World Bank this morning: let's count the environment

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Thursday October 28, 2010 · 4:20 PM PDT

2010/10/28 · 16:20

I hope I'm not stepping on someone's diary, but I searched the site just now for any news of the World Bank's announcement this morning that new accounting rules will be(gradually) put in place to (re) evaulate a nation's GDP. In the future, nations may have to place the cost of environmental destruction on their books.

Robert Zoellick, president of the WB, described a situation ripe for accounting on NPR this morning when he (paraphrasing here) said, " ... for example, a developer may want to fill in wetlands, but there is a social cost to private industry. The area will lose the protection that wetlands provide from storms, from hatcheries for fish .... et al."

The Guardian does a good job of describing what's happened at the U.N. Biodiversity Confernce in Nagoya this week, from whence the World Bank's announcement issued.

Bypassing for a brief moment the idea that nature can be quantified, this idea will, if implemented, set on its head the decades long complaint many of us have had regarding calculating the GDP.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/...

Obama and Weatherman bomber Bill Ayers

jakbeau

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Wednesday April 09, 2008 · 7:24 PM PDT

2008/04/09 · 19:24

Faux News is in a kerfluffle tonight over Senator Obama's past association with former Weatherman Bill Ayers. I searched the site for any diaries on this but found nothing, so here's the alert.

I just caught the tail end of a Hannity & Colmes broadcast (at least I think it was their show) and the "shocked, shocked, I say!" tone of voice over an association between Senator Obama and someone named Bill Ayers.

"Who's Bill Ayers?" I asked myself, then found close to a million google hits on "Obama AND Bill Ayers." It was pretty much freeper sites a-go-go and it looks like this broke for them around February 28.

jakbeau

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Saturday March 29, 2008 · 8:30 PM PDT

2008/03/29 · 20:30

I'm not an international banker, nor do I play one on t.v., but reporting by John McGlynn at globalresearch.ca leads me to think he's got his eye on the arm-twisting money men over at the U.S. Treasury who, on March 20th, effectively declared that any bank that does business with any bank in Iran will not continue to do business with the international banking system.

McGlynn's headline is "Day of Infamy: The March 20, 2008 US Declaration of War on Iran"

jakbeau

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Sunday December 23, 2007 · 7:24 AM PST

2007/12/23 · 07:24

Yesterday, December 21st, marked the Winter Solstice - the shortest day and longest night of the year for people living in the northern hemisphere. From now through summer we'll receive minutes more sunlight each day: life-giving energy for crops, animals and people. For our ancestors living beyond 10,000 years ago up until the present day, the celebrations of Winter Solstice have been all about "The (Re)birth of the Sun."

We have archeological proof that, among others, the northern Chinese, ancient Iranians, Neolithic Europeans, the ancient Egyptians, Abyssinians, Syrians, Jews, Greeks, and Romans, the Maya, Inca, Pueblo and Hopi Indians all celebrated the winter solstice, and the vast majority of our Christmas customs are derived from these pre-Christian civilizations.

Follow me if you'd like ...

jakbeau

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Tuesday October 02, 2007 · 8:11 AM PDT

2007/10/02 · 08:11

Yesterday saw the debut of America's new central command for the African continent with a quiet announcement that AFRICOM is now taking over that continent's operations from the European, Central and Pacific commands. General William "Kip" Ward, the Army's only black four-star general, will oversee the newly created entity.

It isn't everyday that the U.S. creates a new, continent-wide central command. As a member of this community, I think AfriCom should be duly noted. (drum roll)

jakbeau

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Monday October 01, 2007 · 7:13 AM PDT

2007/10/01 · 07:13

Someone hung a 15 y.o. boy yesterday in Helmond province in Afghanistan and stuffed five U.S. one dollar bills in his mouth as a warning to others.

Who hanged the boy? As reported:

The Taliban warned villagers that they would face the same punishment if they were caught with dollars," said Wali Mohammad, the district police chief in Sangin.

jakbeau

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Sunday September 30, 2007 · 5:27 AM PDT

2007/09/30 · 05:27

Britain’s Sunday Telegraph reports on a Gulf air warfare conference in D.C. last week attended by the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. It seems that

Pentagon air chiefs have helped set up an air warfare centre in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where Gulf nations are training their fighter pilots and America has big bases. It is modeled on the US Air Force warfare centre at Nellis air force base in Nevada.

Jordan and the UAE have both taken part in combined exercises designed to make sure their air forces can fly, and fight, together and with American jets.

