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August 31, 2007:
The Danziger Bridge killings: How New Orleans Police gunned down civilians fleeing the flood| |
Excerpt: Seven police officers been indicted for opening fire on two African American families on the Danziger Bridge days after the storm, killing two people and wounding four others. At the time, the official story was that they gunned down snipers. Now the question is why they shot at two families fleeing the flood. |
August 29, 2007:
"Election Crimes" report is rigged and rotten says co-author| |
Excerpt: We spent a year doing research and consulting with leaders in the field to produce a draft report. What happened next seems inexplicable. After submitting the draft in July 2006, we were barred by the commission's staff from having anything more to do with it.
What was the problem? In all the time we were doing our research and drafting the report, neither the staff nor the commissioners, who were continually advised of our activities and the substance of our work, raised any concerns about the direction we were going or the research findings.
Yet, after sitting on the draft for six months, the EAC publicly released a report -- citing it as based on work by me and my co-author -- that completely stood our own work on its head.
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August 29, 2007:
Cop gets probation for
beating up little boys| |
Excerpt: By admitting to sufficient facts, [Officer John] O'Hare was able to get the case "continued without a finding" for one year, during which time he will have to complete anger management counseling and will be on probation. If he finishes the year without incident, the charges will be dismissed. |
August 23, 2007:
CIA dropped the ball on Al Qaeda -- but not until Bush took office| |
Excerpt: George Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, rang the Qaeda alarm. He sent a memo to the entire intelligence community saying that he wanted no effort spared in the "war" with Osama bin Laden. He took on the president's closest advisers to agitate for a strike on a Qaeda base in Afghanistan.
The disturbing thing was that this all happened under President Bill Clinton. When George W. Bush won the White House, Tenet seems to have shifted his priorities. ...
Another disturbing aspect of the report released this week was its date, June 2005, which neatly sums up Bush's policies on transparency and accountability -- he doesn't believe in either. Perhaps it's not surprising that the report wasn't released in 2005. Bush had just given Tenet the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his "pivotal" role in fighting Al Qaeda. |
August 22, 2007:
NPR stands for Nuclear Paid Rallying| |
Excerpt: In the six stories NPR has broadcast over the past 90 days about the future of nuclear power production in the U.S., NPR's sources included only three opponents of nuclear power plants, versus eight sources touting the safety, environmental friendliness and financial benefits of nuclear energy.
One factor that is relevant to NPR's cheerleading for nuclear power is its own financial links to the industry. According to NPR's website, between 1993 and 2005, the public radio service received between $250,000 and $500,000 from Constellation Energy, which belongs to Nustart Energy, a 10-company consortium pushing for new nuclear power plant construction. During the same period, another nuclear operator, Sempra Energy, donated between $50,000 and $100,000 to NPR. |
August 22, 2007:
Bush lies about Al-Qaeda captures in Iraq| |
Excerpt: Some distortions are so massive and so deliberate as to constitute outright lies. See if you can spot the dishonesty in this line in President Bush's speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars' national convention today:
"U.S. forces have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January." ...
Since the surge began, the U.S. has had between 17,000 and 23,000 Iraqis in custody each month, according to the Brookings Institution's Iraq Index (pdf). Last month, Ned Parker of the Los Angeles Times reported that of the 19,000 detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq, only 135 were foreigners -- the most likely indicator of membership in al-Qaeda. |
August 21, 2007:
Ex-CNN News Chief defends vetting commentators with Pentagon| |
Excerpt: The former news chief of CNN is defending his decision to seek the Pentagon's approval of prospective CNN news analysts during the lead up to the Iraq war. Eason Jordan's comments have come under renewed scrutiny after being featured in Norman Solomon's film War Made Easy.
...
"I think it's important to have experts explain the war and to describe the military hardware, describe the tactics, talk about the strategy behind the conflict. I went to the Pentagon myself several times before the war started and met with important people there and said, for instance -- 'At CNN, here are the generals we're thinking of retaining to advise us on the air and off about the war' -- and we got a big thumbs-up on all of them. That was important."
Jordan, who now runs the IraqSlogger website, defended his actions last week. He said: "Employers routinely vet prospective employees with their previous employers. In these cases, we vetted retired generals to ensure they were experts in specific military and geographic areas. The generals were not vetted for political views."
Comment: Eason Jordan was the CNN exec who said he was surprised that Army PsyOps interns worked at his network. He later quit at CNN after suggesting that the U.S. military might be targeting journalists in Iraq, and then backpedaling to say he'd never meant that.
