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Monday, January 21, 2008
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Wexler calls for Cheney impeachment on House floor -- gets no media coverage
 
Excerpt: "In the history of our nation, we have never encountered a moment where the actions of a President or a Vice President have more strongly demanded the use of the power of impeachment," Wexler said last night.

Comment: The media won't mention it, and John Conyers, the milquetoast Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee, won't allow impeachment under any circumstances. Beyond Wexler and Kucinich and Russ Feingold in the Senate, there isn't anyone in Congress who would've sided with the colonists against the British in 1776.   Crumpled    PERMANENT LINK 

Bastard administration deploys medically unfit soldiers
 
Excerpt: One e-mail, written Jan. 3 by the surgeon for Fort Carson's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, says: "We have been having issues reaching deployable strength, and thus have been taking along some borderline soldiers who we would otherwise have left behind for continued treatment."

Capt. Scot Tebo's e-mail was, in part, a reference to Master Sgt. Denny Nelson, a 19-year Army veteran, who was sent overseas last month despite doctors' orders that he not run, jump or carry more than 20 pounds for three months because of a severe foot injury.

Democrats' leader will try again to give telecoms immunity for illegal spying
 
Excerpt: As a general matter, betting on Democratic Congressional submission to Bush's demands is one of the surest bets there is. And with Reid and most of the Senate Democratic leadership specifically committed to delivering yet another victory for Bush and their telecom owners on the FISA bill, "uphill battle" is an understatement for describing the challenge which proponents of the rule of law face.

  America's rigged elections  

Media uninterested as New Hampshire recount shows sizable errors, tampered vote boxes
 
Excerpt: In Hillsborough County, Clinton gained 675 votes -- a jump of more than 2 percent. Time will tell if more errors are forthcoming. There were also bizarre but credible reports of eight-inch slits cut into the sides of some ballot boxes ...

South Carolina voting machines not set to zero before voting started
 
Excerpt: But the Commission blamed the delay on human error, even though Election Systems & Software voting machines used in South Carolina were decertified by the California Secretary of State last year, after the company refused to provide information necessary to review the voting systems, as required by state law.

Conyers introduces bill against GOP vote-suppression tactic
 
Excerpt: Anticipating the 2008 election, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has introduced a bill to ban "vote caging," the term for a time-tested GOP vote suppression technique.

To "cage" voters, operatives send out a mass mailing with "do not forward" labels. Those names attached to addresses that bounce back are put on a challenge list, which is then used to challenge those voters when they come to the polls. GOPers in states all over the country have used the technique for decades, especially targeting mostly African-American areas.

Bill advocates paper ballots and audits
 
Excerpt: A New Jersey congressman introduced a bill Thursday in the House that would offer $600 million to voting districts across the nation that convert to paper ballots or put in audit systems in time for the November presidential election.

New York Times/CBS News poll rigged
 
Excerpt: Opinion polls, like this one, form a privately administered first stage of the official election, deciding who will get the media coverage required to win votes.

These polls determine who gets excluded from debates. These polls are trumpeted by news anchors as respectable, reliable predictors which can separate the wheat from the chaff. These polls are, essentially, a tool to narrow the field of Presidential candidates before an election has even occurred. And they're rigged.

Judge grants Kucinich entry to Nevada debate
 
Network, of course, appeals and keeps Kucinich from debate


White House claims email tapes were re-used, illegally destroying evidence and records
 
Excerpt: The White House has acknowledged recycling its backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003, raising the possibility that many electronic messages -- including those pertaining to the CIA leak case -- have been taped over and are gone forever.

The disclosure came minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it has previously refused to provide. ...

If the e-mails were not saved, the White House might have violated two laws requiring preservation of documents that fall into the categories of federal records or presidential records.

Waxman notices that White House is lying about emails

Excerpt: The chairman of a House committee said a White House spokesman's statements Thursday in the controversy over missing e-mail conflict with what congressional staffers were told four months ago. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., scheduled a hearing and challenged the White House to explain spokesman Tony Fratto's remark that "we have absolutely no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing."

  Iran -- Run-up to the next war  

Last week's Iranian speedboat threat that had President Bush so angered was probably a hoax
 
Excerpt: Threats to US ships in the Strait of Hormuz heard at the end of a Pentagon-released recording of an incident between Iranian patrol boats and US Navy warships last week may have been the work of a local heckler known as the "Filipino Monkey", The Navy Times has reported.

