5 Ways to Avoid Financial Ruin, Hollywood-Style

Just when you thought Madoff was rotting away in prison, along comes alleged Ponzi schemer to the stars, Ken Starr, arrested last week on charges of swindling $30 million in Hollywood fortunes. Herein, bold-faced lessons for your own (much smaller) fortune.

By Marty Beckerman

Oceanic Media Group via FilmMagic

1. Savings

You could... ...make $737,000 a month, just like Britney Spears, then save or invest exactly zero dollars. Just like Britney Spears, according to actual court documents.

You should... ...give away some of that gargantuan salary and all the goodies that come with it. George Clooney donated his Oscar gift bag to charity for $45,000, and the IRS is cracking down on swag anyway.

You're probably better off... ...regularly depositing your earnings into a tax-deferred annuity that would support you in old age and shield you from your worst youthful impulses. Also: adhere to a restrained lifestyle, à la Warren Buffett. Note: this is way less fun than racking up $600,000 in credit-card debt, like Lindsay Lohan reportedly managed to do.

RELATED: How to Save (and Spend) Money at Every Age

Walt Disney Pictures

2. Real Estate

You could... ...make like Nicolas Cage and buy a bunch of castles all over the world, then flip them (headache-free!) for a huge markup whenever you want. And by "for a huge markup," we mean "for a loss of unfathomable millions."

You should... ...get a mortgage for a house — one house — now that rates are at their lowest in decades. And remember: you are the king of the sofa, not Bavaria.

You're probably better off... ...keeping some penalty-free liquid assets. The FDIC has bumped-up its insurance guarantee from $100,000 to a just-for-this-neverending-recession cap of $250,000, which you and your spouse can bump up much higher by opening a joint account, two retirement accounts, and dual trusts. Because when you're married, it's always good to have cash on hand for — how should we put this, Tiger? — unpredictable emergencies.

RELATED: How to Blow a a Million Dollars

3. Accounting

You could... ...emulate Starr's clients and hand off "total control" of your finances to a mysterious guru — he even allegedly paid their bills — but the federally mandated Securities Investor Protection Corporation only protects $500,000 per account. And the SIPC might deny your claim anyway, as many of Madoff's victims cataclysmically discovered.

You should... ...emulate a (non-dickish) banker and diversify your own portfolio, like Shia LaBeouf claims to have done with a self-made $500,000 in his Schwab account while preparing for Oliver Stone's Wall Street sequel. If you must entrust another, make sure he is not himself entrusting an exotic dancer, a handbag-obsessed secretary, or a "glamorous, club-hopping lifestyle."

You're probably better off... ...double-checking your statements — Uma Thurman's attention to detail apparently led to Starr's arrest. No word on whether she is coming for his scalp with the Kill Bill katana.

RELATED: Celebrities Who Hid Their Money... Poorly

Missionaries of Hate, Pt. 1

 

http://current.com/shows/vanguard/92438541_missionaries-of-hate-pt-1.htm

Underground green economy employing millions

 

by Glenn Hurowitz

There's a new economy springing up around the country -- but it's operating almost entirely in secret. It's called "the restoration economy" and it's remaking America's landscape while putting millions of people to work.

This economy is devoted to restoring what's been lost: degraded forests, watersheds, oceans, cities, communities, buildings, transit -- and it's the product of a major turning point in our history that's been almost entirely missed by the press and politicians.

I recently had the opportunity to learn about this stealth green economy when I participated in a panel at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference about land and water-based jobs. In a telling sign, this panel (organized by The Wilderness Society's relentless JP Leous, one of the brightest rising stars in the environmental movement) was apparently the first in the history of the conference to focus on forest, land, and water based jobs (or as I like to think of them, the ultimate green jobs).

One of my co-panelists was Storm Cunningham, who in his seminal book, The Restoration Economy, revealed this major shift for the first time:

...But then, in the late 90's, I began noticing a miraculous new trend: a number of places -- both ecosystems and communities -- were actually getting better, some spectacularly so. Rivers that had been devoid of fish were teeming with them. Blighted industrial waterfronts were becoming gorgeous, lively, economically thriving public areas. Devastated, clear-cut hills were becoming forests again -- real forests, not just the typical tree farms that are devoid of wildlife. ...

During the last two decades of the twentieth century, we failed to notice a turning point of immense significance. New development -- the development mode that has dominated the past three centuries -- lost significant "market share" to another mode: restorative development.

Despite the fact that restorative development will dominate the twenty-first century, its phenomenal rate of growth has gone largely undocumented. This is hardly an unimportant transition: economic growth based primarily on the exploitation of new resources and territories is giving way to economic growth based on expanding our resources and improving our existing assets..

Why is it happening? Primarily, it's because we've now developed most of the world that can be developed without destroying some other inherent value or vital function of that property. The major driver of economic growth in the the twenty-first century will thus be redeveloping our nations, revitalizing our cities, and rehabilitating and expanding our ecosystems. We'll be adding health and wealth in a way that doesn't cause a corresponding loss of wealth elsewhere.

To put it in other words, today's economic potential isn't in the exploitation of untapped resources, but rather in the restoration of wealth (natural, infrastructural, community and otherwise).

For that reason and others, the restoration economy is dollar-for-dollar by far the best job creator of any economic activity.

http://www.grist.org/article/underground-green-economy-employing-millions/

Could Secret Saudi Spill Hold Fix for Gulf Slick?

by Chanan Tigay

Even as proposals pour in for cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, one veteran of a massive (and secret) crude spill in the Persian Gulf says he has a tried-and-true solution.

Now if only the people who could make it happen would return his calls.

