zarafa

2011-04-14T19:38:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Post to Zarafa ---

we are going to do a restart shortly same format -- different objective
see you soon ---

liza minnelli + joel grey "money"

2009-01-28T23:25:00.001-05:00

Ennio Marchetto Theatre Trailer HD

2008-12-20T12:50:00.001-05:00

RADIOHEAD - Videotape (Music Video- Alan Watts Mix)

2008-11-01T19:56:00.001-04:00

Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC

2008-09-01T21:50:00.001-04:00

imagine peace --

2008-08-16T12:36:00.002-04:00

The Pentagon’s alarming project: Avian Flu Biowar Vaccine
READ AT GLOBAL RESEARCH

There is alarming evidence accumulated by serious scientific sources that the US Government is about to or already has ‘weaponized’ Avian Flu. If the reports are accurate, this could unleash a new pandemic on the planet that could be more devastating than the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic which killed an estimated 30 million people worldwide before it eventually died out. Pentagon and NIH experiments with remains in frozen state of the 1918 virus are the height of scientific folly. Is the United States about to unleash a new racially selective pandemic through the process of mandatory vaccination with an alleged vaccine "against" Avian Flu?

There is reason to believe that sections of the international pharmaceutical industry cartel are acting in concert with the US Government to develop a genetically modified H5N1 virus substance that could unleash a man-made pandemic, perhaps more deadly than the 1918 ‘Spanish Influenza’ pandemic claiming up to 30 million lives.1

Rima E. Laibow, MD, head of the Natural Solutions Foundation, a citizen watchdog group monitoring the pharmaceutical industry states, "Our best intelligence estimate is that pandemic Avian Flu has already been created through genetic engineering in the United States, fusing the deadly genome of the 1918 Pandemic, misnamed the ‘Spanish Flu’, with the DNA of the innocuous H5N1 virus in a growth medium of human kidney cells, according to the National Institutes of Health and the vaccine’s manufacturer. Some virologists believe that this would insure that the man-made mutant virus recognizes human cells and knows how to invade them."

2008-08-16T12:29:00.002-04:00

Seeds of Destruction
The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation

This skillfully researched book focuses on how a small socio-political American elite seeks to establish control over the very basis of human survival: the provision of our daily bread. "Control the food and you control the people."

This is no ordinary book about the perils of GMO. Engdahl takes the reader inside the corridors of power, into the backrooms of the science labs, behind closed doors in the corporate boardrooms.

The author cogently reveals a diabolical World of profit-driven political intrigue, government corruption and coercion, where genetic manipulation and the patenting of life forms are used to gain worldwide control over food production. If the book often reads as a crime story, that should come as no surprise. For that is what it is.

Engdahl's carefully argued critique goes far beyond the familiar controversies surrounding the practice of genetic modification as a scientific technique.

The book is an eye-opener, a must-read for all those committed to the causes of social justice and World peace. order at GLOBAL RESEARCH

Nancy Pelosi tells CHANGE Ohio she hasn't read Impeachment articles

2008-08-15T23:47:00.001-04:00

Baghdad, 5 years on (part 1): City of walls

2008-08-15T23:18:00.001-04:00

countdown: bush economy

2008-08-15T21:12:00.001-04:00

Why are these oilmen selling our oil to us?
It is part of the commons isn't it -- the mineral wealth that belongs to the peoples of the earth --just asking !!!

2008-08-10T08:09:00.001-04:00

Tape: Top CIA official confesses order to forge Iraq-9/11 letter came on White House stationery John Byrne

In damning transcript, ex-CIA official says Cheney likely ordered letter linking Hussein to 9/11 attacks

2008-08-09T21:53:00.000-04:00

Anthrax case against bio-weapons expert 'staggering for lack of evidence'

The case against the lone suspect in the 2001 anthrax case, who killed himself last week, has been blasted by his lawyer as based on nothing but "innuendo and a staggering lack of real evidence."

2008-08-05T22:36:00.000-04:00

PsyOp: Is Washington Intent on Sabotaging the Beijing Olympics?

Pre-Olympics PsyOp creates Atmosphere of Fear and Insecurity

by Michel Chossudovsky

2008-08-03T00:12:00.000-04:00

Mr Sarkozy and the CIA. Based on Thierry Meyssan's "Operation Sarkozy"
By Robert Thompson
Read at:Axis of Logic

2008-08-03T00:05:00.000-04:00

The Real State of the US Economy

Henry Paulson has lost the control over US finance

When Henry Paulson agreed to leave his job as chairman of the powerful Wall Street investment bank, Goldman Sachs to go to Washington as Treasury Secretary in 2006 he demanded extraordinary powers as de facto economic czar. He got it. Paulson is also head of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets -- the secretary of the treasury and the chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The Working Group is the financial world's equivalent of the Pentagon war room. Paulson, not Fed chairman Bernanke, is the person running the Administration’s crisis management. And his recent actions indicate he has lost control as the snowballing problems from the semi-government mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to the collapse of the multi-trillion dollar market in Asset Backed Securities (ABS) to the real economy are compounding into the worst crisis since the 1930’s Great Depression. Read at: Global Research

2008-08-02T14:31:00.001-04:00

Israel’s ‘Right to Exist’

I have heard it for the entirety of my 61 years of life–Israel’s ‘Right To Exist’. In fact, in recent memory I have heard this phrase more than I’ve heard ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ or ‘Merry Christmas’ or even ‘Have a Good 4^th of July’.

Israel seems to exist quite well. Her people have a very high living standard compared to the rest of the world. Israel has the most sophisticated armed forces in the Middle East, if indeed not the world. According to one of our former presidents, Israel is said to possess several hundred nuclear weapons and if we are to believe some of the things said by Israel’s leaders in recent years she is ready to destroy mankind if her leaders choose to do so.

Israeli’s live a very good life style, second to none. A swimming pool in every back yard on stolen land, plenty of food, jobs, stocks, cash, you name it. Their quality of life continues to grow and prosper every month of every year.

Now what I have a problem with is this–doesn’t the United States of America also have a ‘Right to Exist’?

Yes we do, but unfortunately that right is being taken away from us every second, every minute, every hour, every month and every year and all for the sake of Israel’s ‘Right To Exist’. What’s wrong with this story? Well, I’ll explain what’s wrong with it and believe me, its not that hard to figure out.

Israel’s ‘Right To Exist’ has virtually bankrupted the United States, and all of it off the backs of hard-working Americans for the last sixty years. We’ve given Israel untold billions of dollars NEVER TO BE REPAID, to say nothing of the military hardware in the billions we (I should say the United States) just flat-out gives them, including free training for their fighter pilots.

2008-08-02T13:57:00.001-04:00

1,000 documents obtained in a FOIA request to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America show the White House is engaging in collaborative relations with Mexico and Canada outside the U.S. Constitution to create a North American Union.

2008-08-02T13:20:00.002-04:00

French Wine, French Food, French Singers? NON!

There is now more deadly uranium in the Drome and Rhone River basin than ever polluted the waters surrounding Chernobyl!

The French Government today admitted a series of dangerous radioactive spills near French nuclear giant AREVA plants at Tricastin, in a wine growing region of southeastern France.

Paolo Scampa, a physicist and President of the International Association for Protection Against Ionizing Radiation, condemned the deceptive French response in the strongest possible terms. AIPRI was established in 1964. Workers at the Tricastin plant were evacuated after contamination July 27.

The chain reaction of events is a public relations and radiological disaster for AREVA, owner of the plant. AREVA is partially owned by the French government.

The international reaction was swift. The British are questioning the upcoming sale of the British nuclear industry to France's AREVA and the Americans are uneasy about construction of a huge double new nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs near Washington, DC.

Nuclear reactors make nuclear bomb grade plutonium, about 500 lbs a year, and they heat water to make steam.

AIPRI President Scampa's Letter of Congratulations

See at: imc

2008-07-18T23:28:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday Pappy

July 18, 2008 – Mr Mandela gave this message to the world:

“There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty. Poverty has gripped our people. If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.”

Exposing The Rothschilds

2008-07-16T12:38:00.001-04:00

You go sister and tell it like it is!!!!

2008-07-16T12:07:00.002-04:00

If You Try To Pull A False Flag Operation,

We're Not Going to Believe You

Watch video at

Curt Maynard's Blog

Anonymous said...: Too all CIA/MI6/MOSSAD operatives behind those traitors who used us and abused our fellow Americans on 9/11:

WE WILL NOT BELIEVE ANY MORE OF YOUR FALSE FLAG OPERATIONS.

Additionally, be on notice that we intend to prosecute these traitors and war criminals, to the fullest extent of the law.

You may think that your plans went well, but if you do, you are only speaking to your choir, and your choir is one of used up, soulless, wasted old men, with shrunken male appendages, who's life is a waste, no matter what money or greed your base urges satisfy.

William Kristal, Richard Perle, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, Dov Zacheim, Michael Chernov, Dick Cheney, G.H.W. Bush, G.W. Bush, Condolezzi Rice, Colin Powell, George Tenent, Karl Rove, Tom DeLay, Silverstein, Goldberg, Dominik Suter, Ariel Sharon, Perez, Netzenyaho, and the rest of you, will face a court of law.

Beware your hubris has destroyed you, and you are exposed.

No more selling us duct tape and plastic. Your expensive bombs, we cannot afford. Your expensive oil products are obsolete, and we are now searching for alternative energy technology.

Every good person in the world, condemns you, and finds your image to be nauseating.
Go to Curt Maynard's Blog to see video

2008-07-16T11:36:00.002-04:00

The Reflecting Pool
The first investigative drama to challenge the official version of 9/11

July 11-18, 7PM, 9PM
Pioneer Theatre
155 East 3rd Street
New York, NY

2008-07-16T10:54:00.001-04:00

Obama outlines policy of endless war

By Bill Van Auken
16 July 2008

Any misconception that Barack Obama is running in the 2008 election as an “antiwar” candidate should have been cleared up Tuesday in what was billed by the Democratic presidential campaign as a “major speech” on national security and the US war in Iraq.

Speaking before a backdrop of massed American flags at the Reagan Building in Washington, Obama made it clear that he opposes the present US policy in Iraq not on the basis of any principled opposition to neo-colonialism or aggressive war, but rather on the grounds that the Iraq war is a mistaken deployment of power that fails to advance the global strategic interests of American imperialism.

What emerges from the speech by the junior senator from Illinois is that the November election will not provide the American people with the opportunity to vote for or against war, but merely to choose which of the two colonial-style wars that US forces are presently fighting should be escalated.

As in his op-ed piece published in the New York Times on Monday, his call on Tuesday for the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq was linked to the proposal to dispatch as many as 10,000 troops to Afghanistan to escalate the war there.

The thrust of Obama’s speech was a critique of the Bush administration’s incompetence in pursuing an imperialist strategy, combined with an implicit commitment to advance the same basic strategy in a more rational and effective manner once he enters the White House.

He summed up his policy as “a responsible redeployment of our combat troops that pushes Iraq’s leaders toward a political solution, rebuilds our military, and refocuses on Afghanistan and our broader security interests.”

Obama reiterated his campaign pledge to bring US “combat brigades” out of Iraq within 16 months of his inauguration. After this “redeployment,” however, a “residual force” would remain in Iraq carrying out counter-insurgency operations, protecting US facilities and training and supporting Iraqi puppet forces—tasks that would undoubtedly keep tens of thousands of American troops occupying the country indefinitely.

Obama stressed that he would make “tactical adjustments” to his plan based upon consultations with “commanders on the ground and the Iraqi government,” suggesting that even the partial withdrawal he proposes would unlikely unfold as quickly as promised.

The speech was scheduled in advance of a “fact-finding” tour that Obama is set to embark upon in the next week, visiting both Iraq and Afghanistan and conducting meetings with US military commanders in both countries.