Comment: This is the kind of silliness over which Cheney & Bush are willing to huff and puff and threaten yet another war. In a government that hadn't already been toppled by bipartisan coup, such leaders would be removed from office by reason of obvious mental imbalance.   Angry Annie    PERMANENT LINK 

Bogus "speedboat" story was product of Pentagon spokesman, reporter says

Excerpt: Ultimately, other elements of the story swallowed by Pentagon correspondents were also discredited. The commanding officer of a missile cruiser said the white boxes "didn't look threatening."

Fifth Fleet commander Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff denied that his ships had been close to firing on the Iranians. So did destroyer commander Jeffery James.

Comment: I've got five bucks that says Congress won't even investigate this obvious attempt to trigger World War Three. "Democrats" are Republicans and "Republicans" are Fascists and war is what they want.   Angry Annie    PERMANENT LINK 

Well-connected right-wing lunatics call for attack on Iran "as soon as it is logistically possible"
 
Excerpt: [Drooling idiot Norman] Podhoretz isn't alone in his desire to keep pushing for an attack on Iran. Ever since Podhoretz's recent article was released online, right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt has been promoting it, encouraging his audience to "read the whole thing. Twice." Hewitt has also been asking his guests, including New York Times columnist William Kristol, if they agree with Podhoretz's assessment. Scarily, they do.

Russia reiterates: Could use nuclear arms preemptively
 
Excerpt: "But we believe all our partners in the international community should understand clearly and have no doubts that in order to protect its and its allies' sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russia will use its armed forces, including nuclear weapons, and it can do it preemptively," [Russian armed forces Chief of Staff Yuri Baluyevski] told a scientific conference in Moscow.

Comment: One of Russia's allies, of course, is Iran.   Helen & Harry    PERMANENT LINK 

Bush-Cheney claim that Iran was responsible for 1994 terror in Argentina looks like another lie
 
Excerpt: Team Bush's latest tactic is to play up a thirteen-year-old accusation that Iran was responsible for the notorious Buenos Aires bombing that destroyed the city's Jewish Community Center, known as AMIA, killing eighty-six and injuring 300, in 1994. ...

After spending several months interviewing officials at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires familiar with the Argentine investigation, the head of the FBI team that assisted it and the most knowledgeable independent Argentine investigator of the case, I found that no real evidence has ever been found to implicate Iran in the bombing.

Based on these interviews and the documentary record of the investigation, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the case against Iran over the AMIA bombing has been driven from the beginning by US enmity toward Iran, not by a desire to find the real perpetrators.

Israel's Olmert says "all options are on the table"
regarding the dire (and phony) threat of nuclear-armed Iran
 
Excerpt: While Israel was considering even extreme possibilities, such as military action, "the threat of a nuclear Iran gives context to the options that we're putting on the table," Olmert said.

"Israel cannot reconcile itself with a nuclear Iran," he added.

Comment: Of course, Iran is supposed to reconcile itself with a nuclear-armed Israel... and if Iran can't reconcile itself to that, why, Israel will wipe Iran off the map.  Mark E.    PERMANENT LINK 


  The melting economy  

Subprime scandal steals record amount
of money from people of color
 
Excerpt: A startling new report has predicted the subprime mortgage crisis will cause people of color to lose up to $213 billion, leading to the greatest loss of wealth in modern US history.

The figure appears in a new report from United for a Fair Economy called "Foreclosed: The State of the Dream 2008." The group accuses mortgage lenders of deliberately targeting the poor and people of color with high-cost loans.

Congress investigates huge payouts
to CEOs behind mortgage crisis
 
Excerpt: Current and former CEOs of three major US financial institutions deeply involved in the widening subprime mortgage crisis were asked on Monday by a Congressional committee to testify at a hearing next month on their massive pay and severance packages.

[Charles] Prince quit in early November as chief executive while Citigroup posted billions of dollars in subprime losses and [Stanley] O'Neal was ousted amid similar circumstances at Merrill Lynch.

Despite these problems, Merrill said O'Neal would collect about $161.5 million in stock awards and benefits after leaving. One expert estimated shortly after his resignation that Prince would depart Citi with about $31 million.

Amidst record deficits and two budget-
busting wars, Bush proposes tax rebates
and making tax cuts for the rich permanent
 
Excerpt: Laying out "certain principles" that he wants to see guide the package, Bush said the plan "must be big enough to make a difference in an economy as large and dynamic as ours, which means it should be about 1 percent of GDP." Bush did not elaborate, but Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. later told a news briefing that the White House envisions a stimulus package totaling between $140 billion and $150 billion.

