GM crops fail their own test

If you’re among the many gardeners and farmers who have entertained suspicions that corporate claims for Genetically Modified crops were overblown, congrats. You were right. Recent research has established that crop yields fall when farmers switch to GM seeds. The only thing that gets greener is corporate profits.

Exposed: The Great GM Crops Myth

By Geoffrey Lean

Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

Read more, click here.

Michael Moore endorses Obama

My Vote’s for Obama (if I could vote)
by Michael Moore

April 21st, 2008

Friends,

I don’t get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn’t get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.

So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast my vote — and yours — on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?

I haven’t spoken publicly ’til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don’t give a rat’s ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there’s a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word “Democratic” next to the candidate’s name.

Seriously, I know so many people who don’t care if the name under the Big “D” is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.

Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I’ve watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name “Farrakhan” out of nowhere, well that’s when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the “F” word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama’s pastor does — AND the “church bulletin” once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!

This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!

Yes, Senator Clinton, that’s how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can’t win unless you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry “Uncle (Tom)” and give it all to you.

But that can’t happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.

How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White House. That day will come — but it won’t be you. We’ll have to wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).

There are those who say Obama isn’t ready, or he’s voted wrong on this or that. But that’s looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what’s going on is bigger than him at this point, and that’s a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.

I know some of you will say, ‘Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?’ That’s a damn good question. In November of ‘06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?

I’ll tell you why. Because I can’t stand one more friggin’ minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I’m almost at the point where I don’t care if the Democrats don’t have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain’t “Bush” and the word “Republican” is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that’s good enough for me.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That’s why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters — that big “D” on the ballot.

Don’t get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.

It’s foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that’ll represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal voice.

Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout at the TV, “Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for ’spiritual counseling?’ THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!”

But no, Obama won’t throw that at her. It wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be decent. She’s been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.

That’s why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That’s why he’ll take us down a more decent path. That’s why I would vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.

But the question I keep hearing is… ‘can he win? Can he win in November?’ In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it’s possible to hear the words “President McCain” on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She’s counting on it.

Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only “three fifths” human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com

Times investigation blows lid off Pentagon propaganda in U.S.

A New York Times investigation has exposed the fraudulent activity of “military analysts” employed by the mainstream media to push the White House and Pentagon agenda in their misguided “war on terror.”

No. Really? The U.S. government propagandizing its own citizens? Peel me from the pavement.

An excerpt:

” Analysts have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior military leaders, including officials with significant influence over contracting and budget matters, records show. They have been taken on tours of Iraq and given access to classified intelligence. They have been briefed by officials from the White House, State Department and Justice Department, including Mr. Cheney, Alberto R. Gonzales and Stephen J. Hadley. In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access.”

To read more, click here.

Gorillas in the Myth: second edition

I’ve just released a second edition of my first book, “revisited and revised a smidgeon.” Here’s a timely excerpt, written more than ten years ago.

The crystal plummets

Raving tree huggers, myself included, sometimes claim we may be destroying planet Earth. Pie-eyed techno-idiots insist that everything will be peachy if we just dump environmental regulations and the Endangered Species Act, and let the free market rock and roll. Who is right? Is there any prayer that we can find common ground?

When I voice concern about the environment, I tend to believe that I support Life. But the truth is, my concern is for life like us. Bacteria are really neat little goobers, and we couldn’t survive without them, but they did just fine without us for about ninety percent of the time since things began to wiggle on this planet.

The urgency I feel about toxic waste or global warming involves preserving the current population of the planet. I have a fondness for oxygen-breathing, carbon-based life forms like dolphins and cats and gorillas and bats, hummingbirds and butterflies, tuna, termites, lizards—and people. Well, some people, anyway.

When I factor people into the equation, it looks as though I might be speaking the same language as the movement that has adopted “wise use” as its slogan. The wise-users are the folks who want to permit mining, grazing and hunting in national parks, and who insist that old-growth forests are a renewable resource. They claim that global warming is an illusion, that there are no foreseeable limits to the human population of our planet, and that science will solve all of our problems by some time next week. They say the only useful measure of any policy is whether it is good for people, and they’re fond of trotting out a few scientists to bolster their claims.

OK, let’s go with that.

What? Me, a raving tree hugger, ready to accept the bottom line defined by earth rapers like Rush and Chainsaw Charlie? [former Rep. Charles Taylor, R-NC] Have I been drinking to excess?

