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• Guardian - World's wildlife and environment already hit by climate change

  Global warming is disrupting wildlife and the environment on every continent, according to an unprecedented study that reveals the extent to which climate change is already affecting the world's ecosystems. Scientists examined published reports dating back to 1970 and found that at least 90% of environmental damage and disruption around the world could be explained by rising temperatures driven by human activity. Big falls in Antarctic penguin populations, fewer fish in African lakes, shifts in American river flows and earlier flowering and bird migrations in Europe are all likely to be driven by global warming, the study found.

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• WaPo - Wind Can Supply 20% of U.S. Electricity, Report Says

  The Energy Department said yesterday that the United States has the ability to meet 20 percent of its electricity-generation needs with wind by 2030, enough to displace 50 percent of natural gas consumption and 18 percent of coal consumption. But in a report drawn up by its national laboratories, the department said that meeting the target would require more improvements in turbine technology, cost reductions, new transmission lines, an expansion of the wind industry and a fivefold increase in the pace of wind-turbine installation. The report said a boost in wind capacity to 20 percent of electricity generation "could potentially defer the need to build some new coal capacity, avoiding or postponing the associated carbon emissions."

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• NYT - Iraq Contractor in Shooting Case Makes Comeback

  After an intense public and private lobbying campaign, Blackwater appears to be back to business as usual. The State Department has just renewed its contract to provide security for American diplomats in Iraq for at least another year. Threats by the Iraqi government to strip Western contractors of their immunity from Iraqi law have gone nowhere. No charges have been brought in the United States against any Blackwater guard in the September shooting, either... State Department officials said Friday that they did not believe they had any alternative to Blackwater, which supplies about 800 guards to the department to provide security for diplomats in Baghdad... "We cannot operate without private security firms in Iraq," said Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management. "If the contractors were removed, we would have to leave Iraq."

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• Guardian - Burma seeks emergency aid as cyclone kills at least 10,000

  An international relief effort was mobilising last night after Burma's military rulers estimated that 10,000 people had been killed in a cyclone at the weekend and acknowledged they were willing to accept foreign help. Aid workers believe at least 1 million people have been left homeless by Cyclone Nargis, which barrelled across south-west and central Burma on Saturday, unleashing 120mph (190kmph) winds, torrential rains and flooding that caused a catastrophic trail of destruction. The reclusive military government initially said casualties ran into the hundreds, but dramatically revised the toll yesterday. The foreign minister, Nyan Win, told diplomats the number of dead could reach 10,000, with at least 3,000 still missing, making it the worst natural disaster in east Asia since the 2004 tsunami.

This is how the Pentagon envisions the Green Zone of Baghdad after a $5 billion tourist and development scheme.

A plan by US military planners for the "Tigris Woods Golf and Country Club" in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. Picture: U.S. Army/AP

There's nothing like playing a relaxing 18 holes of golf for U.S. generals and big oil executives after a tough day in oil-rich, occupied Iraq. Or as The Guardian describes it in Luxury hotels and golf: welcome to the Green Zone:

Picture... a tree-lined plaza in Baghdad's International Village, flanked by fashion boutiques, swanky cafes, and shiny glass office towers. Nearby a golf course nestles agreeably, where a chip over the water to the final green is but a prelude to cocktails in the club house and a soothing massage in a luxury hotel... Then, as twilight falls, a pre-prandial stroll, perhaps, amid the cool of the Tigris Riverfront Park, where the peace is broken only by the soulful cries of egrets fishing.

Unbelievable.

Top Story

• LA Times - Teacher fired for refusing to sign loyalty oath

  When Wendy Gonaver was offered a job teaching American studies at Cal State Fullerton this academic year, she was pleased to be headed back to the classroom to talk about one of her favorite themes: protecting constitutional freedoms... She lost the job because she did not sign a loyalty oath swearing to "defend" the U.S. and California constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." ... She offered to sign the pledge if she could attach a brief statement expressing her views, a practice allowed by other state institutions. But Cal State Fullerton rejected her statement and insisted that she sign the oath if she wanted the job. "I wanted it on record that I am a pacifist," said Gonaver, 38. "I was really upset. I didn't expect to be fired. I was so shocked that I had to do this."