Comment: Is driving America bankrupt the Bush-Cheney master plan?   Helen & Harry    PERMANENT LINK 

The fraud of Bushenomics: They're looting the country
 
Excerpt: In the first six years of the Clinton administration, 13.7 million jobs were created. In the same period, under Bush, only 3.7 million jobs were created. Barely keeping up with population growth, if that. ...

Now let us look at median income. That's as opposed to average income (If Bill Gates walks into a bar with 10 people, the average income of everyone in the room goes up by $17,5000,000. But the median income just moves up half a notch, from between the fifth and sixth person, to the sixth person's income). From 2001 to 2005, median income, for people under 65, went down $2,000.

Experts: Fears of US recession intensify
 
Excerpt: The unemployment rate leaps to a two-year high, record numbers of people are forced from their homes and Wall Street nose-dives again. Such is the fallout from a housing meltdown that threatens to slingshot the country into a recession.

The big economic question these days is whether the weakening economy will survive the strains or collapse under them.

Comment: When are they going to admit that we are indeed in a recession? After it's over?   Marshall S.    PERMANENT LINK 

Lawsuit ends because four out of seven
California Supreme Court justices
have financial interest
in toxic chemical company
 
Excerpt: For years, Braxton Berkley was exposed to chemicals while helping build top-secret military planes at Lockheed Martin's storied Skunk Works plant. He says those chemicals made him ill -- but his case reached a dead end at the state's highest court.

The California Supreme Court has refused to hear his appeal not on legal merits, but because four of the seven justices cited a conflict of interest because they controlled stock in oil companies that provided some of the solvents at issue in the case.

Comment: If the judges are so connected to things, they shouldn't be judges. Whatever happened to the blind trust?   Marshall S.    PERMANENT LINK 

Bachmann (R-Minnesota) is proud
that her constituents have to work
overtime and second jobs to survive


In America, the poor get diabetes,
the rich get local and organic


Citigroup announces $10-billion
fourth-quarter loss


Merrill Lynch gets $6.6-billion
infusion of foreign cash


US economy teeters on the brink


FDA says cloned beef is OK to eat
 
Comment: Is there any reason to have any confidence in anything this administration says about science? These are people who deny global warming, who bring in people with no scientific training to rewrite NASA reports, who believe the earth is six thousand years old, and who won't allow slaughterhouses to test beef for mad cow disease. And now they're telling you cloned beef will be yummy.   Helen & Harry    PERMANENT LINK 

Despite ban, cloned meat has
already made its way to food supply
 
Excerpt: Executives from the nation's major cattle cloning companies conceded yesterday that they have not been able to keep track of how many offspring of clones have entered the food supply, despite a years-old request by the FDA to keep them off the market pending completion of the agency's safety report.

At least one Kansas cattle producer also disclosed yesterday that he has openly sold semen from prize-winning clones to many US meat producers in the past few years, and that he is certain he is not alone.

 
Lightning round news
Britain to implant
computer chips in prisoners


Wonder drug that works
wonders remains illegal


California lawmaker proposes
on-line public database of
domestic violence convictions


US Supreme Court gives OK for patronage-appointed judges

Flamboyant judicial corruption
exposed in West Virginia
 
Corrupt judge recuses himself

Former Congressman
Siljander (R-Michigan) is
charged in terrorism case


Report: 121 veterans linked to killings

Hugo Chavez wins release
of kidnapped Colombian women


  Cops you won't see  
        on TV's COPS  

Cop in no-knock raid
is killed by homeowner


Cops joke as man dies

Ex-trooper pleads guilty to
taking $900 at traffic stop


Former trooper gets probation for demanding sex in traffic stops

Police tazerkill motorist
who was "not cooperating"


Scathing report finds that Texas
juvenile delinquency agency
ignores its own rules



  Corporate citizenship  

Potentially fatal syringes
and beans are recalled


Exonerated RIAA defendant
scores double victory in court


Pennsylvania actually resists
Monsanto push to block
labeling of milk as "hormone-free"


Banned toxin found
in wood floor finishes


Time Warner Cable plans
metered internet access


Pharma giants exaggerated
success of anti-depressants


AT&T's proposed filtering invites massive legal and PR problems

Supreme Court ruling signals
that Enron advisors are
probably off the hook


High court ruling latest in series
of decisions that favor businesses


E. coli fears spark recall
of 188,000 pounds of beef


Ford says Mustang owners
are pirates if they distribute
pictures of their own cars



  Health care catastrophe  

States' health care plans
are against federal law


Ten more reasons to worry
about your HMO's health care


Emergency room treatment in US
grows more and more sluggish


759,000 US kids with asthma endure gaps in insurance every year

Minnesota hospital chain bans
drug promotional trinkets



  Liars in media  

Investor's Business Daily asks,
"Would Obama put African
tribal or family interests
ahead of US interests?"


