GEEZERPOWER

The Disneyficaton of "The Lorax" would not plea$e Dr. Seuss

2012-01-25T15:22:00.000-08:00

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax Theatrical Trailer (2012)

Dr. Seuss was an artist and a poet. In my opinion this movie is tripe and a pure form of hype. It doesn't portray the feelings or the message of what the good doctor presented. Is it just me or are corporate interest$ being represented here. The original is good enough for me... I hope to be free...and to see... a tree... as it really should be...G:

"The Lorax" By Dr. Seuss

Sign petition here...Let the Lorax Speak for the Trees!

Dr. Seuss also wrote for seniors...G:

When at last we are sure
You’ve been properly pilled,
Then a few paper forms
Must be properly filled
So that you and your heirs
May be properly billed.

You're Only Old Once! : A Book for Obsolete Children (1986)

Newt Gingrich aka Mr. Strangelove

2012-01-20T16:53:00.000-08:00

Internet Blackout is actually reported by Main Stream Media

2012-01-18T06:46:00.000-08:00

End Piracy, Not Liberty

Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.

SIGN PETITION HERE

Quantum Levitation

2012-01-13T14:24:00.000-08:00

Frozen Puck Hovers Over Track Using “Quantum Levitation”

WIRED October 18, 2011 |

By Olivia Solon, Wired UK

Researchers at the school of physics and astronomy at Tel Aviv University have created a track around which a superconductor can float, thanks to the phenomenon of “quantum levitation“.

This levitation effect is explained by the Meissner effect, which describes how, when a material makes the transition from its normal to its superconducting state, it actively excludes magnetic fields from its interior, leaving only a thin layer on its surface.

When a material is in its superconducting state — which involves very low temperatures — it is strongly diamagnetic. This means that when a magnetic field is externally applied, it will create an equally opposing magnetic field, locking it in place.

A material called yttrium barium copper oxide can be turned into a superconductor by exposure to liquid nitrogen — which makes it one of the highest-temperature superconductors.

In the video it appears that a puck of yttrium barium copper oxide cooled by liquid nitrogen is repelling the magnets embedded on the handheld device. It also shows that the angle of the magnet can be locked in a magnetic field. Later in the video the puck can be seen to zoom round a circular track of magnets, in the same way that Maglev high-speed trains do.

Bill Moyers to return to PBS

2012-01-12T19:55:00.000-08:00

Is This Land Made for You and Me - or for the Super-Rich?

truth-out Thursday 12 January 2012

by: Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, Moyers & Co. | Op-Ed

The traveling medicine show known as the race for the Republican presidential nomination has moved on from Iowa and New Hampshire, and all eyes are now on South Carolina. Well, not exactly all. At the moment, our eyes are fixed on some big news from the great state of Oklahoma, home of the legendary American folk singer Woody Guthrie, whose 100th birthday will be celebrated later this year.

Woody saw the ravages of the Dust Bowl and the Depression firsthand; his own family came unraveled in the worst hard times. And he wrote tough yet lyrical stories about the men and women who struggled to survive, enduring the indignity of living life at the bone, with nothing to eat and no place to sleep. He traveled from town to town, hitchhiking and stealing rides in railroad boxcars, singing his songs for spare change or a ham sandwich. What professional success he had during his own lifetime, singing in concerts and on the radio, was often undone by politics and the restless urge to keep moving on. “So long, it’s been good to know you,” he sang, and off he would go.

What he wrote and sang about caused the oil potentates and preachers who ran Oklahoma to consider him radical and disreputable. For many years he was the state’s prodigal son, but times change, and that’s the big news. Woody Guthrie has been rediscovered, even though Oklahoma’s more conservative than ever – one of the reddest of our red states with a governor who’s a favorite of the Tea Party.

Read article at truth-out Thursday 12 January 2012

Christmas Is No Time to Talk About War and Peace

2011-12-26T18:28:00.000-08:00

Christmas Is No Time to Talk About War and Peace

truthout Sunday 25 December 2011

by: ,

When I heard the president speak to returning troops last week, my mind flashed back to an article I once wrote for our local newspaper. Each week, a different member of the local clergy would write a column, and I had been asked to write the piece for Christmas.

That year, all I could hear was the drumbeat leading toward a war with Iraq. I racked my brain trying to think of a way to put faces on the people we were about to bomb. Looking at a nativity scene, I thought, "The people we are about to kill look like that." Maybe a reframed Christmas story could help Americans stop hating Saddam long enough to care about the people who will pay the real cost of this invasion. I submitted the following article, covering the Christmas story the way the US press was covering the buildup to the Iraq war. Looking back, I should have known what was about to happen.

Christmas Cancelled as a Security Measure

Ellis Island - The three wise men were arrested today attempting to enter the country. The Iraqi nationals were carrying massive amounts of flammable substances known as "frankincense" and "myrrh." While not explosives themselves, experts revealed that these two substances could be used as a fuse to detonate a larger bomb. The three alleged terrorists were also carrying gold, presumably to finance the rest of their mission.

Also implicated in the plot were two Palestinians named Joseph and Mary. An anonymous source close to the family overheard Mary bragging that her son would "bring down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly." In what appears to be a call to anarchy, the couple claims their son will someday "help prisoners escape captivity."

"These people match our terrorist profile perfectly," an official source reported.

All of the suspects claimed they heard angels singing of a new era of hope for the afflicted and poor. As one Wall Street official put it, "These one-world wackos are talking about overturning the entire economic and political hierarchy that holds the civilized world together. I don't care what some angel sang; God wants the status quo - by definition."

Read more at truthout Sunday 25 December 2011

Newt Gingrich Calls For Moving U.S. Embasy in Israel to Jerusalem

2011-12-22T11:11:00.000-08:00

Well, it's anther Christmas in Hooland and "The Grinch" just can't stand it. With copious amount of unpremeditated gall, he re-affirms his alliance with AIPAC, and CUFI "Christians United for Israel, Reverand John Hagee's religious empire that has heavy ties with the occupation of Jerusalem. The old Grinch has decided to go sledding again, and we better be ready for him...G%

OpEdNews December 22, 2011

By Bob Johnson

Newt Gingrich, as a Washington insider, knows who to please in order to promote his political career. Top on the sycophant's list of who to please, as it is of virtually all of the politicians regardless of political party, is the powerful Israel lobby.

The very first act Newt would make as United States President is not to address homelessness, unemployment, bank corruption, etc. No, it would instead be to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to the international, but Israeli occupied, city of Jerusalem. This would help Newt win more Jewish support for his political career even though it is very likely to cause much more unrest and even new violence. It is also in direct violation of international law, in particular United Nations Resolution 478. (It's interesting to see the priorities of politicians in America. The last on their list of importance is the well-being of their voting cattle -- the American people! U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, from Florida, after winning his election went straight to Israel! For anyone with more than two braincells working it's very painfully obvious that the Jewish state of Israel takes great precedence over America and the American people in the minds and hearts of the U.S. politicians of both parties.)

Read article at OpEdNews

2011-12-17T15:09:00.001-08:00

Grayson on the Fed bailout: "If you're not a Wall Street bank, you're screwed"

2011-11-29T11:58:00.000-08:00

Bloomberg: Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion

By Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz - Nov 27, 2011 4:01 PM PT
Bloomberg Markets Magazine

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. No one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue. Betty Liu reports on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
Enlarge image Kenneth D. Lewis Former CEO of Bank of America Corp.

On Nov. 26, 2008, then-Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis wrote to shareholders that he headed “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” He didn’t say that his firm owed the central bank $86 billion that day. Photo: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.

The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.

More

VIDEO: Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing of May 5, 2009.

Close call for NY City as Muslim Sympathizer is arrested

2011-11-21T11:42:00.000-08:00

by G: Nov. 21, 2011

Here's the latest news on terrorism in NY. It's sharing the headlines with the recent demonstrations in Egypt, where, according to the NY Times at least 23 people had been killed and more than 1,500 people had been wounded.

It concerns a Muslim sympathizer that the NYPD has had under surveillance for 2 1/2 years. They followed him and an informant to the dollar store and a Home Depot, where Pimentel bought a clock, christmas tree lights and some pipe elbows. Pimentel has a website, uses Blogger and Youtube and allegedly was building a bomb using material from matches as the explosive. According to NYPD, he was assembling it at the informants house, where he was drilling holes in pipe. He was arrested at that point and given a public defender. The bomb was never assembled, but a mock-up of the bomb was shown, while the testimony of the informant told of his intentions. Looks like they really have the goods on this guy and it will, undoubtedly be an open and closed case. Homeland Security, once more, defeats terrorism and justice is done.

2011-11-11T23:04:00.000-08:00

Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt

Wikipedia

Gaza Strip

Military occupation by Egypt

1948–1956
1957–1967 →
Gaza Strip after 1950 Armistice
Gaza Strip after 1950 Armistice
Capital Gaza
Language(s) Arabic
Religion Islam
Political structure Military occupation
History
- Established 1948
- Disestablished 1967
- Egyptian claim relinquished 17 September 1978

The administration of the Gaza Strip by Egypt occurred between 1948 and October 1956, and again from March 1957 to June 1967. Egypt did not annex the Gaza Strip but left it under Egyptian military rule as a temporary arrangement pending the resolution of the Palestine Question.

Main article: 1948 Arab–Israeli War

After World War I, the League of Nations granted Great Britain authority over certain former Ottoman territories, including the Gaza Strip. What became known as the British Mandate for Palestine was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922 and which came into effect on 26 September 1923.

After World War II, the British Mandate of Palestine came to an end. The surrounding Arab nations were also emerging from colonial rule. Transjordan, under the Hashemite ruler Abdullah I, gained independence from Britain in 1946 and was called Jordan, but it remained under heavy British influence. Egypt, while nominally independent, signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 that included provisions by which Britain would maintain a garrison of troops on the Suez Canal. From 1945 on, Egypt attempted to renegotiate the terms of this treaty, which was viewed as a humiliating vestige of colonialism.

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly approved a plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict by partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. (See 1947 UN Partition Plan.) In the immediate aftermath of the adoption of this plan, civil war broke out in the former Mandate territory. (See 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine.)

On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of the state of Israel, and the war entered its second phase, with the intervention of several Arab states' armies the following day.

Egypt's early gains in the war were reversed when, on 22 December 1948, the Israeli army, in "Operation Horev" drove Egyptian forces out of the Negev and encircled the Egyptian Forces in the Gaza Strip, forcing Egypt to withdraw and accept a ceasefire. On 7 January 1949, a truce was achieved. Israeli forces withdrew from Sinai and Gaza under international pressure.[citation needed]

On 24 February, 1949 the Israel–Egypt Armistice Agreement was signed in Rhodes. Under the agreement, the armistice line was drawn along the international border (dating back to 1906) for the most part, except near the Mediterranean Sea, where Egypt remained in control of a strip of land along the coast, which became known as the Gaza Strip. See 1949 Armistice Agreements.

Occupy Wall Street, with Graham Nash and David Crosby - Countdown with Keith Olbermann

2011-11-09T23:29:00.001-08:00

Reefer Madness in Obama's White House

2011-11-08T11:44:00.000-08:00

Ethan Nadelman of Drug Policy Alliance calls a spade a 'f' - ing Shovel.

salem-news.com Nov-08-2011

Dr. Phil Leveque
(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I am completely flummoxed by the complete u-turn made by our president regarding medical marijuana. Nadelman in the NY Times on 7 November points the artillery and fires, what's going on? In October 2009 he defended the use of medical marijuana and he promised his smoking public that he "would not use the justice department resources to override state laws on the issue". I can not imagine that being a flat-out lie but he surely has some answering to do.

On that basis, 16 states and Washington D.C. have legal medical marijuana but the DEA, Treasury Dept, IRS, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have let their alcohol besotted hell hounds loose on unsuspecting legal growers and users of a highly safe medicine.

The United States attorneys also under the influence of 'ardent spirits' have joined in the egregious rapacious rampage against mostly sick, disabled medical patients with no mercy, putting them at the mercy of the Mexican drug black marketeers. They seem to be targeting anyone or any organization which might have a scintilla of interest in supplying medical marijuana to sick patients.

The concurrently federal statement that "as a Schedule one drug (Like heroin or cocaine) has no currently acceptable medical use in treatment in the United States". This is in the face of the federal marijuana "POT FARM" in Mississippi. The six or so federally permitted users of medical marijuana supplied by the federal government, the fact that the U.S. govt. owns the patent for the use of marijuana for cancer and the FDA approved use by prescription of Marinol or THC, the chief chemical in marijuana.

Read more @ salem-news.com

Vido from youtuber nugporn weedmaps.com You must be 18 or older to view...

Pot Smokers Sue Obama Over California Medical Marijuana Crackdown

Submitted by ASA on Oct 30, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the country's largest medical marijuana advocacy organization, filed suit in federal court on Thursday challenging the Obama Administration's attempt to subvert local and state medical marijuana laws in California. ASA argues in its lawsuit that the Obama Justice Department (DOJ) has "instituted a policy to dismantle the medical marijuana laws of the State of California and to coerce its municipalities to pass bans on medical marijuana dispensaries." The DOJ policy has involved aggressive SWAT-style raids, criminal prosecutions of medical marijuana patients and providers and threats to local officials for merely implementing state law.

Mr. President: An Iran Attack on Israel Is Attack on US

2011-11-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

A devious bit of propaganda from a couple of new York rats. I's not like we haven't noticed all of the right wing hawks chanting the same mantra about Irans nuclear capabilities.

Global Warfare: Targeting Iran: Preparing for World War III

Global Research, November 3, 2011

by Michel Chossudovsky

The military deployment of US-NATO forces is occurring in several regions of the World simultaneously.

Militarization at the global level is instrumented through the US military's Unified Command structure: the entire planet is divided up into geographic Combatant Commands under the control of the Pentagon. According to (former) NATO Commander General Wesley Clark, the Pentagon’s military road-map consists of a sequence of war theaters: “[The] five-year campaign plan [includes]... a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan.”

This from.... Newsmax

By Edward Koch

This week I sent a note to President Obama. I sent a similar note to the major Republican candidates for president. The following is the statement.

Dear Mr. President:

I am attaching a statement issued by former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani and myself.

It provides the reasons why we believe you should put Iran on notice that an attack by it upon Saudi Arabia or Israel would be considered an attack upon the U.S. to which the U.S. would immediately respond.

We have asked the Republican candidates for president to support you on such a decision. I personally believe that your doing this is in the best interests of our country and would deter Iran from initiating a war against either or both Saudi Arabia and Israel.

All the best.
Ed Koch

Statement by Former Mayors
Edward I. Koch and Rudolph Giuliani
October 28, 2011

Protests all over the planet, while Banksters turn a deaf ear

2011-11-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles, CA
playingforchange.com
Playing For Change is a movement to connect the world through music.

Occupy protests around the world: full list visualised

the guardian

"951 cities in 82 countries" has become the standard definition of the scale of the Occupy protests around the world this weekend, following on from the Occupy Wall Street and Madrid demonstrations that have shaped public debate in the past month.

The Occupy protests have spread from Wall Street to London to Bogota. See the full list - and help us add more

2011-10-31T00:11:00.001-07:00

Gaddafi's old friends: Bush, Blair, Obama, McCain, Lieberman, LindseyGraham, to name a few

2011-10-29T13:07:00.001-07:00

Clinton Backs U.N. Probe of Qaddafi's Death

2011-10-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

Fox News

Executive Branch - POLITICS

Published October 23, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she supports calls for a U.N. probe into the death of Libyan leader Moammar al-Qaddafi, whose being shot point-blank in the head has given rise to concerns he was executed last week rather than killed in crossfire.

