July 9, 2013

Storms and flooding wreak absolute havoc on Toronto commute

(Toronto Star) A deluge of more than 100 mm of rain knocked out power and wreaked chaos on the evening commute Monday, forcing some motorists to abandon their cars as flooding washed out roads and suspended service on long stretches of subway and GO lines.

About 400,000 Toronto-area residents were without power late into the evening after black clouds plunged the city into darkness at the dinner hour.

Emergency services and utility companies were swamped with calls from residents trying to cope with backed up drains and overflowing rivers and streams.

The Toronto Police Marine Unit was pressed into service about 9 p.m. to rescue passengers stranded for hours on a 5:30 p.m. Richmond Hill-bound GO train that became stuck on the flooded tracks near the Don River. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/07/08/storms_stall_ttc_go_as_roads_tracks_and_stations_flood.html

July 9, 2013

Amtrak : We Just Had Our Best June Ever

Amtrak says 2013 was the agency's best June on record -- and its second-best month ever. But the railroad continues to be a politically charged topic in Congress.

According to an Amtrak press release, so far this fiscal year the railroad has set monthly records in October, December, January, March, May and June, with March being the best single month in its history.

But even as Amtrak touts its ridership, its federal subsidy is the subject of much debate.

Bill Shuster (R-PA), the chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, has said a rail re-authorization bill is one of Congress's top priorities this year. But like his predecessor, John Mica, he wants the railroad to get less federal funding. ..........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/transportation-nation/2013/jul/09/amtrak/

July 9, 2013

US Finds Influence Hard to Buy

from Consortium News:


US Finds Influence Hard to Buy
July 8, 2013

For decades the U.S. government has ladled billions upon billions in military assistance to countries that either don’t need it or use it to suppress popular uprisings. But all that money has bought very little in terms of genuine influence with the recipients, ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman writes.

By Melvin A. Goodman


The current crisis in Egypt and the inability of the United States to formulate a policy and to have any influence in Cairo marks another setback for U.S. foreign policy, which relies too heavily on military assistance.

Too many pundits and analysts believe that U.S. military aid to Egypt, which amounts to $1.3 billion annually, is a source of leverage in the Egyptian domestic crisis. Well, it isn’t … and the same could be said for the lack of U.S. influence, let alone leverage, with any of the top recipients of U.S. military assistance.

The top six recipients of U.S. military aid (Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Turkey) provide very little return on our investment. Israel has overwhelming military dominance in the Middle East and doesn’t require military aid. In fact, the United States is constantly and deliberately embarrassed by the Israeli government despite the huge amounts of military assistance that Israel has received over past decades.

Egypt has received more than $60 billion in military and economic aid over the past three decades with no indication that Egyptian policy was susceptible to U.S. influence. Cairo doesn’t violate its peace treaty with Israel because of U.S. assistance; it adheres to the treaty because it is in Egypt’s interest to do so. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2013/07/08/us-finds-influence-hard-to-buy/

July 9, 2013

The Classic Military Runaround: Your Tax Dollars at Work Keeping You in the Dark

from TomDispatch:





The Classic Military Runaround
Your Tax Dollars at Work Keeping You in the Dark

By Nick Turse


There are hundreds, possibly thousands of U.S. personnel -- the military refuses to say how many -- stationed in the ochre-tinted country of Qatar. Out in the searing heat of the desert, they fly fighter jets or fix them. They equip and arm troops headed to war. Some work in a high-tech command-and-control center overseeing U.S. air operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere in the Greater Middle East. Yet I found myself sitting in a hotel room in Doha, Qatar’s capital, about 30 miles east of al-Udeid Air Base, the main U.S. installation in the country, unable to see, let alone talk, to any of them.

In mid-May, weeks before my arrival in Qatar, I sent a request to the public affairs office at the base to arrange a visit with the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, the unit that, according to the military, carries out a “criti­cal combat mission that spans nearly 6,000 miles from the Horn of Africa to Northern Afghanistan.” Or at least I tried to. Day or night, weekday or weekend, the website refused to deliver my message. Finally, I dug up an alternate email address and sent in my request. Days passed with no word, without even an acknowledgement. I followed up yet again and finally received a reply -- and then it began.

