Do we want another gun toting VP with lifelong membership of the NRA and an advocate of conservative policies favoring big oil (preference national Alaskan companies) ... an AIP opinion.

Sarah Palin spent $400,000 of state money to "educate" Alaskans about aerial hunting of wolves and bears.  State tax money was used to directly influence the outcome of proposition 2 which would have limited aerial shooting of predators.  Since Alaskans had previously voted twice to ban aerial shooting of predators, Palin used state tax money to buy support for aerial shooting. Buying votes with tax money worked - proposition two was voted down on 8/26/08.

Read more about Governor Palin's "predator control" policies and the use of state money to slaughter bears and wolves.  This year the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game will exterminate 1,400 bears out of a population of 2,000 in an area west of Anchorage. The Alaskan Board of Game even approved the hunting of black bear mothers and cubs with the goal of killing 60 percent of the black bear population.  Although biologists have known since the 60's that predators actually keep prey populations healthy, Alaskan wolves and bears are being exterminated (using cruel practices such as baiting, trapping, and aerial shooting) to boost dwindling moose populations.  Do we really want a vice president who doesn't believe in science?  

Sarah Palin sues the federal government over listing polar bears as a threatened species.  Why?  Because it could restrict the oil industry that fills her pockets.  This is the same reason she wants to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. Read Governor Palin's ignorant op-ed piece here.  Palin believes that global warming is a myth.

Bear viewing in Alaska generates $100,000,000/yr.
yet Palin refuses to even learn about the industry

It was a task of epic proportions, inspiring comparisons with Commando magazine, Mad Max, the battle of Arnhem in 1944 and the relief of the siege of Mafeking in 1900.

The mission was to take 220 tonnes of turbine and other equipment, worth millions of pounds, across 100 miles of some of the most hostile and heavily mined territory in Afghanistan.

Plaquemines Parish officials are trying to open the Caenarvon Mississippi River diversion to ease pressure on a levee that is being overtopped in Braithwaite. Since power is out in the area, however, they are trying to open the diversion gates manually.

Plaquemines Parish workers have been furiously working on the levee along the Clearwater Canal since mid-afternoon. Floodwaters spilling over the top of the levee threaten the Braithwaite Park subdivision. (bottom right)

The levee has not breached, but authorities are not hopeful

"We don't think our efforts are going to be successful so we need to get everyone out now,'' Parish President Billy Nungesser said.

Officials said opening the diversion would allow some of the floodwater to be diverted into the Mississippi River, which is lower.

Meanwhile, St. Bernard Parish is sending firefighters, deputies and other workers to the area to help with the efforts.

The canal is on the east bank of the parish. The subdivision is off Louisiana 39. The 8-foot-tall levee is a parish levee that is not part of the federal levee protection system, officials said. Officials said the same levee is also being overtopped further south at Scarsdale.

GENEVA - A prominent human rights group says Georgia has admitted dropping cluster bombs in its military offensive to assert control over the restive province of South Ossetia.

Human Rights Watch says it has received an official letter from Georgia's Defense Ministry that acknowledges use of the M85 cluster munition near the Roki tunnel that connects South Ossetia with Russia.

A mine expert inspects a cluster bomb with its bomblets in Lebanon.   (Keystone)

The M85 is the same weapon that was used extensively by Israel in its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

HRW arms division researcher Bonnie Docherty told reporters in Geneva that Russia undoubtedly used cluster munition in several places during the conflict. However, Russia has denied using the weapon.

Israel's Mercenaries in Georgia

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan suspended fighting in the volatile northwest for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and some of the 300,000 people displaced by air strikes and gunbattles started packing up belongings to return to their shattered homes.

The military warned, however, that any provocations in the Bajur tribal region, a rumoured hide-out of Osama bin Laden near the border with Afghanistan, would bring immediate retaliation.

Pakistan's five-month-old government at first tried peace talks with militants, but those efforts bore little fruit. It has turned to force in recent weeks, including using helicopter gunships and jets to strike suspected insurgent hide-outs.