"No one's listening," says Nick Pozzi, who was an engineer with Saudi Aramco in the Middle East when he says an accident there in 1993 generated a spill far larger than anything the United States has ever seen.

 

According to Pozzi, that mishap, kept under wraps for close to two decades and first reported by Esquire, dumped nearly 800 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf, which would make it more than 70 times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill.

But remarkably, by employing a fleet of empty supertankers to suck crude off the water's surface, Pozzi's team was not only able to clean up the spill, but also salvage 85 percent of the oil, he says.

"We took [the oil] out of the water so it would save the environment off the Arabian Gulf, and then we put it into tanks until we could figure out how to clean it," he told AOL News.

While BP, the oil giant at the center of the recent accident, works to stanch the leak from the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig, Pozzi insists the company should be following his lead.

AOL News could not independently verify Pozzi's account, but one former Aramco employee did acknowledge that there was a large spill in the region in the early '90s, and that Aramco had used tankers to clean up earlier oil slicks.

Pozzi, now retired, spent 17 years of his career in Saudi Arabia, part of it as a manager in Aramco's technical support and maintenance division.

Shortly after the April 22 sinking of the Deepwater Horizon, he and a friend, Houston attorney Jon King (with whom Pozzi recently launched a business called Wow Environmental Solutions), traveled to Houma, La., headquarters for BP's response center, to offer up the lessons he'd learned working in the Persian Gulf.
Ever since, he says, the pair's been stonewalled.

 

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/could-cleanup-fix-for-gulf-oil-spill-lie-in-secret-saudi-disaster/19476863

Aquaman

Two-tone perception disease

10 ways to kick the offshore-oil habit

by Jonathan Hiskes

One of the most depressing aspects of the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is the idea that we've got no choice but to rely on offshore drilling and the stomach-turning dangers it carries. We know all the problems with importing oil from petro-dictatorships. Electric cars aren't ready to replace fuel-combustion engines. The only option, political leaders tell us, is for Americans to choke down the occasional drilling catastrophe and deal with the ugly consequences.

"Accidents happen," said Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). "You learn from them and you try not to make sure they don't happen again."

"I doubt this is the first accident that has happened and I doubt it will be the last," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

"The reality of it is that we will be depending on oil and gas as we transition to a new energy future," Ken Salazar, President Obama's Interior secretary, told a Senate panel last week. "You are not going to turn off the lights of this country or the economy by shutting it all down."

Is it true that we've got no alternative?

The last time lawmakers truly freaked out about the problem of our oil dependence--when gas prices topped $4 a gallon in the summer of 2008--the Senate Energy Committee called in Skip Laitner, director of economic analysis at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

The committee asked Laitner what efficiency--the famously unglamorous energy strategy--could do to relieve gas prices. He gave them an astonishing figure: It could save 46 billion barrels of oil. If the U.S. made an all-out investment in energy efficiency-cutting energy waste out of vehicles, buildings, the electrical grid, and elsewhere in the economy--Laitner believes it could save the energy equivalent of 46 billion barrels by 2030.

Domestic offshore drilling produced 537 million barrels a year over the last nine years, according to the Minerals Management Service. A full-bore efficiency plan would save the equivalent of 85 years of offshore drilling.

Looking at the transportation sector alone, Laitner recommended 10 short-term policies that would cut the need for oil. Congress eventually passed one of them-the "cash for clunkers" program. Even that could be improved upon: the lax fuel-economy standards for new cars meant the trade-in program didn't save nearly as much fuel as it could have

If you're tired of dead sea turtles, oil-coated marshlands, destroyed fisheries, disputes over leak rates, political cop-outs, terms like tar balls and junk shots (OK, those are funny), these are for you:

10 solutions to our oil addiction

1. A better "cash for clunkers." Last summer's popular program took hundreds of thousands of low-performing autos off the road, but its low standards for the fuel economy of eligible new cars made it more of an auto-industry bailout than an environmental boon. A two-year version that gave credit for only truly efficient new vehicles (35 mpg or better) would save more oil. Congress could pay for it by extending the 1978 gas guzzler tax to light trucks and SUVs--it currently applies only to passenger cars.

2. Emergency funding for endangered mass transit. A chilling 59 percent of public transit networks have cut service or raised fares (or both) since January 2009, pushing more commuters into cars. Congress could save both oil and jobs by preserving existing bus and rail lines with emergency funding.

3. A national telecommuting and videoconferencing initiative. Encouraging employees to work from home and cut back on business travel would cut fuel usage, save them money and commuting time, and probably make a lot of them happier. Congress could direct federal workers to telecommute and videoconference as much as possible. For everyone else, a campaign would help make these things more normative and socially acceptable.

4. Smarter freight movement. Congress could commission a study to explore a grab-bag of methods to lighten the impact of trucking and rail and jet shipping. "Heavy trucks might save 32 percent of energy use through a combination of improved fuel efficiencies, and better coordination to reduce empty backhauls and unnecessary travel," Laitner writes in a journal article [PDF] Train design that reduces aerodynamic drag and collects energy from braking (as a Prius does) could produce more savings.

5. Smarter land use. Congress could direct (and help fund) local government efforts to update zoning and land-use regulations in ways that encourage compact development compatible with transit service and friendly to walkers and bikers. (Obama's Partnership for Sustainable Communities is already taking steps in this direction.)

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-05-24-10-ways-to-kick-the-offshore-oil-habit/

The Oil Spill and the Republicans

by Robert Creamer

The frustration and anxiety of Americans about the horrific oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico grows by the day. Those whose livelihood is tied to the Gulf -- or who live in the wetlands of Louisiana, and communities along the coast -- are justifiable demanding the deployment of war-time levels of personnel and equipment to stop the dark, deadly oil that is invading from the sea.