Beyond that, I know little about Eason, but I'm not surprised that an old-time, mainstream face runs IraqSlogger. We're skeptical when a new publication pops up seemingly from nowhere, and is almost immediately cited widely, indicating almost instant acceptance and respect. Sounds paranoid, I know, but from years on the fringe dating back to the on-paper era, trust me, it's utterly common to see well-funded, essentially corporate products try to position themselves as independent or counterculture efforts.
I have to assume that's what's behind the name IraqSlogger -- it almost shouts "outside the mainstream," but it is the mainstream... It was born just last December, and they say their goal is to be "the world’s premier Iraq-focused information source." When I went to poke around their website just now, I couldn't get to the content, as my way was blocked by pitches for subscriptions at $59.95 per month -- and that's a special discount price.
Seems to me that a company with a business strategy based on selling $60-a-month subscriptions to news about the Iraq war, is a company that's literally profiting from war, and literally has a vested interest in seeing that war extend onward. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
August 19, 2007:
Washington Post offers an overview of Karl Rove's White House crimes ... after Rove quits| |
Excerpt: Rove, who announced last week that he is resigning from the White House at the end of August, pursued [political goals] far more systematically than his predecessors, according to interviews and documents reviewed by the Washington Post, enlisting political appointees at every level of government in a permanent campaign that was an integral part of his strategy to establish Republican electoral dominance.
Comment: This is a pretty good article, but -- wouldn't its have more useful, more journalism, if it had been written and published while Rove was on the government payroll at the White House, instead of after he quit? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
August 19, 2007:
Iraqi lawmakers frustrated at occupation conundrums| |
Excerpt: Iraqi politicians complain that they are not able to replace [Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki] until the Americans signal strong opposition and identify a replacement. For many in the Iraqi political class, the meetings between Maliki and the other leaders, which are scheduled to continue, represent the government's last chance to prove itself to a patron that might soon waver.
Everyone, said Qasim Dawood, a Shiite lawmaker, is waiting on the Americans. "From one side, they interfere in everything they want," he said. "Then on the other side, they say, 'Sorry, you are a sovereign country, you have to do it yourself.' " |
August 18, 2007:
US military practices genetic discrimination in denying benefits| |
Excerpt: While genetic discrimination is banned in most cases throughout the country, it is alive and well in the U.S. military. For more than 20 years, the armed forces have held a policy that specifically denies disability benefits to servicemen and women with congenital or hereditary conditions. The practice would be illegal in almost any other workplace. |
August 16, 2007:
Diebold, maker of vote-stealing machines, changes corporate name| |
Excerpt: The company said that after failing to find a buyer for its voting machine business, it was changing the name of the division to Premier Election Solutions Inc (or PESI) and was giving it more "independence" by establishing a separate board of directors to run it. |
August 16, 2007:
Politicians preach calm as fear, panic sweep markets| |
Excerpt: Shares plummeted worldwide on Thursday, although U.S. stocks staged a late-session comeback, while politicians weighed in to calm financial markets swept by fears that years of runaway credit growth will end with a big blowout.
Comment: It might take more than a few days of preaching calm to overcome the years of general fear-mongering politicians have subjected us to since 9/11.2001 -- and continue to do today, in election campaigns and other times when it suits their purposes. ... MORE ... JR Mooneyham PERMANENT LINK |
August 15, 2007:
Sequoia Voting Systems responsible for 2000 Presidential debacle?| |
Excerpt: It's been seven years since pregnant and dangling chads in Florida caused one of the biggest political rifts in U.S. history. Those faulty Florida ballots also directly led to the passage of federal legislation in 2002 that outlawed punch-card voting machines and allocated billions of dollars in federal funds for states to purchase expensive new electronic voting machines.
Now new questions are being raised about who was responsible for the faulty punch cards in that election. And according to last night's Dan Rather Reports episode, the fingers point to Sequoia Voting Systems, which not only makes e-voting machines that replaced punch cards but also created the punch cards that failed in Florida. |
August 15, 2007:
Promised "Petraus report on Iraq" will be written by White House| |
Excerpt: Despite Bush’s repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government. |
August 15, 2007:
Peculiar 9/11 photo emerges| |
Comment: After the first news bulletin on Sept 11 2001, I spent several hours watching news telecasts for updates. I don't know anyone who didn't watch the TV coverage, and frankly can't imagine anyone who wouldn't -- except, I guess, President Bush, who sat down at a desk with his back to the television as the catastrophe unfolded... Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
Questions about Sept 11, 2001 |
August 13, 2007:
Judge orders reporters to stop covering
for Justice Department in anthrax case| |
Excerpt: Five journalists must identify the government officials who leaked them details about a scientist under scrutiny in the 2001 anthrax attacks, a federal judge said Monday.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered the reporters to cooperate with Steven J. Hatfill, who accused the Justice Department and FBI of violating the federal Privacy Act by giving the media information about the FBI's investigation of him.
