Goldman Sachs and Other
Banks Report “Perfect” First Quarters
Bailout Leaches Suck Taxpayer Money And Profit Big While
America Suffers
DemocracyNow - 051310
The New York Times reports the nation’s largest
banks managed to make money from trading every single day during the first
three months of the year. Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and
JPMorgan Chase all finished with what is known as a perfect quarter—they went
without losing money on a single day. The Times reported perfect
trading quarters on Wall Street are about as rare as perfect games in Major
League Baseball. ...
NewsFocus: Zero days of
trading losses? Record profits? I guess when you're sucking the taxpayer tit for
billions in white-collar socialism, how can you lose? If you're not
outraged by this, then you're dead. Companies that scammed the system and helped
tip us into economic disaster get rewarded with no slap on the wrist from a
gutless Congress and a sold-out administration full of Wall Street insiders.
(Not just Obama, but the crooked Bush administration too.)
At least one government has the
stones to do the right thing and put its bankers in prison where they belong. (See
Iceland) It's time for "we the people" to join together and demand justice.
The left and the right need to meet in the middle and hold our elected weasels
accountable for their incompetence in handling this disaster, but also flag them
for their recalcitrance towards their boss, us!
The Real Cost of War In Iraq:
Are Gasoline And The War Connected?
Another Way Films production, titled "One Minute."
From producer Dutch Merrick, one of the brightest, most talented
people in Hollywood. Mr. Merrick is not only well read, but extremely astute
politically. He produced this short film to highlight the real reasons for the
war in Iraq and to express its true cost. You can view more of Mr. Merrick's
videos on his
YouTube website. His company web address is
www.anotherway.tv. Kudos
to Dutch for this very well produced film.
"There is nothing that confirms that any groups have been found involved in this
for certain," one U.S. official told McClatchy. "It's a lot of speculation at
this point."
Four U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials and two other U.S.
officials with knowledge of the case spoke only on the condition of anonymity
because they weren't authorized to discuss classified intelligence or the
ongoing investigation publicly.
Pieces still missing in NYC car bomb plot puzzle The Associated Press -
Verena Dobnik,
Colleen Long - 051110
NEW YORK - The Pakistani-American who police say admitted to igniting a failed
car bomb in busy Times Square has made no court appearance since his arrest
early this week and, though he is cooperating, authorities remain unsure he was
acting alone. ...
Times Square Bomb Suspect 'Said' To Implicate Himself
Washington Post -
Spencer S. Hsu,
Jerry Markon - 050410
The suspect in a failed attempt to detonate a car bomb in Times Square
admitted his role in the plot and told investigators he had received
training in bomb-making in his native Pakistan, ...
NewsFocus: And Now...
WHAT THE U.S.
MEDIA WON'T BRING UP IN THE NY BOMB CASE: Before You Get Worked Up About Pakistani
Terrorists, Here Are Three Reasons Why Anyone From Pakistan Might
Possibly Want Retribution Against The US:
(What's The Old Saying?...You Reap What You Sow.)
NewsFocus: The CIA is the
worst evil ever unleashed on mankind. They have fomented terrorism against
Americans through their illegal aggression against foreign governments. They
toppled a democratically elected leader in Iran and installed the Shah, who in
turn persecuted and murdered hundreds, if not thousands of innocent Iranians
during his long reign of terror. (Oh you say, so that's why the Iranians
took US people hostage for 444 days.) The CIA is also responsible for propping
up
more dictators in this world, all for U.S. interests and immoral corporate
profits. Take your pick,
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi,
Manuel Noriega,
Agusto Pinochet,
Saddam Hussein, etc, etc, etc. We could go on and on, but all you have to
do is look. The CIA has certainly left a long bloody trail to follow. And thank
you Prescott Bush, an integral figure in the creation of the OSS, the
predecessor to the CIA, which his own son George HW Bush later became the head
of. Former President Truman eventually came to regret the creation of
this most nefarious organization. To understand the current state of terrorism
in this world, you have to understand the history of the CIA.
"I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central
Intelligence Agency back in '47, if I had known it would become the American
Gestapo."
-- Harry S Truman (1961)
As the saying goes, there are indeed "two sides to every
story." The American people, sadly enough, know only one story, the U.S.
bullshit that we've all been spoon-fed by our complicit, bought-and-paid for
corporate media. We are the most overly entertained
society in the history of mankind, by design. Americans are far too
trusting of their media and their government. Many would beg to differ, but
history seems to suggest otherwise. (9/11 anyone?)
Bill Moyers
Signs Off With Last Broadcast America And The World Lose A Great Journalist With Moyers'
Retirement NewsFocus - by Tim Watts - 050210
The American
media has lost an icon of journalistic integrity with the retirement of Bill
Moyers. Always willing to tell it like it is, even when it rubbed corporate
sponsors the wrong way, Moyers' affable style was easy to get comfortable with,
but his integrity to honest journalism was probably the character trait that
will define his broadcast legacy the most. Sadly, you don't get honest news like that from the
major networks anymore. Moyers refused to be a corporate shill and for that he is head
and shoulders above the current dollar-a-holler news whores who will read anything off a
teleprompter for a buck.
Moyers was probably the first mainstream
journalist to publicly tell all about the powers that be, with his
revealing 1987 PBS broadcast report on "The
Secret Government." Unlike so many of his peers, Bill was passionate
about reporting the truth. He was ever observant, and oh so vigilant when it
came to ferreting out the real facts of a story.
During his sign off,
he left us parting words of wisdom on the state of our union, and he was, as
always, spot on the money. "Plutocracy and democracy don't mix," said
Moyers. Wise words indeed. Something you won't get from today's corporate media.
He also said not to worry
about him leaving, because
someone else will surely pick up the baton and carry on for him. While this
editor may not hold the same optimism, I certainly hope and pray that he is right. Jon
Stewart and Amy Goodman, you're all we've got left now.
To
the honorable and noble Bill Moyers,
thank you very much for your service sir. You will be greatly missed, and much more so than
even Cronkite, because unlike Cronkite and so many other tainted journalists
before and after you, we have never seen your name associated with "Operation
Mockingbird," and for that we thank you.
Have a wonderful retirement Bill. You deserve it.
Bill Moyers: Plutocracy And Democracy Do Not Mix
Bill Moyers leaves a powerful message for us all on his last
broadcast.
Placing your political party ahead of your country is treason.
We are not Republicans
and Democrats, we are Americans first.
-NewsFocus
The I-Q Corridor Plan For Regional Economic Power From Minneapolis To
Chicago
BurghDiaspora - 040108
But today, individual states aren't big enough or
rich enough to compete on a global scale. A shift in thinking toward a more
regional approach is crucial, agrees Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin
Technology Council.
The council has coined the "I-Q Corridor" a 400-mile swath from Chicago to
Minneapolis running through Milwaukee and Madison. That region taken as a whole
has the economic strength to be a force in a world economy, Still says.
"It may seem like a long way from Chicago to the Twin Cities but it's a shorter
drive or flight than what separates San Diego from Silicon Valley," he said.
...
Lawsuits Expected Over Ariz. Illegal Immigrant Law The Associated Press -
Jonathan J. Cooper - 042710
PHOENIX — The debate over Arizona's new illegal immigrant law will likely
move from protest lines and talk shows to the courtroom, where a judge could
be asked to decide whether the state can enforce laws that until now had
been the federal ...
NewsFocus:
The myopic Governor signed the bill, then denied there would be racial
profiling. So these officers aren't pulling over Hispanics due to their skin
color? Seriously Governor? Then for what reason are they pulling them over? The
kicker is, the Governor says she doesn't know what an illegal immigrant looks
like! Is she ignorant, stupid, or just a huge liar? So what are we doing
about illegal white aliens in this country? The outcry isn't about
defending the rights of illegal aliens. It is all about protecting the
inalienable rights of American citizens. The "show your papers" approach
is going to affect legitimate citizens for certain. There is no way around
that. This is simply a horribly bad approach towards addressing the immigration
issue.
Note: Like the health care
debate, this is an extremely volatile issue that once again polarizes the
country, keeping Americans from looking at the bigger, more nefarious issues
that need scrutinizing... IE: Bush/Cheney war crimes, the Wall Street fraud that
has threatened not only the US, but entire world economies, the role of the
Federal Reserve in the economic collapse, the behind-the-scenes push by global
elites for a new world order, not to forget the investigation of military grade
thermate explosives residue found in the World Trade Center debris, as well as
the inept and incomplete anthrax investigation of a military grade toxin that
was traced to U.S. military labs at Fort Detrick, and then immediately dropped
like a hot rock by the FBI. Just sayin'...
Public Intelligence has received a
request from FEMA to remove a “For Official Use Only” document regarding the
National Level Exercise 2010 (NLE 10), which was scheduled for this coming
May. The exercise was to be based on National Planning Scenario 1 which
simulates a nuclear detonation in a U.S. city. However, recent political
pressure has led to the exercise being “scaled back” according to the
Washington Post,
Christian Science Monitor and a variety of other publications. At the
behest of Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), the exercise’s Nevada events have
reportedly been canceled and the
FEMA website
now shows no mention of NLE 10.
NewsFocus: This is disturbing on many
counts. Those involved in 9/11 and 7/7 research realize that the US and British
governments were both having terror disaster drills where the exact scenario
they were preparing for strangely happened on the day of their actual exercise.
Any good mathematician will tell you the odds of that happening are
astronomical. So please excuse us if we have the slightest trepidation when
our government is preparing for a nuclear attack exercise on domestic soil. This
is the one event that would allow them to declare martial law, scaring the
masses into submission once again and thus ending any possible new 9/11
investigation.
Defense Spending Is Much Greater than You Think: One Trillion Dollars
IntelDaily.com, by Robert Higgs - 042210
When President Obama presented his budget recently for fiscal year 2011, he
proposed that the Pentagon’s outlays be increased by about 4.5 percent beyond
its estimated outlays in fiscal 2010, to a total of almost $719 billion.
Although many Americans regard this enormous sum as excessive, few appreciate
that the total amount of all defense-related spending greatly exceeds the amount
budgeted for the Department of Defense. ...
Pentagon looks to revive Nazi space-bomber plan Pocket 'Antipodes raid' hyper-smart missiles sought TheRegister.co.uk,
by
Lewis Page - 042210
The US military appears to have temporarily given up on exotic
scramjet powered hyper-plane and -missile notions for the purpose of suddenly
blowing things up at short notice anywhere in the world. Rather, Pentagon
boffins are now re-examining a plan once considered by the Nazis for the purpose
of bombing America....
For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end
of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents to attack
the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over
American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a
secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States,
characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with
others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic
structure - one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I
am proud of it. --David Rockefeller, Memoirs, 2002
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of
innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared
that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on
Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.
The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson,
a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a
signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is
the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the
Bush Administration. ...
Ramsey Clark chosen to head commission to investigate Bush
crimes
911Blogger.com - 040810
On April 3, at a meeting of over 150 lawyers,
legal scholars and human rights campaigners, Ramsey Clark, founder of Indict
Bush Now, was chosen to be the chairperson of an international campaign to
investigate war crimes committed by officials from the Bush administration.
Representatives at the meeting held in Beirut,
Lebanon, came from all over the world. The campaign will investigate the lies,
deceit and manipulation leading up to the Iraq war; the conduct of the war
itself against an essentially defenseless country; and the horrors of the
continued occupation.
Lawyers and judges in several countries are
exploring prosecution.
Ramsey Clark emphasized that it is the imperative
responsibility of the American people to relentlessly pursue this investigation,
and to seek prosecution and indictment inside of the United States. ...
The US military has warned that surplus oil
production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious
shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.
The energy crisis outlined in a Joint Operating
Environment report from the US Joint Forces Command, comes as the price of
petrol in Britain reaches record levels and the cost of crude is predicted to
soon top $100 a barrel.
"By 2012, surplus oil production capacity
could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could
reach nearly 10 million barrels per day," says the report, which has a foreword
by a senior commander, General James N Mattis.
... (Read
More)
Are Americans Too Broken
By Corporate Power To Resist?
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Joan Brunwasser
We need to take a look at what forces in American society are preventing people
from being able to resist tyranny and dehumanization.
...
Every citizen should be a
soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every
free state.
-Thomas Jefferson
There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when
people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as
an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial
interest. ...
Court Rules Against NSA’s Illegal Spying, Illegal NSA
Spying Continues
IntelDaily.com, by Tom Burghardt - 041210
(The Intelligence Daily) — What could be a significant legal victory in the
on-going battle against blanket surveillance transpired March 31 in district
court in San Francisco, along with a stinging rebuke of the Obama
administration.
U.S. District Court Chief
Judge Vaughn R. Walker
ruled
that the government had violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
and that the National Security Agency’s warrantless spying program was illegal.
...
Carl Boggs: The Crime of Empire Rogue Superpower and World Domination
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Ludwig Watzal
The U. S. power elites believe in national exceptionalism”, they view the
country as a benevolent or benign hegemon working for democracy, human
rights, and peace”. The elite – politicians, media, academia, and think tanks -
presents U. S. policy as pragmatic, non-ideological, furthering liberal
democracy, freedom, equality, and citizen participation. ...
