Do I know you?

/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009pnbm.php

02:27 pm - M 5.1, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Saturday, November 28, 2009 18:58:23 UTC
Saturday, November 28, 2009 08:58:23 AM at epicenter

Depth: 29.00 km (18.02 mi)

/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009pnbi.php

01:57 pm - M 6.0, Mindanao, Philippines

Saturday, November 28, 2009 18:10:24 UTC
Sunday, November 29, 2009 02:10:24 AM at epicenter

Depth: 74.80 km (46.48 mi)

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/28-3

01:28 pm - Tea Parties Emerge as Revenue Stream

by Kenneth P. Vogel

Tapping into the deep reservoir of anger on the right at President Barack Obama and Congress has turned out to be a financial boon to a diverse collection of tea party-affiliated political groups and candidates soliciting donations and raising money from the sale of T-shirts, books and paraphernalia.

/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/at00943182.php

01:27 pm - M 6.0, Mindanao, Philippines

Saturday, November 28, 2009 18:10:23 UTC
Sunday, November 29, 2009 02:10:23 AM at epicenter

Depth: 53.00 km (32.93 mi)

/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009pnbd.php

01:27 pm - M 5.0, near the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia

Saturday, November 28, 2009 17:49:17 UTC
Sunday, November 29, 2009 05:49:17 AM at epicenter

Depth: 60.40 km (37.53 mi)

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/28-2

12:39 pm - Russia, US Likely to Miss Deadline on Arms Pact

by Denis Dyomkin and Jeff Mason

MINSK/WASHINGTON - The United States and Russia are unlikely to finish a pact to cut Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons by a December 5 deadline but still aim to close the deal by year-end, Russian and U.S. sources said Friday.

Diplomats from the two biggest nuclear powers have been trying to prepare a new agreement on cutting atomic weapons before the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires.

The new accord will be signed "in a European country" in December, a Kremlin source told Reuters in Minsk, where President Dmitry Medvedev was meeting regional leaders.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/28-5

12:49 pm - Is Obama's Civil Liberties Record Understandable?

by Glenn Greenwald

Earlier this week, Kevin Drum said that "nine times out of ten" Obama's policies are "pretty much what [he] expected" but that "the biggest one-time-out-of-ten where he's not doing what [he] expected is in the area of detainee and civil liberties issues." Similarly, Andrew Sullivan cited "accountability for war crimes and civil

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/28-4

12:45 pm - Saving Copenhagen

by Reede Stockton

Barack Obama took the oath of office on January 20, 2009 with the wind at his back, armed with a mandate to reverse the course of the Bush administration on a wide range of issues, climate change prominent among them. Ten months later, the winds have stilled and Obama appears paralyzed, unable to move forward on his promise to establish a domestic greenhouse gas reduction program, while climate legislation has slowed to a crawl in the Senate.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/28-3

12:23 pm - Climate Change Reset Needed

by Mike Tidwell

Tomorrow is not an option.

Those ought to be the words coming from the White House right now on global warming. Never again can we tolerate a year like 2009, when attempts to cap carbon pollution go nowhere. Already this month, President Barack Obama has confirmed two painful truths. First: Congress will not complete work on a global warming bill in 2009. And second, the corollary blow: There will be no international climate deal in Denmark next month, dashing years of international hopes.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/28-2

12:06 pm - The Passenger and the Airline Ticket

by Christopher Brauchli

Appearances often are deceiving.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/28-1

11:53 am - The Meaning of Seattle: Truth Only Becomes True Through Action

by Walden Bello

It is now generally accepted that globalization has been a failure in terms of delivering on its triple promise of lifting countries from stagnation, eliminating poverty, and reducing inequality.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/28-1

11:14 am - US Navy Plots Arctic Push

by Ian MacLeod

The U.S. navy is planning a massive push into the Arctic to defend national security, potential undersea riches and other maritime interests.

