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GAIA AND HOMOSAPIENS
View this unusual film on the evolution and sustainabity, or not, of gaia and homosapiens.
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Note:Symbol " denotes that that article continues at the link.
Imaging Life

India | A vow of poverty and the Battle for Mother Teresa's Remains
Mother Teresa was born to Albanian parents but lived and worked in India
Time - By Nilanjana Bhowmick in Kolkata - Friday, October 16, 2009
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It's only 7.30 a.m., but the front door of house number 54A is already open. Outside, a short, bald man dressed in a neat, black-checked shirt and faded gray trousers stands beneath the nondescript building's huge windows, bows his head and puts it against the wall in a sign of obeisance. Arun Mukherjee, an accounts clerk in his late 40s, has been stopping here at Mother House, Mother Teresa's home in Kolkata, on his way to work every morning for decades. For him, the building is no less than a temple. "I feel very calm when I stop here," he says a tad shyly.

Mukherjee is not alone. Inside the house, the remains of the Mother, as she is popularly referred to in the city, are buried in the courtyard. That the revered Catholic nun transcended all religion is apparent when one enters her tomb, where people are praying with folded hands, with their palms in front of their faces and with Rosary beads. For many, paying this respect to the Mother, who spent nearly 70 years here, is part of a daily homage to a woman who touched every Kolkatan's life. Up a flight of stairs is the Mother's room, sparsely furnished with a narrow iron bed, a long table and bench and a desk where she worked. Mohammad Hossain, a trader, stands outside the room with eyes closed and head bowed in prayer. "I always feel her presence here, which fills me with hope," he says.

The city was thus thrown into shock this week when it learned that Albania, the country of Mother Teresa's parents, had demanded that her remains be returned before her birth centenary in August 2010. One of the nuns at Mother House was appalled. She couldn't understand why the country would want the Mother's remains back when it had so little connection to her. In anticipation that Macedonia ? where Mother Teresa was born and lived until she was 18 ? might also join in the demand, the West Bengal?based State Forum of Christians, with more than 10 million members, has called for an all-religion mass rally to be held on Oct. 23. Herod Mullick, the leader of the forum, said the group will also be sending a memorandum to the Pope to forestall any such "unjustified, irrational and impractical" demands. Political leaders in the state dismissed the controversy as a nonissue, as the Mother was an Indian citizen. (Read TIME's cover story, "The Secret Life of Mother Teresa.")
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US | An addiction to worldly excess | The Forbes 400 Shows Why Our Nation Is Falling Apart
Huffington Post - By Les Leopold, Author of The Looting of America - October 1, 2009
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It's great to know that during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans, according to Forbes, actually increased by $30 billion. Well golly, that's only a 2 percent increase, much less than the double digit returns the wealthy had grown accustomed to. But a 2 percent increase is a whole lot more than losing 40 percent of your 401k. And $30 billion is enough to provide 500,000 school teacher jobs at $60k per year.

Collectively, those 400 have $1.57 trillion in wealth. It's hard to get your mind around a number like that. The way I do it is to imagine that we were still living during the great radical Eisenhower era of the 1950s when marginal income tax rates hit 91 percent. Taxes were high back in the 1950s because people understood that constraining wild extremes of wealth would make our country stronger and prevent another depression. (Well, what did those old fogies know?)

Afghan election poll saga hits US troop plan
Financial Times - By Edward Luce in Washington and Matthew Green in Kabul - October 16, 2009
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The timing of Barack Obama?s much-awaited decision on how many new troops to send to Afghanistan has been thrown into further doubt amid mounting global speculation that Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, may face a second round election run-off. election White House officials said on Friday that no decision would be possible on troop numbers or on the broader Afghan strategy until the political uncertainty had been resolved. It could take weeks to create a legitimate government in Kabul. Some analysts believe it would be logistically impossible to hold a second round of an election during the winter in Afghanistan.

