"Josh Voorhees" - "Never-Wrong" Pundit Predicts 2012 Win for Obama

American University professor puts 7-for-7 streak on the line in upcoming presidential election.

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By Josh Voorhees | Posted Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011

History is on President Obama’s side as the 2012 elections approach.

And by "history" we mean Allan Lichtman, an American University professor who has gone 7-for-7 at predicting presidential elections since he developed his candidate-picking system roughly two decades ago.

Lichtman says that based on the 13 criteria he has used to correctly forecast every presidential election since Ronald Reagan’s re-election victory in 1984, Team Obama can rest easy. "Even if I am being conservative, I don’t see how Obama can lose," Lichtman told US News.

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"Julian Borger and Terry Macalister" - The Race Is on for Libya's Oil, With Britain and France Both Staking a Claim

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/09/01-8

Published on Thursday, September 1, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

Rebel leaders dismiss suggestions that firm promises have been made, but supportive countries look set to benefit

by Julian Borger and Terry Macalister

The starting pistol has been fired on bids by Britain and other western powers to secure a slice of the oil prize in Libya when France said it was "fair and logical" for its companies to benefit.

A rebel fighter throws a stone into a pool of oil allegedly left by Moammar Kadhafi's troops near the town of Brega, Libya, Monday, Aug. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)

Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, planted his flag in the sand as the Guardian was told that BP was already holding private talks with members of Libya's interim government.

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" Matthew Schofield " - WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/08/31/122789/wikileaks-iraqi-children-in-us.html

Posted on Thu, Sep. 01, 2011

Matthew Schofield | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: September 01, 2011 01:19:34 PM

A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi.

The unclassified cable, which was posted on WikiLeaks' website last week, contained questions from a United Nations investigator about the incident, which had angered local Iraqi officials, who demanded some kind of action from their government. U.S. officials denied at the time that anything inappropriate had occurred.

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"Peter Bacque" - Earthquake Caused Massive Nuclear Storage Casks to Move

Published on Thursday, September 1, 2011 by the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Virginia)

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/state-news/2011/aug/31/8/earthquake-caused-massive-nuclear-storage-casks-to-ar-1277791/

by Peter Bacque

Last week's central Virginia earthquake caused 25 spent-fuel storage casks — each weighing 115 tons — to move on their concrete pad at Dominion Virginia Power's North Anna nuclear power plant.

The shifting of these massive casks holding used nuclear fuel was the first caused by an earthquake in the U.S., according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

None of the metal cylinders was damaged and no radiation was released, Dominion Virginia Power said.

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"Ellen Brown" - North Dakota's Economic “Miracle”—It's Not Oil

Published on Thursday, September 1, 2011 by YES! Magazine

http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/the-north-dakota-miracle-not-all-about-oil

North Dakota has had the nation's lowest unemployment ever since the economy tanked. What's its secret?

by Ellen Brown

In an article in The New York Times on August 19th titled “The North Dakota Miracle,” Catherine Rampell writes:

Forget the Texas Miracle. Let’s instead take a look at North Dakota, which has the lowest unemployment rate and the fastest job growth rate in the country.

According to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, North Dakota had an unemployment rate of just 3.3 percent in July—that’s just over a third of the national rate (9.1 percent), and about a quarter of the rate of the state with the highest joblessness (Nevada, at 12.9 percent).

North Dakota has had the lowest unemployment in the country (or was tied for the lowest unemployment rate in the country) every single month since July 2008.

Its healthy job market is also reflected in its payroll growth numbers. . . . [Y]ear over year, its payrolls grew by 5.2 percent. Texas came in second, with an increase of 2.6 percent.

Why is North Dakota doing so well? For one of the same reasons that Texas has been doing well: oil.

