[poochee]

Slate 60: Donor Bios
The largest American charitable contributions of the year.
Compiled by the Chronicle of Philanthropy
Posted Friday, Feb. 5, 2010, at 4:49 PM ET

http://www.slate.com/id/2243496/pagenum/all/

[ekim68]

Whatever Happened to the Neocons’ Grand Schemes to Control Iraq’s Oil?

Dick Cheney thought the US occupation would see a quadrupling of Iraq's capacity to pump oil, and a privatization of its production. Not quite.

More

[poochee]

Originally Posted by ekim68

Whatever Happened to the Neocons’ Grand Schemes to Control Iraq’s Oil?

Dick Cheney thought the US occupation would see a quadrupling of Iraq's capacity to pump oil, and a privatization of its production. Not quite.

More

Promises, promises!

[bill.aam]

Charlie Wilson dies at age 76

Shame you dont see those sorta Democrats anymore..

RIP Charlie Wilson...

I wonder if Bush or Obama had sought advice or anything of that sort from him about the current situation in Afghanistan.

If you've never read the book "Charlie Wilson’s War", I would recommand it, it's a great read, real page turner...

[LANMaster]

Originally Posted by ekim68

Whatever Happened to the Neocons’ Grand Schemes to Control Iraq’s Oil?

Dick Cheney thought the US occupation would see a quadrupling of Iraq's capacity to pump oil, and a privatization of its production. Not quite.

More

...... So what your really FINALLY admitting to is the fact that the Iraq war was not about oil.

[ekim68]

Slowly but surely facts will come through...

British ruling releases memo on 'inhuman' treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoner

Reporting from London - After a lengthy legal battle, the British government was forced Wednesday to release in full a document describing what a judge called the "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" meted out to a former Guantanamo Bay inmate while he was in U.S. custody.

An appeals court rejected the government's argument that disclosing the information would harm intelligence ties between London and Washington and jeopardize national security. International news organizations, including the Los Angeles Times, had sued to have the material released on public-interest grounds.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-a...,2725034.story

[poochee]

Originally Posted by ekim68

Slowly but surely facts will come through...

British ruling releases memo on 'inhuman' treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoner

Reporting from London - After a lengthy legal battle, the British government was forced Wednesday to release in full a document describing what a judge called the "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" meted out to a former Guantanamo Bay inmate while he was in U.S. custody.

An appeals court rejected the government's argument that disclosing the information would harm intelligence ties between London and Washington and jeopardize national security. International news organizations, including the Los Angeles Times, had sued to have the material released on public-interest grounds.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-a...,2725034.story

Yep!

[ekim68]

Charter schools' growth promoting segregation, studies say

The growth of charter schools has promoted segregation both in California and nationwide, increasing the odds that black, Latino and white students will attend class with fewer children who look different from themselves, according to two new studies.

In case you want to read more

[xico]

Indian Court Gives Boost to Access to Medicines as Latest Appeal by Bayer is Rejected
Doctors Without Borders/

MSF, February 9, 2010
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/02/09-11

New Dehli/Geneva - In a welcome move for access to medicines, the Delhi High Court has rejected the appeal filed by the German pharmaceutical company Bayer Corporation against an earlier court order which had rejected the implementation of a drug regulatory system which essentially linked registration of medicines to their patent status.

In August 2009, the Delhi High Court had rejected the petition filed by Bayer Corporation, seeking to stop the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) from granting marketing approval to a generic version of a cancer drug patented by Bayer.

"We are delighted with this decision - at the moment in India we are seeing a number of multinational pharmaceutical companies trying to use litigation to stifle generic competition," said Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer of Médecins Sans Frontières' Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. "By rejecting Bayer's attempts to introduce patent linkage, the Indian courts have ensured that public health safeguards like compulsory licensing can be used to open up generic production of life-saving medicines including antiretrovirals for millions in India and beyond. We hope this judicial precedent of safeguarding public health in patent disputes will continue, as matters such as these, and the forthcoming Novartis case go up to the Supreme Court."
[...]


Cool! A win of us, the people . . . hopeflly.

[ekim68]

Bayer is German? I thought it was Swiss...

[Littlefield]

Adding a $1 per pack tax to cigarettes could raise more than $9 billion a year for states, health advocates said on Wednesday, and a poll released with the study shows Americans would support such a tax.



http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST...rpc=22&sp=true
Why not easy money.

[ekim68]

Stands to reason, eh? People will pay for their addiction...

[xico]

Originally Posted by LANMaster

...... So what your really FINALLY admitting to is the fact that the Iraq war was not about oil.

No, it means they didn't get what they wanted.

[xico]

Cuba travel bill buried in political agenda
Esteban Israel, Reuters, Tuesday, February 9, 2010


Washington - A bipartisan drive in Congress to end a Cold War-era travel ban on Cuba was buried during the healthcare reform debate but its supporters hope to dig it out this year.

Sponsors of two bills allowing Americans to travel freely to Cuba, introduced last year in the Senate and the House of Representatives, say a flood of dollars from the pro-embargo Cuban-American lobby might also have played a part.

More.

Divisions among Democrats emerged in November when 53 representatives signed a letter against any changes in the U.S. Cuba policy based on human rights concerns.

Public Campaign said 51 of the 53 had received a total of more than $850,000 in contributions from the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Public Action Committee and other pro-embargo donors.

It's pretty clear that money or Money is defeating democracy. Why this isn't called treason is a travesty. I wanna go to Cuba. I wanna eat good Cuban food in Havana!

[xico]

Originally Posted by Littlefield

Adding a $1 per pack tax to cigarettes could raise more than $9 billion a year for states, health advocates said on Wednesday, and a poll released with the study shows Americans would support such a tax.



http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST...rpc=22&sp=true
Why not easy money.

We should legalize all drugs and tax them. Even crack. A friend of my son's, and an employee for a while was a crack addict--and so was his girl friend. She came to the house a year ago. She's about 40, maybe 45. She has her own tree trimming business. I didn't recognize her. She looked like my 80 some year old great grandmother. Wow! Between nicotine and crack she had doubled her age--at least face wise. Her boyfriend was so heavy into crack that he stole 200 bucks from his daughter, and then blamed it on her, saying, "It was her fault. She's know what I'm like." At that all his old time friends deserted him. He was in a clinic and then out, then back in. Finally, he got religion, and that last I heard has his own tree trimming business and is clean. He's also a song writer and a good muscian and entertainer, and really should have made it big. Should crack be legalized? Sure. I've never seen anyone do crack, but another acquaintance of ours did crack in front of a mirror and was so horrified by the way he looked that he stopped. LOL People should be able to take responsibility for their lives. We wanna be a junkie? Go ahead. I got better things to do with my life. Legalize and tax it. That way, addicts would actually benefit society. And kids? I'd rather have them smoking a joint than sniffing glue, but sure, an age limit ought to be there.