Unearthed: News of the Week the Mainstream Media Forgot to Report

Bush Admits U.S. 'learning as we go' in Iraq, Afghanistan
President Bush admitted during his commencement address at the Air Force Academy last week that "we're learning as we go" in the Afghanistan and Iraq rebuilding efforts. Bush also drew what many historians say is an oversimplified parallel between the current Iraq quagmire and World War II, saying that "In Germany and Japan, the work of rebuilding took place in relative quiet." Sam Brannen, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Associated Press that Bush's analogy between World War II and today is "patently false," because the stateless enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq "are not accountable to the same command-and-control structures that existed in Japan and Germany." Bush also claimed "the only way that America can lose the war on terror is if we defeat ourselves."

General Electric Claims CO2 "A Possible" Factor in Global Warming
Despite all its green advertising claims, behind the scenes General Electric remains skeptical about the role of carbon dioxide in driving climate change. A May 28th GE press release announcing a new "clean coal" initiative states only that "CO2 is a possible contributing factor to climate change."

GE's multi-million dollar "Ecomagination" ad campaign paints the company as a concerned environmental steward and GE belongs to a growing coalition of companies calling for federal action on climate change. Kevin Grandia, the managing editor of a new collaborative web effort by several environmental groups to debunk the myth of "clean coal," noticed the GE press release and pointed to the inconsistency between the skeptical line in the release and GE's widely-publicized ads and public statements on climate change. Grandia notes that "considering the major marketing effort GE has undertaken to paint itself as a leader on reducing greenhouse gas emissions...[w]hy so much investment by GE in something they only see as a possibility?"

General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt admitted to Forbes magazine in 2005 that the company's lofty "Ecomagination" campaign is little more than a sales pitch. "It's primarily that," Immelt said. "In its essence it's a way to sell more products and services."

In order to confront similar greenwashing by the coal industry, environmental groups including The DeSmog Project, Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace USA launched a new website http://www.coal-is-clean.com/ to shatter the coal industry's "clean coal" myth by mocking the lengths the coal industry will go to portray coal as clean. A companion site http://www.coal-is-dirty.com/ explains the actual impacts of coal mining and burning.

NASA Inspector General Report Confirms Political Censorship of Climate Data
A new investigation by NASA's inspector general confirms that Bush administration appointees deliberately skewed and deleted scientific findings about the serious threat of global warming from agency press releases for purely political reasons. The report also confirms that NASA public affairs appointees denied media access to NASA climate scientists and thereby "reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public." The investigation details how the political appointees in the press office rewrote the findings of NASA scientists and put out press releases which instead "suffered from inaccuracy, factual inefficiency and scientific dilution," according to the Inspector General report. This tampering with science constitutes a major breach of the long-standing trust between NASA scientists and the agency's public affairs department.

Forced by Court Order, Bush administration finally releases long-overdue climate assessment
Four years past its mandated deadline and ultimately compelled by court order, the Bush Administration finally released a climate change assessment detailing how global warming will affect the United States. A 1990 law, the Global Change Research Act, requires the government to assess the potential for domestic impacts from global warming every four years. But seven-plus years into Bush's presidency, this Administration hadn't released an update to the last report issued in 2000 by the Clinton administration. The long-overdue assessment details how global warming will likely lead to devastating droughts and stronger hurricanes in the United States, among other negative impacts.

Top Scientists Say United States Has Lost Its Stature As Science Leader
Following the seven-year assault on science carried out by the Bush Administration, the nation's top scientists say the United States has lost its edge as a leader in science education and research. An expert panel of scientists, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's top science adviser, detailed at last week's World Science Festival how the disdain for science among high-level political appointees has crippled the United States' once proud international standing as a leader in scientific research. The scientists cited specific examples of how U.S. officials downplayed and suppressed scientific evidence of climate change, derailed federal funding for stem cell research, and promoted creationism while casting doubt on the science of evolution.

