Harbinger of things to come (or go, as is the case here):  

MSNBC is reporting that climate change has forced the Alps ski resort town of Abondance, France, to shut down its ski operations and climate change experts warn that other resorts will follow:

BONDANCE, France - Muddy slopes, slushy peaks, unused lifts — this town in the French Alps is living out the nightmare of many a ski resort in a century scientists say is doomed to keep getting warmer.

The city council of Abondance — its name a cruel reminder of the generous snowfall it once enjoyed — voted last month 9-6 to shut down the ski area that has been its economic raison d'etre for more than 40 years. The reason: not enough snow.

Abondance is the French Alps' first ski station to fall apparent victim to global warming. It will almost certainly not be the last.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

More global meltdowns below the fold...

Amidst all the controversy about Bill O'Reilly's excoriation of Daily Kos (via the cherry picking of comments and quotes from diarists who number ~.0004 percent of the total DKos user population), I find myself wondering why, as a consistent diarist on Daily Kos, he would hate me.

I say this because he didn't say:  such-and-such a SPECIFIC user on the OPEN FORUM blog known as Daily Kos writes:  blah, blah, blah...  And he couldn't say the MANAGEMENT OF Daily KOS said: blah, blah, blah (because they didn't).  

He just said "Daily Kos" "blah, blah, blah..."

Well, I post diaries on Daily Kos and none of that "blah, blah blah" came from me.  

So why does Bill O'Reilly hate me?

More on my O'Reilly (oh really?) confusion below the fold...

NBC ran a story last night about the drought conditions in the Inland Valley growing region of Southern California.  The story opened with an auction of farm equipment by a third generation farmer pulling up stakes due to the fact that he could NOT afford to irrigate his farm after a record 1.93" of rainfall the past year -- which, as reporter George Lewis points out, is less than Death Valley's totals.

"Last year we harvested only half a crop and this year we did not even plant."

Mike Boris, California Farmer.

"California and the west, as well as portions of the southeast, are suffering through severe and extreme drought."

George Lewis, NBC

"We're pretty concerned that things are conspiring to give us a perfect drought out here, lasting not years, but maybe decades."

Glen Mac Donald, UCLA Geography Professor

More parched news below the fold...

Sometimes there's good news:

Jordanian and Israeli farmers have begun working together to introduce barn owls to Jordanian farms to replace dangerous pesticides that were poisoning the Jordanian environment:

For years, Ibrahim Alayyan watched in frustration as rats ravaged the date crop at his lush family farm.  Having no luck with pesticides, the retired Jordanian heart surgeon was only too eager to try a pest control agent widely used in fields just across the Jordan River in Israel -- owls.

[snip]

In late 2002 Israeli farmers planned a regional conference on barn owls to explain their advantages to colleagues across the Jordan River.  The response was discouraging. Many Arabs consider owls the same way others view black cats -- as bad luck.

Word came back to the Israelis that no Jordanians would attend.  So the organizers changed the title of the conference to focus on organic farming, and two dozen Jordanians turned up. Midway through the gathering they were given a demonstration on owls...

http://tinyurl.com/...

More cooperation and a way to save an endangered US species below the fold.

The New York Times has published an analysis today of foods and goods uncovered and/or rejected by the FDA (that 'we inspect less than one percent' agency...) by country.  

The winners?

India and Mexico:

At a time when Chinese imports are under fire for being contaminated or defective, federal records suggest that China is not the only country that has problems with its exports.

In fact, federal inspectors have stopped more food shipments from India and Mexico in the last year than they have from China, an analysis of data maintained by the Food and Drug Administration shows.

Stats, resources and links below the fold...

CNN is reporting that China just executed the former head of their food and drug safety administration for taking bribes.  That's right.  They executed him.

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China's former drug and food safety watchdog chief was executed on Tuesday after being found guilty of corruption and dereliction of duty amid a series of food and drug safety scandals, Xinhua news agency said.

The Supreme People's Court approved the death sentence against Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, who was convicted of taking bribes worth some 6.5 million yuan ($850,000) from eight companies.

http://www.cnn.com/...

That's not to say the safety problem with China's products has been solved.  

In fact, according to this well researched Newsweek article, it's worse than we thought.

With that in mind, links and resources to safe and free trade products are below the fold...

[Promoted from the Diaries - Meteor Blades]

Bush just invoked executive privilege to keep Sara Taylor and Harriet Miers from testifying before Congress in the US Attorney Scandal!

