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Supreme Court refuses to hear about illegal Bush spying program| |
Excerpt: The ACLU obtained a victory at the trial court level in August 2006. A federal judge in Michigan ruled that the NSA's once-secret terrorist surveillance program, which operated without court orders, "ran roughshod" over Americans' constitutional rights Americans and violated federal wiretapping law.
But the Sixth Circuit overturned that ruling on narrow procedural grounds. It determined that the ACLU and the plaintiffs didn't have legal standing to bring the suit in the first place because they hadn't shown adequate evidence that they have been "personally" subject to the eavesdropping program. The judges did not, however, take a position whether the spying program itself was legal.
The Supreme Court's decision, which arrived without comment, lets that opinion stand.
Comment: Fabulously Orwellian logic: The spying is super-secret and takes place with no judicial or Congressional oversight, so, of course, without a discovery order in a courtroom it's impossible to prove whether you or I have been spied upon. And since it can't be proved, there will be no court case, no discovery orders...
The concept that the Supreme Court thinks this is OK, is beyond sickening. It's, well ... Orwellian. Angry Annie PERMANENT LINK |
Election 2008
Clinton campaign creates fake “non-profit” to let rich supporters give unlimited cash| |
Excerpt: Allies of Hillary Clinton plan an expensive, stealth campaign to buttress her standing in the must-win states of Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.
They're canvassing Clinton donors for pledges of up to $100,000 in the hope of raising at least $10M by the end of next week. The money will be placed in the account of a political committee organized under section 527 of the tax code.
Per ABC's Jake Tapper, the group is calling itself the "American Leadership Project" and is staffed by several veterans of the Clinton White House.
By law, the 527 cannot coordinate its activities with the Clinton campaign, although at least one major Clinton donor with direct ties to the campaign said last night that the effort was an open secret among donors.
Comment: The mainstream media has been reporting on this blatantly illegal fundraising group, but generally not on the fact that it’s being run by the Clinton campaign. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
McCain starts lying about Obama| |
Excerpt: "... will we risk the confused leadership of an inexperienced candidate who once suggested invading our ally, Pakistan, and sitting down without pre-conditions or clear purpose with enemies who support terrorists and are intent on destabilizing the world by acquiring nuclear weapons?"
These remarks were aimed at Barack Obama, and they are lies. McCain has repeatedly made this false charge, warning against sending troops to Waziristan. But Obama never advocated invading Pakistan with US ground troops. He said that the US should strike at al-Qaeda if it had actionable intelligence about its whereabouts in Pakistan, even if the Pakistani authorities refused to give permission.
This stance is US policy. In fact, George W. Bush implemented it with a Predator attack on an al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan just a couple of weeks ago, an attack that the Pakistani government declined to authorize. |
McCain poses as anti-lobbyist, while surrounding himself with lobbyists| |
Excerpt: For years, Sen. John McCain has railed against lobbyists and the influence of "special interests" in Washington, touting on his campaign Web site his fight against "the 'revolving door' by which lawmakers and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists for the special interests they have aided."
But when McCain huddled with his closest advisers at his rustic Arizona cabin last weekend to map out his presidential campaign, virtually every one was part of the Washington lobbying culture he has long decried. His campaign manager, Rick Davis, co-founded a lobbying firm whose clients have included Verizon and SBC Telecommunications. His chief political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., is chairman of one of Washington's lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates, which has represented AT&T, Alcoa, JPMorgan and US Airways. Senior advisers Steve Schmidt and Mark McKinnon work for firms that have lobbied for Land O' Lakes, UST Public Affairs, Dell and Fannie Mae.
Comment: This is the real story -- not whether or not McCain had sex with one specific lobbyist, but just how many lobbyists he has surrounded himself with. But this story will get almost no play, because, you know, the other story has sex in it. In fact, if you purposely wanted to draw attention away from the fact that you're metaphorically in bed with dozens of lobbyists, a good way to go about that would be to get the pundit class to chatter endlessly about whether you've literally been in bed with just one of them. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
In bed with lobbyists: Just another day at the office for McCain
Apparent contradiction in McCain's response to lobbyist story
McCain lied when he said he hadn't met with broadcaster
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Obama raises three times as much as Clinton, mostly from small donors| |
Excerpt: On Wednesday, the Obama campaign will report to the Federal Election Commission that it collected $36 million in January -- $4 million more than campaign officials had previously estimated -- an unprecedented feat for a single month in American politics that was powered overwhelmingly by small online donations.