In times of national crisis, Americans look to the President to lead -- and to deliver. That's why President Obama was absolutely correct to make it crystal clear that he is personally responsible to deal with the oil spill crisis -- and has told his Administration to spare no effort to stop the leak, oversee the cleanup, and assure that BP completely compensates the massive number of victims.

Increasingly sharp criticism has been leveled at the President because BP has so far been unable to stop the leak. The problem, of course, is that most of the critics have few suggestions about what the Administration might do that it isn't doing.

And it is down right remarkable that the critics, include Republicans like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who less that two years ago were joining Republican oil industry "expert" Sarah Palin in the juvenile Republican convention chant "Drill Baby Drill!"

"Drill Baby Drill!" was not just intended to promote more offshore oil drilling. It was intended to mock Democratic concerns for the environmental impact of offshore drilling. It was intended to dismiss their opposition to drilling as stupid, "tree-hugging," anti-growth, "elite" concerns. It was intended to mock those who feared that offshore drilling would despoil our natural resources. It was intended to label them -- in the words of the late Republican Vice-President Spiro Agnew -- as "effete, nattering nabobs of negativism" -- part of the "chablis and brie" set that is completely disconnected from the lives of ordinary Americans who drink beer, work hard and get their hands dirty producing the products and the food we need in our everyday lives.

Of course things haven't turned out that way. The victims of the BP oil disaster are the shrimpers and the oystermen -- the people who own the mom and pop restaurants and coffee shops -- the folks who drive their pickup trucks to a job in the tourist industry along the Mississippi coast. The real victims are the fathers who want to take their sons hunting in the Louisiana wetlands the way their father took them.

And the real beneficiaries of the Bush-Cheney-Republican energy policy have not been ordinary Americans -- they are the giant oil companies that have become economic behemoths by encouraging the world's addiction to oil and preventing the development of energy alternatives that would end our dependence.

The fact is that while Big Oil has been polluting the Gulf with what now appears to be 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil -- or more -- each day since April, it has been polluting our politics with millions of dollars in campaign contributions for decades.

In the last three and a half years, the oil industry has given over $35 million dollars to the Republicans. Big Oil paid for "drill baby drill" just as surely as United Airlines paid for the naming rights of the United Center in Chicago.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-creamer/the-oil-spill-and-the-rep_b_595481.html

International activists cause their own deaths by attacking nonconfrontational Israeli commandos

Palestine Think Tank

Free Minds for a Free Palestine

by Belén Fernández

IDF Spokesperson Avital Liebovitxh

At a press briefing this morning following the massacre by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commandos of passengers on board the Mavi Marmara, one of the boats pertaining to the Freedom Flotilla attempting to break the siege of Gaza, IDF spokeswoman Avital Liebovitch claimed that the passengers had engaged in "severe violence against our soldiers."

According to Liebovitch, the violence was premeditated and was administered via live fire, sharp items such as knives, and weapons "grabbed" from the IDF commandos. While underscoring Israel's unique ability to portray its armed forces as victims, the analysis failed to provide a compelling reason for why—if the alleged attack using grabbed weapons was indeed premeditated—the IDF did not throw a wrench in the works by simply refraining from raiding the ship.

Apparently not satisfied with sporadic violations of logic, Liebovitch reiterated that the IDF had not desired a confrontation with the activists but that the justness of the confrontation— which she herself admitted occurred "not in Israeli territory"—had since been proven given the passengers' alleged reaction. The Israeli tendency to award retroactive justification to its actions was also evident during the 2008-2009 attack on Gaza, which Israel advertised as a defensive war against Palestinian rockets by severing the portion of the cause-and-effect timeline that involved deliberate Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas. The inversion of aggressor and victim did not of course prevent Gazan civilians from perishing in this particular confrontation at a rate of approximately 400:1 vis-à-vis their Israeli counterparts.

http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/05/31/belen-fernandez-international-activists-cause-their-own-deaths-by-attacking-nonconfrontational-israeli-commandos/

Holy Sweet Lord, Turkey has announced they will send another flotilla to Gaza—escorted by the Turkish Navy!

by Ian Welsh

If they actually do this, it is the very definition of throwing down.

Wow.

Does Israel want a war with Turkey?  They can't win it, short of using nukes, and Turkey is a NATO member, if Israel attacks NATO ships, Turkey can invoke Article V (in fact, they can invoke it already, since the ships were attacked by a non NATO power on the high seas.)  If Turkey does so, of course NATO nations will refuse, but doing so will break NATO.

This is high stakes.

Update: I might add that in the case of a war between Turkey and Israel, if Turkey is serious, unless Israel uses nukes, my money is on the Turks.  They have a huge armored corp, and the nations between Israel and Turkey aren't going to say no if Turkey asks for access (because if they do, Turkey will just roll right through them.)  Also if Turkey and Israel goes to war, it's at least 50/50 the Egypt jumps in as well.

Israel is really playing with fire on this one.

http://waronyou.com/topics/holy-sweet-lord-turkey-has-announced-they-will-send-another-flotilla-to-gaza%E2%80%94escorted-by-the-turkish-navy/

Palins Build Fence To Keep Pervert (/Acclaimed Non-Fiction Writer) Away

Look! It's a new, tall fence goin' up between Sarah Palin and her new neighbor, book author Joe McGinniss, who just moved there to spy on Piper on her toilet. Do you know how Joe McGinniss found this plush Wasilla masturbation cave?

Ben Smith gets hold of an email from McGinniss' son:

Sarah Palin's next-door neighbor sought out author Joe McGinniss as a tenant, McGinniss's son said.

