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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (578370)	7/28/2010 2:02:57 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573073

ARIZONA ANTI-IMMIGRANT LAW PUT ON HOLD.... Today's the day that Arizona's odious S.B. 1070 -- the notorious anti-immigrant law -- takes effect, but thanks to a court order today, the most problematic provisions of the law are now on hold. The Associated Press reports this afternoon: A judge has blocked the most controversial sections of Arizona's new immigration law from taking effect Thursday, handing a major legal victory to opponents of the crackdown. The law will still take effect Thursday, but without many of the provisions that angered opponents -- including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws. The judge also put on hold a part of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places. Until the court resolves the legality of these issues, the provisions will not take effect. Lawyers for Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) will no doubt appeal, and the New York Times noted that "legal experts predict the case is bound for the United States Supreme Court." Update: CNN posted the entire ruling here (pdf).

To: TimF who wrote (578370)	7/28/2010 2:12:26 PM
From: Taro	Respond to of 1573073

That is but what can be expected from desperate 'dems' with an extreme agenda. /Taro

To: TimF who wrote (578370)	7/28/2010 2:27:40 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1573073

Tumbling down into the rabbit hole of modern American politics 11:04 am July 27, 2010, by Jay Income growth by income group, 1979-2007. Source: Consider the evidence (http://lanekenworthy.net/). Let me see if I’ve got this straight: Here we are in the smoldering ruins of an economy recently wrecked by Wall Street greed, in a country where for 30 years almost all income growth has been concentrated among the richest 1 percent of Americans (See graph to right). Rising populist anger, massive long-term unemployment and record home foreclosures serve as counterpoints to soaring corporate profits, while the Supreme Court rules that corporations are people and can spend limitless amounts of money trying to elect candidates willing to serve their interests. Meanwhile, the Republican Party defends massive tax breaks for the wealthy while blocking aid to the unemployed, fights bitterly against regulations designed to prevent a repeat of the Wall Street meltdown, blocks legislation that would at least require corporate and special interests to identify themselves when they invest in elections and does all that while proclaiming itself to be the party of the little people. Do I have that right? Or did somebody slip LSD into my coffee this morning? (Please, let it be the LSD. At least that will wear off eventually.) blogs.ajc.com

To: TimF who wrote (578370)	7/31/2010 4:58:09 PM
From: FJB	Respond to of 1573073

Oil spill mars UC Berkeley's BP-funded research Gulf oil spill fuels controversy over BP-funded energy research at UC Berkeley Associated Press Writer, On Saturday July 31, 2010, 2:00 pm EDT BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- BP's catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is fueling opposition to the University of California, Berkeley's research partnership with the British company, with activists on the famously liberal campus demanding a severing of ties. The oil giant gave UC Berkeley a $500 million grant in 2007 to create the Energy Biosciences Institute, which works to develop new sources of plant-based fuel. The 10-year deal is believed to be the largest-ever corporate sponsorship of university research, but has outraged students and professors who worry the global oil company will exert too much influence over academic research and damage the university's reputation. Now, as the spill devastates the Gulf Coast, some faculty members and local activists are say it's time to end the partnership. "Our bottom line is the public good, and their bottom line is profit," said Ignacio Chapela, a professor of environmental science. "There comes a point where those positions are irreconcilable, and I think that point is now." On Friday, a group of activists staged an anti-BP demonstration next to the construction site where the university is building a new facility to house the research institute. They poured chocolate syrup on the sidewalk -- to represent the oil spill -- and held signs the read "Berkeley Petroleum" and "Do you want BP Pollution in Berkeley?" "Now that we can see what BP is responsible for in the Gulf, we demand that the contract between UC and BP be re-looked at," activist Stephanie Tang said, speaking to onlookers through a megaphone. But UC Berkeley officials say the institute has nothing to do with the Gulf spill, and the university has no plans to end its research partnership with BP. "The horrible events in the Gulf should only strengthen our commitment to find alternatives to fossil fuels," said Graham Fleming, UC Berkeley's vice chancellor of research. "Why would anyone's interest be served by stopping this research?" BP officials also say the company remains committed to funding the Berkeley-based research institute, as well as its other alternative energy research programs. "The spill hasn't changed our commitment to investing in biofuels and wind and solar development," said BP spokesman Tom Mueller. The BP-Berkeley partnership has stirred debate about corporate funding of academic research at a time when UC is grappling with deep cuts in state funding that have led to faculty furloughs, course cutbacks and steep tuition hikes. Critics say corporate money steers university resources toward certain types of research, and widens the financial disparity between faculty members in science and engineering and those in the humanities and social sciences. "It creates an apartheid within the university between the haves and have-nots," said Miguel Altieri, a UC Berkeley entomology professor who is concerned about the environmental impact of biofuels. He recently wrote a newspaper article urging UC Berkeley officials to terminate the research partnership. UC Berkeley receives research grants from other corporations, mostly in the technology sector, but none are as big as the BP grant. Partnering with private industry helps university researchers get their ideas and discoveries out of the laboratory and into the real world, said UC's Fleming. The Energy Biosciences Institute funds nearly 70 projects involving about 350 researchers at UC Berkeley and its two partner institutions -- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The academic researchers determine what research to pursue, their participation is completely voluntary and their home institutions own the patents on their discoveries, university officials said. "The corporate influence is really minimal when you look at how it's managed from day to day," said Susan Jenkins, the institute's assistant director. "We accepted a grant to work on bioenergy and that's what we're doing."