"Let's have an investigation, I fully support the United Nations investigation and I fully support the Transitional National Council's own call for an investigation," said Clinton, referring to Libya's new leadership, which on Sunday was declaring the country liberated and beginning the process of forming a new government.

UN Council Acts on Yemen’s Saleh Day After Despot Qaddafi Killed
October 21, 2011, 4:20 PM EDT

U.S. Presses Pakistan Anew to Move Against Terrorist ‘Snakes’
October 21, 2011, 7:47 PM EDT

Clinton Pushes Afghan Border Security, Trade in Central Asia
October 23, 2011, 4:48 AM EDT

Secretary of State Clinton Supports Probe of Qaddafi’s Death
October 23, 2011, 12:08 PM EDT

Clinton Pressing Pakistan for Joint Covert Action on Insurgents
October 24, 2011, 12:22 AM EDT

Cornel West Arrested at Supreme Court

2011-10-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

The Root

By: Sheryl Huggins Salomon | Posted: October 16, 2011

Cornel West arrested (NCFTV)Update on Monday, October 17 at 3:25 p.m.: A spokesperson for Dr. Cornel West told The Root that following a court appearance this afternoon he was released from jail.

Update: According to a message retweeted on Cornel West's Twitter page, "Dr. Cornel West will be spending the night behind bars and is ordered to appear in court Monday at 1 p.m. EST."

Read more at The Root

CNN actually reported on this today...

"Over the weekend, 19 more people were arrested in Washington, D.C., by Supreme Court police, while over 90 were taken into police custody in New York."

However, it was conspicuously obscure, and didn't mention Dr. West, who they did a previous personal interview with.

Methinks the corporate media is afraid that the Tea Baggers might synpathasize with the movement.

Occupy Boston Under Attack~ 100's Arrested

2011-10-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

Occupied Boston Live is currently offline, but there is a message at the bottom.

The following is a link from Twitter by Keith Olberman

Boston police move in on protesters on Greenway, scores arrested

boston.com Oct. 10, 2011

By John M. Guilfoil and Derek J. Anderson, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent

Boston police moved in and began arresting scores of Occupy Boston protesters who refused to leave a large part of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway early this morning.

At 1:20 a.m., the first riot police officers lined up on Atlantic Avenue. Minutes later, dozens of sheriff vans and police wagons arrived and over 200 officers in uniforms and riot gear surrounded the Greenway.

Police Superintendent William Evans and Commissioner Edward F. Davis watched from across the street. Evans gave the crowd two minutes to disperse from the park, warning that they would be locked up if they did not comply.

The crowd of protesters, energized by the sudden appearance of the Boston and Transit police officers, chanted, ‘‘The people united will never be defeated,’’ “This is a peaceful protest,” and “the whole world is watching.’’

About 10 minutes later, the first officers entered the park and surrounded the group. Evans, using a loudspeaker, gave one more warning and then each protester was individually put on his or her stomach, cable-tied, and dragged off as others tore down tents and arrested and detained people on the fringe of the park.

About 100 people were arrested, Davis said. One police officer was hit in the face.

Occupy Wall Street the Media is the Message

2011-10-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

The Invisible 99%: Sunday Morning Talk Shows Ignore Occupy Wall Street

PoliticsUSA October 2, 2011

By Jason Easley

The five Sunday morning talk shows on CBS, Fox, CNN, NBC, and ABC devoted zero segments with zero guests to Occupy Wall Street today. To the media inside the Beltway, the 99% do not exist.

A day after over 700 protesters were arrested during a march over the Brooklyn Bridge, the five network Sunday morning news shows virtually ignored the story. The only program that the arrests were even mentioned on was ABC’s This Week, “More than 700 demonstrators protesting corporate greed, among other issues, were arrested last night on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. The grassroots movement has swamped Wall Street for more than two weeks now.”

What was more important than thousands of Americans taking to the street to protest greed and corruption?

CNN’s State of the Union spent their time allowing Dick and Liz Cheney to rewrite the history of both 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. Fox News and This Week were hyping up the latest corporate media creation, the revived presidential candidacy of Herman Cain. The media created the rebirth of Cain story after the candidate won a non-binding Florida straw poll, which became a story after the corporate media decided that the meaningless poll did in fact, mean something.

The other media generated story is the speculation over a potential Chris Christie 2012 presidential campaign. All the talk shows spent some time talking about Christie even though he isn’t even running. CBS’ Face The Nation trotted out John McCain to talk about Chris Christie, Libya, and DADT, and Meet The Press gave us a couple of governors and a roundtable discussing the 2012 election.

More

Occupy Wall Street the Media is the Message

2011-10-10T18:42:00.000-07:00

Portland Oregon preparing for Wall Street protests.

2011-10-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

OCCUPYPORTLAND.ORG

Occupy Portland is a nonviolent movement for accountability in the United States government. At 12PM on October 6th, 2011 we will assemble at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, 1020 Southwest Naito Parkway in Portland, OR.

We will gather in solidarity with the ongoing protest in New York City, Occupy Wall Street, and the growing number of cities whose people will no longer sit back watching corporate and special interests run their government. We are citizens of the United States, and this country is ours. We will take it back.

It is no longer enough to vote and to participate in the political system because our political system has been altered drastically from its intended and proper function. Currently, we are allowed to pick from a few candidates whose campaigns are funded more and more by large organizations, corporations, and special interests. The success of their campaigns depends largely on how the corporate mass media presents them. When our elected officials enter office they then pander to the small groups responsible for their election. Even good men and women cannot make real improvements that benefit the American people.

We are one city in a growing national movement of people who no longer feel that their government works in their best interest. We will assemble on October 6th to demonstrate peaceful, substantive democracy and work for real change.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This from MoveOn.org

Over the last two weeks, an amazing wave of protest against Wall Street and the big banks has erupted across the country.

In Seattle, San Francisco, Ohio, and Boston (where 3,000 people rallied),¹ grassroots groups have shut down banks and held sit-ins to demand that giant banks pay their fair share of taxes, end the foreclosure crisis, and create jobs.

In financial centers like Chicago and Atlanta, hundreds of people have set up encampments in front of major financial institutions for round-the-clock demonstrations.

Outside Los Angeles, community members have been running a 24-hour vigil around the home of Rose Gudiel, who faces eviction after getting foreclosed on for being two weeks late on a mortgage payment after her younger brother was murdered.²

But the biggest protests are on Wall Street itself. "Occupy Wall Street," which began with a brave group of young people, has swelled to thousands of students, unemployed folks, union members, and others who have persevered through intense police harassment and mass arrests to sustain a rolling 24-hour-a-day protest against the bankers who've wrecked our economy and undermined our democracy.³

On Wednesday, MoveOn members will join labor and community groups in New York City for a huge march down to the protest site—the biggest yet.

And because we can't all be in New York, we're going to stage a massive "Virtual March on Wall Street" online with our friends at Rebuild the Dream. Together, we'll add hundreds of thousands of voices of solidarity from the American Dream Movement for the protests across the country and show just how widespread outrage at the Wall Street banks really is.

Click here to sign up to join the Virtual March on Wall Street this Wednesday

The protests on Wall Street have been running for two weeks straight and are only getting bigger every day. The signs, placards, and chants focus on standing up for what the protesters are calling "the 99%" of us who are suffering while Wall Street bankers grow richer by the day.

In a telling moment last week, a group of bankers even went so far as to mock the protests while sipping champagne from balconies overlooking thousands of people marching down Wall Street.⁴

But adding mockery to the callous disregard for our country that we've seen from the big banks isn't slowing down the Occupy Wall Street movement one bit. The protests on Wall Street are set to grow even more this week and solidarity actions are already planned in dozens more cities.

You can see what's planned in your area by visiting the solidarity site Occupy Together: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=264645&id=31654-7677943-O_PlNWx&t=3

And you can sign up to add your voice to the national "Virtual March on Wall Street" online here: http://www.civic.moveon.org/joinvirtualwallstreet/?id=31654-7677943-O_PlNWx&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin, Robin, Peter, Elena, and the rest of the team

Michael Moore On Occupy Wall Street: We’re The Majority, ‘Never Forget That’

2011-09-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

MEDIAite

by Alex Alvarez | 9:21 pm, September 28th, 2011
» 181 comments Filmmaker Michael Moore, who continues his vigil at the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protest in lower Manhattan, dropped in on The Last Word to let host Lawrence O’Donnell know how things are going.

Moore kicked things off by giving a synopsis of what the protest is not about:

We’re not down here to support Senate bill 2567. We’re beyond that. They had their chance a long time ago to try and fix this. They didn’t fix it because they’re in the pocket of these people down here on Wall Street. So this is not about supporting some piece of legislation or “let’s get behind some politician.”

“It’s not about ‘policy wonkness’ or ‘Beltway bullshit,’” he continued, to the delighted soundless clapping of those around him. He also noted that he cannot believe he lives in a country where people on Wall Street haven’t had to face a single arrest while 100 peaceful protesters are arrested.

“Well, you live in a country where that kind of thing has to be protested and is being protested,” offered O’Donnell. He then turned the conversation over to a question he’d received on Twitter — a question that many have had since the protest’s inception: “I wonder if mmoore could articulate some specific, tangible goals 4 this protest, as I’ve yet 2 hear any & really would like to.” Indeed, @leenie909!

Moore said that this protest is unlike others because “there’s no membership form, there’s no one person who comes in here and says ‘Now this is our agenda and this is the way it ought to be!”

He also added that there were a whole variety of Americans participating (even “Ron Paul people”), and that they had strength in numbers:

This is our country. We’re the majority. The majority. We’re the majority. Never forget that, that the people who work for a living in this country, we are the people. Not the people up here who are taking people’s pensions and their bank accounts and ruining it and destroying their lives. They are not running this country anymore. They think they are, but that’s gonna come to an end right now.

Have a look at the video, via MSNBC. And please take note of the “Fox News camera person” behind Moore:

source: mediaite.com

Video credits: thesecretstore

Occupy Wall Street will not be Televised on M$M

2011-09-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

Olbermann calls out media hypocrisy on ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest

RawStory posted 09.21.11

By Eric W. Dolan

Keith Olbermann pointed out Wednesday night on Countdown that the major newspapers had been ignoring the five-day-long “Occupy Wall Street” protests, but would have scrambled to cover a similar-sized tea party protest.

“Why isn’t any major news outlet covering this?” he asked. “If that’s a tea party protest in front of Wall Street about Ben Bernanke putting stimulus funds into it, it’s the lead story on every network news cast. How is that disconnect possible in this country today with so many different outlets and so many different ways of transmitting news?”

His guest, author Will Bunch, suggested the disconnect was caused in part by the news networks being out of touch with the pain of the 25 million Americans who are unemployed.

Thousands Cheer Bernie Sanders's Appeal to Obama, Super-Committee: Make the Rich Pay for Deficits

2011-09-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

Senator Bernie Sanders on the Senate Floor Feb. 16, 2011

The Nation September 18, 2011

John Nichols

Declaring that “Social Security is the most successful government program in our nation’s history,” and decrying threats to Medicare and Medicaid that would punish Americans who did not cause the current economic crisis, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders brought thousands of progressives from across the Midwest to their feet Saturday, as they cheered his message to President Obama and the Congressional “super-committee”: “We can deal with deficit reduction in a way that is fair and responsible.”

“Instead of balancing the budget on the backs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the most vulnerable,” Sanders said, “it is time to ask the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in this country to pay their fair share.”

In several speeches to crowds that numbered in the thousands who gathered for Fighting BobFest events in Madison, Wisconsin, Sanders continues to spell out the progressive economic agenda that argues against cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to balance budgets and address deficits and for tax policies that end special breaks for the wealthy and multinational corporations that offshore jobs from the United States.

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MEANWHILE ON WALL STREET

The whole world is watching.

Geithner pumps up Zombie Banks on a global level

2011-09-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

Timothy Maxwell "Max" Keiser (born January 23, 1960) is an American broadcaster, film-maker, and former equities broker. Keiser is the host of On the Edge, a program of news and analysis hosted by Iran's Press TV. He also hosts Keiser Report, a financial program broadcast on RT - formerly Russia Today. Keiser hosted the New Year's Eve special, The Keiser's Business Guide to 2010 for BBC Radio 5 Live.

Keiser formerly hosted The Oracle with Max Keiser on BBC World News. Previously he produced and appeared regularly in the TV series People & Power on the Al-Jazeera English network. He also presents a weekly show about finance and markets on London's Resonance FM, as well as writing for The Huffington Post.

source Wikipedia

Geithner’s European Junket

counterpunch September 17-18, 2011

by MIKE WHITNEY September

On Thursday–exactly 3 years after Lehman Brothers defaulted igniting the greatest financial crisis in 70 years–the world’s most powerful central banks launched a massive intervention to staunch a liquidity squeeze in the eurozone that threatened to wreak havoc on the EU banking system. The European Central Bank –acting in cooperation with the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank–agreed to provide limitless loans to banks that are having trouble getting dollar funding. European banks access to US money markets has been sharply reduced in the last year due to worries over their solvency. The joint-central bank action is designed to ease liquidity problems, allay investor fears and avoid the painful task of restructuring underwater banks. Stocks rose on news of the emergency intervention. The Dow finished up 186 points on the day.

More of the same

Federal assistance to fire departments had been approved by Congress a year before the terrorist attacks

2011-09-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

Bill Manning Closes National Memorial Service in Washington, D.C.

$elling Out the Investigation

Bill Manning, editor of Fire Engineering Magazine had this to say about the official investigation.

"Fire Engineering has good reason to believe that the "official investigation" blessed by FEMA and run by the American Society of Civil Engineers is a half-baked farce that may already have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure."
Read article here

In 2006 Manning joined Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment magazine. The publisher, C. Peter J￸rgensen. in an article about him had a few interesting things to say.

"Manning was the editorial voice of a nation of firefighters for years and he brought fire service influence on national politics to an unprecedented level. In that regard, his role in advocating the creation and congressional passage of the FIRE Act legislation was a particularly important achievement.
The FIRE Act of 2000 has been the basis on which hundreds of millions in Federal aid has been distributed to local fire departments since 9-11-2001 through grants from Homeland Security.
Most firefighters aren't aware that the first ever Federal assistance to local fire departments had been approved by Congress a year before the terrorist attacks and already funded at the $300 million level for the year 2001. It was due to people like Bill Manning at Fire Engineering and lobbying by the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) that the mechanism to get Federal money to local departments based on need was already in place when the 2001 attacks occurred, Jorgensen added."

106th Congress Public Law 503

GE Dumps Offshore Wind-Power Plans AFTER Collecting $125 Million In Stimulus From Taxpayers For Wind Projects

2011-09-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

Best friends Obama and Immelt applaud as GE screws taxpayers once again.

The Daily Bail September 14, 2011

Source - Gateway Pundit
GE was awarded 44 contracts totaling over $46,000,000 and 44 grants totaling more than$79,000,000 from the Obama-Pelosi $757 billion dollar stimulus package. Millions of dollars in stimulus funds were used by GE in green energy projects.
Today GE announced that it was going to gut its offshore wind-power plans.
Forbes reported:

General Electric, the U.S.-based industrial giant and leading manufacturer of wind-power turbines, is scaling back efforts to expand its presence in the offshore wind power market.
The rationale: there is no meaningful offshore wind market to speak of – at least not yet. Given slower-than-expected industry growth, the offshore market may not mature as rapidly as many wind boosters once believed. In 2009, GE moved into the offshore market by acquiring Norway’s ScanWind, a developer of direct-drive turbines, based in the city of Trondheim.
GE is considering laying off about 40 employees in Norway as it scales-back its offshore operations there, according to reports in Recharge. The company has also suspended plans to construct a manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom indefinitely.