"No one is stalking anyone," Joe McGinniss, Jr., a novelist whose father is the non-fiction writer, wrote in response to an email from a Palin supporter who confused his email address and his father's. (He shared the email with me.) "A woman was renting her house and sought out the author because the Palins had crossed her (owed her money for renovations she had done at their request and never paid her for). So she knew McGinniss was writing the book and found him and offered him the house."

Pay your debts!

Read more at Wonkette: http://wonkette.com/415675/palins-build-fence-to-keep-pervert-acclaimed-non-fiction-writer-away#ixzz0pcBfMFHO

New Rule: Politicians Must Be Informed of Their Rights: "Everything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You in a Google Search"

by Bill Maher

 

New Rule: Before running for office, politicians must be informed of their rights: that "Everything you say can and will be used against you in a Google search." Now, of course, we all embellish our resumes a little. In college, I described my job of pot dealer as "regional sales associate for a large multi-national firm." But we just had the fifth anniversary of YouTube and the twelfth of Google, and between them, they're killing off a great institution: lying. You just can't lie anymore -- facts are too easy to check, everything is on video, and your wife put a GPS in your glove compartment. Our privacy is gone, our Internet conversations are forever. I even have reason to believe I'm being recorded right now...

Jesus once said that there was nothing hidden that would not some day be revealed, but if he was alive today, and walked on water, it would be instantly on YouTube between a skateboard accident and a turtle biting a baby's ass. And the first comment would be "fag." Twenty-four hours of new video is posted on YouTube every 60 seconds. Mostly of a girl named Kelly, showing off things she bought at Forever 21, but still...

Even when you're just at Wal-Mart in your pajamas buying condoms, someone is taking a picture of it and putting it on a website called "People at Wal-Mart Buying Condoms in Their Pajamas." And Fergie -- whenever you're doing something shady in a hotel room, of course someone is filming it. Also be aware that, without makeup, you don't look anything like you do in the Black Eyed Peas.

Politically, it's even more ridiculous to think you can lie: Richard Blumenthal, running for the Senate in Connecticut, saying he was in Vietnam when he wasn't? This isn't camp, where you can tell a lie and no one will know back home. The army keeps records.

Or John McCain saying, " I never considered myself a maverick." Which of course prompted an avalanche of video, e-mails, letters and probably telegrams of McCain bragging that he was a maverick. There's video of everything, so to think you can get away with making a speech and just pulling shit out of your ass, you'd have to be an egomaniac, a sociopath, or a world-class moron. Which brings me to Sarah Palin.

Last week she said she knows what the Gulf states are going through now because, "I have lived and worked through that Exxon Valdez oil spill." She was a 25-year-old newlywed sportscaster, living in another part of the state that didn't see any oil. She "lived and worked" through Exxon Valdez the same way Christie Brinkley lived and worked through the Iranian hostage crisis.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-politicians-must_b_593912.html

Corporatizing and Militarizing Memorial Day for "Fun" and Profit

by Camillo "Mac" Bica

Since the beginning of the 20th century, some 650,000 Americans have died fighting this country's many wars. Regardless of political affiliation and ideology, every American ought reverence such selfless sacrifice and understand and share the grief that this tragic loss of life entails. Though those of us who have known war hear the cries of the dying forever in our mind and suffer the pain and loss each day of our lives and need no holiday to remind us, Memorial Day is the occasion our nation sets aside to remember, to grieve and to honor those who have sacrificed their lives on behalf of "freedom."

Air shows, "exciting" demonstrations of the high tech, billion-dollar implements of war have become an increasingly popular way to "celebrate" Memorial Day in many parts of the country. The Southern Wisconsin Air fest and Missouri's Salute to Veterans 2010 are just two examples. Attracting thousands, in some cases tens of thousands, these extravaganzas have become prime locations for military recruitment. The Army's "Strength in Action Tour" regularly exploits such events "entertaining," "informing" and ultimately motivating young people to enlist. With its enormous budget, Army recruiters set up what is, for all intents and purposes, a mobile military circus and amusement arcade. Passersby, some as young as ten years old, need only provide their contact information into the Army database to receive an array of Army recruitment material and souvenirs - personalized dog tags, T-shirts, hats, footballs etc. Once registered, students are encouraged to become "Army Strong," that is, participate in interactive physical fitness events such as climbing the "US Army Rock Wall" ("strength of body," "rock strong"), "perform virtual music" on a stage in front of their peers ("strength to lead"), operate small remote control robotic devices known as Packbots through an obstacle course ("strength of technology"), "pilot" an Apache helicopter flight simulator ("strength to soar") or "participate in a fully immersive, adrenaline-pumping, highly realistic (Humvee) experience" in which they conduct a "virtual mission," engage "insurgents" and kill them ("strength of team").

Sadly, Americans need to be reminded that Memorial Day is not about sales at the mall, barbecues and picnics. Neither is it a time to celebrate militarism, the machinery of war or entice young people, through highly manipulative and deceptive practices, into enlisting in the military. While such spectacles may be exhilarating to some and perhaps suitable for other occasions (perhaps Armed Forces Day or the Fourth of July), they are totally inappropriate and irreverent during the only time of the year set aside for remembering and grieving those who made the ultimate sacrifice, Memorial Day weekend.

