Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska

Jose, Cynthia, Rebekka. We are here in Juneau, Alaska for a week of sightseeing and running. Jose and I are running the Juneau Marathon on Saturday, August 2nd. Rebekka is running the half marathon. Yesterday we took a city bus yesterday to the Mendenhall Glacier.

Torture and Amerika

Slate: The Bauer of Suggestion: Our torture policy has deeper roots in Fox television than the Constitution.

NYRB: Jane Mayer: The Battle for a Country's Soul

Sustainable Living Solar Homes Tour

Today we drove down to Westcliffe for the Solar Homes Tour. At left is Dave Tonsing (with dog), owner of the earthship behind him and Tyler Stein of Sustainable Ways. We joined the tour along with about 40 others at the courthouse in Westcliffe at 8:30 this morning. Dan Miller and Jennifer Younger made our aquaintance and joined us to car pool to the three featured homes. Later we had lunch with this delightful couple in Westcliffe and drove down to see their magnificent home in the Cuerno Verde development 10 miles south of Westcliffe where I also own 20 acres.

The first home was a passive solar home using thermal mass blocks of 85% recycled styrofoam and 15% concrete mix. It also used radiant floor heating and was "on grid" though it was highly energy efficient. Next we visited Dave Tonsing's earthship which is 100% off-grid and fully uses sustainable energy--solar for electric and passive solar for heat. Dave has built 10 earthships in the valley and consulted on three more and was a wealth of information.

The final home of the Solar tour was an adobe home that is nearly completely passive solar, but they added a small wood stove to get them through times when indoor temperatures occasionally drop to the low 50's. I was pleased to make new friends in Custer County and particularly to make contact with professionals who can help me build an earthship on my property.

ACLU obtains key memos authorizing CIA Torture Methods through FOIA

ACLU Obtains Key Memos Authorizing CIA Torture Methods

The American Civil Liberties Union today obtained three redacted documents related to the Bush administration's brutal interrogation policies, including a previously withheld Justice Department memo authorizing the CIA's use of torture. The government was ordered to turn over the documents in response to an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought in 2004 by the ACLU and other organizations seeking records on the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody overseas.

"These documents supply further evidence, if any were needed, that the Justice Department authorized the CIA to torture prisoners in its custody," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. "The Justice Department twisted the law, and in some cases ignored it altogether, in order to permit interrogators to use barbaric methods that the U.S. once prosecuted as war crimes."

A Social History of the Surge

Juan Cole set the record straight weighing in with "A Social History of the Surge"

Must Read: Evidence of the US Banking System Teetering on the Brink of Collapse There is roughly $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits. $2.60 Trillion of that is uninsured. There is only $53 billion in FDIC insurance to cover $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits. Indymac will eat up roughly $8 billion of that.

Of the $6.84 Trillion in bank deposits, the total cash on hand at banks is a mere $273.7 Billion. Where is the rest of the loot? The answer is in off balance sheet SIVs, imploding commercial real estate deals, Alt-A liar loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds, toggle bonds where debt is amazingly paid back with more debt, and all sorts of other silly (and arguably fraudulent) financial wizardry schemes that have bank and brokerage firms leveraged at 30-1 or more. Those loans cannot be paid back.

What cannot be paid back will be defaulted on. If you did not know it before, you do now. The entire US banking system is insolvent.

HuffPo: Congressional Interest in Bugliosi book on Prosecuting Bush for Murder
I am almost finished reading Vincent Bugliosi's book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. One cannot read this screed and emerge anything but enraged at the phony prep boy who avoided service in Viet Nam and sent our boys to a war of choice that is bankrupting our nation and destroying our moral foundation. Our boys have not died in Iraq for freedom. They have not died for America. They have died needless deaths of ignominy for Bush and Cheney. Send Bush to prison for life. While we are it include Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld. Liars. Disgraceful deceivers.

Harper's: Six Questions for Jane Mayar

Harper's: Six Questions for Jane Mayar, author of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of how the War on Terror turned into a War on American Ideals

Here she is interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air: Terror and the Unraveling of America's Moral Fabric

New Blogs from my Brother, Dr. Doug Bremner

The Last Psychiatrist: The Wrong Lessons from Iraq

DC's Improbable Science

Science-Based Medicine

Doug's Blog: Before You Take that Pill

AL GORE: Green Energy by 2018 (7/17 Speech)

Jib Jab -- Time for Some Campaignin'

Barack Obama in major speech on Iraq War Policy

John Lennon: We're all Hitler inside, we're all Christ Inside: I Met the Walrus

Mr Obama goes to Berlin

The Washington Note: Mr Obama goes to Berlin

HuffPo: Joseph Palermo: Does Anyone Remember the Oil Spill in Santa Barbara?

UK Telegraph: U.S. faces Global Funding Crisis, warns Merril Lynch It's bad. It is really bad.

NYT Archives (1916): Electric Trains over the Rockies

Proposal from The Oil Drum to electrify 36,000 miles of strategic rail across the U.S. It would cost $90B, require about 2% of the current electric grid and prevent the importing of millions of barrels of oil.

Gordon Brown, British PM with major speech on the post-peak oil economy and what Britain is going to do about it. Now this is leadership!!

Countdown: War Crimes Prosecutions Possible

The Onion: Recession-Plagued Nation demands new Bubble to Invest in

Earth's Endgame etc.

