HartmannWatchWatch

Omama, Please Bolt On a Pair Of Truck Nuts!

2010-07-20T23:40:00.001-04:00

Is agriculture a key component of commerce?

Is interfering with commerce an act of terrorism?

could racism be used as an aggravating factor in a terrorism charge?

Obama needs to bolt on a pair of truck nuts and make a statement first thing in the morning saying just two simple things that can not be taken out of context

Shirley Sherrod is reinstated at her job. It is a result of realizing information was
from tainted sources.

MI Man Credited with 50-Star Flag Dies in Saginaw

2009-12-14T16:33:00.000-05:00

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — Robert G. Heft, who is credited with designing and sewing America's first 50-star flag, has died. He was 67.

Editor & Publisher closing after 108 years

2009-12-10T20:18:00.000-05:00

By ANDREW VANACORE (AP) – 6 hours ago

NEW YORK — The Nielsen Co. is selling some of its most prominent trade journals — including The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard — and shutting down Editor & Publisher, which has chronicled the newspaper business for 108 years.

In all, Nielsen is selling eight titles to e5 Global Media LLC, a new company formed by private equity firm Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, a financial services company. James Finkelstein, who founded Pluribus this year with George Green and Matthew Doull, will serve as e5's chairman.

Thursday's closure of E&P "was a shock," said its editor, Greg Mitchell. "We knew that something big was happening but we didn't think the aftermath was that we wouldn't be sold and it would be folded."

Mitchell said Editor & Publisher appeared to have turned things around after struggling at the beginning of the decade. The magazine switched to a monthly format from weekly in 2003 and heightened its focus on the Web.

Nielsen said both the print and online operation will shut down immediately. But Mitchell hopes Editor & Publisher will return in another form.

"I would hope because of our special history and our role as a watchdog in journalism that it would be more likely in this case that there will be someone that's going to say, `Hey, we're not going to let this die.'"

Along with Editor & Publisher, Nielsen is also shuttering the book review title Kirkus Reviews. The two publications have 18 employees combined. Nielsen would not reveal details about the financial performance of E&P or Kirkus.

Spokesman Gary Holmes said Nielsen is still reviewing its properties to make sure the company is focused on businesses with "the highest potential for growth." Nielsen is keeping a handful of other media properties, including Contract Magazine and Progressive Grocer.

Lachlan Murdoch, 38, the eldest son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, was expected to be among the buyers of the Nielsen publications, but he was not part of the deal, according to two people familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. A message left early Friday with Murdoch's investment firm in Australia was not immediately returned.

AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Vancouver's Olympic Paranoia Explained

2009-12-08T02:00:00.001-05:00

The Vancouver Observer -
Lalo Espejo

Posted: Dec 3rd, 2009

Now that Canada's border services agency has put Vancouver's Olympic Paranoia on the radar across Canada and to our neighbors to the south, thanks to their treatment of journalist Amy Goodman, it's probably a good time to try to explain a few things, such as why Vancouver and British Columbia are acting as paranoid as the high school pot-head trying to avoid the vice principal after a BC bud and hash brownie lunch.

To recap, Ms. Goodman was held up at the border because she was giving some talks in Vancouver and Victoria about Afghanistan, Iraq, health care, and a few other topics that could be grouped under the heading “Not the Olympics.” But the only thing the border guards were concerned with was if she was planning on talking about the 2010 winter games. She was incredulous that they were incredulous that she didn't plan on talking about it. It was a veritable vertigo of incredulity.

The comment sections on sites carrying the story were filled with people wondering, in the manner of comedians everywhere, What's the deal with Vancouver and the Olympics? Well, here's the deal: We Canadians are a sensitive peoples. So when we offer to host the Olympics and pass city by-laws restricting basic rights in order to satisfy corporate sponsors, our feelings get hurt when these actions are misconstrued as sinister by dirty hippies.

You see, when it comes to citizens' rights during the Olympics, the government treats them the way I treat a red light at 4 am on empty streets – as merely a suggestion. Granted, restricting rights and falling prostrate to the Olympic overlords may seem like conduct unbecoming of a first world country and wannabe-world-class city, but hey, we're nothing if not polite, and we want to make the IOC happy – hence the internal conflict. We can't stand the idea of people not liking us.

When the Beijing Olympics announced that there would be “free speech zones” far away from any venues, there was an international outcry against that move. Now, Vancouver is planning to do the same thing, without the attendant dictator to say, “Whaddaya gonna do about it?” The governments' only recourse is to try to convince us it's for our own safety, of which it is eminently concerned. Don't believe them? Their feelings get hurt. I mean, what's wrong with calling for celebratory-signs-only near sports venues? Okay, then. So, no to “Free Tibet”, but yes to “HOORAY! I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT FREEING TIBET!”

Now, due to public pressure, and the BC Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit, the city is reconsidering the language in the by-law.

But still, negative press started building, and the city and the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) tried to play it all down (It reminds me of a line from The Flintstones. Barney: Hi Betty what makes you think there's a body in the trunk?).

Then, the Vancouver police buy some military grade hardware (the LRAD), originally developed to combat pirates, as a public address system. It's main use is usually to emit ear-splitting noise, perfect for use in Fallujah and dispersing protesters, which is what it was used for at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh recently. Some people find it hard to believe it wouldn't be used in this manner, and the VPD public relations department resents having to work so hard to convince us otherwise.

And, of course, there's that other perennial problem for the Olympics – what to do with the homeless? British Columbia has a terrible record on dealing with the issue, but, just in time for the Olympics, it passes the Assistance to Shelter Act. Against our own Charter of Rights, it would allow police to sweep up the homeless and deliver them to shelters against their will. No shelter provider in Vancouver thinks this is a good idea.

Shelters are overcrowded and some people don't like to be packed in like that unless it's a four-man bobsled, preferring to bundle up and sleep outside. Actually, they prefer adequate housing, and a crammed shelter doesn't qualify. “I consider it to be a draconian piece of legislation, which I hope will receive...a court challenge,” said Miloon Kothari, the former United Nations special rapporteur on adequate housing.

And so the paragon of virtue becomes a parvenu with a retinue of goons, and that's bad optics.

So, yeah, authorities are smarting a little from having their good intentions misinterpreted. They're terrified of protests and they don’t want to see any embarrassment for the different levels of government; they don’t want to see it on the national or international news.

You have to understand, this paranoia is a particularly acute Canadian problem. I get the feeling that China didn't give a rat's ass what anybody thought about its “free speech” zones. And when the Americans host the Olympics, well, what?—you gonna tell the Americans what to do? Didn't think so. They will not go gently into that fortnight.

And then there's Maude, er, I mean Canada. We care deeply about what people think about us. “Does France think I'm fat? What does Holland think about my bong policy? Does hiking up my skirt to the Olympic Franchise make me look cheap?”

Most Vancouverites know that people are being hurt by the Olympics, but they choose to disavow this knowledge in favour of the Olympics....”I know what I see on the streets before my eyes, but I pretend otherwise, because the authorities tell me that the Olympics are a good thing...”

In psychoanalysis, this 'disavowal' of the real has the structure of psychosis, and man, does that ever make some people PARANOID. And that makes us feel like the Amy Goodman's of the world are out to get us. Not gonna happen. People will like us. Must make people like us. Please like us.

Gitmo ’suicide’ trio had rags stuffed down throats: report

2009-12-07T16:34:00.003-05:00

Raw Story

By Daniel Tencer

Monday, December 7th, 2009 -- 1:55 pm

snip

On the night of June 9, 2006, three detainees at Guantanamo's Camp Delta were found hanged in their cells. The US military initially described their deaths as "asymmetrical warfare" against the United States, before finally declaring that the deaths were suicides that the inmates coordinated among themselves.

The Seton Hall report questions virtually every major element of the Pentagon's story, and suggests a cover-up of the events of that night. But, lacking a clear picture of what happened, the report has nothing to offer as to what it was that was covered up.

The report's description of the military investigation into the matter suggests a less-than-exhaustive review:

GOPers want Franken to defend them in opposing anti-rape amendment

2009-12-03T01:38:00.002-05:00

Raw Story

By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 -- 9:20 pm

Some Republican senators are taking heat for voting against an amendment that would allow employees of military contractors to sue their employers if they are raped at work -- and they want the Democratic senator who wrote the amendment to help them fight off the bad publicity.

Below is the list of thirty legislators who were brave enough to stand up in defense of rape and vote against Senator Al Franken's anti-rape amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill. We applaud these courageous men! Roll over the portraits with your mouse to see the Senator's phone number, or click on a portrait to visit the Senator's contact page. We encourage you to send your kind words to these gentlemen!

Stone Age Stoners?

2008-10-19T21:58:00.001-04:00

Stone Age man took drugs, say scientists
Scientists have discovered evidence suggesting Stone Age man used herbal mixtures to get high.

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones
Last Updated: 12:50AM BST 19 Oct 2008

It has long been suspected that humans have an ancient history of drug use, but there has been a lack of proof to support the theory.

Now, however, researchers have found equipment used to prepare hallucinogenic drugs for sniffing, and dated them back to prehistoric South American tribes.

Quetta Kaye, of University College London, and Scott Fitzpatrick, an archeologist from North Carolina State University, made the breakthrough on the Caribbean island of Carriacou.

They found ceramic bowls, as well as tubes for inhaling drug fumes or powders, which appear to have originated in South America between 100BC and 400BC and were then carried 400 miles to the islands.

While the use of such paraphernalia for inhaling drugs is well-known, the age of the bowls has thrown new light on how long humans have been taking drugs.

Scientists believe that the drug being used was cohoba, a hallucinogen made from the beans of a mimosa species. Drugs such as cannabis were not found in the Caribbean then.

Opiates can be obtained from species such as poppies, while fungi, which was widespread, may also have been used.

Archeologists have suggested that humans were extracting mind-expanding drugs from mescal beans and peyote cacti as far back as 5,000 years ago, but have not found direct evidence that this is true.

They consider that drugs were being used to induce spiritual or trance-like states by people who had religious beliefs.

GOP voter registration fraud case leads to arrest

2008-10-19T20:16:00.000-04:00

Mark Jacoby, who was arrested in Ontario and owns a firm hired by the California Republican Party, violated state registration laws, authorities say.

By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

2:38 PM PDT, October 19, 2008

SACRAMENTO -- The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario late last night on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California.

Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department comes after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by his firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM. The voters said YPM tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP.

Several agencies had launched investigations into Jacoby's activities, including the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which issued the warrant for his arrest earlier this month on felony charges of voter registration fraud and perjury.

Efforts to reach Jacoby were unsuccessful.

2008-10-18T20:08:00.001-04:00

RawStory

Turley: 'GOP challenges look like suppression'David Edwards and Andrew McLemore

Published: Saturday October 18, 2008

The McCain campaign's allegations of voter fraud "look like" an attempt to suppress voting in battleground states, said a professor of George Washington University.

Professor Jonathan Turley said there is an "uncanny similarity in term of timing," drawing a comparison with voting scandals shortly before the previous two presidential elections.

"I think it is fair to say that some of these challenges do look like suppression efforts," Turley said in an interview on MSNBC. "So I think there is really grounds to be concerned here."

"Ace McCain" versus John "Wet Start" McCain

2008-08-19T19:06:00.002-04:00

Currently he claims
"As soon as they found out my dad was an Admiral.. they offered me
early release"

But in his 1973 interview they didnt offer release until Months or
YEARS after his capture. (Either his dates are wrong or he wasnt in
solitary confinement for 2 years before offering him release) He
claims in the interview they refused medical treatment until they
learned of his dad. THEN gave him treatment

Or was it a lie when he claims in the article that he was in solitary
confinement for 2 years before being offered release??

Which lies are lies and which lies are true?

full personal account from 1973 in USNews and World Report

Notice in the same account he mentions Christmas 5 times but NEVER the Cross in the Sand!!!!

"GULF WAR SYNDROME AND ANTHRAX."

2008-08-07T16:04:00.001-04:00

RAW STORY

Rove said Gulf War Syndrome, vaccine political stumbling block

The Department of Defense continued its controversial mandatory anthrax vaccinations program despite high ranking Bush administration officials acknowledging there were problems with the vaccine within months of the Bush administration taking office—well before the 9/11 attacks and the October 2001 anthrax letters.

Internet Archiver Served Secret National Security Letter. Response? .. CRAM IT!!!

2008-07-19T14:27:00.006-04:00

Buried deep in section D1 of the Washington Post is a report that Brewster Kahle of Archive.org, served with secret national security letter tells the FBI to shove it. With the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU, not only was it crammed but brought back into the sunlight after Judge lifts the gag order contained in the letters. This makes a whopping 3 known cases where the gag has been lifted.

Greenhorn Police Chief in Flint, Michigan Takes it Upon Himself to CREATE LAW to Enforce

2008-07-19T00:59:00.001-04:00

According to this Newsweek article, the newbie Police Chief of Flint, Michigan has his panties all in a bunch over "sagging", and seems to have decided to take the law into his own hands. Chief David Dicks has ordered his officers to arrest "offenders". In the opinion of this blogger, "sagging" is a form of expression, regardless of how laughable it is to see someones drawers hanging half off of their (_|_) butt. the ACLU is stepping in to protect our freedoms of expression, but willl they also protect us from the police from creating their own laws??

Haggard has left 'restoration program'

2008-06-23T00:52:00.003-04:00

By COLLEEN SLEVIN – 3 hours ago

DENVER (AP) — The evangelist forced out of his job after being caught up in a sex scandal involving a male prostitute has left a "spiritual restoration program" and no longer has any ties to the megachurch he founded, the congregation's new pastor said Sunday.

Article Reposted Here

North Korea 'launches missile into Sea of Japan'

2006-07-04T17:39:00.000-04:00

BreakingNews.ie:
04/07/2006 - 22:08:32

North Korea test launched a missile early Wednesday morning that landed in the Sea of Japan, it was reported today.

North Korea launched the missile at 3.32am Japan Time (7.32pm Irish time) and it crashed into the Sea of Japan several minutes later, public broadcaster NHK reported.

NHK said Japanese government officials were trying to determine whether the missile was a long-range ballistic missile that had been readied for launch recently, or whether it was a different missile.

North Korea had been believed to be preparing a test launch of its Taepodong 2 missile, which is believed able to reach parts of the US.

Special unit that hunted for bin Laden is closed down

2006-07-04T10:56:00.000-04:00

Tampa Bay's 10

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA says efforts to hunt down Osama bin Laden are as strong as ever, despite a report that the agency has shut down a unit that hunted for the al-Qaida leader and his top lieutenants.

The New York Times reports two dozen analysts in the unit were re-assigned to other counter-terrorism duties late last year.

Officials tell the newspaper the move came amid growing concern in the agency about al-Qaida-inspired groups carrying out attacks independent of bin Laden. But officials stress that finding the elusive terror leader remains a high priority.

The recent book “Ghost Wars” says some in the C-I-A were uncomfortable with the unit, saying its zeal for capturing bin Laden took on a cult-like atmosphere.

A former senior C-I-A official who once headed the unit tells the Times that the move reflects the view that bin Laden is no longer the threat he once was. But he says that view is mistaken.

House Judiciary Comittee Demands NSA Wiretapping Records

2006-06-21T20:41:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! News: Wed Jun 21, 12:35 PM ET

The resolution, which passed on a voice vote, must be approved by the full House of Representatives before it is sent to the Bush administration. However, the administration would not be required to comply because a resolution does not carry the force of law.

But it is a step by House lawmakers to investigate a USA Today report that telephone companies turned over millions of call records without a court warrant to the National Security Agency to help track terrorist plots.

The Bush administration has not confirmed the report, which if true would indicate that a controversial program that monitors international phone calls without a warrant is much broader than previously known.

The measure, introduced by Florida Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler (news, bio, voting record), would direct President Bush and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to turn over all documents related to the program. The committee rejected another proposal that would have asked for information about an aborted internal Justice Department investigation of the program.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is also pressing for more details of the program and is trying to get Gonzales to testify about it at a hearing.

Separate from congressional action, some 20 class action lawsuits have been filed against Verizon Communications, AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp about the call records. Five other lawsuits are pending against the Justice Department related to the surveillance program.

On Monday, the Justice Department asked a court to consolidate all of the lawsuits into a single proceeding in the Washington, D.C. federal court.

Internet Ad Seeks Temp Workers to Privately Shuttle Hackable Voting Machines for California's Upcoming Primary Elections

2006-05-26T20:37:00.000-04:00

THE BRAD BLOG:

Electronic Machines, Shown Vulnerable to Easy Tampering -- Yet Said by State Officials to Be Physically Protected Under New Guidelines -- Now Available for Easy Access to Temp Workers!

Rationalizations from Diebold Company Apologists Appearing Sillier by the Day...

Pretty Good Privacy

2006-05-26T18:36:00.000-04:00

Phil Zimmermann's Home Page:

Creator of PGP

Background

Philip R. Zimmermann is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy, an email encryption software package. Originally designed as a human rights tool, PGP was published for free on the Internet in 1991. This made Zimmermann the target of a three-year criminal investigation, because the government held that US export restrictions for cryptographic software were violated when PGP spread worldwide. Despite the lack of funding, the lack of any paid staff, the lack of a company to stand behind it, and despite government persecution, PGP nonetheless became the most widely used email encryption software in the world. After the government dropped its case in early 1996, Zimmermann founded PGP Inc. That company was acquired by Network Associates Inc (NAI) in December 1997, where he stayed on for three years as Senior Fellow. In August 2002 PGP was acquired from NAI by a new company called PGP Corporation, where Zimmermann now serves as special advisor and consultant. Zimmermann currently is consulting for a number of companies and industry organizations on matters cryptographic, and is also a Fellow at the Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society.

Before founding PGP Inc, Zimmermann was a software engineer with more than 20 years of experience, specializing in cryptography and data security, data communications, and real-time embedded systems. His interest in the political side of cryptography grew out of his background in military policy issues.

Zimmermann has received numerous technical and humanitarian awards for his pioneering work in cryptography. In 2003 he was included on the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum Wall of Fame, and in 2001 he was inducted into the CRN Industry Hall of Fame. In 2000 InfoWorld named him one of the Top 10 Innovators in E-business. In 1999 he received the Louis Brandeis Award from Privacy International, in 1998 a Lifetime Achievement Award from Secure Computing Magazine, and in 1996 the Norbert Wiener Award from Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility for promoting the responsible use of technology. He also received the 1995 Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, the 1995 Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the 1996 PC Week IT Excellence Award, and the 1996 Network Computing Well-Connected Award for "Best Security Product." PGP was selected by Information Week as one of the Top 10 Most Important Products of 1994. In 1995 Newsweek named Zimmermann one of the "Net 50", the 50 most influential people on the Internet.

