Flannery, The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People (1994)

Tim Flannery.
The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People.
New York: Grove Press, 2002.
"Originally published: Australia : Reed Books Australia, 1994."

Book information: publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

Edition I read: New York : George Braziller, 1995 (Google Books; Amazon.com).

Links:

• Tim Flannery, Wikipedia.
• Tim Flannery, his official website.
• Tim Flannery, Grove/Atlantic (his publisher in the USA).
• Tim Flannery, articles at The New York Review of Books.
• Tim Flannery - reasons to be hopeful, The Science Show, ABC Radio National, 1 January 2011 [mp3 audio file]. Flannery mentions his most recent book, Here on Earth: An Argument for Hope (2010) [publisher].
• Two men in a tinnie (2006). Flannery and a companion take a canoe trip through the Murray-Darling Basin during the recent drought period. See also Drought in Australia, Wikipedia.
• Main Points from The Future Eaters, by Tim Flannery, from the course notes for HIST 381: Australia & New Zealand by Prof. Tom Isern, NDSU.
  Those interested in Australia and/or New Zealand will find the notes and links at Isern's HIST 381: Australia & New Zealand very helpful. In addition to Isern's notes on Flannery's The Future Eaters I recommend his Bibliography for HIST 381.
• David Johnson, The Geology of Australia, second edition, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  [publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

Baker, Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy (2009)

Dean Baker.
Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy.
Sausalito, California: PoliPoint Press, 2009.

Book information: publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

Baker, The United States since 1980 (2007)

Dean Baker.
The United States since 1980.
New York: Cambridge University Press, March 2007.

Book information: publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.

Links:

• Dean Baker, Wikipedia.


• Dean Baker. Center for Economic and Policy Research.


• Beat the Press, Baker's blog at The American Prospect's website.


• Dean Baker. Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy. Sausalito, California: PoliPoint Press, 2009.
  (publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.)

Links: U.S. Politics & Government

• Teryn Norris & Jesse Jenkins, Will America Lose the Clean-Energy Race?, CommonDreams.org, 29 July 2009.


• Naomi Klein, Let's Put an End to Sarah Palin-Style Capitalism, AlterNet, AlterNet.org, 30 July 2009.


• Brad Friedman, Formerly-'Gagged' FBI Whistleblower Details Congressional Blackmail, Bribery, Espionage, Corruption in Remarkable Videotaped Deposition, The Huffington Post, 27 August 2009.


• Adele M. Stan, The Wing-Nut Code: What Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin Are Really Saying to Their Followers, AlterNet, alternet.org, 02 September 2009.


• Max Blumenthal, Eisenhower's Forgotten Warning and the Threat of Authoritarian Currents in Our Politics, AlterNet, alternet.org, 03 September 2009.


• Juan Cole, Where Have All the Broad Shoulders Gone? Or, Labor Day in a Kleptocracy, Informed Comment, 07 September 2009.


• Matt Taibbi, Sick and Wrong: How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it, Rolling Stone, 03 September 2009.


• James Howard Kunstler, The Labor Day Blues, Clusterfuck Nation, 07 September 2009.


• Daniel Dombey, President procrastinator, FT.com, 07 September 2009.


• Marshall Auerback, Iron Triangles: Wall St, Big Pharma, and insurance industry perfect power games, New Deal 2.0, 08 September 2009.
  
  Iron triangle, Wikipedia.
  
  Paul M. Johnson, Iron triangles, A Glossary of Political Economy Terms, Department of Political Science, Auburn University.
  
  Corporatocracy, Wikipedia.
  
  Corporatism, Wikipedia.
  
  Corporatocracy, SourceWatch.
  
  Corporatocracy, Google Search.
  
  Robert Higgs, Quasi-Corporatism: America’s Homegrown Fascism, The Independent Institute, 31 January 2006.


• Thomas L. Friedman, Our One-Party Democracy, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 08 September 2009.
  
  It's so obvious that now even Tom Friedman talks about it openly, although he says that that the U.S. one-party government is due to the retreat of Republican ideologues into head-in-the-sand irrelevance, rather than acknowledging that the two dominant parties are both the instruments of a corporatocracy for which the public good appears secondary.


• David Sirota, Reviewing President Rahm Emanuel's Health Care Speech, The Huffington Post, 09 September 2009.


• dday, The Poor, The Adrift, The Uninsured, Hullabaloo, 10 September 2009.
  
  And in the following essay a right-winger rationalize neglect and discrimination.
  
  Robert Rector, Understanding Poverty in America, National Review Online, 10 September 2009.


• Chris Bowers, If You Think Corporations Run the Government Now…, Open Left, 10 September 2009.


• Steve Almond, Glenn Beck is the future of literary fiction, Salon.com, 12 September 2009.
  "A handful of right-wing bestsellers have recast mundane cultural dislocation into riveting epics of paranoia."


• Robert Reich, Where the White House is placing its healthcare bets, Salon.com, 11 September 2009.
  
  Joe Conason, Republican politicians have no empathy, Salon.com, 11 September 2009.
  
  David Sirota, We've seen this healthcare trigger before, Salon.com, 12 September 2009.
  "The provision is designed to make us wait for a public option that will never come."


• Richard Benjamin, Inside the mind of Joe Wilson, Salon.com, 11 September 2009.
  "America is changing, and that makes white people like Joe Wilson -- and Michele Bachmann -- very nervous."


• Juan Cole, A Tale of Two Joe Wilsons, a Tale of Two Americas, Informed Comment, 11 September 2009.


• Dave Lindorff, In Praise of 'Joe' Wilson: What's Wrong with Calling Out Lies in Congress?, AfterDowningStreet.org, 11 September 2009.
  "We need more honesty in Washington, not more civility."


• Barbara Ehrenreich and Dedrick Muhammad, The Recession’s Racial Divide, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 13 September 2009.


• Adam Nagourney, Politics and the Age Gap, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 13 September 2009.
  
  When the Baby Boomers were young this was called the Generation Gap. It's interesting how things change when they're on the other side of it.


• Glenn Greenwald, Is the Right's attack on Obama's legitimacy new or unprecedented?, Salon.com, 12 September 2009.


• Frank Rich, Obama’s Squandered Summer, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 13 September 2009.


• Hendrik Hertzberg, Lies: Obama, the Republicans, and health care reform, The New Yorker, 21 September 2009.


• Thomas B. Edsall, Angry Populism Could Save The GOP, The Huffington Post, 15 September 2009.


• Andy Kroll, Dispatches from America: A well-oiled influence machine, , 16 September 2009.
  
  "More than US$1 million a day is shelled out in the United States for lobbying on health-related issues, a massive endeavor in which 3,300 lobbyists are involved. Then there are the 2,400 lobbyists working on financial industry issues and 1,000 defense-related lobbyists. In total, 12,500 federally registered lobbyists ply their trade in Washington - and they're only a small slice of the pie."


• Stephen Green, America's Strange Health Care Debate: The Most Expensive System, But Not the Best , CounterPunch.org, 16 September 2009.


• Franklin Spinney, Bin Laden's Latest Message: The Nuttiness of the War on Terror, CounterPunch.org, 15 September 2009.