As the Telegraph notes:

Gen Michael Mosley, the US Air Force chief of staff, used the conference to seek closer links with allies whose support America might need if President George W Bush chooses to bomb Iran.

jakbeau

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Saturday August 25, 2007 · 10:36 AM PDT

2007/08/25 · 10:36

You've probably seen the news about the ammunition shortage in the U.S. Seems our local police forces can't train up with live ammo rounds which, while it isn't causing me to lose sleep, is getting play in the nation's local press. Of course this information has been around for a few years, but for whatever reason, sick of Vick diaries, this news caught my attention again today.

The reason for the shortage is the One billion bullets used every year in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

jakbeau

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Monday August 20, 2007 · 10:32 AM PDT

2007/08/20 · 10:32

Those wacky Canadians! I wrote a diary about the upcoming SPP protests in Canada a week or so ago, and junta0201 wrote one on 8/13 that is oh so much better than mine. Both diaries detail the concerns of progressive Canadians over the closed-door meeting(s) between Bush, Harper and Calderon in Montebello, Quebec, and their determination to come out in force across Canada with a big FU!. Today's the day, and my diary title is taken from one of the signs protestors are holding.

Poll

31 votes Show Results

The SPP: There's nothing for us to scrutinize because

31 votes Vote Now!

The SPP: There's nothing for us to scrutinize because

The U.S. will come out on top

2 votes

The Canadians are just purists

0 votes

We can afford more job loss

2 votes

We need that Canadian water

2 votes

Deep Integration IS a right wing fantasy

8 votes

The SPP will never happen because our Congress is too strong

0 votes

Our leaders don't need public or legislative scrutiny. We trust them.

3 votes

Canadian progressives work in a separate universe

1 vote

Oh, just FORGET that tri-national highway!

3 votes

The free market will sort all of this out

3 votes

I'm for the Security and Prosperity Parrntership

0 votes

Other

7 votes

Bye Bye Dems Part III

jakbeau

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Monday August 13, 2007 · 6:40 PM PDT

2007/08/13 · 18:40

I had a conversation just yesterday with a 52 y.o. progressive woman who's decided she's not voting in 2008. In fact, while I'll admit right up front that most of my friends are far left [though the national dialog as been pushed so far right that I'm not sure what that means anymore], I was surprised to hear two other friends voice the same opinion less than a week ago.

Please understand, these are politically savvy people who worked their asses off for Al Gore in 2000 and Howard Dean or Wes Clark or, finally, John Kerry in 2004. They grumbled and spit while they were doing it, because none of the candidates was as progressive as they wanted/needed/sought, but they ran voter drives, acted as Dem observers at polling places, raised money at house parties and prayed hard that the American people had woken up from the nightmare called GWB.

jakbeau

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Saturday August 11, 2007 · 7:35 AM PDT

2007/08/11 · 07:35

A new report from the government of India, covered today at Yahoo News tells us that
Seventy-seven percent of Indians -- about 836 million people -- live on less than half a dollar a day in one of the world's hottest economies.

According to Netaid,

Living in extreme poverty (less than $1 a day) means not being able to afford the most basic necessitites to ensure survival. 8 million people a year die from absolute poverty.

But let's focus on the global "rich", making close to $1.00 a day. Net Aid's page on Global Poverty tells us that

Over 1 billion people—1 in 6 people around the world—live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day.

Follow me to find out what the G-8 finance leaders thought about all of this after their May meeting this year.

jakbeau

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Thursday August 09, 2007 · 6:59 AM PDT

2007/08/09 · 06:59

I'm leaving for work, but given the anti-immigrant hysteria gripping the nation, this headline from antiwar.com caught my attention. Talk about piling-on.

Evidently the DEA issued a report in 2005 indicating that Arab terr'ists are crossing our southern border speaking spanish and establishing cells wherever Hispanics live.

Yesterday, Rep. Ed Royce of California, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs terrorism and nonproliferation subcommittee, said the DEA document substantiates information that his committee has been given in the past year.

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World Bank this morning: let's count the environment

Obama and Weatherman bomber Bill Ayers

U.S. declaration of war on Iran: March 20th

Why an atheist celebrates Christmas (and thinks you should too)

Introducing: AFRICOM!

Hanged With A Mouth Full of Dollars

DC: Iran "air war" conference

Iraq & Afghanistan: One Billion Bullets a year

SPP=NAFTA+GUNS (with poll)

Bye Bye Dems Part III

Which candidate will talk about Empire?

Ut oh. DEA says terrorists masquerading as "Hispanics"