In addition to the awards for versions of PGP developed before Zimmermann started a company, subsequent versions of PGP as refined by the company's engineering team continue to be recognized each year with many more industry awards.

Zimmermann received his bachelor's degree in computer science from Florida Atlantic University in 1978. He is a member of the International Association of Cryptologic Research, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the League for Programming Freedom. He serves on the Roundtable on Scientific Communication and National Security, a collaborative project of The National Academies and The Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is Chairman of the OpenPGP Alliance, serves on the Board of Directors for Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and is on the Advisory Boards for Santa Clara University's Computer Engineering Department, Anonymizer.com, Hush Communications, Encentuate, and Qualys.

Zimmermann can be reached by email at prz at mit dot edu, or by phone by clicking here.

Eavesdropping, Gagging, And the Constitution

2006-05-26T16:23:00.000-04:00

By Ray McGovern:

24 May 2006
Is the National Security Agency being "turned against the people," as the Congressional committee led by Sen. Frank Church warned might happen? We the people cannot know; it's classified.

BAGHDAD ER: View Online

2006-05-26T16:16:00.000-04:00

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article13192.htm
BAGHDAD ER is an emotional, devastating and honest account of modern-day war.
12-time Emmy® Award winner producer/director Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill capture the humanity, hardships and heroism of the US Military and medical personnel of the 86th Combat Support Hospital, the Army's premier medical facility in Iraq. Sometimes graphic in its depiction of combat-related wounds, BAGHDAD ER offers an unflinching and honest account of the realities of war.

8th General Calls For Rumsfeld's Resignation

2006-04-24T15:59:00.000-04:00

Think Progress

Fox News is reporting an eighth general has called for Rumsfeld’s resignation. Ret. Marine General Paul Van Riper said he constantly talks with many active duty and retired senior officers who share his feelings that Secretary Rumsfeld has not fought the Iraq war competently. He told Fox that Rumsfeld has run the Pentagon through intimidation and that a change in leadership is needed:

If this leader is not capable of doing it, now going in excess of five years, has not demonstrated he is, then perhaps it is time to find a new one. If I was the president, I would have relieved him three years ago.

WHITE PANTHER 10 POINT PROGRAM

2006-04-24T15:00:00.000-04:00

forleniwpppage
Sinclair co-founded the White Panther Party with Pun Plamondon in November 1968. He first served as the Party's Minister of Information and edited the White Panther journal Sun/Dance; he was later named Chairman of the WPP.

Transcription of the White Panther Party Ten-Point Program. This transcription preserves the spelling, punctuation, and word choice of the original document. Explanatory text not from the original document is bracketed.

Abramoff - Phone Jamming connection?

2006-04-24T14:37:00.000-04:00

Bloomberg.com: U.S.: "``The calls to the White House and the relationship with White House staff are a real eye-opener and should be a cause for concern on all fronts,'' said Sheila Krumholz, acting executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington- based research group. ``It calls into question who the person was on the end of that telephone line.''

Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts wrote U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on April 20 seeking information on any links Abramoff or the White House may have had to the phone-jamming scheme. "

Pun Plamondon Interview

2006-04-24T00:47:00.000-04:00

Internet Archive:

60's radical, Pun Plamondon, is interviewed by writer, Dylan Hock on his adventurous past and current role as tribal elder and storyteller.

Author: Dylan Hock & Pun Plamondon
Keywords: interview

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

Whole Item	Format	Size
DylanHockPunPlamondon_0_64kb.m3u	64Kbps M3U	Stream
DylanHockPunPlamondon_0_vbr.m3u	VBR M3U	Stream

Audio Files	VBR MP3	Ogg Vorbis	64Kbps MP3
Pun_Plamondon_Interview.mp3	63.5M	53.6M	31.7M

Other Files
DylanHockPunPlamondon_0_files.xml	2.8K
DylanHockPunPlamondon_0_meta.xml	1.7K
DylanHockPunPlamondon_0_reviews.xml	187.0B

Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell

2006-04-23T23:58:00.000-04:00

Utilizing a little known rule of the US House to bring Impeachment charges

by Steve n Leser

http://www.opednews.com

The Illinois General Assembly is about to rock the nation. Members of state legislatures are normally not considered as having the ability to decide issues with a massive impact to the nation as a whole. Representative Karen A. Yarbrough of Illinois' 7th District is about to shatter that perception forever. Representative Yarbrough stumbled on a little known and never utlitized rule of the US House of Representatives, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. From there, Illinois House Joint Resolution 125 (hereafter to be referred to as HJR0125) was born.

Detailing five specific charges against President Bush including one that is specified to be a felony, the complete text of HJR0125 is copied below at the end of this article. One of the interesting points is that one of the items, the one specified as a felony, that the NSA was directed by the President to spy on American citizens without warrant, is not in dispute. That fact should prove an interesting dilemma for a Republican controlled US House that clearly is not only loathe to initiate impeachment proceedings, but does not even want to thoroughly investigate any of the five items brought up by the Illinois Assembly as high crimes and/or misdemeanors. Should HJR0125 be passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the US House will be forced by House Rules to take up the issue of impeachment as a privileged bill, meaning it will take precedence over other House business.

The Illinois General Assembly joins a growing chorus of voices calling for censure or impeachment of President Bush including Democratic state committees in Vermont, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada and North Carolina as well as the residents themselves of seven towns in Vermont, seventy Vermont state legislators and Congressman John Conyers. The call for impeachment is starting to grow well beyond what could be considered a fringe movement. An ABC News/Washington Post Poll Conducted April 6-9 showed that 33% of Americans currently support Impeaching President Bush, coincidentally, only a similar amount supported impeaching Nixon at the start of the Watergate investigation. If and when Illinois HJR0125 hits the capitol and the individual charges are publicly investigated, that number is likely to grow rapidly. Combined with the very real likelihood that Rove is about to be indicted in the LeakGate investigation, and Bush is in real trouble beyond his plummeting poll numbers. His cronies in the Republican dominated congress will probably save him from the embarassment of an impeachment conviction, for now, but his Presidency will be all but finished.

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

HJ0125 LRB094 20306 RLC 58347 r

1 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION

2 WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of
3 the United States House of Representatives allows federal
4 impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of
5 a state legislature; and

6 WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering
7 the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 1978
8 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically
9 authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without
10 warrant; and

11 WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized
12 violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions,
13 a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States
14 Constitution; and

15 WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American
16 citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war
17 without charge or trial; and

18 WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration
19 has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a
20 war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the
21 deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the
22 United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and
23 billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and

24 WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified
25 national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an
26 unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential
27 harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to
28 investigate the matter; and

29 WHEREAS, The Republican-controlled Congress has declined

HJ0125 - 2 - LRB094 20306 RLC 58347 r

1 to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore, be it

2 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
3 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
4 SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the
5 State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S.
6 House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President
7 of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office
8 to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
9 States; and be it further

10 RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the
11 charges contained herein, should be removed from office and
12 disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
Support the Impeachment of President Bush

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

Steven Leser is a freelance journalist specializing in Politics, Science & Health, and Entertainment topics. He has held positions within the Democratic Party including District Chair and Public Relations Chair within county organizations. His coverage of the Ohio Presidential Recount in 2004 was distinguished by actual interviews with Carlo Loparo, spokesperson for the Ohio Secretary of State, along with Supervisors of Elections of several Ohio counties. Similar efforts on other topics to get first hand information from sources separate Mr. Leser from many of his contemporaries.

Who is behind "Al Qaeda in Iraq"? Pentagon acknowledges fabricating a "Zarqawi Legend"

2006-04-22T23:49:00.000-04:00

globalresearch.ca
by Michel Chossudovsky
April 18, 2006

Abu Musab Al Zarqawi has been presented both by the Bush administration and the Western media as the mastermind behind the "insurgency" in Iraq, allegedly responsible for the massacres of Iraqi civilians.

Zarqawi is the outside enemy of America. The Bush administration in official statements, including presidential speeches, national security documents, etc. has repeatedly pointed to the need to "go after" Abu Musab Al Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden.

"You know, I hate to predict violence, but I just understand the nature of the killers. This guy, Zarqawi, an al Qaeda associate -- who was in Baghdad, by the way, prior to the removal of Saddam Hussein -- is still at large in Iraq. And as you might remember, part of his operational plan was to sow violence and discord amongst the various groups in Iraq by cold- blooded killing. And we need to help find Zarqawi so that the people of Iraq can have a more bright -- bright future." (George W. Bush, Press Conference, 1 June 2004)

The official mandate of US and British occupation forces is to fight and win the "war on terrorism" on behalf of the Iraqi people. Zarqawi constitutes Washington's justification for the continued military occupation of Iraq, not to mention the brutal siege of densely populated urban areas directed against "Al Qaeda in Iraq" which is said to be led by Zarqawi.

Coalition forces are upheld as playing a "peace keeping role" in consultation with the United Nations. The Western media in chorus has consistently upheld the legitimacy of the "war on terrorism". It has not only presented Zarqawi as a brutal terrorist, it has also failed to report on the Pentagon's disinformation campaign, which has been known and documented since 2002.

Pentagon PSYOP Zarqawi Program

In an unusual twist, the Washington Post in a recent article, has acknowledged that the role of Zarqawi had been deliberately "magnified" by the Pentagon with a view to galvanizing public support for the US-UK led "war on terrorism":

"The Zarqawi campaign is discussed in several of the internal military documents. "Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," one U.S. military briefing from 2004 stated. It listed three methods: "Media operations," "Special Ops (626)" (a reference to Task Force 626, an elite U.S. military unit assigned primarily to hunt in Iraq for senior officials in Hussein's government) and "PSYOP," the U.S. military term for propaganda work..." (WP. 10 April 2006)

The military's propaganda program, according to the Washington Post, has "largely been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the U.S. media. One briefing slide about U.S. "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets of the American side of the war." (WP, op cit.)

An internal document produced by U.S. military headquarters in Iraq, states that "the Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date." (WP, op cit).

The senior commander entrusted with Pentagon's PSYOP operation is General Kimmitt who now occupies the position of senior planner at US Central Command (USCENTCOM), responsible for directing operations in Iraq and the Middle East.

"In 2003 and 2004, he coordinated public affairs, information operations and psychological operations in Iraq -- though he said in an interview the internal briefing must be mistaken because he did not actually run the psychological operations and could not speak for them. Kimmitt said, "There was clearly an information campaign to raise the public awareness of who Zarqawi was, primarily for the Iraqi audience but also with the international audience."

A goal of the campaign was to drive a wedge into the insurgency by emphasizing Zarqawi's terrorist acts and foreign origin, said officers familiar with the program. "Through aggressive Strategic Communications, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi now represents: Terrorism in Iraq/Foreign Fighters in Iraq/Suffering of Iraqi People (Infrastructure Attacks)/Denial of Iraqi Aspirations," the same briefing asserts...

...

It is difficult to determine how much has been spent on the Zarqawi campaign, which began two years ago and is believed to be ongoing. U.S. propaganda efforts in Iraq in 2004 cost $24 million, but that included extensive building of offices and residences for troops involved, as well as radio broadcasts and distribution of thousands of leaflets with Zarqawi's face on them, said the officer speaking on background...

The Zarqawi program at the Pentagon was run concurrently with a related operation "led by the Lincoln Group, a U.S. consulting firm, to place pro-U.S. articles in Iraq newspapers, according to the officer familiar with the program who spoke on background." According to The Washington Post, however, there was no relationship between the Pentagon's PSYOP program and that run by the Lincoln Group on behalf of the Pentagon. (WP, 10 April 2006)

Disinformation and war propaganda are an integral part of military planning. What the Washington Post fails to mention, however, is its own role in sustaining the Zarqawi legend , along with network TV, most of the printed press, and of course CNN and Fox News, not to mention a significant portion of the alternative media. Disinformation regarding the War on terrorism has been fed into the news chain by a limited number of "top feeders":

A relatively few well-connected correspondents provide the "scoops" that get the coverage in the relatively few mainstream news sources - the four TV networks, TIME, Newsweek, CNN - where the parameters of debate are set and the "official reality" is consecrated for the bottom feeders in the news chain. In other countries, this is what is known as propaganda - or, put less politely, psychological warfare. ( Chaim Kupferberg, The Propaganda Preparation for 9/11)

Zarqawi has been identified by the US media as being behind the "insurgency" in Fallujah, Tal Afar and Samara. He was held responsible for the Amman hotel bombings as well as terrorist attacks in several Western capitals.. He is indelibly behind the suicide bomb attacks in Iraq as confirmed by the Washington Post: " The ruling Shiite leadership has Zarqawi squarely in its sights. He has led the suicide bombers whose Shiite victims are now climbing into the thousands." ( 11 December 2005).

The Pentagon's PSYOP is a cover-up for US sponsored atrocities by the US media, which has upheld the "villainize Zarqawi" focus in its news and editorials coverage of the Iraqi resistance movement.

The top U.S. military intelligence officer in Iraq said Abu Musab Zarqawi and his foreign and Iraqi associates have essentially commandeered the insurgency, becoming the dominant opposition force and the greatest immediate threat to U.S. objectives in the country.
"I think what you really have here is an insurgency that's been hijacked by a terrorist campaign," Army Maj. Gen. Richard Zahner said in an interview. "In part, by Zarqawi becoming the face of this thing, he has certainly gotten the funding, the media and, frankly, has allowed other folks to work along in his draft." (WP, 25 September 2005)
Amid the continuing bloodshed in Iraq, there is evidence of fresh thinking. The change is, ironically, brought about by Abu Musab Zarqawi himself, whose indiscriminate terrorism appears to have succeeded in uniting people there against his global jihad ideology. Since the hotel bombings in Zarqawi's native Jordan, more and more Sunni Iraqis and Arabs have condemned the terrorist leader's nightmarish vision for their societies -- one that promises further "catastrophic" suicide attacks. (WP, 4 December 2005)
Immediate withdrawal from Iraq is not an option the U.S. administration can or should entertain. It would give Abu Musab Zarqawi and his small band of foreign fighters the opportunity to claim victory and to announce that they have successfully defeated a superpower. This would strengthen al Qaeda's hand across the Middle East and elsewhere, and lead to greater instability throughout the region. (WP, 11 December 2006)

The US media has identified the nature of the insurgency, centering on the key role of Zarqawi and his ties to the former Baathist regime:

"The backbone of the insurgency appears to be an alliance between the die-hard Baathists and the network of terrorists mostly under the command of Abu Musab Zarqawi. It is a partnership of convenience; both groups are fighting the same battle, but for different reasons and with different goals. (WP, 8 May 2005)
[S]enior officials at the Pentagon and in Iraq say they believe that Mr. Zarqawi and the insurgency's ''center of gravity'' is now in the bends and towns of the Euphrates River valley near the Syrian border.(New York Times, 17 September 2005)

In Fallujah, the siege of the city, which resulted in thousands of civilian deaths was described as a battle against the "Zarqawi network":.

U.S. forces have conducted four airstrikes on what have been described as targets associated with Zarqawi's network in and around the city. Among them was a housing compound in an agricultural area about 15 miles south of Fallujah where the U.S. military said as many as 90 foreign fighters were meeting. The military said the strike, which occurred on Thursday evening, killed about 60 foreign fighters.
Witnesses and hospital officials disputed the account, saying that about 30 men were killed, many of them Iraqi. They said 15 children and 11 women also died in the attack.
Neither version of the strike could be independently verified.
The following night, the U.S. military said in a statement that it conducted "another successful precision strike" on a meeting of "approximately 10 Zarqawi terrorists" in central Fallujah. "There was no indication that any innocent civilians were in the immediate vicinity of the meeting location," the military said in the statement. (WP, 21 Sept 2004)

Concluding Remarks

If indeed Zarqawi's role was fabricated as part of the Pentagon's PSYOP, what is the accuracy of these media reports?

The internal military documents leaked to Washington Post confirm that the Pentagon is involved in an ongoing propaganda campaign which seeks to provide a face to the enemy. The purpose is to portray the enemy as a terrorist, to mislead public opinion.

Counterterrorism and war propaganda are intertwined. The propaganda apparatus feeds disinformation into the news chain. The objective is to present the terror groups as "enemies of America." responsible for countless atrocities in Iraq and around the World. The underlying objective is to galvanize public opinion in support of America's Middle East war agenda.

US military-intelligence has created it own terrorist organizations. In turn, it has developed a cohesive multibillion dollar counterterrorism program "to go after" these terrorist organizations. To reach its foreign policy objectives, the images of terrorism in the Iraqi war theater must remain vivid in the minds of the citizens, who are constantly reminded of the terrorist threat. The Iraqi resistance movement is described as terrorists led by Zarqawi.

The propaganda campaign using the Western media, presents the portraits of the leaders behind the terror network. In other words, at the level of what constitutes an "advertising" campaign, "it gives a face to terror."

The "war on terrorism" rests on the creation of one or more evil bogeymen, the terror leaders, Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, et al, whose names and photos are presented ad nauseam in daily news reports. Without Zarqawi and bin Laden, the "war on terrorism" would loose its raison d'être. The main casus belli is to wage a " war on terrorism".

The Pentagon documents leaked to the Washington Post regarding Zarqawi have revealed that Al Qaeda in Iraq is fabricated.

The suicide attacks in Iraq are indeed real, but who is behind them? There are indications that some of the suicide attacks could have been organized by the US-UK military and intelligence. (See references below pertaining to British Special Forces Soldiers caught Planting Bombs in Basra.)

Michel Chossudovsky is the author of the international best seller "The Globalization of Poverty " published in eleven languages. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization, at www.globalresearch.ca . He is also a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His most recent book is entitled: America’s "War on Terrorism", Global Research, 2005.

To order Chossudovsky's book America's "War on Terrorism", click here.

Randi Rhodes On Paula Zahn 4/20/06

2006-04-21T15:47:00.000-04:00

YouTube

God Hates Figs

2006-04-21T11:30:00.000-04:00

This site pulls no punches, especially fruit punches. It tells the God-given TRUTH about an important issue in today's society.

Randi Rhodes On Lou Dobbs 'Bush Is Insane'

2006-04-19T10:04:00.000-04:00

YouTube

Supreme Court rejects Falwell appeal to stop Fallwell.com

2006-04-17T19:14:00.000-04:00

RAW STORY
Published: Monday April 17, 2006

RAW STORY
Published: Monday April 17, 2006

The Supreme Court, on Monday, turned down an appeal of a case by Jerry Falwell to shut down a Website that bares an almost identical name but attacks the evangelist's views on gays and lesbians, RAW STORY has found.

Last August the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Christopher Lamparello was free to operate his website at www.fallwell.com because he had "not evidenced a bad faith intent to profit" from it (PDF link to Appeals Court opinion).