Most importantly, it is not about exploiting patriotism and the sacrifices of our young servicemen and women for purposes of commercial marketing and corporate profit. The following is an excerpt from the Bethpage Federal Credit Unions 2009 New York Air Show web site, perhaps the mother of all such "celebrations" of the implements of death and destruction:

If your company would like to go beyond typical marketing ... Huge family participation coupled with the extraordinary setting makes the air show at Jones Beach a great opportunity for corporate sponsorship and VIP hospitality. Our participating sponsors link their brand with the exciting, patriotic event as they host their most valued clients, employees, family and friends in a truly first class setting.  Hospitality tents lined up along the beachfront offer private beach enclosures and can be tailored to meet each sponsor's specific marketing aim ... The Business Package includes 10 Tickets to the Jones Beach VIP Tent and 4 VIP Parking Passes and you may also hang a small Corporate Banner inside the tent." Cost: $2000.00. [Emphasis added.]

If the exhilarating and orgasmic air show is not enough, revelers can also celebrate the tenth anniversary of Long Island's American Air Power Museum. On this Memorial Day weekend 2010, now renamed "Salute to the Legends of Air Power" weekend, for just $35, "you can attend an exclusive event for sponsors, VIPs and Air Show performers. A night of big band music, Warbird calendar pinups, Air Show pilot meet and greet, (view) Warbird and military aircraft, plus a private sunset Warbird flight demonstration ... It doesn't get any better than this." Well, perhaps it does. For just an additional $425, you can actually fly on a fully restored B17 aircraft, perhaps imagine yourself on a bombing mission over Dresden, Hamburg or Tokyo and about to incinerate millions of innocent civilians.

This blatant commercialization of patriotic sentiment, exploitation of Memorial Day and celebration of the killing instruments of war, demonstrates once again that the primary concern and motivation of banking and corporate executives, the primary sponsors of these spectacles, is profit.

http://www.truthout.org/corporatizing-and-militarizing-memorial-day-fun-and-profit59925

Shot in Iraq, soldier gets bill for missing equipment

As Americans prepare to honor fallen soldiers this Memorial Day, one former Oregon National Guard member is wondering why he's being charged more than $3,000 for military gear that was lost after he was shot.

Gary Pfleider, a six-year veteran of the Guard, received a Purple Heart after he was shot by a sniper in Iraq. Some time later, he received a somewhat less gratifying award: A bill for $3,175 for military equipment that was lost when he was shipped out of Iraq for medical treatment.

CBS affiliate KVAL in Eugene, Oregon, reports:

Pfleider feels disrespected by the charges. He said he lost sight of the gear when he left Iraq and believes he should not be responsible for it now....

Pfleider inventoried his belongings and discovered several personal items and military-issued gear, including clothing, canteens and grenades, were missing.

He believed the supervisors at his former unit in Albany had filed paperwork clearing him of the charges. But in June 2009, Pfleider received a bill for $3,175.88. Shortly afterward, the federal government began taking $120 out of his Social Security disability checks each month. Pfleider said his state and federal tax returns were also frozen.

Pfleider says he can't work because of his disability -- he walks with a cane -- and can now no longer afford to visit his daughters in Vancouver, Washington.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0529/soldier-bill-missing-equipment/

Guatemala: First, volcanic eruption; then, devastating tropical storm

by Xeni Jardin

Above, this photo just posted to the Guatemalan Government's Flickr feed shows a spontaneous sinkhole ("hundimiento") 20 meters deep and 15 wide that appeared today in Zone 2 of Guatemala City, after overwhelming saturation of rains from tropical storm Agatha. Local press reports that it swallowed an entire 3-story building. Not Photoshop, sadly: these happen from time to time during major storms in part because of unstable geology, and in part, bad urban engineering—read more about it in the comments. A break in the over-stressed sewage pipes after the storm was the cause for this one. There are rumors of other sinkholes now forming nearby. See it on Google Maps. (News reports: Prensa Libre, and blogs)

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/05/31/guatemala-first-volc.html

Original Easy Rider ad

 

Easy Rider part 2

 

Easy Rider: Mainstream loved it, underground buried it

 

Lucky Ducky in "Slick Deal"

© Ruben Bolling

From the 1953 CIA Overthrow of Democracy in Iran, to the Iraq War, to the Criminal Gulf Catastrophe and Deaths, BP Was There

by mark karlin

If you were to draw an oily line from the first exploitation of oil in the Middle East by the British in 1901 (they were in the process of converting their then world dominating naval fleet from coal to oil and were in desperate need of it) to the overthrow of the secular democratic leader in Iran, Mohammed Mossadeq, in 1953, to the Iraq War, to the criminal environmental catastrophe in the Gulf, BP would have been there.  

But the fourth largest company in the world wasn't always called BP.  It used to be owned by the British Government (remember the navy armada in need of oil). It was named the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company when the CIA teamed up with the British because the Western style Iranian leader Mossadeq wanted to nationalize Britain's 100% owned and run giant oil concession in Iran, and the West would have none of that.  So Eisenhower authorized "Operation Ajax," and the Shah of Iran was placed in power -- ruling with an iron fist and the dreaded SAVAK, all the time fully backed by the U.S. -- leading to the radical theocratic revolution that we still confront today.  All the time BP, which formally adopted its current name in 1954, was there.

BP was there throughout the de facto colonization of the Middle East to provide oil to the West, the British and the U.S. remaining strong partners in keeping any recalcitrant nations in line. Which leads to the Iraq War and why many Americans and Brits were puzzled by Tony Blair's eagerness to go along with Cheney's secret oil committee plan to seize Iraq oil fields and Bush's belief that the war was Biblically justified.  BP is the largest corporation in the UK and the third largest energy company. Do you have any more questions?

BP and its American counterparts are part of the corporate oligarchy that run governments when it comes to energy policy. They don't take orders from sovereign nations; they give them. They are unelected, but because of their hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue and profit, they run the show when it comes to oil policy, and profit comes first: forget about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Oil is their gold; we are just consumers who can be replaced at any time by more consumers, vassals to the oil company Masters of the Universe.  There is no brake on their malfeasance, greed and criminal behavior, nor their ability to get nations to go to war, overthrow democratically elected leaders, and to get away with pollution of proportions beyond the imagination.

