he does have a funny name, for an American president. But this "freedom" business is simply paranoid and delusional. I defy anyone to name for me a specific and precise freedom that Obama has taken away from the American people. You can’t.[...]

Y'know, the idiot numbnuts on the right ought to learn to shut up and not reflexively defend the white half of a murderous bastard against the black kid:

Sanford police Sgt. David Morgenstern on Wednesday confirmed that the video being shown by ABC News is of Zimmerman. The 28-year-old's head and face are visible throughout and he is dressed in a red and black fleece jacket. Police are shown frisking Zimmerman whose hands were handcuffed behind his back. They then lead him into a police station.

There's a theme in my thinking with respect to this nation that, eventually, some large-scale changes are going to occur, and that they might occur suddenly and perhaps even violently.

American culture is based on three things: democracy, faith, and capitalism.

There's a basic disconnect in there. Those three things are, jointly and separately, untenably conflicted. Somethings have got to give, because it's within the human nature that one of those things aligns.

A basic drive of humanity is self-protection: food, clothing, shelter are all manifestations of our primal drive to survive. To believe that, somehow, that urge ends just because we satisfy those basic needs flies in the face of modern marketing, Maslow's theory notwithstanding.

Only twenty nations in the world still have the death penalty. The United States is the only country in the Americas, the only nation in the G8, to still practise judicial execution. And we're so good at it. The US ranks 5th out of those twenty, beaten only by China, Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Update Related: Michael Ignatieff reviews All the Missing Souls, an insider account of why "no country has invested more in the development of international jurisdiction for atrocity crimes and no country has worked harder to make sure that the law it seeks for others does not apply to itself."