Opinion | Going 'deep', not 'big', in Afghanistan
Asia times - By Gareth Porter - october 17, 2008
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WASHINGTON - A veteran United States Army officer who has served in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars warns in an analysis now circulating in Washington that the counter-insurgency strategy urged by General Stanley A McChrystal is likely to strengthen the Afghan insurgency, and calls for withdrawal of the bulk of United States combat forces from the country over 18 months.
In a 63-page paper representing his personal views but reflecting conversations with other officers who have served in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L Davis argues that it is already too late for US forces to defeat the insurgency.

The Iraqi Quandary

General Odierno: U.S. May Never Declare Victory in Iraq
FoxNews.com - Thursday, October 1, 2009
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The top American commander in Iraq said Thursday it is unlikely the U.S. can declare victory by the time forces leave at the end of 2011. "I'm not sure we will ever see anyone declare victory in Iraq, because first off, I'm not sure we'll know for 10 years or five years," Army Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. "What we've done here is we're giving Iraq an opportunity in the long term to be a strategic partner of the United States, but more importantly, be a partner in providing regional stability inside of the Middle East," he said.

Odierno's comments came one day after he announced at a congressional hearing that he will send home about 4,000 additional troops by the end of October. He told the House Armed Services Committee that there are about 124,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq and he expects to meet Obama's deadline of sending home all but 50,000 by September 2010 as the military ends its combat mission there.

He also urged lawmakers not to lose sight of the nation as a key Mideast ally given its location and natural resources, like oil. He echoed that theme Thursday.

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Carrumpah-Lobo - The Homosapiens.ki Blog
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Share your opinions here.

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International

UN backs Gaza war crimes report
Financial Times - By Frances Williams in Geneva and Vita Bekker in Tel Aviv - October 16, 2009
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The UN Human Rights Council on Friday endorsed a damning report alleging war crimes by Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in the face of stiff opposition from America and Israel. The passing of the resolution, drafted by the Palestinians and their allies, steps up pressure for the prosecution of Israeli military and political leaders.

Israel trying to dodge prosecution and condemnation for Gaza
AP - By Amy Teibel and Paisley Dodds - October 1, 2009
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JERUSALEM ? Stung by a damning U.N. report alleging war crimes in Gaza, Israel is taking extraordinary steps to fend off potential international prosecution of its political and military leaders, hiring high-powered attorneys, lobbying Western governments and launching a public relations blitz. Israel has dismissed the U.N. investigation into its winter offensive in the Gaza strip as biased, but its latest moves show it is clearly concerned.

The U.N. report appears to have energized pro-Palestinian groups that have hoped for years to bring Israelis before courts in countries that recognize the concept of "universal jurisdiction" ? trying people for crimes unrelated to their own territory or nationals. Most recently, British activists attempted this week to have Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak arrested during a trip to Britain for war crimes connected to his role in the Gaza war. Barak was untouched ? but only because the court that considered the request ruled that he enjoyed immunity as a Cabinet minister.

But the incident raised the prospect that Israelis might find it increasingly difficult to travel to European countries that recognize universal jurisdiction.

China | Mao Takes Manhattan: Empire State Building Goes Red and Yellow for China
Huffington Post - By David Flumenbaum - September 30, 2009
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To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China under Communist rule and Mao's 1949 revolution, the Chinese will hold a military parade in Beijing on Thursday of unparalleled size -- 5,000 soldiers, 43,000 fireworks and a display of 52 new weapons -- followed by a civilian parade of 100,000 marchers and 60 floats, many chanting new nationalistic mantras coined by the Chinese government for the occasion.

For a nation that worships Mao, and the path of development and prosperity the Chinese people believe he charted, nothing less would do to commemorate its 60th anniversary. But when it comes to the commemoration of China's 60th anniversary in the U.S., perhaps we could -- and should -- expect a little less.

[ Last ] wednesday night in New York City, the Empire State Building will illumine its familiar spire with red and yellow lights in honor of Communist China. The Communism-themed color scheme will stay lit through Thursday night, much to the delight of China's consular officials, who were on hand for a ceremony in the lobby of the iconic building Wednesday morning, and to the acute dismay of the dozen or so protesters outside, and to many Americans who question whether honoring China's Communist revolution here is at all appropriate.

