The US government for twenty years has tried to deport eight Palestinian activists in Los Angeles who were doing nothing illegal. They twice got laws changed so as to prosecute them again, slimed them with guilt by association, and get this, never actually filed any criminal charges against them.

Yesterday a judge dismissed the case, slamming the government for “gross failure” to produce exculpatory information, saying it violated the defendant’s constitutional rights, and was “an embarrassment to the rule of law.”

Given the government has spent millions of dollars on this case and lost every round, a rational person would think they will not appeal, especially given the judge’s scathing comments. But we are not dealing with a rational prosecution here.

However, this is a huge victory. Let’s hope it ends here and the L.A. Eight can get on with their lives.

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CIA operatives kidnapped a German citizen, tortured him, held him in a secret prison before releasing him months later because they had the wrong person. Now Germany has issued warrants for their arrest.

While some might be outraged by thugs kidnapping and torturing, the WaPo, as is too often their wont, tries to justify it.

But the prosecutions have strained U.S.-European relations and underscored deep differences over how to fight terrorism.

The operatives involved are stomach-turning thugs and WaPo is attempting to defend the indefensible.

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The IPCC draft report due Friday on climate change is dire indeed.

It’s been six years in the making. 2500 reviewers, 800 authors, and 450 lead authors from 130 countries have participated. Some of the already released findings conclude

Billions will face water and food shortages. Yes, billions.

Seven million homes will be flooded due to rising oceans. Rich, poor, it matter not. They will be gone.

Heatwaves and storms will be more severe. Hurricanes will be less frequent but more powerful.

The Great Barrier Reef, the largest living thing on earth, is toast.

A couple more degrees temperature increase and Australia’s alpine regions and the Amazon forest will collapse.

Sea ice will disappear in the summer.

Snow cover will shrink and permafrost wil vanish.

Apocalyptic, isn’t it?

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Exxon-Mobil has funded global warming denial organizations with millions of dollars. They now say they’ve cut of the funding and might be willing to change their position on global warming. Wow, maybe next year they’ll decide the world isn’t flat too.

The bilious public relations gas emitted by Exxon PR spin is nearly as toxic as the greenhouse gases they so happily produce. They’ve consistently been obnoxious and deceptive about global warming. So, while other large US corporations are already working on remediating global warming, Exxon still can’t bring themselves to admit the obvious truth.

Who cares. Leave them to the scrap heap of history. They don’t get it and they never will. And even if they said they did, how could they be trusted? In a few years they will be among the most loathed and detested entities on the planet after it’s become obvious to all just how how treacherous and duplicituous they were. With any luck, their leaders will be indicted, in prison, or social pariahs. Extreme words? I don’t think so.

Reversing global warming is about to get real serious real fast and there will be no mercy for those who deliberately blocked progress; not when your land is slowly going underwater, or the rains aren’t coming, or monster storms are becoming routine. Nope, people in circumstances like those will not be disposed at all kindly towards a corporation that for years did everything they could to block progress on global warming.

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The London Array will be 12 miles out from the Kent and Essex coasts in Britain, with 271 turbines producing 1,000 MW, as well as preventing the emission 1.9 million tons of greenhouse gases.

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