• Dan Froomkin, Who Will Harness The Rage?, The Huffington Post, 18 September 2009.


• America's Workers, Bill Moyers Journal, PBS, 18 September 2009.
  
  Tula Connell, ‘Young Workers: A Lost Decade’, AFL-CIO NOW Blog, 01 September 2009.
  
  the report: Young Workers: A Lost Decade [PDF file], AFL-CIO, 2009.


• Bruce Judson, Economic Inequality: The Wall Street Journal Is Just Wrong, The Huffington Post, 16 September 2009.


• Jason Leopold, Did Bush Continue to Secretly Operate Total Information Awareness?, truthout, 18 September 2009.
  
  On the President's Surveillance Program.
  See also: Total Information Awareness;
  Terrorist Surveillance Program.
  
  Wikisource provides a copy of the Unclassified Report on the President's Surveillance Program.


• Bob Herbert, The Scourge Persists, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 18 September 2009.


• Michael Winship, Wall Street buys Washington, Salon.com, 19 September 2009.


• Glenn Greenwald, CIA Directors conclude CIA shouldn't be investigated for murder, Salon.com, 19 September 2009.


• David Sirota, Washington's selective deficit disorder, Salon.com, 19 September 2009.
  "They blew billions on wars and bailouts, but spending cash that actually helps people seems to bother politicians."


• Justin Elliott, TX Board Of Ed Member: Minorities Must Be Thankful To 'The Majority' For Giving Them Rights!, TPMMuckraker, 18 September 2009.


• digby, What Moved Him [Irving Kristol], Hullabaloo, 19 September 2009.
  
  See also the comments.
  
  Paul Campos, To the manner born, Rocky Mountain News, 28 January 2009.


• digby, Regional Power [of the Republican Party], Hullabaloo, 19 September 2009.
  
  Christopher Caldwell, Why the GOP Is Doomed, Hoover Digest, No. 4, 1998.


• digby, "Respects The Corporate Form", Hullabaloo, 19 September 2009.


• Alex Massie, Americans treating Presidents like Kings. Monarchy restored surreptitiously, by dint of general stupidity, Cyrano's Journal Online, 20 September 2009.


• Frank Schaeffer, Right-Wing Hatemongering Fueled by Christianity?, AlterNet, AlterNet.org, 21 September 2009.


• Rachel Weiner, Josh Treviño, GOP Consultant: "My Red Hair And Pale Skin IS My Passport", The Huffington Post, 21 September 2009.


• Tom Tomorrow, Our awesome post-racial society, This Modern World, Salon.com, 21 September 2009.


• Michael Lind, Intellectual conservatism, RIP, Salon,com, 22 September 2009.


• Robert Reich, So much happening in D.C., so little to show for it, Salon.com, 09 October 2009.


• * Simon Johnson and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Bill Moyers Journal, PBS, 09 October 2009.
  
  Glenn Greenwald, On the government's owners, Salon.com, 10 October 2009.


• David Michael Green, A Hapless Presidency: Hanging Out with Barry, CounterPunch.org, 09 October 2009.


• David D. Kirkpatrick, Lobbyists Fight Last Big Plans to Cut Health Care Costs, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 11 October 2009.


• Richard Lardner, Associated Press, Weapons failed US troops during Afghan firefight, Salon.com, 11 October 2009.


• Glenn Greenwald, Jonathan Weiler on authoritarianism in American poitics, Salon.com, 11 October 2009.

Links: Political Economy

• David Goldman, Dave’s Top 10 Reasons the Recession Will Last Forever, Inner Workings Blog Archive at Asia Times, 05 August 2009.
  
  David Goldman, All New! Dave’s (additional) 10 Reasons Why the Recession Will Last Forever, Inner Workings Blog Archive at Asia Times, 24 September 2009.


• Penn Bullock, Friedman Economics: Is Fed chairman Ben Bernanke a follower of John Maynard Keynes or Milton Friedman?, Reason Magazine, 01 September 2009.


• Elizabeth Warren, Real Change: Turning Up the Heat on Non-Bank Lenders, The Huffington Post, 03 September 2009.


• Barry Ritholtz, Tactical Error: Health Care vs Finance Regulatory Reform, The Big Picture, 09 September 2009.


• Menzie Chinn, Tracking the Consumption Decline, Econbrowser, 09 September 2009.


• Damien Hoffman, Exclusive Interview: Economist John Mauldin, Wall St. Cheat Sheet, 09 September 2009.


• Alison Fitzgerald and Christine Harper, Lehman Monday Morning Lesson Lost With Obama Regulator-in-Chief, Bloomberg.com, 11 September 2009.
  
  Alex Berenson, A Year After a Cataclysm, Little Change on Wall Street, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 11 September 2009.


• Eamon Javers, Summers: High unemployment for years, Politico.com, 11 September 2009.


• The Editors, Why Wall Street Reforms Have Stalled, Room for Debate Blog, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 11 September 2009.


• Yves Smith, Another Lehman Mess: No One Can Run the Software, naked capitalism, 12 September 2009.


• Steve Lohr, Wall Street’s Math Wizards Forgot a Few Variables, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 13 September 2009.


• Gretchen Morgenson, Fair Game - But Who Is Watching the Regulators, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 13 September 2009.


• Yves Smith, IMF Head Says Crisis Set to Continue, naked capitalism, 13 September 2009.


• Michael Panzner, Food for Thought: What big stories aren’t being told?, Financial Armageddon, 11 September 2009.


• David Cho, Steven Mufson and Tomoeh Murakami Tse, In Shift, Wall Street Goes to Washington, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, 13 September 2009.


• George Washington, Top Economists Say We Must Break Up the Insolvent Banks (Government Says Let’s Make Them Bigger), naked capitalism, 11 September 2009.


• Mark Deen and David Tweed, Stiglitz Says Banking Problems Are Now Bigger Than Pre-Lehman, Bloomberg.com, 14 September 2009.


• Karl Denninger, But I Thought It Was Just A "Panic"?, The Market Ticker, 13 September 2009.
  
  Karl Denninger, How Far Does The Lawlessness Go?, The Market Ticker, 11 September 2009.


• Peter Boone and Simon Johnson, Economic Donkeys, The Baseline Scenario, 13 September 2009.


• Stephen Mihm, Why capitalism fails: The man who saw the meltdown coming had another troubling insight: it will happen again, The Boston Globe, 13 September 2009.
  
  On Hyman Minsky.
  
  via: The Big Picture.


• Jesse, Robert Reich on Moral Hazard and Obama's Failure, Jesse's Café Américain, 14 September 2009.


• Jesse, "It has now become clear that this was no ordinary crash." [on the Criminal Activity at the Heart of Iceland's Collapse], Jesse's Café Américain, 14 September 2009.


• Arianna Huffington, Why Obama Won't Be Able to Reform Wall Street, The Huffington Post, 14 September 2009.
  
  See also comments.


• Nomi Prins, The Next Meltdown, The Daily Beast, 14 September 2009.


• Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta, Lots of Fear Remains Over Economy, Job Losses, Poll Finds, WashingtonPost.com, 15 September 2009.


