102 billion on military bases, Iran, Public Health Plan, Fossil Fuel Addiction ....

Here's the strange thing: The embassy story was broken at the end of May by the superb journalists at McClatchy News (in this case, Warren P. Stroebel and Saeed Shah). As part of what Shah, in the Christian Science Monitor, estimates as a staggering "$2-billion-plus price tag on a revamped diplomatic presence for the United States in Afghanistan and Pakistan," they reported that an appropriation of $736 million for embassy construction had quietly made its way through both houses of Congress without a peep from anyone. This news, however, seemed to plunge off a steep cliff into a deep well of silence. Indicative as the Obama administration's decision to build such an imperial monstrosity may be of a longer-term commitment to a wider war in the Af-Pak (as in Afghanistan-Pakistan) theater of operations, it evidently proved of no interest to anyone here. Spending $102 Billion a Year on 800 Worldwide Military Bases Is Bankrupting the Country
By Chalmers Johnson, Tomdispatch.com.

In Iran, Fears That a Prominent Prisoner Detained In Election Upheaval Could Die in Jail
By Katie Mattern, IPS News.

The Results Are In: A Public Health Plan Saves Big Money
By Bill Scher, Campaign for America's Future.

Thanks to Our Fossil Fuel Addiction, We May Be Setting Ourselves Up for a Catastrophic Natural Event
By Scott Thill, AlterNet.