That dwarfed the $13.5 million in January that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is expected to report Wednesday and the $12 million Senator John McCain’s campaign said he brought in for the month. |
John McCain is an absolute zero on environmental issues| |
Excerpt: According to the latest League Of Conservation Voters Scorecard, McCain missed every single crucial environmental vote in 2007, garnering him a big fat score of ZERO! You read that right, a ZERO! To make matters even worse, McCain scored lower than every other single member of Congress, all 535 of them, including those who were out for much of the year due to serious Illnesses and even lower than some who died during their term. |
Obama's America looks a lot like Canada
by Diane Francis, National Post [Canada]| |
Excerpt: The point is, if Bush policies worked for the majority, McCain would be ahead. Instead, there is a large, and growing, "third-world country" inside the United States that consists of unhealthy, damaged and disenfranchised people victimized by lousy education in poor neighborhoods, little or no medical care or war injuries that are not compensated for properly. ...
Here are Obama's initiatives, which are common policy in Canada and other developed nations:
• Americans will have the same health-care benefits as its politicians;
• Poor American children should enjoy the same quality of public education as well-off children; and
• The United States will pull out of Iraq and work on multi-lateral efforts to restore peace around the world. President Obama will expect Canada, Europe and others to pony up much more to help create global police forces. |
Clinton is fake enraged by weeks-old Obama flyer VIDEO
Clinton pretends she never praised NAFTA
McCain breaks McCain-Feingold campaign finance law he co-authored
Indictment for fraud, extortion, hits co-chair of McCain campaign in McCain's home state
Obama's legislative record: "quite impressive" for a freshman Senator
McCain: I could send US troops 'anywhere' for 'a long period of time'
Clinton's claim of Obama plagiarism is pure crap
McCain's complaint about Obama and public financing is a crock
McCain lies that his "hundred years of war" comment was taken out of context
Huckabee's wife sleeps at Hooters
Nader announces fourth failed Presidential candidacy
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Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
US detention of Iraqis grows without end| |
Excerpt: The United States is, once again, expanding the size of its largest detention center in Iraq. According to an October 31 report by the military paper Stars and Stripes, US forces will be increasing the capacity of detainees at Camp Bucca from 20,000 to 30,000. |
Military report: lack of equipment led to US deaths| |
Excerpt: Hundreds of US marines may have been killed or wounded by roadside bombs in Iraq because Marine Corps officials refused an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, a Marine Corps report concludes.
The report, written by a civilian Marine Corps official, accuses the service of "gross mismanagement" in delaying the deliveries of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks for more than two years. Cost was a driving factor in the decision to turn down the request for the vehicles, known as MRAPs, the report says. |
Iraqi group working with US military walks out
to protest deaths of civilians, their own members| |
Excerpt: US-allied security forces said yesterday they were abandoning their posts in a volatile area south of Baghdad to protest airstrikes by American forces that they say have killed at least 12 civilians this month. Sons of Iraq [are] the civilian guard corps credited with helping reduce violence across Iraq. The corps has an estimated 80,000 members across the country, bolstering security in areas without adequate Iraqi police protection.
On Feb. 2, nine Iraqis, including three Sons of Iraq members, were killed in an errant airstrike that the US military acknowledged.
The US military pays the security volunteers about $10 a day and gives them vests to make them easy to identify. In the past, US officials have said accidental shootings occurred when volunteers were not wearing their vests and were mistaken for armed insurgents. |
Fort Hood soldiers breaking the silence in war in Iraq| |
Excerpt: A growing number of active duty soldiers or recent Iraq war veterans are speaking up about the war in Iraq. ...