Immelt also said the stimulus would work way back in April 2009.

Obama Picks Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO, To Run New Jobs-Focused Panel As GE Sends Jobs Overseas, Pays Little In Taxes 01/21/11

General Electric Gets a $140B Bailout - What's the Point of AAA? November 14, 2008

Hat tip to The Daily Bail

Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup – Full Length Movie

2011-09-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

September 10, 2011 By sudhan

A Prelude to the War of Terror

By Nasir Khan

This famous documentary film, Loose Change 9/11, was produced in 2006 that challenged the official explanation of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It also aroused a great deal of controversy; it had its supporters and opponents.

I am not an expert on the technical details of the attacks which the U.S. authorities offered or the views of those who contradict or refute the official version as in this film; therefore, I refrain from passing any final word on the issues involved. However, I try to find more about the events and will continue to do so because this tragic date became the sign-post, which was used by the Bush-Cheney administration to start the wars of aggression and global terror that resulted in the occupation and destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, the deaths of more than a million people and the uprooting of the millions of people. The present U.S. administration under President Obama has not only continued the wars of aggression of his predecessor but also extended them to other countries and areas by using advanced technological means such as drone attacks to kill and destroy with impunity and without any accountntability for his actions to anyone in the world.

No matter who were the actual criminals or conspirators who committed the crimes on 9/11 that resulted in the deaths of 2749 Americans, one thing is absolutely clear that the people of Iraq and its ruler Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the 9/11. The people or the rulers of Afghanistan or Pakistan were not involved in this crime either. Even if any individual from Afghanistan or Pakistan may have been involved in this crime in some way or the other that should have been the act of an individual. The people of Afghanistan or Pakistan had no part in such a crime, but they are still being killed by the U.S-led NATO forces and American drone attacks.

I assume it is only fair that viewers should have a chance to see the whole film open mindedly, without any mental inhibitions. Whether they agree with every single detail of the happenings or not is for each individual to discuss and decide after a critical scrutiny of the well-known story. But there is no doubt that some viewers will have some questions about the main course and the details of the events. Those who are interested in finding the facts will have to do some research themselves to find the answers to such questions. No doubt, the matter is complicated and it is not easy to disentangle the facts from the legends. Consequently, there lies the challenge to those who aspire to find the truth about the 9/11.

Top Secret America: Dana Priest, William Arkin

2011-09-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

Has the Balance Tipped?

FRONTLINE

September 7, 2011, 3:30 pm ET by Philip Bennett

On a rainy day in October 2005, Dana Priest was escorted across the immaculate marble lobby of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia along with a pair of her editors from The Washington Post (I was one of them). We crowded into a private, key-operated elevator that opened into a study that would have seemed almost cozy if not for the arresting artifact at the far end of the room: an American flag, scorched and battered, recovered from Ground Zero and now hanging behind the director’s desk.

The purpose of the meeting was to urge The Post not to publish Priest’s story about a global network of secret CIA prisons. The discussion was off the record, but senior officials in the room later made the same arguments in public. They said the story would disrupt the detention of highly prized prisoners. It could endanger American lives by interfering with efforts to stop another attack. And revealing this one secret might set off an invisible domino effect, ruining the government’s reputation for keeping others.

It was an icy and awkward encounter, but it could have been scripted by the Founders. Disputes over secrecy are as old as the republic. In this case, officials who had authority to order people’s deaths had no power to stop a newspaper article (which must have been infuriating). At The Post, we had no way of knowing if the benefits of running the story outweighed potential costs (which was humbling). Where was the boundary between our responsibility to inform the public and hold the government accountable, even in wartime, and harm to national security? Wrestling with this question, case by case, was how the contest between security and freedom worked.

Telling it like it is

FRONTLINE goes inside The Washington Post's major two-year examination into the massive, unwieldy, top secret world the U.S. government has created in response to 9/11. Coming fall 2010 to PBS.

A major examination by Washington Post reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin is the subject of an upcoming FRONTLINE documentary produced by veteran producer Michael Kirk. The Post's two-year investigation looks at the top secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001—a world that has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that few know how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or how many agencies duplicate work being done elsewhere.

See the full documentory at Top Secret America

911 Remembrance: Understanding our government leadership

2011-09-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Aired September 14, 2001 Early Show

Video compliments of IranContraScumDid911

You Only Believe the Official 9/11 Story Because You Don't Know the Official 9/11 Story

TvNewswLiews Monday, Sep 05th

Jesse Richard

I don't believe the official story of 9/11 because I know the official story of 9/11!

During the past 10 years I have not met a single individual who, after doing research on the subject, switched from questioning the official narrative of the events of 9/11/2001 to believing the official narrative of those events.. It is always the other way around. Why do you think that is? There are good reasons for this, and I will try to explain this phenomenon right now.

The term "conspiracy theorist", perhaps the most misapplied description in our vernacular, is often used to describe 9/11 truthers. Perhaps that term does apply to a segment of the 9/11 truth movement. But in most cases a more accurate description of 9/11 truthers is probably "expert", or "scholar", or "researcher." You see, much of the doubt cast on the official narrative of the events of 9/11 has not come in the form of speculated accusations, or "theories." In fact, it has come in the form of questions that have been raised after a careful study of the official and undisputed events and details.

Ten years have passed since the infamous events of September 11th, 2001 took place, and the majority of people still don't know a damn thing about the actual details of that event. They don't know what was going on in the country with regard to our military that day. They don't know the history or the activities of key members of our government, defense establishment or intelligence community, on, or during the weeks, and in some cases the years leading up to that day. They don't know what took place during or immediately following the events of that day. And they don't know what actions were taken by those key people following that event.

Read the whole story at TvNewswLies

Meet the Official White House 9/11 Myth Maker: Philip D. Zelikow

World after 911

The Secret of Life

2011-09-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

I met Extremo the other day. He does some wonderful art on the windows that he paints ...as long as you let him paint what he wants. His laugh uplifts the vibes of folks as he travels along in his "never never van"

More on Youtube channel
extremotheclown

2011-09-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

Alan Grayson via bounces.salsalabs.net
Yesterday, the Commission on Wartime Contracting released its final report.
The Commission reported that between $31 billion and $62 billion of the tax money spent on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan has been wasted. It also said that between $10 billion and $19 billion of what contractors billed and received was fraudulent. In fact, $360 million of our tax dollars went straight to . . . the Taliban.
Wow. Who could have imagined that?
Well . . . me.
When I saw that the Bush Administration was doing nothing about fraud in Iraq, I revived a law going back to the Civil War that allowed whistleblowers to bring lawsuits in the name of the U.S. Government. I filed case after case, which were promptly greeted by the Bush Administration with gag orders – gag orders that they kept in place for years. They didn’t want any more bad news coming out of Iraq.
So I went on CNN, spoke to the New York Times and the Washington Post, and told America whatever I could say without violating those gag orders. And when the Bush Administration finally let one case out from under those gag orders – and declined to prosecute it – I took that case to trial, and won a $14 million judgment. It was the third-largest judgment for whistleblowers in the 143-year history of that law.
Those contractors built bases without hooking up the plumbing. A general testified that when he went there, he felt like throwing up.
The Wall Street Journal reported in a front-page article that I was “waging a one-man war against contractor fraud in Iraq.” The national organization Taxpayers Against Fraud named me “Lawyer of the Year.” And people started to think, “what is going on over there?”
In Congress, I spoke out against the wars, and I voted against the wars. I wrote and introduced The War is Making You Poor Act, HR 5353. My bill pointed out that you could:

Require the Pentagon to fund the wars from its own budget of over $500 billion, not supplemental appropriations;
Take all the money that would save and eliminate taxes on everyone’s first $35,000 of income, $70,000 for married couples; and
Still have over $10 billion a year left over, to cut the federal deficit.

OpenCongress’s unscientific poll showed 91% in favor of HR 5353.
After I left Congress in January, I took up the work against contractor fraud in Iraq again. And I won an $8.7 million settlement from DynCorp and the Sandi Group. The defendants paid our attorney’s fees last Friday.
Here’s some simple arithmetic. We’ve budgeted $159.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, through next month. (The true cost is much more, but let’s leave that aside.) That’s:
$159,300,000,000.00.
You could take all that money and create 5,310,000 jobs here in America paying $30,000 a year, rebuilding our bridges, our roads, our schools, instead of the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. That would immediately lower the unemployment rate from 9 percent to 5.5 percent, and get money flowing in our communities again.
Now, that’s a job program. I’ll put that up against whatever President Obama proposes next week.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed more than 8,000 Americans, and who-knows-how-many Iraqis and Afghans. War has destroyed our economy, just as the war in Afghanistan destroyed the Soviet economy. According to the calculations of Nobel Prize-winner Professor Joseph Stiglitz, the war in Iraq alone has cost us around 8% of our $50 trillion national net worth, all of the wealth that America built up over two centuries. Over $13,000 for every single American, young and old.
We’ve taken our inheritance, and dumped it into a wood chipper.
My father served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He told me once that one of the most common questions that men of his generation heard was, “what did you do in the war?” Maybe our children will ask us, “what did you do against the war?”
That’s a question I can answer.
Courage,
Alan Grayson

Kucinich: Try NATO Commanders as War Criminals

2011-08-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

NEWSMAX

Tuesday, 23 Aug 2011

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has been an outspoken critic of U.S. military action in Libya since it began six months ago, even saying President Barack Obama’s policy amounted to “an impeachable offense.”

Now, as Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s regime appears to be toppling, Kucinich is ramping up his criticism with the contention that NATO commanders in Libya should be tried in court for killing civilians, Politico reports.

“NATO’s top commanders may have acted under color of international law, but they are not exempt from international law,” Kucinich said in a statement issued today.

“If members of the Gadhafi regime are to be held accountable, NATO’s top commanders must also be held accountable through the International Criminal Court for all civilian deaths resulting from bombing,” Kucinich said. “Otherwise, we will have witnessed the triumph of a new international gangsterism.”

CNN media $pin in Libya ~Business as usual

2011-08-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

NATO allow weapons to Rebels OPENLY

Telegraph August 12th, 2011

By kingsley

Arms controls continue to be flouted in the context of the Libyan armed conflict. Both France and Qatar have openly admitted to supplying arms to the rebels as a complementary strategy to the NATO-led air strikes. Such actions not only undermine the United Nations arms embargo regime, but may also violate contractual obligations between arms-exporting and arms-importing states.

When arms are officially exported from one government to another, the recipient government is usually required to endorse an end-user certificate. This is a written commitment from the arms-purchasing government that it will not transfer the arms to other parties, especially if such a transfer is in violation of a UN arms embargo. However, there is no international end-user monitoring and enforcement process in place. Monitoring is the sole preserve of the exporting state, but such monitoring is typically under-developed, with the US ‘Blue Lantern’ programme being the most advanced.

Qatar’s arming of the Libyan rebels is particularly problematic as Qatar imports the vast majority of its arms, and hence would have been required to endorse end-user certificates. Over the past five years Qatar’s main arms supplier has been the United States (in monetary terms), but it has also imported arms from many other states, such as France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands and South Africa. The key question to be asked is, to what extent has Qatar reneged on end-user agreements?

Article

Video of smuggled armaments

2011-08-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

American man kidnapped by assailants in Pakistan 13 Aug 2011 15:48 | Source: Reuter
* Warren Weinstein taken from his residence in Lahore
* Anti-U.S. sentiment running high in Pakistan
* Weinstein well-known in development, aid circles

Alternet
LAHORE, Pakistan, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Several assailants broke into a house in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore in the pre-dawn hours on Saturday, overcame security guards and kidnapped a U.S. man identified as an international development expert, police said.

In Washington, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman identified the man as Warren Weinstein.

Weinstein has been identified as working for J.E. Austin & Associates, an Arlington, Virginia-based consulting firm, on a development project in lawless tribal areas where Pakistani troops have been battling Islamist insurgents for years.

Read more at Alternet

"Six to eight people broke into his house at around 3:30 a.m., when security guards on duty were making preparation for fasting," police official Tajamal Hussain told Reuters, referring to the Ramadan fast observed by Muslims.

"Two of the assailants came from the front gate while about six others used the back door. They tortured the guards and then took the American with them."

A security official familiar with the incident said the gunmen forced the man's driver to knock on his bedroom door. When the man opened it, they took him.

Hussain said the victim, in his 60s, had been living in Pakistan for five to six years. He mostly lived in Islamabad but had been travelling to Lahore.

The security official said there had been no claim of responsibility.

The State Department spokeswoman, Joann Moore, said, "We are working with local authorities on the investigation." Moore added that members of Weinstein's family were receiving support from the U.S. consulate in Lahore.

Middle-class Jews protest Zionist Chutzpah

2011-08-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

Paul Feldman reports on giant Israeli protests

Peoples Assembly Network 08.01.2011

Highlights:

* On Saturday night, more than 150,000 people – out of a population of seven million – gathered in 12 cities across Israel as part of the biggest social movement the country has witnessed.

* Middle-class Jews and Israeli Palestinians have come together in local encampments in a way that seemed unimaginable only a few weeks ago.

* A poll showed that 87% of Israelis support the tent city protests.

* A steady influx of wealthy diaspora Jews from New York, Miami and Paris who bought up flats in Israel’s big cities has driven up prices in many affluent neighbourhoods along the Mediterranean coast in cities such as Tel Aviv and Netanya, in addition to Jerusalem.

* In Israel, the Zionists who dominate a nationalist state founded on a single ethnic group have used the threat of an external “enemy” in the shape of Arab regimes to hold sway over a seemingly pliant population.

* The idea that the Jewish state represents all Jews equally is being exposed and blown apart and with it will go the raison d’être of the Zionist regime itself.

Debt Ceiling: Fighting the Dark Side

2011-08-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Huffington Post 7/30/11

Jennifer Bendery

WASHINGTON -- With just three days left until the country is set to begin defaulting on its debt, the House rejected a debt proposal by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Saturday -- a move Republicans designed purely for theatrics to show the bill lacked the votes to pass.

The bill was rejected by a vote of 173 to 246. Eleven Democrats joined all of the House Republicans in opposing Reid's bill. The defecting Democrats included Reps. John Barrow (Ga.), Dan Boren (Okla.), Bruce Braley (Iowa), David Loebsack (Iowa), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Mike Ross (Ark.), Kurt Schrader (Ore.), Peter Visclosky (Ind.) and David Wu (Ore.).

Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) headed to the White House to discuss the state of play with President Barack Obama shortly after the bill went down.

House Republicans pushed Reid's bill through via a restrictive voting process: The measure was taken up on the suspension calendar, which requires a two-thirds vote to pass, bars amendments and limits debate to 40 minutes.

Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), who sits on the House Rules Committee, called the day's business "a joke," "a disgrace" and "an insult to the American people."

The effect of taking up Reid's bill on the suspension calendar -- a move typically reserved for noncontroversial measures -- is "a $2.5 trillion bill being brought up under the same process used for post offices," McGovern said.