The initial response came on May 28th from the Media Operations Chief at Air Forces Central Command Public Affairs. She told me that I needed to contact the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing’s Public Affairs liaison, Captain Angela Webb, directly. So I repeatedly wrote to Captain Webb. No response. On June 10th, I received an email from Susan Harrington. She was, she told me, “taking over” for Captain Webb. Unfortunately, she added, it was now far too close to my arrival in Qatar to arrange a visit. “Due to time constraints,” she wrote me, “I do not think it will be possible to support this request since we are likely already within that 30 day window.”

Don’t think I was surprised. By now, I’m used to it. Whether I’m trying to figure out what the U.S. military is doing in Latin America or Africa, Afghanistan or Qatar, the response is remarkably uniform -- obstruction and obfuscation, hurdles and hindrances. In short, the good old-fashioned military runaround. I had hoped to take a walk around al-Udeid Air Base, perhaps get a glimpse of the jumbotron-sized screens and rows of computers in its Combined Air and Space Operations Center. I wanted to learn how the drawdown in Afghanistan was affecting life on the base. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175721/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_snags%2C_snares%2C_and_snafus_of_covering_the_u.s._military/#more

July 9, 2013

Woolly mammoth found in Siberia to be displayed in Tokyo

(Independent UK) A woolly mammoth found in Siberia last year will be going on display at an exhibition in Japan.

The 39,000-year-old female woolly mammoth named Yuka was found encased in ice by scientists back in March last year. The creature had become trapped in the ice on an island near Siberia which preserved her body.

Yuka was found with permafrost on her shoulders but her upper torso and legs were found in soil. It is thought that Yuka is the best preserved specimen of a woolly mammoth to have been found.

A blood sample was extracted from her and could potentially be used to clone Yuka and resurrect woolly mammoths. Scientists were also able to take a muscle samples from Yuka. From analysis on Yuka's tusk and teeth, she was estimated to be about two-and-a-half years old when she died. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/woolly-mammoth-found-in-siberia-to-be-displayed-in-tokyo-8698005.html

July 9, 2013

Big-Box America (cartoon)

http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/invasion_of_the_big_box_stores_20130708/

July 9, 2013

Bradley Manning Aided The Enemy Because He Knew Al Qaeda Uses The Internet, Prosecutors Charge

FORT MEADE, Md. -- As military prosecutors wrapped up their case against Bradley Manning just before the Fourth of July, their most serious charge against the Army private first class -- aiding the enemy -- rested tenuously on circumstantial evidence.

When the government brought the charge against Manning in May 2011, the move aroused a firestorm of criticism over fears a dangerous precedent could be set. Manning is being tried in a military court martial, but some have argued that the rarely used aiding the enemy charge might also be applied against civilians. Press freedom advocates claim the charge could be used to give a severe sentence to anyone who uploads sensitive information on the Internet -- by the government's own admission, it would have made no difference if Manning had given his 700,000 files to The New York Times instead of WikiLeaks.

The government began building its case in the wake of Manning's June 2010 arrest. Criminal investigators and forensics experts swooped in to figure out how a low-level intelligence analyst stationed in a remote corner of Iraq could send thousands of files -- on subjects ranging from the State Department to Guantanamo -- to WikiLeaks.

Prosecutor Capt. Joe Morrow said in his opening statement that the investigation concluded "Pfc. Manning knew the consequences of his actions and disregarded that knowledge in his own self-interest." ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/bradley-manning-aiding-the-enemy_n_3543592.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037

July 9, 2013

Diary of a Douche

James O'Keefe's Breakthrough: memoir of a merry prankster
The rightwing activist who made his name 'punking' progressive organisations is a lively raconteur, but not a self-knowing one

Ana Marie Cox
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 7 July 2013 09.00 EDT

The memoir of political prankster James O'Keefe – most famous for stinging Acorn and NPR – just passed Dan Brown's Inferno on the Amazon bestseller list. This feat may seem odd here in the dog days of summer: on its surface, O'Keefe's Breakthrough: Our Guerrilla War to Expose Fraud and Save Democracy is not much of a beach read. I am probably saying more about Brown than O'Keefe in assuring you that Breakthrough is every bit the overheated techno-thriller as Inferno – ripe with conspiracies, pulse-pounding narrow escapes, mistaken identities, false accusations, an array of powerful forces bent on doing evil, and even a kind of Holy Grail (spoiler alert!): to break through into the mainstream media, to get the message out.