"The honest truth is that if the American people knew what was going on over there everyday, they would be raising their voices too. They would be saying, 'Hey, bring those guys home," Sgt. Selena Coppa said. |
UK troops accused of executions and torture in Iraq| |
Excerpt: They said there was evidence that two detainees had their eyes gouged out, one had his penis cut off, several were strangled or mutilated, some were shot in the back of the head and others had body parts systematically broken. |
Talks urged as Turkey and PKK clash in Northern Iraq| |
Excerpt: Iraq's government said Turkey should withdraw its troops as soon as possible and urged Ankara to sit down with Baghdad for talks to resolve the crisis over the PKK.
Iraq warns Turkey over incursion
Excerpt: Iraq's foreign minister ... Hoshyar Zebari said the "limited" raid into a remote, uninhabited area should end "as soon as possible". And the Kurdish regional leader said a "massive resistance" would be mounted if civilians were attacked. |
"Green Zone" in Iraq hit by rocket or mortar attack
Military jury convicts soldier of assault in Iraqi's death
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Iranian gay refugee risks deportation to death| |
Excerpt: The flight that will take young Medhi Kazemi from Amsterdam to London, from where he will be deported to Iran, is booked for tuesday february 26th. Everyone Group is appealing to the European Union to overrule the British government’s decision, and grant the 19-year-old political asylum. Mehdi has recently become a regular member of Everyone. Group Medhi is wanted in Iran after his partner - executed for his homosexuality in april 2006 - admitted they were in a relationship. |
Secret Service tells Dallas Police not
to check for weapons at Obama rally| |
Excerpt: Several Dallas police officers -- speaking on condition of anonymity because the order came from federal officers -- told the newspaper it was worrying to see so many people get it without even a cursory inspection.
Comment: I'm always miffed when cops want to rifle through my purse or bag, but when 17,000 people congregate to hear a Presidential candidate, and the Secret Service -- charged with protecting the candidate -- instead tells cops not to give bags even a cursory look, that's damn peculiar. Damn peculiar. I just hope Obama has his own security people, and I hope they'll explain to the Secret Service how security works. Angry Annie PERMANENT LINK
Secret Service "denies" reports of lax security
by explaining they never even planned
to use metal detectors at Obama event
Excerpt: Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said there was no order from the Secret Service to stop screening people going to the Obama rally Wednesday at Dallas's Reunion Arena. He said that the event's security plans didn't involve having each participant pass through a magnetometer, as may be the case at other events.
Comment: Check the reader comments that follow -- accounts of lax or non-existent security at events in Boise, Virginia Beach, St Louis, Green Bay, New York City ... Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Second restraining order against Wikileaks| |
Excerpt: The Order does not just cover Wikileaks but also the insiders and whistleblowers inside Bank Julius Baer, who might be tempted to blow the whistle on their internet media inept employers.
Wikileaks is a nightmare for
corrupt businesses and governments
Excerpt: Who are Wikileaks? Although the project makes a feature of the anonymity of its volunteers, the minds behind it are not hard to find. One prominent driving force is Julian Assange, a much-traveled Australian programmer and author who has a flamboyant mane of silver hair. Before riding his motorcycle across Vietnam, he co-wrote a book about computer hackers.
"He's a pretty standard modern geek with a thing about dissidents," says the British encryption expert Ben Laurie, who advised the group on encryption. "He's quite techie and he can write code."