FCC Considers Reclassification Of
Internet In Push To Regulate It
RCFP.org
The Federal
Communications Commission has been exploring ways to reassert its authority
over the Internet after last week's federal appellate court
decision cast doubt on
whether the commission has the authority to enforce its net neutrality policy.
...
Court Backs Comcast Over FCC on 'Net Neutrality' Wall Street Journal -
Amy Schatz - 040710
It orders the company to change its policies but doesn't fine
Comcast. Sept: Comcast appeals, saying the FCC's net-neutrality principles
aren't enforceable. ...
No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The
strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is
as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government. -Thomas
Jefferson
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Four men accused of trying
to bomb synagogues and shoot down planes in New York last spring did little more
than go along with a fake plot proposed, directed and funded by the federal
government, defense lawyers claim in asking the court to dismiss the case.
A federal informant chose the targets, offered
payment, provided maps and bought the only real weapon involved, a handgun, the
attorneys said in a dismissal motion filed this week in federal court.
They alleged the defendants were not inclined
toward any crime until the informant began recruiting them.
"The government well knew that their case had
been a government-inspired creation from day one and that the defendants had not
been independently seeking weapons or targets," the motion said. ...
NewsFocus:
For those that let the media sweep the original story away from them, this is
exactly like the Yamzi Yousef story, where the
FBI initiated the bomb plot and
then reportedly provided the actual explosives for the
1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The
New York Times reported on Emad Salem, an undercover agent who testified
that the FBI knew about the attack beforehand and told him they would thwart it
by substituting a harmless powder for the explosives. However, an FBI supervisor
called off this plan, and the bombing was not stopped.[New York Times, 10/28/93]
In a bizarre, Soviet-style move, the White House has
threatened to veto the intelligence budget unless everyone accepts the FBI frame
up of Dr. Bruce Ivins.
President Barack Obama probably would veto
legislation authorizing the next budget for U.S. intelligence agencies if it
calls for a new investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks, an administration
official said. ...
Anthrax Case Closed: FBI Says Scientist Was Anthrax Killer
AP News, by Devlin
Barrett and Pete Yost, Associated Press Writers
–
Fri Feb 19, 2010
WASHINGTON – The
FBI sought to close the book on its long, frustrating hunt for the killer
behind the 2001 anthrax letters Friday, formally ending its investigation and
concluding a mentally unhinged scientist was responsible for killing five people
and unnerving Americans nationwide.
After years of false leads, no arrests and public criticism, the FBI and
Justice Department said.
...
Rep Holt Introduces Independent Investigation
of Anthrax Bill
It's about time we had an independent look. Let's see how far we get with this.
NewsFocus:
Apparently the rest of America is smarter than the FBI
because virtually nobody is buying this crock for an explanation, except
possibly FOX News viewers. Remember, the
Bush White
House was coincidentally
taking the
antidote for anthrax, Cipro, for one month prior to the anthrax attacks.
That in itself is very suspicious of foreknowledge. On the heels of 9/11, this
event was the catalyst for the heinous Patriot Act and still needs a thorough
investigation. There are FBI field agents who know better, but politics at the
top have handcuffed our best investigators. This was officially the second
horrific attack during the Bush-Cheney administration.
Kucinich & Nader Talk About
Health Care On Democracy Now Never A Shortage
For The Truth When These Two Show Up For A Discussion
NewsFocus.org - 032010
Congressman Dennis Kucinich and perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader with Amy Goodman on
Democracy Now
discussing the state of the current health care bill and the mounting pressure
from Washington to get it passed. Watch the show below.
For
Democrats wavering in their resolve to end the Bush tax cuts for the
wealthiest Americans, shocking new data from the IRS should hopefully stiffen
their backbones.
Between 2001 and 2007, the
400 richest taxpayers doubled their annual incomes to an average of $345
million, while their effective tax rate plummeted to only 16.6% from 29.4% in
1993.
Following recent analyses confirming
that
income inequality in the United States has reached record levels, noted tax
journalist
David Cay Johnston summed up
the new data, "The incomes of the top 400 American households soared to a
new record high in dollars and as a share of all income in 2007, while the
income tax rates they paid fell to a record low. The numbers tell the tale of
the
widening chasm between the rich and everyone else:
In 2007 the top 400 taxpayers had an average
income of $344.8 million, up 31 percent from their average $263.3 million income
in 2006, according to figures in a report that the IRS posted to its Web site
without announcement that were discovered February 16...
Adjusted for inflation to 2009 dollars,
the top 400 enjoyed a 27 percent increase in their income, or nine times the
rate of increase for the bottom 90 percent...Since 1992, the bottom 90 percent
of Americans have seen their incomes rise by 13 percent in 2009 dollars,
compared with an increase of 399 percent for the top 400. ... (Read
More)
Obama seeks record $708 billion in defense budget
Reuters.com President Barack Obama on Monday asked Congress to approve a record
$708 billion in defense spending for fiscal year 2011, including a 3.4 percent
increase in the Pentagon's base budget and $159 billion to fund U.S. military
missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pentagon’s Black Budget Tops $56 Billion
Wired.com
Last year, that budget grew to more than $50 billion – ”the largest-ever sum,”
according to Aviation Week’s Bill Sweetman, a longtime black-budget seer. A few
more billion were added for wartime operations, for a total of $54 billion. This
year’total would be $2 billion higher, a 3.7 percent increase.
NewFocus: We're really digging that
"Change you can believe in."
Every Occupation Fuels an Insurgency
InformationClearinghouse.info, by
Dennis Kucinich
Afghanistan, Jobs and Health Care, All big issues in America. And one man with
strong opinions on all of them is U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich.
Continue
Supreme Court
Campaign Finance Ruling Angers Many
SCOTUS Allows Corporations Free Spending In U.S. Elections
NewsFocus: Is This The End Of Democracy
As We used To Know It?
The case we've all been waiting for – and dreading – is
finally here.
Citizens United v. FEC started off as an insignificant case about
an anti-Hillary film, but the Roberts Court turned it into a vehicle for
radically
expanding the influence of corporations.
Here's the bottom line to today's 5-4 ruling: giant corporations can spend
as much as they please on elections to advance their agendas. The right-wing
Roberts court ruled that Exxon has the same free speech rights as you and
me. In other words, Exxon is a person too. ... (Read
More)
Five members of the Supreme Court declared that a “corporation”
is a person, not a “regular person” but one above all natural laws, subject to
no God, no moral code but one with unlimited power over our lives, a power
awarded by judges who seem themselves as grand inquisitors in an meant to hunt
down all heretics who fail to serve their god, the god of money.
...
Iowa Democratic leaders rake SCOTUS ruling DesMoinesRegister.com (blog) -
Kathie Obradovich -
Jan 21, 2010
Iowa Democratic legislative leaders said this morning that
the US Supreme Court ruling opening the floodgates to corporate campaign
spending likely voids ...
SCOTUS: America For Sale To Highest Bidder CrooksandLiars.com, by Susie Madrak Thursday Jan 21,
2010 10:00am
I remember arguing with Democratic strategists about the
Alito and Roberts nominations to the Supreme Court. I said instead of
focusing on abortion rights, a divisive issue, we should sound the alarm
about their strongly pro-corporatist rulings. But hey, what do I
know?
And now, the predictable results. I can't tell you how depressed I am
about this:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has ruled that
corporations may spend freely to support or
oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old
limits on their participation in federal campaigns.
By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday
overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said
corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general
treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost
certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in
campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.
... (Read
More)
Corporate Personhood Should Be Banned, Once and For All
InformationClearinghouse.info, by
Ralph Nader - 012510 This corporatist, anti-voter decision is so
extreme that it should galvanize a grassroots effort to enact a Constitutional
Amendment to once and for all end corporate personhood and curtail the corrosive
impact of big money on politics.Continue
Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction
InformationClearinghouse.info, by
Chris Hedges - 012510
Corporate forces, long before the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v.
Federal Election Commission, carried out a coup d'état in slow motion. The coup
is over. We lost.
Continue
American Corporatocracy
InformationClearinghouse.info, byPaul A. Moore -
012410 The US government has been hollowed out during the rise to absolute power of
the corporations. Elections have become an elaborate "reality show" that plays
out on corporate television for viewers entertainment.
Continue
Sign Alan Grayson's Supreme Court petition against corporations being
allowed to spend unlimited cash on elections CrooksandLiars.com, by John Amato
Thursday Jan 21, 2010 7:00am
If you want to see who the real corporatists are then wait until they are
put to the test over the Citizen's United ruling. Conservatives have been
trying to destroy any type of campaign finance reforms and what this ruling
means is that corporations will be allowed to blackmail any candidate just
by threatening to spend gobs of money against them if they vote the wrong
way.
At any moment, the Supreme Court will announce whether it will allow
corporations to spend unlimited funds on political campaigns.
Sign my petition to the Supreme Court now, and tell
them to keep unlimited corporate spending out of our federal elections.
PETITION TEXT
Unlimited corporate spending on campaigns means the
government is up for sale and that the law itself will be bought and sold.
It would be political bribery on the largest scale imaginable.
This issue transcends partisan political arguments. We
cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational
corporations. You must stop this.
Two lawmakers introduced a bill this week aimed at
adding an amendment to the US Constitution, which would allow Congress and the
states to regulate political expenditures by corporations.
The amendment bill is in response to a recent
landmark Supreme Court ruling, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,
which struck down several longstanding prohibitions on corporate political
contributions, saying legislative measures to control such spending infringed
upon corporate First Amendment free speech rights.
Please see this report by Truthout's Kyle Berlin about a similar bill
introduced in the House earlier this week.
Washington DC - Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT)
announced today that he will be introducing a constitutional amendment in the
coming days to reverse the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Citizens United v.
Federal Election Commission. The decision overturned 100 years of precedents to
come to the unjustified conclusion that corporations deserve the same free
speech protections as individual Americans.
“Money is not speech,” said Dodd. “Corporations
are not people. And in the wake of one of the most radical decisions in the
Supreme Court’s history of campaign finance jurisprudence, a constitutional
amendment is necessary to fully restore the trust and voice of the American
people. If corporations – foreign as well as domestic – are allowed even greater
and more direct influence over our elections, our democracy as we know it will
cease to exist. I won’t stand for that. I urge my colleagues, and the American
people, to join me in defense of democracy by supporting this amendment and
other interim steps to mitigate the damage done by this decision.”
In the wake of last week's sweeping 5-4 Supreme
Court ruling, which struck down several longstanding prohibitions on corporate
political contributions, Democratic lawmakers are proposing legislation to
counter some of its effects.
Perhaps the most politically promising proposal
is the Fair Elections Now Act, a bill introduced which aims to blend small-donor
fundraising with public funding as a means of reducing the pressure of
fundraising from large contributors.
The Mystery Bush Billboard
Minnesota Public Radio, by
Bob Collins - February 8, 2010
It was late at night and I wasn't sure I'd seen the
billboard correctly as I whizzed past it on I-35 in Wyoming last week on the way
back from Wrenshall. But an e-mailer confirms I saw what I thought I saw. ...
NewsFocus:
Isn't Cheney from Wyoming? Hmmmm.... ;o)
A scary thought for a great many Americans.
The Anthrax Attacks Remain Unsolved The FBI disproved its main theory about how the spores were weaponized
Wall Street Journal, by EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN -
012410
The investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks ended as far as the public knew on
July 29, 2008, with the death of Bruce Ivins, a senior biodefense researcher at
the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in
Fort Detrick, Md. The cause of death was an overdose of the painkiller Tylenol.
No autopsy was performed, and there was no suicide note.
Less than a week after his apparent suicide, the
FBI declared Ivins to have been the sole perpetrator of the 2001 Anthrax
attacks, and the person who mailed deadly anthrax spores to NBC, the New York
Post, and Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. These attacks killed five people,
closed down a Senate office building, caused a national panic, and nearly
paralyzed the postal system. ...
Americans are mad as hell...
Fictional newscaster Howard Beal tries to wake the masses in "Network."
What does it take to stir the people to stand up and say no more?
You Won't Believe In Conspiracy,
Until You Know The Media Americans Easily Dismiss Conspiracy Claims Because of Naive Media Trust Get the real story on who runs the media that we
trust to protect our democracy. Learn how just half a dozen men hold control of
our media programming and why that's a bad thing for democracy. A mere six
individuals (CEOs) decide which stories you get to see and which stories you
don't get to see. Once you realize the truth about our misguided notion of
integrity in broadcasting and the news, you will see how easy it is to deceive a
populace. You could convince them of literally anything. Even into giving up
their rights. View the NewsFocus page on The Media
for all you need to know.
Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by
Timothy Geithner, told American International
Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s
payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails
between the company and its regulator show. ...
UPDATE!