India | Asia?s richest man takes 66% pay cut
Financial Times - By James Fontanella-Khan in Mumbai - October 16, 2009
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Mukesh Ambani, Asia?s richest man, who is spending about $1bn to build a lavish 27-storey house and buy his wife a luxury Airbus jet, this week gave himself a 66 per cent pay cut. In cutting his compensation to ?set a personal example of moderation in executive compensation?, Mr Ambani, who controls Reliance Industries, became the first high-profile Indian executive to heed his government?s call for austerity in corporate compensation.

Ranked by Forbes as the world?s seventh wealthiest man, the Indian billionaire said his compensation for the 2008-09 financial year would be Rs150m ($3.2m). The board of his petrochemical company said other executives? pay would also be capped. The move comes as India celebrates Diwali when people pray for prosperity.

Israeli youth reject army call-up
Al jazeera - October 13, 2009
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More than 80 Israeli students have announced their refusal to serve in the Israeli military because of what they call their nation's track-record of oppression in the occupied territories. The conscientious objectors issued a letter declaring their determination not to join up during a news conference in Tel Aviv in protest against the government's policies towards Gaza and the West Bank. "We cannot ignore the truth - the occupation is a violent, racist, inhumane, illegal, undemocratic, immoral and an extreme condition that presents a mortal danger to both peoples," the letter read.

Israel | One Million Refugees Headed to Israel
Jerusalem Post - By Rebecca Anna Stoil - October 15, 2009
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IDF units responsible for guarding Israel's expansive western border with Egypt said Thursday that there are one million would-be infiltrators waiting to cross the mostly barrierless border and enter Israel illegally. The statements were made to a group of MKs from the Knesset's Committee on the Issue of Foreign Workers, who traveled to the South to hear an assessment of the situation from those closest to the problem.

After hearing the briefing by IDF officers, the committee's members called upon the government to immediately initiate the IDF contingency plan that was approved by the Olmert administration, known as "Hourglass." The plan includes a number of steps to be taken to significantly reduce the number of work immigrants who infiltrate across Israel's expansive southern borders.

HS Editor - The accuracy of this remains to be seen. Is it based on fact, as one may suspect, or is it a propaganda ploy for internal political purposes?

Pakistan / India | Pak Taliban chief threatens to dispatch militants to India
The Hindu / India - October 15, 2009
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As his militants wrought havoc in the country by a series of attacks and suicide blasts, Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has threatened to dispatch terrorists to fight India, ?once an Islamic state had been created in Pakistan. ?We want an Islamic state. If we get that, then we will go to the borders and help fight the Indians,? Hakimullah Mehsud said in footage aired by Britain?s Sky News channel.

UK | Universities finally open their doors to the poor
Research reveals big rise in number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds -- over a century after the establishment of US Land Grant Universities in the US.
The Independent - By Richard Garner, Education Editor and James Morrison
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UK | Ban on 'torture documents' lifted
BBC - Friday, October 16, 2009
David Miliband: "If we give away other people's secrets, they will give us less information"
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The High Court has ruled that US intelligence documents containing details of the alleged torture of a former UK resident can be released. Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed, 31, who spent four years in Guantanamo Bay, claims British authorities colluded in his torture while he was in Morocco.

United States Government

Federal court | Judge orders release of Cheney interview with FBI in Plame Case
AP - By Nedra Pickler -October 1, 2009
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WASHINGTON ? A federal judge ruled Thursday that the FBI must publicly reveal much of its notes from an interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney during the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative.

Cheney agreed to be interviewed by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald in June 2004 during the investigation of the leak of Valerie Plame's identity after her husband publicly criticized the Bush administration. Both the Bush and Obama administrations said they wanted to keep the interview confidential because future presidents, vice presidents and their senior staff may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could became public.

But U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled there was no justification to withhold the entire 67 pages of FBI records documenting Fitzgerald's interview since the Plame leak investigation has concluded. He said that limited parts could be withheld to protect national security and private communications between the president and vice president.

The Justice Department told Sullivan in a hearing this summer that if he ordered the documents released, they would appeal and seek to withhold them until the matter is resolved. The Justice Department declined to comment on the ruling Thursday.

Plame's identity was leaked to news organizations after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, criticized the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq in 2003 [ to bolster the administration's posture to go to war against Iraq ].

