Mary Shaw

We recently learned that the State of Texas probably executed an innocent man.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for an alleged arson that claimed the lives of his three daughters in 1991. However, a recent forensic review of the case led to the conclusion that "a finding of arson could not be sustained." In other words, the fire for which Willingham was executed was probably just an accident.

This travesty of justice led reporter David Grann to write an excellent in-depth article about the case, which appeared in the September 7th edition of New Yorker and can be found online here.

So now a reasonable person might assume that Texas would learn a lesson from this mistake, further investigate what went wrong and how, and implement safeguards to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.

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From Andrew Glikson

Proceedings of the conference sponsored by the UK Met Office Hadley Centre, Tyndall Centre and the University of Oxford, 28-30 October, 2009 www.eci

Key Message: "Temperature rises above 2°C are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond.“

PLANETARY BOUNDARIES, ABSTRACTS OF KEYNOTE PAPERS

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Eileen Fleming

On October 2, 2009, The Washington Times reported that "Obama agrees to keep Israel's nukes secret [and] reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections." [1]

Three "officials spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, said Mr. Obama pledged to maintain the agreement when he first hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May.

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Allen L Roland

As I have been saying for years, Wall Street is indeed a crime scene and Michael Moore reveals most of the co-conspirators, including Barack Obama, in his devastating exposé of unrestrained Wall Street greed, political influence and its continuing deadly consequences for Main Street :

Michael Moore hits a grand slam home run with his riveting, humorous and always informative exposé of the unholy alliance between big bankers and the Treasury Department, the tax burden shift from the rich to the poor and the loss of jobs and rights from individuals to corporations. To me, the most devastating moment of the film ~ the moment when our democracy essentially ended and the plutocracy took full control ~ was when Congress passed the 700 billion dollar bank bailout last year, against the American public's wishes and after the House had rejected it, with the full agreement of President elect Obama. The Bush baton of Wall Street greed and denial was then effectively passed on to the Obama administration which has yet to reveal the full extent of our economic quagmire.

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By Khaled Amayreh

Israeli border policemen charge towards Palestinian demonstrators
during clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound (photo: AFP)

Recent Israeli police violence at Al-Aqsa Mosque confirms that Israel's leaders condone attempts by Jewish fanatics to destroy the second holiest Islamic shrine

Al-Aqsa Mosque esplanade witnessed yet another episode of violence on Sunday, 27 September, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank, when a group of Jewish religious fanatics disguised as foreign tourists tried to storm Haram Al-Sharif, apparently to gain "prayer rites" at the Islamic sanctuary.

The Muslim guards, along with worshipers, who had been expecting an intrusion of some sort to take place in light of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), peacefully ousted the intruders after they began performing Jewish rituals and calling for the destruction of Islamic holy places.

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Allen L Roland

Israel Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's UN speech last week ran hollow. Zionism is alive and well in Israel and thrives on the perception of victim hood when in reality it utilizes Old testament judgments, Zionist fanaticism and a vast arsenal of illegal chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, which it has never declared, to manipulate and control versus cooperate and co-exist with its neighbors:

It was Henry Kissenger who once said "It's not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true."

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Joel S. Hirschhorn

Odds are pretty good that after some tortuous meetings and awful compromises by House and Senate bigwigs whatever health reform law is passed by Congress will not be close to what most thoughtful people want. Especially not what progressives and liberals wanted from a Democrat controlled Congress. Will President Obama act with integrity?

Whatever goes to President Obama for his signature will probably do very little to curb the countless excesses by the health insurance industry and, therefore, do next to nothing to curb personal and national health spending. It will almost certainly impose some new taxes that ultimately will impact a large fraction of the population, possibly by taxes on health insurance benefits or through higher insurance premiums and/or copayments and deductibles, or even worse coverage. Even if there is some type of government option, which does not now seem likely, it would likely be constructed so cleverly that few would take advantage of it.

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by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

I believe that there is probable cause to indict and charge top government officials, George W. Bush himself, for the capital crimes we call '911'. There is, I believe, no 'statute of limitation' on the crimes of mass murder, high treason, or the war crimes 'justified' upon the pretext of a great 'war on terrorism'. [see: US Codes, Title 18, Section 2441] or high treason!

(a) Offense.— Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.

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by chycho

I came across the following post on AskReddit that I wanted to share since it has been one of the main themes on this site.

It is from an individual asking a question from the community regarding the ethical and legal nature of his or her actions. It is a perfect example of what happens in society when personal data becomes readily available.

I have also included four replies from other users to the question. There were over eleven hundred replies, and I chose the ones that I agreed with. There are other points of view.

As for my personal take on this issue, I believe the person is a piece of shit, and as one of the comments pointed out, nothing more than a kapo.

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Mary Shaw

First, the good news: On September 29, the Senate Finance Committee approved a $75 million funding stream for comprehensive (i.e., responsible) sex education. According to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SEICUS), "$50 million [...] would be geared to evidence-based, medically accurate, age-appropriate programs to educate adolescents about both abstinence and contraception in order to prevent unintended teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. The remaining funds would be for innovative programs as well as research and evaluation."

The amendment passed by a margin of 14-9, with moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe (ME) joining all committee Democrats in voting in favor. Next, the bad news: They also passed an amendment that reinstates funding for the failed Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program which expired on June 30, 2009. This amendment will provide $50 million per year through 2014 to extend the program. It passed by a shameful 12-11 vote count, with Democratic Senators Blanche Lincoln (AR) and Kent Conrad (ND) joining all committee Republicans in voting in favor.

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