The Supreme Court stabbed Democracy this morning. I was there; I saw it happen. I brought our petition with me -- your signatures -- and presented them to the Court. Now it's time to act. We have filed six bills to reverse this assault, the "Save Our Democracy" platform. Sign this petition today, and show your support for saving our democracy. Together, we will move these bills forward and prevent the sale of our government to the highest bidder. Existentialist Cowboy: Jim Hightower: 'A Black-Robed' Coup d'Etat'. AWIP: Supreme Court rolls back campaign cash limits. ADS: Powerful Video Response to SCOTUS Inc. "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." -Benito Mussolini

The Seismologic Division of the Ministry of National Infrastructure's Geophysical Institute will attempt to simulate an earthquake in the southern Negev on Thursday. The experiment, financed by the U.S. Defense Department, is a joint project with the University of Hawaii and is part of a scientific project intended to improve seismological and acoustic readings in Israel and its environs, up to a 1,000 km/621 mile radius. AntiPress: Truth over delusion: Hugo Chavez did not accuse the U.S. of causing the Haitian earthquake.

While Israeli soldiers can't fight in the war in Afghanistan, Israeli drones can. Starting next week, five NATO member countries will be operating unmanned aerial vehicles produced in the Jewish state in anti-Taliban operations in the Central Asian country. PressTV: 'Israel seeks more involvement in Afghan war'.

Beginning the day after the attack on a C.I.A. base in Khost, Afghanistan, the agency has carried out 11 strikes that have killed about 90 people suspected of being militants, according to Pakistani news reports, which loyally to the US make almost no mention of civilian casualties. The assault has included strikes on a mud fortress in North Waziristan on Jan. 6 that killed 17 people and a volley of missiles on a compound in South Waziristan last Sunday that killed at least 20. We certainly hope the AF/PAK Resistance will kill ever more CIA agents & US occupants. AWIP: 11th Drone Strike of 2010: Latest US Attack Kills Six in North Waziristan: AFP: 11 killed in US missile strikes in NW Pakistan: officials. AntiWar: US Drone Fired Missile Into a Crowd of "Suspects," Killing 13 Afghans. TANSW: Pakistan Taliban deny US drone strike killed top leader. This comes on top of this Nobel Peace Prize winner Kills at Least 15 in North Waziristan and this Civilians Slain as Latest US Drone Strike on North Waziristan, Kills Five and this US Drones Kill 12 in North Waziristan: Third TERROR Strike in 24 Hours in Tribal Area and this U.S. Drones Kill 15 People Near Border in Pakistan and summing up all of 2009, this: 44 US drone hits in Pakistan killed 700 civilians in 2009.

The US Secretary of Defense denies reports that the United States has encouraged India to attack Pakistan, saying his statement had been 'misunderstood.' Indian media had quoted Robert Gates as saying on Wednesday that should Pakistani terrorists attack India again, like they did in Mumbai in 2008, India would likely launch a counterattack. “It is not unreasonable to assume that Indian patience will be limited were there to be further attacks,” Gates had said in New Delhi. AWIP: U.S. to provide spy drones to Pakistan.

Before we get too worried about NASA’s latest stamping-its-little-feet claims that the world is getting hotter it is it is it IS, let us first remind ourselves why we should trust their temperature records slightly less far than we can spit. Then let’s have a closer look at the character and motives of the man in charge of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), Dr James Hansen. Last year, he was described by his former course supervisor at NASA, Dr John Theon, as an “activist” and an embarrassment.

The threat to the UK from so-called "international terrorism" was tonight raised from substantial to severe - meaning an attack is highly likely. Home secretary Alan Johnson said although the threat had increased, there was no intelligence to suggest an attack was imminent.

“The cause of death is the vicious beating, the blunt force impact,’’ King said in a telephone interview. “That’s what killed Kenny. He was murdered.’’King said she has reviewed 43 photographs taken by a photographer for the Eagle-Tribune newspaper who was nearby because the newspaper’s headquarters is in North Andover, close to where State Police, North Andover police, and Essex County deputy sheriffs had set up the checkpoint. She said the photographs span an 11-minute period. “There is absolutely no way reasonable force was used in this case,’’ King said. “He has handcuffs on part of that time and leg irons and [police] beating him to death.’’

Demonstrations against evictions of Palestinians to make way for Jewish settlers. At least 15 protesters were arrested yesterday as several hundred left-wing Israelis held their biggest demonstration yet against demolitions and evictions of east Jerusalem Palestinians designed to make way for Jewish settlers. Police moved in to force back the noisy but largely peaceful protest in Sheikh Jarrah, the inner-city district that has rapidly become the main flashpoint of the struggle to prevent further government and local authority-approved inroads by settler groups in the city.

A new report said that Hezbollah has tightened security measures along the border with Israel as Tel Aviv beefs up its forces along the northern frontier. Citing Lebanese sources, the London-based A-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Friday that Israeli troops were called up to the northern borders to carry out "military maneuvers." The daily quoted a Hezbollah source as saying that "Israel has accustomed us to aggression and we are used to being vigilant and on the lookout all the time. That is what we are doing."

More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war and neglect having left environmental ruin in large parts of the country, an official Iraqi study has found. Areas in and near Iraq's largest towns and cities, including Najaf, Basra and ­Falluja, account for around 25% of the contaminated sites, which appear to coincide with communities that have seen increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years. The joint study by the environment, health and science ministries found that scrap metal yards in and around Baghdad and Basra contain high levels of ionising radiation, which is thought to be a legacy of depleted uranium used in munitions during the first Gulf war and since the 2003 invasion. llefthandpalm: Birth Defects - the real surge in Iraq: One picture that tells us everything about the barbarity of depleted uranium munitions and our shameful complicity in allowing their use. This is what is being done to Iraq children - before they are even born - in our name. (Graphic) More photos here.

Alexei Dymovsky, who became widely known after speaking out on video-sharing site YouTube in November, has been charged with fraud and corruption. Mr Dymovsky, from southern Russia, had already been fired from his job. He had earlier said the authorities wanted to silence him and get revenge for what he had done. In the video, he spoke out about corruption and illegal activities within the police force in his home town, saying he could no longer tolerate being told to arrest innocent people to meet monthly targets.

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance. [...] They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics.