Archive for April, 2009
Utility Suspends Nuclear Plant Effort
Utility Suspends Nuclear Plant Effort
A utility in Missouri said Thursday that it was suspending its efforts to build a new nuclear reactor, making its proposed plant, Callaway 2, the first of the so-called nuclear renaissance reactors to fall by the wayside.
The industry has been looking forward to its first construction start in 30 years. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 17 companies have filed applications to build 26 reactors.
The utility, AmerenUE, planned to build a reactor near Fulton, Mo., but was seeking changes in the state law governing the financing of new power plants. In a letter on Thursday, it asked the sponsors of a law now moving through the state legislature to withdraw the measure.
AmerenUE wanted to be allowed to charge its customers for financing costs before the plant was finished.
via Utility Suspends Nuclear Plant Effort – NYTimes.com.
Gore, Gingrich To Address Congress On Climate Legislation
Gore, Gingrich To Address Congress On Climate Legislation
Heavy-Hitters Face Off On Climate Today In DC WASHINGTON
Former Vice President Al Gore is endorsing a House bill that would curb the gases blamed for global warming.
Gore, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on global warming, is scheduled to testify before a House panel Friday morning. In testimony prepared for delivery at the hearing, Gore says the legislation will simultaneously solve the problems of climate, economy and national security.
Gore’s backing comes after three days of hearings where experts, Republicans and moderate Democrats expressed concern that the bill will drive up energy costs. Gore’s celebrity on the issue of climate change could generate much needed public support for the legislation.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
via Gore, Gingrich To Address Congress On Climate Legislation.
Edgy Banks Start to Get Word Today on Stress Tests
Edgy Banks Start to Get Word Today on Stress Tests
Wall Street is stressed out about stress tests.
After a two-month wait, the nation’s 19 largest banks will start learning on Friday how they fared in important federal examinations — and which among them will need another bailout from the government or private investors.
While many of the banks reported surprisingly strong first-quarter earnings, they are by no means out of the woods. A number of them are likely to need more capital to weather a prolonged recession, and the losses that might accompany it.
The Federal Reserve intends to disclose, in general terms, how it conducted the stress tests on Friday afternoon, but the government will not publicly reveal the results until May 4. In between, Wall Street is bracing for a possible roller-coaster ride in financial stocks as investors scramble to do their own assessment of the financial industry’s strongest and the weakest players.
“The headlines, not the details, seem to be driving the markets,” said Frederick Cannon, who is in charge of equity research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a boutique investment bank.
via Edgy Banks Start to Get Word Today on Stress Tests – NYTimes.com.
Shiite Shrine Double Bombing Kills Scores In Baghdad
Shiite Shrine Double Bombing Kills Scores In Baghdad
EIGHTY KILLED YESTERDAY….SIXTY TODAY
BAGHDAD — Back-to-back suicide bombings killed 60 people Friday outside the most important Shiite shrine in Baghdad, a day after the country was rocked by its most deadly violence in more than a year.
The bombings Friday and Thursday _ in which nearly 80 people were killed _ are the latest in a series of high-profile attacks blamed on Sunni insurgents, police officials said.
The bombers Friday detonated explosive belts within minutes of each other near separate gates of the tomb of prominent Shiite saint Imam Mousa al-Kazim, located in the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah, said a police official. Another police official said the bombers struck shortly before the start of Friday prayers as worshippers streamed in to the mosque _ an important site for Shiite pilgrims.
via Shiite Shrine Double Bombing Kills Scores In Baghdad.
UK slowdown even sharper than feared
UK slowdown even sharper than feared
1.9% fall casts doubt on Budget forecasts
The UK economy contracted much more sharply in the first quarter of this year than economists expected, casting doubt on the chancellor’s economic forecasts made in this week’s Budget.
GDP in the first three months of 2009 contracted by 1.9 per cent from the level seen in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Office for National Statistics. Economists polled by Reuters had expected an average decline of 1.5 per cent.
via FT.com / UK – UK slowdown even sharper than feared.
US durable goods orders slide in March
US durable goods orders slide in March – By Alan Rappeport
Companies continue to curb capital spending
US companies cut their durable goods purchases in March for the seventh time in eight months as the economic downturn continues to curb capital spending.
The commerce department said on Friday that US durable goods orders fell by 0.8 per cent to $161.2bn in March from the month before, retreating from a revised 2.1 per cent jump the previous month. Economists predicted that orders would fall by 1.5 per cent, continuing what had been a record slump.
via FT.com / World – US durable goods orders slide in March.
China reveals huge rise in gold reserves
China reveals huge rise in gold reserves
Holdings soar above 1,000 tonnes
China revealed on Friday that it built up its gold reserves by three quarters since 2003, making it the world’s fifth largest holder of bullion.
The move comes as European central banks continue to sell their gold and the International Monetary Fund has discussed selling some of its bullion reserves.
via FT.com / China – China reveals huge rise in gold reserves.
Ford targets 2011 break-even
Ford targets 2011 break-even
Ford Motor on Friday reported a $1.4bn first-quarter loss, but said it would break-even in two years after halving the outflow of cash from its business in the first three months of the year.
The number-two Detroit carmaker also reiterated that it would not need to follow its domestic rivals, General Motors and Chrysler, in seeking aid from the US government as its results beat expectations.
Ford has increasingly sought to distance itself from its two rivals in public statements and
via FT.com / Companies / Automobiles – Ford targets 2011 break-even.
Bring Our Troops Home from Mideast This Year
Bring Our Troops Home from Mideast This Year
by George McGovern
President Barack Obama holds my admiration with high hopes for his message of change in Washington, D.C. It is puzzling, however, that he has adopted most of the previous administration’s formula for dragging out the withdrawal of our troops from the mistaken war in Iraq for nearly three more years. Very little “change” here.
Three years ago, public opinion polls indicated that a majority of Americans believed our policymakers were wrong in ordering troops into Iraq. It is widely accepted that this sentiment more than any other factor in the 2006 congressional elections resulted in Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate.
Are we now going to ignore for another three years the public mandate of 2006 against this costly, pre-emptive war based on deceit? And how can we justify putting thousands more U.S. troops into Afghanistan? We have exhausted our treasury. We are also close to exhausting our soldiers.
Can there be any doubt that the enormous war cost has contributed to the financial crisis here at home? The expense of waging two Middle East wars, plus the loss of revenue caused by the previous administration’s tax cuts, have skyrocketed the national debt to a record high. Do we ever consider what the interest alone is on our $10 trillion national debt — much of it paid to China?
via Bring Our Troops Home from Mideast This Year | CommonDreams.org.
An Unearthed Resource
An Unearthed Resource
Gas drilling in Northeast raises health and environmental concerns among residents
The road leading to Ron Carter’s trailer is made of red clay that melts away a little every time it rains. Truck traffic has created an obstacle course of tall divots that punch at the bottom of cars, rattling spines and scraping mufflers. Some lawns along the way host bathtubs full of garbage or rusty drums belching out dark smoke. Others have drill pads and cranes that stab 200 feet into the air. This is Dimock Township, the speck on Pennsylvania’s map that just became ground zero for America’s energy future.
Carter, like his trailer, is white and jagged with little hints of warmth tucked into the corners. Words slip out of his mouth in terse grunts, moving under his mustache and past the copper cross dangling from his neck. He talks about 2006: the year he leased his land to Cabot Oil and Gas for $25 per acre. At the time, nobody thought natural gas drilling would ever take place in Dimock. Leasing was just a quick way to earn some badly needed cash. Next month’s mortgage. A new bike for the kids.
So when the drilling started last September and the enormous trucks bumped down Carter’s road and the night sky lit up like an industrial-strength Christmas tree, Carter and his wife Jean Carter were a bit surprised. They were even more surprised when they found out their water had been contaminated with fecal coliform — a bacterium often found in ground soil — sometime between July and November. The smell of it made Jean Carter sick to her stomach every time she tried to do dishes. It was undrinkable. Unusable.
via An Unearthed Resource | CommonDreams.org.
Dan Dimicco Blasts Trade Policies
Dan Dimicco Blasts Trade Policies
“We have bailed out Japan, China and Germany, then they act like hypocrites when it comes to opening their markets to our products,” said DiMicco, chief executive of Charlotte-based steelmaker Nucor. “When are we going to start standing up for ourselves?”
The following article originally appeared on TradeReform.org.
Dan Dimicco, CEO Of Nucor, In Speech To Birmingham Rotary Club Blasts Trade Policies, Says Economy Has Rough Road Ahead:
Says loss of manufacturing jobs destroyed middle class
Nucor Corp. boss Dan DiMicco got a packed-house standing ovation at the Downtown Rotary Club on Wednesday, after the industrial titan said this country should be mad as Hades and not take it anymore.
“We have bailed out Japan, China and Germany, then they act like hypocrites when it comes to opening their markets to our products,” said DiMicco, chief executive of Charlotte-based steelmaker Nucor. “When are we going to start standing up for ourselves?”
DiMicco, whose company employs about 2,000 people at five Alabama steel plants, aroused the house with his demand the United States return to post-World War II policies such as enforcing trade agreements with overseas partners; paying cash for consumer goods by saving money in anticipation of purchases; and encouraging the manufacturing of intermediate and finished goods instead of encouraging financial speculation.
“Real wealth doesn’t come from repackaging financial instruments like mortgage debts,” he said, speaking of the bonds backed by subprime housing loans that have defaulted in record numbers. “It comes from making things.”
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Wreaking Further Havoc on the American Economy
Wreaking Further Havoc on the American Economy
This administration is forging ahead with failed trade pacts that do more harm than good for the U.S.
From all indications, it appears that the Obama administration is quite content to continue and, in some cases, even further promote the failed trade policies of the past that have wrought havoc on the American economy.
Pushed by corporate multinational interests, the new administration has adopted the same approach as its predecessor to trade – forging ahead with failed trade pacts that do more harm than good for the American economy.
But, as MotherJones reports, that is a path destined for failure.
“It is not globalization’s underlying premise that is flawed,” the magazine says. “Rather, the problem is that the US and many countries in Europe are on the receiving end of unfair” trade practices that favor developing nations over well established economies.
Some of those trade distorting practices are included, but not limited to illegally subsidizing domestic manufacturing, currency manipulation, dumping products in foreign markets, lacking or not enforcing labor or environmental standards and imposing informal trade barriers to foreign direct investment.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Housing Sales and Fixing the Economy
Housing Sales and Fixing the Economy
It’s high time for a recalibration of trade policy to ensure trans-Pacific commerce is based on comparative advantage, not Chinese foreign policy ambitions.
The following article originally appeared on TradeReform.org.
The following was written by Peter Morici, professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former Chief Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.
It seems an article of faith that the first signs of recovery will emerge in the housing market. March data for existing and new homes sales, due out Thursday and Friday, will be trumpeted crocuses of spring if those beat expectations.
Banks report new mortgages are up. If those are more than homeowners refinancing at lower rates, then existing homes sales should dart up from the tepid 4.72 million annual pace recorded in February. The consensus forecast is 4.65 million, and my electronic Ouija board spits out 4.74 million. Something above 5 million would be cause for jubilation.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
The Fight for Fair Trade
The Fight for Fair Trade
Senator Sherrod Brown began a movement in Congress to block upcoming trade deals with Panama, Columbia and South Korea.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown is relatively new to the national political scene, but he is hoping to make a name for himself on one of the United States’ most important foreign policy issues: “free trade.”
Senator Brown has long been an advocate of fair trade policies that protect American businesses and workers from foreign competition. Other countries subsidize industry, manipulate currencies, and drive down the price of goods in order to gain an advantage. Against this onslaught the most developed country in the world has almost no defense.
For this reason Senator Brown and others have began a movement in Congress to block upcoming trade deals with Panama, Columbia and South Korea. The Bush administration pushed “free trade” at all costs during its tenure in office, and the Obama administration seems as though it is set on the same policy track.
via Economyincrisis.org – America’s Economic Report – Daily.
Obama plans prime-time news conference Wednesday
Obama plans prime-time news conference Wednesday
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama will hold his third prime-time news conference on Wednesday, his 100th day in office.Obama will answer questions from reporters in the East Room beginning at 8 p.m. EDT, the White House said.
Officials insist that holding the news conference on the 100th day of Obama’s presidency has no special significance. But the 100th day has become one of those milestones by which a new president and his accomplishments are judged.
via Obama plans prime-time news conference Wednesday.
‘Quiet Sun’ baffling astronomers
‘Quiet Sun’ baffling astronomers
The Sun is the dimmest it has been for nearly a century.
There are no sunspots, very few solar flares – and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time.