AP tells reporters to write as much
about Britney Spears as possible


On Meet the Press, Russert lies
that Clinton said Reagan was
"one of her favorite Presidents"


Fox News's John Gibson is
still spewing racist crap


Ann Coulter says Eisenhower and
Nimitz were "Confederate officers"


NBC's Brokaw falsely claims
Giuliani's Florida ads
"don't mention terrorism"


Fox News's Hannity says
economy is "phenomenal"


MSNBC News's increasingly
batty Matthews apologizes


O'Reilly repeatedly denies the
existence of homeless veterans


Savage on Media Matters:
"They're the brownshirts of our time"


New York Times ombudsman
says hiring Kristol was a mistake



  Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq  

US bombing of "sovereign" Iraq quintupled in 2007
 
Excerpt: The US-led coalition dropped 1,447 bombs on Iraq last year, an average of nearly four a day, compared with 229 bombs, or about four each week, in 2006.

Bush administration's tales of progress in Iraq "cannot be substantiated", says GAO
 
Excerpt: As Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador to Iraq, prepared in September to report to Congress on the state of the war, the economic figures were a rare sign of progress within Iraq's often dysfunctional government.

But in its report on Tuesday, the accountability office said official Iraqi Finance Ministry records showed that Iraq had spent only 4.4 percent of the reconstruction budget by August 2007. It also said that the rate of spending had substantially slowed from the previous year.

US hits UK plan to arm Afghan locals
 
Excerpt: The US general in charge of training the Afghan police has criticized British-backed plans to arm local militias in an attempt to defeat the Taliban. The remarks by Maj-Gen Robert Cone, the second most senior US Soldier in Afghanistan, are likely to deepen the row between London and Washington over how to counter the insurgency.

Comment: Bush is arming just about everyone in Iraq but it won't work in Afghanistan? Wonder if it's because Bush/Cheney didn't decide this first?   Wig    PERMANENT LINK 

Afghanistan war is "just beginning"
 
Excerpt: The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) said the Taliban's "easy departure" in 2001, when a US-led invasion drove them from power, was more of a strategic retreat than an actual military defeat.

"A few years from now, 2007 will likely be looked back upon as the year in which the Taliban seriously rejoined the fight and the hopes of a rapid end to conflict were finally set aside by all but the most optimistic," ANSO said.


  There are more than three stooges  
       (and one of them will be America's next President)  

Huckabee wants to replace the Constitution with the Bible
 
Excerpt: "I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

Romney lies that lobbyists don't run his campaign
 
Excerpt: Republican Mitt Romney said Thursday he could govern in the country's best interest because "I don't have lobbyists running my campaign," although Washington insiders are on his senior staff and registered lobbyists are top advisers.

More than a dozen lobbyists are working to raise money for Romney

Kucinich says it: Bush is lying about the "threat" from Iraq
 
Excerpt: "This is the third time in two months that President Bush has actively and systematically sought to deceive the American public into thinking Iran is threatening security around the world," Kucinich said.

Yesterday President Bush urged wary Persian Gulf allies to rally against Iran "before it is too late," even as the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that the country had agreed, yet again, to answer outstanding questions about its nuclear programs within four weeks, reported the New York Times.

"After the lies and deception used to lead us to war in Iraq, the Bush Administration cannot be given leeway with aggressive statements that suggest a preemptive attack on Iran is necessary to avoid a larger war," Kucinich said.

Mike Huckabee has white supremacist connections
 
Excerpt: As South Carolina's Republican primary election draws nearer, Mike Huckabee has ratcheted up his appeals to the racial nationalism of white evangelicals. ...

Making coded appeals to white racism is nothing new for Huckabee. Indeed, well before he was a nationally known political star, Huckabee nurtured a relationship with America's largest white supremacist group, the Council of Conservative Citizens.

The extent of Huckabee's interaction with the racist group is unclear, but this much is known: he accepted an invitation to speak at the group's annual conference in 1993 and ultimately delivered a videotaped address that was "extremely well received by the audience."

