Uncommon Thought News Feeds

Raid sends illegal immigrants underground

Raids included people's homes

Work complaints hang over plant

Welcome To The New Company Town

Backlash grows against free trade

White History 101

An Iraq Interrogator's Nightmare

Ali Allawi: Iraq Peace Plan

Persistent Race Disparities Found

India's Untouchables turn to Buddhism in protest at discrimination by Hindus

How Brain's 'Mirrors' Aid Our Social Understanding

The Big Question: What is neo-conservatism, and how influential is it today?

Global Warming -- Signed, Sealed and Delivered

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

America's 'Near Poor' Are Increasingly at Economic Risk, Experts Say

The pollution gap

Climate change 'irreversible' as Arctic sea ice fails to re-form

Freedom to Be More Equal than Others: Graduates Versus Oligarchs

DuPont Looking to Displace Fossil Fuels as Building Blocks of Chemicals

TIA Lives On

The Fate of the Ocean

Trade Ruling Is Expected to Favor Biotech Food

Desperate for work, lured into danger - Part I of Series

U.S. to probe claims of human trafficking

BP Begins Production at West Azeri Field in the Caspian Sea

Natural Gas is Going Global

Morales, Zapatero Discuss Hydrocarbons Nationalization

Damning Documentary Evidence of Torture Unveiled.

Bechtel And Blood For Water: War As An Excuse For Enlarging Corporate Rule

Transcript President Bush's Address - regarding authorizing spying

Energy Information Administration November 2005 Report On US Oil Production

How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball'

Transcript of Michael Brown's Testimony Before Congress

The Middle Class Struggles in the Medicaid Maze

WESTBURY, N.Y. - At the threshold of Vincent J. Russo's law office here, a sign promises that "Peace of Mind Is Attainable."

It is a reassuring beacon for clients who come to see Mr. Russo, an elder-care lawyer, at a time of crisis and confusion.

They arrive at his door as Adam Alberico did four years ago, when his parents were no longer able to look after themselves in frail old age.

Cabinet Office paper: Conditions for military action

The paper, produced by the Cabinet Office on July 21, 2002, is incomplete because the last page is missing. The following is a transcript rather than the original document in order to protect the source.

The Downing Street Memo

Secret memo from David Manning to the British Prime Ministers Meeting regarding invading Iraq.

Japan and China Stop Buying US Debt

In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates' Deaths

Soldiers of Christ

Transcript of President Bush's April 28 Press Conference

Text of President Bush's press conference Thursday night, as transcribed by CQ Transcripts

The Oil We Eat

This article examines the dependence of modern agriculture on oil, and the impacts of the end of oil.

Pentagon Redirects Its Research Dollars

SAN FRANCISCO, April 1 - The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Pentagon - which has long underwritten open-ended "blue sky" research by the nation's best computer scientists - is sharply cutting such spending at universities, researchers say, in favor of financing more classified work and narrowly defined projects that promise a more immediate payoff.

Roscoe Bartlett: Peak Oil Presentation in the US Congress

[ Conservative Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, Chairman of the Projection Forces Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee, gave an hour long presentation on Peak Oil to the US Congress on Monday. This is the full transcript. We hope to get a hold of the graphs used by Mr. Bartlett and will update this article to include them if they come to hand. -AF ]

OIL DEMANDS -- (House of Representatives - March 14, 2005) [Page: H1409]

Climate Change Is Called Economic Threat at Talks

The British government gathered together environment and energy officials from 20 countries on Tuesday to discuss climate change, which Britain has declared a top issue as it takes the leadership of the Group of 8 industrialized nations.

Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television News

Invasion of Iraq is illegal

HAARP - Creation of visible artificial optical emissions in the aurora by high-power radio waves

Generation of artificial light in the sky by means of high-power radio waves interacting with the ionospheric plasma has been envisaged since the early days of radio exploration of the upper atmosphere, with proposed applications ranging from regional night-time street lighting to atmospheric measurements1. Weak optical emissions have been produced for decades in such ionospheric 'heating' experiments, where they serve as key indicators of electron acceleration, thermal heating, and other effects of incompletely understood wave–particle interactions in the plasma under conditions difficult to replicate in the laboratory2. The extremely low intensities produced previously have, however, required sensitive instrumentation for detection, preventing applications beyond scientific research. Here we report observations of radio-induced optical emissions bright enough to be seen by the naked eye, and produced not in the quiet mid-latitude ionosphere, but in the midst of a pulsating natural aurora. This may open the door to visual applications of ionospheric heating technology or provide a way to probe the dynamics of the natural aurora and magnetosphere.

Security Nominee Gave Advice to the C.I.A. on Torture Laws

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 - Michael Chertoff, who has been picked by President Bush to be the homeland security secretary, advised the Central Intelligence Agency on the legality of coercive interrogation methods on terror suspects under the federal anti-torture statute, current and former administration officials said this week.

Full Text of the Peter Wehner memo on Social Security

Whitehouse memo on the strategy to sell Social Security Reform to the U.S. public. Written on January 3 2005 and copied from Joshua Marshall's Talking Points Memo

Questioning the Frame: Thoughts about maps and spatial logic in the global present

Terms such as “ mapping,” “borders,” “hacking,” “trans-nationalism,” “identity as spatial,” and so on have been popularized in recent years by new media theories’ celebration of “the networks”—a catch-all phrase for the modes of communication and exchange facilitated by the Internet.

Tenn. Muslims Face Resistance to Plans

SOMERVILLE, Tenn. - Muslims planned to turn an old sod farm near Memphis into a cemetery, but angry neighbors protested, complaining the burial ground could become a staging ground for terrorists or spread disease from unembalmed bodies.

Opec sharply reduces dollar exposure

Oil exporters have sharply reduced their exposure to the US dollar over the past three years, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements.

The Great Media Breakdown

The press admits it fell for the administration's line on weapons of mass destruction. But the media's failure goes far beyond Iraq.

All governments lie, the muckraker I.F. Stone used to say. They fudge and omit. They bury and muffle inconvenient facts. They do this repeatedly, relentlessly, shamelessly. That's hardly surprising. Why shouldn't they seek— as a Marine Corps public affairs officer, Lt. Colonel Richard Long, told a conference on journalism and the Iraq war—to "dominate the information environment"?

The outsourcing of journalism

Reuters, the financial news service, will today officially unveil an office in south India that will see 20 journalists cover 2,000 small to medium-sized American companies listed on the New York stock exchange.

Tear Down This Tyranny: A Korea strategy for Bush's second term

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION is not famous for patience with its critics. But for the sake of national security, the new Bush team should listen to constructive criticism of its policies--in particular, its policy for the North Korean nuclear crisis. The current U.S. approach to the North Korea problem is demonstrably flawed; arguably, even dangerously flawed.

Lockheed and the Future of Warfare

LOCKHEED MARTIN doesn't run the United States. But it does help run a breathtakingly big part of it.

Over the last decade, Lockheed, the nation's largest military contractor, has built a formidable information-technology empire that now stretches from the Pentagon to the post office. It sorts your mail and totals your taxes. It cuts Social Security checks and counts the United States census. It runs space flights and monitors air traffic. To make all that happen, Lockheed writes more computer code than Microsoft.

Bush holds private meeting with bank chiefs

President George W. Bush played host to the heads of several top US banks at a private meeting in the White House this week, in an effort to persuade the markets of his commitment to deficit reduction.

Zbigniew Brzezinski How the US provoked the Soviet Union into invading Afghanistan

The Mystery of the Coca Plant That Wouldn't Die

The war on Colombia's drug lords is losing ground to an herbicide-resistant supershrub. Is it a freak of nature - or a genetically modified secret weapon?

U.S. left ammo site unguarded

Six months after the fall of Baghdad, a vast Iraqi weapons depot with tens of thousands of artillery rounds and other explosives remained unguarded, according to two U.S. aid workers who say they reported looting of the site to U.S. military officials.