6.0 quake reported off Humboldt County coastline San Jose Mercury News -
020410
A 6.0 earthquake struck about 35 miles off the coast of Northern California this
afternoon, about one month after a major quake off the coast rocked the
communities along California's rugged northern coast.
6.0 quake off Northern Calif. coastmsnbc.com
4.3 Earthquake Rattles Southern California Los Angeles Times -
Jan 11, 2010
Several earthquakes, one with a preliminary magnitude of 4.3,
struck the Banning area in Riverside County today but caused no damage,
authorities said. ...
In
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell described a super-state called Oceania, whose
language of war inverted lies that “passed into history and became truth. ‘Who
controls the past’, ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the
present controls the past’.”
Barack Obama is the leader of a contemporary
Oceania. In two speeches at the close of the decade, the Nobel Peace Prize
winner affirmed that peace was no longer peace, but rather a permanent war that
“extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan” to “disorderly regions and
diffuse enemies”. He called this “global security” and invited our gratitude. To
the people of Afghanistan, which America has invaded and occupied, he said
wittily: “We have no interest in occupying your country.”
In Oceania, truth and lies are indivisible.
According to Obama, the American attack on Afghanistan in 2001 was authorized by
the United Nations Security Council. There was no UN authority. He said the “the
world” supported the invasion in the wake of 9/11 when, in truth, all but three
of 37 countries surveyed by Gallup expressed overwhelming opposition. He said
that America invaded Afghanistan “only after the Taliban refused to turn over
[Osama] bin Laden”. In 2001, the Taliban tried three times to hand over bin
Laden for trial, reported Pakistan’s military regime, and were ignored. Even
Obama’s mystification of 9/11 as justification for his war is false. More than
two months before the Twin Towers were attacked, the Pakistani foreign minister,
Niaz Naik, was told by the Bush administration that an American military assault
would take place by mid-October. The Taliban regime in Kabul, which the Clinton
administration had secretly supported, was no longer regarded as “stable” enough
to ensure America’s control over oil and gas pipelines to the Caspian Sea. It
had to go. ... (Read
More)
NewsFocus:
This is all about the grand New World Order. "We the People" are
being dragged to a new system of government, without our vote, without your
consent. Don't believe it? Start looking on your own and quit believing the
corporate media. Ever hear of the Bilderbergers?
It's time you start to learn. This new world structure of a global government is
presented as a way to end all war, but it is all about monopolies and the uber-rich
becoming more wealthy and more powerful. What constitutional checks and balances
will be built into this new system to protect human rights? Who will protect us
from the corporations that are already abusing us? What safeguards
will stop another Hitler from usurping and taking over the globalist New World
Order? Where is our guarantee of a better way of life? Call your elected
representatives and tell them that this is treason and "We the People" do not
approve.
American Gulag Obama to Indefinitely Imprison Detainees Without
Charges
By Glenn Greenwald -
012410 The administration is claiming the power to imprison whomever it
wants without charges whenever it believes that -- even in the face of the
horrendously broad "material support for terrorism" laws the Congress has
enacted -- it cannot prove in any tribunal that the individual has actually
done anything wrong. Continue
There is a time when the operation of
the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't
take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your
bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the
apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the
people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the
machine will be prevented from working at all! -Mario Savio Dec 2, 1964
Saving America: The Necessary Steps To Reclaim Our Democracy "We the people" Need To Insist Upon Restoring The Vision Of
Our Forefathers NewsFocus - 122609
Election Reform - Get rid of Political Action Committees
(PACs) and corporate donations.
Media Reform Break up media monopolies and encourage
diversity of news and opinion.
Take over the Federal Reserve Return
power to print money to U.S. Government.
Balance the Courts We should not lean left or right, but
strike a fair balance in our courts.
Tax Reform Make the rich pay their share accordingly, as we
do, with no more loopholes.
PATRIOT Act Reform Re-establish the Constitution & Bill
of Rights for "We the People."
If we don't act soon, it may be too late to reclaim the
country we once knew. Those that have all the power are counting on you to be
complacent, unmotivated and ignorant.
Alan Greenspan
Admits There Is No Authority Above The Federal Reserve
If they truly have nothing to hide, audit the Federal Reserve, now!
There is no greater form of
patriotism than questioning your government.
'Privacy'? Turns Out Airport Scanners Can Store, Send Images
CrooksandLiars.com, by
Susie Madrak Tuesday Jan 12, 2010 5:00pm
Imagine that! First of all, who can believe that they'd
lie to us about just how much they can see with these airport scanners?
(That was irony, folks.) And not only that, they have the capability to take,
say, celebrity scans and email them to the National Enquirer. Who'd a thunk it?
...
Airport Body Scanning Raises Radiation Exposure, Committee
Bloomberg.com, by Jonathan
Tirone - 010510
Air passengers should be made aware of the health risks of airport body
screenings and governments must explain any decision to expose the public to
higher levels of cancer-causing radiation, an inter-agency report said. ...
A Risk Is A Risk. Do You Want To Be One Of The Ten To
Get Cancer?
Tens deaths per year is ten too many! Do families get the right
to sue?
PR Effort Underway To Convince Us To
Accept Body Scans TV News Anchors Are Sucked Into The Official VNR Press
Account
NewsFocus, by Tim Watts - 011810
The next invasion of privacy and a new threat for the people is full body x-ray
scans. With former Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff using his Washington
DC connections to push the new technology under the guise of national security,
even though he and his machine producing client will become filthy rich from
profit, is it any wonder the push is on to get us to accept this next Orwellian
step towards control?
First things first... x-rays are harmful to human beings.
We've known that for years now. Case closed.
Secondly, don't believe everything that comes from a news
anchor's mouth when it comes to introducing new technology. In almost every
case, the information comes from the producer of said technology, and
they will say only that which helps them sell the product and make them money.
The PR marketing effort for the body scanners is that it is only "like a dental x-ray," something
we've all had, but we don't all get the same number of dental x-rays. Some go to
the dentist more than others. Conversely, many people fly more than others also.
The tactic with the dental x-ray analogy is to make it seem like
an everyday common occurrence, but
according to
Time Magazine, a dental x-ray delivers 5r
per x-ray,
and 10r is said to be damaging.
Most people just don't get dental x-rays as often as some people fly
in our jet-set world. What about the risk to those who fly a lot? And what about
the frequent flyer that now needs a dental or chest x-ray? How has the frequent
airport scanning made them more vulnerable to cancer, or to that next fatal
x-ray dose from their physician or dentist?
You can't keep taking 5r on every
business and vacation flight and not harbor legitimate health concerns over
continued x-ray scanning. The
medical community takes this seriously
enough. We need to find safer technology and not rush into something that will
be harmful to frequent flyers.
Whether they admit it or not, x-rays, in any dose, are
never a good thing for humans.
Given the dangerous nature of x-rays, one would think that those
who claim to have our safety in mind would be moving the population away
from exposure to harmful x-rays, rather than increasing exposure and the
subsequent risk of cancer, or even sterility and infertility, as a direct result
of repeated exposure.
And scanners are not perfect either. They can't tell if the heels
on a pair of shoes are powerful molded explosives, so there are always going to
be security weaknesses in the system.
It seems the best way to minimize terrorism would perhaps be not
to meddle in their country's foreign affairs. Perhaps if we maintained our
corporate interests here at home we would be better off in the world as a
nation.
One thing we don't need is to be pushed into a quick decision on
x-ray scanners that we will one day regret. The news reporters in the video
piece above did no fact checking. They simply accepted a corporate PR
fabrication (VNR) that might help better sell this dangerous technology to the
people. This was irresponsible journalism. There was no effort made to check for
information on radiation levels, nor any other tangible consumer safety
concerns. They were there to sell body scanners.
Don't take anything from TV talking heads that fail to thoroughly
explore the other side of the issue and then attempt to sell you the hype. It's
time that we slowed down and took a better look at security, rather than doing a
"Patriot Act knee-jerk reaction" and quickly accepting something bad
before we thoroughly check it out or find a better way.
German 'Fleshmob' Protests Airport Scanners Wired News -
Kim Zetter - 011210 The underwear bomber's Christmas Day attack has
prompted calls for the increased use of full-body scanners at airports that
would strip-search passengers down to their naked bodies. ...
Pentagon now spending more for war than all 50 States combined spend to run the
country
IntelDaily.com - 122509
The U.S. spends more for war annually than all state governments combined
spend for the health, education, welfare, and safety of 308 million Americans.
Joseph Henchman, director of state projects for the Tax Foundation of
Washington, D.C., says the states collected a total of $781 billion in taxes
in 2008. For a rough comparison, according to Wikipedia data, the total budget
for what the Pentagon calls "defense" in fiscal year 2010 will be at least
$880 billion and could possibly top $1 trillion. That's more than all the
state governments collect. ...
War On Terror: War Expenditures
World’s Sole Military Superpower’s 2 Million-Troop, $1
Trillion Wars
InformationClearinghouse.info - 122109 After allotting
over a trillion dollars for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alone and packing
off more than two million of its citizens to the two nations, the U.S. military
establishment and peace prize president have already laid the groundwork for yet
more wars. Boeing, Raytheon and General Electric won’t be kept waiting. ...
The War Trap
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Ernest Partridge
- 121809 It appears that Einstein was right: everything
has changed except our modes of thinking, and thus, as he warned, "we drift
toward unparalleled catastrophe."
Continue
President Eisenhower Tried To Warn Us All
For a former 5-Star General To Make These Comments Is Startling.
Can the Human Race Outgrow War?
InformationClearinghouse.info, by James Carroll
- 012510
The fantasy that Pentagon spending might be checked was obliterated by last
week’s other news - the Supreme Court decision to allow unlimited corporate
funding of political campaign ads. Defense contractors will spend billions
reinforcing the natural law of war.
Continue
The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free
and open society; and we are as a people inherently and
historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to
secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of
excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far
outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even
today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed
society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today,
there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if
our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave
danger that an announced need for increased security will be
seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very
limits of official censorship and concealment.
--President John F. Kennedy 4/27/61
US General: UAE's air force could take out Iran's
YNetNews.com
Speaking at a conference in Bahrain organized by the International Institute for
Strategic Studies, the American general said, "The Emirati Air Force itself
could take out the entire Iranian Air Force, I believe, given that it's got ...
somewhere around 70 Block 60 F-16 fighters, which are better than the US F-16
fighters."
US military suicides reach new high
WSWS.org, by By James
Cogan 120209
The number of serving American military personnel who took their
lives in 2009 has already exceeded last year’s record. These suicides are first
of all tragic. Secondly, they indicate the immense psychological harm that the
neo-colonial wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have inflicted on members of the armed
forces. ...
U.S. in Afghanistan : 1979-2009
TheRagBlog.Blogspot.com - 122709 The pain and suffering of the
peoples of Afghanistan has a long history before and since the United States
intervened in their political lives in 1979. Many outside powers share
responsibility for their plight. But today’s situation directly relates to the
covert war the United States encouraged and funded from the summer of 1979
...
Franken's anti-rape
amendment becomes law
RawStory.com, by
Stephen C. Webster -122109 Over
the unexplained objections of 30 Republican Senators, an anti-rape amendment
authored by Senator Al Franken (D-MN) became law Monday with President Obama's
signature on the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010.
The provision was sparked by the
gang-rape of a 19-year-old Kellogg, Brown & Root employee by her coworkers in
Iraq. After returning to the United States, Jamie Leigh Jones found she couldn't
sue the company because of a clause in her employment contract.
Franken's amendment to the Defense
Appropriations Act prohibits companies from using employment contracts to bar
litigation over sexual assault or discrimination.
When the Senate took up Franken's
measure, 30 Republicans voted against it. None
cared to explain why, with some suggesting it's simply not the government's
business to rewrite employment contracts. ...
House passes broad Wall Street regulatory overhaul
InformationClearinghouse.info
In a separate vote Friday, Democratic leaders failed to revive legislation that
would let bankruptcy judges rewrite mortgages to lower homeowners' monthly
payments. The measure was rejected by a 241-188. ...
Not One House Republican Votes To Tighten Regulation on
Financial Industry
CrooksandLiars.com, by Susie Madrak Saturday Dec 12, 2009 11:00am
Without one Republican vote, the House
passed a deeply flawed bill that attempts to control the excesses of the
financial services industry - while also letting them escalate many of the same
crazy practices that led to this crisis. The Republicans, of course, thought the
bill was too stringent. ... (Read
More)
Social
Security Update:
Social Security Administration Sends Letters Explaining
No COLA Reason Given Is No Rise In Cost of Living. (Say What!? Seriously?)
NewsFocus.org, by Tim Watts 121109
The Social Security Administration has sent letters out to Americans explaining
why there will be no cost of living. According to SSA there was "no rise in
the cost of living during the past year," although many of those needing
their social security to exist upon would beg to differ on that SSA assessment.
With many goods rising in price during the economic downturn, many are asking
exactly where SSA is getting their figures from.
The explanation given by SSA reads as follows...