• Simon Johnson and James Kwak, Lehman Brothers and the Persistence of Moral Hazard, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, 15 September 2009.


• Henry CK Liu, Power Without Credibility, Part 1: Bogged down at the Fed, Asia Times, 11 September 2009.
  
  Henry CK Liu, Power Without Credibility, Part 2: A lost decade ahead, Asia Times, 15 September 2009.
  
  Henry CK Liu, Power Without Credibility, Part 3: Politics of the financial crisis, Asia Times, 17 September 2009.


• David Goldman, The sticky dollar reserve system, Asia Times, 14 September 2009.


• * Edward Harrison, Financial Reform: Not happening but the need is clear, naked capitalism, 16 September 2009.
  
  Steve Keen, It’s Hard Being a Bear (Part Four): Good Economic Theory, Steve Keen's Debtwatch, 15 September 2009.


• TPC, China Will Be a Bigger Bubble than Japan, The Pragmatic Capitalist, 16 September 2009.
  
  The general tone of this sounds to me like wishful thinking by insecure Westerners. China's recent policy of encouraging its people to purchase gold may absorb lots of its hot liquidity, if not completely dominate the world's supply of precious and strategic metals, another fear emerging in the West. Note also the interesting table at the end of the post: "Speculative manias and geopolitical shifts." The comments do a good job of refuting this post. Rather than worry about some hypothetical future bubble in China, we have a far greater, already existing, problem with the USA's government debt, insolvent banks, corrupt policy apparatus, and their forthcoming consequences.
  
  Andy Xie, What We Can Learn as Japan's Economy Sinks, Caijing.com.cn, 16 September 2009.


• Jesse, US Dollar Long Term Chart and a Scenario for Dollar Devaluation, Jesse's Café Américain, 16 September 2009.


• Global systemic crisis: In pursuit of the impossible recovery, Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin, No. 37, LEAP/E2020, 16 September 2009.


• Jason Linkins, Shortlist For FT Business Book Award Short On Selections That Take On The Financial Crisis, The Huffington Post, 17 September 2009.
  
  Business Book of the Year 2009, FT.com, 17 September 2009.
  
  Cardiff Garcia, The 10 books to help you understand the crisis, The Big Picture, 05 June 2009.


• Keith Bradsher, China’s Economy Is Back, While U.S. Still Ails, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 17 September 2009.


• Lisa Lambert, "Option" mortgages to explode, officials warn, Reuters.com, 17 September 2009.
  
  Yves Smith, Wells’ Commercial Real Estate “Ticking Time Bomb” And Coming CRE Woes, naked capitalism, 18 September 2009.
  
  Exposure at Default: As Banks Shrink, So Does the Economy, The Institutional Risk Analyst, 16 September 2009.
  
  Teri Buhl, Wells Fargo’s Commercial Portfolio is a ticking time bomb, BankImplode.com, 17 September 2009.


• * Hossein Askari and Noureddine Krichene, A deluded G-20, Asia Times, 17 September 2009.


• Toni Straka, North America Takes The Backseat in Prosperity, The Prudent Investor, 17 September 2009.


• Liaquat Ahamed, The Future of Global Finance, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 17 September 2009.


• Yves Smith, Will Peak Oil Pricing = [imply] Perma[nent] Recession [for Developed Economies]?, naked capitalism, 17 September 2009.
  
  See also the comments.
  
  Gregor Macdonald, Clarion Call from Cantarell, Gregor.us, 23 August 2009.
  
  Many of the other essays at Gregor.us look worth reading.


• Poornima Gupta, Silicon Valley warning: Detroit still doesn't get it, Reuters.com, 18 September 2009.


• digby, Keep An Eye On This [the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the "new Pecora Commission"], Hullabaloo, 18 September 2009.


• David Streitfeld, Bill Comes Due, Vexing Housing and Banking Agencies, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 18 September 2009.


• Barry Ritholtz, Pomboy: Deflation, Not Inflation, Is The Greater Threat, The Big Picture, 19 September 2009.


• George Washington, Steve Keen Out-Thinks Larry Summers, naked capitalism, 20 September 2009.


• Chris Hedges, Globalization Goes Bankrupt, Truthdig, 20 September 2009.


• Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, HSBC bids farewell to dollar supremacy, The Daily Telegraph, 20 September 2009.


• George, Are Financial Blogs Trustworthy?, The Big Picture, 20 September 2009.


• Damien Hoffman, Medal of Honor: Top Analyst Josh Rosner Nailed the Crisis, Wall St. Cheat Sheet, 22 September 2009.


• Barry Ritholtz, Volcker: Reinstate Glass Steagall, The Big Picture, 24 September 2009.


• Damien Hoffman, If Corporations Cannot Vote, Should They Have The Right To Spend Money In Elections?, zero hedge, 24 September 2009.


• Tyler Durden, DOE Highlights Collapsing Energy Demand, zero hedge, 24 September 2009.


• Tyler Durden, Exhaustion Rate Hits New Record: More Than Half Of Unemployed Exhaust Benefits Before Finding A Job, zero hedge, 24 September 2009.


• Edmund L. Andrews, Global Economic Forum to Expand Permanently, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 24 September 2009.


• Edward Harrison, Obama caves to pressure on consumer financial protection, naked capitalism, 24 September 2009.


• Jesse, Federal Reserve Eyes the US Money Market Funds, Jesse's Café Américain, 24 September 2009.


• Jesse, Do Ben and Tim = Thelma and Louise?, Jesse's Café Américain, 25 September 2009.


• * Mohamed El-Erian, Return of the old ways of thinking threatens recovery, FT.com, 28 September 2009.


• John P. Hussman, We're Speaking Japanese Without Knowing It, Weekly Market Comment - Hussman Funds, 28 September 2009.


• Mark Thoma, "New Income Inequality Data: Surprising and Frightening", Economist's View, 29 September 2009.


• Barry C. Lynn, How Detroit Went Bottom-Up, The American Prospect, 28 September 2009.
  "Outsourcing cleared the way for a discreet but dangerous monopolization of the auto industry."


• Edmund L. Andrews, World Bank Head Sees Dollar’s Role Diminishing , The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 28 September 2009.


• * Edward Harrison, The recession is over but the depression has just begun, naked capitalism, 01 October 2009.
  
  Good exposition, with documentation, on how the US economy has evolved over the last 40 or more years.


• Hiroko Tabuchi, Chinese Economic Juggernaut Is Gaining on Japan, The New York Times, 01 October 2009.


• Yves Smith, Plans to Move Away From Dollar Pricing of Oil, naked capitalism, 05 October 2009.


• Robert Fisk, The demise of the dollar, The Independent, www.independent.co.uk, 06 October 2009.
  "In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading."
  
  Mike Whitney, Dollar Hysteria: Is the Sky Really Falling?, CounterPunch.org, 06 October 2009.


• Edward L. Glaeser, What Happened to Argentina?, Economix Blog, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 06 October 2009.


• Niall Ferguson, Too Big to Live: Why we must stamp out State Monopoly Capitalism [PDF file], Centre for Policy Studies, October 2009.


• Thornton Parker, How Economists Are Missing Another One, The Big Picture, 08 October 2009.