Hatfill's attorneys want the reporters to reveal the identities of law enforcement officials who were cited anonymously in stories about the investigation.
Creating such a [journalistic] privilege in this case would have the "perverse effect" of handicapping a plaintiff whose good name was destroyed by government leaks, Walton said.
Comment: Yes, theoretically, it is really really bad that a court would force a journalist to give up their sources, and there will surely be some hand-wringing over this case by media critics.
But none of the mainstream discussions I've seen about this seem to make what seems to me to be an obvious distinction -- the distinction between a reporter protecting a source because that source is a whistleblower who could face reprisals, and a reporter protecting a source because that source is a powerful person in the government who wants to anonymously spread damaging, even untrue, information.
There is a fundamental difference between protecting the powerless from the powerful, and protecting the powerful's ability to squash the powerless. The laws protecting journalists were never meant to help them collude with the government to go after innocent people.
Once a reporter crosses that line from adversary to accomplice, they should lose the right to keep their sources confidential. At that point, is what they're doing even really journalism anymore? Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
August 10, 2007
Mortgage market teeters near meltdown| |
Excerpt: No-one wanted to buy mortgage backed securities this week. And only "conforming" loans can be offloaded by the originating banks. What this means, until the situation changes, is that banks might only loan what they themselves want to keep on their books. |
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News in left column;
August 29, 2007:
Let it crash
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: It should be clear that neither Wall Street nor the Federal Government have the interests of the American people in mind. Therefore, further participation in this failing economic disaster will only prolong the agony of us all. Take your money out, pay the penalty, and do not contribute to those who are planning your economic ruin. Let it crash, and the sooner the better. |
August 28, 2007:
Universal health care, with one condition
by JR Mooneyham, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Here's a way to do away with organ shortages completely AND give a tremendous boost to the living standards of working Americans in at least two different ways: enact universal health care, with one condition being you will be an organ donor upon death. |
August 28, 2007:
The quickening pace of war preparations
by The Canadian, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The brutal heat of the Summer is almost over in the Middle East and the September UN meetings concerning Iranian sanctions are picking up where the ambiguity of July left off. ... |
August 27, 2007:
There are no Nazis in
Karl Rove's family tree
by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Karl Rove is a monster. He has spent his entire adult life telling lies, exploiting bigotry, abusing Christianity, and fanning false fears, all to build Republican electoral victories. He is complicit in starting a war that's killed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of other people. By ordinary, un-spun standards, he is guilty of treason, having revealed the name of an undercover CIA agent (a specialist in preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction) to further the lie that led to war, the lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Karl Rove is clearly, obviously, unmistakably a man of no principles, no scruples, no character, and no patriotism.
But claims that Rove is a Nazi or the grandson of Nazis are simply untrue -- and the real Rove is an abominably awful human being whose evil needs no exaggeration. |
August 27, 2007:
Bush connects the dots
using the Neo-Domino Theory
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Bush went on to say that if we leave before the job is done; the Iraqi domino will fall, causing all the other Middle East dominos to fall. These domino countries will become terrorist strongholds, killing all the people trying to colonize their countries and resources. If this happens, the terrorists will follow us home just like the communist Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army did when we stopped killing them in their country so we wouldn't have to kill them here. |
August 25, 2007:
You're sloppy, you're irresponsible,
and you refuse to change
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I have no time because I have to work to pay my bills, so leave me alone. No, you stupid asses, don't say bills. Say debt. |
August 25, 2007:
I will not defend them
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News
August 22, 2007:
Give the gift economy a chance
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News | |
Excerpt: Concentration of wealth causes war. When the concentration of wealth decreases in a country, when wealth is more evenly shared, every health statistic of that country improves. |
August 22, 2007:
A three-alarm heads-up!
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: All of this money market/commercial paper horror must be solved immediately -- within a month, maximum, and preferably this week.