I suppose this isn't a shock to anyone, but once again the House Democrats are ignoring their Constitutional power of the purse and are working on funding the Iraq occupation well into 2009. Led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House Democrats work on huge Iraq money bill according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

House Democratic leaders are putting together the largest Iraq war spending bill yet, a measure that is expected to fund the war through the end of the Bush presidency and for nearly six months into the next president's term.

Neither the Bush administration nor Congress has been forthright with Americans about the true costs of the Iraq invasion and occupation. Now, once again the House Democrats are betraying the voters who put them into power in 2006 as they maneuver to fund the Iraq occupation once again to a tune of $108 billion, plus $70 billion of "breathing room" funding for the next president.

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• LA Times - Projectiles hit Baghdad's Green Zone

  A barrage of rocket or mortar fire was aimed at the fortified Green Zone on Sunday as this Iraqi capital was enveloped in a thick sandstorm. At least two Iraqis were killed and 25 wounded by projectiles that apparently missed their targets and landed in surrounding neighborhoods, police said. There were no immediate reports of casualties inside the enclave, which houses the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices... At least 16 people had been killed and 49 injured in clashes since Saturday night in Sadr City, the cleric's northeastern Baghdad stronghold, according to police and hospital officials in the vast neighborhood.

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• AP - Negotiators reach tentative farm bill deal

  Congressional negotiators reached a tentative agreement Friday on a multibillion-dollar farm bill that includes a hefty increase for nutrition programs at a time of rising food prices. An intense series of closed-door bargaining sessions over how to pay for the five-year, roughly $280 billion bill ended Friday afternoon with senior Democrats expressing optimism that they would soon be sending the measure to the president... A key breakthrough came when senior lawmakers... agreed on a $1.7 billion package of tax breaks to be included in the bill, and on how to finance the overall package. The outline includes an $861 million increase for nutrition programs, partially paid for by slashing crop subsidies by $400 million and cutting a program to pay farmers for ruined crops by $250 million.

  The ethanol subsidy is cut by 6¢/gallon and conservation programs funding is increased too.

Top Story

• NYT - Oil Market Rattled by Attack on Tanker

  A Japanese oil tanker was damaged Monday when it was attacked by a small boat in Middle Eastern waters off the coast of Yemen, the tanker’s owner said. Word of the attack helped to drive world oil prices to a new record. The tanker, the 150,053-ton Takayama, was hit by an unspecified projectile during the attack early Monday morning, said the owner, Tokyo-based Nippon Yusen. The company said none of the tanker’s 23 crew members was injured, and the ship’s movement was not impaired. It released few other details, saying the attacking boat moved away soon after opening fire.

A story in today's Los Angeles Times quotes U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocking Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. In Rice, in Iraq, lashes out at Muqtada al-Sadr, she said of al-Sadr:

"He is still living in Iran," she said. "I guess it's all-out war for anybody but him.

"His followers can go to their death and he will still be in Iran."

Has George W. Bush served alongside American troops in Iraq, or can they go to their death while he is safe in the United States? Is Dick Cheney part of the "surge" in Iraq, or does he have other priorities? Is Rice going to be leading troops on the ground now in Iraq?

Of all the hypocritical things to have ever come out of Rice's mouth, this is Hall of Shame worthy.

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• NYT - Ecuador's Leader Purges Military and Moves to Expel American Base

  Chafing at ties between American intelligence agencies and Ecuadorean military officials, President Rafael Correa is purging the armed forces of top commanders and pressing ahead with plans to cast out more than 100 members of the American military from an air base here in this coastal city. Mr. Correa - who this month dismissed his defense minister, army chief of intelligence and commanders of the army, air force and joint chiefs - said that Ecuador's intelligence systems were "totally infiltrated and subjugated to the C.I.A." He accused senior military officials of sharing intelligence with Colombia, the Bush administration's top ally in Latin America... The gambit... poses a clear challenge to the United States. For nearly a decade, the base here in Manta has been the most prominent American military outpost in South America and an important facet of the United States' drug-fighting efforts.