"We agree with the Fifth and Sixth Circuits that, given these circumstances, the use of a mark in a domain name for a gripe site criticizing the markholder does not constitute cybersquatting," the Appeals court said.

According to an Associated Press report, "Falwell's attorneys have fought over domain names in the past. Three years ago, an Illinois man surrendered the domain names jerryfalwell.com and jerryfallwell.com after Falwell threatened to sue for trademark infringement."

The A.P. also notes that "Falwell's Web site is more high-tech, with pictures of the minister, and sales material for books and videos," while "Lamparello's Web site is mainly in black and white, with no photographs or items for sale."

"This website is NOT affiliated with Rev. Dr. Jerry Falwell or his ministry," reads a disclaimer at the top of www.fallwell.com, together with a link to the correctly spelled evangelist's Website.

Lamparello's site criticizes Falwell for using the Bible to support his contention "that gay and lesbian people are sinning and can change."

"This website was created as a way to help people understand why we so strongly disagree with Dr. Falwell," explains a page at www.fallwell.com. "This site is here to help you study the question of what the Bible really says about people who are gay, enabling you to reach your own conclusions."

The Myth Of The Liberal Media

2006-04-17T17:12:00.000-04:00

Google Video

Man In Line

2006-04-16T17:26:00.000-04:00

Man In Line:

U.S.: Rumsfeld Potentially Liable for Torture

2006-04-16T16:25:00.000-04:00

Reuters AlertNet:
Source: Human Rights Watch

(New York, April 14, 2006) – Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could be criminally liable for the torture of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002 and early 2003, Human Rights Watch said today. A December 20, 2005 Army Inspector General's report, obtained by Salon.com this week, contains a sworn statement by Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt that implicates Secretary Rumsfeld in the abuse of detainee Mohammad al-Qahtani. Based on an investigation that he carried out in early 2005, which included two interviews with Rumsfeld, Gen. Schmidt describes the defense secretary as being "personally involved" in al-Qahtani's interrogation.

Human Rights Watch urges the United States to name a special prosecutor to investigate the culpability of Rumsfeld and others in the al-Qahtani case.

"The question at this point is not whether Secretary Rumsfeld should resign, it's whether he should be indicted," said Joanne Mariner, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program director at Human Rights Watch. "General Schmidt's sworn statement suggests that Rumsfeld may have been perfectly aware of the abuses inflicted on al-Qahtani."

Gen. Schmidt said that Secretary Rumsfeld was "talking weekly" with Gen. Miller about the al-Qahtani interrogation, and that the secretary of defense was "personally involved in the interrogation of [this] one person." Schmidt's statement indicates that Rumsfeld maintained a high level of knowledge of and supervision over al-Qahtani's treatment. Although Schmidt said that he believed that Rumsfeld did not specifically order the more abusive methods used in the al-Qahtani interrogation, he concluded that Rumsfeld's policies facilitated the abuse.

The Pentagon has acknowledged that al-Qahtani's mistreatment was not unplanned. "Al-Kahtani's interrogation was guided by a very detailed plan, conducted by trained professionals in a controlled environment, and with active supervision and oversight," wrote Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, in an email to Salon.com. "Nothing was done randomly."

Human Rights Watch has obtained an unredacted copy of al-Qahtani's interrogation log, and believes that the techniques used during al-Qahtani's interrogation were so abusive that they amounted to torture.

The interrogation log reveals that al-Qahtani was subjected to a regime of physical and mental mistreatment from mid-November 2002 to early January 2003. For six weeks, he was intentionally deprived of sleep, forced into painful physical positions (known as stress positions) and subjected to forced exercises, forced standing, and sexual and other physical humiliation.

After refusing water, al-Qahtani was forced to accept an intravenous drip for hydration and, on several occasions, was refused trips to a latrine, so that he urinated on himself at least twice. He was also threatened with forced enemas, and on one occasion was forced to undergo an enema.

"A six-week regime of sleep deprivation, forced exercises, stress positions, white noise, and sexual humiliation amounts to acts that were specifically intended to cause severe physical pain and suffering and severe mental pain and suffering," said Mariner. "That's the legal definition of torture."

In 2005, the Judge Advocates General of the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps told the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services that the techniques used on al-Qahtani violated the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation, and would have been illegal if perpetrated by another country on captured U.S. personnel. The U.S. State Department also regularly condemns as torture the same techniques in its annual Country Report on Human Rights, citing their use in countries such as North Korea and Iran.

Human Rights Watch believes that Secretary Rumsfeld, Gen. Geoffrey Miller – a senior commander at Guantanamo in 2002 and early 2003 – and the interrogators who took part in the interrogations could be criminally liable under federal or military criminal law for torture, assaults and sexual abuse. (The Inspector General's report is focused on Gen. Miller's conduct.)

Rumsfeld could be liable under the doctrine of "command responsibility" – the legal principle that holds a superior responsible for crimes committed by his subordinates when he knew or should have known that they were being committed, but fails to take reasonable measures to stop them.

A special prosecutor is needed because Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was himself deeply involved in the policies leading to the abuse of detainees, a conflict of interest that is likely to prevent a proper investigation from being carried out. U.S. Department of Justice regulations call for the appointment of an outside counsel when such a conflict exists and the public interest warrants a prosecutor without links to the government.

"A special prosecutor should look carefully at what abuses Rumsfeld either knew of or condoned," said Mariner.

On December 2, 2002, as the Pentagon has previously acknowledged, Rumsfeld approved 16 interrogation techniques for al-Qahtani and other detainees, including the use of forced nudity, stress positions and "using detainees' individual phobias (such as fear of dogs)."

Al-Qahtani, who is alleged to have been a "20th hijacker," was denied entry to the United States in August 2001. Pentagon spokesman Gordon told Salon.com on Thursday that al-Qahtani was an "al-Qaida terrorist" who provided a "treasure trove" of information during his interrogation. (The information al-Qahtani is said to have provided, however, is still classified.)

Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the Pentagon has never released the full version of Gen. Schmidt's report on abuses at Guantanamo. The report's recommendations were rejected by the head of U.S. Southern Command, Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, who said in July 2005 that the al-Qahtani interrogation did not violate military law or policy.

Grand Theft Election 2004

2006-04-16T14:47:00.000-04:00

YouTube - Grand Theft Election 2004

US turns back the clock: racially segregated schools get OK

2006-04-15T14:15:00.000-04:00

smh.com.au

FIFTY years after the US abolished segregated schools, the state of Nebraska has been accused of seeking to carve up its largest school district along broadly racial lines.

Under a new measure signed into law on Thursday by Governor Dave Heineman Omaha's highly regarded public school system will be divided into three racially distinct entities: African-American, Hispanic and white. The changes take effect from July 2008.

The division, proposed by the only African-American member of the state legislature, was adopted at breakneck speed.

Its provisions represent one of the most sweeping challenges to the desegregation of American state schools that was mandated by the US Supreme Court in 1954. Nebraska's Attorney-General has warned that it could be in violation of the US constitution, and would be challenged in the courts.

The measure has been opposed by a powerful coalition of business leaders - including Warren Buffett, the Omaha-based financier who is the world's second-richest man - as well as civil rights organisations.

"Basically, it is state-sanctioned segregation," said state senator Patrick Bourne who voted against the bill.

However, Ernie Chambers, who proposed the division, argued that local schools have been effectively segregated for years and that the stated aim of integration had been discredited.

"There has always been segregation," he said. "There is now, and always will be, so rather than go through all this worthless talk that has gone on now for generations about integration, let's talk about getting better schools."

Bu$h Wins First Place - 2006 MUZZLE

2006-04-15T12:14:00.000-04:00

The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression

Since 1992, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression has celebrated the birth and ideals of its namesake by calling attention to those who in the past year forgot or disregarded Mr. Jefferson's admonition that freedom of speech 'cannot be limited without being lost.'

Announced on or near April 13 -- the anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson -- the Jefferson Muzzles are awarded as a means to draw national attention to abridgments of free speech and press and, at the same time, foster an appreciation for those tenets of the First Amendment. This year, there is a special podcast of the 2006 Muzzles, brought to you by CvillePodcast.com. Read More about the history of The Muzzles.

Rice Eager for Iran WAR

2006-04-14T18:12:00.000-04:00

smh.com.au

THE US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, says the United Nations must consider strong action against Iran, such as a resolution that could lead to sanctions or lay the groundwork for the use of force.

Dr Rice suggested the Security Council should consider chapter 7 of the UN Charter in an attempt to force Iran to comply with its international obligations relating to its nuclear plans.

"I am certain we will look at measures that can be taken to ensure that Iran knows that they really have no choice but to comply," Dr Rice said.

Chapter 7 makes a resolution mandatory under international law for all UN members.

If it specifically calls for sanctions or threatens "all necessary measures", it may eventually lead to the use of force.

A chapter 7 resolution was passed against Iraq and has been used by the US as a legal argument to justify its bombing and invasion of Iraq. Russia, in particular, is concerned that the US may interpret a chapter 7 resolution against Iran in the same way.

On Thursday, Iran's regime dismissed calls from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, to freeze its nuclear program and calm suspicions that it is seeking to make a bomb.

After talks in Tehran with Dr ElBaradei, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, dismissed the Security Council's demand for a halt to uranium enrichment by the end of the month as "not very important". Unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the next fortnight, Dr ElBaradei - who failed to secure concessions from Iran - will deliver a negative report to the Security Council at the end of this month.

Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said on Tuesday that it had joined the "nuclear club" by achieving a uranium enrichment rate of 3.5 per cent. This is a low-grade enrichment suitable for power stations and a much higher standard than previously attained.

Iran denies the West's claim that its pursuit of uranium enrichment is intended to secure a nuclear weapons capability.

Mr Ahmadinejad refused to meet Dr ElBaradei, saying: "We will not hold talks with anyone about the Iranian nation's right [to enrichment] … Our situation has changed completely. We are a nuclear country and speak to others from [that] position."

Dr ElBaradei said: "We have not seen diversion of nuclear material for weapons purposes but the picture is still hazy."

The Islamic Republic News Agency reported Mr Ahmadinejad was unconcerned about the West's anger. "We say, be angry and die of this anger," he said.

Russia and China, which are key players on the Iran issue and have Security Council veto powers, oppose sanctions or military force against Iran. Nearly all other council members, including Britain, oppose military action.

The US, believing Iran is intent on making an atomic bomb, has said that, while all options are on the table, it is pursuing the diplomatic course and rejects reports that it is preparing for a military strike.

Reuters, The Guardian, Agence France-Presse

LATEST EVENTS

-United Nations nuclear watchdog fails to secure any concessions from Iran.

- Egypt says a diplomatic solution is essential but it cannot accept the emergence of a nuclear-armed power in the region.

- China suggests the nuclear stand-offs with Iran and North Korea will be discussed when President Hu Jintao visits the US next week.

'L.A. Times' Afghan Horror Story Confirmed by NBC | MediaChannel.org

2006-04-14T18:05:00.000-04:00

E&P

A story reported by the Los Angeles Times' Paul Watson on Monday was so mind-boggling that it took a few days for other media outlets and Web sites to react. Just about the time that story started circulating widely, NBC News on Thursday night confirmed it, and took it a step further. Watson also produced a followup for his paper on Friday.

This is how the NBC investigative team reported it:

"Just outside the main gate of the huge U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, shopkeepers at a bazaar peddle a range of goods, including computer drives with sensitive — even secret information — stolen from the base.

"This week, an NBC News producer, using a hidden camera, visited the bazaar and bought a half dozen of the memory drives the size of a thumb known as flash drives. On them, NBC News found highly sensitive military information, some which NBC will not reveal." Earlier, the Los Angeles Times had published what indeed appeared to be sensitive material.

“This isn't just a loss of sensitive information,” Lt. Col. Rick Francona (ret.), an NBC News military analyst, said. “This is putting U.S. troops at risk. This is a violation of operational security.”

Some of the data would be valuable to the enemy, NBC related, including names and personal information for dozens of interrogatorsm and interrogation methods; and IDs and photos of U.S. troops. With information like this, “You could cripple our U.S. intelligence collection capability in Afghanistan,” said Francona.

NBC added: "Among the photos of Americans are pictures of individuals who appear to have been tortured and killed, most too graphic to show. NBC News does not know who caused their injuries. The Pentagon would not comment on the photos.

"The tiny computer memories are believed to have been smuggled off base by Afghan employees and sold to shopkeepers. Whoever buys one can simply plug it into another computer, and in a couple of minutes, see thousands of files.

"Other reporters have bought drives at the bazaar containing classified information, including names and photos of Afghans spying for the U.S. and maps revealing locations of radar used to foil mortar attacks. ...

"Thursday, the base commander said he's ordered an investigation into activities at the bazaar and into procedures supposed to keep sensitive secrets secure."

On Monday, the Times had revealed, among much else, "A reporter recently obtained several drives at the bazaar that contained documents marked 'Secret.' The contents included documents that were potentially embarrassing to Pakistan, a U.S. ally, presentations that named suspected militants targeted for 'kill or capture' and discussions of U.S. efforts to 'remove' or 'marginalize' Afghan government officials whom the military considered problem makers.'

"The drives also included deployment rosters and other documents that identified nearly 700 U.S. service members and their Social Security numbers, information that identity thieves could use to open credit card accounts in soldiers' names."

Watson's Friday accounts opens: "Maps, charts and intelligence reports on computer drives smuggled out of a U.S. base and sold at a bazaar here appear to detail how Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders have been using southwestern Pakistan as a key planning and training base for attacks in Afghanistan. ... Together, they outline how the U.S. military came to focus its search for members of Taliban, Al Qaeda and other militant groups on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border."

He also quotes Col. Tom Collins, speaking from the public affairs office at the Bagram base, saying, "We're obviously concerned that certain sources or assets have been compromised."

Lawrence Di Rita, a top aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, told Watson it was "too early to say" whether any commander in Afghanistan would be held responsible for failing to secure the drives.

"The drives appear to contain the identities of Afghan sources spying for U.S. Special Forces that operate out of the Bagram base, which is the center of U.S. efforts to fight Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents and includes a secretive detention and interrogation center for terrorism suspects flown in from around the world," Watson observes.

Neil Young, Son of Famed Reporter, Records "Impeach the President" Song

2006-04-14T17:57:00.000-04:00

E&P
Published: April 14, 2006 11:40 AM ET

NEW YORK As an E&P "Pressing Issues" column recently noted, rock star Neil Young is the son of a famed Canadian journalist, so it should not surprise many that he recently recorded a song in California with a very reportorial -- or at least pundit -- feel to it.

It’s called “Impeach the President,” so there can be little question what it is about.

Apparently it was recorded with a 100-voice choir. Rumors have circulated the past few days on the Web, but E&P has tracked down the strongest confirmation in a blog kept by Sherman Oaks, Ca. musician/singer Alicia Morgan.

Previous reports quoted hints by Young and Jonathan Demme (who directed the new documentary “Heart of Gold”) that Neil was working on a hard-rocking political or “anti-Bush” CD.

Last Friday, Morgan wrote on her LastLeftB4Hooterville blog that she had been “summoned” to a local studio to sing on the new record with 99 others. “I'm not going to give the whole thing away, but the first line of one of the songs was ‘Let's impeach the President for lyin'!’ Turns out the whole thing is a classic beautiful protest record. The session was like being at a 12-hour peace rally. Every time new lyrics would come up on the screen, there were cheers, tears and applause. It was a spiritual experience. I can't believe my good fortune at being a part of this.

“We finished the session by singing an a capella version of 'America the Beautiful' and there was not a dry eye in the house.

“Neil said it should be out in 6 to 8 weeks."

Harp magazine reported on its Web site Thursday that Demme had confirmed in an e-mail, “Neil just finished writing and recording -- with no warning -- a new album called 'Living With War.' It all happened in three days… It is a brilliant electric assault, accompanied by a 100-voice choir, on Bush and the war in Iraq… Truly mind blowing. Will be in stores soon.”

The magazine continued: “Details are pretty scarce, but the featured track, titled ‘Impeach the President,’ features a rap with Bush’s voice set to the choir chanting ‘flip/flop’ and the like.”

Young has always been a maverick politically as well as musically. Although he has recorded a few songs that drew cheers from liberals, such as "Ohio" and "Southern Man," he also drew criticism from the left for pro-Reagan comments many years ago.

Whistle-blower says AT&T gave spy agency access to network

2006-04-14T01:34:00.000-04:00

AP Wire

SAN FRANCISCO - AT&T Inc. and an Internet advocacy group are waging a privacy battle in federal court that could expose the reach of the Bush administration's secretive domestic wiretapping program.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it obtained documents from a former AT&T technician that shows that the National Security Agency is capable of monitoring all communications on AT&T's network.

"It appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the Internet, whether that be people's e-mail, Web surfing or any other data," whistle-blower Mark Klein, who worked for the company for 22 years, said in a statement released by his lawyers.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker is considering whether to unseal documents provided by Klein that AT&T wants kept secret. EFF filed the documents under seal as a courtesy to the phone company, but is seeking to unseal them.

The EFF lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks to stop the surveillance program that started shortly after the 2001 terror attacks. The suit is based in large part on the Klein documents, which detail secret spying rooms and electronic surveillance equipment in AT&T facilities.

The suit claims the San Antonio-based telecommunications company not only provided direct access to its network that carries voice and data but also to its massive databases of stored telephone and Internet records that are updated constantly.

AT&T violated U.S. law and the privacy of its customers as part of the "massive and illegal program to wiretap and data.m.ine Americans' communications" without warrants, the EFF alleged.

Klein said the NSA built a secret room at the company's San Francisco central office in 2003, adjacent to a "switch room where the public's phone calls are routed." One of the documents under seal, Klein said, shows that a device was installed with the "ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets."

Other so-called secret rooms were constructed at AT&T sites in Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego, the statement said.

Other documents under seal shows that fiber optic cables from the secret room tapped into WorldNet Internet subscribers, and instructed technicians how to connect cables to the secret room, Klein said.

Klein said he was required to connect circuits that fed information to the secret room.

"The circuits listed were the Peering Links, which connect WorldNet with other networks and hence the whole country, as well as the rest of the world," Klein said.

The NSA declined directly to address the lawsuit or Klein's allegations.

"Any discussion about actual or alleged operational issues would be irresponsible as it would give our adversaries insight that would enable them to adjust and potentially inflict harm to the U.S.," NSA spokesman Don Weber said.

Michael Balmoris, an AT&T spokesman, said the telecommunications company "follows all laws with respect to assistance offered to government agencies." He declined further elaboration, saying AT&T is "not in a position to comment on matters of national security or litigation."

President Bush confirmed in December that the NSA has been conducting the surveillance when calls and e-mails, in which at least one party is outside the United States, are thought to involve al-Qaida terrorists.