Obama began his speech by invoking the legacy of US imperialism’s strategy in the aftermath of World War II, when it acted to “foster new international institutions like the United Nations, NATO and the World Bank” and rebuilt shattered European capitalism through the Marshall Plan. He contrasted that six-decade policy with what he presented as the squandered opportunity for Washington to again seize global leadership following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“The world, too, was united against the perpetrators of this evil act, as old allies, new friends and even long-time adversaries stood by our side,” said Obama. “It was time—once again—for America’s might and moral suasion to be harnessed; it was time to once again shape a new security strategy for an ever-changing world.”

The starting point for seizing this golden opportunity, according to Obama, was to “have deployed the full force of American power to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, the Taliban and all of the terrorists responsible for 9/11, while supporting real security in Afghanistan.”

Instead, he charged, the Bush administration diverted these military resources into the war against Iraq, “a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.” He continued: “By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe.”

This presentation is a gross and deliberate distortion of the motives underlying both the war in Afghanistan and the one in Iraq. Neither of them was launched with the aim of “keeping America safe,” but rather to advance definite strategic interests of American imperialism.

The central aim of the war in Afghanistan—planned well before the attacks of 9/11—was to take advantage of the power vacuum in Central Asia created by the Soviet Union’s dissolution to assert US domination over a region containing the second largest proven reserves of petroleum and natural gas in the world.

As for the supposed targets of this operation—Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Taliban—all of them are, in the final analysis, the products of US imperialism’s own bloody history of intervention in the region, particularly in the 1980s, when Washington poured billions of dollars into funding the Mujahedin forces fighting the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan and the Soviet army when it intervened there. Among these forces were bin Laden and those who went on to set up both Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The legacy of this CIA-directed war was the devastation of Afghanistan and protracted political chaos, which Washington sought to curb by supporting the Taliban’s coming to power.

Now, nearly seven years after the US invaded Afghanistan, Obama proclaims, “As president, I will make the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be. This is a war that we have to win.”

To that end, Obama vowed to send “two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan” and to press Washington’s NATO allies to make “greater contributions—with fewer restrictions” in terms of deploying their own troops.

He continued by vowing to expand the intervention in Afghanistan into neighboring Pakistan.

“The greatest threat to that security lies in the tribal regions of Pakistan, where terrorists train and insurgents strike into Afghanistan,” he warned. “We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and as president, I won’t. We need a stronger and sustained partnership between Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO to secure the border, to take out terrorist camps and to crack down on cross-border insurgents. We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones in the Afghan border region. And we must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights.”

There is no evidence that US forces are fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or that the bulk of those attacking American and NATO forces are following orders issued by the remnants of the Taliban. The Pentagon has not reported the capture of Al Qaeda operatives in the stepped-up fighting that has claimed the lives of 69 US and NATO soldiers in the months of May and June.

The reality is that the resistance to the US-led occupation has grown dramatically as a direct product of the escalating slaughter of civilians, as seen in the July 6 US air strike that killed 47 members of a wedding party, the vast majority of them women and children. Anger has also been generated by the arbitrary detention and frequent torture of those picked up by US units and Afghan puppet troops, as well as by the gross corruption of the US-backed regime of President Hamid Karzai.

In the attack on a US base last Sunday that claimed the lives of nine US soldiers, local villagers reportedly participated, providing direct support to the insurgents who carried out the assault.

With “more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones,” Obama is proposing to escalate this slaughter, which will generate greater resistance and an expanded war involving more US troops and, inevitably, their deployment across the border into Pakistan.

Obama vowed to beef up the US military for a war that threatens to prove far more intense than the one in Iraq. He called for an overall increase of American ground forces by 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 marines, and “investing in the capabilities we need to defeat conventional foes and meet the unconventional challenges of our time.”

Much of the media reaction to Obama’s speech centered on speculation over whether it was aimed at reassuring his Democratic base that he is still committed to effecting a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, or if it indicated a further “move to the center” by stressing his willingness to use force as the US commander-in-chief.

In reality, the speech reflected what is becoming a consensus position within much of the American political establishment, Democratic and Republican alike. There is a growing conviction that the US can secure its strategic interests in Iraq with fewer troops and without expending the more than $10 billion a month that is compounding the deepening economic crisis of American capitalism.

To underscore this message, Obama was introduced Tuesday by former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton, who, together with Republican ex-Secretary of State James Baker, chaired the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel that called for a revamped US military and diplomatic policy aimed at salvaging the American intervention in Iraq.

Both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, have expressed concern that there are insufficient troop levels in Afghanistan to secure US domination of the country. They have indicated that they would like to deploy another 10,000 there—the same number proposed by Obama.

Even Bush, in a White House press conference Tuesday morning, sounded this theme, claiming that Washington and its NATO allies were already initiating a “surge” in Afghanistan.

As for the speech signaling a shift to the right, the reality is that Obama has sounded the same themes repeatedly since initiating his run for the presidency. While in the Democratic primaries he stressed his opposition to the 2002 Senate vote to grant Bush authorization to launch the Iraq war—a resolution that was supported by his principal rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards—he always made it clear that he embraced the ideological framework of the “global war on terrorism” used to justify both the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions.

Given this position and his subsequent votes to fund the war once he entered the Senate in 2005, there is little reason to believe that he would not have joined his rivals in giving Bush a blank check for an Iraq invasion had he been a US senator at the time.

Writing in Foreign Affairs a year ago, Obama stressed that the lesson of the Iraq debacle was the necessity to prepare for new US wars. “We must use this moment both to rebuild our military and to prepare it for the missions of the future,” he stressed. “We must retain the capacity to swiftly defeat any conventional threat to our country and our vital interests. But we must also become better prepared to put boots on the ground in order to take on foes that fight asymmetrical and highly adaptive campaigns on a global scale.”

While Obama’s “left” apologists will no doubt excuse the blatant militarism and warmongering in the candidate’s speech as a mere political device aimed at winning over “centrist” voters, the reality is that the candidate is spelling out what can be expected from an incoming Democratic administration in 2009.

Its policies will be determined not by the hollow campaign rhetoric about “change” that has been Obama’s specialty, but rather by the deepening economic and social crisis of American capitalism and the determination of the American ruling elite to continue using military force as a means of offsetting its economic decline.

2008-07-16T10:48:00.002-04:00

Please make a donation to Amnesty International USA to help focus world attention on prisoners of conscience.

While you and I are watching the Beijing Olympics in August, Ye Guozhu and thousands of other Chinese are going to be sitting in prison, locked up for peacefully protesting government policies.

You can help Amnesty International USA focus world attention on these prisoners of conscience, not just the star athletes and thrilling competition, with

your donation to our China Olympics Legacy Campaign .

First, let me tell you about Ye Guozhu and his family, who were evicted from their home and restaurant in 2003, which were razed to make way for the Beijing Summer Olympics.

Three days after he requested permission to hold a public demonstration against the forced evictions, Ye Guozhu was arrested. He was convicted of "stirring up trouble" and sentenced to four years in prison. In jail, he has reportedly been beaten, subjected to electro-shocks, and forced to hang from his arms for extended periods.

Barbara Lee and FISA

2008-07-09T10:25:00.001-04:00

Who knows better than she? Ms. Babara Lee and says it so eloquently. Call your Senator today and tell them to support the Dodd-Feingold- Leahy, Amendment H.R. 6304, with NO to cloture, and no on the final bill. It is our only opportunity to find out what they have been doing over the past six years and believe me they have used that information to their best advantage --
For the past six years, the Bush Administration and the communication companies have been illegally spying on Americans’ phone calls, text messages and e-mails. They have been doing this in direct violation of the Constitution’s 4th Amendment and a federal statute, which is – FISA. Both laws emphatically forbid such surveillance unless the government first obtains a warrant from the FISA court. (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978)

2008-07-09T09:02:00.002-04:00

Help Support The Dodd-Feingold Amendment

This week the Senate was scheduled to vote on FISA reform legislation that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. Senators Dodd and Feingold have been fighting to stop retroactive immunity, yesterday courtesy of Firedoglake I was provided with a tool that enabled me to call the Senators on a list that recorded my calls and where I could make a notation about the Senators position on the bill. I called my senators first Hillary Rodham Clinton, and I was told she didn't have a position yet! I encouraged the aid to write down my request that she vote in favor of the Dodd-Feingold- Leahy, Amendment H.R. 6304, with NO to cloture, and no on the final bill. I then called Senator Schumer who was in favor of Dodd-Feingold- Leahy, Amendment H.R. 6304. I continued calling starting with the Senators I like the least, and called ten Senators, until Senator Kyl, closed the session on the floor as they were all going off to Jesse Helms funeral!
Voting will come to the floor again on Tuesday --- This is your chance to call your Senator's office and register your extreme concern about this bill and ask them to vote in favor of the Dodd-Feingold- Leahy, Amendment H.R. 6304. It is our only opportunity to find out what they have been doing over the past six years and believe me they have used that information to their best advantage --- a little blackmail with your coffee my friend!

For the past six years, the Bush Administration and the communication companies have been illegally spying on Americans’ phone calls, text messages and e-mails. They have been doing this in direct violation of the Constitution’s 4th Amendment and a federal statute, which is – FISA. Both laws emphatically forbid such surveillance unless the government first obtains a warrant from the FISA court. (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978)

2008-07-06T17:46:00.001-04:00

China: Sarkozy Not Welcome at Olympics

BEIJING (Reuters) - China made a barely veiled swipe at French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday and state media warned he can expect a cold public shoulder if he attends the Beijing Olympics after he threatened not to go over Tibet.

Sarkozy has said he will decide next week whether to attend the opening of the Games in August, with his choice depending on how talks go between Beijing and the Dalai Lama's envoys.

China often lashes out at foreign leaders for meeting the exiled Dalai Lama or criticizing its policies in Tibet, which it calls an internal affair.

2008-07-04T15:17:00.002-04:00

Barack Obama, a master of bait-and-switch.

Cynthia McKinney Deserves Your Support, Obama Does Not

A Campaign Foreign Policy Focus by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who seems poised to capture the Green Party presidential nomination, in Chicago, this month, "is at this juncture in history the only vehicle through which progressives can both register their outrage at Barack Obama and begin the process of rebuilding a mass, Black-led movement for real social change." Meanwhile, the frequency of Obama's Right turns seem to increase in direct proportion to the nearness of the general election. "Surely no one with a brain any longer believes that Obama is a closet progressive, or even a genuine liberal." The question is, How many progressives will put their votes and resources to honorable use?

"Cynthia McKinney's campaign is the last opportunity to threaten Obama with a backlash against his betrayals of progressive principles."

I'm Voting Republican

2008-07-04T10:18:00.001-04:00

Wherever you are in the US of A, hardly anyone I know personally is a Republican. We're hoping for a Democratic sweep this November, and no matter who you rooted for in the primaries, I hope you'll vote Democratic in local races, and of course, this is a big year on fronts of all levels.
You may have seen this satirical YouTube that I'm posting, just for mischief. It emphasizes the dark side of GOP hopes in sarcastic ways, and if you know of some folks who want 4 more years of the current trends (recession, high prices, war, deteriorating environment, oil companies getting richer, high unemployment, folks getting foreclosed on their mortgages, plenty of children still getting left behind, judges allowing more weapons into the hands of citizens), send this along to them. And have a good July 4, even though it's on a TGIF.

2008-07-02T19:02:00.002-04:00

Write, phone, e-mails, visit, fly a kite! Anything but let them know they cannot do this -- its up to you. . .

Senate Housing Bill Allows Government to Spy on Internet Commerce

July 1st, 2008

The bipartisan housing bill currently being debated in the Senate contains an unrelated amendment that will burden innovative Internet companies and threaten the civil liberties of every American. Without any discussion, Senators added a provision to H.R. 3221 (The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008) requiring electronic payment services to collect, aggregate, and transmit details of every sale to the federal government.

This includes not only major credit card providers such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, but also pioneers in online commerce such as Amazon, Google Checkout, and eBay’s PayPal. These companies would be required to construct vast databases of personal information from merchants, including names, addresses, social security numbers, and detailed information about every electronic transaction. Not only would these requirements trigger higher fees for merchants and higher prices for consumers, but they will also needlessly subject millions of small businesses to the risk of identity theft.