Comment: "Shutting down" Wikileaks would have been a brilliant plan... if the Internet was a radio station, or a printing press, or a Renaissance-style troubadour wandering from town to town. True, no one can get to the website by typing "wikileaks.org" into their browser. But it took me about all of thirty seconds to find a link to their direct IP address, where the site still exists in its entirety. Plus, the ensuing outrage gave Wikileaks a ton of free publicity while focussing international attention on this minor Swiss banking scandal. All while exposing the federal judge who shut down an entire website over a few documents as a jack-booted thug. A technologically clueless jack-booted thug. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
60 Minutes finally airs Siegelman story| |
Comment: Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, a Democrat, was railroaded by a corrupt judge, rigged trial, and politically-motivated Department of Justice, and now he sits in prison. His crime was being a Democrat and winning an election. And last night, after sitting on the story for months, 60 Minutes finally aired a reasonably complete summary of the ugly facts -- opposite the Oscars telecast. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
60 Minutes broadcast on Alabama ex-governor's political imprisonment is blacked out in Alabama
Excerpt: CBS aired its long-awaited feature on the prosecution and imprisonment of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman this evening at 7:00. In a stunning move of censorship, the transmission was blocked across the northern third of Alabama by CBS affiliate WHNT, which is owned by interests of the Bass Family. |
Guantanamo trials are rigged,
says former chief prosecutor| |
Excerpt: Colonel [Morris] Davis's criticism of the commissions has been escalating since he resigned this past October, telling the Washington Post that he had been pressured by politically appointed senior defense officials to pursue cases deemed "sexy" and of "high-interest" (such as the 9/11 cases now being pursued) in the run-up to the 2008 elections. Davis, once a staunch defender of the commissions process, elaborated on his reasons in a December 10, 2007, Los Angeles Times op-ed. "I concluded that full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system," he wrote. "I felt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively." |
Musharraf is urged to step down peacefully
after opposition party wins Pakistan election| |
Excerpt: Three US senators who met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf after opposition parties won a governing majority last week urged a "graceful exit" from power for the close US terror-fighting ally.
Opposition leaders fear that Musharraf, who as president has the authority to dissolve parliament, might do that and call new elections if Pakistani lawmakers take actions he opposes.
Musharraf rejects call for 'graceful' exit
Excerpt: President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman today dismissed a suggestion from three U.S. senators that the embattled leader make a "graceful exit" from power his opponents' victory in Pakistan's elections. |
Bush continues lying about expired spying bill| |
Excerpt: And the AP stenographer somehow misses the fact that it was Bush and the Republicans in Congress who blocked key intelligence legislation and are continuing to do so by refusing to participate in the House/Senate conference on the bill. Oh, those pesky facts. |
Bush explains why US hasn't intervened to end Darfur genocide: "Outside forces tend to divide people up"| |
Excerpt: "A clear lesson I learned in the museum was that outside forces that tend to divide people up inside their country are unbelievably counterproductive. In other words, people came from other countries -- I guess you'd call them colonialists -- and they pitted one group of people against another."
Comment: This "lesson learned" apparently applies only to nations that aren't "oily". Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Every St. Paul cop will have taser for GOP convention| |
Excerpt: Every St. Paul police officer will have a Taser in time for the Republican National Convention, but Chief John Harrington assured skeptics the stun guns won't be used willy-nilly for crowd control or to prod passive protesters into paddy wagons.
[City Council member Melvin] Carter challenged Harrington's contention that using Tasers like cattle prods to move people -- as opposed to controlling a suspect resisting police -- was not done in St. Paul.
"I've seen reports that suggest there are situations where we have used Tasers to get someone who's lying down to get up," said Carter, the son of a cop. " 'Subject was drive-stunned in the neck' to get him into the car," he said, quoting a police report related to a State Patrol stop on Interstate 94 where St. Paul police were called to assist. |
EU Commission concludes that ID cards,
mass fingerprinting, biometric passports
are -- surprise -- useless against terrorism| |
Excerpt: The EU report, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, says most people behind terror attacks in the UK and Europe were living in the EU legally and so would not be affected by increased security measures.
It says: "None of the policy options contribute markedly to reducing terrorism or serious crime. |
Supreme Court shields makers of
medical devices from lawsuits| |
Excerpt: Makers of medical devices like implantable defibrillators or breast implants are immune from liability for personal injuries as long as the Food and Drug Administration approved the device before it was marketed and it meets the agency's specifications, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.