Read more at Huffington Post

Fundamentalism Kills

2011-07-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

Truthout Tuesday 26 July 2011

by: Chris Hedges, Truthdig | Op-Ed

The gravest threat we face from terrorism, as the killings in Norway by Anders Behring Breivik underscore, comes not from the Islamic world but the radical Christian right and the secular fundamentalists who propagate the bigoted, hateful caricatures of observant Muslims and those defined as our internal enemies. The caricature and fear are spread as diligently by the Christian right as they are by atheists such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Our religious and secular fundamentalists all peddle the same racist filth and intolerance that infected Breivik.

This filth has poisoned and degraded our civil discourse. The looming economic and environmental collapse will provide sparks and tinder to transform this coarse language of fundamentalist hatred into, I fear, the murderous rampages experienced by Norway. I worry more about the Anders Breiviks than the Mohammed Attas.

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Alan Grayson explains... "Why Boener Cries"

2011-07-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

This went out in an email to previous supporters of
Alan Grayson this morning.

Dear Linus,
I know why House Speaker John Boehner walked out of debt ceiling talks with President Obama on Friday.
It’s because Boehner can’t deliver.
It doesn’t matter what terms the President offers. It’s that simple. Boehner can’t deliver the votes.
The President might as well be negotiating with Tiger Woods; Tiger can’t deliver the votes, either. But at least Tiger has a better swing.
On Friday, the President said, “I think that one of the questions that the Republican Party is going to have to ask itself is, can they say yes to anything? Can they say yes to anything?”
The answer to your question, Mr. President, is no. The national Republican Party can’t even says yes to yes. And Boehner can’t do anything about that.
In May 1935, Pierre Laval, then the Foreign Minister of France, and also the once and future Prime Minister of France, met with Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator. Laval, a Catholic, urged Stalin to stop persecuting Catholics in the Soviet Union. Stalin asked Laval why it mattered. Laval replied that continued persecution could provoke a quarrel between Stalin and the Pope.
Stalin replied, “The Pope? How many divisions does he have?”
I don’t think that anyone could confuse John Boehner with the Pope, but nevertheless, at this point, President Obama might ask the same question about Boehner. How many divisions does John Boehner have?
Fifty-nine House Republicans abandoned Boehner on the “compromise” appropriations bill. Even though Boehner depicted it to them as a Republican victory on par with, say, the Battle of Stalingrad.
And now, Fox News has reported that between 80 and 120 Republican members of the House will vote against any bill to increase the debt ceiling, no matter what else is in it. You can be sure that Fox News knows what Republicans in Washington are thinking – because Fox News tells them what to think.
So somewhere between a third and a half of all of the Republicans in the House of Representatives are going to vote against increasing the debt ceiling, no matter what Boehner puts in front of them. Boehner is a general with no troops. The coach has no players. The teacher has no students. The chief has no Indians. The bride has no bridesmaids.

That’s why Boehner is always crying.

Please sign our petition at www.No-Cuts.com

SocialSecurity & The Deficit: Keeping the Promise

2011-07-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

Pushing Crisis: GOP Cries Wolf on Debt Ceiling in Order to Impose Radical Pro-Rich Agenda

DEMOCRACY NOW July 22. 2011

President Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner are allegedly close to a $3 trillion deficit-reduction package as part of a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling before an Aug. 2 deadline. But the deal is coming under fire from both congressional Democrats and Republicans. Part of it calls for lowering personal and corporate income tax rates, while eliminating or reducing an array of popular tax breaks, such as the deduction for home mortgage interest. Some Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage on Thursday because the Obama-Boehner agreement appears to violate their pledge not to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, as well as Obama’s promise not to make deep cuts in programs for the poor without extracting some tax concessions from the rich. We’re joined by economist Michael Hudson, president of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and author of "Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire."

Read more or view video at Democracy Now
.
z
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Syria, Libya and Middle East unrest

2011-07-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

Guardian Sunday 17 July 2011

Syria

• Troops backed by tanks entered the town of Zabadani near the border with Lebanon and are carrying out a campaign of arrests, according to activists, the Independent reports.
• Tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets on Saturday, shouting "we want freedom" while carrying caskets of of some of the protesters killed during protest rallies on Friday, al-Jazeera reports.
• Activists claim nine people were killed on Saturday, including two in the central city of Homs and four in Boukamal in the east.

Libya

• Muammar Gaddafi has again vowed never to leave Libya, the BBC reports.

They're asking me to leave. I will never leave the land of my ancestors or the people who have sacrificed themselves for me.

• Libyan fighters claim they are close to surrounding the key government-held oil town of Brega. Radio reports said that after three days of heavy fighting, aided by substantial Nato bombing, rebel units had bypassed the town – cutting off the garrison from its supply lines.

Egypt

• Egypt's prime minister Essam Sharaf is expected to announce a cabinet reshuffle today. He has accepted the resignation of his foreign minister Mohammed El-Orabi, Reuters reports.

Tunisia

• Tunisian police fired in the air and used teargas early on Sunday to disperse a crowd of about 200 people who had set fire to a police station in a suburb of the capital, Reuters reports.

10.53am: The United Arab Emirates should drop charges against five activists detained since April after they called for democratic reforms, four human rights organisations said today.

2011-07-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

NY Cop Says Murdoch Tabloid Offered Her Cash For 9/11 Victims Phone Numbers

Murdoch Won't Deny 911 victims Were Phone Hacked - NOTW Phone Hacking

The President’s Meeting with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama

2011-07-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

The White House Blog

Posted by Kori Schulman on July 17, 2011

Yesterday morning President Obama met with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama in the Map Room of the White House. Here's the statement from the Press Secretary on their meeting:

The President reiterated his strong support for the preservation of the unique religious, cultural, and linguistic traditions of Tibet and the Tibetan people throughout the world. He underscored the importance of the protection of human rights of Tibetans in China. The President commended the Dalai Lama’s commitment to nonviolence and dialogue with China and his pursuit of the “Middle Way” approach. Reiterating the U.S. policy that Tibet is a part of the People’s Republic of China and the United States does not support independence for Tibet, the President stressed that he encourages direct dialogue to resolve long-standing differences and that a dialogue that produces results would be positive for China and Tibetans. The President stressed the importance he attaches to building a U.S.-China cooperative partnership. The Dalai Lama stated that he is not seeking independence for Tibet and hopes that dialogue between his representatives and the Chinese government can soon resume.

The strange thing about all this is that the Dalai Lama met with John Boehner, and that an unscheduled meeting, in the White House, with the president, took place in the Map Room. There was no press allowed, and only one photograph, with no video coverage. The Dalai Lama exited through the back door.

This might be seen as a personal affront to the Republicans and those globalists of the suit and tie club who are concerned by formalities, but the Dalai Lama is hip. In fact he mentioned in his Message of Peace that he was not concerned by formalities. Come to think of it, at my house, real friends enter and exit through the back door...G:

The illustrious John Boehner and his friend Nancy

The Dalai Lama on the White House Lawn with A Message of Peace

Israel Bans Boycotts Against the State

2011-07-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

NY Times

By ISABEL KERSHNER
Published: July 11, 2011

JERUSALEM — The Israeli Parliament on Monday passed contentious legislation that effectively bans any public call for a boycott against the state of Israel or its West Bank settlements, making such action a punishable offense.

Critics and civil rights groups denounced the new law as antidemocratic and a flagrant assault on the freedom of expression and protest. The law’s defenders said it was a necessary tool in Israel’s fight against what they called its global delegitimization.

Passage of the law followed a string of efforts in the rightist-dominated Parliament to promote legislation that is seen by the more liberal Israelis as an erosion of democratic values.

Some critics argued passage of the legislation against boycotts would further delegitimize Israel, which is facing increasing pressure over West Bank settlements that Palestinians regard as part of the territory for a future state. Continued construction in the settlements has been a major impediment in attempts to resume stalled peace talks.

The bill passed by 47 votes to 38. It relates to calls for economic, cultural or academic boycotts of the state, its institutions or any area under its control, a reference to occupied territories.

Offenders could face lawsuits and monetary penalties. Companies or organizations supporting a boycott could be disqualified from participating in bids for government work. Nonprofit organizations issuing boycott calls risk losing tax benefits.

The so-called Boycott Bill was sponsored by Zeev Elkin of the Likud, the conservative party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu was absent from the vote, as was the defense minister, Ehud Barak, who leads a small centrist faction in the governing coalition.

In an opinion issued earlier on Monday, the legal adviser of the Parliament, Eyal Yinon, determined that elements of the bill bordered on unconstitutionality and struck at the core of political freedom of expression. However, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein gave the bill his approval.

The speaker of the Parliament, Reuven Rivlin of the Likud, tried to introduce moderations in the bill, but they were rejected. Mr. Rivlin abstained from the vote.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel and other human rights organizations said they were preparing to challenge the law in the High Court of Justice. The association described the law as “an antidemocratic step, intended to create a chilling effect on civil society.”

Ilan Gilon, a legislator from the leftist Meretz Party, said, “I do not know of anything that creates more delegitimization of Israel abroad than these laws.”

Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and other opponents of the law have pointed out that Israelis had recently launched their first successful consumer boycott, bringing down the price of cottage cheese. “Why should Israeli citizens be allowed to boycott Israeli cottage cheese, as we have heard and seen in recent weeks, but be barred from boycotting the occupation?” he said in a recent statement.

Last year, Israeli theater artists refused to perform at a new cultural center in the urban settlement of Ariel and in other West Bank settlements, causing a public uproar. They were followed by scores of leftist Israeli academics, writers and intellectuals who said that they would not lecture at the center or in any of the settlements.

A movement of Palestinians and foreign supporters has stepped up calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Their campaigns have led to a number of cancellations by international artists.

Mr. Elkin, the sponsor of the legislation, said that its principal importance was “the fact that the calls to boycott the State of Israel increasingly have come from within our own midst, and that makes it hard to wage a battle against a boycott in the world.”
A version of this article appeared in print on July 12, 2011, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Israel Bans Boycotts Against the State.

Neocons Fume Over US Boat to Gaza

2011-07-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

opednews.com July 16, 2011

By Ray McGovern

My co-passengers and I of the U.S. Boat to Gaza have now gone from "High-Seas Hippies," according to the right-wing Washington Times, to participants in a flotilla full of "fools, knaves, hypocrites, bigots, and supporters of terrorism," says Alan Dershowitz in his usual measured prose.
Poor Alan, he seems upset at our audacity not only to hope for humane treatment of the 1.6 million Gazans, who currently live under a cruel blockade, but to force the issue. To stop our boat before it could leave Greek waters, Israel's Likud government gave itself a self-inflicted black eye and again brought the oppression of Gazans to worldwide attention.
This time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government did not even have to kill people to add to Israel's growing "delegitimization" before the civilized world. Facing growing international condemnation, Netanyahu and his allies have reason to worry.
In recognition of our modest accomplishments, we U.S. boaters have now made it onto Dershowitz's "Dishonor Roll!" At first reading of his intended insults, my laughter was uncontrollable. I've been called a lot of things before, but I cannot remember being labeled a "knave."

More

Fox News unintentially proves that media does matter

2011-07-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

Uploaded by mediamatters4america on Jul 12, 2011

Over the past three weeks the network has run dozens of segments attacking Media Matters -- on Fox "news" and opinion shows, on the Fox Business Network, and as the top three simultaneous lead stories on its website, Fox Nation. They have repeatedly encouraged viewers to file complaints with the IRS, even providing a direct link to a pre-filled form on their website.

This attack is nothing more than an attempt by Fox News to silence a vocal critic. Because they're nervous about how we're exposing what they truly are.

We will continue working every day to make sure America's political dialogue is based in fact.

~Never Forget 911~

"The Murdoch Empire Could Be Undone": British Phone-Hacking Scandal May Prompt U.S. Criminal Probe

DemocracyNow July 13, 2011

AMY GOODMAN: The phone-hacking scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has crossed the Atlantic, could impact Murdoch’s maze of interests in the United States. The government accountability group ProtectOurElections.org has called on the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch parallel criminal and civil investigations for possible prosecution under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act—this in the wake of the scandal that began in Britain.

The group says the scandal overseas is evidence of violation of the act, because the company is headquartered in the United States. It’s urging both agencies to seek warrants to search the company’s New York offices amidst fresh allegations that News of the World journalists hacked into the voicemail of Americans killed in the World Trade Center attack nearly a decade ago. A key U.S. senator has joined calls for such an investigation: Senate Commerce Committee Chair Jay Rockefeller said the authorities should consider whether journalists working for the media giant had broken U.S. law.

DARPA funds genetically engineered electrofuel project

2011-07-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

G:
Good news from DARPA? Well, I'll be surprised if it is, because of the use of genetically altered bacteria, and gawd knows what else, in developing these fuels. Electrofuels?, whats that?
We should keep in mind here, that the Defense Industries are involved and that they qualify as "Small Business", while the sheeple cannot get a loan.

OPXBIO raises $36.5M to accelerate commercialization of renewable chemicals and fuels

Green Car Congress 7 July 2011

OPX Biotechnologies Inc. has raised $36.5 million in the first closing of its C-Round private equity financing. The investment will accelerate OPXBIO’s development and commercialization of renewable, bio-based chemicals and fuels that are lower cost, higher return and more sustainable than existing petroleum-based products. (Earlier post.)

US Renewables Group (USRG) led the C-Round investor syndicate, which also included new investor DBL Investors with strong participation by existing investors Mohr Davidow Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, Altira Group and X/Seed Capital. Pacific Crest Securities provided financial advice to OPXBIO on the C-Round financing. The company also announced that USRG managing director Jonathan Koch has joined the OPXBIO Board of Directors.

The new investment will enable OPXBIO to accelerate development and commercialization of an industrial-scale process for producing its first renewable chemical, BioAcrylic. Acrylic derived from petroleum is today an $8-billion global market and is used to make products such as diapers, detergents, paints and adhesives. During an 18-month pilot-scale program completed in early 2011, OPXBIO demonstrated with speed and capital efficiency the ability of its proprietary EDGE (Efficiency Directed Genome Engineering) technology to make performance-equivalent BioAcrylic that is lower cost and more sustainable than petroleum-based acrylic.

OPXBIO has established a joint development agreement with The Dow Chemical Company to collaborate on the large-scale demonstration of the process for BioAcrylic production. OPXBIO anticipates full commercialization within three to five years.

OPXBIO developed and piloted the microbe and bioprocess that will produce its first renewable chemical product—BioAcrylic—in 18 months. The company’s second product is diesel fuel bio-processed from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. OPXBIO has raised $60 million with venture investors Altira Group, Braemar Energy Ventures, DBL Investors, Mohr Davidow Ventures, US Renewables Group and X/Seed Capital.

Summer arrives in Independence OR for July the Fourth celebrations.

2011-07-01T06:23:00.000-07:00

Finally, after the wettest spring that we have seen here for many years, we're going to have a solid week of warm weather and sunshine. This might be the year that we won't have any rain on the Fourth of July weekend.

Here's a home video of fireworks here from 2008

Independence Oregon is a small town, but independence Day is our day to party, in fact we had fireworks on July 3rd and 4th both. We have more people in town over the fourth than any other time of the year.

The show is in Riverview park in the old downtown, and the fireworks are shot off on the opposite side of the Willamette River, only a couple hundred feet away, for a close-up view for those that want to sit on the river bank.