Over the next four years, alternative payment services are projected to serve 30 percent of a $355 billion e-commerce industry. Unlike large corporations, startups developing creative new tools and services cannot absorb the burdens imposed by H.R. 3221. Therefore, expensive new reporting requirements could deter entrepreneurs and stunt future growth of the Internet economy. In addition, these rules could hamstring the advertising platforms that enable companies such as Google to offer free and unfettered access to the Internet.

By forcing companies such as PayPal to keep sensitive information, this provision could also endanger the civil liberties of every Internet user. Private companies will be compelled to retain detailed personal records that the government can tap at any time. While the current proposal covers only aggregate income data, nothing prevents a future administration from demanding information about any customer’s online purchases.

Though designed to enhance the ability of the IRS to audit small businesses, this amendment threatens to subject all Internet commerce to dangerous and unnecessary government interference. The consequences of these regulations should be debated openly rather than swept under the rug through underhanded political maneuvering.

2008-07-02T18:50:00.001-04:00

STOP US SENATE BILLS S2191 & S3036 - CLIMATE SECURITY ACT SHAMS

Two climate security act shams, U.S. Senate Bills S2191 and S3036, were debated on the floor of the U.S. Senate between June 2-6, 2008. Senators Boxer and Lieberman will be bringing this legislation forward, in the near future, once they have the sixty votes needed pass either one of them.

These bills are designed to sell out the health and welfare of the people of the United States in order to establish a national and international Cap & Trade Money Market Scheme, and under Section 6E, “…initiate programs to “mitigate” the impacts of any unavoidable global climate change…” These bills have nothing to do with “Climate Security”. They are designed to fleece the American people out of $Billions of their tax dollars to support a questionable “market scheme of carbon trading” by selling “emission allowances” to polluters to allow them to pollute more in the future.

This year a so-called environmental group, the Environmental Defense Fund, is promoting the passage of these bills which would move the United States EPA into becoming, a market based “Climate Change Credit Corporation”, instead of an agency that works to reduce air pollution at it source, in order to protect human health and our air, water, soil, and trees from the detrimental effects of ever-increasing air and water pollution.

2008-07-02T10:47:00.002-04:00

. . .Obama followed up his speech in Missouri with a presentation in Zaneville, Ohio in which he vowed to substantially expand the program initiated by the Bush administration to provide federal funding for so-called “faith-based” social service groups. He thereby embraced an initiative that involves a frontal assault on the constitutional principle of separation of church and state, while endorsing the fraud that these church groups can deal with the massive social crisis gripping America.

“We know that faith and values can be a source of strength in our lives,” said Obama. “That’s what it’s been for me. And that’s what it is to many Americans. But it can also be something more. It can be the foundation of a new project of American renewal.”

Under conditions in which the American economy stands on the brink of a full-scale depression, with millions faced with the loss of jobs and homes as well as the steady erosion of real incomes by soaring gas and food prices, the conception of a religion-based “project of American renewal” is as ludicrous as it is reactionary.

From Bro' Joe Friendly -- Truth For A Change
quoting from The Assault on Reason, Page 49, Al Gore, author, winner of the
Nobel Peace Prize.
--
"This Principle was so well established that in 1797 the U.S. Senate unanimously approved, and President John Adams signed, a treaty that contained the following declaration: "The United States is not a Christian nation anymore than it is a Jewish or Mohammedan Nation."

Mr. Obama, you are not the constitutional scholar as you have led us to believe, the title of hypocrite, fits you much better, you maybe crowned as the new high priest of "the religion of the one per cent crowd!" But, not with the help of my vote.
Have a good day sir!

2008-06-28T16:59:00.000-04:00

From the May 2008 Idaho Observer:

Contaminated Kuwait sand lands in Idaho

Governor claims radioactivity of shipment at par with background levels in ambient Idaho

By The Idaho Observer

Nearly 80 rail cars containing 6,700 tons of contaminated sand from Gulf War I are being shipped by American Ecology Corp. to its hazardous waste disposal site near Grandview, 70 miles southeast of Boise. The sand arrived by ship at Longbeach, Washington on May 12.

The sand was from Camp Doha in Kuwait. Responding to a series of questions posed by The Idaho Observer, Idaho Governor Butch Otter stated, "…it appears that the material in question is well within the contaminant limitations of the U.S. (sic) Ecology permit."

According to Major Doug Rokke (ret.), "Camp Doha blew up during summer and we had conventional munitions, DU, chemicals, biological weapons, tanks, artillery, fuel, all stored in preparation for gulf war II. A fire started and it all blew up leaving a real toxic mess. We [his team] wrote the clean up plan during winter 1992-1993 as no bid contract for Halliburton. We figure that with all of the medical problems the Kuwaiti government told DOD to finally get it out of Kuwait."

The IO asked the governor’s office who collected the sand, who removed it from the site in Kuwait, who loaded it onto the ship, who inspected and sealed the load, who off broke the seal, inspected the contents and authorized the shipment to be loaded onto rail cars, who inspected the rail cars and who is assuming responsibility for the entire operation?

The governor’s office failed to answer those questions but assured The IO that the shipment of sand was transported from Kuwait in special containers that were "…sealed with customs procedures."

The comment is not very reassuring since Customs observes different procedures depending on the type of cargo and the shipper. Since American Ecology was working under contract with the U.S. Army, Customs would not observe the same procedures with the U.S. Army sand from Kuwait as it does a shipment of coffee from Columbia.

The main point of the letter was to assure us that we can trust the government. "…let me assure you that the best science and most assiduous regulation is being used in safeguarding Idaho citizens from this and all other hazardous materials," Governor Otter said.

Considering this was an international shipment, it would have been brokered through the U.S. State Department and Idaho would have "volunteered" to receive the shipment via the U.S. Army and its contractor American Ecology.

Governor Otter claims that, "Dose rate measurements were taken on the surface of the container. Those measurements were between 12 and 14 microrem per hour (uRem/hr). Background from naturally-occurring sources in Idaho is 10 to 15 uRem/hr."

If the radiation levels from the sand were not greater than background levels in Idaho, which are probably less than anywhere in the Gulf at this time, then there would be no reason to ship the sand out of Kuwait. If Major Rokke is right, then the sand is contaminated with toxic levels of other substances such as chemical weapons (biologicals generally do not have much of a shelf life once released).

Governor Otter made reference only to levels of radiation.

The Otter administration, without consent of the people of Idaho, is going ahead with plans to expand uranium mining operations in Idaho and is courting a French company that wants to process raw uranium into plutonium at plants to be built in Idaho.

The point of the previous paragraph is to illustrate that Otter’s Idaho is not really concerned about people and the environment; saying so just sounds good in a letter.

2008-06-25T19:49:00.001-04:00

"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying  lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else."

"But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.

"You know what they want? Obedient workers  people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club."

"This country is finished."

2008-06-25T19:23:00.001-04:00

A Genuine S.O.B.

Mark Thatcher, say those who know him, has always liked two things: the limelight and wealth. But in the recent past the former prime minister's son has been remarkably elusive, hiding his money-making activities from the public eye, keeping away from the minor celebrity events which were once his regular haunts.

Perhaps it is not surprising. He is on the run from Equatorial Guinea and the safest place for him at the moment is Spain's Costa del Sol – the infamous bolthole of Englishmen who have issues with the law.

But The Independent has established that his new-found reticence has not stopped Sir Mark from staying in the oil business, a venture, he declares, he finds hugely lucrative. Like most enterprises he has taken part in the exact details of what he does are rather hazy: "Oil futures", he would say airily when someone asks. " I make judgment calls on prices between when a tanker leaves a port and gets to its destination."

2008-06-25T19:14:00.000-04:00

A group including Evangelical, Baptist, Catholic, and Other Religious Leaders, six former Secretaries of State for Defence, and top officials from every US administration since the Vietnam war, are today calling on the US President to issue an executive order banning torture.

The broad bipartisan coalition have issued a statement, saying that such a ban would improve national security and recommit America to its values.

Their call coincides with ongoing debate over the treatment of prisoners and comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision upholding the right of habeas corpus for detainees at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.

It also comes after Amnesty International accused European governments of complicity and inaction over US-led rendition and secret detention, and the day before the UN's International Day in Support of Torture Victims.

The statement calls for the President to adopt an executive order affirming principles including the rule of law, an end to rendition, Congressional and judicial oversight of detention and interrogation, uniform national standards for all prisoner treatment, and an end to any practice the US would not like to see used on Americans, such as water boarding, through adherence to the "golden rule" - which states that no methods of interrogation will be authorised that would be unacceptable if used against Americans.

"Though we come from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life, we agree that the use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment against prisoners is immoral, unwise, and un-American" the statement says.

Read the text of the full statement

2008-06-25T13:23:00.002-04:00

Cluster Munitions

by Senator Mike Gravel

On June 14th, 2008, One hundred and eleven, nations signed on to a draft treaty in Dublin Ireland, to outlaw the use of cluster munitions by military forces.

The United States boycotted this conference to produce a humane treaty. Cluster munitions contain dozens to hundreds of bomblets designed to explode above ground, inflicting maiming and lethal wounds. All battlefield weapons are cruel, but clusters rank up there with land mines––not only for their impact in battle, but more importantly because of their extensive residual damage long after the battlefield is quiet and overgrown.

Like land mines, the crippling and lethal legacy of cluster munitions is primarily on civilians––one in four victims are, children. The most recent example of their use was by the U.S. and Britain in the invasion of Iraq and Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon against Hezbollah. The munitions used by Israel were older models purchased from American stocks that were prone to failure, with greater residual threats to civilian populations.

We should not lose sight of the irony that the U.S. is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council––the world’s major munitions producers (plus Israel)––the majority of which opposed the Dublin draft treaty.

If we ever needed proof of the degree to which America’s culture has been militarized it has to be our government’s foreign policy position on cluster munitions and land mines and that there is no meaningful political opposition. Eisenhower’s warning in 1961 about the threat of the military-industrial complex to the survival of our democracy is no longer merely a threat but is now fact with the universal acceptance by our political leadership of American Imperialism.

Only four senators voted for a ban on cluster munitions in 2006.These munitions, a legacy of First World War trench warfare tactics, are ludicrous for our nation’s defense needs in the 21st Century. Outmoded military judgments continue to trump the moral judgment of our political leaders.

Little wonder our nation has lost moral leadership in world affairs. Would the people do any worse than their leaders. I doubt it. Take another look at the National Initiative in www.citizen-power.us.

2008-06-25T10:37:00.000-04:00

Public opening of Buckminster Fuller:
Starting with the Universe

Thursday, June 26th

Public opening of Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe
The Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave. 11:00am - 5:00pm
Author roundtable, Dymaxion Study Center
Meet and talk to renowned Fuller colleagues and authors including Fuller archivist Bonnie DeVarco; inventor and author of Buckyworks, Jay Baldwin; and Synergetics expert and design science innovator, Joseph Clinton.
Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place. 5:00pm - 8:00pm.
Please RSVP: http://aiany.org/calendar/rsvp.php?id=1005576. Free.

Friday, June 27th

Fuller film series and discussion
Join filmmaker and producer Jaime Snyder and Buckminster Fuller's daughter, Allegra Fuller Snyder, for an evening of film and discussion.
Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place. 6:00pm.
Please RSVP: http://aiany.org/calendar/rsvp.php?id=1005577. Free.

Saturday, June 28th

Dymaxion Map Intergenerational Workshop: One Earth Island - One Earth Ocean
An experiential workshop that explores how interconnected we are using Buckminster Fuller's giant Dymaxion world map. Jointly produced by the CFA Foundation and Earth Voyage
Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place. 11:00am - 1:00pm and 2:00pm - 4:00pm.
Please RSVP: http://www.aiany.org/calendar/event.php?id=1005578. Free.