By law, Social Security benefits increase automatically to
keep pace with inflation. When there is a period of no inflation, the law does
not permit an increase in benefits, Based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
published by the Department of Labor, there was no rise in the cost of living
during the past year, so your benefit will remain the same in 2010. The CPI
is the federal government's official measure used to calculate cost-of-living
increases.
Far be it from the government to bail-out social security,
helping those who need it most, instead of the rich Wall Street tycoons and
mega-wealthy bankers who caused this economic disaster.
Many of those relying on their social security find the excuse
from SSA to be highly disingenuous and insulting. A more honest approach might
have been to simply admit that the government is strapped for money after the
bail-outs to the rich, rather than attempting to say that the cost of essential
goods has not risen.
The American people do know better. We get the greed thing. Slap in the face well taken.
What makes all of this worse, our formerly esteemed Congress took
their 2009 cost of living increase and is now said to be planning on their 2010
increase as well. WTF?
American Fascism By political definition the US is now fascist, not a
constitutional republic
InformationClearinghouse.info, by
Carl Herman
The definition of “fascism” has some academic variance, but is
essentially collusion among corporatocracy, authoritarian government, and
controlled media and education. This “leadership” is only possible with a
nationalistic public accepting policies of war, empire, and limited civil and
political rights.
Continue
Americans
Are As Blind To US Fascism As Nazi-Era Germans
Examiner.com, by Carl Herman 121209
Psychological research demonstrates that large-scale dramatic
change can escape attention when the change is unsuspected, unannounced, and
agents causing the change act as if nothing is different.
Two areas
of this cognitive study are “change blindness” and “inattentional blindness.”
When we include consideration of “cognitive dissonance,” the rejection of facts
when they conflict with important beliefs, we can approach an explanation of how
educated citizens could accept fascism when it was unsuspected, unannounced, and
the responsible agents fraudulently represented the new government as no
different from the old. Cognitive dissonance would deter many people to accept
the new reality, even when the facts were clear.
The definition of “fascism” has some academic variance, but is
essentially collusion among corporatocracy, authoritarian government, and
controlled media and education. This “leadership” is only possible with a
nationalistic public accepting policies of war, empire, and limited civil and
political rights. ... (Read
More)
Are Americans a Broken People? Why We've Stopped Fighting Back Against the Forces of
Oppression
InformationClearinghouse.info, by
Bruce E. Levine A psychologist asks: Have consumerism, suburbanization
and a malevolent corporate-government partnership so beaten us down that we no
longer have the will to save ourselves?
Continue
Say It Isn't So!
Gallup Poll: 44 Percent Of Americans Want Bush Back Seriously? The most unpopular US President of
all time?
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Dan Carter
A new Gallup poll found that President Obama’s approval rating continues to dip.
But the poll also uncovered a much more disturbing fact: 44 percent of Americans
would be happier with George W. Bush back in the White House. My, how quickly we
forget.
Continue
NewsFocus: I find this very hard to believe,
let alone stomach. My mind swirls over the authenticity of this poll. Either
Gallop is lying or we truly are being brainwashed through high-def television.
Unbelievable.
Networks Still Using Military Analysts Without
Identifying Massive Conflicts Of Interest
InformationClearinghouse.info,
by Laura Bassett
Military strategy is a frequent topic on TV in the wake
of President Obama's announcement that he will send more troops to Afghanistan
now -- and start bringing them out by mid-2011. But few television viewers have
any idea that some of what they're hearing originates from men who are literally
profiting from the war.
Continue
Kucinich:
'Class war is over, working people lost'
RawStory.com, by
Sahil Kapur - Thursday,
December 17th, 2009 -- 3:05 pm WASHINGTON -- Reflecting on the growing divide
between Wall Street and Main Street, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) on Wednesday
offered a powerful critique on the state of the economy in an open committee
hearing.
America Without a Middle Class - Not Far Away As You Might Think America today has plenty of rich and super-rich. But it has
far more families who did all the right things, but who still have no real
security AlterNet,
by
Elizabeth Warren, December 5, 2009
Can you imagine an America without a strong middle class? If you can, would it
still be America as we know it?
Reston, VA - North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion
barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the
Bakken Formation.
A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold
increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's
1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil. ...
Salon Radio: Patriot Act and FISA reforms
Salon.com, by Glenn Greenwald 100109
When Congress enacted the Patriot Act in the wake of the 9/11
attacks, it provided for a four-year expiration date for some of the more
controversial provisions. In 2005, when it was time for Congress to decide if
those should be extended, the Bush administration insisted that none of those
powers had been abused yet (like everything) they were critical to fighting
Terrorism. As a result, the
Congress thus overwhelmingly voted to extend them for four more years,
though this time they required the issuance of a report from
the Inspector General of the Justice Depratment to determine if there had, in
fact, been any abuses. Unsurprisingly, the IG's Report that issued in
2007 and
2008
documented extreme abuse at the FBI with many of those powers. Moreover, it was
recently revealed that, far more often than not, federal law enforcement
agencies use these powers (including the pernicious "sneak and peek" searches)
in cases having nothing whatsoever to do with Terrorism. ... (Read
More)
-- The 2010 Pentagon budget means "every man,
woman and child in the United States will spend more than $2,700
on (defense) programs and agencies next year," reports the Cato
Institute. "By way of comparison, the average Japanese spends
less than $330; the average German about $520; China's per
capita spending is less than $100."
-- "(The
Pentagon budget) dwarfs the combined defense budgets of U.S.
allies and potential U.S. enemies alike," reports Hearst
Newspapers. ...
KUCINICH: AMERICA 'IN FIGHT OF ITS LIFE'... AT HOME Congressman Says Prolonging Afghan war a
‘threat to our national security’
RawStory.com, 120409
Far from being a necessary part of the US's
national security strategy, the Afghanistan war is actually a
threat to it, says Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich.
In a statement released two days after
President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop surge for the
war effort and a July, 2011, beginning for troop withdrawal,
Kucinich argued that extending the war would destabilize the
United States at home. ...
“The war is a threat to our national security.
We’ll spend over $100 billion next year to bomb a nation of poor
people while we reenergize the Taliban, destabilize Pakistan,
deplete our army and put more of our soldiers’ lives on the
line. Meanwhile, back here in the USA, 15 million people are out
of work. People are losing their jobs, their health care, their
savings, their investments, and their retirement security. $13
trillion in bailouts for Wall Street, trillions for war; when
are we going to start taking care of things here at home?” ...
US to provide $3bn in compensation for native Americans
InformationClearinghouse.info
The U.S. government will pay as much as $3.4 billion and institute
reforms to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit brought by Indians who
claim federal mismanagement of billions of dollars in mineral and grazing
royalties from their lands dating to the 19th century.
The Great Geopolitical Battle Over Energy Transit Routes
Intel Daily, 120409
As we all live in the present, it is
very hard to fully assess the future implications of decisions
supported or made by political and business leaders. An
extraordinary...
Hersh: Military waging war with White House "They think he’s weak and the wrong color. Yes,
there’s racism in the Pentagon."
Durham Herald Sun -
Neil Offen - Oct 13, 2009
The army is also “in a war against the White House — and they
feel they have [President] Obama boxed in,” Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter
Seymour Hersh told ...
Earlier this year, blurry pictures were released by the French magazine Air & Cosmos of a previously
unknown stealth drone taken at Kandahar in Afghanistan. The photos, snapped in
2007, prompted a wave of speculation about the classified aircraft. That
speculation
grew even more intense this week, when a blog belonging to the French
newspaper Libération released an even better
photograph. But while
the new picture may answers some questions, it also creates a heap of new
mysteries. Chief among them: Why use such a fancy, stealthy aircraft in
Afghanistan? The Taliban have neither the radar to spot the plane, nor the
weaponry to shoot it down.
Michael MooreTakes on Obama's
Afghanistan Escalation
MichaelMoore.com,
December 3rd, 2009
'Obama's Vietnam'; "We have been in this war for twice as long now as the
U.S. was in World War II, twice as long as World War II. We defeated Hitler and
Tojo and Mussolini in half the time it's taken us to find Osama bin Laden." –
Michael Moore on Larry King Live
Examining Obama's Rationale for Escalating The Afghanistan War
Intel Daily, 120409
Outlining his rationale for the decision to send yet
more troops to Afghanistan, President Barack Obama on Tuesday began with a
familiar refrain: “We did not ask for...
Kucinich: Afghans want
to be saved from us, not by us
RawStory.com, By
Muriel Kane - Wednesday,
December 2nd, 2009
“The people of Afghanistan don’t want to be saved by us,"
Kucinich continued. "They want to be saved from us. Our presence and our
Predator drones kill countless innocents, creating more US enemies and
destabilizing Pakistan." ...
Obama's War Is He Taking Ownership Or Just Cleaning Up A
Huge Bush Mess?
InformationClearinghouse.info, By Jim Hightower
Obama has been taken over by the military industrial hawks and national security
theorists who play war games with other people's lives and money.
Continue
Some Simple Questions After Obama's Afghanistan War
Speech
InformationClearinghouse.info, By David Sirota
Would you be OK sending yourself or a loved one over to face combat and
potentially death for the mission Obama articulated in Afghanistan? If not, how
could you support sending other people?
Continue
Taliban Did Not Refuse to Hand Over Bin Laden
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Ralph Lopez
120409 Obama slipped past a real doozy Tuesday night when he said the Taliban
refused to hand over bin Laden. It just ain't so. They tried three times to open
negotiations for this, but Bush refused each time. He wanted to bomb people so
bad it hurt.
Continue
How do you ask a Man to be the Last Man to Die for a
President's Political Image?
InformationClearinghouse.info, By David Sirota
120409
There are 68,000 U.S. troops and 42,000 from other countries in Afghanistan. The
U.S. Army's recently revised counterinsurgency manual estimates that an all-out
counterinsurgency campaign in a country with Afghanistan's population would
require about 600,000 troops.
Continue
America's Regression InformationClearinghouse.info,
By Glenn Greenwald Torture is one of the most universal taboos in the civilized world.
The treaty championed by Ronald Reagan declares that "no exceptional
circumstances" can justify it, and requires that every state criminalize it and
prosecute those who authorize or engage in it.
Continue
At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint
Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city
of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at
the center of a secret program in which they plan
targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda
operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other
sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an
investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater
operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and
help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs
parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes,
according to a well-placed source within the US military
intelligence apparatus.
USDA Reports Stunning Rise In Number of Hungry In America
CrooksandLiars.com, by Susie Madrak Tuesday Nov 17, 2009
4:00pm
I can just hear Rush Limbaugh now: "If
they're so hungry, how did they get so fat?" And
our side's not much better, because of course they're going to
agree with the Republicans that the best way to handle the
problem is with tax cuts and deficit reduction.
I think I need to bang my head against a wall now:
The nation's economic crisis has catapulted the number of
Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the
government has been keeping track, according to a new federal
report, which shows that
nearly 50 million people --
including almost one child in four -- struggled last year to
get enough to eat.
Gene Lyons: Why Is There Always Money For The Latest War?
CrooksandLiars.com, by Susie Madrak Thursday Nov 19,
2009 5:00pm
Gene Lyons in Salon on the myriad forces that insist we
can't afford health care, but just as strongly assure us that
$6.73 trillion for the war in Afghanistan is perfectly doable.
(That's $1 million per soldier, per year.) Go read the whole
thing:
For all its brutality, the Taliban rebellion is mainly a
localized, nationalist effort to expel foreigners --
one reason Gen. McChrystal hopes to be able to pacify them, as
his mentor Gen. David Petraeus bought off Iraqi insurgents.
With winter approaching, Taliban fighters will soon be forced
into semi-hibernation. Any U.S. buildup will take at least a
year to complete.
They're selling us endless war the way they sell
cellphones and Viagra.
The question is: How much is President Obama buying?
Pickens: US 'entitled' to Iraq oil Oil baron tells Congress US
entitled to Iraqi oil because of war
Reuters India, by Tom Doggett
- Thu Oct 22, 2009
Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday
that U.S. energy companies are "entitled" to some of Iraq's crude because of the
large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country
and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq. ...
NewsFocus:
This is what is wrong with the rich conservative view of the world. We
attack their country, without provocation, destroying their
infrastructure while killing over a million and yet some ignorant arrogant
multi-billionaire thinks we are now owed their natural resources. This is
galling that any human would conceive of such immoral unstable thinking. This is
why other countries hate the US. Too often we go to war for "US interests."
What ever happened to doing the right thing for our fellow man?
Obama: Health Insurers 'Deceptive
And Dishonest' Reuters -
Patricia Zengerle,
Todd Eastham -
101609 WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - US President Barack Obama
lashed out on Saturday against the "deceptive and dishonest"
efforts of health insurance companies, who he said are
trying to kill healthcare reform, no matter the cost to
...
Go to Health pagefor more on the
health reform fight.
People Are Hurting And GOP Still Blocks Unemployment Benefits CrooksandLiars.com, by Susie Madrak
Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 From the
AFL-CIO NOW blog, news that now Orin Hatch has joined in preventing a vote
on extending unemployment benefits. Shame on every member of the media that
doesn't hammer them on preventing the unemployed from getting this much-needed
help. ...
Obama Plants Monsanto And CropLife Officials In Key
Agriculture Posts
ThinkProgress.org
Lobbyists “won’t
find a job in my White House,” President Obama assured us upon inauguration.
And yet he just nominated to two key posts “Big Ag” industry power brokers, who
come straight from the chemical pesticide and biotechnology sectors. While they
may not be registered as lobbyists, both men come from organizations
representing powerful agribusiness interests, which every year spend millions of
dollars in lobbying to advance their companies’ chemical and transgenic
products. ...
Saving Face in Afghanistan
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Ron Paul - October
14, 2009
We overthrew the Taliban government in 2001 with less than 10,000 American
troops. Why does it now seem that the more troops we send, the worse things get?
If the Soviets bankrupted themselves in Afghanistan with troop levels of 100,000
and were eventually forced to leave in humiliating defeat, why are we determined
to follow their example?
Continue
Bush Administration Blocked Efforts To Prevent
Housing Crisis
RawStory.com, by
Daniel Tencer - Tuesday,
October 6th, 2009 -- 10:42 am Federal regulators in the Bush administration
blocked attempts by state governments to prevent predatory lending practices
that resulted in the financial crisis now stalking the American economy, a new
study from the University of North Carolina says. ... (Read
More)
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday that would renew
portions of the USA Patriot Act in an effort to address administration
concerns about protecting terrorism investigations.
But several Democrats and civil liberties advocates said
the
legislation would do little to strengthen privacy protections. And
some Republicans said the bill, despite amendments worked out with the
administration, would still unduly burden investigators. ... (Read
More)
So it’s good that the White House
has signaled its willingness to narrow the expansive snooping powers granted the
federal government in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. ...
Senator Russ Feingold Has Questions On Misuse of the
Patriot Act
The only Senator wise enough to vote no on the Patriot Act
NewsFocus: Most have never ever read this voluminous bill, yet they
naively and readily say that we need it because it's called the "Patriot"
Act. They ask, "How could that be a bad thing if it has patriot in it?"
(They've no doubt never read the No Child Left Behind Act, or The
Clear Skies Act; laws that do the opposite of what they imply.) We have always had the proper laws in place to deal
with terrorism and crime. To say that we haven't is a bald faced lie. What we've
never had though before the Patriot Act was a bill that usurped our
Constitutional rights. We don't need the Patriot Act. Research on your own and
learn. Be forewarned though, you will have to put down the TV remote to do this.
(Shock, gasp!)
Watch the video:Unconstitutional
Considering
The Price of Liberty Santa Maria Times -
Sep 23, 2009
Some members of Congress, mostly Democrats, want to rename the
Patriot Act. The new law would be called the Justice Act — but a change of name
is not enough ...
Congress Had No Time to Read the USA PATRIOT Act
SunlightFoundation.com, by
Paul Blumenthal
on
03/02/09 @ 2:03 pm
It is hard to determine how long the final version of the USA
PATRIOT Act was available prior to its consideration. By all measures, it was
not available to the public and was barely made available to members of
Congress. As one of the primary examples of bills that were rushed through
Congress, there was little chance that the PATRIOT Act wouldn’t be a major
Read the Bill case study. (NewsFocus:
The vote was perpetrated this way by design. Face folks, Congress was
hoodwinked.)
Obama Administration Uncertain On Patriot Act Removal Talking Transparency Isn't the Same as
Seeing It Through 'Continuities between the Obama and
Bush administration overwhelm the differences' Washington Post -
Dana Milbank - Sep 24,
2009
President Obama campaigned on a promise to restore transparency
to government. But now the time has come to renew the USA Patriot Act,
...
Does your boss want you dead? 'Dead
peasants' insurance pays your employer a secret, tax-free windfall when you die.
Insurers have sold millions of policies to companies such as Dow Chemical.
MSN Money, by
Liz Pulliam
Weston 100209 Right now, your company could
have a life insurance policy on you that you know nothing about. When you die --
perhaps years after you leave your employer -- the tax-free proceeds from this
policy wouldnt go to your family. The money would go to the company.
...
Is Your Employer Betting On Your Death?
A revelation from Michael Moore's new film.
Casey Pushes Crackdown on Military Contractors McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
- October 03, 2009
One month after the latest electrocution in Iraq, U.S. Sen. Bob
Casey has proposed an amendment to a defense appropriations bill that would hold
government contractors accountable for the safety of overseas military personnel
and civilians working abroad.
How the Feds Imprison the Innocent
InformationClearinghouse.info, by Paul Craig
Roberts For two decades I have been attempting to make Americans aware that the
danger to their liberty comes not from foreign adversaries, terrorists, or
criminals, but from prosecutors, who have destroyed law as a shield of the
innocent and turned law into a weapon against the innocent.
Continue
Who Are ‘The Deciders’?
InformationClearinghouse.info, by David
Sirota Avoiding another Vietnam, requires a figurehead government—one that
delegates all military decision-making power to generals and effectively strips
it from elected civilians who will supposedly be too “politically motivated”
(read: influenced by voters).
Continue
President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize Washington Post -
100909
President Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his "efforts to
strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.
...
NewsFocus: No disrespect
intended, but following Bush jr. certainly had to help. Even Genghis Khan
might've stood a chance following such an abhorrent administration.
Nobel peace prize: A call to action guardian.co.uk -
100909
The day that Henry Kissinger picked it up, satire was said to have died.
When the Nobel peace prize was awarded to Barack Obama yesterday something
...
Telco Spy Immunity Up for Grabs Wired News -
David Kravets - Sep 24,
2009
A secret court, known as the FISA court, may grant roving
wiretaps without saying who is the target. Generally, the authorities must
assert that the target ...
How Bush’s Court May Undo Democracy The Ghost of Bush: How Dubya’s court can undo democracy
ArtVoice.com, By Michael I. Niman,
ArtVoice (9/17/09)
The key to American politics is that you’ve always
got to watch for the action behind the distraction. The distractions right now
is the healthcare debate, and the economy, and the war, and the other war, and
the other wars, environmental collapse, and so on. All salient stories with lots
of enticing, media-ready vignettes—you know, heart-wrenching narratives, images
of things blowing up, stranded polar bears floating out to sea on melting ice,
that sort of stuff.
Lost somewhere on the back burner of
our consciousness are the yawn-factor stories, like the endless deliberations of
the US Supreme Court, which seem to move slower than even pre-season baseball
games or rush-hour traffic. Make no mistake about it, however. The Supreme Court
is the ticking time bomb Dubya left in the executive bedroom. And it’s about to
blow. ...
http://artvoice.com/issues/v8n38/the_ghost_of_bush Corporations Lawsuit: Campaign Contributions
Free speech precedent in 19th-century Supreme Court ruling Boston Globe -
Sep 18, 2009
THE HEADLINE of Jim Sleeper's op-ed, “Corporate free speech? Since when?'', asks
a question but doesn't give the answer. “Since when'' would be since 1886
...
Corporations aren't people Concord Monitor -
Charles F. Weed - Sep 17, 2009
We may soon be confronting the consequences of a Supreme Court decision in a
case heard last week. Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission may
...
Giving corporate money more clout in elections is scary Asheville Citizen-Times -
Sep 19, 2009
In a little-noticed series of events, the US Supreme Court could be about to
radically change the landscape of US politics. Here's the tale: Back in 2008,
...
Quietly, Sotomayor turns on corporations Raw Story -
John Byrne - Sep 18, 2009
Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's newly installed Supreme Court Justice, has a
few words for corporations seeking protection under law.
...
Sotomayor's important
statement about corporations True/Slant -
092009
Last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a “provocative comment”
that probed the foundations of corporate law. The case, Citizens United v.
...
Is America Hooked on War?
InformationClearinghouse.info,
By Tom
Engelhardt
However much it might seem that most of us are peaceably watching our TV sets or
computer screens or iPhones, we Americans are also -- always -- marching as to
war. We may not all bother to attend the church of our new religion, but we all
tithe. We all partake. In this sense, we live peaceably in a state of war. Continue
It's All About Oil, Stupid!
Rik Tresa's Blog - SEPTEMBER 19, 2009
2:02PM So they said the war in
Vietnam was to stop the Commie's march across the Asia Peninsula. Now after
58,159 dead, 2,000 missing, 303,635 wounded, no telling how many fucked up
in the head and many still dying from Agent Orange induced cancer, (my
friend Billy C. being a victim).. all these years later we find out it was
really to control the oil the United States knew that was laying there just
off shore waiting for some Texas wild cat to tap. 600 million barrels to be
exact. (Source:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Vietnam/Oil.html)
Then Kuwait.. They said it was to stop Saddam from taking over a country
that was our, "friend." But of course, unless you are blind as well as
stupid, it was to keep control of all that oil, 104 billion barrels to be
exact of that, the US exports $59.97 billion. We are also major trading
partners, go figure. (Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait)
Next came Bush's war with Iraq. First we were told that Saddam was involved
with the fucks that took down the world trade center, (although personally I
believe the fucks behind that little operation was Bush and Cheney them
selves and no one else.) Then when the 911 link was debunked, Bush said, "He
tried to kill my dad!" So 9 years later, 4,662 US personnel dead, 31,494
wounded and who knows how many fucked up in the head and we all know by now,
(again unless you are blind and stupid.. or a Republican) all for the love
of oil. 118 billion barrels a day to be exact, 1,600 oil wells. (Source:
http://www.oilempire.us/iraqoil.html)
Which brings us to Afghanistan. What is in Afghanistan that the US wants?
... (Read
More)
DoJ Official Blows Cover Off PATRIOT Act
InformationClearinghouse.info, By Ryan Grim092409 In the debate over the PATRIOT Act, the Bush White House insisted it
needed the authority to search people's homes without their permission or
knowledge so that terrorists wouldn't be tipped off that they're under
investigation. Now that the authority is law, how has the Department of Justice
used the new power? To go after drug dealers.
Continue
CIA Torturers Running Scared
InformationClearinghouse.info,
By Ray
McGovern
For the CIA supervisors and operatives responsible for torture, the chickens are
coming home to roost; that is, if President Barack Obama and Attorney General
Eric Holder mean it when they say no one is above the law – and if they don’t
fall victim to brazen intimidation.
Continue
Rockefeller & Company - CEO allegedly
kills self NY investment manager found dead in Mass
AP 091609
BOSTON — Massachusetts investigators say James S. McDonald,
president and chief executive of investment management firm Rockefeller &
Co., has died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. A spokesman for
the Bristol district attorney's office says the 56-year-old McDonald was
found in his vehicle at about 3 p.m. Sunday behind a car dealership in
Dartmouth. ...
Pfizer To Pay Record $2.3B Penalty For Drug Promos Repeat offender Pfizer paying record $2.3B settlement for
illegal drug promotions
Finance.Yahoo.com, By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer -
September 2, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal prosecutors hit Pfizer Inc. with a
record-breaking $2.3 billion in fines Wednesday and called the world's largest
drugmaker a repeating corporate cheat for illegal drug promotions that plied
doctors with free golf, massages, and resort junkets. ...
(NewsFocus: would this fine have happened under Bush -Cheney? Not.)
The Right Has Gone Absolutely Bat Shit
Crazy The Wing-Nuts Are Proving They Are Hypocrites And Lunatics
Reagan Spoke To The School Kids. So Did Bush Sr. Why So
Worried About Obama?
Keith
Olbermann Exposes The Right-Wing Fear Mongering
The GOP looks pretty damn stupid right about now.
"The story of America isn't
about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going,
who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than
their best,"President Barack Obama.
Great
spirits have always encountered violent
opposition from mediocre minds
--Albert Einstein
Bush Administration Pushed To Raise Terror Alert For No Reason Other Than
Personal Political Gain During 2004 Re-election Threat Level Urged To Scare Americans, Even Though It
Wasn't Warranted
The Raw Story.com, 082009 A
remarkable detail to be published in former Homeland Security Secretary Tom
Ridge's soon-to-be-released book asserts that the Bush Administration attempted
to wield the color-coded terror alert system for political gain -- a charge
often leveled by Democrats but not previously confirmed by a high-ranking Bush
Administration official.
Ridge's publisher is pushing
details from his book in advance of its release.
Notable among them: Tom Ridge, the first head of the 9/11-inspired
Department of Homeland Security, wasn't keen on writing a tell-all. But in The
Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again, out
September 1, Ridge says he wants to shake "public complacency" over security.
...
Ex-DHS chief links politics to terror alerts
The Associated Press, 082009 WASHINGTON — Former Homeland Security
Secretary Tom Ridge claims in a new book that he was pressured by other members
of President George W. Bush's Cabinet to raise the nation's terror alert level
just before the 2004 presidential election. ...
