Excerpts from a letter Albert Einstein sent my grandfather re: nuclear disarmament, and the connection to citizen action today.

The New York Times reports on Obama’s covert wars in “roughly a dozen countries” led by Michael Vickers who armed the Afghan Mujahadeen. Counterproductive war policy adds weapons and US military involvement while the people of Yemen simply ask for food and water.

Gibbs goes way out on a limb in discussing the meeting David Axelrod had with Elizabeth Warren at the White House, last question in Friday’s press “conference” which lately seem to be Gibbs’ attempts at stand-up.

It remains a mystery to me why the candidates who are able to tell the truth because they are doing the right thing aren’t able to capitalize on it. Telling the public that they are constantly given the lies of the right wing in order to get their votes against their own interests seems like something we really need to press home, over and over.

The attacks on ACORN have been so amplified through the reactionary media that far more people are aware of ACORN via the lens of a pseudo-pimp than by the acres of good works the organization actually has accomplished. When members of the public sees or hears about ACORN, they are more likely to think “corruption” than “people power.” And that’s more than a real shame—it’s a massive loss for millions of America’s low-income people who desperately need the type of empowerment engendered by the ACORN model of organizing.

In a break from Andrew Card’s 2002 strategy that “you don’t introduce new products in August”, General David Petraeus has kicked off an intensive media blitz today with the express purpose of turning public opinion in favor of a delayed troop withdrawal from Afghanistan rather than an accelerated withdrawal beginning in July 2011.

Barely expressed in the NYT’s long story about our use of paramilitary strikes in places we’re not officially at war is a conflict between three choices. The NYT piece describes the first two–a covert war run by CIA and briefed to Congress, or a covert war run by JSOC subject less oversight–as the choice the Administration is currently debating.

I keep seeing some variation of this comment over and over from right-wingers. But I can’t seem to find any answers to these questions.

The Flash Crash dumped losses onto retail traders and profits onto Wall Streeters. Big surprise.

Aunt Toby is thinking about the power of the personal this week.