For over a century, whenever American and British GIs have died for oil, whenever pollution and toxicity have been let loose to ravage our shores, whenever residents have died of cancer caused by the oil refining process and spills, whenever Congress and White Houses have loosened regulations to allow reckless and massively damaging behavior, BP was there, along with their American counterparts: companies so large that they are above the law and governmental control.

http://blog.buzzflash.com/editorblog/312

Why is Israel afraid of a few boats?

By Yousef Munayyer

Hundreds of activists are on their way to the blockaded Gaza strip via a "flotilla" of boats carrying humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, which are badly lacking in the impoverished Palestinian territory.

Israel has promised to intercept the good-willed boats and arrest and deport the activists. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has exerted great effort in the past few days to convince onlookers to this confrontation on the high seas that the activists carrying humanitarian goods are terrorist sympathizers, and that everything is just fine and dandy in the Gaza Strip. The ministry has portrayed Israel (the country enforcing the blockade of Gaza's ports) as a benevolent victim, who despite the threat from Gaza's Hamas government is still caring for the civilian population.

There comes a point when an oppressive regime's propaganda crosses a threshold from mere lies to utter lunacy so extreme, in fact, that objective onlookers find it almost comical. This point came yesterday when the Government Press Office disseminated a link to a Gaza restaurant which appears to be luxurious. So what Israel is essentially saying is: "There you have it.  There is a website for a restaurant with cloth napkins in Gaza. How can there be any problems?"

The reality is, of course, that the situation in Gaza is very dire. A slew of reports from human rights organizations attest to the hardships faced by most Palestinians in Gaza. In the densely populated strip where 80 percent of the population are refugees, a similar percentage relies on international aid organizations for daily sustenance. That number was only ten percent a decade ago. That's how bad things have become. Malnutrition in children has reached ten percent and critical medicines are not available, according to the World Health Organization.

But no one is starving to death in Gaza--at least not suddenly. A tunnel industry has evolved and become the main supplier for most goods. That's all part of the plan. Israel seeks to squeeze the strip to the point of near catastrophe, bad enough to make people suffer, but just short of having to take responsibility for it. It's a form of torture kind of like water-boarding under the Bush administration: the objective is to bring the subject to the edge and break his will, but not kill him (lest they be charged with murder). But just because Gaza's civilian population has managed to keep its collective head above water doesn't mean things should be this way.

Like life in most prisons, if you "know a guy," anything is available for a price. Generators, for example, are in high demand because of the shortages of electricity. The shortages are due to the destruction of Gaza's only power plant in 2006 by Israeli jets. Since then, Israel has never permitted the full reconstruction of the power plant, forcing perpetual dependence of Gaza on Israel and Egypt, who take an eye-dropper approach to supplying Gaza with electricity. But even though generators smuggled through Gaza's tunnels provide some light, there is also a dark and often unheard downside that comes with them: explosions and fires. Several reports in the past few years of civilians being killed or maimed from overworked and exploding generators have become common. These are just some of the siege-related causalities we do not hear about.

The 10,000 tons of supplies aboard the Gaza aid ships are a drop in the bucket for what Gaza really needs. Israel's spokesmen have pointed out that they have permitted the entry of supplies in the past and argued that the aid boats are unnecessary. The reality is that aid which Israel does permit into Gaza is purchased by Palestinians, vetted and often rejected or held up for months. Israel has calculated the precise minimum necessary caloric intake for Palestinians in Gaza, and has often rejected things like pasta, lentils and coffee. So it's easy to understand why international humanitarian organizations and the activists aboard the aid boats are not about to trust the welfare of Gaza's civilians to Israel's benevolence.

The aid boats will have a far greater impact, however, than the 10,000 tons of aid they are bringing to Gaza. The aid boats compel us to have this discussion, a discussion that Israel desperately wants to avoid at a time when its international reputation has never been lower.

Hundreds of unarmed civilians carrying humanitarian aid are approaching a blockaded piece of land where 1.5 million civilians suffer from a life of uncertainty and despair, and Israel is going to stop them. While much of the focus on the Israeli-Palestinian issue has been on the settlements, the failed peace process and the long-awaited restart of talks about talks, Gaza has been forgotten. To their credit, the few hundred non-violent activists-turned-sailors have found a way to maximize their power as individuals to force one of the world's most powerful regimes into a corner. Whether the boats make it to Gaza or not, this is a tremendous victory for civil society in international affairs.

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/05/27/why_is_israel_afraid_of_a_few_boats

Life Aboard an International Activist Ship

By Ann Wright

There is nothing easy about planning or conducting an international action, especially with moving parts called ships! Yet, activists on board keep their spirits afloat!

After delays caused by damaged propellers and broken steering mechanisms, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla now reduced to seven ships is heading for Gaza.

Yesterday, May 29, 2010, in a major confrontation, the Greek Cypriot government, under substantial pressure from the Israeli government, refused to allow members of the Irish and Scottish Parliament, and other dignitaries, board Challenger 1 that would bring them to the flotilla waiting some 50 miles from Cyprus. The group travelled to the Turkish Cypriot side of the island and boarded Challenger 1, whose steering had been repaired.

Despite delays and damaged ships, spirit on board the ships is high, particularly on board the Challenger 1 that arrived in the flotilla this morning at 1:30am carrying German members of Parliament, Belgians, Irish and UK citizens, some of whom have been on the three-day odyssey from Crete to Cyprus and now to the flotilla.

