Those of us who take it as granted that the United States is a plutocracy not a democracy, find in this state of affairs their belief confirmed that the richest have access to society’s financial and political resources, and that they can engage in large-scale social engineering to make sure civil society is shaped in a manner compatible with their own elite interests. However, even activists, researchers and theorists who believe the United States is (or at least should be) a country of pluralism and representative democracy should be concerned about the amount of money flowing from these liberal foundations and begin documenting its effects on the development of the American progressive mediascape.

It helps to be in command of the enemy forces.

Who Funds the Progressive Media?

But the Palin nomination is not basically about external realities and what Democrats call "issues," but about the symbolic mechanisms of the political mind -- the worldviews, frames, metaphors, cultural narratives, and stereotypes. The Republicans can't win on realities. Her job is to speak the language of conservatism, activate the conservative view of the world, and use the advantages that conservatives have in dominating political discourse.

In other words, state of the art marketing strategy--something the Dems have been slow to grasp, on the whole.

George Lakoff: The Palin Choice and the Reality of the Political Mind

At approximately 6:25 pm on August 30, 2008 Minneapolis Police, Minnesota State Troopers, Ramsey County Sheriffs, Saint Paul Police, and University of Minnesota Police pulled over the Earth Activist Training Permaculture Demonstration Bus (Permibus) by exit 237 on Interstate 94. Initially the police told the people on the bus to exit. When the people on the bus asked if they were being detained they were told that they were but police wereunable to provide justification. When asked why they pulled the bus over they refused to answer. After repeated requests to explain why the bus had been stopped Officer Honican of the Minneapolis Police explained that this was just a routine traffic stop though he did not explain the reason for the traffic stop. The police then told Stan Wilson, the driver and registered owner of the Permibus, that they were going to impound the bus in case they wanted to execute a search warrant later. After more than an hour of being questioned by Stan and Delyla Wilson as to the legalities of their detainment and the impoundment of the Permibus, the police then informed Stan that the bus, which is legally registered as a passenger vehicle in the state of Montana, was being impounded for a commercial vehicle inspection. Shortly afterward Sergeant Paul Davis, a commercial vehicle inspector arrived on scene. Despite the polices insistence that the reason for impoundment was for a commercial vehicle inspection the Permibus crew were not allowed to remove anything from the bus including computers, toiletries, and 17-year-old Megan Wilson's shoes. The police finally allowed the animals to be removed from the Permibus before it was towed, leaving the Permibus family standing beside their chickens and dogs, homeless on the highway.

seattle.indymedia.org

A proposed pyramid city for the Dubai desert will stand 1.2 kilometres in height. The solar-powered pyramid was announced this week by Timelinks, an eco-design firm that plans to unveil the engineering wonder at Cityscape Dubai later this year. \'The pyramid will be more than a kilometre tall and will house one million people inside,\' a source close to the project told XPRESS. \'It will be completely self-sustainable.'

OpEdNews » Dubai's Eco-wonder: Pyramid City to House a Million Residents

Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of Magical Child, discusses the teenage years in this Common Ground interview.

One of the ideas that I will want to share with them, that I am talking about everywhere, is the fact that teenagers are driven by three factors that we never give them credit for.
One is a high sense of idealism. They become very idealistic as early as 11 or 12. That’s part of the great brain change that takes place following the shift between concrete and formal operational thinking. They become very idealistic and look for models of this new idealism in their culture and when you get to thinking about the kinds of models we’re giving them, you shudder.
The second factor is the sense of hidden greatness. They’re convinced that deep within they have a core of themselves that is very great and that if people just realized how great they were they would respect them. Of course, all we do is try to capitalize on that and make them jump through our hoops to achieve success. But, they’re really talking about their own transcendence that’s involved in that big shift of the brain that occurs in adolescence.
Finally there’s a sense of great expectation, that something tremendous is supposed to happen, and they wait for it right around the next corner or the next hill moment by moment. They always gesture to the heart when they’re talking about this because, literally, their next stage of evolutionary development is in the offing.

Common Ground - March 2005 - Interview with Joseph Chilton Pearce

Inspiring story of a man with a mission and the incredible success he is enjoying launching an electric car utility.

t r u t h o u t | Driven: Shai Agassi's Audacious Plan to Put Electric Cars on the Road

Although some guys aren't opposed to smoking some weed, most wouldn't think of eating one. It's a shame, really, since a succulent weed named purslane is not only delicious but also among the world's healthiest foods.

Best Healthy Foods - Men's Health

For decades the federal government has been developing a highly classified plan that would override the Constitution in the event of a terrorist attack. Is it also compiling a secret enemies list of citizens who could face detention under martial law?

The Last Roundup : Information Clearing House - ICH

Researchers have devised an inexpensive way to produce plastic sheets containing billions of nanoantennas that collect heat energy generated by the sun and other sources. The technology, developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, is the first step toward a solar energy collector that could be mass-produced on flexible materials.

Flexible Nanoantenna Arrays Capture Abundant Solar Energy

Marc Maron. Stand-up comedy of a political slant.

YouTube - Marc Maron -Cracker Highlights (2008) Pt.1