after a one year hiatus, I am resuming my weekly news gathering:

US IS PREPARING FOR AN ASSAULT ON IRAN'S CONTROVERSIAL NUCLEAR FACILITIES 

Great interview - especially his chat about food at the end!

CLICK HERE

Second NOLA Officer Pleads Guilty in Bridge Shooting Cover-up

because for some reason Ms. Birt needs to create an account on RealNEO coming all the way from MESA Arizona???? ok - whatever - here it is princess - the real deal on libel, defamation and slander (and remember, honey, each element has to be proven - you can't just get 2 out of 4, or even 3 out of 4 - you have to get all 4....):

Typically, the elements of a cause of action for defamation include:

Legal Scholar Michelle Alexander on “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”

From the HUffington Post (you can't make this up...):

Glenn Beck said last week on his eponymous show that Christians should leave churches that preach "social justice." Mr. Beck equated the desire for a just society with--wait for it--Nazism and Communism.

shame

   [sheym] noun, verb,shamed,sham·ing.

 If you are anywhere near a TV right now - US men's hockey team just tied Canada in the game for the gold medal - WITH 24 SECONDS left in the 3rd period. They came back from 2-0 Canada in the 2nd period. 

they kept the puck and just kept shooting the net - a beautiful feat, regardless of the outcome of overtime!

a great example of tenacity!

This is what 2 day old chicks look like when they are warm and sleeping - completely oblivious to the blizzard outside!

 The Case for 'Gray Power'

by LISA MARGONELLI

This article appeared in the February 15, 2010 edition of The Nation.

January 28, 2010

JANNA BROWER

The Midwest and South have become the Colossus of Carbon: coal-dependent, with resistance to climate change legislation from the left and the right. Progressives from the region are caught in a dilemma: despite wanting to fight global warming and usher in a green economy, they know that these initiatives act against their region's economic interests. Placing a price on carbon in a state like Ohio, which gets 86 percent of its electricity from coal, hurts its citizens more than those of, say, California, which gets only 1 percent of its electricity from coal.

 

Then too, the region wonders how "green," as it's currently defined, will mix with its notorious rust. Every dollar of GDP created in Ohio requires the emission of 37 percent more greenhouse gases than the US average, which will make it hard to compete in a green system. Wind and solar, which make sense in the West and on the coasts, are a tough sell in the Midwest, with its relatively placid, gray skies. Even green jobs, which have made a splash elsewhere, cannot keep up with the state's hemorrhaging employment rates. When the Obama administration doled out tax credits for jobs in "advanced energy manufacturing" in early January, Ohio got seven projects--more than most other states. But these are minuscule compared with the nearly 1,200 work sites and almost 107,000 manufacturing jobs the state has lost in the past two years....

...Getting gray power out of smokestacks and onto the grid could make Ohio--and the other high-carbon states--much better places to live and work. Ohio is not alone in its wealth of opportunities. But in order to unlock the reserves of waste energy in the other eighteen states of the Midwest and South, we'll have to overcome some significant competitive, regulatory and financial barriers.

The Cleveland Model

Something important is happening in Cleveland: a new model of large-scale worker- and community-benefiting enterprises is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy. The Evergreen Cooperative Laundry (ECL)--a worker-owned, industrial-size, thoroughly "green" operation--opened its doors late last fall in Glenville, a neighborhood with a median income hovering around $18,000.

For all you folks out there shouting down the "negativity" and criticism of Cleveland Public Schools - ESPECIALLy those of you with out children of your own (Laura McShane and Jean Brandt I do mean yOU), here's one to practise on... Just look into his eyes and tell him to go deal with a little Lord of the Flies classroom - you just say - "stop whining and just take one for the team!" 

 Here are real people with rEAL experience and knowledge discussing the RealNEO hot topic, a national concern:

Roundtable: Do Charter Schools Worsen Inequality of Two-Tiered Education System, or Help Address It?

We host a roundtable discussion on charter schools and the controversial closing of ninetten New York City public schools with New York State Senator Bill Perkins, one of the most vocal state lawmakers against lifting the cap on charter schools in New York; Seth Andrew, superintendent and founder of the Democracy Prep charter school in Harlem; Daniel Clark, Sr., the field director of advocacy group Parent Power Now!; and Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters. 

while we get buried in snow! Our first chick hatched this morning -

I think we need freshness where we can find it!

Call for Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Court Decision WASHINGTON, DC – A coalition of public interest organizations strongly condemned today's ruling by the US Supreme Court allowing unlimited corporate money in US elections and announced that it is launching a campaign to amend the United States Constitution to overturn the ruling.  The groups, Voter Action, Public Citizen, the Center for Corporate Policy, and the American Independent Business Alliance, say the Court's ruling in Citizens United v.

I watched ABC news last night and noticed we managed to get one of our sound blasting crowd control tanks on the ground in Haiti... but triage? food? water?

That's a different story. Amy Goodman on the ground in Haiti: “Haiti is devastated as if a bomb, many bombs, exploded throughout Port-au-Prince and beyond, where help has not arrived at all,”

and -

Its such an important time to learn about the history of Haiti and why its critical to its current situation. A few good sources:

US Policy in Haiti Over Decades “Lays the Foundation for Why Impact of Natural Disaster Is So Severe”

Dan Moulthrop is doing a nice job asking how it is that our lovely mayor found it prudent and responsible to recruit and train a new safety force last May, campaign for re-election with a "balanced budget" as his only clarion call all summer and fall, hire new safety forces a few days before the election and now - a short two months later announce massive layoffs and budget deficits.

disingenous or genius?

Reporter's Rountable here....

 AS reported in the peedee (thank you once again for great reporting Mr. Gomez, this is not meant as any kind of slight to you - you know I think you are fab):

Bill Mason and Gerald McFaul got their tighty whiteys in a bunch when they realized home addresses for themselves and deputies, prosecutors and other legal beagles who gave them campaign money were posted on the new Board of Elections website.

 these are our "leaders":

 Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason was passenger of accused drunken driver

“Blackwatergate”–Private Military Firm in Firestorm of Controversy over Involvements in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany

FitzGerald: Fighting corruption is "a passion"

 

Move Your Money: Project Urges People to Transfer Money Out of Nation’s Largest Banks Into Local Community Banks

America's Secret ICE Castles

Jacqueline Stevens

 "If you don't have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he's illegal, we can make him disappear." Those chilling words were spoken by James Pendergraph, then executive director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of State and Local Coordination, at a conference of police and sheriffs in August 2008.