Saturday, July 12th

FamilyDay @ the Center: Bucky's Ge-Odyssey
Buckminster Fuller was an architect, author, designer, futurist, inventor, poet and visionary. Join us on Buckminster Fuller's birthday for a hands-on journey through the geometries of the universe and find out how they inspired his design science.
Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place. 10:00am - 12:00pm and 1:00pm - 3:00pm.
Please RSVP: http://www.aiany.org/calendar/event.php?id=1005489. Free.

2008-06-24T11:26:00.003-04:00

Did the Banks Write the Law?

And yet critics can see the not so invisible hand of big banks in the writing of the laws:

"We call it the 'Bank of America bill on steroids.'" A House staffer told me that, demanding anonymity, but speaking on behalf of aides to GOP members of the House Financial Services Committee.

He was talking about the bill whose Senate version has been brought to the floor this week by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CN, and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL. Dodd-Shelby would let mortgage lenders off the hook for bad loans, shifting the burden ultimately to taxpayers. Dodd has received approximately $70,000 in campaign contributions from Bank of America in the last year-and-a-half.

Some journalists and Republican lawmakers are asking if Countrywide bought a bailout bill with its VIP loans to Dodd, who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Call your Senator and ask !

important information about energy saving light bulbs !

2008-06-24T10:59:00.001-04:00

Energy-saving light bulbs are so dangerous that everyone must leave the room for at least 15 minutes if one falls to the floor and breaks. The startling alert came as health experts also warned that toxic mercury inside the bulbs can aggravate a range of problems including migraines and dizziness. And a leading dermatologist said tens of thousands of people with skin complaints will find it hard to tolerate being near the bulbs as they cause conditions such as eczema to flare up.
Shards of glass from broken bulbs should not be vacuumed up but instead swept away by someone wearing rubber gloves to protect them from the bulb's mercury content.
In addition, it said care should be taken not to inhale any dust and the broken pieces should be put in a sealed plastic bag for disposal. None of this advice, however, is printed on the packaging the new-style bulbs are sold in. There are also worries over how the bulbs will be disposed of.

2008-06-23T10:26:00.002-04:00

Acting on what made America great!

VotePact.org

The Problem

Many people want to vote for a third party candidate, but feel like they have to vote for either Bush or the Democratic nominee because they so dislike the other.

The Solution — www.VotePact.org — Just Duet

2008-06-22T22:41:00.001-04:00

China cracks down ahead of Games human rights

By Clifford Coonan
Monday, 23 June 2008

To get to the apartment we have travel down a serious of laneways in the south of Beijing, all bearing the character "chai", which means "demolish". A series of locks are opened as the steel door is pulled back, but it won't do much good when the police do come.

Thousands of miles away from the Olympic torch relay through Lhasa, a group of wronged, cheated and abused Beijing residents are gathered in the house of Hua Huiqi. A self-taught "barefoot" lawyer-activist and underground Christian, Hua, 46, and all those present have been warned they will be arrested during the Olympics and told to shut up before the world's media arrives.

"The closer we get to the Olympics, the worse the effect on our human rights," he says.

The police come every day to warn him and we speak in a climate of real fear, with everyone jumping whenever there is a knock at the door. He knows he will soon be arrested, because nothing can be allowed to interfere with a smooth running of the Olympics. All over the city, human rights defenders, fighters for free speech or advocates for property rights say they are being told they are not to use the Olympics as a platform for their complaints.

Police beat Hua unconscious in October when he tried to intercede for residents kicked out of their homes by private security thugs. He served six months in jail last year for "obstructing justice" after he and his 78-year-old mother scuffled with police as they prepared to present a petition to the government about the demolition of their home in 2001.

Hua's mother, Shuang Shuying, was sentenced to two years in jail for damaging public property during a protest against her son's detention. "Yesterday they came looking for me to give me a warning," he says. "Two days ago they knocked the door down violently. They told me to be honest, be careful and to shut up because of the Olympics. They said that I would be held under house arrest during the Olympics."

Among those gathered in the room looking for justice are Wang Xuebin, who was dragged 300 metres behind a car by thieves who robbed his shop in 1999. His right arm had to be amputated, but although the criminals were punished, they received leniency because they had good connections.

The medical report said his injuries were "slight" and related to a "woman's breast injury". This, to an imposing man with Dickensian sideburns, is insulting.

Li Guifeng's daughter, Gaoping, was cheated out of tens of thousands of yuan by her boyfriend. When she reported the fraud to the police, the boyfriend used his connections to have Gaoping arrested, and the 33-year-old mother died in custody. "She was in the police station for a half an hour," says Li.

"When I went to the police station to get her body they threw her body into the car like a dead pig. She'd been beaten. They say she committed suicide, but she didn't. We've kept her body frozen, we want answers."

Li and Wang have both been told to drop their complaints ahead of the Beijing Olympics on 8 August.

In international terms, the government is espousing a policy of openness for the Games, saying there will be complete media freedom for visitors. But the country has only tightened its grip on domestic reporters.

2008-06-20T10:24:00.002-04:00

"Your worst enemies are your best friends."-- Dick Armey

Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government
Broad, invasive provision touches nearly every aspect of American commerce.

Contact: Adam Brandon
Phone: 202-942-7612

Washington, DC - Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking."

"Privacy groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and small business organizations like the NFIB sharply criticized this idea when it first appeared earlier this year. What is the federal government's purpose with this kind of detailed data? How will this database be secured, and who will have access? Many small proprietors use their Social Security number as their tax ID. How will their privacy be protected? What compliance costs will this impose on businesses? Why is Sen. Chris Dodd putting this provision in a housing bailout bill? The bill also includes the creation of a new national fingerprint registry for mortgage brokers.

"At a time when concerns about both identity theft and government spying are paramount, Congress wants to create a new honey pot of private data that includes Social Security numbers. This bill reduces privacy across America's payment processing systems and treats every American small business or eBay power seller like a criminal on parole by requiring an unprecedented level of reporting to the federal government. This outrageous idea is another reason to delay the housing bailout legislation so that Senators and the public at large have time to examine its full implications."

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Interview!

2008-06-19T19:19:00.001-04:00

Tonight is a full moon, and its Aung San Suu Kyi's Birthday today ~ Happy Birthday ~~ Peace

2008-06-19T16:58:00.002-04:00

A full moon tonight the Feds; making arrests on the 'Operation Malicious Mortgage'
front big story on Hufpo, what else is going on,

tomorrow a vote on -- Feingold: Wiretap deal 'no compromise, its capitulation' at raw story

quote
"Congressional leaders have reached an accord with the White House on the update to a controversial surveillance law that essentially legalizes the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program and seems likely to let off the hook the phone companies that facilitated it.

Call congress

IMPEACH!!!!

2008-06-19T10:04:00.000-04:00

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

Lord Byron

2008-06-18T13:22:00.002-04:00

The Biggest Election Story Not on Your TV

David Swanson

For over half the days during any period of years you choose to select, the biggest story in U.S. news outlets is the impending most important election in your lifetime. The story, of course, takes an infinite variety of forms, ranging from candidates' friends and associates to their diets, wardrobes, religions, childhoods, and hobbies. There are variations that take us through polls and fundraising and commercials and donors and staffers and analysis of commentary on reporting on sound bytes. We learn the ins and outs of the process, the demographics of likely supporters, and the statistical likelihood that a candidate of a given race, religion, gender, and shoe size will get an RBI in the next inning. Occasionally we even get a glancing glimpse at what a candidate might do if elected.

2008-06-17T21:04:00.001-04:00

Promoting Peace and Security in Sudan

This afternoon, ENOUGH Co-Chair, John Prendergast, briefed the Security Council during a special session on peace and security in Sudan. With its latest invasion-by-proxy in Chad, the Sudanese government is taking its defiance of the United Nations Security Council to a new level. As we speak, Khartoum is sponsoring and supporting an open and transparent effort to overthrow a neighboring government. A month ago, the regime burned the strategic town of Abyei to the ground, leaving the North-South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) at extreme risk. This comes against the backdrop of a government offensive in Darfur and ongoing support to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), whose actions threaten the children of four countries.

Read John Prendergast's testimony here.

"Ending the catastrophe in Darfur requires a three-pronged effort that involves international protection for civilians, accountability for human rights abuses, and a peace agreement that resolves the underlying political issues, said Prendergast, "Equal efforts must also go into ensuring the implementation of the CPA and its provisions such as national elections and the referendum for the South."

Read John Prendergast's "Sudan and the Security Council: Accountability or Appeasement?" in The Huffington Post.

Jerry Fowler, Save Darfur Coalition President; Actress Mia Farrow, and Niemat Ahmadi, Darfuri Liaison Officer at the Save Darfur Coalition also presented at this special session.

Earlier this week, ENOUGH and the Save Darfur Coalition released a joint paper, "Keeping Our Word: Fulfilling the mandate to protect civilians in Darfur," which offers recommendations to overcome logistical and political hurdles to achieve full, effective deployment of UNAMID. Read the report here.

2008-06-16T23:40:00.000-04:00

Published on Saturday, June 14, 2008 by CommonDreams.org

35 Reasons To Call (202) 225-5126

by Larry Beinhart

On June 10, 2008, Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush.

On June 11, 2008, they were referred to the Judiciary Committee. According to NPR, the Associated Press and the like, they were sent there to die.That’s too bad. Because George Bush has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Impeachable offenses. A lot of them.

He, and his administration, have also created a cloud of confusion and obfuscation around everything that’s happened in his administration. Every investigation has ground to a halt, lost in corporate lawyers tricks - refusal to hand over documents, lost documents, redacted documents, officials who can’t remember, or, at last resort, refuse to answer subpoenas.

According to the Articles of Impeachment:

• The administration consciously lied about the reasons to go to war.
• Conspired to create a secret propaganda campaign to go to war.
• Failed to meet the terms set out in the bill that allowed the president to go to war, thereby making the war illegal.
• Failed to meet the terms set by international law for war, therefore engaging in a “war of aggression,” a war crime.
• Engaged in Torture
• Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives
• Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture
• Imprisoning Children
• Failure, as the occupying power, to protect the civilian population of Iraq.
• Providing immunity for criminal acts by contractors, thereby condoning murder, rape and other crimes.
• Spied on Americans without warrants.
• Intentionally subverting and refusing to enforce laws through signing statements.
• Tampering with Free and Fair Elections,
• Corruption of the Administration of Justice
• Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001
• Denial of Habeas Corpus

Among other things.

Many of these are on the record as true.

If congress says the hell with it, too much trouble to bring that up, and we don’t want to look vindictive, and just shrugs its shoulders, that makes them co-conspirators.

The man who will now make the decision to stash the charges on the shelf until after January, 2009, when Bush is gone, or to open up hearings, is John Conyers.

John Conyers phone number is (202) 225-5126.

Larry Beinhart is the author of Wag the Dog, The Librarian, and Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin. All available at nationbooks.org
His new novel: SALVATION BOULEVARD will be published in September, 2008, by Nation Books

highest bidder

2008-06-16T11:54:00.001-04:00

Allan Nairn. In 1993, Nairn and Amy Goodman received the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial First Prize for International Radio award for their reporting on East Timor. In 1994, Nairn won the George Polk Award for Journalism for Magazine Reporting. Also in 1994, Nairn received the The James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism for his writing on Haiti for The Nation magazine.

obama + hillary's killing floor obama + hillary's killing floor obama + hillary's killing floor

2008-06-16T11:48:00.001-04:00

2008-06-14T21:09:00.000-04:00

IRAQ:
'Special Weapons' Have a Fallout on Babies

Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail*

FALLUJAH, Jun 12 (IPS) - Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say.

The new cases, and the number of deaths among children, have risen after "special weaponry" was used in the two massive bombing campaigns in Fallujah in 2004.

After denying it at first, the Pentagon admitted in November 2005 that white phosphorous, a restricted incendiary weapon, was used a year earlier in Fallujah.

In addition, depleted uranium (DU) munitions, which contain low-level radioactive waste, were used heavily in Fallujah. The Pentagon admits to having used 1,200 tonnes of DU in Iraq thus far.

