"Ralph Nader" - Obama's Laborious Labor Day

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/03

Published on Saturday, September 3, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

by Ralph Nader

Dear President Obama:

Happy Labor Day! This is your third opportunity as President to go beyond your past tepid Labor Day proclamations.

You could convey to 150 million workers that you’re going to start doing something about your 2008 campaign promises to labor. Recall that you clearly promised to press for a $9.50 federal minimum wage by 2011. Arguing that having millions of Walmart type workers make the leap from the present $7.25 per hour will pump nearly $200 billion in consumer demand for our recessionary economy.

You can add that a $9.50 minimum is still less than what workers made under the minimum wage in 1968, adjusted for inflation, when worker productivity was half of what it is today. Besides, businesses like Walmart have received windfalls year after year due to the minimum wage lagging behind inflation for decades.

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"Rueters" - Documents Show Links Between CIA, Libya Spy Unit

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/03-1

Published on Saturday, September 3, 2011 by Reuters

WASHINGTON - Documents found in Tripoli detail close ties between the CIA and Libya's intelligence service and suggest the United States sent terrorism suspects for questioning in Libya despite that country's reputation for torture, the New York Times reported on Saturday.

Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan Foreign Minister. Koussa defected from now-fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi's government and flew to Britain on March 30 amid this year's rebel uprising.(EPA)

 The Times reported that the files cover the time from 2002 to 2007, when Moussa Koussa headed Libya's External Security Organization. Koussa most recently had been Libya's foreign minister but defected from now-fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi's government and flew to Britain on March 30 amid this year's rebel uprising.

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"Darren Goode" - Obama's Ozone Decision: The Final Green Straw?

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/03-3

Published on Saturday, September 3, 2011 by Politico.com

by Darren Goode

For green groups, President Barack Obama’s retreat on ozone standards is another reason to question how aggressively they want to support his reelection in 2012.

Green groups are outraged by the Obama administration's decision to withdraw strict air quality rules, and many of them now question how they can possibly support a president who bends so easily when the GOP opposition and the polluters lean environmental regulations. (Reuters) Even more bruising: The realization that they may not have much choice.

“We have no place else left to go but home,” said one official at a major environmental group, speaking on background Friday. “So the enviros come out looking weak once again because of today and we’re all screaming bloody murder.

“But you know what,” the official said. “At the end of the day, I don’t think the White House is unhappy to hear us complain.”

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"Progressive Radio Network Host Danny Schechter, Friday's @ 1pm(EDT)' - HARK: The Angel Soon will Sing: Obama Readies Jobs Plan While The Right Plans to Scuttle It in a Country Facing Economic Apocalypse

By Danny Schechter

Author of The Crime Of Our Time (Disinfo)

New York, Labor Day Weekend 2011: The magic wand is being readied in the White House as the President and his minions finally unwrap the mother of all jobs plans that will be revealed to the rest of us in a speech next Thursday before the cameras and Congress with the gravitas-packed aura of a State of the Union Address.

Attention, collapsing Economy: you finally have the big man’s attention. Nearly 70 organizations are pressing the President to take strong action.

Please give him a break. He’s been busy tending Empire business -- waging GWOT warfare on IraqAfghanistanLibyaYemenPakistanSomalia et.al …

Call it the greatest “long war” in American history: an unending and unbelievably expensive intervention justified as necessary to keep us safe.

We can assume that contingency plans for new wars with Syria, Iran and the Republic of Wikileaks are being drafted as we speak.

The challenge this week is to bring together all of the Administration’s sophisticated strategic planning, disciplined focus and ‘get it done’ fervor finally to straighten out this out of control economic mess.

There are jobs to produce and one big job to save.

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"Haaretz" -Gaza Flotilla Report: IDF Used Excessive Force, Were 'Abusive', but Gaza Blockade Legal

The UN report into the May 2010 lethal flotilla incident, to be published Friday, was obtained by the New York Times; among other findings it determines Gaza blockade legal.