Bush uses privilege to deny ex-aides’ testimony
White House-Congress showdown over subpoenas escalates

BREAKING NEWS
Updated: 6 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush invoked executive privilege Monday to deny requests by Congress for testimony from former aides Sara Taylor and Harriet Miers on the White House's role in the firings of several U.S. attorneys.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

So, if he's invoked executive privilege for these two, will Rove, Libby, Cheney follow???

More below the fold...

What do soft drinks, cigarettes and gasoline have in common?  Benzene.

That's right.  Cancer causing Benzene.

Soft drinks:  Two the nation's largest soft drink manufacturers have just agreed to reformulate their soft drinks to exclude the known carcinogen Benzene, which forms when Ascorbic Acid and Sodium Benzoate (a preservative) combine in one product:

Safeway settles benzene soft drink suit

The supermarket market chain, Safeway Inc., has agreed to reformulate soft drinks made with ingredients that can potentially form benzene, according to a recent settlement. The company is one of several soft drink manufacturers that have recently been sued in class action lawsuits over benzene, a known carcinogen. Coca-Cola, a former defendant, agreed to settle last month.

Exposure to significant levels of benzene can lead to increased rates of bone marrow diseases, including leukemia.

http://tinyurl.com/...

The bad news?  Not all companies are reformulating...

Cigarettes, gasoline and how to determine if you're drinking benzene below the fold...

A few weeks ago, after an entire mountain lake the size of ten (10) football fields in a Chilean National Park mysteriously disappeared and left behind a 130 foot crater, scientists scratched their heads as to the cause.  

The likely culprit has now been identified:  Climate Change.

Scientists on Tuesday blamed global warming for the disappearance of a glacial lake in remote southern Chile that faded away in just two months, leaving just a crater behind.

The disappearance of the lake in Bernardo O'Higgins National Park was discovered in late May by park rangers, who were stunned to find a 130-foot deep crater where a large lake had been.

After flying over the lake Monday scientists said they were able to draw preliminary conclusions that point to climate change as the leading culprit for the lake's disappearance.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

More disappearing bodies of water below the fold...

Ambassador Joe Wilson was just interviewed on Keith Olbermann's Countdown about the Libby pardon commutation.  

Here's a quick transcription of the first part of an additional phone call from Wilson (added after the video interview):

Olbermann:  Can you share the reaction you and your wife had upon hearing this news this evening?

Wilson:  Well, on the one hand, there's nothing that this administration does that surprises me anymore. It's corrupt from top to bottom and I think most Americans should understand that beyond a reasonable doubt now.  On the other hand, of course, as American citizens, we're outraged that the President of the United States would short circuit the rule of law and the system of justice and really just repudiate everything that we stand for as Americans, including the decision by a jury of Mr. Libby's peers, confirmed by the judge in the case and reconfirmed by the Court of Appeals.

More of the interview below the fold...

Today, ABC News reported that milk prices are expected to "soar" in the near future.  The reasons?

• Reduced supply of milk supplies due to the drought in Australia (a milk exporter)
• Increased demand for milk in China, Canada and Mexico.
• Increased cost of feeding US dairy cows (that corn for ethanol thingee)

Powdered dairy products are traded globally and supplies are down, Leibtag said. He pointed to two recent changes that have had an impact on the international supply of dried dairy products: the European Union recently ended subsidies for dairy production, which has resulted in a reduction in supplies, and worse, Australia -- the world's second largest exporter of dairy products after the United States -- has been suffering through a severe drought for the past several years.

It "couldn't produce as much as it used to and world markets are looking for other sources of dairy," [...] largely to the United States.

How soon until these prices start to soar? July 1st

More ways climate change does not build strong bones below...

Frontline's must-see latest documentary, ENDGAME (what when wrong, and why, in America's tragically failed effort to find a strategy for success in Iraq), shows how we got into the mess we're in, the shocking (even for the Bush Administration) level of incompetence and the lack of options we face now:

On Dec. 19, 2006, President George W. Bush said for the first time that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq. It was a dramatic admission from a president who had insisted since the start of the war that things were under control.

Now, as the U.S. begins what the administration hopes is the final effort to secure victory through a "surge" of troops, [snip] military and government officials talk to FRONTLINE about both the military and political events that have led up to the current "surge" strategy.

http://www.pbs.org/...