O'Keefe is as much a child of James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino as he is of Andrew Brietbart or Matt Drudge (though the latter two are the ones who've nurtured him most directly). Breakthrough is larded with as many references to popular films as it is with their tropes. He compares his media strategy to the black goo in "Prometheus" (he said it, not me); watching the fruits of one "sting" unfold, he feels "like that guy in the movie Limitless". He's a student of more obscure fare, as well – thinking of his desire to go undercover as a pimp to Acorn offices is, he imagines that:

"Philippe Petit, the Frenchman who in 1974 violated just about every rule of God and New York City by slinging a wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and walking across it, had a similar urge. He had his own dream, his own little posse, and his own sense of destiny. We both hoped to make the world a better place, he by entertaining it, me by exposing it. The difference, I suppose, was that the outcome would be a little more brutal if he fell off the wire than if Hannah (the woman playing his prostitute), say, fell off her platform shoes."

Yes, I suppose. But O'Keefe earns most of these pop culture comparisons with the aforementioned setpieces, such as a mad dash down Sixth Avenue to a Glenn Beck taping, "hard drive in hand, cords dangling, dodging cars and pedestrians both, my heart pounding, looking skyward now and then as the rain clouds gathered, and wondering if I'd live to be 26." .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/07/james-okeefe-breakthrough-memoir

July 8, 2013

Digby: Weaponized Drones Coming to America?

Hullabaloo / By Digby

Weaponized Drones Coming to America?
Local law enforcement agencies have been considering arming drones with the same weapons used in riot control—rubber bullets, tear gas, bean bag rounds.

July 8, 2013 |


I'm afraid only traitors wouldn't want armed unmanned drones flying around over their heads?



Ok, I know everyone's going to roll their eyes and tell me that this is no big deal because we already arm police and the border patrol and this is just another weapon not something intrinsically bad.

Fine, fine. But I just have one question: why do we need this then? If this is just another weapon in the arsenal, I'd really like to know why these people want to use them. Is there a reason why the usual rubber bullets, electric shock, bean bag rounds etc aren't efficient enough? Will we really be better off if they can deploy them from unmanned drones flying overhead? .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/weaponized-drones-coming-america

July 8, 2013

Bill Moyers: Surviving the New American Economy

https://vimeo.com/69593475


Full Show: Surviving the New American Economy
July 5, 2013


Twenty-two years ago, Bill Moyers started documenting the story of two ordinary families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — families whose breadwinners had lost well-paying factory jobs. Relying on the belief that hard work is the key to a good living and better life, the Stanleys and the Neumanns, like millions of others, went about pursuing the American dream. But as they found other jobs, got re-trained, and worked any time and overtime, they still found themselves on a downward slope, working harder and longer for less pay and fewer benefits, facing devastating challenges and difficult choices.

Bill Moyers revisits his reports on the Stanleys and Neumanns — whose stories Bill updates on the July 9 Frontline report “Two American Families.” He also talks with the authors of two important books about how the changing nature of the economy is affecting everyone: Barbara Miner, a public education advocate who’s been following the decline of her own Milwaukee hometown for nearly 40 years and just published Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City; and author, activist and playwright Barbara Garson, who’s published a number of books about the changing lives of working Americans. Her most recent is Down the Up Escalator: How the 99% Live in the Great Recession.

“The growing (economic) disparity didn’t happen as some sort of natural event, like the rain falling from the sky… it really is the result of policy decisions,” Miner tells Bill.

“Forty years of concentrated efforts have gone to lowering wages, whether it was breaking unions or creating laws that allowed you to make more money overseas than you might have otherwise,” says Garson. “We just have to raise wages — not only for the sake of people getting the low wages, but if we don’t raise wages, we’re well on our way to the next debt crisis.”


http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-surviving-the-new-american-economy/