In the 36 hours I've been on board the 600-passenger Turkish ship, life has developed into a routine of sleeping, eating, watching the horizon. Virtually everyone is sleep-deprived. All of the passengers are activists in their home countries. They have been fundraising, speaking and traveling for months and years for the plight of the Palestinians. They are seldom without email, computers, mobile calls. Yet, on board the ship, there is only expensive satellite phone service, if you brought your own sat phone, and satellite internet service on the ship is only for journalists to file their stories about the flotilla.

So, for the first time in many months, very active people have extra time on their hands. Time for lengthy conversations with activists from the other 50 countries, time for interviews with the considerable media and time for a well-needed nap on the floor of the deck or in one of the passenger lounges.

The Mava Marmara is a day passenger ferry with no cabins or private areas. About ninety percent of the passengers come from Muslim countries, mostly Arab-Muslim, but substantial delegations from Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country and from Malaysia. In deference to cultural norms, one lounge has been turned into a women's only lounge, where women eat, sleep and hold conversations on humanitarian programs, religion and a variety of other topics, as women are wont to do. Women have free run of the ship and participate in all the activities of the ship, but do have a "refuge" from the activity of the ship.

Meals on board an activist ship rather than a cruise liner are basic, but very good. Hot tea and Nescafe are available 24 hours a day as is powdered soups. Breakfast is tomatoes, feta cheese, bread, honey. Lunch and dinner is from cans--the choices are beef and potatoes, beans and rice stuffed peppers. Apples and oranges are available during the day. Snacks of nuts, bread and muffins. Last night, we had our first hot meal. The IHH staff cooked a meal of grilled meat kabobs, with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.

Conversations automatically turn to Gaza.

Those of us who have been in Gaza, particularly since the Israeli 22 day attack over one year and five months ago that killed 1440, wounded 5,000 and left 50,000 homeless, describe what we saw--the destroyed buildings, lives turned upside down and yet an incredible spirit of the Palestinians to survive the horrific effects of the Israeli attack and long term brutal effects of the three year siege that has made Gaza an "open-air prison."

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Life-Aboard-an-Internation-by-Ann-Wright-100530-362.html

Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza

Israeli warships have attacked at least one of the six ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists and aid for blockaded Gaza, killing at least two people and wounding 30, according to reports.

 

Link to this video

The al-Jazeera satellite channel reported by telephone from the Turkish ship leading the flotilla that Israeli navy forces fired at the ship and boarded it, wounding the captain. The Turkish NTV network also reported an Israeli takeover with gunfire, and at least two people were killed.

The al-Jazeera broadcast ended with a voice shouting in Hebrew, "Everybody shut up!"

Separate reports said that Israeli commandos descended from helicopters onto the boat.

The television network said two activists had been killed and some 50 wounded. Organisers of the aid convoy said they were no longer in contact with the boats. The Israeli military have refused to comment.

The reports came just after daybreak, with the flotilla still well away from the Gaza shore. Israel had declared it would not allow the ships to reach Gaza.

In Turkey, news of the interception prompted protestors to attempt to storm the Israeli consulate in Istanbul in retaliation.

On Sunday, Huwaida Arraf, one of the organisers, said the six-ship flotilla began the journey from international waters off the coast of Cyprus on Sunday afternoon after two days of delays. She said they expected to reach Gaza, about 250 miles away, on Monday afternoon, and that two more ships would follow in "a second wave."

The flotilla was "fully prepared for the different scenarios" that might arise, and organizers were hopeful that Israeli authorities would "do what's right" and not stop the convoy, she said.

"We fully intend to go to Gaza regardless of any intimidation or threats of violence against us," she said. "They are going to have to forcefully stop us."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/7788887/Israeli-troops-attack-ship-carrying-aid-to-Gaza.html

Protests erupt against Gaza aid raid

Shock and outrage sweep through the world over a deadly Israeli strike on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla as protests erupt across the globe in condemnation of the attack.

On Monday, both foes and allies of Tel Aviv across the world closed ranks by condemning the early Monday raid on the six-ship Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which reportedly left some 20 people killed, mostly Turk nationals, and scores wounded.

In Turkey, hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets of Istanbul and gathered in front of Israel's consulate, shouting anti-Israeli slogans.

Also in the Turkish capital, Ankara, police struggled to contain hundreds of outraged demonstrators outside the residence of the Israeli ambassador.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Jordanian capital Amman, urging the government to shut down the Israeli embassy. The furious protesters also called for an end to the years-long Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Both Jordan and Turkey summoned the Israeli ambassador over the lethal attack.

In Kuwait, the parliament has held an emergency meeting over the Israeli raid on the Gaza aid fleet, which was carrying 16 Kuwaitis including an MP, the official KUNA news agency reported.

Iraq has also slammed the attack as a "new humanitarian disaster."

Khairallah al-Basri, a member of current premier Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition, however, said the attack was not "unique" as such "shameful" Israeli crimes occurred every once in a while amidst global silence.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa had earlier slammed the raid as a "crime", saying the 22-country body was consulting to decide on its next step against Israel.

In Europe, condemnations were equally swift, as Sweden, Greece, Spain, Denmark and Norway summoned Israeli envoys.

 

http://rebelnews.org/politics/middle-east/231800-protests-erupt-against-gaza-aid-raid

Live Googlemap of flotilla to Israel

 

http://witnessgaza.com/

Israel’s Disinformation Campaign Against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Israeli disinformation cannot hide the siege of Gaza.