• Edward Harrison, How did economists get it so wrong (parody version)?, Credit Writedowns, 08 October 2009.


• Bruce Krasting, FHFA's DeMarco Speaks - Ouch!, Bruce Krasting, 08 October 2009.


• * Simon Johnson and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Bill Moyers Journal, PBS, 09 October 2009.


• Paul Craig Roberts, Marx and Lenin Reconsidered, CounterPunch.org, 07 October 2009.


• Yves Smith, “Capitalism: A Love Story”, naked capitalism, 11 October 2009.


• Simon Johnson, Diana Farrell And The White House Theory Of Bank Size, The Baseline Scenario, 13 October 2009.
  
  Read the WhoRunsGov.com profile of Diana Farrell and recognize that neolibral economics/market fundamentalism/de-industrialization/off-shoring and their effects on the American people are not accidental nor mysterious forces beyond the control of mortals; and that the Republican and Democratic parties today follow a single economic policy and diverge from each other far less than partisans lead the general public to believe.


• Yves Smith, Krugman on Sick Banks, Bad Policy Choices, and Team Obama’s (Misplaced) Anger, naked capitalism, 19 October 2009.

Links: Militarism, Empire, War

• Robert C. Koehler, Cheap Frames of Expensive War, CommonDreams.org, 30 July 2009.


• Stanley Kutler, Lesson of Vietnam Lost in Afghanistan, Truthdig, truthdig.com, 20 August 2009.


• Richard A. Oppel Jr., Marines Fight With Little Aid From Afghans, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 22 August 2009.


• David Sirota, The Science Fiction of Military Marketing, CommonDreams.org, 28 August 2009.


• Tom Engelhardt, G.I. Joe, Post-American Hero: The Long, Slow Death of American Triumphalism [Tomgram: The Next War, On-Screen and Off], TomDispatch.com, 26 August 2009.


• Patrick Cockburn, Life and Death in Baghdad as Americans Leave, CounterPunch, counterpunch.org, 17 August 2009.


• Scott Horton, Once Upon a Coup, No Comment blog at Harper's Magazine, 27 August 2009.


• * Sherwood Ross, Rise of Mercenary Armies Menace World, Help White House Thwart Peace Movement, The Smirking Chimp, 31 August 2009.


• * David Swanson, Bush's Third Term?: You're Living It [Tom Engelhardt, Tomgram: David Swanson, The More Things Change], TomDispatch, TomDispatch.com, 01 September 2009.
  
  Chris Floyd, The 16th Term: Obama's New Betrayals are Old, Old Hat, Empire Burlesque, 02 September 2009.


• * Glenn Greenwald, The looming political war over Afghanistan, Salon.com, 03 September 2009.


• Thom Shanker, Despite Slump, U.S. Role as Top Arms Supplier Grows, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 06 September 2009.


• Paul Craig Roberts, Indefensible Nation: US Hypocrisy Astonishes the World, CounterPunch.org, 07 September 2009.


• Tom Engelhardt, Is America Hooked on War? [Tomgram: War Is Peace], TomDispatch.com, 17 September 2009.


• Alex Massie, Americans treating Presidents like Kings. Monarchy restored surreptitiously, by dint of general stupidity, Cyrano's Journal Online, 20 September 2009.


• Carol Becker, Forty Years Later Calley Speaks Up, truthout, 23 September 2009.


• * Tom Engelhardt, How to Trap a President in a Losing War: Petraeus, McChrystal, and the Surgettes [Tomgram: A Military That Wants Its Way], TomDispatch, tomdispatch.com, 24 September 2009.


• Gary Hart, The President in Chains, The Huffington Post, 24 September 2009.
  
  * Gary Wills, Entangled Giant, The New York Review of Books, 08 October 2009.

Links: Propaganda, Media, Manufacturing Consent

• Byard Duncan, Why the Right's 'Astroturfing' Propaganda Is Textbook Psychopathic, AlterNet, alternet.org, 15 August 2009.


• Mike Shedlock, Orwellian Madness "Bernanke Saved The World", Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis, 21 August 2009.


• Justin Raimondo, The Coming Media Bailout, Antiwar.com, 26 August 2009.


• Gene Lyons, The media can't handle the truth, Salon, Salon.com, 27 August 2009.


• David Sirota, The Science Fiction of Military Marketing, CommonDreams.org, 28 August 2009.


• Chris Floyd, Big Brass Bull: Pentagon Deceit on Media Manipulation Confirmed, Empire Burlesque, 28 August 2009.


• Glenn Greenwald, The Washington Post's Cheney-ite defense of torture, Salon.com, 29 August 2009.


• Barry Ritholtz, Bailout Profits? Don’t Make Me Laugh!, The Big Picture, 31 August 2009.


• Matt Taibbi, Bailout Propaganda Begins, Taibblog - True/Slant, 01 September 2009.


• Glenn Greenwald, Who are Broderian anti-investigation journalists really protecting?, Salon.com, 03 August 2009.
  "Establishment journalists and pundits know they are culpable in war crimes; that's why they want to Look Forward."


• Glenn Greenwald, Meet the Press's idea of a "debate", Salon.com, 07 September 2009.


• Glenn Greenwald, Time Magazine: the liberal bias of facts, Salon.com, 17 September 2009.


• * Glenn Greenwald, The distracting benefits of ACORN hysteria, Salon.com, 17 September 2009.


• digby, Influencers, Hullabaloo, 18 September 2009.

Links: Sociology, Culture, etc.

• The Four Horsemen - Hour 1 [Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, Harris], Google Video, 30 September 2007.
  
  The Four Horsemen - Hour 2 [Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, Harris], Google Video, 30 September 2007.
  
  DVD available at RichardDawkins.net; Amazon.com; Netflix.
  
  Video of a conversation among them.


• Chris Floyd, Bait and Switch: Using Diversity to Disguise Inequality, Empire Burlesque, 27 August 2009.
  
  Mr. Floyd refers to the essay:
  Walter Benn Michaels, What Matters, London Review of Books, vol. 31, no. 16, 27 August 2009.
  
  Mr. Michaels' essay is a review of:
  Kjartan Páll Sveinsson, editor. Who Cares about the White Working Class?. London: The Runnymede Trust, 2009.
  
  A similar publication exists, refering to the USA:
  Ruy Teixeira & Joel Rogers. America's Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters. New York: Basic Books, 2001.
  (Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.)


• Helaine Olen, Corporate Dominance of Every Aspects of Our Lives Is Suffocating Us, AlterNet, alternet.org, 07 August 2009.
  
  review of:
  Doug Rushkoff. Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back. New York: Random House, 2009.
  (Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.)


• Patrica Leigh Brown, Invisible Immigrants, Old and Left With ‘Nobody to Talk To’, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 30 August 2009.


• Greg Laden, The Falsehoods: The poor and the dark skinned have more babies than the rich and the light skinned, Greg Laden's Blog, 31 August 2009.


• * Henry A. Giroux, Living in a Culture of Cruelty: Democracy as Spectacle, truthout, 02 September 2009.


• Alice Waters, Want to Teach Democracy? Improve School Lunches, The Huffington Post, 03 September 2009.


