Please don’t try to convince me that the Republicans or the Koch Brothers don’t believe in Climate Change. Anywhere there is a new transportation route, there is profit. Anywhere they can drill for precious resources is definitely on their radar. The know Climate Change is real. Why they wish the True Believers to think otherwise is a matter of speculation.

(CNN) — The decision to grant permanent observer status to China and five other nations by the Arctic Council meeting in Sweden Wednesday reflects the heightened interest by some of the world’s most powerful economies in an area rich in oil, gas, minerals, fish and new transport possibilities.

For new observer nations China, Japan and South Korea, shorter shipping routes to Europe through Arctic waters could open up prospects of new energy supply options later this decade, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Yamal Peninsula in northwest Siberia.

It could also lessen China’s dependence on oil and gas shipped from the Middle East, which must pass through the Southeast Asian chokepoint of the Strait of Malacca. Allied to China’s interest of getting oil and gas delivered from new pipelines across Myanmar and Central Asia, the potential of the Arctic trade routes loom large in China’s strategic thinking.

Five years ago, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) described the vast Arctic continental shelf as potentially the “largest unexplored prospective area for petroleum remaining on Earth.” A new U.S. Arctic policy unveiled by the Obama administration last week cites that 2008 study, which estimated that about 13% of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30% of its undiscovered gas lies north of the Arctic Circle.

In a 2012 update, the USGS put the mean undiscovered estimate of recoverable oil in Russia’s Arctic provinces alone at 28 billion barrels, plus about 27 trillion cubic meters of gas.

More: China Eyes Arctic Options in Energy, Transport

Last Friday, news broke that the FBI is investigating allegations that the 2012 presidential campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) violated federal laws by not disclosing payments to an Iowa state senator, improperly coordinated with her PAC, and tried to silence whistleblowing staffers. Bachmann has responded by pointing out that the allegations, which first surfaced in January, don’t directly accuse her of any wrongdoing. Still, some political observers believe that the allegations could spell the end her congressional career when she faces off against the same Democrat she narrowly defeated in 2012.

How did this all begin? In January, Peter Waldron, Bachmann’s former national field coordinator, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Waldron, a Florida evangelist who did outreach work to Christian conservatives for Bachmann in Iowa, alleged that her campaign violated federal statutes in five separate incidents:

More: The Michele Bachmann Campaign Probe, Explained

Positive Role Model! and LOVELY pictures

I’ve enclosed some images for your consideration. Please let me know what you think.

A note: I didn’t take these pictures to show that the male model found me attractive, or that the photographer found me photogenic, or to prove that you’re an ostentatious dick. Rather, I was inspired by the opportunity to show that I am secure in my skin and to flaunt this by using the controversial platform that you created. I challenge the separation of attractive and fat, and I assert that they are compatible regardless of what you believe. Not only do I know that I’m sexy, but I also have the confidence to pose nude in ways you don’t dare. You are more than welcome to prove me wrong by posing shirtless with a hot fat chick; it would thrill me to see such a shoot.

I’m sure you didn’t intend for this to be the outcome, but in many ways you’re kind of brilliant. Not only are you a marketing genius (brand exclusivity really is a profitable move) but you also accidentally created an opportunity to challenge our current social construct. My hope is that the combination of these contrasting bodies will someday be as ubiquitous as the socially accepted ideal.

Ever so sincerely,

Jes

More: The Militant Baker: To: Mike Jeffries, C/o Abercrombie & Fitch

“SBA List president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, likes to say that she wants her organization to be the NRA of the anti-choice movement,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “And we couldn’t agree more that they similarly represent extreme politics out of step with the majority of Americans. This report is intended to expose their true agenda to do away with abortion, contraception, and even sex outside of reproduction. Americans should have all the information when the SBA List throws their support behind a Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia or other anti-choice candidates throughout the 2014 cycle.”

“I find it hard to believe that the real Susan B. Anthony would appreciate her name being used by an organization so determined to take away a woman’s right to make her own decisions,” said Eddie Vale, vice president of Bridge Project. “The public deserves to know the radical policies, antiquated worldview, and extreme candidates that SBA List supports.”

NARAL Pro-Choice America and Bridge Project have uncovered materials indicating the SBA List’s intention to use the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial race as a “proving ground” for its electoral strategies to create an anti-choice “political machine” akin to the National Rifle Association. After standing beside Todd “legitimate rape” Akin and Richard “something God intended” Mourdock in 2012, SBA List has offered its financial support to Ken Cuccinelli in 2013. Cuccinelli has co-sponsored legislation to ban many common forms of birth control and to defund Planned Parenthood, and along with Akin and Mourdock, represents the type of anti-choice candidates SBA List would hope to elect in 2014.

More: NARAL Pro-Choice America & Bridge Project Report: Susan B. Anthony List’s Anti-Choice Machine Ramps Up 2014 Plans :: NARAL Pro-Choice America

SUSAN B.ANTHONY LIST’S ANTI-CHOICE MACHINE
Including the Rogue’s Gallery

Gun Owners of America executive director Larry Pratt spoke May 11 at a rally in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, in support of an unconstitutional measure that would nullify federal gun laws in the state - a favorite cause of extremist gun activists.

In his off-the-cuff remarks, Pratt diverged from his primary topic of opposing any and all gun laws to discuss immigration reform. Gun activists should be interested in blocking immigration reform, Pratt said, because, “If you bring in a whole bunch of Democrats into the country, most of them are going to vote to take away our guns.”

