OpEdNews - Diary: Antarctic Ozone Layer 90 to 99 Percent GONE

"A recent study found "massive" and "widespread" localized ozone depletion in the heart of Antarctica's ozone hole region, ...

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DIANE'S NEWS CLIPS begins here :)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> IF LINK DOESN'T WORK, THEN PASTE ARTICLE LINK(S) INTO YOUR BROWSER -- OR GO DIRECTLY TO >> http://www.truthout.org Antarctic Ozone Layer 90 to 99 Percent GONE http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122606EB.shtml A recent study found "massive" and "widespread" localized ozone depletion in the heart of Antarctica's ozone hole region, beginning in the late 1970s, but becoming more pronounced in the 1980s and 1990s. --- Jeff Cohen | Inside TV News: We Were Silenced by the Drums of War http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606M.shtml Jeff Cohen writes: "For 19 weeks, I had appeared in on-air debates almost every afternoon - the last weeks heavily focused on Iraq. I adamantly opposed an invasion.... In October 2002, my debate segments were terminated. There was no room for me after MSNBC launched Countdown: Iraq - a daily show that seemed more keen on glamorizing a potential war than scrutinizing or debating it. The show featured retired colonels and generals resembling boys with war toys as they used props, maps and glitzy graphics to spin invasion scenarios." --- British Soldiers Storm Iraqi Jail, Citing Torture http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606K.shtml Hundreds of British and Iraqi soldiers assaulted a police station in the southern city of Basra on Monday, killing seven gunmen and rescuing 127 prisoners from what the British said was almost certain execution. Infiltration of the Iraqi police by militia members and criminals has been rampant. The jail, run by police that US and British forces have been training in Iraq, highlights the lack of progress in training Iraqi security forces. --- Military Considers Recruiting Foreigners http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606A.shtml The armed forces, already struggling to meet recruiting goals, are considering expanding the number of noncitizens in the ranks - including disputed proposals to open recruiting stations overseas and to put more immigrants on a faster track to US citizenship if they volunteer - according to Pentagon officials. --- US Deaths in Iraq Exceed 9/11 Count http://snipurl.com/15t0n --- Biden Vows to Fight Any Iraq Troop Boost http://snipurl.com/15uh5 --- Bob Herbert | The Ninth Ward Revisited http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606S.shtml Bob Herbert writes: "Spike Lee, who has made a stunning six-hour documentary about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina, was telling me the other day about his first visit to the city's Lower Ninth Ward, which was annihilated by the flood that followed the storm. After more than a year his voice was still filled with a sense of horrified wonder. 'To see it with your own eyes,' he said, 'and you're doing a 360-degree turn, and you see nothing but devastation.... I wasn't born until 1957 but I automatically thought about Hiroshima or Nagasaki or Berlin after the war.'" --- FDA Lab Closure Plan Endangers Public, Watchdogs Say http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/122606HB.shtml The Food and Drug Administration is aiming to cut back its research infrastructure at a time when critics say monitoring and regulation are more crucial than ever. --- Thomas D. Williams | Generals Promote Christianity Inside the Pentagon http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606L.shtml Thomas D. Williams writes, "Where does freedom to practice religion inside Pentagon offices with high-ranking Defense Department officers, congressmen and other ranking federal officials stop?" --- Pay Failing to Keep Pace With Corporate Profit ... http://snipurl.com/15ui0 --- Troop "Surge" Plan for Iraq Meets Growing Opposition in US http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606N.shtml The idea of having more American soldiers go to Iraq does not sit well with the public, and signals that emerged from Capitol Hill Sunday indicated the White House may face a very uphill battle if, as expected, it embraces the proposal to pour up to 30,000 new troops into Iraq. --- Katrina Fraud Costs Could Top $2 Billion http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606O.shtml Federal investigators have already determined the Bush administration squandered $1 billion on fraudulent disaster aid to individuals after the 2005 storm. Now they are shifting their attention to the multimillion dollar contracts which have gone to politically connected firms. --- Paul Krugman | Helping the Poor, the British Way http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606C.shtml Paul Krugman writes: "Britain didn't have a minimum wage until 1999 - but at current exchange rates, Britain's minimum wage rate is now about twice as high as ours. Britain's child benefit is more generous than America's child tax credit, and it's available to everyone, even those too poor to pay income taxes. Britain's tax credit for low-wage workers is similar to the US earned-income tax credit, but substantially larger." --- Kelpie Wilson | Visit to an Island Nation, Part II http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606F.shtml Kelpie Wilson continues in her observation of British life. She writes: "Perhaps it is because they live on a small island where farmland is limited, an island that will lose precious land to the rising seas. British politicians and scientists have taken the lead in raising the alarm on global warming. They have even hired Al Gore to reach out to Americans on the issue, sending our own rejected prophet back to us." --- Inhabited Island Disappears Beneath Rising Seas http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606P.shtml Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. Refugees from the vanished Lohachara island and the disappearing Ghoramara island have fled to Sagar, but