Senator Bernie Sanders calls for the President to stand with the American people

2011-06-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

Sen. Bernie Sanders: We Will Not Balance the Budget on the Backs of Working Families

Truthout Tuesday 28 June 2011

by: Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont)Statement

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) delivered this speech on the floor of the Senate, on Monday June 27, 2011.
Mr. President, this is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. In the coming days and weeks, decisions will be made about our national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American in this country for decades to come.

At a time when the richest people and the largest corporations in our country are doing phenomenally well, and, in many cases, have never had it so good, while the middle class is disappearing and poverty is increasing, it is absolutely imperative that a deficit reduction package not include the disastrous cuts in programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, the children and the poor that the Republicans in Congress, dominated by the extreme right wing, are demanding.

In my view, the President of the United States of America needs to stand with the American people and say to the Republican leadership that enough is enough. No, we will not balance the budget on the backs of working families, the elderly, the sick, the children, and the poor, who have already sacrificed enough in terms of lost jobs, lost wages, lost homes, and lost pensions. Yes, we will demand that millionaires and billionaires and the largest corporations in America contribute to deficit reduction as a matter of shared sacrifice. Yes, we will reduce unnecessary and wasteful spending at the Pentagon. And, no we will not be blackmailed once again by the Republican leadership in Washington, who are threatening to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States government for the first time in our nation’s history unless they get everything they want.

Read article at Truthout

Israel to Stop Flotilla "Without Physical Contact"

2011-06-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Clinton: Gaza flotilla a bid to provoke Israel

by Gaza Flotilla 101 June 23, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday criticized activists planning to challenge Israel’s sea blockade of the Gaza Strip, saying their efforts are neither “necessary or useful” in helping the Palestinian people of Gaza.

A day after the State Department warned Americans against participating in the planned flotilla, Clinton said the flotilla, which Israel has said it will thwart, is not helpful and will only increase tensions. She noted that Israeli authorities had this week approved new shipments of housing construction material to enter Gaza legally and that the aim of the organizers appeared to be to merely provoke Israel into using its right to defend itself.

Why did Weiner resign, while Gingrich is running for POTUS

2011-06-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

by geezerpower June 18, 2011

This video is compliments of Ask Anthony Weiner on his Youtube channel. Unlike many Youtube sites, Anthony asks for your questions and allows open comments. I just commented there and, so far the comments are not moderated. Needless to mention there are some derogatory messages from Faux New$ types, but overall, a lot of the comments are from folks that understand what is going on.

So far there are only 4708 subscribers and 1494 channel comments, but, at least, this is not controlled by the corporate media...yet! I like Weiner, for many reasons, but especially for standing up to the Corporate Choir on healthcare issues. Worthy of mention is that "The Grinch" still has the unpremeditated gall to show his face in DC and is actually putting in a bid for POTUS. It will take a lot of scandal sauce for me to digest anything as ludicrous as this...

Newt Gingrich, Representative (R-GA) and leader of the Republican Revolution of 1994 : Resigned from the House after admitting in 1998 to having had an affair with his intern while he was married to his second wife, and at the same time he was leading the impeachment of Bill Clinton for perjury regarding an affair with his intern Monica Lewinsky. (1998)...He is just one of a long list of blah blah yaddayaddayadda

U.S. Dismisses Terror Indictment Against Osama Bin Laden

2011-06-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg June 17, 2011, 4:45 PM EDT

By Patricia Hurtado and Chris Dolmetsch

U.S. prosecutors in New York, the first to identify and charge Osama bin Laden three years before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, were granted their request to dismiss the case against him, more than a month after he was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in New York today ordered that the entire case be voided against bin Laden, a Saudi who was killed May 1 at his Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound by a team of U.S. Navy SEALs during a 40-minute raid.

Bin Laden was first charged secretly by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan in June 1998 for allegedly organizing a global conspiracy to attack U.S. facilities and citizens.

After the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were hit by near-simultaneous bombings on Aug. 7, 1998, the U.S. filed an updated indictment against him in November 1998, charging him with directing those attacks and with the murders of 224 people, including 12 U.S. citizens.

The indictment was first filed by prosecutors working for then-U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, who had established the nation’s first terrorist prosecution unit after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center that killed six people and injured more than 1,000

However, one year ago, on June 19, 2010, according to Jurist.org, a judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) dismissed 49 terrorism lawsuits, including five cases against relatives of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, citing lack of evidence. Judge George Daniels dismissed claims against four half-brothers and a nephew of bin Laden, holding that the prosecution lacked evidence to support the relatives' involvement in al Qaeda operations surrounding the 9/11 attacks. The claims were brought seven years ago by the families of victims who died in the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001.

What happens when a defendant in a lawsuit dies?

Answer: according to answers .com

"When any party to a lawsuit dies, the estate of the deceased party is substituted for the person. The estate executor or administrator then becomes the party in interest to handle the lawsuit. In most states, the executor/administrator will handle the lawsuit without having to consult with the ultimate beneficiaries before taking any action, such as settling. In practice though it is wise to get some feeling from the beneficiaries, since they might make some objections about a settlement and try to hold the executor/administrator liable for making a bad settlement. But once the executor/administrator does sign on the settlement, the beneficiaries cannot re-open the case just because they dislike the result."

...................

While it is said that it is standard procedure to dismiss the case of the deceased, Osama Bin Laden, I can't help but wonder what options will be available to the 911 victims who believe that Bin Laden was responsible", or for that matter, what options are available for the ones who believe the US Government is responsible?

US and Israel vs the Middle East. aka Mohamed Ali vs Mr. Rogers

2011-06-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

wordgeezer Jun 15, 2011

The unrest in Libya and intervention by the NWO powers that be takes "Wag The Dog" to a whole new level. George Duhhbya Bu$h once said "oceans no longer divide us and I now know what he meant. Israel will see to it that the US is right in the middle of things in the Middle East and the US president will be a good friend no matter what. The use of controversial and illegal weapons of war are well known, but not mentioned much in the main stream media and were also used in the first Gulf War.

Trump Roasts the Weiner: If only Hedda Hopper were here

2011-06-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

By G: June 8, 2011

If only Hedda Hopper were around to see this one. Here we are at war with the whole Middle East while in the middle of another great depression, and the most important news on main stream media is about a weiner roast. TMZ, who is noted for their coverage of celebrity gossip is running with a story today about Donald Trump's video " Anthony Weiner is a 'PSYCHO " , "who should never be allowed to run for office again".

Trump has a lot of unpremeditated gall, considering his obvious association with sex scandels that go way beyond what is seen on twitter. His pal, real estate mogul, Tevfik Arif, with his pimping for the elite on Ataturk's old yacht should be enough in itself to keep his pie hole closed. If it isn't, how about we connect the dots on his unsavory association with Rudy Giuliani.

Donald Trump can be seen on video @ TMZ

Colbert Report nails The Grinch

2011-05-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

PLEASE VIEW ON YOUTUBE

Colbert Report nails The Grinch

2011-05-20T03:40:00.000-07:00

John Lithgow does a "dramatic reading" of Newt Gingrich's crazy press release that was intended to fire back at critics.

Worlds most dangerous man

2011-05-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

WikiLeaks - Most Dangerous Man Part 1/3

WikiLeaks - Most Dangerous Man Part 2/3

WikiLeaks- The Most Dangerous Man Part 3/3

TEXT

2011-05-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

2011-05-06T14:07:00.001-07:00

Other Guy Named Osama Bin Laden Can Finally Relax

Blackwater’s New Ethics Chief: John Ashcroft

2011-05-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

Common Dreams

Published on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 by Wired.com

by Spencer Ackerman

The consortium in charge of restructuring the world’s most infamous private security firm just added a new chief in charge of keeping the company on the straight and narrow. Yes, John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, is now an “independent director” of Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater.

John Ashcroft

Ashcroft will head Xe’s new “subcommittee on governance,” its backers announced early Wednesday in a statement, an entity designed to “maximize governance, compliance and accountability” and “promote the highest degrees of ethics and professionalism within the private security industry.”

In other words, no more shooting civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan; no more signing for weapons its guards aren’t authorized to carry in warzones; no more impersonations of cartoon characters to acquire said weaponry; and no more ‘roids and coke on the job.

Ashcroft’s arrival at Xe is yet another clear signal it’s not giving up the quest for lucrative government security contracts now that it’s no longer owned by founder Erik Prince, even as it emphasizes the side of its business that trains law enforcement officers. In September, it won part of a $10 billion State Department contract to protect diplomats, starting with the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem. Ashcroft, a U.S. senator before becoming attorney general in the Bush administration, is a very known quantity to the federal officials that Xe will pitch. Even if he’s not lobbying for Blackwater, Ashcroft’s addition on the board is meant to reassure government officials that its newfound rectitude.

To some, Ashcroft will be forever known as the face of Bush-era counterterrorism, the official who vigorously defended the Patriot Act’s sweeping surveillance powers; told civil libertarians that their dissents “only aid terrorists“; and covered up the Spirit of Justice’s boob. At the same time, when Ashcroft was critically ill in 2005, he resisted a White House entreaty to his hospital bed seeking to reauthorize warrantless surveillance in defiance of the acting attorney general.

More at Common Dreams

Chris Hedges Speaks on Osama bin Laden’s Death

2011-05-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

truthdig Posted on May 1, 2011

Chris Hedges, speaking at a Truthdig fundraising event in Los Angeles on Sunday evening, made these remarks about Osama bin Laden’s death.

I know that because of this announcement, that reportedly Osama bin Laden was killed, Bob [Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer] wanted me to say a few words about it … about al-Qaida. I spent a year of my life covering al-Qaida for The New York Times. It was the work in which I, and other investigative reporters, won the Pulitzer Prize. And I spent seven years of my life in the Middle East. I was the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. I’m an Arabic speaker. And when someone came over and told ... me the news, my stomach sank. I’m not in any way naive about what al-Qaida is. It’s an organization that terrifies me. I know it intimately.

But I’m also intimately familiar with the collective humiliation that we have imposed on the Muslim world. The expansion of military occupation that took place throughout, in particular the Arab world, following 9/11—and that this presence of American imperial bases, dotted, not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Doha—is one that has done more to engender hatred and acts of terror than anything ever orchestrated by Osama bin Laden.

Listen or read the transcript on truthdig.com

Osama Bin Laden's Death: Google Search = 71,100,000 images

2011-05-02T17:02:00.000-07:00

DNA testing confirms Osama bin Laden's death

Published: Monday, May 02, 2011, 11:04 AM
The Associated Press

The Obama administration used DNA testing and other means to confirm that elite American forces in Pakistan had in fact killed Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, officials said Monday, as the world absorbed the stunning news.

The officials said the DNA testing alone offered a "99.9 percent" certainty that bin Laden was shot dead in a daring U.S. military operation in Pakistan. Detailed photo analysis by the CIA, confirmation by other people at the raid site and matching physical features like bin Laden's height all helped confirmed the identification.

Said one official: "There should be no doubt in anybody's mind, this is Osama bin Laden."

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.

Still, it was unclear if the world would ever get visual proof. Bin Laden's body was quickly buried at sea, and administration officials were weighing the merit and appropriateness of releasing a photo of bin Laden, who was shot in the head.

The Associated Press, in the typical style of the corporate media doesn't mention any sources except for one mention of the CIA, who did photo analysis. I don't know about you, but I can't hang my hat on terms like...other means, The officials said, confirmation by other people, Said one official, administration officials, and, particularly, "There should be no doubt in anybody's mind.

One of the images that is showing up in quite a few places is this one. It is troubling because Osama had grey in his beard 10 years ago, while in more recent images it is all white. Just like the video images we.ve seen for years, this is obviously not Osama.

That being said, I would like to refer to an article, written in Nov 2001, by Michael Chossudovsky.

The Role of Pakistan's Military Intelligence (ISI) in the September 11 Attacks

by Michel Chossudovsky
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa

Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), Montréal

Posted at globalresearch.ca 2 November 2001

Pakistan's chief spy Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad "was in the US when the attacks occurred." He arrived in the US on the 4th of September, a full week before the attacks. He had meetings at the State Department "after" the attacks on the WTC. But he also had "a regular visit of consultations" with his US counterparts at the CIA and the Pentagon during the week prior to September 11.

What was the nature of these routine "pre-September 11 consultations"? Were they in any way related to the subsequent "post-September 11 consultations" pertaining to Pakistan's decision to cooperate with Washington. Was the planning of war being discussed between Pakistani and US officials?

On the 9th of September while General Ahmad was in the US, the leader of the Northern Alliance Commander Ahmad Shah Masood was assassinated. The Northern Alliance had informed the Bush Administration that the ISI was allegedly implicated in the assassination.

The Bush Administration consciously took the decision in "the post September 11 consultations" with Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad to directly "cooperate" with Pakistan's military intelligence (ISI) despite its links to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban and its alleged role in the assassination of Commander Masood, which coincidentally occurred two days before the terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile, senior Pentagon and State Department officials had been rushed to Islamabad to put the finishing touches on America's war plans. And on the Sunday prior to the onslaught of the bombing of major cities in Afghanistan (October 7th), Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad was sacked from his position as head of the ISI in what was described as a routine "reshuffling."

In the days following General Ahmad's dismissal, a report published in the Times of India, revealed the links between Pakistan's Chief spy Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad and the presumed "ring leader" of the WTC attacks Mohamed Atta. The Times of India article was based on an official intelligence report of the Delhi government that had been transmitted through official channels to Washington. Quoting an Indian government source Agence France Press (AFP) confirms in this regard that: "The evidence we [the Government of India] have supplied to the US is of a much wider range and depth than just one piece of paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced act of terrorism."

The revelation of the Times of India article has several implications. The Indian intelligence report not only points to the links between ISI Chief General Ahmad and terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta, it also indicates that other ISI officials might have had contacts with the terrorists. Moreover, it suggests that the September 11 attacks were not an act of "individual terrorism" organised by a separate Al Qaeda cell, but rather they were part of coordinated military-intelligence operation, emanating from Pakistan's ISI.

The Times of India report also sheds light on the nature of General Ahmad's "business activities" in the US during the week prior to September 11, raising the distinct possibility of ISI contacts with Mohamed Atta in the US "prior" to the attacks on the WTC, precisely at the time when General Mahmoud and his delegation were on a so-called "regular visit of consultations" with US officials.

In assessing the alleged links between the terrorists and the ISI, it should be understood that Lt. General Ahmad as head of the ISI was a "US approved appointee". As head of the ISI since 1999, he was in liaison with his US counterparts in the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Pentagon. Also bear in mind that Pakistan's ISI remained throughout the entire post Cold War era until the present, the launch-pad for CIA covert operations in the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Balkans

The existence of an "ISI-Osama-Taliban axis" was a matter of public record. The links between the ISI and agencies of the US government including the CIA are also a matter of public record. The Bush Administration was fully cognizant of Lt. General Ahmad's role. In other words, rather than waging a campaign against international terrorism, the evidence would suggest that it is indirectly abetting international terrorism, using the Pakistani ISI as a "go-between".

The Bush Administration's links with Pakistan's ISI --including its "consultations" with General Ahmad in the week prior to September 11-- raise the issue of "complicity". While Ahmad was talking to US officials at the CIA and the Pentagon, ISI officials were allegedly also in contact with the September 11 terrorists.

In other words, according to the Indian government intelligence report, the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks had links to Pakistan's ISI, which in turn has links to agencies of the US government. What this suggests is that key individuals within the US military-intelligence establishment might have known about the ISI contacts with the September 11 terrorist "ring-leader" Mohamed Atta and failed to act.