Congress | Conferees Approve Study of Nuclear Bomb to extend it;s usefulness
Washington Post - By Walter Pincus - October 17, 2009
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The first step toward rebuilding one of the nation's tactical nuclear weapons so it could be put in the stockpile well into the 21st century has been approved by House and Senate conferees.
HS Editor - How delicately put. In other words, so it could be used well into the 21st century.

US budget deficit hit a record $1,400bn
Financial Times - By Sarah O?Connor in Washington - October 17 2009
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The US budget deficit hit a record $1,400bn in the last fiscal year as the government tried to spend its way out of recession, slightly less than expected but still more than three times that of 2008. The Obama administration has argued that the deficit was the price the country had to pay to pull the recession-ravaged economy back from the brink. But on Friday it promised to take measures to bring it back down. ?Future deficits are too high, and the President is committed to working with Congress to bring them down to a sustainable level as the economy recovers,? said Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary

Obama Criticized as Too Cautious, Slow on Judicial Posts

Washington Post - By Michael A. Fletcher, Staff Writer - Friday, October 16, 2009
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President Obama has not made significant progress in his plan to infuse federal courts with a new cadre of judges, and liberal activists are beginning to blame his administration for moving too tentatively on what they consider a key priority. During his first nine months in office, Obama has won confirmation in the Democratic-controlled Senate for just three of his 23 nominations for federal judgeships, largely because Republicans have used anonymous holds and filibuster threats to slow the proceedings to a crawl.

US | National Chemicals Policy Reform
Scientist Richard Denison testifies before a House subcommittee on the urgent need for TSCA reform.
Environmental Defense Fund - Current
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Scientist Richard Denison outlines steps for revamping the nation's main chemical statute in Ten Essential Elements in TSCA Reform [PDF], published in the Environmental Law Reporter.

***** A Must | Listen to Denison | Video of incredible testimony before Congress. - Not to be missed.
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Fundamental reform of our nation's chemicals policies is needed, notably the main chemicals statute, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Unlike every other major environmental law, it has never been significantly amended since it was adopted, in 1976.

TSCA has serious flaws that impede it from ensuring chemical safety in the U.S. Specifically, The TSCA:

has failed to deliver the information needed to identify unsafe ? as well as safer ? chemicals;

forbids the federal government from sharing much of the limited information it does obtain;

imposes an unreasonable burden on government to prove actual harm in order to control or replace a dangerous chemical; and
thereby perpetuates the chemicals industry's failure to innovate toward inherently safer chemical and product design.

Major advances in chemicals policies in other parts of the world are leaving the U.S. behind in the increasingly global chemicals economy. To document the urgent need for policy reform, our 2007 report Not That Innocent contrasts U.S. policies with those in Canada and the European Union, identifying "best practices" culled from all three systems that together create a vision for future U.S. chemicals policy.

EDF's September 2008 report Across the Pond assesses one of the first impacts that the new European regulation called REACH will have on U.S. companies and chemicals: REACH's identification of "substances of very high concern."

EDF scientist Richard Denison's paper Ten Essential Elements in TSCA Reform [PDF], published in January 2009 in the Environmental Law Reporter, lays out a blueprint for new legislation to replace the outmoded Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.

US | EPA Administrator Indicates Obama Administration Will Support Overhall Of Nation's Toxic Chemical Law
Environment and Health Advocates Look to Congress for Next Steps.
Safer Chemicals.org - September 30, 2009
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SAN FRANCISCO ? In a signal that the EPA has entered a new era, Administrator Lisa Jackson said the time had come to strengthen EPA?s authority to regulate toxic chemicals, which are ubiquitous in the environment and human bodies.

Jackson identified chemical management reform as one of her top priorities, and stated the administration?s guiding principles for overhauling the nation?s toxic chemical law, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Legislation to reform TSCA is expected to be introduced in Congress this fall by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL).

Jackson said the 1976 law currently on the books has fallen behind the industry it was intended to regulate and that her agency needs better tools to protect Americans from toxic chemicals. She added the time is absolutely right for Congress to take the next step, passing a law to protect Americans from toxic chemicals.