I don't get to use the word "heroic" very often. Van
Heerden is heroic. The Deputy Director of the Louisiana State University
Hurricane Center, it was van Heerden who told me, on camera, something so
horrible, so frightening, that, if it weren't for his international
stature, it would have been hard to believe:
"By midnight on Monday the White House knew. Monday
night I was at the state Emergency Operations Center and nobody was aware
that the levees had breached. Nobody."
On the night of August 29, 2005, van Heerden was shut in
at the state emergency center in Baton Rouge, providing technical advice
to the rescue effort. As Hurricane Katrina came ashore, van Heerden and
the State Police there were high-fiving it: Katrina missed the city of New
Orleans, turning east.
What they did not know was that the levees had cracked.
For crucial hours, the White House knew, but withheld the information that
the levees of New Orleans had broken and that the city was about to drown.
Bush's boys did not notify the State of the flood to come which would have
allowed police to launch an emergency hunt for the thousands that remained
stranded. ... (Read
More)
Big Easy To Big Empty - Pt 1
Big Easy To Big Empty - Pt 2
Prisoners of Katrina (BBC video
59:02) In the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, while thousands fled New Orleans, the city's prisoners
were trapped. Fresh eye-witness accounts reveal what really happened to
those left behind ...
What The Far Right Has To Say About Katrina And New Orleans
Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly...
What's The Difference? Hate Speech is hate speech.
Concentration Of Wealth For The Rich Is The Greatest On Record Thank You George W. Bush For Not Taxing The Top 1% Of
The Rich RawStory.com , by Daniel Tencer - 081609
The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans now have a
larger share of total income than they ever have in records going back
nearly a century — an even larger amount than during the Roaring Twenties,
the last time the US saw such similar disparities in wealth.
In recent years, the fact that differences between rich and
poor are the greatest they’ve been since the Great Depression has become a
popular talking point among liberal-leaning economists. ...
The Widening Gap In America's Two Tiered Society
InformationClearinghouse.info,
By Emily Spence
If the U.S. populace somehow imagines that its members are viewed any
differently than any other populations across the world that are used to produce
maximal profits for the top economic class, there's a rude awakening in store
ahead. Further, most legislators simply do not care whether middle and lower
class interests are or aren't well served as long as they, themselves, can
somehow make out well in the times ahead.
Continue
GOP Senators: US Faces Terrorist Attack If Holder
Probes Bush’s Torture Program (More state sponsored
terrorism from the GOP)
The Intelligence Daily, 082009
Nine Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Eric Holder Wednesday
saying the U.S. could face a terrorist attack if the attorney general appoints a
special prosecutor to...
NewsFocus: Okay, so does the GOP have a direct line connection with
terrorists, or are they the ones making the threat here? Do you really think
that Al Qaeda would hate seeing Bush get in more trouble? Seriously?
This is nothing more than business as
usual for thefar-right, scare tactics and fear.
Michael Moore's New Movie On Capitalism And The
Economy
This will be his biggest hit of all, showing the rich getting richer.
UPDATE! Path-Breaking UBS Whistleblower Rewarded With Jail Sentence
National Whistleblowers Center Concerned That The Treatment of Mr. Birkenfeld
Will Discourage Future Whistleblowers
WhistleBlowers.org 082109
(Washington, D.C.) Today whistleblower Bradley C. Birkenfeld was
sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in prison for assisting a client at UBS to
evade taxes. Mr. Birkenfeld on his own initiative blew the whistle on UBS,
Switzerland's largest bank. His disclosure and cooperation with U.S.
authorities provided inside information into the bank's conduct and began the
dismantling of the historic secrecy of Swiss banks. In fact by blowing the
whistle, Mr. Birkenfeld's disclosure directly led to a ground-breaking legal
settlement in which UBS agreed to pay $780 million in fines and UBS and the
Swiss Government have agreed to turn over the names of thousands of Americans
suspected of tax evasion. ...
(Read more)
Deal reached over names of UBS clients MiamiHerald.com -
Martha Brannigan - Jul 31,
2009
The US and Swiss governments have reached a settlement on how to
deal with US demands for the names of possible tax cheats with secret UBS
accounts. ...
UBS Probe Spurs Rich Americans Into Confessions New York Times Blogs -
Jul 30, 2009
Wealthy taxpayers are singing a chorus of mea culpas to the
Internal Revenue Service amid a desire to come clean about past tax evasion as
the government ...
US wins accord in Swiss banks row Globe and Mail -
Kevin Carmichael - Aug 1,
2009
The US government sued UBS for the names in February after
winning a separate, but similar, legal skirmish with the bank. In that instance,
UBS agreed to ...
Majority in US Oppose Both Wars Elected Officials And 'Powers That Be' Are Against The
Wishes Of The People By The Associated Press 072409 A majority of Americans oppose both
the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, though the war in Afghanistan is a
little more popular.
The power of irrational fear in the US is
extraordinary. It ranks up there with the Israel Lobby, the military/security
complex, and the financial gangsters. Indeed, fear might be the most powerful
force in America.
Americans are at ease with their country’s
aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, which has resulted in a
million dead Muslim civilians and several million refugees, because the US
government has filled Americans with fear of terrorists. “We have to kill them
over there before they come over here.”
Fearful of American citizens, the US
government is building concentration camps, apparently all over the country.
According to news reports, a $385 million US government contract was given by
the Bush/Cheney Regime to Cheney’s company, Halliburton, to build “detention
centers” in the US. The corporate media never explained for whom the detention
centers are intended.
Most Americans dismiss such reports. “It
can’t happen here.” However, In northeastern Florida not far from Tallahassee,
I have seen what might be one of these camps. There is a building inside a huge
open area fenced with razor wire. There is no one there and no signs. The
facility appears new and unused and does not look like an abandoned prisoner
work camp.
What is it for?
Who spent all that money for what? ... (Read
more)
CIA
hires Wall Street talent Times Online -
Dominic Rushe - Jul 11,
2009 THE CIA is taking advantage of the financial meltdown to
recruit a new generation of financially literate spies with a series of job ads
targeting Wall ...
CIA Training, Recruiting
Initiatives Highlight Intelligence ... Examiner.com -
Jun 26, 2009
Meanwhile, CIA is attempting to beef up its cadre of business and
economics experts with a recruiting pitch aimed at down-on-their-luck Wall
Street types. ...
Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons In Case You Missed It: Must Watch:
InformationClearinghouse.info, Video Report By
Deborah Davies
Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals,
Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were
committed in Iraq?
Read More
The Bigger Story Behind Michael Scheur's Wish for an
Attack on America
George Washington's Blog - Thursday, July 2, 2009
Everyone is appropriately outraged that the former head of the
CIA unit which hunted Bin Laden for almost a decade - Michael Scheur -
told Glenn Beck: The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to
deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.
But people aren't putting this in context. In fact,
many Neocons have also stated a desperate yearning for another attack on
America (and see
this).
But there is another story here as well. ...
How Is This Thinking Not Treasonous?
For anyone to hope for death to others is warped behavior.
Our Constitutional Rights Are In Serious
Jeopardy
N3TWORK Takes A Look At The State Of Our Constitutional Rights
The Truth Alone Will Not Set You Free
TruthDig,
By Chris Hedges - June 29, 2009
The ability of the corporate state to pacify the country by
extending credit and providing cheap manufactured goods to the masses is gone.
The pernicious idea that democracy lies in the choice between competing brands
and the freedom to accumulate vast sums of personal wealth at the expense of
others has collapsed. The conflation of freedom with the free market has been
exposed as a sham. The travails of the poor are rapidly becoming the travails of
the middle class, especially as unemployment insurance runs out and people get a
taste of Bill Clinton’s draconian welfare reform. And class warfare, once buried
under the happy illusion that we were all going to enter an age of prosperity
with unfettered capitalism, is returning with a vengeance. ...
Billionaire Club In Bid To Curb Overpopulation America's Richest Meet To Discuss 'Disastrous'
Environmental, Social And Industrial Threat
In Short, How Will They Maintain The Good Life That They Already Have
Times Online (UK), John Harlow, Los
Angeles Some of America’s leading billionaires have met
secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the
world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education. The
philanthropists who attended a summit convened on the initiative of Bill Gates,
the Microsoft co-founder, discussed joining forces to overcome political and
religious obstacles to change. Why all the secrecy? “They wanted to speak rich
to rich without worrying anything they said would end up in the newspapers,
painting them as an alternative world government,” ....
Billionaire: Elite Want Two-Thirds Of The “Dumb People” Wiped Off The Planet Does This Include All The
Dumb Rich People Too? Wealth Has Never Been A Replacement For IQ PrisonPlanet.com
| By Paul Joseph Watson | May 27, 2009 Billionaire entrepreneur
Kevin Trudeau, who has been constantly harassed and sued by the FTC for
promoting alternative health treatments, told The Alex Jones Show yesterday that
elitists and Bilderberg members who he had personally conversed with spoke of
their desire to see “two thirds of the dumb people” wiped off the planet. ...
The High Court Flunks A DNA Test San Francisco Chronicle -
061909 After noting that DNA testing has an "unparalleled
ability both to exonerate the wrongly convicted and to identify the guilty," a
five-member majority of ...
California: Governor Plans To Completely Eliminate Welfare For Families
LA Times, by Eric Bailey
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to completely eliminate
the state’s welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income
children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students.
The proposals to sharply scale back the assistance that
California provides to its neediest residents came in testimony by the
administration this afternoon at a joint legislative budget committee hearing.
It followed comments by the governor earlier today that he would be withdrawing
a proposal to help balance the budget with billions of dollars of borrowing and
replacing it with program reductions.
The proposals would completely reshape the state’s social
service network, transforming California from one of the country’s most generous
states to one of the most tight fisted. The proposals are intended to help close
a budget deficit estimated at $21.3 billion.
Sage Advice From The Movie 'Network'
You've Got To Get Active When Let Down By The System
Bush-Era Officials Could Be Prosecuted U.S. News & World Report -
042209
President Obama signaled Tuesday that he has changed his
stance on the prosecution of Bush Administration aides over the possible
torture of terrorism ...
'No one is above the law,' Holder says of torture inquiry CNN Political Ticker -
042209
Obama has called the practice torture. Other techniques
include keeping the prisoner in "stress positions" for long periods of time,
enclosing the .
WHY NO
TEA PARTIES OVER PARTY (GOP) RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEFICIT? Ed note: FOX, Limbaugh and Republicans foment American "tea parties" over
false tax issue. For the record, taxes against the lower and middle class
rose under Bush, yet no cry of unfairness then. Only the top 1% of
the ultra-wealthy
received tax breaks during the Bush reign. Under Democrats, taxes will only go up against the rich, to help
pay for excessive spending from the Bush administration. With the country near
bankruptcy, just how do Republicans expect America to dig itself out from
Bush-Cheney financial hole? Under George W. Bush, the deficit nearly doubled
from $5.5-trillion to $10-trillion, yet the GOP gives the false impression that
the Democrats
are responsible for the state of the economy after only two months of
the Obama
administration. Let's be real.
This crowd
makes less than $250k, but doesn't understand their tax break.
This crowd clearly doesn't understand why FOX sent them
there.
The Audacity of Hype: Tax Teabaggers Doth Protest Too Much LA Weekly, by
Steven Mikulan- 041509
Today is the day when conservatives are protesting the tax
cuts the White House has given 95 percent of Americans. Borrowing imagery
and rhetoric from the Boston Tea Party, anti-tax demonstrators, mourning the
restoration ...
Tea Parties Forever New York Times, by
PAUL KRUGMAN- Apr 12, 2009
This is a column about Republicans — and I’m not sure I
should even be writing it. Today’s GOP is, after all, very much a minority
party. It retains some limited ability to obstruct the Democrats, but has no
ability to make or even ...
Obama Stands Nuremberg On Its Head
TruthDig, By Mike Farrell, Apr 20, 2009
Responding to reporters Tuesday, the president walked back
from his “torture is a thing of the past” policy. While the administration
still doesn’t want to hassle the good Germans who carried out torture, or
even the superiors who ordered it, Obama said the Justice Department may go
after the Bush lawyers who tried to legalize such abuses.
Olbermann Comments On Lack of Obama
Spine for Prosecution
DOJ Claims Illegal Surveillance Protected by "Sovereign
Immunity Bay Area Indymedia - 1
hour ago 040709
The federal government has finally responded to a lawsuit against dragnet
warrantless wiretapping filed last September by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation ...
There is a time when the operation of
the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't
take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your
bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the
apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the
people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the
machine will be prevented from working at all! -Mario Savio Dec 2, 1964
Excerpt From A 1964 Speech By
Mario Savio Is Still Very Viable Today
Most Americans don't want a new world order of greed for the uber-rich
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is
that good men do nothing. -
Edmund Burke
OBAMA RELEASES HIDDEN REAGAN AND HW BUSH RECORDS
Ed Note: These records include George HW Bush.
The National Archive says that more than 250,000+ pages of presidential
records will be made public at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, CA and the
George HW Bush library in Houston, Texas. These records were strangely
enough still pending with the George W. Bush Administration as of January
20, 2009. It only took President Obama less than two months to clear these
records (see executive order 13849). Now maybe we can see more on HW and the
Iran-Contra treason scandal. That's a large part of what W was hiding from
public scrutiny.