Whether this amounts to the complicity of the Bush Administration remains to be firmly established. The least one can expect at this stage is an inquiry. What is crystal clear, however, is that this war is not a "campaign against international terrorism". It is a war of conquest with devastating consequences for the future of humanity. And the American people have been consciously and deliberately misled by their government. Whether this amounts to the complicity of the Bush Administration remains to be firmly established.

And the American people have been consciously and deliberately misled by their government.

Ultimately the truth must prevail. The falsehoods behind America's war against the people of Afghanistan must be unveiled.

Read the whole article at globalresearch.ca

911 responders benefits depend on terrrorist watch list

2011-05-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

With commercials, whatever you do, don't try to stop the video or you will have to watch the commercial again...G:

Friends Without Benefits

Wonder why the IAFF is moving FirePAC?

IAFF Freezes Federal FIREPAC Contributions

by FossilMedic

Amendment submitted by Florida Congressman Cliff Stearns (Republican) mandates all the World Trade Center responders be compared to the database of suspected terrorists before receiving benefits from the James L. Zadroga 9/11 Health & Compensation Act.

NO other federal program requires such scrutiny.

As Jon Stewart says – a final kick in the nuts.

Hat tip to firegeezer.com

Taking it to the streets

2011-04-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

wikipedia

Lowkey (born Kareem Dennis, 23 May 1986) is a English musician, poet, playwright and political activist of English and Iraqi descent. He first came to fame through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music business. He would return in 2008 with wider music coverage, featured on BBC Radio and appearing at various festivals and concerts including the Electric Proms, Glastonbury, T In The Park and Oxygen in the build up to his first solo album, as well as collaborating with other famous British musicians to form a supergroup.

Early lifeDennis was born in London to an Iraqi mother and an English father. From the age of twelve he began to rap, initially imitating American rappers but soon using his own accent. He began attending the open mic sessions which took place at the Deal Real record shop on Carnaby Street, Central London. The first time he went he introduced himself as Lowkey and was told there was already a regular there by that name; the two had a rap battle over the use of the name which Dennis won. He was stabbed at the age of 15, the wound severed two tendons and narrowly missed his ulnar artery. His older brother killed himself when Dennis was 18, he suffered from mental illness but was never diagnosed. Dennis has said that the loss of his brother taught him that some things can never make sense or be understood.

Lowkey: Israel is a terrorist state

Libyan rebel leader with U.S. ties feels abandoned

2011-04-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

McClatchy Newspapers April 12, 2011

By Shashank Bengali

BENGHAZI, Libya — Khalifa Hifter thought he'd be America's man in Libya.

He'd spent the last 24 years living under what he calls U.S. government protection in suburban northern Virginia. Before he returned to Libya last month, State Department and CIA officials sought him out for meetings. He delivered to them wish lists of weapons and vehicles to bolster the fight against Moammar Gadhafi.

To his frustration, however, U.S. officials haven't contacted him since. They've ignored his pleas for direct military support while the rebels steadily lose ground to Gadhafi's better-equipped forces.

"The United States is a second home to me," Hifter said. "They should be cooperating with me to help the Libyan people."

There's also a dispute about his role with the rebel army, a controversy that may help explain why the rebels appear nearly as disorganized now as they were when their revolt began two months ago.

In one of his first interviews since he returned to Libya, Hifter said that he'd been appointed the rebels' field commander this week. The hourlong interview he gave to two reporters Monday was arranged by the official rebel military spokesman and conducted in an office in the rebels' military headquarters. An organizational chart Hifter displayed showed him as equal to Gen. Abdelfatah Younis, a former Gadhafi interior minister who also lays claim to rebel command.

Read all about it at McClatchy News

Double Feature: Proof that 911 must be investigated

2011-04-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

911: Giuliani had pre knowledge of the collapse of WTC

Uploaded by EndeavorFreedom on Jul 14, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/user/EndeavorFreedom

Giuliani stated in an ABC News interview that he was given warning of a collapse well in advance of the actual event. I was "told that the World Trade Center was gonna' collapse," referring to the 9:59 destruction of the South Tower. "I went down to the scene and we set up a headquarters at 75 Barkley Street, which was right there with the Police Commissioner, the Fire Commissioner, the Head of Emergency Management, and we were operating out of there when we were told that the World Trade Center was gonna' to collapse. And it did collapse before we could actually get out of the building, so we were trapped in the building for 10, 15 minutes, and finally found an exit, got out, walked north, and took a lot of people with us."

His account is corroborated by 2 different eye witness accounts from the passages of the Oral Histories of emergency responders. The account of EMT Richard Zarillo goes as follows: As I was walking towards the Fire command post, I found Steve Mosiello. I said, Steve, where's the boss? I have to give him a message. He said, well, what's the message? I said the buildings are going to collapse; we need to evac everybody out. With a very confused look he said who told you that? I said I was just with John at OEM. OEM says the buildings are going to collapse; we need to get out. He escorted me over to Chief Ganci. He said, hey, Pete, we got a message that the buildings are going to collapse. His reply was who the f___ told you that? Then Steve brought me in and with Chief Ganci, Commissioner Feehan, Steve, I believe Chief Turi was initially there, I said, listen, I was just at OEM. The message I was given was that the buildings are going to collapse; we need to get our people out. At that moment, this thunderous, rolling roar came down and that's when the building came down, the first tower came down."

Chris Hedges: Throw Out the Money Changers

2011-04-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

truthout

Monday 18 April 2011
by: Chris Hedges, Truthdig

These are remarks Chris Hedges made in Union Square in New York City last Friday during a protest outside a branch office of the Bank of America.

We stand today before the gates of one of our temples of finance. It is a temple where greed and profit are the highest good, where self-worth is determined by the ability to amass wealth and power at the expense of others, where laws are manipulated, rewritten and broken, where the endless treadmill of consumption defines human progress, where fraud and crimes are the tools of business.

The two most destructive forces of human nature—greed and envy—drive the financiers, the bankers, the corporate mandarins and the leaders of our two major political parties, all of whom profit from this system. They place themselves at the center of creation. They disdain or ignore the cries of those below them. They take from us our rights, our dignity and thwart our capacity for resistance. They seek to make us prisoners in our own land. They view human beings and the natural world as mere commodities to exploit until exhaustion or collapse. Human suffering, wars, climate change, poverty, it is all the price of business. Nothing is sacred. The Lord of Profit is the Lord of Death.

~read more~

ISM confirms the death of Vittorio Arrigoni

2011-04-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

ISM

Posted on: April 15, 2011

The International Solidarity Movement is shocked and deeply saddened by the killing of our friend and colleague Vittorio Arrigoni. Vik was an inspiring activist and generous soul. Please keep his family and friends in your thoughts.

We will post more information here as it becomes available.

Press Stories

CNN: Italian activist and journalist kidnapped in Gaza is dead

NY Times: Hamas Says It Found Body of Italian Activist

Haaretz: Hamas: Abducted pro-Palestinian activist found dead in Gaza

Al Jazeera English: Body of kidnapped Italian found in Gaza

Guardian: Body of kidnapped Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni found in Gaza

Stay Human

Book Review by Kim Petersen -Dissident Voice- 9 August 2010

Vittorio Arrigoni has written an on-the-spot account of what occurred in Gaza during Israel’s Cast Lead operation. Arrigoni — who lived in Gaza working as an authentic journalist and volunteer with International Solidarity Movement — exemplifies what it is to be a humanist. This comes through in his Gaza: Stay Human — an eyewitness chronicling of destruction, misery, courage, inhumanity, and humanity in Gaza during the massacre that was Cast Lead

A few things to keep in mind

Lee Kaplan of stoptheism.com, a web site that concentrates on debunking the International Solidarity Movement, recently did an op-ed in the Israel National News outlining people who should be targeted in Gaza, including Vittorio Arrigoni, and makes no bones about his Zionist support of violence in Gaza.

Quote"

"Today, these “activists”, including Darlene Wallach and Vittorio Arrigoni are back in Gaza working as human shields for the Hamas. Their purpose is to travel in ambulances the Hamas use to transport terrorists and weapons that the IDF may neutralize in a war zone and to once again interfere with anti-terrorist operations."

"It is high time that the IDF and Air Force kill ISM activists found to assist Hamas in the combat zone; they are purposely in the way, the same as the Hamas terrorists the ISM protects and assists. Foreign nationals were given the chance to leave Gaza and the ISM activists have refused. The Israeli government should inform the respective countries of these ISMers that they are fighting on the side of the enemy and will be treated as legitimate targets in Gaza. If their embassies won’t command them to leave Gaza, then Israel should have a free hand to liquidate them."

You can read the article ~HERE~

Lee Kaplan is an undercover investigative journalist and a contributor to Front Page Magazine. He is also a regular columnist for the Israel National News and Canada Free Press and a senior intelligence analyst and communications director for the Northeast Intelligence Network. He heads the organizations Defending America for Knowledge and Action (DAFKA) and Stop the ISM. He has been interviewed on over one hundred nationally and internationally syndicated radio shows and been a guest on Fox Cable TV’s Dayside with Linda Vester and Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor. He is a guest every Tuesday on the Jim Kirkwood Show on Utah's K-Talk Radio am630. He is currently working on a book about America's colleges in the War on Terror and the International Solidarity Movement.

What about Scott Finstermaker, Gitmo & Obama's promise?

2011-04-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

Mr. Fenstermaker is a member of the pool of Qualified Civilian Defense Counsel, authorized to represent the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba before the Military Commissions being conducted at Guantanamo Bay. He has a secret security clearance and is available to represent clients involved in national security-related issues. Mr. Fenstermaker has experience litigating pursuant to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and is prepared to assist service members confronted with issues within the military criminal justice system.

Who controls the representation of the defendent?

The Populist

Scott Fenstermaker has become the lightning rod for 9/11. He is the only defense lawyer mentioned in the upcoming trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-conspirators. Although he won’t be defending them in court, he’s been pilloried by the press for daring to suggest that these detainees have any legal rights.

I called him this weekend, and asked him why.

Scott Fenstermaker has represented Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali in various legal proceedings at Guantanamo Bay. Mr. Ali stands accused of conspiracy, murder, destruction of property, hijacking, and terrorism for his part in the September 11th attacks. I could not understand why Mr. Fenstermaker would not defend his client in court, so I began the interview by asking him to clarify this:

TP: Why won’t you represent Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali when he stands trial in New York for the September 11th attacks?

SF: The government would not let me represent him.

TP: Why not?

SF: Well, that’s a good question. The government goes crazy every time the detainees want me to represent them, and the government doesn’t like it.

TP: How does the government prevent you from representing the detainees?

SF: The government wants to control who represents the detainees. The government not only wants to, but it is. The government does this by controlling the judges. The judges are doing exactly what the government wants them to do in these cases. The judges ask what the government wants them to do, and then they do it.

Read article @ The Populist

Section 1032 & 1033 of HR 6523

Statement by the President on H.R. 6523

For Immediate Release January 07, 2011 Statement by the President on H.R. 6523
Today I have signed into law H.R. 6523, the "Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011." The Act authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, for military construction, and for national security-related energy programs.

Section 1032 bars the use of funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act for fiscal year 2011 to transfer Guantanamo detainees into the United States, and section 1033 bars the use of certain funds to transfer detainees to the custody or effective control of foreign countries unless specified conditions are met. Section 1032 represents a dangerous and unprecedented challenge to critical executive branch authority to determine when and where to prosecute Guantanamo detainees, based on the facts and the circumstances of each case and our national security interests. The prosecution of terrorists in Federal court is a powerful tool in our efforts to protect the Nation and must be among the options available to us. Any attempt to deprive the executive branch of that tool undermines our Nation's counterterrorism efforts and has the potential to harm our national security.

April Fools

2011-04-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

A World View Interview with Benjamin Netanyahu

Uploaded by israelnews on Mar 31, 2011

Channel 2 and YouTube bring you a special interview with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, in which citizens ask questions about the peace process, unrest in the Middle East, and more.

Hogwash, how about the question about Israel funding of mercenaries? This was brought up by Firedoglake in early May, but, of course, not repeated in the main stream media, so the question is...

Did the Israeli government authorize the Israeli company, Global CST, to finance and arm and supply Gaddafi with 50,000 African Mercenaries?

The US demands that Israeli-funded African Mercenaries be granted Immunity from War Crimes!

FireDogLake

By: marsdragon Friday March 4, 2011 9:29 am
Tweet

Edward Teller first posted a story about this yesterday, but its not up on the front pages anymore so, I need to hat tip him first by linking to it here.

Second, I want to add some more details that have come to my attention since he posted it. This story is important because it involves the potential use of US Military personnel in a theater of war where they may be harmed, and it involves the use of US tax dollars to pay for those forces. It also involves the right of an indigenous people, Libyans, to determine their future for themselves, and how they have risen up to oppose a brutal tyrant of over 40 years. Finally, this story involves the potential that our Commander-in-Chief and President, Barack Obama, may be lying through his teeth to us, the American people, and that NATO, the United Nations Security Council, and other European nations may also be doing one thing but claiming to do another.

~More~

Newt and Evangelicals: Not a Match Made in Heaven

2011-03-30T10:56:00.000-07:00

TIME

Posted by Amy Sullivan Wednesday, March 30, 2011

What was Newt Gingrich doing at John Hagee's Cornerstone Church on Sunday? Besides delivering another speech from his book of Demagogue Mad Libs, that is. The most obvious answer is that Gingrich is courting evangelical voters. But ever since the LA Times wrote about Gingrich's outreach to evangelicals earlier this month, I've been skeptical about whether that's actually the case.

Sure, in the past few years, Gingrich has met with groups of pastors in key electoral states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and Florida. He helped support an effort in Iowa that year that ousted three state supreme court justices who were involved in a 2009 ruling that sanctioned gay marriage. And he's gone on Christian media outlets like James Dobson's Focus on the Family radio show and the Christian Broadcasting Network to reintroduce himself to social conservatives.

These are the actions of a man who is either engaged in a futile quest to win over evangelical GOP primary voters or looking to build a distribution network or his growing enterprise of books and movies on religious themes.

Why futile? First of all, if Gingrich is looking to earn the endorsements of influential evangelical leaders, Hagee isn't near the top tier of people he needs to court. But more than that, Hagee is considered toxic by many evangelicals for his controversial comments about the Holocaust and description of the Catholic Church as "the great whore." John McCain learned this the hard way in 2008 when his campaign initially welcomed an endorsement from Hagee, only to reject it days later when Hagee's more hateful remarks attracted media attention.

Then there's the matter of Gingrich's divorces. Plural. Not to mention the affairs that led to each of his divorces. While evangelicals have long ignored divorce as a social concern in favor of focusing on issues like abortion and gay marriage, it still carries a significant taboo. And having an affair can get a person booted from a congregation. During the 2000 primaries, Dobson issued a personal press release highlighting McCain's history of infidelity: "The senator is being touted by the media as a man of principle, yet he was involved with other women while married to his first wife."

A personal history that includes multiple affairs and divorces doesn't have to spell electoral doom for a GOP candidate if he presents it as part of a narrative of sin, repentance, and redemption. Along these lines, George W. Bush spent much of the 2000 campaign talking about his alcoholic past and referring to himself as a "sinner" as a way of communicating his new spiritual sobriety. He once was blind, but now he sees.

The rest of the story

Hat tip to Youtube user
DBRielly

Iraq ~ Afghanistan ~ Libya: Haven't we been here before?