An "Arctic roadmap" by the Department of the Navy details a five-year strategic plan to expand fleet operations into the North in anticipation that the frozen Arctic Ocean will be open water in summer by 2030.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/11/28/105412/94

talk2action_rss

11:53 am - At GAFCON 2008, Anglican Leaders Learn That They're Really Jews

The new Political Research Associates report, Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches, and Homophobia, heavily focuses on anti-gay...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/28-0

10:49 am - Bargains Galore! But Who Pays the Price?

by Bama Athreya and David Batstone

When is a bargain not a bargain? When someone else's child pays for our kid's gift.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/28

10:43 am - The Truth of UK's Guilt Over Iraq

by Scott Ritter

With its troops no longer engaged in military operations inside Iraq, Great Britain has been liberated politically to conduct a postmortem of that conflict, including the sensitive issue of the primary justification used by then Prime Minister Tony Blair for going to war, namely Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, or WMD.

The failure to find any WMD in Iraq following the March 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of that country by US and British troops continues to haunt those who were involved

http://ozarque.livejournal.com/625119.html

ozarque_lj

03:16 pm - Eldering; winter holidays ahead...

One of the things that goes with eldering is that everything you do -- even things you've been doing for so many years that you could practically do them in your sleep -- starts taking much longer to do than it ever has before. It's frustrating, and infuriating, and you keep thinking that if you'd just put your mind to it you could do things faster .... but you learn that that's false.

The reason I'm bringing this up isn't because I think it will come as a revelation to any of you. I'm bringing it up because starting tomorrow I'm going to be up to my eyebrows in getting ready for Christmas. Putting up the Christmas tree. Trimming the Christmas tree. Writing and addressing the Christmas cards and Christmas checks. Making the fruitcake. Making the handcrafted presents. Wrapping the presents. Putting the local presents under the tree, and getting the nonlocal ones off in the mail in time. Cleaning the house. Doing the last-minute Christmas shopping. Making the grocery list for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Cooking the Christmas dinner. Fixing the Christmas Eve buffet. And the most important task of all: Writing the To Do lists, where all of these things get scheduled, and without which I would be helpless.

Usually we don't put up the Christmas tree until December 1st, but this year -- because George has discovered that everything he does takes him much longer now -- he has decided to get started early, and will be putting up the tree tomorrow instead. I won't be trimming it tomorrow, because tomorrow is my day off, but I will hit the ground running [slowly] on Monday.

Everything has side effects, and a side effect of all this is that I'm not going to have much time for posting here at Live Journal. I wanted to let you know. In preparation for that, here are URLs for some of my Christmas posts from years past:

Photo of our 2007 Christmas tree -- at http://ozarque.livejournal.com/476923.html .

Compiled list of Christmas links -- to holiday filksongs, holiday recipes [including that fruitcake], holiday poems, and posts about the handcrafted Christmas gifts I make -- at http://ozarque.livejournal.com/561560.html .

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/28-0

10:06 am - US Was 'Hell Bent' on Iraq War, UK Envoy Says

by David Stringer

LONDON - The United States was "hell bent" on a 2003 military invasion of Iraq and actively undermined efforts by Britain to win international authorization for the war, a former British diplomat told an inquiry Friday.

Jeremy Greenstock, British ambassador to the United Nations from 1998 to 2003, said that President George W. Bush had no real interest in attempts to agree on a U.N. resolution to provide explicit backing for the conflict.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/28

09:39 am - Afghan Teenagers Claim Abuse at US Military Prison

WASHINGTON - Two Afghan teenagers held in US detention north of Kabul this year said they were beaten by American guards, photographed naked, deprived of sleep and held in solitary confinement in concrete cells, The Washington Post reported late Friday.

The newspaper said the teenagers had been held in these cells for at least two weeks while undergoing daily interrogation about their alleged links to the Taliban.

http://www.newstribune.com/articles/2009/11/28/politics_and_elections/news/nt033pol58nader09.txt

motribune_poli

06:25 am - Nader noncommittal to Conn. Senate run

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Consumer activist and Connecticut native Ralph Nader said Friday he is "absorbing" the reaction he's receiving about a possible bid for the U.S. Senate, saying he wants to first gauge the level of grassroots support before making a decision.