Bush Administration submits Yucca Mountain nuclear waste application without required radiation exposure standard
The Bush administration submitted its formal application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to build a nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada but failed to include a critical public safety standard for radiation exposure. The application lacks a plan to safeguard the public from certain dangerous isotopes in the radioactive waste that remain dangerous for 1 million years. The EPA has yet to produce this critical standard, yet the Bush administration proceeded with its application anyway. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told reporters the government's license application will "stand up to any challenge anywhere," despite the fact that a federal court has already ruled the EPA's public radiation exposure standard invalid until it can establish a standard that would be protective of the public for 1 million years. So far, EPA has only been able to establish a standard protective for 10,000 years, nowhere near long enough to safeguard public health and the environment from the deadly radioactive isotopes that would be stored at Yucca. Nevada officials and tribes who live closest to the proposed storage dump vow to continue their fight against the troubled facility.

Proselytizing Marine Suspended In Iraq But Others Continue Attempt to Convert Muslims to Christianity
The military suspended a single Marine in Iraq for forcibly handing out coins quoting the Gospel to Sunni Muslims passing through a checkpoint at the western entrance to Fallujah. In possible violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, U.S. Marines are acting as Christian missionaries while on patrol in Iraq, handing out bibles translated into Arabic, coins quoting the Gospel and other fundamentalist Christian literature to Sunni Muslims in Fallujah and elsewhere. Coalition forces spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll said that "the military prohibits proselytizing any religion, faith or practices."

The Christian fundamentalist group Bible Pathway Ministries admits it has provided thousands of copies of a special military edition of its Daily Devotional Bible study book to members of the 101st Airborne Division. The book's cover includes the logos of the five branches of the armed forces, implying that the Pentagon approved its publication.

Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the nonprofit group Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and a former Reagan administration White House counsel and former Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) asserts that "such fundamentalist Christian proselytizing DIRECTLY violates General Order 1A, Part 2, Section J issued by General Tommy Franks on behalf of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) back in December of 2000 which strictly prohibits "proselytizing of any religion, faith or practice."

Chief Warrant Officer Rene Llanos of the 101st Airborne told Mission Network News, "the soldiers who are patrolling and walking the streets are taking along this copy, and they're using it to minister to the local residents."

"Our division is also getting ready to head toward Afghanistan, so there will be copies heading out with the soldiers," Llanos said. "We need to pray for protection for our soldiers as they patrol and pray that God would continue to open doors. The soldiers are being placed in strategic places with a purpose. They're continuing to spread the Word."

Veteran's Affairs Secretary says concerns about PTSD 'overblown'
In response to a question posed by Vietnam veteran John Guinn about the growing problem of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans, Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake suggested that some concerns about PTSD are "overblown," adding that many of the brain injuries were "akin to what anyone who played football in their youth might have suffered." During his visit to Alaska with Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, Peake also said that many vets with PTSD may just need "a little counseling" and shouldn't "need the PTSD label their whole lives."

Yet new Pentagon figures show that the number of new PTSD cases "jumped by roughly 50 percent in 2007." Brandon Friedman from VetVoice notes that Peake's interpretation contradicts VA psychiatrist Jonathan Shay, who maintains "Combat PTSD is a war injury. Veterans with combat PTSD are war wounded, carrying the burdens of sacrifice for the rest of us as surely as the amputees, the burned, the blind, and the paralyzed carry them."

The Washington Post reported on the front page June 3rd that soldiers at Fort Benning suffering from PTSD and other mental wounds are housed in "warrior transition" barracks roughly 200 yards away from the fort's main infantry firing ranges. The traumatized soldiers are subjected to the sounds of rifle and machine gun fire day and night several days a week. One soldier was recently sent to the emergency room suffering from an anxiety attack due to the proximity of the firing range.

Nearly 40,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with PTSD, in addition to an estimated 150,000 combat veterans with PTSD symptoms.

Right Wing Skeptic Group Plans 'Carbon Belch Day'
Right wing global warming skeptics are planning a day of carbon belching to coincide with the Congressional debate on a carbon tax rebate program. The "grassroots" group Grassfire.org wants people to waste as much energy as possible on June 12 to break free from "carbon footprint guilt."

Grassfire's president Steve Elliott has a solid right wing resume, according to his bio, which says that Elliott "has rallied citizens on a host of grassroots issues, including border security, tax reform, abortion, traditional marriage, supporting our troops, exposing media bias and defending the Pledge of Allegiance." Although Grassfire was once linked to the right-wing Washington P.R. firm Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, the group refuses to divulge its current funding sources.