Comment: "Fascism" is a word that's been over-used for many years, but it's an absolutely accurate word for rulings like this. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
The melting economy
In high finance, the first shoe drops| |
Excerpt: The fall of Britain's Northern Rock bank may be the first dropped shoe in a chorus line of big banks tap-dancing into oblivion. The British government's move yesterday to nationalize the insolvent mortgage lender's remaining operations leaves shareholders holding an empty bag. Their only resort now will be to call their lawyers. What we may be witnessing, in a movement that will surely spread to the US, is a changing of the guard at the top of the financial food-chain between bankers and lawyers. |
Banks unable to foreclose on homes
because they lost the paperwork| |
Excerpt: Each time the mortgages change hands, the sellers are required to sign over the mortgage notes to the buyers. In the rush to originate more loans during the U.S. mortgage boom, from 2003 to 2006, that assignment of ownership wasn't always properly completed. |
Millions of Americans could ditch homes| |
Excerpt: Millions of US homeowners who bought homes with sinking value are set to abandon the properties and cut their losses on bad investments, a leading housing market economist said on Tuesday.
"We may face something unprecedented ... that is a situation where millions of homeowners are going to walk out of their homes in the next couple of years," said Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics and international business at New York University's Stern School of Business and head of Roubini Global Economics. |
Concerns over economy push Bush's
overall job approval to new low -- 19%
Worst financial crisis since 1931? German
state-owned banks on verge of collapse
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Lightning round news |
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Air America changes ownership again| |
Excerpt: Charlie Kireker, a former political official and creator of Pendulum Media will succeed Stephen L. Green, the New York real estate CEO who helped lift the company out of bankruptcy, as chair of the board. The move will be finalized in mid March. Mark Green, Stephen's brother and Democratic activist, will remain as Air America's president. ...
"It took Fox News five years and a half billion dollar loss to get its feet, find its audience and become profitable," said Mark Green. "We don't have a 'what's his name?" [referring to Rupert Murdoch]. But, we now have secure funding and expanded management team, on-air talent and a business strategy that will get us where we need to be... Reports of our death were greatly exaggerated by the right wing zeitgeist that wanted us to go away." |
Lawmaker proposes stripping USDA of safety oversight| |
Excerpt: The US Department of Agriculture's twin mandates of promoting the nation's agriculture and monitoring it for safety are being questioned in the wake of a beef contamination scare that prompted the nation's largest-ever meat recall.
Comment: This is the heart of the problem -- the reason there's so little testing for mad cow disease, the reason there are so many beef recalls. It's a crippling conflict-of-interest to have one agency charged with both promoting and regulating an industry, and of course, the problem is compounded when Republicans are in charge and spectacularly unqualified cronies are given high-level positions. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
US strikes within Pakistan -- without permission| |
Excerpt: Having requested the Pakistani government's official permission for such strikes on previous occasions, only to be put off or turned down, this time the US spy agency did not seek approval. The government of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was notified only as the operation was underway, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities. |
Trashing the planet
Gov't suppresses report on health effects of toxic dumping in Great Lakes| |
Excerpt: The lead author and peer reviewers of a government report raising the possibility of public health threats from industrial contamination throughout the Great Lakes region are charging that the report is being suppressed because of the questions it raises. The author also alleges that he was demoted because of the report.
"Unfortunately the draft (De Rosa) thought was final wasn't provided to the senior scientists and managers of ATSDR until about a week or two before he thought it would be published," [CDC spokesman Glen] Nowak said. "At that point, very senior people not typically in the review process got a copy and had some significant questions and concerns."
The report does not purport to allege cause-and-effect relationships between [pollutant] discharges and disease. But it uses material from government databases to describe toxic contaminants and releases in the Great Lakes region and looks at health indicators, including cancer incidence and infant mortality, in the surrounding counties compared with those in "peer counties" with similar socioeconomic indicators. |
US is urged to stop using 'dirty bomb' ingredients| |
Comment: This article doesn't even mention the depleted uranium dirty bombs the US is dropping on everybody at a whim. JR Mooneyham PERMANENT LINK |
Greenland's massive ice mountain melting
Turtle studies suggest health risks from environmental contaminants
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Mexico border wall has huge gaps where rich people own land| |
Excerpt: In the small town of Granjeno, population 313, Garza points to a field across the street where a segment of the proposed 18-foot high border wall would abruptly end after passing through his brick home and a small, yellow house he gave his son. "All that land over there is owned by the Hunts," he says, waving a hand toward the horizon. "The wall doesn't go there."