Huckabee refuses to condemn confederate flag

Ross Perot emerges from hibernation to attack McCain


  Destroying civil liberties is like letting the terrorists win  

Court rules that prisoners at Guantanamo are not "persons"
 
Excerpt: In a 43-page opinion, Circuit Judge Karen Lecraft Henderson found that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a statute that applies by its terms to all "persons" did not apply to detainees at Guantánamo, effectively ruling that the detainees are not persons at all for purposes of US law.

The Court also dismissed the detainees' claims under the Alien Tort Statute and the Geneva Conventions, finding defendants immune on the basis that "torture is a foreseeable consequence of the military's detention of suspected enemy combatants."

Finally, the Court found that, even if torture and religious abuse were illegal, defendants were immune under the Constitution because they could not have reasonably known that detainees at Guantánamo had any constitutional rights.

Intelligence Czar McConnell wants access to any email or web search
 
Excerpt: "Ed Giorgio, who is working with [Intelligence Czar Mike] McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the authority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search." ...

"Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation, he said," Wright adds. "Giorgio warned me, 'We have a saying in this business: 'Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.'"

A zero-sum game is one in which gains by one side come at the expense of the other. In other words -- McConnell's aide believes greater security can only come at privacy's expense.

Court blocks Bush-ordered background checks on non-high security workers at NASA
 
Excerpt: The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said the 28 scientists and engineers who refused to submit to the background checks "face a stark choice -- either violation of their constitutional rights or loss of their jobs."

Canada lists US as torture state
 
Excerpt: A [Canadian] Foreign Affairs document has identified the United States and Israel as countries it suspects of practicing torture. The document also defines such US interrogation techniques as blindfolding and forced nudity as torture. ...

The document also lists Guantanamo Bay, the controversial US detention center for suspected terrorists in Cuba, as a place where torture is likely practiced.

Canada quickly apologizes for "wrongly" listing US as torture state

Excerpt: Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier found himself backtracking Saturday over his department's training manual that lists the US and Guantanamo Bay as sites of possible torture -- alongside such countries as Iran and Syria.

Montana Governor says no to "Real ID"

Secret Service agents change their stories in arrest of Denver man who spoke to Cheney

Abortion foes utilize 1887 law

Microsoft's newly-patented technology will monitor everything you do

US DEA reaches across border to imprison Canadian

ACLU finally sues over anti-democracy bubble that shields Bush from protesters

FBI wants instant access to worldwide database of "major criminals and terrorists"


CIA says hackers have cut power grids in "several cities"
 
Excerpt: Speaking at a conference of security professionals on Wednesday, CIA analyst Tom Donahue disclosed the recently declassified attacks while offering few specifics on what actually went wrong.

Criminals have launched online attacks that disrupted power equipment in several regions outside of the US, he said, without identifying the countries affected. The goal of the attacks was extortion, he said.

Comment: "The goal of the attacks was extortion", a CIA analyst said ...

I wonder what the goal is, when a CIA analyst shares such information publicly. I don't think the CIA does press releases just for the love of public knowledge -- there's an ulterior motive for saying anything, or they'd say nothing, as they usually do.   Helen & Harry    PERMANENT LINK 

Justice Dept. says Blackwater prosecution is unlikely
 
Excerpt: Justice Department officials have told Congress that they face serious legal difficulties in pursuing criminal prosecutions of Blackwater security guards involved in a September shooting that left at least 17 Iraqis dead.

According to Congressional aides who received the closed briefing, Justice officials told them they were concerned about both the gaps in the law and the immunity deal.

Those officials said in the briefing that federal law that applied to civilians employed by or accompanying the American military overseas might not apply to contractors in Iraq working for the State Department.

Comment: To read this, you would think that the Justice Department has just now figured out that contractor-mercenaries in Iraq are subject to no system of laws. As if people haven't been pointing it out to them for the past six years. As if that lawlessness and lack of accountability weren't exactly the point of hiring mercenaries in the first place.   Madeline Zane    PERMANENT LINK 

  Trashing the planet  

Bush administration stonewalls Congress over greenhouse gas regulations
 
Excerpt: More than a week after a deadline set by [Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-sort of] the agency gave her environmental committee a box of documents with numerous pages left almost entirely blank and others with key information redacted, Boxer said.

The documents provided Friday by the EPA omitted key details, including a presentation that Senate aides said predicted EPA would lose a lawsuit if it went to court for denying California's waiver.