The observations are baffling astronomers, who are due to study new pictures of the Sun, taken from space, at the UK National Astronomy Meeting.
The Sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity. At its peak, it has a tumultuous boiling atmosphere that spits out flares and planet-sized chunks of super-hot gas. This is followed by a calmer period.
Last year, it was expected that it would have been hotting up after a quiet spell. But instead it hit a 50-year low in solar wind pressure, a 55-year low in radio emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity.
According to Prof Louise Hara of University College London, it is unclear why this is happening or when the Sun is likely to become more active again.
via BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | ‘Quiet Sun’ baffling astronomers.
‘Waterman’s’ weapon against pollution: Oysters
‘Waterman’s’ weapon against pollution: Oysters
YORKTOWN, Virginia (CNN) — It’s daybreak on Sara Creek, a sleepy backwater that sits near Yorktown, Virginia, and empties into the Chesapeake. The early morning fog slowly lifts to reveal the ripples of water, the boats swaying, and a picturesque harbor.
Local watermen have been fishing around this area for generations.
It’s beginning to rain, and Tommy Leggett, a very proud and reserved waterman, combs over his white beard with his rough hands and prepares his boat, “Chesapeake Gold,” for what looks like a day of fishing out in the bay.
“I’ve been a waterman for over 20 years,” he says.
The difference now is Leggett doesn’t fish anymore. He’s an eco-conscious farmer and advocate who works on his sustainable oyster farm in the James River. He uses the term “aquaculture” to describe what he’s doing here. “It refers to the husbandry, or farming, of aquatic species.”
via ‘Waterman’s’ weapon against pollution: Oysters – CNN.com.
Lewis testified that U.S. urged silence on Merrill deal: report
Lewis testified that U.S. urged silence on Merrill deal: report
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp CEO Kenneth Lewis testified under oath that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pressured him to keep quiet about losses at Merrill Lynch & Co, which the bank was buying, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Testifying before New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in February, Lewis said “it wasn’t up to me” to reveal Merrill’s fourth-quarter losses as they were becoming apparent in December, the newspaper said, citing a deposition transcript.
Shareholders of Merrill and Bank of America voted to approve the merger on December 5, and the transaction closed on January 1. Bank of America subsequently reported that Merrill lost $15.84 billion in the fourth quarter.
via Lewis testified that U.S. urged silence on Merrill deal: report | U.S. | Reuters.
American Express Rises After Quarterly Profit Beats Estimates
American Express Rises After Quarterly Profit Beats Estimates
April 24 (Bloomberg) — American Express Co., the biggest U.S. credit-card company by purchases, rose 5 percent in early New York trading after beating analysts’ profit estimates and saying it intends to repay the government’s rescue-fund aid.
Profit from continuing operations in the first quarter declined 58 percent to $443 million, or 32 cents a share, from $1 billion, or 89 cents, a year earlier as consumers defaulted on more loans, the New York-based company said yesterday in a statement. Results beat the 13-cent average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
“At a time when some parts of the card industry were incurring substantial losses, we remained solidly profitable,” Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Chenault said in the statement. “If permitted by our supervisors and if supported by the results of the stress assessment, we intend to repay the government investment of preferred shares and warrants.”
via American Express Rises After Quarterly Profit Beats Estimates – Bloomberg.com.
Defense Department to release abuse photos, ACLU says
Defense Department to release abuse photos, ACLU says
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Defense Department will release “a substantial number” of photographs showing abuse of prisoners at prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The release will be in response to an open-records lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the group said in a written statement. The statement released late Thursday said the photos were taken at facilities other than Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
“These photographs provide visual proof that prisoner abuse by U.S. personnel was not aberrational but widespread, reaching far beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib,” Amrit Singh, an ACLU attorney, said in the release. The photos are to be released by May 28, the ACLU said.
The Department of Defense announced in a letter addressed to the federal court on Thursday that it would release the photos.
via Defense Department to release abuse photos, ACLU says – CNN.com.
Sen. Webb puts marijuana legalization ‘on the table’
Sen. Webb puts marijuana legalization ‘on the table’
Speaking to CNN on Thursday morning in an effort to whip up political support for his prison reform proposals, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) insisted that marijuana legalization should be “on the table.”
His bill, introduced late March, aims to establish a presidential commission to study prison reforms and drug criminalization and make recommendations to Congress after 18 months.
Senator Webb’s bill is backed by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) and has reportedly received “quiet encouragement from President Barack Obama.”
Some other stated supporters of Sen. Webb’s reform proposals “include the current Judiciary panel head, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois,” noted the Times-Dispatch.
via The Raw Story | Sen. Webb puts marijuana legalization ‘on the table’.
Obama’s Solicitor General pushes to limit suspects’ rights
Obama’s Solicitor General pushes to limit suspects’ rights
President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to consider overturning a 1986 ruling that disallows a police interrogation if the suspect is not in the presence of his or her legal counsel, even if the suspect later agrees to speak to the police without an attorney.
In other words, for you progressives and libertarians: Bad News ahead.
The case at issue is Michigan v. Jackson, in which the Supreme Court said in 1986 that police may not initiate questioning of a defendant who has a lawyer or has asked for one, unless the attorney is present. The decision applies even to defendants who agree to talk to the authorities without their lawyers.
Anything police learn through such questioning cannot be used against the defendant at trial. The opinion was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, the only current justice who was on the court at the time.
The Justice Department, in a brief signed by Solicitor General Elena Kagan, said the 1986 decision “serves no real purpose” and offers only “meager benefits.” The government said defendants who don’t wish to talk to police don’t have to and that officers must respect that decision. But it said there is no reason a defendant who wants to should not be able to respond to officers’ questions.
The Michigan Messenger, which scooped the hell out of the Associated Press on this story, has much more:
via The Raw Story » Obama’s Solicitor General pushes to limit suspects’ rights.
David Gregory suggests Bush ‘went out of his way’ to follow laws on torture
David Gregory suggests Bush ‘went out of his way’ to follow laws on torture
In a puzzling remark that seems to demonstrate the extent to which the mainstream media tries to “balance” discussions of controversial issues, NBC’s David Gregory suggested Thursday that the Bush Administration issued memorandums outlining the torture of detainees out of great respect for the law.
“…Did the Bush administration go out of its way to make sure they were adhering to the law and not crossing over that bridge when it came to getting into torture?” he asked rhetorically.
“At a time when the administration and the President will already be under scrutiny for being tough enough, is this a fight they really want to have?” he remarked earlier. “I would also point you to, if you haven’t see this already, the Wall Street Journal editorial page today, which I think raises some really tough points about not only what signal you’re sending to the rest of the world, but also to potential terrorists out there, about just what it is that U.S. interrogators would do and not do.”
via The Raw Story | David Gregory suggests Bush ‘went out of his way’ to follow laws on torture.
Reefer Madness: 5 Broadway Shows That “Light Up” the Stage
Reefer Madness: 5 Broadway Shows That “Light Up” the Stage
We’ve weeded out the 5 best Broadway shows fueled by ganja. Yes, the list includes “Hair.”
To quote the hit revival of Hair: “As Mary Magdalene once said, ‘Jesus, I’m getting stoned!’” And flower child Jeanie, who declares the line while exhaling a hazy plume of smoke, isn’t the only one sparking up on the Rialto. Broadway shows fall into trends as easily as films or fashion collections do, and we feel it is high time someone pointed out the growing crop of mainstream musicals and plays prominently featuring that most polarizing of herbs, cannabis.
Prohibitionists and straight-edgers, don’t get too concerned — most productions use marijuana as a medicinal tool to set the show’s social or historical tone, and one even highlights the dangers, D.A.R.E.-style, of the green stuff as a gateway drug. Regardless of what onstage light is being shone on Mary Jane, we decided to weed through the present selection of shows to bring you a sampling of Broadway’s stoner stars.
via Reefer Madness: 5 Broadway Shows That “Light Up” the Stage | DrugReporter | AlterNet.
The Judgment on Vaccines Is In???
The Judgment on Vaccines Is In??? - by Jim Carrey
“The truth is no one without a vested interest in the profitability of vaccines has studied all 36 of them in depth”
Recently, I was amazed to hear a commentary by CNN’s Campbell Brown on the controversial vaccine issue. After a ruling by the ‘special vaccine court’ saying the Measles, Mumps, Rubella shot wasn’t found to be responsible for the plaintiffs’ autism, she and others in the media began making assertions that the judgment was in, and vaccines had been proven safe. No one would be more relieved than Jenny and I if that were true. But with all due respect to Ms. Brown, a ruling against causation in three cases out of more than 5000 hardly proves that other children won’t be adversely affected by the MMR, let alone that all vaccines are safe. This is a huge leap of logic by anyone’s standards. Not everyone gets cancer from smoking, but cigarettes do cause cancer. After 100 years and many rulings in favor of the tobacco companies, we finally figured that out.
The truth is that no one without a vested interest in the profitability of vaccines has studied all 36 of them in depth. There are more than 100 vaccines in development, and no tests for cumulative effect or vaccine interaction of all 36 vaccines in the current schedule have ever been done. If I’m mistaken, I challenge those who are making such grand pronouncements about vaccine safety to produce those studies.
via Jim Carrey: The Judgment on Vaccines Is In???.
The Health Care Industry and their Capitol Hill Protectors Are Sabotaging Our Chance for True Reform
The Health Care Industry and their Capitol Hill Protectors Are Sabotaging Our Chance for True Reform
By Marie Cocco, Washington Post Writers Group.
So far we have “reformed” the health insurance system by reinforcing precisely what’s wrong with it.
Every so often, I remember Ronald Reagan fondly — not for his policies but for his skill at the art of persuasion. Right now, for example, I’d like to call the Gipper back to cock his head, give us that quizzical look and say “There you go again.”
Yes, there they go again. They are the defenders of the health care status quo — that is, the insurance industry and its protectors in both parties on Capitol Hill. And they have been frantically arguing these past few weeks that any coming reform of the health insurance system cannot, should not — and will not, if they have their way — include a public insurance plan that uninsured individuals can turn to if they find themselves without affordable insurance, or any coverage at all.
Maintaining what amounts to a monopoly on insurance for the working-age population has become a central goal of the insurance industry, which rightly fears that the government will provide more comprehensive coverage at a lower cost. This is, of course, the whole point of overhauling the insurance system. But never mind.
Thousands of Pages of Evidence and a Quarter Million Signatures: What Will It Take For Attorney General to Prosecute Torture Crimes?
Thousands of Pages of Evidence and a Quarter Million Signatures: What Will It Take For Attorney General to Prosecute Torture Crimes?
Amid citizen outrage and news that torture was used to extract a link between Iraq and al Qaeda, Eric Holder won’t say if he intends to prosecute
By the time Attorney General Eric Holder took his seat before a Congressional subcommittee on Thursday, the Bush torture program had broken wide open. In the past week alone, hundreds of pages in declassified legal memos and Congressional reports had blown the lid off the previous administration’s harsh interrogation policies to reveal — in addition to grisly new details about what the U.S. government did to prisoners in its custody — a chronology of the program’s history that implicated the most senior government officials, including Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and of course the former president. What’s more, it appeared that the torture of high-value detainees in 2002 and 2003 was, at least in part, the direct consequence of Bush officials’ need to extract a link — fictitious or otherwise — between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
Is Torture American? The Debate on “If It Works” Is the Wrong Debate
Is Torture American? The Debate on “If It Works” Is the Wrong Debate
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS by Christine Bowman
“There is one ethical response to an order to torture: Disobey the order.” — James H. Bray, Ph.D., American Psychological Association
Dick Cheney and friends are working furiously to frame the public torture debate in terms of “Does it work?” They think it does, and claim waterboarding enabled the US to foil a plot to fly a plane into a Los Angeles building in 2002. Many informed parties with so-called “enhanced interrogation” experience have countered that it does not work and some specifically refute the LA building claim. (Here’s a 2007 article that shows why it is counterproductive.) In another arena, debate has centered on whether the torture done to America’s prisoners by CIA and military personnel in various settings was legal. Did the Bush Administration lawyers make it legal by writing memos to redefine the terms?
Attorney General Eric Holder or international courts will have to sort out the legal issues, but in terms of public debate, I want to suggest that the discussion be grabbed away from Dick Cheney — and the sooner the better. America must ask not, “Does torture work,” but “Is torturing right?” “Is torture American?”
Torture is a values question. Some people and places accept it; others do not. Do America’s most fundamental principles allow for torture? Does our Constitution spell out when or where to to tighten the screws on prisoners? Did George Washington weigh the pros and cons of waterboarding with John Adams? Was drowning or burning Salem witches a practice America proudly points back to? Is America proud that we enchained our fellow humans for profit and claimed to own them?
via Is Torture American? The Debate on “If It Works” Is the Wrong Debate | BuzzFlash.org.
