How Big is your "trash" footprint on the Earth Today?

If this were you just hanging out, how much trash would you have generated today?

Linnea's work is mind blowing in detail.

clipped from www.flickr.com Generation trash Linnea Strid's photostream

Muslims Watch Our Feet, Not Our Lips

Muslims are no different than any of us - they have been lied to enough to kknow that it is people's actions that count; not what they say.

The General hits ot right when he says that each time we diverge from our central American values - we get in trouble with everyone, not just muslims.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Message to Muslim World Gets a Critique WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written a searing critique of government efforts at “strategic communication” with the Muslim world, saying that no amount of public relations will establish credibility if American behavior overseas is perceived as arrogant, uncaring or insulting. “To put it simply, we need to worry a lot less about how to communicate our actions and much more about what our actions communicate,” Admiral Mullen wrote in the critique, an essay to be published Friday by Joint Force Quarterly, an official military journal. “I would argue that most strategic communication problems are not communication problems at all,” he wrote. “They are policy and execution problems. Each time we fail to live up to our values or don’t follow up on a promise, we look more and more like the arrogant Americans the enemy claims we are.”

Teddy and Obama - Yes We Can!

Hold the vision, pass the torch, focus on what we can do together by working together.

clipped from www.flickr.com President Barack Obama talks alone with Sen. Edward Kennedy in the Green Room of the White House March 5, 2009. (Offical White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Doubt We Are Changing Climate? Check This Out

Just look at the photo and the outline superimposed that shows the old shoreline of the Aral Sea. Remember that weather flows around the globe like a river or series of rivers. Now think about all the local eco-disasters humans have created and start adding them together - duh!

clipped from blogs.nature.com Aral Sea shrinking continues - August 27, 2009 A newly released satellite image from NASA shows that nearly nothing remains of one part of the once proud Aral Sea. Irrigation projects started by the Soviet Union in the 1960s led to the sea shrinking hugely, eventually splitting into northern and southern halves. The latter later split again into an eastern and a western body of water.

I Love LA But a Dodger Blue Casket?

For those of you that always thought LA was weird - here's further proof - grin. I grew up there but always thought the death industry was a bit strange. Someone is even auctioning a spot near Marilyn Monroe and will move her dead husband to another spot - she needs th emoney to forestall foreclosure on her home.

clipped from www.sgvtribune.com Rose Hills offers baseball caskets WHITTIER - This is for Dodgers fans who pledge lifelong loyalty to the ballclub and wish they could offer a little more. Finally - pardon the expression - a chance to demonstrate your devotion to the Dodgers for all eternity.

Rats Small Out TB Better, Faster Than Human Labs

Boy that smells bad! Your nose, a dog's nose and now a rat's nose can smell out disease maybe faster and better than mechanical or lab tests.

clipped from www.herorat.org Fighting Tuberculosis 2,529,000 new case of Tuberculosis were reported in Africa in 2005. This accounted for 29% of new TB cases reported globally. The concept is very simple: rats sniff a series of holes, under which human sputum samples are lined up for evaluation. They pinpoint the samples which contain TB bacteria. Their correct indications are rewarded with a food treat. Currently HeroRATS serve a population of 500,000 people in deprived communities in Dar Es Salaam and Morogoro, and weekly find 5 to 10 patients that have been missed by mircoscopes.

Support Positive Action on Climate Change

It is too late for some changes but not for those that may help humans to survive to 2110. The time is now, you are one of the people who can make a difference - let's work together now.

clipped from www.sealthedeal2009.org Global Climate Week 21 – 25 September 2009 Global Climate Week is planned to coincide with the United Nations Secretary-General's High Level Summit on Climate Change on 22 September 2009. Organize public events or online activities to encourage as many people as possible in every corner of the world to sign the Climate Petition. We need millions to show their support in favour of a definitive agreement on climate change by signing the Climate Petition, which calls on leaders to sign a definitive and equitable agreement on climate change this December. Day 2 - Sunday, 20th Climate Petition Day

Viva Baja California y Musica Mexicana!

What can I say - grin. I've always loved this music as well as blues and rock and roll. You don't need a cerveza cornoa to listen, just an ear for music that lights up you vida!

clipped from myradio.batanga.com Simpre Baja California About the Station: I half grew up in Ensenada, Baja California and Mexicana in Hussong's Cantina was the music that was ever present along with my 1950's rock and roll. Mexicana

Slavery Today Ugly - Look at it!