• Ed Vulliamy, Is America ready to admit defeat in its 40-year war on drugs?: A wave of decriminalisation is sweeping through Latin America, The Observer, guardian.co.uk, 06 September 2009.


• Juan Cole, Where Have All the Broad Shoulders Gone? Or, Labor Day in a Kleptocracy, Informed Comment, 07 September 2009.


• Historicism, Wikipedia.
  
  Which frame of Historicism are you, a politician, or whomever, using to interpret human events? Is that variant of Historicism valid in that or any context? Perhaps Historicism is a figment of the human imagination (similar to the way the human brain is hard-wired to recognize human faces, and does so even in contexts that are meaningless, such as in a photo of Mars or in a tree stump; this is know as pareidolia).


• Clive Thompson, Is Happiness Catching?, The New York Times Magazine, NYTimes.com, 10 September 2009.


• * Henry A. Giroux, The Spectacle of Illiteracy and the Crisis of Democracy, truthout.org, 15 September 2009.


• Terence Tao, A speech for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences [on the future impact of internet-based technologies on academia], What’s new blog, 17 September 2009.


• Frank Schaeffer, Right-Wing Hatemongering Fueled by Christianity?, AlterNet, AlterNet.org, 21 September 2009.


• ‘Rural Brain Drain’ Turns Small Towns Into Ghost Towns, Truthdig, truthdig.com, 21 September 2009.

Links: Science, Medicine, and Policy

• Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Fourth Quadrant: A Map of the Limits of Statistics, Edge, Edge.org, 15 September 2008.


• Is There Life on Mars?, Nova, PBS, original broadcast date: 30 December 2008.


• Teryn Norris & Jesse Jenkins, Will America Lose the Clean-Energy Race?, CommonDreams.org, 29 July 2009.


• Greg Palast, Katrina, Four Years Later: Expert Fired Who Warned Levees Would Burst, Crooks and Liars, 26 August 2009.
  
  On Ivor van Heerden and the cowardice of Louisiana State University administrators.
  
  Article also at GregPalast.com.


• Fred de Sam Lazaro, Two Decades On, India Eye Clinic Maintains Innovative Mission, Online NewsHour, PBS, 02 September 2009.
  
  On the Aravind Eye Care System of India (Aravind.org; Wikipedia).


• The World at Night, Online NewsHour, PBS, 03 September 2009.
  
  Astronomers Without Borders.


• Ari LeVaux, Milk May Endanger Your Health, and the Dairy Industry Knows It, AlterNet, alternet.org, 07 September 2009.


• Dennis Overbye, After Hubble Repair, New Images From Space, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 09 September 2009.
  
  Hubble Opens New Eyes on the Universe, HubbleSite, hubblesite.org, News Release Number: STScI-2009-25, 09 September 2009.
  
  Spae Telescope Science Institute.


• William J. Broad, From Deep Pacific, Ugly and Tasty, With a Catch, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 09 September 2009.
  
  Martin Fackler, Tuna Town in Japan Sees Falloff of Its Fish, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 19 September 2009.
  
  Different locations and species, same problem.


• Elisabeth Malkin, Mexico Now Enduring Worst Drought in Years, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 12 September 2009.
  
  Chip Ward, Red Snow Warning: The End of Welfare Water and the Drying of the West [Tomgram: Chip Ward, The Ruins in Our Future], TomDispatch, TomDispatch.com, 13 September 2009.


• Charles Duhigg, Toxic Waters - Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 12 September 2009.
  
  This shameful situation is a direct result of the anti-regulation policies advocated most vociferiously by the Republican Party, but also supported by the corporation-friendly DLC Democrats. The DLC provides further evidence that there is little difference between the Republicans and Democrats in US politics.


• John M. Broder and James Kanter, Europeans Say U.S. Lacks Will on Climate, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 20 September 2009.

Links: Geopolitics

• Honduras:
  • John Nichols, Totalitarian Rightists Put Orwellian Spin on Honduras Coup, The Beat blog at TheNation.com, 02 July 2009.
  
  
  • Greg Grandin, Battle for Honduras -- and the Region, The Nation, thenation.com, 12 August 2009 [31 August 2009 print edition].
  
  
  • Robert Naiman, Coup Protestor Gang-Raped by Honduran Police, CommonDreams.org, 25 August 2009.
  
  
  • * Benjamin Dangl, The Road to Zelaya's Return: Money, Guns and Social Movements in Honduras, truthout, truthout.org, 22 September 2009.


• Lockerbie:
  • Daniel Tencer, Was Pan Am 103 bomber freed in exchange for oil?, The Raw Story, 29 August 2009.
  
  
  • Jason Allardyce , Lockerbie bomber 'set free for oil', Times Online, timesonline.co.uk, 30 August 2009.
  
  
  • * Chris Floyd, Outrageous Behavior: Bogus Bluster From Bigwigs Hides Lockerbie Truth, Empire Burlesque, 05 September 2009.


• Japanese Politics:
  • Martin Fackler, With Bold Stand, Japan Opposition Wins a Landslide, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 30 August 2009.
  
  
  • Mark Lander and Martin Fackler, U.S. Is Seeing Policy Thorns in Japan Shift, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 01 September 2009.
  
  
  • Amitabh Pal, New Japanese Leadership Causes Discomfort in the U.S., The Progressive, 03 September 2009.


• China & Natural Resources:
  • Gene Laverty, PetroChina to Buy Athabasca Oil-Sands Project Stakes, Bloomberg.com, 31 August 2009.
  
  
  • John Duce and Gene Laverty, PetroChina Agrees Biggest North America Acquisition , Bloomberg.com, 01 September 2009.
  
  
  • Timothy Williams, China Oil Deal Is New Source of Strife Among Iraqis, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 05 September 2009.
  
  
  • David Goldman, The sticky dollar reserve system, Inner Workings Blog Archive at Asia Times, 14 September 2009.
    "China would swap its whole US$2 trillion portfolio of US Treasury securities for food, energy and mineral producing capacity, except that no-one will buy their Treasuries, and no-one will sell them the farmland, oil fields and mines."


• Afghanistan:
  • Elizabeth Rubin, Karzai in His Labyrinth, The New York Times Magazine, 04 August 2009.
  
  
  • Derrick Crowe, In Afghanistan, We Know Failure When We See It, The Huffington Post, 31 August 2009.
  
  
  • Juan Cole, The U.S. is spread dangerously thin in Afghanistan, Salon.com, 03 September 2009.
  
  
  • Juan Cole, Afghanistan Roiled by NATO Air Strikes that killed almost 100, Informed Comment, 05 September 2009.
  
  
  • Juan Cole, EU Foreign Ministers Condemn NATO; German Opposition Attacks Merkel on Afghanistan; Kunduz Residents Furious at West, Informed Comment, 06 September 2009.
  
  
  • Paul Craig Roberts, Indefensible Nation: US Hypocrisy Astonishes the World, CounterPunch.org, 07 September 2009.
  
  
  • M. K. Bhadrakumar, Afghan war reaches a tipping point, Asis Times, 08 September 2009.
    