International Energy Agency prepares to study peak oil for the first time
The International Energy Agency - considered to be the most reliable independent monitor of global oil supplies - is worried that demand for oil among a growing world population will not be met by a dwindling supply of the fossil fuel resource. "We are entering a new world energy order, " IEA chief economist Fatih Birol told the Associated Press. The IEA plans to study the depletion rates of 400 oil fields in order to gauge whether or not the world is at or near peak oil, the point at which oil production peaks globally and the remaining oil becomes much more difficult and expensive to get to market, causing demand to far outstrip supply. The IEA's task will be hindered by secretive regimes such as Saudi Arabia that refuse to divulge information on their remaining oil reserves, but the agency's findings will serve as the most definitive assessment to date on the outlook of global oil supply.

U.S. Among Countries Who Oppose Ban on Cluster Bombs
The Bush administration refused to sign a recent treaty banning cluster bombs, and worked behind the scenes to strongly oppose its adoption by lobbying other nations to resist the treaty's call to eliminate stockpiles of the deadly cluster weapons. The United States is the leading producer of the munitions, has the largest stockpile of them, and has used them more frequently than any other nation, including in the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars. More than 100 countries gathered in Dublin last week to sign the treaty which calls for the destruction of existing stockpiles of cluster munitions over the next eight years and an immediate end to their use in battle. Russia, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and the United States - all major producers or users of the weapons - refused to participate in the talks or to sign the treaty. Cluster bombs are designed to detonate upon impact with the ground, spraying small "bomblets" over an area of several hundred yards. But many fail to detonate, leaving behind a minefield of munitions easily triggered by unsuspecting civilians.

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Comments

[outnow]

People are going to have to learn the hard way because they want to believe that the invisible hand of the free market will pick their pocket while they are in denial. Unfettered capitalism allow many evils. One is prostitution. More insidious is the corporate control of information. With media consolidation and a deferentially complicit media, Joe Sixpack will keep voting the way that Rush Limbaugh tells him to vote. Security mothers are in denial. Like battered wives who will not leave their abusing husbands, they perceive Bush and McCain as guys who keep them safe. Joe Sixpack is too worried about his masculinity to question wars of choice. He is too intimidated to search of the facts so he buys into what he is told by corporate media - the same media owned and controlled by the same multinational corporations that profit off of his ignorance.

Thanks for bringing out these stories. These are the real issues and the information needed to vote intelligently.

[ArmchairPatriot]

This is all bad news for America and that is why we have heard nothing of it in the Corporate Media.

We are "learning as we go" in Iraq and Afghanistan? What a surprise. We learned there were no WMD, we learned Saddam had no ties to al Qaeda, we learned there was a difference between Sunni and Shia. The point is these are things we should have known before beginning this debacle, not something we should learn "as we go".

As for GE, I'm not surprised a company would indulge themselves in pretending to be environmentally friendly while denying Global Warming, it's not about saving the planet, it's about convincing people who care about the environment to buy your products.

The Bush Administration censoring information on Climate Change? No way, I can't believe it. I mean, it's not like the Bushies put politics before policy.

We are no longer a leader in science? Well, I guess that's what happens when you dumb down and evangelize an entire nation.

[ElkoJohn]

,
a sincere thank you
for your weekly update on the important news
that the MSM fails to report

a constant reminder of why the internet
is our most important source of for
a truly ''free press''



.

[Soulsurfer]

Thanks again for posting these stories every week. Of course TV nightly news and network broadcast radio news won't publish most of these. It unsettles people, they might get angry and/or involved. Better to keep their minds on their jobs, and a little sports news, celebrity gossip, someone else's personal misfortunes or addictions, ya'll know the formula. Corporate owned media, the companies that have a huge spread of products to sell, and a stake in governmental policy, is not the best of sources to tell us the truth. They don't profit from us being informed.

[moreupnorth]

I thought you folks were in Iraq to spread Democracy and not Christianity. That's what I see the Bush Admin saying on the Propaganda channels every day. Last time I checked Democracy was mutually exclusive from Christianity. When did they become one in the same, January 2000?