Many doctors believe DU to be the cause of a severe increase in the incidence of cancer in Iraq, as well as among U.S. veterans who served in the 1991 Gulf War and through the current occupation.

"We saw all the colours of the rainbow coming out of the exploding American shells and missiles," Ali Sarhan, a 50-year-old teacher who lived through the two U.S. sieges of 2004 told IPS. "I saw bodies that turned into bones and coal right after they were exposed to bombs that we learned later to be phosphorus.

"The most worrying is that many of our women have suffered loss of their babies, and some had babies born with deformations."

"I had two children who had brain damage from birth," 28-year-old Hayfa' Shukur told IPS. "My husband has been detained by the Americans since November 2004 and so I had to take the children around by myself to hospitals and private clinics. They died. I spent all our savings and borrowed a considerable amount of money."

Shukur said doctors told her that it was use of the restricted weapons that caused her children's brain damage and subsequent deaths, "but none of them had the courage to give me a written report."

"Many babies were born with major congenital malformations," a paediatric doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "These infants include many with heart defects, cleft lip or palate, Down's syndrome, and limb defects."

The doctor added, "I can say all kinds of problems related to toxic pollution took place in Fallujah after the November 2004 massacre."

Many doctors speak of similar cases and a similar pattern. The indications remain anecdotal, in the absence of either a study, or any available official records.

The Fallujah General Hospital administration was unwilling to give any statistics on deformed babies, but one doctor volunteered to speak on condition of anonymity -- for fear of reprisals if seen to be critical of the administration.

"Maternal exposure to toxins and radioactive material can lead to miscarriage and frequent abortions, still birth, and congenital malformation," the doctor told IPS. There have been many such cases, and the government "did not move to contain the damage, or present any assistance to the hospital whatsoever.

"These cases need intensive international efforts that provide the highest and most recent technologies that we will not have here in a hundred years," he added.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed concern Mar. 31 about the lack of medical supplies in hospitals in Baghdad and Basra.

"Hospitals have used up stocks of vital medical items, and require further supplies to cope with the influx of wounded patients. Access to water remains a matter of concern in certain areas," the ICRC said in a statement.

A senior Iraqi health ministry official was quoted as saying Feb. 26 that the health sector is under "great pressure", with scores of doctors killed, an exodus of medical personnel, poor medical infrastructure, and shortage of medicines.

"We are experiencing a big shortage of everything," said the official, "We don't have enough specialist doctors and medicines, and most of the medical equipment is outdated.

"We used to get many spinal and head injures, but were unable to do anything as we didn't have enough specialists and medicines," he added. "Intravenous fluid, which is a simple thing, is not available all the time." He said no new hospitals had been built since 1986.

Iraqi Health Minister Salih al-Hassnawi highlighted the shortage of medicines at a press conference in Arbil in the Kurdistan region in the north Feb. 22. "The Iraqi Health Ministry is suffering from an acute shortage of medicines...We have decided to import medicines immediately to meet the needs."

He said the 2008 health budget meant that total expenditure on medicines, medical equipment and ambulances would amount to an average of 22 dollars per citizen.

But this is too late for the unknown number of babies and their families who bore the consequences of the earlier devastation. And it is too little to cover the special needs of babies who survived with deformations.

(*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East). (END/2008)

2008-06-14T20:43:00.000-04:00

Published on Thursday, June 12, 2008 by TruthDig.com

Gore Vidal’s Article of Impeachment

by Gore Vidal

On June 9, 2008, a counterrevolution began on the floor of the House of Representatives against the gas and oil crooks who had seized control of the federal government. This counterrevolution began in the exact place which had slumbered during the all-out assault on our liberties and the Constitution itself.

I wish to draw the attention of the blog world to Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s articles of impeachment presented to the House in order that two faithless public servants be removed from office for crimes against the American people. As I listened to Rep. Kucinich invoke the great engine of impeachment — he listed some 35 crimes by these two faithless officials — we heard, like great bells tolling, the voice of the Constitution itself speak out ringingly against those who had tried to destroy it.

Although this is the most important motion made in Congress in the 21st century, it was also the most significant plea for a restoration of the republic, which had been swept to one side by the mad antics of a president bent on great crime. And as I listened with awe to Kucinich, I realized that no newspaper in the U.S., no broadcast or cable network, would pay much notice to the fact that a highly respected member of Congress was asking for the president and vice president to be tried for crimes which were carefully listed by Kucinich in his articles requesting impeachment.

But then I have known for a long time that the media of the U.S. and too many of its elected officials give not a flying fuck for the welfare of this republic, and so I turned, as I often do, to the foreign press for a clear report of what has been going on in Congress. We all know how the self-described “war hero,” Mr. John McCain, likes to snigger at France, while the notion that he is a hero of any kind is what we should be sniggering at. It is Le Monde, a French newspaper, that told a story the next day hardly touched by The New York Times or The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal or, in fact, any other major American media outlet.

As for TV? Well, there wasn’t much — you see, we dare not be divisive because it upsets our masters who know that this is a perfect country, and the fact that so many in it don’t like it means that they have been terribly spoiled by the greatest health service on Earth, the greatest justice system, the greatest number of occupied prisons — two and a half million Americans are prisoners — what a great tribute to our penal passions!

Naturally, I do not want to sound hard, but let me point out that even a banana Republican would be distressed to discover how much of our nation’s treasury has been siphoned off by our vice president in the interest of his Cosa Nostra company, Halliburton, the lawless gang of mercenaries set loose by his administration in the Middle East.

But there it was on the first page of Le Monde. The House of Representatives, which was intended to be the democratic chamber, at last was alert to its function, and the bravest of its members set in motion the articles of impeachment of the most dangerous president in our history. Rep Kucinich listed some 30-odd articles describing impeachable offenses committed by the president and vice president, neither of whom had ever been the clear choice of our sleeping polity for any office.

Some months ago, Kucinich had made the case against Dick Cheney. Now he had the principal malefactor in his view under the title “Articles of Impeachment for President George W. Bush”! “Resolved, that President George W. Bush be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate.” The purpose of the resolve is that he be duly tried by the Senate, and if found guilty, be removed from office. At this point, Rep. Kucinich presented his 35 articles detailing various high crimes and misdemeanors for which removal from office was demanded by the framers of the Constitution.

Update: On Wednesday, the House voted by 251 to 166 to send Rep. Kucinich’s articles of impeachment to a committee which probably won’t get to the matter before Bush leaves office, a strategy that is “often used to kill legislation,” as the Associated Press noted later that day.

National Book Award winner Gore Vidal has written twenty-three novels, five plays, many screenplays, short stories, well over two hundred essays, and a memoir.

2008-06-11T14:00:00.001-04:00

URGENT ACTION ALERT: TELL CONGRESS "NO DEAL ON TELECOM
IMMUNITY"! Recent intelligence indicates that high-ranking
Republicans and Democrats are hoping that a "compromise"
foreign intelligence surveillance bill can be rushed
through both the House and the Senate before the July 4th
holiday -- maybe even next week.

The drafting process has been secretive, but one thing is
clear: the "compromise" is almost certain to contain
blanket immunity for phone companies that assisted in the
NSA's warrantless wiretapping program and prevent any court
from ruling on whether they broke the law.

We've stopped telecom immunity in its tracks before, but
the empty "compromise" rhetoric surrounding this bill makes
it extremely dangerous. Please contact your Senators and
Congressperson to remind them that we're watching, and that
we won't accept any false compromises on immunity for
lawbreaking telecoms!
http://www.eff.org/action/no-false-compromises

* IN ANOTHER BATTLE AGAINST ABUSIVE DMCA TAKEDOWNS, EFF has
asked a federal court to protect the free speech rights of
an animal welfare group after its video critiques of animal
treatment at rodeos were removed from YouTube due to sham
copyright claims. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys
Association (PRCA) filed takedown demands for 13 videos
from the group Showing Animals Respect and Kindness
(SHARK), claiming that the videos infringed their
copyrights -- even though the PRCA has no copyright claim
in live rodeo events. The lawsuit is part of EFF's No
Downtime for Free Speech Campaign, a response to increasing
misuse of the DMCA to demand that material be removed from
the Internet without providing any proof of infringement.
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/06/09-0

* EFF WELCOMES LEADING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ATTORNEY
MICHAEL KWUN, who brings years of copyright, trademark, and
patent litigation experience to EFF's legal team. A
long-time geek, Kwun worked on early DMCA cases and, as
Google's litigation managing counsel, defended Google in
copyright cases about YouTube, Google Book Search, and
Google Image Search; trademark cases about Google AdWords;
and patent cases in connection with a wide variety of
Google products.
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/06/09

2008-06-11T12:22:00.000-04:00

Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried
822 Legislative Office Building, Albany, NY 12248 - Tel: 518-455-4941
250 Broadway, #2232, New York, NY 10007 - Tel: 212-312-1492
GottfrR@assembly.state.ny.us

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Anti-Torture Bill Moves in Albany
Physicians and other health care professionals licensed by New York would be prohibited
from participating in torture or improper treatment of a prisoner under a bill approved
unanimously by the Assembly Higher Education Committee today.
"It is shocking that our government engages in torture and improper treatment of
prisoners," said the bill's author, Assembly Health Committee chair Richard N.
Gottfried (D,WF- Manhattan). "It is even more shocking to see reports that physicians
and other health care professionals are cooperating in it." In February 2008, the
Washington Post reported on U.S. Attorney General Robert Mukasey's argument that
waterboarding was not torture because it was monitored and limited by someone with
medical training. In 2005, the New England Journal of Medicine reported on violations
of medical ethics against medical personnel at Guantanamo Bay for sharing prisoner's
health information with interrogators.
The bill has 27 co-sponsors in both parties and is the first of its kind in the
nation, Gottfried said."It is never justifiable to torture another human being. It is wrong for a healthcare professional to use his or her education and training to participate in or
facilitate torture or improper treatment of a prisoner," said Gottfried. "I don't
think any New York patient would want to be treated by a health care professional
who would do that to another human being."
The bill would apply to conduct by any New York-licensed health care professional
wherever it happens, and regardless of whether it is committed in connection with
any government. The bill would follow international treaties and standards and
professional standards by establishing the proper conduct of health care professionals
in relation to the treatment of prisoners, Gottfried said.
"New York law ordinarily cannot reach beyond our borders, but the state can limit
the professional behavior of a person to whom it grants a license," Gottfried said.
"We often revoke a license for out-of-state misconduct."
Under the bill, health care professionals would be required to provide proper care
and treatment to prisoners as best they can under the circumstances. Any evaluation
or treatment they provide must be in the interest of the prisoner. Military or
other governmental orders would not shield a person from the loss of their professional
license in New York.
The bill is based on the UN Convention Against Torture, adopted in 1982, and the
World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo, adopted in 1975.
If the bill, A9891, is approved by the Higher Education Committee, which has jurisdiction
over professional licensor, it will go to the Assembly Codes Committee, which will
review the penalty provisions of the bill.
Prohibiting health professionals from cooperating with torture is advocated by the
UN General Assembly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Medical
Association, the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians,
the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and
the National Association of Social Workers, among others. The bill was developed
with the assistance of Physicians for Human Rights, and the New York Campaign Against
Torture.

2008-06-09T10:23:00.000-04:00

If Think Subprime Was Bad, Try Credit Default Swaps

MORE GLOOM FOR THE ECONOMY

OIL EXPECTED TO RISE TO $150 A DOLLAR.
(Note that Oil Companies bought two full time ads in Today's NY Times.)

READ: F. William Engdahl -The Financial Tsunami has not reached its Climax Credit Default Swaps: Next Phase of an Unravelling Crisis

While attention has been focused on the relatively tiny US "sub-prime" home mortgage default crisis as the center of the current financial and credit crisis impacting the Anglo-Saxon banking world, a far larger problem is now coming into focus. Sub-prime or high-risk Collateralized Mortgage Obligations, CMOs as they are called, are only the tip of a colossal iceberg of dodgy credits which are beginning to go sour. The next crisis is already beginning in the $62 TRILLION market for Credit Default Swaps. You never heard of them? It's time to take a look, then.

