Undercover videos produced by animal rights groups are fueling a debate over the need for new laws to regulate the treatment of American dairy cows. Graphic footage suggests milk cows may be victims of some cruel practices. The graphic videos include one made inside a huge New York dairy operation where cows never go outside, have the ends of their tails cut off in painful procedures without anesthesia, and are seen being abused by one employee who hits a cow over the head with a wrench when it refuses to move.

An investigator for the group Mercy for Animals worked at the New York dairy farm, Willet Dairy, one of the largest in the state, for two months as a mechanic. Willet supplies to Leprino Foods, based in Denver, which produces mozzarella cheese and other cheese products that are used at chains including Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Domino's. "These animals are really treated as little more than milk-producing machines," said Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals. "The overall environment at this facility was really a culture of cruelty and neglect." Portions of the video will be played in reports to be aired this evening on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer and later on Nightline.

Tony Blair and Jack Straw brushed aside repeated warnings from Government lawyers that they would not have a 'leg to stand on' if Britain invaded Iraq. Devastating evidence at the Iraq inquiry yesterday revealed that every senior legal adviser at the Foreign Office believed the conflict was in breach of international law. Astonishingly, Downing Street asked lawyers to assess what the consequences would be if Britain toppled Saddam Hussein without legal authority. When they received the lawyers' memo, No.10 demanded: 'Why has this been put in writing?' Sir Michael Wood, then the Foreign Office's senior legal adviser, warned ministers again and again that to go to war without approval from a UN Security Council resolution would constitute a 'crime of aggression' in international law. Daily Mail: Jack Straw ignored advice the Iraq invasion would be illegal, Foreign Office law chief tells Chilcot inquiry. The Guardian: Lord Goldsmith got taxpayer help for Iraq war inquiry legal advice. + Wanted: Tony Blair for war crimes. Arrest him and claim your reward. Craig Murray: God, I Didn't Know: Still feeling an immense frustration that truly evil men like Blair prosper, but that has been part of the human condition forever. + Murder In Samarkand - Documents. The Guardian: Britain 'complicit in mistreatment and possible torture' says UN.

Army leaders had warned that the suicide rate was on track to surpass last year’s toll of 140, but said the causes of the spike remain unclear. “There’s no question that 2009 was a painful year for the army when it came to suicides,” said Colonel Christopher Philbrick, deputy director of an army suicide prevention task force.

On Friday January 15, 2010, the Pentagon responded to a FOIA request submitted by the ACLU last April, and released (PDF) the first ever list of 645 prisoners held, as of September 22, 2009, in the US prison at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan (the Bagram Theater Internment Facility), which has been in operation for eight years. In the hope of making the list more readily accessible — and searchable — than it is through a poorly photocopied Pentagon document, I reproduce it as a separate web page here, with commentary on some the prisoners I have been able to identify. Sana Aijazi: List of Bagram detainees has majority of Pakistanis.

The Congressional Budget Office’s newly released budget outlook notes that Congress has approved over $1 trillion in direct spending on wars and war-related activities since 2001, and that price tag is only getting higher as the wars drag on. The spending was divided between $708 billion for the Iraq War, $345 billion for the Afghan War, and $22 billion for assorted other war activities in other countries. The Obama Administration’s repeated projections of a lower budget output for wars in coming years aside, they show no sign of slowing. ICH: USA is Bankrupt, Quit Buying Bombs or We're Done -Video

LAND GRAB: Proposed legislation would grant real estate worth NIS 100,000 to every fighting soldier. Land will be allocated in the Galilee, the Negev desert, the Jordan valley and the Golan Heights - with the result that the move is likely to be seen as a continuation of the government's controversial policy of encouraging Israeli Jews to reside in rural regions with large Arab populations.