Derrick Jensen: Endgame

The Specter of Mass Extinction in the Anthropocene Age

The Only Diet for a Peacemaker is a Vegetarian Diet

Vincent Bugliosi's book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" has been ignored by the MSM and he has not been given any interviews. Despite this his book is on the best seller lists. What a sad commentary on our media. We have no MSM.

Mayer: Cheney ‘Repeatedly’ Held ‘Highly Unusual’ Meetings With CIA IG Before Torture Probe Stopped

TomDispatch: The Wedding Crashers: A Short Till-Death-Do-Us-Part History of Bush's Wars

Barack Obama New Yorker Cover

HuffPo on the Barack Obama as Muslim New Yorker Cover

NYT Opinionator on the New Yorker Cover flap

Interview with David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker on the Obama cover

What do I think? At first I thought it was over the top, but on reflection I think it is funny... and totally in character for New Yorker covers. Ask the Bush administration.

Dear Senator Barack Obama: A Truthout open letter on FISA

Some links

Manitou Springs (my town) Mayor, Eric Drummond leads by example, bringing environmentalism home

Kyle Skaggs Smashes Hardrock 100 record!! (by 2hrs 45min!!)

I can deal with and understand this New Yorker cover depicting Obama as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist. I'm not sure the subleties are going to play very well though.

Fannie and Freddie are surely doomed. This will bankrupt the nation. To guarantee Fannie and Freddie will mean doubling the deficit. The dollar will go down the tubes, interest rates will skyrocket and the downward spiral will be relentless. Collapse is imminent. Just like the former Soviet Union in the 90's. We are going down. Stock up on food stores.

Green Light on Torture

VanityFair.com: The Green Light on Torture: Philippe Sands follows the torture trail, and holds out the possibility of war crimes charges. See his new book: Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values

Frank Rich: The Real-Life ‘24’ of Summer 2008 see the new book by New Yorker writer Jane Mayer: The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

I think there now the possibility of war crimes trials. That is the only way for America to return to her former greatness. There must be accountability from the top. Clearly torture as policy was directed from the White House. We all should be ashamed if we don't act as a nation to rectify this deplorable situation.

Oil at $150 Next Week?

The OilDrum: Asking one of the less comfortable questions about our energy future...

SFGate: Totally Gay Happy Meals: It is the end of the nutball Christian right. Here is your proof. To go

The Nation: Our Warantless Wiretapping Suit (with the ACLU)

Nader on Rush Limbaugh

BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Deepening the American Dream | PBS

Guernica Mag: Darfur Crisis, A conversation with Mia Farrow and Bernard-Henri Lévy

The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability

Scaling Buildings to Alert on Global Warming (Did you know that beef-eaters cause 4X the global warming effects as plant eaters? About the same as a Prius driver compared to an SUV-Driver)

Why is Conyers stalling on IMPEACHMENT?

LA Times: The Old Man who Farms with the Sea Feature from Vanity Fair on Hodges and another interview of the gentleman expounding on the possibilities of saltwater loving plants with the potential to help out with global warming

Change going to come

Thx Yf Lau...

The New Yorker: Elizabeth Kolbert: The Island in the Wind A Danish Community's Victory over Carbon Emmissions

Senate Passes Unconstitutional Spying Bill: ACLU will Sue (Yay!!)

The Fruit Hunters

Tonight's Democracy Now! program was highly entertaining! Amy Goodman interviewed the author of "The Fruit Hunters": Adam Leith Gollner. He talks about some of the thousands of exotic fruits he has sought out all over the world in this video. The miracle fruit changes your taste buds from sour to sweet.

HuffPO: Naomi Wolf calls out Condi Rice on Sex Crimes in the White House and Torture

NPR Music: Rogue's Gallery: Songs of the Sea and In Baghdad

FEED: Tomato Scare highlights broken food system

Al Franken on David Letterman makes a lot of sense when he calls for Congresspeoples to be banned for life from becoming lobbyists.

Larisa Alexandrovna: At-Largely: McCain Wrong about Petraeus' "Central Front" also More Info coming out on Siegleman case

Philippe Sands' Torture Team is on my list of must reads

HuffPo: Joe Lauria talks about his and Senator Mike Gravel's new book: "A Political Odyssey: The Rise of American Militarism and One Man's Fight to stop it" Why Bush has won in Iraq and the rest of us have lost

Bekka and Bear, Downtown Durango.

Durango Weekend and walking the high country in the Weminuche Wilderness: Mountain View Crest. Pigeon Peak, Turret Peak, Mount Eolus....

Chronicaling the destruction of species to make room for more peoples

Orangutans on fast track to extinction

Polar Bear extinct within 100 years

The Anthropocene Age: Extinction of species caused by man On track to be the greatest extinction of species since the Permian Extinction of 250 million years ago (this was massively greater than the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago)

The Oil Drum: Why are we Addicted to Oil? (Hint: it has to do with evolution)

TPM Cafe this week with David Sirota on his new book (which I just finished!) The Uprising

I'm just about finished reading a free version on my Kindle of Cory Doctorow's harrowing account of a near future of our impending total surveillance society: Little Brother. Here he is on Boing Boing TV with a reading.

HuffPo: Lloyd Alter: A Field Guide to the New Environmentalists

Wall-E: A World Without Us and Frank Rich: Wall-E for President

Google Video (2+ hours) (must watch) Alex Jones: Endgame: Blueprint for Global Enslavement

Related: The Money Masters

My Letter to the Colorado Springs Gazette Editor regarding drilling ANWR.... Some lame responses a few days later

PUPPETS of WAR Mccain Obama Hillary

Leadville Training Run