?The chorus of voices calling for reform of our nation?s chemical regulations now includes the Obama administration, health professionals, environmental advocates, the states, and even industry,? said Earthjustice President Trip Van Noppen. ?Now we look to Congress to join the fight to protect our children and our environment from dangerous chemicals.?

?The Obama Administration is in sync with a public demanding safer chemicals and better information they can use to protect their families from toxic chemicals,? said Andy Igrejas, National Campaign Director for Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.

The principles Jackson outlined to guide Congress in creating new legislation include: ^

Citizens / Civil Organizations / Activism

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

US | Whistleblower to get $4.5M in defense fraud case
Chicago Tribune - October 15, 2009
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A company whistleblower played the key role in an investigation that led to a Skokie-based defense contractor agreeing to pay $25 million to settle federal criminal and civil fraud claims, the U.S. attorney's office said today. As a reward, the MPC Products Corp. whistleblower who brought the deliberate overcharging to the government's attention and worked undercover wearing a wire will receive $4.5 million as his share of that settlement.

Cracking Books and Mags in the Coffee House

Audio | Rare recording of James Joyce reading; Happy Bloomsday!
BoingBoing.net - Posted by Cory Doctorow - June 16, 2009
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Happy Bloomsday! Here's a reading of James Joyce performing his own work. As John Naughton notes, "When I first heard it I was astonished to find that he had a broad Irish-country accent. I had always imagined him speaking as a 'Dub' -- i.e. with the accent of most of the street characters in Ulysses."

Topical Sections

Art and Culture

Leonard Cohen | "First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin" | Music Video
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Civil and Corporate Crime

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson.?
--- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-Nov-21, in a letter to Colonel E. Mandell House

US | Wall St bankers 'lied over and over again'
New Zealand Herald - By Stephen Foley - October 16, 2009
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NEW YORK - Amid the economic wreckage, after seven million job losses and approaching two million home foreclosures in the US alone, with businesses and consumers around the world still struggling to get finance after the long credit crunch, Wall St is finally on trial. A little piece of Wall St at least. In the first major case against bankers at the heart of the meltdown, a jury of 12 mainly working-class New Yorkers yesterday began deciding the fate of the two Bear Stearns managers whose hedge funds imploded in 2007, signalling the start of the crisis.

US | Six financial executives charged in $20m insider trade case
Financialm times - By Joanna Chung in New York - October 16, 2009
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Billionaire investor Raj Rajaratnam and present and former executives of Bear Stearns, IBM, Intel and McKinsey were charged on Friday in an alleged insider trading scheme that US prosecutors called the biggest ever involving hedge funds. In a possible sign of escalating federal efforts to uncover white collar crime, Preet Bharara, US attorney in Manhattan, said the case marked the first time court-authorised wire taps ? a traditional tool of investigators pursuing mob bosses and drug kingpins ? had been used in a significant insider trading case

Economy and Finance

Bloomberg Economic News
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Bloomberg Current Worldwide Financial News
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Analysis | Countdown to next crisis
Financial Times - By Francesco Guerrera - October 16 2009
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Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock ... Can you hear that? It is the countdown to the next financial crisis. I hate to say this just as green shoots are sprouting ? the Dow crossed 10,000 points this week, banks are reporting bumper profits and the US recession is all but over ? but there is a reason why it is called a ?cycle?.

The recipe than turns today?s riches into tomorrow?s disasters is a familiar one. Add a little bit of risk here, a sprinkling of financial ?innovation? there, spice it up with greed to taste, let it simmer for a few years and, before you know it, you have a fully-baked hot crisis on your hands.

Investors, bankers and regulators know this but ignore it until the music plays ? to use the famous last words of Citigroup?s Chuck Prince. When the music does stop, and it always does, the reaction among regulators and politicians is to sound tough and call for ?radical action? to make sure such a mess ?does not happen again?. The crisis of 2007-08 has been no different. Congress and the Administration are sparring on big reforms that include giving the Federal Reserve new powers to unwind large financial institutions. International bodies are busy drawing up rules on anything from bankers? pay to capital requirements and leverage ratios. This flurry of activity would make for amusing political comedy if it wasn?t wasting time and resources that should be devoted to cushioning the blow of the next crisis.

US | Public anger to rein in top Goldman bonuses
Financial Times / UK -- By Greg Farrell in New York - October 15, 2009
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Goldman Sachs acknowledged on Thursday that public anger about Wall Street?s bonus culture will constrain how much it will pay the top five executives of the bank, whose compensation has to be disclosed publicly. The comments by David Viniar, chief financial officer, during a conference call to discuss Goldman?s $3.2bn third-quarter profits is a concession that the bank?s end-of-year bonus decisions will be affected by politics.

So far this year Goldman has set aside $16.7bn for compensation and benefits, nearly as much as the $16.9bn it put away by the third quarter of 2007, when rewards reached record levels and Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive, earned $70m.

Because the bank?s headcount this year is about the same as two years ago, compensation is on track to match that of 2007, when Goldman employees received $661,000 each on average.

In contrast - US | Young, Green, and Broke
In These Times - By Rinku Sen and Billy Parish - Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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Last week, the Labor Department reported that youth unemployment stands at 18.2%, nearly twice the national average of 9.8%. The percentage of young people without a job is a staggering 53.4 percent, the highest figure since World War II. Looking deeper, the statistics for youth of color are terrible and telling.

According to the most recent data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 40.7% of black youth between 16-19 are unemployed, almost double the amount of whites teenagers (23%). For Latinos the same age, the rate is nearly 30%. Get a little older and the gap grows wider. Unemployment for black Americans aged 20-24 is 27.1%, over twice that faced by white youth (13.1%) in the same age range.

The glaring differences indicate that unemployment is not only decidedly raced, but also that the current economic condition is wholly unforgiving for young people of color. Only a massive, well-funded set of green jobs programs explicitly designed to close those racial gaps can create a truly vital, full-employment economy.

Food and Nutrition

US | Debate grows over raw milk
Lactose intolerance. Sixty percent of adults can't digest milk.
USA Today - By Jessica Leving - October 15, 2009
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A national battle is heating up between proponents of drinking raw milk for health benefits and food safety advocates such as the Food and Drug Administration. Drinkers of raw, or unpasteurized, milk say it tastes better, helps with digestive problems and boosts immunity. The FDA warns the milk is "inherently dangerous." It can be a host for potentially harmful germs, FDA spokesman Michael Herndon says.
The sale of raw milk is legal, with varying restrictions, in 28 states, with five additional states allowing it to be sold as pet food, according to the Weston A. Price Foundation, a Washington-based non-profit that advocates raw milk.

Legal Issues

Bloomberg Index of Current Legal News
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Italy | Prosecutor says kidnapping in CIA rendition case too grave to cover up
AP - By Colleen Barry - September 30, 2009
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Complete here.
MILAN ? The kidnapping of a terror suspect is too grave a crime to be covered up just to protect government secrets, a prosecutor declared Wednesday in the trial of 26 Americans and seven Italians charged in the abduction of an Egyptian cleric.

Prosecutor Armando Spataro gave his closing arguments in a trial that is the first in any country to scrutinize the CIA's extraordinary renditions. Under that program, the U.S. spy agency transferred terrorism suspects to third countries for interrogation.

Human rights advocates say that renditions were the CIA's way to outsource the torture of prisoners to countries where torture was practiced.

Italian prosecutors say Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, a suspected terrorist also known as Abu Omar, was kidnapped from a Milan street in broad daylight on Feb. 17, 2003. Nasr was then allegedly driven from Milan to the Aviano air base in Italy, flown to the Ramstein air base in southern Germany and then to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured.

Nasr has been released but remains in Egypt and has not testified at the trial.

The CIA has declined to comment on the case. All the Americans are being tried in absentia and are considered fugitives. The Italian government has denied any involvement, and all defendants have denied the charges.

The Constitutional Court has excluded evidence from the trial it deemed classified, including any information that disclosed the workings of Italian and foreign secret services. The high court also threw out key testimony from Luciano Peroni, an intelligence agent who has acknowledged being present when Nasr was kidnapped.