this island has already lost 7,500 acres of land to the sea. In all, a dozen islands, home to 70,000 people, are in danger of being submerged by the rising seas. --- Hundreds Disappear Into the Black Hole of the Kurdish Prison System in Iraq http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606E.shtml --- Sara Daniel | The President's Challenge http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122606G.shtml More than 20,000 Jews still live in Iran. In spite of Ahmadinejad's anti-Semitic provocations, his aggressive rhetoric has not yet convinced Iranian Jews to leave the country. --- Iran's Oil Revenue Running Dry, Analysis Shows ... http://snipurl.com/15uho _________________________________ Impending Police State In America Professor Francis Boyle says 9/11 was allowed to happen, war on terror is facilitating the downfall of The Republic, concentration camps are in place and US citizens are the targets. http://snipurl.com/15tzm --- There Is No Doubt: Bush Spy Program Is UnConstitutional Bush says his warrantless domestic wiretapping program is legal - Legal scholars say that excuse, "simply cannot be taken seriously." This article is a collection of quotes from legal scholars, plus youtube video of Bush lying/admitting to an impeachable offense on national tv. http://snipurl.com/15tz1 --- By Sheila Samples ... Will Stinky Cut The Big One? Most of us stopped laughing at Bush's coarse antics long ago. The boastful sound and fury of hot air blasting from both ends of this crude, immature thug as he rips one windy flatulent speech after another while saying absolutely nothing is not only vulgar, but is indescribably evil. http://snipurl.com/15u03 _________________________________ [NEWSDISSECTOR] Dissecting Christmas News and Blues Dissecting Christmas News and Blues ... http://snipurl.com/15t94 .....snip.... QUOTE OF THE DAY-TOM HULL "I don't know about the mainstream media's courage or independence, but the insight they all seem to lack is the ability to see the US as "deceitful and manipulative and callous and contemptuous of the rest of the world." Those of us who could recognize those traits had little trouble figuring out where the war was going or why. Those who didn't were easy suckers. It's important to understand that long before Iraq was attacked, the first preëmptive attack was against the "blame America first" crowd on the "looney left" -- and that clearing out the critics most sensitive to what would go wrong was the essential first step toward such a disastrous war." --- "WRESTING" IN HIGH PLACES ... A NEW WAR IN AFRICA HOLIDAY COMMENTS ... [snip] _________________________________ http://jablankfort@earthlink.net Forward: Jewish Groups Mute Criticism of Iraq Report Once again the power of the Jewish Lobby prevails over the Old Line US Corporate Establishment. Can any other lobby match its prowess? GROUPS MUTE CRITICISM OF IRAQ REPORT ... Nathan Guttman Jewish and pro-Israel groups, after initially greeting the report of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group with outrage, have begun to mute their criticisms on the basis of assurances that the Bush administration will not adopt the report's proposed linkage between Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Public and private statements by administration officials have convinced leaders of the organized Jewish community to refrain from actively opposing the report, produced by a bipartisan panel co-chaired by former secretary of state James Baker, a Republican, and ex-congressman Lee Hamilton, a Democrat. "All we are hearing," said an official at one major Jewish agency, "is that Bush has no plans to shift his Middle East policy and that he will choose not to adopt the recommendations in the Baker report that have to do with that." Continued >> http://www.forward.com/articles/groups-mute-criticism-of-iraq-report/ ----- Forward: State Department Weighs Plan for Palestinian State "Though Ackerman told the Forward he believes that the United States still can help Abbas "without making him look like a puppet," he criticized the administration for dragging its feet in providing support for the Palestinian leader. "I hope it's not too late," Ackerman said, promising that once he and the Democrats take over the subcommittee, they will scrutinize the administration's Middle East policy ... "Pro-Israeli lobbyists and Israeli officials said that they favor American efforts to bolster Fatah-controlled security forces, stressing the need to strengthen Abbas in light of the challenges he is facing." --- Abbas has done quite a good job all on his own at making himself into a puppet. Maybe he will be rewarded with a puppet provisional state.-JB http://www.forward.com/articles/state-department-weighs-plan-for-palestinian-state/ State Department Weighs Plan for Palestinian State --- Forward: U.S. [Jewish] Judge Dismisses Suit Against Israeli General Surprise? Does anyone expect a Jewish judge, (although I benefited from one exception,) to rule against Israel? The lawyers in the civil suit should have asked him to be replaced due to a conflict of interest but this never works when affairs affecting Israel or the Jewish lobby are involved, hence a judge who was A MEMBER OF THE ADL was allowed to make preliminary rulings on a case involving seven Palestinians who were up for deportation over a dozen years ago in LA for the crime of passing out PFLP literature. JB http://www.forward.com/articles/us-judge-dismisses-suit-against-israeli-general-1/ ----- VOA: US Defends Ethiopian Action in Somalia ... http://snipurl.com/15ula _________________________________ Talmudic Council: in war time, even enemy children may be exterminated The Talmudic council of Rabbis and Torah sages known as "Yesha", which represents Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, has ruled that it is permissible, even desirable, to target and exterminate non-Jewish civilians during war time. The council's latest edict, published on the Israeli newspaper Yedeot Ahronot's website "Ynetnews" Tuesday, stated that "according to Jewish law, during a time of war, there is no