Obama Tells Lawmakers in Private Meetng He Won’t Support Torture Probe
Obama Tells Lawmakers in Private Meetng He Won’t Support Torture Probe
President Barack Obama has backtracked on statements he made earlier this week in which he indicated he was open to a 9/11-type commission to investigate the Bush administration’s use of torture, telling lawmakers at a meeting at the White House Thursday he now doesn’t support the idea.
Underscoring Obama’s new stance on the issue, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters: “the president determined the concept didn’t seem altogether workable in this case.”
“The last few days might be evidence of why something like this might just become a political back and forth,” Gibbs said.
Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also said on Thursday he no longer supported the idea of an independent panel to investigate torture. Reid said the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has been “reviewing” the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” program to determine whether the techniques were effective in thwarting terrorist plots against the U.S., should continue its work. The intelligence committee’s chairman, Dianne Feinstein, said her committee expects to complete its review in six to eight months.
“I think it would be very unwise, from my perspective, to start having commissions, boards, tribunals, until we find out what the facts are,” Reid said. “And I don’t know a better way of getting the facts than through the Intelligence Committee.”
via Obama Tells Lawmakers in Private Meetng He Won’t Support Torture Probe.
Followup: Florida press unites against looming GOP voter restriction bill
Followup: Florida press unites against looming GOP voter restriction bill
Here’s a follow-up to my piece on Tuesday about a major — but under-reported, at least nationally — story coming out of Florida: A last-minute bill pushed by Republicans to put new restrictions on voting.
To recap, Senate Bill 956 and House Bill 7149 surfaced in the final weeks of the Florida legislature and shot of their respective committees in dubious circumstances. In the case of the House, the GOP-led Elections and Ethics Committee limited debate to six minutes before voting to advance the bill to the floor.
Scanning this week’s editorial pages, Florida newspapers are united in opposition to the legislation — both for the process that created them as well as the content.
The massive bills, which are nearly identical, contain an array of provisions to restrict voting, including eliminating two forms of ID used by the elderly, making it illegal for voters to cast ballots if they move 29 days before an election, and barring groups like election monitors from interacting with voters within 100 feet of polling sites.
At the same time, the bill also loosens restrictions on out-of-state PAC spending to influence Florida elections.
The response of Florida’s papers has been fast and furious:
via ISS – Followup: Florida press unites against looming GOP voter restriction bill.
New Scientist pulls story on creationist code
New Scientist pulls story on creationist code
The New Scientist had a story by their book editor Amanda Gefter called “How to Spot a Hidden Religious Agenda”. Today, it was pulled from their web site; the explanation being that they “received a complaint about the contents of the story.”
You can still find a copy here, and we’ve copied the text until we find out what caused them to pull the story. Here’s the opening:
As a book reviews editor at New Scientist, I often come across so-called science books which after a few pages reveal themselves to be harbouring ulterior motives. I have learned to recognise clues that the author is pushing a religious agenda. As creationists in the US continue to lose court battles over attempts to have intelligent design taught as science in federally funded schools, their strategy has been forced to… well, evolve. That means ensuring that references to pseudoscientific concepts like ID are more heavily veiled. So I thought I’d share a few tips for spotting what may be religion in science’s clothing.
Here’s some of the code words Gefter says give away a book’s closeted ID agenda.
via Skepticism Examiner: New Scientist pulls story on creationist code.
Who was responsible for the pulled New Scientist story?
Who was responsible for the pulled New Scientist story?
We managed to create a bit of a stir when we pointed people to a pulled story by one of the magazine’s editors, Amanda Gefter, on “How to Spot a Hidden Religious Agenda” in writings on ID and evolution. Demonstrating the Internet’s hastiness in pouncing, many people suggested this was an effort to appease creationists. The NS website was update to explain it was the result of a legal complaint that had led to the story being pulled, UK libel laws being what they are.
Then, the blogosphere demonstrated the same hastiness in completely dropping it as a non-story, convinced the story would return shortly. (A copy can still be found here.)
Now, weeks later, the story is still “lost”, and the editor has been effectively muzzled and can say nothing more than that lawyers are wrangling over it.
So it appears New Scientist got unfairly maligned, and have done nothing but act responsibly in this matter (even their much ballyhooed cover on “Darwin was Wrong”, I think, was overblown). But that doesn’t change the fact that someone has caused them to pull an article that appears, on its face, to have nothing objectionable. They may not have acted to appease creationists, but it appears they have been silenced by creationists, which in my book, requires some bile to be spewed in the offender’s direction.
via Skepticism Examiner: Who was responsible for the pulled New Scientist story?.
“I have cloned 14 embryos too,” an Italian scientist responds.
Stories and News No. 26: “I have cloned 14 embryos too,” an Italian scientist responds.
The Story:
Our country has almost ever followed the United States in a blindly way.
The recent prove is that the previous Berlusconi government was fully agree with Bush opinions on environmental issues and, despite Obama has a radically different point of view, the new Silvio’s government is still in perfect sync with Uncle Sam.
So, very soon, after the sensational announcement by an American researcher on the cloning of 14 embryos, here is an Italian scientist ready to go after the important ally: “Here in Italy I have cloned 14 embryos too. Precisely it happened in Milan, the capital of the north and soon also of the rest of the country. I don’t need to say from whom I have taken the basic cells for the experiment. I chose the best that our country has today. I am talking about a man who every day represents all of us, showing a considerable temperament and a bit goliardic attitude, which hardly fails, despite what his detractors say. The reason for this futuristic project is evident. It meets the needs that are here in our nation, more than ever today.
In Italy we face difficult times and we have great problems, mostly due to the failures of others, of course. On one hand we have the European Union and on the other the hordes of immigrants who arrive each day on our shores.
I don’t want to talk about ‘totally random’ tragedies like the earthquake in Abruzzo, but you will easy understand why at this moment we need to stay compact.
We need that everyone has the same vision of the world.
We need that everybody shares the same values.
Reclaiming America’s Soul
Reclaiming America’s Soul
Paul Krugman
“Nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.” So declared President Obama, after his commendable decision to release the legal memos that his predecessor used to justify torture. Some people in the political and media establishments have echoed his position. We need to look forward, not backward, they say. No prosecutions, please; no investigations; we’re just too busy.
And there are indeed immense challenges out there: an economic crisis, a health care crisis, an environmental crisis. Isn’t revisiting the abuses of the last eight years, no matter how bad they were, a luxury we can’t afford?
No, it isn’t, because America is more than a collection of policies. We are, or at least we used to be, a nation of moral ideals. In the past, our government has sometimes done an imperfect job of upholding those ideals. But never before have our leaders so utterly betrayed everything our nation stands for. “This government does not torture people,” declared former President Bush, but it did, and all the world knows it.
via Op-Ed Columnist – Reclaiming America’s Soul – NYTimes.com.
Accountability: America’s Moral Responsibility to Humanity
Accountability: America’s Moral Responsibility to Humanity
Eight years of Republican “leadership” has left America both economically devastated, and globally humiliated. Yet, far from apologizing for the damage that they’ve done to the stability and image of this great nation, they’ve circled their wagons and gone into damage control mode–not to control the damage that they’ve done to the nation, but attempting to rewrite history in order to control the damage that they’ve done to themselves.
As President Obama is going about the business of desperately trying to return America to its former position of economic stability at home, and respect, admiration, and moral authority abroad, the GOP leadership seems to be completely oblivious to the nation’s desperate and immediate need for a concerted effort in this matter. They’re like clueless children who find it impossible to see the big picture. At this point it has become abundantly clear that their primary concern is not with restoring America to a sound footing in the world, but rather, restoring themselves to power.
This situation points out the wisdom of always seeking to draw something of value from every adversity. In this case we should seek enlightenment. In spite of the fact that virtually everyone in the Bush administration managed to avoid serving this nation in uniform (Bush went AWOL, and Cheney obtained five (5) deferments), the GOP have somehow managed to pre-empt and wrap themselves in the glorious rob of patriotism. But this current situation should teach us a valuable lesson in that regard–never go by what a person says, always go by what they do. And what are they doing–while the American people are experiencing the kind of suffering that this country hasn’t seen since the Great Depression, and the United States has become the “Dick Cheney” of the world, the GOP’s one and only concern is how they can regain power. Is that patriotism? I don’t think so.
via Accountability: America’s Moral Responsibility to Humanity | discuss, debate, decide.
Senate Leaders Opposes Interrogation Inquiry Panel
BuzzFlash WTF Department: Obama and Reid Signal That They Don’t Want a Congressional Investigation of Bush Torture (Which the Dainty NYT Still Calls “Harsh Interrogation.” This is the Newspaper that Withheld the Revelations of Bush’s Illegal Wiretapping for One Year, Thus Probably Allowing Him to “Win” the 2004 Election, Partially at the Request of Jane Harman, But Mostly at the Request of Bush and Cheney’s Crew.)
Senate Leaders Opposes Interrogation Inquiry Panel
By David M. Herszenhorn AND Carl Hulse
Senate Democratic leaders, joining forces with the Obama White House, said they would resist efforts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats to create a special commission to investigate the harsh interrogation methods that the Bush administration approved for terrorism suspects.
At a meeting of top Democrats at the White House Wednesday night, President Obama told Congressional leaders that he did not want a special inquiry, which he said would potentially steal time and energy from his ambitious policy priorities, and could mushroom into a wider distraction by looking back at other aspects of the Bush years.
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and other top Senate Democrats endorsed Mr. Obama’s view on Thursday, telling reporters that they preferred to wait for the results of an investigation by the Senate intelligence committee expected sometime “late this year.” But Ms. Pelosi renewed her call for an independent panel.
via Senate Leaders Opposes Interrogation Inquiry Panel – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com.
Quote of the Day
If a German surrenders, he is to be treated with respect as a prisoner of war, the same treatment you would hope to get as a prisoner if you are unlucky enough to be captured by the enemy. Americans are not savages. Americans do not kick people in the face if they have been knocked down.
Microbe-powered ‘fart’ machine stores energy
Microbe-powered ‘fart’ machine stores energy
Could improve fuel cell technology by turning CO2 into methane
It sounds like a gag gift instead of serious science, but a new electrical farting machine could improve fuel cell technology by turning C02 in the atmosphere into methane.
The technique won’t combat global warming directly, since both CO2 and methane are potent greenhouse gases, but it could help store alternative energies such as wind and solar more efficiently.
via Microbe-powered ‘fart’ machine stores energy – Discovery.com- msnbc.com.
As U.S. Attorney, Chris Christie Approved Warrantless Tracking Of Suspects Using Cell Phone GPS
As U.S. Attorney, Chris Christie Approved Warrantless Tracking Of Suspects Using Cell Phone GPS
[christie_190.jpg] While serving as a U.S. attorney during the Bush administration, Christopher Christie, now a Republican candidate for Governor in New Jersey, tracked the whereabouts of citizens through their cell phones without warrants. The ACLU obtained the documents detailing the spying program from the Justice Department in an ongoing lawsuit over cell phone tracking.
While the documents reveal 79 such cases on or after Sept. 12, 2001, they do not specify how many of the applications were made during Christie’s tenure. Christie served as U.S. attorney from Jan. 17, 2002 through November 2008. ACLU staff attorney Catherine Crump noted:
Tracking the location of people’s cell phones reveals intimate details of their daily routines and is highly invasive of their privacy. The government is violating the Constitution when it fails to get a search warrant before tracking people this way.
Randi Rhodes Set to Return to Airwaves
Randi Rhodes Set to Return to Airwaves
Syndicators of Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck to carry Progressive talk ‘Goddess’
Broadcasting live from D.C. as of May 11
via The BRAD BLOG :.
Judge Rejects Last Ditch Attempt by Shell to Stop Human Rights Trial
Judge Rejects Last Ditch Attempt by Shell to Stop Human Rights Trial
Ruling Today Orders Royal Dutch Shell to Go to Trial for Complicity in Torture and Killing of Nigerian Protesters May 26, 2009
NEW YORK – April 23 – This afternoon, Judge Kimba Wood of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected Royal Dutch Shell’s motion to dismiss a human rights case charging the company and the head of its Nigerian operation, Brian Anderson, with complicity in the torture and killing of peaceful Nigerian protesters more than 10 years ago.
Shell’s last ditch attempt to avoid trial claimed the court did not have jurisdiction to consider the case, but Judge Wood, in a 25-page ruling, overwhelmingly supported plaintiffs’ international law claims for extrajudicial killing, torture, arbitrary detention, and crimes against humanity. The trial will begin May 26, 2009.