More: Larry Pratt on Immigration Reform and Ted Cruz’s Loyalty

Read the whole thing

$165K fine is an insult to the survivors of campus rape.

The $165,000 fine against Yale University for underreporting the frequency of sexual assaults might be a catalyst needed to remind colleges of their obligation to protect students from such crimes, according to a victims’ advocacy group.

“I think once these cases come to light, it actually draws victims from other cases to speak up,” Tracy Cox, spokeswoman for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, said. “I think it says something about the culture everywhere.

“This may very well be a tipping point.”

More than 90 percent of sexual assaults on U.S. campuses go unreported, according to a 2000 U.S. Department of Justice Study, and students have filed complaints this year against two universities for the way administrators handled students’ reporting sexual assaults.

More: Yale $165K Fine Highlights College Sexual Assaults

Inequalities in education have always been in the forefront of my work. In the early years in public schools, there were two important changes underway: the desegregation of schools and the special education movement. Change comes slowly; for example, Wiley and another Raleigh school (Murphey) had the very first teachers in special education in the state. My teacher’s salary for that first year was provided by the Woman’s Club of Raleigh because there were no funds available. The next year, local school supplement funds were used to pay the teacher, and eventually the state began funding special education instructors. When I was principal, the teachers and I spent weeks prior to the first day of school working out transportation for students coming from all across the city.
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I could go on to deplore many proposed laws that tend to turn back the clock on gains made for greater equality and opportunity for citizens and their families. Employers, private and public, benefit from strong families and communities. I devoted my entire career to making sure that all of our children get the very best education possible, and I am willing to be arrested today to make my voice heard to the North Carolina General Assembly.

More: 80-Year-Old North Carolina Educator: Why I Got Arrested Protesting Right-Wing Agenda for Schools

Not content with attempting to impose his anti-abortion agenda upon the women who live in the nation’s capital, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) now intends to push for a nationwide bill to criminalize abortions after 20 weeks. Franks, who invoked the illegal abortion provider Kermit Gosnell to justify his decision to re-introduce a 20-week abortion ban in DC, now says that Gosnell’s crimes have compelled him to amend his bill so it applies to women across the country.

The Arizona congressmember announced his decision to expand his bill on Friday. In a statement, Franks compared Gosnell — who has been convicted of killing of three infants that were born alive following botched illegal, unsanitary abortion procedures — to all late-term abortion procedures. “Had Kermit Gosnell dismembered these babies before they had traveled down the birth canal only moments earlier, he would have, in many places nationwide, been performing an entirely legal procedure,” Franks said.

However, that’s a gross mischaracterization of the state of legal abortion services throughout the country. Abortion opponents have repeatedly attempted to twist the facts surrounding Gosnell’s high-profile murder trial to make it appear as if his crimes are rampant throughout legal abortion clinics. But that’s simply not the case. The Philadelphia-area abortion doctor was guilty of much more than simply breaking Pennsylvania’s law that criminalizes abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy; he was also able to offer discounted prices for his services because he didn’t employ medical professionals or adhere to safety standards. Gosnell’s “house of horrors” isn’t analogous to the way that legal, sanitary late-term abortion clinics provide care to the women who need it.

More: Arizona Congressman Wants to Expand His DC Abortion Ban to Restrict Reproductive Rights Nationwide

Even the stuffy, ordered world of academia likes a little surprise now and then. And those eggheads at New York University have certainly surprised the city, nay the nation, with the news that Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former king and queen Bill and Hillary, is the co-founder and co-chair of some sort of thing called the Of Many Institute. This Institute, housed within NYU I suppose, is dedicated to “multifaith” studies, its mission to harbor, uh, multifaithism and create conversations, etc. etc. So it’s a little squishy, but whatever. Though NYU’s website put Clinton’s bio up on their website a while back, it remained otherwise mum about the news until now. Why? Oh probably so a multifaith institute would get some press. It’s a smart move. Who knows how much work this will actually involve for the busy Clinton, who already works as an assistant vice provost at the university, but it’s a feather in NYU’s cap and certainly good PR for Clinton. It’s amazing that she’s so young and she’s gotten all these gigs! She must be checking Craigslist and sending out cover letters like crazy. Good for her. Gotta respect her tenacity. Page Six is careful to point out that Clinton and her banker husband recently bought “a $10.5 million luxury apartment across the street from Madison Square Park,” so I guess it makes sense that Clinton is working several jobs. Mortgages don’t pay themselves! Work, Chelsea, work! [Page Six]

More: Chelsea Clinton’s Secret Job - Richard Lawson - the Atlantic Wire

Atlantic pulled this story from the New York Post

Some of the beacons use infrared flashes to signal their location; in 2009, al-Qaida propagandists claimed they found them all over villages that had been hit with U.S. drone strikes. Others are implanted into seemingly-innocent commercial electronics. Under “TTL examples,” Richardson’s presentation (.pdf) showed pictures of a cell phone and a key fob, like the kind used to open a car. Still other tags are affixed to cars or people, and transmit their whereabouts using satellite or CDMA, GPRS, and other cellular networks.

Until 2009, the market for these tags was dominated by the secretive, Virginia-headuqartered Blackbird Technologies, Inc., which counts a former chief of the CIA’s counterterrorism center as a executive. That year, the firm won a contract from the Navy for up to $450 million in TTL equipment.

More: With New Mini-Satellites, Special Ops Takes Its Manhunts Into Space

This along with the Biometric technology and techniques developed, deployed and successfully leveraged in Iraq and Afghanstan are driving the “Black Helicopter” crowd crazy.