If the short-term corporate paper markets remain illiquid then the U.S. faces its own Shock And Awe -- destruction of unimaginable scale as the System implodes, as people start demanding all of their money back -- which is impossible because it does not exist (remember It's A Wonderful Life?). |
August 20, 2007:
Libertarians' blind spot
by HappySysiphus, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Paying your taxes to a BIG GOVERNMENT like they do in Europe is an investment in adequate health care for you and your loved ones, unions with balls that can make sure you get paid more than a poverty wage, an infrastructure that doesn't dump you in the river to die on your way to work, and a realistic adversary to the government that governs you the most -- The Corporation that holds your children hostage with the threat of abject poverty. |
August 20, 2007:
Our entire political establishment is complicit
by Raymond R., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The main result of the surge has been to move the end date of the Iraq War further into the future. ... Voting for either party or lending any of them your support means that you voluntarily accept your share of the guilt of war crimes and crimes against humanity. |
August 20, 2007:
Pat Tillman's murder:
The terror war in a nutshell
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The tremendous power in the hands of those who control the U.S. government seems to create an irresistible urge on the part of this degenerate leadership to manufacture perfect crimes.
If you look at history since WWII it is possible to discern a great trail of covert action in support of U.S. political and, most importantly, transnational commercial goals, each one of which can be seen as a perfect crime.
Pat Tillman's murder is a small scale version of this more grandiose theme. |
August 20, 2007:
One more catastrophically stupid war
by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Bush and Cheney clearly want another war. In our fine democracy, what these two schmucks want is all that matters. They've gotten everything they've wanted -- with the eager cooperation of media, Congress, Democrats, and the American citizenry -- from the day they secured the 2000 Republican nomination. And now they want war against Iran. |
August 20, 2007:
Karl Rove's new website
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: A questionable photo of your opponent with a farm animal is only $175. Turning war heroes into cowards and cowards into war heroes, just $200 for each military commendation, AWOL incident, and draft deferment. |
August 19, 2007:
You cannot go against nature
by HappySysiphus, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We can't deny what we are. Either we are going to leave this place and seek our greater destiny or we are the agents of Death come to destroy it. ... |
August 19, 2007:
Hillary Clinton has leadership experience? Where?
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Perhaps Hillary Clinton learned a lot watching her husband in the Oval Office, but that didn't teach her how to charm voters, or how to lead the country.
To the contrary, she is famous for "triangulating" -- for never taking the lead on any issue until a middle path is defined by people who are willing to lead. |
August 16, 2007:
An open-book test
on demagoguery and current events
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: "The early 20th century American social critic and humorist H. L. Mencken, known for his "definitions" of terms, defined a demagogue as "one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots."
What's the first name that comes to mind? |
August 14, 2007:
R.I.P., U.S.A.
by Ace, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Amongst all the anger and despair and disbelief and outrage that seems to be a common thread ... a recurring question seems to be, "When will the people say they have had enough? When will they rise up and do something?" |
August 13, 2007:
Did lead ruin your child?
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Is childhood lead exposure the bedrock of success for the prison/industrial complex? The research of economist Rick Nevin seems to demonstrate that this is true. |
August 13, 2007:
Revenge of the X’s
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Inspired by the internet videos of the 2008 Presidential campaign, the former wives, lovers, concubines and sexually harassed campaign workers of the candidates have formed a union and produced their own video to help stitch America back together again. |
August 12, 2007:
The System, like the Berlin Wall, must come down
by Hazel Burke, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: It's standard operating procedure in our "free market" system. When corporate profits and asset prices are rising, the wealthy get wealthier and Larry Kudlow reiterates for the 10 gazillionth time on CNBC that "It is always morning in America." But when corporate profits and asset prices actually start falling the government -- through its authorized agent, the Fed -- immediately socializes the losses. |
August 11, 2007:
Hoppin' onto (and off)
the Ron Paul bandwagon
by FOMAD and Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The big picture of these libertarian ideals is, if you don't have money you can go to hell. And Ron Paul is definitely a "big picture" libertarian. |
August 11, 2007:
Worldwide economic collapse
is no accident
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Think of the example of the "Wreckers," a phenomenon that has been repeated in many places throughout history, where people take advantage of storm conditions to deliberately lure vessels onto the rocks so that they can be attacked and looted. The world's economy is now controlled by wreckers and, in light of this understanding, the current world financial meltdown is really nothing more than a manufactured opportunity to loot the wreckage and achieve even greater degrees of concentration of wealth, ownership of land and resources, and the power that comes with this sort of control, at the externalized expense of general destruction. |
August 10, 2007:
Bail-out of the rich has begun
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I think we can lay to rest the urban myth of the Bush "free market" economy, which is often used as justification for not implementing universal health care, and for allowing corporations worth tens or hundreds of billions of dollars and which earn billions of dollars in profits to receive special tax breaks and government hand-outs. |
August 9, 2007:
Nagasaki and a nuclear energy renaissance
by Marie K., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Do they think Chernobyl has finally been forgotten? There IS a new generation of youth who probably don’t remember. ... |
August 6, 2007:
Some U.S. carrier groups withdrawn from Gulf
by The Canadian, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The leaders of Syria and Iran saw what happened to Iraq even though Saddam complied with the UN. It is known that the leadership of Iran and Syria are convinced that a US/Israeli strike is inevitable and that it may occur as early as this year.