“Once again Shell thought it could evade justice,” said CCR attorney Jennie Green. “Now, the public will have the opportunity to see how Shell’s complicity with a murderous military regime was its standard operating procedure for doing business in Nigeria.”
via Judge Rejects Last Ditch Attempt by Shell to Stop Human Rights Trial | CommonDreams.org.
Palin faces ethics complaint for SarahPAC role
A new ethics complaint filed Wednesday against Gov. Sarah Palin says her role in the political action committee SarahPAC poses a conflict with her official duties as governor.
The complaint was brought by Anchorage resident Sondra Tompkins, who describes herself an advocate for children with disabilities and mother of a special-needs child. Her son has autism.
The complaint says the governor abdicated her governor duties at a critical time – the end of the legislative session, when she went to Indiana for two events, a Right to Life banquet and a breakfast for families with Down syndrome children.
Palin faces ethics complaint for SarahPAC role
via Palin faces ethics complaint for SarahPAC role | McClatchy.
Global Crisis: Is Economics Rational?
Global Crisis: Is Economics Rational?
What is about the crisis that economists cannot understand?
by Prof. John Kozy
Classical/neoclassical economics has consistently protected the wealth of the privileged; it has preserved the status quo. This is capitalism’s intent, and the evidence for it is overwhelming. It has impeded the improvement of the human condition for two hundred years, and unless it is scrapped, it will continue to do so. No mere change in government can stop it.
Aristotle defined human beings as rational animals, and even today, few people would openly describe themselves as irrational; yet many are. Even so, people don’t generally go around calling their decisions, choices, and expectations rational or calling what they do rational activity. Except, that is, economists! They modify sundry and diverse nouns with “rational.” In a short search of a few documents, the nouns actors, calculations, choices, decisions, expectations, firms, foundations, investors, outcomes, prices, responses, self-interest, societies, systems, and workers are all modified by “rational,” and some seem oxymoronic when so modified. For instance, how is it possible to have an irrational self-interest? And if that isn’t possible, what sense does modifying “self-interest” with “rational” make? Why economists feel the need to continually cite the rationality of classical economics is curious. Astronomers, physicists, chemists, biologists, mathematicians, engineers, and others have never felt a similar need. Physicists never speak of rational forces, rational particles, or rational mass. Chemists don’t speak of rational reactions. Mathematicians never speak of rational calculations. One begins to wonder whether economists can be likened to the proverbial errant child who almost automatically utters, “I didn’t do it!” when everyone knows that s/he did. One wonders whether they continually call themselves and economics rational because that’s the only exculpatory response they can think of when what they proclaim turns out, as it so often does, to be wrong.
via Global Crisis: Is Economics Rational?.
Lawrence O’Donnell Rips Into GOP Strategist Over Torture (VIDEO)
Lawrence O’Donnell Rips Into GOP Strategist Over Torture (VIDEO)
Via Media Monitor LaRay B., comes video of a segment between Phil Musser and Lawrence O’Donnell, hosted by Norah O’Donnell on MSNBC. The discussion centered on the torture memos, with Lawrence O’Donnell explaining how the pursuit of al Qaeda-Iraq links is a classic example of the sorts of fallacies that underpin the logic of those who think torture is effective. Musser, for his part, defended the leadership and judgment of Dick Cheney. And then, Musser’s line of thought veered very sharply into the scarily phrenological.
MUSSER: The bottom line is he’s a guy that I watched up close in action and I have great respect for his judgment and wisdom in this regard. And having seen the face of terror, you know I’ve walked through Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay when I was serving in the government, and it changes your nature of the threat to look at the people an the other sides of those fences. And the bottom line is –
And that’s when all the O’Donnells within the sound of Musser’s voice, quite rightly, started to bug out.
via Lawrence O’Donnell Rips Into GOP Strategist Over Torture (VIDEO).
Meghan McCain Slams Cheney, Rove: “You Had Your Eight Years–Go Away” (VIDEO)
Meghan McCain Slams Cheney, Rove: “You Had Your Eight Years–Go Away” (VIDEO)
Meghan McCain, serving as a co-host of “The View” today, wasted little time before getting in a shot at former Vice President Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. McCain, who had previously written about how she found Karl Rove following her on Twitter “creepy,” complained that Cheney and Rove are still trying to be seen as the face of the Republican Party. Last week McCain observed that the GOP leadership is “scared shitless” of the changing political landscape.
McCain mentioned disapprovingly Cheney’s repeated public criticisms of Obama–which he voiced again on Fox News this week–and referred to the DNC ad released this week portraying Cheney, Rove and Gingrich as the ‘new face of the GOP.’ She pointed out that it’s “very unprecedented for someone like Karl Rove or Dick Cheney to be criticizing the President.” Her advice to them: “Go away.”
WATCH:
via Meghan McCain Slams Cheney, Rove: “You Had Your Eight Years–Go Away” (VIDEO).
Dem Senators Call For Freeze On Credit Card Interest Rates
Dem Senators Call For Freeze On Credit Card Interest Rates
Last year, the Federal Reserve announced new rules for credit card issuers that would rein in controversial practices like arbitrary rate increases on existing balances. Consumer advocates welcomed the news, but the regulations wouldn’t take effect until mid-2010. So members of the House and Senate introduced legislation that would essentially move up the start date for the Fed’s plans.
That’s still not fast enough for some. Hearing it from their constituents, Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Chris Dodd (Conn.) asked the Federal Reserve on Thursday to hurry up and stop arbitrary rate increases immediately.
“Credit card providers have been aggressively raising rates on consumers now to avoid the ramifications of this rule when it goes into effect next year,” the senators wrote. “Companies have increased interest rates across the board now, to increase interest rates before the new rules go into effect.”
The senators say the people they represent have been getting soaked: “Consumers describe situations to our offices in which the interest rates on their accounts have doubled or tripled overnight, without any misconduct on their part.”
via Dem Senators Call For Freeze On Credit Card Interest Rates.
Rep. Paul Ryan: Dems Have “Right” To Push Health Care Overhaul Through Congress
OPS: More than that – they have the obligation
Rep. Paul Ryan: Dems Have “Right” To Push Health Care Overhaul Through Congress
Shortly after President Obama’s Inauguration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) let Republicans know that the election would come with consequences.
“Yes, we wrote the bill. Yes, we won the election,” she said in response to GOP complaints that they weren’t involved enough in the crafting of the stimulus.
Republicans have repeatedly raised that comment as evidence that Pelosi is uninterested in bipartisan cooperation. In an interview with ABC News on Thursday, however, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) went way off script, acknowledging that the mandate delivered by the election gives Democrats the “right” to push their policy proposals.
“It’s their right. They did win the election,” said Ryan, a respected member of House Republican leadership. “That’s what I tell all my constituents who are worried about this. They won the election. They did run on these ideas. They did run on nationalizing health care.”
The GOP repeatedly decried Democratic policies during the campaign as socialist and as wealth distribution. Yet voters chose them anyway.
via Rep. Paul Ryan: Dems Have “Right” To Push Health Care Overhaul Through Congress.
Lots of unpatriotic Texans want out of the union
Lots of unpatriotic Texans want out of the union
Digg this! Share this on Twitter – Lots of unpatriotic Texans want out of the unionTweet this submit to reddit Share This
With numbers like these, it’s obvious why Texas Gov. Rick Perry is talking secession in the runup to what will be a tough primary battle against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson:
Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 4/20-22. Likely voters. MoE 4% (No trend lines)
Do you think Texas would be better off as an independent nation or as part of the United States of America?
US: 61
Independent nation: 35
Democrats: US 82, Ind 15
Republicans: US 48, Ind 48
Independents: US 55, Ind 40
Do you approve or disapprove of Governor Rick Perry’s suggestion that Texas may need to leave the United States?
Approve: 37
Disapprove: 58
Democrats: Approve 16, Disapprove 80
Republicans: Approve 51, Disapprove 44
Independents: Approve 43, Disapprove 50
via Daily Kos: Lots of unpatriotic Texans want out of the union.
Flashback: Bush’s FBI Director Said Torture Didn’t Foil Any Terror Plots
Flashback: Bush’s FBI Director Said Torture Didn’t Foil Any Terror Plots
Now that Bush administration officials have launched a major campaign to persuade us that torture “worked,” perhaps it’s worth recalling that George W. Bush’s own FBI director said in an interview last year that he wasn’t aware of a single planned terror attack on America that had been foiled by information obtained through torture.
Robert Mueller, who was appointed by Bush in 2001 and remains FBI director under Obama, delivered that assessment at the end of this December 2008 article in Vanity Fair on torture:
I ask Mueller: So far as he is aware, have any attacks on America been disrupted thanks to intelligence obtained through what the administration still calls “enhanced techniques”?
“I’m really reluctant to answer that,” Mueller says. He pauses, looks at an aide, and then says quietly, declining to elaborate: “I don’t believe that has been the case.”
That stands in direct contrast to Dick Cheney’s recent claim that torture has been “enormously valuable” in terms of “preventing another mass-casualty attack against the United States.”
You’d think that this sort of thing would throw a bit of a wrench into the Bushies’ campaign. But as Charles Kaiser notes, these types of statements haven’t really broken through the media din.
via Flashback: Bush’s FBI Director Said Torture Didn’t Foil Any Terror Plots | The Plum Line.
Slade Gorton, 9/11 Commission Member: “It’s Not In Our Interest” To Investigate Bush
Slade Gorton, 9/11 Commission Member: “It’s Not In Our Interest” To Investigate Bush
Former 9/11 Commission member Slade Gorton said on Thursday that he did not think Congress or the White House would serve the country’s interest by setting up an investigation into the possible use of torture during the Bush years.
“Like the president,” Gorton said in an interview with the Huffington Post, “I am far more concerned about the future than the past. And in that sense, no, I don’t think it is in our interest to look back at this issue.”
A former Republican senator from Washington, Gorton was one of only ten members to sit on the committee tasked with investigating the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001. His work, as well as those of the other nine officials on that committee, has been cited as a possible template for an investigation into the possibly illegal use of interrogation techniques by Bush administration officials. As such, his critical remarks don’t help the cause of those who believe that a bi-partisan effort can be put together to look into the authorization of waterboarding and other harsh techniques to interrogate detainees.
via Slade Gorton, 9/11 Commission Member: “It’s Not In Our Interest” To Investigate Bush.
Pelosi: Bush Administration Never Briefed Congress On Waterboarding
Pelosi: Bush Administration Never Briefed Congress On Waterboarding
The Bush administration did not inform Congress that it had waterboarded detainees in classified briefings, after the agency had already done so, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) charged Thursday.
Pelosi told reporters that the administration officials only told her and those in a classified briefing in the fall of 2002 that they believed they had the legal authority to do so, based on Office of Legal Counsel memos which have recently been released by the Obama administration.
“In that or any other briefing…we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used,” said Pelosi. “What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel…opinions that they could be used, but not that they would.”
via Pelosi: Bush Administration Never Briefed Congress On Waterboarding.
U.S. Is Said to Push Chrysler to Prepare for Chapter 11
U.S. Is Said to Prepare Filing for Chrysler Bankruptcy
DETROIT — The Treasury Department is directing Chrysler to prepare a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that could come as soon as next week, people with direct knowledge of the action said Thursday.
The Treasury has an agreement in principle with the United Automobile Workers union, whose members’ pensions and retiree health care benefits would be protected as a condition of the bankruptcy filing, said these people, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
Moreover, Fiat of Italy would complete its alliance with Chrysler while the company is under bankruptcy protection.
The only major question that remains unresolved is what happens to Chrysler’s lenders, who hold $6.9 billion in company debt. The government’s most recent offer, presented Wednesday, would give the company’s lenders about 22 cents on the dollar, or $1.5 billion, and a 5 percent equity stake in a reorganized Chrysler. Earlier this week, a steering committee of the lenders proposed that they receive 65 cents on the dollar, or $4.5 billion, and a 40 percent equity stake.
via U.S. Is Said to Push Chrysler to Prepare for Chapter 11 – NYTimes.com.
Shimkus: Capping CO2 a greater ‘assault on democracy’ than 9/11.
OPS: Ignorant and proud of it. Why are Republicans suicidal?
Shimkus: Capping CO2 a greater ‘assault on democracy’ than 9/11.
Yesterday, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) described President Obama’s energy plan as “the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I’ve ever experienced.” Speaking at a hearing on the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy and Security Act — which caps global warming pollution to build a clean energy economy — Shimkus said that he feared this legislation more than the Clinton impeachment trials, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001:
I think this is the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I’ve ever experienced. I’ve lived through some tough times in Congress — impeachment, two wars, terrorist attacks. I fear this more than all of the above activities that have happened.