2011-03-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

Libya: Largest Military Undertaking since the Invasion of Iraq. Towards a Protracted Military Operation

by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, March 20, 2011

Outright lies by the international media: Bombs and missiles are presented as an instrument of peace and democratization...
This is not a humanitarian operation. The war on Libya opens up a new regional war theater.
There are three distinct war theaters in the Middle East Central Asian region. Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.
What is unfolding is a fourth US-NATO War Theater in North Africa, with the risk of escalation.
These four war theaters are functionally related, they are part of an integrated US-NATO military agenda.

The bombing of Libya has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for several years as confirmed by former NATO commander General Wesley Clark.
Operation Odyssey Dawn is acknowledged as the "biggest Western military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq began exactly eight years ago." (Russia: Stop 'indiscriminate' bombing of Libya - Taiwan News Online, March 19, 2011).
This war is part of the battle for oil. Libya is among the World's largest oil economies with approximately 3.5% of global oil reserves, more than twice those of the US.
The underlying objective is to gain control over Libya's oil and gas reserves under the disguise of a humanitarian intervention.
The geopolitical and economic implications of a US-NATO led military intervention directed against Libya are far-reaching.
"Operation Odyssey Dawn " is part of a broader military agenda in the Middle East and Central Asia which consists in gaining control and corporate ownership over more than sixty percent of the world's reserves of oil and natural gas, including oil and gas pipeline routes.
With 46.5 billion barrels of proven reserves, (10 times those of Egypt), Libya is the largest oil economy in the African continent followed by Nigeria and Algeria (Oil and Gas Journal). In contrast, US proven oil reserves are of the order of 20.6 billion barrels (December 2008) according to the Energy Information Administration. U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves).
Largest Military Undertaking since the Invasion of Iraq
A military operation of this size and magnitude, involving the active participation of several NATO member and partner countries is never improvised. Operation Odyssey Dawn was in the advanced stages of military planning prior to the protest movement in Egypt and Tunisia.
Public opinion was led to believe that the protest movement had spread spontaneously from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya.
The armed insurgency in Eastern Libya is directly supported by foreign powers. Rebel forces in Benghazi immediately hoisted the red, black and green banner with the crescent and star: the flag of the monarchy of King Idris, which symbolized the rule of the former colonial powers. (See Manlio Dinucci, Libya-When historical memory is erased, Global Research, February 28, 2011)
The insurrection was also planned and coordinated with the timing of the military operation. It had been carefully planned months ahead of the protest movement, as part of a covert operation.
US, British special forces were reported to be on the ground "helping the opposition" right from the outset.
What we are dealing with is a military roadmap, a timeline of carefully planned military and intelligence events.

Read more @ GlobalResearch.ca

Piers Morgan plays softball with Netanyahoo

2011-03-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

It is beginning to dawn on me why the main stream media got rid of Kieth Olbermann, noting that Morgans softball questions are lobbed right over the base. Netanyahoo doesn't even get to first base.

US, allies set for quick military action in Libya

2011-03-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

No disrespect to the President intended, but I couldn't resist using this clip, which of course has nothing to do with the "No Fly Zone". That was enacted last night while we were snoozing. This aircraft was downed yesterday and looks like it was hit by a Star Wars weapon of some kind. I doubt that Gaddafi has that kind of technology, in fact, there are few countries that do. Is this, sort of thing, what we will be seeing in Libya, like we have in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza, and Lebanon.

People gather around the smoldering remains of an aircraft after it crashed north of Benghazi, Libya, Thursday, March 17, 2011. Witnesses said the aircraft was piloted by anti-Gadhafi rebels and crashed for mechanical reasons. Libyan rebels used three of their own seized planes and some helicopters to attack government troops fighting to advance on the city of Benghazi, said Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman in the rebel base. Gadhafi's forces encircled a key eastern city and his warplanes went deeper into rebel-held territory to bombard Benghazi's airport Thursday, threatening an all-out offensive to bring down the rebellion. Photo: Alaguri / AP

This is one of the rebel pickups on the road to Benghazi. My guess is that it was hit by an electromagnetic weapon fired from an aircraft. Do you suppose that Gaddafi has that kind of technology? Nah, he had a cannon in the old days that fired a nuke, but he had to give up his weapons a long time ago.

Look at the close up of the plane. Toasted and melted parts, just like the pickup above. There are many examples of burnt vehicles and also a picture of a gash that goes clear across the front of a building in Benghazi.

San Antonio Express-News

Updated 07:14 a.m., Friday, March 18, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration and America's allies have won an open-ended endorsement from the United Nations for military action in Libya, where Moammar Gadhafi's regime is pressing to eliminate any opposition to his rule. Now they'll have to move fast.

The breakthrough at the U.N. Security Council comes after days of cautious diplomacy from the administration and sets the stage for airstrikes, a no-fly zone and other military measures short of a ground invasion to halt the violence in Libya and push Gadhafi from power. It was unclear if Britain and France would lead the way militarily, but the U.S. will certainly be counted on to do a large part of the heavy lifting.

The U.S. backing for international action comes after several administration officials questioned the plan for providing aerial cover, with the Pentagon perhaps the most vociferous in its skepticism. It has described the no-fly zone as a step tantamount to war, and a number of U.S. officials have expressed fears that involvement in Libya could further strain America's already stretched military and entangle the country in an expensive and messy conflict in another Muslim country.

Don't forget the marshmallows

Inside Story - Foreign troops in Bahrain

2011-03-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

The US demands that Israeli-funded African Mercenaries be granted Immunity from War Crimes!

2011-03-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

Note: At 5:17 into this video Obama claims that Gaddafi has been hiring mercenaries. I wonder how many people in this room knew the real story and if they did, would they dare try publishing it?

FiredogLake Friday March 4, 2011

By: marsdragon
Edward Teller first posted a story about this yesterday, but its not up on the front pages anymore so, I need to hat tip him first by linking to it here.

Second, I want to add some more details that have come to my attention since he posted it. This story is important because it involves the potential use of US Military personnel in a theater of war where they may be harmed, and it involves the use of US tax dollars to pay for those forces. It also involves the right of an indigenous people, Libyans, to determine their future for themselves, and how they have risen up to oppose a brutal tyrant of over 40 years. Finally, this story involves the potential that our Commander-in-Chief and President, Barack Obama, may be lying through his teeth to us, the American people, and that NATO, the United Nations Security Council, and other European nations may also be doing one thing but claiming to do another.

Facts:

1. The UK Telegraph reported today that

African mercenaries hired by the Gaddafi regime to kill Libyan protesters would be immune from prosecution for war crimes due to a clause in this weekend’s UN resolution that was demanded by the United States.

2. The United Nations has imposed an arms embargo on the nation of Libya

3. The Rebels have seized most of the port cities on the Mediterranean (meaning they will be the first ones to receive any ship-based weapons cargo…)
4. The US is moving military hardware and assets into the Mediterranean...
President Obama said he is giving the U.S. military “full capacity to act, potentially rapidly,” if things get worse, reports the Washington Post. “I don’t want us hamstrung,” the president said Thursday, adding that he didn’t want “a situation in which defenseless civilians were finding themselves trapped and in great danger,” or “a stalemate that over time could be bloody.”

5. Yet, the Israeli government has authorized the Israeli company, Global CST, to finance and arm and supply Gaddafi with 50,000 African Mercenaries (from Uganda, Chad and other nations)!

Source FiredogLake

Links

DailyMail

NY Times

Would Gaddafi use WMD on his own country?

2011-03-12T15:31:00.000-08:00

From what I can see, both the US and Israel have been using exotic electronic warefare weapons for many years, starting with the Shock & Awe campaign in Iraq and probably before that. The electronic war weapons that we hear about, like the THEL and what is called the Sunburn are probably only vague clues as to what the gubmint really posses. WMD's is what they are, and probably a lot more scary than H Bombs. What in the world would cause the kind of destruction that melts the engine block in an automobile?

Personally, I doubt that Gaddafi has any WMD, but I don't doubt that he is corrupt enough to make deals with younohoo...G:

Here's what the gubmint admits to according to Space Daily. ABL Air borne laser

And this from Youtube youser 911InvestigationVids EMP Weapons

Speaking of Antiques~Double Feature~Starring Helen Thomas

2011-03-11T12:55:00.000-08:00

My guess is that Helen could be Phoenician, a heritage that goes back thousands of years. In recent studies, dna samples indicated that one third of the Lebanese have the genetic signature of the Phoenicians.

I was fortunate enough to meet a Phoenician when I was in Beirut in 1965. We sit in a coffee house for hours as he explained his heritage. He told me that Beirut was sitting on Phoenician ruins going back to ancient times and all about it being the center of trade for the Mediterranean Sea.

I spent some time on Google this morning, and found Phoenicia.org, which re-enforces what he was telling me back then, but here I am, off subject as usual, so will close with a question. What color are Helens eyes? G%

2012 Are we doomed or do we have a party?

2011-03-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

The Big I

Yep, this is where it's at, at least right now, "the here and now"...that's where I am as I type this message. A message that is already history as it appears on the page, in fact, pretty much everything that I think and do relates to history.

I am positive that the sun will come up in the morning, and reasonably sure that I will be there to see it. The ying and the yang is always in perfect balance, so I need only to understand it and broaden the moment of perception to something that is comprehensive in my current experience.

Sometime in the near future I believe that I will look up the meaning of experience and, if that is edifying, I'll also look up the meaning of qualified. So....what to do tomorrow? Read some more about Mayan glyphs and the precession of the equinox's, or find solace in looking at a dew drop on a blade of grass in a meadow that I have only imagined.

Cracking the Mayan Code

Is Israel using High Energy Weapons in Benghazi?.

2011-03-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

The answer is probably yes. This from FIREDOGLAKE:

Israeli Company Hires Gadhafi’s Mercenaries – With Approval of the Israeli Government

By: EdwardTeller Thursday March 3, 2011 8:34 am

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — An Israeli company is recruiting mercenaries to support Moammar Gadhafi’s efforts to suppress an uprising against his regime, an Israeli news site said Tuesday.

Citing Egyptian sources, the Hebrew-language news site Inyan Merkazi said the company was run by retired Israeli army commanders.

The report claims that many high-profile former Israeli officers have been illegally trading weapons in several African nations, and have faced interrogations over their activities in the past.

The news site said the head of the company recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli intelligence chief Aviv Cokhavi. It added that the officials all approved the company’s recruitment of mercenaries to help Gadhafi.

The leader’s brutal crackdown has killed at least 1,000 Libyans so far, human rights groups say.

According to the report, Israeli officials approved the recruitment out of fears that if toppled, Gadhafi would be replaced by an “extremist Islamic regime.”

During Gadhafi’s four-decade rule of the north African state, he has been one of Israel’s most vocal critics.

Company representatives recently flew to Chad to discuss the matter with a high-ranking Libyan intelligence officer Abduallah Sanusi, the report said. During the meeting, Sanusi agreed to pay the company to recruit up to 50,000 mercenaries from African countries, according to the news site.

Read more at FIREDOGLAKE

Libya calls for no US intervention

2011-03-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

If Corporations paid their fair share of tax there would be no deficit

2011-03-03T11:49:00.000-08:00

February 28, 2011 Pay Up, Corporate Tax Dodgers
We're chumps unless we force Congress to stop tax haven abuse.

By Chuck Collins

Instead of cutting state and federal budgets, the United States should crack down on the corporate tax dodgers thumbing their noses at us.

Across the nation, states are making deep cuts that will wreck the quality of life for everyone to close budget gaps that total more than $100 billion.

But there's a more sensible option. Overseas tax havens enable companies to pretend their profits are earned in other countries like the Cayman Islands. Simply making that ruse illegal would bring home an estimated $100 billion a year.

The next time you read a story about some politician bemoaning that "there's no money" and "we have to make cuts," just point to artful tax dodgers in our midst.

They include some of the banks that trashed the economy but gladly took our tax dollars to stay alive after the economic meltdown. Bank of America. Wells Fargo. Citigroup.

Goldman Sachs took a $10 billion taxpayer bailout but then gamed its effective tax rate down to one percent through what its shakedown-artist executives call "changes in geographic earnings mix." Shame on them. Pay up.

See that FedEx delivery van go by on the roads you paid for? Pay up FedEx! Don't pretend you're not making billions in the U.S. Don't lie and tell us you made all those profits on some island with more palm trees than people. We know the demand for coconut delivery isn't that big.

These corporations are heavy users of our taxpayer funded public infrastructure and property rights protection systems. They use our regulated marketplace, call upon our law enforcement system and judiciary to remedy disputes. They're protected by U.S. police forces and firefighters. They enjoy all the privileges and benefits of tax-paying citizens. They just don't pay their fair share for them.

So, ExxonMobil: the next time your gas station erupts in flames, why don't you call the fire department on the Cayman Islands? Or when someone holds up the joint, how about calling the Luxembourg police, since that's where you claim your profits so you don't have to pay the taxes you owe Uncle Sam.

Hey, Pfizer. Without our remarkable taxpayer-funded system of patents and intellectual property rights protections, everyone and their brother would be making Viagra and undercutting your sales of little blue pills. Pay up!

Those of us who pay sales taxes and have income taxes withheld from our paychecks will bear the brunt of state and federal budget cuts in schools, public transportation, and recreational facilities. Our most vulnerable family members and neighbors will suffer thanks to cuts in mental health services, elder care, and Medicaid.

Oh yes, and children. Arizona is cutting health care for 47,000 children. California, New York, and Mississippi are cutting K-12 education funding. Hey, kids don't vote. Nor do they have corporate lobbyists. An estimated 900,000 jobs will be cut, including teachers, firefighters, police officers, and medical first responders.

Boeing, you want another contract for a taxpayer-funded military jet? Well, pay up! Pay up General Electric, Mattel, Dow Chemical, Hewlett-Packard, and Cisco. Yes, we know you pay some taxes. But look these children who are losing their health insurance and teaching aides in the eye. Tell them you're paying your fair share.

These global corporations will complain that forcing them to pay their fair share of taxes will "kill jobs." Let's be clear: the patriotic businesses that currently pay their taxes and have to compete against these tax dodgers are the employers we want. Forcing domestic banks, retailers, and manufacturers to have to compete against companies that can game the tax system undercuts U.S. jobs.

The next time you're waiting longer for a bus or train than you should, or someone you know can't get timely mental health or drug treatment services, remember the tax dodgers. The next time your car hits a pothole or your kid's teacher loses her job, remember the corporations that are using armies of accountants to lower their tax bills.

In a democracy, if we sit back and just grumble, we get what we deserve. We're chumps until we wake up and force our members of Congress to stop tax haven abuse.

Chuck Collins w/ Institute for Policy Studies IPS

extremeinequality.org

Hat tip to Carl in the morning who interviewed Chuck Collins this morning on Air America. KPOJ 620 am radio.

Clinton: Libya no-fly zone under active consideration

2011-03-02T07:03:00.000-08:00

Foreign Policy

Posted By Josh Rogin Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - 12:41 P

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that the administration is actively considering implementing a no-fly zone over Libya and gave a full-throated defense of robust State Department funding.

Clinton testified on Tuesday morning before the House Foreign Affairs Committee led by Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), who has been critical of the administration's response to the unfolding events in the Arab world and has pledged to slash the State Department and foreign aid budgets this year.

Clinton had just returned from Geneva, where she met with other foreign ministers under the auspices of the U.N. Human Rights Council. She said preparations were underway to aid the Libyan opposition, but that there have been no final decisions on whether or how to use the U.S. military to support the ouster of Muammar al-Qaddafi, as world leaders have called for.