Spataro, however, argued that the severity of the crime meant that more evidence should be admissible, because Italian law does not allow its secret services to participate in criminal acts.

"Does it cover a murder?" Spataro asked of the rules on government secrecy. "If the answer is no, the answer is the same for kidnapping a person."

He said the seven Italian defendants, who include the former head of military intelligence and his former deputy, had cited government secrets when they appeared in court as "an umbrella" to protect themselves from accusations and to refuse to answer prosecutors' questions.

Spataro also complained that successive Italian governments have refused to request the extradition of the U.S. suspects and that no witnesses from the United States responded to requests to testify.

In the second day of closing arguments, Spataro focused on the role of the Italians. Last week he had detailed the role of most of the U.S. defendants, all but one believed to be CIA agents. At the end of the arguments, Spataro will make his sentencing request for each defendant.

One American defendant, Sabrina De Sousa, has challenged the U.S. silence on the case and hired her own lawyer to represent her. The lawyer, Dario Bolognesi, says the case against his client relies on evidence that he will argue has been excluded because it was classified.

De Sousa says she was a foreign service officer in Milan and denies that she worked for the CIA

Rights and Freedom

The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians."
--- Angelica Grimke - (1805-1879) Source: Anti-Slavery Examiner, September 1836

"Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction."
--- Thomas Jefferson - (1743-1826), Source: in a letter to John Adams as quoted in John A. Stormer, None Dare Call it Treason (Florissant, MO: Liberty Bell Press, 1964)

Science & Technology

Bloomberg Index of Current Science News
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The Descent of Man - Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution
An astonishing new portrait of a scientific icon
Powells Books - By Adrian Desmond - October 18, 2009
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Who can divine the intentions of the human heart, the motives that guide behavior? Some of the reasons for our actions lie on the surface of consciousness, whereas others are more deeply embedded in the recesses of the mind. Recovering motives and intentions is a principal job of the historian. For without some attribution of mental attitudes, actions cannot be characterized and decisions assessed. The same overt behavior, after all, might be described as "mailing a letter" or "fomenting a revolution." The recovery of intentions is crucial for the historian's narrative.

In the case of Charles Darwin, perhaps the most important question is, What led him to formulate his theory of the modification and common descent of species? Scholars have settled more or less securely on the answer, arguing that since he was quite aware of the transmutational views of his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, and those of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Darwin would have had his eyes opened to the variability of species on his five-year Beagle voyage. After he returned to England in 1836, he consulted with John Gould, ornithologist at the British Museum, about three types of Galapagos mockingbirds. They were not, as the young naturalist had initially assumed, varieties of a single species that had adapted to local environments but true and good species.

Frank Sulloway , some years ago, convinced most of the scholarly community that Darwin's experience with Gould ignited a mind packed with possibility. Thereafter, wouldn't sheer scientific ambition, the excitement of getting to the bottom of things, have pushed Darwin along during the 20 years of the theory's gestation? Wouldn't he have been motivated by the same kind of desire for adventure and recognition that led him to depart England in the first place? It has been generally assumed that positive answers to these questions would account for Darwin's parting company with English scientific orthodoxy.

Social Issues

US | Longer lines at New York food banks | With Video
Al Jazeera - October 17, 2009
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In early 2008, food riots and protests shook the world as the price of basic commodities spiralled out of control and became beyond the means of millions of people who could no longer afford to buy rice, bread and other staple foodstuffs. However, such food insecurity has not been restricted to developing and under-developed nations, but has affected millions in wealthier western nations as well. In the US, for example, food banks across New York City have reported an increase in the number of people seeking assistance,with some reporting an increase of more than 25 per cent just in the past year.

Sound and Fury

Photography - US | Photos from the Book, Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America
- Slide Show / Audio

Hip Hop | Maestro Fresh Wes - Drop The Needle
- Video

Bouncing barefoot on the sidewalk
- Video

A Song for the Times - Bing Crosby (1932) ?Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?
- Audio

The History of A Great Depression-Era Anthem For Our Time
- Audio/Text

Yip Harburg (1970)
- Audio

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Music Video | Leonard Cohen | "Democracy Is Coming to the USA"
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