Even as Haiti struggles to recover from the greatest disaster in that nation's history, information is coming to light that the key to a brighter future for the Haitians may have been lying under their feet all this time. It turns out that there are massive reserves of gold and oil in Haiti. These abundant natural resources could be used to rebuild Haiti and give those people an incredibly bright future. Haiti's [resources] have not been developed due to the violence and political instability that have ravaged that nation for decades. Not to mention the fact that Haiti does not possess the technical expertise to exploit those resources. But apparently they do exist. PT: Why Is The US Military Occupying Four Airports In Haiti? The Star: Haiti's future glitters with gold. ALI: Western Countries after Haiti Gold, Copper, Oil. Le Nouvelliste: Forez, puis pompez le pétrole d'Haïti! Quelque 11 puits dont certains d'une profondeur de 2944 mètres ont été forés à la Plaine du Cul- de- sac, au Plateau Central et à l'Ile de La Gonâve. Des indices en surface ont été trouvés dans la presqu'île du sud et sur la côte nord, a expliqué l'ingénieur Anglade qui croit dur comme fer que le contexte économique prête à ces explorations. English translation: Drill, and then pump the oil of Haiti! Some 11 wells, with a certain depth of 2944 meters were drilled at the Plaine du Cul-de-sac on the Plateau Central and at l'Ile de La Gonâve. Surface (tentative) indicators for oil were found at the Southern peninsula and on the North coast, explained the engineer Anglade, who strongly believes in the immediate commercial viability of these explorations [BNVillage]. AWIP: Oil in Haiti – Economic Reasons for the UN/US Occupation. Eurasian Minerals Inc: Projects in Haiti: "EMX, and exploration alliance partner Newmont, are aggressively exploring the Company's extensive property portfolio in what is gaining recognition as one of the world's premier, early stage gold exploration terrains." Red Ice: Haiti's Oil, Gold & Iridium Resources Explains the Post Earthquake Occupation/Invasion. PressTV: US says it will stay in Haiti for long term.

A man has been pulled out alive from under the rubble in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince 14 days after a killer quake destroyed the city. The 31-year-old Ricot Duprevil miraculously survived the two weeks on just water. He was only able to let out a weak cry before being rescued by American troops from the ruins of a building in the center of the city. He was evacuated to a nearby treatment facility with a "broken leg and severe dehydration," the US military said in a statement on Tuesday. Although he had been trapped for 12 days by an aftershock rather than the initial quake itself, the man is considered to be the longest survivor in the Haitian quake so far. Haiti has been hit by at least 50 tremors since the original quake. Palestine Chronicle: Haiti Hypocrisy Hides Another War Crime in Gaza: Media opportunists have reached new depths of hypocrisy and ineptitude in covering the tragedy. Mainstream television networks and newspapers touted the overwhelming US military response, as well as other countries that were among the first to reach the victims in Haiti, including Israel. Conspicuously absent from the kudos list were two of the first responders, Cuba and Venezuela.

A senior Canadian climate scientist says the United Nations' panel on global warming has become tainted by political advocacy, that its chairman should resign, and that its approach to science should be overhauled. Andrew Weaver, a climatologist at the University of Victoria, says the leadership of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has allowed it to advocate for action on global warming, rather than serve simply as a neutral science advisory body. Climate Depot: Manufactured 'Science': Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about 'trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol'. Herald Sun: ONCE global warming was the "great moral challenge of our generation". Or so claimed the Prime Minister.

My dear Senator, I am writing to urge you to vote against the confirmation of Ben Bernanke for a second term as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Bernanke has failed in his responsibilities both as a banking regulator and in his administration of Federal Reserve lending. Bernanke presided over the final phase of the $1.5 quadrillion financial derivatives bubble which is the central cause of the present world economic depression. He was the principal advocate for the reckless and irresponsible policy of bailing out bankrupt money center institutions, allowing them to live on as zombie banks at astronomical taxpayer, but with no corresponding benefit whatsoever for the economic life of the broader society. [...] Today’s newspapers suggest that Bernanke, even if he should be rejected by the Senate this week, would still attempt to stay in power as a member of the Board of Governors through 2020, exerting his power through his colleagues presently on the board. This would amount to nothing less than a bankers’ insurrection. In this eventuality, the Congress must swiftly impeach Bernanke and remove him from office immediately.