Watch it:
via Think Progress » Shimkus: Capping CO2 a greater ‘assault on democracy’ than 9/11..
Civil War Emerges At Fox News: ‘We Don’t F*cking Torture’ Vs. ‘Torture, My Ass’
Civil War Emerges At Fox News: ‘We Don’t F*cking Torture’ Vs. ‘Torture, My Ass’
Since President Obama released the Bush administration’s OLC torture memos, several Fox News pundits have launched unrelenting, full-throated defenses of torture. Bill O’Reilly dismissed waterboarding yesterday, saying, “Torture, my ass.” Also yesterday, Sean Hannity volunteered to be waterboarded for charity (those who have tried it have found it to be rather unpleasant):
GRODIN: We can waterboard you?
HANNITY: Sure.
GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?
HANNITY: I’ll do it for charity. … I’ll let you do it. I’ll do it for the troops’ families.
Watch it:
via Think Progress » Civil War Emerges At Fox News: ‘We Don’t F*cking Torture’ Vs. ‘Torture, My Ass’.
Senate Republicans block vote on Sebelius nomination.
Senate Republicans block vote on Sebelius nomination.
The Senate was expected to confirm President Obama’s choice for Health and Human Services Secretary today, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), but Senate Republicans refused to allow the vote, calling her a “fairly contentious” candidate:
At the start of the session today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) proposed taking a vote after five hours of debate. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) objected, arguing that lawmakers needed more time to consider her “fairly contentious” selection.
A handful of Republicans have complained about Sebelius’ support for abortion rights and her failure to report the full extent of campaign contributions she received from a physician who performs abortions.
via Think Progress » Senate Republicans block vote on Sebelius nomination..
Alter: Bybee ‘pretty clearly, by some lights,’ violated his oath to uphold the Constitution.
Alter: Bybee ‘pretty clearly, by some lights,’ violated his oath to uphold the Constitution.
This afternoon on MSNBC, host David Shuster spoke with Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter, who explained that while the popular political discourse has focused on one of two possible courses to resolve the Bush administration’s illegal acts of torture (a congressional or independent truth commission or criminal prosecutions), a third option also exists: impeachment. Alter noted that Federal Judge Jay Bybee is the only Bush administration torture architect still in public office and can be held to account through impeachment proceedings for his failing to “uphold the constitution”:
ALTER: There’s also a third route which would focus on the only one of these folks from the Bush White House who’s in public office now and that’s Federal Judge Jay Bybee. You could see, conceivably, a movement to impeach Judge Bybee. These other folks, there’s no indication that they violated an oath to uphold the constitution in the way he did, or if they have, they are no longer in a position of public trust, the way he is.
Watch it:
Republicans angry that Steele won’t call Obama a ‘socialist.’
Republicans angry that Steele won’t call Obama a ‘socialist.’
ap090130025035.jpg State Republican party leaders are incensed that RNC chairman Michael Steele isn’t labeling President Obama a “socialist.” “We don’t see this president so much as a socialist as we see him as a collectivist,” Steele said earlier this week. At least 16 state leaders are now backing a resolution that would pressure Steele to adopt their partisan rhetoric by calling on the Democratic party to rename itself the “Democrat Socialist Party”:
via Think Progress » Republicans angry that Steele won’t call Obama a ‘socialist.’.
Boehner drops the t-bomb.
Boehner drops the t-bomb.
In a press conference today, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) broke with the Republican practice of referring to the Bush administration’s torture practices as “enhanced” or “harsh” interrogation techniques. As Ryan Grim notes, Boehner described the recently released OLC memos as outlining “torture techniques”:
BOEHNER: Last week, they released these memos outlining torture techniques. That was clearly a political decision and ignored the advice of their Director of National Intelligence and their CIA director.
Watch it:
via Think Progress » Boehner drops the t-bomb..
Britain Refused to Torture Nazis Because It Doesn’t Work
Britain Refused to Torture Nazis Because It Doesn’t Work
Andrew Sullivan makes what I think is a definitive point in the barbaric “debate” over whether torture “works”.*
Think back to a time during World War II, when thousands of British citizens were dying a bloody death every day at the hands of the Axis powers. You can’t get much closer to a “ticking time bomb” scenario than that, right?
So, what dastardly measures did Churchill’s chief interrogator resort to, in the face of the imminent death of hundreds of thousands of his country’s citizens?
Colonel Robin “Tin Eye” Stephens was the commander of the wartime spy prison and interrogation centre codenamed Camp 020, an ugly Victorian mansion surrounded by barbed wire on the edge of Ham Common. In the course of the war, some 500 enemy spies from 44 countries passed through Camp 020; most were interrogated, at some point, by Stephens; all but a tiny handful crumbled.
Stephens was a bristling, xenophobic martinet; in appearance, with his glinting monocle and cigarette holder, he looked exactly like the caricature Gestapo interrogator who has “vays of making you talk”.
Stephens had ways of making anyone talk. In a top secret report, recently declassified by MI5 and now in the Public Records Office, he listed the tactics needed to break down a suspect: “A breaker is born and not made . . . pressure is attained by personality, tone, and rapidity of questions, a driving attack in the nature of a blast which will scare a man out of his wits.”
The terrifying commandant of Camp 020 refined psychological intimidation to an art form.
via Library Grape: Britain Refused to Torture Nazis Because It Doesn’t Work.
Obama and the Big Dogs
Is Obama Tough Enough to Stand Up to the Titans of Finance?
Obama and the Big Dogs
By William Greider
The big dogs of banking and finance are playing a rough game of bump-and-run with our president, trying to knock him off balance and demonstrate their dominance. The best names in Wall Street–Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase–pumped out happy talk about quarterly earnings, then announced that they intend to give back the government’s money (more than $50 billion, if counted honestly). The crisis, they announce, is over for them. They want to be free of official meddling in their private affairs. The arrogance is breathtaking, even for Wall Street bankers.
orget the financial numbers. What we are witnessing is a high-stakes melodrama of glandular politics. This rival power center, though gravely weakened, is contesting for control with the president. Think of dogs circling one another to establish who will be leader of the pack. For three decades, the Wall Street guys in good suits have ruled the economy, demanding deference from the political system and from corporate managements, too. Those who failed to follow them were punished, either through stock prices or election financing. Despite their catastrophic failure, the surviving bankers and financiers are trying to hold on to their thrones.
For the last couple of weeks, they have poked the kid in the chest and mocked his economic advisors with condescending gestures. Jamie Dimon of the Morgan bank handed Treasury Secretary Geithner a fake check for $25 billion. They threw complicating wrenches into the government’s financial rescue plan. Their essential message, crudely colloquial, was intended for Barack Obama : “You don’t have the balls to take charge of us.”
Card Check Is Dead
OPS: No names yet. As soon as we can find them they will be posted here – and in many other places I’m sure.
Card Check Is Dead
Some Democrats only care about labor’s money.
It has been three hard months of political exile for those on the right, a time for them to count their grievances and dress their outrage in the trappings of centuries past. Some have donned colonial outfits to stage tea parties. Others have found the 1860s more to their taste, reviving the fiery language of secession fever.
But they can all take heart from one development in the nation’s capital. Good old K Street, where the big tea party never stopped, has all but halted organized labor’s effort to make it easier for workers to unionize.
After massive lobbying both by labor and by business, it appears that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which, as it now stands, would allow workers to organize in many cases merely by signing cards instead of holding elections, will not have the 60 votes required to get past a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
Now, to be pro-labor is to resign yourself to years of failures and defeats, with few tea parties along the way for consolation. Even so, the setback on EFCA has to be a bitter one. Union members worked hard to elect Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress, as they did to put Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in the White House. And now, just as in those previous two periods of Democratic governance, labor’s friends are having trouble enacting basic labor-law reforms.
To understand why we need new rules governing unionization, look no further than yesterday’s New York Times, where Steven Greenhouse told the story of a Louisville, Ky., hospital whose nurses tried to form a union but failed after they were reportedly threatened with losing their benefits among other things.
via Card Check Is Dead – WSJ.com.
Demographer: U.S. To Become More Progressive For 20 Years To Come
Demographer: U.S. To Become More Progressive For 20 Years To Come
Demographic trends, particularly an ongoing decline of culturally conservative whites, will push the United States to become increasingly progressive for two decades to come, according to a noted expert on political demography.
“There are a variety of ways in which America has changed demographically and geographically in the last 20 years that have sent things in a more progressive direction,” says Ruy Teixeira, a prominent author and fellow at several Washington think tanks. “One of the biggest changes is the decline of the white working class, which is the most conservative element of the population, really. According to exit poll data, the percent of white working class voters is down 15 points in the last 20 years, whereas minority voters who lean pretty heavily progressive are up 11 points, and white collar graduates who have been shifting progressive rapidly in the last couple of decades, they’re up four points.”
Other changes that Teixeira sees as important are the professionals, which is a growing occupational group, have shifted pretty heavily toward progressives. Single women, another growing group that has shifted toward progressives, and of course there’s this burgeoning millennial generation, which is adding about 4 million people to the eligible voter pool every year, he says.
via On The Hill: Demographer: U.S. To Become More Progressive For 20 Years To Come.
Holder Just Made Me a Promise
Holder Just Made Me a Promise – By David Swanson
As Attorney General Eric Holder left an appropriations subcommittee hearing on Thursday I spoke loudly from the third row as he prepared to leave the room:
“We need a special prosecutor for torture, Mr. Attorney General. Americans like the rule of law. The rule of law for everybody.”
He replied as he approached and walked by, surrounded by bodyguards:
“And you will be proud of your country.”
I was joined by others in replying simultaneously:
“Yes, we want to be proud of our country. We’re ready. No need to wait.”
Holder knew exactly what it would take for me to be proud of my country, and he told me directly that I would be.
Will I? Time will tell.
Some friends from Code Pink and Veterans for Peace and I had held up signs during the hearing: “Torture Is Illegal”, “Special Prosecutor”, “Justice for ALL”, “Are Laws for Everyone?”, “Special Counsel for War Crimes”, “No Torture”, etc.
But I had come with a coalition of groups led by the ACLU in an attempt to present a petition to Holder asking for a special prosecutor.
Pre-hearing we presented the petition to an assistant attorney general who then sat in the front row with a few other DOJ staffers. He promised to hand Holder the petition, and I asked him again in the hallway afterwards, and he promised to hand it to him.
via Holder Just Made Me a Promise | AfterDowningStreet.org.
Larry Summers’ cat-nap at credit talks
Larry Summers’ cat-nap at credit talks
via Larry Summers’ cat-nap at credit talks: The Swamp.
Army probes missing Fort Detrick disease samples
Army probes missing Fort Detrick disease samples
REDERICK, Md. (Map, News) – Army officials say an investigation of three disease samples missing from a Fort Detrick lab found no evidence of criminality and that the samples were likely destroyed.
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick spokeswoman Caree Vander Linden said Wednesday that the samples of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis were discovered missing last year in an inventory of a group of samples left by a departing researcher.
Vander Linden says the report that the vials were missing triggered the investigation, which found that the samples were likely among those destroyed when a freezer malfunctioned.
U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey says an extensive investigation found no evidence of criminality.
via Army probes missing Fort Detrick disease samples – Examiner.com.
US Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries to Replace Police
US Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries to Replace Police
The United States is in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in its history. We see this in schools, health care, prisons, and certainly with the US military/national security/intelligence apparatus. There are almost 200,000 “private contractors” in Iraq (more than US soldiers) and Obama is continuing to use mercenaries there and in Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine. At present, 70 percent of the US intelligence budget is going to private companies.
This privatization trend is hardly new, but it is accelerating. While events such as the Nisour Square massacre committed in September 2007 by Blackwater operatives in Baghdad show the lethal danger of unleashing mercenary forces on foreign soil, one area with the potential for extreme abuses resulting from this privatization is in domestic law enforcement in the US. Many people may not be aware of this, but since the 1980s, private security guards have outnumbered police officers. “The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States,”according to The Washington Post. Some estimate that private security actually operate inside the US at a 5-to-1 ratio with police.
via OpEdNews » US Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries to Replace Police.
Obama pledges protections for credit-card users
Obama pledges protections for credit-card users
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he will push for a law to provide “strong and reliable” protections for the millions of Americans who have credit cards.
The president on Thursday outlined his priorities after meeting with chief executives of the credit-card lending industry.
Obama said he wants legislation that will prevent consumers from facing a sudden, surprising rise in fees. He said credit-card companies must publish their forms in plainspoken language. The president said companies must make it easier for people to do comparison shopping and said there must be greater enforcement so that violators feel the “full weight” of the law.