The next phase of the unravelling crisis in the US-centered "revolution in finance" is emerging in the market for arcane instruments known as Credit Default Swaps or CDS. Wall Street bankers always have to have a short name for these things.

As I pointed out in detail in my earlier exclusive series, the Financial Tsunami, Parts I-V, the Credit Default Swap was invented a few years ago by a young Cambridge University mathematics graduate, Blythe Masters, hired by J.P. Morgan Chase Bank in New York. The then-fresh university graduate convinced her bosses at Morgan Chase to develop a revolutionary new risk product, the CDS as it soon became known.

A Credit Default Swap is a credit derivative or agreement between two counterparties, in which one makes periodic payments to the other and gets promise of a payoff if a third party defaults. The first party gets credit protection, a kind of insurance, and is called the "buyer." The second party gives credit protection and is called the "seller". The third party, the one that might go bankrupt or default, is known as the "reference entity." CDS's became staggeringly popular as credit risks exploded during the last seven years in the United States. Banks argued that with CDS they could spread risk around the globe."

BUSINESS WEEK: MORE FORECLOSURES LIKELY

The American homeowner must feel like one of those characters in an old cartoon who has just been hit by a falling piano. After dusting himself off and touching the large bump on his head, he probably doesn't expect another piano to be dangling overhead. But he'd be wrong.

But what's often funny in a cartoon is anything but in real life. With the subprime mortgage crisis already crippling the U.S. economy, some experts are warning that the next wave of foreclosures will begin accelerating in April, 2009. What that means is that hundreds of thousands of borrowers who took out so-called option adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) will begin to see their monthly payments skyrocket as they reset. About a million borrowers have option ARMs, but only a fraction have already fallen due.

MORE RECESSION DENIAL

Despite the fact that six major financial firms said the US Economy was in Recession LAST YEAR, much of the media and, of course the Administration are suggesting a recession can still be avoided. Read the way this report in Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel as an exercise in continued denial

Oil Surge, Job Losses Rip Stocks; Combined Factors Have Economists Fearing Recession (FEARING??????)

A spike in oil prices, a big jump in unemployment and the lingering credit crisis combined to spook investors Friday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average on a nearly 400-point nosedive and cementing the view of some analysts that a recession is imminent if not already under way. Spending by consumers accounts for about 70% of the U.S. economy.But some saw Friday's news that the unemployment rate had its biggest one-month increase in 22 years as perhaps the tipping point toward recession

2008-06-06T23:28:00.000-04:00

Congressman: Clinton Camp Uses Divisive Tactics
CAMDEN, N.J., Jun. 6, 2008

(AP) A Democratic congressman from New Jersey accused Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign of trying to exploit tensions between Jews and blacks.

Rep. Rob Andrews, who supported Clinton, said in a newspaper interview that he received a call from a top member of Clinton's organization shortly before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary who explicitly discussed a strategy of winning Jewish voters by exploiting tensions between Jews and blacks.

"There have been signals coming out of the Clinton campaign that have racial overtones that indeed disturb me," Andrews said, according to a report in The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. "Frankly, I had a private conversation with a high-ranking person in the campaign ... that used a racial line of argument that I found very disconcerting. It was extremely disconcerting given the rank of this person. It was very disturbing."

Andrews declined to disclose the caller's name. Clinton spokesman Phil Singer denied the accusation, according to the Star-Ledger.

"Comments like these, coming so soon after Congressman Andrews' crushing defeat, are sad and divisive," Singer said, referring to Andrews' unsuccessful challenge to incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg in the New Jersey Democratic primary.

Andrews said the phone call came after he angered the Clinton camp by making some positive comments about Obama.

2008-06-06T23:09:00.002-04:00

Take a Chance on McCain

Somebody over at The McNutter Report has a sense of humor!
Attention disaffected Hillary supporters, John McCain is a huge ABBA fan. Seriously.

2008-06-04T19:38:00.002-04:00

Robert F. Kennedy
born 1925-
june 6th 1968
we love you Bobby

2008-06-04T12:51:00.000-04:00

CHANGE

2008-06-04T12:22:00.001-04:00

350th Anniversary of the
Flushing Remonstrance: 1657-2007

A celebration of a document and the principles it embodies

The Flushing Remonstrance was a forerunner to the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution that gives people the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. On December 27, 1657, it was signed by 30 Flushing residents who risked fines and banishment imposed by Governor Peter Stuyvesant in order to state their call for freedom

Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth (Monterey 1967)

2008-06-03T17:07:00.001-04:00

Go Obama go!

2008-06-01T12:17:00.000-04:00

World Complicit in Gaza Shame: Tutu

GAZA CITY — Shocked by "scary" scenes in Gaza after months of Israeli and Western sanctions, Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu denounced on Thursday, May 29, the international community's complicity in the suffering of the Gaza people.

"My message to the international community is that our silence and complicity, especially on the situation in Gaza, shames us all," Tutu told a new conference at the end of a three-day UN fact-finding mission.

The longtime anti-apartheid and peace activist said he was shocked by how the coastal strip has become "desolate and scary" as a result of fuel and basic goods shortage.

"No people were in the streets. We were struck particularly by the absence of the sound of children playing or waving to (my) motorcade, like other countries," said the retired Anglican archbishop of Cape Town.

He urged Israel to left the long-running blockade of the territory, home to 1.6 million Palestinians, and the world community to end its economic boycott.

"Gaza needs the engagement of the outside world, especially its peacemakers."

Israel has been closing Gaza Strip's exits to the outside world since Hamas took control of the territory last June.

It has completely locked down the area since January, banning food and fuel shipment supplies.

This coincides with a continued US-led Western economic boycott since Palestinians elected Hamas to power in the 2006 elections.

War Crimes

Ending a three-day UN fact-finding mission, Tutu condemned the Israeli killing of 18 members of a Palestinian family in 2006 in the northern town of Beit Hanun.

"We are at the stage of shock...by what we subsequently heard from the survivors of the Beit Hanoun massacre."

Tutu hoped his team's report, to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, would help find a way to protect Palestinian civilians from further Israeli assaults.

The UN team circumvented Israeli restrictions by entering the Palestinian territory through the crossing with Egypt, which was opened especially for them, to investigate the killing.

After an internal investigation, the Israeli army announced in February that no charges would be brought against any soldier over the attack.

"I think what we've seen shows plenty of evidence of at least the possibility of war crimes that needs much further independent investigation," said British professor Christine Chinkin.

Israel has been mounting air strikes on the Strip since last February.

In March, a deadly ground and air offensive killed more than 125 people in a week, including more than 20 children, toddlers and newborn babies.

2008-05-27T14:47:00.001-04:00

The Farm Bill
Ken Cook is president of Environmental Working Group, a public interest research and advocacy organization known for its Farm Subsidy Database. The author of dozens of articles, opinion pieces and reports on agricultural, public health and environmental topics, "[Cook's] fingerprints can be found on nearly two decades of U.S. farm law"

2008-05-27T14:27:00.001-04:00

Welcome, Mayor! Welcome, concerned citizens!

Mayors for Peace leadership calls on the world to prepare for
“the UN decisive decade for nuclear disarmament 2010-2020"

The 7th Executive Conference of Mayors for Peace meeting November 21 -22, 2007 in the historic Palazzo Vecchio as guests of the Mayor of Florence, Leonardo Domenici, vowed to provide global leadership in preparing for the Disarmament Decade called for by the UN General Assembly. This third phase of the 2020 Vision Campaign will be launched in Geneva in May 2008, on the fifth anniversary of the speech made there by Mayors for Peace President, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima, in which he proposed a mayors campaign against nuclear weapons.

As in the first phase of the 2020 Vision Campaign, one of the main focuses of international activity will be the NPT review process. In conjunction with the 2005 NPT Review Conference, Mayors for Peace organized a Mayors Conference at the United Nations which was addressed by then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In this review cycle, Mayors for Peace will organize two mayors conferences during the review preparatory period, in Geneva and in New York. And it will send a delegation of mayors from the major metropolises of the world to the 2010 Review Conference. Further elements of this aspect of the 2020 Vision Campaign will be revealed in Geneva in May.

2008-05-27T14:24:00.001-04:00

Suit Against YouTube Called a Threat to the Flow of Information on the Web

By AP.

NEW YORK — A $1-billion copyright infringement lawsuit challenging YouTube’s ability to keep copyrighted material off its popular video-sharing Internet website threatens how hundreds of millions of people exchange all kinds of information, YouTube owner Google Inc. said.

Google’s lawyers made the claim in papers filed in U.S. District Court in New York as the company responded to Viacom Inc.’s latest lawsuit alleging that the Internet has led to “an explosion of copyright infringement” by YouTube and others.

The back-and-forth between the companies has intensified since Viacom brought its lawsuit last year, saying it was owed damages for the unauthorized viewing of its programming from MTV, Comedy Central and other networks.

In papers submitted to a judge late Friday, Google said YouTube “goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works.” It said that by seeking to make carriers and hosting providers liable for Internet communications, Viacom “threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information, news, entertainment and political and artistic expression.”

Google said YouTube was faithful to the requirements of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, saying the federal law was intended to protect companies such as YouTube as long as they responded properly to content owners’ claims of infringement.

2008-05-26T11:31:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day Remembering the troops from all wars.
Peace.

2008-05-26T10:52:00.002-04:00

Fair and What!

Liz Trotta's comment on Fox Fair and Balanced!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYpkvcmog0

You can criticize anyone all you want. You cannot call for their assassination. Not in my USA.
If she made the same comment about Hillary or McCain, people on this board would be equally outraged. It has nothing to do with WHO the remark was aimed at; but the fact that joking about ANYONE being assassinated is deplorable.

A terrorist [according to United States Code, Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 113B, Section 2331] is one who engages in:

"�activities that involve violent� or life-threatening acts� that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State and� appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping..."

Ms. Trotta certainly qualifies.

Boycott Fox News Sponsors: USE 'MESSAGED" BOYCOTT
For a list of Fox News Sponsors to boycott until support for dishonest "news" (propaganda disguised as news) is no more. Write/email letters to these and local sponsors letting them know of your disinclination to buy from them while the shows they sponsor continue dishonest practices.
This message is to let you know that until Fox News discontinues unfair practices of blurring partisan political opinion with news and calling it "Fair And Balanced", I will avoid buying products from sponsors of its shows. I have noticed your products advertised on this network. Please let me know if your company plans to continue this controversial support of this unethical practice through advertisements on this network or if I could consider to purchase your products again. -- use link!

2008-05-25T12:43:00.002-04:00

Hillary: Why I Continue to Run

BY HILLARY CLINTON

Sunday, May 25th 2008, 4:00 AM

This past Friday, during a meeting with a newspaper editorial board, I was asked about whether I was going to continue in the presidential race.

I made clear that I was - and that I thought the urgency to end the 2008 primary process was unprecedented. I pointed out, as I have before, that both my husband's primary campaign, and Sen. Robert Kennedy's, had continued into June.

Almost immediately, some took my comments entirely out of context and interpreted them to mean something completely different - and completely unthinkable.

I want to set the record straight: I was making the simple point that given our history, the length of this year's primary contest is nothing unusual. Both the executive editor of the newspaper where I made the remarks, and Sen. Kennedy's son, Bobby Kennedy Jr., put out statements confirming that this was the clear meaning of my remarks. Bobby stated, "I understand how highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take offense."

I realize that any reference to that traumatic moment for our nation can be deeply painful - particularly for members of the Kennedy family, who have been in my heart and prayers over this past week. And I expressed regret right away for any pain I caused.

But I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for - and everything I am fighting for in this election.

And today, I would like to more fully answer the question I was asked: Why do I continue to run, even in the face of calls from pundits and politicians for me to leave this race?

I am running because I still believe I can win on the merits. Because, with our economy in crisis, our nation at war, the stakes have never been higher - and the need for real leadership has never been greater - and I believe I can provide that leadership.