I don't expect President Obama to devote much time to foreign policy issues during his State of the Union address tomorrow, because other topics (health care, the economy, regulating Wall Street, etc.) are causing him the most trouble these days. Plus, if he was going to talk a lot about foreign policy, what exactly could he say? That we are making great strides in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Nope. That his Cairo speech has transformed our standing in the Middle East and brought us to the brink of Middle East peace? Hardly. That we have turned the corner on climate change, nuclear arms reductions, or relations with Iran? Um ... not exactly. That relations with allies like Japan have never been better? Well, no. That the Guantanamo prison has been closed on schedule, as he promised a year ago? Er. ... not quite. When you look at the list, you can see why he wants to talk about a discretionary spending freeze and other exciting topics like that.

The Ben Ali government has arrested more journalists in Tunisia since 2000 than any other Arab country! Arresting numerous journalists in itself is appalling [or just one, for that matter], but the fact that the Tunisian government has arrested more journalists in a nation of 10 million than Egypt (75 million) and Syria (19 million) speaks to the level of oppression in the nation. Tunisia often escapes criticisms from Western governments for its abysmal human rights record due to its small step in geopolitical affairs, the nation is the size of the American state of Virginia and has no significant oil reserves, and because its often adopts an unobjectionable prose toward Western policies in the region.

The Gods of Money and the Death of the American Century.

Israel has almost completed a rebuttal to the Goldstone report which criticizes Tel Aviv for committing war crimes in its last year war on the Gaza Strip. According to a report published by The New York Times, the rebuttal which, according to Israeli, includes "photographic proof" that contradicts war crime charges, aims to dispel the harsh report of grave violation of international and humanitarian law in Gaza. Now we can see one of the reasons why they did this: Israel Bullied Abbas into Deferring UN Vote. -They wanted time to write a rebuttal. Welcome to the Goldstone Report Gilad Atzmon: The Holocaust Backfires: Peres in Berlin, Netanyahu in Auschwitz, Lieberman in Budapest and Edelstein at the UN headquarters in New York all plan to attack the Goldstone report into the Gaza war on International Holocaust Day this Wednesday. Israel's political echelon will once again try to divert attention from the fact that the Israeli crime is beyond comparison. Al-ManarTV: Livni, Barak 'Wanted for War Crimes' in Poland. Haaretz: Settlers attack Palestinians to avenge West Bank outpost demolition. BBC: When is a terrorist not a terrorist? When he's a rabbi firebombing a mosque. Not all Jew are the same -there are many decent Jewish people with a big heart. They are deeply troubled by Jewish fascism (Zionism). Let us remember this. Jews protesting against Israel for what the Zionists are doing in Gaza (Photos from Artintifada). [CARTOON: Hololocaust Remebrance Day by Carlos Latuff]

Normally I would not bother with this story, but I feel I need to make a point. It seems that Jews can make any public comment they want about Arabs and the media will always give them a free pass. But Mel Gibson makes a comment, in a private moment, and this idiot reporting is suggesting his career should be over?

Sri Lankan state television reports that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has won re-election in a hard-fought contest against his former army chief. Rupavahini television reported Wednesday that Rajapaksa decisively beat Sarath Fonseka. The election pitted two men considered war heroes by the Sinhalese majority for winning the country's quarter-century civil war. VOA News: Sri Lanka President Declared Re-Elected, Top Rival Claims Results Rigged. The choice was between a mass murderer and his henchman. The mass murderer won. Democracy lost. TimesOnline: Troops surround Sri Lanka opposition leader Sarath Fonseka's hotel.

Big Ag and Big Pharma. Agribusiness, it seems, cannot keep up its unsustainable feedlot system of raising thousands of animals in confinement, with poor sanitation and unhealthy diets, if it the animals weren't being pumped full of copious amounts of antibiotics. "It seems scarcely believable that these precious medications could be fed by the ton to chickens and pigs," said the bill's background text.