[ChrisRodda]

Richard Bartholomew, (his blog is "Bartholomew's Notes on Religion," http://blogs.salon.com/0003494/), pulled out a quote the other day that's typical of the statements of the many evangelical organizations who see the U.S. occupation of Iraq as their window of opportunity to evangelize the Middle East. This is what National Association of Evangelicals official Kyle Fisk said in the early days of the war:

"Iraq will become the center for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to Iran, Libya, throughout the Middle East...President Bush said democracy will spread from Iraq to nearby countries. A free Iraq also allows us to spread Jesus Christ's teachings even in nations where the laws keep us out."

[research]

Bush did call it a "crusade".

[elbzee]

I stumbled over his quote recently and just LOVE it!

"I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent."
Arthur C. Clarke

[unitron]

"The book's cover includes the logos of the five branches of the armed forces,,,"

So, was our government too stupid to trademark or copyright those logos, thus allowing them to revert to "public domain" status, or are Bible Pathway Ministries the moral equivalent of all of those godless file swappers who made unauthorized copies of Metallica songs?

[ChrisRodda]

Actually, permission IS required to use these logos, so when they appear on religious books, it means one of two things -- the publishers are using them without permission, or the Pentagon's public affairs office granted permission -- either of which is a problem.

Below are links to two pieces I wrote for The Public Record about Revival Fires International, a ministry that not only has permission to ship Pentagon approved Bibles to Iraq, but has an arrangement to send them via military airlift. I think the logos on this particular Bible are the official logos of the chaplain corps of the various branches.

The first article is about Revival Fires founder Cecil Todd, and includes excerpts from his unbelievable political sermon trashing Barack Obama (because, of course, we all know he's really a Muslim.) The second is about Todd's son, Tim Todd, and his outright lie that our government won't give our soldiers Bibles, but gives every soldier a copy of the Qur'an.

http://pubrecord.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=15

http://pubrecord.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66&Itemid=15

[jaf]

Thanks for your diligence in reporting these items. I have to criticize your headline. The media of which you speak are not truly mainstream. Time and time again the media conglomerates push positions which are far to the right of what the polls tell us are the actual mainstream views of America. So please, please let us agree to use the more accurate term: they are the CORPORATE MEDIA. As liberals, progressives, Democrats we value accuracy so why allow the right to frame the dialogue by portraying their 'message multiplier' outlets as 'mainstream'?

[research]

good point.

[preatorius]

What if we stop arguing over climate change, and just agree that our air, soil and water are polluted, and we and the rest of te living creatures will suffer if we don't stop destroying the earth?

[dadw5boys]

Coalition forces spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll said that "the military prohibits proselytizing any religion, faith or practices."

HE WAS LIEING!!!!!!!!
SEE HOW DEEP THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT IS IN THE MILITARY!!!!

http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/Media_video/christian-embassy/index.html

[dadw5boys]

Whether Philip decides to join our Strike Force staff or not, those Marines he leads and fights with will experience the love of Jesus Christ; the good news of God's Kingdom will advance in their hearts.

I looked Philip deep in the eye, "I love you Philip and I'm very proud of you." I exhorted him to remember his identity, "Philip, you are a precious son of the living God in whom He is well pleased, now fight like a man."

Michael Hitefield is another story like Sgt. Gosselin. Michael is a Navy Corpsman serving as a doctor with the Marines. Prior to his leaving for Iraq, I asked him if he knew who he was -- God's son in whom He is well pleased!
DO MUSLIUM LEADERS PREPARE THEIR YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN THE SAME WAY???

Read more about the U.S. Militarys new CRUSADERS:
http://www.navigators.org/us/ministries/military/stories/items/Military%20BVD's

[ChrisRodda]

The Navigators are one of many military ministries that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has been tracking and gathering information on. In fact, they're part of a story we're working on right now. (I'm MRFF's Senior Research Director.)

I see someone already linked to the Campus Crusade Christian Embassy video in another comment here. There's also a report on MRFF's website from last October if anyone wants more information on their Military Ministry. This report explains the organization's hierarchy and just how far they have already managed to infiltrate the military to turn it into a massive force of "government-paid missionaries for Christ."