I am not unaware of the challenges or the odds of my securing the nomination - but this race remains extraordinarily close, and hundreds of thousands of people in upcoming primaries are still waiting to vote. As I have said so many times over the course of this primary, if Sen. Obama wins the nomination, I will support him and work my heart out for him against John McCain. But that has not happened yet.

I am running because I believe staying in this race will help unite the Democratic Party. I believe that if Sen. Obama and I both make our case - and all Democrats have the chance to make their voices heard - in the end, everyone will be more likely to rally around the nominee.

2008-05-24T17:57:00.002-04:00

Spending On Iraq: Poorly Tracked Audit Faults Accounting for $15 Billion Dollars

By Dana Hedgpeth

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 23, 2008; Page D01

The inspector general for the Defense Department said yesterday that the Pentagon cannot account for almost $15 billion worth of goods and services ranging from trucks, bottled water and mattresses to rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns that were bought from contractors in the Iraq reconstruction effort.

The Pentagon did not have the proper documentation, including receipts, vouchers, signatures, invoices or other paperwork, for $7.8 billion that American and Iraqi contractors were paid for phones, folders, paint, blankets, Nissan trucks, laundry services and other items, according to a 69-page audit released to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

2008-05-23T21:33:00.002-04:00

Hillary's comment "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it."

Tell the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee how disgusted you are with Mrs. Clinton's behavior, while she's outside picketing and sending them baloney sandwiches and lemonade.

Email them:

donna@brazileassociates.com; mbrewer@michigandems.com; rcdawson@fulbright.com; tflourno@aft.org; don@fowlercommunications.com; carol@fowlercommunications.com; Martha@mfclark4nh.com; ygates@dnc.org; agermond@dnc.org; Jaime@jaglawfirm.com; Janicegriffin08@mac.com; aherman@dnc.org; alicehuffman@sbcglobal.net; thynes@chapman.com; hickes@msek.com; bjohnson@dnc.org; Elaine_kamarck@harvard.edu; allan.katz@akerman.com; eric@rpum.com; david.mcdonald@klgates.com; monapasquil@hotmail.com; mreiley@dnc.org; james_roosevelt@tufts-health.com; gssl@aol.com; Esmith@dnc.org; msteed@PaladinCapGroup.com; sstroschein@dnc.org; seiusarah@msn.com; everettward06@aol.com; Jerome@puente-latino.com

My letter:
Dear Friend,
This is a sad letter to write but I feel I must.

As you are a responsible representative of the democratic party
I am asking you and will support you to force Mrs. Clinton to step
down from her pursuit of the office of president of the United States
of America, and further more for her to step down as the senator of New York
of which I am a resident.

Her comment today was completely irresponsible, although I do believe
calculated for what appears not to get the net result she expected.

Mrs. Clinton, no longer has the credibility needed to fulfill her role
in public office and I am requesting you to lend all your weight to
displacing her in both instances. Her comment was outrageous.

With thanks

Isobel lowther

2008-05-23T14:48:00.001-04:00

"Talk radio is one of America's most popular and influential media formats. In his book, Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio, Rory O'Connor reports on the shocking number of top radio talk show hosts who regularly spout hate speech over our public airwaves. This intriguing, eye-opening and hugely important work is a must read account of the dangers of blurring opinion, journalism and entertainment -- at the expense of our democratic discourse and ideals."
-- Walter Cronkite, American broadcast journalist icon

"Rory O'Connor and Aaron Cutler, in this admirable example of whistleblowing, do for talk radio in our time what Upton Sinclair and George Seldes did for the press in their time. They expose, in devastating detail, how our hallowed right of free speech has been crippled by right wing domination of the air waves. They carefully analyze the phenomenon of talk radio -- its origins, its enormous power, its pretensions, its covert and overt agendas . But they also present alternatives that could restore some semblance of fairness to a marketplace of ideas so far dominated by corporate and military interests."
-- Howard Zinn, author

2008-05-21T15:18:00.002-04:00

The White House + Setting the Record Straight:
President Bush's Interview With Richard Engel of NBC News

The President vs. the Peacock
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, May 20, 2008; 1:00 PM

There is more to the White House's unprecedented attack on NBC News yesterday than meets the eye.

The blistering letter to NBC from White House Counselor Ed Gillespie ostensibly focuses on the way President Bush's interview with NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel was edited for presentation on Sunday's Nightly News.

But NBC's handling of the interview was not atypical for a tightly-edited broadcast and did not violate any journalistic norms. The White House may believe that news outlets are obliged to reproduce all of Bush's non-answers in their rambling entirety, but that's not the way the news business works.

Here is video of the edited interview as shown on the Nightly News. Here is video of the entire interview, which was 15 minutes long. Here is the full White House transcript.

A major topic was Bush's controversial speech to the Israeli parliament last week. (See Friday's column for background.)

Here is the particular exchange that Gillespie complained about at some length:

Engel: "You said that negotiating with Iran is pointless, and then you went further. You said that it was appeasement. Were you referring to Senator Barack Obama?"

2008-05-18T18:14:00.000-04:00

China's All-Seeing Eye

With the help of U.S. defense contractors, China is building the prototype for a high-tech police state. It is ready for export.

NAOMI KLEIN

2008-05-16T01:07:00.001-04:00

China

2008-05-14T00:09:00.000-04:00

Burma exports rice as cyclone victims starve

2008-05-13T23:15:00.000-04:00

"US confession: Weapons were not made in Iran after all"

2008-05-09T11:17:00.003-04:00

sign the petition

FedEx Ground

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued complaints charging FedEx Ground with unlawful threats, interrogation, bribery, soliciting grievances, and harassing, isolating, and firing union supporters. A recent report confirms that pro-union employees are frequently harassed and even fired. FedEx Ground is being urge to cease these activities immediately. Look for the green logo and sign and send the letter to FedEx Ground and let them know you support the workers of FedEx Ground.

Shirley Bassey - THE PARTY'S OVER

2008-05-07T08:56:00.001-04:00

Bye Hillary Bye Bye!!!

2008-05-05T13:27:00.002-04:00

Burma
On Friday night, a massive cyclone (hurricane) hit Burma. It is estimated that between 4,000 and 10,000 people have been killed. Hundreds of thousands are without water and food prices have skyrocketed. We believe that hundreds of thousands are without shelter and many more homes lost their roofs. Tens of thousands of people are missing.

Worst, the military regime did practically nothing to warn the Burmese people of the cyclone, and 48 hours after the "hit" the regime has still not asked for any international aid. The Burmese people are in deep trouble and very, very angry. This behavior is fully consistent with the military regime's denial of access for aid agencies to help victims of the military regime's war on civilians in eastern Burma.

Cyclone Nargis devastated major parts of Burma, including major damages in the country's largest city of Rangoon and throughout the Irrawaddy Delta region, Bago (Pegu) Division, Karen State and Mon State. Wind speeds of 120 mile per hour (190 Km/hr) and rain lashed the region from the night of May 2nd to the morning of May 3rd. During over seven hours of turmoil, up to half of the houses in Rangoon were destroyed and many others lost their roofs. Satellite Townships (similar to suburbs) in Rangoon, such as Hlaing Tharyar, Shwe Pyi Thar, Dagon Myothit North, and Dagon Myothit South were hit hardest. In Irrawaddy Division, two Townships -- Kyaik Lat and Latputda -- were almost completely destroyed. On Heingyi Island, there are nearly 100,000 people without homes or shelter.

In Pyinsi Village in Pyar Pone Township, out of 3,000 villagers, at least two thousand are missing. The Burmese military junta claims that 4,000 were dead, but the actual number of deaths is believed to be much higher.

"We call on the US Government to provide emergency assistance to the Burmese people immediately through humanitarian agencies," said Aung Din, Executive Director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma. "Cyclone Nargis directly hit Burma; its tsunami-like effect requires the United States and the international community to respond immediately or many more people will die."

"It is critical that any aid provided not be delivered through the notoriously corrupt government. The military and the organizations run by
the wives of the Generals will only siphon off money and keep supplies for themselves. Money and humanitarian assistance should only be provided to trusted, international humanitarian organizations who can reach the victims of the cyclone directly," added Aung Din.

Support 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma.
Become a member of the United States Campaign for Burma today.

2008-05-04T14:21:00.001-04:00

2008-05-04T10:04:00.001-04:00

“The rights to life and to liberty and integrity and security of person and also to freedom of expression are fundamental human rights that are recognized and guaranteed by international conventions and instruments.” (UNESCO Resolution, General Conference 1997)

World Press Freedom Day

By MediaChannel.

2008-05-03T13:23:00.004-04:00

Aung San Suu Kyi

Her Supporters: World Calls for Her Release

Speeches and Quotes

Awards

Arrest Yourself for Aung San Suu Kyi

This summer, Aung San Suu Kyi may spend her 63rd birthday under house arrest. We are asking people around the world to “arrest themselves” for 24 hours in solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi. Can you hold an event the weekend before her birthday that will not only honor she and the people of Burma, but contribute to the struggle for a free Burma?

Arrest Yourself: Give a Day for Aung San Suu Kyi

2008-05-02T21:01:00.002-04:00

The Port of Vancouver shut down all of its terminals Thursday and the Port of Portland closed its key Terminal 6 as longshore workers took the day off in protest of U.S. military action in Iraq.

Dockworkers take May Day off, idling all West Coast ports

25,000 Dockworkers Shut Down West Coast Ports in Historic Antiwar Protest

In the largest labor strike since the invasion of Iraq, ports along the West Coast—all twenty-nine of them—were shut down as some 25,000 dockworkers went on a one-day strike to protest the war.

2008-05-02T19:08:00.000-04:00

Mainstream Media Ignores Massive Campaign Finance Fraud by Hillary

By Christopher J. Petherick

While the mainstream media continues to focus on the Democratic presidential horse race between Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), an ongoing court case charging massive campaign finance fraud on the part of Mrs. Clinton’s Senate campaign has largely been ignored by the corporate-owned press in the United States.

So far, Mrs. Clinton has been shielded from charges that her Senate campaign in 2000 knowingly falsified Federal Election Commission (FEC) financial statements to hide over $1 million in illegal donations. Instead, Justice Department lawyers have converged on lower-level staff members, dragging them into court to testify regarding the accusations of fraud.

David Rosen, her former finance director, has been the only individual to have been indicted for violations. He was eventually found guilty and fined $35,000.

FBI investigators have focused on an Aug. 12, 2000, fundraiser and concert held by California media mogul Peter Paul who provided more than $1.1 million in “in-kind contributions”—goods and services provided for free or below cost. According to FEC law, goods and services constitute donations and must be declared in quarterly statements.

The FBI said that it had evidence that Mrs. Clinton’s campaign willfully understated its fund-raising costs so it would have more money to spend on the campaign.

Paul himself has testified that he donated over a million dollars to the Clinton campaign and that these donations were never reported to the FEC. Also, Mrs. Clinton’s treasurer, Andrew Grossman, has admitted under oath that he knowingly filed false FEC statements and may face charges in the future, too.

The case has been ongoing for a number of years now, but the mainstream press has yet to mention it.

The Justice Department stated early on that neither Mrs. Clinton, nor former President Bill Clinton, who played a role in her campaign, will face prosecution or be forced to testify in the case. The U.S. Justice Foundation (USFJ), a non-profit legal group, has filed a civil lawsuit against the Clintons, on behalf of Paul, seeking to compel the Clintons to testify under oath about the role they played in the scandal.

In 2004, the USJF went before the California Supreme Court to argue that it should go to trial. The state’s highest court ruled that the case should proceed, and it has been working its way up the courts since then.

The Clintons, who, according to tax returns have amassed a fortune worth $109 million, have fielded a division of high-priced lawyers to keep a tight lid on the case. But court watchers are optimistic that Mrs. Clinton may be forced to state under oath whether she played a role in falsifying official financial statements.