Bush Won't Give Deposition In lawsuit Over His Presidential Library Condo Owners Claim They Were Duped; Land For W Bush
Library Dallas Morning News, By
LORI STAHL - Apr 9, 2009 Former President George W. Bush won't agree to give a
deposition in the long-running lawsuit against SMU,
...
Cheney's records won't be coming soon to Bush library at SMU Recalcitrant Dick Says He Can Do What He Wants With His
Records (We'll see) Dallas Morning News, By
LAURA ISENSEE- Apr 6, 2009
WASHINGTON – While former President George W. Bush's records
have gone to Texas, Dick Cheney's are staying here,
...
The Party of Division: The Right
Wing Disgust For Gay People The Party That Claims To Reflect 'Christian
Fundamentalists'
You have to ask yourself, what would Jesus say? What would
Gandhi say? What would mother Theresa say? How does this truly threaten
heterosexual marriage? The GOP says, "but it will be taught to our kids in
school." These must be the same parents with latch-key children who take no
responsibility for the upbringing and education of their own kids. When will
the right take responsibility for the education of their own offspring?
The Right-Wing Against Gays (WWJD?)
Leave it to Stephen Colbert to tell it like it is.
Kucinich Wants House To
Investigate Assassination Claims Cleveland Congressman Wants Cheney And
Bush Investigated The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com - 031609
Dennis Kucinich wants the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee to investigate allegations by investigative reporter
Seymour Hersh that the White House operated an 'executive assassination
ring' during the presidency of George W. Bush. ...
At least the comedians have the guts to speak out. So much for the news
media.
Most US Voters Blame Bush, Not Obama For Economic Crisis Reuters - 3
hours ago
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama benefits
from a broadly held perception that others bear the bulk of responsibility
for state of the US economy, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll
published on Tuesday. ...
What Americans Think And What
The GOP Wants Us To Think
Either the GOP is just stupid, or they're lying for party first and America second.
Corporate Welfare
Time, By Donald L. Barlett and James B.
Steele110998
How would you like to pay only a quarter of the real estate
taxes you owe on your home? And buy everything for the next 10 years without
spending a single penny in sales tax? Keep a chunk of your paycheck free of
income taxes? Have the city in which you live lend you money at rates
cheaper than any bank charges? Then have the same city install free water
and sewer lines to your house, offer you a perpetual discount on utility
bills--and top it all off by landscaping your front yard at no charge? ...
Leahy Bails on 'Truth Commission' Plan U.S. government seems paralyzed at the prospect of
holding ex-President George W. Bush and other senior officials
accountable Consortium News - By
Charlotte Dennett
-
April 1, 2009
Those of you following the George W. Bush prosecution
trail will be interested to know that Patrick Leahy’s “truth
commission” is a no-go. I was in a meeting with Leahy and four
other Vermonters on Monday when he broke the news to us. ...
What A Dick!
Conduct Unbecoming MiamiHerald.com - Mar
18, 2009
Leave it to former Vice President Dick Cheney to throw custom and
protocol to the winds to engage in partisan sniping with the new administration
so soon ...
Cheney says Obama endangers US Seattle Post Intelligencer - Mar
15, 2009
Asked Sunday on CNN if he thinks President Obama "has made Americans less safe,"
former Vice President Dick Cheney said: "I do." Looking slimmer and relaxed
...
Expose on Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney Above The Law?
Dick Cheney, please go away Detroit Free Press - Mar
17, 2009 What part of "former vice
president" doesn't Dick Cheney understand? And why can't he
comprehend that after eight disastrous years, Americans really
aren't ...
Cheney Link To Halliburton
Cheney Admits His CFR Secret
The person who knows better, yet keeps it to their self,
is no better than the ignorant or deceptive among us.
-NewsFocus
With Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity and Beck is there
really a liberal media bias?
Examiner.com, by Jon Rapoport - April 4th, 2009
Rush Limbaugh’s robust ratings and the immense success of FOX
News’s Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck should finally end the out
of touch belief that liberals dominate the media message of this
country. The growth of conservative media, combined with the rapid decline
of the daily newspaper, has definitively changed the media landscape ....
Gang of villagers chase away Google car
CNN - updated 8:58 a.m. EDT, Fri April 3, 2009 Google's ambitious plan
to offer a 3-D street level view of communities across three continents hit
a snag when angry residents of a UK village blocked the search engine's
camera car from photographing their homes.
Fearing the appearance of their well appointed properties on the Web site
would attract criminals scouting for burglary targets, villagers in
Broughton, north of London, summoned the police after spotting the car. ...
Diebold admits all versions delete ballots Startling admission made
during public hearing in CA to consider decertification of the company's
voting and tabulation software
Brad Blog, 031709 Admits systemic
audit log failure, same system used for over a decade. Even the audit log system
on current versions of Premier Election Solutions' (formerly
Diebold's) electronic voting and tabulating systems --- used in some 34
states across the nation --- fail to record the wholesale deletion of
ballots. Even when ballots are deleted on the same day as an election.
That's the shocking admission heard today from Justin Bales, Premier's
Western Region manager, at a State of California public hearing on the
possible decertification of Diebold/Premier's tabulator system ...
CIA expert:
Most electronic voting systems can be hacked
Congressman: Culprits Of Financial Collapse Should Be
Arrested Not treated as saviors and given
more power to “fix” the problem that they created PrisonPlanet.com, By Paul Joseph Watson - March 12, 2009
Congressman Ron Paul says that the people responsible for the economic crisis
should not be hailed as saviors and given more power to fix the problem that
they created, but arrested and criminally prosecuted. Paul told the Alex Jones
Show that the only way the private Federal Reserve could be brought under
control would come as a result of a mass uprising, noting that there is a lot
more awareness in Washington about the Fed’s contribution to the economic
crisis.
The Congressman has two
bills before Congress, one to abolish the Fed altogether and another to audit
the organization. “Today they’re protected, they’re in total secrecy and
they’re protected by the law - if 1207 is passed we have an audit and they have
to answer the questions and I figure, if we ever get that far and get the
exposure and get the transparency that we need then people will wake up and
realize, why do we have them at all,” said Paul.
Congresswoman introduces bill to ban use of global
currency Bachmann bill would ban global currency
Briefing Room,
Eric Zimmermann 033009
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has
introduced legislation that would "bar the dollar from being replace
by any foreign currency." A statement from Bachmann's website:
“Yesterday, during a Financial Services Committee hearing, I asked
Secretary Geithner if he would denounce efforts to move towards a global
currency and he answered unequivocally that he would," said Bachmann.
"And President Obama gave the nation the same assurances. But just a day
later, Secretary Geithner has left the option on the table. I want to
know which it is. The American people deserve to know."
On Monday, Geithner and Bernanke both rejected the idea of a global
currency in Congressional testimony. But in remarks to the Council on
Foreign Relations yesterday,
Geithner indicated he was open to the idea.
Alaskan volcano erupts in ash clouds BBC News - 15 hours ago
032309
Mount Redoubt volcano in the US state of Alaska is continuing to erupt,
sending ash clouds 15km (50000ft) into the air. The volcano, 166km (103
miles) from ...
Blowing smoke on Bobby Jindal Globe and Mail - 18 hours
ago 032309
With a report from AP A month after Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal chided
the Democrats for funding "something called volcano monitoring," the
eruption of ...
Alaska volcano erupts 15km into sky RTE.ie - Mar 23, 2009
The Mount Redoubt volcano in the US state of Alaska has erupted with bursts
of ash that rose more than 15km. The first blast occurred at 5.38am (Irish
time) ...
Should George W. Bush Be Arrested in
Calgary Alberta To Be Tried For International Crimes? Yes, Absolutely. Yes. Yes, Yes, Hell Yes!
If You Do The Crime You Do The Time by Anthony J. Hall, Professor of
Globalization Studies, University of Lethbridge, March 6, 2009
Serious allegations of criminality are swirling
around ex-US President George W. Bush and current Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir. In late February of 2009 it was
reported that the Hague-based International Criminal Court was
preparing to issue a warrant for al-Bashir alleging his
culpability for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against
humanity. As the documents were being prepared against Sudan’s
head of state, ex-President Bush was preparing to initiate a
series of high-paying speaking engagements beginning in Calgary
Alberta on March 17. Bush’s visit to Alberta’s oil capital tests
the consistency and authenticity of the Canadian government’s
“unequivocal” position that “Canada is not and will not become a
safe haven for persons involved in war crimes, crimes against
humanity or other reprehensible acts.” ...
Bush Should be Barred from Canada
or Prosecuted Lawyers Against The War Say 'Immigration
and Refugee Protection Act' Bars W Center for Research on
Globalization - by
Lawyers Against the War
Mar 8, 2009
George W. Bush, former President of the United
States of America (U.S.) and Commander in Chief of the Armed
Force, is reported to be coming to Calgary Alberta on March 17,
2009 to speak at a private function. Lawyers Against the War
(LAW) has advised the Prime Minister of Canada, the Attorney
General and the Ministers of Immigration, Public Safety and
Foreign Affairs that George W. Bush is inadmissible to Canada
under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Evidence of
Bush’s involvement in torture and other war crimes and crimes
against humanity has triggered Canada’s legal duty to bar Bush
from entering Canada and if he enters, to prosecute him for
torture. ...
2008 Bohemian Grove
Guest List Obtained By 9/11 Truth Activists
Notable US Dignitaries In Secretive Organization,
including George HW Bush
An official guest list for
Bohemian Grove's 2008
midsummer encampment along with a map of the
Grove's facilities has been
obtained by a San Francisco based action group...
2008
Bohemian Grove Guest List: George HW Bush Included See The List For A Record of Republicans
And Democrats That Are Involved
JustGetThere.US - 031409
Activists from truthaction.org have obtained the
official guest list for
Bohemian Grove's 2008
midsummer encampment along with a map of the ...
THE RETURN OF HOOVERVILLES TO AMERICA Car And Tent Cities Are
Springing Up Daily Across The US, Now Called Bushvilles
SanFranciscoSentinel.com - BY
THEA CHROMAN, Feb 28,
2009
San Francisco’s per capita homeless rate has long
been the highest in the country. But in the past year, it shot
up 40 percent, ...
Inside a Tent City
Oprah.com
Tent Cities Cropping Up Across
America
The depression era 'Hoovervilles' are now called 'Bushvilles'
Seattle
Los Angeles
Reno
Sacramento
St. Petersburg; the Absolute Worst From
Government!
The city of St. Petersburg should be
prosecuted for this outrage.
Obama orders review of Bush's signing
statements Los Angeles
Times, by Frank James - Mar
9, 2009
Officials must consult the Justice Department
before enforcing them. Obama also says he will limit his own use
of such statements. Reporting ...
Big money is trying hard kill this, so that must mean it's
actually good for us.
Should CEOs Start Sharing The
Billions? Albert Lea Tribune - Mar
7, 2009
When you think the American worker could not possibly be beaten
down any further, corporate America conspires with the
Republican Party to crush the Free Choice Act (Card Check). One
wonders how they can keep a straight face in their “concern”
that the Free Choice Act deprives workers of their right to a
private vote.
US, UK Troops to Begin Iraq Pullout by
September Obama To Keep Campaign Promise: 12,000 US
Troops Said To Leave By
Fall The Associated Press - 2
hours ago 030809
US officials say 12000 American troops will leave
Iraq by September along with another 4000 British troops. As
part of the drawdown, the US is handing over 74 facilities and
areas under its control to the Iraqis by the end of March. ...
Pelosi: Bush Admin., Lawbreakers Should Face
Prosecution Raw Story - 4
hours ago 022609
Pelosi said she supported the investigation, but
said any investigation should hold open the possibility of
prosecution. “Senator Leahy has a proposal, ...
Pelosi in Favor of Bush Administration Investigation
Keywords Used Over The Years In Homeland Security Remarks
By (AP) Published: 2009-02-24 17:30:04
A summary of how often the three homeland
security secretaries _ Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff and Janet
Napolitano _ used key words in their first prepared remarks
before the House Homeland Security Committee.
Keywords
Ridge
Chertoff
Napolitano
Terrorism
11
7
0
Attacks
4
9
1
Hurricane
0
0
3
Intelligence
1
30
6
Vulnerability
4
8
0
Disaster
0
0
2
Threat
8
19
8
Source: Public records
Note: Word counts include related words. Usage of the words
"terrorist" and "terrorists," for instance, contributed to the
word count for "terrorism."
The Department of Homegrown Security Mother Jones - 19
hours ago 022609
The shock of 9/11 was so profound that we
thought it would define the twenty-first century, and even now
it's hard for any event to match the immediacy,
...
Senators surprised by existence of intelligence
center West Virginia Public
Broadcasting - 18
hours ago 022609
At the time 9/11 happened there was a lot of
information out there, but different people had it and they
either didn’t know where to take it to or kept it ...