"We are working to translate the world's outrage into action and results," Clinton said, highlighting that USAID is sending two teams, one each to Egypt and Tunisia, to aid the humanitarian response to the flow of refugees coming from Libya.

The United States has moved the USS Enterprise carrier strike group to the area near Libya. Clinton said that military assets are being repositioned now to support the humanitarian mission there, but that direct military intervention remained a possibility.

"One of those actions under review is a no fly zone... it is under active consideration," said Clinton.

More

Video on C-SPAN

Wisconsin Police Union Announces Solidarity

2011-02-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

Time for those formerly hoaxed by duplicitious corporate schemes to wake-up and smell what billionaire sociopaths are shoveling...

BradBlog 2/27/2011 6:32pm

Guest editorial by Ernest A. Canning

"This is not a budget issue," the policeman speaking to the cheering protesters jammed inside of the capital rotunda in Madison, WI, shouted this weekend, "This is a civil rights issue!"

"Mr. Walker, if you are listening to me, let me tell you something," he continued through the bullhorn as the crowd rallied, "We know pretty well now who you work for. Let me tell you who we work for. We work for all of these people!"

"We're not here, Mr. Walker, to do your bidding. We're here to do their bidding!" he told the crowd in a remarkable video-taped moment posted by RAW STORY on Sunday.

Read more on the BradBlog

Media Black Out: Ray McGovern Assaulted for Silent Protest at Hillary Clinton Speech

2011-02-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

Hmm, does this look like a non news item? Well, it is for the main stream media. Take a look at this google search for.... Ray McGovern dragged out of Hillary Clinton "Freedom Speech"

Here's an excellent post on this from BradBlog

By Brad Friedman on 2/17/2011 2:03pm
Ray McGovern, Former Sr. CIA Analyst, 'Bruised, Bloodied' While Dragged From Room During Hillary Clinton Speech on 'Freedom of Expression'
We've interviewed former senior CIA analyst Ray McGovern, on the air and off, many times over the years. We've come to consider him not just a source, but a friend and a national hero for his tirelessly non-partisan fight for truth and justice.

The man who once briefed Presidents directly, from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton, had long ago earned our great respect --- from his courageousness in famously confronting then-SecDef Don Rumsfeld in 2006 about lying about Saddam and WMD (watch the classic confrontation on video here) to his calling out CNN on air for their abysmal failures in accurately reporting on WikiLeaks (video here) last December to his arrest weeks later at the White House with other vets and national heroes for "refusal to obey a lawful order" while protesting against the Obama Administration's wars around the world --- all while overcoming some enormous personal health issues at the same time.

More on this from the BradBlog

WikiLeaks: Suleiman told Israel he would 'cleanse' Sinai of arms runners to Gaza

2011-02-14T11:06:00.000-08:00

Omar Suleiman, the new vice-president of Egypt, told the Israelis he wanted to start “cleansing the Sinai” of Palestinian arms smugglers, according to leaked cables.

The Telegraph

By Christopher Hope 9:00PM GMT 09 Feb 2011

The news is more evidence of the close ties between Israel, the United States and Mr Suleiman, who is tipped to replace Hosni Mubarak as Egypt’s president.

The close relationship has emerged from American diplomatic cables leaked to the WikiLeaks website and passed to The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Suleiman is Israel’s preferred candidate to replace 82-year-old Mr Mubarak. A secret hotline between Mr Suleiman and the Israelis was said to be “in daily use”, according to US diplomatic cables.

The pledge to cleanse Sinai was made by Mr Suleiman to Yuval Diskin of the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) after he complained about the smuggling of weapons across the border with Gaza. According to a cable sent in November, 2007, Mr Diskin met Rob Danin, the US deputy assistant secretary of state, and Mark Kimmitt, the deputy assistant defence secretary, in Tel Aviv and told them that the Sinai peninsula had now become a “weapons and explosives warehouse” for operations in Gaza, Egypt and Israel.

The cable said: “Diskin told Danin and Kimmit [sic] that the ISA had, on several occasions provided Omar Suleiman, chief of Egypt’s intelligence services, with detailed intelligence on the names of smugglers.

“In 2005, Diskin said he met personally with Suleiman in Egypt, at which time Suleiman promised personally to take responsibility for 'cleansing the Sinai’.”

The cable continued: “Despite these promises and Israeli offers to initiate joint operations, Diskin said Egypt has not acted to eliminate the smuggling networks. In Diskin’s view, there is a core policy problem in that the Egyptians saw themselves as the primary mediator between the Israelis and Palestinians, and are careful not to alienate either side.”

Mr Suleiman worked hard to position himself as the main Egyptian link with Israel. According to the cable, he was blocking attempts by the Israelis to form links with other members of the Cairo government.

This was, according to Mr Diskin, because of Mr Suleiman’s “desire to remain the sole point of contact for foreign intelligence”.

The Telegraph

Kudos to Godlike Productions

2011-02-13T11:49:00.001-08:00

El Baradai, a voice in the crowd

2011-02-12T11:45:00.000-08:00

There is a clearer video by CNN on Youtube, however, they don't allow embedding.

R. James Woolsey spells out Doom & Gloom for Egypt

2011-02-10T19:51:00.000-08:00

We will probably see a follow up soon...by Paul Wolfowitz.
I believe that John Bolton, Cheney, and probably Rummy have already put their 2 cents in.

To be fair, james Woolsey is also the president of Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense contractor, and a member of the PNAC. So, here is another opinion, also by an ex CIA man…

RAY McGOVERN

McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years, whose duties included preparing the President’s Daily Brief and chairing National Intelligence Estimates. He is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He said today: “Relatively little attention has been paid to the major factor in play with respect to the crisis in Egypt. That factor involves the stakes for Israel, which stands to lose what has become an ally in Egypt, and might have to revert to worrying about security in additional border areas and in Gaza, not to mention elsewhere in the Arab world.

“Egypt can be expected to do all it can to keep Suleiman or another official from the old regime in power. And, for that to happen, strong U.S. support will be indispensable. Israeli pressure on Washington probably accounts largely for the vagaries in Washington’s recent statements and positions. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak just met with Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates in Washington to coordinate the Israeli-U.S. response. If the Obama administration continues to keep itself joined at the hip with Israel, both countries stand eventually to lose out in Egypt and in other Arab countries — and lose big time.”

Source...Common Dreams

Dennis Kucinich appeals to Tea Baggers ~Patriot Act Defeated

2011-02-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

US House defeats anti-terrorism powers extension
By Olivier Knox AFP – 1 day ago

WASHINGTON — The US House of Representatives rejected a nine-month extension of counter-terrorism surveillance powers at the heart of the Patriot Act adopted after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

With the three provisions set to expire February 28, lawmakers voted 277-148 in favor of legislation to renew them until December 8, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed under House rules.

The surprise vote came amid a bitter battle over how long to extend the intrusive powers at the core of the signature legislative response to the terrorist strikes nearly 10 years ago, and with what safeguards.

The provisions allow authorities to use roving wiretaps to track an individual on several telephones; track a non-US national suspected of being "lone-wolf" terrorist not tied to an extremist group; and to seize personal or business records seen as critical to an investigation.

US President Barack Obama, wading into the fray, pressed lawmakers to extend those authorities -- which supporters say fill key gaps in the fight against extremists -- through December 2013.

Obama "strongly supports extension of three critical authorities that our nation's intelligence and law enforcement agencies need to protect our national security," the White House said in a statement.

The rest of the story

A Democratic Egypt? Look at what happened in Iraq

2011-02-06T18:37:00.001-08:00

Adventure Capitalism - The Hidden 2001 Plan to Carve-up Iraq

Wednesday, October 27, 2004
by Greg Palast

Why were Iraqi elections delayed? Why was Jay Garner fired? Why are our troops still there? Investigative reporter Greg Palast uncovers new documents that answer these questions and more about the Bush administration's grand designs on Iraq. Like everything else issued during this administration, the plan to overhaul the Iraqi economy has corporate lobbyist fingerprints all over it.
In February 2003, a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a 101-page document came my way from somewhere within the U.S. State Department. Titled pleasantly, "Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to Growth," it was part of a larger under-wraps program called "The Iraq Strategy."

The Economy Plan goes boldly where no invasion plan has gone before: the complete rewrite, it says, of a conquered state's "policies, laws and regulations." Here's what you'll find in the Plan: A highly detailed program, begun years before the tanks rolled, for imposing a new regime of low taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraq's banks and bridges -- in fact, "ALL state enterprises" to foreign operators. There's more in the Plan, part of which became public when the State Department hired consulting firm to track the progress of the Iraq makeover. Example:This is likely history's first military assault plan appended to a program for toughening the target nation's copyright laws.

And when it comes to oil, the Plan leaves nothing to chance -- or to the Iraqis. Beginning on page 73, the secret drafters emphasized that Iraq would have to "privatize" (i.e., sell off) its "oil and supporting industries." The Plan makes it clear that -- even if we didn't go in for the oil -- we certainly won't leave without it.

gregpalast.com

2011-02-03T15:10:00.000-08:00

2011-02-01T17:55:00.001-08:00

Chris Hedges: US & Israel policies inMiddle East

2011-02-01T12:37:00.000-08:00

What Corruption and Force Have Wrought in Egypt

truthdig Posted on Jan 30, 2011

By Chris Hedges

The uprising in Egypt, although united around the nearly universal desire to rid the country of the military dictator Hosni Mubarak, also presages the inevitable shift within the Arab world away from secular regimes toward an embrace of Islamic rule. Don’t be fooled by the glib sloganeering about democracy or the facile reporting by Western reporters—few of whom speak Arabic or have experience in the region. Egyptians are not Americans. They have their own culture, their own sets of grievances and their own history. And it is not ours. They want, as we do, to have a say in their own governance, but that say will include widespread support—especially among Egypt’s poor, who make up more than half the country and live on about two dollars a day—for the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic parties. Any real opening of the political system in the Arab world’s most populated nation will see an empowering of these Islamic movements. And any attempt to close the system further—say a replacement of Mubarak with another military dictator—will ensure a deeper radicalization in Egypt and the wider Arab world.

The only way opposition to the U.S.-backed regime of Mubarak could be expressed for the past three decades was through Islamic movements, from the Muslim Brotherhood to more radical Islamic groups, some of which embrace violence. And any replacement of Mubarak (which now seems almost certain) while it may initially be dominated by moderate, secular leaders will, once elections are held and popular will is expressed, have an Islamic coloring. A new government, to maintain credibility with the Egyptian population, will have to more actively defy demands from Washington and be more openly antagonistic to Israel. What is happening in Egypt, like what happened in Tunisia, tightens the noose that will—unless Israel and Washington radically change their policies toward the Palestinians and the Muslim world—threaten to strangle the Jewish state as well as dramatically curtail American influence in the Middle East.

Read the whole article at truthdig

Chris Hedges, standing to the right of Daniel Ellsberg at the demonstration that didn't happen. Probably the most important news in recent times, because it involved people, who were once in government, the CIA, and the media. They were here at the White House to give us a message and it was not to be found in the main stream media, not even in the NY Times, where Hedges was once the Middle East bureau chief. In 2002, Hedges was part of the team of reporters at The New York Times awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the paper's coverage of global terrorism, and was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years (1990–2005).

This was reported in OpEdNews

Dec 16, 2010 ... Today, 131 rebels were arrested for civil disobedience at the snow covered ... Ray McGovern, Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Margaret Flowers, Coleen Rowley.

Break Time

2011-01-31T12:14:00.000-08:00

It was high time for a break from CNN and the media spin that has been generated all over the planet so... I gotta say, flipping the channel to OPB was a real, Oh Yeah, kind of moment...transported to a time of artistic expression and the freedom to do so. The entire performance of the 1991 Rolling Stones "At the Max" concert. I feel better now.

US Defense Dept.urges restraint as Egyptian military officials return from Pentagon

2011-01-29T23:19:00.000-08:00

U.S. tests its influence with Egypt's military

By ELISABETH BUMILLER The New York Times

Herald Tribune

Published: Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 29, 2011 at 10:34 p.m.

WASHINGTON - The officer corps of Egypt's powerful military has been educated at defense colleges in the United States for 30 years. The Egyptian armed forces have about 1,000 American M1A1 Abrams tanks, which the United States allows to be built on Egyptian soil. Egypt permits the American military to stage major operations from its bases, and has always guaranteed the Americans passage through the Suez Canal.

The relationship between the Egyptian and American militaries is, in fact, so close that it was no surprise Friday to find two dozen senior Egyptian military officials at the Pentagon, halfway through an annual week of meetings, lunches and dinners with their American counterparts.

By the afternoon, the Egyptians had cut short the talks to return to Cairo, but not before a U.S. Defense Department official urged them to exercise "restraint," the Pentagon said.

It remained unclear Saturday, as the Egyptian Army was deployed on the streets of Cairo for the first time in decades, to what degree the military would remain loyal to the embattled president, Hosni Mubarak.

The crisis has left the Obama administration to try to navigate a peaceful outcome and remain close to an important ally, and the military relationship could be crucial in that effort. One fear is the possibility that, despite the army's seemingly passive stance Saturday, the Egyptian armed forces would begin firing on the protesters -- an action that would probably be seen as leading to an end to the army's legitimacy.

"If they shoot on the crowd, they could win tomorrow, and then there will be a revolt that will sweep them away," said Bruce O. Riedel, an expert on the Middle East and Asia at the Brookings Institution, who predicts that in any event, Mubarak will step down.

More

UPDATE: Sexlife in Alaska...Is the Enquirer Right?

2011-01-29T17:12:00.000-08:00

Recomended for mature audiences

A senior review of Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue

2011-01-28T18:16:00.000-08:00

Well, My signifigant other bought me a copy of Going Rogue,so I guess I'd better do a critique.

She found it in the Goodwill bins for a buck. I checked on Abebooks, and there were some on there for a buck, but it was three bucks to ship. I noticed that Goodwill was listing quite a few on Abe's also.

Anyways, on with the review, and we'll start with the cover so we can see what she is talking about, er, I should mention Lynn Vincent here because she was the actual writer of the book. Yep, a ghost writer of sorts, kinda like George Duhbya Bush did on his book, A Charge to Keep. I guess Sarah is not much smarter than Duhbya, maybe not even as smart. Duhbya fired Mickey Herkowitz for telling too much truth and hired Karen Hugh's, who later joined his cabinet.

click to enlarge print

The book, was co-published by HarperCollins imprint Harper and HarperCollins-owned Zondervan. It doesn't actually mention the authors name on the cover pages, but does mention that it is copyrighted by Sarah Palin and that it is "An imprint of Harper Collins Publisher". It is also marked as a first edition. Also, not mentioned, is that the book was printed in China . I'm not sure, but I would guess that Caribou Barbie could probably see China from her doorstep.

In 1991, there are changes in the shareholding of the company - the family sells their interest to Rupert Murdoch. In 1989, the company is acquired by News International, bringing together Collins, Harper & Row, Gower Publishing, Times Books, Bartholomew and Angus & Robertson.

Anyways, back to the review, I'll go to the end of the book. I usually read the end first to see if it looks like an interesting read.

Hmm, that does it for me. I've been through a few sessions with the Jehova Witnesses, and that is what this looks like.
You know, where the Lion lays down with the lamb and all that...sheesh

I feel that I know there is a God too, but She, he, or whatever; is the God of the universe, not the God of Alaska.

maybe I will continue on another day...G%