Bush exempts Navy from sonar law
 
Excerpt: President George W. Bush exempted the U.S. Navy from an environmental law so it can continue using sonar in its anti-submarine warfare training off the California coast -- a practice critics say is harmful to whales and other marine mammals.

Comment: Note the use of the phrase "critics say". Those are weasel words, as there have been numerous well-documented instances of whale death brought on by these Navy sonars. It ain't conjecture. It's fact.   Mike G.    PERMANENT LINK 

Europe takes Africa's fish, and migrants follow
 
Excerpt: A vast flotilla of industrial trawlers from the European Union, China, Russia and elsewhere, together with an abundance of local boats, have so thoroughly scoured northwest Africa's ocean floor that major fish populations are collapsing.

That has crippled coastal economies and added to the surge of illegal migrants who brave the high seas in wooden pirogues hoping to reach Europe. While reasons for immigration are as varied as fish species, Europe's lure has clearly intensified as northwest Africa's fish population has dwindled.

Last year roughly 31,000 Africans tried to reach the Canary Islands, a prime transit point to Europe, in more than 900 boats. About 6,000 died or disappeared, according to one estimate cited by the United Nations.

Ice melting in Antarctica, too


Texas town loses instant lawsuit, must surrender land for "border fence"
 
Excerpt: US District Judge Alia Moses Ludlum ordered Eagle Pass to surrender 233 acres of city-owned land. The Justice Department had sued for access to the land Monday. Ludlum's ruling came the same day, before the city could muster a challenge.

Comment: Ludlum is a corrupt slimeball, appointed by the criminal President George W Bush in 2002.   Helen & Harry    PERMANENT LINK 

Retired General Tommy Franks charged crooked charity
$100,000 to use his name in fundraising for wounded veterans
 
Excerpt: Retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks was paid $100,000 -- out of donations made to wounded veterans -- for allowing his name to be used on fundraising appeals by a charity that has come under increasing scrutiny for the way it handles its money.

Lawmakers questioned the ethics of the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes Foundation not only for using donors' money to pay Franks, but for failing to disclose to potential donors who received the mail solicitations that Franks was paid for his endorsement.



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 This week's commentary 

Why people still waste their time is a mystery to me
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: In every election for the last thirty-five years, Americans have voted for candidates who promised to act in their behalf, but all that the American voter has gotten are empty promises, empty pockets, and a mountain of debt.

On the dominance of the clever
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: This country began in an atmosphere of mistrust of authority, an unwillingness to bend the knee to one's "betters," and a collective commitment to preventing destructive concentrations of power. But now, our obedience to authority has gotten us to this spot.

No-one forces you to buy junk
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: Be a citizen first and then a cautious consumer second. You empower yourself when you hold on to your money and think before you spend. Bottom line? You! You send a message to the CHEAP LABOR CROWD when you refuse to buy unsafe products, and be a part of the corruption you say you're so opposed to.

Going down
by Kathy & Leon Fisher, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: No-one forced people into equity loans and second mortgages. They loved the idea that they could use their homes as credit cards for vacations and lavish home improvements and yes new cars... No-one forced people to sign on the dotted line on a RISKY subprime loan. People believed what they wanted to believe when they were not asked to put down how much money they made or told not to worry, alarms should have gone off in their heads warning them if it does not feel right or sound right, don't sign.

On the comfort of blaming the victims
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: To whatever extent we are able to salvage something after this criminal carnival (that the home loan scam is just a small part of) burns itself out, our success will depend on our ability to separate the sheep from the goats in our perception of what happened, and a willingness to extend our sympathy and help to those in our society that have been victimized the most.

This isn't torture, it's a walk in the park on a sunny day
by Don Nash, Unknown News

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war
by Michelle L., From Reason to Freedom
 
Excerpt: So while I feel very much like I'm pissing in the wind, I would feel even worse if I tried to suffer in silence; to do nothing or say nothing. Because the feeling of impotence is overwhelming -- I can be honest about myself enough to admit I'm not at the point of being able to shoot the bastards; I, like many of my fellow citizens, am too comfortable. I like my electricity, love my internet connection, love my air conditioning and my ability to shop at the local supermarket thus eliminating the need to kill my dinner. I am your ugly American; fat and complacent and what can only be called a soft target.

But what will happen when these amenities are taken away, by the very real and ever probable economic collapse or the war brought home to us? Suddenly these creature comforts would start to lose their importance; I for one would gladly trade my air conditioning (even in August in Texas!) for my Constitutional rights back.

