Mother's Milk of Politics Turns Sour
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship write for Truthout: "We just don't seem able to see or accept the fact that money drives policy. It's no wonder that Congress and the White House have been looking the other way as the predators picked the pockets of unsuspecting debtors. Mega banking and investment firms have been some of the biggest providers of the cash vital to keeping incumbents in office. There isn't much appetite for biting - or regulating - the manicured hand that feeds them."
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House Passes CIA Contractor Ban Over Veto Vow
Randall Mikkelsen of Reuters reports: "US lawmakers defied a White House veto threat on Wednesday and voted to bar CIA contractors from interrogating suspected terrorists, in the latest clash over detainee treatment in the US-declared war on terrorism. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved the provision in adopting a broad measure to authorize funding of US intelligence agencies for the 2009 fiscal year. A related bill awaits action in the Senate."
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Gore Says US Must Abandon Fossil Fuels by 2018
David Stout reports for The New York Times, "Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of electric power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts."
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Women Hardest Hit by Food Crisis
Kevin Sullivan, of The Washington Post: "Rubbing her red-rimmed eyes, chewing lightly on a twig she picked off the ground, Lingani gave the last of her food to the children. 'I'm not hungry,' she said. In poor nations, such as Burkina Faso in the heart of West Africa, mealtime conspires against women. They grow the food, fetch the water, shop at the market and cook the meals. But when it comes time to eat, men and children eat first, and women eat last and least."
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The Dark Side of the Toyota Prius
Paul Abowd writes for In These Times on a new report from The National Labor Committee: "The report alleges that Toyota exploits guest workers, mostly shipped in from China and Vietnam. According to the NLC, these workers are 'stripped of their passports and often forced to work - including at subcontract plants supplying Toyota - 16 hours a day, seven days a week, while being paid less than half the legal minimum wage.'"
Check out the whole story at In These Times.

Don't Drink the Nuclear Kool-Aid
Any Goiodman writes that while the presidential candidates trade barbs and accuse each other of flip-flopping, they agree with President Bush on their enthusiastic support for nuclear power. What does that mean for our future?
Read the whole commentary on Truthdig. com.

Summers Hotter as Climate Changes
David A. Fahrenthold and Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post: "Climate change will have a 'substantial' impact on human health in the coming decades, making wildfires and hurricanes more likely, cooking up more smog, and making summer heat waves longer, hotter and deadlier, according to a new report today from the Environmental Protection Agency. The report details how rising temperatures could slowly but significantly shift the rhythms of nature that Americans are used to - with disruptive, sometimes even deadly, consequences. In the West, it found, changing weather patterns could thin the snowpacks that feed rivers, with repercussions for both hydroelectric dams and water supplies."
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Stigma Gone with likely end to HIV-travel ban
For blogger Andrew Sullivan, the likely signing into law of an AIDS bill that would lift the ban on people with HIV entering the U.S. without special permission is a political -- and personal -- milestone. "I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's one of the happiest days of my whole life," Sullivan writes. Read more at The Daily Dish.

Cheney and ExxonMobil Linked to Global Warming Policy Shift
James Gerstenzang, of The Los Angeles Times: "A congressional investigation has produced new details on the degree to which senior Bush administration officials favored using the Clean Air Act to limit greenhouse gas emissions - until pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, ExxonMobil and others in the oil industry led the Bush administration to change course."
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