A favorite food source for Ruby Throated Hummingbirds. I put two in last year and then added another five in this year. I’ve also planted nine Great Blue Lobelias and lots of red Bee Balm… The Hummingbirds are happy. The Cardinal Flower is the most vibrant red I have ever seen. Click the image to see a larger version or view my other Flickr Photos.
Technorati Tags: Cardinal Flower, Hummingbird Gardening, Native Gardening, Wildlife Gardening
Well that sick bunch of lying war criminals continue to use terrorism as a basis for torture of prisoners. The Washington Post is reporting that the White House Aims to Block Legislation on Detainees:
The Bush administration in recent days has been lobbying to block legislation supported by Republican senators that would bar the U.S. military from engaging in “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” of detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual.
Vice President Cheney met Thursday evening with three senior Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to press the administration’s case that legislation on these matters would usurp the president’s authority and — in the words of a White House official — interfere with his ability “to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack.”
Welcome to the New America.
Technorati Tags: George Bush, Iraq, Politics, Torture, War
No matter how hard I try I cannot stop listening: feist.
At the moment One Evening is my favorite song but that could change as soon as the next starts playing… maybe Secret Heart which I’m listening to now. I cannot concentrate to write these words while her voice is in the air.
Soft, sweet, velvet.
The game of distractions and misdirections continue in D.C. From the start outing Plame was itself a distraction from the real issue that the Bushies decided early on that the best way to sell their carefully planned war was to terrify the American people with deadly chemicals, horrifying disease, and nuclear holocaust. We were told that a mushroom cloud would be the price of not invading Iraq.
Now we have an attempt to distract us from the distraction. Our attention moves farther and farther from the critical issue: Bush and the rest of War Crimes Inc. manipulated the public discourse for the purpose of committing our troops to an illegal, unjustified, and dangerous war.
Their propaganda efforts and manipulation of information have reached truly Orwellian proportions. They will, of course, continue to turn reality on its head and we must refuse their manipulated reality and their attempt to control our memory. Bush lied us into a horrible war and that’s not something we will forget. As the Downing Street Memo indicates, they were fixing the facts and intelligence around the policy. The evidence is there in plain sight.
All that said I do want to acknowledge that Rove is a lying scumbag… he fits right in with the current bunch, eh?
Technorati Tags: George Bush, Iraq, Karl Rove, Politics, War
Well it’s not at all surprising. The Patriot Act is being used to spy on the ACLU, Greenpeace, and other U.S. activists. Many of us new this was coming. Anyone that knows about past FBI activities in relation to the Black Panthers, AIM, and other activists have heard of COINTELPRO and knew it was just a matter of time. Welcome to the new America where critics of those in power are terrorists. Guess I need to be hiding in a hole somewhere out in a forest somewhere.
More: AMERICAblog, Irregular Times, Pam’s House Blend
Technorati Tags: ACLU, Activism, COINTELPRO, Patriot Act
Via the NRDC: Natural Resources Defense Council, the Seattle Times is reporting that Warmer Oceans May Be Killing West Coast Marine Life:
SEATTLE – Scientists suspect that rising ocean temperatures and dwindling plankton populations are behind a growing number of seabird deaths, reports of fewer salmon and other anomalies along the West Coast.
Coastal ocean temperatures are 2 to 5 degrees above normal, apparently caused by a lack of upwelling – a process that brings cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface and jump-starts the marine food chain.
Upwelling fuels algae and shrimplike krill populations that feed small fish, which provide an important food source for a variety of sea life, from salmon to sea birds and marine mammals.
“Something big is going on out there,” said Julia Parrish, an associate professor in the School of Aquatic Fisheries and Sciences at the University of Washington. “I’m left with no obvious smoking gun, but birds are a good signal because they feed high up on the food chain.”
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“In 50 years, this has never happened,” said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Newport, Ore. “If this continues, we will have a food chain that is basically impoverished from the very lowest levels.”
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This spring, scientists began tracking anomalies along Washington’s coast, from the appearance of warm-water plankton species to scores of jellyfish piling up on beaches. A Guadalupe fur seal, native to South America, was found dead in Ocean Shores.
Parrish is documenting unusual breeding behavior among common murres on Tatoosh Island off the Olympic Peninsula. In 15 years of monitoring the murre colony, this is the latest the birds have initiated breeding.
“They are starting very, very late and then just giving up,” she said.
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The trend toward warmer temperatures began in fall 2002, said Peterson, the NOAA oceanographer. No one is pointing to one direct cause for the warmer waters, but many scientists suspect climate change may be involved.
While Peterson is concerned about the unusual ocean conditions, he is more worried that people will not take notice.
“People have to realize that things are connected – the state of coastal temperatures and plankton populations are connected to larger issues like Pacific salmon populations,” he said.
Technorati Tags: Climate Change, Ecology, Global Warming, Ocean Ecology
Ecologically Sustainable Living at the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage:
Dancing Rabbit is an ecovillage set amid the hills and prairies of rural northeastern Missouri. Our goal is to live ecologically sustainable and socially rewarding lives, and to share the skills and ideas behind that lifestyle.
Very inspiring. This is the way we need to deal with peak oil.
Technorati Tags: Activism, Community, Ecology, Energy, Natural Resources, Oil, Peak Oil, Simple Living, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Living
Peak oil got you down? Check The Community Solution to Peak Oil.
In particular I want to direct you to Agraria:
What does life in a post-Peak Oil world look like? Here’s the first visioning of our small, low-energy, sustainable community proposed for Yellow Springs, Ohio – Agraria.
Thanks to Jack Burns for pointing me to this.
Technorati Tags: Community, Community Agriculture, Community Development, Energy, Natural Resources, Oil, Peak Energy, Peak Oil, Sustainable Development
For some strange reason I find this story very believable.
Jonathan over at Irregular Times has a write-up about the MEK Mystery:
Yesterday morning, one of our readers alerted us to an article written by former weapons inspector Scott Ritter and published by the Arab news service Al Jazeera. In that article, Scott Ritter charges that the United States government is already at war with Iran. Part of Ritter’s charge is that the Bush Administration is conducting military espionage within Iranian borders. Much more shocking is the claim by Ritter that the USA is supporting a terrorist group in Iran called Mujahideen-e-Khalq (shortened to MEK for friendliness to English-speaking tongues).
Is the MEK a terrorist group? Well, the U.S. State Department says so. The MEK is on the USA’s official list of terrorist organizations. That means that it would be a serious crime for any American to give any support to the MEK. For the President of the United States to provide support to the MEK would certainly be an impeachable offense.
There are also charges that the MEK is responsible for recent bombings in Iran, bombings that killed and injured large numbers of civilians, just like the bombings this week in London. For President Bush to give preachy statements condemning the terrorism in London even while providing logistical and financial support to acts of terrorism in Tehran would be a betrayal of all his promises to the American people, exposing the War on Terror as a crass sham.
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If no congressional investigation is launched, then this story will continue to grow, especially overseas. The failure to address charges that the Bush Administration is supporting a terrorist organizations will be interpreted as a sign that the Bush Administration has something to hide, and will contribute to the continuing disintegration of America’s reputation in the world.
Technorati Tags: Iran, MEK, Mujahideen-e-Khalq, Scott Ritter, Terrorism, War
My good friend Hannah has a new blog. She’s off to a good start and I’d like to suggest you go have a look.
Technorati Tags: Memphis Blog