Both the House and Senate are working on versions of such a law.
via dallasnews.com.
Nestlé counts cost as bottled water sales fall
Nestlé counts cost as bottled water sales fall
For some it was pure, bottled sophistication; for others, money for old rope, the epitome of the disposable, consumer society that took hold in the 1980s. Either way, mineral water was yesterday confirmed as a casualty of the credit crunch when Nestlé said that sales of the bottled drink were plunging.
Nestlé, whose brands include Perrier and S. Pellegrino, the “champagne of waters”, is the world’s biggest food company and the largest bottled water producer. Sales of its water declined by 4.1 per cent in the first three months of this year, Western Europe being particularly badly hit. There was a fall of 9 per cent in the British market last year.
In 1980, only 30 million litres of bottled water were sold in Britain, less than half a pint per person. That grew to 1.3 billion litres in 2007 — but now, as well as cost-conscious consumers trading down to tap water, mineral water has suffered an environmental bashing.
via Nestlé counts cost as bottled water sales fall – Times Online.
Miss California Could Sue for Discrimination, Legal Analyst Says
Miss California Could Sue for Discrimination, Legal Analyst Says
Miss California Carrie Prejean, blasted by a Miss USA contest judge because she opposes gay marriage, may have grounds for a discrimination lawsuit herself — against the Miss USA pageant, a legal analyst says.
“If she really feels some tremendous stress as a result of losing — and I’m certain she’s probably devastated from what happened to her — she can articulate a viable claim for monetary compensation for psychic injury,” said FOX News legal analyst Mercedes Colwin.
Prejean fielded a question during Sunday night’s pageant from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton about whether every state should legalize same-sex marriage. Prejean replied that she is opposed to gay marriage, and her answer may have cost her the crown. She finished second to Miss North Carolina Kristen Dalton.
“She lost it because of that question,” Hilton said Monday. “She was definitely the front-runner before that.”
Gephardt, not Pelosi, promised Harman chairmanship
Gephardt, not Pelosi, promised Harman chairmanship
Rep. Jane Harman was promised the chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee, according to a letter obtained by The Hill. But the promise was made by former House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt, not Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Hill obtained a copy of the letter Thursday as it became a point of disagreement between Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
Harman (D-Calif.) had said in a television interview Tuesday that she’d been promised the chairmanship in writing by “the leadership.” It was meant as evidence that she didn’t need to lobby or enlist help to get the job.
But Pelosi said Wednesday that was “completely not so.”
via TheHill.com – Gephardt, not Pelosi, promised Harman chairmanship.
FBI Zubaydah Interrogator Calls George Bush a Liar: “No Actionable Intelligence Gained from Using Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”
FBI Zubaydah Interrogator Calls George Bush a Liar: “No Actionable Intelligence Gained from Using Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”
FBI Weren’t the Only Ones Objecting to Torture — So Did the Army, Marines & Air Force
abu zubaydahAli Soufan, an FBI interrogator who stayed mum for seven years about “the false claims magnifying the effectiveness of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding” breaks his silence in the NYT today. Along with other CIA and FBI agents, he questioned Zubadayah in June of 2002 before “harsh techniques” were introduced:
Under traditional interrogation methods, he provided us with important actionable intelligence. We discovered, for example, that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Abu Zubaydah also told us about Jose Padilla, the so-called dirty bomber.
That squares with what part of what George Bush said in his 2006 speech defending the use of “new interrogation” techniques:
During questioning, he at first disclosed what he thought was nominal information — and then stopped all cooperation. Well, in fact, the “nominal” information he gave us turned out to be quite important. For example, Zubaydah disclosed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — or KSM — was the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, and used the alias “Muktar.” This was a vital piece of the puzzle that helped our intelligence community pursue KSM.
But that’s where the stories diverge. Bush says Zubadayah gave critical information about Padilla’s plans:
Napolitano is right! Ex-soldiers form neo-nazi group in OR
Napolitano is right! Ex-soldiers form neo-nazi group in OR
Napolitano is right! Ex-soldiers form neo-nazi group in ORTweet this submit to reddit Share This
With news today that House Repiglians “are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down or be fired”, for the DHS report linking some ex-military to right-wing extremist groups, the thought occurs that the Repiglians might want to STFU, and soon.
They should close their flapping and hateful mouths for a moment, and take a look at an article in today’s the Ashland, Oregon “Daily Tidings” newspaper. In it, they would find that the DHS report was/is uncannily accurate……
More after the fold….
via Daily Kos: State of the Nation.
Lawmakers: Congress Will Investigate Torture, Bipartisan Support In Place
OPS: Let’s hope it’s not another 9-11 Commission
Lawmakers: Congress Will Investigate Torture, Bipartisan Support In Place
The central debate dominating discussions of a possible investigation into torture by the Bush administration seems to have shifted sharply in the past few days: from whether such an investigation should take place, to now what form it will have when it comes.
If investigations actually do go forward, there seem to be three clear options: creating an independent commission, launching a congressional probe, or having the Department of Justice tackle the topic, likely by appointing a special prosecutor.
Each form has its champions, its benefits and shortcomings. Of the three, the Obama White House — which still prefers no investigation at all — is the least enthusiastic about Congress handling the matter. The president has said that if an investigation were to happen, he wanted it done in an independent and non-partisan matter by people above reproach — qualities sometimes tough to come by in Congress.
That said, on Thursday morning, Sen. Claire McCaskill told MSNBC that she was “sure there will be some form of investigation in Congress.” She said she could not make the same value judgments about the other two forms of investigation.
Meanwhile, one of the few legislative vehicles actually geared toward starting the torture investigation process already has bipartisan support. Legislation backed by House Judiciary chairman John Conyers to establish “a national commission on presidential war powers and civil liberties” has one rather notable co-sponsor: Republican Rep. Walter Jones, a vocal GOP critic of the Bush administration. Jones’ office did not return requests for comment but Conyers’ office confirmed the North Carolinian remains a co-sponsor of the legislation.
The chairman himself said he views Obama’s remarks on the suitable way to investigate torture to be something of an endorsement of his proposal.
“The President’s comments today on possible approaches to a fuller accounting of these matters are exactly right,” remarked Conyers in a statement. “Having introduced legislation to establish just such a non-partisan truth-telling Commission on the very first day of this Congress, that is the approach I have long favored.”
The same cannot be said, at this juncture, of the other congressional proposal for investigations. Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick Leahy’s truth and reconciliation commission is not, at this point, formal law and its support is primarily from figures outside government.
As for Democratic leadership in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid’s office confirmed to the Huffington Post on Thursday that the Majority Leader is withholding judgment until the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence finishes its own report on interrogation policies.
Perhaps the people best suited to envision what a torture investigation might look like are those who participated in one of the last big investigations. Daniel Marcus, a law and government professor at American University, served as the general counsel to the 9/11 Commission. In an interview with the Huffington Post, he said that the effort to look into the cause and intelligence failures of that terrorist attack were different from what would or could be done when looking into the Bush administration’s policies on detainee treatment.
“The parallels are not exact here,” he said. “I do think that we and the world already know a lot about what happened [with the use of torture] and we now, as a matter of policy, have repudiated what was done, said it was illegal, and said we are not going to do it anymore. So it is a different kind of situation than the 9/11 commission where no one knew what the hell had happened, what went wrong on 9/11, what happened, why was our intelligence so wrong…”
There were also, Marcus noted, fundamental differences over the scope and goals of the 9/11 commission, and those disagreements would surely accompany an investigation into torture (which would be more retributive in nature). In this regard, the major news regarding the investigation could come before the process even begins.
“There are two problems,” said Marcus. “One is that, if you don’t want to foreclose criminal investigations, you are going to have a hard time getting testimony to people without giving immunity. And the commission can’t grant immunity unless it is under their statute. On the other hand, if you give immunity you may be fouling up potential criminal investigations. So you have to decide what approach makes sense here: whether it is more important to have a let it all hang out truth commission which would hold people accountable but make it less like for criminal prosecution, or whether to pursue the criminal prosecution route.”
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via Lawmakers: Congress Will Investigate Torture, Bipartisan Support In Place.
Socialism As It Really Is: Daily Show Holds Mirror up to Sweden
Video at link
Socialism As It Really Is: Daily Show Holds Mirror up to Sweden
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS by Chad Rubel
The beauty of children is that they will call one of their peers a name, and later ask, “What does that word mean.” They use the word because they think it’s funny or mean, not because they know what that really means.
Republicans — still in their childish, not child-like, phase — are in their name-calling phase, but unlike children, aren’t asking what these words mean.
“Obama is a socialist.”
Really? You might as well say “Obama is a doodyhead.”
We can rationally wonder why an increase from a 36 percent tax rate to 39 percent is socialism, or wonder why people would come out in the cold and rain and protest “socialism” when their taxes are going down, not up. But “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” had a different plan: send Wyatt Cenac to Sweden.
We react well to visuals, and it’s difficult to not miss an African-American with a camera crew walking down the streets of Stockholm. But it was also a chance to show visually that real socialism is not what is at stake here in the U.S., and that socialism isn’t so bad.
“Let’s put socialism into terms we can all understand,” says Cenac. The illustration he picks — in the recurring theme throughout his stay of spotlighting young beautiful Swedish women — is five young Swedish women representing his income. “Now, as the government, you want to take 60% of my income.”
via Socialism As It Really Is: Daily Show Holds Mirror up to Sweden | BuzzFlash.org.
Truth Extraction – The Atlantic (June 2005)
Truth Extraction
Six months before the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison broke into public view, a small and fairly obscure private association of United States Marine Corps members posted on its Web site a document on how to get enemy POWs to talk.
The document described a situation very similar to the one the United States faces in the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan: a fanatical and implacable enemy, intense pressure to achieve quick results, a brutal war in which the old rules no longer seem to apply.
Marine Major Sherwood F. Moran, the report’s author, noted that despite the complexities and difficulties of dealing with an enemy from such a hostile and alien culture, some American interrogators consistently managed to extract useful information from prisoners. The successful interrogators all had one thing in common in the way they approached their subjects. They were nice to them.
Moran was writing in 1943, and he was describing his own, already legendary methods of interrogating Japanese prisoners of war. More than a half century later his report remains something of a cult classic for military interrogators. The Marine Corps Interrogator Translator Teams Association (MCITTA), a group of active-duty and retired Marine intelligence personnel, calls Moran’s report one of the “timeless documents” in the field and says it has long been “a standard read” for insiders. (A book about the Luftwaffe interrogator Hans Joachim Scharff, whose charm, easygoing manner, and perfect English beguiled many a captured Allied airman into revealing critical information, is another frequently cited classic in the field.) An MCITTA member says the group decided to post Moran’s report online in July of 2003, because “many others wanted to read it” and because the original document, in the Marine Corps archives, was in such poor shape that the photocopies in circulation were difficult to decipher. He denies that current events had anything to do with either the decision to post the document or the increased interest in it.
via Truth Extraction – The Atlantic (June 2005).
Will Obama Reboot Capitalism Anew?
Will Obama Reboot Capitalism Anew?
by Thom Hartmann
Over six million people are now out of work, and unemployment figures released today show that now-record number is continuing to climb. Meanwhile, still-profitable American corporations manufacture goods for American consumption using Chinese labor and pay virtually no income tax by keeping their profits offshore.
A hundred years ago, Republican President Theodore Roosevelt tried to reign in some of the most toxic behaviors of capitalists that he found incompatible with modern democracy by pushing through congress a law that banned the practice of corporations giving money to politicians. He slowed down the robber barons a bit, but three consecutive Republican presidents in the 1920s led us straight into the Republican Great Depression.
Franklin Roosevelt, his distant cousin, rebooted capitalism in the 1930s, ushering in an era of regulated capitalism – embraced by Republicans like Eisenhower and Democrats like JFK – that brought us the largest, strongest, and most stable middle class ever seen. We also became the world’s economic superpower, as the world’s largest importer of raw materials, exporter of finished goods, and banker to the world. We imported iron ore and exported televisions and cars and washing machines. The rest of the world was in debt to us. A worker with a high school diploma could find a job that paid enough to raise a family and have a safe and comfortable retirement.
The Reagan Revolution of the 1980s was the third “rebooting” of capitalism in the 20th Century, and continues to this day. Scorning the “regulated” part of “regulated capitalism,” economic Reaganites from the Gipper himself to GHW Bush to Bill Clinton to GW Bush flipped our economy upside down. Today, after just thirty years of “free trade” and “right to work” and other oxymoronic nostrums applied as policy, we’ve become the world’s largest importer of finished goods and the world’s largest debtor. We now export minerals to Asia, and import back from them televisions, cars, and washing machines.
via Will Obama Reboot Capitalism Anew? | CommonDreams.org.