When America ceases to be good
by Daniel F., Opening Inner Space
 
Excerpt: I was born an American. I was born free. I loved the country I knew as a child. I will always be an American even though the country I loved will soon cease to exist. It is with great sadness that I announce my decision to leave my native land before it dies.

We fight for freedom
by anonymous, Cathartic Relief
 
Excerpt: Initially, people seemed to accept the fact that we needed help getting rid of Bush's dictatorship. Lately, I think people have come to understand that the Chinese are really here for our natural resources. In the fusion driven, post-oil world, apparently American soil contains a lot of the minerals that drive the fusion process. I don't really understand it but apparently the largest supply of "whatever it is" (some sort of helium?) was found in Iowa. The Chinese have set up camp there and apparently haven't left. They can talk all they want about giving us our freedom but with 4,500,000 dead, 21,000,000 Americans who've fled and are now living as refugees elsewhere (12,000,000 in Canada alone) and another 1,100,000 fleeing each month, I gotta tell ya, it doesn't feel all that free.

 Previous commentary 

There's big money in poverty
by JS Magruder, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: We seem to be (as a nation) suffering a collective case of misplaced hostility. It isn't the poor taking your money. It isn't the immigrant family down the street taking your job. Your jobs were sent abroad by the people representing you in Washington. Your taxes are torturing and killing people the world over. Your hard-earned money is funding the building of more prisons to house petty criminals, and for the police helicopter looking for God only knows what. The people who are making you work longer hours for less pay aren't the poor asking for change on a street corner. The poor didn't jack up your credit card rates to what any other country in the world would consider usury. The guy sitting on the park bench with everything he owns in the world stuffed into a paper bag, with maggot-infested unhealed flesh wounds -- that guy didn't sell you the interest-only mortgage. Go ahead, pat yourself on the back for walking past him as though he didn't exist and make you feel better by mumbling about "services being available."

Weird events in Wendover, Utah
by Don Nash, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: Okay, so the scoop as explained to me is that the freaking spooks are training in populated urban areas and using civilians and civilian traffic as targets. The spookies are laser washing selected trucks, cars, civilians, and then they're calling in air strikes. On United States citizens! Holy freaking mother of god and Mary in the very early morning! The goddamned United States military is using us as their freaking subjects in their twisted and barbaric war gaming.

I'm afraid of writing this
by Chris D., Unknown News
 
Excerpt: Security will be tightened at US bases abroad in ways that disregard or even threaten local governments and international law, followed by the outright annexation of the countries that contain them. The UN at that point will have had enough and launch economic sanctions against the US for the first time. The US will respond militarily and open war will break out. A reign of unbridled and incomparable terror will encompass the globe not at the hands of Islamic extremists but at the hands of the one true rogue nation. (Sorry, I call 'em as I see 'em.)

The ides of idolatry, or ... A song for Huckabee!
by Don Nash, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: "People of planet earth, you've got it all wrong! You're not supposed to hate one another. You're not supposed to kill one another. You're not supposed to spread lies as gospel and you're sure as hell not supposed to listen to anyone that would advise you otherwise. The political demagogues that would cloak themselves in religion are worse than the hypocrites that bomb and kill using the name of the Most High. Knock that crap off!"

The US is being scuttled
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: Unfortunately, in these sorts of situations there cannot be a happy ending. The best we can hope for, in the wake of decades of accepting a false understanding about the politics of our country, is a very painful transition from pride to punishment.

Surviving the Great Depression of 2008
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: Just think of it, the Great Depression of '08 deluxe refrigerator carton will not only keep you and yours dry, but will bring all your family members closer together, just like the old days. ...

Deconstructing the "brand name" al-Qaeda®
by Marie K., Unknown News
 
Excerpt: Has al-Qaeda® been a label that is useful for the US government and other governments that also use it? First, it aids countries interested in gaining greater control over their own citizens given those governments' claiming to be "protecting" them as they take away their rights. It has also been useful for governments that carry out false flag operations and arrest Muslims worldwide -- perhaps for more "bounty monies" or some other benefit. It could also come in handy if there is a second type of al-Qaeda® made up of CIA/other intelligence agencies' agents who serve as infiltrators and agents sent to entrap people.

I needs to kill me some more peoples!
by Don Nash, Unknown News

The end of a nightmare of delusion
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: This episode of species insanity that is coming to an end has been based on the willingness of individuals to remain as children, to forego advancement to adult status, to arrest our intellectual and moral development for the sake of being part of an ever larger collective where only a few individuals are allowed to assume adult roles. What is not growth is death. We have chosen to see to the growth of our dominator cultures by virtue of piling heaps of our own corpses on a bonfire that keeps fewer and fewer of us warm.