    "The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's air strikes in the northern province of Kunduz on Friday, which killed or injured more than 100 people, have left Afghan blood equally on the hands of all NATO countries. The incident shows this is no mere fight against terrorism; it is about NATO's role as a global political organization and the "unfinished business" of the Cold War - as well as about defining the new world order."
  
  
  • Pepe Escobar, Enduring Freedom until 2050, Asis Times, 08 September 2009.
    
    "In only 450 days, the number of troops in Afghanistan has swelled from 67,000 to 118,000. Since 2001, the United States has spent $179 billion in the country, while its European allies have burned $102 billion. The tragicomedy is clear: the US and its allies will do - and spend - whatever it takes to implant military bases on the doorstep of Russia and China, and to get their gas pipeline on track."
  
  
  • Tom Engelhardt, Afghanistan by the Numbers: Measuring a War Gone to Hell [Tomgram: Measuring Success in Afghanistan], TomDispatch, TomDispatch.com, 08 September 2009.
  
  
  • Chris Floyd, Metrics of Monstrosity: Free Falling in Afghanistan, Empire Burlesque, 09 September 2009.
  
  
  • Pamela Constable, After Rescue, Recriminations: Afghans Angry Over Death of Interpreter In Raid That Freed N.Y. Times Reporter, The Washington Post, 10 September 2009.
  
  
  • M. K. Bhadrakumar, Why the US is afraid of 'Afghanization', Asis Times, 12 September 2009.
  
  
  • Conn Hallinan, Afghanistan: What Are These People Thinking?, Antiwar.com, 13 September 2009.
  
  
  • Juan Cole, US Dependence on Northern Supply Routes destabilizing North, Threatening Central Asia, Informed Comment, 14 September 2009.
  
  
  • William Pfaff, All U.S. Presidents Need a War to Call Their Own — and Obama Has His, Truthdig.com, 16 September 2009.
  
  
  • Joe Klein, The Afghanistan Problem: Why Are We in Helmand?, Time, 17 September 2009.
  
  
  • * Juan Cole, Is Afghanistan Vietnam or Iraq? Arguing with Obama and Rubin, Informed Comment, 17 September 2009.
  
  
  • Derek Henry Flood, A dangerous new Afghan road opens, Asis Times, 18 September 2009.
  
  
  • * Ann Jones, Meet the Afghan Army: Is It a Figment of Washington's Imagination? [Tomgram: Ann Jones, Us or Them in Afghanistan?], TomDispatch.com, 20 September 2009.
  
  
  • Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Karen DeYoung, Changes Have Obama Rethinking War Strategy, The Washington Post, 21 September 2009.
  
  
  • Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti, Taliban Widen Afghan Attacks From Base in Pakistan, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 23 September 2009.
  
  
  • * Rory Stewart on Afghanistan, Bill Moyers Journal, 25 September 2009.
  
  Taliban:
  • Gareth Porter, The ISI and the Taliban: U.S. Officials Protect Pakistan Aid to the Taliban, CounterPunch, 05 August 2009.
  
  
  • Jean MacKenzie, Are US taxpayers funding the Taliban?: USAID probes the possibility that contractors give a cut to the Taliban, GlobalPost, 02 September 2009.
  
  
  • Juan Cole, US Aid Monies May support Taliban Activities, Informed Comment, 04 September 2009.
  
  
  • Syed Saleem Shahzad, Taliban put their heads together, Asis Times, 19 September 2009.


• John Feffer, Book Review: US hegemony slips into history, Asia Times, 12 September 2009.
  
  review of:
  
  Terrence Edward Paupp. The Future of Global Relations: Crumbling Walls, Rising Regions. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
  (Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.)


• Sreeram Chaulia, Netanyahu plays a Russian rope trick, Asia Times, 15 September 2009.

Links: Political Economy

• Barry Eichengreen, The Last Temptation of Risk, The National Interest, May/June 2009.


• Simon Johnson and James Kwak, Finance: Before the Next Meltdown, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Issue #13, Summer 2009.
  
  via: The Baseline Scenario.


• Teryn Norris & Jesse Jenkins, Will America Lose the Clean-Energy Race?, CommonDreams.org, 29 July 2009.


• Naomi Klein, Let's Put an End to Sarah Palin-Style Capitalism, AlterNet, AlterNet.org, 30 July 2009.


• Scott Thill, Why Corporations, Emerging Powers and Petro-States Are Snapping Up Huge Chunks of Farmland in the Developing World, AlterNet, AlterNet.org, 11 August 2009.


• Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Cameron dare not copy Obama's disastrous economic policies: Should he come to power, the Conservative leader must avoid the calamitous mistakes of the American president, The Observer, guardian.co.uk, 16 August 2009.


• Simon Johnson, The Two-Track Economy, The Baseline Scenario, 20 August 2009.
  
  Simon Johnson, More On The Two-Track Economy — From The WSJ And Others, The Baseline Scenario, 29 August 2009.


• Mike Shedlock, Orwellian Madness "Bernanke Saved The World", Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis, 21 August 2009.


• Jim Hightower, Holding Wall Street Bankers Accountable, JimHightower.com, 28 August 2009.


• Gene Laverty, PetroChina to Buy Athabasca Oil-Sands Project Stakes, Bloomberg.com, 31 August 2009.
  
  John Duce and Gene Laverty, PetroChina Agrees Biggest North America Acquisition , Bloomberg.com, 01 September 2009.


• Barry Ritholtz, Bailout Profits? Don’t Make Me Laugh!, The Big Picture, 31 August 2009.


• Lee Adler, Forbes Polls the Wackosphere and Gets An Earful, The Wall Street Examiner, 31 August 2009.


• William D. Cohan, The Final Days of Merrill Lynch, The Atlantic, September 2009.


• Matt Taibbi, Bailout Propaganda Begins, Taibblog - True/Slant, 01 September 2009.


• Rob Johnson & Lynn Parramore, Jim Chanos Warned Brown, Geithner, and Others about Coming Financial Crash in 2007, The Huffington Post, 01 September 2009.


• Barry Ritholtz, How the Bailouts Should Have Gone, The Big Picture, 02 September 2009.
  
  Rick Newman, How the Bailouts Could Have Gone Better, US News & World Report, 01 September 2009.


• Unemployment, Labor Policy
  
  Mike Shedlock, Cut My Pay, But Please Give Me A Job, Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis, 01 September 2009.
  
  Steven Greenhouse, Low-Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 01 September 2009.
  
  Barry Ritholtz, Data Points to Ongoing Economic Woes, The Big Picture, 02 September 2009.
  
  Yves Smith, Unemployment: The Harder You Look, The Uglier It Appears, naked capitalism, 02 September 2009.
  
  Henry Blodget, Unemployment is Much Worse Than You Think, The Business Insider, 04 September 2009.
  
  Employment-Population Ratio, Part Time Workers, Average Workweek, Calculated Risk, 04 September 2009.
  
  Barry Ritholtz, Recession Job Losses: 3 Views, The Big Picture, 05 September 2009.
  
  Pimco's Tony Crescenzi: Structural Changes in the Economy Will Lead to Long-Term Job Losses, Washington's Blog, 06 September 2009.
  
  Juan Cole, Where Have All the Broad Shoulders Gone? Or, Labor Day in a Kleptocracy, Informed Comment, 07 September 2009.
  