Another take on the varieties of modern slavery being practiced all over the world.

clipped from forpeace.net Slavery Now More Than Ever By Mark Svensson, with Tarik Abdelqader The term "modern-day slavery" refers to the status or condition of a person who is under the control of another person, where that control is enforced by violence or psychological coercion. Here in the 21st century, the main forms of modern-day slavery are chattel slavery, debt bondage, and child labor. Human trafficking, another major dilemma, serves as a pipeline for many forms of slavery today. And while some of these forms of modern slavery occur in other parts of the world, our own country is deeply implicated in this abhorrent practice. Debt bondage, or bonded labor, is the most widely practiced form of modern slavery around the world. In Southeast Asia, where it is most prevalent, Anti-Slavery International estimates that debt bondage claims an estimated 15 to 20 million victims.

Stealing & Selling Kids - Here!

Child trafficking is a problem in Eastern Europe, in South Asia and USA. It's not just for sex that children are trafficked but that's the big ticket item here in USA. Disgusting - yep. Who's buying and who gets jailed when police departments stop denying there is a problem in their community. In Cincinnati, they think it's not a problem but it's not just weed and coke that travels I-74, I-75 and I-74 interstates!

clipped from globalvoicesonline.org Human trafficking in the United States is an often undetected problem because the victims are usually hidden from the public view. The victims are enslaved into illegal jobs often in the sweatshop labor or clandestine sex services. Frequently the victims are minors brought into the United States by organized crime cartels. clipped from globalvoicesonline.org USA: Activism to Stop Human Trafficking clipped from globalvoicesonline.org Across America, about 800,000 children are reported missing each year, 33% of which are African-American. In New York City last year, half of reported missing children were black and 60% were female. And these aren't 17-and-a-half-year-olds; most of the girls were between 13 and 15. Other urban areas like Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles with large African-American populations also have high instances of young black girls being kidnapped or “running away”. But what's happening to these girls? Surely they don't vanish into thin air?

Water - Use It Wisely - Painting

Linnea Strid has a number of paintings that feature water. Try not to waste is great.

clipped from www.flickr.com Try not to waste Oil on plywood, 30 x 28,5 cm. linneastrid@yahoo.se

E-verify, LA, and Nativism

Anna Gorman is a good reporter and will probably add to this at a later date. The e-verify proponent boasts of 11,000 California employers using e-verify as if the number is very significant. The SBA (Small Business Administration) reported in 2006 that there were 718,000 small businesses (under 500 employees) in California - accounting for 93% + of the California workforce.

So, is the number of users in a year very impressive - not so much.

What employers are most likely to employ people who may or may not be in the country legally - small businesses. How many mistakes will they make just in entering the name to be checked.

Will it be fair or even make sense for employers to forget the e-verify and just not consider anyone with a name that sounds "foreign" for employment. In a nation of immigrants, how easy will that be?

It's more likely that the easiest target of the day - Hispanics - will be shunned, profiled, discriminated against - don't you think?

If this was 1840

clipped from www.latimes.com L.A. County may require contractors to use E-Verify By Anna Gorman and Molly Hennessy-Fiske E-Verify is a free, online program that uses federal databases to verify that new hires are in the country legally and eligible to work. The Obama administration has promoted the program and is encouraging businesses to enroll. Beginning Sept. 8, the federal government will award contracts only to companies that enroll in E-Verify. There are more than 11,000 companies -- including restaurants, hospitals and temporary employment agencies -- enrolled in California, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. "It is really growing," said Mariana Gitomer, a Los Angeles-based spokeswoman for the immigration agency. "The government is pushing it to employers. . . . The more employers use it, the more comfortable they are."

Dream Act - Support it - Support America!

It's really a no-brainer. Young people brought here as minor children by immigrants want to go to college and be the good Americans they grew up being. Or they are the same kids and are willing to join the military to serve and to gain citizenship.

clipped from www.dreamactivist.org Announcement: Back to School DREAM Act Day of Action – September 23rd Please join the United We Dream Network in standing up for the DREAM Act four weeks for now. Since our graduation, we have stood up and slowed down deportations. On September 23rd, thousands of students all over the country will rise together and declare that it is Back to School DREAM ACT Day of Action.

Shoddy/Profiteering - Former Bush Cronies Cash In

Shoddy was a term that entered the language to describe uniforms sold to Union troops during the civil war. The uniforms literally disolved when they got wet. Profiteering is a better understood term that came out of the same era. Now it is part of the revolving door syndrome in Washington DC. Retire or resign from your politically appointed job or high military post and go to work for a government contractor to be sure you get contracts for work you may or may not do or do well but get because of old "relationships"

Stinks doesn't it - no matter what party does it. It has been reason so many companies now have offices and divisions near Washington. Make me mad as hell.

clipped from borderlinesblog.blogspot.com Bigger and Badder Than Blackwater Blackwater USA, the world’s largest private security firm (recently renamed Xe), is the subject of much public concern about the outsourcing of security to private companies because of the murders of 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians by its mercenaries. One of the companies that has benefited from this privatization of intelligence is CACI International, a major defense contractor, which is also a major homeland security and intelligence contractor. CACI recently was in the business press because of its latest revolving door success. It has brought former U.S. Navy Secretary and former DOD deputy defense secretary in the Bush administration into the folds of its board of directors. (See: Pentagon Official Returns)

Imagine No Mountain Tops in W. Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee?

