BREVITAS

AF-PAK WAR

Aljazeera - Up to 80 people have been killed after missiles were fired from a US "drone" at the funeral of a suspected Taliban commander of the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan, Pakistan officials have said. . . "Three missiles were fired by drones as people were dispersing after offering funeral prayers for [Taliban commander] Niaz Wali," an intelligence official told the Reuters news agency. . . Questioned about the reported attacks, a US defence department official said: "There are no US military strike operations being conducted in Pakistan."

OBAMALAND

US News - Gerald Walpin, the former Americorps inspector general who was fired after appearing confused at a meeting, has some pretty important friends coming to his defense. Some 145 of them, including political foes, have written Congress and the White House to refute attacks on his integrity in the controversy over why he was fired by the Obama administration. "We have never seen Mr. Walpin to be 'confused, disoriented, [or] unable to answer questions,' " wrote the 145, who include former federal judges and even Democrats like Bernie Nussbaum, former President Clinton's first White House counsel. Walpin was a Bush pick who, allies say, ran into trouble with the administration when he criticized an Obama pal. The 77-year-old was dismissed after appearing confused at a recent meeting, the administration said. . . In their letter, the 145 say that the administration's description of Walpin is way out of character. "All of us are unanimous in affirming Mr. Walpin's integrity and competence," they wrote.

OBAMA'S USED GREEN TEAM MEET THE RETREADS

ECO-CLIPS

Treehugger - In a ruling that will shock and dismay environmentalists everywhere, the US Supreme Court decided that the Clean Water Act shouldn't prevent mining companies from dumping their toxic waste into lakes--even with full knowledge that doing so will exterminate every trace of life within.. . . The court's decision will allow Coeur Alaska Inc, a gold mining company, to dump 4.5 million tons of waste into Lower Slate Lake. The mining company, environmental groups, and even the Supreme Court are all well aware that dumping the waste will literally extinguish all life in the lake.

SUSTAIN YOURSELF

Ant Farm Journal - The construction lumber under a 12 foot span beneath the dormer windows was not level. The left side was about 5/8" lower than the right side. I had scrap lumber of varying thicknesses that were nailed in as shims, but there were gaps where I had no lumber of an appropriate thickness. I had a spindle of old AOL Online crapware disks and some failed disk burns. The disks are about a millimeter thick and in combination with scrap wood, or stacked up, they provided a bit of support to keep the 1"x12"x12' board about as level as can be expected when using slightly irregular Menards pine lumber. Final result is only a little bit crappy and very utilitarian. In 40 or 50 years when my son tears apart my window trim to replace the pine boards with teak or bubinga, assuming any tree species other than box elder are still extant, he will have to make sense of the plastic disks.

SUPERFLUOUS HEADLINE OF THE DAY

NY Times - Obama Says Government Health Coverage Plan Would Not Hurt Private Insurers

MID EAST

Angry Arab - Progressive supporters of Mousavi in Iran keep telling me to ignore the Islamist rhetoric of Mousavi and his invocation of the teachings of Khomeini and his calls for Allahu Akbar chants. They say that he only does that for political purposes. Back in 1978-79, the Iranian Communist Party made the same argument about Khomeini--until they were arrested and their leader executed.

MEDIA

It was only up for awhile, but the New York Times did briefly run a healing that read, "Obama Signs War-Finding Bill."

MONEY & WORK

Lifehacker - Money magazine posts a cost of living web calculator that covers a whole lot of U.S. cities with fairly up-to-date data, giving you the lowdown on how far your salary would go in your dream city. Money's calculator pulls data on the cost of health care, groceries, utilities, and other necessities from the last four quarters available from The Council for Community and Economic Research, whereas some Google-located city cost comparison sites are working with years-old data.

THE MIX

WTOP, DC - The family of a woman killed Monday is dealing with more than just grief in the aftermath of Metro's deadliest accident in history. The family of Ana Fernandez says they have been getting hate-filled telephone messages about whether or not Fernandez, a mother of six, was a legal immigrant.

Telegraph, UK - A government watchdog decided that Canterbury in Kent does enough to promote homosexual culture, rejecting a complaint by local activists. The local government Ombudsman - who asked for the city's council to provide evidence of how it supported the gay community - said it was satisfied . . . As part of the investigation, the council had to prove its inclusiveness by giving details of "touring plays and musicals, for example, which would be of interest to the LGBT community".

INDICATORS

CNN - Ninety-six percent of African-Americans approve of how Obama is handling his presidency, according to a CNN/Essence Magazine/Opinion Research. During the 2008 election, 38 percent of blacks surveyed thought racial discrimination was a serious problem. In the new survey, 55 percent of blacks surveyed believed it was a serious problem, which is about the same level as it was in 2000

FURTHERMORE. . .

Matt Welch, Reason - In 2002 total combined state revenue was $1.097 trillion. . . In 2007 this figure had risen to almost $2 trillion. That's an 81 percent increase, at a time when prices plus population increased 19 percent.

Ron Paul's bill to audit the Federal Reserve (HR 1207) now has 242 co-sponsors.

Isn't this carrying media balance a bit far? - "Tune into WUSA 9 TODAY @ 5:30PM. Peaceoholics Youth from Ward 1 speak to WUSA's Bruce Johnson addressing the challenges of being predators and victims of Violence!"

Nice profile of Paul Krassner, a patron saint of the alternative media.