The operation in Bajur began in early August. Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said it has killed more than 560 insurgents. Mr. Malik did not commit to a formal end to the operation but said an estimated 300,000 people displaced from Bajur could return to the region "without any fear."

Some started gathering their belongings from sweltering, mosquito-infested relief camps so they could go home for Ramadan. But others, barely scraping by, said they could not afford to make the journey and would remain with their families in cramped tents for the holy month.

Defence analyst Talat Masood said the suspension of massive military operations in Bajur, which began in early August, risked squandering any gains made by security forces so far.

"Definitely it will give a fair chance to the militants to regroup, consolidate their strength and stage a come back," he said. "This has happened in the past."

Bajur has been the primary focus of military operations against insurgents, though there have also been clashes in the northwestern Swat Valley, a formerly popular tourist resort.

It was not immediately clear whether authorities were also suspending fighting there, but Taliban militants said, in any case, they intended to keep up their activities.

"This is not a war, but jihad, and this is our faith that rewards for good deeds and that is multiplied during the holy month," said Muslim Khan, a Taliban spokesman in Swat.

(News of the World) - TERRORISTS tried to KILL Gordon Brown during his visit to Afghanistan last week. Taliban fanatics were in position . . . and ready to SHOOT down his helicopter as he flew over the capital Kabul.

But the assassination bid was foiled with just MINUTES to spare when the two gunmen were spotted on a rooftop directly beneath the chopper's flight path.

The drama unfolded in the early afternoon as Mr Brown was about to board the Chinook military helicopter at the British Embassy in Kabul after talks with officials at the end of his one-day trip. The PM, his closest aides, and a police and army protection team were just about to walk up the rear ramp of the Chinook when the alarm was sounded.

A security source said: "The Prime Minister was told two hostiles had been spotted with guns on a nearby roof. He was rushed back to the compound and local forces dealt with the situation."

Reconstruction of Afghanistan is central to British foreign policy (Telegraph)

But as Afghan police rushed to the rooftop scene the two gunmen are understood to have realised they had been spotted--and escaped.

The PM spent another 45 minutes sheltering inside the embassy in the Kabul "Green Zone" until a massive security operation swung into action for the 10-minute flight to the city's international airport.

American Black Hawk helicopters were brought in to provide extra protection during the flight from the centre of Kabul.

Brown makes surprise trip to Afghanistan as Taliban step up attacks

NPR just had a story about a flurry of mostly-positive edits that occurred to Sarah Palin's wikipedia page, 45 minutes before her VP candidacy was leaked--including edits that removed/downplayed references to the brother-in-law scandal. The author of those edits?  An anonymous user with the handle "YoungTrig."  Trig--I'm sure just coincidentally--is the name of Palin's infant son.

Palin Ad Starring Ted Stevens Already Scrubbed From Palin's Campaign Website

KABUL, Afghanistan: A United Nations human rights team (UNAMA) has found "convincing evidence" that some 90 civilians -- among them 60 children -- were killed in air strikes on a village in western Afghanistan on Thursday night, a statement issued by the United Nations mission in Kabul said, making it almost certainly the deadliest case of civilian casualties caused by any United States military operation in Afghanistan since 2001.

Mohammad Iqbal Safi, the head of the parliamentary defense committee and a member of the government commission, said the 60 children were between three months old and 16 years old, all killed as they slept. "It was a heart breaking scene," he said.

The death toll may even rise higher since heavy lifting gear is needed to uncover all the remains, said one Western official who had seen the United Nations report.

US CLAIM 25 MILITANTS KILLED

The United Nations report adds pressure to the United States military, which has to date said only that 25 militants and five civilians were killed in the air strikes, which were aimed at a Taliban named Mullah Saddiq. The military announced it was conducting an investigation after the high civilian death toll was reported.

The bombing occurred around midnight, the United Nations statement said. "Foreign and Afghan military personnel entered the village of Nawabad in the Azizabad area of Shindand district," it said. "Military operations lasted several hours during which air strikes were called in." "The destruction from aerial bombardment was clearly evident, with some 7-8 houses having been totally destroyed and serious damage to many others."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree recognizing Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, a day after the Russian parliament passed resolutions to this effect, ignoring protests from the West.