Finally: Pentagon To Allow
Coverage of War Coffins Obama Administration Will Do What The Bush
Administration Wouldn't Do, Honor Our War Dead In The Media CNN - 1
hour ago 022609
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon will lift its
longtime ban on media coverage of the flag-draped coffins of war
victims arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, according
to a senior US defense official with direct knowledge of the
decision.
Officials: Pentagon OKs media photos of war deadThe Associated Press
Nationalize the Banks and Dissolve the Federal Reserve
OpEdNews, PA -
3 hours ago 022209
The part of the solution to our banking crises
is to nationalize the banks. Clear out the upper
management of the major banks and look for ways to prosecute
...
Jan 26, 2009 ... Amazing…
all because of the
federal
reserve… they want global ... time and time again
not to work with a substantial
national
deficit. ...
Fla. governor continues to back Obama on recovery
The Associated
Press - 2 hours ago 022209
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Florida's Republican governor says the GOP should be willing to work with
Democrats in a time of economic crisis. ...
California Legislature Passes Bill to End Budget Impasse
Washington Post, United States -
17 hours ago 021909
LOS ANGELES, -- The California Senate passed a $42 billion bill
to patch a massive budget shortfall at dawn Thursday, ...
Obama May Place US Under International Criminal Court
Human Events, DC - 1 hour ago
020909
Scheffer was instrumental in the formation of the ICC and served
as Ambassador at Large for War Crimes in the Clinton administration.
...
BBC News On US War Crimes - Pt 1
BBC News On US War Crimes - Pt 2
Sen. Leahy proposes truth panel on Bush policies
The Associated Press -
7 hours ago 020909
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee's proposal to launch a "truth commission" to
investigate the Bush administration's ...
Sept. 11 widow killed in Buffalo plane crash
The Associated Press - 1
hour ago 021309
WASHINGTON (AP) — Beverly Eckert, one of the victims of
Continental Flight 3407, was a Sept. 11 widow who put her never-ending grief
to good use to make the ...
Twin Cities
IndyMedia Creates New Documentary Film On RNC Protest Abuses New Documentary Film Called "Terrorizing
Dissent" Is Released Independent film production tackles the ugly horror from
the 2009 RepublicanNational Convention. The abuse of power
by authorities against innocent and unarmed citizens is disturbing. ...
KBR Wins Contract Despite Deaths Given electrical
contract despite 200+ incidents of shocks in Iraq
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press Writer
–
Sat Feb 7
WASHINGTON –
Defense contractor
KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving
major electrical work, even as it is under
criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two
U.S. soldiers in
Iraq. ...
Congress Goes After SEC On Madoff Scandal
Lawmakers Sink Teeth Into the SEC
By Frank Ahrens Washington Post, United
States - Feb 4, 2009
Lawmakers gave officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission a
severe tongue-lashing yesterday over investment fund manager Bernard ...
SEC Official Ripped By Congress On Madoff
Scandal
Hard to believe the SEC could not come up with a simple straight answer.
Whistleblower blasts SEC over Madoff scandal
USA Today - 10 hours ago
020409
A frustrated whistle blower is ripping into the Securities
and Exchange Commission in testimony before a House panel investigating the
Bernie Madoff ...
Madoff whistleblower blasts SEC
CNNMoney.com - 7 hours ago
020409
A fraud investigator told Congress that he'd warned the
agency about Madoff's Ponzi scheme years ago. But his efforts went nowhere.
...
Madoff Scheme Overlooked By SEC Since
2001
This scandal could have clearly been averted.
Lawmaker says SEC hindering House's Madoff probe
The Associated Press - 7
hours ago 020409
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key House lawmaker is telling top
Securities and Exchange Commission officials that the agency is failing to
cooperate with a committee ...
Conyers Subpoenas Rove: ‘It’s Time to Talk’
The Washington
Independent, DC - By Kate Klonick 1/26/09 6:28 PM
Karl Rove, who previously refused to testify to his involvement in the
politicization of the Justice Department and the US ...
Rove Ordered to Testify To Congress on Firings
Washington Post, United
States - 012709
"Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is
ready for it," said House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr., who issued
the subpoena. ...
How The Country Has Shifted
Politically Since The Obama Election:
State of the States: Political Party Affiliation
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Hawaii, and District of Columbia are most
Democratic Gallup, by
Jeffrey M. Jones 012909
This is the first in a four-part series on the "State of the
States" to be released this week on Gallup.com. The series examines
state-by-state differences in party affiliation, religiosity, consumer
confidence, and employer hiring and letting go, based on Gallup Poll Daily
tracking data collected throughout 2008. ...
Plan To Rebuild The Twin Towers New Twin Towers? It may not be too late.
Nicole Gelinas, 6 July 2008
Since al-Qaida demolished the World Trade Center nearly seven
years ago, New York’s naked emperors—Governors George Pataki and Eliot
Spitzer and architect Daniel Libeskind—have viewed an historic rebuilding
challenge as an opportunity to invent a square wheel and then deny for years
that it can’t roll.
Army recruiting stand-down ordered
By
Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jan 29, 2009 10:45:21 EST
Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered a stand-down of
the Army’s entire recruiting force and a review of almost every aspect of
the job is underway in the wake of a wide-ranging investigation of four
suicides in the Houston Recruiting Battalion. ...
Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO subpoenaed By RICHARD ESPOSITO
January 27, 2009
Former
Merrill Lynch CEO
John Thain has been subpoenaed by New York's Attorney General, as part
of an inquiry into
executive compensation. The move comes just five days after Thain
resigned following disclosures that he doled out as much as $4 billion in
bonuses a month ahead of schedule and on the eve of the troubled brokerage's
acquisition by
Bank of America.
Unemployment up in every state updated
10:10 a.m. CT,Wed., Jan. 28, 2009
WASHINGTON - Rising unemployment spared no state last month,
and 2009 is shaping up as another miserable year for workers from coast to
coast.
Whistleblower: NSA Spied On Everyone David Edwards
and Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday January 21, 2009
Former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice, who
helped expose the NSA's warrantless wiretapping in December 2005, has now
come forward with even more startling allegations. Tice told MSNBC's Keith
Olbermann on Wednesday that the programs that spied on Americans were not
only much broader than previously acknowledged but specifically targeted
journalists.
NSA Whistleblower Says Bush-Cheney Spied On Everyone
This is only the first whistleblower to come forth. Just wait, there will be
more.
Obama Should Worry About the Bush Family Tentacles
Undermining His Plans Bush may be gone, but his influence -- and the forces that
put him in office -- aren't.
By
Russ Baker, AlterNet. Posted
January 22, 2009
As George W. Bush leaves office and Barack Obama takes over,
we are in danger of missing the opportunity for change our new president has
promised -- unless we come to grips with what the great historian and
Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin called our "hidden history," not just
of the past eight years but of the past half-century and more.
President Obama Signs Order To Close
Guantanamo
Obama Makes Good On Election Promise
DynCorp Disgrace
Sex Slave Trade With US Business
Participation Is Money The Only Thing Corporate
America Has Gone Perverse
Over?
By Kelly
Patricia O'Meara, Insight
Magazine January 14th, 2002 Middle-aged
men having sex with 12- to 15-year-olds was too much for Ben
Johnston, a hulking 6-foot-5-inch Texan, and more than a year ago he blew
the whistle on his employer, DynCorp, a U.S. contracting company doing
business in Bosnia. ...
UN may prosecute Bush administration, regardless of US
action
David Edwards
Published: Thursday January 22,
2009
The UN's special torture rapporteur called on the US Tuesday to pursue
former president George W. Bush and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld for
torture and bad treatment of Guantanamo prisoners. ...
Destroyed CIA Tapes Probe Heating Up Interviews to Take Place Soon in Year-Long
Investigation into Destroyed Tapes By JASON RYAN
Jan. 8, 2009
The criminal investigation into
the destruction of CIA videotapes of detainee interrogations is heating
up, with interviews to be conducted in the next several weeks, according to
documents recently filed by the Justice Department.
Secret List of U.S. Military Bases to Replace Gitmo
Pendleton, Leavenworth, Miramar Included as Possible
New Home for 250 Detainees By BRIAN ROSS and LUIS
MARTINEZ Jan. 16, 2009
The U.S. military has prepared a list of U.S. military bases that could be
used to house as many as 250
detainees currently being held at the U.S. Naval base in
Guantanamo Bay, military officials tell ABCNews.com.
Bush Says Torture Still Necessary
David Edwards and Andrew McLemore
Published: Sunday
January 11, 2009
With days left in office and an abysmal approval rating, President
Bush is still defending the use of torture. (But I thought it
was only torture if there was organ failure or death. What is being implied
here?)
Former Guard Speaks Out On Guantanamo
(BBC News video) Describes Torture And Psychotic Fellow Guards Who Relished Administering
It
A former guard at the US detention centre at
Guantanamo Bay has spoken in his first television interview about the
brutality he witnessed to inmates. Chris Arendt told the BBC what he saw
amounted to ''torture'' and that some of his fellow guards were so violent
as to be ''psychotic.''
Cheney: Bush's actions legal if not impeached Andrew McLemore,
Published: Sunday January 4,
2009
If you don't get punished, you didn't go anything wrong,
right?
That's the message Vice President Dick Cheney gave in an interview with
CBS' Bob Schieffer on Sunday, suggesting that a president's actions are
legal if those actions didn't result in his impeachment...
SPECIAL REPORT:
Our Broken Government - A Center for Public Integrity Investigation
by Josh Israel January 7, 2009
As America approaches a historic transfer of power, it is
becoming ever-clearer what a daunting set of tasks awaits the new
administration. When Barack Obama takes the oath of office at noon on
January 20 he will inherit an economy collapsing before our eyes and a pair
of ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he will also inherit a federal
government whose machinery should bear an "out of order” sign. ...
Obama Pledges Public Works on a Vast Scale
New York Times -
29 minutes ago
By PETER BAKER and
JOHN M. BRODER WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama committed Saturday
to the largest public works construction program since the creation of the
interstate highway system a half-century ago as he seeks to put together a
plan to ...
Bush tries to rewrite war history
Sunday, December 14, 2008
President Bush is trying mightily to rewrite the history of the Iraq war
before his administration leaves power. He and members of his national
security brain trust, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, would
like to dispel the narrative that they misled the country into war. Instead,
both Bush and Rice are trying to characterize the White House as the
unwitting recipient of faulty intelligence.
The Pentagon is Muscling in Everywhere It's time to stop the mission creep.
By Thomas A. Schweich We no longer have a civilian-led
government. It is hard for a lifelong Republican and son of a
retired Air Force colonel to say this, but the most unnerving
legacy of the Bush administration is the encroachment of the
Department of Defense into a striking number of aspects of
civilian government. Our Constitution is at risk.
Continue
Key Witness In Rove Probes Killed
Center for Research
on Globalization, Canada
by Michael Carmichael Mike Connell's untimely
death will haunt Karl Rove and the Republican Party. As the key
witness in investigations into election fraud ...
George Bush Aide Dies In Plane Crash
Telegraph.co.uk, United
Kingdom - 122208
Mystery surrounds the death of a Republican
pollster, recently compelled to give evidence about alleged
election fraud in the 2004 election in Ohio, ...
Cheney Says He Okayed Possible War Crimes David Edwards
and Muriel Kane,
Published: Wednesday December
17, 2008
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley believes that not only did Vice
President Dick Cheney "unambiguously" confess to a war crime during an ABC
interview on Monday, but the US' future....
During an interview with ABC News on Monday evening,
Cheney had said "I supported it," referring to the practice known as "waterboarding,"
a form of simulated drowning.
"I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the
process cleared, as the agency in effect came in and wanted to know what
they could and couldn't do," Cheney said. "And they talked to me, as well as
others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it." (Read
more)
The Noose
Tightens
Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and other top Bush officials could soon
face legal jeopardy.
By Jonathan Tepperman
The United States, like many countries, has a
bad habit of committing wartime excesses and an even worse record of
accounting for them afterward. But a remarkable string of recent events
suggests that may finally be changing—and that top Bush administration
officials could soon face legal jeopardy for prisoner abuse committed under
their watch in the war on terror. ...
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) Calls for
Independent Counsel to Investigate Cheney and Rumsfeld for Violating Torture
Laws
Democracy Now! December
23, 2008
Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York has
urged Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint an independent counsel to
investigate Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld, and other senior Bush administration officials for violations of
the law relating to the torture of prisoners in US custody. Nadler is the
chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and
Civil Liberties.
Over
the unexplained objections of 30 Republican Senators, an anti-rape amendment
authored by Senator Al Franken (D-MN) became law Monday with President Obama's
signature on the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010.
A
remarkable detail to be published in former Homeland Security Secretary Tom
Ridge's soon-to-be-released book asserts that the Bush Administration attempted
to wield the color-coded terror alert system for political gain -- a charge
often leveled by Democrats but not previously confirmed by a high-ranking Bush
Administration official.
