The UN Security Council voted on Thursday to authorize a “no-fly zone” over Libya – a surprise to the author, who had predicted in the this column on Tuesday that China and/or Russia would veto the move. The measure gives the OK to “all necessary measures" to protect civilians from attacks by Moammar Gadhafi's forces – wording the U.S. and its allies will undoubtedly treat as a mandate to apply as much force as they wish.The righty's are already calling the US led enforcement of the UN sanctioned No Fly Zone Obama's War in a lame attempt to equate Bush using our grief over 911 to send our sons and daughters to Iraq and Afghanistan, and firing cruise missiles.
"I feel like in two days max we will destroy Gadhafi," said Ezzeldin Helwani, 35, a rebel standing next to the smoldering wreckage of an armored personnel carrier, the air thick with smoke and the pungent smell of burning rubber. In a grisly sort of battle trophy, celebrating fighters hung a severed goat's head with a cigarette in its mouth from the turret of one of the gutted tanks.
It's a simple point, but an important one, and one that gets overlooked. Whether or not you think a particular war is moral and good, the fact remains that war is illegal. Actual defense by a country when attacked is legal, but that only occurs once another country has actually attacked, and it must not be used as a loophole to excuse wider war that is not employed in actual defense.There is Oil in Lybia. Black gold. Texas Tea.
Oil reserves in Libya are the largest in Africa and the ninth largest in the world with 41.5 billion barrels (6.60×10^9 m3) as of 2007. Oil production was 1.8 million barrels per day (290×10^3 m3/d) as of 2006, giving Libya 63 years of reserves at current production rates if no new reserves were to be found. Libya is considered a highly attractive oil area due to its low cost of oil production (as low as $1 per barrel at some fields), and proximity to European markets. Libya would like to increase production from 1.8 Mbbl/d (290×10^3 m3/d) in 2006 to 3 Mbbl/d (480×10^3 m3/d) by 2010–13 but with existing oil fields undergoing a 7–8% decline rate, Libya's challenge is maintaining production at mature fields, while finding and developing new oil fields. Most of Libya remains unexplored as a result of past sanctions and disagreements with foreign oil companies.[1]
Cumulative production through 2009 was 27 Gbbl.[2] Given the stated number, this would be 65% of reserves.
The drilling of oil wells in Libya was first authorised by the Petroleum Law of 1955.[3] The National Oil Corporation is the largest oil company of Libya
The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating reports of a large oil sheen 20 miles north of the site where BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded last April. Multiple reports indicate a sheen nearly 100 miles long and 12 miles wide originating near the site of the Matterhorn SeaStar oil rig, owned by W&T Offshore, Inc.
U.S. corporate media coverage of the unfolding events in Egypt provide little or no window into the true social and political dynamics of the country – who the actual popular actors are in this history-shaking drama. The author describes the people and movements behind the revolt.
West is one of only two black Republicans in the House.
"You endured the relentless and hostile attacks from the liberal left, such as being called racist," West told the conservative activists. "Perhaps they should see who is standing here as your keynote speaker."
Attempting to repeal insurance reform would be bad enough. Attempting draconian budget cuts during a halting recovery from a deep recession would be bad enough. Making fools of themselves by wasting time reading selections from the Constitution while doing absolutely nothing to create jobs would be bad enough. Launching a war on women would be bad enough. Whining about deficits while proposing policies that would actually increase them would be bad enough. The entire Republican approach of knowing nothing and doing nothing, unless it is to attempt a return to the prevailing values of the Thirteenth Century, is so corrupt and irresponsible that it would defy credulity, were we not already so accustomed to it as to take it for granted. But it's even worse.
Incensed over BP ads claiming that the spilled oil is gone and the Gulf's beaches are clean, Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen of Alabama set out to document the truth.
Imagine this. You are asleep in a basement apartment with your roommate. You are both Rutgers students. One of you is white, the other an Arab American, and you are both 19. One of you has a father who was a cop. Police in New Brunswick, NJ have a warrant for a different student living in a different apartment in the same building. You have no police record. You are not identified on the warrant. It's 4:30 in the morning. Guess what happened next:
With more than 1,000 modest ranch homes, wide curving streets and 200 acres of green space, Pontchartrain Park was our very own "mocha Mayberry" built around a golf course that later included a Little League ballpark, tennis courts and two historically black colleges. This community, built during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation in Louisiana, was a safe haven for working-class and upper-income blacks. In many ways it shielded us from the harsh realities of racism and prejudice that pervaded just beyond its borders.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- New Orleans, which managed to escape the oil from the BP spill for more than two months, can't hide any longer.