Fort Hunt’s Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII
Fort Hunt’s Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII
Interrogators Fought ‘Battle of Wits’
For six decades, they held their silence.
The group of World War II veterans kept a military code and the decorum of their generation, telling virtually no one of their top-secret work interrogating Nazi prisoners of war at Fort Hunt.
When about two dozen veterans got together yesterday for the first time since the 1940s, many of the proud men lamented the chasm between the way they conducted interrogations during the war and the harsh measures used today in questioning terrorism suspects.
Back then, they and their commanders wrestled with the morality of bugging prisoners’ cells with listening devices. They felt bad about censoring letters. They took prisoners out for steak dinners to soften them up. They played games with them.
“We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,” said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess.
Blunt criticism of modern enemy interrogations was a common refrain at the ceremonies held beside the Potomac River near Alexandria. Across the river, President Bush defended his administration’s methods of detaining and questioning terrorism suspects during an Oval Office appearance.
via Fort Hunt’s Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII – washingtonpost.com.
Report probes US custody deaths
Tuesday, 21 February 2006 !!
Report probes US custody deaths
Almost 100 prisoners have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since August 2002, according to US group Human Rights First.
The details were first aired on BBC television’s Newsnight programme.
Of the 98 deaths, at least 34 were suspected or confirmed homicides, the programme said.
The Pentagon told Newsnight it had not seen the report but took allegations of maltreatment “very seriously” and would prosecute if necessary.
The report, which is to be published on Wednesday, draws on information from Pentagon and other official US sources.
Torture
Human Rights First representative Deborah Pearlstein told Newsnight she was “extremely comfortable” that the information was reliable.
via BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Report probes US custody deaths.
O’Reilly Revises History, Says Nixon Never Met With Mao Zedong (VIDEO)
OPS: More proof that Billo is slipping fast into his own Alternate Universe of insanity
O’Reilly Revises History, Says Nixon Never Met With Mao Zedong (VIDEO)
Sometimes, if you linger too long over certain qualities of Bill O’Reilly, you miss the full picture. For example, if you’re always paying attention to O’Reilly’s pointless demagoguery, rampant paranoia, blustery cowardice, and overall sex freakery, you might miss the fact that deep down, the man is also unrelentingly stupid. But on last night’s edition of the Factor, viewers got a reminder of the Miseducation of Bill O’Reilly.
Discussing the recent Summit of the Americas, O’Reilly and Alan Colmes were locked in a discussion over whether Obama’s handshake with Hugo Chavez meant that Obama would catch a scorching case of Chavez Cooties, and suddenly become a Latin American autocrat! Colmes made the sensible point that politesse and tact should compel a certain degree of civility.
COLMES: Well, first of all, this shows — first of all, what do you, ignore the guy? When George W. Bush was at the UN and asked, “Will you ever — will you talk to Ahmadinejad if you’re in the same room?” “No, I won’t talk to him” — like a 5-year-old. What do you, ignore somebody standing right next to you? Do we — because he touched him, put his hand on his shoulder, shook his hand? Do these people have a problem with Mao and Nixon? And of course, you worked for Richard Nixon. I mean, Nixon goes to China, do you have a problem with –
via O’Reilly Revises History, Says Nixon Never Met With Mao Zedong (VIDEO).
Ancient Microbes Discovered Thriving Under Antarctic Glacier : EcoWorldly
Ancient Microbes Discovered Thriving Under Antarctic Glacier
Researchers in have discovered ancient, extremophile life forms that survive with neither light nor oxygen underground in Antarctica.
From the surface, the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Eastern Antarctica appears to be one of the most desolate places on Earth. And indeed it is. Apart from a few glaciers, the land is ice-free. No animals live here, and what few plants are able to are simple planktonic forms. But recently, a team of researchers have discovered evidence of a thriving community of extremophile microbes thriving several hundred feet below the barren surface.
via Ancient Microbes Discovered Thriving Under Antarctic Glacier : EcoWorldly.
Toronto Trying to Force Green Roofs – Could Your City be Next?
Toronto Trying to Force Green Roofs – Could Your City be Next?
North of the border a controversy is starting to gain steam in the nation’s largest city, Toronto. The city has proposed a by-law that would make ‘green roofs’ mandatory in new construction of condos higher than 7 storeys and office or retail complexes greater than 54,000 square feet (about 1/4 of a Wal-Mart Supercenter). The proposed law would require 30-60% of the surface area of buildings’ roofs to be green (depending on the size of the building) and violators would be subject to fines up to $100,000.
A green roof is partially or completely covered with vegetation and soil that has been planted over a waterproof layer on top of the standard roof of a building. The benefits of these roofs are many, including reduced storm water runoff, reduced noise pollution, and increased longevity of the roof by protecting it from natural elements.
Green roofs are also getting attention in this era of greenhouse gas mitigation because of their potential to reduce energy use. The layer of soil and vegetation above the traditional roof provides an additional layer of insulation that reduces cooling in the summer and heating in the winter. Green roofs also reduce the severity of the urban heat island, which is the increase of city temperatures by several degrees over surrounding rural areas. A reduction of the heat island effect means a cooler city and less energy used for air conditioning.
via Toronto Trying to Force Green Roofs – Could Your City be Next? : Red, Green, and Blue.
Want to Go Solar? Cut Your Energy Use First
Want to Go Solar? Cut Your Energy Use First
via Want to Go Solar? Cut Your Energy Use First | Intent.com.
Chemical-Sponsored Fishing Fest To Donate Contaminated Fish To The Poor
Chemical-Sponsored Fishing Fest To Donate Contaminated Fish To The Poor
Here’s an example of a face-saving charity move gone horribly, horribly wrong:
According to the Michigan Messenger, Dow Chemical is sponsoring Walleye Fest, in which locals are to catch fish in a river believed to be toxic enough to be on the federal Superfund. And what are they doing with the fish?
Donating them to the poor:
And just as the Michigan Department of Community Health is warning that children and pre-menopausal women should mostly avoid eating river fish including walleye because of contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxin, organizers of the festival say they plan to donate walleye fillets to a local food bank.
Not great for a company already not in good green standing.
The dioxin cleanup near the fishing competition’s location begins this Friday.
via Chemical-Sponsored Fishing Fest To Donate Contaminated Fish To The Poor.
A Food Revolution in the Making, from Victory Gardens to the White House Lawn
A Food Revolution in the Making, from Victory Gardens to the
White House Lawn
Last month, First Lady Michelle Obama broke ground for a new vegetable garden on the South lawn of the White House. It’s the first time food will be grown at the President’s residence since Eleanor Roosevelt planted her Victory Garden during World War II. Back then, as part of the war effort, the government rationed many foods and the shortage of labor and transportation fuel made it difficult for farmers to harvest and deliver fruits and vegetables to market. The First Lady’s Victory Garden set an example for the entire nation: they too could produce their own fruits and vegetables. Nearly 20 million Americans answered the call. They planted gardens in backyards, empty lots, and even on city rooftops. Neighbors pooled their resources, planted different types of produce, and formed cooperatives — all in the name of patriotism.
By the time the war ended, home gardeners were producing 40 percent of the United States’ produce. They aided the war effort by creating local food networks that provided much needed produce in their own communities, but their effect on the social fabric of the nation was greater still. Urban and suburban farmers were considered morale boosters who had found a great sense of empowerment through their own dedication to a common cause.
via Michael Pollan: A Food Revolution in the Making, from Victory Gardens to the White House Lawn.
Overthrowing the Corporate Government
Overthrowing the Corporate Government
How The People Can Regain Control Over Corporate Interests That Have Hijacked Congress
Unless voters take back control of Congress from the corporate interests that have, in essence, purchased it through campaign contributions, the United States may collapse under its debt load or worse. This doesn’t have to happen as there is a direct and specific thing Citizens can do. It boils down to one sentence: DON’T VOTE FOR ANY INCUMBENTS.
Here’s what you should do:
When you go to vote in congressional elections, carefully look over the candidates and any NEW names you see on the ballot, vote ONLY for them. If you’re not particular about parties, don’t worry about whether they’re Democrats or Republicans — just vote for anyone that’s NOT an incumbent. If you must vote your party, vote ONLY for the new guy. Don’t vote for ANYONE that’s already in office and trying to run again in your party.
Here’s how you can do this:
via OpEdNews » Overthrowing the Corporate Government.
Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?
Lester Brown: Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?
The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse.
Key Concepts
- Food scarcity and the resulting higher food prices are pushing poor countries into chaos.
- Such “failed states” can export disease, terrorism, illicit drugs, weapons and refugees.
- Water shortages, soil losses and rising temperatures from global warming are placing severe limits on food production.
- Without massive and rapid intervention to address these three environmental factors, the author argues, a series of government collapses could threaten the world order.
One of the toughest things for people to do is to anticipate sudden change. Typically we project the future by extrapolating from trends in the past. Much of the time this approach works well. But sometimes it fails spectacularly, and people are simply blindsided by events such as today’s economic crisis.
For most of us, the idea that civilization itself could disintegrate probably seems preposterous. Who would not find it hard to think seriously about such a complete departure from what we expect of ordinary life? What evidence could make us heed a warning so dire—and how would we go about responding to it? We are so inured to a long list of highly unlikely catastrophes that we are virtually programmed to dismiss them all with a wave of the hand: Sure, our civilization might devolve into chaos—and Earth might collide with an asteroid, too!
via OpEdNews » Lester Brown: Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization?.
Michael Ratner: Call for a Commission Would Wrongly Take the Pressure off the Push for Prosecutions
Michael Ratner: Call for a Commission Would Wrongly Take the Pressure off the Push for Prosecutions
Instead of human rights groups getting together and calling for a special prosecutor what do they do? Call for a commission. What this call does and it must be said strongly is take the pressure off what is the growing public push for prosecutions and deflects it into a commission. Outrage that could actually lead to prosecutions is now focused away and into a commission.
Today I awoke to read that a number of human rights type groups have called on President Obama to create a commission of accountability to investigate and report publicly on torture and the cruel and inhumane treatment of detainees. There is not a word in the petition about criminal prosecutions of the torture team. Yet, I know that some of these groups would say they still want prosecutions. Sadly, this call and a commission if set up, would almost guarantee that prosecutions won’t happen.
Briefly, here is why. We have reached a critical political moment on this issue. Obama has been forced or pushed to open the door to prosecutions, an opening I thought would take much longer to achieve. If there was ever a time to push that door open wider and demand a special prosecutor it is now. We have documented and open admissions of criminality. We have Cheney and Hayden admitting what they approved these techniques; and Cheney saying he would approve waterboarding again. We have the Senate Armed Services Report detailing how the torture program was authored and approved by our highest officials in the Whitehouse and employed in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan. And we have thousands of pages of proof. There is public outrage about the torture program and the media in the US and the world are covered with the US misdeeds.
Earth Day: No GMO Challenge Launches Today
Earth Day: No GMO Challenge Launches Today
PRESS RELEASE – (Los Angeles, CA.) This Earth Day, co-sponsors Real Food Media and the Institute for Responsible Technology urge consumers to take the No GMO Challenge to protect themselves from one of history’s greatest man-made health and environmental threats – genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The No GMO Challenge begins with a spring-inspired cupboard cleanout and a 30-day commitment to eating as many non-GMO meals as possible. Organizers of the No GMO Challenge hope U.S. shoppers will flex their considerable spending power during the No GMO Challenge to buy only non-GMO products, starting Earth Day. People who have already signed up for the No GMO Challenge include moms, farmers, chefs, scientists, physicists, biologists, home cooks, retailers and food writers who regularly blog about healthier foods.
via OpEdNews » Earth Day: No GMO Challenge Launches Today.
Pension Fund Scandal Expands: Rattner’s Ties To Bill Richardson
Pension Fund Scandal Expands: Rattner’s Ties To Bill Richardson
In journalistic shorthand, this story’s got legs.
The saga of Obama administration auto czar Steve Rattner and his possible involvement in a pay-to-play scheme involving New York’s massive pension funds just keeps expanding and provides a window into the extreme risks taken on Wall Street that led to the financial crisis.
Rattner’s investment firm, Quadrangle, also managed investments for pension funds in New Mexico, California and Pennsylvania.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched a probe of the conduct of so-called “placement agents,” who get fees for helping money managers land deals to handle the investments of New York state’s $122 billion state pension fund. Additionally, the New Mexico Attorney General’s office is closely tracking the role of Quadrangle and the use of such brokers in their own state, the Huffington Post has learned.