Is it possible that they would think to strike first at specific targets in the hopes of catching their adversaries off-guard and attaining the upper political hand? |
August 6, 2007:
Top Ten reasons for impeaching Gonzales,
or, How I learned to stop worrying and love Jay Inslee
by Madeline Zane, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Out of all the administration's top criminals, Gonzales seems to have left the messiest trail of documents and witnesses in his wake. Many of his subordinates and even leaders in other departments (like Robert Mueller from the FBI) have already contradicted his testimony. Every week, almost every day, it seems, we get more and more documentation about some criminal enterprise or other with a trail leading right to Alberto's office. |
August 6, 2007:
Zen and the art of road rage
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Have you ever been severely tempted to run over your neighbor? No particular reason. Homeboy just might bug the bejesus out of you on principle, so why not insert your "neighbor" under the wheels of the family Suburban? That is how American foreign policy works under the grand direction of our insane Boy King George. |
August 6, 2007:
From inside the numbness
by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Sometimes I think I'm growing numb to the horror, other times I think numbness is the only way it's possible to endure it. Our method is to remain fixated, as much as possible, on the website, or on activism toward a specific and possibly even attainable local goal, and try to block out "the big picture" as much as possible ... because any time I see the big picture clearly, I want to cry or scream or just blow my brains out.
So toward that end, here are a few glimpses of "the little picture" ... |
August 5, 2007:
Bush and the Democrats'
danger to America
by Hazel Burke, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The idea that the U.S. can monetarily afford to continue an indefinite occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is pure fantasy. The costs are growing every year and will not total less than $1 trillion under any circumstances.
And the political and moral costs are increasing faster than the Pentagon can ask for more money to blow sh*t up. |
August 4, 2007:
What we can do as psychiatrists is to call a spade a spade
by Frederick K., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The diagnosis is on full display. We the People don't need psychiatrists, just our own smarts and common sense. We have eyes to see and ears to hear. Nothing more is needed. What we can do as psychiatrists is to call a spade a spade.
BUSH IS A CRIMINAL! |
August 3, 2007:
Making sense of covert foreign policy
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The urge is to just back away in confusion. That is a mistake. Refusing to try to make sense of this stuff as it plays out on the world stage is to just become an enabler of the criminally insane that are caught up in it. |
August 3, 2007:
We won the war! Everybody can go home now!
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Bush should just declare Iraq won. Not like that "Mission Accomplished" bullshit from 2003. No, he should level with the American people and tell us that he's screwed the pooch from day one on this one and well, sorry about that! Sorry to all the mourning mothers and fathers, the widows, wives and lovers, the children without fathers and mothers, and America overall and in general. Bush should just own the bank and be done with it. |
August 3, 2007:
America's gift to Iraq: Slow motion genocide
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: America is now the main force promoting war and destruction throughout the Middle East and Islamic countries. More than one billion Islamic people occupy Earth, and the Bush administration is busy not just antagonizing them but supplying them advanced weaponry! |
August 3, 2007:
March of the grave
by Chris D., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Forgive me if it seems insulting to pen a funeral dirge, sung to the tune of a children's ditty, to capture the ever-increasing death toll and senselessly repetitive nature of the War on Terror... |
August 2, 2007:
Is it insane to notice that virtually
our entire leadership is insane?
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: If the current insane leadership of the U.S. is allowed to continue along its current course, we will not only be sealing our own fates, but also the fate of the entire world. An insane cabal armed with 10,000 nuclear weapons will most likely destroy the world. |
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