such term as 'innocent civilians' of the enemy." Read more: http://snipurl.com/15u1h _________________________________ Read the latest now on WND.com. http://www.wnd.com//news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53519 Submitted by: http://eddiestinson@gmail.com MAJOR STORIES NOW POSTED: * Pelosi to seat Democrat though Republican won? http://snipurl.com/15ukq * Woman gets note on plane: 'Time for everybody to die' http://snipurl.com/15ukt * Olmert decision has military 'up in arms' http://snipurl.com/15ukw * Don't stop terror rockets, says Israeli prime minister http://snipurl.com/15ukz [snip] _________________________________ NOTE from Diane: Blind Publishers Walking Print News as always in all ways, user unfriendly Maybe someone can explain to me why newspapers are so completely behind the times. (No pun intended). Forget for a moment America's endangered journalists and reporterswho actually report the news, (you are out there,) and if you can, for a moment, what seems to pass for 'the news.' In too fast-paced and often small-spaced environs, readers have little precious time to find locations to accommodate large awkward page turning, bypass full page ads and then have to hold the behemoth up, or for that matter, down, to read. Who wants to do this?! And then having to find a place to wash, if you're not comfortably situated at home, in order to remove the ink from your smudged hands? Are the, using the word sparingly, publishers, so awfully dense they don't get that hassling the reader IS a problem? More and more advertisers are grazing in greener pastures anyway. These organizations bemoan the across-the-board drop in readership because of the (so far, uncensored) Internet, yet do squat to progress in a way that might make a difference, and arguably the difference in the organization's bottom line. And because they're tunnel-eyed hard-nosed elitists, they don't 'get' actual real progress as opposed to their interpretation, i.e., climbing the ladder of success wrong by wrong. So now they're paying attention, but they're still blind men walking, or climbing over. Everything changes, everything. It's the one constant in the universe, (even water that lays becomes stagnant,) but not how print news is delivered, same as two hundred years ago, (the delivery, not the integrity of the content). I don't know if its two hundred years ago, something like that, but it's not important, the point, (problem,) seems pretty clear to me, at least. The news is supposed to be in the forefront, not last in the line of progress. It truly is not rocket science! in my opinion. The way I see it, the content and delivery need to be refocused and sized or otherwise -taking the lead; e.g., strong inspirational stories next to hard news (in the same category) is a workable concept. When hard news titillates day after day after day, after day, it becomes and is, a large part of the problem. It affects the reader, the public, ultimately, the news organization itself, with tentacles reaching into very dark places. Do you recall as a child watching a bloodless heroic film or video so inspirational you wanted to emulate those actions? I'll wager you did and felt it in your bones, desiring some secret download quick into your own DNA. Wasn't that feeling strong and lasting, as strong and lasting as anything negatively titillating and, I suggest, with the same lasting imprint? I've asked these questions of family, friends and associates and there was not one who did not agree one hundred percent! Hey, yaba daba doo, it really is time to leave the stone age. :) Imagine that. _________________________________ Appetite for Profit How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health ... San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA >> http://snipurl.com/15ure ... According to "Appetite for Profit," the food industry is facing a "public relations nightmare." What troubles its author, Michele Simon, a public health lawyer ... _________________________________ http://www.freespeech.org | http://www.inthesetimes.com | http://www.zmag.org _________________________________ .................NEED A HUMAN? Unfortunately, many companies' customer service departments are lacking. In the drive for profit, they often overlook the customer. One way they can cut profits is to scale back their call centers. Instead, they opt for self-service telephone systems. I like to refer to this as voice jail. You get trapped in menus with no hope of talking to a real person. No doubt today you'll have plenty of questions about your gifts. You may need some help figuring out how something works. Hopefully, though, you won't be needing any help with repairs. Anyway, before you call the customer service number on the back of the box, visit Gethuman. It features a database of companies. For each one, you'll find the secret for getting to a live person.................... TO VISIT TODAY'S COOL SITE, GO HERE: http://www.gethuman.com ............... Be sure to listen to me Monday through Friday. Use my map to find me near you http://www.komando.com/listen/index.aspx _________________________________ eHEALTHY NEWS Studies Funded by Drug Companies Favor Drugs 80 Percent of the Time - Multi-national drug corporations are manipulating you through highly conflicted studies they fund and publish to convince you to use their drugs. http://snipurl.com/15t8o --- Most Prostate Cancer Treatments Unnecessary and Harmful - New research confirms that surgery and dangerous drugs for prostate cancer may be unnecessary and powerful nutritional tools may be a far wiser option. http://snipurl.com/15t8v _________________________________ VIDEO: Multitasking Baby ... 00:30 Cute little guy, dances, falls and sleeps at the same time ... http://snipurl.com/15s0i _________________________________ NationalGeographic.com http://lava.nationalgeographic.com/pod/ _________________________________ NASA Astronomy picture of the day http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html _________________________________ Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings. ~ C.D. Jackson