  Barry Ritholtz, Total 10 Year Job Gains: Negative 203k, The Big Picture, 07 September 2009.
  
  Michael Luo, Out of Work, and Too Down to Search On, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 07 September 2009.
  
  Kirk Ladendorf, Caught in global shift, city's high-tech manufacturing jobs are vanishing, Austin American-Statesman, 08 September 2009.
  
  Yves Smith, Manpower: Hiring Plans Hit New Low, naked capitalism, 08 September 2009.
  
  Yves Smith, 40% of Working Age Californians Jobless, naked capitalism, 08 September 2009.
  
  George Washington, How Bad Will Unemployment Get, and What Can We Do About It?, naked capitalism, 08 September 2009.


• Ian Bremmer & Nouriel Roubini, Don’t Expect the U.S. and China to Form a ‘Strategic Alliance’ Anytime Soon, WSJ.com, 01 September 2009.


• Penn Bullock, Friedman Economics: Is Fed chairman Ben Bernanke a follower of John Maynard Keynes or Milton Friedman?, Reason Magazine, 01 September 2009.


• James Kwak, Revisionist History, The Baseline Scenario, 02 September 2009.


• Paul Krugman, How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?, The New York Times Magazine, NYTimes.com, 02 September 2009.
  
  Paul Krugman, A few notes on my magazine article, Paul Krugman Blog, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 05 September 2009.
  
  Paul Krugman, School for Scoundrels: Book Review - 'The Myth of the Rational Market,' by Justin Fox; and 'The Sages,' by Charles R. Morris, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 06 August 2009.
  
  Some responses to Krugman's Magazine essay:
  
  Jane Smiley, Other Economists in the Room, The Huffington Post, 03 September 2009.
  
  Comments - Links 9/4/09, naked capitalism, 04 September 2009.
  
  James Kwak, Krugman on Economics, The Baseline Scenario, 04 September 2009.
  
  Barry Ritholtz, How Economists Got It Wrong, The Big Picture, 05 September 2009.
  
  Dirk Bezemer, Why some economists could see the crisis coming, FT.com, 07 September 2009.
  
  Ryan Grim, Priceless: How The Federal Reserve Bought The Economics Profession, The Huffington Post, 07 September 2009.


• Dave Johnson, Who Opposes American Manufacturing?, The Smirking Chimp, 03 September 2009.
  
  Johnson has written elsewhere on this topic:
  
  Dave Johnson, Who Would Be Against American Manufacturing?, Blog for Our Future, Campaign for America's Future, OurFuture.org, 01 September 2009.
  
  Dave Johnson, Who Opposes American Manufacturing? II, Blog for Our Future, Campaign for America's Future, OurFuture.org, 03 September 2009 [this is the Smirking Chimp essay noted above].
  
  More of his essays: Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future, OurFuture.org.


• James V. Grimaldi, Washington Redskins React to Fans' Tough Luck With Tough Love, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, 03 September 2009.


• Michael McKee, Stiglitz Says U.S. Economic Recovery May Not Be 'Sustainable', Bloomberg.com, 04 September 2009.
  
  via: Jesse's Café Américain.


• Alan S. Blinder, The Wait for Financial Reform, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 05 September 2009.


• Karl Denninger, 2009 Labor Day Ponderings ..., The Market Ticker, 06 September 2009.
  
  * Karl Denninger, Labor Day Musings Part II, The Market Ticker, 07 September 2009.


• Michael Lind, Who are the wealth creators?, Salon.com, 07 September 2009.


• Yves Smith, Deflation Worries Looking More Credible, naked capitalism, 07 September 2009.


• * John Robb, Nice depiction of a system in decline, John Robb's Weblog, 07 September 2009.


• Kevin G. Hall, A year after financial crisis, the consumer economy is dead, McClatchy Newspapers, 08 September 2009.


• Bob Ivry, Christine Harper and Mark Pittman, Missing Lehman Lesson of Shakeout Means Too Big Banks May Fail, Bloomberg.com, 08 September 2009.


• George Washington, The Economy Will Not Recover Until Trust is Restored, naked capitalism, 10 September 2009.


• Yves Smith, Trade Tensions With China Quietly Escalating, naked capitalism, 10 September 2009.


• Donald L. Barlett & James B. Steele, Good Billions After Bad, VanityFair.com, October 2009.
  
  "As the Bush administration waned, the Treasury shoveled more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in tarp funds into the financial system — without restrictions, accountability, or even common sense. The authors reveal how much of it ended up in the wrong hands, doing the opposite of what was needed."

Links: U.S. Politics & Government

• Chris Floyd, Symbol for Sale: Obama Cashes Cronies' Chips, Empire Burlesque, 29 July 2009.


• Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Cameron dare not copy Obama's disastrous economic policies: Should he come to power, the Conservative leader must avoid the calamitous mistakes of the American president, The Observer, guardian.co.uk, 16 August 2009.


• Scott Thill, Why Are Cops Tasering Grandmothers, Pregnant Women and Kids?, AlterNet, 17 August 2009.


• Michael Lind, Liberalism without labor unions?, Salon.com, 25 August 2009.
  
  Lind doesn't quite say so explicitly, but his essay makes clear that there is no Left/Social Democratic/Labor political party in the U.S. As others have observed, the U.S. has two right wing Corporation/Business parties and, with the enablement of the major media, the range of public political discourse is very narrow. I think this is one source the widespread government and policy inaction in the face of obvious injustices, inequalities, and simple inefficiencies (areas where the public good suffers to the benefit of narrow private interests).


• Glenn Greenwald, Thomas Paine v. the Right's torture defenders, Salon.com, 25 August 2009.


• Chris Floyd, Wrist-slap and Tickle: Obama Goes Mild on CIA Torture, Empire Burlesque, 25 August 2009.


• Brian Donohue, The Corporate Person Without a Country: AIG Spits in America's Eye, Again, CommonDreams.org, 25 August 2009.


• Mary Dejevsky, A mean streak in the US mainstream: The US tolerates more inequality, deprivation and suffering than is acceptable here, The Independent, independent.co.uk, 25 August 2009.
  
  via CommonDreams.org.


• Amy Goodman, Who Is Obama Playing Ball With?, TruthDig, truthdig.com, 25 August 2009.


• * Glenn Greenwald, Even The New Republic now calls for a party purge of corporate-owned "centrists", Salon.com, 27 August 2009.
  
  This is one of Greenwald's best summaries of the dysfunctions in American politics; it's one of the best essays I've read in years for understanding how recent American politics works.


• Chris Floyd, Bait and Switch: Using Diversity to Disguise Inequality, Empire Burlesque, 27 August 2009.
  
  Mr. Floyd refers to the essay:
  
  Walter Benn Michaels, What Matters, London Review of Books, vol. 31, no. 16, 27 August 2009.
  
  Mr. Michaels' essay is a review of:
  
  Kjartan Páll Sveinsson, editor. Who Cares about the White Working Class?. London: The Runnymede Trust, 2009.


• Jim Hightower, Holding Wall Street Bankers Accountable, JimHightower.com, 28 August 2009.