Here's the link: http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/six-month-report-2007/six_month_report2.html

There also another must-see Campus Crusade video on our site, filmed at the Air Force Academy a few years ago:
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/press-releases/ccc_usafa.html

[Shaddup]

I just want to seriously thank you for publishing these articles. I wish there was a way the Corporate Media could do a weekly magazine that presented each and every one. It's a shame that so many don't actually seek out truth in the media but actually just accept what they're given, and that's not much.

[southernsepia]

And we don't care.

So sad.

We the people are so used to tabloid journalism that we have no idea what is happening in our country.

[karela]

Two thirds of the injuries/deaths caused by cluster bombs, happen to children. This was one of the war votes that Mrs. Clinton differed with Barack Obama over. I found the information on Fire Fox by searching for cluster bombs+senate vote. The bill to discontinue U.S. use of cluster bombs was introduced by Clinton supporter Diane Feinstein. Barack Obama voted to never use them again. Hillary Clinton voted to continue using them indefinitely. The bill was defeated and the U.S. is still in the business of utilizing this gift that keeps on giving, for decades after the wars are over, by maiming, blinding and killing children. The U.S. senate wouldn't even pass a bill to stop using them near populated villages and refugee camps.
John McCain thought we should keep using them too. Of course, this decision has nothing to do with the fact that our country is a major producer and stock piler of these bombs that target children. Senators Byrd, Durbin, Kerry, Kennedy, Levin, Reid and many others agreed with Obama and Feinstein that the U.S. had no business using cluster bombs. They were defeated by Senators Clinton, Bayh, Nelson, Schumer and a few other democrats who voted with the republicans to side with President Bush on this matter. These time capsules of destruction are still being dropped in Afghanistan and Iraq and the many unfired bomblets lie waiting for the children of the future.

[syllepsis]

Once again, my Dem Senators, Clinton and Schumer, reveal themselves to be opponents to decency and humanity.
It isn't the Blue Dogs who have dragged the Party into the abyss of the last eight years; it is these abettors of neoconservatism, perched at its very center.

[PKSSK]

Clinton and Schumer have always been pro war politicians and it is time for their New York constituents to wake up. Maybe the author of this post, Robert F. Kennedy or his cousin Caroline, should seriously consider running for the US Senate/NY. The country needs to boot the politicians that vote on behalf of their own interest instead of their state and countries interest,

[mouselion]

From an e-mail from Senator Patrick Leahy:

"I first became concerned with the danger to civilians from cluster munitions when I learned that millions of these tiny, lethal "bomblets" still litter the country of Laos more than 30 years after the Vietnam War, where they continue to claim the lives and limbs of innocent people. The Leahy War Victims Fund, which provides medical, rehabilitation, and other assistance to war victims around the world, has been used in Laos to help victims of cluster munitions rebuild their lives.

Last year, I joined Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in sponsoring legislation to ban most cluster munitions used by the United States, and earlier this year, my amendment to ban the export of such cluster munitions was enacted into law.

The United States should help lead the effort to reduce the risk of civilian harm from cluster munitions. On June 3, 2008, I joined with Senator Feinstein in sponsoring a Joint Resolution which urges the President to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions when it becomes open for signature in December, 2008. You can read my statement in support of the Resolution on my website at the following link:

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200806/060308d.html"

[Bastet]

What does the Bush regime have to do to get arrested? Seems they can do just about anything they want to and no one's holding them accountable for one damn thing, while the rest of us try to figure how NOT to get arrested. Hmmm, seems to be a pattern here......

[elbzee]

I too appreciate that this news is published here. I'm saddened that it's not more common to see/hear/read these details in a more universal medium. These are the stories the vast majority of Americans will likely never see. This is what main stream media needs to cover. Please, it"s a lot more important than Britney. Such routine, consistently damaging administrative positions are hideous. perhaps heinous is a better portrayal.
I will admit I am seeing slightly more disclosure and stories on articles headlining the HuffPo on my local NBC affiliate news last night. I really believe there are actually people in the news business who have consciences and are as appalled as we. Now that they"ve been busted deceiving us and selling propaganda, I think they just might start doing their jobs.