In congressional hearings last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales suggested the president could order the NSA to listen in on purely domestic calls without first obtaining a warrant from a secret court established nearly 30 years ago to consider such issues.

He said the administration, assuming the conversation related to al-Qaida, would have to determine if the surveillance were crucial to the nation's fight against terrorism, as authorized by Congress following the Sept. 11 attacks.

The case is Hepting v. AT&T Inc., 06-0672.

---

Editors: David Kravets has been covering state and federal courts for more than a decade.

"BREAKING: E-Voting Lawsuit Filed against PA County, U.S. Dept. of Justice!"

2006-04-13T13:38:00.000-04:00

THE BRAD BLOG:

Suit Seeks to Stop Last Minute Implementation of ES&S Voting Machines In Allegheny County

Guest Blogged by John Gideon

Just announced by KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the news that a group of citizens and People For The American Way have filed suit against the Secretary of State; Dan Onorato, Allegheny County Chief Executive; James Flynn, County Manager; and senior officials at the federal Department of Justice. The citizen group includes members of the disabilities community who want to make sure the County purchases machines that are accessible to all individuals with disabilities.

KDKA reports:

The lawsuit filed today says that decision risks chaos on Election Day because of the lack of time to train election officials and educate voters about the change from lever machines which have been in use for 40 years.

“This rush to a new and flawed technology just weeks before the election threatens to sow chaos in the primary and compromise the fundamental rights of thousands of voters for years to come,” says Harry Litman, the former United States Attorney in Pittsburgh and an attorney for the plaintiffs. “It’s a bad deal for Allegheny County, and, we believe, a violation of federal law.”

The suit, Celeste Taylor v. Dan Onorato asks the court to prevent use of machines manufactured by Election Systems & Software until the County has spent the time necessary to identify voting systems that are secure; reliable; and accessible to voters with disabilities.
...
The plaintiffs cite elections in Texas, Florida, California, Ohio, and North and South Carolina where ES&S machines failed on Election Day.

A report by the Inspector General in Miami of a 2002 election found that the ES&S machines were not properly prepared; their results could not be audited; poll workers were unable to operate machines; and large number of voters simply gave up as a result.
...
The complaint alleges that DOJ has pressured Allegheny to buy the new machines by improperly threatening to take back about $12 million that has been given to Pennsylvania for improved voting systems.

These machines are sold and serviced by Elections Systems and Software, the same company that has played a major role in failures of memory cards and is a large reason why this nation is headed for a "Train Wreck" in our primary elections and, if no action is taken, in November.

McClellan: Media Should Publicly Apologize For Reporting On Mobile Weapons Lab Story

2006-04-12T14:59:00.000-04:00

thinkprogress.org/2006/04/12

On May 29, 2003, President Bush said “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.” This morning the Washington Post revealed that a Pentagon field report transmitted to Washington on May 27, 2003 “had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons.”

Today during the White House press briefing, Scott McClellan demanded a public apology from the news media for covering the story:

You know, I saw some reporting talking about how this latest revelation — which is not something that is new; this is all old information that’s being rehashed — was an embarrassment for the White House. No, it’s an embarrassment for the media that is out there reporting this.
I brought up with some of you earlier today some of the reporting that was based of this Washington Post report. And I talked to one of network about it…they expressed their apologies to the White House.
I hope they will go and publicly apologize on the air about the statements that were made, because I think it is important given that they had made those statements in front of all their viewers. So we look forward to that happening as well.

McClellan’s complaint is that the Washington Post and others suggest that President Bush may have known about the report before he made definitive statements that the trailers were for the purpose of building biological weapons.

When McClellan was asked when the White House became aware of the Pentagon field report, however, McClellan couldn’t say. He told the press corps “I’m looking into that matter” but the answer was “not the point.”

Interview: NC Man Who Shamed Bush During Speech

2006-04-12T13:16:00.000-04:00

YouTube

Bush delivered another Iraq War PR speech which was sponsored by the nonpartisan World Affairs Council of Charlotte at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina.

After the speech, Bush accepted questions from the audience. Harry Taylor shamed The President with his question. Taylor mentioned NSA domestic spying, detaining Americans with being charged, policies that hurt the enviroment. Taylor told Bush that he was ashamed of the U.S. Government. Taylor finished his question by saying, "I would hope you have, from time to time, the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself... inside yourself."

In this video, Soledad O'Brien interviews Harry Taylor about his televised of berating President Bush.

Iran Showdown Tests Power of "Israel Lobby"

2006-04-12T10:40:00.000-04:00

(IPS) : "WASHINGTON, Apr 11 - One month after the publication by two of the most influential international relations scholars in the United States of a highly controversial essay on the so-called 'Israel Lobby', their thesis that the lobby exercises 'unmatched power' in Washington is being tested by rapidly rising tensions with Iran. "

Gallup: Most Americans Critical of President in CIA Leak Case

2006-04-11T22:51:00.000-04:00

By E&P Staff
Published: April 11, 2006 7:50 AM ET

NEW YORK A new Gallup poll released today finds that most Americans are critical of President Bush's actions in the Plame/CIA leak scandal, but only one in four is following the matter closely.

Overall, 63% of Americans believe Bush did something either illegal (21%) or unethical (42%), while 28% say he did nothing wrong. While many more Democrats are critical, 3 in 10 Republicans also find that Bush did something illegal or unethical.

The more closely people are following the issue, the more likely they are to say he did something illegal rather than merely unethical.

The poll, conducted April 7-9, 2006, shows that just 25% of Americans are following the matter 'very' closely, while another 39% are following the issue 'somewhat' closely. Another 36% are not following the issue closely at all.

Despite the latest turns in the CIA leak case, and news from Iraq, the president's overall approval rating did not fall still further, hanging on at 37%, which is in line with most other polls. "

77 TV stations aired 'fake news reports'

2006-04-06T17:50:00.000-04:00

The Raw Story - Continued

A study by a group that monitors the media reveals that, over a ten month span, 77 television stations from all across the nation aired video news releases without informing their viewers even once that the reports were actually sponsored content, RAW STORY has found.

One "news report" that aired on three stations relied on a video news release (VNR) produced by a PR firm on behalf of General Motors which was even apparently based on a "false claim."

Bush Event Goes Off Script

2006-04-06T17:12:00.000-04:00

Think Progress

VIDEO: Bush Event Goes Off Script »

This morning in Charlotte, a Bush PR event on the war on terror went off-script when a man named Harry Taylor took the microphone. Watch the video:

“‘I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration,’ Taylor said, standing in a balcony seat and looking down at Bush on stage. ‘And I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and grace to be ashamed of yourself.’”

Read below for the full exchange: expand post »

Q You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you’d like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf. You are –
THE PRESIDENT: I’m not your favorite guy. Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) Go on, what’s your question?
Q Okay, I don’t have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that I — in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and –
AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: No, wait a sec — let him speak.
Q And I would hope — I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself. And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I’m saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about.
THE PRESIDENT: It is, yes. (Applause.)
Q And I know that this doesn’t come welcome to most of the people in this room, but I do appreciate that.
THE PRESIDENT: Appreciate –
Q I don’t have a question, but I just wanted to make that comment to you.
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate it, thank you. Let me –
Q Can I ask a question?
THE PRESIDENT: I’m going to start off with what you first said, if you don’t mind, you said that I tap your phones — I think that’s what you said. You tapped your phone — I tapped your phones. Yes. No, that’s right. Yes, no, let me finish.
I’d like to describe that decision I made about protecting this country. You can come to whatever conclusion you want. The conclusion is I’m not going to apologize for what I did on the terrorist surveillance program, and I’ll tell you why. We were accused in Washington, D.C. of not connecting the dots, that we didn’t do everything we could to protect you or others from the attack. And so I called in the people responsible for helping to protect the American people and the homeland. I said, is there anything more we could do.
And there — out of this national — NSA came the recommendation that it would make sense for us to listen to a call outside the country, inside the country from al Qaeda or suspected al Qaeda in order to have real-time information from which to possibly prevent an attack. I thought that made sense, so long as it was constitutional. Now, you may not agree with the constitutional assessment given to me by lawyers — and we’ve got plenty of them in Washington — but they made this assessment that it was constitutional for me to make that decision.
I then, sir, took that decision to members of the United States Congress from both political parties and briefed them on the decision that was made in order to protect the American people. And so members of both parties, both chambers, were fully aware of a program intended to know whether or not al Qaeda was calling in or calling out of the country. It seems like — to make sense, if we’re at war, we ought to be using tools necessary within the Constitution, on a very limited basis, a program that’s reviewed constantly to protect us.
Now, you and I have a different — of agreement on what is needed to be protected. But you said, would I apologize for that? The answer — answer is, absolutely not. (Applause.)

The rest of the event transcript is here. « collapse post

CBS Adds Cute Face as They Dismantle News Department

2006-04-05T13:22:00.000-04:00

Continued - CBS News NEW YORK, Apr. 5, 2006

(AP)

(AP) On her 15th anniversary on "Today," Katie Couric told viewers Wednesday she's leaving NBC to join CBS, where she will become the first woman to anchor a network weekday evening newscast alone.

"I wanted to tell all of you out there who have watched the show for the past 15 years that after listening to my heart and my gut _ two things that have served me pretty well in the past _ I've decided I'll be leaving 'Today' at the end of May," she said. "I really feel as if we've become friends through the years."

24 Wis. Communities Vote for Iraq Pullout

2006-04-05T11:07:00.000-04:00

Washington Post - Continued: "MILWAUKEE -- Thousands of voters turned out in Wisconsin to offer a purely symbolic but heartfelt message: Bring the troops home from Iraq.
By margins overwhelming in some places and narrow in others, voters in 24 of 32 communities approved referendums Tuesday calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq."

Human rights group details new claims on CIA 'torture flights'

2006-04-05T08:19:00.000-04:00

Continued - Scotsman.com News
FRESH evidence has emerged of the brutality involved in the CIA's programme of extraordinary rendition and its use of Scottish airports as stopping-off points for aircraft involved in the controversial programme.

A report from Amnesty International alleges that detainees were abducted or handed to the CIA by friendly agencies in other countries before being "disappeared".

Portland, Oregon Air National Guard: Our planes did not cause mystery sound

2006-04-03T19:02:00.000-04:00

KATU 2 - Portland, Oregon:

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By KATU.com Web Staff

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Portland Air National Guard says they do not believe F-15 fighters are to blame for loud booms heard throughout our area on Saturday.

The Air National Guard checked Portland's flight track and determined jets were conducting training flights over the Northwest when a series of strange rumbling noises hit.

However, the two jets that broke the sound barrier were over the ocean and pointing west. That sonic boom would not have traveled more than 20 miles.

As for jets headed for Portland, the Air National Guard says they were on approach and flying far too slow to cause a boom.

"If it was us, we'll confess and make sure we look at procedures and make sure it doesn't happen again," said Captain Misti Mazzia "We care about not leaving any noise footprint on our community."

Many people on base heard the noise as well, but say it was much different than a sonic boom.

The Air National Guard will now check Seattle's flight track to see if any other jets may have been flying at the time.

April 13 2005 - Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson

2006-04-03T13:03:00.000-04:00

Discussion Community: April 13 2005 - Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson

Remarks by the President During Event in Honor of Thomas Jefferson's Birthday
April 12, 2001

quote:
"Perhaps the best verdict came from one of Jefferson's keenest admirers and sharpest critics, the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln." (continued below)

The above quote is a scarce statement of fact that is in opposition to the factually contorted semantic gymnastics on the whitehouse's website (on the internetS): "Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France."

A statement like that could lead someone to be confused to the point to actually think Jefferson was a Republican.

He died on July 4, 1826.

10229 days after the death of Thomas Jefferson
The Republican Party is BORN

The facts are further clarified here:

Jackson, Michigan is the birthplace of the republican party.
The City of Jackson has a Michigan State Historical Maker (as shown in picture)

"UNDER THE OAKS
On July 6, 1854, a state convention of anti-slavery men was held in Jackson to found a new political party. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had been published two years earlier, causing increased resentment against slavery, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of May, 1854, threatened to make slave states out of previously free territories. Since the convention day was hot and the huge crowd could not be accommodated in the hall, the meeting adjourned to an oak grove on "Morgan's Forty" on the outskirts of town. Here a state-wide slate of candidates was selected and the Republican Party was born. Winning an overwhelming victory in the elections of 1854, the Republican party went on to dominate national parties throughout the nineteenth century."

Bu$h Quoting Lincoln in statement

quote:
"All honor to Jefferson, to the man who in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people had the coolness, forecast and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and at all times. And so, to embalm it there, that today and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of a reappearing tyranny and oppression." Happy birthday, Mr. Jefferson.

Of presidents and precedents

2006-04-02T17:51:00.000-04:00

(Metro Times Detroit):
1/25/2006

Last week's lawsuit by the ACLU seeking to halt the National Security Agency's formerly secret no-warrant domestic wiretap program could, conceivably, have been filed in any U.S. district court. So why was the Eastern District of Michigan chosen as the place to fight this crucial legal battle?

Michael Steinberg, legal director of the Michigan ACLU, tells News Hits that, at least in part, this particular court was selected for "symbolic" reasons.

The symbol Steinberg refers to is a case that dates back to the 1970s, when the United States was locked in another unpopular war being run by another president whose administration displayed a frightening disregard for the Bill of Rights. The issue achieved landmark status in a trial involving John Sinclair and other members of the radical White Panther Party accused of conspiring to bomb a government building in Ann Arbor. Presiding over the case was then-U.S. District Court Judge Damon Keith.

During the trial, according to the Web site maintained by Wayne State University's Reuther Library, it was revealed that the feds had wiretapped the phone of at least one defendant without first getting a warrant.

As with the current case, the administration — Richard M. Nixon was calling the White House home back in those days — contended then that the action was needed to protect "national security." It is one of the justifications being trotted out anew by the Bush administration as it attempts to justify what many see as a clear violation of the law.

This was Keith's response to that argument:

"The contention by the Government that in cases involving 'national security' a warrantless search is not an illegal one, must be cautiously approached and analyzed. We are, after all, dealing not with the rights of one solitary defendant, but rather, we are here concerned with the possible infringement of a fundamental freedom guaranteed to all Americans. ...

"An idea which seems to permeate much of the Government's argument is that a dissident domestic organization is akin to an unfriendly foreign power and must be dealt with in the same fashion. There is great danger in an argument of this nature for it strikes at the very constitutional privileges and immunities that are inherent in United States citizenship. It is to be remembered that in our democracy all men are to receive equal and exact justice regardless of their political beliefs or persuasions. The Executive branch of our Government cannot be given the power or the opportunity to investigate and prosecute criminal violations under two different standards simply because an accused espouses views which are inconsistent with our present form of Government. ...

"Such power held by one individual was never contemplated by the framers of our Constitution and cannot be tolerated today."

As the Wayne State Web site goes on to note: "Keith ordered the government to turn over its tapes to the defendant. After Judge Keith's decision was upheld by the Supreme Court, the government responded by dropping the charges."

Steinberg says, "We're going to be relying heavily on the Keith decision in our case against the NSA."

Keith, by the way, now sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. And Nixon, when we last checked, was still dead, but his law-breaking spirit seems to be alive if not well in today's White House.

Send comments to NewsHits@metrotimes.com.

Senator Spector Writes Bill that Ignores the difference between SCOTUS "Recognition" and "Decision"

2006-04-01T21:37:00.000-05:00

Dear Senator Spector

In your bill (PDF) Page 3 lines 18-28 read:

18 (15) Federal agents investigating international terrorism by foreign enemies are

19 entitled to tools at least as broad as those used by Federal agents investigating

20 domestic crimes by United States citizens. The Supreme Court, in the "Keith Case",

21 United States v. United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan,

22 407 U.S. 297 (1972), recognized that the standards and procedures used to fight

23 ordinary crime may not be applicable to cases involving national security. The Court

24 recognized that national "security surveillance may involve different policy and

25 practical considerations from the surveillance of ordinary crime" and that courts

26 should be more flexible in issuing warrants in national security cases. United States

27 v. United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, 407 U.S. 297,

28 322 (1972).

Please take note, Senator you say The Supreme Court "RECOGOGNISED" in what you misname the "Keith Case", (correctly called "The Keith Decision" for anyone trying to google it.) a portion of the decision that was made in Michigan. What the United States Supreme Court actually DECIDED in what would more likely be known as the "Plamondon Case" is as follows:

U.S. Supreme Court
UNITED STATES v. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, 407 U.S. 297 (1972) 407 U.S. 297
UNITED STATES v. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN ET AL. (PLAMONDON ET AL., REAL PARTIES IN INTEREST) CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT No. 70-153. Argued February 24, 1972 Decided June 19, 1972

1. Section 2511 (3) is merely a disclaimer of congressional intent to define presidential powers in matters affecting national security, and is not a grant of authority to conduct warrantless national security surveillances. Pp. 301-308. [407 U.S. 297, 298]
2. The Fourth Amendment (which shields private speech from unreasonable surveillance) requires prior judicial approval for the type of domestic security surveillance involved in this case. Pp. 314-321; 323-324.
(a) The Government's duty to safeguard domestic security must be weighed against the potential danger that unreasonable surveillances pose to individual privacy and free expression. Pp. 314-315.
(b) The freedoms of the Fourth Amendment cannot properly be guaranteed if domestic security surveillances are conducted solely within the discretion of the Executive Branch without the detached judgment of a neutral magistrate. Pp. 316-318.
(c) Resort to appropriate warrant procedure would not frustrate the legitimate purposes of domestic security searches. Pp. 318-321.

Accountability Office Finds Itself Accused - New York Times

2006-04-01T15:03:00.000-05:00

Continued- New York Times: "A senior Congressional investigator has accused his agency of covering up a scientific fraud among builders of a $26 billion system meant to shield the nation from nuclear attack. The disputed weapon is the centerpiece of the Bush administration's antimissile plan, which is expected to cost more than $250 billion over the next two decades.
The investigator, Subrata Ghoshroy of the Government Accountability Office, led technical analyses of a prototype warhead for the antimissile weapon in an 18-month study, winning awards for his 'great care' and 'tremendous skill and patience.'
Mr. Ghoshroy now says his agency ignored evidence that the two main contractors had doctored data, skewed test results and made false statements in a 2002 report that credited the contractors with revealing the warhead's failings to the government."

Stephanie Miller On Hannity & Colmes

2006-03-31T13:16:00.000-05:00

YouTube - Stephanie Miller On Hannity & Colmes

Why Pray against God's Will Anyways?

2006-03-31T11:56:00.000-05:00

Radical Writ

Here's an interesting
story just off the MSNBC headlines:

NEW YORK - In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that
having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their
recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly
higher rate of complications.

Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and other scientists tested the
effect of having three Christian groups pray for particular patients, starting
the night before surgery and continuing for two weeks. The volunteers prayed for
"a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications" for
specific patients, for whom they were given the first name and first initial of
the last name.

The patients, meanwhile, were split into three groups of about 600 apiece:
those who knew they were being prayed for, those who were prayed for but only
knew it was a possibility, and those who weren't prayed for but were told it was
a possibility.

The study looked for any complications within 30 days of the surgery. Results
showed no effect of prayer on complication-free recovery. But 59 percent of the
patients who knew they were being prayed for developed a complication, versus 52
percent of those who were told it was just a possibility.I've always agreed with
George Carlin that praying to an omnicient omnipotent God is just about the most
illogical thing you can do, even from a Christian perspective.

After all, don't the religious folks always say things like "it's God's will"
or "If it is to be in God's Plan"? The idea being that God has a plan for all of
us, and He's all-knowing, so He's imminently more qualified to determine your
fate than you are. I mean, if it was God's plan to knock you down for heart
bypass surgery, and it is God's will that you die on the table, then who are
you, pathetic human, to question God's Plan? Who are you to think your requests
in prayer will be answered if it contradicts The Plan?

So, if God wants you to die, and you pray to live, you're suggesting that God
was wrong. If God heeds your prayer and lets you live, He's admitting His own
fallability, which is nonsense. If God ignores your prayer and lets you die,
then what was the point of praying? If God wanted you to live after all, your
prayer was also a wasted effort.

It's interesting that the prayed-for subjects had higher complications. Could
it be that a true believer who's anticipating everything will be all right
through prayer is somehow letting his guard down and weaking his immune system?
Could it be that when people are unsure they are being prayed for, they fight
harder to live and pay more attention to their doctors? Or could it be that God
is pissed about puny humans questioning his plan so he snuffs out the sick
relative they prayed for? (Don't put it past Him; He once sent bears to
maul to death 42 children who teased a bald man.)

9/11-The Myth & The Reality

2006-03-30T20:27:00.000-05:00

9/11-The Myth & The Reality

LIVE RADIO & WEBSTREAM
Thu, March 30 @ 7:00PM PST
Courtesy KMUD, Garberville, CA

In Support of David Ray Griffin and 9/11 Truth

We know the official story: On September 11, 2001, 19 Muslims with boxcutters and under orders from Osama bin Laden carried out a surprise attack on the US, a “New Pearl Harbor.” We also know that 9/11 is continually brought forth by the Bush administration to justify the pre-emptive and increasingly costly “War on Terror.” Yet after 53 months, getting the truth about what happened on that tragic day seems impossible. Our government has evaded many many questions about 9/11 and our mainstream media has been unwilling to investigate.

David Ray Griffin, a theologian and philosopher of religion, is one of a growing list of prominent scholars and others in the U.S. to step forward and openly challenge the official account of 9/11.

Operating from the principle that all suspects who had the means, motive, and opportunity should be investigated, Dr. Griffin brings to the light of day many omissions and distortions of fact in the official document of the official story—the 9/11 Commission Report.

Charged with providing the "fullest possible account" of 9/11, The Commission ignored a profusion of facts that contradict the official story and, according to Griffin, point to some level of complicity by insiders in our government.

We have invited David Ray Griffin to Oakland so that he might enlighten us regarding these remarkable but relatively unknown facts regarding 9/11. We hope you'll join us at the Grand Lake to hear him. If Griffin's argument is compelling, it is up to us all to insist on a new investigation that is truly independent, effective, and that investigates all of the facts, so that the perpetrators of this crime are brought to justice.

– Progressive Democrats of the East Bay

Statement of Endorsement from Project Censored

Unanswered questions regarding 9/11 is the most important issue facing America today. Implications for democracy, the US Constitution, and freedom of information are all tied into who facilitated and benefited from 9/11. David Ray Griffin is our leading scholar on 9/11 issues. He avoids wild who-done-it theories and focuses instead on key questions that give serious doubt to the US governments official 9/11 story.

Griffin's questions are a compelling rationale for further investigation.

– Peter Phillips

Scalia denys making "Vaffanculo" gesture.. but Photo says otherwise

2006-03-30T12:08:00.000-05:00

BostonHerald.com - Local / Regional News: Photographer: Herald got it right

Amid a growing national controversy about the gesture U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made Sunday at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the freelance photographer who captured the moment has come forward with the picture.

“It’s inaccurate and deceptive of him to say there was no vulgarity in the moment,” said Peter Smith, the Boston University assistant photojournalism professor who made the shot.

Despite Scalia’s insistence that the Sicilian gesture was not offensive and had been incorrectly characterized by the Herald as obscene, the photographer said the newspaper “got the story right.”

Smith said the jurist “immediately knew he’d made a mistake, and said, ‘You’re not going to print that, are you?’ ”

Scalia’s office yesterday referred questions regarding the flap to Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg, who said a letter Scalia sent Tuesday to the Herald defending his gesture at the cathedral “speaks for itself.”

“He has no further comment,” Arberg said.

Smith was working as a freelance photographer for the Boston archdiocese’s weekly newspaper at a special Mass for lawyers Sunday when a Herald reporter asked the justice how he responds to critics who might question his impartiality as a judge given his public worship.

“The judge paused for a second, then looked directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin, Smith said.

The Italian phrase means “(expletive) you.”

Yesterday, Herald reporter Laurel J. Sweet agreed with Smith’s account, but said she did not hear Scalia utter the obscenity.

In his letter, Scalia denied his gesture was obscene and claimed he explained its meaning to Sweet, a point both she and Smith dispute.

Scalia went on to cite Luigi Barzini’s book, “The Italians,” which describes a seemingly different gesture - “the extended fingers of one hand moving slowly back and forth under the raised chin” - and its meaning - “ ‘I couldn’t care less. It’s no business of mine. Count me out.’ ”

“How could your reporter leap to the conclusion (contrary to my explanation) that the gesture was obscene?” Scalia wrote.

Quite easily, according to experts, even if the justice had offered more than a two-word explanation - “That’s Sicilian” - Sunday.

“There is no answer to ‘what it really means,’ because those gestures have different meanings in different locations, even in neighbouring locations,” said Janet Bavelas, a University of Victoria, British Columbia, psychologist who has studied human gestures.

The gesture typically means “I don’t know” in Portugal, “No!” in Naples, “You are lying” in Greece and “I don’t give a damn” in northern Italy, France and Tunisia, said David B. Givens of the Center for Nonverbal Studies in Spokane, Wash.

New Orleans grand indicts three in videotaped police beating

2006-03-29T16:27:00.000-05:00

Welcome to TimesDaily.com
Two fired New Orleans police officers and one current officer, were indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on state charges stemming from the Oct. 8 beating of a man in the French Quarter, an incident caught on videotape by an Associated Press news crew covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Earlier, the panel had heard from the beaten man. Robert Davis, 64, told reporters as he entered the courthouse that he barely remembers the attack and would not be able to recognize the officers who beat him. But he said he thought they deserved stiffer charges than the municipal misdemeanor counts they were orginally charged with.

Robert Evangelist, 36, was charged with false imprisonment while armed with a dangerous weapon and second degree battery; Lance Schilling, 29 was charged with second degree battery, and Stewart Smith, 50 was charged with simple battery, according to a news release from District Attorney Eddie Jordan.

Evangelist and Schilling were fired after the incident; Smith was suspended but remains with the force.

False imprisonment carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, second degree battery carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison and up to a $2000 fine, and simple battery, a misdemeanor, carries a penalty of up to 6 months in prison and up to a $500 fine, Jordan said.

Uranium bombing in Iraq contaminates Europe

2006-03-29T10:22:00.000-05:00

GlobalResearch.ca

Nine days after the start of the American president's 2003 "shock and awe" uranium bombing campaign in Baghdad, an invisible radioactive uranium oxide gas cloud swept through Britain's towns and countryside and throughout Europe.

Respected scientists reported on the unrevealed gas cloud after conducting research on specialized high volume air filters in England. Dr. Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan stunned Europe in a Sunday Times of London article on Feb. 19, 2006. Their scientific paper, released March 1st, 2006, [1] proved the event. With all the vigor of delusional drunkards, British nuclear and military spokesmen predictably denied the reality of an invisible radioactive cloud.

The military claimed that a Chernobyl-like event in the area was probably responsible, but no explosive meltdowns of operating reactor cores have been reported or observed in 2006 anywhere in the world. Evidence of the truth of the gas cloud panicked the military into frantic, irrational, ludicrous denials. The military spin was later refined and the new Chernobyl claim quietly dropped.

In America, lightweight wannabe spin doctor Dan Fahey issued the cover up talking points

continued

Princeton University - Study exposes movers and shakers behind the evangelical movement

2006-03-28T21:40:00.000-05:00

Princeton University - Study exposes movers and shakers behind the evangelical movement
by Denise Barricklow · Posted March 27, 2006; 03:55 p.m.
From the March 27, 2006, Princeton Weekly Bulletin

Is there a “hidden hand” behind the rise to power of the evangelical movement in America over the last three decades? A Princeton graduate student has gained international attention by answering this question in the largest and most comprehensive study on the significance of faith in the lives of America’s societal leaders.

D. Michael Lindsay, a doctoral student in the sociology department, interviewed more than 350 people, including two U.S. presidents, many high-ranking Cabinet officials, numerous CEOs, and a cadre of Hollywood producers and other cultural leaders for his work, titled, “A Vision for the Center: Elite Refashioning of American Evangelicalism.”

“This dissertation is giving us an entirely different look at evangelical Protestantism,” said Lindsay’s adviser, Robert Wuthnow, the Gerhard R. Andlinger ’52 Professor of Social Sciences. “Academics often think of conservative Christians as rubes and dupes. The reality is that the real movers and shakers behind the evangelical movement are highly educated, thoughtful people with entrepreneurial skills, wealth and extraordinary management savvy.”

Interviewees include President Jimmy Carter; President George H.W. Bush; Wal-Mart President Michael Duke; J.C. Penney Chief Executive Officer Myron Ullman; PepsiCo Chief Executive Officer Steve Reinemund; CBS Entertainment Senior Vice President Terry Botwick; entertainers Kathie Lee Gifford and Art Linkletter; Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner; and various Hollywood producers including Ron Austin (“Mission Impossible,” “Charlie’s Angels”) and Dean Batali (“That ’70s Show”).

“This elite cohort,” Lindsay said, “represents the ‘hidden hand’ of evangelicalism and has exerted significant, often understated influence in changing the movement’s direction, scope and strategies over the last 30 years.”

The project is the largest empirical study ever conducted on religion in the lives of societal leaders in the United States, according to Princeton Professor Emerita of Sociology Suzanne Keller, one of the world’s leading authorities on elites. “This study is unique in its scope and focus, and it addresses an extremely timely subject,” Keller said.

Lindsay targeted evangelicalism because it is a group that has made astonishing gains in power and influence. “Since 1976, every person who has won the White House has been identified with the evangelical movement,” he observed. Today, evangelical Christians account for about a quarter of the U.S. population, according to most pollsters.

Lindsay said his study was likely to be an eye-opener once it is officially completed this summer. “I think my project will be a real ‘aha!’ moment for a lot of people. I think people will say, ‘This makes sense. Now I understand why this segment of society has risen in prominence and why they receive so much public attention.’”

Already Lindsay’s work has begun to garner global acclaim. A paper based on his dissertation research recently bested work by 167 other sociologists — many of them tenured faculty — to win the fourth Worldwide Competition for Junior Sociologists, sponsored by the International Sociological Association.

It is quite a distinction for a graduate student to win this award, which will be officially presented to Lindsay this July in Durban, South Africa, at the World Congress of Sociology, said the competition coordinator, Kenneth Thompson, a visiting professor at Yale and emeritus professor of the Open University in the United Kingdom.

“This prestigious competition has previously been won by rising young faculty from a variety of countries, who have subsequently gone on to become famous names in sociology,” explained Thompson. “Lindsay’s research was praised by the jury for its theoretical and methodological sophistication, as well as its topicality and relevance.”

Mysterious evangelical group

The paper that won the international sociology competition is titled, “Liminal Organization in Elite Ranks: Linking Societal Power to Religious Faith.” It studies the role of an organization called The Fellowship, which has ties to the evangelical movement and has been important to the nation’s elite. Every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower — Democrat and Republican — for example, has attended the group’s National Prayer Breakfast, held every February. Yet the group remains largely unknown to most Americans.

Lindsay argued that The Fellowship’s mysteriousness is precisely what gives it the power it has, and in his paper called this quality “organizational liminality,” drawing on the work of Victor Turner, an acclaimed anthropologist who studied rituals among African tribes.

“Turner applied this notion of liminality to temporal stages in various rituals,” explained Lindsay. “And just as he found liminal stages in life and rituals to be extremely powerful, I also argue that liminal organizations — like The Fellowship, which is neither a church, nor a social club, but something in between — are endowed with ambiguity and a mystique that is both enchanting and powerful.”

In his paper, Lindsay described The Fellowship’s “anti-institutional ethos”: all full-time employees are called “associates”; there is no hierarchical structure; meetings are held in private residences; and even the name of the group is regularly changed, so that today The Fellowship is called the International Foundation.

Interestingly, it is the group’s “organizational liminality” that allows it to “slip under the radar screen of media scrutiny,” a quality that is very attractive to the elite, Lindsay said.

At the group’s prayer breakfasts and other meetings, political, cultural and business leaders mingle and talk about the spiritual issues that unite them. “We would share our personal concerns and trials and tribulations with children and family. But we never did any business,” former Secretary of State James Baker was quoted as saying in Lindsay’s paper.

Nonetheless, the organization has wielded surprising power, with some Fellowship insiders confiding to Lindsay that the group has had an impact on “international diplomacy borne of religious conviction,” serving as a kind of “underground State Department.”

Jimmy Carter, for example, told Lindsay that The Fellowship’s leader, Doug Coe, played an important role in the Camp David Peace Accords: “When I got to Camp David with Begin and Sadat, Doug Coe suggested that the three of us should issue a worldwide call for prayer ... (and) that was the first thing that we did.”

An entrepreneurial religion

Lindsay first became intrigued about the study of societal leaders after he assisted Keller in teaching a popular class on “Elites, Leadership and Society.” In preparing for the course in the spring of 2002, Lindsay got his big idea. “I realized that nobody has focused on religion in the lives of the elite,” he said.

Lindsay, who holds a master’s degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, chose modern American evangelicalism, a relatively new religious movement that most scholars agree only dates back to 1942, because of the group’s rapid ascendancy on the public stage in recent decades.

Lindsay said he first became interested in studying evangelicals while working as a consultant for religion and culture at the Gallup Organization. Later, in 1999, Lindsay co-wrote a book for Gallup on religious trends in the United States and subsequently caught the attention of Princeton’s Wuthnow when he attended one of the professor’s seminars. “He displayed a strong interest in the social factors influencing religion, so I suggested he think about applying to our Ph.D. program in sociology,” Wuthnow said.

Lindsay’s dissertation research starts with the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter, the first president to call himself a “born-again” Christian, and traces the movement’s development until 2006. Three different elite realms were examined: politics; business; and what Lindsay broadly terms culture — media bigwigs, Hollywood professionals, sports celebrities, entertainers and even a college professor. Nearly 100 of those interviewed were presidents, CEOs or senior executives at large firms, which Lindsay said was no surprise.

“It’s a very entrepreneurial religion,” he explained. “Evangelicals don’t have a pope, they don’t have any centralized authority. But they are an ambitious lot. Almost all of the mega churches in this country are evangelical, and somebody has to pay for those churches to thrive.”

To conduct his research, Lindsay spent three years, from 2003 to 2006, crisscrossing the country, visiting 75 different sites and conducting all 352 interviews himself. He raised $120,000 to pay for the study, much of which came from grants provided by Princeton University, as well as other organizations including the Earhart Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

Gaining access to such a distinguished group is what can make such studies notoriously difficult to undertake, but Lindsay said he got lucky: He had a friend whose family knew President Jimmy Carter. “He was my big break,” Lindsay recalled. “When someone of President Carter’s stature agrees to be in your study, it gives you instant access. It just opened up a lot of doors, and I owe a great deal to him.”

People were included in Lindsay’s project in one of two ways. Either they defined themselves as an evangelical, or born-again Christian, or they passed three criteria: Each participant had to believe in the primary authority of the Bible (as opposed to, for example, the teachings of the Vatican); they had to have a “personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ” — the born-again experience; and they had to have an “activist approach to faith.”

Lindsay argued that faith-based activism has helped the evangelical movement grow from a largely grassroots organization associated with the poor and disenfranchised into the powerful force that it is today. “Religion has this binding power over people’s lives,” said Lindsay. “It’s even more powerful a factor in unity than race or education or socioeconomic status. What I’ve found in my research on the evangelical movement is that shared religious conviction unites members across many social boundaries, from Hollywood to Silicon Valley to Washington.”

Lindsay, who next fall will join the faculty at Rice University, said he hopes to “re-invigorate the scientific study of elites” in further research. “Sociology needs to be dealing with important topics, and I’m passionate about making that one of the things I try to do. I want to be one of those people who contributes to big ideas.”

***************************************************************************************************************************************

Time Magazine 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America

LISTS

Feature story on the cover of their 7 February 2005 issue.

`1`	Howard Ahmanson, Jr. & Roberta Ahmanson	The Financiers
`2`	David Barton	The Lesson Planner
`3`	Doug Coe	The Stealth Persuader
`4`	Chuck Colson	Reborn and Rehabilitated
`5`	Luis Cort	Bringing Latinos To the Table
`6`	James Dobson	The Culture Warrior
`7`	Stuart Epperson	A High-Fidelity Messenger
`8`	Michael Gerson	The President's Spiritual Scribe
`9`	Billy Graham & Franklin Graham	Father and Son In the Spirit
`10`	Ted Haggard	Opening Up the Umbrella Group
`11`	Bill Hybels	Pioneering Mass Appeal
`12`	T. D. Jakes	The Pentecostal Media Mogul
`13`	Diane Knippers	A Think Tank With Firepower
`14`	Tim LaHaye & Beverly LaHaye	The Christian Power Couple
`15`	Richard Land	God's Lobbyist
`16`	Brian McLaren	Paradigm Shifter
`17`	Joyce Meyer	A Feminine Side Of Evangelism
`18`	Richard John Neuhaus	Bushism Made Catholic
`19`	Mark Noll	The Intellectual Exemplar
`20`	J. I. Packer	Theological Traffic Cop
`21`	Rick Santorum	The Point Man On Capitol Hill
`22`	Jay Sekulow	The Almighty's Attorney-at-Law
`23`	Stephen Strang	Keeper of "The Faith"
`24`	Rick Warren	America's New People's Pastor
`25`	Ralph Winter	A Global Mission

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Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile

BBC - The Century of the Self

2006-03-26T12:19:00.000-05:00

Episode One - Happiness Machines

The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.

Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.

His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.

It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today's world.

Episode 2 - Engineering Consent

The programme explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses.

Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise - that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires and fears. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany. To stop it ever happening again they set out to find ways to control this hidden enemy within the human mind.

Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays, provided the centrepiece philosophy. The US government, big business, and the CIA used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and control the minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical exercise in manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way to make democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the savage barbarism that lurked just under the surface of normal American life.

Episode Three - There is Policeman Inside all our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed

In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the influence of Freudian ideas in America...Out of this came a political movement that sought to create new beings free of the psychological conformity that had been implanted in people's minds by business and politics...This programme shows how this rapidly developed in America through self-help movements like Werber Erhard's Erhard Seminar Training - into the irresistible rise of the expressive self: the Me Generation.

But the American corporations soon realised that this new self was not a threat but their greatest opportunity. It was in their interest to encourage people to feel they were unique individuals and then sell them ways to express that individuality. To do this they turned to techniques developed by Freudian psychoanalysts to read the inner desires of the new self.

Episode Four - Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

This episode explains how politicians on the left, in both Britain and America, turned to the techniques developed by business to read and fulfil the inner desires of the self.

Both New Labour, under Tony Blair, and the Democrats, led by Bill Clinton, used the focus group, which had been invented by psychoanalysts, in order to regain power. They set out to mould their policies to people's inner desires and feelings, just as capitalism had learnt to do with products.

Out of this grew a new culture of public relations and marketing in politics, business and journalism. One of its stars in Britain was Matthew Freud who followed in the footsteps of his relation, Edward Bernays, the inventor of public relations in the 1920s.

The politicians believed they were creating a new and better form of democracy, one that truly responded to the inner feelings of individual. But what they didn't realise was that the aim of those who had originally created these techniques had not been to liberate the people but to develop a new way of controlling them.

LOST IN THE SHADOWS - Google Video

2006-03-26T01:30:00.000-05:00

LOST IN THE SHADOWS - Google Video: "In 1959, filmmaker Michael Colin's father went to Havana to make a movie about Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. While there, he met a Cuban dancer named Olga, whom he married after being granted a divorce.

In July of 1961 he showed up in Los Angeles at three in the morning and pounded on his ex-wife's door, yelling that he had been imprisoned and tortured in Cuba while working on a frog farm for the CIA. The police came, he was arrested and a psychiatrist diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic. He spent the remaining years of his life a broken human being.

Part historical mystery, part Oliver Stone movie, 'Lost in the Shadows' documents Colin's quest to learn what really happened to his father. In 1999 Colin went to Cuba and, equipped with nothing more than a single page from an old medical record of his father's, managed to find Olga in Havana. This emotional and momentous trip, combined with over six years of research through thousands of heavily 'sanitized' government documents, yielded a startling discovery: Colin's father may well have been telling the truth about what happened to him in Cuba. "

Ray McGovern at Busboys and Poets, Washington DC March 8, 2006 - BackTalk - Google Video

2006-03-25T23:54:00.000-05:00

Ray McGovern at Busboys and Poets, Washington DC March 8, 2006 - BackTalk - Google Video: " "

How the US Learned to Love the Bomb (Again)

2006-03-22T16:54:00.000-05:00

Dateline

Archives - March 01, 2006

How the US Learned to Love the Bomb (Again)

The slightly bizarre idea of 'user-friendly' nuclear weapons. On the whole score of proliferation we're always hearing plenty about the dangers posed by the Irans and North Koreas of this world but, as we're about to see, while all that has been going on the US itself has been quietly beavering away on a program aimed at completely upgrading its nuclear arsenal, including the development of tactical weapons - mini-nukes that could be used on the battlefield. Thom Cookes reports.


		22:41 secs

FAA Reportedly Dismissed Moussaoui Concern

2006-03-22T14:39:00.000-05:00

Washington Post
In emotional testimony in the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui today, the former manager of an Arizona flight school that trained one of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers told a federal jury that she had expressed alarm about her student to the Federal Aviation Administration and cried when she learned he had flown an airliner into the Pentagon.

Margaret Chevrette said she helped train hijacker Hani Hanjour at Pan Am International Flight Academy in Mesa, Ariz., near Phoenix, from late December 2000 until March 2001. She said Hanjour, a Saudi who is believed to have piloted the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon, was a poor pilot who spoke limited English.

"She said she had been 'worried that he was going to hurt himself or hurt someone else because he didn't have the skills' to fly an airliner and risked causing an accident.
Chevrette said she reported her concerns to the FAA during Hanjour's training at the flight school but that the agency did little in response. She said an FAA official who oversaw her school suggested she obtain an English interpreter for Hanjour, which was against the agency's own regulations."

Helen Thomas smacks the ball out of the park on Late Edition

2006-03-21T17:24:00.000-05:00

Helen Thomas to Wolfgang: "Well you ask tough questions... .. You asked President Clinton why he wouldn't resign"

The Road to Auschwitz: Eugenics and the University of Michigan

2006-03-21T16:31:00.000-05:00

Michigan IMC
"All the justifications that German physicians and eugenics advocates used to rationalize their programs were already extant in America. Even the most heinous of German eugenic actions had its American counterpart.
--Jeffrey A. Hodges, 'Dealing with Degeneracy: Michigan Eugenics in Context' "

New Pentagon Doctrine: Mini-Nukes are "Safe for the Surrounding Civilian Population"

2006-03-20T19:27:00.000-05:00

GlobalResearch.ca

The Dangers of a Middle East Nuclear War by Michel Chossudovsky February 17, 2006

... Senate Republicans John Warner (R-VA) and Wayne Allard (R-CO) buried a small provision in the 2001 Defense Authorization Bill that would have overturned these earlier restrictions... Senators Warner and Allard imagine these nuclear weapons could be used in small-scale conventional conflicts against rogue dictators, while leaving most of the civilian population untouched. As one anonymous former Pentagon official put it to the Washington Post last spring, "What's needed now is something that can threaten a bunker tunneled under 300 meters of granite without killing the surrounding civilian population." Statements like these promote the illusion that nuclear weapons could be used in ways which minimize their "collateral damage," making them acceptable tools to be used like conventional weapons." (See http://www.fas.org/faspir/2001 / click v54nl, italics added)



This article elaborates on two earlier texts by the author: Nuclear War against Iran, January 2006 Planned US-Israeli Attack on Iran, May 2005 Is THIS a VIDEO Example?

The Dangers of a US Sponsored Nuclear War

2006-03-20T19:18:00.000-05:00

Michel Chossudovsky's Video Presentation on The Dangers of a US Sponsored Nuclear War at the Perdana Peace Forum, Kuala Lumpur, December 2005

Dennis Kucinich says Bush Admin Let 911 Happen

2006-03-19T22:23:00.000-05:00

Dennis Kucinich says Bush Admin Let 911 Happen:

I want to call to the attention of the House the juxtaposition of two news stories. One [..] relating to 9-11. It says 'Federal officials where repeatedly warned in the months before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that Osama bin Laden and Al-Queda were planning aircraft hijacking suicide attacks according to a new report that the Bush administration had been supressing'. And this.. from the front page of the Washington post, 'a newly leaked video recording the high level government deliberation the day before Hurricane Katrina hit shows disaster officials infatically warning President bush that the storm posed a catastrophic threat to new Orleans and the gulf coast, and a grim faced bush personally assuring state leaders that his administration was fully prepared [..] to help'.

Do we see a pattern here? 9-11? Katrina? They knew something was going to happen and they didn't act. They knew that if they went into Iraq that we were looking at a disaster, that there was no way we were going to be able to run that country. They know that global climate change poses a threat to the entire planet, nothing is being done, a pattern of recklessness, indifference, callousness. The implications are deadly for the people of the United States.

The Uninvited Ear

2006-03-19T00:06:00.000-05:00

Michigan Legal Milestone Marker

Located in the lobby of the Penobscot Building at Griswold and Fort in downtown Detroit

The late 1960s were years of great ferment in the United States as militant organizations promoted radical change. Lawrence Robert “Pun” Plamondon—an Ottawa and Ojibwa who had been raised by foster parents in Traverse City—moved to Detroit and joined the counter cultural movement than was then centered on Plum Street near Tiger Stadium. By the mid-1960s, he joined with John Sinclair to create the White Panther Party. This organization was not a white power group. Indeed, they strongly supported the Black Panther Party and were endorsed by Huey Newton of the Black Panther Party. The White Panthers believed that the cultural values of the United States were fundamentally flawed since encouraged the denial of liberties to Americans and promoted wars against liberation movements including the then raging war in Vietnam. Nevertheless, the White Panther Party along with the Symboniese Liberation Army and the Black Panther Party were viewed by many as militant or terrorist groups intent upon force to bring down the federal government and what was then called “The Establishment.” Detroit was center for such groups including the Republic of New Africa founded at the Shrine of the Black Madonna. There were quite a number of attracts upon or bombing of federal facilities attributed to militant organizations. For the most part, bombings were conducted so as to kill no one but blowing up an Army research building at the University of Wisconsin resulted in a death. The office of the CIA in Ann Arbor was bombed in 1968. The FBI assumed the White Panther Party was responsible and, in 1969, its founders—Pun Plamondon and John Sinclair, along with John Forrest—were indicted. Plamondon fled the country—as many indicted militants did at this time—but later returned only to be arrested for littering while driving toward the Mackinaw Bridge. By this time, Pun Plamondon was on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list—the first revolutionary to gain that distinction. I believe he was held by the government for almost three years awaiting trial.

Prior to the trial, Pum Plamondon’s Detroit lawyer—Hugh “Buck” Davis—came to believe that the only evidence against his client resulted from FBI wiretaps of his telephone calls; wiretaps that he thought were obtained without warrants. He sought the contents of the federal government’s electronic surveillance in an evidentiary hearing held before Judge Damon Keith in the federal court for the eastern district of Michigan. The government’s lawyer responded by stating that he had no knowledge of such surveillance but would have the Department of Justice look into the matter. Subsequently, Department of Justice attorneys agreed that Pun Plamondon’s telephone had been tapped and offered to share the content with the bench but not with defense lawyers.

This was not satisfactory to the defense. At this point, President Richard Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell decided that this was an appropriate opportunity for them to defend the gathering of information from violent terrorists without warrants. A CIA office had been bombed and the FBI was convinced they had arrested the guilty parties. Representing the President and the Attorney General, Department of Justice lawyers argued in the evidentiary hearing that during the late 1960s there were 1523 bombing or attempted bombing by militant or terrorist groups. They contended that since the President and Attorney General had sworn to uphold the Constitution and protect the American public, they had the right and obligation to carry out the electronic surveillance without a warrant.

Judge Damon Keith wrote a terse opinion in which he unambiguously stated that Fourth Amendment and case law prohibited the federal government from conducting electronic surveillance without a court order. Needless to say, President Nixon and Attorney General Mitchell strongly disagreed with Judge Keith’s 1971 decision and appealed his ruling to the United States Supreme Court with the expectation of gaining their approval. The Supreme Court deliberated about this matter and, in June, 1972, came to a unanimous decision upholding Judge Keith’s ruling—the federal government cannot carry out electronic surveillance in the United States unless they first obtain a court order. The Department of Justice, knowing the evidence they gathered about the conspiracy to bomb the CIA office would not be admissible, dropped charges against Pun Plamondon, John Sinclair and John Forrest.

Pun Plamondon played a role in the eventual resignation of President Nixon. The Supreme Court reached their unanimous decision on Friday June 16, 1972 with the intention of announcing it publicly on Monday June 19. Some from the Supreme Court alerted the White House to the forthcoming decision. Prior to this the Committee to Reelect the President had installed bugs at offices of Democrats in the Watergate Building. In view of the impending Supreme Court ruling, someone in the White House—perhaps the President or John Mitchell—called for the removal of those bugs so the espionage group known as the Plumbers was dispatched to Watergate complex that week-end. Their bumbled break-in led to the investigation process that triggered the resignation of President Nixon about two years later.

Governmental pressures and changing values led to the demise of the White Panther Party. Pun Plamondon returned to the rock scene in Detroit and served, for some time, as Bob Seger’s body guard but by the end of the 1970s he suffered from addiction problems. In 1981, he rediscovered his Ottawa racial heritage, and reoriented his life. He became a carpenter in Barry County Michigan where he now resides.

This is a Michigan Legal Milestone Marker—a project of the Michigan Bar Association to commemorate important legal decisions and figures. This location was selected since the library of the Michigan Bar Association was in the Penobscot Building.

Date of Dedication: December 18, 1991.
Use in 2006: Historical Marker
State of Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: Not listed
National Registry of Historic Places: Not listed
Citation for Judge Damon Keith’s ruling: 321 F. Supp. 1074 (Eastern district, Michigan, January 26, 1971)
Citation for Supreme Court decision: 407 U. S. 297 (June 19, 1972).
Autobiography of Pun Plamondon: Lost from the Ottawa Tribe: The Story of the Journal Back Self-published in 2004.
Photograph: Ren Farley; February 3, 2006
Description: February 2006

'South Park'-Scientology Battle Rages On - Yahoo! News

2006-03-17T21:50:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News

NEW YORK - "South Park" has declared war on Scientology. Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the animated satire, are digging in against the celebrity-endorsed religion after a controversial episode mocking outspoken Scientologist Tom Cruise was yanked abruptly from the schedule Wednesday — with Internet rumors it was covert warfare by Cruise that led to its departure.

"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!" the "South Park" creators said in a statement Friday in Daily Variety. "Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies... You have obsructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail!"

Internet bloggers accused Cruise of threatening to not promote "Mission Impossible 3," a surefire summer blockbuster, if the offending episode ran. Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, as is Paramount, which is putting out "MI:3."

But Cruise's representative, Arnold Robinson, told The Associated Press Friday that the mega-star made no such demands.

"Not true," Robinson said. "I can tell you that he never said that."

A call by The Associated Press to a Paramount representative was not returned Friday.

The episode in question, "Trapped in the Closet," which first aired last November, shows Scientology leaders hailing Stan, one of the show's four devilish fourth graders, as a savior. A cartoon Cruise locks himself in a closet and won't come out. An animated John Travolta, another famous Scientologist, enters the closet to try to get him out.

In another dig at the famously secretive religion, the credits at show's end are filled with names like "John Smith" and "Jane Smith."

The battle began in earnest earlier this week when Isaac Hayes, another celebrity Scientologist and longtime show member — voicing the ladies' man Chef — quit the show, saying he could no longer tolerate its religious "intolerance and bigotry."

Stone and Parker didn't buy that either.

On Monday, Stone told The Associated Press, "This is 100 percent having to do with his faith in Scientology...He has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians."

A Comedy Central spokesman said Friday that the network pulled the controversial episode to make room for two shows featuring Hayes.

"In light of the events of earlier this week, we wanted to give Chef an appropriate tribute by airing two episodes he is most known for," the spokesman said.

In Bush's dark hours, Democrats shine no light | IndyStar.com

2006-03-17T14:08:00.000-05:00

IndyStar.com:

"Four months ago, the U.S. News cover photo showed the president and vice president frowning darkly, with the headline, 'The White House's darkest hour -- and why it could get worse.'

The featured problem then was the indictment of Dick Cheney's top deputy, Scooter Libby. That followed the president's failed campaign for Social Security reform, the bungled response to Katrina, and ballooning budget deficits. On the congressional side, there was House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's indictment and an investigation of the financial dealings of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Casualties in Iraq had just passed 2,000 and the president's approval ratings had just passed 40 percent, heading south.

And the Democrats? Well, they were content just to watch, apparently following Napoleon's rule, 'Never interfere with your enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself.'"

US spends its way to 28 Eiffel towers: made out of pure gold

2006-03-17T11:45:00.001-05:00

Times Online

IF YOU are worried about how much you owe on your credit cards, this might put things in perspective: America’s national debt limit was increased yesterday to $9 trillion. That’s $9,000,000,000,000 — enough to buy Buckingham Palace 9,000 times.

The increase, passed by Congress, allows the Government to borrow another $781 billion (£447 billion), increasing the national debt limit — the maximum America can borrow — from $8 trillion and $184 billion to $8 trillion and $961 billion.

If the debt ceiling, which is set by Congress, had not been raised by March 24, the Administration would not have been able to borrow more money and the US would have begun to default on its domestic and foreign obligations, an untenable consequence.

The vote to increase the debt limit, requested by the White House, is the fourth since Mr Bush took office. In 2001 the national debt was $5.7 trillion. Today it has ballooned to $8.2 trillion, figures rarely talked about in Washington.

The national debt is the total amount owed by the Government. It is not to be confused with the federal budget deficit, which is the yearly amount by which spending exceeds revenue. When budget deficits are big, the national debt inevitably increases.

When Mr Bush took office he inherited a $236 billion budget surplus. Bill Clinton, his predecessor, had used budget surpluses to pay down some of the national debt in his last two years in office. Mr Bush also inherited some extraordinarily overoptimistic projections. Experts pronounced that budget surpluses would increase to $5.6 trillion over ten years, and there was even heady talk of paying off the entire national debt with the proceeds.

Since then a combination of factors — the September 11, 2001, attacks, unexpectedly low tax revenues, Mr Bush’s tax cuts and runaway government spending — have plunged the yearly budget back into deficit. This year it will reach nearly $400 billion.

What worries many analysts is the amount of US debt financed by foreign governments and banks, particularly in Asia. The national debt is split between publicly held debt — money owed to US and foreign investors — and money owed to branches of the Government. Nearly half the publicly owed debt is held by foreigners. Japan is the biggest creditor, at $668 billion. China, the second-biggest, recently increased its stake by $40 billion to $263 billion.

“We used to have much less held by foreigners,” Alice Rivlin, a former budget director for Mr Clinton, said. “It makes you much more vulnerable to people’s agendas.”

Historically, today’s national debt is the highest in dollar terms, but not as a percentage of GDP. In 1946 it was $270 billion — 122 per cent of GDP.

Today it is 65 per cent of GDP, very close to the postwar high of 67 per cent in 1996.

America has had a national debt since 1791, when it was $75 million. Today it rises by that amount every hour.

$9 TRILLION

Is roughly four times Britain’s GDP

Equates to $1,500 for every man, woman and child in the world

Would buy all the tea in China. In fact it would buy all the tea in the world for the next 2,000 years.

Is enough to solve the Palestinian crisis by rehousing every Israeli and Palestinian family in a £1.5m detached house in Henley-on-Thames

Would build 28 Eiffel Towers — constructed out of gold.