In this area everyone knows the Hunts. Dallas billionaire Ray L. Hunt and his relatives are one of the wealthiest oil and gas dynasties in the world. Hunt, a close friend of President George W. Bush, recently donated $35 million to Southern Methodist University to help build Bush's presidential library. |
Another whistleblower bites the dust| |
Excerpt: $1 million - a lot of money for most of us, but small change for Texas A&M University, which has agreed to pay that sum to the US government as a fine for serious safety breaches at its biodefense labs. In a stark irony, the news arrives just weeks after the watchdog group that exposed the problems suspended its activities, citing a lack of funds. |
Judge acquits Tobin in New Hampshire phone-jamming case| |
Comment: It's not a crime to jam Democratic Party get-out-the-vote calls, at least not to Judge Steven McAuliffe (Christa McAuliffe's widow, appointed to the federal bench in 1992 by President Bush's father). Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
New evidence challenges official picture of Robert Kennedy assassination| |
Excerpt: "[Sirhan] Sirhan was apprehended at the scene with literally a smoking gun," said acoustic forensic expert Philip Van Praag of PVP Designs, who has carried out the new analysis. "At the beginning many people looked upon this as an open-and-shut case. It was one man, Sirhan Sirhan, who was observed by a number of people, who aimed and fired a gun in the direction of Kennedy's entourage."
But the lone gunman explanation has always looked shaky. The autopsy of Kennedy's body suggested that all four shots that hit him came from behind, and powder marks on his skin showed they must have been from close range.
But Sirhan was in front of Kennedy when he fired, and after shooting two shots was overcome by hotel staff, who pinned him to a table. Also, Sirhan fired eight shots in total, yet 14 were found lodged around the room and in the victims. |
US "African Command" won't be in Africa| |
Excerpt: The Pentagon has announced it plans to keep the headquarters of its Africa Command, AFRICOM, in Germany. Only one African nation, Liberia, had offered to host it. President Bush's trip to Africa was seen by some as an attempt to shore up support for AFRICOM on the continent. |
Online reporter and Blackwater author win journalism awards| |
Excerpt: Joshua Marshall won a Polk Award for legal reporting for covering the US attorneys scandal on his website Talking Points Memo. And Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill won the George Polk Book Award for his bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. |
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This week's commentary
Greed is the problem with US medical care
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The problems of medical care in the US are complex and hard to understand, but the cause is easy to identify: greed by the corporate influences that are picking over the corpse of US medical care. This is the reason why US medicine is falling rapidly behind all other industrialized countries and many poorer ones as well. |
Protecting children from the horror of giving a damn
by JS Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The thing that will drive me to civil disobedience will be some smug son-of-a-bitch telling me I can't perform the Works of Mercy. That's where I get radicalized. I'm going to feed the hungry. I'm going to give drink to the thirsty. I'm going to clothe the naked. I'm going to visit the imprisoned. I'm going to care for the sick. I'm going to bury the dead. And if that's going to be civil disobedience, then fine, count me in. |
Righteous karmic payback for banks
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Thousands, maybe millions of home owners can legally fight and win against bank foreclosures by merely asking in court that the bank produce the actual proof that they own the loan. Cases are being thrown out all over the country. |
Vote for Nader as a protest against the status quo!
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Unlike the candidates of the Democratic and Republican Party, Nader tells it like it is. Despite the enthusiastic rhetoric of hope and change coming from the lips of the mainstream candidates, the only change we the people will see is the small change we have left in our pockets after this new gang of thieves get done bailing out their benefactors on Wall Street. |
Clinton is delusional, while Obama is Cool Hand Luke
by Cindy A., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Hillary Clinton is delusional. No clue. Or just lying about her plans, which is equally likely. Or both. She seems to think that she will be ruling the world once she reaches the Oval Office. Didn't she get the memo? Bush screwed that up permanently. The US is no longer Number One. |
What exactly is 'power to the people'?