Know that you are being lied to
by Zebra, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: By spreading the manure real thick "they" create the necessary uncertainty in enough peoples' minds to prevent mass action that would destabilize their next scams.

American economy hijacked by corruption
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: The unwillingness of our elected representatives to act upon the coming economic disaster can only be defined as treason, pure and simple. This sellout of the American worker began in earnest with Ronald Reagan firing the air traffic controllers during his term the White House, and it has continued under the subsequent administrations of GHW Bush and Bill Clinton.

Got hope? Nope.
by Don Nash, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: We've got about one more year of the Bush regime. Scary as the thought might be, the pending presidential election is even more scary. America is offered little choice for leadership. Clinton? McCain? Obama? Romney? Huckabee? Oh, mommy!

Contemplating a catastrophic future with
a sense of confidence rather than despair

by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: So, I would say cheer up, we have nothing to lose in the coming catastrophe but a set of bad habits that the species will have to shake off if it is to survive.

My Marxist friends always make sense!
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News
 
Excerpt: Now they lie again and say they are fight TERRORISM. No, it's more conquest. More stealing other nations resources. It's capitalism with a big jackbooted helping of in your face Fascism.

Satan himself is preferable to Hillary Clinton
by Pavel C., Unknown News
 
Excerpt: The Democratic Party sought to trade off our liberties, our Constitution, our national wealth, and our good name in the world for political expediency. They really ought to be punished if they attempt to propel Sen Mrs Clinton into the Oval Office.


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  Old news, but still unknown      PERMANENT LINK 

Vatican ordered bishops worldwide to cover up priests' sex abuses
 •   Benedict XVI: A Pope to be ashamed of
•   He's guilty as sin, but ...
Texas court dismisses child-rape conspiracy lawsuit against Pope

Company fined $6,000 for answering customer's question:
"Is any of this stuff made in Israel?"


Before 9/11, "threat assessment" keeps Ashcroft off commercial air flights
 •   San Francisco Mayor says he was warned not to fly on 9/11
•    U.S., Germany, Japan investigate unusual trading before attack
 •   Two years later, the other shoe drops:
Investigation shows no evidence of Sept. 11 profiteering
•    US rejects Taliban's requests for bin Laden evidence
•    Pentagon officials canceled travel plans on Sept. 10 due to "security concerns"
•    One of Osama bin Laden's many siblings
helped found Texas oil business with President

•    Bush administration says it will release evidence linking bin Laden to 9/11
•    Osama bin Laden denies involvement in 9/11 attacks
•    Bush was told of bin Laden plot to hijack airliners
•    Britain warned US to expect September 11 al-Qaeda hijackings
•    Plans for Iraq attack began on 9/11
•    Cheney instrumental in blocking independent Sept. 11 commission
•    9/11 investigation gets less than half the budget of JFK's Warren Commission
•    9/11 victim's wife asks uncomfortable questions
•    White House ordered 9/11 EPA lies
•    White House OK'd flight home for bin Laden family in Sept. 11 aftermath
•    Bush administration "withholding evidence" from Sept. 11 investigation
•    White House seizes notes from 9/11 Commission
•    Without taking oath, Bush & Cheney testify together for 9/11 investigation
•    FAA manager destroyed 9/11 tapes
•    9/11 panelists bewildered by what Bush
administration calls “classified information”

•    Ground Zero workers say they found 9/11 'black boxes'
•    FBI office in Saudi Arabia shredded 9/11 investigation documents
•    Judge Judy, George Bush, and nineteen nutballs with box-cutters
•    9/11 'investigators' knew they were being lied to, said nothing about it
•    Two months before 9/11, an urgent warning to Rice ... and 9/11 'investigation' wasn't told about it
•    France infiltrated terror network, told CIA
about plans to hijack planes prior to 9/11

•    Hijackers' lost luggage conveniently solves so many 9/11 mysteries
•    Much more about 9/11

Bush "abstinence only" program lies to kids about sex, HIV dangers

Mexican President will sign bill legalizing marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs for personal use
 •   Amid US pressure, Mexican president backs off drug decriminalization bill

Bin Laden expert skeptical about latest purported bin Laden tape
 •   Bin Laden tapes are as phony as Sept. 11's connection to Islam

US official said it was "patently false," but US forces did use napalm in Iraq

US officials are still lying about suicide attempts at Guantanamo prison