Bush, Google and online porn

2006-03-16T15:33:00.000-05:00

p2p news view / p2pnet.net:

In my mind the most amusing aspect of the Bush administration's attempt to grab users' search information from Google is the reason they actually want the info in the first place.

The Bush administration claims it's trying to prove how easy it is for minors to come across pornographic content. They tried using the Internet Archive, but didn't get much. (So, in case anyone wanted to know whether archive.org is a kid-friendly, the US government says "yes!").

The really funny thing is that making the net safer for children could have been partially achieved by the creation of a .xxx Top Level Domain. Unfortunately, Bush's own Department of Commerce helped kill the idea - apparently, acknowledging the existence of pornography somehow legitimises it, perhaps in the same way that acknowledging the existence of HIV/AIDS means that risky sexual practices are suddenly okay. I don't know - false logic and backward thinking seems to be the hallmark of a functioning government these days.

As far as the Bush White House is concerned, forcing Google to hand over search data serves two functions:

1) They don't have to dip into the Republican war chest by doing the research themselves; and,
2) They get to establish a precendent that kills the 4th Amendment, in case they want to sponge info from other companies in the future.

US District Judge James Ware said he was reluctant to give the Justice Department everything it wanted because of the "perception by the public that this is subject to government scrutiny". Weeell, so long as the US government isn't getting everything it wanted, that's fine. If they're only handing over a little bit of private information, it'll be okay. Provided they're not violating the Constitution much, I'm sure the public will feel reassured.

Sarcasm aside for a minute, I wasn't aware you could do some thing that's "partially" unconstitutional. I always thought is was one of those binary states: constitutional or unconstitutional. Alive or dead. Pregnant or not pregnant. That was one of the things that made me feel really uncomfortable when I heard about it - so long as you compromise, you can can ask for the most ridiculous things. People will ignore the outlandish request and focus on how "reasonable" you can be in reaching a compromise:

Crazed Dictator: I want a hundred nuclear bombs! Muhahaha!
United Nations: No way! No nuclear bombs!
Crazed Dictator: Okay, ten bombs then!
US Court: We'd like to thank you for being so reasonable. Request for ten nuclear weapons granted.

In case you're still not convinced that this is simply the big government trying to beat big tech companies into submission, you might like to consider the fact that AOL, Yahoo and MSN have aready handed over their search data, exactly like the Department of Justice wanted in the first place.

In terms of raw data, any statistician would tell you they have more than enough to work out how much smut there is on the net. The only possible thing Google could help them with is determining whether it's a lot, or a hell of a lot.

To take this case as far as they have can only mean the Bush administration is more interested in proving they can get the data than doing anything useful with it...which they could have done to some extent by letting people put .xxx after the name of their raunchy web site anyway.

Alex H, p2pnet - Sydney, Australia

President Bush Must Be Held Accountable for His Illegal Domestic Spying Program

2006-03-16T14:58:00.000-05:00

CounterPunch:
By Sen. RUSSELL FEINGOLD

As Congress heads into a weeklong recess, I hope members of the Senate have a chance to listen to their constituents back home. All Americans want to fight terrorism and protect our country from those who wish to do us harm, but they don't want to sacrifice the rights and principles our country was founded upon. One of those fundamental American principles is that the President doesn't get to pick and choose which laws he follows.

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks, and especially this week, about Congress changing the law to authorize the President's otherwise illegal domestic surveillance program. Of course, anyone who makes that argument concedes that the program is illegal. In addition, the President has yet to explain convincingly why he can't follow the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which allows wiretapping of terrorists while protecting law-abiding Americans.

The President has broken the law, and the censure resolution I introduced on Monday is intended to hold him accountable. While there have been plenty of personal attacks directed at me this week, few have argued the merits. The facts for censure are clear. FISA makes it a crime to wiretap American citizens on American soil without the requisite court orders--which is exactly what the President has admitted doing. Before the program was revealed, he misled the American people by assuring them that he was getting warrants for wiretaps. Since it was revealed, he has misled the American people about the legal basis for his actions.

I look forward to a full hearing, debate and vote in committee on this important matter. If the Committee fails to consider the resolution in a reasonable time period, I will ask that there be a vote in the full Senate. I know Americans will have a lot to say when they see their elected officials during the break. I hope my colleagues listen.

US says launches biggest air assault in Iraq

2006-03-16T10:53:00.000-05:00

Reuters AlertNet:

BAGHDAD, March 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Thursday it had launched its biggest air offensive in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

A military statement said the operation involving more than 50 aircraft and 1,500 Iraqi and U.S. troops as well as 200 tactical vehicles targeted suspected insurgents operating near the town of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

The statement said "Operation Swarmer" was launched on Thursday morning and is "expected to continue for several days as a thorough search of the objective area is conducted."

Samarra was the site of a bombing attack last month on a Shi'ite shrine that set off sectarian reprisals and pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.

Print Story: Justice Ginsburg Reveals Details of Threat on Yahoo! News

2006-03-16T08:49:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News:

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor have been the targets of death threats from the "irrational fringe" of society, people apparently spurred by Republican criticism of the high court.

Ginsburg revealed in a speech in South Africa last month that she and O'Connor were threatened a year ago by someone who called on the Internet for the immediate "patriotic" killing of the justices.

Security concerns among judges have been growing.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter joked earlier this year that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned. Over the past few months O'Connor has complained that criticism, mainly by Republicans, has threatened judicial independence to deal with difficult issues like gay marriage.

Worry is not limited to the Supreme Court. Three quarters of the nation's 2,200 federal judges have asked for government-paid home security systems, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said this week.

Ginsburg said the Web threat was apparently prompted by proposals in Congress, filed by Republicans, that tell judges to stop relying on foreign laws or court decisions.

"It is disquieting that they have attracted sizable support. And one not-so-small concern — they fuel the irrational fringe," she said in a speech posted online by the court earlier this month and first reported Wednesday by LegalTimes.com.

According to Ginsburg, someone in a Web site chat room wrote: "Okay commandoes, here is your first patriotic assignment ... an easy one. Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg and O'Connor have publicly stated that they use (foreign) laws and rulings to decide how to rule on American cases. This is a huge threat to our Republic and Constitutional freedom. ... If you are what you say you are, and NOT armchair patriots, then those two justices will not live another week."

Rep. Tom Feeney (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., a sponsor of one of the congressional proposals, wrote about the legislation on his Web site and in bold letters featured a quote from O'Connor predicting the Supreme Court would probably increasingly rely on foreign courts.

Ginsburg pointed out that the legislation was first proposed in 2004, an election year.

According to the legislation's promoters, the Feeney proposal had 82 Republican and 2 Democratic co-sponsors. One supporter was former Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, a lawmaker O'Connor has criticized — although not by name — for harshly denouncing judges.

Justices, in some of their most hotly contested rulings, have looked overseas. Last year, for example, justices barred the executions of juvenile killers on a 5-4 vote. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said then that "it is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty." DeLay called the ruling outrageous. He also suggested that the House consider impeaching some judges.

In an angry dissent to that decision, Justice Antonin Scalia said capital punishment policy should be set by states, not "the subjective views of five members of this court and like-minded foreigners."

Ginsburg said, "Critics in Congress and in the media misperceive how and why U.S. courts refer to foreign and international court decisions." She said those decisions are used for guidance only.

O'Connor said last week during a speech at Georgetown Law School that the justices have received threats. But the Ginsburg remarks at the Constitutional Court of South Africa provide unusual detail.

Ginsburg, who turned 73 Wednesday, told the audience O'Connor "remains alive and well — as for me, you can judge for yourself."

___

On the Net:

Justice Ginsburg speech:

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/publicinfo/speeches/sp_02-07b-06.html

Public Rejects Right-Wing Narrative On Media Coverage Of Iraq

2006-03-14T13:56:00.000-05:00

Th ink Progress

The White House narrative about Iraq, parroted by conservatives everywhere, is that the media has failed to report the “good news.” Bush has faulted the media for ignoring “the quiet, steady” progress in Iraq. Just last week, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld recently blasted the media for “exaggerating” Iraq’s security problems.

Today, Ralph Peter, an author, wrote an piece for conservative website Real Clear Politics that began “During a recent visit to Baghdad, I saw an enormous failure. On the part of our media.” It was linked enthusiastically by right-wing bloggers.

The American people, however, aren’t buying it. A new CBS poll shows that about 60% of Americans believe that the media is reporting things in Iraq either accurately or better than they really are:

Of course, CBS did the poll, so it’s probably making things out to be worse than they really are.

Recall Pat Roberts of Kansas

2006-03-14T13:34:00.000-05:00

Overview of Recall Provisions

Kansas: conviction for a felony, misconduct in office, incompetence, or failure to perform duties prescribed by law. No recall submitted to the voters shall be held void because of the insufficiency of the grounds, application, or petition by which the submission was procured. (KS Stat. §25-4301)

Who can be recalled? - All but judicial officers

Signature Requirement - 40% of the votes cast in the last election for the official being recalled

Circulation Time - 90 days

The governor appoints a successor who must be a member of the same political party as the officeholder recalled, and must be selected from a list submitted by a committee of the political party of the person recalled.

Kansas - Const. Art. 4, §3; KSA §25-4301 - 25-4331

Animated Version of "Animal Farm" With Altered Ending Among Films Produced by the CIA

2006-03-14T12:58:00.000-05:00

Think Progress

The Memory Hole has acquired a list of films that were produced or used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Among the films on the list is a 1955 animated version of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” with its “chilling finale in which the farm animals looked back and forth at the tyrannical pigs and the exploitative human farmers but found it ‘impossible to say which was which.’”

[The original] ending was altered in the 1955 animated version, which removed the humans, leaving only the nasty pigs. … The C.I.A., it seems, was worried that the public might be too influenced by Orwell’s pox-on-both-their-houses critique of the capitalist humans and Communist pigs. So after his death in 1950, agents were dispatched (by none other than E. Howard Hunt, later of Watergate fame) to buy the film rights to “Animal Farm” from his widow to make its message more overtly anti-Communist.

Some other notable films in the CIA’s library:

Brainwashing
Spying for Uncle Sam, Part I
Why Man Creates
How Free Should the Press Be?
CBS Reports: UFO: Friend, Foe or Fancy?
Mickey Mouse Cartoon-Squatter’s Rights
I Am a Soldier
Holograms — The First True 3-D Picture
Man and the Sea
Unidentified Flying Objects
Eye in the Sky
It Works, and That’s the Key
Operation Underground Network
He is a Mad Man
Rise of Labor Unions/Employee/Management
Hovercraft
Our Election Day Illusion/The Best Majority
Kidnap Executive Style

Why Get Excited Now?

2006-03-14T11:49:00.000-05:00

The Left Coaster:

by pessimist
Sure - George W. Bu$h'$ (mi$)Admini$tration is going in the tank. His polling numbers continue to drop, and the realization begins to build that he and his entire crew could be thrown out of power with a shift in the makeup of the Congress.
But this supposes a fair election, which isn't going to happen.
We've beaten the Diebold horse to death, so I won't go over that carcass again. Instead, I'm going to look at the slate of poor choices we are going to be offered to select from when we're allowed into the booth to trigger the 'correct' tally subroutine with our votes.
I have to say that there isn't anyone in either major party that impresses me enough to support them at this time. For every Frist, you have a Daschle. For every McCain, you have a Gore. For every George Allen, you have an Barack Obama making nice with the opposition

CONTINUED

Bin Laden's deputy had lived in US - World - smh.com.au

2006-03-14T11:36:00.000-05:00

smh.com.au

SACRAMENTO: Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, lived in California in 1998 and 1999, a paid FBI informant says.

Naseem Kahn, 32, who gave evidence on Monday in the trial of a Pakistani-American father and son accused of terrorism-related activity, told the court he frequently saw Zawahiri coming and going from the mosque in Lodi, south of Sacramento, but never talked to him and did not know who he was at the time.

Zawahiri, an Egyptian believed to be hiding in Pakistan, this month called on Muslims to attack the West.

An FBI spokeswoman declined to say whether Zawahiri had lived in the US or had just passed through on a fund-raising mission.

Mr Khan's evidence is key to the prosecution's case in the trial of Hamid Hayat, charged with lying to the FBI and providing material support to terrorists by attending terrorist training camps in Pakistan. His father, Umer, 48, is also charged with lying to the FBI.

Jerry Falwell clears up the confusion

2006-03-13T19:41:00.000-05:00

Think Progress

"Earlier today, reports began circulating across the globe that I have recently stated that Jews can go to heaven without being converted to Jesus Christ. This is categorically untrue."

Christians Have as Many Abortions as Everyone Else, Catholics Have More

2006-03-12T21:14:00.000-05:00

PRWEB:
A new study by The Center For Reason (www.CenterForReason.com) finds that Christians have just as many abortions as their non-Christian counterparts. The study concludes that in the year 2000, Christians were responsible for 570,000 abortions. Catholics were found to be the worst offenders, with abortion rates higher than the national average.

San Francisco, Calif. (PRWEB) March 12, 2006 -- With over one million abortions being performed in the US each year, this issue has dominated the political landscape. In recent years the rhetoric has escalated, with the pro-life movement becoming a flagship for Christian morality and ethics. The prevailing Christian doctrine--that abortion is murder--has polarized the issue, firmly placing the vast majority of Christians on the pro-life side of the debate.

Incendiary comments by some of the more outspoken Christian figureheads have sought to portray abortion as an “evil” perpetrated by the non-Christian left. In response to this, The Center For Reason, a private research group, undertook a study to test the premise: “Christians have fewer abortions than non-Christians”. The results disproved the premise.

The study, available as a downloadable report, reveals that Christians have just as many abortions as non-Christians. Data analyzed for all fifty states show that the rate of abortion is the same in the most-Christian segments of the population as it is in the least-Christian. The most-Catholic segments, on the other hand, showed significantly higher abortion rates.

All data sources used in the study are publicly available, and are referenced in the report. All raw data and calculated values are tabulated in the report, to allow full verification of the results.

The report, titled “The Landscape of Abortion”, may be downloaded from www.CenterForReason.com/reports.htm.

Pentagon Admits To Improperly Snooping on Peaceful War Protesters

2006-03-10T22:52:00.000-05:00

Think Progress

Last December, NBC News obtained a 400-page compilation of reports from the Pentagon that revealed the Defense Department was conducting secret surveillance of peaceful war protesters.

Yesterday, in a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) pressed Rumsfeld about the Pentagon’s so-called TALON surveillance program which had conducted the snooping. Maintained by the Counterintelligence Field Agency (CIFA), the TALON database (short for Threat and Local Observation Notice) is a system that was devised in May 2003 by Paul Wolfowitz to collect “raw information” about “suspicious incidents.”

After nearly three months, three pointed letters, and one high-profile hearing, Leahy finally got the answers he was looking for. In a letter addressed to Leahy from Robert Rogalski, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Counterintelligence and Security, the Pentagon admits to improperly collecting information on innocent parties:

Adult Film Starlet and Former California Gubernatorial Candidate Mary Carey to attend Presidential Dinner to Receive Award for Businesswoman of the Year

2006-03-10T11:46:00.000-05:00

Mary Carey

Adult film starlet and former California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey is scheduled to attend the prestigious United to Victory dinner with President George W. Bush in Washington D.C on March 15th - 16th. Due to Carey's efforts in starting Mary Carey Productions, Inc. in 2005, Carey will also be receiving the 2005 California Businesswoman of the Year.

Chatsworth, CA (PRWEB) March 10, 2006 -- Adult film starlet and former California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey is scheduled to attend the prestigious United to Victory dinner with President George W. Bush in Washington D.C on March 15th - 16th.

In addition, due to Carey's efforts in starting Mary Carey Productions, Inc. in 2005, Carey will receive the 2005 California Businesswoman of the Year award.

"I'm always excited to learn more about what's going on in our nation's capital, since most people in the porn industry think an Iraqi pullout is a form of safe sex," quipped Carey. "Since I'm seriously considering running for governor of California again, I'm going to need a lot of support from Republican lawmakers nationwide - however I can get it."

At the invitation of the Nation Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Mary Carey will meet and interact with key Congressional leaders and Administration officials to discuss advancing powerful pro-business, pro-family agendas and meeting positive legislative goals. She will join Karl Rove, senior advisor to the President, for lunch on Wednesday the 15th, and President Bush for dinner on Thursday the 16th.

"I'm really excited to be going back to Washington D.C. to see the president again," said Carey. "Everyone thinks that politicians are stuffy, but we all had a great time last year, and I had fun signing a lot of autographs. Wait till they see that I have lost 20 pounds since the last time they saw me. Watch out Mr. President!"

Carey made national headlines in June of 2005, when she attended a similar dinner with President George W. Bush, also at the invitation of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

For further information and interview requests, contact:
Scott Newcomb
213.675.6476

# # #

Trackback URI: http://www.prweb.com/dingpr.php/U3F1YS1DcmFzLUNvdXAtTWFnbi1IYWxmLVplcm8=

Related
PBS Documentary - Frontline American Porn

Stop your meddling, Iraqi minister tells US - World - smh.com.au

2006-03-10T11:07:00.000-05:00

smh.com.au:

AMID rising American frustration with the political deadlock in Iraq, the National Security Minister, Abdul Karim al-Enzy, has rebuked Washington for interfering in Iraq's domestic affairs.

In a remarkable broadside against the US, Mr Enzy charged that it was deliberately slowing Iraq's redevelopment because of a self-serving agenda that included oil and the "war on terror".

The attack came as the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, told a Senate inquiry in Washington that Iraq's political leaders needed "to recognise the seriousness of the situation and form a government of national unity that will govern from the centre, and to do it in a reasonably prompt manner".

To that end, US diplomats have demanded a more generous sharing of key portfolios among Iraq's religious and ethnic populations than the dominant Shiite religious parties are willing to concede.

In particular, they are urging the dismissal of the hardline Interior Minister, Bayan Jabr.

But in an interview with the Herald, Mr Enzy snapped: "The last time I checked, Bayan Jabr was Interior Minister of Iraq - not of the US or the UN. He is one of our best and this is interference in our business."

Mr Enzy argued that if the US-led coalition in Iraq had been more serious about rebuilding the country's security forces in the first year of the occupation, it could now be making substantial cuts in foreign troop numbers in Iraq. "We don't want foreign forces here, but it's impossible for them to leave now, because we're on the edge of civil war," he said.

"The truth is the Americans don't want us to reach the levels of courage and competence needed to deal with the insurgency because they want to stay here.

"They came for their own strategic interests. A lot of the world's oil is in this region and they want to use Iraq as a battlefield in the war on terror because they believe they can contain the terrorism in Iraq."