For over four years, Israel has subjected the civilian population of Gaza to an increasingly severe blockade, resulting in a man-made humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. Earlier this month, John Ging, the Director of Operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, called upon the international community to break the siege on the Gaza Strip by sending ships loaded with humanitarian aid. This weekend, 9 civilian boats carrying 700 human rights workers from 40 countries and 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid will attempt to do just that: break through the Israel's illegal military blockade on the Gaza Strip in non-violent direct action. In response, the Israeli government has threatened to send out 'half' of its Naval forces to violently stop our flotilla, and they have engaged in a deceitful campaign of misinformation regarding our mission.

Israel claims that there is no ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Every international aid organization working in Gaza has documented this crisis in stark detail. Just released earlier this week, Amnesty International's Annual Human Rights Report stated that Israeli's siege on Gaza has "deepened the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Mass unemployment, extreme poverty, food insecurity and food price rises caused by shortages left four out of five Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid. The scope of the blockade and statements made by Israeli officials about its purpose showed that it was being imposed as a form of collective punishment of Gazans, a flagrant violation of international law."[1]

Israel claims that its blockade is directed simply at the Hamas government in Gaza, and is limited to so-called 'security' items. Yet When U.S. Senator John Kerry visited Gaza last year, he was shocked to discover that the Israeli blockade included staple food items such as lentils, macaroni and tomato paste.[2] Furthermore, Gisha, the Israeli Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, has documented numerous official Israeli government statements that the blockade is intended to put 'pressure' on Gaza's population, and collective punishment of civilians is an illegal act under international law.[3]

Israel claims that if we wish to send aid to Gaza, all we need do is go through 'official channels,' give the aid to them and they will deliver it. This statement is both ridiculous and offensive. Their blockade, their 'official channels,' is what is directly causing the humanitarian crisis in the first place.

According to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: "Palestinians in Gaza are being actually 'starved to death,' receiving fewer calories per day than people in the poorest parts of Africa. This is an atrocity that is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. It is a crime… an abomination that this is allowed to go on. Tragically, the international community at large ignores the cries for help, while the citizens of Gaza are treated more like animals than human beings."[4]

Israel claims that we refused to deliver a letter and package from POW Gilad Shalit's father. This is a blatant lie. We were first contacted by lawyers representing Shalit's family Wednesday evening, just hours before we were set to depart from Greece. Irish Senator Mark Daly (Kerry), one of 35 parliamentarians joining our flotilla, agreed to carry any letter and to attempt to deliver it to Shalit or, if that request was denied, deliver it to officials in the Hamas government. As of this writing, the lawyers have not responded to Sen. Daly, electing instead to attempt to smear us in the Israeli press.[5] We have always called for the release of all political prisoners in this conflict, including the 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners languishing in Israeli jails, among them hundreds of child prisoners.[6]

Most despicably of all, Israel claims that we are violating international law by sailing unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid to a people desperately in need. These claims only demonstrate how degenerate the political discourse in Israel has become.

http://waronyou.com/topics/israel%E2%80%99s-disinformation-campaign-against-the-gaza-freedom-flotilla/

 

Congressmen Propose Pre-Paid Phone Registration to Prevent Terrorism

By Dan Hope

 

Pre-paid phones have a lot of advantages, especially for those who don't have enough money for a phone contract. But they also have another benefit, anonymity, that can benefit criminals and terrorists. That's why two congressmen have proposed legislation that will require pre-paid phone users to register before purchase.

Senators Chuck Schumer of New York and John Cornyn of Texas announced their proposed legislation Wednesday, mostly in response to reports that the Times Square bomber used one to prepare and coordinate his attack.

"While most Americans use pre-paid mobile devices lawfully, the anonymous nature of these devices gives too much cover to individuals looking to use them for deviant, dangerous means. It would be foolish to stand idly by while the risk remains that another terrorist or criminal could purchase a pre-paid phone leaving no paper trail," Cornyn said in a statement.

Pre-paid cell phones usually aren't registered under a particular name, so phone companies don't know who is using the phone. This provides an obvious advantage for criminals and terrorists. The new legislation would require pre-paid phone buyers to show identification and phone companies to keep a record of their information so that individual phones can be tracked to the owner.

http://www.technewsdaily.com/congressmen-propose-pre-paid-phone-registration-to-prevent-terrorism-0632/

Top 10 New Species - 2010

Each year the IISE announces a list of the Top 10 New Species for the preceding calendar year. The Top 10 New Species described in 2009 are listed below with links to additional details about each species. 

If you would like to nominate a species for the 2011 Top 10 New Species please click here.

 Attenborough's Pitcher
 Bombardier Worm

 Udderly Weird Yam  

 Bug-eating Slug
 Far-out Frogfish  

 Uber Orb-weaver
 Small Favor  

 Fanged Fish  

Short-circuited Electric Fish
 Killer Sponge

 

http://species.asu.edu/Top10

US ends ‘war on drugs’

By Cormac O'Keeffe

THE United States has "ended its war on drugs" and is now moving its focus to prevention and treatment, the US drugs chief has told top Irish drug officials.

President Barack Obama's drugs adviser Gil Kerlikowske held a series of meetings yesterday with Drugs Minister Pat Carey, Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and Department of Justice secretary general Sean Aylward.

The former police chief said the US had formally ended its much heralded – and hugely expensive – "war on drugs".

"We've talked about a 'war on drugs' for 40 years, since President Nixon. I ended the war," said Mr Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

The Obama administration is increasing its budget for demand reduction by 6.5%, bringing it to $5.6 billion (€4.5bn). But the US is still spending $15.5bn on supply reduction.

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/kfcwauqlqlid/rss2/#ixzz0pQdvH0qR

Best of Dennis Hopper

Apocalypse Now

 

True Romance

 

Blue Velvet

 

River's Edge

 

Flashback

 

Easy Rider