He ordered the foreign ministry to start negotiations with officials of both the regions on establishing diplomatic relations with Russia, and "draft the corresponding documents."

Moscow's political move, which came immediately after European Union (EU) pledged support for Georgia's territorial integrity, has intensified tensions between Russia and the West over the conflict in the Caucasus, which began with Georgian forces invading the two pro-Russian regions, and Russia stepping in.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is in the West Bank city of Ramallah as part of a Middle East tour, said the decision was "regrettable."

U.S. President George W Bush Monday urged Russia's leadership to honor its commitments and not recognize the separatist regions. European leaders fiercely criticized the Russian parliament's action.

Germany, Britain and France also condemned the move.

OSLO, Norway - Norway's Defense Ministry says Russia has informed it that it plans to cut all military ties with NATO.

Ministry spokeswoman Heidi Langvik-Hansen says the country's embassy received a telephone call from Russia's Defense Ministry, saying Moscow plans "to freeze all military cooperation with NATO and allied countries."

Norway was told in the telephone call a written note about this would be sent out shortly.

Russian officials were not immediately available to confirm the information and officials at NATO headquarters said they have not been informed of any such moves.

NATO foreign ministers suspended formal contacts with Russia as punishment for sending troops into Georgia.

NATO SG Jaap de Hoop Scheffer puts blame on Russia

Where have we heard the same argument before: "Bush says he will listen to Petreaus' advice, not Congress, on troop withdrawal".

GORI, Georgia (Haaretz) - An official of the Georgian Economic Ministry, Avtadeo Irmashvili, was organizing the reopening of the city's stores. Ten stores and two bakeries have already opened, he said, and the main hospital is also back in operation, though all the patients have been evacuated to Tbilisi over the past few days.

There were no Russian soldiers to be seen in the central square. But they controlled the roads in and out of town, and allowed people to come and go only by the Tbilisi exit. The roads north and west were blocked. Russian soldiers also blocked the roads linking Gori's neighborhoods. They have been searching public buildings and, according to Gori residents, they take whatever they want from food shops.

Dozens of Russian vehicles were parked at both of the town's military bases, and convoys of armored personnel carriers went in and out of the gates.

The recent row over a U.S. art installation illustrates that our blanket embrace of Israel is outdated.

(Haaretz) - An exhibition in Chicago's Spertus Museum features Israeli and Palestinian artists engaging with the subjectivity of maps, and all falls apart. After a short struggle, the exhibition is closed down. The curation is described by the Jewish Federation as "anti-Israel," and one commentator goes so far as to describe the closed exhibition as "a cultural crime scene,", no less. Articles are written about "freedom from censorship" on the one hand, and "Jewish communal commitments" on the other.

KFAR Center

But the huge elephant in the room has once again been stepped around.

The truth is that we don't fundamentally disagree about freedom of expression, or about the need for Jewish cultural institutions to relate to their audiences. We just haven't fully worked out how American Jewry can relate to Israel.  

WASHINGTON (AP) Aug. 14, 2008 -- John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3½-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

The payments raise ethical questions about the intersection of Randy Scheunemann's personal financial interests and his advice to the Republican presidential candidate who is seizing on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue.

McCain warned Russian leaders that their assault in Georgia risks "the benefits they enjoy from being part of the civilized world."

On April 17, a month and a half after Scheunemann stopped working for Georgia, his partner signed a $200,000 agreement with the Georgian government. The deal added to an arrangement that brought in more than $800,000 to the two-man firm from 2004 to mid-2007. For the duration of the campaign, Scheunemann is taking a leave of absence from the firm.

"Scheunemann's work as a lobbyist poses valid questions about McCain's judgment in choosing someone who -- and whose firm -- are paid to promote the interests of other nations," said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers. "So one must ask whether McCain is getting disinterested advice, at least when the issues concern those nations."

Insane McCain Will Push Georgia into NATO Alliance/War with Russia

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