Feds create puzzle not found on toy shelf

The owner of Pufferbelly Toys in St. Helens worries when Homeland Security agents show up on official business

Money, Money, Money

[This is the second installment of Stan Goff's report on the simmering Persian Peril. Where Part One set out a history of modern Iran in its relations with Western imperial powers, the current piece explains the petrodollar system that underlies our ugly situation in the Middle East and the world. As Catherine Austin Fitts says, nothing will really change until we change the way money works. "Petrodollar," "fiat currency," "speculative attack," "balance of trade" --- these are the lexicographical little friends whom we need by our sides if we are to make it out of the propaganda labyrinth. Goff's essay explains just why the world puts up with the American bully. It isn't just the horrible weapons of death; it's the horrible weapon of debt: in this ongoing American dream, "we" do the borrowing - and everyone else does the owing. -JAH]

Charitable Contributions - Donating to a Politician's Cause Can Win Access and Tax Benefits

N E W Y O R K, Sept. 2, 2004� One of the most extravagant parties of the Republican National Convention has revealed a new way the rich and the powerful interact with each other at conventions.

CBS Reports FBI Suspects Israel has Spy in Pentagon

Official sources in Jerusalem flatly denied a CBS News report the day before of an Israeli spy in Pentagon. The US TV network said the FBI has an investigation underway against a suspected Israeli mole within the office of defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The Federal bureau is said to believe it has �solid� evidence that the suspect supplied Israel with classified materials including secret White House policy deliberations on Iran, including the draft of a presidential directive related to US policies towards Iran.

Prions speed evolution

Sloppy proteins may help organisms adapt.

Prions, the twisted proteins usually linked to disease, could help organisms adapt to tough situations by subtly altering the proteins manufactured by a cell1. The discovery backs the idea that proteins as well as DNA are vital in driving evolution.

Timeline: World Trade Organisation

A chronology of key events in the life of the WTO

IMF Says Its Policies Crippled Argentina

The International Monetary Fund's handling of the crisis in Argentina three years ago almost certainly deepened a recession that threw millions of Argentines into poverty and sparked political chaos throughout the country, according to a report released yesterday by the IMF's internal audit unit.

U.S. 'Correctional Population' Hits New High

The number of Americans under the control of the criminal justice system grew by 130,700 last year to reach a new high of nearly 6.9 million, according to a Justice Department report released today.

The battle of the Rift Valley

Descendants of Kenya's colonial families are preparing for a confrontation with the nomadic Masai tribe over land rights - centred on a conflict between ecotourism and the right to graze freely

Pentagon 'stalling on Abu Ghraib probe'

The Pentagon's failure to co-operate fully with the congressional probe into the Abu Ghraib scandal is frustrating the investigation, according to campaigners and Senate staff.

Pentagon to recall further 5,600 reservists

The Pentagon yesterday said it was recalling 5,600 reservists for active duty, underlining the strain that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are placing on the US military.

DoD Provides Details on Interrogation Process

The Department of Defense today released documents related to the development of interrogation procedures at Guantanamo. These documents are made available to demonstrate that the actions of the U. S. Defense Department are bound by law and guided by American values.

Text of Bush order on prisoner treatment

Iraq ministers told only US can impose martial law

UN slams US over spending Iraq funds

Bush's secret army - The USA hires contract soldiers to fight in Iraq

Attendees at the 2004 Bilderberg Meeting

The 52nd Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Stresa, Italy, 3-6 June 2004. The Conference will deal mainly with European American relations and in this context US Politics, Iraq, The Middle East., European Geopolitics, NATO, China, Economoic Problems and Energy......

The Paper Trail. Did Cheney Okay a Deal?

