Some experts predict a significant rise in the death toll in Burma, possibly up to 1.5 million people from the 100,000 estimated already dead in the aftermath of the cyclone if clean water and sanitation is not provided soon. The Burmese government has frustrated many attempts at foreign aid, even politicizing what little foreign aid has been allowed in: “government officials were seen handing it out from boxes on which the names of prominent generals had been written.”

In light of this natural disaster and the humanitarian crisis caused by the lack of a coordinated government response, it’s hard not to draw direct parallels to what happened in New Orleans (and what is still happening) in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina almost three years ago. I just finished watching parts one and two of Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke, a monumental four-part film that documents the collapse of a city and the mind-boggling failure of our federal government to help people in need. If you haven’t already seen this documentary, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Most people think that it was Katrina that brough about the devastation to New Orleans. But it was a breaching of the levees that put 80 percent of the city under water. It was not the hurricane…If you go New Orleans, only one-fourth of the population is there. So hopefully, this documentary will bring this fiasco, this travesty, back to the attention of the American people. —Spike Lee

Thanks to the state of Florida, Nestle can pump as much water as they want out of Florida’s Madison Blue Springs State Park at no cost until 2018. Nestle paid a total of $230 for this right plus Florida awarded the bottling plant a tax refunds up to $1.68 million. Oh.. and Florida is in the midst of a region-wide water shortage:

So while Florida is in a bitter dispute with its state neighbors over water use, it’s giving its water away to a private company that bottles and ships it to those very same states.

Nestle says Floridians should be grateful. Its bottling plant has generated taxes and created jobs. “You’re talking about millions and millions of dollars in tax benefit,” said spokesman Jim McClellan. “It’s a very good deal for the state of Florida.”

Please don’t buy Deer Park water. More info

Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas hasn’t asked a question in 2 years (142 cases):

“One thing I’ve demonstrated often in 16 years is you can do this job without asking a single question,” he told an adoring crowd at the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.

The book tour showed that the topic comes up even among friendly audiences.

Indeed, Thomas’ comment was provoked by this question: Why do your colleagues ask so many questions?

His response: “I did not plant that question. That’s a fine question. When you figure out the answer, you let me know,” he said.

link

“Vice President Dick Cheney considered a plan to allow Israel to conduct missile strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites ‘in an effort to draw a military response from Iran, which could in turn spark a U.S. offensive against targets in the Islamic Republic’” writes Think Progress citing Newsweek magazine.

At a Kerry speech in Gainesville, Florida, Andrew Meyer was grabbed by police while asking questions, tasered, and arrested. Disturbing video was captured by lots of people at the event and it’s all over YouTube.

he is not an “entity within the executive branch” and is therefore exempt from an executive order protecting classified information.

Yikes: “The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.” I wonder if the logic on this was as simple as out of sight, out of mind. Follow the link and check out the picture of the dolphin that washed ashore in 1987 with wounds similar to mustard gas exposure.

The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life.

In Feb. 2006, NASA’s mission statement was “quietly altered” to remove the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet.”

Last week, NPR asked NASA administrator Michael Griffin said that while he was “aware that global warming exists,” he wasn’t sure whether it “is a longterm concern or not.” Griffin said he is “not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with.”

Griffin subsequently clarified his remarks, stating that protecting the earth against global warming is not in the agency’s mission statement:

[link]

Derek Powazek writes about how he and Heather, the founders of the hugely successful JPG Magazine, were forced out and erased from existence:

In one evening, Paul removed issues 1-6 from the JPG website, removed Heather from the About page, and deleted the “Letter from the Editors” that had lived on the site since day one. Paul informed me that we were inventing a new story about how JPG came to be that was all about 8020. He told me not to speak of that walk in Buena Vista, my wife, or anything that came before 8020.

Here’s where the whole “not lying” thing comes in. I just could not agree to this new story. It didn’t, and still doesn’t, make any business sense to me. Good publishing companies embrace their founding editors and community, not erase them. Besides, we’d published six issues with participation from thousands of people. There’s no good reason to be anything but proud of that.

Read the whole story of JPG Magazine here