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"Ari Berman" - The GOP War on Voting

In a campaign supported by the Koch brothers, Republicans are working to prevent millions of Democrats from voting next year

by: Ari Berman

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gop-war-on-voting-20110830?print=true

As the nation gears up for the 2012 presidential election, Republican officials have launched an unprecedented, centrally coordinated campaign to suppress the elements of the Democratic vote that elected Barack Obama in 2008. Just as Dixiecrats once used poll taxes and literacy tests to bar black Southerners from voting, a new crop of GOP governors and state legislators has passed a series of seemingly disconnected measures that could prevent millions of students, minorities, immigrants, ex-convicts and the elderly from casting ballots. "What has happened this year is the most significant setback to voting rights in this country in a century," says Judith Browne-Dianis, who monitors barriers to voting as co-director of the Advancement Project, a civil rights organization based in Washington, D.C.

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"Robert Parry" - In Libya, a Bloodbath Looms

http://www.opednews.com/articles/In-Libya-a-Bloodbath-Loom-by-Robert-Parry-110831-711.html

August 31, 2011 By Robert Parry NATO's war in Libya, which began with high-minded declarations about "protecting civilians," now appears likely to end with a bloodbath that will claim the lives of many civilians, albeit pro-Gaddafi civilians, not the earlier threatened anti-Gaddafi civilians. Ali Tarhouni, a senior official of the NATO-backed Libyan rebels, summed up this Orwellian reality with a phrase reminiscent of the famous Vietnam War quote that "we had to destroy the village in order to save it." Tarhouni was quoted by the Associated Press as saying "Sometimes to avoid bloodshed you must shed blood -- and the faster we do this the less blood will be shed."

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"Progressive Radio Network Host Bhavani Jaroff, Wednesday's @ 5pm(EDT") - Recipe for the Week"

Assorted Quiches

Start with 2 homemade crusts or frozen 10” crusts-
Depending on your preference, brush the crusts with Dijon Mustard or a Balsamic Glaze

Prepare enough of any the following fillings to fill 2- 10” pie crusts.
Sauté your vegetables of choice in Olive oil with garlic, white wine, and salt. 

"S.L. Baker" - Scientists announce amazing findings: chocolate offers huge protection from heart disease and stroke

http://www.naturalnews.com/033463_chocolate_heart_disease.html

Tuesday, August 30, 2011 by: S. L. Baker

(NaturalNews) All regular readers of NaturalNews know that researchers have discovered chocolate (especially the organic, not junked up with additives and sugar type) contains phytochemicals which appear to promote good health. But no one has had much of a clue about the specifics of some of those benefits on the cardiovascular system -- until now. Scientists at the European Society of Cardiology Congress currently underway in Paris just announced that chocolate provides huge protection from heart disease as well as stroke.

That's great news because, despite the billions of dollars spent on mainstream medicine's drugs and surgical interventions, the battle against cardiovascular disease obviously needs some serious help. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that by 2030 nearly 23.6 million people will die yearly from heart disease.

So just imagine the fluttering of hearts in Big Pharma offices if they found a no side effect, easy to produce drug that actually worked to lower the risk of developing heart disease in the first place by almost 40 percent. The demand and profits to be made would be enormous. While there is no such medication, it turns out that eating chocolate regularly appears to accomplish what pills can't.

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"Ethan A. Huff" - Pro-vaccine agenda in shambles after pivotal Washington meeting

http://www.naturalnews.com/033473_vaccines_thimerosal.html

"Ethan A. Huff" - Pro-vaccine agenda in shambles after pivotal Washington meeting

Wednesday, August 31, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff

(NaturalNews) Efforts to save the sinking pro-vaccination ship are failing, especially after a recent US State Department Listening Meeting during which various non-government organizations (NGOs) presented sound scientific evidence against the continued use of mercury in vaccines. According to a recent article by consumer advocate Tim Bolen in his Bolen Report, the vaccine promotion house of cards is quickly crumbling, and it is becoming increasingly more obvious that special interests, rather than valid science, are driving the pro-vaccine agenda.

Hosted by Deputy Director John Thompson from the US Department of State's Office of Environmental Policy, the August 18, 2011 meeting included several NGOs that hold seats on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which supports countries in dealing with environmental challenges. These NGOs came fully equipped with a well-backed, thoroughly-researched arsenal of facts and information about why mercury has no place in vaccines or dental fillings, while the opposition came with a poorly-crafted, unsigned paper filled with misinformation in defense of maintaining the status quo.

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