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• WaPo - Since 2001, a Dramatic Increase in Suicide Bombings

  Suicide bombers conducted 658 attacks around the world last year, including 542 in U.S.-occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, according to data compiled by U.S. government experts... More than four-fifths of the suicide bombings over that period have occurred in the past seven years, the data show. The bombings have spread to dozens of countries on five continents, killed more than 21,350 people and injured about 50,000 since 1983, when a landmark attack blew up the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Today is the 25-year anniversary of that attack, the first of a series of large suicide bombings targeting Americans overseas... The data show more than 920 suicide bombings in Iraq and more than 260 in Afghanistan, including some that killed scores of U.S. troops. All occurred after the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.

Welcome to the United States of Gattaca. The Washington Post is reporting that the Bush administration is expanding DNA collection of people arrested for crimes.

The U.S. government will soon begin collecting DNA samples from all citizens arrested in connection with any federal crime and from many immigrants detained by federal authorities, adding genetic identifiers from more than 1 million individuals a year to the swiftly growing federal law enforcement DNA database.

The policy will substantially expand the current practice of routinely collecting DNA samples from only those convicted of federal crimes...

Anyone now arrested of a federal crime will have their DNA collected. With the past examples of abuse of the justice system by the Bush administration, it isn't difficult to imagine how this change in policy could be abused. When the policy is implemented, roughly 1.2 million people a year will have their DNA collected.

Top Story: Food — Rising prices and shortages

Throughout tonight's OND, you will find stories about the world food crisis — the end of cheap food.

The world's food supply is dwindling because of drought, changing climate, and a move toward biofuels. People around the world are hungry and there have been food riots in countries around the world.

In Haiti, three days of food riots have ended. In Australia, farmers are choosing between watering rice crops or wine grape crops. In the U.S., families are trying to afford a rising grocery bill.

To be hungry is to be full.

Now on to the news...

A story that has been bubbling up in Mexico finally has made its way back to the surface in the U.S. news. The New York Times reports State oil industry's future sets off tussle in Mexico.

A bitter debate over what to do about Mexico's ailing state oil monopoly has dominated national politics here in recent weeks, tapping strong emotions on both sides and resurrecting the political fortunes of the leftist leader who narrowly lost the 2006 presidential election.

The corporate framing is immediate in the opening graph of the story, but that's not unsurprising from the NY Times. What is surprising is that normally stories from Mexico do not often make the news in the United States. This story is different, because: "At stake in the debate is not only the future of the Mexican economy but also the supply of oil to the United States." Even news from Mexico is framed by the interests of the United States. As of 2007, Mexico still had an estimated 12.4 billion barrels of untapped oil reserves, or 10 percent of the world's crude, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

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• Guardian - Secret US plan for military future in Iraq

  A confidential draft agreement covering the future of US forces in Iraq, passed to the Guardian, shows that provision is being made for an open-ended military presence in the country. The draft strategic framework agreement between the US and Iraqi governments, dated March 7 and marked "secret" and "sensitive", is intended to replace the existing UN mandate and authorises the US to "conduct military operations in Iraq and to detain individuals when necessary for imperative reasons of security" without time limit. The authorisation is described as "temporary" and the agreement says the US "does not desire permanent bases or a permanent military presence in Iraq". But the absence of a time limit or restrictions on the US and other coalition forces - including the British - in the country means it is likely to be strongly opposed in Iraq and the US.

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• WaPo - State Dept. Renewing Contract With Blackwater for Iraq Security

  The State Department said... that it would renew its contract with Blackwater Worldwide, the controversial private military contractor, to provide security for U.S. diplomats in Baghdad for another year, but said it could cancel it at any time... The company, based in Moyock, N.C., is under investigation by the FBI in connection with a Sept. 16 incident in which its security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. Questions have been raised about whether the shootings were justified and if they violated the rules in effect for contractors to use deadly force in Iraq. Blackwater has received more than $1 billion in federal business since 2000...

  ^{Heckuva job mercenary disaster capitalists!}