“We’re monitoring it at this point, keeping abreast of it, seeing if there are any reasons for us to get involved,” says a spokesman, adding that members of the office have been in touch with Cuomo’s office in New York.
In both states, indicted broker Hank Morris played a role in helping Quadrangle land deals to help manage the pension funds’ billions.
via Pension Fund Scandal Expands: Rattner’s Ties To Bill Richardson.
Hannity Offers To Be Waterboarded For Charity (By Charles Grodin!)
Hannity Offers To Be Waterboarded For Charity (By Charles Grodin!)
Oh, well. This is, I believe, a “golden moment” in the history of televised media. Sean Hannity had actor Charles Grodin on his show tonight, and the two men actually had some genuinely good natured sparring with each other over the news of the week. Hannity asked Grodin if he’d ever accept a book from Hugo Chavez or listen to a speech by a “brutal thug murdering dictator like Daniel Ortega.” Grodin’s respective ripostes were “I’d hand him my book!” and “I’d listen to anybody. I’m listening to you.” Grodin then went on to ask Hannity if he was wearing mascara and if he had any plans to marry Ann Coulter. But that’s not the fun part! This is the fun part:
GRODIN: You’re for torture.
HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation.
GRODIN: You don’t believe it’s torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?
HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has.
GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard
via Hannity Offers To Be Waterboarded For Charity (By Charles Grodin!).
China uses global crisis to assert its influence
China uses global crisis to assert its influence
Along with aid to other nations, Beijing offers up criticism of the West
BEIJING – With Jamaica’s currency in free fall, unemployment soaring and banks heavily exposed to government debt, the Caribbean island’s diplomats went into crisis mode earlier this year. They traveled to all corners of the world to seek help.
Jamaica’s traditional allies, the United States and Britain, were preoccupied with their own financial problems, but a new friend jumped at the opportunity to come to the rescue: China.
When contracts for loan packages totaling $138 million were signed between the two countries in March, China became Jamaica’s biggest financial partner. Headlines in Jamaica’s leading newspapers, which only a year ago were filled with concern about China’s growing influence in the region, gushed about its generosity.
via In crisis, China asserts influence – Washington Post- msnbc.com.
Roubini: End of economic gloom?
End of economic gloom? - Nouriel Roubini
Mild signs that the rate of economic contraction is slowing in the United States, China and other parts of the world have led many economists to forecast that positive growth will return to the US in the second half of the year, and that a similar recovery will occur in other advanced economies.
The emerging consensus among economists is that growth next year will be close to the trend rate of 2.5 per cent.
Investors are talking of ‘green shoots’ of recovery and of positive ‘second derivatives of economic activity’ (continuing economic contraction is the first, negative, derivative, but the slower rate suggests that the bottom is near).
As a result, stock markets have started to rally in the US and around the world. Markets seem to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel for the economy and for the battered profits of corporations and financial firms.
This consensus optimism is, I believe, not supported by the facts. Indeed, I expect that while the rate of US contraction will slow from -6 per cent in the last two quarters, US growth will still be negative (around -1.5 to -2 per cent) in the second half of the year (compared to the bullish consensus of +2 per cent).
Moreover, growth next year will be so weak (0.5 to 1 per cent, as opposed to the consensus of 2 per cent or more) and unemployment so high (above 10 per cent) that it will still feel like a recession.
In the euro zone and Japan, the outlook for 2009 and 2010 is even worse, with growth close to zero even next year. China will have a more rapid recovery later this year, but growth will reach only 5 per cent this year and 7 per cent in 2010, well below the average of 10 per cent over the last decade.
Given this weak outlook for the major economies, losses by banks and other financial institutions will continue to grow. My latest estimates are $3.6 trillion in losses for loans and securities issued by US institutions, and $1 trillion for the rest of the world.
via RGE – Nouriel Roubini’s Global EconoMonitor.
Stock market bulls have got it wrong, warns Nouriel Roubini
Stock market bulls have got it wrong, warns Nouriel Roubini
Nouriel Roubini, the so-called “arch bear” economist who predicted the current financial crisis in 2006, added further gloom yesterday after he wrote off recent rises in global stock markets as no more than a dead cat bounce.
While an increasing number of analysts have in recent weeks urged investors to go back into equities, Mr Roubini, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business who has emerged as one of the most respected economic voices in the wake of the credit crunch, warned yesterday that he didn’t yet see a buying opportunity.
He holds little faith in the recent market rallies, which prompted some to suggest a recovery was underway. “I’m still cautious and bearish,” he said. “I believe we are closer to a bottom in the stock market than a year ago, but this is a bear market rally.”
Anthony Bolton, fund manager at Fidelity International, said last month that a bull phase had started, while analysts at Goldman Sachs have argued in recent weeks that “we are past the low point in the economic cycle”.
However, Mr Roubini, dubbed “Dr Doom” for his warnings about financial meltdown, said there would be more bad news in the next few quarters.
In particular, the economist warned of further dangers ahead for the financial services industry in the US. “I see financial shocks in the months ahead. Some financial institutions are in so much trouble we may have to take them over,” he said, before adding that losses in the industry could rise from $1 trillion to as high as $3.6 trillion.
Firms from across financial services will go out of business or be taken over, he said, particularly focusing on the bleak future for hedge funds.
Mr Roubini also disagrees with more optimistic forecasts for the US economy. In an interview published on Forbes.com yesterday, he said that the prediction of a 2 per cent growth rate next year was far too bullish. He called it at somewhere around 1 per cent. “So while we are going to be technically out of a recession, it is going to feel like a recession,” he added.
via Stock market bulls have got it wrong, warns Nouriel Roubini.
Torture, Iraq and 9/11
Torture, Iraq and 9/11
5 hours after the 9/11 attacks, Rumsfeld said “my interest is to hit Saddam”.
5 hours after the 9/11 attacks, Donald Rumsfeld said “my interest is to hit Saddam”.
He also said “Go massive . . . Sweep it all up. Things related and not.”
And at 2:40 p.m. on September 11th, in a memorandum of discussions between top administration officials, several lines below the statement “judge whether good enough [to] hit S.H. [that is, Saddam Hussein] at same time”, is the statement “Hard to get a good case.” In other words, top officials knew that there wasn’t a good case that Hussein was behind 9/11, but they wanted to use the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to justify war with Iraq anyway.
And yet, the government knew that Al Qaeda and Iraq were not linked. For example, “Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the [9/11] attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda”.
And a Defense Intelligence Terrorism Summary issued in February 2002 by the United States Defense Intelligence Agency cast significant doubt on the possibility of a Saddam Hussein-al-Qaeda conspiracy.
And yet Bush, Cheney and other top administration officials claimed and continue to claim that Saddam was behind 9/11. See this analysis. Indeed, Bush administration officials apparently swore in a lawsuit that Saddam was behind 9/11.
A Meditation on Our Monetary System: State of Permanent Siege
A Meditation on Our Monetary System: State of Permanent Siege
by Richard Cook
THE LEVEL OF PUBLIC IGNORANCE on the topic of the U.S. and world monetary system is astonishing. This is part of the plan, of course, because the monetary elite control not only the financial system but also the news media, the publishing industry, and the educational system. The blueprint for control was put together over a century ago by Cecil Rhodes and his friends, including British financier Nathan Rothschild, as documented by Professor Carroll Quigley.
During the 20th Century the power shifted to the U.S., with the Rockefellers playing the dominant role as they continue to do today. It is no accident that J.P. Morgan Chase—the Rockefeller family bank—dominates the U.S. derivatives market; nor that Exxon-Mobil, the Rockefellers’ oil company, is the most profitable corporation in history.
The basic plan was to place all of mankind in a state of permanent mental and emotional siege so that in the end we would trade all our liberties to the controllers in return for protection; even freedom of thought would be traded for physical safety. That plan is well advanced. The sheeple have been prepared for the final shearing.
Meanwhile, every attempt at real reform has been strangled in the cradle. Past voices for monetary sanity like those of Congressmen Louis McFadden and Jerry Voorhis were silenced. Starting in the 1970s, functionaries like Kissinger, Brzezinski, and Volcker carried out David Rockefeller’s plan to outsource manufacturing to China and eliminate the U.S. as the world’s greatest industrial democracy, replacing it with a financier oligarchy.
Barack Obama obviously works mainly for the financiers, as did Bill Clinton before him. The job of the Democrats is to keep the sheeple quiet by now and then implementing some “reforms”; the Republicans were a more blatant gang of looters.
During the 2008 election campaign, Ron Paul called for the end of the Federal Reserve, the bastion of financier control, but no one effectively organized the millions of people who responded to his call or had a viable plan to put in place. Barack Obama obviously works mainly for the financiers, as did Bill Clinton before him. The job of the Democrats is to keep the sheeple quiet by now and then implementing some “reforms”; the Republicans were a more blatant gang of looters.
via A Meditation on Our Monetary System: State of Permanent Siege.
Crisis as a Means to Building a Global Totalitarian State
Crisis as a Means to Building a Global Totalitarian State
As the world financial and economic crisis comes into its own, the Western political leaders and elites are seeking to impress on mankind the idea that this upheaval will end up ‘turning the world into something different’.
Even though the picture of the ‘new world order’ remains vague and fuzzy, the main idea is quite clear: A single global government, goes the argument, has to be established if we don’t want general chaos to prevail.
Every now and again, Western politicians mention the need for a ‘new world order’, a ‘new world financial architecture’, or some kind of ‘supranational control’, calling it a ‘New Deal’ for the world. Nicolas Sarkozy was the first to say so, while addressing the UN General Assembly in September 2007 (that is, before the crisis).
During the February 2009 meeting in Berlin convened to prepare the G20 summit, this was echoed by Gordon Brown, who said that a worldwide New Deal was needed. We are conscious, he added, that where the world financial flows were concerned, we would not be able to emerge from this situation with the help of purely national authorities alone. We need the authorities and world watchdogs to make the activities of financial institutions operating in the world markets totally open to us. Both Sarkozy and Brown are protégés of the Rothschilds. Statements made by certain representatives of ‘the global elite’ indicate that the current crisis is being used as a mechanism for provoking some deepening social upheavals that would make mankind – plunged as it is already into chaos and frightened by the ghost of an all-out violence – urge of its own free will that a ‘supranational’ arbitrator with dictatorial powers intervene into the world affairs.
The events are following the same path as the Great Depression in 1929-1933: a financial crisis, an economic recession, social conflicts, establishing totalitarian dictatorships, inciting a war to concentrate power, and capital in the hands of a narrow circle. This time, however, the case in point is the final stage in the ‘global control’ strategy, where a decisive blow should be dealt to the national state sovereignty institution, followed by a transition to a system of private power of transnational elites.
via Crisis as a Means to Building a Global Totalitarian State.
Reid declines to support independent ‘truth commission’ to investigate torture.
Reid declines to support independent ‘truth commission’ to investigate torture.
Despite President Obama’s recent
comments indicating that he would accept a bipartisan congressional “truth commission” to investigate the Bush administration’s use of torture, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is not quite ready to move forward with such a proposal. The Las Vegas Sun reports that Reid “declined to call for an independent commission” yesterday:
“I believe what we have to do is wait until the Intelligence Committee finishes its work,” Reid told the Las Vegas Sun.
Reid said Feinstein’s committee has subpoena power and can conduct closed hearings that he believes can produce results.
“The next step in my mind is to let her complete her work, because she can get to it a lot easier than anyone else,” Reid said. “That’s what we have to do.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has endorsed the idea of a truth commission.
via Think Progress » Reid declines to support independent ‘truth commission’ to investigate torture..
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Republicans Don't Care about Voter Fraud....owa Republicans are trying to dismiss claims that the vote count in Tuesday's Iowa Caucus was wrong. An Iowa voter told a local TV station yesterday that he noticed a 20-vote discrepancy in the count - and that Rick Santorum was the real winner of the Caucuses. Republican Party officials, though, are sticking to their first count - showing Mitt Romney as the winner by 8-votes - and there will be no recount.The Republican Party has launched a war on voters around the nation this year with strict new laws that will disenfranchise over 5 million Americans. They claim these laws are necessary to combat so-called voter fraud. Yet in Iowa - where there are no such laws - and where a very, very close and questionable election was just held - Republicans don't seem to care at all about getting it right.Clearly - the war on voters isn't about making sure the people's voices are represented accurately - it's about making sure poor people, young people, and minorities who tend to vote for Democrats - can't vote at all.-Thom(Who do you think won? Tell us here.) -
LEGALIZE Democracy
" We the corporations" On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. __________
MOVE to AMEND
a project of the CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE Democracy
Help end Corporate personhood
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