Asked if the West - and the US in particular - understood Iraq and the region, Mr Enzy said significant differences of culture and tradition complicated the relationship.

"We don't want to be a part of international problems - the US has a problem with Iran, but as an Iraqi government, we don't. We are not a part of the Israel-Palestine problem, but the deployment of foreign forces in Iraq puts pressure on that issue."

The minister's spiel was symptomatic of a rising anti-American sentiment among Iraq's Shiite majority. Mr Enzy said many Iraqis believed the US wanted civil war in the hope it would break the power of the religious parties still struggling to form a government.

"This is not the view of the Government; it is street talk. But it could be why the coalition forces are being targeted in the [Shiite areas] of the south and east."

At the Washington inquiry into the Bush Administration's request for $US70 billion ($95 billion) more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Rumsfeld told sceptical senators the plan was to prevent a civil war "and to the extent if one were to occur, to have … Iraqi security forces deal with it".

At the same time, Iraq's cabinet announced that 13 self-confessed insurgents had been hanged "by the competent authorities".

It named only one of them - Shukair Farid, a former police officer accused of working with Syrian fighters to enlist Iraqis to kill police and civilians.

Mystery still surrounds the abduction of about 50 guards from a private security firm in Baghdad on Wednesday.

There were claims they had collaborated with the insurgency and that the Iraqi guards were being held at a government detention centre.

But persistent government denials of any role in the round-ups of the Sunni guards heightened fears that it was the work of a Shiite death squad.

The US military has confirmed it plans to shut down the infamous Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad in the next three months.

A spokesman said that the more than 4500 people being held there would be transferred to a new US-run prison at Camp Cropper at Baghdad International Airport.

E-Voting System Adds 100,000+ Votes in One Texas County During Tuesday's Primary Election!

2006-03-10T03:55:00.000-05:00

THE BRAD BLOG

Hart InterCivic Paperless Touch-Screen Systems Flat-Out Fails in Tarrant County, TX

Officials Ignored Prob on Election Night, Blame 'Program Snafu' the Next Day

We hope to have much more on this tomorrow...but for now, this from the Star-Telegram today:

An undetected computer glitch in Tarrant County led to inflated election returns in Tuesday's primaries but did not alter the outcome of any local race, elections and county officials said Wednesday.

The error caused Tarrant County to report as many as 100,000 votes in both primaries that never were cast, dropping the local turnout from a possible record high of about 158,103 voters to about 58,000.
...
Questions about possible problems were raised by election staff late Tuesday night, as it became apparent to some that the county would far exceed the 76,000 votes cast in the 2002 primary elections.

But elections officials did not look into the discrepancies that night because they were dealing with a new system, new procedures and some new equipment, said Gayle Hamilton, Tarrant County's interim elections administrator.

"We didn't think there was a problem," Hamilton said. "We should have stopped right then.

"But we didn't question it at that time."

The problem stemmed from a programming error by Hart InterCivic, which manufactured the equipment and wrote the software for the local voting system.
...
"The system did what we told it to do," said John Covell, a vice president with Hart. "We told it incorrectly."

See this previous report for scores of additional e-voting problems reported yesterday, just after Texas' first Primary Election since adding loads of new electronic voting machines this year. (Keep an out for today's 'Daily Voting News' to be posted here shortly...where we expect there will be many more such reports.)

VIDEO - UAE TV Reports on Prisoner Abuse in Iraq

2006-03-09T15:32:00.000-05:00

THE BRAD BLOG

Video in Streaming Flash format...
Video in Windows Media format...

Abu Dhabi TV which is located in The United Arab Emirates broadcasts this report on prisoner abuse by "Iraqis and Americans" in Iraq.

Amnesty International found crimes so severe that they are considered "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity." They also found that American forces have detained 14,000 Iraqis.

Iraqis that have been released are almost never given an explanation for their detention or compensation. In the video, one Iraq can seen being released decrying his imprisonment as "terrorism! terrorism! terrorism!"

Today, the United States Department of State released a report claiming human rights violations by The United Arab Emirates and the Iraqi Police. The report even hinted at abuses by the U.S.

VA Watchdog dot Org - VA NEWS FLASH - 03-08-06 #2

2006-03-08T14:32:00.000-05:00

VA Watchdog dot Org:
Dear Mr. Speaker:

We believe that providing for our military veterans and their families is a continuing cost of war and an important component of our national defense. We simply have no excuse for not meeting their needs. For some, it easy to forget that budgets and numbers ultimately reflect our priorities and affect real people. Indeed, by failing to include any money for veterans’ health care and readjustment services in the $72.4 billion emergency war supplemental request, the Administration again has failed to acknowledge the added stress and resource demands the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are placing on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Accordingly, we respectfully request that you work with the Appropriations Committee to provide additional resources for the VA within the emergency war supplemental.

We believe that at least $630 million is urgently needed to care for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the heroes from prior conflicts who rely upon the VA for their health care. Specifically, we are seeking $250 million to support increased demand for mental health services for returning troops; $200 million for direct medical services, including treating traumatic brain injury and other complex blast injuries, and additional resources for the VA’s Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centers; $110 million for increased demand for VA prosthetics; $15 million for medical and vocational rehabilitation services; and $55 million for increased staff to process the growing disability claims backlog of more than 370,000, including claims homeless disabled veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who are waiting months for decisions.

Mr. Speaker, last year, we saw the VA face disgraceful shortfalls in its health care budget, shortfalls that had a direct impact upon the care received by veterans. Ultimately, the Administration begrudgingly admitted these shortfalls and was forced to request additional resources. We are concerned that the Administration may have once again underestimated the total number of veterans that will seek services at the VA, including new veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Mr. Speaker, we strongly urge you to correct the Administration’s oversight and recognize that caring for our veterans is an ongoing cost of war.

Sincerely,

John Salazar

Lane Evans

Nancy Pelosi

Steny Hoyer

James Clyburn

John Larson

John Spratt

Ike Skelton

Stephanie Herseth

Ted Strickland

Shelley Berkley

Vic Snyder

Tom Udall

Luis Gutierrez

Bob Filner

Darlene Hooley

Silvestre Reyes

Corrine Brown

Mike Michaud

Zoe Lofgren

Carolyn McCarthy

Ed Case

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

Lloyd Doggett

Robert Brady

Robert Wexler

Adam Smith

Mike Thompson

Mark Udall

Joe Crowley

Stephen Lynch

Joe Baca

Mike Doyle

Patrick Kennedy

Jim Davis

David Scott

Frank Pallone

Allyson Schwartz

Jim McGovern

Brian Higgins

Albert Wynn

Stephanie Tubbs Jones

Rush Holt

Tammy Baldwin

David Wu

Jan Schakowsky

Jim McDermott

Kendrick Mek

Tom Allen

Robert Scott

Susan Davis

Rahm Emanuel

Raul Grijalva

Ben Chandler

Donna Christian-Christensen

Eddie Bernice Johnson

Danny Davis

Diana DeGette

Al Green

Julia Carson

Grace Napolitano

Lois Capps

Hilda Solis

Dennis Kucinich

Ed Markey

William Jefferson

Peter DeFazio

Eleanor Holmes Norton

Rick Boucher

Paul Kanjorski

Henry Waxman

Bernard Sanders

Gary Ackerman

Barney Frank

Peter Visclosky

Rosa DeLauro

Jerry Costello

Alan Mollahan

Bart Gordon

Marion Berry

Doris Matsui

Gene Taylor

John Dingell

Nita Lowey

Lucille Roybal-Allard

Carolyn Maloney

Sherrod Brown

Alcee Hastings

Marcy Kaptur

Tom Lantos

Maurice Hinchey

Mike McIntyre

Robert Andrews

Solomon Ortiz

Madeline Bordallo

Barbara Lee

Ron Kind

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Charlie Gonzales

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Sanford Bishop

Dan Lipinski

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Neil Abercrombie

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Louise Slaughter

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Norm Dicks

Eliot Engel

Maxine Waters

Edolphus Towns

Rick Larsen

Xavier Becerra

David Price

Dale Kildee

Elijah Cummings

Mike Ross

Jim Langevin

cc: Honorable Jerry Lewis, Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations

Tom Manatos
Advisor to the Leader
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
(202) 225-0100
tom.manatos@mail.house.gov

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) - Chairman of the Senate Cover-up Committee

2006-03-08T13:50:00.000-05:00

Think Progress:

Yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee led by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) voted to block an investigation into the NSA’s warrantless domestic spying program and made a deal with the White House to produce legislation allowing “wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days.” Ranking Member Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) called the move “proof that the White House controls the Intelligence Committee.”

This isn’t the first time Pat Roberts has covered up for the Bush administration. Far from it.

Pat Roberts has been instrumental in the cover-up of virtually every national security scandal of George W. Bush’s presidency. ThinkProgress has produced a comprehensive report showing how Roberts and his Senate Cover-up Committee have obstructed investigations into everything from false Iraq intelligence to detainee torture to the CIA leak scandal.

Check it out HERE.

'Moscow Times' Covers Diebold, Crumbling American Electoral System

2006-03-08T13:43:00.000-05:00

THE BRAD BLOG

A bit alarmist, perhaps, for our personal taste (though we've misunderstimated the amount of needed "alarm" in the past), Chris Floyd covers the state of American Democracy and the Rise of the Machines in Russia's Moscow Times.

Chris, of Empire Burlesque, who has popped up from time to time as a friendly BRAD BLOG Guest Blogger, covers some of our Diebold/California coverage in his article. So we have no complaints. And couldn't be prouder.

If only American Media would cover the fall of American Democracy as closely as the Moscow Times does. Remember what the Wingnuts like to say: The world is watching.

When The Government Breaks The Law

2006-03-07T22:31:00.000-05:00

National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL):
By Barbara Bergman

The New York Times revealed in mid-December that for the past four years President Bush has repeatedly authorized the National Security Agency, a Defense Department intelligence agency, to conduct surveillance of domestic communications involving foreign contacts. Eventually, the Bush Administration admitted that the Times story is accurate. The President’s actions constitute an abuse of power and violate our Constitution and federal law.
The President attempted to justify his actions on three grounds:

(1) his notification to a few select members of Congress;

(2) Congress’ resolution authorizing him to make war on Iraq and Afghanistan; and

(3) his constitutional authority as Commander-in-Chief to maintain national security.

Merely notifying a few members of Congress that the Administration intended to violate the law does not justify bypassing existing legislation. We can imagine how successful we would be in defending our clients if we tried to argue that “well, he told his friends he was going to do it. . .” In addition, the 2001 authorization to use force against the perpetrators of 9/11 did not give the President any express or implied power to order the NSA to eavesdrop domestically on citizens and intercept their private telephone conversations and e-mail.

Contrary to the White House’s assertions, neither Congress nor the Supreme Court has ever explicitly given the Executive Branch a green light to conduct domestic electronic eavesdropping without a warrant in “national security” matters. Indeed, the Supreme Court held over 30 years ago in U.S. v. U.S. District Court,1 that domestic eavesdropping without prior judicial approval was not lawful as a reasonable exercise of the President’s power to protect the national security. As the Court concluded: “These Fourth Amendment freedoms cannot properly be guaranteed if domestic security surveillances may be conducted solely within the discretion of the Executive Branch.”2

Six years after that decision, Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to give the government power to tap individuals domestically who were believed to be operating for foreign powers. FISA creates a system of oversight that prohibits even the President from acting without judicial approval. FISA also creates an at least implicit recognition that all domestic surveillance, even for foreign intelligence gathering, must be subject to some warrant requirement. FISA was a compromise between law enforcement/intelligence and civil libertarians, and was designed to define the parameters for intelligence surveillance in the United States. Ours is a system of checks and balances and in enacting FISA, Congress recognized the potential for abuses when the President acts on his own. FISA also allows for swift action — active wiretapping up to 72 hours — prior to a warrant application in the event of a genuine emergency. The tools are in place to protect our nation if a real and immediate threat exists and wiretapping is thought to be essential to combat that threat.

I am not endorsing the FISA procedures, which are secret and non-adversarial, and which we do not believe always meet constitutional standards. For example, NACDL opposed, and still does, as a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against illegal search and seizure, the PATRIOT Act’s elimination of the requirement that the primary purpose of a FISA application be intelligence gathering, rather than criminal investigation. But for all its shortcomings, FISA represents the minimum threshold Congress has established for foreign intelligence gathering in the United States.3 In contrast, the eavesdropping operations at issue here are hidden from any scrutiny whatsoever.

Domestic clandestine surveillance is not a role for the military in a free society. It is contrary to established law, the Constitution, and our way of life. As Justice William O. Douglas explained in Katz v. United States,4 the Fourth Amendment requires a neutral fact-finder to issue search warrants. Under the separation of powers doctrine created by the Constitution, the Executive Branch is not neutral and disinterested; that is the role of the courts. The protections of the Fourth Amendment cannot be assured when the President and the Attorney General reserve for themselves both the role of investigator-and-prosecutor and disinterested neutral magistrate.

Justice Brandeis foresaw the erosion of our civil liberties in his dissent in Olmstead v. U.S.,5 another government eavesdropping case almost 80 years ago. “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent…. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”6 Our government, Brandeis said, teaches by example. “If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.” 7

Congress must hold hearings to determine the extent of this illegal tapping and to take appropriate action to prevent it from continuing or ever happening again — and NACDL must be active in insisting that such hearings be conducted. In the interim, attorneys who have cases in which the NSA intercept program may have relevance should take action to require the government to reveal whether anyone involved in any way in the case — defendants, lawyers, witnesses, etc. — had been subjected to such surveillance by any federal agency (including the Defense Intelligence Agency, which apparently was also active in the program). A related issue is seeking discovery of whether any of the warrantless surveillance contributed to and tainted FISA applications or other investigative methods.

It is time for Congress and the courts to exert their own independent roles to assure that no other executive agencies are being misused in contravention of U.S. laws or are otherwise impinging on the civil liberties of American citizens.

Notes

1. 407 U.S. 297 (1972).

2. Id. at 316-17.

3. It is interesting to note that the 26-year-old FISA Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush Administration than from the four previous presidential administrations combined. The FISA judges modified only two search warrants out of the 13,102 applications that were approved over the first 22 years of the Court’s operation. But since 2001, the judges modified 179 out of the 5,645 requests for court-ordered surveillance. A total of 173 of those “substantive modifications” occurred in 2003 and 2004, the most recent years for which public records are available. See Stewart M. Powell, “Secret Court Modified Wiretap Requests,” The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 2005.

4. 389 U.S. 347 (1967).

5. 277 U.S. 438 (1928).

6. Id. at 479.

7. Id. at 485. n

Rewriting The Rules

2006-03-07T18:37:00.000-05:00

TomPaine.com

In dramatic letter carefully sent to Harry Reid at the end of the newscycle on Friday, ensuring that it has yet to be reported in a single major newspaper, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist threatened to re-write the rules of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the work the committee does, it has up until now been uniquely bipartisan, giving both parties equal seats and co-chairmanship to allow full discussion. Frist is threatening to turn it into another Republican rubber stamp. Why?

Because tomorrow, March 7, the committee will decide whether or not to begin investigations into the administration's warrantless wiretapping of Americans. And Frist is worried that this critical use of the checks and balances of government is "of little or no value" to the nation.

Blogger Glenn Greenwald has full analysis here, and VichyDems has contact information for a state-by-state grass-roots campaign to contact Republican senators who have indicated they want an investigation, Democrats to urge them to fight and everyone to alert them of the danger if Frist is allowed to eviscerate Congressional oversight.

Telling the 'approved' story

2006-03-07T12:23:00.000-05:00

Capitol Hill Blue

On an unspecified day last week an employee of a federal agency that cannot be revealed delivered a document that cannot be identified to a company that cannot be named seeking information that cannot be discussed.

The aforementioned federal agent left the unidentified document with an employee of the unnamed company. That employee then called the owner, who must remain anonymous, to inform him that the document that could not be identified sought information that could not be discussed. The owner who must remain anonymous instructed the employee to deliver the unidentified document to a lawyer whose name is protected by attorney-client privilege.

The lawyer whose name is protected by attorney-client privilege examined the unidentified document and then reviewed the information that could not be discussed with the owner who must remain anonymous.

With the approval of the owner who must remain anonymous, the lawyer whose name is protected by attorney-client privilege contacted a U.S. attorney who demanded that his identity be concealed.

The U.S. attorney who demanded that his identity be concealed then claimed the owner who must remain anonymous violated a law that could not be disclosed and faced arrest for charges that could not be specified because he had referred to the document that cannot be identified in an article for a certain, but unnamed, web site.

The lawyer whose name is protected by attorney-client privilege argued that his client could not be charged under the undisclosed law because he had been acting as a journalist at the time of the alleged publication and not as the owner of the company that cannot be named. He had, in fact, learned of the existence of the document that cannot be identified from a third-party, who was not named, and was not aware of its exact contents because he had not seen or read the document and, therefore, was not aware of the exact contents that cannot be discussed.

The U.S. attorney who demanded his identity be concealed consulted with others who names are classified and concluded that the owner who must remain anonymous walked a fine line between legal and illegal and would not face arrest for violating a law that could not be disclosed on charges that could not be specified.

So walking this fine line of justice allowed the owner who must remain anonymous to avoid confinement at an institution at an unknown location for an unspecified length of time.

In exchange for his freedom, the owner who must remain anonymous agreed to write a "clarification" of what happened, following the guidelines for publication laid down by the Bush administration.

Which is what you just read.

Canadian trash bad for Michigan?

2006-03-05T16:05:00.000-05:00

WZZM 13 Grand Rapids

Lansing - State legislators Wednesday passed a bill that would ban the importation of foreign trash, but only if Congress gives them authority.

Now Democrats are urging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to release a recent DHS report. The report assessed the process for screening and inspecting trash trucks that cross the border between Michigan and Canada.

Democrats Levin, Stabenow and Dingell all agree, “The report from the DHS-OIG, which is labeled ‘For Official Use Only,' confirms exactly what we suspected. Municipal waste trucks that come into the United States from Canada cannot be adequately inspected.”

The report was prepared pursuant to a 2003 request by the members who argued that, for national security reasons, these shipments must be screened as effectively as other types of cargo.
Republicans agreed by saying, “The legislation steps toward helping Michigan solve its problems with garbage trucked into the state from Canada.”

Levin, Stabenow and Dingell say, “This problem is a threat to our security, since there is no practical way to adequately inspect these trash trucks, we simply should not allow them into this country.”

The state Senate passed the bill Wednesday by a 37-0 vote. The House of Representatives passed the legislation by a 70-4 vote later in the afternoon.

Although Michigan is a large importer of Canadian trash, state landfills generate a lot of money from the business. Trash companies and landfills have argured they will will have to raise fees if Canadian trash is outlawed.