I can't imagine but you have to see photographs of mountains that have already been scalped. Think of Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Now plug it like you would an oilwell. How many people would go to see Old Faithful after it had been capped to provide steam for electrical power? Can you imagine it being worthwhile?

Think about the mountains with no tops. Write a letter!

clipped from blogs.wvgazette.com Mountaintop removal protesters take to the trees Opponents of mountaintop removal coal mining today took to the trees near a Massey Energy operation in Raleigh County, W.Va., in their continuing protest campaign to halt the controversial mining practice.

Women need/want healthcare, not warfare!

Get the facts here.

clipped from nwlc.org Women Can't Wait for Health Reform Women are major stakeholders in health reform. We play a significant role in the care that our children, partners, or parents receive, not to mention our own health. Know the facts about how health reform will benefit women and their families in this crucial fight for affordable, accessible, and comprehensive health care. State-by-State Fact Sheets: Why Women Need Health Care Reform Share specific state information on what is at stake in health care reform for women and their families with your Members of Congress, media, and community with our state-by-state fact sheets.

CIA and Air Force: We Don't Need Troops on Ground!

Not enough troops on ground? That's because the CIA is spending all that money on Xe and Predator drones instead of Feet on the Street!.

There are more military contractors than troops in Afghanistan!? Nuts!

clipped from www.commondreams.org US Military Says Its Force in Afghanistan Is Insufficient BAGRAM, Afghanistan - American military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told President Obama's chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders. American soldiers fired mortar rounds on Saturday at Taliban forces from their position over a village in Nuristan Province. (Oleg Popov/Reuters) The commanders emphasized problems in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents continue to bombard towns and villages with rockets despite a new influx of American troops, and in eastern Afghanistan, where the father-and-son-led Haqqani network of militants has become the main source of attacks against American troops and their Afghan allies.

Health Care Reform Fortune Teller

What's your health care future?

Could Taliban 4 Hire Be Defeated by Jobs Instead of Predator Rockets?

Chances are that sending a couple of dozen day-labor brokers from any city in the US to Afghanistan and the SWAT area of Pakistan, with suicases of money and guards would bring the "insurgency" to a halt in about a month!

So, why won't it happen? You have to hire General Dynamics, Lockheed and Boeing as the labor contractors and then it would happen.

Follow the money, follow the money, follow the money!

clipped from www.boston.com The UN says 35 percent of Afghans are malnourished. You can’t have business development if you don’t have stability. And you can’t have stability when you have nearly half the work force unemployed. Add to this the Taliban’s willingness to pay $8 a day to those who will pick up a gun, and the renewed insurgency becomes less of a mystery. The truth behind Afghan insurgency ON A RECENT TRIP to Kabul for our nonprofit organization, Jobs for Afghans, Najim Dost and I made a startling discovery: There is no true Taliban insurgency

Follow the Money - Who Profits from War?

You'd think with all the information flowing around the world, that some of the killing would go down. I can't help but wonder if making money off selling arms and ammunition to nearly all comers helps fuel the countless deaths?

clipped from thewip.net The Human Cost of Unregulated Arms Trade • Binalakshmi speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, July 2009. Photograph courtesy of Benoit Muracciole. • In July I spoke before the United Nations General Assembly in honor of the tens of thousands of people who have lost their lives to gun violence in my part of the world. The very fact that I spoke before such an influential decision-making body is testimony to how I, and millions of others worldwide, have survived violence caused by unregulated arms trade and have chosen a life dedicated to the cause of peace. Recent research has identified 1,135 companies manufacturing arms and ammunition in at least 98 countries

David Byrne: Playing The Building

Too radical and interesting to describe - watch it!

A Courageous Blogger in Afghanistan

Want peace, freedom, democracy? Teach people how to blog, is this brave man's answer - I agree!

clipped from www.registan.net Nasim Fekrat Continues the Hope Train Fekrat is currently in Helmand Province, where, using only two computers, he taught a huge room full of people how to start blogging about their world. It’s amazing: people there are disappointed that Helmand is known only for drugs and violence and want to discuss its culture, literature, and agriculture; others want to get a local perspective on the security challenges there.