• * Money-Driven Medicine, Bill Moyers Journal, PBS, 28 August 2009.
  
  This documentary broadcast on Bill Moyers Journal is derived from the book:
  
  Maggie Mahar. Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much. HarperCollins, 2006.
  (Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.)
  
  Glenn Greenwald, Bill Moyers on the health care debate, Democrats, and Afghanistan, Salon.com, 29 August 2009.
  
  An anecdote:
  
  Joe Goldblatt (patient), From the Patient's Mouth: My Dentist and Why I Believe National Health Care Works, Ysabel de la Rosa, 29 August 2009.


• Glenn Greenwald, It's time to embrace American royalty, Salon.com, 30 August 2009.


• Paul Krugman, Missing Richard Nixon, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 30 August 2009.


• Chris Rowthorn, Extremism in Defense of Servitude, The Smirking Chimp, 30 August 2009.


• Dan Froomkin, Cheney Still Manipulating People -- Now In Public, The Huffington Post, 31 August 2009.


• Tom Tomorrow, Once upon a time, the citizens of a large nation turned into monsters ..., This Modern World, Salon.com, 01 September 2009.
  
  Ted Rall, We Have Met the Nazis, And They Are Us., The Smirking Chimp, 31 August 2009.


• Ed Kilgore, The return of the welfare queen: Healthcare reform has brought back the right's favorite wedge issue -- government handouts for the "undeserving," Salon.com, 31 August 2009.


• Scott Horton, American Diplomats Advocated "Nuremberg Defense", The Huffington Post, 01 September 2009.


• Matt Taibbi, Maria Bartiromo shows us how media has helped sandbag health care reform, Taibblog - True/Slant, 02 September 2009.


• Ed Pilkington, CIA doctors face human experimentation claims, guardian.co.uk, 02 September 2009.


• * Dan Froomkin, Paging A Different President Obama, The Huffington Post, 03 September 2009.


• * Glenn Greenwald, The looming political war over Afghanistan, Salon.com, 03 September 2009.


• Rebecca Boone, John Ashcroft Can Be Sued For Post-9/11 Detentions, Court Rules, The Huffington Post, 04 September 2009.
  
  Glenn Greenwald, Major ruling against Ashcroft highlights evils of preventive detention, Salon.com, 05 September 2009.
  
  Scott Horton, And Now: Fredo, the Opera, No Comment blog at Harper's Magazine, 03 September 2009.


• Bill Moyers, A Bill Moyers essay on health care reform, Bill Moyers Journal, PBS, 04 September 2009.
  
  Josh Marshall, Adventures in the Rabbit Hole, Talking Points Memo, 27 August 2009.
  
  * Henry A. Giroux, Living in a Culture of Cruelty: Democracy as Spectacle, t r u t h o u t, 02 September 2009.


• Alan Colmes, The Van Jones Story, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, 06 September 2009.
  
  Pareene, Who is Van Jones?, Gawker, 04 September 2009.
  
  * Sara Robinson, Conservative Derangement Syndrome: What Are They Thinking?, Blog for Our Future, Campaign for America's Future, OurFuture.org, 04 September 2009.
  
  * Jane Hamsher, Van Jones: A Moment of Truth For Liberal Institutions in the Veal Pen, FireDogLake, 06 September 2009.
  
  David Sirota, Taking the Movement Out of the Obama White House, Open Salon, Open.Salon.com, 06 September 2009.


• Michael Bader, The Psychology of the Right-Wing's Anti-Government 'Death-Panel' Delusions, AlterNet, 05 September 2009.

Links: Propaganda, Media, Manufacturing Consent

• Robert Parry, Iran-Contra's 'Lost Chapter', ConsortiumNews.com, 30 June 2008.
  "As historians ponder George W. Bush’s disastrous presidency, they may wonder how Republicans perfected a propaganda system that could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs."
  
  Includes link for a draft chapter omitted from an Iran-Contra report (Google Books link) detailing the Reagan administration's domestic propaganda efforts.


• Tanner Mirrlees, Media Capitalism, the State and 21st Century Media Democracy Struggles: Tanner Mirrlees interviews Robert McChesney, Cyrano's Journal Online, 07 August 2009.


• digby, Missing The Point, Big Time, Hullabaloo, 13 August 2009.
  
  Some observe that it is Chuck Todd's incompetence that qualifies him for his job; that quality makes for a compliant and submissive journalism.


• * batocchio, Silent Questions, Hullabaloo, 13 August 2009.


• Chris Hedges, Book Review: Chris Hedges on Alex S. Jones’ ‘Losing the News’, TruthDig, truthdig.com, 13 August 2009.


• * Glenn Greenwald, Fringe leftist losers: wrong even when they're right, Salon.com, 20 August 2009.
  
  Glenn Greenwald, Bush critics: still evil, crazy extremists, Salon.com, 23 August 2009.

Links: Sociology, Culture, etc.

• Paul Pettitt, Odd man out: Neanderthals and modern humans, British Archaeology, no. 51, February 2000.
  "New research shows that Neanderthals were far more sophisticated than was thought ten years ago. Still, modern humans wiped them out in the end."


• Michael R. Dove, Dreams from His Mother, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 10 August 2009.
  
  On the life and work of Ann Dunham.
  
  Ann Dunham. Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia. Duke University Press, December 2009.
  (Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.)


• * batocchio, Silent Questions, Hullabaloo, 13 August 2009.


• Clive Thompson, Can Game Theory Predict When Iran Will Get the Bomb?, The New York Times Magazine, NYTimes.com, 12 August 2009.
  
  On the work of Bruce Bueno de Mesquita (Wikipedia; NYU; Hoover Institution).


• Bruce E. Levine, Fundamentalist Consumerism and an Insane Society, Z Magazine, February 2009.


• Folwell Dunbar, Soft Measures: You don't always need a standardized test to know a school is in trouble. Just look in the boys' john., Miller-McCune Online Magazine, 21 August 2009.

Links: Science & Science Policy

• Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber, Annals of Mathematics: Manifold Destiny: A legendary problem and the battle over who solved it, The New Yorker, 28 August 2006.
  
  On the proof of the Poincaré conjecture by Grigori Perelman.


• Carol Kaesuk Yoon, Reviving the Lost Art of Naming the World, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 11 August 2009.
  
  On Biological classification, a particular domain of Taxonomy.


• Charles Duhigg, Debating Just How Much Atrazine Is Safe in Your Water Glass, The New York Times, NYTimes.com, 22 August 2009.
  
  Atrazine, Wikipedia.

Links: Geopolitics

• Nikolas Kozloff, Colombian Elites Fear Bolivaran Revolution: As Hostilities Loom, Propaganda War with Venezuela Heats Up, CounterPunch, counterpunch.org, 14 August 2009.


• The Af-Pak Channel: A Project of Foreign Policy and the New America Foundation, Foreign Policy, website established in 2009.


• Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, Jihadistan: A primer on the epicenter of global terrorism, Foreign Policy, July or August 2009.
  
  On the Afghanistan - Pakistan border region.


• * Rory Stewart, The Irresistible Illusion, London Review of Books, 9 July 2009.
  
  On US & UK policy towards Afghanistan.