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: It mostly means getting over the millennia of propaganda produced by coercive organizations that served to have us believe that we are inherently weak and dependent on remote authority for our survival. That was never true, is not now true, and will never be true. When we decide to band together in cohesive local units and act cooperatively with other such units for mutual support and protection, nothing is more powerful. |
Military intelligence, or ... An exercise in oxymoronic futility!
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I can vouch for the credibility of Scroats Newton. He's a decorated war hero. Scroats was wounded in the Battle of the Kandahar Cluster F**k, so obviously, Scroats is a standup guy and knows what the hell he's talking about. And if anyone is thinking about making stupid or getting violently jiggy with the powers that be at this year's upcoming presidential candidates' coronation ceremonies, well, one just might want to think about it. Twice! Maybe three or four times. |
Previous commentary
Criminal conduct, plain and simple
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We know who is trying to kill us and our children, and their children. It is our job to stop them, not their responsibility to stop committing crimes. |
Unbelievable sh*t is about to happen
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Bernanke, Paulson and BushCo will trash the Treasury and economy before they leave office, so people want to get rid of their Ameribucks, which are a global joke currency now. |
Mughniyeh's assassination bodes ill
by The Canadian, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: In my opinion this assassination is analogous to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo in 1914, which lit the fuse for the Great War or what later became known as WW1. Israel is on high alert all over the world and especially along the Lebanese border. |
The hanging balls of Babylon
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: 935 lies and still counting. The "surge" is a lie. Bush is a lie. It's all a lie and has been ever since 9/11/01 ... Did you know that for every one lie told by Bush to Congress, by Bush to the American people, and by Bush to the world, four American service boys and girls have been deemed privileged to be killed? |
How the FBI appreciates black history
by Min. Paul Scott, No Warning Shots Fired| |
Excerpt: One of the things that we do not do in the Black community is connect the dots. We have not been effective in showing our children how the past is connected to the present in very real and substantive ways. So the young rappers of today don't understand how the drug dealin' and gang bangin' of today is tied to the COINTELPRO program of yesterday. They do not understand that the societal issues of the absence of Black leadership, drugs in the Black community and the high incarceration rates of Black males are not by accident but are part of a well designed program that was meant to produce the very conditions in which we find ourselves in 2008. |
Hitler killed only one person.
Bush has killed none.
We citizens do their work
by Mark A. Goldman, Society without State| |
Excerpt: If I have my facts straight, Hitler killed only one person in his lifetime: himself. All the other atrocities that are attributed to him were carried out by people who were only following orders.
If it is true that the war in Iraq is illegal, as I and others believe it is -- including the Secretary General of the United Nations -- then all the deaths and atrocities that have occurred to date, inflicted by our coalition forces, are the acts of individuals who, knowingly or unknowingly, with good intentions or not, have been willing to break the law in order to follow the orders of superiors. |
As the Empire folds in on itself
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Certainly I will shed no tears for the passing of the insane way of life that we have been forced to depend on, almost no matter what happens. And I do expect to see this in my lifetime.
Teetering on collapse
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
Excerpt: In the vacuum that will result from the collapse of centralized authority, decentralization and reorganization around the basic needs of local communities and relying on local resources will likely generate different, more egalitarian, more ecological institutions designed by the people that participate in them.
It starts with you
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
Excerpt: I pledge that, having become aware of the importance of community to my physical, emotional and spiritual health, I will seek to influence others to abandon the individualistic, self-seeking path to slavery and seek community for themselves and all others, so that we can all begin to live in peace, harmony and abundance without need to resort to aggression, selfishness, lying and deceit.
