Kunstler: Market meltdown just the beginning

James Kunstler warns us that this week's market reprieve will be shortlived.  He contends that the real threat to the American economy and the suburban lifestyle it has promoted and mass marketed is peak oil."It's too bad the current presidential candidates have been...

Memo Blasts State Dept. Iraq Effort

" In a confidential memo, a long-time Republican operative who has served in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for the past year says the State Department's efforts in Iraq are so poorly managed they "would be considered willfully negligent if not criminal" if done in the private...

Punishing Thought Crime: Would New Bill Make YOU a Terrorist?

" By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted January 17, 2008. Meet the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act.According to Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., House Resolution 1955, otherwise known as the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of...

FDA vs. USDA: Cloned Foods OK, No, Cloned Foods Need Selling Moratorium

It's a  jungle out there (tip of the hat to Upton Sinclair). The USDA and the FDA are squaring off over food and milk products from cloned animals. "When writing about bureaucracy, the adverb "soon" usually means "lumbering along in a period of several months to a year."...

Many govt officials reluctant to support business world, president says

""I hear that parts of the prevailing bureaucracy at central or regional level are still unfriendly to issue licences. They even show a tendency to obstruct the normal issuance of licences. This happens at government institutions and state-owned companies," the president said...

FCC, Chicago Meeting & Media consolidation go Moyers

"Once upon a time the Federal Communications Commission — the FCC — was a sleepy bureaucracy on a quiet street in Washington. The FCC is the government body that sets the rules for media. And for a decade now, it's become a citadel of power, swarming with media tycoons,...

VP tells ministers and officials not to abuse power

""We know that in the past if someone wanted to work in the seaport tax and custom office, he had to go through a long bureaucracy, get 21 signatures, and probably paid a certain amount of money so that the requests could be fulfilled," he said. However, at present the...