My single caveat would be that we all must be willing to rely on real science, instead of rhetoric, to settle policy disputes. I am ready to concede any environmental debate on that basis. And by “real science,” I mean the consensus of the majority of knowledgeable researchers in a given field. Why do I say consensus? Shouldn’t we demand scientific proof?

Nice idea, but science doesn’t work that way. Outside of mathematics, where everything either adds up or it doesn’t, proof is impossible.

For example, if you release a crystal goblet ten feet above a brick patio, it will probably fall and shatter. Scientifically speaking, there is actually a tiny chance that it will bounce and land safely—and a much tinier chance that it won’t even fall. But, based on our experience of gravity and bricks, most of us would agree that the crystal is history.

In the same way, if the overwhelming majority of scientists agree about a particular issue, and one or a few disagree, the odds are very strong that the majority is correct.

Ready to be blinded by science? In 1992, nearly sixteen hundred of the world’s senior scientists, including more than half the living Nobel laureates—women and men from every discipline and every continent—signed The World’s Scientists Warning to Humanity. More have signed it in the years since then. In 1993, fifty-six of the world’s scientific academies met for the first-ever world Science Summit and issued a collaborative statement.

Most of the world’s scientists agree that, if the human race is to survive, we must reach zero population growth within the present generation. We must act now to shift from fossil fuels and nonrenewable resources to sustainable technologies. We must act now to reduce introduction of toxins and pollutants into the biosphere. We must act now to protect the biodiversity upon which all life depends.

Translation: The crystal goblet is headed toward the bricks.

There is nothing wrong with using human benefit as the measure of our policies, but short-term profit is a bad gage of success if it threatens long-term survival. If you are intent on amassing a fortune to leave to your heirs, you will also need some heirs to leave it to.

Are our current environmental-protection laws necessary? Sorry, Charlie: We have barely begun.

Coming soon to Amazon.com

Clinton lied about Bosnia, too

How can you tell when Hillary’s somewhat wide of the truth? (Hint: her lips move.)

And Muscatine is almost as bad. (Wonder how long she’ll be on board with the Clinton campaign.)

Wonderful send-up of corporate spin

And, oh yeah, the war

Bush surge strengthens ties between Iraq and Iran, heckuva job!

So much for the surge

by Eugene Robinson

Has anyone noticed that Iraq, supposedly transformed into an oasis of peace and tranquility by George W. Bush’s troop surge, is growing less peaceful and tranquil by the day?

The nation’s attention has been riveted by the presidential campaign, with its compelling characters and its edge-of-your-seat story line. Iraq is treated almost as a theoretical issue: What would happen there if Barack Obama became president, as opposed to what would happen if Hillary Clinton became president, as opposed to what would happen if John McCain became president? There has been little debate about what’s happening in Iraq right now.

That seems likely to change.

The past several weeks have seen a recrudescence of the kind of horrifying, spectacular violence that the Decider’s surge was supposed to have ended.

To read more, click here.

Jumpin’ Joe endorses torture

Sen. Lieberman Says Waterboarding Won’t Really Hurt You!
by William Hughes

“The healthy man does not torture others.” - Carl G. Jung

“Turncoat Joe” Lieberman is full of surprises. The other day, Feb. 14, 2008, the hawkish U.S. Senator from Connecticut said that waterboarding “is not torture!” He added, however, that it should be permitted “only under the most extreme circumstances” Well, let’s see… personally, I don’t like Barbara “BaWa” Walters. She gets on my nerves, whining so much about everything. I wouldn’t mind seeing her waterboarded on ABC TV’s “The View” program. But, heck, I’m only kidding. Sen. Lieberman isn’t! He’s dead serious! He tried to defend his Marquis de Sade-like tendencies by saying: “Waterboarding is mostly psychological and there is no permanent physical damage.” (1) How does he know what physical and mental effects it has on a victim? Has he ever been waterboarded?

To read the rest of Hughes’ latest column, click here.

Warming in the western mountains

Decline in Snowpack Is Blamed On Warming:
Water Supplies In West Affected

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 1, 2008; Page A01

The persistent and dramatic decline in the snowpack of many mountains in the West is caused primarily by human-induced global warming and is not the result of natural variability in weather patterns, researchers reported yesterday.

Read the rest here.

My note: We need to look hard at how changing precipitation patterns may affect water in North Carolina. If we continute to assume that future growth can depend on past water conditions we may be in for some very rude surprises. I note that electric utilities announced recently that if the current drought continues, nuclear power plants in the southeast will be forced to cut back or shut down completely.