Why the current election "fever" is so disgusting
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
Excerpt: The illusion of democratic government is so overwhelming that most people have a hard time coming to grips with the reality that our country is totally controlled by a small set of hugely wealth families and their foreign friends and that our national elections are just shams. Packaged as a sort of professional sport, our elections serve only to dull the mind and suspend real critical judgement. |
Helpless and grieving
by Gina Dee, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: A thousand times I have searched myself for an answer I could understand. I cursed myself. I was angry with myself and then angry that I felt that I thought my self so important that I SHOULD have made this NOT happen. Who am I to think I have such power as that? |
Hillary sings her way to genocide!
by Don Nash, Unknown News
Support our troops?
by Jason Barr, An Absolution Revolution| |
Excerpt: They are not “our” troops, they are troops under the command of people in the thrall of the American political/business system which “make[s] unjust laws. . . deprive[s] the poor of their rights, withhold[s] justice from the oppressed. . . [makes] widows their prey, and [robs] the fatherless” (see Isaiah 10:1-2 in the NIV). They are being asked to die for a cause that, in the words of Alisdair McIntyre, is rather like being asked to die for the telephone company. |
Bizarro conservatism since 9/11
by Justin Raimondo, AntiWar| |
Excerpt: The impact of those planes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon tore a gaping hole in the space-time continuum and propelled us into an alternate universe known to avid readers of Superman comics as Bizarro World - a parallel plane of existence where up is down, right is wrong, and the Constitution is really a mandate for the president's unlimited authority.
The Republican Party, previously devoted to the principles of less government, decentralized authority, and economic liberty, immediately transformed itself into the champion of more government, including a significant increase in federal spending and, more ominously, the establishment of a rudimentary police state. Thus was born Bizarro Conservatism, an ideology that, in every conceivable aspect, inverts the core principles of pre-9/11 conservatism.
Accordingly, Bizarro Conservatives welcome a government that routinely spies on its own people and has the power to indefinitely detain anyone, including US citizens, without having to explain why to a judge or a jury. This "right" has been claimed by the administration, on behalf of the president, on the theory that the executive branch enjoys effectively unlimited power in wartime, and now they are moving to consolidate this aspiring presidential dictatorship in legislative form. |
State of the Union vs. Sermon on the Mount
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
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Excerpt: Torture is what the executive says it is and even admitted torture can be used when the executive wants, meaning that executive power supersedes and can ignore any common understanding of decency ... |
An open letter to His Majesty,
King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein,
the 43rd generation direct descendant
of the Prophet Muhammad
(Peace Be Upon Him)
by Don Nash, Unknown News
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Excerpt: Your Kingliness, I'm not trying to be insulting here. I'm trying hard to understand how it is that Israelis can kill Palestinians with impunity and the world does ABSOLUTELY nothing to stop the massacre. |
Fairy tales: The dreams of the oppressed
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
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Excerpt: To the extent that we remain asleep and dreaming, disconnected from the reality of consequences of our dreaming, then we are indeed lost. To the extent that we are willing to wake up and look upon our dreams with compassion and a degree of self-deprecating humor, we can choose those to dream those dreams that actually serve the interests of ourselves in the broader context of the rest of humanity, and the rest of life on earth, and achieve a sustainable life that is full of the vividness of both joy and sorrow. |
Curiouser and curiouser
by Marie K., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I've checked -- the cables that reach Iran are NOT any of the severed ones. The cables to Iran DO come from the affected Gulf states, though, so they could be experiencing problems. |
Bush-Democrat tax rebates: Worse than Guantanamo
by Lee C., Unknown News
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Excerpt: This is actually worse than Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib because it demonstrates soulless disregard of our very own citizens. And it convicts not just George Bush but Congress itself, especially the Democrats, who couldn't vote YES fast enough. |
To obey, or not to obey
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
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Excerpt: To obey, or not to obey: that is the question / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The neo-cons, Cheney, and Bush / Or to take arms against a sea of problems / And, by opposing, end them? |
The Devil's Political Dictionary
by Chris M., Unknown News
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Excerpt: Liberal: An upper middle class white person who exhibits a conscience when it is not personally inconvenient. Likes Blacks, Asians, Latinos and other minorities son long as they think, act, talk, dress and behave like upper middle class white people. |
It begins in your heart
by Hazel Burke, Unknown News
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Excerpt: It is all OK, whether you live for an eon or a day, because it is always just one day -- each day. And when you find or re-find your True Heart, when you remember your true desires again, you will also find true allies, of good and true heart to join you. That is the way to win... everything: It begins in your Heart. |
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