From TPM Cafe, Larry Johnson, former CIA spook, responds to George Tenet.

Tags: CIA Tenet

I have to confess to being a bit of a tree hugger. My bride and I try to squeeze every ounce of mileage out of a gallon of gas, our house is regulated by a temperature nazi thermostat, and we have CFLs installed almost everywhere. Which is to say there are more incandescents screwed in today than there were four years ago. It appears that we aren’t alone in our love - hate relationship with the little curly-cue wonders;

Fluorescent Bulbs Are Known to Zap Domestic Tranquillity

The current market share of CFL bulbs in the United States is about 6 percent, up from less than 1 percent before 2001. But that compares dismally with CFL adoption rates in other wealthy countries such as Japan (80 percent), Germany (50 percent) and the United Kingdom (20 percent). Australia has announced a phaseout of incandescent bulbs by 2009, and the Canadian province of Ontario decided last week to ban them by 2012.

The relatively glacial adoption rate of CFLs in most of the United States suggests continued stiff resistance on the home front, despite dramatically lower prices for the bulbs and impressive improvements in their quality.

“There is still a big hurdle in convincing Americans that lighting-purchase decisions make a big difference in individual electricity bills and collectively for the environment,” said Wendy Reed, director of the federal government’s Energy Star campaign, which labels products that save energy and has been working with retailers to market CFL bulbs.

“I have heard time and again that a husband goes out and puts the bulb into the house, thinking he is doing a good thing,” Reed said. “Then, the CFL bulb is changed back out by the women. It seems that women are much more concerned with how things look. We are the nesters.”

A key to the abiding grass-roots resistance to CFLs, Reed and other experts said, is indelible consumer memories of the hideous looks and poor quality of earlier generations of fluorescent lights. They were bulky. They were expensive, as much as $25 each. They had an annoying flicker and hum. They cast an icky, cold-white light that made people look pale, wrinkly and old.

“People remember them from 20 years ago and they are not going to forgive,” said Dave Shiller, vice president of new business development for MaxLite, a Fairfield, N.J., company that manufactures CFL bulbs.

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Salon reported yet another incident in which American stormtroopers rampaged through the country they occupy and indiscriminately shot civilians:

According to an investigation by an Afghan human rights group released on April 14, the Marines, who said they came under small-arms fire after the bombing, went on a rampage, shooting at vehicles and pedestrians along 10 miles of road. At least 12 civilians were killed and another 35 were injured, including one infant and three elderly men. A 16-year-old girl, newly married and carrying a bundle of grass to her family’s farmhouse, was shot in the back. A 75-year-old man was shot so many times that his son had trouble recognizing him when he reached the scene.

A few hours after the shootings, the Marines returned to the primary site of the carnage, cordoned it off, and allegedly began removing evidence that it had occurred. Seven journalists representing multiple media outlets complained that the Marines confiscated their equipment and forcibly deleted photographs taken by Afghans working for the Associated Press. According to a protest letter later filed by the AP bureau chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, one Marine raised his fist at the photographers, warning them that he did not want to see any photos of the scene published anywhere. One journalist said he was told, “Delete the photos or we’ll delete you.”

These things seem to happen with great frequency, but most of them never make it onto American TV screens because the military goes through great lengths to cover them up.

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9 U.S. troops killed in Iraq violence Let’s not forget 119 Iraqis, also dead. In terms that some folks would find simpler to grasp, that’s 3.7 Virginia Techs. And it pretty much happens every day.

Firefighters battle flames in the aftermath of explosions timed to hit worshipers before Saturday prayers. 63 were killed; scores were injured

Tags: iraq iraq war

Child star and “adult” Kirk Cameron plans to illuminate us all regarding the absolute “Science” behind “Intelligent Design” on May 5th. Alternately, one could, like I plan to, sit down with a bucket of Coronas and celebrate el Cinco de Mayo, the anniversary of the defeat of Maximillian’s Army by Mexico.

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The war machine’s propaganda outlets try to brainwash us into believing that attacking Iraq somehow made the world a better, safer place. The latest justification for why we attacked Iraq (after all the previous excuses for why Bush decided to attack oil-rich Iraq turned out to be lies) is the claim that we’re waging a war against terror (as if waging war wasn’t an act of terror itself) to end terrorism.

So, how’s that working out? Not so well, apparently. According to a State Department report, terrorism is up 30%.

A State Department report on terrorism due out next week will show a nearly 30 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide in 2006 to more than 14,000, almost all of the boost due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Friday.

So, let me get this straight… We supposedly attacked Iraq to fight terrorism, and yet terrorism has gone up by one third. I’m not a mathematician, but to me that sounds like we’re achieving the opposite effect of the stated objective. Or in other words, we’re losing.

And Harry Reid had the nerve to point out the obvious. How DARE he? Recently he made the comment that the Iraq war is lost, and the right-wing propaganda outlets were all over him, trying to demonize him for being honest.

Apparently right-wing pundits hate honesty as much as “they” supposedly hate freedom. Whoever “they” happen to be on any given day. The Sunnis, the Shiites, Iraqis, Iranians, Arabs, Muslims, Persians, the UN, Canadians, Mexicans, Europeans… take your pick. According to right-wing hate mongers, “they” all hate us for our freedom.

The Washington Times reported yesterday that Senator Durbin knew that America was being lied into war but was sworn to secrecy:

The Senate’s No. 2 Democrat says he knew that the American public was being misled into the Iraq war but remained silent because he was sworn to secrecy as a member of the intelligence committee.
“The information we had in the intelligence committee was not the same information being given to the American people. I couldn’t believe it,” Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said Wednesday when talking on the Senate floor about the run-up to the Iraq war in 2002.
“I was angry about it. [But] frankly, I couldn’t do much about it because, in the intelligence committee, we are sworn to secrecy. We can’t walk outside the door and say the statement made yesterday by the White House is in direct contradiction to classified information that is being given to this Congress.”

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