The fifth in a series on the Iraq war, this documentary casts a clear light on the mistakes made at the highest levels, both from a civilian and military point of view.

More below the fold...

I was looking for a good recipe the other night and noticed that the FAQ no longer links to the Troll Recipe Cookbook.  

Which meant I had to come up with my own:

False Liberal Recipe

1 False Liberal
1 pound of excuses
2/3 cups of conservatism
2 teaspoons of borrowed logic
1 smidge of universal truths (also borrowed)
37,546 pages of unedited loquaciousness (illegally borrowed)
1 cube of obtuse butter (melted)
1 cup of arrogance (for hardness)
1 sprig of poison oak (for garnish)

Mix everything together, garnish, post.

Get banned.

http://www.dailykos.com/...

:OD

More recipes and request for same below the fold...

The NY Times is reporting today that the FDA has been trying to track tainted drugs from China for over a decade.  Let me say that again -- for over a decade:

After a drug ingredient from China killed dozens of Haitian children a decade ago, a senior American health official sent a cable to her investigators: find out who made the poisonous ingredient and why a state-owned company in China exported it as safe, pharmaceutical-grade glycerin.

In a case echoed by recent poisonings, at least 88 Haitian children were killed in 1996 by medicine made with a toxic syrup sent from China.

http://tinyurl.com/...

"In a case echoed by recent poisonings"...  That's right, the same story as the toothpaste/anti-freeze warning that came out on June 1st.

A decade...

More below the fold...

First Kuwaiti, the company contracted to build the $600 million dollar U.S. Embassy in Bagdhad has been accused of using forced labor to build the one-hundred four acre U.S. State Department site:

Whistleblowers who worked on the embassy have told officials at the State and Justice departments, as well as NBC News, that the contractor, First Kuwaiti International Trading, had brought workers, mostly South Asians and Filipinos, to Baghdad under false pretenses, then abused and threatened them while there.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

The embassy (dubbed Fortress Baghdad), one-hundred four acres - twenty-one buildings -- $600 million dollars, will be "as big as Vatican City" according to the NBC Nightly News Report (video).

The good news?  It's on time and budget ($600 million of your taxpayer dollars at work...).  

The bad?  It may not be secure and, oh yeah, there's that forced labor thing...

More below the fold...

Shimon Peres has just been elected to what has been, in the past, the mostly ceremonial position of the President of Israel.  He replaces a disgraced (really disgraced) politician and has beat out the Likud candidate by a wide margin:

[Peres] won the support of 86 of parliament's 120 members in a second round of voting in which he stood alone, parliament speaker Dalia Itzik said.  His two rivals, Reuven Rivlin of the hawkish Likud and Colette Avital of the centrist Labor, withdrew from the race after he [Peres] seized a commanding lead in the first round.

http://www.chron.com/...

There is talk, in Israel, of this seven-year post, especially with Peres' gravitas and world stage experience, becoming more than ceremonial.  No word on what that will mean, but it's an interesting idea, given the single digit popularity of the current Prime Minister and the potential for a Likud replacement (ugh) in the future.

More below the fold...

Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, indicated today that Turkey should confine its fight against the outlawed Kurdish separatist group known as the PKK within Turkey's borders:

"Has the fight with the 5,000 terrorists finished domestically, that we should now be talking about Iraq?" Erdogan said when reporters asked him about a cross-border operation against separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels.

Erdogan did not confirm whether he had the support of Turkey's all powerful military.  However, given the way their financial markets were destabilized after their (unacknowledged) limited cross-border raid last week, the pressure on the military to comply with Erdogan's change in focus is likely building.

As for the PKK, word has come that they are offering a cease fire in exchange for peace talks, with the qualification that they would defend themselves against attack:

Kurdish separatists declared a "unilateral cease-fire" in attacks against Turkey on Tuesday and said they were ready for peace negotiations, but the group maintained the right to defend itself.

More below the fold...

Anyone who has read my diaries, knows that I'm an admirer of the Kurdish people.  Therefore it was with both confusion and horror that I read this report on this latest honor killing incident in the U.K., involving a Kurd who has just convicted for ordering his own daughter murdered:

A Kurdish man was convicted in a London court on Monday of murdering his 20-year-old daughter in a so-called "honor killing" after she left her husband and fell in love with another man.

http://www.cnn.com/...

More below the fold...