Vice President Dick Cheney was a guest on NBC's Meet the Press last September when host Tim Russert brought up Halliburton. Citing the company's role in rebuilding Iraq as well as Cheney's prior service as Halliburton's CEO, Russert asked, "Were you involved in any way in the awarding of those contracts?" Cheney's reply: "Of course not, Tim ... And as Vice President, I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the [Army] Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the Federal Government."

Growing Evidence of Scary Change

Scientists used to think that major climate changes, like the onset of an ice age, took thousands of years to unfold. Now they know such dramatic transitions can occur in less than a decade. The probable trigger of abrupt climate changes, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, is the shutdown of a huge ocean current in the Atlantic Ocean.

Future Force Warrior (FFW)

Modernizing the Warrior through Army Transformation:

Future Force Warrior (FFW) is the Army�s flagship Science and Technology initiative to develop and demonstrate revolutionary capabilities for Future Force soldier systems. An integrated system of systems approach is being employed to support the Army transformation to a soldier-centric force. The Future Force Warrior is a major pillar of the Future Force strategy, complementing the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.

CLIMATE COLLAPSE: The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare

Global warming may be bad news for future generations, but let's face it, most of us spend as little time worrying about it as we did about al Qaeda before 9/11. Like the terrorists, though, the seemingly remote climate risk may hit home sooner and harder than we ever imagined. In fact, the prospect has become so real that the Pentagon's strategic planners are grappling with it.

Executive Order 13303

Executive Order Blocking Property of the Former Iraqi Regime, Its Senior Officials and their Family Members, and Taking Certain Other Actions

Coalition Provisional Authority Briefing

Stakeout After Classified Senate Operations and Intelligence Committee Brief - transcript

Army does about-face on call-up readiness

Editorial: A failure of leadership at the highest levels

Around the halls of the Pentagon, a term of caustic derision has emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the heart of the furor over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: the six morons who lost the war.

Secret World of U.S. Interrogation

Chain of Command

Torture at Abu Ghraib

The Gray Zone

Sex slaves and the U.S. military

Even blind old ladies terrify the cops

She was 71 years old.

She was blind.

She needed her 94-year-old mother to come to her rescue.

And in the middle of the dogfight -- in which Eunice Crowder was pepper-sprayed, Tasered and knocked to the ground by Portland's courageous men in blue -- the poor woman's fake right eye popped out of its socket and was bouncing around in the dirt.

Dominican Republic, Honduras Withdrawing Iraq Troops

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Reuters) - The Dominican Republic will withdraw its 300 troops from Iraq "as soon as possible" and Honduras will bring home its 370 soldiers within two months, officials from the two Latin American countries said on Tuesday.

Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions

A comprehensive study of 328 criminal cases over the last 15 years in which the convicted person was exonerated suggests that there are thousands of innocent people in prison today.

Pentagon Deleted Rumsfeld Comment - Remark to Saudi About War's Certainty Is Not in Internet Transcript of Interview

The Pentagon deleted from a public transcript a statement Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made to author Bob Woodward suggesting that the administration gave Saudi Arabia a two-month heads-up that President Bush had decided to invade Iraq. Includes transcript of the deleted portion.

Iranian infiltrators target 11 Iraqi cities

Some 2,000 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Islamic shock troops have entered Iraq and are seeking to control 11 Iraqi cities, according to London's Arabic newspaper, Al-Sharq al-Awsat.

Cattle feed rules unchanged

Early this year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites), fearing the spread of mad cow disease, made a highly publicized announcement of major changes to materials that can be fed to cattle. They have failed to act.

We Had To Destroy [Fill in Country Name] In Order To Save It

The classic Vietnam War statement by a US officer explaining the need to destroy a town in Vietnam in order to "save it" still resonates in left analyses, in part because it captures so well the self-righteous US brazenness in rationalizing its devastation of its victims.

The general and his labyrinth - US/Colombia

Explosive allegations by a sacked officer of collusion between the Colombian army and death squads could damage cosy relations between Washington and Bogot�

Options limited, but more soldiers needed

The thinly stretched Army likely will have to answer the call, as Iraqi forces disappoint