For the first time since the accident, oil from the ruptured well is seeping into Lake Pontchartrain, threatening another environmental disaster for the huge body of water that was rescued from pollution in 1990s to become, once more, a bountiful fishing ground and a popular spot for boating and swimming.
Environmental racism is a policy, or structured practice having to do with the built environment that negatively impacts a racially homogeneous group at a disproportionately higher rate than its (often) more affluent counterpart. These biased policies are reflected in deliberate efforts to concentrate toxins and other hazardous waste and pollutants in low-income communities of color or divert necessary infrastructure improvements from these very same communities. Research has confirmed that long-term exposure to toxins in the air, land, and water lead to long-term negative health conditions, including increased risk of asthma, cancer, and other chronic and deadly diseases. However, the impact of environmental racism is not only confined to health--the economic impact can be just as fatal.
Police Captain Harry Mendoza, and his lieutenant, Mike Cahn III, told federal prosecutors last month that they were ordered by Warren Riley, then the department's second-in-command, to "take the city back and shoot looters.'' Mendoza quotes Riley as saying: "If you can sleep with it, do it."
Our report, Learning from Katrina: Lessons from Five years of Recovery and Renewal in the Gulf Coast, finds that many of the problems exposed in the botched federal response to the storm--from breakdowns in disaster planning to a misguided and mismanaged recovery--have yet to be addressed in Washington.
What's more, these key flaws in federal policy will stall Gulf Coast rebuilding and put lives at risk in future disasters unless the President and Congress take action soon.
There are no words to express or anything to say. Sometimes showing a story is better than telling it.
This is why transparency and accountability are important. Not knowing the details and the specifics of the contract leads to speculation and not fact.
But regardless if the contract is for peanuts or if it's volunteer work, why the secret? How, why and when was LiA chosen? Sunlight is the best disenfectant.
I consider it a personal slap in the face for the Alabama Democratic Party, of which I am a member, to support a blog that won't allow me the same rights and privileges of other commentors. I also consider it a slap in the face to the Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ron Sparks, Dr. Joe Reed, Dr. Paul Hubbert, The Alabama Education Association, The Alabama Democratic Confeference and all the other African American elected officials and traditional democratic base the blog administrators frquently treat with disdane and disrespect. Left in Alabama is not a liberal blog, it is a progressive blog, and there is a difference. Those who support the democratic party and it's agenda get the shaft, but LiA gets a contract. What's up with that?
To the extent that the White House has failed to take advantage of these opportunities, I think the primary reason is ineffective staff work. Often, it seems too many staffers are driven by a 1990s mindset about how politics works. Ultimately, though, President Obama is the only one who can turn the ship around. I know it must be frustrating for people in the White House to be held to such high standards; after all, by ordinary standards, they've accomplished a tremendous amount, and yet they are still receiving incoming fire. But fair or not, these aren't ordinary times. These are times that call for greatness.
Tons of BP's oil waste sent to the Chastang Landfill in Mount Vernon, Ala.: 6,008
Percent of residents in a one-mile radius who are people of color: 56.2
The double standard with respect to how Republicans and Democrats are being treated in regards to ethics violations sends mixed messages to the African American community. First it looks as if the white Democratic leadership, in concert with the GOP, is targeting blacks singularly. Second, it lets the world see America’s hypocrisy in regards to how Republicans are treated compared to black political officials, especially if one happens to be the first African American president of the United States of America.
unless I were to see some solid answers to the concerns I have raised, my gut instinct is that Smoot would be a more loyal member of both the Democratic majority, and the Congressional Black Caucus, and would thus serve her constituents better.
U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, said that after he leaves Congress he wants to practice law as a white-collar criminal defense lawyer, possibly in Washington, D.C.
lawbreaking by salaried worker: theft, fraud, embezzlement, or some other nonviolent lawbreaking act perpetrated by a salaried employee or senior manager of a company or organization
MONTGOMERY — Attorneys for a former Alabama governor convicted of bribery and other charges say a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a white collar crime law could lead courts to throw out at least some of counts against him and a former Health South CEO.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that prosecutors erred in using the "honest services" law in the prosecution of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling.
Ex-Gov. Don Siegelman and Richard Scrushy were convicted in 2006 of bribery and other charges in a federal government corruption case.
Siegelman attorney Vince Kilborn said the "honest services" law was also used in the prosecution of both men and that the ruling might encourage the court to look favorably on their appeals.