To some Democratic Party insiders, this latest scandal has only solidified the long-held view that the Clintons are vindictive liars, who are willing to sacrifice even longtime supporters in order to keep their hold on power.

Is it fear that has prompted such loyalty among staffers—even to the point of risking fines and prison sentences? The Clintons are well known for maliciously retaliating against those who undermine their “integrity.” Even today, her presidential campaign is notorious for pressing media outlets to fire reporters who write critical pieces about the two.
Search this site for video of HRC

2008-05-02T14:01:00.002-04:00

Photograph: Joshua Lott/Getty

McCain accused of accepting improper donations from Rothschilds

US campaign watchdog has accused presumptive Republican president nominee John McCain of violating election laws by accepting campaign contributions from two prominent Londoners.

At issue is a fundraising luncheon held in March at London's Spencer House, during McCain's swing through the United Kingdom. An invitation to the event lists Lord Rothschild and Nathaniel Rothschild as hosts, and indicates the event was made possible with their "kind permission".

Judicial Watch, a Washington organisation instrumental in the March release of Hillary Clinton's White House schedules, has asked US election monitors to investigate whether the Rothschilds improperly sponsored the fundraiser. US political campaigns are forbidden from accepting contributions from foreign nationals.

"The question is whether or not the Rothschilds paid for the event, the venue, the catering, or any other related costs," said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.

2008-05-02T12:39:00.003-04:00

Sami al-Hajj had been in US custody for more than six years. He was detained in Afghanistan in 2001. He arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on a US military plane in the early hours of Friday morning. After a 16-month hunger strike, Mr Hajj grimaced as he was carried off the plane by US military personnel. "I have been so overwhelmed with happiness that I've been in tears," he said shortly after his arrival. There was no immediate US comment.

Human rights groups condemned Mr Hajj's imprisonment.

"His detention for six years, without the most basic due process, is a grave injustice and represents a threat to all journalists working in conflict areas," said Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Mr Hajj was working as a cameraman for al-Jazeera when he was arrested by Pakistani troops near the Afghan border in December 2001 and later handed over to the US military.

2008-05-01T10:38:00.003-04:00

MayDay -- Workers Rights -- Voters Rights -- Human Rights --No-More War -- Power to the People MayDay! MayDay! MayDay! --- Emergency !!!! Send Lifeboats we are sinking -- MayDay MayDay MayDay !!!

we are not going to change anything around with Bush et al in la casa blanca -- the oilmen cannot keep running the world economy and we can't wait until 2025 to cap emissions -- we have "shock + awe" -- we must stop all wars immediately and come to the table to save the world -- we won the battle but we didn't win the war -- the nazis were brought here and still at it "uber allies" and want and do control space -- we have put plutonium into space and contaminated people/workers on the ground -- nasa's motto "masters of space" -- when I tell you its dire I really mean it and a I write this I am crying -- we have ruined our home and soon we will not be able to put it back together again -- the sea is almost empty -- the perma frost and the ice cap is melting -- the sky is filled with strange bouncing rays doing who knows what -- the weather patterns are manipulated -- the soil is eroding -- the crops are modified genetic species + contaminate the natural plants and make them impotent -- the animals are poisoned as we are with C-8 in fact we have 48 or more different foreign substances in our blood -- the insects are dying or dead and strange and odd species are arriving -- the trees are being destroyed by particulates falling from the sky and are in the water and sucked up from the soil -- people are homeless -- starving and thirsty and beginning to suffer from strange diseases -- congress has been taken over by the pharmaceuticals -- big corporations and the military industrial complex -- and they have taken over the msm -- whats left ?

We can implement change we have to be together and show our solidarity -- take back our world and celebrate May 1st as a victory for Human Rights.

2008-04-30T23:31:00.004-04:00

Lurita Doan

resigns from GSA

bye!

2008-04-30T21:45:00.002-04:00

SHAMEFUL DAYS:
Why Won't The Media Pursue The Pentagon Propaganda Scandal

2008-04-30T18:54:00.002-04:00

'Climate change will hit vulnerable children'

The world's poorest and most vulnerable children are being hit hardest by climate change, according to UNICEF.

Minorities 'hardest hit' by climate change

Poor hit hardest by climate change, says report

'1bn climate change refugees by 2050'

They face a world in which disasters, violence and disease will become more intense.

2008-04-24T23:28:00.000-04:00

Senator: VA lying about number of veteran suicides

WASHINGTON — The Veterans Administration has lied about the number of veterans who've attempted suicide, a senator charged Wednesday, citing internal e-mails that put the number at 12,000 a year when the department was publicly saying it was fewer than 800.

"The suicide rate is a red-alarm bell to all of us," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Murray also said that the VA's mental health programs are being overwhelmed by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, even as the department tries to downplay the situation.

2008-04-22T13:11:00.001-04:00

Dalailama - epetition reply
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make an official announcement that he will meet with the Dalai Lama when he visits the UK in May 2008."
Details of Petition:
"As President George Bush and the United States Congress honour His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we, British citizens and residents, begin this petition requesting that Prime Minister Gordon Brown make a formal statement that he will meet officially with the Dalai Lama when he visits the United Kingdom in May 2008. We further request that the Prime Minister state on record that his meeting with the Dalai Lama will include a discussion of how the United Kingdom can help Tibetans find a solution to the Chinese occupation which began in 1950."

Read the petition

2008-04-21T23:38:00.001-04:00

Olympic Games 2008

One thousand police officers have been deployed in Kuala Lumpur today to protect the Olympic flame on the Malaysian stage of the torch relay.

Policemen and commandos will line the route even though police have not received reports of any planned protests, a police spokesman said. Protests in other countries have triggered the unprecedented security for the Malaysian leg.

The flame arrived last night from Bangkok on a plane dedicated to carry it to all 19 international destinations before it lands in Beijing for the Olympic games opening ceremony. About 300 Chinese students studying in Malaysia greeted the flame at the airport before being taken to a hotel.

About 30 Falun Gong spiritual movement practitioners held demonstrations on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, calling for an end to alleged Chinese human rights abuses. The Falun Gong is regarded by the Chinese government to be a dangerous cult and banned inside China.

The relay through Bangkok on Saturday went without demonstration.

But Japan's historic Buddhist Zenkoji Temple was defaced with graffiti on Sunday after it withdrew from a plan to be the starting point for the relay. The temple cited security concerns and sympathy for Tibetan protesters.

Police were investigating whether the vandalism was related to the temple's decision to withdraw from the event.

hillary's civil war

2008-04-21T23:21:00.001-04:00

2008-04-21T22:25:00.002-04:00

image by Driftglass

Crooks and Liars

Dear New York Times,

Word has it that the Times’ publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., decided last fall that it was time to add another Republican columnist to the paper’s op-ed page, and the decision early on was to find a “lightning-rod conservative.” For reasons that I’ve never entirely understood, you picked the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol.

Now, it’s always difficult for any large institution to admit a mistake, especially on the heels of some high-profile embarrassments. I understand that. This is especially true when someone in a position of authority makes a poor employment decision, hiring the wrong person for an important job. (I suspect it’s tempting to adopt the president’s approach, and pretend that the unqualified hire is doing a heckuva job, no matter how humiliating the person’s on-the-job performance.)

But there comes a point at which the paper’s reputation matters more than the embarrassment that would come from admitting a mistake.

If Kristol were just a conservative hatchet-man, his columns would simply be predictable. After nearly five months of columns, however, the problem is more jarring — his work is that of an awful columnist, a weak writer, and a boring political observer. This isn’t about ideology; it’s about talent, or in this case, the lack thereof.

Take today’s column, for example. Without a hint of satire, Bill Kristol devoted his entire 800-word column in the nation’s most important newspaper to scrutinizing Passover press releases.

He is, in other words, making the New York Times look silly.

I suspect some of Kristol’s recent gems have given the paper pause. His inaugural column, four months ago, went a long way in making his critics’ concerns look well grounded. It was filled with predictable Republican Party talking points; it attributed a quote to the wrong person; and it heralded Hillary Clinton’s demise as a presidential candidate — just one day before she won the New Hampshire primary.

Last month, Kristol relied on a report from Newsmax, a right-wing online news site, to connect Barack Obama to a specific controversial church sermon from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The claim was bogus, and again, Kristol had to concede yet another error.

Clark Hoyt believes hiring Kristol was a mistake, and has said so publicly. William Safire believes hiring Kristol was a mistake, and has said so publicly. In your heart of hearts, Times editors, you believe it was a mistake, too.

A senior staffer at your paper recently told The New Republic, “Personally, I don’t think he’s an original voice, and that should be the standard. It’s the most coveted piece of journalistic real estate in the country.” It is, indeed, and you’re wasting it on a hack. Another Times staffer added that Kristol just isn’t a very good writer. “Having a robust conservative voice on the page is a good idea. But you want quality,” one staffer said.

So, go get some quality. Make a clean break, acknowledge that hiring Kristol was an unfortunate error, and find a capable replacement. There will be considerable short-term embarrassment — the Times will have to admit it was wrong — but it will pale in comparison to publishing more Kristol drivel.

35 Responses for “Kristol the Clown”

2008-04-21T21:41:00.001-04:00

The Huffington Post

Today's polling indicated a slight upward trend for Senator Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, with most numbers tacking above the margin for error. Still, there might be something to the rumors that tomorrow's primary is expected to be a tight contest, and the clearest sign that the Clinton campaign is taking that seriously is that they've released a new thirty-second ad called "Kitchen," which "detail[s] how tough the job of President is...asking voters who they think is ready to step in and handle it." And, hey! Look who makes a cameo appearance! None other than stock footage of Osama bin Laden, presumably on loan from the defunct Giuliani campaign.

2008-04-18T09:33:00.002-04:00

Support
MUMIA

Philadelphia April 19th 2008

Come to Philadelphia
Support
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL

Set Mumia Free

2008-04-17T00:20:00.000-04:00

You and I suspected it. Now, ABC News confirms it(1).

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chaired repeated White House
meetings approving specific torture techniques before they were
used -- then lied about it to Congress.

Now Brave New Films put it all together in a "smoking gun"
video. That's why, Democracy for America is partnering with True
Majority and Brave New Films to launch an aggressive national
campaign with a simple message: Condi Must Go.

Watch the video and sign the petition now.

http://ga1.org/ct/Dp3S9In1KzaO/

This is the first time concrete evidence shows that senior White
House officials, "not only discussed specific plans and specific
interrogation methods, but approved them."

The torture meetings were gruesome in detail, often
choreographed "down to the number of times a CIA agent could use
a specific tactic" or combination of tactics.

The ABC news report makes it crystal clear that torture
committed in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay were not isolated
incidents by a few "bad apples". In fact, these incidents were
standard operating procedure dictated at the highest level of
government and led by the current Secretary of State. Her
directives to the CIA were unambiguous, "This is your baby, go
do it."

Join me in signing the "Condi Must Go" petition right now.

http://ga1.org/ct/Dp3S9In1KzaO/

Don't sit this petition out because you think Secretary Rice is
untouchable. When we joined with Brave New Films to push for the
impeachment of Alberto Gonzales last year, no one thought he
would ever be forced out of office. Our critics were wrong then,
and they are wrong now.

That's why we're working with True Majority and Brave New Films
to expose the truth about Condoleezza Rice. Today, we launch the
petition. Tonight, we start a media campaign with a 30-second ad
airing on ABC immediately after tonight's Presidential debate.

We will not stop until Condoleezza Rice is held accountable.
Sign the petition now.

http://ga1.org/ct/Dp3S9In1KzaO/

Working together, we move America forward. Thank you for
everything you do.

2008-04-16T16:24:00.001-04:00

Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan

April 16 & 17 2008
wbai

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan featured testimony from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.

This four-day event brought together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists gave context to the testimony. These panels covered everything from the history of the GI resistance movement to the fight for veterans' health benefits and support.

Watch testimony video
Listen to audio archives at warcomeshome.org (a project of KPFA)
Winter Soldier media coverage and press information
Winter Soldier Liveblog