The United Nations Palmer Report on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla Incident, to be published Friday, found that the Israeli commandos who boarded the Mavi Marmara were met with "organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers," and so were forced to use self defense." Nine Turkish activists died aboard the ship.

 

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"Ian Swanson"-Economy Adds Zero Jobs in August as Recession Fears Grow

The U.S. economy added a net total of zero jobs for the month of August, prompting new fears about a double-dip recession.

Job seekers collect employment information at an outdoor job fair at the Crenshaw Christian Center in South Los Angeles, August 2011. The U.S. economy added a net total of zero jobs for the month of August, prompting new fears about a double-dip recession. (photo: AFP) Private-sector firms added 17,000 jobs, while state and local governments continued to shed workers. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent.

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"Justin Sullivan"-Report: US to Sue Banks Over Mortgages

The United States plans to file lawsuits against more than a dozen big banks over mortgage-backed securities seen to have fueled the 2008 economic crisis, the New York Times said.

A Goldman Sachs sign is seen above their booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Goldman Sachs was one of the banks the U.S. government is preparing to sue, according to a New York Times report. (photo: Brendan McDermid, REUTERS) The lawsuits are set to be filed Friday or early next week against Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and others, the newspaper reported, citing three unnamed individuals briefed on the matter.

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"John Phillip"- Turmeric and cinnamon combine to lower insulin and triglycerides triggered by high fat meals

(NaturalNews) Many spices such as turmeric and cinnamon are powerful antioxidants that continue to gain acceptance as natural nutrients able to assist human health and prevent chronic disease. Researchers from Penn State publishing in The Journal of Nutrition provide strong evidence that these potent spices provide a protective shield to reduce the body`s negative responses to eating high-fat meals. A diet filled with high-fat foods that have been fried or baked with trans fats increases oxidized LDL cholesterol levels and dangerous blood fats known as triglycerides. Turmeric and cinnamon taken before a high fat meal combine to lower the triglyceride response by as much as 30%, preventing a cascade of harmful metabolic events that lead to heart disease and diabetes.

Culinary spices have peaked interest among nutritional scientists in recent years as both turmeric and cinnamon exhibit powerful antioxidant properties that may halt dangerous metabolic imbalances prompted by poor dietary choices. To conduct the study, researchers added 14 grams of a combined turmeric-cinnamon spice blend to a 1200 calorie high-fat meal, and compared the results to a control group not receiving the spice mixture.

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"Paul Fassa"-Discover a natural potent anti-microbial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal

(NaturalNews) Pharmaceutical antibiotics do not work on viral infections. They can only be used for bacterial infections. But they also destroy the good bacteria, which creates all sorts of health problems down the road. And the more antibiotics are used, the more pathogenic bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. There is a natural solution to this quandary. It is an oil based common household spice - Oil of Oregano.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Pharmaceutical Antibiotics

When penicillin was first created, the world marveled at its ability to cure infectious diseases. The consequences of antibiotics destroying ALL bacteria was overlooked or ignored. The virtues and benefits of intestinal flora or good bacteria were probably unknown.

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"Ian Johnston" Second Giant Ice Island Set to Break off Greenland Glacier

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44353322/ns/us_news-environment/

Astonished scientist says he was 'completely unprepared for the gob-smacking scale of the breakup, which rendered me speechless'

By Ian Johnston

msnbc.com/updated 9/1/2011

New photographs taken of a vast glacier in northern Greenland have revealed the astonishing rate of its breakup, with one scientist saying he was rendered "speechless."

In August 2010,   part of the Petermann Glacier about four times the size of Manhattan island broke off , prompting a hearing in Congress.

Researcher Alun Hubbard, of the Centre for Glaciology at Aberystwyth University, U.K., told msnbc.com by phone that another section, about twice the size of Manhattan, appeared close to breaking off.

In 2009, scientists installed GPS masts on the glacier to track its movement.

Alun Hubbard  /  Aberystwyth University, Wales, U

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